The Second Twenty-One

Okay, I couldn't wait.  Here's the next twenty-one songs WMP played on random out of 22,491 songs:

22. Black Sabbath - Hole in the Sky
23. Aerosmith - Under My Skin
24. Rush - The Larger Bowl
25. Clutch - A Shogun Named Marcus
26. Bad Religion - A World Without Melody
27. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird (Outtake Version)
28. Johnny Cash - Busted
29. Killswitch Engage - Without a Name
30. Ill Niño - When It Cuts
31. Shadows Fall - Deadworld
32. Crowbar - ...And Suffer as One
33. Himsa - Curseworship
34. Heart - Heartless
35. Ice Cube - When Will They Shoot?
36. Carnivore - Inner Conflict
37. The Cure - A Thousand Hours
38. Cake - Nugget
39. Coolio - Fantastic Voyage
40. Mudvayne - World So Cold
41. Common - The Bitch in You
42. Doc Watson - Deep River Blues

This one started out all classic rock, went rock and punk, and then out of nowhere, someone yelled "FREE BIRD" and like Buttafüko, Windows Media Player said "Okay, you asked for it asshole."  Then we went metal, threw in some more classic rock and some hip hop, and ended on bluegrass.  Nice.

I have to give honorable mention to song 43, though:  Basil Poledouris - "An Age Undreamed Of/Anvil of Crom" from the original Conan the Barbarian!

The First Twenty-One

Well how the hell are ya?  I'm dustin' off the ol' Blogger account, how about that?

This is something I've been meaning to try for a while.  I took all 22,491 songs on my hard drive and put them on random to see what would come up.  I was originally going to note the first ten, but when you're talking about 22,491 songs, I thought it more appropriate to ramp it up to the first twenty-one.

1. Whitechapel - Fairy Fay
2. The Beatles - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
3. Aphex Twin - Home Made Polysynth
4. At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
5. Buttafüko - I Don't Like You (Acousti-füko Practice 05-13-2011)
6. Violent Femmes - Good Friend
7. Destruction - The Price
8. Joni Mitchell - Trouble Child
9. Freddie Jackson - You Are My Lady
10. Fear Factory - Ascension
11. Dark Moor - Lovers
12. Lady GaGa - Poker Face
13. Anthrax - Hy Pro Glo
14. Deftones - Minerva
15. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Shipbuilding
16. Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive
17. Hall & Oates - Out of Touch
18. Arch Enemy - The Immortal
19. Cypress Hill - Cuban Necktie
20. Nobuo Uematsu - Those Who Fight Again
21. Exhorder - Slaughter in the Vatican

I'm kinda surprised I didn't get more random tracks like interviews with Eazy-E, theme songs to 80's television shows, or movie scores (although there was one track from a Final Fantasy soundtrack), but this is a pretty interesting cross-section.  Maybe I'll see what the second twenty-one are...

Change for the Better

I put the Heraclitus quote “The only thing that is constant is change” in an email today and one of the recipients told me that I should be more positive.  I always considered this a positive quote.  How uninteresting would the world be without change?  I forget sometimes that there are those that cannot adapt or accept change.  It sounds kinda silly, but I’ve always thought you should celebrate change.  I think there was something in Heraclitus’ philosophy that said you cannot step into the same river twice.  Even though it appears the same, it is always changing.

Seattle's Smarter Highways: Day One

Well, Day One for me anyway. They went live yesterday and I drove home too late to see what happened. Today, however, I got to experience them first hand.

If you're asking what the hell I'm talking about, you're not much of a commuter. As my significantly darker left arm can attest, I am a Commuter. Seattle spent just shy of $29 million on a system of lighted signs on I-5 north that are supposed to help congestion south of downtown by giving drivers real-time info on traffic conditions like blocked lanes and slowing traffic.

Today, as I neared downtown around 6:45pm, traffic slowed to a crawl just before the West Seattle Bridge like it always does. The first set of signs at Boeing Access Road showed a speed limit for all lanes of 50 mph, except for the HOV lane which read 55. The limits went down by 5 mph at each new set until they read 40 mph around Beacon Hill. This was when I was going about 8 mph. Traffic seemed to be exactly the same as it always is when I head back to Seattle from my job in Fife, with the exception of the jackholes that would abruptly change lanes when they saw that the speed limit was higher on the left hand side of the freeway, then swerve back suddenly or in the middle of their lane change when they realized that the higher limit was for the HOV lane and, alas, they were alone in their vehicle.

These signs (and their funding) are part of the Viaduct replacement project. Damn, I need to start voting. Apparently, the idea is that the added congestion from the Viaduct closures will be lessened by these signs. So far, I haven't seen or heard of them being any better than the old light boards that they replaced that would occasionally read "Stalled vehicle ahead in center lane", "Olive exit closed, use Madison", or "Amber alert: Red Toyota Camry, license 773 4NI" or whatever. They're also supposed to help cut down on collisions, but I've been driving in Seattle long enough to tell you that the worst possible way to help Seattle drivers (that already can't be trusted to talk and drive at the same time) is to put bright, shiny, self-updating signs over the road.

I've been making this commute for a little over three years now and I've made it for many years prior to this at different times. Maybe it's working and traffic would be a lot worse if these new signs weren't there. I don't know. It just seems like $29 million could have been spent on something that would have been a lot more useful and helpful. Like fixing the real source of that evening backup: I-90 dumping into I-5 just as it narrows to two lanes and an exit to Seneca while vehicles bob and weave to get to the left for Mercer or to the right for Olive on top of the backup that stretches all the way from the 520 exit and the ship-canal bridge north of downtown. Or, my personal favorite, put that money into better traffic safety education and more stringent license testing so that if you're a fucking idiot, you're not on the road anyway.

Momentary Panic Followed By Happenstance

While driving to Milton yesterday…

First off, you may be asking why on Earth I would be driving to Milton and the answer is that the city of Fife (where I work) does not have a grocery store. In the whole city: No grocery store.

Anyway, I was driving and talking on my cell phone. Oh, horrors, I know! Throw away the key with me, they will! I spotted a police cruiser coming from the other direction and panicked for a moment, not wanting to get busted since I heard that driving while on the phone was now a primary offence. I almost dropped the phone into my lap mid-sentence, but I noticed the officer driving towards me was on her cell phone as well. Haha!

I’ve always been against this stupid law anyway. I personally think that the DOL should tailor part of their exams to determine if you can drive somewhat “distracted.” If you display the inability to drive and talk at the same time, you should not have a license! Although there should be a special section of hell reserved for people stupid enough to text and drive.

Give Me $5!

I was talking with a friend about how I was bummed that so few of my friends come out to see either of my active bands play lately.  What she told me is that my friends probably feel like the only communication they have with me are my invites to my shows.  This kinda bummed me out because the only time I have to hang out with friends is usually at my shows.  I practice most nights of the week and on the weekends I usually have shows or if I’m lucky I will get time to hang out with my girlfriend.  To me, those show invites are actual invitations for my friends to come and hang out with me.  The argument was then made that I’m technically asking my friends to pay to hang out with me.  I called Bullshit on that one.  You’re going to have to pay some amount of money to go out with any friends and $10 is usually the highest cover any of my shows ever have, but 80% of the time they’re closer to $5 or free.  Anyway, I’m not trying to bitch out my friends, I just wish they’d come and hang out with me while I’m doing what I love to do.

FFXIII - Chapter 9

Well, I finally picked Final Fantasy XIII back up and doggedly advanced through a few more chapters.  I have to say it is a bit more engrossing now that the parties are bigger and Hope isn’t whining so much.  Now that the party is more powerful and there are more tactical paradigms to use, it’s much more interesting.