by GothNinja | Nov 25, 2010 | Holiday
Well its the last Thursday in November and I find myself asking along with 85% of the worlds population (Real statistics) “Where did the year go?“. I also find myself thinking about things I am thankful for. I blame the amount of Americans I know for this thoughtful mood, since its their Thanksgiving day. This year I decided to join in with my cousins from across the pond, and to do so I would have a traditional American Thanksgiving.
<PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT>
It turns out that if you try and order a batch of smallpox off the internet, to try and genetically modify the strain to wipe out a large racial group you get a vist by a bunch of men in black suits and mirrored shades, and a pat-down that makes the TSA look like a nervous schoolboy with his first above the clothes fumble.
Also, most races are slightly more streetwise these days, and you can not claim their country as your own with the cunning use of flags & the Winchester repeating rifle. Also the men in black will confiscate said Rifle when they leave
</PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT>
So this year due to the restraining orders, and the black vans, & choppers that seem to be just loitering in my vicinity, I have decided to just be thankful for some stuff. So I raise my cup of coffee to you dear readers, neh friends and am thankful of you. I am thankful for the internet shrinking the size of the world, and for good friends spread over its every shrinking surface. I’m thankful for good food & drink, Good films & Books. I’m thankful to @GeekShui who said if i turned up at his house in traditional pilgrim costume I could join his family for a Thanksgiving meal, And Dear Constant Readers I’m thankful to you, and you, to him and her, but not You, and you know who you are, I’m not thankful to you, not since you did that thing to that cat…
Happy Thanksgiving.
Your meaning of "Have me for Dinner" is different to mine!
by GothNinja | Nov 23, 2010 | Comedy, Work
We at the Insane Asylum have been running some updates on our antiquated control systems, and during this update I had cause to check the Polychronicon that is the Asylums Wiki. While trying to find the list of perl modules we need to re-install after a major update to allow some of the older systems to continue working (Which I could not find) I came across an odd link to an article simply titled “Were Ninja” Intrigued I had a quick read, and memories of the old days came back, especially of the “Were Ninja” Himself. So I’m reprinting the article here.
Were Ninja
I have been researching a rumor I heard, about strange occurrences in some of the local woods. of a dark figure fleetingly seen from the corner of the eye, strange symbols, glyphs tracks. And most concernedly the noises and screams that echo out of the darkness.
I can now give a slight insight to these happenings..
It starts with a quick 10 minute job after hours, a job that ended up taking longer than was expected, It started with a man tired after hours of staring at a monitor, a man too tired to know what he was doing, It starts with an innocent chain-letter email, one that had to be sent out to a dozen people within thirty minutes or else.
It starts with someone we will call Mr X. He was a normal mild mannered I.T. professional, but one day while taking a break from his work he read his e-mail, the stuff he would normally just junk. It was while reading this e-mail he stumbled upon the book of e-vile! He innocently read out allowed the text from the satanic summoning kanji of death. And because the smtp server was down he could not fulfill the requirements of the chain-letter and the chain was broken, allowing him to be possessed by the spirit of a were-ninja from 14th century japan.
Now on nights where theres a moon he roams the welsh countryside. doing unspeakable things
by GothNinja | Nov 22, 2010 | NaNoWriMO
Its update time again, has it really been a week since the last one? Where has the time gone? I know its not gone on writing my NaNoWriMo, due to one thing or another. In fact I have a provisional deal with a friend that we will pick a less busy month next year and have a private challenge.
As for this months challenge, I have not done so well, I have however got the outline of what I think is a good story, and I have some of the skeleton built it just needs fleshing out with lots of words.
Actual Word Count: 5000
Projected Word Count: 34500
by GothNinja | Nov 15, 2010 | NaNoWriMO
OK. Why cant we have NaNoWriMo in some other month? How about May? May is a quiet month? Why do we have to have it in November, which always seems to start off as one of the busiest times in my year? Then after much drinking/eating/Lack of sleep I tend to get run down and end up with the flu or some other such illness which slows me down even more.
Its a conspiracy I tell you.
Anyway. Thanks to a bit of work done last week while waiting in the hospital for an eye checkup, and more done yesterday while between events at the Karate competition, and the odd random bit of writing here and there I have actually got a start on my story.
Well two starts really as I have two bits on the go from the same story but at different parts of the book, which means when I’m stuck on one bit I can jump to the other. So I have made a start, and Half way through the month I have already beaten my records from previous years attempts, So I have done what I set out to do, and actually do better than I have previously.
Actual Word Count: 2500
Projected Word Count: 23000
by GothNinja | Nov 15, 2010 | Competition, Family
Saturday evening I was informed that my niece had a Karate competition day on Sunday, and that she wanted me to go and support her. So there went my plans of a productive Sunday catching up on my ever-growing todo list. OK! by productive day I mean a day playing “Call of Duty: Black Op’s” which I purchased Saturday.
I don’t normally mind going to support her, since it makes her happy that someone cares, and she likes to talk about the different matches with me, and its normally an interesting day out.
My niece does Shotokan Karate, and the club she goes to is associated with several others in the area, and they take it in turns hosting the competitions. This time there was even some clubs from Luton & Yorkshire along for the day. And the even was held in Hawrden High School’s sports hall.
Now I should point out this is a sports hall with brick walls half way up, then metal sheeting the rest of the way, a metal sheeting roof, and plain concrete floors. There is also building work going on so part of the walls are simple boards while work is being carried out. Oh, and did I mention there was ice on the ground outdoors, and no heating on indoors? The poor kids in bare feet, and Gi’s that are no more than pyjamas really must have been freezing, cos the adults watching were and they had big coats on.
First off was the Kata rounds, so Niece and another girl get up, do their kata and sit down. The next person to get called was called alone, and the ref informed them they were through to the next round. In fact three of the four people in the final to work out places never had to compete against anyone, they just got given their placements. (Can anyone say fix?)
This shall we say for legal reasons “Apparently biased marking” turned into the theme for the day, when you had matches and all four (or six depending on match) ref’s holding out the same colour flag to show who was winner, and main ref (always after quick look to people in background holing forms) would award fight to the other colour. At one point one of the local Sensei’s told his students that one of the clubs who had travelled four hours to turn up were being marked up as a thanks for coming all this way and to not take it personally. Well by the end of the day, the local students had lost all heart and were barley going through the motions in their rounds.
The other let down of the day was the fact that the club that was being allowed to win everything may have been the “Cobra Kai” in disguise. Well they were as dirty fighters as the Cobra’s, with sneaky leg swipes, feet stomps, and face/eye shots. The list of injuries to the local kids was, several broken toes, and sprained back, and several kids with smashed and bleeding eyes.
The Adults associated to the club were even pointing out nice spots on the face to go for to slow down, or take out their opponent, and congratulating them while the other kid would be crying on the floor with medics dealing with them.
I know full contact Karate competitions can be violent, and lead to injuries, but this was a Children’s competition, and the local clubs do not do much full contact fights, and it was supposed to be friendly.
I must admit it was the most badly run & organised rip off I have ever seen. The matches were all fixed and they did not even attempt to hide the fact. There was no food laid on for the kids (they normally lay on food for them out of the attendance fee’s), No heating, The hall rental was a school gym that they normally use, so would not have cost much. The medals were of poor quality, and for the first time in the years my niece has been going there was no “competitors medal or certificate” to give to those who competed (apparently there was no money for them). And yes on the Saturday traiing day there was 100 student (approx) and there must have been 60 or so on the Sunday (all at £20/day).
