Tell the Dinosaurs...

Virtual Jack!

2011-03-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

This is the very first thing I've ever done with Flash and I taught myself how to do it, so yeah, it looks a little screwy.
But here is my Virtual/Pocket Jack Armstrong Soundboard.
Jack is one of the hosts of a regional California AM morning talk show that I like to listen to called Armstrong and Getty.
Gonna make one for Joe eventually, he also says wacky stuff.
It's a realy good show if you like talk radio, so check it out!
Enjoy!

CONAN

2011-02-24T13:48:00.000-08:00

I've always been a big fan of the original Robert E. Howard/L.Sprague De Camp/Lin Carter CONAN books.
I've had books 2-12 for years and could never find the first one, titled simply, CONAN. Well, I found it today for $3.60 at a used bookstore and I'm pretty excited to read it finally. I was so happy after I read the introduction, that I felt I should post some of it.
Here Robert E. Howard describes where CONAN came from :)

"While I don't go so far as to believe that stories are inspired by actually existing spirits or powers (though I am rather opposed to flatly denying anything) I have sometimes wondered if it were possible that unrecognized forces of the past or present - or even the future - work through the thought and actions of living men. This occurred to me when I was writing the first stories of the Conan series especially. I know that for months I had been absolutely barren of ideas, completely unable to work up anything sellable. Then the man Conan seemed suddenly to grow up in my mind without much labor on my part and immediately a stream of stories flowed off my pen - or rather off my type-writer - almost without effort on my part.

I did not seem to be creating, but rather relating events that had occurred. Episode crowded on episode so fast that I could scarcely keep up with them. For weeks I did nothing but write of the adventures of Conan. The character took complete possession of my mind and crowded out everything else in the way of story-writing. When I deliberately tried to write something else, I couldn't do it. I do not attempt to explain this by esoteric or occult means, but the facts remain. I still write of Conan more powerfully and with more understanding than any of my other characters.

But the time will probably come when I suddenly find myself unable to write convincingly of him at all. This has happened in the past with nearly all my rather numerous characters; suddenly I find myself out of contact with the conception, as if the man himself had been standing at my shoulder directing my efforts, and had suddenly turned and gone away, leaving me to search for another character."

"It may sound fantastic to link the term realism with Conan; but as a matter of fact - his supernatural adventures aside - he is the most realistic character I have ever evolved. He is simply a combination of a number of men I have known, and I think that's why he seemed to step full-grown into my consciousness when I wrote the first yarn of the series. Some mechanism in my sub-consciousness took the dominant characteristics of various prize-fighters, gunmen, bootleggers, oil field bullies, gamblers, and honest workmen I had come in contact with, and combining them all, produced the amalgamation I call Conan the Cimmerian."

I can fully believe that Howard was somehow Channeling CONAN, as Robert E. Howard was somewhat of a maniac himself.

Everyone remembers the CONAN movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and while they are pretty much the awesomest movies ever....

The books are even more epic if that's even possible.
I used to read them while listening to the soundtrack to CONAN the Destroyer for added effect.

If you enjoy fantasy books at all, you should definitely consider reading the first CONAN stories. CONAN is the ultimate tough guy, drinking, gambling, whoring, taking over pirate ships, climbing walls smooth as glass, and cleaving people in two is just everyday life for him.

Here's a list of the original books. (In order)

Conan *
Conan of Cimmeria *
Conan the Freebooter *
Conan the Adventurer *
Conan the Buccaneer
Conan the Warrior *
Conan the Usurper
Conan the Conqueror
Conan the Avenger*
Conan of Aquilonia
Conan of the Isles.

*In the chronological order section of the book I got today, these titles had a checkmark next to them in pencil :)

I'd stay away from anything not on this list at first, as these first books are all an actual chronological history of CONAN starting with him as a young lad and ending with him having conquered all of Hyboria and ruling over it as King, and an old man.
Any other books are likely to be "tales" of CONAN, and not canon.

You'll know the original's when you see them, as they all have amazing Frank Frazetta cover art.
The first one has a picture of CONAN fighting what appears to be some kind of ape on the cover hahaha.

O'Reilly Contest

2011-02-22T12:41:00.000-08:00

You don't need to read this. I'm just posting this here to enter the O'Reilly Media New Year Contest. (it ends today)

Here is my O'Reilly Wishlist :)

total $490

Inside Cyber Warfare $40
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596802158/

Hacking: The next Generation $40
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596154578/

Security Monitoring $45
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596518165/

HTML & CSS: The Good Parts $35
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596157609/

CSS Cookbook, Third Edition $50
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596155933/

SEO Warrior $45
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596801328/index.html

Mind Performance Hacks $25
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101534/

Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript $30
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596805784/

Programming C# 4.0 $55
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596159832/

97 Things Every Programmer Should Know $30
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596809485/

Learning Python, Fourth Edition $55
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596158064/

Learning Perl, Fifth Edition $40
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596520106/

Paul is Dead and other Mysteries

2011-02-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

This is something I wrote in 2006 pretty much as a joke. I'm reposting it here because no one will ever ever ever see it on myspace where it was originally posted and I thought it was funny enough to be exhumed.

I'm sorry that I doubted you I was so unfair...

In the song "Come Together" you hear Billy say,
"Got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see".
Maybe this means Billy looks so much like Paul
that it's hard to notice the difference.

In Paul's latest album, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard".
There is a whole song, called "Friends to Go", that is about Paul's death!
It begins (and this is just the first four lines):
"I've been waiting on the other side, /
For your friends to leave so I don't have to hide,/
I'd prefer they didn't know,/
So I've been waiting on the other side, for your friends to go."
I think Paul was trying to make it sound like
he's Billy (down here) talking to Paul (in heaven),
telling him he wants his friends (everyone who knew Paul)
to die first so he can come out and be Billy again.

The first Beatles single released
after the Sergent Pepper album was Baby Your a Rich Man.
It began with a rambling noise from an English horn.
What instrument does Paul hold on the Sergent Pepper cover?
An English horn!
The lyrics also go:
"How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people,
now that you know who you are?"
An allusion to a fake?

On the cover of the Sgt. Peppers album,
"Beatles" is spelled out in flowers on (what looks like) a grave.
"The Beatles" are dead because Paul is dead.
There can no longer be "The Beatles" without Paul,
which could explain the change of name to just "Beatles".

"Come together right now over me"
Paul is calling the other beatles to come together over him.
As he is buried they would stand over him if they went to visit him.

In the song Lady Madona Paul sings:
"the wednesday morning papers didnt come".
They say on the day Paul died the newspaper read PAUL IS DEAD,
but the Beatles stopped it from going out, which would mean that
the wednesday morning papers really DIDN'T come.......

On Abbey Road, the song "You Never Give Me Your Money",
there's a section that begins "One Sweet dream..."
That whole section could mean:
One sweet dream (William Campbell's dream of being a Beatle)
Pick up the bags, get in the limousine
(The others telling him to get his stuff and come with them)
Soon we'll be away from here, step on the gas and wipe that tear away
(They have their replacement, now they can leave, but they have to
"Wipe that tear away" to cover it up, so nothing can look wrong)
One sweet dream came true today (Billy's dream just came true)
(Then it leads into) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, All good children
(to represent Paul?) go to heaven.

In the late '60's, Paul McCartney won a paternity suit
concerning a baby born in the early '60's.
Well.....the truth could be that it WAS Paul's baby,
but because the blood tests were taken after Paul's death
it was already Billy Campbell!

The evidence in the song "The fool on the hill", are immense,
almost everyline screams "Paul is dead".
It is as if the group wants the fact to be known to all.
Analysing the first verse we find:
"Day after day, alone on the hill, (clearly Paul is buried on a hill)
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
(a dead-man is quite still)
But nobody wants to know him,
(the others don't want to follow him just yet)
They can see that he's just a fool (the accident was Paul's fault)
And he never gives an answer..." (due to his deadness)
Well on his way, his head in a cloud, (Paul is on his way to heaven).
The man of a thousand voices, talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him, or the sound he appears to make
(Even though he screams nobody can hear him
because he's on another level)
And he never seems to notice...And nobody seems to like him,
(probably a hint of the bands attitude to Paul's replacement)
They can tell what he wants to do (info about the puppet the new Paul is)
And he never shows his feelings,
(the new Paul, can't tell the truth, but have to stick with acting Paul).
How clear can it be without putting an death notice in a newspaper?

The lyrics to 'Carry That Weight' could be the 'new Paul' admitting to
the burden of having to live the rest of his life as the 'old Paul'.

In the song, Blackbird, Billy Campbell, aka Paul McCartney,
sings a mournful phrase about a blackbird
(a well know symbol of death - see Edgar Allen Poe)
learning to sing, and learning to "fly" in the "dead of night."
This obviously is a confessional song where Billy Campbell
is attempting to convey the emotions he probably felt
when he was trying to emulate Paul's voice, demeanor,
personality, and humanity in the midst of the tragedy of
Pauls' deeply distressing death.
Billy Campbell is in fact the "Blackbird,"
who must "Take these broken wings and learn to fly."
Furthermore, Bill Campbell also reveals his contradictory
emotions about being "chosen," because even if it was to some,
a dream come true to be one of the Beatles,
he is not sure if this was such a great way of becoming one -
he sings, "All your life, You were only waiting for this moment to arise."
It's almost as if he is trying to console himself and his conscience
about assuming this role and in effect, committing the greatest sin
by disrespecting Paul's memory and literally pulling the wool
over the eyes of Paul's hundreds of millions of fans around the world.

(All of the above was taken was taken from http://www.paul-is-dead.com)

BEATLE MAGIC:
The magic of the Beatles is you can take their songs and interperet them to mean almost anything.
Just look at Charlie Manson.

Anyways, If you read this far you must like the Beatles!
One beatles theory I heard once and haven't been able to find any info on is the Magical Mystery tour phone number theory.
Supposedly If you take the cover for the Magical Mystery Tour album and turn it upside down, the word "BEATLES" spells out a phone number
looks to me like 537-1439.

You had to call a Liverpool area code first.
It was said the first 28 callers dissappeared* and were never heard from again!
They went on the Magical Mystery Tour!

Some clues..
Roll up!
Roll up for the Mystery tour!
(Telephones of the time were rotary..If you don't know what that means..uh, sorry I don't think I can describe it. lol)

The story goes..You're gonna laugh at this one...
The Beatles were contacted by aliens, as the best the human race had to offer as the aliens were music lovers, and invited onto their ship to take a tour of the stars...They were told they could bring some people with them.
They hid the clues..and the people who called were taken with the Beatles.
Simmulacrums* were left in place of the real beatles.

Using advanced alien technology, the Beatles were cloned, and replaced.
The dopplegangers were cloned so perfectly that they had all the memories of the originals, in effect they didn't have any idea they were clones.

The guy I heard this from went on and on about how the Beatles music after this was somehow sent to them from the real beatles to inspire human evolution or something.

I guess it didn't work.

Anyways, here is the picture..

Timing and Precognition in Dreams?

2010-09-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

I want to know if anyone else has ever experienced this. This has been happening to me for my whole life.
This is last night's example. In my dream I'm riding in a car with two friends, Friend A and Friend B. Friend A is driving, Friend B is riding in the middle, and I have the window seat. We went and got a bottle of whiskey earlier and we are driving home to drink it. Friend B says "Hey we should get some Coke for chasers, let's go to the store first." We pull into the grocery store parking lot...roll up to our parking space. Friend A and Friend B are like dating or whatever so Friend A turns and gives Friend B a kiss on the cheek.

Friend A opens his car door to get out, but he leaves the keys in the ignition...I hear the beep beep beep of the key in the ignition alert. I hear it right when he opens his car door. Not before, not a little bit after, but right when it should happen.

This beeping noise is actually my cell phones alarm going off in the physical world.
It's not like it's been going off and it just started to register in my dream either, I hear the very first beep at the exact time when it would make sense in my dream. I know this because it beeps with kind of a rhythm, beep, beep, beep, (pause), beep, beep, beep, and I count the beeps in my head when I hear it.

So what exactly is going on there? How is there this elaborate setup in my dream that culminates in a sound being incorporated into my dream at the exact time that it would make sense?

I've heard my alarm be other things too, off the top of my head I can remember it being an air raid siren that started going off after bombs started hitting our base.
There are others, but I can't think of any examples right now.

Does this happen to anyone else?

Coppers Are Out in Force (Today)!

2010-09-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

So I just got done with my first week of school. I live right down the street from the college. It's a quiet neighborhood usually, but when school starts there is a lot of traffic and a lot of kids....and with a lot of kids comes cops. Lot's of them.
It's a short walk to the campus from home, I usually leave early and hang out outside for a bit. Everyday this week before and after class I must have seen at least 10 cops within as many minutes.
Cops in cruisers pulling people over, cops in cruisers giving mass parking tickets, cops on fancy new motorcycles hiding behind parked cars with radar guns, cops on motorcycles cruising through the big parking lots to give out tickets.
Why are there so many cops crowded around an area populated by nothing other than students? It's not like there is some big pickpocket ring operating in the area. If you go the Airport district, where ACTUAL crime takes place everyday, you'll hardly see any police. People get shot to death almost every week in airport and there are armed robberies there about once every 1-2 months. The airport district is overrun with drugs and gangs. But the police for some reason feel a need to have some overpowering presence at a place of learning.

It just proves my point that the police are nothing more than opportunistic predators, preying on the public.
I would have took a bunch of pictures but I was more worried about getting to class, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Insert Coins.

2010-07-05T03:20:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone who reads this blog know that I have created a new blog. I originally made the new blog to document the building of my first MAME cabinet, but like all the great ideas I have it's suffering from a lack of funding.
I realize now that INSERT COINS is a pretty generic name for a blog about video games, but I guess I'm just not that imaginative. I'd like everyone who follows this blog to go ahead and subscribe to insert coins,
if you want, it's basically the same stuff, but I really like the look of the blog better, I worked hard on the layout and it just seems more fun to me.
And when I finally start building my MAME cabinet you'll get to hear all about it.
So hopefully I'll see you there.
http://insertc0ins.blogspot.com/

There's No Sign of the Mourning Coming...

2010-05-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

So Dio has turned himself Invisible, but obviously his glorious metal will live for eternity.
The things I remember most about Dio from back in the days when I was a kid (other than the records themselves) was that if you turned the band logo upside down, it spells the word "devil". That and he was always doing the metal fingers that he popularized back then.

From Wikipedia:
"Ronnie James Dio is known for popularizing the sign of the horns in heavy metal.^[3]^[4] His Italian grandmother used it to ward off the evil eye (which is known as malocchio, Dio's term for the gesture). Dio began using the sign soon after joining (1979) the metal band Black Sabbath. The previous singer in the band, Ozzy Osbourne, was rather well known at using the "peace" sign at concerts, raising the index and middle finger in the form of a V. Dio, in an attempt to connect with the fans, wanted to similarly use a hand gesture. However, not wanting to copy Osbourne, he chose to use the sign his grandmother always made.^[5]"

What's that you say Dio? It was just something your superstitious old granny did to ward off the Evil Eye?
Then why did we spend fifteen minutes talking about how it's really the "Horned Hand" and a way to get kids to accept the power of Satan during Spiritual Emphasis Week at christian school?

Oh here's the reasoning that they gave. (I swear this is true)

They showed two slides.
A pic of Dio

Pic number two...
^{Richard Ramirez, aka The Nightstalker}

^{Notice the similarities in style and appearance. Forgetting the fact that Ramirez was an AC/DC fan. (Although the teacher didn't like AC/DC either, claiming it meant "Anti-Christ/Death to all Christians)}

Here is Dio's band logo.

Here is the logo upside down.

I can actually see where it says devil and I think it's kinda a cool effect.

So, in conclusion, some half-assed connection between Ronnie James Dio and the Nightstalker, along with the deciphering of the clever piece of artwork that is their logo is irrefutable proof that they worship Satan, with candles and blood chalices and everything.

It's NOT just a bunch of dudes shredding guitars and trying to look scary to sell records.

The other thing I remember about DIO was their truly epic music videos.
Holy Diver- This video is a great adventure.

Rainbow in the Dark - I'm not sure what's going on in this video, but Ronnie has a kick-ass outfit on in it, I especially like his white furry boots!

The Last in Line - An awesome arcade, and Dio rocks yet another great outfit.

With Style like that you can't really fuck with Dio. And the guy was also in Black Sabbath after all. Kinda legendary.

RxIxPx 07/10/1942 - 05/16/2010

Some Software I'm Liking.

2010-04-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share some of the programs I've just got a hold of that I actually like.
DreamJournal 2.5 is a fun way to write down your dreams, I've been writing mine down for years, first in a notebook, then in notepad. I'm going to start using this, it looks really neat they way you can organize everything. Here's a screenshot then.

Keeping a record of your dreams really helps with dream recall and it makes for a weird life, I can go through my olde logs and just have a whole lifetime of memories of weird crap that never really happened. I recommend it.
It also has some other very strange effects over time that I'm not going to get into here, but trust me, crazy shit will start happening to you if you do this long enough.

Dropbox adds a folder to yer comp that reminds me of the Resident Evil Item Box. I like it.

Marvel Vs Capcom 3

2010-04-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

Well this completely surprised me..... all I can say is it's about freaking time!
(and) Even though I know it won't be I hope it's still hand-drawn/2D!!

I bet it'll be pretty epic anyways!
There are a TON of articles about this already if you want more info!
That Ryu at the end looks sooo good! I have high hopes for the future!

CAPCOM Ringtones

2010-04-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

Ahoy! So I went to Fresno a few months ago to stay the weekend with some friends and party. One morning I got a chance to play Marvel Vs. Capcom on Franko's PS3. I always choose the Morrigan and Megaman. After awhile I started just throwing Tornado Hold Busters with Megaman because it sounded so ridiculous on his super loud stereo. I decided I wanted my phone to have Megaman yelling when ever I get an SMS. Surely It won't be too hard to find a .wav of it on the internet.....well I really had some problems with that. All I could find (besides the standard ryu and ken sounds taken from the SNES) were background music files for Megaman.
So I guess I'll have to make my own.

I used Audacity and Mame32 to make my own silly ringtones.
I kinda made alot and I'm going to share them with you to do whatever you want with them.
They are all .wav files recorded at 44100 Hz and small in size.
Enjoy!
(edit I'll probably add more later from different capcom games 4/21/10)

MEGAMAN
tornado hold
leaf shield
taunt
lucky!
something in japanese
something in japanese again
ikuzo
iko
charge shot
bye bye!
arigato

MORRIGAN
shadow blade
soul fist
morrigan laughing
morrigan laughing again
morrigan something in japanese1
something in japanese2
something in japanese3
something in japanese4
something in japanese5
ikuiyo

CAPTAIN AMERICA
charging star
final justice
freedom prevails
good work soldier
shield slash
stars and stripes
thumbs up soldier
victory!

CAPTAIN COMMANDO
tannji commando!
yelling in japanese

CHUN LI
gomen ne taunt
kikkosho!
kikkoken
kensho kick
chun li kick

CYCLOPS
optic blast

JUGGERNAUT
headcrush

HULK
gamma crush
gamma charge

IRON MAN/WAR MACHINE
geronimo!
proton cannon!
repulser blast
shoulder cannon
smartbomb
here's my sunday best!
war destroyer
yahoo

MAGNETO
hypergrab
magnetic tempest
you shall be the first to fall
the m disruptor

RYU
tatsumaki sempuukyaku
shoryuken
shinkuu hadoken
hadoken

KEN
shoryureppa!
shinryuken!

ONSLAUGHT
behold my mighty hand
i reject your presents! (lol)
fear my fury!
know my name
know my pain and anger
no one is safe
taste my wrath

PSYLOCKE
psi thrust

VENOM
we are venom
we want to eat your brains

WOLVERINE
berzerker barrage
drill claw
let's go bub
rookie
tornado claw

STORM
typhoon

ZANGIEF
atomic buster

Some other sound effects
se1
strider sword
grab
camera
se017E

Worst Video I've Ever Seen.

2010-04-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

This is so completely stupid I just couldn't pass up sharing with you.
After I found this video, I realized good ol' cracked.com already wrote an article about it. I can't really compete with their level of funny, but the damn video is funny enough that you don't really need commentary.

There are a ton of juggalo kids in this town and they all seem to have this level of education. Don't do drugs kids.

When will they shoot?

2010-03-28T23:10:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm fully convinced that the CIA killed Eazy-E. I thought that the day the Eazy died, and my opinion hasn't changed. Eazy died after ten days in the hospital. I'm of the opinion that that Eazy was murdered after being admitted to the hospital by CIA agents, but even if he had terminal AIDS before going into the hospital he was still killed by the CIA if you know what I mean....
Eazy died in 1995 on March 25th and I miss him.
I was a big fan.
I was also a big fan of the Ice Cube. The Predator came out in 1992 and in my opinion is Ice Cube's best album. The album is overshadowed by "It Was a Good Day" which is a great great song, but no one seems to remember the first song on the record.
The first song on the record is "When Will They Shoot?"
This song is so fucking dead on, I think it might be the only reason Ice Cube lived through the '90's If they woulda killed him after he said all this shit, shit woulda been on.
Way to go Ice, I'm stompin' walking in my big black boots too.

Boom.

Teasn' Pleasn'

2010-03-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

Hey hey, so... first off....my "brand new" netbook that I got around Christmas time is totaly dying on me and I blame the "not authentic" windows 7 that came with it. I'm going to go get an external optical drive and install some other OS on it, but that's the reason I haven't posted my very exciting blog about C64 emulation and the story of my quest for Mega Man ringtones. But it's coming. In the meantime....

I went to a christian school in 8th and 9th grade after being kicked out of public schools for fighting...it must have cost my parents a fortune, I was a bad kid and I feel pretty bad now about how much stress I caused them and still do. At this christian school, we weren't allowed to have long hair or wear metal tshirts. We also had this thing every year called "spiritual emphasis week". It was a week long event where the whole school would not go to class, but would gather in the auditorium or the chapel and listen to some hotshot out of town guest speakers about....not jesus and god and such, but the horrors of heavy metal, role-playing games and satanism.

Now for me, being one of only two kids at the school who liked heavy metal and role-playing games (the rest were pretty much jocks) this was a complete laugh fest for both the years I attended.
Basically your standard stuff, Judas Priest and Painkiller will make you kill your parents, sex before marriage will send you to hell, Dungeons and Dragons will make you kill your parents AND send you to hell.
The guy would show all these slides...one of them was some tagging by some punk kids in what looked like Santa Cruz, it was a wall with typical punk writing on it, eat the rich uk subs, and s(A)nta (cruz)
...the guy was like...what do you think that santa means?! Santa Claus!? No!! It's Satan!!!!
This went on for an entire week.
He read some alternative lyrics to Def Leppard Pour Some Sugar on Me... ( a hit song at the time)
it was like : Put some sugar in me, in the name of drugs, cmon line me up, blah blah blah.
We also covered: The Nightstalker, Subliminal sex messages in magazine ads, and satans face in a canadian bank note...writing about it now, it seems even crazier than it did back then. I wonder what spiritual emphasis week looks like now.

Anyways. One day we went to the gym for an "Expose" about heavy metal music. The guy was showing slides of all these bands and talking about them, Ozzy biting the heads off bats, etc. At one point he showed a slide of a newer band that was completely obscure and not even that great or influential. "Anyone know who this is?" he asked.
Me being the know it all kid that I was yelled out from way up in the bleachers of the darkened gym...."Dangerous Toys!!!!"
Who said that!!! They didn't have a spotlight to shine on me so the speaker never found out, but everyone around me knew.

That's enough rambling for now.
Here's the one "hit" Dangerous Toys had:

The opening guitar riff kinda rocks.
There was a time when pretty much everyone I knew outside of school dressed like this too. Yup, metal is kinda dead.

(edit) I almost forgot the best part of that story. I was really into fantasy books in high school and i would read in every class and every lunch. The time I was there I read for the first time the Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends series, and all the Drizzt Do'Urden books Along with other Forgotten Realms books that came out at the time. ALL the kids would say things like, "Hey you still reading those devil books?". Someone even wrote "keep reading those devil books" in my yearbook. If you've read those books you know what total classics they are...
Man the kids at that school were lame.

The Champion of Justice!

2010-02-18T19:14:00.000-08:00

I used to have a mini obsession with a show called Moonlight Densetsu or Sailor Moon.

When I first saw it, it was like the third episode into its first run on US television.

I remember getting up at 5:30 am every morning to watch this ridiculous show, but as the (2) seasons they showed went on and on I liked it more and more. It really is funny and really twisted.

So I never got to see the final season, but I found a site that has all of them that you can stream. I watched the final episode...and wtf.....that made no damn sense at all.

So I've been trying to watch one episode a day until I see all two hundred of them.

I'm up to like episode 6 I think. I forgot how damn funny it is.

Seriously, the first season has a lot of funny moments that I'm only just now remembering...

Like in episode two "Talk Radio"

"Good evening all you night owls, it's the midnight hour and you know what that means...time for the Love Line" - Jedite

I didn't realize that Jedite was a trained talk radio host. It shows him behind the mic with his goofy uniform on and he's giving away The Romantic Prize.

fig 1. Jedite

fig 2. The Romantic Prize

Here's the site to watch the episodes.
(As with everything associated with Sailormoon on the internet, there seems to be something shady going on with this site, so just be warned.)

http://www.watchsailormoon.com

Most of the episodes are just embedded videos from veoh.com anyways, so you'd probably be better off going there.

Here's the final episode if you want a spoiler.

View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Also....I was able to pick up Samurai Showdown V on MAME and it's pretty interesting. I don't have my controller here so I can't really play it properly though. All the characters from SS IV are back plus some new ones. Here's some screenshots I took.

My Arcade...

2010-02-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

I always wanted to own and operate an arcade. I was going to write some long post about what games I wanted but I got distracted when I found out that Samurai Showdown V AND Samurai Showdown VI were released when I wasn't looking and they both still have completely hand drawn art and are still in 2D...YAY! I'm so glad they didn't go all 3D on us! These games being released is something I would have known about probably if there was actually an arcade in this town. Id' love to go drop 20$ on them right now :(
Anyways, my arcade would look something like this...

NO TICKET MACHINES. No stupid prizes, no whack a mole, no coin dropper garbage. None of that.

It would be VERY dark inside, it would have windows, but they would be so tinted that they might as well have black paint on them. Pretty much the only light would be from the glowing screens and marquees.

Every game would be checked daily to make sure it's working completely. Joysticks and buttons etc.

It would be very very loud. All games would have the attract sounds ON and set to full volume, so it's just completely maddening :)

ALL games would cost 25 cents. No more and no less. I haven't decided on whether or not I want tokens.

Kids showing up and hanging out all day during times when they should obviously be at school will never get narc'd on or turned away :)

The games would never be shut off, so that high scores would stay up as long as possible.
I'd like it to stay open really late, maybe till 3 in the morning.

It would have a ridiculous amount of fighting games and we would have weekly contests for cash prizes.
( a different game each week)
All them fighting games would be cranked up to the highest difficulty level :)

Lots of classic games, a few pinball games and no gun games.

I think I could build an arcade that would be really popular, someone should give me a bunch of money to do it.

Anyways... I need to go find an arcade in the bay area or something that has SS V or VI. So I'm outta here!
(edit) I'm pretty sure part VI hasn't been released in the USA.

Samurai Showdown V

Samurai Showdown VI

Edit: I just found a pretty neat Samurai Showdown forum that has some cool stuff, including how to play emulated SS online against other ppl! I might work on that soon! Ippon! Sobu! Victoly!
http://samuraishodown.freeforums.org/

Welcome to the 90's

2010-02-09T23:35:00.000-08:00

I grew up in a small-ish town in California. My teenage years were spent in the 1990's.
I'm kinda longing for the return of those times, we didn't really have any internet, just bbs's, and I didn't use those too much. I mainly used my Commodore 64 to play SSI AD&D games, but more on that later. What I remember most about the 1990's in California was great music, and skateboarding..
I'm going to write about skateboarding later, this post is about the music of the 90's that helped shape my music tastes.. I've been trying to listen to alot of the stuff I used to listen to back then lately for some reason,
so here's my top 10 listened to records of the 90's (in no order). And yes these are Amazon affiliate links, for everyone that doesn't know how to use Soulseek.

1.Danzig II - Lucifuge (1990)
This was the first time I ever heard Danzig, even before I had heard the Misfits. I remember reading the credits for Metallica - Garage Days (Green Hell ) and I found this cassette tape on a late night walk to the wherehouse with enough money to buy one tape.When I took it home from that long walk, no one was home so I listened to it in the living room at full volume...wow, it was pretty scary sounding, I loved it.
Listening to it now, I really noticed that it's a very goth sounding album, alot different than the first record. Her Blacks Wings has a super goth sound...woahhh under her black wings....really melancholy for a "metal band".
Snakes of Christ was a song I didn't want my parents to hear...
777 I still have no idea what he's talking about in this song lol.
Devil's plaything....I mean c'mon, that's one of the best Danzig songs ever. Timeless.
Good record. At one point I had an awesome 10' by 5' Danzig poster of Glenn on a cross with a goats head, when I moved out it mysteriously disappeared, I think my parents thought it was the source of my troubles and burned it or something

2. Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)
...and I can tell you honey you can make my money tonight!
Ok So this came out in 1987, I don't know what year I first knew about it, but I know that the first time I ever heard of Guns N' Roses was seeing a video for Welcome to the Jungle on MTV. I must have been a little younger, because I remember pleading with my stepfather to get me the album, I even made him watch the Welcome to the Jungle video...I remember him just laughing and saying I don't think your mother would approve. Obviously with over 33 million copies sold, I was right and they were wrong.
Still one of my favorite records and they really were sleazy.....
Luckily I had older friends who lived down the street and acquired a dubbed cassette.
It actually seems fitting that I had to learn about GNR on the streets.
I still want to buy a copy of this record for my stepdad to show him what he wouldn't buy for me...I can't believe someone could go through their whole life without hearing Appetite for Destruction.

Suicidal Tendencies - Lights, Camera, Revolution (1990)
Lights Camera Revolution was the first Suicidal Tendencies album I ever got. They are still one of my favorite bands. The first time I heard ST was on a channel called the The Jukebox Network.
They always played alot of Two Live Crew and Slayer.
So I was at this girls house on Halloween and the video for You Can't bring me Down was on..everyone was laughing at it, I was the only one sitting there staring with my jaw open and ears a'blazing...I went and bought the tape the next day. God that's a hard album. Been listening to it alot lately.

Slayer - Reign in Blood (1986)
Auschwitz! The meaning of pain! The way that I want you to die!
and then there was Slayer......I didn't get into them until a little later. Reign in Blood was the first tape I ever had that I felt that I ABSOLUTELY had to make sure my parents never found. I knew if they ever heard Altar of Sacrifice I would be in for some heavy psychotherapy, as back in them days anyone who listened to heavy metal AND played Dungeons and Dragons was obviously a satan worshiper who was just itching to kill someone (especially their parents) because the music told them to. I didn't know what a magical thing I had in my possession until many years later, at the time it was just great metal....who woulda thought that Slayer would still be making great records 25 years later that still sound just as good.
I must have listened to this record 10 times a day in the 90's. I still listen to it about once every two weeks or so. This was also a tape I got from my older friends down the street :) Necrophobic!Can't control the paranoia! Scared to die!

Skid Row - Skid Row (1989)
I was really into Skid Row when they came out, we all were. I didn't know quite what they were talking about on this record until a few years later, but man I loved their first record! I still do. To me it's kinda the pinnacle of hair/sleaze metal. When I was a kid I bought a pin-up magazine with nothing but Skid Row pictures in it and I had them all over my wall. I wish I still had even one of those pictures, I'd still throw one up in the band room. I still rock this album regularly, much to the annoyance of everyone around. It reminds me of really slutty metal chicks from back in the day...ahhh good times! 18 and life holmes. By this point I had given up on asking my parents to buy me music and just relied on my buddies. If I couldn't get appetite for destruction, there was no way i was going to get skid row's first record...here comes the generation gap.

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
This is the one band that I listened to religiously since I found them and still do that I could not understand for the life of me that my parents were not completely blown away by like I was...I made my stepdad listen to this album with me...he said it was good, but to me, Iron Maiden were the holy messengers of God. Seventh Son was the first tape I had from them. Seriously Iron Maiden was and is my favorite band of all time. I must have listened to seventh son 10,000 times in the 1990's. That band was the soundtrack for my teenage years...love it.
I finally got to see them in 2009, I almost broke down. Up the Irons.
I also remember listening to Fear of the Dark on a camping trip with just my mom...I always think of that trip when i hear that record now.
I think Iron Maiden is nerd heavy metal, I learned all of my history lessons from Steve Harris's lyrics. This band was the neighborhood favorite. Pretty much everyone I knew listened to Iron Maiden.
You're souls gonna burn! In a lake of fi-ire!

Megadeth - Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? (1986)
Wow did this record really come out in 1986?
This band was another most played band on my street.
There's not a whole lot to say about this record except its the first Megadeth record I ever had, and I was pretty influenced by it. The first heavy metal shirt I ever got was the peace sells shirt with Vic Rattlehead crushing the dove and jets shooting him....
Such a great record, Marty Friedman is a ridiculously good guitar player, I'd sell my soul to be able to play like that! We used to listen to alot of Megadeth.
I met Dave Mustaine not too long ago, I told him I grew up listening to Megadeth and he just chuckled.
Don't summon the devil! Don't call in the priests!

Metallica - ...And Justice for All (1988)
To me this was the last good Metallica album. Also the first Metallica record I had, thanks again to MTV and the video for "one", which seemed to be on every single day multiple times. This to me is still a blistering metal album and I still rock it pretty regularly. Metallica was KING when this came out....untouchable. Oh how the mighty have fallen... I mean EVERYONE loved Metallica.
I remember coming home form school everyday and playing Legacy of the Ancients on my C64 listening to Ride the Lightning over and over. I really miss the real Metallica, before they changed their logo and removed the sharp metal edges. Load was a load of crap, their newest album is not bad, but they kinda lost it I think.
I can't believe... I can't believe....the price! You paid.

Faith No More - Angel Dust (1992)

I was already into Faith No More's album: the Real Thing by the time Angel Dust came out in 1992, but this was the record that got the most plays from me. It had a big hit with Midlife Crisis, but my favorite songs were Cafefine, Smaller and Smaller, Everything's Ruined, and Kindergarten. I didn't realize until MUCH later what a fucked up record this is. It's actually really depressing. I don't know how I missed that when I was younger. Great basslines though :)
Now everything's ruined.....

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin (1986)
We used to listen to a lot of Ozzy in the early 1990's but the Ultimate Sin sticks out most for me for some reason. Everyone I talk to thinks that this is Ozzy's cheesiest album album and they are probably right...but I have lots of memories listening to this while I was lost in outer space. I don't know, I really like this record, it reminds me of heavy metal sluts also. I really like this one for some reason.

That's all for now.
Cheers!
*hex*

This is the End of Babylon.

2010-01-14T13:01:00.000-08:00

This blog is here to chronicle the fall of all the old ways of thinking and to share my observations about the new Aeon of Horus. It's also for me to rant about inane stuff that I like or don't like.