音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

Batch work on a command line is my favoured style, not limited to plain text only. It's a pain to convert images between formats, especially after losing the handy image tool (whose name I sadly forgot) by Microsoft. 2 years ago I was using ImageMagick and it worked well, but at a point it (perhaps a newly installed version) stopped working and I didn't bother too much.
But still I'd really prefer a batch-able interface, so I gave it another try this afternoon. Soon I realised, that I probably didn't read carefully its installation description last time, that the "convert" has been part of the legacy programs and you have to manually check it.
Whatever, it's back to normal. And now I can batch convert people's "proud" TIFF/PNG scans to the more economic JPG -- even I'm not digitally lacking storage.

Without a short break I can't count Roman numerals that's larger than 3... orz
Nonetheless, FF15's soundtrack is awesome. I haven't heard such great music in an orchestra scale for quite a long while.

The thing is though, I myself am not playing the game at all (I own no PS4 nor Xbox1). Instead, I follow another player's stream videos and thus got into the world of FF15. While watching the game like a 3D anime, the biggest thought I had on mind was its BGM, especially those used in battle scenes and major events. So far his progress is "musically" at the very beginning of disc 4, and I'll be looking forward the ending he would reach (what I know is he did all selections without any serious consideration).
Maybe, if I had a PS4, I'd go playing it myself, even though the prince isn't of my type at all. xD;;

Since last year's "Chrno arrange", I began to pay (a little bit) more attention to Mitsuda Yasunori and Sarah Àlainn, which eventually led me to the coming release of "VALKYRIA: Azure Revolution". The playable trailer satisfied me, so it's now in my list, both the game and the OST.

Need not to mention last year's "black butterfly" with Shimamiya Eiko's theme song. The sequel "grey hawk" even dragged Shikata Akiko in, which just made me having a short time loop of the opening song -- to compensate the past month's blank.
Actually, both games are positively reviewed on amazon, that got me thinking whether they're worth playing. I'm aware of I have a low compatibility with visual novels (that I still had no progress in Higurashi -Sui-). My hunch is there's no sign of either to be adapted into anime -- I don't hate visual novel, I just don't think the price is fair compared to more complicatedly made RPG/action games. If there're good deals, I'll get them for sure.

Many years ago I watched "Avalon" directed by Oshii Mamoru and wasn't amused at all (with zero blame on Kawai Kenji's music). Today I suddenly wanted to watch "Ghost in the Shell" series, mainly for his music again. That I can't forget how splendid the songs were performed on his concert. At the year-end break, it'd be a good idea to watch something long and of my potential interest.
So, please, don't be a land mine again!! °_°"

Still in the same year-end break, I need to get the last piece of artwork done, as I'm not ready to assign it as my first piece in next year.. ~_~

First of all, it's a great moment to get rid of many of the stacked email archives.

Pre-ordered in mid-July, and when the end of October came, the booth system said it would take 2~4 weeks before the actual delivery. And eventually it was shipped in the beginning of December -- a little bit over 4 weeks!
But as long as my thing arrives safely, I won't have much more complaint.
Although the biggest complaint I have is "sonido" isn't included in the box.

binaria 10th anniversary box!
(The photo on their official site is pretty! http://binaria.net/10th/binaria.html)

Knew and liked them 6 years ago (started from someone's recommendation for "ALHAJA" and soon with the exciting release of "delightful doomsday"), I kept following them till now. When they announced the make of their 10th anniversary box, I had no hesitation to place the pre-order. I didn't want to miss another chance like how I was late for "sonido".
Not only the music, each of their CD jacket is so characteristic and of my favourite types. Abstract forms combined with a certain motif object, plus a subtle way of colour rendering, no need to mention the video clip for "sweet jerryfish", which is so impressive and remains in my top picks. In this box, I'm so glad to see comments about each single. Yet why "diez" doesn't have any liner notes!?

Along with the box, I got my 2nd or 3rd sign-card!! (First is from KOKIA's DVD, second if it exists would be from Haruka's 10th anniversary box, and this one. I can't recall if I still have any other sign-cards.. xD;;)

Past releases inside this box are remastered, (I'd assume there's a distinguishable difference) but I haven't really compared them as today I mainly focused on the new album: "diez"

binaria's 2nd album, the 10th disc in the box.
Name is exactly "10".
Overall impression is, it's so binaria as a whole that I can do the full album loop with no problem, would be even better if Annabel got more Spanish!

1. cero y uno
From the title, the more I look at it, I feel it's another "zero and one". With no knowledge in Spanish, soon I found I was right!
-- A typical binaria styled introduction, with abstract blend of a starry night sky.

2. メイデンポリス
Perhaps "Maiden Police''. But I haven't read the full lyrics at this point, so there may be a true word combination.
More of the "Pop" side. Catchy and can easily make you happy for no reason.

3. おんなのこはね
The first time I read the title as "Ohna no Kohane" (literally "A lady's little feather"), but so on realised (of course before the song starts) the right way of reading should be "Ohna no Ko Wa ne" (literally "A girl")... xDD
A cute and pure song, but is never annoying like those so-called "Moe songs" that would be mainly favoured by ACG weirdo. Also, the background rhythm is so similar to another of their works.

4. rur
I have no clue what the title means. Google doesn't know either.
Starting at this song, the ambience is getting of a more "serious" binaria. Never hyper nor depressing, each note has been perfectly adjusted to the sensitive taste in-between. Here, there is also a soft touch of "twin's dialog".

5. フロアレス
I don't want to believe the title really refers to the type of camping gear. So no comments for now regarding to the title... ._.
It's making a food flow with the previous song~ (There's a very faint shadow of "Nachtflug".)

6. 燈火管制下の夜
Seemed my mindsphere was fully extended at my first time of listening, some kind of crystal filled cave. But after seeing the title, the image was retrieved back a bit. "A night in blackout".
Still enough to work with a self-styled illustration though! Maybe more like a dark story resembles to HtoL#Niq.
For some reason, I linked this song to Shikata Akiko's "Aka Kakushi", also Merlin's Magic's REIKI. lol

7. 塵ひとつ
"A piece of dust".
The percussion beats in the beginning immediately reminds me Silent Hill 4 sound track #2. But at the end, I found it's still a type of binaria's beat. -- Hope it makes sense..
The ambience is like "sweet jerryfish". Great.

8. 夜明けの惑星
"The planet at dawn".
The main melody, is so familiar but I can't think up more.
It's getting into a warmer feeling, in contrast to the previous -- the lyrics isn't that warm to me though.

9. アストロノーヴァ
"Astro nova" (?).
It's back to a bright and calm tone. Seems it's their self-cover, but I never listened to the original version. Let me just assume this one is the best!

10. diez
"10".
It's "jardin del aire" arden in the air! A simple and beautiful conclusion.

See how long I've been away from album thoughts!
I've been so deep in the world of survival horror, moreover there's no new good music coming, it can't be helped.. :3

Other than binaria, here is a (phylogenetic) question I've been thinking for long today. It might be a straightforward one, but I have no experience in this area and got a little lost:

- I have the same set of taxa
- I have various sampled sets of their genetic sequence alignment, say I have sets A and B
- I make trees using both A and B, getting trees tA and tB
- I want to test whether they're topologically equal through SH-test

My current deduction:
I'll do two sets of SH tests, 1) using alignment A with both trees, in which tA should be the best tree, while tB may be statistically supported; 2) using alignment B with both trees, in which tB should be the best tree, while tA may be statistically supported.
After the two tests, if both tA and tB are supported in its "counterpart" test, they are topologically the same. If not... I don't know what to do next, perhaps depending on the result.
Now I'm using PAML with CONSEL, whose input must be paired with one alignment and trees. But I'm facing the problem of compare trees from different alignments, although they're of the same source. I'd go forward with the current conclusion, for now, as I don't want to pay for PAUP* which might give me the same thing.

PsychoBreak, a great game. Could enter the realm of perfect if it could load faster.. Before due to so many unsures, I couldn't be fully confident to make recommendation of this. But now, it's really worth doing for all survival horror fans.
Side note, although there're so many players compare it with "the last of us", and tend to make high praise of the latter, I'd be on the former side, always. I ever planned to try the latter but quickly gave up the idea after watching other players' video. Then it comes to the biggest reason for me -- I don't like to kill real people, even in a video game. It doesn't make me feeling easy. While I'm never good with standing in front of a giant spider either, sneak killing zombies is apparently a sweeter dream, though it may end up with a recurring nightmare.

Unlike most others, in this game, it's so easier to not able to avoid dying from the same error. So that's how I spent hours on fighting some bosses, chainsaw (Sadist), Juon (Laura), dino (alpha), etc. -- partially due to my left stick keeps drifting around randomly. Yet surprisingly I got rid of the double safe-heads in shorter time.
Having watching other people's streaming videos, they all had less deaths. Since I'm not a beginner in survival horror, I asked for starting at survival mode (while casual must be the only choice back to a few years ago). Also because I've heard in its highest difficulty AKUMU mode, you die if you miss so there's no point to upgrade HP, and thus I didn't upgrade my HP in survival either to get a basic feeling of the one-hit-death. Does it sound like an excuse?

Nonetheless, I made it to the end. And I DO feel I need to play it again without skipping any document and cutscene to put all the pieces together. For a complete understanding, I'm ready to get the two DLC some time later -- except the executioner. You know why, don't you?

A hard born eventually came out yesterday, but literally completed this morning!
↓

Another Akiko inspiration: 彩～IRODORI～
Of course from the song "irodori", which I suddenly got interested in a year after its release. Also with about a month of 30-minute looping everyday in this summer, my brain cells were up to make this visualisation.
I've been referring to this in past posts with fragmented information; to set up a more unified liner notes as usual...

Overall: as much colourful as possible, to echo with the title.
- Character: more of my private settings related to "sound".
- Outfit: obviously a pure western style won't fit perfectly, and I personally preferred to be simple; thus with minor variations the classic blue-red duet was decided.
- Accessory: I actually referred to many real ones for the hairpins and necklace (?).
- Magic staff (?!): or whatever they're called.. "orient magic girls" does sound good.
- Background: initially planned to use iridescent clouds, but when the moment came, I forgot all of the old plan and moved to an all-flower view. Although I tried to cover all seasons' flowers, I failed with my favourite winter -- I mean, my current level can't make much difference between plum and sakura blossoms. - Front deco: totally random perhaps!

The actual work took a bit longer than one month, but since it also took some time (inaccurately the whole summer) to bring all the inspiration onto a piece of white paper, this one goes into the hard born group.
The next piece though, has been determined just at last night. It's already the season, and there's no doubt on what's coming next..
I was thinking on remake the one I did last year, but eventually wanted to make a brand new one (which was adapted from the abandoned halloween idea as I don't want to waste it)!