Alex's even longer post thread.

[Alex]

As per usual Kristi decided not to listen to me about waiting until a cat is a year old before having it neutered (or preferably, not get an unnecessary operation done at all).

So anyway, she took him out to the vets while I was sleeping off finishing a night shift. She woke me up sometime around half ten in the morning to tell me that Nergal hadn't recovered from the anesthetics and had died. She told me she blames herself and although I haven't said this to her, well I agree. I have said multiple times not to do it.

I am not going to say anything to make her feel worse, but I am not in the mood to comfort her about it either.

[Alex]

Kristi's birthday today. I'd given her most of her presents already   so I had to buy some extra ones. She'd been complaining that she couldn't really leave the dioramas I make for her for the festive season every year up all year round so I decided to make her one that she could. Since she is a huge Disney fan I figured I'd try to make my equivalent of a Jim Shore ornament and do a scene from Disney's version of Aladdin (cartoon one).



Finding all the figures was mostly easier than I thought with the exception of Iago. I've been searching for weeks for a suitable figure, but only got one last week and even then it didn't arrive until today while I was at work, so I'd to very quickly paint the parrot up when I got home.



The base has warped a bit (not unexpected). I am going to mount it on a wooden plinth to fix that.



I wonder what Disney film (or maybe Harry Potter or Star Trek since she is also into them)

[Alex]

I was watching some stuff about the RAF strikes in Yeman this morning. I was almost late for work because of it. Looked at the clock at it was a few minutes past my normal leave the house time. I wonder if this is enough to count as my 6th war while I've been in uniform. Still at least I no longer have to worry about being sent off to the middle of nowhere. Just before I joined this website I finished 5 years on the NATO rapid deployment brigade always with a bag of kit ready to go at a few hours notice. Then again the more I worked on things like that the less I felt like the people I was working on behalf of deserved my efforts. Anyway, our targets were swearing they'd get their revenge. What did they think would happen when they started attacking international shipping?

Wasps getting stung really, but by much bigger wasps.

Chilly day today, but not cold enough for ice or snow. Its coming though. If we get through next week without it, I'll be very surprised.

Maybe it is just me being a grumpy old man today but people coming to the front desk seem to be pretty rude today and I've been responding in kind. When I was in the RAF I felt that you had to be nice to higher ranks even if they didn't deserve it, but since I put in PVR I really haven't felt that anymore.

[Alex]

Today was supposed to be a day off, then it was a training day where we'd to travel all the way to Fort George and do some shooting. We got half way there and the lead vehicle pulled over to tell us because of poor visibility the days shooting was called off.

Now it is a day off again.  This is good, but I'd have preferred it if I hadn't had to get up at 5 to get ready for it. Seriously, my bed was so warm and comfortable this morning (plus we'd just had sex. I'd have liked some cuddle time instead of finishing and then having to jump out of bed and get dressed). I did manage to snaffle a load of the packed lunched that had been prepared for the group and brought them home. 2/3rds of what I grabbed was tuna salad baguettes, and I really don't care for tuna but Kristi can have them. There was a solitary chicken one in amongst the bunch so I'll have that, the chocolate biscuits and call that good. I did also remind people not to go home with the magazines we'd been issued, so hey I feel like I done my bit.

Decided to spent the rest of the day sitting in my underwear, watching action movies.

[Alex]

The storm they've been predicting for the past few days is hitting right now. We currently have a tornado warning in place, which is something I don't think I've seen for over 30 years. Watching the lampposts and barriers outside shake, rattle and roll. Bridges have been closed, all trains are cancelled tomorrow.

Glad I am not driving home. There are going to be trees blown down tonight.

[ER]

The storm they've been predicting for the past few days is hitting right now. We currently have a tornado warning in place, which is something I don't think I've seen for over 30 years. Watching the lampposts and barriers outside shake, rattle and roll. Bridges have been closed, all trains are cancelled tomorrow.

Glad I am not driving home. There are going to be trees blown down tonight.

Hope everyone's OK. Tornadoes suck. They also blow.

[Alex]

I've not looked at the news to see how the rest of the region has done, but we escaped any damage or injuries. There were some trees blown down on the street on the road home.

My local brewery is closing down. Apparently people no longer have the spare money to spend on craft beers and on very short noticer they are closing down. Shame. They do a chilli infused one that I am particularly fond of.

Storm warnings have been extended through to Thursday as extra weather fronts are coming down. The lights were flickering a little earlier, so before I left I got Kristi to dig out my torch just in case there is a power cut. Not expecting one, our powerlines are underground and tend to be a lot more reliable that most other areas around here, but there is nothing wrong with a little bit of preparation just in case.

It is a slow night tonight. I looked at the clock hoping it'd be somewhere around 3 or 4 am. It wasn't even 22:00. I'll never understand people who make more money than they'll ever need and then keep working. Me, if I'd made a few million I'd have quit and just enjoyed my life unless I was doing something I loved, like being a successful author. I guess my pyramid of needs isn't a huge one.

Made it to almost 4am now. Still going very slowly. I might make some food just for something to do. Got a chicken curry pie in the fridge.

[Alex]

Had my second hospital appointment today. Again it was nothing to worry about. Apparently if you have a long tongue like mine you are more prone to getting the equivalent of a skin tag on them and it is harmless unless it is big enough to get accidently bitten or something. I'll cut it out myself when I am off shift.

Increasingly I am just not bothering with the news. You rarely get more than a surface skim of the relevant facts at best, and just outright rubbish at worst. The opinions of amateurs like journalists and academics can be interesting, but they are rarely right and even when they are it tends to be for the wrong reasons. Academic bias is more powerful than they care to admit, much like scientific bias and it goes largely unrecognised for the same reason. No wonder it is so hard to combat all the pseudo-scientific bulls**t that gets peddled.

[Alex]

Finished watching Star Trek: Voyager. The final episode had the air of something that had been canceled at short notice, then quickly thrown together to finish the story. It also seems as the series went on, they forgot that the ship only had a limited supply of torpedos. Those things were hoarded at the start, but by the end, they were firing them off every week. Maybe the problem was solved in some part that I missed. *shrug* Going through Enterprise now, a show in which as far as I can tell so far they decided that Vulcans would all be the biggest a***oles in space.

One of my D&D players made the mistake of slagging off another player for not knowing the rules. Sometimes that is a fair criticism. Sometimes the person in question is going through such a tough time that I have genuinely spent the past two weeks worrying they were going to kill themselves. He got told in no uncertain terms to back off and leave her alone.

[Alex]

Monday morning... Urgh. I hope I am in the CCTV suite first thing rather than on the from desk first thing. There are always so damn many people needing new passes for the week. No one ever pops in on a Friday afternoon to renew them in advance (can't really blame them there though. If it was me on a Friday I'd be off straight home too when I finish).

Continuing with Enterprise. Wow, Archer is no James Kirk. He seems to specialise in getting his ass kicked by every alien he encounters. Although I am finding the show ok, I can see why it did not get as long as run as the other ones that had came before it.

Watched the trailer for Alien: Romulus this morning. Put me in mind of Pitch Black. It has lost the clean and shiny astatic of Covenant (indeed I believe it ignores everything that was made after Aliens in terms of lore and is set between the first and second film). I have to say, this is the most interested I've felt in any of the series movies since I heard Aliens was on the way. Alien 3 I heard too much about the problems making it before it came out to really have any high hopes. Alien 4 I just wanted something that didn't totally suck (which ok I got, but the visuals on that one felt off. The tech seemed to go a bit steampunk which wasn't unexpected with that director). Aliens Vs Predator managed to meet my base expectations of being watchable and enjoyable but not something that took full advantage of the possibilities, AvP 2 was just s**t. For Covenant, well I already felt that Scott was long past his prime and I set my sights accordingly, but it failed to meet them and Prometheus just continued that trend. For this, I am not expected a well crafted haunted house in space that is incredibly influential on movies for decades like the first one, but I am hopeful that it will come close. If it is better than expected then woohoo.

[Alex]

Over the past few months I've been working on assorted figures from various fandoms. These are still works in progress, but does anyone recognise the sources?

[Alex]

I was just thinking there. The less I have worked directly on aircraft the more I've had to do with them doing anything important. Hell for the last 3 years of my RAF career there wasn't a deployment of aircraft from the base that I didn't have something to do with and if we hadn't done our job the aircraft simply wouldn't have been able to go.

Did any of it matter in the end though? There are no less wars now than when I started my career. The world is in a more precarious position. Anyone who ever said that they went to war so there children wouldn't have to really didn't have any clue about how people work.

If only we could find a way to harness the energy and effort involved in war and put it to some purely productive usage.

Last day on shift then a nice long weekend to chill out with and relax. Looking forward to it. I really didn't feel like I was off last shift break at all. Very pinkish sky this morning. We are supposed to be having a warm February which concerns me. Previously a hot Feb has meant we've had a terrible summer. About 15 or so years ago we had a run of 3 years where it seemed to be the hottest month of the year. Odd time to have summer to say the least.

[ER]

I was just thinking there. The less I have worked directly on aircraft the more I've had to do with them doing anything important. Hell for the last 3 years of my RAF career there wasn't a deployment of aircraft from the base that I didn't have something to do with and if we hadn't done our job the aircraft simply wouldn't have been able to go.

Did any of it matter in the end though? There are no less wars now than when I started my career. The world is in a more precarious position. Anyone who ever said that they went to war so there children wouldn't have to really didn't have any clue about how people work.

If only we could find a way to harness the energy and effort involved in war and put it to some purely productive usage.

Last day on shift then a nice long weekend to chill out with and relax. Looking forward to it. I really didn't feel like I was off last shift break at all. Very pinkish sky this morning. We are supposed to be having a warm February which concerns me. Previously a hot Feb has meant we've had a terrible summer. About 15 or so years ago we had a run of 3 years where it seemed to be the hottest month of the year. Odd time to have summer to say the least.

Ever notice all this climate change stuff coincides with weather deities no longer being offered sacrificial virgins? I'm just hinting, scientific method here, might be worth an experiment or two....

[Alex]

I was just thinking there. The less I have worked directly on aircraft the more I've had to do with them doing anything important. Hell for the last 3 years of my RAF career there wasn't a deployment of aircraft from the base that I didn't have something to do with and if we hadn't done our job the aircraft simply wouldn't have been able to go.

Did any of it matter in the end though? There are no less wars now than when I started my career. The world is in a more precarious position. Anyone who ever said that they went to war so there children wouldn't have to really didn't have any clue about how people work.

If only we could find a way to harness the energy and effort involved in war and put it to some purely productive usage.

Last day on shift then a nice long weekend to chill out with and relax. Looking forward to it. I really didn't feel like I was off last shift break at all. Very pinkish sky this morning. We are supposed to be having a warm February which concerns me. Previously a hot Feb has meant we've had a terrible summer. About 15 or so years ago we had a run of 3 years where it seemed to be the hottest month of the year. Odd time to have summer to say the least.

Ever notice all this climate change stuff coincides with weather deities no longer being offered sacrificial virgins? I'm just hinting, scientific method here, might be worth an experiment or two....

I think if we started sacrificing virgins then we'd have more young people born.

[ER]

I was just thinking there. The less I have worked directly on aircraft the more I've had to do with them doing anything important. Hell for the last 3 years of my RAF career there wasn't a deployment of aircraft from the base that I didn't have something to do with and if we hadn't done our job the aircraft simply wouldn't have been able to go.

Did any of it matter in the end though? There are no less wars now than when I started my career. The world is in a more precarious position. Anyone who ever said that they went to war so there children wouldn't have to really didn't have any clue about how people work.

If only we could find a way to harness the energy and effort involved in war and put it to some purely productive usage.

Last day on shift then a nice long weekend to chill out with and relax. Looking forward to it. I really didn't feel like I was off last shift break at all. Very pinkish sky this morning. We are supposed to be having a warm February which concerns me. Previously a hot Feb has meant we've had a terrible summer. About 15 or so years ago we had a run of 3 years where it seemed to be the hottest month of the year. Odd time to have summer to say the least.

Ever notice all this climate change stuff coincides with weather deities no longer being offered sacrificial virgins? I'm just hinting, scientific method here, might be worth an experiment or two....

I think if we started sacrificing virgins then we'd have more young people born.

Especially if we sacrificed the occasional virgin to the fertility gods!