52.4 From the desk of...

This morning as I am halfway through my fifth day of training at my new job, I am happy to say that I think I will be just fine. Over the last five days I have gone from knowing next to nothing about this company or its wares as it were to having a comfortable understanding of what part I will play in it's customer service area.

I have never thought of myself as an overtly shy person. That is to say I am very aware of just how awkward I can be but it never occured to me that this might be due to shyness more than just being awkward. On more than one occasion I have stressed about something I said that might have been misconstrued or even misunderstood as rude.

For example Wednesday morning our little town of Felixstowe had a water main issue and it affected the majority of the town and more importantly, yours truly. There was little to no water pressure and what water did come through the shower was that brillant brisk cold that brought back memories of gravity fed ice showers in Iraq. I am a strong believer that I should shower everyday come hell or low water pressure. So I soldiered through the frigid trickeling hardly more than dripping shower and attempted to wash my hair as well, this took nearly half an hour to accomplish and needless to say I didn't have time to style my hair as I had the previous two days.

One of the first things one of my fellow trainees asked was if I had done something different with my hair and my less than abrupt answer was "Yeah, I didn't do it." two days later and I am still concerned I said it in a rude way, which is ridiculous because really even if I had the only person that hasn't gotten over it is silly old me. It is very odd to percieve oneself as confident and even somewhat charming if not aloof, only to realize that mostly I am still the spazz I was nearly 15 years ago in high school.

Tomorrow is my 31st birthday, and to be honest I couldn't care less. It upsets me that I have lost that eagerness to reach my next birthday, considering it wasn't that long ago that I stopped saying " and a half " or practically the next age as my heart was beating months before I was born. I am gratefull that I can share the day with my wife and friends but I have finally accepted that the novelty has worn off much like the appeal of a once favored toy the night before Christmas.

Hopefully my rantings next week will be less melencholy and more amusing.

Random fact: Apparently according to the astute journalists at Cosmo magazine people who have sex about three times a week are percieved to look four to seven years younger.

52.3 Time Travel made possible! (via my game console)

It should go with out saying that I think the concept of time travel is pretty amazing. While I would be hard pressed to say my all time favorite film, My favorite trilogy of all time is Back to the Future. While I enjoy a lot of very different shows, my all time favorite (even though it first aired nearly 23 years ago.) is without a doubt Quantum Leap (Doctor Who has become a close second). All of these fictional universes explore my favorite question simply stated: What if time travel is possible.

Earlier today I was watching a popular youtuber (Hank Green) play Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood via videos he has posted of playing and commentating on the game, and I realized why I am 31 and I still enjoy video games as much if not more than I did when I was younger. A lot of games (the ones that interest me that is) make it possible to travel in time.

Games like the above mentioned Assassin's Creed series, Red Dead Redemption the Fable franchise and even the recent Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions allow me to experience the past and future I have seen portrayed in films and tv shows first hand. I am able to walk around and explore 15th Century Italy with Da Vinci, 12th Century England with kings, knights and wizards. I can be a cowboy in the Old West and see New York in the 1930's. As well as futures that I could only dream of, both post apocalyptic and technological utopias.

This simple idea really is the reason I enjoy games as much as I do. I have wanted to travel through time for as long as I can remember. I know it isn't likely, but I just get excited thinking about it. (there are three films I am excited to see this year purely because they deal with time travel in one shape or another.)

I know alot of gamers that play shooter/war games and while some of them share that tiny part of history or future that I enjoy I shy away from them because they focus more on the shooting then the exploring. That is not to say that they are better or worse in my opinion but the fact of the matter is, if I had traveled in time I wouldn't be very likely to jump hamfisted into a war situation if I could avoid it.

The games I enjoy and play over and over again, have stories but they are more or less open ended, allowing me to explore a world that thanks to ever progressing technology is as real and alive as the one I live in. I don't expect everyone to agree with or even understand this part of me. I just like to think that I'm not alone in my hope that time travel is possible.

Random Fact: Time is described as the fourth dimension. The other three dimensions are space, that is, upwards and downwards, front and back and left and right. We can travel through all the three other dimensions but traveling through the fourth dimension, time, is not yet possible.

52.2 A Temp's Perspective.

It amuses me how quickly ones perspective can change in so little time. I have spent the better part of the last two days temping in what can only loosely be called a mail room stuffing envelopes full of helpful little bits of information and plastic access "keys".

My perspective hasn't changed on mind numbing labour. It is still as mind numbing as ever, but from now on when ever I open any piece of mail that has either a bank card or other random clunky piece of plastic (like the kit-Kat shaped pay as-you-go "keys" that I have been stuffing.) I will think about the room full of people telling their stories from the night or weekend before telling inappropriate jokes, having 6 hour long rubberband wars (while stuffing envelopes and syncing keys) and building friendships with people who are only brought together because a shared employer rather than shared interests.

I have had a lot of different jobs in my nearly thirty one years of age. I think the one similarity that each job shared was how many different types of people I met simply because of where I worked. I have been introduced to so many differnt things because of people I have met doing one job or another. I have tried new foods, new games, new activities. I have celebrated new and different holidays, I've learned faster and more efficient ways to do my own job, but the single most important thing I have learned is how to see someone elses perspective.

If there is a point at all to this weeks post its that I love meeting new people, learning the things that amuse and annoy them. (Usually I am amused by annoying them.) The things that have brought them to this point and the things they are looking forward to. Life to me is discovering other peoples stories as I pursue and forge my own.

Random Fact: Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David, Hearts - Charlemagne, Clubs - Alexander theGreat, Diamonds - Julius Caesar

Project 52 Week 1

Back in September I made a promise to my Grandparents that I would be updating this blog with more frequency, unfortunately like most things promised on the Internet I have yet to fulfil this promise. That is about to change,

My wife (more on that in a minute.) came up with an idea that she had titled Project 52. The basic premise of the project is for both of us to post a blog at least once a week (on a non specific day) this year on our individual blogs. (Obviously we will still be updating our joint venture film review blog as we see films.)

A lot has happened since my last update in November. As I mentioned above Helen and I are now Married. We had a small ceremony on the 12th of November with just Helen's Parent's her Sister and Brother-In Law and of course their new baby, and we are planning to have a Large wedding sometime in the fall of 2012 (Which co insides with my next VISA requirement.)

We had a fantastic Christmas and rang in the New Year with friends and family. I am finally able to look for work and have been on the look out for any and all employment opportunities. I have an interview lined up for this Thursday which looks to be a good possibility.

Helen and I have officially stopped our Radio Show on Felixstowe Radio for the time being but we have decided to bring He said, She said to YouTube and launched our first video on the official HeSaidSheSaidFM channel yesterday. Which you can watch below.



Hope you enjoyed the video and I hope you enjoy this weekly glimpse into a former soldier's continuing adventures.

Random Fact Today in History:
in 1959: Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.