the_new_scum

A couple of Mondays ago i'm driving into work through some country roads where they've been digging up the road. What i didnt know was that they'd moved up the road a little and that the traffic lights were now closer to the bend. I brake pretty sharply as i come round the corner, skid on some ice and wind up almost in oncoming traffic. Luckily because of the traffic lights the other side of the road was empty, and i managed to pull into a nearby driveway for a minute.



I was fine, but my wing mirror wasnt so lucky.

After scouring local parts dealers and scrapyards i couldn't find a replacement for a price i was willing to pay. I'd lost one before and replaced it for like 12, so i was damned if i was gonna spend 35. I managed to find one on eBay and it showed up with about 1 hour to spare before my MOT.

Car went in for it's test and it failed horribly. Turns out i didnt skid because of the ice on the road, but because my brakes were fucked. Not sure how i didnt notice given just how bad they were, but either way I've had to go even further overdrawn to pay for the repairs.

I needed new brake pads, discs, a replacement for some of the anti-roll bar linkage, one new tyre and some of the basics like brake fluid etc. In total with labour, the cost of the original test and the subsequent re-test, it cost me 283.76 It put somewhat of a damper on the past week or so.

Work is a bit weird at the moment. It's not so much that its shit, it just seems weird somehow. Nearly everybody in the place is making a lot of noise about leaving, myself included. There's a GAME store not too far away that I was tempted by. As far as i know they make more money over there anyway, and it'd be nice to have a change of area manager and a new start, also it'd be like a promotion.

I wasn't overly serious about going for it so I just sent my CV over totaljobs.com without even a covering letter or anything. Like i said, pretty lazy. Turns out the area manager for GAME went to college with one of the guys who works with us. He goes down the road to talk to him and it transpires that they have somebody in line for the position but theyre not overly confident about him. As per their request I write up a proper covering letter and CV and take it in to the guy since he's minding the local shop for now. Turns out that they pretty much have gone for the other guy. That said, my details have been kept on file and i'm apparently pretty much a shoe-in should anything else show up, or if this other guy turns out to be shit during his training.

Can't wait for the Birmingham Meet. It'll be great to once again hang out with those i've met before, and meet some more internet pervs to add to my friends list.

After a gruelling 3-hour late night drive down to Mansfield it was nice to have a relaxing lie in with a certain somebody last week. Then mid-afternoon we embarked down to the cinema where I saw Juno for the 2nd time. Was just as good the 2nd time around, although I'm still not a fan of some of the more "twee" bits of the soundtrack. I ate way too much cinema food on the day aswell because I'm too retarded to read a menu board properly.

I also saw "Be Kind Rewind" which i thought was pretty damn cool. It trails off a little bit towards the end but some parts were absolute comic gold, and it was really nice to see Jack Black being reigned in a little bit. I'm also starting to like Mos Def a lot more.

"Rambo" on the other hand is a giant piece of shit. Yes, it's very very violent but strangely still boring. Most of the shocking parts went a little too far and wound up into the realm of comedy and the whole thing just seemed kind of pointless.

I bought a metronome. I decided that i was actually quite pleased with some of the stuff I'd been doing in my guitar lessons lately. Les teaches me a scale, then i have to improvise a lead over a backing CD or Les playing some chords. The beauty of scales is that it can almost never sound shit. Then when i'm at home practicing I somehow cant seem to make it sound good, it mostly just descends into unstructured noise - hence the metronome.

I think that in the near future I might try and actually write stuff. It'll most likely be incredibly simple, unadventurous shite without any chords that don't end in a "5" but there you go. I suppose if I'm actually putting the chords and scales I've been learning to some practical use, it'll make me a bit more enthusiastic about them. As it is, I go to my lessons, have an awesome time playing around with them - and then at home my practice descends into badly playing songs that are within my skill level (there's about 3 of them) Wish me luck!