Versatile Blogger Award nomination!

I am typing quite quickly at the moment, having dashed upstairs for a swift 15 minutes blogging during half-time of the France vs Honduras World Cup match - I didn't intend to watch it, but was quickly sucked in to the game and am waiting to see by just how many goals France will beat Honduras by, both teams are also quite... physical... shall we say, with some assertive tackling going on.

Anyway I digress!  I have been nominated by Tony Payson of The Writers' Bloc for a Versatile Blogger Award, which is very nice of him - thanks Tony!  Although I'm certainly not in the nature of blogging as a living or anything else (which is a good job as it does not form a large part of my income!) it is nice to know that people do look at my blog now and again, and more importantly think that it is of least vague interest.  I'd strongly recommend checking out Tony's blog.

Congratulations of course to Tony for his nomination, very well deserved.

In turn I would like to nominate the following blogs, which is nowhere near the 15 blogs I'm supposed to:

• Andy at BadDogGaming - Andy is an old friend of mine, participant in my World of Warcraft parody video, and a very funny and smart guy.  He tends to blog mainly about computer gaming, but also delves into other (often dog-related!) topics.
• Duncan at Nobodys Reading Me - Duncan is a brilliant writer, and very entertaining.  Someone I aspire to be in the fullness of time.
• Tim Clark of Life, Explained.  Tim in some ways I almost think of as a kindred spirit, as a producer of blog posts that I would like to, if only I had the talent Tim does!  Probably my most regular read.

And now I have to tell Tony 7 things about myself.  Well, I may as well say them here rather than just emailing him, or leaving a list on his doorstep (plus it's less effort to be frank), so here we go:

1. I was educated at home, with my first experience of formal education being 3 years full time at Hull College.
2. I can't swim.  I've never needed to swim, I do vaguely think that I ought to learn, in case I see a drowning toddler or something, but haven't got round to it.
3. I can't ride a bike.  This one I see less point for learning, yet I get more people telling me that I should ride a bike.  But I have legs, and if I need to travel further than is practical to walk, I also have a car.  I see little advantage for a different form of transport which seems more dangerous than a car, less comfortable and slower than a car, yet makes you sweatier than just walking.
4. I technically hold three degrees - a Foundation Degree in Information Communication Enabling Technologies (which is actually more like a HND) from the University of Lincoln, a Bachelors in Computing (Information Systems) also from Lincoln, and a Masters Degree in Construction Project Management from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.  I remember thinking once "who would be a doctor, and have to spend seven years studying", and then realising that between 1998 and 2012, I spent 12 of the 14 years studying.  Damn, I could be a doctor by now.
5. I dislike moldy fruit intensely.  Honestly - I absolutely hate it.  My other half can threaten to throw a moldy apple at me and I will run out of the room screaming.
6. And I scream like a girl.
7. Seventh thing?  I don't multi-task at home particularly well.  It's strange, when I'm at work I believe that I can multi-task when necessary (although I certainly prefer to focus on a single job at a time), but at home, if I'm doing something like cleaning the kitchen, and then have to stop to put the dinner on, I get really stressed because the kitchen hasn't been finished.  Very odd.

Thanks again to Tony for the nomination and I hope the folk that I nominated are pleased for theirs :)

I'd like to dedicate this award to...

I've been nominated for the Liebster Award!

If you're a blogger, you probably know what this is. Basically, it's a nomination given by someone who knows (and hopefully likes) your blog.

There are various rules that you have to follow, which are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.

Well, Thank you to Tim Clark of Life, Explained - Tim's a great blogger and one of the few that I read pretty much religiously (and my reading of other blogs is pretty haphazard!)

2. Answer the 11 questions given to you.

I will, keep reading!

3. Nominate at least 5 blogs with less than 200 followers (approximately).

Hmm - this one is tricky to be honest as I just can't think of that many blogs - and one of them would have been Tim's!

Here's all the ones that I would like to nominate:

• Andy at BadDogGaming - Andy is an old friend of mine, participant in my World of Warcraft parody video, and a very funny and smart guy.
• Duncan at Nobodys Reading Me - Duncan is a brilliant writer, and very very consistent too. I wish that I could turn out good quality blog posts as regularly as Duncan does.
• Tony from The Writers Bloc. I really enjoy reading Tony's work, plus he did post the best comment I've ever had to a blog post, I still smile when I think of McGee/DiNozzo suggesting asparagus rustlers in Norfolk and getting a Gibbslap in return.

4. Post 11 questions for your nominees to answer.

Ok - my questions for Andy, Duncan, and Tony to answer are:

1 - How long have you been blogging for?
2 - Why did you get into blogging?
3 - What blog post are you the most proud of?
4 - What do you do when not typing frantically at a computer?
5 - What's the weather like where you are right now?
6 - What environment do you find most conducive for writing?
7 - If travel was instant and money no object, what would be your perfect day?
8 - What's your pet peeve?
9 - What was the last book you read?
10 - What's your favourite drink?
11 - How do you see the world changing in the next fifty years?

5. Post a comment on your nominees' blogs to let them know that they've been nominated.

I will do.

Okay - time to answer my questions from Tim!

1. What was your main impetus to begin blogging?

To practice writing. I've always wanted to write, to create, but for a long time I've struggled with having enough time to do it on a regular basis - in the last fifteen years, I've spent thirteen of them studying (ten of them at the same time as working) which has been great but it's really nice to have some time to myself on an evening to write.

2. What was your favourite book?

The Man on Platform 5 by Robert Llewellyn. I've always said that if you want to understand me, read this book. The main character is basically my natural resting state, and I need motivation and external influence to conform to societies norms. Basically it's about a train spotter that is made into a cool dude for a bet. It's well written and very funny (not to mention fascinating to see how technology has moved on since it was written!) I generally read it perhaps once a year.

3. If you had a time machine where would you go first?

Difficult one. The birth of the universe? Myself when I was younger to give advice on what to do and what not to do (or even just give myself the winning lottery numbers)? A hundred years into the future to see what it looks like?

Actually - back to the day my son was born, to relive the joy of his birth.

And right after that, II'd go back about six years and tell myself to go to the doctors, get checked out, and make sure whenever I was suffering I'd go back too.

4. When you look at life what thing puzzles you most?

Pensions. Okay, maybe they don't puzzle me, but, while everyone says how important it is to save for your retirement (and it is), it is basically a gamble. You're gambling that you're going to live forever, and that the pension fund people will have to give you money to live for decades and decades. They, meanwhile, are gambling that you're going to die a couple of weeks into your retirement and be quids in.

5. Have you ever posted a Facebook update just to make someone jealous, or angry?

I hope not.

6. Would you explain?

I endeavour always to keep social media interactions positive. I might express my emotions, but I hope that I never do it to make someone angry or jealous.

7. What is your favourite vacation spot, someplace you have been and intend to return?

Paris wins - I had the best holiday there with my partner about five years ago, it was great and I'd love to return. But Dublin isn't far behind, it's probably the best place in the world to drink!

8. How many play lists are on your mp3 player?

One, full of dance music for the gym.

The gym that I should be in tonight, instead of writing!

The playlist is full of music of questionable taste. Favourites that spring to mind include "Thunderbirds Are Go" by Busted, and "C'est La Vie" by B*Witched.

9. Looking at your life now, and thinking about your school years, in what subject do you wish you would have payed more attention?

I don't really feel that there are any subjects that I should have paid more attention to.

10. Why?

I don't know. I should say that this question doesn't really apply to me because I was taught at home, my first experience of formal education was when I was sixteen and went to Hull College. And when I went to college I studied IT, because that's what I was interested in.

11. Do you believe there is life on other planets?

Absolutely. There's so many planets out in the universe, I can't believe that ours is the only one with intelligent life.

But that's scary. I think, certainly in western culture, we are so used to everything in life being "fair" that the reality that tomorrow an alien invasion fleet could show up, decide that they want the Earth's resources (or to make the Earth a colony of theirs) and promptly kill us all without effort (or enslave us if we're lucky) is a little unsettling.

Fingers crossed it doesn't happen in my lifetime!

Thanks again to Tim for the nomination and I look forward to reading the answers from my nominated blogs!

World of Warcraft Sketches Ahoy!

Not really sure why I put "ahoy" in the title of this post, but there it is.  Live with it.

Just a quick post really to say that I, with the aid of the excellent, funny, and very patient Andy of Bad Dog Gaming, have produced "WoW Life" - a series of World of Warcraft sketches!  The sketches are now live and viewable on my YouTube channel, or follow this link to go direct to the video.

Andy eating a cookie after turning me into a vibrating pig through the use of a polymorph spell.

Unfortunately the sound isn't quite 100%, I have spent a huge amount of time working on the spell and it is massively better than when I started, but there's still some bits where the wind does disrupt things a little. Nevertheless I am pleased with the final result and I hope you enjoy it too.  Be warned that there is some mild swearing in there - along with some extremely dodgy acting!

Special thanks to my parents who provided a lot of the props for the day (check out their weird and wonderful magical mail order goods at https://www.facebook.com/RavenMagical) and obviously thanks to Andy for indulging me.  My other half particularly recommends Andy's sign off at the end of the video.

As an aside, it took the bruises from the "auto follow" sketch about a week to clear up!  Hope you enjoy the video, if you do feel free to like / share / comment / subscribe to my channel!

My Pre-Aprils Fools Day Aprils Fool

So, it isn't April 1st here yet - but I wanted to do a post ready for April Fools Day!

So, what I've done is listed a number of things about me.  See if you can guess which one of these is an Aprils Fool!

1) I can't swim or ride a bike.
2) Sneezing out of a window seems logical to me.
3) I once eBayed a cherry that had been kicked by Dylan Moran, the Irish comedian.
4) I massaged a Moroccan chap called Abdul.  Multiple times.
5) Stephen Fry once called me "Mark" instead of "Mike".
6) I once planned to travel around the country in a van.
7) I wrote a skit about Tony Blair.
8) I wrote a short story about a fruit machine, and a mans love for it.
9) I once conversed with Robert Llewellyn about the state of Starbug in later series of Red Dwarf.
10) As I write this, an uneaten doughnut is on a plate next to me.

See if you can guess which one of the above is false, and drop me a comment with your answer - all will be revealed later in the week!

While I'm blogging, there will be a little hiatus for my series of YouTube interviews - I don't have another YouTuber lined up to interview just now, but I would urge you to read back and check out my previous interviews:
Nick Crompton
Brutall
Jason Fisher
Scott Tumilty
CtrlAltDammit

All these guys I particularly recommend, they're well worth a watch on YouTube, all for different reasons.

Finally, I am working on a new YouTube video which I filmed at the weekend with my good friend Andy from Bad Dog's Gaming Blog, it will be a few days before the editing is finished (and it doesn't help that I keep putting it off because it's going to be a big job!) but hopefully it'll be well worth a watch when finished.

Let me know your guesses on the April fools!

Struggling with inspiration

Not my usual sort of blog post today, but nevertheless onwards we go...

I'm struggling a little with inspiration at the moment, for ideas to make up future posts.  I have a handful of draft posts on stand by, but none of them are really that good (yes, amazingly the posts that go up on my blog do actually go through some kind of vague quality-review process before going live) and I'm aware that I'm not blogging as regularly as I like to, but am kind of stuck for ideas at the moment.

I was involved in a creative thinking workshop as part of work last year and maybe I should try some of the exercises talked about there.  What do you do when you're short on ideas?

I wanted to flag up that my friends blog, http://blog.baddoggaming.net/, has kicked back into life after a quiet spell.  Andy is a very funny guy and well worth a read.

One thing I did manage to do the other day was make a video of how to make the perfect mocha, which of course includes alcohol.  Hope you like it.

And my guess the accents video made my dad fall off his chair laughing.  See if you can work out which ones they are.