Tag Archive for 'music'

It Has Come To My Attention…

…That a certain someone thinks I don’t update as much as I should. It’s quite the truth: I desire the posting insanity. But these days, time is being spent on a lot of less meta-y things, to the point where recalling past events is becoming a chore.

And in some cases, this is good. It’s so good that past issues that don’t matter as much are being forgotten. I finally feel human.

But going back to the reasons for the delay…

Dean, a “young” “old” friend (@Dean: Pwned.) from college is back on campus and is living with me for the rest of the semester as he prepares for life anew in a far away, magical land. Okay, he’s applying for grad school elsewhere. I’m having a great time catching up, as well as making some new amazing memories. I just need to get a camcorder to record the memories that are being made currently… I definitely feel my directorial debut coming up soon… as soon as everything else I want to get done gets accomplished.

Oh, and that same kid is learnin’ me some Mandarin, while in return, I try to teach him some of my broke Korean. I had given up on even trying to learn Mandarin, this amazingly rich but difficult language, but I hope to try and learn a few bits here and there. I hope that one day I’ll be able to just understand the language: I don’t think I’ll be able to speak it. Ever. Intonations scare the crap out of me.

My passion for music has flared up again. Rock Band definitely lit a fire underneath my desire to “grow” as a “drummer”, and so in about a week and a half, I should be well on my way to diving further into that world with Rock Band 2 and the Ion Drum Rocker. The love of guitar has also increased this past week, and I hope to continue to ride this wave until it settles again, just like last time. And I’ve got Matt to thank for this one. So much to learn, it’s crazy.

Dean & Matt - The Two Catalysts

Dean & Matt - The Two Catalysts

And finally, the web development projects. It’s going slow. I pick it up from now and then, but I still don’t even have the wireframe diagrams down. This sucker is getting harder and harder by the second, and I’m not even adding any features. I feel like I have a general concept of the Models, but it’s getting crazy when I add the “Spec” Model. More on this, hopefully later.

And the catalyst in this arena, is the same kid that’s prodding me to write this freaking post in the first place, Jong-Sun.

Wait, hold up. Is this a modified list? These posts are getting kinda boring.

I know. If you don’t know me in real life, this is completely irrelevant. I guess if you really wanted to learn more about this random kid you found through a Google search, you could.

And even if you do, it’s really not that exciting. I just sit in front of screens all day long, with a short break at the gym, followed by more sitting in front of screens.

Moar Content Plz

But these posts are so easy to write… I got like 4 hours of sleep yesterday, and I’m not really feeling the argumentative Josh Kim coming out to pontificate. And that tends to be the case.

Hmm… some delicious content… where are you? I get angry at enough things, but it seems like whenever I go back to the keyboard, I forget… or my wrists/forearms hurt so much that I don’t really feel like putting to words.

Podcast? Videoblogging? I don’t know. That may be overkill.

I hope that one day the content will just seep out of me and be caught by this blog. When that day comes again, I hope you’ll be back.

Now I’m going to bed. So frickin’ tired.

The Problem With These Posts

These posts start with a point. Then it goes somewhere else. If I’m really tired, I won’t edit this and just shoot this out into the World Wide Web.

Now I’m getting caught with singing along Tenacious D’s “Wonderboy”. Figures.

And so ends yet another haphazardly put together post.

Or was it?

Dang it, I’m tired. I’m not looking over the last 2nd half of this post.

Let Me Try This Again, Part 3.1: Entertainment

This is what I do these days to wind down from a day’s work. And a night’s work. Now that I think about it, I “waste” a lot of time. Hmm.

Music: Electric Guitar

Yes. The fake and the real kind.

Guitars AND Vaccuum.

I am also known to rock the vacuum from time to time. See the TV exploding? It’s because of the vacuum Star Power .

Starting out with the songs that I know all too well from Guitar Hero 3 (such as “When You Were Young” by The Killers, “Reptilia” by The Strokes, and “My Name Is Jonas” by Weezer), I’ve begun to play around with the tabs. It’s good fun.

  • Money invested
    • Real Guitar: $99 for amp. ~$40 for cable, picks, strings, and tuner.
    • Fake Guitar: $90 for guitar and game (the other set was a present for Derek, but I get to keep it around until he gets a Wii)

I’m thankful that Derek had a electric guitar that he wasn’t using. Or I might have invested a bit more.

Art: Wacom Bamboo Tablet

Wacom Bamboo Tablet

I love user interface devices. One of the many reasons why I got the Wii was to get that delicious Wiimote.

With this tablet, I’m going to start maybe possibly drawing a few things. It’s going to be deathly useful for drawing diagrams on the computer, as well as just using it as an alternative mouse input. I might finally start up that web comic I’ve been wanting to do for so long. I make no promises.

Ink.app isn’t that great, however. I’d recommend against using this for handwriting recognition.

  • Money invested
    • $67.62: Money going to good use. For the blog and elsewhere.

Actual “Waste” of Time: Video Games

As a child, I was always told that video games were a waste of time. I don’t think I’ll ever fully be able to shake this stigma. However, I’m slowly but surely realizing that I will probably be gaming until the day I die.

Like reading a good book (I haven’t done that in a while), listening to a great song (what are these “CD”s or physical media you speak of?), or watching a great movie (I still haven’t seen Iron Man, and no, I don’t know why), certain games will enter into the general populace. In my opinion, this hasn’t happened yet, and so I’m okay with having this slightly wrong view on video games. When the “public” thinks that games are a great way to enhance hand-to-eye coordination, increase motor skills, enjoy people’s company through online play without any concern to geography, strengthen real relationships, supplement actual workout routines, improve creativity, bring about relaxation, diminish tension…

Moving along. Hope to finish this two part of the third part of the series tomorrow. With a commentary on the conundrum I’m having with Rock Band and the Wii.

Dean Knox Day #3

As Jay Chow came up on the iTunes playlist, I had to ask the question about Chinese music.

The question was: How can Chinese music be sung with intonations?

The answer: All intonations are disregarded.

Then I found out that it will be extremely difficult for me to really “get” Chinese. Intonations must be much harder than I thought them to be, originally… I mean, I still can’t get the four tones of Mandarin. I think I’m going to take “learn to speak Chinese” off the list of things I want to get done. I’ll at least go and focus on them Chinese characters for both Korean 한자 and Japanese 漢字.

And yes, I know this is cheating… However, I did write the beginning of this entry yesterday.

Okay, time for the actual entry for today.