DsD waits for the Revenge Songs RR to refresh ...
In spite of not posting much, I DID actually keep reading the GU Music blog last week.
Amongst several fighting much harder at the front line than me - Chris7572 deserves a medal; I bloody well will seek out webcorewebcore IRL and buy that man a drink; and Fuel & Cauliflower nailed the issues in a couple of comments.
But ...
I've spent the last couple of years using RR as a refuge; an oasis of calm if you like. Regardless of how bad my day may have been, the good humour and stellar journey of music discovery has ALWAYS left me feeling better.
Until last week.
I cannot tell you how irrationally stressful it has been trying to load / wait / expand / wait / squint / scroll / wait while my scroller decides whether it is playing or not / deal with the delayed response to typing / crash&burn trying to deal with youtube on the side / rescue my cursor from wherever CtrlF has chucked it, etc etc etc .
Well I'm sorry, but ENOUGH!
As Captain Oates famously said: "I am just going outside and may be some time". Unlike Cpt.O I have a destination refuge in mind - I'm staying here, friends, but I am ABSOLUTELY NOT going back to RR until the tech issues are fixed. I appreciate there are elements of the GU team trying to help, and yes we were told it may take some weeks to iron out the kinks, so I am not burning any bridges ... yet. They fix it, I'm back happy. They don't fix it, I stay gone.
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I need to explain.In spite of not posting much, I DID actually keep reading the GU Music blog last week.
Amongst several fighting much harder at the front line than me - Chris7572 deserves a medal; I bloody well will seek out webcorewebcore IRL and buy that man a drink; and Fuel & Cauliflower nailed the issues in a couple of comments.
But ...
I've spent the last couple of years using RR as a refuge; an oasis of calm if you like. Regardless of how bad my day may have been, the good humour and stellar journey of music discovery has ALWAYS left me feeling better.
Until last week.
I cannot tell you how irrationally stressful it has been trying to load / wait / expand / wait / squint / scroll / wait while my scroller decides whether it is playing or not / deal with the delayed response to typing / crash&burn trying to deal with youtube on the side / rescue my cursor from wherever CtrlF has chucked it, etc etc etc .
Well I'm sorry, but ENOUGH!
As Captain Oates famously said: "I am just going outside and may be some time". Unlike Cpt.O I have a destination refuge in mind - I'm staying here, friends, but I am ABSOLUTELY NOT going back to RR until the tech issues are fixed. I appreciate there are elements of the GU team trying to help, and yes we were told it may take some weeks to iron out the kinks, so I am not burning any bridges ... yet. They fix it, I'm back happy. They don't fix it, I stay gone.
In spite of your kind words (Ed & Claire in particular), the truth is no-one is going to be worse off for my absence. Now if RockingMitch stays gone, THAT'S a loss.
I'll contribute to the nominations, but on The 'Spill. If any of you like what you hear, by all means take 'em with you when you dive into the cyber-quicksand over yonder.
At least it means I can go to bed before 2am on a Friday morning !
;o)
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DsD
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I'll contribute to the nominations, but on The 'Spill. If any of you like what you hear, by all means take 'em with you when you dive into the cyber-quicksand over yonder.
At least it means I can go to bed before 2am on a Friday morning !
;o)
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DsD
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34 comments:
-"the truth is no-one is going to worse off for my absence"
+"the truth is everyone is going to worse off for my absence"
BUT, I do understand your gripes, I'm just hoping this week will be smoother, and the one after that even more, and then you can come home, instead of that trollop dondler we call the 'Spill (no offense, see comments in a previous blog post)
You'll indeed be very much missed D'sD.
Although you are already pushing the boundaries of staying up late with young children ! So as long as everything takes twice as long, you'd either have to post half as much or stay up twice as late. And it's actually quite hard to hang around there yet limit what one contributes.
And frustration is no fun at all.
I think they will sort it out, although part of it is just the inexorably increasing demands on computer memory from improvements in what can be done. I've been busy deleting my "Temporary Internet Files" and moving photos off the hard drive, just to free up the memory space that gets silted up over time. Hopefully we'll enjoy the good new things without having to spend the children's Christmas money on new computer kit !
Hope to see you back there soon, and keep in touch over here.
Actually DaddyP, I've been meaning to ask someone about that: how DO you clear Temporary Internet Files? When I ran those words through Search, I only found 36kb. Can't be right, surely?
(I'm on XP btw)
You will be missed DsD.
I'm also not posting this week, easier choice for me as most of my posts are made on the ShoePhone & that does not work anymore.
Was very disappointed at the lack of response from the Guardian techies after all the complaints last week. Hoping we may get some feedback tonight, but suspect we won't. No slight to Maddy as none of this is her fault or her job.
This is probably the most insignificant protest in the history of protests, but feel that not walking away is letting the bastards know they got away with it.
If you want to post a thread here for nom's I'm up for it. If not will probably stick up the usual themed playlist, before heading to the beach for the weekend.
say if I was playing....
Soldier Tufaiev Gets Zelwer
Saving Up To Get Married Euros Childs
White Wedding (Live At Notting Hill Arts Club) Client
Wedding-Cocek Goran Bregović
My First Wedding The Wombats
If You Ever Need A Stranger (To Sing At Your Wedding Jens Lekman
Alone At My Wedding Buscemi vs. Koçani Orkestar
but I'm not cos I can't design a spill monster at the same time so pointless...
Noms from in exile on the mobile:
Jacob's Pillow - Jesse Rae
Jacob's Ladder - Monachrome Set
The Everthere - Elbow
Marriage Made in Heaven & Burried Bones - Tindersticks
Cigarettes, Wedding Bands - Band of Horses
Cary Grant's Wedding - The Fall
Mine is in Yours - Mouse on Mars
We Have All the Time in the World - Louis Armstrong
Good Woman - Cat Power
My Moon My Man - Feist
Blueberry Hill - Fats Domino
Err, make that Monochrome & add Sun Kil Moon's "Lucky Man"
No idea if any of these are dond's cause I'm still roaming. Feel free to adopt & post any you like, if anyone's still awake over there. Will look in later when I can log on to an all powerful super-computer.
Oh & "When Will We Be Married" by The Waterboys. Too late? Thought so. This playing with yourself is not much fun .[You're doing it wrong. Ed.]
Oh that's NOT good news. You were referred to by one of the journos as 'The Mighty Darcy's Dad', remember? Now if it's because of the staying up late thing then I sympathise. But please keep up the good work on the 'Spill. We'd miss you DsD!!
S'not fair - don't want you to go!
BUt I understand why.
I couldn't be bothered to play much last week myself, I certainly couln't be bothered checking if I my noms were actually donds.
I think the Guardian techies may have killed RR as we know it.
Right, I'm starting a whip-round for a new Darce-a-tron 5000. Something that doesn't have a pedal to make it go, right? We need the 2am VIOLENCE back!!!
I'm in for a tenner. Who's with me?
DsD, shoey, saneshane - Have to applaud the principled stand (though you do realise RockingMitch is back ;)...!) and agree that you'll be missed, but at the same time it'll make for even more essential reading on the 'Spill.
My computer having escaped any apocalyptic side-effects of the change, I'm staying put (getting used to the functions and tolerating the fact that it feels like taking part in an interactive AA route planner) but more conscious than before that the RR veterans' sensibility that attracted those whom (I think it was) tincanman described as "new regulars" is still what comes over loud and clear to any newcomers.
You do realise that your selfish stance is ruining the experience for the rest of us? Won't miss you??? It just doesn't feel the same now. There are starving children who could eat for a week on what you've left at the side of your plate, you know.
D'sD
It's the 'Start' button at the bottom left, which I think is always there on XP. Then 'Control Panel', then 'Internet Options'. Temporay Internet Files, and the button to delete them, is in the middle of that box. It took about half an hour to delete mine, a little file for every page I'd been to or attachment I'd opened in the last 3 years !
And shifting photos, video and music off the hard drive will help too. It would've needed doing sooner or later !
Darcey's Dad, glad you haven't burned your bridges yet. I think we're stuck with the new blog format and I agree it's VERY IRRITATING and makes it hard to use clandestinely at work which is the only time I get any time. Don't let them beat us! And keep up the good work on the Spill.
Anonymous is me, I can't work the Spill now, either.
Hi. I'm actually Chris7572 but can't be bothered signing up to yet another internet thingy.
DsD: thanks for the medal comment but I was furious that something that worked OK was simply thrown away for a system that had obviously been bought because it looked more up-to-date. Obviously, no-one bothered to assess the impact on existing users which, for any software implementation, is a major crime in my book.
However, I and others found that we could use the new thing and the 2nd entry on the marriage comment list is my suggestions for making the thing usable. I can't help phone access (too new-fangled for me!) but Google's Chrome should help most PC users.
BTW: available disk space isn't the major problem, it's memory. Are you running anything you don't need to? If so, stop it. Take a look at your Startup folder and delete anything you don't recognise.
There are actually some good things about the new format. Don't leave.
As I said on RR, I actually prefer the "new" (although it's been around for months on other Graun blogs) version to the old.
I'm using Firefox 3 which can handle the loading of comments fine. The navigation is easier and more intuitive now. And it looks better too.
Ironically enough the thing that really eats up my PC's processing power (I can hear the fan chugging away as I type) is this very Spill, with all its links and songs and plugins and whatnot. Physician, heal thyself...
I only posted once today - it is just too slow and clumsy at work to do it more than once or twice.
I am not enthused by the topic this week either.
Wha..?
Wow. Thanks everyone.
Glad to hear RockingMitch is back.
Shoey - the stubborn git in me says "Hold Yer Nerve", but the RR lover on the opposite shoulder says Abahachi is right. Decisions, decisions ... !
Abahachi was close - my grumpy junior response to THAT accusation always used to be an inaudible mutter of "Well put it in an envelope and send it to them then" - but it is Carole (probably unintentionally) who wins the first 'GetMeAClothForThisKeyboard' award of the day for that last line!
Thanks to DaddyPig for the tech-tip; will be trying after tea.
@ Ali & Chris - you don't need to sign in/up: if you click against the Name/URL instead of Anonymous, you can simply type any name in without a password. Works for me, but Blimpy & frogprincess are the king and queen of name variants!
@ May, Snadfrod, Richard & Chris - your comments' contradictions actually highlight the cause of my frustration: it isn't one easily identifiable thing. For instance Richard, neither my PC nor laptop have ever had a problem with The 'Spill, but both are affected by the new GU format (the laptop is crippled!)
Whoops, gotta go - teatime.
NOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Etc.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I'm finding it very hard to work out whether it's the new look or a change of mood over on the Mothership - or whether the two are so inextricably linked that it's impossible to tell - or whether it's the absence of regulars like your good self (I originally typed that as 'god self' but you've had enough of an ego massage for one day so I went back and changed it) - but there's something not quite right today.
Perhaps cb's right and it's the theme - is it too literal, too cut and dry? I don't know.
Are the new voices simply drowning out the old regulars? Of course it's brilliant that there are so many 'new' regulars but the whole dynamic feels wrong.
I'm still not having any technical problems with RR on my Firefox-driven browser but I couldn't get it load at all at work (IE Explorer) so I felt frustrated all day (yes, I know boss - it's not what you pay me to do) but it did leave me feeling like you do as a teenager when all your friends are at a party and you're grounded.
Anyway, the whole thing's got me thinking about change and how we all deal with it. My own method is to descend rapidly into a downward cycle, suffer panic attacks and sleepless nights and go several days without eating properly. I think that this is the result of a childhood during which I moved house every two or three years (my Dad was in the RAF) and had to start again in a new neighbourhood and at a new school. I suppose others might have become hardened to it and become stronger, more resilient people but I just wimped out and now any sort of major change in my life fills me with an unnamed dread.
Of course the RR re-launch isn't quite on the same scale as the new job I started six months ago but I am experiencing some of the same feelings. Nevertheless, I'm going to carry on in RR-land - it's still better than a poke in the eye.
Darce, I hope you'll change your mind sometime soon. You are sorely missed.
Hello DarceysDad, now, we've never really exchanged pleasantries, but as someone who hangs arounds the margins of the regulars, I can see that you will be and already are sorely missed.
The very first week i started reading/posting on RR, can't remember exactly when it was, but you just had come out of hospital and all of the posts were "welcome back DsD", "hope you are feeling better DsD" etc. I didn't have a clue who you were, but you were obviously popular and much cared for. Apart from the excellent music recommended, it was this genuine warmth and community spirit that made me hang around and the reason why, for me, RR is the only blog worth contributing to....there, that's my tuppence worth!
You may be well out of it this week; I don't think I really believe last night's theory that RR is responsible for the global economic crisis because of the 'Historical Events' thread - as a well-brought-up Marxist naturally I reject any explanations based on short-term contingencies rather than underlying structural contradictions - but the 'Marriage' thread has not exactly coincided with domestic sweetness and light in the Abahachi household. I do hope this is just me...
Anyway, although I still think the boycott approach is wrong, I have to agree with Toffeeboy that, at the moment at least, the atmosphere is very different. It's not the number of new people, it's the extent to which the vast majority are behaving completely differently from the traditions of RR: clearly most of them don't bother reading any other posts, or they wouldn't keep sticking up whole lyrics all the time for a start, and an awful lot just name songs rather than offering any sort of justification or explanation.
I'm holding off issuing any pompous lectures on the subject, because this isn't my blog and I don't have any divine right to set the rules or appoint myself guardian of its spirit - but I still feel that the spirit is changing, and not in the good way. Still, maybe it is just this week's theme...
I have to say I don't really know what you guys find so different about this week's blog, Aba and TB. It seemed to me in previous weeks there had been a lot more list-making than there is this week. There's been the odd gripe and the odd newbie posting too many lyrics but nothing really that serious, surely? And thankfully the technical specs of our machines/browsers have been left largely unmentioned this week.. or perhaps I'm just too easily satisfied..
I don't know... You're quite right that there are fewer lists, which have got my goat in the past. Last week's was weird and aggravating because of all the angst about the new system and the deficiencies of our computers; that was also full of people not reading any other comments and just naming songs, often for the tenth time, so maybe it's just that I'm now more unsettled by that than last week when there seemed to be bigger issues. I really don't know, it's just a feeling; maybe it's just that I'm having a slightly rocky weekend on the domestic front and that's spilling over...
Afternoon all.
Just finishing my lunch before going back to the decorating, so thought I'd grit my teeth and launch my newly-decluttered PC at RR ...
... it still can't cope, and I still can't stand the problems.
So, in the meantime:
@ Abahachi: I completely accept the 'selfish' point, AND in the spirit it was intended (before you react)! I don't know what has caused the noticeable increase in newbies over on RR, but it is definitely changing the vibe. Knowing your style as I do, all I'll say is try to stay ON that serious-point-with-good-humour tightrope that you walk so well: it's a long way down if you fall!
Re lists/repetition: an inevitable consequence of the tech problems, I'm afraid - if it's too much of a pfaff to load several pages and search with any confidence using CtrlF, people simply won't do it.
The continued ignorance of the 1/3 lyric thing is very worrying, though. Indicative that people simply don't read what others are posting.
@ Japanther - thank you very much. You must have arrived around this New Year: the 'welcome back' posts were because I got very short notice from the NHS of going in to hospital for an operation last Christmas Eve, and I (in typical DsD blethering fashion) worried myself about it online at RR the night before.
@ ToffeeBoy - an Everton fan who doesn't cope well with change!!?! Given the upheavals to come (ground, ownership, etc.) I'd start the therapy sessions now if I were you! Seriously though ... me, you, tin & (so)wcwc need to get together for a drink.
Right, back to the Disney Princess room ...
Aba- sorry to hear it, hope things clear up for you.
Re the RR blog, I suppose I feel it's in all our hands to steer it in one direction or another, there will inevitably be the occasional lurch to one side or another. It's in the nature of these things that change will occur whether we want it to or not, in an organic way no one can really foresee, thats besides the recent technical changes. If enough new entrants want to take the blog somewhere else, it will probably go there. On the other hand, there are enough people who value it for the way it is now, and it shouldn't be too hard to retain those values, as long as we all contribute. There have been many new posters since Maddy took over, and nearly all of them have adopted a certain unspoken code of behaviour unique (at least on GU) to the RR blog, and have also expressed positive feelings about the blog. I don't personally rate the technical changes as that much of an upheaval, although I can understand your frustration, DD, if you're waiting so long for pages to refresh, etc. But the message I got from the technical staff was that the old system was on the verge of collapse anyway, so change was inevitable.
Once more the Way of the Hippo speaks great truth. The current exchange between Toffeeboy and one of the newbies - and if there's one thing I'm really finding difficult, it's the fact that they all have these apparently meaningless and impossible-to-remember names - could well prove your point, depending on how successfully the former can argue the latter out of a classic rock snob "all pop is rubbish and anyone who claims it's good must be taking the piss" pose.
Yes, Abahachi - that person was really getting up my nose so I have clicked on 'recommend' for TB's remarks.
TB handled it well.. some of these new people are just used to the rough-and-ready of the rest of GU or CIF and come in bristling, most realise though pretty soon they can leave chips-on-shoulders at the door when entering RR.. and we've always got Carole on backup duty if anything goes seriously wrong.. ;-)
Thanks for all the supportive comments. Looks like we fought the jabberwock and, better than slaying it, we seem to have tamed it.
"Come to my arms my beamish boys..."
Please don't go!
Actually, you haven't, and I understand and respect your decision - I was horrified by the stupidity of the "upgrade" but too scared to do the same. Last week I spent what felt like infinite hours finding myself a fix, while boring the RR list into submission, sorry team. It might not work for you, but I heartily recommend Chrome, the new Google browser. It makes the RR experience vastly easier even than before on Firefox. Thanks anyway to Chris7572 for advice and support. Without it I would have left too.
Anyway, it's much nicer here in the 'Spill, and the drinks are mixed better. Have one on me.
I only realised in here today that playing one of the uploaded/link tracks in here means the whole lot play! Wow. That's proper radio. So I'll drop in more often, especially if you're not coming back to the RR [sniff]
On an earlier topic (apologies to goneforeign for - again infinite - delays) re Ry Cooder. If anyone reading this has access to a 1/4" tape machine to transfer a unique tape to digital for the rest of us (either 7.5"/s or 15"/s) would you please get in touch? Ta.
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