End of year missed flipped and skipped edition.

This is our customary missed pile of stuff, stuff I'd forgotten existed until now and with the dance stuff, possibly not my final favourite thing of the year.

TV.

X Company.

Impressive WW2 drama showing for the first time in the UK.  A select team of commandos work behind enemy lines as a resistance cell, to  conduct sabotage or just to kill off Nazis which is always cool.  They have a memory / savant style dude who can memorise data taken in the field and overcomes his reluctance to fight to become a productive member of the team.  Sadly the only drawbacks are they are all Canucks and not based at Bletchley or Whitehall, apparently there was a real Camp X in Ontario, where this was based.

Red Dwarf.

Series ten or so of the space sitcom and its long past its prime.  Not sure why Dave keeps it going now, as this season is the worst its been in ages.  I slept through most of the shows mind which isn't cool but what I was awake for was merely average.

Dr Who.

This has also dragged this season and its not due to the new doctor being a woman.  To be honest my Mum is the only person pissed off that the new Dr is a bird.  Me I couldn't care less, its already nosediving into the ground thanks to a political slant to most of the shows.  I don't need a fucking lecture on social inequality in Regency Britain, or badly shoehorned in gay characters (Bill Stickers), but rather wished the doc had Nardole as his companion.  Best episode was Poirot as a creepy landlord, to a place overrun with space bugs, some real nice audio stuff there.

Ed Stafford Left For Dead.

Final TV pick is this, Survivalist Ed Stafford is dropped with a drone, sat phone and cameras but no survival gear into the most inhospitable places in the world.  He has to make it to a pre proposed rendezvous point within 10 days or he's toast.  Its good stuff, see him eat yams in Madagascar, catch fish with llama sinew line in the Andes and barely make it out alive from a dark cave in Laos.

There is a trailer here if it plays in your country, but will say this check it out, he only has to call to be rescued once the whole time and I'll leave it for you to find out where that is.


Music.

Ed Sheeran Galway Girl / Shape of you.

This is the year, he went from annoying but bearable on Drunk to full on terrible.  Some would say that it has been that way for ages and ages but I did actually enjoy drunk, especially the version Kiss played.  Galway Girl is terrible, Irish pub cod Emerald isle levels of bad, I've taken  to changing the lyrics  to say he fiddles kids in a transit van to get any pleasure out of it.

Advertising.

Nationwide Adverts.

So farewell then Nationwide Adverts

With you awkwardly espoused prose

And ill timed slice of life observations.

On matters family and financial

We never banked with you
And Judging by the ads never want to. 

 E J Thribb. 17 1/2 p overdrawn.

2017 Music Round Up

Been a weird old year for music and that, seen the rise of reggaeton, with the near unstoppable despa(ra)cito.  We also didn't lose as many people this year apart from Cheggers playing pop and Mika Vainio from Pan Sonic, next year I make a note of all the stuff I've heard thats rocked and sucked but for now have these incomplete memories.

Commercial. Good.

Lotto Boyzz No  Don.

Defeat from the jaws of victory  time here, year its grime, yeah you can't really find an acapella for this out there, but you want to play it like I hear it, get some old school gabber and just drop it when they have the no don chorus.  Perfect.

Swae Unforgettable.

You are unforgettable, Got enough combos for 24 owls.  Its that track and there is an acapella so you won't have to hear the shuffling beat on this.  Its still boss as an instrumental mind, and the best track of the year.

Drake Passion Fruit.

Ripping off Moodymann should get you shot,  but his part in this doesn't get played in the standard radio mix so its  included here in the good pile.  Another thing that is better played with another track, this time its. Its Me from Club MCM though its a bugger to beat match via Youtube.  Wonder if the original passion fruit theme is doable on a real 303?.

 Commercial Bad

Katy Perry Swish Swish

Old euro style house circa 1990 as a backing track good,  getting Katy Perry to sing on it not so good.  Adding Nicki Minaj, what the fuck.

Despacito / Little Tits With CaNCerO / Enrique Iglesias and Sean Paul.

Trust me, reggaeton fucking sucks.  Had a lot of this is Spain  this year and it gets no better Little Tits track can be changed to say Pendejo which at least is one bonus point.  All together now, when i look in your eyes Pendejo.

Underground. Once again not all from this year.

Aphex Twin.

Field day EP was the bomb (though disliked Mt Fuji). Currently looking through the track list for the set he did and remembering the in the beginning bit from  the trailer.   There is a whole track listing here of the entire set.   Me I'm curious how that Rihanna Acapella fits in with the whole.

DKMTL 10 years.

So many good things here but, Levon Vincent, Matrixxman and Legowelt putting up tracks for the 10th anniversary of this legendary label.

DJ Stingray Kern Vol 4.

Possibly the only Electro mix you'll need this year.  Quite a few tracks on this and some ace mixing too. 

Minecraft ost.

Don't laugh, but this is good, just coz its ubiquitous and that doesn't mean its bad.  A mix of chiptune and IDM and all of it's so good.  Its out on Ghostly International and was a random charity shop pickup, my favourite thing this year.

So here it is (Merry Christmas)

Merry Christmas if you're here it means only one thing. A round up of television and the annual Miranda's for television hell.

Blue Planet 2 Eelectric Boogaloo.

The bits I didn't fall asleep through were magic,worth an hour of your time.  Trans Wrasses, Donald Tuskfish that crack clams, Octopodes that hide in Coconuts and Galapagos sea lions corralling tuna in the shallows, totally living up to their names, you can read all about it, here.

Eastenders.

Still not good mind, but its better this year.  Max and Wilmott Brown and their "evil capitalist" scheme to bulldoze the square and kill poor people.  If it was true to life all the white folk would have moved to Essex ten years back, leaving a legacy of Polski skleps, hen cabins, and corner shops, the Vic would have totally become a pentecostal church, having said that though Dot would still be there.

The Orville.

Seth Macfarlane's parody of  Star Trek, and I can't shake the fact its a live action version of American Dad but so far it seems pretty good.  Massively overshadowed in the UK by Keith Harris and Orville, who star posthumously as engineers in episode 3, look out for Cuddles the Monkey as the Duck hating badguy.

Harry Hills Alien Fun Capsule.

Not the best concept, but worth it just to see him rip into guests and youtube footage of pranks and stuff.

Mr Biffos Found Footage.

Not strictly a TV show, but putting to shame many shows this year if only for the shoestring budget its filmed on.  The last episode is the best, being a totally straight sci fi film rather than the absurdist comedy of the previous episodes.  Although if you are into absurdist comedies then the whole "brownaround" episode is the best of the bunch.  TEEEEEEEEEEEEA

Miranda awards 2017.

I should make a note of these just to give you a warning for the hell I go through each year.

Mrs Browns Boys.

We sat through 10 minutes of this shit, while clearing out my aunts place in the summer.  The remote mysteriously locked up and we tried in vain to find new batteries while listening to her schtick.  It felt like an hour.

Michael Macintyre.

Hate him, anything he's in makes the list.  Another place where we were stuck for something to watch and failed.  He isn't funny, and much as I hate political comedy, this seems far worse.

 Len Goodmans Partners In Rhyme.

There is a tenth layer of hell just for this alone.  Len Goodman, Dartfords very own, nice old guy with a horrible rhyming concept. Survived 5 shows before being cancelled.  That says it all.

This time of year.

You all know what time it is, its that time of year here where we take stock over xmas and round up the good and bad. 

First of all lets sit back with a traditional pantomime from ITV circa 2000.

Comedy royalty here with Julian Clary and Julie Walters and Morwenna Banks, who of course is better known for being the voice of Red the Pirate from DQ8.

We'll put on some  classic songs maybe some Mariah Carey or Paul McCartney having a wonderful Christmas time.  You do know that All I want for Xmas is the cut off point for good Christmas music, nothing new compares to the oldies.  Me personally I still lament the passing of Marc Lamarrs Christmas show on Radio 2, if only to hear Santa Claus Is Smoking Reefer.

We, of course, will leave a carrot out for Santa and a mice pie for his reindeer.  Maybe there will be a Christmas TV special, is it Morecambe and Wise, or the Two Ronnies or if we really hate ourselves a Mrs Browns Boys.  No its much better, the latest Christmas Wrapping by Matthew Harris with his traditional look at the odd idents from the BBC and such.  A shame that it contains Clean Bandit but we can't have everything. 

We settle down with a glass of nig nog and hang up our stockings for Old Saint Nick to fill (he's such a perv) before turning in.  All in all its been an excellent Christmas Eve.

Still Clearing Out

We have some new drawers coming in the week so this means we have to clean out my bookshelf.  Found a few things I hadn't seen in a while, a few mystery novels and such and a lot of  Retro Gamer magazines.  I love Retro Gamer its about the only mag I get everytime, along with Fortean Times.

Keeping a few select ones such as all the ones Stuart Campbell penned an article for as well as some of the more obscure system articles and milestone issues.   Will have to find a home for all the other bits and pieces I've collected before Tuesday before I can stick it all back.

Farewell

So I finally said good bye to my aunty on Monday and with some excellent if chilly weather we got down there a good 2 hours before hand.  The church itself was newly reopened after it being renovated.  A good thing about being early is that you can look around and take in the architecture before the service began. 

Wiki has a nice article on it, and its a heck of a nice church to visit even if your a secularist like myself.  The service itself was nice and what she would have wanted.  The scary thing is I felt nothing at all, I don't know if this is a autism thing but, I do miss her, its just that  I can't express it like that.  Worse through the hymns and such it kept bringing it back home to me that there really is no god, and if he is real, won't be found in some building but outside in the wild places, by the sea and over the marshes.

After the service was over  and we watched the coffin be transported away, we went to the pub for a buffet lunch. This was really nice and we grabbed a doggybag to take home.

I'll leave you with a few of the photos I took and a link to the songs used.

Intro
Ashokan Farewell Jay Ungar

J. S. Bach Excerpt  from Advent chorale

Edward Elgar Nimrod from the Enigma Variations  Originally Spiegel Im Spiegel by Arvo Part

Light rays.

Main Stained Glass Window

Conehead

Damian PT1

The whole Damian Green story is basically the Mail's hypocrisy in action.

For those that do not read The Daily Mail for fear of contracting cancer or voting Brexit, it comes down to campaigning.  The Mail is very anti porn, they want a total ban on the TGP sites and a not at all credit card style proof of age that isn't going to be hacked and used for naming and shaming. Failing that it back to relying on filters that will not work.

The crux of the story is this, Damian Green used his work PC in parliament to watch porn, a lot of porn, thumbnails and such were found by a total wuss of a cop, during an investigation, a better explanation from the Indy here.  The Mail has of course called it a frame up job, and blames liberals for urging him out.

You would think from such "moral guardians" they would be all out for him to lose his job due to evil porno, but no its full on endorsement.  I don't have a problem with the pron myself, been an avid reader for a good 25 years and the only objectionable thing I've seen is the rise of body art on models (seriously get rid, tattoos are gross).

The Mail in general is pretty good at these double standards with its sidebar of shame and leering at all grown up models and such.  Personally you'll find me on Damian's Side.

Finally before I wrap it up here is a disturbing documentary on Nabokov's Lolita and its parallels with Shirley Temple America's sweetheart.  Not all sweetness and light in fact its full on bent ref material in hindsight.  A warning for you before watching.

Whole playlist here. Seems like Nabokov was a victim rather then a perv all along.

Clearing Out

A necessary evil, that in order to bring new stuff, old stuff must be thrown out.this includes a lot of old Micro marts from way back as well as cables and stuff. 

This also includes making room for things brought down from my aunts place in the country and we'll be setting up the scanner so a lot of old photos can be scanned in, so if you'd  like to see bits and pieces from 60's London or the numerous places she worked then I'll upload them.

Photos are currently split into four piles, family shots, old photos, photos of my aunt and stuff I've grabbed like landscapes and things that are interesting to me.  Oh and one extra pile of my cousins kids to send to her. Some of them are with nan and some are out about, but mostly shots of them in their old place before they moved away and it all fell to bits.

Bye aunty.

The toughest thing I have to write is the passing of my Aunty Jean last week.  I have posted photos of stuff when we moved her to her new place back in the summer (the CBM calculator post).  Unlike me she had a wide circle of friends and such to call on to help, so can have them do stuff and take things, but mostly its clearing out things and my parents organising various bits and pieces.

Worse that, and this is quite oddly paranormal I had the prescience that she would not make it for the past to weeks after talking to another friend of hers on Facebook.  It's a constant she's not coming back, and you can't tell anyone in case you're wrong, you're making it up and stuff.  Its just a one off and that, though I love FT and that I have fuck all psychic gifts, in fact I'm pretty sure I'm aparanormal, if that is even a thing, a total obliviousness to the supernatural world.

Apart from that though no one really had a bad word to say about her, if you ever want to know what she was like, think of the show Call the Midwife.  She was a nurse in the same sort of era in the same sort of locations too.  I'll miss her but won't be sad for her.  I have great memories of her and such, still she will be missed.

Rebirth and The Littlest Hobo.

The weirdest thing happened this week. a workmate posting on Facebook of all places has sparked off something I'd long forgotten.  Its not TCC related but its to do with the Littlest Hobo who's show was serialised on the BBC in the mid 80's.  The thing is I barely remember it, I know that there was a kid in it and a dog and maybe a van.  But the most striking thing I can remember is that they had a tyre shaped gold UFO / robot. You want to know how sketchy my memory of this is, I originally thought it had the head of Crow from MST3K, but probably didn't.  I do know that the kid and the dog had to keep it safe and had to keep moving hence the title. bout the same era as Mysterious Cities of Gold and the Anime Belle and Sebastian so 85 -86 then.

Found it is Benji, Zax and the Alien prince. and yes the robot is both a mix of crow and floating yellow tyre.  Also that theme tune is rad as hell.

In other news it seems that Roland the bastards have forced the take down of Rebirth 303, one of the first ever 303 emulation software and such.  Only reminded me of it as I have a  copy and an old laptop and wondered if I could install it and make the bassline from Drake's Passionfruit in it. 

It seems that the new Roland Rental thing and re issue of its classic line of hardware drum machines was the catalyst for its  take down.

Still VHS Mess

Still working out how to grab stuff here. Virtualdub has as sync problem where audio plays naturally but all visuals are sped up like in old Benny Hill.  Ironic seeing that I'm trying grab some bits from the end of Benny, specifically some bits from channel 4's new years line up.  Eurotrash, Adam and Joe show and TFI Friday with Chris Evans before it goes into Mel Brooks Robin Hood Men in Tights.

We have old Vegas here cracked and patched for it and will try again to see if it will grab stuff from the dongle as well.

Islington and Wimbledon

Vhs mess continues and this time Virtualdub is playing nicely with all the sound synced up ready to go.  Tried a few more programs before coming back to Virtualdub.  Its spat out a 4gb file for about 4 mins of footage, after encoding we've got it down to 400mb as a MP4 file.  Anyway on with the show.

Two trips to places I've been but once before.  First one was to Wimbledon home of the tennis and more importantly terminus of both the District line and the tram. Bit of a weird thing going on here as I seemed to pick up a lot of  DJ Sneak stuff including his Fabric live mix and a few albums, ended up with about 5 albums and mixes by the end which was cool.

The second is more important  than that. We were lured back to Angel, with the promise of free stuff out the front of Flashback Records. Of course it wasn't free, but was reasonably priced and got a few more good things, including Black Devil. Kid606 CDs and a few funk / Nitzer Ebb singles. 

Islington itself still is a  massive lefty ponce hole, we spotted one cunt with a man bun and assorted pricks in a pub so its come as a shock to find that we found a new arcade.

Opposite Angel tube station.

Almost walked past this, only seeing the words Tekken out the corner of my eye forced me to stop and then seeing a pool table almost made me walk on.  Persevere though and you'll come to the good stuff.  A warning there is no shmups at present but there is a few good things there to tempt you.

They have a list here for the impatient but I can say it leans heavily on the dancing genre with only a SF4 for the beat em up crowd. 

The interesting stuff is of course the visual Pinball cab they have displaying some sort of Frankenstein pin table. Looking around there were a few more cabs to choose from but I hope they were better quality than that.

Which brings us to the two puzzle games, Puzzle Bobble which is always a blast, and Tetris Grandmaster the Terror Instinct. 

Yeah that one,  even easy is no picnic, and this guy's playing on master.  Not pictured, but definitely included is a Sakura mode where you clear glowing gems by making lines.  I wonder if the Homebrew DS version is still around.

VHS Mess

Been messing around with a new TV grabber from Lidl's of all places.  It comes with a few things such as all the plugs you'll need to connect it.  It should, if we get it to output sound correctly, be a good alternative to me sticking the phone in front of the screen and hoping that the footage grabbed comes out clear and not shaky. 

You get Power DVD with this too and its a bit rubbish, thinking that the home taped Benny Hill special is copyright (I guess it is but we want ad breaks and trails for the channel including the terrible one of Rory Bremmer and Richard Whiteley).  Virtual Dub is the best I have with the sound screwed up but the oddest is capturing through VLC. 

We have a weird sine wave feedback tone and some echo too, given the credits for  this is strange enough. Here's a reversed clip to give you an idea what to expect.

I'll play around with it some more and give a few direct clip uploads to Youtube if I  remember.

Pirate Material.

Looks like the BBC has finally woken up to the fact that not every Pirate radio broadcasted from a fucking ship in the channel, back in the 60's.  Because its the Beeb there's quite a bit of grim from the streets perspective and the Tories are cunts too for good measure (it's the 80's so bonus Thatcher too). 

For some reason its a rather Soul orientated affair, rather than focus on house and drum and bass, so if that's your bag its pretty good.   It focuses on LWR and the Pirate era of Kiss FM (Think Norman J, Trevor Nelson and Judge Jules you'll not go far wrong) and if you listened in the 90's well fuck you  there's a token bit of Jungle and Rinse FM at the end. If you think I'm being dismissive, its because I feel  that my music is often overlooked.  Its why I liked the Agony and The Ecstasy, if  you manage to view that then think of this as a companion piece, filling the gaps and some backstory as well.

The elephant in the room is the Conservative government, and watching this, you get the feeling  that  had Labour got in, it would have turned out differently.  Michael Foot and his government of 83, you kinda get the feeling that the whole greed culture and entrepreneur mentality would have just died on the vine.  With nothing to kick back against, you would have seen a very different 80's.

To me pirate was essential growing up, can remember listening to Fantasy FM and Pulse back in  the day.  A memory of me playing Gauntlet 2 on NES while Hardfloor played on the radio.  Steve Jackson playing disco on a Saturday Morning at Kiss and the 2 Colin's Faver and Dale playing techno late at night driving back from somewhere (Index The Sign still cool).  To recap there's clip from Trevor Nelson in the show saying that Kiss FM died for him back when it became a legal station, for me that's 1997 and its all down hill from  there.

Bradleya

Have been looking through the list of subjects for this years Bradleya yearbook in this quarters journal.  There is a few new things there that are quite interesting to me as well as a few things that are obscure enough for this blog of sorts.

For one a brief bit of history about Bradleya, its our cactus yearbook as I've already said, but also is much, much more technical than regular issue of Cactus world and for one about 4 times as thick.

If you like taxonomy and have the requisite smarts to work out the obtuse botanical language used (seriously, there's quite a few technical papers here detailing new discoveries) then its for you.  For the most of you, its not gonna be worth it to be honest.

First up is Cremnocereus a cliff dwelling cactus from Bolivia.  Quite odd flowering on this one, reminds me of some of the other short flowered Cereus types (believe its bat pollinated too). It does look quite impressive growing on a cliff face as well.

 I've read a little bit of the article via issu and its quite good.  Mostly its stuff on Crassulaceae with a few parts on Kalanchoe and some more on the taxonomy of the money plant (Crassula Argentea and Ovata). And some stuff on Tylecodon too including a new species.

As a mesemb man myself, there are a few articles to kickstart the old almonds.  Leaf structure in Conophytums, a treatise on the hypothesis of the evolutionary origin and polymorphism of Lithops (you see why we keep these in Bradleya now).

But mostly what I'm interested in is a new genus from the Western Cape called Roosia.  There's no information on line about it.  It sounds like it was part of the super group Ruschia (if you were a pink flowered and shrubby mesemb, chances are you were placed there) and split off when it was given a taxonomic revision.  As I don't have access to it I'll just have to troll around the net to see if anything is posted about it.  Ironically the only Bradleya I do have is the big taxonomic revision of Ruschia itself done by Heidi Hartmann.  If I ever get to read this I will post an update...

EDIT 2018.

What a difference a year makes? This article details just what Roosia was and indeed is.  Short version is, it wasn't a Ruschia at all but in fact, part of Esterhuysenia instead. Looks quite nice as well.

R.I.P Spider

We have some sad news here. My cat passed away on Thursday. He was 17 or so, though getting an accurate age is problematic due to him being adopted from neighbours one dead and one now in sheltered housing.  He was a contemporary of my old cat Ginger, now passed and used to clean up his food that he left.  They never really fought or fell out though, even if they were neighbours and that.

I don't know how he died but could sense his decline and such, as being an out cat he spent most of his time indoors over the past week and slept most of the time by the front doors (both main and basement, where sadly he finally passed on).

Spider in better days.

The weird thing is that shortly after his passing, there was a rainbow outside and new agers always go on about pets crossing the Rainbow Bridge, whenever they die.

If you squint a bit, it looks like the central TV logo.

I don't believe in all that shit mind, so in my eyes its more like Bifrost and he's being welcomed into Valhalla, with the chosen and such.  Besides where there is food there is always cats and such, it makes sense. 

EDIT well look what has turned up on my Youtube timeline, Viking Cats. 

Superplay Returns

It may have escaped your attention but Future publishing have brought back a classic magazine for one final special issue.  Superplay is or rather was the best Snes magazine in existence for those that didn't know.  A mix of fair, well written reviews, encylcopaedic knowledge, and Anime aesthetics helped immensely too. 

Our first issue was the Pop N Twinbee cover of Issue 8 (with the tagline Pop 'em Twinbee on the spine) and over time I've managed to collect the whole set.  They've survived my school bag and most of my formative years laying up on the shelf, I'll never part with them.

I know its mainly to promote the Snes Mini as it has re reviews of all the releases as well as a preview look of the non prototype version of Starfox 2 which is bundled with it, but damn its exactly how I remember it.  The art style is exactly the same with full colour box outs of all the games, up for review.  There are some import reviews of the games for the Super Famicom Mini as there were import reviews back in the day, but more importantly it has all the characters you remember.  Though the original Neko, who asked you to sub back in the day died in 2004.  His son Neko Jr takes up the mantle.

Helen McCarthy's Anime World returns for a look back at the scene's origins back in the early 90's and what cart looks at some essential Snes games for you and marks the official acknowledgement of Terranigma and Streetfighter Alpha 2 for Snes, both were released after it had folded and not reviewed.   Also you get a great Wil Overton cover as well (its Starfox 2)

You don't get a letters page (Obviously) and Mode 7 tips are scattered over each of the reviews now.  There's no Fantasy Quest so I won't have to update the FAQ nor Final Fantasy Forum but you didn't get them at the end either so its no great loss.

In all its a great throwback to the golden age of Gaming, glad I have my copy.

3 years of Gamergate.

Apparently this milestone passed me by, its not if our side has been keeping score and such but its been 3 years.  Zoe Quinn has a book out called Crash Override How Gamergate Nearly Destroyed my life and that, unbiased reviews here. Its £19 or about $25 bucks or so, it peddles her victim narrative and shills her online advocacy the Crash Override Network. 

If you are broke or don't wish to donate £19 in victim bucks here is an alternative a free ebook explaining what it is and that. I haven't read it or such but works from the other side of the debate are few and far between.  If Sargon could write about it I'd snap it up in a heartbeat, but all we have are the official sources from the Guardian which are hardly impartial and fair. 

Can remember the old Internet Aristocrat videos about the whole affair and such, it was a cluster fuck with paid shilling of games and such and the hassling of the fine young capitalists was perhaps the final straw for me. Maybe one day we'll have the authoritative book on the subject.  Which explores each side but as anyone who has dealt with these people know anything that goes against there narrative is of course "harassment" and trolling.

That the wicked "MRA broflake army" and such keeping women down and out of gaming, is nothing we would love you to come over and play games and such.  We won't judge you, we won't troll you all we wanna do is game.

Agony and The Ecstasy

Not a lot to say about this except that Sky Arts have a big documentary about rave culture and such. Called Agony & The Ecstasy how the U.K imported house and acid and made it our own.

Part one is beginnings with Norman Jay and a whole host of pioneers of the UK Rave scene such as Fabio and Grooverider, Orbital, Danny Rampling banging on about Ibiza and someone who looked a whole lot like dear old Babs Windsor.

Part 2 is more political looking at the fall of the illegal rave and the whole Criminal Justice Act brought in to stop peoples right to party.  Some epic scenery chewing there from Goldie as a judge and we have our first look at dear old Oakie (Paul Oakenfold) who in hindsight looks thick as mince.

Part 3 is the rise of the superstar DJ and there is definitely a saucer of milk required for some of the catty comments put out there for most modern posers.  To be honest I think the same way, didn't realise that the whole repackage shit from Ibiza we had going on.  We essentially sold America back shit Europop after they turned their backs on the whole culture and that. 

A few sticking points there is not one mention of Ron Hardy here, a few shout outs to Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles R.I.P but nothing about Ron.   Ibiza gets a mention as well as sound systems but apart from this nothing about Italo Disco and the whole selling back of Disco to America to make house.  Also precious little yanks in this only Roger Sanchez and The Black Madonna make it.  Fucking hate EDM, seriously this is what killed Kiss FM chasing the youth market


Third part is overtly political too which I really don't like, we are not punk we don't do politics much on a whole.  Apart from that you can laugh at how old everyone looks which is nice as they say.

CBM Calculator vs Sanitary Product

This should have come out last week but our internet was down, so you'll have to read this now instead. We scrapped the PC in question below btw, and picked up another dell, a laptop this time. I'm just a sucker for pain sometimes

Have spent most of the day trying to rebuild an old Dell PC with all the added stupidity
that Dell bakes into every one.  This time they bolted the motherboard to the case so
couldn't do nothing with it.  To cap it all our internet is down and have to slum it
by surfing via the phone. 

We do have a few things from clearing out my aunts old place, and while we have mostly
books brought back and a few old photos and such these two are for the most bizarre.

First up is a Nikini Pocket sanitary towel holder, found along with the second item
its from the 60's I guess. When I got it home I did do a search for it to see if they
were still going and it seems that they aren't.  There is a Museum of Menstruation
dedicated to jam rag paraphenalia and such, though its closed for painters once a month.

My aunt used to be a health visitor so it may be connected with that and such, here are
some photos of it.


Second item is probably my uncles, an odd guy who was Canadian and used to paint. He
worked at the dye factory down near the tip and can remember my aunt picking him up
in her Skoda with me in the back reading.  Its a Commodore calculator, complete with
instruction manual.  CBM started out doing these before their line of computers such
as the PET, VIC 2O and later the C64 and Amiga line before going belly up in 1994.

When my C64 had to be repaired they gave us a commodore branded camera as a thank you
which is pretty cool, would love to see if it was a rebrand or if they really did go
into photographic equipment. Here are some pics of the calc and will when we get a
PC to run the printer, some scans of the manual.

Peyote and other Psychoactive Cacti

A biased book review of sorts.

Picked this up from a charity shop in Camden for a quid.  Judging from the price on the cover someone initially paid £20 for this and really can't think why. 

First of all are you a stoner, a pot head or a hippie, then you may get £20 worth from this. Especially if you are actually going to use a plant, that is from the UK perspective, better off grown as a show plant.  There are a few chapters that I've not read yet, mostly about preparing mescaline from the raw Peyote, but what I have read its that its mostly written from the standpoint of a psychonaut.

Here are some facts about Lophophora Williamsii here (wiki article actually goes into more depth than the book) and if you want some pics, here's cactus guide with a few notes on forms and varieties. 

To be honest its not just Peyote as there is a few bits on San Pedro Cactus (A.K.A grafting stock) too as well as some of the smaller genera of plants, Ariocarpus, Aztekium and Obregonia that contain psycho active ingredients to some degree.  Mostly though they are just broken down to their constituent chemicals, in the description and such and yes, any sane person would grow them to show, as all three species are alsochoice, small plants that take up very little room and are known for slowness of growth.  

As the book was printed in 1997 the names need updating, so Dolicothele is much better known as part of Mammilaria today (and was back then, seriously did they grab them from Britton and Rose).  Cultivation wise its not bad though we don't need a shade house here in the UK as light levels are pitiful at best. Hydroponic growth is mainly used for stuff that are tricky on their own roots such as the more tender ! Asclepiads and Melocacti, I've had no problem growing Peyote on its own roots even surviving in an unheated greenhouse and the kill winter of 2010.

Legality its a grey area for stuff, you can get the taller Echinopsis sometimes as well as the smaller species.  I got my Lophophora as a kid from Syon House garden center back in the 80's but its available from cactus sellers from time to time and yes they know all about this too.

Finally, and this is anecdotal evidence, from talks and listening in to conversations.  There is bugger all peyote in cultivated specimens, plus its a really horrible trip, bitter, puking and shitting everywhere apparently not that I've tried. 

The book isn't bad, its going to give you the basics on growing and grafting which will help up the growth rate (did I say its slow growing) and a bit on law and shamanic usage.  Its not bad but more of a curiosity.

Finally, I'll leave you with a pic of when my plant flowered many moons ago, (it's still clinging on).

Much more shrivelled now.

$2 a month!

So there's been some re working done to the old RHDN (romhacking dot net).  The main site has undergone a bit of an upgrade from the classic web 1.0 look to one with  a big sidebar with random hack photos and other such fripperies.  I consider it a bit of a second home (I'm MontyMole there though I haven't posted in ages) and today when visiting I noticed that there is a big Patreon begging post as a sticky on the main page.  I wanted to look over the forum and see what happened but the main general board had gone missing.  So knowing I follow a few people on twitter who are well known rom botherers I decided to look there.

Apparently certain stuff is paywalled now including changing site themes and the General board on the main forum.  Its been done before from ages back, when World of Stuart changed over to a subscriber model so Stu could write about grown up politics in Scotland rather than gaming like he used to.  I don't know what Nightcrawlers main aim is but it would be sad to lose all the info and fan translations, that's built up over the years.

You can read a mod's take on it here.  (short answer, they didn't have a clue).  Also I'll keep watching twitter to see if anything changes.

P5 Further Stuff.

So its been a few months since I last wrote about Persona 5. Back then I had a PS3 that was temperamental and a big CRT block to run it on, well that's sort of changed.  I now have a "new" TV one of the first Sony Bravia models that was a kerbside pick up.  It was being used as a monitor for a long defunct PC and touch wood works.  Resolution is slightly lower for PS3, I would say screen ratio wise its about the same but more crucially weighs a bit less.

The Old TV Via an equally old camera.

 
This is an update of sorts to my original post on Persona 5, I promise that I won't spoil stuff intentionally but game wise I'm up to the middle of September, and the phantom thieves (your gang of sorts) are now quite popular.  The woman interrogating you in the opening part is called Sae Niijima a detective and big sister to one of your team mates (also a social link).  I still haven't been to the Casino palace from the opening either so I guess I have that to come. 

Ryuji I am convinced is the Japanese equivalent of Beavis, though as a lightning user he doesn't have Beavis's pyromaniac tendencies.

Heh heh

Your Margaret / Elizabeth stand ins are Justine and Caroline and just like the previously mentioned duo their social link improves via fusion requests. I haven't gotten anyone to maximum yet but there are a few people that are close.  I still can't get used to them pronouncing Ann as Arne and it really grates on me, but I guess that's murica for you, Its supposed to rhyme with pan.

Also I kinda like Morgana as well, there is a stray near us that looks like him, have a short clip of him raiding the bins next door something the regular Morgana didn't do.

Further notes.

Still can't get the hang of baseball pitcher and always aim low.  Took me ages to get the hang of fishing in P4 too.

Oh they have a regular fishing as well you just have to read a magazine to unlock it.

Akihabara has capsule machines which seem to eat up most of my cash and the arcade there hosts this versions incarnation of the crane toy (and yes you can win a Jack Frost doll).

Despite the bar in Shinjuku being called Crossroads its clearly New Kama in Japanese. I'm guessing its a play on Newhalf / Okama both LGBT slang meaning trans or gay.  its owner Lala Escargot reminds me of old Drag queen Divine in a way, though its clientele doesn't seem to be from the LGBT community.  There are two old poofs down by the station who are quite fun and seem to have a massive hard on for Ryuji.

Finally I found a bug that on the day before your exams on 12/7/20xx (that's July) the game will hang if you do any social links or go to the gun shop in Shibuya. You can ignore this by going to bed instead, its what Morgana wants.

Xaloc Top HIts From United Kingdom Goans

Sometimes you find stuff that you know will be fire, sometimes you luck out.  There are only 2 tracks really worth your time on here from a dance music perspective Mogan Ravuiha and Torkariwali the rest are sort of dumb skits to old rock and roll type tracks, with a few jazzy bits thrown in. 
That's despite them showing Roland strings and an Arp synth as well as a few band members (people who can sing a bit and play instruments) posing in London with Tower Bridge in the background.
 
According to wiki, Goan music is a fusion of Indian and Western with a heavy Portuguese bias (and spelling with h's everywhere), and not just a type of trance music.   Seeing as I got it from a charity shop in Welling it has a local address on the back and blessing of the UK Goan Association.

More info on Goa and Goans in general here.
Auction post if you want your own.

Memories and the like

Continuing on from last week and thinking about last months Fortean times in particular.  Not this months edition which is 70 years of flying saucers but last month where they discussed Scarfolk and such. 

More specifically a look at the nebulous world of 1970's TV looking at things like Penda's Fen and the Apaches Pif / nightmare fuel source.  My own nightmare fuel source was the  Dark Towers serial from listen and learn from the early 80's. 

The thing that they underline time and again is that it was pretty much undocumented, no real home videoing and such so you rely on archives and faulty memories.  Its pretty much the same business for Sky stuff back in the mid to late 80's.  There are tapes of stuff from DJ Kat show and The Children's Channel back then but even though video ownership crept up back then probably not much has survived.  Would like to see some stuff from the adult channel back then as well as HVC the home video channel its direct to video film showing ancestor.  Would even like to see the cable vision magazine that we got every month that covered cable stuff but I guess that's long gone.

We had cable, as I've mentioned before, because our tv reception is utter shite. They had a set top box that looked like a small safe that you could turn to show various channels like Premiere (19), The Box (02) and Superchannel.  You could see German / Dutch ads for Pro Grainen (pro grain) cereal with a macaw that said pro grainen and Frolic on MTV or was it Sat 1. 

That's the problem, we had a video then (a Ferguson from my Grandad.)  but no one knew how to use it, generally it was a bastard to program back then no on demand streaming and no hard drives big enough for Sky Plus to be viable for another 15 years. 

I'll leave you on a happy note with a german Netto Advert (now no longer with us in the UK) from last year mixing two of my favourite things cats and synths.  Check out that feline version of Magic Fly.

Hackney Haul

Have been busy lately as a few people I know are downsizing and going into sheltered housing.  Plus there is a few things I wanted to write about last months Scarfolk themed Fortean Times about liminality and the 70's and how it applied to my own thoughts on cable television.  But mostly today is about Hackney.

Haven't been for awhile as its quite a distance away, but whenever I've been there I've struck big whether its Finding old Scientist dub CDs or a few weird bits and pieces for discogs and stuff yesterday though I outdid myself.

They have a few charity shops there that are quite well spread out along the high street.  There is a pretty good one at the Salvations barmy (Salvation Army) that deals in all sort of stuff and has a few bits and pieces spread around the store.  Turned into the first stack of cds and there was a Simian Mobile Disco Bugged out mix cd pretty good decided to grab that then noticed that there was a few things by Fennesz, and it didn't stop pulling out gems from ~scape and Mille Plateaux and a few tiresome free improv jazz records that was duly left behind, but all in all 18cds and a big stack of records (largely Jeff Mills stuff and DJ Rush) for just under £16.

I know some of those will be a fire in a pet shop job but most of the vinyl is pretty legit. 

A few shouts out to some of the more odder ends of this spectrum i've dug through.   

MGRS Remix

Done for a Swiss culture organization this is a hybrid 2 lp 1 cd release that was given away to people / artists involved.  The caliber of remixers here is pretty good, Fischerspooner, Ovuca Biosphere, Cylob and the late Mika Vainio. Sadly the url you see where you can download this from is no more and doesn't even show up on Archive.org.  Half of mine is missing presumably still in the shop (will need to go back next week and check to see) but I have side a/b and the promo cd / sources.   Expect a few releases of this soon.

Morpheus Emergent music from the supercollider CD. MAC only.

Sadly I do not own a mac and never will due to them being overpriced douche bags, but this is part of the haul I got so its here.  Its generative music on one CDrom that will generate its own random interpretation every time you play it.  The only link I can find is to PDF. files, which you can read up on the processes on how its done and such.  I'll meet you half way and put up shots of the sleeve and CD image below.  If I ever get a mac emulator going I'll see if its any fun or not.

Holiday 17 Tv Rules edition

Quite a lot to discuss here so will be quick and to the point. for once.  Our TV selection was quite small this year with a few things fucked for most of the holidays (CNN and BBC world service) or not tuned in well (ZDF in German). 

Yet again there was no return of the Ruleta del sexo so no stripping and for obscure reasons no psychics either.  The live music had a few things of interest including a bit of classical and someone playing a pin table to some ropey euro house.

Sadly this is as in focus as it gets.

After some digging it turned out to be KZ-26 from Playmatic a Spanish company (who else), there is a Video of some noises and the back marquee here.

They still had BVM and the Tetris quiz show is called Blokken and is still neat for all Flemish / Dutch speakers.

We had quite a few English channels including the main 4 and a selection of odd choices from the freeview pot.  Travel channel mainly showed either Baggage Bandits (cool) Garage Gold which sounds like a compilation I'd own but its more of the same and Alaska shit.

There was a fuzzy Russia Toady and three music channels.  Vintage TV which showed old stuff and wasn't very good.  Now that's what I call 80's which is more of the same but better and Channel A.K.A.  A.K.A. stop playing that gangsta shit and do your cunting homework before I ground you.

Best of all is Afro channel ABN a mix of Joy news, joyless christ mongs, Reggae and highlife music and badly dubbed Telenovelas.  Bella Calamidad (Beautiful but Unlcky or Pretty Unfortunate as I call it) is quite hilarious where everyone has a strong Brooklyn accent and gives off that 10th generation porn vibe.

Spanish channels were OK, mainly news and such. Its a twin skewer of some tragic events including the Grenfell Block fire and a re run of the truck of peace.  They made a big deal of skateboard man, a Spanish guy who lost his life trying to stop the jihadi truck twats.  Good to know that estate means Barrio in Spanish (along with Sesame Street). Sadly didn't see any Doraemon this time which I always look forward to.

I also finally found out the name of the horribly stilted English language program on La Dos which is That's English, where I learned that Pizza means pizza in English and they went to LlanfairPG in Wales. 
In a neat synchronicity they had some welsh speakers on the shuttle bus back home all in all a grand trip.

Holiday 17

Here is part one of our annual holiday report.

Went to Fuengirola on the Costa Del Sol which like last time we only briefly visited before.  We stayed at the Hotel Angela which specialises in breaks for old folk and stuff so its trousers for evening wear and other totally regressive stuff but apart from that isn't half bad.  Quite a nice hotel and my room again was pretty decent, with good views of the front and more importantly the hotel across the way, ideal for the inbuilt Nosey Parker in me.  Pool wasn't bad and wasn't deep either, food although limited was pretty damn good, also they had a few theme nights including Spanish night, with a few people playing guitar in court dress like old time minstrels.  Spent most of that night not singing there's only one Alan Shearer whenever they played Guantanamera.

The main beach is quite nice with rough sand and some building work going on as they rebuilt a monument to fisherman, including what would be some nice inlay work on the floor.
They had more of that sort of thing further down, with more fishing monuments and a big peseta stuck in a rock.

Big Peseta

The sea itself, didn't offer much up for me, the rocks held the usual, urchins, crabs and a few fish including a red fish with a black head that I will seriously need to research, what the hell it is.
In fact there wasn't much life out there, a few bits and pieces on the dried up river banks and cliffs and a black headed Warbler that sounded like a lawn sprinkler being the best.  

Antique Dealers.

We did a few cultural trips out to the hypermarket and Torremolinos, but nothing like Mulassa this time so no dancing panto horses or folklore this time.  In fact Torremolinos has built itself up as a gay town, sadly based on the sort of Big Brother out and proud annoying sort.  Fine for the first five times but bloody annoying the rest of the time.  Apart from that there is something for everyone there including a Poundland offshoot called Dealz.  They had a tramp outside when we visited and it sold booze as well, god knows what its like as mercifully I don't drink.

Spare change for a cup of tea.

In fact this was a recurring theme, along with charity Shops, yes charity shops or Tienda Benefica as they are known in Spain.  First time I ever saw one here and they rule.  Our band of tramps included a dead spit for the Technoviking in short shorts, a greasy bloke with an Casio keyboard and a man with a really nice dog.  You saw them at the beach or walking round local market, which sold everything from Dogtanian stuff to African art.  I maxed out my case allowance so couldn't bring home any vinyl I found.  No Italo disco (Max Him, Scotch) or disco edits including a Skatt Bros edit or Cereal Lovers Edit by Ray Mang.  I did however grab some CDs so we have a few nice things to listen to (including a Surgeon CD which I got cheap). 

The Eroski mall is now the Miramar, and is decked out in proper shops not weird kiddy rides and pet stores.  They have a game which seems to have an impressive back catalogue of PSP games and massively unsold copies of COD for PS3.  There's a Primark and a C+A as well as some local stuff and a Tiger too. Best of all, escaping from a highly toxic election environment and getting away from it all.

Election 17

We have a general election coming soon and for the first time in my life, I'm not bothering voting.
I'll make no bones that  there will be another hiatus to this channel coming soon and the period I'm away will encompass the actual election.  I could get a postal vote but seeing as I've only ever seen a campaign leaflet for Labour and one independent candidate. Have a read of some badly written nonsense on the Bexley Times website for an overview of my local area (seriously was the sub editor on lunch or something).

To be fair that independent candidate does sound really ace as I found a small booklet of his discarded on the street, a full on old school liberal, that will be lucky to outshine the Christian weirdo's there (spoiler Labour will win as always).

Talking about weirdos The Mail were laying into the UKIP Manifesto on Friday despite them endorsing the cut to overseas aid and a few other campaign policies.  Whole manifesto here if you can give a damn.  The cut price version is half proper Tory manifesto and half Monster Raving Loony, we don't ban burqas here as we're not French, but I'm with you on Brexit and that. Apart from that I can't vote UKIP with their cut price poundshop logo and Edward Hitler as boss.

Paul Nuttall here.

The Tories want to kill off their only voters the old and at the same time also kill off all porn and everything that makes the net worth living under vague civil liberties. They'll probably get it too thanks to that Manchester bombing, Hence an independent.  I can't vote for Labour as they have already won here, also Jeremy Corbyn is a horrible terrorist sympathiser and a Marxist weirdo. Picture him as PM its a car crash.

Worse is Tim Farron, Lib Dem boss, a (should be) committed Christian that has an abysmal record on all things anti gay and looks like a bad photocopy of old Paddy Ashdown former leader of the Libs.  They also are of the delusion that Brexit didn't happen and we can still be friends in Europe, so its glad that I found a pic of him holding a pint of milk a"well known" racist metaphor and looking uncomfortable as fuck. 

Sieg Heil Timothy.

State of the worlds plants 2016

Kew have finally spunked out their review of the worlds flora 2016 with a few good surprises for everyone.  It includes more wild varieties of Manioc and a new highly localised Parsnip from Turkey, as well as some re classifications through genetic analysis , which includes Paubrasilia a national tree of Brazil which has been hived off from Caesalpina.  I like the Mail's take on this which links some new species of Aloe from *South Africa which aren't in the report at all.  (Thankfully there are new species of Aloe being found but its normally either Kenya or Madagascar which are the hotspot areas).

The top news is that news of this was actually a few months old, as a preliminary list of this appeared up on Kew's Science blog back in February but we'll ignore that as there's a shiny new website complete with PDF download of the entire report here.

A lot of this makes sobering reading as most are threatened and critically endangered, largely due to habitat loss, either dam projects or mining concerns a lot of species hang in the balance here.

Anyway that is the state of the worlds plants.

*Brain cells, The Aloe species come from the front page of the pdf where it looks like the Mail has copy pasted extensively from.  Incidentally been trawling through last years back issues of the BCSS journal looking for any sign of these new Aloes and can only find mentions from Yemen and Kenya rather then South Africa.  Although I can remember an article in Bradleya our year book of them being cliff dwellers of some sort, I cannot remember what year it is could well be from 2016 and of course I don't actually have that years Bradleya.

Lullingstone Park

Went here today, a nice day out all told, with a walk down by the river and across the fields. Nothing can really beat Kent at this time of year, especially when the sun is out.  Came back to some crazy gospel bollocks all about the end of the world on our doorstep.  We are literally getting like America now and sadly my old vista workhorse used to power the printer doesn't power on now so will have to do some investigation to see what it could be.

Electronic Gaming Monthly.

This week I've been clearing away some junk, that is mainly old copies of EGM from the Mid 2000's and onward.  Still have a few copies up on top of the wardrobe from the mid 90's to go through, that also has the phone book sized xmas edition from 94 with Donkey Kong Country in.

These though were well past their prime with only Seanbaby making me laugh still.  There is still an emphasis on ads too which is baffling as UK mags never really carried them and even then it was cringy stuff from Woolies and the like.  There is a few odd ads there too including some anti weed stuff, the highly weird Seaman ad and David Beckham telling you to drink more milk, so football obviously has some impact there in the states now instead of the usual handegg. 

There is also the return of crap westernized anime artwork, this time for Castelvania Portrait Of Ruin as well as much better attempt for one of the Tales games (though in hindsight they just used some official artwork). I wont be sad to see them go its not terrible but they weren't an absolute joy pit like EDGE became.

Titenic

Have a few more terrible god leaflets today.  One is about the Titanic and not the terrible movie from James Cameron. This concerns Pastor John Harper preaching the word as he slowly drowned and how you can be saved if you read a small prayer on the back.  I didn't keep it but did google who he was.  I kinda like his entry on Encyclopaedia Titanica which is short and to the point, rather than the leaflet which is full on god mental.

P5

There's a new Persona out now, for PS3 + 4. B So far I've played about 10 minutes of it as I currently have a backlog to get through which includes a few casual beat em ups but also has some full on RPG classics like Fallout 3 and Skyrim. 

Because of reasons and that my main test TV is some massive CRT block and our PS3 has a bit of a temperamental drive (although a darn sight better than the original which was borked) so its not the ideal conditions for testing.  It often needs a bit of Streetfighter or Marvel VS Capcom to soften it up before playing (same goes for fallout too).  What I can say in this is that there is some really tiny text in this as well as it not being really aligned well, possibly due to aspect ratio, however what I've played so far is quite good.

There is an opening on the main character being pursued through some sort of casino using the rooftops and shadows to evade guards before inevitably being caught and interrogated by some police types.  They're a far cry from Dojima san who I thought was firm but fair. you have a lawyer woman represent you and talks to you about how you found yourself in this world.  You get a few shots of Igor and Margaret! as well as a name input screen.  And if you want spoilers there is none, that's as far as I got.

So far its more action than Innocent Sin and both Persona 3 and 4 intro which took their time but gripped like a dog about an hour in.  Its not as bad as the original translation of Persona and there is no blackwashing of a main character here though there are gripes on the quality of translation on line with consensus being it being more of a stilted literal translation rather than what we should have these days.

Easter with the Barkley's

Happy Easter. As you can't quite tell we are down at my aunts place and have to slum it on an old laptop which is far from ideal.  Hope that you all have a nice day and have plenty of chocolate eggs and stuff as its the one day God throws down a Phoenix Down to revive his misbegotten son from the grave. 

I don't do religion so have spent it walking along the pier and looking at dogs.  Honestly there are hundreds of dogs here, including a few designer mongrels and the customary Labrador too.

Thanks to the Everton football scandal I've been reminded of an old cartoon show on TCC called the Barkleys. 
A sort of dog sitcom cartoon thing that was probably based on an old US sitcom (that they stole from us).  Wiki says all in the family which is Til Death Us Do Part and now I really want to see an animated Alf Garnett. To be honest I kinda rememeber the Theme tune in at odd times that Arnie Barkley is the head of the Barkley House.  But apart from that nothing much else, I guess the licence was cheap along with Groovie Goulies? and whatever else Sky put out on a weekday morning (they had an Anime version of the Little Prince / Le Petit Prince too).

First of the season.

Thanks to some glorious weather here today I've taken the advantage to visit the boot sale for my first visit of the season.  Thanks to our dear mayor Eatadick Khan we can take advantage getting two buses for the price of one, to lessen our costs. 

All in all we had a great day out, some great records bought all at one stall including some classic house and techno and a few bits and bobs including a new laundry bag.  Its a cracker of a day and we did see some stunning sights including a woman in a white dress and a thong underneath plus a really nice arse too, and a few other views in a similar vein.

Other birds included what I hoped were skylarks hopping about the scrub and on the verges some Orange Tip butterflies which I guess are quite early for the year.  Quite a productive season.


Also before I forget Sye Ten Atheist has been banned from Youtube due to vids and such you can read how and why here.  Its sad to see him go as Flinging a Faggot Off a Roof kept me going through the dark times and that and let me know that Tom Lehrer was still alive.

Crooks, cheats and liars.

Sorry for no post last week and that was all set to regale you about how I brought back a PS3 from the brink but instead got scammed by some cunt pretending to be a cop on the phone.

If you don't know how it goes down its like this.

Scammer phones up pretending to be a cop, gives warrant number and lies out his ass by saying that have caught some people buying expensive shit on your card can you phone the number on the back of your bank card to confirm. 

Scammer doesn't put the phone down but passes it to an associate who tells you your card is blocked, so when you call the bank it goes through right away.  Your bank will never respond that quickly in fact time spent trying to get through the maze of options to the lone woman on customer service, while you listen  to the four seasons for 10 minutes straight should be a warning to you that they are fake.

The third stage with me was some bogus sting operation, with me running around London like Anneka Fucking Rice, handing over my own cash and card fake courier, because fraud operation.  But it could be trying to get your card details either way its not good.

The bank were really helpful, and put us through to the fraud team who are dealing with this.  The police not so much they just gave us a letter from action fraud and no crime number.  I spent a good 20 minutes on the phone trying to speak to a human, though when I did get through, they sorted it out  and gave us a reference number and pass to keep them updated.

It compromised my phone thanks to them calling so I had to switch sims from 1 pay as you go to another, which I still have to sort out.  I don't care about my calls or texts fire bomb the lot and give us a new number and more crucially internet.

In conclusion, your bank or anyone else will *NEVER cold call you about your card being stolen or account being compromised, or ask for your account or pin number.  These people are actually cunts.

(*they will however send a letter offering you to call them instead)

Cortana

From today Microsoft are issuing an early patch Tuesday update for Windows 10 that will replace Cortana in all Win 10 builds with Tay.

An unnamed spokesperson for Microsoft has said that this should be an alternative choice to those who have used Cortana before.  

Aqualung

Well this is quite the thing, have you ever seen a business card CD? Sometimes I would come across them on Discogs and such but never thought I'd find one in the wild.

As the title suggests this is a business card promo DVD of Aqualungs Still Life Album that I found for sale at a charity shop up town. I don't like rock and roll let alone fey indie rock much but this is an oddity I had to have and as its going cheap £1 decided to see what all the fuss is about. 

First of all, I'd like to say that it doesn't really work on windows 10 but what you should see is a Macromedia flash front end that will play certain short clips from the album of the same name.  You can access these by looking at all files on the DVD instead of booting up the flash front end.

You get 1min clips of Easier to Lie and Brighter than Sunshine and a loop of some other song I don't care about.

I do like the concept though, as its so small and compact you could easily put a single out on this. 50MB will easily hold about 6 songs at 320K can't really imagine why it didn't take off as such though the weird shape is probably off putting and that.

Lamb Update

We've been going through a load of old magazines hoping to see what can be thrown away and what can be scanned for posterity. As well as mags we've also taken to task a few old cassette decks too including a nice Hitachi that simply won't play tapes and in fact chewed up our lamb tape a few times before being dumped.

So what's on the tape then.  Well its mostly recipes of Lamb as I've said before its a collab with Colmans Mustard and  there is a special treat too.  For some reason half of side A has been taped over with an old episode of Watchdog, you can tell its old as it has Lynn Faulds Wood and John Stapelton on it, no Anne Robinson here.  Mostly its concerning about a holiday scam set up as prizes but never going through.  The other bits are apologies concerning a sex line mix up and viewers in Scotland having to wait to the early hours to see the show itself (its pre iPlayer so you'll have to tape it instead).

Apart from Watchdog, it mainly contains well lamb and recipes of lamb and such.  There are a few musical interludes mainly generic Greek and Far Eastern library music for recipes on kebabs and pilaf rice but the rest is spoken word.  I can imagine this would be good for cut ups as well as lamb recipe fanatics too, there's quite a lot of talk about meat and such as well as slits and stuff. Will have to dump the audio when I'm done with records in general, though that may be in 2066.

Here is the entire inlay in case it rings any bells and such.

Also this is the last time I type Lamb for ages.