Sunday, November 30, 2008

Another Song and a Birthday

I've been learning a new song I was going to show to Marianne, as soon as I'd straightened it up, along with Alyssa's.

Today's her birthday. Not that she wanted anyone to know... such a mysterious girl...
So... since that ain't happnin'... I'll elaborate.

It's Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson.
It's a fun song, albeit a difficult one.
the sliding around, at the beginning for example, is very hard to do.

The new chords are:

G7 - 353433
Amin7 - 575555
D - 557775
C7 - 335353, and
C7 - x323xx (very uncommon/unique slide variant of x212xx(B7) )

D is only used on the bridge.

Hopefully I'll be able to play it for her at some point...
There was a time I considered getting Daniel to learn it, but it would have taken half a year even if he had wanted to... Hardest song I've learned up to this point.

Can't you see, can't you see... Rain all day and I don't mind.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Photoshop Secrets

Most of these are not new to me (as I turn the internet upside down to learn things), but many would find them useful, and here they are...

If you are in the middle of dragging the mouse to make a selection, and you press and hold space, you can drag the not-yet-defined selection box around.

If you scroll (with the mouse) you can move up and down in the pic. Holding ctrl (cmd on a mac) will let you go sideways.

If you click in the box of a menu, like for font or blending options, you can use the up and down arrow keys to look through and preview all the different options. NOTE: This often records the change in your history. Do too many and you may erase all of your "undos"!!!

You can change the workspace background color with the paint bucket by shift+clicking on it!

Ctrl(cmd) + Alt(opt) + Shift + K will bring up shortcut options.

See this and more at: http://www.bspcn.com/2007/09/11/photoshop-secret-shortcuts/

Friday, November 28, 2008

Learning to Speak

I'm covering a new unit at guidetojapanese.org.

It's Essential Grammar - covering the polite, formal, and informal wordings and colloquialisms.
丁寧語 - teineigo - polite language - that's what I'm learning.

For example, using the (き)ます ending instead of the -ru / -u ending.
A good example is the sentence,
"I speak Japanese to you" - わたし は あなた に 日本語 を 話します。

it has tense...
ます - present
ません - negative
ました - past
ませんでした - neg. past

です is the polite form ending. It replaces the present だ, and ends it's conjugated forms. They're not the same, though. I've already covered the two, however...
for explanation, see my post Nouns.

On another note, the へ particle implies literal coming/going, while the に particle implies coming/going for a purpose.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving

I haven't had too much time to play my guitar.
That's kind of a lie, as I've had nothing to do since Saturday.

But I haven't been interested... I've had a book to read,
The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis.
It's a good book, and a good read, no matter what religion you are.

I spent today over at the Zimmermans, some family friends. They're lots of fun.
Frank Zimmerman is my dad's old roommate. I have all brothers, they have all girls... kinda funny... There's Erica (16), Bree(14), Kimberly and Shannon, both something around 8... not sure... and Cassie, who's 10 months old.

Apparently Bree keeps in touch with my nutty younger brother... they're a lot alike...

Anyway, it's Thanksgiving, and if you haven't made a list of things you're grateful for, you'd best do so at some point.

I'm grateful for:
(in no particular order)

friends, family, roommates, food, math, science, my education, holidays, my laptop, my guitar, chocolate, running hot water, my warm blanket, pillows, my warm spot on the couch, showers, sunshine, rain, snow, wind, water, flowers, my clothes, the sky above, the grass beneath, the sound of rainfall, the wind in the trees, the birds in the air, love, friendship, soap, refrigerators, dishwashers, sound, color, peace, light, quiet, freedom, creativity, light, music, art, dancing, singing, sleep, fun, jokes, electricity, contact lenses, paper and pencil, dry erase boards, comics, cars, cell phones, computers, my ipod, flash drives, the internet, Google, FireFox, heated apartments, the Savior, repentance, technology in general, the Gospel in general, and life in general.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Liquid Heat

This is today's piece.
I've been looking to make something fiery, and found a tutorial that gave me an
idea... funny thing is, this looks nothing like what the tutorial was going to make. I basically took the advice of playing with filter>liquify and smudge tool. Even the way it is colored was done differently... he used a hue adjustment layer, but i used a solid orange layer with blending set to color. I also added a few light red and yellow highlights on a top layer.

It was originally going to be a customizable fire effect, but this looks nothing like a flame, by shape. It was basically a vertical gray rectangle with filter> sketch> fibers. Then a big 90 degree motion blur, and the whole thing turned sideways. It was stretched to the sides of the screen and warped, and then liquify and smudge were used until desired results were achieved. Last the colors were played with. I added an inner and an outer glow, and used red and yellow brushes on a separate layer on overlay.

So... technique of the day? Liquify it!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Looking Up Sentences

I have a little secret I've used to help myself with learning new words and phrases. And sentences, for that matter.

At the Jisho (jisho is japanese for dictionary, fyi) (http://jisho.org/sentences/) I look up key words in their sentence search. It's taught me a lot about grammar.

辞書 is the kanji for jisho/dictionary. It's word/term + writing(s). Just a thought...


It's useful for learning new words, too.
Most of the words are links to their definitions. (infinitive, it doesn't discuss tense)
I can learn words to help me use words i already know better!

The most important ones i've learned are こと ("thing"), しかし ("but"), and ついて ("about").
こと is rather generic, and often used with another word. It threw me off a while back when i was tying to figure out something else ( the "-are" passive).

Japanese grammar, as hard as it is, once you get over it you can read almost anything (if you're looking up the sundry kanji).


アコースティックギターが欲しい!しかし、貧しい・・・。
I want an acoustic guitar! But I'm poor...

Monday, November 24, 2008

I'll Be...

Looking for a new song to play, My buddy Lee suggested a song i didn't recognize at first...
I don't know how old it is... but it is a rather old one.

It's Edwin McCain's I'll Be.

A great one. A great suggestion. just not what I was expecting it to be.
And I think I will learn it.

It'll be time before i get to it, though... I have other business to attend to at the moment...

I'm learning to play the theme for Hyrule Field from:
The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess (the best game of all time)
...and it's going well. Slow, but well.
That's taken a bit of my time... if any of you want to know what it sounds like,
you can listen HERE.
That's MIDI (computer-generated), so it's not anything like hearing it on a real piano- it will give you a rough idea, though.

I'll be your crying shoulder,
I'll be love's suicide
I'll be better when I'm older,
I'll be the greatest fan of your life.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Bubbling Moons / Moonlight

That's the names of two recent pieces i've been working on.
The top is an original, from scratch.
I used all sorts of cool brushes.
I warped the background, which started of as a plain noise gradient

The second is a derivative work, made with the one from my previous post... you can never go wrong with mixing them!

That's the tip of the day, I suppose. When you can't find a way to spice something up further, try blending it with another work, using blendng modes.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Learning to Read

I learned a few new words recenty, which i thought I'd share...

信仰 shinkou - faith
希望 kibou - hope
慈愛 jiai - charity


My reading comprehension skills have increased markedly recently.
I wish I could give examples, but that's kind of an abstract thing...

You just have to know your parts of grammar... there's the particles, of course, but also な, た, した, -aれ, -ない, and other conjugation stuff.
You also have to know your katakana for names, and words spelled in kana alone,
like こと, ついて, あなた(がた), and わたし(たち).

I'm getting there. soon enough, i'll be able to just look up the kanji as i go... that's the goal, anyway.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Jonas

Jonas is a sad song, about some people in need, and a man who ignored them.
It is one of the few songs that has ever made me cry.

It's basically the opposite of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief".
It is the voice of those in need being passed by...

It's more powerful live; I've heard it live twice now, both the time that video was made, and last night. Those girls have some real talent. I never get tired of hearing it.
I'm going to attempt learn it; it won't be easy to figure out just by listening to.

If you're interested, it's posted on YouTube HERE.

Jonas, Jonas, don't you - walk away from us... we see the dimness in your eyes.
Jonas, Jonas, you're no - different from us... only in the way you cry...

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Energy Transfer

That's the title of my latest piece. It uses the blending mode "screen", a layer blending option, "outer glow", and a new technique, noise gradients.
It really wasn't that hard to do; I just started with filter> render> clouds like I often do. I used green and black. It looked dirty, so I downed the brightness and upped the contrast.

Using the mode "screen", i used a series of green-to-black gradients; the "screen mode" makes black transparent, giving me the noise grad stripes&circle and the normal-grad beams of light.

I used a random circle brush.
I also used some plus brushes I had. I divided everything into separate layers, so I could manipulate things individually -- i had four "plus" layers. I gave them all a green outer glow.

I later manipulated the colors, making the circles teal and moving the angled pluses toward yellow.

It was an easier project than you would think. My advice for today: experiment!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Japanese Sites

I've been searching for Japanese reading material, because even though my understanding of Japanese is good, I can't develop it, as I don't have ways to practice.

I did find a few things, but none of them would be very useful...

However, i did (re)find a site in my bookmarks that quizzes you on Kanji. It's a really good place, be it for learning or for practicing.
It's www.asahi-net.or.jp, and has a java applet that covers the meaning(two way), onyomi, and kunyomi pronouncing.
Note, however, that it expects you to know your 仮名(kana).

My studying level of kanji is level 2, and though I'm not the best with pronunciation, I hope to know the meanings, specifically. I want to learn my Kanji pronunciation through learning words that contain them.

Word of the day: 先日 - senjitsu - "the other day"

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Techniques On the Strings

I've had to work hard to get to where i can play the new song I've been working on.

I've never had too much difficulty with sliding up and down, but now I'm having to do it with switching on the E and A strings.
Sliding and jumping on the low E is a pain; I do it on the high e all the time, but when you drop from A to E or try to slide down on E, the finger wants to slip the string off the neck.
It's my fault; I need to stop hitting it at an angle, and hit it straight down.
Practice makes perfect! Anyways... The song is going well, and I hope to have it done soon.

If anyone has ideas as to what I ought to learn next, I'd be grateful.
I was going to learn Cookie Jar, but I've had trouble getting a hold of good tabs... either that or I'm doing something wrong... I know enough Jack Johnson songs for now, anyway.

I still need to write a song, but haven't found inspiration yet... I have a few chord ideas, though.

can't you see that it's just raining...

Monday, November 17, 2008

Another Winter Party !!!

Surprise! I have an amazing background now.

I love it. I'll probably keep it until around Christmas.

If someone expresses interest, I can show how it is done.
Otherwise, I won't because I have other things I could be doing.

I think I'm going to try and make a similar one for My desktop.

We'll see, though. I definitely have found the spirit of winter.
I will need to find a Christmas mood if I'm going to have an awesome one for it, too.
I meant to do something snowy, but this is what came out. oh well. Maybe next time.

That's one of the funny things about art - true art dictates its self. You just follow what is best until you can't improve upon it further.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Subordinate Clauses and Gobi

With nouns describing nouns, you just put them together.
For example,

International Education Center
国際
教育センタ

There is NO da/desu!!!
However, you can use the -janai, -datta, -janakatta (past and/or negative) to modify, though.

Person who is not student do not go to school.
学生じゃないは、学校行かない



So... I bet you're wondering... What's a gobi?
Either way, I'll tell you:
A gobi ends a sentence with a "tone"; we have them in english, too.

the gobi ね looks for agreement.

Cool, huh?*
"huh?" here is the same as ね. It's like "isn't it?", or "right?"


the gobi よ informs of something new.

Neat,
you know?*
よ is the equivalent of "you know" in English.

You can also use よね as "you know.. .., right?" they must be in that order, though.


*you don't use question marks with them in Japanese.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Playing for People

Everybody is different when playing in front of people, I've noticed.

-Trevor was always good at it, but people loved him, so, you know...
-Lee's good, but doesn't realize he is. I've never seen him play for a big crowd.
-I don't usually stress too much, but I've never played for a huge crowd, so I don't know...

I'll probably show a few things I've learned to Kara and Bree (Lee's girls) soon.
I don't know how that'll go... hopefully well.
I've been working on one that's one of Kara's faves.

I have a whole list of ones "in the works" I need to get together.
The most recent ones are:

- Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson
- *(secret)
- What It Does to Us -Lee
- Confident - Lee
- *(secret)

- Special Day (Me)

Forgive my leaving out two. I'll fill them in when I am able to.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Winter Party!!!

I've changed the blog to I winter background! I used all kinds of brushes and layering...

Tips for today:
- Plan ahead with image size. Altering dimensions later is a pain, and hard to keep looking good.

- Use scattering and angle jitters on brushes!!! you can find these on the brush menu in the top right.

- Make a new layer regularly, otherwise you'll end up in deep doggy doo later when you want to change something, but can't.

-The Image>Adjustments>... menu is full of wonderful things. Levels, Hue/Saturation, and Brightness/Contrast are some of my faves. Desaturate and Invert are good, too.

I'll have something cool in soon...

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Verbs

Japanese verbs end in u. -ru, -tsu, -ku, -su, and so on are the infinitive endings.
for example,
to speak is 話す(hanasu).

In 日本語, a grammatically complete sentence only needs a verb.
It is similar to Spanish in that the subject can be implied. However, in Japanese,
the object can be implied too!

For example,

Eat.
食べる。


There are two types of verbs: Ichidan (ru) and Godan (u).

with "ru" verbs, you drop the -ru to conjugate.
with "u" verbs, you change the -u to something else.

for negative, you add "nai".
RU/Ichidan: 食べる=食べない (tabe[ru/nai])
U/Godan: 話す=話さない (hana[su/sanai])

For past you add た. for different endings you do different things.

EndingNon-Pastchanges to...Past
す→したした


く→いた
ぐ→いだ
いた
いだ




む→んだ
ぶ→んだ
ぬ→んだ
んだ
んだ
んだ




る→った
う→った
つ→った
った
った
った
Credits for this chart go to Tae Kim at www.guidetojapanese.org

That's a lot to deal with, but it's not that bad once you get it down.
We'll continue this later :)

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

In Between Dreams

Jack Johnson is the man.

I just got another album of his, and I am pleased.
Jack Johnson is my hero.

There. I said it. (And you, Lee!!!)

This one has Sitting, Waiting, Wishing and Banana Pancakes!!!
It also has Better Together and Remember When, two new faves!!!

!!! :)

I would learn every Jack Johnson song in existence if it were feasible.
(That would be dumb, anyway.)

I am going to learn a few more before moving on, though.

I won't reveal what I'm learning yet, but it'll be something awesome!


The wisdom's in the trees, not the glass windows...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Blending Modes

Blending modes are key in Phtotshop. You can go without, but they will do amazing things!
  • When you want to add something in a subtle way, be it an object or coloring, use Overlay.
  • Use Hue, Sat., and Lum. ones to add said properties of one layer to another.
  • Difference and Exclusion invert colors and give unusual, but sometimes cool results
You can select the first normal, and then use the down arrow key do flip through them* until you have one you like.
*Flipping through them makes undo steps, of which there is a limit. Don't do it if you might need some undos!

When you want to combine two layers, blending options is the way to go.

Also try:
  • changing either layer's opacity
  • reversing the order of the two layers
  • inverting the colors in either layer
  • changing the modifying(top) layer's brightness/contrast
You'll get to see a cool example soon!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Na-Adjectives and I-Adjectives

"Na" adjectives behave just like nouns, and are "conjugated" the same way.
See my post "Nouns" for reference.


PositiveNegative
Presentじゃない
Pastだったじゃなかった

You put these after them, to use them like objects, i.e. "[the|this|that] (noun) is (adj)"

The sky is blue.
です


They are adjectives, though. And they describe. You can place them before the noun. If you use the present positive (plain) form, you put な(na) before them.

I like the big sky.
ビッグな気に入る





I-adjectives end in い. You conjugate them like this:


PositiveNegative
Presentくない
Pastかったくなかった

NOTE: You CANNOT use them with だ / です . If you use them like "(noun) is (adj)", but you just put it after the noun; you don't put da/desu at the end.

The building is tall.
ビル。

The building was not tall.
くなかったビル。


They can be used in combination with nouns, too, like so:

I like the blue sky.
気に入る

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Fall for You

I've been looking for a new song, and I think I found it!!!
It's Fall For You by Secondhand Serenade.

It's a beautiful song, and I only know about it because several girls have shown it to me. hmm...

It's kinda iffy in that, there are simple easy-to-follow chord and vocal patterns, but in different parts of the song, the vocals have varying levels of energy. And that's just one prob... the other is the number of times to strum a chord.
At the beginning, for example, it's only once per measure!
And then it moves to the chorus, doing it once per count (4 per measure).
Then in some of the more energetic parts it's twice per count. bleh.

I'm going to have to sit down and work out the details on paper, so I can memorize.
It's kinda hard to memorize without patterns!!! But sequences work, too, if you identify them.

All of this is extremely doable, though and the chords are just
Am(x02210), C(021010), F(133211), and a slightly ambiguous G.
G is both (320003) and (355433). I think it uses both, but at different times...

It looks like it'll be a cool song to learn... I'm excited!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Wallpaper and Brushes

I haven't done too much in PS today.

I've been needing to change my blog background for the wintertime, though.

I want to make a snowy wintery one, like Lee did at Leetopia.
It'll be cool when it's done, but I've been kinda stumped as to how to start.
It'll come to me when it's time, I guess...

I've been finding cool wallpapers for my laptop... I wish I could show them, but they really aren't mine to share... let's just say Flickr and DeviantArt have many wonders...

So... yeah... I've been expanding and renaming my brushes. I will probably get on it today... I'm excited to get started... after this, I will get a Christmas one going for December.
So I finally have Photoshop projects to do... and I'm ready...

Friday, November 7, 2008

Nouns

I have had a little bit of a fit with trying to get my words sorted... so I'm kinda behind on posting, though I have several ready to post... forgive me.

With nouns, you can express present/future* and past, and positive and negative.
*note that there is no "future" tense in 日本語; you specify the time, if you need to.

These are "is" "isn't", "was", and "wasn't".


PositiveNegative
Presentじゃない
Pastだったじゃなかった

Note that だ can be pronounce all kinds of ways in different parts of Japan... an alternative that is used more often is です。

(It) is water.
です

(It) isn't (a) mountain.
じゃない

(It) was (a) fish.
だった

(It) wasn't (an) apple.
りんごじゃなかった


If it's not used at the end of a sentence, you don't use だ or です after it.

A fish can swim.
(fish swims, it can.)
泳ぐことできる

(I) want some water.
欲しい

Stresses and Strings

Tomorrow is Friday!!! I have homework, so I doubt I'll have an extremely happy one... however...
Most of my stress is gone... at least it's gone down...

I have found, in my experience, that playing my guitar seems to lower stress.
Perhaps that's one of the things I use it for- a stress reliever - I can release emotion through it.

I need to work more on my guitar practice.
I've been playing a lot of Jack Johnson lately, but I need to branch out...

I got water blister on my thumb- I've been playing with my finger, something I haven't done much before...

I did find the end riff to Times Like These, though...
e---------------|
b---------------|
G----------9---|
D----------9---|
A-----7-9-11--|
E--/9------0---|


The chord played before it is F#m.
The only ones the song uses are:
001120 -E
222442 -F#m
556775 -A
778997 -B


what a pain... I've been trying to remember it forever...
I finally just gave up and looked it up.

Somehow I know it'll never be the same.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Brushes Galore !!!

For all my amigos out there who play in photoshop, there are lots of cool brushes for you to find at DeviantArt.
From the DeviantArt Home, on the left menu,
click: resources > application resources > photoshop brushes.

If you click on them, and then click download (on the left in the pages), you can use them in your artwork... they're really cool!

I used to use them a lot, but I haven't in almost a year... I forgot how cool they are.
Try doing a search for lightning, grass, fire, water, flowers, hearts, grunge, vector, stars, plants or trees, leaves, splashes, blood, clouds, smoke, fractals, abstract... the list goes on and on.

once you download them, extract the .zip file if it's in one, and put the ".abr" brush file in (assuming you're using CS2, if not, go to whatever alternative folder name):

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Presets\Brushes

If you put it in this folder, when you right click while using the brush, and click the arrow in the top right of the popup menu, it will be under your list of brushes to use as you please!!!

The Particles

I need to work more on all of my hobbies...
I've just been extremely busy.

Sentence of the Day:
私は日本語で打つ。
watashi wa nihongo de utsu.
I type in Japanese.

I've become more familiar with the particle で now.
there's
は, that sets the topic,
が, labels the subject,
も, inclusive particle that adds to the topic,
を, the direct object marker,
の, shows ownership,
に, that directs toward (like "to"),
へ, that shows gereral direction, but not necessarily destination,
で, by means of / context,
と, and,
や, and...etc,
とか, a more colloquial form of や,
か, question marker,

and I think that's all of them. Yay!

Now I just need to work on my verb conjugations...
And my Kanji...

Monday, November 3, 2008

Cookie Jar

...that's the name of the Jack Johnson song I'm thinking of learning.

I need to find something more "romantic", though. I need to work on expanding my "chicks dig it" library, if you know what I mean... I really want to be able to play a wider variety, but I don't know just quite how to go about it. Perhaps I just need to write a new song.

I've been thinking of writing one about Danielle... but for now, that's our little secret. Yup. Don't tell anyone; it's just between me, Robert, and you, the entire world ;)

Well, anywho, anywhere, anywhat, anywhen, anywhy... I tink I'm gonna start writing some lyrics... I probably won't post them- I don't post stuff that I hold personal, not usually...

I need to improve Alyssa's song, so I can show it to her when I'm not half asleep. I might write a song about all four of us (Daniel, Marianne, Alyssa, Robert)... but things might be changing, so I might wait before deciding on the specific topics...

Oh, and Eliza wanted me to make a collection of all I'd written... problem is, I never managed to finish the lyrics to much of what I would include. And I need to find a decent way to record it.

So... yeah. I have my work cut out for me, as far as guitaring goes...

Daniel might be picking up guitar... it would be cool to have someone to play with...

Sunday, November 2, 2008

As a Matter of Fract(al)

Today I found a program. A very special program. And I'm addicted. To it. Bad.
I've been looking for a method of generating fractals for my art in photoshop.

AND I FOUND IT !!!!!!

It's called ContextFree, and you can find it HERE.
You have to "learn" to use it, because it's like a programming engine.
It would only take someone a few days, though. it's rather simple.
I did it in a few hours -- I'm a programmer though, so it was easier for me. This is an image I made entirely in ContextFree. I invented a tree and grew a whole bunch of them.

If anyone expresses interest, I can post a few how-to tutorials. There's a lot of experimentation involved in learning it, so it's fun.
I have many friends that use photoshop, but I don't know how many visit here. I would be delighted to teach it (it'll do INCREDIBLE things), but I won't waste my breath if there's no need. I will be posting art that involves ContextFree, so if anyone has tried to imitate my works, they'll likely begin to need this now.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Teasing Translations

My roommates got people pumpkins for the night we carved them... he left a note on the dry erase board afterward...

I need money
for the pumpkins ($5)
Thanks!

I erased and replaced it with Japanese, just to be annoying...

わたしは南瓜の
金をください ($5)
ありがとう!

I got some kinda threat about spreading my jibberish... lol...
in doing so, I discovered a new word - kabocha, or pumpkin.
the kanji for it is 南瓜, southern+melon. Interesting, huh?

I also got down the word for fountain/spring. It's izumi, 泉 .

I never did look up the word "Halloween"... I'll probably make a list of all the holidays sometime soon.
In the meantime, I need to work on my areas of discipline, that I covered previously.

If anyone is curious, I'm beginning to translate whole sentences. If you want you can submit sentences and I'll translate them for you and post them here.
ではまた!