I’ve begun what is a concept of the logo for Zelda Wiki.org… a 2D version, anyway. Make sure you’re using a browser that supports PNG transparency. If you aren’t using one, then you’re very much rooted in the past.

The glass idea is very rooted in Vista’s GUI, and I don’t think I’ll ever get as close to the glass I really envision, but it’ll have to suffice. I want to thank thoosje for supplying some of the glass effect with his PSD – without it, this logo would have looked very mundane. That was manipulated to my own various needs – getting colors, making a back glass panel (which is only visible on a darker background, which this logo is made for), etc.

Now, the REAL logo has yet to be revealed, but I have it… ;)… everything is done in vector graphics, so it’s all scalable, even this logo, though it’s made for smaller use (as a famicon, too). I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Click here to view a larger version, on a darker background.

Some music news!

The Maple Story OST is up once more, freshly updated and ready to be downloaded. Even better yet, because of the new server I have REMOVED the anti-leech links. Everything is freely downloadable once again, until you crazy leechers sap my 100GB of bandwidth, which I’m sure in time you will. ;)

The Golden Sun Soundtrack is, unfortunately, not back up yet, but with good reason. The soundtrack is going under a complete remake. I will be re-recording each track for Golden Sun Realm and, when the tracks are finished, the links will be placed up once again. These also will have no anti-leech protection.

Even though there is no anti-leech anymore, keep in mind that I still have direct link protection. You cannot link directly to my files (and that means ALL files) from another site. This was a major cause of bandwidth loss in the past, and I don’t really have tolerance for it. I’m sorry to the people who wanted to post links to my entire soundtrack on their blog. You’ll just have to keep living. :P

~ Jason.

A sketch for art class, obviously a bunch of abstract hands. They were meant to be "working" hands, as in hands that are doing something, but I kind of failed at getting down what I had intended. If you cannot interpret what’s going on in the sketch, and I know that you can’t, here’s an explanation:

- The bottom two hands are juggling the upper hands.
- The hand furthest to the left is falling into the hand under it, which is ready to catch said hand.
- The largest hand neat the top is at the top of the rotation in the juggling cycle. It had been holding onto the two very small hands next to it, but let them go.
- Those very same two hands are clinging to each other by a single finger, in an attempt to stay alive from the fall that awaits them.
- All of this is being drawn and imagined by the hand in the bottom right corner, which is the only hand without an outline.

Click here or on the image to view the sketch larger.

A cookie to the first who can solve this. I’m curious if anyone can find the answer to this algebraic conundrum. I’m considering asking my Analysis teacher, but I want it to go to the readers first.

Let’s say we have a normal equation A = C. Let’s add -2C to that…

-> A – 2C = -C
From this, we can add A to both sides.

-> 2A – 2C = A – C
Factor out the 2.

-> 2(A – C) = A – C
And divide by "A – C"…

-> 2 = 1

I think Algebra has been torn in half, but there must be some logical explanation. Maybe someone has the answer, because I’m stumped.

Man, this is one of the best weeks yet! My grades are soaring, art projects are going nicely, and I’ve seen using Pzizz. I don’t think anything could go wrong at this point, though perhaps I’m liable to jinx myself. Sure, I still have lunch table problems, but when you score a seven out of nine on the AP scale for your first essay of the year when everybody else is stuck on threes and fours, you can’t help but feel that you’re going in the right direction. Filak says she wants us all getting those types of grades by the end of the year.

With all of this success in writing, I truly cannot wait until National Novel Writing Month, which begins in November. I’ve opted to set aside all of October to pre-write for the novel. I’ll probably post tidbits and plot ideas on the blog, because I love feedback, even though there are rarely any comments. This one is going to be great! The title is pending and probably will pend for a very long time. I’m thinking of not making a title until I’ve finished the book, but if I come across something great I’ll go for it. It has to be way better than Secured, though.

I mentioned that I’m using Pzizz. Pzizz is a very interesting program, and the link to the site is in the first paragraph. In short, it’s software that helps you take a nap. A very relaxing, stress-relieving nap. Maybe people do other things that relieve stress, but Pzizz is most definitely the most relaxing. Now, if readers are not yet convinced, let’s use some AP English skills to create a warrant, supporting reason, and claim for you to use this product.

CLAIM: You should use Pzizz.
REASON: Pzizz can help you relax and relieve stress.
WARRANT: People need to relax.

However, there’s more to it. If anyone has visited the site, they know that it costs $40. Well, it doesn’t. It is, in fact, free. Just go and vote in the MyDreamApp contest (and vote for Whistler, because it can turn MP3′s into MIDI’s.), and they’ll send you a free copy of this neat little piece of software. It’s well worth the few clicks it takes to get it, and I thoroughly enjoy using it to take twenty minute naps or even to put me to sleep. I know you’d like to relax, reader, we all would. And I am now relaxing, so why shouldn’t you?

In other news, the wiki has been growing exponentially! Thank you to everyone to is and has been contributing since its launch. Keep it up!

TJEffect has moved to a new server! It’s faster, better, and stronger. And it’s totally under my control. And one of the best parts? It has more bandwidth. So I can get rid of those nasty anti-leech systems until further notice. I hope you like that, because I sure do. You’ll also see, along with that, some big updates to the music files coming, namely the Maple Story OST. Look forward to that in the coming days!

And also, meet my new "project," made possible by this new server: http://www.zeldawiki.org/

I drew a sketch of some nervous hands (click the picture to see larger image), which actually belong to my friend. As usual, it looks really crappy in a photo. In other unrelated news, my keyboard seems to like to spaz out now, and either randomly hit the "left" key so one letter of a word is in front of the typing line, or forget to press space. It’s really annoying, and I’m going to fix it or die trying.

Some points to make: This is probably the crappiest photo to date. The fingers and proportions have been thrown way off because the photo had to be taken at an odd angle to avoid being hit by the light in the room. Therefore, it looks like I destroyed the hands. I did not. Just… eh, forgive me for the bad photo.

Enjoy the art and stuff. Look forward to more hands coming soon, since that is our specialty right now in art class. ;)

I’m actually excited to go back. I’ve already got a boatload of assignments, and it feels great.

Keep going »

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the Maple soundtrack, and with good reason: I’m lazy. The update is currently complete, but has no yet been implimented yet. Here’s why…

Most of you know that the files are downloaded through anti-leech, a messy plugin that probably scares away a lot of people. Anti-Leech has come out with something new called Anti-Leech Streamer, a godsend that allows for files to be easily downloaded without the need of a plugin or a java applet. Instead, it uses regular text links so that you can even stream the files as you used to, but it guards the location of where the file actually is, preventing people from mass-downloading.

I’ve installed it on the server, but it doesn’t seem to want to activate. I’m waiting until the problem is addressed or a new version of the streamer comes out. I also may reinstall the anti-leech server to see if that fixes the problem. Nevertheless, you will not see the soundtrack update until the streamer is working and, if luck has it, there will be a second update soon after, or even during the wait. So don’t lose hope yet!

If you really want the new update, I have put it in a Torrent file in the soundtrack page, marked for today’s date. We need seeders! Please seed if you want to download the soundtrack.

Grappa is a cool thing I discovered while using the equally cool Stumbleupon.com. Grappa comes in many flavors. What is grappa? What are the flavors? They’re certainly not cherry and watermelon.

Grappa is a Java applet created by Paul Schmidinger, who has a neat site. On his site you will find several of his applets and toys that are almost as intriguing as what has become his most popular. On top of doubling as a functional way to create digital art, Grappa is just damn cool. It may just be the next Falling Sand game.

It comes in six different forms: Delayed Trace, Grappa White, Sepia, Rainbow, BlueRandom, and Galaxy Creator. Each does it’s own special thing, but all have the end result of looking awesome. You control a tracer with your mouse. This tracer follows the mouse and leaves a path. Right now in the explanation it seems as normal as Pointer trails, and it is – it’s Pointer Trails that stay where they are, and are graphics-fied. That is, they have neat physics that you can control, and they have cool lighting effects.

I would bother explaining what each one does, but you’d be better to find out for yourself. I found The original 800×300 windows too constricting for me, so I took the liberty of downloading each applet, editing the HTML, and uploading them here, giving proper credit to Paul of course. You can now play with Grappa in a 1265×860 workspace, which I have affectionately dubbed Grappa Fullscreen. Creative, no?

To have fun with Grappa, click the link on the side called "Grappa Fullscreen." There you will find links to each of the six forms of Grappa, as well as explanations of each, and links to Paul’s website.