Streetlight Manifesto - FUCK YEAH

I don't know what's gotten into me recently, must be all the coffee.

Recently, after watching the latest Hey Ash, I decided to see what it's writer/co-star has to say for himself, being all curious at the wrong time. Here's what I found - we're both very much on the same page about quite a lot of the big mechanical, social and cultural quandaries of gaming. Quad Erat Demonstratum : Games as Art. Say hello to Reverend Anthony Burch. His rants are insightful, and to be honest I can't disagree with him, even with my lack of philosophical sophistication, it still harmonised well with my sensibilities about both morality, and game design.

http://www.destructoid.com/rev-rant-fun-isn-t-enough-142052.phtml
There's a link, I recommend combing through previous rants as well, they're good for the grey matter.
My view on the whole thing is more on less what he says, but in my opinion what's needed is a transition period. I believe we're beginning to see that start to happen, but it's a massive ball to roll so it just needs more behind it. Also, I don't think art and fun have to be mutually exclusive. Especially transitioning, you have to put a mix down of the both, because swaying the masses aren't going to go intellectual overnight.

Now onto the meat and gravy- a Review.
Tonight, I Review my HEAHPONES.
TDK ST-PR400.
They're all wrong. aaaaall wrong. Okay not all wrong, but certainly not worth MONEY for any forseeable market. If you're thinking of buying these, take 70 bucks, and just set fire to it, because this is the effect that these headphones are worth. Still, I said I'd review them, not just give insult, I must follow through with a proper criticism of them. Where to start?















Cable/Jack- This I believe is one of the the few things they've done right. It's a proper thick cable, coated with proper rubber of some sort. Gold Tipped Jack, "oxygen-free" cord. And it's Coiled and springy, which is GREAT, they make them seem serious business. This is where the end of the purely fault free material ends.
Supports/Arch/Frame - Flimsy, Cheap feeling.
The actual muff supports swivel 90 degrees forward, supposedly because DJs like having an ear off or something. However, if you're a DJ, surely you like having a solid locking mechanism. The ones on these are Flimsy as all hell, they don't lock forward securely, nor do they lock to the normal position that easily.
The padding on top below the arch, where it rests on your head, usually there's some padding. On this , nothing. What,that little bump with the nylon mesh over the top? that's nothing,and it hurts my scalp if I slick my headphones in the normal way. The rest of the construction is molded plastic and pinning screws, which in my books, ALWAYS results in the headphones having a life of less than 12 months due to breakages, or stripping screws (this is what bad craftsmanship+my mediocre handling of headphones does.
On the plus side, it's clear that the designers actually allowed for boofs like me with BIG heads, because the arch is one of the widest spanning ones I've ever used.This is great for adding a little comfort to the packet.

The Cans themselves/Drivers- 50mm drivers(drivers being the speakers, not device drivers)) with an 20-20000hz response range. This isn't too bad, it actually is a slightly bigger response range than My old Sennheiser HD 202s, however, presentation of the range is at BEST sloppy. Now, these are marketed as "DJ Headphones", which is really odd. You'd expect DJ's would want some level of audio fidelity. Instead, you get nothing. Flat undersupported Bass, flat(seemingly clipped) treble, only the midrange seems to get any SOLID coverage. That isn't fidelity, it's sticking cheap portable radio speakers in headphone covers and calling it a day. It's unacceptably poor listening, particularly with these thing's tendency to ignore the Sound Pressure Level for the pain threshold (which it has NO objection going over if you want to hurt your ears and go deaf). I've heard better from noname brand earbuds, original generation iPod bugs, BUDGET sennheiser buds (coincidentally, they're less than HALF the price of these things).. Hell, even TDK's budget in-ear buds are better hear than these things(and those were cheaper than the sennheiser buds).
Further groans about the drivers, I have to really keep the volume down on these, because if I crank the volume up just a bit above what I've got them on, I get three major driver issues - Rattling, metallic ringing after peaks, and noise over the line. These could be a QC issue, but it could also be a fundamental design flaw (metal on metal bracing without insulation, washer-less fixture (or PLASTIC))
Drivers aside, nice padding, effing huge can widths. Great sound insulation on the padding. eliminates most of all audible noise from the headphones just with the two cans light pressed together.These headphones really are designed for big heads.

All in all,
Pros-
Great for big heads
Coiled cable with good insulation = win.
Plays the SHIT out of midrange and lower treble

Cons-
Unbalanced audio output.
Driver issues
Patchy supports
Feels flimsy
Overpriced
Does not like you

All in all,they're fucking terrible. I mean REALLY terrible. Still better than a set of Audiosonic or whatever EA sell at budget prices, but if you want to take the step up from them, I'd just advise to ignore the hell out of the impressive packaging these have, save the extra 30/50 bucks for Sennheiser or.. well any other brand. Sennheiser are just a good bet in that introductory Audiophile/Amateur Audio Scene price range. Point is, save the extra ducketts, get something better.

End of Financial year Anime runout review- Phantom

With the rapid closure of the Financial Year today, I thought I'd close off on something tha'ts stil fresh on my mind and needs to be covered before you all get tootsie rolled by it, and that is Phantom- Requiem of a Phantom. You need to know several things before we get too deep into phantoms' coils :
1) it's penned by the guy who did Noir and Madlax
2) it's animated by the guys who animated Noir and Madlax
3) there are at LEAST two ALI Project in the soundtrack, one is the ending.If you can't stand ALI project, prepare to press the mute button a few times
with those three parental advisory alerts out of the way, let's delve into the cheesburger candy.

The plot premise is fairly straight forward- The main protoagonist wakes up with amnesia in a warehouse and finds himself in a locked room in a warehouse. The door is mysteriously unlocked, and he has to escape. Along the way he is dogged by a teenager in a detail-free white pantomime mask (who has guns and knives and apparently is trying to kill him) and he must survive the attacks and escape. Ultimately he finds a way to trap his attacker and pulls a knife on her, and slices the mask in half revealing.. a FACE! zomg. It turns out that this was all a test by a guy called Scythe Master to see if his survival skills were real ,and is now trained by his attacker (revealed to be someone called Ein) and purt through another warehouse cage fight, where he must learn to kill. After killing some mafia puke, the plot really begins.
It's revealed that Scythe Master works for a shadowy organisation called "Inferno" and Ein and the protagonist (now named Zwei, see what he did there) are now a two person literal vaguerie called "Phantom".
... maybe less straightforward, more intensely convoluted.
AS expected the show does all sorts of assassin things- taking out more mob guys, doing intel work, killing women and children with no mercy and Juno Reactor-ripoff music. This sounds all fine, but I'd just like to say this is wherre my real objections start coming into play. Coming from the guy who wrote Noir, you expect this this stuff, but where as Noir was well paced and took some nice cues of originality, Phantom does not. It lacks pacing and originality at the least. The background art is fine, the character design is passable enough, but there is so little character in the show it's 100% wasted effort.
QED, the cross-episode story of Inferno's toppling of Madison Square and the mafia roup running that place. It spanned two episodes, had dozens of characters both running and arc-centric. Only three characters out of that entire cast were identifiable (not relatable, nobody could relate to any of them,really) - Bitch number one, Bitch's body guard, and the Madison Square Mafia Boss.Every one else was just a John or Jane Doe, a dozen different faced John and Janes. Not even the main leads are fleshed out much at all (until epsode 8 where it's revealed whats really going on with that, so Phantom gets off the hook for them technically).
at 11 episodes long, you half expect them to keep a reasonable pace consitantly, but they don't. You have 1 epsiode of setting up the main leads, 1 of some more setting them up, 6 episodes of filler, and then the endgame begins. I mean whaaaaaaaaaat. They could have EASILY cut out half the filler and still made it watchable length.
Furthering my issues with this show, the bulllet removing scene... you'll know it when you see it.
Seriously, it was only a short mix and match editing witch choice film cuts away from being a hentai scene by suggestion alone. Sadly I can't find a youtube of someone who actually HAS done a mash up.... so I'll do one later. Anyway yeah, it's a real problem.
Also, there'as a subtly implied thread of pedophilia going on with Scythe Master.... I don't know if that was intended or not, but it was just wrong.

Finally the last episode was horribly paced and almost completely decontextualised. Thankyou very much for not making sense at a...

OH CRAP! Sorry guys, apparently I've only got half the series... I will see this through though, but consider this my initial impressions.

It's cardboard bland and badly paced. if this changes, I'll let you know in part 2 of the review.

EDIT - I just got two more episodes.. and found out that after those two, there's still another 15 coming...

here's my thoughts -


Adieu

A little something I'm working on (note - NOT FINAL)

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

More stuff coming just around the corner.

We Can't Be Cool

It's kind of a reoccurring topic with regards to myself, but I can't stand Counter Strike, it's players and it's ability to somehow stay a solvent medium of competitive gaming@. I think the whole game is geared for twitchfuck gamers who obsessively chew through the game so heavily that to win against anyone you must know every small nuance of the game (otherwise you will be reamed in a fashion not unsimilar to having a Hydrochloric enema). Now, where to start ?

Oh yes, let's start with my smallest beefs. The level design is wholly impractical in a real world sense of the word. Even with CS Source's impressively redone maps, you're still stuck maps that are constructed around direct routes and bottlenecks. Now normally, having clearly defined routes is a good thing ,but in my books , having ONLY routes and bottlenecks (no lines for ambush or change of tactic) results in the maps being 100% predictable and linear. Painfully obvious about it as well. This is of course ignoring real-world impracticality, which CS maps all most certainly ARE. There is no sense of purpose to any of them. Thoroughfares that literally hair pain around a building, only to have the middle section drop below and under for NO reason other than for... well I don't know, it's goddamn ridiculous.I'll only concede one map is remotely real-world plausible, and that is CS_office. The rest are just theme mazes in my books (which detracts from the theme of the game)

Next biggest beef - Map scale. It's all wrong. Even with source (which is an improvement), the size of objects directly in relation to players is always off, varying from a bit to OH MY GOD BOXES THE SIZE OF SEATAINERS.

3rd biggest beef - Weapon Models- they're CRAP.No Seriously, not a single CS game has had decently looking or proportioned weapon models. Couple with the hurrrr lower right-corner weapon origins and animation makes every goddamn weapon feel ridiculous.

2nd biggest beef - Game mechanics and systems. They're outright bloody silly (which has lead to such heavy inbuilt and inbred imbalances... in). Starting with the almost arbitrary hit detection system and recoil system attached to weapons, and going through to the absolutely futile and broken weapons balance, it's all frigging wrong. As alluded to the hit detection is trash, it makes players who are occupying an entire crosshair on your screen less of a "you're in my crosshair now you will take some pain" and more of a 50/50 flip coin decision for whether that player is going down or not. usually erring on not (read: crosshairs mean SFA, Accuracy is almost arbitrary to the casual player). Again as inferred previously, recoil in the game is broken. If you can legitimately put a YouTube video video up that shows an exact recoil pattern that can be 100% replicated time and time again, you have officially broken it.

Moving onto the weapon balancing and it's broken ness. Once upon a time, every weapon in a game had a purpose at most of the time throughout all a game. This isn't the case in Counter Strike, because if you're not using the AWP, M4A1, AK47 and Desert Eagle in some sort of cycle, you aren't going to stand a chance against anyone at all. Sub Guns are a laudable effort, and outside of one round in the game ( "the SMG round", the second round in a game) you are not going to fucking touch them. Same goes across for the Shotguns, and the 1 machine gun "Has no use". If CS were thought out at all, there'd still be some use to these weapons in some sense ( personally, I would love to see some sort of purpose returned for CQB fans like me to continue using these weapons, unfortunately it doesn't happen because there is just no motive to get people out of their "favourite weapons"#. Then there's stuff like the AWP, which literally has no counter. THAT, in a multiplayer game is a fucking horrid design flaw. This combined with that whole "fire quickswitch" thing that "AWPers" do, it's intolerably unfair without contention. (and no one uses Auto Snipers for the stigmata they they'd receive from other players)


Now for my Biggest peeve about Counter Strike- the players.
If you're playing on a public server, you are guarantee to find the VERY worst of people's attitudes and egos on display. If you thought /b/ was bad, you ain't seen shit. Then there's incessant voice chat spam, the stoners sitting there with their voice key down while they toke or use their bong, prepubescent twerps and their ear bleeding voices, and all manner of other voicespams.
Then of course you have to deal with that fine level of elitist faggotry that some guys guys parade around with (usually ex-clan guys, or currently IN clan guys just wasting time until.... I dunno.... their order of shithot comes down from clanleader divine or something). These pricks are annoying on their own level because they play the ego card like a motherfucker and when they get pegged down one they scream bloody murder.
Then there are the Private scrimmers and clan guys.. .you know, the competitive guys.. These guys you see on the public open servers sometimes,and usually they pick a side and just REAM. These guys ARE egotistical pricks who not only mean srs fckn bsness ALL the time, but they make sure you know about it.however, unlike the ex-clan guy or the other egodouches, these guys are absolutely ruthless because they know the game better than Valve, Turtle Rock and Gooseman combined do, they know how exactly EVERYTHING goes and because of that, they end up just being serious mindfucks. The funny thing is, you'll pick them out a mile away IRL, because they're all the same. Watch out for these fuckers.

In short, CS is a brain-hemorrhaging experience, and why it's held up as a poster child for anything, is beyond me. There are dozens of games that did things better than it. Tactical Ops (and it's retail cousin in Tac Ops: Assault on Terror) was around at a similar time to CS, and without question it was the superior of the two in gameplay,design, art and function. For a more modern analogy, maybe see Call of Duty 4. Both of these games don't suffer the horrendous issues that Counter Strike suffers and (COD4's own independent success aside), neither replaced it on any level.

@ - I'm of course going to ignore that CS was touted as a tactical shooter. It clearly isn't, it's a twitch shooter of the ilk that quake3 is.
# - For the record, Valve have tried to rectify this once ,with CSS- the Market place. Unfortunately, habitual buying broke the marketplace in under month. last time I looked you would actually GET money money when you bought a TMP ,and the AWP was more expensive than the M249 was on static pricing

Addendum Rant -
I really don't get what every one's problem with COD4's Multiplayer is (by everyone, I of course mean "pro gamers", the same ilk that worship CS no less ) ... Here we have a versatile, robust multiplayer component that pretty much will let you play however you want, the maps are WELL designed and reasonable, and the balancing is fairly solid. Hit detection is MUCH more reliable than Counter Strike (for direct comparison because I just ranted about it), and it even allows for those idiot CS players to player their favourite mode - Bomb Defusal.
Furthermore, I reject the notion that COD4 isn't a fast deathmatch game. It is, and you need much faster reactions in COD4 than you would in a similar CS scenario. If you want a SLOW deathmatch, I challenge you to play Rainbow Six Raven Shield in adversarial mode, it's slow and what's more , all your CS-breed trickery will fucking fail in it. There is no jump, no quickswitching, and it has all sorta of believable cause-and effect systems in motion. Enjoy your slow deathmatch.


Phew, glad to chew that one out. I hate CS and I think COD4, by comparison, is THE shit. People make me angry :p


Don't go away folks because when I return I bring a TREBLE REVIEW. I review a slightly obscure FPS.. and a DRAMA.. AND MASS EFFECT
PS- I hate this keyboard.

So I drew THIS....

... And then I died a little inside.

Pre-parade

Much apologies for the month-plus without update... what can I say, I'm a bit of an ad-hoc slacker, sometimes I'm slack, sometimes I'm not.. Actually I spose the term is probably something like " multiple personalities disorder where both personalities are more or less the same, but one is me 10 years ago and lazy, and one is me now-busy"
Anyway, to recover from this staleness, I belatedly unveil -

The 2009 Toadie Singles Awareness Day/St Valentines Day Alternative Love Album.
This year's one is titled -
Not your Mother's Valentines Day Album
As a bonus this year, I include legal-length previews in a RAR file for those curious.

So , here comes the Track list-

1) Julianna - Love will light the way
To start the album I've gone with a track from the Haibane Ranmei OST.The track was chosen for not only it's lyrical value, but it's smooth jazz vibe. Ruffled hi-hats and beautiful bass and piano. It's a smooth and classy start to the album

2) Goldfinger - More Today Than Yesterday
A ska cover of a classic love song. It's a great way to ease not only the more senior of us out there into a field of music they'd otherwise shun for being too loud , but to ease the more junior of us into some music history. It's a great track to serenade to as well, so it hits points on all fields.

3) Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine - Are you Gonna be my girl?
Lounge music is so very untrendy and smooth that you can almost hear jet drowning in velour when you play this song... And who of the alternative of us wouldn't mind swooning with your object of affection around a dance hall to the death of Jet?

4) Bonnie Pink - Get in My Hair
Bonnie has this habit of writing, or at the very least performing, in a manner that seems to me to be very close and personal. Rather than singing to a stage or an audience, she feels to sing to herself or to someone right next to her. So really, I could put most any of her songs here and it'd probably feel appropriate.. so here's a good one.

5) Takanashi Yasuharu - (Track 9 from the Seto no Hanayome OST)
Sorry, I can't read moon runes, so that's the best I can give. You know, despite being quite BAD at conveying emotions, Seto no Hanayome (my wife is a Mermaid I think is the official name of the translated version coming to western shores) has some nice music. This particular track is a bit of a romantic interlude that will transition well into....

6) The Aquabats- Monster's Wedding
It's only appropriate that something as gimmicky as Valentines not be taken as fricking sombre important day, and this song is to remind you of this. It's a mix of really campy B-movie horror movie creatures, and love. Remember - this could happen to you .

7) Reel Big Fish - Alternative Baby
Now I know everyone I know doesn't like how much I try to get RBF songs into everything, but I really do think they have songs for every occasion, so I'm including some for Valentines. This song is a real plug of what inspired me to do these albums in the first place. It's a song about some guys at an alternative music concert of some sort, who've fixated their hearts on some girl there. Not wanting to use the cliches or to open themselves full scabbard at her, they're each trying to find a way to convey the point that they are interested in her.

8) Reel Big Fish - Skatanic
Okay okay, getting it out of the way. This song is about another really alternative kind of relationship ,and the confusion that is emotions. Really it is, it's totally not about Obsessive Stalking or anything....

9) Carly Simon - The Spy who loved me
Thank you Broccoli family for ensuring that double entendre was a key point of ALL James Bond flicks at all levels. Sweet Lyrics, and soft piano frame the verses, with some awfully powerful strings during the bridges and choruses, really hammer home a really traditional romantic feel, whilst not being lovey-dovey.

10) Louis Prima & Keely Smith - That Old Black Magic
Why not throw in a classic 50's swing lounge tune to your loved one? This song sorta reflects, in a roundabout way, reflect the way love can throw you off normality completely and absolutely. It's a gripping thing you see, and it'll eat your soul.

11) Wayne Netwon - Danke Schoen
Rather than singing about how love is a constant infinite venture towards some sort of... Mind soul and body singularity for two who are smitten by it's wicked curse, it sings about how sometimes it goes the opposite way, and that isn't necessarily a BAD thing.

12) Round Table featuring Nino - Let me Be with you.
This song is the exact opposite of Danke Schoen. I'd like to emphasise for the point of not wanting to be lynched for hypocrisy, that all loves do not work one single way. Best way to describe this is that it is such a well wrote love song slash into song that I couldn't NOT put it in, and for those couple who are serious Chobits nerds, play this and do that "Chiiiiiiiiiii" thing to one another. You'll either feel very silly, or you'll end up exploding like glass at resonance frequency.

13)UB40 and Chrissie Hyde - I've got you babe
Another cover, but it's got that reggae vibe, which really plays to the benefit of the lyrics. It's a song about how basic love is. Gawd I've gotta stop saying "love", I know... I'll set up a jar and put 50 cents in it every time I use the word. Starting as of top of the list. Crap.

14) The Tea Party - Emerald
Unlike some of the tracks above, The Tea Party really are an alternative band. Headed and Guitared by a man who could give Jim Morison a run for his money, this song is a bit of of a melancholy tale about .. crap *inserts 50c*... with passionate lyrics and performance, it really uses itself as an extra dimension to it's intent. It's like having a well written poem performed with intense passion and perfection.

15) The Darkness - I believe in a thing called love
As the name suggests , it's about a guy who's now lost his head over a girl. I'd try justifying this from some sort of artistic perspective, but the lyrics speak for themselves. Also, let's be honest, it's a great song regardless.

16)David Holmes - Tess
From the Ocean's 11. It wafts opulent admiration, but gives very little warmth. Let's face it, we all know someone who is like this, and know someone after this person. The unachievable dream. Sigh, one can at least pretend.

17 ) Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
Ahh nostalgia. It makes everything in the past awesome. It also makes heartbreak harder. Poor Morrison lost a person very close to him, who had brown eyes. He reflects on what was once, and now no longer can be.

18) Dave Dobbyn & Herbs - Slice of Heaven
Dave from New Zealand here ,sings about not how this girl is pretty, or how she smiles or whatever small physical thing binds his heart to her, but how her mere presence and happiness makes him want to stick around her. If it sounds a bit wet, it is, but wet isn't always a bad thing. And Let's face it, this touches on the less physical aspects of .... oh cock *50 c*. If you found someone who everyday was exciting and interesting, wouldn't YOU do everything to keep him/her around? I swear, if I ever find someone who'd maybe one day consider not hating my failures as a human being long enough to sit around and just hold a conversation for a few days with me, I'd find a band, and I'd bloody sing a ska cover of THIS to her.

19) Imogen Heap - Closing In
Imogen sings about a great many things. her first album, i-megaphone, was a scary stare into the void without using the phrase "Death Metal". Speak for Yourself however, seems to be an album from the heart though, and this song in particular is about dissolving the gap between two people. Yesssss, made it without saying that word.

20) Oomph! - Answer Me
For a bit of a change of pace, here's some metal. It's a bit of a cautious stay-or-go tale, whether or not some woman has the nosh to say yes to someone as frighteningly intense as the lead singer from oomph!

21) Gene Pitney - Only love can break a heart
True story, nuff said. Laughter sure as hell doesn't do that much damage.. unless it's coupled with it.

22) Dr Hook - When you're in Love with a beautiful woman
Oh crap, I've added another mainstream oldies song. Rats.

23) The Delgados - Make Your Move
The Delgados is all about a the less optimistic form of romance. That is , the one that got half done and then abandoned. It's about trying to recoup the losses and get the whole thing back together. Then again, the song could be about anything, the delgados are great at being poetically ambiguous.

24) Basement Jaxx - Hot'n'Cold
Another song about mixed signals. I'll be honest, I see alot of THIS particular thing going on, which is a shame. You great pillocks out there sitting on the fence - dive in or get the fuck out.

25) The Delgados - The Weaker Argument Defeats the Stronger
This song is about the lazy heart - the heart the is self-concerned. As indeed the song says - What will our friends say?

26) Electric Light Orchestra - Strange Magic
ELO is always appropriate, no exceptions. Let's be honest, if ... shit *50c*... love was a magic, it sure has some ODD properties.

27) The Doors- Hello, I love You
Ah the doors, they're upfront and honest about their feelings,even if they don't know the target of their affection.

28) Toto - Africa
A song that's quite ambiguous on direct lyrics about.. that thing... but it's quite a good one to serenade to, and on the day of days, serenading is quite important to not letting that romance tank. It is a song about that strong emotion ,but it's quite coy about calling it directly.

29) BoA - Duvet
Duvet is about is a bit of a sad song about love gone unrewarded... cock that's another *50c*.... and how the fallout from the failed attempt at the relationship has left the singer drowning.

30) Imogen Heap - Sweet Religeon
So if religeon is belief and love in a deity, what does a lateral mortal love mean to it?

31) Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville - I Don't Know Much
Probably one of the most soppy love songs ever. Included for those of you who don't have a girl that could appreciate.. say.. Streetlight Manifesto

32) Tripod- Throw your arms around me
A Cover of a song about getting rid of all the baggage of life and enveloping each other in love, shit *50c*, sung by a bunch of clever idiots. Seems to get rid of that pretentiousness about the song, which is good ,because the song was horrid with it.

33) Reel Big Fish feat Rachel Minton (from Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer) - Ask
A cover of a song by The Smiths, it's a song about how the feeling is pretty much second only to friendship.

34) Smashing Pumpkins - Zero
This really is for the alternative heads out there, it's about how when you're in a relationship you yourself matter the least and the other person is EVERYTHING that you need to matter.

35) Streetlight Manifesto - Kristina she don't know I exist
This song's a bit of song about how not putting yourself out there can end up with you getting nothing and your affectioned getting something anyway.

26) The Aquabats - Hot Summer Nights (Won't last forever)
Unlike most of the other songs is about how affection can sometimes leave you blinded to the obvious fact she's not wanting you. fitting way to end a valentines album eh?

And now for a link to the preview file-

for-hire.half-lifecreations.com/Not your Mother's Valentines Day Album (Toadie's compilation 09).rar
Copy paste that into your address bar to recieve 30 megs of 30 sec clips.


Coming VERY soon, I return to review stuff, including something I've been holding for it to finish airing and now it's over.

They say it makes the world spin round

Okay enough farcical delusions of grandeur. I'm about as close at I have ever been to to that razor edge between sanity and losing it. No one thing is particular is to blame for it, but the net result is that right now I'm sitting very tetchily this year, and any one small thing could tip me over the precipice. Consider this a warning, I may have less tolerance for shit this year, and patience overall will be probably less. No more passive aggressive tactics- you come at me, I'll come back at you and believe me, with my sheer determination as a glowing red fist you will go down for the count.

Whew, that felt good. Should vent that kind of stuff more often. Must be that preposterone everyone keeps saying all male bodies exert all the time.

Okay, now for another one of those pre-valentine things I do. Like last year I will be doing a recommendable playlist for love without using mainstream or classic or "oldies" to express it it. Think of it it as your Punk-Ska-Metal-AcidJazz Cupid.
On top this small gesture, I am going to offer something tangible to you, the avid, and maybe not so avid readers (who no doubt pick this up through my Facebook or something rather than the original source) .
Ladies and Gentlemen you probably know this already from my periodic bemoaning of the subject, but I'm a Single White Male, a nerdy one with odd tastes, but a single white male none the less. I have pretty much given up on the idea of ever running across what I'd currently consider my ideal match up.I've also given up on specialist dating sites (sites like anonidate have tendency to be FULL OF TRAPS). It really is quite depressing, particularly around this time of year (damn you you Hallmark season getting to me).
So this is why I have opened a challenge to you punters. Your mission consists of three objectives

1. Find someone who meets a below specified criteria
2. Contact me on a below specified burn email address with pertinent information
   
3. BONUS ROUND - if it gets around to FRIENDSHIP or dating, you get a bonus.
   

What are you competing for?
AU$100. Solid Cash. Unless you or the person you're presenting live outside Australia, in which case it'll be a purchase in Steam to that value. The bonus is an additional AU$50 of that same line of credit.

Now for rules-

• All forwarded peeps must be at least aware are being entered into this.The is no way I am going force this stuff on anyone, so it's gotta be at least approved by them.
• 18+. Common sense there really. Nothing Paedobear may approve of because it is legally frowned upon and I do not want to be on the gigantic scroll of sex offenders.
• All entries into the running must be entered before February 15, 5 AM to the following address - wejustcametopartydown AT gmail DOT com . Message must contain your name, the name of the person you're submitting, a viable contact method to get in touch with them (nothing stupid like AIM or YIM. Email, Skype, MSN, phone, something like), and a reply address if needed.
  
• No Traps or Trolling. All trolling and fake entries will be ignored, as well as duplicate entries.

Those be the rules, now for my criteria on what I'm looking for

• At least enjoys anime (taste in anime need not 100% align with mine)
• Has a sense of humor
• Can Caramelldansen
• I was going to say "has broad taste in music", but what I really meant to say was "doesn't worship Rap or RnB."
• has heard of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones or Reel Big Fish (and has no objections to it)
• a bit nerdy. I like my women like I like my z-buffer algorithms - (overally complex with good results)
• EDITED IN - can tolerate my OC-level dedication to game development, my modelling , sound editing, and the likes
• ALSO EDITED IN - isn't neccesarily looking for a home run. Doesn't mind being pampered a little, within bounds.
  
• eccentricity optional
• physique - not particularly fussed, just not large. I don't want to sound cruel to you lot, but it's not really what I'm into. Glasses a plus, DFC - also plus.
  
• optional bonus - is an fem/a/non (frequents /a/. Not /b/. They ARE different and no I won't go over it. )

There we go, your challenge is set, now GO PROVE ME WRONG INTERNOSES.

EDIT #3: oh and if said person you're interested in entering is curious about what I'm like, may I point to my Facebook profile - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=536634192

Toadie is in his couch, owning ur interwebs