american standard = what we use. So SI is the metric system.

I never forget when I am right and people tell me I'm wrong. Never.

Super Monkey Ball's party games are better than the real single player game, in my opinion, especially when playing with friends. Some of the mini-games are very awkward to play, but the good ones are really good. There is a little racing game that controls by tilting the wiimote and lets you shoot items like mario kart, and there's a first person shooter minigame that controls a lot like red steel.

Trauma center is awesome, but really frustrating and difficult. I think I'm on the last level of the game right now, and it's really hard. One of the best things about the game is that the controls are so great that you eventually don't even think about them. Once you memorize where all of the tools are on the nunchuck analog stick, you don't even have to think about controls anymore. It almost feels like you're in the game. It's really a feeling I only get with FPS games nowadays.

I didn't really touch wii sports for a while after the first time I played it, but recently I've been playing its training mode a lot and it's really cool. The game is best for showing off to friends who haven't seen the wii in action yet, but the training mode provides some single player challenges that are fun, and good practice for kicking your friends' asses next time you play with them. Yeah you heard me, it's on like donkey kong (the arcade version, not the shitty NES version that cut a level out of the game).

Then there's the PS3 and the Wii (specs linked). I've been watching lots of videos of each, and I'm impressed by both, but I don't see any reason to owning a PS3 right now. The launch titles suck. I'm really excited about the Wii though, because of new Zelda, and the whole new control scheme altogether. I plan on getting up pretty early and driving around to get a Wii, hopefully I can get one on my first try (hititng target first). I think I'll eventually get a PS3, but I just don't see a reason to get one right now. More games will come out, and the console will probably have a game that will be like the GTA3 or Halo of PS3. Doesn't particularly have to be a GTA style game or a FPS style game, but just a game that's so good that it sells the console itself and is exclusive to that console. Until there's a game that I HAVE to buy the console for, I probably won't buy it, so yeah.

I saw Erik's auction on ebay, lolz. Hope it sells for a lot, I know I'd be trying to sell it too, if I had one right now.

You know who you are.

I've been playing a game lately that is a server emulator of an MMORPG that has been out for more than half a decade and is currently dying a slow, painful death. I'm not at liberty to talk about it, but let's refer to the game by the codename "Fasheron's Ball". I played Fasheron's Ball for years after it was released, watched it begin with a playerbase full of confused newbies who didn't know how to play, and grow into a playerbase full of lazy high levels who cared more about macroing their characters to the level cap (and beyond) than actually playing the game.

When the game was first released, the early levels were a challenge. Eventually, with the advent of third-party software that could control the game for you, the earlier levels became more of a mere nuisance than a challenging hump to get over. People started creating "buffbots" that just sat in the game, and accepted pre-set commands from players that gave them free buffs. To compensate for the drop in the difficulty curve, the developers just made the monsters harder, and the spawns more inconvenient for lower levels, making the game even harder for legitimate lower level players. Much more has happened since then, but that's around the time I quit playing.

Anyway, this server emulator is basically an exact clone of the game. All of the monsters are there, dungeons, towns, items, quests, everything. It is a huge world, but the population is very limited and the administrater wishes to keep the server secret and any knowledge of its existence unknown. It's almost like playing back in november '99 again, except everybody already knows how to play the game. The special debug client required to play the server emulator doesn't allow the use of third-party programs, so it's almost like we're getting to see how this game was meant to be, untainted by the evil third party programs that cheapen the experience and the game as a whole. It's kind of something that I and a lot of other people that played on the PvP server have hoped for for a long time. I really hope that it lasts, and also that the creators of the emulator decide to release it to the public, so more servers can open up and cultivate their own communities. It has potential to be great, but it's held back by some guys afraid of being caught. :(

Apparently, some girls found this website and thought it would be funny to put some of their own "question blocks" in public areas around their town. Because it IS funny, it's very clever and I think whoever does it is awesome.

But apparently, some people don't agree, and the police were called on the matter. The police were called over some empty fucking boxes. Now these girls are facing possible criminal charges for leaving some empty boxes around public areas in their town. Why were they left in public areas? So people would see them, so the joke wouldn't be wasted.

I can't believe that this is actually an issue. I can't believe that people are so afraid that they have to call the police over some empty boxes. I can't believe that they are seriously considering filing criminal charges against some teenage girls that left empty question mark block boxes around town. I mean, seriously. Can you fucking believe this? Can you believe that people are actually this full of fear? Why are people so afraid? What happened to make people this afraid of a potential terrorist attack? And I guess most importantly, is this ever going to end, or is it just going to keep getting worse?

waht a fucker, i should get him kicked out of the guild

we were doing RFC and everybody left on me

This is kind of funny. I was playing wow on the aegwynn server, on the horde side. Some guy named sopuff sent me a message saying I was a fag or oreomsthigh. so I was liek "WHYA RE YOU TALIKING TO ME, whO ARE YOU", he said he was josh. So I assumed it was josh meyers, my friend. I WAS WRONG. But I talked to him for like two hours thinking it ws my frend josh. how silly is that. ecentaually I found out it wasn't really josh. after everygboy went to sleep I ended up getting in a wailing caverns group with taht guy though so it wasn't all for naught. it's kind of silly though that that happene.d

Also, that brainstorm album, IS THE SME THINg. IT IS STILL A PROMO ALBUM. WTF. IT still has that message in the middle telling me what slbum I downloaded. How gay. I need to find the real album. Also, that Heed albu, the last track has a 15 minute silence on the end and then a hidden track. I HATE TAHT! hidden tracks are gay when they need to put 15 minutes of silence at the end of the track to do it. it totally messes up my shuffle. here I am thinking the album is over and I need to put something else on, but it's just on it's 15 minutes of silence. that's gay. bands should not do that

on top of that, it's kind of dumb how bands PLAN encores for shows. Like, they play like seven songs, then leave the stage before their last song, then get back on stage to play their "hit" song. that is so dumb. all of the big bands do it when they headline shows. korn did it and lsipknot did it and avenged sevenfold did it. it's almsot expected now. stop playing around and just play your songs. if people wnant an encore, let it be a real encore, not some planned shit you did just becue you cac. you guys are assholes.

also, it pisses me off how bands genres are judged by how the vocals sound. FOR EXAMPLE, bands like brainstorm or nevermore. They are calassified as power metal, because the singer sings in a generally high pitched voice. Brainstorm is not power metal, and nevermore is not power metlal. STOP CALIING THEM THAT!
Also, inflames is not death metal. So, the lead singer screams. LISTEN TO THE MUSIC! DOES IT SOUND LIKE MORBID ANGEL AT ALL? DOES IT SOUND LIKE ANY REAL DEAHT METAL BAND? OF COURSE NOT. Same goes for lots of bands. I've heard children of bodom classified as black metla because of how their vocals sound. Children of bodom is more power metal than black metal, at least their first few albums. But they are instantly classified as black or death metal because ther singer screams/growls. how gya. I feel like I am more metal than every metal critic in the world. They are just so dumb. They don't listen to the music an djust listen to the voices and then automatically categorize the bands as somet]hing that they are not. it's dumb and gay. that's jsut about all I have to say.

I've been lagging behind on my metal gathering so I've been trying to catch up a little. Here's what I got so far:

Soulfly - Dark Ages. There is a band out there called Soulfly that was supposed to be great. It was founded by lead singer/guitarist Max Cavalera, who quit Sepultura. He was the creative driving force behind sepultura, and sepultura was soo good, so Soulfly had to be awesome, right? Nope, every Soulfly album was just an attempt to re-create Sepultura's last album "Roots". I didn't even think Roots was that great so Soulfly was never that great. BUT, I would have to say that this album, Dark Ages, is different. There are lots of traces of older Sepultura in there, and it's great. It tells me that Max Cavalera hasn't given up on writing good metal and it makes me happy.

Brainstorm - Liquid Monster. I actually downloaded this album like a year ago, but it was a promo album and it had a little thing in each song where some guy said "you are listening to Brainstorm Liquid Monster coming out blah blah 2005". That just kills songs for me. This is an awesome album though, it really caught me off guard because I had never heard of the band Brainstorm. They are generally classified as power metal because of their lead singer, but it doesn't feel like power metal. They are heavy, but very melodic, and the singer actually sings. I consider power metal to be really fast-paced and melodic, and most of the songs on this album are pretty mid-tempo. It's a really good album, good enough for me to go out of my way and find it again just so I can have a good version of the album.

Kalmah - The Black Waltz. This was an anticipated album for me. I started listening to Kalmah about a year and a half ago, and I have been pretty hooked on them ever since. They are in that Finnish metal "scene" I've been talking about, and generally classified as sounding like Children of Bodom (like all Finnish metal bands). But these guys are definitely unique. They're a lot more traditinal melodic death metal than Children of Bodom (and probably every other finnish band I've heard with the exception of Wintersun), but they come up with melodies that stick in your head. Very haunting and catchy melodies. My one complaint about this album is that the singer doesn't seem to show as much range as their earlier albums. He uses the same low pitched growl as a base for all of their songs, sometimes switching to a higher pitched shrieking growl. I don't have any complaints about the growl/shriek combo, it's expected in european death metal. It's just that you didn't know what to expect from the vocals on earlier albums, but on this one it's a lot more consistent low growls. Don't get me wrong though, that doesn't kill this album, or even hurt it. This album is fucking amazing.

Ensiferum - Dragonheads. I've probably been anticipating this album more than anything I've mentioned today. First of all, it's new Ensiferum. Secondly, their old singer and songwriter quit the band to form Wintersun. I didn't know what to expect from the new Ensiferum. It's not a full album, it's just an EP with six songs, so it's probably meant to be a sampler of what Ensiferum will sound like on their next full-length album. First thing I noticed was, Ensiferum has slowed down a lot. Most of the songs on the EP are mid-tempo, as opposed to ensiferum's usual fast paced bass-snare-bass-snare beats. It still sounds like ensiferum, but you can tell that a piece of them has left, and you can hear that piece in Wintersun. This isn't a bad thing though, Ensiferum kind of has their own unique sound now. Their songs are easier to follow and hum along with now. Their old sound was epic, but now they sound epic in a different way. It's hard to explain. Their older songs brought forth the vision of vikings charging towards battle, smashing anything in their way. Their newer songs make me think of their journeys across the north seas, thinking about the battles that are about to come. They're still viking metal though, and they are still awesome.

Jesu - Jesu. I downloaded this album because so many metal sites gave it critical acclaim. I didn't really know what to expect, but it had to be good. What I didn't know was that this band is a continuation of a band called Godflesh. I wouldn't consider myself a fan of Godflesh, but I've had a CD by them since I was probably around 17 or 18 years old. I didn't like it at all at first, never listened to it. It wasn't until after I ripped my whole CD collection to MP3 that I started appreciating Godflesh. They are a very slow, experimental, atmospheric metal band. Most music is meant to be listened to in the foreground, but some is created for listening to in the background, and Godflesh and Jesu are prime examples of that. My best explanation would be Explosions in the Sky, but metal. Probably not something I would listen to a lot, but definitely something I could loop in the background while playing WoW or something.

Heed - The Call. Okay, this album kicked my ass. There was a band called Lost Horizon. They released two albums, and they were both amazing. The thing that stood out the most for me, was their singer. He had a very good and unique voice, he had very good range and could hit some really high notes. Anyway, after Lost Horizon's second album came out in 2003 or 2004, the singer and one of the guitarists quit Lost Horizon. It made me really sad, I mean, I loved that band. Later on I found out that the lead singer and guitarist went to form another band, called Heed. I thought it was a dumb name, and they didn't have any sound clips for me to listen to, and they didn't have an album out. I generally just forgot about them after that. Well, a few nights ago I was listening to Lost Horizon while I slept, and I dreamed about them. I know it sounds silly but when I listen to music while I sleep, sometimes I dream about the music. Anyway, I dreamed I talked to the former lead singer of Lost Horizon. I asked him, "Why did you quit Lost Horizon?" and he said something like "I formed another band.", and that reminded me about the other band. I forgot their name, but yesterday I found it again, and then I found out that they actually released and album in JUNE. So long ago. I tried to find a torrent and couldn't, but somebody on soulseek had it. I managed to download the album, and it's so awesome. My best definition would be that it sounds like newer In Flames (reroute to remain/soundtrack to your escape/come clarity), with the singer of Lost Horizon singing. It's an awesome combination and I listened to the album at least 9 times yesterday. Out of all of the albums I got recently, this is the one I am happiest about. It's a shame that this band hasn't gotten more recognitions, because it is really really good.

That's about it for now.

there's a band out there, called kalmah

they came out with a new album... tomorrow... it actually came out befoire then but considreing it came out before tomorrow, it's hard to download something tomorrown. so i downloaeded it today. and it's awesome

let me tell you something about metal though, something that can't be told throiugh b being caughing leting to metal, or listening to metal. me3tal is the best style os music ou thtere. no matter how muich people listen to metal, there will alway be metal, lurking in the background. it will affect everybody, thinking about what they should do or what they are doing. metal is the best music in the world. metal makes people rock iout or it makes people sad. it makes people be cuatious about what what they are doing or tey dont care at all. I love metal so much. metal is my life and it is always what i will do instead of living. even if metal has no conseaquenfce i will always love it, i love metal. I love playing it and i lvoe writing it. I just love metal. if anybody doesnt like it they can kiss my ass.

id decided to try and play guitar a little bit after I got home. let me tell you, it's kind of challenging. playing guitar is hard drunk. I hit the wrong things, and it makes it soudn bad.

but, I have been recording lots of cool stuff on sony acid pro. I'm pretty happy with how a lot of the stuff has turned out. I feel like I'm actually writing good music instead of just random guitar riffs. if you want to hear anything that I've done just send me an aim message and I can send you stuff. i play metal though so if yo udon't like metal then you probably won't like my stuff because it's totally metal.