MCU and Doctor Who...

Somewhat straying from my regular pattern but not to worry there's an epic tune at the end. I just love this dude, Mr Sunday Movies. He does film reviews and talks about comics. And Marvel did an enormous unload this week! Seemed a little knee jerky in response to DC's unleashing their line up up until 2020. Another fantastic fellow, JeremyJahns, has made a vid all about it. Being a little lazy by not explaining but these dudes do a much better job and they've got visuals! I mean I have visuals too but you the old chestnut about pictures and 1000 words. A video is at least 20 fps so per second that's like 20,000 words...which is ridiculous. These videos may have minor and or major spoilers in for the upcoming films as they are likely to be based on comics.

So it is most definitely a good time to be me or anyone else who like movies based on comic books. Man I can not wait for Darkseid, Apocalypse and Thanos. I'll be honest I am only familiar with Darkseid and Apocalypse. Thanos I have no  clue about but he was inspired by Darkseid and he's a badass so can't be bad. I've also had quite the education in all things cosmic in the Marvel cinematic universe from a vid by an insanely knowledgable young man who goes by the youtube handle of Mitchell Letcher. He speaks mad fast so be sure to pay attention.

 For those who don't want to learn all about ratios scroll down until you see the big pink yolo.

In an attempt to actually learn something today, I'm preparing for an exam, I shall be weaving all of the applicable ratios into this post.  Ratio analysis is something that I was introduce to in 2007, yep it's been 7 years and I'm still being tested on it. It was an off shoot of financial accounting that was being examined and ration analysis was in one of the questions. Now I'm sat furiously beavering away and the fire alarm sounds.

There are four categories of ratio that can be tested in this exam. They are profitability, liquidity, gearing and investor.

Off the top of my head I can remember:

1. Gross profit
2. Net profit
3. Return on Capital employed
4. Receivable days
5. Payable days
6. Inventory days
7. Acid test
8. Quick
9. Gearing
10. Earnings per share
11. Price earnings or P/E
12. Dividend cover
13. Dividend yield
14. Interest cover

And I'm out of ideas! There is going to be a big, juicy 25 mark question involving ratios, at least 8 out of those five marks are given for correctly calculating some ratios. So worth learning.

Here's an exhaustive list broken down by category:

1. Profitability - Gross Profit, Operating profit, Asset turnover, Return on capital employed - 4
2. Liquidity - Current, Quick, Inventory days, Receivable days, Payable days - 5
3. Gearing - Gearing, Interest cover - 2
4. Investor - Earnings per share, P/E, Dividend cover, Dividend yield - 4

Now for me remembering the categories and the number of ratios in each category helps to memorise the lot. Alternatively I would write these down over and over again until it became ingrained. If you add up the numbers in red you get...15! I was missing - Asset turnover and Current. Also I'm pretty sure that acid and quick are the same ratio but with different names. So now I've got the categories and numbers down the names should be straight forward.

You should be able to pick up quite a few marks without the ratios by just rifling through the financial statements of whichever entity you are supposed to be analysing.

And the end of the fire alarm story is that we ended up congregating in the car park outside the exam/sports hall. Instructed to remain in total silence, an instruction that was promptly ignored by everyone. Amongst the obvious exam chatter there were numerous rumour circulating about what the outcome would be. Everyone passes was one, everyone fails was another and lastly there was the we may have to resit the exam! I don't know about everyone but I passed, so it would appear my knowledge/understanding of ratios is certainly adequate.

YOLO 

Your loss if you understand the ratios you may be better placed to make savvy business/investment decisions :-P

I saw this stunning image appear as a cover photo for a girl who was in the year below me at my first secondary school. I also met her and a fellow named Liam in a club in Nottingham! I had never spoken to either of them but they recognised me and I them. And that's the unsatisfying end of that anecdote.

Ooh back to the image I did a reverse image search! Now I'd heard of these when people debunk folks who use photos of models for their profiles to rip people off etc. But I had no idea what one entailed. Google has this function if you go to: https://images.google.com/imghp, then you drag and drop the image you want to look up. That led me to this blog: http://tamta-rot.livejournal.com. And from there I managed to find the name of the photographer, Shelby Robinson. Third one across, redhead with autumn in her hair!

Avid readers will know about my fondness for those of the auburn persuasion and strangely I do count myself amongst their numbers. You can read all about it here, there's an image explaining why I claim to be a redhead.

Oh my god has everyone seen the last instalment of Doctor Who? At the time of writing this it was the last instalment but now it's the second to last, Dark Water. Spoilers to follow so sod off and watch it on Iplayer if you don't want it to be spoilt! Now I did have it spoilt because I was on facebook the morning after and saw two posts indicating the fate of Danny Pink. But I got over it because I don't really like Danny he's ok but he I don't care about the character. Then it was spoilt all over again by the thumbnail that the BBC had chosen to display above the link to the episode. A legion of cybermen! Damn it BBC Why would you do that to me?!?

Any hoo getting past the rage I was feeling I quite enjoyed the episode. There was Clara being against the natural order of things. The Doctor being ever so loyal despite her betrayal and the dead. Now here's something I did not think was true about cybermen, they are a result of banging armour on the human body. I thought they were brains taken from the a human and bunged into a robotic body. The hidden in plain site bit was cool, dark water = DW = Doctor Who?

So I thought Missy was the master the first time we all saw her way back when! I think I wrote about it here. There is a subtle drumming that is the new masters trademark. I've just rewatched it and the drumming is not so conclusive. Anyone seen Green Wing? Michelle Gomez, Missy, plays a real ballbuster. Pretty much the female Malcolm Tucker, probably been pointed out already. I hope they get into a shouting match. The double door cyberman eye reveal was a nice touch too! I did not see it coming at all.

#selfie

 I have some problems with this episode. Mainly centring around the end. I liked that there wasn't too much detail about the cyberfying process, wholly unnecessary. There was Missy's super speed, you know the bit when she was cuffed to that thing like Hannibal Lecter and Osgood is beckoned closer? Yeah that bit. She was across the room before the guards had a chance to react! She can teleport but this looked to me like good old fashioned super speed.

Pretty much my reaction when Missy zapped Osgood. There was a foreshadowing whisper that she was to accompany the Doctor! That would have been my reaction but owing to certain physical mishaps I glared silently whilst eating peanut butter on toast.

Danny Pink, comes good. The sentiment is laudable, especially given the time of year. The sacrifice that soldiers make is often undervalued or completely forgotten. I spent the first few years of my life in a war zone, don't really remember any of it. But by all accounts I've heard, it's a pretty grizzly place to be.

Where does this leave Danny's Grandson? They didn't explain why Danny was immune to Missy's mind control. Clara had just shut off his emotions so? The Brigadier's shooting Missy was rather confusing. So are there lot's of cybermen who weren't under her control? Or is it just soldiers? If so there are lots of soldiers who have passed away and would have been uncontrollable! So now Earth has a guardian cyberman.

The heaven portal was a bit confusing and wholly unnecessary, Danny died a hero. I suppose it shows that he is willing to sacrifice everything to right his wrongs. And the subsequent lying from the Doctor and Clara! The Doctor's lie, fair enough but Clara's? And I was expecting a baby bump when she got up at the end. Guessing she's pregnant but not showing just yet.

I hadn't grown to dislike Missy as the Master. There were hints and bits and bobs throughout but the character didn't get enough time on screen for me to grow to totally fear/despise/love them. It all felt a little rushed. The could have cut the whole Robin Hood episode and extended the finale but that's just me, maybe.

I can run! No wait...

Well, well, well the UK, US, Russia, German, Australia, Indonesia, Mauritius and New Zealand all have someone reading what I've written. Now the UK I can understand as well as Aus, NZ and Mauritius. But who are you mystery readers from the rest of the world? Not that I don't appreciate the international interest, I'm just curious to know who you all are :D Don't be shy leave a shiny comment ;-)

What did I do this past temperate bank holiday weekend I hear you cry?!?! Something adrenaline pumping, mind expanding and maybe a little life threatening is what you're expecting no doubt. But I spent it sat at my desk going ever exam questions. Facebook became something of a torture device as I would see updates of BBQs, picnics, people climbing mountains, camping and general frolicking in the sunshine!

This frustration eventually exploded resulting in me gearing up and heading out for a run. Now probably sounds like something of a non event to those of you out there who jog on a regular basis. Not sure if it's jogging or yogging it might be a soft j. I'm not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. I've been mincing about with a back injury since February so my cardio has pretty much gone out the window. And anyone reading this who knows me will know that "I don't really do endurance"

• Overpriced running shoes - check
• White socks - check
• Shorts - check
• Tshirt - check
• Stopwatch - check
• Goggles - check
• Hat - check

You've read that right I do don a pair of goggles whilst running, the look like this:

I was given them for free when I bought a lab coat whilst I was masquerading as an engineering student, '05-'07.

As soon as I start everything feels great, no pain anywhere, total ease of movement. After about 5 minutes I pick up the pace when I spy something awesome!

It's a massive auger :D now I don't know why I'm so happy to see this industrial sized piece of machinery but I think it maybe because when I set out on this jog never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would spy an auger!

I finish the two miles in just under 20 mins which is slow I know but cut me a little slack I'm weary from battle. As soon as I stop my lunch makes a valiant attempt to escape via my mouth, I fight it back down and begin pacing in an effort to cool down. I get in and change from my running shorts to a different pair of shorts that I wear round the house. Yep from shorts to shorts, crazy, that's how I'm living!

Strange times at work as I was switched from one sales team to another. Not much different if I'm honest sales is sales! The teams have now been merged into one big team, big team! I have however come to the conclusion that I may have a faulty inner thermostat, is there a word for this? There must be! Everyone in the office is boiling hot whilst I am, what can only be described as, suitably temperate. If they're all at the right temp I'm freezing.

My beard, ah my beard how I am so very fond of thee. The goatee is no more it has been replaced by a suitably menacing beast, the exam beard. It's still in the awkward, itchy, not quite long enough to be a proper beard phase. But the exam is a good few weeks away so it should be rather glorious by the day :D That was the case when I first wrote this but the beard has now come in nicely check out the twitter for a pic :D

Was given the opportunity to leave the my wonderful, windowless office for a day to travel up to Durham. It's all top secret because it involves a new product but there is a website for it so I'm not so sure how secret it is. I went up there picked up a load of samples and brought them back so the sales team could get familiar with the new product that they'd be selling. The trip should have taken three hours there and three hours back. But I somehow managed it in 4.5 hours, not because I'm a youth speeder but because traffic was gloriously sparse!

Youth speeder is a term coined by the wonderful Mrs. Waldron, one of my A level biology teachers at Spalding High school. We were discussing our trips home and Claire mentioned that she often tried to keep pace with me on the way home but could not. I've got a bit of a lead foot and I overtake at every opportunity. Mrs. Walrdon's reaction to this comment was "hmmm Myooran are you a bit of a youth speeder?" She couldn't recall the term boy racer so she coined the infinitely better youth speeder :D

The week was a blur of phonecalls, driving, sun, rain and wind that'd blow your hat off! Rather terrified of next week as I will be doing something totally new, also top secret but there isn't a website so you'll all just have to wait n see :D

An addition which may come as something of an annoyance so apologies in advance. I've not really been enjoying the new season of Dr. Who, dunno why it just hasn't had the same impact. But the last two episodes have been rather awesome! Just found out the Neil Gaiman wrote the last one! There were rumours going round that one of the Dr.'s incarnations was supposed to rather nasty. With the cyberplanner taking over we got to see a little of what that'd be like, glorious :D I did also love the speedy cybermen, Warwick Davis generally being awesome, and the borgishness of upgrading humans.

Roller Derby = awesome!

21st of April 2013

Yep that's my actual shoulder n ear!

So today was like most of my Sunday's lately. Woke up early and studiously revised for my upcoming exam in May. Now how could this day get any more interesting, I hear you impatiently cry?

Well around midday I drove into Grantham and met up with Mark and Swapnal. Here's where I found out that our attending The Lincolnshire Bombers vs. The Bristol Harbour Harlots was supposed to be a surprise for Sarah! Neither my work friend or work colleague had told me that this was what they were intending, both assumed that's what I was thinking. And we all know what assumption is!

Once there we wandered about, looking thoroughly out of place until Sarah told us we should sit down. So we did, right next to the opposition's A team! She also handed over responsibility for explaining what was happening to M n S as I had read the rules, no pressure! I explained what I could to Swapnal and he'd pass it on to Mark, chinese whispers style.

I thought the whole thing was awesome and 5 hours flew by. Also Sarah crushed it as a manager, blocker and jammer, I think she may have been pivot at some point as well! In addition to this I won a hat, a purse and spa chill out gift bag. And there is kickass music playing all the time, I may have stumbled upon something very special indeed!

Incidentally I spotted a familiar face, Beth Parrot! Now she hasn't aged a day since a last saw her, a decade ago, so that was easy enough. I, on the other hand, have aged, so she most likely didn't recognise me. This bit is bull as she gave me smile both times I saw her. I was too chicken to say "Hey Beth, long time no see!"

BIT FROM THE 6th of JULY!!!

Well the idea was simple gather the troops: Stephen, Marc, Swapnal, Gerrard, James, Eleanor and Mark. And head to the Bombers next bout at home! Well that was today numbers were low! Three is all I could muster...note to self must work in muster abilities as they appear to be waning!

We did have a welcome addition in the shape of Emma, Swapnal's girlfriend? Dunno if he's into labelling folk/relationships etc.Anyway she's a delight and apparently a rather talented chef...I would like proof in the form of an extravagant something.

Anyhow the day started with a visit to a field where I am greeted by my old training buddies. These lads are about as dangerous as you can get without picking up weapons. Believe it or not I could go toe to toe with them not so long ago, mostly because I have very fast hands. I spent a large portion of my youth trying to be as fast as Ali, not even close. But I did get really really fast! Any way my footwork is non existent now and my fast hands have slowed considerably. I get comprehensively schooled and now I ache all over. Anyone see a group of shirtless, barefooted young men knocking each other about Saturday morning?

Onwards to roller derby!!! So I go to Morrisons and get some food, all low carb as I am a low carb monster. And then I pull in to B&Q's carpark to await the arrival of Swapnal, Emma and Eleanor. I receive panicked a text from Elle informing me she's running well late. Swap and Emma arrive and regale me with tales of how they went sofa shopping. Just to get out of the blistering heat, oooh it was ever so warm today! I busted out the shorts :D Edit: I did not bust out of my shorts! I busted my shorts out from winter storage!

Anyhow Eleanor is sighted in the distance and she's faffing around with her phone. Swapnal predicts she's about call me. Low and behold she calls! Asks where I am to which I make a scoffing comment about being in a car park etc. She's stood in the road and nearly gets hit by a car, I can see and hear her narrating the entire incident. She does worry my sometimes. Anyway she arrives wearing a lovely, skirt? Dress? Man I wish I'd paid more attention! I'm usually so good with observation! Obviously my morning exercise has left me dazed and confused. Anyway I regret not telling her about the seating arrangements.

Driving down to Grantham we've got all the windows open and it's loud + windy! There is a knackered box of tissues in the boot, which has no parcel shelf sealing it off atm. The whirling vortices swirl up said tissues and launch them into the back seat at Emma and Swap. They laugh, we laugh it's hilarious. Then the tissues make a break for the front, it's even funnier! One goes out the window :D

Anyway once we get there I seem to have lost my ability to park! WTF has happened to me, it's like me spacial awareness is all messed up. Things feel bigger and movements feel odd. It may be the new tyres I don't know!

When we get there we stride boldly to the hall and ask for our tickets. Kissy is on the desk today and she asks if this isn't my first time here. It's because of the tshirt she later tells me. Now I remember her name from the last time, I have a dangerously good memory for names. But if I were to address her by her skating name having only seen her skate once then I'd be the weirdo fanboy. Now it's no secret that I'm a weirdo but I'm still weird about people I don't know knowing. It's weird I know. 600 words so far before Sarah even sees us! And I got a free poster!

So we are milling around like fish :-P out of water, much like last time. Then Sarah gives us a rather confused look as Eleanor waves emphatically at her :D. It is now that Elle finds out we shall be sat on the floor... No torrent of expletives just mild annoyance along with a healthy dose of lets just get on with it shall we. Lots of explosive warming up and good mannered banter.

The first bout kicks off and goes by in a flash. I should really take notes as so much happens so quickly my senses do rather get overloaded. Very few sports have this time dilation effect on me it all seems to have happened in a matter of seconds! The same could be said for the second one over all too soon.

Anyhow I initially took an interest in roller derby for not so noble reasons but the sport is totally infectious. The physicality, dynamism, attitude, music and dancing make for a combo I haven’t seen anywhere before.  Dancing yes dancing!!!

Here's the kicker we went as a surprise for Fish but none of our lot said anything to her on the day. Well I suppose we surprised her and that's something :D

Ooh and I won a rather fetching red bag! Last time I won a hat, a purse and a pamper home spa kit thing! The purse is currently with Fish, I think. The kit was left for safekeeping with Eleanor so what I have is the hat and the bag.

Extra bit: Now I tend to write things over the course of days. This is because my memory doesn't function quite like everyone elses. I have bits that I have linked to other occurrences in my life and I sort of sort them according to importance and complexity. I picked up some of the subtlety of the sport yesterday that I didn't see in April.

This would be the level of communication between the rollergirls. They are constantly passing info apparently the pivot is the equivalent of a quarterback in american football or a flyhalf in rugby. I hadn't the foggiest! But I suppose that over time I am seeing more as I stop just staring in slack jawed awe. Also there was the sly moves that team members pull to help their jammers get through. The first time I didn't see any of this, neither did I hear any chatter during jams.

Three possibilities the first time I was overwhelmed. Anyone know if you can ever be just whelmed? An eternal question I first heard in 10 things I hate about you. Secondly we may have been sat too far away. This time we were pretty much in suicide seating, for those who don't know you sit on the edge of the outer track where refs skate and skaters with penalties and recycled jammers. I may be totally wrong about all of that I only read the rules once. Lastly the bombers may have levelled up and thats why I couldn't see these things before. I think the first is most likely.

I will be adding more but its late and I'm up at 04:00, milk party...for those who don't know I am an occasional milkman.

I also felt lazy as there is quite a bit more I could add, so for better or worse here it is. This is going to be a little general and sound like something of an excuse but it really isn't. No I'm serious it really isn't an excuse. Ok so a direct quote here: "we don't often win to be honest". At this I felt compelled to share my views on sport and winning. Whilst victory is awesome, how you get there is much more important in my book. Reminded of the story of a young boxing champ. His training, diet etc was so hardcore that he hated every moment of his life and only bit he enjoyed was winning. When asked is it worthwhile the answer that shot back was "only just!" Now say you put yourself through all that suffering and lose...what then?

So here's my take, enjoy what you're doing and if you win that's amazing. But if you lose then you had a kickass time anyway. Again NOT and excuse just how I'm seeing things right now. This links with the Bombers as they always appear to be having a great time, win or lose.

Something that I think stands as a testament to the niceness of the young lady we were trying to surprise is that she actually apologised for not finding the time to talk to us on the day. Now we show up, unannounced, knowing how busy bout day is based on our previous experience and still she said sorry. We were there to show our support for you and the Bombers :D This will no doubt embarrass her to some extent but seeing as I've started I may as well continue along this ilk.

Someone, who shall remain nameless, turned to me and said this several times on the day of the bouts. "XXXX is never meeting Fish, she's too hot!" The same person also uttered "I think I may have a girl crush on Fish"

And now for the poster I got!

 http://lincolnshire-bombers.com/

Razzo, TNTash, Total Melfunction, AK47 Guns, Wilde, Miggins and Arry. Written from memory so do may be totally wrong!

Even more to add, I know I suck! Well when we went to sit down Eleanor was a little annoyed as I've most likely mentioned already. But she adapted rapidly and preserved her modesty with some deft cardie utilisation. Now we were sat in what I now know to be "suicide seats", there's a warning sign and everything. It read something along the lines of "Suicide seating, 18+ only, you may end up with a roller girl in your lap, lucky you!" As you can imagine this sealed the deal and I stayed firmly in my suicide seat.

As a result there were several occasions when skaters came hurtling our way! But owing to their rather awesome ability to go from top speed to a dead stop my lap remained a roller girl free zone :-(. Now Eleanor strikes me as being rather fearledss but this thought was decimated on the day. I realise this is the wrong use of decimate as the thought was not divided into ten pieces but forgive me or kick up a fuss. I know none of you will :-P Everytime a collision between ourselves and a roller girl or ref looked likely she either leant behind me or grabbed my arm/leg. As much as I enjoy being useful I am not so sure about being a human shield.

That said taking impacts was a big part of what made me any good at sports. Henry Draper once broke his right hand on my face! Yep my head is that hard that it can break hands. This next anecdote is the one I'm more surprised by. I think we were in year 10 or 11 and KEVIS, Louth. We would regularly play rounders during the summer and I was on second base. Kat Hetherington was on first base and as the ball was struck into the air she set off for my base, as it was second and usually one would progress from first to second before moving onto third and finally fourth.

I was stood between second base and first base with my back to first base. This was because I had the ball heading my way and I wasn't about to drop a catch. I catch the ball and hear something of a kerfuffle coming from the opposition. I glance behind me to see Kat sprawled out on the grass. She had apparently legged it without looking and run straight into my mighty back. Now Kat is a very slight, in comparison to my hulking frame, and I honestly didn't feel a thing when she ran into me full pelt. So maybe if I were to take a hit from a roller girl at full speed it wouldn't be so bad!

I feel I should clarify that I was joking, I don't for one second think I would really stand much of a chance of staying upright if this were to ever happen. As tough as I was in my youth I am not the street fighting badman I once was. That said I'm still kinda curious to see how hard those girls hit...