DJ PJ's Animation Blog

Scam : Domain Name Expiration Notice

2012-01-31T21:55:00.000-08:00

If you own a website with it's own domain name, you will receive these shameless scams. Here's one I frequently get in the mail:

At first glance, it looks like a bill, and your website will disappear if you don't pay. The company's name "Domain Registry of America" makes it seem like it's from the government or something. But it's NOT a bill, you DON'T have to pay, and you SHOULDN'T pay.

What makes this a scam:

The price. $35 for one-year domain renewal is 350% the industry price.
The way it looks. They try to make this look like a bill that you have to pay. While they do state it's not a bill (to cover their butts), it's only stated in the fine print.

Here are some email examples:

This one is even more shameless because they're charging $75, and they state "your order has been received" which is an outright lie.

And one more:

How to Legitimately Renew Your Domain

The truth is, your domain name does expire, and you do have to renew it every year. When the time comes, the company where you originally bought the domain will contact you. Renew with THIS company.

So to renew your domain:

Only renew when the company you bought the domain or hosting from contacts you.
Pay the $10 for one year renewal (.com, .net, or .org). If it's more, the company is ripping you off.

J-POP : Ayumi Hamasaki Top 10

2012-01-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

In my first J-pop post, I covered Namie Amuro. In this post, I cover another huge, well-established J-pop singer but with a very different music style: Ayumi Hamasaki.

How I Discovered Her Music:
On Pandora when I first was getting into J-pop, she was one of the first artists I heard and liked. I was familiar with her name long before though.

Music Style:
Distinctively "J-pop" but not bubblegum pop. She often uses traditional instruments like acoustic drums, strings, piano, and electric guitar but with a pop sound. Her songs are often mixed 3/4 pop, 1/4 rock.

Additionally, she has a pretty good singing range with strong vocals and frequently uses vibrato when holding notes.

Interesting Trivia:

For her songs, she usually writes the lyrics and sometimes composes.
Her album "(Miss)understood" covers tracks from Sweetbox's songs.
She has become deaf in one ear.
Can be considered the "Madonna" of J-pop.
Her nickname is "Ayu".

DJ PJ's Ayumi Hamasaki Top 10 (2006-2011)

10. Sunrise (2010)

I like how the percussion starts off simple and then builds up to the chorus. The chorus melody is so theme song-ish. lol.

9. Step You (2006)

Ayumi often incorporates rock elements into her songs, and this is an example of it.

8. Lady Dynamite (2010)

With it's big beat like elements, this song totally can be OST music for a movie. I imagine the movie would be about a couple of guys trying to pull off a big heist. lol.

The video is like... a Japanese version of SF's Folsom Street Fair. heh.

7. Jewel (2006)

Aside from upbeat pop songs, Ayumi also does many good ballads so I threw one into my top 10. The background is simple but nice. I love the chorus melody; it gives me goosebumps.

6. Love 'n' Hate (2009)

As soon as I heard the first few seconds, I knew this was going to be an epic song. The string riff and heavy beats makes this an exciting song.

5. Is This Love? (2006)

A more rock-sounding song from Ayumi. Love the intro when the heavy electric guitar riff comes in. Also like the contrast of her soft voice coming in and the instrumental quieting down. Then it transitions back into an epic rock song.

4. Sparkle (2009)

Yowzers, she looks pretty hot in this video. =P Not so much the outfit but more the hair, makeup, expressions and poses. But anyways, about the song... lol. This song is a good change of pace and shows she can do electronic music too.

3. 1 Love (2006)

Another song with "love" in the title. lol. This is a rock track. The verses sound freaking bad ass with her vocals on top of the bass guitar. I also like the rhythm and progression of the chorus vocal melody.

2. Why... (2011)

There are two versions of this song, both are #2:

The "original" version. The style is more Ayumi-like.

Featuring K-pop artist Juno. I love when J-pop and K-pop artists collab!

The "remix" version. The style is more hip-hop.

Featuring Urata Naoya. I'm surprised the K-pop one wasn't the hip hop version.

1. Next Level (2009)

This song just makes me feel good. The chorus is so uplifting. Although I can't say for certain, the chorus seems like it has an Asian\pentatonic scale. I like how the verse and pre-chorus feels like one big transition for the chorus.

Lastly, this song reminds me of a certain someone, but I'll spare you the details. =)

Top 10 honorable mentions: "Fated" (2008), "My All" (2008), "Like a Doll" (2010).

I hope you see now why she's one of the top artists in Japan. Her style is a good mix of pop and rock. I'll end this post with a video of Ayumi that I like:

Asians don't have small eyes.

Recommended Show : "Misfits"

2012-01-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

The plot in one sentence:
Delinquents with newly acquired super powers try to cover up a dark secret.

Why you should watch it:
- Mix of survival and serial story.
- Rude and funny humor.
- Frequent use of British slang.

How I discovered the series:
TONS of ads on Hulu during the summer of 2011. The commercial wasn't too appealing, but Hulu users gave the show 4.5 stars so I gave it a shot.

Possible themes:
- Having great power can lead to making great mistakes.
- You can always turn your life around.

Each character's crime that got them sentenced and superpower:
Alisha - drunk driving \ can make anyone sexually attracted to her
Curtis - drug dealing \ can turn back time
Kelly - fought with girl \ can hear people's thoughts
Nathan - stole pick 'n' mix \ unknown if he has a power
Simon - set house on fire \ can become invisible

(from left to right: Curtis, Alisha, Nathan, Kelly, Simon)

Favorite character:
I was originally going to say Nathan since he's the funniest, but I have to go with Simon. He has this misunderstood creepiness to him which makes his character fascinating. Later when he gains more confidence, he becomes a really cool character.

Girl who caught my eye:
Two girls. The first was Sally. She's introduced in the second episode I think. I really like the story line between her and Simon. She's like a teacher you have as a kid that you like but you're not supposed to like. lol.

Later in the series, Nikki catches my eye. She's introduced in a short scene after which, I was thinking, "Who's this girl? I hope she's in the series!" I can't say any more about her without spoiling the story.

btw... don't Google image search "Misfits" and these characters names; it will spoil the story.

What I didn't like about the series:

- The volume levels. The music is so freaking loud while the dialogue is so quiet.
- Too much shagging. The characters are always going for it, and it starts to feel silly and overdone.

Funny note:
This being a UK show, apparently some people on the net couldn't understand their English and watch with subtitles. lol. I was surprised. Sometimes the accent can be hard, but I never needed subtitles.

Final words:
The commercials gave me the completely wrong impression for the show, and it turned out nothing like I expected. Aside from the rude humor (which is hilarious), the characters have heart and there are good serial elements that keep you wanting to watch more. Additionally, the series is still going with a 4th season in the works.

Check out the first episode on Hulu!

My Experience Troubleshooting AT&T Internet

2011-12-21T23:42:00.000-08:00

I got a new modem from AT&T. I installed it, and it worked. The next day (today) midway in the evening, the internet would stop working, and I would receive a "service down" message and a 1-800 number to call if the problem persisted for more than 15 minutes.

After a few hours of downtime, I decided to call the number.

CALL #1

1. Went through menus to reach high-speed troubleshooting.
2. Told by technician I've reached the dial-up section. They transfer me to high-speed section.
3. Silence. Then... "if you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again."

CALL #2

1. Went through menus to reach high-speed troubleshooting.
2. Again told by technician I've reached the dial-up section. They want to transfer me to high-speed section. I explain I don't want to be hanged up on again, and they assure me it won't happen.
3. I reach high-speed section but am told I need to be transferred to an equipment technician instead.
4. Silence. Then... "if you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again."

CALL #3

1. Went through menus to reach high-speed troubleshooting.
2. Silence. Then... "sorry, but our offices are closed."

Aiya!

Then 15 minutes later while sitting on my computer, the internet suddenly comes on again. And now I'm typing this blog post.

Aiya!

Food in San Francisco

2011-12-03T23:47:00.000-08:00

Whenever I eat out, I take a picture of my food. Friends always ask me why. I tell them that if the food is poisoned and I die, the police have a record of the last thing I ate in my phone's pictures.

Of course, the real reason I take pictures of food is so I can share it on my blog. (^_^)

So here's a select few from the last couple of months:

All you can eat at Moonstar. Big ass buffet place. Tons of Asian food. Long wait time to get seating.

Loco Moco @ L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. Good place for inexpensive BBQ w\ rice + macaroni salad.

At Pizza Hut, always get "pan fried" crust. It has a fun, crispy, oily taste that separates it from other pizza places.

Bibimbap @ Dong Baek. Around $11-$12. Your rice is crispy if you get it in clay pot. Hard to eat with chopsticks. lol.

Whopper. Often sloppily made, but it all tastes the same in my mouth.

Angus Burger from McDonald's. Pretty good and almost worth the price.

Indian food. Don't remember the place, but it was delicious and inexpensive. Also... VERY SPICY! To quote Lisa Simpson, "I can see through time!"

Nothing like a San Francisco burrito. And I can't eat a burrito without tortilla chips.

Donburi. とてもおいしかった。

Whenever we do stuff in downtown, we usually go to Lori's Diner, and I usually get Lori's Signature Burger. Burger + garlic fries + drink + tax + tip = $20. Meaning these pictures cost me $100! Ouch!

Roundhouse Buck @ Buckhorn Grill. The best tasting meat you can find at a fast food-ish place. My ex introduced me to place, and now I go there whenever I can. Of course, not with my ex. lol.

House rice at New Ming's. When I was in art school, my friends and I always ate here after classes. Cheap price, very good taste and selection. Lunch special is the best: 2 items + fried rice for like $6.

Jack in the Box. West coast fast food chain. I had a good view of downtown pedestrians. They had a good view of my meal.

Shabu shabu @ Bushi-Tei in Japantown. $32 a person. We had a going-away outing. That was a fun night. Price was worth it.

Subway after work. This is the healthiest food that I eat. =)

The one time we went to Lori's and didn't get the signature burger.

Buffet at a Mexican restaurant out of the city. Best meat ever.

Indonesian food from a festival. My first time. Very good flavor. Quite spicy.

At SF Center, Ajisen Ramen replaced Steak Escape (I used to always eat there). This ramen place looks fast foody, but the price and taste is like a restaurant. And they sit you down.

And I saved the best for last...

I'm never not in the mood for a Big Mac meal. =P

Eh, I shouldn't have put this together because it's made me freaking hungry.

All Web Browsers Look Like Google Chrome Now

2011-11-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

Google Chrome has always looked like this:

Chrome

Notice the lack of title, menu, and status bars. Stop\refresh is consolidated into one button. And the top area is dedicated to tabs.

In turn, other browsers have made similar changes:

Firefox

Internet Explorer

Opera

And yes... I also used this as an excuse to show off my website in different browsers. (^_^)

My Browser Usage History

Like everyone who's had Windows, I started out with Internet Explorer (I also used Netscape back in the days too). However, Internet Explorer had a lot of problems, and Firefox had a lot of cool features so I switched to that. After awhile, I realized Firefox was slow and so I switched to Chrome.

As of 2011, Internet Explorer has gotten a lot better and Firefox probably still has the most add-ons, but I still mostly use Chrome.

So Why Do I Use Chrome?

Cleaner interface.
Faster running program.
Faster surfing.
The Omnibox.
More stable and less buggy.
Has most of Firefox's extensions.
Apps.
Translate page pop-up bar.
Built-in functions like Flash and Acrobat.
Download status bar.

Google Chrome's Omnibox

This is a very cool feature of the browser. All searches are done from the address bar, and it automatically adds search engines for sites you visit frequently (for example, Wikipedia, Amazon, Craigslist, eBay). And there is no drop-down menu selection step.

So if I wanted to search "tea" on Wikipedia, I would:

1. Type "w" (for Wikipedia) and press tab to select the Wikipedia search engine.
2. Type "tea" and press enter.

Immediately, I am sent away to Wikipedia's page for tea!

Browser Usage Share Trends

I will end this post with a boring looking chart. lol.

「二ヶ月前」Animation Production Notes

2011-11-10T21:22:00.000-08:00

Finally, some new Adrenaline animation!

I know everyone is waiting for the next episode already. I'm currently working on another series so I figure I release this in the meanwhile.

There is one major improvement in the visuals compared to episode 1. Can you see it? 0:38 onwards shows it off quite nicely. The major improvement is... lens focusing!

In episode one, I only had lens focusing for the character scenes and not for the racing scenes. It's a long explanation why that was, but I found a good technique for pulling it off without adding any rendering times.

First, I render these images at the same time, and it doesn't add any extra rendering time to render a depth map image. Note image #1 has no lens focus. While LightWave (my program) supports lens focus, it takes extra time to render and also, I prefer Sony Vegas' version.

If I throw my render in Vegas and enable defocus, notice the effect is life-like and is reminiscent of photography or film. However, I don't want the whole image to be defocused, just the background buildings.

Using the depth map render (image #2) as a mask, we can isolate this effect to just the background. And with absolutely no extra rendering time, we've created a racing scene with full camera focus!

YouTube Friend Invite Spam

2011-11-06T00:19:00.000-07:00

I have a somewhat active YouTube Channel, and so I get a lot of friend invites.

Some invites are from people that have a sincere interest in my channel. Additionally, we may exchange a few comments, and they may have some cool videos to share. These invites are legit; I appreciate and accept all of them.

Some invites, however, are just pure spam from people trying to promote their channel. They have no interest in your channel and send hundreds of invites a week to random people in hopes that a % watch their videos and subscribe.

Check out the subscribers and friends of someone who spammed me:

For every 40 friend adds, they get 1 sucker to subscribe. This guy has about 40k friends; I wonder how many invites he has sent out? 400k? 4,000k?

Check out his channel comments:

99% of the comments are along the lines of "thanks for the invite" and "thanks for the add". lol.

Listen, I'm all for promoting yourself and your work. But does invite spamming make you any less of a douche than email spammers? What if everyone who had a YouTube channel did this? How annoying would that be?

Whenever I get invite spams, I just ignore them. I'm very tempted to leave a hateful message on their channel but... that's not going to do anyone any good.

I think if we all ignored these invites, they'll see it doesn't work and stop spamming. And then they'll have more time to do something more productive: make YouTube videos!

The Texas Rangers Don't Win the World Series

2011-10-29T00:40:00.000-07:00

I am a Giants fan. I was happy we won the World Series in 2010. But at the same time, I felt sorry for the Rangers. The team made the World Series for the first time only to lose it at home.

I wanted the Rangers to win it this year. Additionally, I have a hard time cheering for teams that already have multiple championships like the Cardinals.

Up 3-2 in the series, it seemed like the Rangers had a chance. But the Cardinals came back and took the series. It reminded me of 2002 when the Giants were up 3-2 but did not win the series.

For a fan, losing a championship is already an awful feeling but losing back-to-back ones is worse.

Here's hoping the Rangers win next season...unless the Giants make the World Series too. =P

Why do people always empty their Recycle Bins? (rant)

2011-10-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

I often see people do this move on their computers:

Delete file(s).
Immediately empty Recycle Bin or Trash.

They empty their Recycle Bin every time they delete something. My question is this...

Why?

Are they low on disk space? Are their deleted files private? Does it make their computer go faster?

I think the reason why most people do it is because it just makes their computer "feel" cleaner. They do it purely for psychological reasons.

For the 15+ years I've had Windows, I've emptied my recycle bin this many times...

Zero.

It's great. I don't have to take that extra step every time after deleting files. I am able to undelete files when the occasion arises. It doesn't make me run out of disk space (the Recycle Bin's size is capped by default). And my computer runs the same, filled Recycle Bin or not.

Ultimately, it's your computer and your time, and you can do whatever you want with both. But if you're a constant Recycle Bin emptier, try leaving it filled for a week and see if it makes a difference.

K-POP : 2NE1 5-Star Songs

2011-10-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

This is my first "5-Star" post. In these segments, I will pick an artist\group and five songs I like from them. The songs will be ordered by release date and track number.

This being my first K-Pop post, who better to choose than... 2NE1!

Someone commented on a forum that they looked like they dress themselves in the dark.

If SNSD represents one end of the K-Pop spectrum (cutesy, bubblegum pop), then 2NE1 certainly represents the opposite end (electronic, hip pop).

The group is very big right now in Korea and throughout Asia. Their style is very edgy and represents one side of K-Pop which includes hip-pop beats, auto-tune, and rapping pop singers!

How I Discovered Their Music: I didn't know much about K-Pop back in 2010 (except for BoA and Ivy). On last.fm, I was listening to the J-Pop station which sometimes mixes in K-Pop tunes. When I heard 2NE1's music, I was thinking wow, what is this non-Japanese language? lol. But I was also thinking, wow, this music is really different & cool sounding.

Members

Minzy, Bom, Dara, CL

- CL is the leader and mostly raps but does some singing as well.

- Minzy also often raps and does a bit more singing than CL.

- Dara often sings but does some auto-tuned spoken parts.

- Bom frequently sings the chorus and major vocal sections but occasionally does spoken parts.

- In my head, I group Minzy\CL together because they often rap and are quite young (17 and 20). And I group Bom\Dara because they often sing and are older (27 and 26).

- Languages some of the members can speak are Korean (obviously), English, Japanese, Chinese, Tagalog, and French.

A song layout I've seen them use more than once is:

Verse 1st half = CL
Verse 2nd half = Minzy
Pre-chorus = Dara
Chorus = Bom

But they usually mix it up. CL rapping a verse and Bom singing the chorus is very common though.

Favorite Member

In this pic, her eyes remind me of my ex-gf's. =/

Sandara "Dara" Park is my favorite because of her career background, personality, and sound of her voice. Unfortunately many people, including her fans, say she is the weakest member of the group in terms of singing and dancing. And she isn't many people's favorite member either. Despite that, I still like her singing (but I do feel Bom is the best vocalist of the group).

In regards to her career background, before 2NE1 she was a singer, actress, and spokesperson in the Philippines. And she speaks Tagalog...

OMG, she sounds like a freaking Pinay.

And the last reason she's my favorite member is because... I kinda' like her smile. (^_^)

Anyways, on to the music...

DJ PJ's 2NE1 5-Star Songs (2009-2011)

★ Pretty Boy ★

The edgy beats go hand in hand with auto-tuned verses. But I LOVE when the contrasting, melodic vocals come in.

★ Can't Nobody ★Some songs, you don't like at first but end up liking the more you hear it. For me, this song had the opposite effect. lol. However, I still list this song here because I think it's a good representation of 2NE1's style.

★ Love is Ayaya ★
I like how this song showcases each member's singing. In most of their songs, 2-4 of the members are auto-tuned and have only rapping\speaking parts.

★ You and I ★A solo track showcasing Park Bom's vocals. Makes me think of graduation-type music. lol.

★ I Am the Best ★

Although I like this song, I wouldn't say it was one of my top 5 fave's. However, like "Can't Nobody", this song was one of their hits and is a good representation of their style so I list it here.

But I do really like the layout of the song. In the first verse, each member singers four distinct melodies. In the second verse, the four melodies are repeated but by a different member.

Overall, this was a hard list to make as I had to leave out songs I loved. If you don't listen to K-Pop already, hopefully this post got you interested in the genre! However, I feel 2NE1's music only represents one style (out of three) of "K-Pop" music. I will cover more styles\artists in the future.

I can't look at this picture without smiling.

Note: More pictures on last.fm!

Video Commercials WHILE Watching!? (rant)

2011-10-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

First off, I'm not one of those people whom regularly complain about YouTube or it's advertisements. Some level of advertising is good; it encourages companies and individuals to post more content.

BUT... the other day I was listening\watching a music video and simultaneously, a freaking Air Wick commercial was playing at the side!

Video commercials WHILE watching? How am I supposed to listen to two videos simultaneously?

This type of advertising is pointless. Everyone is going to find a way to mute the ad that's interrupting their video. Additionally, it makes everyone hate YouTube and advertisers that do this.

I've also seen this type of advertising on website articles. How am I supposed to read your article when a video is playing on the side? The first thing I'm going to do is mute it! It's completely pointless and detrimental.

Overall, this is a very surprising move by Google. If you use any of their services (search, Chrome, Gmail), Google's 100% about user experience. I predict over time, they will come to their senses and get rid of these type of ads.

Thank you Deep Explorer!

2011-09-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is a guide\story about repairing corrupt 3D files.

Maya users are always telling me about their 3D files becoming corrupted. I've never had that problem with LightWave except for today. My program crashed while I was working on a model. However, the program was still open and half-functional so I made the foolish decision to save the model and then close the crashed program.

Big mistake.

I re-opened the program & model, and long & behold, it was corrupted!

(What the heck is this? This is supposed to be a full character!)

Hours of work gone, I thought! However, even though most of the model was missing when I opened it, the file was 470kb large meaning that the data was still there! It just needed to be repaired someway, somehow.

So here's what I did to try to repair it:

Checked the LightWave temp folder for a backup copy (there was none).
Opened the file in other 3D programs like Modo and Cinema 4D (open failed).
Use un-delete software (didn't work for overwritten files).

I was about ready to give up and just make the whole model again. However, I read on a forum that someone was able to repair a LightWave file using Deep Exploration. So I downloaded the demo, installed it, crossed my fingers and opened my corrupted model...

My eyes popped out of my head; the file opened FLAWLESSLY! The entire mesh was there w\ all the material assignments. I then saved it as a new lwo file and got my girl back into LightWave.

Chizu-chan says「ありがとう」！

So if your 3D files ever get corrupted, fix it with Deep Exploration! The program supports tons of other 3D file formats and can do file conversions too.

Dynamic Range Compression; Make Your Songs Sound LOUD!

2011-09-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

All songs I've done have some level of "dynamic range compression". Essentially, it's process that evens out the volume level of your song throughout and makes it sound consistently loud. Below are a few examples from commercial music...

Very little (or no) DRC:

Tight DRC:

OMG, extreme DRC:

Without DRC, there are sections of the song that will be considerably quieter than other parts; the song is more "natural" sounding. With DRC, the song is constantly loud and is great jam for parties, exercising, or driving.

Obviously, ballads and non-pop songs use minimally or no DRC. Pop and hip-hop songs use tight DRC while heavy rock genres use extreme DRC. Surprisingly, techno & trance music uses minimal-to-average amounts of DRC.

You can apply DRC to your songs with just about every audio and music program and some (like FL Studio) have it on by default.

How to Translate to Japanese

2011-09-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

My Japanese is still far from conversational fluency yet, I have to write complete, natural sounding sentences when typing to Japanese friends or writing Japanese dialogue (I'm an animator).

I will cover the best, free places on the web to help you construct your Japanese sentences. And these sentences are completely usable and natural-sounding to native Japanese speakers.

EJOD
http://www.englishjapaneseonlinedictionary.com/

This online dictionary is very annoying (lots of ads and bugs) but is very useful. Enter a word, and it will give you many translations of that word and variations of that word. Importantly, the translations are HUMAN translations pulled from their database.

EUdict
http://www.eudict.com/

This is a cleaner online dictionary compared to EJOD. However, it only gives you single word translations whereas EJOD gives word, phrase, and even sentence translations.

I tend to use EUdict more for when I need to look up a quick word and EJOD for translating whole sentences.

About.com - Japanese Language
http://japanese.about.com/

About.com's cluttered layout always annoys me, but their Japanese Language section is worth going through the clutter. It contains tons of lessons on grammar, vocabulary, expressions, and etiquette and is quite interesting to read.

I don't know who this Namiko Abe writer is, but she's the bomb.

Wikipedia - Japanese grammar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammar

The wiki article above, plus the wiki articles it links to, pretty much explains everything about sentence formation. However, it's written in a straight-forward and non-humorous matter rather than for a student who's trying to have fun learning Japanese (which is me).

Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese
http://www.guidetojapanese.org

I'm skeptical of any Korean trying to teach me Japanese. lol, j\k.

Like the wiki link above, this site covers pretty much everything about sentence formation. However, it's written with a more "human feel" that's much more interesting to read. Additionally, the topics are organized and introduced with a student learner in mind whereas the wiki is more for reference and looking things up.

There are many other sites like this, and this is just one example.

Ultra Handy Japanese Verb Conjugator
http://www.japaneseverbconjugator.com/

The title says it all. Plug in your word and let the website make the verb work for you!

Also, you can probably find the verb you need from their "List of Japanese Verbs".

Yahoo! Answers
http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index?sid=396545217

The exact opposite of Google Translate, Yahoo! Answers gives you 100% human translations. Of course, humans are imperfect, and the answers you get are only as good as the humans that give the answers (that's a weird sentence).

And... you gotta' loves those Yahoo avatars!

Google Translate
http://translate.google.com/

First off, AVOID Google translate for English-to-Japanese. It will translate your English sentence into a weird, Japanese sentence that no Japanese human being would ever speak or write.

But I still use it for:

Double checking my already translated Japanese text, especially Kanji. It's Japanese-to-English translation works at least half the time.
Romaji conversion. Very useful for reading Kanji.
Using the "Listen" button to say the phrase for me. Although the speaker sounds robotic, the pronunciation is fairly accurate and helps me locate de-voiced vowels.

My Process for Writing\Translating Sentences

Use dictionary (EUdict or EJOD) to find words I don't know.
Use Yahoo! Answers or About to check if those words are appropriate.
Optionally refer to Wiki or grammar site for help forming more complicated sentences.
Use Google translate to double check characters.

There are many more websites I haven't tried out yet, as well as courses and tools you can use to improve your Japanese. I will go over them in the future.

Also in a future article, I will go over some ways to actually practice your Japanese with native speakers!

T-ara's Very "Mini" Mini-Album (rant-ish)

2011-08-21T00:03:00.000-07:00

This is an example of the music industry ripping people off.

First off, I love the K-Pop group "T-ara" and their music (and will do a 5 Star post on them in the future). However, their newest "mini-album", which sells for $12 on YESASIA, is a complete rip-off:

http://www.yesasia.com/us/t-ara-john-travolta-wanna-be/1024582505-0-0-0-en/info.html

It contains seven tracks which is okay for that price. However, only two songs are new. They're pretty good but not "$12 for two songs" good.

The other five tracks are "remixes" of all five songs from Temptastic. And by "remixes", I mean they are 90% the same as the original song but with a few seconds of new beats sprinkled around.

That's like buying a "bucket of gummies" at Disneyland but the bucket is 90% filled with confetti (true story).

I guess this mini-album would be worth it if you don't already have Temptastic, which btw sells for $18 on YESASIA. lol.

Keep On by KanaraKante, RhymeZone

2011-08-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

KanaraKante has released a song for episode 2.1 of "Adrenaline":

(YouTube embed is not working right now. I'll check this again later.)

This is the third vocalized song I have written. I was really looking forward it as I feel pop\hip-hop music is more up my aisle. It is also the first song I wrote using RhymeZone.

Before, I would have the entire alphabet, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWZ, written above the lyrics I'd be working on. Then I'd run through the alphabet and think of as many rhymes as I could: at, bat, cat, and so on. And then I would choose whatever of those words worked well.

But while working on this song, I found this site where all you have to do is type the word, and it will list tons of rhymes for you. Why the heck was I wasting time thinking of my own rhymes!? lol.

Check out the site at http://www.rhymezone.com/. The website is very fast and has minimal ads (unlike most lyric websites, lol). A very cool feature is the "Find near rhymes" search; while it does a good job, there are still many "near rhymes" it misses.

We went through five versions of the song, purely adjusting only the volume levels and dynamic range compression. The first cut had a very tight but unnatural sounding level of DRC:

The final version had a toned down but better sounding level of DRC:

Yes, I do plan to explain what dynamic range compression is (for those that don't know) but will save it for a future blog post. In the meanwhile, check out this insanely detailed Wikipedia article.

5 Interesting Things About the Japanese Language

2011-08-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

Learning how to speak Japanese, I have found many interesting things about the language & culture and narrowed it down to five:

There are 129 Japanese words for "honor".
The two languages of Japan are "ichi nihongo" which is spoken by 99% of the population and "ni nihongo" which is only spoken by the emperor.
You're supposed to bow after every sentence.
On Sundays, everyone in Japan has to speak English.
In terms of speaking etiquette, there's three: casual form, polite form, and samurai form.

Okay, I was bored and made those up. I hope I didn't offend anyone. lol.

(a picture from my 3D portfolio)

Now on to the real post...

5 Interesting Things About the Japanese Language

The verb goes at the end of the sentence. However, certain non-verbs are put at the end after the verb like "yo" (for sure), "ne" (right\yeah?), "kara" (because), and "kedo" (though).
There are no question marks. In writing, they may use question marks for style or emphasis but grammatically & traditionally, question marks don't exist. Instead, simply adding か (ka) at the end of a sentence changes its meaning into a question.
Every syllable ends in a vowel sound. Examples are "a-ri-ga-to" and "sa-yo-na-ra". The exception is "n" (like in "Japan") and de-voiced vowels (like the "u" in "masu", "desu", and "kokusai").
There are three ways to write every word. They are ひらがな (hiragana) which looks more rounded, カタカナ (katakana) which looks straighter, and 漢字 (kanji) which looks Chinese (that's b\c it is Chinese). All three are used regularly and intermixed with each other.
Many Japanese words are borrowed from English. A few words include "konpyuta" (computer), "koohii" (coffee), "miruku" (milk), "gorufu" (golf), and my favorite, "kurejitto kaado" (credit card). And no, I'm not being racist. Look these up yourself!

So I Bought a Webcam

2011-07-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

In my whole life, I've never had any real desire to own a webcam. Yet, this arrived in the mail today:

It's a "Logitech 720p Webcam C310". I bought it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-960-000585-720p-Webcam-C310/dp/B003LVZO8S

So why did I get this? Could it be that...

I have offseas business matters?
I'm in a long-distance relationship?
I'm trying to get into a long-distance relationship? (lol)
I'm starting my own show on YouTube?
Someone's stealing stuff from my place, and I need surveillance?

I can't tell you why now, but I can tell you that it's one of the above. =)

Shopping Around and Best Buy

I first went to... where else!? Amazon.com! And as usual, I picked the cheapest and best thing they had. More specifically, I was looking for the least expensive, 720p webcam with at least 100 ratings and a 4.5 star average.

I also checked out Best Buy which had the same brand camera (Logitech), but it was a lesser model and at a higher price. Ohhhh-kaaay.

It just makes me wonder, how long will it be before Best Buy goes the way of CompUSA, Good Guy's, and Circuit City? Or the way of Borders, Blockbuster, and Sam Goody?

Best Buy's not in any financial trouble right now, and I buy a lot of stuff there. But it seems like every brick and mortar business eventually falls to an online competitor offering a similar service (the exception though are groceries). Will Best Buy forever be able to compete with Newegg and Amazon?

Other Stuff I Bought

I saw this at Walgreens and thought it looked so gross that I had to buy it and drink it:

Mountain Dew "White Out": tasty name for a liquid. It actually wasn't bad. It tastes like Mountain Dew mixed with Sierra Mist.

I also ate this for the 3rd time in a month:

It's a Lori's burger at Lori's Diner (very touristy diner chain in San Francisco).

But is it worth it? I don't mean health-wise as I already know the answer to that. lol.

What I mean is the burger cost $11-something. Plus the garlic fries upgrade, soda, tax, and tip, it comes out closer to $20. At that price, I can get THREE Big Mac Extra Value Meals and just one Big Mac meal fills me up the same. Of course, a diner burger is better than a Big Mac but is it 3x better?

For a broke person like me, I'm going to say.... no. =D

Where I Buy and Sell School Books

2011-07-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

The textbook industry is a scam. First, you buy a book for $100. Then, a "newer", slightly updated edition comes out, and the book you just bought becomes worthless on the resale market. It's like buying Madden NFL:

(this game is not even a year old and can be had for $9.50 new)

That is why I buy and sell all my books online. Not many people I know use Half.com but that place has the CHEAPEST prices. And if you've never sold anything online (I haven't either), the process is very easy, and I will go over it below.

Buying

Their website is very easy to search on. On the book's page, they'll give you tons of listings, grouped by condition ("new", "like new", etc.) with the cheapest ones put on top. The prices are CHEAPER than even Amazon (which is my favorite website for buying everything else).

Payment is handled by Half.com and not the seller. And you usually get your book within a few days. Like eBay, you can complain if something goes wrong, but I've bought dozens of books and have never had a problem with a seller.

Selling

It's very easy. Here are the steps:

Sign up at Half.com for free.
List your book for free.
When someone buys it, Half.com emails you and gives you the buyer's address.
Go to USPS (or other shipping place).
Somewhere on the store shelves or walls, they will have flat-rate, first class, bubble-padded, shipping envelopes. Get the smallest one your book can comfortable fit in. ACTUALLY test out if the book fits in and you can close the flap comfortably.
Seal the flap (self-adhesive) and write the addresses.
Take to the counter and pay the $3-$5. They'll take it from you and you're done!
Finally, wait for the direct deposit from Half.com; then use money to buy junk food.

Also, you don't pay anything to sign up or list. You only pay after you sell, and it's a % commission off the selling price.

Another Tip

It's somewhat of a risk but try using older editions than what your classes require. I've gotten away with this for A LOT of classes and saved a lot of dough.

Example: a class requires I buy the newest edition for $100. However, a version one or two editions older only sells for $1. So I buy that instead and find out that it gets me through 90-99% of the semester. And you can use the library or a friend's book for any missing info.

(The 2009 edition is $53, but I bought the 2000 edition which is 75¢. The 2000 edition got me through the WHOLE semester except for one class meeting.)

And even if it doesn't work, what is there to lose anyways? $1? And you don't even lose that as you can use the book to heat up your chimney.

J-POP : Namie Amuro Top 10

2011-07-18T01:19:00.000-07:00

My first J-Pop and Asian Pop post will be for one of my favorite artists and one of the biggest artists in Japan: Namie Amuro!

She somewhat resembles this friend of mine; both girls look 10+ years younger than they actually are. lol.

Her music can be best described as "hip-pop". And her first name is pronounced "nah-me-eh" and not "nah-mee" or "nuh-me-ah" as I previously thought. =P

How I discovered her music: When I first started listening to J-Pop on Pandora Radio, I heard A LOT of songs that I liked from her. For a brief period of time, I confused her songs with Meisa Kuroki's, especially "So Crazy" and "Alarm". However, their voices sound nothing alike in most other songs.

Interesting Facts:

Her music 2003-present is completely different from her music 1995-2000.
She's 1/4th Italian.
She's tanned for a j-pop artist.

DJ PJ's Namie Amuro Top 10 (2003-2011)

#10. Put 'Em Up (2003)

Love the beats; they feel so early-2000's.

#9. No pt. 2 (2005)

A "hidden" track. Although this song is from 2005, it reminds me of late 90's slow songs.

#8. I Wanna Show You My Love (2005)

I couldn't find on YouTube. Live performance here:
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/rs6en8hgyRo/

Sounds a bit different from the original, but the performance is awesome. Like "Put 'Em Up", the beats also feel so "early 2000's".

#7. Copy That (2009)

This is the only version I could find on YouTube, and it's just the chorus.

I really love the arrangement and rhythm of the vocals.

#6. Defend Love (2009)

Here:
http://pann.nate.com/video/211370198

I didn't even know this song had a music video, let alone an animated one. The bassline makes me think of 80's action movies. lol.

#5. What a Feeling (2008)

A more "dancey" song from Namie.

#4. Hide & Seek (2007)

voice filter + marching band instruments + synthesizers = good

Also, how do you dance in those heels?

#3. My Love (2009)

Unfortunately, this clip only has the chorus but fortunately, that's my favorite part of the song.

When I first heard this song and its chorus harmony, the song instantly became one of my fave's.

Here's the full song tied with an "interesting" promo for hair products:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTg4NDAxMTQw.html

#2. Do Me More (2008)

Another "interesting" hair product promo. The beats and bassline is what really did it for me with this song. I also really like the pre-chorus.

#1. Unusual (2011)

A collab w\ Yamapi. The MV is here:
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/MYvPqO2-K24/

This is probably my favorite song more so b\c it's new and b\c I've been dying for a new song from her for two years!

In America, this song could be a hit on the radio (that is, if Asian people were allowed on the radio, lol).

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed her music and reading this. Also note, it was a pain to put this together as most of her music is banned on YouTube by her label.

"This tastes like metal." -Namie Amuro

How to learn Japanese (or another language)

2011-07-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

Four months ago I started learning Japanese. Now, whenever I speak it to non-speakers, they say I sound freaking fluent.

I never liked language studies back in high school (half b\c I was young, half b\c the teacher annoyed me). Additionally, I don't have time now to take classes. So how was I going to learn Japanese?

Easy... I went to Amazon.com and bought the cheapest, highest-rated program they had. Here's my copy:

What I bought was actually 10 lessons out of a full 90-lesson set that you also can buy (and that I did end up buying). As of now, I've done 70 lessons and here are my impressions:

Pros:

It's actually fun.
You can do it while during chores or commuting.
You'll master pronunciation.
You're forced to speak Japanese every day.
At the end, you'll know enough to get around in Japan (w\ a pocket dictionary).

Cons:

The full program is freaking expensive (will go into detail below).
You still have to learn how to read and write.
If you do the lessons in public, people look at you.
At the end, you'll still be far from conversation fluency.

Don't let the low Amazon price fool you. After I finished the first 10 lessons and had to buy more, I found out the full 90 lesson set costs $1,000! I could freaking fly to Japan with that money!

But... that's for the CD version. Pimsleur (the company) also sells these courses on MP3 (DRM free) for $335. Still costly but much less so.

So what are the lessons like anyways? It's a mixture of listening, reciting, recalling, guessing, and conversing. I'd say 60% of the time you're listening and 40% of the time you're talking out loud. You can try out the first lesson for free on their website: http://www.pimsleur.com/

Nope, I don't work for Pimsleur nor am I part of their affiliate plan (they don't even have one... I checked too).

Also note that this is NOT the same as "Pimsleur Approach" which is an entirely different program sold by a different company. I don't know if it's any good but to be frank, their marketing practices seems to be a bit shady.

In a future post, I'll let you know my recommendations for learning how to write Japanese scripts.

Dewa mata!

-Parker
パーカー

Transformers 3's "assembly line"

2011-07-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

On the 4th of July, I saw Transformers 3 with some friends.

That... movie... was... long!

As always, the 3D art blew my mind grapes. My friends and I are 3D artists and therefore, we treat watching movies like this as research and inspiration (although I don't imagine myself making anything as detailed as the stuff from that movie).

When the credits started rolling (finally), we stayed to witness the hundreds of names that were behind the production. It reminded me that for 3D artists, working in the film industry is like working in an assembly line. Your one job for the whole film could be (technical terms in parenthesis):

Making Optimus Prime's hand (modeling)...
OR putting the colors on his hand (texturing)...
OR making his hand look metallic (surface shading)...
OR making his hand work (rigging)...
OR moving his hand (animating).

lol, you may get to work on more than just "a hand", but this is not entirely off. The video game industry can be a bit "assembly-like" too but definitely less so than motion pictures.

After the movie, I went and ate this...

...and then felt like sleeping after.

YouTube Promoted Videos vs Google AdWords

2011-07-03T18:11:00.000-07:00

Both are paid ways to promote your series. Both are ran by Google. The former I found extremely useful while the latter, not so much.

YouTube Promoted Videos

Heh, I don't really feel like explaining everything about it. Just watch this video:

If you didn't watch it, then briefly, what it is is they display your video at the side of YouTube search results, and you pay for views. At first, that sounds freaking crazy to pay for views. BUT...

It's like your video is appearing at top of search results.
Depending on your keywords, you can get away with paying only 1 cent per view.

And the great thing about it is you're getting people who voluntarily click your video and have a sincere interest to watch your video.

Also, you can set daily budget limits. So you don't have to worry about signing up, suddenly getting 100 million views and then owing YouTube $1 million dollars. lol.

My daily budget = $1.

Google AdWords

They will display your ad next to Google search results and other Google services (like Gmail). The visitor gets sent to a website address of your choice which is cool as you can create your ideal landing page. However, the ads are text-based and not video thumbnails like YouTube Promoted Videos.

So I tried this, and it like... doesn't work. lol.

I setup the same keywords as I did for YouTube, but my ads don't show because they're "Below first page bid":

The "easy" fix is just to increase your bid, but check out those estimates: $1.00, $2.00! I'm not paying that much money for each single view when I could eat at McDonald's instead.

The "hard" fix is to improve your "Ad Rank" as explained so:

https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=177632

But then I clicked the sub-topics, and my brain exploded. So much material to absorb; when am I going to have the time to do all that stuff ? Yet, I have time to complain about it all in this blog, lol.

I do understand some of my keywords not being entirely relevant, but this one really got to me:

Keyword relevance is "Poor" for "street racing" although my show is about "street racing". The name of my show is "Adrenaline - Street Racing".

I'm sure Google wants me to optimize my site somehow so that their algorithm can figure out my series is truly about "street racing" but... that takes time.

Additionally, I tried Googling some of my keywords and NO ONE'S ADS are showing! I don't understand why I have to bid $1.00-$2.00 to show my ad when nothing is there.

Conclusions

The conclusions you can make (other than that I complain too much) is that:

YouTube Promoted Videos is a totally cheap, easy, and fast way to promote your series.
Google AdWords costs money and\or time and is probably better suited for people selling stuff.

Some time in the future, I will try out Bing, Yahoo, and Facebook advertising and see if that works any better for me.

Until then, if you happen see my video promoted on YouTube, take a look at it! =)

What the heck? A Blog!?

2011-07-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm starting a blog. Yes, people have told me blogging is a waste of time. And yes, I will probably abandon this blog after a few posts.

With that out of the way, here's what my blog will be about:

3D stuff - animation, modeling, texturing, lighting
Film stuff - screenplay writing, editing, recruiting
Music stuff - lyric writing, composing
Promotional stuff - YouTube, advertising, websites
Nihongo stuff - I'm learning Japanese... learn with me!
Asian Pop stuff - J-pop and K-pop
Fictional stuff - tv shows, anime, movies, video games

On one hand, it's probably not a good idea to have a blog with so many different topics. But on the other hand, who cares? I'm doing it anyways! lol.