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Jan. 24th, 2004 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2Saturday. I've gottne out of the habit of updating my journal during the week, not sure why.
Sooo... um. Forget what I was thinking of posting last night. But anyway, spent most of the week playing toontown and otherwise wasting my time. I did work on one of my fanfiction stories last week and I worked on a Tai-Pan story Monday but haven't really accomplished much.
Calenders... I still have lots of pages from my lefthander's calender lying around so I can still complain about it if I want to. But it's a new year, and due to my posts about my calender from the last year I now have 3 new desk calenders from various friends. Gene and Mike gave me a Gorey calendar last Summer for my birthday... it contains pictures done by Edward Gorey. I decided to keep it at home because I don't need three desk calendars at work. I was planning to set it out on the coffee table since it has a rather Victorian look to it, so I thought it would be amusing for friends during the Steampunk Game session, but the truth is I forgot to set it out and I haven't used it at all yet.
My second calendar was a Lord of the Rings calendar. I forget who gave this one to me... Jeff and Jeri-Lynn? I think. Anyway I won't complain about this one because it's just pictures from the three movies. Well, one complaint... they sure like to show gollum a lot. But other than that it's a simple calendar, not much to worry about. ^_^
Keith (and Juli) got me a Movie Trivia calendar from Suncoast. Now, I appreciate the gift but if I want to complain about any of my calendars this would be the one, because it's often the kind of trivia that no reasonable person would ever know much less care about. Like, what did Denzel Washington name his movie studio after? Like knowing that has any relevance to me. ^_^ Sometimes the questions are interesting enough that I can quiz people I work with... I discovered that several of my coworkers have a much more in-depth knowledge of the movie Fame and who was in it than I would have ever suspected (or believed necessary).
Blind Guardian's A Night At The Opera
I bought a new cd this week... A Night At The Opera by Blind Guardian. That's right, it's the same title as the cd by Queen, but other than that it's not really related in any way. Blind Guardian is a German power metal band with some speed metal tendencies, and they do in fact borrow a bit from Queen in terms of music approach and composition. I first got their "Nightfall In Middle Earth" which is based on the story of the Silmarillion and really is quite an amazing cd, with many songs having that operatic rock approach that was Queen's signature sound. The main differences are that Blind Guardian really is a power metal/speed metal band so in that way they don't sound like Queen... and their lead singer falls a long ways short of Freddie Mercury (of course). But in many other ways the cd succeeds... I consider it a sort of masterpiece, since it pulls off the operatice metal approach very well and also pulls off a very difficult Tolkien-based concept albumn approach well.
So... I later bought a second cd of theirs, but I wasn't taken by that one nearly as much. It was an earlier cd and more of a basic metal cd.
So this week I bought A Night At The Opera. I'd read about it, and it's a more recent cd than Nightfall In Middle Earth.
What to say about this cd... I hardly know where to begin.
This cd is apparently their attempt to take their fusion of Iron Maiden-like metal and Queen-like operatic songwriting to its illogical conclusion. This is a cd that starts with an explosion and works its way up to a climax. EVERYTHING is screaming guitar solos and emotional choruses, EVERYTHING is a crisis of infinite proportions... it's overwrought, overdone, over the top, bombastic... a cd permenantly set on 11. The musical equivelant of Martian Succesor Nadesico... just listening to it can drain you physically and emotionally. It's like the last three minutes of Carmina Burana set to metal and extended for about sixty minutes. It's like that massive Dies Irae section from Verdi's Requiem that they're always using for commercials and such because it's two minutes of pure adrenaline... only in this case, that's the entire cd. It's a cd that doesn't know the meaning of the word "lull".
Some people seem to think this is Blind Guardian's masterpiece, rather than Nightfall. It's... well, certainly unique among all the cds in my collection. Even Queen never attempted anything like this. So... an amazing cd? Apparently. A unique achievement? Yes. A cd that required a lot of talent to pull off? Yes. But a masterpiece? Well... um... not sure bigger and louder and faster and more overwrought is necessarily better. But it's starting to grow on me anyway.
I was under the distinct impression that Porcupine Tree had about a billion cds out there. This was because Sky had given me a copy of their In Absentia cd, and I liked it so much that I bought my own copy, and I also bought another of their cds called "Signify" and gave Sky a copy. And I saw a lot of cds at the store. But mostly what shaped my opnion is that I'd been given about eight or ten more discs of Porcupine Tree music by Sky. I hadn't listened to all of that, but it seemed like a ton of stuff.
Well I pulled them all out to listen to this week... and it turns out that Sky had actually given me everything he had twice. So it wasn't as many discs as I had thought.
I still think "Train" and "Sound of Muzak" from In Absentia are two of the coolest songs I've heard this year.
Anyway I remembered the story from work that I was going to tell.
It seems like some of the drivers/dockworkers were hanging out in the front room where the dispatchers are... this is pretty standard for where I work. And of course, with truck drivers and dock workers you are talking about blue-collar types who are not the most socially gifted people on earth.
So apparently one of them farted quite loudly, just as one of our billers, Stephanie, walked through the room. And they thought it was a big deal. Jake our night dispatcher is married to Laura one of our other billers, and he later said to her something like, "I'm sure we're going to hear about that!" as if Stephanie would complain about it or talk about it or something. Which was silly... why would it be such a big deal?
The next night one of the other guys was retelling the story to Laura and Gloriah and it started to become clear. In his version of the story, as he put it, "Who of all people should walk into the room at that moment but Stephanie!" As if it was self-evident that she was the last person you'd want to fart in front of.
Laura and Gloriah asked why it was not okay to fart in front of Stephanie, but it was apparently okay to do so in front of them? "Oh, well, you guys are married," the dock worker said. "So is Stephanie," they replied. The dock worker fumbled for some other excuse... but it was clear to Laura and Gloriah that the only difference between them and Stephanie was that Stephanie is very attractive... and apparently Laura and Gloriah are less so.
The dock worker managed to figure out his social gaff (really, an amazing feat that he recognized it). A few minutes later he leaned over and "whispered" to Laura "Don't worry Laura, you're still the most beautiful girl here!" Only his whispers can be heard fifty yards away. He saw that Gloriah was paying attention and had heard him, and so immediately added, "And you too Gloriah!"
I mean really... a monkey has more social skill. ^_^
Sooo... um. Forget what I was thinking of posting last night. But anyway, spent most of the week playing toontown and otherwise wasting my time. I did work on one of my fanfiction stories last week and I worked on a Tai-Pan story Monday but haven't really accomplished much.
Calenders... I still have lots of pages from my lefthander's calender lying around so I can still complain about it if I want to. But it's a new year, and due to my posts about my calender from the last year I now have 3 new desk calenders from various friends. Gene and Mike gave me a Gorey calendar last Summer for my birthday... it contains pictures done by Edward Gorey. I decided to keep it at home because I don't need three desk calendars at work. I was planning to set it out on the coffee table since it has a rather Victorian look to it, so I thought it would be amusing for friends during the Steampunk Game session, but the truth is I forgot to set it out and I haven't used it at all yet.
My second calendar was a Lord of the Rings calendar. I forget who gave this one to me... Jeff and Jeri-Lynn? I think. Anyway I won't complain about this one because it's just pictures from the three movies. Well, one complaint... they sure like to show gollum a lot. But other than that it's a simple calendar, not much to worry about. ^_^
Keith (and Juli) got me a Movie Trivia calendar from Suncoast. Now, I appreciate the gift but if I want to complain about any of my calendars this would be the one, because it's often the kind of trivia that no reasonable person would ever know much less care about. Like, what did Denzel Washington name his movie studio after? Like knowing that has any relevance to me. ^_^ Sometimes the questions are interesting enough that I can quiz people I work with... I discovered that several of my coworkers have a much more in-depth knowledge of the movie Fame and who was in it than I would have ever suspected (or believed necessary).
Blind Guardian's A Night At The Opera
I bought a new cd this week... A Night At The Opera by Blind Guardian. That's right, it's the same title as the cd by Queen, but other than that it's not really related in any way. Blind Guardian is a German power metal band with some speed metal tendencies, and they do in fact borrow a bit from Queen in terms of music approach and composition. I first got their "Nightfall In Middle Earth" which is based on the story of the Silmarillion and really is quite an amazing cd, with many songs having that operatic rock approach that was Queen's signature sound. The main differences are that Blind Guardian really is a power metal/speed metal band so in that way they don't sound like Queen... and their lead singer falls a long ways short of Freddie Mercury (of course). But in many other ways the cd succeeds... I consider it a sort of masterpiece, since it pulls off the operatice metal approach very well and also pulls off a very difficult Tolkien-based concept albumn approach well.
So... I later bought a second cd of theirs, but I wasn't taken by that one nearly as much. It was an earlier cd and more of a basic metal cd.
So this week I bought A Night At The Opera. I'd read about it, and it's a more recent cd than Nightfall In Middle Earth.
What to say about this cd... I hardly know where to begin.
This cd is apparently their attempt to take their fusion of Iron Maiden-like metal and Queen-like operatic songwriting to its illogical conclusion. This is a cd that starts with an explosion and works its way up to a climax. EVERYTHING is screaming guitar solos and emotional choruses, EVERYTHING is a crisis of infinite proportions... it's overwrought, overdone, over the top, bombastic... a cd permenantly set on 11. The musical equivelant of Martian Succesor Nadesico... just listening to it can drain you physically and emotionally. It's like the last three minutes of Carmina Burana set to metal and extended for about sixty minutes. It's like that massive Dies Irae section from Verdi's Requiem that they're always using for commercials and such because it's two minutes of pure adrenaline... only in this case, that's the entire cd. It's a cd that doesn't know the meaning of the word "lull".
Some people seem to think this is Blind Guardian's masterpiece, rather than Nightfall. It's... well, certainly unique among all the cds in my collection. Even Queen never attempted anything like this. So... an amazing cd? Apparently. A unique achievement? Yes. A cd that required a lot of talent to pull off? Yes. But a masterpiece? Well... um... not sure bigger and louder and faster and more overwrought is necessarily better. But it's starting to grow on me anyway.
I was under the distinct impression that Porcupine Tree had about a billion cds out there. This was because Sky had given me a copy of their In Absentia cd, and I liked it so much that I bought my own copy, and I also bought another of their cds called "Signify" and gave Sky a copy. And I saw a lot of cds at the store. But mostly what shaped my opnion is that I'd been given about eight or ten more discs of Porcupine Tree music by Sky. I hadn't listened to all of that, but it seemed like a ton of stuff.
Well I pulled them all out to listen to this week... and it turns out that Sky had actually given me everything he had twice. So it wasn't as many discs as I had thought.
I still think "Train" and "Sound of Muzak" from In Absentia are two of the coolest songs I've heard this year.
Anyway I remembered the story from work that I was going to tell.
It seems like some of the drivers/dockworkers were hanging out in the front room where the dispatchers are... this is pretty standard for where I work. And of course, with truck drivers and dock workers you are talking about blue-collar types who are not the most socially gifted people on earth.
So apparently one of them farted quite loudly, just as one of our billers, Stephanie, walked through the room. And they thought it was a big deal. Jake our night dispatcher is married to Laura one of our other billers, and he later said to her something like, "I'm sure we're going to hear about that!" as if Stephanie would complain about it or talk about it or something. Which was silly... why would it be such a big deal?
The next night one of the other guys was retelling the story to Laura and Gloriah and it started to become clear. In his version of the story, as he put it, "Who of all people should walk into the room at that moment but Stephanie!" As if it was self-evident that she was the last person you'd want to fart in front of.
Laura and Gloriah asked why it was not okay to fart in front of Stephanie, but it was apparently okay to do so in front of them? "Oh, well, you guys are married," the dock worker said. "So is Stephanie," they replied. The dock worker fumbled for some other excuse... but it was clear to Laura and Gloriah that the only difference between them and Stephanie was that Stephanie is very attractive... and apparently Laura and Gloriah are less so.
The dock worker managed to figure out his social gaff (really, an amazing feat that he recognized it). A few minutes later he leaned over and "whispered" to Laura "Don't worry Laura, you're still the most beautiful girl here!" Only his whispers can be heard fifty yards away. He saw that Gloriah was paying attention and had heard him, and so immediately added, "And you too Gloriah!"
I mean really... a monkey has more social skill. ^_^
