The Mightily Exciting Journal Of Devon

It wins.

That is all.

Hey hey!
Just a quick post to let everyone know I'm still alive. I'll do a gigantic update tomorrow some time, when I'm not quite so knackered. Planes are rubbish! So are computers! Bleh!
Night night!

EIGHT lasts.
8. last time you kissed someone: a couple of weeks ago now.
7. last beverage: nice cup o tea.
6. last phone call: from my mummy.
5. last text message: from teh Robin.
4. last cd played: Edguy - Rocket Ride, so cheesily awesome.
3. last BUBBLE bath: many years ago, when I was but a nipper.
2. last time you cried: I don't cry often. Felt like it yesterday morning though.
1. last time you danced: This afternoon, to the awesome muzack on Wii Sports.

SEVEN have you's.
7. have you ever dated someone twice? Nope.
6. have you ever been cheated on? Nope.
5. have you ever kissed someone & regretted it? Most definitely.
4. have you ever thought you had fallen in love? Yup.
3. have you ever lost someone special? Indeed.
2. have you ever been depressed? Quite a lot, unfortunately.
1. have you ever been drunk and thrown up? A couple of times.

SIX favourite people to talk to (in no particular order):
1. Jamesy
2. Marc
3. Amy
4. Clarebear
5. Joey
6. Sarah

FIVE things you did in the past three days:
5. Saw Rattlesnake rock out at the Wedgewood Rooms.
4. Had an awesome roast meal cooked by Marc's mum.
3. Watched tons of Stargate.
2. Played Wii.
1. Gotten completely confused by women for the umpteenth time.

FOUR places you have been on vacation:
1. New Zealand
2. Bali
3. Venice
4. Paris


List THREE favourite colors.
3. Black
2. Red
1. Purple

List TWO things you love to do.
2. Listen to music
1. Play music

This month have you...
- Fallen out of love: Well not love, but we'll have to see...
- Laughed until you cried: Oh definitely. One word: NIGGERS! (See the new South Park)
- Let someone change your life: Sarah, made me feel good about myself again.
- Found out who your true friends were: Sort of, I've come to realise it more clearly.

Why do I even make an effort any more? Everything just gets thrown back in my face anyway. I suppose I'll just go back to expecting nothing again. That seems to suit me just fine.

It's alright, Pain Of Salvation still love me.

I thought I may as well post, as lots of my friends seem to be a bit down in the dumps lately.
Things with me have been up and down and all over the place to be quite honest, but it seems it has dumped me in a rather interesting (and promising) place. As of a couple of days ago I am now in regular texty contact with my potential lady friend, and once we can both prise ourselves away from Final Fantasy XII (yes, I did say BOTH of us), we're going to do something together. Most likely this Friday at my housemate's gig, but I do want to see if I can persuade her out before then. To get the ball rolling, as it were. I spent quite a while agonising over getting in contact with her, but I needn't have worried really. She's awesome, and so easy to talk to. I know we've only known each other about a month, and we're not even officially dating or anything yet, and I have atrocious luck with this sort of thing, but I have a good feeling. That's all I need right now.

Anyway, enough of me being terribly sappy.
I've been pretty lazy otherwise recently, what with FFXII taking up my time. I've been out to a couple of parties. My friend Jen's birthday Singstar party (which I know everyone on here loves) was awesome, and I sung some good ol' cheese. On another interesting note, my viola playing seems to be getting better. Maybe it's my recent good mood, pushing me, and stopping me from limiting myself like I used to? I guess I'm just seeing things differently, slowly but surely, and it's helping me to focus more as well.

And now, my patented list of things that I can't be arsed to waffle about!

* Neil Gaiman's American Gods is one of the best books I've ever read. Rambling and confusing and beautifully descriptive, I wish I could write like him.
* I bought a plush Alien facehugger the other day, because it was half price. Shush, I'm not geeky at all!
* Everyone needs to download/listen to Blackfield. Their two self-titled albums are probably the best pop-rock ever written. I'm not kidding.
* I've rewatched Firefly, Spaced, and Dead Like Me recently. These are definitely my favourite TV series of all time.
* Disco Queen by Pain Of Salvation is the funnest song ever!
* Children Of Men is an amazing film, and I'm starting to like Clive Owen more. Wonderfully shot, well acted, and a believable future. Thanks to Joey for the recommendation. I'll be getting on those others soon enough!
* I got some new headphones, some nifty JVC inner ear thingies. They are the bassiest things ever, and they sound awesome.
* My mummy came to visit yesterday. It was awesome to see her and get pressies from home :D

Well that's about it from me really. I'm muddling through as usual, but I think things are slowly working out for the best. I'm actually relatively happy within myself for the first time in a long while.
I know it's not going so well for some people, but hopefully my distracted meanderings have brought some random chuckles to people's days.
Love and hugs to all those who need it in extra dollops at the moment.
Dev.

What? I'm sneaking in an entry while no one is looking. They'll never expect it!
It's been more than a month since I last updated. Oh dear!
Since that I've been insanely busy, finishing my semester 1 work. Luckily it's all been handed in, and I think I did alright, though it's been about 3 weeks now and I haven't seen hide nor hair of any kind of results. My composition performance went really well. I'm really impressed with what James, Marc, Amy and Ben did with a few days practice. It wasn't perfect, but I think we got away with it. I just hope on the recording they won't be able to hear me audibly going 'James! James!' when he missed one of his cues. That would be a mite embarrassing. My soundtrack was pretty nifty, and I think I pulled off the atmosphere well (I did a scene from Silent Hill). I did rip off the original soundtrack in a small part(from another part of the film/game), but it wasn't hugely noticeable. I was impressed with my syncing up of sound effects, I managed to get a huge shock moment out of a couple of people with my volume up loud :-D My essays were boring as hell, but I did them, eventually.
Anywho, I've been relaxing lots since then. I upgraded my graphics card, so everything on my computer looks spiffy. Unfortunately, since I formatted my hard drive, there seems to be a driver conflict that I need to sort out, which is kind of annoying. My computer skips every now and then (like every couple of minutes). I'll probably just reinstall everything. Should sort out my problems. I've been playing games like Doom 3 and Half Life 2 at full spec, which is awesome. I'll need to get something really recent, like Oblivion, to test the card to full.
I went to see Ben Folds with Jonny a few weeks ago (just after my stuff was all handed in). He goes right up there in my favourite gigs ever, I have to say. What a wonderful entertainer he is. All his songs are awesome as well. He played about half and half his solo stuff and Ben Folds Five songs. Of course I wasn't that knowledgeable about the older stuff, but it was still great. His impromptu synthing and jamming was cool, and his cover of the Dr. Dre song 'Bitches Ain't Shit' is hilarious! The support act was pretty cool too, it being this one really silly guy called Clem Snide and his acoustic guitar. He played some very silly songs, and chatted to the crowd lots. I didn't get to chat to Jon much unfortunately, because of my wonderful fun with trains at the start of my journey, but it was great to see him for a bit. I do miss my chums from back home when I'm down in Portsmouth.
Things are looking up in my relationship department, I'm happy to say. I met a girl through a friend a few weeks ago, who is awesome. She's gothy, and cute, and just as much of a geek as me (she plays Final Fantasy, and has a Squall Leonheart pendant, hehe). We've been out together, in a group, a few times now, and have really hit it off. We shared a bit of a moment the last time, just over a week ago, but it didn't go any further because I had been told previously that she had a boyfriend :-( I was also told however, that her boyfriend was an ass, so it didn't dampen my spirits too much. I'll just play my nice guy card as much as possible. Now the night before last I received the best news ever from her housemate: She's broken up with her boyfriend :-D So now I'm in a really good mood, while I'm hoping to not just be the rebound guy. We should be organising something soon. Yay for me!
Other than this my last few weeks have been pretty uneventful. During the exam period I've just had time off, and it's been nice to relax around the house and be sociable again. I've seen Marc's band (the awesome Rattlesnake) playing live about 5 times, because I'm such a good friend. They're a really tight band, but I don't know how far they can go playing cheesy hair metal and GnR covers really. They are playing the Wedgewood Rooms in March though, so who knows!
Music wise, I've only been relatively busy. We're doing another opera this term, which should be a lot of fun. I've also been playing Opeth songs on guitar to death, because they improve my playing so much. Go pinky action! I've been practicing bass quite a bit too, and my finger speed is getting a lot better. It's just a pity that so many metal songs have really boring bass lines. I've been playing Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Muse and other stuff because it's more interesting, but it can also get really damn hard!
My lectures started again this past week, and I'm looking forward to the semester a lot. I'm taking Games Audio (pretty self explanatory), which is going to teach me all about the methods of syncing to games, and also creating my own synthesizers. I've also got Popular Music Songwriting (not too hard), Careers For CT Students (dull), and Sound And Arts Installation (neat). For the latter, we have to record sounds all around Portsmouth, and create a soundscape, which will then be shown in an exhibition at the top of the Spinnaker Tower. Pretty awesome if I say so myself, and a good thing to go on my CV once it's done.
Today is all about the fun. We're going to see Hot Fuzz (the new Simon Pegg film), which is obviously going to be awesome, and then to a house party in the eve. Nice. I will try to update more often in the future, honest!
Love and hugs,
Devon.

1. What was your favourite subject at school?
Music, closely followed by english (when it wasn't taught by Mrs. Hands.

2. Who is the most famous person that you have ever met?
The members of Porcupine Tree and Stream Of Passion I guess.

3. What do you have in your bag?
Just pens and uni papers right now. Oh, and some batteries apparently.

4. Who did you get your LJ invite code from?
I didn't get one.

5. What was the name of your first teacher?
I don't remember, it was a while ago.

6. What was the first single you ever bought?
Embarassing as it might be, it was Because We Want To by Billie Piper. I was about 10 at the time...

7. Can you dance?
Not very well.

8. Have you ever been in a band?
The Ninja Pirates of course.

9. Who is the noisiest person you know?
Jo or Bridie, though Marc with his drums is a good contender.

10. Who was the last person you defriended?
Don't think I've ever had to do that.

11. What is your favourite word today?
Masquerade, because I'd forgotten what a cool song it was.

12. Who was the first person you ever friended?
On LJ? I think it was Jo.

13. What were you wearing yesterday?
Blue jeans, Ben Folds shirt, and for most of it my SYL hoodie.

14. What is your favourite perfume?
*shrugs*

15. What is your favourite NIN song?
Hurt.

16. Have you any allergies?
Dust, apparently.

17. What is your favourite band?
Porcupine Tree at the moment.

18. If you could go back in time - which period would you go back to?
Living in ancient Greece would be pretty cool.

19. How do you get on with your ex?
I get on fine I think, we don't exactly talk much.

20. Describe yourself in five words.
quiet, shy, silly, friendly, adaptive (using the bridie technique for finding words)

21. What is your favourite pub?
Ye Olde Leathern Bottle, or the India Arms in Portsmouth

22. Who did you last kiss?
Random girl, I don't even remember her name. Like a year ago now :(

23. Describe the person you got this questionnaire from in five words.
Silly, amusing, friendly, loud, complicated

24. What is your favourite poem?
I don't really have one.

25. What was the last thing you said on Instant Messenger?
'I quite like that in a dress' to Bridie

26. Quote a film.
'I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar' *dries a tear*

27. What are you really excited about right now?
Getting this semester's work done, and my hard drive finally arriving.

28. Write a line of bad goth poetry.
I like bats,
And black spiky hats,
And at the weekend,
I drink the blood of rats.

29. Bill Bailey or Dylan Moran?
Bill Bailey, fo sho.

30. What was your worst ever job?
Working for my dad's company was pretty damn boring.

31. What is your favourite tube station?
Mornington Crescent, for no particular reason.

32. Name your favourite Sisters Of Mercy song.
I don't know any.

33. What was the last thing you bought at Lush?
Never bought anything there.

34. What is your most embarrassing nickname?
Devon Gay-Lesbian, what else?

35. What is your favourite smell?
Chocolate, or a brand new book.

38. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Saw 3. It's been a while.

39. Do you dye your hair?
Yeah, every now and then.

40. Have you ever been proposed to?
Never.

41. Which Simpsons character do you most identify with?
Hans Moleman :-P

42. Write something in Latin.
Veni vidi vici.

43. What is your favourite drink?
Chocolate orange milkshake

44. Who is the funniest person on your friends list?
Jonny Jon Jon.

45. What country do you come from?
New Zealand originally.

46. Who was the last LJ user that you met for the first time?
I imagine it was Hollie or Inga.

47. What did you want to be when you grew up?
An archaeologist.

48. Open the nearest book and write the first line that catches your eye.
In the stillness he heard something snap like a shot.

49. What track is playing on itunes right now?
Muse - Bliss live at Glastonbury.

50. Describe your default user icon.
It's Pintsize, the anthro-PC companion of Marten from Questionable Content.

I'm seriously considering getting my hair cut.

That's right, fo srsly. I need to know people's honest opinion about my hair. Does it look good/bad/silly? Do you think I'd look better with short hair? Is the pubey fuzz that appears on top really that bad, or am I just being paranoid? I havn't had short hair since I was 15, so I have no idea what I'll look like with it these days, and I need to be totally sure of myself before I book something as drastic as a haircut.

So, please everyone help me out!
Many thanks, Mr. D.

SOURE2 Essay completed!

Now, on to the... even bigger things...

*cries*

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 85% Superman 70% Catwoman 65% Hulk 65% Robin 60% Batman 60% Supergirl 55% Iron Man 45% Green Lantern 45% The Flash 45% Wonder Woman 25%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

As if everyone else didn't know? Hehe.
Shock horror! Here comes another update by the man himself. What's that, I hear you cry? You don't believe it? Well sucks to be you, cos here it comes! :-P

The last time I posted (properly, in any sense of the word, anyway), I was horribly depressed, and it didn't exactly make for good reading. Of course, a day later I was a long way to being back to my old self, and I was terribly cryptic about the whole thing, and I'm sure it annoyed a great amount of the people that I didn't explain it to.
The reason is this: I met a girl. Now this isn't a big giggly gossip-fest, it's not as if we're going out, or even officialy friends yet, but I'll give you a short glimpse of what happened.
The Saturday before I came home for Christmas, I played in an orchestra concert down in Portsmouth. It was standard fare. I played, I was a bit bored, I planned to skip out and run home during the interval, rather than stay and watch the big band perform in the second half, and be bored as fuck. This is when things took a more interesting turn. I was skulking about backstage, looking as helpful as possible, as people organised chairs and stuff for the big band's performance. I'm standing near a girl who I don't really notice at the time, because I'm wrapped up in my plans for running away. It's at this point that our conductor comes up to me and the girl (who I recognise at this point, plays cello, and is rather cute), and tells us to organise people from the orchestra to carry things back to the university buildings. He then runs off looking rather busy. Now this girl and I are united in our mutual laziness, so we run up to the second floor balcony, find some seats, and chat for the next hour or so, enjoying the wacky antics of the big band, who are actually far better than the orchestra. Anyway, we're really getting along, she's a psychology student called Jen, in her first year, who likes Metallica, so we've already got a few things to talk about right there, but it's time for us to get our stuff and leave. She meets her dad outside, so I don't feel obliged to stick around and walk her home, or any of that stuff. I had a thoroughly fantastic time.
It's at this point, half way back to my house, that I realise that I completely forgot to ask her for any kind of phone number, MSN address, or anything. Shit! That's ok though, because I'll see her at orchestra on Thursday, and I'll get it then.
Two days later: I find out that orchestra isn't on this week. Shit!
Needless to say I spent about 4 hours fruitlessly trawling myspace and facebook to see if I could find her. Of course, she's a first year, at the uni a good 3 months. She doesn't know anyone in the orchestra that I'm friends with well enough yet. Damn all the luck! So now I'm waiting... and waiting... til the next orchestra meeting, in the first week of term, so that I can talk to her again, and hopefully get something more out of it this time ;-)
Anyway, I was pretty angry about this, but at least it was nearly Christmas. That cheered me up a whole lot. Seeing the old gang, and hanging out around Wokers is always amusing, and cheers me up immensely. Not to mention all the presents I got at the beginning of this week.
Lets have a good ol' list shall we?
* A Wii! Yup, my mum knows people. She knows people that work in Woolies anyway, so she managed to get one of those elusive pre-orders for me. I've been playing it lots, because it is far too much fun. It came with Wii Sports, which is far more fun than it sounds, and highly addictive. It'll be a real party game, once I get another controller.
* A new 500GB Hard Drive. This hasn't actually arrived yet, but when it does, my capacity for piracy with be huge!
* A fancy shmancy razor. One of those fancy wet-shavers with a battery in it. I havn't tried it out yet, but my dad assures me I'll be very smooth.
* A MIDI cable. Just what I've been needing. A MIDI cable that isn't a crappy incompatible amagamation! Maybe I'll actually be able to get some work done?
* Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs. I'm sure she has nothing to so with the Third Reich, so this book should be a good read.
* Something resembling a Bop-It. An odd M&S ripoff actually. I havn't managed to work out how to make it go yet, but I'm sure I will eventually.
* A pen knife. Nana Gillespie: Queen of original gifts.
* A telescopic spoon. Yup.

The rest was pretty much money and vouchers, so here's what I got with that:
* Snakes On A Plane on DVD. Yup, the best film of 2006 rests in my hands.
* Fururama Season 2. I've been meaning to get more of these, because it's great, and better than The Simpsons in every way.
* Sin City Book 1. Finally bought it. Was awesome.
* Y - The Last Man Books 6 and 7. A fantastic graphic novel series that I've been reading lately. Better than a lot of regular books I've read recently actually.
These are the last 2 books in the set, and I can't wait to read the end.
* The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Best Zelda game ever. No contest. It was totally made for the Wii.
* Porcupine Tree - Up The Downstair. Cool proggy album. Me likey.
* Megadeth - Rust In Peace and Youthanasia. I've been meaning to pick up some more Megadeth CDs. Looks like now was the time.

That's it, as far as I remember. Pretty good haul, if I say so myself, and there's still my birthday to go next week. Should be fun.

Well, Christmas is over, and I've spent the last couple of days hanging out at my dad's. My little brother loves playing on the Wii, so really I'm glad to be back, and to have it all to myself, hehe. It's always good to see the little monster, but he tires me out.
I'm knackered, but I've got to spend the next couple of days doing as much socialising and uni work as I can fit in, before I go all the way back to Pompey on Sunday, just in time for New Years. I'll miss all you guys, so if I don't see you before I go, lots of love and hugs.
Happy New Year!
Dev.

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a good one, and I hope to see you all soon!

I think someone must have been listening to my cries of frustration the other day. I love it when unexpected things cheer you up loads, and all the annoying things fall away for a little while...
:-)

You have to reach the bottom to start climbing back to the top.

I really don't want this to become an emo post, but I'll just see where it goes I suppose.

I'm frustrated. Chronically. I'm constantly stressed, and I feel almost always ill because of it. Even the facade of an easygoing, friendly guy that I put up throughout the day is starting to become a strain, because of all the things that seem to be adding up to make me explosively angry.
It can't be that bad, I'm sure you'd say, and you're probably right. The things that get to me, on thier own would not seem so bad, but the fact that there are literally so many of these small things building up around me, testing my nerves, and making me wish it would all go away, makes an almost hellish scenario. I feel like I need to get these down really, before I implode, and my housemates lose thier deposit because of my organs staining the carpet.
Let's start with the oldest and best shall we:
* My inexplicable shyness. I don't know why I'm still so shy, even with the lovely people who are my best friends. I'm almost monosyllabic, and I probably seem really rude and uninterested when talking to new people, it's always been a struggle to make friends outside of the close-knit group I have at home. Of course, it doesn't get much better, even when I know people pretty well. In the company of others (especially when there's a group of people) I have real trouble thinking of things to say, and as such come of as a really boring person to hang out with. This extends into my other big issue of not being able to make romantic connections, which is seriously depressing. I know girls are interested in me now and then, but I have no luck talking to them, and even less in making them want to talk to me again, except maybe online, but I rarely get the chance to talk to people at length and get to know them online before I meet them in person and discover what a lame-ass I am. I don't want to be this way, but no matter how hard I try, nothing ever changes. Also, despite my wanting to get to know people, I actually go out of my way to avoid them sometimes. I don't know why, there's no reason for me to do so, but it just happens.
* My inexplicable paranoia. I always think that people don't like me, and are avoiding me, no matter what might tell me otherwise. That's enough said about that.
* My inexplicable lethargy. I always WANT to get work done on time, and practise guitar and viola, and do all these interesting things that I want to learn about, but I never seem to get round to them. I always seem to find something else to do, something else to take my attention away from things that would make my life productive, and something else to make me that little bit more lazy. I know full well it's my own problem, and I have to fix it myself, but no matter what I try, it always comes back to me being a terrible lazy arse. I don't know what else will motivate me.
* I'm discovering that I'm not actually very good at anything. The big things, like working, sports, playing music, whatever, and the little things, like computer games, drawing, writing, or aiming a little plastic dart gun. This could just add up to the lethargy thing again, I don't practise enough, and I would get better, but I actually tried really hard at some of those things, to no avail. I can't seem to find my niche anywhere.

Now, here's a nice list of the little things that have been bugging me lately:
* When I actually try to work, something gets in my way, and I don't actually get any done. I'm not talking about distractions, though those are frequent. I'm talking about when I manage to sit myself down and say: 'I'm going to work my ass off for the next few hours', and something makes damn sure that I can't. Like the MIDI on my computer not working, or the sound card settings, or a program having ever so slightly the wrong settings so that it won't record, my perfect condition, expensive guitar cable getting stuck in the input socket of my BRAND NEW sound card, so tightly that when I pull it out, it takes part of the socket with it, or Marc and James coming upstairs and shooting me with dart guns til I give up and go play with them at the most inconvenient times. All sorts of things like that just keep coming up, and I still get nothing done.
* I have a cold, again. For the hundredth time this year, my nose is blocked and running like the bejesus. I can't smell anything, and my brain feels uncomfortably clogged. I can't concentrate, and I feel like just going to sleep all the time.
* Several of my housemates are messy as fuck. It may not seem like it, but I'm a gigantic cleanliness freak. I don't mind a little mess, but things have to be orderly, and things have to be clean. In this house people used to leave thier washing for weeks, until I put up a note. Now they leave thier drying up for days, stacking it so high that eventually things drop off and smash. Really clever, don't you agree? They do the same with the rubbish bin, which was stacked as high as the counter with rubbish, the lid jammed open with garbage. Things tip over onto the floor, and the area where the mice come into our kitchen is more dirty than ever. At least the appliances get a regular clean now. In the upstairs bathroom, which only I and the two girls use, I am the only one that changes the toilet roll. If someone other than me finishes the roll, it will get left for days, until I get infuriated and change it myself. I almost never put things into the bin in the bathroom, and instead of emptying the bin, some intelligent soul has just put a bag next to the bin and started using that instead.
* The internet is doing things that make no sense. It starts off fine. Nice and fast, no problems. Then, it starts slowing down. Web pages load less and less frequently, giving us messages like: 'Could not connect' and 'Server error'. Eventually, we can't browse websites at all, except all this time, we can use MSN and download programs perfectly.
* I have the smallest room in the house, all because I'm too nice to be forceful about things. I have no room to move, and only just enough room for all my stuff. I have a rickety desk for my computer with drawers that always get jammed, and I'm sure that it will fall apart one day soon.
* The joystick thing for moving through menus on my phone is almost completely broken, which means I can now do very little with it 90% of the time. It takes about 10 times as long to type a text message, and scrolling through my contacts is horrendous. I hope I'm due a free upgrade after christmas, because otherwise I'm going to drop my phone in the toilet and claim the insurance.

Life is feeling like an absolute chore at the moment, and as you can see, I'm seriously looking for something to help me see the fun again. If you can help, let me know at the usual address.
Love and hugs to all of you that managed to read all the way to the bottom.
Devon.

TYPE YOUR FIRST NAME WITH YOUR...

1.FINGERS: Devon

2.CHIN: xcds vkl n

3.ONE FINGER, EYES CLOSED: devon

4.ELBOW: dxescv ion b

5.NOSE: devon

6.PALM: devon

lol! I have a giant chin and elbow.

MUUUUSE! Oh my they are awesome. I finally saw my longest term favourite band live on Wednesday, and they did not disappoint (well, only a little :-P).
They played a rather good set, but due to my not liking the newest album so much, I wasn't entirely as keen. You may notice why here:

1. Take A Bow
2. Starlight
3. Supermassive Black Hole
4. Map Of The Problematique
5. Soldier's Poem
6. Invincible
7. Assassin
8. Exo-Politics
9. City Of Delusion
10. Hoodoo
11. Knights Of Cydonia
---
12. Sunburn
13. New Born
14. Feeling Good
15. Plug In Baby
16. Bliss
17. Hysteria
18. Time Is Running Out
19. Stockholm Syndrome

As you can see, we got the WHOLE of BH&R, and then most of the previously released singles. This, while really good, wasn't really what I expected. I would have much preferred a more varied setlist, with more songs from older albums.
Well, you can't have everything, and on the plus side, the show was flawless. Everything was played perfectly, and everything on stage really added to the atmosphere (lights, screens, the crazy drum platform thingy). Those guys don't even need to say very much to really get the crowd going.
The support band were pretty rubbish, but a good laugh to get me going I suppose. The Noisettes were a 3 piece, playing very ordinary indie rock. The difference was the singer, who wore a strange shiny tutu thing, squeaked like a guinea pig through songs, clapped time with her shoes (by this I mean she took them off and clapped them), and randomly broke into 'how much is that doggy in the window'. Needless to say the crowd didn't seem impressed with them, and they didn't get anything more than a polite clap after songs.
The highlight of my trip into London was spending the evening (and next morning) with the doodz from back home, who I really miss seeing. I'm really looking forward to going back for a while over Xmas, and spending time with them. I also got to stay over at Jon's swanky London home (well, swanky compared to Portsmouth anyway), with the comfiest sofa ever! It actually fits my rather large frame, which is impressive to say the least. The end of my trip was hampered by missing a train (just), managing to take the wrong ticket from the machine and having to buy another one (someone had left thier reciept in the tray), and leaving half my BK meal in the station. Oh well, these things happen I suppose, just little niggles that get to me.

In other news, I'm still working on all my projects (slowly but surely), and I should have everything in on time. My composition is proving irritating, because I can never decide on something to stick to. It's probably going to end up sounding proggy and weird as hell. Interesting anyway.

I shaved off my beard, but within a couple of weeks decided it didn't look right, so I'm growing it again. Woo! Should look non-crappy again soon enough.

I'm really itching to see the new Tenacious D movie after hearing the soundtrack. It should be awesome. I wanted to go and see them live, but apparently they're really popular now or something? Hehe.

I'm back reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series (on to book 2 now). It's definitely the best thing he's ever written, but it'll be a year or more probably before I finish the whole thing.

If there was any doubt, I am in fact still on the lookout for a lady friend. I havn't exactly had any luck recently (most of the girls I've been at all interested in haven't been single, annoyingly), but if anyone knows someone who doesn't mind the shy, geeky, metal/prog loving type, let me know! I don't quite sound desperate yet, do I? :-P

Oh, and for you lucky people out there, here's some pictures of when I met my (completely not geeky) friends from the Dream Theater forums when I went to see Porcupine Tree a couple of months ago.



Totally NOT geeky.




Some cool band shots:




Yeah, we met most of the band, and yes, I had to look like a tool in at least one photo.



Well I hope you enjoyed that, I know I did, and it put off my work for another little while...

LJ sucks for some reason. I try to do some nice little quizzes and post them here but nooo, it won't even let me do text... ugh. Whatever.

Well that didn't make me any less bored...
Laters!

(Oh my I love the 'restore saved draft' option for when your browser crashes.)

Yeah, yeah, I know. I thought I'd make this a more regular thing, but it's really not happening. Maybe my life isn't interesting enough for me to think it worth posting hugely. I've been avoiding work a lot lately, which is baaaad, as I have so much to do in the next few weeks! If you see me online, make sure to prod me and remind me about work, because otherwise it's going to be another repeat of last year, and I don't know if I can cope leaving things til the last minute again :-S
To be fair though, I've had all sorts of setbacks doing my uni work, most of them related to my computer being a giant spaz. For different units I'm supposed to compose for a 3 minute section of film, and 10 minutes of free composition. This is made infinitely harder by the fact that the MIDI drivers on my computer don't seem to work any more, and I can't record instruments into it either! How am I supposed to compose things when I can't hear anything? Argh! I suppose I just have to go through the laborious process of writing it down in score form first. Which takes hours and is about a billion times harder. Sucksville. In other uni related news, look out for my pirate version of The Corrs 'What Can I Do'. For our sound recording unit, we had to play a song for another group to record in the studio. For whatever reason we ended up doing The Corrs (no one will admit to being the one who decided we should do this), after the group we recorded did a weird ska mashup of Linkin Park's 'Faint' and Kaiser Chief's 'I Predict A Riot'. Don't ask. Anyway, when it came our turn to play a song, the girl who was supposed to be singing was ill, so I ended up doing it. Everyone knows how temporamental my voice is right? Well it sounded pretty crap when I was recording, and we were all pretty pissed off doing such a rubbish song, so our lecturer very kindly let us mess around for a bit and record a version of me singing the song with altered words and a pirate accent. About 70% of this was completely improvised, and I'm actually quite proud of it. I'll be sure to post it somewhere for everyone to hear once I get a copy.
I havn't really been up to much big on the after-hours side of things. We don't exactly go out and party every night, cos we're big lazy arses. The events that did happen have been awesome though. Our halloween party was fantastic. We got tons of people round, filling up our tiny communal rooms with people. It was a great laugh, and I didn't get drunk at all drinking excesses of Lidl's Fink Brau. I'm sure it must be about 2% alcohol or something stupid. We also had a pre-halloween night out at the weekend where we all dressed up smartly (it was supposed to be gangsters, but that's pretty much all people bothered with), and went around a few places in town. It was a laugh, and I met some cool new people, but me and James were knackered, so had to leave a bit early.
For Ruth's birthday, last Friday we went up to Playzone in Havant. It's a giant kids play area, that has an adult night once a week. It was utterly awesome, and I had more exercise than I have in weeks. We played tag, and cops & robbers, and ran around like loons for the best part of 3 hours :D
Last, but by no means least, I went to see the mighty might of OPETH at the Pyramid Centre last Sunday. They were incredible, heavy, and flawless, playing a great set of songs that I love. I also bought a cool black Opeth tie, for those smarter metal occasions. The support act, Paradise Lost (who are in fact bigger than Opeth really), were quite cool too. I'd heard some of thier stuff before, but they were a lot better live, really impressive, and a great stage presence.
Well, this is an impressively consice look at the last month. I havn't done enough really I suppose :P. Anyway, what other things have I been doing... if I can remember.
* I've been watching loads of TV stuff. The new season of Lost has started off awesomely, but now we have to wait until February for the new episodes! Damn them! Prison Break is still great, and very gripping, I'm looking forward to the new episode in a couple of days. I've been watching a new series called Heroes, which is a new take on the superhero thing, and very good indeed. Also, it's awesome to see that after 10 years, South Park still hasn't lost it's touch.
* I've started watching some new anime shows. Full Metal Panic was a lot of fun, but didn't really live up to the hype surrounding it. Apart from some very good animation and a few interesting characters it was pretty much the same 'awkward shy guy meets hot girls and gets embarassed, WITH GIANT ROBOTS!' story that happens so often. I've just finished watching FLCL, which was insane, but fantastically done. The animation was incredible, drawing influence from all over the place, and you could really feel for the characters, no matter how over the top some of them were. I was upset to come to the end of the 6 episodes. I've got a lot more anime queued on BitComet for me to watch, recommended to me by several people, looking forward to that.
* The new Guild Wars expansion, Nightfall, isn't so exciting. I played it a lot when it first came out, but I got a little bored. The new 'heroes' don't add much to the gameplay, and most of the missions (and thier bonus objectives) have been a bit dull. Also, the addition of the heroes meant that I could go through a large portion of the game without even teaming up with anyone else, which was the main reason I enjoyed the game in the first place. I've been going back to the old games just because they're more fun. I'll probably get the need to play the new one again eventually, but I've been kinda swamped with work as it is to do much.
* I finally caved and bought the coolest Sephiroth figure ever. I know, I'm such a geek.
* Playing bass is going well, I'm very slowly training my fingers to stay regular, and to get faster. Playing more than one song with just my fingers is still a bit painful though. Maybe I should stop trying to play Opeth...
* In other geeky news, the Dream Theater forums got shut down for good earlier in the week, so everyone was sad in other related forums. Of course it took all of a day for someone to put up an unofficial board, and now everyone is happy again. I'm glad I havn't lost the only forum I ever posted on regularly.
* I'm still bored being single, and having no luck meeting girls interested in me, or for that matter, girls I'm interested in that are single. It kinda sucks, but I'm living with it. I'm a bit busy for commitment right now anyway.

I think I've rambled enough for one day. Lets see how long it takes for me to post this time. Bets anyone?
Love to y'all.
Dev.

Well I'm now officially back at university proper, half way through my second week now... curse my bad posting record. It's just my laziness I spose.
Anyway, lets start from the top. PORCUPINE TREE. What a fantastic gig. They are pretty much my favourite live band now, there is absolutely nothing that could top them, apart from the mighty Queen. Thier stage presence is amazing, thier frontman is funny and cool, they have unbound playing talent. They are the only band that could play 45 minutes of new music (6 songs, including one nearly 20 minute epic) that I got straight into. They are the perfect balance of ambience, cool heavy riffs, and soft rock. Seriously now, if anyone has not listened to them just because they think they're another stupid widdly 'Devro-band' with a silly name you should think again. ALL my housemates are into them now after I showed them the new DVD. I would recommend this band to anyone into any branch of rock music, seriously.
Induction week was pretty dull for the most part, it was just introducing us to the next year of study, and the new first years, who seem pretty cool. I'm doing Composition, Soundtrack 2, and Sound Recording 2 this semester, which are going to be awesome. Looks like a lot of hard graft though. I might not have as many lectures as some people (again, like last year, I only have 3 days of lectures a week), but the sheer amount of work that we have to do outside of that more than makes up for it.
I went along with James, Marc, Jen and (a different) Amy to see Lacuna Coil last friday. They were definitely a lot better than at Download, but still not that exciting. Sure, some of their songs rock hard, but they're far too samey after a while. Thier cover of Enjoy The Silence is bloody great though. The support band were ok too, but really generic metal. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. Next gig is the mighty OPETH, and it will be fantastic.
I've bought loads of X-Men books lately. Unfortunately they can be a bit hit and miss, but for the most part they're awesome. Each one does bring up more questions though, and I keep having to try and work out which book comes directly before or after each one. There's such a huge continuity to the whole thing, it's often difficult to piece together. I'm eagerly awaiting the next hardback collection of Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men series, because that has been awesome. Unfortunately I hear that his second year will also be his last, but it's been a good run I suppose.
Been out lots with the house crew, and assorted other weirdos (:-P). Mostly pub trips, or going to Route 66 (even though the music there is only sometimes good). We've mostly just been mooching around at home til our loans come through, and now that they have, the fun is beginning!
...well, I say that, we'll probably just do the same things we do anyway. Go play some pool, then discover we're too tired to be bothered with anything else. Ah well. That's uni life for you, haha.
I don't think there's much else to say now. Things are still pretty much the same in the crazy world of Devro. You all know what I'm talking about, so I won't go into it here. No need to clutter up silly ol' LJ with the same things over and over. And thus, I shall bid you adieu! May my next post be less weeks away than the last!

Yeah, yeah. I know, it's been ages since any posting action has taken place, but I'm sure you're all itching to know what's been going on lately in the world of Mr. Dev Master D.
All those weeks ago, when I posted last, I was massively excited about seeing Porcupine Tree. Well, that fateful gig is now three days away, and I can't wait! :-D They are basically my favourite band at the moment. I can't stop listening to the catchy and interesting Pink Floydesqe sound, with a heavy edge. Each album, be it trippy experimental prog, to a great poppy tunes, is a masterpiece in its own right. Can't wait to hear the new stuff too! :-D
As might be obvious by the fact that I'm finally posting, the internet is up and running down here in Portsmouth, and all my crap is moved in. My room isn't fantastic, but it's far better than what I had last year (maybe because I brought a ton less stuff too, I'm much less cramped). I've definitely made a good choice of housemates, there's no one I'd rather be living with down here ('cept for maybe Clare, if she's reading :-P). I'm looking forward to starting my course again next week, should be no end of interesting.
Argh, that was fun, the net just crashed for an unspecified reason. Great! I'm sure we'll have lots of those awesome strange problems over the next year. We sorted it out by restarting Marc's computer, but it's going to be really annoying to have to rely on him to keep it going during the night when I'm doing random crap. Ah well, no more late night Guild Warsing I suppose.
My bass arrived! I've been funking it up the last few days, and I appear to already have a place in a band. This is awesome. I need to get some slap bass practise, and try to get my fingers up to John Myung speeds, hehe.
My neck is sore, probably both from the terrible chairs here, and the brief headbanging session at Route last night. I never learn.
To be fair, my life isn't insanely exciting at the moment. It's been a bit up and down and left and right lately, and I have no idea in the slightest what to make of it. I'll be sure to explain at some point, if anyone feels the need to ask, but right now I'm just rejoicing being back here where nothing is stupidly complicated, people don't judge me insanely for my mistakes, and I can be more myself. Well... I say that, but I'm still far more shy than I ever want to be.
But enough of that!
As I'm now online and all set up, I'll try and make posts a bit more regular, but no promises. Hopefully a few of my 'on-the-bench' ideas will come more into fruition over the next few weeks as well, now I have less stupid distractions. More on those later.
Night all! x x x