The Killers

I am stupuidly busy both at work and home at the moment, but couldn't resist taking a moment to describe how I definitely made the right decision in preferring to see Muse, rather than The Killers (although I couldn't have got Killers tickets even if I had wanted them).

The Killers' first album was not brilliant, but had some great moments. These were good because it was the sound of an American band paying homage to the great British bands of recent times, with added swirly keyboards. The new album is rubbish - they released the best song first, and "When you were young" is the standout track on the album. Second single "Bones" is OK at first listen, but becomes irritatingly cheesy.

The Killers' first album really grew on me, but I have no real desire to keep listening to the new one. Brandon's lack of signing ability is at times painful, even on the record (think early Stone Roses records, but without the attempts to lose the bum notes in a haze of reverb and harmonies) - don't get me started on his live performances...

Must do better next time...

The M6 is open!

Regular commuters in the West Midlands may already be aware of this, but junction 6 of the M6 has re-opened. For the first time in about six months, it only took me an hour to get to work on Friday. Increasing my joy was the fact that I was able to leave early, and the journey home only took an hour as well. The least time I have spent commuting for a good six months or so.

However, normal service resumed yesterday morning. I needed to be at work by 8.30, so I left at 7am as usual. The first forty miles of the journey took about an hour (pretty standard). The last ten miles took ... an hour. I got to work at nine, and spent the rest of the day in a flap because I was late. It was definitely Monday...

New element in periodic table

A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the densest element yet known to science. The new element has been named "Bushcronium". Bushcronium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 311.

These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

The symbol for Bushcronium is "W". Bushcronium's mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly interact with various elements in the atmosphere and become assistant deputy neutrons in a Bushcronium molecule, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Bushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass." When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an element that radiates orders of magnitude more energy, albeit as incoherent noise, since it has 1/2 as many peons but twice as many morons.


[Emailed to me by one of my work colleagues - she is from Kentucky]

Who ate all the pies?

These guys did!

Shoulder pain

I have a painful left shoulder and upper arm. As far as I am aware, I have not injured the joint or the muscle, I cannot think of any funny movements, knocks, scrapes, spasms etc.

The occasional complaint I do get in my left shoulder is tension. However, I have become better at managing this, through simple things such as getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water and trying to eat well. These all have beneficial effects on one's physical, mental and emotional well-being.

But something occurred to me a couple of weeks ago - I borrowed my Mum's car for an afternoon, it has an armrest in the centre console, and I noticed the difference. I think the pain in my left arm might be tension, caused by having nowhere to rest my arm while driving my car. My right arm can rest on the door handle, but my left arm doesn't really have anywhere to go. I chose my car for reliability and because it is cheap to run (60 mpg on the motorway, almost 50 mpg even in town) - unfortunately it is not really designed for people driving 30 000 miles a year.

Still, I am making moves to reduce my commuting - watch this space...

Unveiled

I don't want to get political about it, but I have always found the veil a curious thing. Mainly because I don't understand why it is OK for women wearing a veil to walk into a bank, but motorcyclists have to remove their helmets.

One of the oft-cited reasons for women wearing the veil is that it is their way of demonstrating their modesty and self-respect as part of their devotion to God. It is a similar sort of reasoning behind people covering their head (which I believe is called the niqab).

This is what made it more surprising to see two young people in the car park at work snogging and pawing at each other. Both were young people of Asian origin, I would have guessed from the man's features that he might have been a Pakistani Muslim (at least in origin). I couldn't see the girl very well due to her headscarf.

I have never seen this before. I try not to judge (I find snogging in public fairly distasteful most of the time), but it just struck me as a little ironic - modesty v. snogging your boyfriend in public...





Off-topic: Yesterday's post was my hundredth since I started this blog!

Supermassive Black Hole

It's been a while. Busy with work and things. Managed to make time to do other stuff, not much of which involves free time in front of the computer. Saw a few friends, went to an Oxfam "Open House" event hosted by a colleague, went to see Muse at the NEC (which is why I have given this post this title - it shows that I haven't blogged for ages, but is also the title of a recent hit single for the band).

Muse are brilliant. Like them or loathe them, you have to admit two things:

1. They are very good at what they do

2. They are loud

I would have added that it is amazing that they play such complex songs as a three-piece, but they have now drafted in Morgan Nicholls (who plays as a session muso with The Streets, and was known in the mid 1990s for his sort-of-solo project "Morgan"), who plays a few additional keyboards, and does backing vocals and controls the sampler and soundbank. Still, it doesn't stop the band being brilliant.

I am glad that I took my earplugs - as a musician, I have realised the value of these in stopping your ears ringing the next morning - and I have already lost a tiny part of the hearing spectrum in my left ear (as a result, I find it hard to talk to individuals in a crowd, as it is difficult to make out their voice from the background noise). Muse use a lot of distortion, and Matt Bellamy uses a pitchshifter and a lot of treble on his guitar, so the earplugs worked their magic.

Highlights were probably the aforementioned "Supermassive Black Hole", "Map of the Problematique" and "Time is Running Out" for being great songs, and "Plug in Baby" for showing off Bellamy's amazing ability to sing while playing really difficult guitar parts.

Anyway, I am afraid I cannot be totally gushing in praise. While Muse are obviously an arena band, there was the problem that they were so far away, I felt a little detached from the whole experience. Oh yes, I have to mention the drunken (and probably E'd up) bloke who was attempting to pick a fight with the stewards when they asked him not to dance in the stairwells. He was also notable for having a fairly normal looking (and probably slightly embarrassed) girlfriend, despite being the ugliest man I have seen in many months... It is a well-known fact that you cannot go to a gig without some drunken fool causing problems.

Selfishness or incompetence?

Just read an article on the BBC News website about how hit and run "accidents" are on the increase. If you hit, it might well be an accident, if you scarper afterwards, it strikes me as being wounding with intent or even murder - definitely not an accident anymore.

The important part of this article, for me, is highlighting the number of drivers who break the law by not having tax and (vitally) insurance. Why would they stop? Although I am not against speed cameras (indeed I am in favour of them in the right place, especially the ones which clock average speed, rather then the ones where everyone stamps on their brakes and then speeds up), this issue highlights the need for more actual police to be around. I suppose that is something to be debated elsewhere, but whether Labour or the Tories win the next election, it is not something I can see changing.

The other issue is one that I was going to write about anyway - the number of sheer incompetents on the road. Now that it is cold, I am seeing people trying to drive off without defogging their windows first, people who still think it is OK to drive with a cigarette in one hand and a mobile phone in the other, people who think that indicating is optional etc. I have heard two interesting third party stories (I have deliberately made them gender-neutral, as it is not relevant to these stories):

1. Someone who said that they knew that their headlights (and not just the sidelights) were on because the blue light came on the dashboard. When it was pointed out that it meant they had full beam on, they said that they had always thought that it was just the headlights and therefore must have been driving with full beam on for months.

2. Someone who had bought a new car and was driving on a rainy night. They were driving very slowly, because the windows had misted up and they didn't know how to use the ventilations system to demist.

If you don't know how to get everything in the car to work, maybe you shouldn't be driving it. Am I the only one who, getting into a different car, will take a few seconds to find out where all the vital controls are?

Another problem is that the driving test is so far removed from most people's reality of everyday driving. I personally think that people should be retested every five years, although the trouble is that the DVLA may have trouble keeping up with demand, plus it would undoubtedly end up simply being a £-spinner. I don't particularly want a paternalistic state, but in this day and age, people are happy to take the benefits without the responsibilities to themselves and others. Consequences, what consequences?