Spooky....

Does anyone remember the Moog from Will o' the Wisp?



Well tonight, he made a reappearance in my courgette...............


....................................................................................................................................................






Cool ey? Much better than finding Jesus in there!

iP and Moog the Courgette

No, you can't die of insomnia

Lately, my insomnia has reached new heights and I don't even bother going to bed now, until ridiculous am. I figured it would be more productive to just get on t'interweb for a few hours, rather than spending two hours in bed, tossing, turning, deciding what's left on my iPod to listen to etc. I'm worried about getting into a bad pattern, which will ultimately worsen the whole thing. But I'm not doing much about it. I found some Nytol the other day and took that, but it just made me feel kind of drunk, but not sleepy drunk. I need to sort it out really, and plan to use this time to effectively research sleeping aids. You'd think I'd have thought of that before now, but I haven't. I tell you what though, I've found out some random stuff on my nightly internet trawls:

- The first ever film clip filmed, was made by some French dude who lived in Leeds near Roundhay Park (Michael Jackson performed at Roundhay park to give you an idea of scale and venue type, though it is an actual park, all very bizarre). Anyway, this French dude, and all the people in the film, ALL died in mysterious circumstances. Weird ey? I actually spent a long time reading about this but am trying to provide edited highlights so as not to bore those of you who CAN sleep.



- Abraham Lincoln was well interesting! He was 6'4" which was gigantic in those days, and was born in a one-room log cabin to two farmers (male and female obviously, nothing Brokebackish going on there). They were totally uneducated but moved around a fair bit to escape harsh conditions. Then, Abe's mum died of Milk Sickness (see below). Some other stuff happened, and then he was shot. Again, I'm skimming here.



- Milk Sickness, ever heard of it? Well, it's also known as 'tremetol poisoning or in animals as trembles, and is characterized by trembling, vomiting, and severe intestinal pain that affects individuals who eat dairy products or meat from a cow that has fed on white snakeroot. Although highly rare today, milk sickness claimed thousands of lives in the early 19th century.' I copied the info off Wikipedia, as my re-writing it would have just been confusing!



- Bruce Campbell (who is my god), starred in a Starbucks campaign called 'The Way I See It', which involved famous people spouting ideas about stuff on the sides of the cups. Bruce's contribution was:

The Way I See It #65: If you're worried about getting a job--or keeping one--start a company of your own. By doing so, you'll reap the rewards of your hard work and you'll only get fired if you fail. This is the land of opportunity. Live in it.


I like the simplicity of his view, but am not sure it's always that easy!!




I found a shed load of other crap too, but I can't put it all on here. I have also watched a couple of DVDs, listened to music, and joined lots of random groups on Facebook. Ooh, and I've read Tim's Blog lots too, which entertained me more than any of this other gubbins. Laughing hysterically in the middle of the night seems so much more enjoyable than it does in the middle of the day for some reason. Maybe it's just sleep deprivation that makes you feel funny, who knows?!!

Hefty drew my attention to this today, a story on BBC News about two sisters from Sweden who, upon being caught on camera walking down the central reservation of the M6, decided to make a run for it! I can only recommend that you watch the video! There's nothing gory on it, it's just maniacal!!!

A couple of Swedish meatballs

I don't think I've ever posted so many photos and links before, I'm not sure what's come over me. Maybe the insomnia has unleashed some kind of creative genius in me! Then again, it really is only a few pictures and a couple of links.

Last week, I did something slightly bonkers, I signed up for World of Warcraft. No really. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and because Padical is a Level 70 Dwarf Priest (that's effing amazing apparently), I thought I'd be in good hands. He sent me a link and off I went. God I was bad, I mean, REALLY bad. People immediately tried to fight with me because I was an easy kill. Kind of unfair I thought, but it's common in WoW. I spent a few hours trying to kill stuff, then left because I felt overwhelmed, confused, and a failure! I have yet to go back, I am too scared! Isn't that rubbish? At least it was a free trial, I haven't paid for it or anything. I've never been very into computer games, I got to about Level 4 on Mario! Ha! How bad is that! I lose interest if I can't do something. I feel I should venture back in to the World, but whether I will, I do not know.....

Right, I'm offski!

Ciao for now!

iP

The Travelling Blogger*

Well my GB book has arrived! I have yet to open it, but I know I haven't ordered anything else from Amazon! I actually need to get on with some guitar playing, because there is now a need for me to do some crunching......

On Sunday, our rehearsal was most triumphant! Down with the Sickness was storming, much to the surprise of us all! But it was also semi-decided that perhaps we didn't need another band member after all. I can't remember what I have written about the band on here, but when we first formed, the original plan was to have a 50/50 split vocally between me and and a guy called Mike, but Mike left after the first rehearsal cos he got a job in London. So then I did all the singing, but Padical (the guitarist and founder) was still on the look out for someone else. He then decided an extra guitarist would be good too so he looked for someone who could do both. He found someone who we all met a couple of times, but then Padical decided that he wanted me to do most of the vocals, then on Sunday, after the guy left (we've only met him, he's not played with us yet) everyone decided that it might be best if we just stayed as we were, because we work really well together, and bringing someone in at this stage might mess up the dynamic. Also, because I pulled off Sickness and Beautiful People, it is the general consensus that I can pretty much sing anything! Yay! I think that means I am loved.........!! :0) Also though, if the new guy only had a bit of singing to do, and not that much guitar stuff, it would be kind of shitty on him. It's not really fair to expect someone to only join in for a few songs out of 40!! So, Padical said that perhaps I could do the filler bits, which I'm going to have a bloody good go at!!! Slightly scared, but up for the challenge! Also, it makes me look cool! Check me out, I've turned into an egomaniac, clearly I was born to be a rock star!!!! :0)

Going to see Scars on Broadway with Ming on Sunday. I'm not a System of a Down fan really, I like the odd song but I can take them or leave them, but SOB is a band with SOAD members Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan in it. He lent me the album and I listened to half of the first song and thought, 'Ooh no.' Since then however, I have listened to the whole album about 4 times, and I actually do like them after all! So we're off to see them, which I'm excited about cos I've not been to a gig for ages.

Recently I have been listening to Curve, and I really like them. I got the Greatest Hits album off Padical, but I'm eager to borrow the rest of the albums because they were one of those bands I always thought I should listen to, but never did. I do remember going into HMV about ten years ago and picking up Come Clean. But it was £18.99 (remember when CDs cos that much?!!) and at the time, I only had a Saturday job, which paid £20.00 per week, and I wasn't willing to give up that much poundage to take a risk on a band I'd never heard. Instead I saved up my money and bought Death to the Pixies on Limited Edition 10 inch Vinyl, which I have NEVER played! Ha! How ridiculous of me, I am guilty of so many random acts that I always look back and think, what did I do that for?!!

I am writing this from the living room of my next-door neighbour's house. She, well, they, there are two of them! THEY are having some fitted wardrobes put it, but are both doctors and have difficulty getting time off. I sometimes sit here and house-sit whilst they have people in, which suits me fine, nice to get out! Anyway, as we live in a mews townhouse thingy, and their lounge is directly adjacent to ours, I figured that my MacBook would probably work here, and I'm delighted to say that it does!!! Alas, I can also hear Ozzy barking, which is terrible! I never knew the little punk was so noisy when I went out!! Actually, it's not that bad, he only does it when people walk through the field behind our house, and he does that when I'm in anyway so it's probably not as bad as I thought. It's not even that loud either, I'm just being paranoid!



Right, speaking of young Oswald, it's time I nipped back to check on him. And shut him up!

:0) iP

* Clearly I haven't travelled very far, but I have travelled none the less!

Inspire me

I am about to order Garageband for Dummies, which I hope will help my understanding of it dramatically. I've also worked out what accessories I need (I think), but I'm going to wait til the book arrives just to make sure.

I've spent the morning listening to Mer de Noms, which is my favourite A Perfect Circle album, trying to feel inspired....and I do feel that way to a certain extent, but I'd like to know what I'm doing technically before I start faffing about with stuff. On top of this, I have a rehearsal with the other band tomorrow, and I really need to learn some songs I'm not familiar with. A couple of the new ones aren't songs I particularly like, so it's hard work. Having to listen to something that grates on you over and over is painful, and feels like some kind of torture!!! I'm sure that sounds ridiculous, but I'm not one of these people who can just listen to anything and not be bothered by it. Still, managing to sneak in some Disturbed and Korn might balance out my mind a bit (I hope!).

Paying a visit to the hairdressers today, my hair desperately needs dying. Blonde roots with dark brown hair look truly hideous!! I was going to put a picture up, but I just opened Photo Booth and they looked even worse than I realised, so I decided not to bother!

Haven't posted any football news for a while (probably because nobody cares!) but I'm quite impresses that the Hammers have managed to lose a manager and shirt sponsor all in the space of two weeks. To be honest, I never liked Curbishley anyway, I didn't want him so good riddance! I would have preferred Paolo di Canio to Zola (an ex-Chelsea player FFS?!) but as Chelsea players go, I don't mind him. Not sure what sort of a manager he'll be, but I guess we'll find out! Never liked XL as a sponsor, think it looks stupid and I haven't bought a shirt for ages because of that. I think my fave sponsors were Dr Martens, it looked cool and I like Doc Martens! Not sure who we'll get next, I just hope it's not crap! Apple would be my dream! But unlikely I know. The website reckons we'll find out next week, fingers crossed!!!!



Right, must go, Ozzy is outside barking his head off at nothing (business as usual) and I don't want to get arrested for noise pollution.

Toodle the Oo!

iP

Nothing interesting

Well now, I have a fair few new songs to learn for the band, and some of them have been rather surprising. For a start, Down with the Sickness was thrown into the mix, which made me attempt to sneak a cheeky Korn song in there (well they are my favourites). I managed to score a hit with Here to Stay, and then Land of Confusion (the Disturbed version) and Beautiful People came into it, which led us all down a very sordid path of death and destruction....so, I am UBER excited!!! It has been suggested that the freaky shouting bit in the middle of Sickness is left out, which I don't suppose is the end of the world, but other than that I am delighted to be singing my favourite songs! The other set list we had was substantial but inoffensive, so it's nice to have some edgy alternatives to throw in there. Yay!!!

Recently, I have been doing NOTHING of interest, which won't surprise anyone. I've mainly been trying to learn new songs, and sort out some of my own because I desperately want to make some original music. Ideally, I'd like an originals band, but I'm not sure how to go about it, so my initial plan was to just plough some stuff into Garageband and see what happened. I bought a new guitar (pictured at top) but I have never used Garageband so I don't know what to do with it, and I haven't actually put it on my Mac yet either, it's still in the study somewhere with the rest of the iLife Appley goodness. Progress = SLOW.

Yesterday, I went to see my friend as she had a baby at the end of July, and I needed to have a nosy at the little fella. He was very cute, and we decided to go out for lunch to the nearby village. It was all good, until we tried to leave. EPIC FAIL! Her power-steering broke, we couldn't move the car, and this warning alarm kept coming on. We had to phone the breakdown people, and explain that we had a 6 week old baby in the car, hoping they'd rush. No such luck, 2 hours later they rolled up and reset it all by unplugging the battery! FFS!! We managed to keep baby happy and reasonably quiet, but I have to say, as someone who doesn't sit in pubs very often, it felt like a lifetime spending three hours in there. The staff were very nice, and kept the juice and coffee flowing, but I started to flag after a while, and my eyes were hurting. The RAC dude drove us back to her house, in the car so he could see what happened. Nothing happened. Typical. Then the RAC dude said he was going to walk back to the pub car-park cos he didn't think it was that far. We did, but I didn't want to give him a lift back cos he was a bit strange, and there was no point my friend doing it. Her husband was happy to drop him off when he got home, but he wasn't back at that point so off the guy went. Random! When I was finally on the drive home, I saw the coppers pull over a car with this little old couple in it. I can't imagine what they did, but I imagined them to be foul-mouthed heathens, like Betty White in Lake Placid (thanks for reminding me of her recently Timbo!).



What else have I done/seen? Hmm. Not a lot.

I'm going to go and have some Rice Krispies.

Does anyone else think this is wrong?

This is really very strange....


SPUK


I'm not sure if it's the concept or choice of colours that disturbs me most...

For the benefit of Tim Part 2

I'm seeing it now. Though obviously you're not scary looking like this dude!

For the benefit of Tim

See, it looks like hair, and even though I dye my blonde hair brown, if I were to dye it back, this is a rather fetching shade to aim for!