Back to my parents' home for the weekend, been here a bit too long for what's currently my taste. Friday was a holiday here, so it made sense to come back then and now I'm held up here because a fool decided to smash the front of my car with the rear of his and the repairs could only be done today, Monday. In any case, I seriously hope it's all fixed by the end of the afternoon as they promised me, or else...

Or else, nothing. I'll just have to wait and moan some more.

In any case, while the weekend proper has been completely unproductive and basically a total waste of my time, I've been able to do some work this morning. Some bad work related news, concerning near future prospects, but we'll see where it will all ultimately go. I should be more certain of what I'll be doing by the end of this week or so I hope.

But what really prompted this post was to share the Pitchfork review for Portishead's new album, "Third". On the rare occasions I got out with my colleagues for lunch, we invariably talking a bit about music and it was the general consensus that "Third" sucks, especially the first single, "Machine Gun". Clearly a lot of people are positively frightened by anything that's unconventional in the slightest. It just scares the hell out of them. Or maybe they are simply unable to comprehend it.

In any case, I thought "Third" is yet another work of genius by this fabulous band and I'm happy Pitchfork agrees with me. Here's a little quote from the aformentioned review:

Keep in mind just how out-of-nowhere this all seems: The notion of a new Portishead album had, for many fans, fallen out of the realm of possibility. If Third had come out in 1999 or 2000, maybe writers would be calling it Portishead's answer to Massive Attack's Mezzanine, another third album by trip-hop icons eschewing dinner-conversation music by embracing anxiety and moodiness. Released today, it instead feels like a staggering transformation and a return to form that was never lost, an ideal adaptation by a group that many people didn't know they needed to hear again.

So true, I couldn't agree more. And "The Rip" is seriously one of my favorite songs of the year. "Third" is definitely a candidate for album of the year, as well. Not that it matters, but it shows how important this can still be after an 11-year hiatus.

So, a lot has happened since I last posted a proper entry - something that goes back to... let's see... October 2007, about half a year ago. I've gotten into another band and I've fallen out of it, I've ceased writing music reviews for progscape.com, I got into a day job and I'm about to leave it for another... well, it's a state of constant motion, as Mike would put it.

Admittedly, I'm a little rusty on this writing thing. I've always toyed with the idea of writing consistently, even if briefly, every single day, in order to keep somewhat of a life log, something I could refer to later that would help me put together the pieces of my past. We tend to keep only the strongest memories, the proverbial "big picture", of what has happened to us in the past and the little details obviously tend to be forgotten. Writing some notes every day would help me, I thought, to keep those little details alive somewhere so I could come back to them later and better remember whatever I've been through. Problem is, there's simply no consistency to write that regularly on my part. Is that a problem though?

All questions and no answers, as is usually the case with me. Anyway, it doesn't really matter right now. To get my dear readers, all two of them, up to speed on what I'm up to lately, suffice to say I'm working for a software company during the day, while trying to create my own startup with two other people at night and whenever time allows. As for the former, I'd rather not disclose who I'm working for as I'm leaving soon anyway and as for the latter, we have a small web presence as of now in the form of 3anglesoftware.com. Other than that, I'm also trying to finish my CS degree, of which only Mathematical Analysis II remains and I'm halfway through the semester, hoping it's for real this time and that come summertime I will be a graduate. Finally, I'm also getting deeper into my masters thesis (MSc) which concerns itself with constraint logic programming. More on that later.

Progress on all these fronts will, I hope, be recorded on this blog from now on. Of all these tasks, maybe the most interesting stuff lies in that entrepreneurship bit, what with starting my own company and all, and I initially thought about creating a new blog simply about the experience of trying to bootstrap my own startup, failures, successes and all that jazz. Ultimately decided against it and whatever I have to say about it will be written here instead.

Enough out of me for me, better get back to work.

Well, this time is as good as any. Let's get the weekly playlist tradition back on. Without further ado, here's what's currently on rotation around here.

1. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
2. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster...
3. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
4. The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
6. Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood OST
7. Xiu Xiu - Women As Lovers
8. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
9. Renaissance - Prologue
10. Marillion - Clutching At Straws

http://www.last.fm/user/prla/