Come on, somebody must remember

We’ve all had that feeling before, or experienced a disturbing lack of memory recall at the wrong time when a familiar tune floats out of a doorway or a bar jukebox speaker and not for the life of you can you remember the name of the artist or the song.

To your friends you might be a fountain of musical knowledge, a veritable encyclopaedia of band names, album dates or a tome of rock n’ roll history. But when your brain lets you down where are you then?

Shazam!

U.K. readers might remember a few years ago a new service was launched that didn’t arrive with too much fanfare but it’s usefulness and quirkiness quickly spread by word of mouth. This service was Shazam, a number you could text or simply call and place in the direction of the sound source and after a small-ish time listening to the song you hang up. Then 30 seconds later, hey presto an SMS came through with your song, title, artist name, date, album name. Practically everything you need to now. This service has now expanded to include the Blackberry and the iPhone with applications that let you use the speedier internet data services to recognise your music. So if you don’t live in the UK or US where Shazam is supported and you don’t have a cell phone – what are you supposed to do?

I’m a Tunatic

Ready to recognise

Well enter my recent discovery, a small freeware application for both the Mac and the Windows platform that sits open and listens to your songs through you microphone (not supplied!). Now whenever that temporary amnesia hits, you can be armed with a weapon to find out those missing song details at a click of a button.

Beauty In Simplicity

The most disarming aspect of this little piece of software is it’s tiny footprint and widget like simplicity. It doesn’t have any flash “web 2.0″ – esque functions like auto tagging the song it was listening to or any other fancy tagging features but it can be relied upon to find  a lot of songs in a pinch.

Functionality in the face of Obscurity

As a test of the comprehensiveness of the user maintained database of music I found an out CD that a friend from university sent to me about 4 years ago, which contained mostly songs from obscure or new and relatively unknown British indie bands. The 14 track listing only once through up an unidentified track, of which none of my friends with their knowledge of music have been able to identify either, so I will give it to them on that one.

Identify those musical nuggets, play your TV to it, it KNOWS.

This cool little app is definitely worth the download if you are consistently frustrated by your own memory or just simply don’t know the song. Small, convenient, unobtrusive and very very welcome.

Link to the developers web-page and download here

Some great copy pasta from Slashdot

Original source unknown, but it kind of sums up how I feel about advertising.

"I’ve been targeted right out of the market.

Continue reading Targeted

“Why is it that the public sphere is full of puritans?

Beer!

I know that fearmongering, banning stuff and generally going off on a rant about some less than perfect section of society is seen a s a good way to garner votes *and* raise taxes, but imagin [sic] how popular a politician would be that said:

“we have evidence that not only is moderate drinking not bad for you, but that’s it’s far better for your health than not drinking at all, as a result we’ll be dropping the tax on booze by a half and setting up counselling course for those that feel they can’t partake ion the odd drop or two for fear of enjoying themselves once in their dull lives”

Announce that sort of thing and the British public would probably forgive you for being a serial puppy-murderer.”

From a comment on the story @ [register.co.uk].

Well worth a read.

Ok,

So this has to be a short one, minus photos, mainly because there are none, I’ve got little time and well, I’m typing on a keyboard where the space bar only intermittently works. This could get very annoying, very very quickly.

There is a reason that Chinese drivers have a bad reputation

The trip here was a farce to say the least. One of the overwhelming observations of Chinese culture is their abject lack of ability to estimate things, be it distances to travel, durations of said journeys or even the cost of time of simple tasks. We decided to be the thrifty lao wai and get a bus ticket from our erstwhile home that is Zhu’Ma’Dian to the port city of Shen’zhen. With the help of a colleague at the university we had managed to negotiate tickets at the marked down price of 180 Yuan per person (This is a shade over 10GBP for those unable to use the Google converter), and we departed on 8th July at 11am. We were told this would be approx. a 19 hour journey over 1000km, which you’ll agree, was a bargain over a suggested flight of 70GBP or a train of 24 hours for 25GBP. What in fact transpired was at once hilarious and at times a little frightening. We had set off in high spirits, counting down the clock, fighting the urge to sleep on what was not the most comfortable of coaches – alas, following closely on from the news that we were to be over 5 hours late (remember what I said about estimations?), just as I was about to enter that blissfull wild dream filled sleep that often accompanies long journey’s, I was jolted so rudely by our bus lurching and skidding to a halt, barely missing smashing through the middle divide of the motorway. While this could have easily been a life threatening situation for me, the thing that struck me the most was that I thought this could be the end and I did not feel what I was supposed to feel. No fear and no shock, more a distinct frustration at not being able to continue the sleep I was just getting nestled in for.

Well, it turns out it was a half sleeping truck driver who has lost control veered across our path, forcing us into an emergency skid on the wet, up hill road. This collision took out a window and wing mirror of our bus, whilst serverly cracking the windscreen. To add insult to injury while we stopped one side of the road, the truck stopped parallel to us on the other, turning a three lane highway, used in the majority by coaches and trucks into a one lane bottleneck. This was later compounded by the impatient behaviour of a truck driver and a government official in his black sedan who deciding they could both make it through a gap for one car at the same time managed to wedge themselves between us and the truck that originally caused the accident.

This situation of being held on the roadside continued until 1.30am where the now (for us) legendary Chinese ability to discuss and stare but never take action for fear of losing face finally ended. The official was bribed, the police turned up and took some half assed pictures and we were left with a flat battery and no life in the engine on the side of the road. After the majority of men got out and pushed (that’s right, pushed a coach) we were back on our way. Albeit so paninfully briefly. At the next opportunity the driver turned off the high way and stopped the coach. It seemed he had decided that a schedule was not to be kept, driving had ceased for this evening and he was sleeping. He whipped out his sleeping mat, laid it in front of the coach and was off to sleep.

This is where it got interesting – we were told we would not continue our journey until the next afternoon with more than half of our journey still to cover. This was now a desperate situation for us – we were not going to make our flight, we were in the middle of nowhere, up shit creek without a paddle if you will. But then the paddle for this weak metaphor was revealed in the form a local taxi that swung by and my comrade’s assistant back in Zhu’ma’dian. A self-prescribed insomniac, she is a native Chinese and very helpful. We could only hope she was still awake. After ringing her for advice and translation help we first tried to negotiate the continuation of the journey for us to Sehnzhen. Unfortunately this would have meant a 600 mile round trip for the taxi driver and flouting what little traffic laws the Chinese do have by taking 5 tired Lao3 Wai4 and their baggage in a cab designed for 4. The prospect was too much for him and so he suggested two taxis at 4000 yuan each. This was way over what we could afford or were willing to shell out even for a last minute reprieve from missing our plane.

And so, enter our saviour. The Chinese assistant rings a friend and tells us she can get flights for us from the nearest airport to Shenzheng for 50GBP each and we dont have to pay until we get to our destination. Fearing this is the only bit of good news we are going to get all night we asked her to book these flights for us and re-arrange this taxi to take us to the Changsha airport, the capital of the province we were currently in. So, after a 2 hour taxi ride, back the way we came, 500 yuan more in taxi fares, we finally arrived back at civilisation and the opportunity to get our journey back on track.

Reverse Culture Shock?

So I’ve arrived in Bangkok, sleep deprived and with a dodgy gut but well, for the start of my two month holiday and some actual Greg time that has been a long time coming. It’s been 6 years since I had a holiday and for once I think it is well deserved.

Strange though, my first overall feelings of this place is that I’d rather be back in China. I don’t think this is stemming from anything like bad weather or an opressive atmosphere, but I’m finding it strange to have to convere with others where my only form of communication is English, i’m struggling to come to terms with seeing with so many Western faces, it’s giving me a headache. I’ll get used to it once again, but I have become used to using Chinese as my first line of discourse with someone before I resort to using this language of English that now seems to be something I am loathed to use. I want to use Chinese here in Thailand, but I can’t!

So i’m here in Bangkok for 5 days or so before moving on, so expect updates whenever I can get to a computer.

Zaijian!

Well, it must be time for an update while I’m sitting here on my day off. I’m lucky enough that my timetable for teaching only stretches to from Monday-Thursday afternoon, which leaves me time to go off and see things around China, however, due to lack of planning and foresight on my part I’m not going anywhere this weekend. However, I will be watching one of my students take part in an English competition and I have been coaching his speech, so if he wins, maybe that will be an endorsement of my teaching. Just maybe…

The Calming Effect of Water

Well last weekend, myself and the Jones boy took a trip with some of the other teachers from Huanghuai University to a lovely place called Boshan Lake. This turned out to be a relaxing and fun day in sunshine that was certainly not promised at the start of the weekend. The climate here in Zhumadian (河南省) is strange. Apparently it borders the warm temperate zone of northern China and that of the sub-tropical zone you find across southern China. It has been getting gradually warmer here since we have arrived, but thankfully whilst reaching 35 degrees in the middle of the day, it is a reserved, dry heat that we experience; a far cry from the kind of sticky, humid, heavy atmosphere that seems to descend in the UK now whenever the temperature tips over 25 degrees Celsius. This seems to continue for 2 weeks or so when all of a sudden, the wind grows whilst the temperature stays the same or even rises before we are then blessed with 2 days of thunder storms. Anyone who has ever lived in this sort of climate knows that this is to be expected with the constant cycle of dryness building up the moisture in the air to the point where it just needs to fall down again. The great thing about this is that it’s amazing for crop growth: Henan province is often referred to as “the engine of China” as it is a central region for growing spring onions, wheat and sesame, and it thrives. The drawback of this of course is that Henan is essentially seen as where all the hill billies live and the Henan dialect is the equivalent of some deep southern drawl in the ‘States! So much for speaking 普通话!
Continue reading Another week, another world

Shaken, but not stirred.

So, a few days ago there was an Earthquake in China. The epicentre was around Yingxiu (pronounced ying-she-o), Xichuan (pronounced shi-tchewan) and whilst the death-toll keeps rising. By all accounts this is the worst earthquake to hit China for maybe 30 years. I take this opportunity to re-assure everyone that I am OK and at the worst only mildly affected by this most catastrophic of natural disasters.

I happened to be in my apartment when the ‘quake struck and only really knew about it because of some phone calls from my friends and students. People were being evacuated from buildings all over and so we thought it only right we do the same. Apparently buildings all over Huanghuai Campus were being shaken for a period of 3 minutes or more. The only thing that I seemed to feel was unquestionable feeling of nausea and dizziness. Something I put down to staring at a computer screen for too long. Little did I know it would turn out to be such a devastating event many hundreds of miles away.

Continue reading Run to the hills!

Missed Opportunity

Well, I probably missed my chance there. I mean, I promised myself I would chronicle my every adventure in the great land of China – not just for the benefit of my friends and family who might harbour a vague interest in knowing what I had been up to, but for prosperity. The idea that in the next few years I may be able to look back and say, “Oh, I remember when I did that”. I am well aware of the fact that my memory does not server me to the best of it’s ability and often I forget the things I have been doing and the places I have seen from one day to the next. The last 6 weeks have been hectic to say the least and so many new memories are creeping in to replace those that I thought I had already committed to the memory vault, that now I have managed to get my act together and try to make a go of this whole on-line, publicly scrutinised diary thing.

With a roster of over 400 students to my name, a whole host of authority figures at the university and in local government to meet and greet as well as all the new friends I have been making here, it’s a wonder I have anything left to document except bewilderment. In the next few days I will chronicle my trip to Bei’jing of last weekend (May Day holiday) and my activities in the week past. Unfortunately, much of the things that shocked and amazed us since we first arrived seemed to have past but I feel I shall still be able to find something that interests the readers of these posts.