7. 96 Rock's Memorial 500 Countdown

Well 96 Rock is about to finish up their top 500 songs for Memorial Day and I have listened to a lot of it, but here is a run down on a couple of spots and then my review of the Top 5.

#500: "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister, actually, in a sense, it makes sense! Its the perfect opening song because don't you wanna rock when the countdown kicks off? In all honesty though, could have been slightly higher.

Live had their big hit around spot number 50, I agree with the DJ that was on when it played, it shouldn't be in the top 500!

Ok, so here is the Top 5:

#5. "One" by Metallica- Very surprised that it is that high up, but nonetheless, a great song indeed and deserves to be there (I'm a metal fan, so yeah, haha).

#4. "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd- It's a good song, no doubt about, but being back in North Carolina makes me realize that I never really missed the song. Would be awesome to try to play it in a band, though!

#3. "Baba O'Reilly" by The Who- A shocker, but a good song all together. I would think that "Won't Get Fooled Again" would be at this position because I think its a way more powerful song that this one. But I love the song, so its all good :).

#2. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana- Well Generation X is getting older and I can see how this is almost becoming the "old guard" of rock for those born in the nineties and now. But I don't see it in my top 5, but top 10. I have the album by the way and I love the ferocious attitude played by Kurt, Dave, and Krist.

#1. "Stairway To Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. A very powerful song that tops almost everybody lists (I like The Rain Song better honestly). I've listened to the song way to much in the past couple of years, but its a good song now again now that I haven't heard it in awhile. Maybe it stems from the people of my generation that walk around in the Led Zeppelin 1977 tour shirts and they broke up from Bonham's death way before any of us were born. My dad was suppose to see them in '77, but Robert Plant's kid died while they were on tour and they canceled the rest of it. I can't remember who said it, but they said the reason so many people love it is because its a "climber" song, that it constantly climbs in tempo and attitude. Very true!

The list will be posted soon at http://www.96rockonline.com

6. Small Random News

Ok, just slightly bummed out that Canada blew a 4-2 lead and lost in overtime to Russia at the IIHF World Championships, but the host country has not won since the Soviet Union when they won in Moscow in 1986, so oh well.

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Despite that Carlos Mencia does the same type of comedy all the time, his special tonight was absolutely hillarious! I agree with one thing: Vegetarians are hypocrites, they do eat living organisms, except I eat ones that prevent its waste products from harming the atmosphere and you eat the ones that their waste product is oxygen!

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Lets take a look at the news:

ABCNews- US Soldier Removed from Iraq for Shooting at Quran- Wow, talk about not respecting another one's culture. This guy and a small population like him give the Armed Forces a black eye. I remember a classmate in my US History class told us that one of her "friends" was in his tank and got impatient and rolled over a whole family in their car, oh...my...god. It's a sad sad world we live in.

BBC- China declares national mourning- Makes me sick, honestly. For you that think I have no heart, hear this: Tibet. Yes its very sad that the earthquake has killed so many, but the government is only doing this to try and brighten their image when they honestly don't care about their people, just look at how many Tibetans they have killed.

CBC- PM to official apologize for native school abuse next month- Well they should since this went on for about 100 years until 1970, I believe Canada is from one of the indigenous languages, so Stephen Harper better make it a good one!

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And here is a question for you guys!:
What do you consider moral?
This question does not pertain to the news articles, its what do you think is moral in your eyes?

5. I See It This Way:

For the record i'm pro-choice with circumstances (rape, mothers life and the fact that its a woman's choice).

Please don't get out-right offended, but I hope people get the point, if not comment, but do not be rude!

4. Peaceful Easy Feeling

Just a quick post, listening to The Very Best of the Eagles is helping with the relaxing mood tonight. I got into listening tonight after watching their concert film When Hell Freezes Over and whenever I listen to their stuff, it makes me feel like getting back to simple times and being rustic.

Since I lived in Arizona for four years, I can definitely put some desert scenery to my mind when I hear some of their songs and the sparseness of the desert reminds me of the pioneer times, when easy riding was done on a horse and any person could go on their own path. Coincidentally, while listening to "Ol' '55" with it's wandering steel guitar and the imagery sung by Don Henley, I kinda wish I was back there, mainly for the six hour drive up to Las Vegas when the main highway was a two lanes and all that was around was the desert, the red rocks, the cacti, the mountains, the elevation, and the lack of buildings along the way.

It might be more introvertedness that kicks in because when I visualize those images in my head, its more of wanting to be secluded in those mountains and not having to worry about neighbors so I can do whatever I want. But it would be no fun being in that seclusion without a significant other!

3. Vacation Time

Yesterday at work, I kept thinking about how much of a fast-pace nation we live in (yes I said nation, not world). We work for months on end and (in my line of work) are guaranteed two weeks of vacation time, but we should have more. I believe in Germany they are required to have three months, yes, months of vacation! We pride ourselves in being efficient but in reality we are just working ourselves to death, its all about getting the money's worth out of people and it gets frustrating.

At the moment I am taking two straight days off from work and so far today its been good and I hope I get to go to Canada in June so that I can have almost a week off. It was good to relax, but I know that Friday i'll be back and trying to make sure the job ship doesn't sink. I'm so relaxed at the moment that I do not really care that I messed up at work. Apparently I forgot to vacuum out the caulking I took off from one of the bath tubs in an apartment and they walked the future residents into it, oh well. I mean, the guy already looked at his apartment before we turned it and I know why I didn't vacuum the caulking because I simply forgot because I was busy wanting to caulk and goof-off (its a solvent that gets rid of paint off of reciprocal plates) two other apartments and I was planning on going back to vacuum, but of course I forgot because the last apartment I was working on I had to fix some stuff in it before leaving. They also said a shower head was missing, which I told my supervisor on the phone that I did not take off a shower head (and I know I didn't do that! It didn't need to be replaced!)

My supervisor always tries to let whoever screw up feel a little bit better because he let's me know i'm not the only one that does it (and I know that because our lead tech forgets things all the time!). So in the end, Friday morning I need to vacuum the caulk before they move in and if my property manager and the lead tech are the only ones that say anything, then i'll be good, other wise i'll be pissed and lack concentration for the rest of the day.

2. Music Is The Teachings...

As I sit here with my iPod plugged into my Playstation 3 so I can listen to the songs I have on the iPod through the stereo, I sit here and think of what some songs truly mean to me in real life. Of course some songs have absolutely no meaning ("Toronto Tontos" by Max Webster being a prime example!) while some I can truly identify with and there are some that I just can not completely understand and make me know that if I wrote something like that, I would feel embarassed to have my parents listen to it (mainly today's rap and the hair metal bands of the 80's).

But anyways, in recent times, there is one song I can identify with when it comes to my views on religion, the song "Faithless" by Rush (written by Neil Peart) completely describes my way of thinking. Here are the lyrics:

I've got my own moral compass to steer by

A guiding star beats a spirit in the sky

And all the preaching voices -

Empty vessels ring so loud

As they move among the crowd

Fools and thieves are well disguised

In the temple and market place

Like a stone in the river

Against the floods of spring

I will quietly resist

Like the willows in the wind

Or the cliffs along the ocean

I will quietly resist

I don't have faith in faith

I don't believe in belief

You can call me faithless

I still cling to hope

And I believe in love

And that's faith enough for me

I've got my own spirit level for balance

To tell if my choice is leaning up or down

And all the shouting voices

Try to throw me off my course

Some by sermon, some by force

Fools and thieves are dangerous

In the temple and market place

Like a forest bows to winter

Beneath the deep white silence

I will quietly resist

Like a flower in the desert

That only blooms at night

I will quietly resist

As you see, I consider myself agnostic, I do not entirely knock the notion of a God or no God, but I want to go on the path I want without feeling like there is a force working with or against me. Along with that, I do not think down on people who use their faith as a sense of motivation and guidance, if thats how they can live their life, than kudos to them! My lack of faith does not play into moral by any sense because I can proudly say that I have some strong morals, in fact, some that are stronger than some people who go to church and say they follow the word of God (remember, I said some people, I know my friend across the street has better at morals than I am, and I keep a tight shift!). To end this post, I can say I believe in love and that's faith enough for me.

1. When Nothing Is Going On

Well, I have decided to make my own blog (well after being asked a couple times by Jessica to do so) and I feel like I can be able to talk about the most random things when I have the feeling to post!

Now, I must digress that some of my stuff isn't going to be the simple "I walked down to the store and had a nice chat with the cashier...," it's going to get slightly more deeper than that, in a philosophical-politcal kind of sense, so if anybody feels offended by something I said, its just an opinion and it shouldn't make you think of me anyless than what you already know of me.

So lets go on with the show!