Remilia Scarlet

O₂ is oxygen.  O₃ is ozone.  What do you call it when there's no oxygen?

O-no.

Made a can of chili to eat as a snack, and added way too much ghost pepper sauce.  And habanero sauce.  And other hot sauce.  I mean, I can normally eat stuff that is exceptionally hot, but damn this is really hot, just at the threshold of me.

Time to eat more of it!

https://www.madman.com.au/news/hideaki-anno-confirms-next-shin-godzilla-and-evangelion-films/

*makes lots of squeeling sounds and flailing motions*

I'm starting to think I have just a few too many projects going on.  There's my current Doom WAD, Shadows of The Nightmare Realm; a game I'm trying to program; a music album I'm working on; another music album I just started with a friend; and a bunch of 40K minis I'm trying to get painted.  Part of me is itching to get another Doom project started once SoTNR is done, but this probably isn't a good idea, and I feel like I should instead work on clearing my queue.

I really need to learn how to organize my ideas and projects better lol.  Suggestions on how to do so anyone?

Here's a partial (like 1/6th) playthrough of my new Doom level.  This includes new music written by me specifically for this map.  What's left now is balancing out the difficulty levels, minor detailing/fixing here and there, and some additional scripting that's needed to get it to fit within the rest of the WAD.  And of course, the third level :-P

My new level is now "complete", minus some play testing that still needs to happen.  The entire WAD will have three levels + a start map, so all that's left now is to do level three, finish up with the music, then do some size optimizations.

Here's the previous thread I made in Wads & Mods:

And here's some new screens:

Sometimes simple rooms give a lot of atmosphere:

Editor Shot (lolz at the way you align sloped 3d sectors):

More work on that room in my current WIP level.

Did some more work on a level I've been working on since last year and took a screenshot of the unfinished room I added tonight:

I have no idea when this thing will be out since I seem to work on it only in bursts.  It could be in two months, it could be December for all I know :-P

So, status updates = integrated tweeting?

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

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...

Well, I guess the title isn't quite right since I don't release actual albums yearly. This one took me about a year and a half to complete.

So this new album is called Waveforms, and as usual there's a diverse range of styles on it. There's industrial music, ambient works, trance, synthpop, and even something that's reminiscent of gothic rock. Two of the songs on here are also going to be in a Doom level that I've been working on. Well, not those exact versions, but remixes. Those tracks are 7 and 11.

Production wise, I did something different this time around. After playing around with this SRC comparison page, I decided to stay away from both Sonar 8.5's dithering and resampling algorithms, as well as Renoise's (the two DAWs I use the most). This meant that not only did I work in 48KHz 32-bit, but I also exported to such. Then when it came time to resample, dither, and change the bit depth, I did it all with Sox. So my basic workflow from input into the master bus to a finalized WAV file went:

Stereo processor -> multiband compressor -> final EQ adjustments -> aural exciter (usually, not always) -> limiter -> final tweaks in Goldwave using its compressor -> Sox -> Final WAV

It's subtle, but I think this definitely sounds better.

Anyway, link to the album: http://www.partition36.com/discography/waveforms/

Last October I released this album named 63. It was a deeply personal album for me, not only because of the content, but also because of what I went through while it was being produced.

Well, since then I've been working on a remix project for the album with a few other musicians. And after delaying the project by a few months, it's finally ready to be released.

So yeah, go download it or something! And yes it's free.

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/

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 :(

Well, as of today I am 28 years old. As usual, I took the day off from work and have been taking it easy all day. I had lunch with my friend earlier, went shoe shopping (and didn't find anything), and that's pretty much it. I'll probably go out to dinner with my family tonight and then spend the rest of the evening working on my new album. Or I might try shopping again. My grandma gave me $50 and said to spend it on myself since she didn't know what to get me, but I'm not sure what I'll spend it on yet. Anyone have a good suggestion?

On a side note, I find it amusing that today is also Nivek Ogre's birthday. Skinny Puppy has been one of my favorite bands since I was (re)introduced to them a year ago.

Also, to beat everyone to the punch...

That's what the view looked like from 14,000 feet off of Mount Bierstadt yesterday.

I finally got around to doing something I've wanted to do for a few years now, which is climb a 14er here in Colorado. The seven mile hike up Mount Bierstadt was gorgeous, and really not all that hard. It's pretty much all alpine tundra so there wasn't much vegetation except for grass and shrubs. The only part I didn't really like was the last few hundred yards since I'm a big scaredy cat when it comes to heights. Coming back down and looking back at the summit, it was actually sort of hard to comprehend that my friends and I had made it that high.

All of us agreed that this definitely would not be the last 14er we would climb. Depending on the weather, we might hit a few more of the easier ones before the end of fall. Or we might just save them for next year. Either way, it was awesome.

It's been a weird couple of months. I left home back at the end of June and ended up crashing with a friend at his apartment while I waited for another one to become ready. Unfortunately the landlord ended up jerking me around and never did get the apartment ready. But in hindsight that was probably a good thing.

While I was away I didn't really have a way to work on music. I sort of could on my laptop, but the only software I had with me was Reason, and it was running on Wine inside of Linux. This usually works fine, but I've been working on a joint project that was started by a friend of mine using just Reason and the songs were killing my processor and really stressing Wine. Plus I couldn't work on my Partition 36 stuff since I don't use Reason for it.

Moving back fixed that, and my original studio is now set back up. Well, "studio" is a bit of a stretch. It’s really just a computer desk in the corner my basement with some synths next to it and some studio monitors. But hey, whatever works! Being back and working on music feels great. It’s always been a creative release for me, and so not being able to work on music usually leaves me feeling bottled up. My first two priorities since getting things set up are working on the joint project stuff (treeFungus), and finishing a new Partition 36 song tentatively called "Alice".

The new Partition 36 song is part of the new album, which I briefly talked about back in this post on the official P36 blog. As I mentioned there, the album is sort of a reverse Inside The Beat, where it starts as a very inward-facing, personal album, and then moves outward. “Alice” fits the introspective side of it perfectly. The pseudo-lyrics I’ve been working on for it are based on a poem I wrote at the beginning of the year, and deal with my feelings as I came to terms with being transgendered. What I’m thinking of doing is recording them in either a whispy/whispery voice and then applying some effects to make them sound ethereal, or doing something on the verge of spoken word and then doing some heavy processing. Either of these should fit well with the song, which is already pretty atmospheric sounding. The tracks from there on out will either deal with the act of transitioning, other personal feelings and thoughts, or will just be instrumental and generally introspective-sounding.

Aside from that, I’m thinking I may do some remastering work with some of my old pre-Partition 36 pieces in order to practice some new engineering tricks I’ve been researching. Furthermore, some of my old master CDs have been scratched, and I don’t have the original master files anymore, so making new recordings will also serve an archival purpose. These shouldn’t take long at all since everything is written really just needs to be re-recorded into a multi-track master, and they aren’t a priority.

As part of a delayed rebellion, I went and got my ears pierced today. My left ear lobe had actually been pierced for years -since middle school or maybe even earlier - but I wanted something a bit more for various reasons. So I got my right lobe and the top of my left ear done.

After my new apartment is ready, and I can move some cats I recently adopted out of my mom's house where they're staying temporarily, I'm going to go get my tongue pierced. I had it pierced for a short while before, but I had taken it out. Since then I've missed it.

You know it was a good night at aikido when you come home and you're surprised to find your arm looking like this.

We were practicing randori tonight (multiple attackers at once, basically) where we did four-on-one for all the brown and black belts. It was actually really fun, but I guess one person got a bit excited when I was one of the attackers. I want to say that was from them rushing through sumi-otoshi.

It's definitely not the first time I've come home with bruises on my arms, though I used to get them on my wrists instead of my biceps.

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

The image above is of Black Bear Road, which is here in Colorado. The past few years I've been trying to get out of the house so I can see more of the state. I think this is definitely a place I'd like to visit some time (and take the tour that drives you over the pass). A co-worker said he actually had his honeymoon there.

Anyone ever visit any crazy roads?

Well, technically 115, since 10 of them have been up before.

So it's been 10 years since I first started writing music (9.5 years since I finished the first album). Partition 36 has been around since late 2006, but I had never posted anything I did from before (save for one album). So I decided to have some fun and create a Back Catalog page, where all 122 tracks from before Partition 36 are posted. They can be downloaded individually in mp3 or Ogg Vorbis format (I should have zip files of whole albums in mp3 format up by the end of tonight), or listened to in the browser. If you have Firefox 3.5, it'll even use the nifty new <audio> tag (Flash otherwise).

"But wait!" you say. "You said you released 125 songs! Where are the other three?"

Near the beginning of the month I also finished a few remixes of I Love Penguins. One is a simple vocal-less mix, which just lacks the voice samples. Then I also did the following two:

I decided to try writing a slightly different style of tune. This one is more downtempo than my other ones, and is sort of inspired by Boards of Canada. What's interesting is that I wrote it and mastered it in less than 24 hours. Whether that was smart or dumb is another question.

Linux users might enjoy this more than others...

http://www.partition36.com/music-files/ep/opcode-1/06%20-%20I%20Love%20Penguins.mp3 (or get an Ogg Vorbis here)

EDIT: Actually, I've released the EP that this track shows up on: http://www.partition36.com//2009/07/06/new-ep-release-opcode-1.html