Month: December 2003

Started drinking at 12:30 lunchtime.
Finished work at 1:45pm.
Resumed drinking at 2pm
Completed drinking when the pub closed at 9pm.
Home at 10pm.

It has been a good day.

So I got to work this morning about 15 minutes late thanks to even more tube fun. There is a note on the inside doorway, hand written telling us the network was down. 12pm it’s still down. One of the girls in IC comes around and suggests we go on lunch now as it could be a while. So most of the day is spent networkless and when it does come back it goes up and down like…well use your imagination.

I was glad to have a dialup machine for once and had a nice long lunch out of it so that was good.

The afternoon was so slow going by after all that of course and then I came down with a pretty bad headache. Took a couple of neurofen and stopped off for a sitdown and a coffee in Starbucks on the way home and I feel quite better now. Watching the first episode of the second season of Alias as I type this out. It’s really really good stuff too. Some of the plot points are a little OTT but the character stuff is *so* well done.

Man I love this screen I can play Eve or watch stuff in a nice big window and do web stuff. I also love my broadband, really really love my broadband. Music is, as you know, the best thing ever. I need to get some DVD Rs so that I can get some gigs saved permanently.

I’m looking forward to a 4 day weekend. I’m tired and I’m looking forward to not having to do anything. Will be taking the 31st off so that I can get set for the party here and may well take the 2nd off to make another nice long weekend. I’ll see how it goes but that’s sounding quite good to me 🙂

I really hate this time of year. Why can’t *anyone* just accept that it does not mean the same thing to *everyone*? Is that such a hard concept?

It’s fucking cold out. The heat is doing strange things and basically not working so it’s cold inside too. Went around to the cafe for lunch and froze on the way there and on the way back. Hot showers in the mornings are so very nice.

Eve is going well. I borrowed some money from Dave as he is off for a couple of weeks and have used it to fund the expansion of my fleet and this allows me to actually get a mining operation going and get some cash in myself. This is a good thing. Still learning a lot and I’d do lots of things differently but that’s the way it is.

Had an interesting evening in the pub with the lads, on another one of my not drinking for a while binges (ha) but stayed for a while and had dinner while talking about lots and lots of stuff.

Oh and you can see my name on a Ninth Art article for the first time.

Very glad to see Gary Jules’ version of Mad World make it to number 1 beating off some stuff competition. He just announced a London date early next year and I’m very tempted. However I’ve listened to the first two album tracks and I’m not so impressed with them. Right now it would be £20 just to hear that one track…and so help me I’m still considering it. I’ll give the album a full listen to soonish and decide.

Got lots and lots of stuff lined up to watch over the next week or so. More to come on all of that I guess. I’m hoping the watching stuff mood will come upon me soon, it’s piling up.

Work is quieter (not just literally). Having some fun with red tape over stuff and it’s the end of the year which means reviews. I spent some time filling in mine this morning and I have a meeting with my boss about it later on today. I’m not looking forward to it, I never do. I don’t know how I’m doing, sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing. Sometimes I feel lost, sometimes I feel in complete control. Changing bosses could make this interesting. It’s going to be a new style that’s for sure and I want to get some help in the areas that I want help in.

Guess that is that.

Right so a recap. Friday afternoon I head into town around 2ish rather hungover from the night before. Meet up with some of the folks from the V and enjoy a few drinks and some banter. 4 vodkas later I was feeling much much better. Leave around 5ish to get to Earls Court. Join a long queue to collect my tickets. 45 minutes later I have the tickets and I meet up with the lads. There is a fair bit of anticipation of a great evening. We get in and dump the coats in the cloakroom, a quick stop off to buy a t-shirt and onto the bar where we actually manage to run into Rich and his craddle-snatched friends. So a quick drink later and we head in to push our way up front. Then at 8.30 in the usual Metallica style, the lights go out and Ennio Morricone’s theme tune to The Good, The Bad and the Ugly starts up. The grins on the lads faces (and mine no doubt) and the roar was awesome. Never a band to fuck around, they open with Blackened and that’s it. Man the rest of the night was awsome. It really really rocked. Only 3 new songs and the rest were classics all the way. At last, I have seen Metallica doing Enter Sandman live and it so rocked. After that it seemed to be over, they walked around the stage throwing drum sticks and other stuff out into the audience, until James comes back on stage holding a guitar and hits off the base drum. With the words “Seen as we are here”, we get another two songs encore.

And then Lars announces they are headlining Download 2 next June…at which point Fred and I who were pretty much going to go again anyway looked at each other and nodded. Somehow I think there will be a few more of the lads coming along next year 🙂 This was one of the best gigs I’ve been to and certainly one of the most crowd pleasing.

The full setlist
Blackened
Creeping Death
Seek and Destroy
Fade To Black
The Thing That Should Not Be
Frantic
For whom the Bell Tolls
Dirty Window
Sad But True
One
Damage Inc.
———–
Harvester Of Sorrow
Nothing Else Matters
Master Of Puppets
———–
St. Anger
Enter Sandman
———–
Am I Evil?
Hit The Lights

So that was Friday. Saturday I got up late and fucked around online for a while. Headed down to Camden to see what was going on and then a quick trip into town to pick up some stuff. At the very least I needed a new book. Gotten into some Harlen Corbens of late and needed the next book in the series. Then it was dinner at Ed’s (predictable or what) and home for a quiet night. Played some Eve, played some Call of Duty and read for a good while.

Slept straight through Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon is running along quietly to the best of The Velvet Underground. I’m sure there will be some Eve shortly and perhaps a movie tonight.

I’ve finally got the computer sorted and I know what the problem was. It was as I suspect the graphics card. I did a couple of system restores yesterday (what a wonderful feature) and updated using ATI’s drivers rather than the ones I had been using to date and not a single crash so far. This makes me happy. I have a good feeling about it now.

Alex seemed to find something strange the other day. I have trades which I have noy yet read, maybe 10 or so. I also have at least 20 DVD’s which I have not watched and as many as 50 unread books. All for a rainy day

Metallica opened with Blackened. They played 3 songs from the new album and the other 15 (or so) were classics. Man it was so very awesome. One of the best gigs ever.
They also announced on stage they were headlining Download next year, at which point we all just looked at each other and smiled.
More later when I get out of bed.

It’s nice to note that the people who were my superiors in the company a few years ago when I was doing tech support are now my peers.

Last night was pretty shit. A big room with some music does not a party make. It was saved by the company of friends but overall not such a good night. Lots and lots of cute girls working for us especially when they scrub up.

The ghost of Hampton Court? hmmm

Today is lunchtime drinks with the V, dinner drinks with the lads from work and then onto Metallica.

Sitting, drinking and smoking an authentic cuban cigar with friends is not the worst way to spend an evening.
Sitting, drinking and smoking an authentic cuban cigar with friends is not the best way to spend an evening.

The phrase alone in a crowd really rang true tonight.

Man that was some cigar.

Also fact of the day anyone who says “yeah I’m fine” is lying

It’s time for a list. Why is it time for a list. Just because.

– I’m really glad to have gotten back in touch with some old friends. Emails bring a smile to my face.
– I’m not blogging that much lately but I like it, I like it a lot and it will keep going.
– Making people smile is an important thing.
– I need a wrist rest, the table and chair where my setup is, well it’s not good for typing.
– Major props to one of the Vsters who decided that enough was enough, he was just going to ask someone out in a post and see what happens.
– The V is doing it’s music of the year round up, I don’t have a single of the year, album has to be Damien Rice’s O with too many honourable mentions to list.
– I started reading some Harlen Corben’s a couple of days ago. Onto my second one Gone for Good. So far it’s good but it’s talking about school girlfriends and things like that and of course this dredges up memories.
– Really looking forward to Metallica on Friday night, turns out there is 5 of us going and it’s gonna be a blast. Hoping for some good stuff from the olden days and a few of the new tracks livened up.
– The musical education continues 🙂
– Is it wrong of me to hope that one day George Bush will be dragged from a hole and tired for war crimes? No, good.
– I wish there was a way for me to count the words and number of posts I’ve written here. That would interest me.
– You know what’s really nice? Balance is nice, especially at the end of the month.
– I am starting to reconsider some of my writing aspirations…the ones I may not have mentioned before. I have someone who would edit and it’s not a big piece. I may begin.
– Work pissed me off today. It was not a good afternoon, then I left and went to the pub to have a chat with a couple of the lads and it wasn’t bad.
– Eve is about to get back online after 6 hours downtime for a major upgrade…I can play for just a little while before bed right?
– I need some blank dvds.
– I like Batman as a character, in particular the Bruce Wayne/Batman dual side. Bendis on Daredevil shows that had he been given Batman when he went looking a few years ago, good things could have been done.
– It’s cold, I’m cold. I need to get some gloves. I have Friday off at last. I have some lunch plans in town and will see about getting some gloves then too.
– Some numbers are more than just numbers
– There ain’t nothing at all in the world with whiny indy boy rock.
– ok sod it. it’s late on Wednesday and the list is not done but I’m going to post it anyway.

Last Fridays Iron Maiden set list:
Wildest Dreams
Wrathchild
Can I Play With Madness
Dance Of Death
Rainmaker
Brave New World
Enter Paschendale
Lord Of The Flies
Hallowed be Thy Name
No More Lies
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden
Journeyman
Number Of The Beast
Run To The Hills.