[IRL #10] I'm 18! Yay!

What is up people?

Wow it has been a full month since I last updated this blog of mine. I'm sure y'all understand how busy I am with my studies, and "side projects" with the band. I hope that's a good enough excuse for some of the serious followers of the blog. Anyhow, Last time, I promised I would post a video of us participating in this departmental "Battle of the Bands". Actually, it was long over, in fact, it was in August, and we ended up winning nothing. At least we showed the audience some justice for their presence there on such a hot venue!

Enough chit chat, on with the vid!

I'm the one with the blue strapped guitar. The one on the right. Yeah, I can get excited sometimes.
Oh and it doesn't end there. After that, we things have gotten really busy. A week after our performance, we got encouraged to join another "Battle of the Bands", but this time, it was an open contest. We competed against the best bands from all over our locality. It was never easy to pass the screening, as 26 bands auditioned, and only 12 of us passed. The sad thing is, the organizers fined even those ones who did not get passed the screening. It's such a sad system. So, we did our best on stage, and again, we ended up with NOTHING. Nah, it's a no biggie for me, because all I wanted for the band is the exposure it gets, even when it means we are sure to be at loss. Although we are fated to lose in the judges' decisions, the audience's judgement still matters in the long run. We captured our performance on video, but I was not still able to upload it on the net. I'll update this blog once it's on!

Anyhow, enough with all the band talk, yesterday was my 18th birthday! Yay!

This time, it's not a lie!
You all know how it all turned out, we had a small jamming session here at the so-called "Countershot HQ", we had drinks, at it was all fun! I can still hear the phantom sounds in my ear! If you're exposed to too much noise for long periods of time, you'll get what I mean.

Also, the first episode for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 2 aired on the same date as my birthday. Such a wonderful coincidence, as I am an avid watcher of the show!

I know, It's AWESOME!
And also ALSO, My dad bought me a bass guitar and a bass amp as a birthday present for me! YAY! I really appreciate it, although I do not know how to play it, as I only play basic rhythm and lead. So basically, I think we are complete with musical instruments here at home, we got a drum kit, a bass guitar, and electric guitar, amps, and a keyboard. Those things comprises the Countershot HQ I was talking about earlier.

By the way, I called it Countershot HQ because, our band's name is Countershot. That's basically it!

In the next blog entry, I will post our latest performance in Battle of the Bands (U-Rock 2011), the pic of our HQ, aka Garage, and the pic of my new bass guitar and amp.

External Links / BONUS!
Here's our Youtube channel, I'm the page owner of it, feel free to comment! (although probably you won't understand a thing in some of our performances, because of the difference in language!)
www.youtube.com/countershotband

Because MLP:FiM Season 2 is out, let me share this one. Comment, if you can relate!
D3N00B1F13D - My Little Rocky by D3N00B1F13D

Peace!

[IRL #9] BotB

Hey guys!
Sorry if you have noticed that there is a lack of updates to this blog for the past week, or so. That's just because I'm kinda busy at the real world and stuff.

Ok, so this past week, I have been busy practicing with my band for this upcoming "Battle of The Bands" event in our University. Basically, it's really like a talent show, well except, you got an opportunity to showcase your talents in playing musical instruments found in a basic band. So there's six of us, 2 of us on guitar, 1 on drums, 1 on vocals (and a girl too), 1 on bass, and our new member on the keyboard.

The requirement was to prepare 2 songs, a maximum of 10 minutes of duration, but there was a catch. One song must be under the Rock genre, and the other pop / party / autotune crap. I was okay with the Rock one, but I was devastated to hear about the party one. I find it really boring to play just 4 repetitive chords in a monotonous sequence for the whole entire song!

We only had like 4 practice sections so far, averaging 1.5 hours per session . All I can say is, I love this band! I really saw the improvement we had since the last time we played altogether onstage 1 year ago.

So last Saturday, 4 of our members (the keyboardist and I were not around that time) went to the organizers because we were called for a meeting. Guess what? We were informed that we have like 17 opponents, and we are the second one to perform, out of this 17! Darn it. There goes our hopes. We usually end up performing near the last few performers, but this time, we are the ones who will be performing first! This is usually a bad sign for us, because the lazy judges will eventually forget the awesomeness of our performance, and rate us low just because they find the next one funny as compared to awesome. Hello judges! This isn't a comedy show!

Well, enough ranting. We sure do hope we get the first place this time. Last time, we were just second because of a mere 3 point difference. 3 POINT DIFFERENCE FOR GOODNESS SAKES!

Oh by the way, our band will perform this Friday, and I'll hope I will have the opportunity to upload some pictures of it, if possible, videos of the said performance.

Wish us luck!

[IRL #8] AR-OH-EF-EL

Wow, It has been a while since I last posted an IRL entry in this blog. So let's make this the first one this July!

Last Friday was officially the end of the Prelim Semester in our university. So as a tradition, my friends and I decided to have some fun, since there are no studies to worry about, no projects to catch up, etc! And by fun, I mean grab some drinks.

We met up at BattleStation 1, at around 5 in the afternoon, waited for some people to come join us, and arrived at a friend's house at six. As far as I can remember, there were 14 of us who went there, and hell, it was fun, considering this friend of mine is a guitarist / musician, so there is no reason to be bored at all!

Oh and don't you pretend that you don't know what happened next. I'll post some pictures. I know that they'll be pissed if they found out that I posted the pics here. Nah! By the way, these pics are taken at late night, so you won't see all 14 of us here. By the time I decided to document this, There were only like 6 of us left. Enjoy!

DRUMSET VIEW

NOW I'M ON THE FLOOR, WALKIN' THE DINOSAUR

ERRBODY'S GETTIN' TIPSY

PIC RELATED

Oh and it gets better, after all those mess in the music room, we decided to get ourselves home. But before that, we were called by our friend's cousin to hop to a nearby mini-bar, since he was already there, and the car (ticket way home) is at his disposal. He invited us for some more drinks, so why not?

PIC VERY RELATED

GG, my friends. xD
Oh, and I arrived home safely and watched some PONIES after that.

[Ownstuff #3] Greenline

Hello interwebs!

This entry is yet about another work of mine in my interest of photography!
Enough with the intro, here it is!

Click to enlarge photo

I call this the Greenline, for the fact that there IS a Santan bush making a line parallel to that wall to the left. This was taken in my quiet neighborhood last week, as I was experimenting on the white balance and camera angles. Hey, as I have said before, I am not a professional, and I'm just doing this because I love to.

As opposed to my last entry, this photo is not that dark and dull. In fact, it is bombarded by red / orange / green colors.

As you can see, it has been manipulated via Photoshop. Still figuring out how to apply those "warm" wallpaper-ish atmosphere to this photo.

Personal Comments / Remarks:
- I think I overdid the manipulation
- Red hue seems to blur those non-focused flowers
- The far right portion of the pic seems off
- Cheesy camera angle
- CREDIT FONT STILL NOT PROFESSIONAL ENOUGH!

I need some tips and tricks guys. I don't rely on tutorials much as I am better off figuring stuffs out by myself. Just simple and basic techniques will do.

What do you think guys?
Leave a comment below!

EDIT: Since the uploaded photo has reduced in quality due to compression, I am giving you guys a link to download the full quality photo.

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?mo5cqc00chz524c

Enjoy!

[Ownstuff #2] Redness

Hello again, people!

So to all those who haven't known yet, I have created a new format for this blog named Ownstuff. Today's Friday post will be of the same format as the last one which is... Ownstuff of course, you silly twerp.

Okay, enough of those irrelevant chit-chat, and on with the post!

For the information of all, I have this DSLR Camera which I often use when I get bored, or just when I am looking for an output for my pseudo-artistic imagination. It's called the Nikon D3000, a starter-camera I am trying to play with.

Check this shot out. I shot this random plant in our backyard using the D3000 on Manual mode.

Click to enlarge photo

I call this work: "Redness"
As you can see, it's lightly manipulated using Photoshop CS3, and I know, I am doing a very bad job at mixing the colors right. Hey, I just a newbie, and I think it's all good. Besides, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", they say.

Personal Comments/Remarks:
-I think it's too "green"!
-The credit font is not that good

So what do you think guys?
Don't worry, I'll have lots of similar works in the future. That is, if I am sure that I will have improved by then!

Feel free to share your thoughts!
I accept constructive criticism, because it helps me improve!

Also, please do suggest some fonts if you know that it will look good in photography themed projects.

All images used in the content of the blog belong to the author.