And the PC still isn't quite right

3 weeks of fiddling with it, and I've still not quite got it working how I like it. On the plus side, I've not had any real problems with Vista, despite what all the horror stories about it have said. It's a subtle improvement over XP, but probably best kept for new machines with hardware that's guaranteed to work with it.

And I've solved one of my problems, with the aid of a little USB midi interface. So now I can make some sort of attempt at music with it. Oddly enough, the extra processor power means I can add even more layers of instruments up to the point where it still manages to complain about the lack of processor power. Whoops.

And the year's total of free stuff is now £408.15, so looks like 400 quid was a bit of an easy target. Now I just need to spend all those Amazon vouchers on something fancy. A nice little box to plug my guitar into the PC which just happens to do all the effects and "amp simulation" I could ever want for a bargain price. Should do me nicely.

I've recovered from seeing Siouxsie last week. Was certainly a good night out. Possibly not the wisest choice to get right at the front in such a small venue. Especially when she came on and launched straight into a handful of old Banshees songs. About 2 bars into Israel (the first song), and the whole crowd was going a bit mad and bouncing about and it was getting all hot and sweaty and mildly painful. Which, of course, is just what you want.

Not convinced by her health and safety worries though. She shouldn't be having to wipe up water from the stage. (Someone gave her flowers that kind of leaked a bit). She should have people to do that for her.

Whoops

Next time I try and help someone out with a broken PC, I'll try and avoiding salvaging some of their old bits, thinking they'll at least be working and an improvement to my PC. Bit more memory from Phil's PC now he's got a new motherboard and new memory? Bad move. My PC exploded as well.

Ok, it didn't actually explode, but something disastrous happened. So I've now got a new one. Which is an improvement, I guess. But a long and painful process to get it to the state I want it in. Not helped by having to cope with Vista being somewhat different to XP. Generally an improvement though, I think. But with many annoying things about it. Just different annoying things to XP.

Plus I got rid of a few of the bits from my old PC to a very grateful neighbour, who paid enough to order a MIDI interface. Which I kind of need, really. Now I just need to get a decent sound card in it as well. Then some way to get the guitar into the PC with decent quality. (Not really going to get much success out of plugging the guitar straight into a mic or line input, I suppose).

At least I've added another 16 quid to the total of freebies. Making £398.15, or something. Roughly. So that'll be the 400 quid target broken then. With potentially £100+ to come this year as well. Woo hoo, as they say.