Eeep, been a while…
Thursday, September 28th, 2006Well, haven’t blogged in a while. Suppose I better get this over and done with…
School term has gone pretty nicely I reckon. With my apprenticeship assured, I was able to let myself relaxe and not get worked up over things. I’m still probably going to fail most subjects, but I’m really not concerned. Heck, I get allong well with all of my teachers, my IT Studies teacher is even getting me to run through a test we just did today to re-write some of the questions/answers, most likely for next years class. She’s even asked me and my friend Nat to be mentors for the students next year. I’m thinking that I will take it up, even if it’s going to feel a bit weird since I’ll be working full time as a cable jockey (I like socket jokey as a term more, but meh, just a bit too suss). It really is quite cool when you have a teacher that respects your knowledge that much.
I’ve not been doing a lot of TTD stuff lately, kinda fizzled out again. Been too busy with some assignments and general ‘other stuff’. Been throwing around a few ideas on how to fix the issue I have in NABS at the moment with buildings buggering off so quickly after 1950. I’m thinking of making them all ‘protected buildings’, that the AI and towns won’t demolish, but then couple that with the demolish callback. From there I just need to get some sort of randomisation so they start getting demolished randomly from 1960/75 onwards. For really big arsed skyscrapers though, they’re permenant fixtures. Heck, just look at any large american city, heaps of historic buildings.
Getting really interested in playing the drums recently. Have been playing around with the electric drum kit at school a fair bit. Two cymbols, three toms, snare, kick and that other cymbol with the pedel, Hi-Hat I think it is. I wish it had another kick and a fourth tom, but I’m not complaining. Fuck, I need to learn how to use what’s already there before I start trying to pull off double kick and some of the shit Frost (Satyricon’s drummer) does with four toms. I don’t think I’m too hideous after two days of maybe 20-60 minutes each just banging away un-guided. Haven’t touched drums in three years, and even then, it was with shitty kits at Morphett Vale High, and I got bugger all time with them (and had to do shitty patterns and stuff). Still, I know where the bits are, what they’re called, and I’ve been doing vocal purcussion (AKA, Beat Boxing :roll:) for quite a few years. I’ve got the beats in my head, I can make them pretty damn well with my mouth, just getting my hands moving where I want them is another issue. Despite all the criticism of electric drum kits, I don’t mind the Yamaha DTXPLORER that the school has. It’s a $2000 unit, not cheap. And not counting the amp. Although I suppose just throw some headphones on anyway.
What I love is the atmosphere. Teeny little music room in the nerd school, not even for music, it’s the media teatures store room. Soundproofed room, right next to the collection of macs for the media class. Pretty much free access to it, and any equipment. Even if it doesn’t belong to the school. The attitude is very much that if you leave your gear in the room, it’s free for anyone to use. I was worried going in and banging away that I’d be told to shoo by the other musicians, but they’re all really cool people, I go in nice and polite and they let me make my racket without even a single negative comment. Tis good. Gives me something to do and enjoy at school.
Pity I had to discover this right at the end of the fucking YEAR 12 SCHOOL YEAR. ARGH I HATE MYSELF FOR THAT. People in the school I’d usually want to hit with something, but when you’re just sitting there admiring their musical skills, you simply forget how much you want to strangle them.
Anyways, what’s next… Work! That’s it. Hopefully tommorow I find out where my next work placement is for my traineeship, but I’m half expecting them to say, ‘Oh, we couldn’t find anywhere’, and that I’ll have to wait until the end of the year to catch up an extra month of work. Well, it’ll be good for my pocket at that time of the year, give me a better transition between traineeship and apprenticeship aswell. I might even be able to string them right off each other. No matter. It just kinda screws me up the arse with a CRT monitor pocket-wise. I’ve got bills to pay, and no employment to pay it with. Eh, I’m torn between wanting a holiday and getting back to school earlier, and wanting to go to work. Meh…
Been back into staff and meteor twirling lately. Month or two back I bought some proper fire poi, which I quickly struck together with some kevlar rope, and have been getting right back into meteors with them. I’ve been playing around with some more advanced moves, which are going a helluva lot easier now that I’ve had so much more practice with staff, and I have meteors of a good build quality. I’ve been experimenting around with doing jumping 360 degree spins while twirling the thing at head height during the spin, strung straight off basic weave. One handed work has also improved considerably, and I can do behind-the-back passes from left to right again, something I haven’t been able to do in a while. I want to experiment some more and be able to do more jumping moves, all of my own devising (Don’t really have anyone to imitate as such, don’t watch vids on the net, and no-body else I know does meteors). Fun fun fun.
Oh, and now for planet related business. User images, Lewis, I still have your image, I’ll get around to it at some point. Martin, similar story. I think I have yours, can’t remember if you sent it or not. Prod me again if I forget, don’t worry about being demanding, I’ve kept you waiting long enough as it is.
Would like to appolagise again for my lack of activity, I should be enganging with the planet and keeping it turning nicely - I am the maintainer afterall, but I’ve been a bit too sidetracked lately.
I’m pondering going through the template and configuring things some more, get a bit of a better layout to it.
But for now, I dunno. Something, I guess…
