life, and a little more

Halloween 2008

Oct 31

metalman777family, pictures halloween No Comments

[slideshow id=576460752339820379&w=426&h=320]

The kids had fun and got a lot of candy!  Click here to go to my flickr page to see the pictures in better detail!

And Now the Music Journey Starts

Oct 27

metalman777Life, apple, music, software, tech hard drive failure, music No Comments

So you might have read about my ultimate nightmare of losing my entire 300 gigabyte iTunes library. I made a few phone calls today and got prices ranging from $500 to $2500 (plus the cost of a new hard drive) to recover all the data from my dead drive.  My bank accounts just can’t take that type of hit at the moment, so I have resigned myself to building back my entire music library.

I do have to give props to Apple, as they are letting me download all of my purchased music and videos again.  Unfortunately I have many, many, many more albums that I have acquired elsewhere.  Those will be regained via Bit Torrent!

I got a great deal on a 1.5 terabyte Segate External Drive at Best Buy and will steadily rebuild my music library.  I’m using Senuti to recover all the songs that are still on my iPod.  The salt in the wound is that my iPod crashed about a week before my hard drive.  I had my 30 gig iPod stuffed with music!  After it crashed, I was lazy and didn’t put much music on it so that sucks!

I’ll probably be blogging on my situation from time to time.  Wish me luck!

This Just Isn't My Weekend…

Oct 25

metalman777Life, tech, www gmail, sucks!, youtube No Comments

crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Google changed the way you log into youtube this weekend.  If you use Gmail, as I do, you can link your Gmail account to your Youtube account.  Somehow someway I didn’t link ‘em right and now my youtube account of 2+ years is gone!!! I had something close to 100 videos posted!  crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe youtube is getting back at me because I have been publishing video to Viddler….yeah, yeah, that’s it!

My Worst Nightmare Come True

Oct 25

metalman777Life, apple, tech hard drive failure, help!, tech No Comments

Anybody who knows me knows how much I love, love, love music.  Over the years I’ve acquired a massive music library, filling a 300 gigabyte hard drive full of mp3s and concert videos.  I moved everything onto an external drive a while back, just so all my beloved files would be safe.

Well, this weekend I had to move my computer desk so the carpet guys could lay some new carpet.  I took everything apart carefully, storing all my cords and external drives (I have two) in a place where no damage could come to them.

The carpet guys came and went and I get back to the task of putting my computer back together.  I plug in both my external drives and see that only one of them is turning on.  I start to get very nervous.  One drive is my backup drive for Leopard’s Time Machine, the other is my beloved iTunes Library hard drive.

Please God, please let the Time Machine drive be the one not working!!!  PUH-LEASE!!

Well, either God is just laughing or He is crying with me as it is my iTunes Library drive that won’t turn on.

I’m a little resourceful.  I go to a local computer store and buy a new external casing, hoping the controller board is just bad on the Maxtor casing it came in.  I get everything installed….and power it up….and nothing….

CRAP!! So now I’m at a loss.  Please, if anyone has any ideas, please let me know what to do!  The drive won’t power on at all and I hear data recover costs an arm and a leg.  Google searching hasn’t yielded any good results as of yet.

I have been known to pirate an album or two, but I’ve also legally bought an amazing amount of music.  Will Apple let me re-download it?

HELP!

Ratt versus Whitecross

Oct 21

metalman777audio, music christian metal, metal, music, ratt, whitecross No Comments

So our music comparison continues.  We’ve looked at Iron Maiden and Queensryche, two 80′s metal icons.  The next two bands to look at are Ratt and Whitecross.

Ratt was one of my favorite bands and their music was as catchy as it was flashy.  Their lyrics were a little less than uplifting, so a Christian alternative was “needed”.

Enter Whitecross, one of Christian metal’s finest bands. Whitecross was formed in 1986 and they sounded incredibly like Ratt.

[audio=https://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/Music/Round%20and%20Round.mp3?w=6992c141]

Ratt – Round and Round

[audio=https://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/Music/06%20Because%20Of%20Jesus.mp3?w=09da8cb7]

Whitecross – Because of Jesus

(sorry this post is so short! had a root canal today and this is about all I can manage!)

Iron Maiden versus Barren Cross

Oct 18

metalman777Christianity, audio, music, videos barren cross, christian metal, iron maiden, metal, music, rock 3 Comments

If I had to nail down the most bestest metal band in the world, I’d have to give the title to Iron Maiden.  They’ve sold over a 100 million records, have the best vocalist and bassist ever, and just generally kick major butt.

As I posted in a previous blog entry, I never listened to Iron Maiden as a teen.  What I did listen to as a young Christian was the clean, “non-satanic” alternative,  Barren Cross.

I do have a very special place for Barren Cross in my heart.  My very first metal concert ever was in Fresno, CA, and headlining was BC!!  Well, headlining is a slight misnomer, as they were the only ones playing, and it was in a small church.  But they rocked my face off!  (I still cringe with embarrassment as I remember my mom talking to the lead singer after the show.  She told him to cut his hair!)

Remember, I didn’t listen to Iron Maiden, but my friends kept saying that BC sure sounded a lot like them.  Years later, I was listening to the local rock radio station and I heard a song that I swore was Barren Cross.  I thought to myself, how cool, playing some old Christian metal!  The DJ then announced they had played an Iron Maiden song.  I couldn’t believe at how similar they sounded!

That was the day I went and got the entire Iron Maiden discography and Iron Maiden became my favorite metal band ever!

Is it really possible to duplicate Bruce Dickinson’s soaring vocals and Steve Harris’ galloping bass lines?  Mike Lee and Jim LaVerde come as close as your going to get.  You take a listen below.

[audio=http://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/Music/07%20Powerslave.mp3?w=c40494b2]

Iron Maiden – Powerslave

Powerslave was Iron Maiden’s fifth studio album and it was released in 1984.  The two most notable songs that are always garner airtime are Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight.

[audio=http://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/Music/10%20Two%20Thousand%20Years.mp3?w=432043b3]

Barren Cross – 2000 Years

State of Control was Barren Cross’ third album and was released in 1989.  It is a very well produced and is still one of my favorites!

So, do you think Barren Cross sounds a lot like Iron Maiden?  If you need another listen, here are two different videos I found on youtube.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLvBwPOjZWI]

Iron Maiden’s Can I Play With Madness

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAWYP64ip3Y]

Barren Cross’ Imaginary Music

Zicam is magically awesome!

Oct 17

metalman777Life cold, medicine, zicam No Comments

A friend of mine noticed I was getting a cold yesterday and he recommended Zicam Gel Swabs.  Said they worked right away.

Today I finally made it to the drug store to try these bad boys out.   Crap he was right!  My head has been stuffy and my nose runny and I was over run with the general cold symptoms.  I busted out the Zicam Gel Swab and BAM! stuffiness gone!  I can actually breathe again!  Sweet.

I picked ‘em up for about $12 at Rite Aid.

My name is metalman777, and I approve this ad for Zicam…

Where Have I Heard This Before?

Oct 15

metalman777Christianity, audio, music christian metal, heavy metal, music, queensryche, recon, sacred warrior No Comments

A few months ago I wrote a blog post telling of my love for music and how that love was started.  I got started on the Christian Metal scene quite early, all the while ignoring the mainstream metal movement for the most part.

When I came to my senses years later, I realized how much the Christian metallers (is that a word?) ripped off the original artists such as Queensryche, Ratt, Metallica and AC/DC.  Maybe ripped off is too strong of words, but the Christian metal bands definitely borrowed similar sounds and styles.  That was quite alright with me back in the day.  As a young Christian, I was taught that Judas Priest and Iron Maiden were devil worshippers and that I should not listen to them.  But bands like Saint and Barren Cross, which sounded almost exactly as the aforementioned bands, were ok to listen to.

Anyways, I thought it might be fun to spend a few blog posts comparing some of the mainstream metal acts to their Christian counterparts.

First up is Queensryche versus Sacred Warrior versus Recon.

[audio=https://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/Music/Child%20of%20Fire.mp3?w=4a88a5ec]
Queensryche – Child of Fire.  Released in 1984

I would have to say that Queensryche is one of those bands whose entire discography is kept on my iPod at all times.  They are premiere musicians and I love every one of their albums.  They were pretty popular in the mid 80′s, so of course their sound would be “borrowed” by other bands.

[audio=https://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/Music/02%20Children%20of%20the%20Light.mp3?w=60e627c0]
Sacred Warrior – Children of Light.  Released in 1988

One such band that was heavily influenced by Queensryche was the band Sacred Warrior.  They released four studio albums, all of which were very good.  Click here to read a good review of each album.

[audio=https://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/Music/03%20Ancient%20of%20Days.mp3?w=359a0060]

Recon – Ancient of Days.  Released in 1990.

Recon only has the one album to their name, but what an album!  One can very quickly see the influence of Queensryche in almost every note.  Click here for more information.

[polldaddy poll=999170]

This is a new addition to the WordPress.com blogs.  Thought it would be fun to add a poll just because I can!

The Best Part of Business Ethics (Episode 2 of The Office)

Oct 11

metalman777Battlestar Galactica, The Office, humor, videos bsg, funny, humor, The Office No Comments

Goodness this is funny! Jim is capping on BSG and totally frustrates Dwight! I know that Dwight was going to tell him that BSG is on hiatus until 2009 (like Lost) and it is a “re-imagined remake”! I sure felt for Dwight this time!

Avoid Beverly Hills Chihuahua At All Costs

Oct 10

metalman777movies, videos movies No Comments

This movie stinks worse than a three day old dog turd on the floor!  I love kid movies, and I love animal movies (Babe anyone?), but this movie is just horrible.  The voice acting is stilted and uninspired, the cgi is bad and the plotline is just plain old boring.  The audience might have laughed one time, but that was it.

Save your money and go see Wall-E instead!  But if you need to see the trailer, here it is below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx2G3qNkcaE]