Crimsonietta.net

Sometimes I wonder precisely why I’m living the way I am today. I made a post earlier admitting to the public a rather exaggerated psychological trait of mine - the fact that I used to have an inferiority complex that still crops up occasionally - but now that I look back at what I said, I realize that I was making excuses and trying to do exactly the thing that I condemn: garner pity.

I don’t enjoy unwanted sympathy, so I definitely don’t go looking for it either. And the more negative posts I create on my blog, the more of a nuisance it is to read my opinions and reflect thoughtfully on them. I really and truly hope that in the future I can just live for the sake of living and not worry so much about the little trifles that may afflict me from time to time. After all, it’s nothing to feel down once in a while - there are plenty of people out there who have the right to truly complain about the quality of their life, and I have no right to be imposing upon them. There are so many people who suffer from disease, hunger, lack of education, cult practices, etc. If anyone should be entitled to complain about how bad their life is, or how much they hate their present situation, it would be them.

In short, I suppose it’s really frustrating at times for me to keep a positive outlook on life, but I suppose I’ll have to try my hardest. I have already successfully pinned down the main reason why I can’t get anything done - I’m not focused enough and I often stray from the path of things that really matter, getting caught up in superfluous and materialistic activities. If only I could focus purely on the things that matter most in life, then I could enjoy it to the fullest. As you may recall from a few entries back, my top priorities are documenting life, technology, SnM, fine arts, and education. More than anything, though, I believe the act of documenting my life is the one that I enjoy the most and would love to continue doing even if the rest eventually fade away.

So, in retaliation to my previous lament earlier today, if the summer is too boring and I feel I don’t have anything to do, then I suppose I’ll have to make things to do! Laundry list time, hehe =) And for once I won’t bother my readers with the details.

Earlier today, however, I was contemplating the idea of creating a separate site for my written works, similar to what the owner of Verbosity.net has done. I’ve played with this idea the entire day in my mind, and I keep on getting the urge to go ahead with this idea, but I know deep within my heart that I’ll simply lose interest in it over time. After all, aren’t all of my blog posts already “written works”? Haha =) It seems things work this way a lot of the time with me, however. I often get grand ideas that I really wish to pursue, but I know, regretfully, that I will eventually lose focus and discard the ambition.

Perhaps it’s best that I just stick with the things that I know I will never give up. Like continuing to prod at technology, produce Sekai no Melody, and doing what I do best - blogging and expressing my opinions! Until next time, enjoy life.

So I’ve been trying to compile a birthday wishlist for about a week now. Usually the process goes as thus:

“Hmm. So I have to list out a bunch of stuff I want. Let’s see. I wouldn’t mind getting a few more Pullips… a few of these CDs and DVDs… maybe another laptop. New headphones and microphones. I wouldn’t mind a few more pairs of earrings for my collection. I would love a complete set of Giant Microbes. I would love to collect a bunch of Tamagotchi for the lulz. While I’m at it, I’ll throw in some hardware reference books and some astrophysics books and maybe some other stuff on audio production, web design, and general programming. Oh, I’d love a Blackberry.”

Then I’ll stare intently at the list.

And stare some more.

And then I’ll realize that Pullips are overpriced, I could easily torrent the CDs and DVDs, I don’t need another laptop, my current headphones work fine, my current mic works fine (*cough* itsoundsmuffledinlinuxsoimstillusingitunderwindows *cough*), I already have over 100 pairs of earrings, I only really like the Flu plush of the Giant Microbes, Tamagotchi’s are WAY overpriced and I suck at taking care of them, I could easily torrent the ebooks, and I’m still getting mixed reviews on the Blackberry.

So uh. I really don’t know what I want for my birthday. Most of the items I brainstorm are just novelty items - things that won’t matter in the future and don’t really matter that much now, they’re just a luxury. The only items I would seriously have need for would be the laptop, Blackberry, and peripherals, but I don’t think my parents are up to getting me more technology items. They probably think I’m obsessed enough as it is. I would ask for a desk calendar or a poster calendar, but they don’t make the ones with the Jpop/Cpop idols until November, and I never use those since I just got a new, gorgeous, handy planner ♥

So yeah. Vivi’s birthday 2008 wishlist:  SURPRISE ME. with something good -_-

^ That right there is my typical workstation when I’m working on Sekai no Melody revamp items. Of course this is the Linux’ed version. From left to right:

• “newlayout” - the folder where all the layout files are actually located
• Iceweasel window - open in tabs are my Yahoo inbox (always open no matter what I’m doing), my blog (same), the SnM discography, and the SnM site itself (so I can see how my code renders). In Windows the equivalent would have been Firefox.
• Folder of the SnM discography itself - reference for release dates, covers, etc.
• KFTPGrabber - FTP client. I still like AceFTP better, but I guess with a new OS comes new programs :P
• GIMP - okay, kudos to the developers of this piece of software, but no offense.. give me back Photoshop any day. I would run it under Wine or VM but I don’t have an urgent need yet.
• KWrite window - with whatever file I’m currently editing, equivalent of Notepad
• Amarok - only the best music player ever, because I can’t work without music. In Windows, my player of choice would have been foobar2000.

So yes. Without any of those items, I would not be able to maintain a productive cycle during the day. Just thought you’d all be interested in seeing how exactly I got SnM stuffs done.

Time for yet another summer report, haha =) I’m just full of things to discuss this summer, am I not?

1) Linux running on Pavilion
As I stated in the previous post, I’m finally free from Windows =D I know it sounds pretty lame to be excited about something like this, but ah.. I am..? Haha. After spending about six months on dual-boot over on my Presario (which is my “experimental laptop” so I don’t even know if that counts) I decided to just dive in head-first and remove Windows from my HP Pavilion (primary laptop) permanently. Of course it makes me feel slightly bad because my father actually purchased Windows Vista for me; my personal consolation against that is the fact that if my father ends up annoyed I could point out that we still have the install CD of Vista and if I so choose I could easily reinstall it; I just prefer not to.

Anyways, a little more about my impressions of sidux after an entire evening of using it - I spent about three hours tweaking things to get them how I wanted them. I’m not completely used to some of the things, but for the most part it really isn’t that difficult to use. There are some graphical implementations that I feel could be more snappy and less sluggish, but perhaps that’s just a trick of my mind. For example, I find scrolling to be slow, but then I realized that I was using a Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse. I guess I can’t expect the same performance from that device on Linux as I would on Windows. In addition, I still find my resolution way too small, but it’s quite obviously still 1280×800. I guess the fonts are what create the impression that my resolution is smaller than it really is. I do wish I could push it to something like 1600×1200, though, but that’s not a realistic plea. Although after I set all the system fonts to size 7, I was fairly happy. (Yes, I like small fonts on my GUI. No, that doesn’t mean you should be like those emo teens who make webpages with size 6 font and size 5 leading.) That being said, I guess I would also like to mention that holy shit, USB transfers are fast x_x It took 50 minutes to transfer 10gb of stuff (SnM, what else) from Vista -> external, and it’s taken like, 10 minutes external -> sidux.

2) Amazing Amarok is amazing
Okay. Whoever developed Amarok was a freaking genius. I am seriously in love with this media player’s interface and implementation on Linux. It beats Windows Media Player, Winamp, and even foobar2000 any day. Here, for those of you not fortunate enough to be graced with the amazing program, a screenshot:

3) Sekai no Melody site revamp
As you can see, the site revamp is nearly finished! I’m actually really proud of the way the layout turned out, even though it does seem a bit crisp and businesslike. The only things I have left to do are the discography, the radio pages, the article page, and the members’ area. The latter two shouldn’t take much time at all, so at the moment I’m slowly but surely trudging through the discography. No matter what, though, I definitely want the site revamp complete before I have to head out for college, or else I won’t have much time to work on it at all, and it’ll be in a state of purgatory.

4) Music review series
I’ve always wanted to start a music review site, but last time I tried that with Voice of Heart, it fell through before even beginning. I think it would be much more interesting and effective to just feature music reviews as part of my normal blogging habits, so let’s start off with this one~!

Well, anyone taking a browse through my music collection will instantly notice a plethora of East Asian bands and artists, with the occasional sprinkling of European and American. Putting aside the blatant fact that I am of East Asian (more specifically, Chinese) descent and most likely carry some bias, one must admit that the bands and soloists of East Asia - and when I say East Asia, I’m referring mainly to Japan, Korea, China/Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. - possess a very distinct flavour of musical style that makes their songs very singable and danceable. While mainstream American music often seems heavy and headstrong no matter the genre, East Asian music seems to exert the ability to subtly yet effectively change the mood according to the piece. Their songs are very lyrical and oftentimes very easy to learn melody-wise.

Thus, consider this your pre-warning that many of my music reviews will be focused on releases by East Asian artists. Oh, of course I’ll also include European and American artists in addition to movie soundtracks, classical, trance, instrumental, etc. But for the most part, you’ll see a lot of East Asian release reviews from me, hehe =)

Consider this your introduction; I’ll make the first review tomorrow.

5) Preparing for MIT materialistically
So lately my mother and I have been thinking a lot about the stuff that we need to purchase for me to make the dramatic move from the sweltering land of Texas to Massachusetts in the frigid North. There’s still so many things that I need to get together - I’m still in a dilemna over what kinds of outfits I should be bringing, in addition to any luxury items. Should I bring things to decorate my room with? Should I take along all my earrings and hair accessories? Or will I not even have time to look at those while I’m in college? I really hope I get a single room, because I’m just not comfortable sleeping with another person. Staying in a hotel with other people for an entire week at ISEF was about the limit for me; any longer and I would’ve gotten extremely annoyed, especially since my sleep schedule is so much more different from everyone’s.

6) Preparing for MIT mentally
In addition to buying all the things for my dorm room and school supplies, I guess I should start preparing myself mentally for the move. It’s hard to believe I won’t be seeing all my friends for so long. I mean, yeah, I’ll be back for the holidays, but most likely everyone will want to spend time at home with their families or doing their own thing. I’m really excited about being able to be my own person, and being independent and finally having [near]-total control of my own life. It’ll definitely be fun; I’m really not as worried about the mental transition as I am about the materialistic one - I’m terrified I’ll get to Massachusetts and then realize that I left something very important back home, haha.

7) Preparing for MIT technologically
In the same vein as the above two items, I figure I should also start setting up my laptop(s) for MIT work. First thing to do would be to download and install all the software that MIT provides for me. Er.. though it’d be nice if I didn’t have to convert all those rpms to debs before I can do anything with them. Well, that’s just another adventure for me tomorrow, I guess, more compiling from source, which I -have- done quite often, but that’s not exactly my favourite activity - the first time I installed anything on a Linux system was Firefox on Kubuntu. Took me about an hour to figure that one out because it kept on complaining that I didn’t have necessary dependencies and tools and such. I don’t know nor remember nor really care. I’m operating fine now and that’s what matters.

8) Blogging addiction
Hehe. If you haven’t noticed already, I’ve been blogging a LOT more frequently than I used to during the school year. I guess since it’s the summer, I don’t really have anything else to do, so I just dump all of my thoughts, memories, worries, delights, and whatever else onto this little piece of the Internet that I can call my own. I’m hoping to buy Misonix.net when Crimsonietta.net expires though, because I think the name “Crimsonietta” is a bit long and a bit too full of flair for me, hehe. My other options were Ambytx.net and Venicia.net, but Venicia sounds like something from the Edwardian era, and Ambytx isn’t a very aesthetic word to design with, haha. You know, I was also thinking of applying for an MIT Admissions blogging position, but then I realized that the entries I have here seem -really- humdrum and boring, not to mention very verbose and superfluous at times. Ah well, I guess there’s no harm in trying, right? =) I’ll apply when the time comes and tell you all how it goes~

Updated Windows-to-Linux transition laundry list:
- Figure out how to get my bluetooth headset working
- Make the graphical interface -appear- to run faster..?
- Install all MIT software
- Configure KMenu to be more productive
- Get Zune syncing with Linux (this sounds like a potential nightmare)
- Clean keyboard (not really OS-related, but it needs to be done)