Yes, that title did take me about three seconds to think of, and it only works when you pronounce Dvorak as Vorr-shark (with the sh in shark much like that character in Russian- you know the one)...

I am starting, or have started a week-or-so ago, to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout. It certainly is not coming easily and the F key is still catching me out! I am still cheating on most password entries- not being able to see what I'm typing scares me at the moment! Oh and on things like MSN when I need to say something, but I'll just get frustrated because I can't type!

Also- new Family Guy season out- w00t!

As I write this, I am listening to: Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (Oistrakh, USSR RTV Large Symphony Orchestra, Rozhdestvensky)

I've been looking into getting yet another mail client. I never seem to be happy with the ones I come across these days. I've gone from Outlook to Sylpheed-Claws to Evolution to (currently looking). Here are a few that have taken my fancy:

• mutt: This is a well-known ncurses client. Read its homepage for more. The only downside I can see in it for me is the requirement to set up an MTA on the computer, which I don't really want to be attached to..
• elmo: This must be a fork of mutt from some point. Its main advantage is the disadvantage of mutt- it doesn't require a MTA on the same computer and can connect to a remote SMTP server.
• pine: Actually, yet to checkout..

You may have noticed the console-basedness of these clients. Yes, I like the console and if I had a ncurses mail client then I could get my MSN, IRC (both run through irssi and screen of course, and bitlbee for MSN) and email all from SSH anywhere. That is, unless the following events occur (this only applies to IRC and probably email if I do run it from home, as MSN is run elsewhere):

1. Mum switches on the iron and presses the wrong button
2. The trip-switch is flicked (is that the correct verb?!) and the power goes off. Of course it is switched back on pronto but the server is now down
3. Either: the server isn't switched back on and therefore I can't connect to it obviously, or the server is switched back on but the no-ip dynamic update client doesn't load (I should really fix this instead of blogging about it, especially as it's so easy to fix!) and therefore I don't know the IP address..

As I write this, I am listening to: Adagio, Underworld

After a hectic number of days, I have returned.

Pro Corda was fun and seeing everyone was great once again. Musically it was alright. The Dvorak went quite well and we played the second movement in the Cream Tea concert on the penultimate day, and the finale in the concert on the last day. The Bargiel turned out to be a bit of joke and no-one else knew it at all so our coach (Jan Schulmeister, second violin in The Wihan String Quartet) cut almost half of it out- shame. In orchestra we played the Death and the Maiden which was good, but would have been more successful if there were only four players. Enough of Pro Corda.

I also just returned today from Devon where I stayed with my grandparents. There is not much to report from this journey apart from that he is kindly going to start making me a Viola. I am already playing on both violin and viola made by Peter Lamb, but the viola is a very early (number 4- he has just completed number 23) and certainly is not as good as his later instruments. I had a go on number 14, which is a viola that was originally in a pair made for Herbert Downes, and this was a very nice instrument.

School starts tomorrow.

As I write this, I am listening to: Haydn: String Quartet in D «The Lark», Op. 64 No. 5 (Aeolian Quartet)