For a while, before I discovered Soulseek, it was very difficult to find music I wanted to listen to. I turned, for a time, to the iTunes Music Store, and it worked ok, despite the financial burden. Anyway, I still get there New Releases e-mails, and today I noticed that there was a new Magnetic Fields album. Woo!
So, I had some leftover credits on my account from the Pepsi/iTMS promotion. Not wanting to fire up Soulseek and try to find the album, I just bought some random tracks from the album, titled, briefly, i. Well, let's just say I was quite pleased. I'm a big fan of The Magnetic Fields. After all, Zach Loves Synthpop. Well, the tracks I listened to were great. If you're into The Magnetic Fields (or the related Future Bible Heroes, or other stuff like Freezepop, etc.) you should definitely give this stuff a listen.
Also of note, Pitchfork had an interesting news post today. Apparently Trent Reznor is in the process of recording a completely monophonic new NIN album. Really bizarre, but should be interesting. Then, after disseminating actual information, the Pitchfork writer, in true jackass form, proceeds to forgo journalism entirely to bash Trent Reznor. Yes, he's a goth dope. But this isn't doing much for Pitchfork's journalistic integrity. Ahh well.
Just got finished with a few hours of work for Dr. Truszczynski, and I thought "this would be a good time to write a blog." So I am.
I've had some hosting issues recently, but by the time they got resolved, I was well enveloped in the whole dead-week/finals-week mess that blogging wasn't high on the priority list. But here I am.
This summer is going to be kind of a drag. This first month, I have generally off. I'll just be working for Dr. Truszczynski, doing website stuff and then working on improvements to WSATCC, a local-search satisfiability solver. That should be fun! Other than that, I just plan on playing lots of video games:
- I need to get through the last five seasons of my NHL 2004 dynasty (in that universe, the reborn Winnipeg Jets have won 12 Stanley Cups in a row. And I've won the Selke trophy once. :)
- Lots of Tod's SNES games. I have to finish FF3, and I'm about 2/3 through Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. That leaves Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and maybe Secret of Evermore. We'll see.
- Magic Online! I've got two pretty decent decks built out of overpriced digital cards. They're good for beating up on scrubs in the beginner room. Perhaps if I pump a few more tickets into singles, the elf deck I've got might get competitive. Who knows. I also have a draft set waiting to be played. Wee.
So, yes. Lots of games. I had considered going all in and picking up Final Fantasy XI et al., but I have plenty to play anyway. After this first month off, it's off to summer school. Wee. This way, I'll be able to graduate on time with a pretty much wide-open senior year. That's not to say easy classes, but just like 13 hours a semester instead of 16.
In other Magic news, the next set, Fifth Dawn, looks absolutely fantastic, based on the previews and leaked cards I've seen. There's an interesting five-color theme, and continuation of the rest of the Mirrodin block themes. Verily, this is shaping up to be my favorite block of all time.
Anyway, that's it for right now. But in like 30 seconds, I'm going to do a post about some musical type things.