Decent Hi-Fi system

I implore everyone to listen to music on a decent audio setup every now and then, I listen to 90% of my music on my iPod and the other 9.9% while sat at my computer using a speaker system which only has the right channel and that is placed off to one side and some 4ft above my head when I'm at the computer.

But tonight, I'm sitting in front of my TV with my laptop listening to music through a reasonable amp and some decent speakers and I can't believe how much better it sounds.

South Park Season 5

Just worked my way through South Park Season 5. Some classic episodes in there, including the introduction of Towelie and Butters' own episode. I think this was where South Park became a bit more serious and a bit more wacky. On to Season 6 soon.

Score: 4/5

Red Dwarf - Just the Shows

I got the Red Dwarf - Just the shows boxset for my birthday back in March. It contains, all 52 episodes from seasons 1-8. We've just finished watching them all, as a big Red Dwarf fan back in the day, it was great to watch them all again. Watching them in order and in such a short space of time made me realise how things developed as the show went on. In the first couple of series, the entire show focuses on Rimmer and Lister with the cat as a comedy joke rather than a real character. But when series 3 starts, Kryten comes back and the Cat becomes more of a member of the crew, bringing the show into the classic set up of the main 4.

Another problem with watching them all so close together is that it becomes obvious that there are only about 4 different templates for an episode, especially in Seasons 2-6, these usual revolve around the crew finding something which causes them to think they are somewhere else. This plot device does allow the show to get out of the simple setting of 4 men alone in a spaceship, but can get a bit repetitive if you watch a lot.

Overall, this is a great boxset, even if Season 8 is a bit rubbish.

Score: 5/5

New ATR!

Shows how not in the loop I am, but ATR have released a new track, available in WAV here. Only just listening now, but it sounds pretty damn good, pretty much old school ATR, Carl Crack's replacement sounds ok too. I am pretty excited about seeing them live in Amsterdam on the 3rd of next month.

Edit: MP3 if you don't want to download a 30Mb WAV.

Cramond Storm damage

I went for a cycle after work today, a little route my brother and I sometimes do after work which takes us down to the seafront at Cramond and back. I hadn't heard about this and was totally confused about the scale of the damage. I couldn't work out if it was deliberate vandalism, dodgy work by the council or what, I still can't really believe some of the massive pieces of the sea wall were moved just by the power of a storm, it must have been pretty wild.

Also, nice to see that Edinburgh Council are on the case and the place still looks like a bomb site some 2 weeks after the event.

iPod - every track rated

I've spent the past 6 months or so trying to rate every single track on my iPod. Just managed to finish the task this week, it's going to be strange going back to choosing what to listen to rather than working my way through my entire CD collection one random track after another.