This Blog Is Dead

Really. It's not just that I haven't posted in nearly a year. It's that the reasons that I was posting are not here anymore, and there are no new ones. So I'm going to give anyone checking this place out the courtesy of knowing that this blog is officially dead.

    --LazerBlade

To Split a Channel

Now I have two YouTube channels. I'll be keeping Music Hacker on my primary channel, along with any full tracks. On my new second channel, however, I will be doing a ton of stuff.

There is a high likelihood that I'll be bringing Music Hacker back to a more serious tone since LazerBlade's Funhouse should be all the onstage crazy I need. Keep in mind that both the LazerBlade of classic Music Hacker and the LazerBlade of cupcake nuthouse land are simply projected personas. They are there for the amusement of me and my viewers.

    --LazerBlade

New album and new track

I am officially making it official. I am producing a new album with a working title of "Glamtastic". The plan is to make a bunch of hot pink glam tracks infused with LazerBlade synth work. What is probably going to be the main track of the album was just released today.


This track is the first of mine in years to be produced with FL Studio. I really could have made this exactly as it is with LMMS, but with FL Studio is was much easier and quicker.

Theme Stuff

I just realized how small the text was on this blog and overhauled the font choices, sizes, and colors. It should now be less of a pain to read. Feel free to leave comments about these changes on this post.


        --LazerBlade

Beep Boop Released

Today I uploaded the last part of my newest EP, Beep Boop, to YouTube. You can check the page for it out here, wherein there are links to the YouTube playlist and a download containing the EP. I know I'm running behind in work on Music Hacker, but it's super hard to keep up with school and music and webshow all at once. It's coming, but I can't promise when.

    --LazerBlade

Music Hacker Season 3

I am officially planning on running a third Music Hacker season. I don't have any promises on when it will launch, or what schedule it will be released on when it does. My current estimate however, is that it will launch a fortnight from today, releasing new episodes biweekly.

I am working on the soundtrack, intro/outro titles, style, episode/topic schedule, topic research, and production pipeline efficiency. Here is a little chip of all of that.



    --LazerBlade

Cybernetic Epix Released

The new LazerBlade EP you've all been waiting for is now fully released! Cybernetic Epix is available for free listening on YouTube and for free download here. You can also go read about it on the page I put together for it.

Now that this project is concluded, I shall direct my music production efforts towards a new Chiptune EP. Because making Chiptune is fun.


    --LazerBlade

EP's

I'm not dead! Really, I'm not!

The reason there weren't any updates last week is that I've been super busy studying for a big test I have coming up. I had time to do a little though, including making a bit of headway with Infiltrator and producing this track.

Those of you who don't know or haven't guessed: I'm working on a Chiptune EP. This will be interesting, because I'm also working on another EP titled "Epic Cyberfunk," AND starting a new album. I'm hoping to finish Epic Cyberfunk soon, and then work on the new album while doing chiptunes in my wiggle time.

I've played me several games I want to discuss as well, so I should be able to get together some content for you guys for/during the next few weeks.

    --LazerBlade

Album Released: Rhyme Or Reason

What more is there to say? Read about it here, listen to it on YouTube here, and download it here. Enjoy!

     --LazerBlade

Hardware Fun

Those of you who have spent any marginal amount of time reading my stuff will know that "fun" means ridiculous time consuming issues that one of my personalities can enjoy with a dark sense of humor while I try to get through them. That is pretty much what is going on with my rig right now. And it's so hilarious!

In short: my rig has been having some really interesting problems which I've finally traced to the motherboard. I have to get a new one. That's why there has been a dearth of content for the last week or so. I haven't been able to work on Infiltrator or write up anything about game design or music because my machine hasn't been working. Once this gets worked out I will be back.


        --LazerBlade

Music Hacker - Finale

I wanted to go out with a bang. You get this instead.

More Revisions to the Posting Schedule

Looking back over this blog after I discontinued Cognitive Observations, I see a lot of filler posts. I see posts that are more updates than entertaining content, or posts that are basically quickly scraped together excuses for content. This was never what this blog was about. I think this may become an even bigger problem once I stop doing Music Hacker.

*gasp*

Yes, I'm going to be discontinuing my webshow once I finish season 2. The reasons and everything will be discussed in the season finale. The point is that webshow updates made up a  little over one sixth of the posts here, and that kind of content being removed doesn't magically make up for itself. After a lot of analysis, I arrived at the conclusion that I want to choose quality over quantity. That means I want to chisel my posts down to two per week. Where will these posts go in the week? One of them will go on Saturdays, obviously, and the other will be moved from Wednesday to Tuesday.  That way my terribly busy Wednesdays will get a little slack, and there will be new posts for you to read in your spare time on the weekend.

These changes are effective tomorrow. That way I don't have to have anything ready until Saturday. ;P


            --LazerBlade

New Album Officiated: Rhyme or Reason

Yep. I've got enough track time not on any album to justify another album project. This time it's flying under the name "Rhyme or Reason." Theme: there is no particular rhyme or reason to why the tracks were put next to each other. ;)

Thus far I've got about 6 tracks filling about 25 minutes, so I'm nearly halfway done already. This should prove rather interesting, as I never really thought I'd keep doing this to the point where I had four albums.

        --LazerBlade

Thinking About Advertising

So I've been running this blog for awhile, but only recently have I thought about getting some Google AdSense in here. My primary focus will always be to provide you with free, interesting, and entertaining content, so don't think this a step toward the dark side. I would like the opinions of my readers on this, as you will be the ones who see the ads. Obviously, I would still get money even if you ignore them and don't click on them. But if you feel that ads would in some way ruin this site, please discuss in the comments. If you think I've waited to long and you're just filled with joy that I'm thinking about advertising, also discuss in the comments. I think you get the idea.

 Also, if/when I setup ads on this blog, feel free to complain if they seem too invasive or obnoxious. As previously stated, ads take the back seat in the automobile of priority.

    --LazerBlade

Coding After Midnight release at 100%

Uploaded to YouTube and playlisted, available for download on MediaFire, and cataloged on it's own page.

See this page here for all details.

Coding After Midnight complete

Video speaks for itself.

MadCat day 2012

Those of who have been following me for a year or more(before I had learned even a pittance about writing,) may remember MadCat day. I would have talked more about the MadCat, but I didn't have time to write a very long post. I'll have to settle for changing my desktop background and maybe firing up my old copy of Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries.

        --LazerBlade

New Album officiated!

So, I'm officially announcing production of a new music album. I've got about 30 minutes of music lined up already, and about 10 tracks. I'm officially titling it "Coding After Midnight." The idea here is that it's the kind of music you would play while coding/hacking late at night. Themes in the songs (Yes, I do those now. I'm not just capable of instrumentals you know) centre around things like hacking, computers, night time, dreams, being a geek, etc.

I don't have anything but foggy ideas for cover art yet, but that doesn't really need to be done before the album.

I'm not really sure about the release time. I'm going to say that I think I'll be done within the next 3 months or so, but that's not a commitment.

Anyway, start biting your nails and celebrating that I'm still doing albums for now.

    --LazerBlade

SOPA & PIPA

Blacking out(all posts reverted to drafts) today.

Crysis 2 review part 2 will be up tomorrow(with the rest of the posts) if things go smoothly.

2011 retrospect

I was going to do a write up about site stats. Then I decided to turn it into a 2011 retrospective. Then I noticed that this will be the 100th post on this blog, posted on my birthday. Crazy how things work out huh?

So what did I accomplish this year? I finished a 3D screensaver, reviewed a number of games, started a webcomic, created two music albums, started a webshow and finished the first season, moved to this new blog, and made quite a bit of headway in a new game project.

Now the stats are interesting. Things started pretty slow, with a normal build. Then, two months ago, traffic started climbing like crazy. I have about 1000 views a month now, and still climbing. The one thing that orks me, is why I have so many silent viewers. I get comments from time to time, but yeesh. Talk about the silent majority...

Now I have to look back and see what I learned I guess. After all, what is age, if not a measure of experience? No, I don't make resolutions. I'm already more awesome than the average person the way I am.

So, I learned many things. The first thing I learned is not to start a project without being willing to commit serious amounts of time to it. Something that just takes an hour a day is a huge investment. Secondly, try to make very specific goals about the end product of any project at the beginning, to avoid confusion later on. Third, try to be realistic about what projects you choose to start. It's okay to be ambitious, but make sure you have the time, skills, and resources to complete your project before you start. It seems generally  best to choose a project that's just a bit out of your comfort zone. Something where you'll have to learn new things, but something you can still finish. Fourth, school should NOT be taken for granted. It's not safe to assume that your school will take care of itself while you work on something else. Last, under promise and over deliver. I've never been 100% accurate on how much time or other resources it would take to complete a project. It's much better to assume it will take more than you think. That way if it does, you''re ready for it, and if not, you just come out ahead of schedule(which is a good thing.)

I'm sure I've learned plenty more, but these five seem to stick out the most. Anything else I need to mention that's important... Oh yeah. Start writing blog posts early so they don't have to cut o-

    --LazerBlade