Blue moon...

Appropriate to make a 'once in a Blue Moon' post with a Blue Moon. Nothing like arbitrary and flawed human systems to make something special out of something entirely un-special. ^^

Got an e-mail this morning that almost all Nvidia Shield Tablets sold over the last year are being recalled for potential to overheat dangerously and start fires. Mine included. Figures. Rofl.
According the process I went through to register for the recall, I won't be required to send my existing tablet in. They're just shipping out new devices to everyone and as soon as we turn it on, our old tablets will become bricks. Killswitch engage! The fact they can do that is a bit alarming in itself.

Nice that it's so straightforward though. My current tablet has worked quite well. Love the thing. It gets super hot when I run certain games for a while, but I've just been gentle with it and let it cool when that happens. My main concern now is that the replacement tablet, with it's new battery, will have some other problem that my current tablet does not... and I'll be stuck with that or have to get that one replaced too.

Anyway, 2-4 weeks or so to see what I get. *fingers crossed*
Never had a smart device before and never been involved in a recall. Lots of firsts happening. Also the first time I've had my own computer for a big windows upgrade. I did the Windows 10 upgrade first day. Which I'm aware is generally considered to be a bad idea. Smart people wait a year or so for all the bugs to get worked out. 10 was thoroughly tested by the public before launch though and I read up on it a ton, so I just took the leap. Still getting adjusted to things, but I rather like it so far.

Finally some cooler temperatures after quite the brutal heatwave last week.
Going outside to water the tomatoes for 10 minutes maximum and I feel like my skin is frying on the spot. Ick. And the California drought isn't helping matters. Dead lawns are much hotter than living ones. And I don't think I mentioned that our neighbor's fig tree nose-dived into our backyard a while back. It's a sad sight and we lost a ton of shade (and an enormous amount of un-ripened figs). I'll make a post with pictures some time.

Poor figgy. ;__;

Sh*tpost : Macs are evil

A brief rant.

My mom uses an iMac. I've troubleshooted for her a number of times and it's always a shit-show. It often ends up being some massive update that you have to dig for because the 'automatic updates' system doesn't actually do what it says it will.

She was trying to import videos/photos off her camcorder into iMovie, which she has done multiple times before. Took me way too long to determine that the computer was recognizing the camera, but iMovie was not. Made me massively appreciate how 'manual' PCs are. Far easier to diagnose a problem if there is one. Anyway, eventually GoogleFu-ed myself to a single support page that mentioned a recent iOS update might cause this importing problem. SHOOOOOCCCCKKK.

Then had to jump elsewhere and drill down a dozen pages to get the necessary update for iMovie. Taking all the least obvious routes to get there. It's downloading right now... more than a gig 'update'. Geez louise. Fingers crossed.

Not to mention that my mom uses totally different mouse sensitivity and I was on her Mac so long that movement on my computer is catastrophically off now. Lmao. AND that recent update had suddenly reversed her scroll-wheel action, but she didn't know how to fix it. So had to dig for that as well.

The amount of flaming hoops you have to jump through with iOS... lawd ha'mercy!

I suppose if I had grown up with macs instead of PCs it would come easier, but yeeeeeeesh.

Almost afraid to go check... brb.

Nope. Only halfway. OTL...

Hour later: Ohhhh gooooood. Can't install that without the previous update. And if that's the case it looks like I'll be dl-ing every update between 8.0.6 and 9.0.9. Faaaaaantastic. FFS. There must be a better way.

30 more minutes: Nope. Can't do that either, because you need a fresh download of 9.0, which is no longer available through the app store... because they're up to 10.something now. Aaaaaand the reviews on the 10.something seem to show this importing problem STILL EXISTS. Unreal. Never fucking mind. Just gonna straight download her stuff to the computer and go from there.

SO DONE.

RAINBOWS... RAINBOWS EVERYWHERE!

YEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

This straight woman who has zero interest in marriage herself has been giddy, smiling, and crying all day from sheer happiness. Today the world became a bit less sucky!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Advanced brain maneuver...

Bit of a silly post while it's fresh.
It's about the most brutal tip-of-my-tongue loop I've ever been caught in.

I essentially see every major Kpop release (and a ton of other stuff) as it happens for the purposes of maintaining kpoppy. Every once in a while there will be some riff or melody that recalls some other song I've heard. Usually I can place it quickly or it's too common to matter. Then this happened:

On May 11th, Kpop legend BoA released the MV for Kiss My Lips:



And a bunch of factoids are in the BoA folder. The MV track stands out compared to a lot of other stuff right now. Interesting guitar and details. I consider BoA to be one of the best stage performers in Kpop ever, despite not loving the tone of her voice and her styling choices and how much she has changed her face since debut and how this choreo is way sub-par for what she's capable of. The background lighting reminds me of JYJ's Backseat... particularly Junsu's scenes. Which makes me think of when BoA supported a tweet that lashed out at Junsu post-lawsuit and how that made me lose respect for her outside of performance. And the heavy use of projections like Ra.D's As Always I enjoyed so much last year and how frequently they're used now. The backup dancers are the team that also worked on TVXQ's Spellbound and JYP's recent and ridiculous Who's Your Mama and they're fuckin' awesome. Best backup team in the industry.

And this is the kind of narrative that runs through my head for anything Kpop related because I've just been invested for that long. The Kpop folders are currently very deep and accessible. AND NONE OF THAT IS RELEVANT.

Because the part that made me glare at the screen, brain wandering somewhere else entirely, is the first TWO SECONDS OF THE VIDEO. That little synthesized crescendo kinda thing. I have no idea what that is. It's the vibration after banging on a piano sounding thing.

And I damn near lost my mind, because I know that sound. It is the opening two seconds to some other song I know. It's.... eh... by.... uh... OMG... WHAT IS THAT SONG?!

And for THREE WEEKS I could not think of the song or the artist or the context of it for the life of me.

I knew:

1. It was a song I had heard many times
2. I liked it very much
3. I could not recall any part of the melody or lyrics
4. It might be a female vocalist
5. The sound wouldn't be exact, but close
6. And I kept getting a very subtle brain-nudge that it was related to Jrock

THREE WEEKS of this thing ruminating in my brain every day.

And all I really had to go on was that feeling every time I listened to the first seconds of the BoA song. That instinctive feeling when you have a playlist running in the background and the first notes of a song you like come on and catch your attention and perk you up.

Was it actually Jrock? Was it a Kpop song? Would my parents have any idea if I played it for them? What if I posted it to reddit? I WAS THIS DESPERATE.

A few days ago I was up way later than I should have been. Up through the night into the morning. I played the BoA sound again at like 7am to my very sleep-deprived brain. Again that feeling of knowing with certainty, but unable to grasp anything concrete. Again wracking my brain for Jrock artists. Was it something Miyavi? Or maybe An Cafe? Or... still seems like it should be a female vocal... but who would that be? That wouldn't be Jrock. Fiona Apple? Or A Fine Frenzy? Or... ?

Even listened through a bunch of my itunes library. No luck.

But in one moment, something clicked with Japanese and female vocalist. That felt right.

A pop artist then? Ayumi? Nakashima? Namie?........ UTADA?!!!

Utada hit some bundle of nerves that made me consider briefly that I was thinking of Passion with it's weird reversed audio.

But I think what it really did is pull up just the right folder from the deep recesses. The folder for Japanese female vocalist rock/pop from a certain time period before I grew an interest in Kpop at all. The only female Jrock artist I listened to at the time.

And it was like I could physically feel when the neurons lined up.

ZWEI. IT'S FUCKING ZWEI.

Then everything made sense. Unable to recall specific lyrics because they were Japanese. Female vocalist, but not very feminine. Jrock, but obscure and outside of the mainstream. So obscure that I doubt anyone could have helped me with it.

Quickly shuffled through the handful of Zwei songs I knew... Dragon, Denny, Hikari, Fake Face...WATASHIGAI...... YESSSSSSSSS.

And there it was. That sound. The opening seconds of the song.

SWEET SWEET RELIEF.
So old and obscure that this is the best available Youtube video.
After three weeks I was thinking I was completely delusional and hopeless.

But it was motherfucking Zwei.
It has probably been literally 10 years since I last heard this song. Or very close to it.

So obscure.
Made it more satisfying to finally make the connection in all that obscurity. ROFL.

And I checked out my old favorite of theirs Dragon to see if it held up.
Dude, still such a jam.

THANK YOU, TIRED BRAIN.