The Nexus of the Crisis

A Charanger appears!

2009-11-11T00:45:27Z

This fantastic axe escaped my radar, I'm pretty much dead-set on it if it sounds good tomorrow. Is by far the cheapest and comes with a great hard case ;)

Which one?

2009-11-08T11:48:41Z

Definitely buying one of these in the next few weeks, still a little undecided as the black one has the pick-ups I've loved for years though the awesome looking red chameleon one has similar sounding passive pickups, maybe the tiniest bit below EMG's but each setup has slight advantages in different areas. For guitar heads I've included the pickup types, the rest falls to aesthetics for non-guitarheads.

XPT700
Through neck design (Wizard II neck, reverse headstock) for longer sustain, DiMarzio D-Activator passive pickups, Edge III bridge

OR

RGT6ex
Through-neck design (Wizard II neck), EMG 81/85 active pickups, Edge III bridge

Back to Shito-ryu karate

2009-10-09T17:56:03Z

I'm going to start practising Shito-ryu again. I used to do it years ago before University and got to my green belt. If Jennifer's dad will return to Karate I'll be able to join him for sessions again. Jen's Dad was secretary of Scotland for KOFUKAN and also a 4th Dan blackbelt, gave me some absolutely horrific information leading to a good understanding of the style and the havoc when you land it. I can remember a few of the kata but I really need to get graded up as soon as possible so I can 'officially' learn the higher dan katas. Shitoryu was the first of many fighting styles where I found there was no airs or graces or he-man attitudes, everyone was at least 30 years old+ and we had an awesome ethos of using force in attacks without pads and controlling it, even against all the safety/H&S bullshit. I put that down to the fact the club was full of old boys who loved punching me.

Here's a bit on the style, shamelessly ripp'd from wiki:

Shitō-ryū is a combination style, which attempts to unite the diverse roots of karate. On one hand, Shitō-ryū has the physical strength and long powerful stances of Shuri-te derived styles, such as Shorin-ryū and Shotokan (松涛館), on the other hand Shitō-ryū has circular and eight-directional movements, breathing power, hard and soft characteristics of Naha-te and Tomari-te (泊手) styles, such as Gōjū-ryū (剛柔流). Shitō-ryū is extremely fast, but still can be artistic and powerful. In addition, Shitō-ryū formalizes and emphasizes the five rules of defense, developed by Kenwa Mabuni, and known as Uke no go gensoku (受けの五原則), Uke no go genri (受けの五原理) or Uke no go ho (受けの五法) [17]:

落花 (rakka, "falling petals"). The art of blocking with such force and precision as to completely destroy the opponent's attacking motion. Examples of rakka are the most well-known blocks, such as gedan-barai (下段払い) or soto-uke (外受け).
流水 (ryūsui, "running water"). The art of flowing around the attacker's motion, and through it, soft blocking. Examples are nagashi-uke (流し受け) and osae-uke (押さえ受け).
屈伸 (kusshin, "elasticity"). This is the art of bouncing back, storing energy while recoiling from the opponent's attack, changing or lowering stance only to immediately unwind and counterattack. Classic examples are stance transitions zenkutsu (前屈立ち) to kōkutsu (後屈立ち) and moto-dachi (基立ち) to nekoashi-dachi (猫足立ち).
転位 (ten'i, "transposition"). Ten'i is the utilization of all eight directions of movement, most importantly stepping away from the line of attack.
反撃 (hangeki, "counterattack"). A hangeki defense is an attack which at the same time deflects the opponent's attack before it can reach the defender. Examples of this are various kinds of tsuki-uke (突き受け), including yama-tsuki (山突き).
Modern Shitō-ryū styles also place a strong emphasis on sparring. Shitō-ryū stresses speed, and fighting is generally initiated from a higher, more upright stance than Shotokan employs. On the other hand, because the style has so many kata, a great deal of time is spent perfecting any one of its 40 to 60 forms.[3]

Save Tchaiovna (Otago Lane) from being demolished

2009-09-23T17:04:20Z

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/30135.html

Turns out in addition to across-the-way dvelopment, the actual Otago Lane area is to be demolished in it's entirety. It is already shadowed from unrelenting urban sprawl by way of the new UNITE student accomodation building on the riverbank. Don't let it happen!

Rob

Team Bravo, Bribes and Biscuits, POLC course complete!

2009-09-20T20:26:12Z

Hello!

POLC was a fantastic success. End of course interview revealed I had excellent communication and my leadership qualities were very good. On Thursday through to Friday I was class leader and faired very well with that.

We stayed at HMS Bristol, a 1967 Type 82 destroyer with tiny bunk spaces. Flights were uneventful and landings great. I arrived later than expected due to bad flight scheduling times. Arrived initially at Southampton Airport and took the Parkway train to a switchover at what I believe was Southampton central and then onwards to Portsmouth and Southsea. I took the taxi to Whale Island, a manmade island serving as headquarters for many departments of the Navy. Was met by an armed soldier at the gate, received a greean 'unescorted' pass and proceeded through passed HMS Excellent to HMS Bristol for accommodation.

Upon arrival at HMS Bristol, I noticed how large the area was. All the decor in the jetty seemed to be shrouded in green and you could see nothing but Naval ships, some Frigates from the E.U. as well as two of the RN aircraft carriers. Upon entering HMS Britol I was presented by the following door:

Went in and proceeded to the following hatch:

Which took me along the bowels of the ship to Mess 6 where I was berthed. The bunks themselves are at rating level and as an officer you would actually get a small room to yourself. Here's my bunk:

We went to sleep at around 12am every night and awoke around 5.55am each morning. We'd get washed up near the heads (toilets) at the end of the ship in the shower/washroom and get changed into our suits for breakfast at HMS Excellent, in the Officer Wardroom. The decor in this place was historic and amazing. The wardroom was VAT excluive, so a half pint of very high quality heavy was only 61p. Pints were a tiny bit over a £1!! On one evening, a visiting Commodore arrived at Excellent so drinks were FREE before dinner. Dinner that particular night was a Carvery, I.e. Roast pork, stuffing, applesauce, baby roastpotatoes etc. carved and arranged for you in front of you. Fantastic.

Dinner at HMS Excellent was in the same breakfast area,at the sme massive elongated polished oak tables though you had 6 pieces of silverware per person with glasses and napkins all arranged in front of you. Everytime I asked one of the Wardroom chefs/servers for something or if they addressed me it was always sufficed by "Sir". Made one feel rather important I can say! The dining area itself was surrounded by history, artefacts of Naval legend arrayed in glass cabinets as well as centuries old oil canvasses measuring 7 by 3 ft in areas! Amazing.

Here's a picture of the bar to give you a very rough idea of the plushness of the area:

After breakfast at Excellent, the class of Potential Officer cadets were picked up by bus and taken to HMS Collingwood, to the Royal Naval Leadership Academy. Once there, we recieved lectures, briefs and gave presentations to be assessed by Lieutenants. The physical teamwork was in Planned Leadership Tasks, Assualt courses, Low ropes challenges as well as other general team building such as dogwatch sports in the evenings (volleyball, pass-back and the crazy Brighton Cricket). Did well on the Multi Stage Fitness Test, passed it and got all round good reports in other areas. Was told that my leadership as class leader was very good, particularly for the last day. I made a conscious effort to get to know each person individually, we had all sorts from a young 16/17 yo girl to a 25 year old lad who had almost completed the full Officer training at Dartmouth and had unfortunately failed the final MARL exercise. By the end of the week, a few of the lads were referring to me as Sir, which I found rather bizarre.

So much happened to possibly explain it all, but we did well as a team and our particular syndicate (the 15 of us were divided into two syndicates, Alpha and Bravo) did the best.

On the last night we were rewarded a night out to the Indian Palace at Port Solent. Food was good and we had a right good laugh! Awards were given to a few, myself included. My award was named the "Baywatch Award" for posing. Apparently I have the unconscious habit of making a pose whilst stroking my chin, so it wasn't for slow-motion running or posing in trunks!! The prize was a packet of Spar Nice biscuits. Biscuits are what the Royal Navy traditionally uses for small favours and rewards so I felt really happy for receiving this.

An amazing experience and I'm well on my development towards AIB and Officer training.

Sorry for not cutting, I'm a diabetic.

New Adventure boots!

2009-09-07T19:31:56Z

Hopefully my manly toes will break them in in time for next week. Next.. WEEK!?

Waaaaah! Back to the kit list and presentation, checking the flights and rail tickets.. where'd I put that Sherpa?!

Gym stats

2009-09-04T16:45:13Z

Another Gym update, weights are steadily increasing. We got a few new machines and a tonne (literally?) of new uber dumbells ranging from 32.5 kg to a mahoosive 40kg. Managed up to and including the 37.5kg for flyes but will conquer the 40's soon enough!

As always butterballs, if any of you wanna train let me know and we can organise some sessions.

Upper body

Benchpress: 110kg, 6 reps of 100kg
Flyes (knuckle to knuckle): 37.5kg dumbell x2 (75kg)
Shoulder shrugs: 120kg
Shoulder press: 70kg
Anterior delts: 45kg approx
Biceps: secondary exercises, not known
Triceps: Pull-65kg, freebar (skullcrushers)- 50kg approx

Deadlifts: 120kg approx
Seated row: 50kg approx
dumbell row: 37.5kg

Core ex: 30kg a side

Lower Body

Seated Leg press: 250kg (10x 25kg plate) Don't ask how, harsh farm labour as a child if I had to guess.
Squats: 120kg (have managed 140kg before but no chance am I risking injury from a relatively weaker core)
Leg extension (Thigh): 18/20 plates, 90kg approx
Rear of thigh curls: 14/20 plates, 70kg approx
Calf extensions: Full weight of press machine, 80kg on seated calf machine (max possible sadly, need a better machine at the gym)

Cardio

Running every second day where possible: 20 minute sessions of Fartlek or extended periods of same-speed running. Going to try for 30 minutes tomorrow if I get up early enough. Fuck running man, none of this fight/flight pish for me. When's the last time you saw a Rhino running away? ;)

Dumbest things quiz

2009-09-04T16:06:02Z

What is the dumbest thing you've ever done?

View 560 Answers

One of too many. Firing a shotgun directly and repeatedly at a car, aiming for the fuel tank with the intention of blowing the car up. From 3 metres away.

A week today

2009-09-04T13:12:24Z

I'll hopefully be in Portsmouth on my way to HMS Collingwood (or thereabouts) for the week long POLCourse. Received the train tickets the other day and have already got the flight tickets through, just need to work on the presentation atm, which seems to be going quite well.

The presentation topic I chose was to do with interfaces and their design from usabilty and cyberpsychology perspectives. I've included a small video of the windows surface within the slides though I had to edit it to keep the time down. Hilariously, the audio is perfect despite the video edit! So will be able to keep the annoying American voice rather than dictate over it. 7 minutes presentation time is absolutely ideal, can't usually be bothered with the whole 20-minute thing.

No need fretting too much over the content of the presentation though, it is mostly an exercise in communication & public speaking, which I have absolutely no trouble with. I suppose the fact that there could be anyone from a Royal Marine to a Commander present in Uniform could be a slight put-off but I'm not really apprehensive at all, even regarding the whole trip. You just need to get on with these things.

Good weekend

2009-08-31T12:59:33Z

Was a great weekend looking back at it now. The weather was rather strange but we managed to get in a lot of hiking and fishing along the coast of Milport. Gary has covered the majority of the goings-on and I'm quite tired so am only contributing a small part. The camping was great once we found a site and the mood was pretty hilarious at times, especially since we had the exact same "2-man" tent and I was having the one to myself whereas Colin and Gary were absolutely crammed with their equipment in the tent, apparently having to meticulously co-ordinate movements in order to actually achieve the necessary setting-up of bags etc. The barbeque was quite nice, especially to sit for an hour with a well-earned beer.

I spent most of the trip with soaking feet (non-waterproof Merrel trainers) and a slightly sore heel from having to run back to Gary et al. post-casualty drop-off. Jim had a minor cut in his leg from where a large piece of sandstone slab had jumped out when I exemplified the art of lifting and smashing what was a very light and fragile rock which looked deceptively heavy. My joke feat of strength definitely backfired :/ My Dad and Sandy picked jim up after a short bus ride at the Sport centre jetty to take him in the boat across the channel and to their paramedic friend who would usually join us for a tea and biscuit now and then at the marina. Sadly, his leg would've been fine had he chosen to continue on but it is preferable that he went to get it checked out.

A lot of awesome stuff went on: We saw a Typhoon Eurofighter in the channel not half a klik from our location performing for the Regatta at Largs, we had swallows diving a foot in front of us in cheeky displays of flying prowess, we had a seal eat all Gary's fish, we had a Gary lose all our fishing tackle!, we met a very angry and somewhat mexican stand-off crab who was spared from the bbq, we had double rainbows as far as the eye could see, we saw plenty of nice country sights and we had an awesome boat trip on the way out and on the way back with yours truly managing to catch a nice mackerel on the very last cast of the day! Last time I caught a fish was with my late Grampa so it was a really happy moment to be honest. Tasted great as well. Will try gather the pics and vids of the weekend at some point to post.

Only 13 days to go until the POLCourse down south, so should get cracking to wrap up my presentation and do some final fitness preparation. Would be better if my back wasn't broken though :/ Probably from carrying something in the region of 30kg or so. Should pack it all up and measure it to check, was a 70 litre rucksack after all :)

Final details for Bute trip tomorrow

2009-08-28T13:37:21Z

Ok folks, we're all sorted. I have all the equipment necessary for cooking, Gary's picking up a couple of disposable BBQ things and a bunch of meat for a few. I'd strongly advise you attempt to bring the following if you haven't already:

-Something to drink out of.
-Something to eat out of
-Something to cook/eat MEAT! that will suffice
-Any associated cutlery items and water. Definitely bring water.
-Sleeping bag or sleeping something or other
-Something to put under the sleeping bag to stop the nasty chills!
-Decent walking boots or shoes.
-Some clothes to cope with warm/cold/wet weather
-Couple of beers if so persuaded
-yer phone!
-Anything I haven't thought of should also be brought :)

Be at CENTRAL STATION for 09:15am!!
Train departs for Fairlie at 09:45am!

O___o

2009-08-27T20:26:38Z

There are no words.

Travel details

2009-08-20T22:09:50Z

Bute Trip (Sat 29^th – Sun 30^th)

Travel details

Be at Central station @ 09.15am

Departing train to Fairlie: 9.45am

Arrival @ Fairlie: 10.37am

Depart Fairlie @ 10.40am

Arrival @ Largs Marina 11.15am

Depart Marina NLT 12pm

Arrival @ GlenCallum bay 1.30pm

Oops!

2009-08-16T11:16:22Z

Comiserations to fellow shipmates but it seems we were already at max capacity before I'd even posted about the trip :(
Seems the boat is only able to hold at absolute max 6 people, considering I had a preliminary 9 people confirmed. Compound fail, considering two of these are myself and the Skipper!

It is possible that we may have been able to push numbers but I have been advised that due to the changeable nature of the Firth it is best to cut loose the latest additions of the crew (since I'd already called the initial crew before posting the trip on LJ) and feed them to the basking sharks.

jemjen (Yes, I'm feeding Jen to the sharks as I'm a stickler for fairness :( )
sccorpy
the_psyman
caz_chan

Sorry to get your hopes up guys, considering I only told Si abnout it the other night lol!

Now to kick Dad's arse for not informing me of this sooner >:(

Slow Day

2009-08-09T15:08:02Z

Yes indeed it is a slow day at work. Sundays are ridiculously quiet during the Holiday period here. Not that I'd rather it were busy, lets me get a lot of research and training done with much extended lunch break goodness.

Going swimming ~~with bare-naked wimmin~~ tomorrow so looking forward to that, will be a cool way to finish off work. I was at home earlier in the week and found my Magnum military boots. Very dusty and the inserts for the soles were rusted and ripped to bits, so I tore them up and removed the corroded metal from the heel supports and gave them a good scrubbing. Will return home with new inserts to see if I can salvage me booties.

Got the RN presentation theme sorted: 'Benefits of superior HCI/UCD (design) on existing Interfaces'. Just need to populate the slideshow adequately enough to pass a quality 7 minutes. Should be a piece of cake. Now all that needs done for this course is the purchase of a few choice goods and more fitness training.

Need to do more running :/ Time to bone-up on Fartlek. Ahem.

Bute Expedition

2009-08-05T16:35:05Z

Yo-ho me hearties!

"A" marks the spot, the Isle of Bute. I have organised the time for this trip as Saturday 29th to Sunday 30th august.
We will be headed out from Glasgow Central station on the morning of the 29th to arrive at Fairlie station approximately 1 hour later. It will then be 20/25 minutes walk to Largs Marina where the lovely September Mist is berthed. Once we have loaded the boat up, it should only take around 1.5 hours to get to Bute via the Cumbrae slip, Northwards. We will pass Milport and head westwards to the Isle of Bute where I expect we will berth at the horn in the central east location, unless advised otherwise. There WILL be the opportunity to fish from the boat for the evening meal, I believe there is plenty of mackerel and the odd cod in this region ;)

The route to the camping area is still to be chosen as there are a few different areas possible depending on the preferred route. I expect we will walk no more than around 2/3 hours for the sake of achieving the most relaxing use of time.

I have a spare 3-man tent for those who may not by the time the trip comes around. I'll deal as much as possible with cooking etc. though I'll most likely post soon enough about which provisions to bring if necessary.

So far we have a few people confirmed and likewise have places for a few.

Let me know ;)

Random

2009-08-04T11:42:30Z

girl came up to me at work for help with something, gave me her number and asked if I'd like to go for a coffee with her and shot off rapid style.

BLUH. Was probably my reply if I recall. Will need to track her down in the base and say thanks but no thanks as ignoring it/not calling would be impolite. :/

But it is proof my fellow men, that sometimes, just sometimes, THEY ask YOU out.

Johnny..

2009-08-03T16:47:09Z

Some deals on supplements, Summer sale time:

https://www.discount-supplements.co.uk/

Arran Expedition, Want to join?

2009-08-02T21:16:29Z

Ladles and Jellyspoons, lend me your rears!

I plan to organise and partake in a self-initiated trek to the mountain areas of Arran within the month of August! I shall need anyone interested in a couple of day's excursion and camping in the hills. Survival is likely and catering will be by yours truly. Bringing your own food etc. is highly recommended and I shall cook it :D

It is cheap to get to, a ticket from Glasgow Central to Ardrossan Harbour (45-55 minutes) and a further ticket from the harbour to Arran via ferry ALTHOUGH I may be able to use my Dad's 25-ft yacht for travel as this would be far ~~funnier~~ more awesome.

T'will be hilariously fun and difficulty will depend on attendees, I am NOT planning on racing up the mountain like a mong though if the contingent are fit enough then the least we'll be doing is a gentle hillwalk upwards.

More details to follow, though I would like initial registers of interest so I can thinkisize a plan :D

To reiterate: We get our hiking gear and rucksacks, we get a train to my place, we hi-jack a fucking boat! , we dock at Arran, we orienteer up the mountainous regions, we camp out at a cool spot and have fun for a night or so, we head back to the dock and head to our respective homes via train.

HMS Collingwood, September

2009-08-02T08:56:49Z

Huzzah! Managed to get on a Potential Officer Leadership Course (POLC herein) for September down in Fareham, HMS Collingwood. The Lieutenant informed me of the limited places available (15 in the UK) at our last meeting. Have since followed up this course routinely in order to glean some more details as well as the general progress of it. The result is that I'm heading down south in around 6 week's time.

The course itself is literally just out of the packaging, no-one seemed to know exactly what was involved or even its title. I was sent around seven separate documents involving kit lists, itinerary for the duration as well as general instructions on travel. It is all-expenses paid, including accomodation and food which is superb as I've always wanted to play 'Government Sponger' ever since I saw the MP boys do it. I've been sent the plane tickets so far and am awaiting the rail tickets by post.

More on the POLC: There is a lot to do during the 5 main action-packed days, always involving a heavy emphasis towards leadership, delegation and communication skills. I have to do a 7 minute presentation on a subject of my choice which is a piece of piss having been used to presenting at least 20 minutes to complete strangers. The physical side involves swimming, the multi-stage fitness test, orienteering, a possible flight in RN aircraft ("CHOPPA!!"), what is hopefully the Commando-style assualt course, yomping around the countryside as far as I can gather and practical team-building exercises dotted randomly in amongst.

Minimum dress for eating in evenings is jacket and tie, so quite a formal affair for Officer mess though this should be no problem, I have the full charcoal suit with waistcoat ANNND... Silver hunting pocket watch to fit in the waistcoat pocket. Oh Yes. I will wear it :D. Quite a lot of stuff to take including a 65 litre rucksack (if owned) and a couple more changes of clothes :/ SOUNDS to me like a certain friend of yours is to be chucked into watery mess mess at frequent opportunities..I have to work on my "Shame on you, I am not amused" face. But will no doubt be shits and squiggles. By then I'll hopefully have my new phone:

Search for HTC touch pro 2 if you're interested, a very hot phone at the moment, gets at least 9/10 from the Official palm-top mags. Battery is meant to be a bit shit though.

The gym is going very well as per usual, not much to update on. As usual if ANY one reading this wants to join me at some point I am more than happy to give you the best routines and training tips (there are TONNES) to help you along rapid-style, cardio or lifting. Still train at Caledonian Uni gym which is public but I will be going to one or more pools soon to get back on top of my swimming. Again, if you want to come along swimming then feel free, we could get THE COFFEE afterwards ;)

GOOOOODD NNIIIIGGGHHHH!

More RN progress

2009-07-13T20:18:48Z

Everybody's on holiday!

At least, the majority of people dealing with me are apparently. Today was my "long-lie in and relaxing day-off" which started pretty well until 9.15am when I received a witheld number on my alarm clock (the best use I have for my mobile). Was a nice sounding lass from the Rosyth Officer Liaison Office, letting me know that the reason I couldn't get through was because of the aforementioned situation with folks on holidays/training etc.

Regardless, I was happy to find out I had a place on a Royal Navy Acquaint Course booked/penned in for around September time. The course involves some training as well as weapon handling over a short period, around 3-7 days and I believe it's all aimed at giving you a quick heads-up about life in the RN etc. etc.

Whether or not this course is predominantly aimed at Officers or Ratings, I don't know, though I'm keen either way. As always, eager to go ahead and at last relieved to find I haven't been forgotten heh heh!

Gym going fantastic, I don't buy much for myself during a month except for protein/weight-training based goods and the progress is keeping me satisfied. If it is still good weather in the next couple of days, I will try some outdoor running as I'm getting fed up a little with the treadmills in the gym.

Saw Transformers and Blood the Last Vampire recently. The former alright, the latter.. terrible. Also saw Johnny Depp's latest emo/waster-inspiring dribble. Crap.

RN progress

2009-07-05T13:15:31Z

No immediate word yet from an email I sent off to the OCLC (Officer Careers Liaison Centre) so I will be trying the AFCO (Armed Forces Career Office) on Queen St. instead.

I received more information from an official online regarding the HMS Collingwood training centre and it seems that any leadership course I am to take is one of two things, either:

a) Brand-new and therefore unbeknownst to the AFCO

or

b) A thinly veiled attempt at placing me on what should only be a course for existing personnel.

Either way I'll be making enquiries.

Another gym post

2009-07-05T13:09:45Z

New record on leg press: 8 reps of 250kg. Not lbs, kg. That's right, 39 stones. As far as I'm aware I still weigh 78kg, around 12 stones though I haven't weighed in for a while.

Chest is at 100kg, biceps (dual) is around 30-40kg (20/22kg single), triceps are steady at 50-60kg on the rope, 30-40kg on the bar.
Shoulders are at something like 70kg on the 'behind-head-lift-bar exercise and delts are around the same.
Doing 100kg+ on shrugs for traps and approximately the same on deadlifts. I can do much more weight than this but am very aware of negative effects to the back when I don't do just as much core training.

Supplements are superb at present: High 5 recovery protein bars x2-3 and Relfex pure whey high isolate approx 2 shakes. Have recently ordered the bad-boy of protein powders, Optimum Nutrition 100% whey and some EAS Myoplex protein bars which were The Business TM when I made vast gains before. Cost for my present supplements is about £110, retail probably at £200.. So rather an expensive hobby but saving a fortune on buying natural protein foods (where you would have an energy overhead in converting the offered protein into a vastly inferior proportion of isolate).

The current set-up is almost exclusively high-isolate, hence the higher cost with isolate being the purest form of protein for delivery available.

This week has been an indulgent 'building' week rather than exercise week. Exercise week will begin in earnest. doing quite well on the running front but God damn my big thighs >:(

Did legs today, not too bad a result on a breakfast-less, 6-hour sleep deprived dreary Sunday ;)

Continuing on!

2009-06-22T18:36:04Z

Christ, I'd just typed out a tonne of stuff there and lost it all. Typical.

Anyway to summarise: Interview went really well. The AFCO Lt. is attempting to arrange a trip for me to HMS Collingwood down South, a Naval personnel training establishment which normally deals with leadership training for existing personnel so I'm feeling very priviledged in all honesty, wasn't expecting it as it is a very very big bonus towards AIB preparation. There are 15 places nationwide, so here's hoping it continues on successfully.

During the interview I spoke of leadership experiences throughout life, secondary, University etc. as well as responding to questions on the Royal Navy in terms of fleet ship types and deployment, specifically, where the Navy is currently based i.e British dependencies like the Caymans, Falklands, Gibraltar etc. as well as Operation Taurus, which, I can inform you, is currently leaving the Gulf of Aden towards littoral maritime (amphibious specifically) operations with other nations, having already transitted the Suez canal and Red sea. Sooo going well.

The amount of hurdles you have to undertake to progress to Officer is truly surprising and not what you may expect. I also learned of the dreaded "Finger of Ping", which may have me serving as a submariner for a portion of my career. I registered my compliance in the interest of just ascertaining a place! Really though, I'm not terribly fussed about the different means, I'm far more interested in fulfilling the E(IS) role. There is no absolute decision regarding either submarines or ships, it totally depends on operational needs.

I have noticed recently that I'm becoming more and more relaxed regarding these interviews and other events.. Getting older or just controlling nerves very well? Not sure really. Today I was approaching the AFCO to have an interview which has seen premature ends to Navy careers and I was actually much more interested in grilling the Lt. regarding some items I wanted to ask about. I honestly think it's age. Regardless of ability or looks, a lot can be said for the age of a person I mean.. How many times did you notice no-one taking you or your opinion on a subject seriously when you were 15? It's annoying as f*** because (and I don't know about the rest of you) I've been just about the same mentally now as I was when I was a young teenager.. Ah well.

So far:
Informal meeting
Interview
RT (Aptitude test)
2 hour visual appointment
Medical
Pre-Joining Fitness Test
Officer Sift Interview
HMS Collingwood training
Admiralty Interview Board
Britannia Royal Naval College

Kody's bbq was great, good to meet folks as always. Sorry to those I didn't say goodbye to, I had to run since I had a full Sunday of work from 9am-6pm of.. well mostly study at work in preparation for the Interview. So had fun there and was great to see everyone again.

I'm not going to put this under a cut, if you need it cut you've got too many friends on LJ. And they're all talking guff, or posting too much! ;)

Bear Birthday Butt Barbeque Bacon Bumble BEES!!!1

2009-06-19T20:43:16Z

Happy birthday to the big belligerent bear, belated or otherwise!

Alliterations aside, looking forward to tomorrow. Not posting too much on LJ, though enjoying other's posts and reading avidly. If perchance I don't post a comment on your page the default comment is "Good for you, glad to hear it's coming on." with the converse statement "That's a shame, hope all goes well in the future." :D

I have been to the Doctor Who exhibit (wassup, wanna pump some 22'' rims on dat?!) and it was fantastic. Even more so since I've finally caught up with my Dr Who watching. Been watching some Torchwood aswell. It's awful.

Gym's going pretty well. Running allright and the weights are going great. Getting a rugby physique with the legs an' all, good for the old short shorts :P

Health-wise doing fine and job-wise doing good. Was nice to get out and about on the Thursday there to see a few folks again. My friends group is in the sub-10 division but it's comfortable there. A few great friends as opposed to a gaggle of rim jockeys! Rapidly approaching the soltice and yet the weather's been.. remarkably fleeting. At least the good weather has. The only viable option for prolonging the summer weather is to recreate the best parts in a large hangar somewhere... Centre Parcs or summat.

I like to put down factual accounts here, not so much the emotional side of things. On the emotional side of things I'm a very consistent person, hopefully giving off an air of passive-aggressive hostility towards people when comically suitable :) In all seriousness, feeling fine all-round. Even so when times were to be blunt, shit with Uni and struggling through there.. I still feel fine :/

Big shouts to all the boys and girls I love