Middle of the middle of the week

[annathepiper]

+0: I have been reminded by silme711's last post that tomorrow is Russell Crowe Doubleheader Day--birthday AND anniversary! I think in honor of the occasion I shall have to listen to every single TOFOG ditty on my iPod, as well as Danielle Spencer's album. I'd give Master and Commander another run-through, but as much as I love my violin-playing Jack, he'd be too dangerous a distraction when I'm trying to edit a book. Perhaps I shall have to squeeze the movie in on the weekend or something. ;)

+1: Today, though, it's been all about the Carbon Leaf. Initial impressions of Indian Summer: a more mellow, polished album than Echo Echo, but still with those beautifully complicated lyrics, and, most delightfully, the fabulous mandolin playing. I think that overall I do still prefer the energy of Echo Echo, but I daresay Indian Summer will grow on me. I am also pretty sure I remember "A Life Less Ordinary" from the Carbon Leaf/GBS show last May.

+/-2: I'm listening to Altan now as I type this; renewed thanks go out to starfallz who initially recommended them to me. I have recently discovered Altan's put out a new album, too, as has Solas, another group of whom I'm fond. I'll have to pick both of those albums up when I get more extra cash. I also really want to find another album by Anam, as I picked up a copy of Riptide for cheap at Cellophane Square, but they don't seem to be around anymore; at least, I haven't been able to find any other Anam albums on my searches of local stores, and they don't seem to have an official webpage, so it's hard to track down if their albums are still being sold.

+3: Update on the weirdo new way I've been given to clean my contacts: so far, it seems to have been quite effective. The lenses felt amazingly clean when I put them in this morning, practically like new--and so far I haven't had any issues with my eyes watering or itching today. And while I have not been entirely congestion-free, I've had almost no problems in that area either. I'm not yet convinced that these two things are related, but so far there seems to be a pretty strong argument for it. We'll see what happens as the week continues.

+4: I have ordered my new iPod battery finally, as well as a charger thingie for use in the car. spazzkat strongly recommended this, as the iTrip device that lets you play your iPod over nearby FM radios eats a ton of power. Now this should mean that I'll be able to play my iPod for longer than 30-45 minutes in the car. I expect to get the package on Friday, so at least some part of my weekend will go to attempted iPod surgery. More on this as events warrant!

+/-5: Work has been slow this week. Ordinarily I would say this is a good thing, except that part of the reason behind this is that my team lead is in the hospital with a hole in his colon. :/ Word has it that he's doing pretty well all things considered, but still, hospital!

Comments

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

Those reels'd be Jenny Picking Cockles,Farewell to Leitrim, and John Doherty's.

Geekery, i know, but i like that CD, and it's in my mix.

[annathepiper]

Hee! Yes, I was looking at the title as I typed that, but I didn't think I had enough space in the "Current Music" field to type in the entire title. ;)

It's a good CD, indeed! Altan has excellent instrumentals all over both the albums I have, this one and the 2-disc "Best Of" set.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Heh. I picked up Master and Commander (or whatever the actual title is) at the library last night to read on the commute.

[annathepiper]

The actual title is in fact Master and Commander. :) It's the first book of the Aubrey & Maturin series; The Far Side of the World is actually the tenth. When they made the movie, they glommed the two titles together--apparently because some marketing people or some such decided that Master and Commander sounded like a cooler movie title.

To further confuse the matter, the storyline in the movie is actually a merging of (I believe) the 9th and 10th books! (Though I've only read the first four, so I cannot yet attest to what elements got swiped from what books for the making of the film.)

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Ok, it is The Far Side of the World that I picked up last night. Guess I need to backtrack a bit. :-)

[annathepiper]

Ahh okay, yes! Yes, you do. :) I highly, highly recommend Master and Commander; heck, it's the book that sold me on the idea that I was going to love Aubrey and Maturin as characters, regardless of who was playing Aubrey. I really enjoy Patrick O'Brian's writing style, even when he loses me with paragraphs of nautical jargon. His characters keep me going even through those parts!

Just reading about Jack in the opening paragraphs of M&C seriously grooving on the musical recital he's attending in that scene, to the point of physically waving his hand around in time to the beat, charmed me to no end. I was all, "I DO THAT TO MUSIC!" And I fell right in love with Jack. ^_^

Plus, I love their dialogue exchanges when they start playing their violin and cello together. ^_^

[kieri.livejournal.com]

I like Capercaille a fair lot, too, in addition to Altan. :) There's something really haunting about a woman singing in Gaelic. Or a man singing in Gaelic. If they could teach a poodle to sing in Gaelic, I'd probably listen to it.

In a different note, I thought you might like this -- I downloaded it a few weeks ago and it keeps ending up in my iPod playlist. :) Very nice little ditty, and it's a free and legal download!

The song is 'Hills/Mulqueen' by Nightingale... (http://archive.salon.com/ent/music/review/wmd/2005/01/12/tweet/) Should be the first song on the list of downloads. :)

[annathepiper]

I swoon hardcore over hearing a male voice singing in Gaelic. Especially if it's a deep male voice. I would, if not kill, then at least pay extremely large sums of money to hear either Alan Doyle or Russell Crowe singing something in Gaelic! But till I get either of those, I'll deal with the male singer on my Anam record and his lovely delivery!

Though yeah, I love to hear a female voice singing in that language, too; I'm very fond of assorted tracks of Altan's and Solas' and the Fire in the Kitchen album on my iPod.

What I REALLY want to hear, though, is a high-energy, high-harmony song done in Gaelic! All of the Gaelic ditties I've got tend to be slow-tempo, wistful sorts of things, with one or two singers at most. Great Big Sea belting out a Gaelic song in full harmonious blast would RULE. :D

Thanks for the link, in the meantime!

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

On #3: Since crying makes you get a sniffly/runny nose, it makes perfect sense to me that irritating contacts would also cause some sinus congestion, and getting rid of the irritation would reduce said congestion as well.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I'm wondering if it's some sort of thing about allergens in the air just building up on my contacts and adding to the irritation I've been having. Today's been more of the same--my symptoms not going away entirely but being reduced down to almost non-existent. It's certainly been enough to make me seriously consider switching over to this new method of dealing with my lenses. :)