Going, going… gone!

We went to a chairty auction tonight in aid of the Cat Protection League. We'd donated some cosmetics (HP's Dad works for Estee Lauder) and our cats have all come from the CPL so we like to support them as much as possible.

The auction was held at the Three Horse Shoes in Yaxley and the landlord helped tremendously by conducting the auction himself. A nice, funny Geordie bloke (aren't we all?) he got everyone involved and made it all fun. I'm sure this contributed to the excellent total raised.

day trip to London

We went to London yesterday to do some Christmas shopping. We drove down and parked in the spiral underground car park at Bloomsbury Square: the traffic wasn't too bad and we were enjoying a cake and a coffee in Borders by 10.30.

The shopping went well but Covent Garden market was a little disappointing. We bought a few things there earlier in the year and saw more stuff we'd like but yesterday it was all tat.

We had a cheap lunch at the Moon and Sixpence in Wardour Street where I was disappointed to see that Europa had been replaced by a copy shop. Another Underworld landmark gone… We nipped in to the 100 Club to see if my Dad's cartoons were still on the walls – one of them was but the others were taken home by the previous owner when he retired. Still it was nice that his son (who now runs the place) had fond memories of my Dad.

Then it was off to the hell of Oxford Street. Never mind the congestion charge and the bloody Olympics, why the hell don't they pedestrianise this street? I was already carrying all the shopping bags as part of my squinny limitation exercise but HP couldn't help herself after another fruitless visit to one of the big department stores in our quest for some string-back leather driving gloves (a jokey present for her Dad who recently bought an MG BGT). We sat outside a cafe and had a coke to cool down and relax a bit. Brian Blessed and Jonathan Ross walked by (not together). I was so tempted to shout "Gordon's Alive" at Blessed but kept quiet after remembering that episode of Father Ted where he shouts "I don't believe it!" at Richard Wilson/Victor Meldrew.

In the evening we got half-price tickets for Blood Brothers and that was great. I'm not a big fan of scousers or musicals but it was really entertaining with great performances by all the cast. The two male leads were fantastic at playing young boys. Tremendous fun and a nice way to end an enjoyable day.

everything is the same

Last night Davy and I drove down to London to see dEUS. Unfortunately due to the traffic from Archway to Euston Rd we missed the first two songs but they were very good. They certainly seem to be rejuvenated after a 5 year absence but considering they have 3 new members maybe that's not so surprising.

The set alternated between new songs and old stuff. The new songs all sounded good so next year's new album should be very good.

The Mean Fiddler (formerly LA2) is an awful venue. Cramped and with ridiculous sightlines, we had to stand near the back among people who talked through the whole gig. Add all the people going to and fro between the toilets or bar and it's testament to the band that we still enjoyed the evening.

sonoma farting about

I've received blog comments from employees of the company who developed Rifftracker which I mentioned in posts last week. How queer!

To be honest I'm thinking of getting my money refunded on Rifftracker coz I can't see myself using it. Once I'm good enough on the guitar to actually have ideas that I want to keep, I think I'd rather capture them in something more flexible. I appreciate that it's supposed to give you a streamlined workflow and sometimes having fewer options makes you more creative but I still don't like the user interface. I'm used to using Reason which all my other software gets compared to (usually unfavourably). When I got into DV I made the mistake of getting cut-down, limited editing software. Sure it was great for my first couple of projects but pretty soon I wanted more flexibility, more advanced options so I had no choice but to upgrade to a more professional package. I don't want to make the same mistake again.

Anyway, back to Rifftracker. While initially impressed with the InstantDrummer thing, I'm bored with it now and know that I won't use the intensity or variations feature much because of the sort of music I want to create (loop-based, ambient, repetitive).

The main thing I like about Rifftracker are the effects. For bog-standard guitar tones I already have everything I need in GuitarPort. RT's effects do give me access to weird tempo-synced effects and this is it's biggest plus-point for me. However, my dream piece of kit is an Adrenalinn II which does the same thing far, far better. When I eventually get my hands on an Adrenalinn that's going to leave Rifftracker pretty redundant.

lost weekend

Another weekend spent decorating. You'd think I lived in a mansion or something but it's just that I'm slow, thorough and easily distracted. I really must do some stuff in the evenings this week though or I won't get everything done before Xmas.

up a notch

Implementation time is getting pretty close now; about 6 weeks away. Suddenly all the stuff I'm looking after is becoming more and more important. It's meant that even I, the man who leaves promptly at 5pm (leaving colleagues and consultants to toil away until Jebus knows when), have had to stay late a few evenings. I don't mind when it's required: the thing that bugs me is when people do it every day. I digress.

I'm not used to having to work so hard so I'm quite tired in the evenings. And with weekends being attacked by the decorating monster, certain things are being neglected.

riff raff

Had a good play with Rifftracker last night… it's well cool. In the short term it'll distract me from my proper practice (scales, chords, etc.) but it's so inspiring to use, in the long term it'll be great for those times when my interest in playing wains.

The InstantDrummer feature is great and I'll probaby end up buying more "kits" but it's the FX that really grabbed me. One of the reasons I want an Adrenalinn is to get these tempo-based modulation effects that make the guitar sound like a synth – but the FX on Rifftracker go a long way towards providing those sounds. And for a lot less money.

I still want an Adrenalinn though…

rifftastic

I bought Rifftracker this morning. Can't wait to play with it tonight. Ooh and HP's going out to a community association meeting so I'll be able to play loud for a few hours.

organisation

Strangely for me, I'm sort of disciplined and organised at the moment. Maybe it's these weekends spent decorating or the fact that I'm a bit busier at work and it's carrying over into other areas? Whatever. I still have some way to go to fit in all the things that I'd like to be doing but its a start.

because I can

I don’t really have a good reason for doing this but I’m going to set up my own mail server. I have my own domain and an always-on net connection, so why not?

I’ve already setup a web server (the highly recommended, Abyss) which at the moment will host images only – the sort of stuff I might post in a discussion forum, for instance. And even though I love TypePad and it’s limitations, I’m also thinking about using Movable Type: either that or write my own site using ASP.NET.