Updates 2004:
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 01/12/04
Sheesh, last month of the year already, time just flies when bollox all is happening. But hey ho, I've got some stuff to post on here...
A new video of me doing a boulder problem....an unsung classic this, had me laughing out loud when I worked it out! As a bonus, I've found that landscape videos can compress down to a reasonable quality AND a good file size, so this video is pretty large on screen but still only 2 meg...
A new picture taken during a recent winter's day. I like this one. The day was lovely, proper winter business.
Updated the figure page with that Dawn Of War figure I did recently, and posted a diary of how I made it. Also updated the warband pictures to better quality (finally got a good set-up for lighting 'n' stuff).
A site recommendation - Perry Bible Fellowship, another weirdo comic thing, variable in quality but some of them are pretty funny and twisted. Start at the bottom and work up...
And that would appear to be that....not much to ramble on about....a small mercy =).
[Vibes - yeah not bad thanks]
[Music - Happy Hardcore!]
[Media - errr....nowt]
[Reading - Latest White Dwarf]
[Climbing - quite well on little bits of rock =)]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 09/11/04
This fortnight I have mostly been painting this new figure - and finally I've done it. Took bloody ages and far more motivation than the fractional reserve I actually have. Listening to my old Peel Tapes (see below) helped see me through. As I said last update, this is a heavily customised figure based on an 0rk character in the Dawn Of War computer game - and I'm particularly pleased to get it done when the game is still fresh and relevant (most of the time I'm so slack at painting, I paint figures a decade after people were remotely interested in them). Now that's done, back to what passes for reality around here.
John Peel
The legendary veteran radio DJ, John Peel, died the other week. Almost all the internet forums I visit were full of messages of respect for Peely and regret that he is no longer with us - a common refrain being "I'd never thought I'd care less about any media celebrity, but...". Rather than clutter up those forums with my own personal ramblings, I'll pay a longer tribute here.
I'd been listening to Peely for 12 years or so, and enjoying his show for exactly the same reasons as everyone else: A huge variety of music with no genre limits, delivered with genuine enthusiasm that just oozed through Peely's laid-back voice. As I said in an earlier update, I've always liked harder music, and naturally this was encompassed within Peely's ultra-wide musical boundary. Thus when I liked metal, I'd listen attentively for the obscure death metal, thrash and grunge tracks, when my tastes moved to dance music, I particularly valued the high quality drum'n'bass and techno that featured regularly. Of course, I always appreciated more than just my particular tastes, and even when I didn't like what he played, most of the time I liked that he played it as it all added to the richness of the programs.
There are a few events that have stood out listening to the Peel show...
Recording a series of high quality tapes of the dance music he played in the last 10 years - the total ended up at: 22 Drum'n'bass, 8 techno, 6 trance, 2 hardcore, 3 hardcore techno/gabber, 3 miscellaneous electronica. And that's just the best that I'd distilled of perhaps half that number again that I'd originally recorded - make no mistake, Peely didn't just play a variety of genres, but more often than not, the cream of those genres.
Driving along a country road late at night, struggling to steer and desperately scrawl the name of an artist across my hand after hearing him play yet another track I simply must have.
Being introduced to stuff like Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Nirvana, and PJ Harvey when I was into that.
Going and buying a lot of dance CDs specifically because of tracks Peely had played (and often finding out he'd played by far the best track and the rest were so-so).
Winning a competition to see a Lab 4 (who, along with the mighty Panacea, were the dance acts he consistently championed) live set at the Maida Vale studios. I answered some question right, and in the email said my cat Billy (now also deceased) had guessed the answer for me - Peely read out my name as a winner, and then said that the cat could come, but I couldn't =). I hung around at Maida Vale (with, it must be said, a lot of dry and boring music business types), heard him blasting out some Mortician amongst other things, was the only person who danced to the Lab4 set, and met Peely afterwards - both him and his studio staff were nice and friendly.
In recent years, for no particular reason, I'd lapsed from listening to his show. Now I never will. RIP John Peel, you gave this country a vast amount of musical pleasure and a lot of people appreciate that.
I can't sum up this loss any better than someone on the Drum'n'Bass Arena forums, who said:
"Does anyone want to buy a radio? I don't need mine any more."
[Vibes - yeah okay actually]
[Music - Peel tapes]
[Media - Dawn Of War]
[Reading - nowt]
[Climbing - I remember climbing...]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 24/10/04
So.
Perhaps I'll try to mix the bloggy stuff and the interesting stuff this time...
Ef is back and I painted her a lead figure for her birthday. About time really (me painting her something, not the birthday). I've also added some shots of a couple of older figures, scroll down that page if you're interested.
Games Workshop have FINALLY got a decent developer to make a great strategy PC game that does their ultra-rich game universes justice. Hurrah for common sense and for WH40K: Dawn Of War. Needless to say, I've been having a lot of fun playing it and have actually got inspired to make a lead figure based on a game character. Still needs painting now.
The musical inspiration for this lead figure orientated shennanigans has been a series of internet radio stations which pass the time nicely as well as exploring various musical avenues, from a blend of ragga, old skool jungle and frantic breakcore at Ragga-jungle.com, to the disturbing industrial ambient noise of Aural Pressure via the energetic psy-trance at Philosomatika (hopefully those links should do something useful...).
The shite summer is over and gradually replaced by a shite autumn which I've mostly been hiding from. But I've had a few nice days out climbing on grit and the latest few photos are from those sporadic outings. Photos are now split into two pages as there was getting too many for just one. Still might need a seperate caterpillar page though.
All of this fun and frolics is somewhat tainted by being ill at the moment, with an odd combination of mild cold symptoms and constant indigestion. Not very bad but naggingly unpleasant. *SIGH*. Been ill a lot this year, in body as well as spirit. Probably all related.
[Vibes - out of sorts]
[Music - see above!]
[Media - WH40K - Dawn Of War ... and the occasional DVD]
[Reading - Alistair Reynolds - Absolution Gap (more proper hardcore sci-fi)]
[Climbing - mmmm bouldering....when recovered]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 12/09/04
Bleh.
Managed to paint one lead figure this summer - on show here (the photos could do with some improvement). I'm simultaneously satisfied that I managed to paint something I like, but disappointed that I've done so little in the last two years. It IS a hobby I really like, just one that I suffer from poor motivation with. Maybe winter will bring more results.
Oh and here's a picture of a big rock taken from some small rocks that I was playing on recently. As you can see it's actually a nice day which indicates summer is officially over....or something.
I see occasional comments that people have visited and sometimes liked this site. That's appreciated. Only a personal site but I like to think that some of it (the pictures at least) is interesting. Email feedback is appreciated more, of course.
That's about it. Nothing to show and not much to tell! Things plod slowly on, I've given up on this summer and am waiting for autumn and the imminent return of Ms. Fiend and hopefully that will be more stimulating.
Ah wait, a little rant...
Hit me hard...
Just something that struck me....I like hard music. Hard as in extreme, heavy, fast, dark, energetic, raucous. I like some milder stuff too, but I've always been drawn to the harder end of the spectrum. My music tastes have gone, since I started getting into it: Pop --> heavy metal --> acid house / nu beat --> metal --> death metal / industrial --> gabber / hardcore --> drum'n'bass. And I've stayed with DnB for, oh, 6 years now maybe, as my main interest at least. And within that I like all sorts, but tending to the harder side too... Although my tastes have perhaps become more refined within the hard music spectrum (I now see most gabber as boring and poorly produced....but not too extreme still =)), I don't see myself maturing gracefully into more acceptable music.
I was thinking about this recently, listening to a couple of recent DnB CDs, both of which start with, in my view mind blowing tracks....in most people's view, ear blowing probably. The sort of thing that when I listen to it, I'm immediately gripped by it and feel the energy coursing into my body, loosing my feelings into a wall of sound. The sad thing for me is, I have no-one really to share this with - some of my friends tastes vaguely overlap with mellow stuff, and I do hover on an online DnB community, but I just feel most of my contemporaries are, well, mellowing gracefully into more acceptable music. So I'm left to appreciate the hard stuff on my own =/.
Anyway, the CDs I was listening to, both of which are highly recommended, are:
Black Sun Empire - Drivining Insane (BSE)
Various - Biological Warfare (Outbreak)
Enjoy....or probably not :P.
[Vibes - bleh]
[Music - some random drum'n'bass mix]
[Media - Warhammer40K: Dawn Of War demo (cool)]
[Reading - Iain Banks - Dead Air]
[Climbing - small lumps of rock in Wales]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 18/08/04
Just a solitary new photo, taken at St Bees Head in Cumbria whilst indulging in some entertaining sport climbing. Thanks a lot to Simmy for pointing this out, I was rather pleased to get this photo =).
The weather fucking sucks. Totally unreliable. This year has been atrocious for it. Very frustrating that the year *I* choose to push myself climbing, it proves such a hinderance. Thus endeth this update's rant =(.
Something that's amused me a bit although not nearly enough to compensate for the climatic state of affairs: Elftor. Crude, juvenile, nonsense - gotta love it - might seem a bit weak in places but some of them had me LOLing =).
[Vibes - a bit better but still frustrated]
[Music - mostly hip-hop....Beasties, Aspects, DJ Format etc...]
[Media - DOOM³ - pretty fucking gripping so far!!]
[Reading - ah umm good idea]
[Climbing - NOT ENOUGH]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 11/08/04
Same deal as usual - some stuff that might interest people, some bloggy rambling that barely interests me 
• Two new videos of me bouldering stuff - a mini-classic a Woodwell, and a new problem on the Galloway coast. I got rid of some older stuff as it was, well, old.
• More comments for my UKC photo gallery. They're introduced voting/rating to the galleries. As well as being subject to the usual juvenility and political bias of anonymous voting, it is also spectacularly uninteresting. I'd rather have comments alone and no votes at all. They've also tinkered with the uploading sequence so my photos are in the wrong order. Some things are best left alone and kept simple, really.
• A new photo - the long-awaited dognose2 
.
------------
Blah, blah, blah. Quotes from earlier in the year...
2004 will be PHAT....2003 was good, but just warming up
Hoping to get lots done this summer, weather and partners willing.
...or not as the case may be. The plan really isn't going to plan. The weather has been unreliable bollox for as long as I can remember, the few partners I really like tend to be unavailable whilst trying to make sense of the whole situation with climbing partners just ends up as a depressing no-win issue, and related to those issues, my climbing confidence has gone to pieces in the last month. This last issue, perhaps the most destructive and debilitating of all, particularly compared to the confidence and progression I felt earlier in the year, may be due to being present at a traumatic accident a month ago. Or most likely it's been triggered by a variety of contributory factors, at any rate the regression to my previous inhibited and un-confident state of mind is a harsh blow, as I have previously been hampered for years by such inhibitions. Thus, I've got the challenge of recovering from this state and trying to get back on track with my purpose, my aim, my goal. Perhaps in a way it is a good thing to happen - being able to recover from such a problem is a useful skill to learn compared to the ease of being in a generally confident state. If only psychological problems weren't so damn obscure and intractable. Fingers crossed.
Other than that, I'm missing Ef, and missing having a decent curry 
.
[Vibes - 
]
[Music - Dom & Roland Kiss FM mix (evile =))]
[Media - Max Payne 2....until the mighty and imminent DOOM³]
[Reading - Mind Over Mood....some self-help thing]
[Climbing - indoors, hurrah for British summer =(]
Testing... 01/07/04
First some stuff (in an oddly familar format). Then some ranting.
• A new video of a flash attempt on Mr Smooth at Caley, Yorkshire. I like this video because of all the fumbling around and improvising sequences en-problem, rather than the usual well planned ascent.
• One comment for my UKC photo gallery.
• A couple of photos of stuff.
------------
I'm fucking angry. My plans are falling apart, I'm wasting a lot of time, ripping up each day and throwing it away....I fucking loathe it. I've set myself aside this time for climbing, set myself goals and targets, tried to be determined to put the effort in. And now I'm fucking it up. A few weeks ago when the weather was good, I faffed around and failed to make good use of the time. Now I've finally got organised, the weather is unreliable bollox and has prevented many outings. Karma - justly deserved punishment for failing to get organised before - but still very frustrating. And instead of adapting to this, I just get angrier, more frustrated, and waste more time. You only get one life and it often seems I'm determined to throw mine in the fucking rubbish bin.
This is a problem I've suffered from for years and I hate it so much....I hate it even more that I do it to myself, nothing more galling than knowing it's my own fucking fault. Self-destruction, self-sabotage.
Given that, this is probably an ideal time (halfway through the year) to look at my heartfelt New Year's Resolutions...
• Make sure, that every day, whatever the situation, without exception, I'm making good use of my time, whatever I'm doing. - FAILED, utterly and thoroughly. I've completely fucked this up and wasted day after day after fucking day.
• Organise myself better and ensure I don't miss out on any good opportunities to do stuff. - FAILED, utterly and thoroughly. Again I've just thrown away opportunities and ended up sitting on my arse doing nothing.
• Keep progressing with my climbing, and maintain the same enthusiasm, inspiration and determination.Going okay, when I've actually organised myself and been climbing, I've been happy both with how I've been climbing and with how much I'm enjoying it.
• Keep making more good friends, and keep in touch with them. 2003 was nice socially, it will continue. - FAILED, this has got pretty bad. People I did a lot with in winter aren't interested in going on so much in summer, other people don't bother to keep in touch, and others I don't keep in touch with them. So I've become increasingly isolated which of course adds to the whole experience.
• Stop being late, this is happening too much and it will change. Instead, I'm going to give myself more time and be slightly early. - Still improving this, I'm still late sometimes and I faff around far too much, but other times I'm aware of the problem and leave enough time.
• Try to get rid of more material possessions than I accumulate (in mass/volume, not value). The less stuff, the better. - No progress yet, I've tried a little bit and organised some stuff to get rid of, but not put nearly enough effort in to actually doing it.
• Keep my relationship with Ms. Fiend steady, and progress and improve it so we both stay committed to each - Going okay but severely affected by my problems, between us we're trying hard and communicating as best we can, but our own individual issues are spoiling things between us.
So, that's me...
[Vibes - 
]
[Music - Aural Pressure (dark ambient/industrial radio channel)]
[Media - Armed & Dangerous game / The Day After Tomorrow film (yeah, I know...)]
[Reading - Jeffrey Ford - The Beyond (3rd book in a very interesting trilogy)]
[Climbing - up the fucking walls]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 26/05/04
Another super-regular update :P. Okay dokey, updates will probably be sparser over the summer months as I'm away more (and for some reason, they're taking increasingly long to write). There still might be the odd thing to "show and tell", though. Like today...
Went to Scotland recently - very nice, very peaceful. There was a huge storm on the first evening, I got a pretty cool photo just when it was starting. A couple of days later I got to do a bit of climbing at the wonderful Larbrax, during a family picnic there. Mr Fiend snr. took some great photos, a couple of which I've posted on UKClimbing with commentary here. Really quite an exciting experience climbing with my parents around, as well as an awesome route. There's also a couple of okayish photos of caterpillars if you like them (I do 
).
Went to France even more recently, climbing. An interesting trip, the satisfaction of exploring a wide variety of characterful climbing (8 very distinct crags in 6½ days) being somewhat tempered by initially unreliable guides and grades. Still at the very least, a good taster of the area. As usual, I only took 3 average photos....although this one looking out of the impressive rift (note climbers) at Sisteron is okay.
I've revised my climbing page a bit to make the intro more accurate and reassure anyone who was wondering why there's a list of what I haven't managed to climb but not what I have. Hoping to get lots done this summer, weather and partners willing.
Finally if you're a vegetarian (ridiculous idea I know, but some people are apparently....including the one I've been with for over 2 years 
), and find yourself in Sheffield and hungry, go to Kumquat Mae on Abbeydale Road. Very nice food indeed despite the lack of dead animal.
Okay that's all for now, email me comments if you like.
[Vibes - quite variable]
[Music - rather good amateur DnB mix MP3]
[Media - Enclave game / Ground Control II demo]
[Reading - Adam Roberts - Stone (dark-ish sci-fi, recommended, a cut above his other books)]
[Climbing - steadily onwards...]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 30/04/04
Groundhog update! Here's some climbing-related stuff:
• A new video of me climbing some boulder problem somewhere. There's a catch to this one - I'm not telling where it is, so you have to guess, email me if you know and win, errr, nothing 
. It's about V5 for the short, V4 for the tall, definite classic, on good clean crisp rock above a decent grassy landing...
• More commentary on the latest few photos in my UKC photo gallery.
• A few of photos of stuff, not actually climbing though. Varied and colourful this time.
What else?? I went sport climbing in Spain recently and in a spectacular display of incompetence all the photos I took were painfull average. And indeed mostly of Barcelona in the rain. Despite a couple of depressing days of shit weather it was a good trip overall and we did some great climbing when it was dry. It's certainly got me into European sport climbing, which always looked pretty bland but is still pretty fun.
[Vibes - good, positive]
[Music - Various - Heroes Of Hardcore - DJ Delirium mix]
[Media - Enclave PC game / Å DVD]
[Reading - some crappy fantasy trilogy]
[Climbing - like someone who's remotely competent!]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 28/03/04
Arse.
Okay, ignore that for the moment. Here's some climbing-related stuff:
• A new video of me climbing some boulder problem somewhere 
.
• A page of commentary about each of the photos on my UKC photo gallery, anecdotes, stories behind doing the climbs etc.
• Updated venue ticklist for where I'm hoping to go this spring/summer/autumn. If any climbers read that and want to join me for any of the venues, please get in touch as I am very keen to do as much as possible.
Yes so back to the arse. Oh there's not much arse really. Climbing has been uninspired since returning from skiing, combination of some poor weather and poor state of mind. Still, glimmers of hope and a lot of enthusiasm for going away for the spring, summer, and autumn. Don't want to moan to much, everything fluctuates. Otherwise just pottering around. We shall see.
And finally.... Anyone in Sheffield?? Telewest / Yorkshire Cable / Blueyonder / whatever they're calling themselves, don't you just love them?? Good service admittedly, combined with customer service that would do Fawlty Towers proud. Latest stunt: receiving a red ink bill for someone who was a tenant in my house and left over 8 months ago. To help them out, I phoned to point this out:
Telewest staff: Hello...
Fiend: Hello, I have a bill here for someone who was a tenant in my house and left over 8 months ago...
Telewest staff: Can I take their name and customer number please?
Fiend: Yes, name is **** ***********, number is ******************
Telewest staff: And the password on their account?
Fiend: I have no idea, I'm not them and don't know their password.
Telewest staff: I can't give you the details of the account then.
Fiend: I don't want to know the details of the account. I'm calling you to tell you this person hasn't been at this address for 8 months.
Telewest staff: Okay, well, we will look into it, but we will have to keep sending the bill to your address.
Fiend: Right, so I can just put them in the recycling then??
Telewest staff: Well, yes, but we do have to send them to the addre...
Fiend: You're wasting your time, the person left here 8 months ago.
Telewest staff: ...but until we find them we...
Fiend: Look, I can help you: Go call Saxton Mee, the estate agent who did the letting, and they will have a contact address for **** ***********
Telewest staff: We'll be trying to find the person, but we can't contact estate agents.
Fiend: This is ridiculous, I'm trying to help you here. Call Saxton Mee and they will find Mr ************.
Telewest staff: We can't contact estate agents...
Fiend: But you'll still be sending stuff here even though Mr ************* isn't here??
Telewest staff: We have to send it there until...
Fiend: (exasperated) You could just contact him through the estate agents!
Telewest staff: We'll be trying to contact him but we can't conta...
Fiend: (laughing now) Well, good luck finding him, it's nothing to do with me, thank you and goodbye.
[Vibes - okay, optimistic]
[Music - Novatron - New Rising Sun (intense noise stuff)]
[Media - Consumed DVD / Halo PC game]
[Reading - China Mieville - The Scar]
[Climbing - like a sack of spuds]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 07/03/04
Yes yes, so we're back from skiing: Courchevel 1850, heavily discounted & fully catered chalet 30 seconds from the piste, 6 days of skiing, 2 days of snow and 4 of sun, overall a very good trip in a good resort. It's great to be back out there again, skiing can only be an occasional activity with the cost and logistics, but it is a nice all round experience. The only downside is that Ef had a tumble on the 5th day and hurt her thigh muscle. She's recovering pretty well though. Unfortunately we were slack taking pictures so only have a few average ones:
A gloriously sunny day. [ Ms F's pictures, ineptly stitched together by myself ]
Another day which was gloriously sunny until I tried to take a photo...
Our chalet in the middle distance, nice 8' icicle in foreground.
The icicle again.
What else? Oh, we went through Supertravel, who in addition to the good last minute discounts, organised everything very well, including, aside from the good catering, lift passes and ski-hire at your chalet. All very convenient, so we can recommend them. And I ate some frog's legs one night, which were rather nice, done in spicey breakcrumbs (yeah, Kentucky Fried Frog's Legs), and just like tiny chicken drumsticks. I thought they'd be more esoteric...
Back in sunny rainy dismal ...errr, actually pleasantly wintery England. I even got snowed on at Burbage today. Woohoo! Makes a nice change from the general warm clag earlier in the year. Fingers crossed eh. Time to get back climbing with a vengence, as the ski trip was a nice mental and physical break. Before I left, I'd managed to do a few of the most challenging, most satisfying and most beautiful climbs I've done on grit. Routes I've dreamt and fantasised about for maybe 8 years, but had put out of my mind until recently. And now I've done a couple, it's strange, I sometimes hardly believe it, the line between my fantasies and the reality is uncertain, although the pleasure is certainly genuine 
.
So, umm, yes, until next time...
[Vibes - pretty cool]
[Music - Various - Cyberdog Mix CD (from the eponymous and enticingly bonkers clothing/techno store)]
[Media - Painkiller demo]
[Reading - Latest White Dwarf & China Mieville - The Scar]
[Climbing - boulder problems quite nicely]
[Loving - pulling with some determination]
[Hating - the effects of that on my fingertips]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 12/02/04
Bletch.
Well, I have another photo to look at if you like. Something at least eh! Trying to remember to take them whenever something presents itself. I'm toying with adding a gallery of some recent photos of climbing on gritstone with a load of rambling descriptions to this site, or just adding a select few of them to my gallery at UKClimbing.com. Views on that would be appreciated because gritstone is a well (or even over-) photographed medium.
On that subject I've had a few nice days out recently in between the generally thoroughly mediocre weather. Grabbing the odd route and boulder problem here and there, and also a fun day out with the better half doing more "traditional" climbing at Ramshaw Rocks, "a gross succession of ghoulish faces, bovine and porcine heads, and half-finished monsters springing forth from the parent rock" (© E.A.Baker 1900). Thus a couple of photos:
Our brave and fearless hero about to be pressed, compressed, edited, remixed and rewound by The Press.
Our hero's hands after such treatment.
Oh what fun! Actually it's a pretty cool route and about 1/3 of the damage was caused by desperately reversing the first time in a moment of inadequate moral fibre.
What else?? Not much. I toyed with adding a "Fiend's Recipes of Despair and Ultimate Flatulence" page to the site so that anyone visiting could attempt to intestinally self-harm themselves if they were foolish enough, but quickly realised I was too lazy =). On such subjects, I'm getting quite fond of fresh chillies recently. Any food product for which it's recommended you wear gloves to handle it has got to be good =). Finally, Ef and I have got bored enough of the dismal weather that we're going skiing soon. Yay! Might get some photos from that.
[Vibes - boredish]
[Music - 3 hour DnB mix from some online radio station]
[Media - UT2K4 demo]
[Reading - Charles Wilson - The Chronoliths]
[Climbing - odds and sods]
[Loving - the occasional flashes of clarity]
[Hating - in a general sea of tedium]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 01/02/04
A month gone. Literally, gone. I started this year with a lot of positivity and anticipation about climbing, but the weather has been so utterly mediocre, it has been testing the limits of my frustration. Mediocre in the way of tedious mild rain, rather than proper winter which at least can be aesthetically appealing. It's not as simple as just bad weather though, it's as much to do with being lured into a false sense of security with the unusually amenable end to last year, and more pertinently, myself being slow to adapt and adopt different approaches, other than just optimistically waiting for the weather to improve. Actually that last point is purely retrospective - throughout the month it has seemed quite feasible that the weather would improve, only hindsight shows it didn't and I would have been better focusing elsewhere. What is important now is to retain the positivity and be more flexible with my current inspirations. Two areas that are quite a challenge for me!
There have been a few successes - a few good days out bouldering, and a delightful afternoon doing a couple of routes in short-lived prime conditions. The latter was particularly reassuring, the first routes for over a month, and I still felt quite confident - I think the bouldering plan is working. Most of these have been with the ever-uplifting Dan, who has shown me a very positive and progressive approach to climbing and demonstrated the value of good company.
Other than that, nothing of interest to man nor beast really. Nothing to post here either, I must try to take more photos or something. But in the interests of public service broadcasting, all of the embarassingly bloggy stuff below comes highly recommended if you're into that sort of things. If you happen to live near Sheffield and like to eat food, I'd also recommend the infallibly tasty Sheik's Lebanese on West Street and the yummy and cheery Cubana Tapas bar on Trippet Lane.
Hey why not liven things up by emailing random abuse to the address below
[Vibes - ponderous and pondering]
[Music - Amon Amarth - Vs The World (quality epic death metal)]
[Media - Mech games - MC2 and MW4 - still (they're fun)]
[Reading - Charles Wilson - The Chronoliths (good author, good book so far)]
[Climbing - Percy's usual deviant indoor problems]
[Loving - purity of purpose]
[Hating - rigid singlemindedness]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
Testing... 01/01/04
A new year. 2004 will be PHAT....2003 was good, but just warming up. Time to resolve some resolutions:
• Make sure, that every day, whatever the situation, without exception, I'm making good use of my time, whatever I'm doing.
• Organise myself better and ensure I don't miss out on any good opportunities to do stuff.
• Keep progressing with my climbing, and maintain the same enthusiasm, inspiration and determination.
• Keep making more good friends, and keep in touch with them. 2003 was nice socially, it will continue.
• Stop being late, this is happening too much and it will change. Instead, I'm going to give myself more time and be slightly early.
Addendum: Two important resolutions that I forgot and are well worth adding:
• Try to get rid of more material possessions than I accumulate (in mass/volume, not value). The less stuff, the better.
• Keep my relationship with Ms. Fiend steady, and progress and improve it so we both stay committed to each other.
Good resolutions. I am honestly inspired by them and wish to stick with them and see them through to improve myself and my life. I'm learning a lot, particularly in the last couple of years, and whilst learning is not the same as improving, acknowledging what works for me, and what can be improved, is a step in the right direction. If you're reading this and you know me in person, I would appreciate if you can encourage me to adhere to these resolutions, and admonish me if I don't. Thanks.
Anyway...
I did nothing for NYE....nothing that inspired me really, I'm not into celebrations for the sake of it. Ms. Fiend is in Scotland doing cold wet things, and called me to tell me she wasn't doing anything either, aaah 
. I had planned to have an early night, and indeed the vibes of listening to good DnB and watching the snow falling outside were appropriately mellow, but unfortunately I got carried away on the computer, and actually spent midnight trying to rid it of some obnoxiously intrusive search site that had screwed up the registery and my internet settings 
. Hijack This eventually fixed things, amazing how offensive the little shits who try these petty site schemes can be.
Christmas
was also a quite quiet affair too, although we did cook a nice meal for my family. Now there's months of living off left-over nibbles and reduced price festive delicacies. Mmmm, food.
[Vibes - fine]
[Music - Paul Reset December mix pt. 2]
[Media - Mech games still]
[Reading - Anselm Audley - Inquisition]
[Climbing - I will be...]
[Loving - the possibilities]
[Hating - the possibility of not trying for them]
Fiend | fiendophobia [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
