New song - recorded using my new Behringer C1 Condenser Microphone which was Mrs F's Christmas present to me. I was really impressed with the quality I've got off it for the guitar and the vocal sounds. I think this'll be the only mic I use at home in the studio from now on!
Guitars and Life : A blog by someone obsessed with music and guitars, who used to drink much too much than was good for him and who now hopes to gain wisdom enough to know that he doesn't really know enough to consider himself wise.
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Friday, 27 January 2012
Gratitude list
My "Things I am Grateful for Today" list thing on the right stopped working. I couldn't add anything to it - I wonder if my list of gratitude got too big for Blogger to cope with? Shame as you can't have too much gratitude surely? Anyway after several attempts, browser swaps, deleting things out of it etc. I decided to take the technical blog crowbar to it and deleted and created a new one! Solved!
Okay the one thing any sharp eyed readers will notice is that after yesterdays procrastination update in which I had to admit that the book I'd bought (and by the way I deliberately bought the one that was the shortest pretty much of those recommended to me by various people on the basis that that would make me read it!) was still "sat on the shelf" (well the to be read list on my Kindle) - anyway I started it yesterday! Hooray!
Hmm just thought of something to update my gratitude list and that is that I'm still keeping up the swimming regime - I'm going 2 mornings a week at the moment - so another good thing off my list of stuff to do!
Okay the one thing any sharp eyed readers will notice is that after yesterdays procrastination update in which I had to admit that the book I'd bought (and by the way I deliberately bought the one that was the shortest pretty much of those recommended to me by various people on the basis that that would make me read it!) was still "sat on the shelf" (well the to be read list on my Kindle) - anyway I started it yesterday! Hooray!
Hmm just thought of something to update my gratitude list and that is that I'm still keeping up the swimming regime - I'm going 2 mornings a week at the moment - so another good thing off my list of stuff to do!
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Life continues including an update on the procrastination
Last week I posted about my chronic procrastination issue... it has been better this week. I've been trying to make lists and do stuff on them. This morning at work I'd ticked off a reasonable number already when I looked at my watch and thought - "blimey and it isn't even 10am yet". That is good stuff. It was one of the themes of a "round robin" share meeting I was at this week - it is one of my home groups and is normally a speaker meeting but the speaker didn't make it and as it was a small group of all regulars we all shared in turn. Procrastination was a theme - not I hasten to add led by me but others. The post last week also told me that many people suffer this - I am not alone - that is comforting. Also I've bought a book about it - but I've not started reading it yet... I know there is a gag in there but it is the truth!
Exams - life seems a bit dominated by exams in our lives at the moment. My daughter is doing some more GCSEs at the moment and my son is doing his end of semester exams at university. As a parent of course I would love to fix it all for them, take the worry away etc.but I can't ... acceptance of what I can and cannot do. I can encourage them, wish them luck and listen to them afterwards if only to say things like "just put it behind you now, you did your best". My son is reasonably laid back about exams he doesn't overly stress about them, my daughter is not so cool. However they are both bright, able students who work hard - I'm sure they will get worthy results.
I've taken on a new service position in AA and went to a set of workshops held on a regional basis last weekend. It was interesting getting others opinions. I've got some ideas of some things I can do and am building my list - see I'm learning - so that I can get something achieved and to report back and involve others soon. AA is an interesting body - it doesn't function like almost any other organisation, people rotate in and out of service positions regularly to ensure it is spread about and that no one person has too much sway over any aspect of it. Sometimes it seems chaotic, no overall structure and strategy etc. but that is in some ways it's saving grace as well. It really is a different design for life - it teaches me humility, patience, acceptance, tolerance, respect etc. and I meet so many different people I'd never otherwise get to know.
Exams - life seems a bit dominated by exams in our lives at the moment. My daughter is doing some more GCSEs at the moment and my son is doing his end of semester exams at university. As a parent of course I would love to fix it all for them, take the worry away etc.but I can't ... acceptance of what I can and cannot do. I can encourage them, wish them luck and listen to them afterwards if only to say things like "just put it behind you now, you did your best". My son is reasonably laid back about exams he doesn't overly stress about them, my daughter is not so cool. However they are both bright, able students who work hard - I'm sure they will get worthy results.
I've taken on a new service position in AA and went to a set of workshops held on a regional basis last weekend. It was interesting getting others opinions. I've got some ideas of some things I can do and am building my list - see I'm learning - so that I can get something achieved and to report back and involve others soon. AA is an interesting body - it doesn't function like almost any other organisation, people rotate in and out of service positions regularly to ensure it is spread about and that no one person has too much sway over any aspect of it. Sometimes it seems chaotic, no overall structure and strategy etc. but that is in some ways it's saving grace as well. It really is a different design for life - it teaches me humility, patience, acceptance, tolerance, respect etc. and I meet so many different people I'd never otherwise get to know.
Monday, 23 January 2012
Book Review - The Pirates! by Gideon Defoe
So the reason I bought this at all is that this series of books is the basis for the next Aardman animated film due in the cinemas in March this year. In the end I bought The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Whaling in one bumper dual edition for under a fiver! Bargain and a useful purchase with some of the WHSmith voucher I got for Christmas from my mother-in-law.
So The Pirates! are a madcap crew headed The Pirate Captain and none of them have names other than things like The Pirate with the Scarve or The Albino Pirate except Jennifer who joins the crew during the first adventure.
The first adventure finds the crew capturing The Beagle and Charles Darwin when they think they'll capture a load of gold but only find Darwin and his clever monkey and they help him take on his arch nemesis The Bishop of Oxford back in London. The book is a light read with plenty of slapstick gags and loads of pirate puns etc.
The second book sees the crew trying to buy a new ship on credit which places them in considerable debt and The Pirate Captain has a brilliant idea to enter show business which sadly is foiled by his arch enemy Black Bellemy and they end up trying to catch the legendary White Whale to pay off their debts. The style is the same mapcap humour.
Never likely to stretch you much, I read each of these in a matter of a couple of days on the commute they are funny enough. I'm really looking forward to the Aardman treatment of them though ... *side shot of much concerned shaking of heads from my family who think I've never really grown up - they are right of course* :-)
So The Pirates! are a madcap crew headed The Pirate Captain and none of them have names other than things like The Pirate with the Scarve or The Albino Pirate except Jennifer who joins the crew during the first adventure.
The first adventure finds the crew capturing The Beagle and Charles Darwin when they think they'll capture a load of gold but only find Darwin and his clever monkey and they help him take on his arch nemesis The Bishop of Oxford back in London. The book is a light read with plenty of slapstick gags and loads of pirate puns etc.
The second book sees the crew trying to buy a new ship on credit which places them in considerable debt and The Pirate Captain has a brilliant idea to enter show business which sadly is foiled by his arch enemy Black Bellemy and they end up trying to catch the legendary White Whale to pay off their debts. The style is the same mapcap humour.
Never likely to stretch you much, I read each of these in a matter of a couple of days on the commute they are funny enough. I'm really looking forward to the Aardman treatment of them though ... *side shot of much concerned shaking of heads from my family who think I've never really grown up - they are right of course* :-)
Music Review - Sixx:AM
The immediacy of the modern age - could be the sub-title for this post. Early on Saturday morning PlanetRock was playing in the kitchen whilst I was on the computer in the adjacent room. I heard a track and thought - that was good who was that. The playlist on the station web site told me it was Sixx:AM. I went to Spotify and found their first album on there so listened to that. I thought it was really good. In no time I'd found it for only £4.49 on HMVdigital and it was bought, downloaded and onto my MP3 player. I also bought their latest one at the same time.
I had a long drive Sunday to an AA regional assembly so had time to listen to them both a couple of times. So...
The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack is the first album. It is based on a 13 month diary written by Nikki Sixx during Dec 1986 - 1987 when he was fighting his heroin addiction. Lyrically a lot of the material I can directly relate to as a recovering alcoholic. Also the music is really good, very soundtrack like actually in places but more like a rock musical score rather than a film. Released in 2007 this is hardly a new album but as totally new to me thought I'd give a verdict. The book The Heroin Diaries : A Year in the Shattered Life of a Rockstar is available with the original diaries and accompanies the music, although either stand on there own. I might look at getting and reading the book now.
This is Gonna Hurt - is the bands second album released in 2011. This is more a straight ahead rock album in sound and structure, there is no longer the need for narration passages to set context from the diary and the music is like musical like. It is still a very good album and it is reminiscent to me of a harder rock Journey type sound. This also accompanies another book by Mr Sixx again called This Is Gonna Hurt which contains the photographers that inspired the songs.
Interesting for me are two things about these albums. Firstly the linking of the formats - although some might point to overly commercial principles at play here. Also the band itself is a trio of Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue bassist), James Michael (vocalist and multi-instrumentalist - most known as a producer, engineer and songwriter) and DJ Ashba (guitarist - most known as a member of GnR). So... Motley Crue have never appealed to me I'm afraid I just never got their stuff at all. I've seen DJ Ashba live with GnR on the TV and was a bit - "oh he's the one trying to be Slash at the moment" - that is unfair I know, someone has to play the Slash solos. So really two people who if I'd have been told about them forming a side project (and possibly I was!) I wouldn't have sought out the result. By accident almost I hear one track and through the speed of the internet was able to quickly pull in their catalogue and I have to say particularly The Heroin Diaries I think will remain a favourite for a while. It is funny that some side projects I've heard I've thought too self-indulgent or just not for me even if they are artists I really like, others you hear and think - throw in the day job guys this is much better! Transatlantic fall into that category for me as well. Sixx:AM have just entered that chart at a very good position too.
I had a long drive Sunday to an AA regional assembly so had time to listen to them both a couple of times. So...
The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack is the first album. It is based on a 13 month diary written by Nikki Sixx during Dec 1986 - 1987 when he was fighting his heroin addiction. Lyrically a lot of the material I can directly relate to as a recovering alcoholic. Also the music is really good, very soundtrack like actually in places but more like a rock musical score rather than a film. Released in 2007 this is hardly a new album but as totally new to me thought I'd give a verdict. The book The Heroin Diaries : A Year in the Shattered Life of a Rockstar is available with the original diaries and accompanies the music, although either stand on there own. I might look at getting and reading the book now.
This is Gonna Hurt - is the bands second album released in 2011. This is more a straight ahead rock album in sound and structure, there is no longer the need for narration passages to set context from the diary and the music is like musical like. It is still a very good album and it is reminiscent to me of a harder rock Journey type sound. This also accompanies another book by Mr Sixx again called This Is Gonna Hurt which contains the photographers that inspired the songs.
Interesting for me are two things about these albums. Firstly the linking of the formats - although some might point to overly commercial principles at play here. Also the band itself is a trio of Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue bassist), James Michael (vocalist and multi-instrumentalist - most known as a producer, engineer and songwriter) and DJ Ashba (guitarist - most known as a member of GnR). So... Motley Crue have never appealed to me I'm afraid I just never got their stuff at all. I've seen DJ Ashba live with GnR on the TV and was a bit - "oh he's the one trying to be Slash at the moment" - that is unfair I know, someone has to play the Slash solos. So really two people who if I'd have been told about them forming a side project (and possibly I was!) I wouldn't have sought out the result. By accident almost I hear one track and through the speed of the internet was able to quickly pull in their catalogue and I have to say particularly The Heroin Diaries I think will remain a favourite for a while. It is funny that some side projects I've heard I've thought too self-indulgent or just not for me even if they are artists I really like, others you hear and think - throw in the day job guys this is much better! Transatlantic fall into that category for me as well. Sixx:AM have just entered that chart at a very good position too.
Friday, 20 January 2012
I don't get Twitter
Twitter doesn't work for me - I don't mean I have some bizzare cookie issue or the fact I sometimes use SeaMonkey as my browser causes it to have issues - what I mean is I just don't get it.
You seem to have to live your life constantly in Twitterland and have multiple conversations going on left right and centre. I struggle to post anything in 140 characters or less, no doubt some would say that is because I use verbose language and style. Guilty as charged probably however for me the setting of context before saying "this stinks" or "this is great" is important. Just look recently at how many people have got into trouble with "out of context" tweets - the Diane Abbot one recently was an interesting example. Personally Diane in isolation your comment was offensive to me. You say it was taken out of context - but you only have 140 characters, the conversation flow in Twitter is difficult to see and anyway you still implied that White people (huge and offensive generalisation) are all racist - which is to me offensive. It is a minefield I accept but the number of times Twitter says to me - "You'll have to be more clever" - er no, frankly I can't say what I want to say in 140 characters I don't believe that has anything to do with my level of intelligence!
It is useful for some information coming to me - I have feeds from bands and stuff but frankly if they haven't posted in the few hours prior to my twice a week foray to have a look then they miss me. I use RSS feeds into Google or Facebook for much more of that. I do get some useful stuff seeing how my employer presents various aspects of it's work externally and given much of our target audience is the "switched on younger generation" (Hells teeth, that makes me sound like I'm some dodery old fool... that is rhetroical that one btw) it is useful to see that presentation.
I use it to push out the occasional link and to promote my music but I don't think my 120ish follows are the best target necessarily for that... and that brings me to the real crux of Twitter... who are these people? Why are they following me? Some have musical interests, some I know personally, a couple of business associates who use it for work stuff - I don't see any need for me on that - a daily tweet about Service Delivery Management in support Research IT at a major London university (the title is probably more than 140 chars!) and already everyone is half asleep - hey you at the back wake up I'm getting to the posts punchline for what it is worth. Here are the ones that really baffle me though
DumpsterDealTwt - Dumpster Deal Tweets
Great dumpster saving deals with daily tweet updates for all the deals in your area so you dont miss a beat
HullVoucherScrt Hull Voucher Secrets
Hull Voucher Secrets at 50-90% off retail
Hull Voucher Secrets?! As the youngsters say in their txts, tweets and status updates WTF! I don't live anywhere near Hull, nor do any of my followers I don't believe, anyway Hull or voucher savings schemes don't feature in my irregular less than 140 character posts... Remember that they chose to follow me. Why? I just don't get it!
You seem to have to live your life constantly in Twitterland and have multiple conversations going on left right and centre. I struggle to post anything in 140 characters or less, no doubt some would say that is because I use verbose language and style. Guilty as charged probably however for me the setting of context before saying "this stinks" or "this is great" is important. Just look recently at how many people have got into trouble with "out of context" tweets - the Diane Abbot one recently was an interesting example. Personally Diane in isolation your comment was offensive to me. You say it was taken out of context - but you only have 140 characters, the conversation flow in Twitter is difficult to see and anyway you still implied that White people (huge and offensive generalisation) are all racist - which is to me offensive. It is a minefield I accept but the number of times Twitter says to me - "You'll have to be more clever" - er no, frankly I can't say what I want to say in 140 characters I don't believe that has anything to do with my level of intelligence!
It is useful for some information coming to me - I have feeds from bands and stuff but frankly if they haven't posted in the few hours prior to my twice a week foray to have a look then they miss me. I use RSS feeds into Google or Facebook for much more of that. I do get some useful stuff seeing how my employer presents various aspects of it's work externally and given much of our target audience is the "switched on younger generation" (Hells teeth, that makes me sound like I'm some dodery old fool... that is rhetroical that one btw) it is useful to see that presentation.
I use it to push out the occasional link and to promote my music but I don't think my 120ish follows are the best target necessarily for that... and that brings me to the real crux of Twitter... who are these people? Why are they following me? Some have musical interests, some I know personally, a couple of business associates who use it for work stuff - I don't see any need for me on that - a daily tweet about Service Delivery Management in support Research IT at a major London university (the title is probably more than 140 chars!) and already everyone is half asleep - hey you at the back wake up I'm getting to the posts punchline for what it is worth. Here are the ones that really baffle me though
DumpsterDealTwt - Dumpster Deal Tweets
Great dumpster saving deals with daily tweet updates for all the deals in your area so you dont miss a beat
HullVoucherScrt Hull Voucher Secrets
Hull Voucher Secrets at 50-90% off retail
Hull Voucher Secrets?! As the youngsters say in their txts, tweets and status updates WTF! I don't live anywhere near Hull, nor do any of my followers I don't believe, anyway Hull or voucher savings schemes don't feature in my irregular less than 140 character posts... Remember that they chose to follow me. Why? I just don't get it!
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Avoidance and Procrastination
(Inspired by another persons honest post on their blog.)
Honestly one of my major problems. I avoid things that I don't want to do, or am not sure of how to do, or will make me feel bad in some way. I avoided recontacting the bus company about the refund we were due after the great bus ticket scandal I blogged about last year. Why? Because I knew it'd bring back the anger and I don't like that feeling. I did email them, with no response and in the end the ever marvellous Mrs F called them, twice, and we finally got a cheque for all of £6.70... but no apology!
I'm bad at it at work at the moment. I'm giving myself all the excuses under the sun... "I'm new to the organisation and don't know who to contact"... well ask someone dummy! But then I'll possibly look daft... etc. Also the reorganisation of the division is not complete and I am not totally fully in post. So I use that as another excuse. But they are excuses I'm just avoiding it and putting it off etc.
Then of course once you've put something off for one day the next day seems easier etc. But then when it gets that you have to do something when you then ask the question you know you need to ask you realise that people have the thought... "Why didn't you ask that x days ago?" Well you don't realise that you perceive it as you are beating yourself up with that in your head and your reality is their reality isn't it?
Now in the old days alcohol was a great cover for this stuff. Firstly it gave me the "Dutch courage" to take on some of the things I was fearful of as with the alcohol in your bloodstream you brain begins to tell you that you are invincible and all these doubts and fears are just nonsense and secondly it is a great way of bludgeoning to death the feelings anyway so that you are numb to them.
So I dithered over hitting the big orangey Publish button highlighted at the top of the page at the moment on this one - why? Because I don't like to admit weakness and also if I come clean on here and say all this it'll mean I ought really to "accept the things I cannot change and have the courage to change what I can" ... which in this case is actually quiet a bit.
Honestly one of my major problems. I avoid things that I don't want to do, or am not sure of how to do, or will make me feel bad in some way. I avoided recontacting the bus company about the refund we were due after the great bus ticket scandal I blogged about last year. Why? Because I knew it'd bring back the anger and I don't like that feeling. I did email them, with no response and in the end the ever marvellous Mrs F called them, twice, and we finally got a cheque for all of £6.70... but no apology!
I'm bad at it at work at the moment. I'm giving myself all the excuses under the sun... "I'm new to the organisation and don't know who to contact"... well ask someone dummy! But then I'll possibly look daft... etc. Also the reorganisation of the division is not complete and I am not totally fully in post. So I use that as another excuse. But they are excuses I'm just avoiding it and putting it off etc.
Then of course once you've put something off for one day the next day seems easier etc. But then when it gets that you have to do something when you then ask the question you know you need to ask you realise that people have the thought... "Why didn't you ask that x days ago?" Well you don't realise that you perceive it as you are beating yourself up with that in your head and your reality is their reality isn't it?
Now in the old days alcohol was a great cover for this stuff. Firstly it gave me the "Dutch courage" to take on some of the things I was fearful of as with the alcohol in your bloodstream you brain begins to tell you that you are invincible and all these doubts and fears are just nonsense and secondly it is a great way of bludgeoning to death the feelings anyway so that you are numb to them.
So I dithered over hitting the big orangey Publish button highlighted at the top of the page at the moment on this one - why? Because I don't like to admit weakness and also if I come clean on here and say all this it'll mean I ought really to "accept the things I cannot change and have the courage to change what I can" ... which in this case is actually quiet a bit.
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