Jason Shaw's Seafront Diary

It is a bit chilly

2012-02-11T18:52:00.000Z

Yesterday when I was mad, well not quite by near enough, so far the campaign do boost my finances, this major push and promotion drive has netted less than £15, so, perhaps I'll give up the self promotion malarkey and just give up the dreaming.

It has been bloody cold, the parents have six inches of snow and a minus of six on the temperature gauge thingy. I've had no snow down here, well a little flutter but nothing much settled, which is a shame, as I would have liked to stroll along a beach of white with flakes falling on my head. However, I am probably alone in that desire.

38,267 words are done on the film project, Laundry Boys project is 43,001 so far, cover art work decided upon for the gay erotic novella - have a lovely South American model to thank for that, which I hope you'll enjoy. Holding off on the children's story rewrite for the time being, although still look for a free illustrator to help out on that score.

Thanks to everyone who came to visit here.

l

Clipix

2012-02-10T23:00:00.001Z

We are all busy people, we have so much to do and so little time to do it, there's so much we have to take care of. We have to look and search ofr this and that, pay those bills, check out our blogs and our friends blogs, write an email to aunty Betty, sort out the newsletter for the thingy club and keep up with all the news too - it can be exhausting to say the least.

However, help is at hand, allow me to introduce to you - Clipix.....

This is a brand new funky free and darn useful tool that will help you no end and change the way you manage your time and your life online.

This little funky feature solves the problems many of us face over the course of a day with remembering things and sorting stuff.

Clipix is wonderful and allows you to keep everything you find online and want to save and come back to. Now there is no worries about security as Clipix lets you maintain your privacy settings, so you only share what you want to share and with whom you want to share it.

It's so easy to work, you simply drag the bookmark or 'clip' button from your bookmarks bar then click it whenever you see something online you want to nab, check on later, keep, like the look of and then everything you clip will be on your customized clipboards. Yes in a way it's like the old cork pin board of old, just on your view own computer / laptop and no pricking your fingers with nasty old pins!

You could collect that news item from ABC or CNN, you could clip the latest techy news or an item of about the iPhone 56 or whatever it happens to be. Then you could nip on over to the cooking site and grab a recipe or two, then look for something to jazz up your newsletter with. Looking for a gifts for aunty John and uncle Mary, see loads online and clip 'em and then compare them all at the end of the day. The possibilities are as endless as the web itself, but don't just take my word for it, have a look yourself.

Its fun, its easy and it will save you tons of time.

clipix

Here's one of mine and I've only just started, everything I want to see all in one place.

Promoted Post

Walgreens PSC Saves You Money

2012-02-07T21:01:00.001Z

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Words......................

2012-02-05T15:06:00.000Z

Words, words and yet more words, this blog is about words, which isn’t surprising really, for words are all I have. However, there will be far far fewer of them here in the future, at least for the foreseeable future.

I no longer have broadband internet access, I have mobile internet, but no money to pay for it, so therefore my internet time will be incredibly limited. As you know I had the crazy idea that I could make it as a published author before of last year. Well, you don't need me to tell you that didn't quite happen and now the money has run out.

I’ve already finished the gay adult erotica novella (that’s if novella’s can be 61,102 words?) I've got the artwork for the cover to approve and then a few other bits and bobs to do about it and then well, watch this space for any news regarding publication.

I’ve got about 37,822 words done on the touching rite of passage growing up bonding tale of good overcoming evil in The Laundry Boys story.

I've also got a few thousand words done on the re-write of my children’s story for which one maybe seeking an illustrator (one who works for free)

Then there is the non-fiction book idea about films, so far that's hit an easy 13,200 words, without much trying, so I know I could go on with that, if I had the time and money, so you see there is a lot of words going on in my world right now, just perhaps not here.

My lack of funding and therefore net time also strongly inhibits my ability to come over to your blogs, to say hello and see what you have been up to, both good and bad, which is a great loss to me and something I do apologise for sincerely.

I’ll try and get online, in some form or other, maybe once a week, or once a fortnight, just to offer an update on the writing and if I’ve managed to keep a roof over my head or if scrabbling around with some cardboard boxes and old fishing line under the pier.

Good luck, best wishes and stay safe.

If you haven't seen the following video already then you've been missing out, it is simply wonderful.

The birth of the laundry boys.

2012-02-02T14:55:00.000Z

I’ve taken the horns by the bull, or something like that and started work on a new story, yep a brand new creative dribble that’s running forward into a stream and hopefully then a river!

The gay adult erotic story is completed at jujst under 62,000 words and is as we speak being proof read. As soon as that’s done and corrections made, I’ll hawk that round to a few publishers, with a bit of luck and a whole lot of positive vibes, it’ll be taken up and be an ebook before this month is out.

However, despite an early crisis (lesson learned of never showing incomplete early stages) I’ve piled head long into a new story, it’s called The Laundry Boys. It’s supposed to be a heart-warming tender and touching tale of how group of boys band together to take care of themselves in a rough unkind and harsh world. A story of struggles, of adversity and of childhood bonds that last a lifetime. There is no doubt in my mind that it will be an emotional tale and as my granny would say, they’ll definitely be tears before bedtime.

However, it’s not all doom, gloom and depression, nope, it’ll be packed with funny and humour that will, with a bit of luck and an open mind have you laughing out loud.

Success comes in many guises and The Laundry Boys will hopefully demonstrate that in some surprising ways. Already it’s up to 27,761 words, which is roughly about a third of its envisioned length, although that’s only tentative at this stage – who knows where the creativity will lead. However, I’m flat broke, skint, almost destitute and poorer than a poor thing, so poor in fact I’m not had even so much as a sniff of cheesecake in weeks! So apart from trying to flog all my DVD’s on ebay and trying to find a way back in to the corporate rat race hell, I’ve set up a crowdsource funding page. A page where people, people like you can help fund the creative process and help be responsible for the printing and publication of The Laundry Boys (oh and yes, ebook too)

Is the internet stealing our time.

2012-02-01T15:32:00.000Z

Is the internet stealing our time?

We love this world, this ones and zeros, these dots, dots and more dots, but is this thing stealing our time?

This wonderful creation, this world at our fingertips, we are its masters, yet we are also its slaves. The hours of human time lost to the internet around the world is incalculably vast, there would be an national outcry, a scandal of epic proportions if it were anything else stealing our time and to a greater or lesser zombiefying us.

Teen age boys and girls can sit a chat online without the need for a phone, skyping him, msn’ing her with an IM there and an IM here. Their world is their laptop and they populate it in typical teenage ways, looking at porn, masturbating and playing games.

Oh yes, this wonder of technology allows anyone with a webcam to instantly broadcast themselves, sometimes in a way that would make a mother proud and sometimes in a less respectable way. Yes take a teenage boy, they can and some do, find a site to chat and expose themselves on, some do it for ‘the fun’, some do it for the chance of seeing a ‘real’ girl naked, some do it to stave of the boredom of just living and some do it to make a living – or at least some pocket money. Girls are not so different, they do it to, perhaps not so often or so freely, but do it, they still do.

This net, this global thing where any kind of depravity is catered for in ways that my mind can’t even contemplate, the sixty-four stone female naked performer whose speciality is squashing equally naked none stone man and then jiggling her ample fatty bits for sexual gratification. That’s just the tip of the iceberg that is internet porn.

This box of tricks, this wonder of the wireless generation allows us to be anyone and anything, a forty-seven year old shop worker from Wales can pretend to be a fourteen-year old school girl from China. Whilst a fourteen-year old school girl from China pretends to be a forty-seven year old man from Wales! We are kings and queens, masters and mistresses, rich and famous, horny stallions and six foot six love gods with twelve inches of solid man meat, real passion pleasers. In short, online we are who we say we are, bit it true or be it false, we are real or we are who we really want to be.

Our time is gone, frittered away in front of these screens of many colours, where the time goes we had little clue. It was bright and sunny outside when we sat down, we know because we did pull back the curtain for moment or two, before we sat down. Its now sometime after nightfall, stars are twinkling, the moon is high, but we’re oblivious because we’re ‘On’line.

Apart from wanking at all and sundry, males are playing online RPG games, majority warcraft, building fantasy worlds, even fantasy lives, boys piss in bottles so they don’t miss a thing. Girls connect and chat on a book of faces, poking her, stalking him yet never thinking about going to the gym.

Its not all groom and doom, the internet helps us do other things, worthy things, join a cause, fight a wrong, spread the word of….of whatever we say is the truth. Christians will sit and moralise over the ungodly, the Islamic cleric will try and convert the lost sheep and the tortured soul. Yes, it does some good, we can avoid our locally produced healthy apples for genetically modified peach tasting apples from Peru, the world is our shopping basket and can be delivered to our door by a week next Wednesday. We can auction our treasures, knick-knacks and even in some cases, our lives. We can do our banking and pay all our bills, happy that we don’t have to do it in person or send a letter anymore. Although we do have the added fear of online credit card fraud and identity theft where nasty cybermen take control.

We can write and publish at the cross of a few keystrokes, our life, our world, our dreams and our nightmares. We are a bird of social networking with people we don’t know and are never social with in a net that doesn’t work. We want to learn more about other people and cultures, yet are fearful when other people behave that way toward ourselves and ask us questions. We say we’re open, but only on our own terms and our own idea of openness.

We play our games, some real, some not so real and a world where reality is virtual and virtue is….?

So is the internet stealing our time?

Creativity the fragile beast.

2012-01-30T15:11:00.000Z

Creativity is a fragile thing, at least it seems to me, sometimes its easy to be creative, then sometimes it just isn’t. A writer can sit and stare ate a blank page for three hours and write not one word, despite many thousands whirling around his brain. An artist may sit before his canvas of any kind, brush in hand and not a single stroke be given to that virgin surface.

Is it just a lack of inspiration? Nope, I think not, inspiration is all around and when it’s not physically present, there is a whole realm of it stored in hearts and minds. There is, I’d say, a large amount of fear in creating something, something from within us, like a painting, a dress, a novel or story, it’s a fear of opening up our inner thoughts and ideas to a wider world, an audience or even just ourselves. Fear of what might be seen, a fear of what might be thought, a fear of being told how awful and untalented we are, often reinforcing our own thoughts of ourselves. It takes a lot of courage to take that first bold step, that first line on a page, that first brush stroke on a canvas, that first stitch of fabric.

I applaud those first words, those little stitches, that tentative applications of colour, knowing how hard it really is to even get to that stage. Then of course there is having the courage and determination to finish and complete the work, that certainly isn’t an easy task either. One wrong word of detraction from another during the process can halt and flaw the creative flow, seeds of doubt become trees in the space of an hour and a forest before teatime. Yes, creativity is that fragile, or at least it seems to be it can be!

Sew Shoot Me

My manifesto

2012-01-29T16:21:00.000Z

We have lost our way, as a country as a nation, we got side tracked by Europe, hoodwinked by America, abused by Africa and laughed at by China and those far eastern nations. I hear so much from Westminster and it makes my temperature jump, my blood boil and my nerves to jangle louder than a rappers bling.

I see real life cops and robber type shows and am appalled by what I see and hear. I watch the news and quite frankly I’m shocked at what I see going on, I hardly recognise it as going on in a so called civilised society, let alone our once great and proud nation. My flabber has been gasted beyond all gastability. We live in strange times, times of trouble, strife, hardship and difficulty. We have an over arrogant Prime Minster who cares little about the people of the country, he recently cancelled an important meeting so he could watch a sports programme on the telly. The opposition isn’t as strong as it should be, in tatters is a phrase that springs to mind, weak is another. It’s time we jolly well did something about it, so in true English style, I sat on my arse and had a moan about it. Now instead of moaning to myself on the park bench and risk being thrown into the nearest lunatic asylum (obviously they are now known as immediate mental instability challenged care facility in the community) I thought I’d moan about it on the blog, but instead of a moan, I’d be proactive about the whole malarkey and set out my manifesto! So ladies and gentle folk here is the Jason Shaw Better Britain Party Manefesto.

TAX & NATIONAL INSURANCE

There is bugger all difference between the two these days, so I propose we abolish the lie that is national insurance and call it what it really is, a tax.

Following that, income tax rates need to change, they will become as follows.

Starting Rate 15% for earnings between £10,000pa & £25,000pa

Low Rate 20% for earnings between £25,001pa & £35,000pa

Basic Rate 25% for earnings between £35,001pa & £45,000pa

Middle Rate 30% for earnings between £45,001pa & £55,000pa

Higher Rate 35% for earnings between £55,001pa & £65,000pa

Top Rate 40% for earnings between £65,001pa & £75,000pa

YETM Rate 45% for earnings between £75,001pa & £85,000pa

RB rate 50& for earnings over £85,001pa

(YETM = you earn too much. RB= rich bastard)

Remember there is no additional National Insurance to pay, that’s scrapped.

VAT

Reduced to 15%.

To be applied to all items except food and drink.

NATIONAL IDENTITY CARD & NUMBER

A national identity photo card and exclusive number will be issued to each and every British Citizen from the age of 16 upwards, this replaces the former national insurance card and number. You will need this number and card to access any service provided by the state, to pay tax and hold employment, to get a driving licence, passport, hold any office, also replaces NHS/EU medical card.

BENEFITS

Each and every social security benefit will be means tested, to ensure only those entitled to such benefits will get them. These means tests will be on-going for as long as a person is claiming the benefit or is entitled to do so.

A benefit cap will be in place to safeguard the whole system for all, the cap will be set at £28,000pa per family. (local discretion of +/- £2,000).

Child benefit applies to the first three children only and runs until age 17.

Unemployment Benefit will only be paid in full for the first six months, rate will be halved after that. (local discretion will apply)

ARMED FORCES

Will be returned to its former strength, prior to recent cuts. War zone/conflict payments will be increased to reasonable levels and paid whilst duty is on-going.

Training will be increased, however if a service member leaves or is dishonourably discharged from the service within the first 6 years of service they will have to pay back the cost of their training.

Service personal injured during service in war/conflict zones will be able to receive their armed forces pension immediately. This will be in addition to resettlement and rehabilitation allowances.

All British fighting forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by December 2013.

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE

This is a wonderful national service that should be cherished, celebrated and protected. However, much tighter controls on service, costs, wastage, usage must be applied by each health trust. Ward sisters/Matrons will be introduced to have overall responsibility of all aspects of ward services.

Private television/internet/telephone companies will not be permitted. These services will be provided by the hospital’s directly, with a small and more realistic charge levied.

No treatment will be provided (except in emergency situations) to anyone without a valid National Identity Card & Number.

Overseas visitors will have to pay normal market rates at the point of access, prior to any treatment being given

NHS hospitals will be able to offer cosmetic surgery and elective surgery to private patients at normal market rates.

Private and cosmetic surgery providers will be licenced and have to provide a financial bond, held by a government body, to act as assurance if anything goes wrong. Furthermore, such providers will have a legal as well as moral duty to correct mistakes and failed workmanship.

Free dental treatment to for anyone under 16 (or until leaving full time education) and anyone over 65.

Free prescriptions to anyone under 16 (or until leaving full time education) and anyone over 65.

CIGARETTE AND ALCOHOL DUTY

All duty and tax raised from the sale of Cigarettes and alcohol will be exclusively given to the health service.

RETIREMENT AGE

Set at 65 for both males and females. State pension immediately payable.

Should a person over 65 wish to continue working, they may do so, however their pension will combine with their earnings and taxed at the appropriate rate.

Winter fuel payments will be scrapped – except in exceptional circumstances, however energy suppliers will be forced to adopt a much lower charge for services to those over 65.

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

Crime is a major issue in this country, it is at an almost epidemic level and with every civilised society, crime shouldn’t pay.

Police cuts will be halted and in some cases reversed with greater accountability is needed within police forces and budgets need to be controlled. There will also be greater sharing of resources to ensure we have a better police force, both in terms of results and value for money.

Police officer performance should be better monitored and rated, therefore making it easier to identify underperforming officers, who will either be retrained or dismissed.

Police training to be increased to ensure a full and complete understanding of all aspects of policing is given to each new officer. Community support officers will be given more complete training and will have the power to arrest. Beat officer numbers increased with a much better visibility on the streets.

In times of civil disobedience and disturbance like the recent riots, police will operate a much more robust level of policing and have the ability to detain rioters in new detention centre for three days before charge.

Better and a more cohesive alliance will formed and maintained between local police forces and local councils and social services.

A greater introduction of crime zero tolerance zones in city centres and current trouble hotspots.

SENTENCING

This needs to be overhauled, time off for good behaviour will be cut down to days, rather than weeks and months. Sentences will be served in full, not halved as seems to be the case currently.

Sentences will be increased dramatically for heinous and serious crimes, including a minimum tariff of 25 and 35 years will apply to man slaughter and murder respectively.

A charge of ‘rioting’ will be introduced with a minimum tariff of 5 years in addition to any other charges such as violent disorder, stealing, handling stolen goods etc.

All prisoners will be required to do some work for the benefit of society. Such work would depend upon abilities, but would include manual labour to clean up the environment, collect litter and other such social beneficial projects. Prison facilities should be improved, majority of work carried out by prisoners themselves under very close supervision.

Convicted prisoners will not be eligible to vote in any elections.

Open prisons will be scrapped.

Prior to release, restorative justice schemes will be put in place, where the prisoner will be meet the victim and if the victim requests do some sort of compensation or restorative work for them.

Probation periods will be increased to a minimum of six years, with greater contact between probation workers and former prisoners. More funding will be available for rehabilitation programmes that have been shown to work. Breaches of conditions will result in immediate re-imprisonment.

EUROPE

Whilst our location puts us on the edge of Europe, the UK is not in mainland Europe and is not in the euro zone and should not pay into any fund that supposedly stabilised the euro. Furthermore, any and all payments made to such funds and schemes will be demanded back, in full and at the earliest possible opportunity.

Referendum to be held on whether to remain a member of the EU before end of 2014.

COMMONWEALTH

Greater communication and commercial activity will be introduced between commonwealth members, including preferential trading terms.

Commonwealth countries must adhere to the same human rights, environmental and equality laws, failure to comply will result in immediate expulsion from the commonwealth and any trade agreements.

OVERSEAS AID

A comprehensive overhaul and reduction in the vast amount of money given to overseas nations misleadingly termed as overseas aid. Financial payments to other countries should be debated and voted upon, any payments must only be paid to respectable leaders/governments with a similar level of values and record on human rights as ourselves.

OVERSEAS LOANS

We will start to recall 20% of the loans we have made to other nations in the world in recent years.

EQUALITY

Equality is a fundamental right for all citizens, same sex couples will be given equal marriage rights, including the right to marry in church. If a particular church, for religious reasons and beliefs will not allow same sex marriages, then it must display a large sign above all doors and on all church literature stating clearly “We discriminate against gay and lesbian people”.

Civil partnership laws will be extended and available different sex couples.

UNIVERSITY FEES

University fees will be reduced and capped to a maximum of £5,000pa.

Student loans will be means tested and will only start to be paid back once earnings of over £20,000pa are received.

EDUCATION

Greater control on schools is required to ensure the best quality of education is given to all pupils regardless of location and area. An all-round education is required and not just the core academic subjects.

The school leaving age will eventually be increased to 17.

Examinations will be re-evaluated on yearly basis to ensure our qualifications are equal to and exceeding those of other developed nations.

A greater focus will be made on vocational qualifications and skills for those that don’t wish to pursue an academic career after normal schooling.

A means tested and conditional scheme will be introduced to help finically assist young people with their further education.

IMMIGRATION

Immigration needs to be more carefully controlled and enforced, border controls and immigration staff numbers and facilities to be increased along with powers to refuse entry.

European migration will be more accurately monitored.

No social security benefits should be payable to immigrants from other nations for the first two years of UK residency.

Citizenship will require a working understanding of both spoken and written English.

Criminal activities by an immigrants should result in immediate deportation and a lifetime ban on returning to the UK implemented.

Scottish Independence

2012-01-27T15:39:00.000Z

Independence for Scotland

There is lots of talk in the media regarding Scottish Independence, it’s true, you cant even turn around to tie up your shoe without someone sticking a Scottish Independence comment up your arse. Referendum this and referendum that, one question, two questions, 16 and 17 year olds to vote, when to hold it, how many sugars the preceding officer has in his tea, who is going to count the vote and all that, it is a enough to drive you to drink, unless of course you’re Scottish because its quite likely if you are, you’ve already had a drink!

That awfully bouncy Alex Salmond of the Scottish National Party (clues in the name) wants an independent Scotland. The Jolly Toffs Party, by which I obviously do me the ruling Conservative party don’t want an independent Scotland and a break-up of the core part of the UK. Labour are not completely sure, but what do you expect under simpering Ed Milibland’s leadership. As for the LibDem’s, well who give two hoots what they want, nobody listens to them anymore (including the coalition partners they are supposed to be in government with!)

I wish to level with you now, out in the open, and yes I’ve thought about this, maybe not for long – there was wet paint to watch after all, but yes I’ve given it a bit of thought and as an English person, I’m for it. I want Independence for Scotland, bring it on I say and bring it on now. Stop all this shilly-shallying about when to hold the sodding referendum, hold it now, this year before the summer, May, hold it in May, that’s always a good time for an election. Let’s get it done and done pretty damn sharpish.

I want Scottish Independence, now I know my cry, my non-aggressive, non-combatant battle cry to give those northern souls them independence and freedom may sound a little odd, not least of all to my Scottish friends, of which there are a few, so few in fact their number can be counted on two fingers (I mean proper Scots, not those who once had an aunt who had a fling with a caber tossing, haggis munching, kilt wearing lad from Kilmarnock, called Jock) National stereotyping much!

My friends will be saying, ‘ech, naahh Jasenn, you canny believe thot’ but it is true, I’m all for an independent Scotland, if they want it for themselves, of which the only way to find out is to knock on the door and ask every single one of them, noooo, I mean vote in a referendum.

If they vote in favour, I for one will be jumping for joy, I’ll be glad to be rid of the buggers, glad to see the back of them.to be honest.

However, there are some conditions which must be adhered to for an independent Scotland.

1) Buy back the national Royal Bank of Scotland from the British Govt.

2) Border wall to be built by the Polish along the national divide with two border crossings, one in the east and one on the west.

3) Border to be manned and passports required, strictly enforced.

4) BBC will be pulled out of any Scottish area, all facilities sold off at commercial market rates.

5) BBC transmitters will be switched off and dismantled.

6) All UK military bases, immediately withdrawn and closed down, relocating to mainland England and Wales

7) Immediate repayment of all current British Govt funding.

8) Immediate repayment of all current and former (up to and including the previous ten years –((I really wanted this to something like 50 years, but that’s just pushing it, 10 seems more fair))) of all grants, loans, subsidies, funding, assistance, aid the British Govt has made.

9) The immediate payback of all the funding the NHS has paid for the SHS in the last ten years.

10) Immediate withdrawal of all haggis from English shops.

11) Scottish currency will cease to be legal tender in the rest of the UK.

12) The UK air traffic control centre will cease to control any aircraft movements over Scotland.

13) British embassies, consulates and other offices overseas will cease to represent, assist or repatriate any Scottish national in difficult abroad.

14) The DVLA will cease to handle any Scottish registered cars.

15) Trade agreements that currently stop English companies from competing head on with Scottish companies overseas, will be scrapped.

16) No Scottish athlete will be able to join the British team.

17) Nobody wearing a kilt will be allowed to cross the border, unless they can prove a right to wear such a tartan and have something under it (Yes I mean undies)

18) Edinburgh Rock shall have the ‘rock’ part of its name taken away because we all know rock is hard and crunchy and not soft, powdery and crumbly.

19) Scotland can have about 8 per cent of the UK reserves.

20) Scotland will have to pay about 8 per cent of the UK national debt.

21) North Sea oil and gas, split at the national border divide. (Scotland to pay back a proportion of the British exploration costs)

22) I’m sure I’ve forgotten something.

23) When I first thought of this post it seemed rather fun, now it seems to have taken a less tongue in cheek feel and more a wiggly fingers with thumb of same hand right on the nose and a nar nar nee nar nar sound coming out.

I’m sure there is more, there has to be, but I guess that’ll do for starters, so come on you Scots, take your independence, you do deserve it, you should have it. Oh I say, Jason on a political rant….well I never did.

Wanna help me eat next week? Buy some DVD's! press here.

Pimp My Cube.......

2012-01-25T17:01:00.001Z

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Contest Factory. All opinions are 100% mine.

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It's so simple to do, you've got a webcam, you've got a computer, you've got the net, so start doing it now, simply film it and then upload it and you could be on the way to having a brand spanking new sexy office, were you'll be able to work harder than ever before, double your productivity and increase profits (thats the bit the boss likes to hear!)

No webcam - no problem, I'll bet you or one of your workmates have a mobile phone that shoots video!

Once the video is uploaded, get your friends, work mates, family and anyone else you can to have a look and vote for your space.

Pimp My Cube Contest

Simple and easy, just think if you're the winner, your cubicle could be pimped to the max. The prize is worth approx $1200 - even second prize is a $200 gift card

So vist the site and get uploading now, Pimp My Cubical....

Pimp My Cube Contest

Ohh I got tagged!

2012-01-25T12:21:00.001Z

Oh well wouldn't you know it, there I was, minding my own business, gazing out the window and wondering what the locals would say if it started snowing in the desert. You know I once had a fling with a guy in Tunisia who had never seen snow and really wanted me to send some back to him when I returned to England. Anyway, there I was, wondering about such things, as you do, well you do if you're me and you've got a head full of holes, a bit like Swiss cheese really, just not the same colour, when up pops Becca over at Everyday Life and blooming well tags me. Don't worry I didn't feel a thing, probably because I'm like millions of pounds over weight, but there we are, I was tagged.

Post these rules.

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.

2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post.

3. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.

4. Go to their blog and tell them that you've tagged them.

5. No stuff in the tagging section about "you are tagged if you are reading this." Legitimately tag 11 people!!

So here goes, with section one!

1. I love Aunty Anne's soft pretzels - so much that I travelled from Brighton to Croydon one day just to have one.

2. As a kid I used to go and watch the aircraft at Gatwick Airport.

3. My hip scar gets all itchy when I'm nervious.

4. I was once given a hand job under a blanket on an aircraft.

5. I like to keep the paper bags my shopping comes in (mostly clothes shops!)

7. I've never been much good at counting.

8. I like sprinkling brown sugar on my breakfast (yes even if I'm just having toast)

9. I want to ride my bike all the way along the M1 motorway.

10. I like to read in the toilet. (even if I don't need to go!)

So now here we are with the questions Becca set.

If you had only 24 hours to live, what would you do? - (Go get a couple of bottles of decent wine, some break and then sit on a nice beach, watch the waves roll to shore and phone up my friends and say goodbye)
What Is one song that discribes your life? (Male Stripper? hmmm maybe not, maybe Beatles paperback writer?)
Are you good at making new friends? (No, I'm so very shy)
Where did you grow up? (In Surrey)
What is the silliest prank you ever played on someone? (I'm not a real good prank player, most people seem to see through any pranks I try and play......I guess I'm just not a prankster!)
If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, which store would it be and how long would it take you to spend the $10,000? (In America I'd take it to Best Buy and it would last about half an hour. In England I'd take it to Save The Children charity shop and just buy their space for a year - so I guess it would take a year to spend!) ((There see, I bet you thought I'd take it to the chocolate shop and spend it all on chocolate, didn't you? Go on, be honest.....))
Do you exercise regularly? (not really - unless getting out of bed is exercise!)
Who would you want to play you in the movie about your life? (Jesse Spencer)
Who is your celebrity crush male/female? (Jesse Spencer)
Do you exercise? (I got to the computer didn't I?)
What is the weirdest thing you will ever admit to having done in the past? (Oh gosh, my blog is filled with funny and odd things I've done in the past. Errm, I guess dropping my trousers on stage in a night club to show off my boxers, forgetting the fact that on that night I wasn't wearing any boxers!)

Now then, I've got to ask eleven questions, gosh this really is a hard task........

1. What is or was your favourite cartoon character?

2. Coffee or tea?

3. The best thing you've ever done in your life?

4. The worst thing you'll ever admit to doing in your life?

5. How many people will actually answer the question above honestly?

6. Is there a god?

7. Do you like Brussels Sprouts?

8. Would you lend me £150?

9. Would you lend a politician £150?

10. Peanut butter or jam(jelly for my American friends)

11. What has been the most memorable place you've ever visited?

Now, I've gone about and tagged some people, lets see what happens.......

http://aleclindsay20.blogspot.com/
http://gaywarfare.blogspot.com/
http://raybeard.blogspot.com
http://sirlaid.blogspot.com/
http://www.coreywilkey.com/
http://deejohn-thebeautyhunter.blogspot.com/
http://locoluke.wordpress.com/
http://perditaspursuits.blogspot.com/
http://coreysdarkcorner.blogspot.com/
http://mindofmine.co.uk/
http://annebrooke.blogspot.com/

Its those bloody birds again........

2012-01-24T14:36:00.000Z

I saw a plump little Robin on the fence this morning and I thought he looked so pretty and so happy, although he was a little fritty and flighty, but happy nonetheless. I know this isn’t exactly so, but to me there is something quintessentially English about seeing a little Robin redbreast darting around the garden on a winters day. Oh and yes, before you jump up and down and wave your bird spotting books in my direction, I know Robins are not exclusive to these shores, hills, dales and forests. That they do live elsewhere and fly over a lot of other places on this ball of craggy and soggy bits we call earth, but still, they feel like they belong to England, or symbolise it in some small simple way. It’s a little birdhouse in my soul that is England! Shoot me down if you want, but regardless, that’s the way it is for me, however it got me thinking about all the songs I could think of about birds, which is, I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, how my mind works, bizarrely.

So here you go, music be they songs or albums that have a song theme, connection or connotation.

They Might Be Giants, Birdhouse in your soul.

Eva Cassidy Songbird.

Annie Lennox Littlebird.

Fyfe Dangerfield Firebird.

Rumer Blackbird.

Alison Moyet ByeBye Blackbird.
(yes I know, loads and loads of others have done versions of this song too!)

Beautiful South Blackbird on the wire.

Owl City The bird and the worm.

Bette M Wind beneath my wings (stretching it a bit, but hey…)

Snowy White Bird of paradise.

Lynard Skinard Freebird.

Jacksons Rockin Robin.

Choir Boys (various) O for the wings of a dove.

Prince When doves cry.

Anything by the Byrds, the Eagles, the Counting Crows, Sparrowhawk and Flock of Seagulls.

I’m sure there is loads more, but these are just the ones I can think of on the top of my head, How bout you?

Free Cookies

2012-01-23T12:01:00.000Z

Click & Go

Ends5 Feb
2012

Eat Out

4 free cookies when you buy 4 at Millie's

Just thinking about the cookies is enough to make us hungry. Print this offer from Millie's today!

Free Cookies

Every Child Has The Right.....

2012-01-22T14:48:00.000Z

Moving little film telling Dave's story.

Ambition

2012-01-20T14:30:00.000Z

Ambitions.

I’ve always been lucky when it comes to ambitions, it may not seem like it, but I have, like it or lump it. When I was at school one of the key things I wanted to do was travel and get paid to do it. I wanted to stay in nice hotels and be paid for living that kind of life. I was twelve at the time so had no real idea that jobs like that even existed or how to get them or anything of the practical side of things, I guess I’ve never been a practical sort of kid, more a dreamer - some things don’t change.

Fast forward a few years and I was working for an airline, which involved a load of travel, pleasure trips cost me £5 return to Europe, work trips cost me nothing, because I was being paid to go, paid to travel! One ambition reached.

Travel forward a few more years and I was working for a holiday company and being sent on trips to far off lands to sample, investigate, look at and stay in hotels. Upon return I’d have to write a report about the whole experience and that was basically it, paid to stay in some of the best (and admittedly some of the not so good) hotels. Another ambition reached.

I also had the ambition to get into radio and produce a radio show all of my own. So, through various means and efforts, I land myself a freelance job at a radio station and whoop, I get to produce my a radio show, all of my own idea. Ambition reached.

Following on from that experience was the ambition to reach out to the public and be a presenter both of radio and telly. It wasn’t a fame thing, it was a reaching out sort of thing, a mass communicating desire, to entertain and amuse. Yeah right, that looks as silly on the page as it sounds in my head. So I’ll level with you here, it was about getting famous!

Through shagging the right people, being at the right place at the right time, a cheeky smile, a specially created naive enthusiasm I got to present radio shows. I was a guest on a number of telly chat shows – Kilroy, Esther, Vanessa and one I can’t even remember the name of now. I presented a series of video travel brochures and corporate videos, which was interesting, fun, money for nothing and proved to me that walking, talking, looking at a camera and hitting a mark on the floor is no easy task to achieve. However, it was another ambition done and dusted.

What happens when you reach the magic milestones or the dizzy heights (or lows depending) of your ambitions? . I took a look around and thought, well, fuck me, I’ve done that, now what? Difficult question to answer and the only answer I could come up with was, well frig all.

Now we come back to the start of this post, this confession from the very red pumpy thing right in the middle of my chest. I so wanted to be a writer, to pen a couple of trashy novels, you know successful ones but trashy nonetheless. Then from the money I’d make for those, spend the rest of my time writing more worthy or serious books with a limited audience and an even more limited profit, yet untold levels of personal pleasure. That’s what I so wanted…. I took time off work, started the writing malarkey, it went slowly very slowly, mainly because I chose Fort Lauderdale as the location of my writing endeavours. Now, when you’ve got that beach and that ocean as your backdrop, it is so easy to just chill and enjoy it rather than stick yourself inside and write, come on, you don’t blame me for that, surly?

One of the reasons I wanted to write was to combat those early teachers of mine that thought I was just some thick shit kid at the back of the class with googly eyes in national health glasses and the battered briefcase. I wanted to be able to wag a finger in their direction (rather the location of the schools actually) as say words along the lines of “hey fuck you arsewipes’ this thick boy gone and done good”. It was only later discovered by one of the few English masters I had that took an interest in the subject of an essay I had voluntarily produced, rather than getting lost in my dodgy spelling and punctuation that something was amiss. A few tests later and getting toward the end of my school days it was discovered that I wasn’t a thick shit at all, I was at a disadvantage, I was dyslexic. Those damned letters would jump about the page a bit, the little tossers! T’s would look like l’s, F’s would turn into S’s or vice versa, I’d covered it up the best I could, writing as little as I could have got away with, or copied spellings out of a book, or just copied from the book (remember this was days before copy /paste and the internet). So I wanted to write a book to prove I could do it, to myself, to all those others that thought I was some thick shit, to prove dyslexic autistic knob jockeys could actually do something like that. But also, wanted to do it as a sort of think you to that English master, who actually looked beyond the surface, who didn’t just dismiss everything with a big red F.

I so wanted to be a writer, to pen a couple of trashy novels, you know successful ones but trashy nonetheless. Then from the money I’d make for those, spend the rest of my time writing more worthy or serious books with a limited audience and an even more limited profit, yet untold levels of personal pleasure. That’s what I so wanted…. But, not that I’ve completed a trashy one handed reading gay erotic novel, being proof read by someone even as we speak. And, now that I’ve just completed a read through of the supposedly more serious tome of dark dealings, chaotic mysteries and the world turned upside down, I’ve come to the conclusion that this last ambition is almost certainly the one I’m not going to reach. This writing malarkey, well, I rather suck at it!

Paperback writer?

Classic.

Bang Bang

2012-01-19T14:10:00.000Z

Sometimes there is nothing better I like to do that play about on the internet and dig out some really old tracks, some going back to the dim distant past, when the world was flat and politicians didn't lie, other times it's not so far back. This is a latter occasion, it's a wonderful song, it''ll be familiar to you, at least the tune and a couple of the words will be, although you might remember the English version more than this French one. The song is powerful, the tune and the lyrics and I find different emotion and feeling in the various versions. To me, this one, by Shelia, is almost certainly the best, its like a strong black coffee or a warm brandy sat at the bar of a Parisian cafe bar on a back street in Montmartre, the air filled with grey cigarette smoke and the mood of sage recollection prickles the air.

Feel it.........

Of course it's been recorded by Cher, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Paul Weller, Cliff Richard, Charlotte Church, Spanga, Lil Wayne, Dalida, Lady GaGa and load and loads of others.

Here's the Nancy way of doing it.

Walgreens Woes

2012-01-13T22:00:00.001Z

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

For the past year, Walgreens was negotiating with Express Scripts for a new contract to continue as part of its pharmacy provider network. Those negotiations proved to be unsuccessful, the contract expired on Dec. 31. Therefore, Walgreens is no longer part of Express Scripts’ pharmacy provider network, which is bad news for all Walgreens and their customers.

Express Scripts’ actions are causing disruption to thousands with no benefits to patients or their health plan. This strange action by Express Scripts means plan members having to change their pharmacists, probably going further away, more inconvenience and almost certainly less convenient hours.

Walgreens offers more 24-hour and drive-thru pharmacies than any other pharmacy in the country.

One of the strange things to learn was that during negotiations, Walgreens offered to hold rates for a new contract flat and did not seek an increase in rates. The response from Express Scripts was to insist on being able to unilaterally define contract terms, such as what does and does not constitute a brand and generic drug. Express Scripts also proposed to slash Walgreens reimbursement rates to levels below the industry average cost to provide each prescription.

Walgreens and Express Scripts

One of Express Scripts’ clients is Tricare, which is the health and prescription drug program for America’s military service men and women. During negotiations, Walgreens took the unprecedented step of offering Express Scripts an ironclad guarantee that Walgreens prices would match or beat the average costs per adjusted prescription of all other pharmacies in the Tricare network. Walgreens did this in an effort to prevent our country’s military personnel from being caught in the middle. Walgreens also offered to contract separately with Express Scripts for Tricare from other Express Scripts commercial business, but these offers were rejected. Express Scripts continues to refuse to negotiate a separate contract for the benefit of the Tricare program and its beneficiaries

Many patients under an Express Scripts plan have used Walgreens pharmacies for years and have a personal relationship with their Walgreens pharmacist. In an effort to minimize their disruption and inconvenience, Walgreens unveiled a comprehensive national effort to make this transition as smooth as possible and is doing all it can to help patients continue to use Walgreens when possible, or take care of them as they are forced to leave Walgreens in order to use their in-network coverage.

Only patients with certain prescription insurance plans managed by Express Scripts are impacted. It is best to check with your local Walgreens pharmacist to find out for sure if you’re impacted. Patients also can check the back of their prescription insurance card – if it has Express Scripts’ name there, then they may be affected. If it doesn’t say Express Scripts, then they are not affected.

Among the steps Walgreen is taking to minimize the disruption is offering a special discount on annual membership for its Prescription Savings Club. An individual can join during a special January promotion for only $5, or $10 for a family membership, and receive savings on more than 8,000 brand name and all generic medications. More than 400 generics are available with a three-month supply for less than $1 a week. Regular annual membership is $20 for an individual and $35 for a family.

Express Scripts is a health care system middleman
Express Scripts acts as a middleman between pharmacies providing the health care service and employers and health plans who pay for the medications. Because Express Scripts is the middleman, most payers don’t see the rates Express Scripts pays to Walgreens. They only know what they pay Express Scripts. When they do see what Walgreens is paid, many health plans and employers are making decisions to continue to ensure access to Walgreens because they find our prices to be competitive and believe that we can lower overall health care costs.

Express Scripts continues to gain financially from its position as a middleman as its profits have grown at a rate more than two times the average of peers in health care. Historically brokers in a marketplace take a percentage of the cost of a product for putting the buyer and seller in contact. In Express Scripts’ case, the broker is growing profits faster than the provider of the service. When the middleman is more profitable than the providers, the relationship is out of balance.

Beyond the contract issues, this issue between Express Scripts and Walgreens is really about the value of your local community pharmacy. Express Scripts wants customers to use their own mail order pharmacy business instead of your community pharmacy whenever possible. This could threaten all community drugstores in your area. Remember, community pharmacies are a valuable presence in your neighborhood when you need a pain medication as you leave the emergency room at 2 a.m., or need a flu shot and haven’t been able to get to the doctor’s office. Community pharmacies are often the first point of entry for many people into the health care system, and the value they provide by lowering overall health care costs should be recognized by Express Scripts.

Walgreens wants help, these is what you can do, support them on facebook and twitter.

Walgreens on Twitter.

Walgreens on Facebook

Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens

Gay Movies

2012-01-10T13:18:00.000Z

Gay movies, we’ve all heard of them, seen them, enjoyed or hated them. Some are great, some good, some fun, some not so good or fun or even that interesting. Like any genre so broad as this, there are genres within genres within genres, horror, historic, recreations, love stories, coming of age and rite of passage battles, the list probably as endless as we are different. Yet, some of these gay movies are better than others, some more popular, well known, enjoyable, worthy or just plain silly, but all have some are level of influence, be it tiny or great. Take Philadelphia and Brokeback Mountain for example, both I’m sure you’ll agree had a fair level of influence on audiences, both mainstream and gay as well as the media and the movie industry as a whole, but that’s only my thoughts, what are yours, what do you think have been the most influential gay movies over the last 50 years? Surly you have a view, perhaps you’re a gay movie fan, or connoisseur or maybe you like most are just a casual watcher, you may be bi, straight or gay, it doesn’t matter, I want to hear your views, what you think are the most influential gay movies of the last 50 years.

Please leave me a comment in the comment section below, or email gaymovies@seafrontdiary.com or if you prefer, text 075 123 76995

What Is Love? I Gotta Feeling....

2012-01-08T12:56:00.000Z

What is love?

Hey there my little cherubs of the interweb world, tis I, Jason, back here in pixelated print form to post a few words again. How are you all? Did you have a nice Christmas? Gosh that sounds so odd, sorry, Christmas seems so long ago now, almost like an age, more like a month than a couple of weeks really. Of course, if you’re an orthodox fellow or fellowess, it would only have been a day or so ago, so it would be recent for you. Sorry, I’m waffling away like a mad bundle of cells again!

So anyway, I hope you had a nice crimble/hanukkah/seasonal celebration/winter over indulgence/family ~~war~~ gathering (delete as you will). Mine was a bit of a lax and slow sort of malarkey, thankfully, much as wanted and wished for.

Saw the parents pre-christmas, gifts and cards exchanged, my father even gave me a hug, which is probably the first since being a spotty 13 year old - me not him! Although don’t read too much into that, he also gave me a glass of rum which was really whiskey, so maybe the old buffer is loosing his mind and memory and mellowing.

My Christmas dinner was a massive nosh up, Realeat veggie roast (well of course as a gay vegetarian I don’t fill my mouth with bird of any sort) roast tatties, roast nips, big fat juicy sprouts (plus a few skinny thin home grown ones), carrots (yes home grown) and just a splodge of cauliflower and broccoli too! Feast of the year me thinks!

Oh and just to stick my two fingers up at those of you who thinking I’m too much of a jingoistic lame royalist, of course I watched Queenie doing her queening giving her speech at 3pm of the clock. A tradition that becomes both more and less important each year to me as age takes me from young dumb and hung to old shrived and hobbit like! Oh well, is that the last few readers I have leaving in droves (can three be a drove?) never mind, don’t forget to close the door on the way out!

I also have to say that perhaps my friends and relations do believe I have a bit of a chocolate fetish and addiction. For I’d say over half of the gifts I was lucky enough to receive were of the chocolate variety. Don’t get me wrong, I am so not complaining, I’m just the size of a house now!

I can’t really go on about the rest of the festive time, it seems so long ago and it’s blurred into one mess of days and nights and too much drinking, which is surly a good thing, at least for your boredom levels!

I’ll move on…….

I spent all my dosh on presents and gifts for all the family, so now I’m flat broke and skint beyond belief. No really, I don’t believe how skint I am….I’ve never been so skint, even in my days as a freelance freelancer I still had more money than this! Mind you back then I also had the old profession in the world to fall back on to keep the wolf from the door. These days that option doesn’t even apply, I’d have to pay them and double the price I fear! Oh well, I guess them’s the breaks! No don’t feel sorry for me, I’m so not worthy, poor yes, worthy no!

I’ve got to the 56,000 words mark of that short gay erotic novella I was writing, which I suppose is pretty long, but there we go, the words just tumble out of my creative cortex and plonk themselves on the page in some sort of order. Although, I of course have no idea if that order is correct, intelligible or any cop whatsoever! I just guess that’s just the way it is.

Anyone want a proof reading job?

You’ll know that I very rarely proof read my stuff, it sort of developed from a movement of letting your inner thoughts out in a frank, honest and forceful way, without shunting, mellowing or ease them by editing them. There was a group of us bloggers that blogged from the heart and didn’t proof anything because even our mistakes and incomplete thoughts or sentences told their own story. I dunno how successful that was, or even if it was just an excuse to be lazy or gloss over my dyslexia without too much thought. (yes that might explain mo sany mistakes in the fast!!) However, I guess such a self deluded tendency cant be applied to novels and novellas……so anyone want a proof reading job? It pays absolutely nothing, its reading what Jimmy Carr might proclaim to be ‘adult special interest’ material, or I could possibly describe as ‘one handed reading’ others might call it dodgy crap!

Oh the film Advenureland is on the Beeb channel two tonight, which I am glad about, I really enjoyed that film, it’s good entertainment. It stares Jessie Eisenberg, who I guess you might know for playing Mark Z in The Social Network. Anyway, he made this a good while before that and I think it is rather good. Yes, that's him on the right and the left, he's got curly hair...I've got a thing for boys with curly hair at the moment. Don't ask me why.....I don't have a clue. Anyway, I only mention the its on telly tonight, so I can put up these two photos of him, he's a good actor - talks fast, and for some odd and strange reason, I rather find him attractive!

Mind you, that’s not saying much, its been so long since I last had a shag that I’d find having my arse rubbed with the rough end of a pineapple attractive!

Oh well, that’s it, we’re at the little ending part of this bloggette. I thought I’d pop this vid up, no reason, well actually, yes you know I rather like the cheese fest that is Haddaway, What Is Love, and the appearance of half naked male flesh on the blog, so why not combine the two? He’s three youngAmerican lads (well they’d have to be American really) with perhaps way too much time on their hands - still I’m pretty glad about that. It’s a giggle and in this day an age, giggles are getting harder to come by.

Here’s another video that kinda makes me smile. I saw this when I was over in America the last time, its from the early morning American wide network Today show. A film student posted a single shot video of him doing I Gotta A Feeling, it was wonderfully clever. It spurred on the Today show team to do their own version of such a thing, on one single continuous shot, remarkable really that it actually works and you know, they only had one run through due to getting all the staff in at the same time. Anyway, enjoy!

They did another song like it, Don't Stop Believing, but instead of video taping it, they did it on Live TV to mark one of the presenters leaving.

Now, where’s that pineapple!!!

If you've enjoyed this post, then for flipping heck's sake, tell all your buddies, friends, family and emailing contacts, I need all the readers I can get....... no I do, honestly. Besides, strangers are just friends I haven't met yet...that maybe true, however it still doesn't mean strangers in the street don't like it when you go up to them and give 'em a quick hug and pat on the bum! I guess I should stop, or 'll get a reputation!

other versions of the viral type single shot video
Issaquah Hight School. Middlesex Hospital. University of Quebec.

The earth and everything in it!

2012-01-03T17:25:00.000Z

Happy new year,

new post on the way soon, however, I just couldn't resist posting these two very similar videos, showing the wonder of this ball of water and rock we call home from way above, even higher than the highest hill in Norfolk!

So buckle up and enjoy the ride, it's so amazing to take a different viewpoint of our world, I try and identify the cities we fly over, although I'm pretty sure I'm 100% wrong!

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T15:04:00.000Z

Wishing you a happy new year.

Above Sydney

Below Auckland

See you in 2012.

This year I learned.....

2011-12-27T09:00:00.000Z

Another year over and a new one just about to begin and I wonder where it will lead us, what new experiences we’ll enjoy, or not as the case may be. Will we learn from old mistakes or will we allow them to repeated yet again, even though we promised ourselves that we’d or it would be different this time round? I guess only time will tell, although I could make a relatively safe bet.

So as we slither away from 2011 and run headfirst, full throttle into the unknown wall that is 2012, I thought I’d share with you some of the things I’ve learnt this last year.

I’ve learned I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and it only takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in and not call the police who will make you give up!

I’ve learnt that one persons pride and joy is another’s laugh and derision – but that’s train spotters for you.

I've learned that no matter how much I care, or how much a I wish it wasn’t so, some people are just assholes.

I’ve learned that in my experience, the bread always lands buttered side down, this is especially true if it’s the very last slice.

I've learned that you can get by on charm alone for about twenty–two and a half minutes after that you either need a vast superior intellect or a very big cock.

I’ve learned that you really should resist the tendency to compare yourself to others, because most people are more screwed up than you think.

I’ve learned sexual partners/lovers also don’t like it if you compare them to your previous shags or assignations, especially if the comparison is on the negative side of the scale.

I’ve learned that when you say things ‘off the record’ they most definitely are on the record.

I’ve learned that mobile phones don’t tend to work very well after they’ve accidently been allowed to stay in your pocket when you attempt to go surfing. However, a night in the freezer or a fifteen minutes at gas mark three can do wonders!

I’ve learned that I should trust my instincts more, although not the one that says I should strip naked and run through Marks & Spencer’s on a wet Wednesday.

I've learned that you can keep puking long after you think you've finished. Also no matter how careful you think you have been, still somehow yet get some splashed in your hair and down your top.

I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, unless of course we’re either celebrities or politicians and then we get paid to have responsibility, but always blame someone when it all goes wrong.

I've learned that regardless of how hot, rampant, sexy and steamy a relationship is at the start, the passion fades after three months and two days, after that you’d better have plenty in common or an awful lot of money.

I’ve learned that you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes, only sometimes you get what you need.

I’ve learned that I should never get so drunk that I have memory black outs and wake up in a strange flat in a strange town dressed as a clown with a penis drawn on my head.

I’ve learned that no matter how often I learn the above, I’ll still get that drunk at least twice a year.

I’ve learned that you can miss someone you’ve never met and yet forget someone you have.

I’ve learned that after a lot of research, 42 may not indeed be the answer, but it’s just as good as a lot of supposed other answers!

I’ve learned that no matter how much I fight it, hate it, despise myself for doing it that I am still becoming more and more like my father as the months go by.

I’ve learned that you should never stick your finger into a light socket just to see what would happen.

I’ve learned that working in a dead end job that you hate is neither good for the soul or the mind.

I’ve realised that I like a few twists in my sobriety.

I’ve realised that in the gay world I have matured and transformed from being a chicken to a twinky to a twink, to a scene queen to a bear to a daddy, all five years before I knew it!

I’ve realised that in gay scene terms I’m now aged somewhere between death and antiquity.

I’ve learned that I’m not much good at gardening.

I’ve learned that saying “Frigging hell, you’ve got the most gorgeous face I’ve ever seen, mind if I sit down on it” is not a very good nor successful chat up line.

I’ve learned that no matter how much it seems a good idea at the time, it holds the same level of regret afterwards.

I’ve learned that the best things in life are indeed free, except of course food, drink, chocolate and electronic reading devices.

I’ve learned you can want the best for someone, but that doesn’t mean they’ll do it, get it or even thank you for wanting it for them.

I’ve learned that sometimes even the straightest of boys still like a carrot or other similar shaped object inserted into their rear spasm chasm.

I’ve learned that spreading Nutella on roast potatoes is an acquired taste and best not be done at dinner parties.

I’ve learned that forty year old men should not wear budgie smugglers on the beach – ever!

I’ve learned that sentimentality isn’t always a bad thing.

I’ve learned that thinking you are a writer because you have a story to tell doesn’t exactly mean you are actually a writer or that anyone will want to read your stories.

I’ve learned that I like getting dirty as long as I can get clean afterwards and yes, I am talking figuratively as well as literally.

I’ve learned that just because some random handsome studcake on the seafront is wearing a shirt than is emblazoned with the word ‘Bench’ doesn’t mean you just go and sit on his lap or indeed face with impunity.

I've also learned that there is indeed a Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and that they sound rather good, I'm going to investigate ukulele playing or indeed players a little further this coming year! Maybe I'll even have my own version 'I will follow you into the dark' played on a little ukulele!

So come on, tell me yours, what have you learnt this year?

My Travel Checklist

2011-12-24T22:00:00.001Z

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of My Travel Checklist. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’m an organized man, you might not think it, but I am, for example I have an emergency supplies box, in case of I guess emergencies! I also have a bag packed with a few items of clothes on permanent standby and all ready to go at a moments notice. However, I still need a little help with other things, planning holidays, going away on business or taking a trip can require an awful lot of thought and care. Mondial Assistance is here to help. They have launched a wonderful free widget to help with all those things you need to think about before a holiday or a trip.

My Travel Checklist is so easy to use, select what sort of trip you’re going on, where you’re going, it’s location and the expected weather outlook in your destination which then leads you on to various check lists. It helps you pack so many items that may not be immediately apparent, you’ll also be able to add some of your own items, ensuring you know what to pack. But not only what goes in your case, My Travel Checklist also helps with chores and duties you have to undertake before you jet off - such as cancelling the newspaper delivery, sorting out the post and all that sort of thing.

I really like its interesting and simple design which makes it so easy to use and you know it can be used online, or downloaded. On computers and also mobile devices and is sure to help you with a hassle free holiday.
You can save, modify, update, email and even print out everything to ensure your trip goes smoothly. This easy simple download is really a must for anyone about to travel.
My Travel Checklist

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T18:53:00.001Z

devinatart

Find out where Santa is here.

As I settle down for the festive season, all the shopping done, presents bought, wrapped and delivered and nothing left to do, I settle myself with a glass of wine in front of the TV goggle box. One of the TV highlights for me, which I am sure you’ll think is a little strange, usually takes place late in the evening, however, this year it’s on early evening and is, wait for it - Carols From Kings!

Yes, one of my own festive highlights is watching and rather surprisingly enjoying the annual carol service from the chapel of Kings College in Cambridge. It is a strange tradition for me to have developed, especially given my apathy and scepticism of organised religion, yet it happens to be something I do rather treasure.

I’ve tried not over analyse my joy of this, for when I over scrutinise something I have enjoyment for it tends to loose its attraction, so I cant tell you whether the symbolic nature of traditional Christmas celebration pleases me most. There may very well be other ingredients and aspects at play, such as sweet looking males of various ages looking most innocent and pure with voices of splendour and beauty. (No, before you get down to that level, I don’t not automatically want to defrock and deflower all choristers. I am not a taker of innocence after all, what do you think I am? A catholic priest?)

Then perhaps my subconscious makes me choose to enjoy this wholly religious service as a self preservation behaviourism, just in case there really is a god and a heaven – at least this way, once a year I have preyed at his table so to speak - therefore I’m not as evil as might have been previously thought and likely to be cast out of heavens warm embrace till the end of eternity!

Or maybe, as I mellow and age like a good stilton, I want to sit and enjoy the simpler things in life, like the magic of the human voice – the greatest instrument there is, nod my head to a good tune and smile at a little sing-along. Holy fuck – I’ve turned into my own grandmother!

Yes, I know it was probably recorded back on a wet Wednesday in October, such as are most ‘Christmas Special’ TV programmes, but it still holds a little magic for me. Hopefully that’s not just silly sentimentality which I’ve often accused of being and just an extension my ‘just cuz I don’t believe in something, doesn’t mean I cant appreciate the beauty of an aspect of it’ kind of mentality.

We all have our own likes and desires, traditions family or otherwise, that we partake of at this time of year and I want to take this opportunity to wish you all well with yours. I hope whatever you do, it is filled with health and happiness. That good cheer sees you all the way through to the new year and beyond as 2012 turns our calendar and diary pages. May your dreams come true and you get all the presents you wanted, or at least not another pair of old woolly socks from mad uncle Jason or a tin of peaches from crazy granny Lizzy. Save me some sprouts!

Burning The Clocks

2011-12-22T14:38:00.000Z

Thousands of people from Brighton and the surrounding area turned out last night, for the annual 'Burning the Clocks' festival and procession in the city.

It makes the winter solstice having had the longest night or shortest day and we now look forward to longer days, shorter nights and the forever onward passage of time.

A massive long parade of people - big and small, paper clocks, candles and the odd dragon and other beasties trolled through the centre of the city before lanterns were set ablaze on the beach and a few fireworks shot off into the sky.

It may have been a bit nippy, but it always makes a special special spectacle and an community uniting event.

It always surprises me how many people turn up to such events!

Here's the current number five downloaded single on the UK charts - Alex Day, Forever Yours.

Alex hasn't got a record label or owt like that he just put it out as a charity song and already it's doing quite well. The vid also features that lovely little internet wonderboy Charlie, who I have to confess I do have a little soft spot for - well that smile, that ukulele playing, that sweet personality - straight boys need a little love too! He also makes a damn good living from his youtube internet malarkey.

© 2011 Copyright Jason Shaw - ask for permission