Lately, it seems as if their has been an influx of rehashed topics, Youtube spam, and just plain ol' trolling threads.  Whether it's all from the same guy making dozens of different accounts or if we genuinely just have too many morons cruising our forums, is up for debate.  After reading a topic proposing some type of community moderator feature by that one moustached fellow, I thought a bit about the state of our forums and what could be done.  I know the aforementioned moustached fellow meant well with his idea, but really as a community we do not need to implement any sort of new feature to help alleviate the workload for our moderators.  We just need to be smarter forum-goers.  
 
There is a trend among the numerous topics locked every day that in all honesty annoys the crud out of me.  It's hypocritical forum-goers.  Check any of the recent locked spam topics, and you'll see dozens of literally the same post, just by different established users on our forums.  I'm talking about the users that insist upon voicing their disapproval in one of only a woefully low number of ways.  I genuinely do not think users realize how worthless they make themselves look as users when they walk into a spam topic, and, instead of simply hitting the flag button and walking out, insist upon making some sort of sarcastic, useless one-liner post proving their disaproval of the crappy thread.  Users:  If you do not want to see spam threads clogging up our forums, do not post a crappy "Junior Moderator" message saying you "Flagged" the topic.  Just flag it and move on, don't bump the damn thing to the top of the page, genius!  The same can be said for those that insist upon saying ridiculous and often obvious things as "inb4lock" and "this is going to get locked," and "do we really need another thread on this?"  
 
I don't mean to sound so critical of our community, as I really do believe there are some quality users here, but I do not get why everyone insists upon posting in a topic just for the sake of posting in the topic.  We get it, you do not like all of these Modern Warfare 2 topics, now wouldn't it have been easier for you to, instead of coming in, and posting a worthless four or five word post, simply just skim past the topic when you see it?  This is just a simple matter of resisting to post when you have zero, zilch, nada to contribute to the actual topic.  It bugs me to no end to consistently see users do nothing but walk into topics and spout off a one-word post just for the sake of checking that topic off their list of topics to post in.  Again, all of the spam would be alleviated if we just ignored it, not opened our big mouths, screamed at the top of our lungs, and let everyone know that, "HEY EVERYBODY, HERE IS A SPAM TOPIC THAT NONE OF US CLEARLY LIKE BUT I STILL AM GOING TO BUMP IT UP TO THE TOP OF THE PAGE AND UNKNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROBLEM!"  
 
To summarize, lets when we see a shitty spam topic, chill out, politely hit the flag button (if we can, I haven't been able to for months since the thing is broken...) and move on with our merry forumgoing business :)
 
 
 
Now, for the part of the blog that I am tacking on for the sake of making this more down to earth...
 
In gaming news I have only really been playing two games, Modern Warfare 2 and Forza Motorsport 3.  I bought Forza Motorsport 3 for a grand total of fifteen bucks thanks to Amazon.com who, after ordering MW2 from them, gave me $20 online store credit to use.  I took advantage of this when, during the Black Friday festivities, they were selling FM3 for just $35.  I'm enjoying both of these games immensely, but really it's zee damned MW2 online that is sucking up most of my time lately.  I'm damn close to hitting level 70 (where by I will then readily prestige, as I feel the constant progression is what keeps me coming back to the game) and still not getting tired of the game.  Well, maybe a little bit, but that's just my square eyeballs speaking.  Insert mandatory MW2 complaining here.  OK, the only real problems I have with the game are the ones already voiced by the majority of the members here.  That is, the akimbo 1887's and the javelin glitch.  Up until now I've readily reported all javelin glitchers, as they are fully aware they are spoiling the fun for everyone else and that's just not cool.  The akimbo shotguns piss me off, but at least I don't seem to rage when I get killed by them.  I still have not finished the story mode, nor have I ventured into Spec Ops yet.  I got stuck during the story mode, playing on Veteran, at the mission where, as an American, you are following a tank through a neighborhood in D.C.  It was suitably infuriating walking down a street and getting pelted by all sides, so I muttered "fuck this" and went online.  
 
I'm only a level 14 driver in season mode for FM3, but I must say I am proud of my B class Renault, tuned to perfection, and my A class Lotus, also tuned to perfection.  I took them online and got easily manhandled, then I realized that everyone else was racing with all aids on, and mine by default were off from season play.  I think that it's ridiculous how you seemingly cannot search for rooms where aids are forced off.  So I've been confined to playing my buddies and my brother in private rooms.  I'd also like to add that the damage in FM3 stinks.  Granted, I've been spoiled by the awesomeness that is Grid and Dirt 2, but really, the damage modeling seems so half-assed, and the physics seem off too... or at least visually.  The two or three times I've managed to flip my car, it looked so completely and utterly fake that I actually thought less of the game as a whole because of it.
 
Onto music, I've been listening to a shit-ton of new stuff lately.  I fear I am becoming quite the "trendy indie hipster" but according to my father he says that's what happens when you are in college.  I've been listening to a lot of The Gaslight Anthem, The Horrors, Beirut, and Japandroids lately.  I highly suggest everyone go listen to all of those groups.  The Horror's latest album may very well be my favorite album that came out this year.  A few wednesday's ago I saw KISS at the Staples Center here in Los Angeles.  The opening band, Buckcherry, had talent, but their sound was clearly not oriented for a large stadium and I feel they would probably put on a dynamite show in a smaller House of Blues-ish venue.  KISS was off-the-fucking-hook, and I can easily say that, after seeing them, I am a fan.  The whole reason I went was because I was invited by my buddy, and I went into the show really knowing zero about the band and their songs.  I knew that one ridiculous "rock and roll all night" song, but that was the extent of my knowledge beforehand.  The concert had great music no doubt, including a pretty fucking kickass guitar solo from Spaceman (complete with fireworks on his guitar(s)!) but it was the theatrics that put the show "a notch above."  From fireworks to multi-colored plumes of fire to "The Demon" Gene Simmons flying all the way up to the rafters and spitting blood whilst performing, the actual "show" element was absolutely unforgettable.  I highly recommend everyone try to see KISS, even if you aren't a fan.  The one thing that did mildly scare me was the "KISS Army," that is, the fanatical fans.  I never thought I would see so many grown, married 40-somethings in full KISS costumes walking around the arena, but boy was it creepy.
 
 
Alright, I'm tired, as I do not fancy writing lengthy blogs all that often, so if you have made it this far, congratulations, and thanks so much for reading.
 
 
-kmd