(no subject)

It's amazing how fast the week goes by. I really haven't posted in Live Journal as much as I would like.

After getting my car tuned up two weeks ago, the engine light came back on just a few days later. I called the dealership. They gave me the same advice my friends and coworkers gave me: is it the gas cap? Then they said to drive it over the weekend and if it didn't eventually turn off, to come back in.

I didn't call them Monday and by Monday evening it had stopped coming on. I guess things are okay. After a complete, major 60,000 mile tuneup, there shouldn't be anything wrong anyway.

I made a list of goals last week, much of which I've failed to meet. Goal: make cheap and healthy lunches for work. This one I've succeeded at. Walk 30-45 minutes at least 4 days a week. I'm mostly failing to do that one. Pay bills. I need to do that. Arrange dentist appointment. It's arranged. ^_^ Don't spend money. Well, I've been bad about spending money on frivolous things lately, but I guess I've been pretty good in the last five days. Write: new chapter of Girl's School, 2 new scenes on Bitted Throug by last Saturday. I have failed to write anything on Girl's School in three weeks, and I didn't write anything new on the Vasthi Bitted Throug story before the Tai-Pan meeting Saturday (actually one of my goals was to rewrite Restoring the Lady so I could turn it in, and check Fuzzy Ghost so I could turn that in, but I didn't even write those down).

I have done a little bit of writing on a completely different non-Tai-Pan non-fanfiction story I have from years ago. I have 60+ pages written on it, and I'd like to finish it off some day. Like many of my incomplete stories, there are some things in it that I really like. Anyway, I wrote something this week, so that's good I suppose.

My lunches this week have been orange chicken with veggies. I bought a large package of frozen chicken breasts a couple of weeks ago, and soon discovered that if I fried them in the morning like I usually did they came out kinda tough and rubbery, or burned on the outside and still not as cooked on the interior as I liked. I solved this problem by cooking three of them in the crock pot overnight. I put them in some chicken broth and lime juice, and tossed in some spices. That worked pretty well, the chicken was thoroughly cooked after twelve hours, heh.

So this Sunday on the advise of a coworker I made "orange chicken" by cooking four chicken breasts in the crock pot overnight in concentrated orange juice. It worked okay, I guess. It comes out quite sweet. I considered whether grapefruit juice or cranberry juice might be more interesting, I may try that next week. Anyway the nice thing about doing this is that it's extra-cheap, I place each breast in a bowl with some veggies from a package of frozen veggies I heat up on the stove -- not a lot of variety, but pre-made meals for the week that cost me, I don't know, maybe as little as a dollar each.

(no subject)

My latest fascination has been power metal. Not just any power metal, but Epic Symphonic power metal. On the more power metal side, I've been listening to Kamelot, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, Symphony X, and a few bands along those lines. On the more symphonic orchestral side of things I've been listening to Heavenly, Wuthering Heights, Blind Guardian, Epica, Nightwish, and some of the newer stuff I've picked up including Rhapsody, Fairyland, Arwen, Lunatica, and Xandria.

Power metal tends to blend together and sound the same after a while, but when it's done really well I like it a lot. I was having a hard time distinguishing Stratovarius from Sonata Arctica at first, but I've learned to tell the difference. They're both speed power metal bands from Finland, but Sonata Arctica writes better lyrics, for one thing. (Stratovarius gets their name from "stratocaster" and "Stradavarius" which aptly describes their sound -- think of Paganini as a metal guitarist, and you have a good idea of the speed and virtuosity that a band like Stratovarius embodies).

Some of the more symphonic and operatic stuff really is impressive though, if you get past some goofy lyrics written and sung by someone who is not a native English speaker (most of these bands are European). I like to say that these bands are trying to recreate the sound of Queen, which is not entirely true, but vocally that's what a lot of them seem to aim for. Some of them are much more ambitious. In fact, concept albumns are very common among this group. "Nightfall in Middle Earth" by Blind Guardian is based on stories straight out of Tolkien's Silmarillion. "Dust to Dust" by Heavenly (possibly my favorite cd that I've picked up in the last year, along with Mabool by Orphaned Land, another concept cd) is the story of a vampire, from his first incarnation as a vampire through to his ultimate battle with his own vampiric master in an attempt to free himself and save his soul.

Power metal tends to be the positive, happy side of metal, so this is a positive, happy story about a vampire. If you can believe that. ^_^ Anyway Heavenly uses a lot of Queen-like choruses, and Blind Guardian even moreso on Nightfall. Unfortunately neither has a singer with Freddy Mercury's range (who does, really?) but the resulting music is pretty amazing, I think.

Some of the other stuff goes beyond that. Italian band Rhapsody describes their music as "Epic Symphonic Hollywood Power Metal" and have gone so far as to write a fantasy novel that two of their cds are based on (it's hard to ignore the Hollywood aspect when a cd is called "The Symphony of Enchanted Lands, Vol 2: The Dark Secret"). They perform on some cds with a full orchestra and vocal choir. Even better, they hired Christopher Lee to read the vocal passages for this cd. What this band is attempting to do could be described as "The Lord of the Rings soundtrack set to metal", so the inclusion of Lee is particularly apt.

Fairyland is another band that is trying to do Tolkien-metal of a sort. Their cd "The Fall of an Empire" sounds like another fantasy epic concept story, although I'm not sure if they have a source they based it on or if it's their own private fantasy world, as with Rhapsody.

(Virtually every power metal band has a thing for fantasy themes, although I couldn't say for sure why that is.)

Epica takes it a step further. Their cd "The Score: An Epic Journey" actually is a soundtrack. Parts of it were used for a Dutch movie called "Joyride" and it doesn't even contain their usual rock and metal elements. It's a pure instrumental non-rock soundtrack.

One of the older power metal bands (one that almost certainly does not fall into the "epic symphonic" camp) is Manowar. I'm tempted to pick up one of their cds, not because I'm sure I'll like it, but simply because I've seen them described as one of the cheesiest metal bands on the planet -- a virtual real-life Spinaltap. Their cds mostly picture them dressed as barbarians out of some Conan novel; it's a very Spinaltapish look. An actual band that is a virtual caricature of metal bands, I want to hear what they sound like. ^_^

Years ago I used to wonder why all the metal bands came from Northern Europe and America. It seemed like Southern Europe was immune to metal, or that metal was a particularly Germanic/Viking thing. That's not true anymore -- I own cds by two French metal bands (Fairyland and Heavenly), two by Italian metal bands (Rhapsody and Lacuna Coil), a cdy by a Swiss metal band (Lunatica) and one by a Spanish metal band (Arwen). Not to mention the bands I have from further afield, Turkey (Mezarkabul), Isreal (Orphaned Land), Indonesia (Rudra).

Arwen confuses me a little. One of their songs, "Between Love and Pain", I absolutely love. The rest of the cd I have trouble getting into. I think it boils down to a lack of good songwriting -- goofy lyrics, no very strong hooks or strong melodies. But the band sounds fantastic when everything clicks, they have great talent and a great vocalist. The thing is, I'm not very impressed by their current cd, but I suspect that with improved songwriting they could quickly become a favorite of mine. ^_^ They seem to have everything else in place.