Rubenerd

Given the success I've had with sketching out ideas and concepts using diagrams, I thought I'd make one to think about sleeping problems. I think it just made the whole issue more confusing!

By the time I rushed home and grabbed my D60 it was far less vivid, but it was still pretty.

Atuuschaaw shared a link in Google Reader to Digital Music News about a sharp decline in music sales in the United States, specifically albums:

How long does this story go on? Surprisingly, the latest CD death-watch report comes from Billboard, typically a label cheerleader. According to an analysis published Thursday, US-based album sales tanked 18.1 percent year-over-year during the month of August. And, compared to the same period in 2007, sales were off by 37.2 percent.

There are several things I could say about this. The first thing would be to slouch over, pick up a walking stick, dye my hair grey, get fitted for dentures and say most commercial, top 40 music thesedays is just… terrible. I certainly don't like all the music from previous decades, but it's quite obvious to me there have been far less breakout acts in this decade and far less original, fresh material. That's flamebait for some people who are diehard fans of the Jonas Brothers or Miley Cirus or what I call "commercial, artificial, mass produced disposable music" for example, but I stand by the claim. Not that I'm bitter.

What I think is interesting though when I read these gloom and doom stories about falling music sales is nothing could be further from the truth with our family, and I can thank two different reasons for it. I've talked at length about Whole Wheat Radio before, but they're an example of a website of artists that instead of complaining about how commercial music is going down the toilet, actually took a stand and released their music independently or with indie labels. I've bought dozens of CDs from them, the latest of which only a day ago!

Another way we've been different though we have Gramophone to thank for. Gramophone is a somewhat typical chain of boutique CD shops in Singapore that took the opposite approach to HMV (which recently shut their flagship store in Heeren, I remember when they opened there back in the 1990s) by having smaller shops with more friendly staff and an emphasis on variety rather than Billboard charts.

While nice, that's not the reason why we bought more music because of Gramophone. The reason is Gramophone at The Cathay building on Orchard Road heavily discounts CDs that don't move off the shelves as quickly. I don't mean taking a $30 CD and selling it for $20, I'm talking about taking a $30 CD and selling it for $1, or $2! My sister, dad and I when we were all back in Singapore would take baskets down to Gramophone and buy hundreds of these CDs almost at random (NOT an exaggeration), and while some where terrible the vast majority were brilliant. We ripped them all to our music server and have been thrilled with the results! Much of it is world music we would never have heard before.

Sure musicians have to make a living, but even as a 23 year old I'm already sick and tired of the over-commercialisation of music. If labels weren't greedy arses (HA!) and spent more time with artists who had something new and fresh to contribute, there could be a renaissance. We're starting to see this without the labels' help on the Internet.

Right about now,
Ruben wrote a blog post;
Check it out now,
Ruben wrote a blog post.

Right about now,
Ruben wrote a blog post.
Check it out now,
Ruben wrote a blog post.

Post post post post…
Post post post post!
Post post post post…
Post post post post!

Right about now,
Ruben wrote a blog post.
Check it out now,
Ruben wrote a blog post.

My solicitors advised me to disclose that this post has not been endorsed, supported or written by Fatboy Slim, though he is more than welcome to take credit for it, and to praise me like he shouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuld. Thank you.

If you log into Wikipedia, there's a link in the top right corner that lets you try their new beta user interface. Don't know how long has it been there, I've never seen it before now.

I think the new theme does look classier despite being slightly less efficient with screen real estate. It also introduces an interesting new per-user "book" feature which you can add articles to.

UPDATE: It seems this book feature has been made available for general use in the sidebar not just for people participating in the beta.

I wonder if this new theme and new features will be made available for other MediaWiki installs? That be schweeet :D

If you follow the life and times of independent folk musician, singer and songwriter Esther Golton you're probably already well aware of and excited by this news, but for those of you who many not be so well versed in the life and times of independent folk musician, singer and songwriter Esther Golton you're probably already well aware of and excited by this news, but for those of you who many not be so well versed in the life and times of independent folk musician…

Sorry, I got caught in an infinite loop. It's a mental condition, I'm having it checked out. If you're not aware by now (isn't that a Simply Red song?), Esther is releasing a new follow-up album to Unfinished Houses which I've loved and in a more personal way has got me through some tough and challenging times in my life to say the least.

Hello Folks, (including everyone in my entire mailing list) –

It was 2 years ago that I released Unfinished Houses and began to immerse myself in the life of a traveling singer-songwriter. It’s been great. Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm, whether you are fan, venue, house concert host, ‘WheatHead’, press, radio, fellow musician, family or friend.

So, two years later, I have an exciting announcement. I have in my hands a brand new CD, ready to go out into the world. It’s called Aurora Borealis: Conversations with Alaska’s Northern Lights. You can listen to samples and purchase pre-release copies directly from my website.

Snow Leopard got me in the mood for preordering stuff, so I've gone ahead and preordered my own copy of Aurora Borealis. If it's even a tenth as enjoyable as Unfinished Houses was I'll feel as though I got my money's worth :).

Amongst many of her stunning artistic abilities, my beautiful late mummy was a woodwind, keyboard, harp and dulcimer player, and Esther's voice, mannerisms and style of music remind me so much of her it brings back tears sometimes, but more often than not it makes me smile. At the risk of sounding overly cheesy and nostalgic, it's like having a small part of my mum kept alive in spirit whenever I listen to Esther's music.

Also as a matter of disclosure for legal reasons my solicitors have advised me to inform you all that Esther did not pay me for this post, though I wouldn't be adverse to her doing so later at her discretion if she chose to ;). Or anyone else for that matter. Terimah Kassih.

I have all the room I need
My bed is wide enough for three
I can stand up tall and stretch my arms up high
I can step outside and wander through the trees
I have all the room I need.

It may come as complete shock to you to find out our first home computer from the early 1990s was a DOS machine. Certainly I've never mentioned this ever before on my blog here (cough!), and I certainly have never blogged about running DOS on modern hardware for nostalgic fun.

Turns out one of the unintended positives of procuring a ThinkPad X40 dating back to before IBM's hardware division was purchased by Lenovo is that IBM were themselves a DOS vendor (an oversimplification of history but it'll suffice) and supported running DOS well after everyone else jumped on the Windows bandwagon.

What this means is even for a 2004 vintage notebook computer from their download page they have complete DOS software for updating the BIOS and diagnosing problems along with drivers for networking, external optical drives, sound and their obscure, limited run USB grilled cheese sandwich waffle irons that came bundled with I'm so full of crap.

I'm stretched for time as is and probably won't be able to test any of this out for a while, but I do have a licenced copy of IBM PC DOS 7 and a ThinkPad with drivers… it might be time to get my nostalgia freak on :).

Here's another Rubenerd Fun Fact for all you rabid Official Rubenerd Fun Fact fans. I know you're out there, I can hear you breathing. Oh wait, that's me.

Geese can’t play the bass guitar.

Thank you.

"Walk like an Egyptian!"

Those who have watched anime for long enough know that it's almost a rite of passage for most shows to feature one fanservice filled beach episode where the tenuous plot is designed to show off their characters in swimsuits. Most leave such episodes for later, but we got K-On's in episode 04. Fortunately in this case it wasn't as blatant (relatively speaking), and as a bonus there was a real plot! I know, I was shocked too!

It's been over three months (wow really?) since we started watching the girls form their light music club in episode 01 and Mio is starting to worry they're not making any progress. It turns out she's suffering from a severe case of inferiority complex after she stumbles upon a series of tapes recorded by the previous light music club and she feels the other girls aren't taking the club seriously.

"Now where did I put my sandals?"

After we're reminded of Tsumugi's amazing family wealth it's decided they all go on a training camp in one of her private villas near the beach. The train trip starts early enough that they all nearly miss it, but they board safely and Ritsu jolts Tsumugi awake by taking flash photos of her while she dozes off in the chair. FLASH! Wait… huh, where am I?

The villa is amazing of course and so too is the music room with a drum kit and keyboard already set up, but Yui and Ritsu are too busy changing and wanting to go down to the beach to notice or care! Despite being cast as the shy moe character, Mio spends more time with Tsumugi almost in parental roles to Yui and Ritsu who seemed to have lost all sense of responsibility!

"Did I just hear a spring or something?"

They end up spending most of the day at the beach and they soon realise why Mio was itching to practise instead; she's afraid of barnacles and other icky sea stuff, and suffice to say she "filled out" her swimsuit rather well, much to the astonishment of Yui and Ritsu. Of course her introduction included several BOING! sounds… ah you've got to love the anime sense of humour ;-).

When they finally file indoors to do some practise the sun is setting and both Ritsu and Yui end up lying on the floor which only serves to exacerbate Mio further! When Yui finally gets around to playing her new guitar though, she actually makes some amazing sounds for the first time. As with her exams, it seems she has the uncanny ability to perform ridiculously well at something after being so terrible at it just shortly before. If only all our own talents were so easily brought out!

"Is it glowing out here, or is it just me?"

Towards the end they find themselves outside in the dark looking out over the water, and the girls surprise Mio by setting up a wall of fireworks to go off as Yui plays her guitar. It was very pretty and Mio is taken aback, aww. Personally I would have been scared out of my mind having all that stuff suddenly go off and given how timid she is I would have expected the same from her, but oh well :). Yui positively glows… until the fireworks run out!

Oh yeah, and they also manage to fit in some typical fanservicey hot spring action too at the end, but fortunately nothing over a G rating. I think they just wanted another chance to show Mio blushing… you know I'm right. I can feel another nonsensical Know Your Anime Moods post coming up!

And for the first time since the series started, it seems the girls finally have the beginnings for what it takes to perform at the culture festival, and only on episode 04!

"No way, she can actually play it now!?"

Gosh darn watching this happy show is so uplifting :).

I thought it was particularly trippy that this is the 2009th post, and the year is 2009. Just think about that for a second: from now on the number of posts will exceed the year. It'll be as if I'll be blogging from the future. If that isn't trippy, quite frankly I don't want to know what is.

To celebrate, I put the 2009 year page on Wikipedia through Wordle and got the above thing. Interesting if cryptic mix of words.