One thing that has changed in the last couple of years is my access to new music.  I used to drive a lot, and when I drove, I would listen to the radio.  Listening to the radio allows you to listen to the newest and greatest chart toppers. 

I don’t drive on a daily basis any more and the local radio station here keeps up to date on pop, but not a lot of rock.  CFNY, my old favourite radio station, I no longer listen to any more.  I used to listen to them online, but after they fired two of their best personalities last spring, I really lost interest.  I guess I was listening for the people as much as the music.

So I felt my life was lacking in rock.  I’ve already discovered a lot of the classics (although I’m sure there’s lots of classic rock I haven’t heard.)  When I would go to sites like grooveshark or even using limewire, so often it was the same 50 or 100 songs I would download, over and over. 

It’s funny where inspiration (or influence) can come from.  For example, while watching the fairly humorous South Park episode Die Hippie Die.  There is a phishesque music festival that takes over the town of south park, and Cartman breaks up the festival by playing Raining Blood by Slayer.

“It was good to see the song being put to good use. If we can horrify some hippies, we’ve done our job.” – Kerry King, Slayers lead guitarist

I’m not turning into a death-metal head, but I guess I’m a little curious as to how a band like Slayer can be appreciated by so many people and be so synonomous with death metal, while having virtually zero airplay.  I like the hard guitar riffs, the double bass, I’m listening to a little more and more every chance I can get.  Listening to Slayer makes almost all other music just seem soft.  So far on my playlist are Raining Blood, Seasons in the Abyss, Mandatory Suicide, Serenity in Murder, Eyes of the Insane, Hate Worldwide.  Any other suggestions?  Please send them in comments!  I love the song titles. 

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind.  Two weeks ago, I was in Mattawa, when I got home from Mattawa, I quickly got a full body sickness.  My symptoms included a crushing headache, night sweats, night chills, random dizzy events, general fatigue, followed by a cough with the production of a fair amount of sputum.  Not knowing what was wrong exactly, I waited 5 days before going to the hospital.  I had pneumonia.  It was the sickest I’ve been in a long time, I’m mostly over it now with the exception of a somewhat stubborn cough.

My basketball coaching season wrapped up with a win and a loss on the championship day, which gave us a silver medal on the year.  There’s a lot of work to do there.  My basketball priorities have changed slightly in that I would like to become certified as a referee before I get certified as a coach.  That’s just me.  Hopefully in the next couple of years.

And now, some metal.. Yes!!!

Slayer/ Raining Blood

Metallica/ Leper Messiah

Disturbed/ Stupify  ( I know, this isn’t really hard metal but still good enough for me.)

I am open to more suggestions!

Hi.  I’m currently in the North Bay airport waiting for a flight to go back to Dryden.  I have been at a conference specifically for teachers of the grade 11 Environmental Science course in Ontario.  The conference took place at the Canadian Ecology Center in Mattawa.  It was great.  What was best was being able to network and share with 29 others from across the province who are working a very similar job to mine.  Time well spent.

What I’ll share with you now is that I got to use a night vision scope.  It worked really well.  I was even able to take a photo through it.  The fellow you see was also using a night vision scope.

Otherwise, I flew down and will be flying back aboard Bearskin Airlines.  They fly a Fairchild Turboprop aircraft that seats 19.  If you’ve never been, I reccomend you try it.  I had to bend over pretty much 90 degrees at the waist to walk down the aisle.  It is cramped quarters.

See you soon!

Christine Nesbitt won Canada’s 3rd gold, 7th medal overall today.  She won the ladies’ 1000m speed skating event by 2/100 of a second.

This means something to be because I’ve become a fan after reading a profile on her in Maclean’s and subsequently following her on Twitter.

My twitter usage is limited.  I follow 9 people, I have 1 follower.  This is my second twitter account because my first one got hacked.  My password now is more sophisticated.  You can find me here.  I have updated once.