Not that anybody really cares or anything like that, but here are a few items that I recently got from Amazon. I felt like throwing some cash down. Best three things on the list: Powerslave (it’s freaking awesome), Back Tracks (again, awesome), and Dragon Age (wow! this game is a lot of fun, and it reminds me a lot of Titan Quest for some reason).

Books
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson

CDs
Back Tracks - AC/DC
Humble Pie: The Definitive Collection - Humble Pie
Powerslave - Iron Maiden
Somewhere in Time - Iron Maiden

Games
Dragon Age (PC)

DVDs
Crime 360

Blu-Ray
Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country
Van Helsing

Well, it’s a new year and a new decade–though some are debating that still, depending on the starting year you use for this millennium. Anyway. I’m looking at it as a brand new decade. Last decade was a lot of “meh” for me, meaning that it was mediocre. Hey, that’s been my life for a long time–so it’s time to change!

I’m tired of dwelling on the past. I want to live in the now. And thinking of the future is great and all, but living in the present is the best way to go. That way you’re always focused on getting the most out of life. Hey, I know life has its ups and downs…I’m going to meet them all head-on from this point forward. Might as well. I’m thirty, now, and needing to take advantage of every moment before its too late.

I’m not saying I’m an old man or anything, but I’m not as far along as I would like to be in life. Anyway. Here’s to taking this new year by the horns!

A co-worker at the Newspaper brought in one of those what-the-heck-is-that? photos. We’ve all seen photos like these…or, at least, most of us have, I think. The ones that you say, “hey, that has to be faked”–but, in the back of your mind, you’re really thinking, “whoa, is that what I think it is?” Yep. Photos where, supposedly, a possible spirit or, in this case, an angel was snapped. See what you think…

The woman who brought this in said she’d been given this photo by a friend of hers. As the story goes, this photo was not hoaxed. The person was just randomly shooting photos in their backyard–trying to use up the rest of the film–with a disposable camera. When the photos were developed…this one happend to have this on it. Note how it almost looks like a lens flare. It could be a trick of the light, or not.

Okay. With my ears still ringing…I thought it was a good time–while things are still fresh in the ol’ brain–to give a little review of Kiss in concert. Some background first: I’ve never been to see Kiss before. In fact, before tonight, I never really thought too much of them. Didn’t have any of their albums. Nothing. It’s not that I thought they weren’t that great of a band or anything. It’s just…I don’t know, really. I guess I never got around to checking them out before. Okay…so on with the show!

First things first, though. Buckcherry was the opening band. I hadn’t even heard of them until tonight. They were a surprise as well. Didn’t know what to expect. But, I assumed, if they were opening for Kiss they’d have to be pretty decent. Luckily, they were more than decent, and actually rocked the joint. Too bad for them a lot of people didn’t show up until they were finishing their set. I think many of the older Kiss fans decided to forgo the opener. I mean, after all, they were there to see Kiss. Can’t blame them. But, Buckcherry rocked the place nonetheless. Moving on.

Kiss. They opened with Detroit Rock City, and from what I’ve been told by a long time Kiss fan, they’ve done so for pretty much every tour they’ve done in the past twenty years. Anyway. Good song. The highlights of the show, though, were when Gene Simmons took his ride up to the catwalk and jammed all the way up there. Wow! And I can’t forget about when Paul Stanley took the zip line down across the crowd. Insane! But, the best part, the part that got everyone going was Paul talking about all the shit going on in this world…

“If you came here for…then you’re in the wrong place.” The part between for and then isn’t important. lol I can’t recall all of what he said. Basically what he was saying is we all need an escape from this sometimes shitty world we live in. Can’t argue there. And the show was the place to escape to. Kiss then jammed into (I Want to) Rock and Roll All Nite. Oh yeah! Who doesn’t know that song? The place went crazy as soon as the first strings were strummed. It was…nearly a religious experience. Just awesome.

The best part of the show? The solid thirty or so minute encore. Damn that was intense! The show ended with bangs of pyro one after right after another. Wow! Speaking of pyro. I almost forgot. There was one heck of a drum solo by Eric Singer. But, the ultimate highlight was the guitar smashing solo. Each time the guitar hit the stage, pyro blasted. That was freaking awesome! Okay. So, obviously I liked the show. And I’m glad I went. Kiss rocked Greenville, SC tonight. So, there you go.

I did my share of shouting, head banging and throwing up the horns. I had a blast. One thing that did strike me, too, were all the various age groups there. There were ten-year-olds all the way up to 60-pluses. Glad to see it! Rock and roll will never die!

You’ve probably noticed I’ve made some recent changes to the site. First of which is that the page banner is now clickable, and returns you back to the main page. That was something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time. I finally figured out glaze’s–the template I use–crazy CSS setup. I only learned how to control the theme’s elements by working on my author web site–yep, I’m using WP for that too. My author web site is still a work in progress, so please keep that in mind when checking it out!

Other changes I’ve made to FTC: fixed the copyright, cleaned up the side bar, and monkeyed around with the post template–probably going to change that back though, since it looks pretty barren right now.

I knew there was a book out by TAPS’ founding members, Jason Hawse and Grant Wilson. In fact, I own a copy of it. Yet, what I didn’t know, until checking out a link someone sent me, that GHI members Barry Fitzgerald and Dustin Pari have also written one. Not sure why it hasn’t gotten more attention, though. I watch both GH and GHI and frequently check out the show websites. Yet, this is the first time I’ve heard of the book: The Complete Approach: A Scientific and Metaphysical Guide. Heck, on Amazon there are only three reviews–all positive; still only three! Best I can tell the books been out for about four months. Here’s the link to the official site: http://completeapproachbook.com/

I actually managed to do some writing yesterday. It surprised the heck out of me, but I was actually able to curb my fear–my anxiety over the blank page. In fact, I was able to fill up five pages with what I hope was something decent. What I wrote–Well, I just went with a story that had been in my head for a while and went from there.

Of course, after I was done, I realized some changes I probably need to make, but that’s to be expected. Perhaps, I really should just do a story at a time and complete them all the way through Then, start on the next one and so forth.

It’s strange the movies you decide to check out once you have a service like Netflix. I guess not having to pay the $10 or more for a DVD has its advantage. Recently, I received the new Deathrace movie that came out in theaters last year sometime. It had Jason Statham, from the Transporter movies, in it, so I figured it had to be decent.

Before I’d even watched it, though, a guy at work, who’s more than twice my age, told me about the original film, Deathrace 2000, which had come out way back in 1975. It had starred Sylvester Stallone, and had been nothing more than a gorefest. Basically, the idea was for the racers to kill as many pedestrians as they could during a race.

However, Deathrace has a little more class–and much more validity. What if reality TV producers could do anything they wanted? What if every prison in America was run by corporate interests? Well, you’d get something like what this movie portrays, I’m sure. Think Super Mario Kart without all the cute–machine guns instead of turtle shells. That’s Deathrace.

In order to pay for their incarceration, the corporation that runs Terminal Island–one of the largest prisons in the country where only the worst of the worst are sent–has created a reality TV show involving some of their highest profile prisoners. It’s basically a race to the…death. If an inmate survives three races, he gets to go home–leave the prison behind. That is except…the evil warden doesn’t want ANYONE to leave…alive. That might hurt the ratings.

All in all, Deathrace is a fun watch. It has plenty of action, and the bad guy–or, should I say, gal?–is believable, as is the hero. I’ve killed a couple of hours before in worse ways–with worse movies. No Country for Old Men. Please, shoot ME with that air gun.