Ive Moved
August 27, 2006
Free Music
May 16, 2006
Ok so ive been looking around for some good music, and i stumbled upon a few sites which have some free music. Ah free,my favourite word. My first Link is this : http://www.hell-is-for-heroes.net/downloads.php
Ive been floowing hell is for heroes for a couple of years now, although missed a chance to see them live at my student union, which i intially thought was a bad thing. There first album, The Neon Handshake is a very good piece of work, lots of drop-D guitars, almost grunge but very catchy hooks. The lyrics are something of the obscure not really sticking well with the music, but the rythm section makes up for that, something similar to American Hi-fi's self titled album although not a mainstream (Poppy), the production lacks some kick but well worth a listen. Unfortunately i lost my mp3's of the album, so im going to buy it hard copy, a recommended purchase for anyone. Their follow up album Transmit Disrupt comes as somewhat of a dissapointment, i was expecting big things, better prodcution came at the cost of the songs. They lack impact, with only two songs sticking out "They may call us savages" trying to conjure up some of their glory from the first album, and "One of us". This is the free download that im linking.
It start has a kicking introduction, with a thumping and steady drumline leading into off centre guitars. The chorus is where is really punches it weight, overlayed with uplifting guitars. - So well worth giving it a listen from the link above.
http://www.thefaint.com/audio/
My Next Link are "The Faint". I first heard of them whilst using the Stumble Upon application for firefox, i grew tired of that, when it kept sending me to the same sites over and over again. There are roughly 6 album tracks available to download from their first 3 albums. All of them showing diversity and progression from techno influences to dance and grunge guitars, culminating in their best work from " Wet from birth" their 3rd album. Their second album Dance Macabre doesnt show a continuity throughout although key tracks such as Call Call and Worked up so sexual stand out from the rest.
They are literally my new favourite band, offering something different to modern rock music, and something in between grunge and techno/dance tunes your hear genericly in clubs.
My last track that i found for a free download, came from Drowned in sound.com . This is really something you should pounce on as its a week only download. ending this sunday i think. The track available from this link http://drownedinsound.com/content/view/841569
is a track called damage, and is a single coming off the new Cooper temple clause album. Ive only heard a few songs from their previous album, although with their last album "Kick up the fire and let the flames break loose" was a more polished, and mainstream release with kick ass single including "promises promises"(offering drop-c guitars - i jest not) and "blind pilots", sporting a fabulous music video.
Black Holes and Revelations
May 14, 2006
Ok so i thought id write abuot the new muse album which has been quickly spread around and on peoples lips in recent months. There have been some very strange and somewhat in teresting decisions from the muse camp. For a start the album titled has been confirmed as Black Holes and Revelations, which is a somewhat tangent in terms of album names for muse, compared to Showbiz, origin of symmetry and absolution, althouhg any muse fan would know that matt bellamy is really into his strange and paranormal literature.
Next i move onto the new single, Supermassive black hole, which seems to fit in well with the whole black hole element matt bellamy seems to have going on. By the way its released as a download only single over at their official website muse.mu . The amount of uproar from musers over at the official and unofficial sites, some say they were boycotting the album and the single, and that what was floating around the internet was a fame leak to throw people off the scent, or it was a remix. But no, its the real deal, its very different, a groovy guitar dance song, with layered vocals and a pumping bassline in the chorus and a very catchy tune. To be honest when i first heard it, it made me laugh but ive got used to it now and actually like it. Go and download for yourself, its only 79p, not available in america i think though.
The big news so far is the play of three of their new songs at Radio 1's Big weekend festival in dundee this weekend, with please from management to not download any of the live songs, being flaunted. Head your way over to http://invictus.softmeg.com/index.php or muselive as its better known, and have a search round for the songs, i doubt whether they will be there for very long. Some videos of the event are on there, buried deep within the forums.
Out of the new songs, the new single certainly seems to have redeemed itself with a live performance showing off many good merits to it funk inspirations and vocoders rounding off the chorus triumphantly. What really stood out was the new song Starlight, rumoured to be the second song on the tracklist for the album. It does sound like it has potential for being a second single, with an uplifiing verse and starry rythum. Theres still some of the good old harmonised piano like from bliss and stockholm sydrome. Matt bellamy declaring "hopes and expectations, black holes and revelations" in its chorus. It seems somehwhat to have similarities with falling away with you, with its steady stream of bassline, wailing vocals and catchy rythm similar to the part in time is running out.
As for knights of cydonia, the live version is a very weird song at first, with matt bellamy showing off once again his lack of balls, no really i mean it he must still be in puberty as the notes he reaches within the first minute are staggeringly high, much like Microcuts. No sooner has he hit those high notes does the sound rip into a high tempo bass and drumline, and the guitar having wailing qualities and straneg techno almost sci-fi effects mixed in. Which i suspect matt bellamy using his new korg expression pad on his new manson guitar. The verse is difficult to make out, but the pre-chorus keeping strong to muses steadfast layered vocals and harmonies, as we have seen in past albums. The chorus and its lyrics reminds me of butterflies and hurricanes, with the music building a crescendo overlayed with some sci-fi effects, and then ripping into a hook, similar to the newborn opening riff.
All in all i think that the new album is shaping up to be something very different, strange and almost ghostly, with the stregnth of their lyrics showing strong, with influences such as the oil crisis shwoing through in Supermassive black hole (glaciers melting in the dead of night). The new album is out july 3rd, with a hard copy release of their new single coming out mid june.
One more point, months ago NME the magazine we all hate, stated muse as emo, whereas just recently a review of the single calling the prog-rockers, make up you mind NME you narrow minded fucks.
Jesus christ!! they can read our minds
May 10, 2006
Taken from bbc news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4751501.stm
Women 'sense qualities in a man'
Women are fine tuned subconsciously to detect the qualities they are looking for in a man - just by looking at his face, US research suggests. Women can spot subtle signs of interest in children in a man's face, and accurately assess his level of the sex hormone testosterone, it claims.
Child-friendly men were rated as good long-term bets, masculine men as ideal for a more short-term fling.
Details feature in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
study was carried out by researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Researcher Dr Dario Maestripieri said: "Our results show that women are surprisingly accurate in judging a man's masculinity and his interest in infants by looking at his face.
"Our results also show that women value masculinity as a desirable trait for short-term relationships and interest in infants as a desirable trait for more stable long-term relationships."
Lots of information
Dr Maestripieri said the results suggested there was more information in the face about the potential value of a man as a mating partner than previously thought.
"I don't think that evolution has given women a second sense in this area but has made them very good at using every piece of information at their disposal when making decisions about mating and relationships."
The researchers recruited male undergraduate students, who underwent saliva tests to determine their testosterone levels.
They were also shown a series of pictures of adults and babies, and asked which they preferred.
Pictures of the volunteers were then shown to 29 female undergraduates, who were asked to rate the men according to whether they thought they liked children, appeared masculine, physically attractive, or kind.
The women were then asked to determine men's attractiveness as short-term romantic partners or as long-term partners for relationships such as marriage.
The men women chose as being most interested in children were the same men who had expressed the most interest in children in the photo test.
The women also accurately rated the men with the highest testosterone levels as being the most masculine.
Most women said they were attracted to the men who tested high for testosterone.
However, the results also showed that they tended to opt for men with a greater affinity for children when considering who had the greatest potential as a long-term partner.
Dr James Roney, who also worked on the study, said: "The research suggests that men's interest in children may be a relatively underappreciated influence on men's long-term mate attractiveness."
What Grinds My gear 5
April 26, 2006
hey there everyone, im back after a long hiatus. As with my good friend atariboy things at uni are going to get pretty busy so i wont have time to write many posts, not that i imagine i get many regular readers. Anyway i would just like to thank the great comments from the last grind my gears, may the common sense in us all prevail over the forces of evil, so to speak.
Ive been undecided recently about where to take this blog, so i might change tack in a while, maybe a personal blog, maybe a music/movies blog we shall have to see. Ive also been undecided about what to grind my axe about, and it came to me when i went home for easter break.
So it came down to the decision, should i take back my computer for easter break of leave it at uni, so i left it safe in the knowledge ill have my trusty laptop back at home. So i log in, a laborious task if there ever was one, after the laptop was mincing around tryin to boot. Suddenly from out of nowhere the desktop of my user profile is overwhelmed with crap…. not literally, that would be messy indeed. So just to fill you in my grind my gears is partially at my laptop, and my dad, but mostly at windows xp and Norton antivirus. Oh christ did that program make things uncomfortable to say the least.
So there i am, picking through the wreckage of what used to be my desktop, to find about the following:shortcuts for numerous amounts of software which we dont use, including
several shortcuts for the printer
several shortcuts for my dads camera (which he's barely used)
shortcuts for my zen micro for when i connect to the lappy
folders all over the damn place, and all unarranged. It almost reduced me to tears.
But no i stayed strong, just as i was about to sort everything out, i get not one but three popups on my desktop, one for tiscali broadband, one for msn, and one for …… Norton antivirus. Grrr. Yes i allready know the systems status is ok, you told me last time, and the time before last, it wouldnt give it a rest, and to think you have to pay monthly for a pop-up to say everythings ok.
Surely i should get back to facts, firstly issue one was windows xp. Normally i dont windows xp, my pc is perfectly fine running it. My laptop just went through a major reinstall of windows, and my dad, who did it, is clueless when it comes to computers. A windows "balloon" comes up, for a start why the f*** do they call them balloons, face facts they are pop-ups. It says that software updates installation has had an error. I ask my self, what installation, which updates. Thats when it came to me, like an annoying pop-up, the windows update manager had not been changed. It just kept downloading crap all the damn time, firstly there was service pack 2, that took ages. But the one that took the biscuit was the sound drivers windows decided i needed to download. There was nothing wrong with the old one, but for some reason, without telling me it downloads them, installs them…without telling me, and installs them wrongly.
Of course i did not know about this until i wanted to load up itunes, i press play and a warning signs comes up, silly me, i must have moved the file somewhere else…. no thats not it, actually why arent i hearing anything. Thats right dumbass windows installed the fucking patched wrongly. A quick restart and i get sound back, until i open of firefox. Browsing my regular sites i find a youtube video i want to watch…hang on i dont hear any sound, the same with google videos.
Damn you windows xp, i shout furiously shaking my fist at the screen, if only computers had feelings. Then i could give it what for, and they would feel realy sorry and fix themselves, whimpering in guilt whilst doing so. But no, i havent the faintest whats wong, because windows media and quicktime movies are fine. So thats an open question, does anyone have any idea what went wrong there and how to fix it?
My next target in the line of fire is Norton Antivirus. Now seeing as though my friend got a warning from redstation about defamation, im pretty sure i better take precautions in what i say……nah fuck it. Norton sucks, but of course you all know this.
Not only does it use up shitloads of memory, its useless. everytime i start my computer i would get a pop up saying everythings fine, yet everytime i would get another saying that ive got an adware file, would i like to remove it. I think hell yes, i dont want those pesky casinos and penis enlargement ad's gettin through to my desktop. So away it goes, searching, finding it and removing it….. Yeah ya removed it right,, oh you did ??, then why the fuck do i get the same warning every startup with the same adware file being flagged in the same destination. Normally i would use the destination and look for the file myself and delete it, job done like with AVG, who ive never had problems with (free version). But Norton wont show the full filepath destination, so im left having to run through the same hoops once and again. This situation happens twice as i also have a trojan virus on their, that doesnt get deleted.
Im sorry but if you pay for and ANTI, and i stress the word anti-virus, then why the fuck wont it get rid of the virus. FFS my dad is paying monthly for the damn thing, i would like to think he could get some results.
So here i am back at uni, in front of my nice unconfortable chair that creeks with displeasure on knowing that its the worst chair in the world.Although the most important thing is that my pc is back in front of me, nothing is wrong with it, there are no pop-ups of crappy programs chewing up hard drive space, like a womans thong chews up… well ya know. Final words od discouragement, if thats a word, norton made my easter bloody annoying, and windows update manager didnt help much either, i would blame my dad for it but he doesnt know better.
Long live the days of internet (my university house, with uber speed broadband), with the glory's of firewalls, bitorrent, and a computer geek as a best friend. Thats right norton, you make me uncomfrotable when talk of going back home is brought up because you runined my easter!!!
anyway enough is enough
AND THAT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IS WHAT GRINDS MY GEARS
10 THINGS WE DIDNT KNOW LAST WEEK 4
April 14, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4895278.stm - taken from bbc news
may i draw your attention to point 1, and women have a go at men thinking about sex all the time, tut tut
Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience.
1. The average British woman worries about the size and shape of her body every 15 minutes.
2. This Easter weekend will see 2.3 million people travelling through the UK's airports.
3. Six seats in the Italian Senate depend on the votes of Italians living abroad.
4. A flag expert is a vexillologist.
5. Coins which are called "coppers", such as the penny, have been made from steel since 1992.
6. Compensation payments to teachers following personal injuries, such as assaults by pupils, amounted to £7.6m last year.
7. Berlin's tallest building, a television tower, will have a giant 32 metre football placed on top for the World Cup.
8. Iceland has the highest concentration of broadband users in the world.
9. The suicide rate in the UK is at its lowest rate since records began in 1910.
10. Tony Blair is the first prime minister in recent times not to use RAF aircraft for family holidays.
[Sources where no story linked: 1: Daily Telegraph]
Quick Note
April 7, 2006
Easter break + Exams = Revision < No Posts for a while
Electricity Calculator
March 28, 2006
Found this on the BBC news site. Its in response to the news that the UK will not meet its CO2 emmisions reduction target, well this doesnt help with China and the USA screwing everything up in terms of carbon emmions. The link asks you to calculate how much fossil fules, nuclear energy, alternative and foreign energies you would employ as a energy minister. To be honest im all for Nuclear and alternative, as long as they can make safe Nuclear (Chernobyl and "The China Syndrome" come to mind), and as long as NIMBY's (Not in my back yard) people dont throw up a fuss about wind turbines. They wont be complainging when their energy bills are extrotionate and when fossil fuels are run dry. Anyway heres the link.:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/electricity_calc/html/1.stm
10 THINGS WE DIDN’T KNOW THIS TIME LAST WEEK 3
March 26, 2006
Taken from bbc.com - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4824504.stm
Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience.
1. Goths, those pasty-faced teenagers who revel
in black clothing, are likely to become doctors, lawyers and
architects, according to a study by Sussex University.
2. Nelson Mandela used to steal pigs as a child.
3. In the UK there are: 275,000km of gas pipes; 353,000km of sewer pipes; 396,000km of water pipes, and 482,000km of electricity cables.
4. Jacques Chirac spent time in his youth as a forklift driver at a US brewery.
5. More than 3,000 BT internet customers download up to 200 gigabytes each month.
6. There are an average of 4.4 sparrows in each British garden, a study has found. In 1979, there were 10 per garden.
7. No chancellor of the exchequer in more than 150 years has delivered 10 Budgets in a row. Gordon Brown achieved that feat this week.
8. Electricity for Number 10 Downing Street is supplied by a French company.
9. Boris Johnson calls Harriet Harman "Hattie".
10. Under the Estate Agents Act 1979, anyone can
set up in business as one unless they have been banned by the Office of
Fair Trading or are bankrupt.
The Best Computer Game Garments
March 21, 2006
So i was in one of those half awake half asleep moods this morning and was thinking of something good to blog about, aside from my rants, which isnt to everyones taste. Then it came to me, there are some iconic game characters that have been in the public eye for years.
In game development there are the key areas to cover when creating a character, whether they are playable or NPC. These include there personality, appearance, and their apparel. So i started to think about which iconic computer game characters have the best garments, or apparel. So me and atariboy (who helped with this list of sorts) got to work thinking up of computer game characters that had some sort of clothing that set them apart from the rest. My only rule was that it couldnt be a Movie ported over to a console or pc, and no tuxedo’s/smart suits. If that were the case, james bond would be straight in there, as well as Men in Black, and well there not typically known as computer game characters, but for the movies based on them.
And so we start, My first thought was Sonic the hedgehog, well of course he has to be first on the list. His classic red shoes are the source of his superhuman (of super-hedgehog) speed, they just add that certain element of cool. And who couldnt resist the urge of holding down the A-button (sega megadrive), let sonic rev up and let him loose to wreak havoc upon dr Eggman/Robotnic.
Then of course who else could follow sonic than Mario, of course we could include luigi here, due to him having an identical hat (in green). But these two iconic characters have been the mainstay of the gaming world since, well , forever. Mario’s hat like sonic’s shoes, gives him special abilities, different hats do different things, makes him bigger, and my favourite the ‘Flower power’ hat which let him shoot whatever those things were.
Of course we have to consider Sonic and Mario are playful characters, with very similar energetic personalities, fighting for a cause against equally comical badguys. I tried to move away from this aspect, and thought about which characters have something that little special, or cheesy. Of course how cud i forget Solid Snake, one of the hardest men know to gaming, the elitest of elite special forces, ah the days of completing metal gear solid and recieving a Bandana at the end. One thing i do have to say is that, damn he’s got it low on his forehead, almost covers his eyes, but this adds a sense of enigma to him. I thought id put in Max Payne, purely because i love the game, and always remember the long black trenchcoat, and the really, REALLY bad hawian shirt. Diving around corners, the black coat brought on cape-like (batman and such) imagery, and blowing in the wind, or the calm before the storm, before he ‘buz a cap in yo ass’, much like Solid snake and his Bandana.
The realm of computer game has brought on a torrent of FPS, and the possibilities for sci-fi, and fictional worlds and settings has brought many of the best known games of recent times into a new direction, one of fantasy and kickin ass. Although the heroes depicted in these game, most notabley Gordon Freeman (half life), Samus (Metroid), and the Master Chief (Halo), all face many dangers in the escapades, and many hazerdous environments. This is where the full body protective suits comes in, most iconically the HEV suit from half life, but also the master chief with his suit and sheild. With Metriod and Halo these suits add the potnetial of you becoming a protagonist, because your never sure of their identities or facial appearance, you Become them. This is much the same for Hlaf Life, because we know what Gordon Freeman looks like, yet these are only from concept designs. The suits that these heroes adorn therefore have two purposes, to enable you to become a protagonist, and to protect from those nasty electric bolts from sparky’s as i call them (vortigaunts), hazardous waste or pesky plasma burns from those annoying little shits we call Grunts (Halo).
Oh tommy vercetti, what class, what charisma… what a pimp. That Hawaian Shirt just oozes personality. The setting of vice city was immense, such an awesome game design with many parts of the city to explore and unlock, all done with the mafia don that is tommy vercetti, then of course theres the hilarious ‘i completed vice city and all i got was this lousy t-shirt’. The 80’s setting fits perfectly, and reminds me of Goodfellas the film, the shirt just says, im a gangster and i look cool. Much the same can be said for good old Duke Nukem, of which im pointing out his sunglasses. Maybe behind those eyes is a fragile character, or maybe is an ode to ray charles, but those sunglasses are what make Duke, Duke! And what punchlines he came up with “its time to kick ass and chew bubblegum…damn im all outa gum”, and my personal favourite…”Lara…is that you”. Which leads me onto the only recognisable female computer game charater that i can think of, ruling out samus from metroid (becuase none of us were expecting samus to be a girl). What can i say about Lara, apart from, blasphemy has been placed against her with those god awful film adaptations. Is it the long hair, is it the Boobs (well mostly the boobs) but we all know her for the blue top and skin tight shorts….DAMN!!
Never in a million years would i have thought of including Link (zelda), parrappa the rapper and Raziel (soulreaver) together in a sentence. Having Never played any of these games properly i cant say much about them (although i dabbled with parrappa), i can say this, Link from Zelda has a very recognisable emsemble of clothing, like Lara Croft, the green tunic thing (of whatever it is) and the pointed hat have been a mainstay in the gaming industry for years, and still manages to surprise us with every incarnation of Zelda. Parrappa the rapper, well he’s got a Beanie, what else can i say. And Raziel, with that scarf/cloak/thing …urgh whatever, adds an enigmatic air to his character.
Ok so i lead onto Beat-em-ups. Im not a huge fan of them, but Tekken 4 i really enjoyed, If i knew more about the whole genre im sure i could do a whole blog about the different characters and their apparel, but the ones that come to mind are Jin (Tekken) and Raizen (i think thats his name - MortalKombat). Jins gloves are his ‘thing’ and you dont wana mess with him, esp when he turns evil, although this is mostly towards Heihachi, that miserable old fiend, grr i shak my first at him. Lastly i come to Raizen, i immediately thought of him from Mortal Komat from when he flings his hat and severs what ever unlucky soul crossed his path. Im also reminded of the recently banned advert that appeard online somewhere of the new game, where ‘Mr lee’ i think, resembles, bellows ‘FIGHT’, and ‘FINISH HIM’ from across the boardroom table, very funny.
(edit) - I almost forgot, how could i, shame on me, Sam fisher from Splinter cell, a very impressive series of games, although if you close your eyes after a heavy session of playing splinter cell, all you can see are those 3 damn green lights. The infra-red goggles are a very useful gadget, and is a distinctive element in the game.
Notable Mention:
My notable mention for this blog has to Alan Wake, which from all accounts is basically the next max payne (same developers) but they lost the rights for another max payne, to be honest i couldnt see where they would go from max payne 2. Anyway Alan wake looks very impressive from what ive seen and heard, and ive allready seen posts about his scarf, although it doesnt really share similarities with Raziel’s scarf thing, it does look good, and damn wherever he is, it must be cold!
Anyway those are all the Game characters i could think of, please comment and add your favourites that i have probably missed out.
