Moonspell - Scorpion Flower

in general by Raquel on Friday, May 30th, 2008 @ 8:33 pm

I was starting to feel disappointed after several Moonspell albums not to my liking - I’m a metal fan but I’m very selective, especially when it comes to growling in songs. I really enjoyed Wolfheart and Irreligious, and also Darkness & Hope to some extent.

Anyway, now they made this music, Scorpion Flower (which I am loving) for their latest album, Night Eternal. Not only is the song nice, but it features Anneke van Giersbergen who used to be the lead singer of one of my favourite bands, The Gathering. I might check out if the rest of Moonspell’s new album is as nice as this.

Visions of the Weekend (part II)

in photos by Raquel on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 @ 11:57 pm

Visions of the Weekend (part I)

in photos by Raquel on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 @ 7:11 pm







Back to my Life

in general by Raquel on Monday, May 26th, 2008 @ 12:07 am

I’m back from a nice (yet tiresome) four-day weekend with a few close friends.

I need my ugly sleepy but before I head out to the confiness of my bed, I must leave you with a link a friend gave me just as he saw me online: Top 10 Bizarre Biblical Tales. Wow, and people talk about violence in TV and videogames nowadays…

Speaking of which, go read these Ten Golden Rules of action games. My favroutite one HAS to be number 5:

Breasts must be no smaller than a gorilla’s head:

Action games need a good dose of female objectification, because the genre is usually so full of rampant homoeroticism and men with bulging biceps that the player will require a healthy reminder that he isn’t actually gay.

Women need to be big-boobed and wearing attire completely inappropriate for the situation. Videogames may be considered by some to be an emerging art form that can be used for a variety of intellectual and emotional responses, but fuck those guys. They are probably gay, and we’re NOT gay because we play games with big tits. Now excuse me while I rescue my muscular and burly male partner so we can fight back-to-back with our enormous, phallic guns.

I always thought that wrestling was kind of homoerotic and the reason why lots of closeted gay guys watch it. I mean, semi-naked, sweaty, muscular guys grabbing and rubbing on each other? C’mon!

And on that thought, I bid you g’night.

PS - I’m thinking of buying a Toshiba Satellite A300-18A laptop. We are still in the flirting phase, but I swear I saw it slyly winking at me earlier on.

WoW Drama, How We Missed Thee!

in general by Raquel on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 @ 9:45 am

Okay so I lied. I’m writing a new post on the weekend. And not about what we’re doing here.

Not sure if I ever mentioned an idiot that was on my WoW guild and played a Rogue? A guy who would simple never, ever shut up and who was annoying as hell?

No? Well, yesterday I was online just to chat with Rafa and get some of my Druid’s brand new epics enchanted, when I witnessed a very entertaining moment of World of Warcraft DRAMA! (I knew staying in that guild just to witness all the emoness and drama and whining had been a good idea!)

Juicy stuff (including some swear words - go me!) after the cut:

(more…)

Charmed is Sucky

in general by Raquel on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 @ 8:48 pm

Still not packing and watching crap on TV.

I have to say that ‘Charmed’ is crappy. So crappy that I bothered writing this. So crappy that neither Alyssa Milano’s or Rose McGowan’s participations can make it decent.

Yeah. That’s how crappy it is.

Getting Ready for the Weekend

in general by Raquel on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 @ 8:21 pm

I’m getting ready for the weekend, well sorta. I should be packing but I’m sitting in front of the TV writing on my laptop.

By the way, ‘Hollywood Bvd’ is on AXN, and I am wondering who designed the presenter’s dress. It looks like a frakking curtain. Ugly! Beyond ugly. In fact, FUGLY as hell. Who pays these for these designers’ work? I know a few designers who aren’t even fashion designers and any of them would do a much better job at designing out of the ordinary clothes. In fact, even I’d do a better job at that. I’m guessing here that they were going for the ‘out of the ordinary’ thing and forgot about the ‘don’t make the already not-that-pretty presenter look like a sac of potatoes wearing a drape’ part.

Anyway, onwards to the actual post.

Packing lots of stuff. Sleeping bags, clothes, Dungeons & Dragons material, camera, and so forth. Like I said lots of stuff. Thinking of not taking the laptop and just using someone else’s if I need to when I am there since it’s one less thing to pack. I still have time to pack as Rafa’s flight arrives in Lisbon at around 9 o’ clock-ish, and he needs to go home and pack and such. Oh, he’s bringing me a lava lamp from Munich. Yeah, I have one already, but I liked another one I saw there, so I kind of nagged him to buy it for me.

I’m hoping the weather is sunny all through the weekend, because part of our plan would be to play our geeky games outdoors. And barbecue stuff like sardines (roasted sardines are a favourite of mine!), chouriços and so on, on the coal grill, which needs to be operated outside. So, Sun please. I need to stay in the shade most the time due to my very pale and IV-sensitive skin (and so that my dermathologist doesn’t kill me), but I like sunny weather.

Not sure if I’ll be posting in the next few days, but I’m hoping I get some photos online at least. I’m usually the first or second person to wake up, so I have some solo time to burn in the mornings.

Have a good weekend, (or holiday and then weekend)!

I Got a Wii Fit, Wot I Do Wif It?

in general by Raquel on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 @ 8:37 pm

Managed to buy a Wii Fit. It was sold out almost everywhere, but luckly people tend to forget that Colombo’s Toys R’ Us also sells consoles and games, so there were still at least 4 there. Also, they gave us a football, which I guess was some sort of Euro 2008 promotion.

We tried out a few of the Wii Fit games and activities, and it’s definitely fun. Also I’ve already done over 30 minutes of exercise today. Go me! \o/

Now I’m slacking and playing a little bit of World of Warcraft on my Rogue (just killing stuff randomly - don’t have the patience to quest) since the TV has been taken over by Lost Odyssey for the XBox 360. I hope to have a Grand Theft Auto 4 to try out on the xbox soon-ish. :> I’m immensly curious about it, and everyone says wonders about the game. Also, I’ve desperately felt the need to unwind by hitting virtual beings lately. Trying to let go of some of the stress at work lately.

While I’m on the subject of games - most of my former (and decent) WoW guild seems to be moving on to Age of Conan. I’m starting to wonder if I should also buy the game. I wasn’t all that into it, to be honest, as I dislike Barbarians, but it sucks to be in a guild where all the cool people seem to have left already. Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving the Karazhan raids with my friends Jorge and João’s guild. They’re relaxed and I love being the Feral Druid that’s the Swiss Army knife. It’s cool to be able to do a multitude of parts on encounters with enemies, and not just stand in a corner spamming heals. There was a particular fight in KZ so far that I liked - we have some trouble with the Maiden still, and it usually takes us like 3 or 4 attempts before we’re able to kill her. This week though we killed her on our second attempt I think, and it went like this (from my point of view): our healing Druid died, so I shapeshifted out of kitten form and battle rezed him back to life, threw in a couple of heals and buffed him, then went back to DPS on the boss in kitty form. Our priest is low on mana, I go out of kitty, Innervate him so he has mana again, go back to kitty DPS on the Maiden. Our tank dies, I turn Bear and both Jorge and I try to get aggro - Jorge has her on his warrior I go back to kitty form. Jorge dies, I go Bear an get her attention for the few seconds left in the fight. We kill her. Swiss Army knife - what did I say? ^^ Oh and I’ve managed to do decent DPS, considering I’m a feral Druid. I’ve even managed to do more DPS than the Rogue that’s been coming along…. not that it’s difficult, he’s pretty crappy in all honesty. He should be way ahead of me on DPS and he’s a bit behind, which sucks.

I think in a few more weeks of gearing up people with Kara loot we might be able to take a poke at Zul’Aman. I haven’t been there at all and I’d love to take a look. Same goes for the Magister’s Terrace.

Right now I’m having an online meeting with the people I’m off on vacations with next 4-day weekend so we can plan how things will be. Logistics are a pain.

Wowo Land

in general by Raquel on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 @ 12:55 am

My latest days have been chaotic. Work has been plenty. We’ve had to do a ton of extra hours (just Monday we did almost half a week worth of hours), worked Saturday, and yesterday we left work after 3 am. So I haven’t had time for much and I really just want to sleep. And then sleep some more. And a massage, because my back is killing me.

Sunday I went to the Oriental Museum. There’s some cool stuff there, mostly unlabled items, so we didn’t know what we were looking at 80% of the time. Also there were way too many people - it was the opening weekend and the entrance was free. I’ll e-mail the Foundation responsible for the Museum a couple of suggestions of things we thought were missing, namely, having labels explaining what each item is, and something like arrows on the floor that people can follow because the place is like a maze. I’ll have to go back sometime to take more photos because the camera I took was low on battery and the large crowd didn’t make taking photos easy.

Been reading manga on my way to and from work lately. Finished the first issue of Chunchu and of Claymore, and am now moving on to Blame!. So far my idea of Blame! is that, despite the art being good, the fight scenes are too long. I’m at the very beginning so I can be wrong on the long run, though.

I’m thinking of buying Wii Fit. I’ve been wanting to exercise and since sometimes I have no clue when I’ll be off work, paying for a gymnasium fee doesn’t feel like a smart move right now. Plus, I get bored easily, so going on my own, I would definitely need to be practicing something like a martial art (Kendo or Tai Chi would be nice) or a team sport so I’d have a goal - either learning something or playing. I can’t stand the thought of running in the same place like a hamster, plus I don’t dance. With a Wii Fit, wouldn’t need to head off anywhere after or before work, and I’d make my own exercise schedule. It’s all sounding good, so I might cough up the 95 euros the thing costs over at Fnac.

I am slowly turning into a barrel of fat, also due to eating unhealthy food and the aforementioned lack of exercise. This usually means I’m feeling down - getting the urge to constantly eat junk. Also, my knee problem was a lot better in the days I was walking like crazy in Munich - these are all signs that I need to start taking care of myself better. Maybe it will boost my self esteem in the process.

Speaking of self esteem, something’s been on my mind lately. I keep wondering why people don’t take initiative about things they want for themselves. I never understood that. Is it that they don’t want to go through the trouble of it? Or that they might dislike the consequences thus lowering their own self-liking? Hm. In any case it’s much too of a late hour for me to trying to make sense out of it.

God, lack of sleep makes me emo. I need to snap out of it because I’m anticipating a huge amount of work. All to be done in less than two weeks. I smell more late nights.

Sigh.

Goya’s Ghosts

in general by Raquel on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 @ 11:29 pm

Watching Goya’s Ghosts when I was already feeling down was perhaps not my brightest moment…

Spoiler-filled text ahead.

The movie is decent enough, even though not a masterpiece.

I get angry when I remember what people do to others ‘in the name of God’ because they perceive them as different from themselves. And this was one of those movies that remind me of that.

Natalie Portman plays a Christian, Inés, who is accused by the Church to be a practitioner of Jewish religious rituals. This was a crime in Spain at that time. That of course ends up with Inés being put to The Question, that is, she is tortured until she confesses she is Jewish, even though she is in truth a Christian.

Ironic that the Napoleoic invasion of Spain is what ends the retardedness that was the Spanish Inquisition.

Oh yeah, kudos to the make-up artist, who actually succeeded in making Natalie Portman look like absolute crap at one point of the movie.

On a lighter note: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

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