I've had Better days

This is just a quick post to say that I will probably not be posting anything for a few days. As the title says I've had better days.

If you want to know what's going on give me a call, send me a email or contact me on facebook. I don't want to discuss it in the open right now.

later folks.

One thing leads to another

As long term readers will know I've recently started using statcounter a program that shows me if I'm being getting visitors to the blog. Which has proved interesting in the sense of trying to work out which visitors might be who.

The top referring blog is still Scully's, and I'm getting visitors via her blog from each coast of the USA, the middle of the USA and even Canada! The top search terms which seem to be bringing people to the blog right now are battlewagon, deffkopta and jedi lightsaber fight. So if I ever write a post about a jedi battlewagon deffkopya equipped with a lightsaber I'm sure those visitor figures will just shoot through the roof.

Not that I would ever catch up to Nemesis's viewing figures of course as I would need something like 180,000 hits in one day. Which means I'd have to come up with the mother of all uber blog posts to pull that off. Maybe I'll reveal the answers to some of the big mysteries of life. What is the secret of the bermuda triangle? What happened to the crew of the Marie celestie? Why do women go to the loo in pairs? And how is jordan popular and a multi-millionaress?

I happened to notice that I had got a referral from a old blog post off Nemesis's about a lesson she had heard someone gave regarding chastity and that they used the chewing gum metaphor. I'm still sure that the only reason this teacher survived giving that lesson is because Nemesis wasn't in it. So after re reading that old blog post of hers, I started to have a bit of a 'trawl' as it were through her blog reading some of her older posts.

I am getting somewhere with this honest;

Right so I was reading some of her older posts when I found this post she had written about a 'mormon movie' called Anxiously Engaged: A Piccadilly romance. That reminded me that I still had some DVD's that Multi-task had let me borrow to watch and guess what was in that pile?

The first thing I noticed was that this film a much bigger budget then the other mormon movies as they actually had english actors in it that I knew, including someone who used to be in the bill and the actress who used to be in Grange Hill as the head mistress. I think it was Mrs Mcclusky?

The movie itself? Well I really hope it was in no way written by a englishman as the number of sheer stereotypes was shocking.

Now as you may have guessed the plot seemed to be more or less a reharsh of taming of the shrew and with in about two minutes of meeting the younger sister Lucy I found myself wishing someone would lock her in a cupboard. Hopefully at the bottom of a very deep mine shaft.

Gemma the older sister, well I spent a large part of the film struggling to figure out just how old she was supposed to be. She was much better then the younger sister and I found myself wishing and just about yelling at the screen at the 'hero' to get his act together and realise that the older, very pretty, very intelligent one was the one who he should be going for.

Ahh Nigel, the 'bad guy', he couldn't have been more obivously the bad guy if he had been twirling a moustache and wearing a cape and hat as he grabbed the damsel and ran off with her in order to tie her to the rain road tracks. Of course knowing how the trains run around here she probably would have more then enough time to escape before the hero arrived.

Oh yes, must mention the 'hero', he's an american don't cha know? And if you couldn't tell by the accent, I'm sure the stereotypical cowboy outfit he was wearing everywhere would have given it away because he's from Montana. So he's an American don't cha know. And as he's from Montana and American he has to wear a cowboy hat. Just in case you hadn't realised he was American, and a cowbody, because he's from Montana. Oh and he has to wear the hat all the blinking time.

Just in case we hadn't grasped he's American... and a cowboy..... because it's not like that gets mentioned on a regular basis.

He also misses the mountains because he lives here in the UK where we have no mountains... no wait that's holland.

Our hero of course has to find a Husband for the older sister, which means he needs to interview a lot of guys in order to find that perfect one. And how can you do that in a short span of time. That's right we need a montage!

One montage later which was made very easy by the group of walking stereotypes he was interviewing none of whom were the least bit concerned being interviewed by a man in a cowboy hat ( they obivously needed the clue he was from Montana because he's American don't cha know) he had found the 'perfect' date. Who wanted to prove he was the stereotype of the perfect english male by using the correct language, " Is she a minger?" he asked about his prospective date proving that the writer had done a lot of research and was thus down with the lingo of the kids today.

After the one attempt at match making goes horribly wrong, he tries again and manages to set the older sister up with evil villian who used to be in the Bill and obivously had bills to pay whilst he drives up to Scotland. Now remember that might seem strange but according to hollywood you can arrive at the white cliffs of dover, get up to scotland and hardians wall and be back in Nottingham ( remember to say in best fake US nottingham accent) whilst travelling on foot so doing it in a car is a breeze.

Our hero arrives in scotland to meet with another group of walking talking stereotypes before being stranded and unable to return to London by 'the motorway being shut' which if you believe the owner of the local bed and breakfast happens on a regular basis. Because of course there is only " the motorway" running between scotland and england and if that's shut then no way to travel between them is there.

oh wait....

Never fear our hero soon returns to London very quickly once " the motorway" is reopened and finds himself stuck at work due to moustache man who obivously is in a hurry to go and kidnap another damsel in distress. He lets his fiancee know who quickly blows her top for ruining the most single important event of her life....

No, not the wedding, her trip to the donny osmond concert. And some more clever points for the writer slipping another mormon stereotype in there.

At which point our hero might finally have clicked that the rather annoying, vain little so and so he is engaged to might not be the one after all and maybe he should be looking at the smarter, pretty older sister.

Of course our hero does have a odd view in that he doesn't believe in happy ever afters which is rather strange viewpoint for someone who believes in eternal marriage.

But oh no, our hero is set up ( couldn't have been especially hard) by moustache man who after managing to do bad things all film, including moving a bowl during a bowls match " The scoundral, the cad! How very english of him," he even drinks tea which gives yet another clue to us that he must be bad as he can't be mormon, unlike our hero. Whose a cowboy, from montana, in case you hadn't picked up on that yet. Moustache man or nigel as he's called in the film, had lots of help as they called in the police from eastenders who as we all know need about six months before finally catching the bad guy.

Our hero escapes and after a good old round of fisticuffs ( we're in Britain now, so must obey the rules) takes down the bad guy and gets the right girl after all stopping her from leaving to go to Paris although he needn't have worried as she didn't seem to be on the eurostar platform and probably wouldn't have ended up on a train to Nottingham.

So they get married and hopefully live happily ever after even if our hero doesn't believe in it even if they had to throw in a gratious reference to why their not getting married in the temple first in case any American's get confused by this rather then the walking stereotypes who appear in most of the film.

As you may have guessed this film definatly not my favourite and is right at the bottom now. It could have been so funny if they had, had more British humour they didn't have to fall back on stereotypes.

oh well,

later folks

You can find all sorts

I think most people have had a look at Ebay at some point, if not actually used it. It's amazing what you can find on there. Cd,s Dvds, computer, clothes, cars, former world war two prisoner of war camp.

No I am not making that last one up.

According to the news today the owners of a world war two prisoner of war camp are putting it up for sale on ebay for a cool 1 million pounds. So if you have the cash why not? It would make a great talking point at your next social and lets face it, if your trying to keep up with the joneses it's unlikely that they'll be able to beat you on that one.

There were some also quite frankly bizare scenes in the news today with pictures of mel gibson running along with a puppet of a beaver on his hand. Apparently he hadn't finally snapped but was rather filming scenes for his new movie called " The beaver" where he plays a depressed man who believes his beaver puppet is real, apparently it's supposed to be his 'come back' film. Now I have to admit when I first saw this I did double check the date as I wondered if I had missed several months and not realised we were back to April 1st.

Well it's our second class in this years institute class tomorrow. I'm really hoping that we'll stay at the numbers we had last week if not improve as the students are back. We're still quite some way behind Nottingham stake who had a whopping 51 people turn up for their first class.

We're also planning a wide game on Friday night at the P's before they move to America. So lets see that will be a bunch of YSA, running around in woods, in the dark. Why do I have the horrible feeling that might not end well.

anyway,

Later folks.

Oh so not good

It took me a mere one hour 20 minutes to get home this evening. That's right over a freaking hour! As once again a single accident managed to more or less lock every major route around Nottingham. The traffic report on the radio was so long I started to wonder if they had considered listing the roads not at a standstill! It would have been quicker.


It was busy as work today but also a bit odd in that " It's the day after the big event we spent weeks preparing for and it's now come and gone" kind of way. If that makes any sense whatsoever.

The first episode of that news series Flash forward was on tonight. It was good and it seems to have the potential of being really good and a 'must watch' series. It's got some good talent in it as well. Hopefully they won't try to be too clever leading to the story getting massively complicated and collapsing under it's own weight. Ala "lost".

I've started my new modelling project, pictures to follow. It's proving to be more of a challenge then I expected which is good as I have been looking for a challenge but also a little bit frustrating as it has been a long while since I've had a challenge like this.

anyway,

Later folks.

You miss one day

well the day started a lot earlier then I liked my Sundays to start. 6am to be honest a time that only crazy people ( or parents of young children should have to see). However I failed to anticipate just how cold it would be at that time in the morning as after a quick shower I suddenly found myself shivering so badly I had to quickly jump back into bed again to warm up.

Driving up to the event in the car was a lot nicer plus it was nice to get a lie in, so we felt very relaxed and calm as we got there.

It was also a very fun day overall, busy as hell but that happens even year.

Getting home was equally as easy and quick so I found myself back here earlier then I had expected, ready to have a nice easy evening.

There's that saying that nobody expects the spanish inquisition! Which is true, you also never expect your hometeachers to do their visit for October before October even starts!

I didn't know whether to be amused or annoyed that they hadn't noticed I wasn't there today. Although to be fair he did admit that he had assumed I was there as the ward bulletin had been distrubuted. When I explained that I had gotten someone to do it for me and always made sure I had 'cover' if I wasn't there he seemed surprised. No idea why though.

They also told me that I had missed the 'excitment' today as both the 1st and 2nd counselors on the bishopric had been released as well as the ward securtary and totally new people called instead. It wasn't a case of the 2nd counselor being released then recalled as the 1st etc. The Bishop's still the same though.

Anyway it's Monday tomorrow which means the start of a new week and all of the usual oppotunities that it will bring.

Later folks.

Twas the night before the event

and all through the house
not a creature was stiring
apart from saxon who was going hyperactive and bouncing off the walls.

Yes with the event tomorrow for work that I have to go and well work at I'm finding myself ever so slightly hyperactive this evening. Why? Well I'm not too sure but I always tend to feel like this when I know that I have to get up a lot earlier then usual. I don't know if it's nervousness, i.e worrying that I might oversleep or just my way of getting myself ready for the challenge ahead.

I've been trying to put some of that hyperactive energy by spending a large chunk of the afternoon cleaning, generally trying to set things right and singing along tunelessly to whatever was on the radio. Wait wasn't going to add that last part, oh well.

I got the shopping done this morning in short order. I also went and got my hair cut as well as to be honest it urgently needed to be done. However on reflection I realised that if you think about it, it's surprisingly exspensive for what you have done (£8 now). Because your essentially paying to loose something aren't ya?

I watched another one of the church films last night. The RM. Overall I wasn't keen on it, although I did find the bits where he's trying to teach the EQ lesson and talk about hometeaching really funny because to quote homer simpson " It's funny because it's true!"

anyway,

Later folks.

Friday feeling

It was rather a odd feeling today as it was Friday but rather then the usual 'Friday' feeling, we were actually incredibly busy. Especially as we had to pack the van full of the needed supplies for our event on Sunday. Which I'm pleased to see will not me to see what 5am on a Sunday morning looks like. Instead I will be seeing what 6am looks like as rather then catching the coach as previous years I'm catching a lift with one of my colleagues to the venue.


The new models I was waiting for to start my next modelling project have finally arrived and I'm ready to get going. I thought for a change that I will actually plan this 'army' out and document it using photos to show how it develops.


At least that's the plan but you know what they say about plans.

or was that intentions.

Anway, asides from the usual shopping tomorrow I will be aiming to take things easy in order to conserve my energy for Sunday which I'm hoping I will be better prepared for standing on my feet all day after spending six weeks in store.

But I guess we'll see in that regard.

anway,

Later folks.

Politically incorrect correctness

Grumpy has now got a new saying (sort of). He now reckons that after so many years of the in thing being politically correct it will soon become politically correct to be politically incorrect.

There are two stories in the news right now which have made me shake my head and wonder what the heck is going on in some parts of our country.

The first story concerns a young lad of nine. After apparently listening to stories in class about the second world war he was inspired to play soldiers, which most lads have done at some point in their childhood, running around pointing your fingers to pretend their guns, making banging sounds, falling over in the most over dramatic way possible when you were 'hit' and thinking up an excuse as to how quickly you could jump up again and lets not forget the arguements over that you had somebody and they argued you'd missed and they had jumped out of the way in the best slow motion action move possible as they were the good guy and the good guy always wins.

Eager to get going the lad pointed his 'gun' at a classmate and told another that they had to go and 'shoot the german army'. Now if he had pointed his 'gun' at a english classmate he probably would have been okay, but unfortunatly for this lad he pointed it at a classmate who happened to be Polish. The young lad quickly found himself in front of the deputy head who accused him of racism, was forced to make a public apology in front of the whole class and his mother was called to the school and informed that a permanant record of 'his misconduct' would be placed on file. Or in other words they've branded this nine year lad a racist for life.

Were his comments totally okay? No, but his mother said that they could have handled this quietly and explained things to the lad rather then over reacting and I had to agree. I think the whole situation can be summed up by the real eduction pressure group who said
"'It's a shame that teachers these days all too often fail to crack down on real problems like bullying but overreact to a child with a healthy imagination. Boys will be boys and what the teacher should have done was ask him not to play in the classroom, instead of sending him to the deputy head who then humiliated him in front of his class.'

The second story is far more worrying and seems to be causing a bit of a uproar. A school dinner lady found a seven year old girl being bullied by four boys. The girl had her hands tied and they were over her head with eight knots and the lads were whipping her legs with a skipping rope. What was The game the lads were playing? One paper asked if it was called Abu Ghraib?

The dinner lady rescued the girl and quite rightly took the four lads straight to the headmistresses office where their parents were called.

She later saw the girls parents and found out that they knew nothing about what had happened. All they recieved was a accident notification letter sent home saying that their daughter had been hurt by a skipping rope. She informed the girls parents of what had happened.

Unfortunatly this then lead to that old saying " No good deed goes unpunished" being proven once again as she was fired for " A breech in confidentality" and looks set to end up on a list of people unsuitable to work with children. Simply because she told the girls parents the truth. While I'm sure the four lads remain in school with no marks on their records.

A accident is when a child falls over, scrapes their knee or maybe gets in a fight. I don't and I'm sure most people wouldn't class a girl being tied up and whipped as 'a accident'.

The school response was to hide behind regulations and state that the girls parents were told of the incident according to school 'accident and first aid procedures'. But she said the procedures would be reviewed.

If you consider whipping to be a mere 'accident' I would say that need to be reviewed pretty damn quick!

How not to get on my goodside

Long time readers will know I have more then a few bug bears. Cold early mornings, fuel duty, people doing the 'pleasantries' routine at church where they say hi, ask how your doing and hows your week, then saying that's great to hear before quickly moving on at such speed you know they can't have been listening in the slightist. I actually had once person who asked all this she had stated that was good to hear and moved on before I had even had a chance to speak.

One of my bigger bug bears right now is that of age. Yes I'm 28 and yes I'm still single however that doesn't mean I'm some sort of ancient has been who should be off to the old peoples home.

Yes that bug bear is one of the 'better' ways to not end up on my goodside.

Why have I mentioned this? Well glad you asked ( okay I know you haven't actually asked but lets pretend you have otherwise this next bit doesn't work :-)

As I arrived at institute last night one pair of our Elders happened to be at the chapel. One of them stuck his head round the door and asked what was going on which was a fair question as we’ve never had institute at Loughborough. However his first comment when I explained it was institute was
“ Ah Institute, that’s seminary for old people”

Saaayyyy Whhhaatttt!!!!!!
“ Excuse me?” was the only thing I could think to say without using any words you should never ever use inside a chapel.

“ No it’s okay” he said in the desperate voice of a man who has belatedly realised that he should have engaged his brain before engaging his mouth. “ I’m one of those old people. In fact I’m really old” Which seemed like a odd thing to say so I asked him how old he was. His response
“ No, I am old, I’m 22”

Which immediately made me wonder if there was anyway I could hit him one with out getting in trouble as , surprise, surprise you don’t automatically become ‘really old’ once your past 21 and not married.

It was at this point that the Elder looking at me and the other person in the classroom at this point realised that he hadn’t just put his foot in his mouth, he managed to cram both feet on in there and swallow the darn things as both of us were several years older then him. He made a sharp exit before he suffered his third strike.

I had aimed to arrive in plenty of time as it was the first night and the class president shouldn’t really be late as it’s hard to take the moral high ground if you’ve already gone and fallen off it. I felt a stab of unease as I wondered how many people we would get, my goal was 12 as that’s what we had as a average last year. As I watched out of the window I couldn’t help but think of little niggling worries, had I done enough? Had I done too much? Had the information got out to the right people?.

Fortunately the niggling worries soon disappeared as more and more people started arriving eventually peaking at a class size of 19! We reached this total without the student’s beings back, so we have a very good chance of breaking 20 people a week which I’m sure Bro H will be more then happy with.

I ran the activity afterwards which seemed to go well, even though there was a small flaw which I should have noticed sooner but c’est la vie I guess. But even with that people seemed to enjoy themselves as they seemed to be laughing with me rather then at me, unless my observational skills once again suck.

The Government is planning to introduce a new 'tax' ( see this is a tax not a levy) on everybodies phone lines to pay for the whole phone network to be upgraded to broadband standards. Now it is only 50 pence a month but it's still annoying. Although someone did point out that it can only apply to 'regular phone lines' and not 'cable' otherwise they would be essentially introducing a new tax on TV and people wouldn't be happy about that as we have to pay the TV license already.

In a new survey which was probably carried out by the scientists of we've got nothing better to do university they claim that when men ( eventually) do the cleaning they do a much better and more through job then women. I'm sure once the laughter and sniggering of Women up and down the land ceases they will realise that although this survey is probably totally, totally wrong at least it gives them an excuse to get their other halfs to do the cleaning. " You need to do the hoovering dear as it's scientifically proven that you'll do a better job then me".

anyway,

Later folks.

Top ten excuses

The TV Licensing people here in the UK have just released the list of the top 10 excuses that they have recieved this year for why people don't have a TV licence:

1. "A pigeon fell down the chimney and broke the aerial so I have bad reception."

2. "My 11-year-old son must have bought the TV during the night. It wasn't there when I went to bed."

3. "My payment card's been stuck in the washing machine so I can't pay."

4. "I've not paid due to my shop only accepting £5 and £10 notes and I haven't got any of those."

5. "I've not been making payments as a baby magpie flew into my house and I had to stay in and feed it until it was ok."

6. "I only use the TV to keep the horses company and one of them is blind so I should only pay half if I have to pay at all."

7. "I can't get the TV out of the box - can you help me?"

8. "My dog watches it when I'm at work to keep him company - not me."

9. "My mum told me to tell you she's not in."

10. "I've not bought a licence as I dreamt I didn't have to and the saying is you've to follow your dreams."

Well that's nice and clear

I was just starting to write todays post when Grumpy poked his head round the corner of the door
" There's something wrong with the TV"
" What?" I asked
" Well I think I pressed something and the fuzzy thing came on and I don't want that but don't know how to make the fuzzy thing go away. How do I fix it?"

You'll be unsurprised to hear that I had to go and have a look at the TV as his explanation of the problem wasn't altogether clear.

Although to be fair he has a long day as he had to get up before I did this morning as he was off out.

There was a news item in the paper today about Jonah lomu a former new zealand rugby player. We once had a Elder who used to be his training partner come round for dinner. Tap dance and Grumpy were going out but we discovered that the Elders after having parked up on the drive behind our car had locked their keys inside their car and didn't have a spare. Whilst we were debating what to do the Elder who was the training partner simply went to their car, lifted the back up, pulled the car into the road ( with the handbrake still on) waited for us to back our car out and then pushed their car back onto the drive and barely broke a sweat whilst doing so!

Well Institute starts tomorrow which should be a lot of fun. But if anything does go wrong I'll just blame it on the person in charge.

Oh wait that's me, D'oh!

I was amused to see that two organisations in the USA are actually arguing over who was responsible for the most complaints over a episode of family guy. It is like a status symbol " We can get the most amount of people to complain about something which quite likely less then a third of them actually saw?"

I was also amused to see that more people were bothered about the fact that Chas and Dave have spilt up then the news about the Sugababes changing their line up yet again. Although more people probably know who Chas and Dave were and what their songs were.

anyway,

Later folks

Lock down

There was another sign that we're moving into autumn and will soon be upon us as I had to close my window last night for the first time since the start of the summer as it's getting cold!

It was a bit busier then it has been on the way into work today. Maybe the kids are back at school finally? Although if they are back it should mean that the students will be back soon which in turns means that Athena and Physics will soon be back.

I've been busy reading the new Institute course book ( got to set a example don't cha know :-) It looks like it will be a really good course, we've just got to get people to come to it now. Although I'm sure there will be a lot of people there on Wednesday for the first lesson of the all singing all dancing brand new institute in Loughborough. Well there at least be a institute lesson, I doubt there will be singing and dancing. Unless someone wants me to do an impression of the hulk as I dance the way he walks
" Ugghhh, rhythm make me move"

The new season of TV shows are starting in the US which means they should be with us in anywhere from six weeks to six months. Which of course raises the age old questions " To spoil or not to spoil" Do you going searching on the internet for the answers or wait and hope that you don't come across them by accident. Decisions, decisions.......

One new TV show which we're interested in is " Flash forward" but that's probably more to do with the relentless advertising campaign on channel five which seems to show a advert for it in every advert break.

anyway,

Later folks.

Bitz and boxes

Once again I find myself struggling for inspiration as to what to do next modelling/painting wise. I sort of have a plan for one thing I'd like to do but I have to wait until that thing is released. Which means until then I need to find something else to do and thats where I'm stuck.

Even the clean up of the garage we had this afternoon didn't help as dispite spending ages looking through all my bitz boxes I just couldn't find the inspiration I was looking for.

I suppose my lack of success looking for inspiration could be down to two things. First that I've actually made everything I could possibly do or second that as I get older inspiration will be harder to find. Or I suppose it could be a third thing in that I'm just looking too hard for inspiration and missing the obivous.

Well it's Monday tomorrow which means it's once again the start of a new week and all the oppotunities that the week will bring. It also means that it's a week to that special time of year where I get to confirm that 5am on a Sunday morning really does still exist.

Some of you may have seen the pictures I posted a few days ago of a Jedi cat fight. I saw a headline today that made me wonder if the picture wasn't faked as it read "Fears over supercat danger " . If they really were supercats who would be their Nemesis? Danger Dog?

In the latest 'brainwave' from a government think tank and yes I am being sarcastic there, a group has said that motorists should be made legally responsible for all accidents involving cyclists, even if they are not at fault, these advisers have said that they want the civil law to be changed so the most powerful vehicle involved in a crash is automatically liable for compensation or insurance claims. So this change would also include pedestrians automatically assumed to not be at fault when hit by a car.

Now I'm always very careful of cyclists( as I was knocked off my bike once) and pedestrians and I know that some people aren't but this suggested law seems stupid to me. Surely ( and I'm probably being woefully naive here) whoever caused the accident should be held responsible for causing the accident, not the person who is driving the biggest vehicle and certainly not the poor driver who couldn't stop in time where somebody steps out into the road without looking.

What's happened to people taking responsibility for their own actions?

Would this mean if I was going along at 60mph and crashed into a parked lorry he would be held responsible as he had the more powerful vehicle?

Why's this idea come about well this government think tank and other groups say say the reforms would encourage people to get out of cars and make more journeys by bicycle or on foot.

But wait! I thought that's what the car parking levys were for?

Of course once again it seems to have escaped the goverment that some people travel such a great distance that it's not practical for them to cycle or walk! Not to mention that bringing in a idiot law like this will probably make everybodys insurance costs go through the roof!

Of course why stop there, why not have this rule in any fights that break out. Whoever is the biggest and strongest is the one automatically responsible for starting the fight? Only those people who have the fastest cars are the ones automatically responsbile? How about only those with the most knowledge of legal terms being the ones charged for a crime.

I could go on. But I won't. I'll only say that if the government wants to save money maybe they could start but getting rid of all of these think tanks that seem to be anti-car and are only staffed by people who seem to live in cloud cuckoo land.

anyway,

Later folks.

Can't make it's mind up

In another one of those twists that the weather seems to have come so fond of recently the day started cloudy before quickly brightening up into a very sunny day with very blue clear skies before one again coming very cloudy but remained fairly warm. It seemed to random it almost seemed like it was summer again :-)

Every shop I passed that sold books had huge displays about the new Dan Brown novel although none of them were beating asda's price which is supposed to be absurdly low. I have tried reading one of his books but unusally for me stopped reading it as I didn't find it interesting in the slightist.

Grumpy and I decided this afternoon that we would brave going to Ikea on a Saturday! And if that wasn't shocking enough we went by ourselves! Yes two men went to buy stuff at Ikea without Female assistance!! Tha almost sounds like a plot for a movie. Well it would make more sense then Mega shark versus Giant octopus.

CES Broadcast tomorrow night which should be fun especially as we get the new coursebooks for this years brand new book of mormon course. We are still very low on numbers though of people who have confirmed that they will be coming to Institute, we have less then a third of Nottinghams class size so far. Still I refuse to be disheartened ( at least not yet :-) I know there's more YSA out there we just gotta find them and get them to come.

I'm contining to slowly get through the pile of church DVDs that multi-task sent me. I've watched Singles ward 2 and really wasn't impressed, I thought the first one was much better. The second one well they seemed to have tried to be to clever by making one of the characters from the first filmmaking a film about the events in the first film in the second film. Self parody is a dangerous thing if you don't get it right. Well so far Singles Ward is my favourite, Mobsters and Mormons second and Singles ward 2 third.

anyway,

Later folks

Conkers in spaacccee.....

Okay I'll admit that the title doesn't make much sense but I wanted to see if I could fit 'sppaacceee' in a blog post title three days in a row.

My game of conkers today did not go well. Not only did I display a apalling lack of hand eye co-ordination, I lost! So I don't go through to the second round and got my conker totally smashed. My only real point of consolation is that my opponent managed to inflict significant damage to their own conker taking mine out so the chances of them winning in round two is very, very small.

Random fact for you, tomorrow is international talk like a pirate day.

I've finished having another clear out of my bookshelves, which as people will know is always a painful experience as I really, really do not like to get rid of things. Still I have done it now and the shelves look a lot more tidy much to Grumpys delight.

Autumn is certainly here as it's now dark outside and it's only 7.40pm. Still on the plus side at least when institute starts again I won't have to make long trips into leicester at night as classes will be in Loughborough. I'm also hoping that once institiute gets going again we can get some activities going as I've spent far too many Friday nights in over the past few weeks!

Anyway,

Later folks!

Coke Can in spaccceee.....

Right now a really long way over our heads a brand new supply vehicle is arriving at the International space station on it's maiden flight. Now it's all very impressive technologically and a tremendous achievement for all the engineers involved etc but everytime I look at the thing it reminds me of a coke can. They built a spacecraft that looks like a giant coke can! I wonder how long it will be before coke try to sponser one of the missions!

a unofficial league has started at work. Not a league for computer games, tabletop gaming, cards or even fantasy football. No, it's for conkers! We've started a conker league, which is actually proving to be quite fun. My first match is tomorrow and if I win I progress to round two if I don't win well I won't. As you can imagine there are lots of bragging rights to play for :-)

As I've mentioned before ( and you'll know these if you've paid attention) I used to use google analytics to see if I was getting any visitors here. Well I've recently been trying out statcounter to see what else I could see infomation wise about my readership. Interestlingly enough I seem to be popular in Brighton with at least three seperate vistors from there, but anyway the best two blogs for sending vistors my way are Scullys basement office and Sian's Guildsguild . If you haven't read either of their blogs I would suggest you go and have a read as their really quite good ( plus one good turn deserves another. They send visitors my way it's only fair I send some back :-)

Plus if any of you who blog want to point my people my way so you can shamelessly steal top place for referring visitors please feel free ( Okay I know, I know that was shamless).

Well it's one more day to the weekend.

Later folks!

Lost in spaaccceeee.......

Apparently that TV show I mentioned a few weeks ago Defying gravity seems to have met a early end and seems to have been cancelled. Described as Greys anatomy in space it seems to have been a mismash of ideas which didn't do any of them real justice. Although when talking about this someone thought I was talking about the muppet show as they only caught the " in space" part so they should I was talking about " Pigs in spaccceeee....". Which now means when ever I hear someone mention that show I just keep imagining the premise said in the same way
" Greys anatomy in spaccceeee...."

Talking of things being lost in space it seems that Nasa is in serious trouble as their current budget seems unable to cover the plans for their new space ship. I think the trouble is that real life spaceflight seems to have lost it's ability to inspire. How can a space shuttle compare to a X wing or a Battlestar? People have just got used to a spacecraft that goes up then comes down, then up again, then down again. Even the construction of the space station seems boring as people fail to relise just how great a achievement the thing is!

Then also consider the latest news to come out of the space program. They may have discovered a vacine againist samonella. Which although impressive isn't really up there with discovering a cure for major diseases now is it?

In celebrity news mischa barton has apparently proven that she's fully recovered by showing a clip from her new film.... which she recorded before all of the problems of the summer. So quite how showing something she did before her problems proves she's over her problems is a logic that quite frankly escapes me right now.

In other celebrity news a scene from Megan fox's new film has been 'leaked' ( cough marketing strategy cough cough) showing her kissing another girl. Which makes me wonder just how bad this film is, if that's what their pushing as a main marketing point.

anyway,

Later folks!

Still not totally happy

I'm still not impressed with the council plans regarding car parking spaces but as Grumpy pointed out when I told him about it this evening theres no point stewing about it as it is two years away and a lot of things can happen in two years.

It's been an interesting day. I now have yet another plan to add to the stack of plans I currently have underway. So I think I need a plan to keep track of the plans. Still at least I am proving the male stereotype wrong and I am actually multi-tasking successfully. The next thing will be learning to delegate which I should be able to do with a couple of them starting next week.

Which does remind that I ought to make the most of my evening tomorrow as it will be the last Wednesday night I have free for a while :-)

Strangest news of the day came when I heard that they are planning to do a adapation of the popular travel game Battleships. Quite how this one will work I have no idea.

Maybe it's time for hollywood to get some new ideas rather then ripping off old games and TV shows perhaps?


anyway,

Later folks

Not happy

I'm like all other hard working people. I pay my taxes, I pay national insurance, I pay road tax for my car, pay for it's MOT and still get petrol even though we have stupidly high fuel duty.

So I'm not happy that thanks to a certain council who have just passed new legislation in 2012 I and everybody else who drives to work will now be charged £250 for the 'privilage' of parking our cars at work. Basically every business will be charged £250 per car parking space.

I don't care if the money is going towards extending public transport in the city. It doesn't help me and everyone else who comes from outside of the city now does it!

suffice to say, I am not happy.

Quite odd

I saw on facebook today that Social will probably be meeting with Nemesis at some point whilst she's in the states on Holiday. Which seems odd as I know that Social and Nemesis are on the other side of the world but it doesn't seem like Nemesis is on the other side of the world.

But then again I guess that's the beauty of blogging and all of our modern day communications for you. You can know exactly what people on the otherside of the world are up to on a day to day basis which makes you forget just how far they are away. Which I suppose is especially true in my case as I do keep this blog updated day to day after all :-)

It's been another stereotypical Monday, i.e it's the hardest day of the week to get up. Of course with autumn and winter closing in on us fast it's gonna get even harder. Especially as I would love to be able to hold true to calvin from the cartoon Calvin and Hobbes maximum about getting out of bed in the morning.
" I'm not getting up until it's as warm out there as it is in here!"

I forgot to mention yesterday that we had a nice surprise at church as a girl who has been inactive for a very long time suddenly decided to come back. I'm not sure if she will keep coming but at least she has come back. That's the first step and the first step is always the hardest. Anyway I gave her a lift home as she needed to get home as she volunteered at a local youth group which is run by a lot of churches here in geektown. " It's called Passions" she told me cheerly " Why's that?" I asked and in reply she matter of factly stated that the building they use, used to be shall we say " A house of ill repute" although those weren't her exact words. I'm sure you can guess what she actually said . I advised her that she might not want to be quite so matter of fact about it if anyone asks at our church.

The start of institute is just over a week away now. It will be a lot of fun but it's also slightly nerve wracking as with this brand new start at Loughborough we need to make sure we get it right as it were. Fortunatly some of the plans I have had in that regard are now starting to come together. It's going to be hard work but as they said at conference
" If it is to be it's up to me"

Later folks.

More Killa Kans

Or as they've been christened " Wall-E's evil brothers" I've now converted ( which means I've used pieces from other kits that build other things and used them to make something totally new) three Kans which is one full strength unit to add to my Ork army.

Trouble is I now have no idea what I'm going to do next.

Here's hoping inspiration strikes soon!

If you go down to the Park today your in for a big surprise

What's cooler then a Jedi Lightsaber duel?

A CAT LIGHTSABER DUEL!

Sounds like a good idea

I remember once reading a book ( which was a sci-fi book naturally :-) which talked about how Humans on another planet due to them having such wild parties had stretched their week out to eight days so they had Sunday1 and Sunday2. Sunday1 allowing them a day to recover from Saturday and Sunday2 to do all the usual Sunday stuff.

Now although I wasn't too keen on the story as a whole theres something about having a three day weekend that does appeal.

I'll admit that was a slightly random thought but it was the first thing to flash through my mind this morning when I woke up as I lay there pondering the decision to get up and quite why we seemed to have church so early on a Sunday morning. Do we have it at that time because if it was any earlier most people would be late as they just can't get up that early on a Sunday morning and if we had it people would never learn anything in the last lessons as they would be all sitting there thinking how hungry they were?

Who knows?

We had a fireside tonight ( not literally at a fireside in case any of my non lds readers were wondering) to celebrate the 40th aniversary of our ward, well being a ward. It was very interesting especially as they had nearly all of the surviving bishops there to give a brief talk/testimony. They also had lots of photos on display. I managed to avoid being in any of them (yaah!) although they did have one of photo of Tap dance when she had one of her mega perm hairstyles.

They also had a lot of news clippings from the fire. I didn't realise quite how much damage had been done to the building, £200,000 + but I also didn't know that the chapel had then been broken into only a couple of weeks later after the fire.

Well it's Monday tomorrow which means it's the start of another week and all of the oppotunities that it will bring.

But hey if there are too many problems I know how to get them fixed
" With new computermabob!"

Later folks.

Yeah what ever

I read that there was scientific study ( obivously once again done by the scientists of we don't have anything better to be doing university) that pets don't have expresssions at all. I.e they don't look happy, sad or guilty and it's just the owners projecting emotions onto said pet.

The conclusion of this report only lead me to the conclusion that none of said scientists can own a pet! Although they could always own Fish I suppose, I don't think their too expresive. At least they weren't the last time I checked.

The weather threw another random day at us as apparently there was thick fog first thing this morning and was rather cold. At which point it then proceeded to turn into a very nice day with clear skies and bright sunshine.

However I missed a large chunk of it as I made the stupid error of lying down to read a book this afternoon after we had got back from shopping and next thing I know it's almost three hours later. I think it's someone way of telling me I need to get to bed earlier.

Still I finished the book whilst getting Tea ready. It was called 'Flood' and is a disaster 'epic' about what happens when the water levels worldwide start to rise and don't stop. The book ends with Mount everest disappearing under water. It's kind of like Waterworld with out the plot holes and wooden acting :-) Although I was am starting to wonder why in disaster books or alternate history the church always ends up being portrayed as a bunch of raving survialists types who seize control of utah and refuse to let anyone else in unless they become a member.

I also watched the first of the films multi-task had sent me. After much pondering I decided to go with Singles ward. Which I have to admit was quite good and very funny even though I'm sure none LDS wouldn't get half of it! It was also quite weird with some of the characters as I couldn't help but get the feeling like I'd met some of them before :-)

Chocolate lovers will not be happy today as apparently the makers of galaxy after putting the price of their bars up will now be reducing the size of the bars but not the price. So you will be getting less of the good stuff for your money.

In movie news there's going to be a new pirates of the carribean film. Lets hope it's going to be much, much better then the last one.

anyway,

Later folks

What to do, what to do?

Well once again Friday has rolled around which means it's the end of another week, which also means that I get two whole days to myself. To quote Homer " Woo Hoo!"

Now I've found myself with a whole heap of unexpected DVD's to watch as Tap Dance popped by last night to drop off some mormon film DVD's ( singles ward, baptists at the Barbacue, Last day of themonth to name a few) which had been sent down by my sister Multi-task as I had mentioned in one of my posts about conference ( if you haven't read my in depth conference report go now!) that I didn't really know anything about mormon films and hadn't seen one before.

Now I have a whole bunch to watch! Which should prove to be fun. I just don't know where to start.

Asides from watching DVD's my main plan of the weekend is to have a clear out as I have waaayyy too much junk and it's way past time for another clear out otherwise at the rate I'm going I'll probably won't be able to see my bed let alone get in there. I do not have a large room..

I've also been busy today doing some more planning for Institute, I think my ideas are good. I hope my ideas are good but as the saying goes no plan survives first contact with the enemy....
which is probably the worse saying I could have chosen when it comes to describing institute but there you go. We're also doing a brand new Book of Mormon course this year which should be interesting.

Theres a lot of ward activities going on this weekend to celebrate the 40th aniversary of our ward. There's a dance tomorrow night, a munch and mingle after church on Sunday and a fireside about the wards history on Sunday evening. Which should be quite interesting as there will probably be lots of photos from when the chapel was constructed. I don't know if they'll have any photos from when the chapel was set on fire by arsonists and the Family history centre was destroyed though although there was a lot of stuff in the paper about it. Oh well I guess we'll see on Sunday night.

anyway,

Later folks.

In case like me you missed this one

Somebody pointed out today that yesterday was a special date in the sense of it will be the last time that all three parts of the date will be in matching single digits i.e. 9/9/9 until the 1st January 2101 I.e. 1/1/1.

Okay not a terribly interesting fact I know and I’m sure that you were all getting along fine without knowing that but now you do : - ) So your lives are complete. Or completer oh wait look I’m rambling again.

I had one of those, "I really don’t want to get up" moments this morning, but that soon past as my attention was switched to something else, when I managed to hit my foot on the wall as I was still half asleep. Much cursing ( albeit as quietly as possible so I didn’t wake up Grumpy or Owen)

It was also pretty cold as I had to put the heater on in the car when I first started out so I think I’ll be starting to wear jumpers again fairly shortly. Although we are fairly certain we should still get one very got day of the year. Said day will be later this month when that magical time of the year where I get to see that 5am on a Sunday morning actually exists rolls round yet again.

Random fact of the day for you, I have dealt with over 60000 emails whilst working in my current job.

Wall E’s evil twin brother (see last post) is about to receive another ‘brother’ as the next Killa Kan is about to roll out of the Meks workshop ( aka my desk).

I’m more feeling the urge right now to have a clear out rather then be creative. I just seem to keep switching moods right night now for some reason

I suppose the problem is that I’m sort of it a ‘quiet period’ right now. Conference has been and gone and the start of institute is still a couple of weeks away and not to sound big headed but I’ve got the processes of my other ‘callings’ locked down pretty well so they pose very little in the way of a challenge. And I’m one of these people who need a challenge or at least something to occupy my mind. I could certainly never be one of these people who stay at home all day. I’d go nuts, or nuttier, or even more nutty depending on your opinion : - )

Once institute starts I’m sure I’ll get a lot of challenges or ‘opportunities coming my way’. I already have some ideas scribbled down for the year, I guess time will tell if the ideas are clever or if I’ve just thought of some rather stupid things and just not realised.

`anyway,

Later folks,

From a Wall to a Kan

Take one model of Wall-E going very cheap from a toy shop.

Sent him to the mekboyz workshop (aka my paint station)
Look through Bitz box for various bits and pieces for the conversion from other model kits. Then spray and add sand to base. Finally paint to basic gaming standard and your ready to go. One model of Wall-E turned into one Ork Killa Kan.

To quote the meerkat " Seemples"

Kinda Scary

It was once again time to put some petrol in the car this morning. I always make sure that I fill up at the ‘cheap garage’ where the petrol is only £1.04. ( #~*!$% government fuel duty). Whilst I was putting the petrol in I happened to notice the in depth list of instructions on the pump and for the first time I was suddenly struck in how scary they were. Not the actual instructions more that they were so blindingly obvious it could only mean that someone, somewhere had actually done the thing they were telling you not to do.

For example, don’t leave your engine on when filling your car with petrol and don’t walk away whilst pumping petrol into your car. Now considering that to pump petrol you have to keep the handle depressed the only way someone could have done this was to tie the handle in the open position!

As the saying goes you can make idiot-proof systems but you can’t make system proof idiots.

We had one of those ‘days’ at work today where you seem to get lots of bizarre and crazy conversations. Somehow I was declared King, followed by being declared the not so secret King of a secret society of ninjas. This only came about after someone misheard a conversation about a Fish killing a sock puppet!........ Oh don’t look like that, I bet you’ve had some crazy conversations at work as well.

The weather seems to have switched to autumn weather as it’s really sunny but also quite cold. It was so cold first thing that I think I need to locate where ever my sweatshirts have gone in the rubbish tip that is otherwise known as my room.

Speech Debelle has apparently won the Mercury prize. Maybe I’m getting old, maybe I’m just not with it anymore assuming I was with it to begin with as I’m not too sure what It is! But I’ve never heard of this woman before. Has she released songs and I’ve just not noticed?

In geek new Richard curtis, writer of four weddings and a funeral and Blackadder will be writing a episode in the new series of Doctor Who. It’s a shame he couldn’t have done it before as I think David Tennant would have been great in it. This new guy who will be taking over from him is still very much an unknown quantity and let’s face it, he has one heck of a pair of shoes to fill.

I’ve finished the first phase of my current modelling project. Some of the initial comments I received from people were along the lines of “ You’ve turned WallE evil!” and “ Look it’s Wall E’s evil twin brother”. That will all become clear when I post some pics.

Social has gone on Holiday to the USA . I was meaning to ask her that if she saw anybody I knew ( which is likely as lets face there are quite a lot of former YSA over there) to give them a hug from me. However that idea unfortunately slipped my mind and I forgot to ask. So sorry to anyone who does see her, I would have sent you a hug if I remembered. I do wonder ( to embrace a cliché) if I would forget my head sometimes if it wasn’t screwed on.

I got home to find that Grumpy and Owen were not 'talking to each other'. Owen had run off with one of Grumpys slipers and left it somewhere and Grumpy couldn't find it. However it seemed to be more down to Grumpy embracing the male stereotype of not being able to find anything then to how good Owen had hid it as it took me about 2 minutes to find it!

anyway,

Later folks!

So Bad it's good?

Making films is like any creative process. You get brilliant end results like Lord of the Rings, you get okay(ish) results ( i.e. your typical summer blockbuster) and some truly dire results like the scary movies or Battlefield earth ( one of the few instances where the film is worse then the book which considering the book is quite some achievement).

But then you get those rare of rare breeds. The film which is so bad it’s good, usually not in the way intended. In most cases the said film turns into a hilarious comedy due to the sheer bad acting, bad plot and bad effects. I’ve seen the trailer for one forthcoming film that might well fall into this category. Yes from the studio that bought you “ Transmorphers” comes Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus! Highlights from the trailer include the Shark destroying a sub by biting it, destroying a boat by biting it, then attacking the golden gate bridge by yes you’ve guessed it. Biting it! But the highlight of the trailer for sheer “ What the heck?” is the moment when the mega shark leaps out of the ocean and is able to leap high enough to bite and eat a airline in mid air!

But then again this is a film where the leading ladies claim to fame is that she used to be a singer/songwriter in the 1980s. Apparently when asked she was quite keen to do a sequel and she was thinking that they could face a seahorse or 500ft lobster! Either she was joking or she was probably hired for her looks rather then acting talent as the title “ Giant seahorse versus 150ft lobster doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.”

Although maybe I shouldn’t caste stones where acting ability is concerned as I think the last serious acting I did was in High school and the last thing I did even approaching acting was at a Friday forum back when I was in uni when I had to pretend to be the policeman from allo allo. Who I’m sad to say probably has a better grasp of French then I do!

Yes being good at languages is a talent that is certainly missing from my talent pool. As the old joke says “ It’s good I was born in England as I can only speak English”.

They’ve been harvesting the crops in the fields that surround our estate which has delighted Owen no end as it means he can now get up to his top speed running all over the place whilst out on his walks. Although apparently he did sulk on the first day when they cleared the fields as Grumpy forgot to take the Frisbee with him. He doesn’t play with a Frisbee for months and can remember it clear as day, but try and train him and he can’t remember a command he learned five minutes ago.

Random news from Google analytics today, my viewing figures for this blog are up 150% in the last 12 months on the preceding 12 months, and viewing figures for the past 30 days are up 39%. So Hello to my silent majority of readership. See I know you’re out there, Google Analytics tells me so.

I’ve found a outlet for my creative urges as well. Now I’ll admit it’s not as creative as I was hoping for but I’m still feeling quite pleased with it. It basically involves turning some Wall E’s into K Kans. I’ll put some pictures up and explain tomorrow for anyone who doesn’t have a clue what I could be talking about right now. And to be honest only Engineseer is likely to have a clue about what I’m talking about right now.

Book wise I’m currently reading Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII 1547-1558 by Alison Weir who is rapidly turning into my one of my top three favourite historians. The other two are Stephen Ambrose and Anthony Beever, in case anyone was wondering.
anyway,

Later folks!

Didn't realise people noticed these things

Now I'll admit in my little 'pool' of skills, talents and knowledge being fashion concious is one trait that certainly wasn't added to the mix.

But even I with my somewhat limited knowledge have realised that I should really start getting some new clothes as A) It's been a while and B) I need a better selection of stuff especially t-shirts and the like. I was wearing one shirt on the last day of conference when I started getting a couple of funny looks. It was at this point I suddenly remembered that I was wearing a shirt which although one of my smartest was one I had bought from the ones that are sold in the bar at work. So wearing a t-shirt that says " Bugman's The Dwarf drinking hole" is going to get me some looks at a church event.

So this is a round about way of saying I have been out buying some new stuff including some jeans.

This morning unable to find any trousers to hand I decided to wear my new jeans as well their pretty smart as their still quite new and lots of other people wear jeans to work as well ( it's a smart casual kinda office). However I was surprised at the number of people who commented on the fact that I was wearing Jeans. I wasn't aware that people noticed these things.

Grumpys not too happy this evening as two new series start which he watches and their both on at exactly the same time! Fortunatly a program he was watching isn't on tonight otherwise there would have been three programs he wanted to watch on at the same time. He's not impressed right now with whoever comes with the TV Schedules.

We're also having fun and games with the recyling people at the moment. For those of you not aware ( probably my US readers) we have normal 'wheelie' bins which are collected every other week. Every other other week we have to put our the orange bags, green bags and the green box which contain things like bottles, cans, paper etc which can be recycling.

However they have now decided that we don't need to seperate the recyclbles into two different bags we can put them into one which will be purple! ( don't ask me where they get the colours from I don't have a clue) which kind of begs the question why we had to go to the hastle of seperating everything to begin with.

But a news report has said that they will now do away with the purple bags and are considering giving each house hold a smaller wheelie bin which will be used for general waste whilst we use the old 'big black wheelie bin' for the recyclble stuff. No news yet on what colour the new smaller bin will be ( white maybe) and if the red bins used for garden waste are changing.

Yes we have a bin for Garden waste, which for those of you keeping score technically means we have five different bins/bags/boxes to put rubbish in. Quite why throwing rubbish out has got so technical I have no idea.

anyway,

Later folks!

Creative urges

It's been a slightly odd day. I've spent a large part of it pondering on the video they used as the opening devotional video and the closing video at the YSA conference this year. It was the mormon message video by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf called Create which was apparently taken from a talk he gave in a Relief society session of general conference.

I found the video very powerful and have watched it several times since ( it's on youtube :-) And I know feel the urge to create something, to be really creative.

The trouble is I have no idea what to be creative at.

My first thought was what about Institute. Could I be creative there? Nope, I already have a list of ideas and done everything I can do for now. I've even founded a Leicester Institute facebook group. So no, no luck there.

My second thought was photos. But no everything there is up to date and tweaked. Volume three is also ready to go off to the printers so again no luck there.

Thirdly I thought of my modelling. I suppose I could but without any good ideas that's a touch too easy and although I do feel a urge to be creative I'd like a challenge as well and well I've been modelling so long just putting some models together 'straight out of the box' isn't much challenge at all. So I guess that would be a maybe.

and so the thought processes went on.

I'm kinda hoping that inspiration will strike soon as it's mildly frustrating to want to be creative but you don't know how.

Oh well,

Later folks

More then a little annoying I gotta say

As regular readers will know I appreciate my Saturday morning lie-ins as it's the only day of the week where I get to choose what time I wake up. Monday to Friday the time I get up is dictated by Work, Sundays well it's church. But on Saturdays I'm in charge.

Which is why I was less then impressed to be woken up early this morning by out next door neighbour who for some reason known only to himself decided to start doing some DIY in his back garden using what sounded like the Worlds loudest drill!

Suffice to say I was not in the best of moods whilst eating breakfast this morning.

Still I soon cheered up as I realised today was Space hulk Day. See my previous post here in case you missed it and have no idea what I'm gibbering about. Yes I have my copy of this game and I'm currently working my way through the nice shiny new models. I might even post a couple of photos of some if anyones interested.

I also finally managed to get hold of the first season of chuck on DVD today which I was quite hapy about as I've been struggling to find it and it's one of my favourite tv shows right now. Yep a TV Show about a geek who becomes a spy and the girl. Can't for the life of me see what about that show caught my attention :-)

I also got a book called 'Flood', it's a sci-fish disaster/post apocolyptic kind of novel. The plot basically is that sea levels starting rising around the world and don't stop.

Church tomorrow and it seems like it's been a lot longer then two weeks since I've been in Loughborough. Heck even the events of conference which was only last weekend seem like a long time ago.

oh Big brother ended last night and 99.9% of the population say " Huh that was still on?"

Later folks

a special conference themed "Make a caption"

Welcome to a special YSA conference themed " Make a caption" competition. Simply leave your suggestion for a caption with the photos number in the comments section. The best ones I will repost in a series of one off posts for each photo displaying your suggestion for all the world to see. Plus you get bragging rights!

So what are you waiting for? Make a caption now!

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5

Now with extra wow!

For those of you who have already read this years conference report and those that haven't ( go read it now!) I've now added some more photos to the later posts of some of the activities from the weekend. So make sure you go back and have a look!

Well at least the Meerkat has gone away

As all those of you who read yesterdays post will know I've had the catchphrase from the meerkat adverts stuck in my head for the last few days and was unable to get rid of it. Well I did managed to get rid of it today.

Hurray!!

Well not quite as something else replaced it. Now I have no idea why this popped into my head or why, but the meerket slogan
" Now we fix problem with new computermabob"

has been replaced with the theme tune to the Captain planet cartoon. I can barely even remember anything about the cartoon so quite why I can remember the theme tune so clearly is anyone's guess!

Well autumn seems to have arrived and we're only four days into September. How do I know this? Well it's been raining a whole lot and when I woke up this morning and got out of bed I actually shivered. Yes it was that cold I shivered and we're only four days into September. I couldn't help but wonder if this is a portent for us having a nasty winter?

Talking of things nasty I'm starting to get the feeling that we're about to get a nasty rain shower again because as I write this I can see a thick black band of cloud rolling in quite fast. Sort of like the effect's independence day when the aliens arrive minus the fire, flames, generally unkind blowing up of cities oh and of course minus the aliens as well.

I've finally got round to looking through the last of the photos I took at conference. I took a looottttttt!! of the darn things. I've also been posting them on facebook to the conference YSA group as it's fun to share them. Plus it makes you feel important to have your mail box full of emails for once as people request to tag the pics.

They've already set up a facebook group for next years conference. Although a rumour is already making the rounds that this year was the last conference. Of course there's nothing to back this rumour up but you know what the internets like. It's on the internet so it must be true!

anyway,

Later folks!

Now we fix problem

You know sometimes when you get the line or catchphrase from a advert or TV show stuck in your head and you can't get rid of it? Well that's been happening to me this week as when anybody has any sort of technical problem I just keep thinking of the line from the meerkat advert
" Now we fix problem with new Computermabob!"

It's also been a bit of a strange week as it's only a four day week and with only have a four day week last week with conference in between everything seems a bit 'off' for want of a better term or one I can actually think of right now. The big words no appearing in me brain too gud rite now.

Petrol's gone up again this week, they've just added 2pence to the fuel duty meaning it's like the 3rd rise in nine months and then of course we've got the VAT going back up in December. Anyone who thinks the government will cut fuel duty to compensate is probably sadly deluding themselves.

I had my first meeting with my new counselors for Institute last night as well as seeing how things will run now Insitute's moving to Loughborough. It looks like I'm going to have a interesting challenge on my hands this year. But as the saying goes " If it is to be it's up to me". I can't sit back and moan about things if I'm not willing to step up to the plate, put my shoulder to the wheel, insert generic inspiring cliche here etc, etc.

I was surprised when I returned home this evening to find the road partly blocked by a ice cream van with no driver in sight! I've never seen such horrdendous parking. There was just enough room and I mean just! to squeeze by and get onto the driveway. Fortunatly I was driving my little KA. I would have had no chance driving grumpys!

anyway,

Later folks!

Manchester YSA Conference 2009: Epilogue " Going home"

After four years that familiar end of conference feeling doesn't get any easier, you know you need to go home and that it's all over but you just.... don't want too.

There wasn't the mad rush towards the car park as there has been in previous years mainly because this year they actually gave us lunch!

Still there was no avoiding it and I eventually had to load up the car and hit the road. In a change I decided againist my usual music and decided to go with a classical CD to help me keep the spirtual high I was feeling. Although irony couldn't pass up the best chance it had to mess with me all weekend. The first song? Time to say goodbye!

The drive home gave me time to reflect on my goals for the weekend. As far as I was aware I hadn't managed to stick my foot in my mouth or at least I don't think I did. But then again sometimes I ain't as quick on the uptake as I should be oh and look I'm rambling.

As for my second objective? Well I did make some new aquaintences but I'm not sure I made any new friends. But on reflection I think this conference turned out to be more about renewing friendships and relationships with people I knew so I would still have to call it a success.

I reached home in fairly good time for a bank holiday and after chatting with Grumpy crashed out for a couple of hours. Not that I meant to, I just say down and that was it. Lights out! Maybe I am getting too old for this :-)

I am however determined to get more Leicester YSA there next year. There's nothing like it and I really want some of the others to see what their missing.

Although if all else fails I could still try going by myself again. Whether or not this is bravery or stupidity on my part is something I'll have to ponder :-)

Later folks.

Normal service will resume shortly

Manchester YSA Conference 2009: Monday Morning " Winding Down"

Monday morning bought with it proof that you do get rewards if you follow that old saying “ Early to Bed, Early to rise” .

As I had gone to bed relatively early compared to a vast chunk of the rest of the YSA I got up for breakfast, unlike everybody else. When I went into the restaurant for breakfast there was the grand total of one other YSA in their. The staff had even come out from behind the counters and were sitting around drinking tea ( they weren’t church members before anybody worries) as they had so little to do. With such a lack of YSA this meant that they had mountains of fried breakfast slowly spoiling and were more then a little generous. In fact I had to ask them to stop piling stuff on which for all those of you who know me well gives you an idea of just how much they were piling on!

After such a hearty breakfast it was a slow walk back to my room.

I headed out to the devotional early in order to dump some bags in the car. Well it made sense as I was going that way after all.

I ran into J Alfred coming the other way rubbish bag in hand as he had volunteered to clean up the ‘quad’ as area where most YSA hang out on Sunday nights. I offered to give him a hand and was pretty dismayed to see the state of the quad. There was rubbish everywhere. Now I’ll admit that some of it may have been blown out of an overflowing bin but a lot of it was probably more likely down to laziness. Whilst cleaning J Alfred announced that he had already reaped the rewards of service as he triumphantly held up a whole 13 pence he had found on the floor.

There were quite a few empty chairs for the morning devotional; I guess a lot of YSA were still slumbering in the depths of their rooms after their late night/early morning. It was a good devotional plus J Alfred and I got a mention/thank you ( but not by name only as ‘two guys’ which still counted as we knew who we were) as when they announced the service projects it turned out that by litter picking we had accidentally already fulfilled one of the service projects.

There were three service projects to choose from. Either writing your testimony on one of 300 hundred books of mormon which would be distributed throughout the UK to be given out by missionaries. Colouring in play mats with wax crayons which would be given to disadvantaged children or building bird boxes.

Plus there was also another sweep of the campus to check for Litter that J Alfred and I joined in with.

For the closing ceremony they started off with a slideshow of the convention which at least I wouldn’t appear in as I hadn’t seen the photographer all weekend.

Sorry Saxon wrong guess! Would you like to go for double jeopardy where the scores can really change.

Yeap somebody had caught a photo of me during the massage class at the worst angle possible. Argghhhh.....

We then had 'YSA got talent' where three acts competed for the popular vote. Now based on talent the first act should have won it although to be fair the 2nd act didn't have much of a choice as his microphone broke so you couldn't hear him over the guitar. But in contests like this it's usually the cheesy act that wins it and it was the third act with their 'interesting dance moves' that won.

Then we had a karaoke show down, boys versus girls which I still say the boys should have won because the girls 'cheated'. The guys had to sing along to robbie williams "Angels" which is a cheesy ballard. The girls got " girls just wanna have fun" and rushed to the front of the hall to all dance together and that's what won it for them. Alright I know that's not technically cheating but it's not like the guys could do that for a slushy ballard is it?

There was a final 'melody' which the whole congregation sang and a few more words from the organisers and then like that with that familiar suddeness that was that.

It was all over.

Manchester YSA Conference 2009: Sunday evening " All is calm all is Silent"

After once again making the yomp across campus to the main centre it was time for the testimony meetings. We were as usual spilt up into groups depending on the colour of our wrist bands. Being a ‘blue’ I ended up in one of the upstairs room with the rest of the ‘blues’.

Now last year I really, really enjoyed the testimony meeting but this year?..... Well not so much. Unlike previous years the testimony meeting wasn’t last meaning there was a time limit for the meeting and we were also told to keep things ‘short and basic’. Maybe after the morning and afternoon I was all ‘spirited out’ but there was just something about the restrictions that made the atmosphere seem a little ‘forced’ for want of a better term and not natural. ( if that makes any sense at all).

Despite constant reminders from the leaders leading ( leaders leading who’d have guessed?) we did end up running over so we thought we would be holding everyone up as we went back into the main hall, but we weren’t. Which surprised me at first until I saw a girl collapsed on the floor surrounded by her worried friends who were seeing to her. Guessing that she had fainted I was surprised that they were holding things up for one girl who although fainted was in ‘out of the way’ for want of a better term. But it was at this point that I saw a second girl on the floor at the far side of the hall who had also fainted, which made me wonder what had been going on the testimony meeting in the main hall and if people had been overwhelmed by the ‘spirit’ , however any amusing thoughts of picturing one of those gospel style meetings instantly vanished when I saw a paramedic enter the hall. For someone to call for paramedics something must have been seriously wrong with those girls.

As we were asked to wait by the medic as he tended to the fallen girls we couldn’t start watching the film. Keen to maintain the spirit they decided to get the whole congregation to sing songs as we waited. Which was a struggle for the poor conductor and organist as we didn’t have 900 hymn books. So they had to think of the hymns that most people were likely to know by heart. After about 15 minutes of singing and with us rapidly approaching the end of the list of the most well known songs they finally announced we could start the film.

As the film started we noticed an ambulance arrive as they had opened the massive loading doors to the hall obviously in a attempt to cool the main hall down. One of those girls ) or both of them were obviously quite ill ( and not having a good night!)

The film was about Joseph Smith ( the founder of our church for my non LDS readers) and it was awesome. Quite simply the best church film I have seen in quite a long time and extremely powerful. The film ended with the martyrdom and when the credits rolled and the film stopped there was absolute silence in the hall. There were 900 people in there and everyone was silent, there wasn’t a sound, to embrace a cliché if a pin had dropped in that hall it would have seen deafening. In four years I haven’t been in that hall and felt the spirit as powerfully as I could at that moment and it was obvious that everybody else could to.

We had finished a lot earlier then previous years meaning we had nearly two hours before midnight and ‘food time’. J Alfred and Miss Swann both decided to go to bed but I decided that I would stay up and see what went on.

However the weather decided to lend a hand at this point and started raining so this seem to dampen ( yes I know terrible pun) some peoples spirit. I hung around but was unable to locate any of the acquaintances or friends I had made over the weekend and to be honest eating at that time of night isn’t really fun if you’re by yourself.

I stuck it out for a bit longer still failing to find anyone I knew, then decided to call it quits for the night and headed back to my room, feeling a bit tired and frustrated but a renewed sense of determination to keep getting to know people outside of the stake so I don’t get stuck like that again.

Same geek place, same geek channel

Tune in tomorrow folks for the closing posts about the end of conference.

How did it all end hmmm??

Well you'll have to tune in tomorrow to find out

Manchester YSA Conference 2009: Sunday afternoon "standing room only"

Feeling the start of a headache coming on I decided to be a bit naughty and skip the first afternoon workshop for a quick nap as when it comes to headaches prevention is better then cure. Or to put it another way if I get a nap before it becomes a full blown headache, it won’t become a full blown headache.

I was up in what I considered plenty of time to get back to the main centre for the afternoon workshops. And as it turned out what I considered to be plenty of time was a totally wrong guess. Every workshop I tried was full to bursting, Bro H’s was especially full as a guy manning the door said it was “ Standing room only and even that’s taken!” .

So slightly bemused I decided to head back to my room as I didn’t know what else to do!

I made sure I was back at the centre nice and early for the fireside which followed the workshops. The fireside was by Kenneth cope (he’s a church member from America who writes and sings songs for all my non LDS readers). Now initially when somebody said Kenneth cope I asked who? The look I was given was probably along the lines of something I would expect if I had admitted that I was related to an evil dictator.

Now I admit I wasn’t too sure what to expect from the fireside but it was absolutely fantastic. You could really feel the spirit so powerfully in that room. I even felt myself start to feel a bit teary at a couple of songs the spirit was that strong.

After the fireside it was time for Dinner. I made my way back across Campus with J Alfred and Miss Swann, trying to walk as fast as possible as it started to rain! Which was annoying for a number of reasons not least that I had left the umbrella in my room. I was also annoyed as two lads walked past talking about the fireside and said something along the lines of
“ That was abysmal and a waste of time. What kind of looser would think that music was good?”
I was tempted to tap them on the shoulder at that point and say something along the lines of
“Yo. This looser!”

Dinner matched the high standard of the previous nights dinner. Of course it was the one kind of foot that you really want when wearing suits and white shirts. Roast dinner with gravy! Unfortunately my stand in dinner bib, i.e my tie failed me this year and I managed to get a blob of gravy right in the middle of my shirt. Due to the size queue we decided to cheat a bit and reserved a table using our bags. As well as the high standard of food it was also a nice dinner as the three of us were able to have a really nice in depth conversation and generally catch up with where each of us were in our lives etc.

After dinner we had enough time to have a short break before the evenings fun and games began.

Manchester YSA Conference 2009: Sunday morning " conundrum"

Now every Sunday morning of conference always brings a great conundrum. What do you wear to breakfast? Now some people wear jeans and t-shirts, other pyjama’s with a sweatshirt over the top, others as we’re supposed to wear our church clothes all day get fully dressed and go to breakfast like that.

I always tend to go for the middle ground. Trousers and a ‘posh’ t-shirt. Now I could wear my suit by seeing as I can be clumsy sometimes and irony likes to mess with me, I know that trying to go and have a friend breakfast whilst waiting my suit is asking for trouble to such an extent I might as well spray ketchup down my front and be done with it in advance : - )

The other conundrum which came up during the day, we know we’re not supposed to go to the shops on a Sunday but how about using vending machines? Any thoughts anyone?

It was the usual separate priesthood/relief society meetings first thing. The guys were in Owen’s park as usual, as I was walked there I passed two extremely bored looking campus policeman. I suppose with a site full of church members there wasn’t a lot for them to as there wasn’t going to be any drunken fights for them to break up was there?

The priesthood session consisted of a question and answer session with the area authority. Now I know ( more or less) how to pronounce his name, I just have no idea how to spell it ( he’s German).

Before the start of the session J Alfred was asking me what ‘part’ I sang in hymns. I had to admit my appalling lack of knowledge when it comes to that part of singing. So he then explained things! Which was great as I now know what people mean when they took about ‘parts’ in singing. Still can’t sing though. I’m aware of where my talents lie and they certainly don’t lie in anything singing based : - )

After the priesthood session we made our way across to the main centre ( it’s quite a yomp across the campus) to meet up with the girls for the main conference session. Which was very good. The only downside was that those chairs are still as uncomfortable as ever!

There was a bit of noise down one side of the hall out of our line of sight, next moment there were several YSA rushing outside which probably meant that someone had fainted. I don’t think we’ve gone for one conference without someone fainting.

The distribution problems with lunch continued as even though they had set up two lines the lines stretched right the way around the edges of the hall and even passed each other at one point. J Alfred suggested that instead of waiting in the queue we simply sit and wait for the queues to die down. While we were waiting he decided to educate me in the ways of church films such as “ Singles ward”. I realised that I hadn’t seen any church films like that! It’s like some entire sub-culture I’ve missed out on : - )

We joined the queue eventually and found the flaw in our plan. Some of the YSA who had gone before in the queue could not have been totally honest, as there was nearly no fruit left, all the crisps had gone, and there were only very few sandwiches left. I grabbed some sandwiches and a small box of raisins. Only to then discover that my tuna fish sandwich wasn’t just tunafish. It also had onions in it! Which left me baffled who eats tuna and onion?

I went back to try and swap it but discovered that everything that had left had onions in it, for example cheese and onion and beef and onion. I resigned myself at this point to only having a box of raisins for Lunch! Fortunately J Alfred took pity on me and as he had the last of the plain tuna fish sandwiches he decided to give me one of them.

Maybe I need to take some crisps with me as back up next year?