My Life and Works

So now we are back into the swing of a new schoo year, with plenty going on in my life to actually talk about, I thought I would take this time to update you on my life so far.

So I started out in Bedfordshire is a little 2 up 2 down in a place called Sandy, while my Dad was working for a major seed treatment company and my Mum as a nursery nurse at a local primary school. Nothing really exciting I suppose, when you look back, and I moved away when I was about 18 months old. From what I can gather from my folks, I lived with my grandparents for about 6 months before moving to where we now call home. Alrewas. Named after the Alder Swamp that it used to be and occupied from pre-roman times by the Alderwashee Tribe, it has been a settlement on the Trent for many thousands of years.

Now occupied by a bunch of 21st Century Middle Classs families with 4x4s to get off their drives, as well as a large population of retired folk who make their place in the bungalow estates on the one side of village, it is scattered with some of the most beautiful half timbered thatched cottages and buildings in the county. It is also home to a mill, and a mill stream, which have now been converted into housing for rich people with fancy gates on the driveway. A standard village you may say. I know there is a village stereo-type almost of a village community, but in Alrewas this is overwhelmingly so. Made extremely evident by the 3 things which I have involved myself with most: the papershop where I work; The scouts group which I have grwon through and now help to organise; and the Alrewas Arts Festival, which has just completely taken over the village for the past week, leaving it in a slight state of shock.

Firstly the paper shop. This is where I spend the majority of my time. I seem to be there more than I am at my actual house. I have done a paper round for the shop for about 4 and a half years now, which has helped to fund several things including 2 new saxaphones, a new laptop and various trips to the cinema and even more sweets and chocolate. I ahd only been doing it for about a year when I was asked to go in early on a saturday morning to help out with marking the papers up, which for legal reasons I can't disclose how early, but it meant going to be even earlier on a friday night, labelling me as the idiot who went to bed when he got in from school!

At christmas last year, after about 9 months of nagging the shop keeper, I was given a position working behind the tills and helping out in the shop in an evening and at weekends. I have to say I think I bagged one of the ebst jobs in the world. A 3 minute walk from my house, reasonable hours and unbelievable flexibility with hours and days working, I could not have asked for more. I went for an interview at a pottary place in the village but got refused that job on the basis that I was already doing too much, which I have to say I still hold as a grudge, but never mind!

So when I got this job, I was asked which nights I really couldn't night. My busiest night, for many reasons is a thursday. Not important I know but basically this is when I have all of my scouts commintments. I progressed though from a Cub Scout to a Scout from the age of 8 and when I had reached 14 I was no longer able to attend scouts and left at a quandry as to what to do. In the end I have managed to get a place as a young leader supervising the Beavers, which is the youngest age band on a thursday evening, which I thouroughly enjoy. Yes it  has been pointed out to me that I am a sad person for doing this, but I can now pass on all the knowledge I gained through actually being one of them! I have to say for what it is worth, it is generally great experience of interacting with people and being able to share your knowledge as well as listen to other people's is one of the greatest skills anyone can hold.

That is enough for today I think. I can save the summary of the Arts Festival for another post. So TTFN! Thanks for reading!

Follow me on Twitter: @peachy146

Back to School

So back to school again. However this time, for the last time! Woo! OK, so maybe it's not that great as it may be potentially the most important year of my life, but still I am looking forward to it. In a strange way I am really glad to be back. as much as I enjoyed my summer, there is only so much minecraft you can play a day and only so many times you can play solitaire on the computer before you really start wanting your routine back. Yes I am weird, yes I am old fashioned, but I do like my routine. But we have established that already.

So as well as being in my final year of school, I have also signed up for extra responsibilities of looking after the smallest people in the school and helping to organise my school house. Great I know, especially when you can't even remember what the name of the house is. It really enjoyable though. As many will know (and those who don't need to) I am bit of a control freak, and fortunately for me, the new year 7s like listening to me! Joking aside, I do really enjoy my position as deputy house leader, and it is great to be able to organise things for the rest of the house to do. I feel like I am giving something back to the school after it has looked after me for however many years. Again, I know I am weird.

Also I am glad to be getting back to school because of the large amounts of clubs and bands which are now back on. Basically music is my social life. That is why I am now typing into a computer for about 16 people in Indonesia and Alaska to read. So now I have my friends back! Woo! Also one of my best friends from the Jazz Band which I am part of has moved to 6th Form of my school, thus meaning I can see my band friends outside of school. My social life is being extended guys!

So conclusion of being back at school is: I still ahve no life, I am still old fashioned (while my friends were all out partying in the summer I was volenteering at the local Arts Festival and building a chicken run) and I am still a tiny bit weird. Result

Twitter: https://twitter.com/peachy146

Real Life Minecraft

One of the current garden projects is to extend the chicken run out to accommodate double the amount of chickens. Now because my parents are my parents, they have to do it in a very convoluted way and make it as complicated as possible.

Anyway, in taking up the lawn to make space for the new part of the chicken run, I was tasked with moving the pieces of turf after taking them up so that Dad could patch up areas of the lawn elsewhere where the grass had died. Fair enough.

so I set about this in the usual manor: tea in one hand; spade in the other; and my sister bossing me about, even though she didn't really know what I was doing.

After I had moved a few pieces of turf, my sister from the other end of the garden suddenly pipes up: "Tom, that looks like real life Minecraft!"

Minecraft Huh?

twitter: @peachy146

PROJECT MINOR (Part 1): Official Morris Minor Owners Club Member!

I am pleased to announce that I am now an official member of the Morris Minor Owner's Club of Great Britain, now that I am officially the owner of a lovely 1968 Morris Minor Traveller, navy blue, a dead battery, 4 flat tyres, and seized engine, a leaky roof...

Still I am very much looking forward to the project of doing it up and will keep you well and truly updated with how it is going. Now the first thing is getting it back from North Yorkshire, with the seized engine and the 4 flat tyres.

Nonetheless, first thing tomorrow I am off down the garage to try and scab and trailer in exchange for my car to fix and make happy again. Genuinly can't wait to get in it and drive round the UK in my Moggy!

Twitter: @peachy146

Thanks!

Calling All Minecrafters: Unless you have 1.75 stacks of Diamond, then You have Got to Read This!

Now I think I have mentioned that I am big Minecrafter. I have recently been truly enamoured by the little mod pack called Tekkit. If you don't know about this, where have you been, if you don't have it, then you are a fool, and if you don't know where to get it, then open your eyes. (Only joking, you can get it on the Technic pack website).

So the great thing about this is that it adds so much more to Minecraft it is incredible. I don't even know how to use all of the things it gives you, and I have been playing it for a good 3 months now! It essentially adds everything which has been invented in the real world by scientists in funny outfits and funny hairdos in the past 200 years in 1 mod pack. You can create power, electricity, engines, machines, quarries and pretty much anything you want to. It will automate absolutely everything there is to do in Minecraft, and so much more!

Once you have gone Tekkit, you can't go back!

Now here is the thing, there is also a mod included called equivalent exchange, or EquivX to all those in the trade. This is one of the best mods ever made. It basically brings alchemy into Minecraft  Now I am not a fan of magic games and things like that. I have never even been near a potion in the game and I don't really understand what the XP points are, but this mod assigns every item with a value, known as EMC, which can also be created into something else. So for example, all core items such as cobble and dirt have an EMC value of 1. on the other hand, diamonds have a value of 8000 and something. Basically whatever 64 x 64 is. Now this means you can turn cobble into diamonds.

You will have to watch this video to help you understand how it all works. The best I think is Duncan's explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Hsua7bdOo&feature=plcp

Another mod called Red Power 2 adds something very neat to the game called a Block Breaker. Now what this does it break the block below it and move it via redstone pipes, another feature of Red Power 2, to a chest or whatever you choose to store it in. Bare with me.

My precious!

 If you so wish, as I do, you pump it straight into the Condenser which will turn it directly into diamonds using the EquivX EMC. Awesome right! Ok, so it you have a row of like 8 block breakers and you an create 64 every 8 seconds, which is a diamond every... hang on... 8 and a half minutes. Ok that is pretty cool right, when it is for free! You could have a massive cobblestone production facility, like I do, which in total has 64 block breakers and makes a diamond a minute! BOOM!

So yeah, free diamonds anyone?