Why?
Been having a few issues with “The Beast” lately. “The Beast” is my PC. Of course, I’m a nerd and in order to make my PC sound rugged and manly, I have given it a testosterone-fuelled moniker. Actually, it’s more to do with the case – when constructing this PC, I ordered the biggest case they had and it is made of steel and weighs a fair bit. Of course, I breathed life into “The Beast” on the kitchen table and carried it upstairs to its final resting place. This is how it got its name because it was a beast of struggle humping that box to my little room. Weak arms. Pathetic.
“The Beast”
Anyway, since its birth in September 2001, “The Beast” has had two new motherboards and various add-ons to make it the monster it is today. The other day I noticed some files had disappeared off my hard drive. These were important files…pictures of my various trips abroad and writings and stuff. Gone. Nowhere to be found. Done a virus check, did a hard drive check. Nothing. Where did these files go? Gone were the backups of the various websites I’ve put up. Gone were the little memory aids I keep and the timesavers. All gone. Forgotten. Using an application called Undelete, I had a peek at that virtual graveyard where all the files go when they are gone. Despite what you might think, when you press delete, your files don’t go anywhere and they can remain on your PC for quite a long time before eventually being overwritten. Anyway, my searching uncovered some of the files, but the rest were lost. The mystery still remains what happened.
So…I took it upon myself to back up my important files and resintall Windows XP again. Hurrah! Let’s waste my time again (and again and again). Of course, I would love to defect to a Mac, but until they are as upgradeable and as flexible as PCs, I will stay here and moan and moan and moan. All this PCs support pisses me off. I hate wasting my time doing it when I could be wasting my time doing other things like searching for the cheapest place to buy a guitar that I am not actually going to buy. <---- That's the 21st Century version of window shopping you know. It's great because you can do it in your underpants and after hours and no-one will bother you.
I'm in a downward phase at the moment and the black cloud hangs at my shoulder. In the back of my mind I kind of wish for some life-shattering disaster to happen just to wake me up, just to make me grateful that I am who I am. But I am in this rut. Tired and feeling devoid of creativity, devoid of the energy to be creative and generally sorry for myself. Poor little diddums wants a kick up the jacksie. Indeed.
Been having thoughts about writing again. While doing all the virtual filing at the weekend, I came across the first ten chapters of my London novel, which is still ongoing. It was called "London Voices", but that might change to something pretentious like "The Touch of Consequence" or "24 Dreams of Modernity" or "Billy and the Cloneasaurus" (<---That last one is for Simpsons fans). I don't know. It all seems like BS to me. In the past it was about telling a story, but who wants to hear a story that everyone has already heard? Have all the best stories already been told? Even Billy Shakespeare was plagiaring other playrights. Gah, pull your finger out man and get back to the keyboard. Fool. So I read a little and I got thinking about writing something a little less poncy. Go back to the source. Write a story for teenage boys. I had this idea for something like that, but if I told you the synopsis, I'd have to kill you. Let's just say it involves life, death, a rock star and Elvis getting into a fight with Jim Morrison. I've got it all worked out in my head and it could be good fun. It's actually a murder mystery, but the protagonists don't realise that until the last couple of pages. :-) If only I had the energy to actually type it up.
Wait a minute, if you can type all this BS, you can write a novel, fuckwit! Oh dear...I just got busted.
In the post: Honeytrap - Leo Abrahams. I took a chance ordering this record on the strength of an interview I read in Guitarist magazine. He came across as a nice guy and had a similar outlook to music as myself. I should really write a review of it and post it places because I think it is a really good album. Unfortunately, when I put it into my PC it got classified as "Easy Listening" and no-one wants their listening to be easy, no? But Mr Abrahams has put an album together of intelligent, inspirational instrumental guitar-based music. Parallels can be drawn between my other guitar fave Henry Frayne and Lanterna and there's also a dash of Penguin Cafe Orchestra sensibility in there. It's very good, very good indeed. Feel free to check out samples at: http://www.justmusic.co.uk/store/TAO012/.
The CD packaging design is neat too, with Just Music (the label) commissioning individual artworks to feature on each of its releases. It’s not often I buy a record this satisfying, though I doubt other people will find it that interesting, and a good record, for me, is one that makes me want to pick up my guitar and start recording.
