Saturday 28 November 2009

"Wake Up Now"




Since my last post (c/o a robot) mangled the layout of McBlawg, here is an air-freshener.





You can read how this song was re-mastered here.

(The re-mastered version of this track got lost in cyberspace, so I self-archived it into another repository)

It was great to get "the whole band" to sing on the Choruses and a recording I'm quite proud of.

Thursday 26 November 2009

An attempt to fathom out why Hamsters love PLoS...




My package from Razzle, sorry Zazzle arrived at work this morning.

This post by Bora aka Coturnix on 17th Nov essentially set the scene.

Closely followed by this FriendFeed thread:-



And without any further ado, here is my cool PLoS hoodie:-



FAB !!!

Excellent quality material and online print on demand/shipping time from CA, USA to Scotland took only 7 working days. Nice one, Zazzle (plus they threw in a freebie white Zazzle t-shirt too).

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Whilst I've wanted a "Hamsters love PLoS" garment for a while, I remain at a loss as to what the logo might actually mean. And even before wearing it, some peeps have been asking. I expect more to do so when I wear it to work tomorrow and down the pub afterwards.

So I searched teh interbebz and here's what I found.

1) The connection of the logo to PLoS.org Not surprisingly, the best resource was from PLoS via this blog post by Liz Allen, July 2007:- "We hope that you like our picture entitled "Hamsters love PLoS.org". It was drawn by one of our founders' kids and has even appeared on a tee-shirt."

OK, so there is the connection to PLoS.

2) But what about the hamster in the spherical object. Hhmm. During my search, I happened upon (again) the blog post, Impact Fauna January 2009 by a certain Dr Henry Gee, Senior Editor at Nature.com


"Gee Minor models ScienceOnline09 swag, earlier today"

On the "X" loves "Y" front, I created a few images of my own. And here they are again....

A) Chickens love Nature.com



B) Centaurs love Improbable Research



and C) Dolphins love Science




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So, bearing mind the above and also, this




and that,



I've come to the conclusion that for whatever reason, Hamsters love PLoS. End of story. They just do.

If you support the likes of PLoS and Open Access, please do drop by the official PLoS store, have a good look around and happy shopping !!

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Symptoms of being over 25



Image c/o Moomettesgram, here on Flickr.


From a friend via email today....

1. You leave clubs before the end to "beat the rush".

2. You get more excited about having a roast on a Sunday than going clubbing.

3. You stop dreaming of becoming a professional footballer and start dreaming of having a son who might instead.

4. Before throwing the local paper away, you look through the property section.

5. You prefer Later with Jools Holland to Top of the Pops.

6. All of a sudden, Tony Blair is not 46, he's only 46.

7. Before going out anywhere, you ask what the parking is like.

8. Rather than throw a knackered pair of trainers out, you keep them because they'll be all right for the garden.

9. You buy your first ever T-shirt without anything written on it.

10. Instead of laughing at the innovations catalogue that falls out of the newspaper, you suddenly see both the benefit and money saving properties of a plastic winter cover for your garden bench and an electronic mole repellent for the lawn. Not to mention the plastic man for the car to deter would-be thieves.

11. You start to worry about your parents' health.

12. You complain that ecstasy's "not as pure as it used to be coz you know that if you have some it will take about 48 hours to recover and anyway,you might look a bit of an idiot.

13. Sure, you have more disposable income, but everything you want to buy costs between 200 and 500 quid.

14. You don't get funny looks when you buy a Disney video or a Wallace and Gromit bubble bath, as the sales assistant assumes they are for your child.

15. Pop music all starts to sound crap.

16. You opt for Pizza Express over Pizza Hut because they don't have any pictures on the menus and anyway, they do a really nice half-bottle of house white.

17. You become powerless to resist the lure of self-assembly furniture.

18. You always have enough milk in.

19. To compensate for the fact that you have little desire to go clubbing,you instead frequent really loud tapas restaurants and franchise pubs with wacky names in the mistaken belief that you have not turned into your parents.

20. While flicking through the TV channels, you happen upon C4's Time Team with Tony Robinson. You get drawn in.

21. The benefits of a pension scheme become clear.

22. You go out of your way to pick up a colour chart from B&Q.

23. You wish you had a shed.

24. You have a shed.

25. You actually find yourself saying "They don't make 'em like that anymore" and "I remember when there were only 3 TV channels" and "Of course, in my day...."

26. Radio 2 play more songs you know than Radio 1 - and Jimmy Young had some really interesting guests on.

27. Instead of tutting at old people who take ages to get off the bus, you tut at school children whose diction is poor.

28. When sitting outside a pub you become envious of their hanging baskets.

29. You make an effort to be in and out of the curry house by 11.

30. You come face to face with your own mortality for the first time

31. You find yourself saying "is it cold in here or is it just me?"

Saturday 7 November 2009

'The Seduction of Claude Debussy'



As a close follower of the workings of Producer, Trevor Horn, I was most attracted to this CD back in 1999. It inspired several tracks that I produced myself over the following years.

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Cue this wiki page about Claude Debussy.



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With the web 'n all that, in this case thanks largely to last.fm.com, you can now listen to this album in it's entirety for free, or purchase the CD.

Track listing

1. "Il Pleure (At the Turn of the Century)"
2. "Born on a Sunday"
3. "Dreaming in Colour"
4. "On Being Blue"
5. "Continued in Colour"
6. "Rapt: In the Evening Air"
7. "Metaforce"
8. "Holy Egoism of Genius"
9. "La Flûte de Pan"
10. "Metaphor on the Floor"
11. "Approximate Mood Swing No. 2"
12. "Pause"
13. "Out of This World [Version 138]"

Monday 2 November 2009

"GOLD" - 1994 by Symbol aka Prince

This one has been on my mind all day and eventually found a version previously posted online.