Moshing 101

I'm going to be seeing American Head Charge this weekend so I thought I'd revive my blog by making a post about it. I haven't seen AHC live since Ozzfest 2001 so I'm rather stoked about it. I though I'd have a little fun here by making a post about the methods of moshing. I'm going to break it down into two parts because I feel it works best this way. Those parts are, for lack of better terms, offense and defense. I'll start with offense because it's the most fun.

The basics of offensive moshing are that you want to be as effective as possible while lowering your own likelihood of injury. So I guess the first rule is don't be stupid. If you see a hardcore dancer being lame and fighting invisible ninjas don't get in the way of the spikey bracelets he's wearing on his wrists and try not to get kicked in the junk. Instead try either throwing yourself at him from a different angle or throw someone else at him because he's a hardcore dancer so he needs to be taken out.

As for basic styles of moshing, it's best to use a visual aid, so here's Sick of it all's music video for Step Down.

That's not everything, but of all of those my favorites are the windmill and the pickin' up change.

Sometimes you're at a show with friends so while on offense it's fun to team up. The most basic of these it to whip your friend out into the pit by hand. Stand at the edge of the pit with you in back and your friend directly in front of you with a few inches between the two of you. hold one hand to the center of his back at slightly below shoulder height and put your other hand on the back of that hand. Then just launch him forward by straightening out your arms. If you put your legs and back into it it's a lot more effective.

Another fun one to do with a friend is the spin up. You should each face each other then hold arms by clasping your hands around his wrists and he does the same to you. You should be holding his left wrist with your left hand and ditto for right to right. If done properly your arms should cross in the middle. Now spin yourselves trying to orbit around a point between the two of you. If you're both of similar weight this should be easy. The fun really starts if you're not of equal weight. If there is a small difference in weights the lighter person will orbit farther from the center than the heavy person giving the heavier person an object (the lighter person) to aim at people as you two move about the pit. If there is a significant difference in weight there's a chance that the heavier person will be able to use the centrifugal force to lift the lighter person right off of the ground. Once this happens the heavier person has the opportunity to use the lighter person as a sort of buzz saw and cut through other moshers as well as the crowd around the pit. This one is a blast and one of my favorite things to do at a show.

Ok, enough about offense, let's talk defense. The most important thing to remember here is to be aware of your surroundings. If you're at bigger shows and festivals you might be at the edge of the pit facing in and be completely oblivious to another mosh pit directly behind you. I can't tell you how many times I've been nailed in the back by someone coming from another pit, but it's enough to remember it and pass along that info. When you're at the edge of a pit you may want to put both arms out with fists forward to protect yourself, but this is actually a bad way to do it. What you should do is similar to what you would do to launch a friend onto the pit. Make a fist. I'm right handed so I make that fist with my left hand. Then put your other hand on the back of that fist. your thumb and forefinger should be at your other wrist. Then put your arms out to an almost straight position. This is important. If someone runs into your arms while they're fully straight out there's a chance your elbow will bend backwards instead of the way it's supposed to bend. Keeping your elbows bent will prevent this. If a person comes towards you at speed use your legs and back to cushion his landing on your outstretched fist. Then if you feel like it, after leaning back a bit go ahead and launch him just the way you would launch a friend. Try to aim for some hardcore dancers or emofags.

I'm going to share a secret with you here. The best method for breaking up a spin up. Some people when they spin up will just stay in the same place and spin for a good while. This makes them an easy target. Stand facing them, but slightly off center to them in such a way that the people spinning spin towards you instead of away. That is, stand to the right if they're spinning clockwise and to the left if they're spinning counterclockwise. If you get the timing just right you can launch yourself at a tangent to their circle and strike one of them directly. If you do this correctly they'll just sort of explode and go flying. It's great fun.

Well, alrighty. I've had fun writing this, but it's gone on for a long while so I'm going to wrap it up. Happy moshing.

Really? I'm still being read?

So I noticed that my blog is still getting a bit of traffic despite the fact that I don't really post anymore. I think I'm going to start posting again in that case.

Maybe if I start talking about the various games I'm playing I'll stick with them. This time it'll be about FEAR2 because as always I'm behind the times so I figure now that FEAR3 is out I'll finally make my way through FEAR2. I tired FEAR2 a few months back, but quite because I tried it on the hard difficulty right off the bat and that was dumb. I'm only a few missions in right now on normal, but there haven't been any points where it's all but impossible yet. I'm pretty sure I'm already farther than I was on hard and can't even remember which part was the one that stopped me before.

Ok, well, as I said this talk is making me want to play, so I shall continue this one later.

Not dead yet

Just making a minor update to inform anyone who might actually care that I am in fact not dead. I've just had zero inspiration for writing here. I'm even mostly drawking blanks from Starcraft.

I'm a decent way into the Terran Missions now in Brood war, and being the sort of person I am I just had to beat The Emperor's Fall twice. Once against nukes and a second time against cruisers. I managed to use a shitload fewer resources the second time through because I used nukes against nukes and cruisers against cruisers (for the most part anyhow, I dropped a few nukes the second time through, but had a cruiser or two the first time). Turns out building about eight to ten crusiers is a shitload cheaper than dropping somewhere in the range of 100 nukes from 5 or so different silos, each with their own command center.

Then again I was just having fun with the nukes. Using them to take out the most minor shit imaginable. Two marines and a goliath? Drop a fucking nuke! A factory and a barracks need blowing up? Better drop three or four just in case! End game in each of the two missions was fairly similar. I fought them down to nothing then the first time through I dropped seven nukes on the emperor's center and the second time through I fired eight yamato cannons at his command center. I named the save filed I made before ending it Meganuked and Yamat0wned. Made me chuckle.

Well. I should be going to bed soon. Catch you later interbutts.

Check out this tasty sumbitch

Jesus fucking christ I love the volcano taco. I usually don't go for hard shell tacos, but with the volcano taco it's not so bad because by the time I get to where ever I'm going to actually eat the thing the volcano sauce has softened the shell just enough to make it perfect. The only problem I have with the volcano taco is that now I don't eat as many double downs or grilled stuft burritos because those are tasty too, but this volcano motherfucker is just so much tastier. I had two of them, a KFC snacker, a chicken burrito and a caramel apple empanada for lunch today and I want another several of them right the fuck now.

So, does anyone else love the volcano taco or is there something out there that *gasp* you think is better?

Top Gear U.S. edition

So I just finished watching the new Top Gear on the History channel. The show definitely has some potential. I don't know is Adam Ferrara was the right choice as one of the hosts, but he does seem to like his cars, so I'll give him a shot. As for the other two, Rutland (or however it's spelled) is a goofy name, but he seems like a pretty cool guy. The third guy, whose name I can't seem to remember at the moment also seemed like he could be interesting.

The first challenge was somewhat original. It was a race around town in a Viper while trying to keep away from an AH Cobra attack chopper. The chopper's objective was to get a missile lock on the Viper and kill it three times. Obviously no real missile were used, but it was pretty funny watching how flustered the guys in the car were when the third light lit up telling them they were toast.

The renamed the star in a reasonably priced car to "Big star, small car". I mean sure, it's descriptive, but if you're going to keep the weird challenges from the original, three goofy guys as host, The Allman Brothers' Jessica as the theme song and even get your own Stig why not keep the name of the celebrity segment the same? Eh, whatever. They had Buzz Aldrin on. Astronauts are just plain cool, so I was happy with that.

So I guess what I'm saying is that this show has some definite potential and I hope it sticks around. And I have no doubt it will. Does the History channel ever cancel anything?