I am one of those who dared to buy Sony A6600. This is what I have to say about the camera after having and testing it for a week. Whole video is shot outdoors with Sony A6600. You don't have to endure my talking face waiting for sample footage. I mainly shoot video so I talk from that perspective.
I don’t read that much new comics. If I do prefer buying trades. That comes cheaper and I like to read more than single issue at the time. At the moment Immortal Hulk is only new comic I follow from trades. That was before I found Grant Morrison’s Green Lantern. Justice League Dark may get to that list too. I got first volume from sale but haven’t started it yet. I got first volume of Green Lantern (2018-) as single issues because it was cheaper. So I am currently at issues six waiting for second volume to be released. I know something big happens on twelfth issues and story continues under different name at least for a moment. But first issues of Green Lantern (2018-) is where you should start.
This run of Green Lantern is closer to old time science fiction comics than superhero comics. It has the feeling of old European science fiction comics. Some times it remind me old Star Wars comics I read as a kid. Some of the panels could easily fit into pages of 2000 AD. This feeling comes from writing and glorious art. Character designs are really out there. There is humanoid volcano and sapient insect species looking nothing like humanoids. Green Lantern concept allows really weird characters.
Green Lantern works as pulp science fiction because in the end it is intergalactic police force with fancy power rings. As long as Superman and others stay away from comic it can easily pass as science fiction. Having regular superheroes in different kind of superhero comics tend to break the mood of said comic. This has happened with Immortal Hulk, New 52’s Justice League Dark and Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. Moore probably was forced to have them appear but was wise enough to downplay their impact.
My favorite issue so far is third issue which has surprisingly lot of social commentary about climate change without saying words climate change. What happens in issue should have huge impact on every character on Earth but I assume those couple days when everything was different are forgotten and never mentioned again. At least outside Green Lantern comics. It is ok because I like to think this series happening outside other DC continuity.
I really hope Grant Morrison can keep this as pulp science fiction series of intergalactic police force and Superman doesn’t appear in any issue. During first six issues there haven’t been any superheroes or super-villains whose powers can’t be explained by science fiction concepts.
I got Polar Vantage M few weeks ago. I have generally been happy with it. Even more after last update which fixed some issues and made it measure activity like M430 and other models did. But there is still one thing I have problems with. It is Cardio Load Report. It is either bug or way it is counted which makes it work weirdly sometimes. I assume bug because I had years ago similarly calculated report which didn’t have this problem.
I know I don’t train that much.
Cardio Load Status sometimes go up for no good reason. Cardio Load Buildup shows I haven’t trained today. Yet. But Cardio Load Status goes to overreaching. After three days of not training I shouldn’t be overreaching. This report is calculated comparing short period of training data to long period of training data. Long period gives you tolerance and short short gives you strain. This could be because at first Vantage M counted lower activity levels than M430 and now Tolerance calculation doesn’t use M430 data any more. But I this isn’t first time this has happened.
I had similarly calculated report years ago. I could trust it perfectly. If I went to train when strain/tolerance level was at certain point or above it I got ill. But this time I am pretty sure I have no problem going training even when graph shows I am already overreaching. What makes me even more sure is another graph I still have in Polar Flow.
Older superior report.
You don’t get Recovery Status report with Vantage M. I have it because I still have M430. When I open this Flow wants me to use Cardio Load Report. It should give better data but it doesn’t. I have used this for years and at this point it still seems to be superior. Here time brings bars down and activity brings them up. This report changes status levels based on you previous training. I am not sure how it is calculated but it does that.
I can see how Cardio Load Report should be better and more informative report. Similar report I had in other program years ago was that. But this doesn’t show changes in tolerance levels very well and it works weirdly. Like I would go to overreaching without doing anything and then to detraining in one day if I don’t train today or tomorrow.
Another post praising Japanese music. There will be more coming later. I found Sheena Ringo and Hikaru Utada from Sheena Ringo’s latest video. It was their duet on Sheena Ringo’s upcoming album. You can expect that album to be on my favorite albums of 2019 list. However I can’t get enough of their older duet from Hikaru Utada’s album.
I love everything about this video. Song is good. If I listened more of this kind of music it might not stand out so much as it does now. Video fits perfectly to smooth jazzy song. At least if you don’t understand the lyric. Which is the case with me. This whole thing gives me 60’s optimistic science fiction feeling. Someone should make a movie or tv-series heavily inspired by this music video. If there already something giving similar feeling I really want to see it.
It could be mix of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barbarella with more optimism and less sexual content. I am science fiction fan but I don’t remember seeing anything like that. Or have I? There is a movie called Space Station 76 which tried to be something like that. Maybe it wasn’t as optimistic as I want.
Few words before going going in to list. I have mild idol burnout. I have seen too many generic idol group’s videos and too many video’s where group’s only idea is to make young girls act sexy. Those make you question why you even bother checking new groups and in some cases if you should stop following the whole idol thing because of all the problems of the genre. But then you give change to other group and find something amazing which couldn’t exist outside idol culture. This is list of those groups.
I will be cheating here little bit. Not every entry here is album or released this year. I found groups this year and want to mention them here. Also this doesn’t contain Babymetal’s Metal Galaxy because I can’t put them into idol category even though they probably are than. Broken by the Scream and other groups will release albums this year which I expect to be among my favorite albums but because those are not released yet they are not here. I am not sure if there will be second idol edition or if I add rest among other favorite albums. Now to the list.
Minna No Kodomochan: Kabe no nai Sekai
Kabe no nai Sekai was released 2018. I found Minna No Kodomochan after I wrote 2018 favorite idol albums list. Soon after learning about the group I found out other member had to leave the group due injury. I am not sure what happens to the group now. They released some singles this year and had good thing going before the injury. Turn subtitles on if you want to know what they sing about.
Okinawa Electric Girl Saya: 黒の天使
Okinawa Electric Girl Saya has very little to do with whole idol thing but she seem to be popular on Facebook group where I find new idol groups. 黒の天使 is quite uneven album. Dropping few low point songs would have made it really good normal length album. Okinawa Electric Girl Saya is one of most interesting artists at the moment. Looking forward what she will release in future and hope she find some focus. Then all her music could be what high points of 黒の天使 are.
Melon Batake a Go Go: IKASUZE IDOL 1, 2, 3!!
Time to get into this year and real idol groups. Melon Batake a Go Go is what idol culture can produce when everything works. They are fun. They have interesting idea an they make good music. Often idol groups tend to be idol versions of a genre but you rather listen genre band than genre idol group. This is not the case with Melon Batake a Go Go. They are among best bands of the genre.
Bish: Carrots and Sticks
This song is big reason why I felt into idol rabbit hole. It feel quite generic now. But then it blew my mind. I knew Babymetal and Necronomidol before this. But this had something which made me interested of whole genre. Album has few good songs but it is hard to listen as whole album because it has brick wall mastering. Meaning everything is at full volume all the time. Even though this got me deeper into idol world this wasn’t best album coming from members of Bish.
Pedro: Thumb Sucker
Pedro is Bish’s Ayuni D’s solo project. At least it is sold as such. I don’t know how much drummer and guitarist have input. The guitarist is the reason why this whole thing works so well. Pedro released one EP before this. It had few good songs but everything falls in correct place in this album. It is interesting this album was released quite soon after Bish’s album. I don’t know how she had time to promote both at same time.
Bis: Are you ready?
Where should I start with this one. This is my favorite song of 2019 this far. It is only released as a single. Group named Bis has released full length album this year. But it doesn’t contain this song because none of the girls in the group which released this are part of the group which released the album. To make everything more confusing current Bis is not exactly the same as group which released the full length album. Other words whole Bis thing is a complete mess but it gets good music released.
All this is possible because idol groups are often put together by people behind the scenes. They own the group. They get someone to make songs and get group of girls to perform those songs. Bis is notorious for group changes. Group that released this song is know as second incarnation of Bis. Group that released the whole album is third incarnation of Bis. Girls performing the songs have got so fed up with management that everyone left same time. Addition to this members change all the time. Latest member stayed in group for couple weeks.
Gang Parade: Last Gang Parade
Gang Parade is weird. I bought their Last Gang Parade even though I didn’t find that so interesting. Actually I am not why I bought it. But when I hear interesting song when listening my music library on random it is quite often from this album. Favorite song is Heretic but because there is no official video of it this has to do. Gang Parade has released second album this year but I haven’t checked it yet. Maybe it will appear to later list.
Will-O’: 感情線染ヒカリエモーション
This is one of the most generic groups in this list. As far as I know they have only released one EP which contains this song. Don’t know much about the group but I like their music.
I.D.And Fly LooM: I.D.Fly
My latest finding from idol world. This is EP. I don’t know if they have released anything else than this. I hope they release more. I like how they sound more like metal band than idol group which has metal element in their music. In my opinion they should be as popular as Babymetal or Broken by the Scream which also have more metal band than idol group feeling.
It has been a while since I made content to internet. I kind of burned out with this. I decided to take little break when studying for AWS certificate. Then other thing demanded my attention and it was hard to get back on track. For videos I wanted to reinvent the channel but had not good idea what to do. Until this week. I knew I wanted to try 3d animation again. Blender 2.8 was released with Eevee renderer which is way faster than Cycles. Previous attempts ended when I realized how much time rendering takes.
I bought CGBoost’s Blender 2.8 Launch Pad course. Picture above is from my course project. It contains some course’s objects but I think it is ok because I am talking about the course. Course is for beginners. I am not beginner. I felt it would be good idea to start from beginning, get my work flow correct and learn all basic tricks. For that course has been excellent. I have learned better ways to do things I struggled earlier attempts on 3D animation. Course has shown how easy it is to make good looking low poly 3D animation.
I have not completed the course yet. So had I have been happy and wanting sequel course which goes more advanced techniques and topics. After I have completed this course I can get to new videos and reinventing the channel. I can’t promise when next video will be released or even if it is 3D animation.
One reason why it has been so hard to get back on track is I have changed tools I use making videos. I made videos how I wanted to change to DAW which works with MPE. That DAW is Cubase. Cubase was on sale earlier this year. I took change with it and upgraded to full version soon after when upgrades were on sale. So Blender is not the only software I need to learn to use. DaVinci Resolve also got new version with new functionality.
You don’t need to wait next post this long. I will start to list my favorite music earlier this year. There is less than three months this year to go. So I should have pretty good idea what will be my favorite music this year. I expect album to come to that list but albums of so far I already know.