Vancouver Art Gallery, Mashup – The Birth of Modern Culture

I was in Vancouver for a week last week and visited the art gallery. They didn’t have much on as they were between exhibits apparently. However, this was on and was interesting in some ways.

So Pebble are launching yet more smartwatches

They announced new devices this morning. Interesting I guess, but I can’t see myself getting in on this Kickstarter. I’ll probably take a look of course, I don’t think I could avoid that, but I don’t think I’m in the market for another smartwatch. Having said that, I hope that it goes really well for them. I’d like to see them do well against all the competition.

Messing around with chat bots

So I’ve been experimenting with the whole chat bot thing. Messenger chat bots to be precise. It’s a very interesting area actually. Creating a bot that can respond in a rudimentary way to what people are saying to it is quite a fun thing to experiment with. The main idea so far is to make a bot that can respond to questions for PalmSounds. My first attempts are up and running and working though. I’m quite pleased so far, but it needs more work before it’s ready for prime time.

Watching the Colony

I’ve been watching this series since episode 1, and now it’s on episode 7. So far I’m still not entirely sure what is going on at all. It seems to be about a post alien invasion world, but there have been no aliens in it at all so far and all I can work out is that there are a bunch of rebels and a lot of people trying to hunt them down.

It feels like it should be good, but as I’m still not entirely sure what is happening I can’t be certain. I’d like it to be good. I’d like there to be some aliens as well, but so far, not so much.

Arduboy (and a little retro comparison)

I got this last week, which was much sooner than I’d expected to see it. It is tiny. About the size of maybe 3 or 4 credit cards stacked on top of each other. That’s why I thought it would be interesting to see it with a Rex 6000. Of course the Rex has a lot more memory than an Arduino and is of course designed to be a PDA where the Arduino nor the Arduboy is. Even so, it’s an interesting comparison.

When I get some time I’m going to try and see what I can make with the Arduboy as you can code to it via Codebender. So that’s really the next step.

Three Cane Whale and Spiro at Kings Place

I’ve seen Spiro before but never Three Cane Whale, and of the two, Three Cane Whale were by far the more interesting. I’d never heard them before, but they had a much richer sonic texture than Spiro. I’ve seen Spiro before and they’re fun, but I do come away with a sense that a lot of their material sounds a little the same. It’s not entirely true, but if you’ve heard them a few times you’ll know what I mean.

Three Cane Whale were quite different. They were a joy to listen to and I’ve since been listening to their stuff on Spotify and really enjoying that too. I think I’m more likely to see Three Cane Whale again rather than Spiro, not that there’s anything wrong with them. Just not my thing anymore I guess.

OMD at the Albert Hall

Wow, this was a great gig. It was awesome to see OMD at the Royal Albert Hall. The last time I saw them was at the Roundhouse and they were amazing, and this gig was no disappointment.

Dazzle Ships has always been one of my favourite albums of theirs. I liked that it was an eclectic mix of experimental and pop music, so when they announced that they were going to play this and Architecture and Morality I knew I had to go.

It wasn’t the cheapest of gigs, but it was worth it. The sound was amazing, the energy was amazing and they played almost everything I wanted to hear.

Yep. I’ll go again.

Dr Who, Gallery of Ghouls

Dr Who, Gallery of Ghouls
Dr Who, Gallery of Ghouls

I’ve been really enjoying this season of Doctor Who, so I had high hopes for this story, but it just wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. Don’t get me wrong, it was an ok story, just not an awesome story as some of the others have been. It’s not like I’m going to stop getting these stories, I’m just hoping that this is blip in the season and nothing more.