Another Rally: Frozen Nuts! (And also some other stuff)

In case the title didn't give it I went on another bike rally, and I have just finished sewing the patch onto my cut-off. The Frozen Nuts patch was one of the three rally patches I wanted, meaning I now have the Another Piggin' Rally patch and the Frozen Nuts patch, the third patch of the three is for the Last Wolf Rally which I'll hopefully be going to this year.

Patches and rallies aside, for the time being t least, I have also been up to quite a bit this week. To be perfectly honest, this week didn't have the best of starts, self-doubt kicked in, and I spent the first half of the week thinking I'd get nowhere in life. Thankfully that disappeared on Wednesday, and the week could return to normality, which was good, especially since I had the first part of my army interview on Friday.

Thankfully it wasn't the real deal, it was a pre-interview in order to sort out my three job choices, since there is only a slim chance of me getting my first choice, I need to have back-up options. I'd also like to point out that I don't exaggerate when I say slim chance, in-fact I think a slim chance would be bigger than the chance I have. I say this because I plan to be a musician in the army, and I plan on entering as a bassist (but I will happily go for guitarist if need be). with there only being three army bands that require a bass guitarist, and each band will only need one bassist, there are only three potential jobs for me, that could be boosted up to nine by adding six guitarist slots (two for each contemporary band), but there are jazz bands which I might be able to slot myself into.

I now have two back-up jobs, I had to change at least one of my original jobs because the staff sergeant interviewing me, didn't want to send me into one of those job choices. This meant he gave me a nice big pile of job briefs to take home, sift through, select three jobs from and rank them in order of preference. The end result (in order of preference) was Musician, Combat Medical Technician and Military Policeman.

Army aside, the day before I restrung my bass. I used the thicker four strings of a five-string set (leaving me with a spare G string), and after about twenty minutes of playing part of the nut shot off making a satisfying ping sound. I literally busted a nut. I made a few quick measurement and ordered a new nut from eBay, while I was measuring I noticed that there was enough nut left to raise the string, but not enough left to hold the string in place. I decided to use my engineering prowess and I wrapped duct tape around the strings to hold the thick B string on the remainder of the nut.

The duct tape idea works quite nicely, but I had to put a bit more tape on not long after taking the picture, because the B string only stayed in place for two minutes of playing, I now get fifteen minutes of playing before I have to adjust it. At least I now have another nut on the way to replace my current on. Hopefully my new nut will be stronger, I order a graphite one to replace the original plastic lump.

That bass has a few more problems with it, which should be fixed by the next post. as it stands it an active on-board pre-amp which has died. I don't really know much about electronics, but I do know that the wiring is a mess, and it makes no sense to me, or to Nathan, and so I have decided to remove all the wiring and the pre-amp, and replace everything. I'm even going to replace the pick-ups with the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound P-J set. This will leave me with a pot connected to nothing (I'll ground to that) and an empty hole where the battery should go which I'll fill with a block of lead hopefully adding enough weight to counteract the headstock heaviness of the stock bass. I will at some point also add a set of Schaller Strap Locks, and buy a decent strap.

I have also had a bit more misfortune with guitars this week, this time it was my primary guitar. I've had her tuned down a step-and-a-half for six days, and so when I decided to tune her back up to E standard the 0.011 gauge high E string snapped and struck me on the infected scab on my right middle finger. My finger hurt enough as it was, that string really didn't help. Thankfully the Rotosound set I bought awhile back for another guitar came with a spare 0.010 gauge string, which will suffice for now.

I have now also decided it was time to restring the guitar I got off my brother. I've been putting this off for awhile because the Floyd Rose Floating Tremolo bridge seemed like it would be a ball-ache to deal with, I've also decided to replace the busted pick-up ring holding the neck humbucker in place, I'd like to replace both pick-ups at some point, but I don't really want to do something that will annoy my brother since I don't fully consider the guitar mine. That guitar is now back in her box after a vigourous cleaning, and there she will remain until her new pick-up ring arrives.

Hopefully I can get both of those guitars finished and theoretically, I should be done working on my guitars until June, when my Epiphone and Harley Benton basses get restrung. That is, of course, unless I buy a rolling tune-o-matic bridge, which won't take long to fit.

Anyway, as some of you know, this weekend was the weekend of the 29th annual Frozen Nuts Rally! Naturally as soon as we arrived some woman with a very hoarse voice came up to us and gave us a tongue lashing for something that happened six hours prior to our arrival. One of the lads from the Greedy Pigs started a very loud argument at four in the morning and kept everyone awake for the next three hours while they all shouted and screamed at each other. If you were one of those unfortunates who were affected by their arguing, I have a very strong feeling that disciplinary action will take place at the next meeting, but since I'm not a member of the Greedy Pigs, I can't say anything with any certainty.

Other than the bad start, the rally was quite enjoyable, I was only there for the Saturday, and so I didn't get to the the Jalepenos perform, but I hear they were good. I did however see half of Disturbin' the Peace's performance. I say half because I went outside for a breather during there interval and all the booze, the cold and the fact I had been awake since six O'clock that morning all struck me at once. I just couldn't continue, and so I dragged myself to the tent and slowly drifted to sleep.

I may have missed the half naked sexy girls, I may have missed Disturbin' the Peace cover a Rush song, but I did witness the worst proposal ever, which naturally took place in the middle of a hen party. I then saw (about five minutes later) the newly engaged woman fall over on the dance floor, spilling booze all over the singers pedals and the monitor by his feet. I reached out to help her up, and she gave me a really dirty look.

The bride-to-be from the hen party also randomly gave me, and a few other confused looking dudes, a big hug, while someone followed her with a camera. As soon as she stepped away from me, Dion (Nathan's dad) walked up to me and said "You lucky git, I've been eyeing her up all night." I on the other hand was eyeing up another member of her party, that entire group were wearing corsets, and one of those corsets looked like it was about to pop, so I was eyeing up the owner of that corset.

At some point between the proposal and the band kicking in, the bride-to-be had a male stripper, I get the feeling that he was her soon-to-be husband, judging by everyone's reaction. He didn't do the full monty, but it was still funny as hell to watch. Shortly after that I went to get me and Nath a drink, and on the way back from the bar I congratulated the newly engaged lady, turns out she has a voice that can break glass, I don't know if that's normal or just because she was drunk and/or excited.

I am also aware that none of this post is in chronological order, but the rally has thrown everything out of perspective and so I don't actually know what order anything happened in, I just know within two hours of getting to the rally I had had four different beers in three different pubs, one of those beers was a can I had bought with me, which I drank by the fire.

Bollocks

Naturally last week went by very slowly and was about as entertaining as rubbing my own face in raw sewage. I have to admit, it would be great fun to rub someone else's face in raw sewage, but that wouldn't make much of a difference to most of the people I know.

In contrast to the empty week, this weekend was almost eventful, which is why this post is a wee bit late. So what happened? well on Saturday I went to the House of Zed for the first time in forever. It started off being quite enjoyable, before I started getting bombarded by bollocks. The bollocks briefly settled down a few times, but it soon returned.

So what was the bollocks? It was mainly Zed talking absolute bollocks to try and stop me from becoming a musician in the British Armed Forces. I could understand her wanting me to not sign up if I was going to join the Infantry, but I'm going in to be a musician, I won't see much combat, and even so, the job brief states that during those times I'll be assisting the Army Medical Services.

After I don't know how much bollocks she ended up laying on me, I was able to work out the reason she started all this: she doesn't like the way the Army does things. I don't think she knows how the Army does things, likewise she thinks that I don't know how the Army does things, she also thinks I have an over-romanticised view on it all, and that I'd never get a woman in my life if I join.

One thing is true, I don't know how the Army does things, I only know what I have been told, and what I have read. But I think I know more about my chosen career choice than what she does. As for thesecond point, I do have a bit of a romantic view towards the Army, but not in the way she believes. Finally, for the last point, I always thought girls were looking for a knight in shining armour, I know for a fact that shining armour is bollocks, I'd much rather become the soldier in battle-worn Kevlar.

Her third point was then improved slightly by saying that she wouldn't expect girls in the Army to go for a submissive chap like me. I think quite the contrary, I imagine the girls in the Army would be fed up of having a man tell them what to do all day, every day, I think they'd appreciate the change. Anyway, the bollocks continued, and I tried to direct it at her, but my attempts failed.

After awhile, there was a pause. The pause didn't last very long, and when it ended the bollocks had changed into something completely different. She said I needed to stop falling in love with every girl I meet. I straight up told her that was bollocks,adding that in the time she had known me I had only fallen for one person: her. That ended ages ago, when she decided to spend a forty-five minute long Skype call telling me how big of a cunt I was.

I then had to explain to her why I fell for her, and I then said that it was a common occurrence. Here is a link to an article that explains everything. I don't know how reliable that website is, but that topic is at least touched on in various psychology books. if you read it you'll notice it that it's about falling for your therapist, which is what Zed used to be for me, and she helped me overcome my depression, before sending me back into it, albeit, only briefly.

It wasn't long before the bollocks went back to what it originally was, I was fighting a losing battle, but I'm not going to change just because she asked me to. Thankfully it was soon time for me to leave, and I was grateful to find at home that pizza was in the oven, and my favourite brother was visiting us so we could all sit down together and watch Guardians of the Galaxy, which I'd highly recommend for those of you who haven't yet seen it.

The next day was full of less bollocks, but I get the feeling, I'm going to feel the wrath of more this week, and maybe my angry ex-girlfriend Dana, will come and brutally murder me, which might be nice, or maybe Jade (an annoying dumbass from college) will murder me. Anyway, back to the original topic, I bought my old guitar back off my ex yesterday, it's in a better condition than I thought, but it needs a proper set-up, I've done the best I can and it still isn't right.

As to why this post wasn't posted yesterday, after I bought (and mostly set-up) that guitar, my favourite brother picked me up and so we went up to his and watched films. We only watched two, but we had to go pick his wife up from the train station after the first which took awhile, and then we all sat down to watch the second film while eating dinner.

So I have some film recommendations for those of you who haven't yet seen them: The Lego Movie, Porco Rosso, 40 Year Old Virgin, Frozen and Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes, I did just chose all the films I watched this week, I think all of them are awesome, and I get the feeling you'll like them all too. Enjoy!

Confusion? Depression? What the Smeg am I Actually Doing?

It's that time of the week again when I say something to try and help me keep track of my life. I'm pleased to say that this week week went without a hitch, well almost without a hitch, there was a minor breakdown on Wednesday.

I'd like to start by saying simply that every one comes to that point in their life when they begin to doubt their sexuality, I've been in that point for over two years now. I don't know why I'm still there, but I am. I guess it has something to do with the simple fact my girlfriend wears the trousers in this relationship. I'm sure there is something wrong about me needed to force her to watch a romantic film with me, I'm sure there is something wrong with me dragging her on a shopping trip. Seriously, shouldn't those be the other way around?

So if you haven't guessed, I'm kind of confused. I suppose I just have slight self-esteem issues, I guess that's quite common amongst teenagers like myself, and if you couple it with my vanity I guess that just puts me in denial, so at least I'm finally realising and admitting my problems. But I get the feeling that is also quite common, and as far as I'm concerned my vanity helps me with my self-esteem issues on the short-term, and the long-term is too far away for me to give two shits about, (and trust me I can't actually throw one shit that far let alone two).

My minor breakdown on Wednesday was nothing serious, it's like every other teenage relation relationship problem but without the assistance of drugs, or alcohol, or sex, and it didn't end in me getting dumped. I guess that means it wasn't like every other relationship problem then, so never mind.

Now for the important part, what the smeg am I doing? to be perfectly honest, I have no clue. I've been running, I've been writing, I've not been paying attention in class, I've been wishing I owned a contrabassoon (or I could at least afford one), and I've surprised my music teacher with my knowledge of classical music. But those things aren't really going to help me get any where in my life.

The problem with being eighteen is that everyone expects you to know what it is you want to do, and to also know how you're going to go about doing it, yet with the way things are, I don't think I stand much of a chance in getting to where I want to go, especially since all my plans have been destroyed.

If you read my first post on this blog you'd know that I want to join the army as a soldier, that is Plan A, but a few things have happened which make that unlikely, number one is that the army is supposed to be reducing in size, which means my chances of getting in have also been reduced, number two is that the nearest recruitment centre has been demolished so the next nearest is too far far away, and number three, my only remaining option is to apply online, which is a big problem.

There is a simple reason as to why it has a big problem and that is because my doctor screwed up my medical report when I was about eighteen months old. My records say I'm allergic to penicillin, which I'm not, but of course if I put I'm not allergic to penicillin in the medical test my record will get viewed and they will see that it says I am, therefore I'll be rejected from the army for lying about my medical. the next problem is that there is no "further comments" box in that questionnaire so I can't explain myself. And the final problem is that this is my last shot, I can only apply twice every twelve months.

Plans B & C are less attainable, so they don't make very good back-up plans. Plan B is to become a firefighter: Plan C, an author. This means I need a Plan D and I have no idea what I want to do with my life that I could use as a Plan D, maybe I'll just some Cthulhu and have him destroy the world so i don't have to worry any more, but I doubt an elder god will listen to me, so he'll most likely destroy me instead (if he answers my summons of course).

The only Plan D I can think of I'm a bit late to act upon, and That's go to university, the problem is the course I want to take requires me to be grade six in an orchestral instrument, I'm currently working towards grade five in guitar, but I don't think that counts as an orchestral instrument, and finally I can't afford a contrabassoon.

On the upside my short story is coming along nicely, and I should be able to finish it this week and start work on my next one. I have a few stories in mind, but two of them are going to require a bit of practise beforehand, so that's why I'm writing the shorter stories first.

A Lone Lonely Loner Alone in a Fortress of Solitude

As the title suggests I've been quite lonely this week (and yes the title is a Sid quote from Ice Age 3). I've been lonely for two reasons the first of which is that my girlfriend has been very ill since Wednesday and I haven't been able to see her. The second is that I have no other friends outside of school. I used to have another mate outside of school, but he became so unreliable, I gave up trying to keep in touch with him.

Unfortunately despite my lack of distractions at school, I haven't been able to keep up with my business coursework, but that's okay, I'll only get a detention or two, and the last detention I had with that teacher was actually the most entertaining hour of my life, for two reasons: I couldn't get over the stupidity of the offence I'd committed to get that detention in the first place, and also I was in detention with my girlfriend (who had committed the exact same offence), and since the teacher was marking work not paying attention to us, we spent the entire hour making out.

I get the feeling that you're wondering what that offence was, so I'll tell you, we were asked a stupid question about our personal achievements so we answered them honestly, I wrote that I successfully performed in the school talent show without getting booed off stage, and Dana simply wrote "I've done nothing of worth." Apparently that is really bad behaviour. Even more interesting, we both ended up receiving a special lesson about lying and padding our CV's (from the head of Sixth Form too).

But that was ages ago, and I highly doubt this detention will consist of snogging. But hell, it's not my fault my teacher is unreliable, and is hardly ever in, more importantly when she is in she just says we have got work to do, not what the work is, or how to do it, just that we have it. I guess it really is a teachers job to be awkward.

This weekend was painful though, yesterday was my brothers 25th birthday, so I promised him a Warhammer game, naturally the midget bastard kicked my arse, but i still wiped out his most powerful unit with one bloke, that unit would of been annihilated beforehand if William didn't suddenly remember that Eldar vehicles get the Jink rule when the move, and that saved his precious cargo from being obliterated by my rocket.

If that wasn't interesting the rest of my weekend was even less interesting, I watched romantic comedies after that Warhammer game, I wanted to watch both Princess Diaries films, but they have been taken off of Netflix, just like everything else I wanted to watch. I spent most of today building a castle on Minecraft, I only ever use creative mode on Minecraft when I'm especially bored, so I don't know what came over me earlier.

On the upside the new League of Legends champion Vel'Koz, who has just been released, is epic and I think I'm going to have a game now.

The Magical Land of Brum!

I realised too late that I missed last weeks post, but I don't care, nothing interesting happened that week anyway, although I did get a kick-ass new CD that makes me want to create a blog for reviewing the albums I own and buy. But this post isn't about that album, its actually about my week visiting my mother in Solihull (near Birmingham).

Since it's half term, and I wasn't able to visit her over Christmas me and my girlfriend Dana decided to spend a week with my mother, so we did, naturally we didn't do much of interest other than completely empty our bank accounts (which wasn't much of an achievement for either of us, it was however impressive that I actually had money to spend). The main highlight from the trip was our visit to Cineworld where we watched Frozen, I was actually shocked that it was her choice to watch it, I'm the fan of Disney Princesses not her. But still it was her choice to see it, and it was EPIC! If you haven't seen it already watch it, however it is rated PG (in the UK, I don't know what it's rated elsewhere) so the cinema will be full of annoying little kids, so don't say I didn't warn you when you spend the entire film getting kicked by a 4 year old douchebag.

The other highlight (for me at least) was that I finally bought myself a Warhammer 40K army, and my mother gave me the space marine side of the old 40K starter box (Assault on Black Reach) she also made me put together her Orks and I really couldn't be bothered, but I did. More importantly she gave me a metal Thunderfire cannon, which can't be fielded in a Dark Angels army. Crap. It looks cool at least, and I will be able to use it in an Apocalypse army, because anything goes.

Other than the Warhammer 40K army, I also bought (and read) a book called The Art of War by Sun Tzu its about 2500 years old and well worth the read, and probably worth a few more read throughs, just to let it all sink in. As the title suggests it's about waging war but more importantly it's about being a great leader, so you can always use the war as a metaphor and use it in business management or something along those lines, also good for teachers.

And then there were the albums, which I will review on a separate blog when I can be bothered to make it.