I dunno
what I'm doing, really

I've been using https://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/track/ring-memoir-1 as my alarm tone recently.  It's been great!

Lots of things happening...can't really write about much of it though.  I am doing ok!  Want to become a better person...let's try our best!

Sand Castles

Why do we build these castles in the sand
when they won't last?

When the tides of change come in and undo all of that work, and all of those things are washed away, remaining only as memories in our minds...

Maybe it's because
it's fun?

Maybe it's OK
as long as we don't pretend that they'll last forever.

One of these days, the tide will come in for the umpteenth time
and my castle will still be there

But until then
Maybe it's OK

I still can't believe that I was finally able to reach you again

Kiki

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest music

Hot damn.  I should be relistening to some more SNES/NES osts more often.  Despite being scoffed at by many, I actually really loved Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest and the soundtrack endures as some of the most epic hard-rock snes music in existence.  Not only the Doom Castle theme, but also all three battle themes.  Hellion sounds did a cover of the main battle theme that is also pretty epic.  And the town theme is also really nice.  Gotta hand it to FFMQ for the music.

Anyhow, maybe I should be going back and listening to some of the great soundtracks...the Actraiser OST, maybe some other classics like the Super Mario Kart ost or even Street Fighter 2...Super Mario World maybe?  And of course, the Mega Man soundtracks, and don't forget the Star Control 2 OST!



Writing is really important...I don't think I'll ever stop writing letters.

Out at Night

12:30AM on a weeknight is a perfectly reasonable time to be going out for a run while waiting for soup to cook, right?

Ahh, being out at this time of night feels nice; it's almost like I'm in high school again!  I was even listening to some trance tunes during my (short since I'm out of shape) run.  As boring as being alone is, I think there is something special about being out there by yourself -- maybe call it some sort of spiritual peace?  I really value alone time, as I'm sure many other people do too.  The mental and emotional atmosphere in my house was stifling at some times, particularly during the high school and college years, so I'd escape to the night quite often.  There were times when I had good reason to, like maybe practicing glowsticking/glowstringing or something, but there were also times when I did it just for its own sake.  During college it was perhaps even more awesome, and easier, but I still have very strong feelings of nostalgia for my home street at night, and the park at the end of it, haha.

Listen to Your Heart, Friendships now and then, Genesis 3, Terraria

DHT feat. Edmée - Listen to Your Heart (Edmee's Unplugged Vocal Edit)

Oldie but a good one.  This song made its waves in what, like 2005 or 2006?  Haven't heard it in a long long time, but I'm playing some lesser-rated stuff right now from my music library and it came up.  I feel like this one has actually aged pretty well in my mind!  Unlike some other vocal songs / anthems / etc which I feel like got old and "stayed old", so to speak.  The remixes on the other hand...that's a whole other story =P

Have to thank Parisha for introducing me to the song way back in that time period when it came on the radio and she sang it for me in her car.  Such a good friend!  I still have that memory written down in my log somewhere, I'm sure.  Don't know what you're up to now, but I hope that you're well!

Friendships and people are interesting...in a way, I look at my current friendships and it's a little disappointing that I don't spend as much time together with friend as I used to -- you know, in the high school days or whatever (haha, funnily enough I had yet another band-related dream last night.  So strange...this one wasn't really a stressful one.  Allison showed up in it though!  And you-know-who was strangely absent...I forgot who was there instead...dreams are weird), but at the same time, I'm actually just really happy to be friends with some of the people I know now.  Not even because we have amazing friendships or anything like that; but just because I feel like they are people that I just...can get along with really well.  I suppose it's partly just because we are all older now and more mature (?), things like that.  Thinking back to old high school times, there were a lot of good memories and good times, but at the same time there were also a lot of less-than-pleasant people and/or just awkwardness, haha.  With some of my friends now there is definitely a sense of down-to-earthness that maybe wasn't there in the past...

Watched Genesis 3 this weekend (huge huge SSBM tourney), holy crap, so much awesomeness and hype!  Axe beating Mango and then SFAT was hype as heck, so amazing that he was able to have a terrific run and get =4th place=...was a little disappointing to see him get 0-3d against OP loser-bracket-Mango but them's the beats I guess.  PP wasn't able to get his footing against Mango which was sad but understandable as well; Mango really turned it up a LOT in top 8.  And damn, that fox ditto set between Ice and SFAT was insaaanne, talk about 20XX man; that is a fox ditto I am going to love rewatching again.  We all got the Mango vs Armada Grand Finals we wanted, which ended up being super awesome as well!  Armada got it in the end, as expected...he's really proving himself time and time again as being able to be just a step beyond the other gods.

Anyways, was a really great watch; I think probably my biggest disappointment was no Amsa =(  Everyone loves seeing Amsa...wonder how good he's gotten lately?

Played through a big chunk of Terraria along with N this weekend; I respec'd my armor to spectre armor instead of ranger gear (which also means I won't have to go through the trouble of farming shroomite bars, hah!).  I'd like to make the spectre hood in addition to the mask so that I can swap to it if I just want raw DPS instead of the heal-on-damage effect, but even with the mask's 40% magic damage reduction I'm still hitting a healthy 1.6k dps with the Laser Machinegun which we got from the Martian Madness event today, woo!  I also unequipped both my wings and my boots!  I got the UFO mount from the Martian Madness event so I'm now relying on that for movement and using the extra accessory slots to good effect; I've got 3 emblems, a celestial stone, and a mana flower, so really going for the DPS.  Maybe I should start planting some Moonglow and Deathweed so I can stock up on Magic Power Potions...20% increased damage seems super useful...

Back to working on Zenith Fighter!  Making ok progress today -- replaced the Gunner's dash with a shield ability, and got a decent animation for it as well!  Next is to try and figure out his ult ability, and then he'll actually have a full kit! :D

Grow Your Love Postmortem

Hey all!  I've written up a postmortem about the game I made with Kat Jia for Ludum Dare, Grow Your Love.  You can read it here:

Link: http://ludumdare.com/compo/2016/01/14/grow-your-love-postmortem/

Promises

When will you stop lying to me?  When will you learn that you can't keep these promises that you make?  I already know.  So why do you keep pretending?  Don't lie to me.  It doesn't change how I feel about you; maybe nothing will at this point, hasn't time proven that already?  Just don't promise me anything anymore.

Patreon?

How would people feel about me jumping onto the Patreon bandwagon?  I'm not sure exactly how it would work yet, but something like:

I'll plan on making at least one full completed song per month (but sometimes more!).  You can pledge any amount per song, with the following rewards:

Pledge $1 per song - Early Access

Pay $1 per song and you'll get download links to each of my finished songs way, way before they are officially released!

You'll also get download links to my finished, unreleased songs, including all of these goodies:

https://soundcloud.com/ddrkirbyisq/acrylic-action-stain-the-painter

https://soundcloud.com/ddrkirbyisq/sky-spirit-jig

https://soundcloud.com/ddrkirbyisq/legend

Pledge $3 per song - Behind the Scenes Videos

At $3 per song, you'll get exclusive access to behind-the-scenes tutorial videos and project walkthroughs!  I'll record one of these each month, and take requests for topics that people want to see.  It could be anything from "How to get started with FL Studio", "How to get better at mixing", or even "Walk through your project file for Love Everlasting!"

Pledge $10 per song - Official Supporter

Pay $10 per song and I'll recognize you as an official supporter!  I'll put your name in the credits of my game projects and in the "special thanks" section of my released albums!

Something like that.  Numbers subject to change, of course.  What do you think?  Please ping me back if this is something you'd be interested in!

What would it feel like, to finally reach something that you've wanted for so long, but was never given to you?  Something that has been in your mind for so long that you've forgotten why you've wanted it, or that there was actually a possibility that it would happen?

And, also, what would it feel like, to be granted a desire that you can't get away from, even though you know it will never happen--and more than that, that it =shouldn't= happen.  Something that you want yet know is wrong.  What would that be like, I wonder?

Things are alright!  I made a lindy hop song yesterday; feeling accomplished over that!  Been quite some time since I just started a song and finished it in the same day; it was great!  Took a few tries and a false start or two before I was able to really get the right feel going, but managed to come up with something that I'm pretty happy with.  You can hear it here: https://soundcloud.com/ddrkirbyisq/moonlight-shuffle

Oath of the Gatewatch prerelease is coming up this weekend and I have no idea how to evaluate most of the cards...a majority of them seem underwhelming but I'm sure some of them are actually probably fine.  It'll be an interesting puzzle to figure out, for sure...in my mind surge doesn't seem to be a huge thing that you'll build around (aside from being better in 2HG of course), support seems like it could actually work out to be quite important, removal seems rather plentiful (?) with the exception of green, which still seems rather unexciting =(, and cohort actually seems to have a fairly high setup cost, as tapping TWO creatures is actually a pretty big cost.  I guess it's a great option to have when the board is stalled out and you can just activate cohort abilities for value at the end of their turn, or on defense when you can block and then activate cohort, but I can't really see it working out in any sort of aggressive deck.  There do seem to be loads of allies running around so all of those rally triggers seem a little bit scarier but that's counterbalanced by the fact that there will be less rally triggers in the first place.  The whole colorless mana thing is kind of interesting, I feel like it's going to be easy to try and be way too greedy with it, but the fixing is there if you want it I guess.  We'll see how the format shakes up, I guess!

Practiced some more calligraphy/copperplate yesterday!  It feels like I'm finally starting to get the hang of some of the strokes, which is nice!  The lowercase "o" fundamental form is still really hard for me to get cleanly, but I'm practicing, at least.  I've been using my Nikko nib as well as my Brause Rose -- the Nikko is a lot "sturdier" and probably more forgiving but I'm really liking the light and flexible feel of the Rose, despite it being a little more finicky.

I'll hold onto my past, so won't you come back to yours?

Felt so lost last night, like I had noooo idea what I was doing in life.  Gonna chalk it up to sleepiness.

Misheld beliefs and misinformation are everywhere!  Be open-minded and always check yourself.  Leave room for doubt!  More importantly, can everybody stop making themselves unhappy? =(

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm about to attempt to write some music...

I must show compassion to others.

It's been an alright week!  I was kind of depressed the other day but seem to be doing better now after sleeping it off and getting over it.  Excited that it's Friday :)

Ludum Dare results are out and our game tied for 13th overall, only scoring 0.01 behind the three entries that tied for 10th!  So we very narrowly missed top ten this time, which is great!  Also nabbed bronze in the audio category.  LD ratings and rankings are wildly random and subjective due to it being crowdsourced so we should always take them with a grain of salt, but still a great showing!

Haven't worked on Zenith Fighter in a few days, but I programmed the Gunner's 3rd ability, which is a grenade toss that does some AoE damage along with a stun effect.  Still need to draw up some art assets for that, and maybe try and figure out his fourth ability, and then I can perhaps start working on other things like enemy spawn animations, enemy waves, and/or the beginnings of UI for the shop/upgrades.

Was shown http://www.pocoecogame.com/ by a coworker and it looks pretty promising!  Planning on trying that out sometime soon, hopefully.

Haven't done any work on music lately =(  Hopefully I'll be able to get back on that sometime soon, as it doesn't feel good to have gone so long without any music production -- that is what most of you internet peoples know me for anyways!

Some more episodes of Steven Universe are out for me to catch up on, which should be great fun too!  Maybe next time I'm feeling down I can just take a nice relaxing bath and enjoy some SU and just chill =)

IFTTT integration seems to be working pretty alright, so we're moving full-steam ahead with Tumblr cross-posting now.  Hooray!

IFTTT Crosspost test

Well, we've gone and done it.  Crossposting is theoretically set up via IFTTT now, so this post should serve as a test to see how it functions and looks.

It's nice, actually, to have a central hub to manage all of the silly crosspost behavior.  I still have a couple of services managing their own crossposting, ex. soundcloud should be posting to fb+twitter+tumblr itself (hopefully *correctly*, now that i've fixed up its settings), and youtube posts to twitter automatically but IFTTT manages the connection to facebook.

Might be funny/interesting to visualize all of the connections and spaces with a diagram...I've got FB, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, DeviantArt, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Twitch, G+, ...

Edit: Now that we have this all working properly, perhaps I can abandon posting to FB and Twitter manually except to do what those platforms are best for: Shameless self-promotion!  That's right; who needs status updates when you've got good ol blogging? :)

I logged into my placeholder Tumblr account just to poke around abit (I don't (yet?) use Tumblr).  I still really don't like tumblr's model of doing things where everything is just a repost, etc. etc. and it always felt strange and unintuitive to me, BUT at the same time, perhaps this is where people have been migrating in lieu of other "social spaces" that you can carve out yourself (RIP xanga, myspace, LJ, and a small chuckle to G+).  I do know some friends who use tumblr; maybe this would be a chance to have a nice shared environment for sharing updates, seeing as how the other options really aren't conducive to this sort of thing (lookin at you, FB).  That reminds me, a while ago I decided to reopen my batch script that opens up like 50 browser tabs, pointing to various sites that I used to frequent, friends blogs (most (but not all!) abandoned by now), etc.  I told myself that I should get into the habit of doing that sort of check again but I've neglected that; I should urge myself to get back into the habit again.

Anyways, funny story about tumblr: I found that I already had one tumblr blog that I was following and had no idea from the username who it was...it took some digging through the posts but I'm pretty sure I now know.  I don't remember how or when I was able to get their tumblr username as this is someone from high school whom I have no contact with anymore, but regardless, it was certainly interesting, to say the least.  Their last update was in August, which is not all =that= long ago, all things considered.  That's so cool though, that this person has still been cataloguing their life...really cool.  Perhaps I just need to know the right places to look?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves though; of course this doesn't mean I'm just jumping ship from here and gallavanting off to tumblr-land instead (come on, how long have you been with me anyways?).  The great news here is that tech for cross-posting between services seems to have advanced quite massively, with IFTTT ("if this then that") providing what seems to be a great means of connecting basically all of your different relevant services together in a simple way that hopefully "just works" as advertised.  Action item for me is to disable my current hackish twitterfeed crosspost mechanisms and start trying out this IFTTT thing; if all goes well we'll be able to cleanly post to FB and twitter from here (as we did before), but with additional functionality like auto-posting youtube uploads to FB, etc.  My guess is that for me tumblr may just serve as an aggregation mechanism that will aggregate all of my posts from blogger + soundcloud + youtube + etc.

Alright internets; here's your chance to redeem yourself...let's see what you've got.

It's been another while!  Hope everybody had a nice holiday season.  I'd say mine has been relatively successful, I think!  Going back to work tomorrow, and not terribly sad about it, which is good.

Ludum Dare happened!  Voting is almost over, but you can play our game, Grow Your Love, here:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=7285

LD was pretty great, though I have to say this is probably the most I've ever worked for an LD jam, phew!  I skipped out on FNW again (a great choice) and slogged through the jam along with my partner in crime; we're both pretty happy with what came out of it in the end.  I'll be writing a full post-mortem on that after the official results come out (in a day or two).

Pet Furball has been doing great!  Via Apple's analytics it seems that it's already gotten 2.7k downloads on iOS, which is quite awesome actually, much bigger than we ever expected for such a small project.  Hooray!

Christmas came and went, and although I felt like I was more behind than =ever= this year, everything ended up working out pretty well in the end!  I've only got a couple more letters that I still have on my hands to send off, but all in all it was definitely a mission success.  I ended up getting some great gifts as well, including some much-appreciated items off of my wishlist, hooray!

I planned to work on Zenith Fighter a little more than I have been, but I started up again yesterday and put in some good hours for it; it's really coming along now!  I've got the beginnings of a simple UI, player health and damage, and I'm beginning to solve some design problems that I was running into before as well.  Initially I was intending for ZF to be sort of a roguelike where you go from room to room, fighting monsters and such, but I realized that it would simplify things a lot as well as solve a bunch of issues if I just turned it into an arena-style game where you just fight waves of monsters in the same room.  This also makes the game simpler, which is really nice as well.

I finished my second playthrough of Undertale...(the **** ******** run), which was quite amazing!  It wasn't until the second playthrough, I think, that I really started to appreciate just how much hard work and labor must have went into this game; it's all very well done and executed and there are a lot of small details everywhere that must have really taken a lot of time to get right.  I don't think I'll really be writing spoilery in-depth thoughts on how I felt about it (I already did so for my first playthrough), but I was definitely very emotionally impacted, to the point of tears; I really felt a very strong emotional connection to these characters in the game.  Undertale does a lot of things very well...I hesitate to say that it does them "right" for fear of implying that other games should do things in the same manner, but I think it's worthwhile to at least consider Undertale as a very important illustrative example of how to achieve certain things -- player agency and meaningful choices, how to really do a "new game plus", etc.  I'm not even talking about the major big picture things, but even the small details, like all of the little small trivial dialogue choices you make during the game -- they are all well crafted and having them in the game really adds to the experience of a second playthrough.  Again, not saying that that is something that every game should do, but I found it really awesome.  I don't think I'll be doing a third playthrough anytime soon; maybe someday perhaps, but definitely not soon.  Also, can I reiterate how impressed I am with the Undertale OST?  Simply great.

Watched the new Star Wars movie, which was quite enjoyable!  They did quite some things right and while it didn't blow my socks off (as Undertale did, muahaha), there were a couple of moments where it really felt great -- triumphant moments, nostalgic moments, funny moments, etc.

Also watched the 2nd Nanoha movie, finally (the one based on A's).  A great movie adaptation!  There were some differences from the original anime (I'm guessing one of them is more true to the manga) but for the most part I knew everything that was going to happen.  Still, it was a great watch.  Interestingly enough I felt a real pang of emotional pain when Vita first ambushed Nanoha and started beating her up...I can't tell if it was because I just like the Nanoha characters, or because I consider Vita and Nanoha to be such great friends (after having watched A's and StrikerS), or perhaps even because Undertale has caused me to really value friendship and compassion??  Also, omg, the scene where Fate grabs Nanoha's hand as they are walking into the distance...I feel like it's totally pandering to the fanbase, but wuahhh, that had me squealing...

Other things...I'm getting better and better at cooking, over time!  Finally figured out how to make decent pan sauces (that don't just taste like alcohol and cheap wine), which is great!  Also been experimenting with some other stuff, like cooking pork, soups, etc.  I'm also declaring myself to have mastered Jambalaya, as I made a really good one the other day with my friend, woohoo!