Statistics about Welfare Budget in the UK

 

This is  was just going to be a linky post to Oliver James’ blog regarding the welfare budget of the UK, but then I got ranty. For my part, I’m un-involved in this fight. I am just an average, working 31 year-old male. However, I worry for the future. I worry that if the Tories continue on the path they are on, then there won’t be a safety net left for future generations should they fall on hard times. I worry about all the sick and disabled people and their families who need to cover the cost of living as well as cover the cost of medication and card. I worry about what the UK is going to look like a few decades from now: With “BIG BUSINESS” being in charge of nearly everything and costs shooting up to prop up their bottom lines; With the wealthy becoming wealthier and the poorer being left to rot and being marked as pariahs if they try to raise awareness of how badly they are being treated.

From my perspective, we are repeatedly told how there “isn’t enough money”; how we have to cut services and cut budgets to de-crease the deficit and “balance the budget”. However, after reading what I read in the media, in Private Eye and on-line, I’m convinced the money IS there. It’s just in the bank accounts of the wealthy who, having been accustomed to being wealthy, to not having to worry about money and paying the bills, don’t even consider the idea of giving it up.

The money IS there in the bank accounts of the corrupt, who give contracts and business to their friends in government and to their friends in business. People say that’s just how the world works, it’s “who you know” but that shouldn’t be a defence! That’s not how the world should work. Counsellors, politicians, businessmen, MPs, they should not all be in each-other’s pockets, rewarding each other for another contract gained here; another school/hospital sold off there with £1,000s changing hands each time. Yes I may be wishing for a utpoia but isn’t that what we should be reaching for? Yes I’m an idealist but there’s NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!

The money IS there. It hasn’t VANISHED. I’ll cite an example:  In the latest Private Eye magazine, it is reported that the Chief Executive of GlaxoSmithKline, Sir Andrew Witty, has a £7.2m pay packet this year. An almost 75% increase on his pay-packet last year. (SOURCE: Private Eye magazine issue 1361 p5.)

If you honestly sit down and think about that, who NEEDS a £7.2m annual pay packet? When, as I am proving, you can survive on under £20k a year. Witty could give £1m back to the government and still have a £6.2m pay-packet and make some people’s lives better. Surely even a £1m pay-packet would be enough for him to live on, with the rest shared back with the populace? Would that work? Would that be a good idea? Who knows. Could it hurt? I don’t know. I know there are probably smarter people than I in the world who have considered this idea.

As I stated at the start of this rant, I have no particular horse in this race, nor do I have a particular ideology that I’m trying to push. I do feel however, that in this time of forced austerity for some, those who are getting obscenely wealthy (and please don’t try to argue that £7.2m a year isn’t obscene) are under a MORAL obligation to share the wealth with those who have less; to step down from being obscenely wealthy to moderately wealthy, or even all the way down to slightly-wealthy, for the better-ment of society.

Well, that went on a lot longer than I originally intended, I think this has been brewing in my head for a while and now it is out there on the interwebs. For no-one to read (I anticipate).

The article that spawned this blog, was by Oliver James UK and was a list of facts and statistics regarding the Welfare budget of the UK and some of the mis-apprehensions that people are under thanks to the “Mejia” and is found here: http://oliverjamesopinion.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/10-facts-about-benefits-britain/.

If you’ve read this far, I thank you and I recommend you listen to the Proopcast by Greg Proops as he says points similar to this in a more amusing fashion than I ever could. It can be found here: http://www.gregproops.com/blog/.

Tumbleweeds

 

Isn’t it sad when a once vibrant forum has just (naturally) withered away? I was a HUGE fan of a forum at YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK. This was mainly a CSI forum and during my CSI phase, was where I’d catch up with all the CSI news and gossip. Getting some episodes before they aired and discussing them (and WITHOUT A TRACE) with fellow fans. The forum was lively, full of debate and creative talents. The members of the forum would create videos, photo-shop graphics (desktop wall-papers etc) and were all (as far as I could tell) good people.

I popped back in today, and the fire message to great me was:

Ok, so I’ve not been here for 3 years +, no problem.

But then I started seeing threads that hadn’t been updated since 2012 and a fair few “Where is everyone” type posts…

I suppose it happens, and I know it’s happened to a fair few forums I’ve frequented over the years. After all, I’ve been using the internet (on and off) since 1995 so many sites have come and gone in that time.

I used to be a BIG reader of Newsgroups (anyone remember those?) uk.media.tv.buffy-v-slayer was one (I think), along with many computing ones where I offered my (megre) knowledge to help fix people’s computing problems.

I remember using the DEJANEWS service to log-in to newsgroups from Uni as I couldn’t get on the NNTP servers from Uni. This was before Googel gobbled it up. Again, as time moves forward, many of these discussion places are vacant, filled only with SPAM posts trying to extort money out of you after a fashion. Now all anybody things when NEWSNET is mentioned is piracy. Which is sad as it was an awesome place to meet and chat.

Now, a large number of groups have sprang up on Facebook but I honestly don’t think that Facebook is the perfect home for this. It’s difficult to find posts, conversations get lost quickly (unlike on a message-board) and a lot of the pages are taken up with pictures rather than text-posts.

I know message-boards are still around, but I feel (though please correct me) that their usage has declined. If that is a good thing or a bad thing I’m unable to decide right now.

At the end of the day, the internet is a tool to allow us to communicate with each other. TV message-boards were just one of the places where I found a home and like-minded people to communicate with. Good times.

Opinions

It's interesting to me how opinions vary amongst people. See these from Twitter today:

Vue's better than Odeon.





Vue's better than Odeon.




Cineworld's better than VUE.






I haven't got any more to add right now, just that experiences and opinions vary and I wish people would remember that. These days, more often that I would like, customers tend to default to "anger", as if the company is deliberately trying to screw them over or deliberately ruin their experience. Speaking for myself, I can assure you, that is not the case.

My Visit to City Of York Council's New Customer Service Centre

City of York Council's new HQ

Oh dear, where to begin? I have just had to endure the torture of City of York Council's new and improved Customer Service Centre and I cannot believe how shockingly badly designed it is. 

First off, let's remember that, according to S Harrison (the company that re-designed the place) The new building cost £32 MILLION to design and re-build (opens in new window). That's £32 MILLION of Tax payers money. As can be seen from that link, a lot of thought went into the design and sustainability of the building (apparently). However, no-one seems to have put thought into how the building was meant to be USED by COUNCIL TAX PAYERS. 

Here's an over-head shot of the new building from the link above:

Finding the Entrance

So to start off with, they've placed the entertance to the building (for customers) all the way around the far side (if you're coming from town, which many people I saw where). However, it's not immediately obvious where it is. 

To combat this, City of York Council (CYC) have sellotaped A4 laminated signs to the windows pointing around the corner. A4! That's great to see when you're up close to the building but when you stand on the street corner as I did, trying to suss the place out, they're almost invisible and I don't think it's my eyesight.

Following the laminated window-signs you eventually reach a set of double doors (this is a HUGE building)  "Great" you think "I've found the entrance". WRONG! That's the staff entrance. For customers you need to keep going all the way around the far side, almost hidden round the 'back' of the building. 

As I was entering, I passed a couple of elderly people who had to stop for a breather as walking all the way round had tired them out. Bearing in mind that the new offices aren't ideally situated for anyone (as they're in town, not near residential areas) and that a large number of people who need to use a face-to-face service (as opposed to telephone or internet) are likely to be elderly and I can see already that there's a problem.

I should've known that this wasn't going to be a good visit when I reached the snazzy, glass automatic doors to find a HUGE mess of bird-shit on the floor just in front of them. It seems that CYC has skimped on the bird detterent measures on the building (or maybe weren't allowed them as the building is listed) with the result that the first thing you see as you FINALLY enter the building, is a pile of shit. An omen if ever there was one.

The Experience

Upon entering the building I was greeted by a polite gentleman in a smart black suit who asked me what I was visiting for. "Renewing my parking permit" was my response. He wandered over to a snazzy looking touch-screen panel, whizzed through a few taps and a ticket came out. He handed it to me and advised me to wait in the far corner until my number was called.

I checked my ticket.

I was number 3234.

Oh dear lord, I hope they're not going sequentially.

I wandered through into the vast open-plan expanse that is the City of York Council customer service centre. 

Arrange this more haphazardly, remove SOME walls and add some comfy
seating  in designated waiting areas and BINGO. CYC's new Customer
Service Centre.

The vast area is out-lined with private rooms around the outside edge. Each room is given a letter. I'm assuming these are private rooms as the rest of the place isn't very private at all. Splitting up the room, in a seemingly random design are desks at which the Customer Service Operatives sit. These are all numbered (1 -> 18 as far as I could tell). The desks are sparten (monitor, phone and minimal clutter) giving a slightly clinical feel to the proceedings. 

Breaking up the random collection of desks are seating areas for customers. These are a collection of blue, comfortable seats arranged in a rectangle shape. These are positioned near pillars. Positioned high-up on these pillars are SCREENS OF POWER. These screens display ads for City of York Council services, alongside the numbers that the speakers call out and the desks you're meant to go to to be served.

Kind of like an upmarket "Till 5 please" announcement from the Post Office.

This is where the despair set in. 

As I entered the room at 11:35 everyone in the waiting area had a sullen, miserable look about them. Shortly after I entered, 2 ladies stormed out in a huff. AS they left I overheard one of the ladies saying to the other "...we could be waiting all bloody day in here".

I checked my ticket again, 3234.

The screen called numbers out at random "Number 55 please go to desk 10"; "Number 1032 please go to desk 1". Leaving me initially with no way of knowing when in all smeg my number would be called as there seemed to be no sequence to the system.

Also annoying (from a customer experience point of view) was that there seemed to be many York Council Employees (juding from their lanyards) walking about "ready to help" but not actually helping many people. 

Oh, and it should surprise no-one to learn that there weren't enough seats for people to use whilst waiting for their seemingly randomly generated number to be called by the great screens in the sky, so many people were milling about, or leaning on the walls of the 4 "Customer Access" terminal cubicles (Screens, keyboard and mouse with Internet Explorer opened at York.Gov.UK).

After waiting for half-an-hour without my number being called, I fell into conversation with a pleasant gentleman called Geoffry (sic). Geoffry was also bemused by this whole system and we lamented together over the previous system:

"When the parking services where at 9 St Leonards Place you could walk in, there were two people behind the desk and you'd have your issue sorted and be out within 5 minutes." 

I had to agree, that was true. 

I entered my 40th minute of waiting, which made Geoffry's previous comment seem even more apt.

Through team-work with Geoffry we eventually worked out how the numbering system operated and from that were better able to estimate how long we'd be waiting.

After my 47th minute of waiting in this £32 MILLION shiny headquarters I was called across to desk 8 which was staffed by a very pleasent gentlemen who seemed resigned to his fate who greeted me with a resigned "Sorry for your wait."

He informed me that he wasn't even meant to be working the desks today, that he should've been transferred to the telephone helpline side of things but, due to circumstances outside of his control, he was confined to his desk running the Parking Permits side of things. A desk where, incidentally, there should've been two people working but "I'm afraid it's only me today."

He served me as efficiently as he could but he was thawted at the final step, the printers that the IT people had arranged, were communal. Which meant that as each staff member wanted to print something, they could concievably be delayed by the person in front of them. Also, he informed me, "the parking permits haven't been printing properly all day". 

I felt like Kafka was watching me from above and laughing. 

He headed to the printer with the blank sheet of paper with the parking permit marked out at the bottom, all ready to print out my permit. 

Alas, he was indeed thawted by a lady who had sent something to print ahead of him and informed him that she'd be a "little while".

He headed back to my table: "Why don't I process your payment whilst we're waiting for the printer?"

I assured him that that was fine by me. At this stage, after nearly an hour of waiting, I was laughing at the whole experience more than angry. 

He was able to get to the printer, pulled all the trays out and eventually made it work. He came back with my permit: 

"Sorry, it's not printed correctly again. At this stage you can take this away, it's still valid as long as you cut the permit out carefully. Or you can leave it with me and when we get this issue fixed, I'll post you a new one."

I sympathised with him and took my existing permit away. After all, according to the time on my payment receipt, I'd waited 57 minutes to get it.

I thanked the gentleman and left, passing Geoffry on the way. He congratulated me for getting served and wondered when his number would come up. "It's worse than the lottery" he suggested. I agreed.

As of now it's 15:14 in the afternoon. I don't know if Geoffry is still waiting, I hope not (but wouldn't be surprised) however I know a great many are. 

TL;DR

City of York Council has spent over £32 MILLION of Taxpayers money to move everything into this central, specially designed office space.

In doing so they're made it so that a simple activity (handing over a form with payment and getting a printed letter and permit back) has gone from being a 2 minute job to a 57 minute job.

They've created a waiting system that gives people NO indication of when they might be served, there aren't enough staff to serve all who need to be served quickly enough and there aren't enough seats to seat everyone who might be waiting. 

Everyone who was waiting had a downtrodden, dispirited look on their faces as their problems and issues had been converted to random numbers to be shouted out by a faceless screen in the sky. 

I cannot concieve of who thought this was a good idea and would work smoothly. 

I cannot understand how £32 MILLION has been spent and things have gotten WORSE.

Bravo City Of York council. 

Bravo.

Oh how we love the rich and corrupt:

Subittled: Hurry up and retire Dave Hartnett you corrupt waste of space.

From The Guardian:

"Audit office attacks tax deals for corporations

National Audit Office finds tax officials failed to seek proper legal advice while negotiating settlements with large companies.

The National Audit Office has found that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) did not seek proper legal advice, involve its own specialists or even take notes whilst negotiating settlements with large companies..."

Continued on http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/14/hmrc-tax-collection-failures-nao.

Now, Private Eye magazine has been following this story for MONTHS and reporting on it in nearly every issue so National Audit Office's findings come as no surprise to me. What does surprise me though is the next sentence in the piece:

"But despite these failings uncovered by the former High Court tax judge Sir Andrew Park, the NAO has concluded that five negotiated settlements which were the subject of the report were "reasonable" and fair to the public purse."

This comes across as a government department (the NAO) which has uncovered MILLIONS of pounds missing from the public purse (as companies were told they didn't have to pay it) trying to save face and avoid more embarrasment and shame. "Oh, but it's ok, the deals were 'reasonable'." Reasonable my foot, a later paragraph in the Guardian story reads:

"The report's findings may concern many ordinary taxpayers. Last year, it was alleged that companies such as Vodafone were not required to pay tax bills of up to £7bn following negotiations with Revenue and Customs while others such as Goldman Sachs have been let off up to £20m."

How on EARTH is any of that "reasonable and fair the public purse"? Even if the figures are out and Vodafone dodged only 4 billion, how is that reasonable??

Private Eye and the NAO have both pointed out that many of these important meetings, involving the taxes you and I slave away for, took place informally and no notes were kept. This was not an oversight. No notes were taken so that when the shit hit thte fan (as they probably guessed it would) nobody could get in trouble as there wouldn't be a paper-trail to follow. No paper-trail and, as we're seeing at the Leveson Enquiry, officials can lie all they like as they know we can't find the paper-trail as it's non-existent.

Dave Hartnett knew exactly what he was doing when he negotiated deals with Goldman Sachs and Vodafone in expensive restraunts in London (probably at meals paid for by Vodafone et al). Every step along the way he's been dodging and evading answering questions and it's shocking that the most senior tax collector in HMRC was able to act this way.

Incedentally, I just googled Dave Hartnetts name and the following story was top of Google's list:

Paying cash in hand is 'diddling the country', says HMRC's Dave Hartnett

People who pay cash in hand to tradesmen are “diddling” the economy and diverting money from hospitals and schools, the country’s most senior taxman, Dave Hartnett, has warned.

From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/9043087/Paying-cash-in-hand-is-diddling-the-country-says-HMRCs-Dave-Hartnett.html (Jan 2012)

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hartnett says that householders have a duty to ensure that other people do not evade paying their share of tax...

Oh the irony, it burns, it burns!!

Apparently Mr Hartnett is retiring this summer. Not a day too damn soon.

Sid Meir's Civilisation

It's awesome having my blog 'back' again, as it allows me to focus on things that I want to focus on which just won't fit in a Facebook post. AS you can see from my previous recent posts, these are computer-games based at the moment. I make no apologies for that, I'm obviously going though a computer game phase at the moment and therefore that's what my blog is expressing! I'm sure in 6 months or so I'll be wiritng about something different but for now, computer games it is.

I've already mentioned Under A Killing Moon as a computer game that captured my imagination many years ago, and I'm SO glad that the team have reunited to bring us Project Fedora. However, before there was Under A Killing Moon, for me, there was the one, the only, Civilisation:


(image from Moby Games).

For those not in the know, Civilization is a computer-strategy game where you start off with a single settler unit and from there spawn cities, grow a civilization and try to survive through the centuries. If you're good you can even win the game by winning the space-race or destroying the other civilizations in the game.


(image from Moby Games).

The above shows a typical Civ 1 map screen. You can see the city of Leipzig, a fairly new city (hence the 1 denoting its size); there are also some units on the right of the screen and menu across the top for various controls.

I can't even remember when I started playing Civilization. I do remember that I was a child and I'm fairly certain I was in primary school so I must have been perhaps 10 or so? However old I was, I remember it took me a LONG time to grasp the game. Which wasn't too much of a problem as the game actually came with a manual that, to my memory was hundereds of pages long. I remember trying to plough through that thing to better understand the game and make my civilizations better.

The idea of controlling everything about your Civilization from roads to research and war really captured my imagination in a way that only Civ 2 ever did. I remember spending many a summer day with a friend of mine playing Civ 1 and Civ 2 trying to survive against the Romans, Greeks and Mongols. Such GOOD memories that only an open game such as Civilization could inspire.

To the best of my knowledge, I never WON a game of Civilization. I never won the space race, I never ruled the world or such like. That does not mean I did not have fun, far from it! Every game was different, every game was a new challange and I played game after game and loved each one.

So what inspired this post? It was this Reddit update by user Lycerius who states that: "I've been playing the same game of Civ II for 10 years. Though long outdated, I grew fascinated with this particular game because by the time Civ III was released, I was already well into the distant future. I then thought that it might be interesting to see just how far into the future I could get and see what the ramifications would be. Naturally I play other games and have a life, but I often return to this game when I'm not doing anything and carry on. The results are as follows..."

This post is fascinating. It describes the state of the nation in Lycerius's game of Civ 2 that has been on-going for 10 years! He includes a screen grab link here http://imgur.com/a/rAnZs.

The fact that a game like this can be played for 10 years is mind-blowing in and amongst itself. What is also mind-blowing is the fact that Lycerius's post has attracted (at time of writing) 2919 comments. Each comment is suggesting different ideas of how Lycerius could continue the game and progress.

I never got very far with Civ 3 and only had a brief experience with Civ 5 a few weekends ago when it was on Free to Play thanks to STEAM. This post on http://www.garath.net/Sullla/Civ5/whatwentwrong.html shows what I realised when I played this free trial, that the game has, in many ways been simplified and seems to have made some drastic mis-steps with regards to the actual design of the game.

I wonder if I can find my Civ 2 CD? See you in 10 years!!

If you've never played Civ then it seems that Civ 4 was a good update, though it created Multiplayer problems but was great at single-player by all accounts.

Brief Post: Public Service cuts: Passport control

Ok, so we all know that the Tory government in the UK is making some pretty savage cuts on the basis that "Labour left us in debt". Whilst that may have been the case when the coalition was formed, I don't think they can continue using that excuse.

Anyway, recent arguments on Radio 4 (amongst other places) have focussed on Passport control and how it's going to get swamped and not be able to cope at peak periods. Cue government ministers swooping in and saying "No, the system is built around flexibility and we can draft staff in from elsewhere to cope with demand. There is no problem." Otherwise known as the Ostritch argument.

You might well have believed that (if you were an idiot) and gone on with your life.

Except of course, the government was lying and, thanks to Twitter, we actually have photograph proof. Twitter user @Amandagore posted two updates which I'll reproduce for you below (because I'm awesome like that). Links are https://twitter.com/amandagore/status/212315087099269122 and https://twitter.com/amandagore/status/212319151027519488.





Yeah, everything's working just fine Tories, keep doing what you're doing. *Sigh*

The Two Guys from Andromeda Kickstarter

I'm writing this blog-post up against a time limit. Also, I'm suffering from being sleepy and having a cold (not MAN-FLU but still REALLY annoying).

Why is there a time limit? Because the The Two Guys from Andromeda Kickstarter is ending on June 12th at 13:27 EDT (which is 18:27 in GMT or 'proper' time :P) and, at time of writing, still needs $51,000 to succeed. Why is that important? Well, that would be the content for this blog post wouldn't it?

Unlike my previous post, I'm going to split this one up into headings to try and organise my thoughts. Let's see how it works shall we?

Who are the Two Guys From Andromeda?

The Two Guys From Andromeda are, in real life, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe. They have been in and out of the computer-games industry for over 25 years so they know a thing or two.

Ok, so it's Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, so what?

So what?!!? SO WHAT?!?!?!? Just follow me my friend. Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe used to work for a small developer called Sierra On-Line (Wikipedia link). Sierra earned their place in the computer gaming hall of fame by creating series after series of computer adventure games. Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, the Two Guys From Andrmeda, created the legendary Space Quest series of computer adventure games.

Space Quest?



Yes, Space Quest. Released in 1986 and using Sierra's AGI computer game engine, Space Quest took you on a piss-take tour of space, playing the character of a janitor who in Space Quest could be called anything you like but in later sequels (of which there have been 5) would be known as Roger Wilco. As the Wikipedia link shows, your character in the game wakes up in a broom cupboard to find your spaceship has been taken over by the Sariens (bad people). You then bumble through an adventure that sees you giving the Sariens a good (if comic) sorting out.

Obviously, if you look at the game now, the graphics don't look that good, but trust me, back in the mid 1980s they were great. The faux-3D engine in the game allowed you to move behind and around things. Not overly exciting except when you realise that other computer games (not console games) were still using plan-text for a long time after.

Not only were the graphics good for the time but the jokes in the game were good too. Space Quest was, throughout its whole run, a comedy, sci-fi space adventure series. Space Quest 2's plot revolves around the bad guy (Sludge Vohaul) releasing millions of cloned insurance salesmen upon the galaxy for crying out loud! One of the features that fans remember fondly is the sheer variety of death sequences and how the game would mock you if you died stupidly (i.e. walking off the edge of a cliff etc.) Don't believe me? Check it out on the AWESOME Many Deaths of Roger Wilco site. These were amazingly funny at the time, and, having refreshed my memory of some of them, I'd say they still are! The only time you'd get annoyed is when you realised that your last save-game was from AGES ago! Doh!

In a clever twist the duo inserted themselves into Space Quest lore by making themselves characters in SQ3 who had to be helped by Roger Wilco. I'm not going to mention anymore to avoid spoiling the plot more than I already have but it's a funny twist and worth exploring. You can buy the originals from Gog.com links here: SQ 1->3 and SQ 4-->6.

Speaking on a personal level, The Space Quest series taught me to type and encouraged me to read more. Because the games were text-heavy you couldn't avoid it if you wanted to know what was going on. They also encouraged me to think things through logically. What had I missed? Why couldn't I progress? How could I get through this puzzle? Now whilst some of the puzzles were 'out-there', I still maintain that the majority of the puzzles in the game followed an element of logic more than the trial-and-error that I've experienced in adventures since then. The Space Quest series were also a bonding experience for me as I played them alongside my father (distracting him from running his own business but he didn't seem to mind too much).

Alright, so these guys created a series of games many years ago. So what's the fuss now?

Well, the duo created the Space Quest series which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies of each game all around the world. They worked together on Space Quest 1 to 4 then split up. Now, in 2012, thanks to Kickstarter, they're able to work together again. After a break of 20 years or so this is very big news and should be celebrated by computer game fans the world over.

From the look of their Kickstarter, their new game is going to bring all the humour of their previous games to a whole new generation of players. The link is on the right-side of the page there with all the latest info and you can donate from $1 but obviously, if you donate more you recieve rewards for doing so. Whilst their new game is not a Space Quest game that does not detract from the level of awesomeness it will have by defautl. So go ahead, go, donate and be part of computer gaming history by helping to bring space-adventure-comedy to a new generation of people! Go on...Go now!

Project Fedora

I don't know what's kept me from writing in this blog for so long! I've wanted to but just actually SAT down and done it! However, events have finally over-taken my apathy and here I am, with hopefully more updates to come!

So this update concerns the Kickstarter fund for Tex Murphy: Project Fedora. I'll start with a brief history:

The Tex Murphy series of adventure games (as a trip to Wikipedia will tell you) have been going since 1989. I'm fairly certain that means that Tex Murphy, Private Eye, is one of the longest lasting characters in computer game history and someone who should be on the all of fame alongside Mario, Sonic and the rest.

Mean Streets pushed the limits of what was available at the time. Not only did it feature 256 colour VGA graphics and 3D flying sections (with you navigating to waypoints to meet suspects or investigate locations) but it also used a process called RealSound to provide SPEECH through the PC speaker. This was unheard of before this game and would not become a regular of computer games until the mid-1990s when games started coming in 'talkie' versions on CD-ROM.

Mean Streets was centred around Tex Murphy, a private detective hired to look into the death of Carl Linsky who had just thrown himself off a bridge. You're hired by Linsky's daugher, a Femme Fatale if ever there was one. As you explore situations and avoid fire-fights, you uncover a complicated plot that shows that Carl's death was NOT a simple suicide. Whilst the user-interface leaves a LOT to be forgiven today (no mouse input, clunky controls when exploring scenes) it still created one hell of a compelling game. I remember playing Mean Streets in the work-shop outside my Dad's office in Scarborough, just enjoying flying from location to location. In many locations, if you did something 'wrong' you'd get Tex beaten to a pulp (complete with some very convincing sound effects) and that was just as much fun as playing the game properly! The 256-colour graphics (with still photos to accompany sounds) looked AMAZING at the time and really did help create a compelling game.

Fast-forward many years later and Access released Under a Killing Moon. An FMV adventure game, complete with a full 3D world for players to explore. Once again I was captivated. The jokes were REALLY funny and Tex was the kind of PI I would be. Well-meaning but clumsy and often duped. I LOVED it. Once again, Access Software was pushing the boundries of what was done at the time as it came on 4-CDs and requried a hefty PC to see it in its full glory. Thankfully, Access Software included an AWESOME set-up programme that allowed you to fully configure how the game would run and let it work on a wide variety of systems (including the old ones I had).

Access followed UAKM with two sequels and then, after the release of Overseer in 1998, all went quiet. Tex fans believed all hope to be lost. We didn't know how to feel. Lots of people (including myself on occasion) gathered at the Unofficial Tex Murphy website and waited for more. Over-time people figured out how to make the Tex games work on modern systems. Then the LOVELY people at GOG.com got involved and released ALL the Tex Murphy games already configured and with support if they didn't work.
But still nothing new.

Nothing till now anyway!

Project Fedora is a new Tex Murphy game that will be released in 2012/2013. The original crew are back together and it's looking PRETTY good from the preview videos they've put up on the Kickstarter page.

I've just pledged today because I want to help Tex solve another case. If you've not met Tex yet, find him on Gog.com - $9.99 currently works out at £6.48 which is peanuts for such a ground-breaking game.

If you do nothing else, please visit the Kickstarter and help bring Tex Murphy back!

Stress

It's a weird feeling isn't it stress? You're heart is pounding that little bit faster, you find it hard to unwind, you may feel a little nauseous or have trouble eating. All because of pressure you're under from external factors, or because of something that is occupying your brain that you can't stop thinking about.

For me at this moment it's my car. I NEED my car to get to work. If I can't get to work I can't earn money so I need a car. At the moment, because of my income (which isn't very much for a 29 year old male, and nothing compared to all my friends really) I can't afford to buy a new car so I'm stuck with the one I've got which is a Proton Wira. To give the car its due, it's done me well over the past 4 years. My Proton now has 111,000 miles on it and is now starting to show it. The drivers side window will come down but struggle at getting up. From my research I think it's to do with the buttons rather than the motor or anything but still, I don't want to leave my car with the window down, I might as well say "Steal me, steal me!"

Combine that with it's new problem, a leak in the hose which carries the power steering fluid. I REALLY don't want to break down again but can't get the car to the garage before Tuesday. So now I'm stuck, with one more day of work before two and a half days off, worrying if my car will get me to work and back tomorrow. I'm hoping so but I won't relax until Monday night when I'm back here and preparing to take it to the garage.

SO I'm feeling stressed. It's combined with the fact that I'm tired too. And skint. So stressed. Grumpy. Butterflies in the stomach, tense muscles, feeling fed-up. It's a rotten feeling really and I can't actually see much point for it from a human body point of view. What does stress actually achieve? Most people (I would guess) don't work well when they are stressed, they actually produce lower-quality work, so it doesn't help in that regard. Since it stops you from relaxing properly, it reduces the quality of sleep and rest you receive which can also have a negative effect on your day-to-day life, which again, doesn't help you. So what purpose does stress serve? Answers in the comments below please!

I am aware, by the way, that stress, as I've described it above, isn't just one thing. It's a collection of a bunch of different changes or events in the human body which we've gathered together and given a label. But I believe, even taking this into account, my point still stands. Stress doesn't seem to produce a positive out-come in any way. So what is the purpose of it?

By way of comparison, the fear response, which can have similar 'symptoms' to those described above, actually has a purpose. Fear keeps you away from something that could harm you, there-by protecting you and, theoretically, extending your life. Also, adrenalin produced whilst feeling a strong fear response, can assist you with running away from whatever it is that is scaring you. There-by assisting your safety and quality of life. Stress does not do this as far as I can tell so I ask, for the third and final time, what is the purpose of 'Stress' other than to make you feel rotten?

Answers on a post-card please? Or, alternatively, in the comments. :)

Writing every day

Ok, so I'm trying to stimulate the writing/creative parts of my brain by writing SOMETHING every day. It might be general blog-waffle about me, or it might be something creative and awesome. Yesterday's entry falls into the "Creative and Awesome" side of things. Wait a minute, did you say "Yesterday's Entry?" Why yes I did, I wrote it yesterday but could not post it yesterday due to work commitments. So I'm posting it today and back-dating, cause we have that technology now! :)

Anyway, without further ado, here's my poem on Nerves:

I did write this on the 1st April, but couldn't upload it because I had to go to work! Doh!

It's a random poem about nerves (which, I'm guessing, is semi-autobiographical):

(C) Gledster.blogpspot.com 2012.

Nerves.

Nerves help you be prepared.

Nerves make you jump.

Nerves make you feel sick.

Nerves can make you slump.

Anxiety focuses your mind on the important things.

Anxiety gives you butterflies.

Anxiety can stop your sleep.

Anxiety can make you slump.

Butterflies are nice in nature,

Flying on the plants

Butterflies are awful in your stomach,

Worse than the Ants In Your Pants.

Not everybody suffers from nerves

Not everybody feels bad

For those who don’t, you’re lucky

If I didn’t I’d be glad.

Nerves

Anxiety

Butterflies

Such simple things that can ruin such a lovely day.

I wish these simple things would go away.

Might come back

Greetings all,

I'd completely forgotten I had this account. As you can see from the below, the last time this site was used was for a Blogathon in 2007. Sadly now, Blogathon itself has disappeared. If anyone knows where it has gone, please let me know! :)

I think I'll be bringing this blog back from the dead and use it more regularly from now on. I just need to pick up some tools to make using it easier. Off I go to CNet then! :)

This should be interesting.

Blogathon 2009

This is just a quick post. I was hoping to partake in Blogathon 09 on July 25th but because it works out as 1pm Saturday -> 1pm Sunday I won't be able to get the weekend off work. For the time I am off I'll be reading and commenting though!

Good luck with everyone doing Blogathon 09!

Just cause it had to be done:

Not only that but, so far I've raised $197.10 which is £97.33 which is AMAZING! :D

Thanks to EVERYONE.

You can still sponsor me and take that up to an even £100 should you want!

49/49

Well, this is it. The End. Finito.

I'm really sad actually, I've had an absolute blast doing this. Today has flown by in a haze of surfing, comments, entries, IM's, Youtube videos and everything. You guys have been awesome and we've all raised a lot of money for charity.

I can't wait for my finally tally to be worked out, I'm very, very proud of myself, and it's not often I can say that.

*sniff* I don't want it to end actually, I can see why some of the A-schedulers came back.

You guys rock!


Until next year (or you can friend my gledster2000.livejournal.com LJ),


This is Gledster's last entry (possibly).

48/49 - Penultimate Post

This one is simple:

Thank you to EVERYONE who has commented here over the past 24 hours!

. Is that you? Let's see:

• Anna


• Sarah R L Boese


• Jellee


• rebekkah_srl


• Glo Paint


• Lawsy


• Imperfect Christian


• Derek


• wewerethecoolkids


• Alanna


• Lady Campbell


• Mom on Coffee


• DJ Acid


• Noelle


• Renee


• Yoshi


• Jaynee


• rhodilee


• Tucker


• YeePei


• Patrick D.

Thanks to each and everyone of you. Some of you IM'ed me and kept me going that way. I know myself and Glo_Paint (:P) had a good chat, as well as myself and Anna, and others. Well done to all of you for keeping going too! Now let's bring it home. :D

47/49

Yeah, two more to go!

Blogger seems to be playing up. After a whole day of using Semagic to post to Blogger without a problem something's screwed up somewhere meaning I'm having to type this into Blogger manually, the slow and annoying way.

I was going to do a full list of who has commented and say "Thank you" but I can't focus that much right now. I will do one at one point, probably the nex time my brain is working.

What I WILL do now is post my final sponsors list (as it stands so far):

Thanks to all those who sponsored me!

Nearly at the finish line so as long as Blogger doesn't crap on me anymore it'll be fine!

46/49

Yeah, you read that right, post 46/49. 3 MORE to GO. WOOO!

A little while ago someone posted a Stephen Lynch video. I think he's awesome so I'm gonna post one too! :D




This guy can SING, he's got a rubber face and he can play the guitar too. No wonder he's famous!

Grr - what's up with Blogger now?

45/49

Okay, it was requsted in the MPYR Chat Room that bloggers post pictures of themselves. Well, I've been doing this frequently, so you get a picture of me and, as a treat, a picture of the dump that is my room at the moment. Oh joy!

My room:



Just so we're clear, that's RECYCLING at the back in bags, empty plastic bottles and stuff, I just haven't taken it to the recycling bank yet.

Me:


Still going! Nearly done.

My only worry now is that I'm too awake! Need to sleep before work at 6pm tonight, and my housemates will be up soon :O. I'll have some hot milk in a while, that should help.

Here's a question then:

What are your best ways of getting to sleep?

44/49 - Olbas Oil

Ok, as I got slowly run down, I'm developing a cold. Thankfully, I remembered in my medicine cabinet I had Olbas Oil. If you've never used this stuff then you're missing out. I've no idea exactly what they put in it but it's great at easing a blocked nose, which I NEED right now. So yea, Olbas Oil, a life-saver and enabling me to finish this blog.

I wanted to answer your comments but I'm too tired. I appreciate them all the same and I'll try. Will see how it goes. :)

Cheers