Grim up North Heath

Tag: dailyprompt

  • The year I was born: 1969

    The year I was born: 1969

    One small step…

    The main event in the year I was born was something that I consider the crowning achievement of humanity: man landing on the moon.

    Neil Armstrong on the moon. Not much else to say about it.

    Thousands of genius engineers and scientists worked with one aim: to get people to the moon and back again safely.

    Other events

    The first Jumbo Jet flew in January and the first Concorde flight took place in March. So as far as getting people off the ground, it was quite a good year.

    In music, the Woodstock festival and the first Isle of Wight festival took place. Black Sabbath recorded their first album in October, though it wasn’t released until 1970. The Beatles split up and the disastrous Altamont Free Concert put a lid on the flower power era.

    Moon Landing

    Over the years there have been a lot of crazies who insist that the moon landings didn’t happen. Some of these range from the reasonable – we didn’t have the technology so it must have been faked somehow – to the frankly bonkers.

    A lot of issues from the reasonable end of the spectrum are down to a poor understanding of how cameras work and physics. There are no stars in the pictures because cameras have limited dynamic range. And if they wanted to fake it, wouldn’t they have put stars on the roof of the studio? The flag does act weird, it wobbles for a long time. This has been ascribed to the ventilation in the studio moving the flag. The same ventilation doesn’t affect the dust on the floor, though.

    The bonkers end is more fun, though. We never went to the moon because the moon is a NASA hologram or a government hoax. We know this because spheres can’t reflect light so the moon is flat, if it is real at all.

    The moon is a space station and an artificial satellite brought here 13000 years ago by The Reptilians – the Draco Empire and grey aliens.

    The Moon was made by scooping out the Grand Canyon and filling it with helium.

    The astronauts would have been killed by the van Allen (or van Halen, the name changes) belt radiation. And they can’t live in space anyway because there is no magnetic field for their hearts to work off of.

    I have a file of various conspiracy theories. Whenever I’m feeling down and a bit stupid, I look at these and realise I’m not so daft after all.

  • It’s been quite a year

    It’s been quite a year

    Daily writing prompt
    Is your life today what you pictured a year ago?
    View all responses

    One year ago – Tuesday 17th December 2024 – I was in full-time employment at the company I’d been with since it started in the summer of 2005.

    On Wednesday 18th, the CEO came to our labs with the news that the company was going to be refocussing and that all R&D function was being stopped. This meant half the company was being made redundant, including me.

    To say that it was kick in the guts would be right.

    The news didn’t make for a very festive Christmas, though I had three months gardening leave to get my head together. Things could have been a lot worse – I know at least one person in our town was laid off with no notice, no money and no wages for the previous month.

    Thinking things over

    Over the previous years, Mrs S and I had talked about what we would do if I lost my job1. The talk had turned to setting up businesses doing something or other, buying a 3D printer and selling stuff, starting a consultancy… but we didn’t really think that we would have to do this.

    I kept my work laptop and phone, so that was a good start. To begin with I kept track of the courses I did and tried a few things that ultimately didn’t work out. I tried making books to sell on Amazon (sales = 0), an Etsy shop (sales = 0), and other things that went nowhere.

    Still, we went to Australia in the summer, having paid for this already and had a great time in Sydney (I was best man at my brother’s wedding), Melbourne (a revisit, we lived there from 2003-05) and Perth.

    Part of the Perth City art trail, this design is by Spanish artist Hyuro, I liked the kinetic energy of the women and empty dresses tumbling across the side of the building.

    Where are we now?

    One the positive, I learned how to use the 3D software Blender using my WP blog as a portfolio. I set up another shop on RedBubble (Heath Way Prints), started doing a food blog both on WordPress and paralleled on a separate site Cheese & Garlic and a TikTok channel with Excel tips. And I even managed a bit of consultancy work, though I’ve yet to set up a website for that.

    One of the models I made in Blender as part of a course. This is Steve the orc, moonlighting at the Mordor Improv.

    I’ve also learned how to use CapCut for video editing – my Yorkshire Pudding video was my first attempt at a ‘how to’ recipe video. And I also did a four week social media marketing course that taught me a lot about how to use social media for business. I set up the Cheese & Garlic site during the course – I’d never have known how to do that without the course.

    After a year, I’m feeling more positive about the potential for the various businesses. Let’s see where we are in December 2026.

    1. There’s a British expression: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. ↩︎

  • Latest speech

    Daily writing prompt
    Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?
    View all responses

    I’ve performed on stage several times, though not for many years. Last time was in 1988, I think, when I was at 6th Form and in the Drama club.

    Giving speeches and presentations was part of my job when I was a scientist. I found that, as long as I was prepared I wasn’t nervous.

    The last time I gave a speech was in August ’25. I was Best Man at my brother’s wedding, and so I was duty-bound to give a speech. I was the last of four to speak. First was the bride’s mother, then my brother (who speaks for a living – he’s a university lecturer), then one of the maids of honour (who also gives speeches a lot), then me.

    I was a bit nervous, but the whole atmosphere was convivial. I’d stayed sober, I’d prepared, and my one joke landed.

    I’ve no idea when I’ll next be called on to speak in public. But it’s not something I dread any more.

  • Silliness above all

    What makes you laugh?

    Mostly I laugh at what has no agenda and is mainly silly. This will be why I love Taskmaster, Morecambe & Wise, Bob Mortimer, Airplane!, Ghosts, Eddie Izzard, Monty Python and Stewart Lee.

    Silly songs, too!

    You could include Terry Pratchett, though the elevated level of silly hides sharp commentary and anger.

    There’s plenty I don’t find funny, but that’s another story.