Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Faithful Have Vanished From Among Men (Psalm 12:1)




Yeah, well, I just don't know... This is one of those times when I want to post something, but don't really have much to say...

I'm in a writer's group as of today! I guess that's something. It's a local group of a couple writers that will meet every Tuesday about 30 minutes away from my house. Rebecca put me in touch with the guy in charge, and I was bummed because they met Wednesday nights... that's the only weeknight I already have something set in stone. When I relayed that info, he polled the rest of the group and they agreed to switch nights so I could join them. Crazy, eh? I feel bad about that. I didn't ask them to do it, they just did it.

Anyway, I sent off some samples of the current novel I'm toiling away on, and we'll see where it goes from there.

I bet you're wondering how things are going on the Facebook Scrabble front, eh? Well, check out this list of people I currently have games going with: Cathy, Mike, Beth, Havah, Rebecca, Vye, Abbie, and Rebekah! Is that awesome or what? 8 games at once! I'm in heaven! Or wordvana, or whatever....

Got my hair cut tonight. Are you proud of me? Do you find that entertaining?

No? Well, how about this?



Dang, that kid could rock it for being eight years old...

I've never been a fan of heavy metal. (How's that for a segue?). I've been a fan of just about every kind of music over the years, but metal never really did it for me. That having been said, I was recently boppin' around the net, and read an online article on Rolling Stone's website called "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs Ever", and most of them had links to videos of the songs being performed (a few broken links). They ranked Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Good" as the greatest guitar song of all time.

Anyway, while I was perusing the article, and checking out the occasional clip, for some reason, I clicked on the video for Master of Puppets by Metallica, recorded live at a concert in 1989. Now, again, I'm not a heavy metal fan... nor am I trying to make an argument for the genre, and persuade anyone to become a metal head. That being said, I am a fan of great music, and honestly, I don't know if I've ever seen such an intense, energetic, amazing performance, any genre. I'm going to embed the video here, knowing it is likely that no one will watch it (or if you do, that you'll get very far into it), but I'd feel lame/dishonest if I didn't post it here...



They're kinda freaky looking, especially the bass player, but it strikes me as "stage personas" more than anything else. Doesn't put me off at all, really. It's not like I think they're "evil", just entertaining the masses... masses which, I noticed, seemed to be all guys. Didn't notice a single female in the audience, lol...

Yeah, I know... Shirley Temple and Metallica in the same post... perhaps the most random combination ever. I can't help it - something about the strength not just of the music but of the way it is performed really gelled with me. I've since watched other versions of this song, performed throughout the years since, but this 1989 one is light-years beyond the rest.

I'm a sucker for "Greatest" lists... the latest PC Gamer magazine has a story about their picks for the 100 Greatest PC Games of All Time, which I poured over, taking note of things I agreed and disagreed with, as well as games on the list I've played and not played before... I've played 33 of the games (if you count tinkering with demos), but not the one they claimed was the best game ever... Deus Ex. That likely won't mean anything to anyone else here, sorry. I'm kind of surprised that Half-Life 2 didn't get the top spot.

Here's the top 20, in case you were curious:
---------------------------------------
20 World of Goo
19 Hitman: Blood Money
18 UT2K4
17 Portal
16 System Shock 2
15 GTA IV
14 World of Warcraft
13 Counter-strike
12 Civ IV
11 X-COM: UFO Defense
10 Fallout 3
9 Thief 2
8 Planetscape: Torment
7 Fallout
6 Oblivion
5 Rome: Total War
4 Half-Life
3 Team Fortress 2
2 Half-Life2
1 Deus Ex

Yeah, I know, I'm all over the place tonight. What can I say? It's one of those nights...

I'm going to go see if it's my move in any of my Scrabble games... adios for now.

Dave the Goof

4 comments:

JB said...

18 2k4? it wasnt even the best in the series.

Unknown said...

Yay Dave! You are in a writer's group. I hope it works out for you--group dynamics and all. Let us know how it progresses.

I love Shirley Temple. We used to watch her all the time when we were kids. We had no TV but we did have Shirley Temple : ) She epitomizes "child star". She could sing, dance, act...plus she was so cute.

logankstewart said...

How did Oblivion beat Fallout 3? Don't get me wrong, I'm liking Oblivion, but I just thought Fallout was so much better.

Fun post today, friend.

Abbie said...

lol, very random post dave! but still cool :)
Sorry I didn't watch the clips at the moment, just dropping in between Blackboard discussions, but I'll come back to them!