Such a wonderfully classic view that makes me feel proud to be British! [that takes quite a bit]
Brilliant Victorians and their wonder at everything new!
Sonos
I have installed some Sonos components in my house. I have been really impressed with the simplicity of them. They work really well. My only complaint would be that I have to physically turn the speakers on and off as I walk around the house. I don’t want them screaming out all the time to no-one.
I want an RFID chip installed in my arm and detectors placed in my house and then that connected to my Sonos system controller so it knows which speakers to turn on and off. THAT would make me extremely happy and also BIONIC. Yippee.
I lied, I have another complaint. As the Sonos controller unit reads my iTunes library I think it should be able to write to it so I get a “played” count whenever I play tunes. There are some tunes on my NAS drive that aren’t in my iTunes library but then I couldn’t care about those. It is highly unlikely I will ever play those through the Sonos system.
Fire Running
About 30 years ago I can remember playing a game of “fire running”. Every now and then in the good old days parents would burn the garden waste on a big bonfire. These were wonderful times of cooking apples and potatoes (not together) in foil in the embers and generally doing boy stuff with flames.
The best thing we ever did was place a plank of wood on a big fire. The wood was probably 1″ by 4″ by 10′. I am aware that wood burns but that just adds to the fun.
Start about 4 metres away from the fire making sure that the flames are high and it is burning properly. Then RUN. Don’t lose your footing as you run up the plank and over the fire. Jump from the top of the fire and then land with style.
This is what being boys and summer is all about.
Download 2013 – My Saturday
Saturday started with a slight disaster. Andy had forgotten to inform our landlady that we wanted breakfast so she wasn’t prepared for us in the breakfast room. She did manage to cobble together some food and so things weren’t so bad after all.
We waited outside our guest house for our lift to the festival. Stella and Graham eventually turned up and I started an epic day of rum and Jager. We knew we were planning to meet up with some friends inside the festival so today was going to be a bit strange with 4 of us having to decide what to do together rather than just Andy and me.
As we were walking in from the close car park (about a mile away) I could hear UFO on stage and I’m gutted I didn’t see them, I really love the tacky 70s rock sound! Once inside the festival we browsed the shops. There wasn’t anything that really stood out at me although I did buy a “Power Up” t-shirt. Eventually we met up with Dave, Jon and AN Other.
Black Stone Riders are just Thin Lizzy without the singer and Gary Moore (RIP). I just wasn’t that interested. There was no progression to the sound of the new stuff. It was just extra Thin Lizzy, add 20 years to the music and make it sound the same.
I tried with Mastodon, I really did. I just didn’t get on with it and thought they were a bit rubbish. Since Download I have been trying to listen to The Hunter in the house and it still doesn’t really do anything for me. This is a shame as I’ve been looking for some new sounds to get into.
Sky Valley Mistress. Hmmmmm. Well I wrote this down in the list of bands I watched on the Saturday but I can’t remember. There, said it.
Alice In Chains came on next and I really like their music. It’s moody, depressing and haunting. They sounded really good and it was nice to see them for the first time since 1991 but I was hungry. I am ashamed to say that Andy and I went to get some food.
Motorhead were OK but really just what you’d expect from Motorhead. I would have liked to hear the song “Motorhead” because it’s among my favourites, but then it’d be hard to beat the classic “No Sleep ‘Till Hammersmith”.
We headed back into the crowd for Queens of the Stone Age and . . . . . we just chatted all the way through their set. They were really uninspiring and boring. It’s a shame because I actually like two of their songs but they just didn’t really do it for me. I even turned away from the stage to chat to my friends!
We were in place for Iron Maiden. No moving now except inwards. Really looking forward to it. The lights dimmed and there seemed to be some activity on the stage when a Supermarine Spitfire (possibly VC version – it had straight tipped wings) flew over the crowd from behind the stage, circled a few times and did some more fly overs. Absolutely brilliant. Best bit of the day so far.
Maiden came on and were typically Maiden. It was a very good show with lots of fire, Eddie and singing along. There were a few songs I would have liked to hear and a couple I would have preferred they hadn’t played. I think they played two from the Fear of the Dark album which I don’t care for. I’m waiting patiently to hear Revelations live. Maiden were good, but I found that Slipknot blew them away. Maybe because I’ve seen Maiden about 6 times since 1988?
Aesthetic Perfection
Saw Aesthetic Perfection at the Camden Underworld last night. There were four bands on the bill. Apart from the headliners the only one I liked was Kommand and Kontrol. They had a good mix of electronica and guitars, they considered themselves The Gentlemen of Electronica, worth a watch.
Aesthetic Perfection were good but let down, as other bands were, with some technical issues. During the evening speakers stop working, microphones died and guitars died. The sound was poor as the PA speakers were aimed too directly towards back, the closer to the stage you got, the worse the sound (more than at other venues).
Aesthetic Perfection essentially showed the other bands how to do it. Odd make up, hard sound and disturbing lyrics. Everything that makes a good evening!
Confirmation
I don’t think it’s right that I went to a college that has so many odd things about it. I love the fact it was odd but there are problems with that.
If I meet someone new I have to try and explain some of the things about IC because it was part of my life. I can mention any of the following:
- Mascotry
- Constituent College rivalry
- Imperial Rag Mag
- Kamikaze Parachute Run
- Field Cup
- Tie Clubs
- Traditional Bar
- Pots
- not NUS
- Bo
- CGCU Bar Nights
And these would probably be met with a bit of a “really?” nod. “Yes” would be the reply.
These things can only be confirmed by someone who’s been there and been in the same social group. Obviously those are the people I am still in contact with and so confirmation is required.
I have had the job of confirmer a number of times.
Ian, could you just explain Spanner and Bolt to X who doesn’t believe me.
I explain about my past love Spanner and its companion Bolt and although X now believes the stories they still have that look of “your place was odd”.
It sure was!
Evening Picnic
Just right. An evening picnic with my sons.
Two Annoyances
-
Number 1
This might seem trivial but it’s the little things that will grind us down. When I shop in Tesco and pay at the self-service till I am pretty sure the lovely lady says:
Clubcard excepted.
It’s probably just her accent but I don’t like it. She should, of course, be saying:
Clubcard accepted.
That would make me happier.
-
Number 2
When broadband supplying companies are advertising perhaps they could actually state a speed rather than just a value. They seem to say:
Speeds of up to 8 megabits
Now, you know I’m this fussy! 8 megabits is not a speed. You have to have a compound measure for speed because it’s a rate. They should be saying:
Speeds of up to 8 megabits per second
If both these things happened I would be a happy man!
A Lovely Place To Work
What a lovely setting for work!
USA Pictures
Finally got some prints from my DC trip at Easter. Had my panoramas printed, only the lovely things obviously.
Here’re the X-15 and SR-71 in the dining room:
Here’s the orbiter Discovery next to my Cylon guardian:
And finally the Capitol sitting on the other side of my Cylon:
