Journal

One Year

Daniel Mead — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:35:13 +0000

A year ago today I decided to give another go at doing a personal website. I was going to try to keep it updated and not let it fall to the wayside. Well a year later it is still going and I am posting regularly. This has been the longest running, non music related site that I have done.

My Coal Chamber and Slipknot fan sites both ran for many years back in the late 1990s thru the early 2000s. One site I gave up on and the other merged with another fan site. I have been thinking of doing another fan site of sorts for a while. I think I know who it will be for, but I haven't been able to decide on a direction to take it.

Anyway, here is to another year of boring updates!

Woody Harrelson is Awesome

Daniel Mead — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:40:09 +0000

Fear Factory Is Fucking Brutal

Daniel Mead — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:59:29 +0000

The new Fear Factory album, Mechanize, is fucking brutal. From start to finish it is a non-stop kick to the face. It is some of the heaviest stuff they have done in years. Burton C. Bell is still on top of his game with his lyrics and vocals. Byron Stroud is the only other returning member from the last album. Founding member Raymond Herrera and long time bassist and guitar player Christian Olde Wolbers are no longer in the band. Dino Cezares makes his return to Fear Factory after being kicked out of the band in 2002. Gene Hoglan joins the band to take over where Raymond left off. Gene and Raymond have very similar styles, so there is no worry that the sound will change as far as the drumming is concerned.

I can't pick a favorite song from Mechanize. They are all very strong and very good. While I enjoyed listening to Fear Factory experiment with their sound in the past couple of albums, I must say that I am pleased to hear them return to their roots. A+ effort. 10 out of 10

Amazon.com Widgets

This Seems Appropriate

Daniel Mead — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:42:46 +0000

Considering all of the snow that we have had for the past couple of months, this image from xkcd seems very appropriate.

Yep. Still Winter

Daniel Mead — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:32:59 +0000

We got another pretty good snowfall this morning up here in the mountainous areas of Jackson County, AL. Around 2 inches worth. The ground is still white, although a good chunk of the snow has melted away. It will be interesting to see what happens tonight. Not only is it suppose to dip back below freezing, but we are expecting a bit more snow. That coupled with the fact that it isn't supposed to get above freezing tomorrow will make it a very interesting Presidents' Day.

Bad Boys. Bad Boys.

Daniel Mead — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:30:27 +0000

Unless this is your first day on the Internet then you know about Google Street View. If this is your first day then let me welcome you and wish you luck. Just take this piece of advice. Don't go to 4chan until you have at least two years under your Internet belt. Trust me.

Anyway, back to Street View. Pretty much what Google does is strap a camera with GPS on a vehicle of some sort and take 360〫photos that they then integrate into Google Maps. They have managed to get a good chunk of the roads in the US done. In my town they only have the major state highways available. So today I decided to check around the area to see what had been mapped and I noticed that several country roads around Huntland, TN had been added. That is where I spotted this piece of win. Poor guy.

Surprise! It's snow!

Daniel Mead — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:32:05 +0000

We got a little surprise snowfall this morning in north Alabama. Places around here are reporting up to 3 inches on the ground. From what I gather it was supposed to hang around northwest Alabama and just rain here. However, this morning it stayed cold enough to start sleeting and now we have been getting a good snowfall. It is supposed to be a morning event and should melt off by this evening. I hope.

The Onion Is Great

Daniel Mead — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:00:15 +0000

The final season of LOST premieres on Tuesday. Here is an Onion take on the final season.

Final Season Of 'Lost' Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever

Mass Effect 2: Initial Reaction

Daniel Mead — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:33:12 +0000

My copy of Mass Effect 2 arrived yesterday from Amazon. Since I loved the original so much I decided to shell out the extra $10 for the Collectors' Edition. It comes in very nice packaging along with a making of DVD, a first edition of the Mass Effect Redemption comic book, and a Mass Effect art book. Not bad for a few more bucks.

Other than watching a few of the trailers for the game I went in without knowing much about the sequel. The first thing I did notice was that it is a two disk game. I really hope that means that it has some length and detail to it. At the very least I hope it has some more varied side missions. The ones in the first one got a little repetitive after a while.

My first advice for this game is that you really should play and finish the first game before you jump into it. It isn't absolutely necessary to play it, but it will really help you understand some of the background and countless references to the first game in ME2. Plus it really does continue the story of the first one extremely well and, in my opinion, will let you enjoy this game even more. Second bit of advice is that you keep your saved data from the first game. Not only will the new game import your character, but it will import game data so that it can reference some of the decisions that were made in the previous game. It really does have the feel of a proper sequel.

If you have played through the first game then you should be fairly familiar with the controls in this game. The overall look and feel of the game just seems to be one of the best that I have seen on the 360. The transitions between game play and cut scenes are very fluid. The sound is top notch. Like the first game there are plenty of background conversations that you can listen into as well as news broadcasts that I assume will open up some side missions like they did in the first game.

So far this game has not disappointed. Once I play through a few more missions and do some of the side tasks I will post a bit more on the game play and story.

Buy Mass Effect 2 at Amazon.

The LOST Plane Crash 24 Style

Daniel Mead — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:57 +0000

This is a pretty cool video that I saw on Fark the other day. It is footage of the crash of flight 815 from several different episodes of LOST that have edited together in a 24 style. Very neat and only adds to the excitement for the premiere of the final season of LOST in one week.