hi, it's Tim,

This is an email I hoped I would never have to send.


As you probably know, in July of 2007 we had to block usage of Pandora outside the U.S. because of the lack of a viable license structure for Internet radio streaming in other countries. It was a terrible day. We did however hold out some hope that a solution might exist for the UK, so we left it unblocked as we worked diligently with the rights organizations to negotiate an economically workable license fee. After over a year of trying, this has proved impossible. Both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.

Based upon the IP address from which you recently visited Pandora, it appears that you are listening from the UK. If you are, in fact, listening from the US, please contact Pandora Support: pandora-support@pandora.com.

It continues to astound me and the rest of the team here that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don't often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent - and by that I mean both well known and indie artists. The only consequence of failing to support companies like Pandora that are attempting to build a sustainable radio business for the future will be the continued explosion of piracy, the continued constriction of opportunities for working musicians, and a worsening drought of new music for fans. As a former working musician myself, I find it very troubling.

We have been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable...so that is what we are doing. Streaming illegally is just not in our DNA, and we have to take the threats of legal action seriously. Lest you think this is solely an international problem, you should know that we are also fighting for our survival here in the US, in the face of a crushing increase in web radio royalty rates, which if left unchanged, would mean the end of Pandora.

We know what an epicenter of musical creativity and fan support the UK has always been, which makes the prospect of not being able to launch there and having to block our first listeners all the more upsetting for us.

We know there is a lot of support from listeners and artists in the UK for Pandora and remain hopeful that at some point we'll get beyond this. We're going to keep fighting for a fair and workable rate structure that will allow us to bring Pandora back to you. We'll be sure to let you know if Pandora becomes available in the UK. There may well come a day when we need to make a direct appeal for your support to move for governmental intervention as we have in the US. In the meantime, we have no choice but to turn off service to the UK.

Pandora will stop streaming to the UK as of January 15th, 2008.

Again, on behalf of all of us at Pandora, I'm very, very sorry.

Tim.

That... that's just super.

I am so darn opposite of warm right now.

GODDAMN FUCKING BOILER HAS FUCKING STOPPED FUCKING WORKING!

RAAAAAAAAAARGH.

Dear loved ones,

By time you read this I will already of moved on... Due to the mind numbing boredom I am facing on a daily basis, I have decided to put myself in stasis. A mental state where I will no longer know the passage of time, nor care of its consequences. I have no other choice.

After I have got all my affairs in order, I will re-install World of Warcraft.

Forgive me,

Rob. x

Well I reckon today is a milestone day, so I'll update my profile to fit more accurately my goings on.
Days. are. passing. so. slowly. Only 2 friends left to keep my sanity are Gillian and Jess. Getting on with Jess really well actually, most of our conversations just delve deep into Geekdom.

Fudge Kitchen seems to depress me nine-fold on one day and then lighten my mood somewhat the next. I think it would help alot more if I had more to do outside of work... Mainly I'm being good and playing Free-rolls on poker and sleeping.

1 month to go till things get interesting again. Keep forgetting that I'll be a student again. There are niggle of doubts but I think they are well under wraps.

Internet restored, succesfully routed from downstairs to this room.

Windows SP2 was needed. Error upon using windows update. Manual upgrade knocked out mouse.

Problem with mouse traced to loss of USB control drivers

USB devices restored by re-installing drivers.

Windows media player = fixed.
AVG Antivirus = updated.

That was almost pain free, I can see why people lose patience with these machines.

Massive updates to come.

Well I have been neglecting you haven't I?

Well I have now got a job of extreme minimum wage up at the fudge kitchen, but my Dilbert book said that happiness working is the most lucid form of measuring job value.

All in all it's good news.

Well also I went homne for Fathers day, making me one of the few people who actually cares for my old man on his day (joke). It was very nice actually, we all played pool and took piss out of each other like the good old days.

So I reckon I am on a Karmic roll, and according to my model of Karma, Rose is to be thanked for most of it, so i got her flowers.

I seem so Romantic, but really I was being cunning and just stealing more Karma.

But then I just typed that, so I lost Karma.

But then I just humbled myself... so I gained slight Karma.

And so on.

On a list of other extremely Karmic escapades to do:

Introducing house mates to Katamari! Kudos to Tom, and good luck sucking less on DMC :p

The graffiti application from facebook is awesome, everybody scrawl profanities on my profile please.

Downloading 15 different covers of Tainted love, and playing each one in a playlist none stop.

And ya know just rocking out harder.

"Bitch slap the pessimist, screw the man, and go out and kick ass just to spite them!"

Walkin’ down the street on a Tuesday night,
And I’m feelin’ good, yeah, I feel alright.
But I’m tryin’ hard not to pull a switch,
On some drunk frat punk and his stupid BU bitch!

Don’t wanna get in a fight,
But I’m easy to incite,
And there’s not a cop in sight, oh-oh!

Sing, Whoa-oh, fuck the Kells!
Whoa-ah-oh, fuck the Kells!

There’s more Chavs outside, Than the motherfuckin’ NFL.
Sing, whoa-ah-oh, fuck the Kells!

Yeeeaah!

Well everybody’s been there once, yeah, no doubt.
But raise your hand if you didn’t get thrown out!
They said, somethin’ ’bout my lack of class,
Well, you can take this bar, n’ shove it up your fucking ass!

Yeah, you got some warning now,
It’s not the only bar in town.
It’s just the first that I’ve burned down, oh-oh!

Sing, Whoa-oh, fuck the Kells!
Whoa-ah-oh, fuck the Kells!

Fuck you, fuck your mom, fuck your whole entire clientele!

Sing, whoa-oo-oh, Fuck the Kells!

Whoa-oh, Fuck the Kells!
Whoa-ah-oh, Fuck the Kells!

Lee-anne!

Whoa-oh, Fuck the Kells!
Whoa-ah-oh, Fuck the Kells!

Whoa-oh, Fuck the Kells!
Whoa-ah-oh, Fuck the Kells!

Rise up rock city, now it’s time to raise some hell!

Singin’ Whoa-oo-oh, Fuck the Kells!

We’re gonna burn this fucker… Doooowwwwnnnnnnn!

Got job. Lost job. How zen.

Tiscali isn't working now, so I can't even steal internet from Pip or Pete. God why are people in call centres so fucking retarded sometimes. And they STILL haven't rang.

*OMFGMIDDLEAGEDRANTANDCOMPLAINING*

Anywaaaaaay. Job interview tomorrow for a placement taking insurance phone calls, so I guess I am taking the fight against telephone ignorance to the front lines.

Will keep you lot, mother, and 3 different job agencies informed on how it goes.

Ciao.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uskfIVIfDU8

Sit down and STFU N00b. Please. 

I am sick and tired  with all forms of the media violence debate and all the censorship associated with it. 

And sweetie, if your going to argue a point, do not make a crappy video with wild speculation targetting randomly or procedurely generated advertisements.

Ai ai ai. It is really difficult to like Americans sometimes.

The news last night almost made me forget the shock of seeing those 2 foxes shot.

Almost. I mean it was just heart breaking! She was pregnant expecting 5 pups, or whatever you call foxlets, and she only had like a month to go before she gave birth. She entered the garden, the bait was set just as it had for the past week.

Was she wondering how happy her new family would be as she ate? Perhaps she was thinking up names for the foxlings.

*Blam*

A little shudder, and then... stillness.

10 seconds later there is the panicked and worried wailing of her fox boyfriend. He knew there was something wrong.

As he slowly crept along the garden to the unnervingly limp body of his love, the world became silent. He sniffed her body in a disbelieving shock, the completeness of the tradgedy hadn't even sank in, when 

*Blam*.

So there I was staring open mouthed in front of the TV on the verge of an epileptic siezure.

Aaaanyway the news. Congratulations to America for proving once again that it's a bad idea to hand out weaponry like lollipops. The second attack was dealt roughly 2.5 hours after the first shooting, literally behind the overly large arses of the Feds. I mean what the hell were they thinking?

"Right Tim we got another kid who doesn't seem to like this University and who still has a weapon. We can't find him. What should we do?"

"Well Rich lets keep the Campus open and not evacuate anybody. We'll never see that guy again."

Secondly we got the Mother of a 2 year old that is campaigning to make Pajamas more fire resistant. Here is a news post heavily taking the doting mother approach. 

Now I shall counter. For those that don't know, the fire started from a spark from an open fire. Now while it is a fair point that toddlers cannot read nor understand the warning label reading 'these pants will, like alot of things, burn'. Dear old mother can. Dear old mother should also know that you do not leave your kid unsupervised around an open fire, fucktard!

I mean cmon! Sparks from an open fire do not jump 500 feet do they? I'm afraid I must conclude that you must of let junior a wee bit too close to the burner this time Ma. Also there are these claims that the fire spread on the pajamas really quickly. Define quickly for me? We talking Nitro quickly or candle quickly?

There is a video that was provided with the various news round ups showing just how "quickly" they burn. I'll try and find it later. It took roughly 10 seconds for the flame to grow to a reasonable "shit!" size, And a whole minute for them to be completely burned. Judging by the wounds on the poor childs legs, I reckon he had hit the 35 second mark roughly.

So what was Mumsie doing all this time? On the phone? In the bath? There was sure as hell plenty of time to avoid the extent of damage he recieved.

It just pisses me off when people blame there own accidents on lack of health and safety regulations. We have too many of those buggers already, and every time another one gets introduced it means that 99% of the population who are clever enough to get along without them have to suffer the annoyance.

Everybody please just keep repeating this mantra: Accidents happen, and we can't cure death.

This post was edited 5 minutes later due to the shocking grammar and the dullness of it all. I think I was partly succesful.

When I top up the gas and electric why are they debited as;

The Quantem System!!!!

and

Schlumberger Key Payment!!!

Respectively? Ok I added the exclamation marks in, but still.

Utility payment is not ground breaking theological work, nor is it some sort of advanced medicinal technique. Stop making yourselves look clever.

Rose comes back tomorrow! So hopefully I get to go round and bother her. Oh and ask her about the Parrot and a billion other things I need to talk about.

Right now I am going to head to the "Premier Physical Layer of the house" (downstairs) and partake in a little "post-habitual removement" (cleaning).

The ballad of Peniston.

Had to start with that. God bless you Joel.

So welcome to another completely random post of sloppiness.

Work is going good. I am slowly getting over the neurotic paranoia that I may be fired at some point for no apparant reason. I am slowly getting tired of being the new guy, as it makes any mistakes on scene automatically associated with me.

On the flip side, I am getting better at talking to colleauges. I always had trouble with this because unlike University, everyone else seems so different to me. Particularly they all like this strange phenomenon called sport. But i'm slowly chippin' away the ice.

I mentioned fleetingly that I was an extra in a Micro Budget Zombie Apocalypse film some weeks back. Man that was fun. The film ain't no spring chicken either. Check the site and some Trailers here.

How cool does the Physics building look on fire?

It being based on campus is brilliant. I can watch the film and get all excited, cos its like one of my day dreams come true.

The zombies will come for us someday.

I would like to quickly flip your way two websites for no reason at all other than I can. I find these sites inspirational because of the surrealism. I love surrealism in all forms.

The first is the Ghost in the shell film official site. You click away long enough you will get Batous mug yelling at you in spooky static fuzz distort. Enough to give me nightmares ya know.

The second is the less scary but just as strange Radiohead scrapbook site. This has tons of bonus material for budding fans spread about randomly through its labrynth like layout. I manadged to find a good comic about a character called pockets, but damned if I'll ever find it again.

This has taken 70 minutes to write. Also in the pipe lines is a full review of Jak 2 - Jak gets his panties in a twist.

Interesting stuff to do: Learn Poi, get nun chucks?, what about a staff?, perfect moon walking, get better at lock picking, take up graffitti and for the love of god don't get caught.

I won't get caught, and I look forward to having you all back in my life.

Tear down the wall!

My god i have just seen a world leader act wise and respectful. Guess what, it was Irans president.

They called it a "Crisis", but all i saw was Tony Blair sprint towards the security department and generally start acting a knob. Meanwhile Iran put the sailors into custody without fuss as is required by Iranian law.

That said there were reports coming in through the week that the captured were being forced to say that they broke the law, and were being treaten well. However looking at the footage of the sailors meeting the Iranian president, that all seems a bit too conspiracy theorist. They all looked pretty healthy and seemed genuinly sincere when they thanked him.

The actual announcement itself was brilliant to watch. He first spent an hour criticising the British, listing all the crimes they have commited against the Iranian people through the last 100 years. I would like you to imagine Tony Blair at this moment, cringing and wringing his hands. Ready for another media onslaught for his mis-handling of the situation. His certainty of the "Crisis" escalating must of grown when he watched the soldiers that captured the sailors recieving medals.

Then with a smile he released them, reminding Britain that they didn't want conflict.

The cleverness of it all is what gets me, even if the release was politically motivated. Theres no way Britain can keep stereo typing the east as unlawful and unliberated yobbites. Which means we can tell America to go fuck themselves on the inevitable war.

YAY!
 
This laptop runs XP not Vista. Yay!

Also moonwalking is hard. 

Also Zombie films are fun to be in.

Also I like getting money.

Also I'm an Anarchist now.

Also where are the skips at?

Well it has been a pretty weird day. I fear once again coherent posting is out of the window.

Waking up to wogan is the best waking up ever. Not that he was in my bed or anything, I am just using a radio alarm clock. It's just he has this calm silky voice. He may be ranked third for platonic hero worship love.

Rob's platonic hero worship love table:

1) Mrs Edwards, or Di as i call her.

2) Uma Thurman

3) Terry Wogan

4) Panthro

5) Steven Fry

...how many of those are gay icons?

Anyway. The house is freezing so I needed Wogan to wake up to.  Getting to sleep is an essay in torture. My body slowly crawls up from the temperature of  the north pole, meanwhile my head feels like a night on pluto. So in contrast my body feels at 700 degrees. But then I cant cool my self down because if I move my limbs outside the covers the shock might kill me.

Digressing: Today I woke up to Wogan, cos I had an interview. Something that was flipped my way very casually. That became a bit of a bind because it was saterday, I only really had food rationing till last sunday morning. Never mind quickly running out utilities. I was less comfartable than when I was at the bonding ware house. Over there I did not feel claustrophobic.

I took the interview and also very casually got a trial. Something I was really positive about until I got home. You see, the last time a job was this casually flipped my way, I was fired in 6 weeks. 

But it must be alright right? I mean I feel for the first time in 2 years I have the edge. Because all the students have pissed off for easter, I might have my foot in the door before 200 people with 5 years of waiting experience trample me to death (Analogically speaking). I may be a dick saying this, but I do need to eat and have a roof over my head slightly more than Simon doing Media studies needs to buy an X-box 360. But then again I never liked the X-Box. 

Ok that was Catty, but to be honest, I am a wee bit concerned about money. Well ok it has kept me awake at night for the last... 3 months maybe? No biggy. I am beginning to think the Job Seekers place is just dangling this money in front of me week after week and then blowing raspberrys when i make a grab for it and miss (Another analogy, the goverment isn't far off from being that crueal though). Maybe they are just short on the pain and suffering quota they need to inflict on the population each year.

If they turn around and deny my claim now (exactly 2 months since i got started) I will destroy them. I will first hit everybody wearing a name tag within 40 meters, steal the gun from the officer that arrests me, rob them by gun point. And then ram the police car through the front door, then shoot the petrol tank at point blank range. 

Then why did I rob them?

Fantasies aside, my mother has been the dirge of pessimism. Saying that she won't be able to pay the rent, on top of that Iz got billz. I'm just worried. If this falls through it's all over.

Well probably not. I'm resourceful enough...

*Ahem*

The critical path analysis.

Objective: Not to be financially killed off.

First gate) If the job holds, pay off debts slowly and surely. Apologising for all late fees. If not wait for JS/ contact adecco.

Second gate)  If JS dicks your around, ask if not doing computer science next year will help financially cure things. Spend next month really apologising for lateness if this is the case. Try not to be killed by mother.

Third gate) If JS still dicks around. Well... Adecco should help. Borrow money to cover immediate threats, dodge land lady like plague hope for sunshine.

Fourth gate) Well thats all fucked up, kiss goodbye to York. But; spend next year finding job in supposedly less strenuous Bradford. Pay off overdraft/loan

Fifth gate) Well no money and no bradford job. Might as well try a course to get a job placement in another country.

Sixth gate) Well uh? Take up the brownie idea?

Oh yes the brownie idea. Now I know they were a damn good batch of Brownies but FFS they weren't that good. Yes I like getting lots of praise when I stick my neck out and do something productive, but thats because i'm narcissistic and have a complex stemming from lack of positive encouragement from adult figures through my childhood. But the Brownies were not that good, were they?


So overall, York has been a rather karmic roller coaster ride. And I'm tired of typing. And I just realised that correcting will take the next half an hour.

Toodles.

Well I'm home again, and there's alot of new technology around. For instance the house now has a kettle which lights up in soft mood colours. We also have virgin cable which means I have access to Spaced and Black Books goodness.

This PC has been upgraded too. It is now running Microsoft Windows Vista 32-bit.

...Those of a nervous disposition may want to turn away now.

Vista is, without a doubt, the most worthless piece of shit operating system I have ever had to put up with. Yes it is even less reliable than ME and indeed it is more annoyingly pathetic than a Mac OS.

The first thing you will notice upon installing it is how much slower everything is, open a program and six decades later it will show you the loading screen. Open two programs at once and your PC will go into catatonia until the next ice age. This is probably due to all the new scripts stolen from Mac. 

Yes, Vista is just the offspring of a Mac OS being gang raped by the XP disease. We now have the pointless sticky notes, calendar and clock identical to the dashboard feature from apple. We also have previews of what a program looks like if you hover your mouse over it, which is nice but not worth the performance sacrifice.

The start menu now has a useless search function, again very much like a Mac. This particularly annoys me as my speedy shut down shortcut (hitting windows, u, u) will now just search for all programs with u in them. Regardless of this the system is shite anyway, because it's slow and now the start bar just looks like a generic folder sytem. The entire point of the start bar is that it doesn't look like a generic folder system, and allows users to quickly get to programs they like. 

I've said it before, but all the Microsoft Head Honchos are doing is taking the best bits of the main competitors and then welding it onto there existing software. Such as hotmail live! stealing G-mails storage ideas, and the new IE stealing Fire Fox's tabbing system. I'm sure this all seems like a good idea to the corporate high flyers, but the result is that Microsoft is losing its place in the circle of computing.

The control panel for Vista is now much weaker and annoying. Oh and slow. The CTRL-ALT-DEL function does not bring up the handy task manager straight away, but instead leads you to a screen giving you the decision to use the task manager. To use an analogy, this is like doing a 50g nose dive in a supersonic jet, painfully reaching for the ejector button, only for it to release a handle near the top of your head that will actually eject you. If you need the task manager, you damn well want it before whatever Vista has fucked up becomes critical.

Microsoft is meant to handle the average gamer/ internet user, and also handle business. Macintosh handles everybody who is a computer n00b and hardcore porn users, meanwhile Linux has anybody who can handle it. The result of Microsoft trying to be a Mac is that it failed completely. Macintosh is still the most user friendly and reliable, and now since it is similar to microsoft, it is probably the best for the office.

Now the gamers/media lovers will now desperately be looking at Linux manuals, because Microsoft has majorly upset the gaming community. Complete lack of Open GL support means that games such as Quake 4 won't work at all without new drivers, and then will run like a Van on chip oil. Why would Microsoft do this? Because Microsoft supports Direct 3D, a system in direct opposition of Open GL. In short they did this because they are corporate shit heads.

Not that Direct 3D games will be any better off. Because yep, they are all slower. *All*

On top of that, due to a fault either by Vista or the equally crap new IE .wmv files do not open. 

So kids, switch to Linux for free. Or just don't bother upgrading. Just please, please do not inflict this on yourself.

Ok this week in website links:

First off we have peekvid a site that allows you to download shows without faffing with you-tube, torrenting, or FTP programs. I haven't been at leisure to traul through the archives, but I would recommend Celebrity Death-Match, Tenchi-Muyo, GTO, and scrubs. If your watching scrubs, at the bottom left hand corner there is season 6, episode 6. Which is fully musical! Best Scrubs episode ever.

Unfortunately the site has some major drawbacks, such as pop-ups on ever page and the fact that the site is held together with dubious amounts of javascript and prayers. Also this is not where you want to go if you want every episode ever of something, as alot of episodes will be missing.

Moving on, I have recently been going remix crazy. Thanks to http://www.ocremix.org/. Unfortunately video-game remixing has not got a big community, and alot of remixes may seem amateurish. There are some real beauties on there however. This, this, and this are a few of my highlights.

Wrapping up. NG has got this game stuck on it's main page. Which is alright, but has the most infectious audio sound-track ever:

We all know the atomic bomb is very dangerous! It can burn whole buildings, if some-one is careless...

You want the track at number 1 thats "Atomic". Seriously you do.

Thats all folks.

"Post something!"

"I don't wanna I'm busy."

"Post it ya lazy sod!"

"Whats it gonna get me?"

"Your peace of mind back..."

"Nice try, I lost my mind 7 final fantasy covers back."

Today and yesterday was spent mostly downloading video game soundtracks and mixes. The mix sound is very good, I have sonic in speed metal mode and Final Fantasy 7 in hardcore trance. Not to mention the beautiful classical piano version of Mega-man 2.

*This part means you Tom*

I need the title of the song from the Under Water Factory level of GG Isuka. If anybody knows it, or better yet has a link to a download of it, it would be awesome. It doesn't appear to be on the official soundtrack, nor on Galbadia Hotel.

Other news. I have got an interview fucking finally. It is at Athena, which sells trendy gimmicky stuff. This now brings in the debate of wether I should cut my hair or not. I mean it is a fairly lax place... Gah I dont know.

Other other news, back with Rose (i think) \o/ Screw all tales of exes that get back together failing. I'm just throwing caution to the wind. It will work.

P.s. My LJ is now GITS themed, will post list of avatars later. Shame that the laughing man spinning logo is too big for LJ.

Last night was sweet! May just bump pancake day up to second on my favourite holidays list...
My pancake was far superior to any body else :D It was white choclate crunch, and the pancake meltes it  all into an orgy of melty white choclateness.

Props to whoever started the game of "I never". Which is very destructive if you answer yes to 50 questions in a row. Or so it seemed...

Also props to Sarah, after she had stopped laughing hysterically, she corrected my CV and my letter to an employer. Which was very nice of her.

Props to Kat, who seems to have an aura that will get anybody in the near vicinity drunk.

Props to Rose, for daring to wear dungarees, and you know just for the general dancing/ singing thing you do well.

Props to alcohol, which forever destroys sensible boundarys and such makes the night more chaotic. Nice chaotic.