The Sound of a Gentle Word

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has instituted a contest encouraging fans to play one of their best songs, "Wizards in Winter," and make their own music video. Following the creation of this media, entrants must post it on a certain video-sharing web site and submit the url to the TSO.

The existence of the contest is, however, secondary in coolness to the fact that they've posted the sheet music for Wizards in Winter online in .pdf format! I've downloaded and printed out the piano music and and working on learning the tune--my skills are rusty though, so it will be a slow process. If I manage to learn how to play it satisfactorally prior to the expiration of the deadline, I may enter the contest.

Yesterday evening I gained possession of a shiny new silver Motorola Q smartphone, as the contract expired for my much-inferior (and very annoying) previous cell phone.

How much am I enjoying this new communcations hub, you inquire? I'll provide a hint: My screen's backdrop is the cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, my ringtone is the Cantina Band theme from Star Wars, I've taken multiple photographs of my cat with the built-in camera, and I have enjoyed listening to songs by Van Halen, Queen, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and The Who that I have stored on the phone.

Even better than these entertaining additions is the presence of internet explorer on the phone--while I detest the use of that browser on a PC, I revel in the fact that it is installed on my phone, as it signifies that I can now access the internet from any given place. Prior to my trek to the stable this afternoon, I checked my BZ reports and browsed several sites on the Q. I hope that this expansion of my access to the internet, and therefore BZPower, means that I will be able to accomplish more modding than I have been in recent months.

There is Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Earth. None of those, however, is the coolest product of that world-controlling information corporation.

That, my friends, is Google Shakespeare.

http://google.com/shakespeare

Holy Hamlet, it's awesome!

Do not post in spam topics.


DO NOT POST IN SPAM TOPICS.


DO NOT POST IN SPAM TOPICS.

Although there have been many topics, replies, and blog entries dedicated to this piece of BZPower ordinance, many members still seem unclear on this concept. A recent explosion in scofflaws--both of the straight spam, reply spam, and unintentional spam (parenthetical note: Later I will be posting in this blog a list of the different kinds of spam and related posts) varieties has occurred, pre-empted by rising levels of such activity.

When a member posts a topic that is in breach of BZP law, do not reply to it. Don't say "haha, you're in trouble" or "this is certaintly an entertaining topic," and especially do not reply to the topic starter with more pointless spam. Remember what spam stands for: Stupid Pointless Annoying Message. If your post serves no justifiable purpose, it definitely is stupid and annoying.

In addition, do not post just to say "stop posting spam" or "that's against the rules." All you are doing is adding fuel to the inferno. Just use the "report this post" button to alert the moderating staff to the rule-breaking, and refrain from posting. Members acting like staff simply contribute to the problem by adding posts to the spam topic.

As Makaru said in his blog entry, How to Report a Topic,

One of the unfortunate side effects of time's progression is that of eventual surpression of good music. Some brilliant songs, such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Queen's "We Will Rock You" remain remembered, but too often some very good and enjoyable songs, even ones that enjoyed popularity when released, fade from public's memory. This column in my blog will be dedicated to these forgotten melodies that I enjoy.

This week, I'll start with "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo.



I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go
Walkin' with a dead man over my shoulder
Waiting for an invitation to arrive
Goin' to a party where no one's still alive

"Dead Man's Party" was the title track from Oingo Boingo's fourth album and probably their best-known song. It is definitelty my favorite, which its catchy yet mildly creepy repeating melody and unsettling lyrics.

I was struck by lighting
Walkin' down the street
I was hit by something last night in my sleep
It's a dead man's party
Who could ask for more
Everybody's comin', leave your body at the door
Leave your body and soul at the door

Oingo Boingo was actually led by Danny Elfman, who is now known for his film scores--one of his most recent works was the score for the Spider-Man films.

All dressed up with nowhere to go
Walkin' with a dead man
Waitin' for an invitation to arrive
With a dead man...Dead Man

Got my best suit and my tie
Shiny silver dollar on either eye
I hear the chauffeur comin' to the door
Says there's room for maybe just one more

Don't run away it's only me
Don't be afraid of what you can't see
Don't run away it's only me . . .

December Fifteenth.


The Trans-Siberian Orchestra.


Smeag has tickets.



That is all.

...elect officials with true wisdom!


Credit to LehvakLah for showing that great sign to me at her weblog, which you can find a link to at the leftmost portion of this page. I suppose I'm essentially copying her blog entry, but that image tickled me so much, I felt I had to spread the word even more.

I sometimes eat peanuts whole, meaning I eat the shells.

This, I know, is generally unorthodox; most people find the shell to be unappetizing or assume it to be so. It just so happened one day, however, I was enjoying a rather delicious snack of peanuts, and i wondered aloud whether the shells were edible in the human sense (as in, not apt to block intenstines or whatnot). Nobody in the room knew the answer to the quandry, so I took it upon myself to investigate online, where I discovered that they are definitley edible, and not bad for your health at all--in fact, they're rather good for you, loaded with fiber. Following this discovery, I tried a whole peanut and found it to be rather good. Now I find myself enjoying them as such often.

Then the author concluded his pointless anecdote and found he had little left to say.

This entry has been dedicated to KIE.

As can be noted by the month-long gap between the date of my last entry's publication and the date I am posting this, I've been away for a period of time. A conglomeration of various reasons have contributed to my "off-line" time, the foremost one being the fact that my computers have been unable to access the internet. This problem went through several stages; first the actual internet connection was down, and following the re-establishment of that service, my wireless router went "kaput." Only today was I able to finally able to fix everything.

In my jubilation, I decided to let the readers of my webblog know of my return to the "intarweb" (yarr) through an entry. You have reached that entry's finality.

It has been three months since the last quarterly Text-Based RPG contest--and you, my fellow denizens of the RPG forum, know what that means. Indeed, RPG Contest #3 has officially begun! However, this time there's a twist.

No, no; I am not speaking about the addition of a theme (you can read about that in the Rules and Discussion Thread). Rather, I refer to the host: this time I am helping Black Six with the operation the contest this time. I am very honored to be selected to help host this, especially with the knowledge that I am, I believe, only the third Support Team member to have such a position (Jinzonigen73 hosted part of BBC #6, and Omicron hosted the "on-location" portion of BBC #38).

I am expecting lots of great entries for this contest. Don't dissappoint the Admiral and me!