Aardvark Blog

Me:
I think that I'm God. Who are you then?
God:
Hi there god. I am the Allmighty, God himself.
Me:
OK have a nice day!
God:
You too! Ugh.

OK point one, not everyone probably realised that until they read my first sentence. iGod called me god with a little g trying to gain the upper hand. iGod also ended with a strange Ugh which needs a bit of reading into. This is fun so I will have another go tomorrow.

I rerigged up Skype, AIM and ICQ yesterday and my computer sort of reformatted itself. I've got the icons to go small again but the webpages are kind of medium to large which is proving to be annoying again.

Also, I need to rig up the chat things so they don't just automatically start when I switch the computer on.

Skype seems to have changed quite a bit from when I was using it before. I was only using it for chatting in the box rather than microphone/telephone chat.

I have quite a few contacts on AIM but most of them don't seem to be there most of the time.

People tried to join up to me non stop on ICQ yesterday mostly with gobbledegook messages.

I have g-chat or whatever it's called as well from gmail, but this works directly from my browser.

I knew that my new CD Piano Colours had been broadcast in Riga, Latvia on their Radio 3 programme but just discovered that I'd had a substantial broadcast on a Classical Dutch Radio Station (such are the joys of ego surfing).

I wrote to my Cellist contact, David Johnstone in Spain to inform him of the good news and he immediately filled me in on a date in Tudela where his trio are programming one of my compositions.

Well, OK the w/e is here but the layout of my week with days off on Monday and Thursday isn't particularly conducive to normality as is precious little else with my life.

I didn't really want to get up today. There is a theory that says you have to have a reason to get up in the morning! Eventually I realised I have projects to get on with and that these are not going to complete themselves.

Several cups of tea later and I'm not sure how much progress I've really made. Yesterday I couldn't even face drinking tea though as it was all just too repetitive.

From philghodg:

Name the names without naming them. You can give them names you will know them as but we cannot know, namely if their name is Paul you can call them Peter. You know Peter is really Paul but we will only know them as Peter as we do not know Paul - Simple!!

My Response:

O that it were only that simple. Tell you what, I'll discuss it off-blog with Mr B he usually believes that things are best not left to posterity (then again, if I stop my membership of this website presumably several thousand of my words go up in Google smoke).

My flute-playing contact has started to record a set of pieces I am composing which go under the title of 'genre benders'.

I'll publish some more YouTube links tomorrow, but a couple are visible already:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt65AjyWueA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-s9OeWM0qw

I seem to have gotten vlogging out of my system though. I'd actually prefer tape without images i.e. radio; not that that's exactly easy to break into.

A lot of things have happened in the last 7 days. They divide into the following categories: too boring to publish or posts with names that would need to be named and the naming of names is not advisable.

I am more likely to update my twitter messages than blog-postings on here. That's also possibly due to trying to blog too many times, currently once a day.

It's probably better to blog retrospectively i.e. wait until I've actually done something rather than turn to my blog page first (or second) thing in the morning and try to generate something original while still feeling drowsy.

The only thing is that 99% of my day isn't worth committing to virtual paper.

Funny peculiar, that is.

The day has turned out to be more representative than other similar days, which is odd in a strange kind of way. Maybe I was expecting a more usual kind of 24 hours experienced through a 12 hour window. Personally, I blame consciousness or let's say lack of unconsciousness. One or the other, probably both.

The page layout is back to normal, at least. Was that predictable?

Firstly I'm taking the day off which means I do twice as much as I do on a normal working day.

I'm still trying to work out a time balance for the various activities I do during the course of a day. This isn't quite as easy as it seems.

One thing I've got to do is cut out various things completely. I have lots of scraps of paper on my desk with suggestions.

This is going to take at least a month or two and will probably result in a lot less time spent at the computer. Or then again, maybe not!

I've been trying to work out which websites are worth the effort. I've just about decided to give Twitter the thumbs up and Facebook the thumbs down.

BCUK is too addictive to give up and I am still managing to think up the occasional ludicrous or enigmatic question for 'ask or answer'.

There are a lot of activities that one can amuse oneself with on the computer.

I am trying to do some kind of time rationalization at the moment and am working out how much time I want to spend:

here at blog.co.uk
twitter (micro-blogging)
Photography Blog (a little known site that allows you to publish photos and receive comments)
YouTube either making videos or watching clips of other people

I also need to pencil in some time for real life activities such as lunch.

If the link works, this is an amusing photo I took entitled "World's".

http://www.photographyblog.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=92524&ppuser=3025

"snapped"

http://www.photographyblog.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=92525&limit=recent

A new Znethru & Mr B clip is up on YouTube now (although some of the old clips are better).

The main positive from today is that I got organised with the v-cam again today and put 27 minutes of footage of Znethru & Mr B into the can.

I will probably edit this down to 5 minutes or so tomorrow and post it over at YouTube. There's a lot of relearning going on as I have to get used to how the technology works all over again. Quite a bit of trial and error.

I have found a few spare seconds from my busy schedule to post another exciting blog.

I discovered today (while ego-surfing) that some of my landmark photographs of Edgware have been Universally recognized (not sure by who exactly) and given their own webpage here:

http://www.localmouth.com/go/edgware

In other news a) I have been invaded by ants b) I have realised that life is like living through glue (or something similar).

I am still recovering from my recent escapades, but things are definitely on the mend and I am gradually getting more done during the course of a day.

Extracts from emails sent this a.m.

"Yoghurt, Apple, Death or Eggs?"

A sentence that sprang to mind after opening the fridge this morning. Possible suicidal overtones here.

A clue is to be found here:

"Feeling unusually nihilistic this morning."

Which was sent in a separate message (probably to an incorrect email).

Other gems no doubt to follow.

I don't usually get up as early as I did today so there's more opportunity to achieve something!

I have been working away on my new computer and it's a great relief to be able to use Sibelius Software again to produce original music.

Things are gradually getting back to normal here.

I am writing a set of 17 genre benders for flute solo. Most flute music is with piano accompaniment but the new pieces I'm writing which bend the genre i.e. go from contemporary serious classical through to jazz and lighter styles are for unaccompanied solo flute.

I have a flautist in Hong Kong, Johann Chan who is learning the new pieces so that he can premiere them on YouTube over the next few days (I've finished 5 of the projected set so far).

I feel on something of a high tonight (this will all change no doubt tomorrow morning!) and I feel like I want to publish a load of blog-posts probably on fairly irrelevant subjects.

Having said that, I have probably almost already run out of steam having published a few here and some at "Ask or Answer" (group).

It's like the novelty of being able to publish instantly has come back to me!

I'm feeling slightly better in spite of the economic news etc.

I do feel a bit like I've heard every piece of music, read every book etc. Perhaps I'll know that things are back to normal when I'm pleasantly surprised by something.

Even now I surf radio channels listening to an unbelievably dull cricket match in the W.Indies, or some pretentious conversation about 'cutting edge' comedy or a piece of Classical Music that I've heard a hundred times before.

It also strikes me that everyone on this site who blogs is trying their hardest to achieve something that we are all unfulfilled in one way or another but that we use this website to vent feelings and to express things that society doesn't let us in any other way.

I think was used for the title of a novel as well as being used regularly on Radio 4. Not that I can remember many novels or films that I've seen in the last handful of years.

It seems like we're in some terrible economic doom and forecasts for 2010 range from bad to terrible. It would be nice to think that some of the newly 'printed' money in USA and UK might actually do the trick though. It is possible that we might 'talk' ourselves into a worse position than the reality actually is.

I've been grinding through life slightly the last 2 or 3 weeks. I'm still not quite sure which direction I'm heading in, but things are slightly more positive at the time of writing.

I still haven't got the new computer and that is at the top of the agenda, so hopefully at the beginning of next week.

I'm not sure where bolging is going to fit into my new schedule and there is a chance that I might withdraw from this site. I would like to offer the chance to stay in touch via email if anyone wants to drop me a direct message.

On the other hand, I will keep my membership of this site open for a few more months at least as there is also a chance that this is merely a phase that I'm going through.

I'm meant to be going to Switzerland in October to record a loosely pop-style CD with Mike Turtle (Production, drums, bass &c.) and Jessica Knoll (vocalist). I'd written 17 tracks for this project by early Dec. 2008 - it would be nice to think that this project will still be going ahead esp. that Mike has arranged half of the album's instrumental side while I've been regrouping!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=96222456

http://www.youtube.com/user/FeBlandMusic

First things first and let's make it through March. I've been teaching today and things are as normal as they've been so far.