So now, I fancy it again, and maybe with a new motorcycle, my current contenders are either a Harley Davidson 883 Low, or A Triumph Speedmaster… old man’s bikes, yeah maybe but I like em.  Of Course I have my Bandit 12, which is probably far more suited to the job, so maybe I’ll just stick to that.

Anyway, expect some plans for the first challenges, the ‘Saddle Sore’ and ‘Bun Burner’ and who knows, maybe even a Iron Butt rally, the hardest endurance road ride in the world!

IBA - World’s Toughest Motorcycle Riders

When members of my team had left I went out of my way to make sure that, for their last day, they had something appropriate as a leaving gift so that they knew they would be missed and that they had been valued.  One of my team even bought me gifts when they left!

Today was my last day and although I wasn’t anticipating anything big, I honestly thought that the company was sad to see me go and I’d get something.

At my leaving lunch I was given a card, signed by half the staff, with nothing inside.  Back at the office, nothing more was said, so I got ready to slope off.  I was told there had been a “modest” collection and would I “like a bottle of scotch?”. I was given nothing as a gesture, not even a bunch of flowers, and I felt that the company didn’t care that I was going.

30 months of dedicated work and I wasn’t valued enough for a leaving gift (or the time to sort one out), which really underlines that I made the correct decision in leaving.  

Lets start with a feature on BBC1 Sunday morning dross tv, on the ‘Freemale’ subject.  It features a 20 something woman who considers herself to be one, some 50 year old bat and the two presenters, a typical air headed has-been woman and a guy who comes across as gay as a day… so no real help there for the heterosexual man.  Why is this a crucial omission? Well because the interview, like anything to do with this sort of shit, turned into a man-bash.

Surprisingly the 20 something woman is largely irrelevant in this rant, she doesn’t hate men, or think they are crap, or in fact say anything sexist at all.  She is just influenced heavily by ‘Sex in the City’ and is, imo, to young and daft to realise she just enjoys being independent.  The interviewers are also irrelevant because they are opinion-less fuckwits.

The hag though, well she’s got an agenda.  I personally reckon she turned up at the studio with a signed first edition of ‘The female eunuch’ in the back pocket, and a set of knitting needles ready to deal with any woman stupid enough to get inseminated by a man!  Yes readers, it’s my guess that she is somewhat of a feminist.

Now, I could write all day about feminists, but we’ll save that, but she definitely seems like the kind who have been turned by a ‘bad’ experience with a bloke.  Perhaps an ex who shagged her sister, or potted the brown without asking first, fuck knows but she dives straight into some good old (but subdued for the beeb) man-bashing.

Hag is convinced that men have no idea how to handle an independent young woman (oops, no sorry ‘freemale’) because we are not emotionally mature enough to realise that a 21st century woman may not want a relationship (and of course the un-mentioned notion that ‘freemales’ may just want us for sex and run).  This made me laugh because in my experience it has always been the other way round, I know I’m not the only man to hear the dreaded ‘I love you’ after hooking up with a woman for one night, and lets face it normally a woman chosen on the basis that the nightclub was kicking out and all the pretty ones had trapped off with the bouncers.

Hag feels that men could be scared and confused by a woman who doesn’t want kids… bah, can’t even start to say enough about how retarded that sentiment is, so lets just leave my response to ‘bollocks’.

Lets move away from the shower of shite that is Sunday morning TV and back to the article, which doesn’t concentrate on man-bashing, but does quote ’sex in the city’ (more later)

The article I linked to above makes me laugh, ok it’s the daily mail, but damn it surpasses my expectations of vacuous shite.  I have to try and ignore that they pulled a ‘relationship psychotherapist’ and a ‘Sociologist’ out of the bag to lend credence to the insanity.

It says that more and more women are boycotting relationships for happiness and I feel suggests that Men are the ones who create unhappiness.  It’s just a bunch of fucking control freaks (the women) who, once in a relationship seek to control every aspect of them, they don’t respect their partners right to relative freedom, push him away and eventually lead to the lack of happiness for both.  Ok that’s also an unfair, sweeping statement, but I bet it’s closer to the truth.  It also works the other way around, I know, but men who seek control, value independence, want one-night stands don’t get a catchy media friendly title, no they are simply labelled as ‘Bastards’.

Part of the reason given for being a ‘freemale’ is that relationships can sometimes fail, and that they are ‘hard work’…  So we get even closer to the truth,  in this day people don’t want to work for life’s prizes, they don’t want to invest to get returns, they want everything NOW and they fucking deserve it!  My arse, simply naive, idiotic crap.

Be single, that’s cool, if you don’t want a partner, fine, if you can’t get one, also fine, whatever, this blog isn’t to council fuck ugly loners, but don’t label those of us who enjoy being with someone and have relationships that exist perfectly alongside professional working requirements and busy social lives as some sort of bad thing.

So, any woman badging herself as a freemale is missing something, there is a gap, I’d even bet they yearn after being in love and just totally fail at it.  I think this because people who are happy and content with their lot don’t have to feel like they are in a club, seeking absolution for your own in-adequacies shouts out that you are infact not happy and basically full of shit.

Oh, I said earlier I’d write about ‘Sex in the city’ but I just can’t be arsed, the show centres around four women who are all desperate for Mr. Right and are just far to self-obsessed and air headed to keep them.  It is not about four women who have a series of adventures punctuated by wild sex with strangers (although that does seem to happen occasionally).  Never-the-less they are not four happy-to-be-single women, and bollocks anyway it’s fiction, modelling yourself after a show/movie?  Ok I just watched American Psycho… where did i put that chainsaw?

I missed the opening episode but caught a bit of it this morning and sat here having my first cig of the day and sipping some coffee watching a collective bunch of the usual suspects I realised Big Brother is just crap, it always has been, always will be. 

It was captivating all those years ago because it was new, almost experimental, it excited you that perhaps a bunch of strangers trapped together may do something special.  Alas it was not meant to be as everyone chosen for BB fits into a neat category designed to achieve a specific goal…

• The ‘Posh’ one - For mainstream audiences this is basically anybody who went to university and actually got a degree, or perhaps someone who went to private school and ‘talks proper’.  Usually a bit pompous, bound to try and lead the group yet fail.
• The ‘Working class’ girl - Always a girl, usually from Essex or if the show really wants some juice then Birmingham.  She’ll sound common but will actually be the product of a loving middle class, semi-detached dwelling family.  She’s bound to use the phrase ‘University of life’ at least once and is most likely fit.
• Flamboyant Gay bloke - More outwardly gay than Quentin Crisp, will immediately bond with ‘Working Class’ or ‘Stupid’ girl, will be convinced that all the fit blokes are closet gays and wont talk to ‘Fatty’.  Go Girl!
• Closet Gay bloke - Will be well spoken, fit as a fiddle, immediately pull all the birds except ‘Posh’ one (if she is a girl).  Once he has come out to the house and probably the world (lol) he will immediately take ‘Gay’ control of the house and not fancy ‘Flamboyant’ bloke at all until they have a massive argument and bond through the tears, once this has happened one of them will be evicted.
• Stupid girl - Jade Goody, nuff said. (Will go on to make the most money from the entire series despite not winning)
• Fatty - At least one, will be pleasant natured but have an affinity for getting naked, just wrong basically.  Wont last longer than 4 or 5 votes.
• Super-fit bloke - Will have rippling abs, tall, handsome, by the 3rd show will have all the tarts doing yoga and chin-ups, or even worse, taekwondo.  He’ll have very little intelligence, most likely to end up shagging ’stupid’ girl, basically a twat.
• Sporty/Quiet/Musical one - Bloke or bird, will be most liked by the casual viewer, will actually have a refined sense of humour, wont get naked, wont break down crying, will probably be in a stable relationship… basically wont last more than 4 shows.
• Feminist/Vegetarian - Will impose her naive views on everyone for 2 weeks then climb over the wall to make some anti-farmyard-animal-sex statement and will never been heard of again.

Probably not the definitive list, but you’ll certainly find them in BB9, I think they accidentally included genuinely interesting people in the first two series.  Before they realised that whilst the likes of ‘Jon Tickle’ made interesting watching, he didn’t quite have the getting-naked-and-crying-into-your-own-vomit-stained-fat-ripples that made Jade Goody the household name she is now, and therefore loved by anyone with a two figure IQ, and not a high two figures.

Big Brother - the official Big Brother 9 UK website on channel4.com

Now, some people will claim that it’s appropriate given that a) Oil is running out and b) fossil fuels are ‘bad’ and we should all cycle, walk or use public transport to get to work.

Let me address this view… Oil is running out? Bollocks, ok yes, it’s finite but it’s always been finite, estimates on how much is left vary because these estimates are made up by the media or guesstimated by the people who want us to stop driving, either way it’s not going to dry up anytime soon.

Fossil fuels are bad?  Yes, probably, but so is the majority of ‘modern’ living, however our pollution levels are significantly lower than 100 years ago.  I hear a knob in a flowery shirt shout that car contribute towards the green house effect?  Well yes, but nowhere near (and i mean so far away from) natural processes and not a patch on how much ‘developing’ countries do.

Cars are unnecessary as commuting tools? Maybe for some, especially some who live and work in cities, but for the millions that live in the suburbs and work in industrial areas they are the only feasible way to travel to and from work given how shit our public transport is.  I work 15 miles away from home, and thanks to the M4 it takes me about 20 minutes each way in a car, and slightly quicker on my bike.  If I bussed it to my local station, then train’d into Reading and bussed it back out to my office it would take slightly less than two hours.

I want the expense and effort I have taken to reduce my energy usage and waste in other areas to offset the cost of going to work because I *cant* do without transport, and the increase in travel costs will only serve to raise my salary expectations, which is a cost my company will have to pass on to it’s customers, and eventually the public will bear the cost (as with almost every business at the end of the chain is joe bloggs buying a product or service.

I wouldn’t have an argument if the government started to invest in industry to produce alternative ‘fuels’, infact I’d welcome a short term rise in my cost of living to look forward to buying a car/bike that cost me and the environment significantly less.  Alas that isn’t gonna happen because it’d cost our government dearly and at the end of the day all this is about is money, they don’t give a shit about the environment, that’s just the current political excuse.

Lastly before anyone suggests I get a job closer to home, or live closer to work, you’ve missed the point regarding how residential and industrial sectors work outside of our cities.

Frankly all this is even enough for me to consider buying a scooter, 100mpg.

A gut reaction may be that he is helping people cheat the law, but as he testifies in a videoed encounter with a plod he is simply reducing everyone’s speed in the area rather than the panic reaction of a few drivers who actually spot the police.

As a biker and an obvious target for the boys in blue, I support this type of action and have done it myself by ‘waving down’ oncoming traffic to warn them of mobile gatsos or police radar traps.  To be honest, I’ve also done it when i think oncoming drivers are taking the piss a bit… it serves the same goal.

I’ve come to the swift conclusion that people are rarely interested in the mudane aspect of average life, so I’ve decided to pick on the news and casual observation, which is what the site was meant to be about.

So, if anyone does read this then I hope you enjoy, otherwise I guess I’ll just continue to bitch in my own little box

I then left that guild after we completed MH and had done 3/9 bosses in BT and migrated to a busier server and straight into a guild that had made a start on Sunwell (which is now, the last dungeon in the game).  Since then, I have completed BT several times and the guild is making good progress in Sunwell.

All good right?  Well yeah, I have experienced all of the original ‘end game’, got some fine gear and had a lot of fun, but I’m now bored of playing and I think it’s because of a few reasons;

1) Sunwell is a bit of a joke in my opinion.  Blizzard are a good 6 months off releasing the next expansion and naturally they needed to throw players a bit of a bone to keep them interested.  Whilst I understand that, it does seem like bad planning.

2) I don’t enjoy PVP, and even when I get the urge it gets boring very quickly as there are only 4 battlegrounds and playing arena games is almost impossible without the right gear.

3) Apart from sunwell I have done every encounter in the game dozens (if not 100s) of times, I have nothing to gain from repeating them.

4) I could level yet another character, but it takes serious commitment and there are no classes left I desire to play enough.

So, Really… Give us the next expansion Blizzard or potentially face losing a lot of dedicated players, as once you go away from the game for a few weeks you tend to grasp reality again and suddenly spending 30 hours a week online doesn’t seem a priority.