dsd’s weblog

One year ago, I attended a grand showcase concert in a posh London hotel, where my aunt’s string quartet – The Pavao Quartet – performed well enough to win a recording contract with a brand new record label. Their music comprises mostly of unique arrangements of classic tracks: pop, jazz, classical, and more.

Earlier this month, I attended the release party for their debut album, in a swanky London private nightclub. The group have already enjoyed 2 weeks at the top of the Amazon UK Hot 20 Pre-release Classical Albums chart, and have seen plenty of press attention (BBC Radio interviews, local news coverage, etc).

Their debut album titled Someone to watch over me is released today and is available in the usual large music stores. Some info and samples can be found here.

Track list

1. Fascinating rhythm
2. Can’t help lovin’ dat man
3. Slap that bass
4. What a wonderful world
5. Let’s call the whole thing off
6. A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square
7. The way you look tonight
8. Embracable you
9. They all laughed (at Christopher Columbus)
10. They can’t take that away from me
11. It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing
12. Singin’ in the rain
13. There’s no business like show business
14. Someone to watch over me
15. Cheek to cheek
16. That’s entertainment

After a fantastic weekend at the Gentoo UK 2006 conference (which I’ll write about later) I arrived home to a nice surprise: a letter from the university including my exam results, and another letter informing me that I’ve won the Professors Prize for achieving the highest overall mark on the course this year.

A very pleasant surprise given how much time some of the people on the course spend on their studies, not forgetting the amount of potential study time I replace with various open source hacking!

I’m moving out to Boston at some point during August, to start a training placement in September. I need to start thinking about finding somewhere to live (but can’t confirm anything until my visa comes through). I need somewhere not too pricey (e.g. rented room or shared apartment), on or near the red line of the T route. If anyone knows of anything, please send it my way.

After the end of this academic year, I am taking a “year in industry” before returning for a final 2 years of study at The University of Manchester.

For the industrial year, I’ve been fortunate enough to find a position with a company building a product based on open-source. The product is not yet released and everything is being kept quiet, so I’ll have to spare the details for now. The company also contributes back to the community, which makes things even better.

The company is based in Boston, MA, and I’ll be moving out there for the duration. I can’t explain how excited I am about the whole thing. The company is nice and small and has a great working atmosphere, and the product will hit the market soon after I start in September.

Hopefully we’ll have published some marketing material at some point, so that people can gape in awe at the amazing technology :)

I’ve come home for Xmas and have been greeted by two new family members:

Muffin, ironically sitting on a PC mouse

Maisy

They are 7 weeks old, tiny, and extremely playful. In the day or so I’ve been here, they have already increased their confidence noticably, jumping around a lot more. We’ve only had them a few days, and they have already assumed my bedroom as their home…

a cacodemon

Chris, a good friend from back home, recently gave in to peer pressure and started a weblog. He is studying some form of art and was unlucky enough to end up somewhere in Wales where they have not yet invented residential internet services, but his work looks pretty damn cool!

This is a little close to home. Apparently the smoke could be seen from my town (about 30 miles away) earlier this morning. Fortunately I’m in the north of the country for another week yet. I hope everyone is OK.

Someone out there doesn’t like me…

Back at Easter-time when everyone else recieved loan renewal forms, mine did not arrive. I attempted to apply online instead, which didn’t work out as I’d never recieved my login details. I phoned up again and was told I would recieve my login details through the post within a week.

Two weeks later, no login details arrived, so I printed off the paper version, filled it in, checked very carefully, and sent it in a week or so after the deadline. No problem, I was assured, “you’ll still get your loan on time”.

Fast forward a month or so, I re-request my login details so that I can check the progress of my loan online. The login details arrive, I login, my application has been accepted, job done.

Now that term has started, I realise that my loan has not materialised. After phoning them, I recieve an array of reasons why this is the case, including that I didn’t even apply for it, I didn’t sign the loan request form, I made a mistake on the application form but they can’t tell me what the mistake is, …. If I did make a mistake, how nice of them to tell me. And why does it say application accepted on the website?

I’ve sent in another renewal form, and depending who answers the phone, I either will get my loan within a few weeks from now, or I won’t get it at all for this term. Useless.

Birthday today!

Last night me and some friends went into London to PSP:Anywhere which featured a load of groups/DJ’s we’d never heard of, but most importantly King Biscuit Time – Steve Mason’s solo act. Steve Mason was the lead singer of The Beta Band, one of my favourite groups, who recently split up :( KBT’s new stuff sounds good and seems to feature the beta magic, can’t wait for the album.

Tonight I’m going out for a meal with some friends and then we’ll be hitting the pubs. Should be a good one…

Party at Chris’s last night. Featured the usual garden bonfire (despite the wet weather we’ve been having):

The fire attracted some uninvited guests:

Turns out that someone had phoned 999 and reported that Netto’s (local supermarket, a fair distance down the road) was on fire! The police turned up too because they had recieved “a few” reports. We must have smoked out the entire neighbourhood – quite an achievement. Must have been from burning wet wood.