The Hammer of Thor

So when 2011 rolled around, I was going to try to make it a point to try to blog every day, or at least a few times a week.  I was going at a pretty good clip for awhile, but all good things must come to an end I guess.  It’s been more than a month since my last post, and a lot of things have happened since.  The thought crossed my mind that I should write a blog, but I really didn’t have much to write about.  Now, I think I’ve got enough to do a couple posts, but I’ll compress it into one.

Slow-Carb Diet

I’m starting my sixth week on Timothy Ferriss’s Slow-Carb Diet.  His claim was that with this diet, you can lose 20 pounds in three weeks without exercise.  Bold claim.  But I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves.  When I started the diet, I was 320 lbs.  At the end of the third week I was down to 300lbs., and eventually got myself under 300 lbs. for the first time in probably three or four years.  Sundays are quickly become my favorite days of the week.  I love cheat day.  Eating tabooed foods in excess one day a week is marvelous, but it usually leaves my stomach very angry.  For the last four or five Sundays some of my church friends and I have been going to Shamrock’s Grill & Pub, which makes what is definitely the best burger I’ve ever had.  So that’s been nice to look forward to.  I usually gain about 5 lbs. every cheat day, but it comes off by midweek and then the weight loss continues.  I’ve gotten a lot of comments that I look trimmer.  I feel it in my pants, as I’ve tightened my belt two notches since starting the diet.  I don’t really see the change when I look in the mirror, but that’s probably because it’s been gradual.

M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

I’m staying up to speed with my M’Cheyne read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan.  It’s been thoroughly awesome, and I very much enjoy reading some books I’ve never read before.  Esther stood out to me in a big way, soooooo, give it a read.  I’m still battling the feeling of it being homework, so continued prayer for that would be much appreciated.  Actually, prayer in general for the reading plan would be greatly appreciated.  You know, actually prayer in general for me would be appreciated, which brings me to my next topic…

Unemployment

Yep.  Still unemployed.  Working for Bethel Security once a week and collecting unemployment benefits.  If you know anyone needing someone with a physics degree, send them my way.  Please pray that God would provide for me somehow in the months to come.

What’s new in music…

Well I’ll start with music I’m personally involved with.  My band The Poor and the Prevalent is going into the studio in less than two weeks to record a new single for our label’s 25 year anniversary compilation CD.  Me and our other guitarist, Hunter, have been writing the song on and off for probably five months.  Yeah.  We write slow.  Well, Peter and Hunter are coming back to town over spring break so we made sure to book time to record.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about recording a single song.  We really wanted to push ourselves, and we’re doing just that.  I’ve done more work with Reason that I’ve ever done before.  The song is an epic in itself, clocking in at about 5:26.  Expect thunderous electric drums blended with Darin’s acoustic kit, ambient sounds aplenty, a plethora of TREOS influenced tapping guitars, a real string quintet, and complex vocals.  Complex is a very good word to describe the song.  There are a lot of layers, and it should have staying power by revealing something new each listen.  I can’t wait to get into the studio to record, which should be even more fun this time because we’re recording in our label’s new studio they built since we recorded Decline and Fall. Exciting!

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much out there as far as new music I’m interested in, with a couple exceptions:

1. Emery’s new album “We Do What We Want”
2. My Purevolume-aided discovery of the band The Paper Melody

The new Emery album will undoubtedly be great, but with the news that co-frontman Devin Shelton will be taking an indefinite hiatus, I fear the band won’t ever be the same Emery I know and love.  Judging by their new tracks, they will still have all the ingredients that made Emery great, except one: the ability to have simultaneous lead vocal lines, which was something that made me fall in love with Emery in the first place.  I sure hope the hiatus turns out to be short lived.  Really looking forward to the album regardless.

I was working on our track the other day and I just needed to take a break so I hopped over to Purevolume.com and came across this band on the front page called The Paper Melody.  If I’m honest, I clicked on them because they have a girl in the band, and I kinda have a soft spot for cute girls who love and make music.  I clicked to watch their new music video, not knowing what to expect, and was completely blown away.  I didn’t expect to hear what I could describe as a seamless blend between The Receiving End of Sirens, VersaEmerge, and Chiodos; a heavy hitting, melodic, ambient and orchestral mix that won me over instantly.  When I checked their influences and found TREOS listed, well, I was pretty much hooked.  The music video for a song called “The Nightmare Academy” was so clever and fun, so I decided to listen to the rest of the music they had uploaded and liked every single one.  As I began listening to the song “Adam and Eve” the word “altruistic,” which perked my ears because a prominent place I remember seeing that word was in the game Bioshock.  Paying closer attention to the lyrics, hearing “You built this city in the depths” and talk of a “city in the sea,” I realized this band had written a song about Rapture, the fictional underwater city from the video game.  At this moment this little band from Yuba City, CA became one of my favorite bands.  Any band that loves TREOS and Bioshock is awesome in my book.  Naturally, I had to buy their first EP, Conducting the Motion, and was again impressed with what I heard.  The TREOS influence was evident everywhere, and the knack they had for replicating that kind of atmospheric ambiance was impressive.  The haunting vocals at the start of “Marionette” drew me in, and the TREOSian tactic of using common lines between different songs was present as well.  The piano that starts the song “Gates” is infectious, and I relished the multiple voices layering each other, which is especially prevalent in the closing track “Synopsis: The Dream.”  It is an exceptional EP and is deep up my musical alley (that sounded like a euphemism, but it wasn’t.)  I highly recommend it, and I am eagerly awaiting the release of their new EP The Nightmare Academy in 10 long days.  Sincerely hope they can make it up to Minnesota sometime.  I read that they toured with VersaEmerge a while ago.  Shoot, if I had known then what I know now I wouldn’t have missed that show for the world.  Actually I don’t even know if that tour came to Minnesota, soooooo tough break.

Geckos

My geckos are doing fine.  They aren’t really growing that fast, but hey, they’re like six months old and live around 20 years, so they’re in no rush.  Still, looking forward to when I can handle them without having to be super careful of not crushing them.

Here’s the latest adorable picture of Morgan:

Morgan lying on his back in my palm

Well I think that’s a good general update.  Covered a lot of ground.  Who knows when I’ll write a blog again, so enjoy this while you can!