I always hated the attention seeking kids at school. Why couldn’t they just make friends with people in the normal way? Just talk to them! Play football every now and then (or whatever the in thing is – I think Rollerblading and YoYo’s were in things whilst I was at school). I remember one attention seeking guy who claimed he was from Jupiter and his Dad was the ruler of Jupiter. He would sit there at the back of class and try and shoot people with his Laser armed Ventolin Inhaler!?! (It’s true, Amy & Mul will confirm it for me). At least he’s not climbed into a glass bubble full of water for 7 days like David Blaine. Seriously, I think he has some issues! First burial, then ice, then starving in a glass box (did he stand on pillar for a week once too or something?), now he’s drowning himself for fun! Actually, I don’t hate the guy so much I want him to die, but wouldn’t it be a great news story if he did? Actually it wouldn’t, thats quite a harsh thing to say. Sorry David. Good luck with your underwater thingy. One question though? Won’t you be swimming in your own piss after a day or so?
Archive for the ‘Random’ Category
Please die this time Dave!
Why iTunes pisses me off…
I can summarise this fairly shortly with the following scenarios:
- I’ve just bought 3 minute long song from iTunes for 79p. I also buy a 6 minute long song for 79p. Which is better value for money?
- I’ve downloaded my track from iTunes and want to play it on the MP3 player my nan bought me from Woolworths at Christmas. Hold on? My MP3 player doesn’t support this MP4 malarky!? Infact only iPods support MP4! Apple is yet to licence the technology to other companies! Hows that for unfair competition?
- I’m a DJ and I need top quality (ie. CD quality) music. Considering if I bought a CD single for £3.99 with 3 tracks, how come when i buy from iTunes I get lower than CD quality & I pay £2.37. If I offered to pay a bit extra could I have CD quality? Nope, but you could just go down to HMV and buy the CD plus you get a hard copy of it!
Ok, not everyone will notice how much Apple is ripping them off until they take a look at one of their competitors…. AllofMP3.com. Let’s take a brief look at what they offer to see where iTunes is going wrong:
- You want music you can play on MP3 player? Well how about you download an MP3! It sounds such a simple principle, but why can’t anyone blinded by Apple’s iPod/Tunes domination see that? Infact how about you prefer the quality of other formats like Ogg Vorbis, MPC or even the lossless quality of FLAC? Fine, just choose to download in that format when you purchase the music!
- Why should you pay 79p for a 3 minute song & a 6 minute song? Fine, don’t pay that much. How about you just pay for the size of the file? Sounds a bit fairer, but how much will a 3 minute song cost now? Oh, I don’t know say around 5p!!! Don’t believe me,
then take a look! - Ok, well fine, how about if I’m DJing want some top quality audio file? Say about 320kbps MP3? Fine just use their online encoding system and choose whatever format and bitrate you want! You’ll have to pay a bit more obviously because you’re gonna get a bigger file, but if thats what you need then you got it! And when I say a bit more, it’ll be about another 4-5p. Nothing that’ll break the bank!
Now doesn’t all that sound a bit fairer?? I think so!
My Gallery Is Finally Integrated Properly
Today I have been mostly sitting on my arse in front of this damn computer. I’m now very pleased to say that Photo Gallery is integrated properly into my blog & it’s fully Ajaxified!! (that probably means nothing to most people, but I think Ajax is cool!) So… umm… Go check it out! I should point out, it’s not quite perfect, I’ve had to modify a fair bit of code & a lot os style sheets to get it to this so far.
I’d also like to point out my new funky sidebar made up widgets! It probably looks no different to anyone, but WordPress have introduced a funky widgets plugin whereby yu can now drag and drop what you want to appear on your sidebar! Another bonus point for WordPress I think! Now to find some Ben & Jerrys!
*sniff* Sankey’s is closing!
I just randomly found this article about Sankeys Soap shutting down!! Sankeys, for those that don’t know, is Manchester’s main club for big name DJs & has some of the best nights on there, Bugged Out, Tribal Sessions & Redlight. It’s named after the old Soap factory which the club is in. I’ve had so many great times there. However, all is not lost. Turns out the owner is gonna redecorate the place and even put in a garden out back! Phewww! I do remember some great nights there tho (insert Wayne’s World sound effect here)
- My first time in there with Mul has to be the greatest still… DJ Dexter from the Avalanches!! If there’s
one5 DJs you have to see (hmm… good idea for a list!) DJ Dexter is in the top 3! If you like fun, wacky, random music then you’ll love Dexter! He plays everything from Hip Hop, Jazz, 80s electro, Rock (as in real rock – Queens of the Stone Age! They rock! hehe, see what i did there!?!), soul, the list goes on! And he has HUGE afro which just bounces around as he DJs! It’s quite mesmerising. Infact, I may try dig out a mix of his and put it up. Anyway… yeah… that was a great night. And to think we nearly stayed with Colin in Teasers!! - The first time seeing the Plump DJs with Timmy Tekno Funk. Those guys were awesome! Bleeps & Squeeks – Coolio
- The time we saw the Chemical Brothers DJing there on a sold out night – it was far too busy. They far too crap (as DJs – they’re an awesome live band/group). But I’ll never forget knocking a plate full of curried chips over Dawn & then Tim throwing a piece of pizza at me which cut my forehead and drew blood!!! Now that is some dodgy pizza!
- The random time last year I decided to go to the Boom night there on my own. Yes, I am officially a loner! Needless to say, I had a rocking time! Chatted with a few randomers, heard some of the funkiest bootlegs ever and had a laugh at the fact that downstairs was absolutely empty!!! The night was put on by XFM and they had all their DJs downstairs. Boom were hosting the upstairs room and managed to completely fill that one out!! Dan, who runs the Boom website & nights, offered to let the XFM DJs play upstairs cos there was little point them doing anything downstairs! Hahaha
- *sigh* I could go on forever! The time we saw UNKLE, Adam Freeland, the 2nd time we saw Dexter (we returned with Tim & J-Shad – an old friend of ours who, when she wore her DJ Shadow TShirt, we could only read the words J Shad – I’ll let you figure out why
), the numerous times we went to see Krafty Kuts (no wonder he’s been nominated greatest breaks DJ for the past two years)… and I’ll stop there
I’m feeling quite emotional now… Me and Sankeys have quite a relationship! Actually, I’ll do the man thing & dump he for the better looking model when it’s built 
Posted in Random 
Tags: Chemical Brothers, dj dexter, dj shadow, Freeland, krafty kuts, Music, Nights Out, The Avalanches, UNKLE 
2 Comments »MySpace Deaths
I hate myspace. As a computer sciencey person, going on it is the equivalent of going in for sack, back & crack wax (not that I’ve experienced, but I’m fairly confident it’s not pleasent). Anyway, though I hate it, I still admire the way it’s managed to get millions of users on it in such a short space of time. You’ve got to admit, they must be doing something right. Anyway, I found this kind of morbid site today called myspacedeath.com. It basically contains a list of every user who has a myspace account who has died!?! It has a a very depressing Latest Deaths feature. I have to say reading some of them has quite upset me! Damn it! I’m not the cold, heartless man I thought I was 
My Bathroom Is Clean
Today I cleaned the bathroom and it magnificent! Ever since the builders tore down our doors and ripped the flooring in there, the lino floor has had huge bulges in it. So, I got a screwdriver (it’s the only tool we have in our house) and bashed it all flat. I then disinfected everything in sight (including the bottles of shampoo in which were slowing growing plants from underneath them). I then got on my hands and knees literally and scrubbed the floor clean. It looks magnificent in there now. Infact Laura’s been in there twice! She had a pee, then she had so much excitement when she was in there she had to walk back in and go again!!!
UPDATE: I just had a poo in there, and it is so nice! Next time I’m gonna take a book so I can spend longer and savour it’s cleanliness!
How to advertise for a training day (or not)
I was also gonna say in my previous post about how we’re running a kids club training workshop for the guys from church to get everyone to share games, songs, crafts, etc… Kit produced some rather dashing flyers advertising it. It was only when I actually read the thing I found…
Yes, it’s that time again, to think about serious stuff, like, just how many marshmallows can we stick to Matt Goldspink’s shaving foam covered face…
Charming!!! She even threw a snow ball at my head a few weeks ago! I should point out Kit is a grown lady with 3 kids – sometimes I pity them but I also envy them (tho my mum is cool, but in a somewhat different way). I would also like to point out I’ve never had marshmallows stuck to my shaving foam covered face. I’ve had Cheesy Puff crisps, but never marshmallows.
Cactus Club & The Amazing Treasure Chest R.I.P.
Sadly, on the 25th March we had the last ever Cactus Club (the kids club we run in Longsight). Fortunately it wasn’t due to poor turn out, legal action, the fact that none of us wanted to be up early on saturday mornings, or vast debts which we haven’t occured. Instead it because me Marie and Thanh Mai are all bogging off to (in all honesty) pleasenter plains! However, it is not the last of Cactus Club for the kids (just when they thought they were getting away – in dodgy way). We have a plan! We’re going to be merging our kids club with the one run in church on sundays. I have to say I’m a bit upset that its gone! We’ve been running it for 3 years & seen it grow (well like fluctuate) from 5 kids upto 20, which may not sound a lot, but trying to handle 20 hyper 6-12year olds on saturday morning is not always pleasant! We’ve had so many great moments & it’s been so amazing to see the attitudes of these kids change! I’m just trying to think up some of the best bits!
Our first game of Musical Splatues – and also the conversation which lead to me becoming the Official Towel Monitor (I was so excited by the role I went and got a proper T-Shirt printed! Check out Elmo modelling it!)- Laughing at my and Naomi’s amazing lack of biblical knowledge – We never knew Samson killed a bunch of guys with an ass’s jawbone!
- Kit & Naomi’s obsession with my obsession of Smallville and Superman – It was honestly a coincidence that I always seemed to where my superman T-Shirt to club! None-the-less I do honestly appreciate my Justice League Coloring book!
- The time we had an old couple from the Methodist Church we were wanting to use come to inspect what we got up. Fate (or should I say God) made them turn up as we were playing the cotton wool and vaseline games and Naomi answered the door with a cotton wall ball attached to her nose with vaseline
- *sigh* our random planning meetings which seemed to turn in to fits of giggles as we came up with ideas for crafts. For example, one suggestion that Kit was seriously considering for the day with did David and Goliath was painting pebbles with blood!!!
- Itai! The fact that he was a leader never stopped him from putting up his hand to be picked to do the things!! He was the biggest kid ever!
- Oh! there’s too many I’ll be here for hours! I think of any other really classic moments I’ll post them. I’m sure Marie and Thanh Mai can come up with plenty too!
Most of those are “you had to be there” moments. In other rather depressing news, the amazing Cardboard Treasure Chest I made with my bear hands has also had to be retired *sniff* It was a true feat of Blue Peter-esque genius! Before I part ways with the hallowed beast, let us reflect on some images of it! Features of admiration are the beautifully curved & hinged lid, the perfect brown – mixed by myself, and the shredded newspaper insides (perfect for lucky dips, though it also had some other less pleasant surprises when i came to empty it the other day! *tsk* Kids!!!).
