Compatibility!

This evening I have finally realised why i don’t use a Windows based system at home. As I attempted to assist in the moving of my parents into the twenty first century by setting up wireless broadband on their computer I came across a few problems.

Firstly I had to download a driver so that the wireless adapter could speak to the computer. Then I had to set up the router and connect to the internet. All was going well, I had just shown one of them Google Earth and as I was about to leave, the computer no longer wants to talk to the wireless adapter. So off I go to return later to the saga. On my return after 30mins of re-installing the whole thing it suddenly decides it is compatible and now it will talk to one another. So my parents can now enter the broadband era.

This all made me think about compatibility of people and about relationships. Sometimes we can be like Windows and just not merely communicate with each other at all for some unknown reason. Sometimes we need a driver for us to be able to communicate properly, i.e. an ice breaker or an introduction. There is nothing worse than being in a room full of strangers who just don’t speak, when they all know they are going to be in there for some time. Sometimes we just need to speak to one and other to find out what the other person is thinking. And sometimes we are just incompatible for reasons outside of our control. Other times we can get frustrated with one another because we can’t find the means to express ourselves coherently. And at other times it just takes effort and patience to be able to sort the incoherent mess out.

God bless Macs!

“But I would not scare my pony on my boat out on the sea”

Over the last few days I have been doing a bit of work at my computer and at the same time trying to work out what music I haven’t listened to in a while.

As you go through your music collection it can be like looking through a photo album as you begin to remember when you first heard a song, or who introduced you to that album, or who you were dancing with! It is amazing when you sit down and hear a song for the first time and realise that song is pretty special. I have those moments when I hear a song for the first time and know it has that touch of magic. Other songs take time for me to truly appreciate. Other songs it is a matter of just grinning and bearing when they are are being played.

Music I suppose is a bit like people, some you know are special, some take a bit of time to get to know and others are just, “head melters”.

After having various serious conversations this week, with friends, who were debating whether men and women understand each other. Whether men really have man flu! How often you should check up on a female if she is ill! That when women ask you to do something that you don’t have to fix it, and that they aren’t necessarily getting at you! That men don’t express their emotions and how they feel! That women want men to discuss their feelings but not in a pansy kind of way! That when you do housework you shouldn’t say, “I did some —- for you”.

If only people could be as easy to catergorise, appreciate and understand as music.

If only I had a boat……

—————-
Now playing: Dave Matthews (Lyle Lovett Cover) – If I Had A Boat
via FoxyTunes

Buckfast and the Seven Drunks!

It has often amazed me the way how one oxygen atom, six hydrogen atoms and two carbon atoms all connected together can affect humans in such an interesting way. Some use a particular combination of these atoms for pleasure others as a crutch. However I reckon the use of them as C2H5OH has at the very least seven different ways it can affect a human in excess:

1) Obnoxious

We all know those who become loud and generally get in everybodies road when they have had one too many. They think they are justified and right and there is no point in arguing.

2)Vomiting

Everyone knows someone who has had,”food poisoning”.

3)Depressed and Teary

“I love you”, you know I love you”, “listen, listen, you know I love you”.

4)Sleepy

Yes we all know those who have a habit of wanting to play the, “lets catch flies in our mouths game”.

5) Agressive

“Really i didn’t decide to kick the wing mirror off”, or “that tree just decided to spontaneously snap itself in two”.

6) Horny

These are the true legends of booze. They suddenly from two hours previously metamorphose from couch potatoe, doughnut king, “I honestly have no belly”, guru to James,”you really know I don’t want to sleep with you, but if I have too”, Bond.

7) Happy

These are a rare species at the extremeties of consumption but they just sit and smile.

It amazes me that one combination of 9 atoms can have at least seven different effects. That is truly a marvel of genetics!

50 top songs for the perfect night in!

So while sitting in the pub this evening as I enjoyed a pint of the black stuff with the lads, I can’t help but see from over the parapet of the snug that on the idiot box is, “Enriques top 50 tunes for the perfect night in!”.Now apart from thinking of such geeky chemistry questions as how come there is such a contrast in colour in a pint of the black stuff, I now begin to think of my top fifty tunes for the perfect night in!

Now I think this is a very loose title, how can you get away with this in the digital age where everything is clearly defined, and interference is harder to see through!

So I then begin to start to think of different scenario’s such as:

a) Those nights after work where you just want to crash on the sofa and be in a quiet ambience with some soothing tunes to revive the soul.

b)A night in where you want to escape from the world and just merely disappear into your own existance.

c) a night where you realise that there is nothing on TV and you want to sit and read.

I am sure it was one of these scenarios that Enrique had in mind!

So as I can’t quite work out what Enrique had in mind I begin to change the question to: Top 50 songs?

This proves too long so I go to: At this point in time what songs would you need on a desert land to stop you going insane?

Then I realise that the boys need me to get another pint, of the black stuff, so they can contemplate the contrast of the head?

So onto top songs in a sort of High Fidelity kind of, NME readers be warned these songs are popular and you might still like them, way!

In no particular order that the conscious mind understands:

1) Stevie Wonder, Superstition

2)Mull of Kintyre, Instrumental version by The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

3) Beatles, Dear Prudence

4)Beach Boys, Good Vibrations

5)Cat Stevens, Rubylove

6)John Fogerty, Fortunate Son

Now I am frantically scanning itunes to see what I shouldn’t leave out! And then as I listen to six I decide this isn’t in the final cut.

6)The Killers, All These Things That I’ve Done

7)The Animals, House of The Rising Sun

8)Nena, 99 Red Balloons,

Last time I sang this one was to taunt a few Kiwis at a rugby match!

9) Men at Work, Down Under

10)Belle and Sebastian, Dress Up in You

11) Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Music for a Found Harmonium

12)Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away

13)U2, Trash, Trampoline And the Party Girl

14)Pixies, Where is My Mind?

15)Dave Matthews, Crash Into Me

As I scan my music collection it makes it harder to begin to select so I decide that 15 at this point is a CD worth. Hopefully by the time I end up on a desert island CD’s are seen in the same class as the 5.25inch floppy disc!

—————-
Now playing: The Regimental Band, Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards – Mull of Kintyre
via FoxyTunes

A Coup of Conscience!

To be involved in a coup requires one party to be so passionate about something that they decide to step up to the plate and lead.

Sometimes we believe that we are justified so much by promoting the failures of others that we forget we are not perfect. It is easy to criticise and judge but is it easy to lead!

To be a successful leader requires the ability to develop others and to inspire them, to achieve this requires communication from both parties. If one fails to co-operate you may as well be on a solo suicide mission. To achieve an effective team requires both parties to be communicating harmoniously.

To solve issues you need a plan rather than just saying what the issue is. Therefore before you plan a coup I suggest you plan and be prepared to lead. Otherwise you may need to merely coup your conscience and overthrow your own imperfect regime.

—————-
Now playing: Regina Spektor – Après Moi
via FoxyTunes

The Crutches beside the Pool!

Tonight as I attempted some exercise, I made a mistake of going to the pool during a lane session. Be warned this basically means attend and unless you are quick you will have to swim while everyone rests.

As I attempted to justify my stamina + lack of fitness I noticed a rather large gentleman who was pretty quick in the water. I turned to the lanes procrastinator and said, “he is going right and quick for a big lad”. The reply said it all, “see the crutches at the side of the pool their his sticks”.

This made me realise that sometimes life isn’t a level playing field. However sometimes it can be leveled. I have no doubt on land who would conquer but in water that is his realm.

We need to try to find our realm, each of us has one, just like the man in the pool with the sticks!

Beyond the drawing board!

To sit down and plan can at times be quite soul searching. However at other times it can be easier than the act of doing. Today is a new chapter , it is a day of reckoning. D-day has finally arrived. To step out and face the critics as well as the applause is never easy. However to sit in the office in the store room for the next forty years is also talent suicide.

It is natural to doubt, natural to lack self belief. The road will not be easy but it will be essential.

May I approach the task with diligence, honour mercy and respect. I may along the way have been a demolitions expert. May I now rebuild, renew and be a refreshing spirit.

I believe to open a door requires at least an attempt at the handle. If that doesn’t work a little gentle pressure. If that doesn’t work a little less subtle approach. If none of these approaches are attempted how can you get past the drawing board.

Friendship should be mutualistic!

To spend an afternoon with a friends wife who I have merely only glimpsed at once. Because both of them want to help me with an application form was a true act of friendship and a real blessing.

When their son came into the room and said he wanted to fly, you could just see the cogs in my head flicking through the filofax searching for a pilot. Then bingo, pilot who needs to keep up flying hours comes to mind and kid is sorted. This is what life should be about building each other up.

Later that night, went out to watch the rugby and it turned out into a rumour mill session among my “friends”, only those loose acquaintances who happened to be tuned in approached me for discussion about this. Others merely talked about it and pretended I wouldn’t find out.

Then I wondered how many times do I act like this second scenario rather than the first.

I should be a builder rather than a demolitions expert. But isn’t a demolitions expert an easier path.

Who says you have to choose it?