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The Year That Was – 2011
Its that time of year again.
Where I look back over the previous year and answer the same 40 questions.
1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
OK, New things :-
- Stayed in the room during an Installation.
- Became an Installed Master.
- Took part in the 100 day challenge.
- Chaired a committee meeting.
2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No! I do not even remember what they were. I have discovered that I am basically Crap at keeping resolutions, but am a lot better at sticking to challenges. So for next year I am thinking of doing a set of challenges for the year, a friend suggested 12 or 52 for the months/weeks of the year. I just need to think of some things I would like to achieve next year and sort out the challenge.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I was going to answer Yes, PlanetPete to this question. Then I realised he only gave birth by proxie. So instead I shall adjust my answer slightly to be, Yes, Mrs PlanetPete AKA H, gave birth to the mini magoo foretold in legend, Henry (And yes, he does have a cat).
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Luckily No.
5. What countries did you visit?
None really, apart from the normal Wales/England.
But I did spend some time with some Americans which should count as something.
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Enthusiasm, Love, Joy of Work, A warm office, A published book.
7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
- 3rd November – When I got to meet Bingo, and was placed in the Chair of King Solomon by my Father.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Attaining the Chair of Solomon (Are we noticing a trend yet?).
9. What was your biggest failure?
Only getting one of the items off the list from last years answer to question 6.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope, Apart from the recovering from Vampire Eye which I got Dec 24th of 2010, and was dealt with at the beginning of 2011. But actual injury/Illness gotten in 2011, there is nothing.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
A Tablet device, Great toy. Or my Galaxy S2 phone, which is much more superior to my old iPhone, or SkyRim as I am currently an addict.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
- My IPM for standing down part of the night to allow my father to put me into the chair (That trend again).
- H for H.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
- Those who made picking officers awkward.
- Work people who left to secretly set up a company in competition.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Diesel for commuting, and fix’s for my Video Game Addiction.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going into the Chair of Solomon, Skyrim, and because I’m a sad geek William Fucking Shatner friending me on G+, and Robert Lomas following me on Twitter.
16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
“G33k & G4m3r Girls” By Team Unicorn.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
- a) happier or sadder? Happier, Because I have plans afoot.
- b) thinner or fatter? Possibly fatter due to all the visiting as Master, and the multi-course meals.
- c) richer or poorer? Poorer, Rising fuel prices, Global economic collapse, etc.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Falling in Love, Writing, Following my Dreams, Conquering the World, Finding a cure for the common cold and blackmailing people for the cure.
You know, the simple pleasures in life.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? .
Wasting time, and suffering from lack of enthusiasm.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Christmas day will be spent with the family, My Parents like their children, grandchildren all together at Christmas. SO meal with them, then few drinks and Gameplay with my nephews, then more drinks and a movie.
21. What was your favourite month of 2011?
Lets keep the trend going, November because I entered the Chair of Solomon.
22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Alas No. I am high functioning Sociopath.
23. How many one-night stands?
One night stands? None (I’m a gentleman! And a gentleman never sleeps & tells).
24. What was your favourite TV programme?
I’ll go for best New Show “Breaking In”, since there are way to many old favourites to mention. And in the words of Oz “I’ll allow it!”.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hate leads to suffering. which leads to the Dark side. So Hate is a strong word, and one that should not be thrown about casually, not haphazardly.
But the short answer is YES.
26. What was the best book you read?
I am going to go for a Trilogy instead of a single book, since i read all three back to back, as one long story. This is also the last three fiction books I have read, but I am going for Brent Weeks The Night-Angle Trilogy
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Team Unicorn. Even if they do only have one song out ATM.
28. What did you want and get?
A Tablet. The Secrets of an Installed Master.
29. What did you want and not get?
World Domination, True Love, Slaves.
30. What was your favourite film of this year?
- Thor.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I went to rehearsals on my actual birthday, then two days later (Or one depending when I was actually born) I was placed into the Chair of Solomon, then celebrated with friends drinking and enjoying a three course meal, and more drinks. I also had a joint birthday celebration in the wilds of Wales with some old Spod Friends.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A better Job, A long lasting Relationship, More enthusiasm, less TFB.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Same as always, semi-scruffy day wear (work) Smart casual otherwise.
Oh and suits, because suits are awesome…… True story
34. What kept you sane?
Me Sane? Interesting theory you have there. Well I still have the magic stone from last year that I purchased off a traveling merchant that keeps away tigers & insanity. On a serious note, Friends bother the Real Life variety and the Net (Twitter/G+/Facebook) varieties.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Same as last year. “Felica Day. Well she’s attractive, Intelligent (Has a mathematics degree), Talented (She’s a singer, Actress, Writer, Director), She’s a Gamer/geek and grew up with a subscription to 2600 magazine. What is not to like, she’s my ideal woman.”.
Also Michelle Boyd from Team Unicorn.
Felica Day.
Michelle Boyd.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
None, I don’t do politics.
37. Who did you miss?
Old friends.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Several New friends on Twitter. Who are all special in their own ways.
And so I don’t get “another” entry on the list Henry.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011?.
Oderint, Dum Metuant.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I’m a Mason now by Jonathan Coultron.
Should we talk about the governments that I control?
Should we talk about the hands of fate, the dice they roll?
The secret things you’ll never see?
The secret man you’ll never be?
Sorry Kids, Christmas is Cancelled
I am sorry I have to break this sad news to you Dear Constant Readers, but alas due to some bad judgement on the behalf of the jolly fat man, Christmas this year is cancelled.
You see, as I was driving home from work the other night, in the dark, on icy roads Santa’s sleigh pulled out of a junction directly in front of me. It was only my superior driving skills that prevented a head on collision. I should interject here that Santa’s ride has gone down a bit since I was a kid, he’s replaced all the reindeer with a landrover (Which as a founding member of the reindeer liberation front, I fully support) and well the sleigh is looking rough, like someone just nailed a few bits of MDF onto a trailer and stapled a few Christmas tree lights to it!
Anyway, He almost caused me to crash, and the UK laws of road rage state I MUST hunt him down and stab him. Now, Give him his due’s he is a wily old fox is Santa. He seems to have hired a load of body doubles (I wonder if he got the idea from Sadam) It just means I have more work to do, on a side note I am running out of places to bury the bodies…
Merry Cancelled Christmas.
11:11:11 11-11-11
Today is a special day in the geeky calendar.
Happy Binary Day.
Its the 11th second of the 11th minute of the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of this century.
Just thought I’d mention this milestone because it’s special people.. Special!.
Sitting in the Chair of King Solomon
This evening I was Installed into the Chair of King Solomon.
I am now the Worshipful Master of Llannerch Lodge No 9056.
It was a very, very, very, very enjoyable night. The ceremony was eye opening, and there was a feast at the mid ceremony break. In fact there was so much scones, bara brith’s, and biscuits left over that my work lunches are covered for the next month or two. Then the Festive board was great and all about me! It is a good job I have no ego, or it could go to my head.
My father was given the honour to go back into the chair to put me in the chair himself, which I thought was very nice of my now IPM. Everyone had a great time, and the drinking at the bar afterwards went on for hours. It was great seeing so many visitors attend from the Provinces of North Wales, and Cheshire for my special night.
I will admit, that I have no clue what I am doing as the Master, but it is something that will remain in my memory for decades to come.
This world is so hard and so stony,
That if a man is to get through,
He need have the courage of Nelson,
And plenty of Job’s patience too.
But a man who is kind to another
And cheerfully helps him along,
We’ll claim as a man and a brother,
And here’s to his health in a song.
Assassins Creed Brotherhood – Attack of the Glitch
As mentioned in This Post We finally got Assassins Creed Brotherhood (Or ACB as it will be known for the rest of this post) working fine for us to play together, and we have had a few good games. Now there has always been the odd glitch, people doing the lag jump, or cries of “How did you get me, you were no where near?” And other slight but manageable glitches.
Only recently these glitches have got worse. Especially as we have noticed with PlanetPete. We think it affects him more because he has the Da Vinci DLC so has more characters, so when he plays his machine is kicking out more character types?
These glitches were expectational bad the last time we played. And I really hope they get these issues fixed for the final release in the Assassins Creed series. Let me give you a few examples.
You would see PlanetPete running and lock on with your hidden gun, you would get a clear shot locked directly onto his back, fire, and nothing.
You would be unable to lock on to press X (Kill) or B (stun)
If you did lock on, you would still be unable most the time to attack. At two points there was two of us trying to kill him while he was blinded by firecrackers and not moving, and neither of us could touch him.
The list of things like that is endless, to the point we wondered if he had some cheat on. That’s when we realised what he was seeing on his screen was different to us. So where we were all seeing his character, was no longer where he was standing, hence we could not kill him.
I love the AC games, but they really need to sort out their multiplayer for the next one. And not having to wait fifteen minutes to find/start a game would also be nice.
Hurricane Katia 0: Ninja Temple 1
The start of this week saw parts of Wales hit with edges of Hurricane Katia, there was flooding, damage, cats and dogs raining from the sky, the four horsemen of the apocalypse started to saddle thier horses up ready to fly only to have to stand down after health and safety said it was unsafe to ride horses during an apocalypse.*
Luckily With the Ninjas Temple being on high ground, and no where near the coast we survived the worst of the damage & flooding.
Unluckily a rather large, old tree did fall from the excessive winds and smash into the roof of the Ninja Temple. It was impressive, half the building was hidden under the branches of a mighty old tree.
Luckily the temple was built over specification, and the roof is lined with rather thick strong concrete tiles which were able to hold the weight of the tree without doing any obvious damage.
Unluckily it did wipe out the TV aerial. AND during the Rugby World Cup 🙁
Luckily I have a degree in electrical & electronic engineering, with a load of side qualifications in the field. So that particular issue was soon rectified.
So all in all the spiritual power of the Ninja Temple shrugged off the damage dished out by Katia. We are now ready for round 2.
*Some of these actions may not have happened outside of my mind.Assassins Creed Brotherhood Connection Happiness
You may remember Assassins Creed from such posts as Assassins Creed Brotherhood AKA You can’t Run but You can Hide! and Assassins Creed Brotherhood Connection Madness. If you do, then you will recall that we had been hit with the dreaded “the session is unreachable” issue that a LOT of people seem to be suffering from.
If you have not read the previous articles, or have no understanding of the mentioned issue I’ll provide a quick recap. *Wayne’s World recap music*
Me & PlanetPete can join a group and play together no problem, and CampyPhil & MIAdave can play together no problem. BUT if anyone tries to join the other group they get “the session is unreachable” So neither PlanetPete or Myself can play against the other two, and neither of them can play against us.
Now our original thought was that maybe it was an odd routing issue, with them being in a different part of the UK to us, Well luckily PlanetPete went to visit them and took his hard-drive with him. And with his hard drive plugged into MIADaves’s xbox he was able to join me, yet with MIADave’s hard drive plugged in “session is unreachable”
It makes no SENSE!!!!
Well PlanetPete recently purchased the Da Vinci DLC, and before installing it he deleted all the previous system updates and the downloaded Animus Project Update 2.0. He then bought and installed the Animus Project Update 3.0 (Da Vinci). After this we discovered that we could no longer play online together, but he could play with CampyPhil & MIADave.
SO. I deleted my DLC & updates. I then decided to work upwards in order. Animus Project Update 1.0, Animus Project Update 2.0, then started the game and let it do it’s own system updates. After this was complete I tested playing against CampyPhil and was able to play fine.
It seems to me that there was a conflict between DLC versions. PlanetPete & Myself downloaded ours a while before the other two. So there must have been a change at some point which causes a conflict. So if you are getting the dreaded “session is unreachable” while trying to play with friends, then delete all downloaded content from your XBOX Dashboard, and re download them.
Let us know if this solves your conflict.
A happy GreatGothNinja prowling the roofs of buildings hunting his pray with a concealed gun.
USA – Secret Summit
I recently had a mini holiday in Pwllheli, I’d gone to visit some old friends who were holidaying there at the time (*EDIT: Oddly all the friends there can probably be found in The Pleasuredome rest home for the mentally unstable.) This Mini-Holiday led to several thoughts, events, Stories that will make it onto this Blog. This one is titled :-
“USA – Secret Summit”
I took a rather random and scenic route from my part of North Wales, to Pwllheli, for several reasons like :-
- Diversions/Road Closures
- A SatNav that refuse to talk to any Satellites
- The Avoidance of a road where I had a really nasty crash the last time I drove to Pwllheli to meet a Dome Spod.
- & The fact I was not really paying that much attention to where I was going since I knew the basic route.
So there I was happily driving along a small mountain road with little or no traffic when I noticed a large hall in the trees that was oddly flying several American flags. “That’s Odd” I thought. And I decided it was a lot odder when I got closer to the building to find a large car-park full of large cars, all sporting those American bonnet flags you see on embassy/presidential cars.
So what I would like to know from the American readers is. What secret official summit were you guys having in a hall hidden away up in the Welsh mountains?
Ghost in the Asylum
The Asylum may or may not be haunted.
This morning I was stood in the Support Office talking to ItWerWobbie* when I heard someone walk up the stairs to our floor and saw them walk past the door to the support office as they passed down the hall.
Shortly after @DemonPengu* ascended the stairs, and came to the open door.
IWW: “Who was that?“
WO: “I don’t know. Hey @Demonpengu who came up before you?“
DP: “huh? no one?”
WO: *quickly checks upstairs rooms to see who came up* “Err there’s no one up here?“
IWW: “you heard/saw it as well right?“
So two of us heard someone ascend the stairs and walk past, we both saw from the corner of our eyes a person walk past the door to the room towards the front of the building where there are NO exits. Yet there was no body there!
Explain away!**
(*) We never use real names here on the Three Ninjas, for security, peoples safety against stalkers, and to prevent any nasty legal action if we accidentally mention little know facts like ItWerWobbies fetish for amputee midgets.
(**) Seriously. Any explanations welcome, comment away if you can explain what may or may not have happened.
Some thoughts on the Recent England Riots
I was originally not going to write anything about the recent state of anarchy that popped up over England, even though I had friends in the areas of the riots, and who were affected by what happened. I had decided too many people were writing their views about it, so I had nothing new or different to contribute to the discussion, so I did not. Only as I read and hear more and more stories from the Media, I feel I need to mention a few things, just to get them off my mind.
1: #ukriots, UK Riots, etc.
The UK is made up of four parts. Wales (No rioting), Scotland (No rioting), Northern Ireland (No rioting) and England (Rioting). Notice something there? only one quarter of the UK was affected, So please Media can you call it the England Riots, or the English Riots, or something other than UK.
2: The youth have nothing to occupy them.
I have seen interviews and reports that one of the reasons the youth of England were so keep to riot, and fight the police was due to them having nothing to do, they feel bored and restless and acted out in response to this. I have heard this before, I have a nephew who used to moan that him and his friends had nothing to do.
When I was growing up all we had was what we could find or invent with our imagination. We played games, we played football in any flat bit of land we could get, we climbed trees, we hung out, we did not riot or claim we had nothing to do.
Where I live (And the same play my poor nephew who has nothing to do) now has several youth centres where kids can go to play pool, and other games for free (All we had was cub scouts, or the ACF). There are several dedicated skate parks, where they have all the facilities for skateboards, bikes, skates to have jumps, tricks, all sorts (All we had was a couple of bricks and a bit of wood to make a jump). They have xbox’s, playstations, wiis, the Internet, mobile phones, multiple ways of communication (We had letters, that you had to write, post, and wait a week or so for a reply). YET even though the modern youth have a HELL of a lot more options and activities avilable to them than we ever did, they feel like they have nothing to do, no one gives them anything to do so riot? Hello. If having nothing to do, was a reason for riots why did my generation and those before me never riot?
3: The youth are rioting as a demonstration against the government to show they are unhappy at a lack of career/financial prospects.
Hello. Have you listened to these ambassadors of youth on TV? Have you read when they’ve written about it on line? Now look at the way they talk (Mostly trying to emulate American gangster/Gang culture. Like calling the cops Fedz because thats what they hear on TV shows/songs. The Yanks don’t call police fed’s they call FEDeral officers fed’s.. Sorry current pet peeve) Then look at their lack of reading/writing skills, and the atrocious way they spell (I am slightly dyslexic and am crap at spelling, yet these guys make me look like Shakespeare). Now if you were hiring a new member of staff would you pick someone who turned up well dressed, who spoke decently, had qualifications, and could deal with customers politely and do the work required. Or would you hire the person who turned up in a hoody, with their trousers hanging round their knees, and greeted you in fake-gangster talk?
If they are upset about not being able to get a job. maybe they should have paid attention in school. Or if its the faults of the schools, then why not go back to school now, pick up the skills needed to get a job. Change your manner, try and get a job and you have more chance of getting employed than you ever will by burning down businesses. Your recent actions have probably done more harm to the employment prospects of your generation than the government ever did.
As a side note to this, there is another bit of news that came out this week. One of the Chav culture won just under ten million pounds several years ago in the lottery. Now personally if I won half that figure I would be able to live a very happy life of luxury for the rest of my life. The Chav? he blew all ten million in just a few years, and has nothing at all to show for it, to the point My taxes are paying him money every week. That shows that its not lack of money, or prospects, its the mentality of a certain culture of people. We need to change the people.
As another side note, look at some of the parents who’s kids have been in court for looting. I’m talking about the ones who are just swearing and giving rude gestures to the press, and the judges. Take a long look, then consider the old adage “an apple does not fall far from the tree”