Well campers, finally I have something of worth to post after quite a long strech, though there was the large blog post on the podcast, january thankfully is almost gone and with it, the promise of so much more. As the old people say, wishing your life away, ramble, ramble. This week began with such a wimper. The highlights of course being that I got the new microphone, and having ran some recording tests to verify functionality with the audio adpater being pulgged into the dream machine, I can say, you will be getting closer to what I sound like at long last.

Isn’t that a scary thought?

The other highlight is Playing a game of WOW, and having a rather bizzare conversation with one of the other people playing, about sex. It ended up being like in Lethal Weapon, where Mel Gibson and the other one tries to out do each other with injuries or whatever. Think that pretty much sums it up….:)

But Wednesday came, along with my new shiny DVD Writer, the news that Natalie finally is getting better now after being stuck with the flu for how long thanks to (cue commercial music) NEW Wonder Pills, Wonder pills make you feel good, in a legal way. Act now and receive a free pen. Terms and Conditions apply. It just felt like things were starting to turn around somewhat. (Might have been the payday as well which helps)

Uni started again with boring management s**t that frankly I could care less about, but they say it will help along the way in the career, but I think it’s a conspiracy. They want to bore people so much, that when they fall asleep, they take you to a secret underground lab and perform experiements on you. Well if that was true, it would be a welcome relief. But on plus I go to Wolverhampton half the day next week to start learning about something which may come in handy down the line. Not saying what as it will confuse people. Confuses me too, but that’s not hard.

The social life in january is like a bus. Wait a while, then three events turn up at once. And Thank f**k too, I was beginning to lose my mind to the numbing effects of recent weeks. Thursday, as my evenings have freed up slightly, I enjoyed time with some mates from the old job down at the blowing alley, Paul bloody showing off his skill, and poor old mags, getting the lowest score of the evening, well he did get some ultra cheap booze as compensation but he has trouble walking straight anyway so that may have not been the best thing to give. Dorris was cheating at pool, come on, blowing the balls (stop now before anything else) into the pockets? I ask you, a better way to do it is make the other player look the other way and then sly as you like, place one of yours into said pockets and pretend nothing happened. Unless you are like ruth, in which case you just have as many shots as you want untill you win. I remember, dammit!!

Went out to Coco’s afterward for the first time in yonks and well it’s 100% s**t. It really is, despite the ladies wearing as little as possible again, with one girl looking like a dancing girl from the 60’s, it is just not enough. The music was getting dire, with one song, the entire lyrics were “Whoa bitch, get out of the way, get out of the way” But Zombie nation was played and thus I was made whole once more.

Friday, hung round again in telford for a while at the local Weatherpoons making another speical guest star appearance, with mr Hancock, coop and Ben, frank or Arther, I forget his name now, wait it’s Dan!! but anyway, basically Coop couldn’t get over I was on the ski machine at the gym the other day (it’s a ladies machine) but the fact is, I want a toght arse (toght like a tiger! Remember that from Goldmember?) and as long as I don’t have a gay face while doing it, I don’t see anythign wrong with that. Except over people may throw up if they are behind me…which is a fair point. And we found we all love each other but not in a gay way.

As I write this entry I am currently getting paid to break things, and it is quite a bit of time inbetween this so, you get to fill it with reading, listening to tunes, and of course writing this rubbish. On Time and a Half. COME ON!!! This is also a bonus as guess what? The family have come to visit again, this time bringing the sister of woe in tow. God knows what will be the order of the day this time, but who cares?

So today so far is a very good day. Tonight sees the birthday bash of Mr Middleton, who has a myspace page, links to which will be posted on here as soon as I copy the URL into here, and tommorow, it’s someone elses birthday, the woman I can’t name on here, she is X years old and well happy birthday to both of you fine people is all can say. Right, where’s the kettle, I have worked up too much of a sweat now from typing and need a cup of tea! BYE!!!

Have the new mic for the podcast but still need to get an adapter to plug into the laptop and a mic stand. My laptop is slightly out of action at the moment, due to the DVD Writer dying on me yesterday.

Got a taste of Indian support from dell, and well I have a brand new drive coming tommorow. Not bad at all.

Apperently I am good at my job as well. Thus endeth the news update. Sorry, I really am struggling for stuff this month.

The second of today’s posts now, and here’s what’s been going down in funkytown since last i posted (not WOW by the way).

Work has been a bit of a bind as now everyone wants my attention devoted to their projects all at once. One looks like finishing soon but the other which has overan since last year due to them, looks set to continue that. And they are upset. Who cares is all I say?

College has taken a welcome step back after the workload from the first semister, which meant that after the podcast, i could waste time playing WOW and Splinter cell 4, actually getting futher than I did when I first played that all that time ago. Bought a new dynamic Mic for the podcast stuff on the ol plastic, will get that next week and i suppose I should start with material on the next cast sooner rather than later.

All week, have been hearing about the racist big bother, and well I will make my feelings clear on that in the next cast, as I think writing it down would do it an injustice. Also Ad has set off to the land of the rising sun for 3 weeks (think it’s just to get another silk purse) and well folks, after that that is the main highlights. Aside from the lovely weather we had this week. This was fun as we saw people’s cars get slated. Quite literally. Slates were falling off the root at work, and they face some hefty claims. Dear me, has it gotten to the point where I talk about the weather?

It’s just been a shit week in terms of fun things to do, as being out of money till tueday is no fun, and well the money I have spent now, I have to pay back. I must say so far of January, the highlights so far are pretty much none-existant, save for Nat’s birthday and hearing off a few people again. I sincerly hope it will not be like this most of the year otherwise I may go nuts, well more nuts anyway. Got to get things sorted out soon.

Well campers since the podcast post on Thursday I have been spending time in the MMORPG known as World of Warcraft, you may have heard of it, or like most others in the real world, you are thinking what the hell is that?

Well here’s a picture of it first:

And second the idea is you play online with others who want to do the same thing, have a chat, bit of hacking and slashing and being socialable. Yes the pub doesn’t quite cut it, if you want to hurt things, but then again some places you get that too, so why do they need a game?

Now the reason for this post is one of a question really? Why oh why on a game constructed for the purpose (of money) of interacting and playing a game with others, do people just want to play by themseleves and f**k others off? Why pay £8 a month to do that? You get that for free on others. This was one of the reasons why I stopped a long time ago with the game, as well as real life fun and frolicks taking center stage. I started the subscription off again a few weeks ago after getting the expansion pack for it, and starting again with a new character.

Well it seems very little has changed. In fact thanks to the kids, it seems to have gotten slightly worse. Try helping people out, and they tell you to go away. WOW, it works in both worlds…

But on the other hand, I have found people who actually play the game as intended. One such person I had a lot of fun with today in Westfall (one of the places in the game for kicking ass and chewing bubble gum)

and this has made it a lot better. If you are stuck on your own all the time in the game, it’s no fun and you end up leaving it. The game itself is very good, always been a fan of blizzard games, but unless you are playing with friends, WOW is a lot of work. Here ends the post on WOW.

What’s that coming over the hill? Find out on Thursday as It’s been a long time in the making and it’s almost done.

In this new year of ours, I feel I have quite a lot to say about many things on the state of play in the arenas of the world. Big surprise to everyone that i have a lot to say. But it is actually hard to say any of it. Quite strange really. After my rant the other day about the cost of living, i felt happy. I had highlighted something which I felt aggrived by, and it felt good. Love this whole blogging thing!!

I come off the anti-biotics tommorow and for the majority of it all, i feel funky. First time I ever had to take anything for the tonsils, but then again always a first time for everything And my sense of humour has toned down a bit for some reason too. I am normally funny on these pages (or I think i am), but no, i have things on my mind, again another first.

Must be just gas.

It’s been a while since I wrote a World Events View, but I have to write about the state of living on your own today. The simple reason is that while I lived in Walsall, I saw the cost of living in the two-bedroom flat sky rocket, mainly as a result of my flat mate not sharing the costs, and in fact in the end buggering off to god knows where. I have been making the argument with Mum and Dad for the longest time that to live on your own; you have to be on some substantial money. Regrettably I have been stagnant these last two years in terms of wage increases, I suppose it’s because I have moved into three different jobs during that time with two different companies, Capgemini and now Fujitsu, both major players on the outsourcing stage in their own right.

But during this time, despite living at Aunty Betts during the majority of this, I have still gotten into debt because of a few key areas;

1) I overspend on useless tat for the laptop, DVDs and games. Hoes will have their trinkets in my defence. And if I didn’t have the 500GB NAS, well, I would be able to install as much shit as I do now.
2) The Car. As Dad rightly put, it is a very expensive hobby, and petrol alone costs me over £200 a month due to travelling back and forth to Telford and other exotic places. That doesn’t include any breakdowns I might incur or the Taxes, MOT etc. The last one clocked in at £430.
3) The Social, I went seriously overboard on social activities as I found a pattern forming, when I went out, I had fun. I desired more fun, therefore I went out more. Strange that really….:)
4) Ladies. Put simply, I can’t help but spend money on my lady friends. I feel compelled by it, and frankly I think it’s worth it by the companion I gain.

Add these up and you find that currently I am overdrawn. By quite a large bit. To pay this all back may require yet another loan, but I have aspirations of going to places again this year, it may be for a larger amount repaid over 2 years instead.

But in order to live by myself, I would have to give up the social life, the girlfriend, and frankly buying anything for myself. Even borderline things which are required such as clothing. Essentially become the same hermit I became while living in Walsall, and even then I still spent money, so all in all I am fucked.

Let me price it all up as an example for you all:

First we have the Flat, a modest one bedroom affair in Shrewsbury and Parking Space. Price of £350pcm. Now then this price takes into account that the place is unfurnished, and all bills you will have to pay for. Bedsits and other scenarios we will look at later.

Next we have the good old council tax, which as it stands right now for living in Shrewsbury is £871.76 for the Band A category which would fit the flat description. Now if you are on your own you get 25% knocked off, notice this is not 50% as you would believe as the full price is dependent on 2 people at least living there. Per month, this translates to roughly £55.

Next are the Bills, now for some one with gadgets like me, let’s put the electric at around £70 due to rising costs. Now add the Water rates, which as it stands you can’t really find out without moving in but utilising Uswitch, we came out at £260 for the year. This can be cut down with a meter to around £191, but we will go with the slightly higher figure as an absolute maximum. Gas, well we won’t have for this scenario because it will make some people cry. Makes me cry at the prices of it again going up.

And of course, let us not forget food. This of course varies but lets say this reflects the most anyone would normally spend per month on their own (this includes lunches out from work) is say £150. By far too much, but it’s best to be sure even though there are those of us which will go over this regardless. Fat Bastards.

Now then we have the absolute bare essentials there. Lets total that up

Flat : £350
Council Bollox: £55
Electric: £70
Water: £22
Food : £150

Total Per Month = £647PCM

Now you might think that is very reasonable isn’t it? Lots of people can live on that. Now shall we add some figures to that, because we don’t take into account other things we need to do in order to work to live.

Travel: We need at least to travel to and from work. You have one real choice, and one other that unless you live in London, maybe Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, is crap. The real choice first is a car. The bastard requirement of the 21st century. You need a car to go to work, do shopping, drive to other towns in other places for a mixture of activities. It has got to the point where if you need to go anywhere, you go by car. More and more people are using the roads, causing congestion and misery just for going to the place where you acquire the very cash needed for doing something they want you to. I know you can walk to work in some cases, but only if you are fortunate to live right next to it, or live in a city which leads us to the other (at the moment, joke) option. Public Transport. The very name makes some people laugh and cry.

In London, for that is the capital, and besides Birmingham is the one city I have spent the most time in, the public transport is very good. The tube system runs frequently albeit it’s hotter than my arse after a nasty curry during the summer, and all through the year at rush hours, which people tell you is a complete and utter nightmare. Buses run at all manners of times throughout the day, and the trains there are loads of trains to the capital, some cases every half an hour.

The rest of England frankly is shit. There is no other word for it. And more often than not it takes you longer on public transport than going in your own car. In some cases like the trains it can cost just as much if not more on some routes rather than just going by car. The cases of overcrowding on Trains is getting worse, which is now apparently pushing the pricing up. And to round things up nicely often you cannot get where you want to go via public transport. Unless it is a major town or city. Frequency as well is another question. It just is not worth it unless you live in a city.

Which brings us back to the car and the costs. First we have the car itself. You have to tax the bugger. This costs between free (if you have an expensive green car with no emissions) and £215.00 per year depending on the length of tax you pay for and also the type of car you are driving along with when the car was registered. Then for maintenance and insurance purposes, we have the MOT. Of which something always fails and you end up paying more than what was actually needed. Then we have the running of the car i.e. Fuel. The thing which is taxed so heavily it’s fucking stupid. As of the high costs of last year, for a tank which does 300 miles, I paid £26. this was coming up once or twice a week depending on the social side as well as work, so with this in mind I have come up with the running costs of £200 per month. I figured less because I would be travelling less distance from Shrewsbury to Telford. Still a lot.

Didn’t mention insurance in any of this have I? Car insurance is an inexact science and depends on allsorts of conditions. In Shrewsbury, the average cost for someone like me who has no claim history is £750 per year, which turns into £62.50 a month. Naturally this figure will vary and be cheaper really, but for this example it’s a fair amount.

Speaking of Insurance, I haven’t said about contents insurance for that flat of ours have we? Indeed we may have some things which are expensive and may wish to protect. But for now we will assume we don’t have any.

Now, let us factor in a phone. Either Mobile or Landline, but we tend to have both. Standard Landline from BT costs £11.99 a month at the moment. Mobile phones are a different thing entirely, and range for pay as you go to contracts. We will pretend that we talk lots and text lots and therefore have the contract at £30 per month. The landline is there for cheaper calls or for broadband which I will go into later.

Do we want to watch TV? I assume yes, despite the sheer amount of shit that is broadcast. The T.V. license currently stands at £131.50 for the year which is £10.95 a month.

I like Broadband. It allows me to have lots of TV. Not saying how, but it’s bloody good, and allows me to email, download shite, and play games online. People now rely on it to work from home in some cases. Chuck it in at £25 per month.

The price we had was £647. Now we have added other actual useful things

Car = £260.50
Phone Stuff = £41.99
TV License = £10.49
Broadband = £25

Total now reads = £984.98

Oh blow me down, you haven’t got any replacement clothes and shoes that wear and tear through time, factor in £30 a month for that and we are over a grand. Remember we haven’t even gone out with friends, allowed really for any circumstances except some of the car and clothing which could force you to pay out money, such as things breaking down, Holidays, all the good stuff which make life worth living. And the result is;

It’s turning more and more to be one or the other folks. Either Live at home, having the ability to go out and do actual things, or Live on your own, and do nothing. Of course this is not reality and some people are able to enjoy living on their own, but I don’t know many. Most people I know are sharing with others to cover the bills. Which I suppose brings us to Bedsits. Bedsits are great in that the bills are all shared and if we all pull together; we can have a really tidy place. Problem is you have to stand the people you are with, and in my experience, you end up pulling your hair out at them and end up wanting a place of your own anyway!! The example above only showed one type of living, a tiny flat, and in some places this would be a fantastic price for a 1 bedroom flat. It doesn’t factor in living in other places around the country and in London, the price is at least double, if not triple for the exact same thing.

As it stands, to live a decent life, and live in a tidy place, you have to have a lot of money coming in. A lot, and what I am currently on, doesn’t cover it at all. Will be a long time before I can achieve what I had before, and even then I was living on my overdraft.

Sorry campers, I went off on a rant but when I investigated costs of going back on my own again after all this time, it was just as ridiculous as before if not worse, and it really gets to me, that well I work full time, and it is not viable for me to be on my own. Makes you wonder if all that you do is worth it?

Forgive me my friends, I did not write after New Year ’s Eve. As of Tuesday, I had been coming down with the flu, struggling to carry on with work by and basically sleeping at night. Thursday I felt like death, with cold shivers, sore throat, and a headache so bad I was thinking straight. But still I had to go to college in this state for an exam, of which no idea of which if I passed or not. Friday, went to the Oswestry doctors and it turned out I had a base case of Tonsillitis to add to the list. Had some pills with a complicated name, and took the rest of the day off from work at that point.
Saturday was spent mostly in the sitting room, reading, avoiding anything IT or phone related. My voice was awful too, but today on the Sunday, I feel a lot better. My throat now remains the main battleground, with flare-up and more fluid coming out every so often.

I will go back to work tomorrow, and hopefully can carry on as business as usual with whatever I need to do, but really it’s hasn’t been a fun start for me this year as it goes.

Now the rest of this I had written Monday Night, but I never posted it so here it is;

As it goes, we had a lot of jolly fun over New Year in Shrewsbury, where we came, we saw, we sang badly on the singstar. The full suit with matching bow tie came out in force, while others were in more usual attire. Highlight of which was Natalie in Hot pants.

I know I said the gorilla costume was going to make an appearance but after the fact that it was a 007 “theme” (I use that loosely as it turns out) at the nightclub, people would fail to see where James Bond fought the gorilla in any of his films. Admittedly I was going to go for the gorilla costume as a surprise up in Manchester but of course as we all know the plan changed.

We met three lovely ladies who had flown over from Estonia for New Years, who were staying at Steve, and I must say, shazam again boy! These other countries have quite a few attractive women it must be said. Hmm, New Year’s Eve with 2 men and 5 women. Oh well it could be worse….

After a few rounds at the singstar, munching on some carrots and having a jolly good natter about a few things, we headed out onto the town, the wind and rain only beginning to beat down on us. We got into Liquid and Diva at around twenty to eleven, and proceeded to get down and boogie. The music was crap but what the hell, eh? Even if all we could do to the Baywatch theme was move very slowly. I don’t know, it didn’t seem like new year somehow. It just seemed like another Saturday night, and we didn’t last long, Natalie’s feet gave out about 1:30 and we made our way home.

The next day, the total time I spent in work was 2 hours. What a waste of time it was too. Not even worth the extra money or effort of travelling to Telford. Afterward well spent some more time with Nat, and that was that really.

Not terribly exciting reading granted but there is not an awful lot to tell. New Year and Christmas 2006 has passed, with well, a complete lack of impact. It felt like a few extra days off nothing more. Perhaps that is what it has reduced to; a few days off where we eat far too much and spend too much on crap for people that in truth you have no real idea what to get them, just what you think they would like. Feels empty.

There have been some highlights to 2006, some of the best were;
Seeing in the new year with my old friend from school.
Spending time out and about at numerous events with people, best ones were Alton Towers and the V Festival.
On that note, seeing one of my comic idols, Dylan Moran in the Flesh in Stoke.
Went to London Town again, wooo!
Meeting lots and lots of lovely ladies, and proceeding to go out with one of them for a long time. Hint at whoever that could be?
Starting a blog and actually keeping it relatively up to date
Doing two jobs which have been a hoot on one way or another.
Meeting up with absent friends who for one reason or another, I had lost contact with.

Some of the downsides;
Some of the absent friends would still prefer me dead and never show up or talk to them.
A relationship ended from last year.
My sister, showing that despite all attempts on my part to show what was wrong, she will never change.
Going to Spain (beginning to despise that country)
I have lost true contact with people back in Sunny Wales (being realistic now, I don’t see them that often).
Have repeated myself in blog posts, I found.

And last but not least the list of things to try and do in 2007:
1) Try and get more of the book finished.
2) Complete year 2 of the foundation degree
3) Go to another festival
4) Go somewhere else other than just f**king Spain again.
5) Learn more of a creative trade, don’t know what though
6) Carry on saying hello to people from time to time, even if just to annoy them.
7) Be me. Seems daft, but if I wasn’t who I am, people would be disappointed.

And here’s a good 2007 folks. 2006 was a great year for me personally, life keeps on rocking and so should you. Till next time campers.

Well campers, welcome to 2007.

Happy new year to all of you, i trust we all had a good time celebrating and here’s to hoping 2007 is as good if not better than 2006 was. There are a lot of highlights from last year to go through, and the list of things to come for the new year which I hope to achieve.

Alas poor eurich, you will have to wait until tommorow to hear about all this, as it has been a busy day today and there is much still to do.

Take care and we shall speak soon.