"Get it out of your head and into the machines. Stop talking stop arguing. Let the machines talk and argue. A tape recorder is an externalised section of the human nervous system. You can find out more about the nervous system and gain more control over your reaction by using a tape recorder than you could find out sitting twenty years in the lotus posture. Whatever your problem is just throw it into the machines and let them chew it around a while. There is of course the initial problem: programming tape recorders is an expensive deal any way you wire it."

[WS Burroughs; The Ticket That Exploded; p136]

Bought this rocking print today at East Finchley Open. It's by Hazel Turvey.

I would never make gnocchi myself (tried it once, it took hours and wasn't worth the effort), but you can get packets in the supermarket which take literally 2 minutes to boil so it's really handy. Normally we make them with a tomatoey sauce (like a pasta sauce for example) but here's a nice light summery way to do them. Serves 2 and takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish.

• 1/2 an onion
• 1 glass rosé wine
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 packet of gnocchi for 2

Warm up some oil in a pan. Slice the onion as finely as you can and add it to the pan. While it fries for 3 or 4 minutes (stir occasionally), chop the tomatoes into dice. Add the tomatoes and the wine to the pan. Once this starts bubbling, let it bubble for a minute or two before turning the heat right down to minimum and putting a lid on. Let it cook gently for about 5 minutes.

While the sauce is cooking prepare the gnocchi according to the pack. When they're ready, drain them and stir them into the sauce. Serve it all with a few salad leaves on the side.

A while ago New Scientist ran an article with lots of practical advice about cutting your carbon footprint, along with numbers (measured in tonnes of CO2) to tell you how important each one was. So I had a go. Here's the results so far.

Things I've done:

• Avoid air travel as much as possible, this is one of the biggest things. I've had holidays by train, been to conferences by ferry, all great. Although I haven't always been able to avoid planes for going to certain places. NS said I could save 1.6 tonnes CO2, so let's say my score here is 0.8 tonnes
• Convert electricity supply over to a green supplier. (It's cheaper than our old one too...) Score: 0.8 tonnes
• Paid attention to buying food that's local(ish) and in-season. The asparagus season is just ending, it was nice. Score: 0.7 tonnes
• Turn the thermostat down "by 2º" in winter. Bit confusing this, what if it's already turned down? Anyway I think I did do. Score: 0.4 tonnes
• Run the washing machine at 30º rather than 40º, and cut down on tumble drying. Still do use the tumble dryer, so out of 0.25 tonnes I score about 0.15 tonnes
• Energy-saving lightbulbs, of course. There's a couple of fittings where they don't fit so I don't score the full 0.15 tonnes here: 0.1 tonnes
• Avoid canned drinks (aluminium smelting is a massive energy-user apparently). This is tricky cos I like cans of pop, and I like cans of beer. Glass bottles are better apparently, not sure if plastic bottles are OK. But I've been boycotting Coke anyway, so I've definitely cut down on cans to some extent, let's say out of 0.3 tonnes I score 0.15 tonnes
• Avoid leaving things on standby. Bought a really clever device which detects when the telly is off and turns off the set-top box, the DVD player, etc. Score: 0.04 tonnes

Things I can't/won't do:

• Various things that we can't do since we're only renting, e.g. "buy a wood-burning stove" (0.9 tonnes), change the home insulation (0.8 tonnes), change to a more modern boiler.
• Go vegan (1 tonne). No way, sorry. I like vegan food sometimes but that's a lot to ask.
• Get a microwave - no room for one in our flat.

Things I already did:

• Not owning a car (1.5 tonnes). No point having a car anyway if you live in London.

So, out of a possible 8.44 tonnes I score 4.64, or 55%. Not bad, that's a saving of about half an average UK person's CO2 usage apparently, although as a percentage it looks a bit lower than I was hoping. Well, let's hope it's worth it...

Someone has written a very nice popular-science-type article... about me :)

• "Beatboxing with a very different voice"

Our audio-visual installation piece for the Shunt (at London Bridge) is in place and very nice it is too.

Come down today/tomorrow to check it out, if you're in the area.

I decided to make a public archive of my Bibtex file - i.e. almost everything I've read, or not read, in my PhD so far.

This bibliography might be useful to people interested in sound/music technology, vocal timbre, real-time audio processing, etc.

• Browse the HTML version
• Download the raw bib

The general angle of my research topic is summarised on my QMUL homepage

I have a gift voucher for my birthday, thinking of getting a DVD. Anyone recommend me a good film to get? Browsing around I see a few things I might like to see:

• The Last King of Scotland
• Night Watch, I might be getting this confused with a different film though
• Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - the book is amazing, I wonder what the film is like
• Who Killed the Electric Car?
• Grindhouse, I know Dylan and Tai liked this one
• Thank You for Smoking, Robin said this was good

If anyone has any tips, let us know!

In other news, I notice that Hellzapoppin' - my favourite film of all time - is now out on DVD. Yay! Go see it!