100 posts in and what's changed?

I was hoping that I'd have some earth shattering news for the 100th post but just now I realised that wouldn't be true to the rest of this blag.
I'm writing this at midnight, on a night shift (already got pretty much everything done for tomorrow...) and outside to the south the clouds are backlit by the almost full moon, to the north the sky still holds the afterglow of sunset; this time of year it doesn't fully go down. While I was outside taking the hourly observation the air conditioning unit shut off and all I could hear was the low susurrus of the waves on the beach to the north and the lonely cry of a gull overhead.
Just now a shower has run through, a light one, but enough for the air to take on that smell of sharp, almost green, cleanliness and the deep rolling tones of the shore to be counter pointed by the crisp tattoo of the rain on the balcony.
I'm not where I thought, or hoped, I would be by this point when I started this blog but right now, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I'm closer to where I want to be, and certainly in a better place but I keep making the path ahead of me longer than it needs to be.
Since I put the first post down I've finished my training and require evidence for three sections of units to finish my NVQ – I’ve been trying to get these units signed off since I got up here in Scotland. One of my friends has taken her Chartered Engineer exams (results by Wednesday, good luck!) and another has started the road to his MBA. I’ve completed my CBT, but not the full bike training, nor have I completed my IAM or diving training. I’m still resolutely single (damn it!) but that’s not really a major worry. I’ve made a good number of friends in the mess and am known by many more. I have climbed at least three Munros, with another planned next month for charity (if anyone fancies sponsoring us to climb a fairly major hill, PLEASE visit http://www.justgiving.com/mountain-numpties , it’s for WaterAid, a charity I’ve liked for a while) and I’ve got my accuracy up to 94.7% on my TAFs, which are the basic 9 hour forecasts we produce. If you told someone that the weather forecasts in this country were almost 95% accurate they’d usually laugh you off the stage.
I’ve got back in contact with a couple of friends recently, including Richard, the guy I shared a room with in the first year of Uni, and Danijela, who went to college with use.
I’ve been to a couple of old friends weddings, and missed more; visited friends down south for Halloween and had a brilliant time; spent one New Years camping in the middle of no-where and another on the banks of Loch Ness, climbing, sledging, mountain walking and biking, ice skating and snowboarding. I’ve walked through snow and thistle, in shorts (rarely), kilts (even more rarely) and trousers, under skies clear blue while the sun rises to kiss the mountains with a golden peak, under leaden skies soon to poor rain onto the ground below; I’ve started so early we had to wear head torches to see the way and seen nights so light with the afterglow of the sun that you can read outside at midnight; I’ve walked alone and with friends, with dogs and ice-axes; I’ve slept in winds so strong we’ve prayed for the morning and dreaded the thought of going outside and through all of it, I feel incredibly privileged to be here.
Yeah, there are things I want to do, things I need to do and things I really shouldn’t do, like all of us; for example I’d like to see more of my friends, but I realised that I am the architect of my regrets and my successes. When I look back again I know that it will be my choices and my actions that will shape whether or not I am happy with the time spent.

So there we are. 100 posts, which works out to under one a week. Still, I think it makes me the most frequently posting of any of my friends (of late anyway). I know none of the 100 posts have exactly been Pulitzer material and most would have bored the pants of anyone reading them but thank you for reading them and I hope that I can find something worthwhile to put up soon.

Convergence

A lager advert on the TV has Violent Femmes as a sound-track, which made me pop onto iTunes and grab it, as it made me think about Grosse Point Blank, one of my 20 favourite films (come on! "I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork, how have you been?" Lines don't get much better). Riding back from Inverness today and the same tune came on my iPod, I think "must watch that film again soon" and lo and behold, right now on UKTV Gold, it's Grosse Point Blank.
*edit to add* just seen one of my favourite scenes on film. As a single guy I have a certain image to maintain as a climbing, boarding, kayaking, martial arts blokey bloke but the bit in the film with Robbie (at the reunion with Under Pressure in the background), it's just fantastic. If you've seen the film you'll know it. Just gets to me, you know. ;D */edit*
Score!
Tis a good day.

Also managed to get a few pictures of Scotland today as well, this is one of the better ones.

You know, I'm really lucky to live up here. I was faced with the dilemma of do I go snow-boarding, to the cinema, walking on the beach or walking on a snow covered mountain on my day off. Woosed out, went to the cinema, saw 21, not bad. Grosse Point Blank's better though. Mountains later, wine now.

Quick update

Good to see you back Swiral!!
Anyway, just a quicky, nowt much to say but went to the mess for a quick drink at 6, just got back (1 am :) ) so all good. It's neg 01 outside and snowy, about an inch thick but not very dense outside.
I'm a bit tipsy at the mo, just wanted to say woohoo for the snow!
Family Guy on now, which is great, but both FX and BBC three are showing the same episodes from series one...
On the plus side, managed to drag my carcass to the gym today, so now just another 8 weeks to go.
Hopefully something blog-worthy will happen soon.

Webcomics and T'Interweb in general.

Please note, this is not about time wasting, it's about what to do when there isn't anything more immediately demanding on your time.
At work, especially on nights or quiet days, we have quite alot of spare time. I had been using this to do more work on my NVQ and the job folders, but those are all done now. So the problem arises, what does one do with the time?
Should I try and carry on writing the story I've been working on for about three years (not sure how far I've got in words or chapters but I'm about 30% through the story), should I take a book in to read (problem, this will increase the number of books I read, which can become costly), should I surf the net for new and unusual things to do or should I take up the OU where I left off and try and improve myself. Or I could do something for the office.
Aside - here's one for you, the office has a whole PR and marketing department (not counting brand managers ;) ), whose job is to market the office to wider world. I mentioned to them that the Wikipedia page about the office is frankly pants and did they think it was worth improving, seeing how invasive the Wiki is these days. Their response was to invite me to write the article for them to have a look at. Now given that I'm almost complaining of having too much spare time on some shifts this may well seem fair but my point is that this is their job, they can get to all of the office, all of the little specialties, whereas I'm a forecaster in the north. In the outfield. One of those not too pleased with some recent events. Meh, aside ends here.
I would do the OU but there are enough other things on the horizon at the moment that would cause problems with that, so it's down to the internet!
I won't say I was there from the start with the net, in fact it was 97 before I saw my first web page, but we did use it alot at uni, so I was amongst the early adopters, but there's SO much of it. I've even edited pages on Wikipedia. I think I may have added some pages but I can't remember.
So to fill my free time, I was directed to the Order of the Stick (OOTS), and from there to the many wonderful worlds of web comics. WooHoo, goodbye spare time!!
Particular favourites are Gone with the Blastwave, Schlock Mercenary, Girl Genius, Flipside and Inverloch, but OOTS remains my favourite. If you've ever played any role play games (not that sort Beth!) you'll love it.
What worries me most about the comics, aside from the fact I get far too many of the jokes (I've only done one RPG that I can remember) is how often the characters remind me of my friends, from Captain Tagon in Schlock (scarily like Andi in looks and occasional directed violence - usually in my direction, but nothing like in intellect or current employment) to most of the cast of Girl Genius, I can relate to most of the players. What worries me is where I'll end up fitting in. Hoping for Kevyn, more likely somewhere between Durkon and Belkar.
One of the things I like about the wonderful worlds that people produce is that, okay, not all of them are brilliant, but someone's made the effort to create a story, and there are many, many of them out there.
Shifts just got shorter. Hurrah!

More weddings

And a big huzzah to Pam on joining the ranks of the affianced. Congratulations lady!
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While perusing the Jim Butcher website and forum, I was directed to the Order of the Stick.
Most funny, especially if you've ever played any RPGs - or know of those that have. And if you get the joke about "Tragic the Saddening by Lizards of the Toast" then you will enjoy the strip quite alot! *editted to correct a joke*