Saturday, February 2, 2008
Referenced Older Blog Entries

Friday, February 01, 2008

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

With the Music, Not Against It (J-Pop and music) Current mood: talkative Category: Music With the Music, Not Against It Short : When it comes to songs with words, I believe a singer should sing with the music, not go against or outside the music. I believe the value of the song drops when a singer forces themself to sing in a key they are not comfortable with, combine languages in the same stanza / chorus of the song even if the singer cannot use that language, have lyrics that make sense, and don't burst into some random spontaneous creativity with their voice that where the music has to STOP to handle their outburst. Read below if more insight is desired. Extended : I find common during Japanese songs that the singers will stray away from the tune altogether. A LOT of Japanese singers to me do not strike me as a "singer". No more than say, myself singing in the shower during a thunder storm, possibly with subwoofers playing some loud-butt heavy drum & bass. To me, a singer has to sing with the song, and if that means changing the key the song is in, so be it, but the singer and the song has to be like one, maaan, it has to be like Zen type stuff, you know with the bald monks meditating on their heads. Alsos, I don't like how a lot of J-Popcorn songs throw some English phrases / words into the mix, going for this "It's cool to use English" factor. I would highly prefer a song that starts in Japanese to be sung in Japanese. It would be one thing if the English made sense, but things like, "You get to burning?" And though this next one is not a Japanese singer, I'm pretty sure it was a Japanese writer who made Faye Wong sing Eyes on Me. Don't get me wrong, nice voice, nice tune, horrible lyrics that make no sense that totally kill the sing, I mean uh, song. That's why I go for the acoustic version of this song as much as possible. Had Faye Wong sung the whole thing in Chinese, I can almost guarantee you, I would have liked the acoustic version more anyway (what, did you think I would like a song in a language I can't understand? Har har, yer pullin' me chain lad). What was I saying? Oh yea, a lot of Japanese singers just kinda sing around the music and not with it. To me that's not melodic, I guess when I'm saying Japanese singers, I'm *mostly* talking about what is being classified as J-Pop these days. Maybe it's just a style that I don't appreciate because it has a voice that scratches (or crashes) against the music. A comparison would be ebony-style singers near the end of their songs, like Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera (notice, I said ebony-style, I didn't just come out and be ignant by saying black women-style singers, man that would be ignant if I said some shiznits like that wouldn't it?). Like in the end of Reflections with Aguilera, I don't know what the he** she's saying and it's kinda like, "WTF just happened to the song? I guess it was over the moment she just had to bust out with some of that spontaneous creativity." And Mariah Carey, though the title of the song escapes me, when Mariah goes into her 'spontaneous creativity' near the end of the song, the musician just stops trying to follow along and Mariah's on her own. It's the equivalent of Michael J. Fox doing his solo in Back to the Future, "You guys might not be ready for that / might be a little too much for you. But your kids'll love it." (Except Back to the Future's sounded much better than the aforementioned). Now in Japan's defense, there was / is a singer that sang a song where she was the music. And I like Utada, heaven forbid Utada find my blog...why do I call her by her last name? Oh, back to the point, I loved when Utada was singing, but she didn't have the music going yet and/or when she just has the piano going and the music. I think I also liked Keep Trying, but I'd have to listen to it again to see if Utada was breaking melody or with melody. There's another song, I guess it's not considered J-Pop, is her name Rei Tateshi? She was singing a song called "Friend" for the Phantom Brave Arranged Soundtrack. In this song, the singer's voice IS one of the instruments itself with the guitar and piano are drifting alongside with the singer to create a pleasant melody. I especially like when she strips (WHOA you perverts, wait 'til I finish) the song of lyrics and just let's her voice sing lyriclessly. It's the awesome. In Japan or rather, J-Pop, I suppose singing off-key or away from the music is acceptable. And as long as they have this English is cool phase, I'll probably be encountering more...yargh, whew, it MUST be an acceptable thing in J-POP to sing however the he** you please, after listening to a song for an example. Now, there was one song where I was on the fence (and not in the closet mind you, because if you go in the closet, you'll have to come out of it, and I just don't know how I would tell everyone, don't ask, don't tell, and never go into the closet in the first place) there was one song where I was on the fence, I call it the Ichigo 100% / Strawberry 100% opening song - Shine of Voice. The title hurts me, but the beginning of the song starts off nifty, and MOST of the song is very good, EXCEPT for all the English phrases they thrown in there, kinda in the midst of a stanza or chorus. I can't imagine a good song being an immediate cross of like Spanglish, Taglish, Franglais, Frarabic, or J-Eigo. Where in the same line, "Aishiteruze my ichiban nihonjin ojouchan, you make me go banzai in my school uniform!" (Okay I'm kinda making up the Japanese and throwing an English word in there, but you get the point, you just butchered two languages in the same stanza. And it hurts the song, more than a dominatrix hurts the guy with the apple in his mouth handcuffed to the bed post.) ...It's been 2 hours since I started...I'm not sure if I have conveyed what I originally set out to do. When did I get this controversial, this "OH MY GAWD, I'm in your face", and setting my blog on private so that no one, not even people on my friends' list can read it? When did I get this way? I dunno. Maybe it was ever since I read Stephen Colbert's "I AM AMERICA! (AND SO CAN YOU!)" Man, that book was amazing, I just read it and was completely dumbfounded. And by "it", I just mean the book cover, what? You thought I actually READ the inside? My gosh, I don't even read half (times two) of the things I type, why would I read someone else's? As we speak, I type this offline because I can't get ONLINE to post this. I'll post it tomorrow.

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Santa Clause - The Great Winter Ninja Current mood: cynical Category: Life Santa Claws is one of the deadliest most cunning ninja masters of all time. I mean, who else can do a mass-shadow replication and strategically place himself in virtually every mall, shopping center, and even some countries that don't celebrate the arrival of this deadly winter assassin? And plus he can break and enter into any home and leave presents, sometimes pieces of cra...I mean coal while eating YOUR cookies and DRINKING your milk. Only a ninja or a ghost could do that and maybea ninja ghost...or a ghost ninja, but you know who that is?Santa, that's who! This year, I asked Santa for a few things, because you know, I think I've been a good little boy. And I proposed this to him in the order of preference (in case he couldn't get the gift of higher precedence). 1. World Peace. 2. World Neutrality. 3. World Domination. 4. A pony. 5. Everyone to be happy without harming anyone else's happiness. Thanks Santa! So, you know, wishful thinking is that Santa will grant my deepest darkest desires of world peace, but if he doesn't I'd settle for everyone just being happy and stuff (without the use of drugs and beer). But knowing Santa, he'd sooner crap coal in my stockings and complain about not substituting the sugar in my cookies for Splenda (or how the milk I left for him was spoiled, he hated that). And my daughter is watching me with a tissue in her nose. This is going to be a brilliant Christmas. (X-Mas is what happens when all the Santa clones bend over and reveal their X-shaped coal generators). See yall later folks!

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Friday, October 05, 2007

First Blog Subscriber - The Sophomoric Art of Blogging Current mood: optimistic Category: Life Whoo hoo! I got my first blog subscriber! Now the bar is being raised for me to have higher quality bloggings (how can one increase the quality of his or her blog?) First, don't think about what you're going to blog about, just blog it. That way, you don't even know what will come out of your blog when you create. It will be spontaneous and...combusting. Like a spontaneous combusting man (yea...) Second, you have to think of some kinda catchy phrase or slogan that'll (does that'll = That will? Is that an improper contraction - breathe!) echo in the blog reader after they finish your blog. The reader *might* even come back to read your blog twice only to realize, "Hey, I've already read this before." In this case, I will replace the dreaded F-word (the curse / cuss word) with "Smurf". Third, your blog has the borderline kinda sane and readable to a general audience, then start touching the private parts of insanity and being so unreadable that, well...you probably won't get read anymore, but that's okay, it's your blog. Fourth, your blog has to be smurfin' awesome. Somebody has to come up and be like, "Well smurf me, this is a smurfin' nice blog. I just wanna smurf this blog all day long and while I'm at it, I'll smurf the internet." Notice the usage of blogging rule 2 (*edit, I said, three, that's um-bare-a$$ing). And last, but not least, avoid blogging about blogging. Only people that run out of things to blog about ever blog about blogging. And when you blog about blogging, you find that your blog becomes a total smurf-up and then you just gotta throw your smurfin' blog in the smurfin' trash. What? I broke rule numberlast? Well smurf that rule, blog whatever the smurf you want and most of all, enjoy the smurf outtait. Smurf ya! Cheers to my first blog subscriber!

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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Nothing like a good blog Current mood: happy Nothing like a good blogging, and I think you all kinda expected when you clicked on the hyperlink that you weren't going to find a good blogging. I think of blogging as a kind of...way to relieve oneself. Kinda like pooping (does this belong on poop report?). Pooping is a way for the body to relieve itself of excess materials that are no longer needed, sometimes you just cannot contain it, and you have to RELEASE it into a neverending ocean of ...poo. Well blogging is the mental version of pooping. Your head fills with ideas and there's no where to contain them, you just can't hold it anymore and then KASPLAT (and 1000 words later), you blogged all over yourself. Sometimes I blog in my head and it gets really messy. So it helps when I candump some crapon Myspace. And then I flush this blog into cyberspace - the place where people cyber all the time with /flirt, lol, and various forms of sexy Ascii (a$$-key, unlock the magic) art. And nothing's worse than a blog where you forget to wipe, cause you'll come out stinking! And recently there has been one individual who I cannot determine what kind of creature he is. But what is most important is that the one he holds dear now knows what kind of creature he is. Curiousity... Blog it, flog it, then clog it. Just like real life, but crappier.

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Saturday, July 14, 2007

Happy Birthday Ayame Current mood: crazy Category: Life My daughter Ayame was born 3 years ago today around 3:24 PM. It was a delicious day where her mother was forced to have a cessarian for baby survival...and I watched. The doctor was using his flash light to see where the baby was, pushing my wife's insides around with his grill tongs. And his helpers were eating pizza and commented how much it looked like the insides, then they *found* Ayame in there, curled up. She was on her little laptop inside her mommy's belly. Then my wife commented on the music she heard playing, she said it was her favorite song. The anesthesiologist (sp?) said he needed a lunch break, so he excused himself in the middle of the operation. And when the doctors reached for Ayame, she bit their hand and started kicking them around. They grabbed the baby quick and started gasing her with something. I'm not too sure what happened, but I think it involved me fainting with my head in the anesthesia. When I woke up, Ayame was in my arms smiling, whispering some prejudice stuff in my ears. But I don't listen to her at all, cause she's just a baby. A really whiny dangerous baby that'll leave a diaper full of poo on my face while I'm sleeping. She's Ayame. She can do anything. I have heard people say that having children causes your memory to fade away and slowly you become uncool. But what if you did not have either of those things to begin with? Mwahahahahyuhyueh~~~ [continue blood curdling maniacal laugh here]. ...HAPPY BIRTHDAY AYAMO GOZAMO! I'll give you your birthday spankings tomorrow. You deserve all three of them baby. On a more serious note, I did watch the cessarian and Katrina did comment on the song, but Ayame was fairly quiet even after they pulled her out. Good job Katrina for enduring that energetic techno-trance dancing baby for X of months. I won't talk about what I saw, but thinking about it in too much detail shows that I'm not apt for gory movies.

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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Fantasy Writing [Self-Reflection] Category: Writing and Poetry On frequent occasion, I enter a reflective state in the restroom (uh, too much information?! No, too much information would have been far more descriptive, so descriptive you would second guess the bowl of chocolate cereal you were eating while reading this article or the dimly lit lasagna that you just microwaved. But I didn't get that descriptive, cause you know, it doesn't really pertain to what I'm about to say even though I spent 2~3 sentences on it). Back to the reflective state... I notice a trend in at least three of my story universes. Long story short, the warrior-maiden character type inall three of my story universes-a strong-willed determined assertive female that will defy the structures of society to pursue the greater justice and is initiallyfrisky turnedselective when it comes to love. And then there's the red-haired dame character, in both universes, representing the battle-maiden. And then there's the white-haired dame character, in both universes, having a great command of tactical cunning with a subtle charm andwit that few notice. And the last of these characters is the warrior-maiden's father. In two of the universes, he represents the philosophical free-thinker type with a slice of humor and in one of them, he'sa retired soldier who doesn't know of the political intrigues of his wife or his children. Now of course, while I'm blogging this, I have to wonder, who out there is actually reading this? And who actually cares? But sometimes I wonder if I blog only to speak to the undying universe itself. My desire to write may be so great that I may not mind if my writings are never read, only that I managed to articulate the thoughts in my head so that they can be free from the prison of the mind.

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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Disney [Life] Current mood: optimistic Category: Life Just got back from Disney, but man am I tired. Going to judo throw myself into the bed, then when I awaken back up all the Disney pictures in triplicate, then try to convert them and revamp this web page (okay maybe I'm being a little too ambitious). Anyhew, I'll try to get 'SOME' Disney pictures up. Or start a slideshow, or something of the sort. Side note, I drafted up a set of rules to play a table top pen-and-paper game with Final Fantasy as the theme. I'm aware howe'er, that I cannot use Final Fantasy as an official theme, but the idea that I could draft up a ruleset like this in 8 or so hours makes me wonder if I put in several days worth of work, what the result may be. Going to spend some spare time during the next two weeks to implement the ruleset in program.

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Sunday, February 25, 2007

Power of the Subconscious [Theory] Current mood: thoughtful Category: Religion and Philosophy This blog has been cut down from its original 2 page format...sooo it'll seem less...convincing, but more of a food for thought thing. (Text within parentheses are not supposed to be serious, they ARE serious!!!) So for the theory-chain... The subconscious is powerful, it is aware of things that our conscious is not. It's aware of the texture of our clothes rubbing against us as we move, it's aware of sounds and conversations that we're not paying attention to, it's aware! (shows a boogieman flailing his arms around as he chases people around the subway station). With that in mind, the main part of the theory was that we have two sets of senses, conscious and subconscious, such as touch, hearing, sight, taste, and smell. When we are conscious, the subconscious senses take a backseat, but occasionally throw in the "What was that skittering thing in the corner of my eye?", "I smelled a home-made baked buttermilk biscuitfresh from the oven.", or the classic "Did you say something?". That is our subconscious pervading our conscious (because subconscious is a pervert like that). When we go to sleep, most times the conscious takes a backseat and then our subconscious takes over. In our dreams, we can hear sound, we can see objects, we can feel objects, smell things (yuck!!!), or taste food. These are our subconscious senses at work, but to make sure we aren't sleepwalking, our conscious senses are on standby mode. Sometimes you're dream starts shaking because there's a light earthquake or one of your dream character's lip synchs with a voice you hear in the real world. That is our conscious pervading our subconscious (because conscious is a pervert like that) (both conscious and subconscious are perverts - Freudian theory). Scenario of conscious pervading the subconscious? Sleep-talking or even sleep-walking. Already gave some examples of subconscious pervading the conscious, but to an extreme level, one would have hallucinations. You hear people talking in full voice that aren't around, you see shadows of childrenplaying in the closet that aren't there, you see ghosts that constrict your chest when they lay on top of you ~ possibly suffocating you. This is an extreme of your subconscious acting up. Your conscious may have never paid attention to these things, but your subconscious is full of ideas to torture you with (if your imagination isn't very strong, your ghosts won't have faces ). But the subconscious is still under study, so for the meantime, this is a theory, one that I did notstart or endvery coherently in order to keep this less than a page long and more 'naturalle' (Adam and Eve style). Food for thought and happy stuff.

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Saturday, January 13, 2007

If You Use Google Please Read [Computer Safety] Current mood: nervous Category: more like serious Web, HTML, Tech NeverEVER mistype Google's website (the search engine)in theaddress bar... I won't even say how to misspell it because then you'd be tempted to try it, just don't do it! (Unless you're willing to sacrifice that computer to the maelstrom of potential chaos ~ it's like I tell Katrina, it's a boy with a baseball bat making a grand slam out of your genitals and sending them into the wild dog's yard, it's not fun.).

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Saturday, January 06, 2007 The Musicians of our Minds [Music Composition] Current mood: thoughtful Category: Thinking Music The Musicians of Our Minds Drifting between the conscious and subconscious, I can hear them...an orchestra in my mind. They play wonderful songs and I can only lay there and listen. The orchestra plays, but like a real orchestra, you can't just run up on stage and tell them what to play (or to replay your favorite part in the middle ofa performance). If you try to interrupt, they kick you out of the concert (and you wake up or in crazier cases, go to sleep). I imagine other people might have a band or pianist in their mind, maybe even a singer that can 'play'/'sing' songs for them in our mental MP3 players. Some people can look at a sheet of music and hear the notes in their head. Most (like ME, eheheh) cannot. But do they hear it as a piano? A flute? How do they hear it? How can you...direct the musicians in your mind? And then I come to think of Beethoven. From my understanding, Beethoven could hear the compositions he wrote in his head just by looking at it, despite his loss of hearing. He could hear the orchestra play his piece, he could control the musicians in his mind! *lightingflashing andchoirroaring in Latin* Since myth/rumor be of Beethoven having autism, one might attribute his autism developed his keen memory for sound to an incredible degree (i.e. bought him the best sound station that brain bucks can buy). But like I said, that's attributing his sound memory as his autistic development. ... Almost did a topic switch here, uh, wut wuz i saying? Musicians...in our mind... is that the true workings of the composer...to hear their composition before it's even played? What amount of comprehension might a composer have before they reach that stage. ...What indeed.

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Saturday, December 23, 2006

The Internet Chuck Norris Rage [Chuck Norris] Current mood: crazy Category: Blogging Chuck Norris. A martial arts champion, actor, spokesperson, dad, he is many things, but the strangest thing happened...let me recount. I was on the World of Warcraft forums and there was going to be an expansion to the game to add new content. There were going to be two new playable races, one of them was the Blood Elves, but other race was undecided, just rumors at this point. People made many guesses, from Draenei (correct), the Kool-Aid Man and then it came...Chuck Norris was the new race. I don't know if that was the beginning, but...the Chuck Norris gained immense internet popularlity following this discussion with sites like www.ChuckNorrisFacts.com. And well, now he's being immortalized as a deity, killer machine that can roundhouse kick (in the face)new laws into place. And Chuck Norris himself supposedly knows about this website and Adult Swim at one point reaired the old Chuck Norris cartoon due to the re-popularity. ...(this just in, the website I linked to is down as of 2006.12.23) So...I'm posting this blog because probably a month or two ago, I found a list of the Chuck Norris facts that I liked and am just slapping it here for now...ahahah? ==============Hajime!=========== People created the automobile to escape from Chuck Norris...Not to be outdone, Chuck Norris created the automobile accident. Chuck Norris roundhouse kicks people in the face first and asks questions later. Chuck Norris has to use a stunt double when he does crying scenes. Chuck Norris has never looked a baby in the eyes cause it might cry but if he does it also makes him want to punch a baby. Chuck Norris has held the World Championship in every weight class at the same time. There is no Control button on Chuck Norris' computer. Chuck Norris is always in control. When Chuck Norris is ready to wake up, he tells the sun to get the above the horizon. Chuck Norris likes long walks on the beach, Barry White music, Harlequin romance novels, songbirds, rainbows, and quiet time with his lady just before he roundhouse kicks her in the face. Chuck Norris puts the laughter in manslaughter. Chuck Norris is a vegetarian. Meaning, he does not eat animals until first he puts them into vegetative state with his fists. They once made a Chuck Norris toilet paper, but there was a problem-- It wouldn't take sh*t from anybody. Chuck Norris will never have a heart attack. His heart isn't nearly foolish enough to attack him. When Arnold says the line "I'll be back" in the first Terminator movie it is implied that is he going to ask Chuck Norris for help. Chuck Norris has never won an Academy Award for acting... because he's not acting. Who let the dogs out? Chuck Norris let the dogs out... and then roundhouse kicked them through an Oldsmobile. Two wrongs don't make a right. Unless you're Chuck Norris. Then two wrongs make a roundhouse kick to the face. ========= Oh yea and Happy Birthday KEN! HAHAHAHA!!! (We're talking about a guy who was 17 for 3 years).

Posted by Benjamin Soto 83 2008-02-02 21:54:18

Saturday, February 2, 2008
Welcoming myself to SFFWorld

So I thinks to myself, why an sffworld blog? Why not just keep the happy myspace blog? Well, the myspace blogging is well, more...constricted. I don't think anyone would actually find the myspace blog unless they're on myspace. Plus, myspace is not permitted in a few areas.

And I felt out of place at myspace when I thought about posting one of my stories or even talking about it. Here, I feel that the intent is a little more around the fantasy & sci-fi literary arena, plus the poems. (and a quick check from the Genre drop down bar - there seems to be horror as well, well I have a horror story to tell, conveniently titled, "The Week The Internet Went Out", need I say more? Har har, thank goodness for paper, pen, and of course, pencil sharpeners! Now if that were entitled, "The Week That The World Had No Electricity AND Ran out of Paper because no one recycled", I would be in my own little horror world.)

So I'm mostly just welcoming myself here to SFFWorld and uh...I guess I'll throw up some of my older blogs so I don't have to go back and forth from Myspace when I want to followup on a topic I was talking about before.

So let's see, some tags that I can be found : Benjamin Soto Ben blinky the perfect (Blinky the Perfect? Haha!)

Posted by Benjamin Soto 83 2008-02-02 21:41:15