Seryn's Cheeseboard

So I thought it about time I actually be assed to update this thing. I have been lurking around, but mostly for communities - my new greatest souce for music downloads - and occaionally actually contributing to the odd discussion...
I've tried updating this several times now but there really hasn't been much to report, especially considering that most of my previous efforts consisted of whining about one thing or another. Beleive it or not, i've finally managed to settle into some degree of contentment in life (if not neccesarily happiness) for three main reasons:
 - In part i've come to accept the continuous bad timing/luck i've experienced in certain areas of my life (relationships foremost amongst them but let's not go anymore into that particular detail) - it almost seems like fate is steering me away from certain things, hopefully due to future plans it has up it's sleeves. Might seem like an easy excuse out of not trying but it helps me live life day to day taking whatever life throws me as it comes.
 - I've also realised that i'll in all likelihood never be bored again. I'm having increasing difficulty in keeping up with all the books i'd like to read, video games i'd like to play, tv shows/movies i'd like to watch and music i'd like the experience. The full scope of what's out there and what i'm missing out on is beginning to dawn on me - it's sometimes rather depressing to think that theres not enough time in one life or even a hundred - to experience all the great things life has to offer - not to mention all the other experience after you actually leave the house.
- My disgruntlement in being stuck in this oft ridiculous country and not somewhere much shinier like Finland has been toned a little with the ground-breaking news that Edguy, Sonata Arctica and Ensiferum (bands which all form part of my holy top 10) are coming here simultaneously for new year eve. With the possibility of sideshows still looming and the oppurtunity to show off my Sonata tattoo pending, suffice to say, I actually have something to look foward to, shock horror!

On another note in music, i've been dragging myself along to a few local gigs of late, in an excuse to get out of the house over the uni break. For those that don't know I usually regard the local music scene as about as pathetic as the state of getting bands to actually tour here (alternate punchline: about as pathetic as the state of tasmania). While I still maintain this opinion for the local metal scene - i've actually being enjoying some of the local post-rock outfits, and as a result reviving my interest in the genre in general, along with some pretty snazzy art-rock and avant-garde. Suddenly it's seeming like Australia isn't QUITE as bad after all. Perhaps I can put that Euro-quest off for just a little bit longer....

So O-week has come at gone and uni has now begun it's normal routine. Much awesome has passed yet much is to come. O-week itself was actually strangely uneventful this time around. Plenty of people (newbies and all) were about and the club stalls got record attention however most of the organised events completely fizzled with few but the organisers themselves turning up. Suffice to say I didn't really get to meet any newbies properly, something i've actually been rather looking foward to with my new outlook and confidence right now. I've already had one friend comment that I seem a lot less shy this time around so somethings working right :)

Ironically enough ( or is it?) i've actually been getting undue attention from one of last years newbs. Infamous as the geek clubs resident flirt i'd waved off her previous attempts, but she's now seen fit to inform me I should be taking them more seriously/personally. I'm really not sure whether someone as typically flirty/flighty is right for me but guess there's no harm in playing it cool and seeing where things go.

Of course, the main source of awesome for the week was my 21st, which went down surprisingly well. After last years pathetic turn out I decided to make this years party a much more casual affair. In light of the tiny size of my house i'd intended a park picnic following by pub crawl but those who turned up to the former (A good 15 or so - record!) were actually content to get cozy with each other squeezing into our aptly named sluttyhaus. Drunkeness and awesome prevailed. Shirts were soon optional. Between my 3 bottles of vodka and the...concoctions that one friend kept making me it wasn't long before I hit that magical milestone of first time being drunk enough to puke. Strangely enough I always seem rather consious while drunk and somewhat resistant to hangovers.

All in all I made a pretty epic haul for my birthday, esp when including the subsequent JB spending spree:
   - An epic jar full of gummis!
   - A world globe (something i've always wanted)
   - Newspaper (and TV guide!) from day I was born
   - White gold Celtic ring (pending)
   - 3 different types of vodka (Rapsberry, apple and polish) - I've hence decided to start collecting vodka bottles
   - A custom background for my phone that a friend made, with 'Seryn' using the Ayreon font :)
GAMES
   - Bioshock (Finally played the demo last week and it seems friggen awesome!)
   - GTAIV: Lost and Damned
   - Prince of Persia (the new one that is)
   - Halo Wars (pending)
DVD
   - Red vs Blue Boxset (Seasons 1-5) - Can't beleive this finally made it to Australian stores!
   - Arrested Development Season 1
   - Hogfather
   - Dogma
CD
   - Leverage: Tides (alas disc is cracked and needs returning) and Blind Fire
   - Jon Oliva's Pain: Global Warning
   - Nightwish: Once

On top of this, with my mate Sam having moved in this week I also have a shit load of music and other stuff to raid off his hard-drives. I've already colleced 10GB of music and every single episode of South Park and Family Guy onto my computer. I think it's going to be a long time yet before I find myself bored again...

I thought perhaps I should get around to making some gesture of this journal having any kind of pulse, while i'm in one of my seasonal motivational modes. Strangely enough, having gone through a break-up only 2 days before what would've been my first proper Valentines day, I actually find myself more optimistic/confident/motivated than I have, well, ever. Let's not go into the gory details shall me. I'd like to think that my bank account is also breathing a sigh of relief but i've already gone and treated myself to the most excellent DVD of Bill and Ted (I can't beleive how difficult this proved to find) and Left 4 Dead. Ironically the download of the latter put me over my net cap so I'm stuck praciticing with the lacklustre AI. Still a damn enjoyable game.

So I guess the sudden surge of optimism has somewhat to do with uni orientation week just around the corner, complete with new influx of noobies and the small matter of my 21st (along with about 3 others). Add on top of that the full-time, yet paid (omg!) archaeology work I scored for the next few weeks and things are going to be a tad hectic for the next while - probably a good thing to keep me from slipping into the usual day-dreamng/moping mode. I'm prepping myself for actually making an effort with meeting new people this time around though, to join more social clubs and actually get active with them.

Will keep this update short else it'll morph into yet another life story and I like NOT putting people to sleep.

In the mean time, happy Singles Awareness Day! Be excellent to each other!

Seryn

So after two friends (headsup togirlunstrung) referring to a metal sale of epic proportions at Mt Druit JB Hi-Fi, I finally managed to make my way out there today. Fearing to find only the dregs I entered with a heavy heart - and exited an hour later with about 20 albums, and only a $110 poorer. Hell the stack of CD's I was carrying around was so epic that I had 2 people randomly approach me thinking that I worked there. Not the first time this has happened there mind you - whenever I went there with my target uniform I'd get the same thing happen. It seems fate wants me to work there as much as I do, but somehow it just never eventuates.
Anyway, my epic haul consists of:

Ten The Best of ($7) - I'd only just this morning been trying to find a copy of this online. Ten albums are depressingly hard to find over here as well as online
Evergrey The Inner Circle (Special Edition - $4)
Stream of Passion Embrace the Storm (Special Edition - $7)
Stratovarius  Elements Pt 2 (LE Box-set - $10)
Sonata Arctica Ecliptica ($7) - I just opened the cover and nearly had a seizure when I saw Tony. Holy Fuck, he looks like he walked right off the set of Happy Days, or at least the Fonz' wardrobe - in fact they all do
Sonata Arctica Songs of Silence ($7)
Sonata Arctica Don't Say a Word ($5)
Savatage Streets: A Rock Opera ($7)
Star One A Space Opera ($7)
Pain of Salvation Be ($7)
Pain of Salvation One Hour by the Concrete Lake ($7)
UneXpect In a Flesh Aquarium ($7)
Savaga Circus Dreamland Manor ($7)
Therion Vovin ($7)
Transatlantic SMPT:e ($7)
Warmen Accept the Fact ($7) - Another band I'd been trying to track down just this morning to no avail. Only heard one song of these guys (Saliera Strike Back) but its hella awesome
Warmen - Beyond Abilities ($7)

And finally, as prove that higher powers were certainly at work, supporting my spending huge stacks of cash on music, I found one particular album in the metal bargain bin, which isn't just not metal in the slightest, but just happens to be my favourite non-metal artist ever: Jason Webley. Picked up his Viaje album for a record $2

I also picked up Sacred 2 - the new RPG that Bling Guardian features in. Initial playtests don't give good impressions but it was worth it simply to find Hansi in-game!
Also, also, it seems Red vs Blue DVD's are finally available instores here! Win!

So this weekend, the Parentals have gone away and of course it's my responsibility to look after the house all weekend, mostly the sake of the animals. As great as it is to see my pets again, NOTHING justifies having to spend a whole weekend in penrith, when no-one else lives out here anymore. I can't even throw thetradtional parents-are-out-town house party, because seriously, no-one is brave enough to come all the way out for penrith for that, let alone to visit me personally.
With a second friend having found super-specials at Mt Druit JB Hi-fi, i'm going to venture out there tommorow to see what dregs I can find. Otherwise it looks like I'm going to spending the whole weekend by myself, wasting my parents' broadband on lame music downloads.

My uber-nerdy t-shirt finally arrived yesterday at least, albeit the second shirt i've ordered thats turned out rather massively oversized. Still, I love the design - kudos to anyone who gets the reference:

So, several nights ago was the University's Clubs and socs awards night. It was open to executive of all clubs but knowing that the Archaeology Society (for which im the not-so-esteemed Treasurer) was never going to get a mention let alone an award, I was only convinced to go at the last minute by the premise of free food - a treasure trove for any poor uni student. Not only was afore-mentioned food great (and free) but my run of bad luck of late seemed to take a brief holiday, allowing me to the win the lucky door prize - $100 Myers voucher.
So today, after concluding that Myer's clothing range was unfashionable as well as over-priced I went straight for the DVD section. With a little assistance from my own wallet, I managed to nab a rather epic haul:

•  Supernatural seasons 1 and 2 - Now I just have to remember which episode I was actually up to
• Ironman! Yeargh!
• Transformers
• Stardust
• Dream Evil: Gold Medal in Metal
• Warhammer: Dawn of War Gold edition (game)

So yeah, now my essay is NEVER getting written.

Speaking of clubs and socs though, I really need to join some more and expand my social circle. While sutekh (the resident nerds/geeks club) may be awesome at face value, with all the bitching and cliquiness that goes on, its hard to form any real friends. I'm getting sick of having legions of aquantinces but no close friends. Thinking I may run away and join the surcas (the uni circus society that is) - if only to learn how to fire twirl - that shit looks awesome, and having always liked the idea of the quarterstaff, this is the next best thing.

Every year Sydney Uni has a massive bookfair, uniting all literophiles under the packed and frantic conditions that can only result in blood. Usually I only make it on one of the last days, where even the super-cheap prices don't save the fact that there's nothing left worth paying 10 cents for. This time though I managed to squeeze through the crowds within the first hour on the first day. And holy shit did I score!
Managed to nab:

• Halo: Ghosts of Onyx - Eric Nylund (Good condition; $2)
• Halo: Contact Harvest - Jospeh Staten (Great condition; $3)
• Ringworld - Larry Niven (Good condition; 50c) I'm usually not a fan of sci-fi, especially not uber-old sci fi, but this is supposedly one of the main influences for Halo, and besides, it's also uber-thin
• Mort - Terry Pratchett (Good-Poor condition; $2) Flicking through to try and figure out if I actually had it, not only did I find it was super cheap, but SIGNED!
• Otherland - Tad Williams (Hard-cover; Great condition; $5) I've actually already got this one but being my favourite book evar I just had to grab this super-fancy hard-cover edition
• An echo in time: Atlantis & Masters of reality: The gathering - Traci Harding (Good condition; $3 each) Never read her stuff and I don't actually have the first book of the series but i've heard good stuff so thought them worth grabbing
• Troy: Lord of the silver bow - David Gemmell (Good condition; $2) Pretty sure this is the one that wasn't finished when Gemmell bit the dust, but it was actually his death that made me curious to check out his stuff.
• Dragon's Fire - Anne & Todd McCaffrey (Great condition; $3) Heard good stuff about the Pern series and thought this stand-alone would be a good place to start
• Daggerspell - Katherine Kerr (Good condition; 50c) Can't remember if I have this one, but who cares for that price
• The First chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever (Boxset - books 1-3) - Steven Donaldson (Good condition; $6) No idea what this series is about but I remember hearing good stuff about him and the box-set looked fancy
• Reave the Just and other tales - Steven Donaldson (Hard-cover; good condition; $4) Ditto as above
• Krondor the Betrayl - Raymond E Feist (Hard-cover; Great condition; $5)

All this for $40. Pretty damn impressive!

So I was recently re-exploring the works of 'Shadow Warriors' and noticed that the website has been pulled down and their legacy seems to be dead. For those unenligthened peeps, Shadow Warriors was a (joke) sideproject of DragonForce. 4 demos were all that resulted, all suitably ninja themed, broken english and all. I'd been wondering just yesterday if my hopes of recorded versions had died with the website. But the very next day (today, for those of you playing at home) I come across the Ultra Edition of the new Dragonforce album and see a mysteriously named bonus track - "Strike of the Ninja". Indeed (after being lame enough to actually buy the album) it turns out this is none other than a rerecording of  SW's 'Feel the fire'.
Of even more excitement was soon after coming across the Ayreon vs Avantasia EP! $20 is a slight (sic) overpricing for a 4 song EP (esp when they're all sub-par) but new Ayreon i'm willing to pay anything for. Including my left arm.
I also managed to find a cheap copy of Maniacal Renderings by Jon Oliva's Pain, which ironically I'd just downloaded last week and found incredibly amazing.

Uber-busy weekend coming up. But finally busy in a good way! Archaeology Society Triva tommorow night. Then on Saturday I have the opening of the university book fair, a time-travel-themed 20th birthday and a 21st of an old school friend...at a shooting range. Could be interesting.
Gotta be more interesting than last weekends Lithgow trip (Geology excursion) at the very least. Spending all ones day looking at rocks then all one's evening being hit on by 50 year old women at the pub doesn't come under my definition of fun.

Oh well, should finally be able to get some serious socialising in this weekend, seeing as everyone's been rather too busy to have any time for me whatsoever lately. I've been starting to get a TAD dissillusioned with my social situation lately...

So I promised myself that I wouldn't do this again, that I wouldn't continue to unleash this evil on the world. But i'm only human.

Some of you may remember my Cheeseplatters, my compilations containing a potent selection of the most cheesy music around, power metal. Originally created to give to friends/potential power metal converts, I continued the series simply to make use of the horrible puns I came up with.
First there was Cheeseplatter, then just when you thought you were safe, came Cheeseplatter 2: Recultured. Finally, when you least expected, came the onslaught of Cheeseplatter 3: The Final Cracker.
Now, after a long hiatus, I present you all with another offering with the usual high standard of lameness, but this time with a specific theme:

The Cheeseplatter 4: Covered in Cheese

This one should be pretty self explanatory - Power metal covers of songs both old and new, great and small!

1. Northern Kings - Don't Stop Believin'
2. Blind Guardian - Mr Sandman
3. Angra - Wuthering Heights
4. Turisas - Rasputin
5. Avantasia - Lay all your Love on me
6. Raintime - Beat it
7.  Black Majesty - Six Ribbons
8. Blind Guardian - In a Gadda da Vida
9. Gamma Ray - It's a Sin
10. Ayreon - Elected
11. Demons & Wiards - Immigrant Song
12. Sonata Arctica - The Wind Beneath my Wings
13. Dragonland - The Neverending Story
14. Van Canto - Battery
15. Blind Guardian - Barbara Ann/Long Tall Sally

If anyone actually wants a copy, I'll be looking to upload it sometime in the near future.

In the meantime I actually have an excellent lineup for one more offering - of the normal compilation variety - but now lacking a suitably lame pun. Suggestions box is now open!

Hokay, so I havn't been posting much lately - mostly because of knowing that anything I have to say about life right now could only end in an emo rant. Suffice to say that between the new job, all my weekends being busy with family and uni excursions and my usual horrendous luck/timing in the social sphere its been hard to find anything to look forward to. Alas, the main source of my current predicament is something that can only be solved with some good 'ol fashioned patience, so I don't see anything changing in the near future.

Moving on though, last night I was so incredibly bored that I actually bothered to watch Underworld. Having heard the many cries of it's lameness I wasn't holding my hopes up, and so managed to be pleasantly surprised when it ended up not sucking! Was a little hard to follow the complexities of the plot with all the back-stabbing and intrigue but this is pretty much what seperates it from the average cliched Vampire vs Werewolf spiel. Must try and track down the sequel now!
With the boredom returning soonafter however, I finally got around to completing the latest in my series of uber-cheesy power metal compilations, aka, The Cheeseplatter. I'll be making a new post with more about that later.

Not much else to report. My laptop insists on increasing its ratio of suck, meaning I really have to start looking into my options for a new computer, especially seeing as my xbox seems to be slowing creeping towards the red ring of death, resulting in me long going without my fix of hardcore gaming. Of couse, this means digging into funds that are ultimately for letting me escape this damn country and go on a Euro-Odyssey which is now looking more and more impossibly far away...

And now I am impossibly late for class and must high-tail it!

This weeks cross-posted archaeology post is slightly more interesting, and experimentory (Yay, Science!).
The basic premise is to play around with various search engines - both general google-like examples and those more scholarly/specialised .
Firstly, for those already yawning with boredom and getting ready to click those 'back' buttons', but who actually know of any useful search engines (other than google) please recommend them before going on your merry way.
Now, on to the experimenting! To try and keep it concise for each engine, I'll simply give the number of results, details of the first result and any  overall comments. I'll also limit myself to 5 engines: Google, 3 recommended from the class program Heurist and one reccomended by friends (all other reccomended sites were too specialised)
My chosen topic of 'specialty'  used is: Archaeological excavations of Troy (that's the city, not the person whoever he may be!)

1. Google
Results: 197,000
First hit: Some semi-scholarly but slightly outdated (1995) article based at an Illinois uni site. Reasonably relevant - in fact I remember using this as an essay resource. http://www.iit.edu/~agunsal/truva/exc.html
Other hits: The first page shows a couple of other university hosted articles, a couple of general interest sites (Archaeology.com, About.com) and the relevant pages from both Wikipedia and Brittanica. A rather wide mix of sites.

2. Cuil
Results: 189 (Despite claiming that "Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft" *Scoff*)
First hit: A small personal interest site on the excavation of Atlantis. Barely relevant. http://library.thinkquest.org/25245/archaeology/excavation.html
Other hits: The first page seems full of sites referring to archaeological excavation in general. Nothing specifically related to Troy. Mostly useless

3. Google Scholar
Results: 4150
First hit: A highly relevant and more recent (2002) article from the journal. http://www.jstor.org/pss/3643078
Other hits: A couple of citations, book references and several articles concerning archaeology in general though the first page shows two or three other articles that are at least reasonably relevant. Many of these results require access to journal databases however.

4. JSTOR
Results: 2277
First hit: Highly relevant article from the American Journal of Archaeology. Link Unavailable
Other hits: The first 10 or so are all at least reasonably relevant articles from various journals.

5. KartOO
Results: 281000
First hit: N/A
Other hits: Kartoo seems to have a very...interesting method of visualising the links it finds...in a type of mind map. Most of the sites listed seem to be general interested sites and the likes of Wikipedia. Rather confusing to use.

Other recommend sites ( These seem to be reasonably useful but were more aimed at other fields in particular scientific disciplines or law, so were not relevant for this experiment):
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/ (Science)
http://www.lexisnexis.com.au/lnau/lawnow/casebase.html (Law)
http://www.austlii.edu.au/ (Law)
http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/ (Maths)
http://www.scopus.com/scopus/home.url

As part of my Digital Methods in Archaeology course we have to make a weekly blog entry on specified topics of debate. The official blog is hosted elsewhere but I thought I may as well try crossposting my entries here to incite further discussions and not waste perfectly good blog material :P
Anyway, the first week is essentially on the advantages and disadvantages of Web 2.0 and the open-source reference databases that are its product. If you have no idea what i'm talking about, then think Wikipedia, which will be the main focus of the following anyway.


   

 Alright, so uni has now officially been back for a week and the only thing i've learnt so far is that Wanted is a horrible excuse for a movie. I actually managed to score myself a double pass to a preview screening and managed to be terribly excited. I'd already heard and fallen in love with Danny Elfmans song 'The Little Things' but this managed to be one of depressingly few items on the list of good things about this movie. Granted, it was 'entertaining', particularly the special effects, but only if you're willing to suspend all belief in those wonders known as logic and physics. You know that Binary stuff that was 'invented' recently to deal with these newfangled computers? WRONG! Turns out a bunch of super-weavers discovered binary hidden in fabric made from the super-'Loom of Fate' centuries ago. WAT?! And direct references to the audience being weak and pathetic is not going to win points in my books.

Okay, so I WOULD recommend actually seeing this movie, but only after a)not paying for it; b)Turning off your brain

As for Uni itself, i've had a mixed bag so far:

1)Geography already has me bored mindless, what with it's case studies and political analysis - I just don't know if my apathetic mind can cope!

2) Geology is interesting as far as the lectures go. And I'm quite looking forward to a two-day field trip in the mountains. All the pracs so far though, have unsurprisingly been 3 hours of looking at rocks: big rocks, black rocks, shiny rocks, but no interesting rocks. Don't know what I was expecting to get there...

3)Digital Methods is so far the most interesting. Anyone attending the class probably wouldn't have realised that it's actually an archaeology unit, with it pretty much being about generalised use of online databases (wikis and such). Assessment appears to consist entirely of writing blogs and reviewing websites..which i'm pretty damn sure I can handle!

It IS good to be back at uni and actually doing something with one's life again and dazzling everyone with my shiny new hair and fancy tattoo.

After a particularly dry spell in terms of movie-going I today came close to a new record with the second movie of the week. Unfortunately the weeks return to the cinemas has been rather dissapointing.
Firstly, today's Hancock was definitely a mixed bag of a movie. It was certainly a new and interesting take on the superhero genre, with the disillusioned drunkard John Hancock For this reason the first 1/3 or so of the movie was quite good. Once he's miraculously cured of his arsehole-syndrome though, Hancock has virtually no character. In fact, I found the most interesting character is the most normal, PR agent Ray, and not just because he's played by Jason Bateman (Michael from Arrested Development, having recently fallen in love with said show). Their sudden move to return to the typical super-hero formula by adding a token 'bad guy' was done half-heartedly and something the movie could've done without. As was the shitty camerawork, including the excessive use of shakiness (probably to hide the shitty SFX) and the constant need to circumnavigate peoples heads for some stupid reason. Despite it's flaws it was still rather interesting with several laugh out loud moments and a nice twist half-way (though it seems half of you have already guessed it). By all means it at least trumps the other movie offering of the week.

Mongol (a Russian movie about the early life of Genghis Khan for those who don't know) was no mixed bag, but rather like a bag of plain ol' unsalted nuts. Being the history nerd I am, and tempted by Rotten Tomato's high ratings I was rather looking foward to this movie. Having not studied Khan himself I wasn't able to critique the accuracy (the most fun part of any history movie) but it was certainly dull enough to have been a direct port from the history books (rather than the hollywood-esque adaptions souped up on action and adrenaline). Perhaps the most noticable fallback was the inherent lack of any meaningful dialogue whatsoever. Everything from comradeship and love to clever strategy was all miraculously conveyed with minimal verbal intercourse. What followed was essentially 2 hours of men grunting at each other, then proclaiming how beautiful their language was - right after a particularly guttural elaboration on how to say 'meat'. For god's sake, 10,000 BC had more dialogue than this movie, and that SHOULD have been 2 hours of men grunting at each other.
The entire movie spends a depressingly long amount of time creating the undercurrent that Genghis is going to rise to power, while he goes dithering about the countryside from one place to another, and when his moment of truth finally comes to fight for power, the first battle is anticlimatic and boring and then *POOF* he goes on to rule half the world - or so says the TEXT AT THE END OF THE FILM! That's right it finishes right before the most interesting part.
It also had more random change of loyalties than Pirates of the Caribbean.  At least the latter was entertaining about it *Sigh*

Today I also made a foray into the city on a quest for a couple of DVD's. Having recently downloaded a song from Corpse Bride, Danny Elfman's 'Remains of the Day", I was pleasantly reminded of Diablo Swing Orchestra. Suffice to say my desire to actually get around to seeing this movie was renewed. Unfortunatly that leg of the quest was a failure.
A random venture into Border's however, brought surprising success, finally getting my hands on Benny And Joon, one of my all time favourites, yet depressingly hard to find. For those who havn't heard of it (which is alas likely) it's one of Johnny Depp's first efforts, in yet another mentally unstable role that's perfect for him. Plus it's theme song is my childhood favourite, 500 miles by The Proclaimers so the movie wins bonus nostalgia points! Plus it was only $15. *Win!*

Well the supposed epic sale at Utopia ended up being rather unepic. All I ended up picking up was Gamma Ray's "Heading for Tommorow" and some 'Fantasy' compilation that ended up being all AOR ballads where every second word is love. Even my excessively cheesy mind had trouble dealing with it. The $5 I paid for it was worth the Symphony X and Ten songs alone I guess though.
As it is I have to save up money for a new computer not only because my laptop sucks balls and has started done the path of uselessness but because of DIABLO 3! Yes, the inevitable has finally been announced, and it looks motherfreaking awesome indeed :)

Today I also proceeded with step 2 of the Seryn-transformation (step 1 being the tattoo) and finally got my hair dyed. I'd been aiming for Toni Kakko-esque red streaks. But alas, it ended up being a lot more subtle than I'd intended. And having my hair straightened appears to make me look way too emo than could be healthy...
Oh well, next time i'll just have to go for the Jani-esque bright red full dye.

In anticipation for the epic sale Utopia (the metallest store around) is having tommorow my friend Sam and I went and scoped it out tonight for potential bargains (and in Sam's case to plead an advance discount). Anywho, in perusing the singles section out of boredom I stumbled across an unexpected rarity: Glorious by The Metal Force.
Supposedly this was a theme song of one those world cups a couple of years ago (You know the one where the dopey men chase a ball around a field for some reason and people mysteriously like to watch :P). The main singer is some pop starlet called Mikeyla who steals most of the limelight, but the 'Metal Forces' in a surprisingly awesome union including: Tobias Sammet (!!!), Timo Koltipelto, Joacim Cans, Ralf Scheepers, Edu Falaschi, Uli Kusch and more!
Of course, this basically consists of 4 versions of the same song, but the remixed versions give the peeps who actually matter a much more deserving share of the mic.
And all this for 50 cents! *Is rather pleased*

As promised find a photo below of my new pride and joy. I think only one word needs to accompany it:
Holy-mother-friggen-batman-awesome!
In other words i'm more than slightly impressed with how this turned out.

Well it's finally done! I have a tattoo, beating even my expectations of myself - i'm generally one of the last people one would expect to get inked. I guess part of that at least is my stubborn assertion of independance now that no-one else much cares about what I say or do with myself. Yet of course i'm still vain enough to want to show everyone I can for approval/justification. Unfortunately you curious internet peeps who keep demanding photo evidence are going to have to keep your socks on for a little longer as my phone camera seems to no longer be on good terms with my computer. My user icon gives a hint of what the design actually is however

Did it hurt? Hells yes. Does it still hurt? Ditto. The pain factor came in varying degrees however, from 'Sharp jabbing pain' to 'My arm is so numb with pain I can't feel the actual needle'. But nothing an ipod and music of distractingly high volume can't fix :P

All in all i'm extremely happy with how it turned out though. I'd been having a couple of doubts about the design but the artist i'd booked had ended up making a few last minute changes which reflected exactly what I wanted :)

But wait! There's more!. This same day, my Blind Guardian pendant arrived. That's right, the one I scored for only $5 on ebay!

Well nothing much new to report in this world but boredom and a want of at least SEMI-regular posting demand that I provide a rambling update of what's been going down. In summary
 - A random perusal of JB revealed to me a new Limited Edition Aina album, complete with shiny cheesy digipack, DVD and booklet of typical cliched fantasy art, in other words, AWESOME!
I hadn't realised just how many were involved in the album and that most of the Rhaposody and Luca Tirilli guys were behind it...well all expect for Luca himself. It even comes with its own choir of prepubesents. The music's not perfect but really well produced and I can never resist a good rock/metal opera.
8/10

- I also managed to pick up a couple games i've been meaning to track down for a while: Gears of War and Assassin's Creed. The first doesn't inspire much to be said about it. It's good, it was finished with about 6 hours gameplay, fin.
Assassin's Creed though is inherently awesome. The Prince of Persia inspirations are extremely obvious but I much prefer the atmosphere of this newer offering. What surprised me is the supposed historial accuracy. The cities are supposedly modelled off archaeological investigations and all the people assassinated in-game are based on real idenities who mysteriously died or dissapeared about the time the game is based. Knowing this really helps strengthen the atmosphere of the game and the conspiracy behind it.
 - The above new games also come in conjunction with my return to the wonderful world of xbox live, so much time has spent fragging the asses of whiny 11 year old American kids, one of my new favourite passtimes - particularly when 3 of them decide to gang up against me and are still slaughtered mercilessly *manical laughter*

- Finally, it's now less than one week till I get my tattoo. I don't know whether to be excited or anxious now, but i'm sure the anxiety most likely comes from a mental imprint from my bank account. The fact that I happen to get a Finnish woman visiting from over-seas to ink my Finnish-inspired tattoo means it's meant to be though :)

Well the long and painful internet hiatus is finally at it's close. After much gnashing of teeth and inane muttering to oneself the world once again makes sense - though this may also have something to do with the uni semester being over and having 7 weeks of carefree procrastination ahead of me. I'll keep things short for now though and leave the inane rambling for another day.
The last couple of months have been quite slow music wise. The only live offerings have been a couple of servings of my mates fledgling prog-rock band, complete with 15 minute wankery. And despite one night of crazed night of torrent overdosing at my parents', the 4GB of music that resulted from that night of proverbial passion left me feeling unsatisfied. One album however, from an unexpected corner did manage to rock my socks off. Find a review below:

Royal Hunt - Paradox II: Collision Course


I'd heard one or two Royal Hunt songs previously and quickly pushed them aside under the 'generic power metal' category but this album definitely breaks away from this infamous stain upon the genre, blowing it away in radiant cheese-power. This album is mind-blowingly awesome from beginning to end, with a consistency that is rarely seen. This is helped in part by the impeccable production - every song flows seamlessly into the next. Vocals are great and the sound is a nice mix of power metal with just enough prog elements thrown in. Occaisonally i hear echos of Hammerfall-esque sounds, but with none of the awfulness. I am rather curious to get my hands on the lyrics however - talk of killing niggers and jews leaves me just a little disconcerted, though i'm guessing that the band is taking the 'walking the thin blade of controversial satire' angle. This isn't a qualm for me personally anyway - the music can still be perfectly appreciated.
9/10