2012

Here are all the songs that I managed to create in 2012, and a link to my FB page. As for 2013 I won't stay idle, there's more to come.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fenrir88/234974566563188?sk=app_178091127385

Change your author name displayed for a single blog

On this site I found some very useful info on how to make my other blog post with another author name rather than the name of my blogger profile. Just in case I'll copy it:

Change Post Author Display Name Without Changing Google Profile

The details:

1. From the blog Dashboard, go to Template -> Edit HTML-> Proceed -> put a check mark in front of the the "Expand Widget Templates" option. 

2. On your keyboard press the "Ctrl" and "F" keys at the same time to bring up the search box.

3. In the search-box, type in <data:post.author/> then search.  The first <data:post.author/> will be highlighted. Replace it with the author name you want to use.For example, I replace it with my author name BJ.

Once replaced, search for next, replace again, until there's no more <data:post.author/> come up in the search result.

Note: in the Blogger template, there are 4 or more <data:post.author/>, just replace all of them with the author name you want to use.

4. Save the template. You done !

Google in search engines

If you ever want to use google.com as search engine in chrome but google somehow seems to impose your national server you will have to change the search engine through your browser. Probably all that's required is to change the URL into

http://www.google.com/search?{google:RLZ}{google:acceptedSuggestion}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}sourceid=chrome&ie={inputEncoding}&q=%s

Ranting about Windows and Linux

This is the list of software that I use and they don't come all in the same OS therefore renders me incapable of using only one OS.

For browsing I use Opera and Firefox. Both come on windows and linux.

For IM I use WLM and Empathy. WLM is pretty but bloated, comes only for M$. Empathy is very simplistic but comes only for Linux.

For Media Players I use SMPlayer and Windows Cinema Classic. SMplayer comes for both but I'd really like just to use Cinema Classic which is only for windows.

For Music I use Foobar2000 and Audacious. I wish I could just use Foobar but it only comes for windows. Therefore I have to use audacious on linux. With Foobar I can use the Now Playing status message on WLM, with audacious there are Pidgin plugins but they don't work. Also I don't use Pidgin, I use empathy.

Office Suite I don't give a crap. Anything works for me.

Games: StarCraft, StarCraft 2, Warcraft3, Counter Strike 1.6, Diablo 2. They run only on windows xp and only SC2, WC3 and CS run on Windows 7. Linux has no cool, stable games.

I use Gimp and Inkscape. They work well on both OS.

I use GuitarPro, Reason, Amplitube, Sonar. GuitarPro latest release was also ported to linux but for the others there must be windows.

mp3tag is such a great tagger and renamer to be left out of linux. However there is Audio Tag Tool for linux but it is not good enough. For renamers there is pyrenamer (linux) and advanced renamer (win)

Sure we can all argue that viruses are common for windows and hard but not impossible for linux. I don't care about it much. But sure, I like that I feel secure with the penguin.

I like how gnome looks (gnome 2 that is). I hate how Windows looks. I hate all that transparent glassy sh!t. I am right now looking for packs to style up windows to match my taste. However M$ makes sure that it is hard for me to get it because otherwise people would start thinking windows is not that good. I am looking for Linux/Ubuntu packs. They are of course, resource hungry (just like most themes). Which takes me to my next point: native stuff that comes in linux that windows lacks (I tried to think of the opposite case but found none.)

With Linux I have several workspaces. With Windows I have one.

With Linux I have Compiz and a wide variety of cool, sometimes not so smooth effects. In Windows I have smooth but boring effects. I don't really effects other than the expo, ALT TAB with preview and the one in which all the open windows line up so that I can see them all at the same time but in miniature.

I MUST have one panel for menu's and launchers and another for the windows list and notifications. Windows only has one taskbar, with linux up to 4. Docks are too retarded and resource hungry.

I hate my life in which I have to choose one or another. The only that contents my heart for now is to have 2 pc's on. One running linux and one running windows 7, whilst I must keep my old laptop with windows xp for the days when I want to play starcraft and diablo 2.

Musical Chords, Part I

After a while of not posting anything...  guess I'll keep up with some music stuff.

A quick summary:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• The major scale formula was:

Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone. Use it with any note and there you have that note's major scale.

• Also that we are going to name notes according to their distance with the tonic.  Meaning that in C major scale:

C is the tonic, D is C's second, E is C's third, F the fourth, G the fifth, A the sixth and B the seventh.

However, E is D's second. When calculating what one note means to another we evaluate within that note's major scale. When the note we have in one scale doesn't match exactly with what appears in the major scale we are measuring it against, we use the terms flat and sharp as well, or diminished and augmented depending the case.

In example,  in C major scale we have CDEFGAB.  Let's search for what type of third we can find for E within this scale: G is not E's third (third major) because in E's major scale we find that G# is E's major third.  This means that G is E's Minor Third, or ♭3.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Now, a chord is more than one note played at the same time.  We have several types of chords depending on what type of notes we use (according to the tonic).  To understand how chords are made, we first had to understand what is a third, a fifth and an octave. That's the reason I included a summary regarding that.

So, to make a chord all you need is more that one note, meaning that with two we already have a chord. However we only use one type of interval when using only two notes, so many times instead of calling them chords we call them for what they are, be them fifths or seconds or thirds, whichever.  I'll start with one of these chords:

Power Chords
Silly name isn't it? Heh, well that's what many called them and are very used when playing rock, pop or whatever.  They have a simple sound but a powerful one. They wont evoke mysterious or complex sounds, but rather just a note with an enhanced power thanks to its fifth being added.

So a power chord is: Tonic + Fifth (of course, the tonic will always be present because it's the chord's name main note).
For example C, its fifth is G so the C Power Chord is: C + G (That's it!)
Another example; B: its fifth is..  F#. So B Power Chord is: B + F# (which means B doesn't have a power chord in C Major Scale because we don't have F# in that scale!!)

Major and Minor Chords
You probably have heard about some chords being major and other being minor.  In the power chords we added the fifth, which adds power to the sound but doesn't contributes with a real change in the chord's feel.  Now we are going to add the third.  That's the note that makes a chord either Major or Minor.

Let's add C it's 3rd. According to C's major scale E is C's 3rd.  We have now:
C + E + G       This is C Major chord, made by Tonic, 3rd and 5th.  We can also add another C one octave higher.

Moving along in the C major scale we have D.  Let's try to make a chord for D using a 3rd.  Within this scale we can find to use:
D + F + A   According to the D major scale, F is not D's 3rd, that would be F#. F is D's ♭3rd!! Which means this is a minor chord.

If we evaluate which chords are major and which are minor in C's major scale we have:

1. C has a major chord. (E is 3rd, G is 5th)
2. D has a minor chord. (F is ♭3rd, A is 5th)
3. E has a minor chord. (G is ♭3rd, B is 5th)
4. F has a major chord. (A is 3rd, C is 5th)
5. G has a major chord. (B is 3rd, D is 5th)
6. A has a minor chord. (C is ♭3rd, E is 5th)
7. B is a diminished chord. (D is ♭3rd, F is ♭5th)

Diminished chords are the ones which doesn't have a perfect 5th but have a minor third.  Such is the case of the seventh note in a major scale.

Since the major scale is a math formula, it doesn't matter which note's scale we use, the second note's chord will be minor, the third minor, fourth major and so on.  Let's try it the second easiest major scale, G's. We know (or at least should know) that G's major scale is GABCDEF#

1. G has a major chord. 
2. A has a minor chord. 
3. B has a minor chord. 
4. C has a major chord.
5. D has a major chord.
6. E has a minor chord. 
7. F# is a diminished chord. 

Tritone
There is one interesting thing about the diminished fifth that is worth mentioning, and that is that the ♭5th's ♭5th is the tonic.  Now that must be confusing to read, but let's try to clear it out.

With A this time (to change it a bit)
A's ♭5th is E♭.  AND E♭'s ♭5th is A.

What's so special about ♭5th anyway? Well, if you hear it you'll notice that this chord has an incredibly tense sound.  Later on we'll learn more about why this tension is so important in music and how to resolve it.  That's about it for now. Cheers!!

[Thanks to Pazl for bringing to my attention some misspells :-) ]

Japanese Verbs: Indicatives

* * * * So... this isn't meant to be a reliable summary or anything, it's mostly meant to be like a chart to remind me of some stuff so I figured why not post it? Also I apologize for romanizing most of it, it's a hassle to type the kana in my current computer.

So the verbs can be categorized into three different groups depending in which kana their root ends.  The first group made of verbs that end in "u sound", the second of those who end in "ru" but the kana before it isn't an "i sound" kana and the third is made of compound verbs with "suru" and irregular ones.  We'll call the first one the U verbs and the second one the RU verbs.

Here's a few examples.

U verbs:

To drink_____-_____のむ_____-_____no - mu

To buy   _____-_____まつ_____-_____ka - u

To wait  _____-_____かう_____-_____ma - tsu

See? they end in U.  Of course not exactly the same kana, it's the sound of the kana which is U.

Ru verbs:


To eat     _____-______たべる     ____-_____tabe - ru

To see     _____-_____みる         _____-_____mi - ru

To think  _____-_____かんがえる_____-_____kangae - ru

Suru:

To do_____-_____する

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now, conjugations.  Those up there are informal / present indicative / affirmative.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Informal * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Informal / Past Indicative / Affirmative 

* * * U verbs: This one is a handful.. change the last kana and add TA or DA

• If the U kana is SU then change the SU for the I kana (SHI) and add TA.

___________(To speak) Hanasu -----> Hana + shi + ta (hanashita)

•  If ends in KU change it for I (NOT KI, I) and add TA

___________(To write) Kaku -----> Ka + i + ta (kaita) 

•  If ends in GU change it for I and add DA

 ___________(To swim) Oyogu -----> Oyo + i + da (oyoida)

• If ends in MU, BU or NU change it for N and add DA

 ___________(To play) Asobu -----> Aso + n + da (asonda)

•  If ends in RU, U or TSU remove them and add TTA (small tsu + TA) 

 ___________(To win) Katsu -----> Ka + tta (katta)

   

* * * Ru verbs: Remove the RU and add TA. (piece of cake!!)

___________(To Eat) Taberu -----> Tabe + ta (Tabeta)

Informal / Present Indicative / Negative

• U verbs: The "U sound" kana is changed into the corresponding "A suond" kana, adding NAI after it.

___________(To Drink) Nomu -----> No + ma + nai  (Nomanai)

• Ru verbs: Remove the RU and add NAI.

___________(To Eat) Taberu -----> Tabe + nai (Tabenai)

* * * Past AND Negative: Drop the I from NAI and add KATTA
Nomanai -----> Nomamakatta
Tabenai  -----> Tabenakatta

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Formal * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Formal / Present Indicative / Affirmative

• U verbs: The "U sound kana" is changed into the corresponding "I sound kana", adding MASU after it.

___________(To Drink) Nomu -----> No + mi + masu  (Nomimasu)

• Ru verbs: Remove the RU and add MASU.

___________(To Eat) Taberu -----> Tabe + masu (Tabemasu)

* * * Negative: It's pretty much the same, change MASU with MASEN
Nomimasu -----> Nomimasen
Tabemasu  -----> Tabemasen


* * * Past: Change MASU with MASHITA
Nomimasu -----> Nomimashita
Tabemasu  -----> Tabemashita


* * * Past AND Negative: Change MASU with MASEN and add DESHITA
Nomimasu -----> Nomimasendeshita
Tabemasu  -----> Tabemasendeshita

Music, a thing or two.

For some time I have been wanting to write a few things that I've learned along the years about music, theory and other sort of things.  Go ahead and hate me for if this gets very basic sometimes but I can't go deeper without stating the starting point. So here I go.

Hopefully you'll know that music is an art based on sounds and silences, with changes of rhythm, pitch, melodies, harmonies, dynamics, etc.  Many may have different opinions about its bases, whether it's a complicated science or art, or a free artistic way of expression.  Truth is it may be less complicated to understand than what you may think, or on the contrary there may be more to it than you thought.  Let's go slow.


Musical Notes
There are musical notes. You probably have heard of them.  They can be named in two different ways and it's easy to learn both.  These are the ones hopefully you already know.

Do___Re___Mi___Fa___Sol___La___Si___Do

In english we know them as:

C___D___E___F___G___A___B___C               respectively.

You can see that this nomenclature seems to be alphabetical, and that A or La should be the first ones.  There is a reason to that but I won't get in there just yet. Now, it seems we have 7 different notes.  The last C is the same note as the first one however this one has a higher pitch than the first, this is called an octave (it's the 8th note of the scale).  But saying that there are only 7 notes is wrong.  There are more, they're the so called accidental notes that are between some of the above.

Musical Notes, accidentals
What we really have is 12th notes.  With all notes included we have
(note that all the notes are one semitone away from each other)

C___C#___D___D#___E___F___F#___G___G#___A___A#___B___C


The # on C# means it's a C sharp.  A sharp notation is used to indicate that the note that is shown there is not the one that is really meant to be used, but instead the note that is a semitone (also called half a step) higher.

But that is not the only way we can express accidentals.  We also have this.

C___D♭___D___E♭___E___F___G♭___G___A♭___A___B♭___B___C


The  ♭ on D♭ means it's a D flat.  A flat is the exact opposite of a sharp, its pitch is one semitone lower.  It's important to take notice that C# is exactly the same note as D♭.

Now, hopefully you might have noticed that between B and C, and E and F there are no accidental notes.  That is because they are already a semitone apart in distance, whilst for example C and D are a full tone (or whole step) away from each other.

The use of a sharp and the flat depends, but most of the time we use them in a way in which we use every single note once without repeating and without skipping.  So let's say we have a scale with C, C# or D♭, and E (and F, G, A, B etc, it's a made up scale). We must use then D♭ instead of C# because otherwise we would be skipping D and repeating C.

They could've called each note by a different name instead of using this notation for accidentals, I don't know.  Probably at the beginning they didn't saw them as different notes but as they are called, "accidentals".  Instead of hitting the one they wanted they hit one semitone higher/lower.

C___D___E___F___G___A___B___C  

The reason we are taught these notes in particular is because they are a scale, and the easiest ones to learn. This is the C major scale to be precise.

 Musical Scales
A scale is a sequence of notes that have certain harmony with each other. But they are only a mold that includes certain notes and excludes other for the sake of harmony.  The chromatic scale is the scale that includes all possible notes, so when I wrote above all the notes with all the accidentals included, I wrote the chromatic scale.

Scales are more like a mathematical formula which tells us which notes are included.  The most important scale is the Major Scale.  It is used as reference for all the other scales, therefore it's the first you should learn. The Major Scale of C is so popular because it doesn't includes any accidentals.

So let's get to the formula. What we can observe is that the notes included in the C Major Scale are C D E F G A B.  Let's start.

1. C is the tonic, meaning that it's the first note and that all the notes used in the scale are used relatively to this one.  
2. Between C and D we have a full tone. 
3. Between D and E we have a full tone.
4. Between E and F we have a semitone, remember that there are no accidentals between this two.
5. Between F and G there is a full tone.
6. Between G and A, another full tone.
7. A and B, a full tone.
8. Finally, since a scale is a sequence that repeats itself indefinitely we must go back to the tonic.  Between B and C there is a semitone (remember, no accidentals between this two either).

So the formula for a major a scale is...  Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone.  Use it with any note and there you have that note's major scale.  Let's take then G.

G(tone)A(tone)B(semitone)C(tone)D(tone)E(tone)F#(semitone)G

For future reference, A is G's 2nd, B is G's 3rd, and so on until F# is the 7th. (This is for G)

Music and physics 

This part is of little use, however it's pretty cool.  

As some of you know, sound has physical properties.  To keep it simple, the frequency of a sound wave determines its pitch.  Each note has its own frequency measured in hertz.  The lower the frequency, the lower the pitch.  We use a couple of constants for the calculation of the frequency of any note, one is the frequency of A.

A4 (or La4) has a frequency of 440 hz. Now, the other constant is the 12th root of 2, which is about 1.0594630943593... The importance of this second constant is that this is the ratio of the frequencies between two half tones.

This means that A# is the 12th root of 2 times A's frequency.
440 x 1.0594630943593 = 466.16376.. or so.

For the next note, which would be B, then we need to take A#'s and multiply it by the 12th root of 2.  Do it until you reach A's next octave and you'll get 880. Which means that an octave's frequency is the double of the note's frequency.  Pretty much as expected.

For a more complete formula, use this:
* don't forget that 12th root of two can be written like 2^(1/12) [^means powered]

f= 2^(n/12) * (440 Hz)

Where f is the note's frequency that we are looking for, and n is the amount of semitones between A and the note.  When it's higher pitched n is positive, negative if lower.

Let's try it with F4 then (which is lower than A4) which is 4 semitones from A.  Therefore n=-4

So F4 is at 349.2 Hz

(I know images are messed up with the background...sorry about that)

Cheers.