Made Me Laugh

I was having a text conversation with my sister about my lack of mixer drinks for use with Jack Daniels. I tried to say that I’d go and buy some coke but I have fingers that are a bit bigger than my keyboard on the phone. Whoops!

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I seriously laughed out loud in my house while alone for a good five minutes. It’s still a giggle when I think about it.

Diamonds and Pearls – Prince

There was a time when I liked listening to Prince, or whatever his name became. I saw him live on the Diamonds and Pearls tour in Earl’s Court Arena and I was really impressed with the show. The man is a genius. For some bizarre reason I just wanted him to play “Anarchy in the UK”, I think it was his guitar sound, it had that punk edge to it.

This is a good album. It’s different. Not metal and a bit funk and pop, but I still like it. I don’t think you’d get far putting this stuff on at a disco but it is brilliant. It also takes me back to the carefree times of the early 1990s!

My favourites are:

  • Cream
  • Gett Off
  • Willing and Able

I’d rate this 5 stars.

Devil’s Interval

So, firstly I’m ashamed of the placing in this result table from Gran Turismo 6. Sixth place is pretty shocking. I hate the Kart races, the tracks are generally tight and small and the Karts are somewhat twitchy. Anyway, I’m glad I snapped this one with the phone because I don’t think it’ll happen again.

6th Place with a time difference of 6.666 seconds.

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Suck on that!

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here – Alice In Chains

Alice In Chains are an awesome band. I find their music haunting and beautiful. I reckon that the first few albums are just brilliant and after that the newer albums seem to sound the same. If I want slow heavy ghostly rock then this is an album I’ll play. It’s a newer album to me and is therefore subject to the Old Dog problem.

Anything by this band is worth a listen.

Minister

I am an occasional follower of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I love the way the church has answers to all the really hard questions to life and by giving these answers I don’t have to think about what worries me any more. I also don’t have to question those areas of knowledge anymore.

Touched

Recently I mentioned this church at my workplace and I was told that it wasn’t a “real” religion. I countered “define ‘real religion'”. It’s wonderful that when faced with a made up religion people suddenly question their own made-up religions. Ha Ha.

Anyway, it turns out that I am eligible to become ordained as a minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I can be a Pastafarian minister. I can’t wait. I am really looking forward to this.

By it for me now by clicking here.

Hopefully, once I become ordained I can then apply to perform ceremonies like marriage and naming parties. Excellent.

Combichrist – Electrowerkz

Saturday 21 December. A date that will live in my memory and on this communication. Andy and I travelled to The Angel to see Combichrist at Electrowerkz venue.

This is the running order, taken after I went to the “rest rooms”.

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The whole venue was a bit weird. Pretty much a dark room in a strange building with a bar and unisex toilets. The black painted walls were painted with phrases and sayings and my favourite was the one that said “Hadley’s Hope” – the terraforming city on LV426 in the film Aliens. The mixing desk was hanging from the ceiling and the bottom edge of this construction was just at head height.

The first band on were shit. I reckon my staff band at work were better than them. They said they were from Coventry. Not sure if that’s a causation thing or not.

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One of the things about listening to the type of music I like now is that the whole musician thing is constantly questioned. The eighteen year old me would hate me. I like electronic music which can be played using a laptop. Das Kapital (below) had three laptops and bopped around behind them. My issue with this is that although I might enjoy the music I don’t understand the creation process. Surely if your music is samples and drum tracks why don’t you just press play? Perhaps I need to see more of this type of music created. If only there was a festival dedicated to alternative music, somewhere like in Kettering next year.

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Combichrist consisted of two people. Singer and mixer-dude. They were very good. It was brilliant to hear the old songs played – the gig was billed as the Old School Electro Set. I didn’t take any photos as I was about two rows back from the very front. As much as it ashames me I held my hand up and got to hold hands with the singer twice. I am such a teenager.

Songs I remember them playing:

  • Body Beat
  • Blut Royale
  • This S*it Will Fcuk You Up
  • Like To Thank My Buddies
  • Electrohead

There were others and I am sure I could find them if I searched the internet thingy but I can’t be bothered.

Andy gave this gig a 10. I am bordering on 10 but at the moment more than likely it is: 9.9 < r < 10. Don’t know why, there was just a little something missing and I’m not sure what that was.

One Of My Favourites

Ever since I raced this car in Gran Turismo I have always started the game with the Honda Integra Type R as my first car. I love it. Here’s my latest one from GT6 [just after a car wash]

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I seem to remember one game in the series where I had to get a Civic Type R initially but soon bought my Integra.

Moonset

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It’s such a shame that my iPhone camera doesn’t do very well in the low light. The moon has been gorgeous these last few mornings. A full moon and setting. Brilliant.

I’m amused by effects of our eyes on our perception of reality. To me, when I looked at the moon it seemed much larger than in the photo. My eyes and brain do a really good job of ignoring all the stuff I’m not interested in. To me, this view was mostly the moon and tree. My brain just chose to ignore all the houses and car. It will really freak you out once you start understanding perception of reality. We observe so little of what we see.

Compromise

Here’s the thing. Where I work has some rooms with lovely views. Here’s the view from my normal classroom:

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As you can see, the view from my classroom is dominated by mud. Mud and the sports hall. In terms of view, this room rather sucks. However, the selling points of the room are plentiful.

  • Cool in the summer
  • Cool in the winter
  • Nobody passes the room, there’s nowhere to go
  • Occasional wildlife, cats, squirrels, pigeons, dog
  • Quiet, there’s no where to go after my room and so I don’t get people walking by
  • Far away from anything else

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This room is in the same building and actually has a positive altitude in opposition to my room. The view over Maidstone is lovely and should be worth the effort of changing rooms. However, there are downsides to this room:

  • Hot in the summer (faces east)
  • Hot in the winter (faces east and at top of building)
  • Too bright
  • People can walk past the room to go to other rooms
  • Sometimes the view is just more interesting than the classroom.

The compromise is that although I would love a good view from my work room I value the other good things about my room more.