Remilia Scarlet

Our pool is, finally, almost fixed. All that's left to do is for the pool guy to finish off some minor repairs at our filter and pump, put the carpet back, and for me to clean it out. In the end, he had to break up the concrete decking in three different places around the pool to find the leak. It was finally found in a small plastic elbow joint at the corner near the fence. So, we should be swimming by next week! I'll see if I can get a picture of it when it's fixed.

Went and did some DDR again last night. I'm definitely improving, as I can now pass Max300 with a B. Also did some other stuff, like passing Era yet again on maniac, Kick the Can, Candy, and other cool songs. I actually never did do Healing Vision on maniac, which is strange. I almost always do that one, since I can get a B on it.

Got the new Kraftwerk album on preorder now. Once again on cd and a 2-vinyl package. Also, if you go here, you can view their little advertisement/sample of their single.

Rant warning!

My computer science class is really crappy this time around. The class would be great if it weren't for our incompetent teacher.

The class has corrected the notes she places on the board daily, as well correcting what she says. She never did teach us anything about circuitry, but we got tested on it. And one time, I was supposed to meet her outside of class to make up a test, which was something we had agreed to. I reminded her the very day I was meeting her and she forgot that we had agreed to (not to mention my name, although I've told her about 4 times now). When I met her at the time we were supposed to, she never showed up as she forgot again on the very same day not an hour later.

And half the time, she contradicts what she says. Just like today, we had the following (equivalent of a very simple C-style if statement):

code:
Array

School's out for the summer for me finally. This last quarter sort of felt like a waste of time. My Japanese class went way too slowly for me, and somehow I signed up for a class called "Software Tools" which ended up being a "How To Use UNIX" class, which was even slower feeling than my Japanese class.

But, after 3 years of studying, I now have a minor in Japanese. So this sort of makes up for it all. I would have gotten a major in it, but my school doesn't offer one. And then after next year, I'll have my first degree.

And this took me like 10 minutes to type since I switched my keyboard to Dvorak, so I'm ending this one here.

School's out, summer's started, and I'm now working full time. What do I get to do? Sit on my rear for most of the day, playing games, and making levels in Doom and Unreal Tournament. Not bad for $11.83/hr., if I may say so myself.

Sabrena's out of school too, and just recently got back from Cali. Going to call her this weekend, if her mom's not getting married, and ask her out for next week finally.

Somehow, my friend Matt got me on a MUSH. An all-female-character Mush at that. So, I'm known as Naomi. And Naomi's already got a fiancee on there, too! The cool part, however, is how I did my personal "room" in there. I've got one in this downed airship-turned-house. Well, since I can't draw worth anything, and I can link to a picture in the description, I made a simple Unreal level of the room, took a screenshot, and put it up. It's at http://www.du.edu/~ahunt/room1.jpg and http://www.du.edu/~ahunt/room2.jpg if you're interested.

Went to the mall last night and played some good DDR. Passed Era and Healing Vision both on maniac without a problem, and nearly got an "A" with all Perfects on both Matsuri Japan and Healing Vision Angelic Mix on basic. My goal before the end of this month is to pass Matsuri Japan on maniac. I'm almost there, as I know all the steps and can pass it when I put the speed on 4/5 in training mode (5/5 is full speed, ~180bpm). It's just a matter of endurance now.

I've been introduced to another band as well. They're called E Nomine, and sound like very dark industrial techno/trance mixed with orchestral sounds and a bit of Rammstein. They sing in German. So far, my favorite song is called "Das Tier In Mir" (The Animal In Me).

Got my new subs installed in my car. Two 10" 300w subs in a bass-reflex box and an Alpine 250w sub with Bass Engine. They pound very nice!

Also started working on a new trance song. I only have the introduction area finished, and it still needs work, but if you want, here's the WIP mp3 (already out of date, as I layered the "melody" with a DanceStack1, sounds much better): http://www.du.edu/~ahunt/Trance2.mp3

Semi-rant, semi-vent ahead! Use caution!

About two weeks ago, my friend and I got into an argument. The girl I have been trying to date since I met her last year, I found out, has been dating someone for a while now and never let me know. Given the kinds of things I had been doing for her (buying her lunch, gifts, and things, as well as helping her out whenever I could, and other ways I could think of to show my affection), I felt rather played and used. Whether or not my feeling that way was right or not isn't an issue now. I felt it, and that's that. But rather, I found this interesting.

Both of us have LiveJournals. When we had our fight, I took her off my LJ's friends list and deleted one of her comments on a then recent post. Part of my intention in doing so was to let her know that I wasn't interested in hanging around her anymore. Also, there's been numerous times where we've fought because she was treating me crappy before, so these memories further pushed me to do this. Another reason I had for removing her and her comments was that I just simply did not want to interact with her anymore on that level. I had felt that it was time for this to occure.

She noticed and it prompted her to start sending me e-mails. We exchanged some, talked our argument through more (we had done so briefly just before she left the dorms for the summer at school), and she made it clear to me that she was refusing to loose me as a friend. She kept telling me how stubborn she was and that she'd fight it out to the end. She planned on comming down to my house, knocking on my door, and talking there if she really needed to. So she was rather serious about this. Most of this she was even telling me in person before I left school (had to talk to her, she had my DJ Dara CD and a Japanese grammar book of mine). Even so, I had made up my mind, including a bit of my own stubborness in the mix as well.

So as I was sitting here waiting for Motoko (my 120gb HD...yes I have named it) to finish running defrag and scandisk, I poked around my IE favorites for a while and found her LJ. Seems funny how she swore all that about refusing to loose me and such, yet has now taken me off her LJ friends list as well. She also stopped sending e-mails 10 days ago, and hasn't sent me a single AIM instant message since before school ended. Guess 10 days (might be less, dunno) goes past the part about her claiming to be extremely stubborn. Quite amuzing.

Since my iPod decided to up and die (not the batterie, either...the HD), and I don't have money or time to get it fixed before I head off to Japan, I decided to break out my oldschool one. It's an old RCA Lyra (the first ones, the RD2204A), and originally came with a single 64mb Compact Flash card. I've since bought a 2nd 64mb CF card and the 16mb one that I have for my camera.

But man, even though this thing is at least six years old or so, I swear I can't bust it. I've dropped it countless times, carry it around with me in my pocket and backpack, dropped it in my pool, left it in the heat of the sun, and yet it still works like new. Doesn't look like it now (needs a repainting), but it still works great. And it sounds great, too. I never have had a problem sound-wise with it (I forgot what the maximum mp3 quality it can use is, but I leave them at 128k simply for space), and like the fact I can use CF cards with it. It used to support the RealPlayer G4 format, but now also supports wma files.

So, looks like I'll be taking it with me to Japan and using it as my primary music source there. I'll probably just archive all my mp3s to either CDs or DVDs (probably DVDs since I have almost 24gigs), then pull them off the CD and onto the Lyra as I need them. The only bad thing is that you can't just place an mp3 onto it. You need to do a slight format conversion (which, as far as I can tell, is just an extension and header change).

Yes, I love my little Lyra. I have a feeling it won't die for quite a while.

So a few months ago, a friend of mine here at work had an idea for a "community compilation CD". Basically, anyone in IT or development who also happened to write music could submit a track. Since I'm a system admin/tech support by day and do some occasional programming, I figured I would write a new track and submit it to him.

The compilation got released today (here), but I decided to post my song as a separate release as well. This is partially because my friend decided to apply some extra dynamic range compression to the final CD, which sorta screwed up (in my eyes) the sound of my track.

Anyways, that aside, the track I wrote is called "Cyberpunks". Probably one of my best tracks yet. I've written a blog post, which has the embedded audio and some download links (mp3, ogg, and flac), as well as some behind-the-scenes info as well.

http://blog.partition36.com/2010/07/22/cyberpunks.html

So about a month ago, my laptop's screen broke. Not in the way that I couldn't see anything (the picture was still crystal clear), but rather in the sense that it wouldn't stay in an upright position. The whole screen just flopped backwards.

Well, I fixed it. And I find my fix amusing.

So I did.

So I had to go into work for a few hours today (where I am now). It's not so bad. I finished volume one of the Ranma 1/2 manga so far. But it's like all I do is sit here...my co-worker is doing all the work. So why come in?

And wouldn't it be fun to be cursed like Ranma is?

Looks like I'm getting my Alienware as soon as I get back from QuakeCon. Speaking of which, I finally found a way to get my laptop to work correctly. For a bit now, it's been totally freezing up whenever an OpenGL program runs, and often freezes when a Direct3D program runs. To combat this, I originally took and put a pencil under one corner. But now...I've got it working even better. I take a CD-R spindle, place it over my touchpad, then place a world atlas book I have on the cd spindle. All while keeping the pencil under one corner. Somehow, this works. Then I just hook it to an external monitor, and I'm ready.

I've been working hard at getting ready for QuakeCon all week. And so far, my work's paying off. My skillz have doubled to trippled, and I've even gained a little bit of initial skill in StarCraft (taking on seven comps, oh yeah). I'm going to practice DDR this weekend...just incase ;)

So I turned 33 today and I noticed something. As I get older, there's less that I want to do on my birthday, and less I want for my birthday. When I was younger, I'd have friends over and we'd play video games, order pizza, and generally have fun. And there was always a new game I wanted, or some cool gadget. But now, I'm content with a piece of oatmeal cake and a quiet day all to myself. Parties, having a group of friends over, and getting things just doesn't appeal to me much. I guess it's just part of getting older :^) Anyone else feel this way?

Anyway, my wife and I have been setting up an aquarium for the past few months, and today we went and got some new kuuli loaches for it, so we did go out and do that today. I also got a new piece of jewelry for my industrial piercing.



So... yeah, 33. Maybe I'll make a couple new characters in WoW and get them all up to 33 tonight lol

So like today's my birthday. I'm like 20 or something. Go me.

So today I went over to the study abroad office to talk to someone about, obviously, studying abroad. Looks like I get to go to Kansai Gaidai, a school near Kyoto, Osaka, and one other city (it's kinda in the middle of the three). I'll be leaving, I believe, late August and will return late December, unless something tragic happens. But in any case, I'm extremely happy about this while also very nervous. I've decided to live in the campus dorms while I'm there (which will be my first time living in dorms) since I'm usually not that sociable of a guy, and on top of that, I'm afraid of getting a host family that I won't get along with. So that's part of what's making me nervous. And of course, while I can listen and comprehend the language fairly well, reading Japanese still isn't my best point, nor is remembering vocab, so I'm a little worried about that, too. As long as I can say, "Anou, sumimasen. Koko no chikoku, aruke-do ga arimasuka? Sono aruke-do de wa ddr ga arimasuka?", or something to that degree, I think I'll live.

The good thing is that, from the looks of it, I only have to pay for personal expenses (food, shampoo, soap, DDR, hentai, the necessities of life essentially) and housing. My school's paying the rest for the cost of my normal tuition (27,000 or 28,000 a year).

So yeah...looks like I'll get to see Kyoto at last, in person.

So today's my birthday (29 years old), and I woke up to find that some of my music was featured on a podcast about Linux and open source. What a nice surprise!

http://casts.unseenstudio.co.uk/tuxjam/2012/05/01/tuxjam-episode-13/

So, given that So Deep is one of my favorite songs (ever), I decided to make a remix of it. I've worked on this one a while (about two months), and so far it is definitely one of my better tracks. I've gotten better from last year, no doubt, and my recording methods have improved for learning all this on my own.

The idea of the remix was to only use the Perfect Sphere melody as a sort of backround track while the focus was on an enhanced Original Mix melody that was larger in sound, as well as a different structruing of the song. No samples were used at all, as this was all done by hand in a midi. There's some twinkling/hiss that I just noticed as I listened to it, but that's apparently the mp3, as I didn't hear it in the wave.

Constructive comments are welcome:
http://www.du.edu/~ahunt/So%20Deep%20-%20Haru%20Remix.mp3

Edit:
Incase you're interested, here's the list of stuff used:
-Roland JV-1010 Synth module
-Boss DR-202 Dr. Groove drum machine
-Beringer Eurorack mixer
-Casio WK-1630 as a control keyboard
-GoldWave 5 for recording the tracks, and Sonic Foundry ACID-4.0 for mixing them
-CakeWalk 9.0 interfaced with a 2x2 MIDI port thingie.
-SB Audigy soundcard

So, here's the specs:

Alienware
P4 3.2gHz
800mHz FSB
1gig RAM
80 Gig HD (I have a 120gig already)
Sound Blaster Audigy2 5.1
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb
10/100/1000 Intel NIC card
Like 6 or 8 USB 2.0 ports
WinXP (I loaded Linux on it last night. Dual-boot).
DVD/CD-RW
Black case w/blue lighting

Yep. That's my new baby. The new baby that works great, except it doesn't like my DSL modem. Yet.

So, I finally made it to QuakeCon. Been playing some Quake3, UT, and StarCraft so far. If anyone is here with me, the handle I've been using is Andrew[UDA].

Also, I'm close to stage area in the BYOC area. If you face it, I'll be to the left, third row. Look for a laptop w/books on it :)

No pics yet, as they aren't uploaded.

So, I got back from QuakeCon late Monday night. Spent yesterday resting up and running some important errands, and today I'm back at work. It doesn't even seem like I was on vacation.

QuakeCon was great fun, though. Got some cool rounds of Quake3 and UT2003 in, as well as some jDoom. heh, I totally pw0n3d the dudes I played on jDoom. As I told my friend besides me, "Don't f*** with someone from Doomworld" (my opponents didn't know of it). I also found out that I greatly love playing Generations Quake 3 (as the Doomguy, of course). I almost owned my friend at that, but I got a bit too cocky near the end, lol

Here's a few pics of me at QuakeCon:

http://www.du.edu/~ahunt/ddr2.JPG
Me on DDR. I H.A.T.E.D. those pads, btw.

http://www.du.edu/~ahunt/jDoom.JPG
Me playing jDoom.

Dallas was a cool place to be in. Except that we couldn't stand the highways/drivers there. But, it was a cool trip. I especially liked travelling through New Mexico. Though, by the end of the trip, my friend Matt had thouroughly gotten on my nerves.

I'll be ordering my new Alienware Area 51 comp today. Can't wait to get it!

So, just saw "Kill Bill" tonight. I, honestly, would like to see more violence (including violence that is more gruesome) in the next one.

Other than that, I thought it was a brilliant film. I'll have to get the DVD the day it comes out. I think I have a new favorite.

Your opinions?

And I wish I had a poll...with the options "Not violent enough, but liked it", "Not violent enough, didn't like it", "Violent enough, liked it", "Violent enough and liked it", "Haven't seen it yet", "You're insane for wanting more violence in that movie", "Kill Bill?"...

So, lets see what my weekend so far has consisted of...

Friday night, I went to see Yoichi Watanabe again (the taiko drummer). This time, he did less of a demonstration and more of a concert, which he played with the Denver Taiko. The music was outstanding and breathtaking. I'm finding that I really love taiko music. The demonstrations he put on were also really cool. He actually played various other, non-taiko styles on them. This included rhumba, samba, African-style music, and one other style which escapes me at the moment. Overall, it was a very good concert.

Also, Thursday I went and bought Soul Calibur 2 for XBox. It's a good game, though I prefer DC's SC1 over it. Still, it will keep me entertained for a while.

Today, I went and did DDR with my friends Josh and Chuck at a place called Fat City. Today's achievments include Sakura on Trick, Healing Vision Angelic Mix on Trick, Max300 on Trick, nearly passing Sakura on Maniac (I have no endurance...and this was the last song i had tried), almost passing Matsuri Japan on maniac again (once again, endurance problems), and a few other cool things. 8th Mix is fun. Very fun.

Tonight...I just installed a 2nd CD-Burner on my new Alienware, so I'll copy some CDs to back them up. I also plan on showing a few episodes of Serial Experiments Lain to my mom, hehe. And record some things.

So, my mom and I went and saw Watanabe Yoishi do a taiko drum demonstration at the Botanical Gardens here in Denver when I got off work. Those drummers were very impressive indeed! It was cool to listen to, as I've never really paid too much attention to taiko drumming. But, after tonight, I see that it can be very difficult to master. There were alot of complex rhythms (for two hands, that is), complex movements, and some great imagery going on. I even met Watanabe-sensei afterwards and got his autograph. Very nice man indeed.

It was kind of interesting going both to and from the event. Last night, my friend and I were kind of window shopping online, checking out clothing we'd like to get. Or, in my case, clothing I'd like to get after I move out of the house in about two or three years. Such as this dress, this dress, this skirt, this skirt, these pants, these pants, these pants, and this collar. Obviously this is quite a bit different from my normal style of dress. So in essence, once I move out, it's like I'd like to rebel against my mom a bit, start clubbing a little, and start dressing in a gothic/cybergothic fassion. As well as a little light bondage, and a few other interesting adventures.

However, at the same time, I'd like to maintain my current style, move to Japan, and try to become a successful business man there. Get into the habbit of dressing in a suit, nice trousers, button-up shirt, and such. Getting married to a nice girl, and basically living a nice, good life.

At the same time, I wish to basically maintainw what I'm doing now, maintain my current style, and focus my life around anime, videogames, and computers. As well as get married and have an interesting, fun marriage.

From my point of view, these three can't coincide together. #2 and #3 can, and #1 and #3 probably could to a degree, but all three can't. Maybe I'm wrong, and if so, please slap me with a big trout and show me this. I guess I'm having a small little identity crisis right about now.

Maybe it's all related to the music I listen to. I love Japanese pop music, with people like Utada Hikaru, Sakamoto Maaya, TM Revolution, Kazumasa Oda, and Hayashibara Megumi. Yet, I like trance, techno, underground dance music, gabber, happy hardcore, and stuff like that. At the same time, I'm finding myself more interested in bands like Evanescence, Rammstein, KMFDM, and Megaherz. And yet still, I have a deep love and appreciation for classical music, as well as jazz. I guess I fear of loosing my Jpop/classical/jazz side to the obviously darker rock/metal/electronica side. And it's playing out in other areas of my life.

Ok, rant's over.

(EDIT)
Now that I've gone and got some gas for my car, and thanks to the_Danarchist, I've realized I've forgotten a few parts.

For me, it's not whether or not I'm trying to fit into any cliques or anything. It's just finding personal identity that I'm having trouble with right now. Figuring out who I am from a personal standpoint looking inward. I could care less if I'm in a clique or not. I have my group of friends, and we have tolerance for everyone. So, it's not about being in a clique, but rather self-identity. I can't figure out who I am, and which self I'd like to be internally.

Lastly, I'd like to point out that, while it may seem like it at times, I am not a Japan-Otaku/Japanophile/Wanabe-Japanese-Person. I've been having issues with this for the past few months, as a few people seem to think I am. Yes, I have a t-shirt that translates, "I want to be Japanese", eat Japanese food nearly every day, have haiku in my sig, watch loads of anime, listen to loads of JPop, am learning Japanese, want to live in Japan, read up on Japanese news, and have all these other things in my life related to Japan, but it's not to the point of an otaku. Those aren't the only things in my life, and Japan isn't the only thing. One must realize that, since I do wish to live in Japan, I should probably learn the language. What's the best way to learn it? Immerse yourself in it. And it's probably this that helped me communicate to Watanabe-sensei earlier this evening after only one year of class, and have a near-perfect accent. I'm surrounded by Japanese things so that I may learn the language, and because I am interested. NOT because I want to somehow change into a Japanese person. I'm not an otaku (in the Japanese sense of the word).

So, today was my first day back to school. Two classes today, Japanese and Intro to Computer Programming (which covers basic C++). Japanese was awesome, as always. We're covering the casual forms of speech, which is cool. I think it'll be a good class.

The programming class is going to be overly easy. So easy that the teacher already excused me from attending the labs for the class (I'm e-mailed the assignments). So, this will be cool. Besides, there's a really pretty, friendly, Swiss girl in the class :)

Tomorrow I have Japanese again, and then two new classes. One is Gender Changes in Chinese Society, which deals with changing gender roles. The other is a class on Egypt.

This is going to be a cool quarter.

Tattoo #3, got it just today. It's the older Skinny Puppy logo for those who don't know.



I'm hoping to get another one next month, and a few others by the end of the year.

Tattoos are sort of a recent thing with me, even though I've wanted them for quite a while. So when I finally I finally got a pentacle on my left shoulder blade last year, I was ecstatic. Since then I've wanted a few more, and today I got this on my right forearm.

Part of the reason I got it was to cover up a really bad scar I got there last year from a bad accident. It was large, ugly, and definitely noticeable. But the other reason I got it was because ravens tend to mean a lot to me personally.

I might get another one next year on my other arm to sort of balance things out. Maybe more ravens, maybe something else. Or maybe, just maybe, I'll get the Doomguy...

There’s been a decision looming over my head for a while now that has me sort of bummed. A year ago, while I was preparing to move out of the house, my mom persuaded (key word) me to adopt two cats from our vet. I wasn’t too keen on the idea since I didn’t feel ready to be a mother, and I wasn’t sure how my money situation would look like. But she kept at me and I eventually caved. Of course, them being absolutely adorable didn’t help matters any.

In the end I didn’t move out because, sure enough, money got tight. This meant they got to live at home with us, an interesting situation since my grandma is horribly afraid of cats. What we ended up doing is we converted a large storeroom into a room for them, then built a screen door to keep them contained. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

Unfortunately, as time has gone on, it’s gotten harder and harder for me to deal with them, and not just because I still don’t feel ready to be a mother for them. Growing up I was extremely allergic to cats. So much, in fact, that spending just 15 minutes with one would lead to my eyes swelling shut. Over the years I got a lot better, thanks in part to allergy shots. But the thing is, I’m finding that I’m still terribly allergic to them. Like, really allergic to them. I can spend quite a lot of time with cats anymore, but living with them is probably exacerbating my asthma, which has been under control for 10 years, and my allergies. The worst is on the weeks I bring them up to sleep with me in my room. I’ll pass the idea by my doctor on Monday, who I have a follow up appointment with (because I got to spend last night in the ER with my asthma!).

So yeah, do I adopt them out to someone else, or do I keep them? I hate to get rid of them since I really do love them, but I also know I can’t keep living like this. If I keep them, not only will I have the expense of their everyday needs, but I’ll also be spending more on allergy medications (I’m now doing a Zyrtec every 12 hours they’re so bad, along with asthma medications) and possibly another round of allergy shots. Plus I’m still not the mother they deserve and I know this.

So... anyone have any insight or suggestions? This is a decision I’m not looking forward to making :(