Bucket List 2023

My last post on my bucket list was back in 2020 with hopes and dreams that I would get some of the items ticked off of my list. Sadly due to the COVID-19 disaster everything had to be put on hold.

Even though we have had a pandemic and we are pretty much in a recession with prices sky rocketing through the roof for everything at the moment, I have managed to get a couple things ticked off of my list.

  1. Reach the summit of Scafell Pike. I managed to get this done on the 4th June 2021 with my sister. View the full story here.
  2. I got my tongue pierced again. This is officially the 4th time it has now been pierced. View the full story here.
  3. I stopped smoking in March 2020. I took the pandemic as the perfect sign to quit. I did however move onto a vape. I have now also finally as of 1st November 2022 quit vaping. I am officially nicotine free.
  4. I attained my motorcycle licence – AND
  5. I bought myself a motorcycle – view the full story here

The last 18 months in terms of goals have been quite good for me. Ticking 5 things off of my list is a good amount. 

Sadly in terms of health, things haven’t been so good. As of August 2021 I had a lung infection which ended up in 5 months off work. I also caught COVID-19 in February 2022, which appears to have given me permanent breathing issues. I have been to the hospital and had a multitude of tests done and everything is coming back fine. I’ve had a lung function test, angiogram, bone density tests, x-rays, cardiogram, echocardiogram, blood tests, various asthma inhaler testing and everything is coming back as fine. The doctors are now investigating the possibility of long-COVID.

Currently I am back at work, but very much on light duties. I am not allowed out on the road to perform inspections. I’m not allowed to drive a vehicle. I am to either work from the office or work from home. For the most part I have worked from home but this has proven to have other side effects. I have missed human contact and being around others, which has affected my general day to day mood. I have agreed with my manager that I now go into the office a couple times a week and work and or catch up with the other inspectors. I think once I am able to start interacting with others my mood will improve.

This year I am hoping to tick a few more things off my list. I am not sure, but there will be some travel around the UK which will give me the perfect opportunity to go visit some castles and possibly some camping. Everything is very much money dependant at the moment with the issues with the economy, so we shall see!

Call of Duty – Advanced Warfare

I have had my Playstation 4 for around 6 months now and I believe I have adapted to console gaming quite well. When I first had a console it was in the year of Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, Alex The Kidd, Street Fighter and Coolspot. Console gaming has advanced to the level of PC gaming now, so I thought it was about time I had my turn with it.

When I first started playing games properly I was a dedicated PC gamer, but it’s an expensive hobby to keep all my equipment up to date, and I just don’t have the time or money to do that now. Now days I don’t have the time to spend hours and hours playing, so it’s a just a once in a while thing, and with console gaming, you don’t need to update any hardware yet you can still play all the latest games unlike with a PC

You can see how far I have progressed with my console gaming from the two videos below.

The video below is from October 2014. It shows one of the better runs I had at the time. It’s still quite crap though.

Now compare it to how I play now. As you can see from the video below there is quite a difference. Not only in play style, but in technique and ability too.

I’d have to say that I’m quite proud of myself from going from a PC gamer to being able to play on a console. It’s quite a dramatic change.

The Facebook lies

Last night I was browsing Facebook and noticed someone had posted the following image.

IMG_3140

According to the image every 823 years there is a phenomenon that occurs where there are 5 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and if you pass the image or at the very least the information on it according to Feng Shui you will receive good luck.

This lie that is making the rounds on Facebook is so easy to debunk is hardly worth doing, but I was bored and wanted to destroy it.

Lets start with Feng Shui. Feng Shui is something you do to help with the flow of energy through a house or apartment. It suggests arranging the furniture in a specific way to help channel the energy or Chi in a positive way to help. Help with what though I can’t say. I can honestly say I didn’t look into it that deeply!

Having 5 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only happens every once 823 years. You can find this information out simply by looking at a calendar. Take May of this year for example. It has those exact same 5 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays that this myth talks about.

May 2015

It’s a phenomenon. No it’s not! If there are 31 days in a month and the first of the month falls on a Friday then it is guaranteed that there will be 5 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the month. It’s really rather quite simple.

I still can’t get over that I am seeing people post utter crap like this. If you do some simple fact checking on the lies you find on Facebook you will find that they are nothing more than that. Lies. Myths. Fiction. Crap. Bupkis. Stop believing everything you see posted and the more people who adhere to this the less likely you are to see this crap posted again. It’s a win win situation!

Obviously there are many more other examples of crap that I see posted on Facebook, but I’m not going to post about those right now. However I do recommend that you visit http://www.snopes.com to see if you can find the ones that have you or your friends have fallen for.

Age restricted gaming

As you all know I’m a gamer and I have been since 1999 when I got my first PC. I now have two children. My boy Ryan 9, and my girl Chloé 6.

There has been an issue raised recently about age restricted gaming products such as Call of duty, or Grand Theft Auto, and children playing them.

The law states that anyone below the age stated on the product should not be allowed to play it. The main census according to a recent poll on the Telegraph website is that it should primarily remain a parental personal choice.

The fact that gaming products are age restricted should be a general indicator that the product is unsuitable for certain age groups. As a parent I would tend to agree with that statement, but being a gamer and having played certain age restricted games I would have to disagree, well at least partially.

If you stay with me for the next bit I will tell you why. If we look at the online multiplayer side of the games Call of Duty and GTA as examples they both have guns, killing, explosives, knives, and stabbing in it.

Lets look at them individually. If we look at GTA’s online free roaming world it pretty much allows you to do anything you want. You can hijack cars, rob convenience stores, run people over, use explosives, have sex with prostitutes and kill people and from what I remember there is a torture scene where the player has to engage to move the story along.

Now lets take a look at Call of Duty’s online game play. You plant bombs and kill people. Yes! That is literally it. Kinda basic.

I’m not being bias while writing this because I have played both types of games, and this is the main reason why I disagree partially with the age rating on some games. I understand why they are there, but it should be more a guideline rather than a strict law. But board games are still safe and not affected by this. Safe games like the best jenga game are already marked as safe alongside many other board games!

I will admit that I let my son play Call of Duty even though it is an 18+ rated game. I don’t think it represents proper violence in the way that GTA does. I would however not let him play GTA. Don’t get me wrong though, as I do know that Call of Duty has some very graphic scenes in it, but these are all in the single player, which he does not play.

You can watch a video that deathmule has put together for Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Single Player, but as I said above my boy doesn’t play single player, so he wont even see any of it. So this is why I condone him playing it.

Now watch a video I found for GTA by Dat Saintsfan. I find it epically disgusting, and if I had a choice in the matter I would not let him play it.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you feel children should be allowed to play age restricted games? Would you let them play it if you played it first to “vet” it? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Call of Duty Championship 2015

If you’re a gaming fan like myself and so many others then you should of known about the Call of Duty Championships 2015!

I managed to catch the majority of the tournament over the past two days, and was deeply impressed by just how well covered each match is with the commentary.

There was match to match breakdowns of what happened just in case you missed it among all the epic battles, which made for a much better watching experience.

I have included the finals below for you to watch, but if you’re interested in the final battle you should skip to 5 hours 40 minutes. It’s intense as hell as Denial takes the win for 2015!

I’ve spoken enough. I only wanted to bring you this video filled with so much skill.