For those of you who read my last post Train Of Thought you may remember I finished with closing the cage door. While I was writing that particular post I got to thinking If there is no God or afterlife then where do we go from here.

My thoughts go back in time to the days when cave men became a dominant feature on Mother Earth. If you watch these television documentaries we are told that cave paintings from way back in time depict images of Aliens dropping from the sky in what appears to be… dare I say it?.. flying saucers, and other such futuristic images.

If this is true, and they are there for all to see, perhaps we would be rather silly if not naive to think we are the only intelligent life forms in this vast Universe/Galaxy of ours.

Now supposing these cave painting are fact of what did happen long ago, this could then imply that we were deposited here on Mother Earth in our early stages of development by highly intelligent Alien Beings. Not because we had a part to play in this vast universe/galaxy, but purely as an experiment. Yes, an experiment to see if left alone how we would develop over the centuries while our masters looked on enjoying what they saw, very much like we do with our pets: dogs, cats, rabbits what ever your preference. Is it possible these Super Beings are our masters and we are their pets and Earth is our cage. Now centuries later we are close to visiting the stars our-selves and just maybe, unknown to us, this is where the fun begins.

Suppose we are the pet project of Super Beings, who for many centuries have watched their experiment grow. Could we now be seen as an experiment gone wrong,? has the speed of our evolutionary processes surprised our masters (caught them napping)? Have we been allowed out to play to often? Have we gone passed the expectations of our masters?, have we now become a threat to our masters?, are we now in a position to take our dog eat dog nature to the stars and beyond, so we can infect the rest of those unknown inhabitants of other worlds? are our masters now regretting their experiment of centuries ago?, are they looking on wondering how to stop us?, … So many unanswered questions… Maybe the time is fast approaching and our masters now know of away to stop us reaching the stars and beyond.

The reported sighting of flying saucer shaped craft are just the fore-runner of what is to come. Maybe the day when our masters close the cage door on their experiment permanently, is fast approaching stopping us infecting the rest of the Universe, and watch on as we destroy ourselves…

Well I do say somewhere on this website that I have a weird imagination. Good night, sleep tight watch the bugs don’t bite… Bye for now.

Pit Head

I came across the following eerie story in an old newspaper clipping (Shields Gazette 2005). The story was wrapped around Boldon Colliery Pit.

Boldon Colliery used to be a mining village in the North East of England. The village, more like a small town these days, is still there, but the mine workings were closed in the early 1980′s and has since been replaced with what I would call a beautiful forest and nature trail walk. Despite the closure this story of ghostly happenings seems to have stood the test of time.

When Boldon Colliery Pit closed in 1982 there were only two coal seams being worked. However back in the 1950′s, when this ghost story came to life, there were four seams being worked, these being (I think as paper clipping wasn’t too good) The Yard, Bensham, Five Quarter and Hutton.

There was a fifth seam called Beaumont which was no longer in use and had not been worked since 1869. It is the Beaumont seam that give rise to the story.

As it goes three young miners were busy doing what miners did on a coal seam, when one of them decided it was time to take his bait (lunch break). He headed off to find a nice quiet place to have his bait when he became aware of footsteps behind him. He turned, and seeing no-one there he continued on his way only to hear the footsteps behind him once again. Quickly turning again he still found no-one there.

A little later he mentioned his odd experience to his two mates and was surprised to find that they themselves had experienced the ghostly footsteps. Laughing the experience off, it would appear, was the wrong thing to do. Just a few days later while working the three young men heard cries coming from a distance. Thinking someone had been injured the men went to the rescue. Following the cries they arrived at the old Beaumont coal face. Here the cries for help stopped. feeling a little unnerved the men walked away only to hear the cries start up again louder than ever.

The newspaper cutting went on to say that the story was soon the talk of the village and the three young miners were adamant that they hadn’t been the victims of a practical joke.

The reporter himself thinks the young miners could have heard a replay of a tragic accident. Back in 1873 John Wardle was employed at Boldon as a driver guiding horses on the main road underground. Mr Wardle, only 12 years of age at the time, was working near the Beaumont seam when unwisely he attempted to alight from the truck while it was still being drawn by the horses.

Sadly young Mr Wadle was crushed between the truck and the coal face, his cries for help as he lay dying, could be heard throughout the rest of the pit. The reporter himself feels that this is what the three young miners had heard, or maybe the eerie cries of other miners who had died at the Beaumont seam before it closed.

One of the young miners involved was a Mr Chris Lawler who according to the news clipping has since long ago moved to the Midlands. As for his two friends, the reporter is unaware of their location.

Since this report was made in 2005 the reporter may have gotten his wish for the men involved to get in touch with him… I don’t know.

Although the mine shaft at Boldon Colliery has been filled in I am left wondering if the cries can still be heard and how lonely, sad and terrifying it must be to be buried underground with no-one ever to answer your cry for help… Ghost, or no ghost.

The pic. above is taken from that particular news clipping. Although the clipping has seen better days I managed to get some of it scanned the rest I have added to, it adds a little atmosphere… me thinks!

Public Domain Image

Well I reckon that header opens the door for many topics.

Could your partner, the love of your life, your one and only, be unknown to you of course, your long lost half-brother, half-sister, aunt, uncle, nephew etc.

I do not know how marriage pans out in other countries, but here in England it seems as if it is going out of fashion. However, the divorce rate is not what this post is about.

I got to thinking, after watching a television program that tries to sort out various couples love life, that sometimes it works out OK, but more often than not the couple end up going their own way. The program also offers lie detector tests, or a DNA test to
prove who the father of the woman’s baby is.

The DNA test proves eight times out of ten the father turns out to be another man, or the girl/women has no idea who it could be or it has been proven not to be the guy she thought it was. (If that makes any sense to you).

I have noticed there seem to be a lot of couples, one night stands, or one brother going to bed with another brothers partner, or women who have had children to multiple partners, appear on this program on a regular basis.

The one I was watching was about the man of a partnership that had gone out with another woman, so to get back at him his partner had gone out with his best-mate, yes your ahead of me, she ends up pregnant. The program attempts to resolve the problem/problems. “The baby turned out not to be his best-mates either.” (just in case you were wondering).

I reckon in years to come there’s a possibility when children of these unknown fathers/mothers go out into this big bad world of ours where she/he has a very good chance of one day meeting the love of their life, have children and wonder why the big man upstairs has visited on them a child, or children that have that many medical problems sadly dies.

Well I would say the big man upstairs may not be to blame a simple blood check could reveal that the love of their life was their half-brother/sister and the death of their child was due to interbreeding. After all they’re very good medical reasons, apart from it being illegal in this country, or any other I would suppose, for closely related individuals to marry and have children. The emphasis is on having children here.

I have created a scenario that I hope will never happen, but sadly there are children out there who do not know who their mother was, let alone their fathers. So maybe it may become a future legacy.

I guess this post would come under the “what If doom and gloom category”.

Image: In game

If you played the first game then you will be familiar with the storyline, F.E.A.R 2 continues its supernatural suspense story of the supernatural being, Alma, who is set to take on and replace reality with her own.

You play a Delta Force operator, Michael Beckett, whose squad is sent in to take Genevieve Aristide into protective custody. In true gaming style that’s as far as you get to even coming close to Aristide. From then on you battle through various levels always close to, be never quite catching up to the sneaky, illusive Genevieve Aristide.

If you did not play the game first time round, fear (excuse the pun) not this will not stop your enjoyment. The game and storyline are brilliant, intelligent enemies, armour-clad forcefield protected robots that take a little thought to kill, the environment lends itself to combat opportunities available to both you and your enemies, there’s slow mo which uses Becketts enhanced reflexes, as well as enhanced graphics to add realism to the action horror

My personal favourites are the Elite Powered Armour and the nail gun, they both deliver. I’m not a great fan of FPS, so just maybe, I’m easy pleased, if that is the case then I will be happy in my ignorance. The only complaint I have is the poorly thought out ending, if that’s what it is… an ending I mean. Never the less F.E.A.R 2 pushes all the right buttons. Myself I would put it on equal par with Bioshock, yet another brilliant FPS, (as far as I am concerned).

Deep Silver and developer Piranha Bytes (PB) have put together an excellent Role Play. The game starts where you survive a shipwreck and wake up lying among the dead bodies of the crew. You have been deposited on the volcanic island of Faranga which turns out to be the backdrop for this excellent RPG.

The flexibility this game offers the Hero/you is brilliant, even if you don’t know what you are supposed to be doing or for that matter why you are there. You can follow the story-line or go your own way. Hell, you could probably go from one side of the island to the other killing everything that moves and still meet the end boss.

Having said that, you would be putting aside an excellent RPG for wholesale slaughter (not my cup of tea so to speak).

Combat action can be harsh, if not dammed difficult at first, left click to use your weapon or right click to defend combo. However, with a little bit of ingenuity and using the games surroundings you don’t need to end up surrounded by three or four giant beasties/enemies.

If you like to wander then I would recommend looking around the island. Go any and everywhere. before accepting the Bandit camp or Harbour Town, the story will wait for you so explore. Collect anything and everything magic, weapons, food, plants, wolf skins, the list goes on, especially before entering Harbour Town as getting out again is another matter and some of your collected items will come in handy. Blooming lovely graphics no, excellent graphics and an excellent story-line unfolds as you move further inland.

As time goes on you will need to choose which faction you follow. The first one is the Inquisition, a clerical order that was dispatched to the island to explore the sudden appearance of monsters. The other is an outlaw faction that has been exploring dungeons and selling the artefacts within on the black market. Kai Rosenkrantz, producer at Piranha Bytes, best known for the popular Gothic series comments “You don’t really know who the bad guys are, you have to figure it out, and the more you uncover, the more you may reconsider your choice of sides”. Regardless of what you decide, there will be a large number of options available to you.

From Wild Dogs to Dwarves, Skeletons to Monsters and some of the weirdest looking creatures you just don’t mess with, until you are sure you can win. As for which faction is good or which is evil well, you tell me I am still trying to make my own mind up as to which side I’ll join. Why? well there both as bad as each other and its up to you how the story progresses and the experiences you encounter. The only down side for me was the end game boss… One screen, one giant fire god standing in the middle of a circle firing bolts of light at you, your goal kill him while the circle of magic stones you are running round on suddenly disappear underfoot, dropping you into a fiery pit. I would have liked to see the end boss being hunted down in the world of Faranga not as some one off, behind double doors, one screen idiotic god. Why O’ why do games like Risen need an end Boss. If the story line is there and you choose to bring peace or evil to the end game then use it, do not rely on a one off, one screen god to give the end game credibility… Oop’s that’s bound to upset someone…

The designers say that they’re aiming for at least sixty hours of play for each faction, meaning that there will be a large amount of re-playability for players to check out within the game. OH!… I nearly forgot don’t p**s off to many N.P.C, especially the traders. If you don’t have a joke scroll/spell you will find yourself at the point of their sword… With an in-depth dialogue system and your actions determining N.P.C reactions this game is a must for RPG Fans.