Long Journey

Sir Edmond Hillary Dies

Sir Edmund Hillary dies aged 88

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, has died aged 88. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark described the explorer as a heroic figure and said all New Zealanders would deeply mourn his passing. Sir Edmund's health had reportedly been in decline since April, when he suffered a fall while visiting Nepal. He was the first man to climb the 8,850m (29,035ft) peak with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953.

Good Old Brits, spicing things up again.

HT to Paul for this video.

Pual's been talking about how the UKs security around arming Atomic Bombs was a bike key whilst the rest of the world used something a little more secure. Well he turfed this up to redeem the UKs reputation!

Sound system coming along

So, I've been looking to build a small sound rig to use for Sanctum, and over the Christmas Period I've managed to put it together for an acceptable price.

The Kit in the arsenal so far is:

1 x Soundcraft Spirit M4 Mixing Desk, which is just perfect for my needs. Having four mic channels, plus four "instrument" channels. This lets me process a couple of macs, plus a couple of ipods and still leaves four channels open for mics. Got it second hand and in perfect nick!

2 X Phonic PA 550 active monitors, from Andertons in Guildford. I can't recommend them highly enough (Andertons that is!). I took up their test room for most of a morning, and they let me configure a rig and test everything out. No pressure and ended up selling me the monitors from ex-demo stock so saved at least 50% on the street price and then gave me £40 worth of leads for free.

So the rig will power at around 800+ watts which is more than enough, and so far I have spent around what I could of spent on a single monitor.

Next to come, some speaker stands, and some cheap mics.

Probably looking at a couple of these, as GAK in Brighton have the kit for £30 in their sale: Its a peavey PVi 100 mic with stand and bag for the same price as a stand......

And Finally I will add in a radio, but not too sure what is best to go for, as I won't spend more than £130 and it must be UHF. Basically It comes down to a sennheiser freeport or an Ashton. Either-way both would be great at Greenbelt as we always seem to be lacking a radio at New Forms.

The freeport is better known, but the Ashton can use 16 channels. Anyway I will need to wait a couple of months on the mics, as the bank account needs a chance to recharge!

Addicted to Apple, moi?

It looks like I am well and truly an addict!

81%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

HT to Thomas Hawk for the link