hovis

The Icelandic girl never replied, by the way.

Okay, here's the song I finished recently. I wanted to post it here last week, but the file-hosting service I usually use was down. It's still a bit flaky!




Father of Syn - Shades of Night

The screenshot is of the game that I made it for, a noir-style game that doesn't seem to have a title yet. I'll link to it here when it's finished. I'm happy with how the track turned out; it's clean-sounding (Although I shouldn't have panned the kicks to the right, and I'm not happy with the compression) and melodically pretty strong.

In other news, I may be meeting up with a girl from OKCupid this evening; she lives in Reading, but is visiting Cambridge for the day with friends, and suggested we get something to drink if she has the time. We'll see. Also on OKC-Watch, I passed a girl crossing the road yesterday who I've spoken to on the site before. I wasn't entirely sure if it was her, but she sent me a PM when I got home, asking if I crossed Hills Road at 6pm. Apparently she works just across the road from me! All this time, and I hadn't seen her before.

On Friday night I was sitting at home drinking Whiskey (As you do), when I got an IM from a girl from Cambridge on OKCupid. I recognised her as having sent me a message back in 2004, which I think impressed her. We talked for about two hours, and it was pretty interesting conversation. I probably won't hear from her again, though. Strange how that goes.

On Saturday I went into town to get something to eat, as always happens. I got some shopping, and came home. Saturday was largely uneventful, aside from the fact that I got to speak to Joiz for the first time since Christmas day.

On Sunday I went into town again. I at least had some kind of purpose this time, as I wanted to see Slumdog Millionaire. And I did! And it was excellent. You should see it too. Yes, I mean you!

Sorry, this is a rubbish entry. Here is more of it:

I'm taking part in an informal music contest on the TIGForums; The idea is that you post a piece of music you made in the past, and the guy who created the contest sets some harsh rules for you to create a song around, based on that track. I submitted Classroom, and my brief is to create an electronica track of at least two and a half minutes in length, in the style of Chopin's Mazurkas. Classical piano is really going to test the limits of my compositional skills, but I got lucky compared to some. One guy has to compose a 12-minute long ambient piece; another has to create a piece in 5:4 timing, which changes tempo every bar; one guy has to use five different instruments, each only playing a single note, albeit more than once, over a 3 minute song; A forth has been tasked with composing a duet for bagpipe and noise. I'm interested to see how the songs turn out. I really hope I can finish my one in time, too. I've been pretty lazy with these informal contests in the past.

Ruth.

While I was in Ireland, I had a root around in the attic in my parents' house. I was inspired by a post on the TIGSource forums about games you designed as a child, and decided to have a look for a bunch of my old drawings. Between the ages of about 7 and 12, I 'designed' a large number of games; most of them amounted to little more than drawings of a title screen and an in-game shot. I think most of the design was in my head, because I'm sure they made sense to me then, but now they're mostly incomprehensible. 'Long Shot', for example, was a Space Invaders/Galaxian clone with the sole distinction that your ship's shots were very long. I envisioned 'Pacman 2' as a 3rd-person 3D maze game. 'Atari Master' appeared to be a top-down shoot-'em-up where you controlled the Atari logo wielding a gun. There were also several untitled drawings that were clearly inspired by Adventure on the Atari 2600, but where the main character actually was a duck.

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. Among my drawings I found several Valentine's cards from a 'girlfriend' I had when I was about 7. Ruth. I put girlfriend in inverted commas not because she wasn't important, but because at that age all you're really doing is imitating aspects of adult relationships that you see on TV. I shouldn't be playing that down, though, as it's important for later on in life, and I think the fact that I never really did anything like that with anyone after Ruth can be held accountable for most of the relationship anxiety I feel these days. We would do stuff like kiss each other on the cheek, or perhaps a quick peck on the lips, the kind of thing that grown-ups thought was cute. There are actually a couple of photos of her at home, when she was at my 7th birthday party; I should have dug them out. I remember one where I had my arm around her, but she looked kind of uncomfortable. She was a pretty girl anyway, from what I remember.

There were two Valentine's cards from her, and it made me feel kind of weird reading them. They were full of the kind of rhymes kids tell each other; 'Roses are red, violets are blue', that kind of thing. Something struck me as slightly odd about them, though. Possibly because I don't really remember much about how things were between us. They just seemed a little bit too grown-up for a 7-year-old, but I suppose she got suggestions from her older sister, or something. Perhaps I just feel weird about them because they were directed at me, of all people. The second card was a bit of an oddity, though. It was written in pen, and seemed to be addressed to to someone else; 'Malcome'. His name was roughly Tip-Ex'd out, though, and replaced with mine. Was she two-timing me? Was that card even from her? There was some writing in pencil on there, in what looked a bit like my sister's handwriting, which read,

"Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust,
You are the biggest pig,"

Which certainly seems like something my sister would have written around that time. I think the card was legitimate, though, she just wrote on it later. The last thing I found was a small scrap of paper, torn from a notebook, which read,

"To David,
You look lovely.
From Ruth
xxxxxxxxxx"

I'm really curious how I responded to stuff like this; does she still have a collection of Valentine's cards and notes from me? Or did I not give her any? I can't remember how things ended between us; eventually my parents moved, so I left that school. I kind of get the impression that we drifted apart before that, though, and it would certainly be more in character for me if we had.

I was looking for a bar/restaurant similar to someplace I might eat at in Cambridge. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find somewhere like that in Coventry; Last time I was there with Dad, we had a pretty hard time finding somewhere nice to eat, rather than somewhere like Wetherspoons. When I was leaving on the coach that time, however, I noticed a promising-looking place around the side of the bus depot, so I figured I'd check it out the next time I was in Coventry. Fast-forward to Saturday, and I walked up the stairs of said restaurant, saw that it was a little too formal, turned around and walked out.

What I did find was a place nearby called Dogma; with a stupid trendy name like that, it had to be exactly what I was looking for! And it was. I sat down in a comfortable padded chair, and a pretty girl with a northern accent came to take my order.

"Can I get the Dogma burger, please?" I said, ignoring the fact that ordering food that's named after the place that serves it kind of makes me a dick.
"No," was her reply. She stood there with her eyes closed for a moment, while I looked at her in a kind of blank amusement, mostly aware she was joking, but also thinking that maybe they were out of beef. Turns out they weren't, and having completely failed to capitalise on the joke, I ordered a drink.

Later she came back to my table and told me she wasn't working very hard today, because she'd been drinking tequila the night before, and had a hangover. I tried to sound sympathetic, but I'm not sure I did a very good job of it. I ordered the Banana and Amaretti Cheesecake, and when she eventually came back (She wasn't joking about not working hard), I asked for the bill. Again her reply was "No," followed by a pause. She then pointed out she was being very mean to me, and I failed again to say anything funny in response. She wandered off to get the bill.

The funniest part was that at one point, a couple of girls came in and sat at the table next to me, and when she took their order, she did it with a completely blank face, unamused as they joked with each other about what to have. I'd noticed from the other customers that her banter seemed to be reserved for the guys, anyway.

I may have more 'Tales of the Past Week' later. But for now I should go to work. Bye!

I waited for Lauren outside Waterloo station. She estimated that she'd be about 15 minutes late, due to buses, but arrived a little earlier than that. My first impression was of her nervousness, which put me in mind rather of my date with Louise. Her nervousness was palpable when we first met, and I have to wonder why I have this effect on people. It's kind of depressing. Anyway, after meeting Lauren, there was a moment of deciding what we were going to do; she mentioned a festival near the river that may or may not have been rubbish, and I suggested instead that we see a movie, in spite of not knowing what was on. What a luxury it is to have a plan. In fairness, though, we were on her home turf, not mine!

So, we got the tube to Piccadilly Square. The fact that we were walking, and on public transport masked the fact that our conversation was a little stilted. By no means as awkward as my attempts to relate to Louise, but I think that had we been in the same situation (That is, at a bar feeling the pressure of having to make small talk), it would have been pretty close. We made our way to the Curzon to see what was on; Man on Wire was the only movie that stood out to me. She hadn't heard of it, but didn't object to seeing it. We had a couple of hours until the showing, so we bought tickets and went for a walk. First she took us to the Japanese Centre, where I bought some lovely peach gummies. Then I requested we go to Zavvi, where I spent a while looking at CDs and playing 'Have you heard of this band?'. My heart wasn't in it, though, as I realise how boring it must be for someone to accompany me while I search for uncommon albums. Whilst there, however, I mentioned needing to assemble an outfit in the style of David Bowie for a party (More on this tomorrow), and she offered to help me find some stuff. So, we went to Urban Outfitters and H&M looking for a shirt and trousers to match the image in my head. No good, although I did get a neck scarf that may be useful.

We then returned to the Curzon and watched the movie. It was excellent! She enjoyed it too, though I was worried she'd have found it a bit boring. It's hard to judge whether someone you don't know very well will like a movie or not, and it wasn't really an obvious choice. Anyway, we went to the underground station, where I bid her farewell, and offered to meet up if she was in Cambridge. I then went home!

She's nice, and I get the feeling that things would be more comfortable after a few more meetings. I don't imagine she'd be any more than a friend, though. And now, I'm going to play Castle Crashers!

Actually, first: The move. After last Saturday's post, I spent more time playing Cave Story than I did packing. Thus it was that I was rather unprepared when Derick arrived on Sunday. Before he did, though, I thought it would be a good idea to walk to the nearest Subway (Which was half an hour away) and get something to eat. Fine, except that it started to rain a bit while I was there. I only got a bit wet walking home, up until about 10 minutes away from the flat, whereupon the annual rainfall of the Amazon basin seemed to be localised directly over my head. Soaked to the skin, I changed clothes, and continued packing, as Derick finished cleaning out his room. Just after I started loading my boxes into his van, the heavens opened again, and we had a bit of a thunderstorm. Eventually I got everything in the van, we brought it to my new place, and piled it all into my room. About two thirds of the way into this process, I realised that there was something of a discrepancy between the size of my new room, and the amount of crap I had to fit into it.

So, this week I've been chipping away at the vast task of organising everything. 'Chipping' being the operative word; I can't really be bothered when I get home from work, and having been without internet access for so long has left me with rather a lot of stuff to catch up with. I'm getting there, though. I just need somewhere to put the cardboard boxes.

Speaking of the house, it's nicer than I first thought. True, the area kind of reminds me of a council estate in Coventry (Not a good thing to remind one of), but the house itself is tidier and nicer than I first imagined. The people seem nice enough, too! Although, I initially misjudged the number that I'd be sharing with; it's not 3 people, it's 4. Two couples, at that. An Indian couple, both of whom are very friendly, and an English couple. The guy seems cool enough, but his girlfriend.. well, I'm not particularly skilled at reading people, but I kind of get the impression she hates my guts. Don't hold me to that, though, I'm probably wrong!

So, this weekend! Tomorrow I'm going to Guildford to meet up with Joel again. One of the German guys he lived with back in 2006 is visiting for the first time since then, and as I used to hang out with him at the time, I figured I'd take the chance to see him again while he's here. On my way back on Sunday, I'm planning to stop into London and meet up with a girl from OKCupid. She was the girl I mentioned in this post, some four months ago. She deleted her account shortly after that, so I figured she hated me, and then she reappeared a couple of months later. Apparently she didn't hate me, she just needed some time away from the internet. We've been exchanging occasional messages on Facebook since then. I've been feeling pretty miserable about internet-type dating recently, though, so I won't be surprised if it doesn't go so well. Though, it isn't really a date, so much.

Fuck it, I don't know! I'm tired, anyway, and I'm going to bed. Bye!

What a boring time. Yesterday I bought two CDs (In spite of my resolution to stop buying so many CDs..). Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - Mecca and the Soul Brother (I used to like these guys back in the 90s, and I recently heard one of their songs, which reminded me of how great they are), and 65daysofstatic - One Time for All Time. I was suitably impressed by the 65daysofstatic album, which strikes me as halfway between Sigur Rós and The Mars Volta, but completely instrumental. I guess they're most like Mogwai, but more progressive.

GTA4 has really sunk its claws in. The missions are still of variable quality, but there's so much else to do that the creeping addiction that came with the previous games in the series has started to set in, and I find myself thinking about what I'm going to do next when I'm not playing it. Not to mention the online modes, which are often massively amusing. Jon and I spent a good hour and a half messing around with the helicopters last week. The pinnacle of our achievement was flying a helicopter each above the city and positioning one above the other, whereupon I jumped out of mine and into the blades of his, before plummeting into a building. The next time we tried it, I somehow managed to slice the tail of his helicopter off. Oh, and he pushed an old man off the top of the Empire State Building. Hurry up and come back from America so we can play, James!

I want to do something tomorrow, for my day off work. I've sort of arranged something, but it all depends on the decision of someone who I don't know anything about, and who may hate me. Oh man.

This morning I took some T-shirts downstairs to put in the washing machine before I went to work. On opening it, I noticed there was a 2p piece resting on the... rubber bit. I took it out, and then realised there was an iPod Shuffle (Which I assume belongs to my housemate) in there too. Probably not such a great idea to wash one of those. Anyway, I took it out, and there was a small moth sitting on it, which flew off and landed on the floor. Kind of a strange series of things to find in a washing machine.

My internet connection seems to have stabilised itself again. Not until after I went and bought a new router, of course.. Still, at least I've got it in case I need it. Then again, I said that about the last router I bought, and it turned out that didn't actually work when I needed it. Still, this one's a Linksys. As well as the router, I bought a new monitor, because frankly, my 6-year-old 15" CRT was starting to get on my tits. So, I now have a brand new 19" TFT! It's gigantic, and sharp as a bastard! The down side was that I had to get it delivered to work, and thus I had to walk home with it. And it was raining!

And that's not the end of today's excitements! I got a text from my landlady this morning (Though I didn't see it, because I left my phone at home) saying she was having someone around to look at one of the rooms here (There are two empty, and they've been empty for about 3 months now, so I was starting to get a bit lonely!). Fair enough; I saw the text when I got home, by which time it referred to an even in the past. But then there was a knock on the door, shortly after I set my monitor up. I opened it to see a guy and a girl standing there. The girl said hello, and walked into the house. Slightly confused, I soon realised she was the one who'd had a look at the room this morning, and she'd come back to have another look, and show her friend the place. So, I talked to them for a while, answered a few questions, and generally made what, for me, was a good impression. She told me I was a friendly person! I showed them the kitchen, and she knocked on my housemate's door to see if he was there. No answer. She speculated that maybe he wasn't very social, and I said he mustn't be there, because he wouldn't ignore someone at his door, surely. About 10 seconds later, he opened his door! I shouldn't make fun, I've been the same way myself before. Anyway, she seemed impressed by the place, so hopefully she'll move in! She's Canadian, and excellent. And it'd be nice to have someone else living here, especially someone I could socialise with. That's something I miss about the House-o-Girls in Aldershot.

So. I went to the station after work on Friday. While finding out which platform I had to go to, I wondered if I'd remembered to take my ticket with me when I left the house in the morning. Not hopeful, I had a look in both of my bags, but couldn't find it. Cursing my idiocy, I waited for a taxi, and went home, through some fairly heavy traffic. Asked the taxi driver to wait outside for me, and picked up the package with my name on it (My copies of Little's demo CD). In my room, I couldn't find my train tickets, so I frantically scoured the bottom of my bag. Seems like I had brought it with me after all. Christ. Still, I'd also forgotten to bring some hair dye with me, so I remembered that this time around.

I went back to the station and got the train an hour late. Sat at a table because I planned on writing, and reading. Shortly before the train left, a girl sitting a couple of seats away moved to the same table, for the purpose of writing something. She had a nice face. At one stage I caught her glance, and we looked at each other for about a second, before both looking away at the same time. Later she seemed to have lost something, and asked the people in the seats that she'd moved from if there was anything of hers on the floor. There wasn't. She seemed annoyed. She got off at Peterborough.

Whilst in Coventry, I did the following: Bought an album by Rahzel, Make The Music 2000. Tracks vary from standard Hip-hop with more interesting vocals and some sweet vocal scratching, to tracks with entirely vocal production and guest vocalist. Oh, and there are a number of impressive live skits, including one where he sings and beatboxes at the same time, which blew me away! Another thing I did: Played Animal Crossing on the DS with my cousin, Luke. Gave him 200,000 bells that was gathering dust, and... Yes! I just checked, and Mitzi moved from his town to mine! Kiki still resides in Guffston, so that means I have two of my favourite cats. And Monique left, too. Bonus!

On Sunday, I went to the cinema with Tim, and saw The Number 23. It was: A film.

After the film, Tim dropped me off at the station. A quick rummage through my bag and several expletives later, and I was walking back to Nan's to get my tickets. Same mistake twice? Oh yes! I got a taxi back to the station, a replacement bus service to Birmingham, and finally got home at around 10pm.

Oh, lastly, I've started reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. So far: Great. Proper opinion: Later. Bye!