What do we do?

Right, yet another attempt to try and update this a bit more regularly. Here's a summary of everything between the last post and now.

I finished the work associated with previously mentioned problem involving sending instructions to a simulated processor core. It didn't go as well as I hoped, as everything only began to work very close to the deadline. Ah well.

However, I was dead chuffed to go and see the Long Blondes in back in April, and enjoyed the new album. I had heard reports they weren't playing that much of their first album on tour, but I think they played enough of it (i.e. the singles) to keep me happy, and they threw in one of their old songs, 'Autonomy Boy' for good measure.

On the music that I like at the moment and would like to/have acquire(d), I have added more Blur, Kraftwerk and Portishead to my collection, though I have yet to get Portishead's latest. The number of anticipated albums released in the past couple of months (and the months ahead) is too much to keep up with - apart from Portishead and the Long Blondes, there's Foals, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Hot Chip, Mystery Jets, Goldfrapp, The Futureheads, The Young Knives, Los Campesinos!, Blood Red Shoes, We Are the Physics, Pete & the Pirates....

However, more recent (well, almost recent) items that have come to my attention include:

Late of the Pier: Particularly liking 'Bears Are Coming'. More songs need the sound of someone tapping a spoon on the edge of a teacup.

Hot Chip: Not an album track, but a session track recorded for BBC Radio 1. Wiley's 'Rolex' is one of those tunes that gets stuck in your head, and this is a pretty good cover.

PNAU: Wild Strawberries. No further explanation needed.

The Cribs: I actually bought the second album more or less on the strength of this alone. The rest of the album is also rather good, even though the singing style might put some people off. Another back catalogue I need to add, I think.

I leave you with the heart-warming story of a man and his evil, floating head problem.

[bubbles]

Blood Red Shoes, CSS (not the band)

Marvellous stuff. Blood Red Shoes were playing at Joiners, a venue that probably suits them well given the band is only two people. Unfortunately, this time the guitarist had lost her voice, so Steve the drummer had to sing all the words. Given the nature of the music, this meant he was tired out after every three and a half minutes of intense drumming and shouting. Still, they rocked hard, and I would see them again.

In other news, I'm trying to design a website, and although I successfully wrote the custom PHP code that fetches info from a file, inserts it into a block of HTML and spits it out again all nicely formatted, CSS is proving more difficult to master. This is mostly due to two reasons:

1. Internet Explorer 7 does not render pages according to standards. Firefox does. When your design looks nice in one, it usually breaks in the other.
2. When drawing up the CSS standard someone forgot that people might want more than one column in their layout. All kinds of hacks are needed to trick a browser into displaying columns properly.

Both of these problems bother me, because I ought to be doing proper work, and I'm wasting time on things which I can't control. So I will go back to what I should be doing and try to figure out how to get a processor core to interface with memory and storage and handle interrupts and run a program without an operating system to support it and um oh dear....

[pensives]

Underwater, Trains, Leaf-Blowers

I really should attempt to update this more, because I'm sure I've got something to say about something, perhaps maybe. I will continue to mention music things, and various thoughts about stuff and nonsense. Maybe I'll mention real news in the real world. Perhaps I will just link to good things I have found on the internet. Most likely I'll not write again until several weeks later when I remember I have this blog.

In the meantime, I would recommend Portishead and Kraftwerk, and also old albums by Blur. Portishead haven't released any albums for several years now, but I hear they're playing Coachella in the U.S. this year, so perhaps we'll see more of them. The video below was directed by the genius that is Chris Cunningham, purveyor of many a visual treat and/or horror.

Portishead - 'Only You' from 'Portishead':


Kraftwerk are in part repetitive, but being robots, that's probably to be expected. They do have one of the most awesome riffs ever sampled in 'Trans-Europe Express', most famously used by Afrika Bambaata on 'Planet Rock'.

Kraftwerk - 'Trans-Europe Express' from 'Trans-Europe Express':


As for Blur, I'm quite behind in getting their back catalogue, but I hope to get more soon, as it looks very good, from sampling it on YouTube. I like the video to this one off their last album:

Blur - 'Good Song' from 'Think Tank':


I will write again next week, when I might have something to write about.

[anticipates]

Not appearing in a shop near you

Imagine the situation. A word pops into your head. The word is 'Minstant'. Clearly a minty coffee hybrid, with a ready-made brand name, and a gap in the market. Further investigation is required. You have instant coffee, but nothing mint-flavoured. Except... toothpaste!

A mugful of instant coffee is prepared, and a small amount of Colgate Total added. This is the moment when history is made, when a new product is born. You take a sip.

It's different... another sip required. Hmm... just one more, to be sure.

No, you were right the first two times as well, this drink is disgusting.

And thus ends the brief foray into hot beverage innovation.

[rinses]

Look at it dance!

This yellow blob is causing much joy. Look at it dance and bob about! It's like that dancing flower, as it responds to music, but it's so much better. I expect it to be featured in a music video at some point, it's just too much fun not to be.

[watches again]




[glees]

Puzzling Signs and Simple Amusements

I saw a shop that said it had "Ladies Prices".

Eh?!? I didn't know we had separate prices. What's so special that needs to be sold differently depending on the alignment of your chromosomes?
---
Radio adverts are getting weird. One for improved local bank services includes the line, "OK, I need two pumpkin enchiladas, now!". I feel the need for someone to add, "Stat!" on the end, as it does sound like a very urgent request he's making. Also, the ad telling people about the availability of mp3 on your digital radio, contains this conversation:

WOMAN: You're listening to the football on your mp3 player?
MAN: It's not just an mp3 player, it's a digital radio!
WOMAN [in utter disbelief and confused surprise]: Really?!?

Surely it takes more than an Ipod with extras to confuse people? Though I'm not surprised people are mixed up, what with the sudden change in pricing regulations.

"But the box says £89.99!"
"That's the ladies' price, Sir. You could always buy the model without the radio."
"I suppose so. I'll just have to think of another way to confuse my wife. Maybe a radio... with a built in clock!"
"That's madness! Security!"

---
At some point this week, I will be getting a parcel through the door labelled 'Dr [inquus]'. Not because I have a PhD, I simply abused the web form options on HMV. Not as good as when I was ordering prospectuses when trying to choose universities, and there was an option to be posted to as a Rev., and in some cases, Captain.
---
I just remembered I have some chocolate-covered brazil nuts. [glees]

Goodbye 2006

It wasn't too bad actually. University-ing all year, going to some gigs which were good, but at the same time getting very tired. Almost losing a tooth, and then my eyes swelled up and I needed surgery. Messy.

Christmas was good, I now have a digital radio with which I can listen to such stations as Xfm, Virgin Xtreme (which isn't particularly extreme, or much beyond being a generic indie/rock channel) and Panjabi Radio, where I can't understand the difference between a prank call, a request phone-in and an interview. Good for an alternative listen though.

I was also given Nicholas Nickleby, yet another example of why Dickens is a good writer. And a couple of albums - Empire (Kasabian), Black Holes & Revelations (Muse), and The Warning (Hot Chip). I would recommend both the Muse and Hot Chip, particularly the latter, if not simply for Over and Over.

Which brings us to the end of another year, and another unread blog post. [joys]

Back in the 'ford

It's Christmas, and so I can now enjoy the comforts of home back in Watford. No boiler in the corner of the room, no limit on internet use, and I don't have to bother with all that business of going to lectures. It is a bit colder than Southampton, but there isn't as much wind.

Downsides - I now have to search for presents for people who don't know what they want (I don't know what I want either), write two reports on lab sessions, and see if I can actually understand the mysterious art that is analogue electronics. All I have to help me is the internet, and some books that are written how the lecturer talks - tangled prose full of, "Let us suppose that..." and, "Alternatively...". I don't want alternatives to things I'm already not sure about, it's like being taught how to use imaginary numbers without knowing how to count.

Actually it's not quite that bad, but it does cause furrowed brows. There is no easy way to do it all, it's guesswork, experience, and knowing an awful lot of clever tricks which aren't particularly obvious.

[sigh, grumble etc.]

Un-necessary post #2

I really should have tried to write more regularly. Even though nobody reads this.

In summary, I saw Mr Scruff, The Young Knives and Cansei de Ser Sexy. All three very good artists/bands.

2nd year electronics is a lot of hard work.

And I can't remember anything else significant/interesting that happened during the last three months, so I won't bother writing about it.

In other news, Marching band play Radiohead.

Blog?

Oh no, it's happened again. Yet another blog has been created. And it's probably going to be self-obsessed and tell everyone who doesn't want to know about whatever happened in the author's day, and nobody will care.

What a great start...