James Titcumb

Posted by mobile phone:
As the title suggests, today was quite tiring for me. I spent most of it re-installing Ubuntu Server on Oblivion and getting fustrated with my consistently buggy backplane (new one arriving tomorrow!). Finally I managed to get Virtualmin up and running properly so the migration from Tampa can begin soon. The new server cases will arrive tomorrow so I expect tomorrow evening will be spent moving the hardware to the cases. I have a feeling the cabinet I have will fit the cases but have very little room at the back to breathe. I feel the need to buy a KVM switch is growing now I am moving into rack-mounted realms, so that is probably next on my list of stuff to buy. Anyway, I’m now sat chilling in the Deco with a pint, again having just had pizza… Hannah’s mum went to the train station and is on her way home now. I feel tired and sleepy, but life must go on…

Posted by mobile phone:
Well after exploring a few options for posting by mobile, I’ve finally found a half decent plug-in to use thanks to Newboy and the creator of WordPress Mobile of course, Andy Moore. How shiny! Not that I needed to use my phone as I am sitting right next to my PC…

Well i’m standing in the pub on my phone writing on my blog. It may seem normal to all those tech people but I’m just catching up with the times! I spoke to my friend Paul about his blog at Velcro City and how far he’s got with making his feeds so popular. He did advise me to re-enable comments after installing Spam Karma so I may investigate this weekend. Anyway I am going to get back to the conversation and be sociable again :). Ta ta for now!

So for my friends back in UK, its about 3am, and I guess most of them are now sleeping, and I hope they have ridiculous hangovers tomorrow morning. However, it is 7pm here, and I’m sitting on my own listening to Opeth’s Damnation CD, just relaxing with one beer. Who knows where this night will end?

Whichever way it does end, I’m excited about going to the desert near Barstow tomorrow morning to fire rockets into the sky with my boss. That should be fun! I look forward to it - fire and fast-moving objects.

So I notice Tom has joined the bandwagon too and has started blogging on his Facebook also. I guess it’s being away from loved ones that makes you really miss what you normally take for granted - being around friends and family. I know I keep going on about blogs, but I’m still quite apprehensive about them, and perhaps this will only last until I return to my normal life in UK.

Well we played a bit more Guitar Hero II today, I managed to play several encores reasonably well (on medium still) including War Pigs, Sweet Child o’Mine and another song. I nailed Dethklok’s Thunderhorse a bit better today, which I found immensely satisfying.

Anyway, another closing note… the weather here is sublime - a very warm and sunny start to the day, and hot throughout, and finally a warm evening. I shall enjoy sitting in the middle of the desert tomorrow in the baking heat of Barstow, and hopefully - for once - come back with a tan! I bid you farewell… for now?

So as you might have gathered from my last entry, I’ve not been a huge fan of blogs, nor online profiles indeed. I’m growing to this quite quickly however and, in fact, have waited all day to write my thoughts.

I was thinking earlier about names for blogs. A friend of mine runs a successful blog called Velcro City (www.velcro-city.co.uk) which I am proud to host on the TC server. Also, a friend of mine writes one called “Genuine Interest”, on which his first post explained why he had chosen that name — but alas, my memory fails me and I cannot for the life of me remember why. I have also seen a few other blogs, with titles like “The Inner Mind of xxx” and “The Insane Ramblings of xxx”, or thereabouts. With regards to the latter names, I don’t feel that great about calling my blog something like that, and feel that with a little thought I could procure something better. However, at this time, I feel rather uninspired and unimaginative, so shall therefore leave the name out for now. And in fact, after that little “rant” — as it were — I realise now that even if I did procure a title, it would be pointless as this Facebook application doesn’t have room for a title, or so I believe.

So anyway, I digress. I meant to write a short exciting blip about how Seb and I managed to complete “Easy” on Guitar Hero II, and have purchased the Dethklok song “Thunderhorse”. I now realise how amazing (or otherwise… I leave that to your opinion) some people are at this game, when both Seb and I find it extremely difficult on the Medium setting. Although we have been learning well! I’m sure it won’t be long til we are, indeed, Guitar Heroes. Having said that though, my fingers are feeling quite numb!

In other news, on Tuesday 29th May at 10:12am, my sister gave birth to my first nephew, Finley. Unfortunately I have only seen photos so far as I am still in the US of A, and I have not yet met him “in person” so to speak. This is something I greatly look forward to. For those of you who wondered why my MSN Messenger name was “Uncle James”, there is your explanation.

It looks like I’ll be here in California for another week or so, and I doubt I’ll be getting any peace and quiet from the office for the remainder of my stay.

On a penultimate, slightly obscure and off-topic note, I have really taken a liking to Simen Hestnæs, who has (or does) do vocals in Lamented Souls, Ven Buens Ende, Borknagar, Dimmu Borgir, Arcturus and Dagoba. I do love his more powerful singing where it has been layered a number of times, for example in the newest Dimmu Borgir album, In Sorte Diaboli, especially The Serpentine Offering. A very powerful song I think, and epic as expected. On the note of that album, it’s taken me a few listens to warm to it, but I do like it I think.

And finally, a short mention of the new Frosthold website address. Instead of the hard to remember (not to mention reel off at gigs) http://frosthold.zapto.org/ we now have a simple… www.frosthold.com. Very nice. Update your bookmarks.

And at this point, tiredness takes over me, and I must sleep and dream of better times. Good day my friends!