Ann Oyama Official Website

YAY! It’s fixed! Despite the poorly detailed instructions I was sent along with the replacement OEM LCD unit from ebay, I somehow managed to NOT break any of the tiny ribbons while disassembling, shove the new LCD back in there, and snap it all back together with great success. Though it was much more difficult than I expected… due primarily to the fact that the delicate ribbon running along the entire face of the original LCD unit had to be removed from both the LCD and the glass plate covering, which were all attached to each other with extra strength sticky tape (no mention of this in the instructions at all!). Also the ebay listings advertising that all you need is a T5 screwdriver are complete LIES! You’ll need at the very least the screwdriver, a pin, and some kind of plastic card to use as a wedge to get the casing open, the plate covering off the LCD, and the ribbon off the old LCD face. Fingernails help too.

Whew.

LCDs are fragile! Do not throw open phone onto bed, exposing large fragile unprotected LCD! Do not sit on, step on, or crush under your knee!

Anyway… I still need to write about GDC last week…

San Francisco public transit trip planner
http://transit.511.org

Next Muni (real-time updates for popular bus/train lines)
http://nextmuni.com

Now all I need is a Sidekick…

I now feel completely fine about having cut my hair. In fact I feel guilty for being trivial and getting so upset about it.

I mean… it’s for children! It’s just hair! What was I thinking?!

As an apology, I offer this photo I took of a funny sign I passed on my way to the library.

My new haircut is terrible! The stylist definitely chopped off more than the required 10 inches… and it really does just look like she just put my hair in a ponytail, cut above the line, and did nothing more.

I’m more convinced than ever now that caucasion people just don’t know how to cut Asian hair. I don’t have much of it left (it’s just about chin-length now) but I’m thinking of going somewhere to fix it.

And to top it all off I just broke my cell phone screen! The inside screen! Rendering it almost completely useless! Will Cingular warranty cover this? We’ll find out tomorrow…

Well it’s been one of those days… ARGH!!!!!!

Saddened by the recent loss of my favorite trademark baseball cap — lost during some long-island-iced-tea-induced drunken partying at the Cult of Sue Todd’s show last Thursday — I have decided to expedite the process of chopping all my hair off and donating it to Locks of Love. (Locks of Love is a charity organization that makes wigs out of donated hair 10″ or longer and gives them to young kids.)

Rather than going with the do-it-myself method which yielded some very crooked results last time, I’ve booked an appointment at a salon for tomorrow. If something goes horribly wrong… well, I’ve decided that it’s about time I got myself a new hat anyway! And hair grows, even under hats! YAY!

But right now I’d like to have a few minutes of silence here for my beloved old hat, which has been with me throughout my travels to foreign lands, and despite being over 3 years old was still in remarkably good condition when it went AWOL…

…

Anyway, moving on…

MY EYES!!!

(Edit: video removed)

Pretty Hate Machine

It’s that kind of album that makes you want to get up and dance… If only I could dance. My rigorous martial arts training and Hawaiian elementary school May Day performances haven’t done a thing for my dancing skills.

Speaking of dancing, it’s twice now that I’ve gotten iPod dance commercial audition solicitations from a talent agent I somehow got hooked up with. At one point I think I was asked to describe my style, but the only description that came to mind was “embarrassingly ridiculous.” I wonder if there’s a market for that “style”? I wasn’t about to audition and find out.

I’m also terrible at that dancing video game, which my little bro is terrific at. I’d like to laugh at that, but when I watch him play it’s actually damned impressive. Even out of practice as he is, he managed to draw a crowd at the local arcade. He sweated out all the stages, and when it was over, everyone clapped and someone offered to buy him another game.

I guess I’ll have to settle for thrashing about in the privacy of my own home. Or in public (pretending to be) drunk, because then such behavior seems to be more or less forgivable… until I injure someone with a combination crazy dance groove + flying razor kick to the groin.

Anyway where was I? Randomness.

Trent Reznor is a genius.

I’d like to see a real drummer face off with a champion Drum Mania (the drumming video game) player. That thing is pretty much a drummer training machine complete with electronic drum kit.

Hungry for broccoli.

I’m finally heading back to SF early next week. I hear it’s cold there. God help me. Buddha!

I swear by ibuprofen for headaches.

I can’t get the White Stripes song “Seven Nation Army” out of my head.

ARGH! Estimated taxes due tomorrow!

… the downside to freelancing and investing and all that…

YAY!

Being old and such, the Christmas presents don’t pour in like they used to… thus I easily caved in to an impulse buy temptation and bought myself an early Christmas present, the new(ish) XioSynth 25 from Novation. Tiny (468 x 68 x 190 mm), light (a mere 1.4 kilos!), and with a built-in USB audio interface complete with phantom-powered mic preamp… it seemed like the perfect portable controller/synth for me to cart around while I backpack around the world with my trusty ‘ol Powerbook.

Right out of the box… Build-quality wise it didn’t stand out much with its all-plastic exterior, a keyboard that felt exactly the same as all the other cheapy keys out there, and some buttons that weren’t quite on straight, but I suppose that’s the tradeoff for being incredibly dirt cheap at a price of US $329 (and of course plastic is really light, too). The onboard menu didn’t exactly spell everything out for me, but I did manage to mostly figure out the necessary basics — changing and manipulating patches — without having to resort to the manual. I loved the sounds of many of the default patches, which were also fun and easy enough to tweak… no computer necessary.

As a portable controller/synth, I decided to go with the XioSynth over the MicroKorg — the only contender I considered since my primary concern was as small and light a form factor as possible and I’d already ruled out the Micron due to not liking the interface with its few flimsy knobs — because I felt it really won out in portability and features. As far as the synth quality goes, both produce a variety of sounds that appeal to me just as well and that I can see applying to the same sort of applications. But since I’ll probably often be carting it around to record stuff in conjunction with my Powerbook, it made more sense to go with the XioSynth for the USB connectivity options, circumventing the need to carry a nasty wall wart (I don’t feel comfortable relying batteries for something I could conceivably leave on for hours and hours on a regular basis), USB/MIDI converter cable for controller purposes, and an external audio card (you can record the synth audio output right into your computer just through the USB connection… and there’s always the analog inputs and phantom-powered preamp for anything else). I also prefer the XioSynth’s full size keys just slightly more than the little MicroKorg keys, but not by much since they both have that cheap toy feel resulting in hard-to-control velocity-sensitivity, compounded by lack of aftertouch. But the XioSynth does attempt to compensate somewhat by providing a touchpad, which I suppose could be a cool way to control the sound if I can get used to it.

And the bad… Coming from a classical piano background, the cheap feel to the keys and lack of aftertouch on the XioSynth is most annoying to me. This is made worse by the lack of a standard MIDI in on the unit which would prevent using it as a live synth (i.e. sans laptop and with a nicer more expressive keyboard controller). Does anyone know if a MIDI/USB converter box/cable can give it the MIDI in it desperately needs? I also prefer standard pitch/mod wheels to the XioSynth’s joystick control… though again maybe it’s just something I have to get used to.

Anyway for the lack of nice keys and a MIDI in, I wish I had considered the slightly larger/heavier (88 mm deeper/1.1 kg heavier) X-Station, which has all the standard old MIDI connectivity options and the added bonus of more knobs/buttons (don’t really need/want), faders too (ooh but I like a few faders!), a pressure-sensitive (!) touchpad, and the ability to be used as an analog effects box via the audio inputs (nifty!). Ah well… depending on how often I end up ACTUALLY using my XioSynth, I may trade-up… or maybe something better and just as portable will eventually come along…

In the meantime I suppose I’ll be recording a bunch of crunchy synth-bass driven song ideas with my new toy… whee! Now I really need more hard drive space…