Candy for the Ears

Midterm exams are underway soon and I'm trying to hit the books. On the other hand, I just got a Playstation Vita and I'm trying really hard to not play with it too much. Predictably, I give into temptation easily.

It's been a long time since I had anything to say about my taste in music. Over the past several years, my library has slowly grown and my mood has fluctuated. My Pandora account is in use sometimes, but I only really expand unless I'm really bored. The last musical goldmine I ran into was Bentley Jones.

Covering J-pop, remixing currently popular songs, and overusing autotune might not sound very appealing, but if more pop music sounded more like what Bentley does, then I'd love to turn the radio back on again. Heck, his PHUNKSTR remixes often sound a lot better than their original versions. Or maybe that's my biased ear talking.

Regardless, I've been listening to his new album lately. It took several listens, but it has grown on me. Such a decent voice should not be masked by so much autotune. (TT-TT) At least his melodies are really good.

Yeah, if this blog goes down like the Titanic, I only hope that at least one person that visited here would be interested in this guy. The dude needs more attention. His stuff is on iTunes. Give the guy a buck or two. Or at least five minutes of random music preview samples.

*shrug* I'm used to preaching to the choir.

When I'm not indulging in pop music that only the Japanese are willing to put on their store shelves, I always go back to HIM. No surprise, I know. After XX - Two Decades of Love Metal came out, I decided to go through their entire library again for old time's sake. Whatever comes of Tears on Tape, I really hope their cover of "Strange World" is not them at their best after that post-Screamworks hiatus. They better not be out of juice yet...

At least they have seven other albums to cling to.

Okay, that's enough cheesy-poppy music to make your teeth grow cavities. But heck, it could be MUCH WORSE. All the girls get into Justin Beiber and One Direction, I get into sappy pop-rock with pretty-boy singers that make and perform their own music without as much exposure. So hipster of me.

Anywho, the third piece of musical awesome I'm diving into is good ol' Breaking Benjamin... which are also on hiatus. (Just my luck.) They are probably the only "nu metal" act I still enjoy. Ever since the un-freakin'-listenable A Thousand Suns, Linkin Park just continues to piss me off. Evanescence continues to subconsciously come off as trying to be gothic metal while actively denying any hints proving the statement right. Three Days Grace has some great emotion... with hilariously silly lyrics. Nickleback does not exist on my playlists, and Disturbed is a kiddy meal next to In Flames. I can go on and on...

Breaking Benjamin... I'm not sure why I go back to them so often.

For actual metal music though... hmm... I go back to Moonspell sometimes. Too bad Grooveshark has deleted their entire library of songs. Now how am I to get my fix without commercial interruptions? They just released some new material too. Yet another thing to add to my list of music to listen to before I kick the bucket.

I guess for now a whole assortment of songs are floating around in my head. Some rock, some pop, some video game soundtracks, some obscure, some embarrassingly not. It's kinda hard to pinpoint what exactly I listen to when talking to people. It's even more fun when people have no damn clue what I'm talking about. Try asking some random person on the street what symphonic metal is. Then good luck explaining it without boring the person to death.

Which is why I keep to my self like a recluse. :)

Enjoy [or ignore] the rest of the songs I randomly post here.

And the finale. I have no shame. This song is awesome.

Credit to all the people who worked their butts off on these songs to get a paycheck.

Now... back to studying...

February 2013 Update

Finally! I completed the first review on Mass Effect! Thank you to the one or two people who patiently waited for them to come out. It took several months to gather ideas and flesh them out. Hopefully ME2 and ME3 will not take as long to push out.

My Singles Awareness Day was as great as usual. I made sure to play as much HIM as possible. Even after four years, I still love 'em. Currently, I'm still saving my pennies for Tears On Tape; April 30 is too damn far away... T-T

College life is getting easier to adapt to... kind of. The work itself can be annoying at times, but it's everything else that is difficult. Because of meeting certain required academic requirements, there are a few programs I am a part of that either lift some financial burden or offer academic challenges. The price? Community service. Networking. Staying on top of things. Knowing who's who, and where they can be found.

Sometimes I have been so absorbed with staying on top of everything that this poor blog sits un-updated. Every now and then I wonder if the quality of my posts are suffering along with the quantity. Regardless, I still try my darnedest to keep this thing alive. It's almost been three years and sometimes I still feel like I only talk to myself. In a way that helped me to keep this thing going. Sure, I can keep track of how often people visit my blog, but I know that the world at large does not care about what I have to say. No one pressures me to meet a deadline, to put something out or risk losing money. I do this because I want to.

"...Really, Fangirl?" some might say, "Why do you keep bringing that up in every single update you make? You're a broken record by this point!"

Fair enough. But sometimes I'm too blunt for my own good. I'm not a blogger who focuses on DYI projects, I don't have a central theme or series of topics to pump out, and I'm not a professional reviewer. I'm just a person who just says whatever comes to her mind [within reason].

When people see "Fangirl"... some might think I'm like this. :/
HAHAHAHA... wrong.

I started off doing nothing but immature rants. Slowly, I did reviews of music and movies. Sometimes I would find a video or funny image and post it for the laughs. Now I'm going on about video games. Whatever I've done, they were nothing but long-winded, immature ramblings that a handful of people happened to like. Those few people keep coming back for some odd reason.

So to drive the point home for the billionth time... thanks to everyone who keeps coming back. And thanks to that one-time visitor who found me too ridiculous to remember. That's fine. In many ways, this blog is for me, and only me. Still, I can't help but smile when I see that I have a few followers, and several viewers from across the globe.



Okay, enough of this cheese. Let's move on.

What have I been doing in my free time? ... ... ... THIS.

I would like to thank Voltech, a far better blogger and writer than I, for making my life a living hell thanks to recommending THIS.

Imagine all the overwhelmingly tear-enducing scenes from Titanic, The Notebook, and Clannad jumbled up together... and on STEROIDS.

... Crap... my PS3 is still at home... Now I want a PSVita... *sniff* damn you, Atlus....
TT-TT

'Mass Effect 1', Part III

This long-winded review/rant just keeps on going and going. And I still have two games to go! Not only that, but due to its controversial nature, the end of the trilogy might come right after. Too much information, so little time, and not enough Asprin for the headache.

...

That's it. By this point, these introductions are just padding. Let's just put this review down and move on as soon as possible. You, fellow readers, have better things to do.

I need to focus on other content to get the blog back up and running again. *sigh* Why did my consoles and I depart for a few weeks?

'Mass Effect 1", Part II

So... Mass Effect. Looks like we didn't start off too good, did we?

The first game has the most infuriating gameplay I have experienced in this trilogy. Many other fans who had access to this years before me would strongly disagree. They cherish the five-year-old game like a Pokemon fan reminiscing on Blue or Red for the Gameboy Color. Part of me really wishes I could think of it as fondly, but my perspective and experience are too different from those Xbox 360 and PC players.

On the bright side, I do appreciate and understand the undying love. I've played these games to death. When I sit in class as my professor presents a series of notes that my life depends upon to uphold my grades and keep my scholarships, I daydream about being lost in the fiction for hours. I give evil glares of hatred to all the guys who sit on their asses playing video games all day as I study. My PS3 sits at home and waits for me to return once every six weeks. Once I'm home and ready to relax, any one of the Mass Effect discs begs me to pay attention to it... Like a druggie failing rehab, I give in every time. Of course I love this series. Why else have I rambled about this franchise aimlessly to my friends and on my blog since last summer?

Still, as an amateur, nitpicky reviewer I have to attempt to be somewhat objective. Being a contrarian is not my intention at all. I sure am opinionated, but pissing people off over statements I make is not something I strive for when I wake up every morning.

If you have not read Part I... go back three spaces and come back when you did your homework. Now I will dive into characters and plot.

As common sense will tell you, there will be SPOILERS.