Month: November 2014

Another year, another ring on the tree.

And on the mention of cute trees, the I Am Groot movie comes out in 11 days and I almost preordered it just now … I’ll wait until it comes out and see where I can get it cheapest. I need to find time to watch Hunger Games 1 and 2 before the third comes out anyway.

Birthday ?

Yep. Birthday today. I’m not telling which age it is on here – muahaha. I was however incredibly chuffed to get the following reactions to the “Guess how old ?” game :

Two guesses of 30. Awesome. Love that.
One guess of 32 from our Poster Girl. Happy with dat.
And a shocked falling over backwards from the Poster Girl when she found out the True Age.

Must be all the preservatives in the processed food that dominates my diet. They’re apparently preserving me well.

Plans ?

I’m currently home chilling out to Duffy’s Rockferry special edition double album. It’s a lovely album filled with gorgeous songs from this quirky, distinctive, unusual voice. She’s allowed to have her head in this pair, her voice doesn’t suit normal songs, they need to be made for her voice. You’ll have heard Mercy before but that’s not my favourite. I’m not sure what the favourite is actually, there’s so many amazing songs here like Stepping Stone which just played over the speakers. I’ll link another couple when I do the A to Z – R post in a week or so.

Today saw me collect the Cakes from the Asda next door. Dunno what it is about Asda but it seems to collect the Walmart Denizens.

There’s always lots of appreciation for the cakes and donuts. The cookies and donuts are all gone but there’s still a few cakes left if any of my colleagues on site reading this would like to come up and say hello tomorrow, taking a cake away with them.

I usually say things like “A small(ish) selection of cakes just escaped from Asda” only to find “wow, that’s lots” from people as they see the hoard. I tend to get a little carried away with the cake buying.

Nope. No one was harmed in the removal of the cakes today.

Although with a Little Lady who works downstairs, when she bakes miracles happen. If someone attempted to remove one of those cakes from me after I got my fingers on it, there would be a dead body. Same with Pixie Cakes. They’re amazing too.

I didn’t do much tonight, except for drift off to the Mall for a wander around. That was partly down to seeing what traffic conditions were like. Bristol goes to gridlock very easily and tonight was one of those nights. I decided to wait it out in the Mall.

I don’t often buy much but I find wandering around the shops quite therapeutic. I know. I’m a bloke. That’s not supposed to be how it works. Nah. Nothing bought tonight, however … the following are new arrivals :

Thor and Thor 2 from the BionicDwarf – both pretty decent movies, with the second being an improvement over the introductory first. I’m looking forward to going through the Avengers series again, of which these are part.

Thomas Crown Affair (Brosnan and Rene Russo) from CK – sexy thriller with lots of sparks going between the two leads and an excellent soundtrack too. I’ll enjoy this one too.

Defying Gravity from CK – of all the series which I wished had continued, this is the one I was most disappointed to hear being dropped. It only managed part of 1 season but what was made was top notch stellar scifi. It was telling of a grand tour of the solar system in the hunt for artifacts. The Earth was portrayed as semi-utopia with a massive dark side. I really wanted to know how that was going to play out.

I’ve also acquired games, courtesy of GoG.com’s sale : Riddick, Stronghold Crusader and Xenonauts (all 3 have soundtracks – surprise, surprise)
Music : Coves – Soft Friday and Maroon 5 – V.

I’ll go see the mum & dad & Ben the dog too. It’s my sister’s birthday on Saturday. It’ll be a busy few days actually as I hope that the date on Monday night goes ahead. (Don’t wanna jinx it but I have my hopes !)

One last pic before I go :

Poor dino.

Before I dive into the main bit (shredding Interstellar’s sciency bits), a couple of other things to natter about :

I use the word “Little” as a description for some people. I hope they don’t mind ! I see it as a valid descriptor meaning that they’re shorter than I am. Nothing more than that, nothing less. And I think “Little Lady” has a certain ring to it too. That said, “big girl” also has a certain ring to it but I’m not going to be using that. A lot of ladies are sensitive about their size, which cuts out “big” and other ladies will get the dagger eyes out if you call them a “girl”.

It’s a little strange that I find one descriptor ok but others to be anathema. I hope the little ladies don’t object to me using that descriptor. I personally attach it to “elfin”, “cute”, “dainty” and a few other descriptors that mean nice things. Conversely, calling a lady “big” when you just mean “she’s taller” will lead to a slapping …

Forget descriptors – all ladies have their own special beauty, no matter what size or shape they are.

Second and this is where I put SPOILER WARNING ! Read past this and I’ll be putting in spoilers for Interstellar … Christopher Nolan is guilty of a lot of crimes against science but he’s no Michael Bay. I wanted to see the Turtles movie but avoided it because all reports say it’s an abomination. Like the accursed Transformers movies.

Despite all the faults, I really enjoyed Interstellar. There’s the people who appreciate the story and there’s the people who will throw things at the screen due to the dodgy science. I’m somewhere between the two. I really enjoyed the movie but there was a little part of me screaming inside (it wasn’t quite dead yet after Michael Bay killed Transformers).

Soooo …

Going to the black hole water planet first. Why ? With the time dilation there’d be no way to coordinate planetside with orbit. And it’s a short lived solution due to the impending It’s Gonna Get Sucked Into The Black Hole !!! thing.

Not anticipating conditions on the water planet. We have our tides due to the presence of our moon, so it stands to reason that a water planet next to a honking great big black hole is going to have tides too. Big tides. Not mentioning the lack of anticipation of the effect of time dilation on the scientist who landed.

The Ranger craft. I liked these as a concept. They’re a lifting body aircraft which looked good in the movie and made sense from the science point of view. But … when they take off in one from Earth, it needs our biggest rocket to date (a Saturn V) to lift it to orbit. Yet on the new planets, it suddenly becomes Single Stage To Orbit and can get there on its own. This is despite the water planet being 130% the gravity of Earth.

The whole causality thing. Who put the wormhole there, who brought the astronauts and T.A.R.S. into 3d space. Causality is pretty nuts.

One way wormhole when it comes to communications ? Very convenient from a plot point of view.

The Blight – it feeds on Nitrogen right ? So it should be metabolising the Nitrogen into something different. Possibly NOx compounds or NH compounds. Either way, the Nitrogen component of the air should reduce right ? Mind you, NOx compounds and NH (Ammonia) compounds are also really nasty. But … it did seem like the Blight was more a bio-terminator targeting the staple food crops.

The airlock blowout – holy carp that was dangerous. You would have thought those claw things wouldn’t operate only as a lock, they’d assist with the mating process joining both sides together. Or perhaps that was the bit disabled with the autodocking.

Distillery – they land a distillery on the ice planet. What happened to it ?

Ice clouds – what’s holding them up ?

Choosing the second planet. I think I’d have prioritised the planet with a breathable atmosphere over one with a poisonous atmosphere but then again … engineering the plot again.

I think that’s enough for now …

The thing to remember though, is that if you can keep that little voice inside quiet that’s begging to scream out at the inconsistencies and the bad science, this is still a remarkable movie on all sorts of levels. The visuals are incredible and I loved the characters. So much that when Mr Cooper bursts into tears listening to the messages, I’m almost ready to blub too (that’s not the bit that got me).

I’ll still get the bluray when it comes out, will probably get the soundtrack if it dips to an acceptable price. But I’ll be gagging that little scientist voice to stop it spoiling the story.

I’m having those uppers and downers again.

On the one hand, I can flip into that hyperactive state that sees me bouncing off the walls and thinking so quickly I can’t get any words out when trying to speak. On the other, there’s the danger of the depression triggers being flipped when I look for a response but don’t get one.

Personally, I’m seeing good things and bad things with what’s going on with me :

Good – the skin problem genuinely seems to be retreating with bad bits being reclaimed. It’s happening slower than I’d like though.
Bad – my back and neck really hates me. My neck’s been getting gradually stiffer and stiffer and could do with a bit of TLC. My arms and legs do what I tell them to and the lost range of movement doesn’t really affect me most of the time (bowling is all done, crossing legs can be awkward). I think most of the neck and back trouble is tied up with my problems getting to sleep.

Sleep ? Yep. Is an issue. What I need to learn is a mental programme to send me off to sleep. I used to have one that got the ZZzzz’s but it’s not working too well. My mind races through all kinds of thoughts. Sometimes it’s wondering if I’ll get replies to messages I send out. Sometimes it’s seeing faces with smiles and laughter that I wish were directed my way. Or even just that soft smile we save for someone special.

I’ve had a few of those faces pop up in my mind over the years, Sometimes it’s people I know from work, sometimes it’s people like the little lady off the videos. Now it’s another little lady I hope to meet for real very soon.

Good – I love it when I get a response. I’ve been fairly active on Twitter since I joined and I’m now following over 100 people. Most of those are very interesting people. Some are ordinary people who need a little help. And it’s great when you get a response (even if it’s just the “favourite” button being hit) when you send over a message. I see the messages on there showing people are in pain, I’ll tell them something supportive.

Perhaps that’s what I’m here to do – to find those in pain and help them feel a little better. Even if it’s just sending smiles their way.

Bad – I have that need to have a response when I do things for other people. Not necessarily a “thank you” but any response. What causes me most stress is when I pour effort (and usually a bit of my soul) into doing something nice for someone and I don’t even get the acknowledgement.

It’s makes me less motivated to do the nice things again. I’m not creative in the way that an artist can make a pen do magic things to a bit of paper but I can think of a concept and make one image into another. (This is why I’m frustrated with GIMP, cos it’s harder to use than PE1).

But yeah, my biggest motivation is when I can do nice things for other people. Sometimes that’s a Grin to bring a smile from them. Sometimes it’s a bit of work they need. Sometimes it’s a comment to make them feel better, sometimes it’s making one of those pictures.

So you can imagine it does strange things to my mind when I make comment after comment after comment and don’t get any feedback. (3 replies in 6 months – but I hope knowing that doesn’t make me Mad Stalker, just a person with a good memory who invests a lot in looking for a reply). I suspect I may be getting lost partly in the noise but … you look at some threads I respond to and … I’m the only reply.

I guess with the person I’m thinking of there, it may show a difference between Public Face and Private Face. You fall in love with the Public Face (and it is incredibly cute, adorable and has remarkable intelligence and humour behind it) but don’t realise the Private Face is rather different. I guess you could call that dodging a bullet by not ending up in a position with someone who isn’t who you thought they were. And yet you see the things she says and you know there’s so much compatibility there, at least as far as the Public Face goes.

(I suspect there’s actually something going on which isn’t for Public Eyes, which would explain the lack of response)

I’m hoping for something rather better when I meet the other little lady who’s picture has been cropping up in my mind lately. A description of a cute, quirky, intelligent, active and lively lady caught my eye enough for me to break the reticence and get in touch. And over the conversation since, I’ve just got more and more interested. I suspect there will be a fair few smiles when we do meet.

And hugs too. I’m still missing the hugs I could do with after a second viewing of Interstellar. The reason that film gets to me is that it heavily stresses the themes of Duty, Honour and Family. Certain bits of the story deal with unresolved emotions.

Or is it a more romantic Sleepy coming out ? That could be interesting …. I hope so. Because if I can get a lady to smile due to thinking of romantic things, then that’ll get me beaming too.

Cos that’s what I live for – making other people happy. Perhaps that’s another aspect of the depression trigger ? I.e. I do something nice, I don’t get a notion of whether it makes them happy, the dark bits of my mind assume they hated it and that makes me unhappy.

Perhaps.

Oh I also live for Running Very Fast and I’m getting closer …

I actually hit the Warp Speed button last night when coming in to the cinema from the car park. Result ? Everything works mechanically, I just need to rebuild muscles and twitch responses to get Warp Speed back again. But … the legs responded properly (even if my quads were misfiring!) and even if it wasn’t the speed that saw me clocked at 11 secs over 100m at age 14 (last time I had the watch on me before my knees went bang and then my back), it still felt good. Very loose technically but still promising that I’m still capable of it (even at my age – lol !).

And that felt good. Not as good as if the wind were rushing through my ears but still good.

Yeah – uppers and downers. But with that, I’m looking forward to hopefully meeting a little lady on Monday. I have big hopes but don’t want to jinx anything.

Join me in hoping it works out ? Cos my confidence could do with the boost.

PS This may also be a sign of me tiring and looking for the Xmas break to come. Yeah, could be … but I do find thoughts of tiredness evaporate when there’s a Pretty Lady smiling at me.

Not all the P’s, I did a small selection in the O’s post but there’s lots more to come.

First up is a collection from the Pet Shop Boys. Definitely a good one to start off a Perfection post because they don’t have much to take advantage of in the voice department but what they have, they take full advantage of and then polish it to perfection in production. The highlight here is definitely their breakthrough track : West End Girls.

I wonder if my waitress last night was a West End Girl ? She hailed from Belfast and it was wonderful hearing that accent again. I haven’t lived in Northern Ireland for almost 30 years now so my accent is pretty much gone but it’s great to hear it again. Miss L at work still has her’s and it was good to run into her again the other day at the lunch queue.

Peter Gabriel had a habit of giving his early albums numbers instead of titles. I didn’t think much of his 2 or 4 albums but numbers 1 and 3 were exceptional with varied, quirky and very well composed music that fit together well as albums. I’d pick out Moribund the Burgermeister from the first album and Games Without Frontiers from the third.

Edie Brickell comes in with her solo album, Picture Perfect Morning. This album closes out with the wonderful Lost In A Moment, which … tears warning.

Next is a pair of albums from the ever divine Katie Melua, Pictures and Piece By Piece which I think is the better album. Pictures has some sickly sweet tracks including What I Miss About You. Piece By Piece has wonderful track after wonderful track including the amazing Thank You Stars, I Cried for You, Nine Million Bicycles and may I someday be some lovely lady’s special Shy Boy.

Next up is a soundtrack – Planescape Torment was another Dungeons and Dragons rules set game, this time set in hell. It’s one of the better regarded ones and how come I haven’t played it yet ? Yep. No game time but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed listening to the soundtrack. Here’s the trailer.

Gorillaz came back in with the very strong Plastic Beach album. It’s their strongest yet with plenty of variation and some very special songs. My highlight is Empire Ants, which builds up gradually and then explodes.

Moby’s Play is possibly a little too perfect. Yes, it’s very good but it’s so polished it gets cold. Still good but not one I enjoy as much as the Katie Melua or Edie Brickell albums here.

Talking of perfection, here’s a bit of Nordic angelic astounding singing in the shape of Lene Marlin’s debut album. The track that originally caught me was Sitting Down Here but I think the strongest is Unforgivable Sinner.

Sleeper’s Pleased To Meet You comes in with the P’s. Again, a fairly decent album but not quite as special as their debut. Still, it gives a decent first impression with the opener Please, Please, Please.

Hello Air – if I get married, their tracks All I Need and You Make It Easy will definitely get played on the day. But those are on Moon Safari (I only mention them because they are SO special). Air’s Premier Symptome and Pocket Symphony are the P albums. They’re ok but the polish is probably taking away from the Gallic character and inspiration.

And if there’s a singer I fell in love with as soon as I heard her, it’s Mindy Gledhill. Wonderful singer, wonderful person. She’s the truly innocent, beautiful of face and spirit girl next door with the voice of an angel. Her latest album is Pocketful of Poetry and it’s … wonderful. Check out Little Red Bike.

Some old school ? The Police had a turbulent passage but that may have generated some of the best songs, led by that perfection of Sting’s voice. I know one person who I thoroughly believe Everything She Does Is Magic and the Little Cupid Lady is joining her. I look forward to her messages tremendously.

Going the other way is a voice that’s so imperfect, it has a special beauty of it’s own. It’s Portishead with the unique Beth Gibbons. Their P is their second album, which has Mourning Air. I challenge you to play that and not get your attention caught.

Bjork sneaks in with Post, which is another album that shows off the character of the artist. She’s totally unique, adorable and spiky at the same time. The famous tracks are Army Of Me and It’s Oh So Quiet but my highlight is the magical Possibly Maybe.

Heavy Metal time ! I bought a Nightwish cd yesterday to check it out but here it’s Iron Maiden with Powerslave. Good but not their best to be honest although it has a cracking opener with Aces High.

If you ask anyone what their favourite fantasy movie is, there’s a good chance that they’ll pick the Princess Bride. And the soundtrack backs up what’s on screen. It’s a Mark Knopfler special and … that swordfight …

Talking of great movies, there’s Pulp Fiction which is loaded with amazing tracks. My favourite is Dusty Springfield with Son Of A Preacher Man.

And it’s that time again … last album and it’s another soundtrack. You’ll see another from this artist in the R’s. It’s the Puss In Boots soundtrack which is another that matched the film really well. But it’s the guest artists that shine – Rodrigo y Gabriela. Check out Hanuman.

And that’s all for the P’s ! There won’t a Q post cos I don’t have any Q’s. I do have a couple of Queen’s Greatest Hits cd’s but those come in under G …

Cya next time !

I actually cried today.

Not sure how long it’s been since that happened. It doesn’t happen too often. I get to the verge of it and catch it before the blub happens.

Ok – back up a sec. What happened today ? (To put your mind at rest – nothing bad, apart from the slight tragedy of a Sleepy going to the movies on his own)

Normal working Friday, which means staying as long as I have to in order to keep the flexi in balance. That’s not as bad as it sounds, as I’ll stay nose to grindstone and finish things off before leaving – it’s easier to do that than restart something half finished. And then it’s off into the centre of Bristol.

It’s the opening day of the Bristol German Xmas market today. The best bit is the munchie stands to be honest. Traditional German Bratwurst for Big Sausages. Perfect for lunch munchies.

They have a lot of merchant stands up too, selling mostly touristy tat and a hell of a lot of sweet stuff. You could put on a stone just by walking past the stands. I want to go to the Bath Xmas market as well now, that’s much bigger. I’ve not been to that one for quite a few years.

Film ?

Interstellar is amazing. It matches Guardians of the Galaxy for best film of this year so far. Hell, possibly of the decade so far. The no-spoiler synopsis is that Planet Earth is dying and we need a Plan B. Conveniently, a wormhole has opened up in the outer solar system and we send people through the check it out and if necessary, recreate the human race on another planet.

The sciency bits are in there and they’re believeable and understandable. All the characters will tug at your emotions in one way or another. Matthew McConaughey is the undisputed lead and it’s his best movie yet, of the ones I’ve seen at least. The effects are stellar (sorry)

It’s long but doesn’t outstay its welcome (cough – AI – cough). In fact it keeps you guessing as to where the story is going all the way through.

And it made me cry. I’ll not say why, except : Go see it to find out.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I could do with a big hug right now after seeing it and when I see it again, I’ll be looking for someone’s hand to hold.

I see those feels as a very good sign actually. I grew up squashing my emotions down and they didn’t come to the surface very much. That’s made me into a quite reserved person who didn’t show much. I feel that’s changing now (perhaps a consequence of Nose Job 1 ?).

The new feels are good feels. They’re making me feel more connected to the world.

But by eck I could do with a hug at the moment. And someone to talk to.

I wonder how many times I’ll see this one in the cinema ? Saw Guardians twice, I may see this one more given opportunities. I’ll see it again with the Crazies on Monday but I think for more seeings, it’ll be with someone asking me to come along with her.

So if you’re Bristol area and want a buddy who will hold your hand all the way through this one, lemme know :-).

Gotta go now – will be hoping there’s either :
A message waiting for me from the Pretty Cupid Lady or
Amusement to come from watching Little Miss Kim videos
And that’ll cheer me up no end.

Since I got my new camera a few weeks ago, I’ve been short of chances to play with it …

Must get out more and get snapping.

But before I dive into “why isn’t an iPhone camera good enough ?” I need a different pic for the thumbnail ! Excuse me while I dive into the archives … Hmm. I’d really like to put in a picture of a Pretty Lady smiling because that always cheers me up but :

I hope I resist that temptation today 🙂 Ok : iPhone pic from a little while ago (ok, the last full moon when I was constructing a reaaally bad Jade Rabbit pic) :

You’ll agree that’s caught none of the definition of the moon. Not much of anything actually. I’m kinda surprised you can see definition on the trees.

Camera on auto :

Ok, that’s still pretty bad, even when you zoom it in.

Camera on night portrait mode ?

That’s better than Mk1 Eyeball. From the sounds of the clicks and whirs inside the camera, it took one frame with flash and quickly followed with a series of extra exposures to catch the low light stuff.

I’m impressed. Must try and find more excuses to play. I’d have liked to try and snap some fireworks but I don’t think I’ll get to a display. The most local ones were actually last weekend and I’m planning to watch Interstellar either Sunday if a mate comes along or I’ll watch it first opportunity Friday if I get the chance.

Could be a busy week for cinema actually :

Friday last week – Maze Runner. Impressive. Both the film, which I’ll definitely get on blu-ray and the cinema, which was the new(ish!) Showcase Cinema De Lux. First time there and the popcorn was … ok. Film was better.
Monday – Fury. This is a World War 2 film about a tank crew. Very gritty, earns its 15 certificate for sure. It captures the mood for sure, both the terror of battle and the desperation of trying to stay alive.
Tomorrow – could be Frankenstein (more below).
Friday / Sunday – Interstellar, depending on that mate’s availability.
Not actually sure about a movie for birthday week (13th and I’ll add another tree ring) but Hunger Games 3 will be out on the 20th. That’s a must see.

Frankenstein ? I know someone who is deeply into watching and playing horror stuff. She’s also deeply in love with a certain Benedict Cumberbatch (have to admit, if I were a girl, I’d be fighting people off for him too). And … the Frankenstein theatre show where he plays the Creature is being played again tomorrow night.

What better way to drown the sorrows ? I have to admit I’d feel very inferior next to the Cumberbatch but it would give this amazing little lady the chance to get to know an adoring admirer a little better. I think she’d like me, it’s just having the chance to check out the owner of the Dwagon Pics and the Grin.

Oh and there’d be a dinner in it too. Our little lady’s fans were much amused by a twitter exchange where she told us she’d been grounded for having the instant noodles again (the entire exchange reinforced that “100% adorable, 100% of the time” impression). I think she’d get a pass to go out if it involved a good meal.

And I’d be more than happy (overjoyed in fact) to buy dinner for the Pretty Lady. Perhaps a bit late though seeing as it’s tomorrow evening. Maybe Interstellar ? Sorry Mr Mate but the Pretty Lady would win every time !

This has gone beyond pictures and cameras hasn’t it … Perhaps. But there’s more currencies than just cash. There’s the currency of being nice to people. I give out my Grin for free and I get smiles in return. I like that. So while money can buy you flowers and chocolates, it’s being nice to people that I hope makes them happiest. Sometimes that’s the superficial things like the flowers and the chocolates, they show being nice in ways that you can sometimes be too awkward to express. I know I get rather awkward around Pretty Ladies.

But a better way of being nice is to show as much respect as you can. To be polite, say nice things (and mean them!) and generally do the things that get you the good karma.

One last pic :

There’s two people I have my eye on for that Player Two. One I know way too much about from the videos, the other is on Okcupid. Not spoken to the second for a bit but she is another incredibly busy girl. I wonder if that’s a type that’s catching my eye – someone who has a definite purpose in life and an energy that keeps them fully involved with Kicking Butt And Doing Stuff.

It’s a comfort actually – one of the potential Player Two’s engaged in a highly amusing twitter exchange and the other seems to like what I put in the messages.

Hopefully one of them will be that Player Two. Perhaps if we move real fast (here’s my mind jumping to conclusions again and running through scenarios ridiculously prematurely quickly) I can solve someone’s lonely over Xmas problem. Nothing would make me happier.

Ok – one more pic.

Sometimes I think I resemble a tree when my thinking speed goes to treacle. Oh ! Only 3 more weeks till this comes out on bluray 🙂 Prepare the pre-order.

And now for something completely different …

It’s a daft thought really but where would you target as your base to fall back to if The End Times came ? We’ll go for the standard Zombie Apocalypse type end time because stuff like nuclear war, asteroid impact (which also fries all the electronics) or biological stuff that passes in the air is a bit too nasty to think about.

So zombies. How come the thought’s come up ? 1 – I been watching The Walking Dead again. Pretty good series, the first season was fantastic but it kinda lost its way for a while. This season has started well.

I’ve also been re-watching the play through of The Last Of Us by our ever adorable, ever wonderful Kim. (Linky). That game is set in a world (oh my, I just heard those words in That Movie Trailer Voice) where spore infection turns people into varying degrees of zombies. The longer they’ve been infected, the more dangerous they are. It’s a fantastic looking game with an amazing storyline. This playthrough also tells us a lot about Kim as she’s narrating her way through. (It’s where that “interesting” tag got well and truly applied to our Pocket Lioness)

Yeah – go watch it. It’s not just a great series that will truly tug at your heart, it’s showing the emergence of a great youtube talent who I hope will stick around in that business for ages. If she doesn’t get a nervous breakdown from all the horror games. (That’s a point, I need more hug pics !)

Where was I ? Zompoc base.

I wouldn’t want a static base. Too easy to assault. If you go high, then you get swarmed from below. If you go low, then they just pile in on top.

A moat is handy. Some way of isolating the base from the rest of the world. Being able to move around from place to place would be handy too. That suggests caravans and motorhomes but they’re a bit too easy to get to. There’s no moat with those.

So what would I choose and why ?

The idea starts with the narrowboats. They’re self contained units with everything you need to keep a decent standard of living going. Plus they’re mobile and have that moat protecting them. Zombies on the side of the canal ? Just move on down the canal. Locks and swing bridges might be an issue though.

But I wouldn’t go for a narrowboat. I’d go for a Dutch Barge :

That’s a luxemotor style barge. They’re wider than a narrowboat and have that wheelhouse near aft. They’re descended from coastal trading barges but the live on board dutch barges of today are of immensely luxurious standard.

Zompoc survival is all about ticking off the essentials :

Power – rig the roof with solar panels and wind turbines to supplement the generator. Fuel will be scarce, so avoiding using it will be critical. Also have as many batteries as will fit to power things like freezers and fridges to keep the food good for longer.

Food – the odd run into towns would be needed to supplement this. Or there’s fishing from over the side of the boat. The drawback is that with no permanent base, there’s no potential for organised farming, although you could be picking from bushes while going up and down the canals.

Water and sanitation – there’s usually enough tankage to hold a fortnight of fresh water. That could be supplemented by a reverse osmosis (water maker) plant or there’s stills to catch rainwater. There’s similar tankage for the loo as well.

Cleaning – there’s a thought. You could use the washing machine that these barges usually have but I doubt you would due to saving : power consumed + noise made. But … there’s all that water over the side …

Consumables – you’d want everything running off electric eventually as you couldn’t guarantee gas bottle supplies. But a wood stove also has potential for heating. Wonder how long you could keep a cooker or a microwave going on the batteries ?

Stealthy exits and entrances – hybrid power is coming into the narrowboats and dutch barges. Normally, there’s an engine that goes directly to a propeller shaft. The hybrid powerplants can use electric motors to move the boat. So … to avoid attracting all those Zombles, just turn the engine off and motor in there in silence.

Security – it’s a boat ! Hopefully those zombies can’t swim …

Getting places – the dutch barge’s big advantage over the narrowboat is that they can go on open sea. Narrowboats don’t have the stability for that. There’s also the potential for rigging sails, although that might get in the way of the solar panels.

You’d want somewhere you could do repairs and fix up the boat too if it got damaged. I take inspiration from a certain Bear Grylls there. He lives on a Dutch Barge moored up in London but he also owns an island where he can take his boat. So if extra room is needed for a machine shop (highly likely) or just places to store Stuff, then it can go on the island.

So – there’s my thoughts on where I’d see me living out the Zombie Apocalypse. Dutch Barges are pricey though, they’re the ultimate of the canal barge world.

There’s only one thing more I’d want. Someone to act as sentry, as second pair of eyes, as person to help me keep my sanity in a mad, bad world. Someone kick ass who’d have my back as I’d have their’s.

I wonder who would be Tess to my Joel ?

Perhaps it could be a new Empire ? Clear the Isle of Wight, Isle of Man or Anglesey and turn it into a farm, then send out scouts in Dutch Barges. Sign me up 🙂

Oh – another pic. If the worst comes to the worst :

Feeling both better and worse today.

Worse ? I had another go at my outsides this morning and they didn’t appreciate it. They’re doing better already but as always, the damage I can do in minutes takes days to repair. What I didn’t say in the Psoriasis post is that I still have some Magic Gunk (aka Fucibet topical steroid) which helps the repairs happen. But that’s enough of nasty stuff.

Better ?

Yeah, I was upset yesterday. Don’t think I had that much right to be but I was upset anyway. But I don’t stay upset for long. It brings to mind a line from Barbarella (that [in]famous scifi film with Jane Fonda) “An angel has no memory”. So even though our angel Pygar has been tortured by the female lead bad person, he’ll rescue her anyway.

So there’s 2 aspects to our angel Pygar : love and the ability to forget. I think that may apply to me as well.

I can get genuinely angry at people but I don’t like it and don’t allow it to happen very often. Driving is a bit different because my attention is focused on :
Staying safe on the road – so my awareness is busier and I have less of a hold on the fiery aspects of me
Avoiding all the antics of the people who being unsafe on the road

Swearing does happen, lights get flashed, horns get hooted and I get way too excited.

I definitely don’t stay angry. I do get frustrated but I’m definitely a live and let live person. You should never waste time on being angry for longer than any few seconds. There’s been times when I’ve had the steam coming out of my ears on the cricket field but I steer that into playing better and leave it on the field. There are far better emotions to be aiming for. Like that Love emotion.

I know that if I did have any potential frustration with a partner, all it would usually take to make it evaporate would be something like a look, a smile, a grin, a laugh and suddenly that frustration or anger dissipates into far more positive feelings.

Yeah – I do miss having someone around. Mostly because I like to do things for other people. Partly because it’s a moderating influence that keeps me pointed in the right direction. Instead of haring off down a path to frustration and depression, looking at the person I’d love reminds me of the good things.

And that’s the thing. It’s remembering what’s important – why did you get drawn to your partner in the first place ? That’s the permanent thing. The temporary thing is the source of frustration. Emphasize the permanent over the temporary. Remember the wonderful, forgive and forget the temporary negative.

With my 2 long term relationships, both ladies were interesting people to talk to, although Alyse had the better mind of the two. I’ll be eternally grateful to Mad Alyse (her chosen nickname!) because she helped sort out my back as well. She supported me a lot, also took the sting out of my disappointment at not drinking enough to get in the cricket team (best bowler at trial, not at social therefore not in team). And Ravenwolf gave me someone to do nice things for (not just that).

With the person I was talking about yesterday – I think she peeked here and saw the frustration. I really hope that didn’t ruin her evening. That’s temporary frustration though, the permanent is that she has a continual power to make me laugh with her antics. That unpredictability makes me smile and the emotion and feeling makes me want to be around to give her the much needed hugs.

She’s very quiet and covert in keeping an eye on me but is an amazing, wonderful person who I’d like to know better. That’s the impression from everything I see and the instincts back it up too. And I think she’d like me too, if I could stay in the unpredictable Mad Pete mode that would keep her guessing too.

I feel I have to explain that frustration properly.

Outside of the 2 long term relationships, there’s been a number of attempts. I’ve thought I’d been getting on really well with someone and then decide to take that next step of seeing if they’d like to know me better. To ask them out and so on. And I only do that if I think I have a reasonable chance of a yes. But whenever I do that, it feels like a wall of indifference slams down.

It’s a pattern that I’ve seen repeated quite a few times and it’s really damaging to the confidence. I’d be fairly ok with a “Sorry Pete, I’ve got other plans” or them saying they have their eye on someone else. But … I typically just see total silence. If there was communication before, it ceases. Or the effort to communicate just isn’t recognised.

I’ve written about that before with the ladies on Okcupid. I hope it improves. But … what I remember is :

It will only take one very special lady. And then I’ll be happy. It won’t stop me grinning at everything else in sight, that’s who I am. I like to make people smile. But there will be the very special smiles held in reserve for that one person who I know will keep me pointed in the right direction.

Come to think of it, I was quite happy in the shared house until the end when an irritating person found the right buttons to press on me to make me Angry. Ravenwolf gave me the impetus to get out of there and into this house. Perhaps the next special lady will see me escape this house and embark on the narrowboat ?

We shall see !

But I’ll leave things there with a couple of appropriate songs. They’re both Cardigans but I love ’em. The first is apt for that inability to properly connect with someone. It’s called Communication. The second is more hopeful. It’s about singles connecting. It’s Song For The Leftovers. Both are incredible songs that touch your heart.