Author: Sleepypete

Happy New Year everyone !

Another A to Z post has been rather overdue … Although saying that, I’m not through listening to the T albums quite yet. Where to start with S ?

Mark Knopfler has done a few solo albums since Dire Straits finished, Sailing to Philadelphia is one of them. Not a bad album, highlight is Speedway to Nazareth.

One of my early favourite albums was Say Something Good by River City People. This had an outstanding cover of California Dreamin’ but you’ve heard that one. This album has a bunch of cracking songs on it, including the one that kicks off the album, What’s Wrong With Dreaming. What is wrong with dreaming ?

I started collecting Texas again and they’re in here with Say What You Want and I’ll go right back to I Don’t Want A Lover from Southside for my highlight here. One thing Sharleen Spiteri shares with Siobhan Maher of River City People is one incredible voice with massive range.

And talking of a singer with an incredible voice, there’s Scarlet and Other Stories by All About Eve. There’s a lot of story telling on this album and many highlights. Including … Scarlet, Blind Lemon Sam and the poignant The Pearl Fishermen. (struggling for links cos the swines are putting full adverts on and monetizing other people’s works – I’m not linking those)

The incredible voices keep coming, this time it’s Tori Amos with Scarlet’s Walk. I’ve linked my favourite (I Can’t See New York) a bunch of times but there’s many more excellent songs here, including the title track, Scarlet’s Walk.

Scissor Sisters are a bit of a departure for me, a taste of the unusual. And I seem to like songs called Laura for some reason … (Perhaps I’m remembering someone I haven’t seen for too long ?)

Lisa Hannigan is another who owns an incredible voice, although the strength of this one is partly in its fragility shown off in Sea Sew with I Don’t Know.

I don’t just listen to female singers, blokes like Seal catch my ear too. He has a habit of calling his albums after himself and there are two of those here (plus Soul). Highlights from each are his breakthrough hit Killer, Fast Changes and …

Few quick ones :

Katie Melua’s Secret Symphony is another pleasant album from her.
Peter Gabriel’s Security was another strange album from him
While his So was rather commercial. Good but … not his distinctiveness
Levellers See Nothing, Hear Nothing, Do Something is typically them
Kate Bush’s Sensual World is possibly her last good album (highlight Deeper Understanding)
Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was a wonderful experiment.
While their Somewhere In Time is more familiar 

There’s soundtracks here too :
Settlers 2 and IV, Star Wars (from episodes 1, 4, 5 and 6)
Shadowrun Returns – good stuff here, it sets off the game well.
Sid Meier’s Colonization (must play that)
Star Trek’s here too !

Back to the incredible voices we go with the first Goldfrapp album I bought, Seventh Tree. This is a fantastic album to close your eyes and relax too. Goldfrapp in wonderfully chilled out mode with tracks like Road To Somewhere.

The Beatles are here ! With Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I’d own more Beatles albums but they are ridiculously overpriced for such old albums. Highlight here is With A Little Help From My Friends.

After picking up on The Cranberries (check out Linger), I remembered Shakespears Sister as a similar band from that time. They’re not quite as good as I remember, although Stay is still worthy of a listen now.

Few more quickies (lots of S albums here !) :
Lily Allen came back with a Swear-Bomb Bang with Sheezus, more likeable nonsense !
Enya’s second was Shepherd Moons with the ethereal Caribbean Blue
Michelle Shocked’s Short Sharp Shocked has a few protests
The Pretender’s collection of Singles pleasantly surprised me
Clannad’s Sirius is the best of their pop-commercial style albums
Sadly the best track on Sixpence None The Richer’s self titled album is a cover of There She Goes
Bon Jovi shows up with Slippery When Wet, bit too impressed with himself for me to be honest
Alanis Morissette is here with So Called Chaos, not as inspired as Jagged Little Pill
Coves disappointed me a bit with Soft Friday

Another excellent voice that’s come into my awareness is Caro Emerald. It’s an older night club type style supported by an outstanding voice. The album is the Shocking Miss Emerald and my highlight is Liquid Lunch showing off her sense of humour too.

Sleeper are here with Smart, with possibly my signature track, Pyrotechnician. Kiss Your Fingers Goodbye. (I’m not that bad with fire – honest)

I heard the track that titles this collection in Tesco the other day, still makes me stop and listen. It’s Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly With His Song.

I’ve followed Suzanne Vega for a long time too. That pure voice continues to enchant, although here we go back to the very old Solitude Standing with Calypso. Her Songs In Red And Grey is here too.

More quickies (so many S albums !)
Robbie’s Songbook is here … another collection album. Yawn.
Maroon 5 started up with Songs About Jane, with the lovely She Will Be Loved.
Snow Patrol’s Songs For Polar Bears was a bit … meh.
Mike Oldfield’s Songs For Distant Earth has its moments
U2’s Songs of Innocence cause way too much controversy for a rather so-so freebie
Ennio Morricone has penned the soundtracks to some very distinctive films

And I think I’ll break it there and make a Part 2 soon … So many S albums !

Last one is by the Ting Tings (and there’s a second in Part 2) – Sounds From Nowheresville was their second and continues the quirky theme of the first. I like this album, with tracks like Soul Killing.

Cya soon 🙂

PS I’m steadily getting more addicted to Elite Dangerous. I upgraded my ship to an Adder and am steadily pimping it out …

Whatever pic could I use for this one …

Here’s one :

Credit to the artists there – it’s one I acquired off Google. Doesn’t he just look as if that’s a gleeful rubbing of paws before a ceremonial burning of the tree ?

Here’s another, just for you all who are going partying tonight :

If you’re heading out, have a great party.

How’s this year been ? It’s been a slowly recovering year. I’m feeling my age in more ways than one with a sore skeleton joining in with the ongoing skin damage. But … That outside damage is steadily improving. I hoped to beat it and be back to normal by Xmas but – not to be. It is steadily showing signs of improvement though, when I let it. It’s still ridiculously easy to do damage to it in seconds that takes days to repair.

Personally, things have been in a holding pattern while I fix. Both professionally and personally. Well, for most of the year at least. Professionally, I have a chance to move out of a job which I’m not all that happy about doing at the moment. It keeps me with eyes on how things are developing technically but it’s a few steps away from having any useful influence on that.

Personally, a lot of the year was spent wasted chasing a Pretty Lady off the internets. If you’re a regular, you’ll know how much I’ve written about little lady Kim and you’ll have seen my increasing frustration with the lack of any feedback or responses. She is a remarkable little lady but, I’m increasingly wondering if the private face is somewhat different to the public face. No. I don’t really think that’s true as her colleagues all speak of her in glowing terms … and no one with a brilliant smile like that could have any nastiness in her soul.

No – I think it’s more a case of comfort zone. As in, she’ll interact with those who she knows but to break into that small circle ? Not possible.

It won’t stop the occasional mentions of her and her colleagues. I use this blog to write about what I enjoy and I still enjoy watching their content. Or at least some of it. Their output is heavily dominated by Minecraft and that’s suffering creatively. It’s soured in the last few months and I’ve stopped watching all of the Minecraft content. That’s leaving Hannah’s playthroughs and Rythian’s playthroughs. There are also party game (Mario Kart) videos but the secret of their success is that their commentary includes the viewer in the fun, I find that the party game videos exclude the viewer.

That’s a pity – but there’s still plenty of content to enjoy. And as my health picks up, I’m back to looking at doing my own gaming. (Later).

Talking personally though – I have to mention another little lady who I’ve been calling Cupid’s Gift. She’s lovely. I hope to see her again soon. She has a lovely chuckle and getting one of those messages through from her warms my heart and makes me smile.

Yep. I hope to see her again soon and from there ? Who knows !

Poor pusscat.

Fingers crossed for a happier 2015 than 2014 has been.

Oh – I mentioned games – I’ve been enjoying the new Elite Dangerous game. It’s a space game that’s a full, proper follow up to the original space game, Elite. Happily, it’s like the fully Newtonian physics that wrecked Elite 2 and 3 (Frontier) are gone, with gameplay being king again. It’s a fairly pretty game, although that’s beauty in the eye of the beholder talking again. It’s early days for me, with me still in the starter ship steadily earning the credits to upgrade to something better. Oh and getting distracted by an almost disastrous bit of gun running too. Haha. Oops. I haven’t done much combat yet but I’m hoping that my skills haven’t eroded to the point where I get on the wrong end of it.

Yep. Whereas it took 5 minutes to realise WoW is no longer my game, it took about 5 minutes in the combat tutorial for me to start getting addicted to Elite again. I’ve also had some amusement out of a game called Plague Inc, where you evolve a Nastie (bacteria, virus, fungus etc) to destroy the world. It’s tough to succeed. Oh my, Steam sales are dangerous …

But – Real Life People beat Games beat Videos. And I’ll be hoping to getting out more or … possibly staying in more (with a certain person staying in with me ? 😉 ) in the next year.

Stop the Press ! One pic just in that missed yesterday :

Last pic – now that Xmas is over, it’s time to look forward to that other great holiday of the year :

Bring on the Mini Eggs !

Almost at the end of these.

I’m going to miss this meme when it completes. One thing I struggle for is ideas when I post. But when I get one, it’s Wall Of Text time. This meme has had me posting daily on fairly random and varied topics which has let me indulge myself. It’s also let me indulge myself in finding funny pictures.

I think that’s a new year’s resolution – find at least one funny pic for each post. Not a bad resolution I hear you say ? Yep. I agree.

Pics ?

There you go. That’s me. In a surprisingly decently smiley happy selfie. Wearing a hat of course. And that hat’s popular too, I’ve had many an envious glance looking at that hat. It’s waterproof … Oh and that pic is the one I’ve been using on that dating site. It’s had a few people looking my way 🙂

Although – does it make me look like a bit of a scarecrow type person ? Needs more straw.

That’s not actually the photo I’d picked out for today. This is it :

Sums me up perfectly don’t you think ?

Bit more about me ? Apart from my mind, I’m so average that I rarely get that second look. I see this as a good thing, it means I can hide. And when I want to be noticed, out comes the crazy. Or the mind. Or the being nice. Yes, I can hide but plenty of people know and remember me.

That’s a situation I like.

Something else I like – I’ve been doing some early days playing of Elite Dangerous today. I’ve had to bring out the flight stick for it, although I’m rapidly getting up to speed with the basic piloting for it. Docking is always interesting in games like this. Most space stations need you to fly into the inside through a small, narrow slit and then you find and land on your docking bay. It’s a curious challenge to get the alignment done properly. Must find a Free-Look function to help out with that alignment.

Yep. Interesting game so far. I’m still in the starter ship, looking to jump up into an Adder (most of the ships in Elite are named after snakes, mine is a little Sidewinder) for extra cargo capacity. I must find a Cobra at some point although I have my eye on the fast Asp instead.

Wait …

Will that sum up some people’s thoughts tomorrow at New Year’s Eve parties ? Haha 🙂 I’ll be here enjoying some internetty type stuff, unless an offer comes up at the last minute.

Real People beats Internet, every time. Cya !

Warning …

Selfie alert :

Yep – tis I. Not sure if I’ve posted a modern day pic of myself here before. There you go ! 🙂

Question – why am I always so serious when taking selfies ? My camera doesn’t like me I think. I have a better one to come tomorrow.

The scarf is my only scarf, bought at Wembley in the summer when I took my dad to see his team play in the play off final that saw them promoted to the second tier league of football here in the UK.

It’s a Rotherham United scarf and I bought it mainly in anticipation of having to stand at cold bus stops waiting for the bus. I’ve had to use it less than I thought but I’ll be on the bus again from the start of January. Oh well. What that does mean is lots of walking, which my legs will definitely appreciate.

How have I been doing ?

Well, over the last week or so, lots of healing … Good times. Genuinely good times. It’s still silly easy to set the healing back but it looks like my body is finally getting on top of repairing the damage. The bad bits are being steadily reclaimed and skin is feeling genuinely good again. You can probably tell it has been a good break so far.

I’ll say a bit more on Wednesday when I do a bit of reflecting on the year. I think.

And I just spent a couple of minutes searching Google for “Funny Scarf”. Found nothing suitable ! Ah well. I do need another picture though.

Yep ! You ! If you’re reading this, see above. I like you :-).

There’s so much potential here …

But we’ll start with :

That’s actually from what may turn out to be my last ever game of cricket. After two dim and dismal evenings for the first two, this one had brilliant sunshine and it wasn’t hot but I remember it being warm.

Cricket on a sunny day, truly a beautiful sight.

Although I’ll take your point, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

But everyone must agree, there’s no more beautiful sight than that of a Pretty Lady smiling. And that goes for all sizes, all shapes. I wish I had more of those pics !

Come to think of it, I need more pics of a certain little lady I’ve been calling Cupid’s Gift. Cos when she giggles, that face just lights up. It’s a very beautiful sight that I retain in my mind. I wouldn’t post pictures of CG here though. She knows about the blog but I wouldn’t post a pic without her permission.

Oh – special mention to SteamGirl too – she bought me stuff ! The three Bioshock games to be precise. She’s someone I met in a games store, which is where common interest comes in. We’ve chatted on and off over Steam chat since then and occasionally buy each other stuff. She’s a good friend. Sadly no pics but I can still remember that cheeky, chirpy smile from … gosh must be well over 4 years ago now.

Pics – Public domain stuff (interweb + twitter) – different story 🙂

That’s Rhianna Pratchett, who’s been treating us to some excellent stories in the gaming world recently.

And that’s the Hannah who’s been playing them on the youtube’s for us. Not just a beautiful sight, also a truly beautiful voice.

And you can’t mention Hannah without mentioning her partner in horror, Kim. That smile.

That’s Ming-Na Wen, who I first started following from her time in ER. She also voiced Aki Ross, scientist in the Final Fantasy movie (lovely purring voice) and is now being totally kick ass in Marvel’s Agents of Shield.

And talking kick ass ladies, I’m currently (half! cos I’ve seen it a few times now) watching The Librarian. It features another ER actor, Noah Wyle, being charming as always as a modern day Sherlock Holmes type character. He’s not a detective, the character has the observational powers of a Holmes but they’re put to a different use. It’s a charming mini series that has developed into a tv episodic series and I’m looking forward to catching up. The kick ass lady in this one is one Sonya Walger :

Also with brilliant smile.

I think that’s enough pics for one day. Although there can never be enough beauty around. It comes in all sizes, all shapes (and although I rarely* mention it – all races). And it’s not just appearance, it’s the voice as well. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the intermingled voices of The Staves again the other day. Check out the Day 16 Favourite Christmas Songs for an example of a beautiful sight combined with a beautiful voice.

*(I mention it today because someone’s just tweeted about a nasty racist comment directed her way and I’m hoping a mention above will counteract that)

Last one ?

That’s an old one. That’s actually me, if you can believe it. But the beauty here is in that athlete of a puppy, aka Goldie the lab. He was fast. That athetic body of his hid muscles that propelled him ultra fast. He was faster than me ! When I could run Mega Warp Speed too.

A happy dog giving a bit of love to his master is also a thing of beauty. I miss Goldie as I miss Scruff and as I miss Ben when I’m not around him. Wonder when I’ll be in a place where I can have a pooch partner ?

Cya tomorrow 🙂

Dunno if I’ll be back today but am queueing this one up anyway :-).

Today will probably be when I travel back actually. I’m pretty sure we won’t have snow, unless a surprise Arctic blast sweeps across the country. It’s been a very mild December here.

Snow ?

It is not a myth. That white fluffy stuff on one of my older cars (long gone now) was snow. Honest.

More snow ! That’s from a while back too, the car in the first pic is my old detested Focus. Not had that one for a while …

Last one for today :

A gift from CK that still makes me smile when I see it.

Edit – addition – more snow here !

Back properly soon, not checked the traffic situation yet but am confident I can punch through.

Gosh, this is a tricky one.

I was chuckling away with Cyberkitten when he was saying he’d be interested in seeing what I’d come up with for this one. Here goes, what pics have I got that fit this ?

Haha – when you quote, get the quote right. Or the grammar police will be out to get you.

At least I have medical reasons now 🙂

Always. Focus on the positive, it’ll help you deal with the negative.

Yes. This is an excuse to pull out some of those wonderful funny pics that I haven’t used for a while.

Last one. I see Ben the Staffy again today ! (ed – actually when I wrote this on Weds 24!) He’s a loving, loyal dog is Ben. Ok, one more :

Cya !

I got a Philip K Dick book – The Game Players of Titan and an igloo of chocolate penguins.

The penguins may not survive the day …

Happy Xmas everyone ! (Including the penguins)

Christmas Day !

Happy 25th December – hopefully you enjoy this day and have some people to be around. Not sure what I’ll be up to today (I’m writing on the 24th …) but it’ll involve :

Munching
Being with family
Chilling out
Possibly watching Doctor Who
Maybe watching Strictly
Seeing what Cupid’s Gift got me

We’ll see.

But … I know that a lot of people will be out there doing the christmas thing on their own. Parents and friends elsewhere. Hopefully you have some people to be around. But if you don’t, this is my gift to you :

Even if you are around people, I send this hug as my gift to you.

But especially you. That’s you. The one who is missing friends or family.

I send that hug to you. I hope it gives you a smile 🙂

Happy 25th.

I’m going away for a bit, so it’s going to be a few short posts …

I’m actually writing them now but asking Blogger to delay posting them until the right day.

Family ?

Wow – that’s an old one. (hence the couple of spots). It’s from well into last century, it’s from when we were growing up in Northern Ireland.

I don’t think my sister has actually changed that much since then, you could probably recognise her still from what’s up there.

Family is where I’ll be going – it’ll be the first time I’ve seen inside the new house that my parents have moved into. It’ll be a quiet christmas, we don’t really do much for it any more, except gather together as a family and celebrate still being that group.

No presents, although I still have the present from Cupid’s Gift that I’m looking forward to opening tomorrow and discovering what’s inside. I think I’ll be picking up something from around where the parents are to hopefully get to CG in time for New Year.

That’s it for today ! Short post but … I’m about to write some more while I still have access to all my pictures 🙂