2006 CD Exchange Mix: It's Very Catchy

Well it took me almost a week to put it all together but here is my liner-notes for my 2006 Mix CD compliation. Hope those who have it are enjoying it, be looking forward to your blog posts too ;).


Track #00
Penny Arcade - What are your kids doing?
This was the first time I listened to a PA podcast and about 5 minutes in I was laughing my butt off. This clip is Mike and Jerry dicussing PSP and its evils
Quote: “That Betty is out back @#$%ing a dog!”

Track #01
My Chemical Romance – Teenagers
From talking about kids to singing about fear of teenagers. The song speaks of the fear of the trenchcoat-clad columbine kid at its roots. Musically at its surface it has a deliberate punchy beat and it’s catchy as hell.
Quote: "But if you’re troubled and hurt What you got under your shirt Will make them pay for the things that they did"

Track #02
AFI - 37mm(Grindy's Devilish Remix)
This song is somewhere between Depeche Mode and Emo. Gone are the ass-kicking screaming punk AFI of old which is a shame. However, after the in-your-face track “Teenagers” the melodic softness of this track mellows the mix a bit. Look for the slightly altered outro that setups the next track perfectly.
Quote: "If you keep killing me,How can I keep absolving?Your sins into me,Begin the poisoning."

Track #03
Sage Francis - Sun vs. Moon
I stumbled upon this track while listening to Punk-o-rama 9. This is so not punk! It’s quite unique, a hardcore Rap/Rock hybrid with a fast & furious pace. If 37mm mellowed you out this track smacks you in the face and calls you a bitch. I think it might even say it’s the Juggernaut.
Quote: "I think he even did a headspin on a crossfader that sounded whack (but looked excellent.)"

Track #04
Madness - You Keep me Hanging on
So Sun VS Moon got ya hyped? Calm down! Somehow the transition worked despite the song being a little tacky. I love ska and Catch 22 led me to this group. Most of their songs outright sucked but this familiar ditty is catchy… if nothing else. Besides it’s all about the flow…
Quote: "Why don't you be a woman about, and set me free. 'Cause you don't care a thing about me, you're just using me."

Track #05
Streetlight Manifesto - Keasbey Nights
Ahhhh from the muted acoustic intro to the driving upstroked guitars this song makes me tickly. It’s ska to the core and it’s from the best album I heard all year. This is the money shot of the album and if you aren’t singing along after your second or third listen chances are I don’t care for you as a person.
Quote: "When they come for me I'll be sitting at my desk with a gun in my hand wearing a bullet-proof vest singing my-my-my how the time does fly when you know you're gonna die by the end of the night, I said 'Hey!'"

Track #06
Less Than Jake - Hopeless Case
This song is a pacing-drop from Streetlight Manifesto but still in the ska vein, this was from one of those CDs where choosing the best song was tough ‘cause they’re all great. There are lots of other great tracks but this one fit the best
Quote: "You, you don't see me that way. You hear the words that I say. You just tell me my heart is in the right place. It's the world that's confused. And it's never to late. To save a hopeless case"

Track #07
Brand New - Sic Transit Gloria Glory Fades
Say that three times fast. Weird name, great song. This was the single from Brand New’s 2005 album. I wanted to choose something other than this track but it’s vastly superior to anything else on the album. Awesome beat and some solid vocal harmonies. Definitely a treat for the ears
Quote: "He's holding back from telling herexactly what it really feels like.He is the lamb, she is the slaughter.She's moving way too fast and all he wanted was to hold her."

Track #08
Buckcherry - Broken Glass
Great album and way too many options. Crazy Bitch (as heard on Ross’ mix) was an amazing track, Sorry was soulful and sweet. Broken Glass is just motherf@#$%ing rawk! (Insert thrown up horns here.) In contrast to the super-happy pop/punk/ska this song is just old fashioned kick ass.
Quote: "Life's so fragile a revolution taking place Bullet shells and famine and stab wounds I wish I could do more than write you "

Track #09
Yellowcard - hollywood died
Ahhh a perennial favourite. I loves my Yellowcard, unfortunately the latest album wasn’t great as some older ones but there were lots of great tracks. This one was a little more lowkey than other tracks but after broken glass you need a cool down.
Quote: "Night life the high life she just wants a good lifeSo someone remembers her tooBut somewhere she heard there was some place to go when you die when you live like we do"

Track #10
All-American Rejects - Top of the World
This was another CD that made choosing one track very difficult. It didn’t have one Outstanding track like Keasbey Nights but it did have loads of very very good songs. This one was probably my favourite but the whole CD was very good. A nice segue into Fallout Boy and keeping a pretty steady pop/punk feel going.
Quote: "Don't be so greedy.A dollar's a penny to youWhen hearts are beating. Say what you want 'em to do"

Track #11
Fallout Boy – Xo
Dance Dance! Is overplayed and far from Fallout Boy’s best. “Under the Cork Tree” was a great album and was in my car’s CD Player for a long time. This track was my favourite and picks the tempo back up again towards a faster section of the mix.
Quote: "To the love, I left my conscience pressed Between the pages of the Bible in the drawer “What did it ever do for me” I say"

Track #12
Pulley – Bloodstains
…And in punk mode we stay! Pulley is probably one of the best punk bands you’ve never listened to. They’re not revolutionaries they just make great punk songs. Another great track from punk-o-rama 9
Quote: "You walk alone, outside, its only youWhen you wake up from the nightmares, its always youNow you find you're in a world and it's without youI can't believe I'd fight for you, for you"

Track #13
OK GO – Do what you want
Radio darlings OK GO actually bring a little Jolly Ol’ England to my predominantly domestic mix. Something about the way the Brits lay down a guitar rhythm is so different ya can’t help but love it. This track from their sophomore album is the catchiest and best.
Quote: "Me, I was raised amin the trickle down days I woke up numb in the haze and saw my future in a machine built for two but the light gave me some kind of fright, how did wrong get so right"

Track #14
Billy Talent - Worker Bees
I know as many people who loathe Billy Talent as those who like them, it’s a strange thing. Love or hate this is the best track from their second album (aptly name) II. Wait for the breakdown for the song to change pacing, it’s quite enjoyable without the Billy Talent repetition that seems to irk the haters.
Quote: "And we’ll march… along, with our blindfolds onAnd we’ll ride… the rails, with our pistols drawnCan the Lord… above, forgive what we’ve done?Can we fight to save our souls?"

Track #15
Relient K - life after death and taxes
Okay you had a pretty good romp there but cool it down a little if you get too excited you’ll never go to sleep child! Reliant K ended up on my PC late in ’06 and I knew I wanted it in the mix. Reliant K is a band best served slow and this track is a good indication of that.
Quote: "Never forgetthere's life after death and taxesForgiveness come and all of the rest is what passes awayDeath and decay can't touch us now"

Track #16
Matchbook Romance - Lovers & Liars
Back again. Matchbook Romance showed up on my first mixed CD and have popped up yet again. Actually I was happy to find them on Punkorama 9 (you should really pick that up, great stuff) with a bunch of other great tracks. A lot more of a Screamo/Punk track than most of my tracks. I really liked the way the song finished off with a really strong bass drum/snare combo which makes it a great connector to a ska track.
Quote: "And I bet you've got every word I said memorized in your head.And you'll use every one of them against me."

Track #17
Reel Big Fish - We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
I may not have saved “the best” for last but I certainly decided to kick your ass out the door instead of waving goodbye. Sweet sweet ska all up in your ear drums. There are so many solid tracks from “We’re not happy ‘til you’re not happy.” I was really torn between this and “One hit Wonderful.” The later is arguably better but some times you gotta take hit to keep with the flow. Download the whole album it’s all good.
Quote: "If we can destroy them you bet your life we'll destroy them and if we can hurt them well we may as well"

Track #18
NOFX - No Fun in Fundamentalism
Fun says it all! NOFX will never bring a tear to your eye but I’ll be damned if they can’t kick out an awesome punk track. Around since the dawn of time with fine-tuned punk honed to a razor’s edge NOFX always delivers, this one also comes with an extra dose of political incorrectness and controversy to boot.
Quote: "There's no fun in praying on a mat. There's no fun in wearing black clothes in the desert. Unless you're Goth and into that."

Track #19
Catch 22 - On the Black Sea
Aww it’s over! But one last thing before we go. My second favourite track in the mix and a great one to close on. Catch 22 spent nearly as much time on my car CD Player as Streetlight Manifesto, and it was another CD that was stuffed with great tracks. Really I could make one CD from these two and it would be a pretty solid Best of album. Grindy McTinerton’s CD Mix of 2006 is complete, look forward to next year’s entries and my impressions of the other mixes.
Quote: "Staring at the pieces of my dim reflection as I look into this Black Sea of atrophyI just got the message of your passing from the man who digs our-They are digging graves for all our dreams and it seems that they are digging by the clockI can feel the old corruption peering from the crack, and I don't know if we can fight it back again."

Wii are kicking ass

Well it's no surprise if you've tried to go to a store and buy a Wii lately that Nintendo is doing quite well with the underdog gaming console. Actually I personally like the quote, "Today, Nintendo release its Q3 earnings report, and as expected, the company is kicking major amounts of ass." (IGN,2007)

All the same it's not all sunshine and roses as yet another article on IGN stated that, "Based on its extensive analysis of the current growth trends in the industry, Research and Markets expects Sony's PlayStation 3 to come out on top in the next-generation console war. " (IGN, 2007) All the same I still think this initial success will definitely drive good things with the Wii. Whereas the Gamecube was an overall commercial flop, the Wii seems to have a lot of support developing for it. I think pretty soon bigger companies will see the err of their ways and jump on the Wii bandwagon. Still I'm taking the stance of cautiously optimistic at the moment and taking a "wait and see" approach overall.

Psst, If you put a lightsaber in my control with a wii-mote I'll sell out like Mark McGrath

Bravo Bravia

Well it took approximately half of forever but we FINALLY got our 40" Sony LCD this weekend. On top of all the other stuff I had going on this weekend I didn't get to spend too much time with it but my initial impressions are definitely positive.

I went from out of the box to watching TV in less than 5 minutes. Similarly getting my laptop on the big screen took approximately 32 seconds. The only true “High Definition” source I had was my laptop, and the only HD media I had was Call of Duty. My laptop is kind of balls anyway when it comes to performance but even with the lackluster 1024X768 resolution centered on the screen Call of Duty looked amazing! The dark places in the game got a little too shady but a quick bump up of the gamma slider in-game got everything right as rain.

We also threw on some Movies and TV Shows we had saved on our computers and they look fantastic. Once again the darkest parts of the movies seem a little too dark but it can be adjusted easily enough. Then the last test was actually watching normal analog cable on the TV. This is one I’ve heard horror stories about. Fortunately the Bravia shined here. At first the image looked way too blurry and stretched, but a quick jaunt through the display settings, to adjust the signal noise, aspect ratio and color temperature and everything was looking pretty darn good. Granted it’s not the sexiness of a 16:9 HDTV signal, but heck it’s free :p

Alls I can say is I’m looking forward to next Tuesday when I’ll be able to download the latest episodes of Prison Break and Heroes and watch them in all their glory ;)

My kingdom for a gaming PC

Weekend of Conquest... more or less

Well from Thursday of last week to Sunday of this week I was having myself a complete guygasm of activity. Thursday night was hockey. And Thursday night's hockey game usually goes poorly for me. I'm generally outskilled by most people on the ice and spend most of my time trying not to fall down. However on a break out of my team's end the left-winger launched a pass to meet me right before the blue line (to avoid the ol' 2 line pass) and send me on a break-away. A last minute deke to my backhand and a quick flip I shoveled one into the top of the net for my first goal in about 7 games.

Friday night saw me at the local paintball field on cheapie night. First time using the Wrath since I've had it tech'ed by NPS I was excited to see what she was capable of. I was not disappointed. Game 1 of 7 vs 7 speedball I took out two players before getting taken out at the mid field. Game 2 I took out the sole defender on the right side of the field and went on to complete my first run through to take out 6 other players. That's the entire team for those keeping track. The highlight of the night saw me sprinting across the field to dive over the snake and take out an enemy player while in midair. I'm a hotdog what can I say.

Saturday night was poker night in suburbia and in a tournament of 20-some people I roughed up the competition on the final table to pull in a large stack of chips then with a lot of tight-aggressive play I managed to make it all the way to the second place finish and $110 bucks in my pocket.

Sunday was my late night hockey game and my legs were still aching from Friday night's paintball acrobatics. Once I got on the ice I ended up getting switched from the light team (definitely the better group) to the slightly undergunned dark team. Surprisingly enough I held my own, picking off a pass from a coworker to turn the goalie inside-out on a break-away, slamming home a juicy rebound from the opposition's goalie and finally one-timing a perfect pass from the back of the net to log my first hat-trick. All in all it was a very successful couple of days. Although I'm looking forward to getting reaquainted with my wife who I've abandoned for the past 4 nights (bad husband!)

People who say that 2nd place is the first loser are probably the same people that get 5th place

Flipping Markers

A while back I tried to build what would be known as a "Spyder VES." It basically incorporated parts from different paintball guns I picked up at the forums on PBReview.com. There was a TES Gripframe for $20 bucks, a Spyder Victor body for $20 bucks a black drop forward for $7, an On/Off ASA for $10.

I also added some premium parts that would later end up on my wrath like a Custom Products Regulator (which I will keep forever) and a Shocktech Drop Forward (Ditto.) Anyway when I first built this beast it tore asses like no tomorrow. However the first game I attempted to play with it, it stopped working :-/

What a pisser! So I figured I'd pissed away my money on a useless paperweight. The funny thing is it turned out to be a solid investment. I turned around and took the parts and put them on EBay. Much to my (pleasant) surprise the TES Frame sold for $45 and the Spyder body sold for over $30. Not to mention the typical EBay overcharge on shipping. When it was all said and done I actually made $35 bucks on my failed marker attempt.

So I'm taking that one step further now, I recently purchased a Piranha EForce GTI on PBReview and I'm going to clean it up, lube it, take a couple of videos of it running in tip-top shape and and put it up on EBay. I'm hoping to get around $100 bucks for it at a minimum (based on some research around similar markers.) If this prooves successful, I might have found a great way to fund my paintballing :)

I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

2006 in review

Favourite Album: Well I listened to a lot of new music this past year but most of it was “More of the same.” A lot of poppy punk stuff. Fall Out Boy – Under the Cork Tree and AFI – December Underground were both solid commercial albums for sure. Billy Talent II and BuckCherry’s 15 were also both enjoyable. But by far the hands down kick-butt album of the year was Streetlight Manifesto – Keasbey Nights. While Reel Big Fish had a great ska album this year, Streetlight Manifesto had the purest ska I’ve heard in a long time. Fast, catchy and highly replayable.

Favourite Movie: Saw Lots of movies this year but not nearly as much as usual. With the advent of the wedding summer blockbusters were backburned in favour of making family happy and picking out invites. But the wife and I pretty much just stuck to horror movies whenever possible anyway. Silent Hill was pretty cool, and terrified the crap out of the wife, but I’d say my hands-down favourite movie this year (that you’ve probably never heard of) was The Descent. There’s a B-movie out there with the same name, ignore that. The Descent is a movie about a bunch of female thrill-seekers exploring an underground cave system. Of course things go horribly awry and the women end up in an unexplored sub-passage of the cave system and of course there’s something horrible down there. This movie had action, great cinematography, characters you actually cared about and a pretty solid underlying story. Plus I think just below the surface there was a little bit of Lord of the Flies beneath the whole slick paintjob. Also from a purely horror fan-boy prospective the movie was gruesome and pulled no punches at all. It was bloody and graphic. Definitely a must-see for horror fans or adventure fans with strong stomachs.

Favourite TV Series: What an awesome year for TV! Just when in the early 2000s I thought TV was doomed with the onslaught of Reality TV there’s finally a few rays breaking through the cloudy skies. The superhero action drama Heroes fills a great void in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi category. Prison Break, while not as good as the first season was still enjoyable this year. Last winter’s 24 was pulse pounding as always, but the show that really had me glued to my Computer monitor was Dexter. I devoted an entire blog post to this show so I won’t regurgitate it back to you. It’s awesome, you should definitely watch it, but it's only available on showtime.

Favourite Moment: Really anything I say at this point would be completely be overshadowed by THE big event. On October 7th of 2006 I married my girlfriend of 4 years, ‘twas a simple ceremony at a Catholic Church. Followed by a 12 course Chinese meal and a room full of incredibly drunk Newfoundlanders. It was a unique blend of East Coast Canadian and Far East Chinese, but all in all it went smoothly and I couldn’t have been happier. The first few months have proved to be blissfully happy as the only thing better than getting married to the one you love is not having to worry about planning a freakin’ wedding :p

Favourite Moment in Rollerblading: After almost 2 years of being unable to do 540s I’ve learned how to do them again, and can pretty much do them on demand now

Worse Moment in Rollerblading: After an almost 2 years of practice I still cannot do more than 2 or 3 grinds well.

Favourite Moment in Paintball: Getting a “Broken” Diablo Wrath for $100 bucks Canadian, replacing a $3 dollar hose and have it work flawlessly.

Worse Moment in Paintball: Every time I put my air tank on my 1 year old piranha and hearing it leak like sieve.

Favourite Moment in Poker: Making it to 7th place in a tournament of ~60 people on my first appearance at the tournament

Worse Moment in Poker: Losing $100 in one hand in Vegas when my pocket 9s were busted by pocket 6s on the turn.

Favourite Moment in Hockey: Scoring 2 goals and 2 assists in one game, including some super fancy behind-the-back passes

Worse Moment in Hockey: Watching the Ottawa Senators completely fall apart in the playoffs…. Again.

Here's hoping this year is event better!

Big Screen Big Wait

The Wife and I don’t watch a lot of TV, but we’re on the computer all the time. By all the time I pretty much mean it. We both work in a computer-centric business all day and then come home and jump on our computers. Some might call this “a horrible waste of time” but some can also eat shit. It’s not that we don’t do other things with our time but where others sit and watch “the tube” we surf the web, play video games, shop, watch TV and Movies, etc… So when it came time to replace our 27” Walmart-Special TV in our living room my first thought was a “Media Center.”

For those “tech savvy” I guess you would refer to it as a HTPC or “Home Theater Personal Computer.” So we needed a screen that can support a computer resolution. At 400 X 200 pixels your standard TV doesn’t really make the grade. So once the boxing day sales came along we saw an opportunity to get a good deal on a LCD HDTV.

First I was looking at the Sharp Aquos 32” as an option. I did oodles of research and everything seemed to be looking great. The reviews on the web were favourable at best. Too bad reviews are absolute useless bullshit. 2 hours before the boxing day sale began I stumbled across AVSForum and a conversation thread about the Sharp Aquos 40U series. Not only did I find out that there are “Red Push” issues with the 26 & 32 inch Sharps, I also found out that they’re not even made with parts from Sharp Japan. In light of this disturbing information I decided to go to with a Toshiba 32”.

So that was fine and dandy, we managed to get our order in on December 24th, and were thinking "Big screen by New Years Eve!" Excellent. My brother in law has an XBox 360 which would've been perfect to try'er out. That was until my wife and I actually saw how big a 32" LCD TV is while boxing-day shopping. It ain't big.

So back to the research board and I finally decided on the Sharp Aquos 37", Japanese made and critically acclaimed. Perfect, then the Wife in a move that would make most guys giggle with glee said, "Screw it lets get a 40!" Not only did we opt for the big screen we also went for the big-boys of home entertainment. A 40" Sony Bravia LCD. Ordered on December 26th for sweet sweet high def goodness. Well, that was the plan anyway.

January fucking 10th! *sigh* So much for our Big Screen New Years. Oh well I guess I'll give you the update next week, 'til then I'll keep day dreaming :(