Level 99

A wild THE DAMNED appears! THE DAMNED is exerting its pressure. Fight, Item, Run, Pkmn? Level 99 tried to run away. Can't! THE DAMNED used FINISHREMIX. It's super-effective! Level 99 fainted. Edit: Guess what? I updated the title track.

Bahamut, we have a classic case of project-oversaturation, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT! Well, my fault too, and the fault of everyone who's ever run a project. Ever. Just kidding.

Ouch, prophet, crack in the case? Ah, it's easily replacable, right? As long as the art isn't damaged. Still waiting on my shipment, hoping it gets here today. I'm preparing the Link-opens-a-treasure-chest soundclip on my phone for when I rip it open and hold it thusly in the air.

A semi-shameless bump, just because there are only four open tracks left. If anyone's still on-the-fence about picking up a track, please lean towards the picking-up side! And for all of those about to start school/already started school, good luck this year.

I've not heard the original, so I'm taking this from a completely original-song standpoint. The song, while taking a while to reach the real meat of the mix, is a great moody buildup that plays very well on the somewhat-recognized gypsy scale (I dunno if I'm right in what it's called, but you know what I'm implying!). The drums are crisp, if just a little on the flat side, but I love the snare you used. And when the bass fuzz comes in, followed by the processed drum fill...that was pretty sexy. The brass is nicely leveled and the bell chime adds a lot to the progression. The production is excellent for the most part. It's a more laid-back groove that makes me think of a CSI cutscene, actually. When it switches up the base chord and the piano starts to play, I really ended up grooving to it. While not an epic or overly-glamorous mix, this is something I can chill out to and is well above my standards of a well-made song. It is hard for the song to be boring, and while I do have some small problems with it, they don't detract enough to take away from the mix as a whole. Great job!

I know I'm three hours early, but I don't care. Happy birthday, OA! This last year you not only came out with the FF4 project, but you also became a Judge, and also became a father. I don't know how you can top it next year, but I know you will.

Go you, buddy! Everyone's jumping on the marriage bandwagon these days in OCR, so you better keep up the good track record of awesome weddings and happy lives! I raise my glass to you and wish you the best of luck.

Wow, LuZiA, you weren't kidding when you said you were coming back in full force! Audio Fidelity/John Revoredo: I'll have my ideas to both of you by the end of this upcoming long weekend. Time got sucked away again but I should have some once I get myself situated. I think I'll experiment with Logic for this one and see how that new Amp-thingy in it works.

This is fantastic. Fresh, quircky, and keeps your attention. Great job, buddy.

Can't we do both? I'll make cookies and you make cupcakes, we'll meet in the middle.

I think we all learned a valuable lesson today: never judge a book by its cover. No wait, it's don't cry over spilled milk. No, that's not it either. Hmm, I think we all should eat COOKIES!

Listening...maybe

I was about to start a thread about fitness stuff like this, but figured I'd actually be smart and searched first. After receiving some questions from people about what I've been doing for my fitness routines and eating habbits, I guess I'll just post what I can here for now. The following is my tale of fitness from the last year+: I'd always been a bit on the big side for most of my life. I love to eat, and always followed Mama's rule of cleaning your plate. I had many previous spurts of random workout enthusiasm, but never too it too seriously and always gave up or got too busy for it to stick. I knew something was up when, at age 22, I weighed as much as Homer Simpson does (239 lbs). It took a very big personal tragedy to snap me into proper thinking. So, starting with April last year, Homer-Simpson-Me started to get into shape. I would much rather say my "shaping up" as opposed to calling it just my weight loss because now, even though I still have a few more pounds to go to get into my ideal weight and BMI, weight matters much less than shape, BMI, and all-around health. Believe me, you know the difference between being overweight and unfit and being overweight and in fantastic shape. The biggest key factor is consistency. You have to stay consistent with your dedication to the changes, consistent with your gym visits and workouts, and consistent with your diet changes. Not everyone needs to cut down to an 1800-calorie diet, or bulk up to a 3000-calorie diet. It all depends on what you want your goals to be. For many MANY people out there, it is losing weight and dropping fat. For others, it could be losing fat and getting muscle tone. There are so many possibilities that, while there are a few universal rules you can follow, how you execute them as well as specifics should be related to the desired end result. My personal regiment started pretty grueling and never really let up: cardio six days a week, with muscle training four days a week, one day to rest. On the two days where I do cardio and cardio only, I'll do between 45 and 75 minutes of work, usually switching between eliptical, arc trainer, bicycle, and stairmaster. I barely hit the treadmills because of my knees, but I do it once in a blue moon. Sometimes it's a steady pace, others use the "random" function, and occassionally I do interval training. Switching things up, like using the arms more than legs on eliptical, will keep things fresh and helped prevent me from plateauing too much. For muscle training, I do two days of my "A" muscles, and two days of "B", with a day of rest or day of just cardio in between. Example of a week: cardio, cardio+A, cardio+B, cardio, cardio+A, cardio+B, rest. A days are legs, biceps, and back. B days are chest, triceps, and shoulder. Both A and B include ab exercises, and will only do about 30-45 minutes of cardio. Occassionally switch it up with a spinning or BodyPump class. I'm a pretty big calorie counter, and my current daily intake is between 2100-2400 calories. I try to keep my days relatively similar in eating, but the golden rule I follow is eating every three hours. I have 5-6 "meals" a day, with meals like breakfast, lunch, and dinner being about 600-700 calories, and snacks being 100-200 calories. Every meal, I try to include a portion of protein, fiber, and calcium, but I've been switching it up a little lately. I do have an eating cheat day once a week, because you need to reward yourself but not go overboard. Here's a typical eating day for me: Breakfast: Bowl of crispix in skim milk, protein shake, banana. Snack 1: Apple and Fiber One yogurt. Lunch: Turkey sandwich with BBQ sauce on whole grain bread, strawberries and blueberries. Snack 2: Fiber one bar or nutrigrain bar, low-fat string cheese. Dinner: Chicken breast with mixed veggies. Late-night: PM protein shake or some sun chips. I do take a number of supplements, but none are very extreme. I take the GNC mega men sport vitamins (2 pills in the morning), Fish Oil (two pills twice a day), Maximum CLA (one pill three times a day), and lately have been taking something called TriFlex for my joints, which contains Glucosamine, Chondroitin, and MSM (one pill three times a day). I try to get 7-8 hours of sleep but that doesn't happen too much. Some other helpful tips I have: learn to say no to eating out. Even if restaurants provide nutritional information, most of the things are made-to-order and do not follow the nutritional fact accuracy (see how they slober on sauces at places like Subway and Quiznos). While they taste great, most of those foods also contain ungodly amounts of sodium and preservatives. I eat out somewhat consistently, but I have taken a lot of time to research exactly what I order, and I order the same thing every time, with so many customizations that I feel bad for the other customers. Oh, and watch the alcohol intake, as well as soda for that matter. Soda is pretty terrible for the body all-around, so if you do drink it, make it a reward for being good with your eating and workout routines, and not often. Beer is about the same as soda, but if you can, try hard liquor if you're aiming to just get smashed. You'll get drunk quicker, while hopefully taking in less calories. Drinking wine isn't terrible, but keep it to maximum one glass of red a day (see heart health for supposed red wine benefits). Drink LOTS OF WATER! I drink over a gallon a day, occasionally putting some of that propel powder in there for flavor and nutrients. Your body will like you a lot better if you cut out almost every other liquid and drink primarily water. Stick with it at least a month. If you're going to make a change, it doesn't have to be drastic, but you need to stick with it if you know it is a positive change. My switch from zero to insane-gym-goer was very hard to do, and I wouldn't easily recommend it to anyone. Make managable changes that wont affect the rest of your schedule too much at first. Go to the gym twice a week first, and start cutting out certain bad foods. Later on, once you have that down, switch your eating times to get better metabolic benefits and increase your visits/improve your routines. If you can't afford a gym, get some of the cheap equipment from Target/Wal Mart and find exercises online. Find a friend who's gym-knowledgable and have them help you. Get a motivator and hold on to it. I hope this didn't come off as a rant but if my results are evidence of anything, it's that this is not an impossible thing to do for anyone. I now weigh 184 lbs, have dropped 5 inches off my waist, 1 1/2 inches off my neck, and feel better than I have during any other point in my life. As long as this helps one other person get in shape and reach their goals, then my large amount of typing has been worth it.

Happy birthday, you crazy mixing man!

Done. Now get started on that WIP Thanks for taking interest! Edit: It just hit me: This year, FF4 project was released in July, around the time of Otakon. Depending on when Otakon is, and as long as the project is released on or around the projected release date...I just may have to throw another listening party like I did for FF4. That would be ridiculous, if all the piece just fell into place and not only was the project successfully released then but at the listening party I can guarentee* there wont be any naked people busting in at the end! *note: not a guarentee.

Will do, José. Whenever you get any kind of WIP, head on over to the NiGHTs forums on KNGI, sign up and I'll get you into the NiGHTs private forums. Good to hear you're interested!

Pick a song, make a WIP, and send it over and we'll see if it makes the cut!