Neil Hopcroft

Around every hour there is a weird little sound, a bit like pipes expanding or contracting, only more musical. I haven’t traced the source of the sound, I suspect it is computer generated but it doesn’t seem to correspond with any of them trying to tell me anything. Its not an hourly beeper because sometimes happens five minutes apart and sometimes way longer than an hour.

Heading up to Bob & Louises party on saturday I had a weird loneliness, its not something that happens very often, but right then I really needed a passsenger, not necessarily someone to talk, just someone to be there, someone who wanted me take them to the party. Sometimes I find it hard to motivate myself into doing things, if there are other people around who want to do things theres more reason to do them.

Still, the party itself was quite fun – catching up with Bob & Louise was really good, I’ve not seen them to talk to properly for a long long time, but that didn’t seem to matter. And there were a few other people I’ve not seen for ages too. I’m going to have to be a bit more active with London people – though late night things like this are a bit more irritating for me, having to drive across town because the trains stop at 11.

Then yesterday saw me head up to Oxford for stompyboots and purple_pens leaving Oxford party. Again good to catch up with people I’ve not seen for a long time. Not that I got much of a chance to talk to some of them. Its close enough to be able to get up there for the evening, so I’m hoping to keep in touch with them better now…although, of course, Penny and Kate will be elsewhere from next week.

What are you protesting? – Parliament Square, 31st Aug, 6pm, find a demonstration you believe in, if you’ve not already applied for yours.

Come play with me

Smarter than the Nokia battery meter

Take it to the next level – Mengers sponge overdrive.

“Our job is to not panic every time two Muslims stand together checking their watches” – go and read Bruces diatribe on handling terrorism…its what I wanted to say but didn’t have the words for.

In other news I was greeted with a long face at the garage when I went to pick up my car this afternoon – he was worried about charging me so much (150 pounds) for a car that doesn’t have much of a useful life left. But then I spoke to him about it, and he was fairly upbeat about the mechanics, its just the peripherals (like brakes) that will stop it getting through its next MOT (minor leaky *something*, rusty discs, ABS sensors, etc, nothing unsafe but all things that’ll need attention soonish)…he relaxed a bit when I said that was December. Maybe I should get in as many miles as I can before then, to get the most out of it, but its not going to last forever.

Marketing for geeks

This is not the Whitby generation you are looking for

Cool ride (escapee from yesterdays vehicular links)

Microcar world

Caravan park (erm, park in a caravan)

Wholly batcars

I should give out *point*s for identifying song (or sometimes film) references in my posts, shouldn’t I?

Any Java and/or Flash developers out there interested in making us a game?

Last nights gig at Southampton was an unusual affair – it was in a rock pub somewhere on the outskirts of the town. The venue is quite nice in a pub-with-backroom kind of way, nice large stage so you don’t have to put the guitarist in the audience because he doesn’t fit on stage.

I arrived in time for Tracer, if the billing order I have to hand is anything to go by. They were awful. The kind of awful that is somehow inspiring, because if they can be not-bottom of the bill that means theres a space in this world for someone as musically untalented as me.

Next, after a somewhat disorganised pizza break, were Voices of Masada, who appear not to have left the late 80s underground goth scene, its a nice big sound, all full of reverb and guitars that don’t know when to stop. The incident with the pants and the mohawk happened sometime around here, but they deserve it for being too serious.

Then DUST, driven entirely by enthusiasm, or maybe drugs, its a bit difficult to tell. I don’t really have much to say about these guys – they’re more of the same. It was about this time I regretted not joining the pizza run.

Finally Screaming Banshee Aircrew. I love these guys, they’re enthusiastic, not too serious and have some damned fine music. Ed went on a walkabout to find the range of his wireless microphone, and the set culminated in the collection of a number of dancers from the audience to join the band on stage…somewhat depleting the crowd. The CDs are fabulous – I’ve heard them in a club context before but listening to them in the car on the way home they’ve got far more edge than live, and they’re pretty edgy in the flesh.

Todays fashion tip: don’t mix mohawk and underpants.