Hi there, this is my BLOG.

GIG!?

deedgray — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:46:44 +0000

Holy shit somebody asked me to do a gig. As in possibly a real moneys gig.

Regardless of whether or not I’ll get to go, I’m still being asked to do proper things. I’m going up in the world!

ffs somebody read this, I’ve linked the weblog to enough places for enough people to at least notice this.

Proof that Confidence is Pretty Much Futile (Then again, maybe I got lucky)

deedgray — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:06:12 +0000

EDIT: Bitter rant removed because it turns out I might end up back at the ensemble next year, and it turns out I didn’t quite make it due to very fair reasons and the guy who beat me to the ensemble got a grade 8 distinction I think. Props to him, but apparently he might not be able to do it next year, leaving a space for me, the first reserve. Well I was still incredibly confident about the audition, and I was apparently beaten very slightly, and that my audition was still considered excellent. Pity I was outclassed, but it was by somebody with a lot of talent and experience who only just did better than me. Would’ve like to have met this person, but obviously if he’s in the band I there won’t be room for me, and if I’m in the band, he obviously wouldn’t be able to do it since I’d be taking his place.

Also tonight’s concert was spectacular. We even finished with Soul Bossa Nova, which is of course a bit of a trombone feature. I knew my section was taking turns to do short solos (mine turned out good after all), but then the whole section improvised together, standing up. It was an epic finale and I’m glad we did squeeze that song in now. The rest of the songs were definitely good, much better than the last concert where everyone was tired and feeling a bit crappy.

So yeah, maybe I’m staying on next year after all, but even if I won’t, I know there’ll be somebody really good in my place, and I’ve at least left fantastically.

On a Brighter Note

deedgray — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:27:13 +0000

Since I seem to often blog about things that annoy me/nothing really that special, I might as well write a quick note regarding the prom on Wednesday. The place we were at was pretty fancy, and just to see everybody at a more casual venue that wasn’t being assaulted by scumbag chavs with no imagination was great. Also getting my photo with many of the people I knew/shared classrooms with but never talked to (despite them being decent people); and getting a professional shot with the crew I always followed around during break times were something nice to take home with me, small mementos to dwell upon while I either wither away with solitude or adjust to a new educational life—that in itself is obviously something special.

In all, the prom was an exit of my compulsory education on a high note, and something to compensate for the realisation that, once again, you don’t really appreciate anything until the very last moment you’re still able to have it. I seriously yearn for classes already, which would be a good thing now that there’s no stress over exams, which I’ll hopefully get satisfactory results for. In the meantime, I hope I get to play Rock Band with some people. That’ll be a laugh, especially if Aaron tries to sing.

Tomorrow I’ll

deedgray — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:26:29 +0000

I hope I get to sleep early enough tonight, since I have a busy day of a concert with Prudhoe out at some first school of unbothered kids; probably the last ever concert I’ll have with The Sage, since I’m not back on with Jambone thanks to everybody else suddenly piling in and actually giving the trombone auditions some competition and standards (Goddamn); and, if I can fit it in, paper round, if I can bother with that.

A Day in the Life

deedgray — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:16:34 +0000

Today I missed my brass lesson, thanks to sleeping in late. I think I was actually awake a decent amount of time prior to when my lesson would have been. If only I checked the time as soon as I had woken up, rather than insisting on trying to masturbate while tired. Nothing came of it, so basically I was just lying in bed, pissing away good hours I could have spent waking myself up, playing my trombone before having a successful lesson, actually getting use out of my less-played games; or, God forbid, maybe even organising something with what I call my friends whom I never bother spending time with (not being invited to things is one thing, but I never put out. I was only lacking in the time for them anyway because I was at school and had my paper round an hour after school each day). If I actually bother putting this on WordPress, this is actually just a result of me fucking around in my pirated Word 2007 (pity it’ll only crash when I try to close it down, but at least documents are saved and it normally recovers itself pretty successfully and quickly). I dunno, this program is, I find, really fancy and intuitive. I know lots of people hate this Ribbon UI, but it looks nice and feels better than the same old toolbar which has all those fly-out menus. Eh.

Fraxy

deedgray — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:55:56 +0000

Another game I’ve got back into, and again it lets me customise the shit out of things. It’s just so much fun to create my own gigantic bosses, especially when they turn out as fun to play against while being hard but not stupidly nigh-impossible. Anyone who hasn’t played it should just go ahead and download this game, since it’s awesome and the boss editor’s really fun and easy to use. Only significant flaw is that the game has no limit on the bosses’ size, so I find that even on my reasonably well-specced machine, the game often likes to run at around 15-17FPS. That’s damned slow considering this is supposed to be a fast-paced shooter.

Otherwise, the rest of today’s been pretty fine. Last night this game took its turn in keeping me up late, but I at least got to sleep at half four or five or something, rather than six or seven in the morning for a couple of hours. Also I managed to stay asleep for a decent enough lie-in, until I think midday or something. I normally wake up at nine or something and can’t sleep again, no matter how tired I am. My brothers are back from their trips to York and Glastonbury, so the peace in this house won’t be here tomorrow when they both settle in properly; but then, the house feels slightly empty with just me and my parents here.

OH MY GOD BRAWL’S ALREADY OUT TODAY WHERE THE HELL HAVE I BEEN

deedgray — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:49:33 +0000

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

No seriously, I’ve been completely indifferent about this game for months, since messing around on my cousin’s nigger-rigged American copy of the game and not having any part of the game since. In fact, I kept thinking the game wasn’t out until October, so I hadn’t even bothered preparing to buy the game myself. It’s a pity really–had I remembered about the game being out today, I might have got some decent sleep, gone for my brass lesson, then gone out promptly for the game (although I don’t really have the money spare, since I need to pay mam for my ZEN I sponged off her credit card for, but I guess if I remembered I would’ve made sure I had money spare).

Oh well, at least my paper round was actually completely relaxing for me, and I got in twenty minutes before the rain came down hard. I wish it wasn’t so damn humid while also being horribly grey, but I don’t actually feel as tired as I might have been; not warped like I normally am after an all-nighter. Probably because I managed some shred of sleep which would have helped slightly, so instead of warping me I’d just feel really lousy, yet at the same time at the very least in touch with the world.

Trackmaniamania

deedgray — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:39:00 +0000

I’ve suddenly got a liking for Trackmania again. Just the other day I sat down and decided I should try creating my own track, and this time actually persevere and initially keep it reasonably simple. Suddenly I found myself hooked on messing around with this one track, and making it incredibly complex with a load of tight hairpins and chicanes, and stuffing it full of a load of ramps so that a lot of the track practically creates a huge navigable lattice; and long straights with a load of boosts for crazy thrillrides, as well as split paths and jumps etc. It’s epic and kind of hard to drive around, which is suitable for the game.

So last night I was thinking to myself that I need to get to bed early, but then it was approaching one in the morning when I suddenly wanted a quick go with the advanced editor. A load of screwing around with superboosters on massive ramps; and finding ways of catapulting myself outside of the track’s stadium for exploration later, I decide to quit and check the time, and it turns out I’d pissed away two hours to realise it was three o’clock. Goddamn. From this I decided I couldn’t be bothered trying to get to sleep, thus staying up all night and having a couple of hours’ sleep in the morning, missing my brass lesson and staying in bed with the laptop on next to me, my glasses on, and drifting in and out of sleep until I barely had a clue what the hell I just happened the last few hours. In other words, I’ve became so hooked on Trackmania that it’s fucked up my sleeping again, which is the first time an actual game has done this to me for quite some time. This is pretty much my bag, though, since I used to be a massive trackfag and Formula One fan until the start of middle school. I was obsessed with the thought of making my own complex, undulating tracks to race around, so I guess this harks back to those days of childish creativity over more geekish things, only this time it’s more real.

Shit I’m fucking bored.

deedgray — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:31:22 +0000

Why must I be so bored all the time

Somebody give me traffic/talk to me. :<

Oh wait.

deedgray — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:29:22 +0000

Actually, I nearly forgot about yesterday’s spectacular and mindfuck episode of Doctor Who, not to mention the new series of Top Gear starting today, which got a few decent laughs out of me. Not so bad after all–the police car challenge was priceless, from the choice of cars (Hammond) to the choice of sirens (Clarkson and May). What’s more is that tomorrow I’ll be at home while all those little boys and girls will be slaving away over crap, in school, for another three or four weeks. At least I have the time to do sit around without having to worry about much at all.

…I want my ability to lie-in back, Goddamnit!