whoa

http://ampersandampersand.tumblr.com/

I'm in awe of people who can play a musical instrument. EB is learning to play the cornet, and he's getting pretty good. I can't get a note out of it.

I've long wanted to learn to play... something. At school I wanted to learn how to play the flute, but on the first day of school it was 'anyone who wants to play an instrument, over there, everyone else follow your form teacher', and me being me, I followed the form teacher with the firm intent to go find out about the music later.

That was in 1982. Hmm.

So. What instrument to choose? My friend P is learning to play the guitar, with great success. Didn't start until a couple of years ago, and his tutor says that he's the only student who actually practices between lessons. P says it's because he's actually paying for it himself.

Guitar? Nice, expensive. Ukelele then? K has put her foot firmly down on that one. Ukephobic, it would seem.

I need something small, inexpensive, and relatively easy to get a tune out of.

Tempted by the penny whistle from time to time - fits the criteria I reckon. Wonder how quietly you can play one? Practise time would have to be after kids in bed. Unless they decide to learn too. EB could teach me the notes...

busy busy day - EB to his new beginner's wind band this morning, K to her hospital appt after that, then LB to her friend's birthday party this afternoon.

Now the Beans are in bed, the house is (relatively) tidy, my wordpress blog is updated to the latest version and has a shiny new theme, I've set up a spam filter on it and, to be quite frank, I'm knackered.

Time to get the nice cold bottle of cider out of the fridge and watch some more Dollhouse.

I've watched up to episode six of season one, where everything starts getting *really* interesting. The comments might include spoilers...

:-)

happiest of happy days to the inimitably wonderful isihac, who has the excellent taste to share my birthday.

May your day* be full of cake, happiness, cake, shiny presents and cake.




* mine too, pls

many happy birthday wishes to rpdom.

the dvd arrived this morning, many thanks!

struggling to find an Orange talkplan with inclusive web browsing limits for less than £30/month - on my old plan I got unlimited* data on the blackberry for £2.50/month, but that doesn't seem to be compatible with the HTC phones.

What I want is the £20/month tariff, and to be able to bolt on some web browsing - I use my phone a lot to check internet/email (via internet) and if I'm going to get an Android phone, I really need to have a sensible data tariff to go with it!




* 250MB/month, iirc, which is hardly unlimited, eh?

looking at upgrading my mobile phone. The Blackberry is ok, but clunky and with terrible reception.

On offer is the HTC Tattoo - the HTC Hero's cheaper cousin. I'd love the Hero, but it would cost me £150 on top of the contract, whereas the Tattoo is free. Both run Google's Android OS, which looks like fun.

I had considered the iPhone too, but again, cost was a serious factor. Orange offer a free iPhone with contracts of £30/month or more, but not the 3GS model


Anyone out there got an HTC phone?

Japanese Photographer Bends Electricity to His Will

oooh, pretty.

It might be cold, but it's rather beautiful. I like our little island.



click for biggness

linked from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/01/07/tis-a-bit-nippy-guvnah/

oh, and hello, btw. This year I have mostly been partly dead of man-flu (which did include shivers, aches and cold sweats alongside a quite impressive hacking cough) enough so that I didn't make it to work today.

I'm feeling slightly recovered, but now have a hideous taste in my mouth. Which is annoying given the huge quantity of nice food in our fridge.

I hope your new year started better than ours!

Moon

Absolutely superb. Just go and watch it.

Proves that you don't need megabucks to make a great film. Hollywood, take note.

Tags: movies2010

given up on the satnav idea for now - local Asda didn't have any in stock anyway.

I was talking to a mate about photography and he was asking about the 55-200mm lens I'd used on some of my flickr photos. I did a quick check on amazon for the Canon fit for his lens and noticed they were knocking them out for about £120. Hmm. Checked the Nikon fit, same price.

Suggested to K that I'll put the asda card towards the grocery shop in return for cash, then I can complete my lens setup.

:-)

looking down from Sandal Castle

a small girl with a snowball, in search of a target

Sculpture by Sophie Ryder at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park