Happy Thanksgiving (2016)

Dear US of A people, no matter where you are around this ever shrinking world, We here at the Three-Ninjas wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy your annual stuff your face day, but this year as you spend time with your family, and think back to the stories of the “1st Thanksgiving” you were told as a child, think about the friendship between yourselves and the Indigenous people and take a moment to show support for those same people trying to defend their land at Standing Rock.

Lets all have a traditional American Thanksgiving.

<PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT>

It turns out that if you try to order a batch of smallpox off the internet, to try to genetically modify the strain to wipe out a large racial group you get a visit 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>

Least We Forget (2016)

Each year, on 11 November, the country falls silent to commemorate our war dead. This ritual, and the ceremonies and symbols that accompany it, have become part of national life.

Remembrance started long before the guns of the Western Front fell silent with people marking the loss or absence of loved ones away at war. 100+ years later, the personal and political resonances of remembrance still stir strong emotions.

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

remembranceadIn Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872 – 1918)

Happy Samhain/Halloween (2016)

Halloween is one of the oldest surviving holidays, its origins going back thousands of years. Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts (A friendly bunch of People). The Celts were Nature Worshippers, and had many different gods, The Sun God being one of the most common ones, since the sun dictated when they would work,rest and play. The Celtic New Year was on November 1st. It was celebrated every year with a festival and marked the end of the “season of the sun” and the beginning of “the season of darkness and cold.”

On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet and light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they danced around the the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin.

When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.

The November 1st festival was called Samhain (pronounced “sow-en”). The festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. This festival would become the first Halloween.

So Happy Halloween, Merry New Year, Happy Samhain, and any other greeting you wish!!!

Artisan Challenge Update (Midway)

Artisan Challenge 2016

It is time to do the midway update on the “Artisan Challenge“.

YES. I know “technically” the midway update was due on the 1st July, which is midway through the year. But I was running a bit late, and since this is my blog I can claim one and a half months as “a bit” 🙂

And you’re not the boss of me Internet!

A Reminder.

The Challenge for 2016 we are calling “Artisan 2016”

Artisan
noun: artisan; plural noun: artisans
    a worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand.

The reason for this name? Well because all the challenges (and there are three parts) are artistic or creative in nature.

1/4 DONE

Quarterly Non LOLS Papers

Once again “You’re not the boss of me!” I know the generally accepted definition of Quarterly is every quarter, but I have decided to count it as four over the year. Now before you get all shouty in the original description of this part of the challenge I did state “I am aiming for four papers over the year, and since I will probably do the Quarterly LOLS papers again this year, the new challenge is for none LOLS papers of topics I pick myself.” So four papers over the whole year.

  • Paper 1: Kuji-In – An Introduction to the Nine Hand Seals. COMPLETED
  • Paper 2: Unnamed – Research complete and its currently being written up
  • Paper 3: Unnamed – Researching
  • Paper 4: NO IDEA YET

 

WORKING ON

Art Project

I did do a post a short while back updating how the Art project was going. (By Short while back I mean at the 1/4 mark) Since then the project has continued along, with doodles and plans, and small bits being worked on.

Below are a few snippets of bits of the doodles/notes in no particular order/sense.

COMPLETED

100 Days

This started on April 1st and ran for oddly 100 days until it finished.

It can be viewed over at my 100Days Blog.

National Blood Bike Awareness Day

Friday 12th August 2016 is National Blood Bike Awareness Day. Blood bikes are the silent emergency service, transporting blood for blood transfusions, injuries and emergency responses for emergency services, the NHS and other medical services. These unsung heroes are all volunteers.

Blood Bike Awareness Day is organised by the National Association of Blood Bikes (NABB) and aims to promote awareness of the lifesaving work the NABB does in conjunction with the NHS and emergency services.

Blood Bikers are the 1,500 men and women all over Britain who provide an out-of-hours rapid response courier service as well as transporting hospital deliveries across the country. The Blood Bikers are all volunteers, and in 2014 they responded to around 39,000 urgent requests from hospitals, saving the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Every night, expert motorcyclists with the word “BLOOD” written on their reflective jackets speed from hospital to hospital in the United Kingdom to pick up and deliver emergency medical supplies. By day they are electricians, lawyers, priests, and pilots, but by night they are the Blood Bikers. More than 1,500 volunteers provide coast-to-coast coverage, carrying everything from blood, platelets, and plasma to breast milk, vaccines, and surgical equipment.

Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day (2016)

I thought I would take a minute out of my busy hectic day to give a shout out to all my fellow under-appreciated systems administrators out there in their dark offices on this the 17th Annual System Administrator Appreciation Day.

Consider all the work your sys.admin does behind the scene, keeping your network connection running, your email not being overly flooded with spam, your IM’s running at a decent speed, and being there to fix a server outage at 3am just so some people can go look at the funny picture you uploaded.  Consider how often this creature gets thanked on his day to day fight against spammers, hackers, lUsers, Software Updates, etc Consider this, then be happy that this IT Hero gets one day a year when (s)he gets appreciated.

So everyone, go take a coffee, cake, or gift to your sysadmin now. or at least drop by their hidy hole to say thanks.

For more information on this IMPORTANT festive day go read THIS SITE

For those about the Insane Asylum Myself & Demopengu are fond of Cake, Beer, & Chocolate (Oh and anything with glowing blue LED’s) !!!

CN

P.S.

Consider this as well. Your Friendly SysAdmin has access to your email, they know what you have been doing and to who. They see all the packets of data traveling back and forth from your machine, seeing when you are working and when your just browsing ebay/facebook/etc, They know what websites you’ve visited (and can change your history to show you been looking at p0rn in the office), Stuff you may not want made public.  They control your password, your login name, your email address, how much of the networks bandwidth you can use, what IM clients are banned, and a million other things that help you through the working day.  Consider this well, and remember, “Its only one day a year!

Happy We let you off the Reins to Join the Big Kids Day

toddler-reinsFour score and seven years ago, or in 1776 We decided that the young country of America had become old enough to trust not to run out in front of traffic, or try and play with dangerous animals and as such we took the reins off.

There comes a time in every parents life when you have to trust that your early guidance and teachings have given your offspring all the help they need to make their way in the world alone.

So the UK took off the training reins and watched as America took its first hesitant steps on it’s own. Yes there was a few stumbles and mishaps along the way. Several times America slipped and cut its hand or knee and UK wanted to pick it up and hold it safe.

“Maybe we should leave the reins on for a bit longer.”

UK.

But like all good parents we stayed back, Watching carefully and holding back our urges to guide and jump in at every hurdle. You have to trust your children will do the right thing.

I will say, America you grew up ok. Ok. you have made some really poor dating choices, and Looking at your teenage photographs “What were you wearing??” But all in all, you did well.

SO we here in the UK in general, and the Three Ninjas Temple in particular would like to wish you a Happy Anniversary of your First Steps without the Reins!!

Happy Independence Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1YvJBwC4xQ

have you had a car accident in the last 3 years

The annoying constant PPI phone calls have finally reduced to just the occasional one every few weeks.

But the peace is not to be enjoyed as the “Have you or anyone there had or been involved in a traffic accident in the last three years” calls have risen to take their place. And these guys are much more aggressive.

  • “Have you or anyone there had or been involved in a traffic accident in the last three years”
  • “They must have”
  • “someone there will have had some accident. ask them now!”
  • “There WILL BE SOMEONE.”

So the other day after a dozen calls in under a hour, from the same number. Someone who will remain nameless may have gotten a tad annoyed.

Cold Caller

HI. Have you or anyone there had or been involved in a traffic accident in the last three years?

GN

OMG! How do you know? Are you a reporter?

Cold Caller

What? NO.
So you have been in a accident in the last three years because……

GN

It wasn’t my fault!
I am not to blame!!!!!

Cold Caller

That is good to hear. So what kind of accident were you involved in?

GN

It was the radio’s fault.

Cold Caller

The radio?? errr…

GN

Heart FM’s fault to be exact.
If they had not put on Justin Beaver, I would not have had to take my eyes off the road to try and make it stop. Gods I had to make it stop. So how was I supposed to see the car ahead of me stop sharply?

Cold Caller

So you went into the back of them?

GN

NO!
I managed to stop the hideous music and lookup in time to swerve off the road, and I missed them. The issue is with the Bus Stop.

Cold Caller

So you swerved to avoid a car and hit a bus stop?

GN

Oh, I missed the Bus stop, well it was just a lamp post really, No, the issue is with the queue of people waiting for the bus.

Cold Caller

YOU HIT A LOAD OF PEOPLE?

GN

Well most managed to jump or run out of the way.

It was just the pregnant nuns that could not waddle out the way fast enough.

Cold Caller

NUNS?

GN

Yes, Nuns. You know those odd women who dress up as penguins and are all married to the same guy?

I know some say its an odd fetish, but personally I think it has to be some weird cult.

I have nothing against fetishes myself, nothing wrong with a bit of bdsm.

Cold Caller

BDSM? what, hang on.

GN

bdsm, you know like 50 shades but much less rapey
My safe word is Pineapple!

Cold Caller

FUCK OFF YOU FREAK!!!
*CLICK*

GN

That’s rude.

*buzzing on phone*

GN

Hello?

Hello?

Anyone there?

Pineapple!!!!

Oddly.

That was the last such call we had. And there has been none since.

The world is an odd place..