Tom's Bits

Other creative outlets?

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What other creative outlets do I have?

I’ve tried painting with acrylics, but that dried up (ho ho!), then I passed on all my kit.

Playing trombone’s fun, but I’m ever so rusty, and I need to start from scratch. Worth doing though, I love the idea of playing in music sessions. It’s not creative as such, at this stage, but should be with time.

I don’t think I count cooking and gardening as creative, but I suppose they could. Well, not cooking, but gardening certainly. That’ however requires more expenditure than I’m willing to commit.

Writing could be, if I tried. I’d have to think more and write… well,not more, but I’d need to actually start in the first place. Is this blog the start of a creative activity?

I wonder. Am I wrong in talking about creative anyway? Is “expressive” the word I really need to use here?

Will dance count? It’s more exercise really, but with hints of expressive nature. Certainly, if I danced without expression it wouldn’t be worth watching. Not saying it *is* really, but I hope it might be to some 😉

So… what have I missed?

Making money from photography

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If photography’s to be a creative outlet and perhaps make money, what do I need to do?

I suppose there’s the aspect of understanding that creativity and money making don’t always go hand in hand – often the money-making turns the creative activity instead into an assembly line. Consider the ides of making stock photos – make a studio environment (sheet on chair, lighting, tripod, trigger), then arrange the items and take photos one after another, then edit and post with metadata. Pretty well devoid of artistry, if a level of throughput (a very assembly line work if ever there were one) is required. Could I do that? Yes.
Repeatedly? I’d want to know it’s worthwhile, so I’d need some fish to bite before too many more sessions.

Anti Social Media

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Facebook is not necessarily a force for good.

I intend that this site have no FB tagging, cookies, web bugs or anything of the sort. FB should not know you’re here.

The same goes for Google, and all the other companies that use and sell your data.

My aim is to ween myself off FB, but there are things I’ll miss. How to replace them?

Tailing off…..

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Hmm…. last week had a few entries taken from the spike. Is that the phrase? A pre-prepared story, wheeled out to fill a gap?

Why? Because I was watching films – Battle Royale, and some Star Wars.

This week? Well, here’s a Monday Meta post, but will I create content (what a phrase!), or continue to recycle? What do I actually have to say, after all? I’ve mentioned some heavier topics, the ones I tend to think over walking home from the station, but now I need to get them on paper/pixels, I stall. Why? Possibly because I want to present reasoned arguments, not just a stream of conciousness. I do really need to put some work into these or they’re pointless, and as I think the prime reason for starting this blog was to put these down, that work would stop this blog being pointless and soon moribund.

A Faux Pas I Don’t Mind Remembering

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This was while I was in my third year at university, some time in the first term. I was then (as now) not much for being with people. Not through lack of desire, but through lack of social ability and confidence. Actually, that’s a bit like now as well. I’d been asked round to dinner by a lass on my course a couple of times (nothing in it, she had a boyfriend). The first time it was just us, the second time was for a larger gathering. It was here that my minor transgression occurred.

The house she lived in (with a group – the normal house-sharing arrangement for students) had an enormous kitchen/dining room, with a decent sized dining table. I think there were eight to ten people there, most of whom I knew only slightly if at all. One of the lasses had a jumper on with piping along the seams, but it somewhat confused me. I quietly asked my host if (or told her that?) the young lady had her jumper on inside out. Naturally, it wasn’t as quiet as I’d intended, and certainly the subject of my query heard, possibly also the rest of the room.

Here’s the really strange thing.

I’ve plenty of embarrassing moments in my life, some more cringe-worthy than others, but of all of them, this is one of the very few I don’t recall with horror, and wish I could erase from my memory.

Why is this?

Is it because it happened long ago (over twenty years now)?

Is it because no-one else will remember this moment?

Is it because I’ll most likely never see these people again?

No, none of these, as I know there are other occasions which fit all of these conditions, yet they still make me shudder with embarrassment. Perhaps looking at this will help me dissipate my social dread?

The NHS (an old post)

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This is a very lazy post, it’s a cut and paste of one I made three years ago. Why am I saying/doing this? Because it shows how I felt *then*. Here goes:

 

I am an enormous fan of the NHS. Why?

A few examples of how I’ve personally benefited from the NHS:

  1. Both parents have received either life-saving or -enhancing treatment. Hospital stays, operations, long-term treatment all provided in (I think) a timely fashion. For free.
  2. My daughter was born with NHS assistance (actually, so was I, but I don’t remember that). Midwives are a key part of the NHS service, and their commitment to the mothers and children under their care is essential and wonderful. Free, supported home birth (to start with), then ambulance and hospital care, with the all the drugs and care required.
  3. Reduced cost dental care. I don’t visit the dentist as often as I ought, but that’s my own problem. My daughter’s dental care and orthodontist treatment is free. NHS dentistry is incredibly valuable.
  4. GP care and prescription drugs. I try not to use the GP (typical man that I am), but I know he/she is there, and the long-term medication I use is cheap at the price. I’ve used the local surgery for all manner of issues, for a dodgy toe, chest infection, ear syringing – and that’s just me. My wife and daughter also use the GP when necessary, and it’s all in a timely manner and free.
  5. A&E. Waiting times are never a joy, but I know that when it’s an emergency I can get the care I need. I’ve gone in for different things, the most recent was a nasty scalpel wound that needed patching up. Free.

There are more things which are free if you’re below certain incomes, or in various age/support categories: prescriptions, hearing aids, glasses, dentistry.

The NHS is something we can be proud of, and we need to keep it, not lose it.  I know the NHS is there, and that I can rely on it, and I want this to be the same for the future, not just mine, but my daughter’s too.

So this was my view in early 2015, has it changed?

Not an awful lot. If anything, it’s grown stronger, and I’m more concerned about the future of the NHS than ever before. I do believe it’s under threat more so now than before.

A test of will

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Here’s a small test of will.

Yesterday I had a day off blog writing, instead I watched a film on the way to and from work and posted something I’d prepared before. Great film, by the way – and that’s the problem. I’d *like* to continue watching Battle Royale, and indeed the first thing I saw on logging in to my little Lenovo was VLC player paused where I left it. Instead I need to at least post something meta, just to return to the fold, to impose a little discipline.

So there we have it, a post about posting, without any real information. I think I’m getting the hang of blogging now 🙂

This does bring to mind some actual topics I’d like to write about, so all’s not yet lost!

What to do about minor crime?

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Someone I know had a minor rant about a vehicle owner leaving a used nappy on the ground in the car park. No, that’s not the crime. That’s part of the *irony*, as the vehicle was used for waste collection/recycling.

The crime is that he then noted the number plate and checked the tax/MoT status, and… it’s been untaxed since 2016. Someone else checked the insurance and that’s also expired. So there’s a commercial vehicle out there, untaxed, uninsured. A photograph exists of it in a car park, so it’s clearly being driven on public roads.

What to do about this? Inform the police? We only have a non-verifiable photograph (of course it *could* be faked), and we don’t know who drove the vehicle. Is it really worth the police taking time to chase this up? I’d argue it is, but I’m sure there are plenty who’d shout that it’s a minor crime, and the police should concentrate on the larger issues.

Thank You To… Hans Heyman and Richard

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I’d been off work for a while. Actually, I’d not really had a proper job since leaving university, and while I was sort-of content to freeload at home, I also knew I needed to get on with getting a job.

I was at a “Get Some Work” type of set of workshops set up by the employment service in Guildford, and one of the chaps there (possibly called Richard) saw there was an internet cafe due to open in the town. Solely due to encouragement from him and the workshop organisers I wrote a CV and cover letter and sent them both to Hans Heyman, the guy behind the new cafe.

Hans said he was interested in meeting with me, so I had my enormously bushy beard trimmed (I’d been warned not to have it shaved as I’d feel awkward with nothing after a few hirsute years), got dressed up and met in the cafe in at the bottom of the escalators in the Friary Centre. We chatted, and I seemed to make all the right noises as even though he already had made an appointment he offered me a job at £12,000, a fortune for me then. Why did he take me on? Apparently it was the beard. Yes, really.

Anyway, it was a job with computers, the first step i my IT life. An odd job, true, with terrible hours, and a dead end ahead, but a job nonetheless. Thanks Richard and Hans.

Alcohol

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I’ve not drunk alcohol in over seven years now.

I’ve a long and not entirely brilliant relationship with alcohol, but I’m incredibly glad I broke it off before it became actively harmful. I still have mild pangs, wishes to taste a really good hoppy beer, or a rich red wine, but no, it’s not something I want to return to.

Why?

Hmm….

The short answer is that some eight or nine years ago, my job became more and more stressful, and I found a glass of wine of an evening was a good way to unwind. This is actually not abnormal (so say I). What worried me as one year drew to a close was that I was feeling I needed to have that glass of wine, and, basically, I was worried about my drinking behaviour. One day I decided I would soon stop drinking for a period, and I thought New Year’s Eve (Day, I suppose) would be a good occasion to begin. I took my last drink as a glass of Asti on NYE, and after my initial year (or was it a month I set myself at first?  No, a year) thought I may as well keep going.

I do still cook with wine, although I try to reduce the fluid to near-nothing to make sure the alcohol’s mostly gone. I’ve reservations about beer/wine casseroles, but I’ve not noticed anything untoward.

So yes, seven years and a few months. I do bmiss it a little, and I’m glad a lot.