Milk’s Site

Gah, half of that last post didn’t post properly *sorts*. And the battery on my mobile has gone! Will be working 1-5 tomorrow, will text peeps once I can get the charger from my flat.

P.S. Take the Dr. Seuss purity test (which is funnier than the rope bondage one).

Sin on Friday was tops. Was good to see the Aberdeen crew again, chat to peeps and see some new faces out. Meh, I’ve finished all my glowsticks! That’s 80 (all yellow) used up in just over 6 months. *pouts and wonders when the next mass purchase is..* The club has been painted a dark purple (score!) and the change in entrance means the output from the smoke machine stays around longer, both of which seem to lend to a better atmosphere. Rose early next morning and hopped on the Megabus to meet up with who’s Mum and Gran had randomly decided to spend Christmas in Edinburgh. We wandered around for a bit then nosied through the castle, after which we headed back to the hotel to crash before sampling the cuisine at The Auld Hoose for dinner. Caught the bus just before 9pm back and was picked up by Dad then whisked off to the parental abode for Christmas. Had a lovely meal with my Mum’s side of the family today and will be heading over to my Aunt and Uncle’s in Fife tomorrow for Part Deux (Dad’s Family Rmx). Me so tired. Nini y’all!

I received a call this morning to confirm that I’VE GOT THE JOB!!1! I start on the 16th of January which isn’t a moment too soon considering the shit ClientLogic has just pulled on us. Last week, my specific second-line team, the network help desk, were advised that “Oh, btw, you guys have Tuesday the 27th off due to the Christmas being on the Sunday, which you would have had off anyway”. I had the whole week between Christmas and New Years booked off as paid leave so I cancelled that holiday and shifted it to last Monday (the reason I decided to stay in Edinburgh so I could attend Neon). The shift changes were confirmed by our manager and all was good. Yesterday afternoon we (and the e-mail support team) were then advised “Oh, what I actually meant to say was that while you’re not scheduled to do any second-line support work, you are required to be in to take general front-line calls.” This has totally fucked several of our teams holiday plans over as there’s already someone away off to the Isle of Lewis for a week and others have had to cancel family meets in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Luckily enough, although I’ll be at my Aunts in Newburgh for Boxing Day, we’re not doing the usual stay-over-night thing so I’ll be back in time. I would consider simply not turning up as some peeps might or will have to do, but I can’t have any more crap with the management so I can get an ok reference. Needless to say, I have been jumping with joy at getting out of this fucking shit hole. They treat their employees like shit and have no regard to their feelings or commitments. I could rant on about the specifics but you’ve already had two very long posts from me recently and I’d rather not get caught up in the whole negativity of the situation given how ecstatically happy I should be feeling right now.

P.S. “One sped up ten second breakbeat”

Only four months after the fact, but better late than never.. (Apologies if I’ve forgotten anything or have got the order of events muddled up; I’ve a terrible memory which is why I like to get as much as I can down).

Friday – August, 26th

After pulling an all-nighter (just in case) I departed my flat at 6am to meet up with and catch the Megabus to Manchester. Got a bit of a snooze in on the way down, and everything seemed to be going just swimmingly until the coach started getting slower.. and slower.. until it shuddered to a halt on the hard shoulder. Almost 2 hours, a whole host of expletives and several card games with peeps headed to Reading and the Gay Pride event later, we got going again, only for another stop lasting 30 mins for the drivers needed to change over as the replacement had wandered off somewhere after deciding he couldn’t be arsed waiting for us to turn up. By the time we arrived in Manchester our connection had long gone, but after a change of tickets for £2 each plus a 2 hour wait in a Baltically cold bus station, we were off to Bradford! Finally we arrived at 6pm (only 12 hours after departing Dundee, longer than a sodding journey to London), met up with and headed up to the Trinity Halls.

Had a cold shower (only to learn the next day of the hot water boiler switch in the kitchen >_<) and a change then headed down to Da Venue. Met up with , Gav (Mr Evil Girlie) and other peeps (who’s names my terrible memory has denied me remembering). Didn’t see any of Univaque but I wasn’t particularly upset about missing the first band of the first night of Infest. Caught all of Pow[d]er Pussy who I thought were nice and bouncy but lacking a certain special something (like Proyecto Mirage had last year). Fixmer/McCarthy were top shit, nice and shouty in an old school style, and it was great to hear a load of Nitzer Ebb tracks as well.

After much dancing I headed to an afterparty with P0rl, Gav, Paul and his Australian girlfriend (who we randomly met last Infest but who were planning to move down under soon after,) Sleepy Dan, Dave Colter (who turned me on to psytrance that night through an amazing track with an incredibly catchy hook that ended with portmanteau he had on his mobile) and a nice gentleman who provided some choons (who I believe was a Chains DJ). The lucky sods in those halls had a swimming pool and sauna available as part of the dead.

Saturday – August, 27th

Got up 1pmish, relatively early for me at Infest. Chatted with some peeps from Northern Ireland who were in the same Trinity hall corridor as I was for a bit then wandered down to the pub and bumped into various #uk_goffs including , , and . Caught all of Tin Omen who were average to good goffic industrial rock then headed back to the bar for a second round of #uk_goffs including , , , and . Missed The Azoic but I’m sure I’ll catch them again somewhere at some point.

Was hugely disappointed by HIV+ — I found their studio stuff interesting and was expecting a bit of a noizy bop, but their set was just too ambient and meh for the mood I was in, although I will have to give that whole duct tape thing a go myself at some point. Missed Decoded Feedback — only really heard them on misc industrial/ebm radio streams before and found them fairly generic, although I should properly check their stuff out at some point. Punch Inc were bouncy in a Pow[d]er Pussy/Proyecto Mirage kinda way, but I found myself getting bored yet again — the song structure got very predictable after a while and I couldn’t even be bothered dancing.

Covenant rawked. I’ve heard they were mining their synths but their stage presence was excellent with them all bouncing around and we were provided with a good giggle when Eskil tried and failed to hit the high notes in ‘We Stand Alone’. Can’t remember much of the new material apart from ‘Ritual Noise’, but my mind was wondering around that point due to a certain something inside me. ’s set was, like, shwow. A really good mix of tracks and styles, had me dancing like a loon. A trip to Chains is required at some point next year me thinks :)

Wandered back up to the halls afterwards where I bumped into a couple of the Northern Ireland peeps who informed me there was a bit of an afterparty going on in Trinity B. Headed over there for a bit where I met some peeps who were over from Spain including Erik aka DJ Further (who had lost his ear piercing plug and was using a USB cable connector to fill the hole – propa geek chic!). They had a laptop with them and had found an open wi-fi access point which they were using to LJ and p2p with ;) Eventually headed back to my room only to bump into , , and who invited me on an adventure to the utility room in which they’d stumbled across an abandoned Morrisons trolley. Drunk goffs + shopping trolley = trollied goffs. Wandered to a few more afterparties then went exploring in the Bellamy Halls with Fuzzy and Nils where we discovered The Void in the basement (for anyone going next year, remind me and I’ll show you where..). Then I headed off to crash. Zzzzzzzzzz….

Sunday – August, 28th

Woke from my slumber about half 3ish. Showered and dragged myself down to the venue. Sat outside with , , , Lee [not Chaos] and . Felt so shattered all the way through the afternoon into the evening. Missed Deviant UK and Final Selection. Caught Iris with and ; they were sounding very much like Wolfsheim or DeMesh Mode — good at that specific genre, but nothing amazing. Kiew started off interesting with a mix of rhythmic noise and rock and roll guitars but overall I feel their songs could have done with better structure or something extra like some kind of bass line or interesting vocals. Milled about a bit, froze my ass off outside talking to Mz Pink, Gav, P0rl, and others, missed the Blutengel set (not that I really gave a shit), danced loads more and was a bit silly, and then it all ended. Wandered outside and milled around randomly, found and lost Rich, then headed up with Fuzzy, Nils, Lee, Ms Squiddy and others, looking for the afterparty to begin. Nils was on the case and soon after we wandered into some halls kitchen where a couple of DJs had set up some CD decks and some peeps were boogying on down in a corner of the room. Feeling the need to expend some more energy I joined them and stayed there for a few more hours until daylight started poking through the windows and everyone decided to head off and hit they hay.

Monday – August, 29th

Got back to my room but, as the battery on my mobile phone had gone flat, I had no way of knowing when it was or of waking myself up at the correct time, so I decided to pull another all-nighter. Tip: when trying to pull an all-nigher, it’s best not to do it lying in your bed. When I awoke again the sun wasn’t that high but I showered and quickly packed everything just in case. Sat outside on the grass for a while but didn’t see Stu or Aoife so sauntered on down to the bus station where I bumped into both of them waiting for Aoife’s ride out of Bradford. Then Stu and I went home. And that about sums it up for another year.

Overall, I missed several of the bands and generally wasn’t impressed by those although there were a few magic moments, but the whole atmosphere and social aspect of it was amazing as per usual. Shouts to all the peeps I met up with at various points throughout the weekend including , , , , (I licked your card!) et al, and I shall hopefully catch yas all next year!

P.S. Stu! It’s you!

Right, so, yeah. I’ve been up to a few things so I’ll start with the latest and work backwards then forwards again, which seems sensible in an I-can’t-be-arsed-thinking-about-it-in-that-much-depth-and-those-who-get-confuzzled-can-go-sod-themselves-due-to-not-reading-the-whole-thing-through kind of sensible way.

I arrived in Edinburgh on Saturday evening with , DJ Matt and his lady friend Sarah for the last TNAC. Overall the night was rather enjoyable and as per usual much dancing was done and attempts at getting drunk failed miserably. I think I’ll just try straight shots next time. Shouts out to all the peeps I met and big thanks to for organising it all. A big up also to J0hn and Matt too, my personal glowstick refuelling team; you guys were there for me in my time of fading-glowstick need ;D, and my thoughts go out to the poor DJs that had to put up with a wonky CD player that glitched every second track played in the last couple of hours or so. and kindly provided crashspace, dank oo! Awoke mid afternoon and took a trip to see the new Narnia film with Leila and some of her friends and later on, as I had the Monday off, decided to check out Neon. Similar atmosphere to Cage but a slightly larger dancefloor and a much better variety of music, more like a cross between Cage and Sin. They played the Pendulum remix of Voodoo People which I’d been waiting ages to hear in a club, the newest Apop single, The Book of Heavy Metaaaaaaaalll!! (\\m/), plus some other misc bleep. The club was open till 5am due to an extended holiday licence but we left around 3 to get some food in us and so Leila could flop somewhere soft. (Leila; you still have my chocolate milk and assorted cheeses! ;p). Snoozed rather late, again, then turned up and we were all treated to a delicious toad in the hole by Tara. It started getting rather late (damn time!) so I was guided to the bus station and seen off by Leila. Got the 11pm Citylink to Perth where I changed over on to a Megabus where I bumped into Daz who had been down in London for the weekend. Caught up with him and eventually arrived in Dundee around 12:40. Did my usual fuck-I’m-back-in-Dundee-so-I-deserve-some-luxury thing of getting a taxi back to my flat and got back to discover that my Dad must have been over at some point as the electric cooker was now connected and I now had venetian blinds on my bedroom window. Score! Only this morning did I discover that although having used the power point to plug in the drill and subsequently reconnecting my alarm clock and resetting the time, he had set it to 12 hours the wrong end of things and I had thus set my alarm for 7:20pm so I was ever so slightly late for work >_<.

A bit of a rewind and a quick summary of the previous few weeks with some thoughts follows;

On Saturday the 3rd I ventured out with Wendy to catch Alex Barck of Jazzanova do a DJ set at The Reading Rooms. I absolutely love Jazzanova and the whole Compost Records/Sonar Kollektiv nu-jazz/broken beat sound and, although Dundee sucks on a whole, I feel rather glad to live in a place that has a club night (Electric Lady, formerly Homeless) that’s well enough connected to get in loads of top quality bands/DJs. And I will catch Mr Scruff next time he’s here having missed him on his previous visits.

Friday the 9th was a night of proper metal at Jag. Met up with and rocked out to Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maden, AC/DC, Alice Cooper et al. I hadn’t been for months but it felt so good to have a metal night free of alt rock/nu-metal/metalcore/punk/ska/emo, etc, if just to remind one what the classic stuff sounds like. I might even return next month, preferably if any other Dundee peeps are interested? That’s the problem with Dundee; I prefer both specific nights that focus on certain kinds of music, but it can be hard to find others who are interested in coming along, and general nights that play a good mix of all kinds of stuff including metal/rock and bleep, but the only thing like that in these parts is the monthly Friday night Kerosene and although that doesn’t really play newer stuff or a wide enough variety of styles, if Neon can do it in Edinburgh on a Sunday then it shouldn’t be that hard on a Saturday in Dundee. Cage, Dundee’s general Saturday night seems to yo-yo between dull and monotonous and rather good fun, but it all to often hinges on who’s out and on how drunk everyone is. To be fair, I did go out to Cage the evening after, I did have a load of fun and DJ Doug did express when I spoke to him that he has been trying to play a better variety of stuff (mainly because he’ll be doing a Versus night with the DJ from Felt, the Thursday night at The Reading Rooms at some point soon), but I’ll never forget the time he played Covenant’s Call the Ships to Port and cut it off two thirds of the way through even though there were peeps on the dancefloor at the time. Being the sole DJ at Cage he needs to loosen up, but it remains to be seen if he will change his ways like has said he will or revert back to overplayed tracks that keep the people who really care about the music away, or to playing strings of songs that keep the dancefloor empty for over half an hour.

Entropy, the punk and related genres night on Friday the 16th was bouncy goodness. I’ve said it before but punks just know how to have fun. I even met a couple of peeps, Mhari and Bob, who mentioned they’re into digital hardcore and the like, so we’re going to do a CD swap and I’m making up a breakcore/power/rhythmic noise compilation to pass on when I meet them at the Doghouse this Wednesday evening (although I’m working 1-9pm that day and have my works team night out the same evening. Argh, logistics!).

And that just about brings me back to just now. Oh, a couple of other things to note before I forget re jobs. After a strategic review, BT has decided not to renew the contract with ClientLogic (the company I work for) for BT Business Broadband tech support, instead going with a company with call centres based in Bangalore, India. That means my position will cease to exist at some point between January and March (they haven’t actually told us when). What a great Christmas present for all the staff here! (Mother fuckers). Although, saying that, while this site will be remaining open and taking on new contracts (apparenty there are companies “queueing up” to get in here), the Derby and Bristol sites with their 886 odd staff are closing down completely. Poor peeps :( Needless to say the CWU are up in arms about this, and it will sure as hell piss a load of customers off, but I doubt that will effect the decision as people who go with BT for broadband tend to do it because of the brand name and the false sense of security it gives. A brief look at ADSLguide gives the true story. But saying that, I’m actually waiting to hear back from Abertay Uni (the smallest Uni in the UK, random fact) re a job in their technical support dept. The position title is Senior Information Assistant in the Digital Media Resources dept and would involve misc things such as helping staff with technical problems, rebuilding pooters and helping with general a/v things for conferences, etc. I had the interview two weeks ago and received a call last week advising that there were now three positions available and I was one of four people short listed for it, so fingers crossed and I’ll see what happens…

Well, enough of my rambling, catch yas later.