Memories of Moto

Testing out the 2D workflow in Unity. Play the game here: http://unity3d.alvinvfx.com/memoriesOfMoto/

Doooome.

Wind in the Leaves

Little piece I wrote last weekend for my orchestration course. Pulled close to 60hrs this week, so tired.

Food and Weather

The weather was warmer last week, but this week it's back to the proper winter cold. I think I'm getting used to it, as -10C is like.... whatever. It's the temperatures below -20C that annoy me, and it's mainly just about my face feeling like it's falling off. The rest of me is fine. It was snowing when I was out and back from work today, and it's probably still going on. The snow is fine, but the problem lies with after, it becoming ice and becoming a hazard. Oh well.

I recently found some nice places. First up is Leméac. Really fine steak here (costs a bomb though). The fries are really good too. While the serving looks small, it is a really filling meal. Looking forward for the next payday for this again :)

Just besides Leméac is Mikado, which does japanese. I only tried their Katsu Chicken, which I found really good. The chicken found here in Montreal is something, I think all the places I've had chicken are just damned good. Somehow, the meat here is just amazingly soft and tender.

There is also the chain, eggspectation, that I occasionally visit. I think of the many breakfast kind places I've tried, it's probably the one I enjoy visit the most.

To counter the "omg food here so good" etc etc, I must say that there are many other disappointing places I've visited. There was a place that always had a long queue during lunch time, so I was thinking it must be damned good food there. Once, I wandered by and there were some places at the bar, and I had lunch there. I have no idea why people queued up for this. I could cook better, and I'm the best at cooking instant noodles. Seriously.

Asian food here has been disappointing as well, I have no idea why the reviews are so glowing. Apart from Nonya, which I heartily recommend, I've yet to have a good chinese meal. Even the recommendations I got from people faired pretty sad. Ah well.

Moar strings

Something I worked on for my orchestration course this week, to arrange a piano piece for string orchestra.

Spring Snow

Piece I wrote for my orchestration course! XD

Harmonies of Snow

I liked how this piece turned out, and decided to sequence it. Horrors, it took probably half a day to sequence, and many many hours to mix and tweak.

Game Jam!

Spent the last 2 days working on this game jam. Took me 6-8hrs on the first day to get the gameplay sorted out, then the 2nd day I spent ooooh, 10-12hrs maybe to create and playtest/tweak the 8 different stages. Didn't have time to write music for it. I probably could have, if I didn't go out for lunch, read novels, cat naps etc XD

The First Noel

Had this tune stuck in my head, so decided to arrange it, and experimented using the sax and tin whistle together. They actually don't sound that good together, so in the end I decided to leave the sax out of the 2nd half of the piece - it was supposed to be playing harmony, which I replaced the sax with a vsl flute playing the harmony instead.

What do Cellular Automata sound like?

That was the question I was asking when I created this above. In all honesty, it does not tell much, it would be better if both axes contributed to the sound generation. And, instead of using samples, actually some sort of synthesizer. Alternative sound schemes would be like sounds played when cells become alive or when they die instead of playing back tones based on location.

Alternative modulation schemes could include taking into account the number of neighbours adjacent, or even a few steps out and use that to modulate say, volume. So many ideas.

Originally, I had planned to have the vertical axis be for the notes, and the horizontal axis for instruments, but I do not want to go there as I want to quickly finish this experiment and move on to my next experiment.

Game is here.

Snoooooow!

We had snow last night, and waking up this morning it was white all over! Surprisingly it was not _that_ cold and the fresh snow was a delight to walk on. In the evening things were rather warm, and the snow had melted into the usual black slush. Eww.

It's a far cry from the weather we had on Saturday:

Looks almost tropical, doesn't it? That was on Saturday, at -5C though :P

Distant Worlds: Montreal 2013

This is the 3rd Distant Worlds concert I've attended, and I think the magic of it is wearing off on me. It is still a great experience, with loads of old music but something felt a bit off today. I am pretty sure some pieces were missing some lines, and I felt in some places the rhythm section kinda went off against the rest of the orchestra. The new FF6 Opera arrangement, (above) I felt the pacing was not as good as it could have been. The stretches between the voice actors felt really long between.

I left for home right after, didn't really feel the need to check out the merchandise like other years.

Thinking about it, it's probably the music, really. No Susan Calloway == really sad, and the other pieces aren't as inspiring as the previous two I've attended. Blargh. I think the most memorable was Dancing Mad with the Royal Albert Hall's pipe organ, that was amazing.

On the flip side, it's rather nice to hear an orchestra in the flesh again. I think it's been almost a year since I last hear a live orchestra.  The double bassess doing pizz is just sublime. 6 of them together? Bliss. Thanks to an orchestration course I'm attending at the moment, I'm keeping an ear on how things are orchestrated and am able to appreciate it so much more. The basses together with the tuba is a great sound when heard live.

Unlike the Royal Albert Hall's tiered orchestra layout, this particular orchestra sits on a flat platform, and the choir sadly is nigh impossible to see as they are all seated behind. I really should have checked out what the seating is like and perhaps taken a seat higher up behind. And bring some binoculars to check out who's playing what?

Let's see what happens next year...

Boids!

Spent two evenings on this. Learnt a fair bit about vectors and forces.

Burger!

Tried a new burger place today. This was at The Sparrow. The decor stood out first, not sure of the worlds to describe it, but its rather hmmm "antique" looking. The tables we sat at had these tiny picture frames built into the top of the table. Damn, I really should have just taken a picture of this place.

On weekdays, they only seem to be open on Friday for lunch,  the menu of which consists of some semi-breakfasty food like eggs benedict, and burgers etc for lunch. I ordered the burger, rare, with a side of fries. Pretty good, and I'd probably rate this as my favourite burger thus far in Montreal. The serving size is good, not excessive, and the meat is very tender. Some pickles can be found in the dressing too. Fries came somewhat warm-ish but still tasted pretty good. Not sure what the cream coloured sauce was, but I was enjoying that!

The Sparrow appears to be a cash-only place, lucky as I don't usually bring cash out. Definitely a place to return, if only to try the eggs benedict!

The South Wind

Arranged this piece for one of my music exercises, and the stars and moons are finally aligned enough so that I could record it.

Sonata for Harpsichord, Flute and Oboe

A new piece :3

Proper snow in Montreal!

It's finally started snowing in Montreal! It's started last night, and everything was pretty much coated with snow before I went to bed. In the morning, the snow was piled up rather high, but the roads and sidewalks were apparently cleared sometime in the morning.

At the moment it's feeling about the same as winter in London, i.e. slush everywhere. Unlike London where I didn't really buy winter specific shoes - I got by with waterproof walking shoes - the people here (and I!) are prepared for the cold with insulated, waterproof boots and proper jackets.

Today was hovering around the 0C range, but tomorrow promises something down to -14C.... we'll see what tomorrow brings. Mainly, my legs can chilled in the setup I've got now, because I've been reluctant to wear thermals for my legs. Plus, thermals don't help getting splashed by cars.

As such, I really want to get now some insulated waterproof pants. Found a pair of columbias for about CAD119? That should do the trick. If I ever go to another country with winter I am so ready for the cold!

The week in review.

Generally fine, apart from Tuesday. Tuesday is the definition of FREEZING. It was actually above 0C, but the wind was pushing some serious velocities. It felt like I didn't have any pants on. I think tomorrow I'll be going downtown to check out some insulation/windproof pants, and perhaps snag a warmer liner glove.

I have an obsession for gloves here.

Cat.

Had a somewhat angst written post about introversion - how I feel north america is so much more extroverted than the countries I've worked in the past, but you know what? Here's a cat poster I saw on the way to work.

The next few days appear to be steadily growing warm! Heck, I left my apartment today with my polartec(tm) fleece - 5 years old and still holding up! Yay macpac! - and softshell. And it was too warm lol.

The evening time was cooler, and it was perfect down in the city dressed that way. Next week promised to be cold though, brrr!

Sonata for Harpsichord and Flute

:3