Cav's Place

Don’t know what made me check Nightwish’s official site a few days ago, guess I was simply bored, but I seem to be rediscovering them right now. Quite fitting, I’d say, since they’re just starting to get back on track, having released their first truly new material in three years a month ago. They have also revealed the identity of their new singer (and here is an interview taken before her identity was revealed) and the release date of their next album, not to mention that they seem fully booked for this year.
Listened to the new song and… I think it sounds Within Temptation-y… Anette’s voice just seems to go along that line. That’s not a bad thing in itself (especially since Within Temptation decided to start sounding like Evanescence on their latest album), but it’s simply not Nightwish. Of course, judging by a single song is a bad idea, but the difference is too noticeable. Sometimes I wonder how will their old songs sound when sung by Anette, but then I realize I don’t really care to know.
Also saw the link to the song Marco, Tuomas and Jukka recorded for a Finnish movie. Wondering why can’t Marco use that voice in Nightwish songs as well, instead of growling like he does. He might get to sing more on the new album, though, so we shall see.

Nightwish was my first contact with metal, back in 2001 or 2002, when I happened to bump into their “Over the Hills and Far Away” video on MCM. Felt quite guilty for liking it, but I kept looking for it after that moment. Guilty pleasures, eh?
You can say there were my second contact as well, when Andra had a 2-month metal phase during which at some point she asked me to sort the Nightwish songs she had downloaded. That didn’t really have any immediate effects, but then I also got their last album and “Wish I Had an Angel” immediately became my song for sadness/anger/fear/any-other-negative-emotion, despite Marco’s parts that still make me wince. Of course I felt even weirder for liking this than I did concerning “Over the Hills and Far Away”, but there it was.
Guess that’s why I find myself still interested in the band itself and not just their songs, as is the case with nearly all others that I listen to.
I might be missing something, but I think they were also the first metal band that had a concert in Romania while at their peak, including Bucharest in their mammoth 2004-2005 world tour.

I still wasn’t really listening to other such things when they fired Tarja, but by then it was mainly because I didn’t know what to look for, which meant I was quite interested in them. That interest translated in me seeing their open letter to her hours after it was posted, so while their site was still able to manage the number of visitors, albeit only barely, and in reading posts on their forum just when Tarja posted her reply (seems to no longer be available on her official site) and therefore seeing it almost immediately, as soon as somebody posted the announcement, and being able to read it, as her site crashed about 20 minutes later.
On that note, look at Tuomas face at the end of the last concert of their world tour, so just moments before they gave her the letter. Being somewhat emotional at such a moment is to be expected, but he looks utterly devastated, and you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out why.

Remember saying that they’re history without her back then. Ok, Tarja might have just been their voice, Tuomas being the writer and composer and therefore the only one truly indispensable, but the vocalist is a major loss, and one as good as her even more so. However, if I’d believe their side of the story, as I actually do, they would have been history with her just as well, so it was what had to be done. Sad story, and just to show once again how many good things, and people, are ruined by fame and money.
Still doubt they could be anywhere near what they were with Anette, though, but if they have decided that she’s good enough to go on with then why not at least give them the benefit of the doubt until the new album will be released and everyone will be able to make up their own minds after knowing all the facts?

PS: Sure this is Tarja singing this song (feel free to skip ahead to about 2:10 to get to her part)? Doesn’t sound like her… And many of those pictures don’t really look like her either…

PPS: Q&A with Anette!

I was saying that, with all the light pollution around here, I didn’t think I’ll ever see another star. But, as I was scanning the sky last night, with that damned streetlight burning a hole in my retina, I noticed a faint glimmer. Then two more. Then, as I was looking through other areas, a fourth. Those are the very first stars that I’ve seen since I ended up back here.
Just thought it was worth mentioning. Don’t mind me…

I’m writing this tonight because, while I’m quite sure she left on the 24th, I’m not 100% sure, there’s that small chance that it might have actually been the 25th.
Either way, it’s been a year since she left for good, from what I know at least… One more nail in my coffin… The only problem is that my body’s still not in it… I’ve even given up thinking that I’m going to do it someday, clear enough that I don’t have the guts, just hoping it’ll just happen somehow I guess…
And still feel so rotten for feeling so sad on days that are (or at least should be) happy for them, because of the very reasons that make (or should make) them happy. The day they left for good, their wedding day, her birthday, New Year’s, the day she first left…
Pointless to even write it, but here it is…

Noticing how unfair the current regulations for the World Cup are, in both qualifying and the final tournament, I tried to think of a better way to do it. Below, you will see what I came up with. This is a rather old idea of mine which I have made some minor adjustments to recently. After you read it, tell me what you think.

The first thing we need is the elimination of draws. Luck is enough of a factor in the actual matches, doesn’t need to decide which teams will play against each other as well. This means eliminating groups that compete in parallel and having a single championship. There are, of course, way too many teams for that, so it has to be broken down somehow.
The best way to do that would be by creating divisions. There will be a World Group with 24 teams and continental championships for each of the 6 confederations. The first division of each continental championship must be allowed, by the rules that apply to it, to have 12 teams. If there are not enough countries on that continent to fill the group, or there aren’t enough left after eliminating the ones that are in the World Group, then of course that division will have less than 12 teams, but it must be allowed to have 12 teams if, at any moment, there will be 12 teams to fill it. This rule does not apply to lower divisions, for the continents where these will exist.

The championship, in all divisions, will run over 4 years. In the World Group, each team will play each other team twice, home and away. In the continental championships, each team will play each other team 4 times, twice home and twice away (or whatever is appropriate, in case this is impossible). It is possible for each team to play each other team more than 4 times if that specific division contains less than 10 teams. No team, regardless of division, may play less than 20 matches, excluding play-offs, over the course of the 4 years.
The regular championship will start in the autumn of the 1st year and end in the spring of the 4th year. During the summer of the 4th year there will be a final tournament for the top 16 teams from the World Group and promotion/relegation play-offs for all divisions. As you can see, the World Group is basically an elite qualifying stage.

In the first round of that final tournament, the team on the first place will play the team on 16th place, 2nd place will play against 15th place and so on until 7th place will play against 8th place. Then the winners will play in the quarter-finals, then semi-finals and finals, just like any other tournament.
The difference would be that teams that lose in the first round will keep playing in order to set a classification among themselves that will be used in the play-off to stay in the World Group. Those eight teams will play each other in the first play-off round, the winners ensuring their continued presence in the World Group, the losers going through two more rounds to establish a clear classification among themselves, now being considered places 13-16 in the tournament regardless of their World Group position before it, in order to determine who will play who in the relegation/promotion play-off.

The last 8 teams in the World Group will relegate at the end of each championship to their respective continental first divisions. The first team in each of the first continental divisions will promote at the same time to the World Group. This is to ensure that it is truly a world group, having at least one team from each confederation.
The second placed teams from each continental division will be placed in a group where they will play each other once, on a neutral venue, as a separate part of the final tournament. The first two will promote directly to the World Group. The next 4 will enter a play-off, playing one match each against the corresponding team placed 13 to 16 in the tournament. That means 3rd place in this group will play against 16th place in the tournament, 4th against 15th, 5th against 14th and 6th against 13th. These matches will also be part of the final tournament, being played on the final day. The winners will be in the World Group in the next season, the losers will be in their respective first divisions.

Each confederation that has more than one local division may choose any number of teams that relegate and promote from each division where this applies and determine whether they’ll do that directly or after a play-off. The only requirements are that their first division will be able send at least two teams to promote into the World Group (one directly and one through the play-off) and to accept all the teams that relegate to it from said World Group.

In order to have a continental trophy as well, there would be a match between the best placed team from each continent in the final tournament (or in the World Group, if none made the top 16) and the winner of the corresponding first division. These matches will also be a part of the final tournament.

Figuring out how to switch from the current system to what I suggest was quite easy. There could be a last regular World Cup and the results from it’s group stage will be used to determine the teams that will be entered in the World Group for the first championship in the new format. It’s simple, the first 3 from each of the 8 groups of the Cup will be in the World Group for the championship that will start right after the tournament. Of course, the host country of the final tournament will no longer be automatically qualified.
I realize that this does not ensure having a team from each confederation in the World Group, but that situation will be rectified the next time around. This might even be a good thing, giving time the weaker confederations time to determine the exact requirements of playing in the World Group and perhaps aiding at least one of their members in order to create at least one team worthy of the challenge.

The match order during the final tournament should be the following:
Day 1: 2nd place group round 1
Day 2: First round matches 1-4
Day 3: First round matches 5-8
Day 4: 2nd place group round 2
Day 5: Quarterfinal matches 1-2
Day 6: Quarterfinal matches 3-4
Day 7: 2nd place group round 3
Day 8: Matches to avoid relegation play-off
Day 9: Semifinals
Day 10: 2nd place group round 4
Day 11: Deciders for relegation play-off round 1
Day 12: Continental finals 1-2
Day 13: 2nd place group round 5, 3rd place play-off
Day 14: Deciders for relegation play-off round 2, Final
Day 15: Continental finals 3-4
Day 16: Continental finals 5-6
Day 17: Relegation/promotion play-off

As a final note, I’ll say how I think the 32 participants of a final tournament of the World Cup in it’s current format should be picked. Those would be 12 from Europe (winners of the 8 groups and winners of the play-offs between the 2nd placed teams), 3 from North/Central America (first 3 from the final group), 6 from South America, 5 from Africa (winners of each group), 4 from Asia (first 2 from each of the final 2 groups), 1 from Oceania and the host country, if it has to be there, otherwise a 5th Asian country, the winner of the play-off between the 3rd placed teams in the 2 final groups. If there will be 2 host countries, and they both have to automatically qualify, then only 5 will qualify from South America.

I keep wondering why are dentists so set against pulling out teeth. If there’s any bit of it still good, they’ll torture you till they patch it up as well as they can for a while longer, despite sometimes knowing that you’ll need to have it pulled out not that long afterwards anyway.
I’d be inclined to say it’s for the money. After all, once a tooth is pulled out there’s nothing left for them to do for it, except eventually put an implant in it’s place and then it’s really over, while if they keep struggling to save a little bit of it you’ll still need to come rather frequently to have more work done. But sometimes I wonder if it’s not a fear of failure as well. If they don’t think that if they pull it out now when it was theoretically possible to leave it in for some months or a couple of years longer, they’re failing in their job, not realizing that a doctor fails by not doing what their patient wants them to do.

Ok, pulling a tooth out can hurt a lot for a while but, bar complications, you’ll be pretty much all right a week or so later and that tooth won’t bother you again. As long as we’re just talking about a tooth or two, and not any easily visible ones, I don’t see any problem with that, especially since they can be replaced if you wish.
There could actually be more problems caused by their insistence to fix them, since, for a tooth gone really bad, that means needing to go several times, over the span of a few weeks, and usually being scared out of your wits. That is far more likely to make people stop going, allowing the problems to get even worse, and actually make them less likely to go when they notice a new problem, making them lose more teeth in the end.

Shouldn’t it be the patient’s choice, and shouldn’t that choice be presented to them when the dentist notices that the problem is quite serious and will be a lot of trouble to solve? Or especially when they know they can’t really solve it, but just delay the inevitable a bit longer…