I am a 23-year old physics graduate of Bethel University in Minnesota. The first day of freshman year, my friend Elizabeth gave me the nickname "Thor." It caught on, and many people to this day still refer to me as Thor, even some of my former professors. Some people hate nicknames, I chose to embrace it. Ever since I can remember, I've had an undying love and passion for music, and this blog is where I go to talk about it. I play guitar and sing in the band Filed under: Adventures in the Slow-Carb Diet, Geckos, Miscellaneous, Music | Tags: bible reading, emery, geckos, music, slow-carb diet, the paper melody
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:
- Emery’s new album “We Do What We Want”
- 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!
… gecko day. I know how exciting that sounds. If you didn’t know this about me (which would mean you didn’t read the “About the Author” on the left column there…) I own two juvenile New Caledonian crested geckos named Morgan and Adrienne. I had plans to spend time today cleaning out my terrarium and trying to solve my humidity problem. You see, my geckos need a decently high level of humidity (60-80%) on a regular basis, though the tank should be allowed to dip lower (preferably not below 40%) throughout the duration of the day which would help control mold. Well, with how dry my house is, I would spray my terrarium in the morning and upon checking it a few hours later, the humidity would have plunged to 15-20%!!! My poor geckos must have been in so much pain.
The home of my little ones
I felt like a change needed to be made, and given the fact that the terrarium also needed to be cleaned, and the fact that I didn’t work today, I decided it was a good day to show my geckos some love. The first change I decided to make was trying a different substrate. I had been using CocoSoft loose coconut fiber, which looks okay but I don’t think it’s been holding moisture well. Plus, at the time I was planning to replace the old substrate with new substrate, I couldn’t find my CocoSoft. I headed out to Petco (or Petgo, for some… you know who you are) and got a big sack of EcoEarth ground up coconut fiber. It’s finer than the loose material, which concerns me a little bit as far as feeding my geckos crickets goes. If they lunge after one that’s walking on the ground, they can accidentally ingest some of the substrate and this can cause impaction, which can lead to death. When it’s time to feed them crickets again, I might take them out and feed them outside the terrarium, at least until they’re bigger and can handle ingesting trace amounts of coco fiber.
Next I headed to Cub Foods to address my next problem. Even the filtered Buhl water I had been using for my geckos was leaving very bad water spots on the glass. I did some research on how to prevent this without using distilled water, which can be harmful over time. Apparently, reverse osmosis water leaves the least amount of water spots, and fortunately Cub Foods has those dispensers of it where you fill your own jug. A cool 69¢ later, I was on my way home.
Upon spelunking in the basement some more, I found my terrarium box, in which was my bag of CocoSoft and terrarium moss. I didn’t care much about the CocoSoft, but the terrarium moss I decided to use to my advantage this time around. Once I emptied the terrarium of all contents (minus the background which I think is actually impossible to get out without breaking) I gave it a thorough cleaning with vinegar and water and let it dry out. I then put down the base layer of Hydroballs, follwed by a square of window screen to act as a liner, and then I poured the EcoEarth down into a good floor layer, spraying between additions to dampen it through and through.
My geckos, Morgan is on the left, Adrienne is on the right
Once the base layer was down, I had to figure out how to arrange all of the main components. I have a J-shaped piece of Mopani wood that has always sat on the ground and leaned against a side of the cage. I wanted to find a way to have the Mopani wood off of the ground and have it seem like it’s coming out of the background. I came up with a clever suspension system and hung the wood (haha euphemism) at about mid-level in the terrarium. After arranging the piece of driftwood and all the foliage, I decided to start getting creative with the moss. Its absorbent qualities help keep the humidity up for a longer period of time, so I arranged some on the floor of the terrarium to look natural around the base of my driftwood piece and then got creative in hanging it all over near the ceiling of the terrarium. I used it to cleverly conceal the suspension system. It looks quite lush and tropical in there now. I’m quite pleased.
This evening I went over to my parent’s townhouse to help my mom who has a broken foot. I brought over catfish and macaroni and we made fried catfish in her cast iron skillet and President Reagan’s recipe baked mac ‘n cheese (YUMMMM). Delicious. When I came home this evening, I was pleased to see the humidity in the terrarium had dropped to just below 50%. I think I might have a winning setup here!
I’ve been looking forward to the day when they’re more grown up because I want to eventually build a vivarium for them. I’d get a bigger terrarium, make my own background, and set it up to have living plants and a waterfall and a misting system and all the deluxe works my geckos deserve!
So that was my day. Full of gecko care and good food. Oh, and of course listening to The Receiving End of Sirens pretty much all day. Of course. Let’s be honest here.
This would have been the first post in a long time that I hadn’t mentioned music at all. Well. I mentioned it. Mission accomplished.
Sticks and stones won’t break my bones… it’s the branches and boulders I shoulder
Pale Blue Dot – The Receiving End of Sirens
