http://www.ratemyeverything.net/rss/featuredpostsb.rssen-usMonday, October 06, 2008http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/10258/The_Illusion_of_Death_A_Scientists_Guided_Tour_of_the_Afterlife.aspxMonday, April 28, 2008person has his or her own personal consciousness in much the same way that individuals have their own fingerprints. You are you, and you stay that way throughout your life. </p> <p> With the failure of science to locate a &ldquo;seat of consciousness&rdquo; within the human brain, it is now generally believed that human consciousness is a product of the interaction of the various parts of the brain as it goes about its many functions. Memory, sensation, perception, language, and emotion all work together to generate a strong sense of self in much the same manner as the color white is created when beams of red, green, and blue light are added together. While the &ldquo;color&rdquo; white does not exist by itself, it is generated by an interaction of those primary colors. So it seems logical to deduce that some combination of something (brain structure or patterns) causes you to be you and not someone else. Each consciousness has its own unique combination of &ldquo;something&rdquo; that gives rise to it and it alone, and not to a different consciousness. </p> The particular combination that yielded your consciousness has occurred once; after all you are alive, aware, and reading this web page. What, then, is there to prevent the same combination from occurring once again after you die, causing you to be conscious and alive anew? This is the central question that Dr. John Dworetzky discusses in <em>The Illusion of Death.</em> ]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/7263/2_Girls_1_Cup_Reaction.aspxMonday, February 04, 2008http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/5406/Alexa_Toolbar_Review.aspxWednesday, November 14, 2007free search and navigation companion that accompanies you as you surf, providing useful information about the sites you visit without interrupting your Web browsing. -Get rid of those annoying popup ads -Search the Web and other resources directly from your toolbar. -Learn about Web sites including traffic information and contact info. -Surf more efficiently with Related Links for each page. -Share opinions about sites with other users. -search the web using the Alexa search engine. -use the WayBack machine integrated with the Alexa toolbar to see any website or webpage as it was in the past (select a date!) Alexa's Toolbar works on both Firefox and Internet Explorer. My Review: I started using the alexa toolbar primarily because I'm slightly obsessed with different website's traffic rankings. I normally don't like to have toolbars in my browser because they tend to clutter things up. In that respect Alexa does a great job of staying "out of the way" in Firefox and an ok job in IE. They also don't include any annoying adware or anything like that, like a lot of toolbar's try to do. They just give you the toolbar with no extra software, which is a plus. In firefox a mini alexa toolbar ends up getting put in the lower right hand corner of the window. In IE it is put in the traditional top bar. My two favorite features of the alexa toolbar are the number ranking of sites and the integrated "Way Back" machine button. In regards to the alexa toolbar number ranking, this is a pretty good way to determine if a site is really "good". Basically anything under 100,000 is considered to be a good solid site. Anything under 50,000 is an extremely popular site. Anything under 10,000 is "tops". Anything under 10 likely starts and ends with google, yahoo, or microsoft. The Way Back machine button allows you to auto-transfer yourself to the WayBack machine website and view a version of the page you were just viewing over the page's entire lifespan. This is a fantastic tool, if you've never used it. See more about this at http://www.archive.org/web/web.php So overall I'd say if you are a bit of a stats junky or just want to know what the world thinks of the site you are currently using, I'd recommend installing the alexa toolbar. Oh and if you are a webmaster or work in a web related field the alexa toolbar is pretty well essential.]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/5382/Zune_2_Review.aspxTuesday, November 13, 2007media player. Along with updated firmware and software Microsoft has also slimmed down the design, made the screen even bigger for the 30GB and 80GB models (27% bigger) and a.d.d.a couple more versions of their product, namely the 4GB, 8GB, and 80GB Zune's. The 4GB model will currently set you back $149. The 8GB model currently costs $199. The 30GB Zune 1 with new firmware is selling for $199. The 80GB model currently costs $249. They have also upgraded their Wi-Fi features to now allow wireless sync with the computer (thank you!). This is a huge bonus over competing media players such as the iPod. They are also expanding their sharing capabilities so that the "3 day" limit is no longer in effect when you transfer copyrighted files from another zune. The 3 play restriction is still in effect however. The new zune also boasts an upgraded interface including the use of the "squircle" button, which is basically a touch sensitive button that allows you to scroll, adjust volume, etc by rubbing your fingers over the squircle. It also acts as a button if you push areas of it. The Zune software was pretty well completley overhauled. They now allow you to subscribe to podcasts and can sync up TV shows recorded on Windows Medica Center. They have also a.d.d.a bunch more media file formats to the list of accepted formats on the Zune. In addition to that, the new interface takes a "don't make me think" approach. One downside to the new interface is Microsoft's choice to go with a mostly "pink" application. That's right. Apparently they must have had some meeting where they said "Let's see, picking brown was a great choice for the original Zune. What's the second least favorite color out there next to Brown??? Pink!!! Let's go with that". Presumabley the Zune 3's primary color will be bright yellow or puke green. Asside from the Pinkness of it, the software seems to run faster and has some nice new features as described above. The Zune 2 also features a customizable back, so you can get different "skins" for your zune. My Personal Review After playing with the Zune 2 here is what I think. The Zune 2 is much slimmer than the original Zune, which was slightly brick-like. However, this brick-like casing and design proved to be an extremley sturdy one. The new design seems sturdy enough and we shall see if it rivals its predecessor in reliability. I like the new squircle over the old "traditional" button interface. The bigger video screen is awesome! (eat your heart out iPod). Microsoft has done a good job addresses the need for adding a smaller flash based zune as well as a larger 80GB zune. The addition of the podcasts was a much needed improvement. The zune software interface for podcasts is very easy to use, as long as your eyes don't get hurt by the abundant pink coloring everywhere. The wireless syncing feature worked amazingly smoothly. The Zune software autodetected my dsl router settings, including security key and transfered the settings to my Zune. The whole setup for wifi syncing took about 20 seconds. In comparison to the iPod, I'd say Microsoft is finally in a position to challenge them with the zune 2 (not so much with the Zune 1). The Zune 1 was too big, too heavy, and not feature rich enough. The software was confusing and very slow (not that iTunes isn't slow). What Microsoft has going for them now is -a nicer UI on the software end than iTunes has. -The Wifi integration is a huge plus over the iPod. -The screen on the Zune 2 is huge compared to the ipod (though the screen on the Zune 1 was also huge comapred to the iPod). -Battery life is comparable (20 hours audio and 6-7 hours video). -The Zune has an FM radio built in unlike the iPod. -The Zune hardware produces superior sound quality than what the iPod is capable of. -Hard drive space is comparable. -The Zune marketplace offeres an affordable subscription pass, which iTunes doesn't. -And finally the Zune 1 proved to be lightyears ahead of the iPod in terms of durability. Presumably the Zune 2 will continue that trend, but we can't say that just yet. It seems sturdy enough anyways. Overall I'd say the Zune 2 has finally passed the iPod in most respects. However there are some much needed improvements that could still be made to help truly make the Zune the top portable media player out there. First off Microsoft needs to release an API for the Zune. They do that and they will very quickly cut huge chunks out of the iPod's marketshare. It's only a matter of time before Apple does this, so microsoft needs to try to beat them to the punch. The fact that the Zune has wifi will allow for some pretty cool programs to be made if Microsoft were to release a comprehensive API. Next microsoft needs to allow by default the use of the Zune has a portable drive. Up until this point this can only be achieved by a registry edit in windows. (are you stupid Microsoft? why isn't this feature enabled?) They also need to stop picking awful colors for their interfaces, brown... now pink?!?! Whoever's ideas these were needs to be fired, plane and simple. Ask 100 people what their favorite color is and you'll likely get one or two that will say brown and maybe some teenie bop girls that will say pink. So basically if you are shopping for a new media player I'd get the Zune 2. It's cheaper than equivalent iPods and has more features. Oh and when Microsoft updates their media players they don't make you buy the new version to get the new features. All the Zune 2 firmware and software upgrades are free for Zune 1 users. Unlike Apple who likes to make you buy a new one evertime they come out with any new feature. But really that's ok because your iPod would have probably broke anyway's in between the month or so where Apple announces some new version of the iPod. (bitter much? yes i am ;-)]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/5165/Rate_My_Website.aspxMonday, October 29, 2007recipes for all occasions and all mealtimes. Come check us out at http://www.shannonsrecipes.com. If you have a favorite recipe you'd like to share, just email it to us at shannon@shannonsrecipes.com and we'll put it up. Let us know what you think of our website. Thanks!]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/4553/RSS_Feed_Central.aspxSunday, September 09, 2007sister site to ViCasting.com. Whereas ViCasting.com is a directory for podcasts, rss feed central is a directory for all rss feeds. RSS Feed Central currently has indexed thousands of rss feeds with more a.d.d.every day.]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/4552/ViCasting_Podcasting_Directory.aspxSunday, September 09, 2007directory / search engine for podcasts. All podcasts are ranked by member "votes". Established in January of 2006, ViCasting.com now offers thousands of podcasts, with more being indexed every day and new features being added on a regular basis. ]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/3486/College_Humor.aspxSaturday, June 23, 2007two high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland who went to different colleges as a way to share all of the pictures, videos, and links their friends would IM and e-mail each other. Now it’s a lot bigger. If something’s funny on the Internet, it’s either on there or linked from there. Basically, they've got a ton of crap. They also have a writing staff of people that are so funny, they’re not allowed to attend funerals! ]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/865/Add_Chuck_Norris_Facts_to_Your_Site_or_Blog.aspxWednesday, January 24, 2007javascript tool to embed the "Chuck Norris Fact of the Day" into your website or blog. Copy and paste the following script code: <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.ratemyeverything.net/scripts/chucknorris.js"></script> Once this code is embedded in your website or blog, the Chuck Norris Fact of the Day will appear. Enjoy!]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/742/Jon_Drewniak.aspxThursday, January 11, 2007story I found at the above link. Don't hire this guy!! -------------------------------- Good contractors are hard to find. This is a good example of a bad one... BEWARE JON DREWNIAK owner of Home and Garden Jon Drewniak - owner of Home and Garden based in Assonet/Auburn MA. This is a story about a contractor that gives other contractors a bad name and going a step further... a friend that gives friends a bad name! I knew Jon for about 7 years. Overall he seemed to be a decent guy. He had financial issues here and there plus he seemed to have alot of "problem clients". But when your friends with someone, you take most of the stories they tell you at face value and slide your judgment on their side so I didn't think a whole lot of the issues that he told me about. I was having a house built throughout 2005. Jon kept asking me if I was going to have him do any work. I wouldn't say that the landscaping project was huge but it seemed to be more work than one person could do in a reasonable amount of time. Why only one person? Jon had multiple employees in the past but he either had to fire them or they quit. In June of 2005 I told Jon that he could do the landscaping. We discussed some numbers and came up with a total price of about $8000-$9000. He said he would need $6000. up front to get him going with the materials. So we met for breakfast on the morning of June 16th. I gave him a check for the amount of $6000. at about 11:30am and he cashed it at 12:56pm that day. June 9th, 2005 - I took a ride to Marlborough, MA after work to pick one of Jon's trucks so he could trade it in for a new Ford F150. You'll see why this is relevant soon. June 10th - I dropped it off at a Ford dealer in New Bedford, MA. The whole trip was about 170 miles. June 11th - I went to Assonet, MA in the morning to pick up a utility trailer that the dealer was also taking in trade towards the new truck. After I picked that up, I parked my truck and jumped in with Jon to drive around looking at landscaping in the area. This gave both of us some ideas of what to do at my house. He also showed me where he lived as a kid, where he went to school, where he got beat up ect... We then stopped for lunch and hung out for awhile before returning to my truck and then dropping the trailer off at the Ford dealer. June 16th - As mentioned above, I gave Jon a check for $6000. to get him started. Why did I give him this much up front? I knew money was tight and I wanted to help a friend that needed some work. He's done other jobs for me in the past and there weren't any problems. For a few weeks after this we discussed the work that was going to be done and visited a local nursery to pick out plants, trees ect... It took a little while to get him moving on the job. On the weekend of July 9th, Jon came by to do the plants and mulch in one corner After this, it really started to turn into a project to get any work done. I would keep getting dates when he would start the rest of the yard but they would come and go with no results. The other work was going to include 6 trees near the road along with plants and bushes in the front, along the side and in back of the house. He would also be planting some more bushes in the back yard. August 6th - Jon finally came by and planted 5 bushes. He said he'd be at the house most of the following week to take care of the job. August 10th - This day is Wednesday and no Home and Garden guy. Seeing that this has been dragging out for over a month, I called a few times, received no answer so I left a message that he needed to be there by the next day or I'd have to find someone else. This got his attention because he called back around 4pm. He kept pushing off the day that he could get there and kept coming up with excuses why he couldn't do the work yet. Some of the excuses that I had heard in the previous weeks were - he hurt his hand, there was some wood/trash in the front yard (I had that stuff cleaned) and he had other jobs to do. Jon then told me that the whole job would take 2 days and that he didn't want to be at my house any longer than he had to. Monday, August 15th - I called to let Jon know that I would be at the house early the next morning (that would be a Tuesday) and I would see him then. He got very cranky and gave me an attitude. He said that he told me that he's be there on Thursday and Friday of that week ( 8/18 and 8/19). I didn't feel like I knew the person on the other end of the phone. He was totally different and I pointed this out to him. Tuesday, August 16th - I called the nursery where the plants/trees were supposed to come from to see if Jon had been there to tag everything. They said no. Jon called about 9:30 to ask me who I spoke with at the nursery so I told him that it didn't matter. I located a note that I wrote when we talked a few days earlier. It confirmed that he was supposed to be there on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. He said that he didn't know why because he told me Wednesday or Thursday. So I said ok and told him that I would see him tomorrow. He said "NO, I said Wednesday OR Thursday". At this point things weren't looking good and I had a suspicion that I knew why he kept putting this job off. So I asked if he still had the money for the materials. I just received a one word answer. That was "yeah". I think told him that I thought he was pushing the job off because he didn't have the money anymore. His answer was "no". The conversation ended there. I found this to be strange because most people would question why I was even asking things like that. Thursday, August 18th - Jon was supposed to be at the house early today. I called to see how he was making out around 10:30am. He didn't answer so I left a message. Called a few other times with no answer. He finally returned my calls around 11:30. He asked what I wanted. So I asked where he was. Jon told me that he had some errands to do in the morning. He was going to finish them then head down to the nursery to tag the plants and then head to the house. At first I said ok. Then after I hung up, I thought about it for a few minutes. He's been putting the job off for at least 6 weeks. He kept giving me start dates that came and went with no results and now it was pretty much etched in stone that he would be doing the entire job this day and the next. It was 11:30, he hadn't even been to the nursery to tag everything yet. Then the materials would have to be delivered. I'm not an expert but I knew that wasn't going to happen in a few hours. So that would leave him one day to do the job that he's been putting off for awhile. Another empty promise. I called Jon back and told him that it just wasn't working out. I asked him to stop by the house to give me the rest of the money and we'd just put the whole experience behind us. He laughed and hung up. Yes, you read that right... he laughed and hung up. After many calls to him that day he said that I paid for the materials and that I would be getting the materials but no money back. I told him that I didn't know where that came from because he'd supposed to be doing the entire job. Seeing that he hasn't done it he should give me the money back and I would hire another company to take care of it. He was now persistent that I only paid him for materials and even through he didn't pick them out yet, he was going to pick out all of the plants and have them left in the front yard. We went back and forth with this for awhile... I wasn't getting anywhere. About 2 weeks later I had a local attorney send him a letter to demand payment. It was stated that he was in breech of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, unfair and deceptive trade practices and other violations of the law. Jon then offered to pay me $3000. I said no to that because he only had about $500. into it with materials and labor. He told me he had about 32 hours into the job and $1000. in materials. His breakdown for this was - 12 hour of labor at the house (he might have been there a max of 5 hours total) 8 hours for "drive'bys". This is driving by houses to get landscaping ideas. Look back to June 9th on this page. This is the day after I dropped Jon's truck off at the dealer and then picked his trailer up to drop it off at the same place. We later drove through some neighborhoods and pretty much hung out for the day. And then I dropped the trailer off for him. He charged me for 8 hours this day! 8 hours for walking around the nursery picking up plants and trees (we spent about 3 hours at the nursery and he didn't do the job so I should bill him for my time). 4 hours to pick up the plants and bushes that he planted in the backyard. This probably only took about 2. Oh yeah speaking of those plants. This picture was taken on August 15th. These plants have been sitting in pots for over a week. He never came back to put them in the ground so I took care of them - So where do things stand now? I hired a real contractor to come in and take care of the job. They started when they were supposed to and finished on time. I give alot of credit to Professional Landscaping. Very good people! I didn't work on this to much over the last year. Gave him a little time to get his life straightened out and pay me. Of course that didn't happen so I'm taking a few routes to collect. Jon will probably see this site soon so I won't discuss them at this point. Info for others that are looking for him: Seeing that he has extremely bad credit and there are other clients along with past workers (he referred to them as Monkeys) tracking him down for money, he doesn't keep much (if anything) in this name. He lists PO Box 176 in Assonet, MA 02702 as his address and he won't put his name on his wife's property because he doesn't want that to be taken. They moved from a townhouse at 280 Elm St #C3 in Marlborough, MA at the beginning of 2006 to a house at 69 Wallace Ave, Auburn, MA 01501. Of course he didn't leave any forwarding info so clients can collect their debts but there is always a way to find a person... just need to find the wife! The IRS also knows how to contact him. Jon knows why they would want to have a little conversation! My investigation has found that he has been doing home improvement work without valid HIC numbers since 2002. He worked at my home after those licenses expired. He just kept the numbers on his vehicles. I've also found that he has been trying to get work by advertising on Craigslist. RI # 18782 - expired February 2002 MA # 130596 expired March 2002 He has started another company - Kainwerd Landscape Design (Kainwerd is Drewniak spelled backwards) The slogan for this company is "We take you from fantasy to finish!!! I think the only fantasy here is him actually doing the job! Mailing address - PO Box 176 in Assonet, MA 02702 Mailing address and residence - 69 Wallace Ave, Auburn, MA 01501 DOB - Yes, I have it! SS# - I have this too! Contact numbers - 1-781-710-3850 1-508-787-8830 1-508-207-6777 Contact e-mail - hddirect@aol.com jonnie_busy@yahoo.com kainwerd@aol.com sandra.drewniak@fmr.com He currently drives a silver Ford F150 - Homeowners need to band together to stop contractors from taking advantage of them. Good contractors also need to join in because people like Jon don't give you guys a good name! Updates will be posted here January 4th, 2007 - I included a FINAL NOTICE inside a Christmas card to Jon two weeks ago. It noted that payment was due today or this would be passed to a collections agency. I've been waiting to take this through the courts but they have been taking way to long to provide a court date. Collections tend to be pretty ruthless! Seeing that no payment has been received, all of his contact info has been turned over to them and this website is open for everyone to see. January 5th - I spoke with the collection agency today. They said Jon called about 2 weeks ago. He was furious when he read the FINAL NOTICE. I guess he didn't like how it was worded. He called back today and told them that he refuses to settle and won't be paying any money. He also "said" that he filed a police report because of the notice. He just wants to go to court with it. January 6th - Guess what... Jon knows about this site! I received a call from a detective in Jon's town tonight. He was a nice guy and gave me the scoop on what's going on. Jon went to the station to complain about the website and his info being on there. I guess he didn't like his birthday being listed. He also told him that we had some issues and why. He said that he offered me $3000. after he did the work pictured above and that I refused it. So in the end, the detective said that I should take his DOB off of the site. I can pretty much post anything else that I want but to leave the stuff that would lead to identity theft off. Not like anyone could get ahead in life with his identity anyway. He told me to let the courts take care of it. That is what I will be doing. I've had one attorney working on this but have located another that is much better. The guy pretty much lives for this! I also have a lead to a past client that Jon owes money. I think we might be able to help each other! Oh yeah, there is now another domain that mirrors this one. It is www.jondrewniak.com. Some other sites are getting ahold of this story so it's spreading pretty fast. People shouldn't have to worry about contractors that are just going to take the money and run. January 10th - This story is making it's way around the web including a stop at - http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Ripped_off_homeowner_takes_a_stand . Be sure to click the button under the number on the left to show your support! January 11 - I was advised to not post all of the details of what I'm going to be doing legally. Want the element of surprise when the time comes! This story is getting alot of exposure at www.digg.com - If you would like to contact the owner of this site, he can be reached at rippedoffhomeowner@bewarehomeandgarden.com I'd like to thank everyone for the kind words and informative e-mails that they have been sending. Something good will come out of all this in the end. I might have a way to help others protect themselves from dishonest contractors. That should posted here by the end of January. ]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/737/Wiidiculous_Building_a_custom_wii_motion_sensor.aspxSunday, January 07, 2007it on and off. Four small cable ties Place on either sides of the wire where it goes through the hole and trim. Keeps the wires from pulling out. My design consists of two IR emitters connected by a single piece of wire in a series circuit. I left the battery holder on the outside to make it easier to change the batteries. When you build your own and you're finished soldering it together, put the batteries in, take it in a dark room and flip the switch. The LEDs will have a very faint, flickering red glow. Infrared is beyond the range human sight, but there's a little bleed-through into the visual frequencies. Some cameras with will be able to pick it up as a greenish glow. To use the emitters, turn the device on and place it on a level surface with about 6-7 inches between the two inner LEDs. I built the wireless sensor bar, brought it over to the theater and tested it on a regular television. Fortunately, it worked! After the patrons left, we hooked the Wii up to the data projector and house sound, put in Wii Sports, and brought the controllers and the wireless sensor bar downstairs. We set the emitters on the backs of two chairs and stood a few rows back. The wireless range of the controllers was great enough to work! We suffered no technical glitches from the distance; we could even play up on stage, craning our necks up at the gigantic image, immersing ourselves in the game. In conclusion, there's more than one way one can Wii, and sometimes, size does matter. Edit - Thank you, Make Blog, Digg, Engadget, menéame, ElOtroLado.net, Kotaku, Kottke.org, QJ.net, Gizmodo, and GameTrailers.com for hosting a high resolution version! ]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/735/Tin_Can_WiFi_Antenna.aspxSunday, January 07, 2007cheap wifi antenna that works better than most "store-bought" models. First thing's first you will need the following parts: 1) A N-Female chassis mount connector (these can be found at most electronic stores, such as radio shack, and usually cost around $3) 2) Four small nuts and bolts (these need to be just long enough to go through the connector and the can, if your N-connector is a screw on type you won't need these) 3) Some thick wire around an inch and a half of 12 gauge wire should do the trick. 4) a can of some sort (I recommend a pringles can or a Nalley chili can. Really any can with a diameter of around 3inches should do the trick) 5) Sodering Iron 6) Drill or a hammer and a nail So now that you've got your pieces you should should attach the N-Connector assembly to the side of your can. You need to make sure and put the holes in the correct place to mount the connector. The placement of the hole and connect is extremley important. You can figure out exactly where to put the holes using the calculator here: http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennawncalc.html So then once you have your numbers, mark the location on the can where you will put the hole for the connector. The 1/4 Guide Wavelength number tells you how far up from the bottom metal end of the can to put the center of the hole. So now the fun part. Open your can... eat the contents... give it a good cleaning and a nice WHIPHISH! with a dry towel. Probably remove the label if you can. You can use a drill or a hammer and a nail to make the holes. Or if you have some self drilling screws that would work too. Make sure it will be a nice snug fit, whatever way you choose to make the hole. Now that you've got your hole, cut the wire so that when it is stuck in the connector, the total length of both the brass tube and wire sticking out past the connector is around 1.24 inches. Once the wire is correctly sized, solder it into the connector keeping it as straight and upright as you can. Once it's cooled down, bolt or screw the assembly into your can. Put the heads of the bolts inside the can and the nuts on the outside to minimize the obstructions in your antenna. Now in order to use your cantenna, you'll of course need to hook it up to your wifi card. You'll need a special cable commonly known as a "Pig Tail". One end of the Pig Tail will have a "N" Male connector, which of course you connect to your cantenna, while the other end will have a connector that hooks up to your wifi card or access point. To see what this looks like go here: http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi?PigTail Now you are done. you should experiement to see what cans and what positions give you the best signal. If you want to supercharge your cantenna get an old satelite dish and adjust your can appropriatley so that the focal point is right on the little wire in your can. A buddy of mine once claimed he could pick up a wifi signal from about 1.2 miles with that, though I've never tried it. ]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/505/Zune_Hacks.aspxSunday, November 26, 2006it. I then decided to see how many ways I could hack it to better have it fit my needs. Below is a compelation of the ways I've found to hack it (by searching the internet). I will add Zune hacks to this article as they are discoverd. Enjoy! Hacks you will find in this article: Hack 1: Trade any file Type with the Zune (use it as an external hard drive) Hack 2: Add a 40/60/80 GB hard drive. Hack 3: Share a song multiple times with the same Zune Hack 1: Trade any File Type with the Zune. So one thing that sucks about the Zune is that it only allows you to deal with certain file types... or does it? There is actually a way to allow you to transfer any type of file onto the Zune, after which you can then transfer files to other Zunes wirelessly. Basically you need to modify your Windows registry to make the Zune show up as a mass storage device in Windows. Then you need to rename the file(s) or zipped version of the file(s) to JPEG and copy them to the Zune. When you (or anyone that has downloaded the file(s) from you) wants to use them on there computer they just need to rename them back to what the correct extension was (ie .zip) Steps: Modifying the registry Make sure your Zune is not plugged in and the software is not running. Open up regedit by going to the start menu and selecting "run". Type regedit and hit "OK". Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Enum\USB\ Right Click on the USB folder and select "Find" Search for "PortableDeviceNameSpace". This should be contained in the Vid_XXXX&Pid_XXXX\XXXXXXX_-_XXXXXXXX_-_XXXXXXXX_-_XXXXXXXX\Device Parameters (here the X's represent numbers and letters specific to your Zune) Change the following values: Set EnableLegacySupport to 1 Set PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell to 0 Set ShowInShell to 1 Now plug in your Zune and make sure the software starts up. Now you should be able to browse your device even though it won't show up as a drive letter. Adding Files and Folders After completing the regedit and all the steps above, with your Zune connected press the "Start Sync" button in the PC software. This will temporarily allow files and folders to be added to the Zune during syncing. Drag and drop files into the Zune, but be careful not to place files in the root of the Zune file structure. Wireless Transfer of Movies, Zip files, and PDF's Rename the extension of the file(s) to .jpg Drag and drop them into the "recieved pictures" using Windows file explorer. Send the file Zune to Zune as if it were a photo. Be sure and send real photos with the fake ones. If you don't it will give you an error. Hack 2: Add a different hard drive Start by removing the bottom dock port spacer with a razer or flathead screwdriver. Insert on one of the long ends and not in the middle of the dock. It should pop off easily. After the dock port spacer is removed you will now have access to both screws. Remove them. You should now be able to open the case. When you are removing the case slowly work down the "crack" until it pops up. Do not pry the whole thing from one end. You should now be able to remove the batter and hard drive casing. Remove the 4 screws holding the drive case on the board as well as the clip for the battery. Remove the battery. Noe remove both clips for the clickwheel. Simply lift up on the brown parts with a flathead screwdiver or your fingernails if you have them. Now lift up on the hard drive and put the drive and casing above the top part of the Zune (by the headphone jack). Remove the drive cable clip and remove the sticky tape off the label side of the drive. You should now be able to remove the hard drive to replace it. Now get your new 40/60/80GB drive and remove the metal plate label. You should be able to use your fingernail to pop the label side off of the drive. There are two sticker spots holding this on so it will not come off easily. After the label plate is removed we can connect the new drive to the Zune. You do not need to re-use the hard drive cage when installing a 60/80GB drive because the drive is too large. If you are using a 40GB drive then you can use the exact set up as the 30GB drive. You should cut the old drive pads to fit two of them on the new drive. Be careful not to use too much or your new drive will not fit. When putting everything back together be sure and use your old battery enclosure so the battery gets seated properly. Put it back together and you are done! Hack 3: Share a song multiple times with the same Zune Step 1: Make sure that your Zune is connected and the Zune Software is running. Step 2: Navigate to My Computer and click on your Zune's name. Step 3: Open "Storage" Step 4: Find the file that contains the name of the user who transfered sogns to you in the file name, and delete all records with that title. Step 5: Get the other party to do the same and you can now transfer the same songs again. ]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/274/Network_Neutrality.aspxSunday, October 15, 2006telecommunications and the exchanging of information on the web. Network Neutrality is still not clearly defined, for now it is loosely defined as “the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet… Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the internet.”[1] Without this fundamental principle the Internet will no longer be the economical and innovative powerhouse it is today. The origins of network neutrality as a guiding precept in communications development goes all the way back to the telegraphing systems. In 1860 the United States government subsidized a coast to coast telegraph line with the explicit pre-condition that “messages received from any individual, company, or corporation, or from any telegraph lines connecting with this line at either of its termini, shall be impartially transmitted in the order of their reception…”[2] Because it was a government subsidized operation the government was able to assert this. Likewise the internet was also government subsidized and built on a similar precept. The idea that everyone on the internet should have equal access to the internet’s backbone lines, with their only restriction being on how much bandwidth they are leasing from their internet service providers, has allowed the internet to grow rapidly into an economic force. If one is to start a normal “brick and mortar” business, they would need money to lease or build the building, money for managing the building, as well as the individual costs of the specific business. The internet being designed such as it is allows people with nothing but a great idea and some technical knowledge to build services and companies that normally would never have been built, due to lack of funding. For example, a couple of Stanford students, Larry Page and Sergery Brin, were able to build a system that allows better and faster access to the wealth of information available on the internet. Without network neutrality this would not have been possible; from the beginning they would have been required to pay significant sums of money in order to provide the service that their users were demanding from their system. We would not have ever had Google. This may seem a small thing, but think of the implications this would have. Google is a driving force in the US economy. They also are the driving force behind many of the innovations and policies Microsoft has recently begun to implement. This is mirrored in the moves we see Yahoo making. These companies are all driving each other to provide better services to the end user. Without network neutrality only Microsoft would have existed. This is a common story that can be retold with just about every major internet company that exists today. Not only does network neutrality allow small companies with great ideas to get off the ground, but it also is not hurting the companies that are against it as they assert that it is. The opponents of network neutrality say that they are providing a service for which they are not being paid. The most famous outburst was made by AT&T’s Chairman Edward E. Whitacre Jr. when he complained that internet content providers were getting a free ride: “They don’t have any fiber out there. They don’t have any wires…. They use my lines for free and that’s bull! For a Google or a Yahoo or a Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes for free is nuts!”[3] However, the truth of the matter is that Google, Yahoo and Vonage pay millions every year for their bandwidth. In addition to existing business revenue streams, every year consumers pay the telecommunication industry billions for their respective internet bandwidth. It is true that not all this money goes to the people who own the backbone lines and routers; however enough of it goes their way to allow companies in Japan and France to offer 100 MB / sec lines at roughly the same cost the United States citizens pay for 1 MB / sec lines [4]. The United States companies just want more without producing more. They are already double charging by receiving money from both the consumer and producer of internet content for the transmission of the same individual packets; now they wish to triple charge by forcing companies to pay for yet another tier of service. This has very dangerous implications in terms of the future of the internet. Allowing these companies to have a tiered internet allows them power to crush their competitors like Vonage or Skype by simply not allowing them access to the “fast” lines. It centralizes the power over the internet squarely on the backs of companies that are failing, not because people are using their lines “for free”, but because they are mismanaged and refuse to change with the times. The idea that they are somehow loosing money because people are using their lines “for free”, does not hold weight. In a recent testimony by Gary Bachula, Vice President for External Affairs for Internet 2, to the Senate Commerce Committee’s Hearing on Network Neutrality in early 2006, he stated that “When we first began to deploy our Abilene network our engineers started with the assumption that we should find technical ways of prioritizing certain kinds of bits, such as streaming video, or video conferencing, in order to assure that they arrive without delay. For a number of years, we seriously explored various ‘quality of service’ schemes, including having engineers convene a Quality of Service Working Group. As it developed, though, all of our research and practical experience supported the conclusion that it was far more cost effective to simply provide more bandwidth.” [5] Our country not too long ago suffered from a DOT COM crash that resulted in the American economy going down the tubes. Stifling network neutrality threatens to cause a second crash very similar to the first. Companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft will not be hurt significantly by this. They have ample money to pay the toll keepers, but there are thousands of web companies out there who will not be able to afford this. All these companies will be forced to go out of business not long after network neutrality is abolished. With the economy seemingly always teetering between shooting up and shooting down, this will have catastrophic effects. All this being said is it really wrong for a few companies to try and pass laws that benefit themselves if they can? Kantianism would seem to say these companies are acting unethically. They are effectively trying to use someone else for more gain. They already make money from the producers and consumers on the internet. Now they are trying to make more money without offering a better service than they already provide. How would this work out if this type of action were “willed” into a universal law? Perhaps companies like Vonage would say, “We should charge AT&T for the fact that we bring them customers to use their lines that they normally wouldn’t have had. AT&T does not pay us to advertise for their lines. They owe us!” Applied universally this sort of “law” would end up having companies forcing the government to allow them to charge each other incessantly for things that they ought not charge and would destroy our fragile economic entity, such as it is. An Act Utilitarian on the other hand might say it was a good thing. After all, the total happiness of the companies who will receive the extra money will be significant, whereas the total unhappiness of the companies that have to pay will be less. The one’s who can pay are likely to see more customers because many of the other small companies that offer the same service as them will be put out of business. Consumers could be hurt by this, but this is hard to quantify and hard to predict so we can throw this out of the Act Utilitarian calculation. In fact these consumers might even be benefited monetarily speaking in that the internet service fee they pay might become cheaper because they no longer are paying as much of the development fees for the lines the telecommunication companies lay; now more of that is shouldered by “big business”. All in all this might be a good thing from a utilitarian point of view. In contrast, this would definitely fall under “unjust” in terms of the Social Contract Theory ideals. Passing an act like this benefits a few companies, while hindering and killing thousands of other existing and future companies. These companies provide services to billions of people, who will then have to go without or be offered lesser services due to stifled innovation. This squarely contradicts the social contract precepts concerning inequalities in society. Namely that “Any social and economic inequalities must satisfy two conditions: first, they are associated with positions in society that everyone has a fair and equal opportunity to assume and second, they are ‘to be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society’” [6] This issue of network neutrality has not been adequately covered in the media, largely because the general public does not understand the potential ramifications of destroying neutrality on the internet. The internet as it stands today has been widely successful. It has driven the United States economy to heights it had never seen before and lows it had not seen in half a century. Abolishing network neutrality threatens to kill the recent, seemingly stable, high our economy is currently enjoying. It also threatens to kill many future internet innovations which may now require substantial sums of money to get off the ground. This will effectively reduce the creation of new internet businesses down to the sluggish state of innovation enjoyed by normal “brick and mortar” business, thus killing one of the great innovations humanity has ever devised. “The neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy. It is the basis of democracy, by which a community should decide what to do. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true. Let us protect the neutrality of the net.” (Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web)[7] References [1] Google Team, “Net Neutrality” Google, 2006. http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html [2] Wikipedia: “Network Neutrality”, from an act to facilitate communication between the Atlantic and pacific states by electric telegraph, June 16, 1860. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Neutrality [3] Christopher Stern, “The Coming Tug of War Over the Internet” Washington Post, January 22, 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100094.html [4] American Electronics Association, “The case for keeping network neutrality” AeA Competitiveness Series Volume 11, September 2006. [5] Gary R. Bachula, “Testimony of Gary R. Bachula, Vice President, Internet2 Before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Hearing on Net Neutrality”, February 7, 2006. http://commerce.senate.gov/pdf/bachula-020706.pdf [6] Michael J. Quinn, “Ethics for the Information Age” Pearson Education, Inc, 2006. [7] Tim Berners-Lee, “Neutrality of the Net”, May 5, 2006. http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/blog/4]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/147/D_and_J.aspxWednesday, September 27, 2006http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/106/The_All-Nighters.aspxTuesday, September 26, 2006classic genres, all combining to form a very modern and refreshing approach to "instro/surf" music. They harness the energy and personality of surf, punk, country, rockabilly, ska, gypsy, classical and others to form a intermixed collage of sounds and emotions which flows with flawless focus; despite the often drastic changes in style, like the soundtrack to a great movie. The All-Nighters began their careers in 2004 as a side project of the hardcore punk/metal outfit Full Frontal Assault, but soon developed an identity seperate and equally as potent as their heavier alter-ego. The four members all met in Bellingham, WA where they reside today. Handling the guitars are two brothers, Jimmy and Jeff Kastelic from Hunters WA. Jimmy's lead and Jeff's rhythm work compliment each other perfectly due to the many years spent playing together in their apartment before they were ever in a band. In 2000 they hooked up with drummer Gabe Taylor who was born in Everson, WA and bassist Bobby Lind hailing from Kodiak, AK. The boys continue to record and tour just as much as ever with both bands. This October they will be doing a double-band West Coast tour. They made their first album called "Drink the Night" in the spring of 2005. They recorded, mixed, mastered and produced the entire album themselves. The album was very well recieved locally and obtained great reviews in a few international instrumental music magazines including Pipeline. Their latest album, entitled "Dance 'till Dawn: Pieces of a Lucid Dream" (released on their own Indie label Acid Moon in 2006) proves to be the bands most ambitous, well produced, and diverse offering yet. Ranging from simpler poppy surf/rock/country inspired numbers, to more mature, epic, adventurous soundscapes, the song styles vary from track to track mimicking the randomness of dreams. Guest cello, slide, and violin players were brought in to add thoughtfullness and depth to certain tracks while others are kept to the straight-up guitar/ bass/ drum set-up. The album is a soulful roller coaster ride of musical stimulation with a sense of variation that will leave listeners moved and intrigued. Playing live on a consistent basis has helped to develop an ever growing personal bond between the band and their fans that often seems lost in todays popular music world. Creating an open and diverse atmosphere at their concerts; which allows people from any walk of life to have a great time dancing and enjoying themselves, is one secret to the All-Nighters success. Often performing for up to three to four hours, they are able to keep a crowd entertained for the entire set by offering such an interesting array of songs. Constantly performing, writing, and recording, the All-Nighters pump out new material on a regular basis in order to keep their fans satisfied while everyday reaching as many new ears as possible. ]]>http://www.ratemyeverything.net/post/105/Full_Frontal_Assault_FFA.aspxTuesday, September 26, 2006life truly lived to the fullest. The Full Frontal experience is beautiful in it’s uniqueness and ugly in it’s brutal reality, it is our lives and we would have it no other way. I really wish I had time to write a more detailed story but that would probably turn into a novel. So, I am going to leave a lot of the details out during some parts just so you don’t have to sit in front of a computer for too long getting bored by too much text. But, if there is a part of the story you want to know more about, a show, party, or particular incident, please, email me at jeffkastelic@hotmail.com and I will be more than happy to give you all the dirt you want. But, as for now here is a very, very stripped down version of our history. It all began in the summer of 2000, my brother Jimi had recently graduated high school and moved in to my apartment in Bellingham. He was fresh from our hometown, Hunters, WA, and was still adjusting to life in the “city”. I went through the same sort of thing a few years earlier when I moved to Bellingham for college. Coming from Hunters in no way prepared us for life in a modern society, so we were obviously of the stranger crowd. We spent a lot of our time playing guitar together, Jimi had been playing for about two years or something and was an obvious natural, he just had an ear for it, he was always able to improvise over any kind of chords, I would just play chords and he would go off and we would get really stoned. We called ourselves Tantar and Rask, the two man band. We began to talk more and more about starting a band with some other people, if we could find some. I had played bass in a band called Skinny Little Bitch for a while. It was only two guys and a drum machine. We played one show and actually recorded a tape with our own four track.. We were together until my collaborator and partner in sick experimentation, Bobby Lind, moved back to Alaska. The show we played was at this place called Camille’s Basement and was the first night I ever met Gabe Taylor. I remember I filled a vodka bottle with water and slammed it during the show like it was vodka and everybody fell for it. This was one of the first things Gabe and I talked about which led directly to music, we compared bands we liked and shit like that and he seemed cool right away. He was playing in a band called Slinky Dick with Will Broad and some other guys. I had known Will, he was the first guy I ever met who was in a band. They were called Moral Decline. But, now he was in Slinky Dick and I remember they had some guy with a beard playing bass but they kicked him out because Gabe’s friend Eli was coming back from Arizona and was supposedly a “sick” bass player. Gabe and Eli had their first project together called Stillborn, a two man band. The first time I met Eli was at this weird fucked up junkie house where Bobby and I recorded our tape. I actually used Eli’s bass amp to record even before I met him. Slinky Dick practiced over there and we jammed there a few times and met Eli the night we recorded. I punched Bobby in the face as hard as I could when he couldn’t remember the lyrics to a song, I remember Gabe thought this was cool. Then we got really drunk and I talked Bobby into letting me sing on one song. I think the song was called “My Name is Legion” this was my first time recorded singing. Anyways, I liked Eli right away too and the more I talked to those guys the more they told me how they wanted to not play with Slinky Dick and maybe jam with other people, I think they felt there ability to be creative and different was kind of stifled in Slinky Dick. They had a show lined up at Camille’s Basement, there was going to be a cocktail party, everyone had to dress up. Slinky Dick said it was cool if Jimi and I opened up for them, we just wanted to play one song. I helped Camille set up the bar and the basement, Terry Fox was helping too. The night of the show finally came and everyone put on their best suit and dress and went to this party. Shawnee, who was the sister of Kalen the second guitarist in Slinky Dick opened the show with some acoustic songs, just her and her guitar, she had a beautiful voice. The me and Jimi were up, at the last minute we asked Gabe if he would play the drums with us on a cover of “Hey Joe”. He said he would and we were like “Just play whatever you want and go off and whatever.” He was stoked about that. So we jammed the song, I sang and played the chords and Jimi soloed the whole time. We both had these really cheap Jackson guitars, mine was black his was blue. Gabe was jamming along really perfectly and it was the first time I noticed he was really talented, because he was just going off and fucking around with all this crazy shit. Up until then I had just heard him play Slinky Dick songs and thought “Yeah, he can play some Slinky Dick punk songs,” but now I was like, “Fuck this guy is something special.” This was really the first collaboration we ever had. When we were done Jimi and I were all excited and proceeded to get shit faced and watch Slinky Dick play. There show was kind of fucked up and they had some problems, like the bass was cutting out and Kalen broke his guitar and got blood all over it, “actually it was James Taylors guitar) and had to borrow mine. They seemed mad at each other and argued during the show. We didn’t talk about it or anything we just got drunk, when the party was winding down and everyone was leaving I walked home and tried to sleep. The phone rang really late and it was Camille she said Gabe and Eli were over there and they had a mini keg of Groelsch. So I walked down there and we got drunk all night. At one point Eli was passed out on the couch and we were all standing around and all of the sudden he bolted awake and got up in a total black out. He walked over to this table that was covered with bottles and bongs and stuff and swept everything to the floor with his hand. Then he walked over to the front door but instead of turning left to go out the door he turned right to the door that went upstairs. He then proceeded to take his dick out and piss a long gigantic beer piss all over Camilles carpeted stairs. Nobody even did anything, we just stared in disbelief until he was done. Then he just went and laid back down and went to sleep. That was the first time Gabe and I laughed really, really hard together. In time I learned that this was not some kind of freak occurrence, this pissing affliction was something Eli had developed over the years and continues to be affected by until this day. The next morning, I walked down to Camille’s and those guys had stayed the night. The equipment was still set up and I had my guitar so we decided to rock out all morning. I knew how to play some Slayer songs and some metal riffs and shit and they were all stoked. They said they had been considering getting rid of Kalen and finding a new guitarist, they had some choices but they asked me if I wanted to start jamming with them. I told them I would if I could bring my brother. So over the next few weeks we started jamming over at Gabes moms house on Lake Whatcom. Slinky Dick was defunct and we trying to write some songs. Will, Jimi, and I were all playing guitar, and me and Will were sharing the vocals, about half and half. These first practices were like a virgin being deflowered. There was a real sense of beauty and pleasure that was sort of dulled by the pain of inexperience. We were very spirited but really knew very little about having a band and writing songs together. For a few weeks we jammed and the more we played the more we realized we worked together, despite everything, we all were into it, wanted to be original, and were not timid or afraid to just go fucking off in front of each other. This was also the time we realized Eli was a lot like Jimi when he played bass, he was all about improvising and being really free with his bass lines, he had that magical ear. This was also a time of a lot of “getting to know each other” parties. As friends we seemed as compatible as we were musicians so everybody was pretty blown away about what we were starting to do. We introduced each other to so much great music and movies and partying techniques, it was a real blessing to meet people you could really get down with. This sort of attitude led to the renting of a house, all of us together after just meeting a few weeks ago. This was the beginning of the legacy know as “410 East Champion Street”. This house became our headquarters and jam space. This house also became the focal point for some of the best and worst times of our lives, and the place that eventually drove us to the very brink of serious madness (not exaggerating). This is where our songs really became something that we could call our own.. The first songs we wrote we pretty strange, a mixture of many different styles. We all had different tastes and influences that showed up in our music often at the strangest times. After about a month we were ready to play a show. After much debate we came up with the name “No One” for our band, one reason was that we really wanted to be original and kept throwing every name out because it adapted us to a certain style, we wanted to be nobodies, and in a way we were, basically, a bunch of scum bags from small towns. Another reason was we just couldn’t think of anything better and got sick of arguing about it. By the time of our first show we had sort of a set, I think it was seven songs including the first cover we ever learned, G.G. Allin’s classic anthem “Drink, Fight, and Fuck”. This was pretty much the theme of our band when we first started out. We soon found that when played it for the right kind of people this song had quite an incredible power to send a person into violent throes of drunken insanity. This kind of behavior soon became the trademark for our shows, and the word began to spread. Our very first show was at this log cabin ranch in way out near Ferndale. We played our set twice to a crowd of young county scum kids and some very enthusiastic red necks. We ended the show with a like twenty minute version of “Sweet Home Alabama” that was sung “Sweet Home Whatcom County”. Everybody got in on the fun. It was great, we got a great response which helped our confidence a lot. I remember the guy who owned the house was like the burliest hugest red neck ever and he was moshing really hard the whole time. He got hit by an elbow and got a huge cut above his eye. After the show Gabe and I were talking to him and he was really fucking stoked, and was saying shit like, “That reminded me of being young.” But, the whole time we were talking there was blood gushing down his face and then his friend brought out a sewing needle and thread. They doused his eye with vodka and sewed it up right in front of us while he was still giving us props and telling us to drink and get fucked up. After that we began playing pretty regularly around Bellingham, often times at our own house, and out in the county, we played the infamous “Nightmare on Elm Street” Halloween show and some shows 20th Century Bowling, but our craziest shows happened far from town in places like Lynden and the Mosquito Lake Road. The most deadly and insane shows took place at Anderson Lake in Sumas. This was a small lake with a small clearing about a mile up into the woods, away from anything. There was a generator and kegs and a lot of sick violent people, some of our biggest crowds to date. It was dark, drug induced, we played on a horse trailer, and a lot of people got fucked over. The first time we played there it was called “The Mayhem Massacre” the second time was “Die or be Killed.” I could go on for hours about the kind of shit that went down in those woods so if anyone’s interested, let me know. No One existed for about a year, we played a lot of shows and wrote a lot of weird songs. We played in Everett at Jimmy Z’s (we made a live CD out of this show) and Seattle at the Ballard Firehouse and the bowling alley three consecutive dates like a mini tour. These days happened to be the three days surrounding New Years Eve 2001. This was one major party, these were good times for the band. But our lives outside the were getting pretty sick. Our house on E. Champion, dubbed the “Thrash Pit” was deteriorating to unlivable conditions. We had no heat, I was the only person with a job so money became an angry issue. We were just driving ourselves into the ground with excessive partying. We had fun, actually, the best times ever, but we paid dearly. I think it was around exactly the one year mark when Will left the band. For some crazy reason we renewed our lease, but Will decided to move out. For one he wasn’t really down with the sub-scum lifestyle and he also had very contrasting views about where the band was headed. He left with a smile and we wished him the best, and he has moved on to a band that more suits his tastes. After Will we kept jamming, we began to get into a lot of Black Metal music and started playing with more of a evil, dark style. We were very influenced by bands like Cradle of Filth, Dissection, and In Flames, and lots others. We began doing a lot of speed picking and long brutal blasting parts, my singing was pure raging hate screams. It was during this few months as a four piece that we recorded our first CD “Atrocstories” at Binary Studios. We did five songs in five hours and we felt uncomfortable and rushed and the Cd shows it. But, we were stoked anyways to have anything and began selling the CD, it was a major step. The more we played and tried to get that intense black metal sound, the more we began to feel like we needed to get a second guitarist. So I sent Bobby an email in Alaska and told him to come down and join the band. He pretty much dropped everything and came down right away. We started jamming and he seemed to fit right in, he had an incredibly evil and fast style and was definitely a dark hearted scum freak. We began getting really fast and dark, super fucking intense, we learned that song “Hallowed be thy Name” and played it about twice as fast as Maiden. So, we were pretty stoked on being black metal, and played a few shows around town and got some props. The inception of Bobby into our lives, however added to the alcoholic madness. I’ve seen him drink his own piss and shove a bottle up his ass, (we have the footage for all you fuckheads out there). We partied hard and we were probably the nastiest, lowest people in Bellingham, right above bums or drug addicts. Our house was a disgusting dumpster, the ceiling was broken out in the living room, the carpet was blackened, all the cupboard doors were broken, the toilet got broken, broken windows, trash, glass, rotten chicken, filth, shit, puke, piss, cum and scum all over. There was this one corner in the kitchen that would always pile up with trash like five feet high, right in the kitchen, every week, it seemed like we produced as much trash as eight families of dopeheads. Sometimes there would be this stream of liquid draining out of the trash pile that would run across the kitchen under the fridge. Also, our garage, was full of trash up to the brim, we would only go in there to break bottles and smash shit. It got so bad, that we stopped going in there all together. In the winter time bums would sleep in there, and piss and shit. When we left we cleaned it out and there was this five gallon bucket of bum shit we had to move. Yeah, that’s what happened, winter came around and we finally cracked and had to leave. No one had money to pay the heat bill and it got shut off again. This was during Jan. and Feb. of 2002. It was so cold, we fucking went insane. We had to sleep, fully clothed with coats and like twenty blankets, it was like waking up dead in the morning. We had one small room where we blocked the door with blankets and we would huddle in there with a space heater, sometimes like ten people, and smoke and drink. It was the only way to stay warm. It was even too cold to jam, we would have to heat the room with heaters for like an hour then try to practice. It was too cold to think. One night, I freaked out in my sleep and woke up with a demolished room, everything was trashed and scattered all around, I have no memory of what happened, no drugs or drink just cold. Right about the beginning of March we decided we couldn’t take it and ditched out on our lease. I quit my fucked job at the BGO and sold the only two things I had worth anything, a 1985 Honda Accord and a like-new AK-47 (still pissed about having to sell that gun....). We got a U-Haul from our friend U-Haul and we just up and left to Portland with no plan, hardly any money and only one shaky contact. Some guy, Bobby knew because he fucked his sister and they had a kid. This was like a real blind shot into the wild great beyond or something, we had no idea what we were doing. We knew that anywhere was better, for the band, than where we were at. We figured Portland was a good place to go because there is a good music scene and there would be a lot of opportunities to get shows and get our band known. We had high hopes of getting jobs and getting a house and just rocking Portland, but, the trip turned out a perverse vacation that lasted about three months before we ran out of money and options. When we first arrived we stayed with a few different people that we met and within a few weeks got a two bedroom apartment right off N. Killingsworth in a pretty scummy area of Portland. We had brought a lot of shit with us so we were really packed into this little sweaty apartment. Jimi and I shared a room , Gabe and Bobby another and Eli slept in the living room. This situation got old fast. Bobby got lucky and got a job right away but the rest of us really had no luck and eventually just gave up. We partied and drank a lot, all over the city, like I said, we felt like we were on vacation, after coming form the freezing dumpster and gloomy Bellingham, Portland seemed like paradise. It was such a great huge place to explore and defile. We definitely made our presence felt in the party scene. Our video “Atrocstories” had just been completed and was making it’s own impression on our new friends. We played two shows while we were there, one at the Ash Street Saloon and one in our friend Mike’s basement. Mike was a cool drunk that let us practice in his basement, and he threw this huge party that we could headline. This one was better because a lot of street punks from downtown showed up and rocked out really hard. At Ash Street there was the most beautiful girl I ever talked to, she was seriously a dream girl , and she was from Sweden and knew all about Black Metal, she said she liked us because we were really heavy and intense but didn’t get all evil and dress up in corpse paint like Dark Funeral or something. Another girl said we were all too cute to be a metal band. This must of been because we all had just got really good haircuts from this dude we were hanging out with, Kyle. Some other shit that happened in Portland includes “the limo ride”. This was when a girl we knew from Bellingham came to visit for a week with like a thousand dollars and we were all broke and she was buying tons of weed, pizza, booze, and food. One day she decided to rent a limo for the night, we got a half gallon of whiskey, a fifth of rum and a case of Pabst. We cruised the limo all over the city, going to clubs and getting fucked up out of our minds. We picked up some girls, yelled at lots of people and drank all the booze. When we got back to our house we ended up going sicko psycho and had a naked freak out party that turned into a drooling drunken gang bang. Other notable occurrences include getting jumped by a van full of Mexicans when Bobby got hit with a pipe and got his ear split, and the time a stripper pissed in Bobby’s mouth while he was in the bathtub. So, anyways we partied the shit out of Portland, we spent all our money, we trashed our apartment, we went on food stamps to stretch the trip and then we finally gave up. We decided we had to leave, we couldn’t afford to live. One night we took about five car trips around the town and dumped all our garbage and most of our belongings in various alleys and dumpsters. We put our furniture around the neighborhood, burnt one of the couches, put a few things in our friends basement for safekeeping and threw almost everything else away. We left Portland with like one box and a backpack each. I threw away almost all my clothes, books, CD’s, everything, I didn’t give a fuck anymore. Our plan was nothing more than a last resort. Jimi and I were going to go to Alaska with Bobby to go salmon/halibut fishing and make some fucking money. We felt like we had no other options. We had one last week in Bellingham to be together and then it was total separation for the whole summer. During this week, I remember sleeping in a different place every night until we left for AK. And I remember playing two shows, one was at the Alliance skate warehouse and one was our farewell bash and final show at the infamous battle grounds of Anderson Lake........ This Anderson Lake show, was by far the most dangerous of the three. The word was this was to be the last show at the spot ever, then it was going to be closed or sold or developed; there were several different reasons and they all weren’t good enough. So we knew we had to make this one count. We had made fliers a few weeks before, while we were in Portland, and sent them up to start the hype. The flier said something like “ Die with us, one last time” and contained the phrase “guns, blood, tits, fire, and darkness”, there was a picture of a guy taking a body out of the trunk of a car to bury it. Basically, we wanted to send the message that we were taking A. Lake out with a bang and we were going with it, fucked up as possible. The night before we had played at the Alliance skate park that was up on Meridian for a while. It was a pretty good show, and an incredible night of partying and thrashing a girls house out in the county. We woke up for the A. Lake show hung over, tired and Gabe was wearing a pink dress. We headed up to the grounds with all our shit as night began to fall. The party was huge, not the biggest out of the three but definitely the roughest. I think the flier helped in drawing a more dangerous and bloodthirsty crowd. There was four bands, including us, that were supposed to play. Corrupt and Foreversin opened the show and there was already a few scuffles and a lot of shit talking amongst the roughly 200 people that were there, crowded around the bonfire. So we began to set up and shit just hit the fan. There was five fights in the time that we started setting up until we started to play, two of them were between girls. Nobody would stop any of the fights, they just crowded around drunk and leering, encouraging the ones fighting to kill each other. All this action scared some people away but the majority of the party stayed and rocked out to our set. We played for what seemed like two hours, so many songs, hard and fast and black metal as we could. I was feeling exceptionally evil that night because I knew that once we were done that was going to be it for a long time, the longest since the band had begun. I just kept thinking that I had to get on a bus and head to AK with no money and no clue of what we were getting into. This show was probably our darkest and most intense and I hope to never play like that again. The carnage and pain we were unleashing echoed through those dark woods and through the minds of the drug beasts and booze maniacs with a savage energy. When we finished the band that was supposed to follow us was just packing up and leaving and I remember their singer coming up to me and he said, “ We gotta go man, if we try and follow that, we’ll get fucking killed.” After we were done I remember so much booze being shoved into my face, all kinds, so many half gallons some guy gave me two pills that he said were ecstacy, which I had only done once so I popped them. DJ Defkon was spinning classic records and everybody was partying like crazy, it was all going pretty smoothly until I was offered the acid. I licked this blob of liquid acid the size of a quarter off my palm just after this demonic guy squirted it from the Visine bottle. I remember as the acid started to take hold I was gripped with the fear of being in the most dangerous and far away place possible, paranoia washed over me, all these terrible thoughts all those hideous faces. I had to hide out in the U-haul for a while because I couldn’t handle talking to people, I thought everyone was going to kick my ass or I was going to get knifed by some unseen shit bag in the shadows. I was by far the highest I have ever been, I could see inside my mind and it was imploding and burning and I was not even human. After a few hours I came out and walked down by the lake, I sat in this mud hole and covered my whole body with mud from head to toe. When I came back to the party I looked like shit and everyone kept crowding around and asking me what happened and I couldn’t even answer them. I saw Gabe running around the party area kicking trash and breaking bottles, puke streaming all down his body. I started to throw bottles at this huge rock to try and relax and suddenly I saw Gabe over by his car with this terrible look on his face. I watched in acidic terror as he opened the back of his car and pulled out his sawed off twelve gauge and a plastic bag with like 10 or 15 shells in it. He started walking down to the lake, and by this time it was like seven in the morning and the sun was up, he looked like death itself. I was so scared because my mind was racing with all the possibilities of what could go wrong, then he started shooting it into the lake and each shot was like a war in my head. I was just waiting for some drunk fuck to shoot somebody or himself or anything, I was high as fuck and just freaking out. The rest of the morning was a sick spectacle of finishing all the rest of the booze and trying to gross each other out. We ended up leaving in the afternoon and I had still not slept. I fried until the next night, I drove the U haul back into town and I was still getting tracers off the road and cars and everything and I was drunk as fuck. When we got back into town we got a call from our old friend Will, he had been taking a recording class at Western and wanted to know if we could come into the studio tonight. We just said fuck it and went for it. We showed up at like midnight (I still had not slept) and recorded a five song CD called “Formula For War”. That was probably the most fucked up I have ever been, we had played two shows in a row, partied for like the last week straight, and I was just coming off the acid. I remember recording the vocals and I was sweating so hard it was like butter, it didn’t drip like sweat, it oozed out thick and gloppy all over my body and it reeked like beer. We were all fucking fucked up so bad. The CD was nothing serious but it definitely shows the mental strain we were under. It sounds like evil black metal made by very sick people who just happen to be at their breaking point. We have since given up on this sound and really aren’t proud of that little CD, so just forget about it, the whole point of telling the story was just to show that even after being so fucked up we tried to do a CD, it just seems a little crazy to me. Two days after all this shit went down me and Bobby and Jimi jumped on a bus headed north to begin our trip to AK. We had a backpack and blanket each, Jimi and I had absolutely no money and Bobby had like a hundred bucks. Our plan was to take the Greyhound to White Horse in the Yukon and hitch hike the almost 1600 miles to Kodiak Island. And this is exactly what we did. This is probably my most insane story I have, I still can’t believe we hitch hiked that far....... But, this doesn’t have much to do with the band story so I’ll save it. To make a long story short, Jimi, Bobby, and I spent three months on a fishing boat in Kodiak, AK, it was a great experience, life changing, but again I don’t want to tell it here. Gabe and Eli spent the summer in Bellingham drunk and depressed. Actually, ask them how they felt, they will probably say the same though. Being away from the band, and music in general, was fucking nuts, it was painful but it really gave us a chance to rethink our whole approach to having a band. By the time we got back a lot had changed, it seems we grew up a lot and started realizing what we truly wanted to do with our music. The first thing we did was stop trying to be black metal, or any kind of metal, or anything at all. We didn’t want to fit into any category or be held back by conforming to one style. We wanted to be totally free of any conventions of a normal band, we just wanted to play the music we love. The first step to this was Bobby leaving the band, like Will, we remained friends and party pals but he just wasn’t right for our music. There is no other way to say it, no weird drama story, he was just out one day, fuck it, he moved on to successful life of magnificent bastardism. As far as FFA went, we pretty much started fresh, we threw out all of our songs except Guiding Light and started writing and jamming. We wrote songs that we always wanted to write, except didn’t because they weren’t “black metal” enough, we didn’t hold back, we played what we loved, we mixed all different kinds of styles ( fuck, we listen to everything, metal is not even the main style played in our house, it’s all a mixture) and really started enjoying our band to the fullest. These songs are what you here on our new CD “The Universal Struggle” These songs represent our “sound”, actually we don’t have a sound, we play from the softest to the loudest and most intense to beautiful and everything in between . Every song is way different than the next and there is no way to tell what comes next. We have parts in our new songs that we never play the same, like the outro to S.O.S, that is just a jam, we recorded it one way but we play it different every time, and same with the outro to Without a Fight, just a big freestyle jam. We love music and we want our new style to show this, we don’t want to be anything, we just want our ideas and emotions to be heard. I think my lyrics have matured and become more unique, they are not just “black metal trying to be scary” type shit. So anyways, it’s been about a year since we’ve been together again, a very strange year, we played some of our best shows in Bellingham, at the Factory, some parties, and the 3B. A lot of shit has gone down but I'll update this story in a few months...or something......... We also recorded our new CD which is currently going into mass production, and we began work on our new video to go with the new album. Not to get any hopes up but get your hopes fucking up for this new video. It will make the last one look like kindergarten shit. We are serious this time. We feel like we are right about at the next level as far as a band goes. We are ready to start playing heavily in Seattle and moving our operation out of Bellingham. We want to distribute our CD and video all over the world and we just recently hooked up with some guys who are starting their own record label and are willing to help us.... So..this story is not over by any fucking measure, we’re just getting started and I can tell that the best (and wildest) is yet to come......... THE END........... (at http://www.ffamusic.com/)]]>