Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

crimbo

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:25:31 GMT

First of all, Happy Birthday, glitchdrei, digitaljunky and squiddity (for yesterday) and kitch_kash for today!

And Merry Crimbo (or feast of your preference) -hope you all have a very good time!

There's pictures of the Bleak Xmas at the Roch somewhere on Facebook. There'll also be along later a couple of bits of film footage of peeps singing (I think you call it) Carols there on Monday.

V

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:50:51 GMT

Amazingly, had never watched 'V for Vendetta' until now. Putting that right as we speak.

"A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having"

AQEI

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:32:08 GMT

.. in good company. A couple of hours of light music making with sahra_patroness and then being joined by Daniel yog_sthoth and Krisztina for dinner and a couple more songs belted out, in between food, a couple glasses of wine and good conversation with friends. What more can you ask.

All this has happened before..

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:40:32 GMT

Watching some program on the Japanese NHK channel. They wire a moth's brain onto a robot and make it move as it responds to pheromones. They are talking about a flying robot 'controlled' by a fly brain.

I'm sure some of this research may end up being useful -or even very useful (for instance, for disabled people) but, boy, is it creepy.

Happy Birthday, atr0pine!!!

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:23:09 GMT

... Hope it's a lovely one! x

home

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:46:41 GMT

Back from the New Model Army gig at the Forum.

That was a lovely, lovely gig.

That's all.

nothing changes here much

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:05:33 GMT

I guess you'd say it never will.

Boiling some pasta for dinner, having made some pesto, watching the queue across the road begin to build up, listening to 'Vagabonds' and 'Green and Grey'. I'd forgotten how much I liked this music.

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:31:05 GMT

Snowflake!

nice day for a..

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:38:55 GMT

..last day of term. This means I won't have to get up at 6:00 am for nearly four weeks.
Downside is, of course, that this means I have no income from the school in that time, but hey, I so need the holiday. And catching up with the lost sleep.

domestic bliss

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:39:56 GMT

Ooh, there's a shouting match upstairs, again. And stamping on the floor, and things crashing.

I missed all this fun before, when I didn't have neighbours. It is all very threatening and close when it is flatmates doing the shouty-thingsmashy, but it's the neighbours upstairs instead, so... who cares unless it sounds really threatening (it doesn't) in which case call the police and that's that.

Good Morning, world...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:40:32 GMT

... and, first of all, Happy Birthday to _noizeboy_, woolykat and morriganhel!!

ION had completely forgotten that I had a change of lesson from usual Thursday early to Monday this week. Never heard the alarm. Woke up at a time when I should have been half way through the lesson. Oops.

Reptile last night was fab. As was cracksmacker and pitufina's party on Saturday. I missed a couple of events that evening, mainly the Neimhan gig/morriganhel birthday thing. I thought I would be able to make both but, alas.

Today should bring a few lessons and some xmas shopping (I'd first written 'chopping'. Freudian...)

Have a good week, folks.

let it be

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:55:47 GMT

Listening to Laibach's (almost complete)cover of the Beatles' 'Let it Be' album (thanks to skorpionuk for the pointer). 'Across the Universe' (Spotify link) is quite beautiful. Some of the other tracks are, ehm, less successful. A strange experience for someone who had the original Beatles album on advance order at the local record shop months before it came out, when I was a kid.

New flat three month summary

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:00:56 GMT

Well, I've been here three months (not to the day) and it is mostly very good. I am finding out, of course and as expected, that some of the finishings are less than premium quality (there already are signs that the carpets won't last forever, say; I already broke the toilet seat -don't ask- and the main lock has a slightly worrying wobble as you turn the key, for instance). There is also the weird mini-class system set up in this building: the shared-ownership flats get the Highgate Road entrance, with a toy-town lift that only goes to the first floor and must be the slowest ever (the lift on the 'private owners' as they call them, nicer entrance on the Fortess Road is way, way faster but you need a key-code. Yes, I got that). The 'private' flats have burglar alarms on the outside, the others don't (so you know where to break in, I suppose). We don't seem to have access to the, what you call it, terrace and roof garden. But all these are petty small things and I find them more amusing than irritating. Like the neighbours upstairs that have the hugely entertaining frightful rows and the one in this floor who just leaves the rubbish bags in the corridor.

The one serious problem is going to be the parking. I knew there was no parking in the building itself but nobody told me that Camden will not issue resident permits to people living in this 'car-free development' building. That is a serious problem for me as I don't have a job, I have work to do with all those guitar lessons all over North London as far out as Watford. Please don't mention again push-bikes, scooters or car clubs. None of these would be a solution, for different reasons. At the moment I'm sort of coasting along on the existing resident permit for the old flat, which runs out in March, but I do need to find a solution for this as, at present, I cannot afford this flat if I have to give up the car.

Ok, those are the bad bits. The good bits are many. It is good to be in my own space and (40% at any rate) in my own place. No flatmates, for one thing! Although I miss kaerasta and violetdisregard on the whole I don't miss the experience. The flat is tiny but just right for me, there's all sorts of little details that I like about it. Everything still works (until flaviofication sets in) and it looks that it will not cost me more to live here than at the old shared flat in KTR (barring humongous winter gas bills or something like that). I find I'm going out less because I simply enjoy being here. That means I'm spending less money in going out..

So the balance is very positive and, car parking solution pending, very worth the while those six months of aggro and stress to get to this point.

Happy Birthday...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:53:00 GMT

... d_floorlandmine and, a little belatedly, chaospigeon, _marauder_ and rubberwench!! Hope all your birthdays are fab...

ION, in school. about 20% awake. The worst lesson of the day is now done, though, so it's not too bad. I just need more coffee...(some time and energy to practise my own guitar stuff and some chance to play it in public would also be good, longer term, but hey, one thing at a time).

there are many copies

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:32:32 GMT

I do love my iPhone and wouldn't swap it for a Droid, but, hey ....

http://www.xkcd.com/662/

walking away with dinosaurs

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:57:42 GMT

They're tough in Guadalajara, allegedly everybody carries guns, people will start a shoot-out at the drop of a hat, there's still the cow-boy frame set..

And dinosaurs get nicked

week end pics

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:54:44 GMT

A few photos from the week-end:

• ‘Fringe’, ngarara ‘s birthday party at the Others

• The Alternative Bring and Buy Sale at the Dome, last Sunday

• Venezuelan Christmas Fair at the Bolívar Hall

Have I mentioned...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:33:37 GMT

.. How much I hate getting up at 6:00 am...?:P

Off to this in a minute:

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:49:02 GMT

After I've had a coffee or three..

I also have to confirm a couple of lessons for today and there is something at the Venezuelan consulate that I would like to attend for a bit. What's that saying about London buses?

Bullet points

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:25:31 GMT

But not shots

• Oh, ok; apart from the couple of Jägermeisters and the various Guinness and other imbibables.

• Inferno was ace. Had to leave early as, as is often the case, I have a busy day tomorrow.

• Blacklist, too, was good. Catching up with peeps I don't very often see, but should.

• Couple of episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica this morning. I'm afraid, every bit as bad as I remembered them; the reasons why I took so long to watch the new one that just ended (that is, I remembered the original one) still there.

• Did I mention a busy day tomorrow? But that's not a bad thing. Promise.

Happy Birthday...!

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:39:20 GMT

...exliontamer, soozie, operon and chinagrrl!! Hope all lovely things come to you!

the week end

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:33:28 GMT

... went ok; it was mostly monted's birthday at the Archduke (behind the Royal Festival Hall) on Saturday. Food was good, but the place is a bit expensive for me and the staff are all well stuck-up. Excellent company and the birthday boy was happy, though, so all was good. Then I walked with Robin (has he got a livejournal?) to London Bridge for Vagabonds, under the rain, which wasn't so bad. The walk and the catch-up; the rain was quite heavy at times. Vagabonds was fab. There were, alas, a couple of other things going on that night that in the end I didn't make it to. But such is life...

There'll be some pics from Ed's birthday dinner along later.

The Vultures circling the digital economy

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:52:49 GMT

Doesn't this sound to you like only a slight aggiornamento of the good old 'you be good to us and we be good to you otherwise bad things could happen when we send the enforcers...' old Mafia protection warning?

And what would you do if you get the letter?

Googlewave invites and purpose

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:29:05 GMT

I have 8 Googlewave invites, in case anybody wants/needs one.

Also, what can you use the damn thing for?:P

How not to wake up on your day off...

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:47:48 GMT

I looked at the time. Too early, don't have to get up just yet. Fall asleep and... a microsecond later the door intercom thing wakes me up, buzzing impatiently. I go to answer it and there is this black and white figure on the little screen "OPEN! IT'S THE POLICE!" so I open, thinking 'oh, no; so they've finally caught up with me! But, wait a minute, what have I done this time? Is it the parking permit? Did I leave the car on a yellow line? Those two movies I downloaded once from the torrents? Damn you, Captain James T Kirk...

So I put my trousers on, drag a brush across my hair and wait. And wait. Eventually I ventured out in the cold corridor when I saw a police woman coming out of one of the other flats and asked her what was going on. 'Somebody was seen acting suspiciously on your balcony'. Erm, I don't have a balcony. Oh, she's pointing up; she means the roof top of the building. 'Probably a false alarm', she says, smiling. Yes. Thanks.