Awaiting Avengers

This humble geek is very excited for this week an insanely long awaited film finally hits theatres near you! Yes i'm talking about Marvel Studios latest offering "The Avengers" or as it is annoyingly called here in the UK "Avengers Assemble" - why I hear you ask, well that's because of a rather annoying and very rubbish old british tv show which also went by the name "The Avengers" and subsequently inspired a movie of the same name back in 1998 starring the ever delightful Uma Thurman and that annoying Voldemort guy wearing a bowler hat!

Marvel's Avengers however is going to be a work of cinematic genius, I say that confidently because of how much faith I have in the man behind it - Joss Whedon! As a huge and lets face it eternal fan of Buffy i've watched everything the man GOD known as Whedon has produced since and i've not been dissapointed yet. When you combine that genius with the Marvel universe it's safe to say that this is going to be the event of the year for this geek so I thought it only appropriate to blog before and after to fully do it justice.

I honestly don't know what part to be excited about most, the big screen appearance of more than one of my favourite superheroes in one film, the extensive eye candy for me to drool over. The knowledge that hidden somewhere in this film there are likely to be some casting choices or cameos from the Whedonverse to satisfy Whedons compulsions to join all his projects together somehow. The presence of How I Met Your Mother star and all round awesome Canadian Cobie Smulders is part of the cast or the fact it's being released in the UK before it gets released in the US!

It's all very exciting and it's only a few days away, this thursday I shall be taking my seat with a friend and fellow Marvel fan who no doubt is just as excited as I am about this momentous cinematic event.

Geeks, Computers and Good Friends

I love being a geek and I've never made any secret of that, but this time I'm going to spare you a comic book or superhero related rant - it's good old fashioned computer geek time.

It has to be said I'm certainly not going to win any prizes for coding some new game or smartphone app, but I do love that I can do enough to make myself smile with geeky pride and that's all thanks to a short time living with someone who knows a hell of a lot more than I do.

Only a handful of years ago the extent of my computer geekery was playing a few games, untold hours of playing with an art program on an old Commodore Amiga 500+ and whatever remnants of COMAL coding i'd learned in high school on computers as old as time itself.  Then I met geoff (not a typo, he had the capital letter revoked in 2007 - it's a long story so perhaps I'll temporarily reinstate it for the purpose of this blog) and all that changed.

Geoff was one of my flatmates when I temporarily lived in Edinburgh during my final year of university and apart from hours of geeky conversations about Doctor Who, scientific theories and playing so many hours of video games - one of the things I learned from Geoff was about the existence of Linux.

I had come across Linux before this and even used a few in my life but hadn't realised what they were as they were on computers in youth hostels in San Francisco where out of ignorance I had just assumed the different computers were "an american thing".

Geoff spent I don't know how many hours showing me how it worked, explaining things and getting excited showing off the latest customisation he'd learned how to install on his computer and I quickly got very excited about it and despite having a brand new laptop I soon got my hands on some old computer parts on freecycle and learned how to build a computer and just how good a system could be made with old parts if it was running Linux. From that moment on I was a little bit hooked, however, I always went back to my laptop as it was just so much more convenient especially since I didn't like the Linux version of Photoshop. I also had the problem of no longer living with an in house tech guru for when I got stuck with a system I wasn't very familiar with still.

Fast forwarding to this week I got the opportunity to get some more free computer parts from an internet cafe which had new owners and had decided to renovate and replace all the computers. The computers are old and had more dust inside them than my vacuum cleaner when its due to be emptied but I was able to salvage some good parts and have just built myself another Linux system to practice on.

So for the first time ever I've been experimenting and modifying with the Linux installation and making it look and act like the kind of system that Geoff had and ran all those years ago and whilst I don't have an in house tech guru any more, I do have an entire world full of Linux geeks at my disposal through the wonder of YouTube. I might not be as fast as Geoff was with the coding or even know what I'm doing half the time but thanks to what he taught me all those years ago I'm not scared of experimenting with it because if it goes wrong I can just start again - and he must have been doing something right, he's now got his own business providing the services of the humble computer geek to the "normal" folk of the world.

I know he's going to read this at some point, so I'm going to take this moment to say a huge thank you to him. Not only did he teach me things I didn't know the first thing about, he showed me friendship and support when I needed it most.


You are a good friend Geoff and my life is better for knowing you, thank you for everything.



Geoff's Blog
http://artificialphilosophy.blogspot.co.uk/

Geoff's Business
http://www.webdesignhighlands.co.uk/

Shameful lack of blogs

Well I suppose I should apologise for the severe and very shameful lack of blogs for a long time, the explanation is very simply that I tend to lose my creative drive when depression rears it's ugly head for another round. I've been up and down for a while again and it's only been very recently that i've been feeling that creative drive itching beneath the surface begging to be let out and to be heard again. This is in part thanks to watching my favourite YouTube Vlogs which i'm thinking might be another way for me to get creative in the future.

I think i'll save talking about the vlogs and why I was inspired for another time since it's currently 1.49am and I have a very early start in the morning.

Poppies for a different kind of remembrance day

I wrote and posted the following article elsewhere last year and I decided to repost it again here with a small introduction. 

Today would have been my Mum's 69th birthday and I'm just about to go out and remember her by doing some of her favourite things, not quite sure where i'm going to go yet but i'm going to go out for an adventure in my wee silver car which she used to share with my sister and wherever I end up i'm going to have a cappuccino and a disgustingly large and very naughty cake... probably a big freshly made merangue like we used to get and share whilst giggling like naughty school kids and on my way there i'm going to listen to a combination of my favourite songs that remind me of her and her favourite Abba album. 

But most importantly of all, i'll be wearing my Poppy and remembering her on this 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of this millenium.

Love you Mum x

Poppies for a different kind of remembrance day

by Ross Paterson on Thursday, 11 November 2010 at 01:04

Today is the 11th day of the 11th month and whilst many people remember those lost in battles fighting for our country i remember someone else, someone much more important - to me anyway.

Today would have been my Mum's 68th birthday, and poppies will forever be hers in my eyes. She might not have fought in fields with weapons, but she was the strongest woman i ever had the privilage of knowing and she didn't win her last fight.

Cancer is a cruel and heartless bitch, a scourge on the world and i have lost several family members to it now, none more painful than the loss of my Mum. Taken from me long before her time, just like all those poor young men forced into war to defend our country. I thank them for what they did for our country and I do not mean any dishonour to them when i say this but i shall not be wearing my poppy for them, i wear it for her.

My Mum was a kind, caring woman - not an ounce of selfishness in her body. and the number of people that came to pay their respects at the funeral certainly proved that, there wasn't an empty seat in the church as far as i remember and there were still others that sent cards from over seas who couldn't make it. Hundreds of people were that touched by her life and thought so highly of her. We had a collection for Macmillan Cancer Support that day and we raised more than £800 in her honour! To this very day i am still in awe of how loved she was and i can only hope that when its my time i'll have made even half as much of an impact on the people i encounter along the way as she did.

She did so much for me and for that i will always be eternally grateful, but its some of the smallest simplest things that i miss most of all and i would like to share some of those with you now, like the way she would wake me up singing one of her songs always in the most cheerful of moods. Most parents probably spent many a day yelling at their teenage/student kids to get out of bed and stop being lazy, mine always started my day by making me smile.

The way she repeatedly inflicted  her Abba tapes on me in the car on near constant repeat when i was little to the point where i knew the words and exact running order to each one off by heart... and probably still do! when we got a new car with a cd player instead of a tape player she missed her tapes that much that i bought her an Abba greatest hits cd to cheer her up and resigned myself to the fact that i would never be free of the damn songs but at least she would be happy! LOL

The way she bribed me to go swimming with the promise of a blue slush puppie and then how i stopped caring about the slush puppie cause i just loved going swimming with her - and also the discovery of how much fun jacuzzis were - eventually not a lot of time was spent swimming, Mum trained me well at an early age in the arts of relaxation LOL

My Mum was my best friend, not everyone is that lucky in life thats why i take great pride in remembering her life today and why I will always remember her on this day. Remembrance day may have been designed for a completely different purpose, but i don't think any of those soldiers would have minded sharing their day with such a remarkably spectacular woman.

Isabel Paterson I remember you now and forever, Happy Birthday Mum x

In memoriam, 9/11 - my thoughts and memories

I wasn't in New York City 10 years ago, but I remember where I was that day and remember watching the second plane fly into the second tower live on the news, watching terrified people jumping to their deaths from the towers live on the television with my heart in my mouth and tears in my eyes. I didn't know my American friends as well as I do today, but just knowing that they might be in danger terrified me. I had grown up dreaming of the things I would do in that city one day, the people I might meet and suddenly the most magical city I had dreamed about was suffering so much and so horrifically and my heart was breaking. Then I found out my cousin and his wife were in the states and had been due to fly to New York that day and nobody knew any more details than that. That was when everything suddenly got so much more real for me, I had already been crying for all those poor people but now a close family member and his wonderful wife were over there somewhere in the midst of all that horror and we didn't know if they were safe or not. Thankfully it was only a few hours before we got a phone call from my cousin to tell us that he was still in Washington and that he was safe. The relief didn't last very long though, my heart was still breaking for all the others involved and I remember wishing there was something I could do and that I could help somehow and feeling so insignificant and helpless because I couldn't.

3 years later I stood at Ground Zero and cried.

I read the names on the memorial that stood at the time, I paid my respects to each and every one of them and with great sadness I found people who shared my name and whilst any relation between us would most likely be hugely removed by time, they still felt strangely like lost family as they had to have gained their family name from somewhere in the past as did my family. Unfortunately I do not remember their full names or how many there were on the list, but I do remember them regardless as I remember everyone on that list regardless of whether I can speak their name or not.

I still remember the way I felt standing at Ground Zero, it was a place full of overwhelming sadness and pain and every second I was there I had tears rolling down my face as did almost every other person I saw near me. Occasionally you would catch someone else's eye as you looked around and in that brief moment there was a brief glimpse of hope in that other persons eyes and presumably in my own as seen by them, just knowing that we were both remembering and honouring those who were gone and that the world still had people who cared. I had lost relatives and family friends at this point in my life but I hadn't truly lost someone yet, it would still be another 3 months until my Mum would be diagnosed with cancer and another 2 years before I lost her, and 3 years until I lost my Dad – so I didn't truly know how the families of the people on that list felt, but now, 10 years later I sit here at home watching the memorial ceremony in tears once again and now whilst I still won't ever know the pain those people felt and still feel – I know how much they miss their loved ones and my heart is with each and every one of them on this day.

Today a new memorial opened, filled with both peace and sadness. Life once again has come to that part of New York, tree's have been planted and gardens will grow. Water runs and at night lights will shine so that darkness never again falls on those who have been lost, names carved into bronze will shine with light from within and they will never be forgotten. No longer will that site be empty or fenced off, those who were lost and never recovered finally have a memorial, a resting place of sorts, a place which will grow into something beautiful and full of life in years to come where friends and family and even complete strangers can sit and remember them and help them live on in their memories.

For all those who lost their lives on that day or because of it, may your spirits soar 

For all those who lost someone dear, may you find peace and comfort

I am mechanic hear me roar...

As mentioned in my last blog I know very little about cars, but I am good at learning new things. Any time I find a new interest I jump straight into full blown research mode, I learn as much as I can about the subject as quickly as possible and I’m not afraid to give things a go. So with repair bills looming on the horizon for things I don’t even know where to find on the car I decided the best course of action was to save money where I could by fixing the things I did understand. After a week an a half of research and part locating and purchase I have just embarked upon my first attempt at self taught car mechanics. First I removed the old damaged rear number plate light and then I wired in and installed the new one, which was surprisingly straight forward, but then electrical appliance repair isn’t a new skill since I used to have to do basic repairs when I worked in a hardware store. Number plate light is now successfully replaced and in full working order. Next on the list was the headlight bulbs, only one of which was faulty but I decided it was better to replace both at the same time so they match and don’t still look like one is dimmer than the other. This should have been fairly straightforward but it was bloody cold outside and by this point I had numb fingers and really struggled to grip the incredibly hard to open locking mechanism that holds the bulbs in place. Eventually I managed and swapped out the bulbs for new ones, just as a second flurry of snow for the day started, thankfully the bulbs didn’t get wet and they too are now fully functional and can be checked off the list. Third on the list was the rear windscreen wiper, it had been worn down to almost nothing as my sister hadn’t expected the car to be saved so she hadn’t bothered to replace it so this was a very needed repair. Rather than spend a lot of money on a single blade of the right size, I rather sneakily purchased a set of much larger blades from poundland and cut the generic wiper blade to fit. A little bit more work but not only was it cheaper I also have a second back up for the next time it needs replaced. Another job done and a great way to save a few quid towards the larger repair bills I can’t do myself!

The front windscreen wipers also need replaced but despite several attempts I haven’t managed to remove the old ones yet as they don’t seem to match the how to diagrams in the car manual and as I don’t want to be heavy handed and end up breaking something I’m going to leave them for now and get my brother in law to help me in the morning before we go to the garage for the rest of the repairs.

In the grand scheme of things, its certainly not a huge deal for a proper car mechanic to do the work I’ve done today and it would probably only take about a quarter of the time it took me – but I have to say I feel great knowing that I’ve done it myself. I always get a great sense of satisfaction when I manage to do something myself but this time in particular is even better since its something I never thought I would ever do and knowing that Dad would have been proud of me for even attempting it means more to me than the fact I managed to do the work in the first place.

Beep Beep....

I don’t know much about cars, never have. I like VW Beetles because of a childhood love of Herbie, I like the old VW Campervans because the beetle obsession grew and spread to the only other retro cool part of the VW family – and admittedly because it also really suits my inner hippy. I know what I like and a bit about them specifically, but that’s about the sum of my car knowledge really. My Dad loved cars his whole life, he took a job as an undertaker at age 18 purely because it meant he got to drive a Rolls Royce. He trained in various apprenticeships in vehicle panel beating, vehicle spray painting and I don’t remember the specifics but he probably did a general mechanic one as well since he certainly knew what he was doing under the bonnet. He bought me hundreds of toy cars when I was a kid, determined he was going to have his love of cars rub off on me but Herbie was his only success. I think it really disappointed him that I didn’t share his love of cars, and that I never really had any interest in learning to drive either. I only really got my provisional licence as a source of photographic ID but I wish I’d learned a lot sooner. My Dad also had his own driver training company, teaching people how to drive lorries and buses, and as much as I know we would have wanted to kill each other during the process I wish I’d had the opportunity to learn how to drive from him.

Despite my early disdain for driving I did eventually start lessons and after many failed tests I finally passed on the 8^th of February this year. A cause for great celebration as the lack of a driving licence had cost me several jobs in my career field due to simply not being able to get to the locations or the job requiring you to be able to drive. So here I am I have my licence, my sister has finally given me her car which she had been holding onto a lot longer than she planned for this very reason and I finally have my transport related freedom… or so I thought.

It turned out it took so long for me to pass that my lovely little car has gotten a bit ill, and it requires a lot of work to keep it healthy. My sister suggested trading it in for a slightly newer car with less issues but everything we looked at despite being newer and considerably more expensive they were all pretty much in a much sorrier state than my little clio. It’s amazing what a difference it makes to a car when its been looked after, my sister is a really safe driver, a touch paranoid due to an accident which was caused by a brand new tyre with a fault blowing out at a relatively high speed and causing the car she was in to crash quite badly. Her experience made her an even more sensible and safe driver so this car I have inherited has been well loved over the last 9 years that she’s owned it. It also helps that for the last 2 or 3 years now she’s had a boyfriend who’s a mechanic and he’s looked after it and serviced it regularly too. So I have decided to try to save my little clio and its been inspected and the list of repairs to pass its mot isn’t too big and should be relatively cheap and all the other problems can be fixed after that to prolong its life. It might be a 10 year old car but several mechanics have looked at it and have been quite impressed by its condition for the age, so I’m giving it the best chance I possibly can to keep it in the family just a little longer. When my sister was in Australia for a year she left the car with my Mum so she could have her own little run about for fun days out instead of having to use Dad’s much larger car which she was perfectly fine driving but wasn’t very keen on. I have a lot of great memories and days out with Mum in that little clio including several trips to Ikea which coincidentally was one of the first places I drove myself to in it after I got my own licence. Mum loved this little car and so do I, even more so because it was so important to her and comes with plenty of happy memories.

I know that the length of time the car will last even with the repairs is uncertain and spending money on repairs only to have it die a week later anyway is a definite possibility due to the nature of the problems a car this old has… but I also have hope and faith in just how good this little car is so I am happy to take that risk, to give it another chance and even if I only get one more year out of it then I’ll be happy knowing that I was right not to give up on it today.

I may still not know much about cars, but I’m pretty sure Dad would be proud of me for not taking the easy route and being prepared to have to do work on the car myself, and I know he would have loved to spend hours outside working on it with me so I’m going to get the relevant Haynes manual for this model and I’m going to learn how to maintain it myself… well the little things anyway, I’m gonna stick to letting the professionals deal with the serious stuff just to be on the safe side!

I went outside to wash the windscreen earlier so that I could treat the glass with a special product that helps rain run off faster keeping the screen clearer and making visibility better and without meaning to I got carried away and before I knew what I was doing I had washed the whole car from top to bottom and scrubbed off all the dirt, so its all very nice and clean now. I certainly didn’t expect to turn into one of those take pride in washing the car by hand types of people, but I was really proud of myself after I was finished and it was nice to feel that way about…. My car!


This blog was written on February 28th but due to an unnoticed error during publishing it failed to go online, it has therefore been reposted today.