geezer

Bwahaha ...

Heh, heh ... time to expose a new side of the Geezer that few have seen before ...

I recently went to Andrews Air Force Base, where there was an excellent day of static and aerial displays, including [cackle, cackle] a truckload of guns for me to get my mucky paws on. Here for your delectation, boys ...

Starting off with a basic silenced M4 carbine, fully desert-camo'd up. Perfect for pesky guard dogs or goat boys ...

Still, I had to love this heavily-modded M4, modelled by generic street-punk who was just signing up for service in Iraq circa 2010 ...

"Say hello to Mike's liddle friend ..."

Uhhh! I freakin' love those M-249s.

Still, I couldn't help but feel there was something more substantial out there ...

Hint for ya. Never try to shoulder the Barrett .50 ...

Ahhh. That's more like it. Getting comfy behind ol' Ma Deuce, and taking a peek through the thermal imager ...

... then onto the Mk. 19 grenade launcher ...

But I'd have to say that getting on the Blackhawk door-gunner's minigun rig made my day. Mike prepares to fly the unfriendly skies ...

... perhaps I should have told Maria it wasn't loaded.

My FAVOURITE static exhibit of the day ... Poo Face reclining under an F-15 Strike Eagle ... fanks for taking me to the airshow, Poo.

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

My three readers (Maria, Mum, and Mia) may have noticed that the Nerd Stuff thread had thus far been empty. Do not be deceived. Beneath the surface, the nerd inside me is fighting to get out. Uh huh. Yeah. I'm hatching a new chapter of my long-running Rebellion-era Star Wars roleplaying campaign, to be reactivated on my return to the UK. It will pick up where my player group, the Alliance Special Operations team known as Rogue Talon, left off. In movie terms, they are currently playing after the end of Episode V Empire Strikes Back, but before the beginning of Episode VI Return of the Jedi. The game will see Rogue Talon engage in two critical tasks and finally defeat their twin nemesis. First they must bring about the fall of the illustrious House of Jabba the Hutt, the criminal mastermind of the Arkanis Sector. Then, they must turn against their dark-side counterparts, the Increment, hunting them from one remote Sith temple hideout to another before uncovering their mysterious home planet in the deepest recesses of wild space. To give some flavour of where we left off:

Nerd stuff

I'm a Nerd. And sometimes I need to talk about Nerd stuff. The Nerd Stuff thread is where I'm gonna do it. Whether it be my latest roleplaying campaign idea or musings on the Terminator timeline - this is where it can be found.

The Beginning

This is a beginning, but not The Beginning that I'm going to write about. The Beginning that this blog will talk about is something I think a lot about. By 'The Beginning', I'm referring to something that I feel slowly happening to me - the start of my real adult life, the start of a lifelong relationship, the start of a family, the start of a career. At the same time, it feels like the end of something - the end of my real pre-adult life, the end of singlehood, the end of selfishness, the end of childhood, the end of directionless wandering.

As I write, I can't help but feel self-conscious. But fuck it! I find myself interesting. At least I have that in common with other bloggers. I'm a Brit. I'm 30. I live and work in Washingtion DC. I come from London. I live with my American girlfriend, Maria. We're serious about each other. I have a great crew of friends in London, and I miss them a lot. I'm very close to my family. I work in journalism and consultancy dealing with Middle East security. I'm a nerd - always was - I roleplay (you know, like Dungeons and Dragons), I play wargames, I daydream a lot and I love sci-fi and horror films. I'm very romantic. I like to break rules - I hate being told off. I used to be a workaholic, but now I'm a lazy bastard. I still have the expectation that I should be a big success, but I feel like I'm running out of steam. I run up against rules a lot - I find the moral codes and legal rules here in the US really infuriating. I like to travel to dangerous places. I'd probably have loved to be a spy - but like a lot of things, I never stuck with any one path for long enough to make it a reality.

I'm young, healthy, white, and well-educated - I have the luxury of choices. This blog is about those choices.