Blimey it's been a while since I last posted so let's do a quick run down of what's been happening. We finally hit all the deadlines with work and so the pressure has kinda eased, though the occasional weekend day and extra hours are still present.
I managed to get away at the end of August for a bit, the O&S summer school was really good fun and a chance to get away from all the office stuff and concentrate on other things (mostly music). After that a load of us went on to Greenbelt for stewarding. This was only my second festival and my first on the support team. It was quite hard work, especially finishing after 3 most nights, but the work was interesting and varied, and made a huge difference from when I did venues a couple of years before. Plus I got a nickname, 'Guilty', which does have a backstory which people can ask me about if at all interested. Also it couldn't have been that bad as I'm all signed up for next year ;)
A while back I succumbed and bought a Nintendo DS, which is a very shiny piece of kit if you look at the main specs. There's a project out there to porting linux to run on it. Having got this working I thought I might carry on with my glut of C programming and port the latest Gaim release to it, as someone has made a very nice text front end onto it. This is all a bit geeky I know, and really it's a more see if you can rather than having really anything useful but I think it's quite cool.
Also I've started decorating other parts of my house, the office has had a couple of additions go on the wall, and I have all the parts necessary to put the book shelves up (though I might get some help in). The front room is the major project, firstly taking the wallpaper down and crying at some of the things I'm finding, and then sorting out the rest of that and painting and making it more my own. Hopefully the bulk will be done by Christmas, and Dad has said that he'll give a hand when I need it. *cough* painting *cough*
Finally, having joined the Southampton Concert Wind Band a few weeks ago, I finally plucked up the courage and went to my first concert. There were still a few pieces that I hadn't played fully but this didn't really matter (sight reading is a wonderful thing) and we survived nearly 3 hours of playing just out of the wind and rain in Port Solent.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Large Update 2
Not that this should become a normal occurrence but given the month lapse between posts let's catch up with what's been happening.
O&S made the trek up to Blackpool again to take part in the Breakout weekend that was being put on in the Winter Gardens. The fortnight before had been the rehearsal weekend which was a bit more southernly in Birmingham. Both weekends were a lot of hard work but really good fun, with some great music to play and a chance to catch up with friends again.
The drive back was hard but I did manage to get back to watch the second half, and then extra time, and then the penalties of the world cup final between France and Italy. Having Italy in the concert band sweepstake certainly made it more interesting to watch, especially once Italy had to take penalties with their record. However Italy managed to hold on and win not only the world cup but £48 for me.
On the subject of winning (please note the seamless links between these sections) Simon hosted a poker night last week for a group of us from work. Having only played poker on the computer meant I was unsure how well I'd hold up against real people, however I managed to come out the table winner (even if a lot of it came down to having a scoring hand on nearly every hand). Originally the winnings were going to be for drinks after Friday's Ultimate match but the heat and time put pay to that. Oh well it'll just have to wait for another time.
The Ultimate club is going well and I'm just surviving the current heat wave even if it just about kills me by the time I've run myself silly on both defense and offense. The exhibition match Friday lunch time went well (even if I had to wear dark at lunchtime in the sun) so hopefully we'll have a few new members coming down of a Wednesday.
We also ran the Sports Relief mile at work the previous week. I was fairly uncertain as to how well I'd manage it given how inactive I'd been in previous months but with a target of 10mins I headed off in the middle of the pack of 'runners'. In the end I (fairly) comfortably managed around 8mins which was fairly impressive. So my new exercise fad is to try and go running once or twice a week at work. The routes are fairly scenic and there's plenty of shade for when the temperature rockets as it has at the moment.
Finally (on the hottest day of the year so far) I headed into London in order to meet with a solicitor to help start the process of setting up the charitable company for the O&S. Certainly was an interesting meeting with a good outcome which should see things moving along.
O&S made the trek up to Blackpool again to take part in the Breakout weekend that was being put on in the Winter Gardens. The fortnight before had been the rehearsal weekend which was a bit more southernly in Birmingham. Both weekends were a lot of hard work but really good fun, with some great music to play and a chance to catch up with friends again.
The drive back was hard but I did manage to get back to watch the second half, and then extra time, and then the penalties of the world cup final between France and Italy. Having Italy in the concert band sweepstake certainly made it more interesting to watch, especially once Italy had to take penalties with their record. However Italy managed to hold on and win not only the world cup but £48 for me.
On the subject of winning (please note the seamless links between these sections) Simon hosted a poker night last week for a group of us from work. Having only played poker on the computer meant I was unsure how well I'd hold up against real people, however I managed to come out the table winner (even if a lot of it came down to having a scoring hand on nearly every hand). Originally the winnings were going to be for drinks after Friday's Ultimate match but the heat and time put pay to that. Oh well it'll just have to wait for another time.
The Ultimate club is going well and I'm just surviving the current heat wave even if it just about kills me by the time I've run myself silly on both defense and offense. The exhibition match Friday lunch time went well (even if I had to wear dark at lunchtime in the sun) so hopefully we'll have a few new members coming down of a Wednesday.
We also ran the Sports Relief mile at work the previous week. I was fairly uncertain as to how well I'd manage it given how inactive I'd been in previous months but with a target of 10mins I headed off in the middle of the pack of 'runners'. In the end I (fairly) comfortably managed around 8mins which was fairly impressive. So my new exercise fad is to try and go running once or twice a week at work. The routes are fairly scenic and there's plenty of shade for when the temperature rockets as it has at the moment.
Finally (on the hottest day of the year so far) I headed into London in order to meet with a solicitor to help start the process of setting up the charitable company for the O&S. Certainly was an interesting meeting with a good outcome which should see things moving along.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Thorpe Park - WooHoo!!!
Yesterday the brave few from Concert Band that were still around and able travelled up to Thorpe Park for a day of fun and adrenaline. I think the best way to go through this is my opinions of my favourite rides.
Nemisis Inferno
Feels very weird when you don't have anything under your feet for this ride, especially when a corner throws you out to the side or you're doing a loop and you don't see anything but sky for what seems to be an eternity. Apart from keeping a firm eye on the seat in front of me I did enjoy the ride though it'd be worth going on it again to try and gain more of the experience.
Stealth
This is the parks new ride for the year, and looks very scary as you look at it from various points of the park. The track appears very simple, you go up and come down but the up is vertical and the down goes beyond vertical before catching you again. This was the first ride we had to properly queue for and this actually helped quell my anxiety, though having the ride breakdown while we were waiting wasn't the best announcement I heard all day.
The ride itself really is something else, being accellerated to 80mph in 2.5secs is just breathtakingly fast (literally) while the down part with the beyond vertical has you hanging against the harness while the cart twists down beneath you. This ride alone gave me the biggest adrenaline rush of the whole day, though I'm not entirely convinced I'd do it again.
Tidal Wave
Before you even join the queue for this ride it warns you that you'll get very wet, and they aren't exaggerating. In reality it's just a very big log flume ride, but the amount of splash that you generate just gets you from every angle. Of course we weren't expecting the group after us to get us as well as we were waiting to disembark but given the heat of the day it wasn't long before everything was dry again (well mostly) while we queued for the next rides.
Zodiac
This would probably be considered a tame ride in comparison to all the others, but given that you start in a ferris wheel on it's side which then spins you up enough that your pod is already horizontal and then lifts so you start doing loop the loops as if in a plane (or nemisis). I can't explain what is was about this ride, but it definitely brought a smile to my face or maybe that's just the adrenaline from the day.
Collousus
10 loops in total and two corkscrews, so at least we knew what to expect, or at least that's what I expected. What I didn't expect was that you could move in the seat, so that meant on some bumps you were jolted out of the seat (much like going over a hump back bridge) and on the corkscrews you were totally out of your seat resting on the harness. We managed to do this one twice, and even the second time it was exciting and worthwhile.
Overall I had a really enjoyable day and managed to keep the old fear of heights at bay to take on some of the more challenging rides :)
Nemisis Inferno
Feels very weird when you don't have anything under your feet for this ride, especially when a corner throws you out to the side or you're doing a loop and you don't see anything but sky for what seems to be an eternity. Apart from keeping a firm eye on the seat in front of me I did enjoy the ride though it'd be worth going on it again to try and gain more of the experience.
Stealth
This is the parks new ride for the year, and looks very scary as you look at it from various points of the park. The track appears very simple, you go up and come down but the up is vertical and the down goes beyond vertical before catching you again. This was the first ride we had to properly queue for and this actually helped quell my anxiety, though having the ride breakdown while we were waiting wasn't the best announcement I heard all day.
The ride itself really is something else, being accellerated to 80mph in 2.5secs is just breathtakingly fast (literally) while the down part with the beyond vertical has you hanging against the harness while the cart twists down beneath you. This ride alone gave me the biggest adrenaline rush of the whole day, though I'm not entirely convinced I'd do it again.
Tidal Wave
Before you even join the queue for this ride it warns you that you'll get very wet, and they aren't exaggerating. In reality it's just a very big log flume ride, but the amount of splash that you generate just gets you from every angle. Of course we weren't expecting the group after us to get us as well as we were waiting to disembark but given the heat of the day it wasn't long before everything was dry again (well mostly) while we queued for the next rides.
Zodiac
This would probably be considered a tame ride in comparison to all the others, but given that you start in a ferris wheel on it's side which then spins you up enough that your pod is already horizontal and then lifts so you start doing loop the loops as if in a plane (or nemisis). I can't explain what is was about this ride, but it definitely brought a smile to my face or maybe that's just the adrenaline from the day.
Collousus
10 loops in total and two corkscrews, so at least we knew what to expect, or at least that's what I expected. What I didn't expect was that you could move in the seat, so that meant on some bumps you were jolted out of the seat (much like going over a hump back bridge) and on the corkscrews you were totally out of your seat resting on the harness. We managed to do this one twice, and even the second time it was exciting and worthwhile.
Overall I had a really enjoyable day and managed to keep the old fear of heights at bay to take on some of the more challenging rides :)
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Summer Concerts and Sport
Last weekend was the BeachFest ultimate tournament down at Sandbanks, and while we weren't playing this year Liz, Si and I were there to support Andy and Sally playing for Gecko. A slightly late start meant we missed their first match but were there for all the rest. The weather was hot and sunny and the matches interesting and frantic at times. Always good to see how the game should be played, now if only I could get some of that in to the practices on a Wednesday ;)
The Concert Band summer concerts were this week, and with the Southampton one again being sited at Bargate these were a good chance to play some fun pieces in a more informal setting. The concert went pretty well ignoring the music flying all over the place, and me not being quite used to the new reeds I've decided to move onto. Today should have been the Bournemouth concert but for various reasons this was unable to happen, which is a bit of a shame, but we did instead play outside Winchester cathedral which was a very nice venue. The main cathedral to the side and the greenery in front for the audience to sit on. With a sparser band than previously the concert went very well and the solo in Bohemian Rhapsody is still fun to play (along with the rest of the piece).
Finally it would seem wrong to post at this time without mentioning the world cup (currently Portugal are 1-0 up against Angola). The first England match was certainly interesting, so we shall see how well we progress through the competition. Plus there are a couple of sweepstakes on the side which always helps make things a bit more interesting :D
The Concert Band summer concerts were this week, and with the Southampton one again being sited at Bargate these were a good chance to play some fun pieces in a more informal setting. The concert went pretty well ignoring the music flying all over the place, and me not being quite used to the new reeds I've decided to move onto. Today should have been the Bournemouth concert but for various reasons this was unable to happen, which is a bit of a shame, but we did instead play outside Winchester cathedral which was a very nice venue. The main cathedral to the side and the greenery in front for the audience to sit on. With a sparser band than previously the concert went very well and the solo in Bohemian Rhapsody is still fun to play (along with the rest of the piece).
Finally it would seem wrong to post at this time without mentioning the world cup (currently Portugal are 1-0 up against Angola). The first England match was certainly interesting, so we shall see how well we progress through the competition. Plus there are a couple of sweepstakes on the side which always helps make things a bit more interesting :D
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Internet Freedom
While checking round the latest news and stuff I came across the latest campaign from Amnesty International which is trying to remove the censorship that some countries apply to the internet and what their citizens can publish and read. The site for this is irrepressible.info and as part of the campaign you can use your website to publish stuff that has been censored elsewhere in the world. An example of this is already on the right of this site and hopefully the campaign can change at least some things.
On a similar note the tv listings at bleb.org have had to remove ITV due to a law which says you have to be licensed to publish the TV listings for those channels. Obviously there's nothing that can be done at the moment, but it just seems silly when the information is already available on their websites.
On a similar note the tv listings at bleb.org have had to remove ITV due to a law which says you have to be licensed to publish the TV listings for those channels. Obviously there's nothing that can be done at the moment, but it just seems silly when the information is already available on their websites.
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