Caught In The Whirlwind
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[Plinky] Three Songs I Never Get Sick of
Sep 22nd 2010
Name three songs you never get sick of.
A Change Of Seasons by Dream Theater
This is one of my favorite Dream Theater songs ever. It’s a roughly 23 minute epic written by ex drummer Mike Portnoy about his experiences with the death of his Mom in a plane crash and how that changed his outlook on life. Powerful song with a strong message. One of my favorite songs ever written.
Stranger In Your Soul by Transatlantic
Plinky was unable to find a picture for this one so that’s why the image size is funky…but I could have listed any of several Transatlantic songs here. But I must have listened to this song at least 40-50 times, if not more and it never gets old. Ever. Transatlantic is one of my favorite bands ever.
Arriving Somewhere But Not Here by Porcupine Tree
My favorite Porcupine Tree song (although Gravity Eyelids is pretty darn close too), it’s just so well constructed. Starts off slow but builds into something totally awesome.
[Plinky] My Epic Road Trip
Sep 15th 2010
Describe an epic road trip you’d love to take.
Some day, I’d love to just take like a month off and just head west across the country and see what I could see.
Not sure I’d worry too much about planning or anything (well, except when it came to the less inhabited bits…don’t want to end up in the middle of nowhere without any gas). Just kinda head out, stay off the major interstate highways and see what was out there.
I think it’d be fun. Well, now I do. I’d probably get tired of it about 3 days in..but hey, it’s a nice thought! I do really enjoy road trips though.
A more realistic option is to just set off some saturday morning and just pick a direction and drive. See where I’d end up. It’s a lot easier to find yourself now with GPS and all that. I’ve come to find that there’s way more stuff in their local areas than people might realize if they take the time to look. I know that’s true around here.
[Plinky] Bacon makes it better? False.
Sep 29th 2009
True or false: bacon makes it better.
False. If there’s one thing I totally don’t get about the internet, it’s the obsession with bacon. I like bacon. Don’t get me wrong…but I don’t need bacon on everything!
[Plinky] Take my TV
Sep 24th 2009
Which piece of technology would you rather go without for a month? Your Television, Cell Phone or Computer
I’d be able to manage without television pretty easily. I’m not a huge must have TV watcher and the stuff that I do watch is on Hulu so I can catch it later if I have to. The only reason I watch as much TV as I do now is because it tends to be on all the time in the living room.
Before I moved in with my roommates, the TV was mostly just a device for displaying my console games. I could go back to that pretty easily. I don’t really *need* cable or anything.
I need my cell phone since it’s my only phone. I don’t have a land line and the only way for people to contact me would be calling up my cell phone. And you can pry my computer out of my cold dead hands.
[Plinky] Can’t I be a mechanic?
Sep 14th 2009
If you were drafted into the military but could pick your branch, which would you choose?
Ok, lets get one thing straight right away…I’m a total wimp. You don’t want me hanging out at the front lines with a loaded weapon. I’d be more dangerous to the people on my side.
Therefore, Army is out. I would be a very horrible field grunt. I think we can take the Marines out of the picture too for the same reason.
So my two choices would be either the Navy or the Air Force, preferring Air Force. Of course people who get drafted don’t usually work desk jobs…but if they did my skills would lend more to that sort of work. More of a support role. You REALLY don’t want me on the front lines. Trust me on this one.
[Plinky] Signs Of Life
Sep 2nd 2009
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mecookie/ / CC BY 2.0
Do you think alien life will be discovered in your lifetime?
Probably not. At least I hope not.
Ok, let me qualify that answer a bit. It would be cool to find alien life out there. I’m pretty sure that out of the billions and billions of stars and planets in the universe, we’re not the only ones out here. It’s a statistical impossibility. So, assuming the human race lasts long enough, we’re bound to run into other intelligent life eventually in whatever form that might take. Which leads me to the statistical part of my answer. Or the “Probably not” bit. The universe is SO huge that the probability of making contact with alien life in any given human life sized timespan is so tiny. It’s probably not going to happen.
That leaves the “I hope not” part of my answer. Right now I don’t think the world is ready for alien life. Somebody would probably try to blow our alien visitors up or dissect them to see how they operated. I don’t think we’ve progressed enough as a species to handle the idea that we’re not at the top of the food chain or some sort of chosen people or something. We can barely respect each other’s cultural differences, let alone a being from a totally different world.
It would throw religious establishments into chaos too. I’m not sure if the established major religions are compatible with the idea that life is not limited to our little planet here.
So I think it’ll happen eventually, but probably not in my lifetime. And when it does, I hope we’ve evolved to the point where we can handle such a discovery.
[Plinky] An Introduction To Dream Theater
Aug 13th 2009
I talk about Dream Theater an awful lot on this blog since they're my favorite band. They've been described as "the biggest group you've never heard of" and that's a pretty accurate statement.
Since they play Progressive Metal, they can be a hard group to get into. But here's But since I'm trying out plinky.com and this is the prompt for today, here goes my attempt at easing you into listening to Dream Theater. They have such a big catalog that's so diverse, it's hard to pick 3 songs that will work for everybody. I usually would approach this by asking what sorts of stuff they tend to listen to and then selecting appropriate songs that are most like what the person is familiar with.
But if I had to pick 3 songs to expose a random person to everything that is dream theater, here's what I'd pick
I Walk Beside You by Dream Theater
This song showcases their more pop oriented side and is probably one of the more accessible songs in their catalog. Very U2 influenced. You should pay attention to James LaBrie's voice here as he's not everybody's cup of tea. If you like it though, you might also like songs such as Another Day, Hollow Years and The Answer Lies Within. Continue onwards to…
Voices is one of my favorite DT songs of all time. This song is a lot more "progressive" than I Walk Beside You and is probably a better representation of their overall catalog. It contains a good mix of both sides of DT, the melodic and the heavy metal. It also introduces you to lead guitarist John Petrucci's solo chops with one of my favorite guitar solos ever.
If you liked this one, you might like songs such as Misunderstood, Blind Faith and Innocence Faded
And if you're still with me…let's head to the heavy stuff
A Nightmare To Remember by Dream Theater
A Nightmare To Remember is on this list for two reasons. First, it's an example of the most recent Dream Theater sound. Second, it's one of the heaviest songs they've produced.
If you like this one, you'll probably like songs like The Mirror, The Glass Prison, And pretty much everything on Train of Thought
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