Fear Complex

 I replied to the post below a couple of months ago with a comment.  But ain’t no one reads comments, so here it is again: 

I will disagree, of course.

You’re not as bad as Wugga, but you’re leaning in that direction.

Everyone always acts like Metallica have something to prove. Most other bands could release a solid thrash album like DM and you’d have your lips wrapped around its cock faster than an MR2 around a powerpole on a rainy day.

Listen to the album. Enjoy it. Disregard the hyperbole. Ain’t no one cares what the artist thinks. It’s music. And in this case, it’s pretty damn good music. Personally I’m stoked that Metallica finally got their shit together and released a solid original album. What more did we expect of them?

And no, listen again. Better yet, go back and stuff some St Anger into the unside of your head, then sip some more Death Magnetic. The snare in St Anger was awful. The drums in DM aren’t even directly comparable, they’re that much improved.

No, it’s not the best album ever made. It’s not the album of the year. It’s not Metallica’s best album. So what? It seems like if Metallica release anything less than the best possible metal album ever created they get panned for it. If they’d released Formation of Damnation, I guarantee the reception would’ve been identical.

That’s not to take anything away from a resurgent Testament. In fact, it seems churlish to compare them. Two great Bay Area Thrash bands have just released great thrash metal albums. I call that cause for celebration.

why does Jaquie Brown deserve her own television show?

to make up for the lack of insightfulness around these parts as of late (both from GaR and myself) here are some shots from my recent excursion to the Wairakei geothermal power plant. I was sorely disappointed that Tom didn’t have a desk resembling that of Homer Simpson (complete with box of donuts), but that disappointment was greatly tempered by a guided tour around the facility.

Best viewed with the soundtrack from Fallout 2 playing for the right ambience, and no I’m not suggesting any sort of connection!

    

full Flickr album here.

speaking of Fallout, the third game in the series is set for an end of year release. That should more than make up for the lack of any seriously good PC games to come out this year so far. I’d probably rate my anticipation for it higher than Wrath of the Lich King - because let’s be honest, that’ll just be another epic timesink in the grand scheme of things.

oh, and on the way home from Taupo, a milk tanker made my car its bitch. there’s nothing quite like reflexively ducking for cover when a massive rock is headed straight for your face at about 80km/h. Luckily there happened to be a windscreen in the way.

note the careful usage of past tense grammar.

  

At least I didn’t get stranded in Mangakino.

i am currently writing this entry whilst lying in bed, on a PC the size of an average hardcover book that’s balanced precariously in my lap.

yeah, I bought me an Eee PC, techno-geek that I is…

 

..and that’s it next to my hp nc6000 - not exactly a huge laptop to begin with.

the challenges: working out how to fit both XP and ubuntu on the 4GB SSD, followed by a few days of getting used to touch-typing on the miniscule keyboard (the placement of the right Shift key still confounds me slightly) and squinting at the 7″ 800×480 screen. And that was it; all of the expected hardware troubles were almost non-existent, mainly because the Eee is still just a regular mobile PC crammed into a space one-quarter the size of an average laptop.

it was that very same regular-PC look, feel and underpinnings that made the whole process of getting accustomed to the Eee’s compactness nothing more than a mere formality. Pretty brilliant actually - it’s not every day you buy a gadget that lives up to its reputation.

unfortunately, playing Quake on the Eee doesn’t quite have the same “what the fuck” factor as playing Quake on a cellphone. But the fact that gaming on the Eee is entirely plausible for anyone with the patience to sit down and tweak a few things beforehand earns it a few extra brownie points in my book… now if only I could force Diablo II to run at native resolution!

it’s definitely bound to incite some interesting conversation if I decide to fish it out of my jacket pocket at the next gathering I attend.

no doubt I’ll have more BS to wax regarding the Eee once I’ve used it for a bit longer. one thing’s clear though - desktop replacement, it ain’t.

suffice to say, I got caught up in the GPOD-GaRmania from the other night as well. (see previous blog entry by GaR himself, on this very subject)

can’t profess to be an expert at photoshoopery or anything, but for posterity, these were my contributions:

World of GaRcraft (random trivia - this was pulled from an actual screenshot I took of our alts, back in the day when we both used to play WoW)

SkwisGaR (click this one to enlarge it)

SchwarzenegGaR: GaRminator 2

now the last two are just plain creepy…

GaRma GaRmeleon (oh hai, it’s Boy George)

wake up and smell the GaRcass (the expression on his face sure doesn’t help)

and I do recommend checking out the rest of the contributions if you have time to kill. Content may vary.

So I went to Auckland again.

Once again, somewhat bad-ass.

With Brian and Wugga of Geekpulp, again. We went to the EA offices, and played some Rock Band. Which rocks, incidentally. We also played something else. Can’t talk about it.

Then we went to Top Shelf Productions, where Brian was interviewed by a Target guy. I forget his name. He looked a little like Professor Snape. The most noteable part was when we returned to Wugga’s car, only to find that it had been towed.

But then we went to a Microsoft Preview / promotional thing at Red vs Blue, the console gaming lounge on K rd.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I had a run-in at the supermarket. This was Pak n Save Clarence st in teh tr0n.

After the break is the whole sordid affair. I bid you read on.

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So I got an email at work today, about an artist who allegedly starved a dog to death for an “exhibit”.

It was accompanied by some photos of the dog in question, as well as a couple of links to online petitions calling for the man to be hanged before he can do it again.

Email transcript and photos after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

And verily, my half-arsed attempt at getting a vehicle ready for the annual gpforums trackday (may 19th) actually succeeded. only took the pilfering of a whole bunch of parts from my other car, one weekend’s worth of stuffing around, some grazed knuckles, and a lot of cable ties.

behold!
 

FORD LASER TX3-I 1986 (in Black with Grey)

Registration status: Active
Licence expiry date: 2008, August 7th
Date of issue for latest licence: 2008, May 8th
Time of issue for latest licence: 12:42

The WOF expires in 6 months (8th November 2008). Last inspection was successful on 8th May 2008.

info obtained from carfax online vehicle database

nothing quite like getting a car running again after years of neglect - and all without it blowing up, overheating, snapping a belt or leaking fluids everywhere within the first day of the engine spluttering back into life.

One hopes it does absolutely none of those things at trackday either.

started reading The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson the other night, and a few elements of that novel reminded me of a photo I spotted on flickr/wikipedia recently:

…the steampunk pc.

>_< / taken 19 Apr 2008

we all saw it coming, but now it’s finally upon us: the price of 98 octane gasoline has surpassed the $2.00/litre mark. (this was taken on Saturday afternoon, on the way to Hamiltron for the V8s).

and today I heard from a colleague that fuel prices have risen a further 3c/litre. Couple that with the proposed 5c/litre Auckland fuel tax rearing its ugly head again (during election year, no less!) and it looks like we’re in for some interesting times ahead…

v8 photos: all action shots are now on the flickr (19th | 20th). was gonna sort through and upload the more mundane pit lane photos tonight, but I’ve had a shit day at work and lost all motivation to do anything except mope around for the rest of the night.

maybe tomorrow.