Last-minute move to NYC?

It's been a while since the last time I wrote here, moving house and work played a huge role in me not having any free time on my hands. But the busy times are almost over thankfully. In the meantime a peculiar dream I've had last night:

I was in New York City bummed out because we just heard from the head of our department that the entire hallway from work will be moving to NYC. Now the reason I was bummed out was that I just moved and had to pay so much money for the floors and new furniture and just NOW he mentioned 2 weeks in advance that the entire hallway will move to NYC and continue research there. Why he couldn't tell us earlier remained a mystery for me. So yeah, I was the only one who was bummed out and not enjoying scouting for a new location for the lab. I wondered why my other colleagues who just bought a new house weren't bummed. Anyway, we walked into a building on Times Square that the head of the department was interested in. It was an interesting setup for a lab. Clear floors with yet no tables and in each of the corners there were 5 desks, but the corners weren't set up logically. So I doubted whether this would work out for a good lab setting. I was just very upset about the last minute move... I finally moved to a nice place and then 3 weeks later I can move again... Great. Just great...

Image taken from google

Rishloo - Landmines

In a previous entry I've written about how Rishloo is back together and how excited I was about an up and coming album. Well, their first single is released and I have to admit I've been listening to it pretty much non stop:

This is exactly why I absolutely love this band. Every aspect is great, from the musicality to the lyrics and how these combine on another adding a ton of emotion to the piece. It's very intricate and even though this single points to a change or growth of the band, it's still very much the sound of 'Rishloo'. I seriously can't wait to hear the rest of the album. 

The roles we tend to play

As a female I've heard many times about how a man should be, how a man should treat a woman. This starts from kids movies and continues through life. The boy saves the girl, the man protects the woman... We are set up to play the role of a damsel in distress. As soon as we clearly show that we can take care of ourselves, that we are independent and able to pay our own bills without any problems, we tend to end up alone, single. Is this because we as successful women set up too high standards for men and these type of men are just too scarce? Or do we scare off men? Or perhaps both? 

Since this world is not set for independent women, it's tough for both sexes to adapt to this. I've read many times that we have to let men feel needed by asking them to help us in simple tasks in the house or simply opening a can. Isn't this silly? Why would you put yourself down this way by asking for help with something you could easily handle yourself? Isn't it better to actually ask for help in things you honestly can't do? 

It's sad that the world today is set up in a way where men have to feel like women need them for solving and/or fixing things? There are women bodybuilders out there. Imagine them asking their husband/ boyfriend to open up a can... Isn't it better to have honesty in this world? Yes it's great to be in someone's arms and feel safe. But I'm sure this goes both ways. This feeling of being safe relates more to trust you feel for the person you're with and not so much feeling safe from burglary for example. So I hope the standards for male and female will change and we could all just be honest with one another without feeling the need to read between the lines or act in a way you feel you have to. We all need to be real and stop trying to portray a character made by the media.

Alter Bridge - Fortress (my new obsession)

I am addicted to music in general. Not a day goes by where I don't listen to it and I would prefer to forget my phone at home over my mp3-player (yes I have an mp3-player, no ipod or whatever and it's been working GREAT for me for the past 4 years). 

Anyway I've been a bit late to actually listen to Alter Bridge's latest album Fortress since it came out in September 2013. The reason was that after Blackbird I was a little bit disappointed with ABIII, though I also haven't intensely listened to that one either. It didn't grasp me, so I listened to other stuff. 

With the first single from Fortress (addicted to pain) I was also not grasped. I don't really understand why they went with this song as a first single. Pretty much all the other songs are way better than that one. Not saying it's a bad song, it's just not a good representation of how good the album is.

Video-clip:

I started to really listen to the other songs of the album about 2 weeks ago and I simply can't stop. The top songs for me from the album are: Cry of Achilles, Lover, All Ends Well and Fortress. 

It is a great piece of work we needed in the rock genre. The riffs are great, but then again that is to be expected from Mark Tremonti, and Myles Kennedy's voice is still one of the greatest in this era of rock. There is a reason why Slash wanted him on 2 albums and along on tour - just saying! 

So all in all I am obsessed and so happy I finally gave this album a good listen! The only bummer is that I just missed them when they were playing a show here. Next time I'll be there for sure! 

Here's a youtube clip of the Fortress - the first song I favorited from the album: