16-03-09 – SUPER MUSICAL LASER GO! / A wonderful project!

Hi-Ho neighbourinos!

Went on a bit of a purchasing spree this week! I…

- bought a new laser + fog machine!
- Had a snazzy YAWA Sunday with my Buddy Kieran!
- Got YAWA half way to playing V festival! (I need your help with this one!)
- Went shopping with Kieran and Scratch!
- Mixed Starcadia and At lightspeed (Only Supernova left!)
- Modelled a body for my 3D Assignment in uni with my homie Ogre
- Got half way through saving the world with Scratch (Gears of war 2, yeah?)
- Got my first paid ad on boyinaband (not counting google ads)!
- Celebrated my Dad’s birthday!
- Helped some of my awesome friends out when bad things happened to them.
- Was introduced to the second dragon featured in this blog:

Wow. My homegirl Elizabizzle assures me this is a Chinese water dragon. Even though it’s not on water and it’s not speaking with a heavy brummie accent (The vast majority of chinese people I’ve met have all been really brummie sounding, so I assume this is the stereotype.(For those overseas who haven’t heard of Birmingham or the brummie accent, you’re pretty fortunate(Though it is pretty funny(And I am 100% brummie from 2 generations back at least(Sweet, this is a new record for parentheses(That means brackets btw))))))

So! Onto business!

LASER VISION! L-L-L-L-LASER BEAMS!

I have been looking into buying a decent laser for a while now, and this week I got the perfect offer! When stopping by at my homegirl Emmie’s house, I asked her Dad, who owns a laser (He’s a cool guy), about his. The next day I found in my myspace message box an offer to purchase said laser for a very reasonable price! And so now it is happily sitting in its new home. It’s green and red, and reacts to music! Kieran and I practiced some of the new songs (We’ve got 25200 degrees learned live now, just gotta get Zak and Jamie to learn their parts live and we’ll be able to add some new choonage to the set!) in a dark room with the laser and my electronic case’s UV lights on. It is so much fun. I actually can’t wait for the GLC gig at the end of this month – I’ve heard it’s almost sold out and there are 1000 places or something O_O Not sure if it’s true, since Zak says a lot of things (=P), but you never know!

I also grabbed a fog machine while out with Kieran and Scratch, but I’ll come to that outing later

YAWA Sunday

This was a fun weekend! Kieran and I got 25200 Degrees sounding really cool and At Lightspeed as well, I showed him this really heavy, epic crunk loop I’ve been working on and he liked it – we might use it as an intro to our set until we turn it into a song Most of the time, though, was spent promoting for the “Road to V” competition!

Also, the forum has been really active lately (I’m addicted to google analytics), it’s ace to see the members of the community becoming friends I really want to have a big YAWA community meetup some time!

YAWA Needs YOU! – We could play V Festival!

That’s right – if you go to this blog, it’ll explain how you can sign up as a fan of You and What Army and help us to play V Festival! Kieran and I were individually messaging tons of our friends on facebook to try and get the word out… until facebook banned my account from sending messages! I think the ban has been lifted now, but it’s gay when you’re just trying to promote your band to your friends… In any case, the promo has been working – we’re now at 74 fans, which, if it was doubled, would put us in 1st place for playing V festival, as the vote is entirely fan based! So please to be doing this and to be getting friends/family to be doing this and I to be thanking you!

ALSO! The new versions of Starcadia and I am the Navigator are up on that site so feel free to check them out! What do you think of them?

Like, Ohmigah, SHOPPING!

Kieran is such a girl.

We went out to the Telford Town Center before Kieran had to leave so he could get a prezzie for his little brother’s birthday. He ended up buying about 10 items of clothing for himself, including 5 T-shirt for 10-11 year old boys. We were considering a 10 year old girls’ hoodie, but when he tried it on he thought the pink was too garish. I didn’t think it was. But yes, in fact we were all pretty girly – we were walking around, with sorbet ice cream talking about where best to get some fashionable clothes, hand in hand. Well, not hand in hand, but it was close.

Scratch also bought Gears of War 2, which pretty much counteracts any previous girliness in that day. I will come to that later! (This is turning into one of those choose-your-own-adventure books where you skip to different places to continue the storyline! …Except there’s only one storyline. And it’s not a book.)

M-m-m-mixing!

The tracks are finally whittled down to the last one! I got At Lightspeed down, which took HOURS because my computer, bless it, can’t take the number of tracks and synths in that song. Supernova is another track-heavy song though, so that will be just as painful. Kieran has a nice singy addition to Supernova now, so I hope you guys approve!

Uni Schmoony.

Yeah, I am really not into it at the mo, but it’s gotta be done. I went into university and Ogre and I motivated each other into working on our 3D assignments. We now both have some ridiculously buff bodies (And snazzy 3D models too =P) ready to animate, which is one step down! Schweet!

COLE TRAIN, BABY!

Gears of War 2 is even more of an interactive action movie than the original, and that is saying something. Cheesy action movie dialogue said by dudes with chainsaw guns and 10000 leagues under the sea deep voices is absolutely win to me. I’m not gonna ruin the plot, but if you see a giant alien monster, chances are you’ll end up inside it, blasting your way out sooner or later. I love the co-op on that game – it puts other shooters to shame with its originality and balance – always keeps you thinking tactically. Either than or keeps you running with a chainsaw at everything. But both are fun, so it’s all good.

Project WONDERFUL!

Thanks to Icarus, who commented this blog months ago with a suggestion that I sign up to an independant advertising company called “Project Wonderful” for www.boyinaband.com, I am now the proud owner of $0.37! I had been waiting for boyinaband to reach over 100 visitors a day for a week consistantly, and it did last week; score! It’s an infinite-auction bid for the ad, meaning advertisers bid for the advertising space and whoever has the highest bid gets the space – I had some random radio station, someone telling people not to wear pants, and someone selling giant metal plectrums all advertise, outbidding each other. It’s ace! So thanks to Icarus for the suggestion!

Happy 21st Birthday, Dad!

Okay, he’s a little older than 21, but you wouldn’t think it from the gift he recieved from me. A replica Indiana Jones fedora.

Suits him, no?

He has had the jacket for a while now (it just looks like a nice jacket) but it’s obviously much cooler to wear the full IJ getup to work. I think next year I’ll get the whip and a snake and make the whole set complete We had an ace meal out, where I ate my first ever pinapple, bacon and beef burger. It was very good.

Also, he got a topiarytastic hedge-trimmer this year, so if you see a random giraffe in my front garden, that’s probably why.

When bad things happen to good people.

This week, while things have been alright for me, some of my friends have had to deal with a lot lately. I’m not gonna go into detail because it’s not my place to do so, but I’ve been trying my best to be there for them. It is so frustrating when good people are hurt and there is nothing you can do.

Listening to people and being there for friends when they really need it is one of the things I pride myself on – I just thought I should mention something here about it, so they know it was an important part of my week to be there for them, and that I’m still here if they need to talk/chill at all.

Next Week on Dave’s Blog

This is the last week YAWA have to practice before our support slot with Goldie Lookin’ Chain, so we’ll be practicing hard for that. Also, we’ll be trying hard to top the table on that V festival competition – so again, your help would be much appreciated! (It’s like a 3 minute thing if that)

Sprint wise, I only didn’t finish the work on my game – I designed the graphics for one level, but didn’t implement it, and am waiting on the confirmation of the quote for those T-shirts!

This week’s sprint will entail:

- Finishing Supernova’s mix
- Designing the YAWA CD Art
- Designing the Interabang CD Art
- Putting together a YAWA Video Blog
- Ordering the YAWA and Intera T-shirts
- Rigging my 3D body for animating
- Getting my game up to 3 levels long.
- Getting 2000 FYP words done!

AND THE BLOGLY QUESTION: This one is Gears of War 2 inspired – What is your favourite scene from an action movie ever?