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Slipknot Iowa Rock Music CD Review

Published
by
Smoother
on April 14, 2008
in Music and Music Reviews
. 0 Comments

Iowa is the latest Rock CD released by the highly group Slipknot and they have once again delivered a brilliant collection of tracks. I’m confident Slipknot fans, and Rock fans alike will be pleased with this one.

I wish it weren’t the case but, it’s not everyday that I get a CD for review that I can just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. There is usually a song or two that I just can’t force myself to get through. Not at all the case with Iowa. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.

Iowa is a nicely varied, mix of 14 tracks that are very well written and brilliantly performed songs by these clearly talented musicians. Most of the songs display a lot of the kind emotion that makes for a really great listen. Clearly drawing from what I can only imagine are their own real life experiences. At different points touching on the most real emotions of love, heartbreak, pain, failed relationships and unattainable romance. They’re all here.

Listen and I think you’ll agree that the song choices are excellent, the production is outstanding and Slipknot is clearly a group that is in top form.

While the entire CD is really very good some of my favorites are track 3 - Disasterpiece, track 5 - Everything Ends, and track 6 - The Heretic Anthem

My Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore [...as in "Stuck On REpeat"] is track 8 - Left Behind. It’s a great track!

Iowa Release Notes:

Slipknot originally released Iowa on August 28, 2001 on the Roadrunner Records label.

CD Track List Follows:

1. (515) 2. People=Shit 3. Disasterpiece 4. My Plague 5. Everything Ends 6. Heretic Anthem, The 7. Gently 8. Left Behind 9. Shape, The 10. I Am Hated 11. Skin Ticket 12. New Abortion 13. Metabolic 14. Iowa

Slipknot: Corey (vocals); Mick, James (guitar); Paul (bass); Joey (drums); Shawn, Chris (percussion); Craig (samples); Sid (DJ). Recorded at Sound City and Sound Image, Van Nuys, California.

Some Favorite Posts

Published
by
Smoother
on April 1, 2008
in Stuff to do when bored
. 0 Comments

Are you new to Stuck in Iowa? Well, here are a few of my favorite posts so far. Check them out.

The Snapalope Game

How to tie a tie

The Benefits of Using eFile

Published
by
Smoother
on April 1, 2008
in Everyday Life and Stuff to do when bored
. 0 Comments

ou struggle for hours reading and re-reading your tax instructions trying to figure out your tax return and then when you do finally file your taxes you sit for weeks on end just waiting for that brown envelope with your tax refund check to come. You think to yourself; There has to be a simpler way.

Does this scenario sound familiar?

The benefits of using efile to file your taxes.

Efile is the fastest way to file your taxes and efiling cuts the tax return processing time in about half. So, if you are expecting a tax refund then you can expect your tax refund in about half of the time it would normally take if you filed your taxes by mailing in your tax return. If you are expecting a tax refund you can have your tax refund deposited directly into your bank account by using Direct Deposit. Our tax service also lets you split your tax refund into two different accounts if you choose direct deposit.

The Benefits of Using eFile

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Dramatic Lemur

Published
by
Smoother
on March 24, 2008
in Stuff to do when bored
. 0 Comments

Word can’t describe this 20 second clip.

Satellite Internet Coming to Rural Areas

Published
by
Smoother
on March 14, 2008
in News
. 3 Comments

Thousands of households in rural America have yet to transition into the age of high-speed Internet access for a very good reason: no availability of DSL or cable. Because the economics of adding DSL or laying cable in sparsely populated areas doesn’t provide a sufficient return on investment, it could be years before many rural Americans have access to the information superhighway. Increasingly, many stuck on slow dial-up are turning to high speed satellite Internet (similar to satellite TV) as a solution.

Available today from several providers, satellite Internet requires a separate dish antenna mounted at the customer’s home, along with cable running to a satellite modem that connects to a personal computer. Previously this required an upfront investment of hundreds of dollars for home equipment, which also required professional installation. Other drawbacks included reliability issues due to weather related problems, and difficulty in scheduling rapid service calls.

To overcome these challenges, brothers Dwayne & Michael Hay founded SkyWay USA in rural Jackson, Kentucky. For less than $100, the SkyWay USA system can be ordered online, shipped directly to your home, and self-installed in a matter of hours. Coupled with an entry-level service fee of $29.95/month, SkyWay USA touts itself as rural America’s low-cost satellite Internet provider.

Old Barn

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Cheating Death by 1/2 Second!

Published
by
Smoother
on March 10, 2008
in Everyday Life
. 0 Comments

Check out this rally racing event where the guy in the yellow vest barely cheats death! Talk about crazy, I’m surprised he didn’t have a heart attack from the near hit.

Fiction Lessons from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop

Published
by
Smoother
on March 7, 2008
in iowa
. 0 Comments

The following article was written by TK Kenyan who blogs at tkkenyon.com and fictionlessons.blogspot.com

Don’t Show, Dramatize! — Even Better Than “Show, Don’t Tell.”

I’m sure that, at some point, you’re heard the adage Show, Don’t Tell. There’s even a rather good writing book by that title. Here’s a new aphorism: Dramatize, Don’t Just Show. Important information should be woven into the action and the results of it shown in the scene. It’s a tough concept. Try to think about not telling your audience / reader the info, but just showing the effects of the event and weaving it in insidiously so that the reader just takes it for granted. Bad examples of a good idea:

Telling: Bobbie had an illegitimate child, Ted.

Showing: Bobbie picked up the photo of her and Ted, her son. He was blonde, blue-eyed, and looked like his father, Jim.

Bobbie’s husband, Lars, walked into the kitchen.

Fiction Lessons

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Strange text errors after MYSQL database transfer

Published
by
Smoother
on March 7, 2008
in Solutions to Problems
. 0 Comments

I recently moved a database from one mysql server to another and ended up with some weird text. It seems that some characters were changed into some crazy text. Here’s what I found and here’s what I think they were originally. I did a massive find and replace using phpmyadmin to fix them.

One error appeared as this
’
I think the original one was a single quotation so I replaced it with this
‘

One error appeared as this
—
I think the original one was a dash so I replaced it with this
-

One error appeared as this
“
I think the original one was a double quotation so I replaced it with this
”

One error appeared as this
â€
I think the original one was a double quotation so I replaced it with this
”

It’s kind of crazy but now the text seems normal on the site. It looks like it could be some messed up language.
Guy #1 ” Soooooo…. ’ — “ â€?”
Guy #2 “HAHAH! ’ — “ â€â€™ — “ — “ †’ — “ â€!? You crazy…”

Great Campgrounds Around the US

Published
by
Smoother
on March 1, 2008
in Travel
. 0 Comments

Camping is a great way to see the world at very little expense. Almost every state (in the US) and every country in the world have campgrounds that are open to the public. There are a few that are free to use, but most charge at least a small fee for use of the grounds. Here are a few stops to get you started on your outdoor adventures.

Alaska - Denali National Park offers several camping areas for those adventurers willing to brave the elements and the animals.

Alabama - Blue Springs State Park (located near Ozark, Alabama) is a 103 acre park that’s center of attention is the swimming pool and spring pool which are both fed by an underground spring.

Arkansas - Caddo River in Glenwood, Arkansas is a great place for roughing it in complete luxury. It offers beautiful cabins and bunkhouses at reasonable prices (or you can just stay in your tent if you prefer).

Colorado - The camping sites at Black Canyon of the Gunnison fill up quickly during the summer months. It offers some of the most sheer walls, narrow openings and startling depths in North America.

Delaware - Trap Pond State Park offers a unique experience of Delaware’s Cypress Swamp. It offers a wide variety of recreational opportunities and camping experiences.

Georgia - Red Top Mountain State Park and Lodge is off the 12,000-acre Lake Allatoona in Georgia. It offers a lot of great activities for the whole family.

Iowa - Muscatine County, Iowa has a hidden Gem in the Saulsbury Bridge Recreation Area. Camping is free on Wednesdays (from May - October) and it offers some of the best environmental education programs around.

Great Campgrounds

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