My blog - May 2004
Guitar Makeover
May 29th 2004, 5:05pm
I just spent the day overhauling my Strat. The main thing I wanted to do was just to get the wiring done right so that all the pickups worked (it's a little complicated since I have a push-pull switch on the second tone control which switches the humbucker at the bridge from series to parallel), and also to install a volume control which doesn't crackle. But then I thought I might as well get a new pickguard since the old one was really grim, and I got a new quarter inch socket as well.
Getting the new pickguard meant I had to drill new holes, so I went to Homebase and bought myself a drill (which is way overpowered and overfeatured for drilling a few little holes in wood, but I though I might as well get one which would be able to cope with anything I throw at it) and some wood filler.
Then I spent the whole do soldering and unsoldering wires, breaking and fixing things, losing and finding screws and springs and putting the guitar together only to find I'd done something wrong and opening it up again. But I finally have it all together and it works really well. The problem I'll always have now is trying to decide whether to use the Strat or the Eggle.
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Last Ever
May 28th 2004, 9:38pm
This evening after watching the last ever Friends, I was lured into watching the start of Big Brother. But after over half the contestants had entered the house I realised that I don't like any of them and find most of them really irritating already, so I switched off the TV and decided that I won't watch Big Brother at all this year. Last year I only watched it two or three times, although that was mainly because I was in Kenya during most of it.
Now, after watching the last ER in the series yesterday, and with the last OC in the series on Sunday, I don't have any shows to watch any more, so I can stop watching telly. Hooray! Unless someone wants to get me lots of Friends DVDs for my birthday next week... (although there are plenty of other things I'd rather get).
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The White Lion
May 23rd 2004, 1:21pm
After church today we went for dinner at The White Lion, in Brownshill Green. It's a very nice pub with great food, but they do have the weirdest pub sign outside.
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The Courtship of Morrice Buckler
May 18th 2004, 8:47pm
As I hoped, The Courtship of Morrice Buckler is another really good book by A. E. W. Mason. It's a book of honour, courage and romance, which contrasts rather nicely with most of the books by Anita Shreve. Although I still think she's a great writer, it's been a while since I've been able to finish any other books in just two evenings.
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Comment posted by Jon at 8:47pm on May 18th 2004
Re: The Courtship of Morrice Buckler
Hi James - I did a Google search on this title and you came up, so here I am. I'm about to scan this book on to the Web - watch Project Gutenberg Australia in a week or so.
Regards,
Jon.
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Hay on Wye
May 15th 2004, 2:32pm
Today I went to Hay on Wye, where there are about thirty or so bookshops. While driving there I went through some really nice English countryside, but I didn't stop because I thought I could get the photographs on the way home. Which was a stupid thing to think, because the light had changed and it looked really boring this afternoon.
I bought five books I think. I've now got all the Arthur Ransome books I'm looking for, although I still need to get Swallows and Amazons itself in hardback. I have far too many secondhand books now, so I'd better stop buying them and get on with reading them.
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The Horse Whisperer
May 11th 2004, 12:24pm
At last, I have finished reading The Horse Whisperer, a book by Nicholas Evans. It's been one of those books which has been a struggle to finish. I don't like reading stuff where people have affairs and the author is writing it as if they're doing the right thing. It just does my head in, so I end up skimming most of it just so I can finish the book.
Now I can get on to The Courtship of Morrice Buckler, by A. E. W. Mason, the same guy who wrote one of my favourite books, The Four Feathers. Hopefully it will be a lot better. Although Nicholas Evans also wrote The Smoke Jumper, which I thought was a great book, so Mason might also have written some rubbish. Who knows? (Me, quite soon.)
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A Picture
May 7th 2004, 10:05pm
Hooray - I've got a card reader for my CompactFlash cards, so now I can get the pictures out of my camera and onto my computer again. So here's a picture from the weekend away. I didn't take anything worth putting on the photos page.
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Church Weekend Away
May 4th 2004, 11:30am
This past weekend was the last ever New Horizons Church Weekend Away and as usual, I really enjoyed it. As well as lots of sitting around chatting to old friends and making new friends, I also did archery on Saturday and rock climbing on Sunday. In one go at archery (four shots) I got two arrows in the gold (centre area) and two in the red (next to the centre), which I think isn't bad. Rock climbing was good - it was the first time I've climbed outdoors rather than on a climbing wall. I only got to do one climb though because there wasn't enough time. On Sunday night we did the last ever cabaret, with the usual mix of very funny and extremely dire performances, although on the whole it was pretty good.
I took a load of photos with my newly fixed digital camera, but I can't find the USB cable, so you can't see them.
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Comment posted by Michael Ots at 11:30am on May 4th 2004
Why is it the last one?
Comment posted by Arti at 11:30am on May 4th 2004
Yes I wondered that too!
Comment posted by James Ots at 11:30am on May 4th 2004
We're going to be doing things differently in the future. Not sure how or why.
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