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Latest News and Blog Posts from Wayne “Pendragon” Owens.
FCMA: Weather V Ninjas
It is like the age old question, Ninjas V Pirates, but with less Pirates, and more rain!
The weather is having an effect on the dojo atm. The cold, rain, and wind is for some unknown reason making people think twice about going to train in a freezing cold factory space with no heating?
I know, it is strange, and I don’t understand it myself!
Ok. I was late getting there due to the very bad driving conditions. But still, Some people live just down the road from the dojo, and If I can travel vast distances, then they can get there as well. Wasters!!
But, overall. It was a fun evening, and as it always is when there are not many down. We ended up sitting about having interesting conversations about spirals, this world, that world, life, the univers, and everything!
Weekend Review
I’ve not done a weekend review for a while, or any post really. So here goes, highlights from the weekend!
Friday
I went to see the film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”. Now I am not really a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen, and in all honesty I was only going along with the majority vote. I will say that I am glad I did, because I enjoyed myself. It has been a while since I saw a film where I laughed out loud in the cinema. But maybe it was the beer. :0)
Saturday
Well as normal the morning was spent training, a bit of plinking, a bit of thuding, a bit of coffeejutsu, you know the normal stuff. Until the slight heart palpitations, when after picking up the bits I had not seen from my current grade the instructor asks “you ok with your grade now?”. We respond with “yes, just got to practice and master it now”, to which he replies “you have a week?”. MEEP! Luckily it was just a slight mistake and I have the month I thought I had.
And then some quiet drinks in the local village with some old school friends. Who did in fact look Old, they looked much older than me, they must have had a hard life?
Sunday
Nice relaxing day, mainly due to it being too cold and wet to do anything, or go anywhere, and I felt the oncoming of a cold… Well that was the plan, which failed miserably, when at 5pm I spotted one dog sat miserably on the drive and the other one wandering about on the road. After getting the dog in from the road, I discovered the reason the other dog had not escaped as well was during his attempt he’d got a large bramble branch wrapped up in his hair, locking his two back legs together with his tail.. Which meant a fight to try and free him, then a search about for the hole in the hedge they were using to escape, and a repair job in the freezing cold rain!
Bloody dogs..
Work Rant!
You have to love customers who think they are better, cleverer, more skillful than yourself.
Although you do have to ask yourself the question “If they are better than me, why are they paying me to do this work?”
I just had several emails from a client asking for something to be changed on their system so it works with their new code better. The emails go on for ages, explaining how their stuff is better and more complicated, so we should change our stuff to what they use. They are using lots of big, posh, technical words. They have even told me which file I need to change, which part of the file, and given me some suggested code to help me out. (It makes you wonder, if they know exactly what code, in what file they need changing, why do they not just change it?)
$allow_extensions = join(‘|’, array(‘txt’));
if( !preg_match(‘#.*?.(‘ . $allow_extensions . ‘)#si’, $filename) )
It has probably taken him hours researching the problem, looking up the words in the dictionary, coming up with their solution, sending me all these details.
And how do I fix it?
I change * to *.txt in the code. 1 minutes work.
Muppets…
Bristol Bierkeller
I visited the Bristol Bierkeller at the weekend.
It is an Interesting club, it reminds me of a cross between Edwards No 8 (Birmingham) and the kings (Wrexham).
It was a good night, well they served a passable snakebite & black, and you got a free shot with every pint. The music was acceptable, the crowd varied, and lacking in the chav element (always a bonus).
Ok, there was one downside to the night, a two mile hike back at 3:30am in the frost and ice, after leaving the warmth of the club.
But there is a theory of the “pleasure/pain syndrome”.
FCMA: From BoJutsu to Bowties
Sometimes, I think my life is a bit unusual.
Take today for instance.
9am until 2:30pm was spent at the dojo learning the ways of the warrior and technoshaman. I was playing with dangerous weapons, bouncing people and being bounced around the dojo.
Then after getting home and grabbing a quick shower, it was time to go shopping. And what was I shopping for? Well I was looking for a decent dress shirt that will look good with a bow tie and suit. I also wanted a bow tie.
Well it beats being bored I suppose.
It is also surprising the number of Freemasons who study Martial Arts. Not really the traditional image of old business men.
Fornit some Fornus
Third Masonic Step
This evening I became a Master Mason.
I have now taken my third Masonic step, and been advanced to the third degree, or “Master Mason”.
Well I have now reached the degree of a Master Mason, I have no homework, or lines to learn. I am now a full Mason. Even better, I now get my own regalia, which will make visiting so much easier.
The ceremony was the most profound of the three, even though the first one was such an eye opener and super special. I personally believe this one was my favourite.
I have so much now to learn, to get the most out of Freemasonry. But for now I will happily sit here in my new light blue apron, which has a pocket! (The ladies out there will understand the excitement of discovering the secret pocket).
I am now a Master Mason.
UPDATE: Holiday & Life
Well today I am slightly less physically/emotionally/mentally shattered, And starting to feel more like my old self.
I put it down to a training session that was basically some tai chi, ba gua, and a talk on spiritual stuff.
Anyway..
I went to Spain. It was Hot, and way too sunny for my liking. I drank too much, ate too much (But did try some new foods), soaked in the local culture, and the cute Spanish dancers. And overall tried to avoid the big burny thing in the sky (I was not overly successful as my arms and face are more skin colored than normal), and other such normal holiday stuff.
And then…. Shit happened!!!!
On the day before I was due to come home, I received a phone call informing my my Nian (Grandmother) had died. Got home to find out some black sheep’s of the family had been fighting over her possessions as her body lay there waiting to be removed.
One of my nephews tripped into some broken glass, and had to spend Monday in hospital for x-rays and stitches, and then my sister was involved in a car crash, possibly totaling my mothers car that she was driving at the time.
Great 4 days…….
So there you have it!!!
FCMA: Gradings, Levels, And Silly Bus’s
Last Sunday I was sitting my Ichi Kyu of kobudo Shinden Kihon Kata Yosei.
Which is a statement that is completely meaningless to probably all bar a select few. But it means I have now finished that syllabus completely, and now get to move on the the next phase of becoming a Jedi. Soon I get to play again with the sharp pointy weapons of joy.
And relax…
Anyway…
Due to none of my normal training partners being at the dojo, or being busy confusing people by giving directions in Japanese, I got to use NinjaM as a partner. This was the first time I have ever trained with him, which was interesting. I now understand the statement of “I like throwing NinjaM, he bounces well” for it seams a lot easier doing the patterns with him. It is hard to describe, but he flows well.
Although there was the slight incident during Hagai Jimi Gaeshi When I accidental rear-head butted him on the chin, but these things are sent to try us…
So go me!!
Must find the calm place!
Think calm mellow peaceful thoughts…
I almost drove into a council office car park and beat the living hell out of someone this morning (I think they were getting this feeling as they kept staring at me in their rear view mirror)…
Worst case of Road Rage I ever felt, but they had deserved it if I had given into the dark side.
Driving along to work at 70ish on an clear road, and some idiot decided to pull out in front of me and do 30, but they waited till I was about 3 meters away from them before doing it, Not enough room for an emergency stop, a bank to the left of the road, and a truck driving towards me on the other lane…
How it did not escalate into a big crash I do not know…. Someone or Something was looking out for me.
I’m now sat in the office trying to think calming thoughts to stop myself driving back to the car park, and smashing up their car, or looking up their name off the parking permit in the window…
Work: Happiness is shot down in Flames!
Today, I came into the office in high spirits. The messed up depressed person in the office had a bad week last week. He had messed up big time, and had written a letter of resignation. Now I do feel bad for wanting him gone, since he has a problem that he should be encouraged in sorting (And which we have all spent the last few years trying to do). But In all fairness he’s been like this for the few years he’s worked here, he was seeing a councilor every week, but skipped the sessions, then stopped completely. If he is unwilling to help himself, then I can be excused from giving up trying to help.
Also this guy self harms, to a serious degree, and spends most days sat in the office hitting himself, trying to force his knuckles through his eyeballs, or cutting. And as such his attitude and the atmosphere he creates has been affecting other members of staff. The boss was planning on talking to him today about his attitude, his treatment of work colleagues, and standard of work, coupled with his pre-written letter of resignation. I was expecting him to be gone, and actually have a decent atmosphere back in the office.
Woooo Hoooo I thought.
And that’s where it all went wrong.
After hearing the tales of woe, the boss decided he did not want the guy quitting, going home and killing himself. He did not want that on his conscious, and you can not blame him for that. I would not want it on mine. So he gave the guy the rest of the week off on holiday, and the clinically depressed guy has to try and be more cheerful.
Great! So the office stays depressed and hell to be in. We have several people being dragged down into depression, so the mentalist doesn’t kill himself. Considering in the 2+ years he’s been working here I have seen him happy for maybe two to three weeks in total.
The guy needs more help than just being told to cheer up, and see a councillor every so often..
Ah well.