So now to enjoy the full benefits of online banking, I ned to have a card reader. I have to, on request, put my card into the reader, enter my pin and then enter the number it brings back to my online banking.
So that’s going to be handy to carry around…
The thought also strikes that if I’m only going to be using 4 numbers on this for my PIN, then surely over time it’ll be very clear what those 4 numbers are and so actually reduces my security?
There are 10,000 different possible PIN’s per card. Now if after I have been repeating the number of combinations and the used keys are a little scruffy this could drop the number of possible combinations to 24 (assuming each number in the PIN is unique which I’m willing to bet is not always the case).
Now I’m sure that no bank will accept 24 different PIN attempts but tell me again how this makes me more secure?
Note, I am not a mathematician, I just play one on the internet. Am I way off here?
*deep breath*
I’d like some time off now please. Just me time, that would be nice. Just me and nothing to do, nothing to worry about. Just time off.
Chance’d be a fine thing huh?
I’ve just managed to get a decent ticket to King Lear in January. Hurrah!
Last night we went to see Swimming With Sharks. It was on in the Vaudeville Theatre on the strand and I have to say that I wasn’t impressed with the venue. Aside from taking their time to deal with a drunk and loudly singing punter, it was just noisy from start to finish.
The plus side is that again, and again on a Tuesday, we got bumped up in seats. Handy to know for the future. We moved to second row of the Dress Circle during the interval and they were pretty good seats. Anyway I enjoyed it quite a bit. The cast were pretty good, I thought that the cast did a pretty good job in particular the fella (Matt Smith) playing Guy. Slater was decent and Helen Baxendale was for the most part very good. I’d tend to agree with the Guardian review that it’s a shame it descends into sensationalism at the end as it was much more enjoyable until that point. Anyway a fun evening out.
Lots of gigs coming up in the next week. First up is Ryan Adams on Friday evening, then Saturday and Sunday is Arcade Fire in Ally Pally (been a long time since I did two nights running at anything), Tuesday is Duke Special down in Bush Hall, Wednesday is Duke Spirit in 229 and then finally Friday brings Cherry Ghost in Koko. Somewhat of a mad week ahead. I’m thinking to myself that perhaps it might be a bit much but while I think that, I’m booking gigs for the first three months of next year (BSP tour in January!) and pleased to see that Colin MacIntyre (formerly known as Mull Historical Society) is finishing up that fourth album and has a London gig before the end of the year so I think I’m in for that too.
Alright, it’s catchup time.
Who needs an order though? Last night I was home around 8ish and I cooked some dinner (sweet and sour chicken with rice seen as you asked) and I was looking for a quiet evening of taking it very easy. So when I pickup for an almost full team for STF came along, I thought to myself it was worth a shot.
And it was, it was awesome. One of the best teams I’ve ever been one. We stumbled a little bit at the start (a quick Warburg mish for some Shivans and the first badge of the evening for me!) but when we got going, we slaughtered it. The last mish was positively easy. We had one death for Recluse and finished that bit off in about 20 minutes. It was awesome. I got 4 badges for the evening and a couple of nice drops tho nothing really worth writing home about. So I went to bed in quite a good mood.
So backing up to earlier in the week. On Wednesday evening myself and Nathan went to see !!! in Koko and it was pretty good. A few beers before hand with a couple of drop in guests was nice and then yeah I enjoyed the gig, it was just fun.
Oh and before that, on Tuesday evening we did leaving drinks for the Hatters which involved a stupid amount of cocktails but was all in all a fun evening too.
Now forward to Saturday. Well, busy enough. I spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoons helping my sister move into her flat which all went well enough.
Saturday night though was White Mischief. For various reasons, I was photography pass-less which was a shame but I had a most excellent evening. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Kunta Kinte but then right after them, British Sea Power were awesome. Really good stuff as I briefly mentioned before.
So then a little more random music, a little cabaret, a little burlesque and then home around the two o’ clock mark and into bed about thirty minutes later.
Sunday, as I said I was doing more moving. I woke up feeling like I had slept for hours and hours and I was really surprised to find my clock telling me it was 9.36. I thought it was a bit early to get up so I read for a little while before dragging myself out of bed. I was cooking some breakfast when my sister made some comment about being good to have slept for so long and lo-and-behold, I have no idea how my clock was so wrong but it was now well after 2.30 in the afternoon. No wonder I had felt like I slept so well.
Anyway into town then for a brief couple of drinks that went really well I am very pleased to say and so all in all yesterday was a pretty good day.
Today is petty tough so far. I am embroiled in paperwork and I think it’s going to continue like that for a little while. More on that at some stage down the line though.
Given that the week started with me seeing one of my favourite bands doing an acoustic set before showing their tour movie, both of which were amazing, I’m astounded at how shit a week I’ve had. I cannot remember the last one that was this bad which didn’t involve the word cancer.
And it only seems to be getting worse. I had a most enjoyable evening at White Mischief tonight. British Sea Power were their usual solid stuff, not their best but still pretty excellent. However opening with Remember Me had me from the get go. I had intended and indeed spent most of the bus ride home planning sitting down here and typing now but as soon as I got in the door, well I’m just too tired and I need to go to bed and sleep. About 48 hours worth would be nice, thank you very much!
It feels odd to be eager for Monday, especially given that this coming week is not going to be good.
Note to self, when you get up in the morning cook some breakfast. It’ll make you feel better for a moment anyway. Mmm scrambled eggs on toast.
You came on your own
That’s how you’ll leave
With hope in your hands
And air to breathe
It goes without saying that seeing an acoustic set from Sigur Ros and then watching Heima last night was amazing. I’m so glad that I saw it in a cinema first and not on a small screen, aside from the visuals being breathtaking in places, the sound, oh the sound was just perfect. I was left with just two urges after. 1) To take my camera and go to Iceland and 2) to go and listen to all of the actual performances from the movie. Wonderful stuff. Common comments on the Sigur Ros boards around how IcelandAir must be doing so well out of this.
Amazing stuff, hard to believe it’s been about two years since I last saw them. I’m listening to a recent acoustic performance and just floating on that. With luck last night’s will be available later on today and I can add that to my collection. Anyway it was amazing. Roll on a tour date or two!