Friday, November 23, 2007

TURKEY!!
I must say that this Thanksgiving meal has to rate up there with the best. The turkey was cooked perfectly; juicy, tender, smokey (but not too much). The dark meat was the best.

I'm starting to make Homer Simpson drooling noises just thinking about it.

All of the fixings were also good: real gravy (turkey juices plus flour), dressing, 3 different kinds of potatoes (cheesey bake, mashed, & sweet), salad. The only things missing were the corn, cornbread, and blackeyed peas, but we'll fix them tomorrow.

All I have to say is people around here better watch out tomorrow, because I will fight like a feral animal to secure my share of the leftovers. Normally I wouldn't be worried, but with my uncle and his girlfriend visiting, the stakes have just risen.

I hope everyone else had a good day and as good a dinner.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Blackfield
I hope Mr. "I-hate-Chuck-Norris-Jokes" learned a valubale lesson, assuming he knows his post was deleted by the mods.

I've been listening to a lot of Blackfield lately, and I'm desperatly hoping Best Buy stocks their recent live DVD. I'll order it if I have to, but I hope I don't (have to).

Blackfield is a side-project/collaboration between Steven Wilson (founder, lyricist, vocalist of Porcupine Tree) and Israeli rock musician Aviv Geffen. I'm a big fan of PT and Wilson, so I gravitated toward Blackfield.

PAIN

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Monday, November 19, 2007

Some people are way too serious
From the previous post:
I'm glad I could enlighten Timber and Tsubusa on the awsomeness that is Within Temptation ^^'

And now, to the point of today's post, a comment from SomeGuy's Chakku Norisu Fakutous:
I have had just about enough of this "Chick Norris" BULLSHIT!!!!!! I have heard it so many times it make me sick! Hell, just reading this gave me diabeties!! I'll see you all in Hell for this!!!

Wow... You know, I believe in everyone having the right to voice their opinion, but I also believe in restraint and common sense. This... this is just immature ranting.

Dude, pull that 12 ft. steel rebar from out of your ass, please.

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Short-term Memory?
I can't help but be perplexed tonight by some of the comments for the new Otaku Attraction. Mainly those along the lines of "Within Temptation?? No way!!"

Have people already forgotten the Mermaid Forest/Within Temptation video I sent in for Halloween? They either didn't see it, or forgot really quickly =P

With the last volume of Le Chevalier D'eon coming in December, I might subtly ask Kei if she can pick the D'eon/Within Temptation video I sent in back during the OA's summer hiatus. More people need to know about that series, it is one of the most brilliant pieces of animation I have ever had the privalege to watch.
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Friday, November 16, 2007

Talk about lucky second chances!
As everyone knows (and I have mentioned before), I am a music fiend. I probably spend way more money ordering CDs than I should.

I didn't have a lot left on my card after that bulk order of 10 CDs, but I had enough to get one or two more depending on what I picked. Well, I ended up ordering another CD over the weekend. A few days later, to my utter horror, another CD that I had been waiting months to show up, Vision Divine - The 25th Hour, finally did. VISION DIVINE IS ONE OF MY TOP 5 FAVORITE BANDS! I was faced with the possibility that I may have to wait weeks to purchase it, which would also run the high risk of stock running out before then.

Circumstances lucky beyond all chance intervened, and the CD I had ordered was out of stock, therefore my money was refunded. With my spending capability restored I was able to order Vision Divine.

Why was this worth spazzing over? =P

As I said before, Vision Divine is up near the top of my music list. They play with power, melody, speed, and their vocalist Michele Luppi has possibly the greatest high-range singing voice I have ever heard.

As always, I like finding visual examples to share with you all in order to better illustrate my point, and here is a song from VD's album Stream Of Consciousness (the new album, The 25th Hour, is it's sequel).

LA VITA FUGGE

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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Scatterbrained
My Cthulhu post got no love at all. Bummer...

I was chatting with my dad tonight, about books mostly - I've decided to try reading some of his Tom Clancy, since he has a ton of the guy's novels - and I picked up this book called "Scatterbrained: Trivia Stun Gun - Connecting the World in 486 Mind-Blowing Facts". This is an informative, yet wonderfully funny book, so I think I'll use it for random posting for the forseeable future.
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From the section Latin You Should Know:

Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos - "Whoever owns the land it is theirs up to the sky and down to the depths." The state of Kansas used this law in the 1970s to argue that airlines could not serve liquor when flying over Kansas, a dry state. "Kansas," Attorney General Vern Miller said, "goes all the way all the way up and all the way down." (If that's true, Kansas can lay claim to, and prohibit drinking in, about 82,282 square miles of western China).


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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Calls For Cthulhu
First, a little background...

As I mentioned last time, the core idea of HP Lovecraft's fiction is a pantheon of ancient alien beings, godlike in their power, to whom mankind is little more than an insect they could crunch underfoot (or claw, or hoof, or whatever).

The most well-known of these creatures is Cthulhu (pronounced 'Kuh-thoo-loo'), a reptilian humanoid with wings and a head like an octopus, not to mention the size of a decent skyscraper.

With that introduction out of the way, enjoy this humorous sketch:




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Monday, November 12, 2007

Manga and Music
I went out to the bookstore tonight, originally with the intension of using those two 25%-off coupons I had mentioned in order to get a couple of CDs.

Well, after a run through the manga section first, I ended up changing my mind. I couldn't resist the call of the manga.

What I got:
Godchild #7
Welcome to the NHK #1
Witchblade: Takeru #2
Uzumaki #1
Gyo #1
The Art of Angel Sanctuary (Book 2)

Uzumaki and Gyo caught my eye by chance. They are both by the same author, Junji Ito, and are horror very much in the vein of HP Lovecraft, who is one of my favorite writers. I also bought a collection of his stories.

For those who don't know anything about Lovecraft, he is considered the father of modern horror fiction. He created a mythos of ancient alien gods who are never seen, relying more on teasing the audience into imagining what horrors lie out of their sight.

I like walking out of the bookstore with a haul like that. It's very theraputic =D
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Since several people expressed interest in the Hungarian metal band Age Of Nemesis (whose albums I recently purchased), I was able to find one of their videos.

"Fate's Door" is from the album Psychogeist. It tells the story of a woman who finds her lost son, taken from her by her husband. The child has been subjected to experiments which have turned him into a Psychogeist: someone who can walk outside of their own body. Some desire to use this power as a weapon...




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Sunday, November 11, 2007

Lazy Sunday
But then again, when you're a stay-at-home-out-of-work all the time person (because you're recovering from a serious illness), every day is a Lazy Sunday.

Except some days have better TV shows than others. Sunday isn't one of them.

I've been talking to my dad about possibly seeing a psychiatrist. A couple of years ago I started to suffer from panic/anxiety attacks. It happens mostly in the car while stopped in traffic, or in store lines. I know it's just my mind screwing with me, but things like that are persistent and you can't always rationalize them away no matter how much you want to.

Ever since I started recovering from the infection, these attacks have come back very strong, and it seems they are getting stronger. I end up having the sense that I'm not getting enough air, and I start to freak out.

I'm not surprised by all of this, really. Being born with a serious heart condition, undergoing several operations over the course of my life to keep things working properly, and now the illness... Living so many years closer to the edge of mortality than the average person (and being aware of it every day) is a recipe for some kind of breakdown, I'm sure.
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To adress something from a couple of updates ago...

Darkeangel:
I was talking about the Witchblade anime.
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Friday, November 9, 2007

MUSIC!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Frighteningly, that's just about the exact reaction I have whenever I get CDs in the mail, especially 10 in one box.

I'm sure none of these will be familiar to anyone, but I'll just rattle off what all I bought:
35007 - Sea Of Tranquility
35007 - Liquid
35007 - Phase V
Age Of Nemesis - Psychogeist
Age Of Nemesis - Terra Incognita
Dreamscape - 5th Season
Nemesis - Eden?
Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream
Porcupine Tree - Voyage 34
Sun Caged - Artemisia

35007 (aka LOOSE) is a completely instrumental band, while Nemesis/Age Of Nemesis (they changed the name at some point) is a metal band from Hungary.

That's right, Hungary. Not exactly the place you'd expect killer metal to come from, but they kick some serious butt.

And with a couple of 25%-off coupons for Barnes & Noble in my posession, I'm going out tonight to grab a couple more CDs.

Yes, I am a junkie music fiend. No excuses or appologies =P
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