I’ve got a few Anthrax albums and while I know this one is a good listen I couldn’t tell you what songs were on it or how any of them go.
I Felt Productive
I recently had a long session on Minecraft, I was stuck in the house and couldn’t get out as I was waiting for someone to come and fix my boiler. I didn’t really feel like getting into a TV show so I spent some time [too long really] putting an idea I had a while back into place. Here’s an overview of part of the latest world:
The mess top right next to the bay is the MAIN Base. I’m going to see if I can get some screen shots of it, or maybe give a walk around viewing video, I’ll see what I can manage. The big grey blob in the middle of the map is a gravel topped mountain and I’ve not been there to get the gravel yet but it will be useful at some point I hope. In the bottom left of the map you can see the nearest village to the base. I wanted to create a way of getting to and from the village without having to walk over land. I could have created a minecart track but in this world I chose to dig a canal.
This cross-sectional map shows everything at level 62 – sea level [currently]. If you look closely at the top you can see a thin blue line going horizontally. That is the canal I dug and added water to. You enter the canal from top right and move directly westwards and exit in the Great Lake. From there you follow the passages and mini-canal southwards to get to the village. There could be an issue that I can’t remember whether it was this village or not that had actual live villagers in it. I didn’t bother to check before I started this infrastructure project so it could have been for nothing!
My map making software also has a measuring tool. You can see that the total canal length is about 0.85km. So that’s 850 blocks long. I’ll probably create a video soon of the base and where the canal goes but until then, I leave you in peace.
Well, At Least I Tried
Gran Turismo has been accepted into the 2021 Digital Virtual Olympics. Anyone playing can attempt to qualify and so I have. Attempted.
The first round is a time trial around a Tokyo street circuit which makes sense given the actual games are going to be in Japan. The circuit has a good mix of slow technical corners and high speed straights and high speed esses. There are some slightly annoying things though – if you touch, and I mean just touch, a wall then your lap is discounted. I have completed around 200 miles around this circuit and I think in all those I have fewer than ten green laps. I guess it means that I am pushing it around the corners but at the same time it is very frustrating. Maybe I’m just not that good?
After my first few attempts I managed a time around 2 minutes and I knew I could improve by about two seconds. I will have another go I think but it is marginal gains and I’m already too far down the rankings. I’m also about FOUR seconds behind those in the lead. That’s quite depressing. My driver rating is around a C or B whereas those at the top are all A+ rated drivers. I know I’ve been playing this game since 1997 but perhaps I’m not that good? Ahhh, I think I’m suffering a bit with imposter syndrome. Anyway, I made it into the top 5000. I’m nowhere near that now, but given that the “local” area is made of Europe, Africa and most of Asia I’m probably doing OK. Perhaps I’ll try again tomorrow. See if I can get below 1:59.
Here’s a screen shot of my initial qualifying time:
The Golden Age Of Grotesque – Marilyn Manson
I quite like the music of Manson. That’s Manson with an M rather than Hanson with an H. I think this chap’s real name is Brian and he sure knows how to write a good song. Can I tell you the name of a single track on this album? Nope. I can tell you that it’s likely I wouldn’t skip a song if it came on. But this isn’t a band I seek out to play.
I’ve just had a look at the track listing and “This Is The New Shit” is a song I know along with Mobscene. Other than that I couldn’t tell you how these tunes go. I get what Manson is doing. He’s being provocative and pushing boundaries and anything that scares the boomers or adult generation is fine by me – yes I know I’m old but I’m still a rebel at heart. I have heard that recently Manson has been accused of being a dick and while I hope he hasn’t behaved like that – because it is wrong – I don’t think I hold up anyone to hero status because they pretty much always end up letting you down or become dicks.
The Downward Spiral – Nine Inch Nails
I’m not sure when I first heard this or when I bought it or how I got into Nine Inch Nails. I do know that this album is really important to Smith because of when it came out and what he was listening to in those days. It has less importance for me. That said this is an album of industrial metal that is well worth getting and absorbing. All the songs are multi-layered and every one has a hook for you.
All tortured souls need to have this album. As do all normal folk.
While writing this I’ve been listening to the album and it’s got me thinking why songs are three minutes long. Not all the songs on this album are that long but, in general, why are songs 3 minutes long? Is it that for some deep psychological reason that is the music average of humans? Is it because that’s where the technology was limited in the early days? Films are kinda ninety minutes long. Is that because of technological limitations or is it because that’s a bladder length? I wonder if it’s to do with the standard reel length of old cinema projection systems? We know that CDs hold the amount of data that they do because of how long one of Beethoven’s things is [could be Mozart]. There are too many things that seem to be standardised and the reasons could be lost in history. I think it’s time for me to do some research.
I Suspect It’s Me
These roadworks were meant to be completed on a Saturday but as I drove past the sign on Friday it had changed and I just saw the above message. There was bad weather forecast for the Saturday – potentially thunderstorms – but as Saturday got closer the predictions turned to just rain and patchy rain at that. I do suspect that these works could have continued as the rain wasn’t that heavy on said Saturday.
My issue here is that the road sign is ambiguous and I can’t decide if it’s just me or whether the intended meaning is really clear. I know I definitely have a literal language problem and I don’t really like ambiguity in things where the final meaning is meant to be clear. Humans didn’t spend thousands of years developing complex language so that intended meaning could be vague.
Does this sign say that the roadworks are cancelled for 1 day or does it just state the fact that the bad weather will last for one day. I am currently unsure. I suspect it’s the former but it is very unclear. Cancelled is a strange word to use if the roadworks are moved by one day – postponed would be a better word there. A couple of commas wouldn’t go amiss either. So, until I attempt to drive this road a little later today I will not know the answer to my query. Oh, and fuck British Gas.
The Fake Sound Of Progress – Lostprophets
I liked this when it came out and I think I even ended up with two copies on CD for some reason. I don’t listen to this now . . . . . . . .
Wagyu
You know when something happens and then shortly after another thing happens and your brain goes: there must be meaning behind this. Well, it was a coincidence. There is no meaning behind virtually everything. We as humans are very effective agency seeking lumps of meat. We want there to be reason behind everything and so we seek it out and even put reason to things that deserve no reason. Let’s just make this clear: random shit happens and it happens all the time.
Our lives are affected by random events all the time and we seek reason behind those. We like to lay blame. Even if something is a ten million to one chance of happening on any particular day it will happen about seven times in this country each day. One of those events could make the news and people will think “that seems a rare thing, I wonder what caused it?”. Our lives a made up of us trying to battle the forces of randomness to keep everything constant against a rising tide of randomness.
On Saturday I saw the term wagyu burger while having a meal at the Three Horseshoes in Staplestreet. I hadn’t seen the term before and I was bemused. Then, the next, day while food shopping saw a burger pack labelled as wagyu. Oooh, there must be meaning behind all this. I must insert agency into this situation to surrender myself to a grand plan. I would much rather know that everything is part of a grand plan and that someone has control over all this. I could believe in a god and their plan, I could believe in the illuminati or I could believe in many other things but the reality is this was just random shit. You have to remember that shit happens all the time and it’s no-one’s fault.
The Day Is My Enemy – Prodigy
I was really into The Prodigy when they released Jilted Generation and then when they put out Fat Of The Land I was super excited, such a marvellous album. This album was released after those and not one that I bought at the time. I was persuaded back to Prodigy by Shredder and so I got this album to catch up. I honestly don’t think I’ve played it all the way through but individual songs will have been played when my phone is on random shuffle. Here’s the thing. The Prodigy are excellent and the time I saw them at M’era Luna is in the top three for gigs.
Great Stuff.
ILS
I’ve finally got around to reading the instructions for my T-7 plane in X-Plane. I’m playing around with the beacons and following those as I work my way around Europe coastline cities.
Porto. pic.twitter.com/yNErq7GfMY
— Ian Parish (@iparish) May 3, 2021
I’m currently in Porto, Portugal and heading south. I haven’t decided whether I am going to carry on to Africa or just do Europe. I have a suspicion I’ll try to get around Africa but I am concerned that the number of airports will decrease quite significantly and I might not want to land in awful countries like Mauritania – look it up it has a terrible record on human rights. I guess I could always land on a carrier, if I can figure out how to put one near to me.
This is the view I get on my phone. There’s an X-Plane app that connects to the PC and displays certain information. I’m trying to improve my glideslope to landing and this is the first time I’ve used this app. It looks quite good and I get more information than I was expecting. I should be able to use the ILS system within the T7 but although I’m tuning the Nav to the correct frequency it doesn’t seem to be popping up in the HUD. I’ll just have to keep trying.