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Cross-posted from SpaceParanoids.net. Please leave your comments there.
I made a cover of Still Alive about a year ago and put it on YouTube. It’s gotten over 150,000 views, which isn’t too shabby, I think. Here’s the original description:
So, here’s a little cover arrangement I made of “Still Alive”, the ending credits song from the excellent video game Portal.
The song was written by my personal hero, Jonathan Coulton. Explore his music. It’s wonderful.
I performed all nine tracks (on the keyboard), and I kept pretty close to the original arrangement.
The encoding on this movie is a much, much higher quality than the YouTube version.
Help yourself to the piano sheet music (PDF), or the mp3, or the MIDI file of this performance. Tags: music, video, video games
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Cross-posted from SpaceParanoids.net. Please leave your comments there. Let me set the stage.
It was a little past seven o’clock last Thursday evening. The weather was very foggy that night, and the sun sets before five this time of year, so it was really dark and nasty outside. Danielle was easing Ethan into his bedtime routine, and I was fiddling with some hardware in my office.
I heard distant police sirens and fire engine horns growing steadily louder. Our neighborhood is usually pretty quiet. We don’t get a lot of police chases or gang shootouts. But the sirens grew louder still, and I could see the flashing lights through my office blinds. A moment later the noise reached its ear-splitting cacophonous crescendo of police, ambulance, and fire sirens, along with occasional loudspeaker announcements too distorted to make out. I decided to investigate what was going down.
I peeked out the front door, and I saw a massive fleet of police and emergency vehicles across the street a few houses down. Neighbors were all coming out to see. Some people were shuffling up the street toward our house. I was sure I smelled smoke.
I retreated inside, and Danielle and Ethan were there staring out the living room window. Ethan looked absolutely terrified. The noise was unbearable. We had no idea what was happening. Was there a fire? An industrial accident? A natural disaster? I was ready to pack a bag and say goodbye to all my worldly possessions forever.
As a ladder truck crept past our house, we finally heard a voice on the loudspeaker we could understand. It boomed THANK YOU FOR COMING OUT TO SUPPORT THE CHRISTMAS PARADE. Tags: minutiae
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Cross-posted from SpaceParanoids.net. Please leave your comments there. After nearly five days of my new routine, I suspect that daily exercise has improved my well-being more than the nutritious, 1,500-Calorie diet.
I genuinely look forward to doing my exercise each morning. I didn’t expect that to happen so soon. Yourself!Fitness deserves real credit. Maya recognized my state of complete physical neglect and started me out with just the right kind of exercises to begin conditioning my body. I can already see some results. On day one, I was about five minutes into the warm-up before I felt so winded that I had to pause to take a few breaths. Today, I got through the entire warm-up section without losing momentum, even though the software has already bumped me up to slightly more difficult exercises.
My workouts this week have cycled through cardiovascular, upper-body strength, lower-body strength, core strength and flexibility. Today’s workout had some very challenging moves. I failed to perform a proper V-up. My core just isn’t strong enough yet. I also couldn’t hold a boat pose for the full duration, but I tried my best to keep up. Doing the yoga poses with correct form and balance is extremely difficult, but I can feel myself growing stronger and more controlled with each session.
I very proud of what I’ve done this week, and more importantly, I feel great. Tags: fitness, video games
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Cross-posted from SpaceParanoids.net. Please leave your comments there. It’s December 8th, 2008, and today I’ve decided to do things differently.
I’ve been pretty off-balance lately. My old routine went out the window when Ethan was born, and I’ve never gotten back onto a firm footing. My sleeping and eating habits have been very erratic, and I’ve gradually become less and less physically active. This lifestyle has impacted my overall health and mental well-being.
I haven’t gained much weight, as it turns out. For the past few years I’ve been between 185 and 190 pounds. This morning I weighed 191.5. But my shape has changed. I’ve gotten softer and rounder in the middle, and I look like I’ve gained 30 or 40 pounds. I’ve been drinking too much soda and eating too much junk food. I’ve never really over-eaten, but I haven’t been getting proper, balanced nutrition. And generally speaking, I pretty much feel like crap…
Read the rest of this entry » Tags: fitness, video games
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Cross-posted from SpaceParanoids.net. Please leave your comments there. The crazy kids on the Jonathan Coulton forums started a virtual band called The Mandelbrot Set. They pick a JoCo song to cover, and everyone who wants to participate puts their track on a big pile of files on the web.
The song chosen for their first project was Re: Your Brains, a song I actually included in my own medly (at the 9:39 mark, as if you care). They had this thing in the works for a year or longer, but I managed to show up at the last moment to toss in a piano track just under the wire.
Listen here.
If I’d known they were going to give me part of the solo, I might have done a few more takes.
Anyway, a big tip o’ the hat to my virtual bandmates: Angelastic, bigcambridge, Bry, Colleenky (awesome vocals!), Lunacy, MaW, mtgordon, Shruti, and The Doifter. Tags: music
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Cross-posted from SpaceParanoids.net. Please leave your comments there. It seems like everyone has a story about going to the emergency room on a major holiday. On Easter Sunday, 1995 I was in the worst car accident of my life (hopefully). I was spending some quality time with my second family. My best friend Chris, his sister and folks were piled in a minivan. Chris’ dad, blind in one eye, pulled the Dodge onto Route 13 directly in front of a car speeding along in the fast lane. I don’t remember hearing the screeching of rubber before the impact. The little wagon struck the van on the right-front fender and veered off into a ditch. The van spun around like a top, coming to rest in the facing south in the center northbound lane. Both vehicles were totaled.
The old people got the worst of the impact, but thankfully everyone recovered fully. I got scraped up and bruised, but I wasn’t injured. The ER doctor made me get a tetanus shot, which ultimately caused me more pain and discomfort than being in the wreck.
We had been on our way to morning church services in Cheswold, and we often joked that this was God’s way of telling us, “don’t bother.” And I haven’t.
Despite being 21 months old, Ethan already has his first story about going to the emergency room on a major holiday. On Thanksgiving morning I was trying to keep Ethan busy while Danielle frantically prepared for the trip to her mother’s in the Bay Area…
Read the rest of this entry » Tags: ethan, video games
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Cross-posted from SpaceParanoids.net. Please leave your comments there. Yesterday I asked Ryan if he wanted to join me for a Posey’s run. While I enjoy Ryan’s company during the short walk to the convenience store and back, I had an additional motive. Because I wasn’t carrying cash, I figured I would use my check card to buy a lemonade and a Hostess apple pie, plus whatever Ryan wanted. You see, my snack alone wouldn’t have satisfied the five-dollar minimum requirement for debit purchases.
A problem arose. Ryan had just returned from Posey’s, and he didn’t need any snacks. He just wanted to get out of the office. Being the awesome guy he is, he offered to lend me cash.
The lemonade, pie and sales tax came to $2.89. Ryan opened his wallet to find naught but two singles. I was just about to add $2.11 worth of Slim Jims to my order, but figured I ought to check all my pockets for hidden monies. I pulled all the coins from my bluejeans to reveal exactly two quarters, three dimes, a nickel and four pennies. Providence.
I left the store feeling satisfied that occasionally things work out well for me. And for perhaps the first time in my life, I used the phrase “I’m blogging this.” So I did.
And now for an unrelated anecdote.
Danielle made the most awesome sandwiches for dinner last night. She whipped up some tiny meatloaves that were baked in mini-muffin tins, and served them on rolls with mayo and provolone. It sounds like a typical meatball sub on paper, but I promise you it was so much more. Maybe it was the bakery-fresh bread or the deli-sliced cheese or the tangy red sauce the mini-loaves simmered in. Whatever it was, the taste was like coming face-to-face with sandwich Jesus. (Mmmmmmm, sarelicious.)
I’m very much looking forward to tonight’s leftovers. Tags: minutiae
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