A beginning

Alanis Morrisette 'Jagged Litle Pill' turned up in the post yesterday

fancied listening to it today in my travels

so
Ripped CD to my PC
had to download a file converter (cause windows media player stores it as a WMA )
coverted it and loaded it onto my MP3

bought, paid for and the start of a new legitimate music collection

kinda nice

going to be digging out all my CD's soon and doing the same then start replacing the music I deleted at the weekend

Me?

something I realised before Christmas

I stopped collecting things some time ago

Theres a certain evel of involvement in actually collecting which is easy to forget in an electronic world where I could spend a few days and 'collect' every book, audio play, Episode, Movie, Comic, and song that I ever wanted for free

But thats not collecting

Just now a friend (on facebook and I think I've ended up drinking with a few times in the Tap ages ago) who has great taste in music put an Alanis Morissette track on FB and I do the usual 'oh when was the last time I listened to her' and then thought about the fact that I watched Live Aid from my bedroom at my grans all the way through live, I grew up in the 80's at time when the greatest music in the world was written and performed

but everyone thinks that the music they listened to when they grew up was the greatest music ever

and the songs were more often than not about protesting something

against politicians, about gay rights, about famine in africa about seemingly dozens of great causes that I was sorta into at the time but only because my friends were but now realise were and still are massively important.

so back to the point - I have over the years 'collected' massive amounts of stuff but never sat there and thought 'I wonder if Alanis Morrisette is still making music?'

I just load up my MP3 and go off to work or a game or the pub and never ask about the stuff I'm listening to

It's empty - it's false - it's not me, not any more

Hang on a second........


I just deleted 214GB of 'collected' music

and ordered Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morrisette at her greatest) from an ebay trader with over 280,000 deals under their belt with a 98% positve feedback for the grand sum of

£1.52 on CD

I want to be the person I used to like and respect someone who laughed a lot more than I do these days the person who didn't second guess everything he did the person who had a damn sight more self respect than I find I have

no more blame games - I am responsible for my life and I am answerable to me and the people whose opinions of me matters

this is a start

I'm going to start reading 5E this weekend and and then I'm going to write a campaign based in the Forgotten Realms

After that campaign I will know the system enough and refresh my fantasy reffing brain enough so I can write my own world

In March I am going to register for an Arts and Humanities level 1 course with the OU
after I pass that I will be able to do a level 2 creative writing course

haven't thought about things further than that yet

and I will properly collect the things I am deleting in one format or another and I will be true to myself

oh and I need to learn about cloud storage and if itunes is any good

Night all

2015 and the Path

I have always had a lot of hobbies and the bill for maintaining the collections I have is sometimes quite large

So it is with some reluctance that I had to proritise things (unless I win the lottery in that case Whoa Nelly!!)

So at the end of Feb (no council tax month) I am buying a 1 year subscription to the Docto Who monthly range from Big Finish - this is quite expensive but saves me £50 over the year in CD's for that range

At the end of March (all going to plan I am getting a PS4)

RPG book purchases are reduces to 1 a month for the White Wolf Collection and new releases for systems I am actually writing or running at that time - right now that is Cthulhu and DND 5e

Comics are reduced to my standing order (unless I come across a deal on a run on Ebay or charity shops etc)

There will be slow acumulation of Doctor Who cd's not included in the Main Range and books/novels/comics etc if they appear

I will be trying to save, be responsible and go out with the remaining funds

And occasional Ebaying will generate funds for stuff outside this plan

January wages already allocated for some damage control for post Christmas poverty and to play a little catch up on Big Finish before the subscription is bought

Flat decoration will be slower than I planned but should still be possible to complete before years end

and I have a few events in mind for later in the year

right then off we go

Couldn't wait until New Years

Compromise - I do that a lot

I make deals with myself so I can eat what I want on the understanding that I behave for a period afterwards - then I welch on the deal and eat tons

this has to end - this will end

I wait until the weekend to do stuff and then don't so things like the work on the flat doesn't get done

and feel like I have to explain some of the choices I make about things I do - don't really know why but I'm putting it down to low self esteem because of a range of reasons

those reasons are no longer important because I just turned 45 and I'm still single and living a life that I don't always enjoy

This is going to change

There are things I do and like which others don't like or understand - nothing illegal or immoral just different

thats their problem not mine

I don't have to explain myself to anyone

Thats all I'm prepared to say on that subject

as for the flat I have 7 days before I go back to work and some work isd being done on the flat - today is general cleaning and more involved sorting etc will be done as the week goes on

another post xmas attempt to lose weight will be undertaken and at some point this coming year
I will do the gym thing when I want to - I wont be pushed into it or bullied into it or anything else

becasue of my back and respitory problems and Robs neck we won't be going to Southwell festival but will be trying to see somne of the folk acts we like at indoor gigs

I will be trying to get to events next year on top of everything else in an attempt to expand my geekery and meet new people

I have a hospital appointment on the 16th Jan for tests to see if an old problem has resurfaced (I am not looking forward to that I can tell you)

with all this going on I hope to meet someone as the idea of 'hooking up' with someone in a pub doesn't appeal

(although the 3 women I have loved in my life I have met by chance and it was a bolt from the blue kinda thing)

anyway we'll see what happens with that

right now I'm having a massive cup of Earl Grey and catching up on Agents of Shield

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO I'M SERIOUS SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't remember the exact year I got into Doctor Who I think it may have been when I was 9 so that makes it about 35 years ago.

I started (strangely) after catching an episode late in that season it would have been The season of The Key to Time so I sorta came late to the show
when that season ended I found some of the Target Novelisations at my local library and as well as reading the living daylights out of them I photocopied the covers and kept them
in a scrapbook

Time passes and ultimately the classic show ends after a period of mourning I'm sorry to say that I strayed - living a life without The Doctor until I discovered the expanded universe novels and things started again but the point is (I promise there is one) I missed the UNIT stories

I loved The Brigadier from the books and the occasional 'Doctor Who Weekend' (The Five Doctors was a treat) then the few stories from the later years (Mawdryn Undead and Battleground)
then more recently he was in the Sarah Jane Adventures and the Nicholas Courtney sadly passed away and news of the Brigadiers passing featured in The Wedding of River Song
I think he was my favorite character (next to the Doctor of course)

I have had mixed feelings about this season of Doctor Who - I think it is because it is such a contrast to what I've become accustomed to since the relaunch and I've seen a lot of the comments flying around about the season online

Death in Heaven however settled things for me

Since Kate Stewart appeared The Brig has been mentioned and I had bit of a tear form when I saw the painting on the plane
but I think I actually caught my breath when I realised who that last Cyberman was
brilliant, simply brilliant

anyway

The Master (Mistress) returns excellent by far my favorite bad guy (erm girl) the level of unpredictable violent evil she demonstrates reminds me of John Simm but  Michelle Gomez makes the role her own (and no I don't think shes dead)

The Clara/Danny storyline comes to a poignant end ,or does it, theres the matter of the future 'Orson Pink' and did anyone else see Danny flip over the Skovox Blitzer - I think there may be more to Danny than people realise

In the event of a planetary invasion The Doctor is made President of Earth........ but only after thay drug him..... erm what?

But I think with this episode like the rest of this season the stories have been character driven as much as they've been about the bad guy or monster

The Mistresses scheme and 'relationship' with the Doctor (I don't think she's done with him yet)
Clara and Danny saying goodbye
Danny trying to redeem himself by sending the boy back from the Nethersphere
The Doctor and The Brigadier saying goodbye (sort of) and the Doctor getting some closure about The Brigs passing (notice the Brigadier/Cyberman didn't explode)
and the Doctor and Clara lying to each other I think to prevent the other from saying 'well come on then lets go fix it then' perhaps they just need some time

Then theres the obvious tribute on Rememberance weekend which I thought was magnificent

Only a few weeks until we see if Santa can reunite the Doctor and Clara and maybe fix a few other things

(please Santa bring back Osgood I really liked her)

It's been an odd season but I think Doctor Who is still in safe hands


J

stuff running through my mind.....

stuff sorted at the weekend  (talked about it a bit on FB 'umpteen posts' it was described as on Sunday at the game so no more here just enough to say I am pleased

largely out of the frame of mind where all the 'tiny' things in my life amount to a bad life and walking around listening to Deep Purple (and not just the hits going album by album and it's bloody marvelous)

between that and this mild DND vibe I've got going on feeling a bit nostalgic so the living room is going to be library/music room/chill zone (with decor to illustrate that)

also came to the conclusion that the short but distinctive list of people I have in the past actually hated (for stuff they have done to me and others from many years ago) has become meaningless
most of the people on it I am almost never going to see again in my life and the one person on it (who I have come to realise I don't hate at all) who I'd like to talk to clear the air as it were I may see but may not talk to as I'm not even sure she'd recognise me these days

anyway my point is I am actually doing stuff instead of talking it up and thats great in fact I would be doing more stuff right now (if it weren't for the fact that a delayed action pan thing has hit my back - but it's a good pain)

so right now the biggest problem I have is picking out paint colours and wall art for the rooms later this year

and that is pretty cool

J

Perspective

30 years ago I was 14

I got into the habit of staying up too late and listened to the Radio (BBC Radio 2) to mostly Soul/Motown and I would read or play Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks (and draw maps for them)

The Radio wasn't brilliant, bad signal, worse if there were storms and I'd usually fall asleep with it on and wake in the morning (afternoon) and be irritated that it was still running

Been thinking about things I used to do once and don't anymore and why I stopped. Doctor Who (I used to have a large collection), The Gamebooks, listening to the radio late at night and reading (I read more for fun now that I stopped reffing

Thought about quitting gaing last year after a nasty illness and a couple of other reasons that I'm probably never going to discuss but in the end I didn't and I'm glad

Now I'm wearily starting on the weight loss thing again

Changing the flat around

Going to the Southwell Folk Festival this year (It won;t be uncomfortable and cold, so cold at night like last year)

got one Who event in Aug/Sep and looking for another one (perhaps Nerdfest)

but with all this going on (and if I could drag you back to the point)

30 years ago I listened to a dodgy radio and read

Right now I'm listening to the sultry Sarah on 100.3 WKIT playing out of Bangor Maine (Stephen Kings Rock and Roll Station) it's crystal clear coming over my PC speakers

They're playing Halestorm (been listening to them this week to and from work)

isn't progress wonderful

J