Now the Sinclair ZX Spectrum exposed me to the glories of colour and sound. I had a massive 16K to play with and the sounds produced could put a doorbell to shame, but to me it was seventh heaven. The more I played games on the Spectrum, or Speccy as we called them back then, the more I loved it. When Manic Miner was released, I was forced to get a 32K upgrade to my Speccy just to play the game. Now I had a massive 48K of memory to play with, the world was my lobster. I can remember my Dad poking his head round the door, or more than one occasion and ask me when I was going to stop playing games and do something serious. After having my Speccy for a year, I was indeed beginning to get bored. I began wondering how these great pieces of software worked.

I remember printing out all the code to a game based around the arcade classic Joust which was by Rabbit Software. Now let me tell you this was thousands of lines of code which I printed on my Alphacom printer. This printer was thermal based (very similar to the old fax machines) and burnt the text on special paper. The printer probably printed around 4 or 5 lines per minute. As you can imagine it took a while. So here I was with many feet of source code which I didn't understand. I finally managed to make some sense of the code, but it didn't really do me any good, I don't think I was destined to program in Assembler. I was very adept at programming in Sinclair Basic and managed to write a game called Dyke. A friend of mine transposed Rains Drops Keep Falling on your Head in to Basic for inclusion in the program. This was my first taste of completing a project and I loved it.

This was an exciting time for computer users. Computers were being released all the time for the home market. I managed to get many computers and learned tons of stuff that would stand me in good stead later on. From memory, the computers I had during this time were; Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Texas TI-99/4A, Mattel Aquarius; Sord M5; Commodore Vic20; Atari ST520FM and probably a few more. Using all these different computers gave me a grounding in picking up technology and getting it to work very quickly, which is something I still do to this day.

That about wraps it up for this era. Probably the next big thing was buying my first PC computer and what lead up to it. But that's more for a different time. To be continued...
posted by Colin Meeks at 11:28 AM

Now I was never a really big Clash fan. I liked the majority of their hits and when I listen to them now, I still get that nostalgic wave of euphoria. Things were just so raw and simple back then. I admittedly had a pang of sorrow when I heard Joe Strummer, the former lead singer died (now I was thinking this only happened a few months ago, but it was December 2002) at the early age of 50. I recently acquired two of the CDs he did with the Mescalero, Global a Go-Go and Rock Art and the X-Ray Style. I have to say these are absolutely excellent CDs and thoroughly deserve adding to your collection. I see there is also another one to add to my collection, Streetcore, which was released after Joe's passing. Definitely one for me to pick up to complete the collection. Both the CDs I have contain an eclectic collection of tracks with many different musical influences.

It's sad that he's no longer with us, but he leaves a legacy of music that will not be forgotten.
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:38 AM

Tax season is upon us and once again it looks like we'll be going to H&R Block to have them done. Every year I say I'm going to do our own tax returns and every year off we trot to H&R Block. I'm fed up with people saying how easy they are to do, especially the TV commercials that show a man clicking a few buttons on the computer and hey presto, all done. It's just not like that. I bought a piece of software that was meant to make tax returns as easy as 1,2,3.... I sat down with the pile of pre-requisite paperwork to punch all the figures into the empty boxes on the computer screen, but by the time I got to 5,6 and 7... I had so many unanswerable questions, that I finally admitted defeat around 11pm. My other worry is that I'll not claim a deduction I'm entitle to, or even worse claim something by mistake and have Messieurs Tax People come after me for the mis-filed amount.

I'm touching large chunks of wood that we'll actually get a refund this year. Just enough to pay for the stupid software I bought, would be a start :-)
posted by Colin Meeks at 1:32 PM

Now I won't lay claim to that particular witisism, that would be the work of Oscar Wilde, but it did get me thinking. Over the last 100 years we've had many writers who have written what we consider today as classics. Charles Dickens, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and even J.R.R. Tolkein, but who are we going to consider as the classics authors in a 100 years from now. I suppose you could consider J K Rowling, for her Harry Potter series, but I think that's pushing it a bit. Now I must admit, I've only ever read a few books that you could think of as classics, but I can't think of a single book by a contemporary author that I would even put forward as a classic of tomorrow.

Now I know it's hard to envisage things 100 years from now, but lets just hope we have something more to promote our generation than Harry Potter.
posted by Colin Meeks at 7:46 AM

Snow sucks the big one. Now I used to love snow. I loved the crunchy sounds under foot. The clean, bright whiteness of it all. The way it makes even an ugly place (not that Ottawa needs it) look good. However I am now a home owner with a driveway and if I have to shovel it one more time, I think I am going to crawl up into a fetal ball and go back to the egg. It wasn't too bad until yesterday when we had about 25cm of the white peril. Now this wasn't your common or garden snow, this was heavy bad ass stuff. Now I'm not that much of an old fart that I can't shovel a bit of snow, but this is beginning to really get on my...... (insert suitable word here).

The only thing getting me though this all is the though of spring in a few short months and then summer..... Ah the thrill of the four seasons. See ya when I'm whining about the heat :-)
posted by Colin Meeks at 9:30 PM

It's official, I am middle aged! Yes, I know I'm only 35 and still got all my faculties, well apart from the white stuff on me bonce, but we've gone and done, something my wife said would never do...... We've bought a minivan. I can hear the collective jaws of single men all over the world dropping to the floor, and hear the weeping cries of the boy racers in their hot wheels, but sometimes a man has to do, what a man has to do. It's a sad day, when you choose practicality over looks and fortunately where the wife is concern I got both, but that's a different story. Mmmm choosing a wife, practical? Whatever does that mean? Anyway I digress. So now the Canadian Family Meeks are in a nice house, with a nice car............mmmm whatever next :-)
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:36 AM

Music is a funny thing. It's hard to believe you can get 2 such diverse music talents onto one album, but DJ DangerMouse has managed to do it with rapper Jay-Z and the Beatles. He's also managed to get himself into hot water, as the Beatles were not impressed and forced him to desist distribution. Although only intended as a promo release, with a 3,000 copy pressing, I would imagine many more people now have a copy thanks to Illegal Art amongst other sources.

What this DJ has done is sample to bits the Beatles White Album and fused these samples together with Jay-Zs Black Album, creating a very interesting album in the process. Now I'm in no way a hip-hop fan, but I find this album very interesting and also strangely familiar. Don't think for one minute you are going to hear a complete Beatles song mixed with a Jay-Z one, is much more subtle than that, but it's a very pleasurable experience and has certainly opened my eyes to hip-hop, or rather means I'll not discount hip-hop as I'd done before when searching for new music.
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:37 AM

Endle the Wook was often mistook,
for Bydle who was the King.
But the one way you could tell them apart,
Was Bydle was able to sing.
posted by Colin Meeks at 7:40 AM

I spend a good deal of my time either trawling the web, programming or designing websites. Sometimes I find a tool that bowls me over and makes me wish I'd found it a lot sooner. This tool is PureBasic. Basically (no pun intended), PureBasic is a basic compiler, but with a huge difference. It compiles code down to fraction of other mainstay development languages like Delphi or other non runtime dependent languages.

I took a non visual program I'd written in Delphi that compiled down to 700K and rewrote it in PureBasic. The result was a 7K executable. Yes 100th the size of my Delphi app. Now I'm sure this isn't going to be the norm, but hey it's a helluva saving. Now I know, with machines as powerful as they are, this isn't really a major benefit, but I'm of the old school, someone who still likes to optimize code as much as I can before releasing. PureBasic does this magic feat by producing assembly language from the basic code you write and then compile this to a final executable. Another example that comes with PureBasic is a web server that compiles down to 17K. Now admittedly this isn't a fully function web server, but it serves HTML and graphics all the same.

I'm gonna be spending quite a bit of time playing with PureBasic over the next few months and hope to develop some kind of fully fledged product to really put it through it's paces. It's sure nice to get excited about a programming language again. I haven't felt this excited since discovering Python.

Anyway PureBasic is on 59 Euros or around CAN $100. I played with the demo for a while and also hung around on the support forum to get a feel of the languages popularity. The forums are heavily populated and there's many willing users ready to help. I gave it my ultimate approval... I bought it.
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:27 AM

Millions of women are going to hate me, but Valentines day sucks. But lads, if you think it sucks in the UK, it really sucks here in Canada. At least in the UK, it's a sometimes needed push to tell the one you're with that you love them. Here in Canada it's an enormous marketing exercise. Not only do you buy cards for your significant other, but you buy cards, candies and gifts for your children and your children buy cards, candies and gifts for their friends and in some cases for their teachers. Now don't get me wrong, I love my wife and kids and wouldn't deny them anything. It's just I think we should be using Valentines day to remind our significant other that we love them and not be bludgeoned into spending money that sometimes we don't have. Anyway I'm off my soapbox now and am going to see if there's any money hidden in the sofa. Have a loving Valentines Day.
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:12 AM

I'm sitting here at work, with no one in, listening to Robbie Williams and remembering when British music was at it's height. Now I'm not saying it sucks now, but I suppose the time I'm thinking of was such a glorious time. It was 1996, the time of the soccer tournament Euro '96. England were progressing well and the Britpop scene was buzzing. Bands like Blur, Oasis and Ocean Colour Scene were doing their thing and putting Britain on the map. This day in particular was amazing. I managed to get tickets to both days of an open air concert in Finsbury Park, London. I got to see one of my all time favourite bands Madness and also one of the most infamous bands... the Sex Pistols. I can't remember the rest of the bands for some reason except Skunk Anansie. Needless to say the alcohol was free flowing and the atmosphere in London was electric. All good things come to an end however and eventually England got eliminated. With Euro 2004 approaching, I'm in a different country, but lets hope the Brit music suffers a resurgence... the beer remains free flowing and England for a change win something.... I can but hope :-)
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:32 AM

As someone who grew up when home computers where just starting to come out, I love a bit of nostalgia. I used to have a huge collection of old computers when I was in the UK, but had to sell them when I came to Canada, as the power requirements are different, as is the TV standard, so they just wouldn't have worked. Slowly, but surely I have begun to start my collection again. This time, I'm only concerntrating on machines in their box, so they're easier to store and they don't get damaged.

Anyway, I've been getting most of my computers from Ebay, which has been a great source. However you need to be careful. I was bidding on something a couple of days ago that had caught my eye. There was one bid on it already for $8.00, so I thought about it a bit and decided that my ceiling bid would be $18.50. Or so I though. Now it is really important to check the bid you type in. Don't be silly. Double check the bid when it gives you the confirmation screen. I didn't and instead of a bid for $18.50 I mistyped the decimal point and instead typed a 3. So my ceiling bid became $18,350.00. Mmmmmm now that would have been embarrassing if the bidding would have heated up. I was luck, it didn't and I got my stuff for the lowly sum of $8.75. However it could have been much worse.
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:41 AM

Some days life passes by, as effortless as breathing.
Other days you feel your senses reeling.
Somedays it seems like treading quicksand.
Going nowhere fast. Getting everwhere last.
Sometimes you need to see the sun on the horizon.
Before the lid closes and you hear that clod of earth.
posted by Colin Meeks at 9:44 PM

So why create a space on the Internet and post my thoughts, when probably no one really cares what I think. Ultimately writing a Blog is a very selfish thing. I am doing this for no one else but me. Sometimes it's useful to air thoughts, have a rant and give credit where it's due. The fact that someone else may find this interesting and sometimes even funny is a great bonus. Sometimes it also stimulates thoughts in others and sometimes even an email or two from people who strongly agree or disagree with something I've written. Again that is a good thing and something that can only drive this whole thing further. Yes I may write drivel sometimes, but it's drivel I find interesting and for that I make no apologies.

Somewhere in me is a writer yearning to do something. This is my first rung on the ladder. Maybe it will enable me to finish the novel I've been writing for the last 15 years. Who knows. What this space, you can be sure I'll mention it, if it finally happens :-)
posted by Colin Meeks at 7:57 AM

When I was a kid, computers were pretty much in their infancy. True they had mainframes and mini-computers, but the personal computer revolution hadn't happened yet. Everything for me began in the early eighties. I first saw a strange machine in the library of the school library. It was a small white box, with a funny blue keyboard. Actually keyboard is probably stretching the fact a bit. It was more like a a sheet of plastic with a funny clicking sensation under each key. It also had an incredible memory. It could store 1024 characters. Actually it was more like 700 one the machine had actually been switched on. It plugged into a regular television set and had incredible crisp (as crisp as you were gonna get on a TV) text. It also flashed the whole screen when you pressed a button, which was an incredible aid to letting you know a key you had pressed had actually been pressed. Once you wrote a program and ran it, the screen would go black while it pondered your request. It was very much like Deep Thought. This marvel of science was a Sinclair ZX80.

Anyway I only learned all this after the fact. It was £99 for a machine in kit form or £130 for a ready assembled machine, way out of my league. A year passed and I still yearned for a machine of my own. Sometime in 1981 Sinclair launched a new machine. This machine was like the ZX80, but now came in a nice black case. The blue keyboard was also gone, but the funny membrane keyboard was the same. This machine was a major upgrade, you could actually show things on the screen while the machine ran programs, so you could actually play games on it. I was fortunate to snag one for my birthday that year. Throllercoasterer road had begun.

The first year was an incredible learning experience. I had more late nights/early morning than I can remember. I would spend somewhere between 8 and 10 hours on my computer and that was during the week. The weekend was a blur of learning to program. I can remember the first game I bought for my beast. It was competingum of games from ICL. It was one cassette in a series, but it had an incredible game on it. This games was Jupiter Invaders. The game consisted of a series of * characters in a random order across several rows of the screen. You had to select a * and type into the computer what row ancolumnum it was in. Man I was in heaven. It would be a while before I could write a game that good, I can remember thinking.

As the months progressed, some incredible games came out for the ZX81. Now you have to remember this computer had no sound and very limited graphics. I think it was something like 40 characters by 21, with some pseudodo graphics that boosted this resolution to 80 x 42. But man there were some good games, like the prequel to Doom, 3D Monster Maze. Now this is in no way related to Doom, but the idea is the same. Move around a 3D environment, avoiding a T-Rex. Sometimes it was great just standing there watching him come, opening his mouth to eat you.... Yikes :-) Some other notable games were Frogger, Zuckman (sic) and Mazogs.

I don't think I've ever had more fun learning. But this was just the beginning. The fun had only just begun, for just a little a year after this came........... the ZX Spectrum...... (to be continued)

posted by Colin Meeks at 8:43 AM

Whatever your take on poetry, you cannot deny the following is a very strong poem.

'Tis true, my form is something odd
but blaming me, is blaming God,
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.

If I could reach from pole to pole
or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul
The mind's the standard of the Man.
by Joesph Merrick

Many of you will no doubt have no idea who Joseph Merrick was. Well let me tell you who he was better know as.... The Elephant Man. It's hard to believe someone who went through so much could write such a beautiful poem. It also a shame that it's so easy to stereotype someone, just because of the way they look. There's now no doubting that behind the cruel disfigurement was a frightened, intelligent young man. It's shame that in the era he lived, people shunned, taunted and despised him. Just wanted you to ponder on something this fine Sunday morning.


posted by Colin Meeks at 10:08 AM

It's coming up for 8am on a Saturday morning and here I sit, saddo that I am, in front of a computer, instead of snuggling up to the wife. I do have a good excuse though and it's not that someone has put bromide in my coffee. In fact it's because I'm squirting bromide in my dogs mouth. Mmmm, now let me expand on that.

Kosmo, our pet American Cocker Spaniel is a real live wire. When he had a bit of a brown out on New Years Day, we just put it down to the excitement of the previous few days and also to my in-laws being there, adding to his overload of stimulation. When however he had another attack a few hours later, we realised something was seriously wrong. We took him straight to the Animal Hospital and they kept him for a few days. He had further attacks on two successive mornings, but with the drugs they have him on, he's now stable, not having had a single attack since January 4th.

However this now means that he has to have drugs, twice a day and with our busy schedules that falls around 7am and 7pm, which means even on weekends someone has to get up early to give him his medicine. Consequently this is why I'm sitting here typing and not in bed. I don't mind really, it's just when I get up in the morning, I find it hard to get back to bed, so I potter around until everyone else gets up.

As a final aside, can I just mention that we had the foresight to take out some pet insurance on him and are really thankful that we did. Veterinary bills are not cheap and our pet insurance (PetCare) has been great, settling all claims we make within 2 weeks. Do yourself a favour..... it could happen to you.
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:19 AM

I've had a Palm of one sort or another since 1996. My first one had 512KB of ram and got a lot of use. I've migrated now to a colour Sony Clié with 16MB of ram, a colour display, 128MB memory stick and MP3 capabilities. I've been very happy with my Palms, but there is a new contender for my pocket, this of course would be the Windows based Pocket PCs.

I've used a Compaq iPaq 3950 for about a year through work and while it is a very competent machine, it just doesn't seem to hack it when it comes to everyday use. For instance, time and time again, I've left the iPaq for several days, only to try to turn it on and find it has no power at all. Worse than that, when it's finally been recharged, everything that is in it has been lost. Now I don;t know if you've ever tried recovering data from a the PC, but it's not intuitive. Compare that to the Palm. I've only lost everything in my Palm twice, and that's been my fault (putting the batteries in the wrong way round, and taking an age to sort it out. You only get between 30 seconds and a minute). However even with all the data lost, I just popped it back on it's cradle, pressed the HotSync button and watched as all my data from the last sync was restored, including installed programs. Microsoft take a lesson here.

Now I know what a lot of people are going to say "The PocketPC has some excellent games!". Yes it does, but slowly and surely the Palm is clawing it's way back. Have a look at Warfare Incorported.

With the introduction of OS5, we now have bluetooth, wi-fi, fast processors, video playing capability and all within a compact form, with batterylife second to none. I charge my Clié about once every 10 days and that's with everyday use. I'm still willing to be wooed by the PocketPC, but for now the Palm stays in my pocket.
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:27 AM

As Sting once sang, "I'm an Englishman in Ottawa". OK, maybe that should have been New York, but I'm not in New York am I, but he is in Ottawa soon, so it's sort of like one big circle, eh Sting? Anyway I digress. I've been in Canada for 4 years now, after having lived all my life (31 years) in London. I moved here to be with my then girlfriend and now wife.

This really is one beautiful city. We have 4 great seasons, unlike England, where they have two, crap (summer about 2 weeks) and crapper (the rest of the year). There's lots of open space and the people are great. Starting off in a new country is extremely difficult and getting work can be extremely difficult, but again that is a whole different conversations. Eventually things right themselves out and my life now is great.

Being here for 4 years, I'm still amazed at the differences between the two countries. It's really silly things that still pull me up, but let me give you a quick rundown on the things I've noticed since I've been here.

1. You can only buy beer at the Beer Store or LCBO (liquor store). Being used to buying beer in a grocery store or at the corner shop, that really throws you for a loop
   
2. Although Canadian English is very similar to Queens English, i.e. Colour, Organise, they spell Tyre as Tire. Yes they also use Color and Organise, but at least you see the other variants too. Not with Tire however.
   
3. The work culture here is very different. In England, you'd think nothing of going out at lunch time for a few beers. Here that would be frowned upon.
   
4. Yes we say Aluminium, they say Aluminum. Who is right........... of course..... THEY are? Yes, apparently we added an extra 'I' to fit in with something else.
   
5. Let's not even get in to Tomato, Potato and Oregano ;-)
   

Actually this list would be much larger, but I can't for the life of me think of any more. I'll add more when I can. There's also another saying, that here means you just missed something, but in England means you just made it. Again brain rot prevents me from remembering.

Anywho, this should give you an insight. On the whole, I love it here and would never consider going back to England. Who could blame me, eh ;-)

By the way, in regard to yesterdays blog, the wife said to add selective hearing to the list, but I didn't hear her ;-)

posted by Colin Meeks at 8:05 AM

No man is perfect, just ask most women. Even the ones who say they have the perfect man, are either lying to make it seem like they themselves are perfect, after all what woman doesn't want a perfect man, or they just don't know men. How do I know this. I have the inside track. I am in the know. I have studied man for 35 years (damn I look good in a mirror), I am MAN.

Now before I continue, I need to say in our defense, we can't help these traits. We were designed in Gods image, which by the way is a bloody good argument for God being a Man, but that's a whole different can of worms. However guys, we need to be aware of these, as do the women who decide they want to spend the rest of their lives with us (are you listening honey ;-).

Now where can I start. Oh yes, let's start with the number 1 of all peeves, leaving the toilet seat up. I pondered on this for a while and I think I know where it stems from. Small boys, have short legs, yes it's true. Now when it came time to potty in the big boy room, boys can only think of one thing, letting it flow and getting out, just like George Costanza and a good joke. Now whether the toilet seat is up or down, when a boy has to go, he has to go. This invariably leads to the odd droplet of you know what, ending up on the toilet seat. This would then lead inevitably to the "WHO WENT TO THE BATHROOM LAST" war cry. Small boy soon learns, leave toilet seat up or face the wrath of Parents. Now I know you can say, why don't you learn to wipe the seat after you've finished. Good question for which I have no answer other than errr I was a small man.

Secondly I think we'll cover, err, something......... oh yeah that's it, memory. With the brain the size of a planet, squeezed into a small melon shaped head, it's difficult to keep track of all the things going on inside our super computers. Consequently it's not unknown for us to have the odd short circuit or two and even in extreme cases to require a full reboot. As well as partial (some would say selective) memory loss, this can also result in the odd thing leaving our mouths which we would dearly love to Hoover back, but unfortunately once they've left our mouths cannot be retrieved. Things like "Ooh you're just like your mother", or "Are you going to change before we go out" when she's standing before you after spending the last 2 hours getting ready. The real fatal one is answering her truthfully when she asks something like "This outfit doesn't make me look cheap does it?" just before you are leaving for a dinner date (no the wife has never been guilty of that one, but you get my drift).

Finally a small tip on keeping your man in check and getting him to do what ever you want.............. BEER!. Keeping your man well oiled, will result in a happy man, great relationship and keeping him very flexible. DO NOT however over do things. Over oiling can result in major memory loss, using the closet as a toilet and even eventually a beer belly the size of small mountain. Intersperse beer with [insert favorite sport here]. This will ensure your man will not overdo the beer. He'd never want to rely on the highlights.

There you have it. Hopefully this proves useful as a guide. Mmmmmm, I detect a spark of an idea. A Dummies Guide to Women, oops did I say Dummies..... A Guide to Women for People who have the Brain the Size of a Planet. Coming soon to a blog near you.

posted by Colin Meeks at 8:16 AM

Sometimes you find what appears to be the best thing since sliced bread. You settle down with it. You begin to take it for granted. And then before you know where you are, the rules change and you find yourself waving it goodbye. No I'm not talking about relationships here, well OK I am, but not the kind you are thinking of. I'm talking about Emusic.

Sometime last year (June I think it was), I signed up to Emusic. This service was great. Download cool music, in MP3 format and burn as much as you wanted. The real killer feature was download as much as you want for a low (US $14.95 a month) fee. Now this seemed, to good to be true. For weeks I downloaded everything that looked good or caught my ear. I must have accumulated at least 50 albums worth of stuff. Then in November, after being acquired by another company, Emusic in their infinite wisdom decided that unlimited downloads was too much and placed a limit of 65 downloads a month for the same monthly fee. I wasn't having none of that, so in disgust I cancelled my subscription.

Now I don't often make knee jerk responses, but this is one that caused to to ponder. Over the course of a couple of months I re-evaluated the download music scene and to be honest, didn't like what I saw. I find US 99c still to expensive for a single track or US $9.99+ for an album, for music downloaded, considering there is no material possession in your hands. The music companies have saved a fortune on producing a CD, have no packing costs, and yet the price is slightly cheaper, or in some cases the same.

Anyway I digress. After looking around at Napster, Rhapsody, MusicMatch, Pure Tracks to name a few I found myself back at Emusic. I began to look again at the music I had first downloaded and realised that I had actually listened to around 30% of it. It was obvious then that unlimited downloads, while at first seems a real bargain, was really not allowing me to focus on the music I was downloading. I looked again at the price point and doing a quick calculation realised that the US $14.95 fee actually translates into US 23c per track. So there it was right in front of me, the service I had been looking for since cancelling my subscription was..... Emusic.

I resubscribed to Emusic in the middle of January and had downloaded my quota of music within 2 weeks (at the new US $19.95 rate, allowing me 90 tracks a month, which is 22c a minute). However I have built an online stash of music I want to download in the future and have another 2 weeks or so before I can download again. But now I actually have listened to all the music I've downloaded and have found some real gems. In some cases I have only really discovered them after a couple of listens, something I would never have done before. Admittedly they do not have The Britney Spears and Justin Timberlakes of the music scene, but they do have a whole host of classic and indeed classical music, as well as established artists like Warren Zevon, Nik Kershaw and the Kinks. They also have a whole host of new artists with some incredible albums. One I am particularly enjoying at the moment is Jesse Malin with his Fine Art of Self-Destruction album.

So there you have it. Until other download services give me as much as Emusic, I'm staying put. An exceedingly happy camper am I.
posted by Colin Meeks at 7:59 AM

I nearly forgot, as of March 1st I can trade in my UK driving license for a Canadian one without doing my final G test. Now that is a relief for me as my G2 runs out next year and I hate taking driving tests, I've already done 2 here. First I had to do a written test to get my G1 license and then I had to take a practical test to get my G2. I just hope they recognise my old license as valid, as it's the old style one that unfolds to an enormous document. This also means my car insurance will finally go down, that is unless they find some other lame excuse to mail me for something.
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:30 AM

Blimey, as you will see from the time stamp, less than 24 hours have gone by since my last past. What can I say, I'm eager. It's a strange thing, facing a blank canvas, each day trying to string together something that's not going to come across as incoherent rambling. I was going to try to pick a subject today, but suffice to say, I'm just happy to have actually made it this far.

Anyway, as I said before I'm going to try to fill this space with all things of interest to me, from music and movies to computers (yes I have to mention my main passion, well apart from the wife anyway) and food. I'll also try to give out some interesting places on the web to visit and maybe even a freebie or two of software that I'm working on.

In the meantime, if anyone has anything of interest they'd like me to throw in here, just holler or unless you are in the next room, drop me an email Colin. See you soon.
posted by Colin Meeks at 8:19 AM

Well here it is, my own little niche on the web. It's been a while in the making, but I'm trying to do this to try to force me into a regular writing regime. Hopefully I can write something that doesn't show me up, but hopefully also something that can amuse and entertain. Oh well time will tell. Welcome to the depths of my mind. Let's see how long it takes me to make the next post.
posted by Colin Meeks at 11:46 PM