Varrqnuht.net

Well, it took a bit more effort than I thought. In the end I gave up trying to get my windows box to rip the CDs, and just switched to Linux instead. Never underestimate the ability of frustrated hackers to find a solution to a problem.

Looking quickly through my CDs this morning I realised I have a few more protected ones than I realised - at least the last four I've bought are protected and have the little circular "Copy Controlled" logo on them. It seems that they were all published by EMI, which I find strange but which probably explains why they're all using the same protection mechanism.

I was supposed to be playing cricket today, but I had to cancel and have come into work instead. I'm not pleased about this, but it's probably not for much longer. Tonight I have my highschool reunion - should be interesting.

I just bought the new self-titled album by The Cat Empire - this is some seriously cool shit. I'd been thinking of picking it up for a couple of weeks, and I'm so glad I finally did. For those of you who haven't heard of them, they're a group from Melbourne who play a strange fusion of Latin, Reggae, Jazz and Hip Hop. It's a fantastically dense sound. They're predominantly a live band and I have no idea how many people they have on stage but I reckon it must get pretty crowded up there.

I hear they're coming down to Tassie for the Falls Festival, which has a line-up that just seems to be getting better all the time. I wish I could make it, but Lou's not keen to go camping "with a pack of carnies" for three days, and we already have plans for NYE.

On a less happy note, this is the second copy-protected cd I've bought in a row. They're both published by EMI, who I think deserve to be sent a nasty letter. The thing that shits me is that it's illegal here for me to rip the cd for personal use, so I can't complain about that (although I should be able to, and mutterings in the music industry locally indicate that plenty of them agree). So I'm going to have to go out of my way to circumvent the protection if I want to use my MP3 player to listen to this or the Jet album I bought.

This doesn't help the record labels or the artists at all. If I was in the habit of pirating cds I'd already have everything in place to get around this. Instead, I get punished for being an actual paying customer who just wants to be able to listen to the music in whatever format is most convenient. And I still can't buy MP3s in Australia, as we don't have anything like iTunes or the clones that are popping up.

Record companies annoy me, I might start contacting bands directly when I want to buy something. I wonder if you're allowed to sell directly when you get a contract under one of the big record companies?

A guy I work with gave me a cd containing mp3s of every track of every Beatles album. The only Beatles album I own is the first volume of the anthology of rarities and b-sides that was released a few years back. So last night I recharged the battery in my MP3 player, and filled it up with Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper’s and Please Please Me.

I love the Beatles. I had barely ever listened to them before I was 16, when I met a girl in college who was a huge fan. We started going out and pretty soon I was a huge fan of them as well. At that age of our lives we were both on voyages of self discovery and had a bit of growing up to do, and after 18 fairly life-altering months we broke up. At the time I was shattered, which seems strange in retrospect because it's clear that the relationship was doomed - but love and reason aren't always compatible.

As in every break up there was that process of returning those things which belonged to the other person. We were both living at home, but a fair few items had managed to swap locations. We'd even bought a car together, though neither of us had a drivers license and the car (by the time we broke up) was unregistered. All that I really remember having to return was her Beatles CDs, because I really didn't want to part with them.

Since then I can almost never manage to listen to the Beatles without being taken back 8 or 9 years to my time in college, which was one of the best times of my life. Unfortunately most of the memories invoked by the Beatles are memories involving her, which is a pretty bittersweet thing. I have mixed emotions about the whole relationship - I guess the fact that it was my first and only other significant relationship plays a big part in that. There's a lot I could say, but won't.

Maybe I should try and assemble a soundtrack of those years that minimises any Beatles content. The only problem with that is that the Beatles rock too hard to be left alone.

In other news..
(I've cut this to appease newkie who complained to me the other night that half of her friends page is taken up by someone who posts several times a day, and most of the remaining half is taken up by my long and rambling posts every few days. So here you go Jo, now you have to click even more to read my journal )
Read below for my thrilling Swallows match report, and an update on the TSO Chorus
(more…)

There's a girl who walks past the window of my office.

<lj-cut text="Ooh, that sounds mysterious.. tell me more!">
It's an open plan office, and I used to sit at a desk right up against a large window which faces the street outside. It was a great place to sit because there's a patch of grass between our office and the street, with two decent sized gum trees next to the footpath. The street is busy but not too big, and on the other side it's lined with nice, modestly sized (and undoubtedly ludicrously expensive) houses behind neat brick walls and hedges.

It was a bad place to sit because I'd run into the guy behind me if I moved my chair at all, and in winter the sun shone straight through onto the screen of my computer until about 10:30 in the morning. For various reasons I moved/was moved behind a small partition at the back of the office, and while the privacy is great I really miss the view.

Of all the things I miss about the view, I think the thing I miss most is the sad girl who walks past. I'm not sure how often she passes, but it's several times a week - possibly every day. I work in a building right on the edge of a university campus, and there's a fair bit of pedestrian traffic heading past us up toward the uni. Coming from one direction along the street you can take a short-cut through the grassed area outside the window, or at least hang a sharp right past the last gum tree - this takes you up through our driveway and straight into my peripheral vision.

After sitting there for a while I started to pick out the regulars, people who would walk into my peripheral vision causing my head to jerk up from whatever I was doing out of some sort of instinctive need to assess all environmental risks. Most of these were joggers who'd run by every day at about the same time in their sports gear, but the sad girl was always walking.

She intrigues me, and the only reason I can think of is that she looks sad. She's fairly tall with dark blonde hair not quite reaching her shoulders, and she has a great figure. She's usually wearing sports gear, and I've always just assumed that she works out at the uni gym - I guess it's possible she's just going for a walk. She wears glasses, and is pretty hot in a slightly geeky way (which, if you ask me, just adds to the hotness). The thing that gets me is that she walks with her arms crossed and her head down, whether she's on her way out or on her way back.

Her posture just exudes sadness and depression, and she's always walking alone. What could she have to be so sad about?

Some days I feel like running out of the building, stopping her as she walks past and saying "Cheer up! It's a gorgeous day, you're a hot chick, and you should be smiling!". I've never done it because I'm worried that she'd either think I was a stalker or that I was hitting on her. Neither conclusion would be likely to have the desired result, so instead I'll have to sit back and watch her not being happy until either she or I goes somewhere else.

<p>Ok, here's the low-down.

<p><b>The Mighty Mighty <a href="http://www.ahousenearyou.com/swallows/">Swallows</a>:</b> We're off to a great start this season with three wins, a washout and a loss under our belts so far. On Sunday we beat (thrashed, pulverised) Lindisfarne for our third victory. I scored a run (yaaaaayy!!) and batted out the last over to finish with my second not out.

<p>Lindisfarne are another new team to join our competition this season - both them and Glenorchy RSL have matching shirts, caps and everything. Lindisfarne even have warm-up gear. I was under the impression that ours was the worst league in the state, but we've beaten those teams pretty comfortably. So, I don't know where they came from (or where they got the money for their gear) but at least we're holding our own against them. Better than that actually, we're either topping or sharing the lead on the ladder.

<p>I felt sorry for them really. We were on our last wicket when we reached fifty overs, but we had a pretty decent score (9/230 or so, not sure). Then we proceeded to dismiss their entire side in eleven overs. It reminds me of the games we had in our first season, and I felt like going up to them individually and saying "It's alright mate, I know what it feels like to be on the other end of this sort of result". They were a pretty good-natured team though, I liked playing against them.

<p><b>TSO Chorus audition:</b> It's tonight, and I'm worried. I had a chance to practice last night and I'm no longer worried about my voice, but I'm worried that I don't know the material well enough. I've finally bitten the bullet and called up Jeffrey to get some help, I'm heading over there at lunch time for another run through it all.

<p><b>Work stuff:</b> I've become aware of an opportunity for some contract work. I had a meeting yesterday which sounded very promising, and I'm expecting to hear more later this week. It's a bit scary because of the lack of ongoing job security, but I'll never get anywhere by just sitting around and waiting for bad things to happen. Actually, three months guaranteed security is probably better than I have at the moment anyway. Plus there may be a chance for ongoing work, and it'll look better on my resume regardless. Better not start enumerating the infant fowls just yet though.

<p><b>Family:</b> Kate is good, had a chat to her the other day. I don't see enough of my sister, especially given that she lives about 3 minutes drive away. It's stupid actually. I'd better do something about that before she (or I) moves further away. My parents too - I don't see enough of them. Dad left a message on the answering machine the other day, he's so cute sometimes. He never thinks ahead about what he'll say, so you either get a very short message saying he called, or a longer (rambling) message that always seems to be playing chicken with the message time limit. He rang up to tell us he'd spent a voucher we gave him months ago on buying a building square, which he then described in detail. Still haven't called him back, I have to remember to do that tonight.

<p>That should do it for now, I think.

There's something about a friday, some sort of time distortion affect. Maybe friday afternoon is sucking up all the time from the weekend, which is why the weekend always feels too short. I'm sitting here watching the clock at the moment, just waiting until it's time to go.

Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be allowed to complain about my job - after all, I get paid to muck around with computers. This is such a cool concept that it didn't even occur to me until about grade 9 that it was possible. I mean, really - who gets paid to do their hobby? Elite sportspeople maybe, and people with weird hobbies.

But everytime I start feeling like that I remind myself that all those people working in crap McJobs get to forget about their work at the end of the day, then go home and start enjoying their hobbies. I spend so much time with computers at work that when I get home the last thing I want to do is sit down and start programming. Don't get me wrong - I still play video games, but that's a separate hobby altogether. Sometimes I wish I could get a job in a totally different field so that I could enjoy doing IT for fun, but I know that one of two things would happen. Either:

<ol>
<li>I'd end up finding a way to enhance my new-found industry with my IT skills, or</li>
<li>I'd spend my spare time writing software that I'd eventually have to start a company to sell, thus ending up back in IT</li>
</ol>

Besides, IT pays better than any other field I'd be likely to be able to get a job in. What I <i>really</i> need is to be financially indepedant, so that I can afford to do whatever the hell I like. Given that I don't think winning the lottery is a likely outcome (I'd have to start buying tickets first, I guess) then I'll have to find some other way to manage it. I dunno, maybe I could start a company. Doing IT of some sort. Argh.

Lou will be here soon, then it's off to have dinner and go see Jimeoin. Should be a good evening..

What sort of standards do the TSO Chorus set for themselves? Fairly high.

The information session last night consisted of myself, four girls and the choir master. She was fairly intimidating, but I think I'd like her. She went through all the details and asked us individually whether or not we still wanted to audition - I'm pretty sure everyone said yes.

So now I need to learn an excerpt from Bruckner's Mass in E Minor (Latin), and one from either Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (Italian) or Bach's Cantata No. 64 (German). I also need to bring along another piece of my own choosing, to audition next Tuesday night. I've sung in each of those languages before, so I'm pretty sure I can manage the pronunciation ok - but not being able to sightread worth a damn I <i>really</i> need to visit an accompanist to learn these, which means ringing people I've neglected too much over the past few years and asking for a favour. Hopefully that doesn't go too badly. Somehow I also need to find the <i>time</i> to do this within a week.

I'm definitely more worried about this today than I was yesterday.

Tonight I'm heading along to an information session regarding joining the TSO Chorus, a vocal group which supports the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in any choral works that they perform. I'm a bit nervous about going because I'm not entirely sure what to expect. The only reason I heard about it in the first place was because a girl I used to live and work with was speaking to a colleague who's involved with the chorus, and she mentioned that they were desperately in need of more men to sing. She gave them my details and I ended up getting a message from the chorus master, but I couldn't make the date she gave me so I left her a message in return. I didn't hear any more and figured that was that.

Then, about a week ago I got another message from somebody who gave me details about the next info session. She wanted to know the specific time that I'd turn up, and also told me that auditions will take place the following week. I can only assume that tonight is a sort of pre-audition session in which the chorus master will attempt to determine whether or not there's any point in me auditioning, and try to convince me not to bother if she thinks I'm not up to scratch.

I shouldn't feel worried about this - I used to take my music pretty seriously, and I know there are at least a few people upset that I didn't try to do it as a career. I think that ultimately I was a disappointment and source of frustration to my music teachers because (like so many things in my life) I stopped enjoying it once it became hard work. When I gave up singing it wasn't because I didn't enjoy it or I wasn't any good at it, but because I didn't enjoy the focus on competition and I didn't think I was good enough to make money doing it. My other hobby (playing around with computers) was suddenly turning into something I <i>could</i> make money out of, so that's where my focus went.

At that time I was doing several eisteddfods and master classes a year, as well as practical and theory examinations. Keeping this up was not only expensive but time consuming, and didn't leave a great deal of time for actual concert performances which was the part I was most interested in. Not to mention that if you're a classical singer (as I was) you can't afford to be spending evenings drinking, shouting and hanging out in smoky pubs and clubs, which was another pastime I enjoyed.

One summer I decided to take a break from singing. My teacher wasn't happy about it, but there was nothing she could do and we finished on amicable terms, both expecting that I'd be back within a year at the very most. Somehow the break just kept getting longer and longer as I got more caught up in work, my relationship with Louise, partying and having fun and so on. When I did decide I wanted to go back I thought I¿d better lose some weight first, as I was already being hassled about my fitness before I stopped and had got worse since then. Most people don't understand that to sing <i>well</i> requires a level of fitness greater than you'd expect. I'm not talking about being an athlete or anything, but it's tiring work and you can't afford to run out of breath or not have enough room for your lungs to expand.

I didn't lose the weight, so I didn't go back. I think that I've resolved to take up singing again every year since then, and haven't managed it yet.

So, to get back to the point. Choral singing is easier than solo stuff, so it'd be a good way to get back into it. I don't have the time or energy currently to get back into musical theatre, so that's out. I'd have a minimum of six months of work to do before I could perform solo again, but with choral music I could get into it very quickly.

I much prefer choirs that audition, because they set standards for themselves. You can't take a choir seriously if anyone can join, because people can (and do) think they sing well without having any idea. It's like allowing someone who constantly trips over their own feet to play soccer - sure, if it's just a social team it's no problem, but if they want to win they're going to struggle. If a choir wants to be good, it needs to be made up of people who can be good.

I'm not one for blowing my own trumpet, but I know that I can "be good" even if that doesn't mean I could make a career out of it. So why am I worried about the audition? I dunno, I guess that I know how much my voice has suffered from not being kept in shape, and I don't know what kind of standards the TSO chorus has set for themselves. There was a time that I'd have said there's no choir in the state that I wouldn't be good enough to join, but then a few years ago I was invited to sing with the Jane Franklin Consort and got a shock. These guys were <i>good</i>. They needed an extra eight voices so they could perform some sixteen-part pieces, and somehow I was recommended to them. I had no trouble with the work vocally, but every one of them could sight read music that had about four bars to a page and I was struggling to keep up. In the end I managed ok and it was a fantastic experience - but that was while I was in shape and singing all the time. If the TSO chorus requires that level of sight-reading I'm going to be in a world of trouble.

Music is an aspect of my life that is missing at the moment, and I'm starting to feel the hole. Maybe this will help, if I get in. I guess I'll find out later.

So yeah, here I am, more than slightly pished.

I'm in a great mood tonight. I've just got back from a Mystery Bus Tour organised by the pub that sponsors our cricket team. It's the first time I've been drunk since my bucks night almost two years ago. That's sorta weird, because I used to go out on the piss a fair bit. I guess the marriage thing (not to mention the mortgage thing) makes a big difference.

The first stop on the bus tour they handed out christmas baubles.. you know, the round balls you hang from christmas trees. These all had our names on them, including one for Louise. I felt bad because I hadn't been able to convince her to come along, and seeing what was involved and who had turned up I think that I may have been able to convince her if there had been a little less mystery involved.

The other funny thing about the evening is that it was the first time that many of the cricket team have seen me pissed. I'm not really an introverted guy under normal circumstances, but get a few beers into me and any inhibitions rapidly disappear. For some reason, this usually manifests itself as an all-consuming desire to sing. Karaoke bars are the usual outlet, but live music venues can do just as well. My best mate's girlfriend convinced the bad at one venue that I was on my bucks night, so they let me sing. I sang Moondance by Van Morrison which, as I said to Emma, is one of the few songs I can usually remember the words to. I think I did a pretty good except for the fact that I missed a verse somewhere , but the band members coped pretty well with that.

I think I spoke more with Emma tonight than I ever had on any occasion previously. It's unfortunate that her and Louise don't get on as well because she's great fun to hang around with.

Anyway, I'm trying to dry out a bit before I go to bed, in an attempt to minimise the headache I'll get tomorrow. Hopefully an hour or so of chilling with some lemonade and aspirin will make the difference between a hangover and a nice sleep-in.

I've been doing some consulting work (through my employer) this week. Just fairly general PC support stuff, which is very unexciting and not what I signed up for - but it pays the bills, one of which is my salary. So what else can you do? Anyway.

They were having a computer problem. I just deleted a paragraph which explained the problem in depth, which is of no interest to anyone except me, the client and my employer. To make a long story short, I solved their problem with a bit of lateral thinking and in the process saved them quite a bit of money. Now they love me.

I'd almost forgotten how good it feels to solve a problem for someone and have them obviously appreciate it. Still, I don't particularly want to be doing support, and if I'm going to have to do it I'd rather be doing it for myself (and keeping a bigger share of the hourly rate they get charged).

On a completely different (but sort of work related) note, a mate of mine sent me an email yesterday afternoon:

<blockquote><font face="Courier New" color="#000000">It just got really windy here… a big piece of scaffolding, maybe 4 metres high was sitting out the front of the shed while I was sitting here with one of the bosses… I was looking out of the window and all of a sudden the wind blows hard enough and the scaffold starts rolling…. it gathers speed cos it's slightly down hill… we go "oh shit" and run out of the office chasing it as if heads towards the car park… but we're too late it hits a car and crashes down on top of it. AWESOME</font></blockquote>

Some people get all the fun.