Taren's Journal

2003-12-09T00:38:00.000-06:00

One more song to add to the tracklist:
07.5 - Shawn The Horny Master - Scorching Moon

This song will always remind me of the stench in my dorm room for some reason. I like syncopation.

2003-12-02T11:05:00.000-06:00

And now, this semester's "soundtrack"- songs that I feel accurately portray the feel of the last 4 months. (i.e. a list of songs that have been stuck in my head for more than one day at a time)

In chronological progression:
01 - good-cool - 19, November
02 - 290 - Paranoia Survivor Max
03 - dj TAKA - Foundation of our Love
04 - Megu with Scotty D. - Stick Around
05 - Chopin - Revolutionary Etude (Op. 10 #12)
06 - Smetana - The Moldau
07 - D.J. Spugna - Bad Routine
08 - TaQ - stoic
09 - RAM - LAB
10 - 190' + 2MB - Paranoia Rebirth + KCET ~clean mix~
11 - TaQ - Karma
12 - Konami V-Rare Soundtracks 6 - Mugen Kidou
13 - Hirofumi Sasaki - The least 333 sec.

Backstory:
01: I had moved in to campus on 19, August. So I felt it would be appropriate to play 19, November on my IIDX 6th Style a few times before going off to the retreat that night.
02: Around this time, I had seen the IIDX BGM for PSM, and was also attempting to pass that song for the first time in DDR. It was on my mind for the longest time.
03+04: I had a thing for a few IIDX 8th songs for some reason. Around this time, everything was good-cool in my life.
05: Now I begin to get tired of same old routine and crave something new in my life.
06: Once the melody of this song kicks up, you'll really feel it. Unadulterated misery.
07: I managed to get a bootleg copy of EX CS- this was on it. That game was a breath of fresh air for me.
08+11: As all emotion fades away, all that remains is heavy percussion.
09: I was inspired by the IIDX BGM for this song, too. That seems like me- run around, run run run...
10: Everyone needs a little paranoia in their life.
12: More heavy percussion! (Mugen Kidou = Infinite Loop)
13: This song sounds Christmasy, real calm... then TL100sec comes back in the middle. Good times.

2003-09-25T17:49:00.000-05:00

Finally, sorta kinda updated my webpage. Not that it matters or anything, because right now Angelfire is being a total ass about page suspensions. Oh, I think I know why now- a few times this month, a worm hit my page again, causing one hour's bandwidth to jump to 100+MB. I am alloted 1GB transfer, and I think that's for the whole month. Lose about a third of that to some middle school drop out pizza face brat and what do you get? Fifteen consecutive 24-hour suspensions! Good job, you little wanker! There's hope for you yet, flipping burgers for less than minimum wage in a foreign country after you get deported!

Today is Six Day. I'm 6666 days old now. I don't really feel much eviler. Well, maybe a tad.

(reread last paragraph) Okay, maybe a bit more than I thought.

Still gotta update the discography page... pft.

2003-09-21T17:32:00.000-05:00

Current overall psychological climate: unmotivated.

Cokemusic update.
Old score: 9.70782%
326:1, 205:1, 1349:1
New score: 10.4903%

On Thursday, I will be exactly 6666 days old. I will be 6666 2/3 days old at exactly 9:11 pm. How 'bout them apples?

2003-09-03T01:23:00.000-05:00

Went to Naperville again. Got my friend John lost for a while... I noticed there's a strange third survivor character in Genom Screams being chased by BOTH Survivor Bob and Legendary Max. Read about it here.

Beat Club ver. oni course. Destroyed it. Got three errors: the pad missed the first step of Celebrate, then I got one good in Luv to me Disco, then completely let one arrow go by in Genom Screams. Hah.

Got AAA #7: bag- Beginner: 8x Boost reverse dark stealth. Woo leet follow teH lead3r. The down-arrow animation is way off sync. Somehow I still managed to AAA it, with many witnesses. Oh, now I see the camera DID work. Next song: PSMOni. Talk about tempo shock. Going from 32BPM at best to 580 is goodtimes. I still can't beat it. I guess that means either another week of nightmares, or I just accept the fact that I can't do it. (Having played it only about 6 times on my feet REALLY helps me out a lot. Thanks so much, Rockford Cyberstation's DM for being a dickhead and not upgrading. Great place, but the district manager, now EX-manager, was a jerk to the maxX.)

PSM Oni? PSM Owned Me.

2003-08-31T19:15:00.000-05:00

Almost forgot to add:
Old score: 9.00788%
Ugly-as-hell Sprite CD case: 130:1
New score: 9.70782%

I went home for the weekend. I got much better sleep now than at school. Mmm waterbed.

2003-08-29T11:08:00.000-05:00

Tired + Busy + Unmotivated = College so far

Walking to and from all of my classes is hell. Next week I'm riding a bike. Busy, because in this week I think I've done more homework than I did my entire senior year of high school (which still isn't that much in the first place). I don't even have the motivation to make a DWI of my re-edit of PSM. That's SAD. Getting up in the morning is difficult.

2003-08-26T14:16:00.000-05:00

This is terrible. After I got Norton Antivirus, it was giving me strange startup errors, like "missing navapw32.exe" and "missing navemail.dll". I found out that's because I downloaded it. So I saved the original zip file and uninstalled the rest. Problem fixed. But the road was long. I deleted Symantec stuff, since that was giving me the error and I couldn't uninstall it. I rebooted and Windows wouldn't load. I loaded again in Safe Mode, restored Symantec stuff, restarted. Windows froze loading my desktop. Hard shut down. Restart. It loads. Now Nero is still griping that it won't run. Downloaded a "Slasher". Ran it. Nero works now. No more of this "burning at 1x" nonsense with Easy CD Creator. Bah.

I forgot to write about how yesterday my microwave was acting up. I was boiling some water for noodles, and I hit the door open button while it was running. It should shut off. But it temporarily stopped, then continued to run with the door open. I panicked and slammed the door shut, and it stopped. I opened the door again, and it started up again. It also worked when I hit start. I could stop it with Stop, then when I opened it, it would start again. Eventually, my friend Steve came in the room, gave it a dirty look, threatened it, and it's worked fine since. I'm serious.

My fan hasn't started giving me shit yet, but good god it's covered in dust from running nearly=24 hours a day. The average temperature around here according to weather.com is just above 80. It's been around 90 all week, and I have no aircon. Good thing I can sleep without covers. It's not a very pleasant sleep, though...

So I guess this was a pleasant three hours in 90° heat trying to get my !@#$ computer back on track, and I STILL can't work my keyboard internet shortcuts.

2003-08-25T22:44:00.000-05:00

Hooray. I finally got around to updating my DWI page. I have now included all my latest MAX2 Oni edits. Also, I upgraded All Your Base to a "Classic" song. It is now 2nd in overall DL's, and was the second song to receive 1000 downloads.

Hum. I thought this was going to be a larger post. Oh well.

Oh yea. I remember what I was going to bitch about. Somehow I received a computer virus, called "W32.Pinfi". My friend suggested it could have been a virus affecting my system when I explained how my keyboard's internet shortcuts wouldn't work, my CD burner burned at 1x instead of 4x, my A: drive was totally inaccessible, and I was getting tons of junk email laced with the W32.Sobig.F file. I forgot to mention that after deleting a secondary folder for Stepmania containing almost 3GB, Windows didn't show me my space returned.

The quick-fix program from Norton didn't catch SoBig.F. That's 'cause I didn't have it. After a quick reboot, it was beginning to catch bad files. Like Internet Explorer and WinMX, and 'fixing' them. I swear the BSOD popped up 20 times telling me that X was infected and X is now safe to use. I downloaded Norton AntiVirus on Kazaa, and after a little bit, said that of my 175000 files, Nearly=1300 were infected (seriously). It fixed some, deleted some, and quarantined others. Upon running, IE crashed, saying it "caused an error in KERNEL32.DLL". Oh, this is bad. Then I deleted IE, downloaded it from Kazaa, reinstalled, rebooted... my Japanese language support still doesn't work. Oh well. (grin)

Walking to all my classes and back != Fun

2003-08-25T08:06:00.000-05:00

First day of class. Good. I'm bored like hell. STILL behind updating the DWI page. Haven't made any DWI's in a while. I did redo DXY!, but it's ridiculously hard- 985 combo. The arrows won't line up, either- they're always a few measures off.

In other news, I have a bad habit of overloading my trays in cafeterias. Feels like this habit combined with lack of interest in DDR will eventually cost me bragging rights to my weight. I heard about the "Freshman 15", how all freshmen gain 15 pounds- now I have serious motivation NOT to fulfill that stereotype.

2003-08-23T17:50:00.000-05:00

There's a DDR 5th Mix in the campus arcade. It's too damn easy. There's no nonstop mode, and there might be nine or ten catas at very best on that machine. Only three Paranoia brothers (Evolution, Dirty, Eternal-Old). Ok, then there's No Limit and Do Me HIGEO, neither of which deserve the 9'-worthy patterns they have, and Wonda, which is like EOTC (messy) meets Highs off U (BS). Lupin III '78 is just awful. So I play D0rp Out, Dead End, BBS$KOGG3, R&PKOGG3...

Fun:
Digital Media player: 409:1
New score: 9.00788%

2003-08-21T16:14:00.000-05:00

It's hot today. 93F air temp + 50% humidity = 101 index.

Latest adventure:
DVD player thing: 1347:1
New score: 8.7848%

The site won't let me log in to the other accounts. It loads the decibel amount but then refreshes back to the original login page... it's too damn hot to try to figure it out... (no aircon...)

2003-08-20T23:40:00.000-05:00

Old score: 7.1783%
Tickets for concert in NJ: 60:1 (this is ridiculous- New Jersey?)
New score: 8.71705%

I'm surprised I didn't win that one. Sheesh. I have 31 available entires now. Five for each of four accounts (I'm not saying they're "mine"), +4 for surveys I BS'ed- one each, plus seven legitimate caps. Now that's just plain SICK.

2003-08-20T22:54:00.000-05:00

I'm officially at college now.

Tuesday I moved in and had to go on a mandatory 'retreat'.

No new DWI's. No new Cokemusic exploits.
Nothing says I can't try.

ALL YOUR BASE is officially in 3rd place now for most popular DWI on Bemanistyle. WELL DUH.

The arcade in the student center used to have a 3rd Asian machine, but now has a 5th Mix. I cleaned off all three singles boards in 8 credits, half of which I wasn't even trying for. The tech person that only comes in once every few weeks is the only one that can open, and therefore unlock, the machine. That means no Radical Faith, Abyss, DXY!, The Cube... damn. Those are like the ONLY reasons to play a 5th. Well, maybe the old-skool Para-Eternal steps... I do like the new ones better.

I want to make a BMS for Tubular Bells Introduction, but the measure-length change function won't cooperate. 15-beat is hard. 4/4 x3 + 3/4. Screw it.

That's about it for now...

2003-08-18T12:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's odds: 5.0737%
Today's exploits:
Amplitude for PS2: 98:1 - just happened to catch it 3 minutes from the deadline.
Dark Cloud II for PS2: 309:1 - got in under 2 minutes to go...
Backpack thing: 275:1 - had 3 minutes left
Backpack thing: 186:1
Total score: 7.1783%.

2003-08-17T15:12:00.000-05:00

Update on my losing streak so far...
Amplitude for PS2- 100:1
2x $60 Tickets for stuff- 500:1
CD Player- 100:1
Sony TV- 750:1 (The rest are from just today:)
Audio keyring- 2000:1 (couldn't get all my entries in)
More Tickets- 450:1
Car CD Player- 1300:1
CD Player- 260:1
God knows what- 300:1
Audio keyring- 205:1
DVD Jukebox- 451:1
$500 Online Cash- 2300:1 (second-level prize)
6-Disc CD Carousel- 271:1
6-Disc CD Carousel- 190:1
Sony TV- 700:1
Odds of one or better: 5.0737% as of 10:45PM. (Updated)
(I forget half the crap I enter for. They're just commodities anyway, saleable for money.)

The other day I said my odds were up to 4% or better, but just now I realized that was because I punched in one of my odds as 50:1 instead of 500:1. Oops... Well, 1/33.8 ain't shabby. I can get it back to 4% by the end of the day... I think.

EDIT- Hooray, I broke 5%! I think I'm going to quit for now. A score of 5% means that if I went back in time and did ALL my drawings 20 times, out of those 20 times I will have won once. Let's say, two days of wasted time, times 20, is about a month and a half. For what? Maybe a CD player, maybe a TV or CD carousel. Could be anything.

A note about my scoring system: the higher the odds, the less score I get. For example, a 100:1 drawing increases my score roughly one whole percentage point while a 200:1 raises it roughly a half. Look at all to 500+ odds I have up there. Sheesh. And on top of that, the higher your score is, the less it increases (obviously I can't exceed 100%).

I say roughly 1% for each 100:1 because earlier I said it took 69 of them to each 50% score. Yep. Steady decline. Can you tell I have too much free time?

2003-08-17T00:11:00.000-05:00

Get "free"* stuff: Coke Music. Enter in drawings and stuff basically for free. The catch is that their server is ungodly slow and your chances of winning are pretty slim. I have been keeping track of my failed attempts at drawings so far.

Prize // Approx. Odds at time of drawing
Amplitude for PS2- 100:1
2x $60 Tickets for stuff- 500:1
CD Player- 100:1
Sony TV- 750:1
...overall odds of winning at least one of these drawings: 2.32% (43:1)

Good GOD their site is slow. I wonder how long it'll take me to win something. I bet my "Overall odds" gets up to at least 40% before I score. The trick is to enter into drawings that have little or no time-'til-post, because if you don't win, you get all your credits back. Derrrrr gimmick. I shop around 'til I find something with under two hours, then dump all my credits into it. And lose. If I win, I'll sell it on Ebay. Why not.

Random fact for the day:
If you participate in 69 drawings where your odds of winning are 1%, you have a 50% chance of winning at least one of them. If your odds are 2%, you only need to participate in 35 to have the same odds of winning at least one.
Proof: 1 - 0.99 ^ 69 = .500; 1 - 0.98 ^ 35 = .507

Found another one to try- a keychain microphone. I could use that. ~2200 entires so far, 6+ hours remaining. That number should jump to about 10000 by T -2 hours. Gah. I'm just going to score it a 2000:1 and leave it at that. Like I'm going to win... (waiting for Murphy's Law to kick in...)

(I like statistics)

Nothing much in the way of new simfiles. I've been too busy packing for college. Today was my last day of work. Hooray. Don't know what my odds are for coming back for XMas and next summer, and frankly I don't care.

In an attempt to clear the credit on the Media Play gift certificate I have had for almost a year, I bought two new CD's. Yes, I actually bought them (they're too damn hard to find online). Steven Halpern's Serenity Suite and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells 2003. I have always been a fan of Tubular Bells- I have the original and #2. I hear there's a #3. Anyway, I was kind of let down when I found out this CD was just basically a re-do of the original, but then I thought, ah, who cares, this rocks. I could make a BMS of the intro. (Theme from The Exorcist). As for Serenity Suite, I've been looking for new meditation music. First track is a play on Greensleeves. I don't think I made it much past that before I was out cold asleep. I recall waking up several times during the night wondering exactly what the hell was playing. I swear I heard two different CD's playing, or at least two radically different musical styles. Boy did I have messed up dreams, then. Tonight I ate lots of salsa and Tostitos in an attempt to enhance my dreams.

Well, hasn't this been a nice update for my DWI page. Pft. I don't think I've talked to anyone online today. Got up, got haircut, bugged friend for long-overdue lent games (like a year), got lunch, got a fix of BM98, got work, got tired. Got home...

Think I'll be going insane now. Bye.

2003-08-14T01:51:00.000-05:00

It's time for the Weekend Update... on Tuesday. Oh, wait, it's Wednesday... no, it's 1:30 AM Thursday. God dammit. Tuesday was "THE BIG DXY!" up at Janesville. Got there just before the store gate went up (9:55AM) and was there to see it go down (9:05PM). Holy crap that was exhausting. I didn't play as often or as hard as I normally do- laid off the boss songs until I either played Trick Oni or a suicide run.

I SURVIVED 12, August AT JANESVILLE

One such suicide run consisted of LOM-PS-Sakura. I missed the AA on Sakura by 0.86 greats. (60great + 2good = 64 points. 63.14 is the border for AA.) D'ohhhhhh. I was so pissed off I politely asked the manager for a calculator because that was such a close shave it hurt. 448 steps plus 1 OK = 902 dance points x 0.07 = 63.14. Argh. I don't know what I would have done for EX- probably either Max300 or Bag, because any other 10' song is too fast for me to sight-read. Max300 is my bchit and bag is slow enough I can read it. Ah well.

A little later, I finally got past Ecstasy-Stoob on Trick. I was feeling 1337. Then I got to AM3P-Fuwafuwa. Psh. That's cake. I think I had one good in there. Good thing I know the step timing. Then came Max. As soon as the song started there were already about five notes on the edge of the screen. ("Oh shit...") The "screen" conveniently holds five quarter notes- one in the stationary arrows, and the next four beats. Since it was on 0.25x (it actually said '0.25x' in the tray down by the clock) that means there would have been four entire measures showing on the screen. The intro to Max300 is four bars long, so the downbeat of Bar 05 would have started at the bottom of the screen. Holy cow. The first time I lost my nerve, but the second time I got all the way to the left arrow before the triplets and couldn't get it. Close enough for me. Jouzu.

My latest challenge: making L-S-H steps to all the spiffy MAX2 Remixes. I got three done just today. I'm trying to go in alphabetical order but the fun-as-hell songs like Drop Out, Ecstasy, Matsuri Japan, are luring me in. Note to readers: I'm gonna redo the living hell out of Hysteria. That song's in freakin' swing time (eighth + eighth = 2 x twelfth + 1 x twelfth. See Heaven-57) and I'm gonna MAKE IT swing, dammit.

"All Your Base" has taken over 8th place on the most DL'ed DWI's list, and is one download shy of 7th. Needless to say it's my most downloaded.

Wonder how this is going to work with me designing 19 songs (57 steps) and going to school in the next five days, three of which I will spend at work (in the afternoons)... tough stuff.

I have 10187 downloads as of 2AM August 14th.

...it's August already?

2003-08-10T00:52:00.000-05:00

Never should have left home...

Warning: Rant, very negative post ahead
Let me work backwards. Around noon, I found out that one of the mods (who shall remain nameless) deleted my Maxxx file on Bemanistyle, because it was "simply atrocious". Oh, boo hoo. If that 'deserves' to be deleted, then you also have to delete Drop Out Death Mix, Drop Out Survivor MAX 320.5, Sakura Another, V Another, Maxx Paranoia, and whatever other Max "trash" has been uploaded so far, since they're all hard stepping songs made impossibly hard just for the sake of keyboard players. People DL-whore anything with "Max" in the title because it's hard/exciting. Very few people actually play with their feet, mainly because it's hard to hook up a pad to a computer, and it's just not as fun (compared to an arcade setting). Do you actually want to see more Anime trash uploaded? (As much as BMS certainly has the right to delete stuff at will- it is free hosting after all- it was my most popular song, god dammit!)

Speaking of anime trash and DL-whoring, I was seriously, SERIOUSLY considering making DWI's to the first five tracks of Gundam Wing OP. 1, then making an oni course. Then the sound transfer glitched, and I realized I'd be using a whole lot of triplets, which XStep can't handle. Eh.

Then my V (Another) title on BMS was changed to "V (Taren step)". I was told that people might think it's a remix of V, considering how there were another-remixes for other songs like .59, Leading Cyber, R3, Ska a go go, etc. Not my fault people are deprived of IIDX and a serious knowledge of song works.

What has caused this sudden batch of rants? The first reason is probably because I didn't get Sunday the 10th off work like I asked. When I ask for days off, they're not obligated to give it to me, but I have very rarely had to work a day I asked off. Complacency at its finest. I remember a while ago I was counting down the days left I had to work. I was at four, then I realized I didn't count a day- five. Then I was asked during my off-days to come in- five, six. If all goes well, I'll have Sunday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, then I'm done. It's not that I hate the job, I just feel it has a lack of any challenge. I literally shut off my brain when I go there- when I stop thinking, time goes faster, and my job is a lot easier. A dangerous habit.

Second reason I'm so pissed off- I'm. Tired. Thursday and Friday were driving days (I didn't drive, though) from DC back to IL. About 900 miles one way. Then today, Saturday, I went to the arcade. Figured I might as well get my legs warmed up for Tuesday if I'm going to try to survive 11 hours at an arcade. One set, I played Pop8. I finished, and spent the next ten or fifteen minutes trying not to throw up. Usually Pop 8 is a cakewalk for me. Another set, I FC'ed Healing Vision Angelic (somehow managed to pull that off- with about 90 greats) second song, then third song only single-A'ed Let's Groove. Wow, thought I was gonna have to kill myself there...

My headphones broke on the way home. My good ones, that I normally leave at the computer. I know from experience stuffing them in a backpack wears them out fast. And one day the right ear stopped working. Wonderful. If there's one thing I hate, it's shopping for headphones. The selection changes every time, and the "latest styles" seem to displace quality headphones. Why can't I buy my old pair again? Best pair of headphones ever: Labtec LT-810. Absoluely the best. Comfortable and good sound. The thing with buying new headphones is that they all sound a little different. Most headphones I listen to are flooded with bass and have sorry little treble. Maybe I'm just accustomed to low bass. Next, I only wear over-the-head headphones. No switchback/street, no earbud, no toiletbowls. Cord length must be 4' or longer. By now I'm already down to either a cheap-ass pair I know I'm gonna hate, or just surrendering. Gah. Consumeristic marketing policies preying on the general public's inability to appreciate sound quality.

I want to make some more DWI's...

2003-07-31T01:05:00.000-05:00

http://pub23.ezboard.com/faaroninjapanfrm4.showMessage?topicID=987.topic
Check out my evil creation- a Pop'n Ghetto controller.

More awful download stats: 7/31 1 AM: 4022 downloads, 32.97/hour. It's probably because right now the files are listed by upload queue. Since I got all my files in early, they're at the back. Not to mention that with no comments or ratings section, people are only judging songs by their title. Romeo & Juliet from IIDX 6th has nearly 700 downloads in 12 hours. That's almost as much as my 45 files get in a single DAY. *grumble grumble*

Downloaders' favorites are still MAXXX (262) and V Another (203), but Trigun Intro has taken over Fhqwhgads's 3rd place with 190DL. Statistically, there have to be a few good DWI collectors roaming those pages, but I swear that what causes those huge spikes are anime whores and arrow whores. Throw a MAX onto something, you'll double your download rate. Survivor gets you +50 bonus. "Sakura" triples your karma. Anime gets you a steady stream of downloads and fanmail.

Gah.

2003-07-29T02:04:00.000-05:00

http://pub23.ezboard.com/faaroninjapanfrm4.showMessageRange?topicID=983.topic&start=-19&stop=0
Educational.

Depressing download statistics as of 7/29 2 AM: 2918 downloads. Average of 38.9 per hour. Favorites still MAXXX (188), V (Another) (155), Fhqwhgads (141).

I want to make a Pop'N controller using the circuit board from a PS controller, and a little elbow grease and a good idea or two. I bought a POS used controller for $5, and started to unscrew the back. I found that one screwdriver that had the torque was a little to big, and one that was just right but didn't have enough torque- those screws were sunk right into the plastic. I got six of the eight out, but the two left got stripped really bad. I took a chance and just ripped the shell off, and ended up cracking the board in two. Damn lack of screwdrivers...

2003-07-28T01:14:00.000-05:00

Okay, maybe I didn't update the page the next morning. It kinda turned into... 10PM, plus three hours, the next day.

Download statistics as of 7/28 1 AM: 2280 downloads. Average of 45.6 downloads per hour. Hey, that's almost one of each simfile each hour. And that's BEFORE I linked up my site to the new file locations. My most popular files include: MAX/XXXimum (152 DL), V Another (114), Fhqwhgads (100). Those are the only three in triple digits. Sakura Another is 4th with 98 DL. Afronova Survivor, one of my more popular songs on the old BMSims, has 91.

V Another owns you. As if that wasn't obvious enough from the second bar.

Oh hell, I just realized I only have *45* released files. DWI#32 is "Top Secret". That means I *am* averaging over 1.00 downloads per sim-hour. (Sim-hour is hours times sims.) Yesss I feel so accomplished.

2003-07-25T23:50:00.000-05:00

I uploaded all my stuff to Bemanistyle. That's 46 of your favorite DWI and BMS files. Locked up my 1.4Ghz computer for a solid six minutes before I could upload #46, V Another. Tomorrow I'll get up bright 'n early (before 10 AM) and revise the links on the page. Hopefully. In the meantime, just follow that link.

I wish I could take a movie of me AA'ing V Another... the triple-note smash is just too fun.

2003-07-24T23:54:00.000-05:00

Whole bunch of new files. I uploaded banner images for R10K, TSJ, and V (Another). Wrote info about those three plus Indigo Vision and Pi R Squared.

I think it's official: the results after 58 votes show that 32 (55%) voters want to see me do SAKURA MAX. The revenge of MAX came in a depressing second with only 14 votes. The other two Paranoias mustered 12 votes together. I think Paranoia is dead for a while (cough Survivor). Why is it that Sakura is so popular? Is Max burned out for now, or were people really let down by the official step? Anyway, "rumored" tempo for SM will be 320-333, and there might even be a SM-Survivor that's even faster. Hah. I haven't even started on the songs yet- no real inspiration or time- but trust me, they'll come. And they'll get hosted. To the max.

Some fun background information about the songs:

Pi R Squared: Someone mentioned in a TM4 review that the entrant might as well have entered the digits of Pi into their DWI file's step pattern. I thought, hey, that's a good idea. On top of that, I HAVE the soundtrack to a movie named "Pi". How strangely appropriate. Furthering the coincidence, the first track, which I planned to use anyway, was 1:31, and required zero editing, save for nailing the BPM. Changing all 5's to B's (DWI can't handle them), I was playing this song within 15 minutes of coming up with the idea. After I finished playing the song in DWI, I heard the results-announcer, then a continuation of the track. I completely forgot that at the end of that and a few other tracks, the main character from the movie speaks a few lines. This track happened to include "One. Mathematics is the language of nature." (While looking at your stats screen. Too nice.) Too bad the song didn't have 314 steps. It did have 308... Pi is an awesome movie...

V (Another): Made it just this morning. I was drifting in and out of consciousness before getting up- not quite fully awake or asleep. These conditions are absolutely perfect for having strange, vivid dreams that you can easily recall. I remember having some friends over, and one was trying to play BMR's V Heavy. He had his hands moving between three sets of keys, and he always failed about 10 or 15 seconds in. I sat down to play it, but another friend showed up... gah. That's it. I'm making BMR's V edit even harder. One special note I want to add- I was feeling rather evil at the time and added in a few 3-step smashes. Max combo is 1170-something with only 864 steps. Ouch.

2003-07-20T23:11:00.000-05:00

After hearing from NMR that I really don't have to turn in my TM4 Set 6 reviews today, I felt quite relieved. I've been so busy lately, and had a serious lack of motivation to even touch any of the remaining songs, that I couldn't get 'em done at all. All the good songs were in Bracket 2.

I was so relieved, that I made three DWI's. Completed two of 'em, third still needs BG/banner. R10K (with correct kanji), The Strong Jaeger (with correct characters), and Indigo Vision (f.f.h.a. mix). As I was making the background and banners, work called and asked if I'd come early. Spiffy. I wish Bemanisims would reopen so I could upload all my crap...

2003-07-18T00:59:00.000-05:00

So much to do, so little free time...

I went to play EX in Janesville Tuesday, and played so much I overslept the next day. Now I have to make an effort to get up before 11, because my body thinks it's not time to go to bed until 1 or 2am. Due to so much crap going on right now, I have laid out post-it notes on my slidey keyboard drawer thing (keyboard never fit in there, hah) to remind me of what I need to do...

(yes, I know numbers skip, that's because I have irrelevant notes there)
Things I need/want to accomplish:
A1. Try to get through judging the remaining Set 6 files for Tournamix 4. (A must-do)
4. Update website- change links at top to small banner links. Make a '5th Mix' image. I'm tired of associating myself with 4th mix.
6. Add a page about my very own writing system, Tarenian. I've had it for about four years.
7. Finish code on an update (V.7-B) of the DWI Evaluator.
8. Make new DWI's. Songs include: Tangerine Stream, V (techno remix), R10K, The Strong Jaeger, SAKURA MAX, The revenge of MAX, .59 Another, Leading Cyber Another. I doubt half of these will get done. (R10K and TSJ will feature their correct Japanese titles, but be listed under their English titles. I love special characters.)

I need to get to bed... hope you have enjoyed my first journalistic cyber post. No new news, because I'm uber busy with TM4 stuff.

9. Make a "Bad Pun License", because the Bad Pun Police are gonna get me real soon.

Tonight's sleep music: QUIET MUSIC /Steve Roach. A masterpiece. I never seem to stay awake through 5. Air and Light, though...

2003-07-17T22:53:00.000-05:00

-THE FOLLOWING IS THE CONTENT OF MY CURRENT NEWS SECTION-
(which is technically archive material, anyway)

10JUL03- Added a second counter that I'm testing out, since I am unhappy with how Bravenet has revamped their look. I want to see how many hits I get per day! That feature doesn't exist anymore, at least to my knowledge...

09JUL03- Just got internet back after four and a half days. The storm that hit the area on Saturday morning at 4:30 AM. Bemanisims is STILL down, and I created a new poll. The two Paranoia songs just have tempos given; catchy names will come later when I actually feel productive. I think I know which will be the favorite out of that list already.

29JUN03- Created Difficulty Evaluator. Click to learn more. I have two new BMS files waiting around, but Bemanistyle is down. To the max. Gahhh...

14JUN03- Added widescreen by Vanessa-Mae and Nahanaha vs. Gatchoon Battle by DJ Senda + Tiny K. Widescreen is a BMS file- the music had too much potential for a BMS to pass up. As for Nahanaha, it's been sitting in my folders for three months, so I figured I might as well release it since I doubt I'll ever fix it up.

04JUN03- Added Blueberry Stream by dj TAKA. I was gonna add Light and Standard steps to this, but got diverted.

18MAY03- Added one more BMS file, North Easter by Cusco. It's just more fun with seven keys.

17MAY03- Two more BMS files: Klungkung 1655 by simon, and Healing Vision -Angelic Mix- by 2MB. Yummy.

14MAY03- Two new BMS files: bag by Reven-G, and Beethoven Virus by Banya. Whee. Finished uploading ALL my files (even the retired ones) to BSD. All links on this page will point to their respective files on BSD, and the Retired DWI section will be abolished. Hooray! Bad news is that I don't think I'm gonna be doing much in the way of DWI's for a while... burned out from uploading to the MAX. Files are now sorted by order of creation.

12MAY03- New DWI-to-BMS port, Atmosphere by The Lithium Project with Steve Beecham. This song is just meant for Beatmania. Also started uploading songs to Bemani Sims Database (BSD) for hosting. If all goes well, there will come a point when I host ALL my files on BSD, and there won't exist a 'retired DWI' section!

11MAY03- I'm beginning a series of From-BM98 ports, leading up to an 8-stage, single-artist course: ROAD OF PARAOKA. Stage #7 released: Abandoned Cyber.

10MAY03- No new DWI's, but I do have a BMS file now. GET BM98. My first BMS: Free Fall by David Lanz.

28APR03- No new DWI's, but IVKAS link was moved to Ollec's server. He's hosting the files- big thanks to him. I also put up a profile page. Read all about me. Ok, I lied- new step edit for Sync by Outphase.

15APR03- v1.0 of IVKAS skin completed! Unfortunately, it's so large that TWO of my DWI's had to be taken down. Check out the ABOUT page.

14APR03- All the files are back up, plus my Kakumei edit. IVKAS power. (That's "four" "kahss" as in "costume").

I'm also amidst creating a BM-style skin for DWI, called IVKAS. Screenshots: n/a

12APR03- Added new step-edit for DXY! by TaQ. This is not a remix, just additional challenge steps. Also edited /ex/ddr1 to filter all traffic here. Seems like all the search engines have dropped links to this page and added some to that one...

2003-07-17T22:49:00.000-05:00

-THE FOLLOWING IS THE CONTENT OF MY ARCHIVE SECTION-

09APR03- Added new song Dancin' Into The Night by good-cool. I was listening to his "Super Collection" megamix and knew this song would make a good-cool DWI. Behold. Added a discography of every DWI I've made. Also, I was so bored in school I designed the Step Sphere. You know you're curious...

08APR03- Added two new songs- The X-Files Theme by DJ Dado and Free Fall by David Lanz. Free fall is another Keyboard Mania type song- not something you'd want to dance to. This genre adds a new and refreshing dimension to the game. The X-Files Theme is the alternative for people that want mindless techno. I'm planning to get a few more KM/sleepy songs, and make a course. Not only do you have to deal with five (or more) really slow songs, but you have to stay awake through them, too! I also denoted two songs, Sakura and Maxx Paranoia to be "Classics"- songs that I don't plan on taking down anytime soon.

06APR03- Hooray. After one whole month, my site is now functioning normally. In total, the hacker had no effect on the site, other than costing me about 1000 hits, dropping from 70 hits a day to about ten for a month. In other news, this site has been updated to match /ex/ddr1's songlist. I removed the 'Potential' list and added in the 'Queue' list. Songs with this status are ones I have remixed and plan to make steps for (unlikely).

09MAR03- Recently, /d20/ddr1 was flooded by some wannabe hacker. My site registered 156MB/hour bandwidth usage for 18 hours straight. Needless to say, that site will be suspended for bandwidth usage indefinitely (read: months, perhaps until April 1). Go back to your Counter Strike game, you n00b- a real hacker would have messed with the index.html page!
I'm back online, and with a new song: Tetri net by Kiai. Synth-tacular melodies with a strong percussion line. I love it. Check it out.

05MAR03- Added new song HEIWA HAKAI by dj NAUX. It's a very peaceful, yet disturbing song, so I named it such. I would have liked to create more of a melody line, but it just didn't sound right.

11FEB03- DWI INTERNET RANKING COMPETITION- I plan to have a Konami-style IR session in the near future using sets of my songs listed below. Take the poll below and tell me if you think this is a good idea or not. Rules and info coming soon.

10FEB03- A challenge for site visitors: Just as arcade machines unlock as people play them, I will do the same. When I get to 3000 hits, I will unlock the special song. Tell all your friends to come visit my site and make that counter spin!
Also, check out my new guestbook (below) and statistics page (at bottom). Now you can leave messages.

09FEB03- New song uploaded! DROP OUT Survivor by SE312. Three new DWI's in three days- scary. In other news, I'm replacing all blue links with banner images. It'll look a whole lot prettier. Be warned- the banners featured are in PNG format, and I've heard rumor that not all browsers can handle it. Future plans for this site: A Links page, and a page explaining all the "artist names" on here. Pretty soon I'll have more artist names than Naoki! Just kidding.

08FEB03- New song uploaded! era (dual mix) by TaQ. This version was used in Beatmania IIDX. Slightly modified. The Heavy step pattern is simple on feet once you figure out the pattern, and know how to do 450Â° pivots. Also, at the tempo drop in the middle of the song, the spins symbolize revolution- the beginning of a new... era.

07FEB03- New song uploaded! Tempest by Jesse Cook. Probably the first DWI where I haven't been sick of hearing the track after designing the steps.

There have been over 80 page suspensions in the last 28 days totalling over 200 hours. That averages to a little over 7 hours a day that people can't access my site.
Bandwidth Issues <-- Bandwidth Use <-- Fans. Keep up the good work, guys.

06FEB03- 2200+ hits and counting. I don't think I'm paying as much attention to this site as I should be.
No DWI's under construction at the moment... Older DWI's not linked here are still available by request. And that's about it.

09JAN03- Alright! 1000 hits!
Mirror 2 is down, now. I give up. But everyone knows that breaking mirrors is bad luck. The files that are taken down will still be available by request- just email me. Not like anyone would want them...

02JAN03- Argh. Busted. Mirror 1 got TOS'ed. All files that link to /d20/ddr20 are down, but /ddr22 (Mirror 2)is still going strong. I think I'm going to get more sites at different domains so this doesn't happen again. In other news, I plan to replace the blue links below with mini-banners.
Please use the feedback button below to suggest to me sites where I could put my files up for public download. This TOS nonsense is getting out of hand.

15DEC02- Got another account, so I can host more stuff with (hopefully) fewer bandwidth issues. Added a few songs to my 'wish list' at the bottom.

2003-07-17T19:16:00.000-05:00

This is a test.