Ampersand's Journal

ampersand84 @ 2008-07-06T17:01:00

2008-07-06T16:13:57Z

www.richardablitt.net has started getting a bit of content - hopefully I'll have some more footage in the next couple of weeks. Now I just need to work out how to set up a mail server on CentOS.

I'm coming up to 20 hours of driving lessons, I'm still apparently on course for a test after about 30. Being able to subject my instructor to my music collection is turning out to be fun as well. (:

I'm off on holiday next week, going down to Fairford for the airshow (http://www.airtattoo.com/). Hopefully some video will follow.

Starting to consider finishing my current temp job in order to get a bit more music practice done. It doesn't seem like I'll get any more shifts finishing at midnight, but it's starting to get fairly tedious. I'm a bit reluctant to leave them wih 2.8 members of staff to cover 3 shifts, though.

eeeee

2008-05-31T22:51:31Z

Since I seem to be in work for a while longer, I decided to get myself an eeePC to replace my ailing laptop. Despite being about half the speed, it seems quite a bit more responsive. vLC can just about play the more obscure video formats that I've tried, althoughI had to add the Xandros repository to get it. Now I just need to decide on a name.

Driving is continuing to get slightly easier, I need to start thinking about taking the theory test soon.

Personality test, updates

2008-04-18T18:49:23Z

Taken from Odangochan:

My Personality


Neuroticism	57
Extraversion	21
Openness to Experience	46
Agreeableness	26
Conscientiousness	29

You are generally calm, although some situations can make you feel anxious or tense, however you are sensitive about what others think of you. Your concern about rejection and ridicule cause you to feel shy and uncomfortable around others. You are easily embarrassed and often feel ashamed. Your fears that others will criticize or make fun of you are exaggerated and unrealistic, but your awkwardness and discomfort may make these fears a self-fulfilling prophecy. You tend not to talk much and prefer to let others control the activities of groups. You tend not to express your emotions openly and are sometimes not even aware of your own feelings. You dislike confrontations and are perfectly willing to compromise or to deny your own needs in order to get along with others, however you are not affected strongly by human suffering, priding yourself on making objective judgments based on reason. You are more concerned with truth and impartial justice than with mercy. Your sense of duty and obligation is average and although you are mostly responsible you can sometimes be unreliable.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.

---
Coming towards the end of my 3 months at the cheese mine, although I'm not sure how long I'll spend there after that (the manager's under the delusion that I'm competent). Driving lessons are progressing quite well, I'm managing to get most of the way through the hour without stalling now. I've got myself a domain name, but I need to do a bit more work on speeding up the loading time. Hopefully I'll have some footage of my previous concert to upload after Monday when I've been to York again.

ampersand84 @ 2008-02-23T21:25:00

2008-02-23T21:43:39Z

Started driving lessons today (before an additional shift at work - hopefully I'll be getting overtime for this...). Didn't seem to go too badly, at least when I wasn't stalling.

I seem to be alternating between 6-2 and 2-10 shifts for the next few weeks, but I'm on the slightly more 10am to 6pm shift for the next week.

Back in work

2008-02-04T22:22:02Z

I'm employed again - I'm now being rented out as a lab assistant to a cheese factory for the next few months. It seems slightly more varied than my previous job, and possibly better paid (longer hours, at least). It should pay for driving lessons, so I may at last become self propelled.

I've got the last of the singing lessons with my current teacher coming up, since he's retiring from teaching. Hopefully I'll find another one around somewhere.

finished

2007-09-27T21:42:56Z

I'm coming to the end of a week's holiday, which was quite convenient since the company that bought the factory decided they didn't need me after the end of last week. I didn't quite make it to the full year, but managed to work for 3.14x the original contract length. I don't know how long it will be until my owners find me a new job, maybe I'll get a funeral or two to play for before then.

In the meantime, I've finally got round to sending off the music college application for next year (Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff).

It looks like I'll be moving in to the flat that my parents own later, since the current tenants are moving out. Maybe I should take a trip to Leeds to stock up on ramen again.

I've been trying out rockbox on my mp3 player. The radio still doesn't work, but at least I can play doom on it now...

Work

2007-08-25T18:25:10Z

I'm coming up to 10 months at work now (not bad for a 3 month contract), but I'm not sure how much longer the factory will be staying open. I'm taking the next week off to go up to Glasgow again for another advisory audition, probably need to take another take another week off later in September since my owners have reduced the amount of holiday pay I can carry forward.

I've built myself a new computer (named 'Alita') - an extra core makes installing Gentoo quite a bit faster. (:

ampersand84 @ 2007-06-23T12:53:00

2007-06-23T12:08:00Z

Work still continues, I've got various managers/consultants talking to me as if I know what I'm doing... There seems to be a possibility of the factory being sold, but for now I have no idea how long I'm there for. I've started trying to organise another audition in Glasgow for some point over the summer. They've paid in my cheque, so I might hear from them again at some point in the next few months.

This year's Japanese cd order managed to get through customs without them extorting money from me for a change. (: I've now got another 5 hours of Lia to add to the collection.

ampersand84 @ 2007-04-27T22:47:00

2007-04-27T22:03:21Z

I've not posted for a while, so here's a meme...

"We all have things about our friends that make us slightly envious. Not in a bad way, but in a 'WOW! I wish I had that person's hair/eyes/money/relationship/toenails/whatever!' So tell me what about me makes you envy me... then post this in your LJ and see what makes me envious of you."

Comment (including the above!), and I'll:
1 - Tell you why I friended you.
2 - Associate you with a song/film/tv show.
3 - Tell a random fact about you.
4 - Tell a first memory about you.
5 - Associate you with a character/pairing.
6 - Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
7 - Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
8 - In return please spread this disease in your LJ

------

I'm still working, coming up to 6 months since I started now. It's not a particularly interesting job, but the free cake makes it worthwhile. (:

I finished watching rahXephon, had a fairly good ending. It makes slightly more sense than Evangelion did. Currently watching Area 88 (and Babylon 5).

I've found a singing teaher in Wales, so I can have a break from going to York every two weeks. It also means I can start having organ lessons again.

Still working...

2007-03-14T22:20:24Z

I've managed to get an extra month out of this job so far, no idea how much longer I'm needed. The money's quite convenient, but I was looking forward to having some time off. At least it's light when I leave the house now.

I've been playing around with KDE4 a bit. It's starting to get into a usable state now, but most of the current kde apps aren't working particularly well. I've got round to plugging in another monitor, everything seems two support twin screens surprisingly well.

I've got round to watching a bit more of my anime collection recently, mainly Suzumiya Haruri. It was quite a bit better than I was expecting, almost like a cross between Excel Saga and Evangelion.

ampersand84 @ 2007-02-04T12:14:00

2007-02-04T12:23:40Z

I've got two or three more weeks left of work before I need to find somewhere else. I'm kind of looking forward to having a break, and not having to sit in front of excel for 4 hours every afternoon. At least I've managed to build up a bit more in the way of savings.

Borders were nice enough to send me a voucher for 15% off a book when I subscribed to their newsletter, but it's only valid until the 15th. If anyone who lives closer to a Borders wants it, leave a comment here and I'll email it to you or something.

Thing from 4zumanga:

Comment on this post and i will:

1) Tell you why I friended you

2) Associate you with a song/movie

3) Tell a random fact about you

4) Tell a first memory about you

5) Associate you with an animal/fruit

6) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you

7) Show you my favourite user pic of yours

In return, you MUST spread this disease in your LJ

ampersand84 @ 2007-01-22T21:37:00

2007-01-22T21:43:11Z

Nicked from Odangochan:

You know the Bible 95%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

I'm up to working about 40 hours a week now, seeing how much money I can get before I finish. There's not really much else going on in my life apart from hospital radio and playing the organ...

ampersand84 @ 2007-01-07T16:27:00

2007-01-07T16:54:34Z

Added a few things to the stuff to watch queue, now consists of Firefly, Kino's Journey and Rahxephon (along with a few fansubs I've not got round to watching yet). I've installed Fedora alongside Windows and Syllable on my laptop. The wireless card took a bit of persuasion to connect, but other than that it seems fairly usable.

Thinking about moving back to York or Leeds in a couple of years if I can get a job there.

ampersand84 @ 2006-12-28T23:21:00

2006-12-28T22:21:06Z

Got another one of these, I think I need more friends before it becomes interesting (or at least I need to reply to people more)...

MindMap

I've been playing round with this - http://www.slax.org/ - recently, quite impressive homw much can be fitted into 256Mb.

Going back to work on Tuesday, got about 6 or 7 weeks left. It should hopefully be slightly easier to find some work after this. MAybe I'll try to get some form of qualification in networking or something.

I has a job

2006-11-08T12:59:54Z

One of the agencies got me a part time temp job doing data entry for 3 months. It's not particularly long hours, but it doesn't involve much human contact so I'm happy with it. (:

ampersand84 @ 2006-09-23T12:55:00

2006-09-23T11:54:19Z

Trip to Glasgow was fairly successful, it's worth me carrying on with singing apparently. Now I just need to find a singing teacher can go to more than once every four weeks (the counter tenor who I was told came to Manchester is only available in York). And money.

Nvidia have now released a new Linux driver, so I'm playing round with aiglx/compiz again. It's managed to go more than 5 minutes without crashing, so it's an improvement on last time. How did I survive before I had wobbly windows and bouncing icons?

Audition

2006-09-12T21:50:52Z

I'm off to Glasgow tomorrow for my advisory audition (which is on Thursday). Would have been nice if my last singing lesson had been less the 3 weeks ago, but it doesn't matter too much.

I should be getting my own hospital radio show in the next few weeks, I've been doing an hour in middle of someone else's for the past few weeks.

ampersand84 @ 2006-08-19T23:16:00

2006-08-19T22:32:50Z

Still no response from Glasgow, it would be nice to get an advisory from them before I start having to fill in UCAS forms again... Looks like I might have a bit more to do at Glan Clwyd, they seem to want me to do maintenance on the studio.

Got the valves moving again on my french horn ready for the orchestra course at the end of August. Started collecting recordings of the pieces (Dvorak symphony #8 and something else). Apparently someone from the Halle orchestra will be tutoring the horn section, so that should be fairly interesting.

ampersand84 @ 2006-08-13T23:19:00

2006-08-13T22:58:05Z

I'm starting to like Film4, since they've been showing the Ghibli films subbed as well as dubbed. I might be going up to Glasgow in the next couple of weeks. They seem to have found my cheque, but the form's still moving around between departments. Must remember to phone them tomorrow. My congregation want me to go to Manchester, though. I couldn't really commute from Gasgow to Prestatyn every Sunday.

ampersand84 @ 2006-07-24T16:35:00

2006-07-24T15:40:12Z

Another funeral today. Probably won't get many for the next 6 weeks since it's the school holidays and the other organist will be doing the ones ot the main church...

Meme from Ohajiki

Fill this out and comment, please :
My name:
Who am I in love with:
Where did we meet:
Take a stab at my middle name:
How long have you known me:
When is the last time that we saw each other:
Do I drink:
When is my birthday:
What was your first impression of upon meeting me:
Do I have any siblings:
What's one of my favorite things to do:
Am I funny:
What's my favorite type of music:
What is the best feature about me:
Am I shy or outgoing:
Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules:
Do I have any special talents:
Would you consider me a friend/good friend?
What is a memory we have once had:
Have you ever hugged me:
Do you miss me:
Do you think I miss you:
What is my favorite food:
If there was one good nickname for me, what would it be:
What do I like right now:
What is my worst habit:
If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what one thing would I bring:
Will you repost this so I can do it for you?

ampersand84 @ 2006-07-18T21:50:00

2006-07-18T22:43:35Z

I had my Birmingham audition yesterday, not sure whether I'll get accepted there. I'll hopefully be getting Glasgow autitions arranged soon, since I'm more interested in going there. I somehow passed my training on hospital radio, so I'll be able to get my own hour on there once I'm ratified.

I'm torn between KDE and Enlightenment at the moment, favouring the useability of KDE over the shininess of Enlightenment slightly. I got caught out by the nvidia driver/xorg7.1 incompatibility when half of my fonts decided to dissappear. It worked slightly better with XGL, but I ended up downgradeing to 7.0 until NVidia bring out their next set of drivers.

I've mostly been watching Mai Hime recently. It's quite a nice variation on the Mahou Shoujo theme, and has some pretty good Yuki Kajiura in the background (:

ampersand84 @ 2006-07-07T15:08:00

2006-07-07T16:29:41Z

I'm back on Ubuntu again, package management is slightly better than Suse. Started using Enlightenment again as well. Started playing round with Wine a bit, and it works surprisingly well with quite a few programs (possibly because it's been aiming at a stationary target for the past 5 or 6 years). Quite useful for flash and console emulators.

I've had three funerals to play for this week, should cover the cost of the Birmingham and Glasgow auditions. I'm not sure what to do if I'm accepted at both... Birmingham audition has been arranged for the 17th, and the Glasgow advisory should be in a few weeks.

meme from Odangochan, and other stuff

2006-06-30T23:47:52Z

LIVE TRUMPS 1.1

watch ampersand84 fight

CREATE YOUR CARD

--
I seem to have a fairly good chance of getting in at Birmingham if I audition there (forms have been sent off, not sure whether it's in time for next term). I should also be getting an assessment in Glasgow in the next few weeks, followed shortly afterwards by an audition.

The Disgaea anime has now finished. The last few episodes got slightly better when they started following the script from the game, but it's not particularly high on the to buy list. I've seen rumours of a Disgaea 2 anime coming out as well.

ampersand84 @ 2006-06-23T17:20:00

2006-06-23T17:14:26Z

After a few weeks of a slightly unhealthy grinding noise, the power supply in my computer finally stopped working, then later blew something (the fuse from the look of it) when I started prodding it. It's all now reassembled with a new supply and appears to be working. I might be able to salvage a few parts from the old one.

I had another look at Syllable on an older computer while Kurumi was off. It's quite interesting but still fairly unusable (mainly because it's stuck on 640x480 for my Intel graphics card).

My trip to Birmingham was fairly successful, I'm now applying to do another undergraduate degree there. Manchester might accept late entries as well, not managed to find out yet.

ampersand84 @ 2006-06-16T21:38:00

2006-06-16T20:50:18Z

Don't think I've updated for a while... Got afew more weeks of training left as a presenter at Glan Clwyd, it looks like I might be able to get some work as an engineer there after that as well. (: I'm going to Birmingham next week for a consultationary singing lesson at the conservatoire.

Started doing a bit of recording on my laptop, Ardour and Jack took less effort than I was expecting to get working with a usb microphone. The main problem was the stable version of the jack frontend in Gentoo not compiling, no problems with the testing version.

Got charged customs on my cds despite them being under £36 and marked as a gift. (I can have a gift from myself, right?) I would have bought another cd or two if I knew they were just going to charge me anyway... I got a nice Maaya Sakamoto poster with them that I wasn't expecting, though. (: