52.8 ME, Me, Mouse Ears

Being an honest to goodness adult can be tricky at times. I don't feel any more responsible then I did 15 years ago. (though most would testify I was a much more mature 16 year old child than I am as a 31 year old adult.) All that said, I have grown up responsibilities now. I have a wife and very soon we will have a home to ourselves.

Helen and I both hope to live in Brighton some time in the future and we are both constantly looking for opportunities to make that hope a reality. I was gutted last November when two weeks before my VISA was approved a job came up in Brighton that would have been ideal both for my previous experience and location, location, location. The closing date for said job was three days before my VISA was approved.

The job is roughly summarised as an adult moderator for a youth populated online game community hosted by a well known house of mouse. My duties will include but not be limited to helping parents of members in the community as well as policing the community so that it remains a safe place for the members to make friends in all corners of the world, and the freedom to play several different online games. I think.

The job has recently been listed again, and I jumped at the opportunity to throw my hat in the ring. Obviously the circumstances are slightly different. I now actually have a job for one, and scheduling interviews around my very long and anti-social work hours is no small task.

As of yesterday I have made it through three levels. (A call back after emailing my CV {Resume} and cover letter, A phone interview, and a questionnaire.) the final stage of the interview process is a 3-4 hour assessment interview in Brighton which has me stressing more than I would like to admit. I am not worried that I will do poorly I'm worried that I am so excited that I might actually get this job that I will be devastated if I don't.

I am very lucky in that I do very well in interviews, I'm likeable and have a quality that makes people want be part of the fun that is knowing me. (I'm not being conceited I have worked long and hard at being good at this, or at least giving off this vibe.) I'm also really good at using humour to deflect my nervousness. (A skill that I have been honing since I started noticing girls liked boys that could make them laugh.)

This interview is really important to me, not least of all because If I get the job Helen and I will be moving into our own place! I will let you all know how the assessment day goes in my next post, hopefully by then I will know one way or another if I will be working for the online division of the house of mouse.

Random Fact:

2,500 lefthanders die each year trying to operate a right handed device.

52.7 Broad searches

I have absolutely no Idea what I should write about this week. So in an attempt at spontaneity and a hope for inspiration I googled the word images. which is just about as broad a search term as googling "stuff". There were something close to 3 billion images in my search and most of the ones I glanced at involved space and then I saw the image at your left.

It's educational, bitches! Deal with it.

Random Fact:

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"

52.6 Ghost....Writer

Ghosts, as in beings who were at one time alive. Do you believe?

If you do are there ghost rules or restrictions?

I am reading Her Fearful Symmetry written by Audrey Niffenegger the same author that wrote the fantastic Time Traveller's Wife (which was made into the film starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana) Niffenegger has an interesting writing style that consists of a well woven narrative with no discernible antagonist. The only antagonist in Time Traveller's Wife was the genetic condition that allowed/forced the character to travel in time.

Her Fearful Symmetry is a ghost story, the story is about estranged twin sisters that have spent 20 years more than 3000 miles apart, one of the sisters has twins daughters as well and on their 21st birthday they learn that they have inherited their recently deceased Aunts central London flat as well as a large endowment. When they first arrive, everything seems to be new and exciting and ordinary until their dead aunt leaves them a message in the dust on a piece of furniture:

Greetings Valentina and Julia

I am here

Love, Elspeth

It is this message that has inspired this weeks post, We have all known people who have died either by natural or unnatural causes. Depending on what you believe the generally accepted idea is that when you die, you find yourself elsewhere, be it Heaven or Hell or for those of us that aren't restrained by religion just gone. My question is what if we chose not to go, dead, inevitably to be forgotten, but still here?

I love the idea of being a ghost (though I am less enthusiastic about being trapped forever in a single apartment/flat as is Elspeth) The idea that my story (as life would no longer be accurate.) could possibly continue in a new way is very interesting and even exciting to me. Would you want to know if I was still around, possibly haunting you or a place you associate with me?

I am torn on this idea, I love the idea of knowing that my story doesn't end simply because my bodies sell by date has expired. My hesitation stems from whether or not I would want to burden others with that knowledge. Could my wife (and inevitable offspring) live their lives to the fullest extent with the knowledge that I could be there watching without the ability to interact.
Is that fair to them? Is it fair to me? What do you think?

Random Fact: Area 51 is 575 square miles in size, and located in the middle of the Nevada Test & Training Range (NTTR), which covers 4,687 square miles.

52.5 Brought to you by the Letter L

Another post written intermittently while answering calls at my desk at work which looks eerily similar to this image, but isn't.  Todays post is apparently brought to you by the letter L. 

It doesn't happen very often but once in a while, I Learn something new about myself. Allow me to give a few examples, when I was a soldier I learned just how many miles I could run in a day and I frequently learned that given the correct motivation, (e.g. someone I feared more than muscle pain) I could run even further.

I also learned that I am ridiculously Lucky. Many people that have shared similar experiences to my own (helicopter crashes, bullet wounds, insurgents bombing airfields less then 10 feet from my sleeping bag) have faired far worse than me and have the scars to prove it if they are still lucky enough to be standing. I have also been lucky in love as the several previous posts about my ever blushing bride can tell you.

Today I learned I am quick to judge a complete stranger by their appearance alone. It isn't that I am unaware that I do this, I have always formed my opinions on my first impressions mostly due to the fact that I tend to be dead on the money. When I was in the Army I knew with in the first few hours whether or not a new soldier in the unit was going to be anything more than an annoyance or a problem waiting to happen (eg, attitude or behaviour issues) , something that most of my fellow soldiers took weeks and sometimes months to catch on to, usually to their dismay.

It occurred to me today holding a door open for a guy that I can only describe as a bit flamboyant,(in his full denim jeans and denim shirt, and his lavender midriff showing undershirt) and my inner thought process chuckled (at the time I had been thinking about a character in the book I'm reading dealing with OCD) I am under the general impression that I am a decent, well mannered person, I hold doors open for people, I say please and thank you, and I am often heard to say sir and ma'am to just about everyone I speak with, so why is it do you suppose, that I am amused when my assumptions about a complete stranger are confirmed seconds after I form them. (In this case Mr flamboyant gave an effeminate giggle and sashayed into the office.)

So my question for you today is what have you learned about yourself, that you may have been aware of but didn't actually know?

Random Fact: Harrison Ford presented Edward Zwick (the director of Love and other drugs) The 1998 Oscar award for best picture for Shakespeare in love.

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.

This thing we do...

Hey long time no talk this is mostly an update for my grandparents as I told them I would start updating this blog again a little more regularly. I am doing great life over here is a bit hectic, but I am really enjoying it, A lot has happened in the month that I have been here. Helen's sister has had a bouncing baby boy, (William Thomas Aykroyd) which I am sure you have seen pictures of by now.

As you know Helen and I contribute to an ongoing video project once a week, this weeks video fell on Halloween so we decided to make a themed video, hope you enjoy it!

Random Fact of the day:

Helen and I are heading to Brighton in southern England for a long weekend with our friends, later today!

The Complete Marmot Guide (a fast fiction)

The following is a fast fiction story.

Fast fiction is derived from being given a random title (up to four words) and constructing a short (200 word story). This first fast fiction title was suggested via twitter by @duplicatehelix.


The complete Marmot guide

Cowering in the shadow of his burrow, crouched the young marmot. Discretely hidden amongst the loose rocks the uprights dislodged while laying the parallel flat rocks.

The Marmot knew there were rules to survive living so close to an upright burrow. There were risks and rewards, though the risks frequently overshadowed even the best rewards.

Rule #1. Daylight is dangerous.
The uprights are mostly day foragers and hunters, and are prone to hunting to fight boredom. While they are still present at night they seem more interested in their sour water and females than their surroundings.

Rule #2 Food on the fly.

The uprights seem to leave food everywhere they go, but if they discover some other creature consuming, they will chase with thundersticks and place their prey's skin on their walls.

Rule #3 The further the better:

The uprights control sweet plants, they guard the outskirts of the sweet plants tend to be homes for 8 leggeds and water holes out of the line of sight.

Knowing these rules the marmot waited until the light grew dim, ventured across the flat rocks, and crept near the sweet plants, only to be snatched into the air by the talons of the great grey owl.