1400 jobs gone today, 3600 to go over the next 18 months. Everyone uncertain and all signs show it’s likely to be more than just those numbers.

I survived this long, so here’s to another day!

Something that that always amazes me about Washington is the weather. In Scotland it rains all the time, not so heavy, but just constantly. Ireland was just miserable, rained, soggy, just enough sun to get your excited and the rain again.

In Washington it’s so much different. The rain here is really heavy. So bad you can’t see 10 yards in front of you. The snow here comes hard and fast, though I heard this is a once in a 10 year snow, but it does snow unlike Scotland where the last time I saw snow I think I was 6. The summer here when I moved was lovely and hot, we’re talking over 30 celsius.

Then there is the fog. In Ireland and Scotland you get fog. You get it once in a while, a couple times a year, but not regular. Here you get it a lot. At least twice a month if not more. It also isn’t only in the mornings, it can last days. It’s thick and slow, so hard to see anywhere.

The last two evenings it’s been foggy and you can really see where movies and books can get their inspiration from. I always thought the fog that you see roll in while people were at sea or when that fog comes in during a horror movie were all special effects, but it happens and happens a lot.

Just thank god there are no monsters, lol.

Well that didn’t take long. After 4 days or so with the Korg nanoKEYS I took them back and picked up the M-Audio Axiom 49 keyboard.

This keyboard is massive, almost 3 foot long, but the keys are so much nicer than the nanoKEYS. I guess if I knew how to use a keyboard like this the nanoKEYS would be ok to have, but as somebody who is learning I really needed something with some extra key travel.

So I’m learning via youtube, which is really bad, but it’s free. I guess I’ll try youtube a bit longer until I know the basics and have a little practice under me then I’ll go look for a tutor. The problem I have is that I just bash buttons and it sounds like complete garbage (rubbish for my friends back home).

Choosing a hobby is always a problem. They usually cost lots of money and to have several on the go is expensive and time consuming.

For instance, I love computers, I will invest considerable time and money into them, and likely they will always come first in my list of what to spend my savings on. You know I have to have a fast laptop, I have to have a nice screen. It’s not that it has to be the best of the best, but I do appreciate the good stuff and I use it to it’s full potential.

Now I like cars also, but cars are expensive. I could buy a 350z and add new filters, brakes, suspension, but all that is even more expensive than my computers interest. So it’s likely never going to happen. Over here in the states it’s easy enough to get a lease on a new car for a couple years. Far cheaper than owning, well cheaper if you like to change cars every few years. So for me, the idea of buying an oldish sports car and doing it up compared to leasing a new one is not going to happen.

Then there is photography. I tried this and found out I need to spend a lot of time and effort into it. I found myself photographing landscapes most of the time and I bought a good amateur D-SLR a few years back and have taken great pictures, but as time went on I found good quality consumer cameras will take just as good pictures. You really need to spend a lot of money to get the quality prints and a lot of money on good glass to get the shot to make it worth printing out in great quality. So while I don’t focus on D-SLR a lot anymore I do like to keep my eye out on a good composition and have a nice quality consumer pocket camera for that rare occasion.

Now it’s a new year and my brain travels at a million miles an hour and I found out that you can get relatively cheap music components for the PC by Korg. The products are part of a series called Korg Nano Series. In the series they have a controller, a keyboard and a set of pads.

Something else I released is that I am so used to buying stuff over the internet, I don’t even bother with local stores. I had ordered these online and they were going to be in stock next week and I went to bed last night. Then this morning I thought I would go see them in a local shop, go figure they had them all in stock there, so back on the internet, order canceled and down the the store and bought all three. Very happy, I love instant gratification.

So here I am sitting in front of my laptop with the three devices downloading all the software needed to make them work.

I’ll post some tunes when I get good… sometime in the next several years then!

Happy New Year all!!!

So this is the start to my first year in the USA. The last four months have been crazy. So much has changed and so much has happened, but what a hell of a start to everything.

My blogging has been boring and mundane in the past and going forward I’m going to put more interesting things here, mainly how my life is going over here and what I’m up to.

I do have to say though the fireworks in Edinburgh are far more impressive than than the ones in Seattle.

So Happy 2009 and I wish everyone to have a great year!

(Oh and the picture isn’t mine, I borrowed it from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrcrash/3155096835/)