Alex's even longer post thread.

[Alex]

Hurrah for going on leave tomorrow! Of course, if I wasn't I could have ceased working (but still getting paid) 5 days earlier. Going to see Weird Al performing live seemed worth doing those extra few days though.

That is about as close to going to see a comedian as I am likely to get. I find a lot of them are better on TV than live. The opposite of music I guess.

Gave out discs to fix a problem with some discs we'd been sent on Monday. These discs it seems also have a problem and a new version will have to be delivered tomorrow. On the plus side, I won't be here tomorrow. Or next Monday. 

In last night's D&D we had our wizard pick up a load of scrolls so he was happy. I got a magic ring that will stop the paladin from detecting that I am evil, so I was happy. The paladin got petrified by a Gorgon. If he was unhappy he wasn't saying, but I did draw a smiling face on him so he at least looked happy. The wizard wouldn't let me break him up into pieces and sell him off for a rockery and insisted on curing him.

Shame really.

[Alex]

Defeated both the Teutonic Knights and the Mongol Empire tonight. How many people in the world can say that I wonder? I felt the need to go crush some empires tonight after Ash managed to smash a present I'd bought to give Kristi tomorrow for our anniversary. Luckily I have backup gifts.

Bought myself Ozzy's new album on vinyl today. Still digesting his decision to retire from touring. We bought those tickets four years ago and they were not cheap. Yeah, they've refunded them but for over 4 years they've had that money and the interest it has been earning. When you can't get a refund until the new dates are announced, and then they don't announce new dates, you are kind of stuck until the whole thing is called off.

[Alex]

I had a rather good long weekend. The journey south was fairly uneventful. We were travelling late enough to avoid the early morning rush, but early enough to still be up and about before most casual travellers. On Saturday we went out, took Ash to a fun park and let him play and spend time with his gran. Picked up Ozzy's new album on vinyl, not without some trepidation as his previous release was, to put it mildly, dire.

Sunday we spent the day in Glasgow. I took Kristi to the Transport Museum in Glasgow, something I'd wanted to do for many years. This isn't because she, or I for that matter have any particular interest in the boats, planes and trains they have in their, but more because when they renovated it some years back, they painted much of the inside a light green colour that reflects off anything white and makes it also appear green. Kristi had wanted to paint the kitchen green when we first moved in, and I wanted to show her it so she'd see the potential problem. It has only taken me nearly 10 years to actually do this, and since we'll be moving out in a few months and would have to return everything to its original colour are hardly likely to redecorate it now but hey I've done it.

Of course, with his current train obsession, I am going to have to take Ash to the museum.

If anyone out there does have a thing for mechanical transport, I'll put the photo's I took up. The reason for all the fire engine photos is because we have an American friend with an obsession. The large black steam train might be of some interest to Trevor. It was built in Glasgow and exported to South Africa, where it pulled carriages for over 40 years and was then returned to Glasgow on its retirement. It is also hoofing massive.

Fire engine stuff.






Ken really loves his fire engines.
















I mean he really loves them.




Don't jump Percy! Thomas will save you.






This is the one that went to South Africa (there are more of it further down as well).
























Kristi took this one with me in it for scale. We couldn't get in a position to show the whole train though.
















I wish I'd taken some of the various trams, but hey, I'll be back there soonish.

Then we did some shopping, had our meals and some drinks before heading off to the concert. Emo Phillips (who I hadn't seen or heard of since I guess the late 80s?), was pretty damn funny. Weird Al did not look like a man in his 60s, although his band did. The only slight downer to the night was that we'd to leave slightly before the end in order to get the last train home. Ah, how time seems to have just become an enemy these days. Never enough of it to fit everything in.



He plays a mean accordion.

[Alex]

Forgot to mention that as we were travelling home on Sunday, Kristi got an email that confirmed her citizenship application had been accepted and approved. She just has to take the oath of loyalty (which I jokingly pointed out means she can't celebrate July 4th anymore). Anyway, she has that booked for next week.

I went to a brief today all about the financial aspects of leaving the forces. It was a lot of listening for a few nuggets of relevant information. They spend half an hour discussing people that were due to get the pension launched in 2005, which takes 20 years to get the full thing. I couldn't help but notice that no one in the room could possibly be getting a full 05 pension. They later replaced that one in 2015 anyway (much to my chagrin, f**k* you David Cameron. f**k you very much).





*For ER, hey I swore.

[ER]

I'm so proud of you!

[Alex]

As of tomorrow, I am down to 21 days in uniform. Still getting pestered by the resettlement team asking about what my plan is. Still not got one beyond "Find a new house, find a job." Well, ok maybe a little bit more than that. I want to get job somewhere in the civil service and then work on getting a second government pension. If I worked another 8 years, that qualifies me for a full state pension. Add in a civil service and my work pension and that isn't a bad income to retire on.

I think we've discussed the Cocaine Bear movie on the forum somewhere, but if anyone wants to play the free game, check it out at https://www.cocainebear.movie/game/ Enjoy.

[Alex]

Ever wondered (or even been in a situation) where someone long lost in the mists of your past suddenly turns up out of nowhere needing help? Would you tell them that this is no longer your life, no debts are owed on either side and whatever bonds there may have been were long since cast aside, or do you tell them sure, I can dance with the dead boys at least one more time? Could you look past the betrayals and just think on what had gone before, everything since then just being water under the bridge?

Very windy day today. The official term is Storm Otto, but it was mostly blowing overnight with just gusts this morning. Had to go out and rescue the bins that had been blown all over the garden. If I'd had my work laptop at home I'd have suggested we all just work from home today. As it was Mark made the offer of going home which I didn't care to argue against.

20 days in uniform.

I see Disney+ is raising it prices by almost 40% in the US. I wonder if they will follow suit in the rest of the world? They are going to "sit out the arms race for subscribers" apparently. I think there are too many steaming services and they can't all survive. Between its own stuff and what they've picked up from the other companies they've bought, I'd be surprised if Disney didn't have the biggest selection of

[Alex]

I've been taking my laptop into work recently and just playing whatever music takes my fancy. At the moment it is my more gothic-influenced songs. I won't say it is full-on goth, because well I never could get that into Bauhaus.

Funny to think I get paid for this.

Skimming the details of Putin's speech. Lots of total bull, light on substance. I think the half-hour of it I've listened to has given me enough of what the flavour of the rest will be.

19 more days to go in uniform. Freedom is calling. Since Kristi has got her UK citizenship approved, we are just waiting on Ash's passport arriving then we can put down concrete holiday plans, and actually do things like book flights, arrange accommodation and whatnot. Booking my appointment to hand in all my uniform and get signed off all the computer systems (if I were to write all my logins and passwords for the different systems down, it would cover two pages. Often I find the problem isn't remembering my passwords, it is which login I use for what system).

My boss just mistook a photo of a bald man standing in front of a black background for a woman with long hair. Good job he is married and doesn't need to chat up women any more.

I seem to have become Ash's favourite person in the whole world recently. Getting lots of hugs and he regularly wants to play together. It is all chases and tickles. I've been trying to get him to engage more with his trains and ride his bike, but for the first, he just wants to play by himself and for the second he just wants to peddle backwards. Going to see if I can build him a huge track with all his Hotwheels stuff on Friday night, and give him a surprise when he wakes up.

[Trevor]

I think we've discussed the Cocaine Bear movie on the forum somewhere, but if anyone wants to play the free game, check it out at https://www.cocainebear.movie/game/ Enjoy.

I have never eaten an ambulance in a game before 

[Alex]

I think we've discussed the Cocaine Bear movie on the forum somewhere, but if anyone wants to play the free game, check it out at https://www.cocainebear.movie/game/ Enjoy.

I have never eaten an ambulance in a game before 

Lol, hope you enjoyed it.

[Alex]

Working on a short adventure that is a bit of a mix of Alien, Forbidden Planet and a few other sci-fi horror films as well as a podcast. Currently, I am trying to recreate old-style black and green computer monitors.





This one, I am having some problems getting it to appear legibly.



Might have to break it down into shorter sections, but I'd really like to have it all on the one handout.

Anyway, I am hoping to give the whole thing, something of a B-movie feel.

[ER]

I've been taking my laptop into work recently and just playing whatever music takes my fancy. At the moment it is my more gothic-influenced songs. I won't say it is full-on goth, because well I never could get that into Bauhaus.

See if you like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnqq_TPn1ec

[Alex]

I may use that for background music in my horror games, cheers.

[Alex]

Thump... thump... thump... thump... thump...

For a week now, a pile driver has been constantly in operation at work. I really feel for the protagonist of 'The Tell-Tale Heart' in a way I never quite had before. Especially as the vibrations are running through the ground at coming up from there.

Thump... thump... thump... thump... thump...

My second last monthly map week this week. The next time I do this it will be my final week in uniform. Thanks to a random conversation, my work is now trying to sort out a chance for me to go fly a Typhoon. Hopefully in one of the two-seaters, rather than the single-seat version. I reckon I could get one of them airborne no problem (hell, if flying were difficult technicians would do it instead of pilots). Not sure about the landing part though. I suspect when it came time to touch down, I'd ramp the engines up to full, send it in a direction that is going to take it over the sea and pull the ejection cord.

Hey, any landing you can walk away from is a good one right? They never said anything about the plane afterwards. 

I don't think it will happen given the ops tempo at the moment and the fairly short timespan remaining, but I guess its nice that they'd go to the effort to try and sort it out.

Thump... thump... thump... thump... thump...

Sometimes the thumping stops. But it is a trap. They start it up again after a few minutes.

Thump... thump... thump... thump... thump...

It is like a techno-rave, but without the mindless dancing and drugs that make the dancing tolerable.

Teenage me always thought dancing at a rave was what it would look like if you drenched a load of barefooted people with water and then passed an electric current through the floor.

I'd find out some years later, it wasn't far off. That is another story though.

Thump... thump... thump... thump... thump...

[Alex]

The beat goes on.

Thump... thump... thump... thump... thump...

*sigh* My management down south are trying to arrange to come up for a visit before I leave to mark the occasion. The conversation we had earlier kind of sums up my feelings on this:

"So are they going to visit before I leave?"
"Looks like it. The flight sergeant certainly is, Craig is trying to make it and a few others."
"Damn, I was hoping they wouldn't be able to."
"You've done 22 years. They need to do something."
"No, they don't."
"No, you don't want them to, but we are going to anyway."

I just don't feel that sentimental about it. For 22 years we've had a transactional relationship where they've paid me money in return for my skills. That is ultimately all it ever was. I don't get the whole need for this to be made something other than what it really was. I've got what I wanted out of the arrangement, and I dare say a bit more. Hell, I honestly think I got more out the job than it got out of me. I feel like I've won and I beat the system. What more do I need than that (and my immediate pension of course, which was the reason I joined up). There is only three years in my entire career where I wasn't doing the job I wanted to be doing. Most people are lucky if they get three years of doing one post that they want, whereas for me, 6 out of 8 of my postings have been ones I've specifically wanted. Mind you, most people aren't quite as proactive as I am and don't put the same effort into steering their career path as I have.

Had a small argument with Mark yesterday about ethics and morals. I said when you join up, you more or less leave your conscience at the door. He said well if you were given an illegal order, would you obey it. I replied no, but that isn't because it is immoral. I wouldn't obey it because I don't want to go to military prison. I remember once being on an exercise. There were a couple of lads playing the roles of terrorists. They would attack us at various times and developed a set pattern. They'd attack the north gate to the camp, then about 20 minutes later hit the southern gate. I was guarding the southern gate when I heard gunfire, so I got into some nearby bushes, hid myself and waited. Sure enough, they came sauntering down the road towards me, weapons held casually. They couldn't see me, but they sure as hell heard the click of me putting a round in the chamber. I had them in my sights, at about 200 meters range as they walked across an open field, with a full magazine and they had no idea where I was. Didn't take them long to surrender. Anyway, afterwards, they were telling us about how if it had been a real war situation, they'd have killed us all easily. I said if it had been a real war, I'd have shot them when I had them dead bang in my sights. One of them puffed himself up and said "No you wouldn't, that'd be a war crime and you'd get arrested." My reply was that maybe I'd be convicted, maybe I'd get away with it, but either way, I'd be alive and they'd be dead and that was a situation I could live with.