Shit Son! Stuff To Talk About

Keelah Se'Lai!

Wow. I can feel this is gonna be a relatively long post. So, let's take the most recent, smaller things first - Today I decided to update my YouTube Channel layout, so I took an hour or two off and created some pretty good looking metal-ish fantasy GUI type of style, and it seems to work out quite nicely. You can, as always, check it out over at my channel: http://youtube.com/owminator

Beware though, I also set 'Worms: Retarded' - my latest masterpiece, to autoplay whenever the page is loaded. Hoping to record something similar to that again soon enough, maybe this time I'll have Lucas, one of my friends, jump on the wagon as well and have three people going apeshit during an incredibly stupid game of Worms. Yea. Basically, I had him over at my house yesterday.



We talked tech - mostly audio related stuff, such as the fact that he has an SM58 he can't use because he doesn't have a mixer, nor a mic stand, so I lend him my mutilated Blue Eyeball for the occasion of the previously discussed future video, but mostly what we did was trying yo set up and FTP server using this Frankencomputer:

I excuse the quality - I took it in an incredibly badly lit situation - like, 2 minutes ago. Yea. That's an old CRT stacked on top of ... 'The Doctor', as we labeled it. Talking about naming computers, here are two more we took a look at for a possible server candidate:

The one we picked is the best specced of the three, but more importantly, it has the far biggest harddrive - a 250 gb SATA one. Unfortunately, I got incredibly frustrated trying to set it up and get it to work properly. Yea. It still doesn't work. I tried a number of different programs, different IP's, different ports, pretty much everything I could think about as the potential problem at the time. I'll hook it up within the week and take another look at it.

In video 'news', I'm currently working on some GTA IV random comedically relieving compilation type of videos. Made two so far, first one set to launch when I hit 100 subsribers. Kind of a special 'gift'. I'm planning to keep making these types of videos, and hopefully, GTA V will have a video editor as powerful as the one in GTA IV at launch for the PC. Yea, it has been officially announced, trailer airing the second of November.

Honestly, my interest lies in Skyrim more than anything at the moment though.

______________________

So, this is what my - almost - complete setup looks like right now:

It is as cool as it is Ghetto - Yes, I got an Eyefinity setup on those monitors - No - None of that paper touched my private parts, I'm quite simply having a terrible cold. So, there it is, the almost complete rig; The Kryo Kolossos.
The reason why it's not complete is... well, it's got 4 GB's of RAM installed. I have 8 GB, but my motherboard is screwed and basically does that ... stuff ... - referring to a post from the 9. of July. That was apparently not my graphics card, but rather my motherboard screwing around with my ram. It seems to work flawlessly with only 4 GB's of RAM installed. Hopefully by Christmas, I'll be able to upgrade the two oldest parts in my PC. The motherboard and the processor.

So far I'm settled on an i5 2500k and a decent motherboard to boot, since Bulldozer is a complete joke. Very disappointing, being that I'm kind of an AMD fan. I got my nifty microphone, the Shure Beta 57A setup behind the the pop filter over there to the left, with a Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer behind it. Damn I love having some professional gear by my side. That is the microphone I use for pretty much everything I do in terms of audio recording. If you're waiting for the specs of the whole rig, you'll have 'em now for the very end. So, thanks for reading - leave a comment if you please.

Specs:

AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8 GHz
RipjawsX 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO
MSI Radeon HD 6870 Hawk Edition
Cooler Master Cosmos RC-1000 Case
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler
Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM HDD
Samsung Writemaster DVD Writer
Corsair HX850w Modular Powersupply



Keelah Se'Lai - May Keelah Be With You.

Vocal Covers and A Shure Beta 57A

Keelah Se'Lai!

Yello, peoplez! So, yesterday, before going out and drinking and having a generally fun time, I decided to record some vocal covers with a Shure Beta 57A I'm currently loaning from a guy who can get me one for 60% of the retail price; to kind of, test it out. So, if you're interested, well, here you go.


Keelah Se'Lai - May Keelah Be With You.

Drawing Album Cover Sketches.

Keelah Se'Lai!
So it seems our lead guitarist was a bit hyped on creating an album cover, so I jumped the bandwagon and drew two sketches from whatever inspiration I could gather. The first one I drew turned out fine, but it's very muddy and not very detailed:



So, then today at school I decided to redo it in finer detail, and double the resolution. Of course, it has been resized to 560x560 pixels like the one above, but originally it's 2000x2000 pixels:



And personally, I think it turned out pretty alright. What do you think? Would this be a good concept for an album cover involving Folk Metal themes? I certainly kept that in mind when accepting the flow of inspiration. Or something.

Also, I just made a new front page blog video. I didn't like the on I had up before, so I decided to quickly redo it. It's over in the right side in case you hadn't noticed. Kthxbai peoplez.
Keelah Se'Lai - May Keelah Be With You.

I Formed A Band!?

Keelah Se'Lai!

I formed a band. Yes, you heard/read right. Yesterday I formed a band with a friend of mine. So far we're only 2 people + a possible drummer. I am the vocalist and songwriter if you're wondering. I'll give you the long story.

6 Months ago I started singing along the songs I listened to and eventually concluded that I'm not actually a bad singer, so I kept going, singing my heart out until eventually I noticed myself getting better. About 6 months later I decided I was good enough for the time being and decided to focus on my songwriting skills - Which I had never tested. So I wrote my first song... 4-5 days ago. As it was half done and in a draft state, I posted it to Facebook, and to my amazement, people said it was really friggin' awesome.

Then our guitarist came around and was like "Ima see if I can make a riff for that" and then it kind of took off from there. A couple of days later I basically asked him "Do we officially have a band now?" and when he answered "Yes", he basically made my day. So I went home and researched, trying to come up with a list of stuff I need to buy in order for us to record some stuff. In the past, I had considered buying a mixer and a microphone, but concluded it wasn't worth the money in terms of solely doing YouTube videos, but as we formed a band, I suddenly had very good reason to do so.

What I'm thinking about is a Samson C01 and a Behringer Xenyx 802 Mixer. Nothing fancy. Also, I'm considering investing a little more in an AT2020 Mic instead. As for the band, we're aiming to play multi-genre metal, and we have already decided to have one of our major genres be Progressive Metal. Also, the lyrics are gonna be quite reminiscent of Folk Metal, as much of my inspiration comes from Wuthering Heights.

-Owminator signing off
Keelah Se'Lai - May Keelah Be With You.

Steam Summer Camp Holiday Sales and a Defect Graphics Card! How Wonderful!

Keelah Se'Lai.

A gesture I will be using both at the start and the end of any post from now on. So, it turns out that my lovely MSI 6870 Hawk Edition beast of a graphics card is defect. Basically, this happens when I try just about anything. Literally, any game, any internet browsing or editing a video always ends up like this:

Usually followed by a BSOD and a reboot. SO I'm traveling to Copenhagen to the store I bought it from to get it fixed or replaced. Damn, I can never go out and buy something, bring it home, hook it up and expect it to work. That reminds me of a gamepad for PC I bought a few days ago. Didn't work properly, so I went to Gamestop where I bought it the next day, to get a refund. Or well, I paid a little extra money towards a wired XBOX 360 controller. Works like a charm with XPadder.

My crush on this fictional character I have previously mentioned is still present, but not in a severe degree like it used to. Well, you know what they say... or what I say... or what someone else once said: "Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never met."

I can do quite a lot of quotes on top of my head and I have a habit of letting people around know that in a conventional kind of way. I just get drunk and shout things. "Death is the solution to all problems; no man, no problem." - Joseph Stalin is amongst one of those I always remember. I think my favorite quote of all time hands down is: "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain."

Portrays my perspective on life perfectly. Life sucks sometimes, but you still gotta live it to the fullest, even during times where death seems the easiest way out. Not... that I would know about... such things... *glare*

So lately, because of that damn graphics card, I have been gaming on my laptop which is surprisingly capable for a $600 dual core machine. Of course the processor speed isn't extremely relevant compared to the graphics card in the area of gaming. This specific laptop - the HP G62-A20SO has a very rare graphics card - an AMD Radeon HD 545V. Basically a 4450 or a 4470, in benchmarks it's slightly better than the 5470 512MB prominent in most laptops in the price range. Of course assuming they don't 'feature' a Intel GMA HD Graphics Processor or in other words King of the Hill. King of the Hill of Turds, Piss, and Jizz. In other words, the crappiest graphics card you'll stumble across.

As the title suggests I have had some good times with steam holiday camp sales summer thingy. Yea... basically, Valve, or Steam, are selling a bunch of games and packs with unbelievable discount on them, and the set of offers change everyday. Personally I have bought many indie games for 2-5 euros including Trine, Torchlight, Magicka, Universe Sandbox, Braid, and several others. Incredible deals. I have already put up Part 1 of my first impressions on Solar 2, a game I have grown to like a lot. You should definitely but it, I believe it's still like - 4 euros on steam or so.

Also today I finished my 4th playthrough of the Mass Effect series, which basically concludes playing through the first and second game, this time as a Adept, on hardcore difficulty. Or atleast until I got my hands on an Xbox 360 controller. I then bumped it down to Normal difficulty for obvious reasons. No aim assist = FUCKING stupidly hard on hardcore difficulty. The Arrival DLC proved quite tough as well, with all those prison guards storming your ass all the time. Nevertheless I like playing with a controller for certain games, and got quite some enjoyment from ME2 with that. PC Gaming - Play the way you wanna play. That's what I love about PC.

Speaking of that, I stumbled upon a game called FaceOff Paintball v2. Yes. Don't ask. On the surface it's a boring mod where you shoot fellas with a paintball gun on a really small shooting field, however what makes it so incredibly interesting is the facetracking built into the game. Basically, you hook up a webcam, light your room slightly (nothing professional, I only had one light on and it was behind me :O), and launch the game. The you can use head gestures to look around and peek to the sides.

I was really impressed with the function of it. Incredibly smooth and controllable, and all done with a cheap 20 dollar webcam I had laying around. I also found a program that allows you to track headmovements and translate them to a FreeTrack output, which can be read by over 100 games, such as ArmA 2, the DiRT series amongst plenty of other simulators. I tried it out in ArmA 2, but it didn't work all that well, so if that's your plan, get a Playstation Eye. You can plug it into your computer, download some custom thirdparty drivers and have it working like a normal webcam, but what's so special about it is that it can operate at 120 frames per second, making it extremely accurate and reliable. I can imagine ArmA 2 responding well to that.

Back to Mass Effect, I also recently bought the three books - Revelation, Ascension, and Retribution, currently reading revelation which is a prequel to the first game and seems to handle the story between Captain Anderson and Saren, which you might have heard a little of in the first game already. I'm not far into the book, but it has already grabbed my interest, and honestly, I'm really looking forward to finishing it and moving on to Ascension. Quite simply because it deals with Quarians in case you couldn't tell by the cover:

Anyhow, I'll be signing off now. See you guys later, Keelah Se'Lai - May Keelah be with you.

I haven't posted for a while, eh?

Yea, I haven't posted on my blog for a while. I'm not gonna bother finding sorts of excuses or justify it, I simply just haven't had the motivation. Kind of arrogant to think I have better things to do, but so it is. My attention has been drawn to a fictional whom I have fallen in love with. Yea it sucks, and it's lasted for 2-3 weeks now. It is starting to fade away from my thoughtstream during a regular day, but it still interferes and holds my general interest when I start thinking a lot. Which I do when I get bored. Which I get late at night.

Friday, I was out drinking on the "wattworks" listening to music and generally having a fun time. We did plenty of moshpits, and I remember late that night I started singing and randomly quoting Pablo Francisco. People were crying with laughter. Hmm, feels good to be socially noticed sometimes, but honestly, I can only imagine how tideous it must be if that's what Your life consists of. I prefer keeping an independent state of mind the majority of the time.

Also, I have started creating my own cultural beliefs, and I have already noticed a difference in my personal satisfaction and my attitude towards people. Right and wrong have become clearer and I have become more aware of my personal flaws. It really is great to believe in something and still not have it be a higher power such as a God or an item or being capable of thinking on it's own.

I have derived the terms "Keelah" and "Keelah Se'Lai" from one of my favorite videogame franchises: Mass Effect for the sole purpose of giving voice to my beliefs and perspective. Keelah being a synonym for all and everything, and how we each must improve ourselves as people, to eventually improve the world as a whole. In fact, I have "compiled" a saying and stuck with it as my way of spreading the idea:

"I do not pray, for Keelah is not a God.
Keelah is all; all is Keelah.

Each individual must act and think on behalf of others to improve us a whole.
To improve us as Keelah.

It does not bring any reward beyond the personal satisfaction expected to occur in any man in possession of a righteous, pure heart and soul.

However, that does not make our movement an act of arrogance or ignorance. We unite under the banner of justice, peace and harmony to deliver an obligation to the people who came before us. Violence is a tool used by lesser people who have yet to master the flexibility of mind, soul and interest and so we do not condone to actions in a such nature.

Keelah Se'Lai - May Keelah Be With You." - Me, 1996 - N/A

I do not serve a God, I serve the world and the people around me.

Keelah Se'Lai

Skyrim = Orgasm

I Have Been Hooked

In other words, videogames for the motherfu**ing win. I have been hooked on gaming since I got my new selfbuilt rig up and running almost a week ago. It's a true beast. Been playing Crysis with natural mod on max settings, as well as benchmarked and experimenting with overclocks on both my graphics card and my processor. I ordered 8GB's of ram to couple with my current 4.

Last school day was today. For the ninth graders only, unfortunately. I did have quite an easy week though. No homework, and plenty of schoolhours where I'd simply be free to go along with the rest of my classmates. Currently I'm rocking some music, and about to edit the 3rd part of my Fallout 3 Let's Play

MSI ATI Radeon HD6870 1 GB DDR5 2DVI/HDMI/2x Mini DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card R6870 HAWK

I Can't Sleep Tonight. And Here Is Why.

So I'm going to sleep after this post. Or wait... what?

Massively disturbing, you have been warned!



WHAT HAS BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN

Using Speedfan to Control Your Fan Speeds

Download the program for free here


Arctic Cooling ARCTIC F12 PWM - Case fan - 120 mm