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Sunday, February 7th, 2010
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8:13 pm - Book Review 2010/05
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The Singer of All Songs, by Kate Constable:
This was a very light read. Amazon says its targeted toward Ages 9-12, and I believe it. This seems like it would be a good introduction into the fantasy genre: team of good people, each with their own skill-set teams up against bad person, who wants to do bad presumably bad things.
Minor nitpick: His goal? "Imagine if all the lands, all the peoples, were united in peace and plenty, ..." - truly demonic. He does want to be the ruler of these peaceful lands, of course. Wait, his father is the emperor... Anyhow, he's bad, really.
Singer has its owns system of magic called "Chantments", which are ritualistic songs sung to channel power. In most parts of its world, magic-users are reviled, and there aren't very many of them. Other than that it's your standard pre-industrial world. No dwarfs, elves, kobolds, etc.
While I'm not going to rush out and pick up the next two books in the series (I'm not even sure where we got this one from), it could be a good starting point for young readers.
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| Saturday, February 6th, 2010
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8:48 am - STO
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8:42 am - vocabulary!
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I learned a new word yesterday as I read about Amazon.com's handling of its dispute with Macmillan - Monopsony. Where monopoly is being the sole provider to many consumers, monopsony is being the sole consumer of many providers.
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| Thursday, February 4th, 2010
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6:32 pm - Victory! やった!
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I believe I now have a new high score for the "Longest Time Spent Waiting For a Scantron Test to be Graded" category.
I took the JLPT level 4 December 6th, and I got a sneak peak at my scores on-line today. (They won't be sent out in the mail for several weeks, of course.)
In short? PASS!
Kanji and vocabulary - 95 / 100
Listening comprehension - 47 / 100
Reading comprehension and grammar - 161 / 200
Total - 303 / 400, 75.75%
Needed to pass? 240 / 400, 60%
Unfortunately, they're changing the format of the test, and next time I'll be graded on how I do on each individual section, not just as a whole. My listening comprehension will be a problem. Hmm... more anime!
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5:11 am - early wake-up time
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It's days like today that I'm glad I've trained myself out of using the snooze button on my alarm clock.
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| Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
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11:19 pm - M&Ms redux
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10:21 pm - Rock over London, Rock on Chicago
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So, after thinking about Rock Band Equipment for a bit, I decided on the Single Cymbal expansion to bring my cymbal count up to three. It arrived today, and having played with the full set, I wish that I'd sprung for the triple cymbal pack from the beginning. On songs played primarily up on the cymbals, it makes a big difference not having to drop down to the blue tom for the ride cymbal part. (e.g. "Who Knew", "21st Century (Digital Boy)") It'll take me a while to get used to having it there, but it's definitely worth it.
I'm glad to say my cymbal doesn't suffer from any of the potential mechanical problems that I've read about it. It doesn't register double-hits when I tap it, it correctly registers single hits, and I can play a long series of notes on it and not worry about it registering each one correctly. Thank you Amazon.com!
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| Sunday, January 31st, 2010
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8:55 am - Book Review 2010/04
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Kushiel's Dart, by Jacqueline Carey:
This is the first book in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) la_llorona2003's favorite series. I've been meaning to read it for some time now, but at nine-hundred pages, it's not a one-weekend book, and I've gotten easily distracted.
I'd recommend the book to anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre and is not put off that the main character is similar to a Companion in Firefly (or possibly Courtesan, depending on your definition), and that she plies her trade many times in the book. (Edit: As trillianekua points out, many of the sex scenes in this book have a sadomasochistic bent. Caveat Lector.)
This book is one of many where the artist who did the cover-art (John Jude Palencar) appears to have not actually read the book... or even descriptions of the main character that he's drawing:
- "My hair, which grew to curl in charming profusion ..."? 'Nah, give her straight hair.'
- "The thorny lines were stark black, accented in only a few choice hollows with a teardrop of scarlet - a petal, a drop of blood ..."? 'Nah, just do the whole thing black and white. The red doesn't have any significance does it?'
- "As is customary, he began at the base of my spine, at the very knob where it ends ..." and "Thorny black lines, intricate and powerful, rose from the graceful scrollwork at the base to twine upward the full length of my spine, ending in an elegant finial." 'But if I do that, I'd have to rotate her more... I'll just move it over on her back and shrink it so the reader can see it better, even though I've also provided what the whole thing looks like to her right.'
- Her most typical pose is kneeling with her hands clasped before her? 'Ooh! I'll have her stand in an almost Cassiline manner!"
stab stab stab
I do wonder about the process, though. Is the author a part of the cover-art process? Do they get to sign off on it? Did Carey approve of this? ... after she saw it?
(In searching for a cropped version of the cover I found fan art that does a much better job of capturing her (NSFW))
Oddly, John Jude Palencar fixed most of the discrepancies for the cover of book 2, and then reverted for book 3. *shrug*
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| Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
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7:29 pm
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(Note: If you haven't used the Hero System for RPGs, then the following may may less sense.)
In Hero System, your speed is a number between 1 and 12, and it dictates how often and when you get to act during combat. A character with a speed of 6 will act twice as often as a character with a speed of 3, and half as often as a character with a speed of 12. (If memory serves, 3 to 4 is around average, and 12 is The Flash or Superman.)
The Hero System Speed Chart looks like the following. The numbers along the left are a character's speed, the numbers across the top are the phases of combat, "X"s represent acting, and "-"s represent not acting.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1 - - - - - - X - - - - -
2 - - - - - X - - - - - X
3 - - - X - - - X - - - X
4 - - X - - X - - X - - X
5 - - X - X - - X - X - X
6 - X - X - X - X - X - X
7 - X - X - X X - X - X X
8 - X X - X X - X X - X X
9 - X X X - X X X - X X X
10 - X X X X X - X X X X X
11 - X X X X X X X X X X X
12 X X X X X X X X X X X X
I took inspiration from that chart while working on a utility at work that performs work at a requested rate. For instance, I could have a task that wants to happen seven times per second and another than wants to happen four times a second. I was too lazy to write a multi-threaded application or calculate the amount of time I needed to sleep until the next task was ready, but I remembered this chart and figured it was just what I needed.
When a task wants to run four times a second, I simply let it run four out of every tenths of a second, instead of once every 1/4 of a second.
With some minor changes to the Speed Chart to fit into ten intervals instead of twelve, I had my timing sequence, and got to avoid a problem that wasn't worth worrying about:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 - - - - - X - - - -
2 - - - - X - - - - X
3 - - - X - - X - - X
4 - - X - X - - X - X
5 - X - X - X - X - X
6 - X - X X - X - X X
7 - X X - X X - X X X
8 - X X X X - x X X X
9 - X X X X X X X X X
10 X X X X X X X X X X
Want to run seven times a second? Good, you'll go on slots 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. Four times a second? You'll go on slots 3, 5, 8, and 10.
I think from now on if I'm playing games, I'll just label it as "research". That's tax deductible, right?
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| Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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9:16 pm - Book Review 2010/03
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The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman:
This book is about how the items around us might be well-designed, but probably aren't.
If you have ever had trouble operating a sewing machine, a washing machine, a computer, or even your telephone, this book will help you to understand why you had trouble, and that it's probably not your fault. Although the pictures are a bit dated (the book was first published in 1988) the problems he wrote about are still around us.
Read this book, and stop feeling bad because the designer of your toaster fell down on the job.
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| Monday, January 18th, 2010
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7:35 am - Well, I talk about games, games, games
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| Sunday, January 17th, 2010
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10:11 am - Book Review 2010/02
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The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible!, by Otto L. Bettmann:
This book, written in 1974, details the many ways in which life was horrible for the non-wealthy of the late 19th century. The text is accompanied by some pictures and many, many sketches (presumably editorial cartoons from the time period). In fact, my only complaint with the book is that it claims on the back that "Otto L. Bettmann is the founder of the famed Bettmann Archive in New York, one of the world's great picture libraries. It resources, some three million prints and photographs, ..." With all those pictures in his library, I wish he had put more in the book. It felt like at best one or two photographs per chapter, compared with dozens of sketches / drawings / etc.
Other than that, the book covers such problems of daily life such as Air Pollution, Traffic, Housing, Rural Life, Crime, Food and Drink, Health (especially bad), Education, and others. If you need another reason to gripe that Hollywood got a movie wrong, I recommend reading this book.
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| Sunday, January 10th, 2010
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10:15 am - Amazon Video On Demand
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I got a promotional code for $5.00 using Amazon's Video On Demand service last month. It turns out that they offer a number of movies for $5.00 or less, so I now have a copy of Ultra Violet downloaded.
Ultra Violet is a very silly, very pretty movie. It reminded me of Equilibrium a lot (to the point where William Fichtner played the same role in each), but I liked Equilibrium better for story and dialog (such as they are).
I don't know if it's the quality of the video compression, the Amazon Unbox player you have to use, or my laptop's monitor (or some combination) but there was an odd blurry-effect for a lot of the movie. Does anyone know if that's a normal part of Ultra Violet? It wasn't enough to get in the way of watching the movie, but I couldn't tell if it was intentional or not.
Edit: Now I know why the two movies seemed so similar... they were both written and directed by Kurt Wimmer
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| Saturday, January 9th, 2010
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12:23 pm - Book Review 2010/01
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The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman:
There's not a lot for me to say about this one. It's (ostensibly) a children's book by Neil Gaiman. If you already know you enjoy reading his works, you'll almost certainly enjoy this one too. If you don't know his works, you should.
I'm glad that la_llorona2003 received this for Christmas, and we'll definitely keep it around. However, if you're the sort of person who doesn't re-read books, I'd get this one from the library or a friend. We both read it in a few (enjoyable) hours.
current mood:  hungry
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| Thursday, January 7th, 2010
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7:40 pm - decisions
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| Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
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7:33 am - Book Review 2010/00
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The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco:
This book reminded me of la_llorona2003's view of Lord of the Rings. At its core is a mystery, a 14th century whodunit, which was very entertaining. Every so often, though, mystery is set aside for a long description of some wooden carvings, or a discussion of finer points of theology (did Jesus laugh? own property?), or a chapter-long dream/hallucination the main character had. If you don't mind your mystery stopping and starting, or don't mind skimming past those bits, then the book is worth it for the mystery parts.
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7:23 am - Kick Pedal update
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The kick pedal survived December newly-intact, so super glue + reinforcements is a viable alternative to replacing it completely.
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| Sunday, December 20th, 2009
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9:45 am - Rock Band kick pedal
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If you play drums on Rock Band, I have a warning:
My kick pedal broke just ahead of where the pedal meets the hinge... In retrospect, that does seem to be where the most tension will be. If you are not gentle with your pedal you may want to preemptively reinforce that area with something.
I've super-glued mine back together, and as a test have reinforced it with wood (since I didn't have any metal plates laying around)... we'll see how it holds up.
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9:41 am - Happy End-of-the-Year!
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| Saturday, September 26th, 2009
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3:47 pm - Rock Band 2
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Pros: Today I beat Rock Band 2's Endless Setlist 2 on hard drums. (All 84 core songs in a row, with about 15 seconds between each song.) I got 411 out of 420 stars.
Cons: It took 6.5 hours, and I am physically exhausted. I failed on Battery (a fluke, really, since I came back and 5-starred it), Visions, and Panic Attack (twice!). No Bladder of Steel Award for me today. :(
I can't speak for other instruments, but for me the hardest song on drums (on hard) out of the core 84 is Panic Attack. Visions is harder technically, but it's much shorter, so if you can pick up two energy streams and then never overdrive, your fill sections cut out a lot of notes. Panic Attack keeps changing from tricky rhythm to tricky rhythm and is much longer.
current mood:  tired
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