Kingdom of Loathing

Like RPGs? Like games that are easy to play but really hard to master? Like not having to download anything, or use any browser plug-ins? Then Kingdom of Loathing is the game for you.

First off, Kingdom of Loathing, or KoL as it’s players commonly call it, is easy to start playing. All you have to do is type www.kingdomofloathing.com into your browser and away you go (or you could just click that link). Then just click the “Create an Account” link and fill out the form. Nothing personal, just a user name, password, and email. Oh, and you have to choose a character class to start off with. Before you learn of the character classes though, you need to learn of the stat system, which will be discussed after the break.

It Beginneth

Audible sigh. School begins on Wednesday. Today I (started) cleaning my room. I just don’t have anything cool to write about today (mainly because I don’t have the time). However, tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday I’ve got things lined up. I just have to sit down and type. Friday is the Fair, so I’ll be having way too much fun to blog anything.

Back to School: My Sountrack

At (ir)regular times, namely, when I have gotten enough new music, I burn myself a new CD. I haven’t done one since January, so I figured “Ahh! I need a new, great CD to listen to on the first day of school!” So I put together one without much trouble. There’s been some good music added to my collection this year. So here’s my Back to School Soundtrack. [Format: Song - Artist (Album, if any)]

UCD5: You Crazy Seniors!

1. Don’t Download This Song – Weird Al Yankovic (Straight Outta Lynwood)
2. How To Save A Life – The Fray (How To Save A Life)
3. Hung Up On Soul (Minus Maddy Edit) – Death Cab for Maddy*
4. Star Wars Gangsta Rap – Bentframe
5. Cosmopolitan – Nine Black Alps (Everything Is)
6. Million Tears – Groove Coverage (Greatest Hits)
7. Everytime We Touch – Cascada (Everytime We Touch)
8. Computer Talk – Kraftwerk vs. Coldplay*
9. Fix You – Coldplay (X&Y)
10. Vienna – The Fray (How To Save A Life)
11. Lonely Train – Black Stone Cherry (Black Stone Cherry)
12. Dimension – Wolfmother (Dimensions – EP)
13. Are You With Me? – Vaux (Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice)
14. Contagious (alt) – Granian (Alternate Mixes)
15. You’re Beautiful – James Blunt (Back to Bedlam)
16. Miracle – Cascada (Everytime We Touch)
17. Super Smash Bros. Brawl Main Theme – Nintendo
18. Till Kingdom Come – Coldplay (X&Y)
19. Code Monkey – Jonathan Coulton
20. Dynomite (Going Postal) – Rhymefest (Dynomite (Going Postal) – Single)
21. Mama’s Room – Under the Influence of Giants (Heaven Is Full EP)

* Both these artists are names used by Party Ben for the purpose of these songs only.

To find out more about these songs and how I got ahold of them, as well as the CD and how I named it, check out the page on Life, the Universe, and Nothing. I’ll also post the same details on my Last.fm journal this weekend.

Cross posted to my Last.fm Journal. Post is located here.

“Don’t Download This Song”

The hottest think on the RSS feeds I track today is a new Weird Al Yankovic song entitled “Don’t Download This Song.” Satirical. Check. Slams the RIAA (indirectly). Check. It’s a winner! It’s hilarious because it paints song downloading from P2P songs as a gateway crime to robbing stores, selling drugs, and running over children. But if you don’t buy your songs, how are artists supposed to buy more solid gold cars and diamond-studded swimming pools? Frankly it’s hilarious! You can download it at either of the sites below:

Download.com Music (claims it’s exclusive to them) (Edit: Found out that this is the better quality version)

Weird Al’s MySpace Page

Audacity

I love open source software, and one of my favorite pieces of it (besides Firefox and Flock) is Audacity. Very infrequently updated, but very fun. And useful, if you know how to use it. I don’t know how to use it very well, so I use it for fun. It is an audio editor. You can use a mic to record stuff directly into the program, or you can import a file. Like your MP3s. And that’s where the fun begins. I have literally wasted hours just doing effects to my favorite songs. The results can be very amusing.

To start the fun, download and install Audacity. Then open it and go to File > Open. Find one of your favorite songs (note that it won’t open DRMed stuff or RealAudio files. That means no songs you bought on iTunes, but all your MP3s will work). It’ll take a moment to load. Now, see the song in there? On that purplish part with the -/+ and L/R sliders, click on an empty spot. That will select the entire song. Now click on the Effect menu and choose one. My favorites are Change Pitch, Change Speed, and Change Tempo.

• Change Pitch will change the song’s pitch (how high or low the notes are) without changing the song’s length.
• Change Tempo will change the length of the song without making it sound like the Chipmunks are singing it.
• Change Speed is like putting a record on the wrong speed turntable. It changes both the pitch and tempo at the same time.

So, go on. Try it. You’ll like it. Just don’t try it when you have something you should be doing.

Woot-Off!

By the way, we are currently in the middle of a Woot-Off! This is where woot.com sells a bunch of stuff at great prices in a small period of time, rather than the normal one item per day once they’re gone they’re gone fashion. Check it out, they normally sell for lower than comparison shopping sites show as the lowest price.

America’s Got Talent

Unfortunately, things always seemed to get in the way of watching the show, but I saw most of it. So… last night (sorry, mistake. It was two nights ago, AKA Wednesday Night) I only saw from #5 onward (which was the tap dancers). They were cool. However, my favorite act (that I saw) last night was Passing Zone. They aren’t really “jugglers”, they are more of comedians who use juggling to make their act funnier.

About the 11 year old singer who won: I don’t have an opinion. I only saw her perform, like, once, so I don’t feel I can judge who I felt should have won accurately. Just glad it wasn’t the Quick Change artists: they did the same thing every…single…time. They just got boring.

Now I think I have a few things to say about the show itself. America’s Got Talent was a great idea. It’s like American Idol, except any kind of act can be on, at almost any age. It’s more open and free. And therein lies the problem. It’s too open. How is anyone supposed to be able to judge two completely different types of talent against each other? The show, by its very nature, doesn’t give certain talents a fair shot at winning the million dollars. Unfortunately, its the best show that could be done to showcase those other talents, so we’ll just have to stick with it. They are going to have a second season, but if I recall right, they say it will start in January. That’s suicide to go up against American Idol, but if they want to… It’s their own funeral.

Welcome

Welcome to the obligatory welcome message! This blog is going to be my main blog. What Blogger is adding is too little, too late. WordPress is just better. So this is going to be it! And I’m going to try to be a better blogger!