tithe of a little time

Today I discovered that caffeine has an effect on me! In sufficient quantities of course.

This is a joyous occasion. This morning, I made myself a cup of coffee. And it was good. Thus was the beginning of my day. Milk in cup first. Coffee poured. Two packets of sweetenerrrrrr… I’m still slurring.

Then I went off to lectures. After one hour of maths, I was in serious need of serious ingested stimulants. Hence, in the cafeteria, I approached the instant beverage machine. So many settings. The unusual thing: one tab for tea, with assorted options; one for hot chocolate, no options; then: americano, espresso, double espresso, cappucino, latte, mocha, each with black, white, black with sugar, white with sugar. The world is beveragist. It was obviously an American machine.

So, since I previously thought I was immune to caffeine, I ordered myself a double espresso, black, with sugar. Finished it in about 6 minutes. Kicked in 10 minutes later. Dang.

On a sidenote, the AKC lecture for theology, philosophy and ethics today was about Christian art through the ages. Pretty pictures with lots of symbolism as one might expect. Before the end of the lecture I was already seeing crosses and triples of things everywhere. And not just from the coffee.

I now realise I have an extreme dislike of memes. Mostly this is because the main riff from the Rolling Stones’ Paint it Black was running through my head for hours. I actually like the song, but I didn’t remember which song it was until I got back. So, bad memes, bad!

After this lecture, I had another double espresso, because I am a masochist.

As a surprise for myself, I did not feel sleepy at 4.30 in the afternoon. This is odd. 4.30 is smack in the middle of British dusk. The sky turns all purple and stuff. My internal clock, which runs like a sundial, tells me that this is an appropriate time to get ready for the Zs. Today that internal clock was ravaged and vandalised by a bunch of rabid xanthines and hence couldn’t tell me nothing. I didn’t feel sleepy at all. So that’s cool. Caffeine works. Wow.

I’m also happy to report that caffeine’s supposed diuretic (urine production stimulating) qualities are not understated. I required use of the W/C 300% more often than usual.

When I got back, after dinner, I made myself another coffee. I am a masochist. Dang.

The W/C calleth.

Oh I discovered the name of that Rolling Stones song by exhaustive trawling through my music files, which, as any normal teenager will know, is as time consuming as approaching the event horizon of a black hole.

I was browsing the Internet one day,
in the merry, merry month of Ma – November,
when lo and behold,
a game that wasn’t sold
but instead freely downloadable and
it’s GOOD. And pretty.

Alright, so the above is not one of my better poems. Whatever. But it is a true story, and true stories are not usually so poetic.

Right, I found this game, independently produced by four Digital Art and Computer Science students. It’s called Synaesthete, after the medical condition, though this game is primarily focused on sound-colour synaesthesia.

At first glance, it seems innocuous enough, just another rhythm game with scrolling notes and such, and perhaps people who try it will find the actual gameplay a bit mild (at easy level). However the way the game is executed is perfect. I will not spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that this is a game for everyone (except those who experience seizures from strobe effects and whatnot), and basically it is poetry in motion.

I urge anyone who reads this to play it. It shouldn’t take up more than half an hour. Just in case you missed the link above, here’s another link to the website: Synaesthete homepage.

Here’s the homepage for the games produced at DigiPen Institute of Technology, where all four game developers studied.

My Black Ice CD arrived today. Finally. I ordered it almost – no, over a month ago. Somehow PLAY.com managed to lose my order, but made up for it by sending me two copies as a form of customer appeasement. Apparently the cover design you get is randomised, so I was rather lucky in the ones I got. Reminds me of Pokemon cards. The three possible designs for the regular edition:

I actually didn’t know that the different coloured text also had different backgrounds, since they’re quite hard to see except under bright light.

So I now have the original RED COVER which was the most popular, that is to say I didn’t see it anywhere when I went looking in stores.

I also have the YELLOW COVER which seems to have a more classsically inspired background image (to me anyway). I think it’s actually prettier. (Gasp! I used the word ‘pretty’ in a post about AC/DC.)

So, what do I think about it? Hmm… That is a surprisingly tough question.

From my first listen through, I personally think this album is —– a good one! Definitely value for money, it is their longest studio album to date. However it doesn’t feel very unique track-wise. Many tracks sound kind of similar, and I can’t put my finger on anything. The title track is a highlight of the album, despite coming at the very end… Mmm… BLACK ICE.

After the first listen through I then went through their last album from 2000, Stiff Upper Lip. Now that’s one album where they really have something. Something special. So I feel anyway. However that album didn’t do as well as this one commercially. I guess there’s something to be said about 8 year waits for new material.

Now I realize what I did wrong.

I ripped the CD with Windows Media Player (because it automatically detects the CD and thus I don’t have to fill in the information.) at 320 kbps constant bit rate, which is fine. Then I tried to listen to it using WMP.

Big mistake.

WMP’s equalizer and sound enhancing functions, are, to put it bluntly, crap. Hence, Brian Johnson’s voice, Angus and Malcolm Young’s guitars an Cliff Williams’ bass sort of blended together and mulched up Phil Rudd’s percussion.

Now I’m going through Black Ice one more time, with my trusty Winamp Media Player and a free sound enhancing tool, Hans van Zutphen’s Stereo Tool (v. 3.30). It makes a huge difference. With the default settings for Rock music, I can now hear the slight offset of Angus and Malcolm Young’s guitars in Rock n’ Roll Train, as well as clearly make out the bass, which is nice.

Ah, this is it. What everyone’s so crazy about. Why this album exploded onto the music scene at No. 1 in 29 countries. This is AC/DC at it’s best. Brian Johnson’s vocals sound as good as they ever did (probably due to him kicking the cigarette habit in 2004). Guitars seem a little blues flavoured throughout the album, or maybe it’s just Stormy May Day since Angus Young plays slide for that one.

This is a great, solid album. I can’t believe I almost put it down due to Microsoft skimping on their software. Well, it doesn’t really come as any surprise, considering how they released Vista with so much bloat on it. God that sidebar… and the dock… my CPU was constantly running at 40% before I turned those things off. Aero is bad. Period.

Highlights include Black Ice, Decibel (personal fave), She Likes Rock n’ Roll, and the aforementioned Stormy May Day. The others are good too, but I like these four the most.

So, I propose a toast. TO AC/DC, GODS OF ROCK, MAY YOU HAVE MANY MORE YEARS AND ALBUMS.

Five horns of rock out of five.

PS Yay for my first official review, I guess.

Toilet at three,
That’s a.m.
Smells like pee
And vomit, damn.

Guys shrieking,
Girls shouting,
Footsteps pounding,
Bass sounding.

Sleep for the weary?
NO WAY!

Incoherent,
Pissed off,
Or just plain pissed,
Everyone here is awake.

Singing old songs
Out of tune,
Like singing with an mp3 player.
Only you can hear them right.

Written after the 1st November Halloween Party at King’s College Hall. Posted 11/11/08. Yes, a ten day recovery period.