Monkeying with themes The site might seem a bit bi-polar over the next few days as I test out a few themes and work a little CSS mojo.
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OK, this is a WOW post, so if you don’t WOW, you probably won’t really care. Maybe you will, but probably not.
For a while, Blizzard has been offering paid transfers. A common scenario is that you level up a character, and then you find a real-life-friend and want to move your character rather than spend 120 manhours leveling to 60/70/80 again. So you pay 20 bucks and get the character ported. This makes sense to me.
BUT - unbeknownst to me there has been a rumbling for the ability to switch factions, from Alliance (whom I view are the ‘good guys’) to the Horde (to me - ‘bad guys’). There are roughly equivalent characters on either side - for instance I am a human Paladin (a knight basically, with a little bit of priest of light thrown in). I COULD get a transfer to be a blood elf paladin (the reverse, a knight with powers of … something I guess…).
It seems strange to me to switch factions - ESPECIALLY after going through the leveling process. You learn about the stories of the characters’ race and how they ended up in the war, what they’re really fighting for AND how to play that character. Every race and combo is slightly different in their nuances of getting a toon spec’d out right, and I think it’s weird that this is going to be available - probably because I couldn’t see doing it.
I am sure that there could possibly be “technically” superior hosters than Dreamhos. But I haven’t found many companies (at least hosting wise) that made me go “Oh yeah, I want to give these people my money”.
Perhaps it’s because I’m sarcastically witty by nature, but I was drawn to them for a couple of reasons:
#1 - Their websites are laced with smartassity, as opposed to my last webhost, whom was laced with non-return-your-email-ity.
Take for instance the following hilarious jibs from their site:
Actually, for you, Mr. Legitimate Website Owner, it is unlimited.
This whole page is just to announce to the < .1% of people who want to try and run free porn affiliate sites or anime video trading forums or host pirated rips of The Dark Knight on DreamHost that we're not having any.
#2 - They made me put in a helpdesk ticket to get support This might sound like a problem, but I prefer it. My last company didn’t use tickets for a ton of things and I got lost in the shuffle (except when your shared IP gets blacklisted and you can’t send email to half of the internets… THEN you need a ticket, on a different website, with a non existent login).. AND they (dreamhost) responded within an hour or so.
#3 - They assume you’re going to do something dumb and delete tables out of your wordpress database, so they automatically make a backup (I think nightly). And yes, that’s firsthand knowledge.
#4 - They have a wiki and they’re not afraid to point you to it via a ticket. This might sound cold (again), but I feel much more in control of this host than the last one because there is somewhere to get info.
#5 - One click installs of software (some of which can be ridiculously complex, like gallery, that I’m setting up for this site).
There are a few nitpicky things so far that have been a touch annoying. The first one is that I’ve never NOT had cpanel, unless I was running everything local via shell. So I got stuck in cpanel land. After messing around with the dreamhost panel today, I can actually say I prefer it. The other thing that is slightly annoying is that there are multiple logins for support and their panel. In all, they are WAAAAAAY better than anything else I’ve ever tried before - so go check it out. If you’re interested in starting a website, let me know and I’ll send you a link and you’ll get a kickback.
So, this month has understandably been a little nuts… Sorry for my lack of anything - let alone crappy content at all (at least I didn’t bother your RSS readers with Junk).
I have some stuff coming up, including the project at home that was going to be “super-simple” (My quote, not someone elses) and my golfing experiences yesterday.
But for now, I leave you with the best email spellcheck magling I’ve ever had from tech support, probably ever:
“It looks like this issue is resolved, sorry for the incontinence”
Did anyone else watch American Idol tonight and go WHAAAAAAT?!?!
So, it has been quite a long time since I blogged. 19 days, actually.
It was over two weeks ago (actually the day of the last post) that my wife was not feeling the baby move, so we went into the hospital. No heartbeat. It was agonizing, and still is.
I am hesitant to even post about it, because it’s so fricken’ depressing and frustrating.
But there were jewels of ironic pain-in-the-ass that came along with everything we went through. I have fondly spoken of my previous hosting company, Total Choice Hosting. However, they have made some kind of change lately, probably since the first of this year. My website had slowly but surely slowed down. My spam numbers continued to rise. We eclipsed disk quota because of an upload, which made the website crash, instead of just charging me more as had happened at a previous host. All of these issues were going to be dealt with, but were not.
Then, the straw that broke the camel’s back came when we were in the hospital trying to notify people what was up. EK has a list of about a gajillion people, and they have a standard rule - no more than 100 people per hour. Cool, whatever. It’s annoying but not that bad. THEN I started to read some of the error messages people were getting - They said my server was blacklisted.
Hot.
So, I reported the blacklisting of matra.tchmachines.com to the company. Waited days. Still no action. Then I saw a friend’s blog had a discount for hosting at dreamhost and just moved it. So, hence a gap.
More later
My kids are constantly cracking me up. First on deck, is my younger dude Little-M who just turned 3 recently.
 MMMMM. Coarse Peppercorn + Kosher Salt + Frosted Miniwheat = Awesomeness (Click for bigger) He came into our bedroom the other morning and said: “I made breakfast! It’s good! I got miniwheatses!”
I said “Sweet! Good job buddy!”.
I then proceeded to get along with my daily duties and started going again with what-have-you and then heard him sound like he was hacking up a lung. I walked into the kitchen and I see some of the preparations he has added to supply some “BAM” to his frosted mini wheats.
 The Egg Hunt Commences (Click for Bigger) Also added to the breakfast entourage of SPiniwheat was a hardboiled egg - which in theory he or the dog ate because there was nothing left but shell scraps.
Then there was Little-J’s screaming the other day:
“NO! NO! Stop touching my Horseship! Stop it! Stop touching my Horseship!!!”
 HorseShip - Say it out loud! At Church even! (click for bigger) This was, of course followed by him coming to find me (I happened to be in the garage heading in to break up the Luchadore fight) and telling me I needed to deal some of that harsh daddy discipline because his brother was “super mean”. My big concern (which I expressed in a much higher than normal decibel, I must say) was having him tell me exactly what he was talking about. It was in fact exactly what he was saying. A Horse Ship… Made of legos. Just for giggles, you should really try saying this one out loud in public - or not.
Since I’m the “Wireless Dude” at work, I get the fortune of testing out several different types of wireless cards throughout the year. One has really stood out through last year and this year as an amazingly stable card. That card is the Option GT Max wireless card. The data rates on this thing are SMOKING FAST. I had forgotten how fast it was until I had loaned it out (I don’t have a specific card assigned to “me” at work - so it’s in the pool of loaners). I was staggered at how much faster it was than everything else (I had gotten used to it). Here is load times I experienced and download times I had with it:
 ATT Option GT Ultra 10 MB MP3 file from radiou freebie:
Option GT: 2.2 Minutes (stationary)
Sierra 881: 4.6 Minutes (stationary)
Verizon UM175: 3.9 Minutes (stationary)
Option GT: 7.0 Minutes (Mobile along i-25 corridor South)
Sierra 881: Didn’t complete.
Verizon UM175: Didn’t complete.
I also like the killer antenna. It’s got a dipole (I think) folding little antenna that slides into the card unit itself. Prior to getting the card I read a bunch of people complaining that pushing it in and letting it shoot out would make it fly off. I’ve never experienced this but I still kinda put a little pressure on it just in case.
The other thing that amazes me about this card is that it never “loses” connection when it swaps between 2g and 3G while mobile. Every other card dies. So using this card I can / could easily play WOW on the bus. The other staggering thing is that (shhh don’t tell anyone) I don’t think they throttle connections through the connection manager software. So, while I really think the ATT “I’ve found the internet” commercials are annoying, they are truthful - the issue the royal smackdown to anything I’ve tested.
So, like a couple of you I’m on practically every single PWG record labels email list. So I first heard of Children 18:3 from Tooth and Nail (I think) from an ecard saying their freshman album had arrived.
Can we be honest?
Ok - come closely so I only have to whisper this - I didn’t listen to the e-card because their lead singer looked like a total knockoff of Alice Cooper.
Yes, I was judgmental, I admit it.
 Children 18:3 - Self Titled But then I heard their song “Homemade Valentines” on the U, and was intrigued. So I checked out the album. And the lesson I learned?
Never Judge a book by it’s “Scary-Mascara-eyed-I-Wish-I-Was-Alice-Cooper” cover. They are a really diverse sounding group and I highly recommend their album sheerly for their wide styles shown in the album. The lead singer can sing fairly well, and the chick in the group can sing really well too. I would say based on any individual album that the music playing was about average - but when you take into the amount of different styles on the CD it makes their playing style seem better to me.
I haven’t ever heard an album where I could swear the songs (with ever so slightly different voices) could have been from: The Ramones (Lcm), Barlow Girl (Search Warrant), and Five Iron Frenzy -sans horns - (Even Sleeping), and Nirvana (Samantha). Artisitically this album is fun, fast and a bit witty. I definitely recommend it if you can get it for 9 bucks or less.
But, there are a few critiques I have about the album - but just a few. I’m pretty sure it’s a production issue, but I really couldn’t appreciate the album until it was headphoned - it’s a bit washed out sounding (at least the version I bought). Also, this is more of a “me” thing, but I wished that the songs were a little bit longer. They are almost all really well written, and per the punk genre songs are kinda short - BUT - these guys are so dynamic I bet we will see longer songs as they go on.
Over all 4.5 of 5.
OK, in the past, this blog has basically been a little fundy-pundy and I decided politics makes me mad and unhappy. So I very infrequently talk about it unless something big and huge is coming up.
Well, I have been hearing about H.R. 669 for about 3-4 weeks now and debating whether or not it’s a big enough deal to talk about. I just got 3 emails from Petsmart, Petco, and Drs Foster Smith about it - so if they’re worried about it, I am.
I sat down and I thought about H.R. 669 for a few minutes and how it would affect me. It would impact me dualfold: Number 1 - I have tropical freshwater fish and have for a few years. And I have bearded dragons. These are “non-native” species. Per this ridiculous bill, I would have to give them to the ASPCA, who would kill them (more or less). There is no verbage to include breeder stock into it as an exclusion. As well, it will take billions of dollars out of the economy. For instance - in the last 5 years I KNOW I have spent more than 2 grand on tank stuff for my fish and beardies.
Then, I thought about YOU, my readers. I know I have a parrot owner. That’s “non-native” - so say goodbye to Dusty. I know I have a turtle owner - say goodbye to Morris. I know that I have a schoolteacher who occasionally reads my blogs from links I have made on the beardie yahoo group I’m on. They have a school room beardie named Shemmy - see ya Shemmy. And I’m sure there are more lurkers out there who have animals that are “non-natives” that would screw things up. Just in case you don’t know what is non-native:
- Most birds except finches.
- Most freshwater fish except goldfish - which IRONICALLY are filthy and screw up watersheds all the time when Pakistani families release them into streams on some Islamic or Sikh holiday.
- Most mammals excluding cats and dogs and feedstock (almost all of which were at one time non-native might I add).
Including but not limited to:
- Gerbils
- Chinchillas
- Ferrets
- Guinea Pigs
- Domestic Pigs
- Sugar Gliders
Almost every fricken’ reptile that is cool including but not limited to:
Iguanas - Both Arboreal and Water
Beardies (bearded dragons) - which are already illegal to export from Australia…
Frilled Dragons (The creepy ones that puff out like the dinos on Jurassic Park) - Also illegal exports - all come from breeders in US
Almost every cool snake - venomous or poisonous or NOT that doesn’t exist in the county naturally
I could go on and on. Just go search H.R. 669 and you’ll see what I’m talking about. It’s stupid, unenforcable, and will make normal people keep ‘illegal’ pets. I go on record saying there is no way I will give up my beardie or fish with it being not my choosing. EVER.
So - what could owners do - PAY A FEE - to submit information about the pets we already have - have a bureaucrat decide whether or not it causes a plague in the whole entirety of the us - and when it comes back yes - because that is true of almost any pet in the entirety of the U.S. - surrender our pets.
Here is the final rub - guess where this bill comes from - Someone in GUAM! Guam - a territory not a state.
Here is Guam:
 Da da da da daaaah... It's Guam. It’s almost 6000 miles from the US separated by almost the entirety of the Pacific Ocean from US shores in California. They have serious problems with fish and lizard infestations there. I get it. But THIS BILL needs to be for Guam. Not the continental US. Which is seen on the top left HERE (just in case you’re geography-tarded):
 World Relief Map - we're on the top left... Wanna help me stop this bill? Go HERE. Please. If you won’t do it for me, do it for the millions of school kids (and adults for that matter) who will lose their pets because of a really crappy bill.
I am desperately looking for the weather forecast I just saw from Fox 31 here in Denver. The forecaster dude’s name was Chris Dunn. It was SO hilarious. The guy who gave the weather just referred to a storm due to arrive here in Denver as “A big juicy storm”. Which made me chuckle.
THEN he went on to say at the end of the show that it was a storm that is going to have a “Juicy Dump of snow”
Juicy Dump!!! Bwahahahaha.
Update - I figured out where they have the forecast: Right here. But it’s the one from 5. Maybe they’ll skip the 9 O’clock one. I’m stalking the website to see if it goes live
Update Again - Stalking pays off. Here is the video in it’s juicy dump glory.
Firstly, let me state the following: THE BLACKBERRY STORM DOES NOT COMPETE WITH THE IPHONE. Sorta.
OK, now that is out of the way. This is just MY review on the differences between the VZW 8830 and the 9530 (Storm). Overall, there are a lot of really cool features with the Storm. A LOT. And there are a lot of really annoying features about the Storm. A LOT. The first is an unbelieveable bug - if you happen to be a phone to face masher (as I am) the mute button gets turned on. YOU CAN’T TURN IT OFF WITHOUT HITTING THE BLACKBERRY BUTTON!!!! ARRRRGH!! As far as showstopper bugs, that’s the only one I’ve seen in the 3 weeks I’ve had this sucker.
The mail GUI has had major revisions, mostly to the benefit of the end user. Though, I did end up downloading an external theme to speed up the device a bit. The gestures (move up/down, left/right, zoom) work OK, but that’s about it. There are also major problems with the default browser, but most people say it’s better than Safari at rendering (ok,ok,ok I said I wouldn’t compare - sorry). I am also curious about the accelerometer on this thing. If it is not a nearly no-z-axis rotation (I.E. the phone is at an angle because of sun or hand placement or something) it doesn’t rotate and you have to do it again. Not having and iPhone I don’t know if this is an “accelerometer phone” thing or just a “Storm” thing.
Major pitfall / benefit - suretype clicky typing and Qwerty clicky typing. This has been and continues to be a huge issue for me. I was a “touch” typist on a blackberry with all models I have used (starting with the crappy soap bar version from cingular in 2000 - it’s ingrained in my brain). So the clicking in on the screen causes me to take much much much MUCH longer to type emails. However, it is not so annoying that I would be willing to can the phone on that sole issue. My wife - who is is almost touch proficient thinks it’s OK. My grandma - who is a hunt-n-peck typist loves it. I think this is a bridge the gap measure to the lowest common denominator of typist - not sure if it was a smart move or not for RIM.
APPS - One major benefit over iPhone (OK, screw it - I’m comparing now) is that you can run multiple apps. I can run Slacker, browser, email, and test all at the same time (or have them all running concurrently that is). Which is HOT when you’re on the bus or working out or something. The app store is really sad compared to the iTunes app store that is for sure (But, hey, at least there is a shotgun app!).
Email - Email management is SO MUCH BETTER on this blackberry than using the scroll wheel or pearl. Like eons better. There are a bunch of cool features, like pressing on / hovering on an email and pulling up the whole chain (I can’t even do that in Lotus Notes!). Marking previously read is at least 1000% faster. This figure isn’t an exageration either - I will routinely mark 300-700 emails read. On older versions of the software there were 1-5 minute delays doing this. On the Storm it takes no more than 5 seconds. And this is across two email boxes also. You can mark and / or delete emails using just your fingers also.
Audio and Video - Quality is pretty decent. This is where the iphone singlehandedly destroys the Storm. I am an IT professional. And I have a hard time getting stuff loaded into and out of the Storm. Someone technotarded wouldn’t have a hope unless they were really motivated. This is why this phone can’t be compared to the iPhone in a lot of respects. Email sucks on the iPhone (more or less) and music sucks on the Storm (more or less).
In all - I’m getting pretty used to this thing. I think it would be really hard to go back to a qwerty clicky keyboard at this point. If for nothing else than being able to really use this thing to surf the web without having to mess with the pearl.
 Falling Up - Fangs So, this album piqued my curiosity quite a bit. When I was able to pick it up it was clearly the direction that the band has been heading in since they released Exit Lights. Ambient and techno mixes with a guitar driven beat.
But the whole themed album thing kinda threw me for a loop. Mostly I think it is pretty much well crafted musically. There are hardly any songs that I can imagine hearing on the radio since they all kinda depend on each other. But here is what I don’t get - What the crap is this album about? I very seriously contemplated it lyrically and it is like I’m trying to figure out an Anberlin album on crack or something. Grammatically it makes sense - but that’s about it.
So I searched the album’s reviews online and here is what I’ve come up with:
Radiou:
“It’s an album about Humans and Insects fighting a common enemy.”
JFH:
“Once, in a land similar to ours, the people discovered that their children wore poisoned cloth, destined to kill them. So, the people tied all the threads together, attached them to a thousand golden arrows, and launched these arrows towards the faraway planet Neptuenn. Then, thousands of years later, the people of the city were horrified to awake one day and find all of their children had been struck by giant arrows. One thing lead to another, and a traveler was sent to Neptuenn to find out who was responsible for this tragedy. This is the premise of Fangs. ”
Indievision:
I remember listening to Jesse say one time that he thought making an album was similar to plotting out a score to a movie, with these grand thoughts of imagery and picturesque panoramas (major paraphrase, not a quote).
MusiChristian:
“Falling Up returns with their 4th full length album, Fangs, a mystical concept record telling a story of hope. Years in the works, Falling Up has brought to life a lush musical journey that began as story penned by lead singer Jessy Ribordy. Heros & villains, good and evil, trials and tribulation.”
Christianity Today:
“Fangs brings together two loves of Falling Up’s lead singer Jessy C. Ribordy: screenwriting and music. The entire album is based off of his yet to be picked-up screenplay. ‘It’s a story about a hero traveling another planet as an ambassador,” says Ribordy. “We get to see the world in front of him through his eyes.’”
CCMagazine:
“Think slight shades of Coheed and Cambria here in terms of weight and concept. Of course, the Falling Up foursome doesn’t take it to such epic or progressive levels, but songs (and titles) like “Lotus and the Langourous” and “Goddess of the Dayspring, Am I” certainly warrant such comparisons. The former is the album’s linchpin, an early synth-driven sign that Falling Up is rewriting its future.”
Thechristianmanifesto (snagged from Fallingup’s facebook page):
“This album is hardly an overtly religious album. It does not go and swing its faith wildly at you. Yet below the surface, it does have some strong religious undertones. “The Kings Garden” is a good example of on of the more profoundly religious songs, even if it is subtle as well. It is very much an album with strong overtones if you open your soul to it.”
So, overall - if you like the recent Falling Up albums you will love this album. If you are a fan of albums like Crashings and Dawn Escapes - be warned that this album is thought provoking - not backflip provoking. It is amazing how well it flows from song to song. My Favorites so far are:
- ‘Goddess of the Dayspring, Am I’ - I could totally see this being an aerial chase scene.
- ‘Magician Reversed’ - Maybe not true if I understood the whole album’s intent - but this is the most thought provoking song for me. The Queen (or someone) is talking to the King about going to war
- ‘Lotus and the Langorous’ - Wins the award for the coolest sounding song on the album. Lyrically it sounds like spam poetry in parts, but the music is AWESOME
I figured I would listen to this a few times and be done with it - much like I did with Crashings. But this album grows on you. It is mellow enough to listen to and have it not be distracting at work or when you’re driving and trying to pay attention to someone/thing else. As well, if there is a screenplay attached to this I CAN’T WAIT to see it. This music would fit it perfectly. As far as themed albums this ranks up in the top fifth with Art of Chill 2 and Music Inspired by Middle Earth (which, dare I say, was probably better than the score of the original movie!). If you are remotely into electronic music or falling Up you should at least check out this album.
So, I am totally curious how Falling Up’s newest album that came out today entatled “FANGS” will do. I was listening to the radio today at work and they had a quote from Jessey Ribordy (the leader / frontman of the group) saying it was a theme album about insects and people fighting a common enemy.
Now - this is not an album review or critique at all, because I don’t have the album (yet). This is basically because I blew up my fun-money budget this week while I pseudo-nuked my wife’s brithday by getting food poisoning (more on this later - maybe). However, I did the amazon “sample all” on the album. I’m intrigued by the album because it seems a little different (like all falling Up albums do), but there aren’t as many pianos noticable - maybe this is just a “this album” thing.
Anyhow - While lyrically Falling Up is sometimes a bit poetic and vagueish, this album is definitely fantasy with a couple off songs with lyrics about “to the goddess” and made up places.
My open dialogue question is this: If someone is a “Christian” artist - is it OK if they release an album with lyrics like this? I’m totally on the fence on this one. I’m leaning towards a “yes” vote on this, but I don’t know. There isn’t (from what I’ve heard on 30 second clips) a huge anti-God theme at all. But there isn’t a hugely pro-God theme either.
OK, so I have really really really tried to tone down politics on my blog, but I am really struggling with what Hillary Clinton made in statements to Mexican President Calderon today:
- “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade.
Hmm. OK. I agree. Stupidly simplistic explanation, but I agree.
- “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians. I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility.”
Hmm. I don’t know that I agree 100%. Maybe 40%. Or 38%. I’m going to kinda blame Mexico TOO. They also have boarder guards.
- “Clearly, what we have been doing has not worked and it is unfair for our incapacity… to be creating a situation where people are holding the Mexican government and people responsible,”
I agree with the first statement. We HAVE been doing what has not worked. It is unfair for our incapacity to secure OUR side of the border. However why is it SOOOOOO crazy to believe that people should ***GASP*** hold the government of a country responsible for terrorists / cartels / evildoers in their country responsible?
Seriously?!?! We gotta fix the problem, and I think we’re taking some steps. Giving them blackhawks, etc. That is cool. I support that. But making a statement that WE are responsible is ridiculous. That’s like saying that I (PKil) am responsible for my neighbors getting foreclosed on. It’s nonsensical.
So, Connor mentioned that the new U2 album was available for 4 bucks on Amazon the day it came out. Seeing the opportunity to download it I immediately took it. And I have to say that it’s a tremendously great album.
So here is the background about me and U2. I have always been a fan of U2, but it stopped there. I’ve never been a fanboy, learning birthdays, backgrounds, etc. Of course I know the cursory stuff about Bono and The Edge (who doesn’t) but it basically stopped there for me.
So overall, I would say that if you remotely like U2 I would buy this album. I wouldn’t say that about their last album, but definitely do about this one. Were the choice between RED’s new album or this one, RED would win. If you like U2, you will like this album.
Here are my track by track thoughts about this album:
- ‘No Line on the Horizon’ - This song initially irritated me when I first started listening to the CD. Now that I’ve heard it a few times, I dig it a little more. No friggen’ clue what the song is about though
- ‘Magnificent’ - What a GREAT song. I will not delve into the spiritual meanings of this song - it’s been talked about 32.8 million times on other blogs. I just really really really like this song. The riff near the end of the song makes it one of my top 5 U2 songs ever.
- ‘Moment of Surrender’ - I liked this song quite a bit, airy and open sounding. A great and classic Edge riff in the song elevates it to one of my favorites of the album. Initially I thought this was a song about faith. Someone said on songmeanings.com (caveat emptor on that site) that they thought it could be about heroin. I could see either one.
- ‘Unknown Caller’ - I love the riff at the end of the songs but not the weird sounding radiohead-esque stop-speak-stop. Song meaning - a true reastart - at least how I interperet the words.
- ‘I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t go Crazy Tonight’ - I love the lyrics in the song. I can’t tell if it’s about politics or a journey - either way, I love some of the quotes in the song: “Every Beauty needs to go out with an idiot” and “It’s not a hill it’s a mountain when you start out the climb”.
- ‘Get on Your Boots’ - This song is what makes Bono, well, Bono. I think that it’s cool that U2 can have a song about praising God (#2 - Magnificent) and then a song saying “You are hot, I want you to put on sexy boots”. I think if the PWG would be less ‘asshat-legalistic’ you’d find more people making songs of Magnificent’s caliber. Just a thought. This song is fun, but the “let me in the sound” part bugs me - not sure why…
- ‘Stand Up Comedy’ - I can’t tell if this is a song about Bono to Bono or to America. I pretty much like this song. Especially the line “Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady”.
- FEZ-Being Born - This song is just weird. I usually skip it. Maybe if I backmask it will tell me to go eat brains or something
- White As Snow - This song totally sounds like a hymn to me. Good oldschool hymn, Bono Styled
- Breathe - I like this song for the cool cello in it. However, I have one majorly major annoyance with it. I can’t tell if the song is supposed to be referencing true faith versus fake faith or what, but it seems like there are two drummers. They are not in sync. Lyrcially related to the song that would kinda make sense, but headphoned this song is kinda a mess.
- Cedars of Lebanon - This song has the S-word in it! OMGosh!?!?! In all seriousness I think it’s about a soldier or reporter in the middle east. It’s kinda a bummer way to end the album though.
-
So, as I’m now at the end of the took-way-too-long Alpha-bet, I’m wondering what I should do next with my music collection. Anyone have any ideas?
EK threw out the suggestion to not sort by Artist Name, but to sort by Song Name. Now that I think about it - this may actually be more random.
Alternatively I could just rock it on random for a few weeks.
“The Alphabet’s not pinin! It’s passed on! It Has ceased. ” - John Cleese
So, I am done with the Alpha-Bet. It originally started out as a gentleman’s bet last year. While I took a few weeks off here and there, I mainly stuck it out since July 10, 2008. I handily destroyed my boss is persevering through weird mixes and strange segues into music. I think he bailed out around G or H.
One “Z” Artists I totally forgot about that was somewhat helpful this week was Zig Ziglar. What is funny is that I have mostly nuked out all self help / motivational stuff that I’ve collected over the year because a lot of it just seems hollow and self aggrandizing (Tony Robbins, Robert Kyosaki, ETC). Just my take on it. I kept Zig because it’s about being a better person through a better attitude - not by doing something different but by making better decisions in your head. I am also pretty sure he believes in Christ - so I think that is why it really helps his message get across.
And Yanni. In very select situations I enjoy Yanni. However - the rules were stated as such:
I can’t fast forward or skip songs. I can pause to use the phone, go to the bathroom, and go home [I will not torture my wife with this]. I must leave it on random, with normal random settings. I can add new music. I will listen to a letter per week.
So - I enjoyed me some Yanni this week. And (mainly) I got annoyed by Yanni. I almost nuked it to not hear it again but ended up keeping it.
OK, I’m getting mighty pissed off at the Obama administration AND the fricken’ press. I, by no means, consider myself the most informed person in the world. But why is it that I can hear 85 things about Josef Fritzl and not hear anything about OUR COUNTRY’S NEIGHBORS - MEXICO???.
Tijuana has had 360 murders THIS YEAR.
January.
February.
March.
New York (10 times the size of TJ at least - maybe 15 times the size) had less than 500 in all of last year. The “Big” murder city last year was Chicago - with like 800 murders.
If nothing changes - Tijuana will have at least 1400 murders this year. With a population of 1.5 million people. For comparison - Denver - were it to have 1.5 million people - would have 126 murders last year (it had 62 with a population of 500,000ish).
There are gunfights in the middle of the street. People are getting beheaded. People are getting gunned down in the street.
So here is what I don’t understand. While I think the whole AIG 150 million thing is crap, and I’m not pro ignoring other things in the world, why can’t we station a couple thousand troops in TJ? It’s 25 miles from San Diego.
25!!!! IF there were 360 murders in Downtown Denver, and I, living in Parker, CO could do something about it - I would. Because it’s 25 miles away!
It’s not Pakistan. It’s not Iraq. It’s not Beijing. It’s not the Kremlin. It’s not Paris.
And I think that’s probably why we’re not doing it - which is ridiculous at best and super sad at the worst. It’s time for America to be the good Samaritan and step in. Yes, TJ is a gross city and needs some work. But that’s what it’s like to be said Good Samaritan.
So, last weeks Alpha-Bet was the letters WX. But, really, they were the letter W with the band X-Treme (a cheezyish coverband worship group from a friend’s church. Random minutia - Xtreme (without the dash) is a skanky Italian rapper.
Anyhow, last week’s Alpha-Bet basically consisted of this:
Willie Nelson, Will Smith, Watermark.
iTunes seemed kinda to me this last week - not as frenetically bi-polar as was “various artists and oh yeah, w” the week previous. I did thin out an album by Waterdeep that I’ve been holding onto for a while. They’re just so whiny.
Oh yeah, I really forgot how all of Will Smith’s non-popular songs were lyrically very dirty. But, I still kept them 
This week’s Alpha-Bet is going to be very weird. ‘YZ#’ Will finish out the Alphabet. Including Yannie, Yngwie Malmsteen, 4Him and 98 Degrees, I’m sure I’ll get at least a few chuckles from weird transitions this week.
UVW last week was good and annoying. I should have left U along and just had a “various artists” playlists in all actuality.
I actually decided to modify THIS week’s alphabet playlist to be WX, since I think I heard MAYBE 10 W artist songs last week.
Various artists were very very various. From random crap christmas stuff to best of the 80’s. It was funny to have a crazy mix from Bob and Larry’s Sunday hits (which cddb classified as “various artists”) roll into meatloaf. The again most of the Alpha-Bet has been a bit weird like that.
I broke the rules a little bit and listened to U2’s new album No Line On the Horizon a few times. I have an album review forthcoming soon on that. This week should be interesting since there is a much smaller selection of artists.
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