Month: January 2009

I think I have a bit of Number 5 in me (from Short Circuit). He’s a robot who gets turned sentient by a lightning bolt and when he’s learning, he craves new knowledge. So he goes “InnnnnPUTT!” to try and get the person he’s fallen in with to show him new things.

I get bored easily, so the music satisfies part of my own craving for “InnnnnPUTTT!” 🙂

I’m reasonably happy with the surround speakers I have at the moment but they’re not quite as good as the system I used to have … That’s a Rotel amp coupled to some rather large Tannoy speakers 🙂

That pairing is a little too large to fit comfortably where I live now though. Will have to see what turns up when I eventually replace my kit with HD stuff 🙂

I never knew there was a trombone on the opening track to the Flood album by They Might Be Giants …

Jumped over a few stepping stones to more gadgets over the past couple of days. For a while, I’ve seen a few people’s MSN Messenger contact info bars show what they’re listening to and I’ve wondered if I’d be able to do that through iTunes. It’s a bit useless but I like my gadgets enough to see if it could be done. In the end, it’s been done through complete accident rather than any grand design 🙂

I’m often logged into MSN at home and I’m happy to give out the address to blogfriends. It’s not the iceangel.mercs@ which is on my profile, although I do see emails that go to that address. Although the Mercs don’t exist any more, I’m keeping that address for sentimental value 🙂 My MSN address has too much info to put where phishing scanners can see it, which is why I’m not going to post it.

When testing out the Airfoil app (linked in post below), I was originally going to test it using a couple of Windows Media Player tracks that came with this machine. As it turns out, Airfoil didn’t work too well with WMP but it’s gotten me the iTunes track info into Messenger 🙂 The problem’s one of Digital Rights Management, where Vista objects to the trust chain being broken into. Airfoil’s an application I’ll get “Sometime” but that sometime will be when the dollar to pound rate is more favourable, so the $25 licence fee costs me less. Until I get a telly that supports HDMI inputs, I don’t see too much of a need to acquire the Airfoil app.

It’s the difference between “Want” and “Need”.

I “want” the chocolate and orange flavoured muffins from the shop but I try to avoid having too many because I don’t actually “need” them. Unless it’s a day when you’ve had a lunchtime meeting out of the office and you’ve missed when the sandwich bar is open 🙂 Muahaha – I think the “need” there is to have an excuse to hunt the muffin 🙂

The “want” vs “need” battle is one I find myself fighting fairly constantly with food … My weight is fairly stable but still a little high compared to what it should be (I’m around 2 stone overweight for the muscle I currently carry). I find myself “want”ing far too much rubbish but I’m getting better at only munching when I “need” to.

The telly’s another example, I “want” something new, shiny and high def but will resist until it breaks into being “need” … Old telly is still going strong at the moment, so I have a little while yet which should let me regenerate a bit of cash (after buying laptop) as well as allowing the market to settle a bit. It does make it a mite more frustrating for people looking to buy me stuff though 🙂

What else has been happening ? The CrazieBoys watched the film Defiance last night and it’s not often a film finishes with the people leaving in a decidedly sombre atmosphere. Cracking film this one, tackling a very tough subject in a horrible time for many. A very well done to the makers here as they’ve done a cracking job here.

Work is still being stimulating and we’re moving into a very “interesting” time. With the possibility of being “interesting” in quite a few ways. Plus I still get to talk to great people and completely cave in when the finance girls ask me for money. It’s part of the job honest … And no, it’s not that kind of job. Ermm … think I’m digging me a hole here … They’re a good bunch our people, it makes working on the project far more satisfying when you can have a bit of good harmless fun with your workmates 🙂

Like being able to make your boss crack up by sending him an email that says “Ok, I’ve just lost all hope of concentrating on writing this document …” The trigger was highly pretty contractor girl sitting on a desk that was right in my eyeline past my screen. That’s sitting on the desk, not on a chair behind desk. Not totally politically correct but harmless fun and I think my boss knows me well enough now to know that while I would be highly distracted by highly pretty contractor girl, I’d still be cracking on with being professional. (In the end, I got dragged away by someone, so I didn’t spend too long in gaze-mode !)

That’s a lot of the reason I’ve stayed where I am for so long, the project itself is an interesting one and is continually moving forward. But it’s the people who really make me stick around.

PS That muffin was definitely more healthy than the chocolate bar alternative 🙂 Honest !
PS2 Must work on psychological techniques to help me resist feminine wiles. Somehow, I think that may be a project doomed before it starts.

I have a separates system with Wharfdale speakers and it really does make a difference. However, you have not heard anything unless you’ve played music through a decent professional system. We used to do this all the time in the theatre while we were setting up shows 🙂

You are cordially invited to
A ‘Hearts and Flowers’ Party
from 8pm UK time
Friday 13 February 2009
until 12 midnight UK time
Sunday 15 February 2009
at the Palace of the Crazie One

http://craziequeen.blogspot.com/2009/01/hearts-and-flowers-party.html

cq

You obviously like music a lot. 🙂

It has been a while since I started up this blog 🙂 Although I did have that big long break in the middle.

So what have I been up to over the past couple of days ? One of my targets of things to buy has been a bag for the laptop – which has led to me joking about handbag shopping 🙂 Still getting a bit of mileage out of that one but I’m having to start watching out there cos the joke’s getting stale and expected. So I need to find me a new joke.

I’ve been enjoying the iTunes -> Airport to decent speakers quite a bit over the last week or so and I’ve finally got the setup tweaked to absolute satisfaction. When I first hooked it up, I’d not long since watched Iron Man, so my speakers had crept into being a little bass heavy. Not me – the subwoofer dial crept up on its own … honest 🙂 The problem was there just a little too much bass for music. You need some bass in there to make the punchy bits punchy but too much tends to drown out the subtle parts of the music.

It’s just about right now and is showing off one of the new albums I got yesterday extremely well. That’s Rockferry by Duffy, I grabbed the deluxe edition with an extra 25 minutes of Duffy. I’m not so impressed with the other one, which was Snow Patrol’s Songs for Polar Bears. I think my Snow Patrol expectations must have been raised quite a bit by Final Straw and Eyes Open, which are both outstanding albums.

What’s the big deal about having the music on the decent speakers ? If you haven’t heard decent, well set up hifi sound, then you really don’t know what you’re missing. Honest 🙂 A good setup brings out all the subtlety that the artists put into their music plus you’re able to pick out the individual parts a lot better. Things like the trumpet solos, the drums and strings on Gloria Estefan’s Oye Mi Canto (current iTunes track). And Mark Knopfler going “1,2,3” when kicking off guitar on Making Movies. Tori Amos and the pedals of the piano.

All good stuff, which people tend to miss out on either because their speakers aren’t up to it or aren’t set up properly. My speakers aren’t great (I’ll be looking to replace them with the HD upgrade I’ll do) but they mostly do a good job. They’re a set of surround speakers made by Creative Labs about 10 years ago, which aren’t available now but cost me about £200 when I got them. They’re designed for being hooked up to PCs, with 5 small speakers to surround you and 1 subwoofer to deliver the bass. I haven’t actually had mine connected to a PC for 7 years now. Since I moved into this house, they’ve been permanently hooked up to my dvd player, with the Airport Express now letting me get iTunes music across to them.

What’s on the playlist at the moment ?

I’ve picked up albums by Paramore, Hoosiers and Goldfrapp as well as the Snow Patrol and Duffy ones, so I’ll be listening to those soon as albums instead of as the individual tracks. Duffy’s is the best of that collection. Arctic Monkeys has been a very pleasant surprise, their cheeky sound will be gracing my Party Shuffle and iPod for quite a while. Lene Marlin has another album out as well as the two I have, that’ll be coming from Amazon some time 🙂 Evanescence is another where I’ll be hunting more albums.

There’s also the old favourites like Mark Knopfler’s Dire Straits, Kate Bush, Gloria Estefan, Alisha’s Attic, Pink Floyd, Tori Amos and Edie Brickell. The iTunes library is currently sitting at 2287 songs for 6.5 days of music and I’ve actually listened to 1112 of those over the past fortnight.

PS No handbag yet. Friday’s centre of Bristol session got pushed into being a Saturday session because I was getting pain from my right hip. No handbags on show in the centre, which was kinda expected. I aborted the trip up the hill to Borders though cos of traffic and didn’t peek in the Staples. Kinda unsure about how to get into the Staples near Cabot Circus, there doesn’t seem an obvious way in from the main roads. Not too bothered there cos I’ll be very close to a different Staples at the end of the month when I go to wish my dad a happy birthday 🙂

PS2 No dropouts whatsoever on the Airport audio link … the only issue has been that this laptop can be a little slow to find the router again after I need to reset it. (Router issue) Will be checking out a utility called Airfoil sometime, which will let me throw any audio to the Airport, not just iTunes. Could be handy when I get a decent telly to let me take advantage of the HDMI output 🙂

I’ve finally added something new to the stories blog !

It’s not fiction though I’m afraid … I’m turning it into a Geek Zone. One thing I used to do a lot at work was contribute to a Help Needed folder covering computers. I kinda miss that and the Geek Zone will be one way of indulging that side of me without confusing too many people here 🙂

The link is on the right under “Sleepypete Stories” still – until I upgrade my template here I can’t change that blogroll. Something to do later that is.

Anyway – first couple of new posts are on there, have a peek if you want to know what I really think of my new laptop 🙂 It’s a fairly lengthy review so the one line summary is :

Nice – does the job so I’m keeping it 🙂 It’s a very competent piece of hardware.

If there’s any techie questions people want an answer to, please do drop me a line. I’ll post it up on the other blog and hopefully add an answer if I know anything useful 🙂

Curious 🙂

www.laptopstuff.co.uk could be a good one too. Think in the not too distant future (i.e. when I go hunting for birthday presents for my dad!) I’ll be laptop handbag shopping in the centre of Bristol to see what I can find.

Wonder if Janinekingdesigns has an equivalent in the UK …

janinekingdesigns on etsy

I got my bag from her and then another for my niece

they are padded, waterproof
outside zipper pocket
2 deep pockets on the inside lining

under $100

the only thing I’m not sure of is the array of patterns – for me I bought a black and white chinese design and for my niece a mad mod polka dot thingie

I don’t know if she has designs to compliment you incredible manliness!!

if not her – do check out others on etsy, I love it there

I’m going to be joking with people that I’m shopping for handbags with that laptop bag 🙂

I’m reasonably impressed with Vista so far – it insulates you from all the techie behind the scenes stuff. That’s ok for now but I get the feeling that when a software problem comes along, it’ll lead to much worse headaches than XP and before. We’ll see how resilient it is 🙂

The smoothness could be to do with this probably having the beefiest cpu that I’ve had so far … Hard to believe that it’s probably got more grunt than the desktop machine I use for gaming 🙂

I’m getting more impressed with the Airport Express widget – I’m hearing more detail in the iTunes music than I used to, cos it’s able to send that detail to the decent speakers. Trouble is, looks like iTunes 8 is broken for the Airport Express and I gather iTunes 8 is needed for the iPhone …