cha cha changes

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Trevor Markiv
The site can now be found at devoutcraziness.com …

Once I figure out what the hell I am doing I will start updating and changing things around. Keep ya posted. And thank you for any and all support.

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manifesto

Posted on October 7, 2018 by Trevor Markiv
Release your skull from compromise, believe and receive acceptance from the cosmos. They breed belief, something larger than this earth. Entertain distractions, they confuse your youth. Confront opportunity as a belief that it will change yourself. Develop and become bigger than any opposition. Watch the walls crumble around you. Reject voice you’re bigger than this earth. Enjoyment and pleasure on this planet is momentary and never lasts. Be true to yourself and accept those around that influence your ideas. Live to be a being that will last forever. When you are removed from the husk, carry on and believe.
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posthumous repitions

Posted on October 7, 2018 by Trevor Markiv
I am not going to live like a human being, and pretend there is god who will compromise according to religious scriptures. Instead I’ll divide and conquer, accept a new vision one that frees from obstacles and lies.
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final review of Mu Legend

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Trevor Markiv
(I play this game with the stand alone client, not through steam)

I have been playing this game since December of 2017, so I think I might like the game just a little bit. That being said, I have come to a long overdue conclusion, that I think a lot of other players have as well… this game is essentially a money hungry mobile mmo.

For anyone who says this game is not p2w, they are either a.) delusional, or b.) invested a lot of their own money into the game. Since 2017, I have paid for platinum service, which I thought was enough of a payment to play this game. I was wrong. Now they have the $50+ spellbinder pet, magic gems, + tickets, talismans…. basically every facet of the game can now be paid($) for.

WHY is Sanctum, and Dragon Haven even available if it only gives you level 65 gear? why is all old content still giving items that are level 65? it’s all obsolete now and a complete and total waste of time. Really the only dungeon worth running is 6-1 and you can only run this instance once a day. Or you can grind mythic dungeons all day and have a 0.009% chance of getting a mythic item.

Or you can always shell out real cash in the auction house for all your desired items.

I think I might finally stop playing this game. Or at the very least stop paying them any more money for platinum service. Fix the game make it less pay to win. Increase dungeon entry’s, make all content of the game able to achieve lvl 70 (mythic/set) gear. Get more active GM’s who will run fun events. Then and only then will I come back to this game. But if dumb-asses are actually shelling out cash in the $100’s I cant ever see this game changing any time soon.

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under construction blader guide mu legend

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Trevor Markiv
1.0 – created guide
2.0 – added section, Crunching Numbers
3.0 – Check out THIS guide, it is a lot better than mine that I have here.
4.0 – Added Skills. As I have said in previous updates there is greater
information available on how to properly build a Blader. The new patches have made a huge emphasis on True Damage and Defense Penetration. Those are now more important than Elite Boss damage.
5.0 – basic and conceptual overview of class. General updates due to patch changes.

Because of limited content regarding this game, I thought it might be beneficial to add a bit of a guide concerning the Blader class in Mu Legend. This is only from my own personal experience, as well as opinions of more well established Bladers. I will try to be as thorough as possible, and I offer my support in comments, with any questions that you might have.

Firstly something to keep in mind, that the Blader is absolutely dwarfed in comparison to the Dark Lord. As far as melee classes are concerned you would be better fitted with the Dark Lord. As it offers greatest defenses and equal if not superior DPS. With that being said, I think it’s congratulatory you picking a class like the Blader.

Concerning early game, you’re best fitted with following the quest outline until you reach level 65. During this process it is advised that you save all resources acquired. Namely resurrection stones, jewels of bless, magic gems and zen. It will be of greater importance having these in later game.

SOUL POINTS…
For me personally I focus largely in health, attack, and cool-down reduction. That being said I also found it important to invest at least 60 points into defense. For base defense and the added attack bonus. The higher soul level you get, the more you will realize the importance of cool-down reduction, especially if you get set items that offer bonuses for spamming certain skills. For example raiding pheil gives evasion when you use the skill threatening roar. In order for survivability in lupa’s you will need to be able to spam skills openly. You will want to aim for at the minimum having 30% cdr. For an outline prioritize 30 into attack, 60 into defense, 30 into health, and 60 into cdr. You cannot go wrong with evasion and any other defensive soul points. You’re a melee class after all, and will be in the thick of it, so survivability is an absolute must.

Additionally with the introduction of the last patch we are now faced with many other options in concern to 1st rebirth and 2nd. Lets consider a few things before you start investing soul points. Are you pve or pvp player? are you both? for pvp you will be wanting more accuracy, I would doubt accuracy would make much of an effect with pve content. Many of these soul points will be indicative of pve or pvp. So just plan accordingly. For me personally, I went with Endurance, Giant Massacre and Butcher.

I have not made it to 2nd rebirth yet so cannot judge what is best. But at face value I would consider Critical Damage and Health.

SKILLs…

    • Cutting (main skill)LV 1 Range (m): 2 / Cooldown time (sec): –

    • LV 21 Intersection (m): 2 / Cooldown time (seconds): –
    • Lv 40 Range (m): 2 / Cooldown time in seconds: –
    • Lv 1 Range (m): 2 / Cooldown time (seconds): –
    • Lv 23 Range (m): 2 / Cooldown time (sec): –
    • Crushing(main skill)LV 42 Intersection (m): 2 / Cooldown time in seconds: –
    • Hit(Job skill)LV 2 Intersection (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): –
    • RoarofThreat(Job skill)LV 4 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 5
    • Lv 7 Range (m): 20 / Cooldown time (sec): 5
    • Lv 11 Range (m): – / Cooldown time (seconds): –
    • Fierce Rage(Job skill)LV 14 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 15
    • Lv 18 Shot Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 15
    • Nanta(Job skill)LV 28 Intersection (m): – / Cooldown time in seconds: –
    • Salvation(Job skills)LV 31 Intersection (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 20
    • Dash(Job skill)LV 34 Range (m): 20 / Cooldown time in seconds: 8
    • Strike(Job skill)LV 37 Intersection (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 10
    • Lv 48 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 30
    • LV 52 Intersection (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 10
    • Lv 56 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 24
    • Lv 61 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 10
    • Cruel Pain(Expertise)LV 25 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): –
    • ShoutofRage(Expertise)LV 25 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 30
    • Robust spirit(expertise)LV 25 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): –
    • Steel Armor(Expertise)LV 25 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 60
    • Mineral Powder(Expertise)LV 45 Intersection (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): –
    • LV 45 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 90
    • Robust Container(Expertise)LV 25 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): –
    • Gravity Refraction(Expertise)LV 45 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 30
    • Lv 65 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 10
    • Sweep(Expertise)LV 65 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): –
  • Propulsion(Expertise)LV 65 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): –
  • Endless Rush(Expertise)LV 65 Range (m): – / Cooldown (seconds): 20

For me personally, my main skill set that I use for mobs and dungeons is as follows Gravity Deflection (knock up and damage), Leap Attack (mobility and damage, mainly mobility), Earth Cleaver (similar to gravity deflection in its area of attack, but this gives DOT damage), Sweep (really good damage and avoids all damage for the time period of skill, very essential for some bosses), Reversed Rage (survivability and mana regen). And for Left Mouse click I use Assault (bit of hp recovery, and aoe) and Right Mouse click I use Cyclone Slash (this skill is a mana drain otherwise it is perfect. If mana becomes an issue, try to time your use of Reversed Rage accordingly).

ARTIFACT…
This is a multifaceted response, and will require you to use different artifacts for different situations. I find it helpful for rifts, daily quests etc. (easy dungeons) to take frenzy, you can easily get through these dungeons rather quickly with frenzy. If you’re doing epics, or more difficult group dungeons please consider taking hysteria. I emphasize group, because in most cases your dark lord will be using allegro or rainbow. For bosses it’s a credible rule of thumb to always be using hysteria. The same applies for pvp. Soloing lupa it’s recommended that you take allegro/rainbow. So in summary, you’re going to want to level hysteria 100, rainbow/allegro 100 and you can get by with frenzy level 30-40.

Once again with patches come changes, and one of those changes is the introduction to new Artifacts. With the new patch it seems Kantra’s Light has now replaced Sunrise as reigning champ of Artifacts.

GEAR…
I personally think Raiding Pheil to be the best Blader set, and if you can acquire this set by all means do it! with that being said, there are some things to keep in mind when searching out gear. You generally want to find anything that will offer you elite/boss damage, secondly you will want cool-down reduction, attack, critical damage and critical rate. Additionally anything with high evasion is also good. I would prioritize elite/boss damage and cool-down reduction. You can get a lot of base damage from your weapon itself. CDR is especially important if you choose to use set items for your gear.

This section is outdated, gear is has changed significantly. Here is the following supreme Blader build for newest patch. It includes…

Accesories: Quaking Chaos Earrings (def. pen, accuracy, prefer with crit dmg), Drowning Chaos Necklace (def pen, cdr, prefer with crit dmg), Rampant Chaos Ring (attack %age, HP %age, prefer with crit dmg)

Armor: Earth shattering set helm, armor, pants, shoulders. Gloves = Vanishing liberators death throes.

Weapon: Roaring blade of death

Please consider the core important stats when looking for gear. The necessities starting out are going to be CDR and Crit Rate. Eventually you’re going to want to really start developing your crit damage and defense penetration.

CRUNCHING NUMBERS…
You’re going to want the following, or at-least aspire to achieve these numbers…

at the very minimum 30% CDR
(max)30% Critical Rate
– 500+ Critical Damage
– 20to30%? Evasion (need to confirm deny the importance or necessity of evasion, whether pve or pvp)
– 30k+ Defense.

Health shoot for the millions. Lastly try to get your CC Time reduction as high as possible. All other stats like Attack will run according to your gear, necessitate stat building in the aforementioned, and focus less on overall attack. Although important, it will come naturally with skill and equipment development.

Please ask me questions and I will complete this guide better. I also would like opinions from other bladers to make this more complete.

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MU Legends first impressions/review

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Trevor Markiv
My first ever exposure to an mmorpg was Diablo I know you can’t really call it that, more of an action rpg with online elements. But it was the closest example I could think of. From there I got into other games like Conquer Online, Guild Wars, very little World of Warcraft… I did play my fair share of free MMO’s but they fell into obscurity and I cannot remember the names. All this being said, I have had some experience and interest in the genre. Diablo aside I gave up on the genre as a whole, it was just too mind numbingly frustrating and soul draining; putting hours, days, weeks even months into a game only to find such a minimal amount of progression. It took a spark from a game like League of Legends to get me interested again in gaming.

I suppose the same regression occurred with League of Legends and I ran into a wall with that game, it just became the same old nonsense game after game, and I lost interest. This put me on the hunt to try something new and I came across a game called Mu Legends an mmorpg from a company called webzen. This game differs from a lot of other mmo’s because of its fixed camera angle and isometric view of the game world. The story line and overall progression is very linear and it’s almost impossible to find yourself wondering what to do or where to go prior level 65. I think that might possibly be the biggest reason I got so glued to the title, because although I ignored the story it was fluid and animated, as well as narrated and voiced rather well. The world itself spans over 7 continents though you can only access 4 of them, and 1 being more of a marketplace/world zone. So the game is rather small and it’s really easy to get acclimated to the details while going through the story and progressing to level 65.

It took me less than a week to complete the game, get to level 65 and decked out in full mythic gear. I thought to myself this was easy now I can conquer whatever the game throws at me. However I was wrong. See there are new instances and now gear is available that you cannot buy in the market place or easily find if you are under geared and low of level.

The biggest gripe I have about the game is the currency dependent item enchanting. If you want to get your gear to +7 you have a lot of zen and the jewels to do it, but you find out real quick that you will now run short of magic gems. There is a daily quest that can accumulate a large amount of magic gems but it can only be performed once a day, or twice if you’re a platinum member of the game. Aside from that one instance, you have to rely on rewards from other daily quests that are also numbered to once or twice a day. And do your daily rifts, this gives you a decent amount of magic gems. But not nearly enough to really spam enchant your gear. You’re going to run dry on magic gems, because throughout the process if you fail you lose a + and the money and resources it took to make it. I think the game developers did this on purpose. Because with the easily accessible ability to farm zen, but you cannot farm nearly enough magic gems. And if you can I am not aware of the methods.
 

A lot of salty people call this a pay to win title, and I am kind of in the middle on this. Sure spending some cash will “help” you, but you can do everything that a paying person can, just have to grind and work harder. To put it in perspective, the pay elements that benefit you in this game, are in the way of a premium service that gives you rewards and bonus gifts like magic gems, resurrection stones and bound redzen (bound redzen and redzen are completely different). The biggest perk to spending money is having the ability to open the cubes that require redzen to open beyond 1 time. This game is excellent and a lot of fun, it is worth spending $30 for platinum membership. If this game costed thirty bucks, I would buy it.

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legalize suicide

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Trevor Markiv
Psycho paranoia or the ability to absolutely navigate a problem that is unaddressed? I am speaking specifically about the legalization of suicide. Not just suicide for the terminally ill, but suicide for any living breathing human which wishes to cease existence. Why can allow Hollywood to propagate movies like the Hunger Games, the Purge and the Belko Experiment (notably even mayhem). It’s as if we have (sub)consciously expressively portrayed the decaying animal instincts of human beings, allowed it into popular culture. I am not sure when but I can guarantee that overpopulation of the world will become the thesis behind all of this. We are degenerately innate to relate to some kind of prospect of hope, but the only hope is what is inside.

The idea of suicide is morally benign and the church is expressive in disabling it. They are corrupt vultures that would rather watch humans destroy themselves from the inside out, watching a miserable human writhe and twitch before themselves or somebody twists the neck and puts it out of their own misery. Would you watch while a deer lay half dead twitching and bleeding out, before you grab a rock big enough to release it from its pain.

We offer a humane way for somebody to end their life. This will never happen. And reason is money. Not money for the cost of procedure. But the money that is being made from misery. If this indeed happened. There would be empty psychiatric hospitals, psychiatrists, pharmaceuticals etc. etc. There is the moral particle and the greedy apologia.

Let’s ignore the suicidal, the miserable, the leeches and the bottom feeders of society. After all what is the purpose of perfection if there are not those we can snub are noses to.

 Is this an equation of some kind of utopia?

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lenovo ideapad y480 disassembly

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Trevor Markiv
My ideapad y480 was shutting down while using the dedicated graphics, I know it was a heating issue. I left it unresolved for a few weeks, until I finally got frustrated enough and just began to disassemble the thing. My first thought was that maybe the fan and motherboard was really dusty and it was preventing proper air flow (this was best case scenario), my next thought was maybe the cpu/gpu didn’t have adequate thermal compound.

After unraveling the laptop, I came to the conclusion that dust was not the issue. Surprisingly enough the internals of the laptop was pretty clean and not much dust. I did have a can of compressed air so I did thoroughly clean inside. What the issue was, was there was an abysmal amount of thermal paste on the gpu. The cpu had a decent amount, but the gpu was completely dry. So spent more than I should have at best buy buying some thermal compound. After cleaning gpu/cpu I began to reassemble the laptop. I thought to myself this was a pretty successful, encountering problem and properly assessing the issue.

power ribbon

After putting the laptop back together I was faced with the issue of the laptop not powering on at all. I thought ok, something wasn’t hooked up right, I take it all apart and find nothing out of the ordinary, but apparently I didn’t secure something because this time it powered back on, but the hdd apparently got wiped out. I was able to get to bios, I made a flash with linux. After I got linux up and running I installed windoze 10, and began to realize that a media card with usb/headphone wasn’t working. I knew exactly where that was and I disassembled the laptop again. I realized that a little plastic piece had snapped off which secured the card. This was no victory for me, as much as I use this laptop on the go and having sound for headphones is an absolute necessity. Unfortunately the card connects to the motherboard, and the plastic piece snapped off on the motherboard.

During the reassembly I realized now that the laptop does not power on. I figured it must be the little ribbon that connects from the palm rest frame to the power button from the motherboard. I ordered the part and sure enough it powers back on, no problem. This of course still doesn’t solve the headphone predicament. I went ahead and bought a new motherboard, this opens a whole new can of worms.

little plastic piece that broke off

I get the motherboard put everything back together and now it powers on but I get nothing more than a black screen. I try the old motherboard, and it fires back up no problem. I am confused and insist it must be something wrong with the new board I  had bought. But I switch around ram on the new board and it finally fires up. I had to try each stick of ram individually before it would post into bios. I of course get no sound from headphones have to take it apart and re-attach the card, and this time I have successfully solved all problems. The laptop now operates under high stress at reasonable temperatures and it has all working functions as if bought brand new.

I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to throw this thing in the trash, but I had been able to identify each problem and know the solution. Of course encountering issues where it wouldn’t power on at all, or would power but no bios. These were all things I wasn’t sure how to assess. Fortunately I had the tools to be able to properly diagnose.

EDIT: during this process I broke the little plastic piece for headphone/usb, I broke the little ribbon for power and I also broke the little ribbon to keyboard that allows the keyboard to be back lit light. Only thing being absolutely necessary was the power.

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youtube error ublock

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Trevor Markiv
what you will see if you have ublock enabled on youtube

Just recently as of this exact date, youtube now has figured out how to disable ublock (a chrome extension that eliminates most ads from websites). I am not entirely sure if there is a way around this, but I find it ironic that I was actually thinking about this the other day, when youtube insistently asks to “try” their new paid service for a free trial. I was just thinking that there is no way that they will allow 3rd parties to interfere with their ability to make money.

Ethically there is nothing wrong with them wanting to get money for an excellent resource they created. With ad’s being run in all videos that no doubt, brings in a hefty amount of revenue; considering the volume of traffic youtube gets. I am only saying that because of the endless videos uploaded and the subscriber and viewer counts. I can only imagine the amount of money brought in from ads alone. Take in the fact youtube is bought out by google, a mega conglomerate.

All this being said that they are in fact making plenty of money regardless. I remember back in the day the internet was a free resource. You pay for the internet, and soon you will pay for the web sites that you enjoy visiting. Or you pay for it by commercials and advertisements. I need to learn some survival skills and go live out in the woods.

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Posted on May 10, 2017 by Trevor Markiv
“Sometimes I feel like I’m not solid. I’m hollow. There is nothing behind my eyes. I’m negative of a person. It’s as if I never thought anything, I never wrote anything, I never felt anything. All I want is blackness, blackness and silence”
-Sylvia Plath-
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identity, purpose and contradictions

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Trevor Markiv
(if this at all sound authoritative, I apologize in advance. These are only ideas that come into my brain, and I want to express them through this blog)

An identity if anything but being a working, breathing, fucking, sleeping and eating creature… just like any other biological specimen is a contradiction to our existence. We have some kind of idea that the media, fashion or whatever else gives us a sense of purpose is important. When we strip away the layers of diatribe prescribed by the television, movies, music, internet we get a false identity. 

I always tried to abandon the popular ideas that our society accepts, only to find myself sad, lonely and confused. But in reality the herd moves instinctively about ideas and lifestyles that match society. They are not actually looking for individuality they are only trying to enjoy the pleasures of life like any other homo-sapiens should. 
The ability to appease the conscience by whatever means necessary is absolutely essential to survival and success in life. To belittle and berate the beliefs of those who live successful and fulfilling lives is a sign of inferiority and displeasure with your own existence. 
This has been a bit wildly described and confusing, though unintentional and a bit contradictory to my first paragraph. My whole intention was to write about the identity crisis in america, particularly in the mental health of human beings. I think it is acceptable to be interested in media, but I also think that the most important regard to identity is the ability to survive. I think identity should be in regards to the animals around us, the ones who instinctively move about and obey nature. It will never be that easy for humans, we have this necessity to please our own species by means of false identity. The more we nurture false identity the more we encourage behavior that contradicts our existence.
In summary, live to succeed and accept the principles that encourage growth. It’s absolute polarity, it makes no sense and I think that is the key-piece to living. We expose we contradict we abandon and expose, circling in a endless confusion. But when we accept and adapt, we begin to find living through confusion is acceptable. Besides all of that, the pleasures of life are more enjoyable. 
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Vital Remains evil ~ death ~ live

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Trevor Markiv
Alongside the recent Abdullah purchase I grabbed this vital remains dvd. I never got too into vital remains, but always wanted to give them some more attention, so I thought this was a good addition. What sold me on buying this though was the amazing artwork included. I might give my thoughts on this one later, but for now here is what the dvd looks like.

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[MUSIC REVIEW] Abduallah – Graveyard Poetry (2002)

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Trevor Markiv
Let me briefly go into how I learned about this band in the first place, it kind of coorelates with this review in the first place. Let’s rewind back to the early 00’s and I was just getting into the whole stoner rock scene, as an initiatory Black Sabbath (ozzy era) fan, I learned that a whole sub genre was created out of their sound and other bands, I am too ignorant to name. At the time there was a web site by the name of stonerrock.com. But it was basically a archive of all bands in the aforementioned genre of music. I would go through the bands randomly listening to different artists and hearing what was out there.

One of the bands that kept my attention was a group by the name of Abdullah. I had a scant amount of mp3’s of theirs. At the time my mom was heading to Chicago for some kind of business expo, and while we were there I got to go to this giant record store. And that is where I obtained their 2002 release “graveyard poetry”, a disc that got a lot of spins. Fast-forward a few years and my collection of music got expunged to gain funds for what I can remember for probably drugs or something irresponsible and not worth the abandonment of material possessions.

Well I was at a record store around here in my neighborhood. They have a small “metal” section of Cd’s, and I almost shit myself when I saw graveyard poetry there. It was a measly $5, so it was a no brainer and I picked it up. I know what your thinking, “cool story bro…”. But to me this was some kind of intuitive intergalactic sign, the cosmos were telling me to stop listen, and reminiscence with some of nostalgic relic.

Another side note, I actually remember conversing with the band over AIM (aol instant messenger) at the time, and I remember them telling me that they were going to be playing at Mac’s Bar (a local gig). I never did attend the show, which I still kick myself today. Maybe the band would have stuck together had they been given the support and recognition they deserved.

So the music here I can only describe as some psychedelic rock/metal with melodic clean singing. I can’t name a song that doesn’t have a catchy ring to it. It’s more upbeat then what I was typically listening to. But this is all played well and the vocals go great along with it. Listen I am not good at going into detail with musical details, you will just have to take my word for it. And give it a listen. You can find the full album on youtube.

Here is a liner note about the band…

abdullah is:
jeff shrilla – voice * alan seibert – guitar * ed stephens – bass * jim simonian – drums

graveyard poetry was:
recorded by paul hamann
at summa recording studio

bryan stauffer played piano on 13
jeff played drums on 5

artwork design by jeff

dedicated to jasper and matt shirilla
we love and miss you

contact us:
abdullah * po box 159
richfield, oh * 44286 * usa
[email protected]
www.stonerrock.com/abdullah

not 100% sure if any of the contact information is still active or correct.

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update and randomness

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Trevor Markiv
Its been a while, I took a brief absence from the internet due to personal events that compromised my ability to readily use my laptop for blogging purposes. I am now in a stable place, but using the internet is still a matter of taking a trip to the library or a coffee shop. My plans and intentions of this blog where nothing more than to share my thoughts and ideas, and put a emphasis into my taste in music.

Social abilities are limited, I find myself cracking at the surface, but I will never be any different than how I remain. I don’t mean to sound cryptic, but I have no other way to write than what seems to come natural to me.

I have had a l lot of time to be by myself and to think, its been refreshing but all the same a conclusion that abandones existence. The idea of teen angst, follows while thinking about this. Everything has a stereotype that saturates any real meaning. It all follows a social code, everything assembles into a social field.

Going off on a tangent here. This post was purely to check in, and say hi. I want to put up some new content. But right now I am at a stand still. That’s all for now. 

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Purgation – Realm of the Dead EP 2000

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Trevor Markiv
Updates have been pretty slow for the month of March, being homeless and uninspired dragging me down. Anyways I wanted to share a unknown band I used to listen to all the way back into the early 2000’s. The band is named Purgation, and not to be confused with a death metal band from Kolkata with the same name.

Anyways they are a doomy metal band with clean vocal styles. I have listened to a sparse  amount of bands that are in this same variety, most notable would be Abdullah. The more known groups in this genre are good, but their consistency and ability to rationalize a sound that is both evoking and strongly despairing. Why would somebody fall deep into a pit, anger and despair are the responses. Purgation is a group whose message is of the christian variety, but it’s not in a preachy kind of way. Although I am certain when he says “will we wake up…”, off the track Slumber, he isn’t talking about literal sleep, but overcoming an impending doom for those who disbelieve in the faith.

Its simple, its angrily sang, nothing special in the guitar sections or drumming. But in most cases for me its typically the simple in style, who capture the most atmosphere and evoke emotional response. When I found this band, it was like a needle in a haystack. There is absolutely nothing about them on youtube, fortunately archive metallium had a page on them, and I was able to do more elaborate searching. After searching around, I came across their myspace page, and it has their EP in entirety so I am just listening to this, and thinking about the past.

Well nothing great, probably will be less updates for a while, being homeless and uncertain where I will be staying at, makes thinking difficult. I do have a laptop, and plan on making updates soon. 

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Lords of Thunder Sega CD

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Trevor Markiv
Lords of Thunder is a horizontal shooter, for the Sega CD. It is a fun and worthwhile game, and for those fans of shmups who don’t make the cut. As far as surviving and feeling a sense of accomplishment when you play, this is the game for you. Consider this title a shmup with training wheels. It is essentially one of the easier shmups to be brought upon us. And considering the amount of shmups that I’ve played, this is hands down the easiest. And I might as well clarify, I am speaking of the Normal difficulty setting.
The game plays well, a lot of the bosses are really cool to look at. Some of the levels come off as repetitive and kind of generic in style. As I said before the bosses are done well, and are great to look at. But where they excel in style, they fail in sustainable and enduring play style. Let’s face it, most of the bosses if not all, come off as pretty lame. I am all about being able to complete a game, but I feel a sense of failure if the game doesn’t respond with a harsher reality.
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Pestilence – Spheres – 1993

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Trevor Markiv
PESTILENCE – Spheres
Roadrunner 1993
Credits: Marco Foddis – Drums.  Jeroen Thesseling – Bass.
Patrick Mameli – Vocals, Guitar.  Patrick Ulerwijk – Guitar.

In the early 90s, a small flurry of death metal bands experimented with mixing death metal and jazz fusion.  Improbably, the results are almost invariably remarkable.  Pestilence was one such band, and Spheres was their death jazz contribution, a wonderfully crafted blend of jazz-themed riffs, odd time signatures, extremely synth-like guitar lines, and mature lyrics (they never bought into the gore schtick put forth by New Yorkers Cannibal Corpse and their ilk).  What else can I say: I love this style of music, and it thus follows that I love this album.  Too bad Roadrunner records hated it so much that it led to the demise of the band.  Pestilence plays advanced music that avoids the “wank-fest” trap that so many progressive metal bands fall into.  These songs never degenerate into over-indulgence, but reveal more and more individual character upon each repeated listen.  The riff to Multiple Beings, while not very complex, gets stuck in my head all day long.  There are many places throughout Spheres where the listener would swear a keyboard was being played – but it is all guitar synthesizers, something that was totally foreign to death metal at the time (and largely, still is).  To a fan of jazz fusion and death metal, Spheres, and its contemporary albums from Atheist and Cynic, is an absolute essential. Bottom line: Like fine wine, Spheres only gets better with age.

Review by, Mark

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Frankenstein – movie – 2015

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Trevor Markiv

I randomly picked out Frankenstein to watch, my expectations were nil, as if nothing, maybe even burdened by the idea it being bad and having to stop watching it. I happy to say that I started to get into it rather quickly from the beginning. To me when I think of Frankenstein I think of the stereotypical one you see on the Munsters, and is very much identified with Halloween. But this movie managed to display something real, something tangible, many perspectives available to perceive this character.

We run through the experimentation, bringing life to the dead. They bring about life to a corpse, or whatever kind of aesthetic they use, it’s uncertain how about they got the body all together. Unless it was like Andy Warhol’s, Flesh for Frankenstein, where they harbor dead corpses to bring to life. Whatever they have brought to life a man, whose intelligence is that of an infant. He is apparently very strong and although susceptible to pain, he seems to endure a great bit of torture and still manages to carry on.

What I like so much about the movie is that, Adam, he rummages through the real world with a infantile perspective. It isn’t until he meets a homeless man, that he begins to learn and grow more intelligence, this is also where you start to hear him speak like a narrative throughout the movie. He makes a conscious effort to support his relationship with the homeless guy, and if not for an awkward proposal for sex, they might very well have been better off. Through the whole movie, Adam is trying to reacquaint himself with whom he calls mother. He wants love, he is a “monster”, but he does have a strong human desire for love.

Even with his best effort, he is ran off by the townspeople and police. Everyone thinks of him as a worthless disgrace. This is something that I found a great parallel to our own society. We find a majority, a herd, and people will blindly attack anyone they deem a monster. Isn’t this the truth with human beings. We harbor so much hate and disgust with our own species, even if our conception of truth is hearsay. We don’t want truth, we just want somebody to hate. Somebody to lynch and humiliate.

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survival of the fittest

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Trevor Markiv
I am not good with predictions, prophecy or telling the future. Infact I keep my mouth shut when it comes to predictions, I would rather watch the cards fall, and then decide for myself accuracy. It isn’t so much recognition, but more so a hint at something invisible, maybe spiritual, something that hints at a power that exceeds our human ability. After all my body collects the oxygen to let blood flow, there must be something that hints at a power greater than ourselves.

It’s difficult to accept life, and secular human beings when you made up for yourself a certain moral law that is dictated by the spiritual. You criticize, antagonize human life. But at our core, we acknowledge a moral law, something to differentiate good and bad. Ravi Zacharias/CS Lewis, both believe that if a moral law exists, than there must be a more lawgiver. The moral law giver of course being god. I have a problem with this idea, only because I think that our environment our reality that is around us dictates wrong and right. I think they are not so much concerned with environmental and surroundings, but more with a singular aspect that reflects onto all human beings. The idea that there are certain things that exist in all of us, and we can all agree that they are in all human beings. We are all affected by certain stimuli, things that are spiritual and non existent in the physical.

It’s hard for me believe that a god imbedded in us certain laws and rules, that if permitted result in a barrier around us, that crushing guilt and conscious wrong. Why do human beings feel this, some human beings (strong ones) can outright resist the idea of wrong in themselves. They are the herd, they follow the physical and resist the spiritual. After all anything that negates a successful lifestyle  must be resisted and thrown away from our consciousness. We have wronged one, or a whole lot more, but we do not allow ourselves to fall into self pity. This reminds me of teachings by Nietzsche, he believes that christianity or spiritual beliefs are all human weakness. He believes in the herd instinct the powerful, the courageous and daring.

I haven’t a clue about where I stand in all of this. But I feel the crushing blows of reality, I have a hard time ignoring the consequence. I fall into the weaker category, but somehow I feel as if I am aligned with something spiritual, something that exists outside of myself. I do not subscribe to certain institutions and churches. The older I get the less I see the exposure of life, but more the love of money and ignore the weaker human beings. Let the herd throw them out, they waste the oxygen somebody with a spine could have. I believe in suicide, only because when a human has no purpose, nothing to permit itself to success. The greatest pain I could endure is the absence of family. That would be a pain I could not endure through.

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finally beat Panzer Dragoon Saga

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Trevor Markiv
At long last I finally beat Panzer Dragoon Saga, a long time coming but I finally did it. I do have some minor criticisms and a few resolved issues. The game is definitely not nice and polished like Final Fantasy 7, I do not see any comparison between the two as far as content and storyline, but I use FF7 only because I consider that the best rpg on the playstation, Saga being the best on Saturn. With that being said, the FMV’s are a lot nicer to look at on the PS1, and background imagery on FF7 is a lot better, it really brings to surface that although the Saturn can run 3D games, its strongest quality is in 2D games. With all that being said, to me Saga doesn’t really shine and show its ability until the end of the game. Though its 3D abilities not being the best, you will be impressed with what the game can do later on.

Something cool is that at the end of the game it tally’s up your score. And one thing I found interesting is it has a “spirituality” piece, and I think that is attributed with how many people you speak with. The game has a lot of detail and ability if you’re willing to look past its muddied up graphics. I am sure some will defend it, in regards to graphics, and although impressive you can obviously see it cannot accomplish with what the PS1 can do.

Graphics aside the game was definitely a great experience. Sure I found myself yelling at the screen when you have to enter different floors and find keys to unlock. You will find yourself setting off alarms fighting routine enemies and just repeatedly entering same areas and running in circles. That aside it did add a nice element towards the end. Speaking of the end, I was really surprised at the amount of enemies you face. I was thinking that there would be a lot more to the end boss battles. Instead you fight several different dragons all with different attributes and qualities. And then you’re proceeded to face the end boss, which is a mess of a creature. I was thinking that he was the prelude to the end boss. But nope, that was it. A sigh of accomplishment that I finally beat the game, but also a bit of disappointment there was no more boss battles ahead.

Overall I cannot recommend this game enough. It to me is one of the, if not the most unique RPG to come out. The boss battles, the moving of towns. Everything about this game is fine tuned. I know I made a gripe about the graphics, but trust me, make it to disc 4, and later on you will see that the saturn can pump out some amazing graphics and features.That’s about all I got for ya. Get this game and enjoy the best rpg on the saturn. 


 One thing I forgot to mention is some of the architecture and designs in this game, are absolutely amazing. Some of which remind of HR Giger. Very unique.

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