It's over - The end of an era

Hello all

It's the end of a very small era as something I love has come to an end. Some of you may think that I am refering to a friendship, and in a way I am. Several months ago I was in a conversation with one of my North American friends and they changed my life when they introduced me to RadioLab.

I have mentioned RadioLab several times in the past and my love for the shows. The semi-regular podcast was introduced to me in November by my good friend Megan, and I was hooked instantly. Although I only started listening to the new ones, I eventually backtracked all the way to the beginning and as of 3pm on March 13th 2012, I have now listened to every single RadioLab show.



Some of you may been reading this with a bizarre look on your face, but I like stuff that makes me think and challenges me to new levels of knowledge, and that's what RadioLab has done. There were some largely forgetable shows, but there were also some stories that have stuck in my head, such as the foxes from the "New Normal" show, the story of a compulsive liar in "Deception" and the basketball team that won with only two players on the court in "Sports".



Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich
Hosts of RadioLab



I can not recommend RadioLab highly enough. It is the BEST radio podcast going, and given some of the others around, that is saying something.

I love RadioLab to the extent that I recently applied for a job there. I didn't even get an interview, I suspect because I'm British and they are based in New York and there would have been VISA/work permit issues, but I'm not disheartened because whilst I might not get to experience their genius in person, for 15 minutes to 75 minutes every few weeks, I can sit here listening to the new shows that they bring out.

It just feels strange that I have now listened to all the shows they have released to date. And that is the end of an era.....sort of.

RadioLab can be downloaded from iTunes.



Why not go play "hide and go **** yourself" ?

Please note this blog entry contains a LOT of swearing. If you take offence to swearing then you'd better leave now.

I've gotten into a really ranty mood this evening due to outside issues, so I've decided to go through some of my big pet hates in this life.

Before I start, I will define my high use of the world fuck in this blog by showing you a video that shows that fuck isn't actually a bad word.

So here we go,

1) Friends that treat you like shit. Infact, there is one person in particular who has left me livid due to her childish fucking attitude. I really want to launch into a rant at this person so they know just what a shitty friend she has been recently, but I know that would only cause more issues and I would probably lose this person as a friend, and despite their MANY flaws, I don't want to lose this person as a friend. Afterall, I do see this person on a regular basis, so it's probably best if you get on with people you see on a regular basis.

When this person wants to be, she is a good friend, but the problem being that she doesn't seem to want to be a good friend and is so self involved sometimes that every conversation we have is a negative experience.

This person is someone who I cared about (notice that I used the word "cared" rather than "care") and someone who I came close to considering family, but the way this person has acted in recent months has left a really bitter taste in my mouth. This person has had a really negative effect on me and now I'm having trouble deciding whether I love or hate her. I hate that I love her and I hate her because I love her.

I'm just sick of people like this, people who live in their own little bubble and don't care about anyone but themselves. You sit there and listen to them talking about shit that you have absolutely no interest in, but as soon as you want to change subject, they just don't want to talk anymore, and then they have the nerve to call you a bad friend. I'm sorry, but you're calling me a bad friend when all of our conversations are basically you moaning about shit that doesn't matter, well FUCK YOU.

2) Queue pushers at train stations. So yeah, we've been waiting an hour at the train station but yeah, go right a-fucking-head, get on first. You've been stood on the platform a whole twenty seconds so you obviously need a seat more desperately than those that have waited. It's amazing how the queue system is used everywhere except for trains. When it comes to trains, it's almost like "it doesn't matter when you got here, I am getting on this train before you."

3) Whenever I'm on a coach, I always turn up early to make sure that I get the seat that I want, or at least a seat that is reasonable. What completely fucks me off is when people turn up with two minutes to go when the coach is near enough full and ask people if they can go and sit next to someone else so that they can sit next to each other. I'm sorry, but why the fuck should I move away from my friends and sit next to someone I don't know just because you two didn't turn up until near enough when it's supposed to leave. If you think I'm going to do that then you obviously over-estimate my powers of giving a shit.

4) People who don't fucking indicate. I know it's not a major thing but it does drive me crazy.

5) Motorcyclists who drive like cunts and then blame cars if they get knocked off their bikes. Yes, I'm sure it was the car driver's fault that you were weaving in and out of traffic, or driving well over 100mph on a 30 mph a road, or not to forget cutting up traffic, squeezing in gaps that you can barely fit into or the many other incidents where motorcyclists drive like a kid on crack. Don't claim innocence when motorcyclists who keep to the law seem about as rare

6) You know when you're walking down a street, someone comes around the corner and walks directly against your line of walking, despite having the entire path to choose from, and then expects you to be the one to move for them? Twats.

7) People who walk down the cycle lane when the normal walking path is right next to it. Again, this is nothing major but there's a picture of a bike on the path FOR A FUCKING REASON!!!! Now, with some girls that I see walking in the bike lane, it might actually be right for them to be in there because they look like they get ridden more times than Sea Biscuit, but for the vast majority, YOU ARE NOT A FUCKING BICYCLE, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY.

8) Religious people. Now, before I start, I would say that I don't mind people being religious, it's just not for me. My gripe with religious people is that some of them, and I do stress SOME of them, throw it in your face and try and force their religion on you. Now, you may be religious, fair play to you, but being religious or not is my choice, not your's. Jesus died for my sins, did he? Well that's very prosumptuous of you to say that. How do you know that I have sinned? Surely that is a very blanket term and you can't put everyone under that umbrella. How the fuck do you know what I do in my private life? Don't stand their preaching when you know precisely fuck all about me.

And that's just one religion, don't even get me started on the others.

9) Football fans, or to be more precise, the fuckers who try to claim they're just football fans, turn up to one or two games every three/four months and only cause violence. "Fans" like this just completely fuck me off. You're well into middle-age and you want to go to <insert random team> to start a fight, how fucking childish. What are you actually going to achieve other than looking like a cunt? And then the worst thing is that you, with your one game in three months, think you know more about the team than those who go on a regular basis.

and finally.....

10) People who talk during the film in cinemas. We don't pay <insert price> to listen to you talk to your friends. When I go to watch a film, I don't want your shitty, ill-informed commentary on what is going on because your twat of a boy/girlfriend doesn't understand what's going on. Why not wait until the film is over for fuck sake. How hard can it be to sit there in silence?

The bitter taste of defeat

Hello all

Short entry this

As I write this I am sat in New College Nottingham and have just found out that I didn't win the creative writing competition I mentioned a long time ago. Apparantly my entry was too "dark" for their tastes, which is a bit strange as creative writing doesn't have to be all happy clappy.

So I figure I might as well share my "dark" entry with you all.

I was inspired by a song called "Sometime around Midnight" by Airborne Toxic Event. It's along a similar theme of someone seeing someone that they used to love and not coping well with it.

The one who left my heart on the floor by ~nathanjackson It started at roughly midnight. Or at least that's when I started to lose what was left of my mind As I got served at the bar under neon lights. The jukebox is playing some irrelevant and predictable song It's telling me to forget what she did but I know that it just feels so wrong. And then I see her, the one who I once loved A vindictive and cerebral loathing to her false smile in my general direction. And she's wearing that dress that reminds me of her vicious rejection. She walks up and asks "how are you". I can smell her perfume and I get visions of the memory of her lying naked in my arms. She says that she's sorry and wants me to forgive her tonight My emotions are in turmoil, my love and hate in an almighty fight I'm polite, although I give the impression I don't care My passionless exterior is hiding my desperate inside She says she's sorry and touches the tattoo on my arm of my name and her's And all these memories come flooding back like violent waves to my mind. The curves of our bodies and our love that had became perfectly entwined, I want to forgive her but the paranoia in my head just subtlely inclines, And I feel hopeless and homeless in my own fragile insanity. And so hours pass whilst I try to survive My sanity is slipping and negative thoughts can only dance and thrive She's dancing, she's drinking, she's living life one moment at a time And whilst stood feet away my anger and loathing do nothing but rapidly climb. I don't even want her, at least that's what I tell myself But not matter how she hurts me I always want to go back for more. She's my drug, she's my love, she's the one who leaves my heart on the floor Then she left with someone even she doesn't know. And in her vindictive way she made sure I saw her. She looks right at me as if to say goodbye for good. My heart falls faster than even she could have predicted I realise at this moment that with her I am totally addicted. I want her to be mine again but now it is too late I want her to know that I forgive her, to give it one more go is my only desire But yet again I got caught in my own emotional and vengeful crossfire So there I am, alone on the dancefloor I am broken and down and ready for the evening to end Heartbroken in the corner, my emotions are too painful and sore. It's too late that I have realised what might have been again My paranoia played tricks on me that are completely and totally inhumane And now I know that she has once again broken me in two.

The cold hearted bastard that is frustration

frus·tra·tion/frəˈstrāSHən/

Noun:

The feeling of being upset or annoyed, esp. because of inability to change or achieve something. An event or circumstance that causes one to have such a feeling

Hello all

I've been on a diet recently and I haven't updated you all with it recently (not that many, if any, of you give a shit), so I figured I'd be nice and do it know.

Well I have now lost two stone (28 pounds for those of you who are in countries that don't work in stones) and it's slowly continuing to come off. I started off at 18 stone 11 in mid-January and it's now March 11th, and I now weigh in the mid-16 stone range. There's a reason I can't commit to a specific range and that's because technology is letting me down.

The way I've been able to lose a lot of weight is because I have been biking to work on a regular basis and eating sensibly, and whilst I am still eating sensibly, my bike is proving to be one fickle fuck of a mechancial bastard (pardon my French). Tyres deflating, nuts coming lose and various other aspects mean at the moment I am having to spent at least two days travelling via other methods to work, which means that whilst I'm losing weight on the other three days, on those two days my hard work comes undone as I work in a job where calorie burning isn't easy.

Then on Friday, after having to get a new tyre on the back wheel the day before, I was biking to work and the back wheel just wouldn't move and I looked to see what the problem was. One of the people I live with hadn't secured it back in place properly and it was grinding against the frame of the bike, meaning the wheel wouldn't go around. On lunch I correctly this, or so I thought.....it turns out I also didn't reattach it properly and when I got back on it a few hours later.....well, I'll let you look at the picture on the right.

Then on Sunday the boiler decides to break.

You may be wondering how that's relevant but every Wednesday and Sunday I have a nice, warm, 90 minute bath and after that, because my muscles are relaxed, I go for a five mile run, but it's something I can't do with just showers......but with the boiler broken, it means I can't have baths and therefore also can't run afterwards, meaning I can't lose that weight.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still delighted to have gone beyond the two stone mark and I'm still well on target to make it to my target by September (infact I'm just shy of half way there), but it's frustrating to know that my progression is being stunted. If all of the above hadn't happend then I would probably be down around the 16 stone mark at the moment instead of moving up and down in the middle of the 16 stone range.

Oh well, it's a good problem to have.

Toronto, Tennessee, New York,

Hello all

As I've mentioned several times I have been applying for jobs in America and Canada recently and I have heard back about some of them. I can't mention any of the companies involve obviously, so don't expect that.

I have been offered interviews for jobs in various locations, some of which I can have via Skype, others require me to actually go there......better hope my passport issues get sorted out soon then. 

Ontario

So let's go through my three prefered options.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

Well I've always said that my prefered country to move to is Canada. There signs are also pointing to my future being here. Every time I turn the TV there's a reference to Canada, which I take as a sign. Granted, there's always references to America as well, but you expect those.

There are several reasons for this.

• It's easier to get into (legally) than America
• Canada is a beautiful country
• The big cities in Canada aren't massive from my understanding. They're big, but not ridiculously big.
• Someone who I consider to be a close friend lives in Canada. So it'd be easier to go and she her (assuming she would want to of course)

So those are four reasons why Canada is my prefered option. Toronto is another good option because it's in Ontario, and Ontario's population is relatively small for a province of it's size with only 12 million people living there. The equivalent number can be made up from the populations of Lincolnshire and it's immediate surrounding counties.

If I ended up in Toronto, or anywhere in Ontario for that matter, I would be adding to the number of English people in that area, and bizarrely there are more English than there are Canadians in Ontario. To be more precise, at the last count there were 12,028,895 people living in Ontario, with the English taking up 24.7% of that population compared to just 23.0% Canadian, which is a bizarre fact.

Now the only problem with the offer of the job in Toronto is this has a big time constraint. I've had issues with my passport in the last few months and this has meant I've had to apply for a new one, so I'm having to go through the usual process, which takes quite some time. The interview is scheduled for the end of March but that doesn't leave a lot of time to get the passport sorted out. I could easily go for the quick-track option but there's guarantees it would be sorted by the time the interview would come off.

The job itself is nothing special though, certainly not compared to the other two I'm about to talk about. The wages aren't that great to be honest, the job itself isn't actually that good and would probably just be like any job I can get over here. To be honest I think the main reason I would want this job would be just to get into Canada and go from there.

Even if I don't get this role, I will continue to apply for roles in the area.



Tennessee



Memphis, Tennessee, America

The fact I initially spelt Tennessee incorrectly might not be the best start to an argument as to why I would consider moving there.

Much like Toronto/Ontario, there are several reasons why I would like to move to Memphis or anywhere in Tennessee.

• It's relatively small by American standards. Tennessee is the 36th largest American state.
• The population is also relatively small by American standards, with just under 6.5 million people living in the state.
• The other one of my two close friends live there and it would be nice to be within a reasonable distance of her, hopefully seeing her on a regular basis.

I'll be honest and say I don't know an awful lot about Memphis, or even Tennessee for that matter. I know the absolute basics but to be honest I had applied for the role here without actually noticing where it was. Maybe this, combined with that I couldn't spell it correctly, means this might not be a good option.

The good thing about the job offer from Memphis is that it's the highest wages out of the three I'm talking about in this blog, and out of the three, it's the job I want the most as it's a role in an industry that I am very familiar with. This is also a role where they are happy for me to be interviewed over Skype, meaning I don't have to worry about the cost of going over there for a role I might not get, and there's a hell of a lot more freedom with regards to the date.

However, the big obstacle will be the work permits and VISAs. As far as I understand it, getting into America when you're not in a specialist vocation (such as a doctor) is very difficult, and although the role I'm going for is sort of specialist due to the knowledge that's needed, it's knowledge that can be trained to anyone within a few weeks/months.



New York



New York, America

Start spreading the news

I'm leaving today

I want to be a part of it

New York....New York.

I think it's close on impossible for anyone in the civilised world to have not heard of New York. Arguably the greatest city in the world, New York has so many positives that it would take me a long time to write them....but here are a few.

• It's a city where there's a tourist attraction around virtually every corner.
• It's close to Canada, meaning that I could effectively get the best of both worlds.
• One of the furthest east cities in the country with excellent transport links back to England....just incase.

However, whilst there are plenty of good things about New York, I can certainly think of a lot of negatives.

• Only two cities in America have higher populations than New York. Just under 19 million people live in New York (if you include New Jersey). I got freaked out when I moved to Nottingham and that's a dwarf compared to New York.
• It has a strong reputation for crime.
• Strikes me as an unforgiven city. You make a mistake and it punishes you more than anyone other city would.

Out of the three, New York is by far my most reserved choice for a place to live because for every positive, there's a negative, whereas with the other two I run out of negatives pretty quickly.

However, whilst Toronto is my prefered location and Memphis is the one where the job fits my expertise, the job in New York is THE one that I want. It is working for a product that I love and I think that's an important thing when going for a job. It's a product that I am personally interested in and use on a regular basis.

Much like Memphis though, this role involves a VISA and all the other relevant permits, but unlike the job in Memphis, I have precisely zero experience in the industry that this job is in. No experience = No unique skillset = No chance. It amazes me they even gave me an interview because of this, don't get me wrong, I'm delighted to have been given an interview, but it seems strange that they have given that there's virtually no realistic chance I'd actually be able to do the job.

SO IN SUMMARY

Toronto - Near one of my closest friends, easiest to get into and beautiful location, but probably won't be able to actually go to the interview.

Memphis - Near one of my closest friends, a job where I have experience and expertise and a great wage, but I know nothing about the area and work permit and VISA might be an issue.

New York - Working for a product I have a personal interest and I have a good knowledge about the city, but the pure size of both the city and population would freak me out, and unlike the other two, I don't have a friend in the area and that means I don't have someone to fall back on just incase I have questions before I go.

What a day, what a team, what the hell happened?

Hello all.

Today my growing indifference towards Lincoln City FC continued as City lost to Alfreton Town......Alfrebloodyton Town. It's a far cry from our days as a club that was regularly chasing promotion from League Two during the early years of this millennium and almost ironically, this extremely poor performance came just hours after I had bought a DVD copy of Lincoln's 7-1 victory over Rochdale from a charity shop. I already owned the DVD but my copy was scratched to fuck, so I couldn't watch that anymore.

So on such a miserable day for Lincoln City, I have decided to remind you all about arguably the last truly great performance the club put in.

First I'll give a bit of a back story.

Lincoln had been in the Playoffs for the previous four seasons but missed out each time. The fourth of those defeats saw Keith Alexander (RIP) leave the club and he was replaced by his former coach John Schofield, with John Deehan as manager.

Under Schofield and Deehan the Imps went from a side famed for their long ball tactics to the best footballing side in the division. We were the highest scoring team in the country, we were the last team in the Football League to lose (going unbeaten at the start of the season until September 16th) and we were blowing teams away.

The Imps were challenging at the top of the table and fighting it out at that time with Swindon and Walsall for top spot, and City's 5-0 win at Barnet a week before left the Imps breathing down the necks of the top of the table sides. A midweek defeat on penalties to Grimsby in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy came inbetween the game at Barnet and the match at Rochdale, but that was not an indication of things to come.

So that leads me nicely onto the game.....below is my original match report from my website.

Breathtaking City SMASH Rochdale

By Nathan Jackson
October 21 2006


City beat Rochdale at Sincil Bank as a Forrester hat-trick, coupled with braces for Stallard and Hughes bagged a 7-1 win. It was an afternoon that most Imps fans will never forget as seemingly everything went well for the Imps. The only disappointing thing is that City didn't go top.

City kicked off the match but as usual, it was the opponents who started the brighter with some neat passing moves failing to get past the Imps defence. The pitch had been heavily watered before hand and doing that almost gifted Rochdale a goal as Lee Beevers chased a loose ball back but slipped, allowing 6ft 8 striker Morike Sako through on goal but Beevers recovered just intime to stop him shooting and City won a goalkick.

Doolan, making his 500^th appearance, was then lucky not to go into the book following several poor challenges on Mayo. With a few minutes and City had a free kick, Eaden played the ball to Stallard, he inturn played it to Amoo who tapped it into the path of Jamie Forrester and he was free on goal, the keeper didn’t come out and Forrester smashed it to his left and into the net for his 5th goal in the space of 15 days.

It was City who were well on top at this point and it wasn’t long before it was 2-0. A long ball forward looked to be about to be cleared by City’s summer trialist, Lee Crooks but out of nowhere, Lee Frecklington took the ball off him and crossed across the box where Stallard shot from a narrow angle and it entered the net, going past a bewildered Wilks on the way.



Jamie Forrester
Scored three goals against Rochdale
One of his three hatricks that season



It should have been 3 within 2 minutes when Frecklington again crossed the ball to Stallard but he could only shoot just over the bar as City looked to extend their lead. Mayo fouled Stanton on the right wing and despite appearing to win the ball easily, the referee decided to award a free kick. Lee Crooks stepped up and swung the ball in, City couldn’t get the ball clear and Alan Goodall appeared out of no-where and volleyed the ball past Marriott and into the net.

All of a sudden, like so many other times, City’s defence suddenly started to panic and Nat Brown was the next to slip on the pitch as Sako again pounced on it. He ran towards Marriott with Goodall also running with him but Sako was greedy and shot himself but it was easily claimed by Marriott who barely broke a sweat trying to get to the ball. Just like the Rochdale teams of the past, they tried anything to get an advantage and Dagnall fell over in the area with Brown nearby and claimed a penalty, luckily the ref was having none of it.

Having been on the back foot for around 10 minutes, City finally managed to come back into the game when Ryan Amoo’s shot was blocked by Gilks, however, the ball popped up and was heading into the net before James Sharp headed it off the line. Chris Dagnall was booked for kicking the ball away.

With City fans getting extremely nervous, the ball was hoofed up the field by Stallard and Jamie Forrester ran with a defender but the goalkeeper came running out and appeared set to get it, however, Forrester put his foot forward and tapped it past Gilks who collided with his defender and Forrester had the simple task of tapping into an empty net to make it 3-1 just before half time.

Rochdale produced the final chanceo of the game when they again broke through 1-on-1 with Marriott but again, they could only hit the ball straight into Marriott’s hands again and the half came to an end.

Surprisingly Sako, the one Rochdale player who looked threatening in the first half, was substituted and was replaced by Keith Barker just as the second half was about to start. Eaden gave away a free kick but Crooks’ cross was easily cleared by City and within 4 minutes, Stallard picked up the ball on the right and with City through 4 on 2, he assessed he options before squaring the ball to Forrester who had another simple tap it for yet another hat-trick but credit goes to Stallard for not being selfish and supplying Forrester with the ball.



Mark Stallard
Scored two goals against Rochdale



Frecklington sent a shot wide with 56 minutes goal before an unexpected source gave the Imps a 5^th of the day. Eaden played the ball to Forrester and the man, in search of his second 4 goal haul of the season played the ball into the path of Hughes who in turn, sent a right footed thunderbolt into the net for his 2^nd of the season.

Mayo could have scored his first of the season but he sent his close range shot over the bar. Rochdale made a substitution as yet another player who almost joined City in the summer, joined the action as Darrell Clark came on for James Sharp. For the third time this season, the referee had to go off as he wandered off to the changing rooms, to be replaced by his 4^th official and a steward had to take over in his role.

Within 2 minutes, Eaden was again involved as he played the ball to Ryan Amoo, the midfield ran to the edge of the box before passing it to Stallard who hooked the ball into the net and it was 6-1 to the Imps in what will more than likely go down as the easiest game the Imps will have during the season. Chris Dagnall was replaced by Clive Moyo-Modise for the visitors. Within 30 seconds and Forrester hit the bar.

It turned into a very comfortable afternoon for the Imps and it wasn’t long before it became 7-1 as Stallard’s cross was met by Hughes for his 2^nd as he easily beat Gilks. Frecklington was denied a shot on goal as Goodall got in the way.

Forrester’s number was then held up as he was replaced by Leon Mettam, leaving the field to a standing ovation from all fans in the ground, including the Rochdale fans. In added on time, Frecklington was replaced by Gritton who almost instantaneously provided Mettam with a chance to score but he couldn’t keep his first touch in play.

The game came to an end with one of the loudest cheers you’ll hear in a while.

THE AFTERMATH

City gained national attention because of this victory, especially as it followed on from the 5-0 win at Barnet the week before. Seven days after this match and Lincoln won 1-0 at Swindon Town, that despite being second best by a country mile on the day, and that meant that for the first time since 1997, the Imps were top of the table.

The stay at the top didn't last long though as three league defeats in November saw City fall away and despite getting back in the title chase in January/February, a poor end to the season saw City fall into the Playoffs and eventually lose to Bristol Rovers.

Since then the Imps have been on a slow decline, have been relegated and lost more than half our games in three of the five seasons since.

A rare bit of positivity

Hello all

There's one thing I always feel a bit guilty about and that's that I don't write enough positive blogs, so here we go.

Firstly, I promised my favourite Dustin Diamond lookalike Steve that I would give him what he describes as a "shout out" on here, so there you go Steve.

Well first of all I've tried to expand my horizons and I have joined Pinterest. I really didn't understand the concept at first but it's actually quite an interesting website.

It's a community where you can create your own profile and place your favourite images into it and categorise them. This isn't like Facebook though where only your friends can see your pictures, everyone can see your pictures and you can see there's.

The image on the left is one such image I pulled off of someone else's profiles and the fact you can group them all together is brilliant.

It's hard to really explain but I would recommend it.

Recently I mentioned that I have been applying for jobs out in America and Canada, one of which I was extremely keen on and that was working for RadioLab, a podcast which I love. It looks like I unfortunately didn't get that role as it had been open since January, it's been moved off of their jobs page and they haaven't been in contact, so no RadioLab job for me, which is disappointing but it was to be expected. I don't mind being disappointed like that if it had been expected, so I suppose that's a positive.

I'm still loving not doing my Lincoln City website. It feels so nice to be able to go to a Lincoln City game knowing that we're probably going to lose and not having to write about it afterwards. Yes, we still lose most weeks and play shit every week, and that's not satisfying, but I don't have write about it anymore and nor do I even have to record those shit videos and put them on Youtube anymore. Youtube no longer has to put up with me pretending to like the people who I talked to on those videos.

It's nice to not have to pretend I like other Lincoln fans now. I don't have to stand there filming someone who's boring the shit out of me just because I know who they are and they fill 2 minutes worth of film, effectively being padding on the videos. I don't even have to interact with fans of other teams now. I have a few friends who support other teams, but largely I don't give a shit anymore.

So that's your lot for this positive blog, I might come up with something else at some point but I figured that would do you all for now.

Kony 2012

Hello all.

This blog is nothing more than to bring to your attention the Kony 2012 campaign.

Joseph Kony is the leader of a Ugandan guerrilla group leader, more specifically the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. This group kidnaps young children and turns them into young soldiers or sex slaves and despite this, he is not very well known around the world. I had never heard of him until 2 days ago.

Maybe the reason most had never heard of him or not much has been done until now is because there is no oil in Uganda and the world's leading countries are only interested in invading countries that do. They even say in the below film that America didn't want to step in and stop Kony because it's not beneficial to Americans......I bet it would be if there was oil involved somewhere. And that's nothing against the general American public, I have a lot of love for the American public and given that I am hoping to move to America soon, it's probably not the best idea to piss Americans off.

But anyway, the Kony 2012 campaign is designed to encourage the people of the world to help their governments see what Kony is doing and to finally put an end to it, especially as he is spreading out further into Africa. The sooner people start thinking beyond their own doorstep, the sooner people like this will be wiped out.

The below video explains it far better than I ever could, so spare 30 minutes of your time to watch it. I don't usually get involved in these sort of things, but this film got me interested in the cause and if it can get me interested, it can get all of you interested as well.



And people wonder why I'm not socialable....

Hello all.

Well on Friday I decided to go on a rare night out. Oh yes, that's right, I decided to be socialable. It doesn't happen often but when it does there's often a bit of controversy.

Those of you who have been out on nights out with me before know that I'm not socialable on these nights out, even less so when I have stuff on my mind, but in this case I was hoping that the night out would help me forget about the things, or to me more precise the two girls, I was thinking about.

This particular night started out with about five of us just stood there at the bar of a random bar in the middle of Newark. Everyone with their alcoholic based drinks, me with my diet pepsi (I don't drink alcohol, which one person in the overall group was very keen to find out the reason for, and didn't drop it all night) and at first it's reasonably comfortable and then some of the women that I work with turned up.

At this point the atmosphere changed and all of a sudden the other men are starting to talk about certain parts of the female anatomy. Now, I'm uncomfortable talking about women in that way anyway, I'm even more uncomfortable with them talking about those women whilst they're stood there. The bizarre thing was that the women didn't even mind that they were being talked about in that way. I still found it quite uncomfortable to be able to even hear this conversation though, maybe I just have too much respect for women, I don't know, but I do know I certainly wasn't keen on the conversation.

So the night goes on and it's a rare opportunity to talk to various members of this group that I don't normally get to talk to and this turns out to be a very good thing. Everyone knows I want to move abroad and I asked one girl in particular about her experiences as she had travelled the world recently, albeit the completely opposite side of the world to where I wanted to go, but it was still interesting either way.

The night continues before we move onto another bar and this is where the major controversy of the night comes into play. I'm sitting on the couch in this bar and a girl from the group comes and sits next to me. She's talking to her other friend so doesn't hear what was said to me a few minutes later. Another person from the large group comes and sits the other side of me and says "I will give you £5 if you <insert inappropriate sexual act> to <insert girl's name> right now!" I ignored him and he walks off.

My opinion on the person who bet me
money to do <insert inappropriate sexual act>

Skip forward about 15 minutes and he comes back and sits on the couch opposite and shouts over the table, "So Nathan, have you <insert inappropriate sexual act> her yet?" ....... obviously this gets the girl's attention and she is rightly unimpressed. She asks me what was said so I tell her, she reacts angrily at the person.....who then tries to deny it. Luckily she doesn't believe him and launches a tirade at him. The weird thing is that the guy was someone who I had a lot of respect for before this.

I felt quite uncomfortable in this awkward situation and started considering going home.....and it's only 11pm at this time. I'm supposed to be driving someone home but he looks like he's enjoying himself, and I don't want to ruin someone else's night just to end my own night. As it turns out though, the night does end for me pretty soon.

We leave this place and then go to one of the few night clubs in Newark. By the time we get there our group has already split up and it's now gone from about 25 of us to about 7, I don't know where the rest went. So walking into a night club with chavvy hip/hop, rap and r&b is not my cup of tea, so I'm not enjoying this place straight away and then the smoke machine floods the room so much that I can't find any of the people I'm with. Ten minutes go by and I'm still not able to find anyone so I think "fuck it" and try to go home.

I tried to call the person I'm giving a lift to but he hangs up the phone and I send him a text, which I get no reply to....fuck him....so I went home. On my way I suddenly get pulled over by the police and when I responded "I don't drink" to "have you had a drink tonight?" ....he not only refused to believe me but actually called me an outright liar. So he forces me to do a breath test and when zero alcohol comes back as a result on the machine he still has an attitude (I was so tempted to be smug). He demanded to see my licence and checked my car for insurance and tax before finally letting me go. At not one point did he actually say what I had been stopped for.

So, that's why I'm not usually socialable.

And just for the record, only three people know the genuine reason why I don't drink alcohol and those three have been working for years to earn my trust, so I'm not going to just broadcast it out to everyone.

This is England : Big Brother society - No fun, no flags and pretty soon no breathing

Hello all

Some people regularly ask why I want to leave England and whilst the main reason is because I have become bored of this country and want a new challenge, the other is how fucking ridiculous this country is becoming.

Below are just a two news stories that sum up this country for me.

What sort of country allows a child to buy a pirate flag but then not let him display it outside his house?
What sort of country allows idiots to put across an idea like this? (granted it's been rightly ridiculed, but that's besides the point)

It's just bullshit like this that pisses me off. It's stuff like the enforcement of health and safety. Who remembers when health and safety was known as "common sense"??? "Oh look, there's a big hole, shall I step in it? No, I think I'll walk around it," that was the old way of doing things, and then one fuck-face idiot decides to fall in the hole and ruins if for everyone and now that hole which anyone with a brain cell managed to avoid is protected by ten metres of safety tap, cones and all sorts of other shit.



Anders Breivik - Norweigan terrorist.
Killed 69 people (mainly children) in a Utøya holiday
camp but that's not as newsworthy as Amy Winehouse
dying.....apparantly.



If you go to Holland there's not a fence of any variety next to any rivers, especially those in cities, and you know why? It's because their government and legislation doesn't automatically assume that everyone is a small child. They treat you like an adult. They trust their drivers not to just vere off into rivers. In England there would be a massive-fuck-off sign saying "Don't go in the water" and then a metal fence which looks like it's about to break when someone just leans on the fucker.

Then there's not to forget the failure of prioritising. Back when Amy Winehouse died in mid-2011, she was the front page news virtually every day for a week and all there was was praise for her and her career....everyone conveniently ignoring the well reported drugs problems that she had had.........in the same week that Anders Breivik killed all those Norweigan kids at a holiday camp. Forgive me for thinking that a load of innocent kids being killed on what was supposed to be a holiday is more newsworthy than some crackhead dying. Amy Winehouse was a vile human being and yet she gets more respect than a load of innocent Norweigan kids from the British newspapers.

Then there's not to forget Jade Goody either. An ignorant, self obsessed twat who spouted a lot of racist taunts at a fellow contest on a reality TV show, who the nation hates, all of a sudden she gets cancer and she's treated like a fucking saint, WHAT THE FUCK?!? If Hitler, one of the best known racists of all time, got cancer, would you treat him like a saint? Fuck no! Just because someone gets cancer doesn't stop them from being a twat. Jade Goody was a waste of human life, a vile human being and she was not certainly not a fucking saint. The fact she got cancer doesn't change that.

Some people say I'll be unfair on Winehouse and Goody and that I shouldn't "talk ill of the dead," but that seems to only apply to people who society didn't deem as evil. Would you apply "don't talk ill of the dead" to Hitler? I think not!


I was also talking to an American girl the other day about how this country is so expensive to live in and I used the example of having a car. She said that in America all you have to pay for is the car itself, insurance, the petrol that goes in it. She was amazed when I told her that we get taxed for having a car. It's one of many taxes that this country dishes out. Tax is taken off wages, anything you buy is taxed, your council charges you tax and you have to pay tax for using a car. It's fucking ridiculous.

The cost of everything continues to go up but wages don't increase and it's putting a massive strain on the English economy. The government keep on introducing new ways for people to be forced to give them money and pretty soon it will be the case where we will be taxed for simply breathing.

It won't be long before we are regularly encountered by scenes like the one on the right from Robin Hood : Men in Tights, where you have to pay to get across any single bridge. The fact they charge you to get across some bridges now is ridiculous.

This country is going to shit and I could have made this blog much, much longer, but I was getting quite angry by this point and didn't want to stress myself out too much so am going to leave it here, but those are just a few reasons as to why I want to leave this country.

Maybe one day when the country sorts out it's priorities and actually starts treating it's society like they're older than five, or maybe when the country isn't run by a bunch of greed driven toffs that claim they're doing everything for your benefit but you never actually see the benefits yourself, then it might be a decent country to live in, but until then it's not. I am proud to be English but it's shit like this that makes me hate this country.