Dark Alex's Really Long Post Thread.

[316zombie]

a wise woman ALWAYS has a plan for anything the future could throw at her.

[Alex]

Shona made a few mistakes tonight. She commented about some other guys life being like an episode of Jeremy Kyle (UK Jerry Springer type show). I laughed internally at that but decided not to say anything. Then me and the FNG (f**king New Guy) were having a Brexit discussion. We were talking about how messed up the UK's position is. She being pro Brexit decided to interject. I pointed out why her particular position wouldn't be great (reverting to WTO rules) for us. She asked if I had voted in the referendum. With a bit of smile I told her no. She asked what right I had to have an opinion and pointed out I'd been on a deployment on the other side of the world at the time. FNG pointed out that this was a pretty damn good reason for not being able to vote. I also explained I'd tried to authorise Kristi to be my proxy vote but it took too long for the UK to get the paperwork out to me.

When I then mentioned I'd transfered my savings into dollars before the referendum being aware the pound was about to crash and she accused me of avoiding tax. Not exactly sure what taxes she thinks I would be dodging there and asked her which ones she thought I was avoiding. I then also mentioned I know the rules on doing this and unless she did trying to argue with me on it wasn't going to go her way.

After that she climbed back into her shell and didn't complain about anything for the next 15 minutes. Perhaps I should do this more often?

Getting some light rain over the past few days. My only problem with this is that I hung some washing up on the line to dry, but a bit of rain is good and I just have to suck it up there and use the drier instead.

[Alex]

So England play there biggest for 20 years tonight. Do they get to go to the World Cup final or will they be singing "England's coming home?".

No idea, although from the media it seems they already have it in the bag. All they have to do it turn up and they've won. Best of luck, but I am told by people who are more into football than me that they've had an easy run compared to the team they'll be playing tonight who have overcame much more difficult opponents, and that England have had a great deal of good luck to get as far as they have. Maybe. Is it better to be good or lucky?

I'll just say may the better team on the night win. No in fact since both my teams in the office sweepstakes went out in the first round screw everyone involved. :p If I am not winning the money from it, then I want all sides to lose. :P Kev has told me this is impossible but I don't care. If a cricket match can go on for 5 days and end in a draw then I don't see why football can't.

I did suggest to Kev that it would be a more interesting game if they crossed two pitches so they were in an 'X' shape and had four teams playing. Oh and allowed pro-wrestling moves. I mean these guys are great at faking injury. They could teach the WWE people a thing or two.

Come back and talk to me when you are playing a real man's game and not being 22 overpaid millionaires chasing a bag of air around some grass. I always preferred something a bit more physical for my sports, rugby when I felt like being in a team, judo when I didn't and running when I just wanted to be completely away from people.

I did have one English friend tell me I should get behind the England team. I don't see why. As I told him I don't get behind my own nation on any of the occasions they've made it through, oh and weren't you the same guy who was slagging off an English formula one driver the other day? Shouldn't you just get behind him?

But then I have never entirely got the concept of supporting a team. I find it especially confusing when people refer to the actions of the team they've been supporting as if they had actually done something (for example "When we the league last year blah blah blah", well you didn't win the league, they did while you sat on your couch watching TV unless you feel in some way your positive vibes tipped the balance in their favour, but I am diverging here). The sports I enjoy when I watch them I appreciate a well balanced contest between two equal opponents. And of course the occasional giant killer when some team thinks they don't need to play at their full potential to beat another and ends up getting hammered. Always fun to see, but I find it hard to be partisan about it generally and root for one team over the other.

Everything seems to have gone wrong on the other side of the office tonight. Nights at work are supposed to be stress free (well to be fair they are for me). Feeling glad that I can sit here and feel the chaos and stress without having to be part of it. I have offered to help. Perhaps this would be a nicer things if I didn't already know that the answer is no (its all to do with a spread sheet they are working on that can't be split up and worked on in separate chunks), but hey it is the thought that counts right?

Besides its keeping a certain person too busy so they can't complain constantly.

Having problems getting Ash to sleep. He seems to have combined his mothers thing about fighting sleep when she is tired with his fathers ability to get by on four hours sleep a day. So much for the sleeping 18 hours a day thing babies are supposed to do. I have ways I can get him to drop off to sleep, but the trouble is he maybe stays that way for half an hour and then he is super wide awake again. Everyone who meets him keeps commenting on how alert he is (oh and that he has inherited my eyelashes. For some reason women have always liked my eyelashes. If he had my dimple his poor mum would have no chance).

[Alex]

A sample conversation.

Person A "I am going to have to take my glasses off, I am starting to get the stabbing pain I get in the back of my eye when I wear them."

Person B (Vaguely concerned) "Are you sure you have the right prescription?"

Person A "I don't actually have a prescription."

Person B (Slightly confused) "Then why are you wearing glasses."

Person A "Specsavers told me I needed them, but when I got my eyes tested by Boots they said they were fine."

Person B (Sighing Heavily Inside) "So why are you wearing the glasses?"

Person A "Well they help me a bit when I am working on a computer screen."

Person C "You need to go back and get a new prescription."

[Alex]

Today is something of a milestone day.

We got a letter from the government confirming that Kristi now has indefinite leave to remain in the UK. No more saving up thousands of pounds to apply for the next visa.

This in itself is fairly momentous (for us as any rate), however it also marks something else. I no longer need to remain in my current employment. I could leave now and she wouldn't have to go back home whereas previously I had to be earning over a certain amount or she'd need to go home.

Mind you with just under 5 years left before I get my pension, it strikes me that it would be silly to leave now but it is damn nice to have that option and not to feel a prisoner of your job.

Originally when me and Kristi got serious the plan was that I would leave the job and move to the states when we got married, but one too many school shooting caused a change in our plans, followed by a cinema getting shot up. I can understand why she didn't want to bring up a child somewhere were going to school could be more dangerous than my job.

Occasionally she does get homesick and mentions she might want to move back there once I am out. I think that very much depends on wither or not trump gets a second term in office or not. Speaking of the Tango Orange one, he is visiting the UK currently. Unusual for a president (or any visiting dignitary for that matter) to land in Aberdeen rather than London but then he isn't someone I would describe as normal. And not in the weird way that I like my friends to be. As much as it pains me to admit it, he does occasionally say or do something I agree with. Pulling up a load of NATO nations on their defence spending I would say is something he is right on.

Besides in the near future governments are going to have to look at funding two entirely new arms of the military. Will be interesting to see which nation is the first to have an independent cyber force (as opposed to having one that is part of another branch of the military as currently tends to be the trend). There are reasons why having these things in separate branches is a good idea. You have people who understand that arena of combat and are specialized in it rather than having someone who may know nothing about a particular type of warfare being put in charge of it.

Hmm, I wonder why the intelligence services aren't viewed as being a separate section of the military? I would argue that it is another specialised area. Still, equally I can understand why governments would want to keep their intel and military services separate. If warfare is just diplomacy by different means then what is spying? I am considering mostly actions against other nations here, but are domestic operations really so much different?

Oh well, that is my random thoughts for today.

[Alex]

Not glanced at the news today. I've been answering a lot of questions from friends in the US about how trump is viewed over here. Lets just say when it comes in insults, my nation can get creative.

For example when he visited Scotland after the Brexit vote...

Not to mention when Roger Waters was playing in Glasgow...

http://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/giant-trump-bawbag-sign-unveiled-14850846

Or this one...



And, of course my favourite...

So why mention this now? Well other than I've been arguing with one of the few trump supporters that I know over wither or not he is a straight talking man who tells it like it is or a big orange, pasty faced gobs**te of the highest order. Oddly enough he is also the guy who was telling me I should support england in the world cup while at the same time he was slagging off Lewis Hamilton. What I find really strange is the guy has a serious medical condition. Under trumps changes to health care he wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting an insurance company to cover him.

American presidents in my life time have been a mixed bag from an international view point. Some have been respected (Obama, Bush Snr and even Bill Clinton to a degree), viewed with mild amusement (Reagan & Bush Jnr) but where trump is different is that he is the first person I've seen who has actually brought the level of respect for the office of president itself down and quite significantly at that. Maybe Nixon had the same kind of reaction but that is a little before my time. Hell, the politician who overrode the local council and allowed him to build his gold course got quite quickly voted out of office and he had been a pretty popular figure before that.

I'd love to see how his visit here is being covered back in the US to compare. I know he is avoiding London. Guess he isn't quite brave enough to face those protests. So much for him wanting a purple heart I guess if he can't even take being unpopular.

American citizens have been advised to remain indoors during his visit in case people hold them responsible for their president. I find that just as disgusting as trumps actions frankly. If you are going to pull the same s**t as his supporters then really what is the difference between you? Luckily Kristi is well known in the area as a friendly soul and I have few fears on her behalf while she remains here. Certainly I know after the Brexit vote and trumps election there was violence south of the border against all manner of foreigners. Kristi ended up having to cancel a trip to see some of my family in the north of England while I was out in the Falklands as a result.

I don't know if the President of the EU's reply to trumps comments have made it over the Atlantic or not, but if they haven't he said (rough translation) "Be nice to your allies trump, you don't have that many any more."

I like to think that refers specifically to trump rather than the whole of the USA. Its a country I've visited a fair view times now and while just like any other country it has its faults and flaws I happen to like it on balance.

Goes to show there, no matter where you go in the world there are a***oles.

What else is happening? Well, today is Friday the 13th. Kristi wanted to watch a F13 movie, so I stuck on the only one she hadn't seen. The 2009 remake. I wonder if in a couple of nights she'll be too terrified to step out into the dark at night? After that she decided we should have a Hammer House Of Horror movie marathon, although next  I am going to go looking for one of the episodes of their TV series that always creeped me out as a kid (The House That Bled To Death I think, but I am watching it to check). Just the music to that show used to give me the shivers. It doesn't quite have the same effect nowadays alas and alack. Damn, the episode I thought it was isn't what I was looking for. Still, I will keep trying.

[316zombie]

the EU president's remark pretty much personifies what i've been telling  the RWNJers for quite some time now. trump is an isolationist, and he is rapidly destroying any good will this country had from other countries, and alienating our allies while sucking up to dictators.
   not to mention rolling back environmental protections that WERE putting a stop to a huge amount of pollution here, all for the love of money. he is an evil man, and i am shocked at the amount of people i no longer feel are sane, intelligent compassionate human beings. THEY are people who have kids and grandkids who will be the ones to deal with living a filthy polluted hellhole that will be WORSE than a 3rd world country in less than 50 years. but THEY also want money now, and screw the future of the next generations.it's terrifying.

[RCMerchant]

Alex- Trump does NOT represent America- he was elected by hook and crook.
With the help of TV addicted morons and hillbilly idiots- which we have an abundance here. 

[Alex]

I understand that mate. Believe me I know a lot of good people from the USA who want nothing to do with him. And I know he didn't even manage to win the popular vote. Me and Kristi actually landed in the US on election day. When I woke up in the morning and it was confirmed he had won I felt physically sick.

[316zombie]

i WAS physically sick, literally threw up from fear.

[Allhallowsday]

I understand that mate. Believe me I know a lot of good people from the USA who want nothing to do with him. And I know he didn't even manage to win the popular vote. Me and Kristi actually landed in the US on election day. When I woke up in the morning and it was confirmed he had one I felt physically sick.

Oh Cool.  I knew you were in Scotland.  My family's Irish, both sides, all the way back.  But we're American born and bred.  The impression I have is that the resident of the United States is not well liked there.  

Many Americans - maybe all - felt physically ill.  Political leaning has never been a deal breaker for me; I'm not political.  It's a much needed lesson to America.  I believe Donald Trump has served the American people a great service.  

[Alex]

Sometimes people like him make me feel that democracy is too precious a thing to be put in the trust of the people.

[RCMerchant]

Sometimes people like him make me feel that democracy is too precious a thing to be put in the trust of the people.

The People didn't elect him. MONEY elected him.
People who sat at home (like me) who thought "It can never happen here" elected him.
You can bet your ass I'm gonna vote from now on.

[316zombie]

so is my husband, for the first time in his 64 years. starting at the local level on the 17th. i'm very proud of him.

[Alex]

I understand that mate. Believe me I know a lot of good people from the USA who want nothing to do with him. And I know he didn't even manage to win the popular vote. Me and Kristi actually landed in the US on election day. When I woke up in the morning and it was confirmed he had one I felt physically sick.

Oh Cool.  I knew you were in Scotland.  My family's Irish, both sides, all the way back.  But we're American born and bred.  The impression I have is that the resident of the United States is not well liked there.  

Many Americans - maybe all - felt physically ill.  Political leaning has never been a deal breaker for me; I'm not political.  It's a much needed lesson to America.  I believe Donald Trump has served the American people a great service.  

I hope that he doesn't do anything truly stupid during his time in office and people realise the consequences of their vote.