Bewm.

So I was down at the bordello...

2007-01-23T16:31:00.000-08:00

Gypsy Punks. That really says it all. This is one of the most interesting albums I've stumbled on of late. Very interesting guitar melodies juxtaposed against the accordian and fiddle make for a very unique sound. Eugene Hutz's thick Ukranian accent only adds to the rich ethnic flavour. Enjoy my recommendations, reader, for I know there's only one of you.

Start wearing purple for me now.

Not Racist.

2007-01-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

The Following is Endorsed by The Wire

2006-11-21T17:20:00.000-08:00

Let's go in the Way Back Machine to November 10th: Remembrance Day Lite. Now, I had every intent to slip in my earphones and rock the miserable event away. Now, because I had to return my bag, I got in late and was stuck beside one of our fine staff. My evil scheme thwarted, I settled in and braced myself for the pageantry.

The obligatory reading of “In Flander's Fields” was expected. The choreography was certainly not. Two by two, the children ever so spectrally move their way off stage. Things could have ended on such a high note. I'll go out and say I've never liked that poem, with its ridiculous Shatnerian pause, but even then I know it can be done better. This isn't shot at the central figure, who I fear, knowing she secretly controls the school with an iron fist.

Of course, the fates were with me this day, and I'd temporarily lost my glasses, sparing me the bleeding visuals. Everything's better when its fuzzy, or cream filled. This is fact.

I'd now like to take the time to address something that has plagued this farce every year as long as I've known it. There was one war, from which all imagery and inspiration is drawn from, and that is World War II. The well ran dry a long time ago. The bucket's been dragging up sludge ever since. The wonderful montage of Saving Private Ryan and what I can only assume is Pearl Harbour playing along with Repertoire Band brought a few things to mind. First, aren't they supposed to have some sort of exit opportunity for the wuss-kids? Second, “never get out of the boat”.

Now, I have a horrible memory, so these events are most certainly out of order. Continuity loses this one. Once again, we see women at home pining over their manly men. The mail-giant perhaps has new from afar. Tales of victory and intrigue? Nay, shock and awe, Johnny won't be coming home. We live in a quirky little thing I like to call the twenty-first century when women can go to war, and show their ankles to anyone they please. It's a good thing we're not dealing with Relevance to Anything Current Day.

Not to be ragging on veterans, which I'm not above, I understand the sacrifice and all the other things we've been endoctrinated with since elementary, but there's people that are alive that we could be thinking about. The suffering these people went through is over and they've received their hard earned rest. The camera pans to the Middle East, where Canadians are having a rough go of things, in my mind. Yes, I saw the little caption at the end of the video montage, but that was more of a shout-out. Like saying, “hi mom,” when you're on the news.

The choral, I try not to think about, for various reasons. Largely, I find that the song is leftist, idealist jibber-jabber, and the finest you'll ever hear. Curse your righteous words, Lennon.

And that segues beautifully into Dan Turner, the local Lennon look-alike, and his monologue. I can't say much about his acting, which was pretty good. The words put in that boy's mouth however, make me cringe, even writing about it now. I never want to hear about “fighting for what's right”, least of all from someone who couldn't be more dettached from the situation he's describing. The vast majority of wars are not fought with legitimate reason, and lives are thrown away, justified by some sort of greater, purely self-serving good mandated by the government. Dan Turner, you are a king of kings, but you say things that make me worry about the future.

I'm sure if these things weren't dashed off in twenty minutes, they'd read better, but you didn't pay much for this, or at all if you're one of those mooching dogs who can't cough up fifty cents. I leave you and this debacle behind me with words from one of the finest war movies ever. Support the cause, not the war, boys and girls.

“You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like … victory.”

Sucka got served

2006-11-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

The Boy Who Cried Et Cetera

2006-10-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

Charlotte hates overly long bi-lines. Remember that, for after I am gone, it is up to you to carry on my legacy.

Devon Meunier probably wrote this, but he'd never admit it.

There once was a boy named Jack. Jack was a big-shot lawyer who had a better car than you do. He also exploited grieving families, and the tragedies surrounding them. Yeah, he was a jerk like that and obviously bottle fed.

On numerous occasions Jack Thompson has tried to fight the good fight against Rockstar and Take-Two over the (overrated) Grand Theft Auto series, most recently suing for $600 000 000. To those not counting the zeros, that is a gajillion dollars. Thompson is of the belief that Rockstar intended for their product to be used as a training tool for acts of violence. In his eyes, a disc has killed over a dozen people. This obviously makes perfect sense. If I were trying to sell a product marketed to the coveted 18-35 demographic, the logical first step would be that it earns the ire of the world as a demonic entity that plays children like chess-pieces. It's only a natural conclusion.

Within the last 30 days, there have been school shootings in Montreal, Colorado, and Wisconsin. As opposed to letting the families of the victims grieve their losses and offer them a little respect, the media* and politicians would much rather turn the event into a soap box for their causes.

The recent Montreal shooting has received interesting coverage to say the least. I was going to draw quotes from the article I read in the Toronto Sun, but that apparently requires a $10.00 subscription fee after the first week, at which time the article is removed from The Sun's website. As a result you are going to have to bear with my shaky memory.

The gunman had something of an online presence, and it was determined that he was a fan of the obvious, Grand Theft Auto – Whatever City They're On Now. Also notably, he was very into Super Columbine Massacre, an indie title that tried to serve as an analysis of the events as opposed to some twisted joke**. Of course, reading the title alone gives a different impression and you can't expect the thorough investigators to dig much deeper than that.

I'm sure Hilary Clinton squealed with joy.

What these people fail to realize is that violent people are drawn to violent content, be it ultra-violence in film, or explicit lyrics in music, or the media darling, games. Now that doesn't mean people who enjoy the above are gun toting maniacs. The truly unstable people will end up on the same path eventually. Violence hardly just popped up out of the blue within the last hundred years. It's as old as we are and is, regrettably, part of our culture.

I want to briefly touch on how World War II movies, games and the like are largely left alone by the media, because speaking ill of them is unpatriotic. What do you have against our troops? Support the cause. If this stretches on any longer I'm fairly certain I'll be black bagged by the editors.

“Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.”

*I don't consider The Wire “media”. Media has an audience. If I disappear within the next week, you can assume I am in one of the editors' basements.

**Those inane Flash games where you box/shoot/whatever Osama/Saddam in the face.

Ganbare NeoPoke Kun

2006-07-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

This is indeed a disturbing universe. This thing's got some really strange... dealie. I've been tinkering and I can't seem to get the font to display just right with Nana which is... odd. I'm looking into learning SDL to just make something that displays it properly myself. If anyone knows a better way just shout.

"Feda Beta" is really fun to say

2006-05-04T17:38:00.000-07:00

I finally started the Feda Beta after realizing it was already available... a few months ago. Regardless, I'm meticulously trying funny things to see how the game likes it now and recording the times where it doesn't. I've consumed a ridiculously large amount of sugar and this is my down time before the next barrage of work.

The days themselves have been beautiful since coming back from Atlanta. Thinking how to approach a thing or two, tinkering away as usual. If all goes well, I should finish the beta shortly after the end of school.

Made a tall friend or two.

Fire Walk With Me

2006-04-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

Watched season 1 of Twin Peaks. I'm very happy with that and I'm working through season 2 of Arrested Development. Marvel Zombies sends chills down my spine. Tinkering away and don't have anything to show for it just yet. Listen to Beck and your ears will turn into candy.

Frustrations. Allegations.

2006-03-27T14:09:00.000-08:00

I've figured out how Pulseman is storing it's graphics. It's not a pretty picture I will assure you. This is going to take some thinking. I really don't want to have to learn 68k but it's sure smelling like that. Also, trying to find Rushmore on DVD.

Clair de Lune

Dizzy Anger spells. Danger spells.

2006-03-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

I'm suffering from some ridiculous vertigo right now. Just picked up Marvel Zombies #1 and The Walking Dead #26 today. Both were satisfying.
I've got two upcoming articles for the competing school papers. Once they've both had a taste of me there'll be a bidding war, I'm sure of it. One will be on my definition of beauty and how soap commericals have no damn right to tell me what my definition is. My soap kicks Dove's ass for it makes me smell fragrant and manly. The other is on the topic of dysgenics which is one of my hideous fascist ideas. The latter of which I give something more of a damn about.
On the Pulseman front I've decided that the only way I'm finding this god forsaken text is to learn the assembly for it. There's plenty of fresh stuff for the genesis and I'm sure a platformer is the safest environment in which to hone my skills.
Shin Megami Tensei walkthrough is 16kb or so. Not much. I'm not looking forward to cooking up the fusion chart. I'm unwilling to copy the existing one due to a strict moral code I'm trying to adhere to.
Boston Legal last night was badass as always. You're not watching it because you suck.

Vive el Alambre!

The Hunt Is On!

2006-03-20T15:56:00.000-08:00

This is no kind of fun. I've managed to find essentially all non-dialogue text. Of which there is about 2kb. This might seem fruitful if this text was not already in English. Thus all I need to find is the Japanese. The graphics are most certainly compressed, but I see evidence of a full English font in some dialogue. Admittedly it's more of a crapshoot, but that's beside the point.

Eien Ni Hen was kind enough to translate the first three screens posted earlier. Something should come of that. I've come across four more dialogue screens after completing the first three levels. I'm praying one of them uses some odd English word to give me enough for a relative search. Up goes the new dialogue shots. Be merry whilst I search for a genesis emulator with a debugger.

Blast. Issues uploading the last one.

Pulseman: Pre-Pokemon

2006-03-19T13:26:00.000-08:00

I was looking around a Genesis rom list and I came across Pulseman by Game Freak. Thusfar I'm having a fun little time with it. I may translate it depending on how it looks when I poke around under the hood. And by translate I mean do the hacking for my Japanese is non-existent. I've only come across the level descriptions being in japanese so this whole post is mainly a place holder for me to upload the screens thereof.

The voice acting was a nice touch to me, and overall audio is fairly spiff.

On an unrelated note, I caught V for Vendetta on Friday. It wasn't as disappointing as I thought it would be and I suppose it's the best job the Wachowskis could have done. I left happy but it doesn't touch the comic book. Poor Mr Moore.

Shiren the Wanderer Released

2006-03-07T16:25:00.000-08:00

Gideon Zhi and Co. finished their Shiren the Wanderer translation. Rejoice. Joe Satriani's Crystal Planet is currently blowing my mind. Also, Down #4 tomorrow and Fell #4. Purchase and be merry.

Edit: Down #4 really sucked. I retract any and all praise.

Rebirth #1 Preview

2006-03-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

There's your little sneak peak of the Rebirth to come. Edits are going slowly as a new font is somehow fighting with the others, causing them to render improperly. I assume I'll be able to fix it eventually as this has happened before but until then progress is slow.

Upon further research, the Twin Peaks Pilot is two hours and thus very difficult for me and my bandwidth cap to pirate. Upon further listening, Arctic Monkeys have one hell of an album. I expect to be ripping Satriani's "Crystal Planet" sometime in the coming week at Lame VBR of course.

For the albums I've already ripped, I'm usually in the Balkan Community DC hub. For the vast majority of you who can't use Direct Connect, it is recommended you learn.

Afternoon Delight

2006-03-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

Just got the Arctic Monkeys album. You obviously should mirror my every move and do the same. Today is thus an awesome day that I'll be thinking back to fondly for years to come. After this I need to find the Twin Peaks pilot so that Fire Walk With Me cause sleepless nights no longer. Praise be to Lynch for he is merciful.

Kiss Me, Baby

2006-03-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

To my list of many things that I do, Kiss Me Kiss Me must be added. I haven't a clue what it's about but I don't ask questions. Should be up on Eternal Blue sometime this week. And to the list of things you must do, I add 'watch Boston Legal,' because Shatner is king of all things.

Shadowsithe's New Deal

2006-02-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

Out of the scanlation depression. I'm now working under Eternal-Blue. Most Furinkazan titles were dropped due to licensing by Infinity Studios so you can always cough up $10 for a hard copy. I'm now working on Rebirth which my spider sense tells me is licensed by Tokyopop but the scans are nice and I'm not a complainer.

I'm reading up on C++ and z80. If anybody knows a superfly resource for z80gb in particular I'm all ears. Tauwasser, the good german that he is did some major Devil Children ASM work so that might prove fruitful once I can coerce it out of him.

Last, I'm writing a walkthrough for Shin Megami Tensei because I have time for another playthrough. Expect an early version Marchish.

Edit: Got the Devil Children files. Now to decypher the german documentation.

Doomsday

2005-10-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

Let it be known that today www.furinkazan.us is no more. The man keeps trying to get me down, as usual. As of now we're trying to collect ourselves... trying to work out some stuff with TiD of http://tidwah.net/ who has been willing to host for us. Hopefully we'll work the kinks out and things will be right as rain once again. Any help of any sort is as always most appreciated.

On Web Hosts

2005-09-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

It just so turns out that our beloved Sona has had to take a leave of absense. And it also turns out that her webhost is pulling the plug. So we're trying to pull things back togeter. This might not be as glamorous but it'll do. If anyone's good for bots, hosting.... any help at all, we'd be much obliged.