Monthly Archives: Dec 2007

One dog’s nightmare

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-1 to 5°C, dry & v cold.

We know dogs deam, but do they have nightmares too? At about 5am today, I heard this haunting, melancholic one note howl from Rosie. She was sleeping in here, near the door ( as usual) so I knew which dog it was, so I called her over and made a fuss and spoke in a calm voice. She wagged.
 
Ice: there isn’t much ice about because it is so very dry: but it seems that Walsall haven’t gritted their roads today. Under the bridge near school, there was a layer of ice about 1cm thick from field runoff. I braked and stopped just short of this threatening mirror in the road. But it was so bad that it was difficult to even get up on the pavement, with oncoming traffic I didn’t want to fall in front of a car. This weather is due to be the same all week.

Pending requests

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6°C, dull, but mostly dry. No cycling.

Every few days I find links to various womens’ Live_spaces in the pending requests. They have spaces with barely any info and of course I have never heard of them. They always look like some fading porn star, certainly no-one I recognise. This practice looks like some pointless spamming internet scam. No harm in blocking them then!
STALKER, 3rd run-through. (PC game), After a slightly lacklustre start to Bioshock, I’ve restarted a new game in STALKER. There is something particularly rewarding about this game, it must be the mixture of the  setting, atmosphere FPS genre with the RPG elements thrown in. It makes great screenshots, which isn’t that easy to do in Bioshock.

A dull day shining

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7°C, rain, less wind.

As promised- photos of shiny things. They’re pedals, not fitted yet, but I expect they’ll bung up with mud less often. Admire them before they get used, oily and scratched. Today has been a day of rain, lots of it as has most of this week, will it flood soon?
The wet landscape should be good for photographs, but for the lack of light. I’m currently looking into a camera upgrade to solve that problem. Mine isn’t too good when set to higher ASA speeds- it gets rather grainy.
3DS Max: Digger again, oh no! (-oh yes!). Added some scene objects, to give it some space, the mobile phone mast was the most satisfying- mostly because it took a relatively short time to make; then I used a x-ref scene contaiing a Cathedral.
I fancy adding a small flock of birds next. Don’t hold your breath.
  http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v411/EssieP/3Dgraphics/BIGdigger_n96.flv

One more red nightmare

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15°C, grey & rainy periods.

Reassuring that visits deep into the past record collection aren’t revealing embarassing immature tastes. I say that because listening to Red by King Crimson today brought back the same hair-raising thrill that it did back in the mid 1980s, (Note- it was released in 1974). It’s down to Robert Fripp that there are harmonies and key changes that are orchestrated like "classical" music. I recall listening out for similar qualities in Mahler, or Schönberg. There is a jazzy feel in those harmonic instruments- clarinet, Sax and violin which can be heard amongst the thundering great bass guitar passages. they tap out oriental rhythms, cascades that echo the main themes and generally provide dynamic contrasts.
This album belongs in a trio with "Lark’s Tongues" and "Starless…"

Bioshock

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13°C, warm, wet & windy. C20miles

We live on an island in the Atlantic; it’s December and we’re swept by storms- oh well.
Bioshock: I’ve gone back to STALKER for a another run through, Bioshock keeps crashing at one point in the first level and there is not yet any sign of a patch.
Perhaps tomorrow I can post pictures of the shiney things that came in the post today. They are so very shiney, you’d not believe.
 

Flat earth

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6-8°C, dry & clear. Hang on, no! It’s raining now.

Sunrise: I got the timing right on the way in today, the sun rose over my left shoulder, it lit up the clouds from below, and appeared over the horizon inthe next few minutes. I pondered it right there and then, during the ride along the dual-carriageway. Looking at that sunrise, the earth is clearly not flat. If it was, there could be no underlight clouds, there would bea shadow cast from the earth upwards just before the sun appeared. Imagine shining a light from slightly under a table, at an angle of 89° to the normal, it can’t light the chould layer from below. How come anyone in all of history thought the planet was flat. Not only that, but the Earth’s shadow on the moon curves too. A visit to the seaside watching ships sailaway is the final nail in that coffin, the ancients had the same accesss to these experiences as I , so there is no excuse for the idea ever being aired.

iPoddling

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8°C, clear; stiff W winds.

Forecasts are terrible for this weekend, cycling tomorrow looks less likely than usual. If I’m housebound then I’ll just have to fiddle with that iPod.
There are a few things I don’t understand about it-

  1. iTunes makes me re-register it with Apple every time I plug it in to the computer.
  2. iTunes shop hold hardly any music that I’d like to buy- often the searches just return tribute bands and compilation albums.
  3. Some album cover pictures don’t upload to the gadget, others do.
  4. there are 3 built-in games, how do I uninstall them?
  5. Why would anybody want to watch a film on a screen the size of a camera monitor screen?

I’ve rediscovered King Crimson. It’s been years since I played any and my LP collection is pretty complete. They were a bit pretentious and flamboyant in the early albums, a reputation that they never shook off, but their later releases are far more interesting. Try "Larks tongues in aspic", " Starless and Bible black" or "Red". All use some superb bass and drum musicianship.