Penniless

Christmas Shopping in Aberdeen

Tis' the season to be fleeced, tralalallalala! Spent the best part of the day In Aberdeen, primarily to meet our daughter returning from Napier for the holidays, but also meeting up with our son who is at RGU. Lunch followed by some Christmas shopping for our two darling children, with the highlight probably; watching these motor-biking Santas revving loudly and doing burn-outs up Union Street.

Festive

The Desolation of Bilbo

I guess I can finally feel the festive spirit, with only a week let to work before commencing a fortnight's break and in the full knowledge that over the consequence of that period of time, there is every likelihood my cat Bilbo will destroy the Christmas tree. Day and night this a task he is hell-bent on fulfilling. The climbing in itself is somewhat destructive, but not satisfied with that he must systematically remove the decorations, particularly at his chosen ingress and egress points. Furthermore, he attempts to tear branches off with his teeth. But look at those big eyes, he's only playing!!!!

Codified

Java Program

I teach Java programming, but that by no means makes me a great programmer. I teach so many different things that it prevents me from specialising in any one particular area, as I have to concentrate on whatever I'm teaching at the time. I do like programming though and this week had a particularly difficult dilemma to solve for a task I was setting, involving writing Arraylists of strings of varying length to file and then reading them back in again and reassigning to an Arraylist. Not even Google could help me with this one. I sussed out a neat little way of handling it by myself and I'm fairly pleased with the results (not shown ;).

Fitter

Ben Rinnes

Had a wee wander up Ben Rinnes this afternoon. First time since March and bearing in mind I've lost almost two stone since the Summer, I was hoping I'd feel fitter and would be able to tackle it well. It was good, as out of the 10 times or so we've been up there, this was definitely our fastest time up an down and physically I feel much better. All I've really done is cut out bread. I have porridge for breakfast, a salad for lunch and a normal evening meal. I even allow myself a snack and a drink at the weekend. I wouldn't eat salad before, so feel kind of foolish having discovered that a little French dressing makes it entirely edible!

Crazy

Alice In Chains - Check My Brain

You can't work in education and not be a bit mad, if not to start with then soon enough and I'm sure I'm no exception. So here is the delightful Check My Brain by Alice In Chains, to mark Black Friday and the start of the weekend. I don't get why suddenly this year Black Friday is a thing here in the UK. It's clearly a ploy to get the Christmas shopping ball rolling earlier than usual and of course the sheeple go 'baa' as normal. I was lucky enough to see Alice In Chains supporting Megadeth at Edinburgh Playhouse on 30th March 1991. I wasn't much interested in Megadeth and went purely to see Alice In Chains, who were great. This is probably the only track I really like from them recently. Pretty much sums up how I feel right now though!

Taxed

Annual Tax Summary 2013-14

Very nice of our government to send me my first ever Annual Tax Summary, showing how my Tax and National Insurance contributions have been spent. Of course, these are not actual figures, just a rough breakdown. Nevertheless, I thought it necessary to determine what each of the sectors listed actually represents.  I have added my interpretation to the image in red text. I think it's fair to say that probably 50% of the spending could have been saved were it not for incompetence, bureaucracy and fraud. While I can accept these as part and parcel of government, I do object to contributing any of my earnings towards killing innocent civilians. Thank You Tony... recent worthy recipient of an award from Save the Children!

Doubting

Montsegur

I'm firmly of the belief that things are seldom what they seem. Some might call me a conspiracy theorist, but if overwhelming evidence points to something not being true, then how can it be a conspiracy? It's clearly a lie! We're lied to all the time, by our colleagues, bosses, friends, why not our governments, especially our governments. They are masters of deceit, yet people buy their daily news propaganda without even a thought. Sheeple is an appropriate nickname for them. In 2009, I was lucky enough to visit Montsegur in Southern France, the last bastion of the Cathar faith, crushed for questioning the virtues of Catholicism. A dark chapter in human history, that continued for many hundreds of years and to some extents still does. The truth must die so that lies can live!

Overworked

Bridge at the Mouth of the Deveron

Back to work and hectic as usual. More marking than I can keep up with and no chance of any respite very soon. No wonder the weekend's are so prized. I like nothing more than some half-decent weather and the chance to get outdoors, even if it is only to go walking. Anyway, the temperature is dropping steadily and I think it's only a matter of time before we get a blanket of the white stuff. Of course, I'll get some photos when it happens.

Exercised

Old Alvah Bridge

So, yesterday my wife and I went for a 2 hour stroll from Duff House in Banff, West along the banks of the Deveron, on an often muddy meandering path, rising gently until we crossed a gorge over the river via the old Alvah bridge. We then proceeded uphill, through woodlands before coming all the way back down on a  faint old track, then having to walk along the marshy side of a ditch and through a cow field to get back onto a track on the South side of the river. The walk out in fading sunlight was lovely and we were met with the site of the Banff bridge at the mouth of the Deveron, painted orange by the sinking Sun, as we neared then end of hour walk. I'll post a picture of that tomorrow.

Pumped

King's X - Moanjam

I've been listening to King's X a lot lately, on the daily drive to and from work. I first got into them when I heard "Fall on Me" on the radio in the early 90's. Their music is so positive and despite the Christian undertones, I don't mind. It's not overt and the positive messages of love and understanding are Universal and not by any means owned by religion. Don't religions just breed intolerance and mistrust anyway (most of them)? Moanjam makes me smile, it's fast-paced and almost freestyle at times... I guess that's where it got it's name. No moaning going on though! I couldn't find a decent video as this was not a single and it's probably not that well known. Suits me, I love it!

Nostalgia

Strathlene - Findochty

Had a wee walk this afternoon from Strathlene to Findochty. A little bit nostalgic as I lived in Findochty until aged 13. We spent a lot of time on these rocks and cliffs as kids. We weren't scared of the cliffs or rocks, but we were scared of the sea and with good reason, quite a few kids drowned  falling in to the sea while playing on the rocks. Odds were you would bang your head and you'd be finished. Anyway, I loved the area. Just a pity the locals were insular, parochial, backwards-thinking and all related if you know what I mean. We were outsiders, but still had the last laugh, as there was a huge influx of outsiders after we left. I wonder how the locals dealt with that?

Disorganised

Sigur Ros - Ara Batur

It's been one of those days where things just don't turn out as planned, so for counterpoint here is the wonderfully organised and beautifully executed Ara Batur by Sigur Ros, recorded in a single take. If the climax to this song is playing as  I enter through the pearly gates, well, I think I would find that most agreeable!

Bloodlust

Total War - Napoleon

How better to wind down for the weekend than with a spot of Total War? Napoleon is my favourite iteration of the franchise followed by Medieval. I wasn't very taken with Rome or Shogun. The interfaces were cluttered and unintuitive for me. Napoleon though, besides allowing me to conquer Europe on several occasion, also compelled me to buy Robert Harvey's "War of Wars", out of which Marshall Ney emerges as the real hero and ultimate warrior rather than Napoleon. Of course the French people rewarded his military endeavours by shooting him as a traitor.

Yearning

Glen Shiel

What a busy year this has been. Haven't managed to bag nearly as many Munro's as I would like and the ones I need to do are getting further and further away as I mop up the ones closest to home. 121 so far out of 283. It would be great to have the time, money and a camper van, to just get out there and travel around, climbing a few hills here and there. Ah well, we can but dream. It may be a bit more mundane than what most would long for, but the simplest pleasures can be the most rewarding. and the Scottish hills really make you aware of your place in the grand scheme.

Frazzled

Prague

Ah, the marking is piling up and I can hardly stay current. To fall behind would only compound the problem. With Winter slowly unfolding upon us, our Summer break in Prague seems like a distant memory now. At least we have the photos to remind us that it was real, we were there, it was lovely and warm and some of the views were incredible, such as the view from the Strahov Monastery (shown). Anyway, back to work. If you know people who teach, please give them the utmost respect. You have no idea how many hours they actually work and no, the pay isn't great! If it wasn't for the holidays, I don't know who would do it.

Tired

Let Down - Radiohead

Tired! Tired of the daily grind, especially the daily commute to work. OK, it's only 35 minutes or so each way, but that's just part of it. It's dark now coming home and pretty soon the mornings will be the same. It's often raining or windy. Then, there will be scraping frost and ice off the windows, so, cold and even more time consuming. If I'm not in early enough I can't get parked. However, this song, while conveying the misery of travel and routine lyrically, is musically uplifting beyond words. It is my favourite song ever. It ends with such an uplifting feeling that I can't help but consider that at least we are all united by the mundanity of it all, together in our repetitive futile desperate attempt to hold it together until the weekend.

Joy

The Moray Coast

I love Scotland. I'm Scottish and some of my ancestors have always lived in this area, the East end of Moray. Locals really don't tend to appreciate what we have on our doorstep: cliffs, caves, sandy beaches, hills, forests and even the fastest flowing river in the UK, all within 7 miles of my house. It's all here and crying out to be explored, to be appreciated. I appreciate it. I love it. Natural beauty makes my heart feel glad and I feel sorry for those who just don't see it! I took this photo yesterday walking from Portknockie to Cullen!

Sorrow

Interstellar

I went to see Interstellar at the cinema yesterday. What a great film, the best Sci-fi I've seen since Sunshine probably. Besides the amazing cinematography, it deals with some of the forefront issues facing humanity right now and our continued existence. More than that, it's actually very sad. In that respect I share my concern as I often despair for humanity. As a species we have come a long way, but look at what we're doing to ourselves, to each other, and to our planet. We need to change. What will it take to make us do that? The threat of extinction?

Love

 

 

Bon Iver - Blood Bank 

 

Well,  Winter is on it's way and this is a charming song about friendship blossoming into love at Christmas and in the unlikeliest of places. It's a beautiful piece and makes me feel the warmth of humanity which surely lies behind all of the lying and hating.