How to Do Crazy [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img] and Get Away With It
Or: Neel Preaches About How He's Better Than You
1. The 2 C's: Confidence and Charisma
This is something a lot of people here just don't have down. Let's face it - most of you don't have the balls to go out and make friends, and keep yourselves cooped up all day in front of your computer talking to people who may or may not exist. In your spare time, you try to improve yourself by rolling a 20-sided die and writing about how you gained levels on a sheet of paper. When someone tells you to gain more experience, you roll the die more. That, by the way, is the wrong way to gain attributes, and if I see you doing that, I will slap you. Because it's funny to slap people.
Confidence is absolutely necessary so you can convince yourself to do crazy [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img], and charisma is absolutely necessary so you can convince other people to let you get away with it. Some of you do go out and stuff, and are fairly functional people. Yet you don't take the big risks. Why not? That's number 2.
2. Have faith.
You're probably not going to die doing crazy [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img]. In fact, what you think is crazy someone else has probably done before. That doesn't make it any less crazy, but it certainly makes it less likely for you to die. Tons of people skydive and bungy jump and go blackwater rafting and stuff. Yeah, a few die, but they're idiots. Are you an idiot? If so, repeat number 1 until you're no longer an idiot. If on the occassion you try and do something really far out, like have sex with a panda, you probably need to reassess your sanity before proceeding further.
So, what else do you have to lose? This leads in to number 3.
3. Have nothing to lose.
Material possessions are the easiest to let go. You say "I can't live without X, Y, Z, or my hairdryer!" You are wrong. You may think you are right, but in fact, you are wrong. If you are, by some random chance, right, go back to number 1 until you're no longer a pathetic fool who depends on minor trinkets to survive.
Essentials are a little difficult. Food, water, clothing, housing. That's understandable. But if you die, you don't need those anyways. And since you've passed number 2, you should be good for the moment. Relationships are the most difficult. If you die, you leave everyone behind and that makes them turn into sad pandas. You're on your own there.
4. Have a sense of humor.
Unfortunately some of you will never reach this final stage. I cry for you. :\
What are Earthtones?
The introduction to Crown City Rockers second LP foreshadows the entire album perfectly. "Speaking visually... something extremely natural..." For a hip-hop album, the beats come off as extremely organic, something unusual in an industrial-driven modern music scene. I attribute most of this feeling to Kat Ouano's keyboard work, which is very minimalist but very mood-setting. It's mixed in perfectly with Headnodic's funky bass and Max McVeety's drums. The band formed in Boston in the late nineties, and then met up with Raashan Ahmad soon after at freestyle sessions. They moved back to San Francisco to start recording and cutting tracks.
There's something enchanting about having a band rather than just a DJ behind an emcee, and I personally think it gives hip-hop music more options to be innovative. "D Minor Nine" is a great example of the Crown City band at its jazzy sweetness (with an amazing guest spot by saxophonist David Boyce). I'm not knocking production - Woodstock and Headnodic do a good job mixing the band with beats and sampled guitar work. I'm just a big fan of Kat's keys - it may be my piano playing bias.
Of course, some discussion about the emcee is necessary. Raashan Ahmad is pretty solid throughout the entire album. It's good natured rhyming about the usual topics - money, love, life, death. Cursing is noticeably absent from Ahmad's rhymes. His rhythm is impeccable, his rhymes are just tight, and his voice is so natural and free. His voice moves from floating freely on the surface of the beatwork as in "Another Day" to taking commanding control of the song in upbeat raps like "B-Boy".
Noticeable guests on this CD include Zion I and Gift of Gab. Ahmad holds his own against the almighty Gab's unstoppable flow on "Fortitude", and shows his cool side with Zion's meticulous wording in "Without Love". Two of Cali's biggest underground emcees have graced this album with their presence; you should probably at least listen to them too.
Earthtones was released on Basement Records in 2004.
Tracklist:
01: Intro
02: Another Day*
03: Balance (feat. Scarub)
04: Sidestep (feat. Destani Wolf)
05: Interlude
06: B-Boy*
07: Fortitude (feat. Gift of Gab)*
08: Maxlude
09: Fate
10: Culture
11: D Minor Nine*
12: Simple
13: Heat
14: Earthtones
15: Without Love (feat. Zion)*
16: Something pt. 3*
17: 10:53
18: No Sense
19: Proteus (Bonus Track)
* - indicates Neel's Picks
http://betterpropaganda.com/images/a...ockers_480.jpg
An awesome article by Old Manus:
Seems like I have to write an editorial. But first, what is an editorial? websters-online-dictionary.org defines it as:
"Of or relating to an article stating opinions or giving perspectives; "editorial column"."
...Yeah. Now even though I have no experience whatsoever of doing these things, this is going to be the best editorial ever. So first things first. EoFF elections this month. It was the first I actively (:shifty:) participated in. Of course once everyone caught wind of this, my PM inbox exploded with arsekissing pms begging for me to join their party. And like the unbiased man I am, looked down General Chat at the various parties. The newcomers Hot Air Baloons Are Actually Pretty Neat Party and the TUTU party caught my eye and I was tempted to enlist, but I gave the other parties a chance and - screw this. The truth is I just clicked on the top thread (which happened to be fluffy pink) and posted. This prompted a slowdown in my posting in GC, due to the fact that I despise elections after the Labour party atrocity last year, and also because I couldn't be arsed to read through the 500,000 page threads containing nothing but trash talk such as 'F4T CHBOCO PWNS j00 LoL'. Hey guess what, partygoers - NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.
In other news, there was some confusion on why people should donate money to EoFF, so Loony BoB, always quick off the mark, whipped up some story about money needed to update the fanart section on the frontsite. I have two things to say about this:
1. Fans?
2. I didn't know we had a fanart section.
This got the money pouring in nonetheless, none from me though, because I have insufficient funds after investing in some very important shares. Or something. Maybe next time *cough*.
Right. I don't really know how they finish these things, so -
fin.
User Notes, Trendy Fad for the Popular
-Marick D. Pauper
User Notes, a popular trend during late summer and fall of 2005 at EoFF, "just like all the other trends, they faded away." (Neel, 3) In the course of EoFF, we have seen many additional trends and changes. User Notes, a concept drudged straight out of hell itself, plagued the community when it was its most popular. Some would say that it went so far as to become user note spam heavy, so much so, that more popular members would end up with far more notes than most members. Members, such as Psychotic and Meat Puppet, have an ongoing race of who can sustain the most user-notes, where Psychotic is consistently winning.
However, who actually uses user notes anymore? The trend, which was at one time a popular thread topic in General Chat, has become no more. Has interest simply drained from the emphasis of its integral part of the community? "It seems like most people keep up with their own notes consistenly, but not other's." (Kikimm, 16). In retrospect, it would seem that this is most true. Anymore, it would seem that within user notes, you will find the same people posting within each other's notes during the past two months.
However, some people are just in the dark of the existence of user notes. Why, [:..x.ffd.lil.one.x..:] stated, "What are user notes?" What are we teaching the newcomers of EoFF. Are user-notes simply not appreciated anymore by the majority of the populace that it is now held as a secret of sorts?
Some members have interesting views of the user notes. The most interesting and well used user note purpose came from Neel. Neel has devised a system for user notes that seems relatively genius to the entire idea, "[He] keeps [his] user notes as they are, simply 'notes'. This is largely accomplished by [him] never posting in [his] own notes, and instead responding to others in their notes. Thus, they get an extra note, and [he] doesn't look self-centered by posting in [his own]." (Neel, 31). Being in this elite field, however, has warped Neel's mentality, calling some user notes "Spam threads" (Neel, 31) simply put - that some notes are posted simply because it is unacceptable to spam in general chat.
However, other members have a completely separate view of the EoFF User Notes. One member even went as far as the claim that "user notes are the most reliable source of entertainment at EoFF. Pretty much every thread in GC or Feedback is the same nowadays, and The Lounge and EoEo are a mixed back. However, User Notes are always full of creative quips, poems, or ways to insult Meat Puppet. Fun for all the family, basically." (BM121, 34). Some members of the staff have quite a separate view on user notes altogether - "the usernotes could use a ton of upgrades in my opinion. Along with that, a way to search all usernotes posted by a person would be nice - for moderation purposes." (RSL, 41)
One problem with user notes was the glitch that allowed a user to post, basically, a million times within usernotes. Hawkeye was seen exploiting this glitch in abundance within his own user notes and other's user notes. Nikotine was also banned one entire month for exploiting this glitch. While this glitch has been fixed, it still remains a problem that it was an inherent problem that was a problem and caused much misfortune and turmoil between members.
It seems that user notes, for some, are still going strong, however, the popularity they once held is now far from the point it reached in late 2005. Perhaps EoFF will create a new trend that will be simply amazing for a few months and then die down again, in order to keep popularity, to please its masses. One can only anticipate the next EoFF fad to approach.
Marick D. Pauper
source:
http://forums.eyesonff.com/showthread.php?t=78865
The following was a draft by our lovely Rye which never got around to being finished.
Changes of EoFF
-Ryechu
"EoFF, like most things, is ever changing. And it's not just exclusive to the board and website, but the people in it too are always changing, and rapidly at that. You don't have to just be an oldbie to notice it. I don't consider myself an oldbie really, because even though I have been around for over 3 years, I don't have the mentality for it, or as I call it in my mind, a case of the Raistlin. But back to my point, even though I'm not an oldbie, my head will spin at times at all the new things happening.
In the past year, the board went through some major changes, one of them being an upgrade to the almighty vBulletin Version 3.5.3! And the time to post has been shortened drastically, including the time it takes to use the font size drop menu to make the size 1 font tags come, which is something this reporter greatly enjoys.
Another one of the more recent board changes happens to be the opportunity to pay Cid a yearly fee which enables you to have an extremely large PM space of 65,535 for US$12 for one year or US$20 for two. Now you PM box spammers like Kyono don't have to worry about filling up someone's PM box completely if they're subscribed to increased PM space.
As I said, the changes are not mutually exclusive to board and website, it includes the people too. An example is the take over of #eoff in the forum and anywhere the people of EoFF may post, like in LJ. I'm not sure how it happens, but #eoff has suddenly become filled with chatters, when it used to be deserted in previous years. This reporter hasn't gone a week without seeing one #eoff chat log in her LJ friends list. As a newbie who did go on #eoff, the chat room was a barren wasteland with occasional passing tumbleweeds of "/*me slaps you with a trout" and translations of phrases to Japanese, except for the time around the Ciddies and Elections. Confeito? We didn't have Confeito back in the day! No, back in the day, we HAD no chat bots, except Munty. All we had was Roogle repeating your phrases... if you were lucky! But anyways, I'll get off this subject before I get a case of the Raistlin.
I tend to notice that as the years go on, the newbies become more and more opinionated. Not the rebelling outcries of "Clownface!" but more on topics like African famine and violence in the Middle East and other controversial topics. It may explain the EoTW forum being moved to the garbage forum. I don't recall many "AMERICANS ARE DUMB AND BUSH SUCK!" threads being created prior to the past year, nor do I remember so many Cloud No. 9 clones posting. Though I have to admit ever since Cloud No. 9 was banned, those Niger famine threads have dissapeared. Shocking!
Also, I have noticed that there is a new generation of moderators. It scares me ever so slightly that close to half of the moderators have been at EoFF less time than I have been at EoFF! It makes me feel so old. Though it's a good thing, because the new moderators have been very eager and hardworking and proving themselves very deserving of their titles.
One of the more positive changes of EoFF, in this reporter's opinion, is that members have become closer due to an influx of EoFF meetings. Until recently, there were no large EoFF meetings except for the yearly Californian meeting. Now, meetings are happening all around, especially in Britain. The first British EoFF group meeting happened on April 16, 2005 in Birmingham. Other meet ups coming soon is yet another Birmingham meet up in April and the CST meet up in the summer.
Considering I am neither an oldbie or newbie, I felt it would be good to get opinions from both groups. I asked the oldbies what changes they obversed and what they missed from the old EoFF and for the newbies, as well as asking what changes they observed, I asked what they hoped for in the future in EoFF.
(Interviews)
In conclusion, I would have to say that EoFF in store for exciting changes in the future and that I'm optimistic about the future of EoFF. Though this whole article is about the various changes in EoFF, one thing remains static about the forum, and that would be that though it may hit some boring points at certain times of the year, it's always filling in with great new members which keep EoFF alive and running, Leeza busy with moderating the pants off of spammers, Loony BoB creating new projects and activities for the forum, and Yamaneko doing... well... nothing at all."
Interviews by Doomie
Me: As the new interviewer of the EoFF Post 2006, I would like to ask you to be my first...uhhh...interview person. I will ask you a series of random questions, and it will be posted in the next issue of the EoFF Post. Do you accept?
Raistlin: Sure
Raistlin
Me: This is a new style which I stole from MAD Magazine called the two question interview. I will ask one question at a time, to which you must reply to via PM. This way, we will be able to include more people and opinions in the upcoming newspaper.
The first question:
What do you think of the "Two Question Interview" idea?
Raistlin: I think that you're obviously insane.
Me: Would you like it better if it were a three question interview?
Raistlin: And how many questions would then be asked at a time?
Me: Just one of course.
Raistlin: well...then, no. *smack*
Me: Thank you for taking part in Doomie's two-question interview!
Raistlin: ...
Next, onto fun stuff.
JUMBLES WITH DEL MURDER!
Unscramble the the following sets of letters to make Eyeson member names (the - represent spaces between words):
GTOITCUBOARMHEUDAN
(_) _ _ (_) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FSGIEPEFESCNIH
_ (_) _ _ _ _ _ _ - _ (_) _ _ _ _
DCI
_ (_) _
XPSHEE
_ (_) (_) _ _ _
Now unscramble the letters found in the (_) to form the answer to the Big Jumble:
Q: Maybe the reason Raistlin wants this so much is because it is something he will never be.
A: _ _ _ - _ _ _ _
Cartoon fun
By Old Manus
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...stupididea.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...felections.png
CAN YOU BEAT NEEL AT SUDOKU?!
-an unfinished idea
*generated from
www.websudoku.com, need to cite in paper*
Easy: Neel's time - 3.46
Mid: Neel's time - 7.23
Hard: Neel's time - 11.04
*ask readers for easier/harder ones, gauge difficulty levels*
http://www3.hmc.edu/~nshah/eoff/feb06.png
For the first edition of the revamped EoFF Post we wanted to get a feel for how members thought of the staff and community in a pure and non-arbitrary way. The answers of the following question were submitted by individual members of the community of EoFF, all of which will be concluded as anonymous for their safety as some of the views expressed here-in are a mix of positive and negative. However, in our findings, we have concluded that while the average EoFFer (average being those personally picked for this question) is content with EoFF, they find a lot of things for improvement. These are just some of the responses we got and felt would be the best to represent the over-all picture of what we got. These are not all of them, and further not everyone who was asked the question responded. So without further ado:
What do YOU think needs to be improved about the EoFF Staff and the community as a whole. If you don't care enough, then what are your thoughts about EoFF, the community, and the staff in general?
Response 1)
LEIK STAFF R TEH BEST EVER! (BEST AT SUXING!)
Response 2)
I'll try to take this as seriously as possible. In the time I've been at EoFF, I've got to meet some great people. There's always something going on, whether some member has made some crazy popular post between events, or there are events going on, it's just a good time at EoFF usually.
However, I must admit, the staff themselves can be a big diappointment sometimes. I was sad that, as someone who was adamantly participating in the elections, that they were never fully carried out. I understand that there were reasons, but why couldn't another staff member have taken over. Why did we have to completely cancel it after the members had gone through their usualy flammatory remarks to one another (in good fun), as well as the creation of all those sigs. I mean, it was simply inconsiderate of the staff to do so. I could list a few more grievances, but I'm really not sure how long you wanted these answers. You didn't really specify. So I'll leave it at that.
Response 3)
I love EoFF, at least, in regards to the internet. I do have a life outside of it. I find that the members are, while a little quarky and out there, nice and pretty fun to be around.
As far as staff goes, I'm content with the way things are run. This isn't to say that I am happy with it, but I'm not entirely unhappy either. Sure there are things I believe that could be improved upon. I don't agree with some of the unjust punishments or rulings. I wish EoFF could be a little more democratic in its decision making. Or if not democratic, then maybe a little more open about its decisions. It's like, when staff makes a decision, we are simply told without reason.
Response 4)
For online entertainment, EoFF is one of the more entertaining places I frequent. It's basically a spam fest though, where not to much is taken seriously. Even EoEO is often times just nothing but a big argument or soap box of problem, which I think needs much more regulations. If people are going to post their problems, then they need to be legitimate, or else they will get flamed. Now, I understand that some people deal with their problems different that some others, but some of the problems in their are just so trivial that they really don't even need to be discussed. Further, I'm definitely still angry about the staff taking away EoTW. It had some good discussion which has been stifled by those morons and emo punks in EoEO. Further, debate about some issues has become more frivelous than it was in EoTW, as well as a less emphasis on the world and its problems. I would love to discuss politics, but EoEO is just too sensitive of a place. Further, I think that blunt and outright statements should be allowed. So what if the comment is mean, some people need to realize that in the grand scheme of things, their feelings simply don't matter. If staff wants to defend the people that feel this way, then they should probably start listening to grievances against them by all members in regards to things posted in Feedback.
Response 5)
I don't really know or care too much about EoFF to think of something. It's a fun place, but I don't really have outright problems with the staff or community. there are times I get disgruntled, but it's not really important. People can do as they wish.
Respsonse 6)
I'm rather disgruntled about the recent elections getting cancelled. It's ridiculous. Why cancel them, why couldn't another staff member just take over? Would it really be that difficult? Voting hadn't even started! Further, to say they were simply post-poned was childish, they should have just came out and said the elections were cancelled.
I dunno, sometimes Shinra - err the staff - just gets so damned pushy and annoying. I wish they would just remember what it was like before they were staff and view it like they were members again. I miss the golden age of EoFF with people like Unne and BOU.
Response 7)
Meh' can't complain. there's really nothing worth talking about. It's an online forum.
Response 8)
That Loony BoB is stubborn. Leeza, she likes cats too much. Yams is lazy. I could go on about all the things I dislike about staff, but I won't.
EoFF is just something I look at in my spare time and post in.
Response 9)
I think EoFF the forums are run fine. What I don't understand is how strict chat can be with some members over its leniency with others. But then again, looking back at the forums, I guess it happens here too. I guess I'm trying to say that I just wish the staff would stop playing favorites with its members.
