Tap, Hold, Tap, Tap, Tap (Or Rhythm Stuff Like That)

                Evening everyone (or morning, or afternoon, or whenever you are reading this)! I’ve decided to take some time and go back to one of the things that gave me inspiration for my earlier blog posts: music. This time, not a list of music or explaining an underappreciated genre, but a little sub category fusing a couple of my favorite things: music and video games. Music, video games, and everything rhythm-y. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect time consuming piece of digital media, but game developers intentionally added another ingredient to the mixture, nonsensical rhythms. Enough joking (for now), I’m talking about rhythm games. I could talk about games like Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), Guitar Hero, or Rhythm Heaven (fun games, all of them), but I feel I should explain mobile (as in mobile phone apps) rhythm games since I play them the most.

                Every rhythm game is classified as a “rhythm game” for one simple reason: you play the game to the beat (more specifically rhythm) of the music to get higher scores. The games will have a grade system based on how many points you have in the end and will most likely have a difficulty measure next to the song before you start it. Typically the games will use a track that will drop notes that you need to tap or play to “hit” them. The more accurate you are, the more points you will get. Others like Rhythm Heaven will use button presses, taps on the screen, pattern replication, tracks, and more to shake things up in mini rhythm challenges. Again, the more accurate you are, the better your grade will be. Rhythm games on console (Xbox, Wii, Playstation, etc.) have, in many cases, bene proven to provide exercise, help people learn real instruments, and help rehabilitate because of the coordination needed (just see the Wikipedia article on them for a quick list of examples). Mobile games don’t necessarily have these benefits, but what they still help with are coordination and reaction time. They also are more like game similar to Rhythm Heaven in the sense that every mobile rhythm game can be different and don’t all conform to a single type of playstyle. Another good thing to mention is that unlike console rhythm games, most mobile games have music that is made just for rhythm games. Console games like DDR may have band music released under label and music made just for the game or just have the music from official band albums.

                To name a couple of the rhythm game apps I have, there are Cytus and Dynamix. Cytus uses dots on the screen that you need to either tap, hold, or drag across a path. Songs are normally a couple of minutes long (with a couple of exceptions) and songs are rated from a 1 to 9 difficulty scale and have a hard mode and easy mode. 1 difficulty has a few notes (between 40ish and 120ish) and 9 will have upwards of 800-1000 notes. A bit of a difficulty spike, no? The difference between 1 and 9 is pretty huge, but the ranks between will help you be able to play the songs on harder ranks or settings. All songs are graded out of a million points, anything below 600,000 is a failed attempt. The game has music from MANY genres (including a couple orchestral) and there are over 100 songs for free in the game. I used to play this one a lot and I still do from time to time. It’s a good game for both new players and those who want a challenge.

                On to the next one, Dynamix. This one is a bit more interesting because it has a track system, unlike Cytus, but it has tracks on three sides of the phone screen. Again there are tap, hold, and drag notes. Songs have a casual, normal, hard, and maybe another rank called “mega” or “giga” and can range in difficulty from a 1 to 14. Level 1 songs are similar to Cytus level 1 songs, pretty simple and will only use one side of the screen at a time. Level 14 songs on the other hand, well, prepare to break something. You play everything you hear and use all three sides of the screen. This game also has around 100 songs, but only 23 can be played for free. Despite that, I play this game very often and enjoy the challenge it gives. I’d recommend this game to people looking for a bit of a challenge, but you can still play it if you don’t care for the hard stuff.

                I find these rhythm games to be entertaining and enjoyable even if I do poorly on them. The whole subgenre of video games that is rhythm games is very expansive and keeps growing, so there is probably something out there that is your cup of tea. Hope you all enjoyed, and please, let me know if you tried a rhythm game before, it’s fun to see what people have found.    

In Two Hours Time

Today was the last day of the cross country season this year and leaves me with many thoughts, but two in particular: 1. I need to go back to PE (not too happy) and 2. I have an extra two hours after school everyday (yay?). It might seem a bit odd to question having more time to do things in a day, but when you're used to not having that time, what do you do with it? I mean, I have plans for what to do during those two hours, but give it a week or two and that plan will slowly fade. That time just seems like so much added to my life despite it being only two hours. Time just doesn't work well with me, which is confusing to me since many people I know say I'm good with time management.

I tend to plan out my day in very simple terms such as "I'll go here, and then here, and then do that... etc." Doesn't cause me much stress, gives me a quick overview of my day, and I just go with it. Even small changes like the free two hour block give me some trouble though. A normal day for me was planned out pretty simply: Go to school, go to practice, go home and do homework, sleep. Not too complicated right? My new schedule is something like this: Go to school, decide whether or not I want to stay after school, go home, do homework, relearn an instrument, decide what to do for the next hour, rest of the evening, sleep. I just have NO idea of what to do in that time. Some days I might read, others I might run more, yet others I might just forget what I'm doing, get lost in thought, and sit in a chair for an hour (really not healthy, I know). I'm not complaining about the extra time, I don't want to give off that feeling, it's just the fact that I don't know what to do with it upsets me.

Getting that extra time is both a blessing and a curse. I get the time, but that's also the other side of the comparison, I get more time. I have opportunity, but because it isn't even remotely guided, I have trouble figuring out what to do with it. Why does time just have to make life so troublesome?

Doin' Good (Not so Good)

“So how’s your day been?” "How are you doing?" How many times do you hear those a day? Once? Twice? Thrice? Never? “I don’t know so stop asking me” times? Regardless, when someone says either of questions, it shows they are looking out for you or want to check in on how you are (totally not repeating one of the questions again). It feels nice, to be acknowledged every once in a while by someone asking how you are. But what normally happens is that you hear those phrases more often the worse you look that day. That's not quite as encouraging. Say hypothetically you are having an awful day; on said hypothetical day everyone you know comes and asks if you are alright. There's a point in the day where you just give up the facade or put one up so people stop asking, the attention is nice and the concern from others can also be nice (not in the sense that they are concerned, but in the sense that they care about your well-being), but it eventually becomes too much. Too much attention, too much denying that you really aren't good, too much not being alone. 

Not everyone is like this, I know; I'd like to think I'm one of those people who can say to people who ask me on those days "Yeah. I'm losing ground and gaining speed, but you haven't lost me yet.*" And move on. Honestly I had a couple of days like that this past week and its been on my mind. A few friends of mine have had long streaks of days like that before too, some more recently than others. It's not fun to have those dreary days or find out someone else is having a day like that either. 

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that, as I've had a few frankly terrible days recently, keep an eye out for people who are having those days too. Just check in with friends, see how they're doing. If they are having a bad day, show them you care (it helps, even if they don't want to say anything), but don't be overbearing, it doesn't help anyone then. Sometimes, showing you support them and stepping off to the side can help more than standing right beside them at all times. Some days, you just need to fight your own monsters, but know that when you may fall, there's someone there to catch you and pull you onto your feet again.     

*Took some lyrics from "Yet" by Switchfoot and spliced them together. Kinda just had to. Need to fill that daily quota of song references you know?. 

Back to the Basics

Once upon a time, you learned something. Simple right? One day you decided to learn something (or not and learned that thing anyways) and there you go, something to put under your belt of knowledge, Maybe that thing was a of extreme importance or perhaps it was a bit odd or hyper situational. Give it a few months, maybe a year or two and that belt gets looser around the knowledge. Every once in a while you remember to give the belt a tug to bring it back up or tighten it so it actually does its job, but eventually something falls out. Conversations, definitions, memories, skills, the reason you went down outside to get your brother when you already subconsciously know he is in his room; they just escape your grasp. Whether or not you notice is another discussion in its own right.

Recently I've been trying to relearn piano (which is not going well), relearn guitar (slightly more successful), and get back into running cross country running (more successful than the other two combined). The problem with having to almost start over cross country is that it wasn't really my fault. I had an injury, which led to another, which spurred another injury to take its place and now I'm here. After about a month of not running (to put that into context, the cross country season is only a couple months long and the season is almost finished), I finally ran a race. That race wasn't quite how it would normally be after most of any other season, I ran a time comparable to times I get at the beginning of the season (that should also put into prospective just how well my relearning of piano and guitar are going) . That's like taking two or three months of work on a project and scrapping it just before the due date. Needless to say, that day was both refreshing and disappointing to me for various reasons. Nice to know that I can still run, breath correctly, and pace myself for three miles, but not as nice to know that with only a few weeks left in the season that I have a LOT of catching up to do. Conditioning is time consuming and relatively somewhat painful, but that doesn't mean I can't do it. Caught those running skill just before they got out of my reach.

Once upon a time, you forgot something. Next time, you brought it back.  

More Than Meets the Eye (Video Game Music Edition)

For those of you who know some about video games, you know that nowadays the visuals of a game are praised highly, maybe even overshadowing other wonderful parts of the game or masking the bad parts (for those who didn't know this, there was fact #65 of my day). If it wasn't sort of evident from the previous sentence, I disagree with the notion that great graphics make a great game. I could care less about the visuals of a game (to an extent, no MS Paint please), but what I care about is the soundtrack. I'd argue that video game soundtracks are like movie soundtracks: both are needed to make the media successful, both may go unnoticed in the moment, both have hidden gems somewhere in the medium.

Quick disclaimer on my part: I could possibly be a bit biased towards this music because I have played the games themselves and enjoyed them and the music. As a result though, I recommend all music I will mention and I also recommend all the games mentioned (if you’re not a gamer, the music is still great on its own). A final note, most music mentioned is earlyish in their respective games, leaving those who want to play the game spoiler free (yay!).

First up, a calmer piece from a series (not just a single game) that I honestly adore: “Dearly Beloved” from Kingdom Hearts. For the trend of being early on in the game, I think this one takes top spot, it is literally the first song you hear (title screen music). The whole piece (or rather all versions of it, 16 of them at the moment) is very relaxing with a piano dominating the song with string accompaniments, a whole orchestra, or even just the piano alone depending on the version. For those who want to play the games, be wary. There are currently eight games with one more on the way and ALL of them are canonical. It’s a bit crazy.     

Now that the calm is over, let’s release the storm. The storm being the mini-boss theme from Xenoblade Chronicles “You Will Know Our Names”. Mini-boss in this sense being a unique enemy that is not a main character/villain and can be encountered while exploring the field. Immediately when the music starts you are bombarded with guitars and drums (and the synth), making quite the dramatic entrance. That what I really enjoy about this piece, it makes itself known and changes the mood from whatever it might have been to a hyped battle theme. That and the guitar solo about one minute into the song (arguably it is solos plural) is just amazing. Side note, even though I said the graphics of the game don’t matter as much to me, this game has absolutely wonderful graphics.

Just to make a rule of threes, the final piece I would like to mention explicitly is from the game Kir-OBJECTION! The real game that was supposed to be mentioned was Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Yes, the final piece is “Phoenix Wright ~ Objection!” from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. All joking aside, when this song comes on it just give an immense amount of satisfaction as it only plays when you point out a contradiction in the witness’s testimony. Quickly to clarify, the Phoenix Wright games are visual novels based around Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney (not actually as boring as it sounds, don’t worry!). It’s also really catchy and loops well when listening to it for an extended amount of time. Even if you don’t like this version of the song, there is an entire jazz album with this song and others on it, so at least listen to that (don’t forget to smell the dark coffee while you do so).

Concluding this short list of favorites, I’d like to say I could probably go on for hours more about this (and I might later). For now, hopefully you enjoy these three songs and their various versions and for that matter the entire soundtracks of all their respective games. I also dearly wish that my point in proving video games are more than what they look like has also come across. Until next time! 

A Musical Expedition

                Guess what everyone who read the last blog post, I HAVE A REAL IDEA THIS TIME! Thinking about a bit of my daily life over the past couple weeks, I almost forgot something I always do every day, take time to listen to music. In all honesty, I hadn’t started to listen to much music apart from what I grew up with (i.e. classical, gospel, rock, almost anything from the 80s) until about three years ago. Not that I dislike anything other than the genres or time period listed above, in fact, I listen to almost everything. The exceptions being rap (sorry to everyone who like rap) and country (sorry, not so sorry). Let’s cut to the chase and move back a bit in time (Insert “Back in Time” lyrics here).

                Literally my entire life I have been listening to music. As a baby I would go to sleep with classical music. Growing up, when the radio wasn’t on, everyone would be listening to rock music. Mostly U2, Pink Floyd, or Foo Fighters. A couple other favorites were Coldplay and Switchfoot. Got no complaints with any of these bands, I actually would recommend you take a listen to U2 and/or Foo Fighters at least if you like rock. Even at church growing up (and now), the music wasn’t quite traditional with an electric guitar, bass, drum kit, keyboard, and three or so vocal parts. If we jump ahead a few years (make sure you have everything with you before we depart), I get involved in music at about the age of 11.

                 I started to learn piano and trumpet around 5^th grade (both eventually dropped for various reasons). I never wanted to play trumpet, believe it or not, I wanted to be a percussionist, but I needed to play piano for five years first (it turns out I would have been a great percussionist, but that’s beside the point). Coincidentally, when I started to learn how to play instruments, my music spectrum, so to speak, broadened. I started to listen to jazz, swing, a little bit more electronic genres like house, and I’m clueless how I started to listen to various video game ost (original soundtrack, a topic for me to gush about later). 

                 Nowadays I listen to almost anything from classical to drum and bass to electro-swing (it’s a thing, if you want a listen, search for Caravan Palace, they’re a French group who do electro-swing). Like I said only a couple sentences ago (assuming you read them), I almost guarantee that at a later date I’ll gush about video game soundtracks and a bit more about my musical tastes. If anyone wants to share some music in the comments, go ahead, I’m always eager to find some new songs to eventually memorize (a bit of a habit). 

Writer's Block of the Second Degree

            I'm pretty sure we all know those times when you start to write something, delete, rewrite, delete, rewrite the rewritten part, delete, et cetera, et cetera, until you can't write anymore because all of your ideas have been used up (you have no idea how lucky you are if you don't know what this is like). I'm also pretty sure that if anyone knows me, they know just how long it takes for me to come up with ideas to write if I don't already have them. To clarify for the people who don't know, the answer is a very long time. So, in typical me fashion, as soon as I went to write this post my mind just went blank. Honestly I'd like to say that "The more I deal with writer's block the better I can handle it and so will you!", but clearly that hasn't happened to me (if you manage to get better at dealing with writer's block every time it happens, please tell me your secrets). Frustratingly, I can't seem to recall a time when I didn't have to deal with writer's block even when explaining a math theorem.

            For as long as I can remember I've had major problems with writer's block to the point I haven't written a thesis and the paper is due tomorrow even though I've tried to work for hours on the paper (true story).  Not only does it happen with school work, but even when I decide to write stuff for my own enjoyment, an example being poetry, I still can't get ideas, so stress or a grade doesn't really seem to be the problem. I have no idea if this is just me unconsciously refusing to work or if other people get writer's block this badly this often. In fact, I'm still having writer's block at this moment.
 
            I feel I've perhaps discussed my plight with writer's block not quite in the way I experience it wholly, because after my bouts with writer's block I can normally write for quite a while (until I stop writing for say, maybe five minutes, and then it comes back with a vengeance). I wish I could find a way around it and just stop the writer's block before it starts, but hey, whatcha gonna do? Time for me to get a head start on my next post, maybe, just maybe, I'll have something fun to write about (or even an idea at all).