Back on the slopes

The winter has come to Winterland. The ski resorts opened this weekend. There's not much snow yet, but it's possible to ski. For the next five months it will only get better.

Last week I bought new ski boots for little boy, and spent a fortune on ski passes. The good thing about it is that it makes the rest of the season appear very cheap. There's a couple of more investments to be done, new ski boots for older boy (the old boots still fit, but are worn out), and a pair of new giant-slalom skis for little boy, but it's not extremely urgent.

The kids have been looking forward to this for a long time now, and I don't mind some snow myself.

We're back on the slopes. Yeah >:)

The beauty of religion

I read in the newspaper about this farm worker in Pakistan. It was a woman who belongs to the Christian minority in the Muslim country.

One day she was sent to the spring to fetch water for the farm workers. The other farm workers refused to drink the water, because it had been carried by a Christian. The woman got pissed off and said: “Jesus died for our sins. What has Mohammad done for you?”

She was sentenced to death for blasphemy. Well deserved, of course, you can't just offend the gods and the prophets like that.

On the big day, she will be painted black in her face and pulled through town by a donkey, to the square where the cheering crowd is waiting to watch the execution. It will be a spectacular show.

It’s the beauty of religion.

The 7th day

I didn't participate in the NaBloWriMo, because I don't have enough ideas to write every day, and I don't have the time. I just write when I want to, as simple as that.

Now I have in fact posted something on my blog every bloody day in the first week of November. It wasn't planned; it just happened. I don't like making plans, because I have too many already.

Today I'm resting, on the 7th day, just like God. Thats about the only thing we have in common, God and I.

I'm the peaceful and tolerant one; mostly harmless >:)

Abrahadabra

A few weeks ago, I visited the local metal store. It's a small obscure shop selling only heavy metal CDs, cash only, no cards accepted. I asked the long-haired and pale guy behind the counter if he had any cool stuff to recommend. He handed me an album by Australian grindcore-death-metal band The Berzerker. I bought the CD, and also grabbed the new album Abrahadabra by Dimmu Borgir.

Dimmu Borgir isn't my favorite band; I like the old-school black metal better. I wasn't very impressed by the previous Dimmu Borgir album and didn't have big expectations this time. Also, they recently fired half the band members, and replaced them by session musicians on base, drums and keyboard.

The new album was a positive surprise, nice melodic black-metal-inspired symphonic metal. Finally, they've got budgets big enough to hire a full symphony orchestra, and a big choir. In the song named Dimmu Borgir, the orchestra, choir and band flows nicely together. It has almost a radio-hit potential (hard-core black-metal fans don't like that).

On the song Getaways, which is the official video (a crazy mix of milk, blood and pigeons), they also use some female vocal. This works quite well, for variation, in particular the last 1/3 of the song (the "be the broken or the breaker" part). But they're not the first black metal band to do this; Satyricon had some female vocal on the Volcano album.

It's gonna be very interesting to see how they will perform the new songs live. Hopefully I get the chance to see them in concert next year. It's a really good live band >:)

Health or wealth

The Republicans are back in the House. On their agenda is to stop Obama's health reform.

In my mind, the health of the many is more important than the wealth of the few. But that's obviously an insane idea for the Republicans.

Then the good news: With Republicans like Jack Conway, Christine O'Donnell, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich in free action, it will hopefully help the Democrats in the next election >:)

Nothing is sacred anymore

I was shocked and horrified yesterday, when little boy came home with this new book from the school’s library. Nothing is sacred anymore, not even the Hardy Boys.

When I was a kid, I read about all the books about the Hardy Boys, at least 60-70 of them. This series was the backbone of my literary childhood. I had to buy the books myself, or borrow from friends. The librarian in my hometown (hardly a town, it was on the country side) refused to take in the books. She thought it was junk literature. What the Hell, the Hardy Boys, that’s the best books ever written … well, at least when you’re 10 years old.

Yesterday little boy came home with a book from the new Hardy Boys series; Undercover Brothers. I hadn’t seen this series before, so I got curious. We read the book loud together. It was “written by” Franklin W. Dixon of course (that guy has an impressing career, starting in the 1920s). The story is told in 1st person with POV alternating between Frank and Joe. They are undercover agents and get their missions from an organisation called American Teens Against Crime (ATAC).

The new series is modernized, in the sense that it's set in our cell-phone-and-computer-game age. It’s probably done to make the kids relate more easily to the setting and the environment. Maybe it’s needed to boost sales.

I’ve always thought that half the fun of reading books is to learn about life in past times and different places. And I definitely prefer the original Hardy Boys before the new. Don't mess with the Hardy Boys.

Maybe I’m a little bit prejudiced, or maybe I'm just getting old >:)

Private property

I don't want to own anybody.

I don't want to be owned by anybody.

It's just this little madness. Private property is evil. Marx was right, but his theory has not been properly tested.

It's against human nature

Seafood in the dark

This weekend we switched the clocks back, from daylight-saving time to regular time. That's the astronomically correct time, more or less, depending on where you are compared to the meridians that define the timezones. It's getting dark pretty early now. It's dark already when I go home from work.

Anyway, we got one hour extra this weekend. It's like we save one hour in the spring, and get it back in the fall. I spent that extra hour in the best possible way with seafood, oyster and that kind of stuff. To Thou Who Dwellest In The Night, I recommend this great song by Arcturus.

Which timezone are you in? I'm at GMT+1 >:)