Videogames on the violin: Lost in Thoughts All Alone (Fire Emblem Fates)

Here is my own personal goal for playing the violin: I want to learn to play a violin solo for Lost in Thoughts All Alone from Fire Emblem Fates, the full version. “Full version” meaning the entire six minutes, including all the parts where Azura sings the lyrics for Birthright, Conquest, and Revelation.

There is just one big problem: I can’t find the sheet music for a violin solo of this song. The closest I’ve found is h4kase’s sheet music for a piano + violin duet. Unfortunately, this is not the full version of the song (it’s missing the lyrics for Revelation), and there are too many violin pauses. If worse comes to worst, I think I might need to ask my violin teacher to help me transcribe the sheet music for a full violin solo by ear.

The beautiful part of this song starts from 03:44 as the violins start to crescendo. It is a perfect contrast to the lyrics at that point, where Azura is singing about the dark path of Nohr (i.e. “Night breaks through the day…” ; “… Even the thorn in your heart, in time it may become a rose.”). The violins then take over from 04:08 with a short but emotionally stirring solo. THIS is what I want to replicate on my violin. I’ve only started to learn how to channel emotion and volume on my strings through placement of the bow, so it’s going to take a long while before I can reach this level.

A song from a videogame is inspiring me to master the violin. Sometimes I wonder why I take videogames so seriously.

My SSD had a heart attack

So after almost a month of not posting anything, I guess a quick update is needed for my active followers and readers (I can probably count them on one hand).

My SSD died recently without warning. I could boot up my PC without problems in the morning, went out for the whole day and came back at night to discover that the SSD just went kaput. After calling up Uncle Lim, the PC shop uncle near my house for advice, he asked me to try switching the SATA cables from my DVD-ROM drive to the SSD. Of course it didn’t work. Hard drives die when they are killed.

Uncle Lim described my SSD as having “a heart attack”. It is one of the unfortunate cons of using a new technology like SSDs over traditional magnetic platter HDDs — death to an SSD can come swiftly and suddenly, without any telltale warning signs. This is the complete opposite of HDDs — usually you can detect and anticipate when a HDD is about to die, which should give you some time to back up your important files.

Unfortunately, I had no backups of my SSD. It only contains my Windows 10 system installation, and my World of Warcraft folder. Normally in the past, if my PC fails I would start to panic. This time, funnily enough, my initial reaction after my SSD’s death was “maybe I can finally take a break from WoW… I already killed Kil’jaeden in the latest raid.”

The next day, I went to Uncle Lim’s shop, bought a new SSD, and then promptly reinstalled Windows 10 and World of Warcraft. I did not have any backups of my WoW addons, so rebuilding my game UI from scratch using Bartender was another tedious process. Take a break from WoW? Yeah, right.

Old habits die hardest.

“If we sacrifice our values because we’re afraid, we don’t care about those values.”

– Edward Snowden

His full quote (starting from 30:57 in the video): “You shouldn’t change your behaviour, because a government agency somewhere is doing the wrong thing. If we sacrifice our values because we’re afraid, we don’t care about those values.”

Snowden’s quote resonates very deeply with me (not because he shares my name), but because it makes absolute sense. If you allow yourself to be affected by terror, if you change your behaviour because you’re afraid, then the terrorists have already won.

Decay – Left Behind

One of the most memorable and addictive pro wrestling entrance songs in recent memory. The lyrics are perfectly suited to describe Rosemary and Decay, while the overall song manages to maintain the macabre spirit of what Decay is all about.

This is actually the second entrance song for Decay, the first one was borrowed from Marilyn Manson, called “The Nobodies”. According to my friend, TNA could no longer afford to pay royalties to use his song, so they had to create a new theme for Decay.

I like both themes. The first one was catchy, and helped to sell Rosemary and her faction: A group of outcasts shunned by society who turn to darkness to help them win matches. The second theme has a more sinister vibe and stronger guitar riffs, which coincidentally suits Decay in 2017 — they deleted the Hardys from TNA with a vengeance.

Yet another perfect example of how the right entrance theme can make such a huge world of difference in selling a pro wrestler. Just ask Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode.

The rise and fall of Mad Catz | Eurogamer

via Eurogamer: How Mad Catz used up its last life

Anyone who has dabbled in fighting games for the past decade or so, has definitely heard about Mad Catz. They make joysticks for fighting games that are of top quality, used by tournament-level players all over the world.

And then they went bankrupt. All because of several bad decisions by top-level management.

There are some very important lessons to learn here: Diversifying as a company is important, yes, but if you expand too quickly and take risks that make no sense (Mad Catz’s upper management believed that console gaming was going to die back in 2012-13 — a laughable idea now with PS4 and the Nintendo Switch gaining strength), you will plummet back to earth as quickly as your rise.

I’ve never owned a Mad Catz stick, because I was very satisfied with Hori’s products, one of Mad Catz’s main competitors. Still, it’s sad to see another hardware company bite the dust. Only when competition in the market exists, will you see better innovation in technology and development.

Videogame lethargy

Every once in awhile I experience a phenomenon I’d like to call “videogame lethargy” — I sit down in front of my PC or consoles, and get ready to play a game, but then I change my mind and go do something else. The brain wants to play, but the rest of the body is going… nah.

I can probably blame Fire Emblem Fates for this. My absolute determination in completing the game on Lunatic Conquest last month, has sort of left me totally fatigued. I remember I once woke up at 4am in the morning to try and complete Chapter 20 (the one with the drafty winds). By the time I successfully finished it, the clock was already 1pm. NINE freaking hours just to finish one mission.

I still play my mobile games every day, games like Fire Emblem Heroes and Plants vs Zombies Heroes where I can play a few quick matches or so for 20 to 30 minutes. I still play World of Warcraft every day, logging in for about 30 to 45 minutes to finish some world quests. But when I want to play something else, a game that would require longer time investment in one continuous sitting, and especially a game that I want to record and stream (you know, like Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright), my body just starts to rebel. I haven’t even touched my copy of Persona 5, it’s just sitting on my shelf, unopened and unplayed.

Perhaps there’s another reason for my lethargy: I have to practice the violin every day, or at least I’m doing my best to discipline myself to practice every day. That requires a lot of focus, and unfortunately, when it’s time to play a long videogame, my mental focus is already completely used up.

Maybe I should just take a short hiatus from videogaming. I have lots of catching up to do for my pro wrestling viewing and comics anyway.

The strange but artistic science of bartending | Channel NewsAsia

via Channel NewsAsia: Where alcohol meets mad science: Singapore’s exploding cocktail scene

What an interesting article, especially after I blogged about my short but itchy cocktail drinking experience a few days ago. Some bartenders have taken their passion to the fullest extremes, using molecular chemistry and mixology science to craft their drinks.

Apparently, the rooftop bar that I went to on Wednesday night, The Screening Room, is located in a very popular hotspot for cocktail bars: Ann Siang Hill and Ann Siang Road. That area is within walking distance of Chinatown MRT and Telok Ayer MRT, which is not a bad location to have food and drinks.

But again, I am not going to start drinking cocktails regularly from now on. Mainly because of my alcohol intolerance and the price of alcohol in Singapore. Unless Dana Zane exists as a real person, opens a cyberpunk bar in Singapore, and pins me to the floor with a German suplex, I’ll stick with VA-11 Hall-A for now as my videogame escapism for bars and drinking.

Cocktails

One of my favourite videogames last year, VA-11 Hall-A, introduced me to the fascinating world of cocktails and just trying out drinks for fun. So yesterday night, at my company department’s small gathering, I did just that: Try out some cocktails for fun. I tried three, the first one was a vodka cocktail that I have completely forgotten the name — It contained raspberry juice and lemon juice. The second and third ones were the bar’s custom signature cocktail called “Keep the lights on” — It contains sake, more lemon juice, and other ingredients that I can’t recall now because I just woke up and my whole body is itching like crazy.

No, I am not going to start drinking regularly from now on because:

1. Alcohol is still mad expensive in Singapore. For reference, each of my cocktail shots cost like S$19 each. That’s enough to pay for one month’s worth of World of Warcraft subscription. Or two months of New Japan World. Yes, I always compare my monetary purchases in relation to videogames and entertainment. A S$60 game like Fire Emblem Fates can give you 200+ hours of entertainment; three $20 cocktails can be finished in about 30 minutes to one hour, and it leaves you itchy like fuck.

2. Alcohol intolerance is no laughing matter. Do you know what it’s like to be woken up, automatically at 7am with your entire body itching like fuck underneath its skin?

3. Dana Zane is not a real person. ;(

4, I want to live as long as possible and that means abstaining from as much poisonous intake as possible. I would classify alcohol as poison to the body. Because I’m feeling itchy as fuck.

5. Dana Zane is not a real person.

Itchy. Scratchy. Tasty.

Wonder Woman (2017) and the empowerment of just letting ladies kick ass

A couple of weeks ago one of my friends, Mustapusta, suddenly messaged me on Twitter: “I got bored so I decided to watch Kill la Kill for fun. Now I know why you are so obsessed with it.”

Wonder Woman (2017) has just been released in theatres, and after watching it, I feel kind of vindicated with my obsession for KLK. It’s a very simple formula: Just create a powerful female character, and allow them to kick ass. Let them unleash their superpowers, and let them fight alongside (or against) the men. But you must also make them human and relatable. Let them experience the ups and downs of human emotions, let them experience love, anger, and hate, and just let them be who they are: A hero(ine) who rises up and takes action, and who finds a way to triumph against evil.

To be very clear, I am not a feminist. I don’t consider myself one. I am more of a strong believer of equalism: The idea that everyone, regardless of their age, sex, language, race, or religion, should be treated equally and given equal opportunities. If men like Superman, Batman, Jack Sparrow, Nathan Drake, and Terry Bogard can vanquish evil by beating people up, why can’t the girls do the same?

I admit that I entered the theatre with very low expectations, especially after Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad. It’s so refreshing to finally see a DC movie that gets it totally right. Moral of the story: Don’t let Zack Snyder direct any superhero movies. He was involved as a producer and writer for Wonder Woman, but the director was Patty Jenkins.

This is why I hated Sucker Punch (another film directed by Snyder), which I have blogged about before. It executed the “warrior women” genre in the completely wrong manner, and tried to sexualise the female characters, another big mistake. Yes, most of Kill la Kill’s female cast were fighting half naked in revealing outfits, but so were the men. See what happens when the stakes are equal for everyone? That’s the amazing power of equalism in entertainment.

I’m eagerly awaiting Marvel’s Captain Marvel movie, which will feature another female superhero protagonist. It’s a wondrously good time (no pun intended) to be a fan of comics, videogames, and just pop culture entertainment in general. I wonder (I’m sorry) how long this Golden Age will last.

FOZZY – Judas (Priest?) in my mind

One of Chris Jericho’s better songs from his band FOZZY. The lyrics are great, and the chorus of “I’m becom… I’m becom… I’m becoming!” lends a huge amount of energy to his performance from start to finish.

I’m not sure if the title of the song is meant to be a reference to Judas Priest, my favourite heavy metal band. It’s the theme song of NXT Takeover: Chicago, and if you watched that event all the way to the end, it’s a very fitting choice.