Paradigm Shift

So I haven't been posting for a while.

(Yes, I'll continue my Green Light 10th Anniversary series of posts soon enough).

I've had a lot going through my head lately, without taking into account the massive amounts of work I've been doing during the last couple of months. Plus I'm currently having exams and whatnot, and my grandmother's pretty sick long term.

With all this, I haven't had much time for gaming. This also made me realise this post isn't really very gaming-oriented as it usually is, is it? No, it's not. I figure this is a good time to make this an everything-oriented blog. I might not be posting every time I finish a game, because sometimes it just seems like it's suddenly not so relevant when bigger things are in motion. But I'll find a corner for that too here, naturally. Even in this post.

So, first things first, I am currently in the process of completely remodelating my room. All my fragile and absurdly crappy PS1 games had to be temporarily moved to a confined space, along with all my other games, which now looks like a spot in a small retro videogame store. Wow.

This includes my newly acquired Parappa The Rapper 2 and (*sealed!*) Um Jammer Lammy! I pretty much stopped getting new games about a year ago, occasionally getting one or another if an opportunity was too good to miss, and this was one of those (getting painfully rarer) ones.

While cleaning up my room and stumbling upon all kinds of nostalgic memorabilia, I found an absolute relic I assumed lost forever:

If you've read the only music related post I've written before this one (I won't link you, ha!) you noticed my favorite music album of all time is Nobuo Uematsu's brilliant OST of Final Fantasy VI. Not only because the music truly is amazing, not only for the nostalgic factor - it truly is - but this song in particular (link to the Black Mages version, I know, but you'll find the original one on YouTube as well) was THE song that made me want to learn to play the organ when I was 12 years old.

It's not that I was bad at it, but I was pretty lazy. I had organ lessons for a year back then with a good teacher, but I was never really into following his instructions. I didn't want to read scores, etc. I stopped playing altogether for a few years, until I picked up the guitar in 2006 and started learning by myself. I picked up the piano/organ again by the same time and definitely improved alot at it (I suppose). At least it's been a fantastic companion, aiding me on my musical compositions, mainly for my band and for games.

But the thing is, it really was the music from Final Fantasy (pretty much from all the first 9 numbered entries, but especially I, II and VI) that made me acquire my taste in music from a very young age. That and Pokémon too. So much, that as a young kid, in my last year of elementary school, I actually burned CD's with every piece of music from these games' soundtracks that I could find online in random websites.

I was very lucky to have internet access at the time, the ol' dial-up, most of my friends at school didn't have it. But I was a geeky kid and learned my way through it to download all this musical goodness in a way I can't really figure out today.

Yes, I burned the battle themes from FF 1 through 9 to a CD.

Pokémon as well (a couple of years after elementary school). Actually, I ripped music from the games using the emulator. I didn't know they actually commercially released the soundtracks of the games at the time (specifically the GBA games Ruby/Sapphire, it was by the time they came out), so they sounded like crap, but I'd just listen to them every day while spending the day at my grandmother's house, with my trusty Sony Walkman.

It's funny because I still do these kind of playlists on Foobar, like "battle themes from SNES RPG's" and stuff like that. Even after over a decade. I'm pretty eager to play these on my computer, though I actually wonder if they still work.

Oh, nostalgia.

And this is all relevant because all of that eventually led me to this:

And what's this, you might ask? It's the vague release date of my band's debut album. Yes, after nearly 4 years of uncertainty, fuckedupness and a couple hundred lineup changes, it's done. And it's almost finished recording. So yes it WILL be out sometime around March/April I very much hope.

This is another one of the reasons I haven't been very active lately, obviously. Being in the studio is a fantastic and very calming experience, mainly when the studio is located far from civilization. And it's been great to just chill out and forget about social connections, Facebook, and whatever's been going on in my life. Also take photos of nature and shit.

It's been somewhat physically tiring, but very psychologically stimulating at the same time, so I'm actually sad I'm just about to finish my guitar parts. It's been a great way to practice guitar though since I'm usually lazy on that side, generally giving priority to actual composing.

And if you've read it this far and are still interested, chances are you'll be interested in this as well, so I gladly invite you to check us out. Shell From Oceanic!

Gaming wise, since my last post, I've finished Limbo, Max Payne 3 and (FINALLY!!!) Final Fantasy VII. All of them wonderful experiences. I'm still playing Darksiders, but I'm pretty damn near the end now, so I should be finishing that anytime soon and then moving on to something else.

As for tonight, I'll be sleeping on the floor since I have no bed. Just like the good ole summer nights. Excuse me as I'm getting myself a hot cup o' milk now and off to watch either Six Feet Under or FFVII Advent Children.