Review it, dumb Crit!

I wish I could be a critic. That would rock. You could sit around all day and tell people what was wrong with their work. "Yes, the piece is good. All except for that horrendous nose!"

Oh yeah.

On other news, I have been drawing a lot of my comic. My style has finally been refined to look rather nice. Unfortunately, there is the issue with the text. Text. It sucks. I wish that I had better handwritting or something, because I am afraid that the general reader won't be able to figure out what I am trying to say. So, to try to approach this issue, I went to the local Borders and read a book on comic book creating. Right when I opened the book, I went to the section on the text. They recommend:

1. Try to do hand-written, it gives it some personality.
2. If the hand-writting is bad, create a personal font.
3. Use default computer text... Sans.

So, I am trying out number one on the list, first. When this doesn't work out, if so, I will create a font. If I just can't get those fonts working. I suppose I can settle for a little comic sans.

I am kinda liking this hand-written idea. It makes the editing part so much easier. All I have to do is scan, crop, save, and post. No text editing whatsoever.

Alright. If you have been recently to check out the Beach Aliens site, you probably noticed the lack of updates. Nonono, this doesn't mean that I have stopped creating it at all. I am just trying to get my hands on my own personal scanner to use (instead of my brother's). So, I am forced to save up my own cash to get my own. Hopefully, I will have it soon. This way, I can post the 5.5 unscanned pages I have sitting on my desk.

---

Since this post is entitled 'Review it, dumb Crit!,' I will (without further adue) now explain. I plan on trying out new things (like Google Pages post) and talking about them here. If you didn't notice, that was kinda the idea behind the past two posts. I find I get way more page hits when I do this. Hehe. I mean, who really wants to read about what I did during my day?

No, don't get me wrong, I will still do some filler-sort posts about me, but the main focus is changing to the idea of criticism. Oh yes, wonderful criticism. Nope, I couldn't find too much interesting, fresh, and new stuff to write about today, but, maybe tomorrow.

When, which is probably soon, I get sick of being a critic, I will just stop writing those crit-ish articles, and come back to my good ol' style of talking mainly about me.

Hope to see you around.

Of Google Pages and Spores

Google Pages
Yes, I tried out Google's new Google Pages Beta deal. It's a great WYSIWYG editor, but if you are strongly attatched to your HTML, Google Pages is not for you.

I found that the best part of Google Pages was the fact that you didn't have to download anything. It was all embedded on their web's (Google Pages). The unfortunate thing in my case is their lack of Opera support. I had to open up Firefox in order to use it. (Don't worry, you die-hard IE fans can still enjoy it, too.)

Another downside, it has some small (most likely soon-to-be-solved) issues. When you publish your site, it takes approximately 10 minutes for the changes to show up. Sometimes, there are strange issues that preventing you from going to the page at all. But, I'm sure, with time, these issues will be solved. I suppose that's why this is still in its BETA stage.

So, if you:
a) have a Gmail account
b) don't have much webpage building experience
c) don't mind putting up with the BETAness

Then, this is a great thing for you to try out.
If you want to see the page I whipped up in a matter of minutes, go here:Google Pages Sample.

---

Spore
I am in the local Game Preserve (nerdy, I know) with Ryo on Saturday night, and he tells me about this new game coming out from Maxis (creators of Sims). The game is called Spore. ::Official Site:: Spore is a very cool, extremely innovative idea. You start out as a measly single-celled organism, and you have to evovle and become so advanced that you can actually travel to other people's planet's (with online connection), and interact with them.

This game is bound to be a huge success. It is currently going to be realest for PC, and possibly the XBox 360. I am really hoping that I can find this game on some sort of Play Station console. Whether it's the PS2 or upcoming PS3, I don't care. I just don't want to have anything to do with Xbox, and I don't have a great graphics card on my PC.

So, let's just all hope that this game doesn't require a monthly fee when it is released.

Bye.

A Scanner Darkly

Hello,
I just arrived home from school. Well, about two hours ago.

What did I do in those two hours?

What could possibly keep me entertained for a full two hours?

Hint>>It was just one thing.

If you knew now, without reading ahead, I would be a little scared.

---

Hint>>I could lay on the couch while doing it

Eh, I'd still be quite freaked out if you knew by this point.

---

Hint>>It didn't involve the television.

---

Hint>>It came in the mail.

I could see you getting it by about this point.

---

Hint>>I read something.

Yes, but what?

---

Hint>>It was a magazine.

Can you guess which one?

---

Okay, enough with the guessing game. I'll just tell you. I got my first issue of my year's subscription to Wired magazine. It was really a nice deal. $10 per 12 issues! Yay. I get to have my NERD feed of information.

Well, featured in the magazine (on the cover, actually) was a look at the upcoming movie, A Scanner Darkly. This movie is not your ordinary Sci-fi film. It has a very unique look and feel to it. The movie looks like it is fully animated at times, but at others, you think the characters may be real. This is due to the unique style they used for the recording of the movie. They recorded the movie as usual, but in the editing stages, they transformed the images to get a very unique look. To me, it looks like the images of the loading screen in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Here is a screenshot from the film:


Oh, I hope that this movie releases soon. It is sure to please audiences in a similar way to how Sin City did.

I am excited. I hope you are as well.

Bye.

Another Rainy Monday

Today sucked.
Well, not all day. Mainly just French class.

I got so sad and regretfully mad at myself.

I got a test back, a test that supposedly the 'whole' class did a wonderful job on. The whole class, but of course, me. I am such a freaking retard. I don't know how I could make so many dumb mistakes in one test! Well, my grade is probably ruined in that class now, and my GPA is going to go way down just because of that damn French class. I don't know why it has to be so difficult. I don't think foreign language is my 'thing.'

Goodbye.

Aboo.

It's a secret.

What's a secret?

If I told you, I would have to kill you.
Really.

---

Achoo! Blesh me. Isn't that so irking?

Don't you just hate it when people say 'blesh' instead of 'bless?' Another thing that really annoys me: words that sound the same, but could still have a several meanings. For instance:

Dove:
a) a bird
b) past tense version of dive

-or-

Tense
a) an area of time
b) to be unrelaxed

Isn't that just so annoying. But, the most annoying thing about this is, that damn chocolate company named their chocolate Dove Chocolate. Which meaning is it supposed to take on? Their logo is a diving dove. So, do they mean the dive dove, or the dove bird? Both?

Oh, I suppose we will never know.

Goodbye.

Drip Drop, The Witch is Dead

Drip drop, drip drop. I am going insane. Well, no I am not, but if I were, I probably wouldn't know it.

If anyone is going insane, it would definately be Ryo. Seriously, it really wouldn't surprise me too much. He works himself so, so, so, so hard, and runs on almost no food or sleep. I admire him for his devoted effort.

So, ryo can make a 3D tank in Blender in about 5 minutes. Shocking, I know.

Anyways, tomorrow may be a bit on the boring side compared to my average day. This is mainly due to the fact that Megan is going to be on an all day field trip, so I won't get to see much of her, talk to her, sit with her at lunch, ect. It is rather nice since we are in almost all of the same classes this semester. It helps the days move along, but tomorrow, oh my. It will be boring.

I am so selfish. I am here talking about myself with great sympathy. I should accredit others a lot more often. I should try to include achievements of my peers in here.

Okay, I already told you about Ryo's 3D tank.

The reason Megan is going on this field trip is so that she can see this print that she had entered into this Scholastic art competition in Indianapolis. She is going to see her artwork on display. (I hear her print is like the first thing you see when you walk into the exhibit!)

My old friend Jenny scored first in the backstroke events in state competitions, and second in butterfly. She is a one of a kind swimmer. I am happy for her. I hope she goes to the Olympics in two years. I'm sure she will.

Hmmmmm.

More peer accomplishements to come in future entries!

Bye!

Rainy Days and Mondays

Okay, well, today isn't rainy. It's quite sunny actually. I just needed a good title for this post.

I have now released a total of ten techno songs. Two of these songs are in the top 50 of their genre on the soundclick.com genre charts.

Yay.

I don't have very much homework to do today.

Yay.

I made it into honors English 11 for next year.

Huge yay.

So, more on that honors English. I had to do this long writing sample a couple weeks ago first thing in the morning since I was a prospect student for honors English 11. So, I go in, as tired as can be, and read this long passage. After writing an analytical essay on the passage, I was finally free to go. So, I wait for about two weeks, then finally get my response. It was funny because my mom had gotten it in the mail before I woke up, and when I came upstairs, she was trying to act all discrete about it so that I would be surprised. I just played along and acted extremely shocked, even though I already could tell I made it from the look on her face, and the way she said, "You got a response about honors English."

It was quite hilarious.

Check out my cool techno: Ethyl.

Enjoy.

Check this out

At this big music community site, I am ranked number 23 on the IMB subgenre charts! This is 23 out of 3,651 songs! Yay, I'm so happy.

Beach Aliens sample

More at: Beach Aliens

Technologic

I have been creating techno like it is going out of style.

But then again, maybe it is.

Hopefully not though, since I just got into the scene first-hand.

To give you an idea of how much this is affecting me, I even had a dream last night related to my techno craze. My dream was very abstract and quite exciting. The other chatacters in my dream were a series of Pop'n musicish cartoony things:




Yeah, quite exciting, eh?

So, I was in this sythesizer competition where you had to pretty much face off with another player in a battle of the keyboards! Well, everyone thought that I was some unexperienced newbie to the world of techno and synths, so they stuck up their noses. To their dismay, I somehow managed to make it to the final competition. As I watched the girl go in front of me for the finals, I got extremely nervous and anxious. "Next up, we have Ryan playing the most difficult syth pattern in the world!"
When all of a sudden "beeep, beeep" My alarm. It sucked. I never will know if I won the competition or not. I am beginning to feel like I am going to cry. That dream was so fantastic. It was like my ideal situation of happiness.

I hope that I get to have that dream again tonight, but I highly doubt it.

If you want to hear my best techno song so far, go here: Raindrops

Enjoy.

First techno song

Hello,

I created my first techno song today! Yay! I used Mad Tracker to create it.

If you want to go to my artist page, go here: My artist page.

Pretty cool huh.

No, it isn't as cool as it could be.

The site I decided to host it at only takes .wma files, and highly supports Windows Media Player. It is quite unfortunate, huh?

I am planning on getting hosting at a better place soon, but his will do for now.

---

I am not watching the super bowl. Well, yeah, I guess I am.

Comic Begins

Hello,

The first six pages of my comic have been posted on its site for your viewing pleasure. Go here: Beach Aliens.

Heh, I hope you like it. I have been working rather hard on it all week.

---

Something kinda pissed me off: AOL is trying to amount to the godliness that Google is by creating a free webmail service that provides 2Gig of server space to each user. Unfortunately, it is, of course AOL, plus Gmail gives you over 2Gig and you are always getting more and more.

Stay away from that ugliness that AOL is. Come to the godliness of Gmail.

Oprah, don't lie!

You know what I think about this whole "A Million Little Pieces" story and the guy lying to Oprah?

I think it is complete bullshit.

I think this is all a big sceme to sell the book better. I mean, isn't obvious? Nobody knew about his book until the guy's "secrets" were reveled. Sounds a bit tabloidish to me.

I believe that Oprah and James Frey, the author, are working in conjunction with each other. They are probably both lying. It promoted the book didn't it. A perfect case of reverse psychology! Oprah says, 'Don't buy the book.' and since I have Oprah so much, I think I just might have to buy it!

---

Other news:
My webcomic's site was launched yesterday! Yipee. This comic is a really good one. Just wait until you actually see the comic. It is rather funny. It maybe a little tiny bit cutesy, buy still, very funny.

Here's the comic's site: |3each /\liens

Enjoy the alien's that are visiting planet Beach!

Ow, my back.

This weekend was rather stressful.

Not outrightly, blantantly stressful. It just gives me the impression that it was when I think back on it. Oh my, I think I have a stress indicator. It is my back. I think that when I get a little bit too stressed, my back begins to ache. Hopefully, it will cease the annoying knotting soon. I am assuming it will since school isn't stressful. Wait a second, yes it is! Damn, this sucks. Now I am going to be hurting really bad.

I am planning on attending a small group at our local library called the Teen Advisory Board this coming Thursday. It basically sounds like a community church youth group minus the God part. My friend Jackie told me about it. It seems like a cool thing to go to. You get to talk about the most recent books you've read, check out more books, and play little game thingies. I think it sounds like some fun.

I just got the first page of my new web comic run off. It is not another lazy one like one of my previous ones. It is one I am planning on getting to look nice, and take some time on. The art style isn't that of anime nor furry. It is a sort of style of its own. I am using marker, pen, and pencil to create a very multicultural picture. I'll post a link to the comic's site soon.

I am sure you are dying to know, what did I do this weekend that created this strangely subtle creeping of this back/stress pain. Well, I basically sat in the house and stared droopily out my basement door's window at the depressing, overcast weather of winter. This winter is extremely strange. The temperatures have been averaging approximately 40 degrees (PS- I don't live near the southern area of the US).

On Friday, I am creating a writing sample to send to the honors program at our school. This will be the deciding factor to tell whether or not I am accepted into honor's English at my high school. I surely hope I do. I mean, my writing skills, in my opinion, are a little bit above average for the average person that's my age. I think many would agree.

I'm not sure if you remember back a while ago when I was writing about how much I hate arrogant people. Well, I have finally come to conclude that I shouldn't have said that. I, unfortunately, am rather arrogant myself. I feel bad for having said anything. I apologize as well.

Anyways, after sitting and staring out the window, I went to sit in a smelly old gym at Purdue to watch my sister have a two hour soccer practice. It was dim in that gym. I don't like dimmness. It depressed my soul even further.

On the brighter side, I had a really good dinner both nights this weekend. Last night, I took the time to make our family some homemade pizza. It turned out really good, too! Then, for dinner tonight, we had sloppy Joes. My mom makes the best SJ's. I am jealous.

Time to get the comic site ready! Bye.

Project Hoshimi

My Algebra 2 teacher, Mrs. Lasley, told me about this really cool contest that is going on all over the US. It is called Project Hoshimi.

Project Hoshimi is a neat contest that incorporates computer programming and problem solving. Check it out here: Hoshimi Challenge.

I had a lot of fun at my aunt's Chinese dinner. It was so delicious. She made some chicken dish and a pork dish. They were both incredibly delicious.

Us cousins all entertained ourselves by adding 'in bed.' to the end of all of our fortunes from the fortune cookies. It was quite immature, but still very, very funny. Here's one I got:

"Your luck is about to drastically change *in bed*."

Haha, here's another:

"Don't rush through, stay and enjoy the scenery *in bed*."

Wow, that was fun.

How did your weekends go?

I guess it's a little late to be asking, since next weekend starts tomorrow night.

Heh, I need to post more often.

Slaying the Chinese Dinner

Today, I am venturing to my aunt's house. She annually has a ethnic dinner at her house. This year, it is Chinese themed. Last year, it was Italien. I do not remember what she did the first year, but anyways, I am pretty excited.

I got into The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker last night. It was pretty exciting. As far as I can tell, I am basically at the game's half point. I am at this super annoying boss that is just two hands and I head. I guess I am supposed to hit the hands' eyes with my arrows twice, the head's eyes twice each, then finally throw a bomb in his mouth. I have to do this over and over until it dies. It is quite stressful, but still exciting.

I have only successfully gone through that whole cycle once, but even then, I don't think I could've done it again with the low life meter I had.

---

I just watched some of the Slayers I bought last weekend in my room. Yay, I love The Slayers. I watched the three episodes on vol. 5. They are pretty funny. Amelia thinks that it would be useful if she learned Dragon Slay (the most powerful dark magic spell), but unfortunately, she is a clumsy, white magic cleric that shouldn't know block magic. Lina knows this, so she tries to break it to Amelia kindly (by making her do impossible tasks until she gives up). Amelia gets close to giving up, then by a strange chain of events, finally realizes that black magic isn't to be used recklessly.

---

So, I will definately report back after the dinner. Until then, I am signing out.

BYE!

Getting by

Nothing special has been happening.

It is quite dull.

Oh yes! I forgot! I finally finished reading the Ring Trilogy. It was great, and quite different from the movies that are released in America. It is shocking that such a great story can degrade to a horrible American movie, isn't it?

Well, if you want to see a great (and rather emotional) Japanese movie, see Suicide Club!



Notice the school girls lined up in the background. Well, the intro to the movie is basically all of them laughing, giggling, ect., and then they all jump in front of a train together. Assez interessant, eh?

Je suis tres fatigue. J'adore dormir mais, dormir n'etre pas <(>.<)>.

Woah, I can actually sound like a philosopher in French! Oh lala, c'est assez chouette, oui?

I am getting very sick of sitcoms. I mean, the idea is so...
...obese. Now, thanks to my nutrition and wellness class, everything that is American seems very obese. I know, go figure.

I watched this bon exposition de TV appelé Yes, Dear. C'est assez créateur mais, c'est assez gêner.

So, I suppose I will just stop watching it all together. (Not like I won't hear my sister watch it.)

My sister makes avoiding TV impossible.

Anime on Google Video & Loop

As I was browsing for funny videos on Google Video search, I stumbled acrossed a whole section with anime episodes! So I watched some Chobits and then some Love Hina last night. It was great!

---

On Friday, I went to the library to pick up a hold that I had available. Of course, this hold was the long awaited Loop book. I have since delved into this book, now over 100 pages into it. It is a great book. It is contantly provokeing my thoughts to come up with strange ideas about those complicated topics no one likes to talk about(the creation of life, ect.).

I'm sure Megan is eager to read the book, so I want to finish it and give it to her.

Speaking of Megan, this Panic! at the Disco CD is great. Thanks!

---

I went to Indianapolis again yesterday. It was pretty fun, I suppose. First, we went to this strange grocery Store called Trader Joe's.

Yum, taquitos.

Time to eat. Bye.

Calculatus v 1.5

Calculatus v 1.5

I think this can be officially called a 'scientific calculator' now.

Additions- Square root, sine, cosine, tangent, arccosine, arcsine, arctangent, log, log base 10, and pi.
No bugs found.
Limitations- Only two variable equations can be performed. No Parenthesis support.

↓ Download ↓

Calaculatus

I have just now started my newest project.

It is called 'Calculatus.' It is an open-source calculator program, by me!
Just an FYI: The name is created because is is like a bunch of numbers are screaming, 'Calculate us!' I should shut up with my strange corniness.


So, you can go to the Calculatus page here: www.calculatus.blogspot.com, and download it there! <(^.^)>

---

I am getting sick of this new school schedule. It is always a releif to come home and learn more about computer programming. Then, I usually find myself watching publicans Crisis (only 2 more episodes left!).

So, I am eager to get the Calculatus page set up.
BYE