The Adventures of Val in One-derland, Wonderland, Portland... and other lands

So I've been ketoing for a few months now... for some reason I hit a plateau at 180. I would simply not go down for weeks. I was still in keto, had not changed anything. At any rate, my friend Trevor was in town for the week last week, and so I decided to cheat for a little bit. I weighed myself after the week-long-carbarathon, and had only put on 2 lbs. I was pretty amazed 1 week cheating, gained only 2 lbs. Now, though, 4 days later... I finally broke 179! Nothing like carbarathons to break plateaus.

In other news, my hair color has changed yet again. The turquoise was fading out, and so I covered it with hot pink. Result: violet! I'm pretty stoked about it. I do need a haircut though; I'm just trying to hold off a little. I'm trying to grow it out and right now it is on that weird spot where it's not short or long, and just looks ugly.

Abrupt change of topic: I'm thinking of moving! I kind of want a nicer place. I want something with a washer and dryer. I am so tired of people messing with my laundry in my building. Not to mention, my landlord is not the friendliest of people. Twice now, the post office has delivered my check a day or two late (even though it is properly date-stamped) and my landlord has been impatient and sent me a late-rent notice. Only to take it back later because, derp, turns out I paid rent on time, derp derp. Really, when the post-office puts a date stamp on it, you're golden. It just annoys me so much that he doesn't even wait for 2 days before sending the notice. Then there's the stupid group of friends, who decided they should ALL live in my apartment building, and they should just yell at each other from the windows instead of using a phone like all the normal people. I am so sick of this place. I have my eye on an apartment downtown, in a little more interesting neighborhood, so here's to hoping! I have an appointment to go see it this coming Friday. Hopefully it pans out.

That reminds me, I am seriously considering getting a dog in the not-so-far-away future. Specially if I move into a building that allows pets. Of course it would have to wait until after I've moved and recovered from the move... moving is so expensive man. At any rate, yeah! I want a small dog, and I'll actually try to get an older dog instead of a puppy. The reason being, that older dogs are mellower, and I'm a pretty chill person. I don't think I have enough energy for a puppy, but could definitely get a 7 or 8 year-old dog and we could be chill together. *nods*

In other unrelated news... my birthday is coming up! I'm a quarter of a century old! When I turned 23 I said "and here at 23 it's the same old me" and now I could say "and here at 25 it's the same old me" but it doesn't quite have the same ring to it. I did get myself a nexus 4 for my quarter-century-birthday, as a present to myself, but Google is pissing me off. I ordered the thing on May 31st, and it still hasn't been delivered, or even shipped! When I ask about it all they say is "We're looking into it" I swear, that if they don't give me a proper update (unprompted) by Friday, I will be cancelling the order. This shit is unacceptable; Google is good at many things, but shipping and handling is not one of them. They should really take a look at how Zappos and Amazon do things.

I  have also been toying with the idea of buying myself a new classic guitar, but I don't quite have the money for that yet, specially because I want other things like moving, and a dog, and wine, and cell phones, and stuff... I'm also due for a computer upgrade, but Alice here is still going strong, so I haven't really felt the need. I'll probably replace her at the end of the year or something like that.

Lastly... I'm going to talk a bit about work and just how much it sucks to be phone anxious. I really have mini panic attacks when I have to get on the phone with a customer. I've been trying to pick-up my personal phone more often just so I can start dealing with it better, but I actually think I might need some professional help on that note. I really want to understand where this phobia is coming from. Phone calls are part of my job, and I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon; I have to be able to deal. The phone calls are specially bad when they're already kind of pissed off at me or the company, for related or unrelated reasons. Sometimes they're pissed off at a different support engineer and I just get the heat from it because I happen to be on the phone. I don't know what is it about the phone, that makes me understand people less. Something about not seeing how their lips move or something, I don't know. It's just really hindering me at work, I find myself going out of my way to avoid phone calls, and that is pretty freaking unacceptable. People with accents terrify me. I feel so awkward going through all possible permutations of "come again?" in less than 10 minutes. It really sucks, and I know it's not their fault, I just need to figure out how to deal with this better. My anxiety about phone calls feels a lot like the anxiety I used to get for midterms I didn't study for, in college. It's just not very fun. Usually after I've been on the phone for some 10-15 minutes, I can figure out how the other party speaks, but it takes so much concentration on my part. Most of my co-workers can work on other stuff while they're on the phone with a customer, without even thinking about it. They're just talking to someone, and troubleshooting something else on the side. The envy, I haz its.

Anyway, I just thought I'd write an adventure blog, because I haven't done one of these in a while. I guess it's the way I convince myself that I actually tell people what's going on in my life. Except I just sort of yell it to the vacuum of the internet.

So yeah... I tend to end my blogs with something like /rant or /lulz or /noms or something that could very well be a tag in twitter, but today I just don't have anything. So I'll go with the more traditional: and now, I go!

Keto Peanut Butter Pudding!

It seems like my blog gets the most traffic from the keto recipes, so I'll try to add some more as time passes. Even if it is stuff I don't come up with myself.

I recently tried this peanut butter pudding I found on reddit. So I decided to post it here for posterity:

2 tablespoons of peanut butter
4 tablespoons of heavy cream
4 drops of liquid sucralose (ezsweetz or the equivalent of 2 packets of splenda)

Mix together really well, even though at first it appears they won't mix. Each batch of this size has about 7g carbs, and about 38g of fat. Enjoy!

This honestly tasted way better than I was expecting. I'm pretty sure it is going to quickly become my go-to dessert.

All credit to this website

/noms

ZOMG HAIR!

So I suppose this is going to be one of my girliest blogpsots.

One of my co-workers asked me yesterday "When are you going to dye your hair again? I'm waiting for it to change!" and sadly, the answer is... not for a while. Le sad face. I'll probably re-apply the turquoise this weekend though. If I can be bothered, I might bleach out part of the black section of my hair and add some pink to the mix. I'm not sure yet. Here's what it looks like right now, so you have an idea.

Except that the turquoise is much duller at this point. Since it goes away a little bit with every wash. Also, I maintain that I was Ramona-esque about my hair before Ramona was cool! mind you, I've been doing this to my hair before I knew about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. 

There is a reason behind not wanting to bleach again though. If it was up to me, I'd probably change it every other week like a maniac. Bleach takes its toll on your hair, even when you care for it properly. It has just started to recover from last bleaching, and so I want to get it to a healthier point before I bleach again and cut.

So, this entry is mostly for people who just don't know how to do this properly. What you do in preparation, what you do after, how you care for it, what to do when everything goes disastrously wrong, etc, etc, etc.

I've been putting chemicals on my head since I was 12, and I'm going on 25 now. I'd say that is a fair bit of experience. I am however, going to add the gigantic disclaimer here: I am in no way shape or form a hair stylist or have gone to beauty school. I went to actual school >______> where I learned how to program and  do something useful aside from playing with hair. I play with my hair for fun. /snarky Val is snarky.

First things first

If you want to have funky colors, you're going to have to bleach your hair unless you're one of those mighty naturally blonde people. There's no way around it. So you've decided what color you want to apply and all that jazz. Let's talk about prepping your hair for bleach:

• Don't wash your hair for a while, the longer the better. I know it's greasy and gross. It's good for it. I usually wait anywhere from 2 to 4 days to bleach.
• If the grease is uncomfortable, put your hair up in a bun or ponytail and pin your bangs back.
• Coconut oil. Yes, you're going to make your hair more oily. The day you're going to bleach, soak your hair in coconut oil, and let it sit for an hour or two. Do not rinse it or wash it.
• Also, make sure you test the bleach; do the famous strand test if you've never bleached your hair before, mostly to see how your skin reacts to bleach.
• If you have dyed hair, of any color, bleaching will be harder. Even if the color is almost the same as your natural hair color. Think of it this way... hair dye is like the condensation outside of your soda can, where the soda can represents a single hair (hey, it's not a perfect analogy >_>)
• Lastly, bleach is no joke. Seriously, don't just wing it. Do your homework. You can really hurt yourself. Chemical burns are the worst. I burned my scalp with bleach once; it wasn't fun.

Using bleach correctly

Firstly, there's two types of bleach: cream and powder. I've never used cream bleach, so I can't talk much about it. Secondly, bleach on its own doesn't do anything, you need to add developer to it (cream or powder alike.) It doesn't need to be a precise measurement of powder-to-developer. You want it to wind up puffy, kind of like pudding. So just mix the two until you get that type of consistency. If the bleach is too dry when it goes on your hair, it will damage it without doing jackshit. So make sure you get a creamy consistency (not liquid though.)

There is a lot of debate as to whether you should use 20 vs. 30 vs. 40 developer with your bleach. They all have their uses really. It depends on whether or not you know what you're doing.  So let's break them down a little:

• 20 vol is the lightest of them all, it is the one that causes the least harm on your hair, but also... doesn't work so well. On virgin hair, 20 vol is generally enough, unless you have super black hair naturally.
• 30 vol is what most people use I believe. 30 vol acts much quicker than 20 vol, so it's generally good to know how you're going to apply it to your hair before you even mix it. (i.e. part your hair etc, etc)
• 40 vol is super strong. I do not recommend 40 vol to anyone, but usually, when you know what you're doing it can be used successfully. The trick is... you have to be really quick about applying the bleach. You cannot leave it longer than 20 minutes... and I'd say that's already pushing it. I'm serious, your hair will start coming off in chunks. Most people take more than 20 mins just applying it. Therefore, it is hard to get an even lift with 40 vol unless you really know what's up. 
• Some people have all 3 vols, and just mix them up in various ratios to get what they need. I've personally never done that, but I can see how it would work.

Now for one of the most important things about bleaching your hair. NEVER apply it directly to your scalp. Make sure to leave about 1/4 of an inch between the bleach and your scalp. Also, apply to the ends first. The heat from your head causes bleach to react quicker, so it's best to start with the parts of it that cooler. Makes sense, yeah? 

The coconut oil will protect your hair, while providing it with nutrients that the bleach strips while it works, but the results will be the same color-wise. Seriously, use the coconut oil, your hair will thank you for it.

If you have your hair dyed, you might need to bleach twice or thrice. Don't do it in the same day. Allow your hair some time to recover! Going to white-blond takes a lot of patience. Having a trusty hat or beanie will come in handy.

If things go badly... here's some things to keep an eye on:

• If your scalp starts burning, rinse out immediately.
• If you burn yourself badly with the bleach, and I mean badly go to an emergency room!
• If your hair starts breaking off when you rinse it or it is very, very dry, there's a whole lot of things you can try to make it recover. I'll talk about that in a bit. Don't panic! 

Going for white hair vs. blonde vs. punk-ass colors

There is no mysterious white dye. To go to white you have to fry the cookies out of your hair. You have to bleach it all the way until your hair color is similar to the color of a peeled-banana. Really soft yellow. Even lighter than this color:

The stage my hair is on that picture is normally perfect for funky colors like purple, turquoise, pink, blue, etc, etc.

If you want white hair, you'll have to tone your hair. For that you buy toner shampoo/conditioner, it is super purple. Don't be scared of it, all it does is contrast the brassy tones of the yellow. Remember your color wheel: purple <-> yellow are opposites, and so, you wind up with white hair. It is possible to tone with lavander dye or blue dye, by adding very little amounts of the dye to A LOT of conditioner. Depending on how much you tone your hair it'll go from natural-ish-looking-blonde to white (or someone in between) experiment!

Taking care of it

Well, by the time you're finished with your hair, it hates you and wants to file for divorce. You have to treat your hair very delicately at this stage. Treat it like a very delicate hand-woven silk. When you brush/comb it, do it carefully. Do not use hair dryers, curling irons or straighteners, at least not at first. Let it dry at its own pace, so that it can suck up the moisture off the water. You should try to trim the ends of your hair at this point if possible. That way the most damaged bits won't be taking the nutrients from the rest of your hair.

If you have fried the cookies out of your hair, and you're afraid it is too damaged, here are some things to try:

• Mayo. Yes, I'm serious. Coat your hair in mayo, no matter how disgusting it sounds. Mayo has lots of oils that help your hair recover as well as eggs, which are also notoriously good for your hair.
• Coconut oil. Coat your hair in coconut oil and let it sit for a while. If you're not doing anything that requires you to go out, feel free to leave it on all day. The longer the merrier. I usually put a little bit of coconut oil on my hair right out off the shower too, while my hair is still damp. It makes it look like it's not dead.
• Don't wash it! Let the natural oils from your scalp heal your hair. Not to mention, if you have something like pink, red or turquoise... the colors will last longer. Wash it every other day if you must, try for some 3 days.
• Investigate some dry shampoo if you don't want to show up at work with super gross hair. I like Suave, it smells really nice.
• Use protein and moisture treatments and deep condition your hair. 
• For shampoo and conditioner I like the Bed Head - Dumb Blonde set. They're really good about not being harsh on your hair and also have nutrients that help bleached hair recover. I absolutely recommend them. Either way make sure you use shampoo for color-treated hair! If you can find something specific to bleach, better. Do not use dandruff shampoo or cheap everyday shampoo. Those are far too aggressive for the state your hair is at right now.

And I think that's it. Feel free to ask me any questions about this if you need to. Better to ask than to make mistakes when it comes to bleach. 

Oh pro-tip... use vaseline or chapstick around your forehead and near your ears when applying dye. That will keep the dye from staining your skin.

I hope this helps some poor soul with their dye and hair-care routine; and with that, I go!

That is actually not ironic at all...

So I've been listening to Anneke Van Giersbergen's album "Pure Air" lately. It's basically a compilation of covers (I think.) She has a really interesting voice and that album is fantastic. I am particularly fond of "Valley of the Queens" as that appears to be my current favorite song. Along the same lines as "Hijo de la Luna", which still ranks up there. Her version is very mellow and simple. Pure awesome.

Among other songs in the album we have a cover of "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette. While that is an acceptable song, generally catchy and stuff... man, Alanis simply never bothered to look up the word "ironic" in the dictionary... it's actually, well, ironic.

"It's a black fly in your Chardonnay" that's just bad luck honey, no irony there.

"A death row pardon two minutes too late" that is pretty ironic, okay. I'll grant.

"It's like rain on your wedding day" that is not even bad luck, that's just... the weather. If you live in Portland, Oregon, I'd say it's even likely that it will rain in your wedding day. So no, Alanis, not ironic.

"It's the good advice that you just didn't take" that's so... not ironic, in any way. I'd say that's more in tune with stupidity than irony.

"A traffic jam when you're already late" I'd say that's just a normal day of the average worker, no irony there whatsoever.

And I could probably dissect the entire song, but lol, I think I've made my point. It's just so amusing to me, that a song called "Ironic" has next to nothing to do with irony. I doubt very much that Alanis was trying to be meta-ironic with this song, but ended up that way in the end.

/lulz

The Unpopular Opinion for Today: On Being Fat

Telling fat people that it is okay to be fat needs to stop. I am technically obese. I don't love my curves, nor will I listen to anyone tell me to love my curves. It is my body, it is up to me to decide what I love and don't love about it. I am not unhappy with the way my body currently looks like, but I'm not happy either. It's sort of there doing its thing, having next to 0 impact on my daily life. You know why that is? Because I don't give a shit about what people think of my looks. I wouldn't color my hair whatever color suits me fancy that week if I did.

I understand that people that tell fat girls to "love their curves" are mostly trying to raise the self-esteem of overweight girls who are constantly being told by society that they are lesser human beings for being fat. I have done all sorts of reflections on the matter, particularly because I used to be so thin before, and then so fat. I've experienced first-hand how people treat fat people differently from thin people. I get it. I too think it is wrong for society to treat people in this way mostly because of how they look like. "But their health!" it's not of your goddamn business. It is their health, not yours. You deal with your own shit, let the fat people deal with theirs. You don't get to point fingers at them. However, that mass-judgement is not battled by telling people to embrace being fat. Don't tell people to "love their curves." If they love their curves, good for them. It is still none of your goddamn business, even if you're fat yourself.

You never hear people say "love your bones!" to anorexics, do you?

Think about that for a bit. What makes you think you know what that fat person is going through? Just like you have no sweet clue what that anorexic might be going through. Yes, being anorexic is definitely not healthy, no one is going to argue with me on that point. So no one encourages it. Sitting on your bum while eating your feelings isn't healthy either. So why do people feel it is okay to say "love your curves"?

If you are going to turn around and say "but I exercise and don't lose weight" or "but I diet and I don't lose weight" then I'd venture a guess that you're going about it all wrong. Visit a nutritionist, or study a diet until you're a fucking master at it. If you were eating right, not even exercising, just eating right, you'd be somewhere along the lines of where I am. Losing weight slowly, but surely until you felt right. Don't tell me your metabolism this, diabetes that, I get it. Losing weight is hard, who said it would be easy? It is really easy to be fat, and to be told to "love your curves!" is only making you feel like it is okay to be that fat. It's none of my business what you do with your body, but loving your curves is not going to make any of your health issues go away. No matter how many plus-size advocates tell you that you're fine just the way you are. But again, it is up to you, not me. I don't get to judge you or call you names because you're overweight.

You don't need to be a collection of bones either. Neither extreme is good. Get to a place that makes you happy. It really is not that hard if you're determined. What I'm saying is: Love your-fucking-self. That includes your body, whatever shape or color it might be, and that also means that you treat it right. Sitting around eating pizza every other day is most definitely not "treating it right." If you had been eating your protein and veggies, then you wouldn't really be that fat, unless you have some very serious hormonal imbalance of some kind. That's not something the average person is concerned about, so don't use it as an excuse.

We need to stop emphasizing how we treat people based off looks, and emphasize that how our own bodies look like and feel like is up to us individually. No one should tell me that I should feel okay being fat, because the magazines claim the contrary. It is more harmful than anything. Teach people the importance of eating what is healthy and good for their bodies. That includes the obese and the anorexics by the way, in case you missed my point.

A huge pet peeve of mine is when someone who is just, some 15 lbs overweight, barely noticeable, mentions that s/he wants to lose some weight and the immediate reaction is "You look fine!" It is not about their fucking looks, and even if it is, it is not up to you to decide. You don't get to tell that person to be fine with the extra 15 lbs, it is not your place!

/rant

Vocalists of Symphonic Metal

Symphonic metal is something I think about often, and I know not a whole lot of the people I know care about it. So really, my blog gets a lot of those ramblings as a result. I want to add a small disclaimer that I'll be rambling about female vocalists, as I actually don't listen too much symphonic metal that is male-fronted. Not sure why, I feel like something is missing when the lead voice is masculine. Well, Kamelot is the exception to that, but so far the only exception. I find that other metal genres are better when I want to listen to a masculine voice.

I want to talk about 5 bands in particular, or rather... vocalists that have been in one way or another involved with these bands. I mostly want to discuss how a vocalist can make or break a band, and where some of these bands miss-stepped and what the result of that was.

Xandria

I love this band, it is fantastic. For a while I thought they were actually superior to Nightwish, a band that I have held on the #1 place ever since I started listening to Symphonic Metal. That's not true though, Xandria isn't better than Nightwish, that feeling went away as soon as the honey moon period was over. Neverworld's End is a fantastic album, and all my impressions of the band came from it in particular, and it is definitely better than Dark Passion Play. Without question. DPP was such a hiccup for Nightwish... 

Anyway, after I had listened to Neverworld's End long enough, I decided to look for other Xandria albums. That's when I found they had gone from Lisa Middelhauve to Manuella Kraller as lead singer. I gave them a fair shot anyway, but the magic was not present. This is the best example of how the change of vocalist made the band. Lisa has a wonderful voice as well, but it lacks the potency symphonic metal singers need for that powerful sound the genre has and commands. You can't be overshadowed by the orchestra, and I felt that was happening a lot in the earlier Xandria albums. 

Manuella came in, pretty much, as a second incarnation of Tarja. Their voices, vocal ranges, and style are so similar, it was a little bit shocking on the first listen. Now I can tell them apart quite easily, but that's mostly because I've heard them both enough to notice the discrepancies. At any rate, Manuella is great (I'm pretty sure she used to be part of Haggard as well, which is really one of the best symphonic metal collectives out there) and I really hope Xandria keeps on going in this direction. 

Within Tempation

This band saddens me a little bit, the direction they're taking starting with their last album, and seems to continue to today. It suffers from the we-want-to-be-mainstream syndrome. I mean there's nothing wrong with that, I'd say that's why Dark Passion Play put Nightwish on the map as well. It just saddens me as a connoisseur of the genre. 

Anyway, I just want to talk a little bit about Sharon Den Adel and her style of singing. Her range is pretty unbelievable when you hear it the first time, but there's a very peculiar fault of hers, which is that she sings at a range that she actually doesn't properly have. She launches into falsetto in the higher mezzo-soprano notes. (Girls don't really have falsettos, as far as I'm aware, but what I'm trying to say is that her head voice goes a tad too far) I'm not sure how many people notice or care, but if you hear some of the notes in the song Angels, her voice sounds like it is thiiis close to breaking. Again, there's nothing really wrong with that, she isn't opera trained, so what? It's not her thing, and ultimately works wonderfully with Within Temptation's style, it's just something I notice every time I hear her hit high notes.

Stream of Passion

People from /r/symphonicmetal are probably aware of this already, but I'm in a Stream of Passion phase at the moment. Marcela Bovio is one of the best non-operatic voices I've heard, in general not just within Symphonic Metal. Her sound is so unique and perfect. I've never heard anyone like her before. I don't remember the source of the following; I'm pretty sure someone told me at some point (so it could very well be a lie lol.) Marcela did so, so, well in Ayreon's projects that someone from there basically went "You're so good, here have a band!" and put it together just for her. Because of this though, I feel Stream of Passion lacks a little passion, ironically enough. Their songs are good, and solid, but none of their original songs are wow-worthy. There's no Ghost Love Scores in their albums, and the ones that come close to that high standard are actually Ayreon songs performed by them. So, like Shawn told me a few days ago, it's not that they lack talent, they just need better songs. I am just hoping that the band will mature, find their wow-factor and start being talked about in the same light as Nightwish and Epica.

After Forever/Re-Vamp

I've actually never been a fan of After Forever. I find Re-Vamp generally better, but still don't really like it too much. For a long time I blamed Floor Jansen for that. I thought she was at fault, but I had a change of heart at some point. Probably due to Ayreon actually. The more I hear from Floor Jansen the more I like her. However, the two bands just don't do it for me, I think they have a similar problem as the one I described for Stream of Passion, except that no amount of awesomeness in the form of Floor's vocals seems to offset it on my books. I can cherry pick the songs from them I like, and it makes me sad, because Floor is so fantastic. Floor is quite possibly the best thing that happened to Nightwish, which leads me to the next band...

Nightwish

Oh Nightwish, what will I do with you. Do notice that I actually came to find Nightwish, and subsequently the genre, as Dark Passion Play released. That is, once Nightwish hit the mainstream. Someone I knew had me listen to them because he thought I'd like the sound of it. He was obviously not wrong, but also, he would have never thought of that if DPP hadn't hit the mainstream. It gave the band coverage, they were able to get to more people to become fans. Dark Passion Play was an absolute landmark in that regard, and most of that came as a direct result from the switch from Tarja to Anette. As much as I prefer Tarja over Anette in almost every regard, it was Anette who put Nightwish on the map. Plain and simple. The music appealed to the mainstream, which meant it was generally more in tune with Evanescence than say, Nightwish from the Oceanborn era. 

Once you examine the entire discography of Nightwish however, you find that DPP is the worst album of the bunch, in just about every way. There is no cohesiveness, it is full of angst (and we all know where that came from) and to top it all, it was suffering from the iTunes effect. That is when the album as a whole is not as great as the tracks individually. Albums like Once and Imaginaerum have a very specific flow to them and it is usually something that is buried very heavily in the genre. DPP lacked that component, but they tried to force it to happen, which just made it worse. Anyway! I could write a whole essay on DPP. My point is, Anette deserves all the credit for that, regardless of how good she is in comparison to Tarja or Floor.

Now, about Saint Tarja as I call her, I love that woman, I love her voice. She is SO talented, but she never was the backbone of Nightwish, and a lot of fanboys and fangirls like to pretend she was. The backbone of Nightwish is and forever will be Tuomas. As long as Tuomas remains in Nightwish and has inspiration to write, we will continue to hear great things from them. Now, let's switch to some speculation. I believe Tarja was in her simplest form Tuomas's muse. Once she was gone, his next piece of work sucked, there's a strong correlation there. Moreover, Nightwish was never supposed to be a Symphonic Metal band. I'm pretty sure they were going for a more The-Islander-sound as a whole, but that definitely wasn't in tune with Tarja's voice in any way. So Tarja pulled Nightwish into this genre, possibly without intending to, and so they grew into it over the years. As we all know, they're the pioneers of the genre now, so who are we to judge. I always felt that the band was playing catch-up to Tarja though. I believe they were only truly at the same level during one album (Once.) 

The mistake the band made when they went for Anette, was that of not thinking how/if she could perform songs that were originally made for Tarja. It honestly seems like they didn't think that through, that their reasoning was "let's go for something that sounds nothing like Tarja" and while that is all well and dandy, Anette suffered the backlash of the fans as a result. Kind of sucks for her.

Now, why do I think Floor is the best thing that happened to Nightwish? Because she is not a step-ahead of the band like Tarja was, while she can perform the Tarja-era songs beautifully. Her range allows her to perform Anette songs without a problem as well. And all in all, Floor is just kick-ass. Tarja is a classical personality with a metal streak. Anette is a pop/rock personality with a metal streak. Floor is a metal personality. When Floor is in the stage with them, you can see just how well the energy flows. Way better than anything that happened with Tarja or Anette, and the fans notice. It is pure magic. I daresay that Floor or someone inherently similar to Floor is the best step that Nightwish can take in the future. I would love to see Marcela do something with Nightwish, but I'm not entirely sure that would work.

At any rate, I will stop rambling now, because this has gotten really long. I will leave you with Floor's and Nightwish's best performance to date (imho anyway) Enjoy!

On Being a Hipster

What is the big deal? Seriously, I don't get it. Someone has more peculiar tastes than you, who cares? I find it absolutely hysterical that just about everyone hates hipsters without even considering whether they are one or not.

Really, hipsters are Fashionistas. Nothing else, and last I checked that is not exactly a crime. The label has been misapplied so many times, that it doesn't retain meaning anymore. It is somehow equivalent to "hated person for no good reason."

Why then, do I get called a hipster when I say "I knew that band before it was popular" it is not a lie, what do you want me to do? Forget I knew that band before the mainstream caught it? I also get called a hipster because I grind my own coffee beans, which happen to be organic free-trade. Forgive me if I have drank enough coffee to develop a taste for quality coffee. What exactly is wrong  with wanting good coffee? or good food? or bikes? or building your own bike? brewing your own beer? Who are you to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do, or to even question them as to why they do it. It's none of your goddamn business, and even if they decide to tell you "Oh I brew my own beer cause I find it fun" Who are you to tell them otherwise? Who are you to dish out the Hipster label?

Frankly, I rather be friends with "hipsters" than friends with idiots who spend their time calling each other hipsters as if it was an insult.

If we're going to generalize, I'd say that hipsters are more educated than the average mainstream person. There, I said it. Now what? Sue me. I have yet to meet a single hipster who isn't well read, well educated and cares deeply about politics. I'll take that over a katy-perry-loving-kardashians-following person any day. I remember the first time I heard "Kardashian" I literally asked "what is a kardashian?" thinking it was some sort of dessert or something. But you know, I do know where Bulgaria is on a map. Am I a hipster because of that? And if I am, why in the fucking world is that supposed to insult me. Having a brain is now an insult? Oh my bad, didn't realize.

Seriously, people need to stop using that label in lieu of saying "I don't like that person." It is getting on my last nerve.

/rant