音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

Finally, another post after months. My hunch is such big intervals will still last for quite a long while.
Today's post remarks a successful attempt (finally) to get a music player with external cue support on my legacy Xperia Arc with android version 4.0.4.
I should have learned it many years ago since I upgraded the android version from 2.x to 4.x, but since back to that time my main purpose was to upgrade the OS, I didn't pay attention to anything else.

More recently, when I re-charged my over-10-year-old music player, I noticed its earphone socket became buggy and I could only hear both channels when the cable ~50% inserted. Though it still works now, it probably will be undone soon.
A quick search on Amazon showed a review-based okay player (with SD card support) won't cost more than 50, but I'm not in the need of getting a new device. At first I was thinking I could use my 1-year Samsung A31 to play music, but quickly dropped this idea considering the battery consumption. Then I remembered my legacy Arc, which lied in a drawer since the beginning of WFH.
Apparently an old phone with bluetooth, etc. (though I don't need them really) would be better than a budget player, but I also feel tired already before converting a chunk of 64 GB of music as single tracks. I'm too used to one image file + cue index file.

With the thinking on using A31, I discovered AIMP being a nice one for android that meets my requirement, but on google store, its minimal version is higher than 4. Another big problem, it seems Arc can't connect to the store properly at all, very likely due to the old version.
I do know you can install apk on android like running an exe file on Windows and have done so before. it's fairly easy to discover a couple of apk files, but Arc doesn't have a built-in file manager and I was stuck again.
So I tried a few attempts again trying to installing a newer OS to Arc, hoping to get back the connection to the store to find something useful, but all failed due to the inability to unlock its bootloader. I did find some programs that claim to do the trick, but being afraid they're potential viruses, I didn't try them on Jupiter (my surface laptop 3). Instead I tried to use my VAIO as the laboratory mouse, which has been literally hibernating since a year ago, it soon turned that the VAIO's long-lasting hard-drive issue has worsened and I couldn't start even a window explorer.
Maybe it could perform a bit better if I stop ignoring it's asking for a disk check. So I did the check, but ended up with it shuts down and never starts up again. Did the disk check kill its power connection? I don't know but that's the end of it, very likely.

Finally, right in this afternoon, I learned about ADB -- should have known about it years ago! -- and all issues were solved. Could easily install any apk matching the current version. Tested v2.9 of AIMP and it works great. Before AIMP, I have tried winamp and another neutron player, but neither allows you to select music from a specific folder -- like what I do on the computer -- both require to first scan your given library folder and you get nearly no flexibility.
Many people on the AIMP page complain its "old school" style, but it's actually easier to manage. My music folder and its subfolders are well organised and don't require further of the so-called "modern" ways of library management.

I'll see how long Arc's remaining battery can last!

Was too distracted by a variety of things in the last year, but it's probably the same for most people. Hopefully this year is totally different, in a positive sense. Staying at the same pace won't bring significate changes, and time to call for a refresh, triggered by the purifying spirit Amabie. (wish I could make an art but this won't happen in the near future.)

Since many months ago, my bluetooth speaker began to randomly skip, but eventually returned to normal after a few restarts/reconnects. It didn't become a big issue until today, and it sounded like playing a badly scratched disk on a nearly-dying CD player. Unbearable.
After trying all simple and quick reset-related ways without improving the condition, I finally began to check on the possibility regarding wifi interference. -- When wifi being turned off, the skipping disappeared. So that must be the problem. Actually, it wasn't a hard fix either, and I also renamed my wifi to "Old Moonlight" at the same time (as another kind of refresh!). Though I wanted to change the pass as well, I currently had no good phrase to use aside of those I'm using for other sites.

This wifi fix indeed triggered me writing something today, but I'm not the type to state all my year-change ambitions loud, so I'll keep the very first post as normal as my most others and stop here.

(Interestingly, my first post in the last year was also on this day but this won't mean anything. I disagree with Ichihara Yuuko.)

Never being a Cthulhu fan -- while I still have to rely on google to spell "Cthulhu" right -- I got a slight interest in The Sinking City from an article before its initial release. For many times I was considering to get it but eventually not, $80 was apparently not acceptable judging from that I'm not sure how the actual experience it might be. Then I came to the discount in May for $25 only, and gradually cleared it in the past month.

First impression, environment is great, that I was soon linking it to the Fishing Hamlet. No much memorable BGM though. Still, most building interiors are exactly the same, not attractive and confusing.
However, combat is near rubbish that I didn't want to get mad and quickly set to easy. It's not happy to fight while you can't lock. The character can move backwards while facing the front, in a dashing speed, but he can only climb when right facing a higher object, otherwise he doesn't move (stupid). Comparing with this, Psycho Break's slight aiming delay action is much better (I'm not saying I don't like PB, but its combat sometimes do make me angry). Plus, even though from the tips it says ammo is scarce, when you reload crafting materials will respawn.. meaningless. (Well, it's my fault to play it as doing Silent Hill.)
Riddle (not literally riddle though) isn't hard at all, and turned this game to a 80% map finding one. ... at the cross between X and Y, fine, tedious but still endurable. The collection of hints and evidence is okay, but for a few times it's hard to look past information (which cost me lots of time finding where the cemetery is because I didn't visit it in an earlier chapter -- it's reasonable to just ask a local person but the game doesn't let you do it). In addition, you can't really look for any piece of info at an archive without pin the evidence first on the search page, also it's not possible to visit a place (e.g. church) without searching at the archive first even though you may have known the location when you passed by earlier. This flagging system is too stubborn. Otherwise I have no complaints and liked to track down to the final decision.
About decision, your choice wasn't ending-affecting nor serious at all, kind of dissatisfied. Most cases are fun to run though.
Last, the endings are interesting in terms of content: 1. you sacrifice yourself, and the yellow king welcomes the next newcomer (could be Mr. Reed again?!); 2. you enter the sea anemone-ish thing (can't spell its actual name) and the Oakmont (probably the whole world too) is engulfed by tsunami; 3. you're left the city and a few years ago the yellow king shows you a newspaper front saying "catastrophic flood", immediately after, water enters the bar where you're drinking. which again link me to bloodborne endings. But, the cutscenes were way too short.. shorter than a boss cutscene in DS3. I do like how it saves your time by allowing you saving right before the end. At least give more info, I still don't know what's going on underwater and the difference between endings 2 and 3, except where you end up with..
Finally, the ending credit is a long list of names (that I skipped). It's funny just like when I read a one-column research article. At least divide into who made the story, who made the program, etc.!

Now I quite understand and agree with its overall 6-7 out of 10 marks, it's fair (fairer than the new naughty dog title ¬_¬ [another truth, I never played nor watched "1" either]) even when it's just a $25 buy. At least I don't think it's a waste and really enjoyed it.
Time to run through bloodborne again as a reflected decision!

It almost rained for a whole day, not bad, although sadly that I didn't smell the earth from indoors.

Even though I tried to "keep records" more frequently, so far it seems it's still going by month instead of a few days. But behind this, I'm indeed keeping a daily piece of writing, regardless of long or short, meaningful or meaning less, while being much more private than this site for sure. Plus I let google's blogger handled everything, it's more time-efficient and I nearly forgot I still have this public one...

Anyway, I'll see if that's possible for me to keep two types of records, from the beginning of next month!
also time to resume the German for Dummies book.. ^^;

A more important note, I'm also resuming my drawing project, remake of "kitsunetsuki". Under Nioh2's influence, I'm trying to have a pair of 9-tailed foxes compared to previous single white fox! but really, I more wanted to draw sunekosuri cats... >///<
Meanwhile, I also have another project that I started drafting in Feburary, which was actually initiated many years ago: Project T (not T virus of course!). Still, this one also has undergone many changes, as I mentioned before, from 78 down to 22 only. not only because I'm lazy, it's more of an issue of no knowledge in that field, and having no motivation in knowing more.
-- but 22 is decent enough, isn't it!

I've been looking for a decent phone a while ago. Although I've checked a few, they're either too expensive or a bit out-dated.
Since Android 10 has already been released, it's the time to look for a built-in 10 instead of upgrading from 9 to 10.
Originally I was having an eye on Moto G8 and Samsung A30. They both released not so many months ago, have decent price below $300 (the former was merely $210). But none of them has android 10. So I held up until a few days ago, when I noticed amazon showed a decreased stock.
Then I tried to compare other similar items on a phone comparison site, and eventually spotted A31, which was ~$350 and released right in last month with built-in android 10.
Fine, no more hesitation, time to place the order.

Because my previous iphone5 (with a non-working power button) is black, it's very hard to realise it's being placed on my black desk. Thus, this time I chose white. But apparently it's not helping much, since the front side is still all black when screen turned off. I completely neglected this fact, and should really have got a black phone, as black is just so all-purpose that nothing else can replace its importance. Anyway, it won't be a good reason to go for a replace.

My previous android was probably not above 4.4. The current experience on 10 is excellent -- Icons can be placed everywhere! Typing through swapping is smooth. The brand new machine is fast and the 64 GB storage will be undoubtly enough.
Now I can finally use OneDrive, which couldn't be installed on a lower iOS version, along with many other apps.
Blogger doesn't even have an iphone version [I just started a private blogger site for personal diary -- I wanted to resume my long-forgotten daily log habit].
Also, the your phone on windows 10 app is great, it's now very easy to access photos stored on the phone. Although I've set up OneDrive, seems it's not backing up. Probably it needs more configuration that I'll deal with in the near future, it's not in rush. I more often use a real camera after all. But the inconvenience is I can't transfer files from PC to phone. Hope this can be improved but it's unlikely..

It claims charging is fast, and I'll see tomorrow.

The only thing I'm not yet used to is to unlock: tap 1, 2 times or swap or home button or fingerprint... hope can get used to it soon.

Almost forgot to say, it came with a soft plastic (?) case. Never expected this but I'm happy with it. Will try how a strap can be attached from one of its holes!
And I'll definitely paint another Hunter's Mark on the back (of the case)!

No more apple, スッキリ！

Meanwhile, one of the past Notepad++ updates now allows auto-indentation for Perl scripts, like what it has been doing for php. Thankfully I love it!

時々そう考えてる、本物の日記帳でやれば中断しづらいかも。でも流石に今はもうおしゃれなノートとか持ってないし（一冊だけあるがアレに使われた…）、字も下手だし、時間が経つと絶対に読むこともないし‥などなど。過去はちゃんとやったけど、今は真似事できない。本気かどうかは関係ない。ただの無駄、確信。

で、アレについて…

最初の発想は‥何年前なんだろうか。過去の絵を見ないと分からない。
でも、もうどうでもいい。だって、今年の二月には、もう一度ゼロからやってみようと、
しかも今度はたったの２２だけじゃなく、全部７８でやりたいと、
そう思った。

が、もともとこいうものは信じるわけじゃなく、面白半分で足を踏み入れただけなので、意味とか解釈とか組み合わせとか全然分からなくても分かりたくもない。
三ヶ月かけてようやく２２の部分に終わりが見えるが、残りの４×１４には単にデザインを考えるだけでやる気がなくなる。
だから、まじで始める前にやめよう、もう限界だから、精神力的に。(・_・;)
せめて何年前にほっといた企画を完成させる。イメージ合っても合わなくても草稿できたから。
もちろん諦めるわけじゃない。前の２２はちゃんと完成する、バックもデザインする［つもり］。

これをやめたいもう一つの理由は、最近お久しぶりの「ヨルガ」を聞いてて、その特有の音階にてまた何か描きたくなった。そしてリマスターじゃなくリメイク！
ｷﾂﾈの方です～

そして、先週こいつを買った、アマゾンJPにて。
↓

ずっと携帯のアプリ使ったけど、声が小さくて使うときにスクリーンオフもできず、色々不便だった。そしてこういう古風のメトロノームをずっとほしかった。
最初は黒がいいと思ったが、やっはり淡きピンクが可愛い。
一番欲しかったのは白だったけど、海外配送できないので諦めた。

こっちのアマゾンにもある、黒の方なら値段も税も配送料も含めてほぼ同じ、ピンクの場合はバカみたいに30ドルも高い。しかも結局日本から郵送され、配達時間もめっちゃかかるので、やはりアマゾン本家とDHLさんの連携は王道だね。
あとひとつ、注文したとき在庫はすでに最後の一点だった、今は一時的に在庫切れになり。ちょっとお得な感じ♪（*´▽｀*）

でも、コイツめっちゃうるさい！！ｗｗｗ
これについて確かレビューにも読んだが、メカニックメトロノームが初めて使うのでこれほどでっかくなれるのは知らなかった。

It was a bit busier than ever in the past 1.5 months. Too many free ideas I've cumulated in my internal notepad to be released, which I'm going to do now.

Not the first time, but more frequently since February when I came across many personal websites, I've noticed they got a sort of plugin to disable text selection and/or copy/paste/Ctrl+U/etc. Regardless, the source code can be still accessed through your web browser's menu (unless their script can affect your web browser which is of a near-zero chance), and you can get all contents you want by parsing HTML. A bit hassle but not that much, especially when you know how to REGEX!

Nonetheless, I don't understand why those people invest some extra time (maybe minor since it's merely a matter of a few clicks from wordpress) to install it, since it doesn't really work. If you don't want people to copy your stuff, don't publish it. Otherwise there is always a way to get your text, and you only annoy most innocent people since they simply want to select a word and google its definition.

Another annoying plugin is the pop-up subscription ad. Honestly, how many people would enter their email and subscribe? Or maybe they just want to show off their skill of making a pop-up ad... u_u

On an intention to look inside, I borrowed Learning Python (the edition that only covers 2.3) from the library and finally managed to read the section of using modules. With my experience in Perl, it's going mostly well, though I haven't been spending much time practising.
On the other day when I was looking for a solution to clear my trailing rubbish on screen, but one of the quickest answers was rather:

Yeah, fine, there's more than one way to do it.

I'm still not -- and probably will never be -- used to Python's space-based indentation, I eventually realised that I missed the great feature of Notepad++, which can use either tab or space depending on the language. Missed the option earlier and had so many complaints.
Brackets are beautiful. {-w-}

Plus, I'm surprised that the book doesn't teach a lot in Regex, while Learning Perl spend chapters covering relevant topics.
I'm now very glad I didn't start with Python, even it's more popular at present.

Earlier, I didn't understand bitwise operators, but now I don't understand why I want to use them. And my sudden idea led me to use them as a code.
But though I can convert a piece of message into massive 1-and-0's, anyone who knows the logic behind will be able to decipher it.
Will that also apply to modern cryptography?

Whatever, I tried to make my own code. It does work, but when trying to integrate it into an already-built site, more issues came, involving to require a password, to manage current pass, to display original or enciphered text, etc.
Just too troublesome to continue.
Maybe what I need is to find a good javascript, or leave self-hints without literally stating them.
At least I've made a shallow attempt in this. Satisfied.

Two months ago, I applied a two-column layout, which doesn't look bad.
Today, I reset the template back to a one-column layout, which is more comfortable.
Two or more columns simply look crammed, especially for a personal site. And it's often hard to balance between a short article and a very long sidebar.

Still, to compensate those several "widget" php files I made (easily) for the sidebar, I rearranged them to fit into my index -- with a two-column layout! (>ω<)