Smelly weekend of curry and synths...

Colin and Tony have been here, poor Pat's had to put up with the smell of curry from all quarters. She gets me back today but it means I won't be going up to see my mum as usual.
Cirklon's 4th input not fixed, Colin looking puzzled. No biggie. No Elka either, Tony still awaiting part but I did get chance to play and appreciate the modded Micropreset. Mmmm nice.

Didn't so much except listen to the Synthi for hours. Modularis at Leeds was OK, alas no catering this time though just a shitty veggie burger for rather too much money. We didn't stay for the performances this time.

Will be sending my Prodigy back with Tony and hopefully Tim's too. Monowave came home, envelopes seem fixed.

This evening a review (small) to finish and then back to the novel. Or perhaps I'll just veg out...

A novel is a bit like a building. Sometimes it's large and complicated, bits of it stick up but don't seem to have a purpose. Other parts are out of view and their purpose unclear. There are secret bits, signature bits, bits you always wanted to have even if nobody, including you, knows why. It's an analogy I could stretch forever but I won't. Not today anyway.

Sent out v1.0 to four readers. I know there's work to do but let's see where we get....

First draft of novel complete

Yes, pretty sure that I have a complete thing, if not completed. Sure there will be fixes from the immediate session then more general improvements to be made. But it's there from start to finish. Enough of the bits I'd planned to include so that the whole structure is recognisable. Feels good!

A lot snappier, faster and hopefully leaner than the first, this one is a mere 60,000 words!

Leptodactylus pentadactylus

So the name for smoky jungle frog actually is based on it having five thin fingers, not its penchant for a bong and jungle music. Just goes to show, well, something doesn't it?

Today, in order to try and make the week have some meaning, I may release "And Darkness Falls". Depends if I can get myself organised enough to render the 16 bit masters for bandcamp and make a cover.

In the meantime, another brew I think.

Tony has a rather wonderfully modified Korg Micropreset, which I am irrationally coveting. When he decides to sell it I'll be up there and pestering, even if I'm skint. It was my first ever synth, you see.

Yep, got organised. Made a cover, wrote some notes, only thing I forgot was describing how long an overlap there should be for some of the tracks.

http://paulnagle.bandcamp.com/album/and-darkness-falls

May try my new album with that German label Paul was telling me about. Nowt to lose, it's done and I will put it on Bandcamp at some point, assuming I get some artwork done. Lost the PPG review, was promised to someone else. Hey ho, sent Wolfgang the few patches I've done so far in thanks.

Need to find something worthwhile to get on with. Pat finally went to docs and they're fast-tracking her to some neuro guy. Another CT scan. Trying to lock away the worries.

Mean to get on with the pretend brief but may take the evening off and work on chapters 22/23 and try and bring them back on track. Just shows I should have had all the plot points ironed out before starting as subtle adjustments now are proving time-consuming. Still, getting there.

Looking at all the Octatrack comments it's clear I'm not alone in my thoughts. I'm in a positive phase at the moment and I think it's because I have worked out what it is about the OT. It feels and works far better if you use it without swapping to do things on other gear. I now see the OT as being "reverse polarity" compared to everything else I have. Instead of True=(1=1), Elektron appear to work on True=(0=0). If you lose yourself in their mindset and stay there you can be productive. If you enter our universe then switch back to using it, your mind battles the two different, opposing forces and shorts out. Knowing this I'm getting far closer to adapting to its foibles but it'll never be a machine to improvise from scratch with, like Cirklon can be.

I must be being idle, that's quite a long blog entry.

I still hate my hair, or lack of it. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Staffie Attack!

My normally quiet morning walk was rudely interrupted by an aggressive woman with her aggressive staffordshire bull terrier. It came straight up to Jasper, got in his face and Jasper foolishly tried his little "please leave me alone" growl. The thing attacked him. Jasper's never been great with confrontation so didn't know what to do, I stepped in and booted the dog out of the way. The woman then started screaming at me, calling me a pig and a lout and "how dare you kick my dog!". She continued screaming for a while that I should watch out and she'd be looking out for me. Brilliant!

I've discovered there's no reasoning with people who have just thrown themselves into a fully-fledged screaming fit. By coincidence, the next dog walkers I ran into (Max the old english) described one being attacked by the very same dog.

Hopefully the day will be calm and uneventful from now on...

Hair cut... :(

You know how sometimes you do things that, when asked why, you can think of no reason? Maybe this only applies to me. Anyway, a couple of days ago I let Pat cut my hair. I've been fighting a profound depression ever since.

A new week begins. Made a decent start on review last night, course I really wanted to work on my novel. Amusing I'm now considering a job as a postie when this is the occupation of (very lazy) "hero".

Colin has worked like a god, just spotted an omission from the new manual, something small but useful and I'm pleasantly surprised I remembered it. Hope it's in time. I haven't really read the manual in detail yet, only skimmed. Almost at v1.0, hope folks appreciate all the work.