I got this after a meeting with Boldport (with whom I was really impressed by the way), and just love the design behind it completely. So I had to share a couple of pictures.
Boldport: The Tiny Engineer Superhero Kit
Month: August 2015
When will David Sylvian do something new?
It has been a long time now, since he produced anything new. I wonder if anything new is going to come along from him, or if his work really is going to vanish away. That would be a real shame of course. I’d like to see a new album. Maybe not as difficult as Manafon, but something a little closer to what he did with Nine Horses, or indeed Rain Tree Crow.
To be honest I’d be happy with anything really. I’d just like to think that he hadn’t run out of ideas, or wasn’t going to produce anything new again. That would be the real shame in my opinion.
Seeing Melle Mel at the Jazz Cafe
I love going to the Jazz Cafe, it’s a great venue and very convenient too, except when there’s a tube strike and I have to walk there from Borough Market, which took a lot longer than normal simply due to the crowds in London. Anyway, that’s my rant over with for now anyway.
I went to this gig with a couple of mates who were, to be fair, more interested in it than I was. However, I do tend to go along because it’s always good to see friends, and you never know if you’ll see something amazing or not. Luckily for me, this was the later.
It was a great gig. Lots of tracks I remember in the set, and a huge amount of energy in the performance. The audience loved it and it was a great evening. So I’m really glad I went.
New things coming from Big Finish
There’s some great new stories coming from Big Finish in the not too distant future, and I’m really looking forward to them coming out. I think it’s interesting the directions that Big Finish have decided to take with some of their new ideas. It’s an interesting way to blend together the original (or as I think of it, best) Doctor Who, with some of the better elements (or more like the elements that I think are actually worth watching at all) of the new Doctor Who.
Big Finish are going to produce, or rather have produced two new box sets. The first is the story of River Song. I thought she was a good character in the new Doctor Who, and in some ways overshadowed the Doctor himself. It’ll be good to hear a whole box set of stories around her character.
The second box set is about Winston Churchill and is voiced by Ian McNeice. I thought that he was great as Winston in Doctor Who, so again it’ll be good to hear these stories.
There’s a bit of a wait for both of these, they’re not available until January next year.
Thinking about getting one of these for my Pebble
It looks like a really neat solution as a combination stand and charger. Quite cheap too on Shapeways.
WOMAD memories 3: The Portico Quartet
The first time I saw The Portico Quartet was at WOMAD a few years ago. They were amazing and made a really big impression. Of course, now they’re no longer the Portico Quartet, and they’re just Portico, which is fine. Their music is quite different now, but I still like it. However, for me I think it lacks the impact of the first time I saw them live at WOMAD. That was amazing.
One Pebble, two devices, that’s not going to work
What I really wanted to do was to be able to use my Pebble Time with two devices simultaneously. However, it appears that this is just not possible at all. The reason? Simple really, but the smart watch uses bluetooth LE in slave mode and not in host mode. Host mode would allow you to connect to up to 7 other devices. However, it doesn’t look like you can do that easily with an iPhone, and, the Pebble doesn’t have that enabled as yet, and it appears that there is little or no demand for it. Trust me to be looking for something that no one else wants.
So, why did I want it? Well, I thought it would be useful to be able to get it to have notifications from both my iPhone and my Nexus tablet at the same time. Android has a few things that iOS doesn’t, and whilst the same is true in the other direction, from my perspective that’s quite minimal.
However, it isn’t the end of the world at all. I can live without it, but perhaps I may have to think of a different way of doing things in order to achieve what I wanted.
I’ll give that some thought.
Aswad at the Jazz Cafe
Whilst I wasn’t a massive fan of theirs in their day I still liked a few of their tracks, so when the opportunity to see Aswad came up I thought, why not? I’m sure it might be a pleasant evening out. Well, it was much more than that in the end. In fact, it was an excellent evening out all in all.
The sound in the Jazz Cafe in Camden was excellent and Aswad were on brilliant form. They put on a great show and kept the crowd moving throughout the performance. I’m so glad I went now. I had a fantastic time, and I think I’d see them again given the chance.
Rail Ale 2015
It’s been a couple of years since I was on the Rail Ale train. It’s a lovely evening on the bluebell railway in Sussex and well worth trying out if you’ve never been. The format is simple. Steam train + Real Ale + Sausage and Mash supper + Jazz band. Easy.
The atmosphere is lovely, especially if you have a really nice sunny evening to enjoy as well. The crowd is all there to have a good time and enjoy the beers, of which there were many, and all good in terms of those I managed to sample.
It isn’t the cheapest evening out, but as an occasional outing it’s well worth the money, and of course, as the Bluebell railway is a charity I don’t begrudge them the cash.
My favourite ale of the evening was called “Piston Broke”, which seemed apt in some ways for a pleasant evening of beer and music.
A great night out all in all.
Finding the perfect watch face for Pebble Time
So I’ve been looking for just the right watch face for my Pebble Time. I’ve been looking at the faces on the Pebble store and seeing what works for me and what doesn’t. So here’s what I’ve selected so far.
This face is the one I use the most. I keep on coming back to it and it ends up being my default. It works. It’s ok. It functions well and it tells the time. In the end that’s the most important thing I suppose.
There are some quite fun faces on the Pebble store. This is great. It isn’t animated, which is a bit of a shame. It would’ve been nice if perhaps the Doctor could’ve popped his head out of the TARDIS every now and then, but no, it’s static.
As a Star Trek fan I liked this one a lot, although it lacks colour, which is a shame for a colour smart watch. But then I found this one …
Which is in colour and is also very cool. However, I think that faces like these aren’t for me on a daily basis anyway. They’re fun every now and then, but that’s about it.
Following on the theme, the speccy face is also pretty cool and retro, but again probably isn’t that good for daily use. It is however, very good at showing old techie friends who remember the ZX.
Moving on I’ve tried some other faces which I thought would be more functional, such as …
Which, at face value, no pun intended, actually, pun intended, works very well indeed. My only issue with this, it was a little dull. Not that much fun really. I know I’m difficult to please right! So, next I moved on to …
This, which seemed like it might work, but I couldn’t settle to it in the end and went back to my default watch face, as I seem to do quite a lot.
My latest possibility is this face. Which is elegant, simple, has a second hand and the date, and looks very good. I’ll see if this one works out for me.
As an aside I’ve also tried this …
Which is a bit extreme, but, if you can master it, is great way to tell time.
So, where does that leave me? I’m still not quite satisfied with the watch faces I’ve got. I’ve still not settled on something that I’m completely happy with. I might find something eventually. I keep on looking.
When I find just the right one, I’ll let you know.
I am Ashley Elsdon 