- griping .. -
It saddens me that I am now forced to write the second ever negative
and bitchy fire newsletter. My griping has one target, and is not
intended to strike at any of his friends in any group.
My target is the review introduction from Crash n Burn number 2.
Within this introduction lie several direct and masked insults
towards my group and, therefore, towards me. The articles writer,
STC, describes the fire pack as having nothing of worth that had not
been previously released and also charged that it contained too
many logos.
First, I wish to address the veiled accusation of duplicate releases
within the fire pack. I assume that this attack came due to the
presence of a renamed Neurotic/Eerie joint ansi. The ansi had
previously been released in the Legend pack. It is interesting to
note that the ansi was not, however, ever released in an Integrity
pack. The reason for this is simple, Integrity died before Eerie
had a chance to release his joint with Neurotic. When Eerie joined
Fire later that same month, he told me that he would contribute
that joint ansi as his release of it and one other to the october
10th fire pack. However, I did not know that he intended to change
the font at the top of the ansi from Legend/Integrity to Legend/Fire.
Due to this mistake, I released the Legend/Int version of the joint
in the October Fire pack, somehow rousing the anger of one Stone
The Crow. Just to make him feel better, I have decided to release
the retouched version of this joint in the latest Fire pack. Im
anxious to see how mad STC gets when I not only double-release an
ansi, but TRIPLE release it.
Now to accusation number two: STC has every right to criticize the
quality of the 10/95 Fire pack. It was not up to par with our
previous releases for several completely valid reasons and he is,
after all, in the practice of reviewing ansi packs. What I object to
is the harsh and all-encompassing way in which Mr. Crow rejected
Fire as almost pathetic. If STC had ever looked at a pack before,
he would know that the members in this group have always put forth
their best effort, no matter the circumstance. The difficulties
of running a group without a stable WHQ composed of members who all
have other, important obligations is not enough reason to release a
standard pack in STCs eyes. I challenge him to do Fire one better.
I have a feeling that a group run by our favorite Drunken Bird would
last far less time than Fire and achieve far less renown.
I would also like to point out that STCs attitude towards ROC can be
called nothing less than elitist and egotistical, but that is not
directly my concern.
I hope this resolves any confusion caused by the mis-release of the
Eerie/Neurotic joint ansi and I apologize for any migraines that this
may have caused in heads other than STCs.
In closing, I challenge STC to review this very pack and see if he
can honestly find nothing worth praising within.
- important stuff -
Fire now has a fully functioning FTP site. This site can be found
at either arpeggio.res.cmu.edu or 128.2.122.1 Arpeggio also supports
a myriad of other groups and is willing to support more. If you are
interested in getting your group a directory on Arpeggio, mail me
at halaster@arpeggio.res.cmu.edu
Donutz, the fire eggdrop bot is now completely functional. Donutzs
proud parent, Maxwell, is now moving on to other projects, including
a Fire Web Page.
The Regency is still down, but will be up by Christmas, as promised.
- new members -
This month brings some spectacular new talent to Fire. Introducing:
Neuropsychosis - an ex-ice musician, Neuropsy spends a great deal
of time involved with the demo scene and has gratiously agreed to
bring his talents to Fire. He should have some music in this pack,
if I can ever find him.
Ex-Lax - another talented musician who can also draw VGA graphics and
is dabbling in ansi. Mr. Lax refuses to tell me his old handle, so
whomever tells me first gets a free logo. :
Lord Cracker - is a talented ASM coder who brings his loader code
skills to fire. I also hope to convince him to recode pyroview,
perhaps adding VGA view capabilities.
Young - another former Relic pal joins the Fire ranks. Most of you
have probably seen Youngs work before, but if not, he has contributed
regularly to both Relic and Spastic in the past. Sarcastic Toaster,
which Young and Eerie run, is also back up.
Dragoon Kain - is a mainly-textmode coder with some pretty unique
ideas. Again, Im hoping either he or LC or both will recode
pyroview. :
Donut Hole - DH may not technically be a new member, but its so neat
to have his ansis back in the packs that I figured Id re-introduce him. DH was one of the original Fire founders and pretty much taught me how
to draw. His cartoon-like style and unique subjects always make
his ansis interesting to view.
Anarchangel - is one of the few ansi artists from my new AC, 412. AA
uses unique shading and font styles in his ansis. His work will
doubtless improve greatly in the coming months, now that he has some
other artists to work with. :
Ill Communikation - was left out of the newsletter last month and only
referred to as IK in the memberlist. Despite the horrid way he was
treated, Ill decided to turn in 5 or 6 ansis this month for the pack.
While some of them were left out due to the increased quality control
this month, the ansis that made it into the pack show a marked
improvement over his work last month. IK: I apologize for dissing your
lame n crusty ass last month. : Thanks for being such a jolly old
chap and sticking with the fire gang.
Tyme - one of our former contributors, Tyme joins Fire full-time
this month. He also decided to go slightly insane and draw a
shitload of art for this months pack. Many thanks, sir. :
Devine Styler - DS has officially changed his handle to Tical.
He is also using TCL as his ansi abbreviation.
Grind King - joins from parts unknown to me. : His one ansi in
this pack is quite impressive, however. Welcome to the crue and
get a damn e-mail account!
- quality control -
In order to allow beginning ansi artists the chance to join Fire
without having to decrease the quality of the monthly packs, I am
slowly increasing the level of quality control that goes into every
pack. Members are also encouraged to draw pics and not fonts, as
fonts will always be cut first.
- lost at sea -
Hopefully youre starting to see that the real Fire is back. Its
not just an ego thing, Jim.
- thats it -
Happy November.
halaster halaster+@cmu.edu
fire prez, shazam editor