Monthly Archive for October, 2008

I feel like… I feel like…

Published on October 28, 2008 in Music, Vinyl, randomness and video. 1 Comment

Last week I purchased two new (used) records off ebay, one of which has been stuck in my head for quite some time:

  • “M.A.D.A. – Feel Like Jumpin’ / Wet Dreams” (Nervous records) – This is a damn good record, both A and B (“Wet dreams”) sides are great. As previously stated, I’ve had both of these tracks stuck in my head for quite some time.
    The other record is:
  • “Rhythm Factory – Sexy Sax” (Nervous records) – It’s so-so, I think the highlight of this record would be the B side “Crank calls”. It’s samples are such novelty it’s actually quite humorous to listen to: “Hello?” “ring ring” “Hello?” – You get the idea.

…Ok this is the second post in a row I’ve made a list of some sort. I’m kicking this bad habit… to the curb… I’m never saying that again either.

Along with the records I ordered some “Gruv Glide”. It’s a reasonably priced vinyl/record cleaner that’s been getting rave reviews from everybody’s audiophile uncle. I can’t vouch for how well it improves overall sound quality, but I think the records themselves are cleaner so that’s good. The cleaner they are the more plays I’ll get out of them.

No pictures because my camera sucks at taking pictures, and I don’t have any natural light at the time of typing this.

Here’s a mix though – warning – quick time will probably load if you’re using windows, I recommend you right click and “save as”. Well… if you want to listen to it that is. It’s a mediocre mix at best. Battle mixes are typically cranked out and are made “for the fun of it”. I even tried my hand at scratching in this mix… I can assure you I kept it brief though haha. Oh man. Yea, I’m going to need a new cross fader if I’m ever going to really get into scratching. Just the other day I figured out I can open up my mixer and disable my fader(which is acting like a small resistor to my recording output!) .

Ah yes… after years of staring down Nintendo’s proprietary screws, it’s nice to be able to open up something and make it better without a modchip or special screwdriver.

Obligatory video: M.A.D.A. – Feel Like Jumpin’

Off-site blogging

Published on October 22, 2008 in links, randomness and video. 0 Comments

Sometimes instead of posting a blog I rant on my forum of choice.

These posts aren’t always popular… or rather… ever popular. They belong as a blog post after all. I feel the urge to share my thoughts with people in a convenient place though. No one ever really visits my blog other than the occasional internet drifter and a few close friends.

On a more political note, here’s this hilarious video from the Onion. The Onion never ceases to make me laugh.

Life with a harder edge

Published on October 14, 2008 in Music, Vinyl and randomness. 0 Comments

As the weather cools down, everything else seems to heat up. School of course, but with the post I made yesterday it’s evident my passion for DJing is as well. I’ve bought another Technics turntable and some news records to go with it. I was planning to use these for my first house party last Saturday, but things went awry with the host and it ended up not happening at all. I completely understand his situation though. I was so hyped to finally play somewhere but I guess it’ll have to wait for another time.

In the meantime I’m messing around with my records and familiarizing myself with all of them even more. Especially my new techno record, “Dave Angel – Classics”.

Cover:

There’s supposedly a Jazz-influenced sound to all Dave’s tracks but I find it hard to recognize if it’s there at all. Some are a little too much on the acid-house side of things for my liking as well… but there’s a time and mood for all dance music so I’m sure it’ll come in handy.

I did make a techno mix… about a month ago I think. Been quite awhile. My new goal is to transition from house music to techno which is a lot harder than it sounds on paper. Key clashing is a big deal when trying to make a really smooth mix and it’s going to take awhile before I listen to a house track and think “hey this would go good with this techno track”.

I haven’t been feeling very well this week nor tonight so I’m going to have to cut this short… maybe some more posts later in the week if I feel better.

Here’s a good track from “Dave Angel – Classics” this is called “free flow”:

New set-up

Published on October 14, 2008 in Holy Crap, PC, Vinyl and randomness. 0 Comments

Woot!

…Will blog tomorrow, not tonight.

A slice of life, and an update on where I am

Published on October 6, 2008 in Music, Personal, School, games and randomness. 0 Comments

Sometimes I forget the real propose of this blog.

I was seriously contemplating neglecting my blog forever since much of my interest has now drifted from video games to music and DJing. Video games aren’t the real reason I started blogging though. Ever since I was a… well… kindergartner, I’ve always had problems writing things down on paper or being productive in general. When I reached 7th grade school took a turn for the serious and with it I received special help and training on how to overcome my “disability”. Calling it a “disability” is a bit extreme, I don’t want to be one of those idiots who claim they’re retarded in order to coast through life when they’re clearly not. It’s just how the school termed my weakness. Er, where was I? Oh right, my writing “disability”. I turned around in 7th grade and left the program even, only to fall back into it in my second half of 8th grade.
…
Somewhere along the lines of success I had lost my motivation to continue.

If I want to relate this to games again I could go on about how I found self motivation reporting game-news back to the Nsider community (now gone thanks to Nintendo) and eventually DS-X2.com. But lets not get off track here.

The point is I struggled with writing all my life and blogging helped me exercise and sharpen my writing skills. Though that’s an understatement. Think of my writing skills as a fat guy – yes a fat guy – now imagine what that fat guy would look like after sitting on the couch for 6 weeks doing nothing but eating and walking to the fridge occasionally. That’s what my writing skills look like right now. Even if it may not appear that way in this blog entry(riiight), the fact that I’ve done absolutely no English homework since I started school again makes my writing skills appear that way to the teacher, my parents, and even myself through de-motivation. Lack of blog updates really to blame? No… but they do get my brain working. More so than posting on forums or communicating with friends. Especially when the latter is accomplished via IMing.

This is why I need to continue blogging regardless of subject.

Though video games are always going to be a favorite of mine… just don’t expect every post to lean that way. I’m thinking about revamping the page as well. I notice people do subscribe to this blog… if any one’s reading this please let me know what you think I should do with this blog page. For the meantime, here’s an update on me:

My friend Mike submitted an interactive fiction game to “The 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition” and I helped beta test it so I feel some personal attachment to the game. I’m also in the credits, woo! Oh- the game specifically is called “Channel Surfing” (download here) and it’s a bit tedious to navigate for first-time IF players. I know it was for me! But he could only do so much programming in the three weeks he had left to develop it. Mike is -unlike me- a brilliant writer and the writing is really the “meat” of the game, so don’t feel bad to use hints in order to progress.

This poped up on inanity one day and at first we were all thinking “WTF”. But I approached it cautiously and it seems to be solidifying into a legit party for us all. To complete it I’ve bought a second turntable and I’m in the process of buying some new records they might want to hear. If all goes well the party should take place later this week.
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With the new turntable I had to buy an LCD monitor in order to make space on my desk… good bye CRT… we’ll see if I can find a use for it though. I would hate to throw it away.

Bank account is feeling it this week with all these purchases. I need to start looking for a job again despite this shitty economy… uhg.

Last but not least, Sin and punishment 2! Woo!