A New Start

A New Start
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

This is my box of drivers for my PC. After weeks of dodgy start-ups and shut-downs I bit the bullet and re-instaled Windows.
It's a dirty job but someone has to do it.

Boxing Clever

Boxing Clever
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

It might well be Boxing Day but I still found a few minutes to play a few chords.
I'm pretty determined to learn to play this year. With that and the book to write I can safely say that I'm fully booked this year.
Pun intended.

iTouch

iTouch
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

This is my site as seen from Kim's new toy.

What A Weekend

What A Weekend
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

I've spent most of my weekend sorting my PC. It seems to be OK now, fingers crossed.
Today's picture is just one of those things to be found around my desk.
It's a lighter by the way.

Dead

Dead
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

I'll try and fix it tonight but if I can't it's back to the shop for repairs.

Stopping For A Chat

Stopping For A Chat
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

This puddytat lives at a council depot in Coventry.
Here he is tucking into his mid morning snack. He's very chatty and told me that the secret the horses told me was a lie.
Mr Man says there are no horses on the moon and that I'm a twit for believing them.
He also said that 'Straight from the horses mouth.' was an unreliable statement and had been considered so for years.
I thanked the chitter chat and left him to his snack.
He's so bright that one!

Zesty

Zesty
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

This is where I an now.

Xmas

Xmas
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

It's a tradition in Clarendon Park to hang Xmas tree's from the front of the shops and bars. Last year was dismal.
This year is looking much better.
Hooray!

Back In The Box

Back In The Box
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

Despite preparing for a night at home I'm in the DJ box again.
I'm here for a while yet so come down and say hi.

Storming

Storming
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

This is the bit of Kenilworth Castle the I stormed. It was easy!
I just said "Who will fight me for this bit?" and nobody wanted to so I took control.
I'll do the rest next week.

The Experiment

The Experiment
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

I wanted to know if I could get this picture off my PSP and onto my blog.
Seems I can.

Xmas Shopping

Xmas Shopping
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

Coventry's new Ikea opens in just over a week. This isn't a bad thing but the traffic around the store will be.
I'll report on the chaos nearer the time.
It's a pity there isn't enough room in a car to build a flat pack wardrobe, most of the shoppers will certainly have the time.

More Folly

More Folly
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

I just walked up the hill to find it's called Chesterton Windmill.

The Folly

The Folly
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

Todays blog is from a folly in Warwickshire somewhere.
The sails aren't going round even though it's windy.
It truly is a folly.

Jazz Cat

Jazz Cat
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

I wish I was that talented. Just imagine that I could play with me toes an all. I'd fill the Albert Hall.
In reality I'm much cleverer than that and shun the limelight.
Oh! Reservoir!
I'm cultured too ya know.

Browns Sunday Market

Browns Sunday Market
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

This is the view from the DJ box in Browns. I'm doing my last set for some time from here.
I'll see you around in meatspace soon. It's back to a virtual MikiStrange for the time being.

Ahh!

Ahh!
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

He's only ten but he still get's into Browns.

Concrete Jumble

Concrete Jumble
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

I get to visit some odd places during my days work. This is underneath Corby shopping centre.
Upstairs, everyone is gearing up for xmas. Down here I freezing and waiting for a bloke who keeps getting side-tracked.
I must be bunkers.

Home At Last!

Home At Last!
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

As you can see from the time on this post it's very early Sunday morning.
Yesterday saw Ernesto's naming ceremony. A visit to a Cov city centre pub for a few hours during which time I remained sober. My usual but sadly last residency set at Browns. A couple of body transfers and a trip home.
It's been a long day so I'm off to bed now.
Catch you soon.

Vista

Vista
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

Sometimes you have to just stop and admire the amazing views that our world has to offer.
Right, I've done that now.

XBox360 v Playstation3

XBox360 v Playstation3
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

There was a time when the playstation was the only console I'd look at. All those years ago it was my recording studio because it ran the Music discs.
These days I have a PC and hardware to do that job.
I want a console to play games on. My current favourite is the Burnout series. I've just been looking at screenshots for the XBox and it looks amazing.
Considering that Sony are way over priced and I can do without Gran Tourismo, it looks like the 360 will be taking the PS2's place sometime soon.

Indoor Lunch

Indoor Lunch
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

Lunch was spent at the branch today.
There was enough time for cigarettes, Pot Noodle, PSP and the roll up piano even got rolled out.
I might spend lunch time here more often.

LP45

LP45
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

It's the last Dirt night at Browns and this is LP45 headlining.
Their a great band to in out on. It's kinda sad to see the end of Dirt but at least the nights will be talked about for some time to come.

Friday Night

Friday Night
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

I'm in Browns, fifteen minutes before my DJ set starts.
There's a good buzz in here again tonight. I'm looking forward to keeping everyones mind off the cold outside.

Boiler

Boiler
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

For those of you that have never been without heat at home this picture won't mean a lot.
For the rest of you, this is our new boiler.
The house is now warm, the hot water is hot. The shower is still the best in the world. But most of all, it's lovely to see all the cats out of their hoodies and arctic parkas.
It's now officially summer in the Strange household.

Today's Lunch View

Today's Lunch View
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

This is what I can see from my van today. Rolling fields and warm sunshine. There's a crow sitting in a tree listening to his iPod and apart from the odd car passing (and they are odd round here) and my radio it's quiet.
I'm just about to spoil all that by streaking naked around the field screaming at the top of my voice.
Brrr, it is chilly!
Arrghhhheeeee!

Winter

Winter
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

This is a plume of steam rising up from the University of Warwick's boiler house.
It's signalling the return of winter.
Either that or someone isn't observing the no smoking ban with their giant pipe.

Amyl Nitrate

Amyl Nitrate
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

This is my mate Kev who says that orgasms and Amyl Nitrate are a good idea this christmas.
I'm supplying the Amyl Kev can supply the rest.

Liquid Lunch

Liquid Lunch
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

I've found a quiet spot to take my lunch break today. It's dry in the van but outside it's very wet.
I'm going to have a snooze now and forget the rain for half an hour.

Horses Love Mints

Horses Love Mints
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

These are my friends the horses. They live near a hotel I deliver to. Recently I've been stopping to give them a mint each. Today I gave them two each and they told me a secret.
I promised not to tell so I'm afraid I can't reveal what they said except that I'm glad I know.

I Give Up

I Give Up
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

If you're going to give up giving up then this is the place to do it.
My self imposed abstinence is at an end. As I write I'm on my second pint of foreign stuff and I'm enjoying myself immensely.
I'm still going to keep up the guitar lessons because that's a lot of fun and I've been promising myself that I'd learn for ages.
It was good to rediscover Flickr. My blogging will be much more colourful and I'll blog often too.
Bye for now.

Who's that girl?

Who's that girl?
Originally uploaded by MikiStrange

Spotted on a street in Coventry a week ago. She's also got the tenacity to call my tastes gay!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

MSTV

The Story So Far

It would seem that I've left a few loose ends on this page so I'll try and round off a few stray corners.
I won my first eBay auction a while ago now and have since bought from the site again. I now own a Yamaha RY8 drum machine which is fantastic and in my guitar case as I type this. I also own a roll-up piano which is just as useful and a lot of fun too.

I made a few binaural recordings while My Cat and I were on holiday in Cornwall. I haven't had time to edit them yet but I will get round to it and post them on this site. I also fell over quite badly while we were there and I'm still hurting some six weeks later.

I've given up drinking because I can't be bothered with it for a while. Last time I gave up I learned HTML because my head was so clear and I was able to think and remember straight. This time I'm putting my clear head into learning guitar.
I've owned one for nearly two years and although it's seen a bit of action I still can't claim to be able to play it properly, that's gonna change. I'll chart my progress here.

I think I'm fairly happy with my site staying like this now so no more messing about with layouts and stuff. It's content you're after so I'll leave things be and post more often.

Ooh!

The man phoned me today and said my new puder is ready.
Next time I blog it should be from my new super beast.

The Power Of eBay

You might not think that this is very interesting but I'm currently bidding for an item on eBay.
It's interesting for me because it's only the third eBay auction I've been involved in and this time I really want to win.
I really am a late-comer to eBay but I have been a late-comer to all technology all my life. This isn't a bad thing because by the time I'm ready to come on board most of the problems have been ironed out.
The thing is that I really want to get to grips with eBay because I have a few things to sell. I need to buy first to get a ranking then I have a better chance of selling.
So here I am bidding and just about winning. I'm determined that I'll win this one.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Fingers crossed. Wish me luck.

Binaural Audio

This is my completed 'Dummy Head' mic. It's not very attractive but it's practical and will do what I need to. It's basically a sponge football with a piece of dowel stuck through the middle and two tie clip mics mounted on each end of the dowel. The whole thing sits on a desktop mic stand. The total cost including the mics was £51 which isn't bad.
I was going to mount the mics on an old pair of glasses but I was worried about noise as I moved about. This little structure is noise free and pretty stable too.
I'm taking the whole thing to Cornwall to record some beach sounds and stuff. I'll put the recordings online as soon as I get my new PC.

Holiday Nearly

There are 13 days to go until the long drive to Cornwall and a well deserved holiday.
I'm really looking forward to my 2 week holiday and I think it's well deserved too.
I'm preparing a few essentials to take with me and over the next few days I'll tell you all about it.

Dulltown

This is a kind of test blog for the new YouTube/Google service.
Apart from that it's a true representation of what I feel about my hometown.

No Smirking!

So here I am, sitting in Browns with the no smoking ban in place.
How do I feel?
I'm happy for all the non smokers, they get to do their thing without being polluted by the likes of me. It must feel good if you don't smoke. I feel a bit odd having to disappear every now and then to get my fix but I'll get used to that.
Has it made me think more about giving up?
In one word, no.
I've smoked for a long time and I still like it. Changing how I smoke in public places won't really change when I smoke and besides, the smoking area here is quite a social space and that's one benefit I didn't foresee.
On balance it's all working out quite well for everyone.

One better day.

There was one better day than today.
Things had much more fluidity, more motion, more life.
Today we all learned something new.
Learned how the air has it's own character in our nostrils.
Learned that the sun goes down and rises with or without us.
We felt skin under our fingertips, life in our hands.
We saw the road again, the one most travelled and realised we had never looked at it before now.
We learned humility in the face of our greatest challenge.
We found strength in our faith in nothing but ourselves.
We looked and saw the truth, hard as it was we faced it alone and walked forward.
We slipped away into our own thoughts of love and sealed ourself in.
We walked away, didn't turn back and never wavered.
We ended the battle and won, integrity intact.
We loved and didn't lose.
We found ourself, decided it was the only truth and disappeared into the night.
Never to be seen again, we will always be remembered.
Always to be remembered.

Eventful

The past seven days at work have been eventful to say the least.
Last Friday during my lunch break I was taken on a short cruise between two locks on a narrow boat by a lovely couple who's names I don't know.
Then on Tuesday and Wednesday the computers at work went down so I really didn't have a lot of work to do.
Yesterday I saved a baby crow who had fallen out of his tree and broken his leg. I fed him water and milk from a teaspoon and he perked up before I took him to the PDSA for them to fix him up.
Sadly today nature balanced things out and a bird wedged himself into the grill of my van. It's the way it has to be I suppose.
Hopefully tomorrow will be event free and nothing will be dead or injured.

--
www.mikistrange.com

Journeys

I'm probably as pissed as I can be. I'm sitting in a pub called the Lansdown and I'm drinking Makers Mark and Red Bull.
It's an attempt to get drunk and stay awake all at the same time.
It's working too.
Bottoms up. Bottoms down too.
More pissed adventures next time.

Hmmm

Being a bit pissed in Browns is a rare occasion. I don't do it often.
Sitting here typing on such an occasion is rarer still. So what's new?
Well nothing as yet. You see, I'm waiting for a delivery of a professional audio recorder.
By the time I've learned to use it I'll be podcasting my strange world to you all.
That means that between now and then there's some work to do.
The waiting will be worthwhile.
Catch you soon.

New Site

My new website is all done. It only took two goes but it's finished and I'm happy with it.
It loads in double quick time because it's been stripped bare and I'll only put stuff that I deem worthy of attaching my name to. In other words, not very much and not often either. I have some plans but no plans to divulge anything at this time.
The site is also very PSP friendly which can only be a good thing.
Let me know what you think.

It's Started

This week I will mostly be staying in Cov. The reason? I'll be moving the DJ stuff around because the dancefloor should be up and running on Friday.
It might take longer but I hope not. There's a lot of work to do in a short amount of time.
Check me out on Friday. By then we'll all know how far things have moved on.
Wish me luck.

Rotterdam

Here I am in Rotterdam. It's a cool city with much more to offer than any other Dutch city.
We're finding new stuff to do every day, new places to explore.
My Cat is having the best birthday ever and that makes me very happy.
I'll catch you soon, another smoke is well overdue.
Love to all.

One Week

Only one week to go. This time next week I'll be safely tucked up in bed at my sister's house dreaming about a fish.
I've been searching through Google Earth and memorising the layout of Rotterdam and Spiedam so that I can take My Cat shopping. I've located V&D so that breakfast is easy to find.
My Dutch is as shaky as ever but I'm going to put in a lot of effort this week as some of the new phrases I have learned will be more than useful.
I'm taking my trusty ThinkPad with me so I should post here at least once before I leave the Netherlands.
Dag.

Dag!

My Cat and I are off to the Netherlands in three weeks time and it's going to be good.
I'll be blogging from our hotel in Rotterdam so keep your eyes peeled for some fine double dutch.
Tot ziens.