It’s that time of year again…
"It's my birthday and I'm going to post like I want to... post like I want to..."
All I want for Christmas is…
I've had a few questions on what I might want for Christmas this year... so, here's a list of stuff people can afford vs. me putting down a BWM M6...
- CRKT M21-14SFG Special Forces Big Dog
- Isokinetics Ball Chair
- Starbucks Coffee (since I can't live without it lately)
- Sleep (Definitely not overrated!)
Coffeehouse Segregation
Why is Starbucks always segregated by those with Macbooks and iPhones and those with other laptops and iPhones?
I love Ice Cream, not security flaws!
The new feature (read: 'gimmick') in Android's new Ice Cream Sandwich OS 4.0 is fundamentally flawed.
I'm reminded of when I watched a demo of the latest Lenovo tech (three years ago) called VeriFace Face Recognition. It was being demo'ed with the, then, newly release Windows 7 allowing you to log into your computer simply by letting the Windows log-in prompt scan your face and use basic facial recognition to authenticate you.
This was swiftly proven insecure by simply printing a full page photo of somebody's face and letting the software pull the the recognizable points from the artificial medium.
ICS is basically flawed and vulnerable of the same exact circumvention methods... and with the widely available personal images found via Google+, Flickr, Facebook, etc... a simple bypass can be had with a swift CTRL + P or digital representation of that person via mobile device.
Below is the simplest way I could demonstrate this flaw with a YouTube video by somebody else. 
Something you never, ever, want to happen (body FAIL)
Tuesday evening I was sitting on the couch with my mildly sick (cold/cough) kids and out of no where, an insanely sharp pain jabbed me in my right side just under my ribs! Now I was kinda sick that morning and figured I kinda had what the kids had and as such, I brushed off the pain. Some time goes by and BLAM! The same pain but now it's not going away... fast-forward to late that night, I am throwing up and in even more pain. I took to 'hydros' and tried to sleep. Woke up Wednesday morning to a wonderful world of "YOUR BODY HATES YOU!" It wasn't long after that, that the only thing I could do was scream.
Arriving at the ER, we get checked in and get some CAT scans done to find that my Appendix is twisted, and tucked backwards and up towards my kidneys! ... oh yeah... and ruptured! So I had a long appendectomy and now am forging through medications, anti-biotics and pain at home... waiting for this all to resolve and get me back to work. This has been a long 'weekend!'
Celestial Completion completes me!
So I was working on some web projects this morning and had the chance to finally get my grubby little (read: big) hands on Becoming the Archetype's latest album; Celestial Completion.
I had very high hopes for this album and I must say I have had both my mind blown and my perfectionist nay saying come out! It's a very intriguing place to be...
Production:
The very first thing that struck me about the album was that it was very cleanly produced. To that I give credit. It's not an easy thing to really master a clean metal band... but that being said, it might have been too clean! I really missed having some great bass runs and triggers booming. Maybe this was on purpose, maybe this was just me needing to listen to the album on a different system.
Style Variation
Diehard BTA fans rejoice! They have not strayed away from their original style and sound ever more the brutally natural sounding. The band has definitely continued to show their maturity in their playing and riff writing. This album features a lot more variation in their guitar chops while continuing to keep that melodic and break-down feel in every song that I love.
Celestial Completion also includes its fair share of standard BTA group vocals, piano inclusion and plenty of edgy guitar micro-solos not to mention a healthy dose of great transition solos that have been fairly bland on past albums.
Oh, and just for kicks BTA throws you a curve ball on tracks 9 and 10. Prepare for the run-on sentence: Expect to go from a Southwestern Asia/Middle Eastern inspired throat singing to BTA style 'almost-half-time' then on to BTA + trumpet breakdowns... yeah trumpets! That break down is then followed by a sweet clean guitar chord solo then into some contemporary swing/rockabilly! Yeah what the frick right!? It works, it's a nice mix-up and it's definitely shows that these guys are not your typical head to the stone, boxed-in, metal heads!
Vocals
I was happy to see that Jason Wisdom really has stuck to his guns (vocal style). Many metal vocalists tend to go the way of mixing singing into their style to give them selves "variety" and a break during sets... Jason really has a very natural growl and one that I never get tired of hearing. Also on this album was a lot more of Alex's (guitar) screaming to help compliment the earthy Jason. It was very well matched, not over played and great to see the band expanding more.
Album Length
As far as length, the album is a total of 11 tracks and is a total of 46:37 long. Now you might think, "Wow, that averages out to just over 4mins/song..." Well you'd be wrong as half the album is over 5mins/track! As I worked online, it was perfect background metal. It wasn't flashy enough to distract me from my work but yet offered enough variation in the songs to keep me stimulated.
Overall
This album really was a perfect growth step for Becoming the Archetype. They have really shown that they fully plan to stay who they are and only improve upon techniques. I really think that is commendable by any metal band as most have to change album to album to 'keep-it-fresh.' I would recommend Celestial Completion to anybody that has been a fan of BTA or is a fan of great, uncomplicated (as in a good way), metal with natural vocals that don't give me emo thoughts when listening. BTA is coming to my home town in a few weeks, I can't wait as I've missed the last five of my top-ten favorite metal bands. This will be a sure treat!
I’m a Google Music Beta user!
I finally got my invite! More to come after I get to play with it!
Starbucks WOW!
So we've all heard of those random "older" people that play World of Warcraft, but until this morning, I've never seen this specimen in the wild... This morning I wrapped up my Venti, 5-shot, Light-ice, Half-pump Vanilla/Caramel, Non-fat Latte order (yup, love is in the details) and I turned and saw it! 45-ish years old, beer belly, cop mustache, polo shirt and a full on gaming headset with WOW going full bore at a 4-story winged demon... It was an amazing experience!