Bugger...The amp blew up!

posted by Womble692 at 11:38

Well the new band, Cold Roses, had its third gig on saturday. Easing into the first set, crowd (more than 10 people so i call them a crowd) were appreciative and then Snap, Crackle and Pop and all i can get from the guitar amplifier is a loud feedback. O dear. Somehow get through the next 2 songs by switching it on and off for the parts i need to play and then have to stop the gig for 5 minutes whilst we get Keith (second guitarist) to give me his amp and he sends his signal from his processor unit to the PA. At the halfway interval i survey the damage to the amp and its blown the valves again, only just had it repaired so a call to the company to sort that, however its the second time its done it so new amp time......not what the wallet wanted, however the lure of amp shopping makes me smile again. Soldier on through the second half of the gig and im not happy at all with the overall sound or performance but people seemed to like it and i always maintain if you can play a gig without getting bottles thrown at you then you have done fine. Few things to sort out in the coming rehearsals like getting the rest of the band to turn down but it will be fine.

Been a long time since i last posted here, mainly because i forgot my login details. Few things to report, got a new job, IT Operations Manager for a roofing and cladding company, second week in and there is lots to do! Lot of systems and processes need overhauling, more challenging than that is the company culture, that will take time to change.

Purchased a new motorbike which i pick up on August 11th. Its a Suzuki GSXR 750 K7 Phantom (limites edition of 200). Nice!!!! Going to be a bit of a power hike from my last motorbike which was a Suzuki SV650S. K purchased a new bike as well, a new pointy SV650S and should get that this week. I had already chosen my number plate but when she decided to buy a new bike she arranged to get matching number plates, only one letter different.......hmm how cheesy is that going to look when we are out together?

What else to say...O yes we made our wedding rings!! K and I went to Cornwall and hired out a jewellery workshop to make our wedding rings. K makes silver jewellery in her own workshop and i have also had a bash at it but apparently platinum is harder to work with and requires "special techniques" (i later found out this meant heavier hammers and hotter blow torches!)
K went for a plain 3mm platinum band which i made, turned out rather well if i say so myself and I went for a 9mm platinum band in a brushed effect. K had great issues getting mine to solder and stay in shape properly, took 5 attempts and 2 jewllery makes and 2 massive gas blow torches to get it right but in the end we are happy with it which is good as it worked out more expensive than buying them. However we did make them ourselves which is special to us.

Well that is it for this post, apologies for the length and time between. just checked out the RTDL2 store and seen a few shirts i fancy.

Laters

D

Bands And Tracks

posted by Jaitu at 21:35

Last night ElDiablo and I met up with TechMaster and a few other friends to see Womble692's new band play at a local venue. We all had a good time and I took a couple of hundred photos, many of which fall into the category of 'artistic' by which I mean blurry. I'll let Womble692 go into more detail of the evening from the stage-front perspective if he wishes to. Suffice to say it constantly amazes me how he manages to make such wonderful sounds from what is really nothing more than a plank and some elastic bands.
Before heading out to the gig ElDiablo and I thrashed a couple of Aston Martin DB9s around the famous or maybe infamous Nordschleife circuit at the Nurburgring. Needless to say this was done from the comfort of a sofa and made possible by Forza Motorsport on the XBox. Anyway that little story, truth though it is, was really only an excuse to embed this clip. Imagine our racing skills to be like this only stretched over 24 miles.

A Baseball Bat Or Even Just A Big Stick

posted by Jaitu at 12:03

I hate to generalise, you know that, but *every* little boy wants a knife.
[I warn you now that this is likely to ramble].
It's wired into our genes. In order to protect and provide, to fulfil our role as hunter-gatherers we need a simple but sturdy hand weapon to dispatch large hairy beasts with. I remember when I was younger I and my friends had a collection of such things. They ranged from short single bladed fold-out pen knives to eight inch 'Survival' tools with serrated upper edges, a compass in the pommel and a compartment containing matches, whetstone, wire-saw, fishing line and hooks. My personal favourite was a plain hunting knife with a simple blade and wooden handle that I could carry on a belt in it's brown leather sheath. In my case and that of my friends, we didn't own these things in case we got into a 'rumble' or in order to start trouble and get things a bit messy. They just held a fascination for us at that age. Simple yet potentially deadly devices will always have an effect on the people that hold them. I had a discussion with ElDiablo recently in which I explained to him that holding a perfectly weighted sword or well crafted gun is an oddly pleasant feeling (apart from a shotgun on my Stag weekend the only guns I have held have been of the air or paintball variety.) For some people the feeling may be disquieting or even unpleasant but the potential held within these objects is a tangible thing. There have been times in the past that my Sister would have come home to find my Brother In Law and I sat on the sofa watching television with cavalry swords or paintball guns in our hands. Now, we may have been watching an action movie or the Antiques Roadshow it didn't make any difference. It wouldn't have happened if Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman was on though, then we would have been throwing balls of rolled up newspaper across the room and scoring hits on sick orphans, but that's another story.
So what's got me thinking about these things right now?
Is it the rise of violent crime on British streets?
Is it the thousands of people instantly thrown back a couple of hundred years in the aftermath of flash floods?
No, actually it's this: The Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife.

Almost entirely impractical and available now from Firebox for a mere £499.
It comes in it's own presentation box and has 85 'fully functional' implements, although I would imagine that when in use the knife will remain stationary while you violently rub, slide or spin whichever object you are vainly working on around it.
I could never have owned one as a young lad. I could not have afforded it and it would feel awful in your hand or crushing your lap while watching television.
Besides which, how would I ever hide *that* in my shorts?

RTDL2 Does Retail

posted by Jaitu at 23:13

For a little while now ElDiablo and myself have been working on a new side project. Using my pitiful web design skills and our combined imaginations we have begun an RTDL2 associated store. See the link up there on the new nav bar?
The shop is open and ready to take orders so please take a look at what's on offer. Even if you don't like anything you see just yet, tell your friends that the place exists and keep an eye on it as there are plenty more designs in the works. For now we are concentrating on (we think) simple reasonably priced products although we have the capacity to provide other more divers product lines. There will also be more in the way of lady-centric goods appearing over time.

Stick A Few Sequins On It

posted by Jaitu at 01:21

I've made a few changes to the site layout.

Most noticeable is the navigation bar under the page title. You'll also notice that the links it holds are mostly useless to you right now. This will change over time.
For some reason the page area is now a little bit wider than before and I can't see why. Anyway it's late now and I'm tired so it can wait.

Damn Domain Hosts

posted by Jaitu at 22:29

RTDL2 .NET is offline again. This is happening too often.
I can't even log into the control panel to check a status.

I've been in touch with PCHighway to complain and find out whats going on.

I've also started to resurect the .COM (lost since DomainBuster imploded last year) and get it transfered to a new hosting agreement with GoDaddy.com. If that goes okay I'll maybe look at moving the .NET to the same location.

Some Justice

posted by Jaitu at 18:23

Not just the title to one of my favourite tracks of the early 90's by Urban Shakedown but an apt title for my first post in a couple of months.

Regular readers of RTDL2 (if such people exist) might remember my tale of criminally poor fashion sense. A couple of weeks ago a story ran in the press stating that the public could no longer report such crimes directly to the Police and that they would no longer be investigating unless the Banks involved reported it to them.
I was pleasantly surprised therefore to get a phone call a few days later from Dagenham CID. It turns out they had confiscated a personal computer during an investigation and that my credit card details were amongst hundreds of others held on it. They asked if I had seen any unusual activity and I told them the whole sorry story. When I mentioned the name Tim Chuk the officer responded, "That's the Fella."
At the end of the conversation the Police apologised for taking up my time to which I replied that it was fine and I was glad to hear something was being done about it to which he added " eventually".

Anyway, You Tube won't let me embed the Some Justice clip so here's the link again and a few choice morsels to bring back some memories. I still have all of these on 12" vinyl except the last one which was one of my absolute favourites and which I foolishly lent to someone I am no longer in touch with.

Everybody do the jumpy two-step now.

Sonz Of A Loop Da Loop Era - Far Out


2 Bad Mice - Bombscare


The Night Writers - Let The Music Use You