Season of Poison

I have had November 4th marked on my calendar for the past couple of months. Not because of the presidential elections, but because it’s that day that Shiny Toy Guns released their new album Season of Poison. However, if you are a diehard McCain supporter, you may be considering this the Season of Poison.

I got up a little earlier this morning to download the album from iTunes, but had some technical issues. I ended up buying the album on my way to work., and thoroughly enjoyed listening to album during my commute today.

Season of Poison features new female vocalist Sisely Treasure, who replaced Carah Faye Charnow. Other than a different vocalist, Shiny Toy Guns continues to produce great melodic and at times, hard-hitting, music. The tracks on the album vary in intensity. The hard hitting tracks are When Did This Storm Begin, Ghost Town, and Richochet?. The track Blown Away is something that I was not expecting, as there is quite an expansive organ piece that leads into it. My favorite track is Frozen Oceans, check it out on their MySpace page. Some of the other tracks made me ask the question, “Did Howard Jones help write this song?” I had to check the album jacket to verify that he didn’t.

If you ever have the opportunity to see Shiny Toy Guns live, I would recommend going. They put on a great show.

In the beginning...

If you couldn’t guess from the title of the blog, my name is Dave. I currently reside in Sherwood, OR (a suburb of Portland). I enjoy living an area where I am close to the amenities of a respectable metropolitan area, and close to various outdoor recreational areas like the Pacific Coast, the Cascades, and the Columbia River Gorge. I am an avid hiker, and have recently spent more time mountaineering. I have mostly climbed locally in the Cascades, but hope to do more climbs outside of Oregon and Washington once I am through this program. In between courses this past year I have climbed Mt. Hood, Middle Sister, Matterhorn (Oregon), Mount Sacajawea, South Sister, and as of this past weekend Mt. St. Helens.

I am a graduate of Brigham Young University where I received a B.S. in Geography and minored in Business Management. I have worked in the insurance industry for the past nine years and currently work as a commercial insurance underwriter. In July of 2007, I completed the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation. I am looking forward to completing the MSIM program this December.

Upon graduation I am looking forward to continuing my education. I plan on working on the Certified Insurance Counselors (CIC) designation and taking the Basic Climbing Education Program (BCEP) offered by The Mazamas.

As the creation of this blog is a result of a class assignment for Boston University’s MET TM 648 Introduction to E-Commerce course, I like to say “Hello” to my classmates who will be reviewing this blog. Additionally, I plan on continuing to post on this blog after this initial assignment. I expect my blog posts to consist of my outdoor adventures, outings with friends, and various thoughts I have about my life and what is going on around me.
my eyes