Hey all my followers and people who just read this. I need to go on a 2 to 3 week hiatus from blogging due to stuff with school. Dont worry, i shall return after the insainty has subsided. expect a post anouncing i'm back on April 16th.
-- ZB : Zack B
Friday, March 26, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
weekly update 3-24-10: An on time post filled with very general ramblings
Hey all back for the weekly update and i;m back at school after break. I have some stuff to cover this weeek, but not much. First off i do want to say that there will be a section on music again in this week's post, so if you skip that section usually, you've been notified.
The "Intro" Section:
While i actually have a sticky this week to go off of, i dont have much to put here. so onto the main section.
The "MEat and Potatoes" Section:
So the reaminder of my week off for spring break was fun. had a doctor appointment, and then finished up my work and then hung otu with 2 friends who were in DC to visit. i ended up flying back here to schooll instead of driving which kinda stunk, btu it was fine. Anyway, i get back onto campus on sunday and chill otu cause i had gotten my hw for monday and tuesday done already. In retrospect, i coulda done a little work for my philosophy class in sofaras editing a paper for it, but i'll just work on that over the next 2 ngihts and such.
Monday was pretty aweseom cause my only class, the aforementioned philosophy one, got cancelled. Though the prof assigned a 90 page play to read, so thats what i spent the majority of my day doing, breaking the play into chunks and reading it. Tuesday was low key actually for a busy day, again i could've worked on the paper, but for some reason i went lazy and only worked on stuff for my psych class. The aforementioend 90 ages assignment actually reminded me of the main gripe ive had with some of my classes this semester. Most of the profs this semester i have have seemed unawware of when other profs are piling on the work. This usually is not exacerbated by it being a busy time for students, but still. i find it anoying when two profs in dramatically different departments assign a lot of writng/ reading to be done in the same short period of time.
look at that, alreasdy covered two point on my sticky note. Anyway onto the music update. So this past monday i donwloaded the new Gorillaz and Demon Hunter albums. We'll start of with the gorillaz one. I'll spare you guys the details of both groups. the gorillaz album is good, and is a step up from the previous record, which was released back in '03 or '04, btu i get the feeling it wasnt worht the 5 year wait. ITs a good album dont get me wrong but its a lot more synth based than rock drums and guitar based, and the actual vocals from the guy who does the voices for the animated singers in Gorillaz are pretty much absent for teh first half of the album. Plus its 17-18 tracks. It feels more like it coulda been better as a double album, each with 9 tracks, one more focused on collaborations with other artists and the other more focused on actual vocals from the guy who does the voices. I give it a 7.5/10.
To the Demon hunter album, which is an entirely different story. As you knwo if you followed my facebook last month, i love the current single off the album. Demon hunter is a hardcore Christian metal band, btu they're not overly Christian in their lyrics and they very talented lyrcially and musically. While theyve had their fair share of lineup changes, theyre still very good. anyway the album prior to this latest one was very solid and showed flashes of them getting heavier. That's just what this most recent album, called "The world is a thorn" is. ITs heavier, more "unclean" (to use the PC term) vocals, and is more brutal sounding both with the insturments and lyrics. I was actually blown away by some of the drum work on this album. The album starts off with a slower intro to the first song, but then kicks it in and does nto let up fully until the end fo the album. Even the slower, mor ballad-y songs on the record are more mid-tempo then power-ballady. in short, i am seriously digginthe album, and its a blast to work out to. plus they got the former lead singer of one of my other favorite metal bands, Scar Symmetry, to appear on the 9th track "Just breathe" which is one of my favorites on the album, because its hard, catchy and fast.
music geekness otu of the way. i just want to say one last thing and its more of a brief comment than anything. I'm amused byt the fact that the computer Services people at my school upgrade us to a student portal service last year (because it is apparently easier to administrate, even though its very flawed as a system in terms of its user-friendliness) and that they upgraded the email server to this awesome things called Zimbra ( which is almost exactly a MS outlook clone), yet they havent done anything about us students havign to re register on the wired connections everytime we come back onto campus after a break or whatever. you think they'd look into that.
So, if you all comment on this, i wanna hear your take on that last paragraph, as well as anything else you want to comment on or think i should put in this blog. I will put a heads up out there, that the update day for this may change as half my classes have major thigns due on/around the 15th. I'm thinking about moving the updates to Fridays or Monday AM.
well, til next post, hope you all have a good one.
--ZB (Zack B)
The "Intro" Section:
While i actually have a sticky this week to go off of, i dont have much to put here. so onto the main section.
The "MEat and Potatoes" Section:
So the reaminder of my week off for spring break was fun. had a doctor appointment, and then finished up my work and then hung otu with 2 friends who were in DC to visit. i ended up flying back here to schooll instead of driving which kinda stunk, btu it was fine. Anyway, i get back onto campus on sunday and chill otu cause i had gotten my hw for monday and tuesday done already. In retrospect, i coulda done a little work for my philosophy class in sofaras editing a paper for it, but i'll just work on that over the next 2 ngihts and such.
Monday was pretty aweseom cause my only class, the aforementioned philosophy one, got cancelled. Though the prof assigned a 90 page play to read, so thats what i spent the majority of my day doing, breaking the play into chunks and reading it. Tuesday was low key actually for a busy day, again i could've worked on the paper, but for some reason i went lazy and only worked on stuff for my psych class. The aforementioend 90 ages assignment actually reminded me of the main gripe ive had with some of my classes this semester. Most of the profs this semester i have have seemed unawware of when other profs are piling on the work. This usually is not exacerbated by it being a busy time for students, but still. i find it anoying when two profs in dramatically different departments assign a lot of writng/ reading to be done in the same short period of time.
look at that, alreasdy covered two point on my sticky note. Anyway onto the music update. So this past monday i donwloaded the new Gorillaz and Demon Hunter albums. We'll start of with the gorillaz one. I'll spare you guys the details of both groups. the gorillaz album is good, and is a step up from the previous record, which was released back in '03 or '04, btu i get the feeling it wasnt worht the 5 year wait. ITs a good album dont get me wrong but its a lot more synth based than rock drums and guitar based, and the actual vocals from the guy who does the voices for the animated singers in Gorillaz are pretty much absent for teh first half of the album. Plus its 17-18 tracks. It feels more like it coulda been better as a double album, each with 9 tracks, one more focused on collaborations with other artists and the other more focused on actual vocals from the guy who does the voices. I give it a 7.5/10.
To the Demon hunter album, which is an entirely different story. As you knwo if you followed my facebook last month, i love the current single off the album. Demon hunter is a hardcore Christian metal band, btu they're not overly Christian in their lyrics and they very talented lyrcially and musically. While theyve had their fair share of lineup changes, theyre still very good. anyway the album prior to this latest one was very solid and showed flashes of them getting heavier. That's just what this most recent album, called "The world is a thorn" is. ITs heavier, more "unclean" (to use the PC term) vocals, and is more brutal sounding both with the insturments and lyrics. I was actually blown away by some of the drum work on this album. The album starts off with a slower intro to the first song, but then kicks it in and does nto let up fully until the end fo the album. Even the slower, mor ballad-y songs on the record are more mid-tempo then power-ballady. in short, i am seriously digginthe album, and its a blast to work out to. plus they got the former lead singer of one of my other favorite metal bands, Scar Symmetry, to appear on the 9th track "Just breathe" which is one of my favorites on the album, because its hard, catchy and fast.
music geekness otu of the way. i just want to say one last thing and its more of a brief comment than anything. I'm amused byt the fact that the computer Services people at my school upgrade us to a student portal service last year (because it is apparently easier to administrate, even though its very flawed as a system in terms of its user-friendliness) and that they upgraded the email server to this awesome things called Zimbra ( which is almost exactly a MS outlook clone), yet they havent done anything about us students havign to re register on the wired connections everytime we come back onto campus after a break or whatever. you think they'd look into that.
So, if you all comment on this, i wanna hear your take on that last paragraph, as well as anything else you want to comment on or think i should put in this blog. I will put a heads up out there, that the update day for this may change as half my classes have major thigns due on/around the 15th. I'm thinking about moving the updates to Fridays or Monday AM.
well, til next post, hope you all have a good one.
--ZB (Zack B)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Weekly update 3-16-10: Spring break Edition: Early again and Might be lengthy.
Hey all weekly update time. if this needs to be broken into 2 parts, i'll note that somewhere around here. Anyway, this is the first week in the past few that i dont have a sticky note nearby with topic reminders, so here goes nothing.
I swear one of these weeks i will post on the regular day, even if it means i switch the update days for these. Anyway, onwards!
The "Intro" section:
ok, so since i'm not basing my post off a bullet point list on a sticky this week, there is gonna be a bit of disorganization in what i remember to cover. As such i can't see the point to this intro. So here comes the main section.
the "Meat and Potatoes" section
So, lets see, i last updated majorly last monday. So Tuesday thru Thursday i did regular homework and studied for the midterm in my education class. That went well, i mayve studied too much as i could not remeber one thing for the life of me and i didnt remember the one article the one prof asked us to directly recall on the exam. My essay on the midterm might be a bit weak, but we'll see. after the EDU midterm i was essentially done, so i took it easy that afternoon and the next day. Friday classes were allright, though my afternoon class tried to teach us this semi-convoluted literature theory the afternoon before break. YEa, i know. What made up for that though was the fact that in my more intense philosophy class was wayy more "punchy" than usual because it was the last class periods before break. we were all being punchy in that when were were small group discussing the questions, we picked apart trivial things in them and got off topic alot. It was kind of fun.
anyway, after classes, i went back to my room, hung out, finished packing and then headed to the shuttle to take me to Dayton. This was a fun ride, but we left a bit late cause as usual the shuttle was overbooked and the guy had to make sure a second van was on its way. on a sidenote: it beats me why the company consistently uses 12 passenger vans when the shuttles are always overbooked on the evening of break and the first day of it (i've flown out on Saturday AM and its been booked solid); i can count on one hand the amount of times theyve used one of those small town bus things.
Anyway, i digress. The shuttle ride was fine after we got going, i had my ipod on and fell asleep in the van, yet again. the guy next to me, a freshman, was obnoxious and impatient, but i tuned him out, or rather tried too. basically as soon as we got in the shuttle, he wanted to go, and didnt care about the other people waiting outside, and then when we got to Dayton and stopped initially before pulling to the side a bit more, he wanted to get out right there, and didnt care that the van was blocking 2 other cars from moving. All that and his flight was not until 30 minutes after mine, which was at 6:55 originally. SO yea, that was obnoxious.
so after i got thru security and such, i got food, and hung out at my gate where i proceeded to get e-mails and phone messages about my flight every so often starting at 6ish. Essentially, due to weather in DC, my flight was delayed leaving, got in at 8:20 and i landed around 10, about 90 minutes after i was supposed to originally. anyway, so on the flight, mianly because the weather system had shifted towards the mid-west so there was a lot of turbulence on take off. I'm already a nervous flyer, without a fear fo heights, so i'll let you imagine my reaction to the turbulence.
So i landed in DC for spring break and got my suitcase and headed home. got home unwound and break began. over break i've done homework sparingly and other stuff. been driving alot in hopes that i can drive back at the end of break. There's been family stuff that i'm leaving out fo this post for personal reasons that may prevent the driving back, but its nothign incredibly dire, so dont worry. i've gotten one doc appointment out of the way, one more to go and then two friends staying until the end of break. Saturday and sunday should be days off from work more or less, even if theres the stress of traveling back, which should be fairly nice.
Anyway i think thats the recap of the week in a nutshell. there's one more thing that happened today, but its again a personal family thing, so yea, not mentioning it here.
anyway, hope you guys like this post. Please comment below with your thoughts on anything.
--ZB (zack B)
I swear one of these weeks i will post on the regular day, even if it means i switch the update days for these. Anyway, onwards!
The "Intro" section:
ok, so since i'm not basing my post off a bullet point list on a sticky this week, there is gonna be a bit of disorganization in what i remember to cover. As such i can't see the point to this intro. So here comes the main section.
the "Meat and Potatoes" section
So, lets see, i last updated majorly last monday. So Tuesday thru Thursday i did regular homework and studied for the midterm in my education class. That went well, i mayve studied too much as i could not remeber one thing for the life of me and i didnt remember the one article the one prof asked us to directly recall on the exam. My essay on the midterm might be a bit weak, but we'll see. after the EDU midterm i was essentially done, so i took it easy that afternoon and the next day. Friday classes were allright, though my afternoon class tried to teach us this semi-convoluted literature theory the afternoon before break. YEa, i know. What made up for that though was the fact that in my more intense philosophy class was wayy more "punchy" than usual because it was the last class periods before break. we were all being punchy in that when were were small group discussing the questions, we picked apart trivial things in them and got off topic alot. It was kind of fun.
anyway, after classes, i went back to my room, hung out, finished packing and then headed to the shuttle to take me to Dayton. This was a fun ride, but we left a bit late cause as usual the shuttle was overbooked and the guy had to make sure a second van was on its way. on a sidenote: it beats me why the company consistently uses 12 passenger vans when the shuttles are always overbooked on the evening of break and the first day of it (i've flown out on Saturday AM and its been booked solid); i can count on one hand the amount of times theyve used one of those small town bus things.
Anyway, i digress. The shuttle ride was fine after we got going, i had my ipod on and fell asleep in the van, yet again. the guy next to me, a freshman, was obnoxious and impatient, but i tuned him out, or rather tried too. basically as soon as we got in the shuttle, he wanted to go, and didnt care about the other people waiting outside, and then when we got to Dayton and stopped initially before pulling to the side a bit more, he wanted to get out right there, and didnt care that the van was blocking 2 other cars from moving. All that and his flight was not until 30 minutes after mine, which was at 6:55 originally. SO yea, that was obnoxious.
so after i got thru security and such, i got food, and hung out at my gate where i proceeded to get e-mails and phone messages about my flight every so often starting at 6ish. Essentially, due to weather in DC, my flight was delayed leaving, got in at 8:20 and i landed around 10, about 90 minutes after i was supposed to originally. anyway, so on the flight, mianly because the weather system had shifted towards the mid-west so there was a lot of turbulence on take off. I'm already a nervous flyer, without a fear fo heights, so i'll let you imagine my reaction to the turbulence.
So i landed in DC for spring break and got my suitcase and headed home. got home unwound and break began. over break i've done homework sparingly and other stuff. been driving alot in hopes that i can drive back at the end of break. There's been family stuff that i'm leaving out fo this post for personal reasons that may prevent the driving back, but its nothign incredibly dire, so dont worry. i've gotten one doc appointment out of the way, one more to go and then two friends staying until the end of break. Saturday and sunday should be days off from work more or less, even if theres the stress of traveling back, which should be fairly nice.
Anyway i think thats the recap of the week in a nutshell. there's one more thing that happened today, but its again a personal family thing, so yea, not mentioning it here.
anyway, hope you guys like this post. Please comment below with your thoughts on anything.
--ZB (zack B)
Saturday, March 13, 2010
bonus post #15: Comments?
Hay all back for the real bonus post #15. Anyway, i just wanna touch on the matter of commenting and such on my blog. Now i've only been doing this weekly update blog sysetem for a few months, but i'm liking it. IT's a good release. anyway, I would love to actually have some feedback from those of you who follow this, be it officially or not. so please, comment away. the freinds i've talked to enjoy these posts and my blog. I recently fixed the whole commenting thing (which i actually didnt know i had disabeled) so i would love hear from you all in your comments to my posts or things in them.
See you all on Wednesday for the massive update. oh and since last week's was early, i'll have a few extra days to cover, so wednesday's post may be a multiple parter.
--Zack, a.k.a ZB
See you all on Wednesday for the massive update. oh and since last week's was early, i'll have a few extra days to cover, so wednesday's post may be a multiple parter.
--Zack, a.k.a ZB
Monday, March 8, 2010
weekly update 3-8-10: I'm early again, darn you schoolwork
Hey all, back for this week's update. I know i said i was gonna put it up on firday cause i cant on my usual day, but i have time to kill and i'm mentally worn down from studying earlier. So worn down i literally just got energy and the amount of crap thats in my body from waht i ate today is absurd.
anyway, here we go:
The "Intro" section:
only one thing in this week's intro section and thats the new full length trailer for iron man 2. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNQowwwwYa0
Umm yeah, so i'm kinda pumped for that now. I just hope it doesnt suck, but honestly it's got Sam Rockwell! the last major movie i saw him in, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, i really liked him in, so yea.
onto the main part of this post.
the "Meat and Potatoes" section:
Honestly, this section might be fairly short this week. Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful. just work stuff and everything. before i get to the actual weekend, i should get a bit video game geeky. So thursday i donwloaded my second game for the month off of Steam, this PC video game community thing. the Game itself is called Braid and its a side-scrolling puzzler platformer thats great for the casual gamer who wants to work their brain. its got very artist like environments and its all based on time and controlling it to solve the puzzles to get the pieces to complete the overall puzzle for the level. so much fun. the other news in gaming is that apparently Portal 2 is being relased this year. now i've only seen Portal 1, and havent played it, but a new ending got posted to the game on Steam last week and it implies a sequel. very excited to download and play portal next month.
anyway, back to my weekend recap schtuff. m Saturday was prodcutive as always. I beasted out a 4.5 page paper in 2.5 hours, which made me happy. there was a Rave (dance with tehno music) in one of the bigger rooms in the studnet center friday night and it was fun. Saturday night was the Benfit concert/talent show and auction fro Genesis women's shelter which helps victims of domestic violence. There's some very talented people here, which is awesome. makes me wanna share som lyrical prose at it next year. the one thing i'm iffy on is this one freshman did covers of two beatles songs, and i really didnt care for his version of "here comes the sun" it felt too fast and aggressive on his acoustic guitar. saturday hight after that, there was a "mardi gras" themed dance at French house, which i had planned to go to, but i completly forgot about oh well. Sunday was work filled and uneventful.
seems like this week's recap is mainly school based. sorry for the lack of variety. but yea to debreif more on the rave, it was pretty fun. lots of fun times with freinds and dancing to good techno. so yea. I cant think of anythign else to recap right now. with this one being 2 days early, i guess that means i'll have more to recap next "weekly update" on the 17th, spring break (yay!).
So yea. i'm gonna trapse around and maybe play some more braid cause i'm very braindead from studying for my midterm on thursday. anyway, til the next post, i'll catch you all later.
Oh and please comment below if you read this, i wanna know if people are actually reading this. A question for you all to respond to in the comments: "Whats going on wiht you?"
--ZB (Zack B)
anyway, here we go:
The "Intro" section:
only one thing in this week's intro section and thats the new full length trailer for iron man 2. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNQowwwwYa0
Umm yeah, so i'm kinda pumped for that now. I just hope it doesnt suck, but honestly it's got Sam Rockwell! the last major movie i saw him in, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, i really liked him in, so yea.
onto the main part of this post.
the "Meat and Potatoes" section:
Honestly, this section might be fairly short this week. Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful. just work stuff and everything. before i get to the actual weekend, i should get a bit video game geeky. So thursday i donwloaded my second game for the month off of Steam, this PC video game community thing. the Game itself is called Braid and its a side-scrolling puzzler platformer thats great for the casual gamer who wants to work their brain. its got very artist like environments and its all based on time and controlling it to solve the puzzles to get the pieces to complete the overall puzzle for the level. so much fun. the other news in gaming is that apparently Portal 2 is being relased this year. now i've only seen Portal 1, and havent played it, but a new ending got posted to the game on Steam last week and it implies a sequel. very excited to download and play portal next month.
anyway, back to my weekend recap schtuff. m Saturday was prodcutive as always. I beasted out a 4.5 page paper in 2.5 hours, which made me happy. there was a Rave (dance with tehno music) in one of the bigger rooms in the studnet center friday night and it was fun. Saturday night was the Benfit concert/talent show and auction fro Genesis women's shelter which helps victims of domestic violence. There's some very talented people here, which is awesome. makes me wanna share som lyrical prose at it next year. the one thing i'm iffy on is this one freshman did covers of two beatles songs, and i really didnt care for his version of "here comes the sun" it felt too fast and aggressive on his acoustic guitar. saturday hight after that, there was a "mardi gras" themed dance at French house, which i had planned to go to, but i completly forgot about oh well. Sunday was work filled and uneventful.
seems like this week's recap is mainly school based. sorry for the lack of variety. but yea to debreif more on the rave, it was pretty fun. lots of fun times with freinds and dancing to good techno. so yea. I cant think of anythign else to recap right now. with this one being 2 days early, i guess that means i'll have more to recap next "weekly update" on the 17th, spring break (yay!).
So yea. i'm gonna trapse around and maybe play some more braid cause i'm very braindead from studying for my midterm on thursday. anyway, til the next post, i'll catch you all later.
Oh and please comment below if you read this, i wanna know if people are actually reading this. A question for you all to respond to in the comments: "Whats going on wiht you?"
--ZB (Zack B)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
bonus post #14: update on the upcomign "weekly update"
Hey to anyone who follows this.
So, due to stuff with school this week right before break, i will be unable to post my "weekly updte" at its usual time, wednesday AM. Real life takes precednce over this hobby. Ive put it on my calendar to post the comign "weekly update" on Friday, after evrrything is done, but we'll see if i can get to it sooner. at the latest, itll be up friday ngith after i go home for break.
--ZB (Zack B)
So, due to stuff with school this week right before break, i will be unable to post my "weekly updte" at its usual time, wednesday AM. Real life takes precednce over this hobby. Ive put it on my calendar to post the comign "weekly update" on Friday, after evrrything is done, but we'll see if i can get to it sooner. at the latest, itll be up friday ngith after i go home for break.
--ZB (Zack B)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Weekly update 3-3-10 : Return of the Lengthy weekly update?
Hey all, back again for the major weekly update. I could ramble at a couple points here, so this may be up in 2 parts, we;ll see. Anyway, lets do this.
The "Intro" Section
Ok so i'm gonna start off this intro section with more music talk so if you dont read the music sections, go ahead and skim/ skip this section. Music-wise this week my major purchase other than the soundtrack to the 86 transformers movie (which i actually donwloaded before last week's post) is the debut album from Mutiny Within. In a nutshell, these gusy are very good Metal musicmakers. Their vocalist has serious pipes too which is awesome. Probably the best MEtal album i've heard this year, in spite of the flaws, i .e. the song "reflections". It's got catchy songs too which is interesting for a metal group.
The only other major music news is that there are new albums from Gorillaz and Demon Hunter next tuesday. I'm gonna wait on the latter for financial reasons, but i've heard an album stream of the Gorillaz album already. More on that below in the "MEat and Potatoes" Section.
the last thign i want to touch on musically is my friend's band Dead End Lake. Link to their reverbnation page (where you can get the album for free):http://www.reverbnation.com/deadendlake
Ok i dont know why that paragraph got formatted like that. Anayway, look into Dead End Lake if you like modern takes on the classice hard rock (Black Sabbath, etc) sound.
Ok, enoguh of my music geekness for now. Onto the "MEat and Potatoes" section.
The "Meat and potatoes" section
Ok so i've got a slew of topics to cover. Last week was the moderately successful Haiti awareness and action week on campus. The events that i went to ( i'm not gonna lie i was either busy or burned out at the times of the events) were very nice. I was just really disheartened by the lack of people other than the presenters at the teach-in thing on tuesday. But that brings us to the Dance we had planned on Ffriday Night. So i get there at 10 to help setup but most of the stuff is already set up. So we all just kind of hang out and the three of us that were there dance to some of the music on a the ipod we borrowed. Then the NEw Measures (a capella group on campus) comes into the room, and to be honest, i feel sorry for them, we had sold a respectable amount of tix to the dance, but literally no one was there at that time (probably cause of theco-op hall open mic, which went for like 3 hours cause they had around 30 acts, alot of which were 10ish minutes. (i was acutally supposed to perform at that, but something came up and i couldnt, and honestly at least 5 people asked me why i hadnt performed when thhey saw me after it)).
But back to the dance, it started off as a rousing flop cause no one was there other than the conveners for ECAI and EPU and a few ECAI people. There was also some drama between one of the ECAI memebers and someone in the group who had been pivotal to the planning who had just decided to up and not show to anything during the week. Matter of fact, that person really has done squat for ECAI since he's been in it, which is kind of annoying. anyway, the dance picked up a bit, but then someone plugged in theri Ipod, instead of the one we had agreed prior to use. Then a third person called 2 of their freinds, who showed up slightly intoxicated, plugged in their laptop and played some godawful mash-ups. This royally made me p.o.'d as the last 2 people were totally random ppl who i didnt know. Looking back at it now, i think i was most angry at the fact that we kept switching music and mp3 players. Soon, the music got good though, and i started having fun. So all in all the dance went from suck to ok then back to suck, then up to "fun but coulda been better."
Next up on the docket to cover is what happened the following night. Earlham's student produection (by the theater club) of the 24 hour theater project. Google it if you dont know what it is. Anyway, the plays this go around were very well done, and very funny. one of my freinds (anonymity is how i roll on these posts so no names) was brilliant in his acting and lot of the writing was really well done. There were some great highlights. Many more thean last semester where there were some good plays, but nothign as great as this semester, though one of my friends acted in a very good play abotu a wife who would find ways to nearly kill herself to get attention from her husband cause she craved it (I'm trying to keep it G rated here, my aunt folows this blog). So that play is one of the better ones from this year.
In other news, i find it funny Earlham seems to have a state of prolonged MArdi Gras. There was literally another mardi gras party this past weekend and according to my folks its been Lent for at least a week now. I'm amused by how much of a bubble earlham is sometimes.
two thigns that annoy me about communal dorm living: 1) people shaving over the sink and then leaving the hair they shaved off all over the place in and aroudn the sink. then, since housekeeping doesnt clean on the weekends, the hair stays there until Monday AM. the loose hair is a menace to people who wear contact lenses or dont want loose hairs on them. It's just disgusting seeing loose hair there. Clean up after yourselves! the 2nd thign that annoys me is when couples always cook in one place late at ngiht and the food smells horrid. it smells like they use too many mushrooms or too much un-spicy indian food or seasoning. and the smell permeates past my room, into it, and then down the stairwell. ugh, theres somethin called doing stuff in the other person's kitchen.
two more thigns to cover. first up, the new Gorillaz (which is now pretty much just Damon Albarn from Blur) album is due out next week after 5 year wait. its called plastic beach and theres a stream of it up on npr. Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124114812 anyway, here's my thoughts on it (copied from my facebook page). ITs different from the last record as its more synthy and less catchy rock beats. As such, alot of people probably wont like it, and will be let down by its presence after a 5 years hiatus. Honestly though, i like it. My only big gripes are some of the noises used for beats are held too long and are discordant, and that there are wayy too many guests on the album. It feels at times that is more of a ccollaboration album between Gorillaz and the guest artists. there's i think all of 5 or 6 tracks on the album where the main guy behind Gorillaz (Damon Albarn) has the majority of the vocals. that bothers me. going alon geith this, alot of the guest parts are rather forgettable i.e. Snoop Dogg's part on track 2. IT's a respectabel record, but it was only kind of worht the wait. That being said, i do still like the record and the overall feel of it, so i will still buy it.
LAst thing i wanna cover is a thing i hate about my skin. i have a condition called ecxzema (spelling is wrong, but google it). its not severe and its only mild, but it causes me to have dry skin and i get this little blastules on my fingers this time of year, and whatever i do, they always spread to my other figers making me look like i have some disease. I notice it alot and i hate it but i dont like moisturizers cause no mater how much you put on, you have to wipe a bunch off to keep your hand from feeling greasy.
Anyway, thats it for this week. i'll see you all in the next post. please comment below
The "Intro" Section
Ok so i'm gonna start off this intro section with more music talk so if you dont read the music sections, go ahead and skim/ skip this section. Music-wise this week my major purchase other than the soundtrack to the 86 transformers movie (which i actually donwloaded before last week's post) is the debut album from Mutiny Within. In a nutshell, these gusy are very good Metal musicmakers. Their vocalist has serious pipes too which is awesome. Probably the best MEtal album i've heard this year, in spite of the flaws, i .e. the song "reflections". It's got catchy songs too which is interesting for a metal group.
The only other major music news is that there are new albums from Gorillaz and Demon Hunter next tuesday. I'm gonna wait on the latter for financial reasons, but i've heard an album stream of the Gorillaz album already. More on that below in the "MEat and Potatoes" Section.
the last thign i want to touch on musically is my friend's band Dead End Lake. Link to their reverbnation page (where you can get the album for free):http://www.reverbnation.com/deadendlake
Ok i dont know why that paragraph got formatted like that. Anayway, look into Dead End Lake if you like modern takes on the classice hard rock (Black Sabbath, etc) sound.
Ok, enoguh of my music geekness for now. Onto the "MEat and Potatoes" section.
The "Meat and potatoes" section
Ok so i've got a slew of topics to cover. Last week was the moderately successful Haiti awareness and action week on campus. The events that i went to ( i'm not gonna lie i was either busy or burned out at the times of the events) were very nice. I was just really disheartened by the lack of people other than the presenters at the teach-in thing on tuesday. But that brings us to the Dance we had planned on Ffriday Night. So i get there at 10 to help setup but most of the stuff is already set up. So we all just kind of hang out and the three of us that were there dance to some of the music on a the ipod we borrowed. Then the NEw Measures (a capella group on campus) comes into the room, and to be honest, i feel sorry for them, we had sold a respectable amount of tix to the dance, but literally no one was there at that time (probably cause of theco-op hall open mic, which went for like 3 hours cause they had around 30 acts, alot of which were 10ish minutes. (i was acutally supposed to perform at that, but something came up and i couldnt, and honestly at least 5 people asked me why i hadnt performed when thhey saw me after it)).
But back to the dance, it started off as a rousing flop cause no one was there other than the conveners for ECAI and EPU and a few ECAI people. There was also some drama between one of the ECAI memebers and someone in the group who had been pivotal to the planning who had just decided to up and not show to anything during the week. Matter of fact, that person really has done squat for ECAI since he's been in it, which is kind of annoying. anyway, the dance picked up a bit, but then someone plugged in theri Ipod, instead of the one we had agreed prior to use. Then a third person called 2 of their freinds, who showed up slightly intoxicated, plugged in their laptop and played some godawful mash-ups. This royally made me p.o.'d as the last 2 people were totally random ppl who i didnt know. Looking back at it now, i think i was most angry at the fact that we kept switching music and mp3 players. Soon, the music got good though, and i started having fun. So all in all the dance went from suck to ok then back to suck, then up to "fun but coulda been better."
Next up on the docket to cover is what happened the following night. Earlham's student produection (by the theater club) of the 24 hour theater project. Google it if you dont know what it is. Anyway, the plays this go around were very well done, and very funny. one of my freinds (anonymity is how i roll on these posts so no names) was brilliant in his acting and lot of the writing was really well done. There were some great highlights. Many more thean last semester where there were some good plays, but nothign as great as this semester, though one of my friends acted in a very good play abotu a wife who would find ways to nearly kill herself to get attention from her husband cause she craved it (I'm trying to keep it G rated here, my aunt folows this blog). So that play is one of the better ones from this year.
In other news, i find it funny Earlham seems to have a state of prolonged MArdi Gras. There was literally another mardi gras party this past weekend and according to my folks its been Lent for at least a week now. I'm amused by how much of a bubble earlham is sometimes.
two thigns that annoy me about communal dorm living: 1) people shaving over the sink and then leaving the hair they shaved off all over the place in and aroudn the sink. then, since housekeeping doesnt clean on the weekends, the hair stays there until Monday AM. the loose hair is a menace to people who wear contact lenses or dont want loose hairs on them. It's just disgusting seeing loose hair there. Clean up after yourselves! the 2nd thign that annoys me is when couples always cook in one place late at ngiht and the food smells horrid. it smells like they use too many mushrooms or too much un-spicy indian food or seasoning. and the smell permeates past my room, into it, and then down the stairwell. ugh, theres somethin called doing stuff in the other person's kitchen.
two more thigns to cover. first up, the new Gorillaz (which is now pretty much just Damon Albarn from Blur) album is due out next week after 5 year wait. its called plastic beach and theres a stream of it up on npr. Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124114812 anyway, here's my thoughts on it (copied from my facebook page). ITs different from the last record as its more synthy and less catchy rock beats. As such, alot of people probably wont like it, and will be let down by its presence after a 5 years hiatus. Honestly though, i like it. My only big gripes are some of the noises used for beats are held too long and are discordant, and that there are wayy too many guests on the album. It feels at times that is more of a ccollaboration album between Gorillaz and the guest artists. there's i think all of 5 or 6 tracks on the album where the main guy behind Gorillaz (Damon Albarn) has the majority of the vocals. that bothers me. going alon geith this, alot of the guest parts are rather forgettable i.e. Snoop Dogg's part on track 2. IT's a respectabel record, but it was only kind of worht the wait. That being said, i do still like the record and the overall feel of it, so i will still buy it.
LAst thing i wanna cover is a thing i hate about my skin. i have a condition called ecxzema (spelling is wrong, but google it). its not severe and its only mild, but it causes me to have dry skin and i get this little blastules on my fingers this time of year, and whatever i do, they always spread to my other figers making me look like i have some disease. I notice it alot and i hate it but i dont like moisturizers cause no mater how much you put on, you have to wipe a bunch off to keep your hand from feeling greasy.
Anyway, thats it for this week. i'll see you all in the next post. please comment below
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
bonus post #13: complaints
quick bonus post with stream of consciousness things i need to vent on:
60 pages in plato's republic is a bit much especially with q's to answer and we really just get a rough idea of each book in the republic in the following class......got informed a piad position where i worked last summer wont be available unless thigns change, i'm fine with a unpaid one but it'll make saving for btocon 2011 harder......may need to work with babysitting and such outside of work in the summer in order to get funds......i have too many DVDs and videogames i want............i'm varied annoyed with the ambushing of kids in marketing today, is nothign sacred anymore and is the parent now entering the era of being permissive to the child?
weekly post tomorrow AM.
60 pages in plato's republic is a bit much especially with q's to answer and we really just get a rough idea of each book in the republic in the following class......got informed a piad position where i worked last summer wont be available unless thigns change, i'm fine with a unpaid one but it'll make saving for btocon 2011 harder......may need to work with babysitting and such outside of work in the summer in order to get funds......i have too many DVDs and videogames i want............i'm varied annoyed with the ambushing of kids in marketing today, is nothign sacred anymore and is the parent now entering the era of being permissive to the child?
weekly post tomorrow AM.
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