Another cold!!

This really isn't fair....while still dealing with the tail end of a 2 week cough from the last cold...I go out with friends for dinner on Friday night and start sneezing like a sick old man...sure enough next morning ANOTHER fucking cold is in full runny nose mode on top of the old chest infection... This is so not funny.

Spring here has been lovely, with warm sunshine and blue skies most of March, but have I had much chance to enjoy it...no I fucking haven't.

So miserable, can't be arsed to do any coding, music, videos or much else...just trying to keep my mind focused on work related stuff and try not to miss any more time.
And my massive stocks of strong UK cold meds have all gone, used up on the last assault.....
Study week this week, I don't usually have a lot to do, so I can catch up on paperwork and prep for the last block....suspect I'll be shoving tissue up my nose and apologising for the coughs, sneezes and general nasty ooze coming out of me.

bahhhhhh...


Ahthankyew

Sad news to hear the passing of Jenny Trotter

I heard today some very sad news. the lovely Jenny Trotter who with her husband Chris run the Creative Vacances guitar weeks in Bercloux France, where I have spent 2 very happy and fun filled holidays, has passed away after a short illness.

Really a shock, I was chatting with her on facebook only a few weeks ago, upset that my fixed holidays would not allow me to come down to spend another week this year. I had resigned myself to next year..

Next year might still happen, but I won't get the chance to see Jenny's happy enthusiastic face as she fusses over her guests and provides moral encouragement to the unconnected pickers and strummers, who will become friends over the week during their musical journey.

Very sad news..my condolences to Chis, her husband, and her daughter Alice. I hope the fun and joy of your lovely business will continue and grow in her memory.



Ahthankyew

hooomaan again almost

Aside from a cough which I am happy to say is now a nice productive phlegmy cough and not the dry heaving get a bit of spit out of your lungs cough I've had for a few days and nights. Also I got a good 8 hours sleep, on the couch, so as not to drive Brenda mad.

I feel a lot better today. Still not at the office though but hoping I'll get there tomorrow as I have a presentation to give

I am quite convinced that each time I get one of these colds they seem to be more debilitating and harder to shake, is this an age thing or are the colds mutating into hardier versions. I don't know, but this one has been nearly 2 weeks, ruined a holiday break and cost me 3 sick days.

might venture out to the shops in a bit. Get some vicks...apparently if you rub it on your feet and then put your socks and shoes on it stops a cough......not sure that's actually true, but am willing to give it a go.


Ahthankyew

1st sickie in a while

Wasn't up to going to work this morning, had about 1 hour sleep between coughs...might need to take another day...man this is the worst cold I've had. And all of it during some of the warmest weather on record here in Netherlands.



Ahthankyew

Well that wasn't much fun

The spring carnival holiday has been amazing, wonderful warm sunshine every day, lots of parties going on everywhere, people sat out in the gardens with wine...except for me... All bloody week I've had this stinking horrible cold, the last two nights I've barely slept as I deal with coughing fits that won't stop...

grrr.. I had some nice plans for this week...just as well I work in education, there's more hols soon.



Ahthankyew

Holiday cold

We're on Holiday
I have a cold
Miserable


Wanted to do a load of work on my retro and PS4  projects but have been feeling crap all week so done almost nothing....grr

almost out of Lemsips too...the week could not get any worse.


...ah theres still time...it could get much worse.

Ahthankyew

1,000,000 post on TCE

 A small personal landmark

I got the millionth post on The ChaosEngine, an industry only forum I have been on since it started..

 

quite pleased with that

 

 

Ahthankyew

New Guitar?

Nearly, got Margaret back from Dijkmans music after she had a service...wow, what a difference, no more buzzy notes on the E string

I've been noodling on her all evening and the difference is amazing. Will try her out on the Roland tomorrow to see if I get less misfires now that I don't have rogue harmonics firing off at random times.

ermm, that's I...not much else happing. Coding, and playing

off to bed.



Ahthankyew

Slow Month 86.6kg

Not been a lot happening this month to blog about, sorry about that, weight loss is slow but there is loss, a few other not very interesting issues...

Loving my new iPhone 5c but when all said an done its just a phone

Have had some absolutely great rehearsals with both bands and a serious sense of achievement in my playing, but not had much time for any vids of new songs.

Took Margaret to  Dijkmans Music for some set up as she's been getting more and more buzzy which affects the midi pickup sometimes. they called tonight at 8-30 to say it was ready..that's good service. I'll collect her in the morning.

Work wise there's a few changes in the pipeline which will be sad, but I'll report them later.

Have finally developed enough muscles to take my mega case up and down stairs by myself...very very slowly I need to add. I also took delivery of a few new gadgets earlier in the month, I suspect my gadget addiction is as severe as my GAS was at one point, but when you hear 2 guitar synths being controlled by 1 guitar, its well worth it.

I got a UX-20 control splitter and a really cheap GR-30 synth that lets me do arrpegiated chords/notes while still playing 3 instruments and a guitar at the same time, its awesome, but I do need to do a bit of learning/practice to get the best of it....job for next week.
That's because its Carnival week next week, traditional south Netherlands crazy time..., so I get a nice rest for a week so long as I say out of the town centre, and will certainly do a video, got a few
numbers I'm working on that might go down well in a loop version.

That's also why I took Margaret to the shop, to tighten up the tracking.
I did experiment with putting a GK-2 midi pickup on an Ovation acoustic and it works...okish but not as well as I hoped and tbh I'm not mad keen on the Ovation, but somehow just didn't want to put it to my lovely Breedlove, it spoils the look...hmmm I think it's best I just use my spare midi pickups on a couple of my normal electrics as backup guitars of for a particular sound.

We are doing Sex on Fire as one of our songs in Starrcase and despite the synth providing most of the sound on the riff, my band members seem to feel that Libby sounds better for it..so I might as well fit a GK-2 to Libby and one of my strats. That should cover all the bases.


Oh well that's it...like I say...slow month. Lets see if March has a bit more life in it.



Ahthankyew

89.9...its slow but its steady

Well I had to eat a bit more, probably caused by the dog running me ragged, but in a good way. I don't know who was more puggled after our walk to Masbos, the local wooded area for dog walkers..Harvey, Brenda or me, well actually I do. Me.


Harvey's already starting to look a bit sleeker, and cuter as if that was possible.

No vids, been busy with marking and Harvey, but will be restarting soon. Marking is almost over and I get a reasonably quiet block this block...2 days work at home, so I can catch up on all the admin in peace and quiet in the office and do some much needed programming on PhyreEngine and Unity which I need to get up to speed on.

Speaking of programming I'm also delving into some retro stuff in my own time, its incredibly fun and takes me back 20 years.. I'm messing about with a project on Colecovision, an old early 80's console. Its amazing how primitive it is good old Z80 assembler, but I've take to it like an old duck back to water...In fact if anything I am finding it much easer than I did back then, perhaps I have learned a few things since then :D



Ahthankyew

Guess who's coming to dinner and lunch and breakfast...for the rest of his life :D

 

 

 

Harvey has come home, Bina indicate she couldn't look after him properly and was going to give him away, but I simply could not allow that. Harvey has been with us since he was a few weeks old, and I've been there with him since then, teaching him how to sit, beg, stay and so on..though we never managed "lie down"...he just blinks when I say that. So he's as much my dog as he was hers and I couldn't bear the idea of strangers having him.

 

Well he's back with me now, back home and after a bath looking all happy and smelling fresh.

 

Brenda wasn't too sure at 1st but within minutes of meeting him she's smitten... I wish I could make someone love me that quick :D

 

Oh well who needs lie ins....early morning and late night walks will help with he weight I suppose.

 

 

 

 

 



Ahthankyew

Oh god that's just wrong

I was singing a song in the shower...it sounded good,.
I was singing same song into my mic accompanied by some wicked guitar playing..it sounded good..

I played back the recording..
.
.
.
I can't sing.

I mean, I really can't sing.

guitar was good though.

How come I can sing some things pretty well..but some things  I think I sound good on are just diabolical. And no I won't be posting the working copies....


Ahthankyew

89.7 Thats a surprise.

I must admit I thought I must have been up in the 95 range given how much plumper I look and feel..But really I've not put on any weight since my last attempt to look like an Adonis.

Oh well its still over what I should be by some margin, I need to drop 10-15 kilos and tone up.....hmmm easier said than done of course!

Ok well anyway 89.7 is the 1st weigh in....Lets get it down!


Ahthankyew

Ok, so if I cancel the gym....I better get to grips with the fatbastardpretendingtobeslim problem

Its a little late for a new years resolution, but I guess its time to accept, that Brenda's occasional glances toward my bulging tum as I slouch on the couch are not looks of lust...

She's right I am piling on the kilo's. I've not weighed myself since the scales need new batteries, its that long since I used them..

But I am fully aware of the ever tightening teeshirts and even tighter jeans that I am getting fatter.

So..back on the diet...not the gym though really, I just can't deal with gyms.. I just got an Iphone on contract and promised I would cancel that dead weight payment every month to pay for it.

I will get myself a bit more mobile and start on my famous but very boring soup, bread and protein diet which if I keep it up always seems to work, it just gets very boring....

Its going to be harder than usual since I do most of the cooking for us, as Brenda burns water ;) but I have to cut back a lot on the intake.. Going to go shopping later for some dried soups, and some protein shakes and some chicken and steak. I know the low carb diets are a bit old fashioned but I always find they have results with me......


I'll pick up some batteries too and start taking notes on the weight and post.

Ahthankyew

noodles and noodles of oodles

I must admit to being a bit disappointed with this, I liked the instrument sounds I got, but the vocals were just dreadful...I may go back to it sometime but my disappointment is pretty severe as I spent a long time getting this riff in my head and the tone, then my crappy vocals messed it up...maybe I can find a singing partner to let me focus on the playing....oh well here it is



I'm much happier with this weekends noodle though, even though for a simple song this also took a long time to get right, I was really not happy at all with my vocals on Street Spirit, so have been experimenting with more and more vocal settings...this is close, but not quite there, to what I want to achieve.






oh and staying in a capo mood...but with a banjo sound, I was messing with this.

I did get one perfect take...only to discove debut the video software crashed...so here's a working version of Snowbird on a banjo...on a BANJO...crazy shit!!



Ahthankyew

Man of the World

Still working on my Radiohead Street Spirit song, but diverted myself to something pretty.





Ahthankyew

Finally something I thought I needed and now I know I need it, has become needed.

I like using drum machines to maintain time and dynamics when you play solo, but when playing there's no way with the drum systems I have of being able to transition from a verse to a chorus or to add fills or accents..I kinda do it a bit with my AdrenalinnIII using the SP section of my FCB1010 board but its haphazard and requires tap-dancing multitasking....so I'm not really very good at it.

What I wanted to find was something I remembered from my childhood...Old Bontempi organs or whatever they were used to have drum beats on them to play along to, and they had a fill button where you could play along hit the fill button and the drums would play a fill.. transitions were possible by just changing the beat or whatever.

But I've never seen anything like that on a guitar based drum system..you are basically stuck with the one rhythm track over and over and over again...a few accents might be possible but still the same beat...over and over and over... Which means jamming on your own can eventually just run out of steam no matter how good the other musical parts are, the drums get boring....until now


http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/beatbuddy-the-first-guitar-pedal-drum-machine/x/5916944


What a fantastic thing.. I have immediately signed up for an early version of it, if it has half the abilities it says it has I should be able to have control over my drum systems and make much more effective rhythm backing tracks for my songs....well in theory :)

Thing is though this is such a great and frankly obvious idea that I will be amazed if the big makers don't suddenly start offering similar cheaper versions or ROM updates to their current units....but I suspect this one will be worth having.




Ahthankyew

And another year creaks to its ancient end

Soon be time to watch another Jools Holland Hootenanny, I like those shows.

ah 2013...you were a good year, as always a few downs, but overall lots of positives. Job has been going well, health seems fine aside from hitting 50 in the same way as hitting a brick wall while riding a bike in the freezing cold at 40kph...I do ache a lot more than I recall in 2012. But, back to plusses,  a record low number of man flus, a new car giving much more mobility, distinct improvements in my guitar playing, some fantastic gigs,  even some improvement in my singing, and of course lovely new relationship going along swimmingly.

Christmas was fun, we had friends over on Christmas eve,  for a full Turkey dinner I made, which was lovely...though I need to practice my carving skills. got to see Brenda gloriously drunk and talking even more funny shit than I do which was funny as hell, though the poor girls Christmas day hangover from hell has sworn her off drinking for ever and ever...lol we'll see.


yup, been a good year 2013.

I'm tying to top it off with a video but this weekends efforts are not really good enough...getting there and maybe a few more days practice will see something develop, but at the moment I'm not happy with it, so won't be posting anything.

I plan to fit a bit of coding in during this holiday as well, PSM have finally allowed the Netherlands into the program which means I can get my dungeon crawler program on the store and selling...It won't make a lot and I've probably paid out more for the graphics than it will make, but it will be a good test bed to see what the process is like.. A few more weeks of work should see it up and running...

Ah well, coding and playing...a great way to spend an end of year holiday before returning to work on the 6. I am looking forward to 2014...I hope that's not going to be a case of misplaced enthusiasm. ;)


Ahthankyew

Great end to the year

The NHTV Christmas party is usually a bit of a chore, a few drinks with people fom all depts. and some buffet..

But this year, it was held over at the Hotel and leisure dept at Sibieliuslaan and someone had the good sense to hire a great band...
STARRCASE were the headline act..

 We had a nice stage

 

And somewhere for the audience to dance.



 

 

 

So off we went

 

Of course I forgot to smile.

 

 

I did my best Bill Wyman impression even when singing.

 

 

 

But I did play really well.

If the link works you can hear for yourself

Brian singing and soloing like an old pro

Ahthankyew

Old old bones

Got a mini cold, that's being kept under control by my lovely UK cold meds, but I am still feeling a bit on the rough side....oh and its my Birthday....50.
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck


Never thought I 'd get this far.

Going to celebrate by buying sweets for everyone at work (strange Dutch thing, the birthday boy has to supply the treats) and then off to Final rehearsals for Thursdays NHTV Christmas party gig with Starrcase, not sure my voice will manage it though, I had to cancel my last singing lesson yesterday after my voice went during lectures..we will have to see.

I finally got my teeshirt...after a year and a half. :D though technically it was Geoffs :D

The pic was taken at the now legendary Brians Pre Birthday Partaaay last Saturday, which was a great success, mainly due to my awesome curries I supplied but also with performances from Starrcase and The Gadgeteers

 

It was a great night not too many musical mistakes and cool to see people up and dancing including Brenda, who was such a sweetheart last night she bought me a cake and managed to get loads of candles (as many as would fit) on the case without me even noticing before she switched off the lights and walked from the kitchen to surprised an oblivious me....sweet.

 

Oh well 50....Officially old....Father Abrahams is me....better get on with it.

 

 

Ahthankyew