Not much going on right now……. Hasn’t been for a while.
Just thought I’d say Something rather than Nothing, but I guess there’s not a lot of difference between the two which means I might as well not bother, but I am, so that’s Something I guess.
So here’s to Something.
Wrote to my buddy mad Eddie in the States today……… well, last night too actually. Today was in response to him answering right away. He’s been on a downer lately and the once long,-deep-and-regular emails have dropped off for a while now. Mainly my fault I guess; plodding and struggling through life’s thick mud as I’ve been doing for a while now kinda leads me to ‘not bothering’ with a load of things I really should be bothering with.
‘Not bothering’ is kinda misleading though……… it smacks of those things ‘not bothered’ with being unimportant to me. Couldn’t be further from the truth really. Depression kills your life. Kills everything within shouting distance of it too. Kills friendships. Kills passions. Kills your job. Even kills your doctor’s patience too, if you refuse the mind-and-dick-debilitating medication which fails to cheer-up seventy percent of those who swallow it.
Kills the fucking lot really.
Mine’s from my job, and it’s not bad enough to have me curled up in a ball, but it’s bad enough that I can’t be bothered, unless I have to on someone else’s behalf. Work mostly. Which keeps me topped up nicely, thanks.
It’s the bullshit that's increasing in a way that would’ve been unimaginable a few years ago. Actually, it’s still bleddy unimaginable. These son’bitch weenies, all sat in their cosy offices are pissing on us all down here. As if we didn’t have enough of it to clear up as it is. I am often overwhelmed with their ingenuity, and ability to treat the ridiculous as entirely reasonable and practicable.
Anyway……… enough. I’m on a day off, and if I don’t watch it I’ll spend it walking around here having a bleddy good row with the buggers.
So, there’s Something, instead of Nothing.
Now, I’m off to do Nothing.
Y’all have a good day doing Something.
Or Nothing.
Either way, don't feel bad doing it, ok? :o)
Kxxx :o)
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 July 2010
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Testing Trevor and Sam's Locost...... :o)
Hi,
Smee again. Blimey, three times in, what a week or so? Wonders will never cease. :o)
Just got back from Westonzoyland airdrome, where Trevor, his son Sam and No-Problem-Pete are giving Trevor and Sam’s Locost Kit-Car it’s first outing on tarmac. There’s a bit of the old wartime airfield that is used for such things, for a suitable donation to the landowner, and it’s just what they needed to flag wilting spirits around the building of this car.
It’s quite an achievement, as Trevor and his young son Sam have been building this car from scratch in a tiny little scabby single garage, with no engineering facilities whatsoever. Trevor tells me it’s been three years in the gestation so far, but I can’t believe that time has goes so quickly……. Well, I can, but don’t want to actually acknowledge it.
It’s been built using the book “Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as 250 Pounds: And Race it!” by Ron Champion.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Sports-Little-Pounds/dp/1859606369
If you’ve had anything at all to do with kit cars, you will have heard of his book. It’s quite an inspiring book, and such is the proof of that is Trevor and Sam’s effort that I drove on the airfield this morning. I’d say get this book, even just for the pleasure of dreaming of what could be. I guarantee that if you’re the sort of bloke……. Or a very, very rare Chick, …….. who likes to make things, you’ll love this book.
It gives you all you need to start from scratch with just a pile of tubing you’ve bought, and something like a knackered ford sierra as a donor vehicle to gather the engine, gearbox, wheels, brakes, hubs and stuff from…….. actually the book uses an old rear-wheel drive ford escort, but they’re like hens teeth to get now.
Not for these two valiant souls was this going to be a traditional kit-car supplied complete with ready-made chassis, body tub and panels cut to fit, seats, brackets and pretty much all you need to assemble into a complete car. Nope, Trevor and Sam, armed with only a book for guidance, went ahead and welded up the entire chassis, all the axle links, the front suspension wishbones, the lot. Pete with his expertise in building fibreglass boats, helped them make the lift-off bonnet, and to modify the rear fibreglass unit to fit their chassis, sourced from e-bay, and meant for an entirely different car.
In building that chassis, clever young Sam soon became something of an accomplished welder, and so for that matter did Trevor. Few boys these days get that sort of opportunity, and it’s something you just can’t put a price on at that age. Quite, quite priceless.
I’ve put my oar in from time to time, mainly in the way of encouragement, and often just by putting things in perspective when it’s all going wrong, and it all seems too much of an uphill struggle. When I point out how well they’ve done considering the garage is so small, and with so little by way of engineering equipment, it usually perks Trevor up.
Sam doesn’t need perking up……… he has the advantage of yoof on his side, and we all know how that flattens mountains, don’t we? :o)
Ok, the car shows it’s rough edges as a reflection of the VERY primitive environment it was built in, and that it was the first attempt Trevor and young Sam have ever made in building a kit car of any sort. Despite it’s home spun appearance, it drove ok, stopped when braked, and we had some fun sliding it about a good bit. It was actually a great success, although there were some fuelling problems with the engine that stopped play several times.
I took some photos, and will load them up on here when I get them sorted out.
These cars are soooooo much fun, some bastard little weenie will soon make it illegal for sure certain. With that in mind, I won’t elaborate greatly on just the sort of antics it encourages, but suffice to say, with your ass sat almost over the back axle and the centre of gravity so low, spending time creatively sliding around sideways is quite impossible to resist. Unless you’re a weenie, of course.
Trevor and Sam’s faces said it all after they got out from their first circuit of the small area of tarmac available to them. It was real good to see that all those, often despairing, hours spent in a freezing cold and tiny little garage were suddenly all worthwhile in just a few minutes on bit of old airdrome.
We are fast losing the last remnants of men (yes, and some women too, but traditionally it’s always been, and still is, mostly men) who traditionally built all sorts of wonderful stuff in sheds and workshops all over this country. The weenies that govern us have all but outlawed it, and hey won’t be happy until they have driven the final nails into boarding up the doors of our sheds and workshops.
It breaks my bloody heart, but a sight like this morning, of a Father and Son, bonded and forged in what they have created together in a poxy little garage gladdens my heart, and it displays to the world that you little weenie bastards out there haven’t beaten us yet.
K. :o)
Smee again. Blimey, three times in, what a week or so? Wonders will never cease. :o)
Just got back from Westonzoyland airdrome, where Trevor, his son Sam and No-Problem-Pete are giving Trevor and Sam’s Locost Kit-Car it’s first outing on tarmac. There’s a bit of the old wartime airfield that is used for such things, for a suitable donation to the landowner, and it’s just what they needed to flag wilting spirits around the building of this car.
It’s quite an achievement, as Trevor and his young son Sam have been building this car from scratch in a tiny little scabby single garage, with no engineering facilities whatsoever. Trevor tells me it’s been three years in the gestation so far, but I can’t believe that time has goes so quickly……. Well, I can, but don’t want to actually acknowledge it.
It’s been built using the book “Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as 250 Pounds: And Race it!” by Ron Champion.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Build-Your-Sports-Little-Pounds/dp/1859606369
If you’ve had anything at all to do with kit cars, you will have heard of his book. It’s quite an inspiring book, and such is the proof of that is Trevor and Sam’s effort that I drove on the airfield this morning. I’d say get this book, even just for the pleasure of dreaming of what could be. I guarantee that if you’re the sort of bloke……. Or a very, very rare Chick, …….. who likes to make things, you’ll love this book.
It gives you all you need to start from scratch with just a pile of tubing you’ve bought, and something like a knackered ford sierra as a donor vehicle to gather the engine, gearbox, wheels, brakes, hubs and stuff from…….. actually the book uses an old rear-wheel drive ford escort, but they’re like hens teeth to get now.
Not for these two valiant souls was this going to be a traditional kit-car supplied complete with ready-made chassis, body tub and panels cut to fit, seats, brackets and pretty much all you need to assemble into a complete car. Nope, Trevor and Sam, armed with only a book for guidance, went ahead and welded up the entire chassis, all the axle links, the front suspension wishbones, the lot. Pete with his expertise in building fibreglass boats, helped them make the lift-off bonnet, and to modify the rear fibreglass unit to fit their chassis, sourced from e-bay, and meant for an entirely different car.
In building that chassis, clever young Sam soon became something of an accomplished welder, and so for that matter did Trevor. Few boys these days get that sort of opportunity, and it’s something you just can’t put a price on at that age. Quite, quite priceless.
I’ve put my oar in from time to time, mainly in the way of encouragement, and often just by putting things in perspective when it’s all going wrong, and it all seems too much of an uphill struggle. When I point out how well they’ve done considering the garage is so small, and with so little by way of engineering equipment, it usually perks Trevor up.
Sam doesn’t need perking up……… he has the advantage of yoof on his side, and we all know how that flattens mountains, don’t we? :o)
Ok, the car shows it’s rough edges as a reflection of the VERY primitive environment it was built in, and that it was the first attempt Trevor and young Sam have ever made in building a kit car of any sort. Despite it’s home spun appearance, it drove ok, stopped when braked, and we had some fun sliding it about a good bit. It was actually a great success, although there were some fuelling problems with the engine that stopped play several times.
I took some photos, and will load them up on here when I get them sorted out.
These cars are soooooo much fun, some bastard little weenie will soon make it illegal for sure certain. With that in mind, I won’t elaborate greatly on just the sort of antics it encourages, but suffice to say, with your ass sat almost over the back axle and the centre of gravity so low, spending time creatively sliding around sideways is quite impossible to resist. Unless you’re a weenie, of course.
Trevor and Sam’s faces said it all after they got out from their first circuit of the small area of tarmac available to them. It was real good to see that all those, often despairing, hours spent in a freezing cold and tiny little garage were suddenly all worthwhile in just a few minutes on bit of old airdrome.
We are fast losing the last remnants of men (yes, and some women too, but traditionally it’s always been, and still is, mostly men) who traditionally built all sorts of wonderful stuff in sheds and workshops all over this country. The weenies that govern us have all but outlawed it, and hey won’t be happy until they have driven the final nails into boarding up the doors of our sheds and workshops.
It breaks my bloody heart, but a sight like this morning, of a Father and Son, bonded and forged in what they have created together in a poxy little garage gladdens my heart, and it displays to the world that you little weenie bastards out there haven’t beaten us yet.
K. :o)
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Finally....... an entry, and about the NaNoWriMo
Hi y’all….. not that anyone’s reading this now, I guess, especially since I seem to have pretty much abandoned any hint of regular entries here lately. No excuse, ……..just the usual lethargic apathy, and fuck-it-I’ll-do-it-tomorrow lifestyle I’ve turned into something of an art-form. :o)
I can’t even blame the long sunny summer we haven’t had again this year. Nope, no excuse, …………especially since I often describe myself as a Wannabe Writer.
Which brings me to the latest obsession that has consumed me for pretty much all of August, and has passed the time whilst looking at the rain from the Sun Room here at Fortress Wheelrest.
I’ve been spending an absolute FORTUNE at the Alter of Amazon, buying pretty well all the well-recommended books on writing, both on the technical aspects and the inspirational and emotional side of the craft. The stuff that makes you want to sit like a saddo and type away for hours, sometimes about bugger-all. At least as far as those who don’t write, or maybe even read, would see someone like me as I guess.
What has sparked this off then?
Well, it’s a thing called The NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), or Nanowrimo thing
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
You basically start on the first of November, and by the 30th will have sent off at least the minimum 50,000 word draft of a novel, script, or whatever. everyone who manages to get at least those 50,000 words out is a winner.......... there are no prizes, no awards, though, just the satisfaction of achieving those 50,000 words in the month of November, and so being eligible to wear the t-shirts, badges etc, if you wanted to buy and wear them that is. I think I might lash out a few quid for one. :o) 
OK, that's definitely it.
I can’t even blame the long sunny summer we haven’t had again this year. Nope, no excuse, …………especially since I often describe myself as a Wannabe Writer.
Which brings me to the latest obsession that has consumed me for pretty much all of August, and has passed the time whilst looking at the rain from the Sun Room here at Fortress Wheelrest.
I’ve been spending an absolute FORTUNE at the Alter of Amazon, buying pretty well all the well-recommended books on writing, both on the technical aspects and the inspirational and emotional side of the craft. The stuff that makes you want to sit like a saddo and type away for hours, sometimes about bugger-all. At least as far as those who don’t write, or maybe even read, would see someone like me as I guess.
What has sparked this off then?
Well, it’s a thing called The NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), or Nanowrimo thing
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
You basically start on the first of November, and by the 30th will have sent off at least the minimum 50,000 word draft of a novel, script, or whatever. everyone who manages to get at least those 50,000 words out is a winner.......... there are no prizes, no awards, though, just the satisfaction of achieving those 50,000 words in the month of November, and so being eligible to wear the t-shirts, badges etc, if you wanted to buy and wear them that is. I think I might lash out a few quid for one. :o)
The website is just kept ticking over for most of the year, but freshens up and really kicks in, in October in time to encourage everyone to gear up for the 50,000 word-writing marathon for the month of November.
Just imagine if you could do that, eh? Write 50,000 words in a month! It doesn't matter what you write about, or how good it is; the important thing is to write every day for that month, and get those 50,000 words out. At least fifty thousand of the little blighters. One word at a time. Writing something like 1,667 words a day, every day, for a month.
I'm going to aim for at least 2,000 words a day. Absolute minimum. That'll be 60,000 words, and, hell, maybe even more. the big trouble I can see, is no ideas on what to write whatsoever, and if there's no ideas, maybe I won't be able to 'flow' well enough to get those words out every day. Hmmmnnnn I guess I'll have to rely on my ability to ramble about bugger-all, but that will mean 50,000 words about nothing.
Still, all the advice I read from authors has one common thread, and that is to write, even if you don't know what to write. just get the words out, and more often than not, something appears out of all those words and thoughts solidify into some idea, or direction, and the writing takes off on it's own. I know it happens, because I find it happening all the time when I email, write on this blog, or whatever i find myself writing about.
So, I'm optimistic in that I'll succeed in this. it will be good to succeed in something these days.
Writing is very therapeutic in any case, if you need any therapy that is, and even if you don't think you do, it still will have a good effect of one sort or another. Why don't you have a go at it too? It sure would at least give you some focus in that dead November time, when winter weather is starting to really settle in, and Christmas looms just too far ahead to be within grasp.......... for those lucky sods in good enough shape to want to grasp it, that is.
Anyway, read through the blogs............. some are very good, and illustrate how life changing doing something like this can be. It's on the drop-down list under the 'fun Stuff' tag, ...............NaNoWriMo Blog................ but here's the direct link to the blog page anyway........ http://blog.nanowrimo.org/
On the right side, are various peoples blog entries, and some are quite inspiring to read if you take the time to scroll through to those which catch your interest.
Anyway, read through the blogs............. some are very good, and illustrate how life changing doing something like this can be. It's on the drop-down list under the 'fun Stuff' tag, ...............NaNoWriMo Blog................ but here's the direct link to the blog page anyway........ http://blog.nanowrimo.org/
On the right side, are various peoples blog entries, and some are quite inspiring to read if you take the time to scroll through to those which catch your interest.
I'm telling everyone who may be the slightest bit interested, and a good few who couldn't give a shit, all about my commitment to this, and that's to kinda make it all the harder for me to abandon it as soon as it gets to be a struggle. I have to say, it's pretty demoralising to find I don't have the slightest idea of what I'm going to write about, so any suggestions will be welcomed.
OK, that’s me for today. I guess if I aim for shorter blogs, I might write in here more often. mind you, November's gonna be a real lean month for this blog, and for emailing too. I guess I'll leave the web-dating alone too, which will give my ego and self-esteem the world of good for a start.
OK, that’s me for today. I guess if I aim for shorter blogs, I might write in here more often. mind you, November's gonna be a real lean month for this blog, and for emailing too. I guess I'll leave the web-dating alone too, which will give my ego and self-esteem the world of good for a start.
Women, I mean, who needs them anyway? (Sigh)
OK, that's definitely it.
Y’all keep happy. :o)
I need the encouragement, y'see.
K.x :o)
K.x :o)
Thursday, 26 March 2009
A meal and then clubbing with My Girls, a few inspirational quotes, and some Rube Goldberg gadgets. :o)
Went out for a meal last night with a load of staff ('My Girls') I used to work with last year, and then to a big pub, which is pretty much a night club in all but name……. the same one I went to a couple of weeks ago or so, with the bunch of staff I work with now.
It was a great night out, and we had a great laugh. They are a good bunch, and the humour is terrific when we are all together. I was in ‘Entertain’ mode, and the restaurant owner said they were all welcome back, excepting myself. He was smiling though.
(Thankyou God for a great night out.)
I got back home, and it’s silence had the usual ‘flattening’ effect. Another rare night out in the company of people with full lives, and another return alone to a quiet house. Jeees, how many times have I come back to a quiet house? Still, at least I don’t have to put up with someone else’s shit I guess. Some would gladly swap places with me in a heartbeat, eh? :o)
(Thankyou God I don’t have to put up with someone else’s shit!) :o)
Had a bad night………. bad dreams which kept me wakening up through the night. Stood outside for a while pondering on it all, and calling for Lomax, as I do every time I happen to get up at night. Made a cuppa, had a read, and back to sleep at four-ish. Slept on and off then until nine.
Exciting life, innit? :oI
(Thankyou God for waking to another day)
This blog isn’t kicking off today……… no inspiration.
Give up for today, eh? Sometimes you’ve just got to let it go.
Instead,……….. here’s some quotes I found whilst browsing around the ‘net this morning. I just might inspire someone else today. :o)
"I never knew I was going to get to the result until I got there." -- Pablo Pardo
"The perfect state of creative bliss is having power (you are 50) and knowing nothing (you are 9). This assures an interesting and successful outcome."
-- Tibor Kalman
The good news is that you can become more innovative just by taking some action, however small, today. My favorite book on this subject is The Knowing-Doing Gap. In one section of the book, 49ers coach Steve Mariucci explains how he stamps out inaction by not sporting a watch:
"Always know what time it is. It is always NOW. And NOW is when you should do it."
"The best measure of a blog is not how many people it reaches, it’s how much it changes what you do. Changes your posture, your writing, your transparency, your humility. What blogging has done for me is made me think. I get to think about how the outside world will understand something I’m trying to do, for example."- Seth Godin
Exhilaration is the Breeze
That lifts us from the Ground
And leaves us in another place
Whose statement is not found
-Emily Dickinson
................ And here's some U-Tube links:-
This wooden marble 'adding machine' would be fun to make........... maybe a lot bigger with more adding slots to calculate a far bigger number.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcDshWmhF4A&feature=channel
Here's a link to a music machine........... whether you think it sounds good or not is immaterial really.............. just think of the work to put it together, eh????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Ajg1G3vik
That got me looking at Automata........... something that's always fascinated me, and which I'd love to get around to making someday. I'd love to make something that is complicated, and goes all around the woods to do bugger-all in the end.
I love the setups where, like a row of falling dominoes, a whole series of events results in something trivial happening at the end. There's a name for these chain- reaction mechanisms but it escapes me right now.............
Ah, yes............ Rube Goldberg Mechanisms.
There's several on U-Tube........... Honda did one, which was an advert called "Cog", and was quite brilliant in itself, using nothing but Honda car parts!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYabfifhEPE
The best one though is absolutely fantastic, called 'The way Things Go'. It used many more spectacular chain reactions, fire and fireworks being amongst them, and although it's a little more amateurish and less 'slick' than the Honda one, it's actually far better, at over a hundred feet long, and lasting for 30 minutes in the full version
Here's a U-Tube link to a shorter version...........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U82eWptFxSs
There's bloke called Theo Jansen who designs and builds the fantastic Strandbeests:-
"Since 1990 I have been occupied creating new forms of life.
Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic material of this new nature. I make skeletons that are able to walk on the wind, so they don’t have to eat.
Over time, these skeletons have become increasingly better at surviving the elements such as storms and water and eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives."
have a look at his website........... fascinating, it really is. No electronics whatsoever, which means absolutely no computers of any size at all.
here's a link to them working.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_eY22R0TWE&NR=1
........... and here's a U-Tube link to a lecture of his..........
http://www.strandbeest.com/
There's a BMW advert on the end, and a bit at the beginning, but ignore that. I guess he needs sponsorship, and I won't knock this absolutely genius guy for that! :o)
Ok, y’all have a good day out there,…. well, what’s left of it anyway .............. it's pretty much over here, as it's just gone 5.30pm.
Another day without Lomax bites the dust. I sure hope he's ok, wherever he is. :o(
K.
It was a great night out, and we had a great laugh. They are a good bunch, and the humour is terrific when we are all together. I was in ‘Entertain’ mode, and the restaurant owner said they were all welcome back, excepting myself. He was smiling though.
(Thankyou God for a great night out.)
I got back home, and it’s silence had the usual ‘flattening’ effect. Another rare night out in the company of people with full lives, and another return alone to a quiet house. Jeees, how many times have I come back to a quiet house? Still, at least I don’t have to put up with someone else’s shit I guess. Some would gladly swap places with me in a heartbeat, eh? :o)
(Thankyou God I don’t have to put up with someone else’s shit!) :o)
Had a bad night………. bad dreams which kept me wakening up through the night. Stood outside for a while pondering on it all, and calling for Lomax, as I do every time I happen to get up at night. Made a cuppa, had a read, and back to sleep at four-ish. Slept on and off then until nine.
Exciting life, innit? :oI
(Thankyou God for waking to another day)
This blog isn’t kicking off today……… no inspiration.
Give up for today, eh? Sometimes you’ve just got to let it go.
Instead,……….. here’s some quotes I found whilst browsing around the ‘net this morning. I just might inspire someone else today. :o)
"I never knew I was going to get to the result until I got there." -- Pablo Pardo
"The perfect state of creative bliss is having power (you are 50) and knowing nothing (you are 9). This assures an interesting and successful outcome."
-- Tibor Kalman
The good news is that you can become more innovative just by taking some action, however small, today. My favorite book on this subject is The Knowing-Doing Gap. In one section of the book, 49ers coach Steve Mariucci explains how he stamps out inaction by not sporting a watch:
"Always know what time it is. It is always NOW. And NOW is when you should do it."
"The best measure of a blog is not how many people it reaches, it’s how much it changes what you do. Changes your posture, your writing, your transparency, your humility. What blogging has done for me is made me think. I get to think about how the outside world will understand something I’m trying to do, for example."- Seth Godin
Exhilaration is the Breeze
That lifts us from the Ground
And leaves us in another place
Whose statement is not found
-Emily Dickinson
................ And here's some U-Tube links:-
This wooden marble 'adding machine' would be fun to make........... maybe a lot bigger with more adding slots to calculate a far bigger number.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcDshWmhF4A&feature=channel
Here's a link to a music machine........... whether you think it sounds good or not is immaterial really.............. just think of the work to put it together, eh????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Ajg1G3vik
That got me looking at Automata........... something that's always fascinated me, and which I'd love to get around to making someday. I'd love to make something that is complicated, and goes all around the woods to do bugger-all in the end.
I love the setups where, like a row of falling dominoes, a whole series of events results in something trivial happening at the end. There's a name for these chain- reaction mechanisms but it escapes me right now.............
Ah, yes............ Rube Goldberg Mechanisms.
There's several on U-Tube........... Honda did one, which was an advert called "Cog", and was quite brilliant in itself, using nothing but Honda car parts!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYabfifhEPE
The best one though is absolutely fantastic, called 'The way Things Go'. It used many more spectacular chain reactions, fire and fireworks being amongst them, and although it's a little more amateurish and less 'slick' than the Honda one, it's actually far better, at over a hundred feet long, and lasting for 30 minutes in the full version
Here's a U-Tube link to a shorter version...........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U82eWptFxSs
There's bloke called Theo Jansen who designs and builds the fantastic Strandbeests:-
"Since 1990 I have been occupied creating new forms of life.
Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic material of this new nature. I make skeletons that are able to walk on the wind, so they don’t have to eat.
Over time, these skeletons have become increasingly better at surviving the elements such as storms and water and eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives."
have a look at his website........... fascinating, it really is. No electronics whatsoever, which means absolutely no computers of any size at all.
here's a link to them working.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_eY22R0TWE&NR=1
........... and here's a U-Tube link to a lecture of his..........
http://www.strandbeest.com/
There's a BMW advert on the end, and a bit at the beginning, but ignore that. I guess he needs sponsorship, and I won't knock this absolutely genius guy for that! :o)
Ok, y’all have a good day out there,…. well, what’s left of it anyway .............. it's pretty much over here, as it's just gone 5.30pm.
Another day without Lomax bites the dust. I sure hope he's ok, wherever he is. :o(
K.
Friday, 20 March 2009
Happier than God................. one day, hopefully :o)
I've been reading “Happier Than God” by Neale Donald Walsh………… it’s kinda a cross between another of his books “Conversations With God”, and “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne.
It makes a lot of sense, despite being quite fantastic (As in ‘unbelievable’), but no more fantastic than any of the conventional religions. It sure supports what I know is happening to me right now…………. I’m in a deep web of negativity right now, and have been for a while to a greater of lesser degree, and I know it’s self-perpetuating, in that it is drawing in more negativity to feed on. ‘Things’ aren’t working out with pretty much anything at all, and I’m bringing it in on myself, but even knowing that, I seem (Please note……..mustn’t say ‘can’t’) to be unable to break out of it………. at the moment. When my father died back in ’91, I went through a extremely positive phase for something like six months or so, and was absolutely invincible, and I knew, and expected everything to go right, and you know what?
IT DID!!!! It was brilliant!
My Dad had just died, all hell broke loose in as much as my world was turned over…….. my five year relationship with my girlfriend fell apart from the strain of it all, my sister decided I was her enemy, because I then fell in love with her best friend along the way, I’d been busted for speeding by the police on the way down to comfort my Sister in Cornwall the evening I’d heard he had died, and was going to get a definite driving ban when it came to court.
Ok, you’re wondering………Two busts by two separate pursuit cars in different places along the dual carriageway, 120 on a curve, and 140mph up a steep hill, a police pursuit by two fast Rovers for eighteen miles and a road block in Lifton to catch me……. I didn’t know they were pursuing they were so far behind. Four minutes behind me, …I counted. Drive a fast car skilfully, with blue lights clearing the way, as hard as you can for four minutes, ands see how far you travel. That’s a LONG way behind. They were not happy bunnies! To top it all, 140mph was the fasted speed ever dealt with when it eventually came to court in Okehampton. The court was packed when my case came up, and it made the front page of the Western Morning News in two counties, Devon and Cornwall.
The bike, if you’re wondering, was a beautiful, and much loved, silver and red Kawasaki 900R.
The day My Father died was a terrible, terrible day, made all the worse by being busted in such a huge way.
So, y’see……….all sorts of stuff going on which should’ve had the depressive, opposite, effect on me, ………and yet I was flying high as a kite despite it all…….. not immediately, but very soon. Everything was all of a sudden working for me to make things happen, and to help me achieve what I was having to do.
Right down the line………. Everything I did went bang on the button, and it wasn’t as if it was an easy time either……… my sister was incapacitated with grief, everyone was supporting her, and I had to sort out my Father’s affairs completely alone, travelling to and fro from Taunton to Cornwall on all my days off for months. It was as hard as hell to do, and pretty much no one to advise me, let alone help. Clearing his big garage and workshop was a mammoth task alone, both emotionally and physically, but I was largely buoyed up by this strange positivism, and it was something I’ve never forgotten. Never forgotten, but equally I’ve never been able to replicate it again to anything like as much, or for so long a time.
I could move mountains, and I did too. :o)
Was that something to do with my Father ‘helping’ me from the afterlife?
Was it God working in my life?
Was it that I’d somehow tapped into positivity, and was reaping the rewards of a generous and benevolent Universe?
Dunno………. I kinda think the latter, but who knows? Maybe it all three????????
Anyway…….. back to the present.
“Happier Than God”, “Conversations With God”, and “The Secret” all enthuse about the laws of attraction, and a kind of cosmic ordering. What you focus on and what your heart desires, will come about. HTG and CWG teach that God is Life……. He is always with us, because he IS us. “The Secret” is more about cosmic ordering.
You need to read he books really, as I haven’t grasped it completely, nor finished the books, but I can say this………… I’ve had a week off on annual leave this week, and having started HTG this morning, and applied some of it by thanking God all day, on and off, but mostly on, I have had the best day so far. I even thanked god for the leak on the Harley cylinder head, because it will give me a chance to get out into the workshop again in order to repair it, and to feel the joy of having done so when I do. See, HTG says that things that seem to get worse, are a sigh that it’s working, because it lets you feel the upside when that eventually follows. An example he gives……… if you desired to be The Light, and there was no darkness, you wouldn’t know you were The Light, because you would be in the light anyway, so darkness would have to surround you first in order that you be aware that you had become The Light.
Gettit??? :o)))
Ok, but I did say it was ‘fantastic’, didn’t I? Cutting edge science is starting to nibble at fantastic concepts that are so far considered too whacky to even listen to. If you believe in any of the conventional religions, they are no less whacky. People are blowing themselves up. believing that seventy-two virgins are waiting to reward each and every one of them. Whacky as hell, BUT, whatever IS going on Out There is way beyond whacky. There is a concept that the whole universe as we know it is in fact a huge hologram, and nothing is any more real than a dream.
An illustration….. You dream you offer someone a cup of tea, and in the dream you give them one, and at the same time imagine to yourself that they enjoy it. So, in the dream, you actually give them the tea, and in your mind imagine them enjoying it, BUT……… it’s a dream, …………so the cup of tea is as imaginary as you imagining them enjoying it, but in the dream it was ‘real’.
So maybe everything we know is a dream, a fantasy, a hologram, whatever. Science has learned that nothing is in contact with anything else, because if you go small enough to sub-atomic level, there are huge gaps between all the particles making up anything, just as there are huge gaps between the planets………. Nothing touches anything else. Solids aren’t solid at all, they just manifest themselves as solid in our physical experience. If you touch something, you actually don’t tough it…….. not really, because if you could see to a fine enough degree, you would see a gap there. It’s all a matter of scale. We are trying to discover things way beyond our physical capability to prove, but is only the half of it is right, it is pretty fantastic……… all of it.
So, I do believe, and have done for a while now, that what we think, HOW we think, determines out lives completely. The trick is, is to manage your mind to the degree that you can turn things around from a negative perspective to a positive one. For some people it’s easy……….. they do that naturally, and I’ll bet my bottom dollar they are the ‘winners’ in life……… I as much that they are generally ‘happy’.
Me, I’m gonna turn this ship around if it kills me. I’ve been trying for a long time, but………. (No, Eddie says I mustn’t say ‘but’………. not in connection to negativity…….. I must say however)………… HOWEVER, it’s gonna change! :o)
If you’re having a shit time of things………. Read HTG, and CWG, with an open mind, a very open mind, and you don’t have to go to church every Sunday to make it work either if you’re not a religious person. If you are religious, I don’t think it will necessarily clash with what you already believe. I think it will reinforce what you believe.
It’s a win-win, yes? :o))))))
One last thing………… don’t for one second think I’m preaching here, or trying to sound like I have the answers. Couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m just reading some books, and some things are making a bit of sense, and I’m passing it on in the hope it might help someone else, that’s all.
And some things are changing my mood, so that has to be a good thing, and some proof that some techniques do work. Try saying ‘thank-you’ all day to ‘God’ whether you believe ‘he’ exists of not. Give thanks for even the bad stuff…..use your imagination as to how to do that, and see if it doesn’t brighten your day at least a little bit. I laughed to myself when I thought up a way of being thankful for the Harley cylinder-head oil leak.
Beat THAT for a turn around!!!!! :o))))))))))))))
And you know what? I dragged the old girl out, and had a good look at it, and it wasn’t as bad a leak as I thought. It leaks when you park it leaning over on the stand………. The oil ‘pools’ in the rear corner of the head, and drips through the gasket until it levels out. When you’re upright and riding it, it leaks very, very little. It still needs fixing fairly soon, and it’s still a pain to fix by the looks of it, ………….but not quite as bad as I thought.
Was that because I said “Thank-you”???
Who knows. :o)
K.xxx (x’s are for all you gurls out there!) :o)
IT DID!!!! It was brilliant!
My Dad had just died, all hell broke loose in as much as my world was turned over…….. my five year relationship with my girlfriend fell apart from the strain of it all, my sister decided I was her enemy, because I then fell in love with her best friend along the way, I’d been busted for speeding by the police on the way down to comfort my Sister in Cornwall the evening I’d heard he had died, and was going to get a definite driving ban when it came to court.
Ok, you’re wondering………Two busts by two separate pursuit cars in different places along the dual carriageway, 120 on a curve, and 140mph up a steep hill, a police pursuit by two fast Rovers for eighteen miles and a road block in Lifton to catch me……. I didn’t know they were pursuing they were so far behind. Four minutes behind me, …I counted. Drive a fast car skilfully, with blue lights clearing the way, as hard as you can for four minutes, ands see how far you travel. That’s a LONG way behind. They were not happy bunnies! To top it all, 140mph was the fasted speed ever dealt with when it eventually came to court in Okehampton. The court was packed when my case came up, and it made the front page of the Western Morning News in two counties, Devon and Cornwall.
The bike, if you’re wondering, was a beautiful, and much loved, silver and red Kawasaki 900R.
The day My Father died was a terrible, terrible day, made all the worse by being busted in such a huge way.
So, y’see……….all sorts of stuff going on which should’ve had the depressive, opposite, effect on me, ………and yet I was flying high as a kite despite it all…….. not immediately, but very soon. Everything was all of a sudden working for me to make things happen, and to help me achieve what I was having to do.
Right down the line………. Everything I did went bang on the button, and it wasn’t as if it was an easy time either……… my sister was incapacitated with grief, everyone was supporting her, and I had to sort out my Father’s affairs completely alone, travelling to and fro from Taunton to Cornwall on all my days off for months. It was as hard as hell to do, and pretty much no one to advise me, let alone help. Clearing his big garage and workshop was a mammoth task alone, both emotionally and physically, but I was largely buoyed up by this strange positivism, and it was something I’ve never forgotten. Never forgotten, but equally I’ve never been able to replicate it again to anything like as much, or for so long a time.
I could move mountains, and I did too. :o)
Was that something to do with my Father ‘helping’ me from the afterlife?
Was it God working in my life?
Was it that I’d somehow tapped into positivity, and was reaping the rewards of a generous and benevolent Universe?
Dunno………. I kinda think the latter, but who knows? Maybe it all three????????
Anyway…….. back to the present.
“Happier Than God”, “Conversations With God”, and “The Secret” all enthuse about the laws of attraction, and a kind of cosmic ordering. What you focus on and what your heart desires, will come about. HTG and CWG teach that God is Life……. He is always with us, because he IS us. “The Secret” is more about cosmic ordering.
You need to read he books really, as I haven’t grasped it completely, nor finished the books, but I can say this………… I’ve had a week off on annual leave this week, and having started HTG this morning, and applied some of it by thanking God all day, on and off, but mostly on, I have had the best day so far. I even thanked god for the leak on the Harley cylinder head, because it will give me a chance to get out into the workshop again in order to repair it, and to feel the joy of having done so when I do. See, HTG says that things that seem to get worse, are a sigh that it’s working, because it lets you feel the upside when that eventually follows. An example he gives……… if you desired to be The Light, and there was no darkness, you wouldn’t know you were The Light, because you would be in the light anyway, so darkness would have to surround you first in order that you be aware that you had become The Light.
Gettit??? :o)))
Ok, but I did say it was ‘fantastic’, didn’t I? Cutting edge science is starting to nibble at fantastic concepts that are so far considered too whacky to even listen to. If you believe in any of the conventional religions, they are no less whacky. People are blowing themselves up. believing that seventy-two virgins are waiting to reward each and every one of them. Whacky as hell, BUT, whatever IS going on Out There is way beyond whacky. There is a concept that the whole universe as we know it is in fact a huge hologram, and nothing is any more real than a dream.
An illustration….. You dream you offer someone a cup of tea, and in the dream you give them one, and at the same time imagine to yourself that they enjoy it. So, in the dream, you actually give them the tea, and in your mind imagine them enjoying it, BUT……… it’s a dream, …………so the cup of tea is as imaginary as you imagining them enjoying it, but in the dream it was ‘real’.
So maybe everything we know is a dream, a fantasy, a hologram, whatever. Science has learned that nothing is in contact with anything else, because if you go small enough to sub-atomic level, there are huge gaps between all the particles making up anything, just as there are huge gaps between the planets………. Nothing touches anything else. Solids aren’t solid at all, they just manifest themselves as solid in our physical experience. If you touch something, you actually don’t tough it…….. not really, because if you could see to a fine enough degree, you would see a gap there. It’s all a matter of scale. We are trying to discover things way beyond our physical capability to prove, but is only the half of it is right, it is pretty fantastic……… all of it.
So, I do believe, and have done for a while now, that what we think, HOW we think, determines out lives completely. The trick is, is to manage your mind to the degree that you can turn things around from a negative perspective to a positive one. For some people it’s easy……….. they do that naturally, and I’ll bet my bottom dollar they are the ‘winners’ in life……… I as much that they are generally ‘happy’.
Me, I’m gonna turn this ship around if it kills me. I’ve been trying for a long time, but………. (No, Eddie says I mustn’t say ‘but’………. not in connection to negativity…….. I must say however)………… HOWEVER, it’s gonna change! :o)
If you’re having a shit time of things………. Read HTG, and CWG, with an open mind, a very open mind, and you don’t have to go to church every Sunday to make it work either if you’re not a religious person. If you are religious, I don’t think it will necessarily clash with what you already believe. I think it will reinforce what you believe.
It’s a win-win, yes? :o))))))
One last thing………… don’t for one second think I’m preaching here, or trying to sound like I have the answers. Couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m just reading some books, and some things are making a bit of sense, and I’m passing it on in the hope it might help someone else, that’s all.
And some things are changing my mood, so that has to be a good thing, and some proof that some techniques do work. Try saying ‘thank-you’ all day to ‘God’ whether you believe ‘he’ exists of not. Give thanks for even the bad stuff…..use your imagination as to how to do that, and see if it doesn’t brighten your day at least a little bit. I laughed to myself when I thought up a way of being thankful for the Harley cylinder-head oil leak.
Beat THAT for a turn around!!!!! :o))))))))))))))
And you know what? I dragged the old girl out, and had a good look at it, and it wasn’t as bad a leak as I thought. It leaks when you park it leaning over on the stand………. The oil ‘pools’ in the rear corner of the head, and drips through the gasket until it levels out. When you’re upright and riding it, it leaks very, very little. It still needs fixing fairly soon, and it’s still a pain to fix by the looks of it, ………….but not quite as bad as I thought.
Was that because I said “Thank-you”???
Who knows. :o)
K.xxx (x’s are for all you gurls out there!) :o)
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Writing fixes it.......... :o)
Hi there,
No inspiration tonight. Lousy day at work, which always takes the wind, such as it is, out of my sails.
Lomax has just gone outside for the last adventure of the day, (10.00pm) and I guess it’s going to be at least an hour before he’ll want to come in again………… got a dog whistle that calls him in, as he’s wandering a fair way beyond the garden. He usually comes belting over the fence, or through the hedge, and across the garden when he hears it. Can’t be many cats that do that, eh? He retrieves paper balls, and some favourite ‘toys’, especially The Rat which Suzy made for him. It’s real easy to see the big-cat ancestry in him when he’s trotting towards you with it in his mouth. :o)
His poor sore little bollocks don’t seem sore and inflamed any more, so I’ve discontinued the Personally Administered Cool Air Soothing Sessions, (PACASS), otherwise known as Blowing on His Bollocks (BOHB), which will prolly relieve Suzy no end. :o)
Just been looking at the stars through the binoculars, those that were showing through the clouds anyway.
There’s a dusty area in Orion, which is a nebula; an area of gas cloud where stars are being ‘born’………… taking millions of years in the process. The Orion Nebula is about 1,600 (or perhaps 1,500) light-years away from us, and is some 30 light-years across. Huge, but small compared to some nebulae. You can see it faintly with a pair of 10x50 binoculars. Go have a look next time the stars are out....... best without a full, or fullish, moon to light-pollute the sky.
Find Orion......... look for a shortish diagonal line of three stars towards the south or south west. (see photo above) I think they can only be seen in the winter months, or at least they will be very low in the sky in the summer. look below the lower of the diagonal stars, the left one, and find a very faint dusty area of stars and 'mist'.
That's the Orion Nebula. Below are some pics taken through a very good telescope.
Remember......... you're watching new stars being formed in a gas cloud, and it's a long way off....... imagine travelling 670,616,629 miles every hour for at least 1,500 years!
And, when you get there, it would take you THIRTY YEARS to travel from one side of it to the other, travelling at the same speed........... the same speed that light flashes across the room at, when you flick the light switch on..........thirty years traveling THAT fast! :oI
No inspiration tonight. Lousy day at work, which always takes the wind, such as it is, out of my sails.
Lomax has just gone outside for the last adventure of the day, (10.00pm) and I guess it’s going to be at least an hour before he’ll want to come in again………… got a dog whistle that calls him in, as he’s wandering a fair way beyond the garden. He usually comes belting over the fence, or through the hedge, and across the garden when he hears it. Can’t be many cats that do that, eh? He retrieves paper balls, and some favourite ‘toys’, especially The Rat which Suzy made for him. It’s real easy to see the big-cat ancestry in him when he’s trotting towards you with it in his mouth. :o)
His poor sore little bollocks don’t seem sore and inflamed any more, so I’ve discontinued the Personally Administered Cool Air Soothing Sessions, (PACASS), otherwise known as Blowing on His Bollocks (BOHB), which will prolly relieve Suzy no end. :o)
Just been looking at the stars through the binoculars, those that were showing through the clouds anyway.There’s a dusty area in Orion, which is a nebula; an area of gas cloud where stars are being ‘born’………… taking millions of years in the process. The Orion Nebula is about 1,600 (or perhaps 1,500) light-years away from us, and is some 30 light-years across. Huge, but small compared to some nebulae. You can see it faintly with a pair of 10x50 binoculars. Go have a look next time the stars are out....... best without a full, or fullish, moon to light-pollute the sky.
Find Orion......... look for a shortish diagonal line of three stars towards the south or south west. (see photo above) I think they can only be seen in the winter months, or at least they will be very low in the sky in the summer. look below the lower of the diagonal stars, the left one, and find a very faint dusty area of stars and 'mist'.
That's the Orion Nebula. Below are some pics taken through a very good telescope.
Remember......... you're watching new stars being formed in a gas cloud, and it's a long way off....... imagine travelling 670,616,629 miles every hour for at least 1,500 years!
And, when you get there, it would take you THIRTY YEARS to travel from one side of it to the other, travelling at the same speed........... the same speed that light flashes across the room at, when you flick the light switch on..........thirty years traveling THAT fast! :oI
Jees!!!!
Can you imagine that?
No, I didn't think so! :o)
Mind boggling stuff. Blows me away, it really does.
Sometimes I think to myself (And forgive me, but I’m pissed right off tonight) who gives a flying fuck if you steal, rape, murder, ……. if you’re good or bad?
Who really gives one fuck worth the mention, when this planet…………. I mean, the whole sodding planet, is smaller than a grain of the finest sand……….. hell, prolly smaller than a dust particle that can only be seen floating in the sun, in relation to all that we can see out there with even a hundred Hubble telescopes. There are huge gas clouds (Nebulae) out there where stars are being created, being slowly and painfully born over millions of years. Some of these nebulae are millions of light years across………… absolutely mind bogglingly enormous, but still appearing so small they cannot be seen by us as any size, and not at all with the naked eye........... Except for the Orion Nebula. (as far as I know, anyway)
So, how can it possibly be of any consequence what I, or you, or anyone else does here on this planet? Who really gives a shit?
God?
Maybe, but no one knows just what God is. (I don't think the word 'who' really applies, not literally anyway) Not for sure. 'God' is undoubtedly out there in some form or another, and prolly in a way we have no comprehension of so far, but what exactly, is anyone’s guess. As for God caring one way or another what we do, that is easily debatable.
I was on a long three week Care of the Dying course once, and a hospital Chaplin was giving us a talk one afternoon. I remember him saying that for all we know, Hitler sits at Gods right hand. I got him right away, although some were shocked.
The concept of justice, and of fairness is a human concept;………. It doesn’t exist outside of humanity as far as we know for certain. If it does exist in the animal world, it has more to do with the survival strategy of an individual, or a group, than it has to do with ‘decency’, and ‘fairness’, as we identify it.
There is plenty of evidence around us, that being a selfish bastard, or bitch, gets you on in life. I see little to prove the opposite. My father was living proof that playing a straight wicket gets you nowhere. The more I see of my fellow man, especially, literally, men, the less faith I have in our future. As long as two men will fight in a pub, (and plenty of women have taken that pastime up now too, no doubt in the good name of ‘equality’), then there will never, ever be World Peace.
Never.
It’s a pub fight, on a larger scale, that’s all.
Women, on the whole, are a far nicer group of humans than men, and I come to that conclusion at least in part from working with them for some thirty-six years. Mind you, maybe I get to rub up against the best of them (Don't even think it!!!) because I work with a grouping that choose the caring professions, and so by their natures would tend to have kind personalities.
Anyway, I know much of the God stuff prolly makes me sound like I’m well off my rocker, but I maintain it’s all worthy of valid argument……….. I'm not saying that it's necessarily definitely the way it is, but it sure fits in a logical sense. It often comes to me from just looking up there at it all hanging in the sky like a spangled shroud all around us, and feeling soooooo small and insignificant.
So minuscule and unimportant.
So very tiny.
You go out there and try it, ………….and then tell me what a big hot-shot you are.
And I'll tell you how full of shit you are. :o)
Still never mind all the stars out there, and all the bleddy philosophising………. Life has to be lived, insignificant though we all are, and we just have to make the best of it as we roll the dice every day.
Every new day, a fresh roll of the dice, and a fresh hope of something new, something different, something to light the fires up.
Speaking of which, I see there’s something like 25 million quid up for grabs on the lottery, or the euro-lottery, tomorrow night. (Friday)
Better have a go at it I guess, because, as my dear old daddy used to say,…….
“You never know, ……..you just never know”
A favourite thought that always makes me smile at it’s poignant truth, is to quote John Cleese from the excellent film, Clockwise (I think it was).
He’s a straight-laced, and very time conscious Headmaster of a comprehensive school, on his way across country to address a very big headmasters convention. A series of complete disasters, one mounting the other, until his well-ordered life, and successful career, is in complete and utter tatters.
Completely destroyed.
He is at a particular point of hopelessness, and is sat on a grass verge, his head in his hands, almost completely defeated after a valiant struggle against overwhelming odds. He’s alongside one of his attractive teenage girl pupils, with which he is in a hopelessly compromised and circumstantially entwined position.
As he sits there, momentarily utterly defeated, he says to her…………
“…….. it’s not the pain I can’t stand, Laura, it’s not the pain. It’s the HOPE I can’t bear!”
(Or words to that effect anyway)
How very true that is, eh? :o)
I think it’s brilliant.
Boy have I ever been tortured by some unbearable hopes along the way. As often as not, at the mercy of a female. (Sighs, and gazes wistfully at the past) :o)
Mid-teenage love was particularly unfulfilled, ………but endlessly hopeful. :o)))))
“Amanda” springs to mind. :o) Boy oh boy, does it ever. An unrealised hope, for something like five years. Never so much as held her hand.
It was worth every second, though, it really was. I wouldn’t have missed one second of that pain. It was bitter sweet all the way. One glimpse of her, one smile, one glance, one word, and I was fuelled to carry on for months :o)
Poor love-sick bastard that I was.
I've sure done my time howling at the moon. :o)
The sharpness of some things in life stay with you forever, don’t they? I can remember the emotions of those years as if they happened yesterday, if I simply focus on a few well-remembered moments………. Snapshots burned on my mind.
I’m sure it is the same for you.
I hope so.
If it was all soooooo easy, would it ‘stick’, and resist the abrasion of time's sand passing over it?
In my darkest moments, I’ve always still been illuminated by at least the faintest glimmer of Hope to sharpen the pain. :o)
Thank god for that. :o)
OK, …….Cheered up now. :o)
Writing is a wonderful way of clearing the crap outta your head y’know.
Sue, my lovely, lovely ex-wife calls it my Thinky Crap. Quite apt……… like I said before somewhere………. it’s the Thinking that does it every time y’know.
Writing fixes it………. Next time you’re pissed right off, y’all should try it sometime. :o)
Nite nite,
K.x :o)
P.S.
On the subject of telescopes........ if you get inspired enough to buy a telescope, NEVER, EVER get one from a supermarket, toy shop, bargain discount store, or the like, or one for around thirty to sixty quid (new). They are a complete waste of time, in every respect.
Another clue is that these rubbish 'scopes are often advertised by their magnification, and usually high magnifications too ...... 200-X to 600-X. Good telescopes are rated by their aperture, ........... their light-gathering capability, and never by their magnification.
NEVER.
Search some astronomical shops online, (Telescope Planet http://www.telescopeplanet.co.uk/ is a very good one) and maybe ring one or two for advice. Something half decent isn't THAT expensive, and prolly need to spend about at least £150. Best bang for your buck is a Dobsonian mounted reflector (NOT a refractor). Easier to use too. If I'd bought a Dob mount, I could've got an eight incher instead of the six inches ended up with. (Life's just not fair, is it?????) :o)
Size matters in astronomy, and you just can't beat a big Tube. :o)
Advice often given by experienced astronomers is to get a half decent pair of binoculars before a telescope........ a pair of 10x50's, and find your way around the stars with that first.
Naturally I didn't heed that advice, bought a medium reflector, and so am trying to swim before I can even walk to the beach!
K.x
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