I don't blog much. When I do, it's usually trivial in nature.

• 18Jun 09

  Rock Band, Tears, Music, and Warhammer stuffs

  So I got the 360 with Re5, Rock Band, Virtua Fighter 5, etc. on saturday. My RE5 disc isn't working(hasn't ever, so far), so I'm going to return that disc, and get a replacement one, but aside from that it's been great. I've been slowly improving in VF5, taking turns between my regular Pai, and a side character in El Blaze. I'm still pretty slow in my timing, but I'll get better at it.

  Rock band though....man. I've played that so much. To the point where I've worked from easy drums up to hard, which I think is pretty decent. I did find out that in tour mode, if you get too many fans, you get locked out of certain difficulties, and we(a bunch of freinds and I) had to do a huge monstrously difficult setlist on hard mode (culminating in Colony of Birchmen, and Boddhisatva) which ruined us. luckily I had a buddy take over for me on drums for most of that setlist as I was out of my league as it went on. It kinda of sucked because a few of them weren't good enough at the game yet to do hard mode on anything, so they were stuck watching. So, note to self: fail a bunch of tour mode before bringing it to a friend's place.

  I got some new music too: Veckatimest(Grizzly Bear), Mezzanine(Massive Attack) and Arrivals(worriedaboutsatan). All very great CDs. I was surprised about the delivery time on Arrivals, because there was only 2 or 3 days between me ordering it and getting it in the mail...which is amazing since I ordered it from the UK.

  I play Warhammer, I have a witch hunters army. I won't pretend to be really good, and my force is rather limited to infantry(I have no tanks, ordinance, or honestly anything with a blast template except an orbital strike), yet I've somehow(through massive luck) wound up winning 5 games straight. I keep waiting to lose, but I don't, somehow. In one on one gaes, I lose, but lately it's just been team battles and 4-way free for alls. Everyone seems to avoid attacking me for some odd reason :S No one considers me a threat until we pull out the scorecards at the end of the round(or in some cases, until they realize my army is still intact and everyone else's in in shambles). I'm sure they'll come around, and when they do I'll have to adapt somehow. I honestly think it's kind of funny.

  ...and finally, tears. Indie made a rad new blog and I'mma follow suit on it. I'm not going to lie and say a lot of things make me cry, because that's not true. I have opened up a lot emotionally over the past few years though, and within that frame of time(and a select few outside it) there are are number of events that have had my eyes welling with tears.

  Movies:

  
  The Fountain

  This movie was impeccably touching and sad, and actually reversed my opinion on Hugh Jackman's acting abilities. I won't spoil it for anyone, but to be brutally honest I couldn't watch this in one go, it was just far too much(although what I did, in spreading it across two days, had me randomly tearing up at work because it was all fresh in my mind). It's rare to find a relationship so real and concentrated with love, and it's an absolutely riveting movie to watch that had me weeping from about 10 minutes in. A story about life, death, and bridge between the two. A magnificently beautiful movie that shot perfectly and has perfect accompanying music that upon hearing, gets my eyes welling up again. If there's truly one thing this movie did for me, it was re-establish my take on death. There are tears of joy and tears of sadness in this movie, and if you've seen this, I'm sure you'll understand which scenes fall into which category.

  Music:

  There's been plenty of music that's drained me dry over the years, but I'll list a few here(not in order of tearjerkery).

  Tom Waits: "Anywhere I Lay my Head"

  The sheer honesty in the vocals, combined with the backing horns and such, just tear my heart strings out and restring them on their basses.

  Regina Spektor: "Samson"

  It's actually a pretty basic love song, detailing an old story, but there's just this aura of honesty about the song, and that little bit of urgency/desperation in her voice near the end just seals the deal.

  Explosions in the Sky: "Your Hand In Mine"

  Self explanatory if you've ever heard the song. It's too beautiful. I heard it live and I couldn't consciously do anything for the entire duration, except leak from my eyes.

  Radiohead: "Motion Picture Soundtrack"

  This song was my lullaby at night for a year when things weren't going all that well in high school. It still resonates to this day, with hope and its heavenly soothing sounds.

  Eluvium: "Underwater It Glowed"

  Another song I heard live, which blew me away. It's still among my favourite ambient works of all time, and it still gives me shivers. Hearing it live, the sheer aura of its climax had my eyes welling up. The studio version just can't compare, but it can keep that wonderful memory alive.

  Anywho, have a great night, all. I'm much too late right now and I've got to get prepared for tomorrow's work shift.

  • Posted Jun 18, 2009 8:52 pm PT
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• 11Jun 09

  It's getting hot

  Honestly, my room is sitting at about 30C right now. Which is ridiculous.

  I've been saving money like mad lately, and I figure I can mayhaps afford something for myself. So I've got to break it down a little in terms of cost. This coming paycheque plus my current bank amount will be good enough, so I'm thinking it'll be one of these combos:

  Option(A):
  -Xbox 360 Pro ($270-300)
  -Rock Band 2 SE Box ($190)
  -Virtua Fighter 5 ($15-20 apparently)
  -Rock Band 1 game only ($25-30)
  -Music($60-ish)

  Option(B):
  -Save for an electronic drum kit(~$900).

  Option(C):
  -Buy **** tonnes of music($200) and save the rest

  Option(D):
  -Don't spend money for fun things, and put towards savings like a semi-rational person would do

  Option(E):
  -Keep saving and get a shiny new computer(~$1200)

  Option(F):
  -Warhammer Exorcist Tank($70) and Rhino tank($40-50)
  -Music($120)
  -Put rest in savings

  So those are my current options.

  By the way, I've been listening to more music and this year has been pretty solid so far. Indie, I ordered "Arrivals", although I missed out on the limited edition copy. Still, I'm excited. I ordered Veckitamest a while back and it should be in the store on Monday to pick up, which is good. I could have gone down to the HMV to pick it up for considerably less but that placed is a rank, miserable franchise that I wish would stop inhabiting the local mall. They're like the wal-mart of music stores.

  I've been working at getting people listening to The Antlers, Passion Pit, The Constantines, Bat For Lashes, Patrick Wolf, Lightning Dust, and Dredg lately, to mixed results. Some are willing to take a gander, some aren't, and some pretend that they're willing and zone out when the music hits until it stops in a mock-form of trying to win my approval or some crap. :S Whatever. I mean, when someone is all "Hey, have you heard 'X' album yet?" and I haven't I'll say "Nope". if I have, but I can't recall tracknames(something I fight with even with my favourite bands/artists) I'll tell them I like, say, "Track 3, the one with *insert part of the song here*".

  It's cool though. At least people are getting exposed to stuff.

  Here are some killer awesome tracks:

  Passion Pit - "Moth's Wings"
  Passion Pit - "Eyes As Candles"
  Dredg - "Same Ol' Road"
  John Frusciante - "Before the Beginning"
  Lightning Dust - "Highway"

  Aside from that, it seems I potentially have a job lined up. Let's hope it'll work out, so I can actually get out on my own and start doing things! XD Although I will sya lately I have been doing things...like getting ready for a fantasy hockey draft at the start of july, and researching into hockey prospects. Honestly, if any of you need a rundown on individual NHL teams and their current system, I can give you the low-down. Prospects are the one thing I tend to get right more than anything else, in the hockey world.

  Have a good one guys!

  • Posted Jun 11, 2009 5:53 pm PT
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• 19May 09

  and walking in that room when you had tubes in your arms

  ...those singing morphine alarms out of tune...

  Man, I spent a lot of money on music the other day. Like, $180 or so. It was my first trip in two months, and that WITHOUT getting Veckatimest(which I couldn't find). Good news is I got a lot of stuff I'd been looking for, so that's good. Finally picked up "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac, which I've heard front to back numerous times prior but had never felt like I should be spending $28 on such an old, readily available CD. Then, lo and behold, it comes under a 2 for $20 sale! Hurray!

  Some highlights of the results of my spending spree:

  Antlers - "Kettering"
  Fleetwood Mac - "You Make Loving Fun"
  Miles Davis - "Kind of Blue" (I had this album before, but a freak accident killed it)
  Against Me! - "Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart"
  Bat For Lashes - "Glass"
  Metric - "Sick Muse"
  Constantines - "Our Age"

  I saw Star Trek. My final impression is that it was nothing like a Star Trek tv show, and only marginally resembled a star trek movie. They sacrificed quality character development that star trek built itself on, in exchange for a decent storyline that was well put together(and reminded me of a certain Alderaan incident in Star Wars, to be honest). The effects were great, the fights were ok, and the cameo was solid. It was all way too farfetched though, and a lot of the characters were gross exaggerations of what they once were...which is fine, I suppose, but Sulu should NEVER be a badass. And he was way badass. Not to mention the patchwork character development that only barely was pulled off(especially with the occasional poor writing that made things much worse than it could have been).

  Still, a decent movie, and the concept was ok and provided a legit blank slate. 7.5/10

  Anywho, I can't think of much else to say. Nothing much going on lately.

  Night, all!

  • Posted May 19, 2009 10:41 pm PT
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