It’s now time to write the obligatory post where I say that I might not be in touch through internet means for a week. Christine and I are flying back to Chicago for a much needed and deserved vacation break. I’ll try to see if I can blog through other means during our vacation (phone email, guest computer, carrier cyberpigeon…) but I can’t make any promises. You can bet, though, that Christine will definitely try to get to a computer somewhere for her email, so I’ll be right behind her!

I was initially worried about our new home, but it will be watched over by a reliable party, so I’m not too concerned. Our birds will be well taken care of as well, but we’ll miss them. We still haven’t finished unpacking though! I hate leaving the house on a note like that, but we’ve planned this excursion for a few months now. Oh well!

I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures! Unlike our last Chicago excursion back in 2005, I have a more reliable camera. If that should somehow go wrong, the cell phone takes halfway decent pictures too! I’ll just have to buy a couple more XD cards when I get there… Christine threatened to take up all the available memory space! Wives tend to do that anyways, don’t they? (Just a joke… put the bat down, now…) When I get back, I’ll also have to see about fixing the photo gallery. I know it’s been out of commission, but I haven’t been able to find the time to track down the problem. Come hell or high water, I’ll be showing you all some cool pics! Maybe even a video or two, if I find the place and opportunity!

That’s all for now. I like how I put my Chicago White Sox cap picture on this entry before even knowing how I was going to write it! Cool, eh? Cheers to all!!

Update: I just tested the blog-by-email feature in WordPress… and it works like a charm! I may have to regulate it manually though, if I can’t set up a cron job to automate this… hmmmm… I got it! An iframe tag in the footer got the job done!!

When you have to be at work with a growing migraine and you don’t have your painkillers with you, it gives another facet to the meaning of “dread”. When you’re in the department by yourself because your partner is on vacation and this happens, it does the same for the meaning of “helplessness”.

This one was a migraine with a sinus headache trigger. These are the kind that start out in the morning as a fuzzy throb, then builds and builds and builds until you’re ready to cry. Two Tylenol helped quiet the pain down… somewhat. Then at the tail end of my day, I felt like my head was going to explode from the front on through the back and neck. Concentrating on driving in a hot-as-hell car only made it worse. When I got home, all I did was take a mix of one Aleve gelcap and one Excedrin Migraine, then crawled upstairs into bed and whimpered.

An hour later, and the pain went down far enough to enjoy what was left of the day.

I’m so tired now!

Technorati Tags: Esoterik, Migraines

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve blogged my thoughts on the music I’ve been listening to. Mainly because I haven’t had much money for a while to even think about spending it, but also because some of my favorite groups were kind of in limbo or in the recording process. Well, now I got my wish! A lot of my favorite bands and artists have put out a ton of stuff recently and I’ve been going bonkers trying to decide what to buy first! I have yet to acquire: Megadeth’s “United Abominations”, Sonata Arctica’s “Unia”, Firewind’s “Allegiance” and Visions of Atlantis’ “Trinity”. Oh… and let’s not forget Rush’s “Snakes & Arrows”!! (Mom, please don’t slap me for forgetting Rush…)

Over the last couple of months, I did manage to get a few full albums. I’m very happy with this new influx of aural goodness in my iTunes library! So, what I’ll attempt to do next is give my readers a brief review of each album. Also, click on the album thumbnail to see more of it in detail. Let’s start with the earliest acquisition, shall we?

Rob Rock – Holy Hell: So far I haven’t really listened to the whole album; I’ve just been so hooked on a few tracks! For those of you unfamiliar with Rob Rock, here’s a somewhat accurate synopsis of this singer. He’s been performing in quite a few Christian rock and metal bands since the mid-to-late 80’s and also a few secular bands and projects, Impellitteri being one of the notables. The tracks I’ve been hooked to are the title track “Holy Hell”, “Slayer Of Souls” and “Calling Angels”. As far as the music goes, this is your standard melodic hard rock; nothing fancy or unique, just a good time. His voice is just awesome, though, and a treat to listen to.

Vanden Plas – Christ 0: That’s “zero”, not an “O”. Not to worry, this doesn’t get the least bit sacreligious. This progressive metal offering from our friends in Germany is primarily their modern day re-telling of “The Count Of Monte Cristo”. The songs are very well done, with some parts building tension to the point of bombasity. All the songs are done in Vanden Plas’ signature style, but they’ve improved upon their earlier work and are now flexing some complex musical muscle! Best tracks, IMHO, are the title track, “Postcard to God”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Shadow I Am”, “Somewhere Alone In The Dark”… and a grand cover of the song “Getsemane” from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Any fan of progressive metal should be kicking themselves if they don’t get this album!

Threshold – Dead Reckoning: This was my next acquisition after Christ 0… and I found out I was lucky to now have two kick ass albums to listen to. I’ve heard Threshold’s songs on their last album, Subsurface, and I thought they were awesome then. They’re better now, if that’s possible! Another progressive metal offering that simply ROCKS, and I can’t express that enough. This is hard driving music to go over 100 mph with your hair on fire. The only song that may be remotely a ballad is the stellar “Pilot In The Sky Of Dreams”, and that has some fiery moments in it too! I posted the video of that song in an earlier entry, so check it out, will ya!? I can’t decide on a favorite, so I’ll just say listen to the first three tracks (oh, and “Pilot…”) and you’ll probably wind up listening to the whole enchilada.

Dream Theater – Systematic Chaos: I saved the best for last, yes I did! I guess I just listen to a lot of progressive metal. This is the newest hot-off-the-production offering from the foremost authority in progressive metal. Dream Theater are the guys responsible for putting their chosen genre on the musical map. I’ve given this album about five or six listens and, like most of their stuff, some of the songs took a bit of getting used to. Now, IMHO again, almost every single track is just brilliant. Almost. “The Ministry Of Lost Souls” is still a hard horsepill to swallow. Then again, during the playthroughs, it was the one track that didn’t grab me and make me listen like the others did. I may have to put up a more comprehensive review of each track, as that is the kind of fan that I am and that’s what this album deserves. For the uninitiated, I’d suggest the track, “Forsaken” as a good place to start, as that is the only one of two commercially accessible tracks (ie. begging to be a hit single).

Well, the next albums I listed earlier to acquire are more along the lines of power/symphonic metal rather than their progressive clansmen. Except Megadeth, which is just bone-crushing, ear-spanking metal in anyone’s definition. And Rush, of course, being the progressive rock kings. I hope you dear readers liked the reviews here as much as I liked writing them. For now, I bid you…

… Cheers, and happy listening!

Technorati Tags: Esoterik, Progressive Metal, Power Metal, Dream Theater, Rob Rock, Threshold, Vanden Plas, Music Reviews

Well, it’s been a rollercoaster over here. Work has gotten more hectic, home life has been good… however I’ve been battling some depression due to several factors. I think one of them is the recent move and the weight of added responsibility. I’m slowly snapping out of my funk, so please bear with me on this. I want to start writing regularly, but I think that will still be a long time coming due to just getting my life back in order. Wish me luck!

Cheers… to try and cheer me up!

Well, it’s been two weeks since we brought the moving truck to this place and unloaded 95% of our shtuff into the new home. Let’s see where things are today…

All last week, we concentrated on getting the last 5% of our stuff out of the apartment and that was a killer. It’s just as they said… you never know how much you have until you have to pack it and move. Indeed, we even had packages of wedding gifts that had been sitting in my in-law’s garage for 5 years! Getting all the oddball stuff that we had difficulty packing was a pain. We finally got everything done Tuesday, cleaned the apartment on Wednesday and turned in the keys Thursday. You could just imagine the great release and relief I felt with that chapter finally (for the most part) over!

Friday, I started unpacking some of the boxes that you can see in the “Our Home Part 2″ video. I did this while relaxing on my first Friday off after the move. I also had to deal with fixing the latch on the front door, worried that the builders had installed a substandard part. WD-40 is a lifesaver with door problems! Also, close to the afternoon hours, our cable and internet went out upstairs. I called and called on the issue, went through the process of diagnosing the problem on the phone with tech support, and concluded I’d have better luck spitting in the wind. Anyways, I did a workaround yesterday just to make ends meet and the problem was resolved by a field tech (and my assistance!) today. Well, getting back to yesterday, I managed to make the dining room and kitchen more live-able, but not before setting up the living room TV and stereo system so that I’d have some music to drive my day. All in all, I had a good time unpacking. I even unpacked some of the long-forgotten wedding gifts, since there’s more room in the house than what we’re used to. Some of the gifts are going to be put to good use in this house, I assure you all!!

Through all the trouble we had with just getting the cable and internet set up, yesterday’s conundrum notwithstanding, we still don’t have a phone land-line yet. However, it’s only a minor inconvenience; we’ve been living on our cell phones so much that, if the land-line wasn’t part of the package deal with our Cable/ISP, I’d say “no thanks” to the home phone! Hopefully, I can find a way around this, or at least assure myself of the minimum cost for all services. Hmmmm…

Well, that’s all I have. That, and I’m hopelessly addicted to Stickam! Check out my webcam page for the specifics on it. If any of you have webcams and want to find a good webcam community, check it out immediately.

With that note, I’ll write later on the condition of our new home and other things. Cheers!!