Desktop wallpapers have recently given me some food for thought. I don't know why but I randomly thought one day "Why do we bother putting up so many awesome desktop wallpapers?", I mean when you think about it we only see them like 3 or four times from when our computer is turned on to when we turn it off. It's not like we sit there and actively evaluate it for any length of time, we just set it as background and then that's what it becomes, part of the background. You notice it a couple times when you're closing down windows or opening new ones and that's it. We often spend alot of our time trawling through countless images trying to decide on the best background then once we've chosen one we ignore it until we get "bored" and decide to change it again, only to repeat the process again.
It's not a particularly important thing in our lives but some people spend ages trying to decide on one or design one ourselves and I can't help but wonder why. It's not like we brag about it to everyone we know at any point, or talk about how they effect our lives as they don't really influence anything or get noticed by anyone but ourselves. I don't really have much to add to this thought....it just made me think. Personally I put my wallpaper on a 30minute rotation from a selection of about 50 different images...no idea why, it's not even like I check to see the new one every 30mins...I just leave it on a cycle and when I get round to powering my laptop down and then re-starting it there's almost always a different image there but they don't serve much of a purpose...
Anyways, I've recently been working on handwriting analysis as part of my course (it's not one of my weird hobbies) and I've found it strangely interesting. The idea that people can start of with a very similar and basic handwriting style due to the way they're taught to write in school and eventually it becomes something unique and massively individualised, being able to lead to a positive identification of someone by just comparing their handwriting. It's similar to a person's DNA or fingerprints except far more characteristic as identical twins might have the same DNA but they could have totally different handwriting styles. Handwriting analysis is obviously only applicable when you've got a questioned document with a person's handwriting on, but the same can be said for any kind of evidence.
I just found it quite interesting how individual and characteristic a person's handwriting can become and allow people to be told a apart simply on the style of their handwriting. Differences can range from something minor like the length of a flick on a letter or the major such as the style of writing. Obviously if your sample in question is written in cursive and your suspect writes in script then it's highly unlikely they are your mystery author. Whilst reading up on the subject I found out about "Graphologists" who claim to be able to tell a person's character and mannerisms purely based on their handwriting style. Things like letter formations and the order in which pen strokes are put down are apparently indicative of character traits in the author. Again I find this to be quite an interesting idea and I might have to do some further research into it.
The past week has been rather uneventful except for this weekend. We went paintballing. I really enjoy paintballing and well, this time was no exception. I could do a whole report on how the day went but this wall of text is getting a bit big now so it's probably a good idea to call it a day. I'll just tell of one event that stood out to me which was during one of the last game types where we had to capture a flag and hoist it on the enemy's flagpole. For this one the attacking force got infinite lives and the use of riot shields, making it seem entirely in their favour that they'll win the round, however the opposition got the use of a big fort and a rather tight time limit in order for the attackers to raise the flag.
Anyways, we started on attack and the first thing I did was grab a riot shield and half crouched behind it so that I was pretty much invulnerable to a frontal assault. Then it was time to go hunting for the flag, since I think I'm quite light on my feet I'd probably stand a good chance of getting the flag to where it needed to be without getting hit. So I took off onto the right hand side of the fort looking for this damned flag, eventually finding it atop a small wooden post near one entrance to the fort and a clear line of sight between me, the flag and the whole right hand wall of the fort. Unfortunately I took a shot to the side and had to drop my trusty shield and go "respawn". I did that as quick as I could, being careful to save energy for the no doubt painful and nerve wracking run for the flag pole. After respawning I sprinted for the place I dropped my shield with two team mates behind a stack of barrels and reclaimed my fallen equipment. Once re-equiped with my shield I handed my now empty paintball gun to the two people behind the barrels and said "Hold this, I'll go raise the flag"....for some reason they looked at me as if I was crazy but hell, we've got infinite lives, a rapidly decreasing time limit and a game to win. So I picked up my shield, ran for the flag and instantly got lit up like a freaking christmas tree. It sounded like a severe rainstorm does when you're out camping, rain hammering into your canvas roof, well this was alot like that but nowhere near as peaceful but far more colourful. I made it to the flag and pulled it quickly from the post and swiftly got the hell out of dodge carrying the precious cargo back to reasonable safety. From there I had one job, a relatively small distance to cover across incredibly hostile ground with my shield as the only thing between me and my overalls getting redecorated at high velocity. Giving myself enough time to steady my breathing I took up my shield and began what felt like an age long journey across no-man's land for the flagpole. I could easily have discarded my shield and just legged it but then I would have met a painful end and left the flag in the dirt as I went off to clean up and start again. So a painfully slow advance with my shield taking any number of shots to it as I crept ever closer to the flagpole, supported by another shield bearing nutter who either cared not for the likely injury or genuinely thought I had a chance. Eventually we made it to the wall and clipped the flag to the hook and began raising it. I took a couple rounds that didn't burst and got an outraged exclamation from a bunch of shooters as the marshall declared us good to keep going. We raised the flag and ended the game much to my relief as my arm was beginning to ache from holding the shield. So yeah that's my epic story from the day, I got a couple others but that took far too long to put to paper as it is.
Training on Sunday was awesome due to Chris putting us through something called "Continuous Ultimate". I'd explain the rules but like I said, kinda gone on way too long without any pictures to break up the text this week. Needless to say I was knackered by the end of it but probably a pound or too lighter due to the exertion.
I didn't see Christina all weekend and found I missed her alot more than I thought I would...now though we're back to normality and I'm glad to have her back. That's pretty much it for now....
Catch ya later folks
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