Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Since moving this blog from the blogspot server over to tripod, traffic has been quite slow, about half of what I was getting before. Now, some of this is simply because a lot of people don't like popups, and I don't blame them. Some is because the search engines have been quite slow in indexing this site, and some is because not everyone has seen fit to update links to here. This isn't a complaint... just an observation. Anyway, I've done something about it. The blog on the blogspot server now redirects to here. I didn't do this sooner, because that would've meant that people couldn't read the old archives if they'd wanted to, so what I've done is transfer all of the archives, every single file on the old blog in fact, over here. See the 'Old Archive' links down there on the left? That's the blogspot blog.Labels: blogging
Steve 9:36 AM [+] (0) comments
So there I was panicing, wondering why I couldn't get my web site to load. Had the company gone bust? Had they cancelled my account for not using the isp enough? (one of my various isp's hosts the website, on condition that I use them on a regular basis) Was I gonna have to start all over again from scratch with new hosting elsewhere, and all the hassles that go with promoting the site? Nah. I worry too much. A quick visit to the isp website was all that was needed to learn that they're doing a server upgrade. I look on that as a good sign too, as I've been a little concerned that they may fold. They certainly wouldn't be upgrading if they were. (well, probably not)
For tonight though, anyone trying to get into the chatroom who isn't running mirc or similar irc software is out of luck.
Steve 2:31 AM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
So, I recieved a reply regarding the job I appled for a couple of weeks ago. I didn't get it. Ho hum. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that having been fired from my last job, regardless of the reason or circumstances, has rendered me unemployable in most companies' eyes. There is a solution to this, but... *shudder* spending any ammount of time doing agency work is never a good thing. Anyway, for the moment at least, I seem able to get by as is. I'll keep looking, as much just to keep a clear concience as anything, but aren't going to get too stressed about it.Labels: work
Steve 4:30 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, July 29, 2002
Wow!We just had the most awesome storm. I haven't seen so much lightning, heard such violent thunder, or been so comprehensively drenched since `92. The main storm lasted about 3 hours, and the lightining was constant... no letup at all. It's still going in the distance, but I figure it's just about safe to hook this thing back up to the phone line now.
The feeling of relief is immense, as the heat and humidity of the past week has been very hard to handle.
Ahhhhhhh..... *sits back and relaxes*
Oh, here's a pic of the rain. You can't really see how heavy the rain is in it, but it gives a rough impression.
Steve 8:37 PM [+] (0) comments
An interesting observation I've noted about webcam viewers, or at least, the ones who frequent the webcam community my cam is displayed on. While they'll happily sit and stare at a streaming webcam for hours on end, even when the person isn't doing much, they don't appear to be interested in anything but watching.
How do I come to this conclusion? Well, I've had my cam up now continuously for the past 3 days, accumulating a couple of thousand hits, and guess how many people have followed the link from the cam page to this weblog? None. I don't get that. I actually simplified the design of the cam page, as there was a lot of stuff on there, since observations I made while designing my website suggested that your typical cam watcher doesn't actually care to read much... so now there's just a small amount of text, and a small collection of links. Response? None. How odd.
Actually, no, I tell a lie, I did recieve on email from a guy who's noticed something I mention on my page... that people love watching someone sleeping on cam. He does that too, and gets massive hits. That's straying from the point though.
I guess I don't get it, 'cause it's not how I am when I go wandering through webcam communities. Sure, I like watching people, getting a little peak into thier lives, but if I see someone who grabs my attention, I like to read as much about them as possible. What do they do? What do they like? What do they think? If they have a chatroom, I like to go in and say hello. So what gives? Am I the strange one, or are these people treating webcams like tv? Instant gratification, with zero interaction. *Does Homer Simpson impersonation*... "Can't think now... watching." This would appear to be voyeurism taken to extremes.
*Shrugs* Maybe I'm just disappointed that people are happy to watch me, but don't find me interesting enough to actaually look any further. Yeash... I could get a complex.
Labels: webcams
Steve 5:13 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, July 28, 2002
Watching Grosse Pointe Blank on tv. Good film, darkly funny.I'm finding it strikes something of a chord, the whole school reunion thing. "So what've you been doing for the past 10 years?" ... "Oh, I'm a professional killer" ... "Good for you. It's a growth indusrty."
Thing is, I recently signed up to this school reunion website, and a few old friends got in touch, and the situation's rather similar. Here they all are, with thier normal lives, good jobs, married, kids etc, and then there's the question... "So what're you doing?" Well... okay, so I'm not a professional killer, but... how do you tell people you rather live on the fringes, finger in several pies, none are real money spinners, but that life's great for no obvious reasons.
Anyway... brilliant film, and John Cusack impresses the hell out of me.
Labels: movies
Steve 10:47 PM [+] (0) comments
Ever watch old westerns dubbed in russian? It's weird.
What can I say, I've been rather engrossed in internet tv stations, and the best quality one I found was actually russian. Okay, so I didn't understand a word, but the production values were way above most of the crap out there. Judge for yourself, this portal has a huge collection of links to stations worldwide. There's a good mix of narrowband/broadband stations too, so it's well worth a look, if only for the novelty value.
Steve 9:12 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, July 27, 2002
Oh I'm loving this. Feel the speed. Feel the power.... Muahahahahaha.... next stop, world domination. Er....Well anyway... I have a little project brewing in my head, something that wasn't really viable till now. For a few months, till my isp clamped down on the number of hours I was online, I ran a bot in the chatroom. Following batchat, and the amusement of some people when I told them about a pervbot I ran a few years ago, I figure it's time to create a new bot, with its very own chatroom.
What kind of bot? Well... I guess it's gonna be the octopus bot. I won't leave it in the main chatroom, as by the very nature of this kind of bot, it would be very dissruptive to decent conversation. A room all of its own though, where people can go in and find themselves abused, insulted, and generally mucked about by a virtual octopus could be a lot of fun though. Watch this space for further details as and when they're available.
Steve 7:20 PM [+] (0) comments
Woohooo!!!!
Never mind waiting till monday, the adsl package went online today.
Now, time to go find cool ways to take advantage of it :)
Steve 7:55 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, July 26, 2002
Heh, I didn't think anyone actually played that game down there on the left, but last night in batchat, Faith asked me where it comes from, 'cause she rather enojoys it. So... anyone who wants it, you can find it here.That whole site's actually a very good source of free java and java scripts.
Steve 8:22 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, July 25, 2002
what movie symbolism are you? find out!
Steve 8:11 PM [+] (0) comments
Clothes shops in Milton Keynes suck. All I wanted was some black jeans and a few t-shirts. Can you walk into a clothes shop and buy something as simple as that? Hah! No chance. Everything's all trendy, 'fashionable', and frankly, bloody horrible. I don't want some stupid grey polo shirt with a bloody great 45 plastered all over the front thank you very much. I mean... what's that all about? 45? Stupid.
So after serveral hours wandering in and out of assorted night clubs (well, they couldn't be shops with the music up that loud could they?), I found a place tucked away that had a closing down sale. 4 pairs of black jeans at £5 each... thank you very much. Now... t-shirts. There's a place on the market that I noticed a while back selling gothic(?) clothes. Mostly just Slipknot t-shirts and other crap that I wouldn't touch with a very long stick, but after rummaging, I found 3 decent t-shirts... Led Zeppelin, Siouxsie (circa 1980) and NIN. Sorted. It feels good to wear something that's a bit more representative of my taste again, as lately I've just been wearing anything that didn't look totally awful. Now if I can just find some decent shoes....
Steve 6:22 PM [+] (0) comments
Ok, testing the new chat applet now. If you want to try it, CLICK HERE
Delete the text in the box where it says "Nick" and put in whatever name you like, then click the area below. Don't worry about the password or server boxes. You'll get a java alert asking if you wish to run the applet. It states that it doesn't have a trusted cirtificate, actually, it doesn't have a cirtificate at all, so its possible it could cause problems if you have your browser security set quite high. I don't think it's anything dodgy, just that it's written by some guy as a hobby, who's not too concerned with cirtificates and stuff. Anyways, it works fine on mine, with no aparrent security problems, hits to firewall, or anything else strange going on, and as the irc network scans for hidden proxies, and isn't finding any, it seems safe enough.
Certain servers don't appear to like its use, or lack of use, of identd, stating it has an invalid username, but this doesn't seem to be a major problem. The applet simply cycles through all the available servers till it finds one that allows it to connect.
Anyone interested in using this applet for non commercial purposes can download it for free here.
Also, as an afterthought, anyone interested in setting up a room of this type for their weblog or website, but who doesn't know how to go about such things as registering a room on a network, assigning protected ops status etc, is welcome to come to my chatroom and ask me about it.
Labels: chatrooms
Steve 4:20 AM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
My brain hurts.Funny how very often, when you're absolutely exhausted, and being awake isn't that far from being asleep, that you do your best and most insightful thinking. I guess I'm not going to give too much away just yet, so let's just say I finally came to a satisfactory conclusion regarding something rather large I've been pondering for the past 20 years. I'll probably write it all down and make it available online some time within the next few months... just as soon as I can find a way to make it fit together in a logical manner, as it's very non-linear.
Biggest ego-trip of all time? Maybe *grins*
In other news, I've found another irc applet that seems to work rather nicely, so I'll be putting that up soon as an alternative option in the chatroom. Hopefully this will help those with apple macs and/or flying fox costumes who can't run the usual one ;-) I'll put a link to it up in here so people can try it out before I include it as a standard option.
Steve 6:48 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, July 23, 2002
I've been getting error 503 a lot lately, and just looked into that. It seems re-saving the main template, and then the archive template cures it. I wonder if that`s had anything to do with why people haven't been able to see the chat button, just above the archives. Can anyone besides me see it now?Steve 11:41 PM [+] (0) comments
Uh.... I slept all day, so there's nothing to write here today. Didn't even have any interesting dreams this time. Oh well.
Labels: sleep
Steve 11:24 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, July 22, 2002
Oh yes, just for the fun of it, I've entered The Guardian Best British Blog competition. I'm not sure if I'm doing that as an ironic statement or not, as this blog doesn't have much going for it, except for a rather funky design... unless you like obnoxious egomaniacs who can neither spell nor type. Whatever, I couldn't resist.Wish me luck :)
Labels: blogging
Steve 7:50 PM [+] (0) comments
What monday?
I slept till 5pm, and did none of the things I'd intended. Nothing unusual there then.
Strange dreams though.
I was walking through an area near where I live, in the dream, and came across a graveyard where my first love's school once stood. Out of curiosity, I wandered through, looking at the graves, and came across the grave of that first love. I was shocked, and fell down and cried. I didn't know she had died... no-one had told me, though strangely it didn't seem out of place... as if I'd known all along.
Later, I found myself in a hospital. My father was dying, and I was there to visit him. I went into the room, but couldn't see him till a nurse came in and opened the door to a broom cupboard. Slumped in the bottom was this naked, sick, withered old man, crying. I hugged him, and he hugged me back.
I know what the dreams mean, though that makes them no less disturbing. The first love being dead is a simple acknowlegement that my relationship with her is long in the past, and should be left there. An acceptance that yes it does hurt, and always will, but that history is history, and doesn't need to be dug up whenever something reminds you of it.
I guess the bit with my father is a part of me needing to reconcile my differences with him, to forgive him for being such an asshole when I was a kid, before it's too late. I don't know how I feel about that. I've been angry with him my whole life, blame him for a lot that's wrong with my life now, and know it'd be much easier to continue to shut him out. It's one I'll have to think on, for though part of me clearly wants to forgive him, the greater part of me isn't remotely the forgiving type... and to reopen a door I closed years ago is a very big deal.
Steve 7:20 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, July 21, 2002
That was a fun.My friend who's been in New Zealand is finally back in town, and called me. She came over, we took some vidoes back to her place, watched one, and then ended up watching some strange gay tv show. Not the kinda thing I'd normally watch, but it was an enjoyable evening. I'm glad she's back in town, as I've really rather missed her.
Steve 12:39 AM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, July 20, 2002
There's a funky new feature in the area over there on the left. "Talk to Benway".Click that button, and you'll get a popup chat window, that works like icq, aim or whatever, only you don't need any software... it's entirely java based. Just click and chat... assuming I'm online. I wouldn't suggest using it if you want a long and in depth conversation, as that's what the chatroom's there for, but don't be afraid to try it if you have a quick question or want to reach me in a hurry. Oh yeah... it also has file send options which is very handy.
Anyways, I've tested it and it works great. The software at the user end is only a couple of hundred k, so I can highly recommend it to anyone who'd like an easy one to one chat facility on their blog.
Steve 4:11 AM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Progress towards getting a broadband connection is moving along nicely. I picked up the required adsl modem and microfilters this afternoon, just finished placing the order with my isp/telco to activate the service, recieved the confirmation, and now just have to sit back and wait. If all goes to plan, it should be activated on monday the 29th, but with the reputation of my isp/telco being what it is, I won't be at all surprised if it isn't. We'll see.Steve 7:00 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
Hmmm.I've been looking at this blogchalk thing, and let me tell you, it's not all it's cracked up to be.
Let me give you some free information regarding google, from someone who's done a lot of research into the matter. Google does indeed ignore the keywords meta tag, but it most certainly does pay a lot of attention to the description tag, and even more to the actual title tag.
Having looked at the stuff blogchalking would have you add, the only people who stand to really gain any benefit from thousands of people adding their codes is blogchalking themselves. I'm not saying it's a scam as such, but the effectiveness of what they would have you add to your blog would be minimal to your own traffic, while the effect of all those people adding blogchalk to their keywords, and a link to thier site would be immense... and do notice, they do have advertising on their site.
If you want to find out how to effectively increase traffic to your blog, from people searching for keywords YOU think are relevant, go take a look at THIS section of one of my websites. It covers pretty much everything you could want to know about effective positioning on search engines.
And before you say "Oh, so he doesn't want us to help them out, but is happy for us to increase his traffic"... I'm not asking you to alter your meta tags or alter links that will boost my own traffic. It's free information with no hidden catches. The only downside to this accurate and useful information I'm offering you is that you have to actually think in order to make use of it. Are you up to it? Oh decisions decision... fill out an easy form that won't really help you much, but will sure help someone else, or engage your brain for a few minutes, in order to understand how things REALLY work, and then make effective use of it.
Labels: blogging
Steve 12:27 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
What a curious day.It started with a mad rush to find various bits of long ago stashed paperwork, birth certificate and suchlike, stuff needed in a pre-interview assesment for a job I've applied for.
There were 5 of us taking the assesment test, all maybe slightly nervous, as no-one really enjoys that kind of thing, and we sat making smalltalk before the test about how irrelivant the things are etc. Anyway, the thing was an absolute piece of cake, and I was astounded when at the end of it, only three of us were found to have passed. If that wasn't surprise enough, the three of us were then given a tour of the facility, and then given on the spot interviews. Talk about not beating about the bush.
I suppose I give myself a 50-50 chance of getting the job, as my previous record isn't exactly a shining example of how to put a job before all other considerations... something companies tend to look for over here. Sod that. A job serves my purposes, not the other way around.
Anyway, I'm finding the prospect of working again rather... odd. I wouldn't say I entirely need it for financial purposes, having found a lifestyle that I'm enjoying immensely, that can be fairly easily achieved on my meagre income, but my social concience tells me it's time to get off my butt and do something.
I do wonder how having a healthy income again would affect my lifestyle. Being very happily single, with none of the expenses involved with having a girlfriend and her kids, along with having reinvented myself over the past 16 or so months into some kind of bohemian egomaniac, I can picture various excessive scenarios.
Still, I'm certainly not counting my chickens yet, as while there's a serious risk of finding myself gainfully employed again, it's by no means certain, and in truth, I'm not that bothered either way.... just curious.
Labels: interviews, work
Steve 8:10 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, July 15, 2002
Emails from my isp are usually cause for concern, often along the lines of "you're making excessive use of the service and are thus in breach of terms and conditions. Please cease and desist or we will terminate your account."Not today.
Nope, I'm totally thrilled at the email they just sent me, informing me of their new service. It's adsl, no biggie there, they've been offering it for ages, £27/month, much the same as most other broadband services in the uk. Why am I so happy about it? It's payable by either direct debit, or better still, through my phone bill. Up till now, all broadband services have only been payable by credit card, and since my cards were suspended some time back (ehem), I was rather stuck.
Broadband here we come :)
Steve 6:25 PM [+] (0) comments
I'm such a snob when it comes to web design. I mean, I'm no genius, and there are plenty of non-profesionals who do a far better job than me, but still. Some things are just wrong, and make me cringe when I see/hear them, like embedded midi tunes, background images that render the text unreadable, that kinda thing.
Anyway, one of my pet gripes is pages that you have to scroll sideways to see half of the content. I run in 1024x768, so when I see a page that requires a lot of scrolling, I tend not to bother, and pity the people running 800x600. So... I was just snobhopping and came across a blog that made me scream. Everything was in iframes, which in itself is no bad thing, but the entire layout was horizontal.
Isn't that odd though? Why should I consider it fine to have lots of vertical scrolling, but not horizontal?
Is this just my own personal snobbery, or do other people feel the same way?
Steve 1:42 AM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, July 13, 2002
TV gets weirder and weirder.I've just watched a donkey drinking a bottle of beer, two tortioises `doing it`, and a kangaroo playing with its nuts.
I'm wondering if this is some kind of covert mental conditioning,(the sound's down, so I can't hear it)... "if you drink too much beer, you'll become a sexual tortoise, and eventually wind up like the kangaroo... no one will play with you."
Steve 9:54 PM [+] (0) comments
Oooh looky... another test thingie....
What Jelly Belly flavor are you? I'm -
Find your flavor here!
Surely not.... muahahahaha *evil grin*
Steve 9:18 PM [+] (0) comments
I guess out of boredom I'm going to be a little controversial for a moment.
The fight elsewhere in blogland, and the one I had here (well, on my old blog) has had me thinking a little. Don't worry, I'm not starting something here, picking on anyone or criticising anyone's actions... just looking at my own perspective and thinking aloud to see what comes out.
The conclusion I've come to (though it's only a provisional conclusion, 'cause I'm still thinking on it), and not entirely relevant to happeniings elsewhere at all, is that political correctness isn't necesaraly a good thing.
How do I come to this conclusion? Well, political correctness demands tollerance, which in the short term is all well and good, but suppose over the long term you find yourself tollerating a situation, person, whatever... just something that niggles you. After a time that niggle eats away at you, till you just can't hold it in any longer and wind up exploding, having a barny, screaming and raging... whatever, it gets messy and unpleasant.
So, suppose you throw that political correctness out of the window and from the word go say "Nope, I don't like this situation/person/whatever" and just shut the door. Maybe a quick "sod off, you annoy me." It's certainly not polite, but it's short, sharp, does the job, and saves the build up of bad feelings. I dunno, maybe that's an over simplistic view, as there are certainly situations where political correctness is necesary, but on the interpersonal level... *drifts off into indecisive musing*
Hmm... actually, here's an example of how being politically incorrect has very obviously improved the atmosphere in my chatroom. This absolutely will offend some people, but that's the nature of being politically incorrect. For a while, the room was open to absolutely everyone, or at least, anyone could get in... whether or not they fitted or were booted out was another matter. After a time though, it became very obvious that people from *whispers* france, just didn't fit. They annoyed everyone in the room. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all french people are assholes, merely that cultural differences made them incompatible with the regular inhabitants of the room. Anyway, after the numerous arguments and fights that broke out, I eventually blocked anyone with .fr in their hostname from entering the room. See what I mean though? It's something I'd have frowned upon if I heard about it happening elsewhere, but it worked. No more fights.
As an asside, though blocking the french from my room may sound pretty extreme, it's not nearly as bad as it could be. If I were to block people from every single country that I personally have difficulty in getting on with, I'd have to include spain, switzerland, germany, canada, india, various arabian states.... ummm... oh to hell with it, I just dislike everyone, unless I like them.
*Sits back and waits to get flamed*
Just to clarify again, this is NOT intended as a comment on happenings either here or elsewhere, and isn't intended as 'Benway's advice on how to conduct your actions'. It's just something that comes to mind while musing on the whole thing.
Labels: blogging
Steve 8:09 PM [+] (0) comments
Do you have any idea how hard it is to write a blog that approaches anything even slightly resembling an interesting read, when you don't have a life to speak of? Let me tell you, it's hard. My day today consisted of get up, watch tv, nap, burn compilation mp3 cd, watch more tv, eat a bit, watch more tv.
From my perspective, it was a pleasant and relaxing day, free from annoying hassles, but that sure doesn't make for interesting reading material. Oh well.
On an entirely different subject, even years after he departed from public view, I HATE Vanilla Ice. He's raped my memory. What am I talking about? Under Pressure, the Queen/Bowie collaboration. I love that song and recently added it to this Bowie compilation I've been doing, but now, every time that tune starts, all I hear is Ice Ice fucking baby! Argh!!!
Labels: blogging
Steve 7:06 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, July 12, 2002
Ugh. I've felt better than I do just now. I woke up with a headache, probably from sleeping too long, and struggled through most of the day with it. An hour or so ago though it started to bug me just a little, so I took paracetamol. Trouble with that is, there's always a tradeoff with painkillers, so now while my head's better, I feel sick as a dog. Oh well.Anyway, feeling rough aside, it's been a pretty good day. The record store phoned me yesterday evening to say that the Bowie CDs I'd ordered were in, so I went there today to pick them up. Just as I went to stand in line at the tills, the girl who'd helped me look for them last week appeared. She recognised me instantly, said "Come with me, I'll get your CDs for you", and headed upstairs. On coming out of the stockroom with them, she opened up a till so I could pay, saving me standing in line for a second time. Now that's what I call service. This isn't what made me smile most though... as she was in the stockroom, I happened to look at the order card she'd given me last week, and noticed it had her name on it. When she came back out, I commented on it. She said that last week, after I'd left the store, she'd been a little concerned that I migt think she was taking the piss, but that honestly, it really was her name. The irony wasn't lost on me... her name's Ziggi.
Steve 10:31 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, July 11, 2002
Here's a little known fact. It's shockingly difficult to get minatures of Ferrari 308 or 328 cars in local model or toy shops round here. I've been trying for years, to no avail.Today however, I wandered out into the local fleamarket and found one.
Happy days :-)
Labels: photos
Steve 8:43 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, July 10, 2002
The woman who lives next door wants to fuck me. I don't know whether to laugh or scream.It's something my ex g/f and I used to joke about, as it was always so obvious she fancied the pants off me, but now it's getting beyond a joke.
Why does this bother me? Well, she's married, which would make the idea awkward under any circumstances, so married and living next door is a complete no-no. This isn't what bugs me so much though... quite simply, I find her both physically and mentally about as attractive as a 3 month dead festering moose corpse. *shudder*.
She's stupid... very very stupid. Do you know the type? Her way of getting to know me is to talk and talk and talk and talk about herself, and the moment I start to speak, or answer a question, she cuts me off and continues to talk.
How do I know she wants to fuck me? Hehe... well, I guess constant denials that she wants to get me into her bed, when I've never even gone anywhere near the subject, followed by questions along the lines of "Don't you get frustrated, not having a girlfriend? I mean, what do you do about sex?" Followed by invitations for coffee and reassurances that her husband trusts her and so on... get the picture?
I think I'd find it ammusing if it weren't so bloody annoying. Now if she were six inches shorter, 3 stone lighter, had a brain in her head and the ability to shut the fuck up for more than 2 seconds, I'd probably be facing a moral dilemma, as it is though.... not likely.
Steve 11:30 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, July 09, 2002
Still reading Vitals by Greg Bear. Chilling... very very chilling. If you have any interest in consparacy theories, I highly recommend this book. I wouldn't say I put too much weight behind such things myself, but with a healthy dose of ingrained paranoia, I'm finding it quite gripping.Started listening to a compilation of Gary Numan albums on mp3 cd sent to me by a friend some time back. His earlier works are deffinately superior to his more recent output. He seemed to lose the plot somewhat after working with Bill Sharpe and embracing midi over analogue synths. Thoroughly enjoying hearing Dance and I Assasin again.
I find it amusing that Numan's most recent album totally rips off Nine Inch Nails, when in the beginning, NIN was pretty much copying Numan. Having said that, they're both derivative of Bowie's earlier works. Neither would exist were it not for Low, but then you could say that of a lot of bands.
There's something about sitting here with my head burried in a good book, listening to old music... it gets the creative juices flowing. Nothing specific as such, but I feel the rumblings of something in there. I guess it's good brain execise, kickstarts the lower levels of my subconcious. It's hard to say if I'll actually do anything though. The musical urge rather stalled when I got stuck on a tune I was making a month or so back, and I haven't written anything in ages. I need some kind of life to relate to before I can write... human interaction outide of the net, and there's precious little of that in my life at the moment. I do keep dabbling with photoshop though, mostly just tinkering with photographs, or creating striking images from what were originally grainy low res webcam images. It's fun and satisfying, but not really inspired work.
Steve 4:02 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, July 08, 2002
Ah, sci-fi. How I love it.30 something years ago Gene Roddenberry introduced us to a world of space ships, aliens, phasers, communicators, and funky talking computers. Pretty far fetched stuff to be sure, and I remember as a kid saying to my mum "I want a communicator, and a phaser, and a computer, and and and..." She smiled and said "That's just tv. Those things don't exist." I replied "Computers are real." She smiled again and said "Yes, but they're very expensive, and very big. Ordinary people will never have them." I was somewhat disappointed, to say the least, though nearly 30 odd years later I'm pleased to say she was misinformed. We have the communicators... cell phones being more common than a very common thing. We have the talking computers... well, mine does, and understands my speach too (sometimes). Now where can I get a phaser gun?
Jump forward a few years, mid 80s, William Gibson's Neuromancer. He describes cyber space. We may not have the fully immersed experience just yet, more's the pity, as I'd love to just jack in, but still... you're how many thousand miles away from me? You're reading these words that I only wrote maybe a few mins or hours ago, and you're doing it in the comfort of your own home most likely. If you wanted to, you could click the link to my webcam and watch me midlessly tapping away at my laptop, or even venture into audio/video chat with me on yahoo or netmeeting. I'm not saying you should, or that I'd want to either, but the fact is that the technology is there in your home and mine.
So what's all this got to do with anything?
Two things. The first being that sci-fi is often seen as being nothing more than another brand of fantasy literature. In some cases this is true, but that's not 'real' sci-fi at all. The truly hard edged stuff very often shows us glimpses of what really is to come, and often much sooner than we expect.
The second, well... it's related to the book I picked up today. Vitals by Greg Bear. He's always been one of the very best contemprorary sci-fi writers as far as I'm concerned, dealing with concepts that are wholely plausable, often within our lifetimes. Check out Queen Of Angels, Slant, and Darwin's Radio to see what I mean. Anyway, in Vitals he's describing the work of a scientist researching the possibility of extending human life through radical gene therapy. I won't go into the technical aspects, but suffice to say if he's on the mark with this, as many sci-fi writers have proved to be, I want in. Having an ego the size of a plant, the idea of living for a few thousand years rather appeals to me.
On an entirely different note, I also picked up a copy of Ursula LeGuin's new book The Other Wind. I'm rather thrilled about this, as it's book five in the Earthsea series, something I started reading when I was about 11. As a rule, I'm not into the fantasy genre at all. Wizards, dragons and such don't do it for me, and I couldn't give a monkeys' about LOTR, but there's a certain charm about the Earthsea novels that I find compelling. Maybe it's just nostalgia, reading something that continues from a book I read as a kid... whatever, I look forward to reading it.
Labels: books
Steve 6:45 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday is now officially renamed tv day on planet Benway.
The schedule for tv day is as follows:
11am - Wake up and watch wwf (wwe ugh! Stupid name changes.)
12 - Switch over and watch Grand Prix.
3pm - Switch over and watch Star Trek, then more Star Trek and then More Star Trek.... (fall asleep watching Star Trek)
Somewhere round 5ish - Wake up and watch King of the Hill, Family Guy, Simpsons, more Simpsons, Futurama (fall asleep and probably miss more Simpsons)
Midnight - Wake up and watch Southpark, followed by more Southpark.
Sunday? What's sunday?
Steve 12:51 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, July 05, 2002
What a great day.What an incredibly long day too. Haven't actually been to bed yet, but after the long sleep yesterday, that's no big surprise.
The hunt for the last couple of Bowie CD's and the odd tune is nearly over. Picked up Tonight and Never Let Me Down, a compilation with some other stuff I wanted, ordered Tin Machine... and then came the fun part...
Little Drummer Boy. The Bowie/Bing Crosby duet. I knew this song was on no Bowie album, being familiar with all of them, compilations included, so found myself scouring Bing Crosby sections of all the record stores and local library to no avail. Finally, while flicking through the easy listening compliations in HMV the girl who worked in the stock room obviously figured I was looking for something a little out of my usual area of listening... I mean... do I look like a Bing Crosby fan? She wandered up to me and asked if I was looking for something specific. I told her what I was after, and she smiled... "I saw that just the other day. Can't remember exactly what it was on.. some christmas compilation, let me have a look for you." This was the best response I'd had all day, as everywhere else I'd asked, they just loked at me like some kind of freak. So, after a few mins spent rummaging through a couple of racks, she concluded it wasn't on the shop floor, and called to one of her colleagues "Hey John, what happened to that box of christmas compilations?" The look on his face was a picture and what he was thinking was obvious "wtf does someone want with a christmas cd in july?" Anyway, he dug it out and we proceeded to rummage through the cds.
Hah! There it was... on tape. Damnit. She checked the computer to see if they had the same album on cd, and it said they did, but after hunting through the stockroom, and all through various places downstairs, it couldn't be found, but at least now we knew the album existed, and I was able to order it.
I have to say, I don't know what this girl's name is, I don't even think she normally has much contact with customers on the shop floor, but she was an absolute marvel, spending around half an hour hunting for this cd, just because I wanted this one track. It was a totally enjoyable half hour, and she seemed to find it as amusing and bizarre a search as I did, and didn't stop grinning and chuckling, chatting away as we serched.
To top the afternoon off, I wandered into another store and picked up the complete BBC tv series of Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy on dvd. I only ever caught a couple of episodes of this on tv when I was a kid, so this was a real treat. Awesome :-)
Labels: music
Steve 6:35 PM [+] (0) comments
Hahahaha.... I did say I was a cat person.
What Was Your PastLife?
Steve 12:54 AM [+] (0) comments
It's been a while since I did one of those little online tests, and as a rule I like to keep them to a minimum, but this one appeals to me, being a cat person.
Take the Purrsonality Quiz!
Sounds about right to me.
Steve 12:36 AM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, July 04, 2002
Wow. What happened to thursday? I went to bed around 2am last night, really shattered, and woke around 7am. Pottered about on here for an hour, and then decided a couple more hours sleep before going into town would be nice. Couple more hours? Hah! Woke up at 8pm.I guess that's what being nocturnal does to you... body clock says "nope, it's light out there, so better stay asleep." Just as well I didn't have anything important to do.Labels: sleep
Steve 8:38 PM [+] (0) comments
Since everyone else is doing it... here's Southpark Benway.
Steve 7:24 AM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, July 03, 2002
The Bowie collection continues to grow. While in town I picked up Space Oddity and Pinups. Not two of his best albums by any stretch of the imagination, but they have tracks I need to complete my mp3 compilation. Next I went to the library and borrowed Bowie's Beeb Sessions, 'cause the bonus disk contains versions of This Is Not America and Absolute Beginners... not the easiest songs to find these days. So, what do I need now? Tonight (pretty crappy), Never Let Me Down (in which he lets us all down, as it's utter shit), and Tin Machine (ummm). Oh... and Little Drummer Boy. Dunno where I'll find that... probably gonna have to download it from somewhere.Labels: music
Steve 6:51 PM [+] (0) comments
For someone who likes to think he's half way intelligent (even if my spelling does suck), I can be pretty bloody slow.
What am I talking about? Blogsnob. I love it. Why didn't I join it ages ago?
Just spent around an hour wandering from blog to blog, clicking on the blogsnob blogs, reading, and then on to the next. I could do this all day, but I have to go out now. Coffee in town with my mum.
Steve 12:59 PM [+] (0) comments
Ever been in a chatroom, and seen someone say something REALLY stupid? Something that cracked you up so much, you sprayed your monitor with the coffee you were drinking?
Davinci, a regular chatter in my room, and an all round fun guy found THIS.
It's a collection of dumb, silly, and hysterical exceprts from irc chatrooms. I haven't laughed so much since...well... last time I laughed a lot.
Labels: chatrooms
Steve 12:32 AM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, July 02, 2002
So, after messing about on here, adding that game and generally mooching about, I went into town. At the bank, I deposited a cheque, and was then puzzled that the atm machine wouldn't accept my card. Duh!!! I totally forgot, the bank had sent me a new card, and the one I had with me was no longer valid. Funny how the woman who dealt with the cheque didn't notice, but still... what a pain. The bills will have to wait till tomorrow, 'cause I'm way too tired to go back into town with the new card now.On returning home, I updated all the links pointing to this blog on my two main websites. They make quite a difference to traffic, accounting for at least half, so it was about time I did it.
I also put a link to the Chatroom back on the Webcam Communities page of the larger site. It's at the bottom this time, since having it at the top seemed to attract the "I'll just click the first link I see" brigade, and we don't need those types. I've put the link back as the place has been a little quiet of late, with people drifting away gradually, as real world commitments take more of their time, and with fewer newcomers since I removed the link a couple of months ago. We'll see how it goes.
Steve 1:00 PM [+] (0) comments
Just for a little added amusement, there's a game down there on the left. It's nothing special, but there's so much empty space down there, I wanted to do something with it.
Click the link and wait for the java to load, then click the applet itself, and off you go :-)
The intro screen's all cramped up, but once you start playing, it works fine.
Steve 6:45 AM [+] (0) comments
Monday, July 01, 2002
Ohhh... I lied. I did do something before coming on here.Since getting this laptop, I haven't accessed my pop3 email accounts once, (partly 'cause I'm too lazy to configure Outlook Express, and partly 'cause it's so succeptable to virus' and I don't care so much if the old machine gets infected) so I decided to fire up the old machine and see how much crap had accumulated. 5 billion newsletters that I don't bother to read any more, 1 virus attachment, and a letter from a friend who I thought was back in town. No wonder I couldn't reach her... she's in New Zealand.
Something interesting I noticed while trying to fire up the webcam. It's a usb thing, and the drivers don't seem to recognise it unless I plug it into the same port it was in when I first installed it. Odd, I didn't think usb worked that way. Shows what I know.
Steve 10:54 PM [+] (0) comments
Damnit!
That'll teach me to sleep in. I'm all out of coffee, and the local shop's closed. Probably gonna have to wander over to the 24 hour supermarket later, 'cause a night on here without coffee is unthinkable. Nothing else of interest to report yet, but hey, I only just got up.
Labels: sleep
Steve 10:03 PM [+] (0) comments
Hahahahaha..... Southpark.
They've done a Terminator/Akira spoof.
Too funny :-))
Oooooh... 2001 too.
Love it.
Steve 12:24 AM [+] (0) comments
My sleep pattern's all screwed up... as usual. I'm in that between sleeping in the day/night period, so getting to sleep at all is proving very difficult, though I'm tired all the time. Then when I do sleep, I either catch a couple of hours and wake up again just as shattered, or sleep for 12-14 hours, and wake up addled.
The question then arises, what to do while awake, but too braindead to concentrate on anything serious? (There are those who'd say I'm braindead all the time... thank you Jodene, before you even say it...hehe) Well, this morning I started playing Quake 3 again. Having completed it on the easiest setting (yeah, I'm a wuss), I decided to ramp the difficulty up a bit. On the 3rd setting, I couldn't even get past the training stage, so I set it to one above easiest. Woohoo! This is more like it. I can just about complete each level now, usually after about 10 attempts, and it requires a serious alteration of tactics, as the oponents are more cunning, and MUCH more aggressive. Way addictive, and utterly nuts. My poor cat kept looking at me, as if to say "What are you screaming at, you fool?!!" I'm usually a pretty calm and collected character, so that kinda shows how into it I'm getting. God, I'm sad ;-)
Steve 12:18 AM [+] (0) comments
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