Ocean and Light Concerts

I felt quite Light today about the Ocean.


One about a big blue wave.

And the other about and essential element of life (and electronics).

Not that great mixing in general. Bass was too much, feedback galore during the wave, plus the lack of compensation for the unplugged instruments (like the great flute). Though in the end it was quite good with all the shakers and tambourines.

The electronics were interesting, though somehow I was more interested in the lighting halfway through. It did indeed evoke some great feelings at the end. I guess that's the concert feeling when you're having fun with a ton of people.

Island of art and fun

Libraries of art schools are great.

And so are those novelty shops near these types of places.

Also business cards are expensive. Especially those super custom made ones.

Jumps and Bubbles

Trampolines. Back extending pain. The act of non-flipping. Dodgeball.

Bubble Tea at a "royal" place. Orange + Dark chocolate do not mix well.

Then some bits playing Tera. I tried out a Warrior cause it seemed like fun. Also, Elin because they are just so darn cute.

Great Incredible Joe

Explosions.

A waved of destruction of a huge city. And also some ninja battles.

Plus an incredibly cheesy script.

All together in one Hasbro sponsored package.


Then some late night super oily but incredibly tasty beef brisket wonton noodle mix.

(This is the start of "the long late break" where posts from the ether have resurfaced after the interest in my blog waned a huge amount)

The Final Run and Rest

Finally we are done.

After almost 8 hours into a new day we finally have the chance to rest ourselves.

I just hope that we can still make it.

Time to rest and finally be done with school for now.


And I continue to cheer on my partners who have their final work due tomorrow. Good luck!

No time for Rest: The Final Run

After resting up for a bit comes the final project report.

Will we be able to finish on time?

Will we have to stay up again?

That will be answered tomorrow. However, things are not looking that great at the moment.

Awakening

Again another morning...

Finally free from this project.

Though it's a bittersweet moment as I feel that my part dragged down the whole team. I am disappointed that I have not learned enough from the lessons of past projects.

Thank goodness my partners are kind souls indeed. Though it's double-edged since I know there's also disappointment in the air about my shoddy job.

Shoddy indeed, but at least it's done and over.

On to the next project. And sleep.

The Time to stay "Awake"

Crunch time at school and over at a friend's house.

Had to set up two battle stations with my portable stuff as well as gratuitous amounts of Adobe trial software to edit everything.

Thank goodness for 5.5 as going back and forth between the 6 and that was a pain. Also, hooray for great internet at night, I hope it keeps up.

Sound editing is painful. I should have brought my recorder.

Also, sound editing as "final stretch" is an annoying job to have since you won't be able to tell how good it is until you piece it together. I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish on time.

To bed! (not)

Putting off a bit of work again

I should really be working hard on this project, but the forces of procrastination and fear of screwing up are quite strong...

Tomorrow for sure I have to get started.

The Power of Portable

Went to school for a long time and had somewhat fake productivity again.

Hooray for my ability to be extremely distracted by minor details instead of getting the work done. Oh well, at least I now have the ability to do this work on practically any Windows computer in the whole school. With my handy, but tiny, external in hand plus the power of portable apps including the ever so great Portable Dropbox, I can go everywhere!

Of course Portable Dropbox relies on somewhat decent internet, which my school gladly provides. Hooray for that.

Finals and the Semi-Ironic Gift

Today was the day I finished the final exam for my cognitive science course. I was quite unprepared, as I had not read up on the topics for a while as I had all my attention on projects and other stuff. Still it was quite an informative class, though a bit weakly taught in my opinion. At least the discussions were enticing at times.

And I also sacrificed a bit of study time to hand over a silly little game gift to an instructor that is leaving soon. As a memento of that time where he played a game during our final, winning the high score, and showing off his retro age. We were the guinea pigs, as the first takers of that class, and he was also developing it at the time. Too bad it was still quite rough, as the concepts were good and ideas would have helped many of the non-programmers in this program. Though some dislike him or his teaching, I still find him to be a cool guy. Who else would be complaining about not being able to play Borderlands 2 because he had to mark grades?

Interactive (Detective?) Art Piece

Today we finally setup and completed the interactive art project for one of our silly courses.

Through the interaction with various objects scattered around a room, you experience the "life" of a stranger. This way it feels as of you control the narrative in a way with the somewhat direct influence of your route.

Or at least that was the concept.

In the end we ended up being less ambitious due to lack of motivation and other projects.

The game played out akin to those point and click games where you inspect every little object that could be clicked to find clues. In retrospect this is completely true, and I thank my friend for the insight as well as the great interview.

We ended up using some footage from another one of our projects that had a strange narrative about a man left alone in the world one day. The choice of music for the piece was just 5 selections from the Yume Nikki OST, which though unfitting left the room very different.

As for equipment, he choice of distance sensors was really neat and made the project function quite well. The 5 objects we used were quite appropriate, as we had a gnome and a somewhat creepy antique picture of some couple long passed. This picture was found to match up with a picture in the footage, and somehow it was like a reversed shot with the lady standing instead of the man. Creepy little easter egg there.

Also, we had like 6 different cameras and a lot of tripods for pointless video taking of the whole thing. Too bad for the 30 minute limit and memory cards being full.

Great Sleep and Pleasing Mark

Today the day I recovered my sleep. It is also the day where we almost basically planned and implemented a term project for a silly class.

Also of note is that we got some awesome marks for a piece of a project. All that stress and unwillingness of half the group still paid off in the end.

Now off to finish that silly project for the next day.

Redesign Video : Almost Wasted Effort

Today was the day I stayed up overnight to complete this silly video for a redesign project.


It's actually the 2nd to final day of classes, and there was a final for the class too. Turns out we were showing the videos first before having a "short" final mid-term exam. I spent the last minutes tweaking the music to the best of my ability since I at least wanted it to sound nice.

But lo and behold, I am left utterly devastated when he doesn't show our video because we "had to move on to the test". A test that took less than 20 minutes, with 30 minutes to spare for the class. I should have focused on that instead. There goes listening to that in-joke laden soundtrack that only keen listeners could be able to pick out.


Now on to the project itself.

The group I was in was a little bit disorganized. Silly schedule conflicts, lack of enthusiasm for half the members, generally a lack of direction, and somewhat poor communication were what led us to this moment.

Thank goodness we got the group together to work on stuff this past weekend. Even if the product of our labours were a little bit incomplete, especially compared to others, they were still at least 80% of the way done. That's quite good considering we've been using up too much time planning everything without implementing and test. Another lesson learned, to not rely completely on team members unless they are self-motivated for this particular project. Someone has to delegate sometimes, but my decisions have not been the best so far.

What we missed and could have completed? More sound recording to patch up the little statistics we had. Had I not been so keen on having the voices done by the one person I would have done it myself. Also, test record always. Never record for an hour without checking what the heck you are working with. Sound is finicky and hard to edit depending on the source.

I have mixed feelings about this course. I should not be the one to be carried by the designers of the team. Next time, I'll just write and design what I can, even if I have poor mental imagery skills. By practice and effort, I'll be more valuable and have a better understanding of others too. Also, don't wait on group members and just do it yourself sometimes. Else, you'll end up with an hour of effort spent on crappy laptop recordings instead of awesome mics. Oh, and you won't have sound to edit to.

Bunkering down for Redesign Overnight

Another day, another time spent being narrow-minded during these stressful periods of time. I have yet to complete the bulk of the film and may spend too much time tweaking versus actually putting in proper footage. So many "we should have" and random mic problems, which I believe was due to bad settings forced to use the internal crap mics versus our great mics.

Anyways, tonight is another night for staying awake. Just like last term now...

Too much time Redesigning the Redesign

Today was another day of work for the redesign project we are doing. As always, I spend way too much time worrying about some very specific issues while being blind to others right in front of me. So much for getting user testing "done" today. At least some kind friends were able to help us.

Onwards to the next day!

Bookstore and Book Blues

Today I stayed at a bookstore for a group project again. Quite fun to be there, although it was quite a dreary day outside.

Productive? Well I guess we got the concepts down to the core now. No more wild changes, all implementation now.


Also, I realized that Twin Spica 5 is now sold out in most places. I'm scrambling to get a copy for almost regular price hopefully. I must complete this series.

The Almost Final Lectures of Spring 2013

Today was the final lecture for my cognitive science course. Though it was quite informative, I felt that sometimes the presentation wasn't the best since it was slide after slide of information. I did, however, like the discussion that came up. Too bad one of the more interesting people kind of dropped off halfway through the term. I guess he didn't really need that class.

Only one more week of class to go (on Monday only), but there's so many projects due on various dates that it's a bit overwhelming.

The in-between school time

Somehow I forgot what exactly happened today. All I know is that it was supposed to be productive, though I guess it wasn't as productive as I'd hoped.

Oh well, we still got stuff done.

8 Hours in a Bookstore for School

Who needs the library when you can simply stay at a bookstore? Of course, the fact that all libraries were closed on Good Friday helped the decision. As well as our school work, which was actually directly related to the bookstore we were working at.

This particular bookstore was nice and cozy with a large window drawing in plenty of healthy sunlight, as well as the light sounds of downtown. Also, free wifi and outlets for laptops were a big plus.