Archive for January, 2009
Grey
Posted by: | Comments
I wrote this song during the Winter of 2003. It started in my head as a riff which was subsequently used and features in the song as a lead-in to the chorus.
The song explores depression from causation through to consequence. It is a topic that many are uncomfortable with and thus ultimately proves difficult to express artistically. The weight of the subject matter is contrasted against an upbeat and powerful rhythm which I hope works to good effect. I often wondered what this song would sound like done by someone with a gentle voice and an acoustic guitar. Perhaps it would fail dismally, who knows.
The lyrics for this song popped into my head in a matter of a few hours and writing them was unusually easy. I recorded the song on a digital system in Donegal in early 2004.
Was today in colour?
Was the sky metallic blue?
Were things in focus?
Did they seem grey to you too?
Did I fall down?
Did no one catch me?
Where on earth’s my angel?
Is she gone bad too?
I’m so tired of resting
In my resting place
Remembering the colour
Or was it grey?
Is tomorrow black?
Does it go that way?
The lighting is bad
It’s fading away
To live and die in grey
Give your soul away
The colour of the world is grey
Blame it on a child
Who never went away
To live and die in grey, in grey
So what’s your story?
Have you got the time?
Between you and me
It’s a very fine line
Do you see grey?
Do you colour it in?
Do you fit your space?
Do they let you?
Do they let you in?
To live and die in grey
So safe in all its shades
In dark or light, the grey is all I see
I’m fading away
A Child who never aged
To live and die in grey, in grey
So many greys
In many lights
Stare long enough
I’m Convinced it’s white
Remembering Colour
So hard tonight
Was it blinding?
What was it like?
What was it like?
To live and die in grey
Give your soul away
The colour of the world is grey
Blame it on a child
Who never went away
To live and die in grey, in grey
In grey…
Copyright (C) 2004, Kieran Stafford
In from the cold
Posted by: | Comments
I used to live near Creevy Pier, Ballyshannon Co. Donegal a few years back. Whenever the weather forecast was bad, I would make a point of going down to the pier to watch the storms. It was on the exposed side of Donegal bay so when there was a large swell mixed with high winds, it was spectacular. I was down there one day in the middle of a raging Atlantic storm and this song literally “arrived” in my head in an almost complete form. I could hear the melody and knew the theme for each verse within about 20 seconds. It’s an experience that I never had again – an instant song that more or less wrote itself.
The song is pretty spiritual. It’s about finding something higher or deeper than ourselves. I am not a religious person and indeed not that spiritual, but in recent days have become aware of some degree of spirituality. Sometimes I feel homeless and unsettled in life. In our new globalised world, the primary concern of everyone seems to be the generation of wealth, more and more at the cost of everything else. I think this makes a lot of people feel homeless. This is about that, about being lost , about being found or the need to be found. (Hope).
I would dearly love to get this recorded using female vocals and traditional pipe instruments. That’s what it was written for.
In from the cold get you
Here by the embers we’ve kept
We have been searching with sorrow
The fields, since you left
Breaking down stone walls
Our faces gone pale from the rain
Facing the storm and the darkness
To see you again
In from the cold get you
Back in our arms you are warm
We shone a light from your window
To guide you from harm
I used to go to the ocean
To hear for your cry
In from the cold you have come
As the last light has died
In from the night get you
We have a feast in your name
Into the light get you
Dance to the music we play
Into our hearts get you
See how we kept you a space
Into a sleep you shall go
And rest until day
In from the cold I have come
I was lost in the fields
While I was out on the Ocean
You cried out for me
I could not hear through the storm
Could not see through the rain
The light that you shone from my window
To show me the way
The light that you shone from my window
To see me again
Copyright (C) 2004, Kieran Stafford
A Tragic loss
Posted by: | Comments
It is with the deepest sadness that we report the death of Bert. Medical personnel pronounced him dead this morning after he was found hanging by his co-star and lifetime friend Ernie.
Preliminary investigations would suggest suicide but Sergeant Jake Sellers (Sesame Street divisional precinct) has advised that it is too early for further comment except to say that if there is the slightest suspicion of fowl play, no stone will be left unturned.
Bert, star of Sesame Street for years in the 70’s and 80’s had been struggling with life after the Street was axed by TV bosses. He found it impossible to get work and blamed that on the fact that his role in the Street had typecast him. He had been in and out of rehab over the last decade as he continued to battle against alcohol and cocaine dependencies. Rumours about his sexuality remain rife within the industry and over the past five years since the Cincinnati public toilet episode, many have speculated that his morals were less than adequate for him to continue in the role of any sort of children’s entertainment. Despite these rumours Bert is alleged to have fathered many children throughout the northern states.
Ernie was being consoled by friends and family today, “He was my best friend, I’ll miss him terribly” the puppet said to our reporter earlier.
Create Gantt charts in Excel
Posted by: | CommentsI currently have a requirement to produce a Gantt chart for a training project I am involved in. Whenever I think Gantt charts, I think MS Project. In this case however, I have been asked specifically not to deliver the chart using MS Project as the recipient (1) does not own a copy, (2) considers MS Project too complex and (3) considers it overkill for the job in hand.
I have come across a great little solution that involves tricking Excel into thinking that its Stacked Bar charts are in fact Gantt charts. Many thanks to R. Philips and Youtube for this.
Globenet
Posted by: | CommentsAs some may have recited to their priests in the past, forgive me reader for its been a while since my last post. I have either been very lazy or very busy – you decide. Anyhow, it is great to be past Christmas/NY and back to normal. We have started lectures this week at UCG. Yesterday we attended the first Computer Comms lecture of the semester with our master of ceremonies Dr Andy Shearer. During his presentation he showed us an interesting map of the Internet from a backbone hub perspective. We actually viewed two maps, one from 10 years ago and one from 2007. I found them fascinating and so have decided to post a brief article on them so you can see for yourselves.
The first image shows the Internet backbone network as it stood in 2007. You can clearly define North America and Western Europe. Other jurisdictions are identifiable by a thin concentration of hubs on their borders / perimeters (South America, Africa etc). What strikes me about this map is that it clearly shows the great divide between those who are connected and those who are not. The open western capitalist economies vary vastly from the developing and communist states. As per usual, click the images for bigger and better.
 |
The next image below, shows the main European city to city connections. Again you can make out the shape of Europe. Squint your eyes if you don’t believe me. The main proliferation of trunks seem to exist between the UK and France/Germany. Ireland seems well connected in terms of these main trunks, if only we could sort out the last mile.
 |
Finally the same map of North America. Again I would argue that you can make out the shape of the states. For more information on these images and research into Internet mapping, visit the Dimes project here.
 |
