UK Watercooler 28: A Bit Of A Blur

As decadent as it might sound, it is not a good idea to nibble quail eggs in bed. You end up with crunched up bits of blue spotted shell all crushed in your sheets. :-(

Oh no, what happened to the picture?

http://delivery.viewimages.com/xv/73576992.jpg

ach!

Fixpic/start thread again, I advise!

The picture got lost on Mars, too, I guess.

I don't want to be me, I wanna be someone else.

How is everyone? Did anything happen yesterday?

It started off very quiet again, but actually was OK for the first time for ages.

Today seems to be 'daft revival' day.

Got all 50 of those krock albums!

Sorted for long car journeys for a while now.

OK, that's a lesson. ILX is nicer when I'm not here. Maybe I should stay away.

I had to take a day off work yesterday due to the depression headache getting so bad I physically couldn't get out of bed. :-(

It was mainly because of a Beefheart/Zappa thread, which was actually worth reading.

Apart from that, verry dozy.

I've been busy actually doing some work for a change. I think (fingers crossed) I've nearly got it sorted out now and can spend my Friday afternoon in tipsy land.

I've been working through the 50 krautrock albums (thanks again for the link Kate!) but it's a pain with rapidshare only letting me get one every 3 hours. I just download 1 when I get up and 1 when I get back from work. I'm only on Ash Ra Tempel so far. It'll take me about 2 years to listen to them all though, I've got so much music already to get through.

I bought a 1 month membership. It's quite cheap. (certainly by comparison w/ time and/or cost of those LPs)

I object to paying for mp3s unless at least some of the money goes to the artists. Getting them for free I have no problem with. Which may seem a bit odd.

You pay for internet access, don't you?

Are they still up? I should go and get some more. But I don't like paying for these things. I don't pay for interweb access, actually - I get it free at work. Except on days like this when the system is fucked and it comes and goes. :-(

I would pay an artist for the music, but I also have a hard time paying a third party.

But maybe I'm just feeling a bit uppity about this because, out of the blue, I am getting my first publishing cheque in about 5 years! Woo-hoo. It's like the Tooth Fairy.

They are still up, and should continue to be, I don't think RapidShare has an expiry.

I do pay for internet access, but sometimes I do use if for things other than downloading mp3s!

Aw fuck.

We didn't get the flat.

A mate gave me his password hehehe. I didn't need it though. I got my hd's back as externals and everything(inc those 50 albums I already have)is saved and Kate doesn't need to send me dvdrs I sent her now. Wahey.

I thought rapidshare did delete files if they are not accessed for a certain (longish) period of time.

yeah, they do, but I figure it's unlikely that's going to happen for a while with these.

Oh no, Goobs, what happened?

They don't disappear if the uploader paid to keep them up.

Perfect flat, one minute from Brixtong tube but quiet street and gated building, definitely affordable. Owners don't want to rent to us because we're grad students and don't have full-time jobs, even though we can quite easily prove that we can pay the rent and are quite willing to put in a large deposit. FCKRS.

Oh no, student scum, they will throw parties and wreck the place and scarper without paying the rent. Are you actually dealing with the landlord, or some crappy agency who will never actually negotiate?

It was a private landlord--just a couple who were buying another flat and want to rent out their first one. They probably showed it to another couple who they liked just as much as us but actually have proper jobs.

Stupid people with proper jobs!

Oh wait...

Should I spend £70 getting a lovely 2 volume set of Mesopotamian and Persian art and architecture? God, it's lovely. And I'm thinking about that publishing cheque.

But then again, I should probably save that publishing cheque and put it towards getting the album out. When and if we ever finish it.

What should I do on Saturday?

1) Stay home and rest, you morong
2) Go to Hampton Court Palace and walk about and pretend I'm in the country
3) Go shopping for a dictionary of saints and finish Cowboy Jim's album artwork before he KEEEEELLS me

I'm kind of scared that the only place I could get a dictionary of saints locally is the scary Christian bookshop. But they seem more likely to have big books of WHY EVOLUTION IS WRONG and not useful things like which saints got their eyeballs torn out and which saints were burned on gridirons.

Actually, I'd be surprised if Hampton Court Palace bookshop didn't have such a book!

A dictionary of saints should surely be available at any decent-sized bookshop? It is of obvious interest to people into eg the arts, regardless of religious views.

Depends what you mean by "locally" I suppose.

Argh! A quiet day when in theory I could leave early and of course the sun goes away at the end of the day and we've got a nightmare thunderstorm! Aaaaaa!

HCP was the home of HENRY VIII who spent lots of time trying to get RID OF lots of evil Papist saints and things. So unlikely to find one there.

I tried looking at Foyles but no joy - before, when I had to buy one, I had to go to a scary Christian supply shop. But that was a nice Catholic one in NYC, full of lots of blood and gore. I wonder if I can get one at St. Pauls, actually, that's not too far from here. But their bookshop probably closes well early on a Friday.

Go and run around in the rain anyway, Mitya. I tend to enjoy that kind of thing at the weekend. But obviously only if it was boiling hot before, not freezing cold.

yeah, cheers. have a good weekend, k8 and everybody else.

I always think this thread is mine, but it's really Mitya's. It dies every time he logs off.

but you were also gone, for so long!

I was gone for a whole day and things carried on. Mitya goes home, and we go all quiet. Mitya is really the god of all things, he just hasn't told us.

I mean, imagine keeping that quiet, being a deity and all.

Argh, I want to go home, I've nothing to do again.

I mean, imagine keeping that quiet, being a deity and all.

Maybe mitya's not a deity, just a saint? They're sometimes pretty silent and all that, I think.

http://orthodoxwiki.org/images/6/60/StDimitriOfRostov.jpg

You could of course check the Dictionary when you find it.

I wish I could go home early and buy a dictionary of saints. That would sort this whole mess out. I wonder if I should try the crazy Christian bookshop by the City Temple. I have no idea what particular brand of Christian they are. But they always have copies of "The Dawkins Delusion" in the window. And not too much "Let's repeal the law of Evolution..." crap. I don't think.

Ohmigod, there's both an Oxford Dicitonary of Saints and a Penguin one. Amazon has a deal on both of them for only £13.

Why do I just prefer going on bookshops and getting things?

less waiting time?

Also there is nothing on this earth like the smell of a bookshop.

Maybe I will walk to Oxford Street and go to a big bookshop. They stay open late, don't they? Or maybe I'll go to the big Foyles. That's closer, I think.

Yes! They have both books in stock at the big Foyles. At least according to the interweb.

Also there is nothing on this earth like the smell of a bookshop.

Plus when you get there and find their saint-dictionary department, maybe you'll see one that looks even better and didn't find at amazon hurrah!

I have this one, with focus on Saints in Art, ie mainly the major rather than minor ones. Hm I think I too need a more comprehensive one actually...

Well, I have to make art out of saints, so one with a focus on that would be good for me. All the symbolism, the various significant animals and actions and the like.

It's useful that, becuase otherwise how would you know which saint was which, because they look so different according to various local interpretation. But if he has a gridiron, it's Lawrence, a wheel, it's Catherine, keys, a lamb, oh, I wish I could remember it all. I've got a good book on how to "read" a church, but it only has the most common saints. I'm interested in the weird minor ones.

And especially finding out what saints are patrons of strange things! St.Claire is patron saints of television, I seem to recall.

It's in Italian though, which I can only kinda read but not really. Lots of pretty pictures with arrows and explanations and stuff on the other hand.

The flag of the British Virgin Islands depicts St. Ursula, but for some reason not her 11000 virgins:

http://www.fotw.net/images/v/vg.gif

Ursula's holding some pretty crazy Masonic regalia there.

Or some turtles. I'm not entirely sure which.

I have a dictionary of saints, the Penguin one. I don't remember if it has pictures, but I think not. If you can't find one easily, Kate, I could send it to you as a 'thanks for putting us up/putting up with us' present.

Thanks, Emil.y - I'm really looking forward to my trip to the big Foyles, though. Even if I can't find Saints, then I'll take a trip to their amazing maths department and get something great. Or seven. I think I need to get some Feynman books.

OH MY FUCKING GOD.

http://www.rudyarchuleta.com/memberpage/1530101319/1256/2719/big/benjamin_Curtis.jpg

::falls off chair::

Hey, that's not Feynman.

Those things she's holding is supposed to be a lamp. She had one, and the other virgins had one for every thousand, apparently.

Lamps, turtles, what's the difference. Actually those old fashioned oil lamps are pretty masonic. Awww, I miss the Masonic shops by my old office. Now I've got that "wake away for night is flying, the watchmen on the hills are crying" Bach thing stuck in my head coz it talks about virgins picking up their oil lamps and going to meet the bridegroom (Jesus).

No, that's not Feynman, but a lot more girls would probably be into physics if it were. It's Benjamin Curtis showing his ... uuuhhh... SEXY RESULTS side.

There are some good masonic lamps here, but they are too big to post:

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/graphics.html

B Curtis: yes I did realise that, I've been here before you know. Sometimes one wonders whether he gets his pictures designed expressly for your taste or something... :)

"wake away for night is flying, the watchmen on the hills are crying"

Grr now you've made my head sing this to the "Deck the halls with <something> of holly" tune! In Donald Duck's voice, v. irritating. Oh well BOUZE will soon fix this.

Boughs. Of holly. Sorry. I've just gone on to the organ fugue now, which is really nice to have rattling about my head.

You know, it's astonishing the power of oxytocin. I've been in the worst mood all day, all week, all month, and I just looked at that photo a few times, and suddenly I felt all light-headed and happy and euphoric. It's the sodding oxytocin, it's really the only thing that really does for depression.

Boughs.

No no i said BOUZE. Ok sorry about that. Anyway, I'm off too, have a good weekend!

OK, everyone else has gone home, including the head of the company. I think it's OK for me to sneak out ten minutes early...

Have a good weekend. May the force be with you. (and also with you...)

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/images_download/s_c1889.gif

the Watercooler is so indie

Twee-drone on fluxblog (Speck Mountain), kerr et al. Curious what if anything you think. Can't quite decide if I like it, but it reminds me of that Do Make Fly Think or whoever those guys are.

Morning all.

Morning there. I just realised, yesterday, that I hadn't touched ILX for a week.

Kate, have you ever read Geoffrey Ashe's "Mythology of Britain"? It's v good - and he has a chapter on St Ursula. He thinks someone at some point misread a heavily-abbreviated Latin inscription about Ursula and her 11 virgins - I will dig it out.

(now the name makes me think of that Joanna Newsom song)

It's been a very quiet week!

Good morning.

I've had an... interesting weekend. Friday I went to Foyles and bought way, way too many books. 2 dictionaries of saints, an illustrated tome on the Lost Villages of Britain, a Feynman book, a book about London cemetaries called NECROPOLIS and a book by that bloke I think you were talking about, FP, who has completely rewritten the prehistory of Britain talking about how the "Celtic"/English divide of Britain is a lot older than the Anglo Saxon incursion and possibly as old as the last ice age. Very very interesting, not just stuff about lingustics (which you know I dig) but gene mapping as well. The Celts didn't come from central Europe as it seems, they were hiding out in the South of France and Northern Spain til the ice age passed.

And a book on CBT, trying to get this bloody depression sorted out. I don't fancy doing therapy ever again, but I can get the book and do it myself. I hope.

Saturday I could barely get out of bed, but my mum rang, and she told me that I needed to exercise more if I wanted to get out of depression. Not what I wanted to hear. But I dragged myself out of bed and walked up Sunnyhill. At the top of the hill, by a house that was being cleared for sale was a load of rubbish - and by the curb, someone was throwing out and EXERCISE MACHINE. I thought that was some kind of sign from someone or something, like my mum had a word with her Boss and God or the Universe or Fate or whatever you believe in just left it lying out in the middle of the pavement so I couldn't help but trip over it.

So I dragged it home and have been exercising on it - swishing away (it's one of those skiing type machines) and it has made me feel noticably better. Even though I feel like i'm dead before I've gone a mile. (or is a kilometer, I don't know what the units are.)

And then on Sunday I drew saints and recorded with G00blar. And ate boozy strawberries, best things ever. I hope they keep. But the booze should preserve them, right?

Better not risk it - eat all the rest when you get home tonight ;)

I think I've said this before but I totally subscribe to the exercise (and sunshine) thing. Totally annoying but also totally true. (Not that it was enough to get me out of the apartment over the weekend, but do as I say, not as I do.)

Hrrmmm, I won't get home until late because of rehearsal. I should have brought them with me.

The great thing about the exercise machine is I don't have to leave the flat to get my exercise. OK, I have to go out in the courtyard, because it doesn't fit in my flat, but still. I don't have to put on shoes or wear a bra or anything i'd have to do to actually leave the house.

Also, I put tiger stripes in my hair. Roowwrrrr. They came out rather too yellow, though. I wanted them to be orange. When I WANT my hair to turn orange, it goes proper blonde. Bah. I will have to get an orange rinse for tomorrow so I can be a tiger and not a tabby cat. I want to make sure that they are proper tiger stripes and not stupid annoying orange girl with stripey hair stripes.

Masonic Boom is... confused by the mood thing on MySpace.

I think you should always wear a bra to exercise, frankly.

(If you are a girl, obv, blokes don't need to unless they are that MLS bloke.)

I don't want to wear a bra. It's not bouncing up and down exercise (I can't do that kind anyway, due to my fucked ankles) so it's not like they knock me in the eyes or anything. I have already accepted that my dugs will hang down like a mesolithic cavewoman.

Another slow day today, huh?

It's like watching ice melt in here. Drip, drip, drip.

I tried to google a picture of a cavewoman, but most of them are not SFW. :-(

I want an ACTUAL cavewoman with dirt and grime and dugs down to her knees, not some sexed up babe in a leopard skin.

Morning all. Am still trying to adjust to being back at work after spending a week caring for my mum post hip replacement. Been a slog so far but a nicely bronzed office crush boy is helping to cushion the blow.

Oxytocin, it makes things better.

How's yr mum?

Cave child... how come they never build models of cavewomen?

http://www.geocities.com/sray.rm/00155.jpg

Oh wait, here's one.

http://www.moritherapy.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/blog-kessler-web-neanderthal-woman.jpg

Cro Magnon ladies seem never to have worn bras. Or shirts for that matter, making them rather NSFW.

However, that must have been terribly COLD, what all in the ice age and all, methinks.

so today my boss tells me i MUST take vacation during two weeks in august (and that i can't in september, like i wanted, having been told two weeks ago that july and august were out). really effing annoying.

What the hell? How are you supposed to sort out a holiday like that?

September is way better for holidays, as it's not so sodding hot.

No one in the office has even noticed my tiger stripes. :-(

Non-person.

I'm not going to discuss this any further with the usual Guardian hating people who hate anything that's written in the Guardian just because it it's there, but seriously...

This a terribly offensive phrase to use to describe a group of people, right? "non-person".

Oh come on... nothing in my to-do list, nothing in my inbox... work is boring as watching ice melt, could the 'Cooler try a littler harder to be... well, intersting? Or lively? Or ANYTHING?

I might have to go to lunch, not because I'm hungry but for lack of anything better to do.

I might, as I hungry.

Nonperson? What, on the G.thread?

I seen it now.

Yeah, the "usual G haters" oh I'm so much cleverer than this newspaper bores.

You mean hacks who can't get a job on it so therefore hate it?

Someone has now bottled and is trying to sell Oxytocin. Oh for the love of... someone post a picture of Benjamin Curtis so I calm down and don't get all worked up.

I dimly remember from my midwifery days that Syntocinon is used to induce labour, maybe a word with a friendly ob/gyn is in order.

Mmmmm, Mars Planets. Yum. They're like Revels but without all the shitty orange or peanutty ones.

I'm still annoyed that I forgot to put leeks in my curry. :-(

Area around Hackney Central station as place to live y/n?

http://www.moritherapy.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/blog-kessler-web-neanderthal-woman.jpg gave federer a good match lately at Wimbledon.

yes, g00blar

I think I scared off my husband with all the Veronica Mars obsession. He said he's not bothered with it anymore. So what am I s'posed to do now? Ooooh, I can watch 4 eps in one night! HURRAH! I have to confess that I googled for a bit too much information.

Hello I'm Nathalie, I'm a Veronica Marsoholic. :-D

Clarence Rd, just up from dalston ln.

Ooh, no, Hackney, don't live there. Bad bad. Keep looking around Brixton.

Hackney is a smelly hellhole with no tube. Stay away. Come down south, come down south.

Just been on phone to my maw, she's on her own for the first time since her hip was done, seems to be doing just fine which begs the question why i had to stay off last week and skivvy.

Because you needed the time off work?

I'm so obsessed I actually googled what cellphone Veronica Mars uses. *sigh*

OK, Nath, that's way more obsessed than I've ever been about anything.

(OK, I do actually know what kind of mobile BC uses, but only because he had a conversation with someone else from TSM Board who had the same kind of phone, and he posted it.)

((Except I have forgotten.))

Yes, I know. :-( I am really utterly obsessed with it. I have few obsessions, but when I (ahum) get into something I rrrrrreally go overboard. I can remember listening to Fleetwood Mac until the stereo literally started making funny noises. The same goes for dEUS: I know/knew way too much about it. (That said, I wasn't as bad as some fans, who would go to all their concerts and stand gawking at Tom Barman.) Okay, I'll confess, I have read most synopsis of the VM eps. :-(

Yeah, i'm being a little unfair to the old dear, i actually had a very pleasant week with her in spite of doing all the shopping, washing, laundry and cooking (i should add that my brother still lives with her, i'm not a complete cow).

I'm making a return trip to my GP tomorrow - he didn't want to prescribe SSRIs without excluding physical causes for my symtoms so he's ordered a full blood count, thyroid function, kidney function and blood sugar - fingers crossed they'll come back clear.

That's actually a sign of a really good doc - mine didn't actually ever check me for thyroid problems, despite it running in the family. It wasn't until I saw a replacement doctor one day I went to get a refill that he said "you're all sweaty, are you alright?" and I said "I just ran up the hill to get here" and he said" "well, I'm checking your thyroid just in case."

It turned out to be normal, but you never know. My mum's is really low, and she has to get shots for it. Which work much better for her low energy than SSRIs did.

There is a kind of hott boy standing across the street from the kitchen window. It's just a shame that he's got hair like Rod Stewart. What convinces them to ruin their hottness with that?

someone saying "oo you look like Rod Stewart" ?

This is not a thing to be emmulated. It's not a look that speaks "hottness". Unless you are my mum.

My doc is very thorough, when i first started having panic attacks he was the only one that wanted to address why they were happening and how i could overcome them - the other docs just fobbed me off with beta blockers and breathing exercises for the hyperventilation but he referred me for CBT. I have a sweaty face a lot of the time but i'd put that down to having gained back almost all of the 4 stone that i'd lost before i quit smoking.

I got tested for hypothyroidism about 10 years ago it came back negative but it would seem the test isn't that reliable. I did get myself into a bit of a tizz afterwards worrying about diabetes especially when i found a numb patch on my foot but i think that was the anxiety talking (a more plausable reason would be that the numb patch was on my heel which has a heck of of hard skin that needs a good going over with my foot file).

I need your doctor. I want to know why I have panic attacks. Last night I could almost feel my negative hormones in my mouth. Bah!

Good lord. Jim Robinson from Neighbours is in the new Torchwood series.

NOT GETTING HOPES UP but dude who is subletting best flat in the world just called me back and we're gonna go see it on wednesday put on our most responsible faces and say please, Please, PLEASE let us live in your wonderful huge loft with the natural light and the great furniture and the stainless steel kitchen and live happily ever after.

p.s. I HATE THIS SUMMER

Aw, awesome, Goobs, I really hope that this works out. Crossing fingers and thumbs and toes and anything else that could be crossed.

cheers! In the meantime we're seeing FIVE sure to be awful flats all over town tomorrow.

OK, plan time... if I have a torrid affair with Boris and have his babies, will that be enough of a scandal to keep him from actually becoming mayor?

Or will it not work, as all his other affairs didn't stop him being all the things he's been elected or appointed to?

The latter, I'm afraid.

But if he has enough illegitimate children, eventually they'll all be able to vote him into office!

The Army of Boris.

It could hold him off from standing!

Go to it kate! the fate of London is in yr hands!

I seem to type lots of ! thesedays! it's a bad hab!

See, I am selflessly offering my good, pure, innocent self to be sacrificed for the GOOD OF LONDON by keeping Boris from becoming mayor.

And kinky Tory sex has nothing to do with it.

It is time for some gratuitous pictures of Boris...

http://images.scotsman.com/2006/01/28/en2801borb.jpg

BORIS ON TOAST!!!

Ummm... la la la la laaaa

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1036/828312143_7dde8de85f.jpg

I'd post it on that other thread, but they're, like, discussing proper politics and things now.

Yeah, tis fair enough...

He cheated with ed?!!

.. actually, they're just dissin each other again. (xpost)

aaaawwwwwwww...

http://xaymaca.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/BIX_sl6805.jpg

OK, enough Boris. I'm bored with Boris. Why can't I get my brain to do the simplest thing today?

I think our kids would be slightly scared of Grandpa, though. I'm not even sure he's human. Definitely something lizardine going on here...

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/election2005/archives/archives/johnsonsArglesblog.jpg

OK SERIOUSLY, SOMEONE POKE ME WITH SHARP STICKS IF I KEEP ON ABOUT BORIS.

http://www.abella.de/cover/P0808720004120_1.jpg

And then on Sunday I drew saints and recorded with G00blar. And ate boozy strawberries, best things ever. I hope they keep. But the booze should preserve them, right?

and if the booze doesn't the saints will

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

gooblar hackney yes

http://www.monochrom.at/cracked/reviews/C_boris.jpg

I SAID STOP WITH THE BORIS!!!

That took me a while, Emsk, but ha ha.

I want to go and see David Sylvian (and Steve Jansen) in Glasgow, i fear that i'll be going alone.

Hey, if I can go to some crazy festival by myself, you can go to David Sylvian by yourself!

(Actually, this morning I was really keen. This afternoon, I'm thinking it was a stupid idea, as I HATE festivals.)

OK, another hour and a half of this to go.

I am so bored I feel like my head is melting. I have nothing to do.

What did I do in jobs like this before the interweb? Oh yeah. I guess I'll dig around in the bowels of the database and see if I can break something.

Where's Tom D/dadaismus lately?

He was on some other threads this morning.

I wonder if I can sneak out of here 15 minutes early. I hate having to sneak around, though. I have NOTHING to do. But my boss is out jogging and she may come back at any moment. Not like she will give me anything to do, but it will look bad.

GOD I HATE MY LIFE. OK, it is my job bringing me down. Not even really the job, but the long periods of NOTHING TO DO. My own brain starts eating itself when it's inactive.

I couldn't even get into the db to muck about with it. :-(

ack office parties.! nothing like getting hammered in short order with your co-workers so that you pass out immedateily upon arriving home and consequently WAKING UP AT !2:30am.

Just incase anyone didn't see this on the Simpsons thread
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/6901543.stm

Pagans pissed off by homer simpson! ROFLS.

That's fantastic! Go pagans! Go pagans!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44001000/jpg/_44001935_homergiant203pa.jpg

fantastic.

interesting that the field with homer in it is much more fertile that the pagan fertility symbol ;)

hello londoners

can you please help me with my thread?

two weeks in london, what's a boy to do

Morning folks, I'm a happy lass this morning thanks to a combination of the close proximity of office crush boy and 'How Soon Is Now?' on the radio, guess that makes me very easily pleased.

Oh damn, that reminds me. I think I left that TC Lethbridge book at yours, Ed!

People be not returning emails. That sucks.

You did indeed, I shall stuff it in with the pedals.

hows the CD dist?

Not really happening due to extreme business and being in finland a lot, I may need to hand it off to someone else.

I am really really sorry about that I have been very very useless.

People not be answering the poll about not returning emails. :-(

I chose, just didn't add owt.

If today is as boring as yesterday, I'm going to throw myself out a window.

But first, some coffee.

I did.

After all the Boris talk (and videos) yesterday, I am now listening to Boris.

How is he?

Noisy. And intense. And right now filled with feedback and crashing cymbals and I think a gong just went off.

I would vote for that Boris for Mayor.

All meetings at City Hall should be opened and closed with gongs.

The gherkin to be replaced with one huge speaker stack.

One of them should be Chancellor considering the price of some of their brand new releases (and the fact there's like one a month). That's a lot of money coming in.

Put them in charge of reversing the "decades of underinvestment" destroying the tube.

Special limited edition oyster cards! Collectors item bus passes! You have to take the same journey three times to ride on their platinum boxset first class carriage!

Uh-oh. Colleague had another breakdown today - just went home. No fucking clue what is going on with him. (Although he definitely smelled of alcohol.)

WTF?

I know Russians drink vodka for breakfast, but in what world is that acceptable? Crikey, this gets worse and worse. When is he actually going?

I mean, I understand firsthand about wanting to make jobs workable for people with real mental health issues, but there's got to be something said for the poor slobs picking up the slack.

If you were to wear a Boris (the band) t-shirt in London I wonder how many would think you were campaigning for Boris Johnson.

Mitya, time to start looking for a new job I think.

Kate, I saw this and though of your workplace:

http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2007071745814.gif

what's that sticking out of her head?

It's funny because it's true...

I wrote a dilbert once!

OK, I sent an idea to Scott Adams, who pretty much used it as was.

xpost to k8:

1. He is not actually Russian. (Get this: he is an American who took Russian citizenship.) And anyway, Russian drinking is for the most part quite social. This seems more like classic "bottle in the desk drawer" or liquid lunch drinking.

2. Survey says, "Ding ding ding. Number one answer!" I think I would feel more sympathetic toward him if a) I were convinced that drinking were the only way he could manage his personal issues, as opposed to manageable personal issues being magnified to unmanageable by drinking, and b) if the personal/work-related issues made more sense (e.g. the one previous to this was sparked by the fact that on a non-urgent project he only came in to work on saturday and not sunday, leading him to implode on monday).

xpost to ed:
3. Although this stuff kind of bugs me, it is now just a matter of time (til sept) and then he'll be gone. It might be worth looking for a new job, but the things that I don't like don't really directly relate to this (although the vacation thing is pretty frustrating).

Just the litany of crap aspects of this job points to looking foir a new one, to me at least, how long have you been there?

Not even a year yet. I will probably let me resume slip out into the market at that point. My understanding of the labor market is that there should be some interest, although whether I'd get a better offer is questionable.

You also have to remember that after I quit my last job it took a long time and most of my savings before I found a new one. So I'm still kind of risk averse (although I live pretty modestly, so I could do the same thing again in a pinch if I had to :) Unfortunately I'm getting a bit old to have that kind of fun.

Ah, wait for this guy to go, and then slowly build up your resume again. Sometimes it is worth hanging on, to prove that you can do it.

Should I get a gym membership? they're offering them through work, but even with a discount, it's still bloody expensive. £40 a month or something. I mean, sure I could probably save that by not drinking. But when I'm not drinking, I get healthier and don't need a gym.

Plus, well, I've got my gift from god exercise machine at home now.

Also, I have realised that to go to this festival, I would have to get a tent.

And I don't want a tent.

Uh-oh. Colleague had another breakdown today - just went home. No fucking clue what is going on with him. (Although he definitely smelled of alcohol.)

A client of ours worked in a chemical planet. Apparently one of his colleagues drank PURE alcohol (with his coffee, not straight from the bottle). He managed to drink/use about a bottle every week. He was of course sacked.

borrow one. emsk the russian, etc. all have them. I'd offer you mine but I think I will probably be in it.

But he didn't care as he was pished.
x-post

Everyone who owns a tent will be using that tent, as it is August Bank Holiday, which is the national weekend for going camping. In tents. At festivals, usually.

It all comes back down to the fact that althought I want to go to the festival, I do not want to go by myself. And if that makes me a loser, I don't care. I'm a loser.

Argh, I did a tarot, and it's all these lovely, positive cards, Strength, The Sun, The World, Peace, The Hanged Man... and then right at the end THE NINE OF FUCKING SWORDS!!! Worst card in the pack that isn't The Tower.

So I'm supposed to break through to all these lovely things, swiftness and change and peace - but by meditating and dwelling on THE AWFULLEST CARD IN THE DECK - CRUELTY?!?!?

I don't get it.

What is astrocat?

(i'm two weeks behind the curve here)

also "yes DAD" = classic

http://www.onetonnemusic.com/mt-static/archives/astrocat.jpg

Oh I like astrocat! Thanks mitya.

Kate have you heard ST 37? Spacerock, Can & Hawkwind covers. Definite KateMusic™ I'm sure!

Never heard of them.

I'm glad there's a genre called KateMusic, though.

It should be a genre on AMG and have a wikipedia entry.

ST37 are cool folks, good band. Saw 'em at Terrastock 5, got a few albums.

okay kids (and ned) end of another day here in moscow, land of the passive-aggressive weather. a quick beer under cloudy skies and then home to d/l the new m.i.a. album and that tracey thorn single they write about over on stylus.

Downloading! You criminal.

then home to d/l the new m.i.a. album

Mitya, does your work have a counselling programme or anything your guy can get referred to? Don't know what it's like in Russia, but over here you risk falling foul of all sorts of discrimination laws if you don't treat alcoholics as you would any other ill person. Also, I go into work stinking of alcohol all the time, sure he didn't just have a hangover? I think there's a pretty fine line between blotting out shitty problems by drinking, and shitty problems that are caused by drinking, a line that can get crossed and/or blurred all too easily.

Ed, are you home yet?

I'm going to go bonkers if I have to spend another half an hour in this office pretending like I have something to do when I don't.

Or maybe i'll have another coffee.

going home in 3 minutes be there by 20 past.

OK, I'll have another cup of tea then.

Work tea sucks. :-(

Are you allowed to listen to music at new office?

Yeah, thank heaven for small mercies.

If they'd taken that away from me, I'd have walked out on the spot.

OK, I'm out of here. See some of you at the gig. Maybe?

ailsa,

the idea of a work counseling program for alcoholics in russia is a quite a chuckle. one or two "events" ago, my boss (who is english) and the employee had a big conversation, one outcome of which was my boss finding a counselor for the employee to see, although that was really at a personal rather than official level, i'd say. in any case - at least as far as I know - the "acknowledged" issue is psychological/emotional problems. i and at least a few other co-workers have observed the drinking (or effects thereof, I should say), but my sense is that the alcohol aspect is at best unacknowledged, at worst not noticed by management. (sounds unbelievable but it's actually fairly understandable owing to some specifics about how our office works.)

anyway, the problem is not coming IN stinking of alcohol, the problem is COMING TO stink of alcohol after he's already in the office.

meanwhile labor laws here are, i think, protect employees pretty well. i think if he "acted" like a sick person -- i.e. called in sick as opposed to coming into the office, could prove that he was taking steps to fight his (presumed) alcoholism, then we'd have a hell of a time getting rid of him, if it came to that. however, if he were "just a fuck-up," i.e. being drunk at work, needing to leave early because he couldn't deal, etc. and not seeking medical or psychiatric help (which is more of less what he was doing), then we could get rid of him without any problem, as long as we documented both his "transgressions" and our warnings to him (although there weren't any of those, really).

(whatever - sorry to bore you all with this - it's the main drama of my life. eventually i'll get around to a torrid affair with a seventeen-year-old and we can talk about that instead :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuNKKO4OTE

Aye, that's fair enough Mitya, I just wondered. Obviously, I don't know the whole story. From what you said, I think you'd still have a hard time getting rid of him if it was in this country. He would be able to argue that he was still trying to do his job to the best of his abilities, and his refusal to acknowledge problems/seek help is a pretty classic sign of depression which might work in his favour.

Aargh, this is getting too much like work :-/

I saw this and thought of Kate, so I scanned it, and now I look at this thread I realise it was likely the pic at the start of the thread which I can't see anyway. Feh.

In other science-of-music news, yesterday I arrived at my folks' house just in time for my father's friend to arrive clutching neatly handwritten A4 bits of paper explaining the (er, some) MATHS of bellringing and Steve Reich. Sadly I didn't understand a word of group theory in university and I certainly didn't last night, but oh well, I may have inherited a book of Reich essays from it anyway, which I look forward to reading at some point when I feel a little smarter, or at least less full of pear cider. (Mmm.)

Sorry everyone on Watercooler seems to be having a rough time of it at the moment.

omg guys, so i got home last night and someone had been stabbed in the heart across the road from my house! all cordoned off with blue tape, police pacing around, dudes in white suits, the lot. apparently there was a fight. they escorted me to my front door - a whole, ooh, ten steps. the edge of the cordon is just outside my bedroom window so there was a police hanging around there all night, i could see him whenever i woke up.

why am i not terrified?

I think maybe you'e just shocked? Scary though. The only thing that I experienced which comes close this, is our neighbour's son being a bit of a criminal. Or rather he was. At one point he shot someone (though not in our street). To flee the sentence/court case, he went, I think, to Thailand where he was killed with an AXE in the HEAD!!!! He had already been in jail for dealing drugs, I think. The one "long" conversation I had with him consisted of him making drugged out noise (like an engine) and then asking me where I lived! hahahaha I steared clear of him. One time I met him in a pub and he asked me why he never saw me. I replied "I hide in the cellar, I'm scared of you." He gave me an odd quizical look, trying to find the answer in my eye sockets. I giggled and walked away. He looked like your typical speedfreak who loves cheap hardcore dance musickness. His girlfriends were all cheap tarts with bleached hair. Nope, never really was interested in befriending him.

don't think i'm shocked, even - curious more than anything but i can't find anything on bbc or grauniad or thisislondon websites.

have to wait for the hackney gazette i'm afraid.

checked hackney gazette site too though yeah, that seems to be updated about once a fortnight.
someone in the office just said maybe it's cos he's not dead?

...and see if they say it happened in homerton or clapton xpost

Morning all, was back at the docs last night and all my medical tests came back negative so i've got a prescription for seroxat and instructions to return after i've been taking it for a fortnight. Just got to sit back and wait till it kicks in now...

emsk i think it's probably less scary because it was all over before you got home. if you'd been there when police cars were still pulling up, then maybe it would've been worse

Leigh, I hope it helps. :-)

Leigh, hope that things improve for you. It may help to keep a mood diary for a few weeks, just note down how you are feeling once a day.

Emsk, and you keep saying Hackney isn't a bad neighbourhood?

Spacecadet... the maths of bellringing? Awesome! I was just looking at a maths book at Foyles that had something about that in it... but can't remember which one.

No, that wasn't the nondisplaying picture of Alex at the start of the thread, but it's still GRATE. "Alex writes a song once every two years and they're all about planets." So he should have an album's worth by now!

Thanks everyone. I'm actually feeling pretty chipper today although that could be because a very dull meeting was enlivened by the presence of office crush boy who was looking especially hot. Hope the tabs don't kill 'that' kind of urge.

Oh, you still get pleasure from looking. It just doesn't connect to anything... down there, if you know what I mean.

Also, where is the closest photography supply shop to here? I have finally found some victims models to draw and need to get film for my polaroid to shoot the hott pop star boys on Friday.

there is a big one in the back of the brunswick centre (LFC I think it is called) otherwise there is a jessops if you walk towards Holborn, but ring and check they have what you want as they are small, there is also a place on the bottom of Southampton Row, just by Holborn tube.

R.G. Lewis they appear to be called.

They have lovely old leicas in the window.

Oh no, 'that' was one of the few things on the depression questionaire that wasn't affected.

Jessops should have it. I think I know where that place is.

Note to self:

DO NOT CLICK THE GUARDIAN THREAD.

DO NOT CLICK THE GUARDIAN THREAD.

DO NOT CLICK THE GUARDIAN THREAD.

...and see if they say it happened in homerton or clapton xpost

heheh lol!

Emsk, and you keep saying Hackney isn't a bad neighbourhood?

yeah, it's ace, i love it. this is the first time anything like that's happened anywhere near enough me for me even to notice. someone got BEHEADED WITH AN AXE in hampstead and no one says that's a bad neighbourhood.

it's on the right hand side as you go down in that building that arches over the street. Ring though, jessops is a lot more rubbish than it used to be.

Sunn o))) have been added to the ATP bill

BORIS
OM
PORTISHEAD
APHEX TWIN
JULIAN COPE
SPARKLEHORSE
ONEIDA
BLACK MOUNTAIN
CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX
FUZZ AGAINST JUNK
SEASICK STEVE
TEAM BRICK
EARTH
A HAWK AND A HACKSAW
KLING KLANG
LADYTRON
THURSTON MOORE (SOLO)
AUTOLUX
JAH SHAKA SOUNDSYSTEM
SUNN O)))
FRANçOIZ BREUT

OK, that's it. We're not waiting for Farmer James to confirm, Ed, we're booking tickets for that now!

(Actually I don't even know if tickets are even on sale, but still.)

ooh ooh francois breut and ladytron! ("destroy everything you touch" shuffled up on the ipod yesterday morning first thing out of apartment door - an absolutely glorious moment)

Mitya stop getting excited about the wrong acts!

OK, I always forget that The Bends is actually a really good album. I get so sick of the "warble warble" Jeff Buckleyisms that produced Coldplay et al. that I forget about the tremolo shimmer of stuff like Planet Telex.

You cant blame Jeff Buckley or Radiohead for shite like Coldplay, Keane et al. Nor should it spoil the enjoyment of them.

Oh yes you can. I can blame one song - High and Dry - for the collective careers of Coldplay, Keane, Travis, maybe even Muse, too...

But the song The Bends, god, I had forgotten how amazing it is lyrically, it's just the audio equivalent of a panic attack and all the stuff that runs through your head when you're deep in paranoia. It's the ultimate ARGH EVERYTHING SUCKS EVERYBODY HATES ME I HAVE NO FRIENDS WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE OF DVT AND I JUST WANT TO CURL UP IN A CORNER ARGH song. I've been feeling like this too much lately, it's nice to know someone else gets it too. :-/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/6904129.stm

lost village

Oh wow, I've been there, too, and never saw the church spire.

Just... aaaaaaahhhhhh, this song makes me headbang like Beavis and Butthead. I keep forgetting how much I like it. How with every guitar solo, Johnny Greenwood appears to pull out a nastier and nastier guitar sound out of his bag of tricks. And Thom sounds like he's just beating himself up sputtering with rage and self loathing. I just want to grab him and squeeze him. They said that they wrote it with the intention of seeing just how many billions of chord changes they could stick in one song.

That split second of pure quiet after the nasty guitar comes in and slices up the pretty jazzy bit... and then that shuddering burst of tremoloed feedback. Best use of silence in a track since "I Heard Her Call My Name".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/6903433.stm

Party a G00blar's

May have to dip into 'the bends' on my way home tonight, 'just' is associated in my head with getting jostled at gigs so i'll have to reclaim it from the numptieheads. Album 7 shouldn't be too far off - hopefully i'll have some cash by the time the tour comes around.

That is TOTALLY AWESOME.

Indeed, party at G00b's!

(I wouldn't advertise yr address on ILX, though... probably best to have a mod scotch that and just link to the photos)

x-post indeed, I keep reading their blog hoping they'll have updated it but it's just Thom ranting about the state of politics. I was thinking about doing a "fave RH album" poll on ILM, but honestly, my answer is always "the last one." Until it's "the next one".

It is worth noting that 'Just' is essentially a slowed down version of 'Shot by Both Sides', Jonny G has admitted as much. One of the fan sites is reporting that they're mastering the album in New York and by the sounds of it Nude/Big Ideas has once again failed to make the final cut.

Ha ha ha ha ha, oh, this is one of the few times that my job is actually fun.

I had to make a report on cases with fees of over £5k. So I'm just for fun looking at some of the biggest fees - like, what on earth are people buying for several million pounds. Someone's buying a holiday village on the Isle of Wight, stuff like that. But then I find someone buying for £10 million... Hook End Manor.

What's so funny is, I saw it advertised in Country Life a few weeks back, and FMM and I were both all "awwww, what a beautiful place... yeah, let's buy it, just a pity they don't show the recording studios!"

Wow, didn't know it was that place. Everyone from Marillion to Morrissey have recorded there. It would be really cheeky to ring up the bloke buying it and ask for a session, wouldn't it? I'd get sacked, I bet. ;-)

Aaahhh... it's Trevor Horn that was selling it. OK, this is the coolest case we've ever handled, without a doubt.

WOW gooblar, AMAZING flat! wow wow wow. and so easy and central. congratulations!

goobs that is too effing sweet. v. jealous

I really really really want to watch the video for Just now. Damn, I've seen it so many times that I can practically see it repeating in my head, but I want to see the real thing.

And I'm not just saying that coz I fancy a nice lie-down in the middle of Chancery Lane.

Cuet.

http://www.wopvideos.com/imgvideos/grandes/1034.jpg

http://singingfool.com/photos/538/002262_17.jpg

I've found the video online. Dammit, I wish video worked on this 'puter so I could watch it.

Um. I'm bored. Let's pretend it's the 90s again.

http://singingfool.com/photos/397/016705_25.jpg

Bad hair. Very very bad hair.

Thanks all! SOoooooooexcited! And now after practicing I actually think tonight's gig is gonna be good. Huh!

Of course it will be good.

Things are getting worse. More bored. Please send chocolate.

Actually, I've already had chocolate. Please send pictures of Thom Yorke dipped in chocolate.

http://www.print.duncans.tv/images/dump-greed-not-cocoa.jpg

Who, me?

you can't do that on television!

I love it when a plan comes together. :-D

haha mitya

it sort of looks like he's got another pair of eyes above his eyes.

Yeah.

http://www.maketradefair.com/en/img/dumped/thom03big.jpg

God I want chocolate even more now. But I left it at hooooome. Maybe I can stop and get some on way to gig tonight.

Oh sod it. Everyone's gone. I'm out of here. I'll be early for another soundcheck.

oh i thought you were already gone, sorry

Good morning Cooler. The sun was here, but now it's gone.

(not a metaphor.)

Why should you care about the sun, goobs. You have the world's sweetest apartment (and need to be thinking about when you are inviting us all over for the housewarming!)

It's true. The big question about the housewarming is whether it should be before or after the wedding. (Probable answer: both.)

in that place you'll be warming your house every friday night.

Morning all, hope you're having a better morning than me, a bitch of a colleague called me a miserable moody cow in front of half the office and I'm rather ashamed to say that I had an involuntary bout of the waterworks.

WTF? What an asshole! Put some white-out in his/her coffee!

Jeez, what a cnut. I hope she felt terrible that she made you cry. Reflects badly on her, not on you.

Anyway, morning! I'm in quite a good mood today after the fun gig last night. I really needed that after the debacle on Tuesday. It's fun being someone else for the night. It's fun playing in a totally no-pressure gig environment with someone else's band. I need to do more of that. Plus, wow, Cowboy Mum - what a cool parent! She was great fun.

Strange dreams last night. One of my crushboys, in my dream, was trying to play me off against this other girl. He kept flirting with me, and then going off and making out with her. Realised after they disappeared into a bedroom that he was trying to set us up for a threesome. I was all "fuck that for a bag of chips" and walked out. I was late for a plane, but I was freaking out because half my equipment was missing, and if I looked for my guitar I'd miss my plane, but if I missed my plane, I'd be stuck in the States. I got home, but found that my guitar had been just stuck in the hold in its little gigbag - and both guitar and laptop were totally trashed. They said I could file an insurance claim and get the money back, but I was still devastated - I was trying to start my laptop up even though the screen was cracked in two, because I wanted to get all my files off it. My jazzmaster's neck was just hanging off by a splinter.

I have no idea what's going on in my head any more. But I have brownies.

OK, also, I admit... just what I always wanted! A whole new band! OF TOTALLY HOTT BOYS!!! :-D

Also, come to the folk on Sunday:

<img src="http://a490.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/125/l_deee22458599f94bd92af232d2dc3739.jpg";>

D'oh.

http://a490.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/125/l_deee22458599f94bd92af232d2dc3739.jpg

Sorry I didn't make it, I slept 10 hours last night and really needed it. I'd like some more, actually.

Wow, great flyer

mmm... brownies

so now that vacation is back on, let me ask again, where to go? i have a block of two weeks - japan or peru? or somewhere else? (i could also beg off slightly and just take one, i guess, and try and schedule the longer trip for later...

Take a train to the wild east, hop a boat to japan and fly back.

That actually sounds like fun, the train and the boat-hopping. I wish I could go!

I was giving the brownies out at the gig last night. It was totally a bribe.

he talk sense

hmm.. the only problems are a) i've done a big chunk of that trip already, albeit in segments, b) travelling in russia is more like a "long weekend" thing for me than my "big holiday for the year" trip. it's just more of the same, if you know what i mean.

Damn, well, to us people who haven't been to Russia, it sounds really exciting. I dunno. Go the other way, then - take the train to Norway, then get a boat to the Orkneys then the Shetlands, to the Faroes and then across to Iceland.

Or maybe that's just the holiday I'd like to do.

Someone tell me what my dream means, please? It felt significant, like it was trying to tell me something.

Kate! And Everone else too...

What's the gen opinion on the Green Man festival?

It looks like a lot of fun, and have heard good things about it?

But you know I'm not a festival person.

No one is going to tell me what my dream means? :-(

OK, if you won't tell me, the tarot will.

These seem to be quite important bits:

The second card, placed above the significator, represents Air. It describes your spirit, process of thought, and the influence of reason. Seven of Cups (Temptation): Daydreams and things seen in the glass of contemplation. The scattering of energies by strong desires and unrealistic goals. The pursuit of illusions and the dissipation of energy on false choices. Intoxication, delirium, and hallucination, leading to the negation of effort. Under rare and extreme circumstances, may indicate the revelation of transcendental spiritual truth.

But...

The eighth card, the reconciler, is placed below the cross in the third vertex of the triangle. This is the force that will resolve the conflict between the bottom left and bottom right cards. By meditating on this force and bringing more of it into your life, you can bring the matter at hand to a swifter conclusion than would naturally occur. Seven of Pentacles (Assessment): A pause to check on the progress of your labors. Making difficult financial decisions. Exercising patience and perseverance. Evaluating the status of your work and your options for the future.

and

The ninth and final card, placed in the center bottom of the triangle, represents the final outcome unless you change course. Wheel of Fortune: The path of destiny. Karma on a grand scale. An unexpected turn of good fortune. A link in the chain of events. Success, luck, and happiness.

I'd make a complaint against officebitch but due to the incestuous nature of my office the witnesses were her brother, her brother's girlf's brother, her pal who doesn't care for me and makes no effort to conceal it and some else that I know wouldn't back me up. It's only for post opening which amounts to about 2 hours a day, 1 week in four - I've asked to for a move to another team so with a bit of luck I'll end up with crushboy's team.

well k8 it sounds like you feel as if you're being forced to choose between something and your artistic life, and that the consequence is that your artistic life is being destroyed (although you still have hopes of rescuing it).

v. literal of course but you asked

Being forced to choose between artistic life and something else? I suppose you're right. Sometimes the literal thing is the correct one. (Though I saved my bag of pedals, rather than the guitar and laptop, albeit through accident, not through some kind of Sophie's Choice.)

What forced me to have to choose? Someone who I had a huge crush on, who turned out to be a manipulative cunt.

I suppose it's all quite plain. I feel like if *that* is who I have to play games with in order to have a creative life, then I'd rather just not. Or rather, that in order to have a *fulfilling* creative life, the avoidance of manipulative twats is paramount. Let them muck me about, and my creativity will get broken.

yeah, but the 'biz' is full of 'em.

What can yer do?

I'll be perfectly honest. I've been really upset (not to mention rather hurt) about not being asked back to play Truck. I mean, yeah, maybe I shouldn't take it personally, but I can't help but take it personally. And I've been coming up with all these reasons to try and make me feel better about not playing (looking at the festival lineup, and nothing there are no women who aren't on Truck coz girls in dresses are out of fashion and boys with haircuts are in fashioin, realising that our playing last year was a fluke that was down to our manager, and nothing to do with us at all, etc. etc.)

This morning I find out that Bumlove has somehow wheedled his way onto one of the lesser stages. Knowing the person who is running that venue, I'm guessing it's more to do with a personal favour "who you know" than anything else. This is a guy who has come to symbolise almost EVERYTHING I hate about the whole fucking indie scene. Not just professionally, in his incompetence but personally, I just think he's a vile human being.

And for the first time, rather than feeling jealous or upset about it, I just thought... "you know, if this is what I've got to do, to participate in these things, if this is the kind of person I have to deal with, if this is the kind of person who gets ahead in the indie scene... you know what? I'm fucking better off OUT OF IT."

And that may sound like sour grapes, but it's actually a quite important realisation.

Why do I make music? Partly it's for personal expression that I'd go insane if I didn't. But the reason that I take the music I make out of my bedroom is because I want to meet and spend time with people I have something in common with. That was the other thing that really struck me last night. (And the difference between the last gig and the gig before.)

XPOST rendering this irrelevant, but anyway

of course, that's just the literal interpretation - it could be more symbolic - e.g. guitar and laptop represent friends, plane represents family; or alcohol vs. anti-depressants; or any number of choices really. i don't know enough about the Secret Life of Kaet to say.

(if you were me, this would probably actually reflect the fact while you were sleeping there was probably an episode of the Monkees showing, in which their instruments were lost before an important gig)

the reason that I take the music I make out of my bedroom is because I want to meet and spend time with people I have something in common with. That was the other thing that really struck me last night. (And the difference between the last gig and the gig before.)

Hurrah!

Argh, that seems really clumbsy - what I meant by that is the difference between the last Shimuras gig and the Shimuras gig before that.

I felt really spikey at the last Shimuras gig, like I just couldn't connect with anyone. The Good Ship gig, I felt like we were a band, and we were mates hanging out watching music together. The problems at the Leonards gig just seemed to drive me apart from my bandmates, and that was no fun. The difference is in my head, but it's still a difference.

I think the venue had a lot to do with it. The Good ship is actually a nice place to hang out in.

That is very true. I think I'd actually spend time at the Good Ship, even if we weren't playing. I have no desire to go to Leonards again in my life.

'Bumlove'???

And look on the bright side, Kate, we've NEVER got to play Truck.

Yeah, but Emil.y you've got to play loads of things that we never got to.

Trust me, if you don't know who Bumlove is, count yourself as lucky. You must not have been around for much of last summer, argh. It's all in the past, and I never ever have to deal with him ever again.

Saw him on the street last night, as G00bs and I were drinking beer outside - he was looking really lost on his way to Leonards. And I just started to laugh, thinking about how awful the sound was there, and how horrible a show he would have - though honestly, his music is so rubbish, bad sound wouldn't make a difference. (meow)

mark, green man is LUSH, go.

i've not been to the new site but it's a lovely, lovely festival.

argh got to go more later

Kate how is this for a pedal?
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/7028

£269!!

I really don't understand the name. :-(

I mean, is it supposed to make you sound like a woman? Which would obviously be cool because women are great.

Or is it supposed to make you sound like a womaniser, which would obviously be shite because womanisers are lying cheating bastards?

I'm not sure what's going on there.

It kinda makes me not want to know what it sounds like. Just like those pedals with pictures of naked girls on them.

I'm not sure either. That's why I asked. At first I thought it was a joke then I saw the price.

Any Londoners going to visit this?

Anyway, I'm back eating at my desk again.

There was nowhere to sit in the "breakout area" but finally someone got up and left their table clear, so I went and sat there.

Then out of nowhere comes this strange woman and plonks herself down opposite me. Only when she sees me looking alarmedly at her, does she add as an afterthought "oh, you don't mind me sitting at your table, do you?"

What do you say to someone when the answer is actually "Yes, actually I mind your sitting there very much, I like to eat my lunch by myself, and nothing bugs me more than being forced to make halting conversation with some colleague I don't even know while I'm trying to quietly eat my lunch" ?

I kind of muttered "no, I'll just go and eat lunch at my desk" but just felt awful, because she probably thinks that, like, I haaaate her, when really I just wanted to be left alone to eat my lunch in peace. :-(

x-post maybe. If it wasn't on Brick Lane which is really really far from me.

God, it just links to more articles about record shops closing down. If all the record shops I go to close down, where on earth will I buy CDs? I might be forced to buy online, which I HAAATE.

Cheaper buying online. Esp if you want non british stuff.

I don't care about cheaper. I like the smell of a record shop, and all the posters and "bands starting" flyers on the walls. I like being able to rummage through bins.

Being £50 woman is no fun on the interweb. It is immensely fun when you are satisfying your hunter gathering instincts in shops.

Interweb shopping will never replicate that great hunter gatherer feeling.

Except maybe eBay, I think that's closest, but I don't do eBay because I am an obsessive personality type.

OK, I guess I better go and buy some film.

Shooting hott rock star boys tomorrow is something to look forward to, I guess.

I saw Boris on Holloway Road this morning (Johnson that is, not that Japanese band)

Everyone sees Boris but me. I think he's isn't real. He's like a reverse snuffaluffagus.

JAYSUS, film is expensive. It was £22 for 20 exposures! I wonder if that's Central London pricing, or just what digital photography has done to the Polaroid industry. :-(

the latter

...and now I've just been reprimanded via email for eating hot/smelly food at my desk.

PROVIDE SOMEWHERE FOR ME TO EAT AND I WILL EAT IT THERE. WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GO WHEN THE LUNCHROOM IS FULL?

That's exactly what I said in the email straight back, cc:d in to the office manager.

You go girl.

Actually the best film place I can think of is right across from Ed's on Leather Lane/C-road junction, but no idea about price. Real artists use it.

I sort of don't want to go to Truck any more (person who told me so in April to thread, if she still ILXes). I was just too indecisive to sell my ticket.

Not just the lineup, which can probably keep me occupied but isn't worth the £20 price hike (most of the bands I'll see will be local bands I didn't see because I was in Belfast/unemployed+broke/transportless/lazy). Partly just, oh, hell. Stuffs. Emo stuffs being justified by mundane practical things.

Dear Rough Trade, pls to not make yrself go bust, thx. Though what do I care as I can't get to London anyway. (Well, wait. The only time I've been to London in five years I bought the Shogun Kunitoki album which I had somehow not read about, just because you gave it a nice big sticker drawing my attention to its Finnishness and synthkrautness and Fonal-ity and it is aces, so yes, not to go bust, thank you. If only I could make it to the Covent Garden closing-down sale...)

I am ashamed to have only got 3 out of 10 on this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6906540.stm

You should be ashamed of taking internet quizzes in the first place.

I got 7, but I guessed most of them

pshaw - the first sentence out of a handfull of 18th/19th century books. that is actually quite difficult. (and who reads daniel deronda anyway, besides specialists?)

They've all been on the telly, innit

7 out of 10. Come on, it's all Victorian tomes, my area of expertise. I only bombed on Dickens and DH Lawrence coz I hate them.

I went and sat in Lincolns Inn, but there were all these signs all over saying DO NOT SIT ON THE GRASS. And all the benches were surrounded by haloes of cigarette butts. Things I hate about smokers, part billion. The way they somehow just don't see that totally undecomposable bit of fibreglass and brown paper as the litter it is.

Stuffs? Emo stuffs? Argh, hope it gets better, Spacecadet. You will probably have a good time if you go to the festival. I mean, it's a nice festival as festivals go.

My enjoyment of these things is rather marred by my insistent desire to want to participate rather than just observe. I'm uncomfortable being an observer.

Ha ha, I got Daniel Deronda out of a process of elimination becuase I am reading Middlemarch right now, and I know the first line was about Miss Brooke. And it wasn't the first line to Mill On The Floss, which I've also read really recently.

Are we all ashamed of ourselves now?

No.

always

hi g

>> Alex James' epiphany <<

Pop star's old life was all a blur

Alex James has reinvented himself brilliantly as a gentleman farmer and media commentator. His hard-living Blur days seem a long way away. James happily admits that he consciously decided one day that he needed to stop the debauchery but hasn't really said what caused this epiphany. Friends claim it was the day he woke up in bed with a prostitute, having shat himself in the night.

Believe it.

lo o

Friends claim it was the day he woke up in bed with a prostitute, having shat himself in the night.

If David "Don't bogart that joint, old boy" Cameron wins the next election, there would surely be a place for him in any "cabinet of all the talents"

Actually, if you'd bothered to read the book, he details quite clearly when he changed his lifestyle. His fiancee/wife sent him off to therapy after he locked her out of the house during a bender and decided it would be hilarious to piss on her head from four stories up. He decided to give up drink and drugs for good after that.

I mean, maybe the prostitute/poo story is filthier and therefore probably funnier, but he doesn't seem to write out bits of his life that make him look like a twat, so why would he omit that?

And I just got a stupid response back from my boss going all "we didn't make the rules" - dude, if someone makes an impossible to execute, enforceable and frankly ridiculous rule, you can't expect people to follow it blindly.

I've just returned from a meeting where I was told the REAL reason for the M0ss/P-Do breakup - this is not a C&P from PB.

Picture the lovely summer evening vibes: skanky supermodel and beehive beck are hanging out with respective partners, sniffin' and also hittin' the pipe. Girls go to chop a few more out. When they return, F-C is giving a BJ to D. Skank has fit because this is "different" from all those prozzas he goes with, hence breakup.

P-Do!

Won't someone think of the children?

Maybe you should save these "tid-bits" for Popbitch. Or the ILX celeb gossip thread. Or, maybe, somewhere that actually gives a shit about this stuff.

But who is F-C? Frank Carson?

"It's the way I ** 'em"

I have no idea what those initials stand for

x-post

I don't tell *you* what to do, Kate. I don't even tell you to SHUT UP or to stop being miserable when it would be entirely warranted to do so.

TS: Insider gossip about celebrity blowjobs vs The Canteen Was Busy - FITE!

You know, we all 'get to hear' when these sorts of things supposedly happen.

Howcome? Was someone else there? Did KM sayto her closest friend/publicist "Actually, if you really want to know why, ...."

Or is someone making shit up and prefacing all these tales with "you .. would .. not .. believe" and ending with "why so naive?"

Why so naive, Mark?

My enjoyment of observing and not participating is only marred by realising that everyone else I see every time I observe does both, gets a participant friend-gang from doing so, and would never talk to a mere observer. Which is fair enough really. But I probably will enjoy it when I get there. Will shoot JBL a bleak look if I see him. At least, I certainly will if his associate annoys me all through the lovely nervous_testpilot again.

I started to read Mill on the Floss lately and it was too much for my on-bus attention span (the only time I get to read). Should I bother? To be honest I don't get on with things pre-War-of-the-Worlds, like I don't have much time for music pre-Satie. Which makes me a philistine, I know. Maybe one day I'll train myself to like them.

xpost IT WUZ YOU!!! Hoist by yer own leotard!

The way they somehow just don't see that totally undecomposable bit of fibreglass and brown paper as the litter it is.

Fibreglass? Where've you got that bit of info from? Cellulose acetate, surely.

NB while I am a smoker, I do not in any way condone littering by means of cigarette filters.

To try and curtail the FITE - I too only got 3/10 on that quiz, but that's because the only writers I really like from it are Joyce and Lawrence, and I prefer Lawrence's poetry to his novels.

I just find the ironing delicious that someone who tells an entire thread that they should be "ashamed of themselves" for taking interweb quizzes about Victorian Literature goes on with such glee to repeat gutterpress gossip about "slebs".

Mill On The Floss doesn't really get good until about 2/3 of the way through. But the last 1/3 is so beautiful as ... well, it doesn't make you forget the boredom of the previous 400 pages, but it is very beautiful. Skim until Maggie hits puberty. Middlemarch, though, is proving far more engaging for me. It's a lovely, layered, complex story with so many intertwinings. I have to say I've been really enjoying it. And though I was put off by its length when I started it, I'm a few chapters from the end, and feel sorry to be finishing it soon!

You know, I don't smoke, so honestly, I don't know what filters are made from these days. But it is annoying to have to wade through them, in parks, outside my house, everywhere. I mean, yeah, maybe I have no right to talk, as I'm a gum-chewer and gum on sidewalks and chairs and the like is disgusting. But I always put my gum in the bin. So who knows where those mysterious bits of gum and cigarette butts are coming from.

My enjoyment of observing and not participating is only marred by realising that everyone else I see every time I observe does both, gets a participant friend-gang from doing so, and would never talk to a mere observer.

Bah, you have just crystalised my discontent with festivals. I would and did actually talk to "mere" observers when I was participating. But it's hard to accumulate a friend-gang when you're not of the people onstage. That is, if you're a spikey, introverted loner like me. Festivals were made for extraverts.

ack. still wondering who f-c is, and why beck and kate moss would be hanging out together... argh.

i have no idea who f-c is, or beehive beck

first p-do and then just d is both doherty?

ahhhhh i don't even care

er lots of xposts

I have worked out Suzy's code. Fuck me, that's a pretty incredible story.

THERE MAY BE A HINT TO THE CODE ON ILM AT PRESENT.

I have also worked out suzy's code. ps it's not worth it.

I meant incredible in the correct sense.

ah.

so is it a fabulous story in the correct sense?

Just put th3 n4m3s h3r3 l1k3 th15 ff5!

Sorry, my mental train has moved on to poppyseeds. WANT.

I have also worked it out and share aldo's viewpoint exactly.

In the interests of fairness, I also did the quiz thingie and got 7 out of 10. I'm more interested in celebrities shagging (or not), to be honest.

(beehive being a description of someone's hairdo and F-C being her other half)

Oh no, there's been a bug crawling all over my desk for hours. Now it just crawled onto my keyboard and disappeared down the escape key. Great.

I have no idea who these people in the story are.

How many more clues do you want?

(This is great, it's just like the showbiz rumours thread on Digital Spy where idiots fail to get clues like "oh, someone who had a friend called DAVID who had a glass of BECKS with a plate of HAM" and then there's 85 posts of people going "oh, is it Wayne Rooney?")

shit, sorry, incidental reference to inappropriate sports stars AND meaningless celebrity gossip, what on earth am I thinking?!

(beehive being a description of someone's hairdo and F-C being her other half)

Marge Simpson? Her out the B52s? A Gary Larson character? I don;t know!

The only actual celeb UK beehiver I can think of at the moment isn't going to Rehab and I assume it's not her?

don't make assumptions

Try looking up partner's names for anyone you've thought of and see if that helps with the F-C thing?

the husband is mentioned on a certain other thread elsewhere. Never heard of him mind you. I didn't even know the "beehive" was married.

haha, this really is like Digital Spy which is all "woah, top gossip, except I have a Lex-like understanding of the existence of this person but woah nonetheless"

I like a spot of IRL gossip as much as anyone, but why does anyone care about the likes of Doherty, Moss etc? Not only do we not know them, but they're also pretty uninteresting.

My belief is that famous people do these things because they're bored and cocooned from the consequences generally, until it's too late, and stupidly attracted to cartoon decadence as a form of veracity because of the circles they mix in, where people do goad them on to be more 'hardcore'.

No broadband connection = no Digital Spy. For which I am occasionally grateful.

Kate, I find the ironing delicious myself that you (chose to?) fail to recognise my leg-pull of Ed for what it was - not an attack on a thread full of my friends etc; why shit where you live? OH WAIT. Celebrity gossip seems to be okey-cokey when you post it - or someone else does a PB C&P - and here's half of one of your all-time slash duos allegedly indulging in proper man-gobble. I'm hoping the relevant parties sort out sharpish (general gist seems to be talent dragged down by vapid human Hoovers here) and I've no reason whatsoever to doubt my source. Is the problem here not actually about the origin of the story? Loving your work here.

My belief is that famous people do these things because they're bored and cocooned from the consequences generally, until it's too late, and stupidly attracted to cartoon decadence as a form of veracity because of the circles they mix in, where people do goad them on to be more 'hardcore'.

But again, why should we want to know the details?

But again, why should we want to know the details?

I think it goes something like this:

everyone loves a bit of gossip, but gossipping abt ppl you know can sometimes have nasty consequences for us or them, so we transfer it onto slebs instead.

Dr C, I find them as interesting as characters in a book. I mean, I can understand someone being completely uninterested in gossip and celebrities, but I have to admit I find it extremely entertaining. It doesn't affect my life in any way whatsoever, but it's a nice diversion (?). Hence I immediately knew who Suzy was talking about. I do realize that in a few years it'll all pass me by as I won't be able to keep up with the gossip as much anymore. Or maybe I will still read Suzy's posts and Po(o)Bitch. Who knows. (Then again PB is just extremely bland these days. It used to be fun to read the half-true gossip, now it's just meh.)

Why do celebs do what they do? Because they are human. I am sure many things they do, are done by "common" people as well, but we're not targeted by the media. And to some degree because they can. They lose a sense of "reality" along the way as well.

I am not so gossipy.

In any case I am in a fantastic mood this morning as I came in to find I have a £500 bonus.

xp oh and i would add that ppl who say "why would we want to know the details?" are v v often (but not always) being a tad disingenous coz they actually mean "why shoud we want to know the details abt ppl in X when I don't like X" when the X is sport, pop music, or whatever, or (most likely) that particular sport or that particular kind of pop music, but the minute something scandalous or weird or disgusting happens to the particular X they *are* interested in then they prick up their ears.

wayhey congrats Ed!

Ed, woha! Congrats!!!

Company in making a profit this month shock. OK maybe not enough to cover bonuses but we are getting them anyway. August looks good to and we have never, ever but never made money in august before.

Alas this month hasn't been so great for us. I try not to panic though. Try not to. Ed, can I have some of your money? ;-)

Good news, Ed!

OK I can see that it might be entertaining.

I'm not being disingenous - I'm as interested in popular culture as anyone, but you know if X gives Y a blowjob while Y's wife Z is snorting coke in the bog, then....so what?

ALSO - those who repeat this sort of tittle-tattle don't know what went on, do they? So it's just pointless.

Morning all. I've had a reminder why I always wear black - got an espresso from the canteen but the lid fell off leaving a nice coffee stain down the front of my tomato red top.

I went to the disabled loo to try and sponge it off - if I had any common sense I would have taken it off and dabbed it with a bit of cold water but silly features here decided to run it under the tap while still wearing it leaving a big puddle on the floor and saturating the top.

I've dried it under the hand drier but there's a distinct line where the soaking was - guess if anyone notices they're probably looking a little closer than is appropriate for work anyway.

We finished watching Veronica Mars Season 2. I am being a bad girl: bittorrenting (?) Season3 cause I can't wait till October for the import boxset (whichI will buy anyway).

Also, I think I should quit knitting as I suxor badly at it. I think the dress I'm making will be too small for the head and the arms will not match either. :-(((((((((((

Don't stop I want to get tips from you, I have just started learning.

Morning. Hooray for bonuses!

Thank god it's Friday and all that. It was nice doing my exercise machine in the rain. But not so nice running from the bus.

I was so relieved to finally have a night in last night. Didn't do anything except finish Middlemarch (waaaaahhhh!) and wash the HUUUGE pile of dishes, but still, it was nice to be there.

Tonight I shoot DDBs. Life is good.

I feel bad because I was the only woman in my family who never learned to knit properly. My Granny was an amazing knitters, she made most of my jumpers and cardigans in school. My mum used to be a super knitter until she got the tumour on her wrist, and that put an end to it. So she was never able to teach me, and I was always more interested in guitar playing than knitting, so I never learned. And now I kinda wish I had becuase I miss my homemade jumpers, they fit me better than anything else because they were made for me.

But I suppose knitting is just one more thing that would put strain on my wrists, which really can't take it. Do they ever bother you when you knit, Nath?

This is doing my head in:

http://lol.ianloic.com/feed/newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/front_page/rss.xml

I mean, there's a story about 2 men held in terror raid, attached to a picture of a cat grabbing two slippers. So inappropriate but I nearly died laughing.

Morning all. It's grey and horrible here this morning. Ailsa hilarious upthread tho.

This is inappropriately cracking me up

http://lol.ianloic.com/image-cache/d0/d021e624c2b29847a25161b8be66953e.jpg

OK, so I have a bonus and I am taking my mighty pounds to America in August, what shall I buy?

Rhode Island!

A yacht.

OK, this is the best picture ever...

http://a326.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/121/l_20898c062f6e05f73dc822a686d5c2c5.jpg

Ha ha, I thought it was a girl, because the interference patterns of his stripey shirt looked like breasts! I was all ready to go gay for "her" but it's just Rog.

this rain is really depressing me, it's not just seeing it out of the window but also the constant drumming on the flat roof of the building where I work.

It is absolutely black outside. I kind of love it. It looks like the world is going to end.

I know, I know, what a weirdo. I'm happy when it rains. I'm happy when it pours.

http://www.mobiusgallery.net/poster007.jpg

For some time it used to hurt my wrists, but that was because I had just started to knit and I was holding Ophelia the wrong (ie with my hand) way when breastfeeding. I had to wear some wristband for a few weeks. Now it doesn't really affect my wrists at all. I do use bamboo needles which seem to be better than the clickeedeeclack metal needles. (The sound of the metal clicking drives me mad now.) I knit for about two hours per day.

My greatgran (dad's side) used to knit for shops (until the knit machines appeared). My gran and aunt (father's side as well) knit very well but not as well as greatgrandmother. My mom? hahaha Oh lord, I think I inherited half of her *talent* at f*cking things up. ;-)

I know what I am doing wrong but I can't for the life of me *teach myself* to correct my faults or avoid'em. I just know I have to persevere. Can. Not. Quit. (For. Ed.) :-)

"Fry-day," as the Hamburglar used to say.

Well, that was exciting!

The fire alarm went off in the middle of the deluge, and we all got chucked out of the building. Had to huddle under a parking garage while someone figured out what was going on. I heard that the basement has flooded, which set the alarms off.

Now the sun is shining brightly like the storm never happened. Still don't think they're letting people in the basment, though.

I don't why this makes me laugh so hard, but it does. So inappropriate.

http://lol.ianloic.com/image-cache/7a/7a7ffc3ce8e610778c07e5df3cb0bc8b.jpg

I swear to god one of my colleagues just waved his Oyster Card at the security door, and it just opened. Hah!

Did he get charged a quid though?

I just wish I could do it the other way around - wave my security pass at the tube and get on!

I have become so addicted to Mars Planets.

is a journey before 9.30 in zone 1 meant to cost £3? i'm sure i got charged £1.80 this morning. not complaining like, one sodding stop and then the train didn't move any more and i had to get off and get a bus. it took me AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES to get to work this morning. on my bike it NEVER takes any longer than thirty-five minutes, even if i am tired and it is windy/raining.

I love Douglas Hart's hair in that JAMC pic upthread, I wish i could get my hair to stick up like that.

Dougie's hair pretty much still does that - but in all directions at once now.

WAH-HEY!!! i just got free coffee.

OK, it's Starbucks coffee, but it's free. All Starbucks are giving away coffee between 2 and 4pm today.

Yeah, I know, shitty viral marketing shit, but hey. Every free cup of coffee you drink is less profit that they make. And it is actually a promotion for fair trade coffee.

And, well... it's FREE.

I love the rain as well, especially the drumming on the roof, ahhh. I spend most of my time hoping for storms, it is EXCITING.

But I do worry at the number of women who have taken up knitting recently. While I appreciate that it is good to be able to make your own stuff, it also seems rather retrogressive in the feminist stakes. Nath, you should take up arc-welding instead, and then let Ed teach you how to knit after.

I can teach nath to arc weld in return for teaching me knitting.

Man, I'd love to learn arc welding. Then I could join Faust.

Yes, do it! I've always wanted to learn how to weld, too (I think might have been the start of my collecting protective eye-wear, actually). We should form an arc welding circle.

I can do ordinary welding with a welding iron.

But I wanna do something that generates SPARKS.

I'm totally up for joining an arc welding circle if I get to wear my goggles.

I'd start on gas because it's easier to learn the movements, and look at MIG over stick. Also get one of those excellent visors with the LCD viewing panel activated by the solar panel on the forehead responding to the striking of the arc.

If it is using an iron that is soldering or brazing.

POO 70s Jamaican records using welding or soldering as a euphemism for sex.

That sounds like something out of Douglas Adams! The sunglasses that go completely back to prevent you from seeing anything distressing.

It works very much like that.

Strong coffee, too much sugar from the carrot cake, and Sabres of Paradise juddering on the headphones. I'm in heaven, I think. I am positively vibrating.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/images/library/product/large/01/010120679.jpg

want

WAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNTTTTT!!!

That is SO Shimura Curves' new stage look right there. I don't care if we come off looking like Daft Punk. Coolest thing ever.

"am no really a welder"

DOUBLE WANTAGE

I wrote a poem when I was a teenager, the pay-off line being 'you said you could weld, but you couldn't even solder'. I have no idea what the rest of it was about, though.

Sorry, Ed, you're not SHimuras' MySpace poster boy any more, arc welding for beginners is. :-)

Oh dear lord, Croydon is flooded!

it took me AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES to get to work this morning.

ACtually Victoria station was partly under water for part of today!

That wasn't why I was late though. Once again it was "faulty trains" and "signal failures" like almost every fucking day for the last month. And next week they stop at 10pm Monday to Thursday. SOMEONE MUST BE PUNISHED.

What the... why stop earlier than the Thameslink? That's so shite for people trying to get home to South London! OK, bollocks to that. ::shakes fist at Victoria Line::

This guy just friended me on MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/justin_psy_spaced

CHECK OUT THE PAISLEY IN HIS GALLERIES!!! Holy shit, that's some amazing stuff. I thought I had a massive collection of paisley clothes (most of which I can no longer get into) but his leaves me in the shade.

Not so hot for people trying to get home to NE London either :(

OK I can get the train from Liverpool St, but I'm rarely anywhere near Liverpool St.

xpost

I think L'Pool street is underwater, too... no, maybe not.

Oh, I'm not going out anywhere except Brixton for the next week, then.

Hmm, one of my mail colleagues keeps staring right at me whenever he passes my desk, it's most disconcerting.

HE CAN SEE THE COFFEE STAIN ON YOU!!!

Sorry, just kidding, don't want to make you more nervous. Maybe he fancies you? You never know.

ARgh! This guy is so stupid...

He wrote earlier this week going "I need a report on completed cases that offered between certain dates" - I kept writing him back, trying to get him to ask very specifically what he wanted. I even sent him an email asking:

> What do you mean by "completed between the 2 dates" then?
> You only want to analyse completed cases?

and he came back saying yes... So I've done the report.

NOW he emails me going "but it's only analysing completed cases! I want to analyse all cases except those that aren't proceeding."

YES, THAT IS BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT YOU REQUESTED, BOTH IN YOUR ORIGINAL EMAIL, AND IN THE THREE FURTHER CLARIFICATION EMAILS. I feel like telling him he can't have it until my boss comes back in on Monday.

WHAT YOU SPECIFY IS WHAT YOU GET. I AM NOT A MIND READER.

When I did reporting I would have absolutely told him he couldn't have it til Monday, hell it would have been Wednesday. We had a definite policy of not taking this sort of shit though. There were sarky comments all over the Report Request Form saying things like "the person producing this report is not a mind reader".

I don't miss reporting, tbh.

I just DREAD getting requests from this guy. Ugh, I can just see another email from him in my inbox. He doesn't express himself clearly at all. It's like pulling teeth to get him to try and explain anything. Usually my boss deals with him so I don't have to, but she's away today. :-(

argh, case in point, his email says:

Kate
There is a communication, I will come and see you Monday

Thanks

A COMMUNICATION WHAT?!?!? A miscommunication? A communication error? A missing communication? SAY WHAT YOU MEAN, YOU NITWIT!!! Argh.

My boss really had my back when I did that stuff. I could get away with being quite rude to idiotic requests like that. It's obviously not your fault, after all. You have fulfilled the request as he asked. If he'd like to make another request for the information he actually wanted, it will take as long as it takes.

Just quote his original email back to him saying he just wants completed cases I guess.

That's exactly what I did - I quoted both emails right back at him, and CC:d my boss.

But you know, we have a "communication" whatever that is.

::shrugs::

In other stupid consultant news, this guy has been throwing a conniption because the old case he is looking for is not in my data archive, and it's not on the new system.

Finally I go into my old, old reccs from 2005 (just becuase he said it was a July 2005 and I know that I kept a whole bunch of data from that month because we were running Oracle and Pivotal simultaneously during the changeover, and I had to recc them) - HE HAS MISPELLED THE WOMAN'S NAME.

That's when I just want to bash my head against the desk. Wonder if I'll ever get a thank you for finding it despite his error. I bet not.

I really want a picture of a kitten destroying a database saying I HAS A COMMUNICATION now.

:-(

I think he means a "communication problem" or a "communication issue" and he simply mistyped or missed words out. Maybe he is dyslexic, that might explain a misspelled name on a record as well.

The two problems are two different guys, mispelling dude and completely garbled emails dude.

It's not dyslexia with garbled emails dude. He just clearly doesn't actually read or think about emails and requests before he sends them. Or maybe he just has a problem with email.

Half my job is actually pulling out of these people what they ACTUALLY want, as opposed to what they say they want. Most of the time I've got pretty good at anticipating their needs. But this guy... he's just incomprehensible. :-(

OK, that was nice, I got a thank you from mispelling dude.

hi all,been out and about.

it's wet out there!

Kate did you like ST 37?

I kinda liked the music on one of the albums you sent me, but the lyrics were WELL rubbish. The other two albums seemed a bit... samey after that.

I don't want to be at work. I want to go to the pub and draw dirty dronerock boys. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.

I've got Busted stuck in my head now.

The bit about the neighbour. Called Peter. And a flux capacitor.

Over on ILM, they moanin about a Jonathan Richman "Roadrunner" Article in the Guardian.

God sake!

Eh?

The gods have spoken. Truck has been rained out. Postponed to September.

Or alternatively arguing over the results of the best iron maiden album poll.
x-post

Ok, now everyone will be arguing about THIS

Um, they can't. It just isn't possible. It's a different band without him.

Oh sod it, I don't wanna hang out in the office any more. But I can't leave coz I don't wanna get to the venue before the band. I suppose I can go down, see if they're there, if they're not, go home and eat supper or something. It's only 10 minutes away from my house anyway.

The arcwelder helmet DOES look like Daft Punk film robot army.

I can't get with this knitting stuff AT ALL due to mother's forays into same. I don't care if you made it lovingly if I have to pull all kinds of hairs out of the blanket/hat/jumper whatevs. You have not lived until you realise the hair you have pulled out of a mum's own blanket is too short and curly to have moulted from the head.

OMG Truck fucked! **whistles, makes face of the shifty eye**

Morning all. Saw the pics of the flooding this morning (haven't watched TV for weeks, seems like). Hope all you non-London England folk are okay.

was listening to the radio this am and flashing forward - this will be replayed in years to come, in "this is how they reacted to the beginning of the end" type features. to future people living underwater/on teh moon.

lucky you for lacking a sufficiently religious upbringing so that "this is how they reacted to the beginning of the end" = "people living underwater/on the moon"

went to lovebox but really, it's no substitute for truck :(

xpost heh yeah i guess i was brought up on the water babies and chocky...

Well, I got to see some great show in London. The Windmill is on a hill so it didn't get flooded out, hurrah!

Oh dear lord, someone misbehaved themselves at teh Early Yares show and it WASN'T ME for a change. I have polaroids though, so alles gutte.

And man, anyone who didn't go to NOTLS Medieval BBQ last night missed out. CRUM HORN. Crum horn is my new favourite instrument.

Morning all.

I was bad on Friday and stayed out late drinking after work, got shitfaced due to not eating and got lost on my way home, have vague memory of somehow getting bus to Wanstead then getting Central line to Leyton, then various other buses until I happened on the right one. Got home at 7. Wife NOT happy. Now I've been banned from drinking for 90 days :( I never used to have this problem, but the last few years if I get really drunk I totally lose my sense of direction and ability to navigate London's transport system. Oops.

Morning morning.

Signed the lease yesterday (!). xpost 90 days?!?!

xpost

lucky you, poo. i'm at the point now where i have two tasty cocktails after work (well, work was over after i had them anyway) and then get tired and fall asleep by like, 8pm.

Okay, I am now officiially GOING FRIGGING BALD cause I can't get Simple Viewer to work in WordPress. :-(((( I'm doing this for a friend of my husband and on my website. If it's called SIMPLE,it should be installable for blonde chixors as well, no? URGHHHGGGGGHGHGGGGHH. :-( I did everything and all that is staring back at me is a f#cking GREY AREA. No thumbnails, no pixors. :-(((((

Maybe I should have gone to sleep a few hrs earlier, I only slept for five 'n' half hours. *sigh* I did manage to watch a couple of Angels eps and some Entourage as well. And make a coconut loaf. And knit for a few hours. Making a handbag! Uh, I should stop starting with new projects and finish the gazillion projects that wait to be seamed. HMMMM

Also I drank a liter of water and as a result I need to pee every 15 minutes. I'm so not lying.

Gotta go to the loo!

Nice one Gooblar!

Weird place today, my head. My best friend's dad is dying and I just got an email explaining that they are in the process of alerting the media (why?!? he basically invented ultrasound in medicine) in what are probably his last weeks. There is also the issue of getting home to see my own dad after his illness.

hello! lots of really disappointed ppl here in Oxford coz of Truck being postponed but as it happened I was unable to go this year *anyway* as I went to a wedding in cranham on saturday. I just bought tickets for Supergrass at the Zodiac Carling Academy Oxford, or Cardiac as ppl are largely calling it. On 23rd Sep which is I think the nite after it re-opens. The Cardiacs are also going to be playing the Cardiac (prolly give em a miss tho!).

x-posts

90 days? Blimey! Though my mum was telling me on Saturday (she caught me in bed with an awful hangover after TEY) that it takes 90 DAYS for substances (including alcohol) to totally clear the system.

Hooray for Goobs lease!

Boo for getting tired and falling asleep after cocktails. Mitya, you should come back to London so we can show you how it's done.

And now for some DDBs...

David:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1025/874790373_164f8a173e_o.jpg

Rog:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1369/874790381_9e627e8840_o.jpg

I love that damn band sooo much.

wicked wicked wicked tho lol at 'sabres of paradise'

Marvellous, they are helping to cheer me up.

That's what I had stuck in my head all Friday. And you can see upthread HOW MUCH COFFEE I'D HAD. And Rog kept mucking about trying to tune his oscillators and it sounded like the beginning of Chapel Street Market, so...

Aw, shoegaze pinup. I keep trying to bash this crush on the head WITH HAMMERS but it won't die.

Ed, if you wanted cheering up, you should have come to the crumhorning last night. :-}

lol @ cardiac! they should officially call it that...

i thought harder drugs cleared the system quicker and that is why (part of why) in prisons crack, smack etc are more popular than pot etc as you've less chance of getting caught in a surprise drugs test? but also everything stays in your hair anyway so all they need to do is check your hair? oh i dunno.

It would have been good but I didn't want cheering up last night I want cheering up now.

Great pics Kate!

I've no idea how I'm going to get through 90 days of not drinking, but that in itself is perhaps a reason not to drink for 90 days! We went out for Sunday lunch in Highbury yesterday for a friend's 30th and I was drinking coke all afternoon but that just gave me caffeine jitters. I need to find a soft drink I like. If only they sold Old Jamaica ginger beer in pubs instead of that piss weak ginger ale bollocks.

x-posts it's 90 days from an addiction point of view (think of where my mum works, chaplain in a hospital) rather than what's in yr blood or hair.

God, they are so hotttt. It's ridiculous.

I'm trying to be all professional, like "wah-hey, look at me, I'm a proper photographer, with a camera and everything!" and telling them where to pose but my inner 13 year old was just going "WHEEEEEEEEE, OMIGOD, CUET BOYS!!!! POP STARZZZZ, SO HOTTTTTTTTT!!!"

I think I was quite successful with being all calm and cool until after the shoot and I found Frances wandering around Brixton drunked, and they all piled in their convertible and honked and waved as they went by and we just went "wweeeeeee!!! they so cuet it's scary" on the pavement like Maggie and Hopey or like something out of a Dirty Dronerock version of Beach Blanket Bingo.

(someone should get demoted for hanging out the passenger side of his brother's ride trying to holler at us, but F thought it was all very "Two Lane Blacktop".)

i am a big fan of straight tonic (the ha-a-a-ard stuff), colonel p

(although i also enjoy pretending that i am ready to jet off to malaria-infested areas at the drop of a hat)

Morning all, I'm rocking the slightly wonky tear stained eyeliner look this morning, wish i could say it was intentional.

Lime juice and soda water is pretty good.

yes when I gave up alcohol for Lent last yr I fluctuated between pints of lime and soda and pints of blackcurrant and soda. Not only are both good but they can be very cheap! In some pubs here in Oxford they were charging as little as 10p (srsly) and the most expensive was £1.20.

Yeah, tonic water with a lime in it (an actualy lime to spear, for the ritualistic aspects of drinking) was what I used to do.

Since i stopped drinking i swear by lime and soda. What's the peppermint cordial they have behind bars like?

Never heard of it but I used to get diablo menthe when I was young in france (mint syrup and lemonade) and that stuff is fantastic.

I like the sound of lime & soda. And cheapness is good. Especially when a glass of coke costs 2 bastard pounds, which is just ridiculous, half a lager was £1.70!

What's the peppermint cordial they have behind bars like?

Good for heartburn when you cba leaving the pub to buy Rennies and are determined to keep boozing.

WHOA!!!

Emil.y!!! Guess who just found me on MySpace! Ollie C6!

http://www.myspace.com/theheylows

Oh wow... so THIS is why we were evacuated last week. The windows weren't left open... they BURST due to this:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1434/876123832_607db34118.jpg

OMG is that where you are forbidden to sit and eat yr smelly lunch, k8?

No, that's the basement. I'm on the second floor, at least.

Maybe the 3rd?

Speaking of smelly lunch, it is time for it.

Ha ha, incomprehensible dude just came over and apologised for being incomprehensible in his report requests. I suppose I shall do his report again, then.

Hello. Stress.

FP! How are you? Have you been flooded? Why the stress?

It is a long story, it really is.

I've still not been flooded, although it seems to have been a close-run thing.

And why, whenever I have a holiday, does work have to phone up at some point with urgent things that need fixing?

This is why you never, ever answer the phone if your work rings while you are on holiday.

If it comes through as unknown number, as soon as you realise it's them, just start making static noises, and go "I'm sorry! I'm on my holiday in a really remote place! the reception is terrible... STATIC THEN HANG UP"

My co-worker cunningly phoned from his private phone, which isn't in my phonebook. So I didn't know who it was. And I was expecting a call from someone whose number I don't have.

You could still pretend to have a static problem, then hang up!

They have no right to call you when you're on holiday. It's just not on.

I'm wondering if I should buy an MS-20. Rog said he'd sell me his for "whatever the going rate is" but he estimated it to be somewhere between £500-£800. I've been looking on eBay, and finding all these Korgs from Italy and Spain about 300 Euros - but from sellers with no references and who will only take bank transfers. (F*ck, I hate eBay, i don't trust anyone.)

I'd feel cheeky going back and offering him half what he expected for it. But hey, he said going rate. To me, that means eBay, not some overpriced f*ckwit on Denmark Street with a massive markup.

What happened to the juno?

Off course if you took it to denmark street the fuckwit would offer half what he would sell it for.

LoveRat didn't give me the full address of the seller - it was just a name and a postcode which seemed kind of dodgy. I mean, maybe some people can be found that way, but I didn't want to send a cheque for all that money to something so untraceable. (I am so bad with eBay, I just hate it hate it, think everyone is a crook, I am so suspicious of buying things over the interweb because I used to work in eCommerce and know it's all held together with sticky tape.)

And I didn't really feel like writing LoveRat back to get more details, so that was that.

And yeah, I know that Denmark St would only give R half what he would sell it for. And probably so does R, but I don't really have the guts to say that to him. I hate the brainfarts that I get around cuet boys. They keep me from getting things I want, like analogue synths. (Isn't that a Smiths song? "Please please please let me get the Korg I want this time"?

I am so suspicious of buying things over the interweb because I used to work in eCommerce and know it's all held together with sticky tape.

Hurrah, it's not just me that that applies to, then!

Also, RIP my tremolo pedal, for ever and ever.

Funny that, I complained to R that the bloke he reccomended had absconded with my pedal. D said he had just talked to him the day before. I said if he talked to him GET ME MY PEDAL BACK. Then the next day, the dude calls back and tells me it's dead.

Wish I'd known that 2 weeks ago so I could have got a new one from the States. Then again, maybe I can find a MIDI one that I can set the time on, so I can synch it up to the laptop.

Can still get one from the states, I am going in a month's time.

I might just ask you to do that for me. But we won't have it before the Goonite show, then. :-(

I might look into this MIDI thing. I want a tremolo with a BPM on it, as well as a vague knob for twiddling.

Argh, there seem to be loads where you can manually tap in a tempo - but I want to SET the tempo to a BPM.

Eeeh, Kaet, how is the boy Ollie? Not sure about the tracks on that myspace...

And, Colonel Poo, I hope that you're being banned from alcohol because you got in at 7am, not pm. The latter would be rather an overreaction.

Unless it was the next evening at 7pm.

I don't actually know - he wasn't even sure he'd got the right person - I wrote back and told him which was my personal MySpace. Haven't listened to the tracks yet. I was a bit worried they might be a bit dadrock from the influences.

Also, E, do you want to join our all-girl Harmonia/Cluster tribute band?

JA!

We are trying to bully the Dream Machine promoters into booking us to play. :-P

guys i'm still at work. someone pls make me laugh?

So, without getting into too many details, while we were on deadline this morning, one of my colleagues made a snide remark at me. (Boy this sounds pathetic already...) Three of us were at my desk trying to quickly resolve a couple of problems, and I thought, "What did she just say?" So I turned to her and said, "What?" And she said, "Nothing, just keep working."

One, I never take that stuff well - I burn and scar at acid comments (and there's not much I can do about it). Second, and most disturbing, this is actually one of the people I like(d) at work, and who I thought - on the grand scale of polite but not particularly sincere friendliness that rules in our office - liked me.

Experience suggests that I just forget about it. However, as noted above, I scar easily, and so part of me wants to bring the subject up with her - not confront her per se, but maybe bring up the topic that spurred her remark to see if I misunderstood her somehow, or smooth things over if I somehow pissed her off. I feel like if I don't do this, I'll just spent the rest of the week resenting her, and just generally be more cautious dealing with her from now on.

How much I am overreacting?

Hard to say. Things that may seem petty and/or tiny to people outside of the situation can be really significant inside of it. If you feel like you can bring up the issue in a way you're comfortable with (i.e., without 'confronting her'), than it's worth a try, probably.

Today I've gotta go try to convince my supervisor that I don't need a sixth chapter (as planned for the past four years) for my dissertation. I've reached the end of my rope, and I'm TOTALLY willing to finish this fifth chapter and say, hey, this is it. Yes, yes "Phi1ip R0th: The Major Phases 1959-1993" seems sort of random, but it was gonna be 1959-2000, which is kinda random anyway. I was never gonna go right up to the present, so what does it matter if I stop a little earlier?

I JUST WANT TO BE DONE!!!

Last day before holiday, why so busy.

Argh, I know how you feel, Mitya. It's those little thing that can rankle.

What I would suggest is do the CBT thing - try to think of other alternative explanations for her behaviour, other than "she HAAAATES me!" I mean, you're on deadline, you're all under a lot of pressure. Maybe she was feeling the pressure and snapped at you instead - when you asked her what she said, she realised it was a bad thing to say and relented. Or maybe she was trying to make a joke which failed badly. (I often try to make light of things and end up offending people with my snide sense of humour.)

If it is still bothering you, I mean, don't make a big deal out of it. But maybe bring her a cup of coffee, or offer to get her a bar of chocolate at lunch or something? It helps sometimes to take the initiative and kind of just say casually "Sorry I was so snippy this morning, I get stressed when I'm on deadline - we're OK, right?" which will clear the air. Chances are, she'll apologise and say exactly the same thing, and you'll realise it's nothing to do with you. If not, if there is something bothering her, she can bring it up in a non-confrontational way.

x-posts

Goobs, it's like painting. My teacher always told me, get your painting to the point where you think it's *almost* done, and then stop.

Speaking of painting, here is today's art - Nikki from NOTLS and her amazing collection of paisley gowns:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1432/884183654_9b263759bf_o.jpg

Lovely, although she does look slightly worried that no one is going to turn up.

All promoters have that look on their face. It is the way of things.

I think mainly she was worried that the Laughing Windows were too drunk to play. Which they were. But they played anyway. Hilarious theremin hijinx ensued.

OH. MY. GOD.

OK, I was just looking for another client with a similar name to a well known pop star. It's a fairly common surname, so I filtered for it. The first two entries are mortgages on a flat in Covent Garden, and a farm in Chipping Norton.

Uummmmm..... it can't be. It is. Oh good lord. It totally is.

No stalking the blessed cheesemakers whilst I am away.

I sit next to the archive room. I could totally call up his case file. For... uuhhh... data integrity issues. NO!!! That is totally unprofessional and BAD BAD BAD and I would not compromise my job.

But it's funny, looking at his mortgage.

Fantastic pic, Kate. Morning everyone, hope you are all well. I've not started blubbing yet this morning so I'm taking it as a good sign.

Btw, my 5wk old external hard drive's light started flashing right last night as did the light on the the power transformer and i couldn't get my laptop to recognise the drive - Is it buggered already?

your job is too conducive to stalking people, kate

I was only slightly bad. I looked up the notes on the case, which is in my data anyway. There was a funny note saying they wouldn't record his phone number as he is a "famous musician". Also, looks like there was a giant runaround because he lost some of the paperwork for the sale. Ha ha ha.

Glad you're feeling slightly better, Leigh. I know nothing about external hard drives, though. Did it get disconnected while you were tranferring data? that's the only thing I know about them - that that will bugger them.

Rubbish indie boy in being a bit rubbish, shocker. I though indie boys got married so their wives could look after the paperwork.

They couldn't get hold of her to sort it out as they went on honeymoon. ARGH, WHY DO I READ THIS STUFF?!?!?

OK, case notes are hilarious, no matter who the client is, it's where the SAs bitch about stuff. I get "ARGH CLIENT IS USELESS" type notes all the time. I guess we didn't remortgage them, though. He appears to be on a tracker. I guess pop stars don't notice if interest rates go up.

OK, I actually LOLled at the idea this cat was turning the power back on...

http://lol.ianloic.com/image-cache/c2/c2a2dadc3a747fddd05e8068f98a1355.jpg

Oh, everything has just suddenly gone to shit. :-(

in 7 mins?

Hello all btw

In a short space, two separate and unrelated incidents occured.

Which just... I don't know. Either one of them by themselves would have been annoying, but shrugged off and dealt with. One of the tendencies of depression is to catastrophise everything. Separate incidents become seemingly indicative as part of grander trend.

And you can tell yourself it's rubbish, but it still feels like everything is going to shit.

I am half expecting some emails back saying "who are you calling a chrome hoof".

Enjoying the cookies?

I am enjoying the cookies, thanks. But blimey, give me time to listen to one thing before you send me another! ;-)

AArgh, argh, argh, I don't know what to do.

Add your name to the deed for the cheese farm, nothing else to be done

I have to go back in that database, I am scared of who else I will find in there.

Maybe I'll look up the cheese farm on a map or something. Not that I could go there even if I wanted to, but it would be fun to know.

Wow. We pretty much drove past it on our way back from the Rollright Stones. If memory serves (which it often doesn't) we had lunch about a mile away.

That is the prettiest part of the country, seriously.

http://www.last.fm/group/UK+Watercooler/charts
They've finally taken over.

Who have? The Rollright Stones?

It's a good thing that I can't scrobble or the top ten would be all teh Early Yares and Echo and the Bunnymen which is all I've been listening to lately.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,2129087,00.html

You would need to have lots of accounts then. It only registers 1 band per person for group charts.

I know who I blame for B&S topping the charts though.

I only have one account too, you know.

Home contents insurance, I should get some, any recommendations?

I found myself at the supermarket...

Uh, don't ask me, I got the one that we do. I can't even remember who it's with. Hang on. Crikey, I'm always doing reports for them, why can't I remember?

Legal and General. I have no idea what they're like, I just fill in the renewal forms. I've not yet ::knocks on wood:: had anything go wrong with the flat or the contents that I've had to contact them about, so can't tell you how they are.

I'm only listening to Spoon and Kompakt Total 8.

It's cumulative effect, though. A bunch of us may play only one B&S track a week and look where it gets us. Kerr has me so sensitized about it, I am actively avoiding them. Nonsense.

OK, everyone on the 'Cooler, play teh Early Yares. If you haven't got any, mail me and I'll cookie you. (ooh, err, better hope they don't read this.) I will get them to the top of teh Cooler charts if it kills me.

i play them most weeks anyhow

my address is on kerr distribution list, if you've got one of his mails in yr box still. only send me something good :)

I only send good stuff...

That, Kerr, that is a lie.

Didn't I send you So Far Gone, Mitya? I could have sworn I did.

I am now insured by the AA.

I just won't send the brand spanking new Jesu ep then!

x-post

Meanie. FMM just interviewed him for a piece on "the influence of Krautrock on metal".

Actually, tomorrow. I don't have time to listen to anything else today.

And now we should stop talking about cookies so we don't get in trouble.

HI I'm back. My supervisor, to my surprise, was ok with the new plan. She very much understands the need to JUST GET THE FUCKER DONE. So YAY no 6th chapter to write! But now a whole new set of things to do/worry about, namely justifying why my chronological study of PR's whole career stops, rather abruptly, in 1993.

Drugs burnout at a spiraltribe rave.

Ed brings the whole thing down to earth with a crash.

ps mitya how you liking the new spoon?

I wondered why mitya wasn't talking to me. Will I need to play one of my 3 B&S cds to make him feel better?

To be honest, this is the first one I've listened to, so I'm not the best person to ask. For some reason I've (completely mistakenly) had them lumped in with Tortoise and the Sea and Cake, and so never bothered to listen.

I am a terrible popster, so of course I am listening to "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" over and over and feeling all kinds of inchoate meaning in it. The rest of it is fine (good), I suppose, but I'm not raving yet. (I am still listening though, so that's a reasonable sign.

Cherry Bomb is great great great. I think the whole album is a grower, moreso than their others have been for me (i'm a hueg fanboy), but I think I am well on the way to loving it like my own child.

OK now I have nothing else to DOOOO for the rest of the afternoon.

I hate days like this. I wish I could just up and go home when this happens, but I have to sit here and pretend to work or something. and I'm so bored I know that my brain is just going to eat itself.

Didn't the internet used to be entertaining once upon a time? Now it's not even that. :-(

What day was that?

you missed it, it was aces

I dunno, it must have been about 10 years ago or something.

However, these days the only reason teh interweb exists is to provide me with LOLs like this:

http://thighswideshut.org/videos/sax.gif

Didn't the internet used to be entertaining once upon a time?

I was thinking this recently. You come across fewer random entertaining things these days, everything is centred around networking/blogging/etc instead. Show me something good!

I'm trying to remember what it was that used to be so good! Maybe it's just the novelty wore off.

But seriously... I used to spend hours just browsing websites. Nobody has personal websites any more, they all have standardised networking pages. And it's just not as entertaining. I don't want to read a list of someone's favourite films. I want to read a random site that someone has put some real thought into.

(That said, I don't even have a website any more.)

Consolidation and standardisation of the presentation of the internet is one of the many reasons I hate myspace/facebook/blogger/LJ.

I am signing off now, have a good fortnight. I am going to have fun getting wet in Wales.

oddly enough, I am doing something which is kind of a mixture of "old internet" and "new internet" right now (playing scrabble on facebook with Archel!)

I fear we may have to wait for the next new medium for things to get truly exciting again...

Have fun getting wet in Wales! Do not get swept away by the floods!

My life would be a lot better without the internet, maybe. But I only have it at work. My life would be a LOOOOOT better without work, definitely. Except for, like, the money. That's how they get you in the end, innit? I like having a place to live.

x-post you can play scrabble on Facebook? Oh god... oh well, it's not like the bloody thing would work on my puter anyway. This thing doesn't even do YouTube. :-(

yes it's called Scrabulous. you can invite up to 3 of yr facebook friends to play with you.

Facebook friends? I can't even get networking friends to answer their emails or leave me comments, let alone play scrabble with me. :-(

I just got so bored, I even clicked on one of those banner ads that's all "one of the friends you recently added has got a crush on you!!!" thinking it might be ten minutes of harmless fun. But I couldn't even get into the site without giving them my mobile number. Uh... no. You ain't sucking my mobile dry of funds, no way.

I mean, I know there is no friend with a crush and all, but thought there might be some fun things in there.

I want to read a random site that someone has put some real thought into.

This is a great one:

http://vitaphone.blogspot.com/

It's pretty much the only mp3 blog worth bothering with.

Hours of reading & listening!

Pash! How you doing? ::hugs::

Ah, if you like 20s movies... though actually, they've got some great movie posters on there. Maybe I'll go looking online for art nouveau 60s psych posters, that's an idea.

Eh, I'm OK. Plenty of work to keep my mind occupied. Funeral is over & done w/. Thanks!

Vitaphone dude covers about '26-'33. There are many, many great hi-res poster images on his blog.

you can leave little comments for your opponent on scabulous - I fear I may have to say to Archel that the game will have to abandoned as I am going home! Unless it just stays there for ever more if you don't submit a word, in which case we can simply pick it up tomorrow.

Hey Norman, been wondering where you been. Coming on AIM?

I'm on aim now, kerr. I have to F.O. @ 6PM though.

GG, you can definitely pick it up again next time you log on, don't worry.

OK, this is a wonderful way to waste time...

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/Static.aspx?Type=Category/Category_CA.htm&CategoryID=CA

Bonnie MacLean is totally my favourite artist, I rip her off all the time, heh heh...

http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/images/catalog/detail/BG089-PO.jpg

http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/images/catalog/detail/BG095-PO.jpg

Ah, but isn't she inspired by, um, name... escaping me... really obvious artist... gah, no, brain not working... someone fill in the gaps for me, please?

Alfons Mucha? Aubrey Beardsley?

I love Victor Moscoso, too, but he's so hard to *read*.

http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/images/catalog/detail/MTX670303-PO.jpg

I have a big book of these at home. But I really, really want to buy some of the posters, too, dammit. They're about $100-$200. For some reason I thought they'd be a lot more.

At least MacLean did her own beautiful drawings to psychedelicise. I mean, honestly, there are quite a lot I've seen that are just straight copies of Mucha prints. Like, oh, Bob Masse...

http://www.bmasse.com/Images/newbyrds.jpg

Yep, 'twas Mucha I was thinking of. Went to his museum (more of a dedicated shop really, but can't think of a word between the two, wai to forsaek me, brane?) in Prague, lots of lovely but very expensive prints.

I love him so much - don't have any of the prints, but I've got books of his work. SO lovely.

But would you really go cycling in this?

http://www.littleprague.com/bits/MuchaPerfecta57.jpg

His cigarette ads actually make me wanna smoke, though. And I hate cigarettes! ;-)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0966188810.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I copied this one myself, for a band poster a million years ago...

http://archiv.radio.cz/img/espanol/mucha-plakat2.jpg

I think that's my fave.

I wish I could do the same thing, with DDBs... :-D

OK, sod it, I'm not hanging around here. I'm going home to draw DDBs.

Whenever I draw DDBs, they just turn into anime characters. Sigh.

Today I am feeling like I cannot draw. :-(

But I was going through my old sketchbooks and found the most amazing photograph which must be from about 2000/2001. Perception is so weird - I thought I was so ugly at the time, but looking at the photograph objectively now, it's like... sheesh! Where did that girl go?

Another slow day today, huh?

I'm annoyed. OK, so we've got this problem where Ed is going to be away for the next gig. And we talked, and decided that we should do the gig with a stand-in. Not idea, but better than flaking out and not doing it at all.

But now NO ONE I have asked is answering their mail. Why are musicians so flakey? How hard is it to just reply and say "nah, can't make it?" Just ignoring email is SO FUCKING RUDE. I hate people. :-(

Communication is the problem to the answer. You've got a number and your hand is on the phone. The weather's changed and all the lines are down, the things you do for... well, not love, but sodding bands.

People will reply, give them time.

They never do. :-( I don't think I want to be in a band any more.

However, F just told me... THERE IS A NEW PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED HARMONIA LIVE ALBUM OUT IN OCTOBER!!!

I am going to mug her for it tomorrow.

You gonna come to Camden tonight?

I've just found out that the Nigerian Vice President is called Goodluck Jonathan! Cool name.

People will reply, give them time.

G00blar OTM.

Sorry, can't come to Camden, already made plans to have dinner with Emsk. Hope you have a good show, though.

:(

Unless you're on really early or really late. But I'm meeting her at 8.30 and I have a funny feeling that's exactly what time yr on.

Yeah, I think so. It's ok, obviously!

(I just wanted to show off my new harmonies!)

Yeah, but now you and Cowboy Jim will hAAAAAAAAAAAAte me. :-(

Nonsense.

You could have pretended, to, like, reinforce my paranoia. Now I have to be all sunny dispositioned and stuff.

Shame, that. I'll try to do better next time.

hi all. for some reason i have still got the sleepies, despite the fact that i basically went to bed at about 8pm last night.

You slept too much, Mitya. That can make you overtired, too.

Argh, tell me what is going wrong with my DDB drawings.

hm, possible, but i don't think that's it since i usually only get about five hours of sleep a night during the week, and usually have to spend the weekend catching up

I think I should stop listening to Chrome Hoof at work because it tends to make me headbang too much.

Mitya, you can't get by on only 5 hours of sleep a night, don't be insane! No wonder you're tired all the time.

Oh, I hate people.

I wish work were busier. I wouldn't be hanging around here so much.

I've just... yet again, jumped at a work request coming into my inbox, and finding out it's something I already did last week.

you can totally get by on 5 hours of sleep! so long as you are one of the people who can get by on 5 hours of sleep. lucky me, i am.

I apparently have sleep apnoea which explains why I often feel like I've only had 5 hours sleep regardless of when I go to bed :(

I hate you.

I am not a person that can get by on 5 hours of sleep. Most people cannot actually get by on so little, and it is actually bad for you to try if you can't. :-(

Seriously bad things happen to me if I go withtout sleep. It's not a pretty sight.

x-post

I found a girl with a 12 string!

But she claims she hasn't played since she was 13, and doesn't want to do it in public in front of people.

Jeez... when did that ever stop anyone? Why do girls stop playing musical instruments and not start up again?

don't haet me :( i am gud person.

If I really hated you, would I be going out to dinner with you? ;-)

I just envy your never getting hangovers and your ability to deal on no sleep. You are a mutant. But that is obvious from your crazy red hair/tanned skin combination already.

My optimum sleeping time is about 6 hours, anything more than that and i feel sluggish. Unfortunately i'm averaging about 3 or 4 a night right now.

Office crushboy is looking delightful today, he's got a lovely baby blue top on.

Optimum sleeping time for me is about 9 hours - 8 hours solid sleeping with half an hour at least doze time on either side. I knew another girl who needed 10 a night. She swore she was part sloth.

I probably need 7 a night but get more like 4-5 due to waking up all the bleedin' time. I rarely sleep all the way through.

I guess I'm going to have to cut down on the sex and spend more bed time actually sleeping, eh? :)

I sleep a max of 6, but its been closer to 3-4 recently.

You're having sex?

GET OFF MY THREAD, this place is for whinging moaners only. ;-P

OK, I've just been offered a banjo. Um, NO. (Though accompanied by filthy comments about big muffs? Dude, are you another boy trying to collect the set?) But my 17 year old friend plays bouzouki and said he wouldnt mind having a go. We just have to keep AMP away from him. Though that said, he'll turn 18 by the gig, so he might be safe.

I've tried to GIS a picture of a tweedy farmer with a shotgun so I can LOL "GER OFF MY THREAD" onto it, but not having any luck. :-(

Even better:

http://smithmag.net/wp-content/uploads/womenguns/1.jpg

F'ing excellent!

Shimura Curves' new look!

OK, I know guns are just WRONG and bad and I am a pacifist and all that, but fuck me, they just look cool. As physical objects, you know?

yes, but you'd have to drop your Stereolab/Harmonia/MBV sound and become like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or something. but i can imagine frances playing a wicked bass

And I could start playing banjo... yeah, uh, I don't think so. ;-)

Argh! Will Winzip open a stuffit file?

If that won't, what else will? Oh crikey, I've got the bestest thing in the world in a format I can't open. Argh!

My brain is melting. In another minute, I'm going to start making paper clip sculptures.

WinRAR opens most things.

Don't have WinRAR, either. :-(

I've been citrixed and have nothing but Winzip. I've asked the person to resend.

I couldn't deal with an IT job where you don't even have control over your own PC. But then I'm thinking of installing Cool Edit on this laptop so I can edit all my ripped vinyl into individual tracks during quiet periods at work, so I'm probably exactly the sort of person who should be citrixed!

I've been citrixed

i don't know what this means, but it sounds painful.

It's very painful.

It means that all of your files, and even your applications are held on a remote server that you have no control over.

Your own workstation gets totally locked down, so you can't install or remove software - heck, on mine, I can't even change the wallpaper. :-( This makes me less than happy.

BUT!!! I've got the new (!!!!!!) Harmonia album in zip form now, so I'm off to listen to it, la lala la laaaaa.

Awww, I love when Michael Rother does that thing that makes his guitar go all GRRRRRRROWL-GRROWWWWWWLLLLLL. It makes me so happy. I've no idea how he does it.

*Is awaiting cookies*