It’s not true, obviously, none of my senses, even the comedic ones have improved.

Though I do find my tolerance for awful music has increased.

On the subject of good music however I am able to explain why Friday’s comic is appearing on a Saturday…

…I’ve been using the bank holiday weekend to animate a video for Britt Savage, and her band mates, Twang Deluxe… it’s for the song, ‘fingerprints’.

It’s been a tough process that’s taken me several months. I mean animating isn’t exactly a fast sport at the best of times, but for some reason I would get half way through the song and decide it wasn’t working… this happened three times.

In fact, it’s taken so long that I think Britt had given up on it ever appearing.

So what I’ve ended up with is the fourth incarnation… and I spent all of yesterday working on it start to finish.

I figured that something was better than nothing and that if things kept going the way they were, I could end up producing nothing.

And now, after many, many hours without sleep I sit here waiting for her to reply to my email saying that it’s OK… I can’t tell anymore, I can hardly see to be honest.

If it gets the thumbs up, I’ll bring it in to show you tomorrow… for now, however, I can show you some screen shots:

I know that I’m often a cynic when it comes to technology, and in general the more low-tech something is the better the relationship I’m going to have with it.

If it came down to it, I’d choose my backgammon board over my DS, my books over my television and my pens and paper over photoshop (actually, I use GIMP, but I didn’t want to explain and I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea).

But, I have to say that as far as music goes, mp3 players are one of those rare leaps in technology that doesn’t result in an awkward fall and a broken ankle.

I love the fact you can carry an entire library of music without causing yourself injury. I love the fact that you can add a soundtrack to mundane events such as traveling on the bus…

Better than that though, and far more subtle, is the fact that it is helping to make the world a slightly fairer place.

Think about it… more people now walk around with things plugged in their ears that mean they can’t hear quite as well as normal… sure, at fist, this results in a few accidents, but if the trend continues our instinct will be to change our environment to compensate…

… our cues will be much more visual… which should make it easier for those of us with impaired hearing.

And that’s how you listening can help people that can’t.

I recently killed my smoke alarm.

It was a horrible misunderstanding.

I had put some washing on – the machine is in the kitchen. The washing machine had been playing up regularly with all manner of problems, so when it started beeping I thought it was alerting me to another fault.

So, I turned it off. The bleeping continued.

Something must be really wrong I thought, perhaps I had better turn it off at the socket. The socket, as it happens is behind the washing machine, which is boxed in under a counter.

Half an hour of strenuous activity later and the washing machine was in the middle of my kitchen floor and I could crawl behind it to turn off the switch at the socket.  The beeping continued.

I need you to understand, my hearing isn’t that great at the moment, it’s my only defence.

I made my way around the kitchen, trying to find the source of the noise. I would walk some way and it would get quieter, then I’d walk another way and it would get louder, then quieter again.

It took me another half an hour before I looked up to see the smoke detector.

Turns out, the battery had run down and with it’s last bit of energy it tried to alert me to the fact that it was no longer looking after my best interests. I unhooked the dying battery and the beeping stopped.

I know that doesn’t really count as killing it… but there’s more.

There’s a bump in the floor, underneath the cabinet where the washing machine goes and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get the machine to go back in its box. I tried everything – taking a run up, lifting it, using a pivot, even rocking it – nothing would work.

It was whilst doing this that my wrist broke.

I lost my temper, picked up a nearby broom and beat the smoke alarm until it fell to the ground. I know it wasn’t it’s fault, and it certainly didn’t make my wrist feel any better,  but that’s what you get for trying to save me from a fiery hell.

Three months of having an almost unusable kitchen later and I finally got the washing machine back in place. I thought I’d just give it a shove one day and in it popped, no effort needed.

I thought about the smoke alarm.

Just to clarify, I’m still ‘going deaf’, as opposed to ‘being deaf’. That leaves me with a conundrum – I love listening to music, whether I’m at home sat by my computer or going to see bands play live – but could this be what is causing my hearing loss?

So, I could stop listening to music but still be able to hear it, or I could try and cram in as much as possible before I lose it all together.

I suppose what I’m asking is, ‘If you knew that you were losing your ability to hear music, would you be able to stop listening to it or would you carry on – in which case what would be the last thing you would listen too?’

In other news: I’ve just moved over the RSS feed through Feedburner… If you’re a regular RSS subscriber, you should notice very little difference, but if you are having problems, please get in contact and let me know either via a comment or email. Thanks :¬)