159# Burn Talk
Year 2003
I sent my CPU for a CD burner, with the price of RM350. I did not know anything about CD burnings. The first audio CD i had made was Slipknot's "Iowa" album. After several failures that i'd learnt, i managed to figure out the differences between making an audio CD and an MP3 cd.
I shared my favourite songs with my friends, buy burning audio CDs with tracks upon demand. Guess i'd gave out more than 40 audio CDs to my friends during that year. I felt regret for doing that as i was doing something pirated. But i was not selling. At least that could be better.
I made enchanced audio CD, or we should call it as Audio data CD. Once comes with music if played in a player. It shows data when read in a computer. I stored Videos, games as datas to share with my friends. Data and audio at the same time. That was kind of great that time.
Year 2004 and 2005
I still burn some audio CDs for my friend. But that year was lesser. I can still remember i'd burn for a few people only.
Including William, Joshua, Sexy Teng, Adrien, Layhui, Poh Yoke, Joanne, Jojo, Cheryl, Mindy, Wenying, and some one else. Total not more than 30 CDs, i guess. But that was still a lot...
During the end of the year 2004, my first self-made VCD was done in my friend's house. His CPU was faster than mine, so the encoding was made possible. That time, with the specs of the CPU, each VCD took about 30 minutes or more to complete. I managed to burn a VCD from the music videos i downloaded from the internet.
Year 2006, Current
I got a DVD burner now and i'm moving further. Initially i did not know what to burn for DVD since my datas are still too little to be stored in a 4.7Gb DVD+R.
Remember one night, before i slept. I got a sudden thought flashed across my mind. I thought of burning the "Full Metal Alchemist" anime into DVD video. It's an AVI format anime, 51 episodes, fitted in 13 pieces of my CDRs.
From Sunway Pyramid i purchased 10+2 pieces of Imation DVD+R with casing, with price of RM30.00. I guess it was the cheapest among all the stores, RM2.5 per DVD+R. If you found cheaper and better ones, inform me about it ok!
This is how i got it started
I inserted a DVD+R into the burner. I'm using Nero Smartstart. To burn DVD video, only 3 types of DVD video format were supported by my system. Manual always help. According to the manual, to import AVI format video, Nero VisionExpress was required.
What a steam breaker... I called my cousin for consultation. I was told to get trial version on the internet. Disappointed.
I took out my Samsung burner installation CD, i realised that Nero VisionExpress is included in the CD! Oh man, Thank God.
Installed Nero VisionExpress. Specialised in making VCD and DVD videos. I clicked on it, something appeared.
"Direct X 9.0 or higher is required"
Sick! A second steam breaker!
I went to microsoft page to download it. But it required validation of genuine microsoft windows software. I could not do that, you know. Therefore, i returned to google search for alternative sources. I used a particular download software to act as a third party to download the software.
Direct X 9.0 was more than 47Mb. For T1 users or broadband users, it would not be a problem. But it was for me, i'm a dial up user. 5 hours spent on downloading the setup, how sad.
Once i finished the download, immediately i installed it. Nothing happened. I was panicking. My intuition called me to extract a particular WinZip file. I did. After that, Nero VisionExpress can be accessed!
"Mike, you're such a genius", I said to myself for consolation.
Brain Cracking Procedures to make a DVD video
I copied 12 episodes of the anime into my hard disk. Taking some time because the files were more than 2Gb. Import those video clips into the system. Everything seemed fine. But in order to have such a long play, i chose "Custom" for the video quality. Mininum resolution. Therefore i made possible for 12 episodes. 25 minutes/episode, total of 5 hours video.
To transcode the videos was such a pain in the... It took 2 hours to transcode the videos! There was a preview shown for the transcode process. So it was like you're watching the 5 hours DVD video with 2x or 4x forward speed for the entire process of the transcoding.
Luckily the burning process onto the DVD took me only 20 minutes, or less. After the burning process was done, i continued it with a second DVD for the same project. It skipped the 2 hours transcode process since it was already done for the first piece.
I examined the DVD video i made at the DVD player. Cool, great. I texted "Produced by Mike 2006" on the menu, how nice! By the time i finished those work, it was already 2 or 3 in the midnight.
The whole process of installations, software download, copy, edit, transcode, burn onto DVD had just took me the whole day and night. Buy i was glad that i made it myself, though.
Second attempt
Today, just now i repeated the steps to make a DVD video from my CDR, AVI anime. I was smart this time. I edited the videos by cutting off the ending themes. I managed to fit in 13 episodes into the DVD+R compared to 12 episodes only for the first piece.
The 2 hours transcoding and 20 minutes of buring were predictable. So i left the computer and watch the first DVD i made on the tv.
After the burning process, i inserted the second blank DVD+R as to burn the same project again. But this time, i do not know what problem had i did. The transcode process started from the beginning again!
Sick! The first time i did, last night, it began with burning straight away without transcoding! Because the during burning the first one it had already transcoded! Frustrated.
I tried to skip that part with some other ways. "Copy DVD video" did not seem to work.
I was so stupid. In the end only i realised i could "Copy CD". "Copy CD" is regardless the contains of the CD or DVD, it will be copied identically straight away.
I inserted the DVD video, using "Copy CD" mode, select source and destination at the DVD burner. So the source will be extracted, stored temporarily at the hard disk. Once done i just need to take out the source DVD and put in the blank DVD+R into the burner.
After 20 minutes, another copy of Disc 2 was done... Exhales. I have to give my computer a break. I shall comtinue the 3rd and the 4th Disc tomorrow.
Therefore...
Am i making any sense here? I'm just noting down the process of how i made the DVD video from AVI videos at CDRs. I got the copies of CDR from Wei-Jin last year, Thanks man.
Anyway, i think you guys might not interested in burning DVD videos, nor reading these. Just simply you guys only watch videos with your comouter or laptop! Correct right? I knew it!
I think i prefer to watch videos with tv, being a coach potato at the same time. Watching it with computer or laptop is really uneasy. Further more, heat might damage the computer. If my tv damage never mind la, 10 years old tv, haha!
Question me if you wish to learn more. But not necessary i know everything, i'm still looking deeper onto it. Share more with me if you want.
It's time to let my computer rest now. It was operating since i woke up. 2pm until now with heavy workloads....
Disclaimer :
Making pirated audio Cds or video DVDs are not encouraged by anyone including decarboxylation.blogspot.com. Neither download softwares with third party is encouraged.
Use genuine windows. Listen to original audio CDs. Watch original DVDs. Original music can be purshased through iTunes.
158# Music Talk
Intro
As far as i could remember, i started to have interest in listening music was when i was about 10. Celine Dion was great for me and i listened to her almost everyday. Her "Falling in to you" album. During that time, pop scene was very popular among the youngsters and the kids like me.
There're a few that i could name. When i was 12, i listened to the boy group called 911. As well as the backstreet boys, boyzone, N sync... etc. When i was 13 to 15, i listened to more of them. Britney spears was once my favourite. Specially her "Opps, i did it again" album. Christina Aguilera's self-titled album was good. I got the extra remixed cassette. J.Lo's "On the 6" was the one which made me into Latin music.
Other than those mentioned above, i did listen to M2M, Dido, Michelle Branch, Natalie Imbruglia. These artists were once my favourite...
I continued listen to those until 16. At the age of 16, i began to listen rock, hardcore, and metal music. The first metal band i listened to was Paparoach. At first i found such noisy music was disturbing, indeed. Through MTV channel i know about Linkin Park. Through Linkin Park i know about Korn, Limp Bizkit. Further i went, i know about P.O.D., Blink-182, Evanescence...
When i was in Form 5, 17. I began to listen to Slipknot. Year of 18, Mushroomhead. And then my taste into Metal music expands, to bands like Stone Sour, Murderdolls, Deftones... At the same year, as i could remember, during the month of August i began to listen to darker music. I had some difficulties and social problems just because i listen to those dark ones. I have no one to share about the music, and no one to share the songs that i can play.
People might have problem to those i'm listening to. I admit that those do not meant to exist at that social's sight.
Verse But look, just look at how is the music scene nowdays have developed? The mainstream music before was just alright. Groups like BSB, Westlife, Blue or whatever were really acceptable for the public. But since the sudden rise of R&B and Hip hop music, there were more than a few of those who already judge the dead of rock. And nowdays pop culture even mixed with R&B and hip hop culture which was once only practiced by the black in the US.
Just take a look at what we have in the media now. Once i switch to the channels like Mtv, Channel V, Hitz.tv... What could i see are just hip hop influenced videos. Chances are 8 out of the ten. The hip hop culture has entirely infest the normal pop culture. It has replaced what we called as pop.
I can say that 7 out of the 10 of Hip hop based music is not healthy. Not healthy in the sense of the lyrics itselves are bad, explicit, meaningless and obscence. What the hell is "Don't Phunk with my heart"? Are they trying to imply "Don't Fuck with my heart"? What is "Pussy Cat Dolls"? What kind of groups is that? Are they selling music or selling their body?
What i could see in a Hip hop music video are just all about booty shakin, bling bling, hard liqours, parties, sex, and lots of unhealthy things, which do not meant to be shown in the general channels.
Hip hop has even brain washed the local music scene. For example, i've watched a video from the local vocal group called "Tea Tarik Crew". Ok, that sounds kind of freak. What appeared in their video were people dressed with little clothes on them like they have no money to buy. Those who supposed to be veilded partying around, hard liqours around, gamble cards on the table, implying oral sex of a girl to the DJ....
That kind of shit is that? Are those things meant to be appeared in a local group? Further more, the members of the group are all Muslims. Can they take liqour? Can they gamble? Can they even practice oral sex? Which are all seriously banned by their religion. And what worse is that the video is played at local channel tv.
Besides, i do not find the value of music for hip hop music. What's so nice to rap? Anyone can read things as fast as they want. Anyone can write lyrics to rap, since it do not make any sense. Hip hop is all about commercial, not music for me.
I had talked about the issue of negative influence brought by hip hop music with my friends. And there was a guy did not agree with me and said "How about Black Metal?". Obviously the negative influence of hip hop had not go through his mind. The first thing which came across was the Black Metal music, which going against his religion.
Chorus
Alright, i have to claim something over here. I admit that Black Metal is bad in a normal thinking way. But look, have you ever watch any Black Metal music's video on the screen of your home tv? Black Metal is always hidden under the ground. And it has never go through the public's attention. At least not in Asia, other than the only Country Japan. This country got a lot of attention from the Black Metal scene where they always have Japan overseas versions of CDs to Japan and only to Japan.
Black Metal music is still witin the range of art music, for me. Guitars, bass guitars, drums, keyboards, orchestras. Do you think that a person without any musical knowledge and play those instruments? Unlike hip hop. Hip Hop is, as long as a person has a mouth to rap, and body to swing, to wear baggies. If one could break dance that's even better. That's everything for hip hop. That's all about it.
But Black Metal is different. Songs are written, played, sung in the minor keys. Guitars are picked in tremelo, solo-ed in rhythm. Keyboards are played in sorrow. Drums are struck for hundred and hundred beats per minute. Vocals are torn. Female vocals, soprano in 4 octaves. Iscariotic choirs, orchestras...
Therefore, are these have even more value of art and music if compared to those hip hop music? Which only created by samplers, turnatables, drum machines? Does a person need to have grade 8 or more musical knowledge to create beats for hip hop music? Obviously, no.
I'm not complimenting anything about black metal here. I know it would not be accepted by anyone no matter what. Therefore it's always hidden under the ground. Those exposed to the public are critiqued as "mainstream black metal" and they would never return to the underground anymore.
Interlude
I got a Christian friend asked me, "So how's Cradle of Filth?"
I just answered, "Alright, the lyrics are poetic."
What i meant poetic was poetic. I had go through the lyrics, which remain unnoticeable by hearing. What they are singing are just about love, their godness, and worship to Her. A particular case where 4 songs were about "Paradise Lost" written by John Milton. Most of those are about stories from the bible.
Alright, i do admit that song titles such as "Satan my master", "The Principle of Evil made flesh", "The Black Goddess Rises", "Iscariot" are quite sensitive and negative from a religion's view. But this is not the entire thing of it to be a mistake nor a problem.
People might think that Black Metal deals with virgin sacrifices, drug, and a lot of negative stuffs. But those are just bias and assumption from the public. They do not practice human nor animal sacrifices. Because in fact, Lucifer doesn't need to be fed. Funny... But somehow, some of them do sprinkle or drench themselves with blood from blood bags, which i think is a waste. They do not kill people when they're performing. But some are employed to have copse paint and pretend like one for the fans to push, throw and torture around.
Anyway, some of them even choose the "dark" places for their recordings. "Dark" in the sense of "feng shui" that we can name. The "Feng shui" which could great dark and Goth atmosphere for the music. For example a place called Parkgates Studio, Battle in the UK. They said they killed and hung their co-producer in the studio for the sake of inspirations. Personally i do not think that was true.
Outro
Alright, no matter what, those negative stuffs i mentioned above about Black Metal will not be in the public's sight no matter what. What could the public witness right now is the decandence of the pop culture and the displacement by negative, unhealthy hip hop culture. Even it has influenced our local Malay artists.
This phenomenon is really disappointing for those music perfectionist. I'm not one, but i'm disappointed as well. Those who used to be unwashed in the US and become rich nowdays because of their music. And right now, the world is copying them. How sad.
Disclaimer : The above discussions are just personal opinions and it do not against any particular person, musical groups, body nor religions.
157# 2005
Another entry copied from ash-starcrossed.com
Top 5 fav Audio - Female
1. Ai Otsuka - Cherish
2. Mika Nakashima - Isolation
3. BoA - If You were Here
4. Ai Otsuka - Daisukidayo
5. Mika Nakashima - Oboroduyoki ~ Inori
Top 5 fav Video - Female
1. Ai Otsuka - Cherish
2. Mika Nakashima - Yuki no Hana
3. Ai Otsuka - Daisukidayo
4. Ai Otsuka - Kingyo Hanabi
5. Mika Nakashima - Seppun
Top 5 fav Audio - Male
1. Cradle of Filth - Tearing Veil from Grace
2. Dimmu Borgir - Allegiance
3. American Head Charge - Loyalty
4. Korn - Counting on me
5. Slipknot - The Blister Exists
Top 5 fav Video - Male
1. Cradle of Filth - Scorched Earth Erotica
2. American Head Charge - Just so you know
3. Slipknot - Before i Forget
4. Cradle of Filth - Nymphetamine
5. Slipknot - Vermilion
Top 5 fav albums - Female
1. Mika Nakashima - Music
2. Ai Otsuka - Love Jam
3. BoA - Girls on Top
4. Mika Nakashima - Love
5. Ai Otsuka - Love Punch
Top 5 fav albums - Male
1. Cradle of Filth - Damnation and a day
2. Korn - Greastest Hits
3. Cradle of Filth - Nymphetamine
4. Slipknot - Vol3: The Subliminal Verses
5. American Head Charge - The War of Art
Top 5 most played songs
1. Cradle of Filth - Cruelty Brought thee orchids
2. Cradle of Filth - Funeral in Carthapia
3. Cradle of Filth - Dusk and Her embrance
4. Cradle of Filth - Mother of Abominations
5. Cradle of Filth - Tearing Veil from Grace
Top 5 most visited blogs
1. www.rojaks.blogspot.com
2. www.kennysia.com
3. www.ash-starcrossed.blogspot.com
4. www.rockson.blogspot.com
5. www.fcukling.blogspot.com
Top 5 most visited sites
1. www.blogger.com
2. www.friendster.com
3. www.channel-ai.com
4. www.avexnet.or.jp/ai
5. www.mikanakashima.com
Top 5 most used words/phrases
1. Burn in Hell
2. Pariah
3. Wrapped
4. God Damned
5. Sic
Top 5 happiest incidents
1. Admission to IMU
2. Still survived
3. Brought lots of CDs and singles
4. Learnt new songs to play
5. -
Top 5 saddest incidents
1. Being rejected
2. Friends gone
3. Jobless
4. No life
5. Not studying
Top 5 things i want to do in year 2006
1. Study well in university
2. Stay healthy and positive
3. Learn to be more independent
4. Learn more songs other than Black Metal songs
5. Collect more albums and singles CDs
Happy New Year people!
156# About my Area, Part 2
My neighbourhood - Extended version
We are asked to love our neighbour like how we love ourselves. But in fact, how many people on earth could really apply this? I do not know. But i know that i could not love my neighbours like how i love myself.
The neighbour at the left of my house is a Chinese. Basically i have no problem with them. Just feel a unhappy with the aunty when she does opened burning, and when she yells at her grandchilds.
The neighbour at the right of my house is a Chinese as well. His current wife now is an Indonesian. They're ok. Just sometimes the wife would turn on the radio until very loud. But it rarely happen.
My secondary teacher critiqued me because i did not know my neighbours' names. Yes, i do not know.
I have no problem with the neighbours beside my house. But i do have problem with the row at the back of my house.
That god damned keling family would not learn how to control their volume. They speak like the person at the other side was at 1km away. To be exact, they do not speak, but they yell. In fact, that family is not the only one who do this mistake. I mean, speaking in high frequency and high amplitude is the attribute of their race. I'm not taking racial issues here, but this's the fact.
Remember when i was 16, 11pm something. This family at the back of my house had a quarrel. The child was like locked him/herself inside a room. The mum was knocking on the door, and screaming to that s/d.o.b so that he/her could get out from the room. Minutes after, the dad came over to join the party.
I was trying to sleep as i could. But the noise was extremely annoying and it had increased my blood pressure. Both of the parents were yelling, knocking on the damned door. And the child in the room was screaming like his/her parents were peeling his/her skins alive.
"PD! Sudah pukul berapa sekarang? Tak payah tidur kah? KNNCCB!"
I could not stand that shit anymore, and i opened my window and yelled at that family.
"Apa sekarang, keluar la! Bising apa bising?" The dad fired me back.
I was scared. Because once keling goes mad, he could take anyone down. That explains why there're always assault and murder cases done by those in the paper.
Minutes after, they did not make any noise anymore. Probably they had lack of fuel and their engines had overheated.
Right now, i'm still extremely hate this family. Every morning when the parents bath the children, the kids will sure scream like hell. Bathing seems to be a torment for them. No wonder these people smell like shit.
Imagine, every morning of 5, before the sun rises. The annoying vocals from the speakers of the small chapel wake everyone within range of 1km up. And about 8am, these kids will scream in pain when their parents bath them. How could i sleep in such a happening condition?
Besides, there is always a particular house at the back, which i do not sure which house was that, always play their pop songs loudly. Few tracks that i could remember, like the song "From Am to Pm" from some shitty western female kopi-o artist. They play damn loud. I could endure if they're playing some nice songs. But not those pop songs which could increase my blood pressure. That time i was into Slipknot. So i always fire back with Slipknot's songs. I always win in the end.
I'm revengeful. Right now i always counter attack back by my guitar. I practice most of the times. During the evening where it was silent, i could hear the sound of my neighbours closing their windows, when i turn on my amplifier. No joke. They really used to it and they know what am i going to do when they could hear the distorted E string sound when i'm tuning the amplifier. To pay back all the torments they had bring to me, the sound of my guitar and the sound of Satan have pay them back double.
I hate that family.
Yesterday, 31st of Dec. The last day of the year 2005. Early morning after the sun rose, i was awaken by the loud disco noise. It was just 7 something. After couple of seconds, my mind had forced to figure out what the hell had happened. There was a sport game held by the neighbourhood organisation at the field in front of my house. And the so called DJs were sound checking by boosting the half-assed amplifiers and waking everyone up.
Saturday morning, people should be going to work. But i do not know why these guys do not need to work. Most of the people who joined the sport games were bollywood lovers. There're a few Malays only around my area. And the rest had went out to eat Bah Kut Teh or working i think. So the field was fulled with people, looked like a gathering of MIC members instead of a neighbourhood programme.
Who could compete with them? I mean, thsoe people are naturally born with good staminas. The only great thing about them is their stamina, instead of anything else. Since most, i think all of those people in the field were members of MIC, so the MC did not bother to speak in Malay, and spoke in Tamil in the end. Intially songs playing were those self-claimed remixes, which mix Crazy Frog techno with their bollywood music. In the end, only bollywood music i could heard. The programme had entirely turned up to be theirs. How great.
Wherever a Malaysian goes, there always a trace. After the programme, the whole field was fulled with trash. White polystyrene trashs could even cover the whole green field. And they even throw those in front of my doorstep.
From the newspaper i learnt, back to year 1994 or 1998, i can't recall. There was an event in a particular stadium in Japan, which able to fit in 60 thousand people. After the event, there was not even a piece of paper nor trash left behind in the stadium. Look, education and civilazation contrast between Malaysian and Japanese. I'm not admiring Japanese here, don't get me wrong. Even a little kid of 2 knows that trash must be thrown into a dustbin. But those pariahs just never learn. There're still lots of rubbish in front of my house.
Besides, I could not move my car out smoothly because those idiots simply parked their kancils and wira everywhere in front of my house.
In front of my house, the field. Located exactly 180 degrees in front of my doorstep there "was" a bus stop. About ten years ago after vandalism, it's roofless. It's totally damaged. There's a shed where those pariahs gather, drink and smoke. Imagine how would it be when the smoke from the fags go into my house. Further more, those pariahs like those assed branded cigars, RM0.25 for a piece. Dunhill's RM0.60 a piece fyi. The smell sucks. Causing the high partial pressure of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in my house. How wish those smokers would just die because of emphysema.
Other than those mentioned above, you know what... Pizza Hut would never deliver to my area. Their riders had been robbed by pariahs more than a few times. Money, pizza, motorcycles had been robbed away by them. How sick. The only delivery available in my area is McD.
Taman Sentosa, i'm sick of this place. It's not "Sentosa" at all, no peace at all because of these pariahs. A place for keling refugee. The reason why there're so many pariahs moved here is because the houses here are damn cheap. Since there are so many of them moved here, and these natural born criminals caused a lot of crime around. Therefore this causes the further decrease of the prices of the houses over here. BKT eaters begin to move away from here, like my friends who used to live here. Moved because too many keling around.
Me? Not so soon yet. I think it's going to take sometime until i could move to a new house at a new area. My dream house is one with two and a half storey banglo, with the highest level to be my studio. I think the dream would come true some other days. I wait.
Damn those idiots in my area! This is not your estate ok!
