As you are aware, not only did I have plans to change the site design, but google pulled a fast one on me and also has decided to limit the ftp capabilities of blogger.

I’ll be switching the site tomorrow night, so here’s some short head’s up for those of you who subscribe through RSS… things are a gunna be changing.

Catch ya on the flipside!

Can’t stop listening to this at the moment.

I’ve only had a DSLR for a little more than a month now, so I don’t particularly feel qualified to make in depth reviews just yet. But taking the advice from some friends and teh interwebz, I decided to pick up a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II from Best Buy on Boxing Day since I saw that they were selling it for a piddly $99. Apparently, I wasn’t the only person keen on such a sale as it ended up being sold out. The lens was put on back order however, and I have received it this week. Having got a little time to play, I can say this: I likes. Here’s a few of the pictures that I’ve taken with said lens this week:

The bus shelter on King/Church, and my mug (Andrea made me that scarf).

My desk after a night of gaming, and a random person from my neighbourhood waiting for the streetcar.

The view from George St. in Toronto, and some optical equipment at my optometrist’s.

– Record 12 songs

– Destiny of an Emperor Palace Theme
– Mr Big: Take Cover
– Joe Satriani: Love Thing
– Satriani: Ten Words
– Megadeth: She Wolf
– Megadeth: Back in the Day
– Skid Row: Slave to the Grind
– Yngwie Malmsteen: Sorrow
– Bach: Prelude Cello Suite #1 (BWV1007)
– Moist: Push
– Jimmy Eat World: Futures
– Foo Fighters: Monkey Wrench

– Perform live
– Participate in a video game competition
– Beat the games I own but have never finished

– Assassin’s Creed
– Dragon Quest V
– Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
– Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals
– Drake’s Fortune
– Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

– Finish re-reading The Wheel of Time and then read The Gathering Storm

– The Path of Daggers
– Winter’s Heart
– Crossroads of Twilight
– Knife of Dreams
– The Gathering Storm
– Towers of Midnight?

– Redesign this website
– Pay for a new lens using money earned from photography
– Make a triptych
– Finish the Dragoon Kain Munny that I started
– Leave North America

You may recall that I am a fan of music. Of gaming. Of video game music. And you may even recall that I am a fan of Final Fantasy IV. Thus, it should be of no surprise to you then, that when I heard of Final Fantasy IV: Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption; a nerdgasm ensued.

So now that I have a guitar again, I’m in the process or re-learning how to play. I’ve decided to start with learning a song from Destiny of an Emperor. I just figured out the bass line and recorded it, so over the next week hopefully I can figure out the guitar.

Destiny of an Emperor, Palace Theme

INTRO:

G|--------------------------|

D|------------------------8-|

A|-13-----13-13-9-8-6-6-6---|

E|--------------------------|

THEME:

________________________________________________________

|

|3x

|G|-------------------------------------------------|

|D|-------11-------13-15-13----13-15-13----13-15-13-|

|A|----11----11-13----------13----------13----------|

|E|-11----------------------------------------------|

|

|

|G|-------------------13-15-|

|D|----------11-13/15-------|

|A|----11-13----------------|

|E|-14----------------------|

|

|

|G|----15----15----13----13---10---10-------|

|D|-------------------------------------6-8-|

|A|-13----13----11----11----9----9----6-----|

|E|-----------------------------------------|

|

|

|G|---10---10----13----13-------------|

|D|-----------------------------------|

|A|-9----9----11----11----13-13-11-13-|

|E|-----------------------------------|

|________________________________________________________

Gad ZOOKS man. It’s the future! But is this blog going to be about the future? Or even the present? Heck NO! I ain’t got time for the future, bro. I only got times for the past. And that’s why it’s time for another episode of “What happened already that you don’t know about.” It would be pretty pointless to try and tell you about celebrities… or world news. Chances are you have already paid more attention to that than I have. But the one thing I am an authority on… one thing I can tell you about that you have greviously under-attended, is moi. So what exactly transpired in recent memory that is worth discussing? Why X-mas of course!

Not that I like to brag (I like to brag), but my X-mas rocked my socks off. To the max. First off, I have to do the no-no of story telling and jump straight to the climax. See this guitar here? It’s a Douglas SR-370 7 String Guitar. I’ve only put a few hours into this one so far, but the verdict? Awesome. I ran out and bought the Dream Theater Systematic Chaos book and plan on learning the song Repentance… though I’ve been guitarless for 2 and a half years now, so while it’s awesome to finally have one again; between the lack of practice and the fact that it’s also my first seven string… I’ve got lotsa learnin’ to do.

Other items of awesome acquired this holiday include: Assassin’s Creed (played for a few hours yesterday and am loving it), Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune(not yet played), Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days(not yet played), Star Trek(as you know I loved everything except the lens flares), Transformers 2(have not seen), Devin Townsend Project: Addicted(AWESOME). I have more games now than I know what to do with. So it’s just as well that I’ve finally done the unthinkable and sold my Nintendo and Super Nintendo. It was a teary good bye… but I’ve got enough faith in Zerogame Project that it was time to clear up some space.

Here’s some more pics that I took over the holidays:

Some macros of a flower at my In-Laws’.

X-mas food.

My In-laws’ living room, and my wife’s new Keyboard.

My wife’s step-dad’s new camera, and frost on my window.

Last week (well… technically earlier than last week… but I only finally got a memory card and was able to take pictures with it as of last week) I got myself a digital soul sucker. It’s also the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought at one time. You know… aside from the whole engagement/wedding ring combo. Or my education. And was it worth it? Well given the amount that I’ll no doubt continue to spend in the future on lenses… that’s a question that’s up for debate… however I’m going to have to say yes. Why yes? Well, for starters, because the camera can withstand the frozen tundra of Canada. This in itself should be reason enough for anyone, but in the end I really have to say that it’s worth it because I said so.

I’ve wanted a camera (read as good camera) for a long time now. We ended up borrowing a good point and click when on our honeymoon, but decided that it might just be worth it to get a decent camera of our own for the next time we go on a vacation. A point and click is all well and good, but my interest lay in the zone of DSLR. I’m always keen on getting fine control over exposure, and depth of field and getting macro and telescopic images. Also, I just wanted one because I am greedy. A few weeks back, we saw Lady Gaga in concert, and were reminded once more of the burning desire for some camera love…. Thus a Canon 7D was procured.

Here’s some pictures I done took in the past week with it:

Toronto’s Cavalcade of Lights.

Downtown fog, followed by downtown on a rainy night.

Another downtown night pic, as well as some Rock Climbing at Joe Rockhead’s.

A couple of pics from the Elliot Animation X-Mas party.

I discovered I have a Macro lens! A week old orange slice, and Metal Gear Ray.

Sephiroth’s Hair and an origami crab mounting a rice cake (with black bean jelly).

As you’re likely aware (because you all keep very up to date on everything related to me), I have used Houdini for the past two and a half years. I have been back to using Maya again since the summer. What have I learned in this time? Yes. That’s right. Maya is a piece of $%#&. Interpret that however you wish. For all you know, I could mean that it is a piece of gold. Yes… it could mean that.

Well, I decided to grab the reindeer by the reins and look a little more closely into MEL rather than just copying and pasting snippets from other people. I decided to try any make a bunch of parameters equal to the values in a bunch of other parameters. It doesn’t seem like Maya gives the user any easy way to do this. But why should it? Why would a user ever want to set a bunch of parameters to be equal to that of a bunch of other parameters? I miss you Houdini. I miss you very much.

Anyways, for those who are into sado machocism, here’s the MEL script:

string $copyobj = “pCube”;
string $pasteobj = “nurbsCylinder”;
$startnum = 1;
$endnum = 7;

for ($i = $startnum; $i <= $endnum; $i++)
{

connectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.tx”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.tx”);
disconnectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.tx”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.tx”);
connectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.ty”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.ty”);
disconnectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.ty”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.ty”);
connectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.tz”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.tz”);
disconnectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.tz”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.tz”);

connectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.rx”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.rx”);
disconnectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.rx”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.rx”);
connectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.ry”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.ry”);
disconnectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.ry”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.ry”);
connectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.rz”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.rz”);
disconnectAttr ($copyobj+$i+”.rz”) ($pasteobj+$i+”.rz”);

};