StillStream

A while ago I was growing tired of my music and how I had to constantly monitor it to ensure I was listening to anything good. It was also my exam period and I needed to have some music without it being too distracting. So out of desperation I googled "ambient radio" and one of the first links I found was StillStream.

Stillstream is nothing short of the best ambient internet radio station I've ever heard. It's 24/7 and year round, with almost no talking! Best of all is the fact that all the music is mixed to a certain degree, so you don't ever have to endure another abrupt end to a song as is normal on most radio stations. It also has 6 different ways of connecting to the radio, so even for the picky people it should suffice.

The music itself is usually very very good. Sometimes a few songs are questionable or bad enough that I need to pause it for 5 minutes. But I figure if you're playing music all year long that a few bad songs will sneak their way into the playlist. The one weird thing I once witnessed late at night while I was studying was some guy talking about "pushing the envelope" and all this other jazz, like ambient listeners are really going to get off their couches and change the world or something. That guy would be better off co-hosting a hardcore radio station.

All in all, very good radio station, if you like ambient at all definitively check it out. I can highly recommend for anyone needing to study, unless your one of those people that works best listening to punk rock at 90dB's (which by the way, is fucking loud).

Harry Potter

It's hard to believe that after 7 years I have finally finished the Harry Potter series. It was more than ending a series of books yesterday around 1.30 in the morning. It was a close to one of the last nostalgic links to my childhood that I had not finished. Such a long period of time to finish a set of books that anyone could have finished in a few months, there's no question as to why I reflect.

Harry Potter has always been nostalgic to me, I began reading when I was 10 or 11 and had just taught myself to read/write English. Granted I didn't understand everything I was still very impressed and my slow reading pace allowed the book to sink into me over the period of a few months. The book was a gift that enhanced my imagination even further and increased my appetite for literature. I still remember looking forward to bedtime back then. I continued reading until I had caught up with the pace at which the books were being released. Then the HP franchise exploded and it was everywhere, the movies came and merchandise was in tons of stores. My friends and I talked about the series and played games spawned from the franchise whenever possible. I got older, the hype died down and I had just finished the 5th book in the series. It was also around this time my parents divorced and I moved to California. Maybe it was the level of harry potter nerdy-ness in California or the major changes I was dealing with, but when the 6th book came out I didn't read it. And from then on, the next 4 years I spent in the States I stopped reading. It was only when decided to move back and attend college in Belgium that I realized I could only take around 10 books back with me, without thinking I took HP.

I told myself I would finish the series once and for all and began reading from book 1 last summer. As I read in bed, in my shack, I remembered how I had already read these things and how amazing I had found it as a child, I was of course less impressed at the age of 18 but the memories did their toil. I began reading not only to finish a series (for once) but because of all the nostalgic feelings I received from it. After a long day of school and projects I could always count on Harry Potter taking my mind to an amazingly imaginable place that not only interested me, but also reminded me of my childhood. Everything became even more interesting when I began reading the 6th book for the first time as it was a completely new chapter in the story I had never read yet it was set in this old childish nostalgic world of mine. over my last Christmas break I bought the 7th book and began reading as soon as I returned to Belgium. I read and read and read but my exams soon reared their ugly heads and I had to quit reading.

It is now the week after my exams and I read the last 3 chapters I had saved for myself all in one go yesterday. Now it's over, there isn't anything left. I have gone through all my old things from when I was younger and found nothing that could compare to the power of those books. Nothing could recall my feelings of being a child any better. I am glad that I have the books and can keep experiencing my nostalgia, but now with the knowledge of the end it will always be a bit different. So I want to at least thank J.K. Rowling for her amazing achievement in writing these books and express what it did mean to me as a child.

Thanks.