PigPog

b3ta.com – First, the Dodo died… – Nice gag.

Working Smart: Taming Your E-Mail Inbox, Tip #2: “The most unproductive thing you can do when it comes to e-mail is to read the same messages over and over again. This has the effect of doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling your workload. Instead, you should read each message once, then decide what to do with it. Read-decide. Read-decide. This is the pattern of effective e-mail processing.”

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p>A nice, straightforward article on how to use Outlook more effectively for applying GTD to emails, though most of the ideas will work just as well for any mail program.

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Today Emma and I met up once again for a ‘rock band play date’. We met up at a nearby music store to spend a little while fondling other guitars. Both of us are still wide-eyed newbies and fancied a bit of a field trip where we could look at guitars that weren’t Stratocaster knock-offs.

I had that Wayne’s World moment as soon as we got in there – one instrument stood out as the one that will be mine, oh yes… it *will* be mine. It was, of course, a black ESP. Take a look at ESP’s web site and take a look at who their poster boy is. Even if their guitars were made with cardboard and knitting needles, I’d still want one. The M-50 was the model I went on to fondle for a good 20 minutes, as the obliging assistant, keen to hear me make a complete arse of myself, plugged the M-50 into a huge amp and left me to get acquainted. Fortunately, this beautiful instrument in ESP’s budget model, and has a price tag realistic enough to be a possibility once our bank accounts have been fed at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the store, Michael and Emma were drooling over slightly pricier equipment. Michael was getting in touch with his hardcore thrash roots by drooling over a guitar that resembled the one on the cover of the album that launched a thousand CD players, Brothers In Arms – an acoustic steel Ozark Somethingorother. And Emma had her sights set on a purple ESP Viper, a nice looking guitar, but nearly £900. We put the guitars back, I promised the M-50 I’d be back for it soon, bought a strap and a tuner to pay for our visit to the guitar playpen, and left.

Back at Emma’s we got down to business. Business had become a lot easier since I downloaded GuitarPro (thank you, ahem, ‘Mykl’!) – Emma now has a copy of the demo so we can work on our own parts easier, rather than us both hammering away at the same bit of tab. We’re still trying to learn Enter Sandman, because it’s a damn sight cooler than spending all these weeks trying to master Mull of Kintyre or Froggy Went A Courtin’. Also on the learning list now is ‘Sgt Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band’ by The Greatest Band Ever(TM), Beatallica (if you’re reading this and haven’t heard Sgt. Hetfield’s yet, shame on you, get thee over to Beatallica’s web site and get the blighter downloaded now). I’m chuffed with how far I’ve come learning these two songs, and GuitarPro’s been a great help. Being able to play along and follow the tab makes it a lot easier than guessing what it should sound like.

Over the next couple of weeks both Emma and I will be practicing at home. Once again I’d like to thank Michael for his never-ending patience with this, and to warn him of the next step in the process…

Singing.

“OOOOOOoooooahhhh…”

Rathergood.com
Joel Veitch is making a fortune doing milkshake adverts now, but this is one of his first classics – part of his misheard lyric collection.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | A-Team TV series ‘for big screen’

Ah pity the foo’ who ends up playing BA Baracus.

Sorry. Couldn’t resist that one.

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Baby koala’s survival thrills zoo

Good morning. Time for today’s moment of extreme cuteness. Koalas are cute anyway. Tiny tiny koalas are even cuter.

jwz – a stroll in the pork: “Emergency service workers had their stomachs turned when they cleaned up a smelly mess of spilled pig innards that blocked a busy Arkansas intersection for several hours Tuesday.”

Oink.

Gizmodo : Roll Up Bridge: “This footbridge constructed by the UK’s Paddington Development Corporation can curl itself up like a worm by activating a hydraulic system that runs through the handrails.”

Roll up! Roll up! Get your funky footbridge!

Since Emma and I decided that our mission over the next few weeks/months/years was to learn how to play Enter Sandman, I decided to buy the ‘Easy Guitar With Riffs’ book of the Black Album. Of course, when you’re talking about ‘guitar’ in the hands of James Hetfield and Kirk (steady, hormones!) Hammett, ‘easy’ means ‘easy for them, finger-mangling murder for you’.

For someone who couldn’t play a note three months ago, I think I’m doing OK. But I’m getting impatient. I want to be able to nail that opening riff flawlessly and sail effortlessly into the rest of the intro just enough to be able to annoy the staff at the music store we’re visiting next week. Ultimately, I’d like to be able play the song and sing along aswell, which at the moment seems absolutely effing impossible! My brain’s having to send different instructions to my left hand, my right hand, count beats, tell my mouth to start singing and tell it what to sing! My computer can’t cope with that many instructions in one go, what chance do I stand?

I’d like to say here by the way thank you to Michael for his seemingly limitless patience. He must have heard the same bit at least 100 times today and not once has he threatened to take the Strat and beat me over the head with it. Thank you, :mwah:.

I’ve blogged about Beatallica a fair bit recently, and for good reason too – they are absolutely brilliant. The other day I started thinking how cool it would be to have a fanzine that sends up both The Beatles’ and Metallica’s own fan club magazines. This thought stuck around for a while, so last night I dusted off Photoshop once again.

The result, the very carefully titled ‘So, What?’ can be found here, and is dedicated to Michael and Michael of Milwaukee.