New Music For The New Hockey

It's been a while, yes? Yes. So what prompts me to post? In a word, music. In two words, hockey music. In three words, new hockey music. More words than that and we'll all be bored. So, without further ado, the lineup:

1. Styx - Renegade
2. Powerman 5000 - Action
3. Metallica - Fuel
4. Limp Bizkit - Rollin (Urban Assault Remix)
5. Lunatic Calm - Leave You Far Behind
6. 10 Years - Actions & Motives
7. AC/DC - Back in Black
8. Chevelle - Don't Fake This
9. Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare
10. Caged Elephant - Ain't No Rest for the Wicked
11. Rob Zombie - Superbeast
12. Seether - Like Suicide
13. Skillet - Rebirthing
14. System of a Down - Aerials
15. Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
16. Breaking Benjamin - I Will Not Bow
17. Muse - Knights of Cydonia
18. No Doubt - Hella Good

All of these songs had to have the requirement of having good sound. For some of them, their sound is what puts them here (see No Doubt and Caged Elephant). For some, it's their action-oriented lyrics (see Powerman 5000 and Rob Zombie). Styx made the cut because of a rather memorable jumbotron video at the Igloo that celebrated the Steelers' Super Bowl victory while spurring on Pens fans to cheer on their team for what would end up a Stanley Cup victory. Prodigy made it because IMD, much like Limp Bizkit's Rollin remix, gets the blood pumping in anticipation.

As a basic way of summing up the new album, it's a much grittier and angrier sound. There are tracks you don't play around people with virgin ears (Rollin', Nightmare), and tracks you don't play around old people (Don't Fake This, Like Suicide, well, just about all of them).

Even though a turn-around in goaltending play requires my team to score more goals (something I can't quite help out with from the net), the music may help to get my mind into more of a focus for games. And if more focus helps with those strange odd-bounce goals, then so be it. Look out virgin ears, you're about to be violated.

Labor Day

More photos! Of what, you ask? Of donations, I say! Welcome to my increasingly besieged world of work. Besieged by none other than books, of course. Mustyd, dusty, and not-so-trusty books.

Let's have a little photographic tour!

1)This is what I see for over 7 hours of the work day. Every now and then, things conspire to get me out of my paper cage, but this is pretty much it.
2) When circ clerks or anyone else who is trying to get my attention from the doorway leading to the public area, this is what I see. Do you see that tiny dark sliver of color center and below the lights? Not the dark splotch sitting on the server cabinet, to the left of that. That's the top of the doorway. When I first started weeding through the donations, I tried to keep a clear sight-line so I could see people coming and going in case any of them needed to get my attention lickity split. With all the donations received since that time, a sight-line is no longer feasible.

3) Up next is what I would see if I was to look a little behind and to the right, which is where the book keeper is situated. See where the BWI tower is? On the other side is supposed to be an open space in the partition for her and I to converse through when money questions and issues are discussed. Usually.

4) This is looking from the kitchen to the staff entrance. Two boxes thick of donations. All slated for the book sale coming up next week. All keeping me isolated from the rest of the building. That little box sitting on the floor? Old ratty-tatty paperback donations that are now slated to be recycled. Hopefully into some product that doesn't encourage packrats to hoard them for 30 years before giving them to people who still don't know what to do with it.

5) This is looking from the direction of the circulation desk. See that bookshelf hiding behind it all, between the two windows? When I'm standing up, my head is as high as the binders sitting on top of the shelf. When I sit down: poof! Where'd I go?

6) This last photo is the back of the wall that makes the background to my monitor-viewing experience. In other words, instead of seeing a blank white surrounding, I see a multi-colored and multi-fonted wall of cardboard packaging. The door to the left is the fire exit from the staff area, and so I work harder to keep this path clear, which leads to build up on the length-wise portion.

So. About donations. I think it's nice that people would rather give their used property a chance to be useful again as opposed to just pitching them outright without a thought as to their condition. But there are always exceptions to the rule, so let's observe a few:

1) The donator who gives libraries everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! We've gotten old faded plastic toy sets in these boxes - stuff that probably sat on a toy store shelf no less than 30 years ago. And they are always missing pieces.

2) The donator who gives libraries nothing but old musty discolored books. Thanks patron. What we really need for our collection is to start a section of musty books. Maybe we'll shimmy in between the sections of mildewy books and smelly books.

3) The donator who gives libraries oodles and oodles of childrens books - all at least 15 years old and more than 'gently' used. I'm talking about sharp creases across the covers, a whole crayola box's worth of crayon drawings between the pages, and even portions of pages torn right out of the book.

I kind of want to create a whole new section of library books for these people, solely for their browsing pleasure. It will consist of a pile of wet books heaped in a corner of the bottom storage closet.

Random Thoughts Before Labor Day

It's been awhile since I've put up a post, so I thought I would ramble for a bit to keep the electronic cobwebs from building up a'la Indiana Jones fashion.

I don't really have any focal point for this post, but I do know the next post will be ruminating over the nature of donated books and what that means for me. There will be photos, so be anticipatory!

Other things on my mind? Hockey, of course. NHL season is upcoming - about another month for the regular season to start, and the Pens get to kick it off with their first game in the new building against the much hated Philthy Flyers. Not sure if I'll be going to it, but one can hope. My own personal hockey season at B'ville is still going rocky. I'm doing something wrong but can't figure it out. I mean, I know what I do wrong when I let up goals, but I can't seem to break a mental or physical block with regards to ammending my play. It's a bit frustrating at times, but at least during the last game, I was more patient with it as opposed to the previous game. Maybe not falling behind by 8 goals helped.

Also, a notion that I wasn't going to post until I got a bit further with the progress, I've taken to a peculiar delusion that I can try creating, or at least laying down a framework, for a role-playing game. Odd, you may think, and I really can't fault you for that. If I get more ideas on paper and details worked out, maybe I'll let y'all in on what it's about and what inspired me to go that route.

It sort of scares me, to be honest.

Next time: Super-Dimensional Defensive Donations!

Music That Is Hockey

Remember how I mentioned the new hockey soundtrack for my mind in the last post? Well, here's the start. Listed directly below is the soundtrack I used for the winter session where we won it all and up through the current time. I threw in some lyrical tidbits where they're present.



1) Pro Victoria by VNV Nation

2) Sentinal by VNV Nation

3) Action by Powerman 5000

4) Indestructible by Disturbed; Every broken enemy will know / That their opponent had to be invincible

5) Fuel by Metallica; So give my fuel / Give me fire / Give me that which I desire

6) Hit Back by Hate Dept.; I found my own way to hit back

7) Points of Authority by Linkin Park; You love the way I look at you / While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through

8) Knights of Cydonia by Muse

9) March of the Pigs by Nine Inch Nails

10) A Song for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age; I saw you comin', I heard not a thing

11) Freuer Frei! by Rammstein

12) I-E-A-I-A-I-O by A System of a Down

13) My Favourite Game by The Cardigans; It's fine the way you want me on your own / But in the end, it's always me alone

14) Bodyrock by Moby

15) One Man Army by Prodigy ft. Tom Morello

16) Hey Man, Nice Shot by Filter; They think that your early ending was all wrong / For the most part, they're right / But look how they all got strung

17) Push It by Garbage

18) Man or Animal by Audioslave

19) I Like the Way by Bodyrockers

And that is that. I was going to take the time to post the new soundtrack just below, but it's been a few days since I wrote everything above this sentence, so let's just post this one and see what happens next, capice?

I Don't Remember - Honestly!

Hmm, wha? No, seriously. I don't remember what I was going to blog about. But I've been wanting to blog, so blog I will. How about a blog about remembering what I wanted to blog about? That's as good as anything, I suppose.

Let's start with what it's occured to me to blog about. List style, for sure!
1) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
2) The Body by Stephen King
3) Hockey soundtrack changes
4) Thoughts on the upcoming NHL season, Penguins in particular
5) Thoughts on the nature of patron donations - but this would be highly edited, since I wouldn't want to get in trouble with work, now would I?
6) Formation of musical tastes - or distastes, to some of you
7) More thoughts on anime - probably looking at specific titles or subgenre within that category
8) Cars - more precisely, why I hate my car and what future options may or may not be
9) Explanation for the way libraries work - very likely a painfully long post that will bore you people out of your skulls; good for killing hangovers, maybe?
10) Some philosophical loftiness having to do with the nature of men and women, or conflict development, or why chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels is a food made in heaven

Honestly, I think I pulled the last four selections or so out of my ass. But I really wanted to have 10 items on that list.

Now if only we had a never-ending coffee creamer dispenser at work...

Eye To Eye

Got some photos for you folks. Just like I promised. The video will have to wait, though. I'm hoping to convince Sweetheart to take some video of my hockey games - 30 second snippets and the such.

Here goes:

Above is one of two book shelves that my father and I built for Sweetheart. It's among the few birthday gifts I got for her, although this one had to wait a few weeks after her birthday, but they're in her room and are being lovingly used, as I hear it. The shelf spaces are 13" high, giving her plenty of space for picture books of most sizes, bar oversized Skippy Jon Jones storytime books.

Above is a cake that Sweetheart and I baked for the Dessert-A-Month event at the library, which can be won via silent auction at Moon Township Public Library's annual Wine and Cheese fundraiser event held each Fall. Not trying to sell the event, but it does raise money via donations for the library, so I'm not going to shut up about it, either. This cake has a story all its own. And the story revolves around the buttercream frosting that was whipped up for it. In a sentence, if you're going to use buttercream in large quantities (anything bigger than a cupcake), then you better have a refrigerator unit nearby; buttercream is what happens when icing hits the slip'n'slide on hot summer days.

This here is a photo from my first game this current session at Bridgeville. I'm the goalie. Laying down on the job, er something like that. The guys in orange buzzing my net are my teammates. I don't have an orange jersey for 2 reasons: 1) goalies are not required to wear the team color, and 2) I don't think I would look as sexy with an orange jersey and white/black/silver pads. And the moment I splurge on orange/black/white pads will be the moment I play for a team with a different color.

Finally:

This is my first horseshoes game ever. Seriously! Almost 30 years without ever playing a game of horseshoes. Sweetheart's uncle was surprised. But I think he was also secretly pleased to have a good reason to demand that a game be played. This was during Sweetheart's birthday party.

So there you have it. Some of this year in photographic form.

Book Review: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Okay. So it's been a week. And I still haven't gotten back to that L5R discussion. But as Sweetheart told me, no one will really miss it, and I'm forced to agree with her, since I don't think I've found my audience yet - or have they simply not found me?

So it's a book review, instead. As I mentioned last post, I started on Cherie Priest's Hugo award nominee, Boneshaker. Boneshaker is touted as a steampunk novel, which, to me, is a bit misleading. It's more of a sci-fi horror/action/steampunk hybrid. There are zombies (horror), gun battles and chase scenes (action), and airships, strange inventions, and some late 19th century setting (steampunk). But the steampunk aspect is much more passive than active; steam-based technology isn't really there (although there are some inventions sitting around that use electricity), the airships are purely there as a deus ex machina to get characters to where they need to be, and the geographical setting (frontier Seattle - when Washington state was still Washington Territory doesn't exactly inspire the Victorian monolithic sense that old timey London or Chicago do.

Even the inventions play a rather minor role in the story. The most prominent role is the Boneshaker itself, which is only used as a narrative device to set up and explain the story's setting, and then it shows up at the end as an unused piece of machinery. Other inventions such as mechanical masks and some anti-zombie weaponry are there but are never the focus.

A brief summation of the plot is in order: 16 years prior to the storyline, an inventor creates a mining device for use in excavating through the Alaskan tundra when the machine goes on a rampage, destroying downtown Seattle and looting banks along the way. As a nasty side-effect of the sudden opening of the earth, a gas seeps out that kills inhabitants who breathe it in and then reanimates them into zombies. Seattle is walled off. The inventor's wife, Briar, gives birth to a son, but hesitates telling him about his father. Ezekiel decides to prove that his father wasn't a criminal by sneaking into the walled off section of Seattle. Briar finds out and goes in after him, setting off the events. Both Briar and Ezekiel have run ins with air pirates, Seattle inhabitants who eke a living in underground habitations, and a mad, mad doctor who controls a signifcant amount of power in the walled city.

All that said, I enjoyed Boneshaker a lot, and here are my reasons:

1) Characters - the two main characters (again, based on narrative perspective), Briar and Ezekiel Wilkes are good dynamic foils of each other. Where Briar, the mother, is much more guarded and jaded about life due to her past relationships with her father and husband, Ezekiel, the son, wants more options and is willing to stake more to find out why his mother is so guarded. As the story progresses, both characters go through similar hardships, both physically and mentally. This works out perfectly in the end when the two are reunited. The side characters are appropriately fleshed out for their roles in the story, and a few even get you rooting for them when bad things happen.

2) Pacing - the pacing is absolutely wonderful! There wasn't a point when I thought to myself, "The story is really dragging" or "Wait! Too much is happening! Must reread last two pages!" I think the action-based transitions from one section or another help out a lot with this. It's certainly easily managable and explained with the presence of hordes of zombies to chase characters from one place to the next. Add in some unfriendly human factions, guns, and a poisonous gas, and things can really move well.

3) Setting - despite my grousing about how the setting isn't conforming to the typical steampunk mold (and no story ever completely conforms to the genre mold unless it's making a new genre), I found the setting of a frontierstown-turned-haunted-wasteland to be interesting and posing of its own problems and story benefits. The most notable such benefit is that the timeline has the Civil War continuing longer than it really did (and well explained as being due to bad luck on the Union side of things), meaning no Federal government presence to trip up the plot. In fact, this a specific device, since several characters are looking forward to the immenent inclusion of the Washington Territory as a state so that they can get Federal aid in trying to stop and cleanup the poisonous gas.

I could probably list another few areas, but time stops for no man, and my hour of being at work before my scheduled hours has run out.

I'm hoping to work in some photos and maybe a video for the next post, so stay tuned!