*IS TEN THOUSAND TIMES DED*

Oh my... I cannot articulate how much I love this, mostly because I am laughing too hard. But seriously, this has just given me an entire year's worth of joy in the space of five minutes.

Okay, everyone knows The Wind Beneath My Wings, right? Here's Michael Ball's version, which I happen to like, for reference (excuse the Xena, but this was the only version of it I could find on Youtube). Classic, slow, sentimental, much loved song you can play at weddings, funerals and your Dad's sixtieth birthday bash. You know the one.

Now, here are my beloved, beloved boys Sonata Arctica (YES, the Finnish metal band, for those of you sitting at the back) doing their version of this pop classic. I... am INCOHERENT, seriously. Oh, my BOYS. This is simultaneously utterly and soaringly gorgeous and the funniest thing I have heard ALL DECADE. ~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Dear power metal scene, and Sonata Arctica in particular, I love you very, very much. Please do not ever, ever change, and in particular please do not ever develop ANY sense of how you look to people whose senses of the ridiculous have developed beyond the embryonic. Please keep doing wonderful, ludicrous, utterly unselfconscious things like this for ever and ever, because the world could more easily spare a million scoffers than it could spare one band THIS AWESOME. ^_^

...I would totally dance to this if it ever got played in a club. And if they play it live next time I see them, I bet I cry. ^_^

Laters,
Rath

For special entertainment of my darling (lj)yvesilena and also because I think it was doing me good. Since I've missed a couple of weeks these aren't all from today, but here are six things that have made me happy today or at least recently:

1) W40K! I've been reading a bunch of Black Library stuff and found a couple of fantastic Chaos stories; it's soooo nice to see various members of the Traitor Legions being written as real characters rather than just one-dimensional bad guys. The bloodshed, the camaraderie, the exhilaration, the altered but definitely still real codes of honour and brotherhood - and, yes, the pain of being caught between worlds and between oaths for all time, and having to handle it by any means that lets you (figuratively) sleep at night. This is the stuff I want to read, and wish people had started writing a lot earlier. Not just a bunch of grinning arseholes with axes any more - these are Chaos Champions. *nods* ♥

2) Discovering just now that actor/wrestler Kevin Nash, of whom I'm something of a fan, is apparently going to be let out of hospital tomorrow and should basically be okay! Given that two days ago the reports were that he might have anything up to MRSA (*shudders*), I am SO relieved to hear this. Fingers crossed that nothing else goes wrong for him! *sends fanhugs*

3) Getting the next session done on my epic Ghost Rider tattoo! For the record, it looks amazing. And my brain is apparently permanently rewired, at this point, to accept a certain type of "pain" as being An Okay Thing, because I no longer seem to feel any animal urge to pull away from the needle at all. Also, the afterburn (for those who aren't inked, it feels kinda like a graze or a bad sunburn) seems to now register as an actively pleasurable sensation, which is fantastic because it means that the outer curve of my left arm, from shoulder to elbow, is now one solid wall of ohhellyeah whenever it gets knocked or I stretch too far. Niiiiice. ^_^

4) I have my ticket for Lordi in February! Nuff said. ^____^

5) Finding a very, very cool photo of one of my favourite wrestlers showing off his car. Behold, Edge in a black '69 Camaro! (Man, if I hadn't fancied him already... *g*)

6) Getting my "we sent you money" slip from GW, meaning that I can afford to live and fight another day AND go to see my mum and dad next weekend! This gives me much joy as I do miss them, and home, really a lot.

So yeah. Not everything is perfect at the moment, but I'd rather post about the stuff that is than the stuff that isn't. I know which I'd rather read back over six months from now, anyway. ^_^

How is everyone else?

Laters,
Rath

PS, Oh, and one more cool thing that didn't fit in the list: Scan from somewhere in Marvel Secret Invasion. There's having God on your side... and then there's being the Avengers. *loves this page*