Tuna steaks with lemon and herb rice and red pepper bravas salsa

2 large tuna steaks
1 cup basmati rice
1 red pepper, chopped into thin strips
Juice of half a lemon
1oz mascarpone
2oz plain yoghurt
A few leaves chopped basil
1oz tomato purée
1 red chilli pepper, very finely chopped
1tsp oregano
1tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp sugar
Sunflower oil or other light, non-flavoured oil 
Salt
Pepper

Wrap tuna steaks in foil, cook in middle oven for 20 mins on gas mark 6. When almost done, lightly brown each side for 2-3 mins in a hot sunflower oiled pan and set aside in a warm place. Keep the oil in the pan for the salsa.

While tuna is in the oven, boil the rice until al dente, then drain and rinse through with boiling water. Return to a low heat and stir through the mascarpone, yoghurt, basil and lemon juice and gently warm through. Season lightly and take off the heat. 

Also while tuna is in oven, make the bravas paste by stirring together the tomato purée, chilli, oregano, and sugar. Season well and add black pepper until the chilli and black pepper are roughly equal on the palate.

In tuna oil pan, fry the peppers with the caraway seeds on a medium-low heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn up the heat and add the bravas paste, stirring for another few minutes until the bravas paste just starts to brown. 

Put the rice in the centre of two plates, rest the tuna on the rice and pile the salsa on top.  

lyrics

Here is a list of all of the songs I've written:

Chimes
Seventh
Broken wings
The storm
Coldskin
Holding on
Iamthebeater
Four cycles
Open your heart
Tape riser
Your turn
Fake out, shuffle off
Contradiction
Borderline
Don't rush
Dark song
When you're there
Plunged head first
Harpzn
Unprotected
Wake me up
Be careful
Coldfingers
8fold
Secret sound
Another day
Hopeful / lonely
Real when shared
This present moment
Potoo's requiem
Kite
White Walls
Airstrike
Heart suture
Far away
Lightshow
Lydia

LOTS

my 16pf results

Cattell's 16 Factor Test Results Warmth |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78% Intellect |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86% Emotional Stability ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Aggressiveness |||||||||||||||||| 58% Liveliness ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Dutifulness |||||||||||||||||| 58% Social Assertiveness |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Sensitivity ||||||||| 22% Paranoia |||||| 14% Abstractness |||||||||||||||||| 54% Introversion |||||||||||| 34% Anxiety ||||||||||||||| 46% Openmindedness |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 90% Independence ||| 10% Perfectionism |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Tension |||||||||||| 38%

Factor low score high score
Warmth cold, selfish supportive, comforting
Intellect instinctive, unstable cerebral, analytical
Emotional Stability irritable, moody level headed, calm
Aggressiveness modest, docile controlling, tough
Liveliness somber, restrained wild, fun loving
Dutifulness untraditional, rebellious conforming, traditional
Social Assertiveness shy, withdrawn uninhibited, bold
Sensitivity coarse, tough touchy, soft
Paranoia trusting, easy going wary, suspicious
Abstractness practical, regular strange, imaginative
Introversion open, friendly private, quiet
Anxiety confident, self assured fearful, self-doubting
Openmindedness closeminded, set-in-ways curious, exploratory
Independence outgoing, social loner, craves solitude
Perfectionism disorganized, messy orderly, thorough
Tension relaxed, cool stressed, unsatisfied

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year

To whoever is reading this, here's to the good times. 

My new year's resolutions… 

- love, don't fear

- don't be a hypocrite or a liar

- follow the noble eightfold path :)

Everything else, like doing more music, finding a new job, losing weight, etc etc. can happen in their own time. 

Bon voyage

Logic Pro: the Sample Delay plugin demystified

Logic has lots of different delay plugins, but one rather overlooked and misunderstood little plugin is our little friend, the Sample Delay. Put simply, the Sample Delay works by delaying its input by a set number of samples, specified by the sliders. You can delay the left and right channels independently, or you can link them together. You can also type in the box and enter your values manually instead of using the slider. 

So, what's it for? 

Well, it's really to compensate for the delay that certain plugins can exert on your audio pathway. In the days before plugin delay compensation, if you put a big beastie like the PSP Vintage Warmer on, say, your drum stem, you'd immediately hear that the drums were late, as the PSP takes a few milliseconds to process the signal. This is called plugin delay, and you could compensate for the tiny delays caused by plugins with the Sample Delay plugin. 

You could also use it for compensating for delays caused by certain outboard processors, or for any ADC or DAC conversion that you do… but don't worry, we're not going to get into that here! I really want to talk about how to use the plugin creatively. But first, a tiny spot of maths. Logic works at 44.1kHz by default, which means 44100 samples per second. So, if you delay a signal in the Sample Delay plugin by 44 samples, we are delaying the signal by roughly one millisecond. So, this clearly isn't the same beast as a conventional delay plugin… it's the really tiny stuff we're dealing with here! 

Milliseconds are massive  

Milliseconds sound like tiny imperceptible units of time, don't they? Wrong. A millisecond is a huge amount of time. Considering that sound travels at 343 metres per second, it takes only 3 milliseconds for a sound to travel one meter. Our brains know this, and process this information constantly to tell us where sounds are coming from. In fact it's these tiny, fractional-millisecond delays between a sound hitting the right ear and left ear that the brain uses to work out where a sound is coming from. Don't let the fact that a millisecond is only one thousandth of a second long fool you – these are useful little things! 

In terms of Logic's Sample Delay then, you might find it helpful to bear in mind that 120 samples relates to sound travelling one metre. If we say that the distance between two ears is 20 centimeters, this relates to approximately 24 samples. So we can use this to trick our brains into thinking a sound is panned when it's not. For instance, a sound that hits your right ear 24 samples before it hits your left ear can sound like it's coming from your right, all without the need for panning, which can often ruin the balance of a mix. 

Making space

Another use for the sample delay plugin is in conjunction with reverbs. Delaying a reverb bus by 1200 samples will move the imaginary 'room' 10 metres away – great for separating out reverb from drums / strings to avoid a crowded mix and give a nice sense of space. (Actually, most good reverbs come with a pre-delay feature to make this easier, which is normally dialed in by the millisecond, so remember 1 metre = 3 milliseconds = 120 samples.) 

If you want an alternative to reverb, then why not try delaying a dry bus by 1200 samples? This will simulate an artificial space 10 metres across, which you can blend into your sound for more 'body' without waving the reverb flag. Mathematically, this sound is a perfect reflecting sphere around the mic, so if you try this you may not like the results straight away. Experiment around with equalisation to make this sound useful, but watch out for phase interactions as these can affect mono compatibility – try removing some of the low end from your delayed bus to correct any phase issues (remember to use the Linear Phase EQ for this!). 

Middle and sides

Another use for the Sample Delay plugin is to simulate a MS mic configuration. MS stands for middle and sides, and is a technique for miking a sound source (such as an acoustic guitar) to give it sense of space, without the mono compatibility problems that can arise when using other stereo mic configurations. 

The technique involves using two microphones, one pointing directly at the sound (M for middle), and one figure-of-eight mic pointing 90º off axis, picking up the 'room sound' on both sides of the direct mic (S for sides). This is then fed into an MS decoder (Logic's Direction Mixer, for instance) to translate the MS microphone signals into left and right channels, with a nice sense of stereo space and image. The advantage of this approach is that due to the clever MS decoding process, when you sum the mix down to mono, the S signal cancels out, and you're left with just the M channel, a perfect mono signal. 

The good news is that you can cheat your way to your own MS sound without the need for two microphones. To do this you need to send some of your mono recorded signal to a stereo bus, which we will use for the S signal. Insert a Sample Delay plugin and a Gain plugin onto this bus. (It may help to insert a Linear Phase EQ also.) You then invert the phase of one of the channels (doesn't matter which) using the Gain plugin. Now make a decision about how big the live room was, and dial the appropriate figure in samples into your Sample Delay. (Remember 1 metre = 120 samples.) Make sure you have linked L and R channels in the Sample Delay. And – hey, presto! – you have your own S signal, all without buying any more microphones! Now, EQ to taste. 

Important note: Only use the above MS configuration on dry, mono signals. After setting up the MS configuration in Logic, it's important to route both the signals from your M channel and S bus through to a new stereo bus, and do all processing (EQ, compression, etc) on this new bus. Any processing, especially time-based processing (such as reverb, delay or chorus) on your dry M or S signals will have a negative effect on the realism of your MS processing, and may cause all kinds of phasing problems that will negate the mono-compatibility advantages of this approach. 

Delayed reaction 

I hope you can make some use of the above processes, and if you do, you'll discover that the Sample Delay plugin is a powerful and overlooked tool in your creative arsenal. It can be used to give sounds their own space in your mix, to fill out a dull mono recording, and once you start playing around, you will find it has many other useful applications. In fact, you'll wonder how you ever did without it. 

Found this hiding in some old paperwork…

OPEN YOUR NO !

fade out, shake out of your dusty dream sleep

sunlight in bloom

— ?

— ?

fullest openness of selfless care

share in my art

spring rain leaves a mist upon your hair

go with your heart

open your heart

[Stresses]

[who dares to wake me, Prince from the biomass?]

is it always like this?

chasing a particular neurosis?

following your brain's pathways

towards the ever receding horizon

of thought / feeling?

is adulthood the full realisation

of stasis? is it the ability to

stand still? take root? become

oneself – accept that you have

become everything you intended

never to become. Each fear

hides a wish. .

Electrodynamic intimacy

meta-cunts : evolution of the off-switch

invasion of your backyard by the other people

all you ever care about - you

salivating wreck of senses and urges!

you counteracted in new and unusual

ways… why did do you do it?

You'll never rid your self of your self of yourself

circumference + diameter abound in you.

a better ratio of life to death, please,

a more appropriate balance of of possibilities

[ in a more extreme form of moderation

all that's required. and only going

"above and beyond", never above,

never beyond. Never above, never beyond.

[Fuck all you cunts –

Open your heart]

will it always be like this, love the heart in command?

chasing each & chasing every neurosis, chasing your never to become

circumferen every fear hides conceals a wish, feet on the ground

Teach ourselves to hit + miss, learn to find home

A better ratio of bad to good, [ balanced + true / that's never been true ]

— you'll find it at the horizon as the sun sets on you

towards the never reach the horizon

circumference + diameter, all that's required

everything in moderation, never alive

teaching ourselves to sit still

never above, never beyond.

will it alwa is it always going to be like this

the heart in command

chasing every little neurosis

never become

Every fear conceals a deeper wish

feet on the ground

Grounded, learning how to hit & miss

learn to find home

NEVER ABOVE

NEVER BEYOND

A better ratio of bad to good

never been true

You'll found find all that shit at the horizon

when the sunsets on you

circumference & diameter

all that's required

everything in moderation

never alive

Warrantless Wiretapping

Read this first. 

Clearly bad news… but it's not just the Americans who suffer this kind of thing. Three of our very own ISPs, BT Broadband, Virgin Media and Talk Talk, have all signed up to this new 1984-ternet. 

It's called "Webwise", a new technology created by former spyware makers Phorm. Webwise listens in on your broadband connection, and logs all of your browsing habits. And the point? Adverts. They can be directed straight down the phone line and into your internet browser, and tailored to match your behaviour on the web. 

Clearly this is a massive breach of users' privacy, but the real news is that BT have already been testing Webwise on its customers… without their knowledge! It's a modern cold war nightmare. Also, you can't control it: no firewall, pop-up blocker or browser can reach along your BT landline, from where Webwise sits and watches all times. 

Up to now, it's not technically illegal. Or is it? Well… in Britain, we haven't made our minds up about whether the Webwise technology should be legal or not: after all, it's a "robot" doing the watching, not a person. See, the issue is new, and the laws aren't written yet. Companies like Phorm and BT are setting the precedent, though, and very few people are really challenging them. 

Plus, cha-ching! Think of the economic growth! People get profiled, browsing patterns become big profits. ISPs can't believe their luck: they're about to cash in on all those expensive "unlimited broadband" deals! New laws are being written as we speak to protect an ISP's right to snoop, and everyone wants to get in on it. 

And if that doesn't work, there's always the good old "public safety" issue to fall back on. We don't appear to mind too much when our civil liberties being eroded, as long as it's in the name of keeping the bad guys fenced in. After all, we've already decided to protect ourselves from music and porn, and I bet you didn't even know that! 

https://nodpi.org/2008/05/30/protest-at-the-barbican/

Could be a laugh.