not the best of weeks....

But still basically ok.... and it started me wondering about the old trouble coming in threes thing...and deciding that its aload of rubbish... it seems to me that we just have trouble thinking of things in, say, groups of six, or twelve, and three is just a convenient number... but when we do have a problem, it seems to put us into "recognise problem" mode, and we tend to pick up on other problems which have been there for ages, but we just haven't noticed it... its a similar mechanism to the "PurpleCar" one... if you are not aware of this, I will explain... yu may never have conciously seen a purple car... but the minute you consider buying one, you will suddenly see loads of them on the roads... not because they weren't there before and now are, but because you have just uploaded the "recognise purple car" firmware... it works with all sorts of things... try it one day... but we do have a thing about threes, don't we... troubles, bears, rings for the elven kings, parts of gods, being a crowd, and of course the rule of three, without which cinema and literature (and I use the word in its loosest possible sense) would be either duller, shorter or more longwinded... interesting that we tend to group in pairs rather than threes..... but I digress... and I'm tired... until your troubles go away in threes just to be fair, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very good week.... and apart from Sileby model railway show, that's all I'm saying.... Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!

Valentines Day.....

Cumberland sausage and cherryade..... and that's all I'm saying..... Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!

Half Term begins....

And probably ends again very quickly.... with tons of plans that are very unlikely to be executed... but enough of that... so far i've done some shopping, ensured that my son spends at least some time with his mother, built a snowman, had the most enjoyable snowball fight of my life, built some more bits of a model railway, (a small n-gauge, built from leftovers for a friend's son... not brilliant, but serviceable) listened to the BBC recordings of Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, listened to Sad Les and Chess about three times each, watched Return of the Jedi, and planned for next week... and all since Thursday... and that doesn't include working on Friday, when we had to do two days worth of deliveries to make up for Thursday..... Our trip to Wales has been postponed to Easter, so I now have saturday free next week... but I'm sure that won't be the case for long..... But I am looking forward to next week.... a trip to Leicester to spend my son's birthday and Yule money.. (that is, he's spending it, not me...) a disco at Scouts on Tuesday, at which i will be dressed fancy, and on Wednesday I have been invited to dinner by a very attractive young lady of my aquaintance... I shall, of course be providing dessert... I would tell you more, but as she reads this blog occasionally (and for all I know is the only person to do so... no, I know shellie's had a look..) I will keep my wisely bearded mouth tightly closed..... suffice to say, if it doesn't work out, it'll be a sachet of Birds Custard and a packet of Digestives.... Next weekend, if I remember correctly sees a Model Railway show at Sileby... one of my regular venues.... along with the Soar Valley show at Garendon School, and the DEMU event at Burton....so gusess where I'll be spending a few hours on Sat or Sun??!!??...... By now, you'll probably have realised that I quite like trains.... my favourites being (steam) Stanier's "Black 5", and the Fowler 3F "Jinty"..... and (diesels) Classes 60 and 66... I'm also a great fan of multiple units, especially 158/159s, 170s and Meridians..... but my absolute favourite must be the absolutely gorgeous Model 62..... liking diesels and multiples at one time would have made me something of a pariah amongst railway modellers, but luckily nowadays a lot of the snobbery seems to be leaving the hobby.... I think we've all finally realised that one of the biggest spurs to railway modelling is nostalgia, and as someone who was born after the last steam loco left the rails, I get more nostalgic about seeing 37s, 47s and 25s pulling coal out of our local pits than I could about the steam I've never seen except at preserved lines... and eventually, I think the emphasis will change... already we have a younger generation of modellers who make steam layouts because they've never seen steam "for real..." then theres people like me, who like the modern era because its what we see all day.... my son will probably be nostalgic when he sees a class 158 at some preserved line in the future.... remember, steam finished oin 1968.... by 2068, there will be very few people left alive who ever saw a steam train on a real railway.... but I digress... I think what I'm trying to say today is that life is change, and those of us who don't accept this ar always going to be poorer than those of us who do... language changes, customs change, even people change... and so do our railways.... until all our plans are realised, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Off Work... Again....

Well, here I am at home in the snow... my driver's mate didn't turn up today ("ill") and with no-one to help carry, and the roads supposedly bad, I was sent home.... so here I am, thinking about how much more snow we used to get.... I think the main problem on the roads nowadays in this sort of weather isn't the snow, but the fact that most drivers either can't remember how to drive in it, or have never driven in it anyway.... the amount of people I see revving too hard, using too low a gear, and turning the snow to ice is amazing... I usually get nasty looks as I effortlessly cruise by the poor unfortunates slipping ontheir own mess.... remember, start of in 2nd gear, using as few revs as possible, and you'll be ok... and if people didn't drive too slowly, spinning their wheels, the roads wouldn't be treacherous... keep up a fair speed, and the friction of tyre on snow actually clears the roads.... strange but true.... but I digress,.... so, how to spend my day....years ago, with the snow deeper we would have driven(!) to Bradgate Park and gone sledging, but we don't relly get enough snow for that nowadays.... and for some reason the roads get blocked.... but i won't start on that again... so today, the plan is, washing up, help my son build a snowman, try to do some more on a model railway I've been trying to finish, and see whether or not i can get to Beavers tonight... but there we are... anyway, until the snow turns to slush, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!

Well, later tonight I'm off bowling (but not for soup, I hasten to add...)with my Scout Troop.... should be fun... I think it is a primal urge within all of us to throw things at other things in the hope that one of the things breaks, or one of the things gets stuck in one of the other things, or... but you get the drift... now this was all very useful in the so-called cavemen days, when a skill at chucking literally could be the difference between life and death.... but nowadays?? Some very learned people have pointed out that this indicates that for us evolution is over, and that to alter our behaviour we must now make the effort to do it ourselves.... this unfortunately presupposes several things.... (i) that evolution exists... (ii) that evolution is entirely non-voluntary and cannot be influenced by personal effort, (iii) that doing it ourselves is not evolution per se, and (iv) that chucking is no longer a useful skill..... I demolish this argument with all the innate smugness of the non expert, and wait to be shot down... (i) is not proven yet.... (ii) denies that we can take conytrol over our own destinies, (iii) does not take into account that we could have evolved the ability to evolve delibeerately (albeit clumsily...) and as for (iv).... chucking is very definitely a useful skill today....from the bowler in a cricket match (and I dare anyone to tell me that sports and entertainment are not useful) to the Amazonian tribesman who still needs to spear his fish.... so why need we lose the skill....

Anyway, despite the importance of chucking, I am still notoriously bad at it... something I always believed of my songwriting skills... until now.... a drummer of my aquaintance, now turned lead guitarer and singist,happened to see a couple of my lyrical efforts... ok, I forced them on him.... and, guess what... he liked one... but not the other... but there we are... he took them both, showed his band, and hey presto, they thought the same as him.... and as a result, they put music to the one they like (Family Life) and chucked the other away.... so when Insuffuicient Funds (or whatever they end up as ) go on stage for the first time, my song will be in the playlist.... "Family Life, " by Kirk Wisebeard and Insufficient Funds.... so I can now call myself a songwriter for real..... so thats another ambition achieved,... now there's just the publishing of poetry, and my appearance in a Musical to achieve.... preferably Blood Brothers (in which i would like to play the narrator), Les Mis (where for preference I would be Eponine, but not having the figure for it, would settle for Javert or Thenadier) or Oliver, where i believe my Fagin would steal the show... although I'm told Bumble is more in my line.... failing any of this, a role in Chess or Rocky Horror would suffice.... but I digress.... also, my stage appearance as a country and western singer is in the pipeline.... possibly.... but there we are... anyway, until all drummers become seen as musicians, Wisebeard salutes you.....!!!!!

A traitor to my sex!!??!!!!!!????

So, I am a traitor to my sex... so says my young porter at work (but then he is a drummer....) "but why, oh Wisebeard??!!" I hear you ask.... or do I?? well, the main reason is that I have five Dido tracks on my MP3 player.... including "Life for Rent" "White Flag" and (one of my personal favourites) "Mary's in India..." so why does this,I ask, make me a traitor to the male brotherhood?? Simply that it is, in my co-worker's words, "whinging chick music".... now, this led me to think about a comment that was made about me at school, many, many, many years ago..... a comment that was meant as a compliment... a young lady in my Eng Lit class called me "unmale..." apparently she meant that i was not the typical man of the eighties, wearing trendy clothes and desperately trying to s**g all the George Michael fans (little did they know!!....) Then, a few years ago, another young lady (I seem to know quite a few, don't I.... more of that later... possibly...) called me Big Gay Kirk, in homage to the South Park character Big Gay Al.... apparently, again, this was a compliment.... it meant I was sensible, non-judgemental, and a good listener, while remaining fun , and as cool as a thirty-something ever can be in the eyes of youth.... a year later, another young lady mentioned that out of all the men she knew, I was most in touch with my feminine side.... again, a compliment... although most blokes are probably thinking, yup... big, and gay..... Now, although this has definitely meant that over the years that I have never lacked female company, this has always been in the form of friendship, some more platonic than others.... but although every single woman I have ever known, bar one or two, has complained about the men in their lives being too male, and expressed the wish that they could meet someone like me, none has ever put two and two together and realised that they have met someone like me.... Me..... which leads me to believe that although most women say they'd like an unmale, they either don't, or don't want to take the chance.... which brings me back to Dido.... why on earth does a bloke have both Dido and wobbly-head David Grey albums in his house, car and truck...?? because he's unmale?? well, I've never really agreed with that description... I never set out to be unmale, or a new man, or whatever,.. I just try to be a decent person, think of the welfare of others, and try to make them feel good... rather than seeing no further than my own pleasure... but back to Dido.... (please just tell us why, Wisebeard, you beg...) well, put bluntly, I was told by several aquaintances that if I were to play david Grey or Dido in thepresence of women, it would convince them that I was in touch with my feminine side, and a s**g would be guaranteed.... well, as someone supposedly in touch anyway, I can tell you that it doesn't work.... all that happens is that women think of you as safe, and blokes think you gay, or a gender traitor... perhaps with me its just a case of overdoing it.... a very incredible young lady of my recent aquaintance keeps pointing out to me that I occasionally sound gay.... which doesn't worry me....I'm not, not that it really matters... but I think she's fairly positive now that I'm not... even if I do like musicals and loud silk shirts..... but I digress.... personally, I'm a bit fed up with this sexist rubbish.... why shouldn't a woman like trains, and a man collect dolls... Lewis Prothero (the Voice of Fate) collected dolls....and in his own words, he was no wooftah.... in fact he was a Resettlement Camp Commandant.... but there I go, confusing V for Vendetta with reality again....

Which brings me to the subject of cartoons, and comics... I'm a fairly big fan, mainly of Japanese Anime, and some of the darker comic offerings.... early Judge Dredd, the Dark Knight Batman series, Watchmen, V, etc.... anyway, me and our young electrical sales person at work are both Anima nuts, and we were philosophising about the genre the other day.... after debating whether or not its ok to fancy Asuka and Rei in Evangelion (they are both 15, but neither are real.. they are just cartoons.... we both came down on the side of no, its wrong whichever way you look at it...) and whether Misato Katsuragi is sexier than Marlene Angel, or which of the Dirty Pair we'd prefer to marry, and other such serious topics, we got down to discussing why we prefer Anime to other animation styles, such as the offerings from Disney.... and we finally came u with the following.... I'm a comics fan.... and whereas Disney amke a movie with actors who happen to be drawn, the Japanese, being comics fans themselves, instead make a comic book that moves.... and that appeals to me much more...

But anyway, I have had one of the most fantastic days of my life today... but I'm not telling you lot why!!! In fact, this year, although only just begun, has rapidly become one of the best ever... if not the best... and to end in the style of the best sort of American morality comedy drama...

"Well, I guess we all learned something today..."
"Yes Wisebeard.... I learned that tomato ketchup doesn't count as a fruit..."
"I learned that I fascinate a certain type of woman...."
"I learned that Wisebeard is definitely not gay.."
"And I learned that Plan D is always the one to go for..."

Until we all become unmale, whatever our prior gender, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!