So yeah, after further consideration, I’ve decided to make the move to blogger official. You can now find all your favorite nothing over at terminalsigma.blogspot.com. Please update your links, bookmarks and what have you. Peace out, WP.

I’ve been getting a little annoyed with the rigidity of the WordPress format, including the inability to customize the CSS of my blog. In addition, I haven’t been able to find a WordPress layout that I really liked–most of them are just too typical of the “Web 2.0″ aesthetic for my liking. Of course, WP isn’t without it’s advantages; in my experience WP’s ability to keep track of stats is far superior to that of Blogger. I haven’t made anything official as of yet, but you can see the results of two hour’s tooling around with blogger here. I like the way it looks a lot more that what I’ve got here on WordPress. Still,for the time being, I’ll be sticking around WP. 

Pfc. Channing Moss was impaled by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan on March 16, 2006, while riding in a convoy with the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. Explosive disposal team members and the medical staff at FOB Organ E saved Moss, removing the live explosive from his body despite the Army protocol of sandbagging victims with live explosives embedded and considering them “expectant.”

Here’s a video which recounts the incident in detail. This is going on my “list of reasons I’m glad I’m not in Afghanistan”. As you might expect, a wound of this sort is indeed pretty gruesome; this is definitely not for the feint of heart. You can also read about the incident, if you prefer.

Gloria Swanson was the star of several films of the silent era. She was also a three-time Academy Award nominee. And, as you can see, totally hot. I can’t help but wonder what she’s playing on the phonograph, though. I’ll bet that it’s probably Black Sabbath.

It’s September, which means that it’s finally football season here in the United States. Of course, there’s that other kind of football, too–the one where the ball actually comes into contact with the foot on occasions other than field goals, punts and kickoffs–and amidst the American media’s infatuation with the NFL, it’s quite easy to forget that the Women’s World Cup is taking place on the other side of the globe. Americans have traditionally spurned soccer (the game that the rest of the world knows as football,) though the sport has been gaining popularity in recent years. The same attitude is by and large held towards women’s athletics. America would do well to remember that even as it’s menfolk wage the battle in the trenches that is the American permutation of football, it’s womenfolk are playing just as hard on the far side of the world.

Everyone in the industrialized world knows by now that Apple lowered the price of it’s vaunted iPhone from the original $599 to a more affordable $399 on the 5th of September. Almost immediately there was an outpouring of indignation from those iPhone owners who bought their phones prior to the price drop. Apple, ever appreciative of it’s dedicated fan base, announced the next day that those same customers would receive a $100 gift certificate, redeemable at any Apple Store. Charitable, yes, but Steve Jobs and company are still coming out $100 ahead on the whole deal.

Not that I’m particularly sympathetic to those early birds, mind you; I think $200 is quite a reasonable price to pay if one is hell-bound and determined to lay their hands on the latest and greatest wonder of the telecommunications world. Besides, if you were willing to lay down $600 of your (possibly) hard-earned money at the time of the iPhone’s launch, getting the most out of your money probably wasn’t among your to priorities, much like all those impressionable fools who waited in line for hours on end just so they could get and Xbox 360 or a PS3 (products as equally overpriced as the iPhone, I might add). When it comes to technology, price drops are inevitable. The sensible consumer is always better off waiting a few months before jumping on the bandwagon for the next best thing. I imagine that a large part of that $599 price tag was the distinction of bearing the Apple name, to boot.

The bottom line is that if you think you were screwed over by Apple because the iPhone is less expensive now than when you first bought it back in June, you weren’t. You were really just too naive not to buy into the hype. Steve Jobs and the Marketing department at Apple are all laughing at you. But hey, look at it this way: at least you don’t have Windows Vista.

Earlier today, the Norwegian Avant-Garde/Experimental Metal outfit Ulver released a song from their forthcoming album, Shadows of the Sun. The song is entitled “Vigil” and it sounds great, as one might expect from Ulver. “Vigil” can be heard on Ulver’s myspace, so I advise anyone reading to head over their and give it a listen. Shadows of the Sun–which the band has described as “low-key, dark and tragic”–is due out October 1st, and I’m definitely looking forward to hearing the album in its entirety.

2007 has not been a great year for some of my favorite Norwegian metal bands. Sure, this year saw the release of Mayhem’s fourth LP (Ordo Ad Chao), but the losses have outnumbered the gains. Three of my favorite bands have split up over the course of 2007.

First to go was Arcturus, who split up in April. The news of their disbanding came in a suitably dramatic fashion; vocalist Simen Hestnæs (a.k.a. ICS Vortex) opened the band’s concert in Melbourne, Australia by welcoming the audience to the “last Arcturus show ever.” The band later reiterated the announcement on their website, and Arcturus, one of the world’s finest avant-garde metal bands was no more. I (along with many, many others) was sad to see them go.

Tsjuder, a three-piece band playing straightforward black metal in the style of early Immortal followed suit in July. Tsjuder was actually among the first black metal bands I listened to, and hence was instrumental in furthering my interest in that genre. Though their first few albums weren’t particularly remarkable, 2004’s Desert Northern Hell was a vast improvement, showing that the band held a great deal of promise. Unfortunately, it was to be Tsjuder’s final album. In the wake of the dissolution, Members Nag and Desecrator formed a new band entitled Krypt. Judging from what little of their work I’ve heard, it seems to be very much in the old-school spirit that Tsjuder stood for.

The most recent of my favorite bands to go their separate ways was the progressive metal outfit Green Carnation, who dissolved only about a week ago. The band was brain child of Tchort, guitarist for Carpathian Forest and one-time bassist for Emperor. The break up came close on the heels of A Night Under the Dam, the band’s second live DVD. Green Carnation was working on their sixth LP (entitled The Rise and Fall of Mankind and slated for a late 2007 release) when the news broke. The album’s release may be somewhat delayed.

There’s only four months left in the year; hopefully we’ll be able to make to the end of the year without another quality band dissolving.

By now you’ve probably seen trailers or television spots for the upcoming remake of Halloween. Not surprisingly it looks pretty forgettable. One thing that struck me, however, was the presence of Malcolm McDowell in the film. McDowell is most famous for playing the role of Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, a film adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s novel of the same name. Unfortunately, McDowell hasn’t been in anything truly remarkable in the 36 years that have passed since A Clockwork Orange, with the possible exception of playing the emperor Caligula in the eponymous 1979 film. It’s really a shame that such a good actor should be relegated to playing the villain in such movies as Tank Girl and I Spy.

I recently (i.e. five minutes ago) came across some sad news. Danny, known and loved by millions as the Tourette’s Guy, passed away yesterday from complications of an injury sustained in an automobile internet. I discovered this from an official statement on the Tourette’s Guy website. According to the statement, the administration of the Tourette’s Guy website will be releasing a DVD compilation of all the videos from the website, along with one final unreleased video. All proceeds collected from sales of the DVD will go to Danny’s family.

The Tourette’s Guy was one of my favorite internet celebrities–as unwitting as his fame might have been–and he will be sorely missed.