Blabberbox:Random blog-like posts from pftq.Share on Twitter

Favorites

May 27th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Random Stuff | #
My lists here will be quite sparse compared to other people's.  I generally put a lot more weight into what I consider a "favorite" before adding, so there are works and inspirational figures I probably like but aren't here simply because they didn't leave a strong enough impact.

My interests are pretty wide ranging and hard to bucket, probably from the diversity of works I was exposed to having spent most of my childhood online, in books, and in movies/games.  I read pretty much everything I could get my hands on as early as 3rd grade, though it's toned down a bit now. I probably read too much in elementary, going through as much as a hundred novels a year and ending up with 5.0 diopters of nearsightedness by 7th grade (though I've trained myself to never need glasses outside of reading, even in skiing or tennis).  For music, I started off more in games, world/ethnic, and (Goa)(Psy)Trance/Techno/DnB before starting to listen to film and...[More]
2646 unique view(s)

Kakariko Village

May 27th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Kakariko Village by ellebirdy23
441 unique view(s)

Freedom, Power, Purpose

May 7th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
Freedom wants power.  Power wants purpose.  Purpose wants freedom.
421 unique view(s)

Castaway on the Moon OST

May 3rd, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
450 unique view(s)

Heart and Mind

May 2nd, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
The heart longs to move forward but does not understand.
The mind is all-knowing but does not think it can.
403 unique view(s)

Intel 320 80GB SSD vs Mushkin Chronos 120GB SSD

April 18th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Just a bit background on why I bother - had a disappointing upgrade from the Samsung 64GB SSD that came with my Dell XPS M1330 to Intel's 320 80GB SSD.  The Samsung drive was already several years old, so I thought it'd be worth upgrading to a modest SSD - Intel seemed safe.  Turns out after running the drive for a while, I noticed programs tended to load rather slowly.  I had installed my Samsung drive to another computer and decided to start up the same programs in parallel - the Samsung drive was up to a quarter faster at times.  Definitely not very happy about that, considering it was several years older (did technology downgrade over the years???)

Anyways, for space reasons again, I went out to upgrade to another SSD.  This time to the Mushkin Chronos which is rated generally among the same speeds as the top performing drives currently, though much less expensive.  Fairly content with it so far.  It is definitely faster than the Intel at...[More]
1215 unique view(s)

The Time Machine

April 12th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
The Time Machine by Klaus Badelt
399 unique view(s)

Messing with EQ and Mastering

March 19th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Just spent all evening looking through EQ tutorials.  Fun stuff. Cheesy

This one was most helpful imo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESVRCT28d5o

You really do need an analyzer to pick out the bad frequencies to cut.  I wish I knew this stuff sooner - would save me a lot of headaches trying to make my stuff sound cleaner.

Current song in experimentation is "Nightfall."  We'll see how clean I can make this next piece... Grin
1096 unique view(s)

Mazes and Walls

March 15th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
You spend your life solving the mazes around you... Sometimes, after finding yourself in the same maze yet again, you just want to break the walls down - but then others interpret it as your defeat.
384 unique view(s)

Footprint

March 10th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
Leave a footprint so large, no realizes it exists.
383 unique view(s)

Perfect World

March 9th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #
Had this whole script idea in my dream this morning.  It was like watching a live-action movie with really good effects. It even came with an ending credits song - recorded a bit of it, maybe will make it a full fledge song later one day.

=================================
An advanced society is led by one man (the leader) who seems to have invented a means for everything (free energy, robots, etc).  He himself seems immortal and omnipotent now from his own inventions.  His daughter - he turned into part machine so she does not grow old.  His company headquarters is actually a giant parked spaceship in the city.

One day, however,...[More]
802 unique view(s)

Speculation

March 5th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
Stop speculating and find the truth.
412 unique view(s)

Red Bean Recipe

March 4th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Random Stuff | #


3 cans (18oz) of red bean paste.
2 cans (14oz) of condensed milk.
Equal water to all cans used.

Mix and stir until boiling.
Freeze for popsicles or serve as drink.
1510 unique view(s)

New Optoma PK320 Pocket Projector

February 18th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Picked up a new Optoma PK320 pocket projector after my first one (PK301) broke down after lending it out (colors all green). Maybe for the better - this new one is twice as strong so I don't even need to turn out the lights anymore.


In the future though, if you do borrow it from me, please be more careful with it. Huh

Edit: After some usage, I have to say I prefer the older PK301.  The newer one, while brighter, actually is a little blurier (for when you have to project something of high detail).  It also tends to not detect the correct aspect ratio, forcing you to manually switch from 4:3 to 16:9 and vice versa if your video changes. Sad
1280 unique view(s)

Who You Are on the Inside

February 4th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #
Two friends have known each other since childhood.  One has always been a bit weaker and slightly ill with an unknown virus.  The other friend makes the promise to one day find a cure to the other's condition and studies to become a doctor.

Twenty years later, the doctor gets close to understanding the nature of the illness and finding a cure.  Both are excited at the prospect, but as the cure is applied, the friend seems to gradually get weaker.  The doctor scrambles to figure out what went wrong, but each day that passes, the friend seems to slowly lose grasp on the world.  Eventually the friend becomes bedbound and the doctor caring daily for the friend.

Over time, the doctor notices that, although the friend is losing mental capacity, the friend seems physically fine.  In fact, as the friend becomes healthier, the friend becomes less mentally stable, as if gradually fading away.

The doctor...[More]
851 unique view(s)

Jinx

January 28th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
I don't jinx people.  I just predict their future.
358 unique view(s)

Freedom vs Power

January 17th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
You clamored for freedom, but what you really wanted was power. What good is freedom if you can't actually do anything?
562 unique view(s)

Love, Midna

January 11th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Love, Midna - by ellebirdie23
414 unique view(s)

Limiting Per Each Group in MySQL

January 9th, 2012 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Not sure what this type of query is actually called.  The basic idea is you have multiple tables linked together, but you want to only grab n rows from Table C per iteration of each row in Table A.

A more illustrative explanation: Suppose you have a table listing 10 albums and a table listing 100 records.  You only want 5 records per each album.

As you might expect, Googling such a solution was pretty hard.  A common solution was:
Code:
SELECT r.* FROM albums as a 
LEFT JOIN (
SELECT * FROM records LIMIT 5) r ON r.album_id=a.album_id
...[More]
1122 unique view(s)

Laruto's Lament

December 27th, 2011 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Laruto's Lament by ellebirdy23
380 unique view(s)