Jacob’s Escalator

Man, it’s been such a long time since I wrote a post for any reason whatsoever! Wow. It’s almost like I forgot about it. I offer no explanation.

As consolation, however, I will summarize my life situation. I’ll start by announcing that I was at last dragged into Facebook. You can follow my status there as well, now. In fact, if you have been paying attention to aforementioned Facebook, you may have already seen the subject matter of this post.

Anyway, a summary of my life situation.

• I’m entering my second year at Western Washington University in this upcoming fall. College is busy work, far more so than you can really easily be prepared for. I’ve decided to major in Computer Science (which was obvious) and minor in Japanese (less so). Japanese is loads of fun, and the presentation experience is good for me. So is the huge amount of group work required for Computer Science.
• Shelby and I have been together for 2 years and 2 months now, and are still going. It’s been a blast. Very, very educational, and very, very enjoyable. Shelby is not one I will ever forget, nope nope.
• I adore Bellingham and would not mind remaining here for the rest of my life. I don’t have any particular desire to, but it’s a great place. There’s stuff to do, the scenery is beautiful, the town is adorable, it’s just wonderful.
• I have successfully abstained from Pokemon while the format sucked and while I didn’t have money or time. Now I have external funding and a little more time, and the format doesn’t suck. I don’t have high hopes for abstinence.
• I have an amazing job working at the technical services and web help department at Western. I’m gaining all sorts of valuable experience, they’re unfazed by budget cuts (you gotta have tech support!) so I have full time employment over the summer, and the environment is just awesome. I’ve almost forgotten what it was like to not have a job over the summer - what was ever so bad about working? What did I even do?

Now we get into the subject matter of this post.

Is it bad if I really enjoy creating elaborate gifts for Shelby? This year, for our two-year anniversary, I wrote her an entire album of computer-generated rock and orchestra-esque music (the genre is “instrumental” I guess), which is titled Sketches. I intended to write up a post about the album immediately, actually - but to be honest, my excuse is that I couldn’t figure out my login information and had to go hunting for it. Here is the belated “analysis” to go with the album - my thoughts on each individual song.

I admit it… I just like writing stuff.

Track 1: Tempus Borealis

It’s the first track of the album, but this was actually the last one I completed.

It took about two days in all to write (which is fast). I had originally intended to play with some sort of techno sounds, but the mixture of bass and percussion was very hard to emulate, and I ended up just sort of going in a rock-ish direction. You can hear a lot of influence from some of my newer musical interests, such as 10 Years’ “Fix Me”, as well as some of the whispers of a recent Rush concert (Caravan). The song has a lot of chorus and echo - which led to playing with some interesting “effect solos” (primarily, the end of the song), but also seemed to make the whole thing very busy and noisy.

I still really enjoy it. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the album.

Track 2: Land of Atomyka

Inspired clearly by Atomyk Ebonpyre, by Toby “Radiation” Fox for Homestuck - this was the earliest creation I actually finished. I went back and updated each of the instruments with my improved “skills” so that it would mesh with the rest of the album. This was really meant to just be sort of a rock-y remake of the original song, and I succeeded in that. It’s a heck of a lot of fun to play.

Track 3: Thunder for a Dead Man

Thunder for a Dead Man comes immediately after Land of Atomyka in the timeline, I believe. This was also indirectly inspired by a Homestuck song - rather than enjoying an entire melody, there was a simple sound I wanted to accomplish, involving a gentle orchestral sweep to a sudden climax. I wrote that… and then the song took a different direction. A wonderful direction. Though I enjoy the simple metallic feel of some of the later songs, I often amaze myself with the intricate inner workings that went into the latter part of this song.

This is the only song with external sound effects added in. There’re a couple of glitches at the beginning, and I could have done my fades and timing a bit better - but it sounds pretty cool nonetheless.

Track 4: Odyssey Noir

This song was a ‘dream remix’ I had hoped to do and didn’t think I had the skill for. Until I actually tried it. I believe it comes in second-last chronologically - after my experiences with Thunder for a Dead Man, Time Stands Vigil, etc - and would almost stand for a culmination of my efforts. Sadly, I don’t think it really measured up to the huge epic I wanted it to be - but it sounds pretty darn cool.

The original is another by Toby Fox: The Ballad of Jack Noir.

Track 5: Time Stands Vigil

One of my online friends had been proof-reading some of my music for me. He’s a writer, and he takes music and characterization seriously - in response to one of my later songs, he asked me to write something about one of his characters. This was an original result. We spent some time talking about it and it turned out that this wasn’t what he had envisioned at all, but we both agreed that it was still a really cool song and so I stuck it on the album for good measure.

This one was odd. I enjoyed making it very odd. The harsh piano accents and the chromatic scales somehow manage to make a less violent and angry sound than I usually produce, despite being musically - well - violent. It also includes some time shenanigans, because who doesn’t love time shenanigans? Metronomes. That’s who.

Track 6: Wistful Dreaming

I don’t know what happened here.

This song literally appeared in GuitarPro after about ten minutes of staring at a blank piano track. One of my mental characters had vividly begun to play piano in my head - and then this happened. I don’t know how I did it, really. I don’t rightly remember writing any of it, making any design or artistry decisions… none of it. All I know is that I wrote this thing that was meant to sound haunting, sad, and alluring - and I succeeded wonderfully.

When I showed it to J’Neil, she asked how many pianos there are. Technically, there are two tracks - one on the left and right side, playing the exact same thing (I did this in a number of songs), but they’re only playing one “piano part”. I described it to her as being played by a single telekinetic pianist. See if you can pick out the places where there’s a “third hand” playing…

No, that’s not meant to be dirty in any way. Goodness.

Wistful Dreaming, despite being a one-of-a-kind pure piano track, is apparently a pretty common favorite. I do really adore it… but I can’t say it’s my favorite. That title belongs to one of the next two.

Track 7: The Wraith King

This song is inspired - for the Stephen King buffs out there - by Randall Flagg, somewhat indirectly. Him and his many forms. His cosmic omnipresence. His unending cunning and cruelty. The unbelievable will to get what he wants - whatever it is someone like him could want.

The Wraith King was a turning point in my musical experience. It sounded completely different when I first started - I don’t remotely remember what it originally sounded like, but it wasn’t anything like the current sound, not nearly as heavy and harsh. I got into the song a ways, thinking that it was “all right”, and as I delved onward, I ended up making something that sounded better… and better… even though it was turning completely away from the original sound. At one point, I stood back, and realized that whatever it was I was writing was not what I had started with - and it was much, much better. (For the musically acute, it was around the key change.) I went back and rewrote the beginning, then finished the song. This is the result.

This is probably my favorite song on this album, and contends for my favorite song ever. I just can’t get enough of that key change.

Track 8: Light at the End

Light at the End was another “character theme” inspired by my music proofer. The original character in question is a mixture of your everyday “magnificent bastard” and a classic antihero. I adore him, and I enjoyed writing his theme once I got into the character of it - but what ended up happening was, I wrote something far more general, whose artistry I liked a lot more than just a “character theme”.

This song feels to me like one of those weird romance themes where you have a character seemingly too cruel or self-serving to be capable of a romantic interest - but they pick one up anyway, and are forced to learn the hard way how to handle one, but also just how rewarding it can be. Except, sick and twisted, a backwards and violent version.

Or you can just like it because it sounds cool and crazy. That’s perfectly legitimate too, because it is pretty cool, and it is very crazy.

So that is Sketches, I suppose. I shamelessly force you to listen to all of the songs again or be condemned to irrational guilt. My plot advances. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

It is  clearly 12:10 AM.

This is a post idea that I’ve been playing with since In the Thunderlight was first added as a category. Pokemon has always been one of my greater interests, and it’s been one of the very hardest to explain. On first glance everything Pokemon-related looks hopelessly complicated. In reality, it’s not too difficult to understand, when properly explained. The concept is rather strange, but once you’ve gotten used to it, it’s pretty easy to keep in mind.The problem is, entirely, the sheer amount of relevant information that needs to be taken in to understand the beginning concepts of what Pokemon are. Hopefully, through examples, I can make these concepts relatively clear and give an idea how the concept of Pokemon works. I won’t get into the card or video games in this particular post; that’s a subject for later. Read More »

While I do not (or try not to) assume that whoever I might be talking to understands the faces I make in internet conversation, I do tend to make these faces anyway, out of reflex, to express emotion. It has been brought to my attention that frankly, you have no idea what they mean. So, I hope to clear this up, on the off chance I use them in my posts. That, and because evidently, my writing amuses you, and you haven’t had any of my words for a while, so why not? Read More »

If you’ll recall, CommandoMan is my fictional MMBN character. He’s a powerful Navi who resembles a hacker in the Matrix, in a way - he has a few hacks and edits available that he can use against his enemies (one of my favorites being a “lock”, which prevents Navis and programs from leaving a certain area of the internet. Using this, he can force a target into fighting. Fear the Agents who get ahold of such a weapon!).

CommandoMan’s specialty is versatility, adaptability, the ability to have no weakness. He has changed as I’ve gotten older. The first few versions of CM were before I learned how to sprite; the shape was the same as the first few sprites I’ll show you, but his weaponry was a little off. He’s always had the sky-blue sword, but his other arm was a vulcannon (the MMBN name for a machine gun). He had a variety of other weapons/attacks that focused mostly on swords and artillery attacks. He was also mostly heartless in my mind.

As I got older (and better at MMBN), his weaponry changed. An awesome-looking stick I found in a friend’s backyard was responsible for the vulcannon edit below. His “folder” (a collection of once-per-battle special attacks) evolved to include various elements, so that he could counter any other elements.

Read More »

Anonymous is a strange entity.

They have their own sort of religion, in a way. Anonymous is everyone; everyone is Anonymous. They’re a group of people on the internet who are… bored. They hide out on the internet where anonymity is easy to preserve and discuss many things. What separates them from other ‘groups’ of the internet is that they act.

If you are bored enough, search Youtube for a video on Fox News’ report on Anonymous. Be aware before you search that Fox News is - pardon my italian - retarded. They don’t know anything about the actual Internet or the actual Anonymous. (I don’t know or care if they can be trusted but I heard a comment on Youtube somewhere that stated that the Fox News anonymous they did a report on wasn’t at all related to the actual Anonymous.) Read More »

With this post I introduce a new category, In the Thunderlight, where I shed a little bit of light on my interests that most of you don’t know much about. What I’ll try to cover are the kinds of things I might reference often; please feel free to ask questions, if you have them.

My first Thunderlight examination shall be MegaMan Battle Network. MMBN, as I shall now refer to it, is a series of Gameboy Advance video games based off of the MegaMan phenomonon I’m sure pretty much none of you konw about. In MMBN, the premise is that society has advanced to a network-reliant stage, where nearly everything is electronic and connected to the Internet. Everyone also has a wonderful PDA-like device called a PErsonal Terminal or a PET. Almost everyone has a brilliant programming wonder called a NetNavigator - Navi for short.

Navis are incredibly complex AIs that have the ability to think and feel, with the capacity for personality and moral knowledge. They are as good as humans, only they exist on the Cyber plane, whereas their human operators exist in the “Real World”. Navis are used to make PET functions automatic - they’ll open your email and read it to you, take your phone calls, remind you of things you need to remember, and all sorts of things - as well as their primary use, an Internet surfing program that can delete attacking viruses and interact with other programs.

It’s easiest, however, to think of a Navi as a Cyber-human.

The main characters are Lan Hikari and MegaMan, his Navi, who (spoilers) is actually a Navi created from the DNA of Lan’s dead twin brother, Hub (end spoilers). I will not waste my time and kindness trying to say Lan is “not that bright”: he’s incredibly dense and downright idiotic at times. MegaMan is often much more relaxed and intelligent.

Some other important characters are Mayl/Roll, Chaud/Protoman, Baryl/Colonel, Bass/Forte, and my own personal creations, Kayle and CommandoMan.

Mayl is Lan’s “best friend” who is, at the end of all six games, consistently trying to make him understand she wants to be his girlfriend. (I cannot possibly imagine why.) Her Navi is Roll. Neither of them are all that brave or powerful, but they’re bright, and good friends.

Chaud is an Official, which is like a member of the government. He is actually a bit younger than Lan (by a year, so in MMBN6, he’s 14 or so), but is far more mature, cool, and calculating than Lan ever could be. Chaud is also rather cold and introverted, but opens up after MMBN5 when he and Lan end up working together for an extended time, and they finish the series good friends rather than bitter rivals. Chaud’s Navi, Protoman, is one of my favorite Navis in the entire series. ProtoMan is all business, deadly serious, focused on his work and all but emotionless. He is a speed and sword master, and recognized as one of the most powerful Navis known to the world. If you’re a criminal and you hear ProtoMan is after you, you should first be honored, then run like hell.

Baryl is a mysterious Netopian man (that’s a foreign country - in the original Japanese version, the country’s name is Amerioupe, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence), who has a military background. He is also a cool, calculating tactician, who is single-minded in his mission, whatever that may be. He only shows up late in the series. His Navi, Colonel, is a bit like ProtoMan - slower, more tactical, but also bears a powerful sword arm, with the addition of a cannon and some excellent versatility power.

Bass is the English/American name of the next character, but the Japanese name, Forte, is far cooler. (Bass is not pronounced like the fish. I wish it was, that would be tolerable.)
Forte is a mysterious Navi who hails from the beginning of the great network society, when the internet became mysteriously self-aware and destroyed all appliances connected to it. Forte was mistakenly blamed and nearly deleted by his human creators. From that incident he gained an extreme hatred of the human race, and seeks every opportunity to destroy them. Forte does not appear in the MMBN main storyline much, but he is in every game nonetheless, as a secret boss. In battle, his trademark weapon is his busters, which have the power to obliterate quite a mass of enemies; his other attacks change game-to-game, but Earth Break - a burst of energy that has more power than the entire Net exploding - and Darkness Overload - similar to Earth Break, only in a wider area - are common.
Forte is apparently given such a high role because of his history in the earlier MegaMan series.

Kayle is my own personal addition to the MMBN world. He’s like Chaud’s kinder counterpart, which is in turn a lot like me - quiet, reserved, but not particularly cold or unfriendly. CommandoMan is, likewise, an edit of ProtoMan. He’s not restricted to the sword; he has various other weapons to choose from as well. Versatility, the ability to have no weakness, is his business. He has pretty much no emotion save humor and remains quiet most of the time, willing to keep to himself and do as he is told. Because everyone creates a being that is better than everyone else’s, I tend to put CommandoMan’s power level somewhere near Forte’s… but you probably don’t care about that so much anyway.

The Thunderlight is fading but lightning does have echoes. If you’ve got questions, leave ‘em, and I might come along to answer.