No fencing for me.

So usually on a Wednesday I'd be going fencing, poking people with swords is great exercise and I dun't really do much else in the way of serious physical activity.  However a couple of weeks ago I was in a motorbike accident and damaged my knee.  Luckily the bike was fine so I didn't have to pay for repairs or mess about with insurance or anything.  But still, kind of annoyed about not being able to fence.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know any good UK websites where you can buy steel welding wire?  Apparently it's good for making chainmail out of, and cheap, so that would be handy for making my shirt.

Playing live for the first time.

In about a week and a half I'll be playing live with my band for the first time.  We're a folky acousticy kind of band and we'll be playing at a local pub.  We've got all the live musical gear we need, monitors, PA, etc, but I'm pretty nervous.  I keep thinking I'm going to mess up and ruin it for everyone else. Can any performers out there give me any tips on how to avoid nerves?

World of Tanks

World of Tanks is a free online multiplayer game based around tank combat, specifically tanks from around the World War II period.  You start with a couple of very early (and rubbish) tank, which you can use in battle.  A battle consists of 15 tanks on each team fighting out over one of about 10 different maps, where one side wins once they have either destroyed all enemy tanks, or captured the enemy's base.  You have full control of your tank, using WASD to move and the mouse to move your turret and fire.

Screenshot of gameplay.

Every battle gets you experience and money which you can spend on repairing and upgrading/customising your tank.  Eventually you'll get enough experience to research a whole new tank.  There's a tech tree system with numerous classes of tank, include Tank Destroyers and Artillery as well as Light, Medium and Heavy tanks.  That should be enough information for now, if anyone wants to know anything more, just ask in a comment.

http://www.worldoftanks.com/

Riffs and Tanks

I worked on the song yesterday, and though it's not really resembling a song at the moment, the basis is there.  I've come up with about five different guitar riffs which I'll add together, create a backing track for, and "sing" over the top of.  Here's four of the riffs:
Thrashy by Cowbacca
The intro is rather slow and lasts 'til about 0:40 so skip to there if you want.  Also apologies for the poor quality and playing. =P

In other news, I've been playing an awesome online game about World War Two tanks called World of Tanks.  I might do a post about that sometime.  Driving a big box of steel with a huge gun on is rather fun.

Maille and Music

I'm thinking about writing a song today.  I've got a guitar, some tin whistles, a keyboard, a melodica and a harmonica to play about with, but no idea what I could make the song about.  I'm open to suggestions from anyone.

Also in the plan for today is to finish off a silver chainmaille bracelet I started yesterday.  I'm trying to decide how much I should charge for it, so I may put up a picture later and see what you guys think.

Back.

Sorry I've been away for ages everyone.  I kind of forgot about this.  But now I'm back, I'll be making some more posts and checking out other people's blogs.

I'm off to London.

I'm going to be off to London tomorrow for a university open day, so I won't be updating this or checking out your blogs for a while.  Keep up the good work though everyone!

Fencing.

Every Wednesday evening I go fencing, which is a pretty awesome sport where you basically poke people with big metal sticks.  It needs a lot of concentration and uses a lot of energy in short bursts, which is great for lazy unfit people like myself.  You also obviously learn how to fight with a sword, which is useful if you ever want to challenge anyone to a duel because they stole your chocolate.  Does anyone else fence?

Also, obligatory video:

Won't be bloggering much tonight.

Evening my fine fellows, I have band practice tonight so I will not be as active as usual in checking out what you all have to say.  Got plenty of time to catch up tomorrow though.

I'm in an indie/folk/acoustic band, not really sure how to describe it, but it's pretty awesome.  I don't really usually listen to the type of music we play, but I think our songs and covers are great.  I might just be biased since I'm part of the band. <_<  All sounds good to my ears though.  Also, I get to finally play my didgeridoo with the band today, which shall be most awesome.  For those of you who don't know what a didgeridoo is, it's this:

A riddle.

Here's a riddle I made up the other day, pretty easy but lets see who can guess it:

What is well-known to the well-known but little-known to the little-known?

Leave a comment with your guess.

Finished necklace!

Well here it is. I'm a rubbish photographer though so these photos are poor. =P

Chainmaille necklace.

Though most people see chainmaille as just armour, you can actually make a lot of stuff out of it, including jewellery. This afternoon I'm going to be finishing off a chainmaille necklace that I started making for a friend in America.  I've currently made about 12 inches out of 20 inches of the necklace, which is made out of silver plated copper.  Pictures of the finished thing should be up here tonight. =]

Pasty Blues: Original Song.

Well due to my rubbish recording equipment and the fact I can't sing, this doesn't sound particularly good. =[
Here it is anyway:

Recording.

Thanks for all the encouragement on my previous post.  I'm now recording the song, I've done the guitar and vocals, just the piano and tin whistle to go.  I'll post it up here when it's done if anyone would like it.

Lazy.

I've been being really lazy lately. I haven't actually done any more to my vest since I posted the image, haven't recorded my latest song or written any more music. Basically just been sitting here listening to music and Blogggering. Motivation would be gratefully accepted. Also remember to check out the green highlighted words for any interesting adverts. ;]

Making chainmalle rings or links.

Someone asked about how I made the individual rings, so here's a posting explaining it. (side note: I've recently added InfoLinks to my blog. This should highlight certain words in green and display targeted advertising, feel free to click them if they interest you. ;])




First, take some wire (I use 1.6 mm Galvanised Steel, which is the wire used to make fences and can be bought from gardening/farming type shops), and wrap it around a metal rod. The larger the diameter the rod, the looser the chainmaille is going to be. For my vest I am using a 6 mm diameter rod.


Remove the wire from the rod and cut from the coil with clippers. There are many kinds available and most do the job.


Now simply cut the coil into rings. Try and keep the cuts in a straight line. It takes a bit of practice but soon one gains the ability to create nearly perfect rings.


Tada! Doesn't look very impressive by itself, but when combined with others, it can look amazing.

Guitar.

Well today I had a guitar lesson, learning the solo from Alive by Pearl Jam.

It's a pretty nice solo and some phrases are hard to play.  Haven't had time to work on my vest yet but should be doing tonight, so expect another update.

Behold, a vest!

As promised, here is the picture of how the vest is looking so far: (click on the image and skip the ad to see a full size version)





Doesn't look too impressive at the moment, but with more rows of rings it will start to hang properly.  What you see in the picture has taken me probably around 10-20 hours to make, I dread to think what the total time for this project will be.  Should give me a lot of opportunity to make boring blog posts though. =P

Chainmaille.

Last summer, I started making stuff out of chainmaille.  Bracelets, belts, necklaces, etc.  Recently, I decided I would make a chainmaille vest to wear, it alleviates boredom and improves my fitness in one fell swoop.  Therefore this blog shall be updated with images showing the progress of said vest, as a way to show how long the damn things actually take, and to motivate me into actually doing it.

Buses.

Bus services are rubbish down here.  Give you a bus pass, yet you still have to pay to get home. Communists, the lot of them. >:U

Welcome

Welcome to McGizzle's blog.  Here will be located the incredibly exciting stories of Mr. McGizzle.  I hope you shall enjoy them.