Nabeel Ansari

My bad, misconstrued it as sarcasm. Try phrasing your questions earnestly instead of sarcastically. "I can't think of a use for this" usually correlates with "therefore it's useless". "Seriously, who does this?" is a giveaway rhetorical question with the implied given answer of "nobody." Similar with "What are they trying to accomplish?" (the answer to that is obvious: getting stronger...?) A simple "hey guys, what kind of workouts are still difficult with low weight amounts?" is a much more productive question (and less provocative).

Knock it off, dude. You're taking pictures of a 5lb+bar and posting it to Fit Club saying "gee guys look at this weakling am i right"; what are you trying to accomplish? Just because the person is unnamed doesn't mean you aren't being an elitist. "Seriously, who does this?" Once you get over yourself, here's an actual answer. Different workouts (because of, well, again, physics) will actually require more work out of your muscles with less weight (depending on balancing and lever types). Try a shoulder press with a 50lb bar. "Easy", yeah? Now hold it straight in front of you. Arms fully extended. Not so easy, yeah? It's like vector algebra can actually fuck you when more than one variable is involved. That's why light bars exist. Not just for weaker people, but for harder exercises as well. Everyone has the same right to gym equipment. Everyone is also entitled to not have other people take pictures of their weight config and post it online to be laughed at. If you want to make fun of people, don't do it in a freakin' fit club.

That's not how you physics, sir. More weight = more work, less reps = less work, balances out to same work overall. But overall doesn't matter, what matters is how stressed a muscle will get in just one movement, and then doing that a bunch of times. Stressing it harder 10 times is more effective than stressing it lightly for 20 times. Doing something for a long time won't build strength, it'll build endurance. The muscle will be able to do the same task more times, but that isn't the same thing as it being able to handle harder tasks. That's why push-ups fall off with how much they help you unless you start adding weight. If you do push-ups, adding more push-ups doesn't mean you're able to push more weight, it just means you can push the same weight more times.

Here's a question, are you going to be using a lot of sample libraries? If so, I would encourage getting a laptop with an SSD in it. Load times on small laptop hard drives are abysmal (my Lenovo Y500 has a 5400RPM, and it takes 5 minutes to load a violin section, and like 10 for our new piano at Impact Soundworks). That being said, if you're not going to be using big, multi-GB libraries, then it's not nearly as important. I recommend the Lenovo Y-series. I've been using mine for a year and a half now, works great. It's got an i7 and 8GB RAM to start, which is great for music production and it's got a GT750 for gaming (runs Skyrim full settings, which is pretty decent for a laptop below $1000). I used this laptop at the MAGFest "How to Make ReMixes" panel, where I actually produced music live in front of an audience. No snags whatsoever. Fast, stable, etc. The only issue is hard drive speed. Things take forever to load, like big orchestral sample libraries and whatnot. I've been running them from externals now via USB 3.0 to improve that, but if I were you I'd just buy the SSD outright. I just looked, I think the Y40-80 http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y40-80/ would be a solid choice. The one with an SSD is the third one, if that's your flow. That has an AMD Radeon, but according to benchmarks it's still a pretty beefy card. That whole package with i7, 8GB RAM, good gfx, and 512GB SSD for $880? That used to be an unthinkable price. You can get 16GB at the next choice over for $900.

Getting your protein up will let you build more muscle (making your bulk productive). I'm not seeing any meat in your diet except for bacon. Embrace meat! It's good for you! (and not bacon, because it's not very nutritionally efficient. Eggs > bacon) -Chicken. #1 calorie to protein ratio in a real food. As zircon said, no frying; grill or bake it. Serving sizes can vary where you buy it from (or you can specify # pounds if you go to a real butcher), but the packaging should say roughly how much is in the pieces (or you can weigh it yourself and do the calorie math). -I do sandwiches with lunch meat. 4 slices turkey, 2 slices cheese, 2 slices white bread, then add whatever healthy toppings like lettuce or spinach, tomato, mayo (not more than a teaspoon). Pan fry or in a toaster oven, pretty delicious lunch that clocks in at 30g protein. Depending on your toppings, should be around 400-500 calories. It's not even very filling, so you could do another one and have two for lunch. You can experiment with different "bread"s (or whatevers) to try and get more proteins. I'm sure others would have recommendations. -Eggs are also good sources of protein. If you make a simple omelette with 3 eggs, that's like 18g of protein, around 250 cals if you put extra stuff in it to make it taste good. -Peanuts/peanut butter are good, yeah. When I need a snack, I make a PB&J with a little extra PB. People do greek yogurt, but I personally do not advocate having a person subject themselves to eating what smells like sour cream. As for bulking itself, if you don't know how that works, you need to calculate your TDEE and appropriately go 200-300 calories above per day. That's why the protein/calorie ratio is important. If you're eating so many calories, make sure it's a good amount of protein (.75g / lb of your body weight is his recommended number, OA does like 1.2 or something like that), or you're just putting on useless matter. That being said, NONE OF THIS ACTUALLY MATTERS if it's the sole focus of your diet. Make sure you're still eating fruits (bananas, good, for potassium.), veggies (potatoes are fuckin' SOLID), staying hydrated, vitamins & minerals, all that jazz. Specifically building muscle doesn't really help if you're not really eating healthy (so don't just eat chicken all day every day).

Glad someone counts on me these days

Nothing. The file will simply (likely) hold a boolean (true/false) flag for if it was saved by an unregistered copy of FL. Any unregistered copy of FL will see that flag and refuse to open it if it's "true". Registered copies of FL, presuming the developers were efficient about it (they could very well not be... gol's not the best software dev), would likely skip looking for that flag in the first place (since it can open both demo-saved and full-saved, there's no reason to check the flag). This is why when you download the demo, you can open any of the demo song project files located in the "Cool Stuff". They were all saved by registered copies of FL, and therefore the flag will be recorded as "false" (and so when the flag is checked by an unregistered FL, it sees that it was indeed saved by a registered one and will load it). And so, to execute the save loophole, you need only have the demo-saved file (from person A) opened and resaved by a person with the full version (person , so that when the person A tries to open it, the flag is "false" because it was saved by person B, and there you go, it runs. Of course, this doesn't apply to the FL Remix Gauntlet, since all files would presumably be created by registered users, and you'd need only download them and open them.

Free FL can absolutely open saved project files (how do you think the demo song works?). Free FL can only not open project files saved BY free FL. In other words, you can save a project, and he can open it. He can save a project, and you can open it. But he can not save a project, and open it himself. He can however, save it, send it to you, have you save it, and then you send it back, and he successfully reopens it. That's an actual loophole in the demo limitation.

It's so good. Everything about it is so good.

I know you're asking the question in earnest, so I'll preface this by saying I'm only answering honestly why exactly your suggestion is not feasible; do not take the tone personally. I encourage you to consider that most DAW projects are actually incomprehensible to the people who didn't make them. Not to mention no two artists own the same configuration of plug-ins. Automation data could be controlling parameters in a synth that you won't have, and you won't know what it's doing. Effects plug-ins wouldn't be proper, and the mix could sound bad. Many times, songs aren't created in a single DAW. They could be rendered in one and finished in another. Artist workflows are very personal and as a result are impossible for another person to properly emulate and appreciate. Not to mention, you need to realize this is basically impossible to do. No one is going to go out and hunt down all the OCR artists throughout history and ask them for their old projects. A lot of old projects don't work anymore. A lot of people have lost their projects through passage of time. A lot of OCR artists have disappeared. A lot of OCR artists wouldn't be willing to share either because of privacy concerns or simply lacking faith that anyone could run them. Remember, artists aren't employees of OCR and aren't bound to it. They're fans who submit stuff. It's not like you can send a company email saying something like "Attention all artists, we are implementing a new project file download feature for all posted remixes. Please submit a DAW project file by 11:59PM on April 30th, 2015." That's not going to work. I'd be surprised if the turnout for successful remixes for that would even be over 50%. In general, getting a hold of large volumes people to get them to submit non-trivial data for you is one of the most impossible things to do (we can't even get people to vote in this country for anything except the presidential election). If you have specific interest in how people write music, then watch composer streams. Zircon live streams EDM production on Twitch.tv. And if you really want to, ask people for project files (and if they don't respond, consider that to be an example of why doing it on a large scale is impossible). Basically this, but I had the decency to explain why.

Moving into new space in 3 months, then buying actual speakers, and then, yes, pics...

Woops, worst typo. Thanks guys! Bump!

Haven't been working out or dieting much recently... kinda hit a big wall of stress. School's finally over for 6 months though, so after next week (which is hibernation and recovery), I will be jumping back into it.

That's absolutely fine! Just make sure you make it clear. There are different types of reviewers and anyone reading your stuff should know beforehand the personal frame with which you use to evaluate things, so they can better understand what to take from what your reviews (and what not to).

What metric do you use to evaluate the songs? Are you a musicologist (or similarly qualified in music theory) and are judging the composition quality, or is it just songs you like, or is it based on popularity, etc. Normally it wouldn't be a pertinent question in reviews, but you're actually quantifying quality of the music with number scores, which is a big no-no in art. There are different things people look for in music, and something you'd give C rank is something I'd give an A rank, etc. I'm genuinely curious.

I don't see a thread for this game. Why aren't we talking about this game? Game: http://store.steampowered.com/app/261570/ Moon Studios: http://www.oriblindforest.com/#!moon/ Soundtrack, by Gareth Coker: https://play.spotify.com/album/7xPc1OsC2R0siZKMlzRBIo Was released a week ago (on March 11, 2015). Opinions, thoughts, minimal bashing (if it's horrible, at least say why)? I thought it was superb. Combined beautiful aesthetic with Super Meat Boy style die-and-instantly-retry platforming difficulty in the Metroidvania format, but with far less annoying backtracking. Mechanics are pretty tight, I think speedrunners would (or should) have a field day with it. Love the "bash" mechanic, slingshotting around in the air is super fun, and making that the core of the difficult platforming later on was to be expected and pulled off well. I shed a couple tears at the story. Super basic, but told really well. As for the soundtrack, the composer stuck pretty much to a central musical motif and used that in a lot of the tracks, so good job on central theming. It could've done, in my opinion, with at least one other main melody, but considering the singular focus of the story, having a singular melodic motif was indicative of the narrative and functioned just fine. Production was great, they had it recorded in Nashville.

The Bubble Bobble mix was also, well, really good.

Anyone want to buy my copy of EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Gold? $300 w/ iLok and all my accounts. Since license transfers aren't possible, here's what you'd be getting: -Library DVD's -iLok Device with license on it -Password to the "ewqlsoneblix" gmail and "ewqlsoneblix" iLok account. You can then change these and own the accounts. All you have to do is then install the library, install iLok license manager, log in as ewqlsoneblix, plug in the iLok, and you're all set.

Psycho-Pass is very, very disturbing.

Started watching Mawaru Penguindrum after finishing HxH, and I'm also watching Psycho-Pass, which is more of Urobuchi's signature writing style. I'm really appreciating a lot of dark stuff lately.

The beginning is a i7 -> II7 (or V7/V7) -> V7 -> i7 but with a tritone sub for the II7. Normally it would go A7 -> D7 -> Gm7, but the A7 is substituted for the chord a tritone away (Eb7) which yields Eb7 -> D7 -> Gm7. (You can change it to any key you want, a II-V-i functions anywhere)

If you watched his livestream you'd know fairly well that this isn't remotely true

Every poster session participant in the world just vomited

Like I said, it would make no sense to give you speed simply for holding the stick forward. The reason to push it forward is, yes, to get the stick to hang on the rim of the circle so that you can roll on the outside (creating sinusoidal steering) instead of leaving it dead center and making it go straight left and right (creating linear steering). We steer cars sinusoidally, the steering wheel literally spins, creating an angular shift in the wheel direction. It's just natural for us to turn that way since we've been doing it for so many years. It's just a psychological inclination toward the familiar, especially since in these games you usually are driving a car. I don't think forward actually boosts your top speed in any games (perhaps with the exception of tailgate mechanics), but to definitively prove this requires source code examination, a developer interview, or someone analyzing game footage. At the very least, I can say that Mario Kart does not, because in Wii Mario Kart, it would give an unfair advantage to people playing on joystick equipped controllers instead of the Wii remote (which only registers gyroscopic x-axis input, or rather, tilting it left and right for steering, but not forward and back for speed).

Are you talking about games that use buttons to accelerate (like A in Mario Kart or triggers in Burnout)? If so, then no, the analog stick does not assist you in speeding up. They use the X-axis only, and that's for steering.