Heavy Metal Band Names

Ever wish there was a flowchart that concisely (but with more than little tongue-in-cheek humour) segmented and collated the names of heavy metal bands, and their common traits?

No?

Probably not much point in clicking on this link then:

Heavy Metal bands flowchart

Xx

Update: Music

Things have been a bit quiet over with the Tie-Dye Quartet since Christmas - the novelty of getting paid nice bits of money for gigs wore off a bit and it almost became a bit of a chore, having to tailor our sets (and therefore rehearsals) around audiences rather than challenging ourselves and being creative.

I've found some new folks (including Rob Moore, aka I Have Clones) who are interested in having a play, and I've got some new material I'd like to show them. If it comes to anything, I'll let you have a listen.

My listening habits haven't changed too much and I'm ashamed to say I haven't found much that's particularly new for a while. One thing I have been getting into a lot is 50's jump blues, and I'd highly recommend you go listen to some Big Joe Turner or Big Maybelle if you have the chance.

I've also gotten myself some really old Duke Ellington bootlegs, with what sounds like an extremely young Ella Fitzgerald singing alongside him. Hit me up if that's your thing and I'll send them over.

Update: Jobs

Other than exams, one of the main reasons I've been so quiet lately is that I've been out hunting wabbits graduate jobs.

There were a couple of lows - getting turned down first stage from Microsoft despite being recommended by various managers etc; failing a technical interview from RedGate quite spectacularly) - which I rationalised into 'I didn't want the job anyway'.

I also found a few places that seemed to like me, but which I decided weren't actually too hot anyway.

I then found some places I really liked. Top three on the list were IBM, QinetiQ and Thomson Reuters. I'm also technically still applying to Ericsson, but I'm so underwhelmed with their HR I might just give up with them.

I've currently got offers from QinetiQ and Reuters, and I'm through to the final day with IBM. I'll probably still go to IBM's final day, although it's a bit much that they're asking me to travel all the way down to Southampton twice - couldn't they have just done a proper job at the first assessment day? Hmph.

All's looking well though - I won't be unemployed come September!

Update: Exams

It seems rather unfair that in my final year of University, modules that are no more important (and some - I believe - are far less important) than previous ones have such a stronger weighting when it comes to the class of degree that may be so important through my life.

I've just finished the examinations for the first half of my final year, and things went well...mostly. I'm fairly confident I got >70% in all four modules, and I know I got quite a lot higher than that in the various courseworks and labs that also contribute to the module marks.

I was, however, less than happy with my performance in the Business Studies Software Engineering: Management & Metrics module I had thrust upon me.

When I started at Aston, I was originally on a Business Studies & Computer Science joint honours degree. I quickly dropped the Business half of that, preferring to actually learn some hard facts, rather than discuss buzzwords. You can naturally imagine my dismay then, when I learned that a module based entirely around bad maths, silly graphs and buzzwords would contribute to more than 6% of my final degree mark.

Further to this, once in the exam I spotted what I believed were four glaring errors on the exam paper. This, please note, was an exam paper that had supposedly been checked and ratified by at least three separate groups of people. One was admitted on the day, two I mentioned to the lecturer during the exam but he was unable to understand them, and one was ambiguous, but I'm happy to accept wasn't an error - in retrospect.

I spent most of the exam seething at the lecturer's lack of English and Maths skills, and probably made some silly errors thanks to this. I was also extremely annoyed that any error could exist in a paper which was checked by the lecturer, a Computer Science committee and an external examiner.

Still though, I think it says something about how much of the joke the module is that I'm still sure I got >70% on it - despite not turning up to any of the tutorials after seeing quite how bad the lecturer's maths skills were in the very first one.

A letter of complaint to Virgin

Sorry for the cheap post, but this really, really is hilarious. Enjoy.

Xx

I love this website

Whilst procrastinating, I came across the following:

Osgrow Online

This is an online shop which sells meat. Lots, and lots of meat. Exotic meat. Here's a couple examples from their selection of hampers:

Safari Grill
Contains: 2x 125g Wildebeest Steaks, 2x 125g Kudu Steaks, 2x 125g Eland Steaks, 2x 125g Springbok Steaks and Crocodile Medium Tournedos
£47.75 (Including Delivery)

Summer Safari
Contains: 2x 170g Ostrich Fillet Steaks, 4x Small Crocodile Tournedos, 2x 160g Zebra Steaks (large), 2x 170g Venison Steaks, 2x 125g Kangaroo Fillet Steaks, 2x 160g Camel Steaks.
£55.00 (Including Delivery)

Now I just really need to convince myself it's worth buying some of this stuff. Anyone got any recommendations for fun meats I should definitely get, or avoid?

Xx

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it)

This has been flying all over the Internet since it was released a couple of days ago:



Not to be watched whilst drinking*, operating heavy machinery or becoming heavily pregnant.

*Exception: shots, as part of a formalised drinking game.

In My Bathroom...

People don't read blogs to find out about world news, your latest achievements or your company's latest releases. They want to know the little things, the real things.

So, here's what my housemate Terra does with our loo rolls when their paper has been used for whatever things students do with toilet paper. Mostly cleaning out piercings, mopping up blood and wrapping up potatoes for baking as far as I can see.

<sub>This guy's great. Needs a hat though.

I think this one's a work in progress...so I've shown it from both sides.

Grammar fail :( - the wrench was my addition.

Raaawr! I hope the eyes were intentional add-ons.</sub>

In the spirit of realism, I've also tried to give an indication of how long it's been since one of us remembered to clean the bathroom. The problem, you see, is that the cleaning rota is on the fridge, and we like eating takeaway.

Another quote I've also liked recently (and seen attributed to too many people to have any idea who it came from):

"Facebook is for people you used to know, Twitter is for people you'd like to know better".

PS: Yes, in case you were wondering, I do have a Microsoft rubber duck, amongst all the other strange and wonderful branded things of theirs surrounding me:

Four Hands Boogie-Woogie*

One of my favourite albums in my increasingly oversized collection has always been a little compilation innovatively entitled 'Boogie Woogie Piano'. I would give you a link, but I simply can't find it to buy online at the moment.

Edit: Thanks to 'anonymous' who got in touch via the chat widget on my blog. However, it's not this identically titled compilation which is available second-hand on Amazon. That one looks good though.

This album is a collection of pieces from Jimmy Yancey, Meade 'Lux' Lewis, Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson. If those names don't mean much to you yet, then the next couple of hours of your life should be very enjoyable ones.

Most special though, are the tracks featuring Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons playing simultaneously. I can't think of much which is more demanding than perfectly synced boogie-woogie pianos playing themes and trading improvised solos. So, you can imagine my excitement when I found the following video of two modern pianists, each famed for their sickeningly good technique, doing much the same thing:


_{Jools Holland and Dr. John playing four hands boogie-woogie}

This one's really special, I can't recommend it enough. Also, have you ever seen either of those guys concentrating so hard? None of Jools' usual hand-lifting, flicks of the fingers or looking up at the sky here.

--

* or should that be Four Hands' Boogie-Woogie? Go argue about apostrophes here.

Burning CDs

I've recently had to re-enter the dark ages of technology and actually physically burn some media to CD, in various formats (audio CD, mp3 CD, data CD etc). If that's not bad enough - in a couple of weeks' time* I'll have to use a pen and paper to answer questions on a Computer Science exam. Ridiculous I'm sure you'll agree.

Anyhow, in doing so I found that Windows Vista can't actually burn mp3 CDs that any device can actually use. In searching for a free program that could overcome this, I came across Ashampoo Burning Studio.

It's amazingly simple to use, does everything you could possibly want (even burning Blu-Ray) and is also entirely free! If you ever find yourself burning discs for any reason, go get your copy here.

Xx

--

* This has always bugged me. Should it be:
"A couple of weeks time",
"A couple of week's time" or
"A couple of weeks' time"?

As you can see, I'm inclined towards the latter (the middle one just looks horrible), but I constantly come across the first choice in fairly respectable media. Answers on a postcard please. With justification.

WinDirStat

Don't you hate it when your hard drives are starting to look full, but you don't really know what's taking up the space and what you should delete? On Unix simply running 'boabab' will lend a hand, but it's not so easy on Windows.

A decent approximation however, is WinDirStat. It'll scan any folder or hard drive - or all the drives on your computer. It'll then give you various graphical and list views of exactly where your space is being taken up, as with the below analysis of my C: drive (where I store Windows, and a few other bits and bobs):


You'll note that most of my space is being taken up by .dll and .sys files - the sys files I need for Windows, but I could feasibly remove some of the .dll clutter by uninstalling some programs. The pictures at the bottom help too - I'm just about to delete that large turquoise square towards the top-right, it's an old video I don't need any more.

The big red blob though, the one taking up 3GB of space? Unfortunately that's something called 'hiberfil.sys' - Windows needs it to hibernate and I can't do anything about that. 'pagefile.sys' would be equally nasty if I hadn't moved that elsewhere. Still though, it's a useful tool, and makes pretty pictures too.

Enjoy.

Love notes

Upon returning home and turning it back on, I discovered the following filling my computer screen:

Hey babe, we needed somewhere to watch the IT crowd
and whatnot, and your computer was on. I hope you dont
mind. I havent clicked on anything HONEST. I think you
meant to lock it when you went out, so I will do
before I leave.

Love
<anonymised>
xxxx

PS: I tried on some of your pants on.

I then logged into my inbox to find a bunch of genuinely nice comments on various old blog posts from persons other than the usual suspects. A previously unseen Christmas present graced my desk, my bedding had been freshly washed and someone had sent me a free copy of his latest recordings.

It's these little gestures that make someone smile on the inside - rather than just the little grins you get during conversation. So, go do something nice for someone today - and I'll try and do the same once I'm awake.

Xx

Back from America

..and ready to pollute the Tubes once again. North Carolina was empty, Washington DC was cold, New York was colder and I couldn't get a good cup of tea anywhere. Also the cheese sucked. There were probably some good points to the holiday too, I imagine I'll elaborate on them later, with copious pictures.

Now, to try and get some sleep so I'm not horrifically jetlagged for my interview in 36 hours.

Xx