A better afternoon yesterday. Admit I resorted to Martin's wonderful spacecake but whatever did it, I got a track dredged up from thoughts of childhood that's quite mellow/melodic/ambient and it uses both virtual instruments I have in for review. The result is too long for library but the first half will be ideal with a bit of trimming back (I got carried away with the duduk, you know how that can happen). Might have been inspired by a little bit of online chat first thing; the track is called "rope swing". Paul also thought one of my rambling dark tracks was OK. They don't all have to be classics I guess but I really want to give this library my best stuff...

Chuckled at latest SOS cover and wondered if it was intentional. Bammy thought the same thing. :)

Review came out OK, or at least I'm pleased with it.

Trying to work through my writer's block again today, ordered Epic World and then realised I coulda got it as download. Idiot! Anyway, waiting for Pat to go out which seems to make things easier. Thankfully she's put Holby City off now as its depressing tones seem to eat away at any creativity I might have. Only thing I hate more is Casualty. Lowest Common Denominator shite.

Think calm thoughts. Maybe do something ambient/melodic as the dark stuff is not doing me any good.

Funny day. Lovely walk in the morning then a frustrating afternoon not making progress with the library tracks. Am I trying too hard? The ingredients go in but the result is always overcooked and without flavour. In the evening went to M&T's for a fabulous meal, great night and good company. Now stuffed and contemplating my navel.

Good couple of Cirklon days. Analogue board fitted, some useful OS tweaks including note audition, mixer improvements and chase LED decay removed (the spangliness will return as a user config option or poor Colin will never recover).

Apparently I stink. Last night's naga proved too much for poor Pat who crawled out of bed around half two in the morning to take refuge on the settee. Hey ho.

Most excellent day, I now have the analogue board in my Cirklon (borrowing Colin's breakout box for the next day or so to try it out properly). Also got a few jobs done including finally fixing that LED decay (and removing poor Colin's hard work to go for a retro chase LED effect instead), mixer now has direct access and the store for scene/song seems to work just fine. A few other little details, hope to bag more today. Yay!

Some interesting stuff at NAMM, hoping it means a few choice items come my way. Synth-DIY to book. More curry tonight, I wonder? Poor Pat, she has a lot of patience, bless.

Contemplating the old sloping rack box for Cirklon as vertical ain't great. May also take Radias and leave JV at home, moving the Repeater around into the other case in its place. Will have a fiddle. Radias would be better for electronic/sequencey stuff, could leave SH-101 at home then and maybe slot in the MAM or Freebass, esp the MAM for the MIDI control that Cirklon can do. Maybe that's what I should push for today... :)

I'm sat listening to Mozart's Requiem, sipping a pint of Murphy's and reflecting on my day. It doesn't take much reflecting. At one point, during the cleaning of my studio space, I fell over and hurt my toe. A little later, replacing the vacuum cleaner, I disturbed my bong which was inexplicably still full of water. It fell and broke in half but also splashed my painting-in-progress, which made me a little unhappy that Pat had simply placed the bong on the bookshelf without, at least, emptying the foul water. That I have now done, inadvertently. I'm cleaning up, incidentally, because Colin and Tony are coming tomorrow. There will no doubt be curry but also Cirklon will advance some more and Colin will see how I work and probably sigh a bit.

My toe's aching a bit and as today is our "telly-free" day, I'm now returning to the Vonnegut I'm reading. I notice when I read dear old Kurt that my sentences get short and snappy. He really does inspire me to write more than any other writer. I wonder if that would amuse him? If so, his smile would quickly fade when he sees the number of semicolons I use.

Sent in review this morning along with screen dump. That should be that. No word from Liz but fortunately no hurry from me. Will email her towards the end of the week if still nothing. I've pottered with a few pieces that might become something if needed.

No reply from Picko re: his new track. He's either fuming quietly or doing something else.

Excellent day, surprise delivery this morning of two virtual instruments, one of which is superb. For review too so that's good, keeping me busy.