Thursday 28 March 2024

Are you qualified?

 Flag of Convenience


The Baltimore Bridge incident, raises a major concern for me; it not a new concern, but one I have had for many years. What is the concern?
My concern is the competence of the captain of the ship; especially  with the growing number of ships sailing under the flag of convenience to get around shipping regulations of the country the ship is registered to.
Many of the crews come from Asia, and have little, if any knowledge of English.

Baltimore Bridge

 A tragedy waiting to happen


My first thought was of how quickly the Baltimore Bridge collapsed, it reminded me of a game where you need to remove sticks without toppling the pile.
My second thought, proved to be wrong after using Google for a little research, was that the bridge could be old, but it was built in 1977. This accident shows again, why you need a competent crew who understand English, I do wonder how some captain's qulify. A few months ago a ship hit Greenland
Though the water below is not too deep, if you were not expecting to fall, who would expect to fall, you would hit the water like falling onto a concrete floor.
On YouTube there are many instances where ships, and lorries have got caught under a bridge; one of the first things I would do when transporting a large container is to check the route for low bridges.

Before Google

 De Montfort University


I realise the possibilty of not using Google for reearching the net these days is small. but for several months I used the DMU library for my search engine.
De Montfort University is an electrical educational facility based in Leicester that specialises in technical drawing.
For months, I had a recuuring dream about how I imagined the library, I saw wooden bow windows, and beautiful book cases, how romantic was that.
Later, I had a dream which was a little scary; I was walking toward the musuem on a pathway alongside a river, I don't know if such a river is close to DMU, but that is of little consequence. I came to a point where an overhanging tree branch blocked my path, despite being a good swimmer I was afraid to enter the water to pass the obstruction.

Wednesday 27 March 2024

Warhammer Limited Edition books for sale

 eBay extension


Over the coming month, I hope to start selling some of my Warhammer Limited Edition books on eBay; I did this some time ago with a little success.
Many of the books are also signed, I never covered the cost I paid, my thinking is I may as well get something back as I never read the books, and there maybe someone who will read the book.


Monday 25 March 2024

Hello Portugal

Strange New Worlds 


In a world of weirdness, I am getting comments on the blog from a PC Games site is Portugal.

Saturday 23 March 2024

Asda Boycott

 Boycott Iceland


With Asda, and Iceland towing the Muslim line and changing sales policy so as to not offend the beliefs of Islam, they are showing their ignorance.
No matter how many Bibles you study, there is no mention of Easter; Easter is a western sales policy with no base in religion.

The end of the British Empire

 I should not be suprised


If we disregard the financial status of Hong Kong, and Singapore, and focus on the history of the areas, I should not be suprised both feature highly in my blog readership.
Within my life, 67 years, both were part of the British Empire; Hong Kong was handed back to China as recently as July 1997.

Was Robin Hood a monk from Yorkshire?

 Very possibly


A recent theory has put forward the idea that Robin Hood was a monk from Yorkshire, why do I have no problem with this?
If, BIG if, he did exist, which is yet to be proven. I see no reason for Robin Hood not to have been a monk.
Yorkshire is close to the birer with Sherwood Forest where he is supposed to have lived, if people went on crusades to the Middle East, a walk to Yorkshire from Nottingham is not too hard to vigilise, especially as many people were transient, and went where there was work.
The reason I believe he did not exist is his name, Robin Hood, Robin/ Robyn was a common name in the Middle Ages, and Hood could have been given as a name to a person wearing a cowl such as monks do.
Unlike Richard i, and his brother King John, there is no proof that Robin existed before the story written in the 13th century. Maid Marion does not appear until the Victorian era, they loved their romantic heroes.
The village of Robin Hoods Bay is no more than another Victorian romance, he never landed there; you have to remember that another Victorian resort, Bridlington is close.

Why I don't vote Labour

 They are a pack of thieves

When I was able to vote, at the age of 18, I did vote for the Labour Party for two elecetions; I thought they were for the working man but that soon changed, how?
During the late 1970's, the party line changed as they were tun by the Unions, and each time any Trade Union asked for a pay rise they got it, this lead to endless strikes, and a horrorific inflation rise.
Contrary ti popular theory, Margaret Thatcher saved the UK, she didn't break the Miner's strike, their leader Arthur Scargill did by asking more than the country could pay for coal. The situation became so bad, it was cheaper to pay for coal from Sweden, than to mine ours, add to that he had his men working three shofts on double pay, and the seams soon died off; the only coal we get from the UK now, is called sea coal where the seam has collapsed, and the coal is found on the beach.
In more recent times, Bristol City Council, which is run by Labour, made me redundant with their zero-hour contracts; this was compounded by the Chief Security, who was a former Chief Inspector in the Police made me walk to a museum on sundays thorugh snow when he had several people with cars offering to change.
When I became classed as disabled, Labour cut my payments by 1/3, I fought the cae with the help of the Citizens Advice Bureau; they case was won, but the money lost while fighting the case vanished,
Several years ago, we were forced to relocate, a good thing looking back, after a fire. I was awarded a part=pension payment for my services to the council. Because a person was more concerned about tellling his friends his holiday plans, he didn't relay the message that we had moved, so I was paying double rent, for four months out of my pension. I was told, over the phone, that the money would be repaod once the issue was rexolved, that was a lie; I lost over £4,000.
They also support various terrorist organisations, are anti-semetic, and now bow to their Muslim masters publicly.

You can see why I DON'T VOTE LABOUR.
In my eyes, they are a bigger pack of theives than Robin Hood, and that says a lot.

Friday 22 March 2024

Was I a good writer?

 The answer depends on how you qualify good



This question has so many variables it is almost impossible to answer.
We must quantify good against successful, and the general view against my opinion before we go further.

The general opinion is I was a good writer; I could keep my readers guessing from the start to the last period of the last sentence of my short story.

Was I a success?
This is the burning question.
According to my sales on Draft2Digital I sold on average 18 eBooks a month over my 10 year period, yet my earnings were less than 1/10th of what I should have been paid.
If I was to go by sales, I could class myself as a bestseller, as far as Indie writers go, but as my royalty payments were so small I never thought of myself as a bestselling author.