Musicalmidget’s Blog

Hello there! Remember me?

Hasn’t it been a while? One moment I’m sat here typing about Christmas, and the next thing I know it’s February!

Christmas and new year were great. It was good to be home again catching up with people and just enjoying the festive period in general. January was a busy old month though. Exams and deadlines at university and so on. I’m certainly glad that’s over for the moment. There’s still assignments to do even though the exam period is over, but I have a considerable amount more time to get them done, for the most part anyway!

So, we’re in week three of semester two of the second year. That means the halfway mark is now behind us and my degree course is now in it’s second half. Another example of how time is flying by at the moment. It doesn’t seem that long ago I was typing my “Greetings from Hull” thread, announcing my arrival in this fair city.

Today I’m going to post something that I’ve said I would do from day one of this blog, but hadn’t up until this point. My About page has always said that one day I hoped to publish some of my musical compositions online. Well, one of the deadlines I had in the busy weeks of January was for a small scale composition, in my case written for a clarinet choir. I’m still awaiting the results from that one, I think they’re due next week. Nevertheless, the piece is now up on Sibelius Music for all to see. Public proof of me actually doing something!

Anyone that is interested can see the piece online at this page on Sibelius Music. The Sibelius Scorch browser plugin is required however. I’ll attach an MP3 file soon with a synthesised version of the piece created with Kontakt Player. I hope at some point, to get some of my own compositions finished (by that I mean, compositions that are composed freely by me rather than for a uni brief/deadline) and uploaded too. I generally tend to write for larger ensembles such as wind band when it’s a “free” composition. I’ll need time to finish writing them though first!

With the uni workload a little lighter for the moment, I’ve been able to spend a little bit more time online over the last few days. That’s partially how I came to think “wait…don’t I have a blog somewhere?”. That said, I’ll be using this brief gap to get a number of things done and I hope to be able to talk in more detail about them soon. Many of the things on the ever growing list of things to do relate to MyBB Mods. I mentioned previously that there were big things ahead for the site in 2007 and that is still the case. Admittedly, those developments have taken a backseat over the exam period, but they’re by no means forgotten.

Oh, and on a slightly different note, I have 14 days left as a teenager. No doubt you’ll hear more here soon about this strange birthday that is quickly approaching. I don’t feel ready to loose the teenage years. There seems to be some kind of belief that people who are 20 and above have some kind of maturity. Tell me it isn’t so?

Until next time!

It’s that time again…how quickly this year seems to have passed.

I’m now home for Christmas meaning university work is on hold for a short while. This sadly will not be the case for long, I still have a little to do over the festive period. Thankfully however, not too much. That means I have some free time again, meaning, amongst other things, I can post a new blog entry. Hasn’t it been a while?

The last few months have been a little hectic, both with a larger amount of work at uni this term, and a few personal issues which were causing a few problems over the last couple of weeks. The Christmas holiday was much needed and I’m certainly glad to be home again for a few weeks.

I’ve spent the last few days catching up on various things that have happened whilst I’ve been away, both online (catching up on MyBB development, making some changes to MyBB Mods and Towers TV, etc) and offline (friends, family and so on). Similarly, I’ve been spending a lot of time over the last week or so preparing not only for Christmas Day tomorrow, but for Mums birthday, which is indeed today, Christmas Eve. We’ll be going for a meal shortly to celebrate. It’s often hard managing to find somewhere to go for a birthday celebration on Christmas Eve. Many places are either fully booked, stupidly expensive or both. This year however, we’ve had remarkably good luck. A pub on just the other side of town had spaces left today for meals and the ordinary menu still applies, as far as we know. The only flip side is that since the pub is out of walking distance, somebody has to drive. That would be me.

Tomorrow is obviously Christmas Day. I’ve been noticing in recent years how Christmas Day seems to change the older you get (I feel old just saying that). In years gone by I would be unable to sleep with excitement on Christmas Eve, eventually drifting to sleep and waking up first thing in the morning. Once my brother and I were awake, it was off to the parents room to wake them up and see if the Hogfather (Father Christmas to the non-Pratchett fans) had visited. In more recent years however, it’s been completely different. I’m still up late on Christmas Eve, but it’s not just excitement, it’s through choice. Either celebrating with friends or killing time on the interweb. Christmas morning is when it’s now our parents that wake my brother and I, because they’re excited and we probably wouldn’t be up until about lunchtime if left in our own land of slumber. Christmas shopping seems to get more stressful each year and the movies on the TV don’t get any better it seems. The one thing that hasn’t changed since the first Christmas I remember, is Christmas dinner. That never gets old…apart from the sprouts, they’re foul.

Whatever Christmas is to you, enjoy it!

Have a happy holiday!

I posted some months ago about the new Keane album which I was very much enjoying and mentioned that in October, I would be seeing them live here in Hull. That gig was on Tuesday night and it was absolutely fantastic!

It was great to take some time away from uni work on Tuesday to go and see one of my favourite bands kick off a UK tour in the very city I’m currently studying in. The night started with two support acts, both of which were great to hear. Support band Captain were a great choice to get the crowd in the mood before the set started. The music was great as always and was performed with such energy and enthusiasm by the band. New tracks sounded exciting and older tracks from the previous album sounded refreshed as if given a new lease of life. Lead singer Tom’s voice was up to scratch too, with not a note incorrectly pitched all night. There was a nice little surprise about half way through the set with an acoustic version of Your Eyes Open, which was also fantastic and offered a nice little contrast of style before going back into the action packed set.

I had unfortunately not had the pleasure of seeing Keane live before this week but many of those that had previously seen them live agree that this was the show of their career. I certainly thought it was excellent anyway!