Resurrection

After almost two years of nothing, I’ve brought this blog back from death with fresh intentions of regular writings. I’m primarily hoping to be writing about technology and programming, in particular using this space as a diary for my MSc project and a place for interesting things I want to remember I’ve done. But I’m hoping to structure this in such a way so all that can be ignored if necessary.

A good weeding has removed a lot of the old drivvel, so apologies in the unlikely event you’ve been longing for the return of a cherished post from internet past.

Sleepy Tea

I’ve not been sleeping that well lately. So as I was perusing my local ’superstore’, a Turkish operation selling all kinds of non-domestic branded goods, I was intrigued to come across this herbal tea. I’m assuming it’s the herbal tea equivalent of night nurse, as it’s got a moon and some stars on it, and it’s called Relax. It’s also 35% St. John’s Wort. It tastes just fine – kind of fresh, and herby, just like you’d expect from looking at the other ingredients (peppermint, lemon balm leaves, fennel seeds, valerian root and lavender flowers). I’m now just waiting to see if it has the desired effect.

My new old phone

I can’t believe how good it feels to have a Samsung D500 again. After my old one got stolen from me on the way home from the Christmas party last year, I’ve been resigned to using my LG chocolate. The chocolate was the phone that came with my new contract. But I hate it. It’s completely a case of all style, no substance; the pinnacle of which is it’s stupidly over sensitive touchy feely interface. Bleurgh. My contempt for it is bounded only by the fact it was there when I needed it, which is hardly an accolade worth fighting for in the personal electronics department.

However, today it’s been made ebay fodder, as a second hand Samsung D500 finally made it’s way to me. Now all I need to do is work out whether I want to accept the challenge of taking it apart in order to change the ‘definitely used’ aesthetic of it’s current fascia in to something more shiny.

Ape skellingtons

Last Sunday we went on a bit of a day trip to South London’s Horniman Museum. I particularly wanted to go to see the exhibition on the Great White Bear (thirty four photos of all known British examples of taxidermied polar bear). They also have a walrus. And these beauties.

Sounds like: “Uncle Fucka”

I ‘learned’ Obla-dee-obla-daa by The Beatles’ at the weekend. And a sterling work of musicianship it was. In my learning journey, I have noticed how the verse sounds remarkably similar to the Uncle Fucka song, as popularised by the South Park movie, ‘South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut’. McCartney must be proud.

I’ve also learned that there is an alternative pronounciation of capo. Having always assumed this to be a one way street, straight up cap-oh, I was slightly disorientated to hear my guitar tutor offer an alternative pronounciation: cape-oh. I’m not sure it actually matters all that much. Tomorrow, I think we’re progressing to Wonderwall. I’m quite looking forward to it.

In other news, I recieved Richard Swift Collection: Volume One in the post today. It’s the first CD I’ve bought since the Jens CD – which has been almost never off my playlist, pushing Mr Lekman right to the top of my last.fm profile. Incidentally, I’m also pleased to report that a sudden recent gush of playing has pushed Radiohead into third place, overtaking ABBA who only really feature that prominently because I kept playing SOS, and forgetting to flick shuffle on before leaving it running.

I’ve decided that what I play doesn’t actually reflect what I like all that much very well. Which is a bit of a paradox, really. This guy has written a lot about the difference between Last.fm and Pandora, which I played about at the weekend for the first time, having deferred doing so assuming that they were more or less the same.

It makes for a good read – I had a similar idea of writing something down that compared all these music-comparision-suggest-something-you’ll-love services, throwing Amazon’s releational-purchasing “people who bought this, also bought that” into the bag too.

I’m generally coming around to the conclusion that it’s not very relevant for a computer to recommend something you’ll die for to listen to again. With a few exceptions, most people who know me can’t recommend me something I’ll fall head over heals in love with, so the chances of having some automated process that can is reaching the near impossible. I got thinking about how I’d got into Jens – who I now rate right up there with some of my favourite artists – and it really was a chance happening across an MP3 blog over Christmas. Jens’ closest match via Pandora is Belle and Sebastian, who although I like, I’m hardly their biggest fan, and it’s not like they’re unchartered land in my musical world.

As Steve Krause pointed out, there’s obviously a need for a mix of both the social upping of Last.fm, and the genetic musical matching of Pandora. However, for true new music discovery, I’m finding that it’s ultimately a matter of hard graft and exposure to more musical avenues. And by that I mean catching more MP3 blogs, podcasts and the like in addition to my usual diet. Something that filters out the noise would be great though…