It's Christmas Time!!

'Cause Christmas season kicks off on the day after Thanksgiving.

As you can see, I have decorated my blog for the season, as per last year. My winter/Christmas banner has been updated, as in the last one the snow and snowflakes were rather uneven. Also, this new version has special snowflakes dotting the I's in the blog name. Yay!

And all it took was about ten minutes of work in Microsoft paint and about the same amount of patience. Yes, I make all my own blog banners in MS paint. I start out with my basic template and then redesign as needed. A few bit of pointless trivia about the Dial R banners, if you're interested:

- The largest banner I've made thus far is the 9/11 banner.

- The 9/11 banner, along with the Easter banner, are the only two banners that don't have Dial R 4 Infinity anywhere on them. Technically, my election banners also don't have my blog name on them either, but since those banners are oneshot wonders, they don't really count.

I have also added my Christmas songs to the song list over there. If you haven't heard the Twelve Days of Christmas a la Relient K, you should go listen to it. You don't know what you're missing. That version of the Twelve Days of Christmas is amazing crazy but cool.

I do love decking this place out for Christmas. ^^ As much fun as decorating the house, not to mention a whole lot faster and easier to do.

Enjoy the music! Merry Christmas!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Let's see, what I thankful for...? Okay, that would take way too long to list, so I'll give you the shortened version. I'm thankful for...

- My country (GOD BLESS AMERICA!!)
- My family and friends
- My lovely blog (Go Blogger/blogspot!!)
- The word 'blog,' which today I am finding highly amusing
- FanFiction.Net
- Books
- My diabetic supplies
- My salvation
- Music

And that's just the short version. Time would fail to break down music or books, to tell about my pets and stories and so many other things.

Unlike Halloweeen, I don't have very many Thanksgiving songs to choose from, so like last year I'm going to use Petra's Thankful Heart and add a second petra song as something of a bonus.

Petra - Thankful Heart



Petra - Keneniah



Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!! We have so much to be thankful for!

All Hail the Release of New Moon!

Attention all Twilight... haters. As you may or may not know, the second movie in the series in out tonight. And in honor of that I have collected these un-tributes for those of us who suffer from Bile Fascination caused by this book series.

Having read the first three books in the series, I am informed enough to know that this series is garbage. Jacob Black was a great character. Edward Cullen was a Mary Sue. This book has in me the strange effect that I've already mentioned, Bile Fascination. Follow the link for more info.

And here are the un-tributes. I'll explain my own feeling about Twilight after the tributes.

The Emo Vampire Song
Edward Cullen meets Sherlock Holmes
Buffy the Vampire Slayer vs. Edward Cullen
Edward Cullen meets Dracula

I've told you a bit about my opinion of Twilight before, and now I think it ruined an entire genre of monsters. One day at the library I decided to check out the first book, and it was a somewhat decent book. The only problem was Edward, who except for the fact he wanted to kill was Bella, was perfect in every other way. Then there was New Moon, which do to Jacob Black, was fantastic. Jacob is a very cool character.

Then there was Eclipse, and for me that's where everything went sour. Edward comes back to Forks (It really is a darn shame the Volturi didn't kill him) and immediately tries to keep Bella from seeing Jacob anymore, because he claims young werewolves are dangerous. (And vampires aren't?) The irony in the whole situation is that in New Moon, Bella was liable to be killed by an evil vampire who was after her. Guess who prevented that? Yeah, the aforementioned 'dangerous werewolves.' So while Edward was in Florida being a self-made martyr, Jacob was keeping Bella from being killed. How's that for irony?

I can't wait to read Breaking Dawn. Yes, I do plan to read it someday. Enjoy the movie. As for me, I'll wait for the parody.

- T.A.R.N.S.

Excuse the Dust, Please

If your computer is like mine, or I should say if your Internet browser is like mine, it lets you run more then Internet page off the same browser, opening new pages in tabs. If you've visited my blog this way, you may notice that it looks like my blog is taking forever to load.

This is not the case.

If you've visited before, you might remember the three videos I had embedded in my green sidebar. These will no longer load. Everything else will, but not those videos. I have been expecting this for some time now. You might have noticed that the blogger staff has been cleaning out many, many old gadgets. I knew something was up when I went looking to put a fourth video in the blue sidebar, but the gadget was gone. This is going to be quite a pain to fix, but personally I'm not surprised.

So when you see that the page isn't loading, and that the two videos I've been trying to fix don't fit in the sidebar, don't worry, I'm working on it. Everything loads except for the PreCure All Stars video, All About Us. This one will be the hardest to fix because it consists of video clips instead of a stationary image.

And if anyone out there knows how to fit a video into these sidebars, please leave a comment and tell me what you know. Thank You!

THIS IS THE SOUND!!!

Several weeks ago, I was idly browsing through the CBD catalog, looking at books, which I love, when I turned a page and came across the Cd's page. Because I am a music junky, I took a minute to look at the different Cd's and point out he bands and singers I've heard before. Then a CD cover caught my eye. It was Switchfoot, with a new album, Hello Hurricane. I was excited - then I was thwarted, it wasn't out at the time.

Well, it's out now!! I heard part of one of the songs on a YouTube video the band put out, then again tonight on a commercial, for the Blackberry, I think. (Off subject, it's fun when you can go, hey I think I've heard that song before. Then they played one tiny lyrics clip right at the end, and I sat straight up and knew it was Switchfoot. But I digress.)

I came down to YouTube and found the song. And hey, I guessed the name almost right, it wasn't 'This is the Sound," but the name was "The Sound."

And if "The Sound" is anything to go by, this album is going to ROCK.



And here is the title track, Hello Hurricane.



What a shame I can't buy this CD until after Christmas. >.< Oh well, at least there's still YouTube. ^^

Turn up your speakers and enjoy, 'cause this is the sound!!

More Musings of a Numbers Symbol

TV Tropes

I was over TV Tropes today, which is where I go when I'm bored. Along the way, I stopped by the Injury Tropes, just out of curiosity, and read about Annoying Arrows. They said that bows and arrows went out of use because it's hard to learn a bow, and requires considerable strength to work. I wonder where the anime variations of a bow and arrow fit in. It is TV Tropes, after all.






About eight seconds into Cure Aqua's attack, if you look, it should seem like a bow. Incidentally, it's a lot easier to see in the movie previews. No, maybe it's not. That was an early preview; I see they didn't have Fresh Pretty Cure in that one.

Twilight

Let me see, what else can I ramble on about while I'm here? Oh yes. See this commercial for the Bing Search engine? You'll have to follow the link, the video is to wide for me to embed in my blog. That guy in the commercial is supposed to be a vampire. See how fast he's moving? Now, this really bother me, because I can't remember reading ANYWHERE in Dracula that vampires had the gift of superspeed. The only vampire story I've ever read that in is Twilight. And that really bothers me, because though I've decided that Twilight is an okay book series (Of course, I'm not counting Breaking Dawn when I say series,) I'm getting more and more annoying that that stupid book screwed up an entire genre of monsters!!!

- Unless I really, really missed something in Dracula, vampires don't have superspeed.

- Vampires don't sparkle in the sun. They die in the sun.

- Yes, in the book, the reason the Cullen family can't be out during the day is because they sparkle in sun, as opposed to dying. Are you freaking kidding me?

- My apologies. I just got back from TV Tropes (again), and they told me that in the book, Dracula could be out in the sun, he just couldn't use some of his powers. That's true. My bad. Either way, Twilight is still not excused.

- They're also immune to crosses, and probably (thought this hasn't been confirmed in the books yet, at least not that I've found) by extension, can't be repelled by garlic either, and can cast reflections in mirrors,which is in CLEAR CONTRADICTION to the greatest vampire of all times, DRACULA. Not. Edward. Cullen.

- Another thing thing that makes me very annoyed is this belief that vampires don't have to sleep, at any time, if you go by Twilight. So tell me, Edward, what did Dracula do in his coffin all day? Watch DVDs?

Now with all these other shows out there about or somehow involving vampires I have to wonder how many of them are taking their cues from Twilight. If a stupid commercial will take it from Twilight, well, I'm worried, about how everything else is doing vampires. I used to like Twilight, but I've read all but the last chapter of Eclipse, and anymore I'm just not impressed. That's okay. They tell me Breaking Dawn is worse. Some maybe I'll get a copy and see.

Winx Club

I've been watching Season 4, online because it hasn't been dubbed/mangled by 4Kids yet, and this season is nothing but sheer insanity. The girls get a new power up this season, which is to be expected; most magical girl shows do give their characters an upgrade when the new season starts. This season's model is called Believix, and is much better than the skimpy outfits of last season.

This has since descended into lunacy. The Believix comes with three different pairs of wings, interchangeable wings, at that. These are known as the Speedix, which is apparently supposed to give you a speed boost. Then there's Zoomix, which can let you teleport; never mind that Stella's scepter can do the same thing and we haven't seen that thing since Flora got her Enchantix in Season 3, and then there's Tracix, which is supposed to let you see into the past, or something stupid like that.

Well, as if all that wasn't enough, turns out, the girls actually get two more transformations this season. The first one, Sophix or Sophix or Solvix, no one's figured out the name yet, nearly put the Enchantix to shame for two of the girls, and the next one is actually an improvement, though it's still stupid, in my opinion. Way too many transformations. Oh well. At least their stripperiffic season 3 outfits are gone.

Comment Moderation

Why do I even have this turned on? It's not like I ever actually moderate any comments people leave for me. Then again, it'll be nice to have if I ever need it. I'll leave it for now, I guess.

Well, that's all for this round. Thanks for reading. Ciao!

Shining Star English Lyrics!

First, a video of the song we're talking about here. This is the song Shining Star. Pretty Cool, if I do say so myself.

The only problem is that there is no translation of the Japanese lyrics. You can trust that since it's a song from Pretty Cure, it's not going to be anything obscene, but it would still be nice to know what the lyrics of the song are.

Thank to Animelyrics.com, I got my hands on a copy of the Kanji lyrics and translated them through Yahoo's Babel Fish into English. Then I did my best to romanize them, and it didn't turn out so bad, at least in my opinion.

First, the rough translation. This is what it looked like when I picked it up from Babelfish, pre-romanization.

Shining star
Answer the heart teaches obtaining always

Don’t You Think? Being conspicuous conspicuously, the
From the star which is the sky east
It grasped suddenly with the darkness
You and desire is dazzling

The [te] It is dear the [se] without beat of that chest

Shining Star
While opening the eye, there is a dream which we would like to see
Shining star
Outer space of heart with being designed (the [so] and others), [ru] future
Pretty Pretty Cure, truth key
You search pretty pretty cure
Life shining two hearts!

Don’t You think? How it is being strong
There is also a day when it halts
That it is endless insecurity
Therefore fighting you are less crowded,

When moving, the courage which does not move.

Shining Star
The eye 瞑 (the [bu]) also the [tsu] [te] has shone
Shining star
Outer space of heart ([so] and others) So the vision which does not have the times when it goes out
Mirror of pre- pre- cure mystery
Pre- pre- cure what is projected
Dream flapping 2 hearts

Shining Star
Aiming towards where it continues to run (?!)
Shining Star
The heart teaches answering always
Pre- Pre- Cure Door of Miracle
Pre- Pre- Cure Someone you open
Love is not defeated 2 hearts!

It doesn't make very much sense this way, so here is the version that I romanized:

Shining Star!
The answer the heart teaches is obtaining always…

Don’t you think? Being conspicuous conspicuously, the
Star in the eastern sky
Grappled suddenly with the darkness
You and desire are dazzling…

It is dear, the beat of that chest,

Shining Star!
When opening our eyes, there is a dream we would like to see
Shining Star!
The outer space of our hearts is planned for the future
Pretty pretty cure, the key to truth!
You search for it, Pretty pretty cure!
A shining life, your two hearts!

Don’t you think? How it is being strong
There is also a day when everything halts
That it is endless insecurity
Therefore fighting you are less crowded,*

When moving, your courage does not move.

Shining Star!
The light in your eyes has shone!
Shining Star!
The space of your heart and others has a dream that never fails
Mirror the mystery of pretty pretty cure
Pretty Pretty cure is what is projected
Our dreams are flapping [on the wings of our] two hearts

Shining Star!
Aiming towards where it [our dreams] continues to run
Shining Star!
The heart teaches, answering always…
Pretty Pretty Cure, the doorway to miracles!
Pretty pretty Cure, (Someone you open)**
Love is not defeated, [we have the power of our] two hearts!

Some day, someone who can actually speak both Japanese and English will translate this song and we'll get a version that's a better. For now, this is my version.

The first asterisked line, "Therefore fighting you are less crowded," frankly, I had no idea what they were trying to say by that. Perhaps that by fighting you are freed from your fears? I don't know, so I just left the line alone.

The second asterisked line, "Someone you open" could have meant some power that you open, but I wasn't certain about that either. Therefore, I left that alone also.

Anyway, I hope the transformation was helpful!

The Meaning of 'Transparency' Was Lost in Translation

You know, when the Democrats (Which one was it? Obama about the White House or Pelosi about the House? Either way it doesn't matter.) promised to have the most transparent administration ever, I thought they meant that literally, like, oh, for example, with no sneaking around behind closed doors trying to hide what they're doing.

Well, this wasn't what I was thinking when I thought of transparency:

Transparency like you’ve never seen before

Today marks a major milestone in government transparency -- and an important lesson in the unintended consequences of such vigorous disclosure.

We previously announced that the White House in December of this year would -- for the first time in history -- begin posting all White House visitor records under the terms of our new voluntary disclosure policy. As part of that initiative, we also offered to look back at the records created before the announcement of the policy and answer specific requests for visitor records created earlier in the year.

So far we’ve processed 110 disclosure requests from September that yielded nearly 500 visitor records. All of these are now available on the White House website in accessible, searchable format for anyone to browse or download. Consistent with our earlier announcement that we will only release records 90 days or older, this first batch covers the period of time between January 20, 2009 to July 31, 2009. Future batches will be posted on an ongoing basis.

This is what you mean by transparency? Posting visitor records on the Internet? Are you freaking kidding me? When you said 'the most transparent administration eva,' most of us thought you were going to honest about what you doing up there on the hill. Not that you would post White House visitor records online.

I guess the meaning of 'transparency was lost in translation.