Rosin

Took a good chunk out of the sour apple and paid up for yet another violin rosin. Which turned out to be a great buy, and whoever cannot make out any difference between rosins must be an old-school banging-hammer-against-anvil smith or a Paul Bunyan. So, I now have the Hill Dark for aggressive grip, and the new Bernardel when I need to be soft and swift. Quite a bit stickier than the Hidersine 3V that came with my violin outfit still. Buying this was really only painful when I hit the Confirmation button, rosins aren't so expensive considering how incredibly long they last, I still have some... Actually, I still have a lot of blank spots on the top of my Hill cake. And now I should have all the rosins I'll ever need for my entire life.

I also ordered a new set of Corelli New Crystal strings since they're known for being cheap, warm, and have very quiet projection, plus a Spector mute which takes away the most shrill high overtones which is perfect for practice. The heavy duty practice mutes that cover the entire bridge really kills a lot of flair, but playing without any mute at all will damage the ears. A little thing like the Spector & co makes long-term sessions a little mellower and sweeter. Fyi, I've noticed that the heavy duty rubber mutes tend to kill certain notes/strings a lot more than the metal ones, the latter are a lot more consistent. Too bad they dent the bridge.

Days or even weeks (months have happened, usually correlated with price) of researching things is rather painful, but in the end, one tends to end up with pretty solid purchases.

Dark Souls is an incredibly beautiful game btw, thought I should remind myself so I don't forget. Too bad it's known only for being ridonculously difficult.

Currently reorganizing some stagnant ugly code at work to support some new (old new) stuff. Generalizing code is like an intervention; very painful, but in the end it's usually worth it.

Just before the weekend, I realized I had never roasted a whole chicken before. Somewhat embarrassed of this life long void, I bought one and fed myself for the full weekend. I should cook more.

EDIT 2016-10-27: I just found a batch of childhood memories, mainly old Disney shorts:

• Fish Police - Once the memory hit me, it took hours to find...
• The Brave Engineer - This. Right here. One of the most influential thing for me in how I see things and think. I remember almost every single sequence since the last time I saw it when I was only a few years old. When I build Lego Technic, I see parts of this short. When I draw things, the pictures I conjure up stem from this. When I play games, when I watch other cartoons, when I see trains and straight lines and nature and movement in real life, this is in the back of my head. Always. How it took this long for me to bring it into my clear consciousness, I don't know. It made my life. Windwagon Smith is on a very close 2nd place, What's Opera Doc on 3rd, all the cliff faces and rocks of Roadrunner next.

And then came the yt suggestion onslaught:

• Chicken Little - I never understood any of it, but I remember it vividly: the weird chicken with a jojo, even the wish bones in lines in the cave earth floor at the end. I had no idea how dark it was, I just knew I loved wishbones in chickens after this. And here I thought Ren & Stimpy was dark... Rather unrelated trait of mine, but this is why I always take a 90 degree turn from the stream. Ah yes, I wondered why there were so many sleepy Donald Ducks in it.
• Lambert the Sheepish Lion - Oh my goodness the memories unfold clear as day. The stork, the lambs with the sideburns... La-a-a-mbert, lala la la la La-a-a-mbert. When I think of storks delivering babies, this is the one and only.
• The Ugly Duckling - I'll almost be that guy forever.
• Figaro & Cleo - Striped socks, the melodies, the broom, I wished balls of yarn would behave that way, I was upset my grandfather's fishing floats did not look like the one in there, I though the rolling pin trick was real, and on and on.
• Goofy & Wilbur - Long before "WIIIILSOOOON!", there was "WIIIILBUUUUR!". Too many things to count, I even remember the way Goofy's glove creased around his thumb when Wilbur snuggled up to it. So many details in there somewhere. I have a feeling someone rushed the end, already had the feeling back in the days.

I feel strange tonight having watched all of them...

Edit, same evening: I almost forgot!

• Saludos Amigos - Pedro fighting against Açoncagua (hail Colemak for having me type "ç" on my first guess), one of the scariest things on the TV for me as a kid, and the beautiful end Brazil. The way the world was painted (I though you could paint palm trees like that, *splat*), again the music, esp. the flute, even the cabin above the city towards the very end.

And Disney will never do these things again. Fortunately, once, they did.

EDIT 2016-11-08: Some photos of the violin gear I mentioned earlier:

First and second photo, rosins from left to right: Hill Dark, Bernardel, and Hidersine 3V. Third and fourth photo: closeups of the Spector mute to show the lip that goes over the bridge, I was looking everywhere for this without success, my good deed for the world this time.

Time for Nissin shiifhuudo nuudoru breakfast!

All this traveling

Went to St Petersburg for a collaboration meeting some weeks ago. Rather nice city, a tad too much gold, which seems like an absurd thing to say... Proof:

Nice to look at still.

And now I'm in Japan again, chomping down on the best food in the world. Had another all-nighter last night, which started with a lot of yakiniku in Shinjuku. The name server in the cave is anyhow down after the power-switch cut yesterday morning, so one particular computer cannot boot. Going back the coming week, then I'll go yet again in three weeks for three experiments... Hence the title.

Waiting for my pre-ordered copy of the Violent Sleep of Reason lying somewhere in my apartment in Germany. What I've heard so far sounds great. Seems like they've started looking at what their offspring has offered, which is not the good part, they have some proper Meshuggah stuff. I wonder what the lead guitarist is working on.

Bowing away when I can. Been thinking a bit about the form for my hands recently, looked into non-playing practices. Never liked them, they tend to do my head in, but they help in the end.

Gotta get back to being tired.