RIAA and the underhanded fight

I've been reading with bemusement in the press this week that the RIAA "forced" Last.fm to hand over details of people who have scrobbled listens of the new U2 album. Nice underhanded way to try and figure out who's pirating ... on the surface.

If I was a highschooler and wanted to one-up my fellow classmates, the easiest way would be to rename a bunch of MP3s to the song titles of the new U2 album and just play them, then do a "na na na" in their faces the next day... along with a "oh, I couldn't possibly let you listen before it comes out and ruin the experience". In this scenario, it was more than likely that big burly RIAA bouncer would be walking down the high school halls intent on taking down the little scheming braggart.

Thankfully, Last.fm have come out and said that a) the RIAA never asked for this info and b) if they had they wouldn't have received it.

This made me think that the tech press was obviously tipped off from a competitor of last.fm. Great way to sully the name of a great product - make up rumours that could jeopardise your freedom and watch the rats flock to delete their Last.fm accounts before the incriminating evidence can be used against them.

There is an easy way you can see who's listened to tracked named after the songs on the new U2 album. Just go to Last.fm and do a search on all 11 songs. The RIAA can easily do this, but to leap from seeing someone listened to a song with the same name to that person being a pirate and having downloaded the track is a leap of faith that no judge would see as an obvious logical step.

Crimbo in Oakville

Well we made it to Oakville and magically had a white Christmas. It was a bit touch and go as Christmas eve was warming up and we weren't sure if the snow would stick around. As it was we had nothing to worry about.

We opened some pressies, had some brekkie and went for a Crimbo walk. We meant to walk down the ravine behind mum and dad's house, but as the sled we had Emily on wasn't all that stable we amended our course to mimimise crying.

Dan and Tiff - who were absent for brekkie and walk - eventually got back and we finished opening the rest of the pressies. Now there's even more people - Emily, Sue, Jay and Tiff - the present opening takes even longer, which is cool as that's the main crux of the day.

It's been really nice being back in Oakville. Everything here seems to be so much easier - life in general. I think as we've had a tough time of it recently at home - no space now Emily's here, me losing my job - being reminded of a better way is sort of bittersweet for me. It's something I could easily return to and it would give Emily a better life. However, getting Sue to agree to move to Canada would happen the same time pigs started flying... when did life get so complicated???

Record company rip offs

I mosied down to Fopp today at lunch to have a gander at all and sundry in the way of books, DVDs and CDs.

I was dismayed and a little horrified to discover a few things. For some reason Warner haven't been content to issue yet ANOTHER Smiths best of in two formats. They've now reissued the original singles on 7" format at £4 each!! For that price, you can pretty much buy the actual albums. Most of the b-side material is on one of the many many compilations (think "The World Won't Listen" or "Louder Than Bombs"). You need to either be stupid, a diehard Smithie or someone who can't handle listening to more than 3 minutes of music at one time to wanna buy these.

The other shocker I saw was yet ANOTHER reissue of Echo & The Bunnymen's "Ocean Rain". I bought the last reissue with four or five bonus tracks. Now they've tacked on a CD recorded live somewhere or other and jacked the price up from around a fiver to £18. That's around £13 for a throw-away live disc people - much like the Joy Division reissues.

The last disc I saw was "iSelect" by David Bowie. This was the CD that was free with the Times in the summer. The price on this throw away collection of tracks EVERYONE has? £19. That's right - £19. It's 12 tracks. You could buy "Best of Bowie" and a couple other albums and still have change from £19.

I had to leave the shop at this point. Why oh why does the music industry STILL think they can get away with these types of practices?

Expensive France

I'm so used to having it drummed into my head that the UK is so uber expensive, only a dolt would live there that I actually thought our trip to France would be a pretty cheap affair.

Where do I get my info? This place is stupid expensive. As the Euro is currently hovering around £1 = €.90 (when you actually get money converted, not the crazy quoted official conversion rate that NO ONE ever gets), you start to see how expensive things are.... like beer at €6 a pint (x .9 = £5.40), or Fallout 3 at Game is €70 (x .9 = £63!!!). I paid £29.99 and I thought that was too much.

Petrol's even pricier here at around €1.16 per litre (x .9 = £1.04) when it's hover in the low 90p in the UK. There's other things are are expensive, but not in a direct comparison. Suffice it to say, blowing €50 a night on dinner for Sue and I is a one way ticket to the poor house. I'm having fun, but for my wallet's sake, I'm glad we're only here a week.

In Toulouse

I've been blogging about it on my Emily blog, so I thought I'd mention it here that I've managed to break away for a bit of a break with Sue and Emily to the south of France. We're in Toulouse, as Sue is doing several days of lectures for school and I'm here as the manny, or Mr Mum as the case may be.

We arrived Sunday evening, and promptly went out for dinner, having checked into our hotel (pictured) and de-bagged.

Monday, the weather was rather unsightly, so Em and I waited until it cleared up in the apres midi and went for a wander, taking in a number of sights along the way.

Today, Sue has the afternoon off, so we're going to go for a mooch. The last couple of days, Sue's really only been able to leave the hotel to go for dinner, so the sightseeing has been quite minimal.

It's been nice to get away, but yesterday walking around town, I felt quite lost and dispondent. I'm not sure if it was because I was exhausted or if the thrill of seeing new cities has really left me. I couldn't even go shopping for comics or videogames because they're all in French, and I've pretty much given up buying CDs. It was just Em and I, walking aimlessly around town, stopping occasionally to take photos and to make sure Em was OK ("au quay").

Hope my "inner turmoil" bucks up by Christmas. I don't enjoy feeling down, and thought a nice holiday would do me the world of good. Maybe a nap would be a better idea?

Rudderless or just growing up?

A lot of the things in my life I took for granted or kept me grounded, seem to have evaporated in the last couple of years. It's almost like I've had to redefine who I am. I realise when you become a husband or a father you get redefined anyway, but I'm talking more from a physcological point of view.

One of the many reasons I moved back to the UK all those years ago was to do with music - music was always a massive part of my life - from cataloguing, playing, collecting, etc. The UK was the hub of all things from wonderful used record shops, a vibrant CD singles industry, a close knit collection of amazing venues and all the music I loved was UK based.

Move on 8 years later and I no longer drop £100 every Saturday down Berwick Street on CDs.

It may seem lame and materialistic, but I don't really feel I'm the same person I was, and I guess as you lose one tether or hobby you should replace it with another. I guess it would have been a good time to do something outdoors, like take up cycling, etc. Instead, I seem to have rediscovered my love of videogaming.

Oh well. That, coupled with being a father and a husband means I don't really have much time for hobbies at the moment anyway, so losing one is probably not a bad thing.

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Now playing: Simple Minds - Speed Your Love to Me
via FoxyTunes

What's going on?

Sometimes I wake up with the feeling that I will be doing the same routine - Groundhog Day - style for the rest of my life. The dread that instills is quite strong, I wonder how I get out of bed sometimes.

Part of it is stress I guess, brought on societal norms, job issues, family issues, etc. I can't really point the finger at what the rest is. Depression perhaps?

When did it all change? I remember waking up when I was younger hoping I'd live forever with the world at my fingers and a world of possibilities to explore. Now I get up, shower, leave the house, listen to the radio and fight back the tears.

Is there a definite moment in time where that last door closed behind me I wonder, never to be reopened.

Maybe I just need a complete 180 to my life, and pursue something else somewhere else.

When you open up those types of possibilities, it becomes even more depressing realising that if you could do ANYTHING, you don't know what you'd do. Be a rock star? A movie star? run a pub?

Maybe it is better the devil you know, put up with the misery of life and wait to die.

Oh cheery days.

Yet another problem

As if life right now doesn't give us enough to worry about - falling housing prices, escalating food and petrol prices, the environment, Russia invading Georgia and the fallout from that, etc.

Now we have to contend with the death of bees!

Sometimes I wonder how I get the mental energy to get out of bed. For everything that's good there seems to be at least two or three bad things happening around the world.

The meaning of life

Sitting on the train this morning, I was mulling over the meaning of life. I know loads of people have attempted this (including Monty Python) but far too often I can't get past the futility of it all.

I mean why are we here?

I can only surmise that we are here to leave the world a better place than the one we came into. Of course, this could be done on a personal micro level as well as a global macro level, depending on your sphere of influence.

Bill Gates (love him or loathe him) has given loads back to the community and made quite a positive impact on quite a macro level. I try, on a micro level, to be the best person I can be. This can be a full time job however, whether it's trying to be environmentally aware or turning the other cheek in conflicts.

In my personal circumstance, I question the futility of sitting on a train every morning to go to a job that I could take or leave to earn a crust that just about supports myself and my family.

Is this living? Is there something more?

With Emily here with us now, I wonder if she'll look back over her years when she's 70 and have no regrets, no wonder at what it was all for. As a father, I hope so. As I realist, I doubt it.

Need to up my game

Having had yet another contact let me know they're now on LinkedIn, I thought I'd do a snoop on my ex-colleagues to see where they are now.

I know the name of AOL carries a lot of weight, it's how you handle yourself when you get in the door that separates the boys from the... well unemployed.

It was with a heavy and depressing heart that I realised that everyone I've worked with seems to be flourishing since having left AOL, whereas I seem to be almost floating backwards in this great river of life.

It's spurred me on to begin anew to up my game, get a new job with a decent title and actually do some work that has a progressive feel to it, instead of filling in boxes and basically feeling underused.

Despondent

Image via WikipediaI guess some people call it mid-life crisis.

You get to a point and realise you'll never be a rock star or an astronaut and everyday forks in the road are taken and doors of options close until you either get to where you want to be or live a life of regret wishing roads untaken were taken.

I've been feeling more and more unsettled lately with just about every aspect of my life - from the pokey flat I live in, to the dead end job I really don't enjoy.

Having worked in this job for over a year, not only have I realised I don't really enjoy it or want to continue, I've also realised I really have no clue what I actually want to do. I'm not sure what is more depressing.

I've had the odd couple of jobs that I've really enjoyed, and I really went above and beyond whilst doing those, but the last few years it's really been a case of clock watching and putting in the effort you need just to survive (echoes of Office Space anyone?)

Sue keeps trying to get me inspired to move to Australia, and maybe I need a complete shock to the system like that to find my inspiration.

I really don't know, but I do know that I walk around in a haze and it just gets more and more depressing with each day.


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Now playing: Underworld - Trim
via FoxyTunes

Random sightings in London

In a city like London, stumbling across a celebrity while out and about isn't all that difficult - Rupert Penry Henry here, Krishan Guru-Murthy there.

This says not only a lot about the city, but also a lot about what constitutes celebrity these days.

The much harder game to play is stumbling across people you actually know - friends, acquaintances, etc. Meeting up with most people you know can be a logistical nightmare at the best of times, involving calendars, emails, mobile phones and random meet up points, so to stumble across one by accident can be quite refreshing.

This random sighting has happened to me now three times in the last few months. Arguably, they've all been my wife's friends, but they're people I know and can hold a conversation with.

If only all get togethers could be through the medium of happenstance, life would be one wonderful accident.

Working that Long Tail

Having perused the blogosphere yesterday I came upon the fact that an album I loved from the late 80s was reissued recently with a load of bonus tracks, taking the original 10 song track listing up to a value-at-twice-the-price 21 tracks.

So, today and yesterday, I decided to trawl my local record shops in search of "Pop Said" by those Welsh troubadours, The Darling Buds. Shock of shock, as they're not gansgta rap or in the immediate top 10, the CD was nowhere to be seen IN A RECORD SHOP.

I had no option, but to high-tail it from the Zavvi Megastore on Oxford Street and log on the web where myself and other lovers of the long tail can purchase whatever we want whenever we want.

I have to say, if I did find it in a bricks and mortar Video Game / DVD shop (let's face it, that's all HMV or Zavvi are now), I would have probably been forced to shell out around £12. A handy search of the web not only got it for me from Play.com for £7.99 but I also managed to find a number of discount codes dropping the final assault on my wallet closer to £7.00

Target acquired and next week I'll be bopping along to the grooves of The Darling Buds début effort... no thanks to the local record shops.

Depressing as...

Everywhere I look in the news and on people's faces, there's tales of gloom. Inflation here, drain on that, it's enough to make you give up.

Having read the paper today, there was a tale that blended the sky-high price of petrol with the sky-high price of food materials, with the conclusion that nothing is coming down in price any time soon. Farmers' costs are up, not enough food is being grown for food (thank you bio-fuel) and the end supermarket price is enough to make you cry.

£1.10 per litre of petrol, a loaf of bread is now over £1. It's just purely depressing, especially at a time of property depression and uncertainty in the market in general.

If this were a video game, I would have given up months ago and hit reset. Maybe the outcome would have been different.

Deal or no deal?

Sometimes you come across something so shocking, it takes your breath away.

Recently, I bought some Sainsbury's basic coffee. It was a whopping 79p for a 227g packet. How bad can it be I asked myself. It's not instant, it's the brewable stuff.

Well, I've answered that question today. It can be really really really bad. I'm not sure there's any phrase I can use to describe it, like a wine lover would describe wine, but I can bandy about terms like burned ash or disgustamundo, and that seems to aptly sum up the taste of this vile creation.

I have to say that although it was only 79p, it was 79p badly spent. I will be ditching this vile excuse for a morning ritual, and sticking to stuff that costs, looks, smells and tastes more expensive.

The Heat is on!

Made it to Melbourne to see my old flat mate Lambros.

We took in the sites and sounds and bottled water shops of the city centre and surrounding subdivisions and areas, which they call suburbs here.

The nasty thing about the day was the weather. It got up to around 35C during the day with no real wind or anything. Even in the evening, coming out of shops and restaurants, it was so warm it felt like someone slapping you in the face with a warm towel. I'm used to the UK summers where it cools down enough in the evening it gets nice. Here it goes from 35C to 28C in the evening. Not good.

I think I can personally put my hand up and claim responsibility for the drought, what with all the water I drank yesterday. It's a dodgy situation, this heat, a drought and humans needing to stay lubricated.

Today apparently isn't going to be much better, as it's scheduled to get up to 36C. I guess I've got another day of squinting and headaches ahead of me. Who, in their right mind, ever claimed this was the favourable type of weather? They must be mad!!

Mobile worries

When Sue and I signed up for new phone contracts, we both opted for 3 as you can use your monthly minutes abroad, as long as your on a sister 3 network. As Australia has a sister 3 network, we thought it would be quite handy for x-mas.

I've been using my 3 mobile to call the UK and Canada via a UK number and unfortunately my alloted minutes hadn't been going down as I was checking them. This, obviously, was leading my imagination to believe I would arrive back in the Uk to a bill rivalling the price of a flight to Australia.

Behold, when I woke up this morning, my alloted minutes had dropped by about 55 minutes and all seems well. A number of emails to the 3 customer help people seems to confirm this, so I am free to call the UK without incurring any international charges.

Hurrah!

Flight East

Arrived this evening in Melbourne, after a 59 minute Virgin Blue flight from Adelaide.

Having done the recent epic flights, 59 minutes was nothing! Didn't even take my shoes off or need the night nurse.

Virgin Blue now has satelite TV on their flights. Oddly, you can watch it free for about 15 minutes then you have to pay $5 for the rest of the flight. Good if you're flying more than 59 minutes!

During the free preview, I managed to catch a classic Arsenal match between the Gunners and Southampton. Of course, true to form, Soton lost 4-1 with LeTissier pulling out the solo Saints goal. Tickled me that I could be so far away and still feel so close to home.

Lambros met me at the airport in his much talked about over the years white Mazda 323.

There were loads of people mingling at the gate waiting for loved ones (a real oddity for me as I usually ... well always travel international and that would be a no-no!) and I was a bit concerned that I might have sailed past the guy. Not to fear, he was waiting for me near the front door.

We've got plenty of fun in store for the next few days, having consumed a couple of beers (Coopers, naturally) and a souvlaki already tonight!

Hoping to catch a Melbourne Victory football match but I have my suspicions this trip doesn't coincide with a home game.

In Oz (incorporating my frying adventure)

We made it to Oz last Wednesday and have a nice relaxing time since we've arrived.

We went down and stayed at this little fishing town called Kingston which is making it self over as a tourist attraction. It's a stone's throw from another town called Robe.

We went for lunch in Robe at this "Seafood restaurant" which got the old taste buds tingling before we even got out of the car. I love fish and seafood and all that. To my dismay, the Aussie use of the word seafood restaurant apparently means chippie to us Brits. You could have seafood cooked one way - deep fried.

Choking back the tears, I ordered a spicy chicken wrap, expecting succulent bits of nice chicken. I got deep fried KFC style chunks of chicken. Not my day.

Later we went out for a pub meal. About the only non-fried thing on the menu was a Caesar salad which I duly ordered, only to be told it was a lunch only thing (apparently no one wants a non-fried meal for dinner). I then ordered the salt and pepper prawns, and in my ignorance was delivered a plate of breaded deep fried crustaceans.

Is it so hard to grill or BBQ a nice piece of fish? What is the fascination with the deep fryer?

The other meal we had was steak. Fair enough. It came on a bed of chips with a baked potato. The veggie table then had a 3rd type of potato if you weren't carbed up enough already.

I don't actually ever remember anyone waxing poetically about Aussie cuisine, and the only remembrance is the old "shrimp on the barbie". Maybe I can amend that to "shrimp in the fryer".

Coffee in Oz

We're currently in Oz, visiting Sue's friends and family for Chrimbo.

It's an oddly warm time of the year, and every now and then a carol or a Christmas light will remind you what time of the year it is.

We just got back today from visiting friends down south in the fishing towns of Kingston and Robe.

Whilst there, I stumbled across this place called Mahalia Coffee. It's like Monmouth in London, in that they do their own roasting. According to their pamphlet, they send the roasted product across most of the country, either for retail sale or by the cup. I bought a bag of Australian Bundja Double Pass at around $18 for 250g (spot the guy on holiday!!!) Figured if you've come this way, why buy what you can get anywhere else.

In an ice cream shop in Robe, they were selling Robe Rock as confection. That just tickled me pink as I imagined oriental people describing it to a police officer.