• I am enabling comments for blog posts, (regardless of how badly it rapes my beautiful, valid code) for now, anyway.
• You can now follow me on Twitter if you so desire.
• I updated my banner, see?^ It says "Seisetsu Robo", lit. "Tangent Robo", in katakana (because katakana looks all rad and stuff.)
• I'm going to make an attempt at blogging this whole trip (we leave on Friday) but I might be flipping out too much, so bear with me.

Labels: Japan, twitter

I hooked up my old Atari 1040ST computer that I bought a few years back (for 10 bucks!) and found some chiptune tracker software to run on it. The display is monochrome, which limits my software choices, but Chip Composer seems to run just fine! I even wrote some patterns and put together the beginnings of a song. I should have set this thing up years ago, instead of letting it collect dust in a closet, because it sounds so freaking beautiful it makes me cry a little... just a little.

Chip Composer has a lot of flexibility to it, as far as I can tell. There's a 4-note polyphony, which is too adorable for words. The demo songs it comes with are really good, and I was writing music within five minutes of starting the program.

Labels: Atari 1040ST, chiptune, computer, music, nostalgia

"Clumsy"

Nearly every reviewer uses the word "honest" to describe this charming little autobiographical graphic novel, but I saw something else. The story spans a nearly one-year period of a great example of what not to do in a relationship. The author paints a picture of a strong willed, carefree woman and a clingy, emotionally immature man, both trying to "make it work" in a series of self-destructive, irrational events. It seems like this novel was written almost as an attack against the girlfriend, simply because she grew, while the boyfriend did not. She is shown as sacrificing her own personal pleasures to appease her boyfriend, to endure his tiresome clingy-ness when she just wanted to relax next to him.

You do not "make" a relationship work - it works because you share the same interests, goals and standards. You certainly don't compromise one individual's personality for another. The girlfriend was stifled in an atmosphere of stagnation from day one, and the boyfriend didn't seem to want to grow at all. He was in a perpetual state of "puppy-love", while she wanted something more. The only "honesty" I found in the story was the girlfriend's insistence to be herself, regardless of what the boyfriend demanded of her. My hope is that he grew from this experience, but I fear that this book proves the exact opposite.

Maybe I'm wrong. Hopefully I am.

On the plus side, it's all adorably hand-drawn and written, helping to convey a fragile, innocent feel to the entire story. Don't get me wrong, the story is written quite well, and I enjoyed reading it; I just despise the boyfriend's weakness. Also, the style really reminded me of the 90's, though I can't put my finger on just why.

Labels: books, Clumsy, graphic novel, review

Somewhere between 4chan /b/tards and YouTube commenters, this genius made a bot - that anon promptly broke...

Talk With Bucket!

Anyway, I taught it "omgooses" and "boo to that bear"... which didn't take much, honestly.

• You: Tanuki, or raccoon dog, is a playful spirit.
• Bucket: During the fight, he pulled me into the spirit world, to declare their redemption from the arachnid family. They are a dog.
• You: Potato skins got baked potato appeal, cause they're made with potatoes and skins that are real.
• Bucket: They're taking the babby back to potatoes to get to be baked d.
• You: boo to that.
• Bucket: I think you understand, bear boo...
• You: Chewy chomp.
• Bucket: Well then bown down and worship me.
• You: boo
• Bucket: I say, boo to that bear!
• You: hahaha!
• Bucket: Hahaha oh wow.

Labels: anon delivers, boo to that bear, bucket

Do I really need to say anything?

Labels: mall cuisine, that's racist

The Most Unwanted Music. Originally referred to be by a co-worker via this site, but I found the original site where you can download the song and buy the album right here.

this, from the Design Observer article...

The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and "elevator" music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commercials and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance--someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example--fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece.

BTW - I seriously love this so much. Count me among the 200... Beautiful.

Edit:Here is the mp3: The Most Unwanted Song. Minds are blown.

Labels: music

I will openly admit to being somewhat of a Google fanboy; I use many of their products (Gmail, Picasa, Blogger, Documents, Calendar, Reader, Maps), I love the iGoogle homepage, and I've used their search engine since 1998. I support their myriad of projects, even though I feel like they spread themselves too thin, but I came to realize something; I'm not using them as my primary search tool. I use Wikipedia.

I love Wikipedia - I really think it's one of the best things to ever happen to the InterTube. If I have a question, in the past I would have turned to Google - I now check Wikipedia first. I usually find the link I want at the bottom of the article. I've ditched all my "Learn Japanese!" books and I'm primarily using Wikipedia (along with Wikitionary), because it's so much better. I have three major complaints about the service though.

• Spellchecking. I use Google as a spellchecker, but if I put a misspelled word into Wikipedia it will just take me to an error page instead of doing a "closest match" or "did you mean...". This is highly annoying to me.
• Images. Come on, let Wikipedia have a free-for-all image gallery - Enough with the "Public-domain only". I get it, but as a result I still use Google for image searching.
• Integration. Videos, sound bytes, cross-category serch with youtube/flickr/google maps... I want more from my encyclopedia/search engine.

Essentially what I want is for Google to buy Wikipedia and do a sort of overhaul integration with everything else they offer. When I search for "Alaska", I want a glut of useful information, movies, bands, local goings-on, history - everything. I want folksonomic linking, weighted lists, breadcrumbs and linking to and from everything related to the search I do... Also, if I typically search for a particular thing, I want it to know that. If I search for "food", I should get unconventional recipes and traditional Japanese cuisine (NOT a link to recipe.com or whatever). If I search for bus routes, I want it to show me Seattle and the Puget Sound area first. I know I'm asking a lot, but my time is very important to me, and the more information I am presented with, the better. Step it up, Googlepedia!

Labels: Google, Information, Wikipedia