Condi with Hillary…. and Angelina Jolie. Don’t ask. But three of the most powerful woman in the world together!
Why has the United States never had a woman President? Andy Rooney ponders that question in this installment of 60 Minutes, where he goes into some of the reasons why America has never had a female chief executive.
Which, just as Andy says, is quite strange when you really think about it. Considering how many women there are in the US, and the fact that more women vote than men. Andy also talks about the prison population in the United States, and the fact that only 7% of inmates in America are girls or women.
Are women smarter than men are? Are they more capable? Is the average woman better educated than a man? As of 2005, more women did graduate from college than men… Is it because women think that a woman is not capable of leading the country as much as a man is? Why out of 300 million Americans has a women never been chosen for the Presidency?
I find it sad too that Andy Rooney’s liberal philosophy keeps him from naming some of the extremely capable women that would’ve made great Presidents, the top pick for me who has always been Condoleezza Rice (and remains so). Hillary Clinton has also always been the obvious one, but he doesn’t name her either.
So what countries have had woman Presidents? Quite a few actually, more than I thought:
Margeret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of Britain no less than three times.
Other countries with Woman Presidents As of 2005 Included:
* Argentina
* Iceland
* The Phillipines
* Nicaragua
* Ecuador
* Findland
* Liberia
* Chile
and
Ireland.
And of course, in modern times, Germany’s all-powerful Angelia Merkel.
Here is Andy Rooney on A Woman US President:
What do you think about the Woman President issue, would you ever vote for a Woman President? Who would your choice be right now? Do you think Hillary Clinton would’ve defeated John McCain to succeed George W. Bush if Barack Obama had not stolen the election from her?
The cover artwork for Celestial Progression, a new remix album by Becoming the Archetype.
Be warned headbangers, Becoming the Archetype’s remix album Celestial Progression is sure to disappoint if you go into the album thinking of metal bliss and expecting to headbang to some awesome remixes. Awesome this album ain’t.
What you get instead are extremely lowkey, slow, techno-style remixes that don’t impress in the slightest with the amazing source material that the remixers were given to play around with. I cannot put into words how disappointed I am with this album. There is so much cool stuff that could’ve been done with such an amazing and diverse work as Celestial Completion… is any of that put to good use here? Nope. I feel like any of these songs could’ve been made by a fan. Like something you’d find by some 12 year old that’s good at remixing and uploaded to youtube. This is the type of stuff you’d expect to hear on a remix site like “OC Remix”, not a professional release from a major label.
Basically the remixes have taken all of the edge out of Becoming the Archetype… and what you get are subpar remixes that attempt to take Becoming into a very slow direction. They’re not necessarily bad or horrible or anything, they’re just… there. Unimpressively. You keep waiting for something awesome to happen… And then it doesn’t. Very, very sad. At least this is just a filler as BtA gears up for their next REAL album with their all-new vocalist; but I believe this album will leave a bad taste in the mouth of fans, and will whet the appetite of absolutely NO ONE. “Fail”. *cries*
Now let’s go through “Celestial Progression” track-by-track, these opinions mark my INITIAL LISTEN, as I wrote this review as I listened to the album for the first time.
Song #1. Breathing Liquid (Born of Water Remix) (4:13)
This song starts off extremely slow… and that slowness is carried throughout the song. This song was really disappointing to me, as I was expecting the album to start off with a bang, and something that sounded really cool. And I don’t believe that Breathing Liquid (a very cool name) fits that criteria. Although the first “wubbing” part with Jason Wisdom’s awesome vocals is definitely a high point. The song is a remix of the final track from Celestial Completion, called “Breathing Light”, and uses vocals from the song throughout. I really disliked the singing portion and how it was remixed here… of course Breathing Light is one of my least favorite tracks on Celestial Completion (it’s the one I skip the most), so maybe that has something to do with it. But overall I just found this track to be lacking and nothing special. It feels like your average techno-style remix.
Song #2. We Ride (Giant Robot Remix) (2:40)
This song starts off with a slow remix of the main chorus from “Beam of Light” (My FAVORITE song from Celestial Progression), however I’m just not a fan of the way the vocals are generally mixed in this album… There is no punch to them, and they are kinda muddled. Once again, I was expecting something fast-paced or cool sounding, and this Giant Robot remix doesn’t deliver at all, and in fact goes in the opposite direction. Which to me seems like a huge wasted opportunity for such a badass song as Beam of Light… This was another subpar song IMHO.
Song #3. Invisible Sitar (Giant Robot Remix) (4:12)
Now THIS is what I’m talking about! This song starts out with a very cool sounding, slight remix of the “Invisible Creature” interlude track from Celestial Completion that plays before “Cardiac Rebellion”. It’s a really Egyptian sounding song, like something you’d expect to hear in Aladdin with a Cobra snake tempter. Basically this same tune plays throughout the song, and even plays as vocals from the “Requiem Aeternam” trilogy from Celestial Completion are overlaid over it (a VERY cool touch!). Once again this isn’t exactly what I was hoping to hear on this album, but this song is leagues ahead of the other two and sounds pretty sweet simply because the Egyptian tune is such an awesome one. The song changes the tune and adds enough to it to stretch it out throughout the track without it becoming too tiresome or repetitive, although you will think that for a bit as you realize that the same tune is extended through the WHOLE song. But either way this is definitely the single STANDOUT track so far. Even then I wouldn’t say this track is necessarily anything special.
Song #4. Elemental Bond (Giant Robot Remix) (3:22)
This song starts out with a remix of … some music I recognize but can’t quite place at the moment. It has a kinda cool, operatic sound to it… however once again it’s pretty slow and too laid back… and the same tune is played throughout. It’s a great tune, so the track isn’t a whole loss. But it just feels like it doesn’t do enough with it… This track doesn’t feature any vocals, which was surprising. Another disappointing track IMHO. I’m sensing a trend. :(
Song #5. Space Refraction (Giant Robot Remix) (3:15)
This song opens with a pretty cool intro, with the main tune of “Reflect/Refract” from Celestial Completion being played over some Castlevania-style music, which slows down considerably for a piano section. This song is saved thanks to the fact that it replays some of the coolest bits of Reflect/Refract, although once again it kinda has that muddled sound to it which is somewhat annoying. This would have to be my second favorite track, simply because it has a cooler sound than any of the other songs so far and does an alright job by using some of the great instrumental sections of the source song. No vocals on this track once again…
Song #6. Magnetic World (Giant Robot Remix) (4:04)
This song is a remix of “Magnetic Sky”, starting off with “The final chapter, has already been written, the story has already… been told” sung line from Celestial Completion while then transitioning into a very slow piano piece. This remix has a kinda emotional feel to it and the music does move you, but the lyrics don’t really fit to this music… you can see what they were going for though. And this feels like a better thought out song than the previous remixes, with a real theme to it, a sad theme, that carries the song throughout. It does a good job of it, and I think this will be one of the few tracks that you will go back and listen to again after you finish the album. Especially near the end, the track really layers on the somber tone. This is a definite HIGHLIGHT, but not an impressive song. Much like the entire album.
In the end, I cannot recommend this album to anyone. It’s, quite simply, as average as they come. There are no real standout tracks, and it only has SIX of them. I feel like most people will be entirely disappointed by this album… although if you go into it knowing what to expect, you may be able to get some enjoyment out of it. As for me, I’ll pretend it never existed and twiddle my thumbs some more until Becoming the Archetype returns to the scene with their next metal album.
Score: 5 out of 10 Stars (Completely and utterly average).
Becoming the Archetype is among my top three favorite bands of all time, including Demon Hunter and The Showdown, all bands from Solid State. Despite the low review scores of this album, all of Becoming the Archetype’s albums are incredible and I urge you to pick all of them up, you will NOT be disappointed! The first album you should pick up is the absolutely awe-inspiring Dichotomy, which is one of the greatest Christian albums ever made in my humble opinion!
Drilling is fun! Cover artwork for Drill Dozer (Screw Breaker in Japan) released in 2005 for GBA. The girl’s name is Jill.
If you know me, you know that there are TONS AND TONS of videogames I’ve never played. Sadly, although I consider myself to be a “hardcore” gamer, I really am not compared to most “gamers”. The reason for that is because, unlike other more productive people, I can never seem to find the time to play games. Period.
In fact, my most played system as of late has been my Nintendo 3DS, and that’s simply because it is the easiest system to play when I’m sitting on the throne…. And cause I’m a hardcore Nintendo fanboy to boot.
So I thought it would be fun to go through some of the games I’d LOVE to play and still plan on playing someday, but never have up to this point and why I want to play them. Maybe I’ll get to them at some point, and hopefully soon; but maybe not. We’ll see. Enjoy.
EPISODE #4 – DRILL DOZER Released: 2005 System: Game Boy Advanced Re-Released: Never Genre: Platformer Developed By: Game Freak Publisher: Nintendo Creator: Ken Sugimori and Satoshi Tajiri (creators of Pokemon) Is There A Digital Version?: No
Using the Drill to kill some baddies in this Drill Dozer GBA gameplay screenshot.
Drill Dozer is a fantastic, award-winning platformer from developer Game Freak. Does the name sound familiar? If so, you recognize it because of Pokemon. Game Freak is the company that developed and created Pokemon for publisher Nintendo, before becoming acquired by Nintendo and officially becoming a Nintendo second party developer. There have been very, very few games created by Game Freak outside of Pokemon, especially post-Pokemon.
A few they did develop include 1991’s Game Boy puzzler Yoshi, the Game Boy Pocket’s 1998 accessory the “Game Boy Camera”, the Hudson Soft-published Mendel Palace for NES in 1989, the Sega Genesis action classic Pulseman for publisher Sega, and several games published by Sony including Click Medic for PlayStation One (1999) and the SNES, Sony-published titles Smart Ball 1 aka Jerry Boy in Japanese (1991) and Smart Ball 2 (1994).
Don’t cross Jill or she’ll Drill ya! Yeah baby, YEAH!
However arguably their best and most recognized non-Pokemon title is a little-known, critically acclaimed GBA game called… Drill Dozer. In Japan it was called “Screw Breaker”. I kinda like the sound of the latter one better…
When making Pokemon games and new versions of the same Pokemon game continuously, it must be really hard to find time to create an all-new game, but that was the goal with Drill Dozer, and the game immediately caught notice of the press for it’s unique drilling mechanics, excellent platform gameplay and fun world, characters and art design.
That’s right, Drill For Thrills! :D
From what I know about Drill Dozer, the game has you playing as a girl that drives a mech-style machine she sits in that sports a giant drill sticking out of its front. The hook comes in the way you use the drill to solve puzzles and interact with the environment in this unique side-scrolling platformer. Game Freak and Satoshi Tajiri wanted to use unique features of the Game Boy Advance system, including buttons that they never had to use in the extremely simple, RPG gameplay of Pokemon.
This lead them to the Game Boy Advance’s newest and biggest change from the original Game Boy… The addition of two shoulder buttons, L and R, giving it four buttons total instead of the Game Boy’s two. Thus, the idea of Drill Dozer is that the player must use the R Button to spin the drill to the right, and the L Button to spin it to the Left. These mechanics are cleverly implemented into the game as the player must quickly and precisely drill objects and enemies in different directions to defeat them, or clear obstacles. And if the player holds the button down for too long, the drill will overheat!
Here’s a look at Drill Dozer in action!
Upon release Drill Dozer was hailed as an excellent game and got great reviews from all publications. It was even nominated for a few awards, including Game Boy Advance Game of the Year and Platformer of the Year.
For these reasons, the game has always remained a “MAN I SO WANT TO PLAY THIS!” title on my list and remained a “must-buy” for years and years after its release. I finally got around to buying it one day as the GBA was weaning out, and a store was selling it for super cheap. Thus I picked it up with a huge smile on my face… and it has sat on my shelf, still shrink-wrapped, ever since! DAMN IT! >_<
And now that I realize I have a shrink-wrapped copy of this little-known GBA gem, a part of me demands to never open it… *sigh* Curse my collecting nature!
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