emchi.co.uk

Going a bit old school on the music at the moment.  Other from listening to loads of BT (which I have to stop myself from doing in case I get too addicted to the albums and end up not listening to them), I’ve been listening to quite a bit of Chicane.  Then the other day, whilst scrobbling on Last FM, I came across a Way Out West track I hadn’t heard before an thought it was quite good.  So anyway, I’ve just iTunes’d the album… I’ve always ummed and ahhed about getting it.  Trying to stay original, I loved The Gift, thought it was a brilliant track, then I think Halifax used it for an advert, which made me have second thoughts about the album.  Halifax will do that to a person, you end up disliking them for so many reasons.

Anyway, glad I got the album finally, it’s firmly ensconced on my iPod, ready for tomorrows continuing saga of content auditing… which I’m actually enjoying as it’s something productive to keep me occupied.

Wow, I’ve moved to the country and all I’ve got to talk about is the weather.  Well that’s what it seems like.  We are however living in a miniature tornado alley here.  Seriously, I think the areal is going to fall off the chimney. Which in all fairness wouldn’t be a massive loss as it picked up bugger all when we were using it for about four days (well in less you count really great static an not a great picture, then sure, it’s the best areal in the world).

Anyway, I braved the weather this morning to go and do the grocery shopping (apparently it doesn’t do itself… which is a huge shame).  Firstly I got assaulted by the wind as I stomped about 3 meters to my car (trying my hardest not to sink in the bog our garden now is), then tried to get the car out.  Lets just say it REALLY needs a good wash.  Then I got assaulted by the big white cross as I came out of the village.  Is there some kind of religious thing going on this weekend? JOKE (I don’t know why I bother putting Joke after the end of that, if people who read this know me, know that’s the kind of thing I would joke about and those that don’t obviously need to unclench their arse cheeks a bit).

So anyway, I managed to get to the supermarket and I think on the way (it’s a fifteen minute drive before you get carried away), I think there was rain, sleet, hail, snow, sunshine and an almighty gale.  Quite amusing.  Has anyone else noticed that sleet looks an awful lot like dandruff? Cue lots of jokes about being covered in dandruff when in fact it’s just sleet.

Right, believe it or not I’m typing this on my big G5 as I’ve sorted out my desk area at the top of the stairs (there’s a little alcove at the top of the stairs, and my desk fits in perfectly, as if it were made to go here, the pitched roof is limiting the height of my monitor a bit but even so it’s still more comfortable than my desk at work.  I also forgot how much I like using LastFM, I don’t have it loaded on my PowerBook, so I always forget about it.  Currently scrobbling music by BT, and it’s brought back some really nice tunes.

OK I’m now just burbling random shit now so I’m going to go do something constructive (and incredibly anal), changing ID3 tags in iTunes.

Firstly can I just say, if the RIAA and other nazi money grabbers want people to stop downloading things illegally, they should make more things available through legal channels to download.  I downloaded Emotional Technology by BT a couple of weeks ago, and have listened to it non-stop for the last two weeks, it has everything I need to keep me focused at work.  So I thought, what else has this guy done? ’cause I knew I had a couple of his tracks on some old Gatecrasher and Cream CD’s.

So off to Amazon I go, just to see if there’s anything on there that I had missed, and I found a whole cache of CD’s.  Only they weren’t cheap.  I know that iTunes, my download engine of choice, had very few BT albums available for download, practically none in fact. So what is a girl to do? If I want music, I want it pretty immediately, not have to wait almost a week for Amazon or Play to cough up my CD’s.  Play’s now doing a download service but theirs had less of a selection than iTunes did. 

So I ended up getting one of the albums through another site, I question it’s legallity, although I have paid for the music, and downloaded it through proper channels, I suspect it’s probably dubious.  So far it hasn’t let me down on the ability to download music I haven’t been able to find through iTunes. 

I like some odd music, I’ll openly admit that a large chunk of what I like cannot be found through mainstream channels, I use Audio Jelly occasionally to find what I’m looking for, but my tastes are normally a bit too mainstream for it.  Can you see the irony? To eclectic for iTunes, too main stream for Audio Jelly.  I’m sure that if I were able to buy music from iTunes in the US I’d have no problems whatsoever in getting what I want most of the time.  However just like most things I’m unable to purchase and download stuff from US sites.

You would think with the Internet being a global phenominon that the TV stations and music distributors would do more to open up their boarders.  What do they want 17 pieces of identification before you can pay and download something that you would otherwise be forced to download illegally?  I read the other day that BBC is opening up it’s iPlayer to a global audience, well I think I did, I hope I wasn’t dreaming it, so why can’t the US stations do the same?  There’s a demand, so why can’t these people supply, rather than jumping up and down about people downloading illegally.

I would happily pay a season pass fee to download what I want, at the end of the day, it either doesn’t get shown, or I get moaned at for watching what I want occasionally.  So to download it and watch it from the privacy of my Mac would be fine for me. 

Anyway, I had orginially intended for this post to be about the BT album I downloaded over the weekend, it’s brilliant, not quite as good as Emotional Technology, but still as mellow and uplifting as it.  It’s called ECSM in case any of you are interested.  I have to say I love the first track, it reminds me of some of the Spy Game sound track, haunting vocals with an ethnic twist to them that are chilling yet also soothing at the same time.

Well we have a move date of a week on Monday, fingers crossed everything goes ahead without a hitch.  I mean seriously fingers crossed!! So I’ve got another week of staying with my friend, which has and is great.  The drive to work has been a lot less stressful than catching the train every morning. 

My sleeping patterns are a bit off, and the drive from Witney is about 50 minutes long.  However for some reason my body clock has been waking me at 3am, 5am and then around 6am… it’s a bit annoying, but at least I can get straight back to sleep again. 

So getting up early here is bizarre, I mean I know I’m leaving earlier than I did when I was working in London, but it’s so quiet, and there’s nobody on the roads in Witney, it’s like it’s about 3 in the morning in London.  It’s heavenly, so quiet (even if I am near an RAF base). 

So my commute to work has changed massively, instead of hoping there will be a train when I get to the station, then wondering if I can get onto the train, knowing I won’t get a seat until London Bridge, fighting your way off the train at Charing Cross or Cannon Street, then struggling through crowds of annoying people who are rude and in a rush all the time to your next mode of transport.  To, getting in the car and being able to see stars in the sky, driving down country lanes that have hardly anyone on them, not getting annoyed when someone impatient overtakes you, listening to my choice of music, having space to think, waking up mentally without worrying about having someone fall on you.  Tower Hill is now a little road that I drive down past a new housing estate with no cars and Faringdon is a little village I drive past that has a tower on top of a hill near it.  It’s all very refreshing. 

So anyway, I’m thoroughly enjoying the team I’m working with, they’re a great bunch of people.  I don’t feel like someone is about to stick a knife in my back at any moment.  It feels genuine here and I feel like I fit in.  I’m going to enjoy working here.

Sorry I’ve not posted for ages, I find myself getting home at stupid o’clock, eating something, watching a bit of TV then going to bed. To say I am nucking fackered is boardering on an under statement. Well the website goes live next Wednesday, nobody will give me any content, so not only am I giving myself an ulcer over how the damn thing looks, but also about how much stuff will go live. I don’t really have a system to start putting content into until Monday lunchtime… don’t worry, I can rise to the challenge, I just feel I’ll be working non-stop for 72 hours somehow.

Anyway… I’ve found recently that I’m finding myself reaching for books I’ve read before, I mean old favourites, including the first book that goot me addicted to reading Crime Mystery and Thrillers, the book is old, battered, and isn’t as good as I remember it was, but still I find myself reading it and enjoying it.

It’s the same with music, I can sit here and listen to my favourite album, and feel as though I’m floating away at the same part every time. What is it with “comfort blankets” that make you feel warm and fuzzy all over? Is it something you cling to when you’re feeling run down and out of body? Is it just a phase you go through? I really don’t have the answers to the questions. Maybe I’m just growing up and don’t want to let go of the things that I found comfort in a long time ago.

Who knows… I’d be interested to find out if anyone else gets these times when they just wallow in the past.

The re-design work is almost done, it still requires a heavy amount of tweakage to get it perfect but it’s now looking better than it did two days ago, three columns in place and some of the colours are working. I now just need to work out how to stretch the display so it’s not three inches wide… it’s not too bad if you’ve got a monitor like the size of one I use at work, but a 20″ widescreen like at home looks naff.

Anyway, apologies for the naffness of the templates on here, I forgot to move over the archives template and the comments template. Still I know the comments work thanks to someguy. Once I’ve sorted the templates out I can sort out the category archives and think about some of the extra pages. I’m basically re-doing the archives. I’m going to call them channels… with any luck I may end up with a better structured site. Trying to simplify things I’m going for the following:

Mac Tips
Cars etc
Media - Books, Films, TV & Music
Girly stuff

Under those I’ll go for sub categories. I’ve got a basic navigation in on the page that looks quite cool at the mo. However I’m contemplating drop down menus… I know it’s anal, and I know I don’t get much traffic, but I’m bored and it doesn’t cost me anything to develop these things, plus I might learn something out of it in the long run.

I want to go and see David Gray in concert… only I don’t know anyone who likes his music… so do I go on my own like a total billy no mates or find another concert to go to (current choice of Jem or Natalie Imbruglia)… arsehats!!

In other news, did anyone else see Michael Schumacher crash his way to the grid in the F1? I can’t remember laughing so hard all week…

If you live in a block of flats, you have to accept it’s not really the place for kids, lease of all when you live in a first floor flat (second floor for anyone outside the uk). So I’m some what pissed off that a family in one of the first floor flats treats the space right in front of my window as a place to walk her screaming little brat when it’s crying and letting her other little fucker run around screaming…

I want to listen to my music or watch tv with my windows open… it’s hot out there, instead I have to listen to the little brat shouting!!

ARGH!! I hate kids.

I guess that would have to do with three things:

1. I’m technically on garden leave apparently… fine by me.
2. I joined a gym (it’s a nice one as well)
3. Something else… but I’m not saying as it’s bad luck.

I finally got the book I wanted after going to no less than three book shops! swines. Oh and I got a pair of shoe that I spotted whilst wandering back to the tube station a couple of months ago, only I was about to try them on and I got a call from a friend, so I went and met them instead of trying on the shoes… I just saved myself £50 in doing so… They were playing a piece of music I really like at the moment in Reiss (where I bought the shoes), the sun is also shining and Lost starts tomorrow night.

A few things to try and make me a bit more positive today. Right off to put new gunk in hair that I bought and veg with the book I bought… smell ya later peeps.

Top Gear were (keep missing episodes so don’t know if they still are) doing something on the top driving tunes you listen to in your car. Well I was reminded of this when I got on the M25 at lunch time yesterday after realising a CD I’d made had a copy of my top driving tune on it. Which then lead me to realise I’ve got another two to add to it. So I’m trying to compile my ultimate driving tunes CD for my car, I’ve got three tracks. Then it was a case of, ah… I’ve got a six disk changer… so now I’m on a mission to create a CD for each slot on the changer that represents each different type of music I like… arsh.

Anyhoo… here are the first three I’ve got.

The Cardigans - My favourite game (like it so much could probably put it on as track one and the last track).
Jamiroquai - Feels like it should
Jamiroquai - Deeper Underground

I’ve just thought… what order do I mix them all into… Place your suggestions in the comments peeps.

UPDATE Was listening to the iPod on the way into town last night and I think I’d like to add Gwen Stefani, Whatcha Waiting For to the mix… that’s all, carry on about your business ;o)