So, it's been a while...

I had a great labor day weekend, visiting the Carson/Reno people. On the way back to Stockton, when I was only like half an hour away from the college, I got a ticket for driving with my headphones on. ...grumble grumble pigs grumble... That really sucks. And before giving me the ticket, the cop asked me how much alcohol I had consumed that night and when I had last smoked pot. And then he did the little drug test thing where he waived his finger around in my face. My eyes must have been especially red that night. Damn allergies. Damn pigs.

CURRENT VIDEO GAMES: So here are all of the video games that I am currently trying to play. Final Fantasy 5 (2nd time), Final Fantasy 8 (yes, I am still planning on playing the rest of it), Breath of Fire 2, Bahamut Lagoon (It's like tactics only good!), and Kirby Superstar; These oughta take me a while. and I have a lot more on my "I wish I was playing" list.

Artist:Into Eternity

Song: Isolation

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

For fans of: Children of Bodom, In Flames, Gwar, Mnemic

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) This is a really cool melodic death song. Don't let the death metal connection frighten you away. The "melodic" part means it is not so brutal and has some real beauty to it's musical composition. On the other hand, don't expect it to be soft rock, it is still metal.

I forgot to talk about this weekend.

I went to the Great Reno Balloon Races twice this weekend. I didn't really want to go, but I went with Shinta on Saturday and it was really fun and beautiful. Then we went back on Sunday with RaenefIV and cucumber0salad, but they were cancelled because of wind on Sunday. It was a lot of fun, but it meant that we had to wake up at 4 am both days. that's damn early. I got to spend the night with Shinta twice this weekend. Woohoo! That's about all.

So I've watched the first ten episodes of Naruto now, and it is really cool. I've also been watching a weird show called Samurai Champloo. It's damn strange, but I think I like it. Other than that, my time has all been taken up with homework and classes. If you haven't noticed, my blog is now "oldschool final fantasy" themed. I thought it fitted with my name being Kefka. Check out the quote up there /\ . Kefka's a really cool guy.

--Song du Jour--

Artist:

Just a little update on my Final Fantasy 5 game. For those of you who don't know (and couldn't tell from the blog), Final Fantasy 5 is my favorite video game ever, and I'm playing it for the second time right now. The first time I beat the game relatively quickly without doing everything there was to do. This time though, I'm going to master every job. I am also going to defeat the optional bosses Shinryuu the God of Dragons and Omega the Robot O' Death (I don't remember what his real title is ;) ), which are probably about as difficult as Emerald and Ruby weapons from FF7. So far I have mastered about 15 out of the 21 jobs with each character. I have almost a million and a half gil, and I have 99 of all of the important items (hi-potions, ethers, pheonix downs, tents, cottages, shuriken). I have about sixty hours on the game, and I think that it will probably take me about twenty more hours to do everything. But, then again, I might have to be at level 99 to beat the insane optional bosses, so it might take longer than that. I have done all of the story line, and so I'm leveling up in the area right before the final boss. King Behemoths are a bitch. They only counterattack, but they counterattack twice with massive damage for physical attacks, and if you cast magic on them, they respond with meteo, which is pretty evil. I wish there were more save points in the Cleft of Dimension. Anyways, I'm having a lot of fun again with this game, and I realize how much cooler old-school rpgs were.

Happy Rosh Hashanah! LaHiyem!

sorry for the spelling. I'm not really jewish after all.

I don't know whether I am happy or sad that it is already snowing in the mountains. It makes me happy that snowboard season will come sooner if it snows, but it makes me sad that it will be harder to get over the mountains every weekend. Well, I probably won't be able to do much snowboarding at all this year anyway, so I guess I'll hope for a drought. There wasn't any snow on the road when I drove through last night, but there was some on the sides of the road and on the trees. I'll probably have to get chains for my Geo.

So, I had another spiffy weekend, although I wasn't able to see KaseiTsuki or cucumber0salad or RaenefIV. I played some DDR and I ate some food and I slept a little and I played Tales o' Symphonia and I drew part of a pretty picture and I did my laundry and I watched the second, third, and fourth discs of Berserk. Berserk is notorious for being really gory and graphic, but it hasn't really been so bad. It is much less graphic and bloody than the Kenshin OVAs. There is a bit of nudity and so much blood spraying that it is unbelievable, but it still doesn't seem to live up to its graphic reputation. Maybe its the references to rape and prostitution and sodomy. I dunno. But, it's a pretty good show so far. I like it. But now Blockbuster has run out of episodes for us to rent, so Shinta's mom will have to download it for us.

Shinta got some cool dragon ear-rings. They are much better than the snake ones. the snake ones were huge; like eight inches long. My friend Jeremy Grunert has the coolest t-shirt in the world (other than my Kamui shirt). It says "Kerry Rocks" across the top, and it has a picture of John Kerry playing guitar. I want it.

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This will be extra boring today. If you are faint of heart, stop reading right now. I mean it. Proceed at your own risk. Well, if you haven't turned back yet, don't say I didn't warn you!

So......Today I had my International Politics class. It is quite interesting, but it's a lot of work. The midterm is going to be on Oct. 5, so I am going to form a "study group" with a couple accaintances in the class. I have never been enough of a nerd to be in a "study group" before, so I don't know how it will go. I think it's a good idea though, because I only take notes on the important stuff during the lecture, and I have like two pages of notes for each class period. That's a lot for me, so I think there will be a lot to study. I also have to do an eight page essay/research paper in the class. The proffessor gave us three topics to choose from, with a different due date for each. The topics are: the internal conflict in Sudan and the possibility of foreign intervention, the most recent global trade rules debates, and the Kyoto agreement about global warming. I don't actually know that much about any of these (especially Sudan), but I think I'm going to do the global trade one. I am hoping that we will follow the syllabus and discuss that topic in class for the week or two before the essay is due on November 4.

Last week we had a reading for that class about the Vietnam War. It was depressing to read, because the war was so pointless and evil. Ho Chi Minh, who was supposed to be the leader of the "enemies" was actually a national Vietnamese hero for being a freedom fighter against the French colonialists. He even helped out the American soldiers in World War 2. President Kennedy even realized this and so he refused to give any help to the French in their fight against Ho Chi Minh's revolution. But, Ho Chi Minh also happened to be communist, and we all know how evil communism is, so he soon became a suspicious character in America's eyes. The US was insane with fear of communism at the time, so the leaders of the US started to assume that Ho Chi Minh was just a puppet of Stalin and the Soviet Union. In fact, Ho Chi Minh was not like Stalin at all: he was really a leader of the people. He even lived in the same conditions as his people, not like most leaders, who would live in extravagance without giving it up for the people. So, the US started to slowly help out the French in their battle for control over Vietnam. But, the French eventually decided it wasn't worth fighting over, and the Geneva Accord set up a date for Vietnam to have free elections. But, the US didn't sign the Geneva Accord, and when it became apparant that the communists would win the election, the US decided to support an opposition leader in South Vietnam. His name was Diem, and he took control of South Vietnam before the elections. He then refused to let the elections happen in his South Vietnam. Diem turned out to be a ruthless dictator, but the US supported him because he wasn't communist. Ho Chi Minh and the North Vietnamese were obviously furious that Diem refused to allow the free elections in the South, so the Vietcong jungle guerrilla fighters were created in the south to try to reunite Vietnam by capturing the South. Then, the US congress agreed to allow the US to start a war against the North Vietnamese because of the Tonkin Gulf Incident, where two US ships were fired on by Vietnamese ships in international waters. The only problem is that this event is now generally considered to be fictional. So, the US started war with North Vietnam. The US dropped more than 7 million tons of bombs on North Vietnam. This is equal to over three hundred of the atomic bombs that were dropped in Japan in World War 2. These bombs left over20 million craters, where nothing will grow for several generations. About 541,500 American soldiers were in Vietnam at the height of the war. 58,000 American soldiers did not come home alive. Over 1 million  people or about 1 out of every 14 people in Vietnam died in the war. If that percentage of Americans died, it would mean 20 million deaths. The costs of the war finally became too great for even president Nixon,and the war was ended with the North Vietnamese finally succeeding in capturing the South and uniting Vietnam under a communist government. The thing that really pisses me off about his whole sad affair is that a lot of Americans say "we would have won the war if it wasn't for all of those damn protesters." PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES! The only way the US could have "won" the war and conquered North Vietnam would have been to kill or capture nearly every person in Vietnam who could use a gun. The Vietnamese people would not have just given up on having a united Vietnam that chose it's own government simply if no Americans had thought the war was wrong.

I haven't told this to many people, but my parents almost named me Ho Chi. This was because it means good energy in Chinese, not just after the vietnamese leader, but it turned out that it didn't make sense grammatically in Chinese, so they decided on Martin. But now that I have been reading and thinking about Ho Chi Minh, I am concidering changing my middle name to Ho Chi. It will give people in America a negative impression of me, but I don't really care right now. I believe that Ho Chi Minh was an admirable freedom fighter for the Vietnamese people and I would feel honored to be named after him almost as much as I like being named after Martin Luther King Jr.

Well, looking back on that, maybe it wasn't as boring as I predicted. I didn't really expect that tantrum about Vietnam. Sorry Shinta, I talked about politics instead of about my day. I didn't have anything else to say about my day though.

>

RX BanditsSong: Metal ManGenre: skaFor fans of: ska or heavy metalRating: ****(out of 5*s) This is a very good fast paced ska song, and it is even better because it is about heavy metal. I'm glad that some punk-type people have respect for metal. They sing about their respect for Metallica and even the Spinal Tap.

So, I want to go to this metal concert in Portland with Josh H, but I haven't talked to him in a long time. I'll have to call him tonight. The concert is going to be awesome: Children of Bodom (bow down before them!), Lamb of God (not too shabby), Fear Factory (meh...), and Throwdown (never heard of em). If I go up there, Josh and I will probably go up early that morning and sleep in my car that night. Then we'll head back the next day. Sounds good, eh?

Shinta and I have been going out for eleven months as of almost this exact minute! Pretty cool, huh? That's all I'm going to say about that to you fools.

I've watched almost 50 episodes of Naruto now. Most of them (like about 30) in the last three days. I'm a junky now. This is the most I've gotten into anime. It was so sad when Rock Lee got beat up. =(   These are my three favorite characters so far: 1. Hinata 2. Akamaru (you know, Kiba's dog) and 3. Kakashi-sensei        I'm going to get in deep shit for saying this, but Gaara's not that cool. He hasn't actually done any fighting at all. His sand just does everything for him, and he just stands there. He is evil though, but that isn't quite enough to make him cool in my eyes.

Make sure you are sitting down and do not have any heart trouble before reading this........my college has a DDR club.......that is the most nerdy thing I've ever heard. I play DDR, but most of the other people who do really scare me. Like the people that live in the Atlantis arcade. But the few people I have seen playing the DDR machine here are worse than that. They are complete geeks, but they aren't even good at DDR. They are geeky to a scary extent. I will kill them with shuriken to their throats if they aproach me.

Hi.

I'm comin' home later today. After my next class. hope it doesn't snow in the mountains this weekend. hope I can find the present that I'm lookin' for for Shinta. If your name is Mike or Ryan and you will be available this Saturday, call my cell.

>

I went to a lecture last night on "voting in America." It was pretty interesting. Listen to this: About fifty percent of Americans register to vote. About fifty percent of those registered actually vote. And the winner is decided by about fifty percent of those voters. So, if you do the math, about 12.5% of the population actually make all the decisions for all of us. I think that sucks, and I frankly find it a bit scary. So, WHOEVER YOU VOTE FOR, GO OUT AND VOTE!!!!!!! It isn't that hard. Even if you can't be bothered to go to your local polling station, you can request an absentee ballot, so you just have to fill it out at home at your own convenience and send it off in the mail. I requested my absentee ballot at the Carson City Courthouse, but I'm sure you could do it over the phone or even the internet. Anyways, another interesting factoid I learned last night was that voting is mandatory in Australia. Wow. That's really cool! Forcing everyone to vote! How do you think they enforce that law? Maybe they arrest you if you don't show up to vote.

So, I finally got to learn something new in my math class. It is calculus, but so far it has just been review of things I learned in Trig and Algebra 2. But today we started learning about derivatives! Woohoo! f '(x)=3x^2! yay!

I watched a large part of A New Hope this morning. I was so excited when Shinta gave the DVDs to me on Friday, but this is the first I have been able to see of them. It looks so good on DVD! I really like the way they made the menus. The menus and transitions are extra cool. I'll probably watch all of the movies before I move on to the special features DVD.                                    If anybody doesn't know what I'm talking about, shame on you.

Since a lot of people seem to be confused as to the issues in the current presidential campaignes, I will try to sum up some of the issues.

Iraq:

Kerry:

Kerry says that he has not flip-flopped on this issue, because he was always in favor of disarming Saddam, but he disagrees with how Bush invaded unilaterally and without using all other options before going to war. He says that Bush invaded Iraq over weapons that didn't exist and over links to terrorists that didn't exist. He also says that the Iraqi people and American soldiers are still suffering because Bush didn't have a plan of how to "gain the peace" before invading.

Bush:

Bush says that he was right in his invasion of Iraq, and that the world is now a safer place because Saddam Hussein is gone. He says that Saddam might have created weapons in the future, and that he could have given those weapons to terrorists, although he admits that no weapons have been found so far. Bush says that the people of Iraq are much better off because of the war.

As a side-note: over 1,000 American soldiers have died in Iraq, and over 12,000 Iraqi civilians have died in Iraq.

National Security:

Kerry:

John Kerry wants to increase the security at the nuclear and chemical plants in America. He also has a plan to increase the security of the nuclear objects in the former Soviet Union. He is against renewing the USA PATRIOT ACT (I could give you my opinion on why this Act is evil, but I'll save that for later). John Kerry strongly believes that the US will be safer if we renew our friendships with our allies, especially the UN.

Bush:

Bush wants to renew the USA PATRIOT Act, which he says helps the US government fight terrorism, but which critics say takes away from the rights that are guaranteed to us by the US Constitution. Bush thinks that we are safer if we don't get held down in too many alliances, and if we don't let the rest of the world tell us what to do.

Economy/Jobs:

Kerry:

John Kerry plans to cut taxes for businesses that create jobs here in America as a way to stop jobs from moving overseas. John Kerry plans to stop the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, who he says do not need that extra payment that could be used to help out the poorer Americans. Kerry also says he will erase the defecit that was created during the Bush administration.

Bush:

Bush plans to continue his tax cuts. He says that if the rich get more money back from taxes, it will help the poor as well through "trickle-down economics". I searched his web site and could not find any plan for dealing with the growing defecit.

Social Security:

Kerry:

Kerry is against privatizing social security (meaning that he thinks people will be safer if the government protects their social security investments.)

Bush:

Bush favors privatizing social security (meaning that people are more free about whether to put their social security money into private investments.)

Health Care:

Kerry:

Kerry is in favor of allowing more medicine to be imported from Canada in order to reduce the costs of prescription drugs.

Bush:

Bush is against importing medicine from Canada.

Education:

Kerry:

Kerry says the No Child Left Behind Act is very bad for public schools in America and he wants it repealed.

Bush:

Bush wants to introduce vowchers so that people can go to religious schools without any specific nationally required curriculum on federal funding. No Child Left Behind is the first step toward this.

Abortions:

Kerry:

Kerry wants women to have freedom of choice.

Bush:

Bush wants to ban almost all abortions.

Gay Marriage:

Kerry:

Kerry wants individual states to decide if they want legal gay marriage or not.

Bush:

Bush wants to ban all gay people from getting married.

John Kerry:

Kerry:

Kerry says quite often that he is a vietnam veteran and that he does not change his mind for purely political reasons.

Bush:

Bush says that Kerry cannot hold an opinion without "flip-flopping" and changing his mind.

George W. Bush:

Kerry:

Kerry says that Bush made and will make bad judgments regarding the strategy in Iraq and regarding economics.

Bush:

Bush once said that, "God wants me to be president."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5993610/

this link may take a while to fully come up (it seemed to work better when I clicked on another link and then pushed the "back" button), but it is a test made by the MSNBC news network to find out which candidate you most agree with. Some of the questions seem biased, but it goes both ways, so I think it evens out and provides a pretty good indication of which candidate you agree more with. Hopefully this will be more helpful than my somewhat biased descriptions below.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Mercyful Fate 

Song: Buried Alive

Genre: thrash maybe? I dunno....some kind of metal...

For fans of: Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, King Diamond

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) Mercyful Fate plays some pretty great metal laced with quality guitar riffs and backed up by one of my favorite vocalists ever: King Diamond. In this song he uses less of his falsetto voice than in most of their other songs, so I think it will be more likable for most people. Except for the vocals, it is pretty traditional thrash-style metal. I think King Diamond's voice was influential for a lot of black metal bands. I know Shinta has heard this song, but I don't know if she remembers it.

Oi. This is another one of those boring posts about my life. Proceed with caution.

So, today I had to give a group presentation in my "Mentor" class. The people in my group were Jacob, Grace and Jackie. We planned it a little bit in class, but we had to meet in Grace and Jackie's room (they are roomates) on Friday to work on the project. And since we were still not too sure of how it was going to go, we were supposed to meet again on Sunday, but I decided to make a spontaneous trip to visit Shinta on Saturday night at around 8:30, so I wasn't back until like 9 on Sunday night. I called Jacob when I got back, and apparently they met without me but didn't actually do anything. So we gave the presentation today, and it was pretty pathetic. The topic of the presentation was how multiracial people often have to choose which of their ethnicities they want to be connected with. This includes like when they have to choose one box to check on the census. Anyway, the activity we did for our project was that we asked the class what they're favorite colors were. We had the people that liked green the most meet in one corner, red in another, blue in another, and purple in the last corner. The people who liked a different color or liked two colors equally were stuck in the middle without a group. Then we handed out candy to the groups, and we made the people in the middle choose a group in order to get any candy. We then explained how this was like people having to choose a race when they didn't fit into one specific racial group. Yeah, it wasn't the greatest idea ever, and nobody cared, and it ended up being really quick and pointless. Well, I hope the professors won't grade the presentations too harshly. Anyway, we were discussing race in that class today, and this one kid, Phil, made some comments that weren't quite racist, but they were very insensitive, and everyone in the class got really angry at him. He does that almost every day in that class, even if we aren't talking about something very controversial, he'll still find something to say that will make everyone enemies with him. He just has a very confrontasional personality I guess. I'm usually the one who argues with him the most, just because I like to debate more than all the other kids in the class, who just sit there and whisper comments about how ignorant Phil is to each other.

I also had Logic today, and I had a test in that class. We have a test in that class about every two weeks, but the tests are all really easy for me. I guess I'm just logically inclined. So, I finished the test in about half an hour, and I got a break before my next class. So, I went back to my dorm and played games on my computer. I didn't play on my emulator today though, I played Diablo, which is a game with gameplay kind of like zelda. There aren't many puzzles like there are in zelda, you just walk around a kill things with your sword or bow or axe or staff or magic or whatever. Getting money to buy new weapons and armor (of which there are hundreds of different kinds with different effects to choose from) and new magic and potions and such is what I find fun about the game. And of course you get money by killing the undead monsters that wander around the dungeons for no real reason. I haven't played the game in a long time, so I thought I'd check it out again today. It's still pretty fun, although it isn't an RPG. And another good thing about the game is that the dungeons are randomly generated, so they are much different each time you play the game, even with slightly different quests and stuff.

I think I'm gonna do some drawing now (I'm drawing a picture of Sesshoumaru for Shinta's mom's birthday). then I think I'll watch the Empire Strikes Back. And I might do some homework sometime before going to sleep. And Shinta, if you use your computer at all tonight, sign onto AIM, cause I am on almost all the time now (I just push the little eye thing so it looks to everyone like i"m not really on). bye bye.

here's an interesting picture, don't you think?

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP)

Song: Proceed With Caution

Genre: DEP usually plays hardcore (don't ask me to define this genre, cause I am not too sure myself), but this song is just kinda "guitary"

For fans of: music of any kind

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) This song is purely instrumental with no singing. It is pretty short, and I recommend anyone who reads this download the song. But as a warning, it isn't like their other music.

I have made a drawing!!!! I put it on deviant art. so, click here if you know what's good for you. It isn't as good as my Kamui drawing, but that one wasn't dark enough to scan.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Howard Shore

Song: The Great River

Genre: Orchestral-type stuff

For fans of: The Lord of the Rings (it's from the soundtrack to the fellowship, which has a lot of good orchestra music)

Rating: The Lord of the Rings films have a lot of damn good music. I especially like this song because it is one of the darker ones and it has the subtle choir voices accompanying the epic symphonic piece.

Here are some interesting figures:

The United States spends approximately $10 billion on foreign aid each year.

The United States spends approximately $400 billion on it's military each year.

Those are the straight facts. I'll let your form your own opinions from them.

Today for lunch I had some rice with soy sauce and a bunch of chinese looking hot sauce. It was quite good.

Woohoo! I got an A on my mentor paper! It was only supposed to be a four page paper, so I went a little over, but I guess they liked it anyway. The three people sitting around me are all smart, but they all got Bs, so I'm pretty happy with my grade. The topic of the paper was "what are the benefits of a liberal education?". Pretty boring topic, eh? Well, I think I did a pretty good job, and I was even able to work in this Bob Marley qoute: "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds."

I have my International Politics midterm on thursday, and I'm pretty scared. He gave us a study guide that will help though, and I am having a study group type thing with a couple other kids in the class tonight. One part of the study guide just says "you will need to know some specific terms relating to International Politics". What the hell? I have no idea which terms he will ask for, so I guess I'll just read through all four of my text books for that class. :eyeroll:     Oh well, that part will probably be easier than the essay questions. Hopefully it goes well.

Even though nobody cares, I will give a little update on the Children of Bodom concert. It turns out it will also be in San Francisco, so I might not have to drive all the way to Portland to see it. It will be on a Friday night in San francisco though, so if I did that I might not be able to drive back to carson that night. Well, it is still a while, so I'll have to think about it some more.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Emperor 

Song: I Am the Black Wizards (funky grammar eh? don't worry it's intentional)

Genre: Norwegian Black Metal

For fans of: Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon, Immortal, Darkthrone, Burzum, Mayhem, Cradle of Filth

Rating: ***(out of 5*s) This is true Norwegian Black Metal. You can really tell that demons are singing and playing guitar. Probably while burning a church or raping angels or something. Black metal is pretty cool, though. It is great because it tries to balance the harshness and brutality of the vocals and distortion with the beauty of the guitars and synths. Dimmu Borgir is more on the "beauty" side though, and traditional Norwegian Black Metal like this is more on the "harshness and brutality" side.

Comedic genius Mel Brooks is making a sequel to his brilliant Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs. He tells Playbill.com he wants to have it ready in time for release around the same time as Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith which is due out May 19th. In it's report on the movie, TV Guide Online opines, "Let's pray we can tell which one's the spoof," perhaps insinuating that George Lucas' Star Wars prequels aren't that good.

I can't wait. The original Spaceballs was quite a funny movie. Mel Brooks is really a genius. I'm afraid they may be right about the next Star Wars being as much of an insult to the Star Wars legacy as the Mel Brooks parody is. I also heard some disturbing rumors a while ago saying that George Lucas might make more Indiana Jones films in the future. I guess he is just trying to kill all of the great films he made with horrible sequels featuring different and worse actors. I'll just try to pretend that George Lucas died in a horrible plane crash back in the early 90s.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Iron Maiden 

Song: The Wicker Man

Genre: Power Metal (don't get all technical on me if they actually play progressive metal or something)

For fans of: any metal

Rating: *****(out of 5*s) Oh my! It's Martin's third five-star rating ever! And Iron Maiden truly deserves it with this song. I suppose some people might find it a tad bit repetative, but I have to wipe up the drool after every time I hear this song. The guitar riffs are godly.

Lyrics:  ooh, it's a new section! Here I will include any lyrics from the featured song that are particularly meaningful or I just thought sounded cool. 

You watch the world exploding every single night,
Dancing in the sun a newborn in the light

Your time will come, Your time will come!

Here's a test to see which candidate you agree with the most. I think this one is better than the one I put up here before. Hopefully the link will work.

http://www.presidentmatch.com/Guide.jsp2

Phil from my mentor class once again proved how intollerant he is and how much he wants people to hate him. today he was talking about how it isn't a problem at all that there hasn't been a woman president and that women are almost nonexistant in business and politics (1.8% of corporate CEOs are female). I think he seriously believes that women are biologically inferior to men. So, today the daily Phil vs. Everyone Else debate was about sexism. I am the usual spokesperson for Everyone Else, since I seem the most willing to risk looking foolish by arguing in front of the class. Phil is in speach and debate, so he is good at debating, but not as good as he is at making enemies. He just says things that are really intollerant and that anger a lot of people. I think he is racist and sexist and homophobic and probably a bunch of other isms.

I am going to watch Naruto now. I still don't know who became a chuunin. so don't tell me or I"LL KILL MYSELF!!!!! and then you'll feel sorta bad. unless you really hate me that much. or you don't have a conscience. and then I'll wathc the debates. Kerry seems to be much better than Bush in debates. That is the polls talking, not just me.

I want to dress up for halloween, but I don't know as what. My ideas to be a black metaller with corpse paint and a samurai with a kimono probably won't work, so I am open to ideas. I don't want to spend much money too much effort on my costume though. But, please give me any suggestions you have. I probably won't dress up at all. Oh well.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Reagan Youth 

Song: Reagan Youth

Genre: punk

For fans of: Anti-Flag, Rancid, Bad Religion, Subhumans, UK Subs, Dead Kennedys

Rating: ****1/2(out of 5*s) Reagan Youth are a great band. I really want their cd, but it is so hard to find! I'll probably have to order it on the internet. Anyway, great song. It's comparing conservatives to nazis. The Hitler Youth was an organization in nazi Germany that made children loyal mindless followers of Hitler. So, they just replaced Hitler with Reagan. I can see the similarities.

Lyrics: 

We are the sons of Reagan ...Heil!
Gonna kill us some pagans ...Heil!
The Right's your sacred mission
Start an inquisition
Gonna purge the heathen minds!

We are Reagan Youth! ...Heil! Heil! Heil!
Reagan Youth ...Zeig Heil!

(the rest of the lyrics are just as good, but I didn't want to take up the whole screen with lyrics)

I watched a movie called Goodbye Lenin tonight. Sadly it wasn't about Lenin. But it was still one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while. It was a German film about the fall of the Berlin wall. Well, it isn't actually about the wall falling down, but it's about some East German people trying to deal with the end of communism. I really recommend the movie. Unless you can't read subtitles because you're lazy. Then I recommend you smack yourself in the head.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Arcturus 

Song: Star Crossed

Genre: black metal (well, it's pseudo-black metal. it's actually probably more like power metal)

For fans of: Dimmu Borgir, Abigor, ...And Oceans, Amorphis, Mortiis, Symphony X

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) I love Arcturus. Dark and metallic and even more classical than Dimmu. Not much else to say.

Lyrics: 

All dreams end here
where our cries began
resounding to museums
of a world we believed

neverending

Thank Odin! My International Politics midterm is over! And I am sure I passed. I think I did pretty well overall. I accidently forgot to answer one question, but it was only worth one point out of twenty-four. I'm hoping for a B.

It's raining cats and dogs here (if you'll excuse the expression). It's a frickin storm, which made it kinda hard to walk between my classes without getting my books and stuff soaked. I kinda like the rain though. A branch fell out of a tree because of the wind, and it landed like three feet from me. It was about 5 feet long, and I think I could've died! Those of you in Northern Nevada be warned, a lot more presipitation is coming your way.

Alright, I'm gonna take a long deserved break from studying before I start studying for my math test and writing my mentor essay. I think I'll watch the Cowboy Bebop movie (even though the version I have is in English). Or maybe I'll watch the Empire Strikes Back dvd.

This last weekend was pretty bad. Well, I still got to see Shinta, but it was bad nonetheless. I was driving up highway 88 through the mountains when a sign said 'highway closed ahead due to fire'. So I pulled off to the side of the road and thought about how bad it was going to suck to drive all the way back to stockton and then to sacramento and then through highway 50 to carson city. But I saw some other cars keep going so I decided to follow them even though the road was going to be closed ahead. About a mile further the road was closed, but there was a detour route. so I took the detour which took about an hour longer, making my trip to Carson city about four hours. Then I had to spend most of the weekend studying for my International Politics midterm (I'm sure glad I studied so much for it now though), and Shinta had to work on her English essay all weekend. And then I had to leave early on sunday because there was going to be a snow storm in the mountains. So, I took highway 50 through Tahoe on the way back because highway 88 was probably going to still be closed. But, when I got partway on 50, it turned out that 50 was closed for fire and guess where they sent me for the detour? that's right highway 88 which was the road that was closed the first time through. So it probably took me more than four hours to get back to Stockton, where I was awaiting.......more studying. So, this last weekend could have been better, but I'm expecting next weekend to be great.

I want anybody other than Shinta (or Zebulan, I won't be tricked that easily) to tell me what is special about next weekend(no it isn't christmas yet)? I'll give you a cookie if you get it right!

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Finntroll 

Song: Skogens H‰mnd (at least that's the name it gives on my iTunes)

Genre: folk metal

For fans of: Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Nevermore, Therion

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) I just found out about Finntroll recently, and damn are they good! Celtic folk metal is pretty cool.

Lyrics: 

Allt du trott se lögnen vällter
Läs nu runor med magiska tal
Spå en ålder av ve och kval
När mörka skuggor nu himmelen rider
Se då nalkas jaktens tid

Those are some deep lyrics, man. I'm not even sure what language it's in.

I was driving to carson this last weekend and I saw this antiques store called "Junk and Stuff". It made me think of you two and laugh.

This fortune is for James. They gave it to me in my fortune cookie at China Garden (I know they changed their name, but I still call it that), but it is definitely meant for James: "Behind an able man, there are always other able men" in bed.

I had a great weekend. I went to the John Kerry rally at Lawlor in Reno. I thought Kerry was inspiring with his speech, and it was good to hear Harry Reid talk about him too. It was all very exciting. And I got a sign! it says "A Fresh Start for America: John Kerry 2004". It's pretty cool.

And that wasn't all that made my weekend great. Nobody was able to guess what was special about this weekend, but the correct answer should have been: "It's your aniversary with Shinta, silly." That's right, I've been with her for a whole year now. It feels like we've been together forever, but it also seems like it was just yesterday that I reluctantly confessed my love to her. So, I won't share the details with all of you, but we had a great time over the weekend, you know being romantic and stuff.

I borrowed Shinta's playstation, since she isn't using it, and I hauled my crappy $5 tv to my dorm room, so I finally get to start my Final Fantasy 8 game again. I played for about half an hour today, and I fought and beat Norg and got the Leviathan summon. Yay for me! The only problem (besides my tv being crappy and the image shaking a little and me not really understanding what the hell is going on at the moment) is that the playstation controller was covered in some disgusting sticky substance. The controller came from out of Lisa's (Shinta's sister) room, so It's lucky we were even able to find the controller. Her room should just be declared a landfill. Anyway, the controller was all gross and sticky, so I had to try to wash it off, but it is still a little sticky. I'll have to use some of these "all purpose cleaning wipes" on it.

So, the moral of this tale is: Kerry Edwards '04!

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Summoning 

Song: The Mountain King's Return

Genre: black metal

For fans of: Burzum, Nokturnal Mortum, Arcturus

Rating: ***1/2(out of 5*s) Summoning is an awesome Tolkien-obsessed, atmospheric black metal band from Austria. I think that every song they have ever made is somehow related to Middle Earth. This song in particular is, in my opinion, about the return of Thorin to the lonely mountain Eriador in the Hobbit. It might not really be about that, but that's my theory. Anyway, Summoning is a good band, and JRR Tolkien is my god.

Lyrics: 

The king beneath the mountains
The king of carven stone
The lord of silver fountains
Shall come into his own!

The streams shall run in gladness
The lakes shall shine and burn
All sorrow fail and sadness
At mountains king's return

These are just a couple of the verses.

I got to see a speach last night by Peter Camejo. He's Ralph Nader's vice presidential running mate, and he was also the Green party candidate during the California recall election. He had a lot of good stuff to say, and I agree with him on a lot of issues that Kerry and Bush just don't have the answers to. I did disagree with him about one main thing though: He thinks that there is no difference between Bush and Kerry, Republicans and Democrats. I have to strongly disagree with this. I think that Kerry does have many of the American people's best interests at heart, and I think that he can undo some of the evils that Bush has brought on our country. He is not all that I can hope for in a president, but I'm not convinced that Nader is the reincarnation of Jesus either. So, to sum it up, I'm glad that I checked Kerry/Edwards on my absentee ballot that I sent in last Sunday. Kerry Edwards '04!

Also speaking was a candidate for US Senator for California. She was from the Peace and Freedom party, and I also agreed with most of what she said. She did make one proposal that was new and attractive to me, though: the abolishment of the US Senate. (hmm...isn't she running for senator?) At first I thought this was a crazy, undemocratic idea, but as she explained it I became more convinced. The US Senate is made up of two representatives from each state, no matter what the population of that state. This is good for small states, but it isn't necessarily good for democracy. The Senate makes it so that a person living in Wyoming's vote is worth about twice as much as the vote of someone living in California. That isn't democratic. Every person's vote should be worth the same, no matter who they are or where they live. Without the Senate, the House of Representatives would still make the legislation for our country. The drawback is that the system of checks and balances would be slightly less effective. She also proposed the abolishment of the electoral college, but I was already for that idea. once again, Kerry Edwards '04!

And on a non-political note, I just went to the dollar tree and bought some mechanical pencils. I got a pack of six of them (in various ugly colors) for a dollar. But, more importantly, while I was there something caught my eye: a realistic looking plastic battle axe. It's so viking and kvlt and stuff! I might be a black metaller for halloween yet! (probably not, because I think I'll be a pretty good samurai, and my katana is real, unlike my plastic battle axe.) 

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Apocalyptica

Song: Harvester of Sorrows (that's right, a Metallica cover)

Genre: cello quartet

For fans of: orchestra music, Metallica

Rating: ****1/2(out of 5*s) Apocalyptica is a string quartet that plays covers of Metallica, Slayer, and Sepultura, as well as their own heavy metal style songs. Their music has a really cool classical quality (duh, they're playing cellos), but it might not be quite as epic as their heavy metal counterparts. The guitar solos work out extremely well on cello.

Lyrics: 

sorry, this song doesn't have lyrics. I guess I could write the lyrics for the original Metallica song or something. nah, you already know those lyrics. I mean, who doesn't?

Quite interesting. Led Zeppelin is Satanic. check it out:

http://www.hamncheez.com/media/flash/stairway[1].swf

Look! Kerry is a Satanist!

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/lavey.asp#photo

My disillusionment with Americans grows with every passing moment. This morning in my calculus class my professor was talking to us a little bit about the election. The girl sitting in front of me (who is also in my International Politics class) asked me who won the election. WHO WON THE ELECTION?! How could you not bother to find out already?! Glance at a  newspaper, or turn on a tv or a radio, or look on any website on the entire Internet! But that's not all. Just a minute later another girl in the class asked the professor in all seriousness who the republican candidate was. WHAT THE FUCK?! I felt like crying. I now see quite clearly how Bush was able to get reelected. These incredibly ignorant people are not rednecks who watch Nascar all day from their trailer, these are students at an accredited private university! One of them was even in my international politics class! Dear Odin, what has come of our nation? NOFX had it right in their song The Idiots are Taking Over: "Majority rule don't work in mental institutions."

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Anti-Flag

Song: Culture Revolution

Genre: punk

For fans of: Bad Religion, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, NOFX, the Exploited

Rating: *****(out of 5*s) It's about time I had an Anti-Flag song on here. They are my second favorite band, after all. I'll give you a cookie if you can guess who my top favorite band is. Anyway, this is a pretty kick ass song off the Underground Network album. The lyrics are a great depiction of America's capitalist society, and Justin Sane and #2 and company really pull through with the song structure on this one. This one is pretty angry; even more so than usual for Anti-Flag.

Lyrics:
have you seen the scene on the street?
do you care what's going on?
thousands homeless in the land of the free
but no one seems to think it's wrong!
that's why we fuckin' wrote this song

chorus:
take to the streets - cause it's time to make a stand
we're not gonna back down!
(we're talking...) culture revolution!
this ship is sinking - it's time we set it right

when the standards of society
are based solely on greed
humanity, compassion do not define
what it means to succeed! no!

for the poor - contempt and hate
from the rich, middle class, the state
compassion dumped for apathy
the greatest nation ever seen?
that's fuckin' real hard to beleive...

socialized , mechanized
to consume... everything in the world
saturate , accumulate
your happiness... can be bought and be sold
environment , detriment

is not an issue of concern
humanity , or this insanity
the choice is yours, and your choice alone
but you won't be alone
no, you won't be alone... YEAH!

revolution! on the street! in your head! move!

...an update on my Final Fantasy 8 game.

I beat Raijin and Fujin today. You know.(that was a joke, but it would only be funny if you have played the game. and even then it wouldn't really be funny. just laugh anyway. it'll make me feel better) They weren't too hard, but it's because I've leveled up enough that nothing in the game is hard. Except driving the stupid garden. It's just difficult to manuever. I also got a new summon. I don't remember what it's called, but it was pretty gross looking and I got it from Fujin. It was pretty funny when those Galbadian soldiers ate the fish and got food poisoning and then started hallucinating. Oh yeah, Squall got a promotion. That made me really excited, but I don't actually get any more power. I just get to try to steer the stupid garden. I spent a lot of time playing cards against Martine in FH. I am still missing one of the level 7 boss cards that he has, but I'll just have to get it later. I was getting slightly tired of the card game so I moved on with the story. Oh yeah, I also got to make the band. that was kind of cool. I had Zell on saxophone (he should have been drums, but they didn't give that option), Selphie on main electric guitar (she can shred like a madwoman), Irvine on bass guitar (he's goofy enough to be a bassist), and Quistis on piano. Quistis didn't really fit into the band, but oh well. Squall was still an ass, but then Rinoa started over-reacting, and now I dislike both of them. I think I dislike Squall because I see a little of myself in him. Well, that's my Final Fantasy 8 news.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Nokturnal Mortum

Song: The Return of the Vampire Lord

Genre: black metal

For fans of: Emperor, Darkthrone, Burzum, Summoning

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) This is one of my favorite black metal songs. I think Nokturnal Mortum is a band that should be a lot more popular than they are. Apparently they're Russian.

Lyrics:
I haven't been able to find the lyrics for this song anywhere on the Internet. Darklyrics.com almost always has lyrics to every heavy metal song, but they didn't have this one unless it's one of the many songs with russian lyrics.

I want everyone to know that my amazing banner image was created by my girlfriend and amazing artist Stephanie Hovden. It is a picture of the main character from Final Fantasy 5 standing next to his chocobo named Boko. If you are as amazed by her art skills as I am you can check out more of her art, including some realism as well as more anime, here:

http://kaio-kun.deviantart.com .

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Red Army Chorus

Song: The Sacred Lenin Banner

Genre: Soviet massive chorus music

For fans of: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or communism in general

Rating: **1/2(out of 5*s) I just thought I'd post this one for kicks. Those Soviets sure knew how to make overbearing choirs.

Lyrics:
Something about how great Lenin and mother-Russia are, I assume. I'm a little rusty on my Russian, so you'll have to translate this one yourselves.

My mom gave me ("lend" was the word she used, but I know I'll end up keeping it) Mao's little red book this weekend. She got the english version in San Francisco during her hippy days. It's actually called Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung although I've never heard it called anything other than Mao's little red book before. It is actually little and red and was printed in China by the "foreign languages press" in 1967. I've read through a little bit of it, and Mao said some pretty cool things.

Here's a quote kind of picked at random: "In class society everyone lives as a member of a particular class, and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the brand of a class."

I think the saying on the title page pretty well sums it up: "Workers of all countries, unite!"

My mom also showed me a chinese children's picture book she has. It is about two little Mongolian girls who, while striving to be disciples of chairman Mao Tse-Tung, save their village's communal flock of sheep from a blizzard. It was interesting to read, but it was really bad propaganda. The little girls would say things like, "I want to devote my life to the Chinese Communist Party!"

I guess I didn't realize how cool my mom used to be. She's softened up in her old age, though. It's probably my fault for being born and destracting her from her hippy ways. She's still quite politically liberal, but she has become kind of a conservative dictator around the house. Good thing I'm not living at home anymore.

Oh, and I actually have a picture of me as my icon. I don't know what motivated me to do such craziness, but I think I'll change it to something else tonight. The picture is me before the start of summer, so my hair was longer than it is now (since I got it cut a week ago), but shorter than it was back in October.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Shadows Fall

Song: CRUSHING BUTTSEX! (actually it's Crushing Belial, that was just an immature inside joke with a couple of my friends)

Genre: metal, I'm too lazy to figure out what subgenre; probably some sort of death metal or thrash

For fans of: other metal bands

Rating: ***(out of 5*s) I don't feel like writing about it. 

Lyrics:
I dunno. Something about Belial. Satan is good. Satan is your pal.

The Beatles are barely beating Good Charlotte and Ashlee Simpson in the mindsay music list. Something needs to be done. Everyone who reads this, immediately put the Beatles in your list of music on your mindsay profile. And, if necessary, remove Yellowcard, Linkin Park, and any other so-called "musicians" who are ahead of the Beatles from your list.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Black Flag

Song: Nervous Breakdown

Genre: hardcore/punk

For fans of: Minor Threat, Bad Brains, etc.

Rating: ***(out of 5*s) I like Black Flag. Good stuff.

Lyrics:
nothing too interesting.

Woohoo! It's a metal music topic thing!

I just want to take a minute to talk about how awesome the band Nightwish is. Nightwish plays some sub-genre of Power Metal with their own kick ass style. Tarja (I don't remember her last name) is the vocalist for the band, and she has the most awesome operatic vocals of any female vocalist. Her vocals are probably my second favorite of any band, after King Diamond (Mercyful Fate, King Diamond). Nightwish has some of coolest guitar-work and synths, and they just make some really well-structured songs. If you are a fan of Lacuna Coil, Therion, Symphony X, Dio, Nevermore or any other Power Metal then you will definitely like this band. My personal favorite Nightwish songs are: Gethsemane, End of All Hope, Sacrament of Wilderness, and their version of the Phantom of the Opera. I really recommend you check out this band if you haven't already.

So, I went to pick up a package at the campus mail center this morning and I was wearing my Kamui (from the anime X/1999) shirt. The lady who gave me my package asked me if it was Yugioh. @$%@&^%$$%^$#%#&^**^$#@!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to punch the lady. It used to be Pokemon, now Yugioh is what everyone associates anime with. That's like someone calling Limp Bizkit a metal band or John Kerry a socialist. I watched one episode of Yugioh (I'm not sure why) and it was terrible. It was like the whole show was written and designed by a home for mentally handicapped people. It is really sad that so many people think all anime is like that. The show X is probably too intillectually stimulating for that lady's small mind, but I still wish she would at least know there is an immense variety of GOOD anime out there. Yugioh is not all there is.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Mercyful Fate

Song: The Oath

Genre: metal

For fans of: King Diamond

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) The album Don't Break the Oath is one of my favorite cds. I really recommend it, but King Diamond's voice isn't for everyone, so download before you buy.

Lyrics:
this song has the most Satanic lyrics of any song ever made:

By the symbols of the creator
I swear henceforth to be
A faithful servant of his most
Puissant archangel
The Prince Lucifer
Whom the creator designated as his regent
And Lord of this World
I deny Jesus Christ...the deciever
And I abjure the Christian faith
Holding in contempt all of it's works

As a being now possessed of a human body
In this world I swear to give my full
Allegiance to it's lawfull master,
To worship him our
Lord Satan and no other
In the name of Satan, the ruler of Earth
Open wide the gates of Hell
And come forth from the abyss
By these names: Satan, Leviathan,
Belial, Lucifer
I will kiss the goat

I swear to give my mind
My body and soul unreservedly
To the furtherance of our
Lord Satan designs
Do what thou wilt shall be the
Whole of the law
As it was at the beginning
Is now and ever shall be
World without end Amen

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Save a turkey's life; eat sushi today. Or tofurkey, but I don't really like that stuff at all.

When you are eating your turkey tonight just think about how little Jimmy the turkey had a full life ahead of him. He had dreams. He wanted to be the star of the basketball team. He never even got to say goodbye to his mommy before they slaughtered him. Well, he actually never knew his mommy because he was raised in a tiny cage.

I know I'm gonna get shit for saying all that, but just realize that it was a joke before you post anything. I'm not trying to convince anyone to become vegetarian. Meat does taste pretty nasty, though. I don't know why everyone likes it.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: The Clash

Song: Come On Eileen

Genre: the Clash usually don't fit into any specific genre.

For fans of: good music

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) it's a classic.

Lyrics:
I'm sure you already know the lyrics of this song. 

I saw this somewhere and thought I should share it with you all:

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN
aka Joe Beercan

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.

With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer adheres to these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the taxpayer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

_______________________________________

I also recently saw an article about how the people of Alabama voted this November against changing their state consititution to remove the sections condoning racial segregation. Apparently nothing has changed in Alabama. It is still required, according to the state constitution, to have "white only" and "black only" public schools and poll taxes, which were used against african americans and which were also made illegal with the federal Voting Rights Act. And the majority of the people of Alabama voted to keep it that way.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: The Exploited

Song: Punks Not Dead

Genre: punk

For fans of: Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, The Germs, Minor Threat, Crass

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) Whether the title is still true or not, this song kicks ass.

Lyrics:
"Punks not dead and gone." etc. I'm too lazy to write it all out.

So Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge resigned. Is it because they wouldn't let him add pink to the terror alert colors?

Rumsfeld: "Pink's a gay color."

Ridge: "But I love pink! Even my bedsheets are pink!"

Rumsfeld: "You faggot."

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Mystic Forest

Song: Si Le Bois Pouvait Parler...

Genre: black ambient

For fans of: Arcturus, Dimmu Borgir, Tvangeste, Darkthrone, Burzum, Emperor

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) This is an awesome french black metal/ambient song. It even has a hint of traditional french music in it. I downloaded this completely legally, you can too right here: http://www.mysticforest.fr.st/.

Lyrics:
something french. the title means "If the Woods Could Talk." Sounds interesting. I just may look up the lyrics.

In a couple hours I'm going to San Francisco for the Satyricon concert. They will be playing with 3 Inches of Blood (the one song I've heard is pretty good) and two bands I've never heard of: Infernal Majesty (cool name) and Artificium Sanguis (another cool name). Satyricon is, for those of you who don't already know, an awesome black metal band, and this is the last date of their first US tour. Their regular drummer, Frost, won't be there, because the United States sucks and won't give him a travel visa (something about felony convictions...), so Joey Jordison (Slipknot) is going to be filling in for him. This is okay because Joey is a good drummer, although I don't really like his regular band.

This will be my first extreme metal concert, and I'm filled with excitement as well as a kind of nervousness. I'm not too sure what to expect, but I think it'll be a great show. I'm a scrawny guy, so here's hoping I don't die in the pit. =)

I just got back from San Francisco and SATYRICON FUCKING ROCKED! It was an incredible show! Satyricon was amazing pure black fucking metal! 

There was a shitty brutal death metal opening band who's name I don't remember (it was different from what I read on the interenet). Then 3 Inches of Blood played. They were really good. I loved the vocals. And I guess they had better be good with two people doing only vocals in the band. Then came Satyricon. As soon as they marched into the room everybody was ecstatic. They played an amazing one hour long set including Fuel for Hatred, which was a croud favorite, and then we got them to come back for an encore. They then played a Bathory cover that was fucking awesome. And after that Satyr said to the croud, "are you ready for some Norwegian black metal?!" and they played Mother North and it was so incredible I can't put it into words. I'm not feeling too sore from the pit yet, but I'm sure that will come after I sleep. I was right at the front of the stage for most of the Satyricon show, and I even got hit with the guitarist's hair once. What an amazing night. now sleep.

http://www.world-cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/11/30/bush.arrest/index.html

Note: This is not a real news article, and CNN will probably have this site shut down soon, so look at it while you can.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041206/ts_alt_afp/us_ebay_offbeat_041206190301

Almost as good as the grilled cheese with the mother mary.

This is an excerpt from an article about the newly appointed Secretary of Agriculture of the United States. The name in bold is my second cousin.

"Missouri Farm Bureau President Charles Kruse was short-listed by the White House early. Karl Rove calls Kruse his "favorite farmer," a near anointment of the Bootheel producer. He's a fervent free trader and worked Missouri like a mule to turn the supposed swing state into a solid red state in 2004."

I'm just so proud to have Karl Rove's favorite farmer in my family. Too bad he didn't get the appointment.

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Satyricon

Song: Black Lava

Genre: black metal

For fans of: Mayhem, Emperor, Darkthrone, Dimmu Borgir

Rating: ****(out of 5*s) This is off their new album, Volcano, which I haven't stopped listening to since I bought it at the concert last week. I really like the album, and this song particularly. 15 minutes of doomish black metal goodness.

Lyrics:
"Black lava,

drifting down the moutain side.

Black lava, you can't fight." etc.

twenty-two, the avenue,

that's the place where we all go

Stephanie and I got in a car accident this morning. We were driving down Carson Street, minding our own business, when suddenly a massive yellow truck pulled out directly in front of us. We collided with it at twenty five miles per hour before we even saw it. Both airbags deployed. Stephanie's car was almost completely destroyed. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt and so she got hurt worse than me (which still wasn't that bad). She hurt her knees enough for them to swell up pretty badly. I escaped unscathed. The fucking bastard who pulled out in front of us didn't have much damage to his truck. To add insult to injury, one of the cops asked Stephanie if she had been drinking (even though the accident was obviously the other guys fault). That whole accident was one hell of a way to ruin our days. At least we aren't badly hurt; that's all that really matters, right?

--Song du Jour--

Artist: Magog

Song: Born of Desecration

Genre: black metal/melodic death

For fans of: Emperor, Satyricon, At the Gates

Rating: ****1/2(out of 5*s) I love this song. It is way too melodic to be strictly black metal. Magog is a great band. I highly recommend them.

Everyone, go to http://google.com and do a regular search for the word "failure". Guess who pops up as the first site? he he he.

music: So This is Freedom by The Unseen

It's OVER! HELL yeah!

the semester and (more importantly) my International Politics final are over. And I think I did a lot better than I feared on my final. I probably got a B.

and on a more political note:

Defense Missile for U.S. System Fails to Launch

By DAVID STOUT and JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr.

Published: December 16, 2004

ASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - An important test of the United States' fledgling missile defense system ended in failure early Wednesday as an interceptor rocket failed to launch on cue from the Marshall Islands, the Pentagon said.

After a rocket carrying a mock warhead as a target was launched from Kodiak, Alaska, the interceptor, which was intended to go aloft 16 minutes later and home in on the target 100 miles over the earth, automatically shut down because of "an unknown anomaly," according to the Missile Defense Agency of the Defense Department.

Ha. Who woulda thunk? That's 200 million of your taxpayer dollars hard at work.

http://hetfield.tarsierjungle.net/

the James Hetfield hair watch. yes, it is just as pointless and funny as it sounds.

(James Hetfield is the frontman of the band Metallica, just so all of you uneducated cretans know)

second annual? wow. I guess that means I've been here on Mindsay for about a year now. crazy.

ALBUMS: (I've discovered an amazing amount of music over the past year. A year ago I listened to mostly punk with a little Metallica or Megadeth thrown in every once in a while, but over the past year my musical tastes have grown tremendously, mostly in the direction of metal, extreme or otherwise. Don't worry, you should still see some punk in the mix.)

1. Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon: Dimmu Borgir is in my opinion one of the most tallented bands in existence today. Their twist on black metal with far more orchestral and epic metal achievements than their more "true" and "kvlt" black metal counterparts has gained them some much deserved recognition and Ozzfest infamy in the past year. Although many a "true" black metal fan says that they became mainstream and therefore almost as bad as nu metal after Stormblast, I think that most metalheads will come to realize that the direction they are taking their music is into the future of metal rather than dwelling in the joyful misery of black metal's past. This album particularly incompasses their brilliant songwriting and musicianship with an amazing epic feel that few bands can match.

2. Anti-Flag - Underground Network: Anti-Flag keeps the joy of punk alive for me in these times when any band who spends a few hundred dollars at Hot Topic and allows themselves to be ass-raped by MTV's evil corporate executives can be the next "Good" Charlotte "punk" superstars. This album is chock full of the political rants and tirades that are the basis of Anti-Flag's inspired lyrics, from the historical and unpatriotic Stars and Stripes to the nuclear perspective of Vieques, Puerto Rico: Bikini Revisited. Anti-Flag also back it up musically with some great guitar riffs and nice basslines by the trusty "#2". This is an album that will make you want to change the world, or at least chant along.

3. Megadeth - The System Has Failed: This is quite possibly the heaviest Megadeth album yet. It has awesome riffs and solos galore. There is even a song that I think is dedicated to Dave Mustaine's feelings toward James Hetfield. My favorite Megadeth album remains Youthanasia (don't ask me why...everyone else hates that one...), but this is an album that will stay in my cd player for a long, long time.

4. Satyricon - Volcano: I wasn't expecting the greatest cd when I bought this one, but it was quite the pleasant surprise. Extra heavy, yet surprisingly clean-cut black metal. I could never have truly appreciated this band before I saw them perform. I'm still not over it.

5. Tidfall - Nucleus: Tidfall seems to be the industrial, or maybe even electronica, version of Dimmu Borgir. If you like metal or you like techno, this cd would be a good buy. Some of the musical progressions are just genius. This is the only cd I have ever bought before hearing any songs by the band, but it turned out especially well.

6. Simon and Garfunkel - The Essential Simon and Garfunkel: I just got this cd for christmas, so I'm still digesting it, but it's pretty clear to me that it will be one of my lasting favorites. It's actually a two disc set with all of their classic songs: Mrs. Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Feeling Groovy, The Boxer, and my personal favorite Sounds of Silence along with a lot of great songs I hadn't heard before. Paul Simon is really one of the best songwriters ever.

well, I was going to move on to movies and video games now, but I'm feeling pretty sleepy, so I'll save those for my next entry. stay tuned...

Dear Martin,

No American citizen should wake up the morning after the election and worry their vote wasn't counted. No citizen should be denied at the polls if they are eligible to vote. And, as the greatest, wealthiest nation on earth, our citizens should never be forced to vote on old, unaccountable and non transparent voting machines from companies controlled by partisan activists.

Tomorrow, members of Congress will meet to certify the results of the 2004 presidential election. I will not be taking part in a formal protest of the Ohio Electors.

Despite widespread reports of irregularities, questionable practices by some election officials and instances of lawful voters being denied the right to vote, our legal teams on the ground have found no evidence that would change the outcome of the election.

But, that does not mean we should abandon our commitment to addressing those problems that happened in Ohio. We must act today to make sure they never happen again.

I urge you to join me in using this occasion to highlight our demand that Congress commit itself this year to reforming the electoral system. A Presidential election is a national federal election but we have different standards in different states for casting and counting votes. We need a national federal standard to solve the problems that occurred in the 2004 election. I will propose legislation to help achieve this.

Florida 2000 was a wake up call. But the Republicans who control Congress ignored it. Will they now ignore what happened in 2004?

There are nearly 3,000,000 of you receiving this email. We accomplished so much together during the campaign. Now let's use our power to make sure that at least one good thing comes from the voting rights problems of the 2004 election. If we want to force real action on election reform, we've got to demand that congressional leaders hold full hearings. Make sure they hear from you and help hold them accountable.

Speaker Dennis Hastert: 1-202-225-0600
Leader Bill Frist: 1-202-224-3135

And please report that you've made your call right here:
http://www.johnkerry.com/signup/electoral_reform.php

I want every vote counted because Americans have to know that the votes they stood in line for, fought for, and strived so hard to cast in an election, are counted. We must make sure there are no questions or doubts in future elections. It's critical to our democracy that we investigate and act to prevent voting irregularities and voter intimidation across the country. We can't stand still as Congressional leaders seek to sweep well-founded voter concerns under the rug.

Please join with me in calling Speaker Hastert and Leader Frist and telling them that you want action on election reform now.

A recent report from Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) reveals very troubling questions that have not yet been answered by Ohio election officials. I commend the Democratic National Committee for its announcement this week that the DNC will be investing resources and reaching out to non-partisan academics in a long term study of Ohio voting irregularities. I am only sorry that we haven't seen the same from Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell and GOP officials.

Congress must play a positive, proactive role on this issue. That's why I will soon introduce legislation to reform our election system, ensuring transparency and accountability in our voting system and that all Americans have an opportunity to vote and have their vote counted.

Please remember to let us know that you made your call when you're done. We're hoping to ensure House and Senate leaders' offices hear our demand for action on election reform in meaningful way. Please take a moment to let us know you have made your call here: http://www.johnkerry.com/signup/electoral_reform.php

Thank you,

John Kerry

P.S. Thanks to all those who participated in our USO "phone home" campaign last week. The totals are coming in from the USO, and they are thrilled with your generosity and support for our brave men and women in uniform. We will send you totals as we get them.

I think we should all follow through and call the Republican leaders. Not because I think they will give a shit, but because I think it'll be fun to harass their secretaries for being associated with this.

I got this picture off the web site of the band A Perfect Circle.

I am a liberal. Yet, surprisingly, I care about morals too. I think that killing is wrong. I think that oppression is wrong. You can call those religious values if you like, or just plain common sense. But how is it that I can be a liberal and have morals? How can I want equal treatment for gay people and not want the public schools to sponsor a specific religion, yet still have morals? I think it is quite clear that I voted for Kerry for moral values that are just as valid as the reasons you voted for Bush. I am a white heterosexual protestant (like you mentioned). I want to have rights too. I just don't want to take away other people's rights. Is that so morally wrong? You can say that I'm treating my country like shit by questioning those in power, but I say that I'M the true patriot, not you. It would not be a democracy if everyone was like you and didn't question the actions of the government. I say Bush is a bad president because I care about the future of America. I say that there should be separation of church and state because I care about what the founders of our country intended. I say that everyone in America should be free because I care about democracy.

AGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 25 - The black sedan made its way down Madaris Street, the young men inside tossing leaflets out the window.

"This is a final warning to all of those who plan to participate in the election," the leaflets said. "We vow to wash the streets of Baghdad with the voters' blood."

Thus was the war over Sunday's nationwide elections crystallized in a single incident on Tuesday in Mashtal, an ethnically mixed neighborhood on the eastern edge of Baghdad, where many Iraqis say they would like to vote, and where a small, determined group of people are doing everything they can to stop them.

The leaflets, like many turning up on sidewalks and doorsteps across the capital, were chilling in their detail: they warned Iraqis to stay at least 500 yards away from voting booths, for each would be the potential target of a rocket, mortar shell or car bomb. The leaflet suggested that Iraqis stay away from their windows, too, in case of blasts.

"To those of you who think you can vote and then run away," the leaflet warned, "we will shadow you and catch you, and we will cut off your heads and the heads of your children."

Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address were the same day.

As Air America Radio pointed out,

It is an ironic juxtaposition: One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for a prognostication, and the other involves a groundhog.

• The average speed of a male orgasm is 28mph.
• The smallest penis ever recorded was 5/8 of an inch.
• The average size of a white man's hard-on: 6.2 inches.
• The average size of a black man's hard-on: 6.3 inches.
• 75% of men orgasm within 2 minutes of penetration.
• Sex helps relieve symptoms of asthma.
• Having sex 3 times a week burns as many calories as running 75 miles per year.
• In Japan, condoms are sold door to door by women.
• 100 million acts of sexual intercourse occur each day.
• Semen has only 5 calories per teaspoon.
• 75% of all males are 6 inches or less in length.
• About 50% of women has one breast that is bigger than the other.
• College women are more likely to enjoy oral sex (giving and receiving) than high school dropouts.
  

My favorite joke about this was the painfully obvious: "Korn gives Head to Jesus."



But wait, there's more. Blink 182 has broken up. Well, it's officially just an "indefinite haitus", but it sounds to me like this is the end. I dunno, they're the embodiment of pop-punk for my generation, so I'm kinda sad to see them go. Not that I'm a big fan or anything (they're pretty bad), I'm just feeling nostalgic or something. Why, oh why couldn't it have been "Good" Charlotte instead?!

1. Chemistry midterm
2. Calculus midterm
3. Mentor paper
4. Calculus project (I have no idea what I'm going to do with this...)
5. Computer Science project (this would normally be quite fun, but not when piled up with everything else)
6. my parents' birthdays (and I don't have anything to give them)
   
7. not being with Stephanie

• Invasion of Afghanistan
• Invasion of Iraq
• Global war against "terror"
  
• Lots and lots of executions
• Large tax cuts for wealthy Americans and corporations
  
• Many attempts (some of them successful) to reduce and strip social programs aimed at helping the poor or needy including Social Security, Medicare, public education, etc.

Well, I'm a little late with this because I've been busy doing nothing for a few weeks. I went to visit my friend in California for the new Star Wars. We waited in line starting at 6am for the midnight premier. Unfortunately, a couple guys showed up at 5, so we weren't quite first in line. I was planning on sleeping in front of the theater the night before, but it was pouring rain and my friend talked me out of it. Anyway, it was a great time hanging out with a handfull of other true star wars fans for 18 hours waiting for the movie. I'm kind of glad it was pouring rain all day, because it kept away all but the most true fans until around 6 or 7 in the evening. We had a motorhome generator running so that we could watch the other five star wars movies on a laptop set up with some large speakers. We also had lightsaber duels and played a few games of Star Wars trivial pursuit, and I finally found one person who can consistantly beat me. It's kind of nice to know there is a bigger dork out there than me; he even ditched a week of school to go to the convention in Indianapolis. I'm jealous, but I'll definitely go to the next convention, because it's supposed to be in Vegas, and that's only like an 8 hour drive.

The move itself was quite good. It was by far the best of the prequels, although still not up to the standard of the original trilogy. Hayden Christiansen finally did some good acting, and the connection between the prequels and the original trilogy was quite well done. It was a very sad movie, partly because it's a trajedy, and partly because it's the last Star Wars film to ever be in theaters (until George Lucas' children get greedy and want more money). Overall, I'd say it's a good conclusion to the saga. I've seen it three times now, and I plan to see it a few more while it's in theaters.

I'm also looking forward to the parody prequel that's in the works - SpaceBalls 2: The Search for More Money. I haven't confirmed that title yet, but if that isn't the title I'll be highly disappointed. I don't think it will be as good as the first, but I have faith in Mel Brooks to be funny in whatever he does.

I love Star Wars. I love trivia. So here are some questions I made for you. A freshly baked batch of invisible cookies to whoever can answer the most correctly.

1. Who is Luke's father?

2. For approximately how many years did Yoda train Jedi?

3. What species was the bounty hunter Greedo (shown in my avatar)?

4. Who was the first character to say "I have a bad feeling about this"?

5. Who was in charge of the construction of the first Death Star?

6. Who were Luke's wing mates for his trench run at the first Death Star battle?

7. Who was the first character to be eaten by the Rancor in Jabba's Palace?

8. Who was Anakin Skywalker's previous owner (before Watto)?

9. According to R2D2, what are the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field?

10. How many actors played Darth Vader throughout the saga?

bonus question! Who shot first, Han or Greedo? Please explain your answer.

Be sure to check out darklight20 's blog for more Star Wars trivia.

1. Who is Luke's father? I wanted to start out with a really easy question and get harder as I went along. Of course the answer is Anakin Skywalker.

2. For approximately how many years did Yoda train Jedi? I thought this one was a fairly easy question, but few people were able to get it. Maybe I've just watched the Empire Yoda scene too many times. Well, the answer was 800 years.

3. What species was the bounty hunter Greedo (shown in my avatar)? I also thought this would be an easy question, but as was brought to my attention, it doesn't ever mention most species names in the films, so you have to be an uber-nerd like me to know them all. Greedo is a Rodian.

4. Who was the first character to say "I have a bad feeling about this"? I screwed up on this question by not specifying whether I meant chronologically, or in order of production, so I'll accept either answer. In A New Hope, Luke first says it when they are approaching the "small moon" that is the Death Star. In Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan first says it. I guess I'll give a bonus point to anyone who might have given both.

5. Who was in charge of the construction of the first Death Star? Grand Moff Tarkin (Governor Tarkin is also acceptable). My favorite Empirial officer. It was awesome how they showed him briefly at the very end of Revenge of the Sith.

6. Who were Luke's wing mates for his trench run at the first Death Star battle? Luke's wingmates were Biggs Darklighter (his childhood friend, who died in the battle) and Wedge Antilles. Someone mentioned their callsigns, and I must admit that I had no idea. My friend Matt would have been all over that, but the X-Wing pilots are not my forte. So I looked it up, and Biggs was Red 3, Wedge was Red 2.

7. Who was the first character to be eaten by the Rancor in Jabba's Palace? Oola the green-skinned Twi'lek dancer/slave. I guess you didn't have to know her name since that's especially trivial.

8. Who was Anakin Skywalker's previous owner (before Watto)? Gardulla the Hutt. Young Anakin mentions once in Phantom Menace that he and his mother were lost to Watto by Gardulla the Hutt in a bet on the pod races.

9. According to R2D2, what are the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field? I'm terribly sorry about this, but I screwed up on this question. R2D2 wasn't there; it was C3PO who gave the odds. Anyway, the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are 3720 to 1.

10. How many actors played Darth Vader throughout the saga? An especially hard question. There were five. Hayden Christiansen (briefly at the end of Ep III), David Prowse (the body builder who acted as Vader throughout most of the trilogy), Bob Anderson (did the lightsaber fights; he was an Olympic fencer), Sebastian Shaw (the face of Vader when the mask comes off, and the Anakin force spirit before edited out of the DVD edition), and James Earl Jones (the voice).

bonus question! Who shot first, Han or Greedo? Please explain your answer. For this question, either answer would have been acceptable as long as you explained yourself. In the original version of A New Hope (the theater and VHS version), Han Solo shot Greedo by surprise. In the Special Edition (made around 1997 or so?), George Lucas edited it so that it looked like Greedo shot about the same time or a little before Han. He said that he changed it because he didn't want Han to look like a cold-blooded killer. I personally am still angry about that. As far as I'm concerned, Han shot first and it was still in self-defense, and it just fits with his personality. Greedo was taken by surprise and didn't have time to get a shot off. But as I said, that wasn't the only answer.

The Winner!

poonany: 5 butry: 6 darklight: 7 satan: 5 1/2 malediction: 6

DarkLight20 is the winner! Congradulations on your freshly baked batch of invisible cookies!

More trivia to come. :)

The cult-like excitement over Star Wars Episode III seems to have faded, leading to the demise of my Star Wars trivia, or at least interest therein.

Congradulations to darklight20 for being the only person to respond! Also for getting 3 questions correct.

Here are the answers:

1. Who's apology was accepted after a friendly choking? Captain Needa

2. Where in the rebel base did Leia express her "true feelings" for Han (according to Han)? the south passage

3. How many horns are on Darth Maul's head? I think it's 10

4. In what episode 2 scene does George Lucas' daughter make an appearance (there may be more than one scene, but I only know of one.)? She's a blue Twi'lek in the bar scene

5. How do Sand People usually travel? single file, to hide their numbers

6. What does Obi-Wan order at Dex's Diner in Episode 2? (hint: this makes me think that Obi-Wan is a sick, sick man.) Jawa juice. Those poor, poor jawas.

What does Luke look strong enough to pull the ears off of?

What vehicle does Luke pilot back home on Tattooine? (other than his uncle's landspeeder)

What is the name of the droid shown in the bounty hunter scene on with Vader?

At what battle did Lando's piloting skills first earn him recognition in the Rebellion?

What is the name of Lando's co-pilot at the second death star battle? (bonus points: what language was he speaking?)

What does Luke look strong enough to pull the ears off of? a Gundark

What vehicle does Luke pilot back home on Tattooine? (other than his uncle's landspeeder) T-16 Skyhopper (I guess Skyhopper was good enough)

What is the name of the droid shown in the bounty hunter scene with Vader? IG88

At what battle did Lando's piloting skills first earn him recognition in the Rebellion? Tenab

What is the name of Lando's co-pilot at the second death star battle? (bonus points: what language was he speaking?) Nien Num     bonus: A few people said selustan, which is probably right in the Star Wars universe, but they used a real earthling language to make the movie. He was actually speaking a Kenyan dialect. What he said to Lando was "A thousand elephants are standing on my foot."

And the winner is......Ravager! Congradulations!

Now all of you need to go here and watch this short yet entertaining star wars flash film.

I went to Gigantour yesterday. It was fabulous. I recommend that any metal fans attend this concert. Here's a breakdown of the bands in the order they played:

Boba Flex: The idiots really are taking over.

Dry Kill Logic: Four-foot dredlocks rock. The music of Dry Kill Logic doesn't.

Nevermore: I am a bit of a Nevermore fan, and this set didn't disappoint. My only complaint is that more of their heaviness and a little bit less of their melodicness comes out live, which is to say that it was still great, just a bit heavier than their recordings.This was definitely one of the best sets of the night, although they should have been given more time.

Symphony X: I had heard enough Symphony X to know that their over-the-top technical scales style power metal was really my cup of tea, and I only think moreso after this show. The keyboards were great, the guitars were awesome, the vocals were amazing, and I guess they probably had someone playing drums (I didn't take too much notice during their set). My friend got his copy of The Odyssey signed by the band. One weird thing though, was that the singer talked almost like a southern redneck, which seems completely oposite of his singing voice.

Fear Factory: Well, Fear Factory was probably the loudest live band I've ever seen (no, I haven't seen Manowar). Their drummer was shaking us down to our souls and they really got the pit moving, but their music just isn't my thing.

Life of Agony: I had never heard this band before and I didn't expect much from a band named Life of Agony, but I found the music somewhat intriguing. It wasn't the generic metalcore I had been expecting. Although, through most of the set I was distracted by the large shirtless man who appeared to be drunk off his ass and who kept stumbling towards me like he couldn't stand up any longer. I feared for my life.

Dillinger Escape Plan: Wasn't at this concert.

Dream Theater: An hour and a half of amazingly technical guitar and keyboard solos. They played mostly stuff off Octavarium that I hadn't heard, but they also played As I Am and Endless Sacrifice, which were awesome live. I think the singer is alright, but I must say it was often better when he left the stage to the musicians. Dream Theater have one of the most tallented guitarists I've ever heard.

Megadeth: Wow. Dave Mustaine and company simply destroyed. This was the main reason I came, and it was the best set of the day for sure. They played a large chunk of their new album, The System Has Failed, but they also played a lot of the older songs that we all know and love: Hanger 18, Tornado of Souls, Peace Sells, Symphony of Destruction, Sweating Bullets, etc; sadly they didn't play a single song off Youthanasia (although I seem to be the only person who really likes that album). They finished it all off with an encore of Holy Wars...The Punishment Due. It was just a really damn good set of metal music.

General notes on the concert: It was the first large outdoor concert I've gone to. The weather forcast said it was supposed to be 104 degrees. That must have been in the shade. I'm sure more than a few people got heat stroke at the concert, especially those who were drinking beer rather than water. My friends and I ended up spending way too much money on bottled water, which was three dollars a pop. Also, the ground in front of the main stage was just a thick layer of dust. When I was up in the front crush while Megadeth was playing, we created a dust cloud large enough to be viewed from space, most of which ended up in my lungs. My formerly black shirt is now a faded brown, while my converse are now nearly white. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time at the concert, and I would do it all again many times, but I must say I prefer indoor shows when possible. Unfortunately I didn't take the day after the concert off from work, so here I am at 8 in the morning posting on Mindsay.

Video Games:

• FullMetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixer -- You control young alchemist Edward Elric on his quest for the philosopher's stone and to unravel the mystery of the crimson elixer. Accompanied by the computer-controled Alphonse Elric, the fighting in this game is quite a lot of fun. You run around punching/slashing/stabbing/bonking various enemies with your learned alchemy techniques as well as different items that you can transmute from things lying around on the ground. Al is not as much help as he could be, but he does the best he can. I have a few major complaints with the game though: 1. The beautiful towns and caves and other stages are rife with invisible walls. The programmers made some great landscapes, only to prevent you from exploring them AT ALL. With no exploration, you are forced to follow a very specific path, which is very uninteresting sometimes. The only way the game has secrets is for you to walk backwards to points in the path that you have already passed. This is really a drag. 2.  You cannot talk to the people you see in towns. You only talk when you run into one of the game's many cutscenes, which are nice but sometimes drag on too long. The game features the voice actors from the English version of the anime series, which is nice if you like the series (I still can't stand how Roy's voice sounds in English; it's sooo much different). The story line starts out about the same as the series, with obnoxious Rose and getting beat up by Scar and all that, but it branches off onto a plot line that is totally new, which is nice for a little change from the anime. Overall: It's got a fun beat-people-up-for-hours battle system, but it's way too straightforward of a game, with no room for exploration or sidequests or anything. I'd wait until it drops in price before buying it (unless you just can't wait to watch the English episodes 28 and 29 that come with it!).
• Final Fantasy 8 -- I finally beat this game after probably a year and a half spent on it. I have around 115 hours on the game, and I still didn't do everything (damn that Card Queen quest!). It's a really fun and extensive video game, and I recommend it to anyone who likes RPGs at all. The junctioning system would have been difficult to figure out without someone explaining it to me, but once I knew what I was doing the game became very easy; I never had a problem with any of the enemies or bosses that are required to fight. One of the best parts of this game is the card game (I don't remember it's official name). The card game is nearly addicting, and it could almost make a game of its own. The graphics weren't real great, but who really cares about graphics anyway? Overall: Not my favorite RPG, but it's up there. A game everyone should play.
• Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap -- A quality game for anybody who likes Link to the Past, Wind Waker, or any of the other Zelda games for that matter. Same basic Zelda gameplay with a few new items and as many sidequests as a gameboy can handle. I'm still trying to get all the figurines. Overall: Another good game in the Zelda series.

Music:

• Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son -- This is my sixth Maiden album, and my least favorite so far. It is still a decent cd, and it's fun to listen to, just like any Iron Maiden, but it doesn't measure up to the brilliance of the other Maiden cds I own (from best to not-as-best: Piece of Mind, Number Of the Beast, Brave New World, Poweslave, Killers).
• Sepultura - Chaos A.D. -- This is one of the heaviest albums I own (well, one of the heaviest that I can stand to listen to; Josh did give me that shitty grindcore Deeds cd...). I don't like much death metal, so Sepultura is my heavy thrash, which is close enough to death metal for me, fix. There are some very good songs on here, songs that are even better than Roots Bloody Roots, which was previously my favorite Sepultura song. The Hunt is particularly one of my favorites.
• Suicidal Tendencies - Lights, Camera, Revolution -- I enjoy Suicidal Tendencies, although I think they could have channelled more of their energy into some better songwriting instead of into their constant anger. Well, maybe their specific appeal lies more in the anger anyway.
• Less Than Jake - Losing Streak -- Yeah, I'm a Less Than Jake fan. This album is much more ska and less pop than Anthem. It's heavier on the horns, although maybe not as catchy. I'm undecided about which album is better.

There's not really a pancake...

1. Pick a band and answer only using the band's song titles:

Slayer

2. Hows your life:

Seasons in the Abyss

Antichrist

Die By the Sword

Sex, Murder, Art

Temptation

Read Between the Lies

Hell Awaits

Jesus Saves

10. Say something to someone who has helped you:

Kill Again

Write down the name of the band you're listening to and then the song title followed by "in my pants." Come on, let out your immature side.

For example:  Metallica - The Thing That Should Not Be in my pants.

• Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap by AC/DC
  
• Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous by "Good" Charlotte (probably not their worst "song", but it got played on the "radio" a lot back when I listened to radio)
• Achey Breaky Heart by I don't know or care
• I Can't Drive Fifty-Five by Sammy Hagar
  
• Girls Girls Girls by Motley Crue

• Wild Honey Pie by the Beatles
• Whiskey in the Jar by Metallica (I know it's a cover, but still, damn it's awful)
• Another Day by Dream Theater
• Wrathchild by Iron Maiden
• I Wish I Had an Angel by Nightwish
  

• Livin' On the Edge by Aerosmith
• Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down
  
• Bata Motel by Crass
  
• Proceed With Caution by Dillinger Escape Plan
• Wait and Bleed by Slipknot
• Up All Night by Unwritten Law (one of the catchiest songs ever)

Iron Maiden!!!

Hopefully YahooNews has it right, I didn't read it all, but it did seem to be pretty informative.

• The Beatles - Revolver
• Nightwish - Oceanborn
• Black Sabbath - Paranoid
• Leftover Crack - Fuck World Trade

• Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness
• Scum - Gospel For the Sick (I didn't think I'd see this one at the store, so I was really stoked, only to be crushed by my lack of money. If you didn't know, this is the new punk/metal project from Samoth and Faust (of black metal legends Emperor, now that Faust seems to be back out of prison), Happy Tom (Turbonegro), Casey Chaos (Amen), and Cosmocrator (MindGrinder). Guest appearances from Mortiis (yay for crazy black metal goblins!) and Darkthrone's Nocturno Culto. see: http://scumband.com for some sample music)
  

• Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Hot Rats
• Parliament - Mothership Connection
• The Third and the Mortal - Memoirs

Open iTunes to answer the following.
Go to your library.
Answer.

How many songs?: The number of the beast, 3086

Sort by artist
First artist: ...And Oceans
Last artist: Zyklon 

Sort by song name
First: Miles Davis - 'Round Midnight 
Last: Rammstein - Zwitter

Sort by time
Shortest Song: Agnostic Front - Final War - 0:22 
Longest Song: Bill Hicks - Rant In E Minor - 1:13:52, but for music it's Yob - Catharsis - 23:38

Sort by album
First Album: Against All Authority - 24 Hour Roadside Resistance 
Last Album: Pink Floyd - Zabraskie Point

First song that comes up on Shuffle: Anti-Flag - Captain Anarchy 

How many songs come up when you search for "sex": 1

How many songs come up when you search for "death": 110. wow.

How many songs come up when you search for "love": 76
How many songs come up when you search for "you": 163

How many songs come up when you search for "why": 2
How many songs come up when you search for "God": 50

How many songs come up when you search for "crazy": 6
How many songs come up when you search for "song": 36

LAST.FM Quiz

Happy Slayer Day!

Blasting our way through the boundaries of Hell
No one can stop us tonight
We take on the world with hatred inside
Mayhem the reason we fight
Surviving the slaughters and killing we've lost
Then we return from the dead
Attacking once more now with twice as much strength
We conquer then move on ahead

Evil
My words defy
Evil
Has no disguise
Evil
Will take your soul
Evil
My wrath unfolds

Satan our master in evil mayhem
Guides us with every first step
Our axes are growing with power and fury
Soon there'll be nothingness left
Midnight has come and the leathers strapped on
Evil is at our command
We clash with God's angel and conquer new souls
Consuming all that we can

Evil
My words defy
Evil
Has no disguise
Evil
Will take your soul
Evil
My wrath unfolds

soda fountain

Why is the legal driving limit of cocaine 200 times higher than that of marijuana?

Looks like Congress is going to allow me to continue wearing my American-flag thong underwear.