Inheritance - K2 book 1 by Geoff Wolak - a rip roaring action packed sas/spy thriller story - move aside Andy McNab and Chris Ryan.
2
That, uttered from the mouth of no nonsense ‘Johno’, one of the main characters of the story, sums up the whole book;
Without giving the plot away at all, I will try and do a short review of the book.
Sir Morris Beesely has ‘inherited’ K2 and all the trappings, he sets about trying to right some wrongs and do a bit of good in the world ( in very unusual ways), the action really hots up when they get to Switzerland - of which I will say nothing as it would spoil the plot.
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The end of the plastic carrier bag . . . . is it enough or just an empty gesture? What about all the Bread packaging then?
0So, at least here in the UK (and Republic of Ireland), we are starting to be charged for our plastic carrier bags (shopping bags to non UK readers) to help’ save the planet’, Marks & Spencers will be charging 5 pence per plastic carrier and donating the proceeds to a green charity.
Our government with Gordon Clown, err, sorry, Gordon Brown, has stated that if the supermarkets do not do something about the issue of plastic carrier bags then they will - like what, exactly - their other efforts to ‘do stuff’ has been worse than useless so I have no hope that they will get anything right really!
Anyway, back on track with the plastic carrier bag debacle, so, we all change to reusable hessian bags and the world is fixed? Mankind is saved from being buried under a mass of plastic carrier bags? We can sleep well at night knowing we have ‘done our bit’, no need to campaign any more?
Wrong, in case you had not noticed, the supermarkets are chock full of products, and all those products have HUGE amounts of non essential packaging . . . but, I will only be mentioning one of these products today, the humble loaf of BREAD.
What’s the problem with bread you think to yourself, there is no extra packaging, in fact those slices of bread fit ever so neatly into their packaging, their PLASTIC packaging . . . oh, wait a minute . . .we have just saved people using millions of plastic carrier bags today, so they can now put their plastic wrapped bread in their hessian bags!
In the UK alone we go through over 12 MILLION loaves of bread A DAY - think about it, 12 MILLION PLASTIC BREAD BAGS being thrown away EVERY DAY - not such a big deal about the plastic carrier bag issue now is it? A few manufacturers use wax paper for some of their bread - for instance, some Warburtons bread and some Asda bread is in wax paper, which is fine and dandy by me, but sadly, this accounts for less than 2% of all the bread packaging the UK uses daily.
So, the next step, really, should be for the bread makers to make the bold step of using wax paper (or similar) in their packaging? What do you all think? What do the manufacturers think - WHY do they use plastic packaging?
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Game Industry Map - fantastic idea -by David Perry - Find info about any console, mobile or pc game company or game - inc charts and user collaboration - all in one handy site- about time we had something like this!
0What a great idea!
So Simple.
Overdue.
About bloody time!
What am I on about?
The all new shiny (geddit) Game Industry Map from Dave Perry (& co) - a searchable, editable database of video games and associated companies that covers the whole world.
It’s very much in the mould of a Wiki - user interaction is the key to this FREE to use and join site - in the words of Dave & co . . .
What is the Game Industry Map?
This project was inspired by the ‘Wiki’ concept, letting communities of people build websites of great use together. It seems almost an essential tool when job hunting, to be able to easily see which companies related to the video game industry are in your area.The same goes for finding colleges or visiting developers, at some point we can all use this resource.
We appreciate any help you can give to make this database more accurate.
My team has added over 1,000 companies just to get it started. You’re given the ability to edit or add any entry in the database.
(Note: Don’t worry, our moderators will reject any damage accidentally done.)
Who is this site for?
It’s for you! It’s been made by people like you for people like you.
With your help (actually editing) we will end up with the most accurate database of video games & companies, all linked together and visible on a map.
There are literally hundreds of uses not only by the industry, but even by Governments to see just how poorly they are supporting the game industry in certain states or certain countries. Nothing paints the picture better than a live map of activity.
So, there you have it - a great idea that is long (longlonglonglonglong) overdue and a great site that needs YOUR help to grow and flourish! What are you waiting for? Get to it . . .
How not to get ink done.
My first foray into the dark world of tattoos was about 15 years ago, I went to a tattoo shop in Newcastle, UK, called ‘Elm Street Tattoos’, I went in had a look at their flash on the walls, saw a tattoo I liked and waited for my turn, I was a bit nervous as not sure how much it would hurt (or not).
About an hour had passed, the door of the studio opened and in stomped a bloke with a doc marten boot tattooed on the side of his head! He came in swearing from the hip about his girlfriend or something, raised his boot and then smashed it down onto the coffee table in the centre of the waiting area - breaking it into bits.
‘Oh shit’ I thought, this is one pissed off customer! He storms over to the counter and has a word with the guy behind it, turns his head, looks at me and says, ‘tribal tattoo’? I replied hesitantly, ‘umm, yes’.
‘Follow me’ he said, grinning like an axe murderer, ‘I’m your tattooist’.
I wanted to run out the bloody door there and then - but the thought of the other two lads in there smirking at me made me stop and go ahead with it, so, stupidly, I followed him into the back room.
He did not really say much, just drew on the paper design, slapped it on my arm so the outline would stick, told me to sit down and then proceeded to start up this noisy, blood sucking, whirring needle death machine.
The noise of the needle gun scared the shit out of me straight away, his manner did not help either - hardly any words came from him, he just said, ‘hold on, am starting now’, about 2 seconds later I felt the most excruciating pain ever as he dug the needle in much further than it should ever go (his girlfriends fault I reckon), I yelped loudly, he stopped and grunted ‘you ok, not going to have a whitey on me are you?’.
Well, I did, there and then, I went white as a sheet and almost passed out stone cold there on his chair, after about 5 minutes and three glasses of water I was ready to start again (a little bit brave - took it all the way to the end), once again, the needle went deep into my arm - dakka dakka dakka went the needles of death, spurt spurt spurt went the blood, spraying red life beer everywhere, this lasted for about fifteen minutes, all the noise stopped.
‘your done’, spoke Satan (as that is who I reckon it was).
I was in agony, getting out of the chair, I was told to keep it out of the sun and stick some pile cream on it, had my wallet frisked for twenty quid and sent on my way with a pretty shit tattoo on my arm and a hole in my wallet to accompany the raging pain in my body!
I vowed there and then NEVER to have a tattoo again . . .
The right way to get tattooed.
Fast forward 15 years, my wife, who loves tattoos and had 6 already had decided to have my name tattooed on her along with a nice design she had picked out (she ended up getting 2 tattoos that day, but that is another story), so, I thought to myself, I love this woman to bits, I will get her name on me as well - being a graphic designer I decided to design my own tattoo, so far so good, tattoo done and emailed to the artist.
As time went by the day of the long needles was getting closer and closer, the closer it was getting the more nervous I was becoming, I started watching Miami Ink with the missus to try and build myself up to it - but, to me, the needle guns still sounded like giant chainsaws a lumberjack would use, tearing and cutting your flesh to the bone.
As you can imagine, come the day of truth (which was yesterday by the way), I was bricking it big time but tried not to show it!
So, with shaking legs, I boarded the train to get to Malton (where Sowy’s tattoo studio is). Two hours later and we were there.
I knew this would be a wholly different experience as soon as I stepped foot in the tattoo studio, it was well lit, clean and very tidy - even had a fishtank! My wife has had most of her tattoos done by Sowy so she knew exactly what he was like, I did not, so I was as nervous as a choirboy at a village people convention.
Sowy and Jo soon put me at my ease, I was first up for the tattoo, so, with leaden feet I dragged myself to the tattoo chair, nervous as hell, and sat down on it.
After having the carbon on my arm now with the tattoo outline on I realised I was really going to have another one done. I was extremely nervous and it showed, Sowy the tattooist was talking to me all the way, am I ok, would you like some water, or the fan on etc - all this before he had even started the tattoo.
When he was about to start he even asked me if I wanted 5 or 9 needles in the block as my outline I had done was pretty thick, I went for the 9 anyway. Before he put gun to arm he told me he was going to do a small line and let him know if it was ok and was I feeling ok.
I was gobsmacked - tattoo artists are not supposed to be like that are they? They are supposed to be ’sit down, shut up and don’t cry man bitch’ aren’t they?
Anyway, the needle went in, compared to the first time this was just like having a biro pen drawing on your arm, yes, it hurt, but not to the point of crying out in pain (I cannot do pain - ever), about 10 minutes in so far so good, then, at the eleventh minute I started to feel a bit light headed and started to become unfocussed ( my wife said afterwards that she had never seen anyone go as white as I did), I was having another ‘whitey’ - oh joy!
Sowy knew exactly what to do though -he dropped the chair down into the bed position so I could get a proper blood flow going, within five minutes of lying flat I was fine again - even though the tattooing was a lot gentler than the first time I guess I must have that reaction every time to the needle (I am just a soft shite).
For ease and my comfort, Sowy completed the rest of the tattoo with me lying down on his tat chair (more comfortable than my bed) the small amount of pain was much more tolerable lying down as well - what should have been a 40 minute tattoo took almost 2 hours due to me being a fanny! But in the end it looked fantastic and much better than I had drawn in the first place *
So, I had another ‘moment’ at the tattooists, which is more down to my pain threshold being non existent than any perceived roughness of the tattooing.
Sowy was spot on and I would recommend him to anyone in the world who desires outstanding tattoo work done by a super friendly and expert tattooist.
After my last fun in the chair you would think I would not want anymore tattoos right? Wrong, I am already planning another one - the tattooist I will go to will be Sowy in Malton, UK, I will use no other. He has a waiting list of around 6 weeks - I can see why now - outstanding is the word I would use to describe the treatment I got!
The moral of the story is;
If you are going to get INK, get it done RIGHT, I never wanted another tattoo after my first one but now after my session with Sowy I am planning quite a few more! Use the link on my blogroll to the right to find the link to his website.