[RoR] Super Smash Bros. Great Medley

If you regularly read Xanga, "The Randomness of Raficus", during its 2003-2007 run, you may notice this is a repeat post. Feel free to disregard entries with a title prefix "[RoR]" (which means it's something I'm pulling because it seemed worthwhile to repost for a new crowd). Over time, I plan to migrate those old, fun posts from my deactivated Xanga site.


If any of you are (classic) video game [Nintendo] fiends, then you'll appreciate the references made in the following piece.

It's the Smash Bros Grand Medley [via Galbadia Hotel], as performed by the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra (Note: load the site and follow the link "To begin downloading, click here") [20 MB, 14:18].

It was featured as part of the Smash Bros. DX album, as an homage to the video games that inspired Super Smash Bros. Melee, all from 1980-1998.

At long last, I finally determined all of the tunes (before I had reached out to people, but to no avail).

• 0:00 - Super Mario Bros. (NES)
• 0:00 - Ancient Kingdom I (Super Mario Bros. Overworld Theme)
• 0:55 - Ancient Kingdom II (Super Mario Bros. 2 Overworld Theme)
• 2:17 [2:25] - Mr. Game And Watch (G&W)
• 2:16 - Flat Zone on bells/strings
• 2:47 - Flat Zone on winds
• 3:24 - Flat Zone on bells/strings
• 3:40 - Balloon Fight (NES)
• 4:08 - Balloon Fight Main Theme
• 5:11 - F-Zero (SNES)
• 5:11 - Big Blue Theme
• 6:39 - Mach Rider Theme
• 7:28 - Super Mario World (SNES) 
• 7:44 - Yoshi's Island (Air Platform Theme)
• 8:49 - Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (N64)
• 8:49 - Saria's Theme
• 9:40 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
• 9:40 - Overworld Theme
• 10:20 - Ice Climbers (NES)
• 10:20 - Icicle Mountain
• 11:34 - Unknown theme
• 12:05 - Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN)
• 12:05 - Peach's Castle Theme Underground Theme from SMB

Unaccounted times are transition music between themes (I didn't just blatantly disregard the intervals). Note that times may be off +/- 10sec depending on your computer, especially if you pause and rewind. Not sure why.

Organizing music library

Over the past few months I have tried to determine the best means for universally organizing my music collection for my iPod on-the-go. The problem is that different types of music are referenced differently, at least in how we think of them.

Here's a taste of some of the contrasting music styles that I have and the difficulties that accompany them. I've also listed my attempt at resolving them, though perhaps you'll notice the inconsistencies:

• Showtunes
• Artist = "Original [Broadway/London] Cast"? (although more vague, it seems more reliable than having the individual performers listed for each song)
• Album = show title?
• Year = recording (not release) year
• Soundtracks
• Artist = :"Original [Motion Picture] Soundtrack" (or similar)
• Album = "[movie/game/source] Soundtrack"
• Compilations
• Artist = source? (note the inconsistency this causes with treatment of soundtracks)
• Or should the song title include the title + source? Then what to do with artist?
• Album = compilation name?
• A Cappella
• Artist = group name (or heaven forbid, "A Cappella" or any of its variants)
• Genre = A Cappella? Vocal? Pop/Rock? 
• Classical/Instrumental
  
• Title = Only the piece's title? That leaves you with a lot of "Symphony No. 1"s.
• Artist = Composer? Or performing individual/group?
• Composer = Composer? Is it worth using the composer field?
• Songs by artist, not by album
• Should I remove the few tags that do have an album association?
• Do I simply deal with the "Unknown album/artist/etc" tags?
• Private songs
• How to tag songs that I'd like on my player when needed but not available for shuffle?
• Reserve a special playlist for these "gems"? Or just deal?

It all comes down to how to populate various fields, particularly those utilized by the iPod (Songs, Artists, Albums, Composers, Genres).

Any suggestions? Any and all are welcome.

Most desired Facebook tweaks

A list of things I really wish the 'Book would have already.

• Separate privacy preferences for "status" and "links". 
• There are some people I'd rather not see my status. 
• But I have no problem sharing links with everyone.
• I'm sure others feel similarly.
• More default view options for Facebook Wall. 
• Your own clutter can easily overshadow the messages from others. I'm a firm believer that the Wall is meant more for others' comments - not your own.
• Links already have a dedicated tab. Why have them redundantly post on the Wall?
• Smaller font
• That default Verdana font is just too large throughout, on the Wall, and even in Messages.
• With the amount of data they're packing in, they ought to make it the same size as the default comments.
• Comments already have a light blue background so they already stand out anyway.
• Tabs on the side
• Sure, the Wall / Info / Photos / etc was a nice touch, but profiles require scrolling.
• It would make more sense to have those tabs below your photo rather than across the top.
• That way, you don't have to scroll up to change views.
• Custom links built into your profile default view (for others to see)
• Google Reader already has the option to embed extra links into the profile.
• If Facebook wishes to be well-integrated, it needs to have the option for the user to direct to external personal pages that may not necessarily be a personal website.
• One thing that comes to mind is an Amazon wish list.
• Get rid of all the junk.
• Very few care about the highlights.
• Hardly any care about the advertisements.
• I realize you need revenue, but find a less obnoxious way to seek.
• Allow your friends to tag others in your notes.
• What happens when you forget to tag someone obvious and someone else notices it? Why force the author to go through the hassle?
• They already have it with photos. Why not extend it to Notes?

What about you? What ideas do you have?

Back on Twitter

After a week of no posting (did you even notice?), I decided to rethink my social networking management.

So I came up with the following scheme (which probably sounds familiar, if you've been keeping track):

• Blog entries: (weekly at best) for longer, more thought-provoking entries
• Facebook status: (daily at best) for life and/or response-oriented updates
• Twitter tweets: (frequent) for quotes, observations, and otherwise insignificant commentary

This scheme discriminates between (a) posts worth reading or ones that warrant formal responses (e.g. planning events), and (b) the silly ones posted out of compulsion, irrespective of the time and setting (e.g. mini-rant). It also means you can choose which ones to bother with.

In order to avoid spamming friend feeds, I *won't* be sending my tweets to Facebook.

The result? Facebook-stalking, Twitter haters won't be missing out, and the click-happy, page-refreshers can still get a decent serving. For me, that means I don't have to worry about the content of my Twitter feed, since anything remotely personal will end up only on Facebook.

Oh and don't expect me to keep up-to-date with your Twitter posts, even if "follow" you. This service is but a means to shamelessly leave my mark in cyberspace. Again.

The take-home point is that my public Twitter feed is for those really want to know what I'm thinking. Sure they might give you "insight" into my character (which you might find worthwhile if you're crazy enough), but they're certainly not worth tracking (though they may inspire much longer entries on my blog). Rather than dedicating as much time to thought-provoking commentary for my blog (a.k.a. Facebook Notes), I'll just send that stream of consciousness to Twitter (which has an RSS feed for everyone and also posts to my blog's front page).

Don't worry, I promise to refrain from useless tweets telling where I am or what I'm doing. Like, I said, it's all about quotes, observations, mini-rants, and quick commentary.

Facial movements in video games

As I watched the seven-minute Final Fantasy XIII trailer, it occurred to me that despite how gorgeous the graphics looked, the mouth movements were missing...something.

Don't take me wrong - they've gone far with rendering people in video games, but similar to Japanese animated shows, their mouth movements just don't sync with the words being said. Cartoons are more forgiving because at times you can get away with the "Muppet effect", where you signify speech with the alternation of open and closed movements of the mouth, without regard to the shape.

But with the level of detail that Japanese studios are integrating with their graphics, I'd like to see the next generation of games actually render the appropriate muscle movements with the spoken words. Because right now, the words just "line up" (i.e. the whole premise of dubbing), yet you hardly see the lips press together (rather, they just lightly grace one another). Without insulting their greater efforts, it reminds me of the simple movements that babies make when they go, "wa-wa-wa".

At the same time, I understand that investing considerably more time, effort, and money into animating that detail of muscle movements probably isn't worth it. It really would require two separate groups specializing in linguistics and computer animation for each language. So for now, they probably just let us deal with that, since the player should care more about the gameplay. And I suppose I'd rather have a game with a polished engine in which people where masks than a beautifully animated movie that, well, sucks.

And, in the end, I suppose Square-Enix has proven themselves with The Spirits Within, which, despite being a flop, did properly (and oftentimes realistically) render humans and emotions.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Nintendo is going back to its roots, while introducing some innovative play to the mix.

Well, sort of.

A new game will debut in mid-November as an upgrade to the classic NES (i.e. Super Mario Bros.) platforming action. Only this time, it's receiving the graphical upgrade akin to the DS game "New Super Mario Bros" and allowing four players to cooperate and compete on their latest system (hence the name "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" - wow, quite a mouthful).

I really hope this game will be good. Sure, the hands-on previews from Kotaku, IGN, and Joystiq seem to be fairly positive, but from the limited research (and limited details revealed) I can't help but think that this game is really holding back. In particular, my upfront gripes include:

• Only two plumbers and two toads? Even Doki Doki Panic Super Mario Bros. 2 had Peach. If they wanted to stick to the "brothers", they could have easily integrated Wario and even given Waluigi his platforming debut.
• No online multiplayer. Seriously? How else am I supposed to play across the US with Reilly?

Other mini-gripes:

• Need more power-ups. If the Wii really is a nostalgic console, they could have brought back more of the classics from SMB3. I hope they offer more than the new ice and propeller suits. 
• Need more retro levels. I do appreciate that the game was built from the ground up, but I sure hope there are some additional levels that pay homage to the NES/SNES days.

With such hits as Super Mario Galaxy, I understand that it's difficult to capture the same "wow" factor. But having had such flops as Wii Music, Nintendo really ought to try harder to hold onto its fanbase.

Sure, the last three years have seen record-breaking numbers, allowing Big N to emerge victorious in the console wars, but I wonder if returning to the big leagues has caused them to play it cheap, just so they can sustain their profits.

It's almost like they've decided they don't want to take any more chances, that it's easier to play it safe.  I understand the rationale, but I also feel they more than enough tools at their disposal to go innovate some more.

Google suggestions

Do the following:

1. Go to http://www.google.com.
2. Type in any of the following suggestions into the search box.
3. Watch Google's auto-complete do its magic.

Suggestions:

• "what are"...
• "i like"...
• "what would a"...
• "my poop"
• "my snot"...
• "why is there"...
• "is there"
• "do g"...
• "i am e"...
• "who took my"...
• "i feel like a p"...
• "i want to ki"...

Note: Best done if signed out of your Google account. Your past searches can affect the top suggestions made for you.

I'm not spoiling anything. Do it for yourself. It's totally worth the three seconds it takes for any of them.