| blueberry hill |
[28 Oct 2009|02:39pm] |
After months of planning, preparing, calling, scheduling, organizing, worrying, irritation, excitement, confusion, panic, and all sorts of other things, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) hyperbard and I got married on Saturday. I've got a lot to say about it, so I'll just reiterate this before I put in a cut:
Not all weddings suck.
( Read more... ), fitzw, and helwen before I send out notes officially:
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 3 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. lavender (ground)
- 2 tbsp. butter
- 1/8 tsp. salt
Bring maple syrup to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add remaining 4 ingredients. Stir until butter is melted. Good glaze or dip for scallops, and many, many more foods.</div>
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| 20 Hours |
[23 Oct 2009|02:54pm] |
I've been quiet here, and that's partially because I haven't had the presence of mind to post an update. As you probably know, I'm going to be getting married tomorrow to my darling hyperbard. I've been handling the planning with O'Connor's and doing last-minute stuff with our priestess, who is perhaps the best person I could ask for to perform our handfasting. Between the two of us, we've come up with a ceremony that represents our very different spiritual beliefs and joins them as beautifully as we can.
The two big problems I've got right now are these:
One, I've had to start things an hour later, due to a miscommunication on my part with O'Connor's. I've sent an E-mail out to as many guests as I can, and phoned as much of the wedding party as I can about the change. I was panicking at the time, but it shouldn't be too much of a snag in the long run.
Two, my best man, if he IS going to make it on the trains (and will hopefully be a legal passenger), needs to be here before 8 for my Hyperkitty's sake. If he DOES get to our apartment at some ungodly hour with his Australian sheepdog, we have absolutely no idea how we're going to accommodate him. For one thing, she's going to have her bridesmaid with her who absolutely cannot under ANY circumstances stay with a dog in the same apartment. For another, she needs minimal distractions anyway. And perhaps most importantly, that bastard promised me a bachelor party/Ed Wood movie night, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let his ass get detained by CSX while we're supposed to be drunkenly watching Glen or Glenda.
The good news is, my two groomsmen are perhaps the best men for the job I've asked them to do: keep me as sane as possible no matter what crazy stuff goes on tomorrow. A & S, two of the first Quintavians my bride-to-be introduced me to at our first SCA event together, graciously accepted on short notice. And I have the feeling I'll need them. But as I've been told in various ways, it'll all work out. All that's left is going through it.
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| Wedding update |
[06 Oct 2009|03:58pm] |
- Moved wedding ceremony to O'Connor's instead of Elm Park
- E-mailed as many of the guests as I can find about the move; must call the rest
- Realized I only printed directions to O'Connor's in the original invitation from the park
- Have a suit!
And that's all I can think of right now.
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| HELL YEAH |
[07 Sep 2009|01:44am] |
 | If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Dmitri Shostakovich! I am a shy, nervous, unassuming, fidgety, and stuttery little person who began composing the same year I started music lessons of any sort. I wrote the first of my fifteen symphonies at age 18, and my second opera, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District," when I was only 26. Unfortunately, Stalin hated the opera, and put me on the Enemy Of The People List for life. I nevertheless kept composing the works I wanted to write in private; some of my vocal cycles and 15 string quartets mock the Soviet System in notes. And I somehow was NOT killed in the process! And Harry Potter(c) stole my glasses and broke them! Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test |
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| 188! |
[17 Aug 2009|12:55pm] |
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For the first time in several months, I've gotten my weight back down under 190 pounds! I certainly feel thinner, and it seems like my metabolism's sped up again, in part thanks to my current meds and allergy shots. Next milestone: 180 pounds, which I haven't broken in about 15 years. I'm not sure exactly where I want my target weight to be, but I'd like to know what it's like to weigh around 175 again.
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| SmoltzWatch '09 Update #3! |
[07 Aug 2009|03:51am] |
Innings Pitched: 3.1
Earned Runs: 8
Current ERA: 8.33
W-L: 2-5
Number of times word "change" used in post-game interviews: at least 5
Amount of spinning Dave Roberts needed to blame Smoltz and praise him in the same sentence with a straight face: 600 RPM
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| SmoltzWatch '09 Update #2! |
[06 Aug 2009|05:51pm] |
Just got this in time before the game!
G: 7
W-L: 2-4
ERA: 7.12
BAA vs. Left: .403
Number of batters faced after someone talks about the "athleticism" of John Smoltz before he gives up a home run: 1
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| SmoltzWatch '09 Update #1! |
[27 Jul 2009|01:38am] |
Current stats for John Smoltz, current Red Sox starter:
G - 6
W-L 1-4
ERA - 7.04
Opp. AVG - .321
Number of times NESN broadcasters have used the term "Vintage Smoltz": TOO MANY.
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| Mario Marathon! |
[11 Jul 2009|11:13pm] |
http://mariomarathon.com/
Gamers play through the Mario games for the charity Child's Play.
A great cause, a great idea, and if you like video games, not bad to watch.
As of right now they're in World 6 of Super Mario Bros. 3, for those interested.
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| Lunar Mecha Soundtrack: The Lost Hero |
[07 Jul 2009|03:48pm] |
(Another crosspost from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) lunar_mecha)
It's been a while, but I've finally completed something I've been tinkering around with for a little under a year. Mia distinctly said that there is no Dragonmaster in Lunar Mecha, but since it IS a Lunar game after all, there has to be some kind of hero -- whether it's one of the PCs or not, living or dead. That was the inspiration for The Lost Hero. This is meant for the Big Moment in the game where the obscure peasant finally realizes he can actually save the world, or whatever the equivalent turns out to be.
The opening chord was inspired by an absolutely terrible book that a former English Lit. professor gave me called "The Girl Who Trod On A Loaf" by Kathryn Davis. She couldn't finish it, and I'm sorry I did. But the book did introduce me to the chord which I used to start this melody. I wanted the tone to be modest but sweeping. I struggled mightily with the last section of it for months, unable to figure out how to end it, or what to do with the strings, but I'm mostly pleased with the end result.
Hopefully you all will be too. :)
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| Sarah Palin resigns |
[06 Jul 2009|07:59pm] |
I'm not sure if anyone's heard about this yet, but...
...
...
... never mind, I quit.
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| Michael Jackson dead at the age of 50 |
[26 Jun 2009|12:58pm] |
I couldn't believe it. I remember hearing about a comeback tour, and just scoffed at it. How do you come back from everything that guy's lived since 1994? It turns out we never got the answer to that question.
His legacy to most people will and should consist of at least five things: The Jackson Five, Thriller, Beat it, Bad, and the first half of the Black and White video. (Apologies to fans of anything I missed in advance.) He broke into MTV's lineup (back when all they did was play music videos), leading the change in music videos from Zappa-esque experimental films to high-production value theatrical extravaganzas. In 1993, he made the Super Bowl half-time show into such a musical centerpiece that only his sister Janet and Justin Timberlake could screw it all up 11 years later. He was and still is beloved around the world.
Already we're being presented with that and his darker side by news organizations. The abuse allegations. The plastic surgery. The baby-dangling. The trial. The Neverland ranch. Michael Jackson stayed relevant not because of his music, but because his life became performance art in its own right. And that's the real shame of Michael Jackson's death: that it's the only way the public would ever stop gawking at him.
Nobody wants to remember that Michael Jackson was a creepy albino man-child whose abuse allegations seemed so easy to dismiss and simultaneously easy to mock because he was that fucked up. Nobody ever wanted to look at him that way, despite the snickering and cheap sense of superiority it elicited from me and his biggest detractors. That's where the comparisons to Elvis that keep getting bandied around are at their most striking. Both men reached such extraordinary heights and then plummeted so dramatically. And both men after their deaths will be remembered primarily for the former rather than the latter.
What I find most striking is the suddenness with which Michael Jackson seemed to transform from derisive spectacle to immortal hero. Not just in my mind, but in the media coverage. Sure, they showed references to all the problems he's had and the repulsive things he's done. But I've never seen media coverage go through the motions so much as I saw CNN's Headline News cover his death, alternating between perfunctory references to possible drug overdoses and his past misdeeds, and warm (or as warm as you're going to get from a second-string news anchor) anecdotes about living with his music back in the 80's and people dancing in front of the Apollo Theater in celebration of everything he did. Say what you want about "fair and balanced" coverage, but this is really an example of when blatant bias is okay. You don't see coverage of Farrah Fawcett's batshit insane ramblings over the last five years, so why show us footage of him gleefully holding a baby in a surgical mask precariously over a balcony?
I grew up on rock and classical music. I never really cared much for Michael Jackson even if I thought there was something unique about his music that I couldn't express. But I am a musician, and in the years that I've spent analyzing every piece of music I can find (consciously and otherwise), I've learned that Jackson was a musical genius as Mozart or Beethoven or Prokofiev or Lennon. And for that reason, maybe he could've produced another #1 hit. Hell, if Madonna and Cher can pull it off, why not him? He's a man with the power to create music, and that's why I'm so willing to forget everything I didn't want to see about Jackson's life in favor of everything I loved about it. And that's why everyone else seems so willing to do the same.
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| You can't say "fuck" in an opera |
[23 Jun 2009|03:32am] |
I've been unusually productive tonight. I've gotten the basic format of my second of a planned 5 tunes for DNW's LufiaRPG commission, after having been nearly musically dry for weeks.
And I've finally figured an opera idea that might actually work: The Three Kingdoms, a battle over control of an opera about the making of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It's sort of inspired by Love for the Three Oranges, Braid, and the realization that even postmodern opera follows traditions that work against it. No idea how far I can run with it, but it'll at least give me some good ideas.
And it's all thanks to a really crappy retelling of the Journey to the West called The Lost Empire. Terrible miniseries (with a few good ideas, like a celestial lawsuit to stop a fight) but provided a spark of creativity, so it's fulfilled its purpose. Which is good because I never want to see it ever again. Or Thomas Gibson, AKA Greg of Dharma and Greg fame, for that matter.
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| A belated announcement |
[02 Jun 2009|01:30am] |
Some of you may know that I've been dating hyperbard since late 2006. A few of you may already know what I'm about to say as I made it unofficial back in late 2007, but I made it official about a week and a half ago with... a ring. Yup:
We're ENGAGED!!!!!!
She's talked about the first ring I got her nearly two weeks ago in her blog, but for some reason I never got around to posting something myself. I'd told her that I wanted to get her a ring with the extra money I received earlier in May, but I didn't have time to actually organize a time do go down and get it. So we went down to the Auburn Mall two Wednesdays ago, where I got her a pearl ring. (She hates diamonds, and we'd talked about getting either that or a moonstone.) It was nice, and though I didn't say anything at the time, it suddenly hit me that I was taking a big step forward, and that everything we'd talked about was about to get a lot more real.
Unfortunately, we realized quickly that the pearl wasn't going to be something she could wear consistently, and so the next day, after taking a bit longer to think about exactly what she wanted on her finger, she settled on a gorgeous peridot ring that was far more stable and far better suited her. I've told Mom and Dad, and she's told her parents too. Our current wedding planner is about to give birth to a baby girl, and we haven't gone further than planning something in November, but we're hoping that between us we can somehow put together a medium-sized wedding and reception. We're steadily solidifying plans, however, so a lot of the vagueness should be settled by the end of June.
So, to sum up:
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| OH NO! THE NES BROKE DOWN! |
[15 May 2009|03:04pm] |
This is from the final chapter of a comic included with GamePro magazine back in 1990, plugging Culture Brain's Little Ninja Brothers for the NES. For those who've never heard of Culture Brain (which includes probably everyone reading this except my sister), they made games like Kung-Fu Heroes, The Magic of Scheherezade, Flying Warriors, and, of course, Little Ninja Brothers. The latter three were all RPG hybrids, involving a quirky mix of action, strategy and poorly-translated Japanese zaniness.
( THE CLICKING WILL BRING YOU TO THE NEXT PAGE. TRY IT AND SEE, YOU MIGHT LIKE IT! )
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| Writer's Block: Looking Back |
[15 Apr 2009|01:22pm] |
joe_chin (</a></b></a>joe_chin) wrote,
@ 2006-07-13 14:25:00
FYI
Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Started this LJ in 2006, mostly so I could stay in touch with people online. The story behind this was an interesting one though, as I'd been hospitalized with a nasty case of acid reflux that my doctors initially thought was heart failure of some kind, due to a wonky EKG reading. But my heart catheterization came back clean and I figured that this was as good a place as any to let people know that I was okay.
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| Culling the Herd |
[08 Apr 2009|01:27am] |
| [ |
music |
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"Space Junk" (working title) |
] |
I've been going through old CuBase stuff (CuBase is my musical editor/sequencer of choice, for those who've never heard me talk about how I write music) and have found a bunch of good stuff, a bunch of bad stuff, and a few things where I seriously wonder what I was thinking. One was actually good enough to submit to vgmusic.com as-is, though far too many of the others were projects that just never got off the ground.
I'm really excited to finally be in the right frame of mind to get back to musical endeavors, even to the point where I don't mind dredging through several years worth of old stuff just to find some gems still worth polishing. One or two might even make for some really good lunar_mecha stuff. As always, stay tuned.
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