What is NMIndexStoreSvr.exe????

I have a yahoo widget running on my work PC called Informer. What it is is a really hand tool that sits in the background telling me how much RAM and CPU is being used up in realtime. Anyway, I was just working at work (as you do) and for some reason my computer started slowing down for no reason. I took a glace at my Informer and saw that my CPU was maxed out at 100%! I checked task manager and saw that something called NMIndexStoreSvr.exe was basically eating away my CPU, my memory and my hard drive!!

I shut it down immediately (hoping it wasn't an important system resource!)

After a bit of Googling I discovered that it's part of Nero Scout that comes with Nero CD/DVD Burning 7. Nero Scout is a database program that catalogues all of the media files on your computer (music/pics/video) and that makes this database available to other programs in the Nero 7 product package. I also discovered that it's pretty safe to stop it from ever running on my PC, as I know that it's nothing important. Here's how to get rid...

Press Windows+R (Or go to the "Start" menu and click on "Run")
Then when the dialog box appears bottom left type "MsConfig", this will bring up some built in admin controls.
Click the "startup" tab
Look for the NeroCheck and NMBgMonitor and untick the box next to it
Then click Apply/Ok
Then close and select restart
When the computer restarts it will say you have used MSCONFIG to change settings just tick the box to say "Don't inform me again" and click OK and that should be problem sorted.

Friday evening

So we got back from Southampton and got a text from James asking if me and LIsa would like to go down to Urban Beach for a few pints and to listen to some live acoustic acts. We though 'yeah, why not' but by the time we'd sat down after a long day shopping we were both knackered. I managed to rejuvenate myself enough to be able to go out but Lisa just wanted to have a bath and get an early night. But she offered to give me a lift down there, which was cool.

I met up with the guys out in the veranda. It would normally be cold but the had an array of outside heaters to keep the punters toastie-like. I didn't know many of the people there... I knew James, Emma, Potts and Ben and that was it. There were another 6 people there that were friends of James and Emma's. I recognised one of them but I can't remember his name. The bands were pretty good. Sarah Griffin doing her usual folky self-written songs reminicent of Katie Tunslut... sorry Tunstall. And the other act was two surfer dudes called Burning Shepherd (no myspace) still living in the mid 90's singing grunge ballads like Stone Temple Pilots' Plush.



(man, how 90's was that video?!) Don't get me wrong, I love Stone Temple Pilots ... or used to when I was a student anyway... and I thoroughly enjoyed the reminder. After we'd downed 2 pints and shots of sambuca me, James and Potts decided it would be fun to recreate the success of The Knights of the 31st album.

Unfortunately all my instruments and mics etc are over at Andy's in the studio so we stopped off at James to grab his acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, ukulele, USB mic and bottle of red wine. I'm not a wine expert but I know that the worst and cheapest wine to get is a merlot - avoid it like the plague. Which is why I was surprised to see that James, somebody who's pretty cultured and has european tastes, has a wine rack full of fuckin' merlot!!! Sort it out James!! Anyway, it was free wine and I was pissed so who's complaining. We stopped off at an off license to grab a bottle of vodka and some mixers. Pott's offered to pay the shop owner in the form of song. The man grinned but declined.

We got back to mine and started by doing shots of vodka and setting up the equipment. The next 6 hours were a blur... no seriously, they really were!! All I remember is seeing Potts crash out on the sofa at about 5 and getting him a sleeping bag before I went to bed. And that's it!! I don't remember anything else. All I have is nine 10 minute recordings of absolute drunkeness. Some of it is actually quite good. We even managed to record sections of bassline and loop them with some drum loops and then record over that on seperate tracks. Some of it is actually genius and will be nicked for Blind Voyeurs ... but 80% of it is utter pish! It's funny to listen to though ... if a bit embarrasing!

Friday's Day Off

I took the day off work on the 26th. I just fancied a long weekend and a trek into Southampton with Lisa. We did a bit of Christmas shopping and got a few odds-n-sods for ourselves. Southampton was full of loads of school kids 'hanging out' in the highstreet and the shopping mall on their half-term which was a tad annoying. One of my missions on this journey was to buy an external hard-drive. I had a budget of £100 and wanted to get at least a capacity of 500gb. First stop was the Apple Store - they sold them for about 160 quid!! Couldn't believe it! I came out a bit disheartened but I was spell-bound by the new iMacs. I ended up buying an external hard-drive from Argos for just under 80 quid! Brucey-bonus!
Lisa's mission was to buy a generous sized vanity case. Now I'm no expert but I was surprised to find out how hard it is to get one. Out of all the department stores and other such places like Superdrug and Boots we found just 1 vanity case that was the right size... but the pattern on it was really granny-fied! (Is that a word? Hmmm, it is now!)



I also bought something I've been meaning to get on DVD for a long time - Escape From New York. That film is sooooo flippin' good. And it still stands the test of time. It was on TV a while back but I only caught the end of it. I absolutely LOVE the feel of the film mainly thanks for John Carpenters inventive lighting and excellent soundtrack (which was scored by John Carpenter himself - something he's done quite a few times) I also bought Fisher King and Look Around You series 1.



After a long day shopping we headed back for the car via West Quay. We passed the Apple Store again as it was on the way but this time it had the shutters half shut, staff outside (except for one staff member polishing the surfaces), and queue of about 50 people with their macbooks in their hands. I had to find out what was going on so I asked one of the staff. He explained to me that Apple's new operating system, Leopard was about to be released as of 6pm. As soon as he started to say "Apple's new operating system..." I instantly knew what he was talking about. This was a relief to him cos before I asked him I saw him explaining it in full length to nosey OAP's with glazed looks on their faces. I felt sorry for him. I mean, how do you explain to someone what an operating system is to someone who has never even used a computer?!

...and now, the news!

News! I've always hated it. Lisa's all for it and says I should "watch it to keep up to date with current affairs." Fair enough I thought and started watching it occasionally. But as I was watching it I started remembering why I stopped watching it in the first place. I could go on to explain what I'm talking about but recently Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe News Special hit the nail on the head for me. Here it is...







Needless to say, I've stopped watching the news again.

Anniversary 2

This is a quick post to say that me and Lisa have been together for 2 years as of today!! Who woulda thunk it? I love her more and more everyday. Happy Anniversary baby. xx

Strong Coffee

Man, I hardly slept last night. I just couldn't sleep. I remember seeing the clock at 3:20 thinking "For fuck's sake SLEEP!!" I think it was due to the 3 strong cups of coffee I had over at Lee's earlier. Now, I don't normally drink a lot of coffee - I used to when I was at College/Uni - but I've started drinking it again recently, and last night I needed one ....or three.

I was over at Lee's doing some overdubs on Mockery. It took us probably about 4 or 5 takes before we were happy with what we've got - all recorded in nice managable chunks. Now it's really starting to take shape.

We also had a lot of time to record Lee's guitar parts to Ghost Written and play around with 2 new ideas/tune. One of which you can hear below. It was just recorded as an acoustic guitar played to a click track.... but like I said I couldn't sleep last night so I had a little fiddle around with programming some beats to it.

Have a listen and tell me if you can tell that I'd had a lot of coffee that evening...

Lee's Idea 1

Hallway Reverb

Me and Scott recorded some over-dubs for Lyposuction last night. Here's a pic of Scott 'performing' the tambourine to put on a section of Lyposuction. My plan was to get a nice active 'real' sound of a tambourine being hit on the snare on the second half of the song. We put the microphone in the bathroom and Scott played the tambourine in the hallway where there's lots of hard angles. The result sounds great. I know that nobody will ever notice it but that's the point - if it sounded 'off' or too clinical it would stick out like a sore thumb. If it's not noticable then my job is done!!

Kim and Paul's Wedding

Saturday morning we got up real early. Had a LOT to fill in this day. First I had to do a quick run to my mums to do the usual Saturday chores. Then off to Castlepoint - Lisa needed passport photos for Uni enrolment, I needed a new shirt for Kim/Paul's wedding, we both needed food and a wedding card. We tried to get some confetti but couldn't find any anywhere!

Kim's wedding - I was really nervous and it wasn't even my wedding, Paul was as cool as cucumber (must've been the pint he had beforehand!) The vicar looked like Brian Blessed ... but without the signature booming voice - he had a timid high voice with a lisp. The funniest bit was the organist! He must've been at the communion wine cos he kept playing bum notes. Jo sang a lovely song - made Kim blub.

After the service and all the photo's had been taken we went to The Bell for a few pints and some food (me, Lisa, Scott, Lots, Mat, Claire, Andy and son) There was a weird atmos in there for us though. It must've been cos we were all suited and booted! The thing that pissed me off the most was that I'm probably more local than any of the other people in the pub as I live across the road!

After the nosh Andy and son went home, the rest of us went back to mine for more booze and Wii. Claire and Mat had never played before but are now hooked. After a while, we realised we should be at the wedding reception. It was being held at the Tudor Grange. We ordered a couple of taxis - was told they'll be about 10 minutes. We stood out in the rain for about 35 mins before one turned up, we let the girls get that one. The other never arrived so we flagged down a random taxi. Got to the Tudor Grange hotel but missed the speaches and cutting of the cake - Thanks for never arriving to pick us up, Star Taxis (the only time they let me down!)

Saw the 'first dance' and the emotional 'proud dad dances with her daughter' bit. All the girls were all welling up. Time to hit the bar. After a couple of jars we did a bit of random dancing to cheesy 80's hits. Paul's Brother, Stuart insulted Claire and brought her to tears. Paul and Dave sorted that out - she got an apology.

Kim threw the bouquet from the balcony, Dunno who caught it but Glen found it and rushed to give it to Kirsty. I think that's a proposal in disguise! Details are fading cos I was pretty drunk but all in all, good times were had by all!

Here's a couple of vid clips...

Aruba Restaurant

Still on a buzz from the night before (ie, the gig at Kyps) I woke up in a real great mood. It was short lived though cos I had to go to work! Joy!

That evening I had a power nap and then woke up feeling real hungry. We had no food in so me and Lisa (sorry... that should be Lisa and I) went for a random meal at a new bar/restaurant in town called Aruba. I'd never seen or heard of it before but Lisa read something about it. It's basically a complete refurb of the Show Bar at Bournemouth's Pier.

Man, the food in there was really nice and the atmosphere was great. Best bit? The hot waitress in pigtails and hotpants!! Even Lisa said she would! (sorry, no pics of the girl!)

Blind Voyeurs Gig - at Kyps 27/09/07

On Thursday 27th, Sept Blind Voyeurs had a gig at Mr Kyps. I was real excited about it cos it's a great venue with a amazing sound system and proper lights and dry ice. I knew it was gonna feel like I was in a proper band, not a pretend one from granny-capital Bournemouth. Hahaha!!

It was good fun hanging out with the other bands backstage. Before we started some of us were a bit worried about a couple of things - the size of the venue and the projected visuals. We thought the place would be too big and the fact that we didn't have a white sheet to project our visuals on were concerning. I maintained that there was nothing to worry about. The other guys were flapping and saying we should've at leat wore white t-shirts. We told Kat our concerns and she tested the projection for us.... it looked effin' amazing! You couldn't wipe the grins off of the guys faces.

The actual gig went well. I know that I made a few fuck-ups here and there, and the guys know that they did too but they were just minor details.... except at the very end of the very last song Scotts bassdrum pedal fell apart, so we had no bassdrum for, like, the last half a bar! Nobody noticed and, to be fair, looking at the videoclip you really can't tell. Speaking of video clips, here's a couple from BHone...





We produced 50 CD's for that gig, all limited and numbered, and we didn't expect to get rid of many. In fact at the beginning of the night we put about 20 of them around the venue and a further 10 by the front door, thinking that we would need to collect left-overs after the gig. But to our amazement when we came of stage we had people asking us for CD's as the ones that we'd put out had all gone!! We gave out the remainding 20 and even then there were still people that wanted a CD!!!

All the other acts played well too. My favourite bit was at the very beginning when Chris (Little Boat) started playing. Everyone was stood at the back when he started and by the time he'd finished his first track about 30 people had creeped up to the front - it gave him a scare. He said it was like some kinda Zombie film and got everyone to give a Zombie-like moan.

All in all, It was one of my favourite gigs we've played!

Amazing birds

Last night me and Scott (gramatically tha should be Scott and I) decided that we should work on the free give-away CD's for Thursday's gig. We'd left it a bit late and time was running short. We had this great idea of putting two tracks on there and then recording a track in a couple of hours - just a random jam.

While we were writing the tune we thought it would be a good idea to grab some random samples from the TV so we did a bit of channel hopping and stumbled upon a David Attenborough programme on UKHistory. We ended up getting totally side-tracked for about an hour because this is some of the stuff that was on there. Totally amazing...







...as you can imagine, we didn't get much work done.

Homeless person

I was in Boscombe with Lisa yesterday during my lunch break and on the way to the high street from the car park I saw a homeless guy begging. I'm not a person that looks down on these people or anything - in fact I'm quite the opposite. If I'm not skint myself and I happen to have some spare change I don't mind every now and again giving them a few bob. But this guy was taking the piss - he was sat there looking all convincingly dirty with ripped up clothes and a little cardboard sign saying please help.... but he was using the hands free headset on his mobile phone!!!! What the fuck?!? It wasn't a cheap one either it was a proper new one.

Have I missed something here? Have the government started handing out free mobile phones to the homeless in order for them to be able to help themselves find accomodation or jobs? I very much doubt it. But then it got me thinking, what if his mobile was a contract phone - you need to have an address and bank account to be able to have one.

Lisa said that she heard on the news the other day that some homeless people in London can make up to £200 per day!

Fuckin' cheek! That's all my faith in homeless people gone. That prick has ruined it for all homeless-kind as far as my contribution is concerned.

Heroes

So, Heroes fever is now rampant on this side of the pond. The TV series on BBC2 is currently at episode 10 or 11 I think!? I would know but as I got so addicted to the show at about episode 6 I've now got 2 DVDs with all 23 episodes of series 1 from a friend at work. I couldn't wait a whole week to see what happens next, and there was a possibility that I could miss an episode bacause of our album recording, and I wasn't about to let that happen. Don't worry, TV people and copyright execs, I will eventually buy them on official DVD as soon as they're available in the UK but right now my thirst needs quenching more regularly than the weekly drip feed we're currently being subjected to. Besides, I think this is one of the best examples of why piracy and copying is good for the product at hand. Sure, officially it should be frowned upon but even the actors and the writers themselves have been seen on TV saying something along the lines of "I shouldn't support it but it's done the show so much good."

The programme has actually already run it's series here in the UK on the Sci-Fi channel. But, as not everyone has the Sci-Fi channel, not everyone got to see it. Also, Sci-Fi channel is known for showing mostly real bad tv shows with terrible story-lines and laughable special effects (if there are any). I'm sure their ratings will go up at the end of September, though, as they're scheduled to be showing series 2 of Heroes almost parallel to it's US showing. This is my other main purpose of getting my mitts on the whole of series 1 - so I can catch up in time for the airing of series 2.
...although I will have to wait week for week when that starts so in a way I'm just delaying the inevitable.

In the meantime, if you haven't seen it yet you are a fool. You don't have to be a science fiction nerd of comic book geek to like it as it's mainly character driven and it's soooo real. The BBC had Heroes catch up weekend starting from last Saturday night - showing all episodes back to back from 9pm. (hmmm, maybe I shoulda posted this a few days earlier so that you would've had enough warning! Oh well)
Give it a go, believe me you will be hooked too!

Battles new video - Tonto

Battles are an odd band. When JB first introduced me to them I wasn't sure how to take them. Upon listening to my first Battles track, enthused by JB, I was really getting into the style of music. Amazingly geeky jazz-like riffs with an clanky-indie edge played with mathematical precision. But when the munchkin style electronically processed vocals came in I felt a bit put out. I even laughed. But through time and exposure it actually becomes quite charming and I've actually grown to really like this band. I really respect their talent.

A quick rummage on YouTube reveals a handful of live clips and one thing that blow my mind was occassionally two of the three guitarists take one hand away from the guitar to play a keyboard - yet are still playing the same guitar riff. All this without dropping a beat. Also, I loved the fact that they have their guitars strapped so high that it's almost around their neck. Speaking of high instruments, the drummer has his crash cymbol six feet high!!

Here's a new video for their latest single 'Tonto', Enjoy.

Lee's musical knowledge expands...

We had band practice last night and Lee mentioned he'd bought three new albums by Maps, Klaxons and Mogwai. Excellent and well informed choices. What was interesting was how much he paid for them. Before Klaxons won the Mercury Prize Award their album could be found in Sainsburys for 3 quid... now they've won, the album's been marked up to £15!!!! Also, Maps' album was available for £6 and now that's been bumped up to £12 cos of a Mercury nomination. Hmmm, not fair me thinks... but then I guess record companies have to make money on the music they distribute somehow.



Maps - It Will Find You


Klaxons - Magik


Mogwai - Hunted By A Freak

Time goes by so quickly!....

It's true! It really does. It doesn't feel like nearly a month since my last post but hey. It's actually getting harder to get round to doing a blog post these days. Y'see I not only have this site to manage but I also have my Facebook page, my Myspace page, my band's Myspace page, my Flickr page, my YouTube page and my band's YouTube page to manage. Also, I do actually get pretty busy at work so I don't have a lot of time to update stuff then. And in the evening I've been concentrating on Blind Voyeurs debut album (which, by the way, is coming along nicely!) .... then there's video clips to edit and flyers for gigs to design...blah blah blah!

Anyhoo, I went to Pauls Stag Do last weekend. As you know Paul's getting married to Kim and so it's customary to get the stag (Paul) as rip roaringly drunk as possible to remind him of how good life is when you're not married. No longer can he have night's out like this. ..... or so they say. You know, I don't think that still applies these days. I'm sure Kim will let him go out as often as he does already whether they were getting married or not. and the same goes for most of the couple that I know - I'm sure if they got married it wouldn't change a thing. Such is the modern way.

Anyway, For the stag do me and Kirsty's fella, Glenn, drove from Southampton trainstation to Paul and Kim's place up in Leeds. (Lisa drove me to Southampton to meet up with him) We made pretty good time actually - left the station at about 9 - got to Leeds at about 1am. We were greeted by Paul - Kim was out with Kirsty and Fran. He gave us both a nice cold beer each and then watched a bit of crap telly and then we crashed. I crashed on the sofa with the sleeping bag. Just as I was dropping of the girls came back from their night out and jumped on me. We chatted for about 10 minutes and then they all went to bed.

We got up early the next day to get suited and booted. We were off to Haydock for a day at the Races!!!!











I won 100 quid on my first race! That pretty much paid for the rest of the day. Below is a video clip of Glenn helping the 'Hen' from a hen-party get her phone back as she dropped it over the barrier...



After the races we went into Liverpool to do a bit of a pub/club crawl. I really can't remember much about this but I have a few photos and a video clip...

Record Industry Now Completely Bonkers, Wants DRM on All Radio

It’s amazing how complete and total crazies can suddenly wind up with the backing of organizations powerful enough to dictate the law. Witness the strange story of the “stream-ripping” scare, and how it somehow led to a push for mandatory, proprietary DRM on all Internet radio.

read more | digg story

Grooves on the Green

I was proper pissed off that I missed it this year! Can anybody tell me what it was like?

The reason why I missed it was cos we were practicing for a Blind Voyeurs gig at the Central. It was part of an after party band bash organised by bhone.co.uk with Sancho and Toupe.

It was good to see The Central back on the circuit as a venue to bands to play. If they book some good bands - y'know, proper touring bands - it could have the potential of being a great venue. Give it about a year and a small bit of refurb (lick of paint, bit of carpet, some locks on the girls bog doors!) and it could be great. Don't fuck it up, boys.

So, yeah, I enjoyed playing that gig. Had a nice sized, open minded, listening crowd. I think we played pretty well, had good comments anyhow - even an offer to play Strawberry Fields festival next year. Ace!

Here's a clip of us lot playing The Mockery. Sorry about the poor quality - it was off my mobile phone. Also, another apology for some of us having our tops off!!

Daft Hands...

Ok, I've had my rant for the day. Now to restore a positive flow of chi energy for the song that Kanye West has so viciously attacked, here's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger as demonstracted with hands! The first 50 seconds or so are a bit boring and feels odd to watch but wait until the lyrics start and it gets amazing!!

Kanye West is a dick!!

I've just seen Kanye West's new music video and it left me feeling furious and empty. He blatently tries to rip off two of my many favourite things - Akira and Daft Punk. Firstly, take a look at the video....



A little history: At last year's MTV video music awards in Europe, Kanye's video lost to relative unknowns in the Best Video category. Those unknowns were a french group called Justice with their remix of a Simian Mobile Disco song. Justice is now the flagship group under the electronic label Ed Banger. Kanye was furious upon his loss, and got up on stage and ranted and raved about how he was the best and deserved the video yadda yadda yadda. See this video...




Feeling like a large douchebag, Kanye called up Ed Banger and apologized and started talking with the label's owner, Pedro Winter (Busy P) who is incidentally Daft Punk's manager. Winter then introduced Daft Punk to Kanye, who before meeting Winter had no idea who the fuck Daft Punk is (a cardinal sin in most countries).

Then, in a desperate attempt to show that he is in the know with those robot gods of electronic music, incorporated their song Harder Better Faster Stronger into one of his steaming piles of shit known as a song. Influenced by Daft PUnk's vintage sci-fi anime imagery, Kanye opted for Akira as the visual cue for his video. In other words, Kanye stomped all over two of my most favorite things in the world, Daft Punk and Akira, in a desperate attempt to maintain relevancy in the world.

Bitter? You'd better believe it!