Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Guitars, Technology, and Life

As is probably evidenced by the 3 articles I posted in quick succession today, I am indeed back to updating my blog. I will probably start documenting some of my more eccentric hacks and configuration files here, simply for future reference for both myself and anyone interested. I may also start reviewing some of the software I use daily (and also get into a review of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I'm pretty much addicted to at the moment). We shall see what I get done while I'm on semester break.

I do also plan to start documenting useful practices/websites for guitar, as well as a review of aLaska Piks (fingerpicks) once I get my batch. Once I get my hands on some of the new Ernie Ball Cobalt strings (as well as a pack of Earthwood strings), I'll also put a review up, comparing them to my current strings (Ernie Ball Coated Regular Slinky (0.10"), and Ernie Ball Coated Acoustic (0.11")). I've also ordered a glass slide along with the strings (though the Cobalts aren't in stock yet, and are effectively delaying my order until their arrival), which I will compare with my current steel slide. I also hope to find a decent audio recorder at some point, which I will also review (possibly with sound clips - we'll see how it sounds!).

Outside of Guitar & Technology, I also hope to bring some of my Japanese/Mandarin practice to my blog. I'll aim to review/discuss books and software I find useful for practicing those languages, and possibly also write a brief introduction or so to either language. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to post them in the comment section below.

I sincerely hope this post doesn't become like the last "and I'm back" post, though I can't make any promises. I think I've come up with a fairly varied series of topics, meaning I will probably not run out of stuff to write. Once I figure out a decent method for posting code snippets on blogger (trying out one on my Custom Dates post), I'll also probably move some of my scripts over from pastebin. Basically I'm hoping to turn this into a hub for my technological, musical, and language-oriented knowledge. Once I've cleaned up my github a bit, I'll also be posting a link to it here, since it should offer the most up-to-date scripts and settings.

6 comments:

Noah said...

Hey! Indeed, you are back! I have just back to blogging lately, because I felt that I needed a place to express my thoughts in a very organized way. So, I also ended up checking out your site (mine is linked to yours, I believe)

Anyway, it's nice that you're getting into Mandarin and Japanese. Culturally, my family has always been interested in Japan, and so my mom and I are learning to speak Nihongo. At the same time, I do have Chinese lineage, so I'm checking out Mandarin (and the local dialect here, Hokkien) for the sake of appreciating my roots. I find it interesting, anyway.

Yes, hopefully you would be updating your site more often. Are you still writing up for FCM? I haven't been following the magazine lately.

Lswest said...

Hey! I admit, I flooded my blog with posts a couple of days ago :P There will be more to come once some purchases arrive (a mechanical Cherry MX Brown keyboard is on the way, not sure if I'll keep it yet though), as well as some guitar stuff.

I've always been fascinated by Japan's culture, it just seems...extremely rich when compared to most of the western cultures. I admit...I'm mainly dabbling in Mandarin simply because I know more Mandarin speakers than Japanese speakers :P So far it's kind of interesting though. Though to be fair my 日本語 (nihongo) is leagues ahead of my Mandarin, simply because I've been learning it longer.

Yup, I'm still writing for FCM, Command & Conquer is still going strong. I don't reckon that will end anytime soon.

Thanks for the comment!

Noah said...

Hey! Well, it's great to hear from you again. :)

Recently I have not been blogging much (all though I did an update recently) because I'm working on the first game of our game company. Wish us luck!

As for languages -- I just realized that I haven't listened to an English song for three days already. It's either in Japanese, German or Filipino. XD

As for Japanese culture and discipline, my mom and I have an affinity for that. ;) Although I wish I could get scim to work with anthy again, though. I miss writing in Japanese.

Lswest said...

Haha, it's good to be back (let's hope it lasts). Sounds like an interesting project to be working on, good luck! I've always been fascinated by game design.

Haha, I don't listen to ANY German music, but I do know the feeling where you go "wait...I haven't listened to any English music for a while".

I had plenty of issues with SCIM a while back, ended up switching to UIM, which works well. I'm not sure on UIM's support for other input (besides Simplified Chinese), but you can always give that a shot? Otherwise iBus might be of interest to you as well. If you're stuck and want some help with SCIM, send me an email (or Google+ me) and I'll happily help you out.

Noah said...

Well, I see that you've posted another blog entry after this one -- I'm not going to say that that's an assurance, but at least it does get the ball rolling for you. :P

Yes, sometimes we use English so much that we forget that it is just one of the languages one could communicate in.

As for the language input, IBus worked! :) ibus-anthy. ありがとうございます!

Lswest said...

By all means - don't take that as an assurance :P I will definitely be reviewing a few guitar-based items once I get the rest of my order(s).

My default language is always "English", and sometimes I forget what language it is I was communicating in, since I always think in English, regardless of the language I speak/type.

I'm glad iBus worked for you! どういたしまして。