Blogging Fragrance Nerd Stuff Work
July 23, 2011

Dreamweaving Again

So the good news is I’ve gone longer without posting on here, but that’s like saying midget murder is more condonable because they’re about half a life.

I’ve started on a new web project, and with the number of features I want to build out it stands to be my most ambitious project yet, and it’s gonna require some new technologies. Understand that I really don’t like the thought of relying on JavaScript, due to long-standing grudges, but jQuery does offer features I’m really gonna need in this project, in a prepackaged solution. When I hear that there are quite a few Top 100 websites that make use of it, I’m reassured.

So, Project Havana, as I’m calling it right now, is fragrance-related and fills a niche that no other industry website has sufficiently covered. This will also serve as a website I can show as a portfolio piece for both the UI and backend. That’s still a field I’d love to do as a day job again, and I’ve also just recently found all the code for the largest project I’d worked on but was under NDA on for a year. So it’ll be good to have both projects available to point to. I’m being rather tight-lipped on the particulars to this project as I want to develop it at a slower pace, get each feature dialed in before moving onto the next one, and then when I have something worth putting out there, I can do it without regret or concern. So that’s new, as I usually throw up core functionality and build out the site as it’s live, add those features as people use the site.

I’m going to try and get back on the three-day writing schedule, we will see.… (More) “Dreamweaving Again”

Fragrance
January 21, 2011

BMM11 Behind The Scenes: Wheeling and Dealing

Many Basenoters enjoy Basenotes March Madness, but it’s something just this side of an obsession for me as commissioner of the thing. Suffice it to say that I started preliminary work on BMM12 (March 1 2012) in December 2010. I was simultaneously working on BMM11 and in my first message on the topic to Grant Osborne, owner of Basenotes.net, I asked about the possibility of a prize this year. That was back on 12/15, but good things come to those who wait, and BMM11 officially has a prize package, graciously provided by Indiescents. Not a name you’re familiar with? It’s the niche-focused side of Luckyscent. I know Luckyscent is fairly niche as-is, but these are more independent perfumers, Laurie Erickson’s Sonoma Scent Studio, Brent Leonisio’s Smell Bent, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz’s DSH line, and so on. Given that I’m already in contact with many indie perfumers this year, the tie-in is great and I think people are really going to enjoy reading the selections from the perfumers, they’re all extremely interesting.

I’ve mentioned discreetly to a few people that the brackets are shaping up to be altogether different from the past two years. Take a look at the latest standings here. Everything below #96 is currently on the outside looking in, and there are some damn fine fragrances currently not in the show right now, Chanel Antaeus, AdP Colonia, Czech & Speake No. 88 (big surprise to me considering how far it’s gone in the past), LV Piper Nigrum, and plenty others that are looking mighty snubbed at the moment. This year I’m not going to be fudging these selections any more than I absolutely have to (for example, a three-way tie for the last position). So if something doesn’t make it in, it’s squarely on the shoulders of you, … (More) “BMM11 Behind The Scenes: Wheeling and Dealing”

Music
January 17, 2011

Great Music Has Emotion. Emotion Makes Great Music.

If you and I were ever to have a long talk about good music, you’d find that I will forgive a lot of sins if there’s real, unfaked, unabashed emotion and energy present. Case in point would be something as American as…grits. (We had a discussion that few to no things were truly an American contribution) Consider blues music, a genre that at it’s most typical is very, very structured. Even the solos are generally confined to one scale. But the great bluesmen of generations past told stories that moved the soul. Maybe it’s my internal old fogey talking, but I think if the generation of teens and 20-somethings took the time to listen to some B.B. King, some Lead Belly (Miss you, Jon), John Lee Hooker’s unique take on it, or Stevie Ray Vaughan’s modern-take on the art, they might find the prefabricated pop and rap they listen to now…somehow lacking.

Ray Charles – Georgia On My Mind (Live)

I deeply regret not having an interest in the music of Ray Charles while he was still alive and touring. I reference this live take of Georgia On My Mind for two reasons. One, you can feel the emotional connection between the man and a song he’d become attached to. Many don’t know that it was actually a cover of a much older song written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell, about Hoagy’s sister, named Georgia. But Ray took his love for the south and left no question. Two, improvising on a long-practiced piece, personally, only happens to me when I’m inspired by the song itself. To be blind but be so spellbound as to not let that be a hindrance for improvising new solos…I can hardly fathom it.

Rob Dougan – Left Me For Dead

You left me for

… (More) “Great Music Has Emotion. Emotion Makes Great Music.”
Fragrance
January 14, 2011

BMM11 Behind The Scenes: Unexpected Successes

So the first phase of the BMM voting site has done really well in it’s first two weeks, with 106 different users, 2157 votes and 501 different fragrances in the running at the time of this writing. I’ve gotta say, I wasn’t sure what to expect but I wasn’t expecting that kind of response so early. I took the time to get the most recent numbers, available here, and there’s a good mix towards the top. I haven’t begun any coding on the second half of the site, the prediction contest, I suspect I’ll start on that one of the next few nights.

On an unrelated note, I won my first perfume prize from a blog! Quite excited about the 15mL of Escentric 03 en route to me, especially because my wardrobe is so large at this point, a mL is roughly equivalent to a month.… (More) “BMM11 Behind The Scenes: Unexpected Successes”

Nerd Stuff
January 12, 2011

BurritoQuest: The RPG That Fits In Your Hand

This is a fairly freeform post, I’m laying some groundwork for a game I’ve had in my head for nearly a year, and am only now deciding to put the metaphorical pen to paper (bits to hard drive?) and see what comes of it. The game is intended to be funny, but partly because the inhabitants of this world aren’t aware that their actions are ridiculous to us. For them, it’s just the way things are. This post covers the overview and some details of the game world. There will be quite a bit more than what I manage tonight.

Overview:
It is the year 478 of the Fifth Era, and change hangs in the air of the continent of Adovad. The great war that marked the end of the Fourth Era has left scars on the land that persist even now. Politically, maps were redrawn and there exists peace among the kingdoms for the first time in decades. Lord Varyll Strongbad ruled the dwarven kingdom of Q’doba with a beefy fist. The twins Tel-Rojo and Tel-Verde serve as gentle shepherds for the emancipated nation of Chy’Le, populated by High Elves. Lastly, the wizard-queen Choriza Heartfire is both loved and feared by the humans of Posole. The free city of Calabacita sits on the border connecting the three nations and serves as the cultural epicenter for all civilized peoples of Adovad. There, any disputes among the kingdoms are settled by the recently revived tradition of burrito-making. [See Burritocraft for more information.]

Recently, scribes had finished translation on a recipe not seen by any mortal in two thousand years. The people rejoiced from one end of the land to the other, and myriad burritos were consumed. The rulers of the three kingdoms and the Elder Council of Calabacita sent out decrees … (More) “BurritoQuest: The RPG That Fits In Your Hand”

General Life Work
January 5, 2011

On The Love And Loss Of Friends

The holiday season is a trying time for most of us, for a whole variety of reasons. This year, many former coworkers of mine and friends had to deal with the suicide of Jon Vance, a guy that was as intelligent as he was sociable, and one who I never would have thought was capable of such a thing. That was back on November 23rd of 2010, and I’ve found myself thinking about him every day since. I think part of it is because I haven’t had the closure of a funeral, or even seeing a grave, I experienced all the tragedy with none of the healing that comes with moving on.

Even hearing that guilt is a normal mechanism for suicide survivors, it makes the burden no less onerous. The argument with myself is that I should’ve spoken to him more, let him know he had friends and we really do care and want to see him do well, and not hurt. The placating counterargument is that I’m all the way out here, and he’s so far away, how much would it have meant? How much good would it have done? It’s the pain of never having an answer to that, no matter what and no matter how much you want one. Justifiably or not, I think a lot of us share a sense of guilt.

I have had closer deaths to me, my mother nearly six years ago and my grandfather around the age of 9. But I’ve never had to deal with someone I know taking their own life. Why does it feel so different? I did have plenty of time to prepare for losing Mom, after two near-death scares and seeing her the night before she died, I knew exactly what the call was at 4:45 … (More) “On The Love And Loss Of Friends”

Music
January 3, 2011

Alter Bridge – Ab III [88/100]

Alter Bridge is a group that I was unaware of before starting the 30 In 30 project. Formed in 2004, they’re the oft-maligned God-rock band Creed minus unintentionally hilarious frontman Scott Stapp. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from them as a band, and knew nothing of their new lead singer, Myles Kennedy. Suffice it to say their new album, Ab III, was probably the best rock album I listened to this year (okay, I’m considering this late 2010. What of it?)

“Slip To The Void” opens with strings reminiscent of an electric harpsichord. Soft vocals on a delay give a beautiful ethereal quality. Acoustic guitar joins in and overdriven electric guitar soon after, really beautiful composition and the soundstage was used to it’s fullest. Breakdown transitions the song into melodic hard rock. The bridge going back and forth between choral one-liners and a slick electric guitar solo is fantastic. Huge emotional ending breaking down to the strings it started with. Tremendous opener.

“Isolation” is much harder rock, Drop-D or maybe Double-Drop tuning and the distortion is paired with an octave effect for a great big mean sound. After the first chorus we find double-bass speeding up the feeling of the track. Vocal work is great, adding a nice melodic counterpoint. Bridge is more excellent guitar work, the solos have been great on the first two tracks. I’m digging the freeform feel of the composition here, the bridge is ill-defined but not jarring when we return to the chorus. Unexpected noise gates at the end keep the futuristic rock sound alive. Another solid one.

“Ghost of Days Gone By” is yet another different style, we’re in much more mainstream rock, something I could see Daughtry or someone of the sort doing. But that they’re willing to do it is … (More) “Alter Bridge – Ab III [88/100]”

Blogging DanielTharp.com Fragrance Music Nerd Stuff
December 26, 2010

Time Management Fail

I should be getting ready for work right about now, but I feel like writing too. So writing wins for now. I’m getting myself psyched up for 2011 with plans and ideas for how I’m gonna keep things interesting for this Monday-Wednesday-Friday regularity of posting. My work schedule actually calls for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off, and I have no plans to change that. So I’ll be writing a week ahead or two.

Mondays are gonna be fairly mixed with regards to music. Reviews of varying formality, top 10s, that sort of thing.

Wednesdays, my wildcard days, will likely have a lot of gaming. That’s for sure. That and whatever else I feel like writing about.

Fridays will be split between reviewing fragrances and a journal tracking Diana and I as we attempt to make custom perfumes, we’ve got about a year of off-and-on experience with it and I think we’re going to be stocking up on some new oils too. We haven’t broken out the EOs since we moved in together, so we’re both excited to get back to it.

Unrelated note, but if you haven’t been following the Steam Holiday Sale, you’re missing the true reason of the $ea$on. You can buy 55 games for $55, for crying out loud.… (More) “Time Management Fail”

General Nerd Stuff Work
December 15, 2010

PHP Lessons to my 16-year old self.

Over the past five days I’ve turned a sketch for a Basenotes March Madness site into a real, working application, and did it with efficiency, normalization and security in mind. Web design was something I started messing with when I was about 10 or 11 years old, with a little 64-page book that actually gave a good understanding of the basics. Though I don’t need to consult that book I still keep it around, maybe I’ll find some young nerd to pass it along to although quite a bit of it is deprecated code now. It wasn’t until 18 and in college that I learned C and subsequently PHP, and really got a feel for the database design that had always intrigued me. I’ve had several projects of varying scales, and picked up a significant bag of tricks. If I could go back and get my 16 year old self to do all the stuff he wanted to do, I’d have these words of wisdom for him.

  • Go pick up a copy of The C Programming Language. Forget about Perl, C will get you where you want to be.
  • MySQL is much, much easier to get started with than Oracle, and forget about ColdFusion, it’ll be dead soon.
  • JavaScript is sometimes a necessary evil. It can do things that are either way too cumbersome or flat-out impossible any other way. But don’t worry, JavaScript is becoming respectable.
  • Keep all your code from old projects. You’ll be amazed how much wheel reinvention you’ll save yourself when the time comes to implement a login system again.
  • All those ideas you’ve had in your head? You need to use $_POST[] and $_GET[] to make them work. That’s how you send data from page to page. GET is only useful if you only care
… (More) “PHP Lessons to my 16-year old self.”
Life Music
December 13, 2010

Audio Infinitum (Or, Five Songs Forever)

Music lovers know exactly what someone means when they say “I love the song, but I can’t listen to it all that often,” or something to that effect. Then there are comfort songs, songs to listen to when you’re happy, pissed off, maybe even drunk. (I’m not here to judge.) But what about a song to listen to forever?

It’s funny, this is actually a project I do inadvertently when I make compilation CDs to put in the car, or playlists to listen to on repeat. There will inevitably be weaker songs that I’ll grow tired of well before others. So I’ll tweak the selections, and try to come up with that perfect playlist to represent a genre. I know myself well enough to say I could listen to these five songs, on repeat, more or less perpetually, in this order.

BT – Dark Heart Dawning

Dark Heart Dawning is a relative sleeper track of BT’s, it never appeared on a single or EP after being released on the album Emotional Technology in 2003. While I have other favorites off the album (P A R I S and The Last Moment Of Clarity in particular) none of them exhibit the understated beauty of Dark Heart Dawning. Downtempo pedal steel guitar and a simple story segue into a powerful second half with a heavy gospel overtone. That’s off-putting to some, but I love the emotion you find in a song like this. Deep down I hope BT likes this one as much as I do.

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Riviera Paradise

I became a fan of SRV not long after I started playing the guitar, probably around age 14. I had a copy of Couldn’t Stand The Weather that I still think is one of the most complete displays of skill … (More) “Audio Infinitum (Or, Five Songs Forever)”