jadebell

Ugh, I think my PC's hard drive is dying. AGAIN. Need to back everything up... I'll be pretty pissed off if it dies. All my music stuff is on there.

I have no idea where Vista keeps all its drivers, either. Stupid Vista.

This is kind of a test entry to see how this embedding/sharing site will work, as a potential place to store music files I've done. Let's see how it goes...

So: this first track is the first 8 bars of Twinleaf Town from Pokemon Pearl that I MIDI-fied, and this is an audio recording of how it sounds on my computer.

( Twinleaf Town )

The second one here is another MIDI-to-audio recording, a track I did from the DS game "Professor Layton and the Curious Village". It's called Down The Tubes and is a bit of an oddball track, but I like its strangeness, it fits the scene well. It sounds very... French, in keeping with the game's European feel. Accordions galore!

( Down The Tubes we go! )

On another note (no pun intended), I still need a much better MIDI keyboard, because the MIDIs that are exported are still pretty crap. I need a way to edit them properly. I've been borrowing my brother's keyboard, but I've put off buying my own one for the moment because I'm waiting for Windows 7 to come out first.

So, see how I was kidding in the last entry about EDF energy frying everything with their electricity weirdness?

It actually happened.

The main power box for the building wasn't controlling the voltage properly, said the EDF electrician afterwards, which was the reason for the fluctuations in brightness/dimness and the cut-outs that I had been experiencing. Result? On one glorious Wednesday evening, the entire building went POP!

( KABOOM! )

Things I've learned from this little adventure:

1) Plug everything out when I'm not using it. Seriously. If I'd only just listened to those "Go Green! Save Energy!" messages, my chargers would have been spared.

2) Surge protector cables really work.

3) Virgin Media's equipment sucks.

4) Camden council's sub contractors suck. Two guys came the day before to check the wiring in the flat - this was on a completely unrelated visit - and made my bedroom socket explode into flames. "Don't worry, everything's all right, it might just be a problem with the main box downstairs." YOU THINK? Why the hell didn't you do anything about it?

This could all have been avoided if a) Camden council had just come and had a look in the first place like everybody had asked them to instead of shunting the responsibility onto EDF ("it's your electrical supplier's problem, not ours"), or b) EDF just come and had a look in the first place like everybody had asked them to instead of shunting the responsibility onto Camden council ("it's your landlord's problem, not ours"). But, all things considered, it hasn't taken too long for things to get back to normal again. EDF, with Haste's clean-up operation, was actually very good with restoring services and equipment - which is a lot more than I can say for Camden council.

If anyone ever took part in an online conversation with me, they may or not have noticed the occasional complaint or three about my sluggish laptop in amongst the obsessive fannish topics.

Well, no more laptop! No more, I say!

For I now have a brand new computer. And I'm loving it. :) Ordered from MESH computers.

( New PC! Huzzah! )

Speaking of electricity, ( electricity blows )

( In which I talk about music composition )

Pokemon Gold/Silver.

DS remake.

CONFIRMED.

HELL YEAH BABY

thejoythejoythejoy

Hurrah!

Huzzah!

Just got Shaymin for my Pokemon Pearl game from the GAME store in Brent Cross. The whole process of getting "event" Pokemon is so much easier now that it's done via wireless - no more waiting in the queue for hours for a Nintendo person to hook up gameboy to gameboy (yeah, Mew event, I'm looking at you). My brother was kind enough to go to the Darkrai event for me last year, so now all I need is Arceus...

Haven't been online. This I blame partly on lack of time and mostly on my laptop, which only turns on when it feels like it. Which is pretty much never. It needs to die. I feel like grabbing a hammer and smashing it to a gazillion pieces. As it seems to be working for now, instead I'll attempt to catch up on all those YGO abridged episodes I've missed. The perfect antidote for that good old it's-that-time-of-the-month-again-raaaaaaaaargh-jadebell-smash thing.

Hah! I love it! A bit of snow in London and everything shuts down.

No transport = no work today = I can go to Hampstead Heath and delight in the snow. Yeeee!

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
Ya-da, ya-da, ya-da, yaaaaa
Something that Jadebell forgot.

Or something.

I go to watch fireworks now.

:D

Obama.

:D

Original MIDI music composition I done did for Halloween -> Haunted House

Happy Halloween, Y'ALL

How bizarre. It snowed today. It totally isn't the right time of year for it. Far too early. As rare as snow is in London, when it does snow it's usually in January or February, occasionally as late as March. This year's "winter" snow came in April. I do remember those classic chilly nights for Bonfire Night, but I've never known it to snow just before Halloween. 0_o

I've just gotten used to the fact that it is, in fact, autumn, and not summer any more. I really don't want to start thinking about Christmas yet. Not yet. Too stressful.

Looks like I'm wearing boots to work tomorrow...

Speaking of which - totally geared up for the Halloween panto-y play at work on Friday. Here's hoping I won't choke on the sound effects.

Sleeping Beauty is out on DVD! I must buy it. I can't believe my brother hasn't seen that classic, and yet plays Kingdom Hearts like there's no tomorrow. Shame on him! I'm going to sit him down and force him to watch it.

The other thing I must buy on DVD is Heroes season 2. Yeah, that was the crappy "writer's strike" season, but it was so sucky I didn't watch it when it was on TV and with season 3 started already I've fallen behind now. I'm actually surprised BBC2 are showing season 3 already - US dramas like that normally don't make it to terrestrial TV until at least a few months after it's been shown in the US - season 2 was actually shown earlier this year. Well done, BBC2.

:(

Might have to eat some of that nutella to cheer myself up.

So much for spring. It's snowing again.

So my brain spews out weird, cracky things from time to time. And look what weird thought it came up with this time.

( Look at me! I drew a pic! )

But that's only because Ace Attorney is just that awesome to be able to inspire such bizarre oddities from me. Usually I can't draw jack-crap.

But it feels more like Christmas. It's snowing. :D

( 'CONFLICT RESOLVED!' [Cut for minor FF7/Crisis Core spoilers] )

And now... I crave chocolate. Delicious chocolate. To be devoured with hot chocolate, because it's so freaking cold.

Wow, that's the first time I ever drew my own icon. Art is so not my forte.

And now, time for one of those "have you seen this advert?" posts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-NvmNnU2UY

It doesn't beat Mr. T crashing through the middle of a football game in a tank, but it's still amusing nonetheless.

A Nintendo DS makes a weird tingly noise when you turn it on on your birthday. I did not know this.

Live and learn, I guess. *turns DS on and off continuously*

Because AJ totally warrants an "I'm back from the dead" journal entry, even if it is a brief one.

YES, MATE.

I got four Mews downloaded to my GBA games at Toys R Us in Brent Cross (North London) today. It was part of their Pokemon Summer Day Camp thingy, which has been going on all throughout August. Even though I turned up fashionably late (event ended @ 5pm, I didn't get there till ten to four because I couldn't be assed to get out of bed till 1pm), there was still a huge queue... but I got them in the end. I need to transfer them to my Pearl game so that I can do some trading. :3 I also got to see Pokemon Battle Revolution on the Wii and I was really impressed with the graphics - the screenshots and videos I've seen on the internet don't do it justice. I just wish it had the RPG mode that Colosseum and XD did. The folks at the event say it's out October 6th, though that contradicts what I've seen on the internet. Not that I actually have a Wii...

My current gaming schedule:

Digimon Story = Aug 12th -> August 23rd
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations = CURRENT GAME
Digimon World Dawn/Dusk = September 13th (US)
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass = October 1st (US)

With Pokemon Pearl and Fire Red here and there between any lulls or gaps.

Though not on par with Pokemon Pearl, Digimon Story was still easily the best Digimon game I've played. I was pleased to see it had some of the Digimon from Savers (which is due to start airing in America soon, apparently...). GAOGAMON KICKS SO MUCH ASS. Him and SangLoupmon.

Phoenix Wright 3... I'm loving it to pieces. It's hilarious... Still has a few typos, though nothing really major. Hopefully they'll fix these for the Euro release. I've enjoyed every case so far, which is more than the second game, where I didn't like the third case much. (The characters were very meh, though the game itself was still enjoyable.) I also love the music in PW3. The game sort of has an unfair advantage over the previous two in that it's able to use the previous games' music as well as have its own. Because it has that selection, it ends up sounding very varied. Plus, the composer was just... on the ball. The themes just fit the situations perfectly.

Just recently started following Heroes, on BBC2 (Weds). The Japanese time-stopping guy (Hiro?) is great. XD TV-wise, the only other thing I'm really interested in is the new Avatar series (Sept 21st). Bring it on. I needs moar Toph action pronto.

And that's all she wrote.