Infotainment for Aardvarks.
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to add a million squid to your bank account, *clicky here*
to achieve world peace and all that jazz, *clicky here*
to solve the greenhouse effect, *clicky here*
to check your mousey is still working, *clicky here*
Just realised I'd had a guestbook 'sign' (on an obsolete website!) from a school chum from the heydays. This could be fun to follow up when I get back to London esp. considering that the person in question is something pretty high up in the medical world.
I've had 5,000+ pageviews today with around 50 unique visitors. Someone must be about to offer me a publishing deal - (yeah).
Are you as bored as the chairman of the board of B.O.R.E.D. inc. - I am assuming he must be a very boring person indeed who wears a lot of grey.
duh - this really exists!
Andrew Largeman shuffled through life in a lithium-induced coma until his mother's death inspired a vacation from the pills to see what might happen. A moderately successful TV actor living in Los Angeles, "Large" hasn't been home to the Garden State in nine years. But even with 3,000 miles between them, he's been unable to escape his domineering father Gideon and the silencing effect he's had on his son from afar. Stunned to find himself in his hometown after such a long absence, Large finds old acquaintances around every corner living quite unique lives as gravediggers, fast food knights and the panderers of pyramid schemes. Meanwhile, at home, he does his best to avoid a long-simmering but inevitable confrontation with his father. By a twist of fate, Large meets Sam, a girl who is everything he isn't. A blast of color, hope and quirks, Sam becomes a sidekick who refuses to ride in his sidecar. Her warmth and fearlessness give Large the courage to open his heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life.
Just working myself into the holiday mood, there.
afk Listening to 2nd edits of 'Piano Colours' we have to listen out for any last minute.com alterations to the master before we go to print.
We all know that
The cat sat on the mat.
but,
Did the Aardvark bark in the park?
I am welcoming any more FaceBookers out there btw.
I have now completed the work I was doing on a composition and can start to get into holiday mood/mode.
In other news, someone phyred me earlier today - ha ha - now I am closer to my goal of exactly 100!
I have been doing some 'arranging'. This is about ten times easier than composing, but still pretty difficult!
I have taken a work for Piano solo (Raindrops from my 12 Jazz Piano Pieces) and written it in a version for Cello + Clarinet + Piano.
I have a trio of this combination who have taken a bit of a shine to my work and are programming it in half-a-dozen concerts around Europe within the next few months.
The arrangement will be visible and audible over at my Sibelius page within the next day or three.
An eccentric but brilliant French film.
Notorious criminal Milan (Hallyday) is sent to a small French town to knock off the local bank. With plans to make and no place to stay, he accepts a retired schoolteacher's (Rochefort) offer of shelter. Quickly they find that their lives might have turned out better if they were in one another's shoes...
Fyodor Dostoevsky declared it to be "flawless as a work of art". His opinion is seconded by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style" and the motif of the moving train, which is subtly introduced in the first chapters (the children playing with a toy train) and inexorably developed in subsequent chapters (Anna's nightmare), thus heralding the novel's majestic finale.
Strong recommendation for stopping doors (and reading). They attempeted to make this into a tv series in the early 70's - 16x1-hour episodes.
Miles is a failed writer living a meager existence in San Diego as an English teacher. With his career seemingly fading and the fate of a book hinging on a publisher's decision, Miles is depressed with himself and what he hasn't achieved. Jack is a television actor whom some recognize but not many do, as if he were a minor actor who got a taste of success. With his best friend Miles, the two embark on a road trip through California's wine country. Miles wants to give his friend a nice sendoff before married life, while Jack simply wants to have a fling beforehand. As they're both nearing middle age with not much to show for it, the two will explore the vineyards while ultimately searching for their identities.
strong recommendation if you missed this one first time around.
It's been one of those days really. I had a forked choice regarding my evening at around 6.10pm and decided to spend quality time with a friend rather than shooting some cards down at my regular bridge club.
This turned out to be quite a pleasant decision as I do enjoy "shooting the old bull" with a chum from time to time.
Next tonight will be one of my famous late night trips to Asda, Colindale. This is always a little depressing, but a necessary evil as it doesn't do to let your fridge run too low.
afk I have been listening to Glenn Gould playing Bach's Toccatas. Another hot recommendation.
I am looking forward to being in Edin. for a bit of a break soon.
Life, that is... and of course, so many activities that you participate in during your lifetime.
I am feeling particularly chilled this evening (a bit like the water I am drinking).
What will tomorrow bring? That (of course) is the beauty of random to the power of random.
You too can become an expert in Greek!
Good morning - Kalimera
Good evening - Kalispera
Good night - Kalinichta
Hello - Yassou
How are you? - Ti kanis?
Very well thank-you - Poli kala, efharisto
Please/You're welcome - Parakalo
Thank-you - Efharisto
Thank-you very much - Efharisto poli
Yes - ne
No - ohi
Okay - endaxi
Retro is a term used to describe the culture of the past.
Culture includes technology, art and science, as well as moral systems and the characteristic behaviours and habits of mankind.
Art is a product of human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind and/or spirit.
The three main art forms are music, literature and painting.
3 (three) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4.
Retrograde is a retreating motion studied in multiple fields:
- Retrograde is a type of musical permutation.
- Retrograde and direct motion refers to the movement of an astronomical object.
- Retrograde is also a 2004 film which I haven't seen.
I don't think I've been called this (yet).
Say you have the kos a, b and c. Black takes a, White takes b, Black takes c, White retakes a, Black retakes b and White retakes c, repeating the original position with the same player to play. Under the simple ko rule, Black could now retake a again, and the cycle would go on forever.
Used to indicate that a quoted passage, especially one containing an error or unconventional spelling, has been retained in its original form or written intentionally.
i.e. when I write about bolgers and bolging [sic] phyring [sic] bolging friends &c.
And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I hate (and I mean hate) this rhyme. Here's another damned example of it:
I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain
To see for certain, what I thought I knew
[If you close your eyes, how can you see?]
Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
This has been said b4 - the protocol is to visit your intended blogging-amigo's pages and leave a comment (or two) before hassling them to become your friend. Also, write a 'personal note of invitation' - this way you are more likely to actually be accepted.
And so, goodnight.
I have two 'friends' with this mentality and I've been trying to work out the mathematics of it. They 'borrow' a few pennies here and there over a course of ten years, they are probably between £5 and £10 up on the deal. So, they are 'making' around 50p a year. However, you have got to weigh into this equation the fact that they are greatly annoying all of their friends. This is hardly worth it for 50p a year...
Keep this saying ever fixed in your mind as you pursue difficult tasks.
I like having people to bounce ideas off. I am not the head of an organisation (yet). This is even more apparent bearing in mind someone has just doorstepped me. L8r
So, this is the drought we here so much about, is it? My theory is that it should be warm and sunny all day and rainy all night - a far superior schedule to the one we have currently.
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps
Meaning
Improve your situation by your own efforts.
Origin
The origin of this descriptive phrase isn't known. It refers of course to boots and their straps (laces) and to the imagined feat of a lifting oneself off the ground by pulling on one's bootstraps. This impossible task is supposed to exemplify the achievement in getting out of a difficult situation by one's own efforts.
It was known by the early 20th century. James Joyce alluded to it in Ulysses, 1922:
"There were others who had forced their way to the top from the lowest rung by the aid of their bootstraps."
A more explicit use of the phrase comes a little later, from Kunitz & Haycraft's British Authors of the 19th Century:
"A poet who lifted himself by his own boot-straps from an obscure versifier to the ranks of real poetry."
Some early computers used a process called bootstrapping which alludes to this phrase. This involved loading a small amount of code which was then used to progressively load more complex code until the machine was ready for use. This has lead to use of the term 'booting' to mean starting up a computer.
Definitely worth joining this site - a very enjoyable experience. Two of the best recent additions to the site are 'Aquarium' where you 'give people fish'(!)...and, Graffiti (a painting/drawing application).
It's a mobile phone for £60 from Virgin and was delivered in 16 hours (which is fast). I haven't tried messing around with it yet, as I have a friend who is a bit of a whizz with these sort of things and is meant to be dropping by later to 'set it up' for me.
Just watching this for about the 4th or 5th time (on PVR). Another 'too good for words' Mike Leigh offering. It's the little touches (or 'strokes') that make this film approach masterpiece level. Virtuoso acting performances - a very sensitive piece of work.
although nothing particularly memorable has happened. My Facebook page seems to be getting larger and larger though.
Warm, isn't it?
It's concerned with minimising expenditue, effort and travelling, while maximising income, capital and hedonism. So far it has meant that I had a slightly quicker than normal shower today.
So, either August has come early, or there's something wrong with my computer.
Does anyone like this new format? I am finding it difficult to get used to.
I keep thinking of films I missed out from my top ten! Really, I only listed titles that sprang immediately to mind. Ones I missed out certainly include:
Il Postino
Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources
Three Colours Blue-White-Red
and one I mentioned in a very recent posting:
Buffalo '66
No doubt others will spring to mind early tomorrow morning.
http://enterthevoid.blog.co.uk/2007/07/15/bloggers_top_films_to_see_whilst_still_a~2637444
