Random thoughts

Well is been a while since I’ve last posted... way too long to do a full recap as my memory is nowhere near that good. So, just keeping to the recent...

 

 

( Fortnight of Hell )

In other news, ended up stepping in to the Y11’s production of Romeo and Juliet as Montague after a drop out. I’m much more comfortable behind the scenes and had done the stage backdrop and some choreographing, However quite enjoyed it and the Kids excelled themselves, they were FANTASTIC! Juliet in particular.  

I, and a bunch of other equally stupid staff, have been roped in to modelling some of the ‘creations’ of the Textiles students. This fills me with dread. Only increased by the knowledge that it is wedding wear (actually the phrase used was ‘bridal wear’ but I’m hoping there is groom type stuff as well, otherwise i will let you know when you can come and see me in a wig and attractive lacy number. Blingfolds provided on request.)

 

Okay, that’s enough for now – catharsis achieved.

In a random stolen Meme, 15 memorable books...

·         The Reality Dysfunction / The Neutronium Alchemist / The Naked God

·         The Bible (new international version)

·         Belgarath the Sorcerer

·         The Republic

·         A Game of Thrones

·         Use of Weapons

·         Excession

·         The Northern Lights / The Subtle Knife / The Amber spyglass

·         Anything in Discworld

·         Last and First Men

·         The Iliad

·         The Sandman

·         The God Delusion

·         The Gap Sequence

·         It

 

1-      Ill.

2-      Missed Matt’s party (due to ill), bit gutted but hope everyone had fun.

3-      Going to Maelstrom next weekend – woot.

4-      Writing a background for new SoS character, seems to have turned into something of a novel.... hmmm.... probably means I’ll be dead in 5 min’s of first playing him.

5-      Katie Rennie is obviously evil and has addicted me to ‘A song of Ice and Fire’.

That is all.

The Ski trip in January also marked the highest point I have ever stood on this fair planet of ours – 3126M (not including man made stuff like standing up on a plane). Today marked the lowest when i went caving. Now I should clarify that this was caving – not potholing, so quite safe... but quite an experience non the less.

 

Actual depth was about 95M underground, which doesn’t sound like much, but that particular cavern was nearly 4 miles from the surface going on the route we actually used. Due to the heavy rain of the last few days the river we followed was quite strong and there were two underground waterfalls that were both quite beautiful.

 

But the highpoint is that last cavern – abseiling down into the darkness then finding yourself in this huge space, full of columns and stalactites that fluoresce in UV light, the rock (limestone) looking distinctly organic due to the calcite deposits of the water, and knowing that some of the stalactites are older than recorded history is impressive to say the least.

 

The highlight for me however, was while there we turned all the lights off. You forget how rare it is to experience total darkness – no source of light within hundreds of meters and separated by millions of tonnes of stone. The dark seems to take on texture, becomes a thing in itself, wraps around you. It’s quite a feeling and a beautiful counterpoint to the bright mountaintop covered in snow with a view of all around in January during the Alps trip.

 

 

Meme stolen from RennieK

The problem with Live Journal is that we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. Hence, I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don’t know about you.

Okay – is it me or is it weird to try to fix a club that you don’t attend, haven’t attended for a while, and the only indication that there is a problem in the first place seems to come from someone else who does not attend, hasn’t attended for a while and would probably moan that the mana from heaven got sand on it anyway.

 

Or am I going mad?

I am not very well at all. So much so that last night I unplugged the phone and went to bed… thus beginning 12 hours of uncomfortable not sleeping. Had it been any other day I would have called in to work sick – unfortunately there is on of my GCSE exams today, with a last minute revision session as well, so there is no way I’m staying off.

Also – SoS tonight – going to bed meant I haven’t finished the stuff I needed to do last night – so might be setting off late to get it done.

 

Bugger.

SoS update

 

Weekend fab – everyone really threw themselves in.

‘Bug’ masks, my most recent project, seem to have gone down well – roll on phase two with them.

Also actually felt hard playing Mal, which was nice.

The dungeons and tavern were ace and to approach professional for a moment - a really good start to the new campaigns year - long may it continue!

But most importantly, thanks to mistressp, my secret and nefarious plot that no one knows about has kicked off... and still no one knows about it. Excellent.

I got it! I got it! I got it!

 

Thanks all for crossed fingers etc.

 

Okay. I have been given three characters from Firefly to decide which gets the cold shoulder, whose for fun and whose for keeps. (Thanks renniek)

You want a go stick a reply on and I’ll give you three names. So without further ado,

 

( Mine! )

Job interview tomorrow.

Eeeek.

Thats about it.

So the school i work in is closing at the end of the year to become a 'learning center' (don't ask) in a shiny new building with state of the art facilities yadda yadda.

So this week at parents evening the head comes over and asks if i am going to apply for the head of RE job, as the head of the new place had asked her if I was interested. Now usually its a good sign for the person who makes the decision to hint that they want you to apply, and the money would be nice... but its going to be weird enough getting my head around the new ways of doing things without having to run part of it! 

I had not thought about running as i only qualified two years ago... but now i don't know, and there is always the chance that they employ a tool who I would then have to work for - and if there is going to be a tool it might as well be me.

So what do you reckon folks? Should I go for it?

Happy New year to everyone - 'specially for those whose 2008 was a festering dung heap - hears hoping '09 pulls its socks up and improves on its predecessor.

Crimbo / new years was good, Eve picking up many new words and constructing sentences with wild abandon, and loving her presents. Caught up with family and friends and sorted Ski trip stuff. Major outlay has been upgrading the Computer ( Dual core 2.66 Ghz with 2GB RAM, if geek porn is your thing) so i can comfortably outperform a PS3. For some reason this makes me rather happy.

So off to Geneva in a few hours for Ski trip. The resort in in france, and the connection on a coach actually longer than the flight.. which sucks, so planning to sleep through that if possible. With luck there will be 'net access so i can diary the whole thing - and therefore keep Rach up to date better than the phone call in the free time between Skiing, confiscating booze and prying little benny out of the girls room.

this trip marks the longest time Rach and I will have spent apart in 9 years, I haven't even gone yet (just sitting up after her and Eve have gone to bed as I am at the airport at 4am) and I already miss both of them like crazy. Feck knows how i will be in a week.

Time will tell.

 

 

Well. Since I last posted (sometime around the Pleistocene period apparently) some sort of minor deity with too much time on their hands seems to have taken hold of the word, turned it upside down and given it a ruddy good shaking. In short lots of changes. In long…

 

 

 

( Work )

 

 

 

( pastoral stuff )

 

( Eve )

 

 

( SOS )

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It’s a funny thing - ethics. As you may (or may not) know, ethics is a bit of a specialty of mine - and its not surprising that after spending most of my adult life either learning about it or teaching it in all its varied forms, that I have come to have some views on ethics that I hold quite dear. As we are fortunate enough to live in a time and place of relative stability, we do not often have to make decisions that seriously challenge our own principles - or if we do it is usually a matter of personal preference, do I buy free range eggs? do I shop at stores that use Child and slave labour to produce their clothes (how did you think they were so cheap?) and so on.

So its not really surprising that when a situation that does bring your ethics into play, its to do with your interactions with other people. Obviously, these musings are provoked by a particular event - the details of which would probably help in the understanding of this particular ramble, however - and here is that ethics thing again - I don’t believe there is anything to be gained from spreading the details of this sort of unpleasantness around . Sadly I know that at least one of the other parties involved does not share this view, and doubtless therefore a one sided account of events will be circulating particular people…

This brings me to the first point - ethics are funny. My Ethical belief is that if you have a disagreement with someone (or a number of people) then you keep it between yourselves. I don’t like gossip as I can seen no purpose to it, other than ’its fun’ - and I derive no pleasure from the suffering and misery of others. (its worth noting that I’m not including the sharing of information that might be important in that - friends being concerned for each other for example)

Anyhow, as the old saying goes - ‘know thyself’ and I reckon I know myself fairly well (mostly thanks too many years debating all those ethics, beliefs and principles). So I am confident when I say that I am a patient man, and not one who is quick to anger. This is not me trying to sound all virtuous, as these traits have occasionally led me to give too much leeway to people who might not deserve it - but on balance I think I would rather that than the opposite. I am also aware that I am a no second chances kind of man - if you manage to cross that line, there is no coming back, and to my small shame I’m one of those people who remembers all the things someone did that I didn’t like, but never mentioned at the time - it all goes on the bill!

So, sufficient time has passed since the aforementioned ‘event’ that I know I can analyze it rationally, without emotional response ( just afterwards a good friend of mine said that it was the first time in the 7 years he has known me that he had ever seen me angry) so I think I know why I got so annoyed. Its worth mentioning that these are generalisations, and do not apply to all involved.

Firstly, and least importantly, a personal bugbear of mine - inability to argue. If you are not going to listen to the other persons points and include this new information into your original premise, why are you bothering to have the conversation? If you just want to moan at someone… say so.

Second - major one. Rudeness. I can’t abide rudeness and I will not be associated with anyone who is. If you don’t like someone, fine. Say you don’t like them and that is that. To be calling people abusive names is just childish and pathetic. To do so to the person’s friends is just stupid. To be unable to differentiate between ‘your view’ and ‘fact’ is equally foolish.

Third - patience failure. Having faced the same issue - and been giving the same replies out for two months to have a social occasion hijacked to go over the same ground - but with added abuse - resulted in a failure of patience on my part - but as I said, once you cross the line…

So? Where do we go from here? Presumably we have the usual situation that results from these events where both ‘sides’ believe themselves to be right, and neither side is willing to compromise their principles. For my part I have no desire to associate with one party but the other I miss. I had honestly thought this person was closer to my way of thinking and just as disapproving of rudeness etc. Perhaps I was wrong, as it seems they have chosen who they want to be spending time with. I suppose if I have courage in my convictions I will just have to wait and if I am right they will see what I do. Time will tell.

( Read more... )

Here begins what will be an account of the weekend - updated as we go along through a three day LAN event at Andy’s swanky city centre flat, with a small interuption to go drinking in Manchester with the SoS crew.

Hour 1

Went to Spar. Bought nibbles and Whiskey. Lan is set up (in record time! - as it usually involves trying to fix some but or other, but apparently not today).

Running tally

Drinks -1

Smokes -1

People - 2

Computers - 3 (I refuse to class PS3 as a computer)

Film - Alien

Game - Battle for middle Earth

Watch this space….

Some pictures of the makeup done on kids for 'Arts week' at work. Not many pictures as for reasons that will be familiar to anyone who works with children - you don't put pic's of them on the internet where they can be recognised. Even if they are made up as Pennywise the clown.

Well in comparison to other people’s weeks I really have nothing that will strike anyone as important, but I’m going to babble anyway on the theory that if you don’t like trivial crap why you reading anyway?! So without further ado…

The first week of the holidays has gone – and despite being rather busy I don’t feel like I have done much. This is probably as I have done no work off my list and have rather been having family time (WIN) and been back in work to mutilate some kids.
 

  

Other than that, lots of quality time with Rach and Eve – hoping to go to the aquarium this week, partly for eve, and partly so I can play with the eagle rays again.