Semjaza

[quote name='James][font=franklin gothic medium][color=#808080]The "bits" of a console don't really make a tremendous amount of difference these days, because of the way the hardware is designed. All current generation systems are regarded as "128-bit", but I think that number actually changes depending on what you take into consideration. It matters not, though, because current systems are all designed pretty differently on the inside (especially in the case of PS2).[/color'][/font][/quote] This needs to be quoted for truth. Using bit amounts to determine generations means absolutely nothing anymore. Bits in these senses are determined by the CPU. The Xbox, for example, is only 32-bit by those standards. Dreamcast was 128-bit. Obviously comparing the two systems by that would get you absolutely nowhere.

I get to go all Summer. I can't wait! :animesigh

This in general is referred to by some people as the "white man's burden". It's one of those you can't win situations, as far as I'm concerned. Being white, you're almost scared to talk about anything related to race in general because it's so easy for anyone to deem you a racist for any comment. Honestly, I don't find it to be all that typical. There are people who buy into it, but they're generally the same people who still find something to complain about when they have a life better than mine and get a free ride in college because they're part of a "minority". Being a normal white male with no exceptional traits gets you pretty much nothing, unfortunately. It's like original sin or something. Usually I find the people who complain most have the least amount of reason to. My girlfriend had a professor in college that would make generalizations about how everyone in his class had it easy because they were white and how hard it was for him because he was black. My girlfriend's family was barely above the poverty line for years and she's diabetic, which is a major insurance problem. Considering the man is a professor at a major Chicago college, what exactly is he still complaining about? It's really just not something I understand. I really don't think that even a majority of black people out there do either. Most I've met certainly do not. There's lazy people who expect everything in every single race, unfortunately. All you can do is hope that they don't continue to contribute to the gene pool, I guess lol.

Even I am looking forward to FFXII, which is a large surprise even to me. I've been pretty vocal about why in the past, so I won't bother talking about it here. However, I do hope it turns out to fit what I'm expecting (I expect FF fans will be happy regardless, since they like how it is now lol). It certainly has the potential.

[quote name='Morpheus']I'd say the biggest reason for the loss of some wit is the death of Phil Hartman, who was instrumental in the simpson's success.[/quote] And I'd say that's a really bad exaggeration lol. The guy didn't write the show. The reason it sucks now is a shift in writers and producers. Ian Maxtone Graham, for example, is quoted in saying that he'd never even seen the show before writing for it. You can tell that much just by watching any of the episodes he is responsible for. Somehow he became one of the producers since then. The main problem is that now the show is a parody of itself. Characters are charicatures of their former selves. Moe is so depressing that you can't even like him anymore. The same with Ralph and his absolute extreme stupidity. Any shred of depth these characters had is completely out the window. I can say the same of really any other character within the showm honestly. Then you have issues with blood. The show used to use it sparingly, but there's entire scenes where blood is literally gushing. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think it fits this series and it certainly is not funny. It had a great place in Itchy and Scratchy, which were a great commentary on TV violence in and of themselves, but certainly not in the main show. Further proof of its parodizing, as far as I'm concerned. I think another issue is that the show completely embraces pop-culture. Before it used to satirize and poke fun at these things. Now it dedicates entire episodes to it. The Simpsons is like a forty year old man that wants to pretend he's still twenty. It's not fooling anyone. Family Guy might not be as witty as the Simpsons in its prime, but it's certainly witty in general. It has a lot of book, film and pop-culture references that I'm really starting to believe go over most of its audience's heads (or at least a lot of the younger people I know who watch it). I'd not dismiss it as pure randomness with no thought beforehand. In any case, if you don't the Simpsons now, don't support the new seasons. It's a waste of time to tune in every week and complain. You're watching it, Fox gets its advertising money. The only way they'll put this cow out of its misery is only if the ratings go down. I'm doing my part and have for the last three years now.

Yes, fans are all about buying bootlegged Chinese DVDs with English subtitles and downloading fansubs. Woo! Seriously, I think that's a dumb statement, some people just can't keep up with stuff that isn't readily, legally available to them. In any case, the one anime I feel almost bombarded with is Inuyasha. It just seems like so many people who enjoy Adult Swim enjoy that show and it's generally the first anime series I see late at night. I don't really attempt to watch much anime anymore, but I can't really seem to avoid this series whatsoever. Yet, in terms of what this thread is asking about, I don't know. You get that sort of thing with every type of entertainment: books, movies, games, music. I can't base my opinion of someone on the way fans may or may not act. Some people just don't have the time or same amount of interest to be quite into something as much as someone else.

Well, when I think of upcoming, I think relatively soon. Zelda and Morrowind are both pretty far off for me. I'm looking forward to a couple of games that should be in stores within a week or so, if not sooner: Area 51 and Psychonauts. Area 51 just seems like a great sci-fi FPS game. I loved what I played of the demo and it has gotten some really good reviews so far. Xbox and PS2 are getting it first, I think the PC version is coming later. Psychonauts is from the guy who did such awesome games as Grim Fandango. It's more of a platform game, although with puzzle elements. It has a really bizarre style. I've played the PC demo and will probably get it for that... But it's coming to Xbox and PS2 too. After that, hrm. I've really been looking forward to the Call of the Cthulu PC game. Kind of looks like Eternal Darkness, but even better.

[QUOTE=Panda]I am in the camp that you name pets after they let you know what name best suits them. Working in vet med I have seen soooo many pets with the names that were pre-picked before the pet was adopted. These pets seemed to have names that just didn't jive with their personalites. Example: A 5 pound toy poodle who was very sweet, sickly, but loved to be around little kids and other animals: Killer. All my co-workers, as well as myself, felt that name was just not right. [/QUOTE] Personally, I think that name is awesomely ironic and I'd probably do the same, particularly after I knew the dog was anything but one. I really doubt anyone buys a Poodle and thinks "Killer" is a really fitting, apt name lol.

I did have a question about this show. That one girl who one America's Next Top Model on year is now on The Surreal Life. Did she not even do any modeling stuff after she won? It seems strange to jump into another reality TV show so quickly.

The main thing here, in my opinion, is that reality TV already did fade into the background on literally every other single channel except for FOX. They put all their eggs in one basket and it backfired on them. Recently, people in charge of the network have even admitted to this being a bad decision, so I'm not expecting many more shows in that vein... if any. The worst part is that FOX would hear about other networks' shows and then make a poorer version that they could put out first. I think that's rather detestable. So, in that sense, I would say TV is balancing itself out a bit. I think there will always be room for reality TV, but it wore out its welcome quickly. Still, I have to wonder when shows like America's Funniest Home Videos and The Swan 2 get better ratings than Arrested Development.

To me they've always been more or less the same damn store. I know some people prefer one over the other, but it usually has to do with how they liked some staff at a particular location. It's not something you can base an opinion of an entire company on. I don't think this is a good thing. I doubt prices for new games will change, but now the company has very little reason to worry about anything because there is no significant competition. Game Crazy and that Blockbuster game store are not established enough to matter. It suspect that people will get even less for trade-ins in the future. There won't really be any alternative, so why would they want to give you fair prices? They're a company and the simple answer is that they won't want to. I don't think this is a good thing at all. Someone mentioned on theOtaku that it was a merger and the stores will remain as Gamestop and EB Games like they are now. However, that's shortsighted in my opinion. They both have the same parent company now, they aren't competing with eachother. No matter which one you go to, the money is going to the same place. It's not like going to Target instead of Wal-Mart.

My first dog was a husky named Ace. He loved girls and hated boys. One day he just ran away and I don't think anyone missed him. He was very erratic. He was replaced with a mutt that we also named Ace (kids that young don't have great imaginations when it comes to names, apparently). We eventually got a St. Bernard named Harley. However, Harley wasn't exactly smart and one day both he and Ace got out. Ace came back, Harley did not. Eventually Ace disappeared as well... somehow the gate opened in the middle of the night. When we moved we bought a purebred golden labrador that we named Amber. We still have her now, although she's getting pretty old at this point. I've had various other pets. A guinea pig named He-Man, for example. A gecko named Yoda. I went through a couple of ferrets, named Sable and Kit, before I fully realized what a pain in the *** they were (both were given to people who had more time). I also had a couple of rats named after Marilyn Manson members: Pogo and Twiggy. Twiggy was always kind of sickly and one day she just seemed really sad and fragile. I somehow just knew she was dying, so I held her and petted her until she passed away. Pogo lived a good deal longer, although the method of her death was pretty upsetting. One day she just wasn't moving anymore. Since then I've gotten two cats, Napoleon and Ava. Napoleon is the gray one; we think he is a Chartreux. Ava is the other one, who knows what she is. They're both very well behaved and love attention from us and anyone else. They're really more like dogs than cats. [IMG]http://www.wrappedinplastic.net/images/stuff/photos/cats_tmb.jpg[/IMG]

I ordered Vertigo awhile back off the site. I wound up getting a personalized autographed copy just because I could lol. The packaging is kind of weird and I don't really understand why he is sticking with the whole John5 image (but at the same time, I do, considering that's where most of his fanbase is located as this point -- I doubt anyone that liked him playing KD Lang cares anymore lol). He really is a versatile guitarist. Vertigo is a fun album with so many different styles within it, all of which are well conceptualized and played. While his work with Manson was very good, Vertigo makes it very obvious that he is much more capable than the sound of Marilyn Manson would have allowed. I mean, I can't think of any bluegrass Manson songs lol. There really isn't a place for more traditional guitar rock within the group either, so it's nice hearing him go nuts and play 1,000,000 notes a minute. I think all the members are pretty talented, though. Twiggy was often recognized as one of the better bassists around and was continuously nominated for awards with more well-known artists. He was also responsible for a good portion of the music writing. Madonna Wayne Gacy (aka Pogo) is just an excellent keyboardist and programmer. I find he is often the most underrated within the group because his work isn't at the forefront. However, the ambiance he produces (best examplified on Mechanical Animals, probably) and the background enhancement really adds [i]so much[/i] to the overall sound. I can't imagine the group without him, particularly because he's been around so damn long. And then Ginger Fish... The guy is freaking insane on stage and probably the most active drummer I've ever seen in my life. His drumkit is pretty freaking huge (some of the pictures are pretty insane), yet he manages it all. I think what I respect most about him is that he knows when [i]not[/i] to play. It might sound strange to some people, but the hardest part about percussion is knowing when not to hit the drums and wait. Anyone can just go nuts. Skold already has a strong history with KMFDM. Some people don't like him because of it, but I'm finding him to be a very capable bassist. His influenced on Golden Age is pretty freaking obvious, however, and I'm hoping the next album won't subscribe to those KMFDM-style sounds as much. In other news, Area 51 is hitting Xbox and PS2 next week. I've personally been looking forward to this game for quite some time (it just looks like it is right up my alley and the demo was fun). I only mention it because Marilyn Manson voices the main alien character in the title.

Nearly every Top 100 list purposely puts things that would be considered "controversial" within the top 20 or so. Some of the albums missing from the list are glaring ommissions. I honestly never waste my time reading them anymore. I don't even know who the people picking them even are 95% of the time. What value can I put into something like that? lol

[quote name='x kakashi x'](The post)[/quote] Sorry, I just didn't want to quote the entire thing. It would be redundant lol. Anyway, I'm happy you posted your side of it because I find people rarely bother. If you're not into it and don't want to pursue it, that's totally cool with me. I'm glad there was at least an attempt on your part (and moreso, from the sounds of it). I think the comment about the slow songs just made me assume you were just making an assumption based off of a song or two like so many people I come across. My apologies. James, about the new album: nothing. There's no hints on style or anything. The band is still actually touring parts of Europe right now, last I heard. I imagine not much will happen till they all settle down after that. I'm not even sure of their guitarist as of this point. John5 was the main guitarist on Golden Age, but he was dropped just before Lest We Forget for some reason that has still never been divulged. Right now they have this guy whose name I forget touring with them on guitar; he used to be a member of a band called Fight. Manson has been asked about him sticking around, but he's mostly just said "we'll see how it works out". The drummer, Ginger Fish, was injured awhile back as well. Unless something changed since then, Chris Vrenna has been playing during the tour. He used to be NIN's live drummer and puts out his own stuff under the name of "tweaker". There's been rumors of him replacing Ginger Fish, but I think they're just assumptions because of Ginger's long downtime. I don't see that happening, but you never know. I never thought Twiggy would leave either. So yeah, nothing otherwise. In any case, it's nice to see some people posting in this thread that haven't posted in the past ones. It always seems to be the same few people lol.

[quote name='Baron Samedi][size=1']Also, a rather apt quote for this thread "Music downloading supports artists who perform live."[/size][/quote] I'm not going after you, but I see this so much. This is the most ridiculous thing I seen continuously posted on the internet in many, many places. Can someone explain to me how this works? If you don't buy albums, the label won't support the tour. End of story. It's happened many, many times. It even happened to Nine Inch Nails with the Fragile, which despite going platinum was not enough for Interscope. Trent Reznor paid for a large portion of that tour out of his own pocket. This really bodes well for that argument. It's happened with Curve as well. Some bands have even broken up because of it; major labels are not supportive of sales lulls and few indie labels have enough pull to really get a band going to that extent. Fiona Apple, for example, has had an album done for quite some time and Sony won't release it because of what apparently is "lack of commercial appeal". As far as these labels are concerned, if you don't buy enough of it, the public simply doesn't want it. Now I'm not saying their music was pirated so often that they lost millions of record sales (it definitely hasn't), but how in the world are you going to see a band live if they can't tour if no one buys the albums? Things don't work that way. There's also this idea of how going to a show and buying a shirt or something will give them more money. There's just as many middlemen in the merchandise buying process, really. I'd be surprised if a group got all that much money from any of that compared to actual CD sales. Regardless, I severely doubt that even a majority of people who pirate music go to the live shows of each and every one of the musicians they enjoy that they've never bought a single album for. That alone kills off any benefit of that argument, really.

I heavily suggest giving Antichrist Superstar another try, if you haven't already. It wasn't my very first exposure to the band, but it was the first album of theirs I bought way, way back. I wound up buying it three separate times (gave it away twice) before I really sat down and realized how damn good it was. The layering of sounds on that album is phenominal. Most would consider it their best work, it seems. As for Personal Jesus... I'm not quite sure why people are that into it. It's a very basic cover, I think, and adds very little to the original song. I enjoy it, but I could never buy an entire album because of it. Personally, I bought Lest We Forget for the DVD with all their music videos. That and because some of the songs are mastered differently. Beautiful People, for example, sounds totally different during that little instrumental before the chorus than it does on Antichrist Superstar. I'm not sure why it was adjusted.

I always thought there was a somewhat suspicious resemblance between Master Chief's appearance and the marine from Doom, personally. As time has gone on, I've felt less and less strongly about that, though.

I hope the people who have cited Lest We Forget actually own something beyond that... It's just a Greatest Hits album lol. Personally, I love Marilyn Manson. You do get a lot of crap for it from people who claim to know more about music than you do, but what can you do about it? I used to get upset about it, but I figured out long ago that it really doesn't matter. I enjoy the music and I get what is trying to be accomplished. I don't think the latter is true of a majority of people, they just make a conclusion based on assumptions, rumors and a single or two. Marilyn Manson was my favorite group for a long time (excluding single musicians such as David Bowie or Beck). I don't know if they still hold that position, but they're definitely very, very high up there. We get into this every few months it seems and I mention the same points over and over again. I'll just try to keep it down for once. I love the sound. People want to dismiss the band quickly because of assumed themes and topics or what they believe the image itself is. Regardless, each and every LP has been substantially different from the last both in playing and writing style. The band, although ever-changing, is extremely versatile. Going from industrial metal to hard rock to glam rock and then into whatever else is not exactly something I would consider easy. I don't take their various changes very lightly in any sense. Hell, even as a huge fan, I find myself put off by every new release of theirs until I get used to it. You never wind up with what you're expecting, I find. Personally, I adore the image. Marilyn Manson almost single-handedly brought showmanship back into rock that wasn't purely ridiculous like it was with groups such as Gwar. There are lavish productions, huge costume changes and god knows what else that change for each and every tour. He's one of the best theatrical performers around as far as I'm concerned. The band has also almost single-handedly kept the concept album alive in modern rock. Certainly more bands have done concept type albums during the time of Marilyn Manson, but I don't feel any other group has pushed it to this extent and developed it so completely. The only comparable artist to this effect, that I can think of, was David Bowie. The man developed complete personas that appeared and sang in the albums. They had their own look, desires and voice. That isn't very easy to do. Marilyn Manson has echoced this in a far darker light, overall, although similar themes (such as drugs) do exist. There's actually a site out there that catalogs the references and implications in the words and image of Marilyn Manson and it's really just insane. There's just so much to it. This is why I don't understand the general comparisons to Kiss and/or Alice Cooper in this sense. Their image was arbitrary. It was based on nothing and existed simply to exist. Certainly they had good songs and people enjoyed the image, but it was never even remotely comparable with the things Bowie and Manson have projected over the years. I think that's extremely commendable. Of course, some people don't want to look past what they think is there. I can't tell you how many people give me absolutely ridiculous reasons as to why they hate the group. If they don't like the sound or are completely put off by the theme, then that's cool. I certainly don't expect most people to be interested even after giving the group a fair chance. It's just rather unlikely. However, I don't think that many people can truly make that conclusion because they never have anything to support it. There is certainly more to the image and sound than most people are willing to discover (particularly because some people seem to think the themes and image have been the same since the Antichrist Superstar days). I don't know how many opinions I can value when I read stuff that says something to the effect of "Marilyn Manson sucks so bad, I'd rather play Drowning Pool...." I have to wonder exactly what they have bothered to try fairly ( did read that somewhere too, I still can't believe that, especially because the implication was that Drowning Pool was sucky and predictable as it was). In any case, I know a decent amount of people here respect my opinion on music. Yet, I expect very few of them have bothered to look more into this group regardless of how much praise I lavish upon them. I think a lot of this has to do with assumptions and not what's actually there. It's a shame. The ideas that got the band popular in the 90s are biting them in the *** now... but I still enjoy everything about them. [quote name='x kakashi x']Well, for all he Manson lovers that actually do check out this post, you should say why you like Manson because personally I don't find him all that great. His music is ok, but a lot of it is slow and just him in his solemn weird voice. It just seems hes trying a bit hard to be different and/or "weird" so that people are drawn to him from curiosity rather than musical talent.[/quote] I'm wondering how much of their music you've actually heard if you think most (or even " a lot") of it is "slow". I don't know what you mean by "just him". He is the vocalist, there's little reason for anyone else to sing along (although some songs feature gospel singers and Personal Jesus has a back-up vocal from the bassist). As for the latter comment, who knows. I don't think the guy himself is trying particularly hard at all (especially in the derrogatory sense you're implying here), he just does what he does. Certainly it can be simply described as "weird", but considering the large amount of research and thought that goes into the writing and image on and off-stage, I don't think it's that clear cut. Of course, most people aren't willing to go that far, as I've said.That's their choice, so what can be said past that? :animeblus

I don't really understand this distaste for rap and hip-hop that is prevalent in these threads. It's the same as with any type of music. As someone who doesn't like rap, the things you've heard are likely only the most media-centered and popular. With any music, the biggest stuff isn't always the most impressive. I think it's incredibly unfair to judge an entire genre based on the fact that 50 Cent gets played constantly on MTV. There's more to the genre than that and, personally, anyone I know that's really into the stuff can't even stand that guy or half the artists mentioned thus far as examples.

I think the rain effect in that animated banner is actually pretty cool. I'm not too big on the flashing glow around the Japanese you have there... it kind of seems like a bit too much with the rain. Maybe it's just me. I think it's pretty well done overall, though. Nice job.

Well, I think PBS has been decent all along. They've certainly modernized more and gotten better with their programming overall, but I think there were always some good shows on there. They were just harder to find. I find myself watching it a lot lately. A few times I put our local PBS station on and they were playing full, uncut films. It was mostly surprising since it was a comedy that really didn't offer any educational value. I guess it's more in line with their block of British shows... not all of them are comedies, but I don't like most of them either. There's a few good ones. I like Arthur lol.

When I saw the title to this thread, I thought "god, what the hell is this crap..." like I do so often when I come in this section heh. However, I have to say that the point you bring up here is something I actually understand. As said, I'd not use the actions of a particular jackass to lead you to question anything such as this. The fact that someone would call you any sort of name for doing something such as that is really beyond ridiculous. Personally, I would have just insulted the guy back, but sometimes it's hard to react quickly in situations as surprising as that. I find, in general, that being a nice guy/girl has its ups and downs. I don't particularly feel I'm an especially nice person, but I'm told I am. You have some people who genuinely appreciate it and you have some people who take advantage of it completely. I can't tell you how many times doing something nice for someone gets me dragged into some sort of debacle of epic proportions, just because the person seemingly expects to be able to walk all over you (sometimes that's even something they do unconsciously, I notice). You just have to take these things in stride, I suppose. I think being polite or decent to people in those senses is just a basic thing. Some people don't. It's not my loss. The times people actually do appreciate it tend to make up for the crap that happens otherwise.

My cards do get hot, but I've honestly never had that problem at all. I played Seaman and PSO on DC extensively and I never had a single problem with my VMUs, official or not. I have one of those Interact 16 mb cards for my GameCube and despite problems I've read about, it's never once failed on me. One time it came up empty, but I took it out and re-inserted it and all my saves were still there. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with how well made the card was, as well. Even with official ones, it is possible to get a shoddy unit. I have a MadCatz PS2 card and it runs perfectly as well. I write and delete off of it quite often, I'd say. My only complaint is that the slim PS2 I have now doesn't seem to read the card unless I have it in there just right lol.

James made it sound as if he'd just close off the chapter if I didn't post, which is something I agreed with in my last post in this thread. I said if I didn't post within the next few days, just tie it up for me and do whatever. I figured it would have been done by now, but no one has approached me about it either way.