Chiptunes Galore

Recently I felt a need to seek out more good chiptunes, so I searched around and found this site. Apparently there have been 8 "Big Chip Compo's" where people have competed for votes by submitting chiptunes. It sounds like fun, but unfortunately there's no news of a 9th one. I'm happy, though, to listen to the entries (available on the site) and convert my favorites into mp3's for iPod-use.

Chipgeniuses:
- Raina
- CurtCool
- Radix
- 4-mat

Julain Winter

During a conversation on #niffchat (The official Nifflas chatroom), someone mentioned a musician named Julian Winter. I searched for his name and found his site, where he has some music samples available for listening. His ambient music is quite beautiful, and reminded me that I need to seek out more ambient indie tracks (and play Knytt Stories again).

Old Bloggy Posts

These are the two entries I had on my old blog on my website. However, as I said earlier on, this website is way more practical for blogging (as it should be). Read these if you'd like!

11/25/08, 2:34 PM
Damn, I'm soaked

___Today it has been pouring rain all day. I'm a bit of a rain lover so I actually kind of enjoyed it. However, since I had an independant study (a legitamite excuse to leave school early), I had to walk home from school rather than get a ride. And boy, by the time I got walking, the rain was pounding down as hard as ever. The sky is bleak and gray and the rain is slowing down right now (though I think (and hope) that it is only temporary); ironically it was at its greatest ferocity during my walk home.
___During my walk I listened mostly to music tracks from Animal Crossing, ones that play in the early morning hours of the game. They are very simple tracks, melodic and peaceful, sometimes kind of sad. It was good music for plodding slowly through the rain.
___I realize I often relate music to things I am doing. Being a video-gamer all my life, I tend to associate certain music (from games) with periods of my life. Animal Crossing music, for instance, reminds me of a time two or three summers ago, where I had no worries and often played Animal Crossing all day (occasional switching off to let my younger sister play). It's quite a sentimental game for me by now, and I hope to include it in My Favorite Games on this site sometime soon.

10/24/08, 12:12 AM

A walk at night

___Earlier today it had rained, and now, even as I write, it is quite blustery outside. The wind feels great, is making a wonderful noise as it goes through the trees. A little while ago I decided to go for a walk outside - I love weather like this.
___While I walked, I listened to music from the soundtrack of Marathon Eternal on my mp3 player. The combination made for a wonderfully serene experience. I was only disrupted by one of two things.
___One, some guys and girls I know at school drove by and stopped and said hi to me. When they asked where I was going, I just said I was going for a walk. I wonder if they knew how content I was just walking, or if they didn't understand how much I like this weather. Anyway, they're nice, and said "see you at school" at that sort of thing, and drove off. I resumed being peaceful.
___As I was walking, once in a while someone's motion-sensored light would come on as I walked past. I hate those things. I wish I could just shoot them out with a BB gun or something. Isn't it ironic that that would be legally consided descruction of property and "disturbing the peace," when it is disturbing my own personal peace?
___I still came back very happy, and was glad I went out. I plan to take more walks at night like this.

Weird Mail

The other day my house received a strange letter. My house is a two-family house, and this means two apartments (my family and I live upstairs). This letter was addressed to the correct address, but had "Apt. 3" on it... which is strange, because this house doesn't have a third floor. Also, it was addressed to someone named "Wiping Wang," which I assumed is an Oriental name, but couldn't help cracking up at thinking of its vulgar connotations in American slang. The letter was a bill for "natural gas," which we do not use in this house. So apparently there's a weird oriental guy using "natural gas" in my attic. Did I mention I've never been in my attic? The entrance is on the ceiling, a small square that you'd have to use a ladder to reach. Quite an intriguing and somewhat disturbing example of our many mail anomalies...

Anamanaguchi

While browsing the Penny Arcade, I noticed that they have been hosting expos ("PAX" 's) for a while. Apparently they're going to have a bunch of awesome people playing live at the next one, which is, unfortunately, on the other side of the country in Seattle, WA. I'm a big fan of Freezepop and Jonathan Coulton, who are going to be there apparently. The 2010 PAX is going to be in Boston, near me, so I give a little hurrah for that. The same artists better be there next year! Oh, before I forget -On the PAX site I saw a description of a band I'd never heard of - Anamanaguchi - that is going to play, and upon downloading their music sample, titled "Helix Nebula," I immediately was about 3 times as disappointed that I couldn't go to the PAX (haha, I care more about seeing chiptune performances than Penny Arcade itself XD (that's an emoticon, in case you couldn't tell)). I think I've just heard the best thing ever. Whoever thought that chiptunes+guitar would be so awesome! My brain is melting...

If you like chiptunes, click on "Anamanaguchi" near the bottom of this page and download the sample. :D

Hello World!

I had what I tentatively referred to as a "blog" on my website, but that just wasn't practical, so here I am! "Hello world," as I learned last year in my programming class, is the traditional test print statement for your code. I'm learning Java this year, but I prefer Python, which I studied last year. But I digress. I made this blog to write about random day-to-day experiences. As I'm an avid gamer and listen to game music, I will post about a neat game I just found, or maybe just a cool chiptune I came across (more about that in a bit). Or perhaps I'll devote my time to complaining about strange things. We'll see!