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.