Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Sick again....meh!

Off sick again today, sucks, MEH!

On the plus side I now had a tidy house and immaculate kitchen and all the washing is done!

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Unwell

Had the day off sick today as I wasn't well.
Not a big fan of being off sick although I did manage to get a little tidying up done. In between my frequent lavatory visits I did manage to catch up with Wrestlemania 26, RAW and watched some fascinating World War II documentaries.
Things did improve a little as the day progressed although I am still not feeling 100% so will have to play tomorrow by ear.

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Sunday, 28 March 2010

Warhammer 40K, all day mega battle

Today was a MEGA day for Warhammer 40K. We got up and had breakfast and then indulged in many hours of playing.

4 x 2000 point armies is not to be sniffed at. It was Orks v Tyranids v Space Wolves v Eldar and was one of the most enjoyable games that we have played. The game must have lasted almost 8 hours! We put on a large pot of chicken noodle soup we we enjoyed during a short break while watching South Park.

I am pleased to be able to announce though that I did manage my second ever victory. After 5 turns we stopped and added up what points we had left remaining and I was declared the winner, having scraped by with just 50 odd points more than Sam had remaining.




Saturday, 27 March 2010

Camden, food and shopping, Capitals and Warhammer 40K prep

Up early this morning with Toni and I heading off to Camden to meet Tasha.

Down in the tube station (but not at midnight!):


We had a mini mooch around before we met up and then went in search of a market unit that Tasha needed to go to. The numbering system was bizarre by we did find it in the end.

Lunch was provided courtesy of Wagamama which was delicious as usual! Was nice to relax, eat and chat.

Following the meal Tasha had to shoot off so Toni and I went to mooch further and bought a few fab things. I do love shopping in Camden, just a shame the funds were low as much more could have been spent!

We then went and picked up Aaron and relevant Warhammer 40K bits and then headed back to SWF. I watched an exciting Capitals webcast with them getting a 4 - 4 draw against Nottingham Panthers in their first play off game (everbody else was building Warhammer 40K stuff). Had a lovely Indian take away and then I prepared my Eldar army list ready for battle tomorrow. The building etc carried on until we moved passed the clocks going forwards and we ended up going to be at 3am!

Inspector Beastie!

Friday, 26 March 2010

Sleepiness and Hazel's party

Got home from work and was looking forward to going to Hazel's party tonight with Toni. Unfortunately Toni had a hellish journey home and was absolutely shattered when she got in so we chilled out and rested for a couple of hours before heading off.

Party was a little subdued, well we were as we were both tired, but enjoyed ourselves nonetheless and had a good old chin wag with a few fold before we had to bail out before we crashed out. Shame we couldn't stay longer but these things happen and no doubt there will be other parties!

Got in and made herbal tea and Toni read briefly before crashing out altogether and I pottered around doing a few Capitals bits.

Clunk Click!

Thursday, 25 March 2010

Xbox, salmon, scan and collate

Shot off to North Greenwich after work tonight to stay at Toni's.

Started off by getting the Xbox 360 set up so that the wireless adaptor worked properly and could connect to Xbox Live which ran seamlessly and was nowhere near as much hassle as I had feared it might be.

Lovely salmon dinner was then followed by a manic session of scanning BastarCard letters for Toni and then collating them into one consolidated document. Was nice to have have snuggles afterwards :o)

Bagpuss in a whole new light!

'Avin' It Large!

Happy Birthday Zoë

Happy Birthday Zoë

Hope you have a great day!

Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Busy day, PS3 fun and TNA Destination X

Today was one of those busy days with lots going on and the usual stressful situations that can occur only in the workplace so it was a relief to go home!

Got in and chilled for a bit as the boy wasn't back from college.

Once he got in we had a chat, played some NHL 10 (and the bugger beat me again!) I was leading 2 - 1 until he managed to bag 2 goals in the last 50 seconds! *grumble grumble*

Dinner followed with TNA's Destination X pay per view. I am really glad that despite the awful weekly TV programming the TNA pay per views are still very entertaining.

We then did a couple of co-op rounds of Modern Warfare 2 before having a nice early night!

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Studio a-go-go

Back to Southend College tonight for another round of recording.

Different approach tonight as Dan took control and got everything set up, this time for a live sound rather than all DId. We still hit a few technical issues but I guess that's just the dangers of doing stuff like this in short bursts rather than setting up and then having the set up kept for the duration.

We did get there in the end though and the sound tonight was much better than yesterday. We still have the vocals to sort out on both tracks but at least we now have two nailed down that we can use!

Toni came and picked me up afterwards and we went back to SWF, snuggled, watched wrestling and had yummy gluten free Pizza courtesy of Sam.

Quote of the week...

... from one of my esteemed colleagues to the boss!

"I know you own the company but why don't you just fuck off!"

PRICELESS!

Hollywood Doll don't have roadies........

.........we have bitches!

Chris joked about this but I really didn't think he was serious but his dad made him a Hollywood Doll roadie hoodie:

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Monday, 22 March 2010

Back in the recording studio

Shot off to Southend after work today to go and meet the rest of Hollywood Doll (well apart from Marie) to start working on more recorded stuff. Met up with Chris and got all the gear set up.

We decided to start again as there were issues with the original recording that we did for Chris' observation. It was all a little bit fraught and we had a sad sense of deja vu as it looked like it was all going to be a disaster. After much help from a fellow technician Chris did manage to get one track recorded. We went to copy it onto a USB stick only for the Mac to freeze up. It was at that moment in time that we realised that Chris had NOT been backing up and saving as he went. Net result, lost track and having to start again! I think Steve was ready to throttle Chris at that point!

Important lesson learned there, ALWAYS save, and often! Thankfully the second take went without hitch and sounded pretty good. Matt then arrived and did his lead parts and it all sounded jolly spiffing. We are back again tomorrow with Marie to get the vocals finished on that one and then hopefully knock out another quick track so we at least have two to walk away with.

Despite the hiccups it has been fun to get in the studio and record! Hopefully all will go smoothly tomorrow and we can do a decent mix and make it available for you all to hear!

Got home and enjoyed a lovely Sam made pizza which was a great way to finish off proceedings.

Sunday, 21 March 2010

Being Human, steak, another horror and Circus Of Horrors

Had breakfast whilst starting to watch Being Human series 2, a them which recurred throughout the day.

We enjoyed a lovely steak dinner and then laughed at the horror of another photograph from my past making it onto Facebook:


Toni and I then dressed up and headed off to Hornchurch. Part of my 40th birthday present from work was 2 tickets to see the Church Of Horrors. It was a fantastic show, really really well done and turned out to be such an awesome present.

You can read more about Circus Of Horrors here: www.circusofhorrors.co.uk

Here we are in the auditorium (excuse the lady in the background LOL):

Saturday, 20 March 2010

Shopping, webcast, God Of War 3

Went to Chelmsford to do some shopping today. Sam went off to Games Workshop and Toni and I enjoyed the wonders of hosiery in Marks & Spencer. We met up with Sam afterwards and went to Lakeland for a mooch where we picked up some great stuff for mum's birthday!

When we got home I started preparing for the Capitals webcast and Toni made a delicious cajun chicken dinner.

The rest of the evening was spent watching Sam make his way through the awesome God Of War 3 (with Toni providing technical backup in getting him through some of the levels)

Friday, 19 March 2010

In aid of the Don't Disconnect Us campaign...

.... just remember, it didn't did it!

Thursday, 18 March 2010

Kebabs, rehearsals and sleep!

Toni picked me up from work tonight and we drove back to SWF. We indulged in kebabs for speed as it was HOLLYWOOD DOLL rehearsal night. Chris came round and we loaded up the car and then headed off to Nightfly Studios.

The rehearsal tonight was important as we are getting ready for more recording next week. Things are going really well and all the songs are coming together nicely. We had thought that we would have to spend all night just running over one song but it all clicked so we got to run through everything. Some of the songs still need deconstruction and reworking but the foundations are good! The plan now is to get two tracks recorded next week that we can use to start promoting ourselves.

Following the rehearsal we dropped Chris off and headed home for some much needed sleep!

OMG, this is hilarious! Hitler Youth!

It's the little things in life that make you chuckle!

A Danish artist who dressed her baby as Hitler, Stalin and other dictators says her work is necessary to explore the meaning of evil.



Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1258654/Danish-artist-dresses-baby-Hitler-Stalin-Saddamn-evil-inside-us.html#ixzz0iWZN8d54

Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Busy busy, Warhammer, Illuminati, NHL and then Tarred & Feathered

It was a very busy day at work today. Lots going on, not hectic but plenty to do and it was one of those days where it actually feels like you have been productive.

Got home and Sam and I indulged in a little Dark Elves v Skaven Warhammer Fantasy battle. Unfortunately the Dark Elves were subjected to a humiliating defeat to the Skaven hordes! Next time you ratty scum!

We then had dinner and watched part one of many conspiracy documentaries that I have about the Illuminati which was insane and crazy but no doubt holds a small element of truth somewhere.

Had a quick chat on MSN with Toni before suffering a terrible 2 - 1 defeat at NHL 10 against Sam and then it was time for bed.

As for being Tarred & Feathered................
........well I wasn't but I did find this old video of the chaotic Cardiacs performing this

Cardiacs - Tarred and feathered - kewego
Biographie de Cardiacs : ..... Bwaaaaaaah !!

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Going old skool thrash and hardcore!

Having been down memory lane with the blast from the past photo in my blog on Sunday, >> HERE << I have been listening to a lot of bands from that period of my life. Ah the wonders of the 80s and good old fashioned thrash and hardcore. In no particular order, here are some of the bands I am listening to again:

Crumbsuckers
Corrosion Of Conformity
D.R.I.
The Stupids
Anthrax
Cryptic Slaughter
Dead Brain Cells
The Crucifucks
The Cro-Mags
Agnostic Front
Howling Mad *grin*
Anthrax
Attitude Adjustment
Gang Green
Septic Death

.............. and a whole load more! Feel free to check some of them out via my profile on Last.FM: www.last.fm/user/glitztech

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Monday, 15 March 2010

Hectic day and then chilling with badness

Today was a bit hectic. Started off badly when we left Toni's 15 minutes later than expected which meant that we hit an insane load of traffic that we don't normally see. Already running late I was further stressed by delays on the tube before I finally got to Stratford and boarded the train to Shenfield. Considering how late things had been I was lucky to actually only be 10 minutes late for work which was nowhere near as bad as I thought it might have been.

Work was the usual busy affair but not too hectic or stressy so that was a relief.

Got home and Sam treated me to some of the delights of his cooking today, scones and American pancakes. God they were bad but SO yummy!

Sam then made bolognaise and we caught up with WWE NXT and Smackdown and then settled down for a death match session on Modern Warfare 2. After 30 minutes he managed to squeeze out a 21 - 19 win before heading off for early nights!

Sunday, 14 March 2010

Howling Mad....

..... or just running scared!

Not long ago I set up Facebook and Last.fm pages for the old hardcore band that I was in, Howling Mad.

You can check these pages out here:
www.last.fm/music/Howling+Mad

www.facebook.com/pages/Howling-Mad/344777954053?ref=ts

Anyhoo, the point of this blog entry was not to promote the Howling Mad stuff but more to talk about something scary that happened tonight on Facebook. Someone from back in my Howling Mad days posted a pic on Facebook with me in from way back then!

Here it is (I am the one who is just about visible in the red cap):


I am running scared as apparently Calvin has a gem of a photo that will published next week! EEK!

The laptop doctor is in and now checked out!

Stayed up until stupid o'clock last night trying to resolve some issues with Jade's laptop but tiredness meant that it was time to give up at 2am with no proper resolution in sight!

Got up and cooked Toni and the kids breakfast and had a quick chat with mum.

I then continued with Jade's PC again but gave up with the troubleshooting and instead opted to completely rebuild her system. I took hours but it is finally all up and running again! Not quite the way I had planned on spending a Sunday but after multiple reboots with a gazillian Windows updates and then problems installing AVG I finally succeeded!

Happy Mother's Day mum

To the bestest mum in the world

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Love Keith x

Saturday, 13 March 2010

Random pics gathered today

Today was a day for random picture taking.

We started out with the broccoli growing in the garden outside Toni's mum's.



Next up was another amusing lorry sign:


We spent the afternoon moving Gemima out of Aaron's room and back into her own and the associated and tidying stuff up. Gemima's bed was all made up and the teddys were chucked on it as we progressed with doing things and this caught my eye and just had to be taken:

Ultramarines The Movie voice actors!



Here's a quick vid of some of the 3D imagery:

Friday, 12 March 2010

Emilie Autumn @ O2 Academy

First of all, before I begin, let me apologise to all you Opheliacs out there, I love Emilie Autumn, I love her work but this review is not pretty.

I probably shouldn't have gone poking around for some online reviews prior to attending tonight but as the doors were changed to 18:30 at the last minute and Emilie Autumn due to hit the stage at an uncharacteristically early 19:30 I wanted to find out how long she was on stage for. What I discovered as a worrying thing as a few people had reported that there was a lot of miming going on. Anyhoo, armed with this news I met up with Toni at North Greenwich and we headed off to the O2 Academy to see what lay in store.

We got to Angel to find the queue going round the block so we shuffled along in line until we made it to the venue. Our first observation once we were inside was that the majority of the audience was made up of 12-15 year olds. This became even more apparent as Emilie Autumn hit the stage and rather than the usual shouts and cheers we were subjected to a barrage of high pitched screams and squeals!



Things started well with a very dramatic entrance and then things all went a little queer as Toni spotted straight away that Emilie was miming. I looked closer and sadly it was true, or at least partly. Bits were live and bits were mimed which made for a most confusing performance. When Emilie started playing the keyboard her hands were in the wrong place for the notes being played which brought the integrity of her "live" performance further into doubt. The violin playing was also questionable!

There were some funny skits between songs but as things went on these seemed to get longer and longer and suddenly it was more like pantomime rather than a gig. The jokes just seemed to be thrashed out far too long and you can only take so much "British Carry On" style humour for so long! The under 16 audience lapped it up but sadly we didn't and the pseudo-sexual lesbian antics become very wearing after a while.

The outfits were visually stunning and all the girls looked fabulous it was just a shame that the show did not live up to expectations. I wanted to see live performances and not miming. The skits would probably have been fine if it hadn't been for the distraction of miming during the song and musical elements. There was a joke at one point when Emilie said, "That's the trouble with these Britney mics, you never know when they are on." The trouble was that we did!

Sorry Emilie Autumn but you picked up a BIG FAIL tonight and we left one hour into the performance as we just couldn't take it anymore. I guess we were spoiled on Tuesday with a great gig courtesy of The 69 Eyes where everything was live so to see what I can only term total disrespect for the audience was just not tolerable.

On the plus side, I do still love Emilie's record work and that hasn't stopped me liking her but I would definitely be very cautious about seeing her live again unless it was as part of festival or supporting someone else.

I did get some good photos though so it wasn't all bad.







See all the EMILIE AUTUMN pics here: 120310EmilieAutumnO2Academy

Tron Legacy trailer!

Thursday, 11 March 2010

Warhammer, soup and Sherlock Holmes

Had a nice relaxing evening tonight as I was absolutely shattered. Got home and once Toni had arrived Sam started preparing a chicken soup for dinner. Sam and I then started a quick round of Warhammer Fantasy before the soup was ready while Toni indulged in Failblog.

We then watched Sherlock Holmes (well I watched the start and then fell asleep for the rest) and then it was time for an early night.

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

WWE v TNA: Catching up with the Monday night war

Sam and I sorted ourselves out some food and then settled down to watch WWE RAW and TNA Impact to see how they both compared in the new Monday Night war.

WWE RAW was entertaining as usual with some greet Shawn Michaels v Undertaker segments and the whole build up to Wrestlemania.

What the hell has happened to TNA Imact? A show that used to be bright, exciting and full of good talent has turned into the Hulk Hogan and his washed up pals show instead. Getting rid of the six sided ring was bad enough. It was dire, totally pointless interview segments with Hogan flapping his gums and did we really have to suffer the indignity of Hogan v Flair twice in the same programme? The only real highlights were Sting's heel turn (although the cock up during the Sting v Rob Van Dam segment was unforgivable when Hogan missed his cue to come and make the save so Sting and RVD had to extend their sequence until Hogan actually showed up) and then Jeff Hardy putting in an appearance at the end. TNA will have to work real hard if they truly want to star a head to head war with the WWE on Monday night as it was a one sided battle this week with the WWE coming out as firm champions.

Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye



Read more details here:
http://marielosier.net/the-ballad-of-genesis-and-lady-jaye/

and here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marielosier/ballad-of-genesis-and-lady-jaye

Tuesday, 9 March 2010

The 69 Eyes @ O2 Academy



Met up with Sam after work and we headed to North Greenwich to meet Toni and Aaron and head to the O2 Academy to see The 69 Eyes. Quick stop off at Boots en route and then we joined the queue for the gig. When we got inside we had a quick chat with Darren (DJ Angel).

One of my favourite signs in the world.... No crowd surfing:


Me with a very tired Toni:


And now onto the bands..........


MANDRAGORA SCREAM
I really enjoyed these guys. They had a very goth feel about them and wouldn't be out of place at something like Gotham or even Whitby Goth Weekend. Haunting melodies with brash guitar and bass over the top and some fantastic vocals from singer Morgan Lacroix. Lacroix was bouncing around like a maniac for the whole set and was so obviously enjoying her night. It was a short set but I will definitely be watching for them doing more dates in the future.




See all the MANDRAGORA SCREAM pics here: 090310MandragoraScreamO2Academy


LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE
I can see why LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE were chosen to support The 69 Eyes as the music is very similar in many ways. Good upbeat goth rock/metal with very low range vocals. They put on a good show, had some good songs and got the crowd going which is what it is all about as a support band so job done!





See all the LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE pics here: 090310LacrimasProfundereO2Academy


THE 69 EYES
Wow! Jyrki and THE 69 EYES put on one hell of a show tonight. They were so much better than they were when we saw them supporting Buckcherry last year. Crazy thing is they were awesome then and tonight's show was just exceptional!








See all THE 69 EYES pics here: 090310The69EyesO2Academy