A most unfortunate thing happened today. One of the birds, our beloved parakeet Colby, suffered a fall from a high perch area. She had recently lost some tail feathers, so her stability going down was non-existent. Her neck snapped, and afterwards had only a few moments to live. Christine did what she could to make things easier on Colby, but when I got there, the spark of life was gone from her.

We are deeply saddened by this loss, and are doing what we can to ensure that this doesn’t happen to any of the other birds in our care.

I love writing about various things in my life… this is one of those things that I had hoped I’d never have to write about. I have to be real, though; death is just as important to deal with as are all other aspects of life. Thank you for reading this.

P.S.: I don’t know if God’s creatures have souls, but I hope there is a special place for the pets we all have cherished. I’d like to think, as Colby’s wings were clipped on this earth, that she is now flying in heaven.

Do you have a friend, family member or co-worker that tries really hard at their job? So hard that, even though they’ve made the grade, they feel they still can’t do enough? Do they take their jobs way too seriously? Then you may find the perfect gift for them at Despair, Inc. Their assortment of “demotivational” products are designed to reign in the trailblazer in all of us before we slip and do something heinously stupid. Seriously though, it’s good to have the opposite of “motivational” tools around, because we all need to lighten up every once in a while. I know I’ve needed to recently! That’s all folks!

I gave some of my co-workers the address to the blog, since this address is easier to write down than the online gallery address. If you work with me and are reading this, then this one’s for you. No matter what I’m going through at work, you guys (and ladies) make things more bearable and fun to come in to work every day. Thank you! Without you, it would really be just another job to go to, instead of an adventurous stage in my life.

(I’m listening to Joe Satriani and Rush as of this posting, ICYWTK!)

Something interesting has happened to the Top 40 playlist in my trusty iPod. Almost every track in the top 20 of that list now is comprised of almost all Sonata Arctica and Theocracy songs. I hadn’t realized that I’ve been listening to them so much! Even after several months of listening to their albums, I havent gotten sick of hearing any of the music! Both groups are what the metal genre considers to be “progressive/power metal”, though Theocracy has an orchestral “edge” to their music. Sonata Arctica are from Finland, while Theocracy is from Athens, Georgia (boy, my grammar is questionable today!).

I wrote about these two groups in an earlier posting a couple of months ago, but they’re both worthy of second mention. Theoc’s music reminds me of Iron Maiden songwriting, with the fast pace of Helloween (and a Christian message through it all), while SA’s music is like Stratovarius (another group from Finland), but better, with much more variety. I’d encourage anyone who likes this kind of music, or if they just want to hear something beyond the norm, to do some research and check them out!

By the way, I made a top 20 playlist in Christine’s iPod a while back. The group at the top of that list is Minerve. She listens to a lot of Goth/Industrial/Electronica Dance type of music. Our tastes have diverged radically from where we started out at in our relationship (she used to have my same tastes), but thankfully our relationship hasn’t suffered; I accept her for her tastes, and she accepts me for mine… the mature thing to do! I digress though… Minerve actually sounds very good and I owe it to her to endorse some of her tastes as well. Very danceable stuff, with good vocals, keyboard playing and songwriting. Another one to follow up on!

Take care, all of you, and may your lives be filled with good music… and the joyous music in God’s heavenly blessings!

This one goes to Sandra Montes de Oca! Her birthday was on the 18th and I was too wrapped up in my concerns to notice. Sandra, I’m sorry! Happy belated!