Evening
I have decided to be very cunning with this Vaughan Williams song, and have enlarged 10 point text to 11 point. Because of the font used - Trebuchet MS - the difference is larger than usual, but the result is that the page is now 90% filled rather than 60%. And all because of one point's difference in body text... I feel a little better about this (lack of) work now.
Badminton was fun today. My smashes are really coming on! Hehe, you should've seen the people cower.
Sunday, 29 February 2004
Saturday, 28 February 2004
modes of doing work (groan)
Staring at the sheet of Vaughan Williams wondering why this is so hard. He's being a bit of a tit and using modes instead of keys, which makes it that much harder. At present I have spotted it can also be two possible modes - Dorian mode beginning on F and Phrygian mode beginning on G. To pour more fuel on the fire I've just realised this can also be construed as Aeolian mode on C. The semitone occurrences are the same over all three modes, so perhaps I will note all of them down in my analysis, to 'leave no stone unturned', as it were. Also I can't get marked down that way. We are supposed to fill a whole page of A4 with an analytical table in 10 point text. But bugger me with a fish fork, how much can you write about a 2-verse song comprising 40 bars?
Friday, 27 February 2004
cinematic rebellion against authority
It's still doing my head in. It took me 2 hours to analyse a couple of bars. I only have till monday morning to finish it and give it in! Despite the knowledge I should've stayed in to work, I went out with Phil to the cinema to see Cold Mountain. It was actually very good, good enough to rival The English Patient certainly, and worth going out in the snow blizzards for. I will probably buy it on DVD when it comes out.
Thursday, 26 February 2004
headshaped
Nothing of especial significance. Picking up a couple of library books was the highlight of my day. The analysis coursework is doing my head in.
Wednesday, 25 February 2004
poverty-stricken and angst-ridden
It's mildly amusing how things like AUT and NUS strikes can fall into the hands of what you want to do during a day. For instance, if my 11-1 lecture on the 1960s hadn't been cancelled, I wouldn't have gotten the chance to make badminton club from 11-2. (I usually have to settle for the last hour only) And you can imagine how I felt after last night, just in a general mood of wanting to smack things fucking hard and not go to jail for it. Enter badminton - the perfect energy outlet.
So far everyone has been of the opinion I should get over her, and I suppose they're right, but they don't really know. They didn't feel what I felt. (Not what you're thinking, for those with dirty minds.)
I felt a little better after badminton, and had calmed down a bit to get ready for orchestration class. There were more people there than I had reckoned would be, but the NUS strike finished at 1pm so I guess they had nothing better to do. - "What?! Come to lectures? Ridiculous!" -
My mood brightened slightly when my tutor told me if I kept my standard of work up, I should be on course for a 75. (First class! The boundary for first class being 70) I hope I can get even better though, to compensate for my ridiculously poor psychology marks. Doing psych electives was, in hindsight, perhaps one of the worst personal decisions I have ever made.
Today also happens to be the birthday of Martin, a guy who lives in our road. Everyone appears to be quite excited about going out, but I think I'm gonna give this one a miss. I'm not in the mood, and after spending Monday at Bondi, and last night at Cockpit, I don't have great excesses of money floating about my person either. Not to mention, I should do some studying. Whether this is achieved, of course, is another matter.
I'm a fortune cookie - full of cheap advice; I'm a suicide rookie - but we must call, I show more than I hide, care more than I can cry, I'm a phonograph, baby, my life's a lie and I'm in crisscross, I feel fine...
So far everyone has been of the opinion I should get over her, and I suppose they're right, but they don't really know. They didn't feel what I felt. (Not what you're thinking, for those with dirty minds.)
I felt a little better after badminton, and had calmed down a bit to get ready for orchestration class. There were more people there than I had reckoned would be, but the NUS strike finished at 1pm so I guess they had nothing better to do. - "What?! Come to lectures? Ridiculous!" -
My mood brightened slightly when my tutor told me if I kept my standard of work up, I should be on course for a 75. (First class! The boundary for first class being 70) I hope I can get even better though, to compensate for my ridiculously poor psychology marks. Doing psych electives was, in hindsight, perhaps one of the worst personal decisions I have ever made.
Today also happens to be the birthday of Martin, a guy who lives in our road. Everyone appears to be quite excited about going out, but I think I'm gonna give this one a miss. I'm not in the mood, and after spending Monday at Bondi, and last night at Cockpit, I don't have great excesses of money floating about my person either. Not to mention, I should do some studying. Whether this is achieved, of course, is another matter.
I'm a fortune cookie - full of cheap advice; I'm a suicide rookie - but we must call, I show more than I hide, care more than I can cry, I'm a phonograph, baby, my life's a lie and I'm in crisscross, I feel fine...
Asquith on his string quartet: "play it espresso"
Bollocks. Composition passed pleasantly enough. A bout of much hilarity ensued when the professor was going through our work. Some guy had given a piece of work in, and had marked a particular section 'espresso'. Of course, if you don't study music at all then you won't understand the joke, and you'll probably want to tell me to jump to the moon right now.
However, the evening worsened, and my mood correspondingly so, when we arrived at Barracuda. The place was annoying as hell (it was the second time that evening I heard Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl - got the idea yet?) and we just stood around saying nothing in particular. If this is what they call 'bonding' then shoot me right now.
The evening culminated in misery at the Cockpit - first off, the DJs played even fewer songs than I normally recognise, thereby limiting my potential to dance and generally act like the biggest tit on the planet. Second of all, I wasn't drunk. Third and finally, the girl I had my eye on got off with some pothead in a green cap. Now my evening was complete. I was about to walk home alone, as it was fucking cold and the others were just loitering about, but in the end I wound up walking with Ben. It still took us over an hour to get back from Cockpit - we got in at 3.30.
A dark day indeed.
EDITED 28/07/05:
I really goddamn miss that girl. Blew it trying to play it cool, and now I've lost her forever. She was one in a million - now she's almost certainly with some other guy. The extent to which I was hung up on her was so great that I kept going to Slam Dunk religiously for half a year after I last saw her. In the evenings after finishing my work, with my horrid housemates in the background, I would comb the local gig and pub guides, trying to determine the places where she might hang out. For a while, she was my life support, if only in my head - the one thing that kept me going because everything else was too tough for me to handle. It occurred to me that she could've dropped out of university, but at the time it puzzled me. She literally vanished without a trace.
To this day, I can still remember the last time we bumped into each other. In the Cockpit cloakroom at the winter Slam Dunk party, she stared so deep into my eyes. Time stood still. But I said nothing to her, and that was the first big mistake. Even "oh, I really like you" would have sufficed - nobody hates hearing that. Equally, it's clear that I can't go on living like this, under a cloud, for the rest of my life. It's so painful....I've become a living mess.
For most of my life, music has been my main release from regret and emotional pain. I have no idea what I would do if I didn't have it - virtually all of my output has been written in minor keys - a double cd's worth of grief. Ironically, the song I wrote for Jill was mostly major power chords, at odds with this description. Looking back, I suppose it couldn't have been anything other than a sense of renewed hope against the odds. It just never worked out, that's all.
I still miss her so much. What have I done to deserve this?
EDITED 06/12/05:
Two years to the day. I think I've moved on... but I have learnt a powerful lesson from all this: the past is a very dangerous force.
However, the evening worsened, and my mood correspondingly so, when we arrived at Barracuda. The place was annoying as hell (it was the second time that evening I heard Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl - got the idea yet?) and we just stood around saying nothing in particular. If this is what they call 'bonding' then shoot me right now.
The evening culminated in misery at the Cockpit - first off, the DJs played even fewer songs than I normally recognise, thereby limiting my potential to dance and generally act like the biggest tit on the planet. Second of all, I wasn't drunk. Third and finally, the girl I had my eye on got off with some pothead in a green cap. Now my evening was complete. I was about to walk home alone, as it was fucking cold and the others were just loitering about, but in the end I wound up walking with Ben. It still took us over an hour to get back from Cockpit - we got in at 3.30.
A dark day indeed.
EDITED 28/07/05:
I really goddamn miss that girl. Blew it trying to play it cool, and now I've lost her forever. She was one in a million - now she's almost certainly with some other guy. The extent to which I was hung up on her was so great that I kept going to Slam Dunk religiously for half a year after I last saw her. In the evenings after finishing my work, with my horrid housemates in the background, I would comb the local gig and pub guides, trying to determine the places where she might hang out. For a while, she was my life support, if only in my head - the one thing that kept me going because everything else was too tough for me to handle. It occurred to me that she could've dropped out of university, but at the time it puzzled me. She literally vanished without a trace.
To this day, I can still remember the last time we bumped into each other. In the Cockpit cloakroom at the winter Slam Dunk party, she stared so deep into my eyes. Time stood still. But I said nothing to her, and that was the first big mistake. Even "oh, I really like you" would have sufficed - nobody hates hearing that. Equally, it's clear that I can't go on living like this, under a cloud, for the rest of my life. It's so painful....I've become a living mess.
For most of my life, music has been my main release from regret and emotional pain. I have no idea what I would do if I didn't have it - virtually all of my output has been written in minor keys - a double cd's worth of grief. Ironically, the song I wrote for Jill was mostly major power chords, at odds with this description. Looking back, I suppose it couldn't have been anything other than a sense of renewed hope against the odds. It just never worked out, that's all.
I still miss her so much. What have I done to deserve this?
EDITED 06/12/05:
Two years to the day. I think I've moved on... but I have learnt a powerful lesson from all this: the past is a very dangerous force.
Monday, 23 February 2004
self-motivation (is for losers)
It is incredibly difficult to finish anything work-related when you have as little contact lecture time as I do. There's no motivation to do anything, really. I speak as someone who has advanced 2 bars of Birtwistle in an entire day. Perhaps I need to establish a routine, where I do a certain thing at a certain time of day. Perhaps structure is the key. Perhaps I'm spending far too much fucking time on this journal malarkey.
"Ever since corsets went out of fashion, Britain lost its backbone"
"Ever since corsets went out of fashion, Britain lost its backbone"
Sunday, 22 February 2004
road trip to Liv-air-pewl
Hey, Liverpool isn't as far away as I thought it was. Only a 140 mile round trip...it took me 45 minutes to drive 70 miles, and almost as long again to actually find the fucking sports centre, which very cleverly (1) wasn't signposted from the A road, (2) wasn't even on the map, and (3) didn't have "this is a big huge national sports centre" in bright brass bells on the front of it. I think I am coming to realise why Scousers have the reputation they do.
Have I told you lately that I love you, have I told you there's no-one above you? Fill my heart with gladness, take away my sadness, ease my troubles, that's what you do, take away my sadness, fill my life with gladness, ease my troubles, that's what you do
Have I told you lately that I love you, have I told you there's no-one above you? Fill my heart with gladness, take away my sadness, ease my troubles, that's what you do, take away my sadness, fill my life with gladness, ease my troubles, that's what you do
Saturday, 21 February 2004
tedium
Hello
Just off to post a copy of my demo CD to a friend in Cambridge. She writes music herself - embarrassingly enough the quality of her MP3 just dumps over my previous MIDI recordings! But now we can finally set the record straight ... hehehe. (no pun intended)
So bored today....bla bla bla bla bla.
Standing in line to see the show tonight and there's a light on, heavy glow; by the way I tried to say I'd be there, waiting for ...
Just off to post a copy of my demo CD to a friend in Cambridge. She writes music herself - embarrassingly enough the quality of her MP3 just dumps over my previous MIDI recordings! But now we can finally set the record straight ... hehehe. (no pun intended)
So bored today....bla bla bla bla bla.
Standing in line to see the show tonight and there's a light on, heavy glow; by the way I tried to say I'd be there, waiting for ...
Friday, 20 February 2004
sounding off on lecturer strikes
And now I have just read an email informing me of university lecturer's strikes next week, I am put in an even more negative mood, if that is possible. I don't pay more than a grand a year to not have lectures... and I also see from this email that the industrial action is planned on tuesday and wednesday, which coincidentally happens to be the two days all of my four and a half hours of lectures a week are on.
I am staying in all today to orchestrate the sodding Birtwistle piece, which has achieved the highly laudable claim of getting on my bloody nerves despite me only having studied it for about three hours. Birtwistle's various justifications and disquisitions about how to perform the piece correctly in the performance notes do nothing to calm my nerves. It's not as if you can do flutter-tounging or irregular embouchere techniques on a sodding piano... *sigh*
Baby's on the lamb tonight, the skies are full of stars, and love's just something that always goes wrong, and looks and smokes like Ava Gardner
I am staying in all today to orchestrate the sodding Birtwistle piece, which has achieved the highly laudable claim of getting on my bloody nerves despite me only having studied it for about three hours. Birtwistle's various justifications and disquisitions about how to perform the piece correctly in the performance notes do nothing to calm my nerves. It's not as if you can do flutter-tounging or irregular embouchere techniques on a sodding piano... *sigh*
Baby's on the lamb tonight, the skies are full of stars, and love's just something that always goes wrong, and looks and smokes like Ava Gardner
Thursday, 19 February 2004
the soporificity (?) of mundanity
I was really busy for some reason today, despite my continued promises to myself I would actually get some work done. I had to mail off a couple more copies of the demo CD to Australia this morning, before going on a house viewing at 12, before going back home and grabbing my bag for a postgrad composition seminar at 2, before packing my keyboard up and heading to Parkinson Steps and ultimately the OAP home at 5.30. The really annoying thing about today is how I had bits and pieces to do about an hour apart, therefore leaving no time to do anything particularly constructive in between.
By the time I finished performing at the OAP home at 8, I realised that the only thing I had eaten all day was a bowl of 8p noodles, so I asked Megan and Nick if they wanted to go to the local for a drink. (I needed one badly at this point) The beauty of Haddon Hall is that it serves food at this hour, whereas I think the Royal Park doesn't. My dad has, of late, been banging on about this grammatical nuance:
I don't think the Royal Park (does) serve(s) food
I think the Royal Park doesn't serve food
He is forever advocating the second sentence as the correct one, on the grounds that if you "don't" think then it was never really thought. Which makes sense, in an abstract sort of way. He would be proud, if he ever read this journal.
By the time I finished performing at the OAP home at 8, I realised that the only thing I had eaten all day was a bowl of 8p noodles, so I asked Megan and Nick if they wanted to go to the local for a drink. (I needed one badly at this point) The beauty of Haddon Hall is that it serves food at this hour, whereas I think the Royal Park doesn't. My dad has, of late, been banging on about this grammatical nuance:
I don't think the Royal Park (does) serve(s) food
I think the Royal Park doesn't serve food
He is forever advocating the second sentence as the correct one, on the grounds that if you "don't" think then it was never really thought. Which makes sense, in an abstract sort of way. He would be proud, if he ever read this journal.
Wednesday, 18 February 2004
everything in its right place
Evening. (Even though it isn't yet.)
Elated today as the additional 2 tracks we recorded on monday have now finished being edited in post-production. The result is a very nice acoustic piano sound with a warm rich timbre that comprehensively shits over crappy MIDI synths. But then it always going to. So far I have made 6 copies of it - one each for George, Adam, plus another for Ian who said he'd like to keep it as a memento "for when I make it" (verbatim) - and the other 3 for my dad, myself, and Ben's sister's friend Rebecca, a fellow musician.
Good day :) Pity about how tired I feel ... perhaps a shower will change my mood.
Elated today as the additional 2 tracks we recorded on monday have now finished being edited in post-production. The result is a very nice acoustic piano sound with a warm rich timbre that comprehensively shits over crappy MIDI synths. But then it always going to. So far I have made 6 copies of it - one each for George, Adam, plus another for Ian who said he'd like to keep it as a memento "for when I make it" (verbatim) - and the other 3 for my dad, myself, and Ben's sister's friend Rebecca, a fellow musician.
Good day :) Pity about how tired I feel ... perhaps a shower will change my mood.
Tuesday, 17 February 2004
semester 1 marks unleashed
Found out some of my module marks today, for the semester 1 modules only. The uni isn't allowed to release marks for both-semester modules...
Mendelssohn: 60 [20 creds]
Social/Cognitive Psych: 41 [10 creds]
Animal Behaviour (Level 2 Psych): 54 [10 creds]
So I'm not too happy with Mendelssohn, but chuffed that I managed to pass all the psychology, as I realised I wasn't exactly cut out for it. Next year I am definitely staying with a music elective, no matter what anyone says. And at least the 60 for Mendelssohn is dead on a 2:1. Not a mark more, not a mark less. If I get a 2:2 degree overall my life is over, in graduate employment prospect terms.
Amusingly, today I went for a job interview at Bradwell's solicitors in the city centre. I was 15 minutes late (good start) and the woman in charge, Julie Bradwell, made me sit an audio typing test. If only she hadn't gobbed on at about a mile a minute, if only I had picked up on stupid things like the proper places to situate commas, and generally do ridiculous amounts of multi-tasking, then perhaps I might have gotten the job. As it stands, I didn't, and boy am I glad. Bradwell's office was a shithole!
It's funny how one door closing often opens another, though. I scoured the Joblink website run by the student union first thing when I got home, and found a couple of interesting vacancies. When I arrived in the student union, however, I had failed to remember that today was the stupid Joblink Fair day. I legged it all the way up to the 3rd floor at 3:15, only to find that the fair had finished at 3, but luck was on my side for once.
There was one lady left there packing some stuff into a box. She was kind enough to take my details down and promised she'd get back to me. And who did she work for? None other than bloody Kelly Services. And who did she recruit for? None other than bloody O2. And which site was she based at? None other than Arlington.
I did wonder, as I drove away, if I would ever hear from her again.
Drifting away as lovers do, heads you win and tails I lose, nothing to say, much less to do, unhappy me, unhappy you
Mendelssohn: 60 [20 creds]
Social/Cognitive Psych: 41 [10 creds]
Animal Behaviour (Level 2 Psych): 54 [10 creds]
So I'm not too happy with Mendelssohn, but chuffed that I managed to pass all the psychology, as I realised I wasn't exactly cut out for it. Next year I am definitely staying with a music elective, no matter what anyone says. And at least the 60 for Mendelssohn is dead on a 2:1. Not a mark more, not a mark less. If I get a 2:2 degree overall my life is over, in graduate employment prospect terms.
Amusingly, today I went for a job interview at Bradwell's solicitors in the city centre. I was 15 minutes late (good start) and the woman in charge, Julie Bradwell, made me sit an audio typing test. If only she hadn't gobbed on at about a mile a minute, if only I had picked up on stupid things like the proper places to situate commas, and generally do ridiculous amounts of multi-tasking, then perhaps I might have gotten the job. As it stands, I didn't, and boy am I glad. Bradwell's office was a shithole!
It's funny how one door closing often opens another, though. I scoured the Joblink website run by the student union first thing when I got home, and found a couple of interesting vacancies. When I arrived in the student union, however, I had failed to remember that today was the stupid Joblink Fair day. I legged it all the way up to the 3rd floor at 3:15, only to find that the fair had finished at 3, but luck was on my side for once.
There was one lady left there packing some stuff into a box. She was kind enough to take my details down and promised she'd get back to me. And who did she work for? None other than bloody Kelly Services. And who did she recruit for? None other than bloody O2. And which site was she based at? None other than Arlington.
I did wonder, as I drove away, if I would ever hear from her again.
Drifting away as lovers do, heads you win and tails I lose, nothing to say, much less to do, unhappy me, unhappy you
Monday, 16 February 2004
VD
I may be 19 but I think I can quite safely say that Valentine's Day was poo. (Has anyone noticed how amusingly ironic it is that the initials of Valentine's Day are VD?)
We all ferment, but things can change and stay as one, you feel rejected, just tilt your head up to the sun, learn to be as one, still living, sinking, breathing, oxygen.
We all ferment, but things can change and stay as one, you feel rejected, just tilt your head up to the sun, learn to be as one, still living, sinking, breathing, oxygen.
Sunday, 15 February 2004
computer malfunction.
It appears that you do not have to start from scratch if you have forgotten to write a Sibelius part, rather, one should just click Create Instrument(s) and select the one you forgot, which is then appended to the score. So that's time wasted off time wasted...impressive.
Saturday, 14 February 2004
one is the loneliest number.
I hate today. The worst thing about it is how bad it makes you feel when you see all the smug happy couples out around town. On the other hand, everyone in the house is going out tonight to Brighton Beach to celebrate singledom, so I guess that's something. If I'd said something to Jill at the winter Slam Dunk do, perhaps I wouldn't be in this mess. Too bad you can't rewind and re-envisage scenarios, isn't it?
Friday, 13 February 2004
Thursday, 12 February 2004
brass instruments really are good for nothing
Made a rookie mistake with the Birtwistle - if you can call forgetting to put the tuba part in a mistake! Honestly. All that work for nothing. With Sibelius you have to delete the whole bloody thing and start again. I don't know.....
and these are a few of my unfavourite things
Went to a badminton social last night, which involved going to a pub called The Bourbon and subsequently ice-skating. Amusingly, I hurt my jaw and developed huge blisters on my feet. I did my jaw in because I fell over avoiding some stupid kid who wasn't looking where she was going, and who was also skating the wrong way around the rink. It hurt so much that I ... um ... put some ice on it.
I don't have enough money to go home either as I need to find £100 in March to make two trips home in two consecutive weeks, as there are Jamie Cullum and Ketia Melua concerts on. Also, my mum's just told me that she wants £1,500 for the Fiat and not £1,150, so I have to find a further £350 from somewhere. Yet another reason to postpone going home for as long as possible...
Tuesday, 10 February 2004
lack of my folio and warm woollen mittens, these are a few of my favourite things
Make that 3 bars. 3 whole bars, people!
Dumbarse professor (Phil) forgot to ask my tutor (Mic) for my composition folio before the tutorial today, so yet again I went away without any constructive criticism. Mic has posted a blown-up A3 copy of somebody's anonymous module feedback sheet on his door, in which somebody has written "Mic Spencer generally delivers better, more helpful feedback than Phil Wilby, in clearer English." Phil's office is about 3 metres away from Mic's. Now the mittens well and truly come off ...
It was very cold today.
It's all right, dear, the town is quite safe. Let's go take in a show... (JFK)
Dumbarse professor (Phil) forgot to ask my tutor (Mic) for my composition folio before the tutorial today, so yet again I went away without any constructive criticism. Mic has posted a blown-up A3 copy of somebody's anonymous module feedback sheet on his door, in which somebody has written "Mic Spencer generally delivers better, more helpful feedback than Phil Wilby, in clearer English." Phil's office is about 3 metres away from Mic's. Now the mittens well and truly come off ...
It was very cold today.
It's all right, dear, the town is quite safe. Let's go take in a show... (JFK)
Monday, 9 February 2004
interrupted interruptions
I have spent the entirety of today feebly attempting to orchestrate Birtwistle's An Interrupted Endless Melody for solo oboe and chamber orchestra. At present I have advanced just over two bars.
Sunday, 8 February 2004
victorious in every game but love
Slightly better. Finished doing all my linen last night after I got in, and vacuumed my room. I think I should do it more often - clean sheets are very very nice to burrow into at night ;) Was up early today as I had badminton practice from 11.30 - 2.30. Even more pleasing to hear that a social has been planned for Wednesday, involving a pub called The Bourbon and the ice-skating rink. Which is actually quite hazardous come to think of it ... oh well. I was planning on going back down south on Weds night but I guess it can wait till Thurs morning now. Badminton was great .. really gratifying (as a club captain) to see such a strong turnout, plus I won every game I played today :) And I've just finished a humongous fry up too. Nothing else compares ;)
Because I am bored, and because it is one hell of a song, I have decided to faithfully reprint the lyrics to U2's With or Without You here.
Verse 1
See the storm set in your eyes,
See the thorn twist in your side,
I wait for you.
Slight of hand and twist of fate,
On a bed of nails she makes me wait,
And I wait without you,
With or without you,
With or without you.
Verse 2
Through the storm we reach the shore,
You gave it all but I want more,
And I'm waiting for you,
With or without you,
With or without you,
I can't live with or without you.
Chorus
And you give yourself away,
And you give yourself away,
And you give, and you give,
And you give yourself away
Verse 3
My hands are tired,
The body bruise she got me with,
Nothing to win and nothing left to lose
Chorus
And you give yourself away,
And you give yourself away,
And you give, and you give,
And you give yourself away,
With or without you,
With or without you, oh,
I can't live with or without you,
Oh ... oh ... oh ...,
With or without you,
With or without you, oh,
I can't live
With or without you,
With or without you
[fade out]
Et tu, Brute! (Caesar)
Saturday, 7 February 2004
due to adverse weather conditions, the fool would like to apologise for not showing
Was supposed to meet some girl at the student union last night to talk about housing. After 35 minutes she still wasn't there, and messaged me with what has to be the feeblest excuse I've ever heard. The weather took a slight turn for the worse last night as there was some hail, which had reduced to a light rain at about 7.45pm. This is a transcript of our conversation.
Her to me: (8:05pm) Sorry running five minutes late. Traffic is bad.
[How much traffic can there be at 8pm??]
Me to her: (8:15pm) So how far away are you from the uni?
Her to me: (8:30pm) We are stuck in traffic. My m8 is driving me in.
Her to me: (8:35pm) Sorry we are not coming in now. My m8 says the weather's too bad.
Pathetic. That's half an hour of my life I'll never get back.
Her to me: (8:05pm) Sorry running five minutes late. Traffic is bad.
[How much traffic can there be at 8pm??]
Me to her: (8:15pm) So how far away are you from the uni?
Her to me: (8:30pm) We are stuck in traffic. My m8 is driving me in.
Her to me: (8:35pm) Sorry we are not coming in now. My m8 says the weather's too bad.
Pathetic. That's half an hour of my life I'll never get back.
Friday, 6 February 2004
the corruptable power of money
Evening
Literally just finished watching the first episode of the last series of Friends ... the beginning of the end has begun :( It didn't really come as a surprise cos I downloaded it off Kazaa about 5 days ago, but I like taping stuff ... I'm weird like that. In fact the first 4 episodes are ready to watch on my comp right now ... but it's cheating, isn't it? ;)
Finishing off a bottle of delicious Shiraz this evening in my own company. I bought a great book from Waterstone's the other day which I'm planning on at least picking up tonight. Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun, in case you're interested. (I doubt it.)
Went to view a house at 6:30 which was really quite nice. The kitchen is a million light years ahead of my current kitchen but there's no tumble dryer ... room is a little smaller too, and more expensive at £56.25 a week (compared to £46 at the moment.) before, of course, utilities (£20 a month for electricity, and £70 a quarter for water/gas) so it works out around £266 a month rather than the present £215 ... it is, however, a far more secure area where my car is less likely to get stolen. Speaking of car crime, I had to wipe spit off the windscreen on Wednesday night before the OAP voluntary music project, as some scallies were seen hanging around the corner of our house by Dave. The bastards.
Our union is in severe debt and the executive officers have apparently lied about the state of finances ... I wonder what will happen. They charged 33% more to become a sports user this year than last, and neither myself nor the badminton captains have observed any discernible difference in the quality of provisions made for badminton. Unless it conspires we are funding clubs that have newly originated, which is possible.
Went for a second tutorial (not with my tutor, oddly) earlier today and was given a massive confidence boost when the professor told me he couldn't find my composition folio because my tutor had taken it to show some other lecturers. On the good side, this has put me in a sky-high sort of Prozac mood. On the bad side, it means I have to go in to see him again sometime next week. Watch out for next Tuesday as well, when we will have done post-production on the aforementioned 3 tracks, and recorded another 2! :) And to cheer me up even more, the professor bloke really likes my 3D vector/spatiality/postmodernist idea. He added that it might even be possible to combine 2 pieces for Major Composition with an analysis of what I was doing in Minor Dissertation ... which would be the godliest thing ever. (I'm sad.) Things are going so well at the moment! :)
An eye for an eye and the world ends up blind (Gandhi)
Literally just finished watching the first episode of the last series of Friends ... the beginning of the end has begun :( It didn't really come as a surprise cos I downloaded it off Kazaa about 5 days ago, but I like taping stuff ... I'm weird like that. In fact the first 4 episodes are ready to watch on my comp right now ... but it's cheating, isn't it? ;)
Finishing off a bottle of delicious Shiraz this evening in my own company. I bought a great book from Waterstone's the other day which I'm planning on at least picking up tonight. Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun, in case you're interested. (I doubt it.)
Went to view a house at 6:30 which was really quite nice. The kitchen is a million light years ahead of my current kitchen but there's no tumble dryer ... room is a little smaller too, and more expensive at £56.25 a week (compared to £46 at the moment.) before, of course, utilities (£20 a month for electricity, and £70 a quarter for water/gas) so it works out around £266 a month rather than the present £215 ... it is, however, a far more secure area where my car is less likely to get stolen. Speaking of car crime, I had to wipe spit off the windscreen on Wednesday night before the OAP voluntary music project, as some scallies were seen hanging around the corner of our house by Dave. The bastards.
Our union is in severe debt and the executive officers have apparently lied about the state of finances ... I wonder what will happen. They charged 33% more to become a sports user this year than last, and neither myself nor the badminton captains have observed any discernible difference in the quality of provisions made for badminton. Unless it conspires we are funding clubs that have newly originated, which is possible.
Went for a second tutorial (not with my tutor, oddly) earlier today and was given a massive confidence boost when the professor told me he couldn't find my composition folio because my tutor had taken it to show some other lecturers. On the good side, this has put me in a sky-high sort of Prozac mood. On the bad side, it means I have to go in to see him again sometime next week. Watch out for next Tuesday as well, when we will have done post-production on the aforementioned 3 tracks, and recorded another 2! :) And to cheer me up even more, the professor bloke really likes my 3D vector/spatiality/postmodernist idea. He added that it might even be possible to combine 2 pieces for Major Composition with an analysis of what I was doing in Minor Dissertation ... which would be the godliest thing ever. (I'm sad.) Things are going so well at the moment! :)
An eye for an eye and the world ends up blind (Gandhi)
Thursday, 5 February 2004
live live recordings!
Evening
Feeling very impressed with myself today, as I have managed to record 3 of my songs in the university studios with the invaluable help of a great friend, Ian. We are meeting on Tuesday again, 10-12, to do post-production. For now the acoustic is absolutely great (the piano sounded blocky in the live space but great in the control room for some reason...) and I can't wait to record the last 2 songs. The demo disc will contain 5 in all, which is about right I suppose. The 3 we recorded today are quite similar in length ... 5:10, 5:22, and 4:58 ... but we have to erase silences at either end so it should still be just over 15 minutes for 3 songs at the moment.
I need to pack my keyboard and stuff up in a moment as I am doing my voluntary music project at the OAP home at 5:30. All hail condenser microphones! :)
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