Iantiger

I like it! I logged on and saw all the new icons and it was like Christmas! The icons are certainly much funkier! They're more three dimensional than the previous cartoon-graphic style, and the "Show Equipment Stats" button - that's a godsend! Finally I can look at my character closeup in his three dimensional glory! Fantastic update. If you don't like it, you'll probably just need to adjust. I can't think of a single update in the history of Runescape where people haven't said "Don't like it" only to, a few months down the line, have forgotten what life was like before it was implemented. ~Ian

I just got a guitar book from Amazon titled "Speed Mechanics for the Lead Guitar" - I've had a quick flick through, and when I'm done with my current book ("Guitar For Dummies"), I'm going to move onto it. It's gotten some rave reviews at Amazon, and from the look through that I had, it looks very impressive. Might be worth checking out. It's under ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã10 too. ~Ian

Probably when I got into the mining guild, or could mine rune, those were big achievements back in those days! Also buying my purple p hat. Too bad I didn't hold onto it. Now I feel like a newb again :( ~Ian

I only just found out about this today. I can't really believe it - I guess I haven't really watched the news for a couple of weeks so it's no surprise I didn't know. Anyway, I wish him well and my mate told me this morning that apparently he's up and walking around, which is remarkable considering when the accident happened, the doctor's were predicting fatality. Get well soon Rich, mate. ~Ian

Well I've owned my guitar for a couple of years now, but only really picked it up very rarely, playing for several days nonstop, and then forgetting all about it for half a year or more - talk about inconsistent! So I suppose in all it took about a month of practice (30 days of actually using the guitar), playing chords over and over again - and I've reached a decent level. Although I'd like to learn to move between chords even faster given time. I used the lessons on http://guitar.about.com - they're written by a guy called Dan Brown, and paced out very nicely, introducing new chords, strumming patterns, scales and songs each lesson. It's recommended you spend about a week on each lesson, but really that depends on how much you practice. Unfortunately a lot of the songs that the site uses are stored on OLGA (online guitar archive) which is down at the moment resolving legal issues. ~Ian

Player Owned Houses were released - and they were everything we had hoped for and more! Read the Construction guide immediately and go and enjoy your own house - need to be a member though. :) ~Ian

I've mastered the basic 9 chords, changing between them reasonably fast - although that F Major is a tough cookie. Yesterday I spent a long time learning the bassline to Muse - Hysteria and now I can play it at almost 2/3 the speed. I've recently started to learn Barre and Power chords, can anyone give me tips for changing quickly between those? Because I'm finding it very hard to get my fingers into position (particularly stretching my third and fourth fingers across a fret during a power chord). ~Ian

Ah, my Dad's a big Floyd fan as well as one of his brothers. I've never really had a chance to listen to them much, but the few tracks that I do possess, I like. Maybe it's finally time to bite the biscuit and buy an album? ~Ian

I can identify with what you're saying. That sort of RnB sub-genre (Badu, Arie, etc), is closer to its roots, and I have absolutely no problem with that because as you correctly say, although it's simplistic, the effort has been put into the vocals. That sort of RnB really is Rhythm and Blues and is deserving of the genre title. It's only a shame this sort of music isn't recognised as well as the manufactured rubbish which we hear every day in the charts. On a side note, I love listening to soul, jazz and blues music, even though they're a very rare occurence in my playlist compared to all the alternative and rock I have. I can't say I'm a big fan of country - mainly because we don't have that sort of thing in Europe - or at least it's nowhere near as popular. And if I'm feeling adventurous sometimes, I might put the radio onto Classic FM - but nobody need know about that :oops: ~Ian

That is a QUALITY top 2 you have there. My housemate won't shut up about the Sex Pistols and I listen to both them and the Ramones - picked up two really awesome t-shirts in Ibiza for both bands. The Sex Pistols one has Sid Vicious on the front standing in front of a Union Jack. Absolutely iconic. ~Ian

Heard them at Eurovision. They were brave for being different and bringing something new and fresh to the contest, but no way did I think they were going to pick up so many votes! We had a little bet going on for the winner, I think I put my money on turkey, and I almost laughed at my mate when he backed Finland. The victory was almost a landslide! Does anyone else think next year that most countries will enter a metal band? :P ~Ian

And yet you've yet to list what is actually so great about your beloved rap music. All I've heard from you so far is how I should feel bad for having an opinion! You haven't actually made any sort of attempt to defend rap music. You listen to it: Boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom *some guy talking over the top* - repeat this for 3 minutes. There we go, that's a song, packaged, sold to the millions of adoring fans. It took 10 minutes. You can't JUSTIFY that! It's terrible! It's a disgrace to the real musicians out there who put their heart and soul, and more time than their coffee-break, into composing music. RnB/Hip Hop isn't any better. Listen to "My Humps" by the "Black Eyed Peas". That is the classic generic c**p that I'm talking about here. The epitome of 'manufactured' music - no soul or feeling went into that production it was merely 'made for the masses'. Unfortunately, people think it's GREAT for some reason, hence why that particular song has scooped several awards and I believe it climbed to the number 1 spot in several charts worldwide. Obviously there are other genres with so called 'sellout' bands, but the high proportion of sellout music in these specific genres, along with the simplicity of the music they produce just makes it abyssmal and 'almost depressing' to quote my music teacher. ~Ian

Give it to a friend. Make sure they're somebody you know will appreciate it - i.e. make sure they're a true friend and a good person. Sad to see another person quitting. :( ~Ian

Actually, you don't. And actually, I can. You say you can not hear the quality in rap music and R 'n B. That's your flaw, not the music's. Because there certainly is a lot of musical and lyrical quality in those forms of music. And you don't acknowledge that. So. You're ignorant. Because you blame the music for your lack of musical ear. And thus your reply can be safely ignored. I'll have you know sir that I play 3 instruments (electric guitar, keyboard, euphonium), and I hold a grade 5 certificate in musical theory - certainly not the best and I'm not claiming to be Mozart or anything, but it shows that I have a good understandings of the underlyings and fibres of music, as well as the capability to compose music. As far as 'musical quality' goes, some of the properties of some good music might be: - That it makes the right chord progressions at the right times - i.e. going from the sub-dominant to the dominant - Not too many accidentals (sharpening or flattening too many notes) - Obviously the rhythm, the timbre, CAN and SHOULD be changed throughout the piece, but in moderation - Usually some thought should have gone into the lyrics - the same lyric repeated over and over get tedious - Avoid drum machines! They can't replace the spirit and soul of a real drummer - The piece took more than a day to write My personal failings at recognising any decent level of musical talent within the rap/RnB genre are often to do with my last point. The number of chord progressions is so limited. Very often the ENTIRE piece will consist of the same 4 chords used over and over and over, and the rhythm won't be changed once - very strong evidence that the artist made the piece in his coffee break! Again, these are MY opinions. If you have a problem with them, go suck a lemon - I really couldn't care less. If you have any constructive responses, critical or not, I'd really like to hear them. ~Ian

Muse - Hysteria That bassline continues throughout the whole song, but the way it's played solo in the intro is just so... VIIIIBRATING! Makes my whole body tingle everytime I hear the Hysteria intro. Spent the entirety of yesterday learning to play that bass-line on my guitar 8-) Good to see so much Muse-iness here, they really are totally awesome :XD: ~Ian

Indeed! I love some things, I hate others. It's part of who I am. Everyone has different loves and hates! You can't tell me off for that. I agree MJ was a bit of a legend in his better days! I still like to put a bit of Billie Jean or Thriller on, towards the end of a party when there are beer bottles all over the floor, and everyone's too wasted to remember it in the morning. Guilty pleasures - they'll never know! :D ~Ian

Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters. Stood in on drums for QOTSA on Songs For The Deaf album - he really is legendary and he's multi-talented! Guitarist AND drummer AND vocalist! XD ~Ian

In no particular order: Rock Punk Alternative Indie Metal I'm an avid hater of RnB, Rap and Hip Hop and nothing anyone ever says or does will change my mind. I can't see the musical qualities in it whatsoever. ~Ian

Severance - Horror/Comedy. Went to the cinema to see it the other night, being advertised as 'funnier than Shaun Of The Dead', which meant for me that it had to be pretty darn funny. What a let down! Such a great cast with Tim McInnory, Danny Dyer, that Bond villain, and that chick from 24 - and yet it fell flat. The comedy element was almost non existant, although there were a couple of moments where I stifled a short laugh. So that leaves the horror part of the film, which by itself would have made for a good movie. Lots of gruesomeness, but it takes far too long to get going, although when it does it's pretty gory. A guy gets his leg severed off by a bear trap - and the aid of his friends as they try to get it off his leg, only to keep letting it go by accident and slamming it back onto his leg, eventually cleanly cutting it off. VERDICT? Avoid this film! Scarface - Watched this last night. One of my housemates works down in the local Game shop and his Boss went to a convention and got the DVD for free and gave it to my mate who in turn gave it to me because he doesn't really like it. I liked Al Pacino in the Godfather Trilogy and this film for me has cemented his status as one of my favourite actors. He plays such a different role to Michael Corleone, and the story of corruption, greed, and the neverending search for happiness makes this one of the best Gangster movies ever produced as it is so well told. Certainly a lot of cursing and violence - not a family film! The end scene is terrific. VERDICT? Brilliant! ~Ian

To be honest I think 25 rooms would do fine. That would allow for a decent house with all the rooms AND a decent sized dungeon. I've finished my house, I'm ready to build the underground bit now (oubliette and dungeon) and I have 4 rooms left in which to do it, which might leave me a room short because I want - Oubliette - Dungeon Entrance - Junction - Corridor - Treasure Room I might have to remove one of my two formal gardens, which is a shame because it will leave a large gap in the middle of my mansion (I have my garden surrounded like a sort of courtyard). OR I could sack my butler and do away with his bedroom. ~Ian

Looks all the way! No contest. I was cutting yews just moments ago when this level 90 starts randomly abusing my full infinity for not having good stats and I tell her that I value fashion over stats, at which point she laughs and says infinity looks ugly... she clearly doesn't appreciate the sixties psychadelic groovy look and even goes as far as to say that I'm wearing a 'dress'... I don't think so love, they're quite clearly robes dear, before we lept into a fully heated debate about the sixties and music - at which point she showed her ignorance even further claiming that one of her favourite bands is the Pistols, who APPARENTLY had their first hit in 1969, 3 whole years before they even formed! Don't you love people who think they know what they're on about? ~Ian

Exactly! Go and mine as much rune at heroes as I possibly can. In an hour, I should be able to get at least 200-300 if nobody else is online on any world. ~Ian They said one world... with 1 person the respawn rate is... 24 mins? I hope you like your 4 ores, cuz I'd LOVE my hundreds of nats. Fair enough I didn't see that it was just one world. I don't think I'd craft nats. On a normal day I craft nats. In all my time I've crafted around 50k natures at the abyss, and only been pked twice, both times through my own stupidity and lack of caution which I've now adopted. So crafting on an empty server is no different for me than crafting on a server with players on it. I'd still earn money at the same rate. I guess what I would do, would be to cut magics *shrug* Honestly though, I can't think of many things to do on single empty world, which would have a significant increase in yield than usual. I'd probably just log off for an hour lol. ~Ian

I consider you as a person with very good taste of music - congratulations. 1. System of a down 2. Muse 3. queens of the stone age 4. Franz ferdinand 5. the strokes Bubbling under: jimi hendrix arctic monkeys gorillaz foo fighters Your musical tastes are also of the highest quality! All the bands you listed were definitely on my mind when I was doing my top 5, and I have at least one album of each of theirs. The Strokes are an especially great band - I love listening to First Impressions Of Earth, as are Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl - LEGEND! I salute you =D> ~Ian

You should DEFINITELY stop playing when you start to notice blisters. If you play excessively you're only putting your own fingers at risk. When your fingers start hurting stop playing immediately and give them at least an hour to cool down. If they still hurt, then it's best to wait until the next day. Also, if you play excessively you're at risk of RSI (repetitive strain injury) - even some professional guitar players have had their entire careers destroyed because they played so much without paying attention to the pain and developed severe pains in their wrist (RSI) - and in some cases this is irreversible damage. ~Ian

OMG I love you irl! Muse = best band ever!!! 1. Muse 2. Radiohead 3. Bloc Party 4. Audioslave 5. Queens Of The Stone Age As you can see, a healthy mixture of rock, alternative, indie and stoner rock. I also like metal, but to a lesser extent. ~Ian