… and two hours later i did close my door behind me and left for Okinawa, without forgetting anything–or if i did forget something, i forgot forgetting it. I parked my bicycle in front of the post office nearest to the station, where i was sure it wouldn’t be towed away, bought the usual entry ticket for the train, and got on the first express train towards Himeji (that’s where pretty much all the express trains are going from here in the direction of the Kansai cities).
Charts 2
There are plenty of post and pass on memes out there, but i usually quietly stay out of them. But now i’ve been asked to post fifteen music albums i’ll probably always remember. Fifteen.
- The Gathering – if_then_else
- Gojira – From Mars to Sirius
- Macskanadrág – Modern Szerenád
- Pain of Salvation – Be
- Sentenced – The Funeral Album
- Rammstein – Reise, Reise
- Opeth – The Roundhouse Tapes
- The Toy Dolls – our last album?
- Ленинград – Хлеб
- Amorf Ördögök – Molylepke Minibár
- Iron Maiden – Dance of Death
- Blind Guardian – Nightfall in Middle-Earth
- Helloween – Master of Rings
- In Flames – Reroute to Remain
- Dream Theater – Systematic Chaos
I guess this is fifteen. Nothing surprising, is there? And it took less than fifteen minutes to compile. Though i’m not sure i’ll agree with this my own list just tomorrow. Or an hour from now. Nevertheless.
Also, i’m not passing the game on. Do it if you want. Fifteen albums “that will stay with you forever”, in less than fifteen minutes.
Charts 1
But before i begin my eternal long chain of posts on my past three weeks, i felt like posting a last.fm milestone list here. Seeing Sesam’s is what poked me to post mine. It can’t fetch my oldest plays (before the 10000th), so these are the prime-thousand-th plays from that point. Here you go.
- 11000th: Rammstein – Engel (080301)
- 13000th: Opeth – Reverie/Harlequin Forest (080408)
- 17000th: Dream Theater – Panic Attack (080609)
- 19000th: Ramones – Poison Heart (080805)
- 23000th: Apocalyptica – Peace (081129)
- 29000th: The Gathering – Even the spirits are afraid (090221)
- 31000th: Iron Maiden – The Apparition (090411)
- 37000th: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Minor Thing (090605)
- 41000th: Suburban Neon – Old Man (090828)
- 43000th: Friends with Cameras – Hypocrite (090925)
- 47000th: Ленинград (Leningrad) – Кредит (Kredit) (091105)
- 53000th: Gogol Bordello – Harem In Tuscany (Taranta) (100109)
- 59000th: Pink Floyd – The Trial (100308)
- 61000th: Tankcsapda – Mindenki (100414)
- 67000th: Sex Machineguns – Fire (100604)
- 71000th: BACK-ON – flower [LA mix] (100621)
- 73000th: Sentenced – Dead Moon Rising (100709)
- 79000th: UVERworld – Just Melody (100808)
- 83000th: The Clash – The Magnificent Seven (100902)
This with 85094 plays right now, and as far as i can tell the only song appearing twice on the 1000th-milestones chart more than once is Opeth’s Reverie/Harlequin Forest (twice). Yeah, i do love that song.
Also interesting is that back in 2008 it took a month or so to get 1000 plays, while nowadays i get that in less than a week.
I’m off
In two hours i’ll close my door behind me and not come back for a week. (This not counting the cases of returning from the 20m range of the dorm realising i forgot something.) Until then, i try to rid my room of anything that would end up rotten and smelly in this one week (not much, mostly trash only) and decide what to pack and what not. So far the only thing sure is my sleeping bag (bought yesterday), a towel, and my toothbrush.
Also it seems that i won’t write about all that stuff i watched lately anytime soon (to all i listed earlier, i since then watched Hyakko too). I’m not nerd enough to bring my laptop with me (not to mention it’d pretty much double my luggage), so there won’t be any blogging in the coming one week. Maybe if i feel like it i’ll occasionally plurk. I’ll try making photos, though i only have my phone for that purpose.
Sherlock
I’ve heard about this new british series remake of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary stories of the legendary (consultant) detective, Sherlock Holmes. I loved the novels, so i decided to give it a try. It’s great.
It’s set in the current London, although in a world where Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson and Inspector Lestrade are not famous figures from a crime novel but real people of pretty much the same life as their literary counterparts. The story of the three episodes are loosely based on the original novels, of course adapted to the modern world with smartphones, snipers, memory sticks and stuff. And of course Dr Watson isn’t writing short novels about their adventures, he’s blogging about them.
The scenery is London, for most of the time. Whenever the sky is visible, it and everything near the horizon are blurred. The occasional writings on screen (text messages, thoughts etc) remind me very much of Hustle. One more similarity is that the music of the opening sequence is… strange. I don’t really like it. The only other problem with the series is that it’s only three episodes. After i watched the third today, i started looking for the fourth, but apparently there’s none. Whaaat?!
I want more!
Lyrics
These are on my mind (and my player) lately.
They wanna keep us down
Van Canto – Kings of Metal (Manowar cover)
But they can’t last
When we get up we’re gonna kick your ass
The clans are marching ‘gainst the law
Van Canto – Rebellion (Grave Digger cover)
Bagpipers play the tunes of war
Death or glory I will find
Rebellion on my mind
I left my baby and it feels so bad
The Clash – I fought the law
Guess my race is run
She’s the best girl that I ever had
Tired nonstop
Last night we went out to have fun on the beach, then after we came back we just talked and drank for a while. I wasn’t as fresh in the morning as i would’ve wanted…
Nevertheless i got my student id copied and sent to the travel company for the chinese ferry ticket. Of which, even this way, it’ll take days to get just a confirmation of, and i’m not exactly jolly about that, because my schedule for getting the visa will get a bit too tight.
After that i went for my usual round in the gym and the running tracks, in the hottest blaze of the Sun it was totally refreshing. I thought i’ll just collapse, but luckily that didn’t happen.
Just had time for a quick lunch and i had to go back for band practice, which took pretty much twice as long as i’d have thought, but at least it was fun. Then we had a band dinner and since then i’m just fighting my urge to sleep.
Oh, and translated this week’s Xros Wars episode as well. And almost tore my shorts.
To read
Just a few minutes ago i read another short story in the Neil Gaiman book Smoke and Mirrors. And after i was done with it, i realised what i like a lot in a book. It’s when it makes me dream. That while i’m reading i can see the story, as if i was there, as if i was the narrator himself, in the book’s world.
It’s not only Gaiman, there are plenty of books that are such. Actually, most of those i read were like that. It doesn’t mean it’s a great story or carries a grand message, it’s just that the book is entertaining. I could go on with examples, but there’s simply too many.
It’s such a nice feeling when i’m walking on the corridors of Hogwarts or checking out the underground cavern in Bod’s graveyard, and even though i’m aware that i’m sitting on a train (even if while reading i stand up so that an elder lady could sit down) or on the toilet, the shriek of the Ringwraith or the final appearance of the Hound of Baskervilles can make me shiver to the bone.
I wish i could write like that.
Newbie
Last weekend i finally managed to build my new computer. It’s really nice. My goal was to build one that will be able to run StarCraft 2 without problems, and even after years it won’t get all that slow. I think i managed.
- AMD Phenom II X4: quadcore beauty, for teh power
- 4GB Corsair DDR3 memory
- Gigabyte 880G motherboard: micro ATX, because that’s what i planned, even if it turned out different
- Saphire Radeon HD5670: not the strongest, but just what i need
- Western Digital CaviarBlue 1TB HDD: don’t really need that much space, but it was sooo cheap…
- LG Flatron 21.5″: for widescreen entertainment—it’s huge and bright
- plus a Logicool wireless mouse+keyboard, Sanwa woodbox speakers, Zalman CPU cooler, GMC case
I installed Windows 7 and Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, just as it was on the laptop. With Wendy‘s help i already migrated all my documents, music and video, just some programming stuff and the server root is left. And yeah, StarCraft 2 runs without much problem.
Starbucks Africa Kitamu
Starbucks’ Africa Kitamu coffee is said to be this complex and that citrusy (apparently the marketing people at Starbucks have some stats that coffee labelled “citrusy” sells better, as every second type of whole bean coffee is marked that), but i’d rather put it simply as delicious. True, that alone wouldn’t make much of an advertising i guess. It’s smooth and bold, and the flavours are really complex. At least multi-layered.
Has a touch of cocoa, has a splash of the charcoalish roastedness i love so much, but it’s neither that bold nor over-roasted. They say Africa Kitamu matches well with citrus fruits, and it’s true. Having a glass of my usual grapefruit-orange juice mix before-after my mug of coffee really makes it taste even better.
I’ve read a few critiques about it, and even for people who usually don’t like coffee or only drink it with milk and sugar, Africa Kitamu is something they can drink and enjoy without problem. Too bad it’s not easy to get. Give it a try nevertheless.
