音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

ここで言う、宣言する、５月以来なにも書かなかったのは、決して大事なことはなかったじゃない。それどころか、大事なことはけっこうあった。けれど、ちょっとだけ沈黙に落ちた私は、何も書かないことを自ら選んだ。自分の記憶の中では、大事なことは忘れたりはしないと、これぐらいの自信があるから。わざわざ文字に表するは私のスタイルじゃない、もし後日に読んだらはずかしそうだから。

でもやはりブログのことを手放せない。一番一番大事なことではないことを記すには役に立つから、気分転換のついでにも。
だから今日は完成したばかりのイラスト周りに一言を残しておきたい――それより、このブログをイラスト専門にしたほうがストレス溜まれずに済むかもしれない、定期的に何かを書かなくていいから。

それはさて置き、ここで貼っておく。基本的にスムーズに進んだ一枚、『コントラダンサの夜』です↓

”その他いろいろ”

ちょうど一昨夜のこと、こいつはなんと可愛くカーテンの裏に隠れた‥尻尾が丸見えじゃん！(；´∀｀)

これから、またこのサイトを微調整したい。主にイメージのアップローダーをやりたいです。
うまく行けるように、経験値溜まりそう☆

これで全部。本当にもう自分が何を書いてるのかさえ分からないぐらいだ。けっこう長い間何も書かなかったから、日本語おかしくなったのかな‥

I had a vague idea a few years ago about accessing my EHD of music over my home network, but the search result at that moment was that a NAS would be necessary and that was too expensive and didn't sound flexible -- you don't want to spend a lot but gain no control over my entire CUE army.
Then suddenly a few years after, with a trigger I don't remember exactly, I returned to this topic. At least I got a quick answer that you can surely DIY your own media server, and there is free software around for this purpose.

Maybe I was simply annoyed by how I lacked control over my whole music library, which I'm not sure by how much it has expanded since getting my Jupiter laptop. Plus I've got more toys powered with AIMP to deal with the long-hated CUE on mobile devices, I wished I could play whatever was in my library without many tiresome delete/copy/paste processes.

The first try, the universal media server software, was actually a good one -- free and multi-OS support at least. However, my first impression was rather poor, mainly because I only tested its performance by accessing its IP. The built-in player was horribly lagging and totally rubbish at reading CUE. I'd accept the fact as the drawback of freeware, but other solutions I found, sadly, were worse and none had CUE support, even the paid version.

Since I don't hate DIY, I somehow imagined playing a music file -- at this point I already gave in that I'd lose CUE handling and would just play the whole track -- directly from its URL, assuming there's no internet speed issue.
This actually led me to a crazy weekend trying to find a solution to sharing my localhost across my network.
It did work eventually, so I'll have to put some records here for the next time.

1. in "httpd.conf" use ports 80 and 801 for my main and subsites.

Listen 80
Listen 801

2. in "httpd-vhosts.conf", set up servername for easy access. For some reason, the sub-site must have port 80.

<VirtualHost *:80>
	DocumentRoot "${POCCHONG}"
	ServerName pocchong.local
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80 *:801>
	DocumentRoot "D:/local/sandbox"
	ServerName sand.box
	<Directory />
		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
		AllowOverride All
		Require all granted
	</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

3. in "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts", link the custom servernames to localhost.

127.0.0.1 pocchong.local
127.0.0.1 sand.box

After this, both servernames should be accessible by typing localhost:PORT, 127.0.0.1:PORT, 10.0.0.203:PORT (which is the current device IP within my network) or the custom server name.

To make it accessible within the local network, ensure there's no device-based security block:
Windows settings -> windows security -> firewall & network protection -> advanced settings -> local computer security drop down -> rules for receiving -> add new -> type: Port -> specific port: 80, 801 -> allow access/connection -> profile: check all -> add name/description

Now, from other devices, by typing 10.0.0.203:PORT should open corresponding website. Note that the IP may change over time.

Although this did NOT go well with my URL-based media server idea, it would be nice to use this for sharing large files without a USB.

Meanwhile, I searched for further alternative solutions, like using foobar2000 plugin to build a media server, but it didn't work as expected.
Eventually, I returned to UMS and gladly noticed fb2k did find it as a local server.
Problem solved. ┐(・__・)┌

The next task would be getting a budget computer + a decent hard drive to officially build up the server. Would be very interesting but that does mean another round of search, in the area of hardware and $$!.

End with tonight's entertainment:

It would definitely go much faster at this pace, but I also know this is definitely nothing but a temporary boost. However, this still shrank the total time by one whole month, which is great.

I've just heard clipstudio got 2.0. May update to that version soon (maybe not?).

Again, the next card has been decided -- 10 swords + some maliketh touch (even the card after the next one! 7 cups + powder dust (??)), though I don't think I can get it done as quick as this one -- the background requires some time to figure out.

Another surprise was I gradually got used to first-person games. Having been playing Ghostwire for a week and now I'm able to handle hard mode. Still, I'm never a fan of 1st person and I doubt my brain can fit in any 1st person game. If they release a 3rd person patch (why have they got so many costumes in a 1st person game??) I might just buy the game in full but for now, I'll just enjoy my ps+ free offer.

Made quite many changes in the past week, and counting changes I've been planning since last October (maybe November), that added up to about 90 commits, either major or minor. First, I decided to use the traditional format of query strings. I'm using many htaccess rewrite rules for this currently, but it's not flexible and once I wanted to add new features, I have to deal with more rewrite rules. It's simply much more convenient to just redirect the desired link for each script, and thus multiple queries can then be linked by "&" without much headache. So why from the beginning I ever wanted to use so many redirect rules? It's not possible that I did it because I think the "?x=y" format isn't pretty, but I couldn't think of any other reasons. It might remain as a riddle, which isn't important anyway.
Updating php codes was straightforward enough. The only trouble I had with this was updating existing links I put in my journals. Not a hard task. But since the total number of them was not so large that I chose to do it manually, which saved the time of debugging but also reduced much of my patience.

Second and more importantly, I implemented the long-wanted CSS switcher. This idea came out last year when I was browsing Iroshizuku inks (but still just bought from another brand due to their price), so I wanted to make a set of themes and switch them periodically. Then the StackOverflow's once fun-to-try CSS switcher came into my mind again. This would be fun to change the CSS with one click. Although I've considered both the server side and client side, the former is easier to code since I don't have to worry about CSS file updates in situ (while I also considered using a query string, like theme=xxx, to call up for certain themes, which indirectly contributed my returning-to-traditional-query-format task), which is the most likely preferred to be done in javascript, the latter is more challenging but more flexible.
With the former as my backup plan, I luckily found some nice online snippets and eventually (don't want to spend more on this record) got the latter plan to work. My past experience with Perl/CGI cookies was bad, but this time, PHP handled most of it without any issues I could notice.

Finally, I just noticed using PHP's http response code function to call 404 and then die can't bring up the browser's built-in error message like how it used to. The reason was unknown. Maybe it means it's time to make my own error page, but I'm not motivated (yet).

Another good thing, I made forward my CST -- which stands for Cute Souls Tarotkarten -- project and it's finally 1/78 done, including only the final works!
Maybe I should say 1/79 done, since I also need to work on a card back design, regardless of how simple it might be.

No. 9, the Hermit, the first card I got.
Just at the moment when I wrote its number in regular digits, I realised it's actually the mighty No.9, nice to have it as the very first card! (*´∀｀)

Time to add some tagging system to my site. (・д☆)ｷﾗｯ

Although I have a vague idea about perspective, I never paid real attention until a few days ago, which was triggered by a youtube recommendation back at the beginning of this year. Vanishing points are indeed fun to play around with, and it's even more fun to verify them in existing pictures.
This means my coming works will have a large change -- even they'll be greatly copied from direct screenshots. Plus I didn't make anything digitally in the last 2 years (but I did bring the full deck to mature at the drafting-on-paper level), so it does sound like nice timing for creating a new ID on DA. I'm not a heavy DA user but that place is great as a secondary host among those I've found so far.

Meanwhile, I attempted to calculate how long I may fully finish the whole deck. I can't spend too much time on this daily, but one card per month seems reasonable. So doing all 78 cards would take 78/12 = 6.5 years...
Fine, probably I can be faster during the holidays, though I don't really have the confidence.
Earlier, I also considered the possibility to work on characters and backgrounds separately. Totally doable when the final background setup isn't determined, but I'm just more impatient to see the final card quicker if possible.
The order of cards can just be random or depending on my mood. I do doubt some, especially those I rushed during the drafting-on-paper stage, will be redesigned.

Finally, probably also a good time to change my HP title along with adding some hidden functions for myself (**thinking on this**).

It returned to -20~-30°C this middle week, which gave birth to this totally unrelated title.

(Still haven't got the habit to make a weekly record, and I'm beginning to guess this won't be changed.)

Was initially planning to make such a record about a month ago, that eventually I found a PS5 at a regular price. Amazon had a stable stock of the disk version since last December but I waited until the end of January for the digital -- have considered it long enough before this day, that it's not worth getting a physical knowing that my collection is only of 5 disks (in which 3 of them I probably won't touch in years).
It's so far of a good experience. Speedy and quiet, plus the shell is open-wide, which is decent for self-cleaning. Have been enjoying it in the past month, that ruined paused most of my routine plans.. Time to bring things back as March approaches!
At least I got mine this early, so hopefully there are not many scalpers who got killed by the curse I cast last time.

However, I always have more complaints. The immediate one is that it's UGLY -- I wonder which idiot came up with this design and how come more idiots accepted it. The PS4 is much more elegant and compact (I had slim). Second, more crucially, the controller is heavier. Much heavier than the PS4 and my hands, especially my thumbs, feel tired. Or could this be because they wanted the players to take a rest more frequently? (I doubt it). Then, as more others also complained, it took out the function for USB backup. I have PS+ but in a different region. This sadly forced me to change account, and thus melted my brain a bit further to find a more decent ID for it -- I really love my JP account ID! Nonetheless, there is less reason to stay there seeing how save-backup is limited now, especially now that I'm wasting my PS+ benefits in the NA region. At least the USB backup is still functional on PS4, meaning I don't have to redo my progress again for most games.

With a brand new PS5, I couldn't repress the demon inside me. But once I let it out, I wanted it to return to slumber soon. The old-fashioned inconvenience doesn't suit me anymore. Not challenging, but more of a time-wasting side. So I turned to ER for another 7 quick runs and just switched back in the past week, hoping to just have some experience of the improved graphics, at least...

Besides the PS5 addiction, I also had some technique works, for one of my 10+ years old hard drives. Did a full disk scan last year, but for some reason that I can't recall, I did it again. A minor reason was I decided to downgrade my OneDrive plan -- wish I found the economic 100GB plan much earlier, but it was still not too late. So the main thing I had to make sure of was the status of my brick-sized hard drive. It took a long while, too long and I don't want to mention it again. The trade-off is some saved $$, pretty decent.
At the same time, I came up with a list of galaxy planet names in German, which will be used for my devices. It would be fun to look from my wifi management, that Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are currently connected, isn't it?

Well, German, one important thing to resume, along with my huge drawing plan. Have just ordered a laptop stand, hope this can fasten the progress, as having some more extra space on my desk would always be visually pleasant.

Finally for today's rumbling, I eventually dropped the idea to colour my pile of drawing drafts, even though it does sound fun. I don't think this is a good time to return to analogue, just like pushing my inner demon back into my heart. I don't want to, or I shall say, I can't. I'm too spoiled by the digital side of the world. It's fun, but not realistic, especially when I want to treat it seriously. Even though my attitude is real, I don't have much physical support, say, the skill of using them properly.

To keep it concise.

Not excited nor have other special feelings, I merely think it's time for me to leave something before the end of this year.
It has been a while since the previous one, and surely I have got many things that are worth noting, which will become the final compilation for today.

Since late October, I got my third Pilot 2 weeks ago. Fantastic indeed, and now that's three of them, which match my dark blue, red and dark green inks, which also filled my new drawing project with much fun.
I'll definitely make some special posts about that (long story but I'll try to make it brief), though not until I finish at least outlining the drafts. As an archived record here, I'm currently at the last 1/6 of the total of 78 pieces, and I have already used 2x full-length pencils and 1 square eraser (the paper was all from a $10 sketchbook I bought 2 years ago while nowadays its price has nearly tripled), and maybe ~30 millilitres of ink. It would be fun to give it more colours after outlining, but I'm hesitating whether I shall proceed. Eventually they'll be all digitalised, so it seems to be a waste of time -- especially because I don't have more than green, yellow and purple as additional tones. And no, I know that without primary blue I won't have many variations even by mixing them. I might do some colouring for fun and ink-mixing experiments, but it's unlikely that this will be done for all drafts.

I was initially planning to finish the outlining before the end of this year, but I'm still far from the last piece -- blame the extreme cold 2 weeks ago.

As an escape from the lack of imagination, I instead tried some J-RPG that I would be more interested in a few years ago.
"Death end re;Quest", I was mainly attracted by its CG and a little horror touch as seeing the writer of Corpse Party. However, had a quick try of both normal and hard difficulty, I soon got bored in battles and retreated to easy for my peace of mind. After all I've adapted myself to nearly all soulborn titles, and it's nearly impossible to downgrade my gaming preference to turn-based -- unless there is really something special, which wasn't the case this time.

Regardless, at the very, very end, I noticed I found the biggest bug in an already seriously bugged world.

Honestly, I need to admit the story was interesting, which was the only thing that made me finish the game (if there was an anime I probably won't touch the game at all). It was much more fun reading it than running in circles in a cheaply made 3D world. But I wasn't happy with how it developed from the last few chapters till the end. Some people may like this style -- that is, going into the meta-level all of the sudden -- might be better if such meta-aspects could be introduced/more obvious in the middle/earlier second half. Directly jumping in at the very end of the story ruined all the mysterious/thrilling ambience cumulated in previous chapters.

By the way, I have also been thinking about the classical piano piece they used at the very beginning as well as the first phase of the final boss. At first I thought that was Chopin, but later I realised that was actually Satie? It was definitely a famous piece but I didn't bother to verify my guess. Either way, I expected there was a meaning behind using that exact piece, but sadly no. They seemed to merely choose a random classical piece and fitted in their game, yet the piece didn't blend well with other original BGM. A bad example of using classical music in games to make it fancier, IMO.

Still, that's an okay game, and the majority of the story was enjoyable. I also liked the CGs, which inspired me a lot and I believe I can borrow some of the drawing styles. In particular, I have been listing some points for improvement and hopefully they can go smoothly:
1. use thicker outlines
2. use colour trace for outlines
3. bolder shadowing
4. forget to always draw the whole body even if that's not necessary for the final make-up
5. Drawing males? I don't really care.. (； ･`ω･´)

Youtube has been recommending random ASMR videos to me for a while, and obviously I never really knew what kind of videos they were until last night. Based on a quick online search, I concluded that those videos would be a waste of time -- the truth is, I myself have never clicked any as I never hunched they would be of my interest.

From a psychological view, maybe I do have ASMR, but what's the point to watch such videos? To get relaxed? There are many other ways/video types that can do this better. To think of it in another way, anyone can tag their video (of literally anything, sound or drawing being the most common ones in my recommendation feed) with this four-letter combination, so the more important question is, can you trust these self-claimed ASMR videos? It's everywhere and overwhelming, so many of them that I had got a negative feeling toward it.

To be frank, I understand the sound videos as I like rainy days; for the rest (like drawing from sketch), that's absolutely SHINOBI EXECUTION. I mean, watching how pro-illustrators draw is great for learning, but what's the point to watch from the very beginning at normal speed? I'm definitely the impatient type and tend to either skip or play at 2x (or faster) speed. As a result, such so-called ASMR drawing videos will never be beneficial yet can make me more annoyed and anxious. Besides, some say such videos help sleep, but I don't have sleep problems and my preferred sleep BGM is people playing/laughing/screaming in video games.

Nonetheless, even those sound-only videos make me distracted -- as I'm usually more excited by rain/leaf sounds.
And I believe I'm not the only one.

Enough for nonsense videos, YouTube also made quite many great recommendations, including the following:

A truly adorable one of warmth and smiling. No more words needed here. I wish I can have such a life after I retire (I know it's too early to think about it). So my cats aren't fat after seeing these critters.

All for this post. A decent year that was, and some quick next year plans (besides my real work of course):
1. paint work (nothing this year but I promise there will be more)
2. string work (time to retake!)
3. text work (if it can ever happen)
4. language work (as a weekly routine)
and last. wish the death end for scalpers