heylooklisten.org

And a Happy New Year

2009-01-01T08:11:10Z

Ry and I had planned on going downtown for New Year’s Eve tonight, but unfortunately he is sick. Instead, we spent a mild night at home playing games and watching movies. We counted down with Animal Crossing. Happy New Year’s, everyone!

Persian Christmas Robots

2008-12-26T22:27:15Z

This was the first year we hosted Christmas at our place. There were seven adults and two children crammed into our tiny one bedroom apartment and it was great. We had gotten a 4’ live potted Monterey Pine from Adopt a Christmas Tree, an organization servicing the San Diego area that both delivers the tree and then picks it up after the holidays to plant it somewhere where it is needed. The presents probably would have obscured the entire tree, had it not been standing on a stool. I spent pretty much all day yesterday preparing a pretty successful Persian meal consisting of chelo kabaab, rice (cooked chelo style and sprinkled with saffron rice), chicken kabaab, salad shirazi (tomato, cucumber, onion, parsley, lemon juice & olive oil), garlic and minted yogurt, sabzi (mixed herbs and vegetables), and hot lavaash and pita bread.

(Leftovers)

I got a lot of nice gifts, including Lego Mindstorms, which I have been wanting for a while now (yes, I am 10 years old). Here’s a short video of our first little experiment with it. Ryan built the robot and a created a short and simple program using the visual NXT “language.” I purchased a few books on Amazon regarding more sophisticated designs and using a C-like programming language to have more command over what the robots can do. Looking forward to it.

I’m Dreaming of a Chiptune Christmas

2008-12-19T11:18:14Z

Doctor Octoroc has given some old Christmas songs a whole new sound. Not only has he created chip-tune versions of traditional carols such as The First Noel, but he’s done each of them in the style of a distinctive and recognizable NES game. While the album isn’t 100% completed, you can download the songs Doc Oc has done so far—a preview of sorts—for free off of his website! Once the album is completed (expected to be out December 20), it too will be available for free download! ‘Tis the season of giving indeed. I urge you to check 8-bit Jesus out and see how you like it.

Finally, I’d like you to consider Doc Oc’s request: If you enjoy 8-bit Jesus, please help with a small donation. Doc Oc will reward kind donations of $15 with a physical copy of the 8-bit Jesus album. Please consider doing this—he’s in a bit of a financial mess right now, mostly because his adorable Corgi puppy must get an expensive surgery. Read more about this and you decide whether you wish to help or not. Remember, the digital version of 8-bit Jesus is completely free; it is up to you if you feel you should and can give a contribution. I am in no way affiliated with Doctor Octoroc, I’m just a fan of his holiday creation and a sucker for cute puppies—especially Corgis named Ein. I mean, just look at him.

Cockatiel Learning Totaka’s Song

2008-12-04T03:38:10Z

We’re trying to teach our 3 month old cockatiel, Mui Mui, to whistle Totaka’s Song (also known as K.K. Song from Animal Crossing). I sneaked a short video of her on the MacBook before she got distracted (she loves watching the screen and chewing on the MacBook’s keys).

New K.K. Slider Songs in Animal Crossing: City Folk

2008-11-23T05:21:47Z

K.K. Slider songs new to City Folk! I’ll post them as I find them! Enjoy.

K.K. Sonata
K.K. House

These songs are Special Request songs that work in City Folk—not necessarily new:
Stale Cupcakes
Spring Blossoms
Wandering

I’ve got a golden ticket…

2008-11-21T21:58:32Z

I’ve been accepted as a graduate student of Educational Technology at San Diego State University. Though I was informed by the department unofficially of their decision to recommend my acceptance weeks ago, today it is official!

Totaka’s Song

2008-11-21T04:37:43Z

While I am sure that I am not the first to discover Totaka’s Song in Animal Crossing: City Folk, it was still an amusing experience to find it without hearing about its location first. Animal Crossing Sarie was on a bus ride from the city back to town; meanwhile, in the real world, I had stopped to enjoy some delicious plain tart yogurt topped with fresh fruit from Yogurtland and thus wasn’t furthering Kapp’n's “dialogue.” I noticed that Kapp’n had started to whistle a mariner’s type tune. “I betcha he’ll start whistling Totaka’s Song if I wait long enough,” I said to Ryan (who had kindly brought me the yogurt to remedy my sore throat). Sure enough, after minutes, Kapp’n began to whistle that notorious 19-note song!

NXE Sarie

2008-11-19T19:19:16Z

After all the anticipation, the New XBOX Experience (NXE) is finally here. I probably spent about a half an hour watching my friends’ avatars appear, deciphering the different backdrops, and musing over small discoveries (e.g. you can see the avatars of those who are “in a party” with your friends and hitting LB before taking your avatar’s picture changes his or her emotion). Overall, I think the new Dashboard is visually appealing and extremely user friendly, however I think it is both smart and considerate that users may still reach a text-based menu by hitting the XBOX button on your controller, appeasing people like my boyfriend (You know what was a user-friendly UI? DOS.) who aren’t into the whole glitz and glam of the NXE.

The only thing I am really disappointed about is that the Netflix stream is only available to current Netflix subscribers, which I know is like duh, but does anyone else remember the fuss about “free Netflix” for current XBOX Live Gold members? Rumors on the Internet. I’d consider subscribing if Netflix had all the weekly TV shows I wanted to watch like Hulu, a FREE service, does. I could care less if the videos are in HD or not. If you aren’t already a Netflix subscriber and are kind of on the fence about signing up for it just to stream to your 360, I’d recommend considering the $30 license to Playon (you can try it free for 21 days first), which allows you to stream video from Hulu and Youtube to your 360.

The Night Before Experience

2008-11-19T09:51:30Z

I am one of unlucky ones who did not make it in time to sign up for the XBOX Experience beta. So tonight, much like a kid waiting for Santa or the Hanukkah Zombie or whomever to come bearing gifts, I eagerly await Experience’s public release—an event that should be happening within the next 22 hours! The High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE! banner currently looping on my dashboard is taunting me. Maybe I should just go to sleep. As Mister Data learned (only when he turned off his internal chronometer), the watched pot never boils.
EDIT!!! If you perform a Network Settings Test on your 360, your console should find the update!

Mui Mui

2008-11-16T02:45:13Z

Meet the newest member of our family, a cockatiel named Mui Mui.
She’s named after the little guys you find in secret areas of the PSP video game Loco Roco We saw her earlier this week at a local bird shop, Bird Crazy, where they let all their tame babies play and out on the main floor and allow customers to hold and play with them, too! I fell in love with Mui Mui because she was so sweet and I was sad to learn that the blue dot on her head meant that she was already sold. However, when Ryan, Sammi, and I returned to the store today, Mui Mui was still there. After asking, we learned that the people who wanted her decided to go with a male since they sing more. Lucky! Our untame masked lovebird, Chicken, doesn’t know what to make of her, but Ry and I are really happy she’s here.

Hello World.

2008-11-12T07:35:23Z

It looks like my installation of Expression Engine was a success. How exciting! I’m looking forward to designing my own theme and making heylooklisten dot org more me and less default weblog-ish, although I might not feasibly get to that until the end of this semester. Being able to post right away provides some instant gratification though.