modern jet oven

good quote

2010-10-10T16:22:00.002-05:00

The present does not feel the desperate gaze of the future.
- Vernor Vinge (paraphrased, from A Deepness in the Sky)

a study in fail courtesy of paycheck

2010-08-20T17:34:00.009-05:00

brutal beatings press photo

2010-07-16T22:26:00.001-05:00

sneak peek at the next xyzr_kx album cover!

2010-07-16T22:21:00.002-05:00

another achievement

2010-03-13T03:19:00.003-06:00

i can't find the link now, but there was a kotaku post a few weeks/month something ago about how sports game moments are as real for the player as actual sports moments (ie your fantasy 2013 pirates winning the world series etc). i can share the feeling as it was quite elating to help derrek lee, with the cubs down 3-2 in the bottom of the 14th, score a 3-run walkoff homer in my spring training opener of my fake 2009 cubs season in mlb 09 the show.

and then the next game i left ryan dempster in for too long and he gave up a grand slam. 5-1 brewers.

a two-months-later addendum to previous post

2010-03-13T03:14:00.002-06:00

i busted out ffx one more time, telling myself "let me hit up that optional dungeon, that'll be something i can amuse myself with slowly with a few 90-minute sessions over a month or so." however, omega ruins is a total joke with no encounters and the magus sisters. although having one of three characters survive grand malboro's bad breath not confused, twice, was a stroke of very good luck. (it was a different character each time and i think they had confuse wards, not confuse proofs.)

question now is, do i do the monster arena? it's that or another game, but i confess to story burnout from playing too many games for story. it's diminishing returns basically; the faster you try to blitz through a game to get the story, the less you get out of each successive game's story, and thus each game.

what happens when you stop counting.

2010-01-07T01:26:00.002-06:00

This is from the notorious "Dodge 200 Lightning Bolts" challenge in FFX. I found the spot where you can predict the bolts coming off a video on youtube, but counting to 200 I found myself under a lot of pressure around 125 and blew it. So I threw on a Maddow podcast and got into a rhythm with Tidus's steps: two right, two down, four across, and three back into the pit. During the eleventh step the flash would almost always occur so pressing X was a cinch once I had the "beat." Not counting took the pressure off, but I had no idea I had done that many consecutively. For the record, it only took about 40-50 mins (the length of Maddow and I think the tail of Countdown too).

a good quote on why originality is for losers

2010-01-04T14:39:00.000-06:00

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.”

- Jim Jarmusch, THE GOLDEN RULES OF FILMMAKING

jon and carly video

2009-10-06T22:03:00.000-05:00

cold chillin.

Jon and Carly - New New Song from Jon Monteverde on Vimeo.

embedded magnatune player of some of the braid soundtrack and other awesomeness.

2009-08-24T18:04:00.005-05:00

Artist is Jami Sieber. It's great.

EDIT no longer embedded cuz I can't turn off the autoplay. thanks magnascrewn. i did throw in a link to ms. sieber's page on the site though. it's good.

a 74-page graduate student thesis on Loveless

2009-08-21T12:23:00.002-05:00

you know you're doing nothing with that sunday afternoon. just put loveless on repeat and read this (pdf).

fighting malware 2009 style - the tools.

2009-08-20T16:16:00.002-05:00

everything has free editions that do the trick.

malware bytes anti-malware

SUPERAntiSpyware

google redirecting links to random chinese sites? try GooRedFix.exe after running the above two proggies.

last note, you might need to rename the files and/or file extensions of some of these programs as the malware has gotten so vicious it blocks some programs from installing or running if it recognizes the filename.

this has made me lose sleep for the better part of two days, which sucks, and i think it may have contributed to the destruction of a hard drive as well? (kinda doubtful though, the blown HD is the last in a long line of wack Maxtor drives that have all kicked the can while my 2003 P4 comp's original Western Digital 40GB is still going strong as the system drive...cross fingers.)

not my demo

2009-08-16T19:42:00.002-05:00

but this is too good to not put up. the pedal is really quite bad but the guy doing the demo has a bit of a stephen wright / christopher walken thing going on. highlights include 2:15 and 3:05.

this one goes out to pete

2009-08-02T20:59:00.001-05:00

best post in a while on the idm mailing list

2009-07-30T10:14:00.000-05:00

"Whatever happened to the classic gods of idm? Like aphex and squarepusher?? No one talks about them anymore, and since them ive heard very few that were better. It was more than music for both of them. I have a square pusher tattoo for christ sakes. Oh and Vsnares sucks ass, i dont care what anyone says, i have all his albums and its trash."

a pedal demo i made

2009-07-15T07:37:00.000-05:00

my first webcomic

2009-07-01T14:47:00.001-05:00

thanks to wittycomics.com

unparalleled

2009-06-06T17:12:00.001-05:00

bsg - unfinished business (extended)

2009-06-03T22:30:00.002-05:00

laura roslin quoting Nas is the reason they make director's cuts.

seriously, wth with these ads

2009-05-25T22:47:00.003-05:00

i will NEVER look at booty-dancing girls and think, "hey, *there*'s a good resource to consult about refinancing my home."

years and years of ignoring them, but they're like part of the internet trash wallpaper now. accept?

my danelectro pastrami overdrive circuit bend

2009-05-22T16:46:00.000-05:00

please be real (project trico)

2009-05-21T11:46:00.000-05:00

invisible cities

2009-05-12T09:49:00.001-05:00

band from SF. pretty good.

el michels affair should thank me

2009-04-28T21:27:00.002-05:00

for submitting enter the 37th chamber info to itunes.

and by "thank me," i mean pay me.

i can't keep doing this on my own...with all these...people.

2009-04-21T07:55:00.000-05:00

one Reason, Dr. Sample, Kaoss Pad, and a Google Image Search later:

2009-04-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

i play drums

2009-04-12T06:46:00.000-05:00

legend

2009-04-08T08:44:00.000-05:00

mise en scene

2009-04-07T12:12:00.001-05:00

if you don't know, then now you know

2009-04-06T12:20:00.002-05:00

staircase and soundtrack awesomeness start at 3:00

awesome

2009-04-05T16:22:00.000-05:00

more here

yup, they were there first too

2009-04-01T22:46:00.000-05:00

more awesome sig pics

2009-03-26T15:45:00.002-05:00

the good depression

2009-03-20T22:30:00.002-05:00

yesterday's marketplace (npr) had someone on talking about how people are trying to figure out what to call our economic downturn. it's gone on too long for "crisis," it's too big a problem for "recession," but it's not as bad as the great depression.

once dude said that i decided i would nominate the above. who's with me

abaddon

2009-03-19T11:32:00.003-05:00

precocious

2009-03-13T13:50:00.000-05:00

The Linear RPG

2009-03-06T17:31:00.000-06:00

Everything about why you either love or hate JRPGs encapsulated into a Flash game.

lapidus

2009-02-28T16:48:00.001-06:00

i'm still young!

2009-02-26T10:13:00.001-06:00

Created by Train Horns

piano lessons

2009-02-24T09:31:00.001-06:00

oops

2009-02-22T19:42:00.001-06:00

cmon oscars, pull a curtain.

i'm onto your game, anyone i IM with.

2009-02-14T21:19:00.001-06:00

me with carly on the slant

2009-02-13T22:16:00.001-06:00

fantastic pic

2009-02-12T10:13:00.001-06:00

from a user on the lostpedia forums.

re this week's 24

2009-02-02T22:52:00.001-06:00

if i heard someone say "don't kill him, bring him to me" aloud on a train, i'd report that guy.

we heart owen

2009-02-01T11:15:00.001-06:00

as a proud sometime satellite member of the we heart owen fan club i got my buttons in the mail today. (yes, today is sunday - they were misdelivered to someone else in my building and left at the front desk.) they are great, and i have good reason to believe i will be the only one proudly sporting them on my bag at school.

would gaeta be this mutinous if he still had the leg?

2009-01-30T21:20:00.001-06:00

Johnny Rico PSAs

2009-01-28T18:49:00.001-06:00

Johnny seems pretty sober here...I guess he doesn't get as much of a kick out of child abuse as he does out of killing big fat smart bugs. Thanks to Chien for the link.

1,474 megapixel inauguration shot

2009-01-24T08:56:00.003-06:00

This is just huge. Photographer David Bergman's website.

The picture is from that picture and it's of snipers/lookouts (presumably govt) on the right corner of the rooftop of the center background building (thanks to someone on Digg for pointing them out). This looks like an album cover.

rpg music

2009-01-22T11:39:00.001-06:00

i think finale and end-credits music is wasted on the finale and end credits. what i remember most from any given game is the world and battle music (sometimes boss battles too).

end boss battles and end credits should be in silence.

xyzr_kx - smash hits

2009-01-18T18:40:00.000-06:00

unfortunately named electronic medical records system

2008-10-21T14:06:00.003-05:00

i guess the LOLCATS interface upgrade package still needs to be installed.

chairpad

2008-10-15T11:13:00.003-05:00

MP3

Subscribe to the XYZR_KX podcast @

http://www.jonmonteverde.com/xyzrkx_feed.xml

Updated semimonthly

who's the guy in the skull mask?

2008-10-09T07:48:00.001-05:00

murderlation at vega estates on july 12, 2008

volcano! - Africa Just Wants to Have Fun (Remix)

2008-10-01T10:20:00.002-05:00

MP3

Thanks to volcano!. Original single and new album Paperwork available on The Leaf Label (http://leaf.greedbag.com). Incidentally, I think they're good.

Subscribe to the XYZR_KX Podcast @
http://www.jonmonteverde.com/xyzrkx_feed.xml
Updated semimonthly

I was there. It was great.

2008-09-19T22:05:00.003-05:00

It's playing on PBS in Novemberish. Title links to Clayton's blog about making and now distributing the film. They is my hero.

retcon

2008-09-15T09:00:00.002-05:00

MP3

An "exquisite corpse" collaboration with Benjamin McKinney. We shared information regarding the duration, key, and "feel" of the piece; then we wrote individual instrument parts separately and put them together without hearing the other's contribution beforehand.

Subscribe to the XYZR_KX Podcast @
http://www.jonmonteverde.com/xyzrkx_feed.xml
Updated semimonthly

a whole new wooooorld...

2008-09-14T23:37:00.002-05:00

has been opened up to me by giving up my old template and entering the world of Blogger layouts. still on basic everything at the moment, and somehow doubting i will progress beyond that stage. on the plus side, it allows me to throw the podcast tracks right up there at the top. pretty cool.

saint maverick. saint maverick!

2008-09-08T14:41:00.003-05:00

if john mccain is maverick, does that make sarah palin annabelle bransford?

"you're not gonna lookatchacard? well, how you gonna know if you can beat my STRAIGHT FLUSH!"

cranes

2008-09-02T20:29:00.001-05:00

from the xyzr_kx podcast.

looking at color combinations and watching opening rounds of the us open.

LotR remembrance

2008-08-26T15:41:00.001-05:00

put on Fellowship today and it's still good. i also found this online, kind of a hoot.

Star Wars meets Cloverfield

2008-08-16T23:55:00.000-05:00

as someone else said.

(title links to video)

Quizzik feat. XYZR_KX - Reykjavik

2008-08-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

from like my podcast and stuff.

This guy Quizzik is good people. We collaborated. He makes-a da music-a nice. (Listening to Bela Karolyi rant about pubescent women, though it could also be a Super Mario accent.)

stylus

2008-08-01T10:40:00.001-05:00

from the XYZR_KX podcast.

2008-07-24T09:04:00.000-05:00

it's a blast from the past...but a little bit different.

2008-07-21T22:15:00.002-05:00

word to the wise...the repeated-death montages get dizzying very quickly. start skipping ahead to see when the victim finally makes it past this or that obstacle.

insert head in sand say la la la la la

2008-07-15T12:17:00.000-05:00

From the xyzr_kx podcast.

prime evidence that in large organizations, the best idea does not always win.

2008-07-14T15:28:00.002-05:00

we are 7 at night (edit)

2008-07-01T10:10:00.003-05:00

From the xyzr_kx podcast. Vocals by Tournament Edition. Dr. Sample by Benjamin McKinney. Foley by Jeff Finney.

the jellies are conflicted

2008-06-15T20:51:00.002-05:00

from the xyzr_kx podcast.

this picture kind of makes the presumptive democratic nominee for president look like lindsay lohan escaping from paparazzi.

2008-06-06T09:52:00.003-05:00

I just found out about this business.

2008-06-04T07:28:00.004-05:00

It's gone beyond cliche into expectation that any major meltdown will be remixed and set to a beat. However, this is one of the best dance remixes I've ever seen on YT. Lot of attention paid to sequencing and song structure. I think it's in Coldcut / Steinski territory, albeit without 200 other samples to bring context.

NSFW to the max.

o captain my captain and coke

2008-06-01T08:56:00.001-05:00

from the xyzr_kx podcast. beatz by benjamin mckinney.

reception

2008-05-15T19:31:00.000-05:00

from the xyzr_kx podcast.

baling wire and spit saves my iBook again.

2008-05-09T12:01:00.003-05:00

The display on the thing was next to go. This problem was so long-standing and systemic Apple even had a feature page about it. Sadly the program had long since ended, and by many accounts it wasn't such a great thing anyway -- the thing would go back down a few months after the repair.

I was way too chicken to employ the solution described in the article I was reading, but one of the comments was like, "Or you could just use a quarter / slices of cardboard." Cardboard was it for me! Yay for DIY. Now it's a restored Ubuntu Edgy-running glorified podcast player in my kitchen. I wonder whether it feels more downgraded than the Fujitsu Monte Carlo weather laptop in my foyer.

for those of us with no self-control

2008-05-02T12:30:00.002-05:00

Freedom is a super-amusing Mac app that you can tell to keep you off the Internet for x amount of time. During x amount of time, your wireless and wired Ethernet will be blocked and you won't be able to turn them back on until a) time runs out or b) you reboot. Since you probably hate rebooting (isn't that why you got a Mac?), you are forced to get something done, and not be lost in the stream.

That being said, I am recovering from my first Freedom session by blogging about it.

octane

2008-05-01T11:06:00.001-05:00

from the xyzr_kx podcast (monthly). let's see how long i keep this up.

Early Spring Rocking

2008-04-28T14:55:00.003-05:00

The defining document of the best punk band of all time -- mine -- is now available for download on Sadu Face Records. I really like the page they're on - those 4 pictures more or less encapsulate the entire Maven experience.

Enjoy getting rocked.

a great way to start off the week

2008-04-13T21:53:00.002-05:00

title links to a picture. not a goatse or a Rickroll, but best not to have anyone easily offended by mild blasphemy nearby when you view.

Celemony strikes again.

2008-04-07T12:39:00.001-05:00

This is just outrageous. Video of Melodyne's new Direct Note Access technology that allows you to change INDIVIDUAL NOTES IN THE RECORDED SOUND OF A GUITAR CHORD.

smell could have really been something

2008-04-03T07:31:00.003-05:00

saw this on digg and jienan passed it my way too. there is definitely the potential in smell's songs for me to do something akin to what this guy is doing. i'd have to learn that Stick Spin / Crowd Point Style though.

soulja boy overthought

2008-04-02T16:51:00.001-05:00

this popmatters article does raise some interesting ethnomusicological and distributional points and mentions the cha-cha slide, though. i like it.

sanguine

2008-04-01T06:00:00.003-05:00

from the xyzr_kx podcast (monthly). let's see how long i keep this up.

Spring cleaning.

2008-03-31T15:36:00.004-05:00

More recent visitors to this page may not know that it has a long, banal history stretching back to 2003 -- not coincidentally, just after I graduated from college and found myself with lots of soul-searching to do and this hot new technology called "blogs" having just appeared in the collective Internet consciousness. It started as a diary, and about a year in started attracted a meager but loyal readership. I've managed to violate the rule of dependable publishing often enough to lose and regain that readership two or three times, but I'm now looking to keep up things often enough here that future diligent attention will be rewarded.

I wanted to reactivate the jonny mo / these foolish things / modern jet oven archive, and I'm happy to say it is. You (arbitrarily) won't be able to find any posts from before November 2005. I had nothing useful to say before that point anyway.

0325081853

2008-03-30T17:42:00.003-05:00

Interesting how what appears to be a random series of numbers snaps into coherence when you parse it the right way. (My phone gave this picture this name.)

Tu Vuo' Fa' L'Americano

2008-03-26T23:09:00.002-05:00

I got hip to this song in the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley, which is a great movie if you haven't seen it and shows Matt Damon is capable of being much more than Jason Bourne the stoic All-American killing machine. Here's the original, I guess. Especially of note is the translation which can be obtained by clicking on the description in YouTube -- the song is actually about a guy from Naples who wants to be an American, which adds yet another layer of irony to its placement in the movie, as it is sung by Americans (Damon and Jude Law's characters) who are trying to get away from being American by expatriating in Italy.

This post goes out to Anthony Minghella, the director of Ripley and, ugh, The English Patient, who passed away recently. I really don't like English Patient, but I've semi-worn out my VHS of Ripley. James Rebhorn, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Cate Blanchett are all great in it. And if you were too disturbed by it the first time to watch it again, well, I'm the same way about Requiem for a Dream, but that's nothing I can't cure with a loop of Jared Leto injecting heroin into his gangrene wound to numb me to the horror. Granted, Ripley's disruptions are more emotional than visual, but you can become inured to that too.

the most excellent wedding picture imaginable.

2008-03-24T15:23:00.001-05:00

I'll have to collect me some masks. Here's where I got it from.

RickRolling

2008-03-24T10:28:00.002-05:00

If any of you ever doubted I was ahead of the curve, one look at this will change your mind. I've been championing this song since the '90s, therefore I was there first and am better than you.

New slang? RickRolling is the practice of sending people a YouTube link that you claim is to something amazing (like, say, parkour or Diet Coke and Mentos) and having it go instead to Rick Astley singing "Never Gonna Give You Up." Normally that would be punishment in some people's eyes, but I'm all about "NGGYU" and could listen to it all day, given the occasion. Look at how many people have viewed that thing. Amazing.

if you want to do something useful

2008-03-21T11:26:00.002-05:00

make sure to do it in the morning. afternoons, talk about a waste.

maybe The Point should make an ultimatum about incorporating siestas as part of the work day. i could conceivably begin one. such is the power of The Point.

more childhood destroyed

2008-03-20T10:12:00.002-05:00

this one goes out to ben

i realize now

2008-03-19T20:14:00.005-05:00

that the migraine i had starting at lunch and which persisted through the afternoon came from staring at the internet all day like it contained the answers to my life. less surfing to come.

what's the deal with "it is what it is"?

2008-03-18T23:22:00.003-05:00

simon said it like 5 times on idol. it's like the mantra of 2008.

better renew those domains

2008-03-17T09:53:00.006-05:00

just so you don't think i'm some kind of crazy person looking at borderline domain names, Cock of the Rock was the label that put out No Doctors' second album, which I picked up at a punk-rock records giveaway on Saturday.

but man, do they have a funny redirected website...

studying is...

2008-03-16T15:13:00.003-05:00

double plus tedious. xiu xiu records help.

The Chinese Room

2008-03-14T16:11:00.005-05:00

An AI argument that I picked up in this book I just read. I'm Chinese!

Did I mention I took an AI class in college and it sailed right over my head? Pretty sure that was the class that cost me my magna, IIRC. Stupid CS minor.

coincidence

2008-03-12T19:20:00.004-05:00

what's weird is when you open pitchfork one morning to find someone you interned for in college featured (quote favorably) in an article, and then you go to Stanley's for pico de gallo and guacamole and SEE that person there.

i'm not the type to go up to someone i hung out with once a week for two months eight years ago, though. it would undoubtedly be an awkward and embarrassing "you don't remember me" moment.

we used to have seasons

2008-03-07T03:03:00.005-06:00

from the xyzr_kx podcast (monthly).

the information age

2008-03-05T22:38:00.004-06:00

Look at that woman behind Obama in the right of this picture. How outrageous are all the recorders she's carrying? And each of the other hands at the bottom have about as many.

Are they human podiums? Is "podii" the plural?

Everyone who hasn't seen TWBB will be like, "huh?" Everyone else will laugh lots.

2008-02-25T07:38:00.004-06:00

wikipedia hijacking is funny stuff.

2008-02-19T11:32:00.004-06:00