Hello all, and welcome to my blog.  I hope that whoever reads this decides that reading my blog makes their life ever so slightly less boring and perhaps even crack a smile.  I'm going to share random thoughts, music I'm digging, movies I'm watching, games I'm playing, and just anything that comes to mind.  Enjoy!

As my first official entry, I have to share that I'm digging on the following:

*DVD*
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 6
I never really had the chance to see many of the Season 6 episodes because I've never lived anywhere that had UPN .  However, I had seen a few re-runs on FX here and there.  As a BtVS fanatic, I knew I had to get Season 6 (as well as 7 eventually), and so far I'm not disappointed.  I'm a little over half-way through the season, and despite Buffy's somewhat downtrodden attitude, the show kind of regains some of that whimsy and wonderment that the 1st season had.  All in all, I rather enjoy it.

*Music*
The 3 bands I'm listening to in heavy rotation now are:
Staple (http://www.staplemusic.com/)
Demon Hunter (http://www.demonhunter.net/)
Symphony X (http://www.symphonyx.com/)

I'm really liking Staple's debut CD.  It's heavy but not so much that it loses it's melodic quality.  It's too hard to be "screamo", but not hard enough to be hardcore or metalcore.  There's just enough bite in the guitar and grit in the sound to call it metal.

Demon Hunter really out-did themselves w/ their 2nd album, Summer of Darkness.  I didn't think they could top their debut, and when I first heard SoD I knew they wouldn't.  However, after repeated listens I feel that SoD is even better than the debut.

Symphony X is one of those bands I'm coming back to after having not listened to them for a while.  Sometimes I get on the "power metal" kick like I have been the last week and a half and pull out some CD's I don't keep in heavy rotation.  After listening to the :V: The New Mythology Suite" CD again I must say I had unfairly neglected this CD for some time.  The 1st couple times I played it I felt like it was a little overblown (though not as much as Rhapsody or Blind Guardian), but after several spins I can honestly say it's an awesome album.

*Video Game*
Cotton 2 (Sega Saturn, Japanese NTSC)
I just purchased Cotton 2 from someone at the Shmups website (http://www.shmups.com/) and after playing it a couple times I rather enjoy it.  It's a classic shoot-em-up (or shmup) with a cast of cutesy characters (often referred to as cute-em-ups).  It's based on a cute little witch named Cotton and her little fairy companion as they keep the cartoonish world they live in safe from monsters.  As my 2nd Japanese shooter game I've purchased (the 1st being Strikers 1945 II), I'm quite proud of my purchase.

I hope to receive my 3rd Japenese shooter purchase (DonPachi) tomorrow or the next day.  Impressions will be posted once I play it a little.

*************************

Grocery store clerk:
"Paper or plastic, sir?"

Me:
"Metal!"