Light Chasers - Cloud Cult

Christmas was kind to me.  I got some new clothes, notably jeans, shoes, and a light jacket or two.  Back when I got my laptop for college, there was a deal for an xbox 360 with the laptop.  So I got an xbox 360 with a couple new games and a small tv for my dorm.  I did not get a nice new razor like in past years, but I can go get my own razor, I suppose.  And finally, my aunt gave me The Silmarillion and The Shaping of Middle Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien.  So all in all, I racked up.  I have eaten approximately 5 Christmas dinners now (3 of which being leftovers rehashed).  And I am probably as spoilt as a lower-middle class pig can be.

I have not posted many Music posts recently, have I?  Well, prepare your ears and mind's anuses.  For I bring you tidings of great joy; I think Cloud Cult is now my favorite band.  I have reached a period of uncertainty.  A while back it was Rise Against, then Coldplay, then fun., then Bon Iver, then Damien Rice, then Manchester Orchestra, and now Cloud Cult.  With all of this change of favorite band in the past couple years, I cannot be certain of my true favorite band.  However, I am certain of where their best album ranks.  The album Light Chasers by Cloud Cult is definitely in my top three--if not first, second only to The Wall by Pink Floyd--in rankings as to my favorite album.  Here are the tracks:

The Mission - Unexplainable Stories
The Departure - Today We Give Ourselves to the Fire
The Invocation (p. 1) - You'll be Bright
The Birth
The Baby - You Were Born
The Lessons - Exploding People
The Interference
The Battles - Room Full of People in Your Head
The Escape - Running with the Wolves
The Acceptance - Responsible
The Surrender - Guessing Game
The Strength - Forces of the Unseen
The Invocation (p. 2) - Blessings
The Awakening - Dawn
The Contact
The Arrival - There's So Much Energy in Us

Of these, I think that either "The Mission", "The Invocation", or "The Battles" is my favorite.  Really, this entire album has incredible lyrics.  The sound itself seems pretty unique, typically rather showy and loud, but overall, very well put together.  I love the french horns; they add so much with their presence.  I'll admit that it took a few listens to get into the album, but once I got in, I was hooked.  It is the perfect blare in the car and sing as loud as possible album.  IMHO

Anyway, go have a listen.  Here is a link for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yHGt5ZZeZU&playnext=1&list=PL9B962AC5A5DB58D7&feature=results_main
(Unfortunately, I do not think this is the full album, but it's a start.)

A Review: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/53880/Cloud-Cult-Light-Chasers/

Pizza, Christmas, College, and Naruto

Haven't posted in forever.  Should I fill you with mindless droll topics?  Yes, yeas i should.  Ok, so, yesterday (MLK, Jr. Day), 4 friends and myself had a pizza eating contest.  I am proud to say that I won with 26 slices (well, 2 of us tied for first, but it still counts).  Total, the five of us ate over 100 slices of pieces.  So, you're thinking I am super fat--as are my friends.  Well, I'm only 160 or 170 pounds, so not that fat... and I probably weigh the most of the five of us.  So how did we eat over 20 pieces of pizza each?  The world may never know.

Christmas was good, as was New Years.  I now am in possession of a vehicle of my own, finally.  And my family hopes to upgrade to smart phones soon (I've had the same flip-camera phone for at least 5 years now).  So, materially, things are looking pretty good for me.  I finished all of my college applications and plan to move on to financial aid applications soon.  I pulled out the big guns in applying to Stanford.  One of the essays was: "What matters to you and why?"  So I wrote about how fairness and equality are top on my priorities-list and the way that being gay has influenced that.

I've been pretty stagnant in the coming-out phase, though I did go to a movie with another boy whom I know to be gay.  I didn't tell him anything about me, but I'm working on stepping out some.

Recently, I have fallen back in love with Naruto because it has gotten really interesting considering the ninja-world-war going on and the impending epic showdown of naruto v. sasuke.  If you want to start reading Naruto, I highly recommend it.  Here is a link to mangareader's naruto archives: http://www.mangareader.net/93-1-1/naruto/chapter-1.html
But I warn you, you are 569 manga chapters behind.  If you read constantly, you might finish in 2 to 3 days.  So get cracking.  It really is a good manga--quite emotional for me.

Anyway, that's about all of the important stuff I can think of.  Have a good day.  Remind me to post about the friend from a while back that had started copying some of my mannerisms.  He's in the back of my mind, and I need to vent, somewhat.

Christmas!!!!

Madison is so happy!! He got a really nice soccer ball, soccer gear, clothes, Risk, food, and 10 new razors and shaving cream.  He had the best shave he has had in a long time and spent the past two or three hours juggling and dribbling the soccer ball around the house.  The new razors made him really happy.  And he really likes the soccer ball.

Good happiness and whatnot!!  Oh, and my family got a tv/ps3combo.  But the cable no longer works, and there are no games for the ps3.  Good happiness and whatnot.

Ok, I kind of did a little experiment.

The other day, I changed the name of the site to (By MaddyLee et Paucis ceteris).  Then, since I did not get many hits at all (like 5 or 6 per day) for the days following that, I changed the name back.  And voila!  The number for today rose to like 50!!

Of course, there could have been a few factors affecting that.  Most importantly, I commented on a blog that gets a lot of looks (And thereby gained a new follower!! Woot woot.  Go Billy.).  So either people are attracted to and familiar with the name, or else Billy and his people did a lot of pageviews...  Hmm, I'm thinking that it is the former.  (Or else there is some circumstance that I am unaware of.)

So anyway, either way, I got a few ideas.  I don't really want to keep the title because I'm in a go-with-the-flow mood and probably will continue to be in that mood for the next while.

Also, I was going to try to add another friend of mine (BB) as an author because he had a rant the other day about the way that all of our friends are so ridiculously wrapped up in Academia.  And I just kind of wanted to be in more steady contact with him.  But yeah...  He seems to be slightly terrible at looking at text messages; so I am probably going to have to tell him in real life--in which I would have to go out of my way to talk to him--which is a bother.  Oh humdrum.

This post is just totally random.  I am absolutely making it up as I go, and I would just like to exclaim that I love the Christmas season.  This is partly because I don't really have to buy people gifts and yet I get to bask in the fact that this season is full of candy and treats--at least where I live--as well as music.  I was listening to "I'll Be Home for Christmas" by the Rascal Flatts yesterday as well as "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer.  I really wish that the producers of the ELF Soundtrack had made the duet of Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrel into a full-length song.  But oh well; they didn't.  I also love the "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

I know it is odd to like the Christmas season if i do not like Christ or God or religion, but I just can't help it.  The snow is awesome [if we ever get any(though it did snow this morning slightly)].  The food is awesome.  The gifts are awesome.  The music is awesome.  I do like beauty in whatever form it may take. The family isn't that great.  Nor is the hypocrisy so very heartening.  But all around I love the season.

It's odd for me to be enthusiastic about stuff...