Movie Music

I thoroughly enjoy the music of movies. Here I'm talking about background soundtrack music. A great movie score can add so much to a film. Here is a list of my 25 favorite such songs; no surprise that the list is dominated by music from Star Wars (8) and Lord of the Rings (7). I've included links to YouTube videos of each song. This may, of course, be updated as I watch (and rewatch) movies.

1. Duel of the Fates (Star Wars). I struggled with putting this song ahead of the Imperial March. But this song is just an amazing piece of music, both instrumentally and vocally. This song actually gives me the chills.
2. Imperial March (Star Wars). Classic.
3. Battle of the Heroes (Star Wars). Music during the duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan in Episode III. More great vocals and instrumentation.
4. The Black Riders (Lord of the Rings).
5. Swords Crossed (Pirates of the Caribbean).
6. The Battle (Gladiator).
7. Emperor's Theme (Star Wars). Shares a bit with the Imperial March, but used more when the Emperor is on screen; dark and ominous. It's great.
8. Highway Chase Theme (The Matrix: Reloaded).
9. The Bridge of Khazad-dum (Lord of the Rings).
10. The Destruction of the Ring (Lord of the Rings). Good short tune with good vocals.
11. Lobby Shooting Spree Theme (The Matrix).
12. He's a Pirate (Pirates of the Caribbean).
13. Star Wars Main Theme (Star Wars). Includes lots of great music, including the opening crawl theme and the music during the most suspenseful parts of the attack in the Death Star in A New Hope.
14. Isengard (Lord of the Rings).
15. The Fellowship (Lord of the Rings).
16. Driving With the Top Down (Iron Man).
    
17. The Lighting of the Beacons (Lord of the Rings). From Return of the King.
18. Funeral Theme (Star Wars). Great little ominous tune from the prequels with a hint of the original trilogy.
19. Jaws Theme (Jaws).
20. Professor Umbridge (Harry Potter).
21. The Dark Knight Theme (The Dark Knight).
22. Smeagol's Theme (Lord of the Rings).
23. Hedwig's Theme (Harry Potter).
24. Yoda's Theme (Star Wars). Soft and slow music, very good.
25. General Grievous' Theme (Star Wars). A nice piece of music from Episode III.

The Myths

I feel like I'm coming to the end of editing on The Lords of Sargoff. My wife has started to reread it. If I feel okay with it after another read-through or two, I do believe that I'll look into submitting it somewhere over the next few months. No matter what happens, it's been great fun, and I look forward to writing the second book in the series (which I will be doing at some point, whether or not book one ever gets published). I currently envision there being 3-5 books in the series. I know I've mentioned this before, but I've decided that The Lords of Sargoff is the name of the series, and the name of the first book is currently The Second Shadow, but that is not final. (A lot of novels that get published get renamed by the publisher anyway.)

In other writing news, as I have mentioned I may do, I have started expanding on my previously posted article, The Case for Death. The idea is to expand it into something book-length. I have 7 myths that humans often believe about death, and each chapter will be discussing why each myth is incorrect. Below are the seven myths and a quick summary. Let me know if you have any thoughts about any of them. This project is, of course, only in the beginning stages, and I need to flesh out the ideas a lot more. And I need to do a lot of reading.

1. A Good Life is a Long Life. A lot of the times, our focus is on keeping ourselves healthy and living a good, long life. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that shouldn't be our focus. The point of life is not to live as long as possible, but to fulfill God's plan for your life in the time you are given, whether that's twenty years or a hundred years.
2. A Good Life is a Wealthy Life. Same general idea as the previous one; life is not about building up treasures on Earth, but about building up treasures in Heaven. We should be more generous and use our resources for good, instead of simply building up our assets.
3. We Deserve Tomorrow. I think this is one of the toughest for us to understand. As we all know, we're all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. The Bible says that we all deserve death. However, it's not that we deserve death in fifty years; we all deserve it now. This may seem like a morbid thought, but we must realize that each day we have is truly a gift from God, and not a right we have. We should be thankful for every day, because for all of us, tomorrow is not guaranteed.
4. Life is Fair. It, of course, is not fair. Some good people die young, and evil people live long. Some lives are tougher, and some are easier. Life isn't fair, and in reality, it doesn't need to be. Life should not be about complaining that things aren't fair, life is about doing what you can with what you have.
5. Our Life is But Our Own. America is a very individualistic country, with the whole "look out for number one" mentality. We're not on this Earth to live as we like; we should be mindful of the needs of others, and more importantly, surrender to the will of God in our lives. It's about His plan, not ours. For each of us, that plan includes different purposes, different places, different times, and different life spans.
6. Good People Go To Heaven. This is also a tough one to understand, but the Bible clearly teaches that salvation is earned through faith in Christ and not through being a "good" person.
7. Death is the End. We all fear death, but that's due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to die. It is not the end, but merely the beginning of the next (and final) phase in our lives. We must not hold on to our lives so tightly in our fear of death that we never step out of our comfort zones in faith.
   

Top 10 Restaurants

I've decided to make (or remake) some top ten lists that I do not currently have posted on my website. They will likely end up there in time. So today I present to you my updated list of favorite restaurants. (My wife and I went to #2 very recently, for her birthday. It was wonderful.) The next list will likely be Bible verses. Let me know of any list requests! :)

1. Cheesecake Factory
2. The Melting Pot
3. Red Lobster
4. Damon's
5. Buffalo Wild Wings
6. Fuddrucker's
7. Famous Dave's
8. Olive Garden
9. Steak 'N Shake
10. Champp's

Yes, Actually I Am Still Alive

Haven't blogged in a while. Here's a typical what-I've-been-up-to rundown.

• The last couple weeks have been busy at work, as it is election season. While odd numbered years are certainly not as busy as even numbered years, there's still a decent bump in workload, causing us to work longer shifts and weekends. But, tomorrow is election day, then it'll be back to work as normal, if there is such a thing.
• I am thoroughly enjoying the Mustang. It's always a fun car, but I enjoy it most while the top is down. Which, being my normally warm self, happens much more than with most people. I will usually drive around with the top down when the temperature is at least 45 degrees, except on the interstate. I'll drive with the top down on the interstate when it's at least 50 or 55 degrees, but slower speeds allow for a lower temperature without freezing. I'm looking forward to next spring and summer. Especially during the summer, I'll have the top down pretty much all the time, weather permitting.
• I have finally gotten back into doing work on The Lords of Sargoff. I am nearly finished another read-through, continuing to work on making the language more fantasy-like. I'm starting to think I may not be too far away from considering submitting it somewhere, but who knows. Maybe a couple more rounds of edits and I'll decide what to do.
  

The Pony Car

I know most of you have seen pictures of my new car on Facebook, but I thought I'd post them here, along with a little more info on it. On September 20, we acquired a 2003 Ford Mustang convertible, with 64,000 miles. It is white, with a white top, white seats, and black interior. It is the 3.8 liter V6 engine. It has alloy wheels, a 6 disc CD changer, and a nice Mach stereo system.

I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far, especially with the top down. The convertible top goes up or down in about seven seconds. Mustangs have been one of my favorite cars for quite a long time, since high school or before, and in fact, this model of Mustang in convertible form was my #1 car for a while.

The trunk is a little small, but still good enough for me. Though, it will become rather useless over the winter, as it will be more or less full of bags of salt, so there will be a little more weight over the driving rear wheels in the winter. But that's okay.

So now my wife and I purchased 2 cars within about a 2 month period, and had saved up enough to buy both with cash. Hopefully they both end up being good cars and last a long while.

What Happens in Vegas

... ends up on my blog.

On Saturday, we got back from a five night vacation in Las Vegas, which was good fun. It was my first time there, and Megan's second. We stayed at the Excalibur, which looks like a castle. It was pretty neat. We walked around a lot, saw a couple shows, and had some very good food. Here's the overview.

• Oddly enough, the very first thing we did was go on a timeshare tour, where they were trying to get us to buy a timeshare in Vegas, which we had absolutely no interest in. But, we got a good discount on tickets for The Lion King play at the Mandalay Bay hotel. We paid $25 a ticket, instead of the normal $75, so we saved around $100 total. The play itself was on Wednesday night, and was rather good. (I enjoyed the Phantom of the Opera play we went to earlier this year, because it was darker, but this was still good.)
• On Thursday night, we went to see magician David Copperfield perform at the MGM Grand, which was a great show, and to me, the highlight of the trip. He did a lot of neat and crazy tricks. It was a lot of fun.
• On Friday, we went to the Palazzo hotel and walked through the Lamborghini Las Vegas showroom. They had several very nice cars there, but unfortunately, their Lamborghini was not there, as it was rented out. I don't have any idea how much it costs to rent a Lamborghini in Vegas, but it can't be cheap. However, they had 5 Ferraris (I had seen 3 total before, so now I've seen 8), and a few other nice cars. It was very cool. (I have seen 3 Lamborghinis in the past, so that's okay.) Another neat car-related sighting was that, sitting outside one of the hotels, we walked by an Aston Martin Vanquish. Not only had I never actually seen an Aston Martin before, but the Vanquish currently tops my favorite cars list. So that was awesome. Unfortunately, I failed and did not take a picture of it. What was I thinking? There was also the added bonus of it being parked right next to a Dodge Viper. How slick.
• We walked around many of the hotels along the Strip, and saw the neat fountain shows in front of the Bellagio and the Mirage.
• We ate a lot of food, including several buffets, which were quite tasty. We also went to a nice Italian place in the Excalibur, and I had swordfish for the first time, which was pretty good. We also ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was the first time I'd been there.

It was a fun trip, but as always, I'm happy to get back home and back to normal life.

That, and on Sunday I drove down to Jack's and picked up my Mustang, which is very exciting. It's good fun. It was a bummer to wave goodbye to the Cavalier, but I am very happy with my new ride. I'll post more about the Mustang, and more pictures, in an upcoming entry.

The Workless Week

My wife and I are going to Las Vegas during the week of September 14-19. It should be lots of fun, and will, of course, be nice not to have to go to work for a week. We can both use the vacation. I've never been to Vegas myself, but Megan has, and she rather enjoyed it. We will be entertaining ourselves with activities that do not include gambling, as there are lots of shows to go to (none of which include showgirls), and the hotels themselves are interesting to look at and walk through. We are staying at the Excalibur, a hotel that looks like a castle. It should be a good time.

And then, on September 20th, I get to drive down and trade my Cavalier in for the Mustang. I'm super pumped. In case you hadn't seen it on Facebook, I've included a picture of my Cavalier's odometer on August 29. It's been an excellent car, as I've had it for almost 7 years. But, time came to get something different. Only 17 more days until The Age of the Mustang begins... :)