Boy Balancing Ball

This is from the People Doing Things That I Can't Do Files.

~DJ Thalia~

Vangelis: The Saga of the Bounty

Far From the Maddening Crowd Soundtrack

This one is for DJ Thalia, who so loves soundtracks! :-)

~DJ Fairy Fae~

Earl Dibbles Jr.: Country Boy Song

Tracking Down the Clues of Montezuma's Treasure

Montezuma's Treasure Is On Your Ranch

Golden Rhoades: Lost Utah Treasure

Territory of Utah

Key points in the interesting history of Utah.

~DJ Thalia~

It's A Different World

My eleven year old niece created a profile on Woozworld, which I'd never heard of before.

My sister and I monitor the kids' (niece and nephew) online activities pretty closely at this stage. This sort of thing is always harmless fun on the surface, but there are opportunities for bullying and also for creeps pretending to be kids to try and gain the trust of actual kids.

It's certainly a different world now than it was when I was eleven. I'm 48 years old. To eleven year old me, making friends via computer would have sounded like science fiction. At that age, I was into Star Wars pretty big time. I also liked the original Battlestar Galactica and I loved watching Star Trek reruns too. Having my own computer would have seemed as fantastic an idea as many of the stories on those shows to me at eleven.

~DJ Thalia~

Bromance Moment: Myungyeol Piggyback

Cute bromance moment between Kim Myung-soo and Lee Sungyeol of the K-pop band Infinite.

~DJ Thalia~

Metallica: The Day That Never Comes

Three Meals a Day

Three Meals a Day is a Korean reality show focusing on cooking and the outdoors. It stars Lee Seo-jin and Ok Taecyeon. It is set in the village of Jeongseon. The show features the two stars utilizing whatever they can find to eat to create a meal. Various celebrities make guest appearances. The show has a fun, upbeat manner.

Full episodes are available at dramatv.co

~DJ Thalia~

The Elder Scrolls: Total War Playthrough

The great thing about playthroughs is they give you an idea of whether or not you actually want to spend money on a game. This one looks like an interesting strategy game, with zombies to boot. Looks like something my nephew and I might enjoy together.

~DJ Thalia~

KHEL 666 History: How the North Won the Civil War

I could literally watch this kind of thing for hours. History of any kind was always on my favorite subject list.

~DJ Thalia~

NBA Players Then and Now

It's kind of fun seeing some favorite basketball stars when they were kids.

~DJ Thalia~

Jason Isbell, You Are My Hero

All I can say is RIGHT THE HELL ON!

All of your KHEL 666 Krew can tell tales where a good show was ruined by some asshole picking a fight, either with us or just messing things up by fighting even if it isn't with us. 

I remember at a ZZ Top concert, I nearly got knocked over because these two drunk fools started fighting, and they didn't even care that they were bashing right into me. It shook me up.

Glad that Jason spoke up. I'm not expecting bands to always notice what's going on, but maybe if more people did right like this, the audience might think twice about starting shit.

~DJ Thalia~

What We're Watching: Homeland

Grand Theft Auto 5 Playthrough and Comments

There has been a lot of flap about Grand Theft Auto 5 and the level of violence involved. I wanted to address this, as well as the game play itself.

I'm honestly terrible at games like this. These fellows can give you a much better idea of what it looks like to play the game than I ever could.

The graphics are stellar. It's truly a remarkable game visually. According to my nephew and his friends, the control of the vehicle and the characters themselves is smooth and easy, which makes the game a lot of fun to play.

The game is violent, and isn't the sort of thing that I'm in the habit of playing. I enjoy my games with a bit more of a story line. I'm more the sort who enjoys a slower pace and likes to solve mysteries or such. This is not a game that I would purchase for myself.

However, I do not believe that games like this cause increased violence.

Devoted gamers do not tend to be violent people. They simply like playing video games.

As I said previously, the graphics in this game are excellent. However, the game does not mimic reality. It is like being pulled into an action movie where you can control the movements of your character and of a vehicle. 

A myriad of unrealistic things happen, both to your character and to the vehicle.

The character can make jumps from heights which in reality would result in broken bones.

The vehicle endures multiple crashes which would render it useless long before your characters actually end up eating flaming death.

I recommend Jim Sterling's stellar editorial debunking the theory that video games desensitize people to real life violence. The video does contain graphic content, which is explained in the description. 

I enjoyed watching the featured play-through, and I enjoy the banter between my nephew and his friends when they play games such as this. At no point do any of them begin discussing the possibility of actually attempting such things as are seen in this game. It's simply a bit of escapism. They enjoy it because it's not reality, not because they want their reality to be like the content of this game.

~DJ Thalia~

Tell Him Anything But That I Love Him

Song from the 1976 British movie, The Slipper and the Rose.

~DJ Thalia~

Ray Toro: Isn't That Something?

Folks, not all new music is bad. Sometimes you get gems like this one, which was released just last year. Of course Ray's been around a while, so perhaps my argument is somewhat rendered moot.

~DJ Thalia~