coxy's blog

I thought today would be nice - it was, and unexpected. I was awoken at about 10am by the doorbell; it was either the postman, or my grandad - it's always the postman or my grandad who rings the doorbell. Occasionally I get a salesman calling, but they usually bang the glass too. Cheeky sods can't read the sign on the door which tells them to get lost.

It was my grandad. He had bought some stuff around and I chatted to him for a short while in my sleepy state. I have no idea what we said or what he gave me; some disinfectant - I remember that because I opened it there and then to smell it. Random. He left because he wanted to let me get back to bed. I did. Outside was foggy - you could barely see the end of the road.

I kept drifting off to sleep until about 1pm when I decided I needed to get up and out of the house before 2pm. It's good to set yourself deadlines; you miss enough of them and you start to not care about time. I wanted to head to Urmston Market and stock up on some fruit and veg for the week before it closed though, so got ready and started walking to Urmston. Most of the fog had cleared by now, but there was still some lingering. I got to the top of my road and it was totally closed off to cars and pedestrians for roadworks so had to take a diversion.

The diversion was a distraction because it would mean I walk passed a path which leads to the meadows. I backtracked and stood there for a while wondering whether the meadows would still be foggy. I knew that if I went on the meadows, and it was foggy, that I wouldn't get any shopping done.

I went onto the meadows. It was foggy.

Being on the meadows in the fog was awesome. I walked and walked and explored parts of the meadows that I'd never been to before or even realised existed. Every time I go on the meadows I seem to find a part that I've never been before; its amazing to know that there's this massive area of desolate land sat just behind the housing estates and hassle of everyday life.

What's more is that in the fog you couldn't even see to the end of most fields. You go off the paths and you get lost until you come to the fence of another field. It was excellent. It was silent - I was so alone - every so often you hear the buzz of the electricity running through the pylons, a bird flying passed or a horse in a field that could be the same one you were in, or two fields down. You wouldn't know. You couldn't see for the fog.

As the hours passed, the foggier it got and the darker it got. I stepped onto the meadows at around 2pm and had to start making my way off the meadows at about 4pm as the night drew in fast. I had no idea where I was and in the whole two hours had only seen one other person, walking their dog in the distance, for a few seconds.

I spotted a light and headed towards it. It was the stables. I should've stuck around and taken some more photos - there were opportunities for some nice shots, I wish I had a colour film in my camera - but the fog was thick around there and the few people that were at the stables didn't look too inviting. I did climb a few fences - maybe I was trespassing? My hands were freezing and I was hungry.

I walked into Urmston town centre and went to Whittaker's chip shop who seemed to take pity on my efforts of fumbling around my pockets for change and gave me a portion of fish and chips at a discount price. They were the best fish and chips I've ever tasted. I ate them as I walked the mile back home.

I didn't feel particularly tired but returned home and sat on my bed and started playing with my laptop. I remember seeing 6pm, but fell asleep not long after until 10.30pm. I woke up to find a bunch of people had been speaking to me on MSN whilst I slept. I fell asleep again, midway through an MSN conversation, for another half an our or so.

It's now 1.20am and I'm not tired. My internet connection keeps dropping. Strange.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coxy/2932335952/

Oh, how true. I have a feeling I'm going to feel so unproductive over the coming week; I'm already starting to feel that way now and the week's not even begun (should we be counting Monday as the start of the week). I always manage to find things to entertain myself, though.

So, last week I was working at Flame Digital. It was alright, I guess. I was working on a website for them; basically filling it with content for them over two days - so really simple job. I didn't feel particularly productive, mind. Anyway, I have to draw up and invoice and get that to them tomorrow so I can get some money for my time. I would've liked to see that project through to the end too - rather than just spend two days on it.

Over the past two days, ish, I've made myself another website to maintain. I started it Friday night after dinner, ran through to 1am and then worked on it most of Saturday. The website itself if all based around Urmston - which is where I live. There's a website called Urmston.net and I don't particularly dislike it, but I don't really like it either - it's quite poorly made and has an older demographic than what I'd be aiming at anyway. So I started a site called Two Ways.

It's a bit messy at the minute, especially on Internet Explorer (urgh!), but it'll all look fine when I've finished it though and hopefully I can get a few people using it. There's a forums (aptly named 'Gossip') so people can chat away about whatever they want, an events calendar so people can promote local school fairs, gigs, bingo nights and other such shin-digs, a photos section which is currently feeding photos in from the Urmston group pool at flickr.com, polls - and I hope to include some sort of local directory or businesses, services and places to visit in the area.

Aside from wanting to make a site more useful than Urmston.net, I wanted a project to get to grips with Mambo content management system. I've tried implementing it twice before now and failing miserably - but I think I've got it now - and it's not as bad or hard as I first thought. Expect Pickled Dick's new site to be using Mambo - because I'm doing that for them when they get back off tour.

In terms of music, I'm getting back into Last.fm. In the days of Audioscrobbler, I always buzzed off the service; and after it switched to Last.fm and a load of things improved, so did my interest level. But then it all just disappeared, and whilst it had been logging my music, my subscription ran out and I half-forgot about the service (though I always refer to it for information about artists / musicians). I really like the site, though - and have started using the Last.fm Radio more in recent weeks. It incorporates well into Amarok (my iTunes) and so has been really simple to use because it can play your playlists like it would any other track and there's no need to download the official Last.fm software.

I encourage you to sign up if you haven't got an account already, and for those that have, use the Last.fm player more; play your 'Recommended Radio', or 'Personal Radio' if you have a subscription. Or, you could give My Personal Radio a listen - seeing as I can't.

The other week I watched a few bands play at 'Into The Black' (listed on upcoming.org & Last.fm) and I quite taken by a band called Vile Vile Creatures. I listened to some of their recorded stuff and it doesn't quite compare to the live experience, which was great - even when performed to a room of about 15 people.

Regardless, I'm leaving you with four tracks of theirs for your ears to wrestle with, and if you ever get the opportunity to see them live; do so, it'll be worthwhile.

Vile Vile Creatures - [non album tracks]
(10mb, MP3s zipped)