Data Info

Open House…Success!

It was wonderful to see so many smiling and excited 3rd grade faces (as well as parents) last night for
Open House!  Thanks to everyone who attended!  I am very excited for the new school year as well and cant wait to see everyone Thursday!

If you did not get your Apple ID and password made, remember that your child can not have access to the iPad he/she is given to use in 3rd grade until that is done.  Please contact the elementary office with questions concerning that or help completing the process.

Thanks to the parents who completed the process last night.  I know it was frustrating and took a while, but the school district appreciates your help as this is something new this year!

Enjoy your last 2 days of summer!

Available link for download

Open For Criticism

Here it is. I work every day in an job. I get up in the morning and get on the tube with thousands of other tired-looking commuters and stare at the free papers, trying to resist the temptation to correct the grammar with a red pen. I nine-to-five (thirty) and then leave.

Some days I am hungover and feel that I am going nowhere, that I will be sucked under by the mire of admin work. Maybe I will live out my days behind a grey desk, dreaming of music. Most days I dont entertain these qualms, though. Most days I just plan. In the last few months quite a few things I planned for last year have started to blossom, so I plan nowadays with renewed vigour.

Somehow this blog fits into that plan. For a while I have entertained the idea of this being a proper musician/struggling artist blog, where I post my compositions, stick up photos of gigs and really focus on gearing everything in my life towards my music. The only other thing I enjoy nearly as much as music is writing. It seems logical.

Only, of course, thats nothing new! Thats been the plan for ages. Lack of web access, lack of time and lack of energy has forestalled it, but it is always lurking.

So I am going to start small. With an open list. People write open letters, so I am going to take that format, make it slightly less interesting, and write an open list. Maybe I want to prove that, all this time that I sit greyly at a desk, watching a computer screen flicker, I am simply gearing up to do something wonderful. Maybe I find it easier to process things when there is a publish button to click. Or maybe (and this is probably the most plausible) I am just a incurable narcissist.

Whatever. Here is my open plan. Feel free to make suggestions, comments or criticisms. I mean it. I would really appreciate the input.

Writing (music) - I have been working on tracks that are entirely composed of layered vocals. The last one I did all the way through had fifteen different vocal tracks, which, although not all on top of each other all the time, more than fills up the space. I have started quite a few more, although havent actually finished any of them. I want to experiment with different backing vocal styles, as well as explore my limits of the line between spoken word and vocals.

I am aiming to have three songs like this completed within the next two months. Completed enough to be able to take the tracks along to open mic sessions and play them while I sing a lead vocal over the top.

Performance – I am going to continue to go perform at the gigs I currently do, but also start going to more jazz jams. I have a list of about fifty jazz standards that I do, along with the keys in which I do them, so it really is ludicrously easy to go along and sing. Particularly when there are sites like this and this. I cant allow myself to whinge about how I have just worked all day and Im tired because, idiot, the only reason I work all day is to facilitate my music. Man up, silly girl (is what Ill say).

Work with other people - I am currently working with one producer. This is fine, but I want to also work with live musicians.

Regular Gig - At a showcase I did in January, I got chatting to another girl who was on the line up as well. The gig was running late and it didnt feel much like anyone knew what was going on. We chatted about how frustrating it was to work to someone elses schedule all the time, and the lack of autonomy we both felt. I was surprised to hear her echoing my thoughts, as she is way cooler than me and, I assumed, above that kind of thing. We decided between us to start putting on events ourselves. As a way of providing ourselves with a regular platform, but also of developing our music and getting other people to come and perform. Shes called Nyika and she is very cool. Shes a bit older than I am, and those years have seen two albums and lots of experience. Im at a bit of a loss as to what exactly I am bringing to the table, but I know I am not leaving it. We have already been to look at a venue, and are setting a date for the first of our monthly gigs. Itll probably be in June. Put it in your diary.

Internet - I want to have more of a web presence. For marketing purposes, obviously, but also just because I adore the Internet and want to do more stuff on it. Musically and writing-wise. I want to put my songs and plans up to invite opinion, as it can be quite exhausting thinking on my own all the time.

So, do you have any ideas? Insights? Thoughts are welcome. Maybe this is my real reason for posting an open list. I know this list. To me it is old hat. To other people, though, it might be new and it might inspire ideas. I would like to hear those ideas. Very much.

Available link for download

OPEN MIC MANCHESTER! Sorry for shouting

Wah, I couldnt go to the party! Poor me. Sob, whinge, etc.

(Oh, grow up you over-sized infant.)

Please excuse the interminable whining of my last post, I was feeling Glum About Life, a life that contained nothing but shelter, food, love, clothing, art and a large packet of cheese and onion crisps. Oh, woe! How stricken I must have been, as you can imagine.

Today I was in Leeds again, which is similar in damp Northern cheer to Manchester. Although in Leeds everyone calls everyone else love, even grown men say it to other grown men. (Or so I have heard.) In Manchester people do say "thanks love", or "stop touching me or Ill bite ya love"*, but it is generally not something that straight, burly chaps say to one another at the pie shop/strip club/sports place.

*Interestingly, this was the first thing I heard anyone say after I left the house this morning. (It was not directed at me.)

Does anyone from Manchester read this? If so, would you like to come to a gig/open mic night this Wednesday, at the Thirsty Scholar? Unfortunately, this is the same night that some excellent poets are putting on their marvellous, poetry-orientated night called Inn Verse, so mine will be more musicky. I dont want to snaffle any of their potential performers. I would like just anyone to come and do whatever it is they enjoy doing on stage. Music, of course, is completely welcome, as is poetry, but I am also open to any other form of expression. Comedy, magic tricks, circus skills? Yes, yes and yes (provided nothing gets set on fire or cut in half). (I mean, you can set the room on fire, but the Health and Safety people really do prefer that you do it in a metaphorical way.)

What will I be doing? I hear you ask (although I heard it very faintly so its possible I imagined it).

Well I will certainly be telling this joke:

Q. What do you call a racist, bigoted wizard?
A. Nick Griffindor.

When I told this to Ben he paused for a bit after I asked him the Q bit, then said "um, Gandalf Hitler?", which is an excellent answer but loses points for being slightly less topical.

OPEN MIC, MANCHESTER, 25th NOVEMBER!

I am trying to get some Google hits.

OPEN MIC!

I dont think it helps to write it in capitals.

MANCHESTER!

But you never know.

WEDNESDAY 25TH NOVEMBER!

Well, Im sure there are some people that know, but I dont.

THE THIRSTY SCHOLAR!

I just like feeling like Im calling out to the Internet.

So, if youre around, come along. If its more poetry you want, then head to Inn Verse. My night will incorporate more poetry again in 2010.

I hope to see you there. Oh, and if youre here through Google then HI! WELCOME!

Available link for download

Our latest contest will open THE GATES OF HELL!

For the last contest in October were pulling out all the stops and giving YOU the chance to win a piece of horror history! Enter for your chance to win dirt pulled directly from "The Seven Doors Hotel" that was featured in Lucio Fulcis "The Beyond." The dirt comes in a vial (with a SKULL lid) thats housed in a custom made coffin featuring an iconic image from the film. Also in the coffin youll find earth and worms, and possibly a curse or two. To enter just like the Cannibal Reviews facebook page and share this photo!

The contest will end at a random time on November 1st, 2014. For this contest I will ship WORLD WIDE. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and the prize will be shipped out ASAP with a tracking number.

Available link for download

Open road

Find an open road - any time any place 

Available link for download

open Russia and Cuba Unite Against Microsoft

open...: Russia and Cuba Unite Against Microsoft

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open Brazil Seeks 150 000 GNU Linux Notebooks for 300 Schools

open...: Brazil Seeks 150,000 GNU/Linux Notebooks for 300 Schools

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Open source is not your enemy

The last weeks, Ive seen an emerge of Open Source (OS) critical blogs. Those blogs most of the times talk how OS either provides no business opportunity, low quality products, steals our jobs, are expensive, is for communists only or the participators are thiefs.

I dont get it. Why is open source so terrifying? Why is it so hard to understand that some people wants to collaborate on mutual project? Isnt it more fun to do stuff together than doing them yourself?

Communism?
Most OS projects are developed together with other people, every one has a say. To me that sounds a lot more like Democracy, and definetly not communism. Has nothing changes since the McCarthy era?

Expensive?
Sure, OSS dont have a support hot line which you can call, and it takes time to get used to ask your peers for help through mailing lists, or finding the information youself. But then, companies that charge for their commercial product can have bad support as well. How does it feel when you paid for it and dont get any help at all?

Stealing because they are incompetent?
Well, that was one of the stupidiest comments Ive read in a while. Is it a problem if someone else is using your code? Is it a problem that you are no longer the only expert of your code? There is a huge amount of projects that produce tools that I cant imagine how to code. If someone is an expert on something else, why not utilise them; instead of doing it yourself? OSS is the opposite of the "Not invented here" idea.

No business opportunities?
Im sorry, but isnt MySQL, RedHat, JBoss successful companies? Dont they make money?

Steals our jobs?
Open Source Software (OSS) is not going to make all developers unemployed. You need to see it from the other side, OSS helps us produce better quality products. We no longer need to implement a LinkedList, a String class or a web server every time a new project is started. Building on top of OSS will get us to the goal quickier. Then if I make an adjustment to an OSS, I give something back to the community. Im tired of re-inventing the wheel every day. But sure, if Im a crappy developer, then I should be worried.

Available link for download

Open Thread

Comment moderation is temporarily turned off-- so ask your questions, start discussions... talk to me, and talk to each other!

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