Jared’s Blog

My uncle must know mind control. That’s the only way I can think he convinced my grandma and aunt (his wife) into coming to Minnesota in the middle of winter.

Maybe I should give a little background first. Maxine, my Uncle Dan’s wife, is a Southern Bell. She grew up in the south and has lived there all her life. Needless to say, she’s not a snow or cold lover. Grandma Jessie has spent plenty of time in the snow and chooses to live on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi these days. Both of them have sworn it’d be a cold day in hell before they’d come here during winter.

While I was visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, I got the news the entire southern clan was flying/driving up to MN to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra: tickets and hotel accommodations courtesy Uncle Dan and Co. I wasn’t so much excited to see the show as I was to see all my family. The last time we were all together was maybe for my sisters grad party which was 1 1/2 years ago.

The day arrived and I was even able to get off work early so I could eat dinner with everyone. Before I left work, I called ahead to the family and got them heading down the right skywalk. After meeting up with them infront of the City Center, we decided to go eat at Applebees in Block E. Bad idea. Applebees turned out to be fairly busy and being that we had a party of 13, it was pretty hard to get a table. With about 45 min to spare, we were able to get a seat and place our orders. We were all very rushed in eating and I think everyone was just anxious to see the show.

With that we headed off for the Target Center; only a short block away. I was asked to not bring my backpack into the show and had to run that along with a couple cameras to my car. I got back, found my dad who was on lookout duty for me and we took our seats. A couple of minutes later the lights dimmed and the show started.

For the next 2 hours or so, we were treated to lights, pyro, and music. Now to say I was anticipating the show like I would one that’s more my style of music would be a lie. I hadn’t heard much of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra other than a quick commercial a few days earlier. It was enough to get me interested, but unfortunately I wasn’t impressed with what I saw.

First of all, it was a lot of Christmas music, which I don’t care to hear all that much. It was very rock-oriented music, which was a plus, but sitting at the back of the Target Center made me realize why I don’t like big shows like that anymore. I can’t see what’s happening on stage. No disrespect to my uncle. I’m sure front row seats were amazingly expensive and I was surprised to see he had sprung for lower level seats.

One thing I’ve come accustomed to over the last few years of seeing small bands play in small clubs is standing close to the stage and watching the band play their instruments. Most of the music I listen to is very technical and takes a lot of skill to play. I love watching a good band play their music flawlessly. This time, it was more like watch the human + guitar shaped blob move around in the spotlight. It was frustrating not to be able to see what they were doing.

Speaking of lights, there were a lot of them. It was probably just the area we were sitting in, but some of the lights they had on the rig above the stage must have been pointed just right so that whenever they’d turn on, we were blinded.

There were parts of it I enjoyed: most notably the faster parts where they had a lot of solo guitar. Most of it, for me, just dragged on. I never once found myself so much as tapping a foot or finger along with the music. Overall, I’d give the performance a 2 out of 5. The lights/pyro was cool, but when you break it down, they’re nothing more than a cover band playing the 80’s hair metal rendition of some Christmas songs.

My criticism may come across as harsh and to my family, and I am sorry for that. I know you spent a lot of money and energy planning this event and I appreciate the trouble you’ve gone through to get us all together. What you have to understand about me is I’m a snob when it comes to music. I have been that way for a long time and working in the music industry has only made me more critical. This should not be interpreted as unappreciation though. I gave it a chance, and didn’t like what I saw or heard. I’ll go back to my metalcore, screamo, and punk music now. Maybe someone you can check out one of my shows.

As I’d said previously, I fall short on the gift giving. In reality I don’t have much of an excuse besides that I’m lazy. For most people gift giving is rewarding. You get to see the delight on the other persons face as they open their new prize. For me, not so much the case. I like to make people happy, but I’m horrible at figuring out what the right gift for someone is. If I have a good idea, I’ll follow through with it, but most of the time I can’t think of anything.

So on to my list of loot. The two things I was hoping for most this year I got. The KCA-420i which is car audio language for iPod connector for my car deck. For as long as I’ve been listening to music I wanted to take my entire collection whereever I go. I’m just one of those people who wants music playing all the time and I’m pretty picky about what kind of music. Anyway, the little box was an easy install though I may redo it for a better placement. Right now it sits velcroed to the roof of a compartment in my front console. It’s actually a pretty good place for it, but there’s a small shelf that’s right above that area that would probably work better. The only thing is it’d take some drilling to run the wiring. Using the device isn’t quite as intuitive as the iPod itself. The scrolling is the worst. Each tick on the wheel only scrolls 1 item. It doesn’t incrementally increase. For example, I just tried scrolling by artist through my entire list. I spent 5 minutes doing this and got to D. Other than that, it’s pretty neat and I’ve finally got my entire music collection in my car. Thank you Mom and Dad.

Another thing I was wishing for this year was an iSkin. I had an iPod skin, but it was cheap and didn’t work very well. I’d heard these are the best skins you can get and they weren’t kidding. My biggest gripe with my old one was the screen looked like crap when covered. You could only make out what it said if you turned on the backlight. This one has a clear screen and it is very easy to read. It also has a belt clip, which I don’t plan on making much use, but it’s there. Thanks to Grandma for it.

The next gift was quite a funny story in more ways than one. I had wanted a SerialATA hard drive enclosure. My rational is that I don’t have a SerialATA motherboard now, but if I buy a new drive I’m going to want it to be SerialATA as my next motherboard will support it. Anyway, so I sent a link to off to my mom. Apparently they had a little fun figuring out what exactly I had ordered. Even after it got there, they couldn’t figure it out. So after opening it, I find that I had mistakenly sent the wrong link to my mom and the enclosure I was holding was for external SATA, and had no USB. GRRRR! It’s completely my fault though. In browsing NewEgg, I had clicked on the wrong one and sent it off without knowing. The only difference in the model # is one letter: a U instead of an S. Whoops!

Other than that I got a whole load of ties, dress shirts, and a couple pairs of dress pants. I’m well stocked on cologne for the next year. I got socks galore, both every day socks and dress socks. And you can’t forget the giftcards.

Actually, I have a gripe about one in particular: Target. The gift card I got was a “musical” gift card. You touch a little button on the card and Bullseye, the dog sings Jingle Bells or something else stupid. First problem, the card is as thick as about 10 gift cards stacked up, taking up even more space in my wallet. That is if I put it in my wallet. Of course I don’t want to because the damn thing would probably start playing 20 times a day on accident. Besides, once you hear it once, it’s just annoying. Maybe on paper a singing gift card is a good idea, but in practice, I don’t see the need or benefit.

UPDATE: Rick totally bought me the first season of Laguna Beach on DVD. That crazy bastard!

I’ve started and stopped writing this entry about 3 times now. I think my problem is there’s just too much to say. This season brings on certain feelings for me. Some are good, some are bad; both for different reasons.

Ever since I decided to give up Christianity for Agnosticism, this time of year has been interesting. I notice now just how many people assume you are Christian. Non-Christians are bombarded on a constant basis with Christmas images in public this time of year. I find this almost hard to believe in today’s society where we put so much into equal representation of all beliefs.

I’m not against Christmas. Even in my non-belief, I realize that there’s a large majority of Christianity in the US and there’s going to be no change any time soon. It still irks me to see how commercialized it has all become. Stores continue to try and push when the holiday season starts because their business goes up. People feel the need to start their shopping earlier and earlier. This is the rant you hear every year though. We all know the situation and no one seems to bother doing much about it. And let’s face it, I’m not exactly the most qualified to be preaching about the true meaning of the season either.

One thing good the season is good for is getting people together. I made the trek up to Virginia to see the family. They were all happy to see me and tried cramming more sweets down my throat than I cared to eat. For some reason after they got back from the late night service on Saturday, they decided to start opening gifts. We were up until 2AM! If you know my family, this is very strange. So for once we all slept in on Christmas morning. I had to work today, so I had to take off on Sunday afternoon. I miss my college days when I’d get more than 2 days off in a row.

As always my family was quite willing to find gifts for me even though I usually don’t do the same for them. It’s not that I don’t care or want to get them anything. Some of it has to do with my beliefs. Some of it has to do with my finances. Part of it is probably me being lazy. Regardless, my family seems to enjoy giving stuff to me. I’ll do a loot post later.

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Two-thousand and five was one hell of a year. I think I consumed more music than I ever have before this year. I would say I listened to at least 2 new albums a week from bands I’d never listened to before. That’s over 100 new artists!

As always this year there were some surprises and some disappointments. All of this made it hard to choose only ten albums. My list was heavily influnced by my own amount of play although I consider other factors such as improvement from previous works and success in the mainstream market.

I think metal made a huge comeback in the last year. Aggressive music is back. After 9-11 people were scared to promote metal because they didn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea. I’m glad they’ve realized terrible tragedies like the events of 9-11 and metal music aren’t associated at all.

10. Haste the Day - When Everything Falls

This year When Everything Falls was one of my most anticipated albums of the year coming into 2005. They were able to create a powerful album filled with masterful songs. And who thought they’d ever hear a Goo Goo Dolls cover?

9. Between the Buried and Me - Alaska

By far Alaska was my sleeper hit of the year. I listened to it when it first came out, and couldn’t get into it. Even a couple months later I figured I’d give it a second shot and still wasn’t interested. I must have not been listening close enough because Between the Buried and Me can shred like no other.

8. A Dozen Furies - A Concept From Fire

I’ve been following this band for a couple years now. I even got to see them live this year. At the time, I hadn’t heard any of their material from this album. From what I’d heard at that show, I was excited. It was no surprise to hear some more aggressive material on this full length. Any time a band gets heavier is always a plus.

7. A Day to Remember - And Their Name Was Treason

Who thought emo and metal could coexist in the same song? A Day to Remember are experts at crafting catchy melodies and crunchy metal to go in between. This was another album that came out of left field. After listening to it the first time, you’ll have their songs stuck in your head for days.

6. Funeral For A Friend - Hours

Although a bit less aggressive than their previous albums, Hours shows the maturity of Funeral For a Friend. At first I wasn’t sure about the change in musical direction, but I’ve come to embrace it. This band continues to impress.

5. Cry Havoc - The Outcome of Misery

Who? That’s what I was saying when I stumbled across Cry Havoc. This is the best independent album of the year. For being a self-released affair, the production on this record is outstanding. The band plays a punk style along the lines of A Wilhelm Scream. It’s technical and intricate yet still simple enough to be punk.

4. Bullet For My Valentine - The Poison

Another band from the UK. I should hate them for how generic they sound. They are about as commercialized and accessible that metal can get. Yet somehow I can’t get enough. The Poison is full of slick hooks and chantable choruses.

3. Darkest Hour - Undoing Ruin

On Undoing Ruin, Darkest Hour definitely outdid themselves. The intensity on this album is way above 10. As a follow up to Hidden Hands, it makes sense and was a natural progression. If you thought this was it, just wait, this band is only getting better.

2. As I Lay Dying - Shadows Are Security

After listening to Shadows Are Security only once, I knew it was going to end up near the top of my list. They took metalcore to a new level this year. Melody and aggression are married in perfection on just about every song.

1. Trivium - Ascendancy

This year metal made a big resurgence. Heavy music is back and who better to lead the charge than some young superstars. Trivium has every opportunity to rise to the top. The entire band is completely at home on their respective instruments. Ascendancy was another one of those albums that is brutal while still having a certain accessibility to it.

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)
A Love Ends Suicide - The Cycle of Hope
The Agony Scene - The Darkest Red
Amber Pacific - The Possibility and the Promise
A Wilhelm Scream - Ruiner
Chiodos - All’s Well That Ends Well
Comeback Kid - Wake The Dead
Demon Hunter - The Triptych
Devildriver - The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand
Hand to Hand - A Perfect Way to Say Goodbye
Hell Within - Asylum of the Human Predator
Lorene Drive - Romantic Wealth
Nodes of Ranvier - The Years to Come
Still Remains - Of Love and Lunacy
Thebleedingalarm - In the Wake of Separation
War of Ages - War of Ages

My first introduction to typing was in 6th grade when we took out time once a week for about 6 weeks to use these special typing machines. We worked through basic excercises on them, but we weren’t expected to make any kind of progress and I never remember being graded. It was more just to familiarize ourselves with a keyboard and how keys were laid out.

Strangely, I hardly recieved any further typing training until I was a freshman in high school. Ahhh, General Business. While the class had some very vaild goals and intentions, it failed to meet those goals and intentions in practice. From what I remember there were a lot of simple excercises in typing which essentially entailed copying forms, letters, and other excercises. We were expected to complete a few each day. After you finished your required work, you could do whatever you wanted. This class also tried to teach a few life lessons in business like how to balance a check book. None of this, I remember, was ever a very serious attempt at education.

Part of why I never found the class that useful was because I’d already learned to type. None of the classroom time I’d ever spent on typing previously quite got my attention like instant messaging and chat rooms. Once I got a computer at home (in 7th grade), I remember spending a good portion of our dialup hours chatting with friends on IM or talking to random people in chat rooms. Both of those require at least some familiarity with the keyboard in order to use them. What’s interesting is they become much more like face to face conversation when you can actually type with some speed. Naturally, my technique wasn’t perfect, but I got the job done. The more I used those services, the better and faster I got. To this day I still don’t use correct typing methods. My fingers don’t stay on the home row like their supposed to; they’re flying arround all over. I use my pinky fingers much less than I actually should. Yet, somehow I manage. I’d even go so far as to say I’m faster than a majority of typers.