Take the bad with the good... when it arrives Been a while, folks. As usual, nothing to really report, but I hope to have some REALLY good news soon. The subject will make more sense "when it arrives". For now, I finally succumbed to the Light side (to use a Star Wars metaphor, since Ep III is opening next week and all...). I registered a blogspot. Now before you condemn me eternally to float on a cloud in heaven... I only registered it because I wanted to post on a musician's blogspot. But in order to post, you have to register. In order to continue posting, you have to keep an active account (I think). So I've got one, and will use it this way: Helparena.com soon will be it's own site with nothing but gaming (as it is now, only Quake 3). A new site, yet to be named, will be born and will take place the music/smooth harmonies and personal stuff. The blog will be, well, ME! Rants, goofy stuff, and maybe the more personal stuff I don't want published on my music site. "So where's the damn blog??!" you ask? It can be found here: [my blog] Eventually that will be the place for the random updates you see here in the journal. The smooth harmonies journal will eventually be just about music (mine, others, thoughts on music, etc). That's it for now. Feel the groove! GET YOU! -Rich

New stuff is cool Not much new, but I felt this was a good time to make an entry. I've been playing some FarCry lately (single player). Nice engine, and unique gameplay. They give you a sense of an open ended approach to the missions, but it's still a game, and games are linear. But instead of "Go to point A, get card, go to Point B", they give you 2 routes to get to the card and to get to Point B. It's still go here do this, go there, do that. But at least it's not one hallway or path between them. That's about all that's new on the game front. As for the music area, I've bought another toy (and received another toy, free). The first year I started playing guitar, I had a tuner, one of those pocket sized ones. Well, I dropped it about a year after I got it, and it never worked, so I've been using alternate methods of tuning my instruments the past decade or so. My Digitech (Daisy), has a built in tone reference which I use on occasion, but most of my tuning comes from using Cakewalk on the computer, or using my keyboard (and sustain pedal) to tune my guitars and bass. I thought I was well overdue for a new tuner. So I went to Sam Ash to look at tuners, and more specifically rackmount tuners. I also had in mind of getting another (new) metronome as I don't know where my old one is. It's probably in the garage somewhere under a bunch of junk. I also wanted the new E-bow system if they had it. Well, the rackmount tuner I went for was alot more expensive than I thought so I declined on the metronome. I also didn't see an E-bow. So for $260 I got a NICE rackmount tuner with a bunch of pretty lights :) And as usual with Sam Ash, they always have nice sales and deals going on. The whole point of this trip that I made with Mike and Sandy was that if you spend over $300, you get a free Carlo Robelli 12-string guitar. Well, to make a long story short, both me and Mike walked out with the free 12-string guitar. Nothing special about the guitar (list of like $160; sale $99), but it's free and it'll do the trick. I got home and installed the tuner, moved my Digitech from the top slot the make way for the tuner at the top. Put Daisy right under it, and the EQ that I bought off ebay (from ex-Cynic guitarist Jason Gobel) at the bottom. I just got done tuning the 12-string guitar (what a bitch that is!) and trying to get used to playing it. The strength in my hand always had trouble on a standard 6-string acoustic if I was playing alot of barre chords. Also, my index finger must be retarded cause it has trouble fretting (or barre-ing?) the third string. Though on a 6-string I can do it fine until the cramping or fatigue sets in in that hand, the 12-string is a different story. I just can't seem to get that finger flat enough to fret both "G" strings. So that only comes into play in minor barre chords. But that will remedy itself the more I play the guitar. Being my first 12-string, i'm not used to it but I know in time it won't be a problem. In other music news, I happened to come across Sean Malone's "Portrait of Jaco" bass book in Sam Ash and picked that up. I'll be ordering his latest book(s) very soon to improve upon my bass knowledge... hopefully. So I didn't get the year update and fix and all that done yet, but definitely next time. And I swear... I promise... gear pictures will be coming soon. Even if I have to deal with glare, reflections and poorly light pictures of them, I need something to put up. So look for that. As always, feel the groove! GET YOU! -Rich

New Year; Nothing New Been a while, and as usual, no news to update. I'm going to dispel the rumor of "no news is good news" and here's how: Well, I wanted to finally sit down and expand helparena.com a bit with different games. One of my wishes was answered from PainKiller. They finally fixed the demo recording utility. It works on the fly now. All good, right? Wrong. While I can record demos, no one has been able to playback my demos. I haven't been able to playback other people's demos. Seems something is fucked in the whole demo utility. But we're one step closer. So scratch that idea... Next idea... Lots of people seem to want to know basic and advanced movement in UT2k4. So I thought I'd work that into helparena.com. Recorded demos fine (and it even has a built in demo->AVI converter; couldn't get sound to work with it though, as someone said it's supposed to record sound as well... oh well!). Again, though, in UT2k4, demo playback is screwed up. I recorded my demos on a standard DM map, but since I have the jailbreak mod installed, to be able to play back the demo, others need to have jailbreak installed as well. No clue why, and I haven't had any luck on finding a work around (other than running two installs of UT2k4). So I scratched that idea as well. Back to square one... nothing new for helparena.com. As for the holidays, they were good. Got some kickass speakers for my computer, and they will come in handy when I build my next one with a fully supported 5.1 dolby yadda yadda yadda sound card. I got the Klipsch Ultra ProMedia 5.1 speakers. And man do the crank out some noise! NO distortion or crackling out of these puppies, and the sub packs a HUGE punch. Other gifts: money, gift cards, and some stuff I already owned... Oh well. New Years was okay as well. I spent it with my two best friends: Sam Adams and Jack Daniels. Got drunk... almost puked... drank some more... passed out... woke up with a headache... slept some more... that's about it. Was a good party, though I'm really feeling the anti-social/hermit in me coming out in full swing. Since the last update, I haven't gone out that much, only for the occasional beer and/or food outing. But I've been deep into Neil Peart's latest book (almost finished, about 5-10 pages left), and again, I wish I could do what he does. Just drive cross-country, stopping at various landmarks, campgrounds, hotels, and read/write, take pictures etc. Just myself and nature. I find myself really not wanting to be around people, and when I am, I just get pissed off, irritated, and lose my patience. I think I need a vacation... hopefully in May. If I can muster the money, I may just pull a Neil Peart and hit a highway and start driving. Tent in the trunk and a credit card for anything else. I just need to get away from people, away from here, and away from myself. We'll see what 2005 brings (most likely nothing). Anyways... The next update will most likely move the year 2004 to a link next to the 2003 one... or something. Shit, it seems like I just threw the 2003 link up there to make way for 2004! Did I procrastinate as usual? Or did 2004 go by that fast? Hopefully that next update will be soon (like THIS month!). But who knows? And I'm going to try something new this time to end my entry. Feel the Grove! GET YOU! Fuck off and die! -Rich

Been a while... Since the last update, I've been to California again. Me and my mom went there to visit our newborn niece, Nova Mai. She was about 2 weeks old when we were there for the weekend, and I did the scariest thing ever... held a 2 week old baby. Cute lil thing she is though! Nothing really to report, hence the lack of entries, but here's a quick recap for the past two months. I finished that book, "Lucifer Rising" and it was an enjoyable read. I highly recommend it (I highly recommend all the books I read, because if I finish it, it means' it's good!). The new double live album "Deadly Lullabyes" by King Diamond came out and it fucking rocks! The new Fates Warning album "FWX" came out about 2 weeks ago and it rocks! The remastered release of my favorite band of all time came in the mail a couple days ago, "Focus" by Cynic. I won an award at work (that makes one award for each job I've had... unfortunately the first job has no solid evidence). It was basically an outstanding achievement type award. It's based on performance, teamwork, and overall interaction with fellow co-workers. So that was cool. Other than that, not much going on. Nothing on the music or game front. I've been contemplating some big purchases though... a 10-disc cd changer for my car, or a hard disk mp3 player. A rifle. A new car. An apartment. A new computer. A new guitar. A new guitar amp. Which one will it be? Not sure. The computer is definitely on there, but how soon doesn't really matter to me. I want a car, but that means I can't get an apartment. If I get an apartment, that means I can't get a new car. My car needs a paintjob, and it needs some modernized music player in it. Either in dash cd player with mp3 support, the 10 disc changer, or the portable hard disc mp3 player. It also wants a remote start (damn winters). So there you have it. Nothing really has happened the past two months. And aside from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, I don't think much is happening in the future either. So I'll leave it at that. Feel the groove! GET YOU! -Rich

Hell has arrived! Let's talk vacation first. So I decided on a whim that I wasn't going to stay in Naperville for my vacation... hell I didn't want to be in Illinois for that matter for my vacation. So I decided I'd hop on a plane and head West. California to be exact! I figured I'd go out and visit CA, and see my brother and his girlfriend as they have a baby on the way. I went from July 23rd (Friday) through August 1st (Sunday). Got off work that Friday, came home and finished packing and got a ride to the airport. Spent 9 days or so in Cali, came home that sunday afternoon and spent the following Monday doing absolutely nothing (didn't have to work). I didn't do much while I was out there, but I did more than I had expected. My initial goal was to stay at a hotel, read alot, drink alot, and work on my laptop. But my parents and my brother didn't want me spending that much money on hotels, so my bro offered to let me stay there (Thanks for that, bro!). The reason I wanted to stay in a hotel, is because I'm growing very misanthropic I guess you could say. I'm beginning to hate people more and more each day. So I wanted to keep my distance on my vacation, sort some things out in my head, and relax. I did most of that, so I'm glad. So I stayed with my bro (Doug) and his girlfriend (Candace) and her first baby (Nathan). Candace is/was about 8 months pregnant at the time so there wasn't a whole lot she could do, and Nathan is 17 months old which further limited our actions. But my god is Nathan a cutie! So I spent time there, read a bit, kept a daily journal on my laptop and did some drinking. We went out to eat a few times, went to the Orange County Faire (they live in Tustin, near Irvine), watched my bro spar at a karate school, watched him play basketball, went to a cool bar rated #2 'hole in the wall' bars in the country (cause the bitches are extremely hot), and hit the beach (Newport Beach). I got severely sunburned and right now, my back and chest are still itchy and peeling. I finished Neil Peart's second book "Ghost Rider" and it was a great read! He's got a third book coming out later this year, so I can't wait. While I was there, I went to a book store and got a book I had been looking for, for a while called "Lucifer Rising" which is about Satanism and pop culture. So I started that. But before I left, I bought "Jaco" which is about the proclaimed 'world's greatest bass player' Jaco Pastorius. I'm near the halfway mark and it's another great book. Sad, funny in parts, but a very good read. It's hard trying to stop reading it on lunch breaks that sometimes I come back a little late. Anyways, that's the brief synopsis of my vacation. I got back on the 1st, and now we'll get on to what happened on the 2nd/3rd... So, August 2nd... I wake up, finish unpacking and have the house to myself. I do absolutely nothing except play videogames all day and catch up on emails and net-news. As I might have mentioned, Doom3 is a game I've been waiting for a long time... pretty much ever since it was announced 4 years ago. It went gold before I left for vacation and the suggested shelf date was August 3rd or 4th, depending on the store. So what a treat! I get back from vacation, and a kick ass game will be in my hands a few days later! WRONG! A few Bestbuy stores in the US were having a midnight madness sale/promotion for the game and one of the stores was in Chicago. After some research, I found out what store it was so me and my buddy Dave (FTWchamp) decide we're going to do this thing. The website said the first 100 people get a free doom3 t-shirt so I wanted one of those badly! We get there about 10:30-11:00pm. Maybe 30-40 people in line so we got our t-shirts no problem. Then while we're waiting, a guy walks up to Dave and hands him a VIP pass which puts him to the front of the line. GRRRRR! The guy said "for being last in line... don't tell anyone where you got this" or something to that effect. So Dave walks away, and comes back a minute or two later, and said he's allowed one guest. Yay! So we head up to the front of the line, and we're allowed in early with the other VIPs. So it's about 11:30pm we're inside and they're doing a raffle for some free stuff (we didn't win). Then they say they have a bunch of computers setup running the game, and a couple LANs setup for fragging. There's only 8-10 of us VIP's in there so that was a treat! (To make a long story short...) We walk out of the store at midnight with the game and free t-shirt. I book home at arrive about 1am. I couldn't install the game as I would not have gone to bed at all, and would have to be a zombie at work, or call in. So I just read the manual then got in bed about 1:30am. 2am rolls around, couldn't fall asleep. 2:30am comes and I finally fall asleep. 5am and my alarm goes off for work. Hit snooze, alarm goes off again, hop out of bed, hit the shower and go to work... do the work thing and rush home. So now it's 3:15pm, I'm dead tired, but anxious to check out the game so I install it and give it a go. The game is BAD ASS! Wait for an official review soon (I hope), but the game is so damn scary and the graphics are amazing... I can't believe it. I've waited so long for this game and I finally possess it! Hell has arrived... -Rich

Frustrating! Rant first... rave later: So I decided AGAIN to sit down and do a "photo shoot" for my guitars. And AGAIN they pictures came out shitty! If I use no lighting, every guitar comes out black. When I set up lights, there is too many reflections off the guitar and you see huge glares on the body and neck. I JUST CAN'T FUCKING WIN!!! >:E Without having a 'professional studio' or 'professional gear' to do this, I think I might have to live with shitty pictures. Maybe tomorrow I'll try setting up again and if they come out like crap, they come out like crap! Hopefully the luster won't diminish by then as I just polished all my babies up before the shoot. Now on to the raving... Happy belated Fourth of July! Had a good weekend for that. Lots of fireworks (I even got to light a few off), lots of alcohol, and a tent. Good stuff! I also want to give a HUGE HUGE HUGE shout out to 'the man', Sean Malone. He's such a nice guy and answered a ton of questions for me regarding fretless bass. His answers provided me with so much knowledge I might not have otherwise found out for weeks, months, maybe even years. He gave me such insight into the instrument and it's tone I feel like I've come along way and I've only had the thing for a little over a month. The thing gets it's fair amount of playtime, which is good since it has to compete with three electric guitars and two acoustics. And with Sean Malone's knowledge, I may have to buy myself another one to vary my playing styles. But that's down the road a ways... Not much else going on... but briefly something about the gaming side of me: I don't know if it's a coincidence or if People Can Fly (PCF), the makers of the brilliant game PainKiller, are listening to me and my suggestions. Synopsis; when the game was released, I had suggested on their forums to add a demo for benchmarking purposes, and even added that if it did it's job well enough, hardware sites might use it when they run their tests. The next patch for the game had a benchmark utility (a fly by of a level). Thanks, guys! But I wasn't satisfied yet. I wanted to suggest some improvements on the original benchmark utility, to which they did already with the next patch by adding sound, static objects, and stationary enemies in idle animations. Even better, guys! But... I still wasn't happy. My suggestion was to somehow get a single player demo that would really stress out a computer. Something with tons of bad guys, explosions, and the infamous ragdoll physics (thanks to the Havok 2 engine) in action. The latest patch (v1.3), did just that! The thing is a beast! It about killed my computer, hehe. I went from 90-100fps in the first two benchmark utilities down to 25fps in the current one. They did a fine job! Lastly, due to the overwhelming demand for Capture the Flag (CTF), by the PK community, the upcoming PainKiller expansion pack is going to add said gametype. CTF is my favorite game mode in FPS games... so having that is a good thing. Now if they could only fix the netcode, PainKiller would blow the game community away! Time will tell, guys... time will tell. So that's about it. I wonder if the next entry will have anything related to doom 3? The rumored release date is August 3rd... so if all goes well, the day I get the game, you will most likely see an entry within 48 hours. And if I have my way, it'll be on a brand spankin' new, fast as hell PC! Until next time, feel the groove! Get you! -Rich

New toy Well, after a wonderful Memorial day weekend last week, it was the 60th Anniversary of "D-Day" today. A touching moment for alot of people, and while I can't imagine the horrors our country faced during WWII, it's still a day of rememberance for me. The last few years, I've been turned onto WWII history. Not an expert or anything, but that time period does hold my interest and I thank it all to the Medal of Honor franchise (as well as Call of Duty), the movie "Saving Private Ryan" and the HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers". Between the movies and the games trying to recreate those events, it has sparked a healthy interest for me, and The History Channel has become one of my favorite tv channels that I frequent now. Anyways... the real reason for this entry I got myself a new toy! You can find a temporary picture here: [click me] The story behind it is: I've recently been turned onto a new music store, Sam Ash. Not a big chain like Guitar Center, but I'm hoping that changes. I went to Sam Ash for the first time a few months ago looking for a truss rod tool for my guitar... the guitar salesman was nice enough to offer me a few to take home to make sure it was the right size. I ended up taking only one. That earned points in my book as the guy was very helpful and friendly and even gave me a website to check out if I still needed the proper tools. So I got on their catalog mailing list and I've been seeing great products at decent prices, but I haven't been in the mode to buy anything. Until last week. They had a Carlo Robelli, fretless 4-string bass for $180! I absolutely couldn't pass that up! I'm not a bass player, but I've always liked to dabble on the instrument when Jason (friend, ex-bandmate in Mortikai) would let me borrow one. I've even played bass on my Guitar Synth and even just practiced finger techniques on my guitars. So when I saw this bass at a jaw-dropping price, I had to have it! Especially because you don't see a fretless bass for under $300! So where was I to come up with the money for this new toy? I began to wonder... and then I remembered my mom mentioning all the change/coins on my dresser. So I thought between the change on my dresser, the change in jars, and the change in my car, I could probably cover the new bass, or at least come up with half. So I gathered my change at 9am and headed off to the bank to get it turned into cash. $221 later, I sped off to Sam Ash (calling before to make sure they had the bass in-stock) and the gentleman ran in back when I arrived to get me a fresh one out of the box. So I bought the bass and a set of flat-wound stricks all for a total of about $230. Needless to say, I was happy. I got a new toy without really spending any money at all. It's amazing how fast that change adds up (especially since I acquired the I-Pass a couple years ago). And it's even more amazing when you can buy something with that money you didn't know you had! So since before noon this past Saturday, I've been jamming on the thing trying to get my fingers calloused and techniques up to par. It's a cheap bass, yes. But it works and it'll do the job for me just to fuck around on. And if I'm lucky, whenever I get around to my solo projects/albums, I can actually PLAY bass tracks instead of sequencing them, which takes weeks and months if I'm lucky. So this purchase will definitely be worth it, and who knows, maybe I'll end up playing bass in SAM next LMAO! I've done every other instrument I know so far, so it's the only logical step ;) Now, when I say feel the groove, I can actually use it in a context of a bass player! Until next time, feel the groove! Get you! -Rich

Oops! Seems I forgot about my DNS hosting services. I thought I had another year.. until I noticed I was getting no emails... then I noticed my website had a parked URL on it. I come to find out, that my DNS service expired just days before I began to notice these early signs. Glad I found them early on! I paid my dues and I'm back! Let it be known, I'm good for another 2 years as of a few days ago (or was it a week ago.. can't remember). Either way, I'm back and glad to be back! I was pulling my hair out hoping I didn't lose any of my files (or viewers.. the one or two that I do have). As you can see, it's been a while since the last update... so much for my one a month deal, huh? I was originally thinking of doing an April Fools thing... but then who would see it? I had be contemplating an update in the journal for a while, but with little going on, it'd just be a repeat of the past 15 entries. So let's get it over with: Nothing much to update on the music side... the gaming side... or the personal side. Now with that out of the way... I do have plans to open up an "Articles" section on Helparena (the gaming portion). Nothing to write home about, but it'd be my way of discussing my views on the current gaming news and trends. They'd be my sole opinions, fact or fiction, truth or word of mouth, but I'd be a way for me to discuss and pass on what I think is going on in the gaming industry... more specifically, the FPS or Action genre. So stay tuned for that (I hope). Other than that, I still haven't gotten around to getting my equipment pictures taken so that I can upload them. Yes, I'm lazy. DEAL WITH IT! I'll get to eventually. Speaking of equipment... I was planning on buying a new guitar with my federal tax return... a nice Schecter 7-string guitar... but that may wait as I think I'll need a new computer for the upcoming games (Doom 3 and Half-Life 2). I rationalized the whole thing in that I spend more time on the computer than I do with my guitars lately... I should upgrade the PC first, then get the new guitar later. Knowing me, I'll just get both and put myself deeper into the whole as usual. But, there may be something on the horizon. Mike (from SAM) and I have been hinting at starting up a project again. I haven't played drums in so long I wonder if I still can. And seeing as that my drum equipment has been hiding in the garage I'm not sure if it can hold up to being banged on. So I may need a new kit (where is this money going to come from??? *cries*). Anywho... stay tuned, but not too attentive as it may be a while for another update. I'll try to keep up on the journal entries even if it's just to say "blah blah read the previous entry". As always, feel the groove! GET YOU! -Rich

Another year... Yep, it's that fateful day... the birthday. I turned 27 today. Man, I'm getting old! But so far it was a good day. Aside from the family, I've had one person wish me a happy birthday (as of this entry). I love it when my birthdays go unnoticed. It's just the way I want them. As I've gotten older, this day (March 31st), is just another (depressing, pathetic, sad, waste of a) day. When you're a kid, you look forward to birthdays. Presents from family and friends, special dinners, maybe a trip to Showbiz Pizza, etc. But then there's that one birthday that we all have... when all of that seems to lose it's luster. It's not that we don't appreciate the efforts from everyone, but we'd rather sulk in our 'old balls' than celebrate a day in which we had nothing to do with, except cry and whine and pee on people. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to sound all negative about my birthday, but I don't want... I don't need people celebrating ME one day a year for something that I did absolutely nothing. I worked, came home, and now I'm here. Hardly worth a celebration, right? Yet everyone wants to take me out and get me trashed, or do something fun as a group. Fine and dandy, but that sort of thing should happen ALL the time, not just on birthdays. Anyways, enough of my complaining... I'm happy with a couple beers and a relaxing evening. That's all I want for my birthday. If others want to be involved, then come on down. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! As always, feel the groove! Get you! -Rich

One Year Anniversary Today, March 11th, marks the one year tick in the timeline of what I'm now referring to helparena.com, version 4.0 (v4.0). What does this version number signify? Nothing really. Helparena has been around for far longer than a year, but in order for me to differentiate the current site with the ones of the past, I felt this was the easiest way. Version 4.0 (officially) started in early 2003. After a long break (notice there's NO update for 2002 hehe), The current version found it's way from brainstorm, to paper, to html files, and finally, to it's home on the web. Alot of work went into this current version, and I think it paid off. I love the look of the current site as far as HTML is concerned. As far as the content... that's next on the agenda. I hope to get around to tweaking the content this year and make it less wordy, and a bit easier to read. Also, I'm thinking of a major overhaul... perhaps a drastic change altogether... or something... but ideas are currently brewing on expanding helparena as far as a gaming site goes. Wish me luck! As always, feel the groove! Get you! -Rich

Leap Day Today is Leap Day, the 29th day of February. Been overdue for an update, but as there's not much happening, there hasn't been a need for it. But let's get on with it anyways! I was fortunate enough to have the Q3 helparena portion of the site mentioned on IWNation (Infinity Ward's site; the creators of Call of Duty). The mention was about bunny hopping and strafe jumping in Q3 engine based games, which CoD falls into that category. Good to have people see your work as being valid in some way, promote the name, and even give me some hits. Outside of that, nothing much has changed. I've finally worked out the layout I want (for now) for the previous entries in the journal based on year. You will now find entries from 2003 just after the row of months at the top of each journal entry. That's where it'll stay for now, but I'm not 100% sure I like it there, but it was the only place I could fit it in and make it still look decent. That's it for now, but stay tuned! Look for an update within approximately 11 days! Feel the groove! Get You! -Rich

Happy New Year! While a bit belated, better late than never. Hope everyone had a safe and fun New Year. I know I did. It involved lots of Jack Daniels, lots of beer, lots of chocolatey booze alcohol thingies, and a couple cameras. While I did a good job of avoiding the (still) camera, the pictures that you can see me, I have the trademark Rich middle finger up (of course!). I haven't seen the tape of the video camera yet, and I'm not sure I want to... but lets move on! !! Beware Long Entry Here !! Personal updates: Not much here as usual. Work work work, play play play, and beer beer beer. I did, however, get to see an absolutely fantastic movie this week. Maybe you heard of it? It's called "Big Fish". It's Tim Burton's new movie and I'll give the same review I've told many times so far: "Wow!" I think this is by far Burton's best work yet. To put it quickly, everything was perfect. Great movie, I highly recommend it. I saw it in it's limited release, but by the time most of you read this, it should be nationwide. GO SEE IT! I also got a kick ass book from my buds Jay and Jen titled: "Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal". I got so many books to read, so much time, but I never find myself sitting down to read anymore. But from what I've read so far, the book is quite informative. For someone like me who was raised on metal (and not that nu-metal, MTV, commercialized, Metallica/Craptallica, bullshit, gimmicky, pussy-assed, radio metal) this book is going to be a killer read. Also, through the King Diamond msg boards, I found out of a new band and am totally digging them. They are an Australian progressive metal band called Black Majesty. The singer has a killer voice. The music isn't as progressive as I thought it would be, but it's very good stuff nonetheless. Very catch rhythms, awesome lyrical approach and overall decent production. Since I don't listen to a whole lot of the prog-metal genre, it's hard to describe them, but it's a blend of Queensryche, Blind Guardian, and some elements of... doom metal... I guess? They aren't slow and gloomy like a doom metal band, but they do some very cool minor melodies and themes. Check em out! Music Related Updates: Not much here (big surprise!). I've been trying to get back to work on some of my solo album material. While the music is more simplistic in this venue, it's by far the hardest for me to write. Being a perfectionist (and a damn tough critic) of my own work isn't a good thing. Songs have gone through tempo changes, key changes, this and that changes... I could go on. But I am making progress on the initial writing side of things. What does that mean? Simply this: Motivation/idea is the first part. These are usually random things that I play during warm ups that I really like the sound of, and decide to make a song around it. Theme is the next part. I try to visualize in my head how the song would go from the idea, motivation, or spark that began the whole thing... then think of a title that might fit the theme (usually changes often though). Then comes the initial writing. Figuring out the patterns, chords, harmonies, melodies, and themes of the song. Just jamming away and improvising along the way. Keeping certain parts, trashing others. Then comes the Concrete writing part. This is where I decide how the song is going to be structured, build that foundation, and play it over and over again to make sure it flows well. This part of the process changes often too. After that, comes the solo part. This is where I begin writing the solos to the foundation. I rarely get to this point. Then comes the final writing process, and the most tedious and daunting part of the entire song writing structure. I very rarely get to this point because I'm never truly satisfied with anything beyond the initial writing stage. But this is where I would begin to write the rhythm section into MIDI format note by note. This process alone takes months and months, another reason why I probably never get a song to the concrete stage because this task is very tough and requires a shitload of patience. One minor mistake, and all the previous work is garbage and I'd have to start over. So you see, I'm very picky about what I write musically. But hopefully down the road a ways, I'll get this project rolling. But to get to the point!!!! I've been focusing alot more on my solo album. I've been pulling out cd's and videos of solo artists to get me motivated and it's been working. But I'm at a fork in the road. Do I venture down the original path? Or do I start down this new road? The old path had varying songs ranging from VERY mellow new age guitar to Satriani-esque rockin tunes. The new path, has me thinking of going a bit more heavy and maybe even a bit weird. Who knows, next week I may just combine both roads and do a super huge uber solo album... yea right! Who am I kidding? Gaming Related Updates: New Year's not only saw lots of alcohol and a hangover, but the release of the PainKiller beta! Again, I can't reveal anything about the game, but we are entering the second week or so of testing and we are crunching out bugs and fixes like mad! The game is scheduled for release in March, and I think the dev's should make that no problem. Since this is my first beta test.. I have no idea how things are supposed to run, but I must say, the guys in charge are great and listen to alot of suggestions. The guys testing that I've had the opportunity to chat and frag with are really cool. It's been a while since I've had that 'fun-factor' in gaming... and the testers are really showing their talents both in and out of the game. Whether I'm kicking butt, or getting my butt kicked, it's always a friendly atmosphere. Kudos to everyone! On to other news... I was fortunate enough to let the guys running the beta to allow me to upgrade my video card. Big thanks to them for that!!! This new vid card is sweet. Games I once had to tone down to get to run smooth... now don't even hiccup when I crank all the shit to the max! I'm still having trouble with AA and AF on some games (might be all games, who knows, with high-res graphics/textures everything looks fucking tits!). But I'm working on fixing that. Outside of the beta and the new vid card, I got Medal of Honor: Rising Sun for PS2. One of my favorite franchises remains just that. Although still a MOH game, it does add some new light to the franchise. They scored another great game, and I'm dying to get my hands on Pacific Assault! Lastly, the great Mystic_Platypus has gained knowledge and experience in Call of Duty, and together we are a force to be reckoned with! Be ware of the jive talkin llamas! Site Related Updates: Nothing yet, but there are plans. So, well... here's my .plan (dot plan): New year, brings a new line to the journal. I can't very well keep on going and going and going on one single page, can I? Well, I could, but that would be annoying. So once I figure out where to put the "past" entries (somewhere near the months page jumps most likely.. who knows) everything from 2003 and everything prior to that (if there is anything...) will have a separate page. Also, I want to start my PainKiller site badly, but with the game still in the early stages, there's no point in laying anything down as it might change by the release date. Also, I couldn't have the pages up and running prior to the release as that would be a complete disregard to the NDA. But there WILL be a PainKiller site, I have the title, just need the content and that will come in time. So be on the look out for that in the coming months. Not much else is new. So with that, feel the groove! -Rich