It has come to my attention recently that we are breeding a race of men who are shit scared of women! This week I have had 4 students come to me in tears, 3 guys and 1 girl.

The girl had issues, lots of issues so I have pointed, her towards a counsellor who may be able to help her, however the guys were a different story, but all three were about women, it would appear the these women were the protagonists in these unfolding dramas. 

The female students in my class seem to be quite dominant and almost aggressive, they want to take control of every project set to groups, I will give you an example, one of the groups has 3 girls and 1 guy, they have been asked to produce a 5 minute experimental film, so 4 in each group, a Director, Camera operator, Sound recordist and an actor or presenter.  So the guy of the group asks if he can speak to me, yeah, that's cool, no problem, until I get him in the interview room, he burst into tears and breaks down right in front of me, hell, this is a fully grown man, and he crying live 5 year old who has had a sweets taken away from him.  They don't like me he says, what? They hate me he says, what the fuck? They won't speak to me and I don't know what I have done wrong? So, I calm him down and spend 30 minutes explaining that it's probably nothing he has done or said, it's more likely to be a misunderstanding, so. He returns to the class an I send them off to go and do some work.

A similar situation came from another guy in the same class with a very bossy, demanding bitch, his wrords, not mine, so I do my counselling bit, and send him on his way, the point his these young women are confident and sometimes aggressive without realising that they are upsetting people, now one of the women involved is a very dominating person and very aggressive, I think she would make a great dominant mistress, in shiny boots, basque and whip, but not in a classroom.

But my question is this, where are the balls on these guys, for fuck sake take control, show some balls and fight back, it seems we are breeding a new type of whimp, a scared little man who is afraid to stand up to a women. I am not against strong women, I like a women that can stand on her own 2 feet, the days of white knights is over, but come on guys, get some nuts and stand up for your brothers.

​Fuck I hate whimps.

The Red Laser
Lasers, red, green, blue, whatever the colour they hold a fascination for most people, both young and old.
I have a red laser and a green laser, both have a use, the red laser is for me to torment the cat with, watching it chase this little red dot is just amusing, what the hell is going through the cats mind, what does it think it's going to do if it catches it? the truth is, it can't catch it, but the cat doesn't know it, so it continually chases the little red dot, now, my cat is 16 years old. she's getting to the end of her life, and every now and then she just ignores the dot and looks at me as if to say, boring, so what else do I use it for, well I did for a while use it as a pointer during my lessons but it became obvious after a while that some people struggled to see the dot, so the hunt was on for something with a little more kick.

The Green Laser 
I hunted for an alternative the the little red dot, after some research it became obvious that green was the colour that most people can see clearly, I looked for a green laser, i found the standard green laser, low power but enough to cover a very large hall with a crisp green dot, then while researching the best one to by I came across a site that showed you have the increase the power, by un-soldering a resister, so having studied electronics and having built transceivers from scratch I thought cool I can do that.  3 days later my new laser arrived.
I set out to do the mod on the laser, sorted, fired it up and hey, it worked I pointed it at a nylon CD case to see how it looked against a black background, after about 2 seconds I started to see smoke, holy shit, this thing is now too powerful to use in a classroom, so I purchased another one for use in the college, it works great and it powerful enough to do the job it was built for.

So what about my new super laser? as an astronomer I instantly found a use for it, I would use it as a finder on my telescope, the idea being I attach the laser to the finder on my scope and use the laser to point to the star I want to see through the scope, so an hour later my scope and laser is ready for testing, it works brilliantly, I can get almost on top of my target using this method.
So I am watching the news and laser are a news worthy story, idiots are pointing them at aircraft coming into land, pointing them at drivers to distract them, what sort of fucked up arsehole does that? The news report goes onto say that the government are thinking of banning these devices, and making it an offence to carry one on the street.  So where the hell do I stand with my super laser on my telescope, or for that matter the one I use at college?  I speak to the college and ask the question can I use my pointer in my classes? Yes they say providing I only point it at the screen or board I want to highlight, great, then they say, however, if for some reason the beam hits someones eye and causes damage the college insurance does not cover that, so I have to get Public Liability insurance if I want to use it, as it happens I do have the insurance but thats about £50 a year, so my laser if you like now costs me £57 in total.

Now onto the telescope, I head down to the local nick, I ask the desk sergeant can I use my laser in my garden to line up the stars etc, good question he replies, give me a minute sir and I will try and get some information, I take a seat and wait, about 5 minutes later he returns with a colleague, it turns out he belongs to the same astronomy society I do, he tells me that there is no law at the moment that says I can't use it on my scope, however the CAS my society, recommends the we don't as there is a chance the we my hit a pilots eye in a aircraft we haven't seen when we look to the skies.

So this has now made me more cautious when using it, yes I do still use the laser but I look for aircraft first one only leave it on for about 3 seconds at most, the latest news is that the government are pushing the ban through parliament as I type, looks like I will just have to use it indoors melting plastic cups, and black cats.

That black cat that shits in my garden will now find his arse on fire if he does it again, I knew I would find a use for Dr Dens Death Ray.

Technology has moved on so much in my time, from the simple calculator to computers that now decide how our lives are led, we rely on technology for everything, this blog, uses a lot of technology from the computer to the network to the web and back to you and me. 2 pieces of tech that are causing a bit of a stir at the moment is laser tech and drones, I will talk about lasers in another blog, today I want to concentrate on drones.

Drones are great fun, I have one with a small camera that flies for 6 minute then needs re-charging, but,  those 6 minutes are great fun, I have flown fixed wing model aircraft and their fun, but you need training and it's a skill, it took me quite a few hours before I could fly my Bi-Plane that had a top speed of over a 100mph, the trainer I had flew at about 30mph so the difference was a lot as was the flying skills required to fly the bi-plane, I also had to join a flying club as it's illegal to fly fixed wing aircraft anywhere other than designated areas and at certain times.  Insurance was also a compulsory purchase, I had to have 1 million pounds cover, so you had to be serious about your hobby, all of the above included helicopters which were the hardest things to fly.

So as the years have past and tech has advanced, mini helicopters are controlled by 2 sticks, as opposed to 6, and quads (drones) also 2 sticks, you don't need a license or have to fly these mini helicopters in designated areas, you can fly them anywhere.

I have a drone, with a camera and its great fun, no need to have lessons on how to fly them, after just 5 minutes I could zoom around the living room without crashing, I also learnt to do flips in less than 10 minutes, so anyone can fly these things, which brings me to the whole point of this blog.

We are all aware of the military use of drones, surveillance and delivering payloads with deadly accuracy, pizza companies are looking at them as a delivery vehicle, replacing the guy on a bike, flying over traffic directly to your door, also there is talk of using them as the first on the scene of an accident by the police to assess the situation of what vehicles may be required and of course traffic control, a drone can get anywhere really quickly and using the on-board cameras, we are able to see where we are flying and observe from a height that's safe without interaction of those or things that we are looking at.  The use of these drones has already proved important at events for crowd monitoring, and even giving chase to those who have a reason to run.

So what's all the fuss about? privacy, that's what, people have reported that they have had drones outside their bedroom windows watching them, people in their gardens being watched, also on beaches and parks.  So to test this I launched my tiny drone which is just 4 inches wide and 2 inches high and flew up to my bedroom window, and hey, I could see in through the window, and see my bed, so it works, but surely that's a minority of people using these devices for peeping tom activity? apparently, according to my police insider, peeping drones are on the increase, I had never thought of using it for that purpose, for me it's just the fun of flying and I also have a job to do where I have been asked to provide some aerial photography for someone, it's cheaper to use the drone than hire a helicopter or plane to fly over the property.

I now understand that the government are looking to ban these drones flying in public areas, and you will soon need a licence to fly one, why? because most of the people buying these are idiots, they fly them near airports, military bases and schools, even in shopping centres, which is stupidity at its best.  So what about us guys who just like to fly them for fun, well, we are going to need a licence and a reason for using them in the near future, which is a shame, as like I said they are good fun, there are some great demonstrations of the little devices working together to make tempary nylon bridges, check out TED Talks for the videos.

Drones are the future for various uses as I talked about earlier, but we should all have access to these amazing little machines, so we can develop new uses for them, and improve their capabilities.
I really like my little drone and I will continue to fly it when ever I have a need for some fun.

Footnote:  I just flew my drone out of one of my bedroom windows and looked back through another at myself, the quality is amazing, you could see everything, I wonder when I will start getting complaints from the neighbours about me buzzing around the garden.  My answer to them will be, 'FUCK OFF' I'm having fun.

Next Blog: The Laser Pointer.

Well I have had a great start to my day, I am at work (College), and meant to be viewing a movie for my Film & TV student, the room I normally use has been double booked so I had to find a new one, which I did, moved the students to the new room and explained a little about the film and what they were expected to do after. so I load the film and No fucking sound, I spend the next 30 minutes trying to sort it out, nothing, so I contact IT and they tell me they know about the problem but they have no money to fix it? What? No money to fix it, thats crap, Out of 6 projectors in the lecturing rooms I use we are now down to 3 because "We can't afford to fix them", so what the fuck am I meant to do I ask, I don't know comes the reply but we may have some money in next years budget (August 2017), a fat lot of good that is to me and my students, so at this point a send them to the LRC and get them do some research for later today.

After investigating the problem a little further I find the the funding for the college has been reduced, also the management team from last year over spent by £4 million, yeah that's right £4 million quid and they have just a year to recover it which means no money for anyone, WTF is this country coming to when we can't buy the equipment needed for our courses, I have already out of my own pocket bought a SteadyCam to use as again the college can't afford to buy one.

We used to be able to take students on trips and get the money from the college, not anymore, if we want to arrange a trip anywhere, even to the local Cinema to see a film, the kids have to pay for it them selves which think is wrong, they pay a lot of money for their courses up to £8000.00 and they are then expected to pay on top for any activities outside e of the college.  WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

The government needs to get their act together, these kids are our future, it bad enough that they leave University with huge debts, I am pleased I am the age I am and don't have these worries.

So yesterday was busy, today I have so much to do I really don't have time for this blog, however, while I am having my coffee I will think of something to write.

I am thinking of buying a small lathe so I can make serious watch parts and tools, handy to have in the workshop as somethings you just can't buy and have to make yourself, so the hunt begins, shock horror, for the mini lathes I am thinking about they start at £450, a lot of money to spend on something if you are not going to be using it a lot, so off to ebay, most are new but some used items are available but they want as much as a new one?  OK, some may have a few extras but really, come on, £400 - £600, no, and of course the other problem is, they are all collection only because of the weight, not one is within 250 miles of me, so I will just have to wait until something local appears at a reasonable price, but it's driving me insane.

Cats
Why do cats have to shit in my garden, I have tried everything to deter them, I even bought some Lion shit, yeah, Lion shit, guaranteed to keep cats away! No it don't, in fact I think it was the worse deterrent i tried, so I may have to go for the electric fence idea, only enough amps and voltage to singe their fur.

Postage
I have already moaned about the post office service and how it has gone to shit. But I was even more pissed off when I went to buy a first class stamp, 64p, WTF, why so expensive, someone has got to offer a viable alternative to this.

Smart arse Kids
Lately I have come across some 13 - 14 year old kids, and they have a real problem in that they have no respect for anyone or anything, I ran into a group of 8 or 9 in the college the other day, they were there visiting the college, I'm not sure why, but they were running up and down the corridors shouting and screaming so much that I had to leave my classroom to find out what was going on, when I approached them they just looked at me and said whats up mate, WHAT"S UP MATE, I'm not their mate, that made me angry straight off the bat, so I told them to be quite and stop running un the corridors, so I got, why, who are you, and giggling, before I could continue they just walked off, as the got to the end of the corridor one of them shouted 'wanker' and they all run off.  SO I am hoping they are there next week so I can beat the shit out of the little bastards.

Anyway enough said today, off to paint the shed.

Once again the weekend is upon us, for the last 30 years or so I have worked for myself, picking and choosing when and where I work, but 2 weeks ago I accepted full time position in a college thats 9 - 5, now if you also add to that my 4 evenings a week teaching adults at colleges you can see that I don't have a lot of me time anymore, and I have so much todo, there are my watches I want to repair, I want to get my telescope out as it's now astronomy time (usually September to March) plus all the other stuff I have to do like paint the studio/workshop, weather proofing, so my weekends are now quite valuable to me, so today I am busy again, I am teaching adults today MS Office, then from there I am off to meet my son for dinner with his new Lady, so today alas has already gone for me, so what about tomorrow, well unfortunately the weather is stoping me from doing the things I really need to do, so I may get a bit of Grumpy old me time and do as I please, however I am sure her indoors will find something for me to do.

So as you can see weekends are really now important to me, I never understood the TGIF syndrome before, the weekends to me have always been just like any other day, but not anymore, I now find myself planning what I need to do with those 2 days, how am I going to squeeze in my Watch making and astronomy, what about all those vintage tools I have that need restoring?  I just don't know where I am going to find the time, maybe this 9-5 thing is just not for me, however I will give it until Christmas and see what happens.

Well off to work again!

I have been looking at various inventions that never made it into production, not because they didn't work, but because they replaced major companies products, I can remember reading somewhere about an everlasting light bulb many years ago the idea was patented by the inventor, however he was offered a large sum of money by the leading light bulb manufacturer to sell them the patent, and he did, taking his money and living happily ever after, however that bulb was never manufactured and offered to the public, why? because buying a light bulb would be a once in a life time thing, so the people who make it eventually loose sales, the average household goes through 10 lightbulbs a year, through breakages etc, so you can see a huge lose for the light bulb manufacturers.  And this story appears to be true for other inventions.

​EV1
The EV1 was a mass produced electric car by General Motors, however under pressure from the oil companies they were forced to stop production and scrap all those cars that were already built,these cars were crushed and disposed of, however, rumour has it that 1 still survives and still runs economically on just its electric motor.

XA Project
The XA Project was a cigarette that had most of the carcinogens removed, the big tobacco companies did not like the implications for their products in that it suggested that their products were unsafe, so the XA Project was abandoned. 

The Chronovisor
The Chronovisor was said to allow those wearing it to see back and forth in time, (Personally I don't see it myself, (no pun intended)).  it was deemed fake by most people, however it disappeared with all its associated paperwork, plans etc, but rumours are that it now resides in the Vatican.

The Rife Beam
If this story is true someone needs to be shot.  This was a cancer curing ray developed by inventor Royal Rife.  He claimed that the American Medical Association deliberately discredited his device, no one knows where the device is now?

The Water Fuel Cell.
Stan Meyer created the Water Fuel Cell and fitted it to his buggy, he was declared a fraud and his buggy fraudulent.  He was murdered and suspicion focused on the oil and fuel companies, many suggesting that they hired someone to kill him and his technology was suppressed for many years. His cell was said to convert H2o into HHo, but science says otherwise, therefore the stories of him being a fraud maybe true.

Let there be Rain
Dr Wilhelm Reich's rainmaking device was successfully tested in 1953.
A controversial figure he was arrested and all of his worked destroyed, if this is true whoever is responsible is are also responsible for thousands of deaths in Africa where crops die because of lack of water, his machine could have saved millions around the world.

Wardenclyffe Tower
Funding for Nikola Tesla's experiments in wireless electricity were withdrawn because investors feared it would lead to free energy with no profit.  Personally I believe the investors were under pressure from the fuel companies at the time, if you link this invention with EV1 then the fuel companies would be extinct.

The Anti Gravity Device
Thomas Townsend Brown developed discs that used electrogravitic propulsion.  The effects were so impressive they were made classified. Some believe that this technology has led to military experiments with the discs being misidentified as Flying Saucers or UFO's.

The Roswell UFO
The Roswell UFO incident refers to an event in mid 1947, when a "United States Air Force surveillance balloon" crashed at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico, prompting claims alleging the crash was of an extraterrestrial spaceship.
The US military made the first officer on the scene look like and idiot buy changing the crashed materials for a listening balloon, to monitor Russian Nuke testing. I don't believe that this is true, I also think that it was not a UFO but the German 'Bell', I think the military developed a flying disc using the German bell and Townsend Brown's device to make a disc.  This is what Jessie Marcel saw and collected from the crash site.  When he was questioned at the time he said he pick up a piece of metal that weighed almost noting but had some strange glyphs on it, it was also reported that the Bell had glyphs around the base, are these the same craft?

​That's enough for today.

I can distinctly remember as a kid the Postman calling at the house before 7am when my father went to work, the mail was always on the mat before I left for school at 8am, but not today, My mail now arrives sometime between 10:30am and 2:00pm, but more often than not at 1:30pm, what the hell is going on?

Why the sudden change in delivery times, I often receive mail that needs a signature, living alone I am always out to work when the postman calls, which means I get the little red card suggesting I go to the local sorting office and pick it up there, a good 2 miles away, a bloody cheek if you ask me, I may as well deliver my own mail because I am always visiting the sorting office, so the other week I was working from home when the doorbell rang, I walked down 1 flight of stairs opened the door and the little red card was already on the doormat, I opened the door and he was delivering mail to my neighbour, I called him back and he handed me my letter that I signed for, I asked him why he had not waited for me to get down the stairs, 'Don't have time to wait mate' he said, I said he could not have written out the card in that short a time, 'No' he replied 'I write them in the van', WTF, so i said, 'You just ring the bell poke the card through the door and off you go', 'Yeap, that's about it he said', at this point I am starting to get a little agitated as he keeps trying to walk away,  'Hang on a minute' I say, 'SO you don't even wait to see if anyone is in'? 'No mate' he replies 'I ain't got time'. Shocked I ask him why?  Well they send us out on 2 routes now, My first one finishes at about 8 and the second one finishes about 11:30 to 12:00, so i ask why don't I get my mail until 1:30 in the afternoon? 'Because your route is overtime only, so the office put the bags out and anyone wanting to do the round/route can do it as overtime, I'm not your normal postman, that's carol, but she's off sick again, so overtime cover for here'.

That may also explain why I don't get mail on certain days, so whats happening to the post office, first class doesn't mean next day any more, that now cost £6.75, and second class means sometime in the near future, the problem as I see it is COMPETITION, there is none, you have no choice if you want to post a letter, it the little red post box or nothing, Parcels are another matter, tons of ways to get you parcels delivered, but not letters, so how hard can it be, surely someone like Virgin or Easy*** can create competition for the post office.  The truth is it's expensive to have the infrastructure in place to deliver mail, new post boxes for each company, new stamps, new jobs and new ways to do things, I can remember as a kid, loads of post boxes, one on almost ever street corner, most now are outside or inside post offices which  means a walk to your local post office just to post a letter, so you could in theory set up using one of the already parcel companies already delivering parcels, I know about parcels and the logistics involved, I was an IT Director for an online parcel company that eventually was bought out by UPS, they wanted the tech we had, so they just made the MD and owner an offer he couldn't refuse, anyway setting up a letter service wouldn't be that difficult.  So if you have about 10 - 15 million quid lying around give me a call and we can sort it, I can guarantee you will double your money in 3 years.

So, this is not a dig at the postman, more at the post office, the cuts the post office have made mean that your average postie now has to do 3 times the amount of work and rounds that they did when I was a kid, but please just wait for a minute when you ring my door bell, your a bit like us kids when we played a game called  'knock down ginger', I don't know why it was called that but it was a scary game, especially if you got caught.

​Nuff said........................

So, this week I have been interviewing and enrol students onto college courses for Film & TV, some that I had hoped would not return have, and other i had hoped would have not, this years intake is more than ever which means it gets harder each year to control the buggers.

The law now states that these kids have to stay in education until they are 18, great if they want to be here, but 75% don't, they just want to be with their mates or girl/boyfriends which means they fuck about all day causing disruptions within the classroom.  Gone are the days when we can beat the little buggers with sticks or a plimsole (trainer for those under 40 years of age), believe me when I say some of them really need it, but most of the staff now are below the age of 30 so they have a very different outlook on the way they deal with students, you always have to assume that if they are playing up that there is a problem at home or smoother domestic problem, or if they are threatening to blow the building up, they have been radicalised in some way?  Respect for teachers, Police and other authoritative figures no longer exists anymore, and the reason being is that we can't tell them off or reprimand them in any way, so they know they can do what the hell they want without any recourse.
It starts early, mainly in secondary schools where again teachers hands are tied and the kids know it, I had a 14/15/16 year old a while back in the street kicking a young girl around, I approached him, told him to stop and back away, his first words to me were, 'Fuck Off' so I got between him and the young girl and told him to back away while I helped the girl to her feet, he tried to push me aside but he fell over my rising right foot and crashed to the floor, he then said, 'You can't touch me or stop me from doing what I want, I will call the police and have you arrested for assault', good I said phone the police lets get it sorted, he then backed off and walked away swearing at me.  2 things about the incident that worried me was why those adults standing around looking did nothing, and why had no one called the police?  I felt liked whacking the little shit around the head, but I can't because he is right, I would have been arrested myself, I could have made a citizens arrest? but apparently there is no such thing so again I would have been arrested for assault or wrongful imprisonment, restraining someone within "reasonable limits" is also risky, whats a reasonable limit?

Anyway, back to the beginning, enrolments, it's a stressful time for us (teachers) and students alike, college starts full tilt on Mondays so today is choca with students wanting to enrol, I have another 10 minutes left before I start the second session .  I think that this kids should have a choice to leave at 16 if they want and they have a job to go to, I know that the age was raised to drop employment figures, but surely if a 16 year old want's to work and can find employment then we should let them go.

Nuff said for today.

Boys and their toys, why is it that kids think they are all Lewis Hamilton on the road, I was listening to the news last night and they were reporting that 2 stupid little boys were racing at over 80 MPH and killed a young man, they are now both serving 8 year sentences, I think it should be life, what made it worse was that one of them dumped his car threw away his clothes trying to hide the fact that he had hit the guy, however he continued driving and got caught on a speed camera again doing over 80 MPH.

Now I love fast cars, I drag raced back in the 80's and had a very fast sleeper car, that looked like a family salon but would beat any production car off the lights at the time, but I never raced it on the street, I would go to Santa Pod Raceway in Northampton and race it there against other sensible like minded people, owning a garage the specialised in customising and building race engines gave me hours of fun.  SO onto the little twats who race on the street, driving to work this morning I experienced 2 boys racing each other on a single lane A road, I was traveling at 60MPH and they flew past me like I was parked, one was a VW golf and the other a Vauxhall Astra, both cars weaved down the road against on coming traffic, I had my car cam on at the time and I have both number plates clearly visible, so I will take the footage to my local police station today and see if they are interested in paying these idiots a visit, I can only hope one of them ends up in a field on their roof, because it seems to me that it's the only way they will learn.

I am seriously thinking about starting a campaign where people who record these twats can send their videos for the police to look at.  I still love my racing, even at my age, but I do it on the strip, so if you have a young twat in the family, who you suspect of being a Boy Racing Idiot, take to a race track, show them how men race, and get them some real competition not some crap supped up little Golf that's had it chip replaced and tweaked.  By some chance if you are one of those little twats I have a message for you.

FUCKING GROW UP, your gonna kill someone if not yourself.

​What a shit way to start the day.