Skyhigh 19 Shuze'n'socks

Shuze'n'socks




The main (-ish) man returns in issue 19 of this great
tome of knowledge... Yes, you have reached the
chapter written by the guy who knows nothing
about everything, but everything about nothing...

Yes, what else could it be but Shuze/Afl's chapter?

That's right, Shuze and Socks.

You know, over the years I have been on the scene,
I have taken quite a lot of shit about my handle,
with people saying it is a lame handle, and that it
me calling my disknotes Shuze and Socks is even
lamer. Well, I am pissed off lately, so all I can say
to those people is that I will do what I want.

I am sick of conventionalism in real life, and in the
scene. If I don't want to send out every two days,
why should I? If I don't want to send the hottest
wares, why should I have to be bothered about it?
It's like in life, if I don't want to sit in the cantine at
college, why should I have to? Where are the rules
that say everyone has to sit in the cantine? Who
wrote these rules?

Just lately, I have noticed the major problem with
the scene. Everyone is the same! Bear with me for
a minute.... Look at all the major first release
groups (I consider them to be AVT, AFL, SCS+TRC,
Chromance, Onslaught, Hitmen, F4CG, and Motiv8)

Virtually all of them are the same. In each group
you have a select few individuals who do all the
work. In nearly all the groups you have a demo
section (a recent idea, and a particularly shite one
in my opinion). All run the same system of having a
board in the USA, and a few Euro boards. All follow
the same pattern, until one group has a new idea,
then the rest will follow. Look a the demo section
idea. F4CG got one, so all of a sudden, there was
Onslaught, Motiv8, Chromance (although I think that
the posse did it first) and so did Avantgarde. Why?

Who needs a demo section in a cracking group? It is
just a cop-out. The whole idea is that if, for some
reason, the first release suppliers fail, or the
group loses their boards, then they will have a demo
section to fall back on. It is just too easy. I think
it is alright for a group to have a few people who
are interested in making demos (like with Zar/<C>),
but when you get people like Devil being recruited
to a cracking group, all it does is vastly reduce
the amount of demo groups (notice that since F4CG
recruited their demo section, Noice is about to die).

Where is all this leading? I think that if the scene
survives another year or two (in a decent form),
we will find that there will be only a few major
supergroups left. I can see it happening, as people
are coaxed away from pure demo groups, by the
offers of cards (as everyone likes to have cards to
call out, no matter what their opinions are on games)
and that will eventually lead to the death of a lot
of groups.

The first sign of this is with Onslaught, and their
side group, Onslaught Design. They are recruiting
people from Crest, Chorus, and more, maybe causing
the death of those groups. Sure, I don't think it is
bad that Onslaught wish to make a demo section of
their group, but I am just unfortunately forced to
use them as an example at the moment. Maybe the
leaders of groups, suvch as Onslaught, should
consider the common idea of an inactive list.. That
has always seemed like a good idea to me, although
you do tend to lose members somewhere along the
line...

---------------------------------------------

Oh yes, I just remembered. In case you read the
new issue of Vandalism News (issue 23...), and had a
quick peek at the Lighterside chapter, you would
have read the bit about me being stolen! Don't be
worried! I was soon found again, and the gang who
stole me have been apprehended... Hehehe, I do like
those Lighterside chapters, especially the one in
Vandalism News. It is my favourite chapter in the
magazine, simply because of Vengeance's nice way
of joking about people, without going too far (but it
was good to see him admit he may have crossed the
line in a previous issue, by using the mag just to get
at Alphaflight). It is things like that which give me a
bit of faith in this ever squabbling scene, when
someone in such a high ranking position as Vengeance
admits a mistake, as so many other sceners would
not have shown Matt's great editorial prowess, and
spoken so honestly.

Maybe Matt's eloquence is helped by the fact he
speaks English as a first language.

While thinking about that idea, I remember someone
mentioned to me a while back about the problem with
having people who do not speak English as their
first language. He said it was because they do not
understand sarcasm properly.

I am going to stick my neck on the line here, and
agree with that statement. People who do not have
good English skills (by "good" I mean that they
speak English fluently (like Nastiness Inc, Duke,
Biz Kid, Bizarre, Mr Warp, Antifan, and so on)) do
often miss sarcastic comments. I have often got in
trouble in the past for speaking sarcastically, be it
on the phone, or in a note. It is like if I said this:

"Oh yeah, the Airwolf Team, they WERE elite"

Obviously, due to the subject of the sentence, I am
speaking sarcastically (no offence to old AWT
members, some of them are my best scene friends),
but some people who do not have a great grasp of
the English language would not realise that I was
being sarcastic, and would rag on me for saying that
the AWT was an elite group! It has happened in the
past to me, when I said to someone on the phone:

"Hehehe (we had been joking), you're just a lamer...."

And he took great offence at this, as the guy I was
speaking to was what you could call "elite", if you
believed in that. Whereas, when I speak to someone
else, who speaks fluent English, they would just
joke back.

It is a problem when you have people of all levels
of English speaking in the scene, but I really do
think that now and again, some people could do with
looking at what they are about to do after someone
made a comment, and seeing if it was meant as a
jibe, or small joke, or if it really was meant to be
hurtful. Its in the context of the thing....

---------------------------------------------

I have been thinking a lot about the scene lately,
mainly because I had some serious thought about
quitting all my activities, due to an excess of work
and too much life left to live while I am young. I
came up with one major thing. The scene is not just
a hobby, it is a sort of mini-community, that is, it
is a kind of lifestyle, much like if you go to school,
there are all the people in your class, except the
scene is a bit bigger. And in a class, you have people
that you like, and people that you don't. Usually,
you find there are about equal numbers of people
you like or don't. Then look at the scene. For some
reason, everyone believes you have to get on with
all other people. But why? For the scene to work and
not to be incredibly boring, you need people that
you like, and people that you don't. If you don't
have a combination like that you will be bored, as
I don't know about you, but there are people at
my college that I absolutely love to take the piss
out of, and people that I am good friends with. For
a lot of people, there is the odd group here and
there that they insult, but it is very rare for people
to openly show they dislike someone, or it is straight
away called a war! I personally dislike one person
on the scene a hell of a lot (I won't say who he is, as
it isn't right to use this chapter just to rag on
people), and I enjoy ragging on him, and insulting him,
mainly because anyone who hears me ragging on him
knows what a lamer he really is, and that mean it is
usually quite funny. But people say to me "You
shouldn't rag on people", "It isn't right to provoke a
war".  If you rag on someone in a classroom, like I
know I do in college, as I am particularly nasty to
a lot of the geeks in my classes, people will either
laugh along or say "that is cruel". They do not say
to you "It isn't right to start a war of words with
someone". If they did, people would usually throw
stuff at them or tell them to shut up for being a
complete nerd by saying that. So if the scene is a
community, like I have said, why can't I rag on
someone if I want to? Sure, I think that there is a
line you shouldn't cross, and that you have to be
careful you don't go too far in your raggings on
people, as sometimes you can go to far (which can
cause a war or something like that), but surely I can
just say "I don't like this person" without everyone
getting on their high horses and accusing me of
being lame for saying so.

I'm sorry to have to say that, but that is just one
more of the things that pisses me off on this scene,
with all the people who seem so fragile and weak
that they can't understand that sometimes you just
have your own opinions on something..... Oh well....

---------------------------------------------

OK, I want to just go onto a completely non-scene
subject now (well, it has a little to do with all the
anti-nazi attitudes in the scene). If you remember all
the reports there were when Germans went to see
the film Schinder's List, and came out truly shocked
by the brutality of the Nazi's and so on. Well, I went
to see the film Braveheart the other day, and I must
admit to having an idea how horrified all those
German's were. Being English, there were points
during the film when I was ashamed to actually be
English, seeing the true nature of my ancestors
(although my parents are Scottish, so I held some
hope that maybe I could consider myself to have
descended from a decent race). It was just amazing
to see what the English, supposedly the world's
most civilised race, had done in the past. I would
advise anyone to go and see that film...

---------------------------------------------

Anyway, this has been a rather slow, and sombre
chapter, mainly due to my boredom of the scene
lately, so I will end with a few phrases for all
non-German's to use in their notes:

"Sie Schnitzelrancher"
"You bag of Schnitzel"

"Haben Sie sich etwa in mich verliebt?"
"Could it be you have fallen in love with me?"

"Was fur ein Tier war das?"
"Which animal was this?"



OK, you can all probably find a few times to slip
those little phrases into your notes to people, and
I am finished for now, as I think I have gone on about
nothing for long enough.


Shuze/Afl'70




?-----