Feb 01

You know those annoying times when you have some awesome music, but you can’t get any words to work? Yeah, I’m having one of those times right now. It’s after three in the morning, and after listening to some music I wrote over a day ago, I still can’t come up with any lyrics I like. Which is ironic because usually I start writing songs by writing poetry, and then it takes forever to come up with music that fits.

Oh well. I think I’ll go program something right now instead. Check out 8bW’s website if you haven’t heard our first album! If you’re really nice, you might even buy it on iTunes or Amazon ;)

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Jan 17

After getting my first mac, and having to learn objective-c (both for my video game studio), I’ve been trying to do all of my little side projects and ideas in objective-c. I had been wanting (for some time) a program that monitors a folder or folders for video files, which are then converted into the correct iTunes format for playback on my AppleTV, and are then added automatically to iTunes. Currently, I’ve been queuing up files myself in Handbrake. This works extremely well, except that I have to manually do it. This can be a problem when you have a large amount of videos to convert.

So, after looking into HandbrakeCLI (the Command Line Interface version), I began to further my knowledge of objective-c by writing a program that monitors a folder (something new to me), runs all of the files through HandbrakeCLI (running external programs was also new to me), and then deletes (optionally) the original (again, new to me).

The program so far: the program reads the directory every time you run it (it doesn’t automatically monitor yet), and runs Handbrake on each (supported) file. I’ve made a lot of progress in just a few hours. Now, I just need to make it automatically (constantly) monitor the folder, and move finished files to the iTunes “Automatically Add to iTunes” folder. Oh… and make sure the right codecs are getting used by Handbrake.

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Dec 29

After a crazy two days of recording, my band has recorded its first album! The EP is titled “Maggie” and has five songs on it: “Hey Maggie”, “Black Widow”, “Your Door”, “My Tree” and “Nothing Else Matters”. The album is available on the iTunes Store, Amazon, and Spotify. You can also preview it at our website.

8-bit Weekend is really just a fun outlet for my friends and I. I enjoy writing a lot of poetry, as well as music, and we (the band) like playing together. Right now, there are five of us: my friends Ian, Zak, Omni, and Reuben, as well as myself.

Check out the album! And let me know what you think. We do this for fun, but we do want to improve!

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Nov 28

Here’s my newest video game project I am working on, called Byte Digital: a Variable Adventure! The idea behind it kind of came to me randomly, and I have gotten my friend Ed involved on helping with the story and design. The look and feel we’re aiming for is a very retro/nostalgic RPG.

As usual, I’m using this project to teach myself some new programming tricks and tools. We’ll be using lua to do some scripting. I have never used lua before, but so far I am picking it up quickly. I’m using a wrapper so I can use it in c#. We are also using Tiled Map Editor to create our levels (another first for me), which has required me to write my own xml parser of the TMX file format to specifically fit my needs. For graphics I am using SdlDotNet so I can use SDL; I have decent experience with SDL, but am relatively new to using the wrapper for c# .net.

Anyway, here are my first screenshots!

This is the title screen and main menu. Pretty boring right now, but it gets the job done.

And this is the first part of the opening cut scene. It’s designed to emulate a terminal, so all of the text types across the screen.

I’ll try to keep updates coming pretty frequently! That’s all for now!

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Sep 25
The phrase “playing roulette with an empty gun” had been running around my mind for several weeks; one night, after Zak and I had drunk one too many Monster Javas (Zak only had one), the lyrics for “Empty Gun” were written, and a horrible music accompaniment. Close to a year later, when I was without work and was pulling all-nighters constantly, the new music for the song was written. Some time earlier, Zak had handed me a random bass riff, which I had been holding on too. After adding some drums, and changing the chord progression around a little, the new version of “Empty Gun” was completed! Now that Omni has joined 8-bit Weekend, we’re reworking some of the keyboard parts, but it is pretty much complete and ready to record. Anyway, here are the lyrics for “Empty Gun”.
My friends said, “Give it a try”,
We didn’t ask questions, we didn’t ask why;
We were bored and going nowhere;
And where we’d end up, we didn’t care.
So we sat down and pulled up a chair,
We sat at that table and played dispair.
We were playing roulette with an empty gun,
First, I spin the chamber, and then I spin the gun,
It points to a friend and he gives it a try,
He didn’t know it would end his life.
We watched as life dragged on;
Played at the table, and then it was gone;
Now alone with nothing to see;
This isn’t where I wanted to be;
Spent life chasing the trend,
And now nothing’s left, here at the end.
We were playing roulette with an empty gun,
First I spin the chamber, and then I spin the gun;
I pull the trigger just to give it a try,
Ruined my life, and now I know why.
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Sep 21

This is a song 8bW is working on, and it kind of hearkens back to good old days of being a kid with an awesome imagination. We’re hoping to record a single soon and have it up on iTunes. Just need to polish a little bit more!

Verse 1:
Hey there what do you say,
How would you like to run away
With me today?
Hey there, what do you know,
How would you like for me to show
You my world?   (from my tree)

Chorus:

‘Cause up here in my tree together
We can watch the sun set for forever;
The sky really looks like it is on fire,
And we can hear the cricket choir;
And as you lean in close to me,
I realize that I’m happy;
If you would just stay here with me,
Forever together in my tree.

Verse 2:
There’s so much that I can see
Over the great blue sea
From my tree;
(Laughing) what i saw
Would make you drop your jaw
In wonder (in wonder).

Verse 3:
As we watch a shooting star
We know that we can go far
On its trail
We will fly and we will see
All things in the galaxies
As we sail… (in my tree).

How we came up with this song is really the fun part – Zak started playing a random bass riff, and Omni added a drum beat. That was enough for me to come up with the first verse and the first couple of lines from the chorus. While I was honing over those over and over, trying to come up with something else, Zak and Omni started goofing off and writing down random thoughts and phrases like “ha, ha, ha, what I saw, drop your jaw” (verse 2) and “shooting star, can go far, hood of her car” (verse 3). I then threw Zak for a loop when I started singing modified versions of his random thoughts, and “My Tree” was pretty much completed in a couple of hours! Omni recorded the drum track, and then went back through and created a part for the keyboard while I cleaned up the verses with Zak. All in all, it was really crazy and really fun!
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Sep 20
Am I alive
Or am I just breathing?
Because don’t like
What my eyes are seeing.
What was once ‘we’
Is now only me
Left here alone,
And I don’t know how
I’ll survive now
That you’re gone.Am I awake
Or am I just dreaming?
Because I can’t take
All of these feelings,
As I search my mind,
The memories I find
Are only of you.
And I do not know
Where I should go
Or what to do.

This will probably end up as a song for 8bW. Still working on a third verse, though.
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Jul 30

Imagine this: you’re sitting in church Sunday morning, listening to your pastor faithfully preach God’s Word, when you notice the person in front of you or next to you falling asleep. What do you do? What is the first thing that goes through your mind?

Oh, that poor man must work nights, but he still came to morning service anyway.

I can’t believe that boy isn’t paying attention! How could he sleep in church!

He was probably up late last night doing who knows what! He needs to learn to go to bed early like me!

That girl must not be a good Christian… falling asleep in church like that… She obviously doesn’t love Jesus.

I should wake him up…

Now, these may seem a little extreme, but the question still stands: what do you think when someone near you falls asleep during the service?

We have to think about this: it’s a serious issue. Do you feel bad for them? Do you get angry? Are you disappointed? Does it make you chuckle, inadvertently making the pastor think the joke he just told was actually funny?

What should we think about people who fall asleep in church? What should we do?

Here are some things to think about:

What was your first response, and what was the underlying motive?

Are you paying attention, or are you too busy focusing on someone else?

Do you assume the best of others?

Do you really need to be offended on God’s behalf, or can He take care of Himself.

Do you know the person, what they are currently going through, how tired they are, and how crazy their week was?

And, finally, how closely did you walk with God last week? You can put on a facade of spirituality and can stay awake during church on Sunday, but what is your life like between Sundays?

Be careful how quickly you jump to judge someone. Be quick to assume the best of others, and realize that you are just as much of a sinner – your weakness might just be in a different area.

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Jul 30

This true story is
My life’s story, currently
A work in progress.

 

What I was I am
No more, to self I died to
Live again through Christ

Who now lives through me,
Now a son and not a slave,
Calling God “Daddy!”

Who, previously,
I did not know, while enslaved
To a false god, Flesh,

That I have since then
Crucified with its passions
And desires, because

I now belong to
Christ Jesus, my Savior and
My God, Who called me

By His grace, and has
Justified me by faith
Alone in His death

On the cross for me
And has now sent the Spirit
As guidance for life

Jun 01

As sleep overtakes
me, my eyes flutter and fall
without a hindrance.

Concentration breaks
as thoughts make no sense at all
and I stare entranced.

As I lie awake
I hear sweet dreams make their call
and sleep gets its chance.

 

A haiku for sleep
that Dan Alexander wrote
prior to sleeping.

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