HA HA HA HA HA FUCK YOU ALL...FUCK YOU ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL~!

First Gay High School is open in NY

At first I was like "Yes that is somewhat neat" but if anything were to display the idea of "balance" that I've been trying to tell Rob, then this is most likely it. The balance between what is right, moralistic and pricipally sound, vs. reality, practicality and common sense.

This new school is both productive and counter-productive. In someways yes, it is good because it does give a place for homosexuals to learn without the constant hassle of homophobes or other people mocking them. But if we are somewhat setting up an example, then this means that it is ok to segreate people of different cultures and lifestyles in order to protect them.

Granted this whole high school thing is voluntarily attended, but has coming out in school been so bad that it comes down to having a seperate school to protect people? Wouldn't the money be better spent putting it into resources that would help encourage tolerance than just avoiding the probelm entirely?

yes and no.

You see, the idea of balance comes it. The principle of the matter is that there is two conflicting ones. One principle of "best of intentions" and the other of "It don't matter if your black or white etc. etc. (trademark of the King of Pop). The thing the principle of the latter is often not praticed as widely as we would like to imagine therefore this is where "reality" comes into play and shows that hey....we need a school like this. That is how balance comes into play; the principle, the right thing that has to be done wasn't in terms of tolerence, so the band-aid solution was to just make a gay high-school.

Once again the entire idea of balance comes into the actual 'gay high school'. I mean there are many things that bring people together, often sometimes mroe closer than other things, but having such a thing so dramatically created as a homosexual only high school IMHO could seem like a disaster. It's not the fact that they are gay, but the fact that they are there because they are gay and the fact on how gays are being protrayed and viewed in the media.

This is part of the reality side speaking of me whereas the principle side of me would say "FOR SHAME STEPHEN, GAY PEOPLE ARE HUMAN BEINGS AND THIS DOESN'T MEAN THAT THEY'LL ALL ACT LIKE DRAMA QUEENS"...well that may be the case, but to tell the truth, I still think that in reality a school with it's student population based upon the criteria of a small thread of something like sexual preference, lends itself to possible disastourous social implications. Especially with a subjects as touchy as homosexuality.

The problem is, that having a homosexual school and out-right calling it that, might lead students to think that this school is what drives it, not as a place of academia (and safe academia I should mention). I'm not saying that it would be a topic that would be brought up ever single class or subject, the the point of reality is some people will make it such...overzealous people much like the preps or cheerleaders of yore. I understand (principle side here) that often small threads of similarities are bases for great communities or at least friendships, but reality often shows that isn't the case. A homosexual prep and a homosexual goth wouldn't start being buddy buddy for the sole fact that they share homosexuality because friendship is so much more than that.

Of course the reality side of me once again comes to show that the very same overzealous homophobic people get so bent over this one discerning factor that the fact of homosexuality and how they don't like it swallows any love they might had before or will in the future.

Well overall I think it's somewhat of a good idea because the reality is, gays are now the new nerds and are fiercly bullied. This is a type of problem that goes beyond skin color and strikes at the heart of Christian doctrine for many people and biological logic for others and until the time we are ready to deal with this problem fully and completly, then this is a good idea for the meanwhile.

Noticable People

Whenever I go to Walmart for stuff or just McDough's, I notice this capitalistic lackey there either walking around or working the fast food counter of United States subsidiary and notice his glasses.

Now think of that episode with George when he got those frames for his new glasses that was in fact women's frames. Yes....you see now.

Now I don't know what the fuck this kid is thinking. I'm all for looking different and all, but this borders on total stupid ignorance. Does this person "not know" that his glasses in any case look totally out of place on his face? Not to mention the style, oh gawd. It totally reminds of of those surfer movies with chicks who wear beehive hairdos and smacking their gum like it was some mating call. That's how retro looking these semi transparent white frames look like.

Perosnally I think he knows, but somehow is defying.

Second guy, I just served him recently. He bought porn and is most likely right handed...but he lacks the first and second digits of a few of his fingers on his right hand. Go figure.

Triple Review of the GBA Castlevanias SPOILERS

Yes in some ways this is a passive aggressive method of brainwashing my friend Don in order to make him play a Castlevania game. But really it’s not…;)

Critically acclaimed, the CV games on the GBA has made an incredible splash on the gaming market. Considering that each incarnation got better and mostly surpassed the predecessor, it leads to say…how good is it really?

Well…it’s good. Not great, but good.

Basically some history. To tell the truth, the CV games on the GBA are somewhat your typical CV flair from the NES and SNES versions so long ago. You get a whip, and you go around whipping stuff. Whatever.

It wasn’t until CV started out with it’s pretentious titles (CV title generator here) that it got somewhat interesting. The main ones being most recognizable being; Rondo of Blood (RoB), Symphony of the Night (SOTN), Circle of the Moon (CotM), Harmony of Dissonance (HoD) and Aria of Sorrow (AoS).

Now Rondo of Blood is by no means the “giant step” that most CV fans make it out to be. To tell the truth only a few interesting things had been interesting, namely multi-endings (depending on how many hostages [real ones, not generic Metal Slug ones] you save), gameplay additions and multiple levels = some kinda replay value. Granted RoB was on the TGFX16-CD, which made crisp music available and larger graphics, it still was the same old CV game. Whip and jump. But before I go on, this is acclaimed to be the best CV if not the best “old skool” CV game of the bunch, so if you were to get it, do not get the really crappy SNES port. Kthx

This is where “IGA” came in (not the supermarket, the game producer)and produced SOTN for the PSX and Saturn. Basically it took most conventions of the previous and “rushed that shit down”. Gone was “stiff all or nothing” jumping, you could reverse your jump at anytime. No more whips, this time it is a collection of swords, axes and other goodies like magic and shit like that (and morphing). And finally, no more static stages of just scrolling left to right, there were “areas” to explore. Entire huge ass rooms to check out.

In many ways, people related SOTN with the much praised Super Metroid on SNES and in some ways they are totally correct. In fact with some of these GBA games, one divergent path would lead you to an incredibly huge area to explore, which often left hours before you came back to explore the other path.

Hell even the map system seemed totally ripped off from Super Metroid. So with the exception of the God awful N64 CVs, and the GB one, the CVs after SOTN were based upon the same template of SOTN. Explore and kill stuff.

But onto the actual reviews, but the history was just to tell you how the games are nowadays.

Circle of the Moon

A pretty cool CV for my tastes. I didn’t know WTF people we talking about on how blasy the atmosphere is, but I liked it. It wasn’t great, especially compared to the latter games, but it was no slouch. Personally I think this is one of the most challenging games in a long time. Granted you may have weapons to kick ass, but they hardly help quite as much in the latter games. At the time, the animation was great for me, I think it was pretty spectacular, but often it held palette swaps of enemies which was pretty fucking annoying. However the animation was stiff, often had only a few frames of animation at any time, not to mention the fairly static looking bosses. Kinda like moving a cut and page picture in paint and saying that it flies. However the sad part is that you are regulated to a fucking whip again.

The DSS card system allows for combinations of different whip elements, which is incredibly convenient for kicking ass. The fact that on a few weapons work effectively all the time lends itself to have different combinations to be explored. However by the end, like all other games, you will find yourself using the same damned power-ups ultimately making that aspect of the game boring. However the game is still difficult even with these features.

Basically for me: 4.0/5.0 stars.

Harmony of Dissonance

After playing CotM, I thought HoD was going to be gay by looking at the screens. Funny thing is, usually blown up GBA screenshots are usually pretty shitty in a mag or website but when you see it in action and the small screen, then it looks pretty damn cool. HoD brought the graphics whore out of me, basically because like 98% of the enemies in here have their own sprites. I shit you not. There is little palette swapping in this version, and if there were, the sprites tend to look or animated differently (aesthetic differences like a Viking hat or something).

The graphics are indeed pretty solid and being so bright, really made the game shine through. The only gripe is the really bad choice of having a “blue outline” to the main character “Juste Belmont” which = gheyness. A lot of sprites have these multi colored outlines which leaves me why the hell would someone do this? Unless it was to fit in with the hyperdelic colors of HoD’s backgrounds I suppose it was needed. The other upside is how fast this game is, and I mean fast compared to the other CV games. It is like Megaman speed.

But the down part is how fucking easy this game is. If you ever play the Boss Rush mode, you will understand. With the whip, the enemies and bosses just become nice little “whip puppets” of the S&M demo. It was insane on how easy to defeat some of these opponents, the only setback that I had was fighting “Death” and only because I was complacent in beating the shit out of the other bosses and disregarded the fact that Death’s second form was just as hard and just as “life depleting’ as his first form, which left me with a lack of health management skills, aka dodging attacks. PWNAGE.

But still the graphics whore comes out of me ever so much because to tell the truth, the bosses are really THAT WELL ANIMATED. Instead of CotM where all the of the sprites acted out as a single sprite, many of the enemies and especially the bosses, got animated with multiple sprites moving together like a giant Power Ranger. The effect….well just play the first few minutes of HoD and you’ll see how fucking fluid it turns out to be.

Another downer to the game is when you get to the “second” castle. It was fairly interesting how when this revealed that it actually “split” the parts of the castle you already explored into two parts. Let’s just say you look over castle A and when it splits into Castle B and Castle C, the result is half of A is in B and half of A is in C.

The problem with this isn’t how it could be confusing…no not at fucking all. What fucks with you is the blatant attempt to “length” the game by making you absolutely stupid things in order to explore parts of the castle, which only results in double-backing and revisiting areas. How this happens is that there are “two types of portals”. Yes. Scattered about the castle are portals; one for decent transportation to a different area of the castle, (I’ll call them Suzys) and another for transportation between Castle B and Castle C (I’ll call them Port-holes)

What happens when two castles are accessible to you? Well instead of making the notion of logic of having the transporters become naturally become Suzys for each respective castles, then instead both act as Suzys and Port-holes. The result? FUCKING HI JINKS.
There are points in the castle where you have to use a Suzy to access a different part of the castle….an “unexplored” part mind you, but you didn’t got through a Port-hole in order to access that unexplored area. The result? A total waste of your time. I was stuck at this one point that basically pissed me off for hours upon end.

Upon this edition’s magic system is the “Spellbook” system that utilizes a combination of a Spellbook element and a typical CV sub-weapon. The result? Well compared to the rest of the GBA CV’s you get a pretty shallow and small selection. However in the game only 2-3 combinations are useful….I mean “abuseful”, which essentially makes this game the laughing stock at the annual “Difficult Game Convention”. The other thing that truly irked me is how you have to repeatedly go back and forth in order to turn off or on the magic spell book. There is a handy “Change” spellbook feature, but in the heat of battle and when you depleted your MP stock, you want to easily turn off the MP eating sub-weapon to just use the Heart depleting sub-weapon. Instead you have to go to the status screen and turn it off. GHEY.

Although I was about to give it a higher score for it bringing the graphics whore out of me, I realize how faulty this game is. Not “I don’t want to play this game again” faulty but “Fun game, but it’s faults make it less that great”. Oh yeah there is a special secret character added for kicks. Kinda fun…kinda not.

3.5/5.0 stars.

Aria of Sorrow

After prattling on how HoD was so bad, you’d think I’d say AoS was that good? Wrong. Personally I think this is where IGA screws up pretty royally. If HoD and CotM made love and had a child, and brought it up to try to be like SOTN, AoS would be it. First of all the good things about the game.

Huge ass system is back now, in the form of souls. Three categories of attack souls, ability souls and status souls. Makes for unlimited combinations but to tell the truth, you would really only need to switch tween 4-5 souls at the end. However biggest thing divergent from the past GBA games, NO WHIP…well kinda. Only a few of the mass amounts of swords, hammers, spears and knuckles (guns too) really work well, but not a whip in sight save for only one “whip sword” which you will quickly get rid of. This game is as much SOTN as it tries to be and succeeds in ways. However here comes the bad part.

Graphics: Once again I become a whore. The thing is the animation is fluid, but the character design is basically shit at times. Nothing really in this game made me gasp or squeal as much as HoD to tell the truth. It looks like a lot of the enemies from CotM made a come back, palette swap and all (thankfully kept to a minimum). I can’t put my finger on it, but something just irks me about this edition of CV. The sprites are almost like the fluidity of HoD, but the solid looking character design form of CotM.

Looking at the main character move made me almost vomit because he seem to have move so slow….especially compared to HoD. I mean he looked a bit *too* fluid to my tastes because it almost looked like he was floating on the ground. The animation was fluid…like I said before, but how they moved looked stiff.

Background: Once again a combination of the static CotM and HoD’s bright backgrounds. It just felt…blegh really. Nothing compelled me and it seemed a bit too dominant at times, making it difficult to concentrate.

Easy as pie: Not really at times, but with the right souls, you can fuck up people really good without missing a beat. I at one point inadvertently read a tips section and got access to basically the most powerful weapon and armour early onto the game….not really early since it could be access at anytime but still too early. This really depleted the fun of having a variety of weapons since they paled to the power of this kickass sword.

Boss Rush Mode? Not too bad. Haven’t completely finished it, but truly challenging at times.

The final result? Well I have to say that this game has basically the best secret character mode of the three. Lots of variety to him…much more than HoD’s and really really cool. But for being kinda irky about it I give it:

4.0/5.0 stars.

A metal version of Metriod theme music

This is SO me

Internet Art

To tell the truth, there hasn't been much fanfare or participation for internet based art. I had a bit of experience with it when I studied art, and it was treated more as another medium to express what the artist was trying to say.

Basically it dealt with the idea of nationality and how we go about defining or interacting with nationality. The most interesting part is in regards to Africa, and how we clump Africans as this entire entity on the planet, which in reality they have an ethnic and country diversity comparable to Europe. It had different flags of different countries representing the ethinic groups going in and out.

Only a few aspects are brought up by this idea of "internet art", most importantly the concept on how the global village is expotentially growing because of the internet. Nationality seems more indifferent when you are on the internet because the language you appropriate almost makes you that ethnicity.

Like I said before expressing this art idea through this medium wasn't anything that could have been expressed in other mediums; most noticiably video. It could be the fact that I haven't actively seeked out "internet art" for a while, but what I had seen so far has left me un-impressed. If anything it only provided more of a medium of exposure of the "art via internet" than actual expression of "internet art".

There are some interesting ideas behind internet art. The notion that any schmuck with internet connection and fortitude to build a website could make one from the "dime a hundred" cookie cutter sites on the internet such as geocities and tripod. The idea that art needs a form of anguish or effort seem to not apply to "Internet Art" in people's minds because of that ease.

I can contest buidling a website (in it's most purest HTML form) is indeed a task that rivals art methods. It could be the fact on how non-bohemian/mechanical the whole task of interacting with the internet might make people think that it is lazy. Afterall you are sitting down in front of a screen with a machine whose main function nowadays is to make life easier. There seems to be no actual "direct manipulation" of the medium, more of an indirect one. I imagine that these ideas can be applied to CG cartoons and such.

But I think I actually came upon one of the few real "Internet Art" pages on the web. I am willing to say that I got "egg on my face" if this is in actuality not art motivated or some kinda stupid pratical joke. I think that the boundries of art are so blurred now (or at least theoretically should be) that this can be indeed considered art.

Why I think this is so good as "Internet Art" is the fact that hey, it really utilizes the basic means of what art is, a form of representation. In the beginning, people didn't instantly go abstraction expressionism or conceptual, art was a form of history, record and representation of reality.

I think that this website is where Internet Art should be going because it starts out not as medium to delve into with what art is current, but as a way to express art in the medium the artist chose. With clicks of the button, manipulation of the viewer, we have an interaction with the art.

Where in the past, art was visual, it played on the natural idea of sight. Witnesses were used to show what happened in the past and if not possible the record of what happened can be represented through painting or sculpture. When art enters the medium of the internet, this website succeeds because it follows that same vein of of the natural because it ultilizes the interaction we all do on the internet. Pop-ups, changing pictures, java etc.

but here is the website. Yes.

Superbad.com



EDIT: I found out...it is web art. Score one for me.

The coolest GBA carrying case yet!

Second part of Brewing good coffee

Since I'm lazy, and lacking time...more of the former than the latter; here is how to brew coffee and info on it courtesy of Alton Brown.

"Brewing a simply perfect cup of Joe can be perfectly simple, if you stick to some basic guidelines:
Buy quality whole beans from a reliable purveyor (preferably a roaster). If you don't have a grinder at home, ask a salesperson to grind whole beans for you rather than settling for pre-ground.

Purchasing bulk (unpackaged) beans from a specialty shop is okay as long as the bins or jars are relatively small and refilled regularly. Large vats hold a lot of beans and therefore don't need frequent filling. That means that beans can hang around for a long time being exposed to light and air. That can mean stale beans, and staleness is not a desirable attribute.

Purchase pre-packaged whole beans only when sealed in a foil-style bag featuring a one-way valve. The dime-shaped plastic valve is usually integrated into the packaging so that it will be as unobtrusive as possible, so check carefully. The absence of a valve means that the coffee probably sat and "gassed out" before it was packaged. That means it could be stale. Stale, again, is not a good thing. And remember: paper bags with twist tops are temporary transportation vessels, not storage devices.

Try to purchase only a week's worth of beans at a time. If you live where this is impractical, purchase several small sealed packages rather than one large one. Unopened one-way valve bags will keep coffee fresh for approximately three months. If you buy bulk coffee (not sealed with one-way valves) in large amounts, divide into weekly batches, seal in Mason-style jars and freeze. Transfer these small batches to counter top storage as needed (see below) .

Store opened or bulk coffee in an airtight, opaque container and store at room temperature for up to a week.

Grind coffee as close to brewing time as possible. For drip method, grind in blade style grinder for 15 to 20 seconds. For French presses, grind for only 10 to 12 seconds.

Regardless of method, brew using 2 heaping tablespoons of coffee for each 6 ounces of clean (filtered or bottled), cool water. If you prefer a milder cup, brew to full strength, and then dilute with hot water. Brewing with too little coffee will result in over-extraction, and that means bitterness.

If you really want to taste the subtle nuances of regional coffees, consider a gold mesh filter.

When purchasing a coffee maker (either manual or electric), look for a model that brews into a thermal carafe rather than a glass pot designed to sit on a heating element. Continuous heating of coffee leads to bitterness.

Quality decaffeinated coffees usually cost more than regular beans."

SO FUCKING DEPRESSED NOW

Nothing depresses me more than friends not acknowledging my existence....no...make that my greatness. I have an ego, I will not kic you, but the point where I don't fit in where I want to belong...where I *do* belong, I get more sad than anything else. Of course This lovely revelation is responsible for it.. Not her fault at all because she just existed at the right spot at the right time...the time *I* should be there.

I mean fuck, I might even know this person from North Peace. She hails from Fort St. John, and born the same year as me. She goes to SFU doing a BFA. I can't help but feel that she exists in the whole Vancouver scheme of things. She by no means "taken" it away from me because I wasn't there to vy for it in the first place. But FUCK.....this is the exact type of thing that makes me feel like Rob, feeling like I'm missing everything, a feeling that I try my best to avoid and if not at least deny.

I've tasted being part of an art group, hell even an art show. And to say this doesn't depress the fuck out of me by putting how pathetic I acted and putting my life into perspective...is a outright lie. I could have been a part of this...more clean and precise and let's face it..ORGANIZED. Gawd I hate ththis. I have to meet this Nicole and live through her now. I have to.

Cooking

i had a small revelation on how to cook really. Cooking is seriously an art. To tell the truth, cooking is basiclaly three things: Balance, composition and most importantly patience.

I can't really explain how I have the talent to cook. It could sprout from the fact that I am an artist, but as good as I am, I'm still a mere amatuer. I still can chop or slice consistently and sometimes my balance for stir fry veggie to meat ratio is entirely off. However I do realise that cooking is a very personal thing and if you really do not put love into your cooking, it will turn out pretty badly. This happened to me plnety of times where my cooking tasted bland because I didn't care.

The way I can visually show how cooking is more of touch and feeling than of sight, is salt.

To tell the truth, salt adds and brings out the flavor to a lot of recipes. Hell, salt is even in good cookies. The thing is imagine salt to be small little worlds with "auras" of atmospheres. Swirling masses of taste that compose of this small particle of a world. As we add it to an item and cook it we destroy this small cluster of worlds, releasing the atmosphere's and planet's contents unto the galaxy of our food. It slowly spreads the cosmic dust of flavour all around the food, pentrating it and giving it a balance to it....a cosmic balance.

Too little and it will be isolated like a gas giant in some distant part of the galaxy, too much and it would collapse the galaxy of food upon itself, making it dangerous for the tongue to navigate. You just have to feel for the "aura" of the salt, seeing as it plops down on a steak or chicken, how it wafts this glow of taste onto the food. You can develop a sense of balance from recipe amounts, and when you cooked enough, it becomes second nature on how much to add or how much is enough flavour.

Achieving balance in food isn't that hard, but it's merely developing the right feel for the food...smelling it, feeling for it and most importantly sensing the food. You can visually sense it, looking at it and how it suddenly makes this complete feeling in your stomach and mind on how well balanced it is.

Yeah baby yeah.

I don't usually read Men's Mags (aka Lad mags). The only real one is Maxim, most often for only the jokes or if there is someone interesting for me to see in there.

However I recently picked up this amazing apparently Canadian Lad Mag called "Toro". Yes admittingly not the not the greatest fucking title for a Lad Mag, however I must re-iterate...would you rather read "Blur" instead?

Now unlike Blur (with it's supremely trashy looking covers, and oft mistaken for those God-awful "Urban Legend" mags. You know the ones....a nice looking housewife on the cover smiling as captions read, "I was raped by my step-cousin"), this seems very unlike any Lad mag I have ever read. It's laid out supremly better than Blur (which seems more like a poster book lay out on flyer paper).

Hell I even consider their layout even better than Maxim's...and mind you, I really do love Maxim's layouts (UK Maxim being second place). I think that they have the best layouts ever, but Toro gives me something more. It's almost laid out and presented as an art nouveau book/an art photography mag.

Abstract ideas are put into it, much smarter and wittier than what Maxim could pull. Example:

Sunglasses for Every Head Shape

Mobius-Strip Head: Not well-served by traditional frames. CHOOSE: Ray-ban's new tinted veil.

Antimatter Head: CHOOSE: A hand-held lorgnette to conceal the fact that you no longer have a nose.

Ok...granted childish, almost to the degree of Maxim, but you have to admit; it's much smarter than what Maxim could churn out of their asses anyday.

Now I must warn you, there isn't much in terms of oogling of the beautiful female form here. Hell you'd be lucky if you actually encounter any form of that. However it is truly...refreshing on how interesting some of the articles are, while still being Maxim-esquely funny. Much like how you have to stand up for yourself when your boss abuses you because of his coke-addiction. You have to draw the line at the sandwich in the face they advise.

But what really appeals to me is the lack of conventional art in this. This is much like "Stuffs" celebrity interview where they have one page of interview and one full page shot of the celebrity in a very cool looking pose/picture that is very unlike most of the shit they usually pull off. Imagine that on almost every page (dis-regarding the endless ads mind you). There's abstract art, non-conventional photography, (I would proudly display a lot of the photos taken in this mag) and lot's of un-conventional drawings.

I haven't even read this thing completely and yet it still got me hooked. By I love this mag. It's very well published and looks so cool, it's almost high concept. It's a lad mag disguised to be something else, from the title, to the cover to the content....I highly suggest reading this mag.