| Last updated 160 weeks ago |
[Aug. 8th, 2009|09:13 pm] |
160 weeks ago. That's a long time. Why don't I ever get into this stuff? I'm a web applications developer. You'd think this would be my sort of thing. I guess I just never really much feel like talking about myself. I'm bad at keeping in touch with friends even by email. I'm not into gadgets. I don't have an iPhone or a Blackberry. I don't even have a camera on my mobile phone. Not anymore. That one broke and I got a new (old) one. Do I even still have any "friends" on here? Apparently I do have some. I haven't spoken to any of them in at least a year. I think the last one I actually saw in person was sexyworld. When was that? No idea. Well anyway, here's a hello to all those who still list me as a "friend". I hope you are all well. I'm fine. I'm all alone at the moment. My family have gone on holiday and left me to whatever it is I get up to at times like these. Today that has mainly consisted of replacing a rotten window sill and reading the New York Times and PolitiFact.org. In maybe a half an hour I'll go upstairs and pick up the book I've been reading. This is why I never talk about myself.
I've got the itch to play gigs again and I'm looking for an established band that needs a competent guitar player. If anybody has any leads I'd appreciate it. If you want to, you can follow me on twitter where I'm also listed as flayman. Hint: it will not significantly increase your tweet frequency. Thank you and good night. |
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| move along, nothing to see here |
[Jul. 8th, 2005|08:01 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
I was a bit late in yesterday by coincidence. I might have been stuck on the Tube otherwise. When I got to Waterloo I heard over the loudspeaker that the entire Underground was closed due to a power failure. My first reaction was to laugh. "How pathetic!" I thought. Maybe the cause wasn't yet known, but if they'd announced what was really happening I would have turned around and gone home. Instead I got two buses to Angel, Islington. While I was on the 243 somewhere around Holborn a number 30 was exploding a few blocks away. I arrived at work in reasonable time really. It's amazing how you can sort of drift through a situation like yesterday without even realising what's going on.
For me the most upsetting thing about yesterday has not been the events which claimed the lives of several dozen, but rather the rabid and irresponsible journalism. Contrary to what was reported on Sky News and even the venerable BBC, there was no discernable mass panic and hysteria in the city. I walked from Angel to Waterloo in the mid afternoon and all I could see was Londoners going about their business. Maybe that's because we're so accustomed to massive disruptions to our planned journeys. I got home more quickly yesterday than I did the day Waterloo was shut last year due to flooding. The prevailing attitude on the street seemed to be one of "I wonder when they'll open the Tube again?" My parents in the States were relieved that I was okay after they'd been innundated with relentless views of "devastation and human suffering" on BBC America. I'm fortunate that I don't know anyone who was killed or injured and I sympathise with anyone who does. But this kind of sensational reporting plays right into the hands of the terrorists. Londoners would be better served by accurate reports of our reactions to the events. We did remarkably well. And the police and emergency services responded with a high degree of readiness. For that I think we ought to be proud and not a little reassured. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 29th, 2004|10:03 pm] |
Hi. It's been a little while. Sorry. I promise to do better. So I got my guitar back finally. It was a week ago in fact. I trucked down to Guildford to pick it up from the Duty Manager's office there. There had been a slight misunderstanding in that I'd earlier been led to believe that Guildford would send the item up to the Lost Property office at Waterloo, but after waiting for a week I phoned up and discovered that they couldn't send it because it was too big to fit in the secure container(?). Anyway, no big deal. There was no charge to pick it up. I got it back and that is good.
********
What else? Oh yeah, I got my bike fixed too. This is turning out to be kind of a boring post. Okay, moving on. Today I went to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rhodri's place to do the remainder of guitar work for the upcoming Free French release. We only had about four hours to do it today and I didn't think that would be enough time, but it was. We got loads done today. The five remaining tracks were all recorded with numerous overdubs and lots of stuff that we came up with on the spot. It turned out really well and we began to feel very excited about how good it is all sounding. Yeah, it's gonna be good. I'm looking foward to hearing these mixed. |
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| thanks for last night |
[Aug. 18th, 2004|09:26 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
Hello all. Last night's gig at the 100 Club opening for Spearmint was great fun. I think we will remember it for a very long time. I'd like to personally thank my friend Tom Pounder for unexpectedly turning up to see us. Apart from a couple of my wife's mates, none of my other friends turned out despite a very targeted information operation. It was a packed crowd nonetheless and scissorkicks comfortably helmed the mixing desk to provide us a great sound. I'm really looking forward to the next gig in September and another in early November with Scarlet's Well. But for now, I'm glad for a bit of rest. To top off the perfect evening I actually did make the last train home... and made it for 9am in the office. Zzzzzzzzzzz |
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| Tonight's the Night! |
[Aug. 17th, 2004|10:07 am] |
No, not that crappy Rod Stewart Musical! Come see the Free French at the100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, W1D 1LL. Doors open 7:30, we expect to start around 9. Guaranteed not to suck, or double your money back*! Be there and be square! Here's a map.
*Terms and conditions apply. Band's performance to be judged by band. Your home may be at risk if you fail to keep up repayments. |
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| strapless |
[Aug. 16th, 2004|01:04 pm] |
Forgot to mention, in the middle of the third song at last Thursday's gig my guitar strap came off and I had to go down on one knee to play through. This totally messed me up as you can imagine and of course my vocals were nowhere. My favourite tune of the set as well! That's the first time this has ever happened and it will be the last because I am going to get one of those locking straps. Or better yet, a friend has informed me that you can use the clay stopper from a bottle of Grolsch to lock your strap in place. I find this intriguing as I would obviously rather spend my money buying beer. Hmmn, I suppose I'll need two... Anyone with similar experiences?
EDIT: And what was your makeshift solution? |
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| Bury |
[Aug. 13th, 2004|10:42 am] |
I've been very stressed at work this week, well last week too I guess. Let's start there. On Monday of last week we had a meeting to discuss the timeline of our current project. I saw that I had some major deliverables for today actually. But I knew I would be taking three days off to go to Rob and Kelly's wedding in Ire and rehearsing for and playing last night's Free French gig in Bury St. Edmunds. That would mean leaving work early and getting home late. I decided I'd try to catch up on work while at home or one the train and also try to be in the office earlier.
( Click to read all about my recent misadventures and last night's gig ) |
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| Irish wedding |
[Aug. 10th, 2004|10:31 am] |
I see I have missed a week here on my weekly chronicle. Oh well, last
week was a little bit crazy. This week will be too. I've just got back
from 4 nights in Co Mayo, Republic of Ireland having attended the
wedding of my brother-in-law with family in tow. He's called Rob and
his new bride is Kelly. Rosie got to be a flower girl in the wedding
service and she was really cute. This was a traditional Catholic church
wedding, although the priest was a bit of a ham and he kept making
jokes about football. When the eucharist was being handed out it
suddenly dawned on me that Rosie would wonder what was going on and
probably want one. Beccy and I looked at each other for a moment. I
said "We could give her a rice cake." Beccy thought that might be
viewed as disrespectful. I took out a rice cake and said "The body of
Rice. Amen." to which Beccy managed to keep from laughing out loud.
Rosie didn't ask for one so we were off the hook.
It was a lovely wedding and a fun reception that went on much longer
than we did. Rosie made a couple of friends and they spent most of the
time dancing to the cover band. I can't tell you how great it was not
to have to keep her occupied. Molly fell asleep in the buggy in spite
of the racket. We thought we did well staying out with the kids until
half eleven, but the party continued until the wee hours. I think some
folks wandered back around 5 am. Naturally the newlywed couple had to
outlast all of the guests and they did well.
We were blessed with generally good weather and managed to avoid major
stresses of holiday away with children and inlaws. The last time (also
the first time) I travelled to Ireland, we went with a 9 month old
Rosie and my parents visiting from the US. Dad had always wanted to see
Ireland, the land of our forebears, and so we arranged this trip that
involved driving across the country from Dublin airport and stopping in
B&Bs along the way to Galway and Mayo. On this three night trip we
also had great weather, but we did not have such great luck with the
accomodations. We ought to have had more of a plan I suppose. Too much
driving and not enough joy. On this earlier trip we had driven through
the town of Westport on the way to Achill Island. Westport was the
scene of the recent wedding festivities and I wish we had spent more
time there before because it's a really pleasant setting. I returned
from our last trip to Ireland with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth and
this trip was like mouthwash. Can't wait to go back again.
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| another week, another dollar |
[Jul. 29th, 2004|12:46 pm] |
Welcome to the latest installment of Weekly Update. Last week I neglected to mention that I won tickets on rhodri's
radio show on Resonance FM. It was the Pretentious Mystery Voice
competition and I happened to know that the voice belonged to
synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog. I assure you there was no nepotism
involved. The tickets were for a world music event at the South Bank
called Global Junction that was part of the Rhythm Sticks series. It
featured a British percussionist, and Indian flutist, an Italian
guitarist and an Italian bass player. All were excellent. The guitarist
came out and did a solo acoustic piece at one point that was so amazing
it made me want to throw all of my guitars into the river! I sat there
slack jawed for a good five minutes. His name, by the way, is Antonio
Forcione. Check him out.
Free French rehearsal tonight in the usual place at the usual time.
This is the last rehearsal until the night before the next gig, which
is out of town in Bury St. Edmunds. I had to remember not to ride my
bike to the station but instead to carry all my stuff with me to work
today. I remembered well. Some new songs are coming along very well and
should be a blast to perform live. "Don't Come Cheap" is coming along
particularly well. This is one that I am really looking forward to
recording in the next couple weeks.
We moved to a new managed office on Glass House Street near Piccadilly
tube on Monday. That shaves about five minutes off my commute, yippee!
Actually I can't complain, it's quite easy. We've had more people start
this week so strangely now we are approaching capacity in this new
office. And there are more starting in the next couple weeks. Hmnn...
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| Weekly Review |
[Jul. 22nd, 2004|09:13 am] |
My journal has become a sort of weekly affair. I think if I can't be bothered find the time to update my journal at least once a week then I should just stop, but the truth is I am very bad at time management. I just started a new job this week which is working for my old friend and former employer in his new startup company currently employing three people. For the first time in nearly a year I actually have to catch a train and commute to the heart of London every day instead of sitting around working in my house. This has its plus and minus points. Pluses include breaking the monotony of my surroundings and having the downtime for two hours each day to read a book or something. Minuses are obvious ones: long hairy commute which includes 10 minutes on the bicycle each direction, £188 in train fare gone immediately from my wallet each month, less time with family, etc. The pay is about 17% less, which is kind of worrying actually, but is no less than anyone else in the organisation is currently paid. The work is better and so is my faith in the management and the prospects of success. The share option arrangement has yet to be formally discussed, but informal discussions have suggested integer number percentage points, which is obviously quite good.
Next week we take on another couple people and simultaneously move out of our three person capacity office into one that seats eight comfortably. This is all going on while my friend, who is CEO, is out for the birth of his child. He just phoned me up a few minutes ago to tell me that they'd had their baby boy early this morning! Congratulations Josh and Jane. Everyone's fine and dandy. Meanwhile it's business as usual. We are going to be sharing our office space with a client for whom we are a technology partner. Currently we are providing a chair for one developer from this small organisation, which has put our small office at capacity. This arrangement is strange at the very least. It is not possible to speak freely about the work or the product because of the political ramifications. There have been some tense moments. Two days ago, on my second day of work, there was a bug report filed against the product demo that my company had created for our partner. The demo is related to mobile voice-mail and is being used by a handful of people, one of whom it seems was particularly irritated by this bug. The developer who sits with us read out part of an email that was obviously not meant for us saying that the guy used to think the product was good but now he didn't like it and thought it was sh1t. That's a nice way to put someone's back up! Cheek. |
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| birthday |
[Jul. 13th, 2004|09:13 pm] |
Not mine, my eldest daugher Rosie. She turned three on Sunday. Three is
a very good birthday. It is the first time a child really begins to understand
what is going on. Ask a soon-to-be-three year old how old they are
going to be soon and she will do a thing with her fingers and say
"three". This is more than most soon-to-be-two year olds can handle. We
threw her a nice party on Sunday with about a dozen of her little
friends and the mums and some of the dads. beeblog made Rosie a cake out of little fairy cakes arranged as a snake. Here is a photo:
Pretty good, eh? Incredibly easy to serve too. Some would say in fact
that this is cheating, although I would like to point out that she
baked and iced these cakes all by herself from scratch and it was hard
work. We had a gazebo set up, but the rain held off and it was a good
day. The only thing winding me up was my fretful mother-in-law. She
just gets so uptight around groups of children it is impossible for her
to relax. She was nervously washing up and following kids around
picking up after them and telling them off for basically just being
kids. Sheesh! I'd like to think we could leave our kids with her for a
few days once in a great while and that she would be able to handle it.
Maybe when they're eight and ten.
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| X-sTatiC |
[Jul. 9th, 2004|03:10 pm] |
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I am going to see the XTC tribute band X-sTatiC play tonight at the Dublin Castle. I'm expecting to see scissorkicks there tonight and I don't know who else. Come along if you fancy it. I might have my bicycle helmet. I would like to apologise to serious_k for pointing out in my journal what may not have been a mistake in her wonderful keyboard playing last night. She is of course welcome to come along to the next Free French gig and later point out any mistakes I may or may not make onstage or indeed off. |
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| Scarletts Well |
[Jul. 8th, 2004|08:02 am] |
I went to see Scarletts Well at the Water Rats last night with rhodri and Jenny and met several other LJ'ers at the same time. scissorkicks was there along with verlaine, strange_powers and the_heiress and some others that I didn't meet properly. And obviously martylog
was there on stage as ever. Before the group took the stage I was
speaking with Martin and I asked him for a minor favour, which was to
allow me to stow my cycle helmet that I was carrying around in a place
where it would be somewhat safe. At that point an American woman called
Angel who Martin had introduced me to suggested that I wear it instead.
I thought that was a good idea so I put it on and then strapped on my
reflective belt too. Out of courtesy I took it off when we went into the
back to watch the band.
I will say that this band is great fun to watch and the music is quite
unique. It ranges from sea shanties to stuff that can only be described
as eastern European with punctuated oompah-oompahs.
There was one song that I particularly liked which l thought at the
time was reminiscent of "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks. I found myself
shuffling from side to side quite a lot while this was all going on,
acting out some bizarre dance step. Martin on his accordian performed
very well as did the drummer, who I now know is called drummygirl.
It's unusual to see a drummer in a pop band using brushes. One of the
reasons that this band is so fun to watch is that they don't take themselves
too seriously. You can see some of the members sharing moments with
each other where they look like they are about to burst out laughing.
At one comical moment as I was just about to turn to Rhodri and say
"The keyboard player is really good isn't she?", said keyboard player
hit a series of discordant notes which I believe was a mistake. The
moment was light-heartedly acknowledged by the band leader as a
"cacophony". She is of course still good in spite of this. So Well done everyone. And I'm happy to report that I did catch the last train home this time, though not by much.
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| journal slacker |
[Jun. 29th, 2004|12:18 pm] |
I've found it hard to sit down and write in my journal lately. It's not
that I'm particularly busy, it's just that I'm pretty much a slacker
all around. I put things off and journal writing is not a big priority
anyway. But I felt I should write a bit today because of recent events.
Two nights ago the Free French got
together for the first time since our gig six weeks ago in order to
rehearse and learn a few new tunes. I was expecting there would be some
sloppiness and forgotten parts, etc. To my surprise and delight we were
very tight on the previously prepared tunes and I rather enjoyed
playing them after the long absence. rhodri
never writes much after rehearsals or gigs which suggests that he
thinks we're all sh1t, but in reality I think he just doesn't want to
bore his readers with shameless band plugging, with a few notable
exceptions. Since I have fewer friends than fingers on one hand I need
not be so socially responsible.
The other big event that happened was the TOTO show last night at the Albert Hall. Evidently I was joined by sexyworld,
although we would not have known this never having met. I am not a big
TOTO fan, nor I gather is sexyworld. I went to the show because my old
friend Steve is a member of the crew on this tour and he provided me
with guest tickets complete with aftershow privileges. Steven Lu, who
landed the gig as keyboard tech, is perhaps the most talented musician
I have ever played with. For the last seven or eight years since we
finished at Berklee he has been living and working in LA as a producer,
composer, arranger, keyboard player, music director, and tour
technician for a variety of big name artists. He has been making
contacts and climbing the social and professional ladder of the LA
music scene. I on the other hand have been building web sites (!).
Unlike Steve, I had suffered a severe burnout following the Berklee
education which caused me to abandon all musical pursuits for a good
five years or more. This saw me shifting careers to IT and multimedia
production, a career which began in New York's "Silicon Alley" and
carried on to present day London after marriage brought me to this
country as a permanent resident. About two years ago I felt the music
ban beginning to lift and I've finally done something about it.
Anyway, there I was (or there we were - beeblog
as well) at the TOTO show, which was alright, and the aftershow party,
which for me was a disappointment. The last time I saw Steve Lu was
when he played piano at our wedding over five years ago. Once Steve was
finally free to come and hang out with us we only had about fifteen
minutes before we had to leave in order to relieve my mother-in-law who
was babysitting. We maybe could have stayed a bit later but there was a
real risk the baby would wake up and be inconsolable at or around
midnight. We have had a string of such behaviour. So fifteen minutes to
go and Steve starts introducing us to members of the band. First he
grabs Steve Lukather, lead guitar/vocals. I will refer to them as Luke
and Lu in order to avoid confusion. The meeting went something like
this:
Lu: Steve (who had probably just been in the middle of talking to someone famous), this is my friend Matt and his wife Beccy.
Luke: Oh yeah? Hi. (somewhat taken aback)
Lu: Matt and I did Berklee together.
Luke: (a bit softened) Holy Sh1t! Yeah.
Lu: Matt is an amazing guitar player. He's after your job, man. You'd better watch out!
Luke: (laughing) You can have it!
Me: (embarrassed) It's not true, none of it, none of it.
Lu: Don't worry Matt, I'll poison him tonight. You'll be a shoe in!
Me: What are you talking about?!
Luke: (laughing still) Hey man, I've got kids!
Ugh! After that I shook bass player Mike Porcaro's hand and didn't have
a whole lot to say so that was the end of it. I was glad to have seen
Brian May at the aftershow and at one point he came over and stood next
to me while he was on the phone, but I would not impose myself on a
celebrity even if I thought they might like it. It's just not my style.
Before we left my friend disappeared because he had to find his tour
manager for some reason. We had to leave without saying goodbye. The
whole aftershow experience was coloured by my feeling that I had a
curfew and that kind of put a damper on the experience. Pity.
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| a new beginning |
[Jun. 21st, 2004|08:42 pm] |
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Hey. Well I gave notice at my work last week. I've been on contract so actually what that means is that I told my boss that I won't be extending my contract. We just had a major launch and I wanted to wait until after that was done. My boss and I both work from home; I live in Walton-On-Thames and he lives in Southfields. Often we meet up in Wimbledon when we have to meet face to face. This time we met up in Southfields and went to a local pub where I broke the bad news. He was a bit disappointed but supported me. My boss, Thom is his name, is a very nice guy. He is and as far as I can tell always has been more interested in people than in business. He's a bit new agey and is into things like astrology and meditation. I should give those a try because Thom is about the calmest person in my life. He wanted to know what I would be doing and the particulars of the new job, out of no motivation other than curiosity and geniune interest. I told him that I had been offered a job at the startup company run by my good friend of some fourteen years. Thom had met my friend Josh at the last Free French gig in May and they traded startup company horror stories. I had worked for Josh before over a stretch of several years and I didn't hesitate to take up his offer even though it meant I would have to commute into Oxford Circus every day instead of sitting in my conservatory. It's also for less money but with a bigger stake. There are many trade offs, but I feel confident that I'm doing the right thing. It starts middle of July. Wish me luck please. |
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| A few things... |
[Jun. 16th, 2004|08:59 am] |
We had a nice weekend. I expect most people did; the weather was very accommodating in these parts. Had a very successful barbecue on Saturday where I showed some Brits what hamburgers really are. We've lived in this house for nine or ten months and that was the first time we've entertained in the garden. There were children involved. It was a mess, but it was nice.
********
On Sunday we got in the car and drove to North London to see a friend in Finchley. She bought her flat and moved in around Christmas time. This was our first visit. A great two level flat with impressive views and a private roof terrace. And we got to see our cat, Egg. He lives there now. Rosie made a big deal over him but Beccy and I were mostly unmoved. We spent most of the lazy afternoon in the grounds of Kenwood House in Hampstead Heath. This, I'm told, was featured in the film Notting Hill when Julia Roberts character was filming a period drama. The house was donated to Barnet council and so is free for all to enter and use, including a collection of art for viewing. Nice. While there I took some time to study my AA book of the Highway Code, as I would be taking my driving theory test the following day. I had been studying it carefully and gradually answering all of the 894 possible questions over the past week. We drove back home around 7pm and the lack of traffic was astonishing! Of course most people were in their homes or local pubs poised to witness England throw away the football match in the last two minutes.
********
On Monday I took the driving theory test, which includes a multiple choice portion and a hazard perception portion where you need to click a mouse while watching video clips to show that you see a hazard forming. I have been driving for more than fifteen years. I am an American and this is one time when I'm proud to admit it. We invented the automobile. We take driving very seriously. I have ridden in cars with some fully licensed Brits fearing for my life while they tear up and down narrow winding country lanes, overtaking where it is illegal to do so. I am a very good driver. Well I failed the f**king hazard test. Apparently I didn't click enough. I clicked where I thought they wanted me to click but I ought to have been clicking almost constantly I now realize. You see, when you have been driving for many years a lot of what you do is a subconscious reaction to what you see and feel behind the wheel. That makes this sort of test hard to take. If you fail one part you fail both parts, so I'm going to have to rebook the test and pay another £20.50. And I'm probably going to have to buy the DSA CD-ROM training piece for the hazard test so I can learn how to take it. Ripoff. It's taken me two days to write about it calmly. |
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| Talk-Talk, can't talk |
[Jun. 10th, 2004|05:36 pm] |
Yesterday after my pest control fiasco, I was quietly recovering my
calm while working on my laptop outside in the garden. The peace was
soon broken by the telephone ringing. I picked it up with the usual
hello. There was a second or two of dead silence followed by a burst of
background conversation noise. I have come to know what this signifies.
About eight months ago I stupidly filled out a survey from a web banner
ad of the company Consumer Lifestyles. There would be a prize draw to
win a year's supply of Stella Artois! Holy sh1t! That was all it took.
I didn't even bother to look at the terms and conditions. I had given
Consumer Lifestyles consent to distribute my name, address, telephone
number and very precise marketing details to all of their affiliates
who then had the right to contact me and try to sell me something. As
an example, our car insurance runs out in February and I'm sure that
next year just like last time I will be getting calls from all sorts of
insurance companies at around 7:30 in the evening. This is particularly
hard to bear because as a web programmer and generally kind of savvy
techie guy, I really ought to have known better.
So I was not too surprised when I heard a Scottish male voice saying to
me, "Hello, Mr. Flattery?" That is close to the pronunciation of my
surname, but not quite there. I am amazed at how difficult it seems to
be for the English (and Scots apparently) to pronounce a fairly common Irish surname that is
spelled out on a piece of paper right in front of them. Rarely has it
been a problem for me in the good ole U.S. of A. "Yeah" was my feeble reply...
Scotsman: My name is (something or other) from a telephone company called Talk-Talk. How are you today?
Me: great...
Scotsman: You have probably seen us advertised and promoted on the Channel 4 TV show Big Brother?
Me: I guess...
Scotsman: Anyway, Mr Flattery,
we offer very competitive rates... blah, blah, blah, yak, yak, yak...
BT line. Does BT provide your telephone services?
Me: I have NTL.
Scotsman: NTL... is that a cable telephone service?
Me: yup.
Scotsman: Oh. Unfortunately Mr Flattery you need to have a BT line in order to use our services.
Me: what a shame
Scotsman: Well you enjoy your day Mr Flattery.
Me: Thanks, I suppose I'll just have to carry on somehow.
I think maybe from now on I'll begin by saying "No, I'm sorry. The
Flaherty's don't live here anymore. I'm afraid they couldn't stand the
constant barrage of sales calls and they got divorced and sold the
house to me. I also don't like the sales calls, so you know." I wonder
what they'd say?
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