Harry Potter is Going to Die!

No, I'm not sure if Harry Potter is going to die or not, but I think so.

To be honest, I don't really care if Potter is going to die or not, the most important thing that I wanted to find out is whether Snape is on Voldemort's side or Dumbledore's side.

I was an avid fan of the series, but as I get older, I got a bit apathetic. I can't really remember what happened in the fifth and sixth book, except a general blurred outline of the big things that happened and who died.I did remember just flipping through the pages of the last two books and read the death scenes, and upon reminder, I also remembered that there was A LOT of teenage angst in the fifth book, and it was kind of annoying.


Anyway, I have never loved Harry Potter the character. He was always a bit too nosy, too rash, too hotheaded. Not my type of guy. In fact, my favorite character is Severus Snape, the sarcastic and complex potion master. I always have a thing for anti-heroes, characters that are dark and quiet, yet there's more to them than just being the typically "bad". Byronic heroes, that's the type of character that I like.

When I heard that two important characters is going to die in the Deathly Hollows, my first instinct was that it's going to be Harry Potter and Snape. You know, Harry suffers an injury fighting Voldemort, and the last minute Snape comes in and tries to help Harry and he dies saving Harry. Then Harry kills Voldemort and dies a heroic death killing Voldemort.

But, I don't think it's going to be this simple and easy. I was constantly surprised when I was reading the books, so I believe that I will be surprised in this one too. There's already a few "endings" that leaked online (which I never bothered to search for),and I'm sure that people are going to go nuts and wait in front of the bookstore and dress in Gryffindor attire and scream for the new book. Hey, this book mesmerized millions.

Oh well, I'll buy the book on the first day that it comes out, but I'm sure as hell not going to wait in line and dress in costumes. If it's all sold out, I'm just going to get one off Amazon.com.

RANDOM RAMBLINGS TO FILL THE SPACE

So we tried to get Verizon DSL for our home again, for the third time, and it still doesn’t work! So now for the third time, I have to wait for them to mail me the returning label and have the mail the modem back. I don’t think I’ll ever get the luxury of fast internet.

Applied for a summer job and supposedly to start on July 9th, but have not got the call about where I’m going to work. I don’t expect things to go smoothly anyway.

If I have a dog, I would name him Cerberus.

DW from Arthur is a bitch. By the way, what is Arthur? A mouse?

My mind is completely blank these days. Apathy has washed upon me and I found I lost the past passion on a number of things. I guess I have one of these “apathetic phrase” every once in a while. With that said, even in my “interested phrase”, I sometimes cannot fathom why some people are so dedicated and passionate about certain things, and why they cared so much.

But perhaps these passions fill a void. Now that I’m in the “apathetic phrase” and have no commitments (as of today), I do fill a certain empty spot. At times. And now that I think about it, I didn’t really ponder on life like I use to anymore, I didn’t think about the “meaning of life”, religion, purpose of life or whatnot like I used to . Did I found answers to these, or am I just being apathetic?

The above bulletin is rather pretentious.

Things I Learned From Reading Fanfictions

I found myself reading fanfictions. Again.

From time to time, through my endless "stumbling into stuff", I would find that my interest peaks at some particular subject, be it books, movies, whatever. Sometimes that interest will lead me to read fanfictions (no, I DO NOT write them, as a personal rule, becuase I'm weird about it).

Perhaps it was me just me wanting to know the characters in interest to a greater extend, perhaps it was me trying to envision the characters in a different setting with the help of the stories, perhaps it was pure entertainment, perhaps I'm just weird.

Anywhoo, I do gathered some stuff from reading those wonderful fanfictions:

1. Like all things, there's some very good, some are very bad. (Duh)

2.Some authors have no idea a what a "paragraph" is.

3.People often times pick shitty songs for songfics...Like the ones using Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend"...oh well, what do I know?

4.Lots of people cannot correctly use :"to", "too", "then", "than"

5.People really do like their characters to be gay, do they?

6.Rated M fictions makes me twitch at times, now I just gave up on them.

7.Usually those with a lot of reviews is a good indication that that story is good.

8.Almost all stories of the same genre have the same plot, just with different characters and different settings.

9.I like ambiguous characters, the bad guys that are actually good.

10. I found that I have no desire to write a fanfiction. I would rather just read them.

On a side note, my email inbox is now full of spam. Damn it.

Various News Roundup

Marilyn Manson is Angry
Marilyn Manson said that Gerard Way is ripping off his style. Okay Manson, when are you going to apologize to David Bowie and Alice Cooper then? I don't like My Chemical Romance either, but this just makes me dislike Manson more, what a way of the pot calling the kettle black. I can rant on and on about Manson's attempt at grabbing attention (dating a 19 year old (now 20) and his publicized divorce). But whatever.

Paris Hilton Goes Back to Jail
Most of the time I like playing devil's avocate, but this time, I'm happy about this news item like everyone else. I was quite angry when I heard about her getting out of jail just after 3 days, and that proves that money can get you out of anything. I was pissed. But now she have to serve her full sentence, so suck it Paris.

Here's some real news:

Global Warming at G8 Summit
It's a good thing that the leaders finally address this issue and actually attempt to do something about it. It's a step, and we may take a long time to be able to walk, but it's a step.

In other stuff:
I just saw the Pride Parade, lots of drag queens, biker chicks, half-naked dudes, and a bunch of bears. Good times. I saw couples that were together for many years and were just recently married, it's quite heart-warming. Now the bible thumpers wanted to put an option of banning gay marriage on the ballot in 2008, and if it does, I don't think there's enough people that will vote "no" on banning. There's lot more conservatives in America than you think, and they're the powerful ones.

Finals, Music Chart, and Summer Reading!

It’s been busy as hell in school, with all the final testing coming at you at once. But you got to take it as it is. We just got through the biology final, which was okay, and I'm pretty sure I fucked up on at least serveral questions. Then next week is the English, then next next week is algebra, Latin, and whatever else, woot!

Anyway, with all of this whirlwind, I still managed to find some time to keep an eye on the music chart. I’m always baffled at what’s on top of the charts, I don’t even know why I care anymore. I don’t know if people really want to be force-fed Daughtry and Nickelback, or that they really believe that the album deserves their buying. Ahhhhhh, who am I to judge?

Commercial success is not about quality, it’s about status and promotion.

As the summer approaches, so is all sorts of exciting summer activities. And because the school hates its students, we have summer reading to do. And seriously, most of the students are just going to read it the two weeks before school starts, and write some half-assed report on it. At least this year’s format is more interesting, and breaks away from the “summary-character-comments” format. “original writing” of the students, as they put it.

God, I hope it’s going to rain.

Collective Thoughts

www.myxertones.com is awesome.

Now that the school year is almost over, all the final tests are coming in. YEE-HAW.

A Call From the Grave of Cho Seung Hui

Many are disgusted by the footage of Cho that NBC played. I wasn’t disgusted, but certainly disturbed. I’m sure the footage is on YouTube somewhere right now, but I didn’t bother to look.

Cho’s call from the grave is now going to live a everlasting life (or until the Internet disappears, or until human extinction). This is a call for attention, and NBC granted him that. Is it “clues to the reason of the killing” or a bad step that only fulfills the killer’s goal? Both, I would say, but more of the latter.

The only thing that we got from (or at least me) the video is that Cho is angry. Angry at the world, angry at society, but angry at no one at particular. What triggers this? Is it society’s mistreatment (and what exactly is that?) or his brain chemical imbalance?

I wonder how many people share the same feeling of mistreatment like him.
And switching gears, will this have a negative effect on Asians? I’m Chinese myself, and I just have to wonder. But I haven’t heard anything yet, but again, I didn’t bother to look.

Rant of the Day: Hipsters and Metal Heads

You know what irritates me?

Indie-pseudo-intellectual-holier-than-thou-hipsters. Stop fucking talking about Of Montreal, Arcade Fire, or whatever band you read on Pitchfork.

Once the band sells more than 500,000 they’re going to piss all over the bands that they praised to high heaven. Talk about flip-flopping and narrow minded.

Same goes to I-just-like-guitars-and fuck-electronics-metal heads. Stop talking about how a band “isn’t metal enough”, or how a band doesn’t scream enough.

Once a band put out a record that isn’t as “heavy”, they’re going to spit all over the band and call them “gay”. Talk about meat-headed and closed-minded.

Of course, all of this yapping from me isn’t going to help. And what demographic do I belong to? I don’t even want to know.

P.S. Who the hell is buying the new Lavigne disc? Wait, I had her last two albums, things you do when you’re younger…Now I’m a flip-flopper.

Mass Suckers

It is just another sad thing that I see.

People at the end of the day just want something that’s easier, something that won’t challenge them. They want fucking packaged pop, escapist but not thinkers.

This week there is two major releases---Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero and Avril Lavigne’s The Best Damn Thing. One is a dense concept album with a challenging theme and sound, one is an album with pop songs designed for Top 40. Which one do you think is going to sell more? Lavigne, of course.

According Hits Daily Double, it looks like Avril Lavigne is expected to debut #1 with about 250k in sales, while NIN should be right behind her with about 200k in sales. While the margin is not big, I was a bit sadden by it.

PEOPLE JUST FUCKING WANT DISPOSABLE POP.

Yes, NIN has Internet buzz with the ARG campign, has mostly positive and some very positive reviews, (yes, the album is great). But it touches darker subjects---mass sedation, a controlling government, rebellion, a giant hand of god---stuff that makes for good science fiction. Set in place 15 years from now, it represents a bleak future, and perhaps something that the mass does not want to think about. Hey, there are still a lot of people who still won’t believe that global warming is upon us.

Lavigne, on the other hand, has something better (in terms of sale)---she has Top 40 radio play, a bunch of TV appearances (how punk is that?) and a mass-circulated video. She got mostly average to negative to reviews, but does it mean anything? Nickelback sold a ton.

I guess that’s why most of the time discs that ends up in “Best of the Year” list is usually things that wasn’t a mass –commercial success (again, mostly), because to achieve critical success, it has to be challenging, daring, interesting, and audacious. The average mass is not going for that, they just want something normal, something peaceful and something ordinary.

And who am I to judge?

I don’t even know why I should care anymore.

The Definitive 200

The Definitive 200 is the list that the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came up with for music lovers, or something. Not surprisingly enough, the list is consists of albums that sold a ton with some artists of minimum talent (though perspective may vary). And of course, The Beatles is #1.

I printed out the list to see how many album I own on the list, for a minute I thought I own none of it, but it turns out I own 10 out of 200 albums that’s on the list. Including:

The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem

Speakerboxx/The Love Below by Outkast

Get Rich or Die Tryin’ by 50 Cent

American Idiot by Green Day

Eminem Show by Eminem

Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park

OK Computer by Radiohead

Diary of Alicia Keys by Alicia Keys

The Black Albumby Jay-Z

Dangerously In Love by Beyonce

7 out the 10 album are hip-hop and R&B, so does it mean that I own more classic hip-hop and R&B album than classic rock albums? And the funny thing is, only about 21% of the albums that I brought are actually hip-hop and R&B. So this means that I only buy mainstream, top-selling hip-hop album? I guess.

God, I knew I should have brought Nevermind and Ten.

Weekend Playlist

Wolf Like Me
By TV On the Radio
From Return to the Cookie Mountain
Fuzzy guitars mix with blaring bass, with dreamy backing vocals on the background. Can’t help but sing along to it.


Ruby
By The Kaiser Chiefs
From Yours Truly, Angry Mob
It’s all in the chorus. In fact, their new album (which Ruby is on) Yours Truly, Angry Mob is full of delightful big choruses.


In This Twilight
By Nine Inch Nails
From Year Zero
With a crackly noise that recalls a rusting machinery, this song has a extremely melodic chorus that showcased Reznor’s singing ability. The crooning makes a great morning listening when riding on the bus and the sun is rising (ironic), or setting (as the title say).



Living For the Weekend
By Hard-Fi
From Stars of CCTV
An electric lead from the song goes permeating into a working class anthem---shitty job, long hours, and the celebration of the weekend. From the debut album Stars of CCTV, this certainly match loads of people’s mind.



True Mathematics
By Ladytron
From Light and Magic
The throbbing bass goes together with the slashing drums to create a dance track that hard-hitting. Points added to the weird vocals in a foreign language that’s probably made up.




Years later if I read this, I’ll know what I was listening to. Isn’t this what a blog is about?

PS. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, and I sound a pretentious music critic.

Sideline Commentary

I am a big Internet person; there is an unlimited amount of information and entertainment. Almost every bit of information that you need and want is within your fingertips, and you can watch some obscure 80s television ads on YouTube (no, I didn’t watch them).

Aside from researching information about otters for biology class, forcing myself to watch that horrible video(and song) “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne (that’s got to be a song written for 13 year olds, and I only watched it after hearing some mumbling about it), and reading some weird blogs, an integral part of my venture is reading comments that people leave at various sites (this includes message boards to blogs).
One thing that’s great (or sometimes bad) about the Internet is that it brings out all kinds of people from all kinds of places. This is the clash o cultures, personalities, tastes, and views. Take a Rolling Stone article for example, whenever there’s a post about a modern star of choice, the commentaries below the article will bring out the best and the worst of everyone. This is actually the most entertaining and most frustrating part, you usually get a few laughs out of it, and there’s bound to be comments that make you want to spit at the person who wrote it. Take the above Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” video on YouTube, there’s tons of comments on that thing. It ranges from “elle est troooo belle et jkiff tro sa chanson “, to “I <3 THIS VIDEO!!! IT ROCKS!!!!” to “that was the stupidest thing i have ever seen i thought the bitch was annoying before but now its just sad n the rest of you idiots who think avril is so punk you need to be shot in the face” and these are just a few of them.

Yes, I actually spent more time reading those than watching the video. There were a lot of times when I questioned my sanity after I found myself reading the comments time after time. I had nodded my head to plenty of them, yet more often than not I found myself frowning, or worse, being upset by it. There was always a sick feeling after some guy insulted your favorite band/singer/book/whatever.

But there’s a lesson that’s hidden in these brilliant, infantile, thorough, incoherent ramblings: no matter how great something is, there will be its haters, and no matter how atrocious something is, there will be its lovers. And more importantly, it’s hard, borderline impossible to change the views of some people.

I figured this out a few years ago when I was younger, and I sometimes have to constantly remind myself of this:
Your opinion sucks, and so does mine.

We all have our own opinions and views, and we need a venue of venting somewhere, and what’s better than the Internet? You may remain anonymous, take on a double life with a completely different personality, and throw out you opinion at any topic any time. I often see vicious slews and just complete assholes on the Internet giving out their view, and there’s a large population of them, and why is that? This is the time for them to shine. Everything seems to be boasted bigger and more malicious on the Internet because it allows people to be protected.
But really, does these comments that I see on message boards matters? Does it contribute to my benefit? Does opinions make something better or worse for you? And what is good or bad?

Of course, the “this sucks ass”, “they’re awesome” and “fuck you” are going their everlasting life on the Internet. I’ll continue reading comments and shake my head at the immature and iniquitous fucks that are clearly idiots, their opinions suck, and the funny thing is, my opinions suck too.

Flowering Plant Reproduction

Flowering Plant ReproductionFlowers reproduciton Flower diagram plant blanReproduction information about lily

MySpace

There are some very incoherent and just plain inane posts on MySpace, I mean, more than any other message boards or whatever.

I can feel my IQ being lower while reading those posts.

Is "Better" Worse?

So, "Better" from the long awaited Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" was leaked, now it's rumored to be the first single.

I heard it about a week ago, and the local radio station was playing it yesterday, with a lot of people calling in and say :" This sucks!"

The funny thing is, I DIDN'T think it was THAT bad, maybe it's BECAUSE I'M NOT A GUNS N' ROSES FAN.

It's been what? Sixteen years since the last album (which is a little bit older than me)? Fans are fed up, tired of Axl Rose saying that Chinese Democracy will be released whatever year. This album has to be THE GREATEST ALBUM EVER RECORDED (okay, maybe not that much) to restore people's faith. And that track was not the greatest thing ever, so people are pissed (even more), and this applied to the GNR fans. Fans hated it more than non-fans, because Chinese Democracy meant more to them, so when they're disappointed, there's no mercy.

And you know, people's opinion are easily influenced, then once the initial impression is established, it's hard to change. So when the first wave of people who heard it (i.e the fans)and the view spread, people everywhere are starting to say this is bad. And those who say that this track is good will likely to get flamed and be called a over-obsessive fanboy/girl.

To be fair, like I said, it's not THAT bad. The beginning is bad, with Rose singing in falsetto (which sounded horrible)and some atmospheric sounds (as one radio personality noted, "it sounded like NIN"). Then there's a period of whatever the hell and it kicks in a (pretty) straight forward hard rock riff (with Axl Rose sounding better now). Near the end there's some more industrial-rock like electronic bleeps in the riff. And sadly, Axl tried to scream in the end, and again, it sounds horrible. For a while it sounds okay, maybe even good.

Wonder if this song was released, I don't know, 14 years ago, it would have a better reception. But it's not, so too bad.

Rant

Wouldn't it be better if Iggy and the Stooges were on the cover of Spin instead of Fall Out Boy?

My Favorite Pitchfork Reviews

Pitchfork Media is of course one of the most important music site on the planet as we know, and no, I don't constantly read their reviews. But, known also for their pretentious ranting about indie bands and bloated reviews that leaves you scratching your head, here are some of my favorites:

Autechre
Untilted
[Warp; 2005]
Rating: 7.4

This review is not a review, but instead a play. It involves a conversation between the Tortoise and Achilles about the Autechre record. What better way to review a record than this memorable way? Somebody put this on Broadway.

Audioslave
Out of Exile
[Interscope; 2005]
Rating: 6.8

This one is awesome and it makes me laugh. In the author's own words, the review is about "Fresh out of exile, Chris Cornell is trying to re-adjust to the real world. Cornell has one problem, though: He only communicates using Audioslave lyrics". Really, it's funny. Here's a sample:

"Chris Cornell at the eye doctor:

Eye Doctor: So what's wrong, Mr. Cornell?

Chris Cornell: I've stared straight into the sun.

Eye Doctor: You can't see anything?

Chris Cornell: I've seen 50,000 names all engraved on a stone.

Eye Doctor: So you see some things, but not other things.

Chris Cornell: Send my soul away.

Innovative indeed.

Next we have Jet, again, it's not a review, but a Youtube video:

Jet
Shine On
[Elektra; 2006]
Rating:

I would think that this was rated 0.0. Since the video was about a chimp reliving himself.

Next:
Tool
Lateralus
[Volcano]
Rating: 1.9

This "review" was written in the perspective of a Tool fan. Basically it was the fan talking how good music comes in the cycle of every 16 years. it brings out the stereotype of Tool fans likes doing math and that kind of shit. Did the reviewer even listen to the record? I didn't see any straight-forward description of what the music on the disc sounded like. You can't blame them, since major label artists suck (in the eye of Pitchfork), right?

Why not another Tool review?
Tool
10,000 Days
[Volcano; 2006]
Rating: 5.9

The reviewer was not a Tool fan to begin with, because: "At 28, I'd feel funny mocking 15-year-olds still finding their place in the world. And as for taking them seriously-- well, I take Tool about as seriously as I do black metal or Lil Jon or the films of Tsui Hark. Which is to say, not very."

How can a review be fair if you already dislike Tool to begin with? Even if all the reviews are subjective, let's not make it this fucking obvious.

"If only the music had one-tenth of the Public Image Limited song's power. Instead I find myself in the awkward position of trying to sell you on the merits of a deeply uncool band by telling you to go buy their last album instead.
I guess the more opinionated, the better. No, I'm not that big of a Tool fan and I don't think 10,000 Days is a great record, but that review was just so subjective and predictable.

At last but not least:
Nine Inch Nails
The Fragile
[Nothing/Interscope]
Rating: 2.0

The reviewer complained about the record being bloated and predictable, but the irony is the review itself is bloated and predictable. I don't even know long the review itself it, but it just rant on about how much Nine Inch Nails is stupid and Trent Reznor sucks. It critized The Fragile being not concised enough, and the review itself was not concise itself.

And yeah, let me point this out:
" 1:49am: "Even Deeper," a track mixed by Dr. Dre, spits aluminum riffs into my headphones. The entire concept of pairing of Dr. Dre and Nine Inch Nails, a match ,maid in Kornboy heaven (or most likely the Interscope commissary) is laughable."

It's "made", not "maid".

Of course Pitchfork Media has its legion of haters, and I would think that reviews like that contributes to it.

Jesus Reigns on the Internet

The Lord Jesus Christ is always looking upon us, even on this fascinating place that is the Internet. There's a few catergories of these sites, and I'm blogging about it because I'm weird.

1. The God Loves You
Who is Jesus ?This one has some pretty comprehensive Q & A about our Lord Jesus Christ. There's also some very important information about God and man, like:

Okay.

Oh, How I Love Jesus! I just found this while I googled "love Jesus", it's yet to be set up right now. Oh well.

Wow, this one is for the kids! Everything on there is written for the kids, so you know, it's in kiddie language. Such as:
" Jesus Loves You
Jesus loves you this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves you, yes, Jesus loves you, yes Jesus loves you, the Bible tells me so!"

2. The Jesus Sucks
a last.fm group about how Jesus sucks

An article about how Jesus sucks It's interesting. The author listed some pretty to the point reasons:

I've only read half of Luke -- after which I couldn't stomach any more -- so I may be missing some important things. However, from what I've seen, the whole "do unto others as you'd have them do unto you", "do not judge", etc. is, like, one thing he said once. The majority of the time, Jesus is busy doing one of the following:
Showing off.
Telling people how great he is.
Judging people.
Warning people how fucked they're going to be if they don't do what he says.


Funny that there's lot more love for Jesus than hate. Or maybe I didn't look hard enough.

3. The Presence of Jesus in Their Title
What would Jesus blog? Good question, never asked myself that question until now.

i think the dude is trying to be funny

The Hollywood Jesus Dressup This is just creepy .

Jesus Tattoos I Found on the Internet

Doesn't Jesus look nice on your arm? (or leg, or whatever?)


How long does this tattoo takes to make? That's gonna hurt. But hey, Jesus suffered for you so you should suffer for him, I guess.

Praise our Lord, indeed.


************************************************************************************
I'm wrapping up just because I'm bored now. I think I'm losing my mind.

Year Zero=Science Fiction

Yes, Nine Inch Nails is releasing a new album on April 17th, and it is titled Year Zero, and things are getting a bit creepy (in a good way) for the promotion of this album...

There's a trail of websites containing an apocolyptic images and description of the USA, set in place around 2022 (or as the websites say, 0000). The government controls the media, adding substances to the drinking supplies to (possibly) control and sedate its citizen, an army controlled under God and religion, a new drug named Opal, and the Presence (aka the Hand of God)...

Here's the websites that's related to Year Zero:
I Am Trying to Believe
A site first discovered by fans, noticing on the back of the tour T-Shirt with the letters highlighted the above phase. A website that talks about Parepin, the substance added to the drinking supplies.

Be the Hammer
I don't really know what this is, a resistance site as some suggested.

Chruch of Plano
A Chruch website

105th Airborne Crusaders
The army under God.


Consolidated Mail System , appearently a ... mail system in the story...
Also the Consolidated Mail System, but you can't do anything with it.


Another Version of the Truth Clikck and drag the mouse around, there's a forum around
HERE,

There's audio clips around, and yes, ONE TRACK HAD LEAKED, "My Violent Heart" was found in a bathroom in Libson, Portugal, and all hell broke loose.

Yes, I heard the track, it's awesome.

There's static noises at the end of the song, and some fans analyzed this noise using spectrograph, and got this:






And in www.iamtryingtobelieve.com, there's this:

Fucking weird.

And of course, if you want to join the discussion and snoop around ,you can always count on this: Echoing the Sound Forum

This is very cool...I can now honestly say that Trent Reznor is a smart guy, he knows how to work things...

Mogao Cave