Halif

Will do. And thanks, Tronica, for your interesting and timely work. The discussion generated in your big thread at BL has been extremely illuminating.

^Yeah that's it exactly (the Channel 7 thing). Frank, you missed out on something crazy silly. Luckily, there's lots of info about it on these boards.

Glorious time to be free

Really nice pictures! The first one in particular blasted my eyes with its radiance! Today has been another pleasant, sunny Spring introduction in Victoria. Went for a walk around the neighbourhood and saw lots of blossoms bursting and wattles shooting their sinus-exploding goodness into the air. It was a fresh, clean day for walking off a bit of a hangover I got yesterday after my brother and I grabbed us some nice bits and pieces from Dan Murphy's. Bit of the old wheat beer and a drop of the old whisky. Seems there's a trend toward making honey whisky products at the moment. I saw lots of that from the big name producers on the shelves yesterday. Must be a bee plague somewhere in the world or something. I'm not much into sweet alcohol but I tried a bit of this Jack Daniel's honey whisky liquer thing that my bro bought and found it quite agreeable. Then again, by that point I'd had a few beers already and was finding most everything agreeable. With weather like we've had the last couple of days, even my hangover today was somewhat agreeable. I just stood, sat, and rolled around in the garden doing not a thing all day. Quite enjoyable actually. Hope everyone else has had a good one to welcome in the season of new beginnings.

^yep. Lovely flower. How many other flowers conjure up so many stories of suffering and pain, both past and present? Exploitation, war, politics, medical science, economics, addiction - and all from such a tiny little seed, too. Wow, nature is amazing and human nature is complex. <strokes non-existent beard and gazes skywards>

Yep, it feels like it is getting to that time of year. Time to get out into the garden and do a bit of maintenance. Time to look at all the weeds I've let run wild. Time to start planning what I'm going to do with all my beautiful plants before the end of the year when I have to find new accommodation. Today was a nice day. I did almost nothing. Smoked too many cigarettes (terrible habit recently picked up again), drank a few nice beers, sat outside and looked at the plants, talked to my cats, looked at birds as they hunted for food... Hope everyone else had a decent day. Feels like it's time to wake up from the Winter freeze and get active again. Warm weather and many blooms on the horizon! Huzzah!

yep, me too. It's an evocative track - a soundtrack to something. Keep going.

hehe thanks Amazonian You've brightened up my day a bit and produced a smile. The warm weather here in Victoria must be lifting my spirits a bit. A couple of hours back I wouldn't have been able to produce even a turd let alone a smile. It is a very pleasant day though, isn't it? I'm starting to feel like some kind of living organism with feelings and words and whatnot. Doxylamine, for me, has the unfortunate effect of turning me into a zombie after a few days of use. It gets to the point where I have to seriously ask which is worse, being tired and irritable or being a walking void. Anyway, feeling a bit more lively now. I think I'll go outside and smell the ...errrr... cacti. Have a happy ol' day everyone!

I probably couldn't feel much flatter, but thought it'd be nice to just give thanks for the simple fact that it is Saturday and I don't have to do anything. A few days of using doxylamine to get some much needed sleep has left with me with about as much humanity as a piece of driftwood. Actually, I couldn't compete with driftwood right now. That was an overly ambitious comparison. But hey, it's Spring, it's not too gloomy or cold where I am, and I can genuinely say that I am happy to not have to do anything or interact with anyone today. Sometimes that's the greatest gift of all. It's not so bad being an empty vessel when there are no passengers to carry - if you get my drift(wood). Hooray for Spring and for it being a day of rest for some of us! Anyone got anything fun or exciting on this weekend?

OK. I've entered those details into my leather-bound planner with a fountain pen made of jade and ivory.

Thanks for the comments guys/girls. Meshuggah: I'm really just learning how to balance the frequencies and use reverb/delay/etc properly, so there's heaps I am yet to understand. I've been given some great advice recently and am just now trying to implement it into future tracks. Thanks for the feedback! Just listened to your track. Very unique blend of sounds - like Robert Rich or Steve Roach mixed with Trent Reznor!! It's beautifully balanced and the percussion is suitably driving for the tribal aspect of the piece. I can definitely say I like it, but there's not a jot of advice I could give in return because you're way ahead of me with the track production!

I'm pretty sure 7-MeO-BaNaNa-Dine is still legal. Personally, I wouldn't touch it though. My mate smoked one cone of that shit and thought he was a banana for like three days.

Thanks, guys! Here's one more (my favourite one) and then I'm having a break from music playing around with -ing, because I can feel my cycle of creativity going to seed. I've been messing around with trackers for years, but I tend to go through cycles like 3 months on, 9 months off. Before this burst of creativity I didn't touch my software for about a year and half... Anyway, here: http://soundcloud.com/tepalom/revival

I've been having a look at the music made by some forum members here and I've really liked what i've heard. I thought I'd post some stuff I'm playing with at the moment because people here are open minded and might like it more than the friends I've played it to! My friends (and girlfriend) have been pretty brutal with their criticism. I've been told it's "wanky", "wallpaper", and lacking sonic density. But hey, I make tunes because I really enjoy listening to and playing with music, so I can accept those comments! Here you go: http://soundcloud.com/tepalom/fun-beat http://soundcloud.com/tepalom/in-the-lobby

I love tracks like this where there's nothing jarring or harsh, but the beat drives it along and keeps me focused on it. Nice. I think I'll check you out on Soundcloud...

Yeah I agree, planthelper - cutting can be tempting but I've found it to be counter productive at times. And yeah, what Fluss said: see if you can gently scrape it off.

Really nice message, and welcome back! I've been a lurker on these forums for a few years and have only recently decided to make an effort to be a more active member who contributes something to an excellent community from which I've learned a lot. I like the way the appreciation of plants and nature either creates or attracts people with a spirit of generosity. Growing plants and cacti has shown me that nature is really generous. Cacti can multiply so easily, and sometimes growing a single plant can reward you with tonnes of seeds or useful material. Just think of how many poppy seeds are contained in a single pod, or how growing vegetables is fun and you basically end up with more than you could ever use yourself - so why not give it away?

Oct 14th works for me. And thanks Sharxx for the answer about bringing stuff. I was going to put a message in the seed exchange area, but It'd be easier for to just bring stuff than try to figure out how to post chunky, spiky logs of cacti goodness all over the place. Just good confirm it's common practice. Guess I'm a bit paranoid, what with Channel 7 and their hidden cameras out to save Australia from the most dangerous group (gang?) of people: plant lovers.

I had to look up the meaning of 'mercurial', but that's a great adjective to describe such an experience. Hell can indeed be other people (sharemates, especially). It's tough to be the one who takes responsibility for the maintenance of shared accommodation, and it's a pity that a lot of people who live in that transient world don't carry their weight because.... well, I guess it's an unfortunate facet of human nature that often people won't do tedious but necessary tasks if they believe someone else will. Go for it - get your own place/space!

Hey, I have to move again in the coming months (life of a renter, eh) and it seems that I won't be able to bring a lot of stuff with me, which makes me sad. But if I can give away some cacti to people and it makes them happy, then I may be less sad. Or possibly it won't make any difference. Who knows? The point is, would it be (in)appropriate to bring some cactus cuttings and/or rooted cacti to a gathering? I'm really dazed and confused about what we can and can't and shouldn't do or have these days, and I definitely don't want to somehow get myself or anyone into trouble. I have some t.pachanoi, t.peruvianus, and t.WTF is it? to share around to people who can give them a better home.

Shit, I had completely forgotten about this. Nightmare. Once they move in they are very difficult to get rid of. A few years back when I had a nice d.metel growing, I would gently rub the underside of the leaves to mash the mites and my fingers would come away stained reddish. Rubbing the leaves would also release this distinct peanut-like odour. It's all coming back to me now... During one season which was particularly bad (back when it was still hot and very dry in Melbourne summer), if I didn't rub the leaves regularly and neglected the plants, a fine cobweb material would end up covering the plant. Spider mites and fungus gnats - two things that made my plant-life very frustrating

Cool. I've still got your song going around in my head. That may not sound impressive considering that I only listened to it some ten minutes ago, but taking into account my 90 second memory, it's a good sign!!

^good advice. A good submersion soaking can do wonders. It's tough trying to establish caapi and other tropicals in such foreign climates. I had a beautiful plant (purchased from the SAB store) which I made every effort to protect. Every winter it would drop its leaves and then in spring come back with a vengeance, but on the third winter it dropped its leaves and never grew them back. I've actually left it there in its big pot in the hope that it'll make a miraculous recovery, but the last leaf I saw on it was two years ago! I think it's expired. Oh, to have an ambience controlled walk-in greenhouse.... one day...one day...

Beautiful simplicity. Vocals and acoustic guitar will never get old.