Bahamut

This does a great job of creating a creepy atmosphere - this is a great example of accomplishing this without having to go into a 5-6 minute song with a lot of complexity to fully accomplish a concept. The orchestration is used just right I feel here.

There's a bootleg of Angra (Brazilian power/progressive metal band) of doing a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". Then again, this band also covered the Kate Bush song "Wuthering Heights" on their debut album, so strange is the norm for these guys sometimes. I also remember HammerFall (Swedish power metal band) breaking into ska at one point randomly when I saw them live back in 2005.

I find this one of those songs that is hard for me to comment on. It has such a short life due to the orchestral nature. One thing I can say though is that it accomplishes giving an image of a hero. The sax sounds a bit weird to me though, I'm not quite sure what exactly about it bothers me. It sort of clashes with the orchestra in that it gives a more sadder or somber feel to the song, whereas the orchestra is giving the impression of something rising.

Not bad! This has a pretty relaxing groove to it, and is in general well done here with the instrumentation and arrangement. One thing that detracts this a bit though is the production - sample quality and the somewhat low volume levels overall. The synth sounds too far in front to me towards the end.

I remember this - this always rubbed off as a kinda coverish take to me. With that in mind, I've always felt this was held back by the samples and repetitiveness with this straightforward arrangement. I've personally found this one hard to enjoy even back in 2002.

I can't see this in a football game - sorry guys. This is kinda cool - samples are obviously outdated, and it does get a bit repetitive. I'd have loved to see it longer though.

Pretty lighthearted song, especially with the sounds chosen like the bells. This song doesn't really do much for me though, mainly because it just sort of hops around a bunch of different things it seems. It'd possibly fit well with some skit, and I guess it works pretty well from that angle.

This sounds kinda coverish - can't say I like this terribly much.

Sample quality is a real bummer here. The arrangement isn't too bad (I'm not familiar with the original source) as far as I can tell though.

What immediately jumps at me from the beginning of the song is that the volume is really low overall. The drums clearly drive this song with how much louder it is than everything else, as well as it dictating things. There isn't a whole lot variation here though, and the source is mostly layered over without much change. Definitely was never a fan of this one.

What the heck was with those voices? This is a pretty weird song in terms of approach. It has an artsy feel to it that reminds me of trip hop, which is pretty refreshing to hear. I actually have to say I enjoy this song quite a bit, which is impressive considering this is song #12. There are some rough areas in production, but this surprisingly holds up pretty well in comparison to most songs on the site around that time period and even further. I felt that the arrangement was a tad repetitive, and it could've used some more variation, but for a trip hoppish song, it isn't the worst thing in the world since it isn't super repetitive on all levels.

I heard this DoD like a half a year ago or so, it was awesome then, and it still is awesome now. It won a DoD free month for good reason! Keeps my interest all the way through, very clean recording as others have commented. It doesn't clip at all as far as I can tell. Just great all around, great job ScaredSim and Dr. Manhattan!

You should've went to the April Fools meetup back in April 1, 2006 in Baltimore then - Doug was throwing water balloons at everyone while we were walking back to his and Jill's place.

Here's another one: http://hopehaiti.org/ - one of my friends' former professor runs this so she tells me it's legit

Welcome Protricity, Demonstray, nrich (sorry I forgot to mention you earlier), and Dr. Manhattan! And there's still more people to look forward to who's on .

My edit! Check it out!

Scytheful (on IRC) also traveled for $300 roundtrip - you have to be careful about searching for airline deals, because pricing can vary greatly, and if you buy too far ahead, you're actually paying more due to them pricing in predictive factors. I've heard in general the best time to buy plane tickets is 3 weeks in advance.

I voted on everything! Love how quickly people were able to whip up tracks here - great job everyone who entered!

Maybe not, but Kroze will be banned!

Hagerstown is like 1-2 hours out if I remember right.

The project is under review - please contact me or DarkeSword asap.

So I have to say in advance - I feel like I was mildly tangential at some points during the interview, since my attention was also somewhat distracted by staff vetting of projects and our approach for each one. I feel like there were some interesting questions asked though, I was more at ease during the actual interview than the last one I think.

The new server is much better from what Dave has told me - +5 GB RAM, CPU x4 faster, 4-5 times the space, etc.

I've mentioned on the MAGFest comment thread about why things may not be so simple (at least for me, and maybe some others) - here's my c/p of it. "When you have obligations as a graduate student, it's a whole different ballgame. You're not expected to miss any class you teach unless you're sick, family emergency, or a conference you're attending/presenting, especially at a university like mine where we have such prestige. In addition, professors meet with the students working for him/her that semester a few days beforehand to get everything straightened out. Taking vacations isn't necessarily the easiest thing to do when you're continually doing research, especially when the expectation is that your research isn't to stop when you're on break. Taking time off for the holidays is already bad enough in some instances. Taking time off so close to when the actual semester starts and when you're supposed to be back into full swing? Yeah, I rather refrain from irking people further involved in my future career-wise unless I absolutely have to, especially when I've already had other issues happen & affect my progress (family & personal health) that has seem to be happening at an increasing rate in the past year."

Huh? Who said he's done?