Never Playing it Cool

Star Wars was without a doubt my first obsession, it was a part of my life since before I could form memories that allow me to remember the first time I ever watched the original saga. I can safely say that Star Wars in no small part shaped who I am today, and the characters therein influenced me greatly. From a very young age I could never get along with the helpless, histerical, screaming damsel in distress female leads we were getting in films like "Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom." I put this down to the fact the first woman of cinema I came across was an ass kicking Princess in space who took command of her own rescue when the heroes had no plan and giving them a verbal bollocking for it whilst blasting away at a squad of Stormtroopers. She didn't take crap off anyone and got the job done, the only rescuing she needed was someone to unlock the door and place a blaster in her hand, she had it from there. Without Carrie Fisher, we wouldn't have Prince...

Music has always been the biggest thing going on for me and I thought it always would be, having dedicated half of my life to my band; The Gifted. I'm confident that it will still remain a big thing for me but after several years of unfulfilling gigging and a stress filled album project I've had to step away from it until I find the love for it again. Something I will have to allow to come naturally and not try to force it. I still love music and not a day goes by when I don't listen to at least one or two albums, and I still go over ideas in my head for songs and projects. I just need to wait for that spark of creativity to hit that gives the enthusiasm and drive to throw myself into another project. So until that day comes I've found that gaming has taken over as my largest obsession, specifically Magic: The Gathering. I've been playing MTG for about four years now which for the most part was on a very casual level. Since changing jobs and now having regular M...

For five years I lived on the Isle of Man. A while ago this seemed like a large chunk of my life but I realise now that as I get older and succumb to the inevitable decay that is life (I know, cheery right) this period is becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of my total existence. In fact it's 15% (roughly) of my total 33 years, and that number is going to get smaller. I often find myself thinking about time in what I suppose you could call a philosophical way. Usually resulting in waves of existential dread. I think about people that used to be a huge part of my life who now years later are like strangers, who the only real acknowledgment of their continued existence I have is through Facebook. I have little to no contact with anyone I went to school with or the best friends I grew up with. I have (some of) them as Facebook friends but in no way interact with them. I do see that many of them are still friends with each other and ...

There are things in this world that baffle me but nothing so much as people's ability to stare facts straight in the face and still argue to the contrary. Okay I'll come straight out and say it, I'm talking about religion, and it could be my own atheist arrogance to presume I'm right about these things, but that's because I am. I jest of course, and fully accept that however confident I am about something there is always the possibility that I can be proven to be wrong, and often have been. Having an empirical outlook on life I find it hard to comprehend how someone can commit themselves to something that there is no evidence to support, and base their lifestyle completely on faith. Accepting what they are told or have read to be true without demanding any kind of facts or figures to back it up. If I told you I was a multi millionaire but had lost my bank card and needed to borrow a grand on the assurance that I am a multi millionaire and I'm good for...

Those of you who have been reading this self indulgent "look at me" blog will know that a couple of months ago I set out on a mission of self improvement with a list of goals in mind. I said I'd post regular updates as to how I'm getting on as well as possibly revise and add new goals. So, here I am two months later and I can say I've made a start but a somewhat stumbling half hearted one. I'm not going to go into specifics right now as there aren't too many to go into but the list was as follows. Read More Write More Commit to regular blogs with both Never Playing it Cool and The Player of Games Work more on my story writing Be Healthier (Mentally and Physically) Eat Better Food Exercise More Get Better Sleep Stress Less Be More Organised Watch Less TV Play More Games My only real progress of note has been getting more exercise, I am walking a lot and done the occasional bit of (painful) running/jogging. But at the moment I'm ...

I've always been terrible at maths, didn't do well with it at school and still struggle to this day with anything beyond basic adding and subtracting. However, that doesn't stop me being completely obsessed and fascinated by it all. For some years now I've become obsessed with physics and the maths that goes with it. I took to reading a lot of pop science books starting of course with Hawking's "A Brief History of Time," which I have now read more than once and still don't quite understand it all, but hey. What I do love though is when something does click and my inferior mind manages to comprehend and understand some element of it, the joy, satisfaction and sheer fascination is incredibly rewarding. What of the greatest book titles ever is Richard Feynman's "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" because learning something new and understanding it is a pleasure and oh so rewarding. I'm in that position where the subjects that bored ...

I have yet to see Star Trek Beyond, and I now doubt I will. I was dubious after the trailers and I had my reservations when I heard the director was best known for Fast and Furious film(s). Today I saw this poster with Captain Kirk (I believe) pulling a wheelie on a motorbike....! NO! Just No! I mean seriously? Do they not "get" Star Trek. Plus Chris Pine's comments that you can't make cerebral Star Trek in this day and age. I liked you Chris, I was going to give you a chance as Kirk after Star Trek 2009... *Sigh* I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.

Lately I've been spending a lot of my free time reading Wil Wheaton's blog at wilwheaton.net , as a big fan of Wil Wheaton from watching Star Trek The Next Generation and more recently his gaming shenanigans with the Geek and Sundry shows TableTop and Titansgrave and everything in between, I can highly recommend his blog. Reading it has inspired me to really get into what I set out to do several years ago and start writing a regular blog of my own. When I realised it had been nearly two years since I'd actually written anything for Never Playing it Cool, I decided last week now was the time to pick it back up and commit to regular posts and entries. I also realised it was among a lot of things I wanted to do or change in my life and again this was really inspired by something Ser Wheaton has been posting on his own blog. He had started a "Life Reboot" where he looked at his life and addressed what needed changing or what he wanted to do more/less of or what he d...

From previous posts, or maybe even because you know me, you may have gathered I like my games. Some time ago my friend Phill Vincent and I set out to start a YouTube thing, inspired by TableTop and Spellslingers etc around gaming, but not limiting it board games but video games as well. Not just playing but talking, reviewing and generally discussing games and gaming. We named it "The Player of Games" after the title of one of my favourite books by one of my favourite authors - Iain M. banks. It never really got going for one reason or another, we filmed a quick test playing the X-Wing Miniatures game but never completed anything to actually upload. Not wanting to give up we still intend to get something off the ground but maybe a bit more planning and work is required. In the meantime I thought why not start off with a blog where I/we can write about gaming the same way we were wanting to make videos, so I've done just that. There's only one post on there so far, b...

It's been a busy year or so which has meant I haven't really had the time or drive to keep up with the whole blogging thing, hence why I've not posted for quite some time. Now that the projects I've been working on are complete I find myself with the free time again and thought now was the perfect time to start it up again, try and commit to regular posts as well as other things I want to get in order with life in general but that's a topic for another day. For now I thought the best thing to start with on the eve of the EU Referendum that's happening here in the UK, was to post my thoughts on that. So here goes. I've never been fond of confrontation, in fact I actively avoid it, which is why I've held back on commenting on the whole subject in a manner more public that discussing it with close friends who are like minded on the subject. When colleagues, friends or family go on at length with views that are contradictory to mine, rather than...