So I took a little break after all. Sue me. I've been working all day and the '05 Xmas list is ready to roll. Your next article should arrive Monday night at the earliest. You've gotten three articles this month, so don't complain.
You Christmas gift is here, in the form of a small update to the CD collection. I'd like to say something along the lines of "Now I head of to do the Christmas thing, see you in the new year", but you know I'll probably be spending Monday hard at work on a new article.
I whipped up a short(ish) article today, just out of the blue. Actually, it wasn't really out of the blue, but we'll say it was because it's not that one "surprise" article I talked about the other day. It's kinda stupid too, but I'm gonna go with the philosophy I went by back in the early days: content is content.
Speaking of the early days, three years, baby. Yeah. I think the consensus is that the site's "birthday" is on the 16th (Why the 16th? I don't know. Technically it should be the 2nd...), but for the third year in a row I forgot. I mean, I've had it in mind all month, but when posting on this here blog, it managed to slip my mind. So yes, three years and I've still not given up. Huzzah for me!
Well, that snow sure didn't last long. Being so close to the internet equator probably isn't helping. The fact that I got annoyed with it might have something to do with it too...
Secondly, there are tiny little updates all over the sidebar. Okay, two. First, I added a link to Comedy Napalm, a fancy-pants new website which I have signed on to write for. Whether it will get exclusive content, I don't know, but my full articles and psedo-articles will remain exclusive to TE. Only time will tell what goes down. I also changed the forum link to go straight to the Comedy Napalm forums. As you might have been able to tell.
I really haven't got much else, so here's a couple links
Surely you noticed that it's snowing over on this part of the interweb. I know it's like the biggest website no-no ever, but I couldn't resist. It's just so damned cute. *Loses 10 masculinity points* Also, there's now a mistletoe on the sidebar, so be sure to keep clear of it if there's anyone around. I don't have anything to give you today but another entry in the CD collection, and that won't even be up for a few minutes still (I wanted to get the blog post done first, so sue me).
As for the article production sheet, we've got two that will be done by the end of the month. One is the yearly Xmas article and the second... Well, it's a sequel of sorts, I'll tell you that much. Think about what time of year it is and it should be apparent.
The last thing I want to do today is drop you a new (sort of) link. You've all been subjected to my many plugs for the MOA-Online forums. Sadly, some two weeks or so ago, they dieded for goods. On the upside, they've been reborn as the MOA Aviary forums. While they're more animal-centric now, a bunch of the old users are back, and there's still plenty to gab about. I'm not an animal person myself, but I'll be doing my share of posting there. Not anywhere near as much as last time, but there will be posting by me. The point of this plug is that since my forums will never be revitalized, all I can do is plug other forums I visit and live vicariously through them.
I'd like to go off about how I don't put enough pictures in the blog, but there's more important things to discuss today. Like HIM. Back in July of 2004, not long after I redesigned the site, I reviewed HIM's Greatest Hits CD. I don't know where I'm going with this, so let's just hit the usual. I first started listening to HIM near the end of my high school career. As you may or may not be aware, Mike is totally obsessed with the band, and that would be where I first heard of them. See, back in the days of high school, when I started listening to a new band, it was because one of my friends had been raving about them. It was just the way I went about finding new music to listen to. But that's not the whole story. See, while Mike would rave about HIM for countless hours a day, I still never really picked up on them. It wasn't until I watched the movie "Haggard" that I decided to give HIM a chance. See, "Haggard" was directed and whatnot by Bam Margera, who might very well be the biggest HIM fan in the world. Anyhow, I noted that the music in the movie was excellent, and coming as little surprise, it was all HIM songs. So I finally went and did a little P2P search for HIM.
There's a lot to like about HIM. Most people seem to have some kind of brain defect where they think that anything from their country of origin or where their family comes from should be praised as some sort of diety, and since HIM is a Finnish band, I suppose that should be one reason I like them. The main reason I like them, of course, is because their music is awesome. It's like a perfect mix of rock 'n' roll and metal with goth overtones. Some songs are hard rock anthems that could melt even the most jaded of faces, and other songs are some of the most touching ballads ever recorded. Not to mention their ten-point covers of "Solitary Man", "Don't Fear the Reaper" and "Wicked Game".
HIM has released five CDs and a greatest hits collection, and though it needs not be mentioned, I own them all. The first, Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 is probably the weakest of all (though I expect some people would like to impale me for saying so), but it does have its high points. The biggest problem is that the recording of "Wicked Game" on this one isn't even as good as the Chris Isaak original. Fortunately, they redid it somewhere along the line and now it kicks so much ass. The next is Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights, which is so very much better than the preivous CD that you'd never believe it if you haven't heard them. I love both "Salt in Our Wounds" and "Lose You Tonight". "Pretending" is pretty great too.
Then along came Razorblade Romance, which sported some slick updated versions of "Your Sweet Six Six Six" and "Wicked Game" along with a plethora of great new tracks. Their fourth release, Love Metal, seems to be the most widely considered to be the best HIM CD available. Every song on Love Metal is incredible, but it does suffer from having only ten songs. It's not really a huge deal, because HIM isn't some dumb punk band whose songs are two minutes long at best. "Circle of Fear" is my personal favourite, but I've also taken a shining to "This Fortress of Tears" and "The Path". The last two CDs are the greatest hits CD And Love Said No and the latest release, Dark Light. I've reviewed both in much greater detail elsewhere on the site, so I don't feel I need to go into any greater detail here.
So that's the end of that. I don't think I should have to go into the whole "I like this band blah blah you should look them up blah blah download" spiel. That's all very obvious and is a crappy way of concluding the post. So I'll go out with a bit of advice today: "Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing."
I've gotta go watch more class president presentations.
iPod compatible underpants... WTF?
The Sneeze: Interview with a 5-year-old.
After one long night of gaming, and another long night of... well, I was watching TV last night, but anyway, I wrote up a new mini-review last night. And because you'll probably think it once you're done, yes, I did steal the PGC "pros/cons" boxes. Hey, it's a good idea, why not implement it here?
In other news, it looks like the group site business is well underway. We've got a mock-up and writers and everything. It's still mostly up to fate to see where this goes, but so far so good.
Oh yeah, and I totally forgot about Band of the Month. Oops. Tomorrow.
Hey everybody! Guess what I have for you today. That's right! A plug! Today we give a shout out to my good buddy Mike! Back in the old days Mike's site would change radically every couple months or so, but lately it's been very consistent, and with that consistency comes plently of good reading. While Mike's articles and reviews might not always drone on for as long as mine do, there are tons of them, and he posts pertinent updates far more frequently than I do. Also on your to-visit list should be the ever-popular forums. I recommend signing up (though if my forums are of any indication, people don't take my recommendations to sign up very often), as there is always something interesting going on there. And while I'm at it, I hate to spread rumours about something before it's really even in serious discussion, but there've been talks about a group site floating around lately... How do you like them apples?
And now for something completely different; Reader-submitted links! And they say I never do anything for the fans.
By now, everyone on the internet has seen that crazy Christmas light display that I linked to a while back. Well, thanks to the Sneeze, we now have a link to the fine details. Because I know some people were wondering.
Secondly for today, is the latest Penny-Arcade comic. I don't think I'll be able to take X-Men 3 seriously either now. I'll never be able to see Kelsey Grammar as anyone but Fraiser, or at least Sideshow Bob. To tell the truth, I haven't even seen X2 yet. But oh well. The last thing on my list of X-Men related junk is that during a trip to the IMDb, I discovered that a different actress plays Shadowcat in each film. Kooky.
Today I was bumbling around the subscriber's bits of Last.fm, but that's got nothing to do with this post. I actually found this neat thing which is available to everyone. It's on the sidebar now. Yeah. This update sucks. I'm going to go kill myself now.
OK, so exams start this week, so this might be the only semi-important post I'm going to be making until the 15th at the very earliest. I added a new page to the ol' CD collection, and another will be up soonish. Sneaky web-surfers can get a sneak peek if they're tricky enough...
Picked up my Nintendo Wi-Fi USB adapter yesterday. Been playing Mario Kart too much. I probably should have waited until after exams, but what are you gonna do? Anyhow, it turns out that I'm not the worst player in the world, as I had previously assumed, because I've won a bunch more races than I've lost. The thing that strikes me the most is the fact that I've waited this long to finally get into this online play business. It's not the greatest thing ever, but it does have some kind of mysterious appeal to it that I can't possibly hope to explain. Now if only they would implement it in more games I actually want to play. Or more games overall. Whatever. Mario Kart rocks, and I'll be adding my friend codes to the sidebar as they come along. You know, just in case.
Today, I would like to send a plug out to the always hilariously odd White Ninja Comics. The comics aren't very run-of-the-mill, but they always manage to have some sort of hilarious gag or punchline thrown in. Sometimes it's horribly violent, sometimes it's incredibly stupid. But like I said, always funny. I decided to plug White Ninja because I found today's comic to be absolutely priceless. And also because my White Ninja t-shirt commands me to.
It's interesting, there seems to be a new article ready to be read. Fortunately for you, it's not another boring video game review. Why haven't you clicked yet?