Blog: Hunched Over A Screen

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Today i have BOGGLY EYES. Anyone who works with computers a LOT will know what i mean - my eyes, they are BOGGLY from staring at a computer screen (at VERY close quarters, MAN those INDIVIDUAL PIXELS need watching) for a bit too long, for LO! I spent the weekend WORKING once again.

This time, however, it was ALL The Work Of ROCK, as I was doing the MULTIMEDIA ASPECT for "WE VALIDATE!" Oh, my friends, it is a thing of BEAUTY! Most of my time was spent working on the extra MP3 Demo Versions - there's going to be about 15 of these, comprising (is the plural of "demo" "demoes" or is it "demos"? or "demo's"? if someone knows PLEASE tell me, it be driving me MAD) and LIVE versions or nearly all the tracks on the album. Some of the time was spent tracking them down, MOST of it was spent fiddling around with Photoshop, Javascript and Cascading Style Sheets to make the MP3 Player look nice... and baby, it DOES look nice! VERY NICE!

By the way, did you know that if you open a window in Javascript it has to be at least 100 pixels high? I didn't know that, and it took me an hour to find out that that's why the whole thing looked WRONG, and another hour to redesign everything. I pass this knowledge on now so that you don't suffer the same fate as I.

I also set up the menu system, wrote some text, and then sorted out the PHOTOGRAPHS. AGES ago now I did a "Postcard From Cornwall", which is a MONTAGE of loads of pictures we took while we were down there. I've sorted it now so you can click on a section of the montage to see the full picture, and then EITHER go back to the montage OR flick through the full set. It's DEAD good, i am WELL chuffed with it, it is a thing of GRACE.

Either that or my MIND is going BOGGLY too. Anyway, it's all going very well but I am SURELY looking forward to getting out into the fresh air a bit more next month, when i am VERY MUCH On The Road. I've just added ANOTHER GIG to the big list of gigs - I'm already doing more gigs in April than I did in the WHOLE of 1998, and with a couple of extra possibilities on the horizon I could be on track to BREAK RECORDS: i did 7 gigs in September 2005, could that FEARSOME TALLY be about to be eclipsed?

Whatever happens, i repeat to myself the advice i gave to The Fighting Cocks when going on tour: EAT FRUIT! You know it makes sense!

posted 27/3/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

I really don't know so much about Javascript etc, so I'll leave that to the experts, but as a regular promoter of gigs, and thus a regular "provider-of-rider" I can certainly vouch for the importance (and popularity) of fruit at rock gigs.

I kinda used to think that if you were in a band then the only thing you'd be interested in consuming before/during/after a performance (foodwise)would be beer and crisps (or peanuts). This certainly worked for me. However, I became increasingly appalled at the poor state of health that some of the artists turning up to my shows were in - all sorts of ailments were on offer, ranging from minor coughs, iffy stomachs and light skin irritations through to hacking pnuemonia, vertiginous dizzy fits and, most commonly, the dreaded "Man Flu". It became apparent that a life on the road was not conducive to a steady and balanced diet of nutritious, healthy, sustaining foods. So a couple of years ago I made the decision to always include at least three different types of fresh fruit on my rider. Usually the choice will revolve around apples/oranges or satsumas/bananas, but recently there have been some wicked Somerfield special offers on grapes and strawberries (which ALWAYS go down well !!), sometimes plums, plus the odd exotic foray into the world of passion fruit and lychee. I once (due to my local Saturday morning market veg man having had a bit of a speculative overstock) ventured into the realms of dragon fruit - but this was an unmitigated disaster, all seeds and pips and quizzical looks, not an enthusiastic response AT ALL.

Though by the time people reach my town the damage of a "tour diet" has often already been done, I do like to think that when the band or artist leave MY gig they will be in a much better frame of health and mind, which will not only help their gig the following evening, but hopefully their future diets, and careers in general.
posted 27/3/2006 by PhilmRiot

sorry to be a nerd, but do you think your html will Validate with all this javascript and the likes in it? Test it at http://validator.w3.org/

Heading to the new tracks now!
posted 29/3/2006 by Pauly

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