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I’m a bit late to this, but back in summer 2024 I participated in the OST Composing Jam. The goal of this jam is to compose an original soundtrack (minimum of 3 minutes) of any style for an imaginary game. While I’ve composed a lot of video game music, I’ve never created an entire soundtrack around a single concept. Self Avoiding Walk by Daniel Marino To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure where to start. I was torn between trying to come up with a story for a game to inspire the music, and just messing around with some synths and noodling on the keyboard. I did a little bit of both, but nothing really materialized. Synth + Metal ≈ Synthmetal Feeling a bit paralyzed, I fired up the ’ole RMG sequencer for inspiration. I saved a handful of randomized melodies and experimented with them in Reaper. After a day or two I landed on something I liked which was about the first 30 seconds or so of the second track: "Defrag." I love metal bands like Tesseract, Periphery, The Algorithm, Car Bomb, and Meshuggah. I tried experimenting with incorporating syncopated guttural guitar sounds with the synths. After several more days I finished "Defrag"—which also included "Kernel Panic" before splitting that into its own track. I didn’t have a clue what to do next, nor did I have a concept. Composing the rest of the music was a bit of a blur because I bounced around from song to song—iterating on the leitmotif over and over with different synths, envelopes, time signatures, rhythmic displacement, pitch shifting, and tweaking underlying chord structures. Production The guitars were recorded using DI with my Fender Squire and Behringer Interface. I’m primarily using the ML Sound Labs Amped Roots Free amp sim because the metal presets are fantastic and rarely need much fuss to get it sounding good. I also used Blue Cat Audio free amp sim for clean guitars. All the other instruments were MIDI tracks either programmed via piano roll or recorded with my Arturia MiniLab MKII. I used a variety of synth effects from my library of VSTs. I recorded this music before acquiring my Fender Squire Bass guitar, so bass was also programmed. Theme and Story At some point I had five songs that all sounded like they could be from the same game. The theme for this particular jam was "Inside my world." I had to figure out how I could write a story that corresponded with the theme and could align with the songs. I somehow landed on the idea of the main actor realizing his addiction to AI, embarking on a journey to "unplug." The music reflects his path to recovery, capturing the emotional and psychological evolution as he seeks to overcome his dependency. After figuring this out, I thought it would be cool to name all the songs using computer terms that could be metaphors for the different stages of recovery. Track listing Worm – In this dark and haunting opening track, the actor grapples with his addiction to AI, realizing he can no longer think independently. Defrag – This energetic track captures the physical and emotional struggles of the early stages of recovery. Kernel Panic – Menacing and eerie, this track portrays the actor’s anxiety and panic attacks as he teeters on the brink during the initial phases of recovery. Dæmons – With initial healing achieved, the real challenge begins. The ominous and chaotic melodies reflect the emotional turbulence the character endures. Time to Live – The actor, having come to terms with himself, experiences emotional growth. The heroic climax symbolizes the realization that recovery is a lifelong journey. Album art At the time I was messing around with Self-avoiding walks in generative artwork explorations. I felt like the whole concept of avoiding the self within the context of addiction and recovery metaphorically worked. So I tweaked some algorithms and generated the self-avoiding walk using JavaScript and the P5.js library. I then layered the self-avoiding walk over a photo I found visually interesting on Unsplash using a CSS blend mode. Jam results I placed around the top 50% out of over 600 entries. I would have liked to have placed higher, but despite my ranking, I thoroughly enjoyed composing the music! I’m very happy with the music, its production quality, and I also learned a lot. I would certainly participate in this style of composition jam again!
I’ve always been fascinated to see what other apps or workflows others are using in their day-to-day lives. Every now and then I learn about a new app or some cool trick I didn’t previously know. I doubt anyone seriously cares about what I’m using, but figured I’d list them out anyway—if for no other reason than to keep a historical record at this point in time. Applications Alfred — I have a lifelong license, and I like it. No point in fixing something that isn’t broken. I primarily use it for app switching, but also use it for math, and to search for gifs. Aseprite — Sometimes I do pixel art! Even if the UI is clunky, and some keyboard shortcuts aren’t always convenient, there are some unique features that help facilitate creating pixel art. Audacity — I rarely use it, but sometimes it’s easier to make some quick audio edits with Audacity than to use a full blown DAW. Bear — This is the note-taking, task-tacking app I’ve landed on. The UI is beautiful and it feels snappy. It syncs, so I can use it on my iPhone too. Chrome — I used Arc for the better part of 2024, but after they announced they were done working on it to focus on a new AI-powered browser, I peaced out. There are a couple of features I really missed, but was able to find some extensions to fill those gaps: Copy Current Tab URL, Meetings Page Auto Closer for Zoom, Open Figma app, and JSON Formatter. Figma — I use it because it’s what we use at work. I’m happy enough with Figma. iTerm2 — Has a few features that I like that makes me chose this over Mac’s native Terminal app. Pixelmator Pro — I haven’t paid the Adobe tax for a long time, and it feels good. I started using Pixelmator because at the time it was the best alternative available. I’m comfortable with Pixelmator at this point. I don’t really use image editors often these days, so I probably won’t switch anytime soon. Reaper — My DAW of choice when composing music. It’s very customizable, easyish enough to learn, and the price is right. It also has a die hard community, so I’m always able to find help when I need it. VS Code — I’ve tried a lot of code editors. I prefer Sublime’s UI over VS Code, but VS Code does a lot of things more easily than Sublime does, so I put up with the UI. YouTube Music — I still miss Rdio. YouTube Music works well enough I guess. Paying for YouTube Music has the benefit of not seeing ads on YouTube. Command-line Tools These aren’t apps per se, but these are some tools that I use to help manage packages or that I use regularly when developing. Deno Eleventy Homebrew pure statikk Vite Volta yt-dlp Equipment I have one computer and I use it for everything, and I’m okay with that. It’s more than powerful enough for work, composing music, making games, and occasionaly playing games. Although I have a dedicated home office, lately I tend to work more on the go, often with just my laptop—whether that’s at a cafe, a coworking space, or even just moving around the house. 2021 M1 MacBook Pro AKG K240 Studio Headphones Arturia MiniLab MKII Controller Behringer UMC202HD USB Audio Interface Fender Squire Strat Guitar Fender Squire Bass Guitar Shure SM57 Virtual Instruments This is quite specific for composing music, so if that does’t interest you, feel free to stop reading here. This list is not exhaustive as I’m regularly trying out new VSTs. These are some staples that I use: 🎹 Arturia Analog Lab V (Intro) — My Arturia controller came with this software. It has over 500 presets and I love exploring the variety of sounds. 🎸 Bass Grinder (Free) — I recently came across this VST, and it has a great crunchy overdrive sound for bass guitar. 🥁 Manda Audio Power Drum Kit — Even though you can use this for free, I paid the $9 because it is fantastic. The drums sound real and are great for all styles of music. 🎸 ML Amped Roots (Free) — What I like about this is that I get great metal guitar out of the bost without having to add pedals or chaining other effects. 🥁 ML Drums (Free) — I just started experimenting with this, and the drum tones are amazing. The free set up is pretty limited, but I like how I can add on to the base drum kit to meet my needs rather than having having to buy one big extensive drum VST. 🎹 Spitfire LABS — More variety of eclectic sounds. I also use several built-in VSTs made by Reaper for delay, EQ, reverb, pitch-shifting, and other effects. Reaper’s VSTs are insanely powerful enough for my needs and are much less CPU intensive.
Over the past couple of years I’ve gotten into journaling. Recently I’ve been using a method where you’re given a single inspirational word as a prompt, and go from there. Unfortunately, the process of finding, saving, and accessing inspirational words was a bit of a chore: Google a list of “366 inspirational words”. Get taken to a blog bloated with ads and useless content all in an effort to generate SEO cred. Copy/paste the words into Notion. Fix how the words get formatted becasue Notion is weird, and I have OCD about formatting text. While this gets the job done, I felt like there was room to make this a more pleasant experience. All I really wanted was a small website that serves a single inspirational word on a daily basis without cruft or ads. This would allow me to get the content I want without having to scroll through a long list. I also don't want to manage or store the list of words. Once I've curated a list of words, I want to be done with it. Creating a microsite I love a good microsite, and so I decided to create one that takes all the chore out of obtaining a daily inspirational word. The website is built with all vanilla tech, and doesn’t use any frameworks! It’s nice and lean, and it’s footprint is only 6.5kb. Inspirational words While I’m not a huge fan of AI, I did leverage ChatGPT on obtaining 366 inspirational words. The benefit to ChatGPT was being able to get it to return the words as an array—cutting down on the tedium of having to convert the words I already had into an array. The words are stored in it’s own JSON file, and I use an async/await function to pull in the words, and then process the data upon return. Worth the effort I find these little projects fun and exciting because the scope is super tight, and makes for a great opportunity to learn new things. It’s definitely an overengineered solution to my problem, but it is a much more pleasant experience. And perhaps it will serve other people as well.
Over the past couple of years I’ve gotten into journaling. Recently I’ve been using a method where you’re given a single inspirational word as a prompt, and go from there. Unfortunately, the process of finding, saving, and accessing inspirational words was a bit of a chore: 1. Google a list of “366 inspirational words”. 2. Get taken to a blog bloated with ads and useless content all in an effort to generate SEO cred. 3. Copy/paste the words into Notion. 4. Fix how the words get formatted becasue Notion is weird, and I have OCD about formatting text. While this gets the job done, I felt like there was room to make this a more pleasant experience. All I really wanted was a small website that serves a single inspirational word on a daily basis without cruft or ads. This would allow me to get the content I want without having to scroll through a long list. I also don't want to manage or store the list of words. Once I've curated a list of words, I want to be done with it. ## Creating a microsite I love a good microsite, and so I decided to create one that takes all the chore out of obtaining a [daily inspirational word](https://starzonmyarmz.github.io/daily-inspirational-word/).  The website is built with all vanilla tech, and doesn’t use any frameworks! It’s nice and lean, and it’s footprint is only 6.5kb. ### Inspirational words While I’m not a huge fan of AI, I did leverage ChatGPT on obtaining 366 inspirational words. The benefit to ChatGPT was being able to get it to return the words as an array—cutting down on the tedium of having to convert the words I already had into an array. The words are stored in it’s own JSON file, and I use an async/await function to pull in the words, and then process the data upon return. ## Worth the effort I find these little projects fun and exciting because the scope is super tight, and makes for a great opportunity to learn new things. It’s definitely an overengineered solution to my problem, but it is a much more pleasant experience. And perhaps it will serve other people as well.
More in programming
The difference between "low prices" as a race to the bottom or as a success story (like Amazon, Costco, IKEA, Vanguard) is in leveraging intentional weaknesses.
I’m trying something a bit different today – fiction. I had an idea for a short story the other evening, and I fleshed it out into a proper piece. I want to get better at writing fiction, and the only way to do that is with practice. I hope you like what I’ve written! When the fire starts, I am already running for the exit. When the fire starts, the world is thrown into sharp relief. I have worked in this theatre since it opened its doors. When the fire starts, my work begins – and in a way, it also ends. When the fire starts, they run beneath me. When the fire starts, they leave their bags behind. Their coats. Their tickets. They hear me, though I have no voice. When the fire starts, I know I will never leave. When the fire starts, I will keep running. I will always be running for the exit, because somebody must. A “running man” exit sign. Photo by Mateusz Dach on Pexels, used under the Pexels license. Hopefully it’s clear that this isn’t a story about a person, but about the “running man” who appears on emergency exit signs around the world. It’s an icon that was first devised by Japanese graphic designer Yukio Ota in 1970 and adopted as an international symbol in 1985. I was sitting in the theatre on Friday evening, waiting for the second half to start, and my eye was drawn to the emergency exit signs. It struck me that there’s a certain sort of tragedy to the running man – although he guides people to the exit, in a real fire his sign will be burnt to a crisp. I wrote the first draft on the train home, and I finished it today. I found the “when the fire starts” line almost immediately, but the early drafts were more vague about the protagonist. I thought it would be fun to be quite mysterious, to make it a shocking realisation that they’re actually a pictogram. I realised it was too subtle – I don’t think you’d necessarily work out who I was talking about. I rewrote it so you get the “twist” much earlier, and I think the concept still works. Another change in the second draft was the line breaks. I use semantic linebreaks in my source code, but they get removed in the rendered site. A paragraph gets compressed into a single line. That’s fine for most prose, but I realised I was losing something in this short story. Leaning into the line breaks highlights the repetition and the structure of the words, so I put them back. It gives the story an almost poetic quality. I’ve always been able to find stories in the everyday and the mundane – a pencil is a rocket ship, a plate is a building, a sock is a cave. The only surprising thing about this idea is that it’s taken me this long to turn the running man into a character in one of my stories. I really enjoyed writing this, so maybe you’ll see more short stories in the future. I have a lot of ideas, but not much experience turning them into written prose. Watch this space! [If the formatting of this post looks odd in your feed reader, visit the original article]
As part of my work on #eng-strategy-book, I’ve been editing a bunch of stuff. This morning I wanted to work on two editing problems. First, I wanted to ensure I was referencing strategies evenly across chapters (and not relying too heavily on any given strategy). Second, I wanted to make sure I was making references to other chapters in a consistent, standardized way, Both of these are collecting Markdown links from files, grouping those links by either file or url, and then outputting the grouped content in a useful way. I decided to experiment with writing a one-shot prompt to write the script for me rather than writing it myself. The prompt and output (from ChatGPT 4.5) are available in this gist. That worked correctly! The output was a bit ugly, so I tweaked the output slightly by hand, and also adjusted the regular expression to capture less preceding content, which resulted in this script. Although I did it by hand, I’m sure it would have been faster to just ask ChatGPT to fix the script itself, but either way these are very minor tweaks. Now I can call the script in either standard of --grouped mode. Example of ./scripts/links.py "content/posts/strategy-book/*.md" output: Example of ./scripts/links.py "content/posts/strategy-book/*.md" --grouped output: Altogether, this is a super simple script that I could have written in thirty minutes or so, but this allowed me to write it in less than ten minutes, and get back to actually editing with the remaining twenty.
Building a mental model of computer architecture from first principles
One of life's greatest simple pleasures is creating something just for yourself.
