um.. Gamespot won't let me link to the actual site, but let's see if I can get it to you here: "http://www.alaska . net/ ~ clund /e_djublonsk opf/ Flatearthsociety . htm"

Flat Earth Society Wikipedia

So...

yeah...

"Three loyal Flat Earth Society members, during a camping trip to the small African nation of Tunisia, came across a privately-owned 59 minute photo stand in the isolated northernmost corner of the desert country. Employing guerilla warfare techniques learned under Mao Zedong in the early 1920's, they were able to effortlessly seize control of the stand and are now using it to distribute pro-Flat Earth propaganda throughout the West African region."

I'm just... at a loss for words....

So, The Earth is Still Flat...

The Serious Cat inside of me wants to laugh

"The Flat Earth Society is not in any way responsible for the failure of the French to repel the Germans at the Maginot Line during WWII. Nor is the Flat Earth Society responsible for the recent yeti sightings outside the Vatican, or for the unfortunate enslavement of the Nabisco Inc. factory employees by a rogue hamster insurrectionist group. Furthermore, we are not responsible for the loss of one or more of the following, which may possibly occur as the result of exposing one's self to the dogmatic and dangerously subversive statements made within: life, limb, vision, Francois Mitterand, hearing, taste, smell, touch, thumb, Aunt Mildred, citizenship, spleen, bedrock, cloves, I Love Lucy reruns, toaster, pine derby racer, toy duck, antelope, horseradish, prosthetic ankle, double-cheeseburger, tin foil, limestone, watermelon-scented air freshner, sanity, paprika, German to Pig Latin dictionary, dish towel, pet Chihuahua, pogo stick, Golf Digest subscription, floor tile, upper torso or halibut."

Copyright © 1998 Flat Earth Society Inc. All rights reserved.

I've seen everything...

"Hello everyone, now this is not a self pity thread as I know that wouldn't be accepted. But there has been changes in the past month and here I'll answer the questions you may ask.

What is one of the bigger differences?
This may sound crazy to you but a little over a week ago I found out about my sence of Serious Feliniousity, which I will explain below.

What the heck does Serious Feliniousity mean?
It is pretty much the sense that you are not human, but that you are actually a Serious Cat in human form, forms like Serious Cat realms are full of people who say they know who are Serious Cats and I'm registered there.
Links.

Serious Cat

Serious Cat2

Most Serious Cats find this out through something called awakening, it may be through a dream or something else. (I've actually had dreams where I briefly felt I was a hairy, surly, and hairball-ridden Serious Cat)

Is this even compatible with christianity?
Short answer, yes, there is such a thing as a christian Serious Cat. A stumbling block may be the concept of born again as human but the site above implies the Serious Cat lifecycle is different. (message for christian Serious Cat)

So you're a WHAT!?!?
Yes, I have reason to be sure that I am actually a Serious Cat in human form, I look inside myself and I see my heart and mind trying to tell me I'm a Serious Cat, I also found out the road to realization that I am a Serious Cat probably started 5 years ago when I first got sudden interest in gaining Serious Cat form.

You must be crazy, how could this even be possible?
The Serious Cat's paws site has some good explanation on how this is possible, note there are many who found themselves to be the Serious Cat , though I may be the only active one on this forum.

So we have to call you the forum Serious Cat now?
If you'd like I have found myself more comfortable being considered a Serious Cat then human. Some people may still just want to refer to me as valarking which is fine too.

Well, that summons it up, call me crazy but a lot of people who found they're Serious Cats would not think so."

note: I saw this thread in a forum and nearly died of laughter. I thought I'd share it with you guys.

Despite it's kindof heavy metal look, Great Vengeance and Furious Fire manages to set itself apart by it's groovin' beats, heavy grit and nice horn section. If you want a band that mixes past with present and future, your (as in my) best choice would be The Heavy's "Great Vengeance and Furious Fire". A couple of songs to look at are: Set Me Free, and Colleen.

peace out,

-nick

A good (real life) friend of mine wrote an article called "The PSP is Dead and There is Nothing You can Do to Stop it". *and* while we might have all the same acquaintances on Gamespot, I think I have a couple of friends who would love this article. I wanted to plug it because it's a thousand times better than either of the soapboxes I have written.

My editorial is on the way, but I keep lazily putting it off.

Hey all, I thought I'd let you know that I have a new soapbox article in the works. I'll give you a hint about the topic: It has something to do with theatres (playwrites, on stage acting, ya know, the real stuff). I'd like to see what you guys *think* it is (in relation to gaming of course).

As of life in general? I've picked up acoustic guitar tapping. Ya know, the kind that Andy Mckee does. :D I've been playin' around with it a bit and have come up with some pretty cool stuff.

I'd also like to mention that I have read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence" as I have a hundred times. But instead of quoting it, I thought I'd put together a full on critique someday as there are many points in the book where I feel Persig contradicts himself--or doesn't as there is an extreme lack of detail on specific points. Don't let that stop you from enjoying the book, as it does give lots of practical advice and interesting viewpoints on common problems.

this is Zen

Maybe this means I should read "Lila" in order to critique Persig's Metaphysics of Quality. But I hear allot of how his purpose is sort of undermined by the fictional content in the book. Anyone like to comment on this?

Those who know me know that Radiohead is among my top bands of all time. Those who know me even more know that Flaming Lips are within' the same top five favorite rock bands--moreso because they rock than anything else. What strikes me as quite strange is that both the Flaming Lips and Radiohead are walking further and further towards the edge: Krautrock. A 'german' form of progressive rock that more effectivly fuses influences from classical and jazz music (moreso than 'Yes'). So, I'll give you some rather phsycadelic songs here; Radiohead's "These are my Twisting Words" and the Flaming Lip's "See the Leaves".

What's even cooler these days is the joint effor of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), John Paul Jones (Led Zepplin), and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) into the greatest supergroup of our generation named: Them Crooked Vultures. No recordings, and only a handful of concerts to go on means that we don't have very dependable evidence of their awesomeness (considering how far south supergroups have gone in the past). However, the word around town is that they have quite an impressive show (and album coming in the future). It's mysterious, but highly epic.

peace,

-nick

Back when Guitar Hero II came out, I played it at my friend's house rather consistantly. I had never heard of the original and therefore, the II on the tail end didn't make much sense. I was sort of proud of this 'achievement' we (they) had made in the art of 'videogame' music. I would ask my dad to play it with me when he came to pick me up. He'd sit down and play it with this frustrated look on his face. I never understood why. I'd always thought he'd buy into the novelty of playing music like a videogame.

Of course, he was a musician, and so have I become (to a lesser extent). I have felt the power receeding and flowing when slamming my fingers on the ivories. The more and more I practiced my instrument, the less and less I played what was on the page and the more I played the 'model' of the song. There was more freedom in being able to explore the scales and tones available within a given song. That's why genre's such as Jazz become so popular within dictatorships or communist regimes--because there is freedom in the music that their government doesn't provide.

Sun Ra was a very controversial Free Jazz player. You can see why in this video.

Of course, Jazz, like the American government, is not completely free (well, let's exclude free jazz on this one). There are a couple of rules to follow; which is why jazz still has form. For instance, there are only a number of scales you can play within given chord progressions and key changes. The bass has to lock in with the ride symbol; the piano with the snare rhythm. The highhat keeps time. etc. etc. Of course, all the rules become more like guidelines when you become acquainted with them. Granted, I can't say the same for the US gov.

Jack Black's stickin' it to the man formal college course.

This isn't to say that music is all about 'stickin it to the man'--but music is a philosphy defined largely by the freedom expirienced. It's a mindset that's only broken by closing the mind off to the music istelf or new ideas. Granted, there are things that simply don't work in every situation. There are secret 'Zen' like laws that simply can't be broken. But if you ask any musician, they wouldn't be able to tell you what the rule is, but they could tell you when your breaking it. ;)

Rockin' out on Mount Zion

In short, music video games contradict any sort of progress that has been made within the past 70/80 years. This is not because I don't like the music, but because the videogame is 'playing' the music--not you. In short, I feel uncomfortable playing it because I'm stuck in this awkward middleground in which I'm not activly playing the music, or activly listening to it. The music is almost never changed --with the exception of Rock Band's guitar and drum 'solos' in which have you mashing as many buttons in a fervant attempt to create music. If you were to show up at a gig and play a solo like that, you would certainly be asked to leave.

If you showed up to a gig with this, you'd also probably be asked to leave.

To those who actually play music games: Granted, videogame controllers and real instruments are completely different animals. But don't convince yourself that you don't have the dexterity to play an instrument. Spend a hundred bucks on a real entry level instrument and start learning. Learn some chords, take online lessons. Just learn. Why? Because, ultimately, you could end up making a bit of mula. Even if it's simply a casual pastime and your strumming a couple of chords on the guitar. Hell, that's what Paul McCartney did (does) and look at him now...

...He's got a videogame.

I haven't done one of these in a while, so, in order to avoid reading 'Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintainance' I thought I'd post this because it's so fun to watch. :D

It's a youtube video mashup of 'Nirvana vs. Rick Astley'

The best part is watching Rick Astley dance to the song.

peace,

-nick

Is that I can never finish anything. I put the frog up on the shelf until I could properly learn how to paint. Right now, I'm working on a 'game-ready' space ship.

low poly

High poly

I'm basically going to map the 'normals' onto the low poly mesh (same as bump mapping) to make the low poly mesh look... better. :D Time to mow the lawn.

peace,

-nick

Hey, that rhymed. Coolio. :D So, for the past two weeks or so, I've been gone on a sort of 'vacation'. Well, that's what I call it anyways. Around Christmas time, I decided I would try and land a spot at the Jamey Abersold Jazz camp. Turns out, the camp was fairly nice. Meals were all payed for, and I spent a fortune on piano voicings books. After the week was out, I played a terrible solo and got my ass off to a hotel with the rest of my family where no one else could see me ;). After about a day or so of staying in that... awkward hotel, We drove home. I of course slept in the back because those late night faculty concerts really take a toll on you. :(

Of course, within that time, I played 'The World Ends With You' rather sparsly. I did manage to finish the game a couple of nights ago though. In short, the simply fact that I finished the game proves that it was a rather enjoyable expirience. The story was interesting, for the most part, if not sometimes incredibly cliché. The characters were interesting, and the battle system was fun and sometimes very challenging. I personally admired the art ****very much. The 'faked' perspective and the abstract bending really added allot to the environments--it probably made more of a difference than one might think.

I personally didn't enjoy the music all that much though. :( There were a couple of songs that were nice and catchy like Twister, and that song you start out with. But, most of the music was rather shallow. Not rather. But very shallow. I don't even want to talk about the credit track. I did shamelessly buy all the tracks though--mainly to fill up that 'relationship' bar with all the retailers in the game. Normally, they would offer you some pretty cool items if you got it all the way to the top.

It's not as bad as it looks. :) This scene is WAY out of context.

The story, although mostly well told, had some issues. In the first 'week' of the game, the story feels solid and well put together. But, as you progress through the game, you start to notice small loopholes and some sloppiness. However, despite a couple of storytelling issues, the game conveys it's message rather effectively--with a few glaring clichés and plenty of new ideas. The way Neku (the main character) would comment about standard RPG cosmetics that slipped into the game would spark quite a few smirks. The 'secret' chapter they throw in at the end is also very laughable.

The battle system was great! The game worked well--even though there were a couple framerate issues, the game played. Collecting pins proved to be an incredibly satisfying hobby in the game. Especially when you find one that's powerful and really easy to use (like the wolf noise pin). Of course, the developers complicate things when they say that you can't get all the pins by buying them in stores or gunning down cute tatooed kangaroos. You have to evolve them.

All in all, I'd give the game an 8.5/10. It's a great game and highly recommended for anyone interested in the game.

peace,

-nick