Year in the life

Well, it's been a year to the day that I started lol-trees, and it's been an enjoyable ride. From the early days of regular posting and tiny stats, to a sudden rise of hits early in the year, to less and less regular posting in recent weeks, it's been fun, but I think now is as good a time as ever to call it a day.

Maybe on day I will return to the world of blogging, but until then I no longer feel the need or desire to keep this up.

So, to all those still reading, thanks, it's been fun.

Street Musicians

Genuinely the best website I have found all year.

Blogotheque - The Take Away Show

Sessions of Bands and artists playing in obscure places across Paris; some playing whilst walking along a street, another in a lift, in the metro, on the back of a pick up truck... and the music selection is top notch; Arcade Fire to Yeasayer to Of Montreal to Andrew Bird.

#87.2 - YEASAYER - 2080
by lablogotheque

Well, my ratings have taken quite a hit. Im down to 3 hits a day. Way back when I was on 30+, ahh. Probably because I update about once a month but never mind.

Anyway, this video is unbelieveably epic. Great film, great OST, great drumming.

Well what do you know

Ironic I should do anothr post already. Anyways, I must be getting myspace withdrawl syndrome, Im doing one of those annoying quizzes people post as bulletins. So, Music quiz

1. Of all the bands/artists in your cd/record collection, which one do you own the most albums by?
I have 4 Pixies and 4 Radiohead on the download. Hard copies? Muse wins with 3, probably joint with a couple of others. Also I have 5 REM on old skool casette, plus 2 CDs.

2. What was the last song you listened to?
Soma - Smashing Pumpkins is playing atm

3. What’s in your record/cd player right now?
Crystal Castles

4. What song would you say sums you up?
Creep - Radiohead.
Hurhur. (That was a joke)

5. What’s your favorite local band?
Enter Shikari come from the next town over so I'll go with them.

6. What was the last show you attended?
Reading Festival? Actual gig - Reel Big Fish

7. What was the greatest show you’ve ever been to?
Rage at Reading were quite insane

8. What’s the worst band you’ve ever seen in concert?
I usually have problems with dull crowds rather than dull bands. CSS and Snow patrol both suffered.

9. What band do you love musically but hate the members of?
Id say Razorlight as Jonny Borrell's a wanker
But then they're shit anyways

11. What show are you looking forward to?
Nout, Im conserving money for various holidays at the moment

12. What is your favorite band shirt?
My Biffy Clyro one :D
Also Im quite partial to my REM one - good memories

13. What musician would you like to hang out with for a day?
Scroobius Pip sounds like a bit of a laugh. But probably Dev Hynes (Lightspeed champion, Test Icicles)

14. What musician would you like to be in love with for a day?
Lovefoxx

15. Metal question: Jeans and Leather vs. Cracker Jack clothes?
Lack of knowledge of the nature of these ‘Cracker Jack’ clothes prevents me from answering this question.
^^ What he said

16. Sabbath or solo Ozzy?
Neither appeal much

17. Commodores or solo Lionel Ritchie?
And again

18. Punk rock, hip hop or heavy metal?
Probably punk rock. Metal has it's moments though

19. Doesn’t Primus suck?
Probably

20. Name 4 flawless albums:
Doolittle - Pixies
In the Aeroplane over the sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
Silent Alarm - Bloc Party (Yes, problem?)
In Rainbows - Radiohead

21. Did you know that filling out this survey makes you a music geek?
I do and I am proud

22. What was the greatest decade for music?
It's all happening at the moment.

23. How many music-related videos/dvds do you own?
Not many. 5ish, I would guess.

24. Do you like Journey?
Can't say I do

25. Don’t try to pretend you don’t!
Ok I lied I haven't head of them

26. What is your favorite movie soundtrack?
Fight Club is pretty good for that (Dust Brothers + Pixies = Bliss)
And Juno is nice
Oh and American Beauty! Spacey singing along to American Beauty = genius

27. What was your last musical ‘phase’ before you wised up?
I had a massive Panic at the disco phase. Still top of my lastfm :/

28. What’s the crappiest CD/record/etc. you’ve ever bought?
I started pretty wank by buying Garath Gates when I was about 10

29. Do you prefer vinyl or CDs?
CDs. Vinyls are before my time.

Cool thing to do of the week

Assuming you have Facebook,

Settings > Account Settings > Languages

Set as English (Pirate)

Amusing for about 5 minutes

Anyway as you might have noticed I'm giving this blog much less time than I used to. Partly due to having less free time (Read: Real life actually getting more interesting(There now I've jinxed it)), don't be surprised if I go weeks without posting.

Exeunt, Dan


Hmm. On second thoughts I should post summat random.
Old, and I've only watched a minute thus far but it looks amusing enough.

Ok this pretty cool

http://wordle.net/

Id seen this site before but it just became infinitely more awesome with added blog support. Pretty much just had words from that mammoth Reading post I did but there we are.

WOW how exciting!! That last post was my 100th. What a milestone. It was also quite random. Anyway, lesson of the day

- If you plan on using your computer and itunes as an alarm clock, don't forget to take out your headphones before you go to bed

Also, new best site ever

Food Porn Daily

Cat grows wings... hang on wtf!?

Coolness

THE Reading Festival 2008 Review

It's that time of year where the festivals are all ending, and we have to readjust to the horrors of everyday life. This being the first festival in which I'd actually camped over the whole weekend, I can safely say that I now realise camping is half of the fun of it all. A great, friendly atmosphere meant that hour long chats with random people were far from impossible, and many a friend were made.


The bands of the weekend

1 - Biffy Clyro - Blessed with one of the best crowds of the weekend, a topless trio blasted through a phenomenal set packed with energy from the openening Saturday Superhouse to the end. One of the few times where moshing was genuinely great fun and not just insanely painful cramped and pushy, the set became my highlight of Reading 08.

2 - Rage Against the Machine - Undoubtedly the most highly anticipated set of the festival, what with Bulls on Parade being blasted from sound systems of punters around the campsite, and chants of 'Fuck you I won't do what you tell me' whenever groups were ordered to put out their fires, it was pretty clear that the band weren't set to disappoint from the moment they appeared, dressed in Guantanamo Bay clothes, and bag's over their heads, and launching into a flawless performance of Bombtrack. The set was relentless and the energy didn't let up; Zach de la Rocha bouncing around the stage and Morello unleashing some awe inspiring guitar riffing, which climaxed in mass moshing and chanting to Killing in the Name Of. It was hard to see how Saturday and Sunday could live up to such a blinding first day.

3 - Does it Offend You, Yeah? - Playing a slot before Rage at the Festival Republic stage, the local band's electronic sounds got the crowd moving and the songs really came into their own live. Annoyingly we had to leave early to catch Rage but they warmed us up for the headliners nicely.

4 - Pendulum - Even before the band had begun, the NME stage was well and truly packed out; not helped by the cancellation of slipknot, who were due to play on the main stage at the same time. Scenes of mass jumping barrier jumping to escape the intensely packed crowd followed, but those who persevered were rewarded with a high octane set from the Aussie D'n'B / Rock band.

5 - Hadouken - Their charismatic frontman, along with with the fact that you could actually make out what he was saying and a great crowd meant that new life was breathed into tracks from what to me seemed like a pretty poor Music For an Accelerated Culture. Surprisingly good stuff.

Oh and I'm told by my friends that Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip and Babyshambles were both similarly great - though clashing with Rage I couldn't go see them...


Top Random Sights Spotted

• Man wearing a gasmask when he went to the toilet
• Random dudes doing a limbo chain using gaffa tape in the walkway (We then had a long ol' chat with them)
• Man dressed up in that Borat outifit
• People moving along a path inside their tent, rolling it along like some sort of freakish hamster wheel
• Lightsaber duelists
• A 'Stereo Battle' when two groups with portable stereos met in the path late at night


Other Bands of Note

1 - Lightspeed Champion - Good chillout band that seemed to spread happiness to the festival. It was hard not to raise a smile at the Star Wars theme being mixed into the epic Midnight Surprise, and Dev makes a great frontman.

2 - Killers - Despite it seeming like I'd heard the entire set the year before, watching the band headline Glastonbury, and despite tales of poor sound issues plaguing the performance from those stood further back, the Las Vegas band played a pretty good set and a couple of new songs.

3 - Yeasayer - Coming on late due to sound issues, the band eventually came on to play a shortened but enjoyable set that included 2080 and Sunrise

4 - Santogold - Enjoyable performance from the strange sounds of Santogold and her freaky dancers. Arguably Les Artists stands head and shoulders above her other tracks live though.

5 - Flogging Molly - Playing a packed out Lock Up tent, one of the few bands I saw who I knew nothing about turned out to be great fun, with their brand of Irish Punk Rock inspiring moshing as far back as outside the tent.

6 - Justice - Starting out with a couple of poorer album tracks, the band soon up-ed the game with crowd pleasers D.A.N.C.E and lastly their remix of Simian's We Are Your Friends. Only fails to be classed as a highlight because of some wanker in front of me who thought that it'd be really great to blow on her foghorn every few seconds. Didn't exactly make listening the most pleasurable experience.


Disappointments

1 - Justice running on late and causing me to miss nearly all of the Bloc Party set (Which apparently wasn't that good anyway)
2 - MGMT being far too packed to enjoy, shoving and pushing as opposed to dancing or moshing meant we decided to escape to outside after the opener, Electic Feel.
3 - Dirty Pretty Things having surely the worst crowd of the festival, refusing to join in even in a pretty-good rendition of Nirvana's In Bloom. Perhaps Carl could have helped by sticking in a Libertines track or two to get a singsong going?

Stuff I've heard of and wished I'd witnessed

• Insanely big piss take mosh pits & Wall of Death's at the worst-band-of-the-weekend The Plain White T's (See below)
• Gladiator style
• People slashing abandoned tents by the road, hiding in them, and jumping out of them to scare people.
• Everyone thinking the Foo Fighter's were doing a secret gig disguised as a band called the FF's, and a random crappy band turning up and getting booed off the stage.



All in all the festival was brilliant, and the urge to be back there right now is massive. With Glastonbury apparently on the way down, with poor ticket sales this year, and sound issues the last, it looks as if Reading and Leeds are becoming the festivals of the country, arguably of the world, and If I wasn't so broke from this years, my ticket for 2009 would already be purchased.

I'm Back! (Again)

So, as once again I'd forgotten to say I was taking a brake from the blog, I was at Reading festival the last few days, and it was perhaps the best weekend of my life thus far. I'll blog it properly another day.


Meanwhile, try this thing
http://www.findyourtribe.co.uk/

From the looks of it, it appeared to be pretty good, but then the results are pretty wank.
Apparently I'm 'PC World' 'With Signs of being a Trendy'. I guess I answered too honestly. Just because I know how to use a computer, use facebook, and have this blog doesn't mean I don't value 'human interaction' and in fact haven't 'not left your room for a week or so'. Add to that I've never dated someone met online, very rarely buy things online, and only watch tv only cause our tv sucks and you're left with a big pile of fail.

Failblog

Heh




Moar

Books what I read

5 Books read over the course of my holiday. Brief reviews follow

Jay Mcinerney - Bright Lights, Big City

Often likened to the works of Bret Easton Ellis, and written in a curious second person narrative, Bright Lights, Big City centres around a, likely semi-autobiographical, nameless protagonist, whose life has recently gone downhill, with his wife having left him and his career as a 'fact-checker' for a magazine appearing to become increasingly dead-end.

The novel tells a constantly enjoyable, though never outstanding story of a man who must come to face up to the failures and reality of his life, and Mcinerney manages to work in an impressive amount of wit to the writing that keeps it an enjoyable read to the end.

* * * * 4 Stars

After Dark - Haruki Murakami

After reading two works by Ryu Murakami, I thought Id give the surprisingly unrelated Haruki Murakami a try, and began with this short novella. Almost instantly Murakami's ability to create a startling atmosphere is evident - though I am always unsure how much of this is due to the translator - and before long a mysteriously surreal late night scene is created, with intriguing characters from the quirky Trombone player Takahashi to the 'sleeping beauty' Eri Asai. The novel progresses in a manor similar to that of a film, and, in fact, at times it almost seems as if Murakami was aiming to write a screenplay as opposed to a novella.

The end of the novella is frustratingly inconclusive, almost breaking off halfway through the story as nearly every loose thread of story is left, if not unresolved, then at least very much unexplained. It almost feels, however, as if this is not a problem, as the main draw of the book is arguably not the central mystery, but Murakami's beautiful prose, settings, characters and descriptions, and his themes of loneliness and isolation, that are the real attractions of his work.

* * * * 4 Stars

The Outsider - Albert Camus

Widely regarded as one of the all time literary greats, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, this tiny novella by Albert Camus tells the tale of a man who, in short, refuses to lie about or 'put on' his emotions. The plot follows him as he presents no signs of sadness and remorse at his mother's funeral, before, days later, committing a, to borrow a phrase, 'random act of violence' that results in his imprisonment.

Very well written (or, again, perhaps just very well translated), The Outsider acts as a very interesting character study, and indeed, a fascinating look at the of views of society on those who will not lie or enhance their feelings to appear more humane to those around them. Mersault is an interesting protagonist and drives the plot to it's thought provoking end.

* * * * * 5 Stars

The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis

Written two years after the excellent Less than Zero, Easton Ellis' Rules of Attraction follows the lives and romances of three university students, who form a curious love triangle including a bisexual and a gay romance. Ellis employs a variety of unusual literary techniques; the novel begins and ends mid-sentence, possibly to suggest that 'life goes on', one section is written entirely in French, and the first person narration constantly switches between the various characters, providing humour in the varying reactions of the different characters to certain situations.

Another device which appealed to me were the cameos made by characters appearing in other Ellis novels. Sean's brother, Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) makes an appearance when Sean goes to Visit his father in hospital, and Clay's brief appearance as 'that guy from LA' brought a smile to my face; 'people are afraid to merge on the campus after dark'. But still this cannot quite save the novel from the fact that the central characters are simply somewhat unlikeable, and neither Sean, Paul nor Loren have the same appeal as Clay or Blaire from Less than Zero.

* * * 3 Stars

Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman

Having finished reading the four books I bought with me on holiday, and lacking the motivation to begin the epically lengthy Birdsong (Sebastian Faulks), I picked up this and began to read, remembering it as being one of the books which I had missed out on in my own youth. What I got was a surprisingly engrossing story set in a world where a racist black (or Cross) population rules over the whites (Noughts); an inversion of western society decades ago, presumably designed to force the largely white audience to be able to empathise with the characters to a stronger degree. Arguably this was not quite necessary and I, having begun the books thinking of the Noughts as Blacks, found it hard to rethink my mental images of each character.

The plot itself itself is a very clever one, with sections of the book mirroring real life happenings in the civil rights movement; most noticeable of these being the first day of school for the Nought teenagers into Cross school - a passage that draws largely from the events at Little Rock High school in 1957 (GCSE History, Pow!). Throughout the book Blackman is constantly daring, making plot turns that, given that Noughts and Crosses is widely regarded as a 'children's book', seem highly unpredictable and bold. I was all ready to put this book down for being too predictably child like, but Blackman never underestimates her audience and the novel ends on a devastatingly bleak note that stays with the reader long after finishing.

If I have one complaint it would be concerning the writing style, which often seems slightly immature, relying too heavily on the thoughts and constant rhetorical questioning in the heads of the two protagonists; 'Did he just say that? No, he can't of' which begins to grate fast. Aside from this, however, I was stunned. It seems strange but of the 5 books that I read in Sicily, it was in fact this,the only Children's book, that turned out to be the best. The central Romeo and Juliet-esque love story is one of the most complex and convincing I have come across in a novel, and I would be tempted to argue Noughts and Crosses the greatest piece of Young Adult literature ever written.

* * * * * 5 Stars

I'm back!!

Been in Sicily the last two weeks. Forgot to post before I went to say so. So this blog is in fact still alive. Just.



*Licks Lips*

Bastards. Sky have picked up rights so I guess thats another 350mb a week of downloading to do...

I read 5 books on holiday aswell. Five!! Thats more than I've read the rest of this year. Might do another book reviewery post......

Just for the record,

In that last post, the middle picture always appears as the viewers (yours) default facebook profile picture, assuming that you are logged on. So there was no offense intended.

Hopefully everyone figured that out mind.....

Ugly people on facebook

Saw this on some forum, but its all a bit of fun. Its the 'Post ugly people you find on Facebook' game.

Post in comments the most ugly person and win.

Heres a few :

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...-ugly-face.jpg

http://www.facebook.com/badge.php?&i...ert&format=png


http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...s/ugly14nk.jpg

Burn.

Yeh well, I loled. Nintendo, wtf.

Less Than Zero Book Review

So I said I'd do a couple of book reviews. Here's the first

Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis

People are afraid to merge on the freeways in Los Angeles.
The opening line got my excited in the same manor that Palahnuik's Diary did with Just for the record, the weather today... - both are taken and used by bands for song lyrics, and, in Less Than Zero's case, Bloc Party dedicated an entire song to the book in the beginning of their 2007 album, Weekend in The City - Song for Clay (Disappear Here). Listening for the first time in a while it has a new meaning to me, and matches the tone of the book perfectly. Anyway this is a book review.

The novel, Ellis' début written at the age of 19, follows the protagonist Clay around LA during a Christmas break from his college, as he goes to various parties, doing drugs and having sex.

With a book such as this it is honestly hard to find meaningful compliments. The dialogue was sparse and rarely lead anywhere, none of the characters were particularly likeable and, crucially, there was nothing of a meaningful plot present in the entire story. I don't mean this in the way that nothing happened in Catcher in the Rye; a novel to which it is frequently compared - Catcher made up for it's lack of plot with the complex and confused feelings of the narrating Holden Caulfield which pervade the text. By contrast, Less than Zero's Clay is distanced from the reader and seems at times cold, emotionless. What is left is a nihilistic and at times shocking tale of a sex, money, and drug addled youth (One that I can't say I can relate too well to). But despite it's innumerable flaws, there is something curiously memorising, even hypnotic about the writing - the 'Disappear here' motif and the 'wonder is he's for sale?' foreshadowing - that really makes this novel stick in my mind.

I can see people really hating this, but it's well worth a try.

**** 4 Stars

This is too good...

Aaahahahaha what a DICK

Since this time last week I have:

- Finished one good book and one meh book. I think I'll do a book post next, once i finish my current one. Try and bring in the bookworms to this blog.

- Found out the (I think, now) final lineup of Reading 2008, as the last stage (new bands tent) was added. It's abit meh, considering that one of the only bands i'm interested in (Dan le Sac vs Scoobius Pip) clash with Rage Against the Machine AND Babyshambles. One of their songs below. It's fookin brilliant.


That said, Does it Offend You, Yeah? Have been added to the bill :D Which Im fuckin' psyched about.... they look mentally awesome live. Video below



- Decided that Jay Z actually isn't too bad, and was certainly the best headliner at a (pretty poor) Glastonbury festival. Not like I watched or anything, it was on TV.

- Finally buckled and started watching Skins from the start, season one.

- Had my first gay experience, which was interesting, but certainly not something id like to repeat.*

- Wasted alot of time on... ahh shit i've forgotten the name of the site. Fun games though. I'll edit this post when me friend reminds me of the address...

*I should point out at this point that it was to see two girls kiss, so it was worth it, probably.

Bonus Post 2.0

Wow, that last post was really quite immature

Bonus Post

Wow a blog post!!

Im not too sure what to do with this blog these days. Myeah.
It's been so long since the last post I think I'll give all the stuff I've been / done / seen / played / listened to / ect ect, with 3 words describing each. Actually theres a tonne more that I can't remember at the moment.

Juno
Quite Fun. Wizard!
8 / 10

Beck Mongolian Chop Squad
Greatful Sound Ftw
10 / 10

GTA IV
The Radio Rocks
9.5 / 10

Iron Man
IMDB Top250 WTF?
4 / 10

Lost Season 4
Return to Form
9 / 10

The Prestige
T'was vair Clever
9 / 10

And speaking of which, 2 important things i have learned
1 - People who don't turn the volume up enough with music or more importantly films annoy the hell out of me
2 - Never let a girl wear any of your clothes because she WILL keep them

Tada

I'm back, after a longer break than Id anticipated.
Basically I saw this and thought,



That pretty much sums it all up.

I'm not sure whether to both continuing on blogging, I probably will, but just with much more sporadic updates. So check back every now and then yeahse.

Strangely amusing for 30 seconds

Bonus Post

Heh...

So, I'm halfway through exams, going alright so far. Thats about all I have to say...

Hiatus and more

For my 3 regular readers, you might have noticed a distinct lack of blog posts of late; it's that time of year when exams are rearing their ugly heads. I, having done fuck all revision as of so far, have a lot of catching up to be doing and therefore am putting this blog on hiatus for the time being. Fear not, they'll be done and done this time next month, but until then, this meaty post will be all there is. So, lately...

- No I haven't played GTA IV, as im trying to cut down on distractions from studies. Seeings how the internet appears to be raping it, i suspect it won't be long before i buckle and buy it, though. Can't say I've ever been a huge fan of GTA, it always seemed liek a jack of all trades, master of none, but apparently this is sorted for this version. And the multplayer sounds incredible. I NEED to play Cops 'n Crooks.

- These jeans are perhaps the greatest Jeans i have ever seen in my life.

*Cue massive wave of masturbation, 'Joystick', and penis jokes*

Fave comment - 'Someone get that angry german kid a pair of these'

- Lost is back on top!! Brilliant episode last week centering around Ben. That said, this week's was shit. Shit. Sooner they realize that no one gives a fuck about Jack and Kate the better...

- The Departed is an astonishing film

- Boris Johnson is a buffoon of a man who in no way deserves to be mayor of London. (this is the first and only time i will mention politics on this blog)

- You'll be glad to hear that Ricky and Karl appear to have made up, and there may indeed be one last podcast to come. Too lazy to explain it so head over to pilkipedia if you need to know more.

- The Reading lineup god even more godly with the addition of Crystal Castles, Hadouken!, CSS, Alexisonfire, Be Your Own Pet and more.
In fact, shit, i just noticed The Whip are playing!! Sunday is shaping out to be perhaps the best day ^.^

- I continue to enjoy typography

- Beck appears to be a good anime and the Naruto Manga is far superior to the anime

- I guess I'll leave you with a lolcat...


Oh go on then, one more


Anyways, I'm off to watch the Derren Brown - Peep show double, for now.... ciao.

Ricky Steve and Karl - The End?

Today marks what is, for some, the end of an era for comedy. For those of you who have been following Ricky Gervais' blog - originally created to convince karl to do another series of podcasts, you will already know - there will be no more podcasts from RSK.


For those out of the know, Ricky and Steve - two men who together created, wrote, shot and acted both The Office and Extras, had, until 2005, a radio show on London station XFMm produced by a little mac twat named 'Karl Pillockton'. These shows were shoddily produced but bursting at the seems with witty banter between the three. Ricky Gervais, Stephen 'S'Merch' Merchant, and Karl 'the K man' Pilkington. They were honestly a match made in heaven.

These XFM shows - available for free download here - saw great success and continued to be hugely popular, until, after four series', they ended. Soon after this, Ricky Steve and Karl developed their success, exploring the new media of Podcasting in 2005 - 2006, reaching an expanded worldwide audience and gaining millions of listeners worldwide. Steve later noted that he felt the three 'singlehandedly began the podcasting revolution' - certainly a fair point. However, many argued that the podcasts were inferior to XFM. Karl seemed to sound increasingly grumpy, and many of the stories told on the podcasts were ones recycled from the days of XFM. After 3 Series of Podcasting, and 3 free bonus episodes - 'The Podfather Trilogy' - the three decided to call an indefinate end.

For months little was heard of Karl and co, but seemingly out of nowhere, a free full length podcast was released that seemed to see Karl at back to his best - discussing a maniac brain-swapping lesbian film that he had talked to producers about making. This podcast offered a glimpse of hope for fans that perhaps all was not over yet, and earlier this year Gervais staretd a blog - http://www.rickygervais.com/chimpanzee_karl.php - to convince Karl to make a new series of podcasts. Alls seemed well, and Karl even agreed, recently, to do a podcast - Podcast.....one final show possibly in June. - but earlier today the news was given via Ricky's blog that this was not to be.

'The End

I am sorry to say I have failed.

Karl has decided he doesn't want to do another show. Well he doesn't want to do it for free.

He says he has bills to pay. I offered to pay him myself but he wouldn't accept that either.

I think that made him feel a bit stupid. I shouldn't really have offered but I so wanted to do another one.

I then tried to get him to do it as a favour but then he said no altogether.

The whole thing annoyed him so much that he said he wouldn't enjoy doing it now. Maybe he's tired of playing the fool. I was surprised he wouldn't do this for me but it's up to him.

This will be the last blog entry. I will leave this up for a few days then remove it all together.

I suggest for Karl's sake you end the campaign too. I think you all did marvelously and I know you did so with nothing but affection and hope. You'll always have him the way he was on the old podcasts and I'm sure it's not the last you'll see of Karl (I don't know whether he'll talk to me again though)

Thank you all so much for listening over the past few years.

It has been my absolute pleasure.'

Many people see Rick as an cocky, arrogant and annoying comedian, and i must admit that for years, despite loving The Office, I thought the same. But these podcasts really were something brilliant, and this most sincere final post, that seems to suggest that Rick and KP have really had a fall out, almost brings a tear to the eye.


So long, you manc, orange headed gimp. You will be missed.

Steve Merchant's BBC6 Radio show remains on air, sundays 3pm-5pm

Wow... just... wow

You know you're a geek when... Cubecraft

- You laugh at chemistry jokes

- The best news of the week is that Ricky Gervais is appearing in GTA IV (!!! FUCK YES!!)

- You spend literally minutes constructing some like This


I made it thanks to a template from Cubecraft, who give a new template once a week. Naturally i had to make Zoidberg...


And all without any glue!! Very cool. And you may notice he lacks a left arm, as i cocked it up...

Actually scratch that...

Much more cool,

Coolness :D

I can almost taste the joys of mixtapes...

http://www.mixwit.com/widgets/a53c3df9315770e700919124789bc535

Making use of the 'Music' Tag

^^ Good albums

Another Anime Post *groans* - New season first impressions

What with it being a new season of anime and all, there's a ton of stuff starting, and, as i've now finished Noein, i've watched the first episode of a couple of the new shows. Actually i ment to post this a week back but o forgot. So in some ways this post is now pointless, but meh.

Kurenai - Being done by Brains Base, who did the kick ass Baccano! Last year, i had high hopes for this. But alas i was disappointed; the characters seem flat, the music is repetitive (im all for piano but not all the damn time) and frankly it bored me. The only hint of something interesting was the kid's arm, which went all weird at various points though out the episode. Oh and WTF was up with that op??

Watch more? No, not unless the animeblogs suddenly jizz all over it

Soul Eater - Overhyped but still good stuff. About this girl and this guy who transforms into this badasss weapon. The storyline seems pretty shite / non existent but the animation is delicious enough to make up for it. Get it in HD, its worth it.


Watch More? Probably

And i also randomly went and watched some more old skool stuff. Well not old skool but just not new.

Samurai Champloo - Awesome, awesome, awesome :D Really good first episode, im liking the Hip Hop soundtrack. The question is whether or not it will have a more an overarching... story arc than Bebop did. I never had the motivation to watch Cowboy bebop cause of it's episode structures. Interesting to see how this develops


Watch more? Yes, definitely

Welcome to the NHK - Pretty dumb but immensely enjoyable; im glad it was recommended to me, as from screenshots and summaries i would no way have watched. It's about this guy, a geek, or otaku if you wanna get technical, who spends all his time in his room, doing squat. Then one day some girl comes and challenges him to change his lifestyle. Anyways, its good fun and I can see it becoming abit of a guilty pleasure of mine. And the music pwns aswell ;D

Watch more? Yeah go on then :P

As I said, I finished Noein. I was way too tired to take in the ending when i watched it though... fucked with my head. Ill watch the last episode again one day.

Aww now i feel like a proper animeblogger

Linkdump 3

- http://www.black20.com/black20-trailer-park/tetris-movie - Tetris, The Movie. Id go see it

- http://uk.movies.ign.com/dor/articles/863515/legend-of-zelda-movie-trailer/videos/legendofzelda_filmtrailer_040108.html;jsessionid=l9wekbkwtir2 - Zelda, the Movie. I wouldn't go see it. Happily it doesn't exist.

- Typography = Awesome (See below)



http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charliebrooker - Read up on his column for the Guardian (British newspaper). He is most amusing, despite his apparent dislike for macs or my phone. That said, my phone - Samsung e900 if you're wodering - is pretty shit, with touch screen buttons that, to quote Brooker, 'either refuse to work, or leap into action if you breathe on them'

- http://www.piterwilson-toys.com/wcsmt/ - A nice, easy amusing way of making short stop motion animation, hosted as gifs. Id paste a couple of my efforts but i like to retain some sense of anonymity blogging.

- i ordered a friend to do some photoshopping for me, which i then colour adjusted a little with the mac preview thing. Anyway its a page for my sketchbook but i thought it looked pretty cool so im pasting it below.



- http://www.jmtb02.com/flash/compulse.htm - COMPULSE - Brilliant flash game. Good for chillaxing with its serene music. And it saves your progress for added cool points

- And did i mention already? Typography = awesome. Tenacious D - Inward singing.



YOU CREATE SOMETHING!
YOU FUCKING SIT IN YOUR FUCKING TOWER!

- Battlestar Galactica is pretty darned good



Ok im guna stop before i post about 20 of these

Reading Festival Lineup 2008

Ahhh Reading... *has tickets*



Lineup^^
Doesn't it just look fucking... godly??
The only trouble is the RATM / Babyshambles clash
Babyshambles - One of my favorite bands, and has Pete Doherty for bonus points*
RATM - I would imagine, incredible live

Tricky decision.

*might not actually turn up

Podcast Reviews

Well i thought of a novel idea whilst listening to Ricky Gervais the other day; i listen to podcasts so why have i never thought of reviewing them on here? Search for them on itunes to find them
Anyway lets go

Can of Nothing podcast
An extremely random podcast from the guys who did that pokemon paint video on youtube (shown below). Pretty amusing, but too much of it is them talking about their site (canofnothing.com) which is pretty dull
3 Stars



The Ricky Gervais Show
Got me into listening to podcasts. Pretty faultless... the Ricky / Steve Merchant / Karl combo is unbeatable and works to perfection. However, you do have to pay to download the main seasons - though it's worth it. Also Karl was probably more amusing back in the days of their XFM radio show.
4.5 Stars

GoNintendo Podcast
Not bad, especially when they have the soundboard up and running. The crew have amusing personalities, especially 'Lubesmash' Lube and Mombrain. However, it obviously focuses only on Nintendo news, and is far too long for a weekly podcast.
3 Stars

PlayDigital
Does this count? It's a video podcast so i dunno. Anyways, it's a videogame review show presented by the 'geekalicious' Kathrine Fletcher. Anyhoo, its pretty good, and bonus points are awarded for giving N+ a good review.
4 Stars

The N-Europe Show
Another video game podcast. Could potentially be quite good, but they record with shitty microphones on fucking Skype, which automatically renders it a pile of nigh unlistenable wank. Good hosts and i won a free virtual console game off it gets it...
2 stars

The Lost Initiative
Stemming from the channel 4 podcast, the Lost initiative is the official Lost podcast for the UK. It's extremely well produced, always a good and consistent length of 30 minutes, has great hosts (Iain Lee, 'Geeky Tom', and Pault Terry, 'editor of Lost magazine'), and interesting chat about the show. Especially good at the moment as the show is actually quite good currently. Perhaps better back in the channel 4 days when they had different guests each week but yeh,
5 Stars

Dan and Jon's Random Bonanza
Definitely 5 Stars

Discus
I've shown a couple videos on this blog already i think. Anyways, the host is amusing but abit cringeworthy, and the DVD reviews are pretty good. Also teh 'piggy piggy snack snacks' section (see what i mean, cringing) is an amusing extra.
3.5 Stars

Ninja Storm
Only one podcast, but it is pretty funny....
4 Stars

Ricky Gervais on XFM - Download here
'Prequel to the podcasts', these are the XFM radio shows in which Karl first met Ricky and Steve. They are brilliant, and it's great to see the progress of Karl; the episode where Ricky and Steve revealed Karl's GCSE results to him was a particular classic. And perhaps most importantly Karl seems to really ejoy himself here, laughing along an all.
5 Stars

The Official Lost Podcast
The US one this time then, made by excecutive producers Damon Lindleoff and Carlton Cuse. Quite amusing but not as much discussion, obviously because they make the show and hence cant really theorize about it. They answer fan questions every episode which is nice, and teh pair are quite humorous. Still, it's actually not as good as the UK one...
4 Stars

Linkdump 2

Also known as: I steal things from Digg and Kotaku

Cowboy Bebop + Hot Fuzz = Win (thanks Meow)

More reasons to downlaod N+ here

Ricky Gervais, Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant still crack me up



And more fun error messages here

Win of the week:

Discovering Megadownload

http://megadownload.net/

Searches megaupload for whatever. Extremeingly useful, as megaupload and rapidshare are both about 10x faster than torrents.

Game Impressions

So i picked up No More Heroes and 2 DS games. First game i've got for either system for a while.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker - Bought this cause i have fond childhood memories of the came boy colour games; Dragon Warrior Monsters 1 and 2. Seems pretty similar and it looks absolutely sweet for a DS game. Haven't played that much yet so i'll have to wait and see if the breeding system still holds up or whether its been dumbed down. Oh and also, teh lead character looks like an absolute prick.

No More Heroes - Initially a disappointment; looks pretty shit graphically - this coming from someone who couldnt normally give a toss about graphics - but seriously, i mean i was playing Burnout 1 for gc earlier and it looks way better. And the bike is a real load of suck / pain in the ass. But oh my jesus the bosses are where it's at!! Motion controls seem to be implemented very nicely, very satisfying to use. Generally the game oozes with style as well, though fuck them for leaving out blood. I mean seriously, this is England, why do the yanks get it and not us?

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin - First in the series that i've played since the original. Seems like not much has changed; perhaps for the best. Nice idea post-apocayptic premise, and already the story seems at least slightly of interest.

Cool Beans

Tree of the Week. (yeah week thats right)

Nomnomnom

Death note - Sorry, Dexter

Having missed it on ITV the other week, i downloaded the first two episodes of Dexter (unfortunate name - it reminds me of that crap cartoon, Dexters laboratory) and watched them. Now while i am 100% loving it and am extremely impressed, i have one little gripe... i'm getting a serious case of Deja Vu.

To quickly explain the basic premise of dexter, it's about a man who appears to lack real human emotion, who, unknown to his friends and family, is a serial killer who goes around killing criminals and other such bad dudes. meanwhile, his day job sees him on the 'other side'; working as a forensics guy who looks into blood splatters. So no doubt he'll end up doing the whole 'chasing himself' charade at some point in the series. Add to this the fact that his father (and sister) are on the police force, that he is extremely clever, annoyingly good looking and is seemingly a bit of a ladies man, and if you are a fan of anime, you will most likely be raising an eyebrow around now... Basically, this is Death Note, only without the Deathnote.

The similarities to Death Note, the geniusly gripping japanese manga and animation which ended it's 36 episode run late year are painstakingly huge. Not like this is a bad thing in any way; Death Note completely fucking rocked, and so does Dexter.



So download it, ITV it, just watch it. If you loved death note you'll be right at home. And if your loving Dexter, seriously, check out death note on the web sometime. If only to see what the Dexter writers watch in their spare time.

Edit: Oh and if you do, make sure you watched subbed not dubbed. Because a quick look on youtube has shown me that they made Ryuk have a ridiculous voice.

Here we go again...

Weekly summary time

- Very nearly seen all of the Coen's films. The Man Who Wasn't there was superb, one of the best films i've seen in a long time. 10 / 10

- I still haven't seen Juno and or There Will Be Blood...

- I sorted out my labels sytem on this blog, so now it all works out nicely and you can use them properly >>
Was it worth the half hour it took to change them all? Probably not, no.

- Fairly screwed up some early A levels, but meh, no biggy. High C's, could be worse considering i started revising about 3 days before...

- Dennou Coil is a good anime

- Lost sucked ass

- I finally succumbed to watching skins, having downloaded the Sid episode that was, admittedly, pretty good, and rather moving.

- That's really about it... boring week i guess

Oh crap yeh Reel Big Fish!! Never did write about that...

And speaking of such things...

Wouldn't it be great for Rock Band to work irl?



Ye..yes....

Top 5 - Videogame Elements I Wish Were Real

Ha. Well, after reading a thread on the subject i came to the conclusion that life would be much improved if it was more like a videogame. (i'll try and go through the post without referencing that futurama episode) Man, there are so many omissions to this list... being able to wonder into anyones house and steal things from their cupboards, drawers, bins... saving and loading... bottomless pits...

5 - Extra Lives

This makes the list mainly because it would just be alot of fun. Then again there would need to be a healthy amount of 1ups available, otherwise everyone would just be killing everyone for fun, not knowing when thy're one off a game over. Aging would be a problem. When people die from old age would they just keep losing lives or would they lose their illness?

4 - Leveling up by repeating things over and over

Sleeping Ability increased to level 47

On second thoughts, this sort of works already. But it would be alot cooler to see BLOGGING SKILLS INCREASED pop up in my head when i finish this post. Or a BIOLOGY ABILITY INCREASED to make me actually have some motivation to revise...

3 - Background Music

Abit like that family guy episode where Peter wishes for his own life theme tune. This would be especially cool if it was like good game music; and changed depending on the situation.

2 - Achievement points IRL

Achievement Unlocked - 35G
Finished all of an in flight meal

This would be incredibly pwnsome. Especially when you meet people and have a gamerscore far superior to them. I always get a kick when the achievement unlocked box pops up and im sure id feel the same way in real life.

1 - Pokemon

Well it had to be didn't it. Who ever played through pokemon without thinking, man i wish this was really happening. You could just head on into the woods and catch yourself a bulbasaur, or grab yourself an Onix when you're off on holiday- and fight your friends, stealing all their money and items when all their lv 16 psyduck blacks out.

Of course on of the best things about the games were that you, a random kid from a loser town could so easily become the greatest trainer in the world. So i think i would like this sort of advantage in real life. kthx.

Its the same fucking game except with noah!

This, is, awesome!!



How have i taken so long to discover this video?
Genuinely worth the 20 minutes to watch it all

yeh i was planning on making a gig review of reel big fish but the pictures wont send from my fucking phone to the computer.

I summarize the week... again...

...'cause it's easier than doing proper entrys

What i have learnt this week

- N+ is good, nay, even better than i thought it was. Its also fucking frustrating but there we go. Coop and Online coop are brilliance, if only cause you don't have to play with wanker 11 year old kids. They're all too busy playing Halo and COD4 and Halo. Anyway i've been spending about all my free time on it and i suggest you do too.

- The Big Lebowski is still within my top 5 films, having been on tv recently.
This guy seems to agree


Can't figure out if he's a cringing cock or an amusing review man.

- Charlie Brooker is a God (his articles in G2 are most amusing)

- Devonte Hynes is also some kind of god, having listened to his album 'Falling off the Lavender Bridge' and then the various songs i have downloaded from his earlier band Test Icicles (Harhar) for about all of this week

- Thats apart from when i've been listening to the Juno OST, which is FANTASTIC. I havn't even seen the godamn film yet but the soundtrack is just so.... so good that i've listened at least 20 times in the last week... Kimya Dawson is some kind of Goddess

- Lost really is a phenomenal program, with an episode this week which was without a doubt the greatest episode of anything, ever™. Ingenious storyline - if somewhat pointless in the grand scheme of things - all very exciting, and happily not starring boring characters like kate, or kate.

Unrelated to this weeks episode, here are two ways i can see the flashforwards panning out
1 - They pull a heroes, except worse, and at the last minute jack does something differntly on island which mean that the flashforwards never happen, and we've wasted hours watching them
2 - The whole time fluxuation-thing will mean that at the end of the flashforwards, jack and co will go back to the island, but for the islanders, barely any time will have passed.
3 - A third, more clever option that i haven't thought of.

Lets hope for the later.

Also, it's 24th december - could mean the tsunami's gunna hit in 2 days.... o.O Kewlness

Oh and, nearly forgot this,

I summarize the week

- N+ (aka xbla version on N game (make sure you download it for free by the way)) is truely as fun as ever. The online is kick ass, and the levels are addictive as ever. Then there's high scores, a level editor.... I've spent more time this year on just the live arcade than i have on my wii... way more

- Noein continues to be awesome

- Lost, on the other hand, does not, with a slightly dull episode about kate and her baby-stealing antics. Not enough of the god that is Daniel Faraday. Except he has memory problems, or something.

- The Brits were shits, and i should never watch them ever again. Though i only really tuned in for the last ten minutes, in which i saw Paul McCartney cruise onto the stage for getting his retard award for being a retard, much to the pleasure of the Ozbournes and Kylie minogue*. At this point i practically threw up.... sorry, but im allergic to sell outs. Good on the arctic moneys though... dressed as farmers and insulting the awards ceremony - kick ass



- Music theory can fuck right off

- Leonardo Dicaprioo is making a live action remake of Akira... o.O Yeaahh.... might not have been too bad if it wasn't for the fact that he's doing it. Oh and it's now in 'New Manhattan'. Fuck out.

- Xbox live can fuck right off aswell, as my friends crackdown won't connect, thus rendering the reason i bought my copy useless. I did get a good game with some geek american kid though; were quite fun. And N doesnt seem to want to let me online anymore. By anymore i mean that i got a day of play in before it wanked itself up.

- Facebook doesn't suck so much ass now that i've discovered that you can play Risk on it

*She's not as bad as 'macca' or 'ozzy' mind

^^Go Robot Go!!



^^This retard continues to crack me up every time... oh dear

Annoying game

Probably the most annoying game ever made

I got bored / annoyed of it within about 5 minutes

And at long last i beat the game...

Wow, who would have thought that at the end of it all, it would be the story, that seemed so non-existent for the first 9 hours, that was perhaps the greatest triumph of Shadow of the Colossus?

Almost a full 2 years after it's UK release and i have finally defeated the final colossus; a huge towering fortress of a beast set against a stormy sky and a suitably epic soundtrack. It's not like i took particularly long to beat it, clocking in at just over 10 hours total playtime, but for some reason i kept stopping and coming back months later. This week then, i made it my goal to finish, and i am so very glad i did.

The colossus are interesting and varied, with some superb highlights such as the 10th, a sort of Sand Snake whose eye you must pierce with an arrow, whilst speeding away from it, horseback, or the 13th, a huge snake-like creature (pictured below) that flies through the air, onto which you must leap from your horse, indiana Jones style, and crawl to it's weakspot, hundreds of meters in the air; a fight that has become perhaps my favorite videogame moment in recent memory.

Of course, simply traversing the huge landmass to reach each of the creatures is a joy in itself, and often you must overcome obsticles and cliffaces that stand it your path. At first i was dubious that the art-like nature of the landscape that has been so often talked about could be achieved, but by the end i honestly found myself exploring the land, in awe of the incredible views, the geysers, waterfalls, and rock formations, all created with a drag colourset, which only went to support the feeling of isolation and loneliness that is presented to the player. It has been said before, but along with Rez and Okami, this game really shows that videogames can be genuine forms of art; better ones, I would say, than alot of the crap you see these days

Suffice to say, the game is far from perfect, even, at times, being extremely frustrating; for a great deal of the fights i wished i was in control of Altier rather than Wander, as he struggled to dive out of harms way for me, or annoyingly jumped the wrong way, often plummeting to the ground below rather than grabbing the beast's fur. As well as this, hardly anything was explained in the game, and it was only from browsing the internet that i figured out there was a 'reminiscence' mode; in which you could go back and replay beaten colossus, or that you could be badass and standup on your horse to then shoot arrows. Similarly it was down to fluke that i figure out the easier way to jump on your horse (jump and then hold r1 near), and i have read alot of reviews in which people apparently failed to find this feature, and noted how much of a hassle it was to get n the horse. Oh and did i mention the camera? Which, while often very nicely employed, I frequently had to wrestle with to have any use whatsoever.

But by the end my frustrations had been forgotten, as the ending few colossus, and the final set of cutscenes, were simply beautiful. The death of one of the characters in particular was probably the most moving scene in any game which i have played; which may seem odd to you if you know who i am refering to, and the ending of the game was suitibly stunning, if ambiguos and confusing, and the final playable sections were genuinely tragic. By the end of this wonderful exerience i am left wondering wether Shadow of the Colossus was not just the best game i never completed, but, quite simply, the best videogame i have ever played.

Lego kewlness and a complete retard

Kid has problems...

Fucking Blogger and stuff

*is still pissed off about the fucking password restrictions*

Anyway heres a fun game i found on the internet

The Never Ending Level game

See how far you can get. I got to lv29, where i had to stop, as macs lack the # sign which i need to pass the level. I checked, it ain't like im just doing the wrong thing. So i feel slightly pissed off. Anyway give it a go. Kinda like Not Pr0n, expect alot less complicated, and easier.

Also,

- Finished Bioshock; man that was good, overtook Galaxy as GOTY for me. Shame for the sodding fetch-quests in the second half though. 9 .5/ 10
- Downloaded Rez - and played the hell outta it. Missed out on ps2 version, so than god again for xbla. Killer game, area four in particular was brilliant. Strangely weird and a rare instance of me actually listning to game music rather than just putting on itunes and muting the volume...
- Lost season 4 is fucking incredible so far!! Best it's been since the first season. Hopefully it'll keep this up. Can't be much worse than the first few s3 episodes anyways... So many questions from the first two episodes!! And it looks like they're gunna be answered, which is nice... The flashbacks in particular have worked well so far, especially in the 2nd epsiode; 'Confirmed Dead', being short, consise, and, cruicially, not disrupting the flow of the episode. Good to see more of theatAbingdon (sp?) bloke,, very intriguing character.
Oh but they need to get rid of the annoying english woman. We do not sound like that.

And now i have a week off working, aahhhh relaxation.......

Warning this blog is rated R and WHA THE FUCK!!!??

Lol, good site.

Also, i have...
45% chance surviving a zombie apocalypse
I can name 36 countrys in 5 minutes
26 Colours in 5 minutes
I'm 62% Geek
There are 2,157,120 germs on me keyboard right now
I'm 58% addicted to apple
and i 'barely passed' the 2007 internet test wif 62%. yaaay.
http://www.justsayhi.com/bb - click for them

And lost...
'So it begins...'


Seriously.... WHAT THE FUCK!!?! o.O!!!
3 more days... I CANNOT WAIT!!

I review more things...

Seeing as reviews are nice and easy 'n all, here are some more...

Superbad

Wasn't all keen on it from the first time i saw the trailer; seemed to me just like another lame teen movie, but over time i saw good reviews and more good reviews, and i wound up watching it witha group of friends on saturday. By jove, it surpassed my expectations over and over; seriously, and particularly if you're a teenager, DO NOT MISS THIS movie. The jokes keep are consistently hilarious, with nice cult references, (my favorite - 'I'm sorry your porn isn't directed by the Coen Brothers!'). The characters are brilliant, everything is brilliant, the plot is highly amusing (mainly following the story of 3 geeks trying to get their hands on some alcohol for a party and get laid), and is the McLovin joke doesn't make you laugh then you ARE dead inside. Man, writing about this i really wanna just watch it again... or go to a party... either will do.

10 / 10

Noein

Yea so i was guna not bother with doing animu reviews anymore cause my plan of them getting me traffic seems to have failed, and the people how read this evidently aren't huge fans. But after the last couple of episodes i simply couldn't NOT blog this. Supurb series so far, with paralell dimensions and the like; the last episode was largey set in a distopian post-apocalyptic world, which looked just amazing. The quality of the animation is incredible (though how many times are they guna show off their frickin 3d house model; it doesn't look that great alright!?) though things are slightly marred by the somewhat lame character designs, which sorta remind me of Yugio (This is a very, very bad thing). Luckily the main 2 kids look alright. Anyway i'll be keen to see if the quality remains this high throughout the rest of the series (and if i can keep track of what the hell's going on)

9.5 / 10

Devil May Cry 4 - Demo

Didn't really know what to expect, having never played a DMC game before, but i figured id give it a go. I'm glad i did aswell, as this game is, to put it simply, badass. Simple hack and slash stuff, but it's certainly enjoyable, and well worth the 0.7gb of my 20gb monthly allowance. The 360 continues to impress, as the demo system works great. Makes me lose faith in Nintendo even more, really.

8 / 10 as of the demo

Bioshock

Nearly forgot i bought this. Only an hour in so far so it's hard to say if the stunning set pieces (is that the term?) continue. I'll be amazed if they do, as everything so far has been phenomial. I have seen a man get thrown against a wall, and his stomache exploding in gore as a huge drill is pressed into him. I have seen lights flicker out of life and leave me to fend for myself in the dark. I have seen a mad surgeon hang bodies up on teh wall and scream at them. That's all within the first couple of hours. Stunning atmosphere.

9.5 / 10 if it carries on like this

(note to self: do a review of summat crap soon, theres too many 9's being handed out here)
And in other news, my 360 nearly broke today. Well it didn't but i got the red light, which made me panic alot, before i realized that it was 4 red lights not 3, and i just needed to clean the cable.
Speaking of panic, P!ATD have lost their excallmation mark!! Why?? Fools. Now it's just Panic at the Disco