Science

[shermarama]

Now this is kind of spoony. I'm in Newcastle doing Science, in the particular form of trying out some photocatalytic methods they've developed, using samples we've made on our kit. I find myself trying hard not to be ill again here, and the nice PhD student I'm working with spent the weekend in Dublin getting trollied with mates and only arrived back at Newcastle airport at some ungodly hour of this morning, so neither of us were completely on the ball today. And while I have network access on a normal PC in the office next to the lab, I don't have any access in the halls, although I have got an entire flat to myself, with a proper kitchen with a stove and pans and things, which means I had pasta with sauce out of a jar for tea but had the facilities to fry up some peppers first to liven up the sauce, making life living out of a bag for this week into a far more agreeable thing. Sorry, yes, but as I was saying, no network access round here. There's no TV and no radio and I can't get any radio over the net neither despite this laptop which leaves this flat in eerie silence, so I went and got round to getting myself a digital radio. There's a lab I use at work that has all sorts of non-shielded motors in the vicinity, things like fume hood motors, which makes listening to normal FM radio in there virtually impossible - about the only station I can get some sort of clearly is Classic FM, which drives me nuts with its classical-lite soundbites and relentless adverts, so I reckon a digital radio will come in handy there. And I've got a dinky one that can run on batteries or mains, making it ideal for the sort of travelling I'm likely to have to do a bit of for the next few months in the service of getting the robot built. Now we get to the spoony bit; I don't know if this is the mild illness, the lack of distractions like the internet, the relief of having some sounds round here or what but I'm listening to Radio 1 and almost everything so far has been really good. I mean, a couple of merely passable ones including a regr/forg/ettable new song from the Coral but some right good 'uns. There's Fresh Meat on now, three new songs that get voted on by chatroom users, a slot I used to hear when driving to Brighton for BFs practices, and sometimes I'd be shouting at the radio about the derivative crap but all three tonight were songs I could deal with hearing again. I mean, they were still rather of their style and that but that's not always a bad thing, and the first one in particular caught me for some reason.

Oo, bastards, that one came third. Oh well. Spoony moment over, normal service is returned. But that MIA single is going to make terribly pleased every time I hear it, just for the sake of getting rhythms like that on mainstream radio. 

Comments

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

The album ("Kala") is apparently out today!

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

When I was in Switzerland for that nearly-week with the fog and nobody talking to anybody, the room I was staying in had no TV and no radio and no music-playing devices of any kind (and no sodding heating). All I had was a novel, David Copperfield. I was a bit weirder by the Thursday.

[aphroditemf.livejournal.com]

Digital radio is God. Most of the time I listen to football, or James Whale on TalkSport, and when I listen to music it's always Planet Rock. Prog galore!

[shermarama]

I'm particularly liking the way the track name and artist scrolls across the screen - I don't have to remember to listen to the DJ afterwards, or realise that the track got announced at the start so I've missed it, if I want to know what something is.

I haven't tried any of the non-usual stations yet - the idea of Kerrang! radio worries me...

[aphroditemf.livejournal.com]

You are right to be wary of Kerrang, it's as tedious and emo-orientated as you'd expect it to be.

Alice Cooper DJs on Planet Rock!

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Confusion! Weren't you daarn south a short while back? Are you moved or just temporary in Newcastle?

[shermarama]

I am usually daaarn sarf, like, yes, but I'm in Newcastle just for this week. And I really didn't bring enough jumpers with me because I didn't think it would be this cold IN blithering AUGUST. I mean, I'm from the North, but west of Manchester where it drizzles all the time but at least the clouds keep the heat in.