11 2009 albums

These are the albums I bought in 2009 from 2009, and what I thought of them. In order from best to worst.

1. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More (9.5/10)
I have no idea how this band manages to do what they do to me. This album is absolutely fantastic from start to finish with it’s beautiful honest lyrics, great melodies completed with a banjo. Can’t wait to see what they come out with next.
Favourite songs: The Cave, Dustbowl Dance, Roll Away Your Stone, Little Lion Man, Awake My Soul, the whole flipping album.

2. Muse – The Resistance (9/10)
Every single track on this album reminds you of how great these musicians are. This is really just as good as their previous album Black Holes and Revelations, which is a lot to achieve in itself. The Exogenesis Symphony is made of so much win.
Favourite Songs: Unnatural Selection, Uprising, The Exogenesis Symphony

3. Owl City – Ocean Eyes (8.5/10)
Took me a while to get into Owl City, but it seemed I finally saw what was great in him at about the same time mainstream did. His songs are cute and deep, simple and catchy.
Favourite Songs: Meteor Shower, Bird and the Worm, Fireflies.

4. David Crowder*Band – Church Music (8.5/10)
Best worship album since, to be honest, David Crowder’s A Collision. In fact, it’s probably better. Apparently it simultaneously tells the history of church music. The experience you get from immersing yourself in this album is just great.
Favourite Songs: Gold Almighty, None Compares; Oh, Happiness!; How He Loves; The Nearness; The Veil

5. Art Vs Science – EP (8/10)
Seriously so much fun. I cannot wait to see these guys live. Unfortunately this is just an EP and only has five songs. It just leaves you wanting more. If their first album is as good as this one, watch out world.
Favourite Song: Parlez Vous Francias?, Flippers, Hollywood.

6. Relient K – Forget And Not Slow Down (8/10)
They have a new sound, and while I like it I do also miss their pop-punk roots. But nevertheless, this is a great rock album and I think This Is The End (If You Want It) actually made me cry on first listen. A huge step up from Five Score and Seven Years Ago, but not surpassing Mmhmm.
Favourite Songs: Sahara, Candlelight, Part of It, I Don’t Need A Soul.

7. Paramore – Brand New Eyes (7/10)
I get a lot of enjoyment out of this album, which surprises me. Didn’t really think of myself as a fan. Only complaint is that the songs all end up sounding the same. And that’s not because I haven’t listened to it enough to distinguish the songs, it’s because they all sound the same. =P
Favourite Songs: Careful, Ignorance, Playing God, Brick by Boring Brick.

8. Powderfinger – Golden Rule (6.5/10)
A good effort from the Finger, much better than Dream Days at the Hotel Existence. But it isn’t great like Vulture Street or Odyssey Number 5. I still listen to those two albums more than this one.
Favourite Songs: All of the Dreamers, A Fight About Money, Jewel.

9. Jars of Clay – The Long Fall Back To Earth (6/10)
I wouldn’t say I’m losing faith in Jars of Clay, nor that they’re losing touch even. But what I like about Jars of Clay is no longer there. I like the beautiful poetic lyrics that are brutally honest. Take Worlds Apart, Frail or This Road as great examples. The album has a bunch of good songs, but it’s probably my least favourite from them.
Favourite Songs: Closer, Heart, Boys (Lesson One), Hero.

10. Evermore – Truth of the World: Welcome to the Show (5/10)
A great concept for an album, it’s all about mass media and propaganda and all that. But unfortunately the songs are just quite weak. Some are really catchy but the novelty does wear off. It only really works if you listen to the whole album, and when I try to do that now I just find myself getting bored of it.
Favourite Songs: Hey Boys and Girls (Truth of the World, Pt 2), Everybody’s Doing It, Between The Lines.

11. Rob Thomas – Cradlesong (4.5/10)
I expect so much more from Rob Thomas to be honest than what’s on this album. I absolutely love his work with Matchbox Twenty but apparently he can’t follow suit by himself. Some of the songs are good, but the whole album is just missing something. It’s pretty personal, maybe I just can’t relate to the album.
Favourite Songs: Her Diamonds, Mockingbird.

Top 10 songs of the decade.

This is my opinion of the top 10 songs of the decade 2000-2009. Mainly personal opinion, but I did do a bit of research into what other people and publications thought were the best. Not necessarily my favourite songs, or songs I even listen to often. But I admit #1 is only #1 because I think it's the greatest song ever written <3 hahaha.

10. Coldplay - Yellow

9. Mogwai – Friend Of The Night

8. Sufjan Stevens – Chicago

7. Bright Eyes – Road To Joy

6. Sam Hart – Mario Kart Love Song

5. Arcade Fire – Wake Up

4. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army

3. Eminem – Stan

2. Daft Punk – Harder Better Faster Stronger

1. The Killers – Mr Brightside

For the past month or so I've been playing Final Fantasy IX. I've made it my goal to have finished each of the numbered FF games (1-13) by the end of next year. (excluding XI, because it's online. I may replace it with X-2, we'll see how we go) I wanted to finish FFIX before the end of the year, which I've done. And it knocks VIII of its pedestal of 'Best Final Fantasy Game' and then poops all over it from the top.

Okay not quite, VIII is a fantastic game. But IX I think is just better. I heard it say that VIII is the emo teenager of the group, and that's probably true. It's filled with as much teenage angst as a song by My Chemical Romance. But that's good. I think the contrast from VII and VIII to IX makes it as great as it is.

The main character, Zidane, is a happy, out-there, womanizing thief with a monkey tail. Compare this to Squall and Cloud from the previous two games, who are all quiet, reserved 'lone-wolf' types (for the most part, anyway). The previous two are in worlds of 'Fantasy meets Technology', where both magic and science combine to create this unique sort of world. IX is a more traditional medieval fantasy setting. It was the refreshing game the series needed at this time, and it was perfectly placed and produced fantastically.

I think what drives this game most are the characters. You can't help but hopelessly fall in love with them in the very beginning. Zidane the womanizing thief. Garnet the young princess who wanted to be kidnapped. Steiner her up-tight, clumsy knight. Vivi the cute little black mage. Zorn and Thorn, the court jesters who, for some reason, remind me of Shakespeare. Then you get to know them and it's like you were trapped from the very beginning, you can't help but care for them and everything. They were all developed really well and I think it's the game's strongest point.

The storyline is another strong point. It's very deep and winding and everything sort of fits together in the end. And for a light-hearted game, it got quite dark in parts. But it wouldn't have worked as well as it did if it wasn't for those little moments. And it tackles some really deep questions. What is our purpose in life, what is death, etc.

The music, as per normal, is fantastic. It took me a while to really get into it, but there ended up being some great tracks which fit perfectly with certain scenes and certain characters. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nobuo Uematsu is a genius.

The weakest part was probably just the gameplay, I'd say. And this isn't even a huge complaint. At time the random encounter battles just got plain annoying. You just wanted to get out of the freaking dungeon and get some story knocked over or something. Plus some of the normal battles were really quite hard. I'm used to just mindlessly attacking my way through dungeons, but I actually had to put some thought into these battles. Well done!

So yeah, overall I think it's my favourite Final Fantasy game. Next on the list is VI, unless XIII comes out before I get my hands on it. IX is definitely the game I will be directing Final Fantasy noobs to from now on.



There will be spoilers in this part. You're warned.
Favourite Characters:

1. Vivi
Vivi is quite probably not only the best character in the game, but the best character in the entire series. He is a small cute black mage who gets caught up in the part somehow. When they visit the village of Dali, they find out that black mages are being manufactured as soulless weapons of war. Vivi obviously is very effected by that and receives a lot of grief from townspeople who claim his people destroyed their home. Eventually the party find a village of black mages who escaped, learned how to talk and created a small community. Vivi finds outs that black mages are 'stopping' (dying) as they were only created with a limited lifespan of a year. Vivi has to fight with this knowledge that he won't be around for much longer while trying to discover why he was created. He's easily the most relatable character in the game and often times you just want to hug him and say "I know what it's like, I've been through this too." In the ending cinematic (mega spoiler time) you see everyone else, including Vivi's children, but not Vivi. I'm lead to believe that he stopped, which absolutely breaks my heart while simeltaneously making him the best character in the franchise.


2. Kuja
Kuja is the primary antagonist of the game. At first you think he's just the usual sort of deal, guy has a huge ego problem and thinks he can take over the world. But he's a great villian: he monologues (with some beautiful ones in there), has a God-complex, is smart and has the resources to be able to fulfill his plans. When you go to Terra, a different world, you learn the full story (again, spoilers): Garland was created to look after Terra and in order for Terra to survive it needs to assimilate with another world, in this case Gaia, the one where everyone lives. Kuja was created by Garland so that he could merge the two worlds. So really you end up getting this kinda sympathetic view of Kuja. He's not a psychopath, he's just doing what he was made to do. In the end it turns out he is a bit of a psychopath, though. Garland tells him that Zidane was Kuja's replacement and that Kuja is in fact mortal and will die. Kuja can't accept this and basically says "If I can't live, no one can live. That would be unfair." so he destroys Terra. Then he goes to Gaia to destroy this Crystal which is the beginning and end of everything, it is basically life and death. But again, you get this sympathetic view of him when he realises what life actually is, when he is about to die. He's knocked out of this god-complex he has and sees what life actually is. He teleports the party to safety, keeping them all alive.


3. Beatrix
Beatrix is the a general of the Alexandrian army. She's very strong, a great fighter, known throughout the land, all that cliche stuff. She is loyal to the Queen even when she was being corrupted by Kuja, until Queen Brahne tries to kill Garnet. Beatrix then becomes a mostly non-playable protagonist, helping the party protect the princess. Though despite being such a strong female in the story, you also get to know everything that goes on in her mind. And inside she's very lonely, lost between serving the Queen and doing what is moral, troubled by all these things. All her emotions are very open for the player to see. In a big way she's the character which emphasises that you can be a great person, but in the end you're still human. Something that Kuja just couldn't grasp.
Also, Steiner and Beatrix end up falling in love. An unlikely couple, they used to be rivals, but she is perfect for him. He needs a strong woman to keep him in line. It's so cute. hahaha.



Favourite Songs:

Rose of May



You're Not Alone!


The Dark Messenger


Song from her Memories

The Turtles.

I had an awesome dream last night and thought it would be a great children's story. So I wrote it up.



The Turtles.

Once upon a time there was a baby turtle named John. John was very small, even for a turtle his age, but was very friendly.

One day, when he was becoming a bit older, John’s dad talked to him about finding a partner turtle.
“You have to go out into the big world and find yourself a girl turtle!” said John’s dad.
John didn’t want to go outside. After all, the world was a big place and he was only a small turtle. “I don’t want to go, dad! Why do I have to?” asked John.
“So that you can have children, just like your mother and I did! That’s how you were born!” said John’s dad.

John figured that it was a good idea now as he quite liked being born. So the next day, John said goodbye to his mum and his dad and his brothers and left home to find a girl turtle.

After a day, John had had no luck finding a girl turtle. He had only found two other turtles and they were both boys. They lived in a big amusement park named DreamWorld, it looked like lots of fun and John wanted to go there. John started to feel a bit dry, so he found a big pond nearby and went for a swim. After his swim, he went to lie on the bank so he could sleep.

He laid there for only a minute when he saw another turtle coming his way! And this time it was a girl turtle! She was very pretty, but had a big crack in her shell. John came out of his shell and waited for the girl turtle to pass him. When she was passing him, John made his move.
“Hi, I’m John!” he said as she walked in front of him.
The girl turtle turned to him and said “Hi John, my name is Elizabeth. Nice to meet you!”
“You too!” replied John. “I was wondering if you have ever been to DreamWorld?”
“No, I haven’t!” said Elizabeth. “But I really want to go, it looks like lots of fun!”
“Let’s go right now then!” John said.
So John and Elizabeth both walked to the amusement park together, talking and laughing along the way.

When they got to DreamWorld, it was all closed up because it was night time. They walked under the gate and it began to rain, which was good because they were both feeling really dry after the big walk. They swam in the puddles, walked along the rollercoaster tracks and ate lots of yummy food.

When they were about to leave, John told Elizabeth about what his dad told him.
“My dad said that I need to find a girl turtle so I can have baby turtles!” said John.
Elizabeth was shocked. “Yes, my mum told me the same thing! She told me I had to find a boy turtle to have children with!”
So John and Elizabeth decided they would be together. They found a place in the rafters to live. John didn’t like it, but Elizabeth insisted they live here.

Eventually Elizabeth laid some eggs. She would take care of the eggs, covering them with grass and leaves to keep them warm. John would go out at night and find some food left on the ground in DreamWorld to bring back to Elizabeth.

One day a bit later, the eggs hatched! There were two boys and one girl, who they named Jackson, John II and Katie. John and Elizabeth loved their children very much and were very happy together.

After two months, it had not rained a single time! All the water around the place had begun to disappear and all the turtles felt very dry. Elizabeth was feeling very weak nowadays and spent most of her time asleep in her shell. John came over to her and Elizabeth came out of her shell and asked him why he woke her up.
“We need to find some water or else we are going to die!” said John.
“But I cannot move, and either can the children. We are all very weak.” Said Elizabeth.
“If we do not get to water soon, we will die!” yelled John. He was very worried about himself and his family.
“Then go by yourself, because we cannot go anywhere. We will wait for the rain.” Elizabeth said back.
So John left Elizabeth and their children in order to find some water. Elizabeth was very upset, but she remained confident that it would rain soon.

Many night passed and no rain had come. Elizabeth was nearly about to die and just had to say goodbye to all her children. Elizabeth decided to use her last bit of energy to go down to the ground and into a bush to eat something. When she got down to the bottom she had no more energy left so she laid down on the side of the path.

Along came a human named Mathew. He saw the dead turtle and was very sad. He picked Elizabeth up and walked to the closest bush to put her in. As Mathew was walking with Elizabeth in his hand, it began to rain! As he put Elizabeth down in the dirt, he noticed that the turtle was moving a little bit. He picked the turtle up and said to it “You’re not dead!”
“No, I’m not dead!” replied Elizabeth. “Although I almost was, I was just lucky the rain came. My name is Elizabeth!”
“My name is Mathew.” he said. “Why are you in DreamWorld all by yourself?”

Elizabeth told Mathew everything. She told him about meeting John, about having fun with him in DreamWorld, about having children and about John leaving her to find water. She told him that she was very upset and wanted to find another turtle so she could start another family.

“Well, okay then!” said Mathew. “Let’s go and find you another turtle!”
Mathew began walking around DreamWorld with Elizabeth in his hand when she said “I don’t want to live in DreamWorld anymore.”
“Why not?” Asked Mathew.
“I realise now that it was a bad idea living here. It is very dry and the air smells funny.” Said Elizabeth.
“How do you know it smells funny?”
“Because I can smell the outside air on your hand, and it smells nice.”

So Mathew and Elizabeth began to go outside. On the handrail on the steps they found another turtle! So Mathew placed Elizabeth on the handrail and she went over to the other turtle.
“Hi, my name is Elizabeth! It’s nice to see another turtle around here!”
“Hi, Elizabeth” replied the other turtle. “My name is Heath! It sure is nice now that it is raining.”
Elizabeth told Heath about what had happened, and that she was looking for another turtle to start a family with. Heath was scared because she was very upfront and Heath was shy. Elizabeth kept pushing Heath until he accidentally fell off the handrail! It wasn’t a very long fall, but she heard his shell crack a little, not badly though.

“See, now we are meant to be together!” said Elizabeth. She showed Heath the crack in her shell and it looked exactly like the one in Heath’s shell.
“Okay then.” Said Heath. “Let’s find a home.”

So the two turtles found a home by a pond and had five children. It was always wet at the pond with plenty of food. And they lived happily ever after.

iTunes Quiz Thingy

How many songs in total?
980

Sort by Song Title; What are the first and last songs?
First: Absolutely (Story of a Girl) - Nine Days
Last: 9000 Miles - Pendulum

Sort by Artist; what are the first and last artists?
First: Anberlin
Last: Zachary Sterling

Sort by Time; what are the first and last songs?
Shortest: Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care - Relient K (0:12)
Longest: Darkness and Starlight - The Black Mages (15:23)

Sort by Album; what are the first and last albums?
First: Adagio, by Sweetbox
Last: Yourself or Someone Like You, Matchbox Twenty

Top 5 Played Songs:
1. The Killers - Mr Brightside (174 plays)
2. The Killers - Read My Mind (164 plays)
3. The Killers - Midnight Show (152 plays)
4. The Killers - Human (139 plays)
5. The Killers - Believe Me Natalie (127 plays)

Find “sex” – how many songs show up?
13. I would like to point out that these results are entirely from Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds album, except for a single song from Language. Sex. Violence. Other?, by the Stereophonics.

Find “death” – how many songs show up?
23. Mainly songs by Death Cab for Cutie, or from Coldplay's album 'Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends'.

Find “love” – how many songs show up?
51. Because I love love.

Try and put as many letters as you can into the search, with spaces in between each letter, if one letter takes all the selections out, skip it, and continue, until you’ve got as many as possible.

What song is left?
Jamiroquai - Love Foolosophy

What Letters were used?
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v y

This quiz is awesome because it makes my iTunes library seem so much more diverse than what it is :)

GMH

I've always had friend issues. I'm the kinda person who constantly worries about things like if his friends actually like him, actually care for him, actually want to know me and want to hang around me. I'm paranoid that my friends aren't actually my friends, I worry that I force myself on people and that I'm only invited to things if I'm within earshot of people at the time they were organising it. Basically, as I said in the first sentence, I have friend issues.

I think it's because I wouldn't want to be my friend. Although I try my hardest to be friendly, to have fun and to really put effort into my friendships, I don't feel as if I've got anything to offer them. I'm quite picky with my friends too, I surround myself with people who are determined, driven, confident and generally pretty happy and fun. Most of these things I'm not. And although I try and use them to bring me up, most of the time I feel as if I'm bringing them down.

I have many groups of friends: church, course, online, etc. I have friend issues with people in all these groups, for different reasons. But there's one group who prove to me over and over again that they actually want to be my friends. That's my high school friends.

Today it was about 9:30am and I was just lying in bed awake. I got a phone call from a friend and it went like this

"Hey bud"
"Get out of bed, you're coming to the beach."
"...But I'm in bed."
"I don't care, you're coming to the beach."
"You don't understand, I'm in bed."
"Look. We'll be at your house in ten minutes. If you're not on your doorstep in boardies at that time, we're pulling you out of bed."

And he hung up.

This single conversation pretty much epitomises friendship for me. He called me, invited me out, knew what I was doing before I told him, so many things which made me know that I was valued. This isn't the only thing, my high school friends are virtually the only people who invite me out to things, who I do things on a regular basis with, who I feel actually want me as a friend. There are exceptions in the other groups, people who I feel value me, but for the most part I miss this feeling in other groups.

I wonder what it is. Is it the fact I was there from the very beginning with the formation of high school friendship group, whereas I've joined other groups? Nah I was there at the formation of YMIS group, and I've been at the church for quite a while. There's always the Christian factor. As much as I don't like to admit it, some of the most judgmental people I know are Christians. Even though we're called not to be. It's funny, we're all accepting of those in other Social classes, such as the disabled or at-risk or unfortunate. But when it comes to people in our OWN social class, Christians hold no reservations in judging people it seems.

So basically, my high school friends Give Me Hope.

Anberlin

So tomorrow I'm seeing Anberlin. I am so mega-excited.

When I saw the Killers I like did this thing of my expectations of what they're going to play and stuff. I'm doing the same here, see how close I get.

These songs they'll definitely play:
Paperthin Hymn
Godspeed
Feel Good Drag
Never Take Friendship Personal
Adelaide
Breaking
Change the World

These songs they better play or I'm gonna kill a baby:
A Day Late
Dismantle. Repair.
Time & Confusion
Hello Alone
Glass to the Arson
The Resistance
Stationary Stationery (My favourite Anberlin song)
Disappear
Blame Me! Blame Me!
A Whisper & A Clamor

These songs if they play I'll be so happy but I'm not particularly expecting them to:
Audrey, Start the Revolution!
Haight Street
Dance, Dance, Christa Paffgen
Cadence
Soft Skeletons
Naive Orleans
The Runaways
The 16 bit remix of Glass to the Arson. =P


Make sure I update with the set so I can forever remember it. <3