Tcr

So, today marks another milestone...  Through doubts and all, Blood and Honour has received 1000 dragon prints.

Well…  Bit of a milestone…  At least for me…  The unbetaed (...raw?  Essential TCR?  Hmmm...) experiment/challenge to see how far I’ve come along in the years CR’s been betaing has reached eight chapters, which is now tied with Blood and Honour for most up here…  To believe that Come Hell or High Water was just something for the writer’s block to break apart…
It’s kind of hard to imagine that just under a year ago, I never would have thought to show any of my work to anyone but CR and now, I have two that are up for a decent chapter length (with, in BaH’s case, many more chapters in the wings, waiting for examination…)  Come Hell or High Water is also, strangely enough, tied with BaH for the amount of reviews (albeit in a shorter time frame…  Not sure if I’ve entered the Twilight Zone there, maybe...)
I’m glad for all the support and my fans :).  Maybe one day soon I can get on to the more vital prospect (and infinitely more terrifying thought) of finding someone to publish…  Until then, I’ll let that thought sink in…  While I roll back and forth in the corner…  In a fetal position… 
Until such a time…
For those who have, will, and continue to read, not mention the reviews…
THANK YOU.
TCR
(If this seems a little rambling…  Yeah, probably…  No sleep make…  TCR…  Something…  Something...)
 

Well…  Bit of a milestone…  At least for me…  The unbetaed (...raw?  Essential TCR?  Hmmm...) experiment/challenge to see how far I’ve come along in the years CR’s been betaing has reached eight chapters, which is now tied with Blood and Honour for most up here…  To believe that Come Hell or High Water was just something for the writer’s block to break apart…
It’s kind of hard to imagine that just under a year ago, I never would have thought to show any of my work to anyone but CR and now, I have two that are up for a decent chapter length (with, in BaH’s case, many more chapters in the wings, waiting for examination…)  Come Hell or High Water is also, strangely enough, tied with BaH for the amount of reviews (albeit in a shorter time frame…  Not sure if I’ve entered the Twilight Zone there, maybe...)
I’m glad for all the support and my fans :).  Maybe one day soon I can get on to the more vital prospect (and infinitely more terrifying thought) of finding someone to publish…  Until then, I’ll let that thought sink in…  While I roll back and forth in the corner…  In a fetal position… 
Until such a time…
For those who have, will, and continue to read, not mention the reviews…
THANK YOU.
TCR
(If this seems a little rambling…  Yeah, probably…  No sleep make…  TCR…  Something…  Something...)
 

It’s snowing. Why is it snowing? Did no one bother to note that spring is a mere ten days away? To whom do I complain, please?
On the bright side, my computer has finally decided to update to the latest version of Windows 10, after I manually updated Windows Update.

Well it seems like all the stress and extended working hours do take a toll after all, and the upshot of it all is that now I'm really not very well. And I still have lots of hours to work this week.
I may be MIA for an extended period of time.
I'm afraid to say I haven't been writing anything either – not a sausage – so updates to my stories are on indefinite hold for now. Sorry about that.
Now, while I can, I am going back to bed.

So…  Warning rant ahead…
Perhaps I am quite close to the written material I have up.  Perhaps I’m just stubborn…  Pigheaded…  Wouldn’t be the worst thing I’ve been called…  And I’m willing to take some fair concrit when it comes to the stories, even the ones I am most proud of…  The latest review that I received for Blood and Honour was neither concrit nor supportive, in my belief.
I read the entire chapter before I review, before I form an opinion.  Being told, off the bat, that you did not read the entire chapter, thus forming your opinion from half...a quarter, I feel renders anything said not necessarily invalid, but also pointless in ‘constructive’ criticism – and I use ‘constructive loosely here (especially when a comment made is that ‘it would be more ‘readable”).  I’m not sure how four people can be confusing, nor can I understand how, and I will be exact here, one can be confused with four given names, three nicknames associated with those given names (Ie. Max – Maximilian, Fritz – Friedrich, Matti – Matilde), and two surnames.  As for feelings and emotional responses; I’m sorry that it doesn’t beat you over the bloody head with each and every sentence referring to how ‘utterly awesome’ the other one is while otherwise leaving a vacant slot where the MC is.  This one is not supposed to start happy, is not supposed to be cheerful and happy, this is supposed to be a dark start, a bleak future cast. 
Perhaps because of my closeness and pride for Blood and Honour, maybe it’s not as bad as I think, but to me, this review was not constructive, this felt like full on criticism and, at some points, quite mean spirited.
End of rant.
Sorry…  Just need to bitch and complain, but didn’t want to clutter the forums with things.

I do not like winter storms, at all. I most certainly didn’t ask for 8 to 12 inches of snow, with strong winds and gusts up to forty miles an hour. 
For our metric users, which is most of the world, this is 20 to 30 cm of snow, and wind gusts of 64 kph.

WARNING: Politics and bad language… but I was provoked (on the bad language). I make no excuse for my politics.
Hahaha...
The Speaker of the House of Commons in the UK (John Bercow), has said this about the possibility of Trump talking to MPs:
“We value our relationship with the United States. If a state visit takes place, that is way beyond and above the pay grade of The Speaker. However, as far as this place is concerned, I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and to sexism, and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons.”
So basically he’s said: hey, let’s not.
Unlike the BBC, I don’t think I need to include the idiot comments (who shall remain unnamed), being as he is a complete and utter **** who used £4000 of public money to keep his fucking stables warm… FFS. But he’s not happy… bizzare! He’s like one of those minority members of UKIP, who you just think… what the hell are you doing there? Get out you imbecile! But then for some people greed trumps everything (so to speak) – even victimisation of your own ethnicity, since he was born in Iraq and so has been unable to enter the US for the best part of a week. What a moron!

WARNING: Personal politics ahead...
So the petition against Trump making a state visit now has over 1.5m signatures. For context, the UK has a population of about 52m people who are over the age of fourteen.
This evening, I was off out protesting in Sheffield. For such short notice there were a lot of people, so many we closed the main road in front of the town all. At one point I was out on the edges, when a woman asked me what it was about, since she had just finished work. I told her; so she joined in.
Of all the slogans I heard chanted tonight, “Trump – better out than in!” is probably my favourite. Followed closely by the “Theresa the appeaser!” mentions from the speakers.
Also memorable is the moment when a girl stood up in front of the microphone and declared: “I am a muslim woman! And an activist!” to rapturous applause.
I’ve got to admit, I have (especially in my younger years) participated in many anti-racist and anti-fascist protests, marches and rallies, but this is the first where I felt protest and civic duty really merged together into one.
 

Goodbye and RIP John Hurt
Who said of Downton Abbey: “I just think it is poxy! I mean, I'm sorry, but it is rotten writing and rotten acting.“
And also this: “I remember talking to Olivier when we were doing Lear. He said: 'When it comes to your obituary they will only mention two or three performances, and they will be the ones that defined you early on.' I said: 'What will they write about you?' Richard III and Wuthering Heights_', he replied. And he was right.”
So today you’ll hear a lot about his death scene in Alien, and his role as The Elephant Man, but let’s also remember we’ve lost a man who played The Doctor, who voiced the dragon in Merlin, Winston from the film 1984, Mr Olivander from the Harry Potter films, and the narrator of Dogville (which imho is one of most horrific studies into human nature ever conceived).