Dom Barnes’s Blog

Date: 25 November 2006
Place: Rich Bitch, Selly Oak

Another week, another practice. I was hoping to arrive on time this week but Katie was gonna come along too so I had to wait for her to get ready. The practice started as usual, tuning, Chris smashing his drums, then straight into a run through of “Russia”. I guess its our leading song as its the first one I learnt and we play it all the time. Its coming together well. We tried it last time with an extended intro, which sounded really good but perhaps goes on too long for a final version.

After last time, Nick said he wanted to do a Pixies cover, so we all agreed in the pub afterwards that we would give “Hey” a try. So last night, I sat down and learnt it for today. Luckily I also took the liberty of learning some other Pixies songs that came on afterwards, because when I arrived at practice, I found out we were doing “Gouge Away” instead. So I had to have a quick listen to the song on Nick’s iPod to remind myself of it. The bass line is pretty simple but I didn’t know the pattern so was just kinda stringing it together (I’ve now listened properly and realised it was very basic.) We had a few run throughs of that, finally giving up and moving on.

We mainly worked on the Clapping song Hand Clap Attack Which started out with a nice clapping intro, that sounds nothing like Mickey(!), and has built from there. Its sounding good now. James wrote some lyrics and we have a verse and chorus sorted. The only problem was getting from the verse into the chorus because there is a tempo change, and the guitars both come in, and its a heavy chorus so its a lot to jump to. We still need some work on that but its another song slowly working towards a final finished track.

Did the usual trip down to the Pear afterwards for food. Played some pool, which unfortunately, I was shockingly bad at. I lost all 4 games I played. The first against James (potted the black), the other 3 were doubles, swapping partners each time, and each time I was awful. I attribute it to not playing for ages and having lost the knack (cue James playing “My Sharona” intro - we stop after the intro cos thats all he knows). Had a few more drinks then came home.

Finished the evening watching a few episodes of Call for Help with Leo Laporte. Its a good tech show, similar to TechTV, The Screensavers and the like.

All in all, good day. Practice is good, I’m more confident, although I need to learn the songs, and perhaps get them recorded so I know what I’m playing when. Hopefully in the next few weeks, we can record one or two roughly to get a start on an album or EP.

So I started my current job in July 2006, and like all companies, was given email and internet access. All I had to do was read the usual policies about improper use, business related sites only, nothing rude, etc etc. Then about 7 weeks after I started, I was called into my bosses office. He asked me if I knew about the company policy on internet use. Now I had used it a fair bit, but I didn’t visit any sites deemed “inappropriate”. Anyway, I said yeah I’d read the policies and he asked if I was told about charging limits. I said no. He then proceeded to tell me that I had managed to build up a bill of £75 on internet usage!

Needless to say I was shocked. Now even when I had dialup and was charged the local rate of 1p per minute, I didn’t rack up that much. He then explained to me that all staff are allocated £5 of usage per month (he didn’t explain how that is measured) And it is charged, not through bandwidth usage, but time! So every minute I spent, with a browser open, watching the Digg homepage, refreshing every so often, was costing more and more. He realised this was probably the case and advised me for the future. So I left feeling embarrassed, and confused on the charging structure.

Anyway, a few months have passed, and I’ve had no more conversations. I still use the web a fair bit, but close windows whenever possible.

Worse still, they don’t even have WiFi, and only just moved up to XP. Now I’m a mac geek. I love my powerbook, and don’t envision it breaking any time soon, and when it does, I’ll get a Macbook or Macbook Pro. I don’t really like working in Windows but I have to at work. I have done all I can to make my XP desktop look like Mac OS X, and its working well. I long for a job when I can work off a laptop of my choice. If I have to, I’ll run Windows on a Macbook (dual boot though, not Virtual Machine) but I guess to get there, I need to keep studying for my A+, N+, MCSA and Cisco certificates. Sigh

It was a long weekend. I had already had the saturday and sunday blocked out for my Nan’s birthday. There was just going to be a get together, some food, cake, the usual. But then my granddad dies 3 weeks ago so the funeral got arranged for the monday. Had a long drive down on saturday followed by a huge late dinner, and got back to the hotel at about 10. Didn’t sleep well. Hotel beds are usually unconfortable so I was awake from 4am onwards, dozing for just a bit. Sunday involved some shopping in Ipswich. Got a new shirt (a white version of one I already have in black and grey) and some trousers to go with my suit. I had a moment of stupidity and washed some dry-clean only trousers at home and shrunk them. Then back to my nan’s for cake and then on to the hotel for Lord of the Rings on Channel4 and then more terrible sleep.

The funeral was nice. It was worried about running late. My girlfriend was feeling really ill so I was trying to make sure she was ok, ant not going to pass out, as well as pack bags and get us checked out with plenty of time to drive to the Crematorium. I narrowly avoided having to dish out the Order of Service books though, which I didn’t really want to do. Luckily, they were already laid out on the seats. My mum wrote a letter about her dad which the vicar read out, and my Aunt read out a poem which made me laugh and cry a little bit. Reminded me that he was really happy to finally have a grandson after 3 granddaughters. After that we went back to my Aunt’s to enjoy a spread she had put on and just chat. Then drove straight home (well we stopped for petrol and our own fuel as well) at about midday. Then instead of going home, we popped to my girlfriends parents for an hour or two, mainly to get a few things. Then finally back home, dragged the bags in, checked the mail and finally sat down for dinner.

It was a draining weekend, quite emotional really. Mum had some things for me granddad wanted me to have that he’d mentioned in a letter he wrote about 14 years ago which was with his will. It included his gold case watch, signet ring, some cufflinks and a lovely swiss Pocket watch. It was all really nice stuff and can’t wait to pass it on down the family line in the years to come.

 Now back at work though, only 18 emails to read. Dealt with now. Not a lot to catch up on really. Still struggling to get hot water into our apartment. Its been over 2 weeks now and showering is really a necessity.

It arrived at the weekend. Pixar’s Cars on DVD in Special Limited Edition Tin (Dual Disc).  I saw this film at the cinema and it was great. How did I get this in the UK? CD-WOW of course.

The only downside is disc 2 is region 4 only so I ca’t watch it on my Sony DVD player. I can on my laptop but only if I change region, then I’d need to change it back, etc. So what do I do? I use Mac The Ripper, and use it to make a backup of the DVD incase the real one gets trashed. Oh and its coded to region 2 and 4, so I can watch it on my Sony DVD player. It is only fair that I am allowed to make copies of media I purchased and have paid a fee to the distribution company and studio for. And I shouldn’t be taxed on the media!

This all links back to the Zune that ha an agreement to pay Universal Music Group (UMG) to pay them for every zune sold because “These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it.” . So its official. Every iPod owner is a pirate and should pay as masuch. Well F*ck you UMG and Microsoft. Your Zune can go to hell with all your other failed devices.

So I’ve had my second band practice and I’m starting to think about gear. I have my bass guitar (a Westfield - don’t ask me what) and I have a Boss Zoom multi-effects pedal with tuner, separate tuner and I’m thinking about buying some individual pedals to add to the mix. But I’m not sure what. Do I get a distortion, overdrive, or chorus pedal? We’re playing rockier music so no need for any bluesy sounds.

I am looking at a Boss ODB-3 Overdrive pedal. It seems pretty good. Haven’t actually tried one but if I get a few cheap ones I can see what I prefer and look for a more quality pedal next time. And then I’ll always have a spare.

Also wondering about earphones. I like the Etymotic 6i Isolator earphones. They’re just a bit expensive. But ideal for monitors, and i can use them when recording tracks into Garageband.

Of course, last on my list is a new guitar. I’ve had the westfield for over 4 years and feel like a new one. But I have yet to see one i like. When I do, its going straight on the credit card, or present list.

I saw these a while back and being a new blog had to stick them up. Merlin Mann is a hilarious guy. He does MacBreak Weekly, runs 43 Folders, 5ives, as well as his day job. Check out all the phone guy videos.