Monthly Archives: Oct 2006

T20

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16°C, clear.

New speakers for the PC.

Though a vast improvement in the sound quality over the previous pair, the bass is a bit bloated. Treble & mid are clear such that they actually sound sterio rather than 2 mono channels. I expect with a bit of fiddling that they will sound better. Music is always the real acid test, but I rarely listen to mp3s, more often it’s internet radio, both of which suffer poor sound quality in the first place. There is always the limitation from the quality of the sound-card which is a generic motherboard mounted job. The better sound cards are separate – and the best are external to the computer case to reduce hum.
Creative have fallen onto the marketing ploy of stating the output wattage as a guide to it’s loudness. Such a practice is absurd, 14W rms has no connection to how loud they go, we need to know the sensitivity of the speakers to find that out. the units to look for are db/W (decibels per Watt). At least they didn’t publish pmp in watts ( peak music power), that is the most misleading spec that pseudo-hifi companies use.
…that completes my recent run of of oders from Amazon.

Tys tys

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17°C, sun, rain then sun.

Yesterday’s concert was interesting. Two bands of scandinavian origin, both billed as A-side performers, but in practice….
Tys tys (Copenhagen) played the second set but were not rewarded with CD sales that Suzanne & M O got. Their music was "difficult", structure was convoluted and strange things happened to the vocals between mic & speakers. The mixing desk bloke (who also looked like a Viking) was actively involved in the music-making, bending & twisting as he modified the mix.
 
The Vocalist said something curious at the end of one pice. "I got a bit of a kick there", I thought something had mixed differently ot her expectation. But later when Maria Laurette Friis stood up, she was obviously a few months pregnant. See their website here.
I bought their album, thinking that I didn’t even know if I liked the stuff, only a few others lined up with me. The CD is playing in the background as I write and it sounds wonderful. Even so, it’s not easy music.

Susanna And The Magical Orchestra

S&MO Played first, most if not all, covers but played very slowly. A close delicate examination of well known tracks from Elvis, Depeche Mode, Joy Division and Prince amongst others. I only recognised some, the set finished early, or at least it seemed so. That means it was good by the way.

Again, like so often I was underwealmed by the sound system in the Glee Club. It didn’t hurt in the way that the Carling academy does, but still it had that hazy electric sound with interference and poor connections also noticable.

 

Theif, Deadly Shadow

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16°C, clear & moderate S wind. C=66 miles

Glee Club: concert tonight, going out on a Sunday is an odd thing. Sundays evenings are meant for recovering from cycle rides as you all know. The show is "Suzanna And the Magical Orchestra". We have a CD so I know it will be spacious soulful and well crafted stuff. I hope they are selling LP copies  of the album again.
 
The dogs are cut: they are all "Poodly" as Ruth the cutter said. Judging by the way they are looking at me now, and wagging, I sense that they are grateful for the new refreshing style.
 
Theif: installed a new game yesterday, it’s a few years old and came with this graphics card, so last night I was in the mood for trying it. More time is needed to form anopinion, but for now it’s a calm stealthy game with a character skulking around in the shadows.

Editing Videos

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16°C, clear.

Premier: using Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 is far easier than the old version 6. The trouble now is getting the output files small enough to upload to photobucket. They use a flv converter built into the web server, but it has limitations. Some of the DivX attempts have been corrupted with multicoloured blocks flying around the screen Both frustrating and taking up time, at least DivX renders quickly, muich more than WMV encoding does.
Good job I’m patient isn’t it?

 
OK Ok getting somewhere, here is the first one to successfuly upload. OldWarden_ Gladiator
Secondly, The Old Edwarians, planes from before WWI. These are the oldest flying aircraft in the world. Edwardians.
Finally, a render from an imported model which is a fun thing to play with, it’s ready rigged so I can just get on with animating it.

Straw veil

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16°C, light showers, and wind.

 A current news story that illustrates the current times comes from Jack Straw. He asks Muslim women to remove their veil while in his Constituency office. See here. Now for my opinion, or at least a shortened version of it.
He’s come to a conclusion I can agree with but not with the reasons I would have given. He cites social separation as a reason, making community relation s more difficult. I’d say the problem is from a psychological angle, it relates to social interaction and body language. The mistake the some commentators have made when criticising him is that they claim it should make no difference. But it does because spoken words are only part of communication between human beings. The veils block natural communication via expressions and body language, often a more significant language than spoken words.
There have been no coherent arguments that refute Straw’s views. All that I have seen so far in the last two days, have been concluded from unsubstantiated assumptions at best. In fact there seem to be few arguments on this subject from any quaters, the media are saying words like "Storm", "Straw’s veil policy spark anger " and so on, but those storms remain hard to find.
 
Aww: Below is a Cedar tree, shot on a visit to Sudbury a few months ago. A magnificent tree that had me spellbound with awe on that day. A living form that was created by a combination of chance occurances both recent and from the distant past. No intellegence was involved in that process, unless some victorian gardener planted it there of course.

Some books

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16°C, clear, typical bright autumn day.

New books: the last Amazon order is arriving bit by bit this week which is fun.

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This one arrived in a coincidence which may even be Ironic. I was still fuming after an insidiously christain charity presentation when I opened this, chapter headings like "why there definitely isn’t a God" (or something like that). Fine timing. Frustratingly, it will have ot wait, the present book is going to take a while to read. Especially as I will make headway into tthe Kafka book kindly loaned by a generous soul.

Looking for a patch to hit.

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16°C, showers & sun

I didn’t realise that I do this, but now I do. A car pulled out on me as I rode home on drying roads after a heavy shower.
It was in a small road signalling right to go on the road I was on. Then it drove straight over, I didn’t see the driver as i was watching the front wheels , it braked hard and I veered round, but I was then watching the patch of road infront where I was likely to land after the impact. The car did stop in time, I did veer enough so that patch wasn’t needed.
Interesting the things that go through your head. Your life never flashes before you, you just look for what to do to save the situation.
Even airline pilots say this who have survived crashes. 

Matt and the unlikely meeting.

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19°C, very heavy rain in Worcestershire, sun in Bristol

What is the probablility, in a city of 450,000 people of an old friend from 10 years ago sitting in the same cafe that you are going into at the same time. It happened in a city with a lot of cafes, and it happened today. Mat Smith, it’s been a long time. I have a funny email to send to you mate!
 
Fledgling: took the youngest daughter to university today. Bristol is a fine town, especially when you miss the junction on the moroway and have to drive in on the Gordano road, then cross the suspension bridge. That was definietely the best mistake I made today, it saved more than a ½Hour in traffic on Hotwells road.
 
Berkley Church: see the photo below has family links for us dating back 200 years or more. Family would have survived the tsunami from the 1800s, as well as benefitted from the Smallpox immunity developed there. the shurch itself has relics dating before 1500 and the decorative frescos still remin on the interior walls in excellent condition.