Lubricated

Well currently felling as though communication is divine (pigphone - sadly all google searches for the old party site have long since vanished) and am mentally well lubricated because of My Best Friend's chat that has just concluded and in which games of Rock Paper Scissors were played over the distance of half the world (wtf?) and that was also fuelled by a whiskey or two.  It is after 2pm so hey, what the hell.

Anyway I thought I'd get back on the blog and type random shit.  Last day of unemployment.  Shit. 

Am listening to The Fragile by NIN and am reminded by my earlier post of the Neuromancer film preparative work that I carried out in my head many moons ago.  I was hoping to get Trent to do the music, but well, seeing as it was a theoretical exercise anyway decided that he was on board anyway.  So it was great to think about the music for Neuromancer the movie a la NIN, and then it quickly became a compilation album with Neuromancer themed music that I put out on my own record label under some fucked up DJ handle like Lupus Wonderboy or some such something.

Daydreams ARE free!

Anyway I got it down to a two-disc compilation.  First disc appropriately titled 'The Sprawl' would kick off with the excellent NIN instrumental 'A warm place', replete with its wasp hums and atmospheric build up and would then lead straight into 'Eraser'.  The shot for the credits that opened with it (sadly cliched) are already penned in a notebook somewhere and play in my head whenever those two songs play side by side.  Second disc notable tracks on the 'Freeside' (fuck I'm a geek) CD would be The Nomad's version of 'For the Love of It' which has this beautiful build-up that I always equate with Case's departure from Morocco to wake plugged into a terminal in space with hypoderm's in his arm and drum'n'bass piping LOUD through headphones, his heart only just having survived the flat line...
The other notable, is David Holmes 'Don't die just yet' which for many many many reason is SO appropriate for Armitage's death scene.  The sonar ping just fits the scene so well and the atmosphere of the music is totally tragic mirroring the way that Case reacts.

And this is the mental space that I go to when I'm having fun and thinking of HOME.  It is scary that stuff like this, unrealised and creative and so meaningful (to me), only ever exerts itself when I feel connected to the world and my place in it.  That is exactly why I love Neuromancer.  It makes me feel connected to this earth.  I have no idea why.  And I guess that is why I love coming back to it whenever I've done something that reassures my faith that I'm not about to fly off the face of this world, inconsequential and void. 

And of course I'd be thinking NONE of these thoughts at all if it weren't for alcohol.  Don't even get me started about that.  I'm for another dong.  Probably won't even remember any of this.  That is the devil.

--

"Don't die.." is playing in the background and soaring like it was meant to in its stuttered climaxes...

Pattern Recognition

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NZ Called

Whoopee!

NZ called, sounded fantastic, made me miss them and then told me to buck up my 'oh woe is me' ideas about life the universe and everything.  So now I am charged with enthusiasm for the new job and London and everything.  But then of course she spoiled it by signing off with a "come home before Feb '07" comment.  Conflicting advice there Acting Manager!  Sort that shit out before the worker bees mutiny.

Oh and instead of your gratitude journal, I've decided on a gratitude journ-cal, daily entries along the lines of:

Cal rocks the party, Oh she rocks the party,
Cal rocks the party, Oh she rocks the party,
etc., etc....
--

You know what?

Cal rocks the parteeeeee!

--

And special shout out the Captian Kes whose e-mail (in response to a whine) brightened my day immensely. 

And to Matt (c) who doesn't read this but will be chatting with me tomorrow thanks to google!

And generally being unemployed WITH purpose.  Life is all good.

--

Finally I agree that NZ is the place and I will be there soon enough.  Till then I'm off to make the most of the UK and beyond.

Pooh

...to Lost Season 2 Episode 19. 

Pooh!  And not a cool Pooh like a honey loving fellow neither!

Though confirmation of a Jin/Sun conflict is of interest...

--

I need to sleep but just can't quite be fucked.

--

Have been boozing.  Am quite wasted.  In a very lucid and awake kid of way.

--

Can't wait to hear from NZ.  Come on NZ.  Call!  I'll be sober 10pm NZ time...

Sweet nothing

Just a little note, of no importance that may or may not solicit comment.  

Easter is over.  I may not have walked 500 miles, but I did cover 41 over the break.  I intend to write about it sometime.  Not now for I have to enjoy my FREEDOM - unemployment with end in sigh (I remain that way till Monday 24th).

That is all, and till then I remain your Easter themed pimped snack.

Further...

RTB is finished 'Long live RTB'

~m, notes will follow in a less public forum.

Lost

Season 2 Episode 18 is a shrimp cracker of an episode despite far too much fat-man fun and frivolity.  It is all getting interesting(er) and interesting(er).

Good

Today is good - I have a job.  Interview yesterday, offer today.  'Tis all good.*

Guitar is good, the fingers on my left hand are supple and hitting the right strings today, and my right hand is strumming up a storm.  I just blitzed "Last to know" which was the VERY first proper song I ever learned on the guitar, and an old faithful in determining if the g-tar playing day will be good.

And all you people out there, maybe even reading this, are good too.

Have a good Wednesday.

* This post reminds me of the Scribe song that goes:
"...it's all good, when you come down to my hood!"

Today's favorite chords: 
Am C G D as a simple progression in both open and barr.
Cm G G# D# in barr (the chorus of a Wheezer song I vaguely remember from uni days)
Bm C G in barr, the core tune of Age Pryor's "Leave it all behind"

FIN

Nothing to report

Please go about your business as usual, for there is nothing of note to report here.

The Global Elite

Well, well, well.  I may be an unemployable chemical technologist, but I do still have the power to mingle with the global elite(tge).  This weekend I had a walk on role as a wannabe bartender at a soire hosted by none other than Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who'se tge page is here, at the amazingly old/huge/plush Ditchley Park, which he is director of.

You can read more about the house here, and look at the funny formatted map of the area that has an air of Ditchley authenticity here.

That is about all the news at the moment, 'cept for the fact that I'm half way through RTB, and the fact that both the cousin's in law from Oamaru, and in laws from Sidford, descend upon us in a day or two!  It'll be family all round.

I'd best go prepare for them.

Reading Drafts

As mentioned in earlier posts, I'm reading a draft of a book. Thus
far it is excellent, and I've just read a bit that made me want to
post this. I'm not exactly sure why. Bear with me...

--

I started reading the draft on my computer and I got to around page 60
before realising that I just wasn't enjoying reading it on the screen.
I felt guilty that this was then stopping me from concentrating on
the story, SO I wrangled a print resource, and now am the proud owner
of a book, unusually formatted yes, but a book nonetheless.

And I am totally glad that I did. Cause there is an aesthetic with a
printed page that you just can't get on screen. I'm really enjoying
just turning each page, it gives you a sense of achievement and
anticipation with every turn. And then sometimes the words on the
page play a wicked trick on you. Like just what happened to me now:

I turned the page, immediately registered the salient narrative points
(NP), and then leisurely read through the paragraphs connecting them.
And it was great cause when I got to the end it gave a me a wicked
sense of deja vu as the last salient point clicked into place. They
were:

<page start>

lead in paragraphs...

NP: I DID

linking paragraphs...

NP: THIS

linking paragraphs...

NP: RESPONSE

</page end>

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, for me and I guess all of us
out there that were trained to read pages, the page is something that
we can and we do understand. I batch process written information:
each page is a batch.

This has made me think that computerised written information
inexpertly delivers itself in batch format. As more and more
information ends up on the web or as electronic documents, I expect
our conditioned response to page-like batch information to change. And
I further think that this is interesting because most of the ebook
readers are still trying to emulate the page, when they could probably
be more forward thinking and design for the time when the page is not
the way people are trained to receive information.

If I had to guess what I think this design concept might be I'd guess
the endless scroll, though I'm uncertain if this is a byproduct of
watching the Matrix once-too-often!

--

It is also interesting cause the page layout described above is the
result of two things:
a) the writer's attempts to lay out the story in a digestible way, and
b) the computer's attempts to logically paginate that story into an
arbitrary size
These two things, over the course of a novel sized document, and
especially in terms of a draft, are in conflict. So it is almost a
fluke that the layout that affected me existed in the first place.

Does anyone else find that kinda creepy?

--

These thoughts have been brought to you in elongated non-paginated
scrolling form courtesy of RTB.