Ever since I was around 15, I've always had my heart set on the fact that I would make it out of the UK for an exciting life in some far off location. When I was about 18 I decided I was going to tackle a challenge, a little trip around the US.
I signed my name up for the Work America program from BUNAC, this basically helped me to get a flight and work visa to the US for 6 months during the summer. I won't go too much into that story, its not the time or place, but just wanted to give some background as to my decisions for Australia.
After graduating university, I had my heart set on going to New Zealand for 2 years, working and taking it all in, then to go directly to Australia for 1 year after and do the same thing, and then maybe some place else. Unfortunately I didn't have the funds at the time, needed a job, and just slipped into the IT career ladder. I don't regret it, I mean I've put my degree to good use and have progressed well, but I still feel there is a "hole" inside me that I must fill.
I will investigate, and see what my options are. I've got a degree, a few years experience, and age is on my side, so who knows what the future will bring...
This post is a little overdue, but thought it deserved mentioning.
Under the most powerful eyepieces I have, Mars appeared to be nothing more than an orange-red star, I couldn't make out anything other than the colour, I was hoping to see enough to work out where the polar caps were, but no chance.
Like a say, a little disappointing but I can't expect much with my equipment, maybe if I had spent £2000 and not £200 I'd be telling a different story. But anyway, its nice to look out each night and think about what is up there
As the earth is in a faster orbit, after this month we're rapidly overtaking Mars, therefore we will be getting further and further away (hence Mars appearing smaller) until we "lap" it in about 2 years time from now. Hopefully by then I'll be in a better position for oberserving
I've just finished reading the third instalment in Steven King' masterpiece fantasy series, and I must conclude each instalment in the series just gets better and better.
If you don't want to know about the plot, then don't read this part. The book picks up a few weeks after the previous, with the trio making their way from the beach inland.
They soon discover that there are multiple doors in Roland's' land, all interconnected via a "beam", when they encounter a new door they realise they must travel along this path, and where the paths all meet, lies the dark tower.
There are several good mini-plots along the way, but I don't want to repeat those.
I must say, an absolutely fabulous book, quite a big read with around 600 pages, but I didn't even notice them fly by. Really looking forward to the next chapter even if it is over 800 pages.
I've got a habit of deciding which books to purchase by how good the covers are, or by entrusting what is written on the back of the book, this time I followed this tradition.
I've been a fan of traditional zombie stories for some time now, and by traditional I mean "proper" zombies, slow dumb ones, not these fast running zombies of recent films.
I was rather sceptical about another one of those mediocre post-apocalyptic America stories, but this one had a good twist, a zombie with a concious mind.
I have to agree with some of the theories passed in this book, the major one being that nations with a history of violence such as some of the African nations would be the best survivors in a global zombie invasion, due to firearms being commonplace in the society. Obviously, this is not a statement to say that Africans spend all their time shooting each other, its merely a viable suggestion that nations with large stockpiles of firearms would do better than those without, such as the British.
Another interesting theory is the notion of a concious zombie, ie one that is able to think and react, and to also communicate. It is said that the time between when a human dies from a zombie bite, to the time they wake reanimated as a zombie, there is no breathing done, meaning the brain becomes almost completely dead. However this novel introduces a character that is able to connect himself to a ventilator after being bitten and is fed oxygen through the transformation, thus retaining his conciousness.
Not wanting to go into the depth of the story too much, as that is the whole point of reading yourself, this is a brief overview of what happens.
A group of Somalian fighters, along with a UN weapons inspector travel to New York City in the hope of finding drugs for the ill warlord back home. They come across this Doctor Zombie and end up shooting him in the head. He regenerates, called by his master and builds a huge zombie temple in the middle of central park by calling on the hundreds of thousands of NYC zombies telepathically. The good guys battle with him and the story concludes, I don't want to give away the ending.
Anyway, this is my first review so I hope you have enjoyed it, and feel free to let me know what you have thought of the book!
The sequel and prequel sound very enticing
After much searching, I was finally able to locate the Andromeda Galaxy last weekend, also know as M31
Well, this is something that I've been meaning to have a go at for some time now, but have never been bothered to actually get round to it.
I would say that my hobby to spare time ratio is not good, meaning that I try to do way too much, and in the process have to read up on a lot of subjects. For example, I'm trying to study Astronomy, learn Spanish, and various other IT areas at the moment. I needed someplace to write up some of the topics that I've read, so I can share with others.
So yeah, pretty much a scrapbook, but I hope its useful for others...