music

Music I’m interested in or have listened to.

Pardon me, dear. I kind of forgot about you.

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Seriously. I forgot this was here for a while. It’s ok now, I think. I’m here. It’ll be alright now.

Life? Life’s been ok. Thanks for asking. Since my last update I believe I’ve gone back to that KFC once, maybe twice. It’s been a while. Both times were reasonable experiences but not up to the standard of the first one. I haven’t had much to eat today so far and mentioning the dirty bird is making my stomach grumble. Let’s move on, shall we?

Tonight we’re going to see the Dead Kennedys for our second time. It should be fun. Last time was a few years back at the Manning Bar and we both really enjoyed it. Not sure what to expect this time around but if it sounds as good as the previous gig we’re in for a treat. The major dilemma I have is deciding whether to drive in and not drink or get drunk and train in. I better check the set times.

One big news item in the gap between posts I suppose is that Marika’s sister got married. We spent 3 weeks back in the isamaa and managed to catch up with shitloads of people, really, before and after the wedding. Even during the wedding actually, as they used the same photographer that we did. Small world, small country.

The other big news is that we bought into a nifty little bar. Yep, Marika and I are publicans. Well, partly. It’s in Estonia and we’re not, so we can’t get sloshed on our own supply unfortunately. Maybe that’s for the best. Anyway. Cool, right? Yes. It’s only relatively new but already popular. Now we just need to take over the world.

It also means we should probably get a real accountant. I even started dabbling in the stock market, although I don’t really intend to invest much. It’s just a curiosity at this stage. Accountants sort all that shit out for you. I think. The website says they do.

Life achievements:

  • We’re well past both year 1 wedding anniversaries. Go team.
  • Air conditioner has been installed in our apartment (pending strata approval, oops).
  • Fly screens have been installed in our apartment windows (pending strata approval but I mean come on) but not on the sliding doors because the doors are retarded and might need to get re-done.
  • I just set up a Sonos sound system so now we can have multi room audio. Well, currently it’s single room plus the balcony if we want but let’s see how far down the rabbit hole we go.

Honourable mention: both Marika and I are able to do proper pull ups now. We’re strong enough now that any risk of injury is more likely to be from the bar falling out of the door frame than of us dislocating our arms from their sockets.

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Home!

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Work!

On a whim I pissed away a respectable chunk of change on getting some blank keycaps for both of my Duckys. Now I have a colourful yet indecipherable range of input devices to the amazement of all.

Yes, mixed and matched. Sorry if the aesthetic offends anyone.

Apart from these kinds of distractions I don’t really have a lot going on. Both of us are working and I for one don’t have any holidays left. Marika still has a million because she gets spoilt by her company. I’m still jealous.

Maybe I’ll tell you how the concert went next time.

Learning the process

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Greetings.

I’m currently on a training course for work. It’s for the ITIL framework. No, I don’t expect any of you to understand or care what I’m talking about. Anyway, it’s interesting and it means I don’t have to go into my work office all week!

Marika and I went to the Future Music Festival last weekend. It was decent but felt too short and getting there and back was a total nightmare. In the end it was still worth it as we fit to see Die Antwoord again and even New Order, who naturally played Blue Monday! Yay.

I’ve been doing P90x, the workout regime, for the past 5 weeks. I’m not even halfway through it yet but I’m seeing and feeling the benefits. I just wish I could do proper pullups. Actually I just wish I had a place to simply attempt to do them. Our flat is the least accommodating exercise centre.

I bought a Scanpan grill pan and some other cookware last night just before bed. Regular price was about $1200 but I’m getting it all for about $300. Thanks, online shopping.

My Tintin collectors book arrived yesterday, too. Haven’t opened it yet but looking forward to it. The original two comics that I haven’t read are in this volume. Very exciting.

Time to go back to class.

Slayed the dragon, bought a beast

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The St George accounts are all cancelled. I even BPAYed the $0.99 that snuck on as the last transaction thanks to the Android Market. I haven’t gotten to the stage where I dramatically cut up my remaining credit cards yet. I’m actually a little worried that now I’ll be removing so many cards from my wallet that the sleeves may be too loose to hold the remaining cards. They already tend to slip out frequently so I guess I’ll just have pad it with fat wads of cash.

So, yep. It’s been about ten years but St George is gone.

Now that our finances are more consolidated, I decided to finally purchase a new PC (ha!). I’ve been creating quotes and reading up on various parts for the past month or two and ultimately got to the point where I just wanted to bite the bullet. It’s a gaming rig and I had to buy basically every single component as new, besides my mouse. That means things like Windows 7, a keyboard, a 24″ screen and a tasteful black tower case. It’s too bad the front fans have bright white LEDs built into them but at least it’s under the desk so I don’t notice. It runs almost silently, even when I’m cranking everything in high detail. Mad PC gamer bonars.

What will happen to my old laptop? It has served me well over the past two years as a good composite machine. I had to rely on it as a desktop replacement and as such it’s a bit bigger, heavier, hotter and noisy than what most people tend to go for these days. I’m considering converting it into a media PC and connecting it to our TV. Since it’s on wifi there’ll be nothing but a power cable and HDMI cable to get it working. I’m a bit concerned that it will run hot, but I think if it’s mostly just downloading/streaming/replaying/decompressing it shouldn’t be too bad. Maybe a few spikes here and there, but whatever. I should probably clean it out first though and get it feeling crisp again. 2 years of dicking around with any home PC tends to lead to a lot of bloat.

In a decisive Sunday afternoon administrative move, I’m backing up my iPod to the new machine. There’s a lot of songs on there and whilst they’re well formatted and tagged (I’m a tight arse when it comes to naming conventions and file management) I don’t think I play that many of them. I’ve had this one for about 4.5 years, since my last one was lost/stolen from the bar under the hostel. Thanks, Dave,  by the way. It’s got a lot of tracks on there that I used to play to set the “mood” in the hostel. To great applause, mind you. I’ve lost track of the amount of compliments I used to receive from my DJing, even just during the day. Probably about 4 people.

Since I hate using iTunes and have purchased all of my songs through different online vendors and formats, I can’t just sync it and pretend it’ll magically work. Manual management it is, then! To be honest it’s a lot faster and I anyway can’t stand Apple software. Fuck off, indeed.

Anyway, I think that having a backup of all these bad boys can’t hurt and it might lead me on another music binge. I definitely need some fresh material even though I haven’t been listening to much music lately. I suppose the only times I have been putting anything on is for things I’ve already heard/know. That’s not adventurous enough, is it?

Hi.

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Quick update:

  • Practically finished the new hostel website. Now we’re just waiting for the domain registration to transfer and for then for the DNS servers to update…
  • I have been listening to live Estonian Idol rehearsals all week.
  • I’ve spent more time in Tartu than in my soon-to-be-moved-out-from flat in the past month-and-a-half.
  • I feel particularly frail and lazy.
  • I need to rob a bank.
  • I’ve had my hair trimmed.
  • I fixed my beard trimmer.
  • Marika is eating a banana.

Plicka plicka

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Ever wondered what Rammstein are up to lately? [NSFW] Probably not. Still, I felt like sharing it.

I just got back from Tartu, again. Another week down. It’s not too bad a place to chill out and it’s going to be cheaper to rent there for 6 months than it is to rent in Tallinn for 1 month. Yep.

I’m not really sure what to write about. I haven’t done much except avoid exercise. I drove Marika’s car a little bit. It was fun to be behind the wheel again. Unfortunately I barely fit behind it, but I think I’ll manage if I ever need to pop down to the shops for… vegetables?

My hair is growing back at a slightly disturbing rate. It’s time to have it cut again in order to tidy it up. The hair on the sides of my head tends to grow up and outward, like an eagle spreading its wings. You could even compare my nose to its beak.

Currently I’m redesigning the hostel website. It’s coming along quite nicely. Unfortunately I don’t have any other web work to do. I hope to soon otherwise I’ll be poor and sad. I really should be doing more work pimping out this poker software as this month has been very lax. Perhaps I’ll grind out a few hours each day for the rest of the week. I guess I do need the money after all. Woe is me.

I like this apartment but damn it’s ripped the arse out of my wallet. :( In fact, my wallet is so empty these days that I actually carry it around again!

Vroooooooooooom

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I’m enjoying the Bugged Out! Classics album at the moment, although laptop speakers don’t really do it justice. Still, what’s a boy to do?

Yesterday was probably one of my more pathetic efforts in the gym. I didn’t last long and I didn’t get much done. It’s amusing that I’m definitely less efficient and active now that I’m not living on a couch. You would think that I’d be able to develop a regular sleeping pattern and establish some kind of routine now that I have some privacy.

Instead I’ve been sleeping in until 1-2pm, not eating enough during the day and spending a fuck-tonne of money on alcohol as everyone seems to be in party mode again. It must be due to the weather lightening up and the influx of energy that comes with gaining two new, nice volunteers.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m having fun. It’s just weird. It’s nice feeling free again and having Levist lock-ins with the staff and receiving alcohol from them at no charge. I must be a little bit influential. Sometimes I wish I could be coercive as well but I’ve only got the ability to come off as “pushy”.

I really need to buy some new (or second-hand) trousers. I only own one set that does not have the arse ripped out of it. That doesn’t worry me so much because A) I don’t care and B) I have a nice arse. It’s just reassuring to know that my pants don’t run the risk of obliteration whenever I sit down or stand up too quickly.

Twitter is playing with my head at the moment. I’ve never been one to religiously follow conversations and spend 5 hours straight chatting back and forth to everyone (as it really does act like an IRC client in SMS-form) but I do enjoy updating my status with what I’m doing from time to time. Why is this playing with my head? Because it stops me from writing my blog properly as essentially this is paragraph after paragraph of what I’ve been doing. If you read my Twitter page it would be an even more brief summary of this site, potentially.

So, what do I do about this? I don’t know. I think I’ll try to balance it out and use this for thoughts and ideas and keep Twitter as a mood or status broadcaster. Of course, if I wasn’t so lazy with writing I would actually come up with a proper article or two for this site that wasn’t wholly to do with my own small world.

Then again, no one reads this anyway.

I like the sound of women

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Electroclash women, that is! I still wish The Micragirls would come back to play here. I wonder where their flyer went?

Apart from that, I feel like sleeping until I die due to my intake of pancakes, chocolate bars and chinese food today. Gym tomorrow. Really.

Actually, I think I might even be making progress at the gym. Inconceiveable, I know. Too bad my body fat is, as well. Or so it seems.

Since I’ve already started discussing women, I should mention that Marika is back from her pilgrimage to Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris. I guess he broke on through to the other side after all.

It’s nice having everyone floating around the main building again. It’s nice to have too many people to schedule, too. Maybe I’ll try to take a long holiday soon, since we have so many kiddies. Too bad I can’t go to the gym if I’m away, but I’m being a bit lazy anyway. Oops.

Spain beat Estonia 3-0 in wet weather, we had lots of Spanish guests. It’s always the same process… Germany beat Russia 2-1. No one here seemed to react.

It’s been very sunny here of late, just cold at night. Windy, I guess. Blustering.

There is too much laundry here. I don’t want to think about it. It’s a big load worthy of dumping onto someone else. I know just the man.

I can still taste the crispy beef.

Electronic/pop music

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I am finding heaps of new good old stuff. Soon I will get high and giddy from it.

Thank you for listening.

Also, I think the gym is starting to work. Slowly.

Also, Marika went to Tartu. Boo.

Mental

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The cops just came down our street with a megaphone telling everyone in front of Levist to bugger off. I haven’t seen that before. Awesome. It’s crazy out there.

It was crazy in here too, with some fine gents bringing two very attractive women (definitely too attractive, clean and well dressed for anyone sleeping in a dorm) back at 5 AM. They could have gotten away with it if they weren’t stupid enough to storm in and wake me up while I was sleeping on the couch (that wasn’t meant to sound like Scooby Doo, honestly). I had to chase them up the stairs and kick them out, after they lied saying that they were staying here. Yeah, right. Not with those shoes, lady.

Last night another fine gent (why are they always British? Oh, I think I know…) decided to keep me awake with his friend for a few hours in the early morning before passing out on the couch. That wouldn’t have been so bad if he didn’t then lean over and vomit all over the floor, again waking me up. I think I’m sleeping on an unlucky couch or something. It’s always uncomfortable and every time I lie down on it something goes to shit.

I haven’t bothered uploading any photos of my hair yet. Fuck it. There are some and they will come, but not for a bit.

The Viljandi folk festival was very cool. I took a 4 day pass and bought Marika one for her birthday, too. Lots of us went together and most of us camped outside, some at the grounds and some at Kea’s house a bit out from the centre.

The weather was perfect and my wallet became empty very quickly. It took me 3 days to recover from my trip to the gym the morning that we left. I could barely sit down or move I was so stiff and sore. At least if I can survive sleeping in a tent with a body that sore I know I should be able to cope as an old man.

Overall it was good fun! I did miss the old free stage, though. It’s pretty clear they want to stop all the drunk, poor kiddies from fart-arsing around and leaving garbage everywhere. Rumour has it that there won’t even be any alcohol served next year.

We decided to stay until Monday and then Pilly and I would take the train back. Sunday night was our big barbecue night and somehow I ended up having to take care of most of it. How impressive. The next day everyone else hitchhiked or took the bus in impatience, apart from Eagle 8. We met her by chance at the train station and she gave us some wine, so we vegged out on the couch until we pulled into town 2 and a half hours later.

Since I got back it’s been pretty good here. I even saw Wanted and the new Batman, The Dark Knight. One is better than the other, so clearly Morgan Freeman isn’t the difference. They’re both good in their own ways, too. Still, Batman is very over-hyped but it’s mostly coherent, Wanted is just cool to watch but the story is… well, even for a stylised comic book action movie it doesn’t make sense.

I have a big happy belly from all the festival food. Oops. Gym tomorrow, if I can stay awake.

Bob Dylan – more boring to be him or watch him?

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Yes, I saw Bob Dylan play last night at the Saku Suurhall. I saw his left side. Yep. He faced the band for the entire concert. At least the band looked at the crowd. He didn’t acknowledge the audience at all, not even a hello. After 2 hours of slurring and rambling indecipherable lyrics of dramatically re-arranged old songs he simply announced the name of his bandmembers, took a bow with them and then left the stage without so much as a goodbye.

Ok, fine, so I understand that it would be pretty tiresome to continually perform the same songs for 50-odd years. It’d be even harder to remain enthusiastic about it. What shits me is that he’s a prick. Perhaps he’s always been like that. Whatever.

The music sounded good, I have to say. The band was fine and all. Too bad no one understood anything he said all night. The general consensus of all the people I went with was “underwhelming”.

I admit, I’m not the greatest Bob Dylan fan. I only really wanted to go because I wanted to see him before he died and I figured doing it over here would be fun in itself. Sure, I’m glad overall that I did it. It just wasn’t awe-inspiring.

Lou Reed is coming here soon as well. I was considering seeing him as well since he’s probably gonna kick the bucket soon. Meh. He can’t be much better.

Actually, seeing bands live is really shit unless you’re a bona fide, die-hard fan. At least in my experiences. Maybe I’m just not a big live music person, but I always get bored and start falling asleep. Maybe it’s to do with not always being up the front, close to the stage. No, I think I have to be a fan of the music and up the front in order to stay awake and wholly enjoy the music.