3 posts tagged “musings”
I was watching Diggnation 74 (I hope this was a one off, because it really sucked. Have Alex and Kevin lost touch?) today, and Kevin was telling a boring ass story about how he paid some guys $20 because he illegally downloaded their music.
So out of spite I decided to check out this band. Kevin mentioned it was an Indie band (what does Indie even mean? It's nonsensical), and I hadn't listened to anything Indie for a while, so I thought I'd check it out to see if Indie had become any better.
I quickly found a torrent for the band, and soon had their album on my HD. I queued it up in iTunes, prepared for some chillaxing music.
Little did I know that the tune about to be played would poison my eardrums with foul demon music...
Okay, so it wasn't your typical demon music. No heavy metal and shouting about raping virgins. However, this band has soft melodic music such that it bears semblance to the enticing words of the Devil to Eve. That isn't to say this music is enticingly good, rather that if you were an Indie fan, you may find yourself committing horrible acts.
So if you were thinking of killing yourself, I suggest listening to the Cold War Kids. Their music will drive you to a level of insanity previously thought impossible before collapsing your brain synapse network.
LETHAL DOSE ANYWHERE BETWEEN 1-3 RUNS THROUGH THE ALBUM. ANYMORE AND YOU'RE SUPERMAN, YOU CAN'T BE KILLED.
Roy - http://roy.outerweb.org/ says:
fuck i'm bored.
JC - We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. says:
Me too
Which is funny, because that just gave me a brilliant blog post idea
Two men, two blogs, one intarweb.
The Internet is a funny place. There are a lot of stupid people on the internet. I think this is probably because of how easy it is to get access to the Internet. Even if you don't have a computer at home, you don't have to walk far to find an Internet cafe. Got a buck fifty? Have half an hour to waste the brain cells of other people.
IRC is a breeding ground for stupidity. Speaking of IRC (but not stupidity, hilarity)
[23:13] <woody> hey hey, everyone i have a joke :)
[23:13] <Akis> joke O_O
[23:13] <Phrax> George Bush
[23:14] <Phrax> ZING
[23:14] <woody> im australian so this is gonna be funny
[23:14] * Phrax is also Australian
[23:14] <Phrax> Go
[23:14] <woody> what does american beer and canoeing down a river have in common?
[23:14] <Akis> make you wanna pee?
[23:14] <woody> close to fucking water as u can get
Haha, silly Americans. I guess that's why Kevin and Alex always drink foreign beer, because the home grown stuff is shit. They thought Australians love Fosters... what a bunch of losers.
I'm so tired right now. For some reason I can't go to sleep though. I suppose the rapid and immense intake of caffeine over the past couple of hours isn't helping.
So I was watching Call For Help this evening. Sadly I don't have the How-To channel, so I have to torrent it.
So I was watching Call For Help, and I was so disappointed because first I noticed that Cali Lewis was co-hosting. Cali Lewis is pretty fun I guess, but her voice is extremely irritating, and her smile is wider than her gums, which makes for an awkward look (especially on a low res video expanded. The expanded pixels make her look like she has plaque in her teeth like you've only seen in microorganismic close-ups). Ever since Amber MacSexy left the show for CityNews, Call For Help just hasn't been the same. I would know, I've seen like three episodes since she's left. Phew, lucky I only saw three. Poor Leo is not only struggling to host his amazing amount of netcasts, but he's also captaining a sinking ship. That's not to say that Call For Help is failing, because Darren Kitchen and Wess Tobler to the rescue! Their segments are gold. Anyway, as I mentioned a first shortcoming, I'll also mention a second.
Mike Lezazz annoys me to the full extent of my sanity. Watching him for -LOL, just found the funniest shit on cosmos blog. http://www.slexy.org/paste/439. We now return you to your scheduled blog-all of the CommandN episodes up until last episode almost because unbearable to the point of skipping past scenes were Mike was blocking out the majority of Amber in his camera whoring scheme. That's not to say he's a bad person, but just like moonlit whores stats, he hogs the camera (moonlit is also not a bad person). Up until I read Mike's blog, I at least had some kind of what I call "ignorant respect" for him. That means that I respect him in the same way as I respect somebody I ignore completely because of their level of annoyingness (I think retardedness is too harsh a word, though possibly applicable?). If you have an annoying voice, charisma to match The Terminator, and humourless humour, you shouldn't be doing IPTV. In fact, you probably shouldn't be allowed in public. You should be mandatorily confined to a cubicle, slaving away with your code and pretending that it will some day get you somewhere.
Mike claims that he uses a spell checker, yet he still misses the ball on half of his words. Fortunately since last time I checked, he's began using some sort of awesome spell checker that makes him not sound like a completely oblivious-to-english moron, which is good, because spelling is good. Especially in a blog, which can convey a personal message, and an impression, to all those who read. I also just read the top post, apparently he isn't going to be doing CFH anymore either. Maybe because of the fact that he wasn't any good. Back to the show. When I heard he was on the Call For Help episode I had downloaded, I was in a forgiving mood (after just subduing several panthers trying to attack a Giraffe in my backyard), so I decided to give ol' Mikey another chance. I figured that maybe if he could effectively present an app that I might have some use for, then he would be back in the good books. That's an easy thing for me, if you can present to me something that will enrich/enhance my life, then I will respect you forever, because I believe that's like charity. You're being charitable. Like Brainkill the other night was teaching me some cool stuff, and I deeply respect him for not being a complete fucking loser like a lot of the other hackers that I've asked questions to. HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU BECAME GOOD IN THE FIRST PLACE? YOU ASKED QUESTIONS, ASSHAT. People are so self-centred.
So I eagerly anticipated Mikey's segment. I was watching with eager eagerness, when I realised that Mikey was presenting his application on a Mac. "Okay, calm down Jake, it's just a mac. Maybe he grabbed it by accident". Yes, I had that much faith in me that Mike would finally emerge as one of the good guys. It was an application which I could actually use, integrating Google Calendar with your desktop, allowing you to make changes offline. However I was then disappointed with the line that no sole Windows user who watches Call For Help wants to hear:
"This is mac only"
So I'm terribly afraid that you lose Mike. Make your time.
He presented it in his usual edgy and nervous manner, which as I progressively watched caused me to have even less respect for him. Also it turns out that even though he's a scene whore, he's no man whore, because when Leo says "And Mikey's free for the ladies", Mikey replies with a high pitched voice, and then Leo pinches him on the cheek, as you would a full grown man who just acted like a coy 12 year old after just being asked out by the blonde girl in the miniskirt from the playground. He then proceeded into singing a phrase from Britney Spears' song "Ooops, I did it again".
Then at the end of the show, he DECEITFULLY STOLE from Leo a brilliant Sanyo camcorder, and continued to run like a "nancy-girl" across the set, like he was some kind of fairy man. Only he wasn't one of the pure-blood fairies, he was some kind of fairy/ogre hybrid.
Otherwise, Call For Help was spectacular. Leo as always delivered quality service to the callers, as well as presenting professionally. /leofanboy
If you're a friend of Mikey, then I apologise if I somehow offended you. I merely wished to point out his inadequacies from my point of view. I don't know him in real life, he may be a completely different person. But the Mike Lazazzera that I have seen from his various appearances, it seems to me that he's ill suited for his chosen career path. Oh well, make do with what you can I guess. Better than pushing mops.
I kind of went off on a tirade there. I was originally planning to write something long and meaningful. Ah well, it's very early in the morning. That's an excuse right?
What's happening at the moment? Let's see... I'm listening to Less Than Jake in iTunes.
I've compiled a fairly up-tempo playlist in iTunes which is good for staying alert. It's nothing too acoustic, pretty fast and has a good beat. Let's take a look at what's in it.
Dropkick Murphy's - Album: The Warrior's Code (I took out the song Tessie, because I don't want to hear a song about a horseshit team of athletes that play a game I have no interest in)
Less Than Jake - Album: In with the out crowd. A lot of people don't like this latest album from LTJ, because they feel it isn't contrived from Less Than Jake's original ska punk roots, and is more leaning towards a pop sound. However, the ska sound is definitely there, and the theme of the lyrics is at least mostly punk still. The songs seem more synthesized though, which is a bummer, because Less Than Jake play well without it (Album: Losing Streak)
Sonata Artica - Album: For the Sake of Revenge. I got this album last night, and I've played through it six times today. They've got a good sound. I like it.
Millencolin - Album: No Cigar. iTunes says Rock/Pop. I say Sexy/ness
Pennywise - Album: Various songs from all their albums. I'm a big fan of Pennywise, and I've got about 30 of my choice songs in my playlist. Songs from The Fuse (their latest "explosive" album, with political themes, but my favourite song from this album is Disconnect, which is about how everybody is connected via technology, and sometimes we just have to disconnect), Unknown Road, Land of the Free (Key song from this album is Fuck Authority, which I first found out about while watching Rage (Australian MV show). It's got great lyrics, a political message, and is punk rock. What more can you ask?) and Full Circle.
NOFX - Album: The War on Errorism + Pump Up the Valuum + Punk In Drublic + Wolves in Wolves Clothing. I like NOFX a lot, and these four albums symbolise NOFX's greatest material (despite the name of the album The Best Songs Ever Written (By Us) which only features few of the songs in the aforementioned four albums.
Hehe, my download is 69% complete. I'm so fucking tired.
Wow, so so many PSP's get a bad rap. "Oh, the screen is faulty all the fucking time, just look at what Google says, there's 300 and twenty infinitillion articles about PSP dead pixels". Well of course you'll find that many articles, because you searched for "PSP Dead Pixels", you fucking moron.
People only see what they want to see. Just like the raging Linux v Windows debate that constantly goes on (which I have been involved in twice in the last two days via IRC, and it's gotten pretty nasty because of stupid kids voicing their uneducated fanboy opinions). You will never convince a Linux fanboy that Windows is better. I'd like to say "and vice versa", but before when I was a dedicated Windows user, I was shown the capabilities of Linux, and wouldn't have any shame in switching over if I needed to. I can't see why I would though, unless I needed to use a UNIX terminal for some reason. Everything I do can be done on Windows.
Anyway, I think PSP's are great in the same way I think Zune's are great. And that is because they have a large community dedicated to hacking the shit out of them to make them better than their creators are allowed to. There are so many useful PSP homebrew apps that you can get by simply downgrading your PSP to 1.5 (or following complex steps so you can have fw2.7, but trick the PSP into thinking it has 1.5 so you can run homebrew). Despite raging claims that PSP's have major issues with dead pixels, my PSP has never worked anything but flawlessly. I've never experienced unexpected crashes (expected crash = out of battery) from supposed battery failures/leaks. I've never had the memory on my sd card flashed to oblivion. And I've never had dead pixels.
Perception is reality. Although I despise SONY in all shapes and forms (all of their products are shit out of the box, end of story. Hacked... that's a different library full of volumes of stories), I have to commend them on being stupid shitfucker fuck shit asshats by (with each firmware updated) making it increasingly harder to hack your PSP. I guess the morons in the upper echelons don't realise that there's a chance you'll fuck up the downgrade, and destroy your memory in the process, as well as destroying the firmware stored in the PSP. This effectively means you can brick your PSP, forcing you to buy another one. Now, because I'm a marketing fucking genius and the drones and SONY are just simple-minded... well, drones, I'm going to use this post to give them a pointer. I'll use math to illustrate.
Downgrading PSP firmware = Chance to destroy your PSP (percentage variable is determined by how stupid you are).
Customer = Money
Failed downgrade + Customer + Money = SALES!
Yeah, pure mathematical geinus. I don't think I need proceed with High School anymore, because I'm going to build a business model where people buy products which are incredibly easy to destroy, destroy them, then buy them again. Maybe if SONY's marketing department pulled their thums out of their asses and stopped ROFLMAOing around the office, and realise this equation, they wouldn't be such a disrespected company. They should instead of preventing downgrades, encourage them. Seriously, saying SONY makes me want to spit on the nearest leper. See what you've done SONY? You're given lepers a bad name, assholes.
/me is extremely tired
Some ads placed on websites are so stupid. I don't click on ads based on principle. Who clicks these ads anyway?
Heh, so my friend was telling me about XFN, which I still have no fucking idea is about. We're thinking of creating an XFN-oriented project, just to see what it's like to work into a PHP back-end and create a social service. Should be a fun occupation of time.
I suspect that I don't have a lot of meaningful-thought juice left in me, and I don't want this post to develop into a series of short irrelevant sentences, so I'll end it here. My friend just got back from his parkour session, so maybe I'll talk to him until I die of exhaustion.
Sayonara.
Hmm... posting on Vox is orgasmic.
Blog-related euphoria aside, let's get into it.
Lately I've been playing a lot of Starcraft. I got really bored, and after finishing Halo (for the PC of course) on Legendary again, I felt like I'd return to my roots. The first game I ever played on a PC was Age of Empires, so right from the start, my heart has belonged to RTS. Starcraft captured my interest shortly after I played Age of Empires (which was then followed by a series of RPG's, like Diablo, Diablo 2, and Baldur's Gate).
So I began charging through the Starcraft campaigns again. It had been a while, so it was at least exciting because the strats I used for each level were different than the ones I'm used to (I'm used to playing the Starcraft expansion levels).
Okay, my language is far too constrained to convey the message I want to convey to you.
These guys fuckin own. I don't know how the hell they do it, because the way they clickety click their fingers, and hammer their keyboards with the key shortcuts, it's almost like they're on crack.
The fact that these guys have found themself a life that provides for them financially, while at the same time, allowing them to PLAY GAMES, is a genius idea. I'm sure we've all dreamt about being a lazy ass for a living before, right? (I know, I know, these guys actually put in an insane amount of hours training).
So why is Starcraft so intensely popular, even though some may call it "dated"?
Because of it's incredible balance. Starcraft is one of the most balanced games ever. If you're a Starcraft player, and you complain about how "xx is weak against everything", it's because you're a noob. I'm not saying that one vs one, every unit has an equal chance of beating the other unit, because that would mean whoever strikes first, strikes last.
What I mean is that if two players of equal skill vsed each other, one went Protoss, and one went Zerg, for example, then they would both stand an equal chance of winning. There's no rock, paper, scissors in this game. Starcraft is a game of intense skill (which makes it different to other Blizzard titles ala World of Warcraft).
Starcraft is a bit like chess. I've realised this from watching videos of players. Before, it seemed to me that Starcraft was largely a matter of bigger army = win. But it's more like chess in the way that you have to clearly plan out what you're going to do several steps before you do it. You need to evaluate the situation, and consider certain scenarios that could negatively impact your strategy, then work to disable those scenarios leaving you on top
So because of this revelation, I've become a better player. I guess ultimately, that's what games are about, becoming better. And having fun, of course.
If you're NEVER played Starcraft, I think you should. Like I said, some people might call it dated, thus you can get it fairly cheaply. Just don't expect to see it at EB, Gamestop etc etc.
Peace.