OMG, I cant believe its been over 2 months since I last had a moan on the BLOG.
But I have been so busy I have not even had time to drink my usual 25 - 30 cups of coffee a day (I am down to about 5), so what have you been doing you may ask, well September is always a busy time for me working as a Lecturer, new year/term and all that, however this year has changed I have been given an extra roll to get the colleges Radio Station up and running 24/7.
As you cab imagine it's interesting but there are issues such as the equipment needed to be set up properly, software upgrades etc, but, I now have it running 24/7 have a listen using the link at the bottom of the page, not my type of music, but I will be doing a blues show in the evenings, so listen out for that.

What else is new, well I now have my 3D printer after waiting nearly 3 months, made the mistake of ordering direct from China, communications were fucking awful (THANK YOU GEARBEST)to say the least, they refused to refund me after 2 months, could have got it next day from amazon, but hey £30 is £30, when it arrived the box was badly damaged, but the printer was very well packed and protected so all was well, so for the last month I have been on a steep learning curve

Over a month ago I decided to take the plunge into 3D printing, having done all my research (about 6 months) I decided on a Creality Ender 3, every review I have seen has been extremely good.  So, I dug into my piggy bank and spent the £200 which includes filament, I decided to go with GearBest as I have purchased loads from them in the past 3 years or so, about £10,000 worth, all electronic and luthier stuff, anyway, I placed my order at the middle of June, with an (ESTIMATED) delivery of 3 weeks, here I sit typing and still no printer.
So I checked with the tracking app, at the beginning of July the 2nd to be exact, a label was printed for UPS, great I thought so I contacted UPS, I asked wheres my parcel and when will I get it, they replied 'We are waiting for GearBest (Germany) to give us a call to pick it up, we know its ready because we have a label printed for you, we can't pick up the parcel until they call us', so I sent GB an email asking what's the delay? I got an email back telling me to be patient and to check their terms and conditions, WHAT THE FUCK, so I am now really pissed, so I write back saying that I have read their terms and conditions several times over the years and it states that delivery will commence when the item is in stock and packed, it's in stock, packed and at the depot waiting for collection by UPS, they then send me another email saying, delays can be caused by the parcel company, strikes, air, sea, rail and road problems, so I tell them that UPS are waiting for the call, they then send me email number 1 again, delivery etc, so I send them an email cancelling the order as I found the same printer with next day delivery, they then reply that I cant cancel the order because it's already shipped? WTF, I write back saying 'No it's not, it's sitting in your wearhouse in Germany, give me back my money, I then get email number 1 again.

So I get it touch with the credit card company, and ask them for a charge back as GB took the money from them the day after I placed the order, the credit card company say, sorry unless there is something wrong with the item there is nothing they can do, delivery delays are not covered, they then tell me that when it arrives to return it as no longer required and they will do the charge back, (at this point my head is about to explode and I am looking to rip someones head off and kick it over a wall) I tell them, the reason I want the charge back is that I need the item ASAP and I have no idea when it will arrive, they replay, please read our terms and conditions.

So, here I sit some 7 weeks later with no printer, I know the UPS still haven't pick it up from GB and that it's still sitting in the same fucking warehouse where it been for weeks.

FUK YOU GearBest, I ordered the printer so I could learn about it during my holidays, but not my winter holidays, I can assure you that I will not spend another penny with them ever.  And as for the Credit card company, I paid it up and cancelled the card, the cheeky bastards called me back and asked why, when I told the girl she said if she increased the limit would I not cancel, WTF, they missed the point, so I cancelled.  Credit card companies are begging for people to have their cards, at the end of the I will use one of my other cards.  I will keep you up to date with what goes on.

WOW, I cant believe its been 3 months since my last post, I have been so busy that time has flown by, been finishing off at college with the marking etc and getting ready for next term, time flies when you are enjoying yourself.

So, what's making me grumpy at the moment, BMW & Audi drivers, the one thing I have noticed over the last couple of years is that BMW drivers particularly are really shit drivers, they think they own the roads, Audi drivers are just as bad, cutting you up, over taking in dangerous places and forcing me to break so they can cut in, pulling out from a side road no matter how fast you are approaching them, those that know me know I get a little pissed off when in the car when it comes to shit drivers, I change from Mr Grumpy to Mr Very Angry, and yes I do suffer from road rage, I have lost count of the times I have got out of my car and threatened other drivers with death or even worse torture, I have also had quite a few actual fights, one in particular where I dragged a guy from his BMW and shoved his head under the front wheel of a lorry behind, the lorry driver was not amused, I bet the BMW driver will think again before he cuts me up again.
Anyway, the strange thing is this, 95% of the people I have confronted have been Eastern Europeans, now I know what your gonna say, but, sorry it's just the truth, I was quite shocked by the amount, so I did some research, Google etc then I checked YouTube for bad driving, O M F G, nearly all the videos are from Eastern Europe, WTF is wrong with these people?  I know they love their cars, so why try and destroy them every time they get in them.
I think they should have to take driving lessons for 3 months when they get here and then have to take a test like everyone else written and practical.  So until then the lead glove and escrema/Kali sticks will have to stay in the car, for the other 5%, learn to fucking drive, morons.
Sorry eastern Europeans, your women are beautiful but, your driving is SHIT.

Exciting things are happening in the work shop, as you know I make custom one off guitars, and have had problems getting some parts that I want customised to my specification, most of these are plastic of some type, so I decided enough is enough and I have ordered a 3D printer, the 'Ender 3' should be with me in the next couple of weeks, and I am very excited, however, my enthusiasm was dampened a little when I realised  that I need to learn a couple of software programs, bugger, I have a memory problem and I am waiting for a diagnosis as to whats going on, but I struggle learning new things, so having ordered my Ender 3 I did some research and found the best software to use was Tinkercad, Fusion 360 and Cura for slicing, if you don't know what I am talking about, join the club because I not sure myself.
I have watched numerous YouTube videos on all three bits of software, Tinkercad is for kids, so I thought how hard can it be, well its great, makes 3D design simple, I have designed a couple of bits for my guitars, but the problem is the next day I can't remember how I did it, so every day I have to relearn it all again and thats a bitch.
Fusion 360 is a proper 3D piece of software as far as I can see but, I don't think I will ever get to use it as my brain keeps saying 'Fuck this I am switching off' but I will keep going, and Cura is just a case of setting up an imported file for printing, I can write down the settings in a book so I don't forget them, but I am determined to have a go and try to print my custom scratch plates and knobs. Watch this space.

You would think that after 3 months away from this blog that I would have loads to write about, but the truth is work 'College Stuff' has taken up most of my time, so boring really as no one has upset me for a while. I think they have got the message? However I am now on holiday for 5 weeks, so loads can happen, you never know.

​Until next time.............................

OK, I hope you all had a great easter, mine was spent doing some research on YouTube and of course making guitars.
To kick this post off I want to talk about copyright, and the greed of huge and major music companies. I have been playing with the idea of creating a YouTube channel for my guitar making, showing me making a guitar, setup etc.  Also playing a finished guitar to show how it sounds.
So I was looking through the millions of videos, not all of them to get an idea of what people are interested in when I came across hundreds of videos with YouTubers moaning about Universal Music Group (UMG), Warner Music and Sony in particular, and the problem is this, these companies have been seeking out monetised sites that use music (played on an instrument or background, opening and closing sequences and people giving demos and teaching how to play guitar and other instruments) and saying that they are in breach of copyright and are claiming the money made from that site or getting the videos pulled by YouTube.

It would appear that even if you hum a song for just 5 seconds these companies are jumping on the videos and claiming the rights to it, as an example 1 guy was teaching how to play a D#dim7, Warner Music claimed they own the Chord so they claimed the money from this site???????

What's happening here is plain and simple "GREED", I know the music companies are losing money hand over fist because musicians are making there own records at home on their computers and selling them on line, cutting out the music companies and record shops, great, it means all the money goes to the artist which is how it should be.  But, in desperation UMG, Warner Music and Sony retrying to recover lost revenue by stealing yes "STEALING" money from YouTubers using copyright as a tool, now you can dispute these claims, but heres the rub, the company that has claimed your video and money are the ones that make the decision as to wether your dispute is valid????????? WTF, that makes no sense what so ever.
YouTube need to get their act together and help their community of YouTubers, or they may lose them, just for the record, there are other platforms for people to upload and air there videos and make money.

Copyright law is complex, but, I would suggest that these YouTubers get together pool their money and get a really good copyright lawyer to dispute the claims and get their money back by taking these greedy bastards to court.  Copyright law is different in most countries so it can be difficult to get together and fight these Greedy Fuckers, however, there is a fair use law when you load videos onto YouTube, so maybe this is where you start.

So, will I be uploading videos to YouTube, I really don't know yet, because whats next, Gibson saying that you can't make a guitar that looks like a Les Paul? Copyrighting the shape? The same with Fender and their Starts??  It's really annoying, go check out the videos and see what I am talking about.
_____________________________________________________________________

Apple.
I have used Apple computers for years in my work, going back as far as the brown Macintosh, so I do like a Mac for most of my Graphic and Photography work, I have a large iMac at home, also an iPad and of course my iPhone, so yes I like apple products, but, I have always steered clear of their laptops, the reason, because they are so expensive for what you get.

I have a couple of Laptops, the newest one (2 years old) has started displaying problems like the screen breaking up and losing it boot sector and thats on an SSD, so I need reliability so the hunt was on for a new laptop.

​So, logically I should pay the extra cash and get a MacBook Air, and I did, then I started seeing interesting videos on Apple products that have issues and Apple saying that due to a "Water Ingress" problem the warrantee is null void, in other words, you got it wet so it's not our fault so you have to buy a new one or pay silly money to get it fixed. WTF?????

Water Ingress, how do they know, well all apple products have these little sensors that detect water inside the apple products, OK, I see where they are coming from, it's easy to drop your iPhone down the toilet, or in the bath or in a lake, pond or the sea, that means your warranty is useless?
Now, I watch a video where a guy has an issue with his MacBook screen being almost black, so he can't see anything, so a trip to the Genius Bar at the Apple shop to get it sorted, The "Genius" takes it out the back and returns a while latter and says, unfortunately there is nothing that can be done as it has had Water Ingress (WI)?  The guy says No, can't be, it sits on my desk, never has water, tea or coffee anywhere near it, the Genius says, well the detectors inside say otherwise, so to repair it will cost about the same as buying a new laptop.

Now, hang on a second, they can repair it, not under warranty because it has WI, clearly that is not the case, so the guy politely says thanks but no thanks and leaves the store, he walks 5 stores down and goes into a computer repair company, the guy there listens to the story laughs and tell the guy to take a seat, repair guy takes the base off the laptop, shows the owner the indicators which are now red, meaning the it has got wet somewhere, but no, repair guy says, on a humid day the indicators will go red, as it sees the humidity as water, he pushes a cable at the back of the laptop and hey presto, it lights up great and the problem is fixed, the owner is shocked and up set because he was almost ripped off by the Genius at Apple.
The best bit is, repair guy says, no charge, I have people in here all the time with this problem, Apple just don't care and hope you will just buy a new one.

So after this video I do more research, Fuck Me Sideways, this is a common problem now with Apple, they Geniuses are told if the little red dots appear, scrap it and sell a new one, how do I know, because I know an ex-student who works in my local Apple Genius Bar and told me about the train they have and how they are told to repair as little as possible and Sell Sell SELL.

So why did I buy an MacBook well, I like them, most of my work is created on a mac, so it makes sense, am I worried about the red dots, no don't give a toss as I know a man that can fix it for me, outing Apple in this way is the only way to try and stop this ugly process, I hope you all share this advice to friends etc.

That's enough moaning forgone day, need to go lie down for a bit.

​Later's.

Wow, I can't believe it's been nearly 2 months since my last post, however, I have been busy and unwell so a combination of things have meant that I have not written anything for a while.

The guitar making had to stop for a while as I fractured my fingers on my left hand by catching my glove in a bobbin sander, OUCH, so have them taped up for the next  8 weeks, not a happy bunny, but I have still been doing some things that don’t require a left hand.

I have also be unwell in that my health seems to be deteriorating, I am suffering from fatigue, and a lack of enthusiasm for anything at the moment, even writing this blog which I really enjoy, normally, also my eyesight is deteriorating as well,  this is due to my diabetes, which is really bad to say the least.

Anyway, my job as a lecturer is still shit, now have an issue with my boss, she is bullying me so I am keeping a record of everything she does that involves me, I hate it, but it has to be done.  If she was a man I would have beating the shit out of her by now, but, I can’t so that makes me angry as well.  I have decided I need a win on the national lottery so I can just fly off to somewhere else and never come back to this shitty college.

So many celebrities I grew up with seem to be dying at an alarming rate, then I think I am now at the stage where I could pop my clogs at any time too, age creeps up on you, seems that not long ago that I was chasing women, playing sports, chasing woman, going down the pub with my mates and just doing so many things, I used to watch Jimmy Greaves at White Hart Lane, go to live concerts etc, but now I just seem to have lost the enthusiasm I had for all that stuff, accept for chasing women, LOL.

Anyway, I will wait and see what’s happening in parliament today and probably have something to say about that, in the word of a famous actor, “I’ll be back”.

Last night was a historic day for British politics, The prime minister lost her vote on the deal she has been working on with the EU, which means at the moment we are heading for a no deal situation.
Is a no deal a problem, depends who you are, several car manufacturers supported the PMs deal saying it would allow them to continue as they are now, trading with the EU so manufacturers would be happy, however, that's now not going to happen, as I type we are still going to leave with a no deal, what next, no one really knows, but I don't think it would be the end of the world, we would struggle for a year or two, but at the end we would be climbing the ladder to be being a successful and power country once again.  

I have always said that we are an island and we have always led the way, we saved most of he world from speaking German, the fact that are trying to rule the world again through the backdoor of the EU I find very distasteful.  We will survive, we are a race of fighters and survivors, Great Britain will be great again, once we get rid of Scotland who just happen to be led by a septic dwarf hell bent on independence, great, let them have it on one condition, once they have gone they can't come crawling back when the get fucked by the rest of the world, especially the EU who really want nothing to do with them.

So, whats next, tonight is the is the Little Red Turd's vote of no confidence in the Government, I think the PM will survive this and TLRT will then have to step down as leader of the wining reds, about time too, he's fucking useless as an MP and a leader of a party.  Then where do we go, I hear on the radio this morning that MPs want to have a say in what we put into the Exit Agreement, are all those who voted NO last night completely deaf and stupid or just plain ignorant of the facts, the EU has already said on several occasions and said it again after the vote that they are not budging, and will make no more concessions, if they think that the EU will panic at the last moment they are living in cloud Cuckoo, it ain't gonna happen.

As you can see from this post I have very strong views on Brexit, what ever happens eventually I think we need to get out or we will waste money and continue to have to live by their rules, no thanks, make Britain great again, fight for your rights and your country, done let the reds lead us into a pit again where we have to spend another 10 years climbing out and recovering from thier very bad leadership and management.

​Time for tea.

Another Christmas and another New Year over, and I am pleased it's over, every year we spend so much on food, drink and giving presents that come the end of January we are all struggling with money, but not for me this year.
I don't do Christmas really, no decorations, no lights nothing, I never even sent a card this year, I got a few but mainly from family, so no need to reply with a card as they all know i don't do Christmas.
The only good thing about the season of good will, LOL, is that I get a couple of weeks off work to do whatever I want to do, so I spent most of my time in my shed playing with wood and experimenting with new ideas.

Anyway, I did nothing of real interest to anyone, so I think i will make this a very short post, so, Happy new year to all my followers.

​Enough.

SO I was watching the news yesterday (Christmas Eve) when a news report came on talking about a local farm in old Hurst Cambridgeshire that had 150 turkeys plus beef, lamb and pork stolen.
Now, I have been there several times (I would recommend their Pork Pies, they are amazing) and I have noticed that they have cameras all over the place, so how someone gets a large amount of meat out of a farm like that is in my mind a little odd?
Lets look at this a little more closely, 150 big birds is going to take up a lot of space, not the sort of thing you can hide in the back of a Mini, plus all the other meats, so I think you would need at least a large van, and to have them stolen in the early hours of Christmas eve means that they have really only 1 day to get rid of the birds, so I would suggest that the birds were on sale in a market somewhere well away from Cambridgeshire, maybe even a lay-by on a A road somewhere?
I can remember stopping at a lay-by in Hertfordshire once and a van was selling obviously poached rabbits, pheasants and ducks, when a police car pulled in the van took off really fast sharply followed by the cops, so maybe on an A road near you you could have got a cheap bird as you can in my local town, but thats another story, so where the hell are all the birds?  My guess is that they had it all sorted before this week, thinking like a cop I think that they may have even been doing house to house leaflet drops offering birds for Xmas, then nicking and delivering on Xmas eve, no one would suspect anything especially if its in a large town or city like Manchester or Birmingham?
So the farm 'Johnson's of Old Hurst' is down £20,000, yep that's right £20,000, thats £135 a bird? Knowing the farm I know the birds would start at about £50 for a small to medium sized one, so the rest must have been in beef and lamb?
Sad to hear this story in the season of good will, which is why I will be happy to pay a little more for my meats in January and spend my hard earned cash at Johnson's in support of the farm, having said that I heard that they have a turnover of at least 1 Million pounds a year.

So, it's Christmas day, all thats left for me to say is 'Bah Humbug and enjoy your Christmas'

So what do all the above have in common?  We all HATE CHRISTMAS, yeah, that's right, I hate Xmas, why?  Because I just can't be doing with it, at the moment at work everyone is getting excited about the 25th, I don't see why, its just another day as far as I am concerned, I believe that this time was related to religion and the birth of Jesus, so what happened, I bet it was a big shop owner that came up with Xmas as a commercial idea, I bet he thought, lets get the people to spend money that they can't really afford to boost my coffers?  Tell me I'm wrong, I'm not, its all about the MONEY, no one gives a shit about the religious link, even those who say they are religious get stuck into turkey and buy and receiving gifts, why?  And where did eating turkeys at Xmas come from, probably someone who had a bad time with a turkey somewhere. 

Come on Christmas is CRAP no matter which way you look at it, families who hate each other get together and have fights, most divorces are because of Xmas, and then there's the drunken idiots, you got to love a young women so pissed she can't stand up and ends up on the street with her legs and arse in the air for people with mobile phones to take photos and post them on Facebook.
People just use Xmas as an excuse to get as pissed as possible and eat as much as they can so they can try and loose the weight they have put on in the New Year.

So what will I be doing at Xmas, the same as everyone else, but I will have my Bah Humbug hat on throughout the 2 days of hell, we wont have turkey, it will be Pork, Beef and Ham, I will give my son loads of presents and in return i will get some socks, no matter how many time I tell him no presents for me, he has to buy something.  As for my partner/girlfriend, she want beauty products 'you can;'t make a silk purse etc' but she will try, and I will get some crap that she want's me to have, not what I want, but what she says I need, For Fucks Sake, I don't need another cardigan or shirt or scarf, get me a voucher for the local brothel, I would be a lot happier.

At work they have already started getting ready by the secret Santa shit they do every year, I told them to go fuck their selves, I am the wrong person to be part of that load of bollocks, at the moment they are all being sickly sweet to each other in the hope they get something decent, I did think I should take part and get a pigs trotter for whoever I got from the list, that would have been interesting.  All the desks have Xmas lights on them and decorations and trees are everywhere, they are calling me a grumpy git, well there ya go, they finally got the message, thank fuck for that.

Anyway, enough I say, I am off to my friends house, Eb, and his little green friend, we will have a few glasses of fine port, some cheese and grapes and chat about how to stop Xmas next year.

​Happy Not Xmas.

WORK
If you are my age you will probably remember the adverts for Mars bars? It went like this, 'A Mars a day helps you work rest and play', with a catchy little tune to go with it, and basically the thing was so full of sugar you would be so hyper that it did actually do what it said on the wrapper, it also gave you heart problems, diabetes, obesity and rotting teeth.  So, why do I mention it, it's because I have been procrastinating with my self over my future, so lets start with work, I used to love my job as a lecturer, but know I hate it, I have a boss who is the bitch from hell and just wants to get rid of me but won't? Let me explain, my job title and role changed recently, I have talked about this before in my blogs, so I told HR and the BFH ('Bitch From Hell') that I was not happy with what they were doing, as they changed my job role and contract I asked them to make me redundant like my job was going to be, No they said, I could have Voluntary redundancy, but, not made redundant, they garbled on about the college policy of no redundancies etc, etc, anyway very long story short, I made a big thing out of it and tried to confront the Principle (CEO) he calls himself, but he refused to see me, so much for his open door policy, anyway, since then the offer of any kind of redundancy has been withdrawn, now the BFH is hell bent of getting rid of me, she just keeps making my life at the college miserable, making me attend courses that I don't need to etc.  I just think she needs a good hard fucking, tied to a bed then beaten with a leather paddle until her arse glows like a raging fire.
Anyway, enough of my fantasies, she just hates me, unfortunately she has no idea who she has picked a fight with, I am now going to switch things around and make her life hell, and yes I do have the ways and means of doing so.

REST
O what do I do to rest, basically I don't, I cant stop for a minute, I work up to 18 hours a day, I don't sleep and I get bored sitting down watch TV, I do watch TV but it's while I am doing something else like Ironing, or cleaning, rest is something that is lacking in my life, the Doctor says I should chill more by doing nothing, sit down with your headphones on and listen to music he says, I do that a lot, except the sitting bit I listen to my music while I am hoovering or working, you know what they say, There's no rest for the wicked and idle hands make mischief. I must of done something really wicked in a previous life, NO, I don't believe in reincarnation and all that bollocks.

PLAY
​I play when I have the time, which is not a lot, I make my guitars when i can, I love it, that's my play time if you like, then I play them, a little, but I do try, and of course there are my cunning plans ( Making more money, starting new companies etc), that to me is playing, also I have new toys I am about to play with and i will be producing video's and podcasts, when I get the time, and that's what life is all about, time. 

TIME
We only have a short time on the fantastic little rock we live on, at the moment we are desperately trying to fuck it up, polluting the seas and any and everything that we touch, we are removing valuable materials from under the ground, oil, coal, rare metals etc, we are now fracking, which is causing earth tremors, when do we stop, probably when the earth stops spinning and we all fall off into space.
However, moan over, lets talk about my time, I have had a reasonable life, met some amazing and beautiful people I have also met the scum of the earth and real evil bastards, but, I have set my own standards and passed these on to my son, I like to think I and honest and fair.  My time is nearly up, my health is not getting better and everyday is a struggle, but I am not giving up yet, I still have a bucket list that I need to complete and I hope to meet the one, the woman that understands me and loves me for who I am, not my money.  I think we waste a lot of time doing nothing, but maybe with the time I have left I will make it worth while.

Fucking hell that last paragraph is dark and deep, I need coffee, until next time.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!