I’m coming to the end of a little project, and I think it only fair to share the joy — or pain — of it with you, my loyal readers.

Back more years than I care to contemplate, I started a band with my cousin. To be sure, it wasn’t much of a band; there was just the two of us and a drum machine. I played bass and rhythm guitar and was the main vocalist and songwriter. My cousin had to play lead guitar. (Mainly because he wouldn’t let me play lead guitar, in spite of the fact that my nom de stage was “Eric Crapton.”)

(Now that I’ve mulled it over, I’m beginning to think that that was one of those “backhanded” compliments.)

We didn’t even have amps, let alone a full PA setup. I rigged up a way to play through my stereo (not recommended, if you value your speakers). Nor did we have any adequate rehearsal space, pretty much a necessity once you start adding real drums and amps into the equation.

To fatten up our sound somewhat, we’d multirecord. That is, I had two cassette decks and a cheap 4-channel mixer. So we’d record the first track with, say, bass on the left channel and guitar on the right, with the drums spread across both. Then we’d play that back and add, for example, lead guitar and vocals. Then maybe a third pass with more guitars, percussion, backing vocals, or whatever else came to mind. More layering than that became problematic, with cumulative tape hiss tending to muddy up the initial recording, especially the bass and drums.

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Welcome to the October 4, 2007 edition of carnival of the vanities.

raymond nwambuonwo presents HOW TO BECOME VERY RICH: Avoid These Seven Financial Mistakes in your Business posted at HOW TO BECOME VERY RICH.

Kevin Bedell presents Make It Real posted at 21st Century Citizen.

GrrlScientist presents Rimatara Lorikeets: Returning From the Edge posted at Living the Scientific Life, saying, “In a superb example of a conservation effort well done, the homecoming of the Rimatara lory — a small spectacular parrot — appears to be progressing nicely: already the birds are forming pair bonds.”

GrrlScientist presents Why Grandmothers? posted at Living the Scientific Life, saying, “Article about grandmothers was recently published .. specifically, this article asks why grandmothers have never been documented in birds, even though there is some evidence suggesting that they occur in several mammalian species besides humans. Well, according to an Evolution paper that is hot off the presses, grandmothers do indeed exist in bird societies, we just never looked carefully enough to see the evidence.”

Adam Gurri presents A Profile of Mason Rugby posted at Sophistpundit.

GrrlScientist presents Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted): Quill Knobs Reveal that Velociraptor Had Feathers posted at Living the Scientific Life, saying, “Adding more detail to our understanding of avian evolution, a closer look at Velociraptor fossils reveals that this dinosaur was indeed, feathered.”

John Lampard presents Fluster posted at disassociated.com.

Nina Smith presents Social Security vs. Personal Retirement Accounts: Which Way for Gays? posted at Queercents, saying, “Gay liberals typically don’t like the idea of Personal Retirement Accounts (PRA) because it falls under Bush’s reform plan. But there are two sides to every coin…”

200motels presents TIP-TOE THROUGH THE TOILET posted at 200motels.net, saying, “A One Act Play in Verse About Sen. Larry Craig in the Men’s Toilet of Minneapolis International Airport”

Andrew presents Do you ever discuss your dreams posted at K T Dodge.

Larry Russell presents 10 Personal Financial and Investment Planning Steps in the Right Direction posted at THE SKILLED INVESTOR Blog, saying, “These top 10 items provide a personal financial planning process that will help you optimize the management of your financial planning and investment management affairs over your lifetime, while greatly reducing the unnecessary waste of your money and your time.”

Alex Landis presents Are you anybody’s favorite person? posted at AlexLandis.com, saying, “Are you anybody’s favorite person? Alex discusses this question sparked by a short film created by Miranda July”

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Not Tickled Pink About Girlish Pink Guns posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

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If you are interested in getting a new dog or just like puppy pictures then this site will make you go all weak at the knees. The puppy pictures section allows you to find pictures of your favourite or desired breed so you can get an idea of what they look like when they are really little. So you can get all soppy about yer favourite breed even before you get a puppy. Needless to say this lot go to me a bit.

Well the biggest name in Scottish racing has gone and joined a NASCAR team following Juan Pablo Montoya to the sport. Dario Franchitti, winner of the 2007 Indy 500, seems to think there might be a steep learning curve. I wish him well and continued to be impressed at the talent that NASCAR is attracting from abroad.

I suspect that subscriptions to NASN cable channel in Scotland will go up from now on. Well Scots do already like the passtimes of most NASCAR fans.

Oh and he is driving a Dodge.

William Hague gave cracking speeches in both the house and at Conference. He didn’t win an election. And lets be honest Cameron is not a better speaker than Hague. I am glad you lot are all giddy about Davey’s latest speech. Lest I remind you that he spoke well to get the leadership and then frittered it all away until he was 11 points behind.

Lets hope we get a chance to see if its all froth and no substance. Let’s hope that Gordon goes to the country as soon as possible. Then we will see if the Cameron path of destruction strategy will translate into a win. I am not yet convinced he won’t go down in flames come election day.

I have read a transcript of the speech by Cameron. What a load of waffle. He has identified the UK’s major problems, well done, but has no real solutions for any of them.

And why would anyone trust Cameron on anything to do with Europe after he failed to deliver on his EPP pledge? If Cameron wins power will he have the courage to hold a referendum; especially if he as a small majority which is likely?

I am sure the speech went down a stormer in the Conference Hall; after he is a PR guy who is good at making things sound good.

BTW it was all smiles coming out of the Conference Center…might it be partly due to the fact that all the activists there no its the last Blackpool conference ever?

An excellent interview about the state of developing for the iPhone and how much work Ambrosia’s putting in to get iToner to work.

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Good speech that won’t make much difference pretty much sums it up. He does rightly say that Cameron’s duel challenge probably makes it hard for Brown not to go to the country now. Nothing to spice up the autumn like a nice election. And look at the bright side; if Cameron goes down in flames anywhere near as badly as I suspect he and his whole brood will be gone by new year.

They can abolish taxes, bring back grammars, employ more policemen, doctors and nurses, build more prisons, strengthen our borders and save the planet, but nothing will induce me to vote Tory while Theresa May remains a member of the Shadow Cabinet.

Read the rest of Liz Hunt’s mini-skewering of numbnut that is Teresa May here. To me she is the complete antithesis of the strong, intelligent and clever woman that Lady T was and is. May is the reason why token women (or any group) are never a good idea. There are other intelligent talented Tory women politicians; alas May makes a mockery of them all.