Things That Really !&$%2 You Off

The current government is once again at the top of my dung list!  It's been a long time coming, but they have once again reclaimed that title, for the short term at any rate.

I don't know what is more embarrassing (and hilarious) about this government's handling of marriage equality, Tony Abbot trying to bury a bipartisan bill proposal, Senate leader Abetz going on a media blitz first claiming any front benchers that don't agree with party policy (aka support it or even support a debate on the issue) should resign and that it's nothing more than "the latest fad", or his claim that because our Asian neighbours aren't doing it we shouldn't.

That last is especially laughable given those same countries also have firing squad executions which given the recent execution of two reformed Australian drug smugglers should be fresh in ones mind, among many other policies they'd have to be insane to think we should be taking cues from.  

Oh, and Barnaby Joyce, aka the man who vocally wanted Johnny Depps dogs put down, has come out and claimed that Australia would be viewed as "decadent" if it passed a marriage equality bill.  Not the term I'd use, mine would be closer to "sloth-like".  

For pities sake even Ireland which is known to be highly conservative has passed this now, we're the only English speaking nation to my knowledge not to have it passed, just get it done already you regressive dolts.  Honestly at this point they should abandon the party name of "Liberals" and call themselves the Republicans, because there's nothing "Liberal" about them.  



Ah I needed that, having a nice long rant after the last week feels good.

Ah good ol Australia, I see rampant racism from the supposed role models of our society is well and truly strong.  

Spoiler:

Apologies for the double post, I just seriously need to vent right now given some personal shit I'm dealing with.  Dawn Fraser's remarks also strike a nasty nerve of mine, and also remind me of some other nasty stuff as well. Anyway, moving on.

Dawn Fraser is your typical old white Australian and that isn't a good thing. Sure Kyrgios has been acting like a tool. not uncommon in tennis, but his behaviour stands on its own. Where was she when Hewitt was acting like a tool? Oh wait, he has an Anglo name. Fraser sounds like an absolute tool, much worse than the behaviour of Kyrgios, and yes, it is racist to say such a thing. She won't get that though and she has her supporters, who are equally stupid. Kyrgios is as Australian as the rest of us and so are his parents, even if they weren't born here. I have no time for that bullshit.

Our daughters were once subjected to the 'go back to where you come from' at the local school. The idiots assumed that was England because of the accent (not bogan), which amused us no end. In my protesting days against anti-refugee policies, for my own amusement, I used a decent Irish accent just to see the reaction. Suffice to say I was abused as not being Australian, told to go back to where I came from and had no right to an opinion despite making it clear I was a citizen. Australia is bequeathed with a plethora of racists, rednecks and xenophobes. I don't think we are alone though ....... looks at the BNP and UKIP.

What's even worse about the whole racist nationalistic mentality is that they in turn ignore how the country was basically founded with us invading migrating to the country, but of course it was right when us Anglo's did it, it's horribly evil and wrong when people fleeing conditions most Australians probably wouldn't even be able to survive in because of how pampered we are come by boat.

I need to have a rant about fans,

First being so called fans of Shenmue, I'm a member of a few fan groups and this is a post you see often

Why isn't this on Xbox One, it should be on it as well
Which ends up in about 20 posts about how Sony are helping , why isn't also on Ouya, Wii U, Apple thing, Dreamcast, a toaster etc, buy a PS4 which is my normal one I'm not saying go buy a PS4 on amazon this second but when Shenmue III comes out buy a used PS4 for what £100 which the reply is normally I shouldn't have to it should be on everting and not a exclusive to me that's like saying Zelda or Halo or Uncharted should be everting. But the worst one is when you say about if it's the other way-around and PS4 owners are missing out there normal reply is buy a Xbox One but you just said you wouldn't buy a cheap PS4, so why should some buy a cheap Xbox One.

People have waited for 14 years for this announcement and people have been asking Sony, MS, Nintendo, SEGA for years to save it and we would do anything to get this now we have got it, people still aren't happy.

I call it Bayonetta 2 Syndrome which was basically the same case , people going shouldn't be on Wii U it should be on this console well then SEGA or whoever should of funded it then.

The other set of fans is Liverpool FC fans, sorry deadlemon.

As a Man City fan I should hate Man Utd and there fans more then anyone but nope that honour goes to Liverpool fans who have to be the worst fans ever. This has mainly come of the back of the Sterling deal to City where we payed £49m for him which is way over priced by about £19-24m due to he's young & English. ASDA has about 500 colleagues with Liverpool being one of the most sported teams at work, all I've got all week is stick about it and how he missed 6 sitters last season but last season Liverpool fans where creaming over him and even saying a big club would come in for him (I think they where think more Real Madrid) and now one has come in there all slating him and people have even sent death threats to his baby daughter over it online long with racist abuse etc.

And now said fans of Liverpool are creaming over some Brazilian that know one has ever heard off who played for the German equivalent of West Ham United and had a shocking Copa America but he's going to be the next big thing, he could be but we've not seen him play in the Premier League yet to know and don't even get me started on the opinion of there manager of Rodgers as one minute he's amazing then he's the worst manager on the planet.

And they've always been like it and guess what this season is there season like the past 20, at least United fans on the most part can actaully back up what there talking about.

As a Spurs fan, I feel like Liverpool have settled in to a similar role and are in danger of ending up in the Europa League every season. They seem happy to offload their best player and replace them with five weaker players. It happened with the Torres money, the Suarez money and will happen with the Sterling money. It happened to us with the Berbatov money, the Modric money and the Bale money. The thing that annoys me with the Sterling situation is that I just don't get why he is such a big deal. He's another in the line of over-rated wingers following in the wake of Aaron Lennon, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain.

With Chelsea, Man City, Man United and Arsenal all improving their squads, Liverpool need to pull a major signing out to even compete for the Top 4. I'm used to disappointment and getting 5th each season, but a small part of me hopes last season was a transitional one for Spurs. Lamela actually stopped giving the ball away, and the team began to play how a Pocchetino team plays. It will be another interesting season.

Speaking of football, I get hacked off by football fans claiming the Premier League to be the best league in the world, when 90% of them don't follow other leagues. It's not surprising England are a load of tosh, as none of the players play outside of England. While I'm ranting, I'll reiterate how much I hate Arsenal fans who like to remind others they have qualified for the Champions League for however many years, despite never winning the thing. They haven't even won the previous equivalent, the European Cup. Even Spurs have done that.

You summed up Liverpool well as a club but there fans all seem to think they should be winning the league due to there history.

The TV show Don't Tell The Bride, which has now moved to BBC1. For those of you not in the know, an engaged couple has their wedding paid for by the BBC. The televisual twist is that the groom gets the money and spends it however he sees fit (within the constraints of there, y'know, actually being a wedding at the end). The bride has no say and they live apart during the three-week run-up to the ceremony.

Setting aside the fact that they've ditched the original narrator, the whole concept just winds me up the more I think about it. I know it's for the telly, and that, but every guy invariably does something outlandish or harebrained (including one man who set his wedding on top of a disused multi-storey car park) and every woman has at least two Bridezilla moments. I know they're told to be weird/play up to the cameras, but it perpetuates stereotypes that I'd rather got left behind.

I love Don't Tell The Bride, it's right up there with Sun, Sex & Suspicious Parents in my shows that I probably shouldn't be watching but wouldn't dare miss. I wasn't aware of the switch of channels/narrator though. I'll have to check it out and see for myself.

Corsair can do one. I bought some fancy pants 7.1 surround sound headphones - Corsair 1500 Vengance for 69.99 the other day.

Volume at 1/100 - Really loud, anything higher, deafening. Even at 0/100 you can hear sound. To make youtube bearable, windows sound needs to be at 1/100 and youtube sound about a quarter full. Games, you'd better hope they have decent audio sliders!

Its not even the headphones that are bust, its the drivers which come with them. Ah cool, wait for a fix then, NOPE. Having checked the Corsair forums Corsair were 'hastily' working on an update back in 2013...

I'm sure manually installing old drivers will fix this, but screw that. I paid good money for something that doesn't work out of the box. Returning this crap tomorrow.

Commodore/ZX Spectrum music.

I've been introduced to the Sound of Play podcast by Drunka, and I'm slowly chugging through it.  Except I'm moving rather faster recently, because in the last couple of episodes there have been lots of Commodore and Spectrum tunes that I mostly flick straight past.

Don't get me wrong: I'm sure that there are some great tunes on them.  But those tunes will always be in the minority, because they're fighting against the tech.  The rest of the songs, no matter how good they sounded at the time, sound horrible now.  

The host even said at one point (paraphrasing), "I know this doesn't sound all that great, but you have to think of the context."  NO YOU DON'T.  I listen to music because I want to listen to the music.  If you want to do a "history of gaming music" podcast, do it in chronological order so that I can ignore the first few episodes.

Remove your rose-tinted earplugs, gents.  It's today, not twenty-five years ago.

I actually really like the sound of C64 music - it can put out some bloody brilliant stuff, namely this here classic. And I think they're actually helped by the tech, as every "RAWWWK" cover I've heard of that track makes me roll my eyes. I love a good retro track.

Didn't see the link the first time I read the post, but you can bet I guessed it before I clicked.

To be fair, it sounds like a very good piece - being piped through the cistern of a blocked toilet, with my ear to the bowl. I hate the scratchy sound "font" and interference. Hate 'em. The underlying music's great. There must be a piano version somewhere?

See, I think it adds to the track. I found an orchestrated version, and I honestly think there's something lost in translation going from C64 to actual instruments. And I'm really not a fan of versions like this.

Fair enough if you're not a fan though - something that really pisses me off is when people take issue with other people's music tastes. Music is so subjective, perhaps more so than any other art-form.

EDIT: This is super interesting.

Oh yes, these are things that really !&$% me off, not things that are objectively bad!

I really like that orchestral version! But it needed to be a bit faster and less textured in my opinion - I think a piano virtuoso version could be something pretty special. I think I prefer the guitar version's intent, if not its timbre.

I'm with Jay on this one, for sure. I enjoy listening to chiptune music as it is, and I also like the ingenuity they use to squeeze these tracks from the hardware. Much as I love stop motion and suitmation monster movies.

I don't mind chiptunes - NES games (Mega Man II springs to mind) and, more recently, Shovel Knight have produced some perfectly nice tunes.  It's chiptunes through that metaphorical blocked toilet that I dislike!

As for the ingenuity - unless it makes the music sound better (relative not to its peers at the time, but to all of the music available for listening to now), it's an irrelevance for me.

I grew up with this pish - but - controversially - I agree with Balla that the C64's SID chip does make things a bit sratchy (I've been playing around with an emulated instrument in my music software, and the phasy thing always comes out a bit rough). However, I prefer their poorer relation, the Amstrad CPC; you get all the sound channels but no weird phasy bits. Amstrad comparison?

While I agree with Jimbob, chiptunes have been currently sidelined in favour of earache and temporary deafness as a thing that !&$%es me off.

On the plus side, you can't hear the chip tunes

This new piece of slang - "on fleek".

I'm all for the progression of language and the creation of new words, but seemingly this new phrase literally means "on point". It makes me irrationally mad every time I see it.

I've never heard this saying, apart from when people are complaining about it.

Drunkalilly wrote:

On the plus side, you can't hear the chip tunes

It's like a combination of Luciano Berio and John Cage, with an RnB drum overlay, played through a Commodore 64 into my right ear.

Balladeer wrote:

I've never heard this saying, apart from when people are complaining about it.

I've come across it far too often these past few days.

Ho boy - er, you been to a doctor, Balla?

Yes: they sent me home, told me to take eardrops, and said come back in a few days if it hadn't gone away.

The eardrops might work over a few days. At the moment, I feel as rubbish as I did this morning.