| Halloween 2009 |
[27 Oct 2009|10:36pm] |
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mood |
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 excited |
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music |
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Lords Of Acid - Voodoo U |
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This Saturday is Halloween.
I have a few choices of party. In London on the 30th is Antichrist. I've had a lot of fun at previous Antichrist's, but without a sub to enjoy the bdsm side of Antichrist I don't know how fun it will be. The music isn't too bad, but I wouldn't go for the music. The last time I went and didn't get involved in the kinky side I wrote it off as dull, but this time everyone I know will be out, meaning it would be a good event socially. I'll go if Jason can get me in on guestlist, but no way am I paying £25.
On the 31st is Tribe of Frog, which I most definitely will be attending for the fantastic lineup (Reality Grid and EVP headlining).
Would what be amazing would be to attend a traditional Samhain celebration, or at very least a Wiccan or other Neo-Pagan type event. One Samhain I intend to do this, but there's always other things on.
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| 10 Years |
[15 Oct 2009|08:00pm] |
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mood |
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 nostalgic |
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music |
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Loreena McKennitt - Arthas destiny |
] |
I can't believe its been 10 years since I was in yonder London watching fireworks, drunk off my 15 year old tits celebrating the turn of the millennium.
Seriously, 2010 is meant to happen in sci-fi.
1999 was a great year. A lot of games series were only up to sequel number '2' or '3' (Resident Evil, Final Fantasy for Europe, Tomb Raider) which are now onto '9' or '10' at least. Mainstream chart music included the whole nu-metal scene and the Euphoria-esque trance scene, Marilyn Manson was still releasing chart-topping hits. Perhaps most importantly the Matrix came out.
The internet was a lot fresher, everyone hadn't gravitated to a single Facebook or MySpace type social networking site so you had to use irc, usenet and the like. Coding a web page was much easier, because the possibilities were so few. You could even use frames and table based layouts! No wonder there was a .com bubble, being a developer back then must have been one step down from writing spreadsheets.
In 10 years so much has happened, but the majority of it was quite predictable. New wars, a new global recession, technology moved forward, new trends rose and fell in music and popular culture. The decline of record sales due to the internet was predicted long in advance of 2000.
I wonder if I'll be making another blog entry in 10 years along the lines of 'OMG has it really been 10 years since 2009?'
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| RIP Wonky Disco |
[14 Oct 2009|10:37am] |
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mood |
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 Still uplifted midweek |
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music |
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Logic Bomb - Son Of Satan |
] |
Last Friday was the last ever Wonky Disco, and one of the best psy parties I've ever attended.
It was the most empty I have ever seen the Colleseum, even the main room was pretty sparse when I arrived at 1am. However, the people who did turn up were the best crowd I've been around in a long time. Some old faces (Dan, Nicola) from parties I went to during the summer were around, some internet comrades showed up who I'd never met in person before, I met Full Lotus (aka 'Arv'), a darkpsy DJ I've listened to loads of times on the psymusic.co.uk stream. Logic Bomb were amazing, all the DJ's were fantastic, I even found myself enjoying dubstep in the breaks room for a while.
Afterwards I was invited to a house party. This was an immense after party, going on well into Sunday.
Its sad to see it go but the final Wonky was an immense party that won't be forgotten.
EDIT:
Some pics
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| Things are in motion |
[13 Oct 2009|01:56pm] |
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mood |
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 busy |
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music |
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Logic Bomb - Son Of Satan |
] |
Previously blogged planns are coming to pass.
I applied for a job with Sony doing web content management and user account management. I went for the first meeting with the job agency, where I was told they are very keen. In both qualifications and experience I am a little overqualified for the position I applied for, but as I'd like to try something else (NOT web development) it seems like a good idea. The work is easier, the stress is lower and the pay is higher. I am now awaiting the second interview.
I've found the perfect Masters degree to apply for , Web Design and Content Planning MA at the University of Greenwich. Whether I will accept a position if I am offered one depends on my work situation; if I get and really love this new job, I'll just settle in there for as long as possible and worry about getting a Masters a long time from now.
Yesterday I spoke with the MD of this company and told him I wanted the longer hours and payrise promised in September that have yet to materialise. I will stay here while looking for a new job, which hopefully take less than a month.
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| Developer Storytiem |
[06 Oct 2009|10:16am] |
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mood |
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 stressed |
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music |
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Placebo - Special K |
] |
So I came into work Monday morning heavily thrashed from an intense weekender of partying from Friday night to Sunday night. After staggering in the door I am called meaningfully into the MD's office. The e-commerce system we've deployed on one of our client sites has been messed up all weekend by not sending payments through, costing thousands of pounds of business.
Cue me sitting for hours desperately hammering away to find the issue, the MD visiting me every half hour to offer moral support in the form of 'Have you sorted it yet?!'. Stress building. Brain melting out of side of head.
Finally at 4pm yesterday the MD visited one more time with the threatening sounding 'If you can't fix this, we'll find someone who can'. All I've established in a day is that files are missing everywhere, and there is no time to sit and re-write whats missing.
This morning I came in and poked around on the server file tree to find several directories have been moved. I put them back to their original position and things almost work - at least new errors came about.
There are two types of work and both will eventually break you down mentally - boring or stressful. At this stage, I am so done with stress, I would like boring for a while. Who needs a window cleaner?
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| Re: file sharing killing music. |
[30 Sep 2009|12:10pm] |
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mood |
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 mellow |
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music |
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Grendel - Remenants |
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Posted on a thread on psymusic:
Ironically it's the small artists [like me] who benefit most from file sharing.
If it weren't for file sharing I wouldn't be sitting in a hotel in California preparing to play the Earthdance Festival before jaunting up to Canada for a week of gigs and then heading down the east coast and southern states of the USA until the end of October.
I'm playing in Moscow in November and Australia in January.
My marketing budget is zero quid and yet I'm known to probably 50,000 people worldwide - maybe more.
Ten years ago, pre-Napster, I would probably have been known to a handful of people in Britain and I still wouldn't be making a living from selling records.
I think it's bizarre that a roomful of millionaires should be whining on how unfair it all is. Fuck them.
P2p music sharing is the most incredible free viral marketing tool and probably the best thing to happen to music since the invention of the multitrack tape machine.
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| A horrific look in the mirror |
[28 Sep 2009|03:29pm] |
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mood |
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 amused |
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music |
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Lisa Lashes - Dance Floor Orgy |
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Let this be a wakeup call re: our conversational skills.
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| Hair |
[22 Sep 2009|01:15pm] |
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mood |
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 Thinking |
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music |
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Skazi - Vampire |
] |
I cut it the other week. Its not great, I just trimmed off the ends.
Next move will be to bleach it and put in thin white dreads. No undercut is planned, however. This is sort of what I have in mind:
Obviously I won't look quite that h4wt. I imagine my workmates will have some epic lulz. If my boss complains I will explain it'll take a few weeks to get rid of them through combing them out (I very much doubt it though).
The dying it white idea has slipped through, I don't have the effort involved. When it grows back (I'm leaving the dreads in for a couple of months) I'll dye it blue and cut it into a graduated bob.
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| LJ vs Facebook |
[22 Sep 2009|10:23am] |
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mood |
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 Lazy |
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music |
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Angelspit - Grind |
] |
| Livejournal |
Facebook |
| Whole articles, potentially with lots of information. | One sentences and the odd note, but at least uninteresting rants only go on for a single sentence |
| Tendency to join lots of communities, but only have three of your actual friends added | All your friends are on it, I promise you. |
| Its purely for blogs. You don't have to suffer a shitton of other crap, but then, you don't get a nice easy place to put everything. | There's pics, links to your pics all over the place. |
| Not very regular, some days you can check your friends list and all you'll get is community posts. | Very very regular updates from everyone. Its very close to Twitter in function. |
| Your bf will not choke you to death if you change your status to 'single'. | Your bf may choke you to death if you change your status to 'single'. |
| There's a feeling of progression to a pure blog/collection of blogs, like a story always getting written. | Updates don't feel like they're going anywhere or building to anything larger. |
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| Clubbing, where planning is half the fun |
[18 Sep 2009|07:56pm] |
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mood |
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 awake |
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music |
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Cosmic Gate - Fire Wire |
] |
I'm officially out of money this month. Going to Sy's house party tonight, then I am going to be broke as a joke.
Next month is already filling up.
| Gravity | 02/10/09 |
| United Concious | 03/10/09 |
| Wonkey Disco | 09/10/09 |
| PA | 09/10/09 |
| VNV gig/Slimelight | 17/10/09 |
| Antichrist | 30/10/09 |
| Slimelight | 31/10/09 |
There's a conflict here between Wonkey Disco and PA. It is the last Wonkey Disco, but a few people on my Facebook have expressed an interest in turning up to PA for the first time to check it out. I am sorely torn there.
I estimate this will all cost around £57 in entrance fees, £75 in nice things to enjoy inside and easily £50 on travel. It looks like I won't be making any other purchases.
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| I'll see your heteronormativity and raise you a FUCK OFF |
[15 Sep 2009|02:31pm] |
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music |
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Ayria - 100 Transmissions |
] |
The office admins claim to hate men. They also assign staff their tasks based on their gender - apparently this is an effective method of getting the right person to the right job. The MD of the company believes being a bloke directly impacts his ability to pick cleaning chemicals. He refers to people by gender rather than name (I'm 'young man', the admins are 'dove' or 'lass', etc).
Lobotomy plz.
The place I freelanced at before this, most of the female staff were project managers. The atmosphere was all a bit femme amongst the male staff (who were outnumbered). It was comfy. If I was a mad skillz develop0r 7331 maybe I could have remained there.
I intend to stick at this job, I like the work. I think I have to learn to accept the majority of people are comfortable in their assigned gender roles, I'm the one with the problem. Apart from the outright sexism I don't have a lot of grounds to complain. I did raise the issue that sending fe/male staff off to jobs specific to their sex is absurd, but it was immediately ignored. My Little Pony t-shirt day is approaching.
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| Polyamory - How Long? |
[14 Sep 2009|04:00am] |
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mood |
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awake |
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music |
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Icon of Coil - Faith:Not Important |
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I'm seriously questioning my poly status.
My first thought is that it might not be a good long term plan. Now that I'm 25 and have very few commitments its not a real issue, but I envision a time in a couple of years or maybe as much as five years when I go out partying a few times a year rather than every weekend, I'm entirely settled and well established in my career and I will want a permenant relationship with a reliable, steady partner. Having three or more partners is a lifestyle more suited to my current situation than settling down with someone together in a house with a few cats.
Being poly limits your choice of partners much more than it opens up possibilities. Very, very few people out there are going to want a relationship with you if you already have a partner, or three partners. Most people will insist on monogamy for anything more than friends with priviledges. This includes a lot of people I think would be great partners to have.
Without getting into the gory details, I am single again. This leaves me in a position where I can choose, monogamy with one partner or polyamory with several, without causing any harm. In either case I don't intend to have any partner at all any time soon.
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| PM apologises to Alan Turing |
[11 Sep 2009|12:21am] |
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mood |
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 geeky |
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music |
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Skinny Puppy - Worlock |
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Link:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?h=0b2c81c5890c4f9df5a00f5882e7bd97&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.number10.gov.uk%2FPage20571
Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ - in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence - and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison - was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later.
[...]
I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years this government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT community. This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long overdue.
But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for his contribution to humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united, democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in living memory, people could become so consumed by hate - by anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices - that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years. It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present.
So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved so much better.
Gordon Brown
Why did they even bother to chemically castrate homosexual men? What are they going to do, breed with your wife?
RIP Alan Turing.
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| Commenting your code |
[09 Sep 2009|11:35am] |
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mood |
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busy |
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music |
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Electrypnose – arcangemy |
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Place the following within comment delimiters of your language of choice to express how you feel reading old code. (The fact you wrote it yourself does not prevent the feeling).
............................................______ __
....................................,.-‘”...................``~.,
.............................,.-”...................................“-.,
.........................,/...............................................”:,
.....................,?........................... ...........................\,
.................../.................................................. .........,}
................./.................................................. ....,:`^`..}
.............../.................................................. .,:”........./
..............?.....__............................ .............:`.........../
............./__.(.....“~-,_..............................,:`........../
.........../(_....”~,_........“~,_....................,:`..... ..._/
..........{.._$;_......”=,_.......“-,_.......,.-~-,},.~”;/....}
...........((.....*~_.......”=-._......“;,,./`..../”............../
...,,,___.\`~,......“~.,....................`..... }............../
............(....`=-,,.......`........................(......;_,,-”
............/.`~,......`-...............................\....../\
.............\`~.*-,.....................................|,./.....\,__
,,_..........}.>-._\...................................|........... ...`=~-,
.....`=~-,_\_......`\,.................................\
...................`=~-,,.\,...............................\
................................`:,,.............. .............`\..............__
.....................................`=-,...................,%`>--==``
........................................_\........ ..._,-%.......`\
...................................,<`.._|_,-&``................`\
I love working in e-commerce.
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| Two weeks |
[09 Sep 2009|10:38am] |
| [ |
mood |
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 complacent |
] |
| [ |
music |
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Jones & Stephenson – The First Rebirth |
] |
No platforms, no UV light, no 4/4 kickdrum beats, no Goth's, no hippies, no fags, no cybers, no trannies, no regretamine, no Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, no Mandy, no sex, no flirting, no thoroughly abused bathrooms, no waking up at an afterparty in some unknown London borough, no parties, no clubs.
This weekend I'm just going to chillax and the weekend after, a marathon D&D session lasting 24 hours. Soon I'll be able to pee without that burning sensation, flashbacks at the desk will be a thing of the past, and I'll turn up to work on Monday morning with no pain. ph34r, I will follow through with this plan.
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| Americans are mentals |
[08 Sep 2009|10:55am] |
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mood |
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calm |
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music |
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Code 64 - Starchaser |
] |
I've managed to not see Bowling for Columbine until last night.
For me the most interesting part was the investigation into how Canada (and Finland for that matter) has a similar gun-to-citizen ratio as America and manages to have a significantly lower murder rate (by approxmiately 1,000 murders a year). They put the blame mostly onto the popular media. That's probably true, although that media arises from a culture that is quite paranoid in of itself. Just showing happier news stories would probably not be enough, a lot of cultural changes would have to take place before the murder rate of America dropped off.
Course the sheer amount of guns available in America doesn't help prevent psychos from doing what they do.
The British media is not much better - we are told a lot of stories of children being horribly murdered (Baby P, Shannon Matthews, blah blah). However we don't seem to live in the same culture of fear-the-people-on-the-street that America does. I'm sure a media studies student deep in Bedfordshire University is working on this as I type.
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green_dreads's journal
chipper
