A shameful confession

I have a terrible confession to make. It will make grown men cry and people will shun me. There is a good chance that I will be hounded in the street and persecuted for the rest of my life. But to clear my conscience I must confess.

I have been a science fiction fan for as long as I have been able to read. At school I read novels by Hugh Walters. I watched films like ‘Forbidden Planet’. I listened to Jet Morgan and the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. As I grew older I moved to novels by Asimov and Blish. The Foundation series and Cities in Flight are still some of my favourite reading. When I was 12 years old I went to the cinema and was completely blown away by  film where a starship appears from the top of the screen, energy beams are lighting it up and then a massive starship is chasing it. Star Wars had an impact on my pre-teenage mind. If there were any doubts as to whether I liked the futuristic universe they were gone. Now I read the same stuff, Neal Asher, Peter F Hamilton, Ian M Banks among many. I love it, you will already know this if you read all my blogs.

But here is where it starts to go wrong. ITV have been showing the later Star Wars prequels. When they first came out I went to the cinema to see them and thought ‘Wow!’ But now I have sat and watched them through an adults eyes and thought ‘actually they’re pretty crap.’

There. I have admitted it. I do not like the newer Star Wars Films. The comedy characters, that tit with the big ears for example, spoil it for starters. But they could have been so good. The concept was fantastic but it was let down by the fact that it seemed to be aimed at preschool children. Sorry George, your special effects are some of the best I have seen but you still made three crap films. You should have left  it with just the first three. Please don’t bother to make any more.

Regards

Giant68

The Grumpy Gene

if there is a grumpy gene I think that I have it. I am, it seems, a grumpy person by nature. And now, to prove it, I have started having grumpy dreams!

Now, you know that I am a world class grump from the tone of some of these blogs. I wonder if there is an award for the grumpiest person in the world, a Grumpy World  Cup. Would I win? What would I need to do to win if I wasn’t quite good enough?

I woke this morning from the middle of a dream that was really winding me up. Everyone and everything in it was designed to piss me off. In fact, I was so grumpy and annoyed when I woke up that I had to force myself just to lay there and  calm down for a bit.

For some time now I have been achieving new personal bests in stress levels due to various things happening at work. Mrs Giant68, obviously, gets a bit fed up with way I am but being the saint she is she puts up with it or gets out of the room. Or I get out of the room.  But the last bastion of peace and tranquillity has always been sleep. Now that is being denied! In general, I do not dream. I go to bed, I fall asleep, I wake up 5ish hours later and get up. This is the first dream I have had for a considerable time. It would have been nice if it had been about my forthcoming holiday and the destressing I will be doing. Or fast cars, naked women, that sort of thing, you  get the picture. But no. Lets wake up considerably more grumpy than I when I went to bed.

God help you all today!

Now bugger off and leave me alone!

Giant68

Survival of the fittest?

 

‘Breathe deep the gathering gloom…’

Winter seems to be approaching rather rapidly, today it was pitch black and rather chilly when i set off  for work. And now, late afternoon in early October, it is starting to get a little gloomy. It will soon be time to shut the curtains, put the lights on and get cosy. The heating is on and the house is beginning to feel a little warmer.

But that is not what this is about. You should know by now that I am the one of the grumpiest people on the face of the planet so i must, therefore, have something to complain about. And this time it is Ninja cyclists.

Dark mornings, rain, general gloom. You will see these, if you are lucky, cycling in the road with no lights, dark clothing and no idea of their own safety or vulnerability. Darwin wrote about the survival of the fittest but sometimes I feel that it should be survival of the luckiest! Twice this week i have nearly curtailed the existence of some dim and dim-witted cyclist as they plough on regardless of the fact that while I am in a car with lights I may not see them until the last minute. And that may be too late.

When I am out on my bike I want to be seen. I will festoon myself with lights. I would put a neon sign over my head to drivers where I am. But then I want to survive the trip. To be honest, I would cycle on the pavement all the time if I could.

Also why do the cyclists where I live not use the cycle paths?? I bet that by night they are sneaking around the roads of Southampton trying their hardest to get themselves killed!

Rant over.

Regards

Giant68 (Grumpy old git)