Back Once Again / Free Stuff / Vote For Me
Posted on September 25th, 2009
Filed under: General,Music News — Karl Olson @ 4:07 pm
I am back from Victoria, BC after a lovely visit with Danielle. She showed me around the city, and I have to say to all my goth loli friends and my otaku friends – get up there and visit. Between the lovely tea rooms, old architecture and awesome china town, you must see that city when you get the chance. Anyways, she and I had a fantastic time. We saw GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan live, we went to a bunch of cute restaurants (all of which were quite economical,) we watched tons of anime (Ouran Host Club) and we walked all over the city! We even won trivia night at the hostel we were staying at, netting us free gift certificates for the hostel cafe and a local diner, and we also won at the Deal or No Deal arcade game at the first try, netting us cute folding fans. I am looking forward to future visits as well. Victoria’s a lovely city – pity UVic won’t take any of my BCC credits without way too much effort spent.
Next up, in the interest of maybe spurring some interest in my most recent commercial release, The Fourth Estate, I’ve decided to pull a Random and release a shareware, stripped down version of the same record, in this iteration called The Free Estate. It’s only 11 songs (vs. 19 on the actual record,) and it’s encoded in 128kbps mp3 for that late 90s piracy sound. Download it from one of the several links below before the links inevitable dead links happen:
badongo – depositfiles – megaupload – rapidshare – zshare – sharebee
Lastly, you may want to check out the song I’ve done for Nerdcore Rising’s Song Fight. I don’t really want to win (chance to see NYC aside,) but it’s a fun song you should totally check out. Lyrics are after the break.
(more…)
Comments (5)
I can take or leave it if I please
Posted on September 13th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 3:16 am
The past few weeks since the last blog post have been nothing if not busy, and while I’ve certainly done my fair share of tweeting, for my own record keeping, I feel like doing a round up.
Well, I made my way back from Canada, missing Danielle the whole way and thinking I’d be camping the next day with my friends. Alas, I could’ve stayed the extra day, as we wouldn’t hit the road until monday, though the extra day did afford a trip up to Walmart for supplies (the camp stove fuel being especially importantly actually.)
Thus, on the last monday of August we punched on through to Port Twilight err Port Angeles (seriously, that town is absolutely pandering to the Twihard demo,) and on up to the Salt Creek Recreation Area. The area was gorgeous, and outside of an accidental 8-mile death hike, it was a blast of a time. Sure, it would’ve been nice to have remembered to bring my roll-up camping mattress, but after the hike, my back wasn’t what hurt – my legs just felt like someone took a wiffle-ball bat to them. It was fun boiling up soup and water for tea and ramen, cooking hot dogs over the camp fire was fun and really, it’s the first I’ve ever spent that kind of extended time with some of those friends. Lots of cool photos came out of that trip as well.
After a day off, it was PAX time, and well, 13 free shirts (two of which I gave away out of the gate, and another 5 or more will also eventually end up in friends hands if not charity,) scads of swag and 3 days later, and I have to say that it was pretty ok. I mean, I was absolutely ecstatic to see Rai perform with Front. It really should have happened last year at PAX though scheduling issues prevented that, but her performance this year just really shows how much better she’s become even over her existing skill level. We really gotta get that record done. Beefy also tore it up on “Nerdcore Rising” as expected. However, outside of the usual PAX fun (goofing around Pictochat, catching up with various acquaintances and friends,) it was pretty chill.
The past week? Marathoning and reviewing Gakuen Alice, going through the paperwork and law regarding dual citizenship and gathering up various phone numbers I’ll have to call in regards to getting back to school. Oh, and going to Endfest 18 and going a friend’s birthday party. Quite the nonstop month I’ve had once one factors in my trip to Canada.
Still, I’m not satisfied – I know I have more to get done.
Comments Off on I can take or leave it if I please
Inglourious Foam Party
Posted on August 23rd, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 11:46 am
So, for the first time in forever, Nursehella and I caught a movie together (well, Hella’s friend April also came along, but to me the key point was finally seeing a movie with Hella for the first time since the last Pirates of the Caribbean,) namely Tarentino’s Inglourious Basterds. As expected, it had Tarantino’s usual blend of indulgent film references and over-the-top violence, though seeing that brutality applied to Nazis? Way better, as you have absolutely no sympathy for any of the characters being wrecked up (consider it the opposite of Kill Bill in that regard.) Normally, one wouldn’t laugh at a man’s corpse being desecrated with entire clip from a machine gun, but when the corpse is… well, I don’t want to spoil it, but lets just if WWII had played how Tarantino dreamed it, it would have been a vastly more satisfying result. I mean, the theater was cheering by the end of the flick.
However, rather than just settle for having seen an excellent movie, we also went to a foam party at the Element in Castlegar. The music wasn’t too hot, but it was amusing to see people try to enter and exit the foam. There is a viral video in filming that I think. Anyways, I wasn’t dressed for the occasion, but it was fun to get a little dancing in and talk to some of Hella’s old friends. Good times.
Comments Off on Inglourious Foam Party
InnoSera 2009
Posted on August 9th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 2:16 pm
So, my goal for attending the first Lolita Fashion and Ball-Jointed Doll convention in the Seattle area was find a cute headdress to go with Danielle’s new Goth Loli outfit on her behalf since she couldn’t come down to the con. Maybe I’d take a few photos too, and I’d make a point to catch the DJ set once I found out my friend Panda was spinning, but I figured for the most part I’d be looking to kill time in Bellevue, since none of my friend could make it out (or so I thought.) So, after I bought a cute headdress to go with the outfit (a big ol’ bow,) I went down to Tully’s and started to browse feeds on my Google ION. Then, out of nowhere, my friend Ally turns up.
Turns out she was going to see Transformers 2 with her family, and well I had time to kill, so I saw Transformers with them. The movie was ok (Michael Bay needs to tighten his timing up, or Spielberg has to do it for him like he did for George Lucas on the original Indiana Jones movies,) but it was obvious to me at that point that I hadn’t got a real meal all day. So over to World Wrapps with Ally, then back over to InnoSera where she browsed the dealer’s room for a little bit, though she missed the Baby, The Stars Shine Bright room (not that the selection was too hot anyway – mostly Sweet Loli.)
Now, this would be where one might expect some denouement, but instead, we then head over to Ross and to Jo-Anns. She picks up some odds and ends for her Goth Loli outfit. Why you ask? Because later, we then head back to the con (Ally now decked out in con appropriate wear,) catch a band by the name of Kissing Violet, and catch Panda’s DJ set (where he made a point to point me out as a big name Nerdcore Rapper.)
It was not at all what I thought the day would be like; it was a whole lot more. Shoot, I even know for fact that Danielle’s outfit will fit and well because I saw people (who unlike the beautiful and svelt Danielle,) really make use of the pleating in the back of the outfit if you know what I mean (Gordo Lolita?) I just wish Ally and I could have wrangled more folks into the coming with since the day turned out so good. Maybe next year.
tl;dr: everything turned out better than expected.
Comments Off on InnoSera 2009
Employeedish
Posted on August 3rd, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 4:07 pm
So, I’ve been doing mobile development for a start-up my friends run for the past few months, but it looks like I won’t be getting hours for a bit. Call it an unexpected vacation. So, outside of a visit to see Nursehella later in the month, I’m suddenly at odd ends as to what to do with my time.
Comments Off on Employeedish
Nostalgia Drifting
Posted on July 23rd, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 5:17 am
So, what with Nerdcore For Life apparently being on the road to public, commercial availability, and being in need of extras, I naturally thought, “I know a jerk who can do commentary on the creative process of other people while lacking any skills in said arena – me!” Of course, I doubt that’ll come to pass, but it got me looking at the old Sealab reviews of my commentary, and it turns out I missed some gems.
Amazon actually seems to think I’m informative…
…but this guy seems to have fallen for the troll, and hard…
…while FilmJunk and E! Insider got the point…
…and Digitally Obsessed actually enjoyed my work.
Funny thing is, much like any song I’ve written before about 2002, I really can’t even listen to that commentary without cringing a bit if not a lot. It’s tacky and awkward, and well, undeserved even if the show was mediocre as Adam and Matt are good folks employing animators (something that Cartoon Network seems to be actively be working against.) Yet, I’ve received as much if not more ink and blog noise for those 15 minutes as I probably have for music since I started putting songs on the net about a decade ago. Seems kind of broken, doesn’t it?
Bringing it full circle, I wonder if one day I’ll look at Nerdcore For Life and Nerdcore Rising the same way as I do that commentary and my older music. I mean, yeah, I am hideously nerdy in those docs, but will I rue that? For now, I doubt it. I mean, when I look at them, and it’s clear Danielle’s already borrowing my hats before we’ve ever even thought about going out amongst cute cues, and well, that sweet foreshadowing will always hold a special place in my heart. They’re still lovely time capsules – may they always be.
Comments (1)
Oh, BTW
Posted on June 13th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 1:46 pm
I’m in Canada visiting Danielle (aka Nursehella.) Been pretty good so far. We went on a little hike around Zuckerberg Island yesterday, and we would have hit the Ainsworth Hot Springs had they not been closed this week. We also tried our hand at making tempura which came out ok, and I’ve done a little exploring around the town(‘s dollar and discount stores,) while Danielle was working at the local Chamber of Commerce (as she’s saving up to go back to university.) It’s certainly lovely to see Danielle again, and it’s been a nice little break, leading into what will probably be me grinding on XML and CSS at the office next week.
Comments Off on Oh, BTW
Well I’ll Be…
Posted on June 12th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 4:48 pm
It seems that widgetizing and twitterpating my layout was easier than I thought; I really should have done it a while back. It’s even a bit closer to what I was originally going for with the layout for the sidebar. Now to tweet about said updates to my blog.
Comments Off on Well I’ll Be…
Blog Upgrade
Posted on June 12th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 3:51 pm
You know web management has become easy when the blog can grab the update and upgrade itself. Of course, this is a bit of a reminder that maybe I should think about glossing the site’s look up at some point, or atleast adding a plugin/widget that can grab the twitter updates and jam them into the layout some how. Since that would mean editing the layout, well, maybe it’s time to kill two birds with one stone.
Comments Off on Blog Upgrade
Chase(ing)Status
Posted on June 10th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 8:39 pm
So, like a ton of other people, I’m now banking with Chase since WaMu decided to loan money to any fool asking for it. As I anticipated, I finally had some problems as well, ones I was only able to remedy because I have a cellphone functional in Canada, a secure internet connection and enough drive to not let the first operator blow me off, and the problem only didn’t completely screw me over and make me look like a broke sleezeball was because I happened to be in the right places at the right times.
You see, even though I’ve traveled to Canada countless times in the past few years – something an analysis of my credit history would not only show, but that could be analyzed and tracked without human intervention (IE: it costs nothing and if anything saves people work.) Never once back in the WaMu days did I have an ounce of problems with this. I could use my card in Canada with the same ease as Washington, Oregon, California, Minnesota and so on. However, not only did Chase throw a fit and put my debit card on hold after a few vanilla transactions in Canada (buying snacks at a grocery store – that’s so fraud,) they managed to leave the wrong phone number to get back to them (my reception is sketchy here so I missed their call) and then I had to wander about their website for a good piece of time to find a valid phone number because they didn’t send me any emails or leave any messages in my Chase online banking account. Oh, and their web layout is mediocre.
All that would be stupid enough, but they leveled their game up by then being smart aleks on the phone who basically wanted to blow me off rather than refer me to fraud services as if I couldn’t or wouldn’t take my money to another bank or a credit union in a heartbeat the second I had to fight to get at my own money. I am a customer, and while, yes, as a former retail employee I know customers are not in fact always right, I know when my freakin’ debit card has been declined; I’m no clod or yokel, and I refuse to be treated like one. I may not be a Chase customer for much longer if that’s their attitude though.
Feel free to suggest some alternate banks or credit unions that act decent in the comments or via email.