So, after years of deliberation and planning, I finally got my car.
Picked it up this weekend from Honda of Pasadena yesterday for what I think was a pretty good price. I had really wanted an Audi A5 for a while now (can’t say I still don’t), but decided this was a much better decision financially, since everything (the car, gas, insurance) would be about twice the price and that would leave money open for Operation Eden and eventually the Aston Martin ;)
Anyways, after a lot of thinking last night I decided on the name The Heart of Gold. (I know, I know: *gasp* it’s not a flower or even a plant) The name comes from a spaceship in The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy, which I am currently reading (and is a good, silly book). Also HOG for short.
She’s a 2008 Honda Civic Coupe, in white with a tan interior. I’ve had it for about a day, drove around a bit last night and today back and forth from school so I’ve clocked about 70 miles so far. It was at 4 when I first got it. I hear the burn in period is about 600 miles so I’m taking it easy till then, just letting the engine and breaks prime.
I love how it looks at night in the dark, when you unlock it and all of the inside lights up, like it’s saying “Come inside! Drive me!” The sound system is also pretty good. Not as good as what I have in my room, but it still sounds pretty good and having volume/track controls in the steering wheel is a really handy feature.
Saw it this weekend, for the genre it was quite good. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 85% and Yahoo Movies a B+. I’d say it’s a B+ or possibly an A- if you’re in a good mood. The ending, unlike most movies of this sort, wasn’t that cheesy or predictable.
Happy birthday to me!
Yay.
Sorry folks, April 2ero is not anywhere near ready. You can blame Girl Gamer for that.
See you on the other side!
I will be putting up a mini blog/thing around SXSW time with coverage and location, so check back for that around March 7.
A bunch of stuff came in recently and I promised pics of the new room setup and lights. But then I thought some videos would be so much better. (Taken with my little SD750 so it’s not HD quality or anything, but I think it does the job)
First a video of the overall room. A lot has changed recently, though its still similar to how it was a few months ago when I posted a pic. But a totally different lighting and sound system, which really makes a big difference I think.
And then the airswitch lights in action. These things are pretty nifty. More commentary later.
The new sound system that I mentioned a few posts ago (consisting of Z-5500, Z-2300 and AirPort Express)
The cool little Aduki Ni lights in green and red. While some say they don’t have any practical uses, I think they look totally awesome. Even more mesmerizing in real life, but I’ve always been a sucker for glowing things that change color and look awesome so maybe it’s just me.
Some of the latest notebooks for girlgamer and some writing utensils for those who are curious (it’s not that exciting). Copyright: Property of Dragon Interactive and Girl Gamer!
I wasn’t very conservative with my export settings and I believe one of them might not be setup to stream, so it might take a little time for them to load up.
So I had ordered an iPhone for my friend and it “came” today. I checked the tracking—delivered! Yay. “Hey dad, where’s my package?” “What package. Nothing came today.”
Uh oh! Panic!
52 minutes later I’m on the phone with a lady at apple and she’s starting an investigation and going to send over a new one ASAP. While I’m on hold I walk downstairs and see a box lying outside. Oops, that’s it. Another perfect delivery from FedEx!
I could understand if no one was home and he did it so I’d be able to get the package asap. But, my dad was home all day. My guess is he signed for it and left it outside the gate—and some tenant picked it up and brought it inside and put it next to the mailboxes.
So the FedEx guy was either too stupid or lazy to actually call the apartment from the system outside—either way it’s no good. Or even worse, he got inside the building and didn’t feel like coming upstairs so left it at the mailbox.
(Though this isn’t even as bad as my recent experience with DHL.) Give me a UPS delivery any day, I’m real good friends with our local UPS man—and he’s awesome! (Their branding/logo is also quite awesome..)
At first I was excited about the MacBook Air. The new chassis looks nice and the portability would be handy. However, then I saw its two (or three) fatal flaws: no removable battery (forget about having 10+ hours of battery life in your bag), glossy screen (though LED lighting is a plus), macbook style keyboard (with the annoying keys, as opposed to the MacBook Pro kind).
I’ll wait for the MacBook Touch or the revised MacBook pro.
My favorite feature is the iPhone triangulation. Cellphone towers by Google is cool, but I found the Wifi beacon triangulation to be really cool!
The new iTunes seems pretty cool too, with HD video rentals. Since there’s no way to play HD-DVD’s or Blu-Ray or something on a Mac. Who knows, maybe I’ll have to cancel my Netflix (the HD is the main selling point for me, though I don’t know how great the quality actually will be).
Forget song of the week, here’s a song for the months… Oh, have I mentioned I’m learning German? Well now I have. And forget about Rammstein or whatever else you know, Wir sind Helden is the best German band ever (and one of my favorite now, just in general).
Here’s a video of them singing 2 songs in an elevator. The second one Wir sind Helden — Von Hier an Blind is probably my favorite (also the name of the CD which the song is on).
Other ones I like by Wir Sind Helden (though they’re all pretty good): Gekommen Um Zu Bleiben, Nur Ein Wort, Zuhalter, Der Krieg kommt schneller zurueck als du denkst, Lass uns verschwinden, and there’s more but I haven’t even fully listened to all of them yet. Thanks Hayley!
Another video by Die fantastischen Vier [the fantastic 4] called Die Da, pretty amusing though it helps to understand what they’re saying. Thanks Clayton!
Southern Culture on the Skids — Walk like a Camel
Heard it in Psych — Weekend Warriors (Season 1, Episode 6) a while ago and really loved it. Thanks to youtube I found the whole song. Though I kinda like this version better, without vocals and stuff—except it’s short.
Oh, also Psych is amazing!
Thanks to recommendations from Martin Andersen and a few others, I decided to stop at a Guitar Center last friday on my way back from school. I looked between the M-Audio Axioms and the novation ReMote series. Ultimately I liked the feel of the keys better, and the guy recommended it too, so I went with the 37SL.
No complaints so far, I’d just been playing around in Garage Band since I have yet to get Logic Studio. But I want to wait till Macworld just in case they come out with something new or an upgrade.
My Logitech Z-2300 just weren’t cutting it. Not that they’re bad speakers or anything (they’re pretty awesome, especially for a hundred bucks). But my desk situation is quite unique. Basically I have 2 desks in an L in a corner, #1 for computing (with the Mac pro and monitors) and one for paper, pencil, etc.
I wanted ideal sound quality and distribution on both desks, but a 2.1 system couldn’t cover that. So I ordered a set of Z-5500’s (5.1 set by logitech), as well as an AirPort Express (for Airtunes) and the Apple Airport Express Stereo Connection Kit for the optical cable.
It’s a bit of a unique solution, but it seems to be working for now. Given the L shape and distribution of speakers, the problem is obviously that the balance is going to be off, since you’d have 1 speaker on one side and 3 to the other. Also, AirTunes only works through iTunes audio—so there would be no system sounds (esp. stuff like youtube videos, or even movies/videos in VLC.
I actually figured out the solution through a lucky mistake. Once I realized I wouldn’t have other important sounds through AirTunes, I thought I’d just connect them to the computer. But the optical cable I’d gotten only worked with the Airport express port (built into a standard 1/4 port rather than the typical optical one) and the Mac Pro didn’t have all the channel outputs to connect it via regular cables. So I used my old Logitech’s for that.
Then I immediately realized the benefits this would have. 1. I’d be able to access the speakers from my MacBook via Airtunes. 2. I’d have two subwoofers, which is a lot better than 1 (better distribution, not one sided) 3. I’d be able to adjust the balance by changing the volume ratios of the two speakers. iTunes plays to both speaker systems via AirTunes, and everything else comes out of the Z-2300’s, which is what I was using earlier anyways.
Later on I might get a sound card or something and connect the Z-5500’s to the mac pro as well (it can take multiple inputs I believe) for watching 5.1 movies, etc. Other small problem is that my center channel doesn’t work, probably because I’m doing stereo x2 sound.
I’m still cleaning and redecorating the place, so I’ll post photos once it’s all done. (here is an old one from a few months ago) Also got a bunch of new lighting solutions that are quite great, but that’s for another post.
xoxo
april zero
I’m considering getting some sort of [musical, not the computer kind] keyboard (either MIDI or standalone, I don’t really know too much about them or what I’d want) or some sort of instrument (maybe a guitar? though I don’t really know how to play one so a keyboard would probably be best) and getting into some light music creation. Just soundtrack type stuff and maybe recreating songs I like etc. I really enjoy music and making it so I think it’d be a lot of fun as a hobby.
If anyone has any suggestions or resources that’d be great. Budget sub 1k.
Also considering getting a new set of speakers, eventually to be wired into a larger, perhaps wireless (airTunes or similar) system. Considering the amplifiers and floorstanding loudspeakers route but it’s quite complicated with so many options.. Lots of reading and forum posts to go through.
My current desk situation (though not permanent) is a bit unique thoug. Basically I have 2 desks in an L shape, one for computer stuff and one for paper. I posted a photo a while ago, but basically the problem is getting the right sound balance on both desks at once. Perhaps a 5.1 system? Or is that technically impossible.. any audiophile readers?
Also, I just checked out a car this morning—a white 03 Acura RSX. It was pretty nice. My second choice after the A5. I’m used to the Accord and really starting to like it now but I think I could get used to the RSX. Acceleration was alright, marginally more than the accord. Braking wasn’t very responsive, though… Any opinions on it? Visually I think it’s pretty good looking and the interior was decent, though a bit retro looking.
PLEASEEE add a button to the mail app called “Mark all messages as read”
Most of the emails I get are notifications and everything I need to know is in the title. (for example, facebook, netflix, etc.) having to actually click on each one (and then wait) to get the blue dot to go away—or just delete it if its a big message /w attachment—to get my new message count accurately down to zero is such a hassle.
also, figure out a way to make it so that sent messages (from gmail especially) dont show up as new messages. while its important to have them in the inbox so they’re accessible, they are not UNREAD since you were the one who (at least hopefully) wrote them in the first place. they’re for reference not reading!
Dragon Interactive — Dream, Design, Code.
As you may have seen last night, the homepage is now up. Other pages aren’t. (Yet.) Most of them are simple but I want to fix all the bugs and make any changes that I’ll need to first, before duplicating it to 20 pages and then having to change all of them.
Safari is the preferred browser for the site—it can handle alpha PNGs and motion better than any of the other browsers (yes, that includes Gecko). So the other browsers have the Apehlion™ motion engine disabled, but in Safari you can see the full header. I’ll add more images and colors over time, like with the splash series.
Or in case you missed them, there’s a few of them saved over here. But these ones were pretty experimental…
Keep checking back as new pages and changes are added! I’ll post them as comments or edits whenever I do.
For now, I’d love to hear your opinion & feedback in the comments.
Check out the current splash with the prototype logo on a colorful backdrop. The site is more of greys and metallics than bright colors, but I feel this kind of fits the concept too.
Anyways the new projected launch date for the Dragon Interactive stuff is December 31. I want the site to be up before 2008. Though the homepage and all the fancy technologies (though some of them might not be actually used) are already coded, it’s really just a matter of tweaking everything.
If someone wants a teaser or to review stuff, post in the comments ;)
And this XKCD comic is funny but true. (aren’t they always)
xoxo
Well it’s been a long week month.
First quarters and finals finished a while back. And since then I’ve been working largely on (drumroll please)…
Dragon Interactive.
Today, being the winter solstice, is supposed to be the launch date. [As you might have noticed if you saw the countdown splash that replaced this site for a while]. A lot of it is done and coded, but there are some parts that are still half-designed and not so done. So here’s the vote:
Should I…
a) put up whats done tonight and then work on it over time till its fully done. I’d feel bad making everyone wait till this day and then not coming up with something.
b) not let anyone see it till it’s done in its entirety and launch sometime around the end of the year. Since you’ve all waited this long already for it, a little more won’t hurt.
Leave a comment :)
And it feels good to be back…
I've only been blogging for a couple months, so I'm still getting used to it. I have a lot of ideas though, and lots of things to talk about — so this is where they'll be going.
This section is basically all the normal blog posts. Just entries about what's going on with me, or ideas that I have, or a new site I've made.