Snowman Wars!

So at the big family Christmas dinner, I was all happy about the snowman my brother and I made (see post below). I told my cousin about it and showed her a picture, suggesting it rivaled the snowman she and her brother had built earlier this year. Well, one day later, I received an email from my cousin with the following picture attached and a message saying... "BRING IT!!!"


(that's my aunt beside the snowman. my cousins made this one on Boxing Day. LOL it's hilarious!)

And so begins the war of the snowmen. Oh I'll bring it. I'll bring it...

Giant Snowman!

I've been out in the BBY since Christmas Eve - it was a treacherous journey on transit from Van to BBY, and it hasn't been nice enough to return comfortably so here I am for now.

On Christmas Eve, I was supposed to do some holiday baking for the big dinner and gift-exchange on Christmas Day, but when my 22-year old brother went outside announcing he was going to make a snowman, I had to follow. I guiltily left my mom to do the baking... heh heh heh... Thanks Mom! *voice fading* *running down stairs* *Slam!* Ah, to be 8 years old again, if only for a moment, trying to make the biggest possible snowman.

Here we are making the base and mid-section.



The base quickly got too heavy to be pushed by one person, so here we are finishing off the base.



The snowman was pretty tall, so we used a step-ladder precariously lodged in the snow to reach the top.



The finished product!



In many ways, snow is a major inconvenience. But the snowman... Totally worth it!

Return of the Hedgehogs

Greetings! I am waiting for my friend Angela to dig her car out of the snow so that we can go shopping... don't know if that's gonna happen, but in the meantime, I'll post more cards I've been working on. These 2 use the same skating hedgehog stamp... but with a blue "winter-wonderland" theme. (Shaddap drk! >:| this is serious stuff! Seeeerious!) The top one is for my friend Eunice, and the bottom one's making its way to China! I guess that's the problem with posting all your cards up on a blog. Everyone knows what they're gonna get.

 

Christmas Tree

I think having a Christmas Tree at Christmas time is important. Now, I don't have a lot of extra space where I am, so I bought this little one, about 3 ft high. I have a lot of ornaments, but they wouldn't all fit :( and some of them are big. And a lot of them are M&M's ornaments... but i put the smaller ornaments up here on this tree.

Now, a closer look at my favourite ornaments:

First up, Dilbert in a Cup. First, Dilbert is AWESOME! And to be inside a generic office coffee mug with his wiggly tie sticking out? Even MORE AWESOME! I'm not too into reading the comic Dilbert, but I love the DVDs of when it was a cartoon on tv. This is like circa 10 years ago, and not a lot of people really get that kind of humour (which is probably why the cartoon went off the air after only a year or 2), but I find it really rings true - all those little office-isms. Plus bonus: Danny Elfman did the opening theme. Does it get better than Danny Elfman!?



Next up, Snoopy. Ok, so a realize it's a little hongged-out be a snoopy fan, but I am!



M&M's I am also a fan of. Not so much the actual candy, but the dudes in the commercials. Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Orange. Here, Red is depicted trimming a gingerbread tree. It's great!



I also like quirky ornaments. Just ask my friend Derek. Every year, I try to get him an outlandish ornament. If it's not a Santa in sunglasses and beach shorts riding a giant sparkly fish with lipstick from Hawaii, it's a glass ornament of a chinese ricebowl, or a mushroom. Anyway, this ornament was a gift from my cousin. Love it!



OK last one. This a Polar Express (the movie) ornament. One of my favourite Christmas movies - it's about how you should always believe in the spirit of Christmas no matter how old you get. No need to become cynical about this Santa stuff. The jingle bell was a key component of the movie, and so this shows the movie scene inside a jingle bell shell.



That's all folks. Still drowning in cards... more to come.

Tin Can

This is an "altered Altoids tin" as they call it in the craft world. Or something of the sort. Basically they sell these small metal containers in craft stores that you can decorate yourself. So... here 'tis, one I decorated up myself. As the picture denotes, it's for my friend Mandy in HK, part of her Christmas gift. Inside there's a little charm thinggy from Hawaii. Made from random leftover paper and some prima flowers. I don't think there's much else to say about this...

Skating Hedgehogs!

Yeeps! Where did the time go? December is always so crazy... it's Christmas Card Making Monsoon Season. I apologize for neglecting my blog duties. I will be off work soon 'til Jan so hopefully that will mean more time in the stud(io). But for the time being, my home currently looks like a Michaels store threw up in the main living area. Every horizontal surface is covered with stamps, ink pads, spools of ribbon, loose strings of ribbon, gluesticks, glue dots, glue in tubes, double sided tape, scotch-tape, brads, eyelets, stickers, paper, paper trimmers, cardstock, punches, chalk, markers, pens - you name it, it's here on my desk, couch, bookshelf, kitchen counter, floor, chairs. It's bad. But quite a sight to see. It's like driving by a bad accident... you don't want to look, but can't help it....

Ok, so this card is skating hedgehogs! Got the stamps at making mems a couple years ago, inaugural inking (can you say that?) last night. "Oh yeaaaah!" <-- like how Kool-Aid guy says it as he breaks through the brick wall with ferver holding that red pitcher of kool-aid. Whatever happened to kool-aid anyway? Don't see it around anymore. Maybe it's because I'm not looking. I was only ever allowed to buy Kool-Aid once. ONCE. in my entire childhood life. Don't remember what the occasion was, but I chose Orange. And boy was it ever orange. Packed to the brim with artificial flavour and coloring. Heh heh... it will probably give me diabetes later in life... good times.

Gotta get back to it. I'll post again soon. <--and now I really have to because I wrote it down...

Christmas Tree Card

Yes... Christmas is near. A little TOO near. Every year, I vow to 'start early'. It never happens, despite my best of intentions. In any case, last Friday, my friend Eunice came over to do a little carding. She is leaving for HK in Dec and well, her cards are to be in circulation this Friday. YEEPS! I am piles behind.

This Christmas Tree card is pretty simple. The trees are from It's Snow Time, a stampin' up set I bought a couple years ago and never inked up. Stickles for snow, and merry christmas ribbon (which, admittedly, Eunice and I went on an after-work run to Michaels in Richmond the previous night, followed by Won-Ton noodle soup, then Superstore, and then Daiso, then bubs - Bubble Tea that is! :P It was GREAT!) The Merry Christmas ribbon is from said shopping excursion.

NSR (non-stamping-related) Sidebar: Went to the opera for the first time this weekend. The opera. It was Eugine Onegin by Tchaikovsky, a story about unrequited love. (Cliche, right? LOL) Many, many old people. I can see how the opera is an acquired taste. Even having studied the history of opera, and a good number of operas in depth, down to memorizing the libretto (the words), the music, the acts and scenes, it was a stretch for me. I suppose it didn't help it was in Russian. But there were subtitles. It was a cool experience - thanks Gabriel! :)

That's all for now. More to come soon. :)

City Mouse

The instrumentation (instruments used) of this piece is simple. Just strings and the odd percussion for accent, mainly chimes and bells. I must say the string sound used is one of my favourite string sounds on the Kurzweil when used for the right application. (Kurzweil sound module - um. outboard gear. um. the hardware that allows me to have different orchestral sounds...um. that black box with the blinking lights).

Sidebar: A bit about how the electronic form of music works. Everything is written in midi format, which stores the note played, the duration of the note, and the strength at which the note is pressed. It also stores pedal information - when it goes down, and for how long. Once you have the midi information down, you can assign whatever sounds you want to it. So, if I decided to make this whole piece done on the piano, or xylophone instead, it'd be relatively easy to change with just the click of a few buttons.

So the title City Mouse. It's about a little mouse in the city zooming around on a moped through different scenes in the city. The mouse is the animated kind, wearing aviator glasses and a vest, like Stuart Little (incidentally, one of my fav soundtracks by Alan Silvestri).

I know I said I'd log the time it takes to write something. This was one of those pieces where I wrote 90% of it in a day. And then the last 10% took a few days. It was an easy one to spin off. Usually the fast writing happens with inspiring instrumental sounds. Enjoy!

Clipper Street Christmas Open House

Over the weekend, my couz and I went to Clipper Street's annual open house event. You sign up for $5 and go around to different stations where you make mini-projects. It was a madhouse, and I must say... this will be the last one I sign up for. Story to follow, but first, here are the projects:

The first thing we made was this gift card holder. I think it's slightly ug.  Cuz it was just an envelope folded up. There was all this excess paper causing it to pop up. Maybe I was supposed to trim some of it out.

 

Next we made a card with these giant paper flowers. It's okaaay.... 

Following that, we made this mini-book using the "Bind-it-all" coil binder. It's aight.

Lastly, we made this ornament card...

... and this was the one that did us in. There was this super-annoying anal retentive girl leading the session. She talked really slow, and insisted that no one move ahead on any step, until everyone had completed. She gave a giant schpiel (talking painfully slow) about how everything was made from punches which were available for purchase downstairs, and she kept on reiterating how she had a single-file lineup going and wouldn't allow anyone else in the room while she was giving her session, insisting she was claustrophobic and did not want any unnecessary bodies people hovering around. OMG. Just shoot me. That experience was so painful, couzin and I did not even attempt the final project, which was with glitter nazi elderly lady. 

Anyway, those were the projects, and... I will never return to such an event again! Clipper St. Open House events are going downhill fast. 

And in other news, got a piece finished so will be posting the audio file soon. Unless I decide it needs changing... which is not uncommon... Stay tuned. 

Yellow Ranger Love Theme

Back from vacation, and missing Hawaii dearly. Back to dreary weather and rainy puddles. As my sis-in-law once put it... it's slipping back into your normal routine like "putting on an old sock."

I had actually meant to post this before I left, but I wasn't sure about it. In that, in order to write stuff that's good, you have to also write stuff that's no-so-good. All that no-so-good stuff has to get out as well. This is one of those "not-so-goods." But nonetheless, 'tis all a part of that creative process so, here is the posting. Substandard work by yours truly :)

A bit of background, as always. There is a counterpart to this song, called Yellow Ranger. It's on paper at the moment, but not orchestrated yet. It's a bit of a fun tune about a teenage boy in love with the Yellow Power Ranger. It's on the list of to-dos so I hope to get around to it. Anyway, this piece was created as the Love Theme for said boy and ranger. Imagine the two running in an open field of daisies in slow-mo. You get it. Enjoy.

UBC IT Christmas Cards

Every year at Christmas, UBC IT gives their staff a Christmas card (signed by the senior management team). Since I have been working there, and a part of the Christmas celebrations (about 3 years), they have given out Costco cards. Now, Costco cards are pretty cool. They were the 3D ones with hand embellished details. Pretty fancy stoof. However, I thought it would be an excellent idea if this year, Senior Management MADE the cards for all the employees (about 150 people). This way, the cards can also incorporate characters from our marketing campaign, and it shows a little more personal effort on the part of Senior Management (often viewed by employees as distant and apathetic - typical feeling in a lot of organizations).

Yesterday, I pitched the idea to the HR Manager and the Director of Support. They approved, and so the HR Manager will in turn will pitch it to our Associate Vice President and Executive Director later this week. Imagine getting a card from the Executive Director that was made by him personally, and on the back, it will say "Made By... " I suppose some employees could view that as a bit creepy, but it shows that they cared enough to put a bit more effort into it. And also do something a little FUN (dear God NO!)

Mind you, if this goes through, I won't just throw a bunch of Bazzil cardstock at them with some glue and a few papercutters. I am anticipating that the card pieces will have to be pre-cut and semi-fabricated to some extent. After all, these are complete non-crafters here. I don't think 150 cards will be that bad... I've got some people from my team roped in to helping me already...

As mentioned before the characters are from our marketing campaign. I just worked a little santa hat on them in Adobe Illustrator and color printed on cardstock. The paper is also just printed off the computer.

And yes, at my place of employement, I usually take initative to force something like this upon the mostly dry and no-fun IT folks. It's part of my duty as one of the few employees under 40.

A few more sample cards:






(Sidebar: Sorry this posting is late! I tried to post yesterday, but my inet was being sporadic. But I feel like I can't really complain to Telus because I get a pretty good deal on it...the student plan from Telus: $19.99 a month for High-speed Enhanced. Oh well. It's back up and running fine today.)

The Aftermath

This piece is entitled The Aftermath. It is a bit of a dramatic piece with heroic horns. In fact, the horn sound used is Williams Brass. If that does not mean anything to you, please consult your nearest soundtrack buff for further explanation. 

It took 9 days to complete, start to finish, though I did not log the hours. It was basically a few hours after work here and there. I shall try to log hours next time to see what the rate of creation is. 

Oh, I should mention this other semi-interesting fact: in downloading the previous Tyro 2 piece off my Technics digital piano several weeks ago, I also ran into some (very old) sketches. Like, circa 2003 maybe. Well, at the time floppy disks were still widely used and were an integral part of computers, so that gives you an idea of oldness. Anyway, one of the old sketches was the basis of the beginning of The Aftermath. Just goes to show how you should always save any ideas, no matter how unfitting they seem in the moment. There can always be a later purpose where it fits perfectly. In the music world anyway.

Note: the sounds are a bit 'muddy' - especially when there are a lot of instruments going on. All pieces I have uploaded are done in raw format, no mastering yet. (Sidebar: Mastering is when you virtually put the instruments in their place. For instance, when facing an orchestra, first and second violin sounds come from the left side. Percussion sounds come from left back. Cellos and double bass sounds come from front right, etc. Also, reverb and ambience and the like are added at this time.) I will get them mastered at a studio in the near future. My job is to write the notes. It's someone else's job to make it sound good ;)

Halloweeny

This is a halloween card for my cousin! Card people make cards for all sorts of occasions - Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Left-Handed People's Day, Nurse Appreciation Day, St. Patrick's Day - just about every occasion or non-occasion you can think of. I'm not THAT hardcore, but I did make this card because I thought it would be funny. Who makes Halloween cards? And for what reason? "Hey, good luck with trick-or-treating..." 

Earlier this year I received a Valentine's card from my cousin so I thought I'd return the favour with a spooky Halloween card. The ghost and candy corn are from my "Sticker-a-Day" Calendar. 

More music stuff to come soon. Working on a couple things at the moment. Also waiting... waiting... for better monitors (not the visual computer kind... the audio reference kind... ah, nevermind... just stay tuned.)

More Purple Stuff

My friend Angela got sucked into buying these Stampin' Up sets from someone who was a Stampin' Up demonstrator (Sidebar: For those of you not familiar with Stampin' Up, think Avon lady, but with stamps instead). Since they had been sitting around her house for a year or so, and she hadn't really touched them, she thought they'd get more use sitting around in my house, and lent them to me. So here I am, using them :). 

This card uses the sets Carte Postale and Delight in Life sets. In retrospect, the mounting on the dark purple should have been done in lavender to match the ribbon, but uh.. it was glued down already and I didn't want to change it. Dots were embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. Ribbon is from Fabricland's closing out sale. Heh heh. Boy, if I wrote that on the real stamping forum, people would probably shun me. That's not even a craft store - I used "no-name brand" ribbon! It's like saying "This sweater is from Army and Navy." All the ribbon and supplies used by the 'pros' are from specialty online shops that do "new releases" every month or so, of a new product, a new color, a new stamp set. And you can sign up to automatically buy everything that is new from them. And they have online parties to celebrate the "release" of the aforementioned items. Some of you may think I'm a craft nut... but... this is nothing! 

Tyro 2

This past long weekend I extracted some pieces from my Technics Digital Piano, so they can be posted to the web. Sound quality is not stellar, as it was recorded through the air, but... that seems to be the best I can do for now, though I am working on a re-jig of the whole piece so it can ultimately be recorded properly.

Some years back, I studied with a commercial music composer in Yaletown for about a year or so. During that time, my assignments included creating some one-minute pieces. The constraints were that the piece had to be exactly one minute (because often you will have to compose something that is exactly X min/seconds long, so you have to be able to do that) and use only repeating patterns of music. Tyro 2 is one of those pieces. Yes, I know, I have to work on my naming of pieces... but hey, if anyone wants to throw out some ideas, I'd entertain them.

At the time I wrote Tyro 2, I was also studying music theory at UBC, and one of the topics we had to learn was advanced polyrhythms, specifically from Indian descent. Imagine an entire class of students simultaneously reciting complex rhythms in syllables like ta-ki-ta-ta-ki-ta stressing a different syllable each time depending on the polyrhythm at hand. It was quite a sight to see. (Sidebar: A bit more on advanced polyrhythms and what that entails. Try tapping 3 times on your right hand and 2 on your left hand... not too bad, right? Now try tapping 5 on your right hand and 3 on your left... How 'bout 4 on the right hand and 7 on the left? It goes on and on). Anyway, this piece has some of that influence. Hope you enjoy.

It's a Bomb! Aw, Thanks!

Here is my second Christmas card of the year entitled "It's a Bomb! Aw, Thanks!" See, the captions fit with the picture. Anyway, thought I'd go with more non-traditional colors, with the purple glitter + color scheme. The background snowflake stamp is from the Michael's $1.50 bin, and uses the technique where you stamp, and then stamp again without re-inking for a depth effect. The snowman stamp is from Stampin' Up's "It's Snow Time," bought in my "baller" crafting days, pre-mortgage. Got it a couple years ago, but never inked, so here 'tis! The paper is from Wal-marto in the States. A giant pack for $6.88. Love it!

First Papercraft Posting!

Yes! Finally had a bit of time to make paper stuff. This is a Christmas card, but with non-traditional colors. The whole light-blue/brown/white colour scheme seems to be quite hip nowadays. The tree stamp is one I got at Michaels in a set by Rubber Stampede. Never used it on a card 'til now. The white dots are pearl white 3D Paint. There is this stuff called "liquid pearls" I keep on seeing everyone use. I think this is pretty close to it. 

Yes. I sewed the button on. I'm not okay with gluing buttons - they have those holes in them; they were meant to be SEWN! Incidentally, the button came from a random pair of shorts I bought. One of those buttons that come attached in a little plastic baggie, should something happen to the 'original' button. I'm sure people buy special 'crafting buttons' - in fact, I have some - but, this one seemed to fit perfectly. YEAH!

Sanguinity

Here is a piece I just finished. Hot off the press. You'll notice that this piece doesn't use much in the way of traditional orchestral sounds. Though there are elements of the traditional orchestra included (strings, for instance, and the odd percussion now and again), it uses mostly other more... 'wacky' sounds. Yes. Wacky sounds. They are from Korg's NS5R synth.

No real story attached to this. It's just instrumental. But seemed to have a "sanguine" nature to it after all was said and done, so that's what it ended up being called. I am poor with titles. Maybe I should just do the "Prelude No. 1, Prelude No. 2, Prelude No. 3..." etc. like those old school composer dudes. It would certainly be a lot easier... Then again, I suppose it would be difficult to remember after a while which piece was which.

"Sidebar" (HIMYM reference - love it!): I had meant to start on papercrafts yesterday, but got sucked in to finish this piece. Maybe papercrafting later. When the goin's good with this music writing stuff, you drop everything and take it.

Impromissm

This piece is also from the archives, circa 2005. It's one of the first things I put together using 'real' studio gear. It uses software sounds from Garriten's Personal Orchestra, the first orchestral sounds I ever owned. I had to do some re-working of the song, as it was created using the old set-up, and after an evening of work, I think I have it the way it's supposed to sound. Or as close as I can get to it.

Now, the quality of these orchestral sounds are amazing. Though the mp3 format probably doesn't do it justice, they sound exactly like the instrument as if it were right there in front of you. They had actually gotten a violin, or whatever instrument, to play each note and recorded what it sounded like... it's crazy. The Steinway Grand sound is particularly impressive, listen for its solo. Cello ensemble sound is also very real sounding, as is solo violin (the single note that happens after a break in the music) --- actually, ALL the sounds are excellent!

Unfortunately, the problem with this sampling technique to get high quality sounds is that it takes up a lot of computer processing power. In fact, people buy entire Mac computers just to run this one software specifically. I however, did not have that luxury so, the software is being stored right now. Maybe for another day. Hope you all enjoy.  

Park Days

This piece is one from the archives. Since I moved, the setup of everything had to be changed, and some pieces were “broken”. I just re-jigged this piece tonight, and it now works fine.

Background: the music is about a day at the park (uh, from the title...) It’s a happy park, with vividly green grass (no yellow dry patches), and jugglers, ice-cream stands, and those entertainer people on unicycles. The flutes in the opening melody are reminiscent of happy birdies flying around. Wow. I sound like those music commentaries from those dreaded music history textbooks...

In the middle of the piece, there is a boy who asks his mother for an ice-cream cone. She is hesitant, but then he pleads, giving her the “big sad eyes” (harp plucks) and finally, she gives in and says “Well, OK” (french horn). There is then a ‘wobbly’ sounding part that follows - that would be one of the balancing acts of the entertainers. Is he going to fall? That is one tall unicycle... it’s those crazy ones. I am not entirely satisfied with the marimba used in the piece, but I couldn’t find the good orchestral marimba sound. Perhaps a little more digging and rejigging is in order...

The day ends with a happy theme - a joyous hurrah for a day well spent at the park.

First Blog Ever! - A Dramatic Sketch

Well, here ‘tis, the first entry in my blog. Allison (sis-in-law) inspired me to make one so... ta-da! We’ll see how it goes. It is, as the title indicates, a place to store creative meanderings. Made of paper, or music notes. I’m not usually that creative with anything else - words, paint, photos... no good. I’ll stick with what I know.

 

So, for those who have been to my place, you will have noticed the tiny den with a gigantic keyboard, and a lot of things with buttons, knobs and blinky lights. No one really knows what I do with that stuff. And no one’s ever seen me actively using that stuff. So now, here it is. What I do with that stuff.

 

For my first entry... it is a dramatic bit that popped into my head randomly. It didn’t turn out exactly as planned, and I’m not entirely satisfied with it, but it was late... and I was done for the night. Perhaps some revisions to come later. Check it out, if you so feel inclined.