Music to My Ears

"Distant Worlds" Extended Intro

The visual of what you're hearing.

The biggest lesson I learned toiling away at this mini-project was that the natural end of the phrase was not the best place to determine where to loop. The music softens, and when using only the choral synth as a marker, finding the correct beat for the loop becomes difficult because of the ambience. Snipping away at nanoseconds didn't help much either.

Once I had the idea to clip and extend from where the harp hits its highest and starkest note, everything fell into place, but it took me until sometime on Friday to follow that approach. Scrapping all of my other attempts, I began anew, and the process went much more smoothly the rest of the day.

Puzzling the rest of it together only took 30 minutes on Saturday, snipping away at the clipped segments to erase the popping sound I mentioned in last week's post.

I haven't practiced with it yet in the context of Teyr'loch Delter Pach, so it may require some more minor editing, which shouldn't take more than another 30 minutes.

Although I spent far more hours on it than I would have ever dreamed, I'm happy with the results. However, I can't say I'll be attempting another feat quite like it anytime in the near future, because it was a significant time investment for such a small portion of the performance.

I hit my goal to complete it before Sunday at least, which was our first scheduled game session since...February? Maybe January? My partner and I agreed to start playing every other week again so that we can progress the story and so we can learn the system we'll be using henceforth, Daggerheart. This will allow me one week to transcribe, write journals, etc... and then another week to continue working on the final touches of Cael's performance.

Thankfully, since it was a shorter session, transcribing only took a couple of days to complete. I have a journal and some correspondence to write just so I don't fall behind on that again--I learned my lesson--and then I'll be able to focus the rest of my time on composing music for this last section of the first half of Teyr'loch Delter Pach.

All that said, I'll be taking next week off from the blog and resuming on the 1st of October.

Where did this year go...?

Other Notable Accomplishments:

• 2nd week of the 4-day workout split:

  • Upper 1:

    • Flat Dumbbell Press - 4 sets

    • Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press - 3 sets

    • Dumbbell Chest Supported Row - 4 sets

    • Lean-In Lateral Raises - 3 sets/side

    • Dumbbell Overhead Tricep Extensions - 3 sets

  • Lower 1 Quads:

    • Bulgarian Split Squat (Quad Focused) - 3 sets

    • Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift - 3 sets

    • Heel Elevated Goblet Squate - 3 sets

    • Superset: Single Leg Weighted Calf Raise & Dead Bug - 3 sets

  • Upper 2:

    • Low Incline Dumbbell Press - 4 sets

    • 3-Point Dumbbell Row - 4 sets

    • Superset: Band Assisted Pull-Ups & Push-Ups - 4 sets

      • Lowered this to 4 sets instead of 5 because I could already feel fatigue setting in after the first 2 exercises. By the time I was done with this day last week, my arms were shaking, and I was barely able to hold the 2.5 lb weights for the final exercise.

    • Superset: Dumbbell Lateral Raises & Incline Dumbbell Overhead Extensions - 3 sets

    • Weighted Prone Arm Circles - 2 sets

  • Lower 2 Glutes:

    • Bulgarian Split Squt (Glute Focused) - 4 sets

    • Weighted Single Leg Hip Thrusts - 3 sets/side

    • Single Leg Weighted Calf Raise - 3 sets

    • Bodyweight Sliding Hamstring Curls - 3 sets

    • Reverse Crunches - 3 sets

• Completed the Path of Pain in Hollow Knight. It was arduous, frustrating, but quite fulfilling once we reached the end. It only took a couple of days to do. The unfortunate part is, if you stop playing the game anywhere along the Path, you resume from the last save point, a bench, which requires you to go through all of it again, at least until the shortcut if you've unlocked it. Here's someone (not us) playing through it as reference:

• Now we just need to beat The Radiance........

  • And then do it again, but after we've unlocked it's super secret final boss form.........

Questions for Contemplation & Discussion:

• What spurs you to persevere? Whether it be for a project, a personal challenge, a difficult-but-optional section within a video game, what motivates you to see the task through to its completion? In other words, what's your why for what you do when traversing your own Path of Pain? And at what point do you give yourself permission to set it by the wayside and say, "Nah, this isn't for me/what I thought it was going to be/etc..."?

This Week's Obligatory Cat Pic: Mura

The sleeping cat-tortionist.