I know, I know! I have been somewhat remiss in keeping a steady stream of updates being published on here. I do have a life in the real world you know!
Anyway, as I sit here listening to the snoring of my parents as they sleep off Christmas lunch, my mind naturally wanders to anyone else out their suffering the same fate.
Has the festive period changed or have we? I remember the time when on the actual Christmas Day the thought of doing some shopping was way off anybody's radar yet I've already been online and placed an order for some toner for one of my printers.
I also seem to think that the roads on Christmas Day contained less traffic. I'm not sure you could go out on a fine, dry but cold, Christmas Day on your motorcycle and head for a decent stretch of highway to see just how fast it will go. Not that I ever did 163mph on such an occasion, I;m merely speculating for a friend!
Irrespective of what's changed, it's still over so Merry Christmas to you all. Get those livers ready for New Year's Eve because it'll be 2015 before you know it.
Thursday 25 December 2014
Saturday 29 November 2014
Pointless Privacy - You Are The Product!
How fortunate is it to have a blog that very few people actually follow.
I'm on Facebook! There, I've said it and admitted the heinous crime but what is getting my goat today is that some people, and people I consider to be intelligent, are reposting across my timeline a pointless bit of legalese that they feel protects them from Facebook reusing their content.
Clearly they appreciate that Facebook is using their postings to some extent for their own purposes but surely they must realise that when they signed up they agreed to Facebook's terms and conditions. These basically give Mark Zuckerberg and his minions the right to do pretty much whatever they want with anything you tell them? That's why my account is not in my name and some of the stuff I've told them is not true. I like to make them work a little to make money using my data!
I'd love to point this out to these Facebook friends but by doing so I'd come across as some kind of spoilsport or more likely be viewed as an arse. At least I can do that on here and none of them will see it!
Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsAp and pretty much all of the other free to use systems that people post randomly on are selling your data to somebody. How else do they make the money they need to run the service? Computer systems cost money you know unless I've been naive by buying my own all these years.
Online, you are the product when you use a free service. And there's nothing you can do to stop it unless you stop using the service!
Rant over.
I'm on Facebook! There, I've said it and admitted the heinous crime but what is getting my goat today is that some people, and people I consider to be intelligent, are reposting across my timeline a pointless bit of legalese that they feel protects them from Facebook reusing their content.
Clearly they appreciate that Facebook is using their postings to some extent for their own purposes but surely they must realise that when they signed up they agreed to Facebook's terms and conditions. These basically give Mark Zuckerberg and his minions the right to do pretty much whatever they want with anything you tell them? That's why my account is not in my name and some of the stuff I've told them is not true. I like to make them work a little to make money using my data!
I'd love to point this out to these Facebook friends but by doing so I'd come across as some kind of spoilsport or more likely be viewed as an arse. At least I can do that on here and none of them will see it!
Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsAp and pretty much all of the other free to use systems that people post randomly on are selling your data to somebody. How else do they make the money they need to run the service? Computer systems cost money you know unless I've been naive by buying my own all these years.
Online, you are the product when you use a free service. And there's nothing you can do to stop it unless you stop using the service!
Rant over.
Thursday 27 February 2014
EBay and the fun of online auctions
Don't you just love it. You see something on Ebay, mentally desire it and decide you must at least try to bag the object of your desires. It can be addictive but you need to be rational at some point so my rules are to sit back and decide how much you are prepared to pay and set that limit in stone in your head, particularly after you've done your research by taking a look at the recently completed auctions of the same things. At no point rush in.
By all means take a first punt by offering slightly more than the current bid and see what happens. If your bid is immediately superceded and it's not near the end of the auction, bide your time and keep a watching brief.
Closer to the end of the auction, probably with 10-15 minutes to go, take another look at where the price has got to and if it is still within your limits, keep watching. If it's already exceeded your maximum price just walk away and look for another auction of the same thing.
If you are still within your limit, perhaps make a revised bid with 5 minutes to go, again just above the current one and see what happens. If you are gazumped, keep edging it up as the auction moves closer to ending until you are either at your limit or are winning. Keep watching until the end because there are 'sniping' tools out there that will still bid in the last minute.
One small trick, particularly when the auction is nearing its end is to edge the bids up with 'strange amounts.' Most people think in terms of whole pounds, some now have cottoned on to this and now bid with 50p but be more obscure, perhaps place a bid with 79p on the end so it blows away anyone working in pounds or 50p increments and also covers those working in 25p ones too.
That's my strategy if I'm around when the auction is ending which is when the fun happens. If I'm not around when it is ending and have to rely on the automated tools, it takes some of the excitement away but sometimes that can't be avoided.
Have fun with it but don't end up bidding against me or things might get really weird.
By all means take a first punt by offering slightly more than the current bid and see what happens. If your bid is immediately superceded and it's not near the end of the auction, bide your time and keep a watching brief.
Closer to the end of the auction, probably with 10-15 minutes to go, take another look at where the price has got to and if it is still within your limits, keep watching. If it's already exceeded your maximum price just walk away and look for another auction of the same thing.
If you are still within your limit, perhaps make a revised bid with 5 minutes to go, again just above the current one and see what happens. If you are gazumped, keep edging it up as the auction moves closer to ending until you are either at your limit or are winning. Keep watching until the end because there are 'sniping' tools out there that will still bid in the last minute.
One small trick, particularly when the auction is nearing its end is to edge the bids up with 'strange amounts.' Most people think in terms of whole pounds, some now have cottoned on to this and now bid with 50p but be more obscure, perhaps place a bid with 79p on the end so it blows away anyone working in pounds or 50p increments and also covers those working in 25p ones too.
That's my strategy if I'm around when the auction is ending which is when the fun happens. If I'm not around when it is ending and have to rely on the automated tools, it takes some of the excitement away but sometimes that can't be avoided.
Have fun with it but don't end up bidding against me or things might get really weird.
Monday 10 February 2014
Top Gear & getting paid for looning about.
I remember the days when Top Gear was part of the minority programming on BBC2 presented in a fairly dull monotone by William Woollard and Quentin Wilson amongst other worthies.
Since Jezza, Hamster and Captain Slow (and it must be said Andy Willman the director) took over, they've changed it into something that has a connection to cars but is more entertaining because they injected personality into it.
There's something both childlike and also knowing about it that grabs my attention and I can be found at transmission time sat there waiting to see just what they'll get up to next.
It's obvious that they're having a blast and getting off on their own celebrity yet I don't find the latter infuriating like I do someone like Simon Cowell. We need more programmes made with passion and presented with gusto like that not the forced bonhomie of things like Springwatch.
Sunday's show with the test of the Maclaren P1 (below) was excellent with Jezza spouting effusively about the car and what it was capable of.
Since Jezza, Hamster and Captain Slow (and it must be said Andy Willman the director) took over, they've changed it into something that has a connection to cars but is more entertaining because they injected personality into it.
There's something both childlike and also knowing about it that grabs my attention and I can be found at transmission time sat there waiting to see just what they'll get up to next.
It's obvious that they're having a blast and getting off on their own celebrity yet I don't find the latter infuriating like I do someone like Simon Cowell. We need more programmes made with passion and presented with gusto like that not the forced bonhomie of things like Springwatch.
Sunday's show with the test of the Maclaren P1 (below) was excellent with Jezza spouting effusively about the car and what it was capable of.
But perhaps the best bit was 'the challenge' with Hamster in the Alfa 4C versus the multi mode quad bike. The sight of Clarkson blasting across the water in a white shirt and jeans just had me roaring with laughter knowing how much he abhors health & safety. The icing on the cake was the mick take about the warning sticker from the quad and intimate bodily parts.
If it was me doing that programme, I wouldn't want paying. Just cover the cost of getting to where I need to be and I'd do it for free. The fact that they own the rights and thus get paid every time it's shown on BBC, Dave and god knows how many other channels, is pure genius.
More power to their elbow is all I can say.
Sunday 2 February 2014
How did that happen?
It seems like I have followers in the United States and Austria! All I can say is thank you for dropping by and I hope that you like what you have read. Feel free to drop by anytime you want. The virtual kettle is always on.
Making progress
For a long time I have been a regular attendee at a local jam session/open mic night and loved every minute of it. When the pub changed hands the people that had run the night for over 15 years decided that they wanted a break from having to be there every night and as there was some concern about what might happen to the pub the musicians voted me as the next leader.
To say I was shocked was an understatement but I did feel honoured too that they thought enough about me that they were confident enough to trust me to take it forward.
Since then things at the pub have been up and down with rumours of what was going to happen, changes in the temporary management every few weeks and other stuff so it has been a challenge keeping it together whilst at the same time working on an inclusive strategy to move it forward.
I can now say that the work is beginning to pay off in that the 'branding' of the night as opposed to the venue has meant that we have now secured a new place to play and with some simple changes to the web site and Faceberk group we can move straight to the new place and all the promotional stuff can stay as it is.
Although all of that is good my next challenge is to check through the gear at the new place, find out how it's wired and get it all up and running so wish me luck with that. There's a lot more stuff there than I've been used to before so it's going to be fun learning how it all works and hopefully making it sound good. That's also before I take a look at the lighting rig too!
Anyhow, I'm still grateful for the support of the chaps and chapesses at the jam. Here's a picture of just a few of them from the last night at the old place.
To say I was shocked was an understatement but I did feel honoured too that they thought enough about me that they were confident enough to trust me to take it forward.
Since then things at the pub have been up and down with rumours of what was going to happen, changes in the temporary management every few weeks and other stuff so it has been a challenge keeping it together whilst at the same time working on an inclusive strategy to move it forward.
I can now say that the work is beginning to pay off in that the 'branding' of the night as opposed to the venue has meant that we have now secured a new place to play and with some simple changes to the web site and Faceberk group we can move straight to the new place and all the promotional stuff can stay as it is.
Although all of that is good my next challenge is to check through the gear at the new place, find out how it's wired and get it all up and running so wish me luck with that. There's a lot more stuff there than I've been used to before so it's going to be fun learning how it all works and hopefully making it sound good. That's also before I take a look at the lighting rig too!
Anyhow, I'm still grateful for the support of the chaps and chapesses at the jam. Here's a picture of just a few of them from the last night at the old place.
Tuesday 21 January 2014
Blogs, blogging, bloggers
After reading a post on the excellent Over The Ages Wisdom blog where the question was raised about why commenting wasn't so popular, I decided to comment with my take on the phenomenon. However, having done so it actually made me think more deeply about why I create this stuff and why others might too.
To be honest, it was the starting of the above blog that got me thinking why didn't I do it? I had done some writing previously but mostly as a sort of therapy when I was hacked off with something. It was created on a blogging site but I never promoted it.
So what changed and why start again now?
I guess that a certain amount of vanity was involved in that I felt I could still write creatively and also there were things rattling around in my head that I perhaps wanted to get off my chest.
Seeing Carol's blog take shape, I realised that if I did do something, it wouldn't follow as disciplined an approach of trying to create something each day. I preferred to only create a post when I felt the need to do so.
Taking that as read, I accepted that even if my posts were sporadic, they might cause some debate and I feel that is always good.
Bloggers?
As I've explained, there is probably a certain amount of vanity involved in why bloggers do what they do, a feeling that they have something worthwhile to say along with an arrogance that other people should know what they think.
In addition though, there is a perverse pleasure in seeing if what you write gets a reaction. This might explain why a lack of comments becomes a little frustrating. For me though the proof of the pudding is not the comments but the page view statistics that I believe most of the blogging sites happily provide you with. Not having created that much so far I can't claim success in the last measure but you never know.
What do you think?
As you can imagine, I don't expect much in the way of feedback from this article even if there is a comments button, but hopefully it will get fellow bloggers thinking.
Well what do you know
I've managed to recover my old blog so if you are interested, you can find it at The Loneliness of The Long Distance Drummer and see if my writing style has changed from the time between 2007 and 2011 when I created it and what I'm waffling about now.
The title of the blog will definitely surprise Carol.
To be honest, it was the starting of the above blog that got me thinking why didn't I do it? I had done some writing previously but mostly as a sort of therapy when I was hacked off with something. It was created on a blogging site but I never promoted it.
So what changed and why start again now?
I guess that a certain amount of vanity was involved in that I felt I could still write creatively and also there were things rattling around in my head that I perhaps wanted to get off my chest.
Seeing Carol's blog take shape, I realised that if I did do something, it wouldn't follow as disciplined an approach of trying to create something each day. I preferred to only create a post when I felt the need to do so.
Taking that as read, I accepted that even if my posts were sporadic, they might cause some debate and I feel that is always good.
Bloggers?
As I've explained, there is probably a certain amount of vanity involved in why bloggers do what they do, a feeling that they have something worthwhile to say along with an arrogance that other people should know what they think.
In addition though, there is a perverse pleasure in seeing if what you write gets a reaction. This might explain why a lack of comments becomes a little frustrating. For me though the proof of the pudding is not the comments but the page view statistics that I believe most of the blogging sites happily provide you with. Not having created that much so far I can't claim success in the last measure but you never know.
What do you think?
As you can imagine, I don't expect much in the way of feedback from this article even if there is a comments button, but hopefully it will get fellow bloggers thinking.
Well what do you know
I've managed to recover my old blog so if you are interested, you can find it at The Loneliness of The Long Distance Drummer and see if my writing style has changed from the time between 2007 and 2011 when I created it and what I'm waffling about now.
The title of the blog will definitely surprise Carol.
Saturday 18 January 2014
Guilty pleasures
Musical snobbery is everywhere but someone once said to me that there are only three kinds of music, music that you like, music that you don't like and music that you haven't heard yet. As a result I try not to be dismissive of what other people like but I have been guilty in the past of not owning up to some of my guilty pleasures. So for now here's the first of mine.
It's a classic song not done by the original artist, which was Marc Bolan and T Rex, in case you had forgotten, but it is by The Power Station.
The Power Station were perhaps a typical 'supergroup' but then again perhaps not in that they consisted of two members of Duran Duran in Andy & John Taylor, with Robert Palmer and in my view the undisputed star of the outfit, Tony Thompson from Chic. Who would have thought that a drummer from a disco band could play with such power and aggression and also to have such a drum sound. I would love to be able to groove with the same quality, tone and feel. Simply awesome.
Enjoy the video
It's a classic song not done by the original artist, which was Marc Bolan and T Rex, in case you had forgotten, but it is by The Power Station.
The Power Station were perhaps a typical 'supergroup' but then again perhaps not in that they consisted of two members of Duran Duran in Andy & John Taylor, with Robert Palmer and in my view the undisputed star of the outfit, Tony Thompson from Chic. Who would have thought that a drummer from a disco band could play with such power and aggression and also to have such a drum sound. I would love to be able to groove with the same quality, tone and feel. Simply awesome.
Enjoy the video
Sunday 12 January 2014
Stargazing Live
I have a certain fascination with space and astronomy so it was with some anticipation that I started watching the BBC programmes this week. I'm really glad I did. The series, short though it was, contained plenty of interesting learning and no small measure of entertainment.
The combination of Dara O'Brien and Professor Brian Cox make the show what it is with their combination of informed humour and passion for the subject but the highlight for me was one of their guests. Carolyn Porco was passionate, informative and humourous all at the same time and it was infectious. She made you feel passionate too and that set me thinking about what makes a good teacher so watch out for a blog post about that because it has a resonance with what I'm involved with at work.
If you have the slightest interest in anything space related, if you didn't see it and can find it on iPlayer, I'd recommend watching it.
Tuesday 7 January 2014
So why this name for the blog?
It's quite simple really if I think about it!
I like loud, often bizarrely shaped electric guitars played through large amplifiers. I play normal acoustic drums which can easily drown out guitarists with small, underpowered amps and where would bike racing be without the screaming noises coming from the bike engines.
None of the above require much effort to be loud and proud so that accounts for the effortless bit and to an extent the noise too but sadly the version with the correct spelling was already taken on Blogger so I needed to change it.
With it all being just typed randomly from my brain it's effortless in that regard too.
In the words of Alexander Orloff from CompareTheMeerkat 'Simples!'
I like loud, often bizarrely shaped electric guitars played through large amplifiers. I play normal acoustic drums which can easily drown out guitarists with small, underpowered amps and where would bike racing be without the screaming noises coming from the bike engines.
None of the above require much effort to be loud and proud so that accounts for the effortless bit and to an extent the noise too but sadly the version with the correct spelling was already taken on Blogger so I needed to change it.
With it all being just typed randomly from my brain it's effortless in that regard too.
In the words of Alexander Orloff from CompareTheMeerkat 'Simples!'
World Wide Waffle
Well, here it is, the collective wit and wisdom of a chap of a 'certain age' who has a passion for noise, power and general excess. I can't promise much by way of an overarching theme, that's why I've called this first post 'World Wide Waffle' because it perhaps illustrates the likely meandering nature of what you might find here.
For my sins, and as I have alluded to already, I have a passion for guitars and drums as well as most forms of road based two wheeled motorsport so there will no doubt be content along those themes as well as no doubt other random subjects that pique my interest.
I'm going to try to update this thing but make no promises of a regular schedule because there are other things in life that float my boat more.
Hope that you enjoy it.
For my sins, and as I have alluded to already, I have a passion for guitars and drums as well as most forms of road based two wheeled motorsport so there will no doubt be content along those themes as well as no doubt other random subjects that pique my interest.
I'm going to try to update this thing but make no promises of a regular schedule because there are other things in life that float my boat more.
Hope that you enjoy it.
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