Once in a lifetime

Had a pretty easy going weekend. Yangshuo is starting to thin out. Winter is here. It's been raining a lot these past few days. Just lovely. I had an extended summer so I'm welcoming the cold weather.

On top of that, had lunch with Isabella today. They're a bit low on volunteers at the moment, so I'll be helping out with twelve extra classes a week at the middle-school. Since one of my classes graduated last week, I have more than enough spare time. I just wish I could get some money for it. But how can I sayno to Isabella when she calls me 'my dear Daniel'.

Anyway, here is a video of the Talking Heads. I love this performance.

The Karate Panther Meats again and other stories

One of the things I brought with me to China is my creative writing book from when I was 8 years old.

Here are two excerpts:

The Karate Panther Meats Again

One day I walking in the street and it was dark and no-one was there but suddenly I heard a “ROARAAGH!!!” , and there stood the karate panther saying “Roaraagh, Roaraagh!”. The panther had a black belt on and a black ribbon around his head but what will happen, find out.

The panther asked “whor are you” and I said “I am Daniel” and he said “Shurrup!,” then I whistled and there came Harry my pet kangaroo.

The karate panther was fighting harry and harry was shooting his machine gun and the panther was kicking and kicking but then harry had his last bullet and “BLOW UP”, the panther is dead.

The End

Dodgedodge by dansnirp

The Day I shrank

One day I was going to a fancy dress thing and I was dressed as a dodger so I can dodge everything but I was thirsty, “I can drink anything,” I said. Then I saw the newsagent and went in to buy a coca-cola but when I drank it I went all fizzy and BLOW-OUT!, I was as tiny as a bug.

All I heard was cars, footsteps and everything was so big it must have grown, no I am mistaking, it's me, I have SHRUNK!. But I still got my dodging soot, then I heard a car coming my way, I don't believe it ARRRRRGH! What is going to happen, all I heard was SPLAT! It did not splat me I splatted it with my dodging suit.

Then I started having fun having a dodging suit so when some Insects come I go Dodge, dodge, dodge. Then when I was walking through the grass a big bottle I climed up and fell into and BLOW-OUT! I was big again and saw it was the same coca-cola bottle.

The End

Shrinkshrink by dansnirp

Buzz Loop

Here is a short loop I made in Jeskola Buzz.

Loop by dansnirp

Buzz is a lot of fun. But also very complicated. Making anything longer than 1 minute things start to get messy.

Here is an example of the main synth I used for this song:

The next picture is an example of the chain of machines I used. This one is not very complicated. It only uses some reverb effects. As you can see they are all connected to the master. Songs get a lot more complicated than this, especially if you use more effects and more filters. Here I only used one filter for the bass. Bass filtering is relatively easy since I roughly know what frequency I want to get. With all the other mids and highs though I'm still a little in the dark about what to do. So I try to keep it simple.

Next is a picture of the sequencing. This is only a 1 minute loop. Another reason why making longer songs can get tricky, the sequencing gets completely out of control.

Lastly, an example of entering notes. Also a tricky part because the timing is very difficult in this kind of setup. It's all very precise, leaving no room for error.

On the lighter side

I just found out one of my favourite musical groups have released a new album today! This is great news and sad news since I cannot get a hold of it. But thanks to the wonders of the internet and bit-torrents, I am in the process of downloading it right now.

I've loved Stereolab for a good 5 years now and have been a faithful supporter of their music. I own more albums by them than any other artist(s) - excluding the mighty Aphex Twin.

I even have two of their LPs which I treasure along with all the other amazing LPs (which I dearly miss).

Anyhow, here is a music video from their last album, which admittedly I did not find to be as great as their other releases, but this song stands up there. It is so strangely happy and sad all at once, it's not simple nostalgia, but something unique only Stereolab can create.

Fungyan

When I first arrived in China I joined an organisation called the Green Lion. They help assimilate people by giving them the TEFL course and cultural lessons and then also helping them find work. I eventually left Greenway because they couldn't find me a job in Yangshuo and I really wanted to stay here. So I went around asking at schools until I found the job I have now. Although I am still in touch with them, I think the people who work there are some of the nicest and most amazing I have ever met.

The first week I arrived here we went to Fungyan Village, which is in the Gaungxi province. So far the most beautiful place I've seen in China. Isabella, the head of Greenway, has an amazing old style Chinese house there which we stayed in. It is also one of the most peaceful places I've been in. When I next have some time-off I'm going back there to visit.

The following pictures were taken by Anna Anderson from Sweden, who I met on the plane and funnily enough we were going to the same place.

Day off

Today I had the day-off so I went to visit my friend Katre K from Estonia (also the author of the previous pictures) working in Kaya Bar. I took my laptop and played D&D Online, drank coffee and ate pizza. Later I took the guitar off the wall and recorded something onto my laptop and messed about with it.


222 by dansnirp

Kaya Bar

My favourite place to go.

Last few months

I haven't taken that many pictures here. I bought a JXD-1000 which is a handheld ROM player which also has a camera. I hoped it would have a some nice quality like the Nintendo DS camera but alas, it is rather bad. Also I'm the king of skew and blurry photos.

These are some older pictures of my two classes in Zhuhai. As well as my friend Andy whose family's bbq restaurant I spent a lot of time at. Andy was a good friend with good conversation. The last two pictures were taken back here in Yangshuo. The puppy lives here and the view is from my 'kitchen' window.

China

I managed to get a proxy now I can bypass the great-firewall! It's nice to come back here and see these pictures and read some old posts. Blogs can be so candid and revealing sometimes it's actually kind of embarrassing (Funny how I'm an English teacher now and I'm having trouble spelling embarrassing). This colour scheme is also a little old now...I guess I was going for the marine look since I was living by the sea for the most part the last 6 months before I came here.

Anyway, my life is pretty good at the moment. I'm living in Yangshuo, after a small stint in Zhuhai, which I didn't like all that much. I'm Teaching teenagers at a small school now. I must say, teaching adults in Zhuhai was certainly easier as they tend to be more enthusiastic than the younger ones. A lot of my students are very very lazy. On top of that, I think they mostly received pretty poor instruction previously. They are at a lvl 3 (the school has 3 grades) and there are a few who can hardly say Hello. Making it rather difficult to strike a balance between teaching those with a higher grasp and the others below. Apparently, according to some people around here, it is one of the more shittier schools in the area.

Ah, but I do enjoy the kids and the school gives me a lovely cozy apartment at the foot of a big limestone hill.

But in general I don't really feel like I'm challenging myself. I work only about 3 hours a day, I have 3 days a week off (thur, ,sat, sun). So I have a lot of time off! I'm wracking my brain thinking about things I can do to keep my brain occupied.

I'm making some music on the computer and generally that's quite fun but the results are usually quite poor.

I've read a lor of books since I've been in the country.

Most recently I read Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce which was nice and light and perfectly enjoyable.

I also started listening to some Audio Books.

Alexander the Great by Jacob Abbot was quite a good one: Alexander

And Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy: Russell

I tried a few others but sometimes I don't like the narrators.

I've also been meaning to get English books on ancient Chinese history.

I recently started playing Dungeons and Dragons online. Which is an mmorpg. It is very engaging and lots of fun. It's not just hack & slash - it is very tactical, especially in large groups everyone plays an important part. I can feel my nerd levels bubbling over already. I try not spend too much time on it but it is very addictive. I haven't played a big full-scale game in a while.

Besides that, I've made some good friends and I enjoy going out to my favourite bar for a few beers. All in all, I can't complain.