Dark Alex's Really Long Post Thread.

[Alex]

Well Barri, we spent the day drinking, got arrested when we started a bar fight but got let off with a caution.

We had good fun though.

Only kidding. Its been a few years since I was last in a barroom brawl and I don't intend getting in any more. We started off by heading upto the new Forbidden Planet shop where I got a new card game (Organ Attack!). Then we went down to Solid Rock where we picked up Dave, had a few beers and some food. Whereas normally they have a mix of music, they were just playing solid Trash and loud enough to prevent a normal conversation, so we headed up to Rufus T Firefly's instead where we spent the rest of the afternoon drinking before going down to the gig.

We did debate spending longer in the pub to miss the support act, but we didn't want to end up not getting a space at the front of the gig. Dave did walk out halfway through the support act. Zappa is a very specialised taste and I think every fan of his was at the gig. Unfortunately, that was the eight people on stage and one guy in the audience. Several times I looked around at the crowd and saw a sea of bored indifference with the occasional expression of what the hell is going here? Last time we'd acted as if we'd enjoyed them out of politeness, but since that has only encouraged them we weren't going to make that mistake again. A few people walked out during the gig. Can't fault the musicianship, and they had some blistering guitar solo's, but the music itself just isn't to everyone's tastes. Dave was speaking to the owner of the club and he was saying from the complaints about the support act, the next time Tragedy played, it would be a different support act.

Me and Disco Mountain Man.







One for the ladies.





Dave watching Pygmie Twilight.




Lance, the towel boy.




Anyway, soon enough that aural torture was over and the main event was on. Lance came up and (badly) played the Game of Thrones intro of a violin while wearing a mail coif. They then opened with their cover of Fame and the capacity crowd went wild. Unfortunately, the gig started late and with the last train leaving at 23:00, we did have to leave before the encore, but it was still a great night.

[ER]

Dunno, man, that looks like the kind of place where you could go home and find out your nipple got bitten off.

[Alex]

It is basically a small room underneath a railway bridge n Glasgow called The Audio. You need to walk down what looks like an abandoned alley way to get to it. Holds about 200 people. Gets some good reviews though.


http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g186534-d5449090-Reviews-Audio-Glasgow_Scotland.html

[Alex]

Heading back home tomorrow and taking mum and Elizabeth with us. She's been wanting to come up for a while but she gets tired out easily. The hope is that with us there to carry the luggage it will all be easier. Plus, I am hoping that our more remote location will be less hit with Coronavirus. Given she is still recovering I am concerned for its effects on her.

Ash's second birthday today. Really doesn't feel like it has been two years and yet it is hard to remember a time before he was in our life. He is fighting sleep tonight, which is a double-edged sword for tomorrows travelling. He might sleep on the train, but equally, he might just fight it and be grumpy.

[Alex]

It is a cold and wet morning outside. We are all packed up and just waiting to start the journey. None of us slept well last night though. It was just too hot to be comfortable. Came down with one bag, going back up with four which is all down to Ash's presents. Hoping to get some more written today, but we will have to see how everything works out.

Have a great day everyone. :)

We've been through rain, snow and sunshine so far. Looks a lovely day outside, but the highlands are snow peaked at the moment, which makes them mountains. As I've explained to Kristi, the difference between a hill and a mountain is that a hill is genty rounded, while a mountain will have a craggy outline and have snow on the top. This means, for example, her home in Utah is surrounded by gently rolling hills, rather than mountains. This is a fact she disputes most heartily. Besides, I also measure mountains by their height above the surrounding land, not above sea level.

Passing through Kingussie just now. One day I must look up the etymology of that name. Ash is still refusing to sleep, leaving him very tired, but for the most part he isn't crying. Except when his dad refuses to give him chocolate. He does seem to be something of a chocoholic.

Back home now. My throat is burning, which I am putting down to being around smokers for several days, rather than having picked up any viruses.

On the other hand, it might just give me some time off work...

[chefzombie]

i want to meet dave, he is ADORABLE from this old punk chick's POV.  i'm serious, my sweet butthead, bring him here. he can stay at  my house and i'll take him to see some old style punk.
and feed him american food, lol! 

[Alex]

I will tell Dave. He would love to come live in the States by the way. He loves Pretzels.

[chefzombie]

can i legally send him some dot's pretzels? does he like black pepper? he's welcome here anytime! 

[Alex]

I can't imagine pretzels are prohibited items, although the one Kristi got me possibly contained lethal levels of salt. I would imagine if you speak to Dave he would be more than happy to have you send him pretzels. Funnily enough, he has known me longer than anyone else outside my family and mostly we only ever see each other to go to gigs, which is how we first met.

So yesterday I got a message that the Flight Sergeant wanted to see me. A phone call summons from middle management either means you've done something moderately bad, or incredibly good. Or you've done something incredibly bad and they are lubing you up for someone senior to really roger you. Anyway, I found out my application for a tour in an AFCO has been turned down as they are not willing to release anyone from my trade to do a non-technical role.

Disappointing, but not entirely expected. Many technicians and engineers are just done with the mob and quit. We have no problem recruiting people in, but retaining them has been an increasingly difficult task, especially as they keep giving us more to do with fewer people. The joys of the financial crisis left us busier than we'd even been at any time since the second world war and our numbers were slashed regardless.

Anyway, I'd also been looking into another job on camp. It's a software programming role. Not perhaps the most exciting or glamourous posting out there, but it would give me what I want mostly. There did seem to be plenty of scope for doing other things alongside my main job so that would be a good thing.

Since the section I am looking at moving do is ran from another location I was told I'd need to look at going down there for a visit, meet my management and get some face time with them. I sent an email asking when/if a visit would be possible. That went off around 10ish this morning. By 11, I was trying to sort out transport for a short notice visit on Monday. Managed to get everything in place that needed, and as long as other sections do what is required of them all will be fine.

Ever had to rely on other people doing their job correctly and doing everything they need to do in a timely and correct fashion?

Anyway, I'll spend Sunday travelling down, see the new section for a couple of hours and then be back up the road for midnight if all goes well. Knowing my luck, I'll get down there and the camp will be locked down for Coronavirus or something. If this doesn't work out, my options are severely limited, but I'll deal with that when it comes to it.

I should get Tuesday off since I'll be travelling all day Monday and that counts as being on duty since it is for a work thing.

[chefzombie]

oh yes. i was a catering chef/kitchen coordinator in a convention center, remember? i had it better than you though, i trained the crew leaders myself. and had permission to terrorize them if necessary.
  i'm sorry you didn't get the one job, i hope this one goes better. and you be careful traveling, please!

[Alex]

Day 1 of my isolation.

I have decided to keep a journal of time alone. Everything started when I went to the toilet at work. I was sitting there, looking at my phone when a message popped up from Dave. "You all need to be careful bud. Im very oll and in isolation with possible virus."

Decided since I have been coughing and sneezing all week that reporting this to the med centre would be a good idea and they immediately told me to go home and not come back for a week. If my symptoms get worse I've to call them and otherwise avoid all human contact.

Kind of sucks that its the week my mum came up to visit though.

I had Kristi pick me up a supply of alcohol to last through the week.

I had been finding this week that some people had been standing uncomfortably close to me, and on a couple of occasions, I actually asked them to take a step back. I was wondering if I was having some sort of anxiety episode and am now considering the possibility that I developed a cough etc as a defence mechanism to persuade people to keep their distance.

[Alex]

Day 2 of my isolation.

It is 5 am. I've been up for... oooh a while now. Something curious is happening across the street. My neighbour brought a big suitcase outside and proceeded to dig a hole in the garden. As he dragged the suitcase over the lawn, it burst open revealing what appeared to be lots of women's clothing. He then buried the suitcase.

Curious. I wonder if this is some sort of anti-virus thing.

Having a beer for breakfast. Social norms seem somewhat irrelevant at this present juncture. One of the senior officers on camp contacted me in a panic last night. She had saw that I'd posted that I was in self-isolation, and hadn't seen my name on her list of affected people (I don't normally have senior officers on my FB page, but I know Diane from the theatre club and she is pretty cool). Anyway, told her I'd phoned my details in this morning, and asked her to recheck her list. Hopefully, she found me there. Certainly, she hasn't gotten back in touch.

I've was having some ear-related issues. Loud noises were irritating me and I had occasional mild nausea. I'd say my cold comes along with an ear infection then. Using some ear drops just now in the vague hope that it might help clear that up, but it most likely has just as much chance of messing it up more.

It took until around 22:00 to get Ash to go to sleep last night. He was hyper and happy. I got him to play a round of big hugs with me and my mum. We'll sit on opposite sides of the room, spread our arms wide and say loudly "BIG HUGS!" Ash runs over and gives the person a hug and you make a big fuss over him. The person on the other side of the room then calls out "BIG HUGS!" and he runs over to them. We repeat this until the child is exhausted and ready to sleep.

I was thinking about the Albigensian Crusade and how the Cathar look at the world seems to be much more realistic and accurate than most other religions. The idea that the world is by its nature cruel or indeed evil by design and was created by an evil deity (ironically this was very much born out by their extermination by the christian church (they were a christian sect themselves, but were viewed as heretical, or rather a threat to the power of a centralised church which if truth be told was the real reason behind most, if not all crusades. Power)). If you've ever heard the phrase "Kill them all, let god sort it out", well it originates* from this time period when a city of around 10,000 to 14,000 (although some sources attribute this as being as high as 20,000. However accounts of the time are notorious for boosting such numbers after the fact) was put to the sword in the name of killing a few hundred  "heretics". Anyway, if anyone is curious about Catharism, here is a short extract.

The idea of two gods or deistic principles, one good and the other evil, was central to Cathar beliefs. This was antithetical to the monotheistic Catholic Church, whose fundamental principle was that there was only one God, who created all things visible and invisible. Cathars believed that the good God was the God of the New Testament, creator of the spiritual realm. Whereas the evil God was the God of the Old Testament, creator of the physical world whom many Cathars identified as Satan. Cathars believed human spirits were the sexless spirits of angels trapped in the material realm of the evil god, destined to be reincarnated until they achieved salvation through the consolamentum, when they would return to the good god.

Anyway, regardless of whether or not either side's believes were correct, neither side's god thought the matter important enough to intervene in and save anyone.

Were there an evil god, able to equally challenge a good one and the world we know today a result of the conflict between them, I think things would make much more sense, rather than believing we have a good god who created everything, including disease and parasites. I would imagine, as with many disasters in the past, should the worst fears about CoronaVirus come true than during its height, attendance at religious ceremonies (where they haven't been banned as part of cutting down on public gatherings), will increase and then fall below their prior levels as afterwards survivors wonder (for example it was the slaughter of the first world war that broke the hold that religion had over society in the UK) "Hey if god really is that great then why did he allow this." Although, I'd point out that as the creator he didn't allow it. He caused it.

That's just my take on things though if I believed in him (or her). For my money, it all comes down to evolution, eating a bat and an increasingly interconnected world. Or to put it another way, s**t happens.

Hmm, have I seen an advert for a film for Children of the Candy Corn or am I just imagining that?


* "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius – Kill them all for the Lord knoweth them that are His." There is some debate on whether or not these words were actually spoken, but then again that is common with many such attributed sayings. Certainly, however, the words match the actions of the crusaders as they were quite happy to beat down the doors of churches and kill all of those inside.

[Alex]

So I spent all day watching because it's not like I have anything else to do. I did not see my neighbour's wife leave the house today to go buy a full set of new clothes. Late on though, I did see him go out to his car several times. The first time he brought something out, it was a carpet with which he lined the boot of his car. Next item was wrapped in black bags. It was about the size of a large dog I guess. Then this was followed by four smaller packages, each of which seemed to be long and thin(ish), but were flexible in the middle. The final item was a box. I'd guess it was a foot square, certainly no more than eighteen inches. This he put in the front passenger seat and secured it in place with the seatbelt and then drove off. Then he drove off and didn't return for 97 minutes and 43 seconds.

As I said, I have nothing else to keep me amused right now.

Mum and Elizabeth are heading home tomorrow morning. Part of me wants them to stay, part thinks they should travel before this virus spreads further. Ah, but to have the benefit of hindsight in advance and be able to pick the correct path. Alas, life isn't a choose your own adventure book where you can keep a finger at the last paragraph you read and when it turns out you've made the wrong choice, go back and pick the right one.

[ER]

Have you ever read any of Zoe Oldenbourg's books? She's my absolute favorite Medieval historian and Medieval novelist. Her novels about the Cathars and the Albegensian Crusade truly capture the horror of that event and frame it as what it was, a forgotten Holocaust.

Whatever may be said of the Cathars' outlook, I am not sure their religion was practical enough to survive, just as the Shakers weren't either. Islam is the blueprint to copy if you want a model for a religion built to survive and prosper, and the Cathars' world-loathing outlook likely held the seeds of self-destruction, even had they not fallen to genocide.

Dark chapter in history, that one.

[Alex]

Can't say I've read those ones. I've long felt that the crusades in Europe often exceeded the brutality of those in the Middle East though. One must remember, however, even in the dark times there were still good things happening. People still laughed and loved, even as christianity increased its bloody toll on those who didn't want to submit to its authority.

Would the Cathars have survived without persecution is interesting? They believed in striving against an unfair world. To me, that in itself is a strength, however, they practised both celibacy and pacifism both traits that are not designed for prolonged survival. I think it would have survived, but as a fringe belief and certainly not a dominant one. After all, the majority of people who follow a religion do so because they were brought up in it from an early age, indoctrinating them before they have a chance to choose for themselves. If you don't have any offspring, then you are going to continually rely on bringing in new converts. That I think more or less doomed them (and seriously, who the hell deems that sex is a bad idea?).

Just as a random aside. The whole Adam, Eve and the apple story. Does that strike anyone else as being a bit contrived, like it was put there so they would eat it? If an angel with a flaming sword was put there to guard the Garden of Eden and prevent entry, why not put that angel and its flaming sword in place before someone could bite that apple. Better still, why not put the damn apple tree on top of a mountain, many, many miles away. If you ask me, plonking it down smack down in the middle of things and saying do not touch was designed to cause trouble. I mean, as Ash grows up I am very well aware that as part of human nature if I say to him "Do not go in the forbidden cupboard of mystery" then the first thing he is going to do when we aren't around to see him is damn well go in there. The way humans are, there was no way that this outcome wasn't going to happen.

Not that I believe in the garden of Eden. I mean, I am pretty sure its location would be on GoogleMaps these days and people would have noticed an angelic figure toting a burning scimitar. All those eyes and wings tend to make you stand out from the crowd.