Been playing around with garageband..

All fi's fault. Now I'm addicted too. The amp sim is amazing, you can choose the sequence of the amp, eq, how many amps you want.. bla bla.. I went to research online on Eddie Van Halen's tone, stumbled on this site http://www.amptone.com/eddievanhalenrig.htm and I followed it. Since I could insert as many EQs as I wanted I could somehow follow it to a certain degree. Guess how it turned out. I won't say, hear for yourself!

Panama

http://sanxp.ath.cx:81/panama-garage.mp3

When I Look Into Your Eyes' solo

http://sanxp.ath.cx:81/looksolo-garage.mp3

A faster solo (anyhow)

http://sanxp.ath.cx:81/solotest-garage.mp3

A project I've been dreaming of for some time..

Has finally been fulfilled. :D Smarvo with a return jack. Now I can jack in my pedals the way I do during jamming, bypassing the EQ on the amp. And the best part is, I did it myself. :D Took the useless footswitch jack and re-wired it to the volume knob (I'm sparing a LOT of details) and it works! I also wired it so that it will always be in clean mode, the way I use it. The boost mode sounds horrible anyway..

Pics!

Sound clip here: http://sanxp.ath.cx:81/panama-smarvo.mp3

Linux on mac? Unpossible!

I got it done with Parallels and Ubuntu. :D And it's pretty damn fast. Faster than windows running on Parallels.

Oh by the way I loaded Ubuntu with mac fonts so it will look more mac-like. The original fonts looked like ass.  Lol.

Tipard/Leoger

Er yea. One more of my antics of trying to make Leopard look more like tiger. And ending up making my Leopard look like some frankenfreak thingy. Oh well it's cute ^^

Tag if you wanna know how!

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

A friend who helps in times of trouble is a true friend. How true this is. I am thankful for having not one, but two. My baby and fi, the only two who helped me out for my up and coming court case. Baby offered her PSP up for sale to help out, and is also taking out a significant portion out of her paycheck for me. Fi offered the same, and he cabbed all the way down to meet me even though he was in the middle of his work. Both of you are the truest, and bestest of friends anyone could ever wish for, and for that I am eternally grateful.

I shall not mention the particular individual who immediately turned me down even before I asked him for help. I was not even intending to ask him, afraid of the repercussions. Such people I need little of in my life.

It's times of trouble that one finds his true friends. Not that I doubted any of them, but it was through this that strengthened my belief on who my true friends are. I learnt a lot too from this experience, through all the thinking I've done collectively for the past 2 months. I realised all the wrong doings I have been doing, and why. It's time to get back on the ground and live a humble life.

I hope the verdict tomorrow will be alright.

Leopard Tricks!

New additions to my ever changing mac! Notice anything different? The menu bar on top is not translucent anymore! Yay! Old tigger goooodnesssss... Did it with 2 programs. And I'll guide you through how.

First, I made it white. It used to be difficult, having to go into terminal and edit system files yourself.. But the great guys at eternal storms software made a really nice software that does everything for you, free of charge! Here it is: http://www.eternalstorms.at/utilities/opaquemenubar/index.html

Run it, change opacity to 1, restart. You're done.

After this, you're done, with a really really white bar. Like.. bleached. That's kinda ew and bright, not like the Tiger one with a gradient, so we have another app to help you out. You can adjust the gradient, the colour, mouse over opacity, yadda.. but I adjusted a global setting to look as tiger as I could, as seen above. Nice and yummy. I like. Here is the second app you need: http://www.manytricks.com/menubartint/

Run this one, fiddle around, and you're done. For reference, I used black for all the base colours, and set 0% opacity for top, 5% opacity for middle, and 15% opacity for bottom. Both opacity sliders for mouse over and away are all the way to the left. Once you're done, you can hide/close the settings window, and it will be tucked away nicely without knowing it's there. Oh and you need to add it in your login items for it to take effect, just tick the hide button after adding it so you won't see it or even know that it's there.

UPDATE: You can just use opaque menu bar to set the opacity to 0.62 to get the bar on older macs running leopard. It doesn't look exactly like tiger but at least it looks official, and it's less troublesome. Also with menu bar tint the white words when you click any menu item turns out grayish. And the blue doesn't quite match the rest of the menus. So well, you decide.

So there. Hope it helped. If you wanna know how I got the song title up there, I use a program called QuickTunes, and I have a software called GimmeSomeTune (also from eternal storms software) that grabs and updates the lyrics for all the song that is playing, and you can set a shortcut key to display the lyrics anywhere. No more breaking your flow to find lyrics, just control-command-L (that's how I set mine) to show the lyrics in a nice, translucent black, resizable window. Lookee here:

It comes with a menu icon, but you can hide it, but remember to set a global shortcut to call the settings page up before you do! If not you can't see it again unless you delete the preference file, which is.. really tedious. I set mine to control-command-comma, as command-comma is the normal preference shortcut key for the mac. Easy to remember.

I also have a QuickLook plugin that displays the contents of a folder, rather than a boring icon. Check this out:

You can get this from http://homepage.mac.com/xdd/software/folder/. Also, I have one that QuickLooks zip files, rar files, any archive file as well! You can get that one here http://macitbetter.com/BetterZipQL-1.0

Also, have you ever surfed the net, or talked to your friend, and not know what a word meant? Did you have to go to dictionary.com or worse, flip a real one? Well in leopard it's built right in, you just select the word and press control-command-d. Yes it's that simple. Look here:

Works anywhere with selectable text. For any other word, just call spotlight (command-space) and type it in! Spotlight is just too flexible to document here.. Basically you can run programs, choose songs, search the dictionary, do simple math, all in spotlight!

"But what about my spanking new PC with Vista?" you might ask. Well, too bad. Get a mac. :)

10 reasons why you should get a DS instead of a PSP

If you are considering between a DS and a PSP, think no more. Get a DS, and below are the 10 reasons why. I've owned a PSP prior to the DS, so I can safely say that my comments are unbiased and the true reflection of what I feel about the two different consoles.

1. The games are smaller so you can put more on a piece of memory than a PSP, a PSP with a 4GB memory stick can hold the most 5-6 games, each weighing in at 200MB to 1.5GB, while a DS more than 30 games with a 2GB SD card, where the smallest game is 8MB and the largest at 128MB. How many times on the bus were you bored with your PSP game, and you wanna play some other game, only to realise you didn't bring it along? With a large selection, you'll never get bored. Also, with the amount you can put on the DS, you don't have to choose what game to bring along with you, you just bring all of them along!
2. With smaller games, a good side effect is that the games will load faster. MUCH faster. You spend less time waiting and more time playing.
3. The games are simpler, making it much easier to play on the go than with the PSP. I found myself playing my PSP only at home, making it practically useless as a portable console.
4. The games are easier to save, same as point 4. You don't want to be waiting for the bloody game to load to the main menu, then load the save menu, just to save when you've already reached your destination!
5. The games are so easy to play even your girlfriend or her baby cousin would want to play! Fun for everyone, isn't that what games should be like?
6. There are many interesting and unique games on the DS that you can never find on the PSP. How many games on the PSP are horribly stripped down versions of their bigger console brothers on the PS2 and PS3?
7. A DS bundle is cheaper than a PSP bundle.
8. The DS is much smaller and lighter, and thus less strenuous to play on the go. I've played the PSP on the bus till my wrists and neck were sore. I can play my DS from home to Woodlands and still not want to put it down. Also, while being smaller, it's easier to bring around! The PSP was just too troublesome.. Not to mention being afraid of dropping it..
9. The DS is more hardy than the PSP, with a suitable hard case. The hard case does not impede the usage of my DS, unlike the unwieldy Logitech PlayGear for the PSP. This means you can take it out to play anytime you like while on the go without fear of dropping, scratching or nicking your DS. I was so afraid to drop my PSP, with a few near misses.
10. It's easier to 'mod' the DS than the PSP. The amount of knowledge needed to mod the PSP just to play games off the memory stick is atrocious! You just buy an R4 for the DS. It's only like, $50? A brand new DS + R4 is still cheaper than a brand new PSP. And you can slap in a memory card into a DS and begin playing, but you still need to mod the PSP!

Yeah, you can say the PSP has better graphics, looks cooler, and can play PlayStation games, but the games just suck for playing on the go. Most games feel as though they were supposed to be enjoyed at home and not outside, especially with the snazzy graphics. Even with the snazzy graphics, they are nowhere near the quality of a PS3 or even the PS2, so there's no point in playing them at home anyway! You might as well get a proper console. That being said, I'd rather get a Wii. So I can play games together with my friends, rather than them watching me play Final Fantasy Whatever.

Get a DS. You won't regret it.

Hmm

In the light of the recent trend of posting song lyrics, I shall do so as well.. (actually not really, it's just fi lol)

Here's Third Eye Blind's Jumper, from the era of secondary school. Singing about stepping back from the edge and putting the past away. Meaningful stuff.

I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend 

You could cut ties with all the lies 

That you've been living in 

And if you do not want to see me again 

I would understand 

I would understand 

The angry boy, a bit too insane 

Icing over a secret pain 

You know you don't belong 

You're the first to fight 

You're way too loud 

You're the flash of light 

On a burial shroud 

I know something's wrong 

Well everyone I know has got a reason 

To say 

Put the past away 

I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend 

You could cut ties with all the lies 

That you've been living in 

And if you do not want to see me again 

I would understand 

I would understand 

Well, he's on the table 

And he's gone to code 

And I do not think anyone knows 

What they are doing here 

And your friends have left 

You've been dismissed 

I never thought it would come to this 

And I 

I want you to know 

Everyone's got to face down the demons 

Maybe today 

We can put the past away 

I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend 

You could cut ties with all the lies 

That you've been living in 

And if you do not want to see me again 

I would understand 

I would understand 

I would understand 

Can you put the past away 

I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend 

I would understand... 

Anyway life hasn't been really swell for me recently, credit card debt, court case for speeding coming next week, just finished my exams and probably going to fail 2 modules.. Thankfully baby's always been there for me.. Gonna clear all the shit and start 2008 afresh. I will be a better, more responsible person. I guess that's the true meaning of maturing and growing up, and not speeding like a mad dog, spending money like water and fooling around with girls, like a certain individual might like to believe. I'm going to wake up and accept the fact that I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth and live a normal, honest and happy life. One does not need to endanger lives and waste petrol with speeding or spend lavishly to enjoy life. I have my baby, my awesome group of friends, my band and my music. All these too important to me to lose with recklessness.

Thru the shitty 2007, I hope I've become a better person. May 2008 be a better year.

All I've ever wanted for a girl, was someone to talk to, someone to laugh with (or at), someone to cuddle up to, someone I can take care of, someone that can take care of me, someone I can take responsibility for, someone to live with, someone to be with, someone to hang out with for the whole day, someone to love..

And I've found her. And I'm glad. I love you bee :)

Leetifying Leopard

If you've been reading my blog, you would probably know I have 2 macs, and both running OS X Leopard. If you don't, now you do.

What's new in Leopard is something called Screen Sharing. Basically what that means is that you can control a mac, from any mac, over the network. Cool huh. You might have seen many repetitive desktop pictures on my blog over this period (rest assured they were of different macs on different versions of OS X) but you haven't seen anything as confusing as this yet:

Wha? 2 docks? No, the mac in the window is my iMac, while the actual one is my MacBook. I'm downstairs and I would like to make my iMac do stuff while I'm working. I won't have to run up and down to check on what's going on, I can do everything from here. Is that cool or what?

Anyway. Maybe that was not so confusing considering you probably are on micro$haft winblows, cos when I look at that pic I see 3 docks (including the one here). So. To add on to the confusion I decided to be retarded:

:D

snowy the new kitty..

DSC01169.JPG, originally uploaded by sanXp.

She's sleeping soundly.. Has been a long day.

Mac OS X

Before (Tiger)

After (Leopard)

Aw yeah. Leopard is now on the big one.

24" Leopard goodness. I couldn't help myself. Sorry tigger..

*click*

LOL@APPLE

Windows servers are represented on Leopard as crappy 15" CRTs with a BSOD. LOL!!

hehehe

Leopard is up!

Screw the non-believers, I got leopard running on my MacBook Pro. Heh. Check it out:

Is Leopard really worth it over Tiger?

Been reading up on it prior to making the leap to Leopard, and there were many whose computer crashed and burned after installing it. Apparently it had something to do with certain incompatible apps loading on startup, and they had their machines stuck on the blue startup screen with the mouse pointer for.. a good few hours. Nothing they do can get the machine out of that state and even better, when running the installation DVD again, the drive could not be installed to! They apparently had to format and do a clean install of leopard, losing all their files. I'm not too keen on that, especially on my iMac where I have a lot of very precious data. With no 500gb hard drive to backup to, I can only risk my MacBook Pro, which doesn't have a lot of data, but which I can throw into my iMac for safe keeping.

Another thing is the look of leopard, I don't really fancy the way it looks. Yeah, stacks is cool, spaces will be useful, cover flow everywhere, but the overall look of Leopard is.. ew. The translucent menu bar, no more rounded corners, super FUGLY folder icons, ugly shade of blue on the selected menu items.. oh and yes.. FRONT ROW LOOKS LIKE ASS. I believe it's the exact carbon copy of the Apple TV interface, which honestly isn't very nice. The 3D effect of zooming in and out of front row is GONE, and it just fades in and out. Really sad.

So I've decided to go with Leopard only on my MBP, as I believe spaces will be productive for me, but will stick with Tiger with my iMac. Tiger just looks better, and I don't need spaces here with a 24" screen. I don't code on my iMac anyway. I would wanna come home to a pretty interface after a hard day of school or what not.

Cool app of the week!

Introducing an app I've been looking for the past few days: an app that can display the song my iTunes is playing on my menu bar, the nifty nice neatish area on the top right of all macs. It's really simple, but it's not easy to find a free one that looks good (the other I tried needed me to pay and had really crappy anti-aliasing; the words were jagged!) and I stumbled upon this today: QuickTunes. It's completely free under GPL and it does a little more than just display the song title on the menu. Check the shots out:





Pretty much explains what it can do. Not like I really need them, but it's cool to have. It has a floating window which I won't show here because I already have sizzling keys to do that for me.

More info here: http://dbachrach.com/opensoft/index.php?page=QuickTunes

for fi

http://sanxp.ath.cx:81/firiff-triac.mp3 this is your riff with my triac
http://sanxp.ath.cx:81/firiff-mix2.mp3 this is your riff mixed in with the triac
http://sanxp.ath.cx:81/firiff-mix.mp3 this is the same as mix2 but it has my normal setup mixed in as well, sounds like shit tho, dunno why

Hmm I removed the 'What My Friends are Saying' section..

Kinda takes up too much space and I don't think anyone is interested in reading them.. If you want it back just holler on my cbox and I will add it back!

I HATE CHINANESE!!!!

The feeling of being a guitar geek is coming back..

Finally the feel is back.. I wanna do stuff to my guitar setup once again. I'm planning on having my solo boost switch on my guitar, followed by a looper that switches 2 of my 3 overdrive pedals in and out so I can switch between clean and distortion easily, and cutting the body to have more pull up on my floyd. All these hopefully done by next june, wish me luck..

Thanks to all that came!!

IMG_4672.JPG, originally uploaded by sanXp.

See all the photos here:
Day 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanxp/tags/day2/
Day 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanxp/tags/day1/

Heh

IMG_4667.JPG, originally uploaded by sanXp.

Check the rest out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanxp/tags/day2/ !

DAY 2!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanxp/tags/day2/

:D

IMG_4608.JPG, originally uploaded by sanXp.

WE CAN FLY!

IMG_4609.JPG, originally uploaded by sanXp.

GIG PHOTOS UP

I too shag to type anything else

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanxp/tags/gig/

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

dilemma..

Been troubled recently.. About my studies. Haven't been doing too well.. Actually that's an understatement, I actually am not catching ANY ball at all. Physics and maths. My weakest subjects in secondary school, are back to haunt me now. Digital Design, a module I was quite good at during poly, is not very good now either. The only thing I can do is programming, but I'm in Electrical Engin, not Computer Engin or Computer Science. I'm basically screwed. I've been harbouring thoughts of quitting school and focusing on music but that will not go well with my folks. I'm lost.. I know if I'm gonna focus on my studies I got to stop playing music, but that's not something I will give up so easily. As an engineer my future is more or less secured, I will be able to put food on the table, live a comfortable life, make sure my baby is well taken care of..

I don't want her to suffer because of me. I know I'm thinking too far.. But I need to know if TEG will go all the way with me. Some form of assurance, somewhat. As we grow older we need to think of how we're going to survive. I'm turning 22 already. Now's not the time to sit around and see what happens in the future. That time is long over.

All these are happening because of all the constant pressure from my dad about getting a degree and shit.. But that's not what I want. I can't think straight because of all these external factors and pressure from everywhere.. Everyone's looking at me. I cannot afford to fail in life. If I become successful in music no one can say anything. But what if I don't? I can't see myself being successful in music if I have to juggle school and music.. I can't do well in both. It's either.. and my dad wants to see a degree.

I know it's my life and my choices.. but sometimes in life you live for others..

JAMMING ROCKED!

EDIT: All photos up on flickr! iPhoto has this wonderful plugin that lets me export like a shit load of photos in 1 shot (like 1 event) into flickr and it can even put all the pictures in 1 set! Hoho.. Get them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7552334@N05/sets/72157602171289920/

(you also notice i can create blog posts directly from flickr.. but i can only blog 1 pic at a time.. sad.)

Awesome. The recording was great! Aaaaaaaaanddddd... WE HAVE PICTURES!!! Baby came for jamming today and she brought her cam along.. :D:D Thanks so much bee.. *muacks*

So. Here are the various members of the toilet crew..

Jason


WAN THE DEMIGOD


Fi


Me


And the newest member of our family.. Is!


Baby took like 100+ photos so I chose some really nice ones to put up.. Hehe..

Wan so handsome..


PUNK SHY!


Maciam cool.


Our 1st picture taken together with just the 2 of us. And with fuck faces. LOL


Maciam..


Cheese!


\m/



And my favourite picture of all.. A picture my pedal board, taken by my baby... Thanks soooooo much bee... *muacks*


There you go! Haha.. Time for sleep..

GIG CONFIRMED!

Guys! My band (TEG) will be playing a gig this 29th and 30th of September at Cathay Cineleisure. The time is yet to be confirmed, but please do come down to support!! :D:D:D

RSS FEEDS OWN!

If you are not actively using RSS, you should. Like now. Like immediately. Here I demonstrate how I use RSS feeds in Safari:

Yes my dear friends, you are looking at YOUR blogs. All of you. On one page. All with a simple click on 'Blogs' on my bookmark bar. And before you complain saying Safari is only for mac, Safari 3 beta works on windows too. ;) http://www.apple.com/safari/download

Oh yes, candice, please turn on your RSS, I can't add you to my RSS feed.

Definition of a good sleep?

What's your definition of a good sleep? When you sleep till you don't want to wake up in the morning or when you sleep and wake up really fresh and awake?

What do you feel? I personally prefer the latter but that doesn't happen to me really often =\

Happy birthday baby..

I love you.. *muacks*

Hackintosh fully operational!

The wireless lan card arrived yesterday! I now have full wireless working! I can finally use OS X full time on my laptop! YEAH!

edit: ok nvm it's dead. Forget it. Getting a macbook pro.

MOST FUCKING KICK ASS JAMMING *EVER*

AW YEAH!

MORE TO COME FOLKS! \M/

I will stop spending. FOR THE MUSIC! All my money shall go into music from now on!

Oh cos I already bought my DS :P

Eh I actually can buy sprint booster with that money for the DS sia.. Oh well. NOT IMPORTANT!


\M/\M/\M/

Big brother


Small brother

Posting this from my laptop..

MAC OS X UP AND RUNNING ON MY LAPTOP!!!

WOO HOO! CHECK IT OUT!

Stronger

Now, now, now, that, that that don't kill me
Can only make me stronger
I need you to hurry up now,
Cause I can't wait no longer
I know I got to be right now,
Cause I can't get much wronger
Man, I been waiting all night now,
Thats how long I been on ya

-Kayne West

Boring day..

Been all around singapore today, go fetch my mom to tpy, then to work, then went back to camp to say hi and collect claims, then go sim pass ryan his specs, wait for him till i was late for nus registration, then went for registration, supposed to look for fi but his hp off, then went back to camp to sign my claim forms cos i forgot, then pick my mom up, and now at home. After this my mom needs to use the car, so i can't go anywhere or do anything.

I really need my own car. Damn this is bad.

On a side note, NUS is super fucked up. Compared to NP. Everything must DIY. Like today, everyone was submitting their giro forms and i was like "Huh? What giro form? Where?" Then i went to ask the guy there collecting the forms he said i was supposed to print them out myself. Great. Like how the fuck i was supposed to know. Then one of my friend told me the instructions were in the freshman guide, in 1 of the obsecure pages. Correct. Like i'm so damn free to read thru the whole damn book. If that was not enough, he told me that there was a math refresher course LAST WEEK and it was very damn useful. I didn't know about it. The invitation for the course was sent VIA EMAIL. I'm not the kinda person that checks my email everyday. It also doesn't help that i suck at math and i need such things to help me a little, not forgetting the 2 years of letting my brain grow cobwebs (thanks to who else but the army).

KNN I AND I JUST REALISED THERE WAS AN IMPORTANT TALK YESTERDAY! AND WHERE THE FUCK FROM?! THE FUCKING EMAIL!!! CB THEM LA KNN FUCKING ASSHOLES

Wah damn sian

Nothing to do at home, too lazy to go out.. How sia? :( Army withdrawal symptoms..

OMG I JUST RODE IN A PORSCHE TODAY

For real.





Yes it was fast.