A while ago I mentioned something about looking for the perfect pen to draw with. Something that would work for my crazy doodles. Today a good friend asked me if I had managed to find what I was looking for. Well, actually I did! =) I tried a rather large range of similar pens to find what I would be comfortable with, and interesting enough, it turns out the perfect drawing pen is in fact a Stylo Sharpie Pen! =D

I’m a pretty big fan of the whole family of Sharpie markers. But I didn’t even know that Sharpie had these Stylo pens. Apparently they’re new. =) They have very fine tips, smooth waterproof ink, and of course they come in this very pretty sky blue which is just perfect! =D

I also tried out a similar sort of pen produced by Pentel. That was also quite cool, but somehow the Sharpie managed to win me. I think it’s the colour! 😉

Here’s a photo of my new friend:

And here’s more info.

My latest musical discovery has been more of a re-discovery.

4AM in the morning of April 1st, for a rather long list of reasons I was still awake and  trust me, this time around I was in fact quite tired. So I thought I’d relax to some nice music for a bit before the day officially started. I was about to serve myself up some Mike Oldfield [I had “Amarok” in mind!] when incidentally I noticed the news of a new release on the Kahvi Collective page. The EP called “Little Man Entered a Big Village”, is the latest by the Finnish electronic musician Aleksi Eeben. This was interesting news, seeing how I hadn’t listened to anything from this artist in a reeeeeally long while! A very long time ago I had come across a number of truly great tracks by the same artist under the alias “Heatbeat”, but since then somehow [unlike me, I know! =P] I had in fact lost track.

So, well, I downloaded the EP and began listening. It started with my head resting on the pile of papers on my desk. Then came the feeling of blood rushing into my brain.. then I found myself sitting straight and totally conscious…  Then, of course, came the track “Linen & Linseed”, and I have to admit I’m glad none of you could actually see me at that point. Messy hair, googly eyes, mildly head banging to the track, in my PJs, 4AM in the morning. =D  Needless to say I luuuuuuuvvvvvv the EP and even more so this track.

Of course then I went ahead and downloaded the artist’s entire set of available albums off of Bandcamp in FLAC [YAAAAAAAY yes it’s all available in FLAC]. And if you want to get your hands on what I’ve been loooooping in the past week, you can do the same HERE. Oh, and I really do mean looping. To say that I’ve gone completely nutz over “Linen & Linseed” would be an understatement. Check out my Last.fm profile if you don’t believe me. =D So, well, I really do suggest you check this out. =)

Is it just me, or was the general quality of the music released at Breakpoint this year way above average? The streaming music compo included a great deal of awesome tracks, and many of the demos released in all categories featured superb soundtracks. So for someone with a serious case of [good] music addiction such as yours truly, this was a good chance to fuel up. =)

Here I’m just going to mention a few of my  favourites, but really, I think you should just check out everything that was released. 😉

When the streaming music compo finished, my first thought was – “so much great music, how can anyone win this?”. Well, apparently someone did, and well deserved too: Check out Disrupt, fantastic DnB track by Puryx, the Danish demoscene/electronic musician.  This guy produces a lot of great music, some of which is currently available on his Last.fm page. 

Petarda by Chaser/Elude, and Sooner or Later by Little Birchard are also tracks that you should definitely check out. The entire collection of music released at Breakpoint 2010 can be downloaded from here.

As mentioned in my previous post, Vokawardoai  by satori has a pretty awesome soundtrack… yeah I think I’ve gone on enough about that already. 😉 Then of course there’s Agenda Circling Forth by Fairlight & CNCD. Beautiful soundtrack, to go with the marvellous visuals. 

In the 4K intro category, Retrospection by FRequency & Trolls In The Shadows is certainly one of the prettiest 4Kz that I’ve ever seen, with a really cool and upbeat soundtrack. I liked the soundtrack so much that I requested for a separate music file, and the guys in charge were kind enough to provide it. The soundtrack can be downloaded here, and below is the video. 

On other fantastic news from the past few days [and there really is so much to say!], ASD’s Rupture won Scene.org awards in 3 categories: best demo, best direction and of course public choice. =) Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! =D

The awards ceremony was held on the 2nd day of Breakpoint 2010. This makes me wonder, since Breakpoint is going away, where is the scene.org awards ceremony going to be held from now on? Hmmm! Anyhow, I give you Rupture [as usual, I suggest you see the actual demo instead of the video]:

Oh my God…. I know I’m about to sound like a bloody fan girl, but honestly I could care  even less. =)) I’m usually pretty excited + energetic + happy + LOUD about the things that I’m truly enthusiastic about, and that’s just the way it is. And I like it this way, as it brings me success… anyway….

I luuuuuuuvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Satori’s demos. So much that I actually check their Pouet page every month or so just to see if they have anything new, even though they hadn’t released anything since 2007. They were one of the very first groups I came to know, and they’re among my top 3 favourite demo groups of all time, and I have a LOT of favourites so… you get the picture. =)

I was beginning to lose hope of seeing new demos from Satori since they hadn’t released anything in such a long while. And that would have been such a shame. So you can imagine the depth of my WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW when I saw their name pop up on my screen today, as I was watching the demo compo on Breakpoint TV. =) And oh wow, they SO did not disappoint! The demo is a true artistic masterpiece.

What’s interesting is that the Satori demos are like NO other demos. What I mean is, many of the really nice demos that I have seen, have certain elements in common. I’m not saying they look in any way the same, but they have some very basic similarities in their effects, design and direction. But Satori’s demos never have anything in common with anything else out there. They stand out completely, and the totally rule. Same was the case with their BP release. And hey, this one happens to be even better than their own previous demos. All I can say now is that I hope they don’t stop…..

Below is the video recording of the demo. But I suggest you download the actual demo to enjoy the full experience of it.

So what just happened to that? I’ve noticed that since about 2 weeks ago, suddenly Last.fm has decided to show very low compatibility between me and people who listen to a lot of the same as me… people who used to have near 100% compatibility with me. I think they’ve managed to break something. =P And yes I sort of care because it’s a good way of discovering music I may like. This service truly is on a downward spiral… meh.

Whoa! To say that I’m impressed would be a total understatement! Sony just hit us with one of the biggest design surprises of the decade. This limited edition  VAIO is in fact, well, ROUND!

I have to admit, even though I recently bought myself a pretty amazing VAIO, I’m still quite seriously tempted to purchase one of these. Check it out!

Here’s another serious competitor for ASIMO. I just came across this article on IEEE Spectrum and was pretty amazed by how natural some of this robot’s moves are. And it actually looks pretty neat too! The wrist + finger movements / control impressed me the most.

Norooz…. it’s here again. =) Time goes by fast, doesn’t it? Well, I have to admit, it’s been a very interesting year. A lot of interesting events happened this year, in many various contexts and directions. And from what I see right now, the coming year is probably going to be even more adventurous. Some crazy things are in the making, lets just say that for now. 😉

Tomorrow at 1:35 PM Toronto time, 6:35 PM Zurich time, and 9:05 PM Tehran time, the Persian year 2569 [1389] starts. Happy Norooz everyone, and wish you all a fantastic new year. =) 

Oh my world… it this amazing or what? Superb work of art created by “Daniel Rozin”, an artist who’s art responds to the people viewing the art. More info here. Thanks to this guy for the link.