Just had a really good weekend down at lovely old Saint Martin’s Plain training camp, part of the Cinque Ports Training Area. I was involved with training the cadets certain skills and I was very busy all Friday evening, all Saturday and then most of Sunday. To give you an idea I was teaching from 08:30 Sat morning until 21:30 that evening. It was hard work but thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding.
SMP Classroom
The above was my teaching space. It was quite suitable and we made it our own space. I had a good group of cadets.
While I was at SMP, on the Friday evening at 23:00 the UK left the EU. Kinda. It was a sad moment especially as I could see France from one edge of the camp. Kinda. There was a subdued sense of failure around the staff room at that moment. We then got back to annoying each other because it’s a good distraction from the utter shit this country has to face over the next year.
There Be France In The Distance
France is hidden in the mist. But it’s there.
We currently have to abide by the EU rules but have ZERO say in any of those rules. We used to have a veto. Not now. This was what the Brexiteers pushed for and got.
For the next year we are going to try and negotiate a trade deal with a bloc that currently is 60% of our global trade. We are going to negotiate with them using a team which has no experience at negotiating. All our negotiations for 40 years have been completed by the EU team, but they now sit on the other side of the table. We also have to negotiate all the existing trade deals the EU has with other countries too as we won’t have our own deal with them.
The chaos is only just starting and it’ll reach its peak when we leave the transition period on end of 31 December 2020.
I will try to spend little time today thinking about what happens tonight. It has made me sad for over three years now and I am doing my best to let go. Much like I managed with Star Wars after the prequels came out I need to learn to stop loving a particular thing and being annoyed when it gets messed up. All three prequels disappointed me so much that I learnt over time to not worry about what they did to Star Wars. I learnt to let go of my feelings. I’ve only really enjoyed one of the recent films.
Today the UK leaves the EU. It is not something I want to happen and like many others it’s not really something I really thought about a lot before the referendum. I was vaguely aware of what the EU did and our membership of it. I voted remain more out of a sense of feeling that we are better in the club than out. I didn’t really have any solids reasons just a feeling of wanting to belong. Other people had different feelings and they were in the small majority at that particular time of those who voted.
Since the result I have felt an amazing loss and sense of despair at the realisation of what people in the UK think. The most recent election result shows that overall this country is full of selfish low level racists. I don’t know how else to describe the overwhelming majority that the torys got. There are, of course, issues with our representative parliament not working in a particularly representative way but that is the system we have.
The more I have learnt about the EU and the [current as I write this] position of the UK within that the more I have felt that a little education about the system would have saved this mess. People believed what they read and heard and didn’t understand how the system worked. The most basic thing for me is the understanding that ALL EU laws have to be approved by the UK PM and if we were to disagree with ANY of the laws then the UK could VETO them. It’s really that simple. It’s the bonus of being a big member of the club. If the population are angry at EU rules and laws then the anger should be placed towards the leaders of the UK and not the EU.
So, here we go. Off into the miserable world of making it on our own. Trying to get free trade and movement which we already have. One of the greatest symbols for me about the UK leaving is that it happens this evening at 23:00. Why does it happen at that time? Because that’s when it’s midnight in Brussels. The government can’t even get us to leave at a time sensible for the UK.
Over the next year, as the transition period comes to and end there will be a slow drip of news about how we lose all those benefits of being in the EU. It will happen quietly and over a year and so there won’t be an uprising but this country will be poorer in all ways as a result.
Given how close The O2 is to where I live this was the first time I had been there to see a concert. I went there a long time ago to see some tennis but this was the first music event. The “Millennium Dome” as it was known a long time ago was considered a GBP1 Billion white elephant in the early days of the Blair government. The display area was shit. I know, I went there. I never saw the “show” in the arena it was meant to be a bit like a circus – I guess there’s video of it but I care not. I’d also been a couple of other times most notably to see a Star Wars exhibition.
Anyway. Dave from work drove and we met up with Smith and Son. We ate. I drank. We entered the arena just after Behemoth had started.
Behemoth
I didn’t find them particularly good. They were quite boring. There wasn’t much dynamic shift to their songs and it was rather – meh. But still it was an opportunity to study the stage construction and layout of the arena. I noticed plenty of structural high beams, they were interesting, and the cable work holding up the PA system was impressive. Yep, that’s the sort of stuff I find interesting. I think it comes from having and engineering degree and thinking about how stuff works a lot.
The headliners were Slipknot. I was quite excited as I’d been listening to their stuff all week and I have to admit it’s pretty good stuff. It had also been quite a while since we had seen a metal headline act in an arena. Smith and I normally see either small bands in small venues or the classic M’era Luna festival in Germany.
The Stage and Slipknot
Slipknot were pretty darn good. They kept the crowd going and all their songs were great. I really enjoyed it. At some points the mosh pit extended two thirds of the way back on the standing area and I don’t think I’ve ever really seen that before.
It was curious to see adverts for Slipknot stuff on the large screens before the band. They were advertising Knotfest which is an open air concert to take place at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes. Then, there was Slipknot whiskey made in Iowa. I mean, sure, you can buy it if you want but are you into a band that much that you want all your kit branded that way? In my experience it’s best to like the music, enjoy the shows and then not worry too much about the other stuff. Buying into a band completely always leaves you exposed to being failed when they turn out to be cunts. Not saying Slipknot are, just saying some bands are.
The Crowd and Slipknot
There was also an advert for some cruise thing from Barcelona to Naples with Slipknot appearing on board playing two shows. You can pay to be stuck on a cruise [honestly sounds quite nice] and then in the evening there will be some gigs. That’s not so bad I reckon. The Norwegian Jade will be a floating music festival and decked out like a museum to this Iowan band.
Slipknot Cruise Price List
I don’t have this sort of money. The largest venue holds 2500 which is a reasonable size. It would be a pretty special time, but it is an outdoor venue and if the weather is shit you are screwed. Maybe the other bands would make it worthwhile? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll do this kind of thing once I’m retired.
Slipknot were pretty good on stage. There was the expected crowd interaction and I enjoyed it all. I don’t think I’m that fussed about seeing them again though. I think I am slowly seeking new things, new sounds or shows. My limit seems to be two times for seeing bands at the moment. I say this when I’m soon to see Aesthetic Perfection for the seventh time!
Good show. Good time. Enjoyed it. What more do you want?
I had a lovely time recently staying at Lydd Camp in the farthest reaches of Kent. I was there to attend a DDCT(E) operators course which was good fun and very interesting. The camp itself is steeped in history and has some “interesting” quirks. Needless to say that I passed the course, as did everyone, and it was fascinating watching the way things are taught from a military perspective rather than my normal civilian views on things. The SASC were very good in their delivery, which was to be expected. I might make myself a small crib sheet with the important stuff on it.
One night we [there were three from my contingent] went to the Pilot for food and it was lovely and scarily “local”. There was a fund raiser on for the lifeboat and we had some success with the raffle. The food was pretty good. It’s a shame we couldn’t see the landscape in the dark because it is haunting down on the largest shingle area in the world.
There’s a nuclear power station right on the coast and the powerlines ran close to the camp. They made a lovely crackling sound! Here’s a shot:
Lydd Camp Powerlines
It’s important to thoroughly check out your accommodation when you get somewhere new and figure out the shower, toilet, and drying rooms along with where the emergency exits are. On such a reconnoitre I found a single toilet with a door that locked [some didn’t] and a seat which was attached [some weren’t] and a light that worked [you get the idea]. I was struck by the cistern in this little room. It had been painted many times but looked quite lovely.
Finch and Co Belvedere Cistern
After some extensive googling I can confirm that this “Belvedere” model cistern was made by Finch and Co in London and is most likely an original feature of the camp. Humans just don’t make stuff this interesting anymore.
It’s a shame that many people don’t seem to accept the horror we face. Over the last forty years there has been regular news about how we are fucking the planet. Every news article I have read which tries to explain the science and evidence behind what we have done to Earth implies that we don’t understand the positive feedback mechanisms but we know they are happening. The climate has entered a phase of accelerated warming and the time to stop our emissions was twenty years ago.
Even if we stop now there’s been enough damage caused that will mean the changes will go on for years. Basically it’s fucked. It was fucked ten years ago and possibly even twenty years ago. This globe is dying through the lack of action of those in power who could change things.
This site has been having some issues over the last couple of days and I’m not sure what’s causing it. There may be some problems with the DDNS systems or there may be worse problems. It seems that the site works at times and not at others. This is not helpful. Working or Not-Working is normally the best. If something works well then there are no problems. If something doesn’t work then causes are more easily found. If the problem is intermittent then you are screwed.
I one had a strange problem with a car I owned which, when the morning was a special type of damp, wouldn’t start. I got used to looking at the weather and then attempting to park the car so that the bonnet faced the rising sun. This normally worked and the car had dehumidified enough to start. When taking this vehicle to the garage it would be working and so it was nigh on impossible for them to track down the problem. When it wouldn’t start I couldn’t get it to the garage. I sold that car, but was honest about the occasional problem with it. I bought a motorbike.
I hope to investigate the issues this site faces as I know there are at least four people who read this stuff regularly. I aim to keep you all updated. In the mean time, if you’ve managed to read this you know there may be problems. If you haven’t managed to read this then you also know there are problems. Simple.
It’s kinda nice that after this entry into a new [arbitrary] year lots of companies trying to sell something email with a summary of what I did for 2019. I wrote about my cinema trips in this communication. I’ve now had an email from Strava with a link to my summary for the year. They had some flashy graphics and moving things but there was a summary for me.
2019 Fitness
I think the important thing to note from this summary is although I ran/rowed quite farand that not all exercise sessions were included the second law of thermodynamics still runs true for humans.
Energy in – energy out = getting fat
While my fitness has stayed mostly constant, there have been periods of time when I didn’t exercise much because of other commitments. I have recently been eating too much which means I have to start eating less to balance it out. Having to buy new trousers was enough of a warning and it’s time to get the fat burned. I have spent quite a large portion of the last decade aiming for a particular mass and not reaching it so it might be time to make my goal more reachable as we head into the 20s [also noting that it seems to be getting harder the older I get].
Recent exercise sessions have been run-walk rather than run because of extra mass considerations and so I hope to get back to full-on running soon. Also, my number 5 mess dress uniform was quite “snug” before I gained this extra mass and I need it to fit at the end of April.
Mount Everest is 29,029ft tall and it turns out that over a year I have gained slightly more than that in altitude.
It’s nice to collect whole sets of things. It completes the series, finishes the story. A long term aim of mine is to bag all the Wainwrights in the Lake District. It’s going to take a while as I live in the exact opposite corner of the country and it pretty much takes a day to get there. I’m trying to complete Gran Turismo Sport but I don’t think I’ll ever do it or if I do it will be after they bring out the edition for the PS5 [which I’ll buy obviously].
A recent trip to the Science Museum in London to meet up with the Fulham 5 meant another chance to see one of the Apollo Command Modules. There are twelve command modules around the world [USA + London]. I’ve seen three of them and I doubt I’ll ever get to see more than another two or three of them but it’s worth a try to see them all.
I’ve seen the Apollo 11 Command Module in Washington DC. The Apollo 10 Command Module in London and the Apollo 14 Module at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. I reckon there’s a chance I’ll see a couple more of them.
Apollo 14 Command Module
Above is the interior of the Apollo 14 Command Module. Just enough space for three humans to survive take off and re-entry. This conical cocoon sat atop the supply and Service Module that kept the astronauts alive. There was also the Lunar Module which they docked with in Earth orbit before performing a burn to take them out of the large gravity well.
If you think there’s not a lot of room in the CM then I suggest you go and take a look at one of the Soyuz capsules. They are much smaller and contain the same number of people. Those pesky Russians sure know how to make hard-working dependable technology!
Just been for a Noodlemass day walk and took this photograph.
County Lines on Noodlemass Day
Here are some lines over Kent on this Noodlemass day. This communication has nothing to do with the drugs gangs infiltrating the smaller cities and towns of the region.
Since early 2014 I have written communications on here detailing the kind of equipment I have in the house in terms of internet-networking-stuff. The first communication, January 2014, detailed the set up of the house. I then updated this in February 2017 with the expanded view of the network. There have been some changes. I go through phases of trying to simplify the equipment and getting it to work in the easiest method possible. This is needed every now and then as when items are first set up the quick method is used and this might not be the best. Changes happen over time.
Infrastructure 201912
The principle changes to the system are the addition of a smart lighting system and the network that runs on along with a wired connection to the lounge cluster running with a gigabit switch. The original 10/100 switch now runs clusters B, C and D. I will admit that the picture isn’t that pretty but given I’m not a graphic designer and I also don’t really care what you think I’ll leave it as it is. I will also admit that this is the second import of that picture because on the first one I forgot to add the AV amp [disaster!].
Other minor changes to the network are the removal of the freesat box and a complete reliance on streaming services, I wrote about that in this communication a year ago. I have no wireless television signals connected to the television, be that a satellite signal or via the television aerial on the chimney. I also now have home voice control via the Google boxes, it’s nice telling the house what lights to turn on. I have written about that but I can’t find it, see my explanations here.
The Clusters
A – The, so called, gigabit computing cluster. This is basically a PC which is now old and a NAS drive which stores all kinds of media and files. The wireless printer is in this cluster but it’s not really gigabit, you know what I mean.
B – The ADSB receiver. I send MLAT and ADSB data to 360Radar. I use a Raspberry Pi connected to a tuned aerial and decode the data before sending it to the cloud somewhere. When this system was wireless there were occasionally issues with the Pi connecting and so I now have it wired through an ethernet over power line connection. This connection runs greater than 100Mbps which is good enough.
C – The lights. I can control the lights in the house either by speaking, using the PC or via a connection from my phone. I can also control them when I am remote from the house. This is handy as I can get the lights on before I walk into the house. I could have this set using location settings but I’m not going to do that. Some lights come on at sunset and shortly before sunrise which is pretty neat. I also bought a light switch which is near the front door for the olds to use.
D – House sounds. The Sonos system is pretty impressive still and used everyday. The Sonos can read songs stored on the NAS or even stream podcasts and radio stations via the internet. While I haven’t set up voice control on this, I can but I don’t like the interface, I can control this system using the PC or phone.
E – The lounge cluster. Yesterday I wired this in using a network cable to which I attached RJ45s. I had to do this as the cable had to fit through a hole in the wall which is smaller that the connector. It was an interesting learning experience fitting my own cable. I also bought a gigabit switch for the lounge and now the devices in there can link to lumps in the computing cluster at high speed. I didn’t have any streaming issues but I just wanted to know that it was future-proof for a little while anyway. The lounge has a smart TV [it’s not that smart as I bought it before decent firmware], Blu-ray player, PS4, Amp and Nvidia Shield streaming device for watching stuff.
F – The wireless cluster. This is basically everything else. There’s a phone, an old tablet and also the Google home pieces. There is a normal Google home and two minis. These are placed strategically around the house to allow for voice control to work wherever you are.
I guess I’ll write another of these in a few years time when I consider the network to have changed significantly. Until then, happy buying of technology.
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