by steinaech | Posted in Music
Made a mixtape for my friend
byu/steinaech incalvinandhobbes
Made a mixtape for my friend
Spicy & Creamy Tomato Sauce Recipe
by steinaech | Posted in Cooking
My daughter wanted spaghetti one night and we were out of jarred pasta sauce. I’ve made sauce using cream cheese before but I’m usually using crushed tomatoes instead of diced tomatoes and green chilies which one would usually be using for Mexican cuisine, but that’s what I had in the pantry so that’s what I made.
Ingredients
- 12 oz tomato paste
- 15 oz diced tomatoes and green chilies
- 3 oz softened cream cheese
Directions
Combine tomato paste and diced tomatoes in saucepan on medium-high heat, optionally season the pan first with minced garlic and a little bit of oil. Once the sauce is bubbling, stir in the 3 oz of softened cream cheese until mixed. Let simmer for a few minutes to thicken. Then you can add additional cream cheese or water until the sauce is the desired thickness. Complete the dish with quartered and a roasted Roma tomatoes.
Alesana in 2008 @ New Brookland Tavern Columbia, SC
by steinaech | Posted in Music
I recently came across footage I recorded when I saw Alesana in 2008 alongside Motionless In White, Greeley Estates, Jamie’s Elsewhere, and A Static Lullaby at New Brookland Tavern in Columbia, SC. Naturally, as the year is currently 2023, I cut it all together using Windows Live Movie Maker, last released in 2012.
Video game music as a time capsule
by steinaech | Posted in Gaming, Music
Many games have an original score as an OST, but some games, generally sports related games, feature licensed songs from performing artists, usually radio hits, sometimes DJs (you’ve probably seen the name Junkie XL a few times.)
I was playing Burnout: Paradise for the first time on my PS3 a few days ago – both of which came out 15 years ago – and Creepshow by Kerli came on and I thought, “Wow, there’s an artist I haven’t heard of in a long time.”
Burnout: Paradise features 40 licensed songs in addition to music composed for the game. As shown by the graph below 54% of the songs were released in the 5 years prior to the game’s release, counting a whole decade brings it to 69% (nice).
If you ask someone what their favorite video game soundtrack is, you’re likely the hear many people mention a Grand Theft Auto game. Beginning with GTA III and carrying onto the current installment, GTA V, Grand Theft Auto games featured a “radio” as a soundtrack. There is no ambient music except for title and transition screens. You would hear the radio anytime you entered a vehicle. As an example, San Andreas (generally regarded as the fan favorite) featured over 150 licensed songs from the 1990s (the time period that the game takes place in) spanning across 11 different stations. As each game takes place at a set period in time, the soundtracks are all made of songs you’d expect to hear on the radio if you were living at that time. The games also feature talk show segments on the radio and while these are fictitious in contrast to the licensed soundtrack, it’s worth mentioning.
Crazy Taxi was released in February 1999 and while not the first game to use a licensed soundtrack it’s mix of high octane gameplay mixed with it’s lineup of 4 pumping punk rock songs that were released just a couple years before the game (particularly The Offsprings “All I want” – ya ya ya!) lent it great popularity. Released just 7 months later on the Playstation 1 (and arguably a large audience), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater sported 10 tracks of 90s punk songs that had a lasting cultural effect. Many Millennials and Gen Z-ers will credit the Tony Hawk series and it’s use of 90s/2000s punk rock and hip hop as shaping their musical tastes.
Tony Hawk’s Underground (2003), one of my all time favorite video games, has a soundtrack of a whopping 77 songs (the most of any Tony Hawk game and 67 more songs than the first Tony Hawk game that released only 4 years prior) across Punk, Rock, and Hip Hop genre’s, the majority of which were released within the decade prior. In 2004 MTV added a new category to their music awards, Best Video Game Soundtrack, which was given to Tony Hawk’s Underground further cementing the impact that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’s use of licensed soundtracks had.
I may be remiss to not mention the Fallout games, games set in the future but stuck in in the past, that feature true pieces from the 40s and 50s of America.
Of course by the 2000s every sports and racing game were using licensed soundtracks. What’s interesting about playing these games now is that they feature so much music that was popular when released they can transport you to a time that you may not remember, or maybe weren’t even alive for.
Video Game Accessibility – Not just for disabilities
Last updated August 31st, 2023 | by steinaech | Posted in Gaming
Accessibility as a word is a measure of how easy it is to use or access something. Usually, regardless of subject, this is used in the context of people with disabilities. The simplest accessibility options are those such as subtitles and closed captions for hearing impairments, scalable UI and colorblind options for visual impairments. More advanced accessibility options include things such as custom controllers for people with missing body parts or control issues with body parts.
But there’s another facet of life where accessibility can play a role – parenthood. As a dad of a 9 and 5 year old, husband, and homeowner, time is a luxury. I don’t always know how much time I’ll have to play something so a lot of the time I’m restricted to the type of games that I can play. Do I want to get into a story heavy game if there’s opportunity for interruption? Not really. Do I want to play a round based game like Counter-Strike or Apex? No, because if I die early I’m just losing time until the round resets.
I first started thinking about other ways games could be accessible when playing through Dark Souls Remastered a couple years ago. In Dark Souls’ case not being able to pause is part of the game’s design. Luckily Dark Souls is good about saving often and it saves when you quit which is only a few taps away when you need to suddenly leave but if you’re in a boss fight and need to leave you’ll need to restart as you cannot rejoin those after exiting.
I understand that Dark Souls can’t be paused because of the online component but the game can be played in a fully offline mode. Why can’t I pause the game then? Is it truly a design choice or a failure to program a pause state when offline? The latter is remedied simply enough. However, if it’s a design choice then why not add an option in the settings to allow pausing? Ship the game in it’s intended to play state but allow those that need pausing for whatever reason the ability to do so. As a designer I understand the desire to not compromise one’s vision for a project but I would also want as many people as possible the chance to enjoy it as well.
Debate about having difficulty settings in Dark Souls has come up in the community as well. Dark Souls (as with many FromSoftware games) are supposed to be hard. It wasn’t until I watched Dark Souls speedrunners that I figured out how to be good at the game and was able to beat it for the first time since first playing Prepare to Die Edition. But why do they have to be hard? Dark Souls is an amazing world full of interesting creatures, people, and lore, so why can it only be experienced if you’re good enough at the game? Star Wars Fallen Order and Remnant: From the Ashes are both Soulslike games with difficulty settings allowing people of lesser skill capability to still enjoy them.
Difficulty settings as an accessibility option have found their way into other games as well, particularly horror games such as SOMA and Outlast 2’s “story mode” difficulty where you are more or less free to roam the world and explore all its intricacies without much worry about enemies that would kill you in other difficulty settings. Even Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey have a “discovery mode” that gets rid of the game’s combat and allows players to explore the worlds without threat.
I’m sure there are many, many examples I’ve not considered here, this is by no means meant to be a comprehensive essay, just to explore a different side of what we traditionally think of when considering accessibility for video games.
Let me know if there are any interesting options a game had that made it more accessible to you!
Rise of Nations Review
by steinaech | Posted in Gaming
Originally written May 30 2005, mistakes and all. Found on an old backup cd.
System: PC
Graphics: 7/10
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Extras: 7/10
Overall: 8.25/10
Graphics: Well, theres not much to say about the graphics. There just basic RTS
graphics like any other game except just a little better.
Story: Rise of Nations has 4 types of Story mode. The best out of these is the
Conquer the World campaign. You pick your contury and fight other countries to
take them over and gain bonuses by kiling them like getting a new army or Economy
bonuses for the next battel you do. It’s much like risk if you ever played it.
Gameplay: Though there are not many ages because they condensed it by making bigger
catagories, this is still an awesome game. It goes way in depth. You have to control
your economy by upgraded and making sure you don’t produce to much of one thing. If
your producing to much wood or something your economy begins to whack out. You have a
national border which is the limit for where you can build. You expand your border by
building cities and upgrading a the University. The government also plays a major role
in this game. Depending on which way you go depends on either your economy, or your
military. All of the wonder can have a drastic change on your empire to depending on
which ones your build on how you use them buy make sure you protect them becuase once
they become out of date you can’t build them anymore obviously. The only thing I,
personally, don’t like about this game is the low population limit which is 200. It
won’t get any higher than that. Another cool aspect of this game is when fighting you
can take over the computers town but killing all nearby units and them protect it for
a couple mintues and then its yours.
Extras: One of the main extras is the map editor. Like just about all RTS games you
can make your own maps to play on and design them however you want. This game comes
with about 15-20 different nations to choose from which is prerry awesome. And each
nations troops look different form other nations.
Corner of Doom
Last updated August 31st, 2023 | by steinaech | Posted in Short Stories
Originally written November 17, 2008
“So then what?”
“Shit’s over.”
“That’s it? Shit just ends?”
“Yea, what else is there to happen?”
“Good point. Won’t feel it coming. Won’t be able to talk about it afterwards.”
“Of course not, so why worry about it?”
“I’m not really worried about it. I just wanna know what comes next.”
“Don’t ask for too much. You might be disappointed.”
“Ahhh, fuck it.”
They continued down the crowded city street. Everybody was hustling everywhere, buying things, bringing things back, taking care of business. The two men continued on, silent now. Not much crossed their minds or interested them anymore. Life had grown drab. Everybody seemed like they had something important to do, but nothing really appeared to be important to the two men. They woke up, ate, went to work, came home and sat around, finished up some papers if they even felt that inclined, and slept. The only thing they ever really talked about was what to do next, whether they were doing anything in the first place or not.
Or maybe what could happen next. That was one thing that still interested them. What will happen next. Was it important. Did it really matter. Maybe. Nobody really talked about it. People were somewhat put off that these two men sometimes talked about it, but the two men never asked why. They just walked on, that’s all there was to do next.
They walked up the metal stairs to their apartment, opened the door, and entered. One plopped down on the couch and stared at the white wall ahead of him, and the other headed for the kitchen. He opened the cabinet where the cereal was and pulled out a bag and poured it into a bowl that was on the counter. He grabbed a spoon out of the drawer below and placed it in the bowl and then opened the fridge.
“No more milk. God damnit.”
“God damns it indeed.”
The man in the kitchen straightened and stared into the empty fridge and sighed.
“We still got this game of chess going here.”
“Sounds good.”
The man from the kitchen joined the other man in the living room by the couch with the unfinished game of chess. They both stared nonchalantly at it. One peered at the clock. Five forty-five.
“I take your pawn with my bishop.”
“Aren’t you tough shit. Take your bishop with my knight.”
The black rook moved halfway down the board.
“Checkmate.”
“Oh god damnit, man. Fuck.”
He looked at the clock again. Five fifty-eight.
“Look at the clock.”
“Hmm.”
They both looked out the window.
That was it.
Pierce The Veil: The Jaws of Life
Last updated August 31st, 2023 | by steinaech | Posted in Music
The Jaws of Life, released 7 years after their previous entry, is a stark change in direction for the band. Moving away from hardcore and becoming more of a hard rock band, there are fewer screams here and a much slower pace compared to the breakneck speed of Collide With The Sky and Misadventures. Vic’s singing style is about the only thing here that makes this a Pierce The Veil album. Not to say that’s a bad thing though, this is an excellent album.
What the band has created here is a contemporary album full of 2020 “vibes”, 2000s alt-rock, and 90s grunge that culminates into something great. A sprinkle of prog rock here, some punk rock there, vibes & Lo-Fi too. There’s such a broad range of sounds here that the band managed to blend seamlessly together that the whole album feels immediately familiar while not sounding like it’s retreading previous ground.
The album opens up on the solid Death of an Executioner featuring hand drums and shakers over a blaring siren before rolling into some heavy guitar and drums with a groove-like bass behind the chorus. Pass The Nirvana is a grunge track through and through – deep bass, heavy guitar, slowed singing – brought up to a modern flare with some electronic kit sounds dispersed throughout. Pierce the Veil brings 2020s “vibes” with tracks like Even When I’m Not With You, Flawless Execution, and Resilience akin to a harder sounding Lauv complete with handclaps, electronic bass drums, and keyboards to complement the rest of the full band. Emergency Contact opens up like an alt rock track you’d hear on a The Maine album complete with a catchy chorus that’s melded back into the rest of the album with its deep bass line and hard hitting bridge. The Jaws of Life title track is something of a mashup of My Chemical Romance with its operatic structure, climbing guitars, filling drums and The Fall of Troy with its ever shifting melody and complex breakdown. The lo-fi inspired track Shared Trauma is an interesting change of pace for the album and yet it feels right at home despite having no real guitar or drums thanks to Vic’s consistent vocal delivery and bringing back in the electronic drums and keys featured in other parts of the album previously. The album finishes up on the short n’ sweet grooving surf-rock duet 12 Fractures featuring chloe moriondo. Nobody would bill Pierce the Veil as surf rockers but as they end The Jaws of Life with hand drums and shakers, the same instruments they opened with, mingled with the slower beats and electronic sounds they used expertly throughout the rest of the album you don’t even think twice about it.
The Jaws of Life is a bold and unexpected departure from Peirce The Veils’ previous work and after 7 years it’s a welcome addition to their discography. With a broad range of sounds that are brought together cohesively this album should please longtime Pierce the Veil fans because it’s just good music and the shift to a new genre should bring new fans.
Still have my original animal crossing town. It’s been awhile…
Last updated June 13th, 2023 | by steinaech | Posted in Gaming
Still have my original animal crossing town. It’s been awhile…
byu/steinaech inGamecube
Ellegarden: End of Yesterday Review
Last updated August 31st, 2023 | by steinaech | Posted in Music
Listen to the article here
Ellegarden is a Japanese rock band that was formed in 1998, styling their sound after North American bands like Blink-182, Sum 41, and Good Charlotte. Like each of these bands, Ellegarden successfully created their own sound in the greater pop/punk space. I didn’t learn about Ellegarden until around 2014 after they had already entered “indefinite hiatus” back in 2008. I believe I came across the song Salamander online and that grabbed my attention. The album it belonged to, Eleven Fire Crackers, quickly became a favorite listen of mine at the time. Later on when I was at our local music store I happened across the Eleven Fire Crackers CD – it was the only Ellegarden CD they had. I was surprised they had one at all since I believe only 2 of Ellegarden’s 5 albums were released in the US.
When the first singles came out I was very excited about what I’d heard. “Mountain Top” was the first single released, their first song since 2006’s Eleven Fire Crackers. though as with albums like “This is Why” I’ve learned to stay my expectations. Fortunately, Ellegarden’s 5th album, and first album after a 10 year hiatus, is an absolute blast.
While still distinctively an Ellegarden album it’s definitely a much more mature sound. Deeper vocals and less cutesy lyrics compared to previous works make this album a fresh outing. ダークファンタジー (Dark Fantasy) is a personal favorite starting out with some quiet vocals over a single acoustic guitar that then delves into a somber but pumping chorus line. This is a track that really showcases Hosomi’s singing ability when not delivering punk rock lines. Strawberry Margarita, Firestarter Song, and チーズケーキ・ファクトリー (Cheesecake Factory) are your unequivocal Ellegarden songs, thumping drums, heavy guitar, and catchy lyrics. Perfect Summer is another personal favorite with a gently beating drum coupled with a minimal but evocative guitar and a perfectly catchy chorus. The album ends on the pumping and catchy pseudo title track Goodbye Los Angeles featuring the lyrics “farewell to the city of the sun, till I come back to the end of yesterday.”
You can shuffle this album right in with previous albums and the only differences you’ll notice are the production quality. Ellegarden has kept their same brand of punk rock a decade later but everything here is expertly crafted and there’s not a single misstep across the 11 tracks and 40 minute runtime. The instruments are clearly separated, Hosomi’s vocals are clear and the smoothest they’ve ever been, and everything is nicely layered for a rich sound that really showcases how much they’ve grown post-hiatus.
Fans of Ellegarden should love this album as much as any other and I would even recommend this album to anyone that just likes punk rock. End of Yesterday is a perfectly executed punk rock album that should please many people.