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3/28/2006

Rob Zombie - Educated Horses released!

Rob Zombie's newest album Educated Horses came out today. In some ways this could be his best album to date, but it does leave me missing his debut album in some respects.

The album is much less a "studio" album than the first or to a lesser extent the second. The drums have a more "natural" sound and everything feels a bit more stripped down similar to Danzig's recent offerings. There are not as many voice samples as previous albums and they are used more subtlety. It's a relatively straight-forward rock album with a dark, sinister feel.

Unlike previous albums, especially the first one, the quality of the songs is much more consistent. It has the feeling of a mature music maker who has found their style doing what they do best. There is a lot of good stuff here. The tracks that really stand out on first listen are "The Scorpion Sleeps" and "Let it All Bleed Out". The pacing is mostly slow and the song intros tend to be more melodic and drawn out. There is the obligatory useless track, but it is the first track, ala Circle of Snakes (or Hellbilly Deluxe for that matter), but it is a tolerable instrumental piece for all that.

There is a lot of hard rocking on this album, but it's mixed with a lot of slow quiet moments. The end result sounds very good, only a small departure from the "usual" sound. The only thing I miss is the hard polished sound of Hellbilly Deluxe that really drives the needle into the red. I like the feeling of a studio album but this album feels more like a live recording or a punk record than a slick horror rock album.
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3/27/2006

Welcome to Pia Carrot Delayed, Oblivion Review In

So I sort of dropped the ball on WtPC this weekend and played Oblivion most of the time. :P I couldn't help it, it's friggin awesome. It's a lot like Morrowind but somehow it's a lot more accessable. I think it's directly because of the fact that they fixed the major gripe I had with Morrowind, the NPCs were too lifeless. They only responded to you, then did not interact with each other or carry on personal lives. In Oblivion that is not the case and it fills the game with a much greater sense of life and variety. There are still a vast number of quests to do which is where the bulk of the gameplay lies. Other things include character/skill leveling, money making, arena combat, random thevery, and whatevery else you can think of to pass the time. Anyway, I probably won't have a ton to say about it from here on since I can only play it at a friends, but it sure was fun playing it this weekend.
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3/23/2006

Howdy folks. I've been avoiding the world for a while, however, my week is coming to a close and I feel like taking a moment to summarize.

I've been completely entrenched in translating for the past week. It wouldn't surprise me that I'm exhausted, as I've pretty much spent every evening coming home, sitting down at the computer, and not getting up until it's time for bed or sometimes later. I have been working on Welcome to Pia Carrot and am finally nearly finished with the current script block, but I took a sudden detour when I got a doujin-game that I discovered was very simple to hack and began translating that as well. I hope to polish off Pia Carrot this weekend (the current block) and hopefully come close to finishing the other game as well. We will see.

Other than that I have been having financial woes. It's not that it's so bad actually, I just have money coming in from a bonus and tax returns and I'm trying to sort it out and direct it towards the appropriate debt and still have enough to pay my bills and such. I'm glad to be paying some things off but it's kind of a headache. I thought the money would go a little further than it seems like it's going to. Plus I spent a lot on my back trouble recently, and I need to get my car inspected and registered, not to mention it looks like the state screwed me on my tax return again. Still, I am going to be able to get some stuff paid off that I need to, I just have to make sure that my bills are covered. I'm not very good with money, it's kind of a pain in the ass. :P
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3/15/2006

I feel like I've been letting things slide, not getting back to people I should, and generally being disorganized. For all of those I apologize. I'm trying to do a little spring cleaning tonight though there is a snowstorm occuring outside.

I was talking to someone at work about Bad Religion (Jason, that was you ;) and if you like vocabulary in any way which I know you do you should check them out) I remembered how cool a band they are. I've been listening to Recipe for Hate while cleaning up this evening. I really liked some of the stuff that came out after that album also. They are a little whiny, liberal, anti-establishment sometimes, but that's mostly a good thing. In fact I like listening to something that's angry specifically at the injustices inherent or simply rampant in our society. I guess the only downside is if it makes me feel guilty that I'm not doing more about it, but it's never been my gola to change the world. It's just nice to hear someone say something bad about stuff that sucks sometimes. I just don't want to let it get to me.

I went shopping this past weekend, something that I haven't really done for a while (and actually purchased anything, my vacation excluded). I got a couple of shirts, a new keyboard for my computer, and Chronicals of Riddick for the Xbox. I also got a prepaid cell phone. Granted all of these things were as bargan basement as they come, both shirts were on clearance and the keyboard and game were each $10, but it's more the fact that they were things I wanted and I could afford them for once.
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3/08/2006

Happy Birthday to me. ^_^ My back was messed up when I woke up yesterday morning so I went to a Chiropractor and stayed home yesterday to ice my back. :( Today I'm doing a bit better and planning to go in to work for a closing shift. Yesterday was a good chance to get a little done on Welcome to Pia Carrot though. The ironic thing was, I spent a lot of the time translating Can Can Bunny Extra. ;) I guess there is a demo of the game included in Pia Carrot somehow, and that was the part of the script I was on. It's actually fairly long, a least as far as the amount of text. I'll have to figure out how you unlock it in the game, though I think I've read about it before and just never tried it.

I played a little Phantasy Star Online on the GC with a friend the other day. My friends and I are all thinking of getting into Phantasy Star Universe when it comes out in frigging November! Maybe I can get in on a beta or something. My friend liked it anyway (1+2), and it was fun to play again with someone. I hope there is some more about PSU at this year's E3.
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3/03/2006

I have not posted in a long time. I am almost finished reading the Knight the first book in the two book Wizard Knight series by Gene Wolfe. I really liked the Book of the New Sun so I am trying to read some more of his stuff. I have been playing a lot of Morrowind recently. I don't know why but it caught my fancy. Maybe because Oblivion is coming out soon. I've only done a little work on Welcome to Pia Carrot recently, but I'll work on it some more this weekend.
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