Indie Game Music Bundle

Do, seriously check this out, it's the Indie Game Music Bundle. Pay $1 or more and get 10 albums. Pay $10 or more and you get 7 more bonus albums. Only today though, so quickly quickly! There's some really awesome soundtracks there. No Bastion though, which made me a little sad, but it's still quite a bang for buck!


I already own two of the soundtracks, but I couldn't resist. I'm still a dirty dirty pirate, I just want to at the very least, try to support a concept that I very much approve of, which is to make it easier and more gratifying to buy something than it would be to download it illegally.

Measure Twice, Code Once

I'm rebuilding and redesigning my website, hence the lack of blogging. My coffee beans arrived today, I will "review" them later. I have another fun blind-study that I plan on doing as soon as I have the time. And I will of course, share more about my Idols audition experience. So yeah, I think that's it right now. Not a lot to read I know, but bear (Grrrr!).. bare with me. Until then.. let me delight your ear canals with the wonderful musings of Stephen Lynch, an oh so talented musician hailing from Abington.


Don't listen to this if you're easily offended.

Thanks But No

So yeah. I didn't make it through. That's that, I going to blog more about maybe tomorrow or something but right now I actually don't have the time to blog about it. But there's stories to share, and I will share them, I promise you that much..


I sang Accidents Can Happen by Sixx A.M. for those who are interested. I would embed it, but it was disabled for the official video so this one will have to do. But stay tuned for more stories and pictures.

A Looming Embarrassment

This Friday I am going to audition for Idols. I mentioned it briefly in Updates and a Pumpkin and because.. well.. I have no shame I suppose I now doing it again. How will it go? What will I sing? Only time can tell. Well time.. and me.. since I have now decided what to sing.. but because I partly want to be sneaky and partly I am curious to see what the judges think first (assuming I get that far) I won't actually tell you what song it is just yet.


So yeah.. the whole "assuming I get that far" -part.. apparently one sings in front of some producers or something on the first day and then they decide right there if you get to sing in front of the judges and cameras the following day. Which basically means you might not get to see me on TV at all. Now you know that, so don't get our hopes up too much, there are a lot of very very talented people out there.. much more talented than I am at singing, but "Hey!".. I have to give it a shot don't I?


I sat for quite a while trying to figure out what to sing. First I figured that I should obviously sing something whilst playing guitar.. (day one of thinking).


Day two (of thinking). Oh.. I should sing one of my own songs.. sort of a double advertising for myself. Who knows.. if they don't like my singing they might like my songwriting.. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do.


Day two (1 ½ hours later). I finally decided.. on.. not singing any of my own songs.. and to not play guitar. So there we have it. Whichever way it goes I will let you know what I sang on Friday. And again, who knows maybe if I make it through you can watch it later in early 2012 when it airs. I won't be able to watch it because we don't have the possibility of receiving digital broadcasting signals. So what I'm saying is, would anyone mind recording it? If I do manage to get the judges and they do decide to air me singing.

That's it.. I'm done for the day. [insert clever catchphrase here]

Awaiting Shipment

I just ordered some Costa Rica Perla Negra, Natural Organic via UK and now I'm waiting in anticipation for what it's going to be like. I try to make a habit out of not reading reviews or cupping notes beforehand. That way I can try to feel what I think about the coffee first, before my opinion gets "tainted" by actual experts at cupping.


Yes, it's called cupping.. but not the boob kind if that's what you were thinking.. or maybe that's just me?


I'll let you know ones I have had a taste. If nothing else, it gets the award for longest name so far.


On a different note, I have had time to play a little Batman: Arkham City.. but not enough to make a judgement yet. At least the beginning was exciting and gripping, kudos to Rocksteady Studios for (at least in my humble opinion) surpassing themselves in regards to the "intro". Especially considering that the "intro" for Batman: Arkham Asylum was quite good too.. But "Damn!" the introduction for BAC was better. I can't wait for when I have an hour or two of spare time so that I can continue to explore this fenced of part of Gotham.


I was also thinking about making an, sort of, educational post about coffee. Less of my own opinions and more of facts oriented, the very basics of coffee so to speak.. a little history and whatnot. I could call it "Coffees of the World, part Three Deux" but I will probably call it something else.


Would anyone be interested in that?

The Freshness Conundrum

Sorry if I came of too much as an elitist asshole back in Jamaican Blue Meh by the way. Whilst I do stand by my opinions I could have probably expressed them more delicately. I haven't edited the earlier post and I won't because I feel that would be more hypocritical than just letting it stay there as a testament to a part of my sometimes less charming personality.. or more charming? Or something like that. Why bring it up now instead of three weeks ago? Well, because once again.. it's coffee time!

First things first though as this is probably one of those things I could have clearer and more delicate about. Coffee and the experience of drinking coffee is highly subjective. Wait.. not just highly.. it's just subjective. That's it. You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine, no one can argue vice versa.. but.. and here's the little tiny minuscule but. There is still a difference in quality between what you might be drinking and what I might be drinking and we shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking there isn't. Oh what the hell.. I'll make a metaphor.. because.. well.. I like doing metaphors..

Both of these cars will get you where you need to go. In which one do you think you will enjoy the ride more?

 

Again.. like I said.. both of those cars will get you where you need to go. And some people might even in all honesty prefer the first one (Juhla-Mokka type coffee) even after having tried the second one, and no one has the right to argue with that. You know what you like.. simple as that. But we should at least be able to agree that there is a significant difference in quality between the two. Or maybe that is part of the problem? To be able to agree to that, one would at the same time be, sort of, confessing that "Yes, what I like is sub-par to what you like on a general quality-scale". Why is that a bad thing?

I can confess that my (not metaphorical cars now, but real ones) favourite car of all time that I would like to own someday is a Volkswagen Type 2, T1 "Camper".

Now I am well aware that this is not quality. It just isn't. But I still absolutely love this one and would like to own one that I can then restore to awesome (subjective) condition. So there you go.. the "Camper" isn't better, in terms of quality, than the Mercedes Benz SL500.. but given a choice between the those two cars.. from those two pictures.. I would take the "Camper". Not because it's objectively better but because it's subjectively "better".

So in closing. What I am basically saying, is that I'm sorry I called the coffee you drink "grandma's armpit sweat". I have never tried any grandma's armpit sweat so I don't actually know what that tastes like and should have used a more fitting euphemism. You like.. well.. whatever coffee you might like and I like Genuine Antigua, Dark Roast, 30 sec bloom +  210 sec extraction.. and that's totally okay.. for both of us.

The Freshness Conundrum? Huh? Oh right.. I have realised that I can tell a difference between a three day roast and a 10 day roast. Which means that soon I am going to have to start roasting myself, so that I can maintain freshly roasted coffee. The prospect of this is both exciting and "a bummer" for the same reason; Things have only begun to get complex in terms of coffee making.

My wife apparently knew this day would come.

Have You Seen My Goblin?

If you haven't already seen my Goblin.. well, you will have by the end of this post. This is a project I actually started almost two years ago.. at least according to the date on the folder I created when I was searching the internet for inspiration. This is one of those inspirational pictures.

 

From this and some other pictures and the power of my awesome and huge brain I created.. well what you'll see down below. Which alas is not even finished yet but I did manage to get a little detail painting done yesterday. I was going to glue back one of the arms but we were all out of glue sticks.. damn it, so that will have to wait for another day. We (read: my wife) get through an insane amount of glue sticks.. I wonder if one could get sponsored by whoever makes those divine thermoplastic adhesives? Well.. Anyway. Here you go, two (very) WIP (work in progress) pictures of my goblin doll "Clem". He's supposed to become, once he's done, a shaman of some sort. Weighting in at 450 grams and standing 36 cm tall.

I'm actually very pleased with how he has turned out so far. The goal was to see if I could create much much more detailed hands, feet and head than before. Which I apparently totally can. And as usual, sculpted parts made from Sculpey III with an skeleton made from wire.

I still need to paint the eyes.. as soon as I can decide what eye-colour he should have.

The End of Tees

Last month I shared about how shotdeadinthehead.com wanted me to sign a Customer Design Suggestions Agreement in regards to my t-shirt designs. I of course sent them some follow-up questions I had. But first things first.. the agreement was pretty cut and dry in the end.. when I finally understood it, which was sort of my issue to begin with.. as I had difficulties understanding all of the technical law-terms. But the gist was pretty much this. They pay me a commission on every sold t-shirt, something they had been doing all along. They get the rights to my designs. If we ever part ways, they still pay me(?) and they designs are still theirs.

Now that last part irked me a bit since I was/am keen to retain the rights, if nothing else than at least get the rights back when they no longer sell my designs.

But in end, we (as in me and David from shotdeadinthehead.com) reached a mutual understanding where.. well.. my designs are no-longer for sale. For a couple of reasons actually, but I'm not really sure if it's okay that I divulge all of them out of respect to the other party.

So.. for now.. this is the end of tees. My t-shirts are no longer available for sale. It's a sad day for everyone I'm sure, as you all have come to love my awesome t-shirts and you might be wondering how you will survive without them. Well.. I would hate to be the bearer of bad news.. but you probably won't survive without them. Unless you hunt down the few people that have them... and kill them.

I wonder how many times people stumble on this blog whilst, well for example, looking for porn and instead find these rambling.. I wonder how many of those, don't actually understand that I'm being sarcastic.

Anyway. In the past 9 months and 13 days since I first started selling t-shirts I have sold a total of 48 t-shirts. That's like one t-shirt every 143th hours. So yes, it's a little sad that they are no longer selling them but at the same time this gives me an awesome opportunity to improve on the original designs, make them even better and then maybe sell them from some other place.

Until then.. oh how I wait for the day when I'm walking around somewhere and I suddenly see someone wearing a t-shirt that I designed.

The "Let the game begin" -design.

Goodnight and Sweet Dreams