The Haunted Jacket
Many years ago I was just a poor broke student at a UK University. At least back then, research students got grants that allowed them to subsist and which could be supplemented with a bit of teaching or other part-time work. I was quite lucky in that I was teaching a geological mapping class to non-geology students for the amazing sum of ten pounds per hour in addition to a subsistence grant from the NERC (if such a thing exists anymore). However, I can tell you life wasn’t easy financially! Like most students then, I also kept an eye on the second hand clothes outlets for any bargains and one day, I spotted a beautiful tweed jacket that looked like it may fit me. I forget how much it was
Read More »Keeping Everyone Happy
Last week in London, we pulled off our first conference. Pulling together something like a conference is a real feat of organization and hard work I can tell you! It also has a lot of stakeholders who all want something different from the event. The attendees, the sponsors, the exhibitors and so on. Pleasing them all is really tough to do and none of them really care much about how complex everything is or how difficult it is to pull off a complex event like this – they just want you to meet their objectives. To be honest, it reminded me a little of life! In life, I think it is exactly the same way. People expect things from you and they are not actually in possession of the facts
Read More »Rip Off
Its quite incredible to me how people are quite comfortable ripping other people off. Last night, I accidentally stumbled upon a report on offer on several websites for the amazing sum of $3500. The report was about the CTRM software market (everyone scratches heads and says – The what market?). This is actually the software category that I cover as an analyst and so I was interested in this report that must originate with a competitor – naturally, I wanted to know who that competitor might be. Well, firstly, the report appears to be for sale across a number of websites that offer reports, it’s authors well hidden behind a mass of different company names. The language used to describe it told me three things almost immediately; 1. The authors
Read More »How are The Stars Aligned?
I seem to be going through a very strange phase at the moment. I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the Moon so if you are an astrologer, let me know would you? I am an Aquarian with Moon in Taurus, Mars and Venus in Capricorn and Mercury also in Aquarius….. just in case you want to offer some advice. I seem to attract disrespectful or strange behaviour. This morning, I almost got run down on a pedestrian crossing, also last night. I may as well be invisible on those crossings. When driving, it’s always me that people cut off or wish to pass at 20km/hr faster than the speed limit and so drive 6cm behind me. Around me, people are fighting and in bitter discord with people
Read More »Customer Service East of the Rhine….
I love living in the Czech Republic I really do. It is beautiful, relatively inexpensive (outside of Prague), full of very nice people and has great beer and food. One thing it lacks however is an understanding of what customer service is. When you live somewhere like the Czech Republic you really do begin to yearn for the American customer service experience. I say American because to be honest, British customer service isn’t all that great either…. but, its not this bad! Let me give you a small example. In an earlier post, I mentioned a bill for natural gas. The company in question is RWE, a major German energy company. You would think then that customer service would be high on the agenda of a company supplying energy to
Read More »Strange (But Good) Book Reviews
Being someone who likes to write and to read books in a certain, well, strange sort of category, I have teamed up with a friend to bring the unsuspecting world a new concept in book review websites – yes folks – Strange Book reviews. The official launch will be towards the end of this week but as usual, I am impatient to hurl this at the world and see if it works! Take a look. In looking for book reviews for my own novel – The Last Observer – I discovered that there really aren’t many sites that review occult books. This is a crime against humanity I thought and one that should immediately be rectified. And so I did. Here is the About Us section to further explain; We
Read More »Life in Bite-Sized Chunks
Being a father of three sons and a daughter, I often need to come up with advice about life. Frankly, I don’t feel particularly qualified because I am still trying to figure it out myself. There was a song I used to like that alluded to this saying something along the lines of once you have life figured out, its gone. So, what can I tell the kids about life? One thing I have come to think is that making plans is somewhat useless. Most books and experts these days will tell you that a plan is a must but you know, I can’t agree. It’s good to have a vision and dreams for sure and its OK to chase those dreams. In fact, we must have dreams but a
Read More »Christmas Gift Idea
Christmas is fast approaching so how about sending someone a book personally dedicated to them by me the author? Right now I have copies of; Inner Journeys – 16USD or 9.95GBP + postage and packing (I can quote on demand) Weird Tales – 9.95USD or 6.20GPB and I am hoping to have also The Mystical Hexagram shortly at 15USD or 9.35GBP Contact me at [email protected] if interested…. I can accept payment via paypal and can offer a discount of 10% on more than one book purchased. Thanks,
Read More »Thoth Publications to offer kindle version of IJ
Tom at Thoth tells me he is going to make Inner Journeys available in Kindle and other electronic formats in the near future. With The Mystical Hexagram coming out soon, this should increase the availability of Inner Journeys to anyone who wants to purchase it. I have also created a Facebook page for Inner Journeys so if you have a FB account, please do pop over there and like the page or leave your comments about the book…. Thanks
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