David’s Blog

Some time ago Jools Holland had a band on called The Spinto Band. They played a couple of songs, one of which was the song Brown Boxes, which features the entire band donning Kazzoos on bits of wire, kind of like a guitarist plays a harmonica. It was quirky and fun, as was the song. I duly bought their album, listened to it, but then focused on the main songs I picked up on.

On Fridays driving home from work I like to put on an album on the iPod, and listen to it. I get about 30 minutes driving home, so I can hear a good bulk of an album. I decided to listen to The Spinto Band, and I’m glad I did! I rediscovered quite a few songs hidden further down the tracklist that first time around didn’t sink in. The song Direct To Helmet is a nice little ditty with some great harmonies, and Crack The Whip has a nice disco-groove to it. I hadn’t realised how much of an eclectic mix this album was. If you don’t have it, go look it up and give it a listen now!

Sky have a new advert running at the moment for Sky Movies, basically saying how they’ll never interrupt with adverts. The advert features the Pearl & Dean theme, as used before cinema adverts. I knew the tune, but I had no idea what it was. A quick Google and I was downloading it from iTunes.

It got me thinking about the old Odeon idents from quite some time ago. This predates them merging with ABC cinemas, and it goes back to before the new multiplex was built here, so it’s probably about 15 years or more now. I recal the idents featuring some quite nicely done animation, which featured the camera slowly swooping down and around an Odeon cinema, before pulling back for an announcer to say something. It was accompanied by some quite bombastic eighties music, but I loved it. A few years ago I emailed Odeon cinemas to ask if it would ever appear elsewhere, or if there was some way to obtain the adverts (purely for sad, nostalgic reasons) but got a typically bland, canned response.

I just had another dig around and found nothing. A shame really. I couldn’t even find anything on Youtube or Google Video. So if you ever find anything, let me know!

I got my car tax reminder this morning. Normally I’m super paranoid about such things and have usually checked the current tax disc about 20,000 times since I last renewed it. Somehow I managed to miss it this time.

I was going into town this morning, so I considered taking it with me and getting it down in the post office there and then. I pondered this notion, then realised it was a) hot and b) probably likely to be a big queue in the post office. It all seemed like too much effort for my liking.

The front of the envelope mentioned the ability to renew the tax online. This intrigued me because I like to do things online if I can, plus it saves digging out my MOT certificate and current insurance cover note. What worried me was that the tax expires on the 31st (a week on Monday), but the documentation says it will take up to five working days to deliver the disk; cutting it a little bit fine perhaps.

After some deliberation I thought I’d give it a go. So I duly took myself along to the site and followed the prompts to apply. It was actually refreshingly easy:

1. Confirm you have a new-style MOT form (i.e. a new ‘Online’ form)
2. Enter the reference number from the tax document
3. Confirm that’s the right car listed
4. Choose the tax length
5. Enter payment

And that’s it! Nothing much to it really. They send an email ‘receipt’ if you wish also and instructions on what to do if it doesn’t turn up in time. So, with a bit of luck, come the middle of next week I should have the new disc in my possession.

Hopefully.

Oh dear god it’s hot. Too hot. FAR too hot. It’s just plain nasty. Roll on winter is all I can say.

I’ll just sit still for the next month or so, until it cools down. Tomorrow is supposed to be the hottest day, and possibly a record breaker, so we’ve got that to look forward to! This really hot weather is probably also going to lead to some violent storms later in the week.

It better do.

Last night I was watching some TV via the PC. I was happily sitting there watching, and the sound would occasionally cut out. It was the fault of my headphones. The connector has been going for a while. I think it’s mostly due to the fact that I am plugging and unplugging the headphones quite a lot. I don’t like to leave them plugged in permanantly as the socket on my Audigy’s front drivebay is in a slightly vulnerable position; too close to my knee to be safe!

I had threatened to just resolder the connector, as I had some spare connectors. Not sure why it is that I have said connectors, but I remember buying them for some crackpot plan I had a few years back. I was looking at the headphones and thought it might be wise to also look into some new headphones.

I had a quick look last night at both Argos’s and Comet’s websites. I found a pair of Sennheiser headphones on the Argos site. They were priced at £15, so I thought there must be something good about them, not least for the name. I have a pair of Sennheiser in-ear headphones I bought for £9.99 from Maplin some time ago, and they are excellent headphones, and still going very well.

My next step was to have a dig around and find some reviews. Luckily, things looked good, and some sites gave some nice glowing write-ups. So today I dispatched myself to Argos to pick up a pair.

So far, I’m quite impressed. I was a bit narked that it was obvious the box had been opened, so they really shouldn’t have been re-sold, but even so, they work, so I don’t care much. There’s a good sound range on them, and they have good bass response. The highs and mids are also nicely represented, so you get a good, rounded sound to them.

A rather nice physical attribute about them is the fact that with them on, I can hardly hear anything external, but I can easily flip one ear back and they will stay on my head very nicely. They are touted as ‘DJ’ headphones, so that’s no surprise. They fit snugly on my head, but not so tightly that I will feel my ears hurting after long useage. I’m not too keen on the fact the signal wire comes out of both ears, rather than just one, but it’s a minor thing. Overall though, I’d say £15 well spent!

Today is the first anniversary of the London bombings. It was truly tragic, and a very sobering experience. I remember being at work picking up bits of info from people on IRC (it was a slow day!), then finding more info via the BBC and Sky News websites. I ended up standing in the media technician’s offices watching a TV with News 24 on.

I watched it in horror, amazement, shock. I don’t think I really thought of much, I just watched it happen. Many died, and many more were injured. It was an amazingly horrible thing to happen, and my condolences go out to the families who were affected by it.

And now for a rant, and yes, it’s a media rant.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, it became shortened to 9/11. It became a shorthand and in a way, distilled everything that happened, and the aftermath into three numbers and a forward slash.

The UK media did EXACTLY the same thing after July 7th. It was almost as if they said “Look, we have our own 9/11 now! Isn’t that great!” To me, it seems like they were waiting for it to happen. They almost HOPED it would happen, and it pleased them. Now they had something to carp on about, and it has numbers and a slash, just like in America!
That sickens me, almost as much as the event itself.

Today’s TV was mostly made up of reporters standing outside the affected tube stations and in various other parts of London looking into the camera with doe-eyes and telling us how horrible it all is. Yes, it is horrible, and it should never happen. But the coverage was quite frankly exploiting the event.

I saw a part of Channel 5’s news this evening which featured John Suchet getting people who had been bereaved by the bombs, basically to cry for the cameras. It proved nothing; yes these people are grieving, but making them tell us all about it just so they cry does not make good television.

I didn’t see any of the newspapers, but I just know they did the same thing. The red tops probably had screaming commentaries about how it’s all the fault of Islam and it’s a wicked sinful thing. Of course, it isn’t, but I just know they’ll be saying it.

The media scares me at times, more than any terrorists ever could.