Wednesday 25 June 2014

Mid year music purchases

It's almost halfway through the year so I thought I'd take a photo of all the music albums I've bought so far this year.  A bit of a strange collection so far.


My OCD is going slightly nuts because I forgot about NIN Recoiled so that's on the top.  But then that's one band I have bought almost everything (Halo 12 is the only one I don't have) so it's kinda fitting that it's on top of the other CDs.  Bugger, also Tron Legacy is under T instead of D.

So, in alphabetical order (surnames first):

ACDC
     Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
     Powerage
     For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

Aerosmith
     Live! Bootleg
     Rock In A Hard Place
     Gems
     Nine Lives
     Just Push Play

Christina Aguilera
     Stripped
     Back To Basics (double)
     Bionic (double with lenticular sleeve)
     Lotus (Deluxe Edition)

Lily Allen
     Alright, Still....
     It's Not Me, It's You (Special Edition)

Black Sabbath
     Nativity In Black: A Tribute To Black Sabbath

Butcher Babies
     Goliath

Cradle of Filth
     Dusk and Her Embrace
     Godspeed on The Devil's Thunder: the Life and Crimes of Gilles De Rais (Special Edition) (double)

Daft Punk
     Tron Legacy

The Dust Brothers
     Fight Club Original Score

Genitorturers
     Flesh is the Law
     Blackheart Revolution

Guns N Roses
     Use Your Illusion I: World Tour 1992 in Tokyo (DVD)

In This Moment
     Blood (Re-Issue & Bonus) (double)

Machine Head
     Unto the Locust (Deluxe Collector's Edition) (double)

Manic Street Preachers
     National Treasures - The Complete Singles

Meat Loaf
     Bat Out of Hell
     Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell

Muse
     Showbiz
     Origin of Symmetry
     Hullabaloo
     The 2nd Law

Nine Inch Nails/Coil
     Recoiled

Nirvana
     Bleach (20th Anniversary Edition)
     In Utero (20th Anniversary Edition) (double)

Primus
     Frizzle Fry

Rage Against The Machine
     Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium
     Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium (DVD)

Red Hot Chili Peppers
     I'm With You

R.E.M.
     Monster

Satyricon
     The Age of Nero (double)

The Sisters of Mercy
     Original Album Series

Strange Days - Music From the Motion Picture

And that's it.

Some of these I've had in the past and either they've been damaged or lost so I've had to get them again, others I've been meaning to get for a while.

I've already got a number of Aerosmith and ACDC albums but I still need to finish off the collections, although for Aerosmith I'm only really after the 70s-90s stuff.  I was lucky enough to get the very limited edition Pandora's Toys wooden box version when it was first released, since then I've tried to get all the classic Columbia collection (remasters?) as seen in the pic above.

I've fallen behind with Cradle of Filth and I think I still need one or two others plus the new one (Manticore?).  I had to get Dusk again as I'm not wanting to touch my digipack SE version as the lettering on the front is drastically wearing off.  Thankfully there's only one song difference between the two discs (Nocturnal Supremacy '96) and it's not one that I'll really miss as I prefer the original on V Empire.

I already have the original release CDs of Nirvana's albums but thought I'd get the Deluxe Editions purely for the bonus tracks.  I've still to get the Nevermind one, I'm not sure if they did one for Incesticide which is a shame if they didn't.  That had some really good tunes on it.

I've got a long way to go to get the Les Claypool collection, but I'm not that bothered about the Duo De Twang stuff.  I do like the Flying Frog Brigade stuff but Primus is the main one for me.  Nothing beats a bit of Fisticuffs or Shake Hands With Beef.  and their cover of The Thing That Should Not Be is absolutely amazing.  In fact here it is:


Bugger, you'll have to watch it on youtube itself.  HAVE TO!

The RATM Live album is the only one I didn't have (except for the debut anniversary).  They're brilliant live.  I liked it so much that I immediately ordered the DVD.

The Sisters of Mercy is a band that I've loved since I saw the video for Dominion.  I've had the albums second had for a while but they've definitely seen better days so I thought I'd shell out a tenner for the complete set (First And Last And Always, Floodland, Vision Thing, Some Girls Wander By Mistake, A Slight Case Of Overbombing).  It's a shame that Eldritch isn't releasing stuff.  I know there's various reasons stopping him, but it's a damn shame.


Another one to watch on the 'tube.

I haven't spoken about the odd ones.  Christina - amazing voice.  Lily - funny.  Meat Loaf - never had the albums before and loved the first one, liked the second, thought I'd get both.  Not heard the third.  R.E.M. - not a huge fan, but I do like some of their stuff and Monster has some good tunes on it (Crush With Eyeliner and Strange Currencies)

A fair number (maybe just over half?) were bought second hand, I'm not made of money.

After all these, I doubt I'll be buying many albums for the rest of the year!

Tuesday 3 June 2014

Minecraft builds

I thought I'd post a few photos of what I've built in one of my Minecraft Xbox 360 worlds.  Most of these I found online elsewhere so I'm not saying that I actually Minecraft-ised the stuff.


First up is the Companion Cube which is the first thing I built.  All 6 sides are complete even though you're unlikely to see the top or bottom.  I then added Chell.  I couldn't be bothered to make her to scale compared to the cube.  That would've been too much bother.

I then thought I'd add G-Man and Gordon Freeman to represent Black Mesa.



Then there's Pyramid Head.  I am a big Silent Hill fan but I'm possibly in the minority that I'm not too keen on SH2.  I did like the extensions to the mythology but I just couldn't care about James and his lethargic, suicidal tendencies.  I got bored with his stupid decisions.  I did love Pyramid Head though (not a fan of the Red Pyramid name).

I was hoping that the cameo in SH:Homecoming would lead to more appearances and maybe even see a little glimpse of someone else in SH or Shepherd's Glen (I can't remember where the cameo took place) and that would lead to another game in which we see the reverse happening.  that would've been nice.  Shame it didn't happen.  Anyways, enough about Silent Hill for now.



And  if we have Silent Hill, we've got to have Resident Evil.  So I built a big house with this as the ground floor.  I'm standing on the top stair which is directly across from the entrance.  Also, underneath the stairs there's a not-so-secret switch that opens a hole in the floor that leads to...


...the test labs.  T- and G-Virus statues in the center with 3 labs on each side.  Each lab has their own desk, workbench, decontamination room and holding cell for creatures.  the lab also has a rail going to the End Portal which was handily nearby.  I built a Nether Portal in the same dungeon as a sort of expedition center for Umbrella.



And while we're doing horror things I might as well put up a Cute Cthulhu on top of a hill overlooking the world like he should be.  He's also near the east of the map which has plenty of water that I'm sure is connected to the Pacific.



I thought I'd have a bit of fun and recreate the hedge maze from Kubrick's The Shining.  It's actually taken from the map of the maze when the family are getting the tour.  I did think about doing the maze Wendy and Danny walk through in the film but realised that it'd be far too big to put in the space avaliable (I've got other buildings in the world that I'm not taking photos of as they're pretty boring).



And then there's the base of operations with what I think is a nice lava/water display.  The building next to the farm has a fully stocked underground bunker for end of the world happenings aswell as a library and hidden work areas.  the small wooden building behind that is the railway station that connects to each building shown previously.

One thing I forgot to show is the lookout tower in the distance which has a battle arena below it with fully stocked dispensers for levelling up.  there's also a small room nearby that has creature eggs in them to refill the dispensers.

So that's it for my museum world.  I may add more things at some point (like Chris, Jill and a few zombies) but I'm not sure when.