Screeching Owls

Not a bad story this. The boys and Chet Morton are on holiday in Pennsylvania checking up on a friend of their father's while Fenton himself is on a case involving truck hijackers. They reach his cabin to find him missing and dark talk about a witch that stalks the local area stealing dogs and screeching at night. 

The local geography makes it tough to follow, a large depression in the earth called Black Hollow overgrown and with a hidden shack supposedly used by abolitionists as part of the underground railroad funneling slaves out to a new life in the north. 

A few run ins with the Donner family and a mute boy called Simon who proves to be of immense help. Before the inevitable conclusion that the boys and their father are working on the same case from different angles. 

Quite a few nice bits to think over. The Screech owls, used as a signal here, are familiar to Americans whereas the Barn owl which was also used as a signal is also known in Europe. There is a nice nod to inclusion with the acceptance of Simon the mute boy. which is done well even.

Anyway UK version here and Original here.

Final note on this. The original US artwork has a nightmarish looking Barn Owl on the cover. Whereas the version I have in the UK looks to be a Great Grey Owl or a Puma.

Psycle Alpha a review of sorts.

 Been a fan of this for absolutely ages, after downloading and hating Buzz on dial up many years ago. I always thought it was a clone of this but seeing a Youtube vid on how to do it I was brought round. 

Anyway you'll want to know what this is exactly. It's a tracker program, the sort used to make music in the 90's but with more modern features such as VST instruments and effects along with a sample player. Like Buzz it works of generator's and effects, unlike Buzz its not a head fuck. 

It's  development was halted for a while now and I only noticed that work resumed on Sourceforge, when  I checked the code part. A few nominal updates with the option to compile it yourself like a geek. Then this week I looked at the files and there is an Alpha binary ready compiled for install. 

A few caveats, It seems stable but even the older betas are ropey so I'm fully expecting this to fall apart whenever a track nears completion. It's got a new dark layout which isn't bad. And all the preferences and are at the bottom now. No icons and saving's weird now. 

The main thing is that we have a sequencer interface as well from every other DAW in the past 20 odd years. It takes some getting used to and you can use  the tracker interface as well which helps. I'm currently rebuilding my plugin cache and rooting out which works and which causes a crash. But for those pondering if the Reaktor window resize bug is still there, its been fixed.

Current views on this are it's not bad, and if they ever implement VST3 functionality. I'll be staying on board. Oh before I go there is a language switch for English / Espanol. 

You can grab it here prebuilt for either Windows or Linux. 

Kew

This day has sucked balls. Supposed to go on  trip out to Kew via our local Cactus club. Meet up 10:30 outside the gate. Decide to get up in time leave house at 9 walk into town get the DLR and jump a  few tube trains and make it in time.

Reality is this. We pass 2 Jehovah's witness stalls which is instant bad luck and not only miss my slot but come in late and miss the tour (back ends of Kew) which suck. I get trains cancelled and bus drivers changing. And worse of all realize I could have just gone on cross rail and exited at Ealing to get a bus there, instead of the mad dash I had to do just to get there 15 minutes late.

The upside of this is I saw a few good things such as a prickly pear in flower and the Ghost Orchid from Florida, thanks to glare though no photos.

Edit. OK have this air plant instead.

Holiday pt2 Beasts and plants

 Last weeks blog was all about the stuff I watched on television. From Crimen in Parasio (Death In Paradise) to an insincere robot on This Morning. This week, fauna.

That area around Alcudia, Santa Margalida, is known for its wildlife and area's of natural beauty. From the public farmlands of Finca Son Real,(ES) to the pinewoods and bird sanctuary at s'Albufera. You are pretty much spoiled when it comes to nature here. Some pretty dramatic weather meant we couldn't really go swimming in the sea, but we did manage to go hiking about, which more than made up for it. 

Weather wise, it wasn't all that, typical English summer, with a few nice days, a storm and a few overcast and windy days. The best of the weather was when we went home. Which is always the way. Put it this way Burgos got snow for the first time ever. Granted its Northern Spain, but its still strange and unseasonal weather. 

Anyway, what did  I see. Along with the small river, with its ducks and coot. There was a small egret and cormorants by the see along with an Audoins gull with its call that sounded like Geoff. A few nice bugs including a Mole cricket, a regular cricket and a tortoise. Also a really long millipede. 

A weird one here. We saw a Two Tailed Pasha Charaxes jasius butterfly drinking the cuckoo spit from a froghopper nest. If anyone knows quite what it's gaining from this I'd love to know. 

Plants

Thanks to the near alpine like conditions on the sea front there is quite a range of plants. Mostly dominated by Felty Germander and Helichrysum but there are a few other species there as well. Sea Holly, Long Horned Poppy and four types of Rockrose. Up in the hills I saw a Gladiolus in bloom for  the first time and a  few other things I can't place, including a nice Speedwell type down by the river.

Holiday 23 pt1 TV

 OK, so I'm back from a well earned break, and it has to be said, some highly disappointing weather. We went to Son Baulo in Ca'n Picafort, up on the North East coast of Mallorca. Been before, but mostly in June when the weather is warmer and getting into the low 30's This time its like an English summer, overcast and cloudy with occasional bright spots and the odd storm to spoil it. In fact looking at the weather there and on the mainland it seems to be storms and hail with the odd reports of snow in places. 

My hotel room was basic with a view of a shop and bar.

Whereas my parents got a sea view. If you don't know the area, its known for its outstanding natural beauty and being close to Alcudia, down the coast from the old castle town. There are a few buses running into either Palma or Alcudia and its worth taking time to visit either. 

Anyway two paragraphs in and what you want to know is what's on the box there. Spanish TV is pretty much what you'd expect a few telenovelas and a lot of imported shows from the states. Including a version of Bones and the worst CSI: Miami. English TV extends to either ITV (we saw a bit of this including an awkward interview with a robot on This Morning before they ousted Schofe for bumming a twink.) And the BBC which is largely dire.

German stuff is largely of the RTL / Sat1 style programming with a few other quirks thrown in. Big props to BR Fernsehen Sud, for consistently showing odd programs throughout the day, and night when the insomnia kicked in. Seriously if you are a techno head you have to watch Space Night, a mix of NASA clips and the more trackier drum style of techno / house, you won't be disappointed. 

They also do a pets show called Anna und Die Haustiere.(German) But its more of an excuse to perv over Annika Preil. If I knew German I bet I'd get more out of it.

Catalan I still don't rate and its more local interest with some election nonsense thrown in, which should be concluding today. I'll add a note on who won what if I remember. The other thing was Firo, which celebrates the Mallorquins successfully holding off a siege from the Moors and is a big costumed ball out on the West coast.

Finally we come to the main show. A few English / Spanish shows I've rated. 

Pop / Tiny pop has consistently the best cartoons with Dragonball Super and some weird Post Apocalyptic Pokemon with Team Rocket as a News Crew. 

A version of Vera where its pronounced Bera. Which is my new favourite thing. I never found out if Brenda Blethyn was dubbed in this or just left as is. Props if it was, we can't understand Geordies at the best of times. 

Mein Freundin Conni on ZDF

Based on an old German kids book, I just love the look of this. It's like if they got Ark System Works to make a kids show in the style of Blazblue, not cosmic horror but that sort of 3D style. I still don't understand German but I bet it's proper wholesome as well. YT Clip here.

Finally a duck at an ice rink with that Felix the Housecat mix of Sinnerman over the top.

EDIT. The PeePee party won. Breakdown here  Catalan.

Hiatus

 We'll be doing nothing much for a couple of weeks, as it's holiday season for me. Rest assured this place will be up and running in 2 weeks time. Peace.

Desert Giant

The Mystery of the Desert Giant or the Hardys in California. 

This is not a bad story either in it's original form or in its UK remake. The boys are tasked with finding a missing industrialists son. One Willard Grafton. He and a friend were last seen in southern California, and their plane found in Blythe out in the desert near the desert giants.  

A trip out to Cali with Chet Morton finds that there is a ring running counterfeit cheques out of Mexico and that somehow Grafton is mixed up in this. Chet's latest hobby, Infra Red Photography, is also part of the story, and yes, he does get to use it out in the desert. With a photo of the crooks and such. 

The most notable thing about this is that most of the geography is actually based on real places. The giants exist and are something of a mystery of ancient American folk art. As well as most of the towns and villages stateside being real places, it includes the places for their brief foray into Chihuahua state when pursuing Grafton into Mexico. 

You can read both versions here and here.