On the home stretch

After a lovely 5 days away from the grindstone I am now happy to report that I am on the home stretch. One and a half full days left to work before the shackles come off for a whole 12 days of hassle free goodness. 12 days to kick back and relax, eat, drink and be very merry and generally not have to worry about anything whatsoever work related. I fear 12 days will be nowhere near long enough though and am already braced for the barrage of hell that is likely to descend upon us in early January to make up for 12 lost days.

Anyway, what have I managed to achieve in the time since my last wafflings? Well, our Christmas tree is now up - and it’s not bare like it was when we first decorated it. A second trip to Home Base for more decorations saw to that. However, I am sorry to report we have succumbed to the chav ways and strayed from the traditional multi coloured flashing Christmas tree lights, and opted for the more “cool” blue L.E.D affairs. Still, at least the outside of our flat isn’t lit up like a beacon off the coast of the Orkneys so we are still relatively normal - unlike certain households elecrtricity bills in our street.

My new monitor for my PC has arrived. I can now look at “art” in all its twenty inch widescreen glory. Hurrah for Dell who also saved me best part of thirty sniffs  by including a DVI to DVI cable in the box with it. There was distinctly something of the microwave oven about the last abomination that sat on top of my computer desk and has now been relegated to the spare room.

Naomi has also very kindly let me have my birthday present early - an Alesis Photon X25 (right). Been after a decent MIDI controller to complete my production set up for a while now and after much deliberation, decided the Alesis was the best one for the job. Nice and small so is easily portable, and packs enough features for even the most advanced of users. It makes MIDI mapping all the easier as it comes pre programmed with generic maps for a whole range of software - ideal for me as Ableton and Reason are included - which are my weapons of choice. MIDI mapping is of course - fully customisable if your program is not included in the presets. It also has 10 assignable knobs and 3 layers over which they can be assigned, so in effect that is 30 assignable knobs. Add to this 10 assignable buttons, modulation wheel, pitch bend wheel and a “3 dimensional control dome” (pass on how that works, havn’t got that far yet) and what you have here is one very versatile MIDI controller.

Finally, I am happy that for once, I have managed to get my Christmas shopping all done and dusted before Christmas Eve. This means I will be able to stay about 300 miles away from any town centre over the weekend. I hate shopping at the best of times, but I think I would rather watch Hollyoaks for a week solid than go shopping on the last weekend before Christmas. Yes, I would hate it that much. While countless fools are out there rushing around for the last minute presents, I will be sat in the pub enjoying a nice cold pint of their finest, being bored to tears by The Mighty Wolves trying to grind out a result against East Midlands Crisps. Bah humbug!