OK, let’s see… I bought my electric guitar, a black Fender Squier Strat (I’m poor), back in October so it’s been over half a year that I’ve had it. Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I’ve played it very little and my improvements have been very marginal. I’ve had quite a lot of time to play during this Easter Break and I still try to fit in a half hour or so on the weekends but it’s been tough. I’m definitely not lacking motivation and I really do want to learn but I spend so little time at home that when I get back at night, it’s way too late to start practicing.
Regardless, I’m still learning a lot of new things every time I play and slowly but surely I shall improve and hopefully be able to play a full-length song sometime. Maybe in the summer…
Here’s what I can play. Mind you that I can’t play the full songs but just the main riffs (which are usually just repeated continuously for the duration of the song). Yes. I’m a total guitar noob.
Pink Floyd – Money
Led Zeppelin – Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You
Green Day – Brain Stew (similar riff to “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”)
Nirvana – Come As You Are
The Rolling Stones – Satisfaction
Oasis – Wonderwall (still needs some work)
And here’s what I’m learning (very very slowly):
Boston – More Than A Feeling
Jimi Hendrix – All Along The Watchtower
Radiohead – Paranoid Android (got the main riff)
Radiohead – Talk Show Host
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication
Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
The US National Anthem (just need to speed it up and make less mistakes)
I also spend some time each practice session just playing around with notes, the tremolo bar and the pentatonic scales. Yeah…
Published by Illya April 13th, 2009
|
To be honest, I’ve never written out to-do lists until the beginning of this semester. I’m pretty sure I didn’t because I felt my memory was good enough to remember what I needed to get done on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Last semester’s results seem to have proven otherwise.
I am aware that Mac OS X comes pre-equipped with some to-do list capable software, namely, iCal, Stickies and Dashboard Stickies; but when it came to the point at the beginning of this semester when I actually decided to write to-do lists, none of these cut it for me.
And so I began perusing the net for an alternative. I wanted something super simple, without a bunch of features I had no use for. It didn’t take long for me to find TaskPaper by Hog Bay Software.
With TaskPaper, I simply use the Project button to label my different classes, the Task button to create, well, tasks for each class, and the Note button to include more detailed information about individual tasks. As I complete tasks, I simply click next to them and they’re crossed out and tagged as done. Ah, the great feeling of accomplishment.
Time to go back to checking off more tasks.
Published by Illya March 28th, 2009
|
My new project is making a totally new website for NAUTY, a student-run organization at my university that organizes events promoting “greater cultural understanding and integration.”
Basically, they make the best on-campus parties.
The website has been pretty much inactive since 2006/2007 and my job is to bring it back to life. Hence, I’ve decided to move away from the static HTML pages that the website has been using and instead set up a blog that is both easier for administrators to manage but can also provide visitors with more up-to-date content with event announcements, photos, and more interactivity.
Not surprisingly, I will be using WordPress to power the website simply because I believe it is the best small-scale content management system out there. I will probably be designing an all new theme from Paul Stamatiou’s 281 WordPress template.
You can expect the website to be live sometime in mid to late April as I am currently having midterms and have no time to work for hours on designing. But once spring break rolls around, I’ll dive right in.
I welcome your views on what you would like to see on the new NAUTY website.
Published by Illya March 15th, 2009
|
Back in September of 2005, I wrote a short little entry about the websites I visit on a daily basis. I guess it’s not too surprising that with time, the websites I most commonly visit have changed, somewhat anyway. And because yours truly wants to keep this blog alive by updating it with content – regardless of how feeble my attempts may be and how unexciting this content usually is – I present to you my list of websites I visit most often.
1. ilapko.com – that’s right
2. Gmail
3. Facebook
4. HKUST Intranet + other intra-university pages – you don’t really need links for these
5. Flickr
6. Google Analytics – to dispirit myself about how few visitors come to my website
7. YouTube
8. Economist – for world/economic news
9. New York Times – for more US-centric news
This list is in no way exhaustive and obviously some days I may access other websites more often than others. As I’ve written in a previous article, I’m frequenting Digg less and less because it is a great tool for wasting time – the last thing I should be doing at this point in my life.
Published by Illya March 8th, 2009
|
Happy birthday to you. Stats-wise: 298 posts, 367 comments, 81,347 pieces of spam caught by Akismet. Life goes on.
Published by Illya February 28th, 2009
|
Recent Comments