Hey, that was pretty good.

Thanks, Axl! I just listened to Chinese Democracy, so I don't have to buy it! Although honestly, if I did...it'd probably be worth the money. At any rate, I have much, much, much worse albums in my collection.

Yeah, this was pretty damn good. Say what you want about the son of a bitch, but he still knows how to throw a song together. And although his voice is great, what makes this album a damned good listen is the guitar work. I don't know who did what (Bumblefoot, Robin Finck, and Buckethead are all credited if Wikipedia is to be believed), but the guitar work is much, much, much more interesting than Slash's basic bluesy jams, with Rage Against The Machine-esque screeching, Dream Theater-like chromatic chords and just flat-out shredding.

Of course, Axl could've recorded 45 minutes of fart noises and Hawaiian nose-humming and Rolling Stone would've given it three stars, but a four-out-of-five star review, although slightly high to me, is certainly understandable.

Shackler's Revenge, Better, and Catcher in the Rye stood out to me.

So. Next one in what, 2023?

"In fascination...with the eyes of the world we stare..."

I've been noticing more and more the phrase "final shuttle flights" popping up in articles, and I can't help but feel a little bit wistful. Sure, it's almost certainly time to retire the old workhorses. Maybe if you regularly maintained a 30 year-old car it'd still purr like a kitten, but a 30 year-old SPACESHIP needs more than an oil change every now and then.

Still, the shuttles were an important part of my childhood, and that of many kids my age, I imagine. I cheered for Columbia's first liftoff and cried for Challenger, and also felt that sick feeling when Columbia fell to earth. It's a dangerous business, but it's also exciting, and all those who work and pilot these leviathans plant seeds of dreams with every take off and landing.

In an era where we find water on Mars and planets circling other nearby stars (only four months away on TNG's Warp 6), let's hope the new fleet inspires us the way the old one did.

Still looking...

Yep, the corporate sponsorship fell through. But I have a media deal in the works with a new network. This might work out, as long as their shows are responsible like they assured me...

Still sleeping on the job...

Sorry, though my bro and sis have updated their blogs recently, I'm still behind the curve. I have been working recently to try to attain corporate sponsorship, but I don't think the only company who responded is going to work out: