Flops' Friday mini blog

[muckshifter]

latin name

"of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari"


nice Gull pics

 

[bootneck02]

Well done Lucy and a good time, I hope she raised a a lot of dosh and 3 1/2 hours is a good time

 

[bootneck02]

A very proud father I suspect, and a great daughter well done to her and a good time too.

 

[Taffycat]

Congratulations to Lucy! Great job and very well done!! Really nice photo of her too.

And... Seagulls outside where I live.

They been going a bit nutty lately, perhaps it's that mating time of year.

Yeah, it's been happening here too. Along with the Spring songs and twitter of more "regular" wild bird visitors to the garden, a little group of seagulls decided to add their own dulcet tones to the mix! There was also much swooping and chasing, so guessing Spring "urges" are fueling their ardour.

 

[floppybootstomp]

No words required

 

[bootneck02]

Wasn't it great, as a person who does not realy l like modern music I thought that it was a great evening and after such a horrible ending to the last concert it was so wonderful to see the reaction of the people there and the love being displayed by not only the performers but the whole audience. Well done Ariana and the people of Manchester.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Twas about 10 years ago I compiled a series of 11 CD's comprising tunes I liked without giving a monkeys what other people thought of my choices and named the series 'DGAF'. Just revisited and compiled number 12 but I no sure about this one, it doesn't really flow but what the hell

 

[floppybootstomp]

The BBC have this thingie where you create your own Glastonbury poster but it's limited to 8 artists. Here's mine.

Now then, this is where I come across like an old farty but when I used to go to Glastonbury it was considered a little bit outlaw and if it was mentioned in the media at all the likes of the Daily Heil would declare it full of gangstas and drug dealers and hippies. But now it's mainstream and is as acceptable a social occasion as the regatta at Henley. Pffft.

I mentioned in a thread some time ago I was having trouble beating one of the big monsters in Bioshock 1 remastered and kept getting killed. I went back to the game today and found a solution to my prob - I set the difficulty setting from normal to easy What a wimp! Still, now I'm enjoying the game again, second or third time around and some years after the first play.

I also mentioned elsewhere my iPhone 4 wouldn't run the Uber cab service app as Apple, being the ***** that they are, wouldn't allow the iPhone 4 to run their software over a certain version and the latest software that phone can run won't run the Uber app.

So I bought a two year old Samsung Galaxy S6 from a friend for £150 and paid £25 to have it unlocked in one of those high street shops where the vendors are surrounded by cases and telephone accessories, sport beards and wish each other Happy Ramadan and the like.

The unlock took three days, then I went into a high street Virgin media shop and a very helpful fella sorted me a new nano sim card and I'm up and running.

I had made the mistake of not syncing all my contacts and couldn't manage to extract them onto my computer from the iPhone 4 so I'm having to do that manually, which is a bit of a pain. Still, I only had about 40 contacts in the iPhone so it's not too bad. When I've finished it's a Google sync for sure.

Still finding my way round the Samsung but liking it so far except the iPhone keyboard was a lot easier to use than the Samsung keyboard.

If anybody's interested in buying the iPhone 4 it's in as-new condition cos it's always been in a case and screen protector and it comes with several unused screen protectors, several used cases and a mains charger/USB lead. I also fitted a new battery to it on 2nd February this year which the supplier says has a better life than the original Apple battery. Old battery supplied as proof. No sim card fitted at present. £40 plus postage to wherever you are which will be about 5 or 6 quid in the UK at a guess. EDIT/PS: I'm pretty sure the iPhone 4 is unlocked cos me mate who I bought it from was using Vodafone and I use Virgin's mobile service.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I think the name of the pub was the Drum Major and it was in Bodmin. One summer evening during my years stay at Watergate Bay I drove there to see a friend in my black Bedford Dormobile-type van, 1 in the front passenger seat, three in the back. The friend I visited may very well have been me mate Bob but I do not recall for sure.

Memories of driving home afterwards around 1am, as fast as the van would go along a deserted A30 back to the bay with The Doors LA Woman turned up loud. It was quite an exhilarating journey.

My van – the same as the one Pink Floyd used in their early days only without the white lightning stripe – had an eight track player fitted, possibly one of the last few to be sold in the UK. It was positive earth which meant it had to be isolated from the chassis cos the van chassis was 0V and the player’s case was effectively live. Which , had they touched, would have made a few sparks, to say the least.

All summer long I only had 4 8-track cassettes to entertain me, all of which I never got bored with and I’m still not bored with them. They were:

1) LA Woman – The Doors

2) The Yes Album – Yes

3) Caravanserai – Santana

4) Seventh Sojourn – The Moody Blues

To drive the streets of Newquay, drivers door slid back with Carlos playing guitar very loud is really lots of fun.

Lived in that van for some of my stay in Cornwall but it didn’t survive and it ended up on a farm with 4 flat tyres and a seized engine being used as a store for cattle feed.

I think I may be in a bit of a stream of consciousness mood tonight. The night is warm and I can hear some people outside in a bit of an excitable state, they are very loud.

And me? I'm listening to Jimi's Band Of Gypsies.

 

[V_R]

Still finding my way round the Samsung but liking it so far except the iPhone keyboard was a lot easier to use than the Samsung keyboard.

Try Gboard (Goggle Keyboard) I find it much better than other keyboards on Android.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.latin

Drum Major and it was in Bodmin

Just looked this place up, is this it? Its a nightclub now.
http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101375575-the-drum-major-former-bodmin-depot-bodmin

https://goo.gl/maps/inDP9xi2mRD2

 

[Abarbarian]

1) LA Woman – The Doors

One of my all time favourites.

Glastonbury way back in the 70's ------------ ah the memories ------------------------ that is if I could ------- life was a tad hazy back then

 

[floppybootstomp]

V_R: Yes, that looks like the pub I visited but it was some time ago now.... and thanks for the keyboard tip.

Barbed One: There's a girl, ah, sorry - woman - I know who's three years older than me and she arrived at Glastonbury Festival yesterday. Me? I've had enough, 2007 was something of a nightmare for me at the festival, I actually left Sunday morning and missed The Who, I think.

Torriential rain 4 days running and suffering from PTSD at the time but not knowing it, thought I was going bonkers.

Here's one of the pix Lela (mon ami long time) posted on FB yesterday from the Glastonbury site:

 

[floppybootstomp]

There were only 4 Glastonbury Festivals in the seventies btw, 1970, 1971, 1978 and 1979. And 1978 was unofficial when about 500 people attending the nearby unofficial Stonehenge Festival heard that Worthy Farm was hosting an event so showed up there.

The farmer, Michael Eavis, welcomed them and an impromptu stage was set up powered by a caravans generator.

__________________________________________

Came across a bee, one those furry ones, a bit knackered on me patio. Dripped a blob of honey under its hooter and it started to have a sup. After a while it flew off. That felt good.

 

[Abarbarian]

Ah well I think it was the 79 and two consecutive ones then a miss and then a last one. I had free passage as I went under the alternative bookshop staff guest. I had to help set and tent up and take down as my contribution.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I hadn't bought any new vinyl for some months but coupla weeks ago splashed out on these.

At Home - Shocking Blue. From 1969, you may remember 'Venus' as covered later by Bananarama and some may recall Love Buzz as covered by Nirvana.

50 Years Of Blonde On Blonde - Old Crow Medicine Show. The band do Dylans 50 year old LP in a live show.

Santana Saturday 16th August 1969 - The whole Woodstock performance.

Nirvana - Bill Evans & Herbie Mann from 1961 a jazz LP I actually like, probably cos there's no brass instruments featured.

And two LPs from the band Live: Throwing Copper and Secret Samadhi from the mid nineties.

The Old Crow Medicine LP pictured with the Dylan original.

And this is How The West Was Won by Peter Perrett,. released June this year. Peter used to be in a band named The Only Ones.

 

[Abarbarian]

Yer wooden set up looks great with all the electric equipment. The valve stuff especially.

 

[Ian]

I'm always impressed with your kit @floppybootstomp - you do a neat job!

I've never owned vinyls - do they sound noticeably better, or are they just more fun? If you've got valves and vinyl, I guess it's fully "lossless" quality?

 

[bootneck02]

Yes great kit and looks fab Mr Flops

 

[floppybootstomp]

I'm always impressed with your kit @floppybootstomp - you do a neat job!

I've never owned vinyls - do they sound noticeably better, or are they just more fun? If you've got valves and vinyl, I guess it's fully "lossless" quality?

For me, I think its probably because its more fun, an LP cover is larger and nicer to look at when your music's playing. Plus the record deck, arm and cartridge can all influence the sound of vinyl, making it easier to experiment. Then there's the physical act of playing something on a mechanical device as opposed to just pushing a button and seeing a digitized display showing track numbers etc.

However, I wouldn't go so far as to say vinyl sounds better than digital as there are too many influential factors in play here using different recordings. I think well recorded CD's sound great, no bias from this boy. I will even confess to having heard quite respectable mp3 files - shock horror!

But overall a bad vinyl pressing is a bad vinyl pressing and a poor recording in any format isn't going to get better, is it, no matter what medium it's played from.

I will offer that I think lots of vinyl records seem to have more presence than their digital counterparts but again, this is not true right across the board.

Or maybe it's because I'm of a certain age where I just can't change my ways

And as a footnote - I definitely prefer the valve sound. I have two valve amps (one single ended and one push-pull), a valve preamplifier and a valve headphone amplifier. I like them

 

[floppybootstomp]

What we have here is a failure to understand the power required to drive a certain amount of 100 volt line loudspeakers. These amplifiers (4 x 300W combined units) have been overworked and if it wasn't for the fact the rack is situated in the schools server room - which is very cold - there's a good chance they would have overheated and died.

So we're going to fit 1 more amp with 2 x 240W, that should make things hunky dory and also increase volume across the site. Pix of audio rack in server room (that's my coat hanging on the door) also showing the server equipment.