The Shitty Limits

"HOLY SHIT! THERE'S LIMITS EVERYWHERE!" begins one of the most frenetic songs that this guy's heard from some of the greatest dudes just over the pond.

Combining elements of 80's DIY hardcore (The Descendents are a common comparison) with a contemporary garage sound, The Shitty Limits make some of the greatest music I have ever heard.

Seriously, I can't stop listening to these guys. I am THE top listener of theirs on Last.fm. That's how bad my obsession is.

If you gave me an ultimatum, that I either had to give up The Shitty Limits or sex for the rest of my life, well, let me just tell you that that would be one of the easiest decisions I would ever have to make.

Judging by my enthusiasm, I'm sure you guys can guess what my answer would be.

Enough about me, though.

One of the things I admire most about them besides their music is that they make all of their releases available for free download on their blog, and I dare you all to find three things better than free downloads. If you can, feel free to leave them as a comment and I will do my damndest to show you how these guys will trump them.

The guitars are clean, the drums are nimble and focused although the voice is just a bit distorted in the vain of garage punk, making for a trifecta of aural pleasure.

If you have listened to the bands Career Suicide, The Libyans or Cloak/Dagger, you'd have just a faint idea of how these guys sound.

Imagine the Arctic Monkeys and the Hives having a bastard child whose always jacked up on the most potent and finest cocaine, and I mean that in the best way possible.
If you have any sense at all, you will do yourself a favor and give The Shitty Limits a fair listen.

If you have half a mind, these guys will be one of your favorite bands.

If you had the faintest clue, you would have stopped reading this a while ago and started downloading their shit already.

Go on. Your ears will thank you.

Here's just a little sample of what you're in for.

Introduction to the Dieing Written Arts: Part 1 The American Typewriter.

This series is dedicated to the dieing art of writing. From the post to use of stationary and pens. I do hope that this series brings something out something from the best of us.

For years now, atop of my grandfathers old desk lay an old typewriter. A Royal HH from the year 1954. It just sat there, in its place of rest untouched with a thin layer of dust gathering on it's black leather case.

Just a few short days ago I took this old typewriter off of the desk and brought it into my study. My desire to use it to writer letters had grown to the boiling point--I had to use it. So with an eager eye, I took off its case and glanced at the old keys. The typewriter itself was in great condition, a few keys bent from years of transit. I opened the inside to look at the condition of the individual hammers, the ink ribbon and all the components in between. Some rusted, others coated in a thick black dust.

Before even beginning the my first letter on the machine, I had to of course clean out the machine. Just a bit of de-dusting and some graphite powder, I was all set. This old typewriter that hadn't had a key pressed for years was beginning to come to life once more.

The first letter alone was a liberating experience, each keystroke carried more importance then any digital keystroke could ever produce. Each letter, solid, permanent, and unique. Writing on this machine had more importance. Each sentence, each word, had to be thought out. Older then a whiteout feature, each letter press required more thought then a keyboard.

I sat there putting words with true meaning onto paper. My paws moving vigorously, my fingers a bit sore after the first few pages from the hard pressing of the keys. Each letter an unique individual collaborating with its brothers to create a master piece. With every bell ring, a turn of the knob, and quickly pushing the reel back to the starting position. Each new paragraph with the press of the tab key caused the machine to jolt to one side with the force of the moving parts.

This machine at my fingertips of solid metal showed no sign of giving up, neither did I. As time passed, the faster I typed. This American made typewriter wanted to live once more, and this I did give it.
This 50's writer gave me an experience that I shall never forget.

As technology progresses, we as a civilization start to loose our values of language and writing. It in itself is a dieing art. We don't stop and think about what we write, it can be easily deleted; we don't bother to learn new vocabulary of writing style, nobody knows what they mean anymore; we don't learn grammer, who needs it or cares? Computer correct these problems for us. A sentence can easily be removed, so we throw it in anyway.

Typewriters are more then just a novelty item that hipsters seem to take up because they are cool, they are machines that remind us of the old days. Those days when print was valued, a book wasn't something you bought and threw away, it was something that was cherished, kept, and built to last for a long while. Old writers shouldn't be considered something of a novelty, but a liberating tool for the best of us to implement. Giving us the same feel as a handwritten work, but clear and concise.

As we can send off e-mails only three sentences long, erase entire paragraphs without thinking twice, we can contact anyone in a blink of an eye, the ideas of creative writing in letters has died. More and more, the post office is seeing a large decline in anything aside from spam mail, bills, and parcels (most items bought online then personal gifts. Typewriters are something that more people should start to pick up. More durable then any computer, more personal then one too.

The next time you are browsing through your local antique shop or garage sale and you see one of these beauties, please pick on up if the price is right. It's time for us to start writing and communicating without having to rely on the internet and technology.

7 Programs to Install on Your New Computer

For any of you out there who might get a new computer for Christmas or are setting a computer up for others, this guide is for you.*

1.) Google Chrome (Web-browser):

An essential for any new computer is a good safe web-browser. There are loads to choose from, as long is it's not Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Today, we're going with Google Chrome, Google's new web-browser.
Google Chrome is safe, easy to use, fast and most importantly: secure.

Faster then most other browsers I've used and tested, this Java based open-source browser truly is something worth trying, and offers a new and wonderful experience from casual users to true enthusiasts.*

Download here

2.) VLC Media Player (Media Player):

VLC is another powerful open-source program, and one of the best media players out there. While you may need iTunes to download songs onto your iPod or iPhone or like it's organization, or you use Windows Media Player to play your movies. Nothing comes close to using VLC as your main media player. Why? VLC offers something that most other media players don't, almost every codec that you'd ever need (a codec is code that allows you to view media in formats not supported originally like .ogg, .xvid, ext.) By offering the latest Community Coder Codec Pack in each update, the folks behind VLC make sure everything you need to play, you can play. While you may not set this up as the default media player, you should have it.

Download here

3.) Foxit Reader (PDF Document Viewer):

While most will say that you can just use Adobe Reader, Foxit offers a lot more then what you will find with the other guys. Foxit gives you all the plugins you need to view your PDF documents in any web-browser, and gives you all the tools for your desktop. In the basic free version, you can even edit and highlight your PDF documents. Need to highlight and check off that list of AFI's top 100 lists? No problem, just click the highlight button and you're set. It offers a lot, and it extremely easy to use.

Download here


4.) Trillian (Instant Messaging Client):

Do you find yourself messing about with AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Facebook Instant Messenger, Myspace Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Skype, ICQ, Yahoo Instant Messenger or Jabber? Finding yourself transfering from window to window to manage all your friends who use different instant messenger clients? That time messing with different programs is over, Trillian is your one stop instant messaging client that allows you to log into every single one of those instant messaging protocols without having to have all the applications.*

Download here

5.) OpenOffice.org (Office Suite):

So the new college semester starts up soon, but you don't want to shell out the cash for another Microsoft Office license on a new computer or on your old one. OpenOffice.org is for you in that case. OpenOffice.org (yes the ".org" is part of it's name) is an open-source, totally free, office suite that offers everything from a word processor to a keynote presentation maker. It offers it all and then some that companies like Microsoft and Apple charge a good deal of money for. While it may take a little time getting use to a new office suite it's well worth it when you can update it to the next big version without killing your wallet.

Download here

6.) 7-Zip (Packing and unpacking):

Someone sends you a archived file, say a .rar file, and you don't know what to do! Sure WinRar is a solution, but it costs money. So here you lie with a problem on you hands, you don't want to fork over some money for a simple file unpacking!
7-Zip is free and does it all, what WinRar can do, 7-Zip can do as well.

Download here



7.) AVG Free (Anti-Virus):

Norton, McAfee, they cost money. They are good, but again cost the extra pennies. You want a trustworthy anti-virus without the cost. AVG Free is a free suite containing some of the main parts of the larger AVG suite. If you don't want to pay for another anti-virus, AVG is for you. It works, is managed by a large trustworthy company.

Download here



Have you any other programs you like or recommend? Tell us in the comments!

*All programs listed except Trillian (windows only) and AVG Free (Windows and Linux) work with Windows, Macintosh, and any Linux Distro
*When it comes to browsers that are many alternatives, Firefox, SeaMonkey, Opera, Safari. Chrome was picked out after toying with the lot and testing speeds and interface.
*Some features offered in other clients are not compatible with Trillian (such as video chat with Windows Live or application use)
*All logos posted are trademarked by there perspective companies, all rights are reserved.

Monday Movie You May Have Never Heard Of: Tommy

"Tommy" a pretty popular rock opera cult classic from 1975 is the film adaptation of The Who's rock opera Tommy.

Here we're given the story of a young man Tommy (played by The Who's Roger Daltrey) who witnesses his birth father's murder at the hands of his birth mother. This leads him to create a mental mind block of the world. He becomes deaf, blind, and a mute. Later on, Tommy discovers the game of Pinball as his port to reality.

If you've heard the album Tommy, then you've heard all the songs and know how the story goes, however if you haven't seen the film, it's a must. The film puts it all together with an incredible art style and sung by many popular artists (Tina Turner, Eric Clapton and Elton John to name a few).

Lucky for you, there is no need to hunt for the film! The guys over at hulu have posted it up until the end of December! We cannot embed the film due to to rights restrictions, but you can view it over at hulu.

Weekend Tofu Batch: 12/20/09

Hello readers, and welcome to this weeks Weekend Tofu Batch. There are a few updates concerning the site, so read up.

Starting yesterday we've a new e-mail address for feedback, comments, contacts, relations, contributions, donations, ext. This new e-mail address is: editor [at] thedailytofu [dot] com. Please feel free to e-mail us anything you want to share with us, we don't bit. Which brings me to another point:

PLEASE COMMENT AND SEND US FEEDBACK!

I cannot stress this enough, we've been working hard on the site (trying out different posts, setting up pages, ext.) to make it the best experience for you, our readers. Without your feedback we cannot know what you want to see on the site. We do this for you, so let us know what you want to see, what you don't like, or what you liked!

There are still some new things that I haven't addressed that I'd like to talk about too! If you haven't noticed, we've a new tool to translate the entire site into French or the entire site into English. After much thought we found this to be best with the bi-language posts.

We too are starting a new series on this site, personal interviews of common people. Everyone has a story to tell, so this is your chance. Please e-mail us, tweet us, or post on our facebook page if you want to take part in this.

Last of all, we're taking part of the Joystiq January 1st podcast. We're donating some hand sewn plush dolls to the cause (it's a fundraiser). These will be sold through a raffle system, we'll keep you posted on podcast if you so wish to partake and buy tickets for our donations!

Thanks guys!