Moving on

Not long ago I lost an old friend – not as in dead lost – but lost as in they moved up the country and broke all contact without much notice or explanation… it wouldn’t be so strange other than I’d known them for a long long time (since school long).

I won’t be naming any names but I really don’t understand the reason for it. People need to take a break and have their space and focus time but to break all contact with the people you’ve been dealing with is rather odd.

You know they meant a lot when they keep on appearing in your dreams… months on even. The biggest problem was not knowing, so I made sure they were actually alive but the reasoning for the silence and why still baffled me. It’s actually really annoying, the dreams I mean. In my consciousness I have acknowledged that for whatever reason the friendship we had obviously wasn’t all that. I’ve other friends through work and out of work and come to terms with the fact I just need to move on and hope that if this person really cared then at some point they’d get back in touch.

I’ve written this in the hope that it’ll help by putting pen to paper so to speak (always better to get something off your chest).

Playing some vinyl

I have (had) wanted a new record player for a while now. I previously bought a vintage Akai unit on ebay but never found a cartridge for it so it was gathering dust. Luckily I now sold that back on ebay and someone has made good use of it by doing it up and selling it on.

For Christmas my girlfriend got me a nice new Sony record player, and some records (Humble Pie, AC/DC, Motorhead) so I have been geeking out about how to get them scrobbled to Last FM and how I can track them.

I have now registered for DisCogs – you can see the widget on this site now – and have done some further digging about how I can scrobble an analogue audio source.

The closest I have got is an app called ShazamScrobbler for Mac, but this will only work on newer versions of MacOS and would involve me having my laptop on and nearby whilst playing vinyl. I also found a Reddit thread with some further suggestions but some are outdated/no longer working: https://www.reddit.com/r/lastfm/comments/5zl9y3/how_to_scrobble_my_turntable/

 

 

Minimizing debt into 2018

It’s coming to the end of another year and time to write a brief wrap-up post.

I think I have achieved a lot this year:

  • I finally got my Mazda MX5 through another MOT after a lot of hard work and that’s still ongoing.
  • I’ve been able to maintain a loving relationship which I am proud of, and through that, also made some new friends.
  • I’ve progressed in my job although that’s been a struggle, having to be put through potential redundancy early in the year.
  • My freelance work is still progressing, I tend to allow work to flow in via word of mouth so not to stretch myself but do pursue some leads when I can (sneaky feelers!)

I am attempting to reduce the amount of debt in my name. A while after buying my house (Keep calm, just bought a house) I required some additional money to buy furniture and decorate, and to also pay off some credit cards (consolidating debt). I immediately closed a credit card account thereafter. Credit cards are bad ideas. I am now left with one credit card and have just reduced the credit card limit to £1500 after they had increased it to £2900! I don’t want that temptation. If I don’t have the money, I can’t pay for something. Simple as. My loan will be near enough paid up at the end of 2018, so I’ll be able to close that too.

Considering I am only 27 I think I have done quite well. I have big dreams and passions but sometimes I have to look back and see how far I have already come.

I wish everyone a good new year, and remember to set achievable targets that you can reach!