Running Out of Ideas...

Lately I've been short of things to learn on my guitar.
I need to start writing songs, but I need to continue learning, too.

I can't seem to come up with much to do...

I can play Sitting, Waiting, Wishing perfectly now. I need to pick up something to do.

On the back of the to-do list, I've got to try and memorize Minority by Green Day, and I've got to go re-learn the ending of Times Like These (Jack Johnson of course)...

I need to learn a new song...
Sweet Home Alabama is a classic I need to go learn.
Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day) is another.
There might be a few good John Denver songs... I'll have to look.

I'm just tired right now, and short on ideas as a result. I'll probably look through my iTunes, and see if anything gives me ideas.

In the meantime, if anybody out there has ideas as to what I ought to learn, feel free to let me know.

Differencing Gradients

I experimented with gradients recently, and discovered a neat way to mix them.
If you create a series gradients, each on its own layer, with blending mode set to difference, you'd see them combine with each other. They kinda inverse where they overlap, and experimenting with different ones you can make all kinds of neat things. This is one I
did in studying gradient. There are probably far more complicated and more interesting designs; I just gradually gained an aim with this one, so I didn't stray from what I had begun to envision.

Image>Adjustments> Levels... is a powerful tool if you practice using it. It can help you give cool colors to abstract art. Try changing the red, green, and blue values (from the RGB dropdown menu) in relation to each other. You get flame red,orange, and yellow if you give red 0-85, green 85-190, and 190-255, without moving the gray bias arrow.
I've previously talked about how levels can imrove quality; it can create something entirely new, too. I'll probably add some stuff to this pic later- you can always fine something neat to add; just don't limit yourself to a specific tool/technique or part of the image. Do random stuff; after a while, go back to old things and see if you have new ideas!

A Student Of...

I've been learning a few words of education and profession.
my sentence for the day:
彼は医学の学生だ。
かれはいがくのがくせいだ。
kare wa igaku no gakusei da.
He is a medical student.

the knowledge/discipline of medicine is igaku, 医学。
student, a rather common and important word to know, is gakusei, 学生。
so I'm a student of japanese, 日本語の学生。

I've been looking at areas of knowledge, and found these:

(forensic)medicine is (法)医学, (hou)igaku.
physiology is 生理学, seirigaku.
psychology is 心理学, shinrigaku.
nutritional science is 栄養学, eiyougaku.
anatomy is 解剖学, kaibougaku.

science is 科学, kagaku.
chemisty is 化学, also pronounced kagaku.
biochemistry is 生化学, seikagaku. (the kanji 生 means life)
physical science(physics) is (物)理学, (butsu)rigaku.
biology is 生物学, seibutsugaku.
astronomy is 天文学, tenmongaku.

history is 私学, shigaku.
law is 法学, hougaku.
humanities is 人文科学, jinbunkagaku.

language(linguistics) is (言)語学, gengogaku.
lierature is 文学, bungaku.

geometry is 幾何学, kikagaku.
mathematics(algebra) is (代)数学, (dai)suugaku.

Learning Another Song!!!

Today I started learning Sitting, Waiting, Wishing by Jack Johnson.

And maybe you been through this before
But its my first time
So please ignore
The next few lines cause they're directed at you.

I already can play all of it!!! Not together, but I'm working on that.
For those of you that play guitar (LEE!)
the tabs can be found by clicking here.

The same pattern is followed on all but the 1st measure, namely:
(B=A+1)
(C=A+2)
*counting
A C C A x x (x2) *1,+
A C C B x x (x2) *2,3
x x x x x x *4
A C A B x x (x4) *1+2, 3
x x x x x x *4
(move to new a,b,c)

The first measure is rest(x2), ACCAxx(x2), ACAAxx(x4) instead.
You'll have to take a look-see at the verse.

The bridge is C(335553),E(022100),F(033200),G(055400).
Each chord is played 2 measures. the whole thing is played twice.

The three things you'd need to learn it would be:
Tabs
Lyrics
to Hear it

I wish I would have kept it secret; I could have surprised Marianne with it or something.
Hey Alyssa! Look at the lyrics. See any...irony... in me learning this?
Hint:

Learning loving somebody don't make them love you.

Posting And Scripting

I've been making up for the entries I've missed. I'm caught up now, so no more confusion. I post them in order, so the more recent days that I've done I haven't posted until now.
So everything's in order now.

We'll all live happily ever after. Now all I need is a girlfriend... and a life.

Anyways, I've been searching the topic of scripting in photoshop, and I've discovered how to do it. There's and ExtendScript ToolKit that came with Photoshop that I didn't know about. Now I do, and I'm going to begin to play with it.
I made a piece of code that toggles layer visibility. It's not much, but it works, and it's a step toward learning the language. It's JavaScript, by the way.

Coding in JavaScript will probably be an additional little hobby for Photoshop. I may start designing my own filters. I have some cool techniques that are complex filter combos and stuff that would be really cool if I could make them a one step built-in effect. For now, though, I don't know enough, and it's something I'm going to have to work on.

Solving the Riddle

I finally solved a problem with a Japanese word I had found!
I've been battling it forever. It's hard to find the meaning to conjugated verbs on the internet. Especially if you're not familiar with every single conjugation.
So, I've been battling this one,
by the name of 命じられた. That's meijirareta for you English folk.
And I'm not totally helpless- I know what 命 is.

命じ(る) is the verb "to command".
That's all I could gather. But no one would elaborate on "-rare-", and you can't exactly type it into search engines, unless you're looking for something, well, "rare". So I was stuck.

Turns out, to conjugate a verb in passive voice (perform v. be performed), you simply drop the ending infinitive U from RU for A and add RERU. That gives you 命じられる!
Which isn't the same, of course. But past tense you replace RU with TA.
And the end result? "was commanded": 命じられた.

So... maybe I should stop relying so much on kana for conjugation; it seems sound can change, and rearrange them.

I'm so proud of myself -- or rather, I feel much less stupid now.
And that's how it happened. The end.

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

must I always be waiting, waiting on you...

Jack Johnson is the best. He's a real guitarist, and I love his songs.
My latest (re)discovery is Sitting, Waiting, Wishing.

My friend Marianne has a very random iTunes collection. That's one of the only Jack Johnson songs she has. It's one of my favorites that I don't have. I think I'm going to learn to play it. I'll put on the to-do list; I've got other things on my plate.

That's one of the best JJ songs out there, though. I can play Fall Line and Times Like These. I've been thinking of adding one to my knowledge, and I think I found the one.

If you haven't seen the YouTube video, you need to. It's excellent. And it's backwards. Really wild, and fun to watch.

I can't always be playing, playing your fool...

Photoshop Artwork

I want to learn to be an artist. I want to learn to use Photoshop like some use paper and pencil. Even if I have to draw a bunch of manga characters to do it.
That's what I've decided.

For my lack of creativity, that's a bold declaration.

I'm trying to learn to draw people, but I'm not sure which style I want to pursue. Manga is only one of many forms. They don't all have names; that's just one of the ones that does, and is well known. I'd like to be able to draw people I know, in time.

This is from a lesson I took on how to draw hair. yep. It's mine.
Nothing incredible, but you can recognize it as what it is, So that's a step. My real trouble is learning to draw faces. They've always been very hard for me.
It's kind of ironic, as being a true artist requires seeing thing in parts, not just as a whole. I'm not going to go nuts drawing dumb things. I want to be able to do one thing at a time. the hair I've never been good with - that's one thing down.
Next I'll do faces. It'll take some time to get good at anything. I hope to "work my way" to being more comfortable with drawing people; I've never been good at it, and Photoshop may be my ticket out of this hole.

You basically just draw it with a crude brush, smudge the edges into the desired shape, and use thin dodge / burn strokes on highlights / midtones.

Looking It Up

I've been trying to learn my kanji by reading things with them.
Looking the ones I don't know up, I'll learn the common ones, the ones I need to know.
That's my theory, anyway.
Thing is, my grammar's not so excellent. So it's slow work.

I am starting to get it, though. some of the ones I've learned recently are:
存在する - sonzaisuru - being
喜び - yorokobi - joy


And I've got more to go.
I just hope I'll be able to pick them up quickly. And not forget them.

The "suru" in sonzaisuru is what you add to something to make it a verb. There's a large collection of suru verbs. You conjugate the +suru (i.e. +shita, +ta, +shimasen, etc.).
Whenever you see する, it's usually after a verb, a kanji you might not know. It's easy to recognize.

Remembering the Tune

I forgot the tune to Lee's What It Does to Us, and I've been trying to remember it for ages. I have the chords listed somewhere, but I couldn't remember how to strum it. It''s been killing me.
It's my favorite song, and not knowing how to play it has been frustrating. Now I know it, though, and I'm going to start learning it.

It's "do-da-de-da. very simple. It hits different strings on the up versus the down. It gives the sound color, and is "fun" to listen to. I just hope that I don't have trouble learning to match the chords and vocals.

the down is lower. The counts are down+up+rest+up , repeated quickly.

I can't wait to take a look at it. I haven't had time to do hardly anything, because I've been so busy. I'm excited, though. It's one of the best songs I've heard in a long time, and being able to play it (well) would make me happy.

Photoshopping Photography

I have been submitting some of my photography to DeviantArt. I've been enhancing the color on some of them, and have found two very important tools for doing so.
You can make any clear (as in not blurry) photograph have great lighting.
All you need is image>adjustments> levels... (or Ctrl L / Command L).

You bring the outer white and black arrows to where the graph begins and ends. You do it for each of RGB, Red, Green, and Blue, choosing them from the top menu. Then you have to slide the middle ones until you get the "correct" colors you're looking for. Do the RGB one last, as doing the other three increases the brightness. That's all RGB will most likely do, and in combo you may go overboard. Afterward, going to image>adjustments>brightness/ contrast... you can fix the brightness properties as you desire. As you might notice, the bottom one is quite an improvement from the top. I didn't do very much, but the improvement is awesome.

Japanese With Other Languages?

I learned a new thing, and possibly a new concept with Japanese.
"German"(the language) is ドイシ語 - doishigo. It's pronounced the same way it is in German, plus "go", for language.

I'm hoping to add to my knowledge of other countries with respect to japan soon.
America is either アメリカ like english, or 米国 / べいこく / beikoku, rice+country. Why they name it that I have no idea.

北米 / ほくべい / hokubei is North America.
南米 / なんべい / nanbei is South America.
中米 / ちゅうべい / chuubei is Central America.
as you might have guessed,
北 (kita) is north, and
南 (minami) is south. Also,
東 (higashi) is east, and
西 (nishi) is west.

Also, 英語 (eigo) is "English", just as 日本語 is "Japanese" and 中国語 (chuugokugo) is "Chinese".

My New Roommate

I have a new roommate, by the name of Steve.
He probably won't be playing my guitar like Lee did, so inspiration will have to come from my self.

I haven't had much time to play my guitar- I've been trying to get school stuff done...

I'll be writing new songs soon, though, and if anybody out there has ideas as to what make them about, I'd love to have their input.

I have no relationship stuff to write about, so the love songs don't come easy.
I might finish a few I started a while back...

I was thinking of writing one in Japanese, but I don't know enough vocabulary. Or grammar for that matter.

So... any ideas??? let me know.
This'll have been a short post. Hopefullly that's not a growing trend.

Photoshopping People

I've been working on learning to photoshop people, particularly people.

One notable example is some photoshopping i did of a friend, for fun. She asked me to send a few examples to her.

I think I understand the relationship girls have with makeup now. It's a pain, but once you start, you don't want to stop, and you're never satisfied. No matter how beautiful someone is at point A, you always want to move further and further past point B; sometimes you even do more harm than good...

The most important tools for working with skin are:

• dropper+brush, for smoothing
• clone stamp, for replacing hard-to-brush-over areas
• patch tool, to replace funny shaped areas
• and making a new layer+coloring it+lowering opacity for lipstick, eyes, highlights and shadows, and other coloration changes.

I won't post exact pictures, but I will give another big piece of advice: isolate individual parts, so you can play with H/S/L and Brightness/Contrast and Levels.

If you do that with hair, you can pick whatever natural hair color you want. or something else...

Grammar Particles and Pointlessness.

I have a new pointless Japanese sentence.
何のサンドイッチが欲しい？
nan no sandoicch ga hoshii?
What kind of sandwich do you want?

何の (nanno) means "what kind".
欲しい (hoshii) is an adjective, meaning "wanted" or "desired"
欲 (yoku) as a noun means greed or desire

And now I've learned something. So it's not totally pointless.


In Japanese, they have nouns, verbs, and adjectives. To explain how these relate, they use particles.

There are several, and I'll cover just a few for now.

が (ga) identifies a subject; it's used very often. don't confuse it with は.

は (WA) identifies a topic; it's usually used at the beginning of a conversation. it's the equivalent of "speaking about ___, ......". It's the symbol "ha", but pronounced "wa" when used in this way.

と (to) is "and". 左と右 (hidari to migi) means "left and right". it is used after each list object, where in english only commas would be used.

や (ya) is "and" and "etc.". you use it in place of と, and it will denote that the list is not complete.

に (ni) shows direction. It works very much like "to" and "towards". it also can be used for "by", and is used with time.

の (no) shows ownership. it's much like " 's ". for example, 私 (watashi) is "I" or "me". 私の (watashi no) is "my".

Lee's Final Performance

My roommate/inspiration Lee is going home Saturday.
That means that tomorrow's his last day here.

I'm really going to miss having him around. I'm working on learning to play some of his songs; maybe being to play them will remind me of all he's taught me.

Hopefully I'll be able to begin writing songs soon with what I've learned; I haven't had the time as of yet...

I'll probably take up some of the songs he's played, such as
I Will Follow You Into the Dark (Death Cab for Cutie).
There's a few by Relient K he knows, too.
He's just the kind of guy who plays all the songs I've thought of learning to play; I've been thinking of learning "-Into the Dark" for a while now.


What do I have to say about Lee? Let's just say Lee's my middle name(it really is). I'll probably write a song about him at some point- there aren't many things out there that inspire me, and I've found one.

It'll be lonely without him; we'll keep in touch, but I'm so used to always having him around when no one else is... I guess I'll get over it.

But still- no one will replace Lee. Everyone should have a Lee. An awesome guy with endless amounts of talent and good music and speakers.

Creating Water With Photoshop

A few days ago I learned to work with displacement maps in creating a water effect. Unfortunately the only good image I could find already had water.

The image on the top is the original. The one on the bottom I added some green water to. It's not perfect, especially when you compare the two, but it's pretty good, for being made from scratch. The top half of the original is all I used. I found the tutorial through PhotoshopRoadmap, as I usually do. You can assume that's where I find everything, unless I happen to say otherwise.

You basically have to learn to make displacement maps... after that, it's just a matter of copying and flipping the scenery, scaling it up, adding the displacement map, and scaling it back down. I think it's cool. I'll probably use it for projects in the future.

The First 80 Kanji

These are the Grade 1 Jouyou kanji. They're the first ones those learning Japanese need to know. It's important you learn them in order of frequency; Something like 20% of the kanji out there are used for 80% of the words. Moral of the story:
Learn the most common ones first.

Kanji	訓	音	Meaning
一	ひと（つ）	イチ	one
二	ふた（つ）	ニ	two
三	み（つ）	サン	three
四	よ（つ）	シ	four
五	い（つ）	ゴ	five
六	む（つ）	ロク	six
七	なな（つ）	シチ	seven
八	や（つ）	ハチ	eight
九	ここの（つ）	ク	nine
十	と（う）	ジュウ	ten
百	もも	ヒャク	hundred
チ	ち	セン	thousand
日	ひ	ニチ	sun,day
月	つき	ゲツ、ガツ	moon,month
火	ひ	カ	fire
水	みず	すい	water
木	き	モク、ボク	tree,wood
金	かね	キン、コン	gold
土	つち	ト、ド	earth,ground
上	うえ	ショウ	up,above,rise
下	した	カ、ゲ	down,below,fall
右	みぎ	ユウ	right
左	ひだり	サ	left
大	おお	タイ、ダイ	big
中	なか	チュウ	middle,within
小	ちい（さい）	ショウ	small
入（る）	はい（る）	ニュウ	(to) enter
出（る）	で（る）	シュツ	(to) exit
男	おとこ	ダン	man,male
女	おんあ	ジョ	woman,female
子	こ	し	child
人	ひと	ジン	person
口	くち	コウ	mouth
目	め	ボク	eye,look,viewpoint
手	て	シュ	hand
耳	みみ	ジ	ear
足	あし	ソク	foot,leg
白	しろ	ハク	white
赤	あか	シャク	red
青	あお	ショウ、セイ	blue, green
学	まな（ぶ）	ガク	learning,study
校		キョウ、コウ	correction,exam
先	さき	せん	ahead,before,future
生	う（まれ）（る）、なま（る）	セイ	life,birth
年	とし	ネン	year
山	やま	サン、セン	mountain
川	かわ	セン	river
花	はな	カ、ケ	flower
雨	あめ	ウ	rain
田	た	デン	rice (field,paddy)
石	いし	コク、セキ	stone
貝	かい	バイ	shellfish
林	はやし	リン	forest(grove)
森	もり	シン	forest(woods)
見（る）	み（る）	ケン	(to) see
立（つ）	た（つ）	リ（ツ）	(to) stand
休（み/む）	やす（み/む）	キョウ	(/to) rest
天	あめ	テン	heaven,sky
気	いき	キ	spirit,air
本	もと	ホン	book,source
犬	いぬ	ケン	dog
虫	むし	キ（ュウ）	insect
草	くさ	ソウ	grass
車	くるま	シャ	vehicle
名	な	ミョウ,メイ	name,reputation
正（す）	ただ（す）	セイ	(to) correct
音	ね	イン、オン	sound,noise,note
早	はや	ソウ	early,quick,fast
王		オウ	king,ruler
村	むら	ソン	town,village
町	まち	チョウ	town,neighborhood
竹	たけ	チク	bamboo
空	から、そら	クウ	emptiness,sky
糸	いと	シ	string,thread
字	あざ（な）	ジ	character,letter
夕	ゆう	セキ	evening
玉	たま	ギョク	ball,jewel
文	ふみ	ブン	text,sentence,literature
力	ちから	リキ、リョク	strength,effort
円	まる	エン	yen,circle

WIthout Rain

I've got a song I wrote long ago, that I just found. I've been trying to relearn the lyrics.

It uses C, Em, Emin7 and FMaj7.
Fmaj7 : 0123xx
Emin7 : 000020

V1
Why did it get so quiet my friend?
Night never ends when it's this quiet.
Out on the beach I'm lying again
Staring away
Into the zenith.
C
I looked straight up for a map of my life,
but the stars were so dim, and they fail to connect
to the point where I am
in the sand, by the waves, in the rain.

V2
I'd never known a girl 'till then
as sister and friend, even an angel.
I'm having trouble leaving again
the tides coming in,
and I'm still dreaming.
C
Then I looked up and saw some stars connect
to the place where I was, though the light was still dim
I was stuck, beneath the moon,
in the sand, by the waves, in the rain.

b/V3
Now I no longer look to the end
waiting to begin something so different
It is so easy leaving the sand
the rainwater thins
and now I'm happy.
C
I looked straight up for a map of my life,
but the stars were so dim, and they fail to connect
to the point where I am
in the sand, by the waves, in the rain.
C
Now I look up at this map of my life
and the stars are so bright and now they all connect
down to me and my toes
in the sand, by the waves, without rain.

without rain.

It was written in a time of great struggle as I began to find clarity. I didn't know how it would end when I started it.

An Apple A Day...

Today I made an apple in Photoshop. It looks delicious.
I learned how to do it through PhotoshopRoadmap.com's tutorial directory.

It uses a sphere for most of the tutorial, and then warps it at the end. It taught me to use path stroking for the stem, a very powerful technique.

It's not perfect, but the things I learned I wouldn't trade for anything.

I'll probably work on it more in the future, and try to make variations of it. The tutorial actually made a green one.

It took a few hours to do, but I was talking to friends on FaceBook for the first half of the job. I also stopped to eat something.

The background was nothing
complicated. Many of the elements were simple.

I learned a very important concept, though- if you make an abstract black or white shape and use a Gaussian blur on it, and then lower its layer opacity, it makes a shadow or highlight.

You can see the tutorial HERE, if you want.

Kanji - The Chinese Characters

漢字（かんじ）are the Chinese characters used by the Japanese.
By the time children graduate from high school in Japan, they are expected to know 1945 of them. These 1945 are referred to as the Jouyou kanji, or 常用漢字.
You won't need to know all of them, just the most common ones.
As you learn them, you start with the most common, and work toward the less common ones.

They have two types of pronunciation: 音読み（おにょみ）, the Chinese readings, and
訓読み（くんょみ）, the Japanese ones.

most words consist of two kanji.
The Chinese 音読み pronunciations are typically used when they are in pairs.
The Japanese 訓読み are used with individual ones.

The ones for the days of the week are some of the most common.
Note that these are 音読み, and are different by themselves.


日曜日-nichiyoubi-Sunday
月曜日-getsuyoubi-Monday
火曜日-kayoubi-Tuesday
水曜日-suiyoubi-Wednesday
木曜日-mokuyoubi-Thursday
金曜日-kinyoubi-Friday
土曜日-doyoubi-Saturday

日 - nichi - sun
月 - getsu - moon
火 - ka - fire
水 - sui - water
木 - moku - tree
金 - kin - gold, metal
土 - do - earth
"-曜日", or "-youbi", is the equivalent of "-day"

In 訓読み、the plain, single Japanese kanji,
Fire, or 火, is ひ.
(drinkable)water, or 水, is みず.

Next time I'll show you the first 80 "grade 1" kanji.

New Chords!

I'm shying away, it's my signature move...

Today I learned how to play a song my roommate wrote.
It's a beautiful piece, and uses chords I haven't used long enough to have memorized.
they're:

Bmin7 - 232x2x
A7 - 02020x

Used in combination with Em (000220), D (2320xx), and a form of G (xx0023) it's a great piece.
The verse is D-Em-Bm7-Em.

He's taught me much already, not only how to write good lyrics through example, but now I know how to use min7 chords wherever I want.
They replace the IV in a I-IV-V, and the key of the min7 is a note in the I chord.
I-IV-V is G-D-C, and G is made of G+B+D, so I replace G-D-C chords with G-Bmin7-C.
In D-G-A, I can use D-G-Amin7, too for example.

Learning Photoshop

I've had Photoshop for a long time, but I remember the days I wished I had it.
It's probably the most incredible (and expensive) art program in existence.

The background I'm using for this blog was made from scratch in Photoshop a while back.
I have Photoshop CS2.
My favorite tools are the pen, clone stamp, and blending options.

I have seen the unveiling of Ps-CS4, and I'm drooling. It even has paint-to-mesh support. If they ever get around to adding mesh construction, It'll be an all-in-one 2d-and-3d creation workshop.

There's a few art websites I'm a member of, such as DeviantArt and PhotoShopTalent .
PhotoshopRoadmap is an excellent teacher of any trick you want to learn.

I've written a few tutorials, and while I'm not a five-star artist, from what I've seen, I 'm one of the leading experts on the internet in creating smoke.
I can't help you with wispy fractal candle/cigarette smoke; my expertise includes all other forms, though, such as fire smoke, mist, fog, smog, and any other gas-like substance.

If you ever want to learn to photoshop realistic smokiness, especially since halloween is coming up, then I'm the guy you need to talk to. you can email me at: plasmarob@yahoo.com

Pronouncing Japanese

I've been teaching myself Japanese, and have found many useful materials along the way.
In Japanese, there are two sets of pronunciation characters, Hiragana, and Katakana.

Hiragana are for words of their native language, and grammar particles.

Katakana are for food names, and foreign words and names.

Collectively, they are known as kana.
The following charts are credited to http://www.freejapaneselessons.com

Hiragana - ひらがな

あ a い i う u え e お o か ka き ki く ku け ke こ ko が ga ぎ gi ぐ gu げ ge ご go さ sa し shi す su せ se そ so ざ za じ ji ず zu ぜ ze ぞ zo た ta ち chi つ tsu て te と to だ da ぢ ji づ zu で de ど do な na に ni ぬ nu ね ne の no は ha ひ hi ふ fu へ he ほ ho ば ba び bi ぶ bu べ be ぼ bo ぱ pa ぴ pi ぷ pu ぺ pe ぽ po ま ma み mi む mu め me も mo や ya ゆ yu よ yo ら ra り ri る ru れ re ろ ro わ wa を wo ん n/m

Combinations きゃ kya きゅ kyu きょ kyo ぎゃ gya ぎゅ gyu ぎょ gyo しゃ sha しゅ shu しょ sho じゃ ja じゅ ju じょ jo ちゃ cha ちゅ chu ちょ cho にゃ nya にゅ nyu にょ nyo ひゃ hya ひゅ hyu ひょ hyo びゃ bya びゅ byu びょ byo ぴゃ pya ぴゅ pyu ぴょ pyo みゃ mya みゅ myu みょ myo りゃ rya りゅ ryu りょ ryo

Katakana - カタカナ

ア a イ i ウ u エ e オ o カ ka キ ki ク ku ケ ke コ ko ガ ga ギ gi グ gu ゲ ge ゴ go サ sa シ shi ス su セ se ソ so ザ za ジ ji ズ zu ゼ ze ゾ zo タ ta チ chi ツ tsu テ te ト to ダ da ヂ ji ヅ zu デ de ド do ナ na ニ ni ヌ nu ネ ne ノ no ハ ha ヒ hi フ fu ヘ he ホ ho バ ba ビ bi ブ bu ベ be ボ bo パ pa ピ pi プ pu ペ pe ポ po マ ma ミ mi ム mu メ me モ mo ヤ ya ユ yu ヨ yo ラ ra リ ri ル ru レ re ロ ro ワ wa ヲ wo ン n/m

Combinations キャ kya キュ kyu キョ kyo ギャ gya ギュ gyu ギョ gyo シャ sha シュ shu ショ sho ジャ ja ジュ ju ジョ jo チャ cha チュ chu チョ cho ニャ nya ニュ nyu ニョ nyo ヒャ hya ヒュ hyu ヒョ hyo ビャ bya ビュ byu ビョ byo ピャ pya ピュ pyu ピョ pyo ミャ mya ミュ myu ミョ myo リャ rya リュ ryu リョ ryo

In the future, I'll discuss kanji, and spell them out with these kana.

First Day Up - Guitar

My roommate plays my guitar more than I do.
I suppose it makes sense, since he doesn't have classes right now and I do.
He writes beautiful lyrics, and I hope to learn some of what he's written.
Don't tell me this is love. Just look at what it does to us...

If you're a guy, and you don't play guitar, you should. Girls love it. And it's a powerful form of expression.

I keep my guitar in standard tuning, so I'll refer to chords in eADGBE form. for example,
E minor would be 000220, and D (major) would be 2120xx.

I know how to play a number of things, like:
"Hey There, Delilah" (Plain White T's)
"Be Like That" (3 Doors Down)
"Fall Line" and "Times Like These" (Jack Johnson)
"Minority" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (Green Day)
"Prettiest Friend" (Jason Mraz)
and a few I've written,
"Without Rain" and "Touching Fire", to name some.

My favorite chord is Em (000220).
The ones I use most as a group are:
D 2120xx
A 022200
G 300023

I'll probably keep a list of useful ones to know eventually.

The best websites for guitar:
JGuitar.com is an excellent chord dictionary.
ultimate-guitar.com has tabs for virtually every song out there.

My First Blog

So I'm new to blogging, as of like, five minutes ago, so forgive me in advance.

For starters,

I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
LDS, for short. That's the "mormons". No polygamy, no magic, no horns. Yes Christian. Yes Book of Mormon, and yes Holy Bible.
This will not be a prevalent topic here; you may discover I have moral values, though, and this is why.


I like to learn. It's part of me.

I'm teaching myself Japanese. I'll explain what I say when I feel obligated to use
漢字. That's kan+ji = the Chinese+characters they use.

I've taught myself basic computer programming. I've made applications, video games, and other useful pieces of code.

I've taught myself photoshop. I have CS2, and I hope to learn more.

I'm in college, at Brigham Young University - Idaho,(hereafter BYU-I), and I'm always busy. I'm taking nothing of particular interest. Math, English, Humanities, Psychology, and a Book of Mormon/Missionary Prep class.