Clean Up On Aisle 216

Return

2010-09-12T21:49:00.001-05:00

My return to music has been released. A free EP simply called, "Return". Like I said it's free, so download it, enjoy it, post comments.
Peace
Love
Destruction

~Connor

Syndicate At A Glance

2010-08-30T07:38:00.002-05:00

Syndicate is an old DOS game by Bullfrog. It's an action RTS where you went deep into what I'll call "soldier development" where you can choose your soldiers' weapons and augmentations. This game was actually pretty controversial back in the day for the game's drug use. Now because this is the game at a glance, I don't get far enough into the game to explain, but here it goes...
The game opens with a bleep and some militaristic synth percussion followed by some… not so good synth that starts with a random set arpeggio and then some organ that sounds like it belongs in Castlevania and then it moves to like 8 different things, like… is this the same song?
The visuals in this intro are pretty good. Just some animated cinematics of what's going on in a city. Cut to Some guy getting a metal leg implant. Cut back to the opening visuals and I wondered if the opening cinematic was on loop and I was expected to skip it. It literally repeats the same three scenes in the opening, but then it cuts to a red haired guy with dark shades and a trenchcoat. He pulls out a pistol with laser sights. He aims his pistol at the player and then the title pops up.
When that is over a green laser outlines the screen and the main menu shows up. Nothing special here. No music. Your options are to configure your company, begin the mission, load or save the game, restart the game, or quit to DOS. Let's start with Begin Mission.
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I bet that right now you're going, "but Connor you have to configure your company!!!!" well when you press begin mission you are given this Command and Conquer-esque map of the world. You click on the designated territory and you are given a mission briefing and THEN you can configure your company.
The briefing gives your your mission type (i.e. Assassination, Persuade, etc) and then does the whole briefing thing. To the right of that are three sets of numbers and a box with flashing lights, which I have no idea what those mean. It couldn't be a map of the mission, and if it is, that lacks a lot of detail.
You find out the first set of numbers (starts at 30000) is your money you can use to enhance your soldiers. You can enhance them through implants, weapons, and I guess research? I don't really know what research does.
So you equip your team and begin your mission. The first mission begins with your team just outside a small base. When you select a unit or their weapon they say, "selected" in this very robotic voice. Now when you begin each mission remember to select your team's weapons because for some reason they aren't already equipped.
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why? Why would you not have your teammates weapon already equipped? If you didn't read this you wouldn't know about the weapons not being equipped until the enemy is shooting at you and your soldier just wants to walk up to them and hug them or something. The music is very simple and uninspired, but it works. I wouldn't download the soundtrack, it's too empty. So you finish the mission by doing whatever task you are given and you are given a cinematic of people in a city cheering and rejoicing while a hover car flies by. One thing you'll notice pretty fast about these missions is that constant boop that will get faster or slower. That would be your radar, and yes it is very annoying. I'd like to tune it out, BUT IT'S LOUDER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE GAME!
Another thing that pisses me off is the AI, when you are on the persuade missions the AI you persuade cannot follow you for shit. They always get hung up on a fucking wall or something and then when you go back for them they seem way to interested in that fucking wall! Look, if you persuade someone you should be able to control them. The second level is a persuasion mission, so guess how fucked you are in that one!?!?!?! I lost that mission about 4 times, thrice from shooting and once because the AI is retarded, yes, I'm making that a cause. The only upside to the second mission is the police who when they spot you shout, "Police, put your weapons down!" It's also fun when your whole squad has a shotgun and you do one click on on the enemy and he goes flying. Oh, there's another thing I forgot to mention. This game is set up like an RTS, so naturally you'd think left click works all the magic, but no, right click does all the shooting and left click moves. Or if you're on a mac, two finger click does the shooting and one finger click does the moving. What is cool about this is that you can shoot wherever and whenever. So you could shoot the ground, or a building, or a set of stairs, or whatever.
So that's Syndicate at a glance. Was it as good as I was hoping for it to be? Fuck no. I thought this game would make me completely forget about Command & Conquer, but it made me wish I was playing that instead. Maybe I'll post a full review when I manage to get passed the idiotic AI... yeah... maybe.

Duke Nukem 3D Review

2010-08-22T10:47:00.004-05:00

(At long last, I decided to screw the video portion of this review so.... here it is.)

Remember Duke Nukem 3D? Of course you do, but in case you don't you probably just know it as the predecessor to gaming's biggest punchline Duke Nukem Forever or Duke Nukem Never, or Duke Nukem Forever in Development, the jokes go on, but back in the day Duke Nukem 3D was on every system, it was on DOS, MAC, Windows, Genesis, Game Boy Color, Playstation 1, Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, and now it's on the iPhone and Xbox Live Arcade. With that many releases you know the game was and still is a big deal.

Now it's not necessarily 3D like the other big shooter to come out that year, Quake. There were 3D environments, but the characters and props were all in 2D, so I guess you could say it was 2.5D like earlier shooters Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. This is my first review of an old game so I wouldn't really know what to tell you about the graphics aside from the fact that, yes they're dated, but they still look good to me, but then again, I don't really care about a game's graphics.

So when you start the game you are greeted by the awesome theme song called "Grab Bag" and some gameplay footage. When you go start the game you can actually pick any one of the three episodes to start on, which is pretty cool, but this kind of backfires on you whenever you finish an episode. Once you finish an episode you get a picture with some text giving you some plot advancement and then it takes you right back to the main menu, so when you start a new episode you start it with a blank slate. Why can't I continue from LA Meltdown to Lunar Apocolypse? Aren't you supposed to go through the whole game?

There is one issue I have and that's the lighting in this game. Most of the time the lights are either strobing or nonexistent. Some of the levels in the second episode are pretty much just that where you'll be in a room with strobing lights and then when you get out of the strobe room you can't see a damn thing. I checked the manual to see if there was a headlamp or something and their isn't. So, I just dealt with it. It was always a relief to walk into a room and see a light switch so I could flip it and actually see things. The poor lighting really affected me in the second level of LA Meltdown where I'd go into a hallway that had literally no lighting, but the enemies can see me so suddenly I'm getting shot and I don't know where from so I had to shoot randomly until I heard the enemy die and what sucks is that you have to go through this hall twice and on the second travel a Pig Cop spawns so you get ambushed in the dark.

The AI is pretty typical, when they see you they're ruthless, but when they don't they just kind of wander around and make growls or in the case of the assault commando they say "suck it down" in this ring modulated Barry White voice and believe me that gets really annoying until Duke says it at one point. That's probably one of the best parts of Duke Nukem 3D is every word that comes out of Duke's mouth. When I started the game I would smile at everything he would say, but the effect would sort of die later in the game after about the thousandth time you heard Duke say "Cool" or "Groovy". They capitalized on Duke's amazing quotes by adding a feature to taunt your opponents by pressing alt and then f1 through f10. By doing this you can hear some pretty good taunts. My favorite being, "You're an inspiration for birth control!"

Another important sound aspect is the music. Aside from the great theme song that plays at the menu screen the music didn't really leave an impression on me and as I got closer to the end of the game I totally forgot that there was even music playing until I paused the game to go to the bathroom.

So I talked about all of the bad things, but what is it about this game that makes it so awesome aside from Duke's amazing quotes? The action, it's almost non-stop unless you are stuck at a certain point looking for that key. Not only can you give money to the strippers, but if you shoot them money comes exploding out of them. When you go into the bathrooms it's always funny to open a stall door and catch an alien dropping a deuce. I had one incident on Lunar Apocolypse where on the floor of one occupied stall was a porn magazine. The game also created some great scenes of intensity, again on Lunar Apocolypse you are in an examination room and suddenly a ton of the slime enemies start coming out of the walls making me leg it. The whole Lunar Apocolypse episode sort of reminds me of the movie Aliens where the base on LV-426 has been taken over by the aliens and they have their hive filled with eggs, this gave me moments of dreading any advancement in the level, but in a good way. The enemy design is great and actually inspired me a little with my game ideas and come on, a pig cop? that's just hilarious and his vest even says LARD. I smell bacon for real. The end of episode cinematics are great too. At the beginning of a boss battle Duke says, "I'm gonna rip of your head and shit down your neck," and just hearing that is awesome, but what's even better is in the ending cinematic Duke literally does that. After another boss battle he kicks the boss' eye through a field goal announcing, "it's good!"

So Duke Nukem 3D, overall it's a kick ass game, something I feel like I could pick up and play again and again, sure it had lighting issues and the fact that you can't continue to the next episode with all your weapons and items is a bummer, and yes the music isn't really memorable aside from the theme song, but everything else makes up for it. If you haven't played this game yet I highly recommend you do, I mean come on, it's practically on every console!

Fashion Part Deux

2010-07-21T23:16:00.002-05:00

So I've been getting my fashion on, checking out some blogs and sites and I stumbled into Buckle. Now I've seen Buckle at the malls, but I've never been in one. So when I was in there site I saw that like Urban Outfitters they sold Bed Stu shoes and I've always wanted a pair. Not only were their Bed Stu's cheap, but they were exclusive to their store. Pretty cool. So I ordered a pair of slip ons in a size 13 along with a hat. This morning I received them in the mail and since my Adidas are a size 14 I already had my doubts, but I still fit my dress shoes that are a size 12 and there's a ton of room in my combat boots that are size 14, so I figured it might actually work. My feet fit in perfectly and they are the most comfortable pair of shoes I have ever owned ever. Every step is like walking on a cloud, I know that sounds cliche, but it's true! The slip ons are brown and have a... I want to say suede-leather exterior. Money well spent. They were $79, if I remember correctly. The hat was $4 and it's pretty nice, it's like a knitted marine ranger's cap... and brown. Pretty comfortable as well. Yeah, what I realized quickly is most of Buckle's clothes are either Black or Brown and they all look post-apocalyptic to some degree, which is awesome. I did see a sweatshirt there that I have to get and yes, it is brown and post-apocalyptic, but it's just so awesome... and it is a bit expensive, so I may wait to get it when it's discounted like my hat was. Yeah, the hat was originally $18 and was discounted to $4, but then again, I wear XL shirts because of my height so... I may want to get it at some point soon.
I did get a copy of GQ style and Fashion Music Style... and everything IS FUCKING EXPENSIVE!!!! But it doesn't get more expensive than Alexander McQueen (R.I.P.)

Test Drive 3 - Quick Review

2010-07-11T14:17:00.003-05:00

SO I figured I have enough DOS action games, let's try a couple racing games. So I picked Test Drive 3 and Deathtrack. I haven't really gotten too into Deathtrack yet, so we'll see how that one goes. As for Test Drive 3, I don't really care for it. The sound fx and music are both REALLY annoying and the fps is really low which makes it hard to control the vehicle. I guess OLD racing games are not for me, but we'll see what happens when I play Deathtrack some more. I will have a video review of Duke Nukem 3D soon as a part of a video series I am going to start called Classic Game Reviews. Not an imaginative title, I know, but it's the best I can come up with. Got any better ideas, post them in the comment section.

Filming and Nothing Else

2010-06-22T13:45:00.002-05:00

So I haven't done anything aside from work and make a movie with my friend. It's a parody of the game Deadly Premonition and the end result is better than I would've thought:
CLICK ME!

Into the Frying Pan

2010-06-18T20:01:00.002-05:00

So I had this issue with Heretic 2 where the game kept crashing after I finished a level, so I had to cheat passed it and respawn all my items and now I'm back on track, so I'll finish up that game soon hopefully. I just got Martian Gothic in the mail the other day and so far it's rather creepy and you definitely have to THINK to play the game. So I'll get down to playing more of that... eventually... Heretic 2 caught my attention.
I have been using my Jupiter-8 vst more now and now I do actually love the thing to death. At first it was a love-hate (more hate) thing, but now I'm finding more good things about it so yay.
I did watch some E3, like two days. The two things that really pleased me were Rage and Metal Gear Rising. MGR is one reason for me to get a 360 and yes I'm well aware that it is a multiplatform game, but it ain't comin out for the mac so yea. Diablo 3 is the only other new game I'm excited about and it IS coming out for the mac, so that'll be cool to get when that comes out.
I just found out that Urban Outfitters carries Bed:Stu boots in their stores so I'm going to have to venture to the UO near me and see if they have any, otherwise maybe they can order some... I hope.
So after my mind exploded because of my game idea, I've started to regain my sanity bit by bit and what I'd really like to do is create a low polygon 3d game as an homage to all the 3d 90s games that I love so much like the Jedi Knight series, that's just counting Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith, as well as Heretic 2 and maybe some others my mind is too focused on what I'm typing right now.
SAN FRANSISCO IN A COUPLE WEEKS!

My Mind Is Imploding

2010-06-12T01:21:00.001-05:00

So I decided to work more on the concepts for my game and suddenly I got an ambitious thought, that ambitious thought led to me looking at other indie games which led to an overload of my mind in wanting to do a billion different things so as of right now my mind is kaput. I need to figure out what I really want to do and then start doing concepts for that and then figure everything out from there. I just hope this all clears up after some sleep.

Two Updates That Anger Me...

2010-06-10T11:01:00.002-05:00

So yesterday my friend told me about the Mortal Kombat trailer. I wasn't expecting much except for the movie to take place in the MK universe and there was going to be a tournament blah blah blah. What I got was a steaming pile of skunk vomit. Let's go through this:
-Jax and Sonya aren't cops, they are Special Forces. STRIKER is a cop.
-Reptile is not a human with a skin condition, he's a lizard from Outworld.
-Baraka is not a human, he's a Tarkatan, also from Outworld, he was born with the swords in his arms and grotesque appearance.
-I hope to God they address the issue that Scorpion (Hanzo Hisashi) is already dead and that's why he has a feud with Sub-Zero, yes Sub-Zero killed him.
-Johnny Cage is dead at the beginning of the movie, that's just lame.
I bet with Rayden he'll be some guy that gained the power to use electricity so he calls himself Rayden... NO, Rayden IS the thunder god. Like Baraka he's born that way. Now... with all my nerd rage out, I will say that it does look good and it's interesting to see Scorpion as the main character as opposed to Liu Kang. So I may see it and try to leave my MK nerdiness outside the theatre.
Next up there's Rock Band 3, I hate Rock Band and Guitar Hero style games, so when I find out that Rock Band 3 is going to have synthesizer I was pissed. I hate that synthesizer has to be a part of this bullshit. Now people will probably ask me to play some stupid song that was on Rock Band 3 and for that I'll punch them in the face. Thank you Harmonix for now making me hate even more. I thought I was going to have a nice happy summer, but no, you turned this summer into shit.
I can never be happy.

Fashion

2010-06-09T10:57:00.002-05:00

So browsing the internet I finally found some reasonably priced boots, I am very happy. They are Bed:Stu's, straight out of Brooklyn. Durable with a vintage appearance. I'm also looking to get some new pants, practically every pair I have has a hole in the left knee. I did find some new ones so, that's cool, just need to figure out my new size, 34/34 is too short on me... waist is good. I'll be venturing over to Goodwill some time soon to see if I can find a trench coat of some type, then (if I find one) it'll be over to target to find needle and thread to sew my fox hide onto the collar of that bad boy. I also gotta get a few shirts, but that's pretty much it.

RPG Gaming Madness Nonsense

2010-06-07T20:07:00.002-05:00

Hooray, Blogger is working!
Anyways, so, I've been chasing after that dungeon crawler, action, adventure game idea again. Got some sprites and tiles, and I got some ideas written down. And with Outer Limits (now registered) I have some musical ideas going through my head. To help aid me in my quest for a good game I downloaded Avernum, then deleted it because it was so boring, and Eschalon Book 2 which is supposedly good, so we'll see how that works. I'm also getting back into Heretic 2 for some aid. I finally beat the first boss, huzzah, yeah, I was pretty stupid.
I also started playing Warhammer Online with my friend and we're going to try Skype for gameplay convo since typing is not always best >:l
I just ordered Martian Gothic and Bushido Blade for PSX, a new backpack, and Kraftwerk 1+2. My Novation synth will be sold soon... tomorrow to be exact, and with that money I will be getting a new MIDI controller because the NANOKey is very flimsy and has gone shit on me before (this is my second one), so I want to get something more stable and just all around better. I'll also be taking it to college with me.
See you next update.

Outer Limits Review

2010-06-05T21:02:00.004-05:00

So, I just bought Outer Limits by Native Instruments and Zero G and for the one hour that I was messing with it, I am bum over noggin for this thing. Every sound is so haunting that it delights me. I could create dozens and dozens of horror soundtracks with this. I've run into one issue though and that is with registration, it said my key was invalid so I have to get that dealt with. So for those of you that don't know what Outer Limits is (I'm guessing all of you) it is a virtual instrument full of dark ambience sounds that is just down right awesome. I don't think I've ever been happier with a purchase to be honest. With this I could definitely make the next greatest horror game soundtrack. I don't see this being used with movies or TV shows like I do with games. Maybe it's just that video games influence my music, but whatever, I definitely want to start doing some video game soundtracks now! Heck, maybe I'll actually make a video game, psh, yeah, and David Lynch will make a movie that won't have weirdness in it. For a virtual instrument the price is pretty cheap, I got this at Sam Ash for $160, that's $40 cheaper than MSRP. The patches seem to be very pressure sensitive, unless my MIDI controller is just very flimsy (I have a KORG NanoKey). I realize that most of this review is very fractured because I keep breaking to rave about this thing, but it's true, it is the coolest virtual instrument you can buy... if you're into dark ambience or something like that. While going through the patches I realized how each patch is so unique. I feel like the people that made this slaved over making these patches, even the patches under the group Minimalist seem that way. Oh yeah, groups, there are many different patch groups that come with this software. The patch groups are all labeled by what they sound like, I guess, I mean, some of these patches are just so different that I couldn't even put them in a specific category or group. I don't know what else to say about this other than excited gibberish, so I'll close by saying if you are into dark ambience or are looking for something different than your typical virtual instrument get this.

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Wow, my first review in like forever, and for a virtual instrument no less, and it sucks... well... deal with it.

I Should Get Back To This, Yeah?

2010-06-01T23:56:00.002-05:00

So I realize that I've left all of you, now let's be honest, I bet two or three people read this blog, and I decided that with summer here I should probably return with a vengence... so I will. I'll try to make at least one post a week, ok?
Right now I've been playing Warhammer Online and I've been getting into it. I don't think I'll actually buy a subscription though because once I get to college I'll probably stop playing and play some other game(s) because I just won't have the time for an MMO. Aside from WO I will get Martian Gothic, Bushido Blade, and Crime Killer for PS1 just for some old time fun. I love old games.
Other than that I got a job, graduation is thursday, and I go to San Francisco at the end of June so.... not much to talk about. Hopefully you guys stand by my side.

ACEN

2010-05-16T16:05:00.004-05:00

ACEN was amazing, I bought a Dante (DMC 3) costume, a two bladed sword, Parasite Eve, and an Aural Vampire CD and Shirt. AV signed the CD, but I couldn't get both signed. Listening to the CD right now and it's awesome, the concert was awesome. I documented the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9_N5R4Obx4
The video is kind of short, so I might compile a part 2 and upload it later. I saw That Guy With The Glasses (aka Nostolgia Critic) there, I got a signed picture along with a photo of my friends and I with him. Spike (creator of Templar Arizona) did a portrait of myself, which makes me look devastatingly handsome.

A Comparison

2010-05-09T20:24:00.003-05:00

So I decided to return to make this wee comparison.
I was at a comic book store in St. Louis this weekend and I saw a lot of Sandman stuff and I decided to get Sandman: Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman & Yoshitaka Amano. Now right now you're all thinking holy shit, Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano (THE ARTIST FOR FF!!!), two wicked sick dudes making one comic, and yes I agree with you, it is the shit. What I am going to do is compare the normal Sandman we're used to and the Yoshitaka Amano Sandman and I'll keep it brief.
The original Sandman looks a lot creepier - more menacing, like someone you would not want to cross. His black cloak fades into red skulls, which is kinda creepy too. You don't see his eyes except for the dotted pupils, which, again, make him creepier. WHen he's wearing street clothes he's simply black and white.
The Yoshitaka Amano Sandman looks... well... beautiful, like something out of traditional Japanese art. His usually wild thick hair, looks rather thin. His black-red skull cloak is purple. He honestly reminds me of someone out of Dynasty Warriors, not in a bad way.
Now I know there are two different art styles here, but it's just something I wanted to note/compare.
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I don't really know what the point of this was, but... there you go. Maybe I'll post more stuff before the ACEN blog.

The Burps/Why None?

2010-04-21T21:45:00.003-05:00

I don't know if I posted that I have a twitter, but... I do. Here's the URL: https://twitter.com/connor_eck so if you happened to be on the net and want to read my little burps of what-not then follow me if you have a twitter and if not... well.... get a job then. Oh and now that I have a flip cam I may post my burps on here for little interesting updates or whatevers.

I noticed a lot of people, including myself, have not updated in forever, I wonder why that is... hm.

Back from Florida

2010-04-03T16:53:00.003-05:00

SO I was in FLorida and that was fun and I am home which is even better aside from the fact that my skin is peeling because I got sunburned to shit. Anyways I made a couple patches for my synth and another song is in the works... actually two songs are in the works, but that first one is just kind of sitting there collecting dust on my hard drive.
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Man I have no idea what to talk about... my Florida trip I guess.... I caught a massive Grouper (3 feet and 30 pounds), sat on the beach for a few hours reading and cooking... I dunno, that's pretty much it, nothing eventful really. I was surprised by the amount of porn shops in Florida though... well... within the St. Pete's Beach area there were two shops and one strip club, I was rather surprised considering in my area we HAD one and now it's turned into a cash for gold place. Started reading Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, so far it's just what I expected, messed up and funny.
I did download Cave Story for mac, played a little bit of it and stopped because I had to go to the beach, BUT I am wondering if this game will turn out to be the jewel covered golden game from the treasure vaults of Xerxes or just a piece of crap which would fortify my position on everything mainstream sucks.
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Well I'm spent on words.

Peace, Love, and Destruction,
~Connor

Everybody's Updating For the Weekend

2010-03-26T18:32:00.001-05:00

So two of my songs got put onto my high school's CD, "Euphonics of Hydroponics" and "Der Blau Haus Auf Das Land" now go listen to those. One is on the album Final Phoenix and the other is on Black Blizzard. In case you forgot my last.fm page here it is:
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Neurotic+Neuromancer%27s+Nefarious+Nightmares

Spring break is here and I realized that I need some old games to play. I got stuck in Heretic 2 and being a nomadic gamer just kind of stopped. I'll probably pick up Star Wars Dark Forces for the 1000th time and play that again because I love that game so much. I could try playing Crusader again, but..... yeah maybe I'll pick that one up... who knows...

Started messing around with the Jupiter-8 virtual synth and I love some of the sounds contained in this thing. I can make an old school sci-fi soundtrack no problem and if I make a scifi game or movie I will do so.

Tomorrow my friend Andrew and I work on our music project known as Suzy LaRue and the Roothless Ooze. We are planning to have a concert for this project too. We will film it too. Can't wait for all this to happen!

Peace, Love, and Destruction,
~Connor~

Recieve and you Shall Live

2010-03-14T17:42:00.002-05:00

Got a new work schedule, I work Mondays and Wednesdays now! Hooray! I also got my Sandman shirt and a haircut! Hooray more clothing! I completed two song yesterday as well and uploaded them to the new album on my last.fm page:

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Neurotic+Neuromancer%27s+Nefarious+Nightmares

So I got below average on the math PSAE and so they want me to take this online test and course that'll take like two hours, but when I tried to do this my username and password didn't work... what the hell? SO tomorrow morning I'm going to talk to someone in the math department at the resource center (I refuse to call it learning center) about it and see if they can explain it.

Parents are Crazy (caution, heavy swearing)

2010-03-11T17:13:00.003-06:00

So some parents at my high school want to shut down GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) and they are going to protest the day of silence by keeping their kids home. Seriously, you parents are (excuse my language here, this'll get brutal) fucking retarded. I don't really know what to say other than that. Why do they care so much about the GSA to shut it down, who gives a fuck whether there is a club supporting gays or not, there's nothing wrong with gays, they are just different and they can't help it and shutting down organizations, sending them to "straight camps", etc. isn't going to help the situation because being gay is an issue with the brain where the person is receiving different signals than a straight person, so seriously, shut the fuck up and get the sand out of your fucking vagina because being hateful towards those that are different won't help your case or theirs. Who gives a fuck if they're going to hell because the bible says so, well you know what, the bible also says to not cut your hair, but what the fuck do you do? CUT YOUR FUCKING HAIR!!!! Sometimes I wonder if I'm the last sane person on this planet.

Wow, Nostolgia

2010-03-06T23:53:00.004-06:00

Two things on this topic. I started watching Nostolgia Critic the other day, I must say, he's great. The first one I watched was Battlefield Earth, what I loved about it was how he pointed out that almost every shot was on an angle and when he made some jokes like, "If only our planet wasn't slanted we could shoot straight!" I laughed pretty hard. Then he had Spoony dress up and imitate John Travolta's character which was hilarious. I watched a ton of them when I got off work Friday. I'd recommend him to film fans who want to watch reviews on bad movies.

On the same topic of Nostolgia, my friend John and I played Vigilante 8 today. This brought me back to when I first played it... wow... I was so young back then.... *sigh*. Anyways, the game has a great soundtrack: disco, heavy metal, and trance. Some of the AI is ridiculous like, why the hell can Bee's Wax use his special like 20 times, but I can only use it 5 times? Why are there limited amounts of wrenches? Sure it creates a challenge, but there are some levels that only place like three and then that's it. The last level (the fourth because for each character campaign there are four levels) is always a bitch, like every game, but the difficulty curve ramps way the hell up for that level. I cannot beat the last level at all, but I had no problem with the first three. To sum up Vigilante 8, it's fun for the nostolgia factor, but doesn't really have a lasting impact. With super short campaigns and an extreme increase in difficulty at the last level there's not much to come back to. Sure you have multiplayer (one on one and coop), but it wouldn't really last in the end. I guess I'll have to compare this to the old Twisted Metal games too to see if I have the came feeling on those.

So, staying on games, I'm still playing Heretic 2, haven't gotten very far in it, though it kicks ass. I got Diablo 2 to work on Sheepshaver (A Mac OS emulator), but it lags... oh the lag. I tried to do bootcamp, but was unsuccessful with the Windows XP that I have, so I'll go out and buy a different Windows OS.

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to make a game now. It will be a dungeon crawler using low bit sprites. I am going to use Diablo 2 as a guide to my game creation. I'm going to definitely start making this thing in summer so that I have some time to play Diablo 2 and get a story going in my mind.

Oh and before I forget, I am eating solids now with no troubles. I am very happy about that. Still taking my pills though and I have 6 weeks with a syringe and the perscription mouth wash.

Update, the Next Day

2010-02-27T22:39:00.001-06:00

So, I woke up this morning, didn't drool any blood, so that was good. Started the morning with vanilla ice cream for breakfast, then took my butt load of pills then took a shower which was a bad idea because I started feeling the vicodin kick in while taking a shower, so I pretty much had to put on my clothes in my chair. Had assistance walking down stairs, then watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman, Home Movies, and loads of Saturday Night Live before getting used to the vicodin effect. Also watched That 70s Show and King of Queens and now one of the Peter Cushing Frankenstein movies is on, so I have to watch that being a Star Wars fan and knowing that Peter Cushing is totally bad ass. Tomorrow I think I'll start with scrambled eggs. That's all for now, not a big day.

An Update

2010-02-26T19:51:00.003-06:00

So I took a nap. When I woke up there was blood on my pillow and my jaw hurt like hell. So I went to tell my mom to give me pills. By the time I walked down stairs I felt like I was going to vomit so my mom gave me a bucket in case I vomited. She then told me she'd come back in a few minutes to check on me before giving me pills. I ended up falling asleep again while holding the bucket. I woke up when my mom came back and I was feeling better and only a section of my jaw was numb so I was able to pop whatever two pills I was taking. Then I laid down on the couch and turned on the Simpsons. I was also given a couple cups of ice chips to help my surgery spots, then I was given some jello for my stomach, and now I'm on my third glass of Gatorade... and I also gotta pee....

My Big Day

2010-02-26T14:32:00.002-06:00

SO I had my wisdom teeth removed today. When they asked me to come back I followed them into this all white room with the surgical chair in the middle. My first thought was, man this room looks like it's from the Matrix. They hooked up everything to me and then stuck the needle in me so they could inject me with the first anesthetic. After they did this I got a surge of heaviness that flew through my extremities. I got a little tired as well. After that they injected me with the second anesthetic and the next thing I remember was me waking up and for a second I thought I was singing "White Wedding" by Billy Idol. The doctors said I wasn't, but I could've sworn I was. I'm really tired right now so some of this may not make sense to you or myself later. Right now my jaw is totally numb. I ate a little bit of ice cream. I tried to take a couple pills, but I couldn't even hold water in my mouth. I'll update you on the situation later.

I'm receiving stuff

2010-02-20T12:58:00.002-06:00

So I ordered a load of stuff on Amazon and I got some of it in the mail:

Heretic 2, Nail by Foetus, and Driver

I'm listening to Nail by Foetus right now and I think this is one amazing industrial album, they are now becoming my favorite industrial band, slowly, but I think they are. I installed Heretic 2 and played through the tutorial section and I have a feeling that this game will be great. Driver on the other hand, I have to get an emulator for because it doesn't operate on OS X, which is pants on head retarted. All I have left to receive is the MonsterGecko pistol mouse, ZPC (which I'll probably have to emulate as well), Diablo 2, and Conquers Your Love by Praga Khan.

Craziness!

2010-02-15T20:21:00.002-06:00

So I was in Sam Ash lookin for a new synthesizer and I'm busy playing "Circling Overland" by Front 242 and "Just Can't Get Enough" by Depeche Mode and I see this old guy and his daughter walk in and the guy plays a little bit of synth and then walks away, I later found out that the guy was the drummer for Anthrax. I played Depeche Mode and Front 242 in front of the drummer from Anthrax. I found this out because one of the Sam Ash employees told me.

...

The guy bought a Korg NanoKey... I use one as well... I feel special!

So I ended up buying a Roland SH-201, once again it was the floor model, I just need to get the sound working with USB connection. Ableton recognizes that the synth is being played and sound waves will appear, but no sound comes out so I gotta fix that. Worst comes to worst I buy a 1/4 to 1/8 adapter and use my male/male stereo cord with that.

Goin Live Soon

2010-02-14T16:22:00.001-06:00

So I decided to create a Ustream show called "Clean Up On Aisle 216" I'll post when I have a definite day for the first episode, but until then here's the page:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/saibot216

SO let's see...

2010-02-13T16:17:00.002-06:00

I'm putting a restriction on comments now because I'm getting too much god damn spam. Why is it all posted here? I don't generate that kind of traffic!

I really need to start getting games for my mac... I'm so bored here. I'm gonna get Driver, ZPC (because it kicks that much ass), an RPG, and maybe something else... we'll see... I have to save the rest of that money for a couple CDs.

Picking an RPG is tough because the choices are so limited and I was looking for something different, but I guess I'll have to settle for either Icewind Dale or Diablo 2 (because Baldur's Gate costs a shit load). I thought Heretic 2 was an RPG but I can see that I'm wrong, I may get that just as an extra game. See I'd get Icewind Dale because that's more action focused and supposedly really good, but I'd get Diablo 2 to play with my friend John who has it (normally I hate multiplayer altogether) and because I remember watching people play it a lot back in the day and it looked pretty cool. So we'll see what happens when it comes time to buy.

I'm still rattling the idea of making a game in my head. I really want to do it and if I actually go through with this I should definitely get started the second school ends, maybe a wee bit earlier. Then I'd definitely have to set deadlines for certain things and maybe get friends to help me with this (even though I occasionally hate working with others).

...

I dunno, we'll see what happens.

Congradulations it's a Mac

2010-02-06T16:03:00.002-06:00

So I got my new computer and it's a 15" macbook pro so... yay. Spending the rest of today uploading music that did not transfer to the external hard drive because my computer kept shutting down. Then I gotta install Microsoft Office for Mac and then I gotta go to work tomorrow AT FUCK MOTHERING 8AM WHAT THE PISS!!!! I FUCKING HATE THIS!!!!!!

Hopefully!!!

2010-01-26T22:15:00.001-06:00

So I have enough money for a new synth and I was thinking I should get a microkorg, but then I checked Craig's List and found an Access Virus A in prime condition for $500!!!!!! Holy butt funk!!! I just have to wait one more pay day, cash the check, and then I'll buy it. Payday comes the 1st of February so... I AM VERY EXCITED!!!!

Yes... YES... YEEEESSSSS!!!!!!

2010-01-17T14:52:00.003-06:00

I know that's an M Bison line, but guess what? THE TEKKEN TRAILER JUST WENT ONLINE LIKE TWO DAYS AGO!!!!!!!!
http://theflickcast.com/2010/01/15/first-trailer-for-tekken-goes-online/
It looks like it might break the trend of awful video game movies! I mean look at the costumes, they actually LOOK like the characters, Yoshimitsu looks like he does in Tekken 5, Eddy Gordo has the dreadlocks and weird... outfit, Jin Kazama has the pants and hair. I cannot wait for this movie to come out, I am seeing it the DAY it opens!!!!!

I should never ever get hopeful

2010-01-16T19:20:00.003-06:00

So I was at the dentist and they're like, Oh I see you got a wisdom tooth coming in. Has it been bothering you? (NO) Oh ok, well then we won't have to remove it unless it starts bothering you. (Oh, cool.)
-Then the head dentist walks in-
His wisdom teeth are gonna have to be pulled.

And in my head I'm going, what the fuck? You just said I wasn't going to have to get them pulled, fuck you for saying such things that could get my hopes up. I got my hopes up and thought I wouldn't have to go through another tooth removal, but no you crushed my hopes and fuck you for doing that.

...UGH!
...
Got my computer repaired AGAIN. It's working alright now. Also working a hell of a lot this week.... NO BREAK AT ALL I HATE THIS! I did get paid though so.... that's cool. You know what that means? I have enough money to buy my MicroKORG now! Yay!

Coming Soon....

2010-01-10T12:55:00.002-06:00

Coming Soon.... as in tomorrow... FINALS!!!! Holy bat fuck batman, this is going to suck, I hate finals.
However I did get Switch Remix by Schaft; Gay, Black, and Married by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Tommy Tallarico Greatest Hits 1, The Best of Space, and Armored Trooper VOTOMS stage 1, so I got enough to keep me busy.
...
No, of course I'm spending the rest of today studying, who do you think I am?

All This Sci-Fi Is Turning My Mind On!

2009-12-30T18:00:00.002-06:00

So I've been watching so many sci-fi movies and reading so many sci-fi stories that I'm just inspired. Remember that game I said I wanted to make? I think I'm gonna try that with this. I'm definitely going very in depth with the creation process - like... I'm creating the ship right now, writing down all the decks and what all is in those decks, etc. Before I probably would have just created the ship as I went along. As for characters I am not so sure yet, I need to think up a plot... that'd be the most important part, right? I have a bunch of ideas floating around though, so I'll keep you updated on that... if you even care about it.

Good Games

2009-12-29T23:32:00.002-06:00

Here's a short list of top indie games I think y'all should play:
-7 Days a Skeptic
-Seiklus
-Cortex Command
-Star Guard

Now here's the short list of retail games y'all should play:
-System Shock 2
-Rainbow Six
-ZPC
-Resident Evil (1 or 2... or both)
-Metal Gear Solid (preferably the first one)
-Alpha Centauri
-Painkiller

Now go play those and tell me what you think!

Merry Happy!

2009-12-28T20:25:00.002-06:00

So this is a belated Christmas blog. Hope everyone had a good holiday. Christmas went well. I got a Sega Genesis and that really made my Christmas. I think that's the happiest my mom has ever seen me. In addition to that I got "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, this book was the basis for the movie "The Thing". I only read the first chapter so far and it isn't very eventful at all. Got lots of cash and gift cards. $100 total to Amazon, $75 for Urban Outfitters, $300 in checks. Got a Stockhausen CD, which is pretty cool. Other than that I didn't get much. Didn't ask for much. Anyone else get some cool stuff?
Got injured snowboarding today. Nothing major, I'll be out of commission tomorrow though, that's for sure.

I Stay Huddled in my Cave

2009-12-22T19:02:00.002-06:00

So my computer has issues again, right now there are corrupt files that will be reinstalled (as in Windows XP system files) and so at the moment I can't go on YouTube or whatever because my computer is so slow when ever media is playing. So that'll get fixed once I get back from the hell hole that is Colorado.
Started playing Road Rash 3D again. I had forgotten how much fun that game is. My friend Andrew and I spent three hours playing it last night and I played it for awhile today.
Let's see.... went to a Blackhawks game, got Stone Tower by Delerium and so far it kicks ass, uhhhhh..... hmmm.... oh yeah, I got a new job. I'll be working at an animal hospital now.
Chemlab has a new tour coming up with 16 Volt so if the Chicago show isn't 21+ I will be able to go.
...Stupid computer slow downs, I can't even make music, THIS IS HELL!!!!!

So I Haven't Posted in Awhile

2009-12-14T20:17:00.002-06:00

So I had a leave of absence due to not caring enough. Started a new project with my friend Suzy LaRue and started working on my next album. My next album will be breaking away from what I was doing in my first album (i.e. minimalist, long and boring). So other than that I've really been up to nothing...
...
...
...
I'll post something else when I have something to say.

Ctrl + C -> Ctrl + V

2009-11-25T23:43:00.001-06:00

So I caught my first cold, at least I'm calling it a cold, I'm not going to Defcon 1 and calling it Swine Flu. Besides I don't feel like utter shit, just kind of... not good. Nasal congestion and a sore throat.
So.... what's up?
OH! I continued playing Resident Evil 2, right now I'm in the sewer and stupid Ada left my ass to die after being shot... what a bitch . She was all, "Leon, I have to talk to that woman." She's telling me this AFTER I GOT SHOT AND PASSED OUT!!!!!! Then when I go into the sewer after Ada the sewer is filled with giant spiders. The police station was also restocked with Lickers and zombies also poured through the first floor windows.... I hate all these additional enemies. It's a fun game though.
...
...
I cannot wait until ACEN... yeah I think that's it.
-over and out-

KAOS!

2009-11-21T10:13:00.002-06:00

So I was at Sam Ash yesterday. I had a gift card for $100 so I was either going to buy Outer Limits, a virtual synth software dedicated to dark ambiance, or the Korg Kaossilator. You can't test out vitrual instruments so I was playing around with the Kaossilator... FOR TWO HOURS. I didn't even know I was using it that long, eventually I looked at my watch and it said 8:00 and I was thinking, Oh damn I had better buy this thing and get my dinner. So once I bought it the guy who rung me up said to me, "Enjoy the heck out of that thing! I just can't wait 'til I get mine." Then the guy at the front said to me, "My friend showed this to me the other day, this thing is awesome!"
It truly is awesome. It's got PacMan and Space Invaders voices - SAMPLES FROM THE GAME! - and the whole thing is battery powered so in all honesty I could take this thing to school and play around with it whenever I felt like it. It's got synth voices, percussion line voices, drum voices, bass voices, etc etc etc. The percussion lines are amazing, put your finger on one part of the touch pad (that's right it uses a touch pad) then move it around and the percussion line will change depending on where you put your finger. There are 100 voices total, which seems like nothing compared to my Novation Xiosynth which has 200 voices, but in all honesty it seems like there could be 1000 voices in this thing. The beast is powered by either 4 AA batteries or a DC4.5 V AC adaptor which is not included. To me that's no big deal, why? because I probably have one laying around here, and you could purchase one anywhere on the internet anyways. Size.... this thing is so small, you wouldn't believe it could do all this when you see the size of synthesizers so that is a plus as well. The price was a bit steep for me because I don't have a job so my account was drained after using the gift card I had. Overall I'd recommend this to ANYONE that is interested in or does create music because this is the MUST HAVE tool for music creation. Sure the price tag of $200 is a bit steep for some in these hard economic times (fuck you economy), but once you use it you'll know it was WELL worth the $200.

Drool

2009-11-07T22:39:00.002-06:00

So I've been getting those thoughts of making a video game and of course making the music for it. I think I should pursue this, but then again that's what I thought the last many times and that never happened... modding was fun though... I miss that... I only did that with Jedi Knight and I gave away both of my copies. One to my friend and one to my 8th grade science teacher. That teacher had the biggest impact on my life.
So aside from that here's what's been goin' down:
-Got accepted to Bradley University (So I'm going there)
-Got in an accident with the garage (again) so I'm getting my car fixed (again)
-Went shooting today and continuously hit dead center on the target from 50 yards.
-Using DOSBOX... wow I don't remember Dark Forces' music being so.... 8-bit.
-Saw Anthony Bourdain LIVE when he came to town

...and that's about it. Anthony was fantastic! My shoulder is sore from shooting, but that's a given.... yeah...
COMMENT PLZ!

Finished Star Guard

2009-10-31T15:54:00.002-05:00

So I actually took the time to sit down and beat Star Guard as opposed to just playing it to pass the time. The last level is the hardest thing ever. There are laser halls of doom and the first boss is sooooooo hard compared to the second and third boss. I was about to give up, but I kept on going at it until finally I beat it and wow. I'm impressed with myself. Normally I'm a nomad gamer who will start playing a game and then move on not even beating it. I'm proud of myself.
Halloween party tonight, I'm dressing up as Professor Oak from Pokemon so this will be fun... I guess.... I dunno.

Fin

2009-10-24T23:25:00.002-05:00

I finished my album today. The last track entitled "Space Junk" is exactly the length I wanted my last track to be, 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Very nice. I celebrated this by getting David Bowie's "Low" and season one of the 80s cop-drama "Miami Vice." Watched a couple episodes of it and it is really good. As far as cop shows go, this is number two on my list just behind "Castle". I mainly bot David Bowie's "Low" for the track "Subterraneans" so we'll see how I like the rest. I downloaded this Xenogears remix album as a recommendation from my buddy Clysm. So far there are only a couple notable tracks, mind you I haven't listened to the whole thing. I haven't played Xenogears either if you are wondering. I'll give you all (all two or three of you) a heads up when the album is released.

Star Guard...

2009-10-18T19:19:00.003-05:00

...is the shit. All you need to know. Go play it now.

Interesting WOW

2009-10-10T12:02:00.002-05:00

Yeah, people can make it in their bedroom and blah, blah, blah...but I fucking did Praise the Lard in my bedroom with like a tape deck, spring reverb, two compressors, and one fucking microphone, and no parametric reducer. I had a little mixing desk, and in those days, I was using things like the Fostex and the spring reverb. Anyway, what was the point?

This was said in an interview with Raymond Watts when he was talking about how people now-a-days can make music on their own thanks to improvements in technology. If you listen to Praise the Lard you'd be just as impressed as I am by this statement.
Just got a Wagner CD and an Enigma CD. I've honestly been listening to the band 2-Kut since like 9 this morning... that just shows you how much I like it! I have their whole discography... it's amazing.

Kein Mitleid - Chicago

2009-10-04T21:55:00.002-05:00

Saw Angelspit and KMFDM at the House of Blues here in Chicago on Saturday. This was my first time hearing Angelspit and they were amazing. I got Zoog to sign my ticket and he also shook my hand. Didn't see Sascha or anyone from KMFDM after the show so that was a bit sad. The plus side is their set kicked some serious ass. I was so ecstatic to finally see KMFDM that once it was over (and still now) I'm sad that it's all over. Kind of regret not getting any merch as well. I hope they sell some on the store after the tour. No more needs to be said, the whole thing kicked ass.

Hooray for Cheap Airsoft!

2009-09-28T16:24:00.004-05:00

After watching MGS: Philanthropy I decided to check out what was new in the airsoft market and saw beautiful cheap guns on Evike!
First is a Barrett .50 cal style sniper rifle, which I think is made by JG I'll have to check up on that:

Second, we got a Sten made by AGM!

AGM continues their WWII weapon extravaganza with a StG-44! (Shown in fake wood, comes in real wood as well)

The last one I'll show is a Romanian AK with real wood by CYMA!

Finally, we got a Dragunov (unfortunately not wood) by A&K!

Now here's the prices for each gun:
Barrett Sniper Rifle: $189
Sten: $180
StG44: $160 (fake wood)
Romanian AK: $190
Dragunov: $150

You can pick these guns up at Evike.

Philanthropy Review

2009-09-28T16:14:00.003-05:00

MGS: Philanthropy came out recently. I just watched it and I was somewhat disappointed. The main thing I am disappointed about is this weird supernatural thing going on where everyone's eyes change color and they go berserk. Elizabeth's eyes go straight black and she goes berserk. I don't get it and quite frankly I don't much care for it. To me MGS is all about technology and this introduction to paranormal isn't my cup of tea. There's some weird foxhound style loon that as of right now I'm iffy on, but I hope it gets better. I do like how the movie starts in Outer Heaven, I thought that was pretty cool. I hope at some point when they are stealthing around you get to hear a guard go, "Huh? What was that noise?" just because I'd love to hear that in a movie. The voice acting was well done considering it is dubbed over, kind of reminds me of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" ... in a good way. What they just released was only part one, which is part of why I was disappointed by this. That does mean that we get more MGS: Philanthropy though, which is pretty cool. I do hope Otacon makes an entrance instead of just a cameo. Overall, it's alright, if you're an MGS fan definitely download it (it is a free download), but if you're not a fan of the MGS series then I say make a pass on it.

New Stuff!

2009-09-12T11:53:00.002-05:00

So I usually order bundles of stuff from Amazon. This time I ordered Lennon sunglasses with black frames and reflective lenses, Resident Evil 2 (PC), 8-Bit Operators, and Liaisons Dangereuses. Liaisons is the only one I don't have yet. As for the others, let's do a quick review... except for RE2... I need to beat that first.
The sunglasses. They definitely block the life out of the sun and while they do that they make me look like a Bond villain! They came with this nice microfiber sleeve the put them in. It's all very nice.
8-Bit Operators. I had listened to this CD before, but I didn't remember it too well and I wasn't that big on Kraftwerk. Years have passed and I got it after getting big into electronic music. It's a great CD, but three tracks stick out as bad ones. "Man-Machine" by Gwen and the Counter Reset... this track is just awful compared to the original. The artist goes through the lyrics and then does these weird vocals that have nothing to do with the original song. This track... is awful. "Radioactivity"... they turned this song into a dance song... that sounds absolutely NOTHING like the original. If it wasn't Radioactivity and it had a different name like "Ausfluge" or something and wasn't on this album, then I'd like it. The last track that wasn't too good was "It's More Fun to Compute" which is supposed to be "Heimcomputer" but the guy doesn't sing and that's what I loved about "Heimcomputer" was the vocals. That's the only bad thing about the song though. The best tracks on this album are probably "Tanzmusik," "Pocket Calculator," and "Die Roboter" because they stay so true to the original song and the song sounds so great in 8-bit!

My verdict on both? Get both.

Sweet Home... Not About to Make that Reference

2009-09-05T20:53:00.002-05:00

I started playing the game "Sweet Home" for the NES. It's really confusing... it'll take awhile to get the hang of it. You have to move your party member by member, which is weird. Each member has a specific item that you need to continue on in the game. It's pretty much Resident Evil 1 w/o zombies and so far no bad lines. Random battles suck though when your party isn't around. So yeah I still have yet to actually play it.
I'm hoping to order some more stuff this weekend. Aside from music a game and a new pair of sunglasses. Sure I love my aviators, but now every guy has aviators and I hate that. I like to be different sometimes and this is one of those times.

That's Cute....

2009-08-30T16:40:00.003-05:00

I found two indie games that I found to be quite, dare I say, cute. One is Machinarium which looks to be like an adventure game, every character is a robot, the city is made of metal and by god it does look cute. Then I saw Minecraft which looked like it could be fun, but fun like LSD: Dream Emulator where you think, "Oh this could relieve some time" but fear it may bore you even more. When I watched the Minecraft video the guy was digging up roses and trees and planting them elseware and mining dirt, rock, and ore. He even explored caves and that seemed a bit fun.
The one indie game I've tried and had the most fun with (I should buy it) is Cortex Command. Cortex Command is a side scrolling shooter that had me playing for hours trying to protect my base from evil robots and watching the destroyed aircraft and robot bodies pile into mountains. I shot down each transport with the Flak Cannon and giggled as the transport spiraled out of control and hit the ground exploding. Was it cute? I dunno, depends on your definition of cute.
Here's the price for all these...
Machinarium (Pre-Order) is $17 (Mac/PC)
Minecraft is FREE (Java)
Cortex Command is $18 or FREE DEMO (Mac/PC)

In the News

2009-08-29T22:13:00.002-05:00

So I recently got turned onto "The Local" which is a German news website translated into English and I must say they got better things on there then what's on CNN. Scientists in Germany found out why people walk in circles when they are lost in the desert or forest. Wanna know why? It's because they have no marker in front of them like the sun or a building. They did a test in the sahara and after the sun went down everyone started walking in circles (they found this out through GPS). Subjects that were blind folded either followed the path or walked in smaller circles. I find that one fascinating because they are blind folded... so they can't see anything right? I dunno.
I also learned from the site that a member of the Red Army Faction was recently arrested for an assassination that happened 30 years ago. This is supposedly one of the biggest investigations in Germany and they have arrested the now 57 year old Verena Becker. I just found this fascinating that they are still arresting members of this 70's terrorist cell.
To read more go
HERE FOR THE 'LOST' ARTICLE
HERE FOR THE 'RAF ARREST' ARTICLE

Klaus Schulze and Dog's Do Not Go Well Together

2009-08-29T21:59:00.002-05:00

My parents aren't home so I decided to blast Klaus Schulze throughout the house and the song got a bit quiet and then picked up with a loud electronic buzz and my dog stops dead in his tracks, perks up his ears, cocks his head a bit to the side, and gives me this look like he saying, "Why are you going towards the noise? The noise is scary!"
He also gave me the same look when I was playing the Metroid II: Return of Samus soundtrack in my room when he was hanging out in my room with me. I guess this just goes to show that electronic music and dog's do not go well together.
...
I know the title is different shut up, don't make a federal case about it!
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...
Now he's barking at my music... what a weirdo...

SQUEE! Review

2009-08-23T17:26:00.004-05:00

So I'm still not over how awesome Weird Science was. To continue the awesomeness I just finished Squee! by Jhonen Vasquez. This graphic novel was one laugh after another. It's episodic and each episode is hilarious with little author's notes. That's what also made me laugh was the small author's notes littered about the pages. Some of the jokes made me feel so immature, but quite frankly I don't care, they were disgustingly funny. Some of it was disturbing and even the author admits that. They break the fourth wall. It's pretty much Invader Zim without Zim, Dib, and Gaz. The first part of the graphic novel is all the Squee! stuff, the second half is a bunch of random comics that are funny as well. Jhonen has this little series in the book called "Real Drama" or something like that and the first one is so weird and hilarious I loved it. It starts with this mom running into a hospital and screaming for the doctor to help her baby. The doctor puts a stethiscope to the baby and takes the baby and runs out the door screaming. He throws the baby up in the air and the baby blows up. Then the doctor says to the mom, "I'm sorry, you were too late." and the last frame is the mom just standing there. I'm laughing hard even as I type this. There's also some stupid aliens in the beginning that make me laugh because of just out dumb they are! I think what makes the book funny is all those author's notes I talked about and how the humor is geared towards adults sometimes and then towards kids at other times. I'll give some examples... there's a scene where the main character, Todd, his dad is watching TV and the TV shows a child being born and there's an author's note to the side that says, "Watching Todd's birth is reverse." As mean as that might be, it's just down right funny. The adult humor comes in where Todd's future self comes to warn him about something and he says, "In the future traffic doesn't slow to a crawl because a cop is handing out a ticket, it's great!" I find that humor geared towards any adult that may read the book, I got it, I found it funny. The humor geared towards kids comes in with one page. The setting is Todd's bedroom and there's a giant disgusting monster holding a bunch of kids saying, "Hope you don't mind that I borrow the closet for a few minutes. Just knock if I'm making too much noise." I found that to be geared towards kids because of how kids may think there's a monster in their closet. If you are into Jhonen's work or if you like oddly funny things or... well... you know what... go out and buy it or I'll be forced to have you shunned by society.

(Jhonen Vasquez)

The Best John Hughes Movie

2009-08-21T22:27:00.003-05:00

So I've seen Home Alone, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, Breakfast Club, and Sixteen Candles. Those are all great John Hughes movies, but nothing compares to Weird Science. Weird Science is by far the best John Hughes movie and now one of my favorite movies. It's about two nerds that are very unpopular that create a girl using their computer. They initially create the girl for mainly sexual reasons, but the girl ends up teaching them a lot about life and changes them for the better. As usual John Hughes has casted Anthony Michael Hall as one of the main nerd characters. The other nerd is played by Ilan Mitchell-Smith, his brother is played by Bill Paxton. I don't really know what to say about the movie and why I think it's one of the greatest movies ever, but I just love it. The only real bad part is what happens to Chet (Bill Paxton's character) in the end of the movie because it's cheesy and disgusting, but it works. Anyone who's a nerd/geek will love this movie because it's one of the few movies where the nerds/geeks become the cool people and they don't have to turn into a superhero or anything. It's like Revenge of the Nerds gone John Hughes. I think they filmed part of it in Lake Forest, IL too... which is near me... which is awesome. So yeah, like I said, I don't know what to really say about the movie, but it's just one of the best movies ever. Definitely pick it up!

The Happenings in my Life

2009-08-20T20:47:00.003-05:00

So I recently bought "Squee!" and "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac" both by Jhonen Vasquez and I have yet to read them so I won't have a review posted for some time, maybe if I'm not doing anything this weekend I'll finish "Squee!" and review that. Aside from that I got the "Ten Years of Resident Evil" soundtrack and Klaus Schulze's "Irrlicht". I am listening to Irrlicht for the second time, why only a second time you ask? The first track is half an hour and the second is twenty-one minutes so of course it takes awhile to finish. This album is amazing though. I love "Ebene" it's got this eerely awesome string set going on that I just love. From what I remember this album is amazing, some of it can be very repetitive, but I manage, my music is very repetitive... I think... maybe... I dunno you be the judge of that. The Resident Evil soundtrack is awesome, nothing more needs to be said about that. School started so with that blog posts may be scarce, we'll see.
Oh and if you read, please comment, I love comments, lets me know people are actually reading this.

Review: Resident Evil Fire & Ice

2009-08-09T18:02:00.002-05:00

So this afternoon I bought and read Resident Evil Fire & Ice, a graphic novel written by Ted Adams and Kris Oprisko who also wrote the original Resident Evil comics. This graphic novel was an original idea and totally shows that in both a good and a bad way. I can't really go into further detail than saying that without spoiling some of it. What I can reveal is that there is a scene in the arctic where two of the characters are ambushed by G-virus infected animals. The infected animals that surround them are a wolf, a bear, and to get into ridiculous territory a whale, a walrus, and a penguin. It was like, okay a G-virus mutated whale, walrus, and penguin. Both the whale and walrus were like a Tyrant, they had arms and legs and were bipedal. The penguin was just a penguin it was rather cute and funny. What stood out was that the whole thing seemed rather rushed, for example each character was given their own back story within a panel or two, there wasn't a big flashback scene it was just told to the reader. Even the ending seemed rushed, it all happened so fast I went, "Wait... what? Was that it!?" Apparently it was.
What makes this graphic novel so great is that it comes with the original Resident Evil comics (Resident Evil 1 and 2) as well as a few short comics that the author wrote. The blood and gore is very limited in this, which makes me wonder if it was aimed at a younger audience. I wouldn't have an issue with it if it was, but when I think Resident Evil creatures I expect to see lots of gore whether they are alive or not. Probably the best gore scene is when a guy got blown up. There aren't many zombies in the story either, the zombies are mainly in the opening sequence and then it goes to monsters, not an issue, but again I'm used to the video games where zombies are always present and eventually the character encounters more and more monsters gradually, but even then zombies are still present.
I bought this because I had never read a Resident Evil comic before and I had always heard good things about them from RE fans. I also looked at reviews and info on this specific graphic novel and it had gotten good reviews and this specific book that I got (which can be found at Barnes and Noble) was limited to 5,000 copies. So with all of that said, I definitely think it's worth picking up, maybe you'll have as much fun as I did or maybe more fun. Either way it's definitely worth picking up!

2012, thoughts

2009-08-08T15:09:00.002-05:00

So we all know the movie is going to be two hours of destruction porn with no plot other than the world is ending and stuff is getting F'd in the A. So I'd like to focus on that special date in the future when everyone thinks the world is going to end. You must know this: December 21st 2012, is the last date on the MAYAN calendar and not OUR calendar or the CHRISTIAN/JEWISH/MUSLIM calendar. Look at it this way, the Christian calendar begins 0 AD, the year Jesus Christ was born, not when the earth was created. Nostradamus must've based his predictions around the Mayan calendar. Also, remember Y2K? Everyone was flipping a shit about how the world was going to end and how computers would go haywire and bombs would all launch and stuff, but did any of that happen? No. Many people have tried to predict the end of the world, but they've all been wrong. Every religion also has their own Escatology (study of the end of the world) and they are all different, for example Christianity has the book of Revelations that goes through the Apocolypse of John and the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and right there, the revelation of JESUS CHRIST and other religions don't believe that Jesus was the mesiah, which means that their view of how the world will end will be different. Well... I hope that convinced some of you or all of you to calm down and go, "Yeah, fuck you media!"

Oh and...! (Part 2)

2009-07-27T00:10:00.003-05:00

Also, just figure I'd update on music stuffs:
*sigh* So let's see..... Don't Blow Your Top by KMFDM is an awesome CD. Easy Listening... by Pigface is different, but great. Started listening to 6 by Pigface, which so far is great.
I completed another song and uploaded that to the Myspace page for my band.
Who you gotta check out (if you're into industrial) is my friend Nik's band Kaustikutt. He does all of it himself and god damn his music is amazing. He's working with me on my first album. In all honesty, I'd like to do a collaboration album with him. That would be ecstasy.
Yeah that's it now.

Oh and...!

2009-07-27T00:06:00.001-05:00

YOu know what? I also gotta get a Timbuk3 CD and a Falco CD.... So long as the Timbuk3 CD had "The Future's So Bright" and the Falco CD has "Der Kommissar".
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I got a lot of music I gotta get.

ReLOADING!

2009-07-26T22:03:00.002-05:00

So I decided not to wait for the computer guy to get back to me on my data and just started loading music back onto my computer. Gone through two shoe boxes (I wear a size 14 shoe mind you) and a external hard drive box. All three of these house my CDs and I'm saving another box (in which my combat boots came in) for more cds because I will need the extra box, my final box is almost full!
Got more CDs lined up to purchase. I am looking at Front By Front (Front 242), Irrilicht (Klaus Schulze), and Mindphaser (Front Line Assembly). Also got a ton of soundtracks and the Megadeth War Chest lined up. Whatever, I need money.

It's Nice

2009-07-23T16:24:00.002-05:00

I'm listening to the album "Biohazard Symphony Op. 91 Crime and Punishment" by Mamoru Samuragoch and it's raining hard outside. It's really nice. It smells nice. I guess this album has helped me to love rain more... I dunno, it's weird.

The Story So Far...

2009-07-19T00:12:00.002-05:00

So as it turns out my hard drive was fried so i got a newer bigger one in. Hooray!
The data is being taken off my old hard drive so that I can put it all back on.
Started making a new song that will be hella awesome when it's done. Sampled the living crap out of Starblade. Love it. It sounds super awesome. Just got some kinks to work out, then got to add a few more synth lines and top it all off with some nice percussion.
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Maybe the percussion can go screw itself on this one -- I dunno, we'll see.
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I got nothing else to say at the moment.

About the iTunes Thing...

2009-07-13T09:52:00.002-05:00

Turns out I have corrupt files....
apparently that's what "error -69" is.
My computer was running slow so of course the cause would be that files are corrupt.

It's Been Awhile and it Will Continue to be so...

2009-07-13T09:46:00.003-05:00

So my laptop broke and I got it fixed and it wasn't fully fixed so I sent it back today.
With my laptop out of commission nothing has been going on. I saw a couple movies, one was shit the other was awesome. Aside from that -- nothing.
I saw AOTS 1000 and it was awesome.
Got five CDs from Reckless Records down in Chicago. Those five being:
"Don't Blow Your Top" and "Angst" by KMFDM (two CDs away from discography)
"Easy Listening..." and "6" by Pigface
"Geography" by Front 242 (original release)
So I got all that to listen to. Unfortunately for me my stupid computer would not allow most of these CDs transfer onto my iPod, not because of lack of space, but because of an "unknown error".
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Sometimes I hate technology.

A Couple Things...

2009-06-20T15:31:00.003-05:00

Posted new art on my DeviantArt account not that I think anyone actually checks that out. More of my simplistic stuff.
Also I just got 84-86 by KMFDM and it is a really awesome album, it's nothing like anything they've done before. No song is the same, every song is different in its own way. There are many different genres present in this album and I think that's cool! Some songs are kind of goofy in the sense that you wouldn't think KMFDM would do something like this, but the songs are still great. I highly recommend this album to anyone. You can't buy a physical copy though because it was a limited release, though you can download it from the KMFDM Store. Go do that now!

Summer plans... if you care.

2009-06-18T19:15:00.003-05:00

So I have no job... still looking for one. I have signed up to do volunteer work at a local pet shelter and the hours are flexible, the hours revolve around me so long as I do at least 4 a week. Still making that first album. I hope I finish that by mid summer. Aside from that I want to make a game... don't really know what about, but I just want to make one so that I have a sense of accomplishment and just to do something. My friend and I are remaking our first movie that was terrible. We have a script editor for that. Our budget is somewhat low, but hey at least we got a budget right?
I finally decided that I will be playing BOTH Crusader: No Remorse and Darkseed. Hopefully those fuel my game creation ideas. Well... I do have a couple ideas juggling around in my head, but who knows if those will actually come out in the game. Whatever. OH, we do plan to sell the CSC remake by the way, it WILL NOT be bundled with the original. Directors commentary? That would be pretty rad.

E3 Look Outs

2009-06-12T22:16:00.002-05:00

I've seen E3 coverage and have been impressed by:
Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, Milo, Left 4 Dead 2
Everything else was "meh" or didn't interest me. Bungie is putting out digital vomit as usual and not going back to remake Marathon or anything like that. Or... you know... coming up with something new. The Silent Hill remake is going to be utter garbage and I know it because the alternate bloody rusty world is replaced with an ice world. THE GAME TAKES PLACE IN FCUKING WINTER YOU MAKE NO SENSE!!!!! I wish we got to see more of MGS:R though because the tag line isn't "Tactical Espionage Action" anymore so I want to see what they are doing new. Hideo Kojima spoke english well.
I recently came back from a vacation in Florida and have been asked to upload pics and vids so I'll do that soon. Also my friend John and I are reforming Grindhaus productions to remake CSC. Guess what!? It's not going to be crap anymore!!!!!

Nuclear Weapons? Oh P'shaw!

2009-06-04T19:38:00.002-05:00

So scientists in California built a Death Star. The article reads:

The NIF, which is the size of a football field, consists of 192 separate laser
beams, each traveling 1,000 feet in one-thousandth of a second to converge
simultaneously on a target the size of a pencil eraser.

Holy crap, that is not only incredibly rad, but incredibly frightening. Star Wars nerds everywhere are rejoicing! Like me. So when Iran and North Korea are talking about how they got nukes and threaten us we can kick back and say, "Nukes? Oh you dictators, you're so adorable." You can read the whole article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090531/ap_on_sc/us_super_laser
I bet that S.O.B. has turbo lasers on the outside and stormtroopers on this inside, HA-HA!

Tragedy Struck Today

2009-06-04T13:22:00.002-05:00

I just read a news article that actually made me gasp in sorrow. Actor David Carradine (he was in the Kung Fu TV series, Kill Bill 1 and 2) was found dead today in Bankok, Thailand. Apparently he had been hanged. I don't know what to say about this other than it is incredibly sad and that we've really lost someone amazing. I extend my sympathies to his family.

Article: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090604/entertainment/obit_carradine

Here's How it Looks

2009-06-01T19:51:00.001-05:00

So on Saturday I'll be leaving to go to Florida for lobster diving and therefore will not have my laptop with me. I will return on the following either Wednesday or Thursday, so I won't be there too long. I'll try to post blogs often for this week, but I got finals too so... I don't know.

Pardon me, Your Sticker Makes no Sense!

2009-05-21T22:57:00.003-05:00

So I saw a bumper sticker today that said: Stop Global Warming, Go Vegan
Do you recognize the problem that I have with this?
WHAT THE HELL DOES GLOBAL WARMING HAVE TO DO WITH EATING MEAT!!?!?!?!?!?!!??
The EPA came out with a statement that said that more greenhouse gases are produced by animals, so going vegan would therefore increase global warming you dumb ass. If you wanna slow down global warming then arm yourself with a fork and knife and raid the cattle farms and what not.
I dunno, just thought I should bring that to your attention.

Zytotoxizität Updates up in This Bitch!

2009-05-17T21:37:00.002-05:00

I just installed new software and got new samples so I'm working with those. Before I really didn't have much to build from and now I see that I do. Everything is turning out great and I love it and those who have heard the full songs love it too.
With that said you can tell their are new samples and the old samples have been taken off. As I said before I am totally revamping the album so it won't sound like I've been raping my synth, it will sound better. When I say that I mean that I threw every track (but two) in the garbage and started making new tracks. You may go "WTF?" but to that I say "STFU and GTFO!"

Shortest Soundtrack is pretty much done right now. My minimalist works can be heard on YouTube under track names:
"Electric Current/Underground Lair"
"Ugly Truth/King's Metropolis"
The album might be released as a CD or it might be released as a free download, we won't know until the decision is made by the label.

Zytotoxizität shirts will also be available at Hot Topic upon the release of the first album... or maybe prior to the release... I don't know, again it's up to the label to decide that.

Well it's Gone

2009-05-14T19:27:00.002-05:00

I'm a little late on this, but I figure I should just get to it while I still can:
Both 3d Realms and Duke Nukem Forever are no longer with us. Both the game and the company shut down. The "why" is unknown. Also Wolfenstein 3d turned 17... hooray. Nice to know that I'm as old as a well respected video game. Am I as well respected? Probably not.
So I kept it short and sweet today because I got stuff to do.

ACEN

2009-05-09T23:46:00.003-05:00

So I went to Acen today - woke up at 7:45, got ready, picked up a friend, drove on down. We waited in line for 40 minutes, paid for our badges, entered the exhibit area. I bought a sweet pilot's cap, I didn't buy the goggles for it 'cause I got aviators and what's cooler than that? I also nerded out at a booth and bought the Return of the Jedi manga which was ONLY $10. There were lots of weapon booths (knives, swords, airsoft guns, maces, etc) and there was one booth that I wish I picked up a card for, but the thought hadn't occured. This perticular booth was selling all these old games that made me reminise and get all nostolgic. They were selling Dreamcasts, Mortal Kombat 1, Vigilante 8, Resident Evil: Director's Cut, and TONS more! Sure I can buy all this stuff on Amazon, but I'd rather buy at a store ya know?
We only went to one event since I had to be home early. We went to the AMV contest which had like three or four good ones and everything else sucked. They were good because they were funny and not depressing/about love. I think one person was crying after one of them, but I'm not sure.
Overall everyone at the convention was super nice. There was cross dressing which was a bit odd, but it's my first MAJOR convention so I was new to that. As I said to my friend:

"Oh look that kid is dressed as Dante and his dad is Virgil... okay that's his mom!"

There was one annoying person. My friend picks up a weapon, looks at it, puts it back, the person turns to him and flips a shit because he isn't 18. The other weapons dealer at another booth was all cool about it though and said we just couldn't buy them. There were lots of goths/cyberpunks and hardly any fat people, I was surprised. I will defnitely return next year with more money so I can buy a weapon and more stuff... like old video games. Trust me if you were there with me at that old video game booth you would've noticed the drool and the glimmer in my eyes.

BIEN DIA!

2009-05-05T16:40:00.003-05:00

Happy Cinco Day Mayo every Mexican reader!
As for everyone else, Happy Fifth of May a day where we can say, "Yes, 'tis another day in my life!"
Vote on the polls please, exercise your right to vote or else I'll become some commie/facist blogger and take away your right to vote!

A Baker's Dozen Reviews in One Post

2009-04-25T20:16:00.004-05:00

Since I have gotten a ton of stuff and won't get to reviewing it anytime soon I figure I should type out very short reviews now while I have the time.

Einsturzende Neubauten - HALBER MENSCH
This is my first E.N. album and I must say it is an awesome album to start out with. It has the musical stylings of F.M. Enheit heard throughout. For those of you unfamiliar with him, this means that there is a lot of "stomp" oriented music (i.e. metal pipes etc). The album begins with the title track, which happens to be an amazing, yet eerie cantata. Female vocalists saying "Halber Mensch!" while other male vocalists join in at different times saying, "Halber Mensch" there are other lyrics included that are done terrifically. Lots of excellent percussion and bass going on. Because this is my first E.N. album and it tends to stray a bit far from the industrial music I'm used to it's a little hard to listen to, though as I listen to it more and more I love it more and more. Get this album if you're interested in branching out your industrial roots.

PIG - No One Gets Out of Her Alive
As I continue to complete my PIG collection I end up buying these albums with such colorful fun titles. If you're into the new PIG stuff (Sinsation/Prime Evil) this will be right down your alley. The title track reminds me a bit of their song "F.O.M." where it begins very intense and you think "Oh damn, this is gonna be intense" and then it gets suddenly quiet for the verses and somewhat loud for the choruses. Well that's how the title track works and it works quite well. After that comes "Jump the Gun" which has the greatest backing vocals and chorus I've ever heard. It's dark and rather comedic... in a dark fashion. The song begins with, "Fee Fi Fo Fum, Jump the gun, Kill and Come" it might not sound intense, but that's because you have to hear it. The rest of the tracks on the CD are amazing, even the remixes! Get this if you're a PIG collector/fanatic!

KMFDM - Blitz
I was not to fond of their previous album Tohuvabohu, but when I saw it at Best Buy I figured, what the heck why not. As I listened to this I realize this is not Tohuvabohu, it's awesome! Lucia's vocals are in-fucking-credible! I've never heard her sing like this before. "Bait and Switch" and "Strut" are probably the best tracks on the album right next to "Potz Blitz". "Strut" is like an 80s dance song with a KMFDM kick to it, which makes it awesome. "Potz Blitz" reminds me of "Saft und Kraft" which is a good thing. It's got that heavy metal sound to it that makes great and creates some diversity in the album. It's also kind of like PIG's "F.O.M." where it's intense during certain parts and quiet during the verses, which is fine if you do it right... which they did. "Bait and Switch" is just fantastic... that's all I can really say, Lucia's vocals made my jaw drop they were so good. The title track is awesome and hilarious. It's called "Symbol" because it is a symbol which according to the chorus is called "Up Uranus" or "Up Your Anus" which ever you prefer. The beginning of the track has a sample of system control during a space launch counting down along with the songs tempo, which is cool. If there's one thing to not like about this album it's "Bitches". I don't much care for the lyrics at all. Great album altogether, if you were disappointed like I was with Tohuvabohu, have no fear Blitz is here!

It's Been Awhile

2009-04-23T14:42:00.003-05:00

Well I haven't made a post in awhile and I kind of stopped working on my Epitaph review. I've pretty much gotten lazier, but I'll pick up the work soon. I've been focused more so on my music output than my blog output (Yeah, screw you guys). I added one track to my band's first album and I added nine tracks to my soundtrack. I got three more CDs and a new game so hoo-bloody-ray I have more reviews to write. Hopefully I can finish them all this weekend.

The World is Becoming a William Gibson Novel

2009-04-08T18:33:00.002-05:00

Today I read an article on CNN about a guy who had lost his eye in a childhood accident and now has a prosthetic eye. What makes this story interesting is that he is working with tech specialists to put a camera in his prosthetic eye and to hook it up to nerves so that he can see again. It's a really cool article (Link at the bottom) and it made me realize that our world is slowly turning into a William Gibson novel. Soon plastic surgery will be out of style and soon we'll all be focused on getting new cybernetic implants and drug dealing will turn into RAM dealing. I think these old cyberpunk authors are right about our future. I haven't read any Phillip K. Dick so I can really throw in any ideas from his novels.
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I don't know, I just thought this was really cool and decided to give my thoughts on our future. As for cities being covered in Neon Japanese... I don't know and I honestly doubt that. Anywho, you can find the article here:
BIONIC BODY 2.0

Another Quick Review

2009-04-02T21:53:00.003-05:00

As I'm still chugging away at my "Epitaph" review, trust me it will be epic, I figure I'll give you another quick review of the other CD I got, "Covergirl" by Jared Louche and the Aliens!

One of my friends read some of my blog and asked, "How do you find all this music?" and I simply told him that it all stemmed out from one thing to another. I had discovered Chemlab by going onto the website raymondwatts.com and I wanted to see what else Raymond had done and saw that he had worked with Chemlab on the album "East Side Militia." I looked at the album art and thought, yeah I'll give it a go. I listened to that album and I was instantly hooked on Chemlab and Jared Louche. I went onto Amazon.com and saw this album. I had to get it. So I did. The day I got it I furiously removed the shrink wrap, tormented my dog with the bubble wrap, and then went on to listening to the album. In classic Jared Louche fashion it has "suture" tracks. I don't know how to describe a "suture" track because every "suture" track is different in its own way. The album opens softly with a cover of the Bryan Ferry song "In Every Dream Home a Heartache." The song ends a bit on the loud side with percussion blasting, which may sound bad, but it's pretty cool because it is built up. There are two jazz songs in here that I like a lot. A cover of Jared's own song "Suicide Jag" which done with jazz loses its intensity, but it's still very cool. The next song starts with jazz then goes into dance, which I'm alright with. I also like to note the track "Famous Blue Raincoat" it starts with the crowd cheering and Jared walks off stage and someone's in the dressing room. Well who the fuck is in the dressing room? Oh! It's the in crowd. Then Jared starts playing a nice acoustic jam. Overall, this album strays somewhat far from the usual Chemlab works and hits new levels. If you like Chemlab, if you like jazz, if you like acoustics, if you like Jared Louche then for God's sake get this album!

Opening Pandora's Box

2009-04-01T15:41:00.003-05:00

My friend (and affiliate) John just told me about an internet radio service called "Pandora Radio." He told me about it over Teamspeak, so at one point his mic cut out and I decided to check it out instead of having him explain it all over again. So I check it out. It tells me to type in an artist or song and so I give it the test. I type in PIG and surprisingly they have PIG! So I add it to my station, then I add KMFDM. First it plays "Here to Stay" by PIG then "Glory" by KMFDM and then it starts playing OhGr and Rob Zombie and Nine Inch Nails. At that instant I stopped using it because it's stupid that it would give me music that I don't want. I tell John what happened and then he told me there was a thumbs up and thumbs down button that can cancel or keep playing a certain artist. Now I'm back to it and giving a thumbs down to all those sucky artists... well... OhGr is good, but I'm not in the OhGr mood. Suddenly I start getting good music like Die Krupps and Powermann 5000 and some other stuff. Then with no sign of change it suddenly goes to 80s acoustic then after I thumbs down that I get death metal! If I want crappy music I will ask for it, but all I want is what I asked for! So I decide to add a couple more bands and the music continues to be crap. There are times when giving me new music is alright and when it's not. These is one of those times when it's not okay. You should examine what I like CLOSER. Adding My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult does not mean give me crappy 80s acoustic music. Adding Foetus does not mean give me death metal and for that matter what does Foetus have to do with death metal anyways? Even as I'm listening now I'm being given suck ass hair metal. It's like going to restaurant and asking for the Surf & Turf, but instead they give you grass on a slice of bread. If you really want to try this, be my guest, but if I don't get some good like with this thing soon I'm gonna quit using it.

Love album review (quickie)

2009-03-29T17:21:00.004-05:00

So while I'm working on my long review of the Front Line Assembly album I figured I should post a quick review of the Foetus album "Love".

"Love" was released in 2005 by the band Foetus which features ex-PIG member J.G. Thirlwell. The album art/insert is really interesting and features vibrant art that is very simplistic.
Now let's move on to the music because this is what I want to talk most about. The instrumentals are FUCKING incredible! The percussion is a little sub-par and garage, but everything else masks that. The instrumentals are incredibly symphonic and you can hear that J.G. Thirlwell used to be in PIG. Lots of horns and harpsicord. Whenever guitar shows up it's very electric and distorted, and I like that. There are occasionally a few synth loops, but not very often. The instrumentals sometimes sound like they came out of a horror soundtrack.
The vocals... I'm not too fond of. They are very... whiny. It's like a punk vocalist who was inspired by main stream male vocalists. Though I'm not fond of them now, I'm sure I may become so in the future.
One thing I've noticed with the music is that towards the end of songs the intensity tends to kick up and make you go, "Aw, hell yeah!" then the song ends and you feel a little down. Not to fear, the intensity does get stretched out later in the album.
Overall, this album kicks so much ass! I'm very glad that I decided to get it! I recommend this album to anyone who likes early PIG works, classical music, and rock music then you should most definitely pick up "Love" by Foetus. It's a must have!

New Stuff and Reviews (that are coming soon)

2009-03-26T16:41:00.002-05:00

So I've gotten almost all of my stuff, I'm just waiting on the "Naive" (original pressing) cassette. I just got my new shoes today, as well as my KMFDM Russia Tour T-shirt, and yesterday my Kraftwerk sweatshirt came so I've got my new style for now. Got "Epitaph" yesterday and "Love" today.
Reviews will take awhile to type up because I am reviewing EVERY song and EVERY little detail about the album so... yeah. Right now I'm half way through the "Epitaph" review.

It's Keeps Going and Going and Going...

2009-03-24T21:40:00.003-05:00

I have about three $50 amazon gift cards left so with that I'm using them up to bring you guys reviews of stuff.
I recently ordered:
-Kraftwerk Sweatshirt
-KMFDM Russian Tour T-Shirt
-"Love" by Foetus
-"Naive" by KMFDM (Original Pressing/Cassette)
-"Epitaph" by Front Line Assembly
-"Covergirl" by Jared Louche
I will not be reviewing the clothing of course as they are merely clothes and there's nothing to say about clothes... in my opinion. I will do seperate reviews this time of all the music I get and I'll try to do it more in depth by reviewing the liner notes and individual tracks. My next order I may use up two cards leaving one left (if you know your arithmatic) by buying the KMFDM "In Your Face" tour VHS that is EXTREMELY rare.

The First Album

2009-03-19T17:02:00.004-05:00

ALBUM: Stag, Stout, and Swine

1) Guten Tag!
2) Daft Individuals [Album Version]
3) Domination Creation Station Nation
4) Jesus Kicks the Nuclear $h!t Out of the Nazis
5) The One They Call Evil
6) Insane
7) Flip The Switch
8) Horse Goggles
9) PC L04D L3TT3R
10) Search
11) The Phinale Phoenix

ETA: Summer '09

Resident Evil 5 Short Fuse Rant

2009-03-14T17:44:00.002-05:00

So, I justed watched "Sessler's Soapbox" and Adam Sessler was talking about how Resident Evil 5 wasn't that good and it didn't live up to the hype or create the amount of tension that the old games created. While waiting for the video to load I scrolled down and gazed at the comments a little bit and saw a comment that said that Resident Evil 5 was extremely racist and that it was demonizing black people. Actually I've heard many arguments like this and if you've been closely paying attention to Resident Evil 5 stuff you'll find that a lot of people say this. What I find so weird about these arguments is that in Resident Evil 4 a white guy was killing a bunch of spanish people (that are zombies mind you) and somehow that didn't attract any attention, but now that a white guy is killing black people (that are still zombies mind you) people start to freak out. It's not racist really because in the end you are just killing zombies and afterall the game was made by the Japanese who are a race different from both blacks and whites. I'm very perplexed by this all. I think our society is just too sensitive these days.

Apologies/Quick Reviews

2009-03-14T16:33:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I have to put out an apology. I said I was going to post a video blog this weekend, but I can't. my camera and dazzle are being stupid right now and therefore I'm in too much of a pissy mood to try and upload it again. So with that said I'll just quickly post what I said on that.

In addition to my music that I got I bought an electric drum kit and a mic stand. Both are equally awesome and the employee that helped me out at Sam Ash was very cool. The electric drum kit I got is very low end, but I don't care. I got it because doing percussion on a synth sucks. So onto music.
First up is "Poke in the Eye... with a Sharp Stick" by PIG... the cassette. Every track on this album rocks! They're all different in their own way, one is slow jazz while another is latin followed by a rock song, I love it. The sound quality is outstanding! It's like the band is in my room playing right next to me. This cassette has inspired me to buy more cassettes, which I will! Overall, it kicks ass and I recommend it to ANYONE so long as you can find it (either LP, CD, or Cassette).
Next up we have "Prime Evil" another PIG album, this time a CD. This album is rumored to be one of PIG's worst albums, though when listening to it you have to bare in mind that the tracks were only half done when the album was published. The reason I had gotten this was because I am collecting the PIG discography. On this album we have a cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" which is pretty good. There's too much tech for a Black Sabbath cover, but where it fails it makes up for with the chorus. I'm not a big Black Sabbath fan, but when I heard the chorus I started chanting it in my head. In addition to this there's the track "Prime Evil" and "Keeper of the Margarita". Both are pretty good, but "Keeper of the Margarita" is probably the best track on this album. It has a main synth line with some classical chorus vocals and very garage percussion, which may sound bad together, but it's actually really satisfying. The rest of the tracks are remixes and.... well... they're not that good. Enough said. I'd recommend this album to strict PIG fans.
Finally (I just got Caustic Grip so I've had no time to listen to it) we have "Provision" which is a single by Front Line Assembly, so this one will be quick. It's classic Front Line Assembly, which is good, you got nice synth lines partnered with Bill Leeb's distorted voice and the percussion. It's calm industrial with this suttle intensity. The first track "Provision" reminds me a lot of old Command & Conquer music and how it's got this heavy rhythmic percussion and prominant synth lines that spew emotion. That is why I love this track, it's like a Command & Conquer song.... but with vocals. The last track on the single (told you it would be quick) is "Overkill (Surge Mix)" and it's got this very rapid punk percussion, which I'm not a big fan of. The synth lines in the background were essentially trying to keep up with the percussion, while the vocals were not that good. With that said, "Overkill (Surge Mix)" is the worst of Front Line Assembly tracks that I've heard. Overall... well... half was awesome and half was bad, I don't know what that averages out to I suck at math.

Coming Soon...

2009-03-09T20:38:00.002-05:00

Well i ordered ore music:
-Poke in the Eye... with a Sharp Stick - PIG (cassette)
-Caustic Grip - Front Line Assembly
-Provision - Front Line Assembly
-Prime Evil - PIG
You are probably wondering why the heck I ordered the cassette version of an album. Well I don't own a record player so I can't buy the LP (priced at $20) and the CD was too expensive when it was on Amazon, but it isn't anymore so I purchased the cassette version. I might purchase more cassettes anyway to get more use out of the clock radio I have from the 80s. So I'll tell you guys all about those when I get them. I'm also thinking about doing a video blog just to see what it's like. I'll need to think about what to video blog about though.

Rainbow Six Review

2009-02-28T18:22:00.002-06:00

So I became so immersed in ZPC that I was checking my living room for enemies the other night, so I figured I should take a break from it and play another game. Since I was almost done with it I decided to play Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. This game is definitely a classic and has an intense story that is so possible it's almost frightening. The story is that an environmental-terrorist group is planning to unleash a deadly virus (I won't tell you which one because it'll spoil everything) upon the world and it's up to you to stop them. There are many plot twists to keep you going and the ending is not necessarily a reward. The ending isn't bad, it's good, but what the villain says in the end makes me very uneasy. Anyways, the gameplay.... you go through every aspect of preparing for a mission: yoou select your team, select their gear, put them in teams, devise a plan, and then select which team you want to play as. You aren't left to just this team though, you can switch between teams constantly throughout the mission and if your team dies you are sent into another team. Every mission begins with a dossier read to you by your leader John Clarke who judging by the voice acting belongs there. The action is quick and intense. Every gun battle lasts about a second or two depending on whether one has cover or not. AI is also very sharp in this game. My allies tend to react quicker to an enemy walking through a door than I did, wow. The missions aren't all run and gun either. Some missions are stealth, which forbid you from killing anyone or being spotted, if you do it's game over. The soundtrack also sets a creepy pants wetting tone and whenever I got shot with this music going on in the background I jumped. There is multiplayer support, though at this day in age I'd be surprised if anyone was playing this online right now. Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this game to ANYONE unless you want to be all run and gun and regenerating health.

I give Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six a 10 out of 10!

The Swining/Red, Raw, & Sore Review

2009-02-26T19:36:00.002-06:00

Since Iron Storm was a "first impression" I figure I should repay you with a FULL review.
So in my big order I had to get some music because being a musician I have to have my boat load of music to keep me company. So I had to order The Swining/Red Raw & Sore because it's classic PIG music and I love PIG. If you are unfamiliar with PIG I don't know what I could suggest you to listen to to help you get some ground on what to expect in this CD. I guess I should tell you that PIG's music tends to be on the disturbing side of things. Anyways the CD is a compilation of the albums The Swining and Red Raw & Sore. This compilation is phenominal! Every track is different. Some of it is metal, some is jazz, some is salsa (yes you heard me right, salsa), one track is spoken word. The best track on the album is Seven Veils. It opens with this very suttle symphonic fluttery thing and then kicks into kind of suspense music followed by rock. I can't really describe it, it's pretty awesome. Another track entitled Ojo por Ojo (Eye for Eye) is an incredibly creepy spoken word track. This song seems like something you'd hear deep within the bowels of hell. If there's one thing I don't like on the CD it's the song Rope. Every version contains this girl panting and moaning and I hate when that is in music, it bugs me. Aside from Rope I love this CD to death! I highly recommend it to anyone in the industrial or rock scene.
I give The Swining/Red Raw & Sore by PIG a 9 out of 10.

Iron Storm First Impressions

2009-02-26T19:04:00.005-06:00

So in addition to ZPC I got Iron Storm so I could have some more games to play. Iron Storm takes place in an alternate universe of the 60s where World War I never ended. The story was the selling point for me and seeing screenshots of running around in trenches seemed pretty cool to me because I've always looked for a World War I game to play. I also felt that I'd enjoy this because IGN gave it an 8 out of 10. Now when I got the game it came with a bunch of advertisements (of for Painkiller which I found really odd) and a fake newspaper from the era of the game, which is pretty cool. It seems almost like this newspaper could exist, it gives sports news of the era and all that stuff. So I eagerly installed the game and forced myself away from ZPC to play it. The opening cinematic has bad voice acting. I heard it and thought someone was playing line through Microsoft Sam, I let it fly though. So it has bad voice acting, I thought, I can manage! The menu sound FX are so annoying and repetitive. The programmers apparently get a stiffy to the sound of a silenced pistol shooting. Every time you move your cursor over a button you get a silenced pistol sound effect. Every time you click on a button you get an explosion. The first level you have to take out enemy snipers and then infiltrate enemy lines by getting into a church, it's very confusing. It seems like it's attempting to be Medal of Honor or something. The enemies' guns have magic power that does more damage to you than your guns do to them. While staying on the topic of enemies and guns, whenever you are shot you move back. So when two enemy soldiers are unloading on you you are being forced back six feet every two seconds, it's so annoying. Anyways, the reason I call this a "First Impression" is because I couldn't finish the first level to save my life, this game sucks something feirce. I wish I had bought Deus Ex or something I know I would've liked. What are the positives of this game? Well... it's a game... you can play it.

Score: sucks something fierce out of 10.

"Take out those snipers with your rifle!"
(REALLY!?!?!? WITH MY RIFLE!?!?!?!? I was gonna use a rock, but that works!)

Update

2009-02-23T17:15:00.002-06:00

Okay, so things have been kind of hectic lately. I just released my single, which is cool. I just got the game ZPC so I'll review that for you guys on Thursday or Friday (when I have a day off). I also got "The Swining/Red, Raw, & Sore" by PIG and "Catalogue 1987-1995" by BUCK-TICK so I'll review both of those for you guys over the weekend as well.

Military Games

2009-02-09T19:32:00.002-06:00

So I think I've finally decided on a good military game series to go with. There's a problem though. I got two series to choose from. I've played one game in both series, one is more in-depth than the other with vehicles and taking command of your squad, while the other has AI that almost does the work for you. So the two games are Delta Force 10th Anniversary Collection and Operation Flashpoint (with Resistance). I've been very happy with both games and so is IGN, so... I'm split here... which way should I go?

P.S. More posts on the way and maybe one relaying info from the Auto Show here in Chicago.

Arturia Analog Factory Review

2009-02-01T15:33:00.003-06:00

So I recently decided to install Arturia Analog Factory (it came with my synthesizer). Simply put it's a software that combines old school Moog voices as well as some others. You can change the pitch and modulation and mess with the voices all you want. It is amazing. It comes with some awesome sequences and EFX that get me all giddy and want to record whatever comes to mind, but that's the thing. You CAN'T record off this software. It makes no sense to me. It is a computer based synthesizer shouldn't you be able to record off it? I thought a way to solve the problem would be to open Audacity (my usual recording program) and see if I can fix that. Nope. That didn't help no matter how I messed with the recording preferences. Another flaw that seemed to just start happening today is that Analog Factory seems to freeze every minute or two. Last night it was working just fine and today... during the day... it's freezing and dying. The software must be a vampire because I am getting a lot of sun in my room. Overall Analog Factory is... good. It has some amazing voices and my synthesizer (when hooked up to the PC via USB) can control the voices as well, which is obvious, but cool. What brings the software down a lot is that I can't record and it's vampyric so I have to run it at night so that it doesn't die.

I give Arturia Analog Factory a 4 out of 10.

Duke Nukem Never

2009-02-01T15:27:00.002-06:00

So I just realized not only did I need to put up a new post, but that 3d Realms has still not released Duke Nukem Forever, or as I like to call it Duke Nukem Never. The trailer was released in December of 2007. Normally when a video game trailer is released that means the game isn't to far off from release. Well here we are in the year 2009 and still no sign of pre-orders. If the game is taking this long to make, this had better be the best game I have ever played in my life! Though to their credit late last year they started to post new screenshots and wallpapers, which mean we might get something soon. But 3d Realms said:

The release date of this game is "When it's done". Anything else, and we
mean anything else is someone's speculation. There is no date. We
don't know any date. If you have a friend who claims they have "inside
info", or there's some game news site, or some computer store at the mall who
claims they know - they do not. They are making it up. There is no
date. Period.
And yes, we know the game has taken a long time.
There's no possible joke you could make about the game's development time that
we haven't already heard. :)

Nazi Zombies

2009-01-16T22:44:00.003-06:00

So I was at a party tonight and had the most fun playing a mini-game ever!
My friend simply said to me, "We're playing Nazi Zombies." I was rather perplexed but went along with it. When the games main menu popped up it said, "Call of Duty World at War" and I was even more perplexed, soon he got to the multiplayer screen and we began to play Nazi Zombies. I thought it would be like Left 4 Dead, but set in WWII, but I was so completely wrong! The object of the game is really to survive as long as you can while maintaining and rebuilding the barricades of the building you're trapped in. While this is all happening Nazi Zombies are rushing the building. Now at the party there were girls that were pacifists and easily scared so we were all screaming and shouting to get them freaked out, which made the game more fun. it also turned these pacifists into killing machines. After you kill a certain amount of zombies you can get some power ups like Max Ammo, Instant Kill, and x2 Points. Overall the game presents an awesome challenge that can become a great party game. If they made Nazi Zombies a stand alone online PC game, I would buy it in a heart beat.

I give Nazi Zombies a 10 out of 10.

That is Not the Best live Album! (And other business)

2009-01-15T22:58:00.002-06:00

So I went on to UGO and saw they had a list of the best live albums and they had some pretty good on the list like Johnny Cash, Daft Punk, Bruce Springsteen, and The Clash. Those awesome bands were no where near the top though, the best live album according to UGO is Nirvana - "MTV Unplugged" I saw that and it was the biggest piece of crap ever! Honestly! They forgot about some bands who are back from the dead like Front 242 and KMFDM who made some awesome live CDs.

Now KMFDM brings me to the next topic, the new album "Blitz" is up for pre-order on Metropolis's website. The album doesn't come out until March though, so we have a ways to go. The album art is amazing which is why I'm gonna wait until they make T-Shirts to get the album. More info on the album here:
http://www.metropolis-mailorder.com/product.php?prodnum=MET+580

A Quickie

2009-01-08T20:57:00.002-06:00

So I got my new synthesizer, which is a Novation Xiosynth. I love it to death. It is absolutely awesome, It has 200 sounds programmed into it with bonus CDs to program more stuff into it. It's got pitch and modulation levers as well as a speed knob and many various other FX knobs that I have yet to figure out what they do. So I ended up making two songs for my first album, which will not only be sold here in the United States, but also in Italy. You can hear my music at: http://myspace.com/cytotoxicity
The song "Daft Individuals [Rough Demo Mix]" is from the single that will follow shortly after and will be exclusive to American listeners. I plan on making three more songs over the weekend at maximum, two at minimum. I did get a guitarrist and I can't wait to work with him as well!

Nostradamus 20-shut the hell up!

2009-01-01T00:06:00.003-06:00

So I have seen ads for this upcoming show on the history channel called "Nostradamus 2012" and it's supposed to be about how he predicted the world will end in 2012 and so did the Mayans. I wanna know what possessed these morons to even produce this show. Don't they realize that some of us value life and would like to not have to worry about dying? I mean seriously, how stupid can these twats be? It's like how Al Gore told us about global warming in a movie, except a thousand times worse. If they are that out of ideas then start re-running programs or think of something cool like the history of.... video games or.... movies or something that has nothing to do with the world ending. I guarantee the only reason they decided to actual air this crap is for ratings. If you're that desperate then you need to take a truck load of Prozac and chill out and realize that the History channel will not be going down the drain. They had cool programs like WW2 history, the Vietnam footage DVD that I never got the chance to actually buy, and that show that talked about the relations of Star Wars to Greek mythology and WW2. So my question is.... why can't we just enjoy life without you guys coming in to ruin it? You're like Buzz Killington! You may as well come along and say, "Guess what we just made cancer air born and contagious!" (Patton Oswalt).
...
...
...
Tell me am I the only one whose brain functions anymore!?!?!?!?

Money, Agogo, Beat by Beat by Beat

2008-12-31T23:45:00.003-06:00

So I figured since I haven't posted in awhile I may as well review the three KMFDM items I got for Christmas.
First let's start off with "Money." "Money" was originally released in February of 1992, the month I was born (like you care), and was later re-released in 2006. I got the re-release obviously because the original is most likely very hard to find. Anyways, the CD features the popular KMFDM tracks Vogue, Help Us Save Us Take Us Away, Sex on the Flag, and the title track Money. It also features remixes of Money, Vogue, as well as Godlike and Die Now-Live Later (aka I Will Pray and Under Satan). The album kicks off nicely with Money, which has an excellent synth intro to it. Things then kind of go downhill from there. Help Us Save Us Take Us Away is way too calm, and I'm not a big fan of Bargled. Once you reach I Will Pray the album gets kicked up a notch, then goes downhill again with Vogue 2000 and has a nice finish with Money (Deutschmark Mix), which is an instrumental version of Money with some extra percussion. Keeping it short and sweet, If you're a KMFDM fanatic like myself, it's definitely worth a listen; however, if you are looking to get more into KMFDM I would not recommend it.
Next we're onto "Agogo." This CD was originally released in 1998... and that's it. Never re-released like it's brother CD known as "Retro." "Agogo" is an entire album filled with KMFDM's never before released tracks. Well... after re-releasing all the albums and releasing the Extra series only four tracks have not been released. In my opinion, only two of those tracks (Mysterious Ways and Ooh La La) are the only ones worth a listen. Nothing much to say about this album altogether, it's early KMFDM works and only really for hardcore KMFDM fans.
Finally we end with KMFDM's tour compilation DVD known as "Beat by Beat by Beat," which features four tours and all of their music videos on just one DVD. All of the tours kick some serious ass. The first tour is the actual "Beat by Beat" tour, which promoted their album "Nihil" and the only downfall in that tour is that... well... it wasn't really much of a tour DVD as it was three live songs (one dubbed over with the album version) and live footage with music videos. Then their are the two Money tours, the Chicago one and the Palo Alto one. Both tours are phenominal and they are straight up live. The last tour is their tour in 1990, which also kicks ass. The Money tours are by far the best, the Beat by Beat tour is only good for Disobedience live and tour footage, 1990 is nothing special. I say this DVD is for anyone into KMFDM. Get it before it's gone!