Thursday Thirteen (V17)

1. I can hardly believe that this is Version 17 of Thursday Thirteen.
2. Fun and games over the last few days since we loaded a copy of a track to mix onto rashbre central. Applause to Simon at GuitarGAS for really going for it and preparing a megamix. I shall feature it here when it is ready.
3. The new look blog still seems to be working and the clicky folders are good because the blog remembers how it was last configured, via the cookies.
4. Delightful this evening to drive home in the light (well almost) although the rain was rather intense on the last part. Almost April, so I should expect it.
5. This weekend will be guitar time. I am determined to spend some serious time practicing a few tunes.
6. I am still waiting for the opening party for the bubble and squeek web site. I hear it is any time now!
7. I'm back as an adorable rodent on TTLB. Demoted, huh.
8. A work from home day tomorrow, less commuting, but my first meeting is still at 07:00, with Australia.
9. Had a fun lunch yesterday with seven of us together in a nice round table setting swapping stories.
10. Started re-reading a favourite William Gibson novel.
11. Is still my favourite number;
12. Theres a raspberry brulee with my name on it waiting this evening.
13. A large hole has just appeared in the sofa.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
Leanne, Chickadee, Judy, Raehan, Janne, Andrea, cq, amanda, venus, elle, mar, tnchick, kimmy
(leave a comment, I'll add you here!)

Get Leanne's Thursday Thirteen code here!
Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Leave your link as a comment and I will link to you and you can continue the chain!



Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday

apprentice?

I remember one evening at about 2 am seeing the first episode of series one of the UK version of The Apprentice. I have to say I was hooked and when the second episode followed it, I just stayed watching. And then I found the more civilised time that it was screened and watched the series.

I've been doing the same with the current series and in tonight's episode they were selling cars and ejected Jo Cameron who has been in the 'fireable' group four times. And tonight I even watched the debrief afterwards on BBC3. Here is the "you're fired" moment.

Then at the end of the programe I saw the latest of the BBC3 blob animations. The little BBC3 blobs descended in an elevator on the right of the screen. Then the left hand wall of their inset moved right and they were all toppled and swept from the edge of the picture. I know I'm not the only person who spots new BBC3 'blob animation'. This is a good one! And click on the blob to be transported to a fantastic collection of blob games, screensavers and clips.

[open inline trackback enabled]

sky why?

Sky broadband's brochure shows someone watching movies on an Apple PowerBook with the logo photoshopped out. In reality, you can't use the service with a Mac; it has to be Windows xp. I installed the software and downloaded a random movie (which took about 90 minutes on my 2Mb broadband link). So now I have 28 days to watch Starsky and Hutch on a PC. Or I could just dial it up on the television. Immediately.

I'm sure this will become a great on demand library in due course, but at the moment it feels rather like a test.

virtual desktop blues

Woke up this mornin'
It was Sunday in my head.
Woke up this mornin'
It was Monday in my bed.
Realized that ringin'
wasn't in my head.
That was my alarm clock
Gotta work instead

Got the time change blues? try this. Seriously.
And thanks, diamond geezer, for the link.

hello mum

Happy Mother's Day!

musical interlude

I've been helping with some music recording across on Christina's site and we decided it would be quite fun to create a 'mix it yourself' version of one of the songs. Its the tune called 'wind' and to be truthful we havn't really finished it in any case.

However, we decided to put all of the individual tracks that make up the mix into a zip file as a set of mp3s. These can then be dropped into a program like Sonar, Logic, GarageBand, Protools, Cakewalk and so forth and then remixed.

Someone adventurous may even feel like either re-singing the (rather simple) vocal line or alternatively using the vocals and maybe the rhythm line to add a new instrument, such as a guitar. Its a very short track at around two minutes, but I'm sure there will be someone interested to have a play.

Here's the folder : Its around 20Mb and unzips into mp3s. Most music software can convert these back into WAV files or AIFs to use in the mixing software. If you decide to have a go a) please comment and b) send us the outcome!

The pieces are:
rhythm - the backing track
left clap - some conventional drums
right clap - some very wild drums
christina - the vocals
buzzybee - a bassline from a novation synth
007thenamesbond - a short james bond guitar lick
trippypad - some strings and blips
foodblender - a food blender

We have made them all exactly the same length (2:03), so they can be laid next to one another in the mixing software and when played will already sound okay.

And this is what it sounds like in the current mix by Christina Nott with some rashbre help.

time machine

The clocks in the UK change this weekend, but not until Sunday.

I was at Michele's fabulous site earlier today and left a comment there for Karen. Through some sort of time warp, the comment propelled itself into the future and is stuck on tomorrow's date.

We now need to send a dalek to exterminate the misplaced comment.

blender

What happens when you try to make a pop song using a James Bond guitar and a food blender?

Well that's what we tried with the half finished track that Christina Nott has already loaded here. I must admit I've had a certain hand in this.

I thought I'd put a copy on here as well, although it still needs another verse to make it around three minutes.

Sometime soon I'll load a Christina track listing into here referencing across to the tracks we've already made on the other site.

Click below to be amazed (?)



Or if you don't have a Quicktime plug-in click here:

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Thursday Thirteen (V16)

1. I hear that the replacement for Windows 2001 (xp) has been delayed until 2007. My machine running an early release will need to wait a little longer for new vistas to unfold.
2. I gave my blog a makeover during the week to hide some of the creeping buttonage. Now the buttons pop up when we click a folder.
3. I decided I would also implement cookies so that the blog would remember its state the next time it was opened.
4. The open trackbacks I created a week ago now also have a popup (I used a toaster icon), so they can be hidden when not needed. I did this because the main users of trackback seem to be politically driven. This way, reading their posts is optional, but they still count as references.
5. The latest Christina Nott track is a work in progress, but I think it has a good sound.
6. Sent fellow blogger Aginoth some wishes via cq. Aginoth is in hospital but by all accounts improving.
7. NaNoEdMo progress is slow. I have had too many evenings doing other things. I will still finish the revision though.
8. Been listening to Neutral Milk Hotel in the car for several days;
9. Looking forward to the new web site from bubble and squeeek. I have an invitation to the opening!
10. My version of Badge was also remixed and is now on Christina's site. The Hoxtons sunshine of your love is still an interesting comparison.
11. Is still my favourite number;
12. I was showing as a Maurading Marsupial on TTLB today.
13. My car had another glitch this week. It dropped into 'get you home mode' and lost its acceleration power until I switched it off and on again, although I waited until I was home before I tried it.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
Leanne, Chickadee, Judy, Raehan, Janne, Andrea, cq, amanda, venus, elle, mar, tnchick, kimmy
(leave a comment, I'll add you here!)

Get Leanne's Thursday Thirteen code here!
Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Leave your link as a comment and I will link to you and you can continue the chain!



Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday

rain song

And if yesterday's post was horrible, here's a nice one about Christina Nott's new track, called "Rain". The version on Christina's site is still really a work in progress, but it sounds quite good. We've added a guitar at the start and cut it down to a shorter length for the internet. And there's another acoustic version in the making, too.

horrible

I thought I'd do a horrible post today and happened to find the trailer for slither, which appears to be a new movie about ghastly slug like monsters that devour whole towns full of people. The advertisement shows what look like the revenge of the hot chile peppers, so I assume the film is somehing of a comedy, though with a sense of do-gooder righteousness, when we click to take a look a big warning with 'R' and lots of messages about how nasty the film is flood across the screen.

The alternative today would be to write about the UK budget, where it would be tempting to use the same headline. However, as Roger Bootle, Economic Analyst for Deloitte's has commented, in macro terms, this was one of the least significant Budgets in living memory. More a political budget and parliamentary theatre, rather than economic management. The Chancellor is playing for favour whilst he tries to position himself to take over from Tony Blair.

And today's post is open inline trackback enabled - so feel free to publish your own trackbacks, which will appear directly in this post, complete with references back to your blog.

Tag: UK Budget, Chancellor, Tony Blair

duck

Out tonight in Ascot, to the Oriental restaurant, where we had a round table for eight of us to enjoy dinner together. This was originally to have been our meeting in Florence, but instead we had Italian, Belgian, Swedish and UK folk together in Ascot. An enjoyable combination including crispy duck, Tsing Tao and a good natter! And tomorrow, an early start from the hotel.