Today is a momentous occasion because it is the 5^th year this blog has been running on my JLSNet Website! Over these past 5 years the blog has evolved from being a simple log of my university project to what it is today, a collection of random geeky projects, special events and other assorted ponderings.

Just for fun I am going to start a little quiz to try and encourage people to read back through my blog. There are 5 questions (one for each year of this blogs life), the first person to post all the correct answers, along with supporting URL links, in the comments below will win a special prize!

1) What is the closing quote at the bottom of my very first blog entry?
2) What was I doing to avoid studying for my Theoretical Computer Science B Exam?
3) What are my feelings towards travelling on the London Underground Trains?
4) On what date did Claire post her first entry to this blog?
5) How many people voted “YES” for Craig to have his Dreadlocks cut off?

Tip: Use the Search Box and Archive Navigation Menu.

The blog has had its up’s and down’s with varied spurts of lots of entries followed by dry seasons of silence. Of late I have neglected the blog a little, it has been pushed aside in favour of one of my more recent hobbies which is researching my family history and finding out about my ancestors (aka Genealogy). However, I have realised that this blog, in a way, may become my legacy for future descendants of mine who want to know about me and what I have done… Huuurm scary, what does my blog say about me?!

“Pleas’d look forward, pleas’d to look behind, and count each birthday with a grateful mind.” –Alexander Pope

For some time I have spoken about my ‘Man’ List. I want to make it clear that this list is in no way a list of men I fancy but rather a list of males I would consider Real Men! I have tried on many occasion to try and categorise, describe and quantify what qualities are needed to make it onto the ‘Man List’ but I really have not managed to pin it down yet.

The men on this list are not necessarily strong, young or the obvious Hollywood good looking heroes. Over the years many men have moved on and off the list, a number I have simply forgotten and, until now, I have never actually put these names down in writing. So, in order to keep log for all time, without further ado here are my ‘Men’ (in no particular order):

• Frank Butcher (From East Enders)
• Winston Churchill (England’s Prime Minister!)
• Harold Bishop (From Neighbours)
• Trevor McDonald (ITV Newsreader)
• Barry White (The Love Walrus)
• Brian Blessed (Boisterous British Actor)

I am sure there are others but these are all that I can think of for now. I suppose they are all men who you could say have contributed towards the demarcation of men from women, they all possess an eminence which would stand up quite well to miscreants down a dark alleyway and are the sort of guys who I would happily go down the pub with and have a motivating bloke conversation with over a pint of foamy beer.

Feel free to suggest other ‘men’ for the list, although I do not have a hard and fast set of rules as to who makes it, the decision is purely based on my innate man judgement which can make a decision in seconds.

“I’ll tell you what, pal, you talk to me like that again and you’re gonna get a dry slap.” –Frank Butcher (Mike Reid)

I’m sorry it has been a while since a last wrote in my blog, it isn’t that I have been on strike along with the american show writers, who have protesting for more pay, it is simply because I have been rather busy over the last couple of months. I am now relaxing in a Youth Hostel in Wales in the middle of a weekend lads hike around the Brecon Beacons with Craig. Yesterday we went on a 10 mile hike around a horse-shoe shaped ridge and up and down three mountains, Fan-y-Bîg (719m), Cribyn (795m), and Pen-y-Fan (886m), none of which had a trigpoint!

A couple of weeks later… It had been a while since I have set my feet upon a decent size mountain but I need to get back into the game as I am going to once again be doing the 3 Peaks Chanllenge this summer with work. The lack of any recent mountain action really did make itself apparent on the trip as I huffed and puffed up the last mountain. The weather started off really nice and sunny but as the clouds closed in and the wind picked up at the top it started to feel uncomfortable due to low visibility. I must admit for a brief moment I was not enjoying myself up there, but as soon as we were down it all felt good again and I really enjoyed it, and we even got a Trig Points towards the end.

Due to a low yield of Trigs the previous day Craig and I pinpointed a couple of them on the map and drove to the base of some smaller hills, still of reasonable height to warrant a bit of physical excertion. All muddy and proud of our acchievements we drove back home.

“He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below; He saw everything as far as you can see; And they say that he got crazy” –John Denver