Oh God He Is Alive?

Last weekend I didn't get around to writing an entry. I don't know why, so no need to ask. But et voila. Here I am again, alive and kicking. Probably to your greatest dismay.

So what have I been doing instead of writing here, you probably wouldn't ask yourself. Well, I'm going to answer it anyway, so just live with it. Short version: Stress. Long version: Stressing out over the bloody ridiculous amount of tests that we keep having, trying to uphold some form of social life and doing my best at breathing. Although the former doesn't leave much time for the latter. Right now I've just finished of a quite successful raid and am now rocking off to Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies. Oh, and speaking of music, most blogs I read tend to have some entries about music, so I'm just gonna go with the flow here and join in.

Right, in my younger years (ha, ha, ha) I never listened to much music. It wasn't that I hated it or so, I just never found anything that really fit me, so I ended up just staying away from it. It was first when a friend, although I'm sure it wasn't his intention, introduced me to Rise Againsnt that something happened. It kind of surprised me that I liked them, since that definately wouldn't have been the kind of music I would've seen myself liking. But I did, and who am I to tell myself to shut and go back to silence? But anyway, since then it just escalated and now I'm into most things. So, following here is a selection of artists/bands that I like.

MUSE

This band are my definitive favourites at the moment. They're different, but there's something oddly compelling about them. From the rythmic bass and drums to Matthew Bellamy's almost hypnotic voice. Now another thing I especially like about these chaps are that they actually sound fantastic live. Yes, I did just say that. Nowadays there's far too many 'studio bands' who sound great on their records, but once you hear them live you wonder what the hell they're doing. When Muse plays live the songs turn into a completely different experience, while still being the same. Okay, it's hard to explain, but listen to the same song both in a studio version and live version and you'll see what I mean!

Here's my personal favourite song by Muse, Starlight:

Alice Cooper

Right, so most of you with any sense of rock history probably knows who this guy is, but whatever. Despite the name indicating that it would only be one person it is actually a band, but the singer and frontline person being Alice Cooper himself. The band has switched members a lot over the years, so I'm not going to bother listing any of them. Being pretty much the creator of shock rock his texts are often quite bizarre and many of them play on the subject of sex in a both daring and perverted way. I guess what I like about his music is that he often sings about teenagers and the whole child-on-the-way-of-becoming-an-adult-thing which obviously applies to me and that he dares write bizarre texts without caring if it's appropriate or not.

Here's I'm Eighteen, I didn't find any real video of it so it's just pictures, but enjoy the song:

Rise Against

Right, so seeing how these were the first band I actually began listening to I figured they required a place here. I don't know exactly what made me fall for them, but I would guess that I just felt really home with their music. I just suppose that Tim McIlrath's coarse voice just has something that makes me like it (much like Alice Cooper). Apart from that they also have sort of an emotional bond with me, since I can strongly connect them to certain periods of my life since they were the only band i was listening to at the time. Anyways, before I get all too emo, here is a song for your enjoyment, Paper Wings:


Foo Fighters

So, another piece of rock here then. There's nothing remarkably exciting about Foo Fighters, I guess, but I like their music and that's enough for me. Dave Grohl (former drummer of Nirvana) has an amazing voice which fits their songs perfectly. The guitar riffs are good, the bass is good, the rythm is good. All in all it's a good band.
Here you can enjoy the official (and quite amusing) video of Learn to Fly:

Right, that's pretty much my favourite bands. Now of course there are other bands I like such as Queen, The Rolling Stones (and more recently Pink Floyd, you know who you are) etc. Pretty much all of the old classic rock.

Turns out there was no gaming debate today. Haha, what a dissapointment, eh? I just couldn't be arsed writing one today, so you'll just have to live with it. Tough luck.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little taste of my musical life.

Nothing At All or The Gaming Addiction - It's All Just Fiction.

Okay, so maybe the second part of the title was a slight exaggeration, but it rhymed and sounded cool so I'll just go with that anyway.

This week's entry about what's been happening in my life is going to be short. This is due to the fact that I've had a week off from school. I know it really doesn't make sense, seeing how a week off school should generally result in going on a trip somewhere or at least doing something of interest. But I've done nothing at all. Now this probably makes me look like one of the most boring persons in the world (perhaps I am?), but I've always used short mid-term breaks like these to take some (hopefully) well deserved rest. A rest I definately need seeing how I once again have two tests in the upcoming week. So my week has basically consisted of general slacking, sleeping long and gaming. So, yeah, let's move on!



Gaming addiction, that's a word you hear quite often nowadays. We've all read about the young teenagers who waste their lives sitting in front of their computers, skipping school and neglecting their friends. And the one who gets to take the blame for all of this is gaming, and I don't think that's exactly true. Now, I can't deny the fact that there are people who play too much games, it is an obvious fact that these people exist. However, what I can say is that I do not think that gaming itself is the reason for this. Games are a great way to let your imagination spread it wings. In school you might be the tiny little kid, picked on by everybody, but inside a game you could be a mighty warrior, saviour of the weak and slayer of evil. So the reason why people let gaming take over their lives possibly lies outside of it. Be it problems with school or other things. Games are just the place where people escape to not have to deal with their own reality. Add to this the fact that a lot of parents are "afraid" of games and who's closest contact to games are when they tell their kids to go do something else, instead of actually involving themselves in their children's gaming, something that would help ease the tension many children feel towards their own parents when it comes to gaming.
So the villain is not gaming in this case, it could be anything, and I think most parents would rather have their children play games than doing drugs.


So yet again I blame the parents for their children's troubles with the gaming world, which I suppose is a bit unfair. Of course the children need to be able to take responsibility for their own lives, they can not simply rely on their parents to do everything for them. I wish more parents would dare to take interest in their children's gaming activites. As an example, this is something that my parents have always done, and who knows, one day they might even become gamers themselves (with some practice, I'm sure they would do great!). So to all you parents out there (not that I think any other parents reads this anyway), approach your kids, take interest, it will turn out for the better, trust me on that.
And instead of trying to stop them playing games too much, try to find out what makes them skip school, since that is the real problem. Solve that, and you have the gaming problem solved as well.