Refraction

or a blog.

Oddly enough, the two tutorials I found on skinning sites were both hosted on cat-related domains – Amy’s, and Jenn’s. Coincidence? I think so.

Anyway, I seem to have kind of worked out of my layout block, so I have a new skin (er, layout) for everyone who’s bored of this default WordPress layout. I have to admit it’s not really my kind of layout–sure, it looks professional and all, but it’s also terribly generic. And the CSS is a pain to edit. :faint: Not only is it long–it’s actually quite complex, and I admit I learned a thing or two about CSS editing it :tensed:

Darn it, that reminds me, I haven’t yet finished the mechanics of the stupid thing–I’ve still got to set up a style-switching page and link it from here… Anyway, check out the Witch Hunter Robin skin, and if you don’t like it, you can always go back to good ol’ default here :biggrin:

I like this skin for several reasons: first off, I got it to work! Kinda impressive, I think 😉 Secondly, it features Witch Hunter Robin, which probably isn’t very trendy anymore since it was released in 2002, but they just started showing this on YTV, and I like it so far. It’s a little dark but not depressing; it is a little slow but since I’ve only seen the first three episodes… I assume it’ll pick up a little later. The music is wonderful, from the rockish opening, “Shell,” to the assorted BGM throughout the series. The animation’s not bad, either. Thirdly, I dusted off my non-existent PHP programming skills to insert a random quote in the layout. Ha! I don’t need to download simple scripts like this when I can write them myself. :smirk:

I’m particularly fond of today’s strip for “The Coast” (summarized here in text form since I don’t have a scanner):

Panel 1
Lawyer: “Your Honor, this man stole a CD. I ask that you sentence him to twenty months!”
Judge: “One month.”

Panel 2
Lawyer: “ONLY ONE MONTH?!”
Judge: “I have that CD at home. There’s only one song worth stealing.”

Why buy one song for 15 dollars when you can download it for a dollar (or, more likely, for free?) Sure, I can rattle off the stock answers: To support the artist. To support the people working at the music store. Because digital pirates are bad, bad people.

I suppose that the furor over personal downloading has crowded out the old-fashioned kind of piracy: bootlegs. While shopping in Chinatown for F.I.R.‘s album (or you can look at their Hong Kong site, instead) I came across a bootlgged copy of Utada’s Exodus album. I was briefly tempted to buy that, but deicded against it in the end because 1) I’d promised myself I would not download this album and I’d go buy it when it came out; 2) the bootleggers had added random songs and didn’t always have the titles right; 3) it didn’t seem to be a very high quality bootleg–the cover was faded; 4) I was really hoping I’d find F.I.R.’s album, so I wanted to keep my money in my wallet. :tongue:

I’ve always maintained that on a moral scale, downloading is better than buying bootlegs. Yes, both hurt the artist (and all the other people involved in the chain of selling you the CD), but only one profits a group of shady people. No, I’m not talking about the shady downloader. I’m talking about the shady bootleggers! Okay, so maybe a case could be made that the people in the store who sell bootlegged CDs have to make a living. That doesn’t change the fact that the proceeds (in other words, your money) of bootlegging may go towards organized crime; at least the majority of downloaders aren’t involved in that. Hopefully.

Wait, this had nothing to do with the comic strip, did it?

[edit] I think it’s weird how I never post on Mondays and Tuesdays but have posted consistently for the last couple of Wednesdays :bored:

*points at title* Someone out there had to say it 😛 And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, too bad.

Oh, how I hate layout block. >_< I can’t seem to think of a way to make a trendy anime blog skinnable >_> Or written in valid XHTML. Wait, I haven’t even read that skinning tutorial yet …

Oh well, at least I can install smilies. Go me! :good: But now I need to make me a list of smiles, so I don’t get confused and start typing non-existent smilies like 🙂 O_o;

:biggrin: :happy: :angel:

Okay, so I admit it, I have been watching Canadian Idol. And my final prediction? Kalan Porter will win, since he has hordes of screaming, obsessive, willing-to-spend-two-hours-voting fangirls behind him. Oh, and he can sing. And play the violin. And he looks like Frodo. Except it wasn’t Frodo who sang in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, was it? Wasn’t it one of the other hobbits? Merry, perhaps?

Anyway, there’s my two cents on the matter. I might tape the finale and watch it some other time, when I er… actually have time. I thought Theresa sang the “obligatory Idol song” better, but I’m pretty sure Kalan will win.

And meanwhile, idols on the other side of the world are duking it out in a tournament! I love this.

“He’s dead, all right. Dead as Pauly Shore’s career. . . . This SUCKS! Like Pauly Shore himself.”

And that, my friends, is what is in store for you if you play A Case of the Crabs. This is one of those point-and-click Flash games, but this one is GOOD.

In general, point-and-click Flash games have one objective: use your wits and the objects around you to achieve your goal. It’s generally escape from some kind of confinement. A quick rundown of all the games of this genre I’ve played:

The Mystery of Time and Space. A very long, good game, but rather difficult. I had to look for a walkthrough for this one.

Crimson Room. Not bad at all, really. It does suffer from some annoying camera movement and “click within a 10 pixel radius” disease.

Viridian Room. It’s the sequel to Crimson Room. More complex, a little freaky, even, but I found it quite random.

Milki W. A little bit TOO straightforward. Entertaining, though, in that sound is really important in this one.

Of all of these, I prefer the Nick Bounty game. It has dialogue, a storyline, and most importantly… a clear sense of direction. You’re never overly lost. You know what you want or need, although you may not be sure how to get it. The steps you take are logical, for the most part. None of this “Oh, let’s use the lighter to burn this hair sample I found for absolutely no reason.” It’s humourous, too, in its dialogue and story. (“Step One: Make sure the victim has hands. Check. The victim has hands.”) The actors did ham it up a bit, but since the game isn’t really serious at all… it worked. The film noir look was very appealing, and it reminded me of the “Detective Story” short from The Animatrix. Except it was funnier, and didn’t have any references to the Matrix at all.

I guess, in short, the Nick Bounty game has personality, and the others… don’t.

It’s been an interesting day or two for me and the Taiwanese band F.I.R.

A few days ago, I heard the very distinctive opening to “Lydia” on the Chinese radio, and today I saw them on some Hong Kong variety show, performing “Lydia.” I love “Lydia”–it’s a great song–but I have to wonder if they’ll be relegated to one-hit wonder status because of it. It’d be a terrible pity, since F.I.R. released a pretty strong debut album.

What struck me the most about their performance was how much like CORE OF SOUL they were. All the ingredients are there: a strong female vocalist, and two guys, one on guitar, the other on keyboards. Fukiko and Faye even seem to command the stage (inasmuch as there was one) in the same fashion. All in all, it was really rather scary.

And, if nothing else, the interview pointed out some obvious facts about “the background” behind “Lydia,” and gave us the story of how this group was formed.

Well. See. I’m a bit of a perfectionist.

So I decided to drop all the tables and do a clean import of my greymatter entries. I still couldn’t get the page to load on my machine (grr… why?!) but I found someone to hit “okay” for me ^_^

Anyway, for my first real entry here… I’m doing a survey!
Read the rest of this entry »

And here begins the WordPress blog. Wheeeeee!

I love WordPress.

This is a final test post for Greymatter. See you all later!