Alex's even longer post thread.

[Trevor]

In other news, Kristi and Ash both have covid. It is going to be a "fun" week.

I hope they will both be OK.

[Alex]

In other news, Kristi and Ash both have covid. It is going to be a "fun" week.

I hope they will both be OK.

I am sure they will be. It wouldn't surprise me if the reason I was feeling so drained all week is that I had it, although when I did a test this morning I came up clear.

[Alex]

Earlier on, about 15:00 or maybe 15:30, Ash just decided to go put himself in our bed and go for a sleep. This is a terrible idea since if he naps after 12, he just doesn't sleep at all that night. He is through his room at the moment and has stopped arguing with me about being sent to bed where I am hoping if nothing else, he will fall asleep out of boredom.

If not, then a very tired me and Kristi will both be sitting up tonight. I guess we can watch the NJPW vs AEW PPV tonight. If either side actually has any uninjured wrestlers left to face each other.

This is just AEW injuries:
Kenny Omega
CM Punk
Bryan Danielson
Jungle Boy
Scorpio Sky
Adam Cole (working hurt)
Kyle O'Reilly
Bobby Fish
Anthony Bowens
Lee Johnson
Darius Martin
Kip Sabian
Leyla Hirsch
Red Velvet
Skye Blue
The Bunny
Luther
Buddy Matthews (can still wrestle)

Jeff Hardy is also out with his whole DUI charge thing, or in rehab.

I have things I need to do, but just no energy to do it with. Still, I am feeling better than I was earlier on in the week. I bet I feel well enough in the bloody morning to go to work.

[Alex]

One of the roleplaying groups I am in, has suddenly started a thread for people in the US where anyone living in a state where D&D is not allowed, offering help and support with travel costs, places to stay and what not for people really needing to play as well as offering equipment to help out.

It is like they are talking in code for doing something else entirely different.

Normally when I see people chatting that way it is because they are living under some oppressive government.

I woke up this morning feeling like crap. Decided to take the day off work and contacted the med centre. They've given me two days off. The trouble is right now I am feeling perfectly fine. Oh well, two free days off. I guess I can deal with that somehow.

Time to catch up on The Boys.

[Alex]

The opening scene in The Boys is... uhm, interesting I guess.

The Scottish government is going to announce a second independence referendum and the legality behind it taking place. I'll be interested to see how they are going to go about it. My understanding is that they can hold the vote if they want, the result just wouldn't be legally binding. So much for the giant bald heid (Savid Javid), telling us he'd never give us permission to hold one.

Having a slight struggle to get my full allocation of oxygen when I am breathing. Well, struggle is maybe too strong a word. It is like wearing a respirator where you only get something like 80% of your normal intake. I am not doing anything that would cause enough of an exertion for this to be a problem though.

Ash is recovering nicely. His spots are clearing up. Kristi is going through the tiredness phase that I had earlier on in the week. We rarely get the same virus symptoms at the same time. Normally one of us can function enough to get things done.

[Alex]

Coughing up lots of balls of phlegm at the moment. I guess it is all the stuff in my lungs breaking up and getting ejected, so I'll take that as a good thing.

Couldn't speak this morning until I managed to clear out my throat.

Ash was in a special kind of upset mood this morning before nursery, with lots of constant crying and screaming. I sat with him and explained (in my dad voice) that it was not an acceptable level of behaviour and he was to get ready to go out. I got him calmed down a little, but still not back to his normal self. Shame he can't yet tell us what is wrong.

Sometimes I'll rewatch a film I previously dismissed as terrible. Right now I am watching Van Helsing. I last saw it as part of a midnight showing, with my little brother, a cousin and a friend from work. None of us were impressed with it. Thinking that it is still bad, but not as awful as it seemed on my first viewing where Dracula and Igor's scenery-chewing performance really kept me from getting into the movie. I keep thinking I should give the female-led Ghostbusters another shot, but then a little voice pipes up from inside saying "No man, that one was f**king awful." Funny how any time we go to a special showing of a movie of any kind, if we haven't seen it before, it turns out to be drivel (Batman & Robin, Judge Dredd (Stallone version), Van Helsing and Prometheus).

Promised Kristi I'd pick Ash up today. It is slightly breaking the rules as I am only supposed to leave the house while SIQ for food or medicine, but I figure it is worth it. Monday is a big day for me in work anyway. Sunday will mark 21 years in the military and the day I can finally enter my year's notice to quit. Will I do it, or will I decide that with all the price rises and inflation going on right now that now is not the time to leave? The trouble is, is that there is never a good time to leave. Before everything happening just now, it was Covid that said stay in, before that Brexit, before that the bank crash and so on. At some point, as with any job, there comes a time when your employer decides he no longer requires your services. Yeah, I could hang on in there for another two years beyond 22, but there is no guarantee that at some point they wouldn't just say "Thanks for your service, but tatty-bye." At least this way I get to choose my exit.

I really should get trousers on. Managed underwear and a jumper, oh and my slippers, but the energy for anything else is just lacking right now.

With Hayden Christensen seemingly being welcomed on his return to the Star Wars franchise, I wonder if there is room for a return from the arguably more vilified Jar Jar Binks?

Nope, f**k that guy. I feel sorry for the actor involved and I understand he had mental health issues from the fans reactions to the character, but damn what the hell were they thinking?

[Trevor]

I keep thinking I should give the female-led Ghostbusters another shot, but then a little voice pipes up from inside saying "No man, that one was f**king awful."

For my sins, I watched ten minutes of that piece of cinematic poo: I'm amazed I got that far. 

I really should get trousers on. Managed underwear and a jumper, oh and my slippers, but the energy for anything else is just lacking right now.

Now that I bought new underwear last week (??) I manage them quite well 

[Alex]

If there is anything in this universe approximating any kind of benevolent creator deity, then surely there is nothing that can damage our relationship more with the divine than organised religion.

The number of times I hear one side saying "Our religion is one of peace" and anyone who uses violence "Isn't a true (insert name of religion)". What an easy cop-out to avoid taking responsibility. I bet it gives people who use those kinds of phrases a nice warm feeling inside to think that way. Maybe if instead, they thought things like "What is wrong with my religion that it can be used to justify s**t like this?" or even better "What can I do to stop people who think this is my faith and educate them better" then it might actually contribute to making the world a better place.

But living in denial is so much easier. Why admit your own culpability when you can just look across the road and blame someone there instead and just go on about their faults. You can always back it up with things like "Well at this point in history X person said Y thing", conveniently ignoring that someone else has decided something contrary since or before not to mention that what someone decided at whatever time does not define your religion. It is the actions of those that follow it. Whether or not you think that they are real followers of your faith or not really doesn't matter. I bet while you were claiming otherwise you were also decrying other faiths for the same thought.

If there was a god worth following, I am pretty sure he'd have done something concrete about this by now.

Maybe he/she/it just trots out the same kind of sloppy shoulder responses their followers do. "Not my fault. I gave them a book that told them how to do things" and just avoid taking responsibility too.

Perhaps that is why we have devils. "Well, I am supposed to be perfect, so I can't admit that I f**ked up. Hey, let's just blame this guy for everything bad and I can get the credit for all the good stuff!"

I wonder if there is a single believer in the world who hasn't tried at least one of those justifications above?


After over a decade of thinking about it and years of talking about it, tomorrow is the big day when I either put in my notice to quit the RAF or bite the bullet and hang on in there for another two years. Finally, it has all come down to this. I did submit my PVR once before and got talked out of it but this time I have the prize I joined up for now. The job has nothing more to offer me. My pension payments won't get any bigger if I stay longer, and since I don't start getting paid it until I leave I am losing that money. Every day I remain in uniform beyond 22 years is money I don't get paid. The only thing that would persuade me to stay would be a major war breaking out. Not that I am enough of a patriot to need to do my bit. I've already done that, but I wouldn't abandon the people I've worked with. In that case, though I'd be sending Kristi and Ash to live somewhere a lot safer though for the duration.

I must admit to some butterflies when I think about it.

On Friday night, my group finally got access to the item I said I wouldn't allow in my game because it tended to destroy campaigns. They b***hed and whined about it for long enough that I decided you know what, the only way they are going to learn is by experience. The first guy who used the item (a Deck of Many Things), got a free castle, the ability to ask for information on any one subject and get a true answer and some other stuff. He is newish to the game and the least experienced player. Seeing him get nothing bad the more veteran players decided they would have a go too as their greed made them forget that the more good cards that get drawn out of the deck means the less good ones are left and the chances of getting a bad one increase. The second player found he gained 2 points to a stat, which is good. He then lost 10,000 experience points (which I would say is more than a fair trade), but his third card caused him to suddenly disappear from the tavern with no clue as to what happened to him. The first player used his question to find out what had happened to his companion and how to return him. He has basically been kidnapped by a very powerful being. Another player drew some cards and found his entire psyche was ripped from his body and sent elsewhere, leaving behind what would be termed a vegetable. A fourth player then drew some cards, desperately hoping to get something that could undo what had happened to his friends. He did draw the most powerful card in the deck, but even that lacked the magic to return the third player's soul to his body. He is gone for good.

Player one is now desperately apologising to me for derailing the campaign. I have said I can fix it, but it is going to mean a lot of extra writing for adventures I hadn't prepped and the stuff I have written already will have to be redone as by the time the players get around to doing it, they are going to be higher level after rescuing player 2.

Harsh lesson perhaps, but hopefully now when I say something is banned from the game, the players will realise that I generally have good reasons for not allowing certain things in the game and it isn't because I want to spoil their fun. Quite the opposite.

[Alex]

Well, today I went into work at 07:55, sat down and looked at my computer screen.

I logged in and looked at the screen a bit more.

Then I logged into one of our (too damn many) personnel management programs and without hesitation submitted my PVR announcing that I wanted to become a civilian on the 4th of July next year.

It is done.

Felt some slight butterflies after I'd pressed the final button, but that was more thinking about what I'd do next rather than wondering if I should leave or stay.

After I put it in, I let Kristi know I'd gone through it, then made a short post on Facebook so my family would know, and then got on with my day.

[Alex]

I am still feeling neutral about leaving.

6 years as a reservist and then I am free of my current call-up liability. Another rule change they brought in without telling us. When I joined up the rules were that if you do 22 you walk away scot-free. It wasn't until people started leaving they found out their terms of engagement (we don't get contracts, we get these terms instead which allows them to screw us over a bit more, but bit them in the ass when about 10 years ago they discovered if we got a job offer, they could no longer force us to stay and had to let us walk. Many people then did exactly that).

Watched Morbius at the weekend. I am not really a Jerad Leto fan, neither as an actor nor as a human being from what I've heard of him. I'd say the film was ok. Marvel seems to be trying to move away from the Iron Man formula. I wonder if Marvel has an equivalent to the Justice League Dark (and I am sure they do), and this is them looking to establish it? Maybe it is how they are going to bring in Blade? Not much to fear though with a standard vampire if you have superheroes I guess.

I keep looking for a fairly standard monster movie to watch that I've not seen before, but not finding any. Everything is slashers, possessions and hauntings. I keep hearing about 'X', but it isn't available on any of the subscription services I have and that is just another slasher at the end of the day. Well, it gives me something to track down anyway.

Urgh, hurry up and give me some notification that my PVR has been received and is being processed. Damn you computer system! I want out!

[Alex]

Boris Johnson is being deserted by his closest rivals for power (Savid Javid, of the enormous head and Rishi Sunak who at one point looked unstoppable in his rise to power before he had some scandals of his own). The guy is a dead man walking and yet I suspect he will get to hang on in there for another year. The economy is suffering the way it was more or less predicted prior to Brexit. Sure Covid and Ukraine haven't helped, but we are doing worse than most, if not all of our peer nations in that respect.

It was a surprise late last night when two senior figures in his cabinet quit. It looked like everyone was clinging on around him. There are quite a few other politicians who will 100% stick by them, primarily because under any other (read competent) prime minister, they'd have no chance at keeping their roles and their front bench career is tied to his fortunes. Boris only got there by a mix of backstabbing, bullying and betraying everyone in his way combined with a populist appeal. It was a sure route to power for him, but not one built to last. Under the current rules, he cannot be challenged and forced out for another year having recently survived a leadership challenge, but there is talk of changing the rules. He certainly won't just step down and I can see him trying to drag as many others down with him when he does finally go.

The two big names quit within 10 minutes of each other (so I suspect it was coordinated), and was rapidly followed by a flurry of junior ministers. They have already been replaced.

[Alex]

10pm tonight 💕 raise a Glass 🥃
Ask someone in 2022 to name the world's worst offshore disaster and they will probably say Deepwater Horizon. But something much more devastating happened 34 years ago today that Changed Both Aberdeen in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and the offshore Industry.
This simple wreck buoy sitting a couple of hundred meters off the corner of Piper Bravo is all that remains of Piper Alpha. It floats silently as a memorial to the 167 men who died that night. Many of whose bodies still lie entombed in the tangled wreckage beneath the North Sea.
Most major disasters don't result from a single 'big' thing, they escalate along a chain of small ones - any of which has the possibility to change, or stop the outcome altogether. But that non-critical pump trip just before 10PM on July 6th 1988 set in motion a truly awful set of events where every single thing conspired to create a situation which can only be described as Hell on Earth. When the Tartan riser ruptured some 30 mins later, there was no way back. The fire was consuming over half a tonne of natural gas per second - equivalent to the entire domestic consumption of the UK - and melting the 20,000 tonne platform from the inside out.
Although no criminal charges were ever brought; in the aftermath of the disaster the UK offshore industry accepted every one of the 106 recommendations put forward by the Cullen Inquiry. Recommendations that completely reshaped the industry, and changed it into a model widely copied around the world. If these lessons had been learned/remembered in the US as well, just perhaps Deepwater Horizon may have had a different outcome...
So for those of you who work in the oil & gas industry, or have friends/relatives who do. Raise a glass tonight at 10PM to recognize the men who sacrificed their ability to get on that chopper home, to ensure that others can today.

[Alex]

The chaos I am watching unfurl in the UK government over the past 36 hours is somewhat unmatched in my experience. When I left the house it was 49 resignations in 36 hours. The last time I saw our government being this inept, it was back in the days of John Major being in power when the Tory party were just hit with scandal after scandal (my favourite one from back then was with a minister called David Mellor was caught out having an affair with a porn actress whose biggest role had been playing a one-legged prostitute, but that is by the by). I think the part of that the papers made the biggest deal out of, was that he liked her to wear the jersey for his favourite football team while they had sex.

Given how much the newspapers were all over the government at the time, it surprised me when a decade after that, it emerged the Prime Minister himself had been having an affair with a junior minister at the time. How did they manage to miss that one? Mind you, whereas other members of the government picked young and attractive women to have affairs with, I recall his particular dalliance choice as being... well she wouldn't have been my first pick at the school dance (even if she hadn't been 2 or 3 times my age. Edwina Currie, I believe her name was. She was more famous for claiming most eggs produced in the UK were contaminated with salmonella, although I don't recall there being any substance behind that claim), and causing a crash in the egg market.

Mind you, it would have made the man seem more interesting and possibly boosted his popularity. He had run away from the circus to become an accountant and was seen as a grey man with no interesting personality.

Applied for my new passport in preparation for going on some holidays next year. This year it seems flights are being cancelled even more than government ministers are quitting (the latest update is that we now have over 50 resignations). Hopefully by next year that will have settled down. It seems we have 1.3 million more jobs available right now than people willing to work them. I guess low-paying employers are going to have to either up their game or cut back their operations to match the number of people they can recruit. It is long past time that the ones at the top realised getting them there takes the work of a lot of people.

[Alex]

Well, that is Boris gone. But not really. He won't actually leave the job until October. He has quit as the leader of the Conservative (Tory) party, but remains in charge of the country until a new leader is elected.

In the UK you elect a party to lead, whereas in the States you elect a person. So if you are wondering how we keep changing PM's outside of elections, that is the reason behind it. There isn't the same chain of people waiting in a straight line behind the president should anything happen to him and although we have a Deputy PM, he doesn't automatically step in to the role, even on a temporary basis (and I'd ask what the f**k is the point of him or her then).

[Trevor]

In the UK you elect a party to lead

Same in South Africa.