Summer, Fall, and Winter. It'll be 2024 before you know it.
BrightDark by ゆくえしれずつれづれ (Yukueshirezutsurezure) was released on October 23, 2019. This is their second re-recording album. This was at a point when they had a few new members join and old ones quit. This is an amazing album, definitely a top favorite. I love that old songs get to be re-sung by new members, there are sometimes more changes in the music and all for the better too. Track 6: "Phantom Kiss" for example removes the featured vocalist and is so much better; the girls are better screamers. I've been obsessed with track 2: "行方不知ズ徒然", I like it better then the original but they're both great. Other favorite songs are track 1: "九落叫", track 14: "逝キ死ニ概論", and track 15: "Doppelgänger".
This is a 1967 soviet alarm clock made by Slava. It's actually smaller then is seems in the pictures and really cute. It's in great condition and fully working too. After a day running it's still accurate to the minute. The speed adjustment is very sensitive, I had to mess with it because it was slightly off when I got it. On another clock I have the adjustment is all the way to one side and its still off by a couple minutes. I'm glad this one is still perfect.
I've always wanted to take color photos with the game boy camera so I finally bought cheap color filters and did some attempts.
These two turned out the best. I could almost tell which pokemon game is which just by the color. The second photo is of a GBA SP screen. Also shown is the red, green, and blue filtered photo.
These were not as great, I'll have to keep trying. I read that I might need an IR filter for better outdoor shots.
Photos throughout the year, It's going by fast and getting cold out now. I really like the lighthouse picture and that painting of a basket of flowers came out really detailed taken with the game boy camera.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P30 was released in 2001 and can take photos up to 1600x1200 and videos up to 160x120. It has a 3x optical zoom and uses the Sony Memory Stick to save onto. Like other cybershots it sucks batteries down way too much and you really can't have the LCD on at all. I'm not impressed with this camera much, the other similar ones I have seem to be better.
2001 is still early for digital cameras, maybe I'm too harsh on it.
My name is... by nonamera was released on August 10, 2022. She was an original member of 幽世テロルArchitect (Kaqriyo Terror Architect). This is her first mini-album under the codomomental label. I'm pretty impressed that she wrote most of the lyrics on this album and overall it's really good. My favorite songs are track 6: NO NAME, track 5: I wanna be my GOD, and track 4: 解体心象.
The seal in the toilet tank for the water supply line failed. I woke up to a wet bathroom floor, it was dripping probably for at least 6 hours. The water made it into the wall and floor to the downstairs.
Downstairs, It was raining water through this window and puddling onto the floor below.
The new replacement water valve and seal. No leaking!
The old one shows a worn seal. Part of the cause is the bleach tank cleaning tablets I put in the toilet throughout the year. They won't be put in again.
This is a dual bell external ringer probably from the 80's. It's very loud and works great. It stops ringing when a phone on the same line is picked up. I made the stand so it can be easily displayed.
3-1/2 months after getting stuck in a tree it finally fell down! I thought it was gone for good but was surprised to see it and the battery laying on the ground near the tree. All I did was wipe the battery contacts off and blow the dust and bugs out of it and it still works perfectly! It's the opposite of waterproof and went through many rain storms. Also had a blade fly off near my face and broke another one but it came with extras and still is working. It seems to be hard to destroy.
I figured out how to make it spin and I love doing it!
3rd by ハルカトミユキ (Harukatomiyuki) was released sometime in 2010. It is their -would you have guessed- 3rd demo album. It's my rarest CD and I payed 200 USD on a japanese auction site for it in 2015. I don't regret it at all. It's well made but very brittle feeling; thin paper stapled together with two pieces of wax paper for the lyrics, a regular CD-R with what I believe is a hand written label stuck to it. All of their demo albums were re-released in 2019 on the limited edition of their best of album.
I'm trying this out with these disks so far and only rewriting disks that give errors and have problems. I've only dreamed of actually writing disks and now it's possible. I have many and they are so expensive, getting the few messed up ones fully working would be great. But surprisingly most of mine are still fully working 37 years later. I'm using the FDSStick to connect a computer to a Famicom Disk System. The stick can connect to a ram adapter to emulate a disk drive and can fit every disk system game on internal memory. It can also connect directly to a disk system to read and write roms to and from disks.
This disk has Smash Ping Pong on side A and nothing on side B. Side B gives error 07. I'm leaving side A alone, it's a great game and is correctly labeled anyway. At first I used the bottom disk system in that picture to write the disk but the top one wouldn't read it. I switched to using the top one and four different units can read all of them without problems. I don't have any modified disk systems unlike what the internet says is required. Only the belts have been replaced, everything else is original. I never changed the belt in my twin famicom, maybe it was changed before I got it.
I put All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros on side B. A nice and rare official remix of the original.
The Legend of Zelda looks like it was from the Disk Writer Kiosk. The disk stickers were not factory placed. I think it has had multiple games wrote to it. The previous owner had fun with the stickers that came with the manual too. The disk itself is in bad condition, there are large smudges and a big bump on it. Probably is what caused the issues but it still boots side A and loaded and saved side B. I put the english translated version on it!
Beaver Island is the largest island in Lake Michigan. You can get there by small airplane or ferry. The ferry takes around 2.5 hours from Charlevoix, Michigan to St. James, Michigan and carries passengers, luggage, and vehicles to the island. I brought my bike along and went around half the island.
On the ferry leaving Charlevoix harbor going through the bridge. A small light house and cement factory can be seen.
The ferry is called the Emerald Isle. Smooth ride but takes a long time.
Made it to St. James, Beaver Island.
The ferry that brought me over about to leave the dock.
The first stop was to see the Lighthouse. Too bad the house part was torn down long ago.
This small park had some machinery used long ago.
Stopped at Font Lake then headed to Donegal Bay. Both pretty places. The biking after this was rough!
Barneys Lake is beautiful.
Wish I could have explored the inside of this house.
The small downtown of St. James has a Beaver Island marine history museum.
In the afternoon on the ferry heading back to the mainland.
Back to Charlevoix going down the river to the dock.
Around once a year I seem to order more junk from Japan so it's that time again.
One of the Disk Systems had the orginal batteries installed. Each showed some voltage but not enough to run the drive. Expired in 1997!
Cultural Mixture by KAQRIYOTERROR was released on February 26, 2020. It is their 2nd album and 1st album since they changed name from Kaqriyo Terror Architect (幽世テロルArchitect). Almost all the songs are really good, I think it's my favorite release from them. They have changed members so much it's impossible to keep track but this album features five and hearing each of their unique vocals is great.
Their music label codomomental (コドモメンタル) is so amazing, I don't know how they could put out music, releases, and videos so often for all the artists. It seems like some of their artists are disbanding and taking breaks though. I've bought CDs and DVDs from at least 6 of their artists so far! And will continue, good thing CDs arn't dead yet in Japan.
Preview of all 15 tracks on the CD.
From the Sony Mavica MVC-FD81. A bridge over a river, a small abandoned house. Videos from a walk yesterday.
From the Sony Mavica MVC-FD91. After some rain.
FLASH BEST by capsule was released on August 26, 2009. It is their 1st compilation album and has 14 tracks. This is the limited edition version that includes a DVD with 7 music videos. The case is the size of a DVD box and has a mirror like finish, smudges too easily. It's weird you have to cut through the label to open it; I stil don't know if that was the correct way to open it. capsule is one of the few artists I've been listening to since I first really started regularly listening to music but this is the only release I own from them. My favorite tracks are JUMPER, Sugerless GiRL and jelly.
Footage of the CD and DVD. For the DVD I'm trying out a TV and DVD player I haven't used before. Very low end but was able to make it region free and it's hooked up using a component connection. FLASH BACK always puts me into a trance.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S70 was released in 2000 and can take photos up to 2048x1536 and videos up to 320x240. It has a 3x optical zoom and uses the Sony Memory Stick to save onto. I like that it has a little LCD screen on top, it's great to remind me the settings while the main LCD is off. The optical viewfinder is ok but I wish it was the kind with the screen inside. The bad part is that the camera is really slow to turn on, slow to view and take pictures, slow to zoom in and out. I swear the Mavicas are much faster. The macro doesn't get close enough for me and I wish it had manual focus mode. It has aperture and shutter speed prioity modes which is easy to use and great to have.
If everything goes right it can get really nice and high resolution pictures though.
Videos taken with the highest setting 320x240. Not too bad and you can choose between 5, 10, or 15 seconds a video.
A friend gave me these five VHS tapes with recordings of Naruto around while I was in 8th grade. I'm not sure but he must have recorded them from a DVD with pirated subbed episodes. An episode selection screen popped up for a second shown in the last picture. Back in middle school I was very obsessed with the anime Naruto. The tapes start at episode 65 which at the time was way ahead of what was airing on TV in the USA so of course I loved getting a sneak peak of what was ahead and seeing the Japanese Naruto for the first time. I didn't have high speed internet then. When the episodes did finally air on Cartoon Network in the USA I played them along with the dubbed episodes for fun and to see differences.
They are very good quality for being recorded on used tapes.
My main DVD and VHS player is an LG RC199H. It supports any input and output you would ever need including HDMI out. I've also used it to burn a DVD from a VHS. It's hooked up to the Sony PVM-20M4U CRT monitor via s-video.
My original childhood VHS player is the Sony SLV-675HF. Still works great but I don't use it much. Hooked up to the Samsung LN32A550P3FXZA LCD TV via composite.
The cherry trees have bloomed but I waited too long and the flowers were starting to brown and fall off.
Patterns and textures from around the house.
Well, the best pictures you will get of the quadcopter is this tree. On the second day I've used it I flew it too high in -0.000003 MPH wind and it decided to fly itself to the top of this tree. It's probably going to stay up there forever. I bought it from my favorite chinese shopping website (Banggood) for just under 30 USD. It's really not too bad, it does work and can take videos and pictures. The battery lasts around 10 minutes and the cheap feeling controller kinda controls it. Also has a case, two charging cables, two sets of blades, two screw drivers, and blade guards that fall off constantly. I will get another someday, maybe cheaper, maybe more expensive.
The only usable picture out of the three I got out of it.
It's hard to control, but I did get better at it.
Dangerously was able to get it high enough once.
The final flight.
The first bicycle ride of the year. It was really warm and sunny during the day but quickly cooled down in the evening. I was really tired afterwards and was so close to being too exhausted.
The ice and snow is melting and spring is coming!
The Texas Instruments TI-108 was first released in 1986 and intended to introduce young kids to basic functions of a calculator. It's designed to be durable and easy to use. I really like the design and color scheme. There has been at least 6 versions of this calculator. All of them look almost exactly the same, that's over 35 years of the same design! Internally it has changed a lot, mainly the addition of a CR1220 3V battery to allow better use in dim rooms. The solar panel works great so the battery isn't a big deal. I was lucky to get one with and without a battery. I remember using the version without a battery in school, I always played with all the buttons and watched the screen dim when I covered the solar panel. These are really nice and will last a lifetime.
This is the first mini-album from Blume popo released on April 30, 2017. I bought it from their website in 2018. Track 1 "トレニア" is my favorite. Overall It's not a bad album.
They seem to have stopped selling anything on their website a few years ago so I emailed them recently about looking into buying CDs from them. I want to buy their first single (trailer). I was so surprised to get a response at all and even in the same night. Unfortunately there are no phisical releases currently. It was really nice of the guitarist Dan Yokota to reply!
I made grilled spam and cheese sandwiches. For me this is the best I can do.
Shoveling snow is good exercise I guess. It takes over an hour to shovel just this much.
Videos and photos taken with the Sony Mavica MVC-FD81 and made with Windows Movie Maker on Windows Me using the Toshiba Satellite 335CDS.
Photos from the last couple warm-ups there has been this year. I normally can't be outside too long in the winter because I get cold fast. Only a few more months of winter!
Loud Asymmetry by ゆくえしれずつれづれ (Yukue Shirezu Tsurezure) was released on August 9, 2017. It is their 3rd single and includes three tracks. Track 2 "Karmaloop" is a favorite by them and track 3 "Helpless" isn't bad either. They are a similar group to ぜんぶ君のせいだ。 (Zenbu Kimi no Sei da) but the music is heavier and include more screaming. Like many idol groups they have gone through many members but that keeps things fresh and the new voices add new elements to songs. The four members in this single are my favorite. Unfortunately the group was ended on January 2, 2021.
Video of the CD playing. Filmed with the Sony Mavica MVC-FD81 and made with Windows Movie Maker on Windows Me using the Toshiba Satellite 335CDS.
This is a Soviet era alarm clock probably made around the 1970s. I bought it online shipped from Ukraine. It's made by Yerevan Clock Factory (ЕЧЗ) under the Sevani (Севани) brand. It's a mechanical wind-up clock that seems to work great. I love the green case and the clock face, it's so beautiful! There's glow in the dark paint on the face but it's not radioactive, I do want some Radium painted clocks someday though. I'm going to use it as my main alarm for a while.
Video of ticking and alarm taken with the Sony Mavica MVC-FD91. A whole 213 KB's of video!