Norman Ralph

When Kieran first mentioned that he had the chance to go and help brew the School of Computing’s graduation ale and was looking for some volunteers to go with him I nearly bit his arm off! The chance to head across to the E&S Brewery in Elland to have a go at brewing up our own batch of beer. it was like a dream come true.

As the date approached, however, it became clear that the brewing would clash with my new job at O2. It turned out alright in the end though – the brewing would take place from 6am – 4pm and I would work from 5.30pm – 9.30pm at O2. You just have to love the seventeen hour days!

The 4.40am alarm went off on the morning of the brew and I rushed myself a breakfast and headed over to Kieran’s to pick him up ready to be in Elland, near Halifax, by 6am. Armed with a bottle of Kick and a change of clothes we arrived at E&S eager to start our day’s work and what a day’s work it turned out to be!

The brewer’s day is a long one. Often at work by 6am, lots of manual labour and careful scientific work, then hours of waiting around they don’t leave until well into the evening. It is highly rewarding though.

We started off by loading a quarter of a ton malt and wheat into a hopper ready to go into the mash ‘tun, this was then mixed with hot water to make the ‘mash’ which was then left to stand for an hour or so. This ‘wort’ was then drained off and piped into the copper, basically a giant kettle, and was then boiled for an hour. We added the hops and some other ingredients and set about clearing the masher. We had to shovel by hand the original quarter ton of malt (now much heavier as it was soaking wet) out of the mash tun for the cows to eat. We then hosed, scrubbed and polished the inside of the mash tun ready for the next brew. We managed a quick lunch before we had to start pumping the wort from the copper into the fermenter where we could add the yeast and start turning it into ale. When the copper was empty we set about cleaning it, removing all the hops and other debris. This is actually done by climbing into the copper and shovelling it out again.

A hard day’s work, but well worth it in every day. Roll on graduation day so I can taste it!

A big thank you to all at Elland Brewery for letting us play in their factory and also to fellow volunteers Kieran and Tony.

Some of you may recognise the tagline I used for my heading for this post… that’s right, it can be seen on some of the O2 advertising from a few months ago.

They now own my services! Yep, I now work for O2 part-time in their technical support department for the newly launched O2 Home Broadband. I am currently in training, which should last for another 6 weeks but it seems like a decent enough job. I am only first line support at the moment, basically a phone monkey, but hopefully some vacancies will open up in second line support soon enough. It is a good place top work in all honetsy, relaxed dress code, good perks and a good bunch of people.

Now, the reason I had to go out and get a job. I have a new house! We signed for it last week and move in around the 23rd June, just after Chris and I get back from the Secular COnference in Edinburgh. It is a really nice house with plenty of room, which is a bugger for wiring it up with networking cable. At the moment it is looking like a good couple of hundred metres!

I will upload some pics of the new house just as soon as I get them off my phone.

Congratulations to all the Computing lot too, they all graduated!

I have just discovered a massive link between two of my favourite hobbies and signature geek properties! Michael Dorn, Worf from the Star Trek franchise, did a lot of the voice work in World of Warcraft, the MMORPG that I play!

The Christmas festivities are over, the New Year hangovers have subsided and 2008 is nearly a week old. This seems like the perfect opportunity to take a look back at 2007 and the people, events and ideas that made it.

Christmas and New Year are always a time for reflection and nostalgia and this year was no different. My family was all together for the first time in a while, including some of the new additions. I had an enjoyable time with several highlights – firstly, I caught up with some old friends and relived some of those moments from my youth that I miss. I also had a good time Christmas Day as I actually felt part of the family for the first time in many years. The end of December was also a good time for me, I spent it with Liz and her family and really felt accepted.

Anyway, back to my review of the year.

January
January was an interesting month, fisrt it saw the blossoming of a new friendship, one that would lead to something quite special – although i didn’t know that at the time of course. This month saw the final plans for the new academic year’s housing plans and all the arguments that surrounded that decision. This is probably the time that I cemented my friendship with a number of people whom I now consider my closest allies.

January’s exam period was hard for me, not just for the obvious reasons, but because it saw the dawning in my mind that I had lost my passion in Materials Engineering, that the course was no longer the inspiration I required. I began to toy with the idea of leaving university, or at least changing course.

February
I don’t remember much of February apart from starting at McDonald’s and buying a new car. I also went to Langdale in the Lake District with my mum.

March
March was an interesting month, I saw Barenaked Ladies in concert in Leeds which was amazing, visited Sarann in the Lakes and most importantly I started this blog.

April
Now here is the definition of a rollercoaster ride. I reached some of the lowest points of my life but also touched some of the highest highs. I ran Rationalist Week, spent a week in a self-destructive spiral of drinking, partying and depression, I met a girl and fell in love.

May
May was a busy month. Liz and my relationship went from strength to strength, went to see Soweto Kinch and The Who live in concert and Blackpool won in the League One play-offs and got themselves promoted to the Championship.

June
Festivals were the order of the day/month for June. I went to Sunrise and Farmyard Party to work in a chip van with Sarann. I had a great time but it meant not seeing Liz for a lot of the month – the first real test for our relationship. I think we ended up stronger than ever! Chris ended up in hospital with a serious bout of appendicitis and I spent a lot of time helping Matt sort out his car.

July
July was quite boring compared to the surrounding months.I went to Workhouse in Wales, had minor computing issues and moved in with my new housemates – Sarann, Michelle, B and Chris.

August
Always a quiet month, with uni still a month away and the excitement of breaking up long since faded away. I spent most of the month taking stock and seeing what was what in my life. I did go to Solfest, however, which was definitely a personal highlight of the year!

September
I made only seven blog posts in September, which gives a good indication of how little I did. I did start a new course at university though and turned twenty-three – which also explains the lack of blogging! The combination of Fresher’s week and birthday celebrations will do that to a man.

October
A difficult month for me. A lot of things happened in my private life that left me somewhat adrift. I did get a new computer though, which is always nice!

November
November saw things pick up a bit with the A-Soc London trip, Atheist Week and the discovery of the Lancashire Hotpots! London was worth all the effort that I put into it, it turned out better than anyone had predicted and nothing really bad happened. Liz and I went from strength to strength and I even managed to find time to do some uni work!

December
A month of WoW and family. Not a lot to report on really, except what is already included at the top of this post. It was a good festive period all in all. I think it set me up for 2008 quite nicely.

1000 – 0230

I managed nearly twelve hours of game time today. rushing through to level 17, doing all the pre-deadmines quests and farming for gold.

The pace is still relatively slow but most people are ready for DM now with the exception of George who had his CHristmas party today. I am sure we will all manage level 20 by end of play tomorrow.

I was wondering whether I will continue this protection specced paladin after the marathon, bearing in mind I have a level 41 paladin on another server (although a different specification). I am getting used to the character now and I am loathed to give up on him, but as I mentioned I have a similar character and I have played most of the quests to death.

Anyway, I am starting to feel the pain of the marathon now. I have slept for less than 10 hours in total since we started and barely eaten – except for the A-Soc dinner this evening.

1000 – 0500

The first 24 hours are over and we are now well into the second full day. Players dropped like flies during the first few hours. We lost Phil to family commitments and MC to work. Liz was still having connection issues so we didn’t see her much online.

Chris, Michelle, George and I finished off Elwynn Forest and moved across to Westfall. The pace picked up slightly for a while as we hit levels 12 and 13. Things started getting a bit patchy after Michelle had to leave for a Chinese lesson and then other people heading off for other commitments around 6pm.

2300 saw the four of us pretty much back online to carry on where we left off and now we are hotting levles 15 and 16 in Loch Modan where we are kitting up for Deadmines, the lowest level instance for the Alliance.

I ams till surprised by how we are going, but then we seem to have farm more items and quest drops per quest than is relative to our group size (ie we are having to kill more than just four times a solo level). In good news, however, Liz managed to maintain a steady connection for an hour or so and has managed to progress through most of the Elwynn Forest quests and with careful play could probably catch up in a few days. Unfortunately, there are less than 36 hours remaining.

Having played with my Zombie deck a few times now I have made some decisions about its content. Firstly, I want to get rid of the Angel’s Trumpet artifact as although it forces ability strong creatures to attack rather than use their abilities, it also hampers my defensive strategy by forcing me to attack rather than leave blockers. I am thinking of replacing it with either another artifact or enchantment that allows me some way of preventing creatures using their abilities, or with an instant or sorcery that allows me to destroy enchantments – particularly Circle of Protection Black!

I have seen a couple of interesting cards out there, but nothing definitive, so will keep looking and experimenting. Will let you know the outcome ASAP. Any ideas let me know.

Well it has been a little while since I last mentioned my new found hobby, Magic: The Gathering so I thought I would remedy it today. I have been playing a few weeks now and have a number of preconstructed decks to play along with my self-made black deck. I am really starting to get to grips with a lot of the nuances involved in the game along with spreading the gospel. I have managed to get Liz hooked too. She went out and bought a couple of Time Spiral pre-constructed decks to have a play with, but I am currently looking after them My brother arrived back in Kikrham today and managed to squeeze in a tutorial and several games with him. he isn’t the type to get hooked easily, but he is definitely taken with them.

I don’t care that it is a game for proper geeks, it really fires the imagination and the skill and tactical awareness required to construct and then play the game is actually at a very high level. I still think the game relies too heavily on an element of luck, especially reliant on the speed at which you can develop land. but otherwise I am well and truly addicted to the game. Rest assured that there will be plenty more posts on the subject in the future

Land (20):

20 x Swamps

Creatures (17):

1 x Ascendant Evincar – Vampire (3/3, Flying, Black Creatures +1/+1, Non-black Creatures -1/-1)
1 x Lord of the Undead – Zombie(2/2, Other Zombies +1/+1, 1B, t Return Zombie to hand from graveyard)
2 x Severed Legion – Zombie (2/2, Fear)
2 x Gravediggers – Zombie (2/2, When played return target creature to hand from graveyard)
1 x Festering Goblin – Zombie Goblin (1/1, When put in graveyard from play target creature -1/-1)
1 x Gempalm Polluter – Zombie (4/3, Cycling 2B – when cycled target player loses 1 life for each Zombie in play)
1 x Dripping Dead – Zombie (4/1, Can’t block, Destroys target creature if deals combat damage)
1 x Keeper of the Dead – Wizard (1/2, B, t Destroy target non-black creature)
1 x Nekrataal – (2/1, First strike, When played destroy target non-artifact non-black creature)
2 x Restless Dead – Skeletons (1/1, B Regenerate)
1 x Abyssal Specter – Specter (2/3, Flying, When deals damage to player that player discards 1 card)
1 x Wake of Vultures – (3/1, Flying, 1B Sacrifice creature Regenerate)
1 x Belbe’s Percher – (2/2, Flying, Can only block flying creatures)
1 x Screeching Harpy – (2/2, Flying. 1B Regenerate)

Sorcery (13):

2 x Raise Dead – Return target creature from graveyard to hand
2 x Syphon Soul – Deals 2 damage to target player, you receive 2 life
1 x Diabolic Tutor – Search library and move 1 card to hand
1 x Unnerve – Each opponent discards 2 cards
1 x Soul Feast – Target player loses 4 life, you gain 4 life
1 x Mind Rot – Target player discards 2 cards
1 x Death’s Duet – Return 2 creatures from graveyard to hand
1 x Restless Dreams – Discard X cards, return X cards from graveyard to hand
1 x Assassinate – Destroy tapped creature
1 x Essence Drain – deals 3 damage to player/creature, gain 3 life
1 x Buried Alive – Search library and move 3 creatures to graveyard

Instant (6):

3 x Dark Ritual – Add BBB to mana pool
2 x Terror – Destroy target non-artifact non-black creature
1 x Agonising Demise – Destroy target non-artifact non-black creature

Enchantments (1):

1 x Death Watch – Enchant Creature (If creature is put into graveyard controlling player loses life equal to power and you gain life equal to toughness)

Artifacts (3):

1 x Demon’s Horn – When black spell is played you gain 1 life
1 x Angel’s Trumpet – Attacking does not cause creatures to tap, all creatures that do not attack are tapped at end of turn
1 x Soul Net – 1, gain 1 life each time creature is put itno graveyard from play

Comments?

Right, so I have been a World of Warcraft convert for nigh on six months now, add to that my nerdiness when it comes to Star Trek and my love of computer games etc and you would think that I am already somewhat of a geek. You would be wrong!

This last week has seen me introduced to a trading card game called Magic: The Gathering. I have never been a huge TGC fan, though I did get quite into the Star Wars one several years back. However, I am hooked on Magic now. I bought myself my own deck on Saturday and have already started yoinking cards from Si and MC to put together my very first home made deck. So I am currently playing a Black/Red pre-made deck and am trying to balance out my zombie heavy Black deck. I am looking to try and put together a wierd ass Green/Black or Red/Blue deck next – they look like fun.

Will update on my finalised decks soon.