Distant Worlds, Nearby Adventures

So, for those of you who dont know the name Nobuo Uematsu, he's a composer and song-writer famous for his works in the video game industry, specifically all of the Final Fantasy music that gamers love so much.
He did the entire sound track for final fantasys 1-9 (and a bunch of the spin off titles) and has partially contributed to the soundtracks of the rest, and most of squares other games aswell
He worked for Square Enix (formerly known as Square, and then Squaresoft) for 20 years, before breaking off and making his own company and becomming a freelancer (what a boss)

So basically, this guy has done literally thousands of songs, and so many of them are masterpieces, and he's still going.

You'd think there'd be a limit to your creativity, to how many songs you can make before they all start sounding the same but no, he just keeps on going.

And he can even (and does) weave a theme and nature subtly into a soundtrack, and he's covered pretty much every style of music.

He is quite possibly the best composer who's ever lived, and is simply limited by the lack of exposire video games have had compared to other mediums (at least untill recently).

Never the less, his music is famous and has even been played at the olympics, has inspired so many other artists, has been groundbreaking (I believe, and I could be wrong, that the one winged angel song from FF7 was the first piece of videogame music to have coherent lyrics) has been in time magazine, has created his own band, and does concerts the world over.

Out of the many of those, there is a concert performance titled 'Distant Worlds' that has been touring the world, where nobuo has teamed up with Arnie Roth, who is some famous grammy award winning dude.

I was lucky enough to get to go see this as it visited the Sydney Opera house, thanks to my bud mandy who is a boss and organized this amazing adventure for us and did a really good job, thanks mandy!

And so off we went!

We took 2 cars, the others went through some amazing place with an amazing bakery or something, but we slept in (allright!)

How cool are we?

So me rose and scabe ended up going down by ourselves where me and scabe gave rose an introduction to Final Fantasy music as she'd never played the games :(

And we ended up arriving in Sydney about an hour before we had to meet up at the Opera house.

We stayed at tobys place, cause toby is the fucking king and makes everything better.

Anyways we headed off to the Opera house, all dressed up (well some of us) and I was touting my cool new shoes (see elsewhere in the blog).

On the way we saw this guy here, and he was having waaaay too much fun.

So we got to the Opera House, chilled out for abit (well I say that but everyone was excited) and took photos and stuff.



damn man, I look like such a creeper



my little family <3



Who is that? thanks to terrible 3ds camera, and crazy ninja shadow skills, you'll never know!
Pretty cool cosplay, good job penelope.
whoops, now you know.



Anyways we got inside, got our seats and watched the magic begin.

I lasted about 10 seconds into the concert before I teated up.

Now you can all call me a faggot if you want, but if you have played the games, esp as part of your childhood, you'd understand.

Nobuo either thanking arnie roth, or begging no to be made to do a solo piece.

Looks like holding hands in a line is a pretty difficult task

Theres something magical about Nobuos works, they are full of emotion by themselves, but they also really draw you into whats happening in the games they are in, which themselves are well written and full of emotion.

Many people will say Final Fantasy VII is the only game to have ever made them cry, because you really get drawn in and care about whats going on, you really feel it, thanks to the game itself but also to Nobuos Magic (wizards are the shit guys, they are so good)

And I was lucky enough to meet this amazing man in person.

Most signings the person you meet is just like yeah whatever, but nobuo was so cheerful and really into it (even though he looks kinda bored in the photo, like he was really happy and smiling, except for when you took the photo, shouldnt it be the other way around? oh well, I cant really smile on demand for photos either)

.

I got my photo taken with him using my 3DS (which is probably the worst camera ever, but it can take photos in 3D) and he and the photographer were like hey this is a 3DS isnt it, and nobuo wanted to see the picture so I showed him and he started freaking out "WOW, THATS IN 3D, THATS SOOOOO COOL!"

Yeah take that everyone else in the line waiting, nobuo likes me best!

The photographer was getting really excited over it too, and he was pretty much the coolest looking guy I've ever seen, so I asked him if I could take a photo of him too, he was so happy.

sanji?

After the concert we had Korean BBQ.

yum.

So all in all it was an amazing concert which covered music from pretty much every ff game, including some preview music from FF XIV (not that anyone cares about anything in the series after X, since the original team responsable for all the FF's up to that point left square and made their own company called mystwalker).

I had a great time, and you could too if they ever come this way again

http://www.ffdistantworlds.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=54

I just hope my not so distant adventure to distant worlds wont soon become distant memories, lost in the fog of my mind.

Fun Facts and Musings - Nintendo

So, this is more musing then fun facts, although there are some facts littered in here, anyways, Nintendo-

(man so much of this blog is about gaming, I guess I'll just have to accept the truth, I am a nerd)

Theres a name that needs no introduction, nintendo is a name known throughtout the world, a name as synonymous with videogaming as ipods are with mp3 players.

Nintendo's flagship character, Mario, has been the face of gaming ever since his first debut in 1985 (thats a long time to keep that throne) and probably will be for a long long time to come.

Even Mario's theme song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7xnsNFN4Ts) is known the world over.
In fact I read somewhere one time that it was one of the worlds most recognizable pieces of music.

So I called my dad (who is the fucking king by the way) into the room, played it, and asked him if he recognized it.

And he did, 'oh, thats uhh, mario plumbers!'

Imagine if you really saw a guy like this?
Thats some scary shit.

The name Nintendo roughly translates to 'leave luck to heaven' and they sure did, having put in plenty of hard work in the last 25 years.

So where am I going with this?



25 years of hard work paying off.



Well I feel that Nintendos gotten a bad rep in the last 10 years or so, and I thought I'd try to set the record straight abit.

Lets start with the biggest thing, innovation.
Most companys these days just blantently copy everything from nintendo (or others).
Now I'm not saying theres anything wrong with that perse, but Nintendo dont get the credit they deserve, they are revolutionarys.
Like for instance the ever humble D-pad.

The D-pad was invented in 1982 by one of Nintendo's staff, Gunpei Yokoi. (The computer arrows keys were also invented in 1982 I believe, hmm wonder who got it first?)

Now most people think 'so what?' but I tend to think about random stuff like this a little deeper.

How did he invent it?

Do you realize how hard it is to 'invent' something, to come up with something from nothing?

to create an abstract idea?

sure some inventions, like the wheel, can be observed in nature and thus had an inspiration behind them, but a dpad?

up down left and right?

When I think of moving forward, I dont try to move upward (although most games back then were 2d)

If you were alive back then and you were asked to come up with a way of controlling a character, would you have been able to come up with something unique that works?

And what gaming console since then hasnt used a dpad? which company came up with their own revolutionary idea?

well nowadays analog thumb sticks are used for gaming, guess who came up with those?

Nintendo again (although they based the design on the arcade joystick, which had been around for a long long time, so thats a far less impressive invention)
Games even use motion sensing technology, guess who came up with that again?
Well, I daresay Nintendo DIDNT invent that, but they were the ones to take a chance and bring it into mainstream console gaming. (although the eye-toy beat them to it, less impressive again)
How about the DS's use of touchscreens?
Memory cards?
Rumble features?
Light guns?
Shoulder buttons?
pressure sensative shoulder buttons?
the standard 4 button face layout on controllers used today?

A console that never breaks and can be used as building blocks for a nuclear bunker?
need I go on?

Seriously, Nintendo go out there and do all the hardwork, they innovate, they invent, they revolutionize, things which are so hard they are almost impossible, and everyone else sits back, lets them do all the hard work, then takes it for themselves,(reminds me of the little red hen) and everyone thinks that those companys are better then Nintendo?

What the hell? (somebodys getting a little bit heated up, fanboy much?)

Its understandable though, people are afraid to take that step into the unknown. (people that arnt Nintendo that is)

I know what I just said, but this is ridiculous.

And they dont care about graphics or any of that stuff, they care about making good, fun games that appeal to as many people as possible, and making quality consoles that dont break when you breathe on them.
They even teach you valuble life lessons like this.

When the WII was announced, everybody thought it would fail, but it didnt.

Same with the new console they are about to announce, people think it will fail.

But those people dont realize that Nintendo is magic, they are all wizards, and a wizard is never late, he arrives precisely when he means to.

They've always been the kings, the magic of the SNES has never been topped, and their games are some of the greatest ever made, as well as some of the best selling games of all time.

Wii sports is the best selling console game to date with 75 million copies sold.

The original Super Mario Brothers on NES sold over 40 million just on the NES alone, so thats not counting all the other remakes and rereleases.

Tetris on gameboy got 35 million, and thats not counting the literally hundreds of other versions and releases of tetris (although Tetris wasnt actually devolped by Nintendo, it was devolped by this king right here)



Alexey Pajitnov, the creater of tetris, hexic, and lots of other cool puzzle games.
What a king.



Anyways this rant is getting rather long, so let me first say that although I have dissed the other companys here, they've done good work too, you cant disrespect Sony since the PS2 is the highest selling console of all time at 150+ Million copys sold, and the second highest selling console of all time is the PS1 at 100+ million, not a bad effort.
Nintendo come in at number 3 with the Wii at 86 million (and thats not counting their handhelds with both the gameboy and ds reaching well over 100+ million each)

Although highest number of sales isnt really a very accurate way of determining whats best, but in a world full of opinions what else can you do?

Anyways to sum up, if you've ever dissed Nintendo as being second-rate, maybe you should think again about the spirit of innovation, maybe try inventing something revolutionary of your own and see how hard it is.

Just remember not to leave luck to heaven, cause you'll need god on your side to make as much of an impact as Nintendo have.

Cakes - Coreys bday cake

So, we love making cakes, who doesnt love making cakes?
I love making cakes.
You dont?
Then I judge you, I judge you with all the hatred and loathing of 128 burning suns. (and that is ALOT)

But not really.

So anyways, theres probably gonna be alot of cool cakes on this blog, since I like making cakes, and so do my friends.

And rose is a gun at cake decoration.

thats not 3ds camera effects, thats actually magic.
its a magic cake

So, for coreys Birthday, we wanted to make him a cake.

And he loves kingdom hearts.



see



So me and rose made him a kingdom hearts cake (I basically did nothing but make terrible jokes the whole time)

oh and I blew some bubbles

Pet Foxes!

So my favorite animal is, and probably always will be, the red fox. (and I sure do love animals)

I would love to own one as a pet, I really would, but not only is that illegal (I think), but they are wild animals.

They have instincts and habits that mean they just dont work in domestic settings (I sure would love to have the meat I gave it to eat, hidden all over the house in preperation for famine)

I also cant have pets where I live :(

Anyways, my prayers have been answered, at least partially, in the form of crazy soviet union scientists.

See, dogs are nothing more then domesticated wolves.
At some point, people started breeding wolves to get certain traits, and isolated those in breeding, etc etc and ended up with the common domestic dog.

Now some smart kids in russia, began a breeding program of their own in 1959, which lasted a long time (50 years or something), which the goal to create a new domesticated strain of foxes.
And they succeeded.

So there are now 'fox dogs' which are foxes with domestic qualities that can be kept as pets just as easily as a dog.

So I found my ideal pet, only problem is that they cost $6000, because the people who created these fox-dogs, have a monopoly on the market, given that they are the only people with them in the world, and when you buy fox-dogs off them, the fox-dogs are desexed AND you agree not to breed them (even though you cant because they have been desexed)

Also I cant have pets where I live, or else I probably would do the crazy 'luke' thing and save up and buy one.

If you want to know more about these beautiful creatures, heres the website - http://sibfox.com/

Cool Fashion - Best shoes you've ever seen.

So, my good friend rose made me some killer starfox shoes, which are the greatest shoes ever made, ever (can I stress that enough).

What luck to have a friend who is so talented (I bet she's thinking how lucky she is to have a friend who annoys the shit out of her to make him some amazing shoes, right?...)

I have pretty big feet, and these shoes (size 15) were the only ones that fit me out of all the shoes, in a giant clothing store mall.

5 different shoe stores, 1 of said store was massive and had an entire section for 'BIG feet, 14+'
in that section, this was the only pair that fit me :(
( at least they did fit me, stupid iceskating rinks not having massive iceskates.)

Anyways, rose worked her wizard magic, and now here I am with super shoes.

So we got Wolf.

And we got fox!

some pretty cool shoes

What you may have also noticed is the the laces seem to be glowing, thats because I'm a wizard they are.



if you see me in these you'll either think I'm the coolest guy you've ever met, or (and this is the more likey) the lamest.



I found this place that seels glowing LED laces, and I though since they are spacey, and green, that the laces would go well.

The laces can be on, off, flashing slow, or flashing fast, and use a simple little round battery like what you'd have in a watch.

If you want some of your own, they can be found here:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Unisex-LED-Disco-Flashing-Shoelaces-Lighting-Multicolor-/130503086068?pt=AU_Adult_Unisex_Accessories&hash=item1e62970ff4

Photos of my shoes from good photographers (with shitty black laces)

A big shoutout to rose, thankyouuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Fun Facts and Musings - Fun with the English Language

English sure is a fun language, its also incredbly complicated, much more then it needs to be.
Why is the world having English, of all languages, forced on it as the universal language? (why call it universal when its only referring to the entirity of Earth?)

I'm guessing this is all the places on earth where english is the number 1 spoken language?

I came across this one word 'sesquipedalian' which is basically a term used to refer to someone (or sometimes something) that uses long words.
I find it ironic that this word is itself a long word.
Now I say ironic, and it would be accepted as the correct use of the word ironic but it infact isnt, ironic is probably the number 1 misued word in the English language (dont quote me on that one).



type irony into google images and this is the first thing you get.



Also grammer is a pain, everything I write has grammaractical mistakes all over it.

oh dear...

There are lots of intresting mistakes made constantly everyday with this language of ours, like this one I found somewhere out there in the World Wide Webaverse.

'I have to add this one as a bonus because it is one I especially hate. When you say “I could care less” you are saying “I care a little so I could care less”. Most people when using this horrific sentence mean to say “I couldn’t care less” which means “I care so little I could not care less”.' - somewhere on the internet

Intresting stuff huh?
I also found this rather amusing poem that I reall like, so I'll share it with you.

Lets Face It. English Is A Stupid Language - by some dude, somewhere, sometime.

There is no egg in the eggplant,
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England,
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted, but if we examine its paradoxes we find that:
Quicksand takes you down slowly,
Boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing?
If the plural of tooth is teeth,
Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth?
If the teacher taught,
Why hasn't the preacher praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
What the heck does a humanitarian eat?
Why do people recite at a play,
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways?
How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day
And as cold as hell on another?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language where a house can burn up as it burns down,
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!
English was invented by people, not computers,
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all.)

That is why:
When the stars are out they are visible,
But when the lights are out they are invisible.
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts,
But when I wind up this poem
It ends.

- sourced from http://www.c4vct.com/kym/humor/esl.htm.

did you also know that the longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched"?
did you care?

I bet you did know that no word in English rhymes with orange, but month, silver and purple also have no rhyming counterpart.

Can you think of a better rhyme then that? yeah didnt think so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK4OnCzPEWI - Take note guys, THATS how you rhyme!

The origin of the word 'testify' was based on the Roman court, where men were made to swear to statements by swearing on their testicles.

It would probably be much more effective these days since nobody seems to appreciate the Bible and what it stands for anymore.

So there you have it, intresting food for thought for you all.