Yesterday I found out that my favourite band is suffering an immense loss. Their drummer and co-founder Mike Portnoy (the world's most awesome drummer!!) is leaving the group after a dispute. For those who have ever experienced this - you will understand my pain and shock. Never again will the tunes by that band sound the same, any drum solo will always lack that little something added by the genius that is Portnoy, and every dark song will have to do without his deep voice in the background setting the setting for a horrible story in the lyrics. After 25 years, Dream Theater are no longer. I am going into mourning....
MIKE PORTNOY QUITS DREAM THEATER (info provided by TotalRock Newsletter and Dream Theater's official site)
Drummer Mike Portnoy has sensationally left Dream Theater. However, the band intend to carry on without the founder-member. This is what Portnoy has said: "After 25 years, I have decided to leave Dream Theater... the band I founded, led and truly loved for a quarter of a century. "To many people this will come as a complete shock, and will also likely be misunderstood by some, but please believe me that it is not a hasty decision...it is something I have struggled with for the last year or so... "After having had such amazing experiences playing with Hail!, Transatlantic and Avenged Sevenfold this past year, I have sadly come to the conclusion that I have recently had more fun and better personal relations with these other projects than I have for a while now in Dream Theater. "Please don't misinterpret me, I love the Dream Theater guys dearly and have a long history, friendship and bond that runs incredibly deep with them... it's just that I think we are in serious need of a little break. "Dream Theater was always my baby...and I nurtured that baby every single day and waking moment of my life since 1985... 24/7, 365... never taking time off from Dream Theater's never-ending responsibilites (even when the band was 'off' between cycles)... working overtime and way beyond the call of duty that most sane people ever would do for a band. "But I've come to the conclusion that the Dream Theater machine was starting to burn me out...and I really needed a break from the band in order to save my relationship with the other members and keep my Dream Theater spirit hungry and inspired. "We have been on an endless write/record/tour cycle for almost 20 years now (of which I have overseen EVERY aspect without a break) and while a few months apart from each other here and there over the years has been much needed and helpful, I honestly hoped the band could simply agree with me to taking a bit of a 'hiatus' to recharge our batteries and 'save me from ourselves'... "Sadly, in discussing this with the guys, they determined they do not share my feelings and have decided to continue without me rather than take a breather... I even offered to do some occasional work throughout 2011 against my initial wishes, but it was not to be... "While it truly hurts for me to even think of a Dream Theater without Mike Portnoy (hell, my father named the band!!), I do not want to stand in their way...so I have decided to sacrifice myself and simply leave the band so as to not hold them back against their wishes. "Strangely enough, I just read an interview that I recently did that asked me about the future of Dream Theater and I talked about 'always following your heart and being true to yourself'... Sadly, I must say that at this particular moment, my heart is not with Dream Theater...and I would simply be 'going through the motions,' and would honestly NOT be true to myself if I stayed for the sake of obligation without taking the break I felt I needed. "I wish the guys the best and hope the music and legacy we created together is enjoyed by fans for decades to come... I am proud of every album we made, every song we wrote and every show we played.... "I'm sorry to all the disappointed Dream Theater fans around the world... I really tried to salvage the situation and make it work... I honestly just wanted a break (not a split)... but happiness cannot be forced, it needs to come from within. "You Dream Theater fans are the greatest fans in the world and as you all know, I have always busted my ass for you guys and I hope that you will stay with me on my future musical journey, wherever it may lead me.... (and as you all know my work ethic, there will surely be no shortage of future Mike Portnoy projects!)" The band have also issued a statement: "To all of our loyal fans and friends: It is with profound sadness — regret — we announce that Mike Portnoy, our lifelong drummer and friend, has decided to leave Dream Theater. "Mike's stature in the band has meant the world to all of us professionally, musically, and personally over the years. There is no dispute: Mike has been a major force within this band. "While it is true that Mike is choosing to pursue other ventures and challenges, we can assure you that Dream Theater will continue to move forward with the same intensity — and in the same musical tradition — that you have all helped make so successful, and which is truly gratifying to us. "Fans and friends: File this episode under Black Clouds And Silver Linings. "As planned, we begin recording our newest album in January 2011, and we'll follow that with a full-on world tour. "All of us in Dream Theater wholeheartedly wish Mike the best on his musical journey. We have had a long and meaningful career together. It is our true hope that he finds all he is looking for, and that he achieves the happiness he deserves. He will be missed."
Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts
Yesterday God was with you, today - you are under his care. Don't worry about tomorrow, he is already there :)
He is amazing, folks! I just have to tell you that he really provides, it's the dead honest truth. I am filled with so much love for him. He's the best. He is so personal and so full of grace and forgiveness. And the best thing is that he really cares, for each and every one who believes in him. Learn to trust God and you will never regret giving things to him!
I am a total control freak, and I always want to do things my way, but recently God has shown me again and again that after I have done my part all I should do is trust in Him to do his. That has NOT been easy for me, especially during exam times. However, he has pulled me through and all I can do now is thank him for the incredible work he has done in me and praise him for his glory.
I am a total control freak, and I always want to do things my way, but recently God has shown me again and again that after I have done my part all I should do is trust in Him to do his. That has NOT been easy for me, especially during exam times. However, he has pulled me through and all I can do now is thank him for the incredible work he has done in me and praise him for his glory.
Ok, so I have attempted to read this book online but failed miserably as the copy they have doesn't actually correspond to the real book. It jumps over chapters and there are misspellings and misprints everywhere, half of the sentences don't have endings and there are letters in some that just don't belong. So I went to my favorite bookstore to seek a hard copy, yet the only one they had had a Twilight-styled cover that said "Bella and Edward's favorite book, read the original now", and as I could not get myself to buy a book that has anything to do with Twilight I ordered a different copy which will hopefully arrive within a week. Meanwhile I have watched 3 different film adaptations of the book and can say right now that I much preferred the 1998 version to the 1992 and 2009 versions. I also found a song about it sung by Kate Bush. Never heard of her before but the song is good and I guess it helped her earn some money. Well well, as I remarked earlier she is not the only one taking advantage of this book's popularity.
My gosh how quickly the time goes by. Today I woke up and realised that so many things have changed just in a matter of days. Funny how that can happen, right? It's no longer March, I'm no longer in England, I've finished reading 1984 and my holiday will end in just 3 weeks. Everything is changing and I'm not sure whether it's for the best or for the worst. I'm in a state of in-between where nothing is certain, but I'm not even sure I want it to be certain because somehow it seems that as soon as I find out what the future holds it will lose some of the air of mystery around itself. It will be like the past - familiar and safe, but also boring in a sense. Yet there is a need inside for something...constant...something I can depend on so that if everything else fails and falls to a million bits and pieces, like it has done so many times before, that I will still have something left to hold on to. Wow that sounds so melancholy but I guess that's what happens when you've suddenly got so many hours a day to think about stuff like this.
So today I spent at least 5 hours trying to understand these 2 chapters in the Bible that were just difficult to grasp. These were Judges, chapters 11 and 12. Can't say it was time wasted, but it was definitely very challenging and somewhat frustrating. When your Bible is a New-Norwegian translation and you are reading the old testament, things become very complicated in a matter of seconds. 
The language is just a bit...tricky, to say the least. Luckily I did not have to despair for long because of the great invention of the Internet!!! I googled the NIV version and read the chapters, but then a new problem arose. I just did not get it. Have you ever had that happen to you - one minute you are reading something and you understand everything and all is fine, and the next you're just lost and you can't seem to grasp anything? It's like you kind of know what it's saying but then again something isn't quite adding up and there seems to be a deeper meaning with all of it that you just don't get. Well, that's what happened to me anyway. Never mind all the people and places that have oh so difficult names (which I often seem to confuse...I always confuse city names with people names :S), but the random vow and the brutal sacrifice just don't fit in let alone make any sense.
Luckily the Internet had some answers for me. As did my pastor who happened so conveniently to be online when I was stuck with all these questions. At the end of the day I finally grasped some valuables from these chapters and here is what I learned:
1) Never make rash decisions or vow's. And whatever you do don't treat God as a vending machine saying if you give me this then I will... God knows what he wants from you and he will tell/ask whenever and whatever he sees fit
2) All can serve God, no matter what background you come from, what your relatives and family have done you are not them and it is up to you whether you are going to choose to serve God or not. He has a plan for everyone and he never puts anyone in "booths" of useful and useless. Therefore neither should we put each other in those booths, for none of us are better than others
3) If you are in a quarrel with someone, do not attack them with aguments and anger, you are then stooping to their level. In stead, try to show the other party their unreasonableness by calm explanation of your point of view, if the other person hears you then you can resolve the issue calmly and no one will come to harm.
4) Trust in God in all you do and ask for His advice. Only He knows all and will tell you what the right thing is. Doing it your way without consulting God is very silly and often you end up in a situation you could have easily avoided if you had just sought God's word and listened to Him in the first place.
The language is just a bit...tricky, to say the least. Luckily I did not have to despair for long because of the great invention of the Internet!!! I googled the NIV version and read the chapters, but then a new problem arose. I just did not get it. Have you ever had that happen to you - one minute you are reading something and you understand everything and all is fine, and the next you're just lost and you can't seem to grasp anything? It's like you kind of know what it's saying but then again something isn't quite adding up and there seems to be a deeper meaning with all of it that you just don't get. Well, that's what happened to me anyway. Never mind all the people and places that have oh so difficult names (which I often seem to confuse...I always confuse city names with people names :S), but the random vow and the brutal sacrifice just don't fit in let alone make any sense.Luckily the Internet had some answers for me. As did my pastor who happened so conveniently to be online when I was stuck with all these questions. At the end of the day I finally grasped some valuables from these chapters and here is what I learned:
1) Never make rash decisions or vow's. And whatever you do don't treat God as a vending machine saying if you give me this then I will... God knows what he wants from you and he will tell/ask whenever and whatever he sees fit
2) All can serve God, no matter what background you come from, what your relatives and family have done you are not them and it is up to you whether you are going to choose to serve God or not. He has a plan for everyone and he never puts anyone in "booths" of useful and useless. Therefore neither should we put each other in those booths, for none of us are better than others
3) If you are in a quarrel with someone, do not attack them with aguments and anger, you are then stooping to their level. In stead, try to show the other party their unreasonableness by calm explanation of your point of view, if the other person hears you then you can resolve the issue calmly and no one will come to harm.
4) Trust in God in all you do and ask for His advice. Only He knows all and will tell you what the right thing is. Doing it your way without consulting God is very silly and often you end up in a situation you could have easily avoided if you had just sought God's word and listened to Him in the first place.
- 10 hours on a train (which was 4 hours late)
- 7 hours at work
- 3 hours of sleep
Is it any wonder that I'm tired?
- 7 hours at work
- 3 hours of sleep
Is it any wonder that I'm tired?
Still in the mood for Muse. Don't even know why. Just been feeling a bit lonely lately. Listening to Muse and Keane all day. Waiting. Wondering how it would feel to be at one of their concerts. Somehow becoming a stranger to myself, and watching as others become strangers to me. Waiting. Mindlessly passing time by staring into an empty screen. Waiting. Feeling that life is passing me by.
Waiting for it.
Waiting for them.
Waiting for you.
I am finally leaving for mother Russia (in a few hours that is). Can't say I'm thrilled to go, because I still haven't finished writing my coursework (only 1500 or so words left :S). I'm hoping that my friends can help me with internet and computer loans so that I can finish it. It sucks right now, so I hope someone can proof read it as well. Oh dear god I need to finish this awful coursework, cause I really want to come back to uni and live with my friends and have a great time! Feeling like an idiot for not having turned in my work in time :(Another interesting fact is that my ex...the one I've been telling you guys about - the two year relationship that made me who I am today...well, he's decided to meet me at the airport and help me with my coursework. I can't say it's a bad thing, but I definitly don't get a good vibe from it either. How the hell am I going to survive this stay. Will my feelings for him come rushing back to destroy the past two years of trying to forget him, or will it all be cool with no feelings left. And if there are no feelings left will I be sad that something so powerful - that I thought would last forever, is gone? All these stupid questions are in my head right now and I can't do anything about them.
Also my father scared me by saying he might show up to meet me as well :S I don't like him, I don't want him there, and most of all, I do not need a frickin' welcoming party either. It'll all get waaaay too complicated if both my grandma, my dad and my ex will be at the airport. Bah, I hope my ex and I will be friends. And I hope he doesn't think I've changed to the worst. And I hope my dad stays away!
My grandmother has promiced me that these two weeks are going to be busy. Which usually means that I'll have to do loads of work and run about the town not even getting a minute to myself. I hope she's kidding, cause I have no intentions of painting fences and changing locks (don't ask). Oh and I'm supposed to be meeting loads of my friends too, and my brothers. Gah, this'll be interesting. I think one of my friends might think I like him (should really fix that before it gets too late! Wooopsie!), so I have to make sure we don't hang out on our own.
Whatever this turns out to be like one thing is for sure. I definitly won't be bored!
I just saw this video and it made me cry! So many lives are lost to traffic accidents that happen because of uncareful driving manners and speeding, please PLEASE be careful on the road. For the sake of your own life and the life of others.
"This is a reminder to all drivers that we operate in a machine that kill, destroy, and maim not only our family, but families with others. This happens every minute of every day in our world.
Show this to all drivers that you know and remind them to drive more carefully!."
"This is a reminder to all drivers that we operate in a machine that kill, destroy, and maim not only our family, but families with others. This happens every minute of every day in our world.
Show this to all drivers that you know and remind them to drive more carefully!."
As you all know (at least those of you who have facebook and who study psychology like I do) the examination results are going to be published online soon. Hopefully tomorrow. Althought I'd actually prefer them not to be published at all as I don't think that I did very well :( Hopefully I passed at least two of my modules. I seemed to have a good feeling about some of them at least, but the more time after my exams had passed, the more uncertain I got about how well I did :(Resists are in september, but even that doesn't give me much hope. After all, I will have to wait for 2 months, sitting alone at home with all my vacation plans completely ruined. Frankly the whole thing sucks!On the other hand, if I do pass I will be the happiest person on earth, because that will mean that I can go to Russia and Cyprus in august without any worries on my mind :D
Fingers crossed!
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