Reblogged from reluctant fitness fan:

About the scare on my face again.  I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and so last night I sat and watched “My Beautiful Face” the Katie Piper documentary on 4OD last night.  Katie Piper is a young model and TV presenter who was raped and then horribly scarred when she had acid thrown into her face.  Her battle to deal with her injuries and the bravery she showed in dealing with such a life-changing event made me take a cold hard look at myself and I have come to the conclusion that I really have …

I’ve known reluctantfitnessfan since i was a teenager and i was reading this blog the other day and it kind of reminded me of something i often say; attraction has nothing to do with how a person looks. I am not saying that i am attracted to her but there is a really clear example of personality clearly dominating a physical defect albeit a small one. I remember the first time she brought up the subject of her scar – it was a few years after i had met her – to be honest i was kind of surprised because yeah i had noticed it but i had never thought about it for even a second. When someone is a good person that you click with you kind of don’t even see what could be considered imperfection – its just part of the person and totally not significant. To this day when i remember reluctantfitnessfan i know that she has the scar she has is there but when i remember her i just don’t see that unless i am focusing very hard in remembering that scar myself. Normally all i can remember is how she is as a person. Im glad she posted this blog because at the same time as being self conscious she also has put this into perspective and realized it could have been a lot worse which shows a great deal of wisdom..

I dont think she should be self conscious as i am sure that i am not the only person who sees beyond this – though its hard to tell anyone with any kind of scar that it doesn’t matter.
Funnily enough the other day i was having a conversation on scars – some people find them attractive – my friend was saying thats because it implies that a person has an interesting history. Every scar has a story associated with it as this blog also testifies.

Every year there are new predictions, there were the rapture people predicting the end of the world in 2011 – according to different people every other year seems to be an apocalypse – I wonder what those rapture guys think now. Then of course there was some famous predictions that have gone awry – Bill Gates predicting that a computer will never need more than 640k – the CEO of dell who said that apples best strategy could have been to sell it and give some money back to the shareholders. One of my greatest regrets is not investing in ARM technologies when I was going to – I even had a sum of money in mind. If I had done that I would be truelly rich now.

Some things have been amazing – I grew up in a world without the net where only the rich had mobile phones and a colour pc had only 8 colors and if I could go back and show people my iPhone it would blow their minds.if I could see my future I don’t know if I would want to as for me its a scary proposition and I would much rather be living life and letting some things be a surprise. Not being able to change the future that you could see is a truly horrific nightmare.

So then there was a little google action and i came across he’s sound cloud entry, so i took out the iPad and started to go through his music (i have a sound cloud account and the iPad app). Some of his stuff i didn’t really like – but some of it was awesome – even the stuff that doesn’t really fit in with my own taste i have to admit was really well done. An example of his work is here. I don’t think he’s ever going to be my favorite but i have to admit i was really impressed and bow down to such talent.

This was also a reminder to me how awesome SoundCloud is – jumping from profile to profile listening to peoples music – and able to comment it – I like the fact I can comment music at a specific music position – so you can post “yeah I like this bit….” or hopefully something more creative. In many cases I like music because of just a part of it – which is more often then not under 20 seconds in length.

I also came across this  while I was hopping through SoundCloud – by bubbaproducer which I think is awesome as well.  I was a bit slow in comprehending how good SoundCloud actually is, because the first time I saw it I was just looking at sounds random people had posted rather that pieces of music – put into the context of music its really cool, and if you have time to kill is worth exploring.

I actually mailed the BBC about it – And they said not everything was available in every region – it would make sense but there’s no consistency – why could they give you only 1 episode in a series? (redcap has 12 episodes and ended years back). I expected more from them, the response I got was most dissapointing. I’ve waited a few months before posting this in the hope they would fix some of these issues. No joy there! Ho hum!

i have a tendency now to post music i like to my blog site and then just look at stuff in the music category when things are quiet – for that reason i am posting this piece i really like.

Reblogged from ragingtranquility:

Another of my sons, who’ll turn twenty-five next month, has been using heroin again.  Yes, again.  This, too, adds to the turbulence of life these days.  His mother, my ex-wife, and I had a talk with him some years ago about his involvement with the drug, which, I believe, led to erratic behavior that brought on a brief stint in jail.  We thought that taught him a lesson, and he had appeared to learn from his mistake.  He is a very responsible young man, but obviously he veered some.  I feel as …

I was reading the site of ragingtranquility – a random blogger who liked one of my posts. He hasn’t blogged much yet, but i really like lis blog because he’s giving a very candid insight into his life, and from what i have read so far he seems to have had quite a time of it. Its hard to know what to think – i kind of admire that this guy has the balls to do this, and it kind of puts my own life into perspective. I hope he keeps on blogging and that he finds some peace in it. Its interesting to have such insight into anothers life.

Mad As A Hatter - Would this guy make a good friend?

It amazes me how much attention the video i posted got me today – 6 people commented on it in either mail or offline message. which surprised me – i had not taken it too seriously just had a crazy morning and it made me think of the song – so i posted it – it wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously – i mean am i really due a mental breakdown??

I had one female  friend give me a really hard time about it and i can only imagine she thought i was suggesting she was mad or something –  i can only assume that was the interpretation because of the level of juvenile ranting i found when i logged into my msn. It got me to thinking about friends in general – in life we have many kinds of friends and in general i don’t have many – i would rather have a few good ones than many polite strangers.. The friend I talk of in particular is the only one that i have that  could be considered high maintenance.

Some people seem really nice when you meet them, fairly fun, interesting and perhaps quirky but end up making your life difficult because either they assume everything is directed at them or have their own expectations on what friendship should be. The fact is the people i consider my best friends in life i don’t often talk to at all – but i know whenever i see them its pretty much like i haven’t left.

I don’t know if theres a formula for being a good friend – but i suspect its just something as simple as caring for someone and having no real expectations beyond that. I don’t like a difficult life – most of my friends are relaxed people, easy going and know me well enough to know on the most part i am too.

So how much effort is friendship actually worth? how do you know when to just give up and move on? Friendship is valuable for me, but a friend who will get upset for no reason and require constant reassurance  seem to be a lost cause – i mean if they are going to get upset all the time that doesn’t do me good or them. People do get upset, and as a friend i like to help them but sometimes i think people you try to be friends with can be fundamentally incompatible – sometimes you can cause them problems by just being yourself. So what should you do then? Change? Thats something that has to be answered on a case by case basis.

Im a reasonable person – this particular friend I speak of has been upset quite a few times now and i seriously start to wonder about mental stability as well – i don’t like people that get angry for no reason. It shouldn’t be hard to have a friend- i think all of my best friends or at least most of them have a kind of inner tranquility about them – they are all people who are good at heart.

Sometimes i have to question what is normal and what is not – when does a passionate soul become someone who is mentally unwell? some people get constantly upset over nothing and that level of stress can’t be good for you. At what point is someone dangerous? I like passionate people in general but i have a fairly strictly defined sense of what is right and wrong – and when someone crosses over a line with me or is trying to push me in a direction i just don’t want to go i admit i can be stubborn – i can push back, and i can push back hard. In the past some people have thought that makes me a bully, but i am not and never have been a bully. I get no joy from upsetting people and i don’t play with their feelings – i am not interested in the games, and people who bully others really do annoy me!

Its very rare i loose friends and it always saddens me when it happens because nobody likes to lose friends.Friends should have a level of respect for each other and shouldn’t act like 5 year olds. That said and done though i don’t have problems detaching from people that cause grief. So in this case i am going to just tell my friend that was, that enough is enough – we won’t be speaking anymore.Some people, no matter how little or much you like them are simply not good in your life. If my life was a pond i like it to be fairly calm. i don’t need people generating huge waves, but the occasional ripple is cool.

I always remember my first visit to the museum – i really do love history in particular boats and naval history and to see the Vasa is awesome – i don’t have any decent photos of it i may have to go back and take some – the lighting there was tricky for my little camera.  Stockholm has many cool things – but for me Vasa is the best!

Ive always thought our sense of adventure, and drive to discover the unknown has been one of the defining factors of humanity of a species – its perhaps the romantic idealistic part of me that thinks that and its maybe not even true –  that need to venture into the unknown is far more prevalent in some than others. Those first days of sailing boats across the oceans are perfect examples of humanity at its best – sailing into the unknown – “to boldly go where no-one has gone before”.