In which I write too far much about an inane thing

I get the feeling that Twitter is robbing me of blog topics. I'm also getting annoyed with Twitter's 140-character limit. Solution: long tweets come here!

Hopefully this'll help me dust the cobwebs off this place. Not to mention that I'm not going to have time to write out and proofread those page-long blaggings in the next few months. Stupid matriculation exams. In any case, the eventual plan is to mix these shorter posts (imaginatively tagged "tweet"s) with the longer essay-like posts I've written previously.

All the better to bore the pants off you people! (Should get around to writing an Ode to the Imaginary Reader some time.) In any case, onward there be random musings.

I just realised the extent to which Epica's " Another me "in lack'ech" " bores me. (Heck, I had to check the spelling. And I can spell songs like Nightwish's "Kuolema tekee taiteilijan" off by heart. Yay for Application Of German Phoenetics In Inappropriate Situations^®. Also yay for application of "correct" citations. Never going to be able to banish "short work, quotation marks; long work, italicise or underline" from my mind. The contents of these parentheses have spiralled completely out of control, therefore I am ending them now.)

...Where was I? Oh yeah. The song popped up on my main shuffled playlist a few minutes ago, and I was jarred when I heard a verse (bridge? Y'never know, with Epica) that I had absolutely no memory of hearing before. (It's near the end of the song and begins 'all that you've taken from others'. Incidentally, boring song, but the album it's from, Consign to oblivion, is pretty awesome. ...wait. I REFUSE TO LET THESE PARENTHETICAL CONTENTS MUTATE LIKE THE PREVIOUS ONE DID) It might seem like no big deal, but I memorise songs' melodies pretty easily, so it came as quite a surprise to me.

Anyway, this post brought to you by Boring Insights Into Barnabas' Life^®.

Gratuitous end-of-post linkage:

 Gunnerkrigg Court. Pretty awesome webcomic which I am failing to concoct a description for. It's plot-based, so you'll want to start from the beginning.

 Dr McNinja. Superhero-spoof sorta comic that features a doctor, who is also a ninja. Woo!

(Eh. What I was going to confine to a 140-character tweet has mutated into a 212-word, 1 229-character couple of paragraphs. In a 397-word, 1 968-character blag post. Hooray!)

Addendum: And not twenty minutes after I publish this (hey, that verb makes this sound like something worth reading!), I find a similar segment in another song. One that I like, no less. Eh. In any case, I'd never taken note of the first bit of Leaves' Eyes' "Leaves whisper" before. And I thought I couldn't pay more attention to music. Another whole level of fanaticism opens to me!

Never gonna live this down...

(Sung to the tune of a certain Rick Astley song, of course.)

I've been in a bit of a nostalgic mood this week, music-wise. As the title says, I'm never living this down, but I used to be a big fan of J-pop, the artist YUI in particular. I downloaded her new album a few weeks ago on a whim, and after a few listens, her stuff has made it back onto my iPod. Linkage ahead. (Crappy videos, though; don't bother watching.)
 Laugh away
 Goodbye days

An artist I watch on deviantART designed the cover of an artist called General Fuzz's latest album. I was curious, so I had a listen at his site, and found his music pretty nice. Soothing instrumental background music-type stuff. It's all free for download, too.

Now, to balance that dose of happiness, Epica's collaboration with Roy Khan, Trois Vierges , had me take a look into the band he's in, Kamelot. Conclusion: WOW. Their music has made for productive piano reduction-ing, too. More linkage:
 Ghost opera
   Ghost opera
   Love you to death
 The black halo ( I want to link this entire album. Seriously. But then no-one'd bother clicking, so it pains me to choose the best of the best:)
   When the lights are down
   Abandoned
   Moonlight

The school Sinfonietta and Big Band went on tour in Canberra and Wagga Wagga a few weeks ago. I'd been meaning to write about it in detail, but never felt like I had enough time... so here is a condensed recount!
 The bus trips were long and full of bad movies.
 Canberra is COLD.
 Cello playing is difficult with frozen fingers.
 Questacon! We got teachers on the freefall and in the guillotine!
 Wagga is not so cold, and we got GREAT accomodation. 2 people to 3-man rooms (I don't know how the music department pulled that off), getting to eat in the hotel restaurant (which can actually cook food, unlike most camp places. Pork with non-soggy skin! Apple crumble that's actually tasty!)
 I am so sick of the pieces we played now.
 Go-kart racing! My tendency to ride the brake from driving regular cars landed me in a bit of trouble. And meant that I was beaten by every single staff member who raced. (Go Miss W! Go Ms C!) Heh.
 Hanging out with Jordan, Darren, Jono and Oswyn was great fun. Also, hanging out with our awesome music staff (Respecting their privacy will make the next line or so a bit odd, but hey: Mr A, Ms C, Mr H, Mrs K, Mr P, Mr T and Ms W are some of the coolest teachers in the school.)

Finally, a few randomations.
 I think I'm going to take a character I made for a text RP about a year ago, take him out of that RP's world, and write prose (or ideally, and wishfully, draw comics) for his story. After my matriculation exams, anyway. I'd say "stay tuned", but that means you'd expect results soonish. (2013! 2013!)
  via via . I love Twitter.
 BRAWL! Meta Knight is awesome fun to play. Just in case I have a reader not called Pris who has the game and internet, my friend code is 1547-6796-0737.
 My brother is AWESOME, in spite of the fact that I don't treat him very well. Trying to fix that. The other day, he came home and gave me a pair of Mario shrooms. If I had a say in what's hung in the car, they'd be hanging off the rear-view mirror.