F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.

Today I was around my new roommate Jordan - enough to know him better anyway.
He's into graphic design and has excellent taste in music.

I did play my guitar some today.
My post for today will likely be late, as I'm not in a writing mood.

He's got a lot of bands I like - I may get lots of new music at some point in the near future.

Today I picked up my new favorite song.
I've been working on
-Same Old Song and Dance (Aerosmith),
-3's & 7's (Queens of the Stone Age),
but the new one I like is F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X by The Fall of Troy.
It's a remix of another song with a bad name, but there's no real acronym-meaning to the name anyway. I like its lyrics.

I'm learning to play it on my guitar, at least the opening solo part. It is a GH song, of course.
I got the tabs at Ultimate Guitar, but I've modified them to what I've found made more sense.



It reminds me of my last day with Sarah... :(

I don't want to see the day
my words cannot make it safe.
Her heart in my hands - it's too bad - no regrets.

I don't want to see the day
tears are falling on my grave.
This is my one chance...

Back to ID... and a new blog title!

Today has been a long, hard painful traveling day.
I didn't get any sleep last night, I've had little food, and I'm running on empty.

I've had a plane from Atlanta to Denver, from there to Salt Lake City, and I took a shuttle from there to Rexburg. I almost killed myself dragging roughly two hundred pounds of baggage across the country.

It's all over, though, and I'm here.

I worked in Photoshop while I waited for flights, etc.
I finally got a title I like, and I'll put it up as soon as I have internet again.

By the time I post this, it will be up.
I like my blog much better than before.
It was a pain to convert it's original reds and yellows to blues.
I have a better font than any that was available from blogger, so I used it instead.

For those of you with a good eye who've seen it, you'd recognize it as a clip from Fiery Collapse.

Question words and Moving

I'm going to be moving to Idaho soon, so with this blog post I'm beginning to fall behind, as I've been so busy...

Today at iKnow I got a little done - nothing special.

The new-ish words were:

駅 - eki - railway station
おいしい(oishii) - tasty
大きい - ookii - big
男 - otoko - man,male
大人 - otona - adult

I picked a few good ones out of the sentences, though.
野球 - yakyuu - baseball
昼過ぎ - hirusugi - lunch
バラ - rose

要る and 空く (iru and suku) are the two that I've had trouble with of late.
The first is "to need/require", and the latter is "to be empty".
They're so short they feel generic and are hard to assign a way to be remembered

Today I've seen a lot of question/object words, and I need them sorted out.
So I'll make a list.

誰 - dare - who
何 - nan(i) - what
どこ (doko) - where
いつ (itsu) - when
どうして (doushite) - why

ここ (koko) - here
そこ (soko) - there
あそこ (asoko) - over there

この (kono) - this
その (sono) - that

Songs Old and New

I've picked up another song from Guitar Hero.
It's Same Old Song and Dance by Aerosmith.

I can play all of the normal bits.
I can play one of the three solos.
In time, I'll be able to play it perfect.

It's an excellent electric guitar song.

It's not particularly easy, and there's not a perfect tab.. but I figured out the opening guitar solo out myself.

Darren's been playing my guitar all of a sudden...
I'm surprised to see they want to handle it now, esp. as I'm leaving Thursday for Idaho.

I've been busy - I've got lots of packing to do.

But I did put in a fair amount of guitar practice today.

I've been looking for the old version of Be Like That by 3 Doors Down that I learned. Darren's been messing with it.
I used to have that song perfect... on acoustic.





If I could be like that... what would I do...

Subscription and Bookmarking Images

Today I added the buttons for RSS, Delicious, Technorati, and Digg.
I had found the ones I wanted on the www, but they were in one image.
The only solution I could find was to manually separate them.

Hence, today's photoshop project.

What I had to do was right-click "layer via copy" the best selection I could muster, and then fill in the left out white areas on a layer behind them.

All but the RSS were missing corners. I selected a corner of them and transformed the selection over the missing corner, then filled it in with white behind, like I said.

It was a big pain, though I was clever enough to get through it without a ridiculous amount of effort.

For those of you that want to use non-square images on your own blog/websites, here's how it's done:
- You save it as .png, having transparency.
- You upload it wherever (I use Photobucket)
- You include it in the code whatever way you is easiest. Basically you'll use an <img> tag.
For more info on the <img> tag, see Here.
If you're doing this and have questions, don't hesitate to ask.

My artwork for today is already visible, so of course I'm not posting under "artwork".

Caught up on iKnow at Smart.fm

Today I did the usual 10 w/ 2 new, then one with 3 new... then an all 10 new!
The all-ten-new ones are harder usually... but this one had a lot I've just done myself.

First off ,there was:
高校生 - koukousei - High School student
上手 - jouzu - good, skilled

Then:
強い - strong - tsuyoi
七 - nana - seven (alternate 7 pronunciation)
they covered 二十日 / hatsuka / 20 days, surprisingly.

The two ones I had trouble with were:
触る - touch,feel - sawaru
痛い - pain - itai

The ten new were mostly numbers and family members.
Curious? See Numbers#1, Numbers#2, and Family.
The few truly new ones are:
暖かい - atatakai - warm
有る - aru - exist,possess
良い(いい)- good - often just in kana
上 - ue - up,above
動く - ugoku - move

I picked out two words from sentences:
誕生日 - tanjoubi - birthday
桃 - momo - peach

"Happy Birthday" is 誕生日、おめでとう。(tanjoubi, omedetou)

For you who are interested in this, but not particularly 私の日本語, it's pronounced
(tawn-joe-bee, oh-med-et-ohh).

My sentences for today are:
banana ga nanahon arimasu.
バナナ が 七本 あります。
(There are 7 bananas)
I love saying this fast... lol... there aren't spaces in 日本語.

The other was had wind in it (kaze)
kyou wa kaze tsuyoi.
今日は風が強い。
(the wind is strong today)

I'm getting better at understanding the sentences without the translations... yay.


和
(peace.)

Bradley+Guitar and "Radio Song" Lyrics...

Today Bradley was messing around with my guitar...
He has been thinking about learning to play bass.
I highly suggest he start with guitar, though...
To me, a bass is a dumbed-down guitar.

Even if it might be an octave lower, the only thing that I could think of that might explain why it even exists, it's still not worth the ridiculous comparison of prices and capability.

Anyway... He was doing all kinds of things with it. He ought to have fun while he can... I'm leaving for Idaho in 5 days... :( I'm going to miss Sarah... makes me nauseous just thinking about it...

I went and looked up the "Radio Song" lyrics...
They are French - I was right. I have a translation.

Radio Song - Superbus
J'en ai jamais assez, je suis vite lassée,
Je voudrais combler ce manque
Mon obsession me hante,
J'en ai jamais assez, je voudrais bien trouver
Que j'ai beaucoup de chance,
Me rendre à l'évidence,

We are we are on the radio now, the radio now !

J'en ai jamais assez, je vois toujours après,
Des fois je me demande
Comment je peux m'y prendre
J'en ai jamais assez, je suis vite lassée,
Je suis jamais contente,
On dit que je suis chiante,

We are we are on the radio now, the radio now !

J'en ai jamais assez, j'aimerais bien penser
A 2 centimètres à l'heure pour éviter les pleurs,
J'en ai jamais assez, je suis vite lassée,
Il faudrait que j'entende, un jour tu seras grande,

We are we are on the radio now, the radio now !
---------------------------------------------

I never have enough, I get tired very easily
My obsession haunts me
I never get enough, I wanted to think
That I'm very lucky
that I've become the evidence
We are, we are, on the radio now, the radio now!

I never have enough, I always see the 'after'
Many times I ask myself:
How can I be sucesseful
I never have enough, I get tired very easily
I am never happy
and they say I'm sanguinary

We are, we are, on the radio now, the radio now!

I never have enough, I wish I though
By 2 cm per hour, to evoid the tears
I never have enough, I get tired very easily
Is necessary to me to understand, one day I'll be big

We are, we are, on the radio now, the radio now!

Overhaul! New Blog Theme

I spent ALL DAY yesterday coding my blog.
The thing's a nightmare to sit down and rearrange.

The Blogger code uses XHTML, JS, and other crap all inside CSS.
It's insane. No, it's a NIGHTMARE.

I spent forever trying to get my menu bar to work I'd previously given up on... Turns out, it was all Photobucket's fault.
With my luck, I'm not surprised.

I got it almost finished, and it's a lot nicer than before. What I decided was relatively simple: Use Moonlight Bestowal as a background. I made all of the other colors match, and I enjoy it. I wanted something watery and rainy for April, so I got it.

It's all blue! Blue is my favorite color... I could look at it all day...

The results are pleasing.
I wish the title area looked better, and I'll fix it, but not now. It's ok for this minute. When I find what I want I'll figure out how to put it there. I still am not sure...

I'm gradually changing the code, and it's becoming less and less restrictive. I remember back when I added my third column... that was a lot of fun. NOT.

Coding other people's code is annoying, no matter how carefully it's documented...
The Blogger theme I started with? Minima Black.
If you look at Marianne's Blog, Green Blue Purple, You'd see mine in it's early days, minus her ocean pic. I love her ocean pics, though...

Recognition... and More Numbers

Today at iKnow I covered a few interesting words. I'm at 33%! a third of the way...

酸っぱい - suppai - sour
細い - hosoi - thin,slender,narrow
違う - chigau - wrong, different

I've never handled right/wrong before... now I have "wrong".
I wonder what "correct/right" is... maybe I heard it and forgot...
I reviewed つける(tsukeru) - "switch on" today... I also know 消す-kesu-"switch off".

I got two non-vocab words out of the sentences I picked out:
葡萄/ぶどう(budou) - grape(s)
美味しい - oishii - delicious

Hmm... bet I could make a sentence for practice...
この ぶどう が 美味しい です。
kono budou ga oishii desu.
these grapes are delicious.

There were two I keep screwing up on...
渇く - kawaku - to be thirsty (can't seem to remember)
ミーティング - mi-teingu - meeting (pain in the butt to spell)

I forgot about the # of things words last post... they're: (1-10)
一つ - hitotsu
二つ - futatsu
三つ - mittsu
四つ - yottsu
五つ - itsutsu
六つ - muttsu
七つ - nanatsu
八つ - yattsu
九つ - kokonotsu
十 - too
I think the numbers afterward are plain 訓読み ones, juuichi, juuni, juusan, etc.


Also on a last note, I had brand-new sentence I understood before I first saw the translation:
カップ を 三つ 買いました。
cappu o mittsu kaimashita.
I bought three cups.

I'm getting better! I might try to find some serious reading material...

More Guitar Hero Songs

Watching my brothers play GH III gives me ideas. I learn a lot.

I can play a lot of "parts" of songs... it's helping me broaden my abilities.
I can pluck faster thanks to The Seeker, for example. You can see it here.

Some of the stuff I don't even know what it's called.
Let alone who sings it.

Once again, on the left you'll find a link with Guitar Hero and Rock Band Tabs, if you're looking for songs to rock...

Today I picked up a piece called "Radio Song" by Superbus.
It's a weird part-English, part-French-I-think song.
I can play the opening perfect, not sure about the layout of it...

A peek? Sure.


Can't pronounce my favorite part... lol...

Photoshopping My Guitar

Once upon a time, back when I was a little childish artist, I used MS Paint to painfully crop out an image of my guitar. That day is long gone, and the data with it.
Luckily, the photo still survived... so...
I went and PSed it. Isn't it wonderful?
I have my guitar at my disposal for anything I want to do with it.
Problem is, I'm not entirely sure what I want to do.
There's a mountain of potential, and I want to make use of it.

I've already played around with making custom brushes - I can make a million different colors and sizes and shapes of guitar randomly... I was being silly with that...

I'm just not 100% sure what my next piece of art will involve, and I don't know how to incorporate it. I'll have to think...

I can use just the outline for an abstract concept piece, and maybe warp it. Who knows...

Anyways, that's the latest project. I made a random monkey brush for my brother Bradley. He's a monkey nut. It's rather creepy to generate an possibly infinite number of smiling monkey faces.

I have two new brushes as of today... I wonder what I'll do next... I don't have anything big on the agenda. I still suck at typography, but I'm getting better... I may do some neat vector thing if I can find an inspiration.

I'm still trying to decide what to do for my blog for April...

Numbers and Days of the Month

I'm not sure entirely how days of the month work in 日本語, but I have another down.

五日 - itsuka - 5 days, fifth of the month

In a desire to get all this, I've looked them up and compiled a list.

The other new one I have is this:
一杯 - ippai - full
I think I'll make a list of all the words with "一" (i.e. "one") in them.


Here is one through ten and twenty for now.

一日 - ichijitsu/ichinichi
二日 - futsuka
三日 - mikka
四日 - yokka
五日 - itsuka
六日 - muika
七日 - nanoka/nanuka
八日 - youka
九日 - kokonoka
十日 - tooka

２０日 - hatsuka

I think it's that they use the chinese pronunciation for "first, second, third" words... "ordinates", I think they're called.

A little FYI, there's nothing special to their month names. They're 一月, 二月, ans so on. Just ___+getsu.


Interesting... I'll have to see if there's anything else I need to know that goes along with these.

They call me the Seeker

I've been searching low and high...

Today I've perfected another Guitar Hero song.
For real.

It's called The Seeker ...by The Who. Lol... who knew I would go after such a band?
I mean, if you read my stuff, you'd know I'm a Jack Johnson man.
I like the softer stuff.

Didn't stop me from learning the parts "My name is Jonas" or "The Metal" or "3's and 7's" though...

It's actually rather easy. You can find it and others at the Guitar Hero / Rock Band link on the left.

It is a fun one - I love the lyrics.
The chords are A,D,G, and C. Much of it a beginner could pick up. They're first-position chords. Of course, it's not all child's play.

There are some fast-plucking, and misc "realistic" parts most people would have trouble with.

Nevertheless, it's a good, fun song.


Here's a video:
ah... the sixties and seventies... lol...

I won't get to get what I'm after... 'till the day I die...

Turtle Soup

I have finally gone and finished mom's other book, Turtle Soup.
I'm not entirely sure what it will be about...
She wanted me to do it like I did The Privateer.

The resolution on the image she has for this is way smaller than the other... This one actually fits on the screen... I cut the size of the original Privateer in half, and it is still significantly bigger... strange...

Luckily, This one was much better quality.

Here's her piece about it from her website...

Sea turtles may be endangered but after an encounter with marine biologist, Jack Brandon, nothing will stop Sara Hart from naming her deli, Turtle Soup. When Jack takes a job at the nearby Georgia Aquarium, Sara finds the environmental poster boy at her door, hungry and carrying a chip on his shoulder. Neither thinks the other has what it takes, until a scuba class reveals what lies beneath the surface. It will take food, friends, and a little help from Mother Nature, to help them see that making a difference isn’t all numbers and glory. It must begin with love.

I did it basically the same way I did the other...
I love the gradient I found for this...
I took the one from Happy To See You and I shifted the hue down halfway toward green and orange.

If you're curious about the method, it's relatively the same, so see The Privateer.

I must note, though, that moving the text to the spine was way harder, particularly the title.
I had to sit and rub with a tiny clone stamp, brush, and eraser for ages after I used select>color range... Where it touches the turtle, the colors are too close and it gets nasty.
I had to modify the spine lots, too. I couldn't just stretch the edge of the image. I did, but I had to battle hair and turtle to make them the right color, and make it all shades of green.

I love this one... I'm proud of it. I think I'm getting better.

More Family Member Forms

Today at iKnow I covered another of the o___san words.
I believe it's the last.
I looked for more and there aren't any i want missing.
So...

Informal/plain:
兄 - ani - older brother
姉 - ane - older sister
弟 - otouto - younger brother
妹 - imouto - younger sister
母 - haha - mother
父 - chichi - father

Formal, Respectful:
お兄さん - oniisan - older brother
お姉さん - oneesan - older sister
お母さん - okaasan - mother
お父さん - otousan - father

Seems clear to me, if I got it right.

Today's interesting words:
そば - soba - side, vicinity ( a noun equivalent of 'near')

よう - way, like, kind (like "kind of", sorta, rather, etc. I think)

閉じる - tojiru - to close (another one!, tho a review... this is close a book)
閉める - shimeru - to close (this is to close a door)
締める - shimeru - this is to fasten, tighten (like a seatbelt)

辛い - karai - spicy, salty
三日- mikka - three days, third of month
来る - kuru - come

前 - mae - front, before ('前で/mae de' is 'in front of')

Here's a little one I picked out of a sentence... I'm sure of it.
りんご(ringo) - apple
Guess I ought to go learn my fruit... That's for later...

peace!

Studying Guitar Hero (Seriously)

I'm not going to rant about playing the video game.

I'm saying I'm seriously studying it, from a guitar perspective.
I'm learning how they made the difficulty increase, and how it applies to the real songs.

I've learned several riffs from misc. songs already, and I can play one of them.
It's My Name Is Jonas by Weezer.

The tricks used to make the things that sound difficult are simple hammer-ons and pull-offs. With mastering those, I'll be able to play anything.

The Metal by Tenacious D (i.e. Jack Black lol...) I know most of.
If you know it or listen to it, you'll discover it doesn't sound easy... and it's not.

I've learned lots already taking this seriously, and if you're learning to play guitar, take a peek at guitarherotab.com, specifically GH III if you want to see the stuff I'm interested in.

It's all good... I'll add a permanent link on the left under guitar! If you're going there, you'd better have spent or be planning to spend some time at Guitar Cardio too!

I haven't had time to work on my song of late. I need to continue...

Moonlight Bestowal

That's the name of my most recent piece.
It's a beauty, but it needs something... I don't know what...
Anyway, here it is.
I think it's one of the better ones I've done in some time. The name was spontaneous after I added the last touch - the moon. It is a wave of the sea tossing in the pouring rain on a stormy night. The foam glows in a surreal manner in the narrow stream of moonlight. It's very... poetic?

It's a theme that has always followed much of my music and poetry composition. It's rather strange to me to find that this is the best rain result so far. There's almost a little bit of irony to it - I was looking for something unique, and the uniqueness came out of a cliché of mine. Huh.

The rain was done by brushes of my own design. My ideas were heavily taken from this tutorial.
Aside that rain work, it was all purely mine. My personal brushes made the bubbles and the streamlines are standard-brush pen tool work. The bubble silhouettes on the right are my own gradient+circular selection idea. I used cloud/difference cloud filters, and I set lots of layers' blending to "soft light".