Poor Little Rich People, Poor Little Poor People

Something is definitely wrong here.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading, guess I’m stupid but I thought you only made bombs and huge armies and fought with everybody in school if you had excess resources.

Poor Little Poor People

One expects volunteerism (is that a real word? Looks funny but wtf it’s my blog) to be needed only in circumstances like this, really.

Old Volvos and the Idiots Who Own Them

Why would someone want to own a car that costs an arm and a leg each time something minor goes wrong? Send your Volvo to the “proper” Volvo service center and you get the feeling ther next visit is going to cost you a kidney. Dammit, Volvo spare parts are EXPENSIVE.  And the Volvo workshops will make you change every frigging part they can think of,charge you premium prices for the shittiest little part, and hit you with massive workmanship charges for every little step of the way.

Fck Volvo workshops,and fck Volvo for running their workshops the way they do. In fact, Fck Mr Volvo too, really wherever he is, I hope his grave has lots of shitty engine oil all over it.

So you can imagine my horror when last night, as I was driving, ALL the warning lights on the dashboard suddenly came on.  Engine was still running, and I was near my house, made it home safely. And then proceeded to a sleepless night just knowing I’d be screwed today by Volvo at their workshop.

Enter the local mechanic. Runs a workshop in a swampy area. Rustic old shack. Some basic tools.

He comes to my office, picks up my car, comes back a few hours later. Car is fixed. Some fan belt had broken. New fan belt, plus replaced 2 other old belts. Total cost (parts+labour) = US$20/-

If I had gone to Volvo, I would have been charged nothing less than US$200/- , and most likely they’d have made me change all sorts of other parts as well and brought the bill to US$400/-. Really.

FCK VOLVO WORKSHOPS.

This is just so bloody ridiculous!

So read my previous post,about the things i wanted/needed to buy?

And this is what I bought:

a bloody turntable!! And all I have is a bunch of ~25-years-old records. With no easy way of getting the needed cleaning stuff and antistatic brushes etc.

I need my head examined. Seriously. But that will have to wait ‘cos I don’t have the $ to see a shrink. (Spent whatever on that car air valve and a blues harp too!).

Somebody stop me!

Shopping Priorities

I need a few things, but can only afford one of them. Just htf does one decide between:

1. An overdrive pedal to upgrade myguitar effects
2. A digital camera so I can add photo content to this blog’s posts
3. A videocam so I can do assorted music recordings
4. An air-control valve for my old Volvo so it doesnt’ stall when idling
5. A new soundcard for my studio PC,  old card is beyond repair

5. seems urgent but I might just get a cheap card and so buy somethingelse fromthe list,but if I decide to do any recording I’ll need a good (VERY expensive) card, but for that I may need to save enough $ to upgrade the whole pc, mfboard and all.

Hard to decide, so I’m thinking of buying a blues harp first, always wanted to play the blues harp but never could do it, maybe this time….

It’s funny how one buys what one buys when one started off wanting to buy something else first.

I’m now visiting family at Templer Park!

You got to see the jungle and the limestone cliff and the park, but you aren’t here, I am

So just blaaady wait and maybe I’ll post some pictures to make you even more jealous. (Meanwhile, Google search for Templer Park?)

Ha!

Having fun, but what am I doing there? Visiting my sister and her family. And it happens to be my nephew Jasveer’s birthday!

Raggy

How NOT To Shoot A Band Video

Were YOU at our last night’s gig at Frenz on the 25th of April? We have videos of the night’s happenings!

…..So we had this great idea, why not shoot a video of our band’s final night’s performance at Frenz Fun Pub. Especially since it was going to be a massive jam session with lots of guest musicians. Brilliant idea.

So we borrowed a videocam from Andy Tan , it was a JVC hard-disk videocam, and Eisubius would be (ir)responsible for the whole video thingy. Brilliant plan.

Except it turns out that shooting a video in a dark pub results in a dark, Stevie-Wonder-ful-vision video. And using the onboard microphone gives you a it’s-a-cheap-crappy-microphone sound. And having a bunch of drinking buddies hold the videocam ensures recording mayhem. AND they get their monkey friends to make monkey faces at the camera. And the wisecracks…….sheesh, whose stupid idea was this whole thing anyway?

And after the said crappy video is shot, just htf (how, close relative of wtf) are you supposed to make a usable video out of it?

JVC videocams save the video recording in a proprietory JVC format: .MOD extension. NO other effing (excuse the French, it’s me vast travelling experience showing, sorry) company uses this stupid .MOD format, and apart from me never having worked on a video before, I had to find a way to work with this .MOD thing. Long story, but I finally figured out a work-around.

Then of course htf to create video clips for youtube (seems like you either have a video on youtube or you are a nobody) and also make a DVD for them folks who were at the party and need to watch a crappy dark DVD with shit sound to recollect events.

And so anyway, if you watch the video above, you’ll know why it’s so crappy.

BUT y’know what? It was a bloody great night and a wonderful party/jam session!

Hello world!

So this fellow Adrian Tai sends me an e-mail , why don’t you start a blog he says, blaady Adrian doesn’t have a blog himself but he’s so full of ideas for others. Anyway, wtf I thought, it’s not like I have much else to do, just writing songs ,practising with the band, performing, then the day job, looking after my dogs, managing the band’s website, yes I have lots of free time, Adrian, so Hello and dammit Welcome To My Blog!