Another new album from one of my favorite bands was released this month. Strike Anywhere just released their latest album titled, Iron Front. First impressions are good, but I have only been able to listen to a few songs so far. It sounds a lot like the previous albums (which is good).

On a side note, I will be seeing these guys in concert on the 24th of October here in Phoenix. I cannot wait to see them again. I just hope I have enough time to listen to their new album and get used to it before seeing them in concert. Anyways, if you are a fan of Strike Anywhere, then check out this album and let me know what you think.

Today Evergreen Terrace released their latest album titled Almost Home. I have been waiting for this album to be released for the past few months. Their MySpace page had a preview of one of their newest songs and it sounded amazing.

Anyways, check out one of their songs below and let me know what you think. This band is fast becoming one of my favorite with each album release.

Today Strung Out released their latest album titled Agents of the Underground. First impressions are good. So far I like this album a lot better than their previous album, Blackhawks Over Los Angeles. Check out one of their songs below and let me know what you think.

Last week I was lucky enough to find and purchase the new Zune HD (ZHD) 16GB. For the past year my wife and I have been fighting over sharing our Zune 8GB, and it was about time we each got our own.

My first impressions with the ZHD are very, very good. Like my previous Zune, the ZHD was beautifully packaged, and I was almost sad to take it out...almost. The height and width lets the device sit nicely in my hand, and the weight makes it feel very solid. It is obviously very thin which allows me to easily stick it in my shirt pocket without noticing it is there.

After the initial battery charge I got to play with the new interface. Again, my first impressions were very, very good. Nvidias graphics chip makes the device very responsive and smooth. A lot of the animations or transitions between screens are very fluid and beautifully rendered on its screen.

If you are looking for a great mp3 player then I would definitely recommend the Zune HD. I will have a full review and more pictures once I have more face time with the device.

So I decided to put together a quick list of games I'm currently interested in playing the most this holiday season. Let me know if I left any out, or your thoughts on the games I have selected.

Farcry 2

This game has been out for a week or two now, and even though it's one of my most anticipated games of this year, I haven't had time to buy it or play it. But I plan to soon!

Left 4 Dead

I will be getting this game when it comes out next week. No matter what. ZOMBIES!!.

Tomb Raider: Underworld

I like the new Tomb Raider games, so shut up. It's OK Lara, I still love you.

Gears of War 2

The first one was damn fun. This one looks damn fun and epic. But, damn it, I need to renew my Xbox Live Gold subscription in order to play online.

And there's my list. Yes, I know about Fallout 3, and no, I don't really care. I never got into the previous games, so I'm not too interested in this one. Sorry. I can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting another game. Anyways, all I have to do now is stop playing Guild Wars (bitten by the bug again) and maybe I'll have time to start playing these games.

Since I started building my own CMS one of the biggest hurrdles I faced was XML-RPC. You can find lots of information about it here. In short, without implementing XML-RPC my CMS would not be able to do trackbacks, pings, and most importantly use 3rd-party applications to manage stuff on my site.

I've tried in the past to read about XML-RPC, but nothing made sense. There was no simple tutorial about it, or how it works, or how to set it up. That is, until, I found a wonderful SitePoint article here. Not only does the site explain XML-RPC in layman's terms, but it also shows you how to create a client-server environment with PHP.

Since reading that article, I've finally been able to start creating my own XML-RPC scripts. Right now, I'm just using the basic MetaWeBlog API, but will upgrade to a more thorough API like Movable Type in the future. Who knows, I might just create my own way down the road.

On the other side, watching the local news about Arizona's results, has me less than thrilled. Looks like cranky ol' Joe Arpaio will be re-elected as Sheriff, while Fire-and-Brimstone Andrew Thomas will remain County Attorney. I'm not too surprised about this outcome, but was hoping for more change on a more local level.

And it looks like Prop 102 will be passing. The biggest proposition that I was opposed to is predicted to pass. For those who don't know, Prop 102 adds an amendment to the Arizona Constitution that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. It's basically a lame proposition that will enforce the lame religious beliefs of lame religious people who see gay people as the end-all-be-all of family values, and state they cannot get married (even though Arizona already has laws against that).

While it's sad to see my state take a step backwards in acceptance, it was overshadowed by the victory of Barack Obama.

My civic duties are done for the time being, and I feel good about it.

But I'm still disappointed in our country's voting methods. As the world leader in democracy, you'd think we would have a more consistent way of voting. Some places have computers with touch-screens, while others have paper ballots. There is also mail-in ballots, absentee ballots, and early voting. Plus, let's not forget the fact that voting regulations differ from state to state. Here in Arizona our polling places are open from 6am to 7pm. Other states, like Florida, are only open from 8am to 5pm. While, other states like Oregon only have mail-in voting.

It worries me sometimes to think of all these different voting methods and regulations. I know some are in place to help make voting easier, but overall the whole voting system seems kind of chaotic. How accurate of a count do we really get? What's our suspected margin of error, or better yet, what's acceptable?

Still, these concerns will not stop me from voting, and I hope they don't stop any of you either. Democracy only works with an open forum of well informed people who willingly partake in it.

Here's the basic jist of the email I received regarding this betrayl:

Barack Obama recently finished a $500,000 total overhaul of his 757. And as part of the new design, he decided to remove the American flag from the tail...

What American running for President of the United States would remove the symbol of his country? And worse, he replaced the flag with a symbol of himself.

Below is a picture of Obama's plane. Those with small children or who are blindly patriotic should divert their eyes:

Pretty bad, eh? Well, not really. Actually, not at all. All you people bitching and moaning about this are being completely ridiculous. Are trivial things like this really going to make your decision on who should be the next American president? If they do, then as much as I hate to say it, you probably shouldn't be voting.

Finally, let's take a look at John McCain's campaing plane shall we:

While this picture doesn't show it, there actually is a small flag shown towards the bottom rear of the plane. But let's not also forget the the flag that was on Obama's plane was the logo for the company that manufactured that plane. Obama simply replaced their logo with his own.

To be serious, lots of people are basing their votes on stupid shit like this. This is why I cannot stress enough how important it is to do your own research on the candidates and make your own logical conclusion. Do not be persuaded by these partisan emails or major media outlets.