Just Kidding

08/06/08 07:38:26 pm

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• Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
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Okay, so it seems I lied a little in my previous post when I said there wouldn't be any new content updates for awhile. New Crisis Core skin available. I've also got some drafts for Soul Eater skins...

And I fixed an error that was messing up the comment forms on the newest news posts. This is why the site needs some code development attention. :]

A Few Things

06/14/08 09:19:38 pm

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First we'll talk skins, since that's probably what most of you here are interested in. The skin seen below is in progress... and the balance slider has it in for me. I can't seem to find any functionality in Winamp's MAKI language that'll let me control the pan value... so I can't have it mimic the volume slider and update the animated layer frame as it goes... If anyone knows better, let me know. Otherwise I'll probably have to redo that area (put something different there, or change the slider design).

Second, most of my day at work yesterday was wasted when we had to clean up the database after an SQL injection attack inserted a few thousand lines linking to a malicious Javascript file. Apparently hundreds of sites running MSSQL were hit around the same time. Ugh.

Finally, a bit of anime. I haven't been watching much lately for two key reasons. One is that I have simply chosen to spend my limited free time on other activities (most prominently, more gaming), but the other is that there hasn't been much to trumpet in recent series, it seems. But lately we've been starved for some short, enjoyable video content to watch with meals or while relaxing. So we picked out two to try: Soul Eater and Baccano.

Soul Eater, with 51 supposed episodes, may be pushing the envelope on my tolerance for long series (I know I've watched hundreds of One Piece, Inuyasha and Naruto episodes, but if anything they prove my point: 50 episodes is the approximate maximum for consistently decent quality, I think), but it has been enjoyable thus far. The characters and plot are kinda cookie-cutter: students at shinigami academy - including the archetypical bookworm, headstrong boy, loudmouth, pushover, and perfectionist - must fight together as partners against various evil things and collect souls to become the big cheese. *shrug* Nothing really to complain about, just nothing stellar about it either, I guess.

Baccano, however, I am crazy for. The gore level was a bit higher than my usual taste, but the show's about mafia guys, assassins and otherwise shady characters... so it's not out of place. The story is told non-chronologically, mostly jumping around between a few years in the 1930s, and focusing on suspenseful incidents that intertwine its characters. This manner of presentation allows for numerous cliff-hangers - once you start watching, it's hard to turn it off. The characters are the main driving force of the story though, and I found myself endeared to and interested in all of them (even if they seriously creeped me out at times as well). The music is also catchy - try the opening for a taste.

And that's all for now. Hopefully the aforementioned skin will be done within a day or so...

Winamp Classic Viscolor Tool

04/03/08 02:34:17 am

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I'm not highly skilled with Javascript, and it's somewhat amusing to me that it's an in-demand skill at all. Back in the day, we all hated Javascript because, as far as we could tell, its only use was for annoying, useless things like pop-up greetings or animated page transitions. But now JS is back in vogue, most often touted through "AJAX," and people... like it. Huh. Go figure.

Anyway, the point of my ramblings is to say I spent some time Javascripting over the previous weekend. Here is the fruit of my work: a viscolor.txt generator for making Winamp Classic skins. Up until now I have been making my viscolor files manually... it's stupid, I know, but it's why so many of my visualizers feature flat-color bars and backgrounds. But I went Googling for an automated maker, and didn't find anything particularly useful. When such a problem presents itself to me, I just do it myself. ^^;

So, hopefully that can be of use to any fellow skinners out there. If not, it's still useful to me. Huzzah!

...Oh yes, it doesn't seem to work in IE, of course... Maybe I'll try to fix that later. But really, use Firefox.

Edit: fixed in IE, mostly. But still, Firefox.

Lazy Summer?

06/27/07 10:32:42 pm

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Yeah, I know it's kinda slow on updates here lately. I don't really have any explanation, either. In any case, added a scrapped pic to the gallery - MirageGaogamon Burst Mode. There might be some actual, finished fan art coming sometime in the near future. And here are two in progress skins - FFXII Revenant Wings and more D. Gray-man.

Coming Soon: Real Updates

06/02/07 06:19:44 pm

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So, yeah, I've been on a bit of a hiatus primarily due to school. But by Monday, whether I like it or not, the majority of my remaining schoolwork will be done. In the meantime I've taken some time out to spontaneously craft the skin seen on the right. It might look done, it's not. But look for it to be the next one uploaded.

It IS Fun to Touch!

05/04/07 07:39:54 pm

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• Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix +
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So I had this dilemma, in which I possessed a number of gift cards for Best Buy, that I was planning to use toward a Wii. But I finally came to terms with the fact that, even if I want a Wii, even if I have the money for a Wii, I still can't get a Wii. Unless you're willing to devote a good deal of time and energy to frequently searching high and low, you just can't get your hands on one. So, while I still want one, I decided to give up on my hopes of getting one any time soon... and bought a DS with my gift cards instead. And I'm quite pleased with it ^^ I've already got a list of games I want to play, but if there's one (or more) that you particularly love, leave a comment - recommend it. Actually, I've never owned a GBA either, but since the DS is backwards compatible, you could recommend me some of those as well. :)

Particularly, can someone vouch for Nintendogs? I've heard good things, but I fear it may be too kiddie to hold my attention. See, I've been thinking about wanting a puppy lately, but it's not an appropriate time in my life to get a real puppy... so what's the next best thing? Nintendogs, right? ^^;

I've also still been playing Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+, but I've gotten up to the "nitty gritty" at the end, where the story is basically finished except for the ending itself, and I'm running around collecting synth materials, fighting bonus bosses, stuff like that. I'll perhaps write up a post about it later; it's just less interesting to write about, since it's about 80% the same as the original Kingdom Hearts II. Most of what's new is boss battles, and a couple of cut scenes, most of which are kind of pointless - Juusan Kikan sits in the basement and pummels you with repetitive plot points - but some are worthwhile (particularly the one with Axel and Roxas after you defeat Roxas... I'm no shipper, but, awww, *sniffle*).

As for skins... to be honest, I just haven't felt like making 'em lately. If I force myself to make 'em, they come out poorly, so I'd rather simply wait until I want to do it again. "On sabbatical," I suppose ;) Also, there's about half-a-quarter left of school before I graduate (!); even if I have sufficient time, it's become difficult to focus on schoolwork, resulting in it taking longer than it should. ^^; So I just need to tromp through a few more weeks... And finally, there's some new stuff I'm working on that's just not ready for distribution yet.

Oh yes, and, after taking a look at my traffic stats for the month of April, looks like hits were up 70% from the previous month :O Gee Golly! (Pardon my French.) So that explains where all the bandwidth went.

A Little Discourse - ASP

03/13/07 09:54:57 pm

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I have to use ASP for the site I work on (the site I am employed to work on, that is - not this one, of course). This was not my choice; in fact, this was the first time I'd ever used it. Though I am glad for the chance to have learned it on the job (perhaps the best way that I learn code: through analyzing, modifying and eventually wholly taking over a complex working example), I must say... I dislike it.

I think my main gripe is that it doesn't follow normal syntax structures. It tries to be "user friendly" with a more "human readable" syntax (or that seems to be the rationale, anyway). I, personally, have never known a code writer who complained of their choice language being syntactically hard to grasp, whereas conversely I've heard nothing but displeasure over languages that try to pull this sort of "easy to follow" nonsense. But maybe I've only known more-experienced coders? Is this sort of things supposed to be good for beginners? ... Wait a minute, why would a beginner start with ASP?

Which brings me to my next point - if you search for ASP-related questions, you're likely to turn up few [useful] results, or a lot of results for ASP.NET instead. It's not hard to understand why you can easily find so much more help on a language like PHP: people use it! *ahem* This is not to say, "no one uses ASP," but whereas PHP often comes standard on any decent hosting package, encouraging its increased usage, ASP tends to be a pricey add-on that only businesses want for no inherent reason. Yeah, that may be a bit too far for me to speak, as a n00b of the language. But bringing it back around to my point - your typical web scripting beginner is going to use what's at hand, and that is not likely to be ASP.

And even if that were so, is it a good idea for beginners to learn with what will become "bad habits" if they go on to any other language? Admittedly, after weeks of nothing but ASP, I'll turn back to PHP and write an if statement with a single = sign, or end a line without a proper ; delimiter. Oh the shame, the shame of it all!

Alright, I'm done here. Hooray for Asian Kung Fu Generation! Oh, and an aside, some new skin site links added recently: Shadows of Deception has a Clover skin that I've had for the longest time and was surprised to so suddenly find its owner. INERTiA is pretty small so far, but has good stuff - particularly some Death Note skins, which can't be found here ^^; (maybe later...)

ナルト疾風伝 - Naruto Shippuuden

02/16/07 09:53:36 pm

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Oh glorious day that the Naruto anime has returned from the murky and mundane abyss of fillers! Though admittedly the whole episode was deja vu due to my having seen this all in the manga already. I don't normally read manga; I like animation better, especially when it's an action anime like Naruto. However, out of curiosity I did seek out this first chapter after the time jump and read it through.

It's disappointing to me that Sasuke has not changed more in the time jump - wasn't he supposed to have been possessed by Orochimaru by now? Otherwise it was a pleasing double-length episode. Opening's kinda silly though, I think (does it feel good to be a gangsta, Naruto?).

Non-Committal

02/10/07 02:53:23 pm

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• .hack//GU
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Lately I can't seem to get any one skin done because I keep finding new, more alluring images halfway through. Take for instance the two KHII skins shown below - they were going along swell... And then I stumbled into this .hack//GU wallpaper thread (a must-see for GU fans!), and got sidetracked. So now we have two mock ups from there as well. And the four from the previous preview are still where I've left them. Frankly I doubt any of them will be done this weekend [Edit: that I prove myself wrong, is not a good thing].

GU 3 was beaten awhile ago, but that Itami no Mori dungeon is only half done (and will likely remain that way until Spring Break). I started to write something of my thoughts on the series, but it remains unfinished like so many things. Suffice to say, vol 2 and the first part of vol 3 were the low points, but I was quite satisfied by the end. Aina (or "Ina" - I don't care for the way they romanize some of the names: "Youkou" as "Yowkow"?) seemed like something of a throw-away character, but there had to be something driving Ovan. And I'm glad they tied the story more firmly back in to the overall .hack mythos, with Net Slum, Aura and Cubia [and wow did he look cool XD] making appearances.

Filler

01/24/07 01:15:44 am

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Like I mentioned off-handedly in an earlier post, six seems to be the magic number for me when working on Classics.

Click the thumbnail for bigger shot; those on the left are farther along than those on the right. I've probably made more .hack-related skins than all of the other Classic skinners on the internet combined... And we welcome the return of Bleach skins, as the series apparently isn't dreadful anymore. Hip hip omedetou.

Edit: the Hitsugaya and Haseo ones are done. Haseo's Xth form, though cool in appearance, is rather disappointing in battle... Will it get better if I level up the weapon?...

New Kingdom Hearts Skin! ... Ha, Made You Look

01/21/07 01:05:58 am

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New Zelda skin up; gradually getting better at and more comfortable with making Modern skins. Also added a new page - the site's Top and Bottom (that is, Most and Least Popular) Skins - from which we can conclude, Kingdom Hearts and Ed Elric are ridiculously popular, and Reboot is not. Shame on you all. :P The link to said page is in the left-hand column.

On a random note, .hack//GU vol 3's villain has taken on a markedly FFX Seymour air... This displeases me. Also not pleased by the fact that the game thus far can be described simply as "quest, tournament round, repeat." But what can I say, it's the third in a series of three - gotta see the end.

Merry [Post] Christmas

12/27/06 12:51:05 am

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With the busier part of Winter break over (the part where you run around buying gifts and decorating, that is), it's time to get back to my recreational activities. As usual, I have a number of half or semi-done skins lying around. Here're the ones I'm letting you see.

The top two are based on Asian Kung-Fu Generation CD case art (I like Ajikan and the art's neat, that's why... and seriously, what's cooler than a chimp with a telescope?), bottom left is a requested Takuto, bottom right is Twilight Princess [which is super early in development here; wanted to use the image, but it just wasn't working out on a classic... so it ended up Modern].

And now, a short and pointless rant about flash drives and similar portable USB devices. I got one such device for Christmas, and it's the second one I own now that has its strap loop on the USB cap rather than on the device itself. I find this rather foolish - if I'm going to attach this thing to a strap and carry it around, if by chance it comes apart, I'm not gonna be too thrilled that, although I've lost my flash drive, thank goodness I still have its cap.

Yeah, pointless rant like I said, but I'm a designer - I notice these things. :P

In other news, the site is running out of available disc space on its host's server. But I was already looking to migrate hosts anyway. It's just a matter of when I'll be able to get it done... But, updates should continue regularly; if I run out of space, I'll compensate.

More Senioritus

10/21/06 11:31:50 pm

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New wallpaper up - Himiko in the chibi Get Backers style, but drawn by me (because there wasn't already one of Himiko, as far as I could tell). The accompanying skin is up as well.

And new gallery stuff. Added Himiko, and one of Axel that I don't really like.

Upcoming skins include more Okami, Host Club, Gankutsuou and D.Gray-man to name a few.

Senioritus

10/11/06 02:31:59 am

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Skins in progress - Okami, Shana, Host Club, Yuki. Will probably all be done by or on the weekend.

Finally

09/26/06 09:43:08 pm

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It seems as though, finally, the issues with my host are ironed-out (for the time being). I think I'll be in the market for a new host at the end of my current billing term...

Anyway, kinda... "funky" new Megaman skin up. And that's the last of my [current] backlog, hooray! School just started up for me, so, updates are probably going to get slow...

Labor Dabor

09/04/06 01:38:22 pm

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A few new skins up, plus a new wallpaper of Ouran High School Host Club. Tis rather simple and rather... pink. Wallpapers aren't really my forte :) Original image came from For Richer or Poorer, but I had to brush out all the text. I'm probably gonna skin the image as well (sometime after I finish the aforementioned batch of skins that are halfway done - 2 down, 4 to go). ^^;

Readjustment

08/28/06 01:11:45 am

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Back in America, but not quite back to my usual life yet. I'm in the process of moving into a new apartment, and still have to straighten things out at my previous residence, so things are a bit hectic. But all of that should, nay, must be resolved by the end of the month. And then it's Labor Day weekend :D So, expect a real update sometime next weekend.

I have, literally, six skins that are halfway done. In fact, here's a screenshot of 'em. As you can see, I often get sidetracked after creating the player area... and start making other skins. I think I'm going to put a moratorium on new ones though, until I finish up all of these. Incidentally, the subtitle for the Haruhi skin is, "the skin that's always louder than your music." Don't worry, I'll make some more Haruhi skins that aren't so garish... Loved that series.

Btw, I believe the skin in the bottom left-hand corner is Tsukuyomi, but I'm not certain (haven't seen the series, but the image was too cute to pass up). If anyone would like to confirm or deny my assumption, send an email please.

Hello from China

07/31/06 01:05:24 am

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So I found enough time to make a skin (it's under Pokemon - it's not in the skin release list; I'll fix that later...), will wonders never cease? I want to make more Haruhi skins, but apparently I left those files in America (so they will come later).

A wayward air conditioner leaked water on my laptop and now the keyboard is, for all practical purposes, unusable. But I am still thankful for air conditioning, that my laptop is a tablet (and so can convert my handwritten input to text), and that it's still under warranty.

Other than that, all is well and I'm loving it. It would be nice if I knew more Chinese... I'm a visual learner, so the hanzi come to me with relative ease (and the knowledge of them in Japanese doesn't hurt either), but I'm completely tone-deaf, so the spoken language is posing a difficulty.

Teaching English is also posing a greater difficulty than I'd imagined, for diverse reasons. Reason one is, perhaps, that I've never done it before. But who would let a petty thing like lack of experience get in their way? :P

Anyway, we're still on hiatus here. Hang in there.

O RLY?

06/27/06 02:10:09 am

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While poking around the tables in my database, I noticed a discrepancy between the skin table's auto_increment numbering and my personal numbering records. Apparently, I miscounted, and the Haruhi skin actually was my 100th skin. XD Whoops. ^^; Oh well. *confetti*