So i see I am blogging once a month. That month has been a busy one, and I really could have wrote something each day. But that is the contradiction. I have so much to say, and so little time to say it. The thing that has changed most is the speed and accuracy i type at. I had a major report due in at the end of march, and as with most things is life, they get left till they are almost too late. As a result i had to learn how to type fast, and learn how to type accurately, with no spelling or grammatical mistakes. The end result was a completed report and a faster typer. I am not quite fully touch type literate, but at the same time I am not typing with one finger. I am a happy medium between. I have downloaded a little handy type tutor, it works real well, and I am practicing lots with it.
My new fascination is photography. I purchased a new camera a few weeks ago. It is a nice piece of kit, a fuji bridge style camera. What is a bridge style camera, well it looks like a DSLR, but is not, it has a big optical zoom, but still the simplicity of a compact. I like the features, but it is a bit too bulky for recording those special moments. It does take a killer landscape shot though, so I am going to get into nature photography. It force me to get out at the weekends and doing some walking, and also practice my photography skills, (or lack of). I also got myself the latest version of Photoshop elements, which is great for tweaking and fixing up little mistakes in the photos, and fixing the colours.
Aside from that I have also broadened my music collection. I got the side project of Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys, called the Last of the Shadow Puppets. It is a cool cd, the songs are real classic Scott Walker and the Walker Brothers style. You did know they were not really brothers. Although Alex Turner's voice is so familiar I still associate the songs with the Arctic Monkeys. I have also delved into the back catalogues a bit too, with a few new jazz albums, and the joy division albums, Closer, and Unknown Pleasures.
I have a rekindled appreciation of Jazz again as a result of a great conversation I had with a friend of mine, her boyfriend and a mate of his. I think that evening was the highlight of my month. It is strange, but we had not sat down and chatted for a while, well not without others taking over the conversation. The whole evening in Bolands was filled with lots of little discussions about well everything. We talked about Jazz, Literature, Philosophy, Psychological therapies, how we don't really know our neighbours. It was a lot of fun. I felt connected with these people again. For a long time I have felt a distance growing between myself and my college friends. I still feel that distance, but it closed a little bit with that conversation. We shared out thoughts on PhD study, and the regrets we have going down that road. Not that I would change my career choices, it is just the weight of work that goes into producing a PhD study gets me down sometimes, so it was great to have a good old rant about it.
All in all this has been a great month. My work in Vicar Street has brought me to a number of gigs. My highlight was Elbow last night. It was great, it has been a long time since i seen a great band play the vicar street stage, which is now full of comedians, and the like.
I have been listening heavily to elbow this day as a result.
