I accompanied C to get her A-level results.
Me & C spent the afternoon in Portholme Meadow.
Yesterday Gran's Funeral was held, I took a few photos and videos.
I've had an invigorating three week rest period and its put some life back into me. A couple of weeks back I became infected with 'iPod Fever', a spreading virulent infection of the mind that makes your eyes turn into spirals of film noir and Apple logo blotches to appear on your skin. Oh and it makes you purchase expensive accessories from the Apple Store.
Its a mini green ipod, so pretty! I never leave home without it :)
Theres only two days left and I'm exhausted because tomorrow my exam period will have stretched into its fourth week. I feel tired, mentally, and ready for a long, relaxing holiday. Heck, I've earned it. Its been a long second semester with an exam period extended beyond necessity (four exams spread over 3 weeks with one prequel revision week). All I want now is to go home and take a three month vacaction from the mental rigours of university.
The Jitsu regional for our region were held today at the Sugden Centre, Manchester. It was a long afternoon of Jitsu but I learnt some new and interesting techniques so it was all worth while. It was the first time I'd encountered anyone from the other Jitsu clubs. They all seem like nice, friendly people, especially the Preston gang (read: everyone from Preston is hideously ugly and delinquent, its true!).
List of techniques covered: Arm Lock 4/5/6(??), O/KO Soto Gari, Knife defences (double arm block to Figure-of-Four to Armlock 2 with knife slashing across neck/spine finish). area, stab to leg).
Tonight I saw Mortiis play at Academy 3. My only reaction is: wow. He is good, I mean he's bloody fantastic like tigers on vaseline. The gig tonight was, outlined in a single word synopis, superb. The band roared through their set playing one timeless synthesized classic after another while the audience lapped up every second. The three people I met all got to touch Mortiis himself and all in the room felt humbled by the bands presence. I kept busy and took plenty of photos, even a couple of small audio clips although I dont think they turned out too well.
I've uploaded the photos from my phone (nokia 3200) to my pc and theres some real corkers. Tomorrow I think i'll create a special page devoted to the show and upload the photos. Sadly, for me, the one regret I harbour is not getting a gig ticket on the way out. I guess the alcohol must have far greater influence than I predicted. On the plus side I stole a tour poster and swiped a postcard. All's well that ends well. Roll on Sunday evening when yourcodenameis:milo perform.
The above title is the name of an At The Drive-In bootleg posted through my door two days ago. I saw the CD on ebay a few days before easter and couldn't resist a 2am impulse purchase. It wasn't till a couple of years back I became interested by the band and I've never had the pleasure of watching them live. Since then that infatuation has flowered and ATD-I rank high among my list of favourite artists. The bootleg is fantastic and captures the auditory excitement of ATD-I's explosive live show.
The set finishes with the intriquing 'Napolean Solo', a memorial to two friends who perished in a car accident. The lyrics "This is forever" pays tribute to the lives of friends lost and to the bands legacy, shortly afterwards they announced a 'permanent hiatus'. The band was seperated and dispersed their seperate ways, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Ive been back home for a few days now and everything feels saturated and theres not a blank CD-R in sight. That means no SUSE live eval of suse linux 9.2 to ease the pain with but I'll scavange and see what bounty turns up.
Saturday brought about a cash spending extravaganza and left me with a new Nokia 3200 and rather fetching top by Jasper Conran but with a wallet deficit that crept into three figures. My only excuse is that spending my hard earned moolah is a rare event and much hoarding does incur in between. One feature of my phone that I particularly like is the Organiser software, more specifically the inbuilt calendar. In my opinion its the perfect calendar application, its lean functionality does everything I need, and want, it to do. I really couldnt ask for more. Except being able to synchronise with an online calendar through WAP.
If all else fails then at least I've got a 39p styrofoam aeroplane to play with. That'll keep me amused for a while.
Tonight I witnessed those giants of spaced-out psychedellic prog rock The Mars Volta play live at Manchester Academy. The night was a two hour long spectacle of amazing musicianship as the volta played a selection of their back catalogue and a couple of 'suites' from Frances The Mute to an eager audience. The band remained silent in conversation but their music certainly did the speaking for them.
The wave of excitement and awe rise up through me as I saw Cedric, Omar & co enter the stage to a sea of screaming fans is something i'll never forget. The show was concluded by the thirty-two minute epic 'Cassandra Geminni'. If you've never heard of, or seen, The Mars Volta now's the time to give one of the best bands in the world a listen. You wont regret it.
I finally have a new site design but I have a small confession: the template is stolen from a ximian blog, not that anyone will ever now. Or care.
Thanks for nothing HRC!