I missed this set of questions from Ray and Fran while I was away on holiday. I have been trying to catch up on all the Blog's I didn't get to read while I was in Norfolk and its been fun to read everyone's responses to these questions. So I have put my thinking cap on and here are my brief set of answers.
.jpg)
1. Favourite Wargaming period and why?
Clearly from my choice of games it has to be WWII closely followed by ACW.
2. Next period, money no object?
I'm afraid it would still be WWII but I'd like to focus on the North Africa campaign.
3. Favourite 5 films?
King Kong, Aliens, Zulu, The Longest Day and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
4. Favourite 5 TV series?
Band of Brothers, Babylon 5, Voyager, Futurama and The X-Files.
5. Favourite book and author?
I'm a big Tolkein fan but I think I'll have to nominate Iain M. Banks in this category. His Sci-Fi just blows me away and I have yet to read anything he has written that I haven't loved. I think I would have to pick State of the Art as my favourite as it was the first Banks Sci-Fi I read.
6. Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!
Alexander the Great of course. Who else?!?
7. Favourite Wargames rules?
It's hard for me to choose as I have played so few compared to other gamer's. Of those I have played I have to say I enjoy Fire and Fury for its simplicity.
8. Favourite Sport and team?
I don't watch or follow any sport. I watched some of the Olympics (it was hard to avoid) but beyond special events sport is something of a mystery to me.
9. If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?
There are plenty of times and places I would like to visit but the fact is if it was a one trip affair I'd have little excuse not to use the opportunity to rid the world of a great evil. So it would have to be Germany, September 1919 just before Hitler joined the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (abbreviated as DAP, and later commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). I'd happily fuck up history to have a chance to kill Hitler.
10. Last meal on Death Row?
Peppered Steak with big chunky chips and garden peas. I feel hungry now! Mmmmm....
11. Fantasy relationship and why?
My wife, who else! OK, if pressed it would have to be Seven of Nine, Jeri Ryan. What can I say, I watched Voyager for one reason and one reason only!
12. If your life were a movie, who would play you?
Timothy Spall. He looks ordinary enough to play an ordinary bloke like me plus he's rotund enough to look like me if you squint at the screen.
13. Favourite Comic Superhero?
I was never what you might call a big Comic Book reader but I have always enjoyed the Judge Dredd stories. Indeed anything originating from the pages of 2000AD.
14. Favourite Military quote?
"I call upon all who love freedom to stand with us. Keep your faith staunch. Our arms are resolute. Together we shall achieve victory." Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 6, 1944
15. Historical destination to visit?
Normandy. My Brother-in-law and I are planning a week long trip to the whole region. Whether we actually pull this off (or get away with it from our wives point of view!) is another thing.
16. Biggest Wargaming regret?
Not joining a wargaming club. My gaming group stopped wargaming about 20 years ago to play RPG's exclusively. I have always enjoyed that side of my hobby so I don't regret the move but I should have found a second group or club to exercise my wargaming interests.
17. Favourite Fantasy job?
Director of the Tank Museum at Bovington...unfortunately an old college and long time friend of mine already has the job, so I guess I'll have to wait for him to move on before putting myself forward for the position.
18. Favourite Song Top 5?
'Warmachine' by ACDC
'Brothers in Arms' by Dire Straights
'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley
'All Along the Watchtower' by Jimmy Hendrix
'Into the West' by Annie Lennox
19. Favourite Wargaming Moment?
The first dice roll of any game. I get a tingle of excitement every time. Of course its usually followed by the realisation that my dice hate me and are plotting to kill me.
20. The miserable Git question, what upsets you?
Oh god how long have you got? I'm a miserable old git so if you are 'sensitive' or easily offended stop reading now!!
- Nazis, fascists and racists of any shade. In particular the BNP who crawl out of the sewers every election to sow hate, lies and fear.
- David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne... indeed the whole f--king Cabinet! Not one of them has any touch with reality and none of them care as much about the-good-of-the-country as they do their own careers.
- Religion. I have nothing against personally held faith but I find organised 'Religion' highly suspect. All Religions/Churches exist to enforce their own particular Doctrine. And because doctrine is inflexible and usually based on ancient and outdated concepts of morality it all too often rides roughshod over logic, reason, critical thinking, science, equality, diversity, empathy and even compassion.
- Anyone that peddles superstition, parapsychology, creationism, anti-science or anti-vax crap.
- Homophobes and other hate groups. I can't tolerate intolerant ideologies - and yes, the irony of that statement hasn't escaped me.
- Smokers who refuse to accept that I (or my kids) shouldn't have to breath their second hand smoke. I'm all in favour of a smoking ban in public places.
- Impatient, angry and just plain stupid drivers. I've had too many near misses over the years caused by idiots who don't even realise they have nearly caused an accident.
- Dog owners who let their pets shit in the park and don't clean it up. Just because it comes out of your dogs anus doesn't mean you are not responsible for it!!
- People who drop litter. There should be a special place in hell for litterers! I live by the philosophy that you should take nothing but photo's and leave nothing but footprints.
- Spammers (borrowed from Fran's list). I'd also have to include Junk Mailers and Telephone Cold Callers to this category. Life is hassle enough without these tossers wasting my time and clogging up my inbox / bin / answer-phone with stuff I don't want and never asked for.
- Celebrity Culture... dignifying the phenomenon with word 'Culture' is surely a text book example of an oxymoron. So called 'reality tv' should be banned and made punishable by death.
- Bloggers who start 'questionnaire-memes' that take hours to complete and distract me from painting!!
OK, I reckon I have burnt enough bridges for one day (and this is the abridged list!!!) I'm even grumpier than I thought I was!
Mmmm, I saw Frans list and contemplated answering the questions, but seeing how its made you feel I might just give it a miss. (Although I throughly agree with your comments).
ReplyDeleteGuido.
I am particularly grumpy today as its my first day back at work after a week off. I've been at work now for a little over 8 hours and I have yet to see the surface of my desk under all the paper and folders.
DeleteI agree with every thing written for awnser 20. Nice awnsers mate.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I was a little worried I'd post the answers and see an exodus of readers 'unfollowing' my blog!
DeleteWell those sort of followers would be no loss...
DeleteSome good answers there though, nice one!
Great answers Lee!!! I hope that last comment was meant for me and Fran!
ReplyDeleteGuilty as charged! Good questions though. I started off with a 'quick' reply but got a little wrapped up in it by the end!
Deletea very good post!
ReplyDeleteThe answer I preferred is the one of 20th question!
If I do the questionnaire, I think that yours will influence a little bit my answers!
(but thanks: always good to not feel alone !)
Good answers very interesting read.
ReplyDeleteI love your hate list.
ReplyDelete"I'd happily fuck up history to have a chance to kill Hitler."
ReplyDeleteWhich is interesting, as that would put paid to your favourite wargaming period.
Irony is a bitch. LoL.
DeleteGetting boringly historical, but wouldn't going back to 1914, and preventing WW1 starting, avoid Hitler getting his kickstart in life and also save a lot more lives? Just came to me when I saw your 1919 date for killing him.
DeleteGranted, they were after all two halves of the same war. I'm sure there are hundreds of potentially pivotal moments one could pick from but who's to say what the ramifications of any single change would be, let alone the removal of both World Wars from history.
DeleteI think (and lets face it, its just an educated guess at best) that removing Hitler while he was still a nobody would be the safest option. At this point he had yet to influence the path of his chosen party and adopted country and he had yet to coalesce his radical and evil ideology in the pages of Mein Kampf.
Hmmm, stopping WWI happening would simply have given him space to continue his career as the painter of truly awful postcards. Could we really inflict that on the world? ;)
DeleteNot sure how to stop WWI, seems that was quite a hydra, could have started any number of ways, but just by making a more reasonable peace with Germany after the war might have meant there wasn't the pool of resentment for Hitler to build on to come to power and make WWII.
DeleteGreat answers, and the "Miserable git" list is great. Whilst I don't think that smoking should be banned in open-air public spaces, smokers should be more considerate of others (and I say that as a smoker).
ReplyDeleteThe problem is no matter how considerate you try to be (and I'm sure you are), your smoke will do what smokes does best, waft through the air. With the best will in the world once you have breathed out you can't control it any longer. One whiff of cigarette smoke has my eldest daughter reaching for her Asthma pump and all because she is in a public place.
DeleteI respect other peoples choices and I don't favour a complete ban on smoking. But as a father who has spent many long hours in A&E while my daughter turns blue I do find it hard to sympathise with the plight of smokers. Sorry.
Good answers my rich friend especially 11, id Ian Banks that good as I've never read his sci-fi before and what else would you do with a few hours....work??????
ReplyDeleteIts the scale and grandeur of his sci-fi that blows me away. And he's just a bloody clever writer. The 'Culture' books are particularly good and you can pretty much read them in any order. The stories cover thousands of years across the the whole galaxy and the only common link is this pan-human society known as the 'Culture'. True Space Opera stuff.
DeleteHere's my all time favourite Iain Banks quote and its from the book I'm reading now, 'Surface Detail':
Delete"Almost every developing species had a creation myth buried somewhere in its past, even if by the time they'd become space-faring it was no more than a quaint and dusty irrelevance (though, granted, some were downright embarrassing). Talking utter drivel about thunderclouds having sex with the sun, lonely old sadists inventing something to amuse themselves with, a big fish spawning the stars, planets, moons and your own ever-so-special People -- or whatever other nonsense had wandered into the most likely feverish mind of the enthusiast who had come up with the idea in the first place -- at least showed you were interested in trying to provide an explanation for the world around you, and so was generally held to be a promising first step towards coming up with the belief system that provably worked and genuinely did produce miracles: reason, science and technology."
Great answers :) I easily could have added litterers to my annoyance list too(which was almost identical to yours) - it boggles my mind. When I went to the black sea, which is a beautiful area, I'd get so upset because of the shocking amount of trash everywhere... mostly drink bottles, but all kinds- just disgusting how lazy and thoughtless most humans are. If someone can manage to carry around the weight of a full soda or beer how are they unable to bear the burden of it when it is empty so that they fling it anywhere?
ReplyDeleteapparently this has been a constant with our species from the beginning. In archaeology, there is even the golden 'toss zone' to find the best artifacts- find the hole of the central support beam for a living structure, yard or so to where the edge of the structure might be, pick up a small stone, lazily fling it away from you- that is where you start digging, because that's where the lazy humans have thrown their junk.
and yes, I'm all for banning public smoking, someone's right to pollute themselves does not extend to their right to pollute others.
Damn! Judge Dredd. I want for the photo op when he really was THE guy.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading that. It was a good idea from those fellas and it was a fun little exercise. Looks like many of us are from the same era....read Dredd before they made shite movie. Looks like another one is coming out soon so we shall see if it is any good.
ReplyDeleteCheers