iTunes

Well I've finally done it, I've got almost the entirety of my CD collection copied into iTunes. 12.8 GBs, 9.7 solid days of music ranging from easy listening to punk to classical music, Abba to the Zutons. However I calculate that about half my music is either on vinyl or cassette, almost all my Cure records, all the Sisters of Mercy stuff, all but two of the Siousxie and The Banshee albums, the Charlatans first album. Because I don't currently have a working record player (must sort that out) I haven't heard some of it for a long time I wonder if I will still find it listenable.

I'm a bit horrified that I've got so much music. I don't think that I have enough to count as a proper music buff, but I've got a fair bit for a girl, which is cool but nothing like some, that's scary to think that some people are filling 60 Gig Ipods.

Most of the women I know, no lets make that all the women I know in real life are not really interested in music, they will have a few CDs but it's always towards the populist end of the scale, (nothing really wrong with that as long as it isn't inflicted on me and I don't have to listen to a Katie Mellua CD again or hear Jamie Cullen described as Jazz - No there is something wrong with that but I can't be arsed to go into it right now.)

I'm also a bit proud of my music collection, the first album I bought with my own money was Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band which I think was pretty cool for a 12 year old. I think my collection shows some thought and care and devotion to loud, dark alternative music and that for a few years I did read the NME.

Gah I'm such a music snob.

Life On Mars

Sam Tyler - "Where's my PC terminal?"

1970's Copper - "Who?"

Just watched Life On Mars on BBC1. Yay it was great, a mash up of the Sweeney with Quantum Leap and that Comic Strip Presents send up of Spender and the like. I'm a sucker for a good police procedural and this looks like it has the potential to be a classic. The mis-matched pair who will learn "to have grudging respect for each other" the quest to get home ala Quantum Leap, the natty suits, the better bits of the early seventies rock cannon and the little details to invoke the early 70's. I enjoyed the nods to the classic police series of the past, perhaps Brian Blessed will turn up in a later episode. There was wit and pathos and John Simms was excellent, he had me engaged in his character from almost the get go.

So What Is A Transvestite?

Wanna know what a transvestite is? Well currently if you were to google on the word you wouldn't get a useful answer if you clicked on the number one result as that spot is occupied by Transformation.

Transformation is a website and chain of shops in the UK that sell overpriced badly made tatt to the transgendered market. Becky and Siobhan have between them started a campaign to ensure that in future that the first result on google for transvestite isn't Transformation but rather the wikipedia disambiguation page.

I think this is rather a beezer idea and I'm right behind the movement and if possible I would ask that you do the same. If, for any reason you happen to mention transvestite in your blog or web page please use this link.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transvestite" title="transvestite">transvestite</a>

Think I've Heard This One Before.

You can tell it was is a quiet news week if the BBC's online magazine is recycling old old stories with a bit of a modern twist. (This has all changed though, what with Charles Kennedy admitting to having alcohol problems and Arial Sharon suffering a bad stroke however I'm not going to a little fact like hard news ruin my rant it's sure not stopping BBCi news from being inconsequential.)

Which gets me onto my current bugbear. I've noticed that sometimes the quality of writing for the BBC news website is not up to scratch. An attention grabbing headline then a short and confusedly written piece beneath it which often seems to have little in common with the headline.

So please welcome the ipods will make you deaf scare story which is a re-invention of the walkmen will make you deaf story of 1979 which I remember as fondly as I do the winter of discontent.

Based on the very sensible advice from the RNID - "Don't listen to too loud music on your headphones" A headlines were frothed up implying that we were putting our hearing at risk if we used headphones. But the article itself did not seem to support the headline what so ever, Ok Pete Townshend is blaming headphones for his hearing lose but he's spent the last 40 years playing in one of the loudest ever rock bands there are other possible causes. The article also stated that good number of professional musicians have some form of hearing loss but not whether there is any link to head phones it becomes a fact thrown in to scare us.

The article says that all those dire warnings about the Walkman from the 80s do not seem to have come true and then quoted an audiologist as saying the biggest threat to hearing is not from your headphones it's from loud discos and pubs. But it did so in such a manner to hide the meaning.

I know that I don't produce glittering examples of what good writing should be but then I'm doing this for fun, it's not a job I got on the basis of journalistic skills and I'm not being paid to do so. That said, I try to ensure that what I write is clear and coherent even if the grammar and spelling are suspect.

The 2006 Bloggies

I've nominated... Have you?

Fairvue Central >> Bloggies >> Sixth Annual Weblog Awards

Mmmmm smooth

We took the Christmas decorations down at work today, returning the office back to its dull, slightly shabby self. I took down the tree after much sighing and heavy hints from some of my colleagues. If I had my way the decorations would have stayed up until 12th night, but then again if I was in charge they would have not been put up until a few days before Christmas.

We did have a new seasonal decoration to put up in the office, in my paper today was a January "advent" calendar issued by Innocent (Non Brits - They are a fruit drinks company) so we stuck that up. It's quite a neat advertising trick by Innocent, who seem to be trying to get us to equate healthiness with their products, behind each door was a healthy living hint. It certainly seems to have worked in the office; we talked about the calender, we stuck it up which will ensure more chat and I'm blogging about them now cos I was intrigued enough to have had a peak at their website. I thought the website is trying too hard to be "wacky" and "home grown" but it's all a matter of taste I suppose.

Coincidentally Si and I bought one of their smoothies yesterday because they were on offer in the supermarket, strawberry and banana it was OK, Simon thought it has a bit of a metallic aftertaste, I wasn't really moved either way, pleasant enough but I wouldn't pay full price.

Happy New Year

Finally back home. Last night we went to an 80's themed New Years Party. Today we felt a tad jaded so relaxed eating nibbles watching DVDs and telly at friends up in Derby.