06 Oct 08 Why my vote for John McCain is NOT a vote for John McCain

I am a very conservative both socially and fiscally. Yes, I used to be a republican when Bush came to power during his first term. No, I am not a republican anymore thanks to what Bush has done while he has been in power. Just to clear this up as well, “conservative” is NOT synonymous with “republican” any more than “liberal” is synonymous with “democrat“. I guess that makes me an independent but in this country when you say that, everyone seems to assume you are a green party member, which I am not.

Being that I am NOT a republican and I AM a conservative, I found this election very troubling. I am not going to vote for Obama as he is very liberal in my view, and I *was not* going to vote for McCain as I am an old resident of Arizona and I know his voting record and believe him to be a liberal as well (A.K.A “The Maverick”). I was actually going to write in Ron Paul for president when two curious things happened:

1. Before both candidates had chosen a running mate I was having a political discussion with a co-worker about who I was going to vote for. I was explaining that I thought Obama was a mistake and so was McCain. I told him that the only presidential nominee that I thought was telling the truth and was capable of upholding the constitution was Ron Paul. But during that conversation I did mention that McCain seemed so incredibly old and frail and that the presidency seems to unnaturally add to ones years, that depending on who his running mate was I might actually vote for him knowing (or rather hoping) that he would have a limited run in office and that his VP would become president.
2. McCain picked Palin, someone who seems to be a genuine conservative. Someone who seems to have stood up to the republican party in the past and seemed to have their head on straight. Here was someone who was vastly more conservative than Mr. McCain, and seemed to have the ability to bring some real energy back to the party that once *was* synonymous with conservative.

That was when I realized that McCain had given me just enough to vote for him. Well not for *him* but for his ticket. So congratulations Mr. McCain, you have persuaded me to put a check next to your name when I vote, but I hope it will be your running mate that wins.

Tags: Barack Obama, Conservative, John McCain, Liberal, Ron Paul, Sara Palin, The Constitution, Vote

03 Oct 08 All the Reasons why (new) Metallica Sucks

I bought a car recently. I traded in my ‘05 Kia Sorrento with $550 monthly payments and 17MPG for a much cheaper ‘08 Hyundai Accent with $400 monthly payments (after financing what was left in payments on my Kia) and 34ishMPG to save money. Yes, the average American’s financial belts are tightening… but that is a different post.

My car came with three months free XM Satellite Radio service. I have never used their service so I spent the first few days of car ownership messing around with the XM-Radio more than the car itself. I came across a channel dedicated to Metallica and it plays nothing but their music. At first I was giddy, but then I realized that a station that plays nothing but Metallica music is going to play a *wide variety* of their songs, and I hate anything new they have done. Let me explain…

I was 14 years old in 1988 when Metallica released “…And Justice for All”. Before that time I still had not “decided” the kind of music I really liked. But after listening to this band called Metallica, and hearing what they could do with some distortion and excellent drumming, I found my genre. So, being the metal-head I was I had to get everything Metallica: Kill ‘em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, Garage Days. That mixed with my learning the guitar and discovering other legendary bands like Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and some marginally decent bands like Megadeth, AC/DC, etc. really made me appreciate the skill that those 4 members of Metallica really had.

Then came the beggining of the end … 1991’s release of “The Black Album”. Up until that time there was really only 1 Metallica song I didn’t really like: “The Thing That Should Not Be” (mostly because it was entirely too repetitive). But with the release of “The Black Album” I had several songs to choose from. I really tried hard to like them all, but I just found some of them hokey or just stupid lyrically if not musically. There was still plenty to like, but it was about 50/50 with this new album. That is about my normal “likeability rating” for other albums, not Metallica. What were these guys thinking? And then I started hearing every preppy in high school and the neighboring college blaring the latetest Metallica songs out of their BMWs and it hit me: My band had sold out. This wasn’t a mistake by them, this was a shift to get them mainstream.

As heartbroken as I was, I was still willing to give them another chance. And did they know ever how to disappoint. Load came out in ‘96 and I have to say it was aptly named: it was a load, a load of $%&^!. Metallica reached new lows even in the cover art:

The cover of Load was created by Andres Serrano, and was called Blood and Semen III. Serrano pressed a mixture of his own semen and bovine blood between sheets of plexiglass. [source]

In aquiring XM-Satelite Radio service I decided to give Metallica another shot. Perhaps I had been too judgmental, perhaps I just didn’t get where the band was going at the time, perhaps I had needed 10 years to clear my head and give them another shot. Perhaps I was right the first time…

Metallica has decided to replicate all the things that were detrimental in the Black Album. There it seems that James Hetfield thought he was an honest to goodness singer instead of a heavy metal “singer”. His constant attempts to carry a melody are precisely why his vocals don’t work anymore. His bizarre lyrics haven’t improved since his “Of Wolf And Man” days where yelling “Shape Shift” as a chorus was apparently acceptable. Kirk Hammet still hides behind the Wah Pedal he found during the Black Album and he hasn’t let go of that security blanket. I can hear the bassist now, which is good, but despite Cliff Burton’s writing strengths Metallica never really had strong bass riffs in their music. Lars’ drumming might be the only thing left that is worth anything, but really, who wants to listen to a drummer when you have to put up with all of the other crap Metallica does in their songs?

XM, you can blame Metallica for not being able to snag just one more member. I just might have been willing to shell out the monthly cash if Metallica were still a real heavy metal band. As it is, I guess its back to the iPod for me after my trial subscription runs out.

Tags: Heavy Metal, Metallica, Music, XM Satellite Radio

28 Sep 08 I moved to a different web host

My many domain names had been hosted with HostMonster for almost two years. I had been pretty happy with their service and price, but a recent lack of up time caused me to look for a new web host. I quickly found BlueHost and signed up with them as their introductory price was hard to beat and their cPanel was exactly the same as HostMonster. Of course, after I bought the service and moved over some domains, I realized that BlueHost and HostMonster are one in the same. They are the exact same company based out of Orem, Utah.

Well, it serves me right I suppose. Switching hosting providers based on money and very little research. At least this year’s hosting will be 30% cheaper.

Tags: BlueHost, HostMonster, Web Host