Author Archives: Joshua Sanchez

Victim of Temperature Changes

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Look outside at 7 AM when it’s not raining. You will probably see that the sun is out early. Go through your day, and realize you’re not freezing like you were a few months ago. Look at your thermostat and you’ll see that the heater isn’t that high. Notice what you’re wearing today. Not as many layers as a few weeks ago. You ditched the scarf and just let your neck flow. Yep, it’s getting warm again.

I remember seven years ago when my class went on a field trip to Tynehead. It was late February. For some reason, it felt okay enough to just put on a t-shirt and denim jacket. Throughout the day, it started to get hot to the point where it was okay to take off my denim jacket and just wear a t-shirt. I didn’t put on my jacket until after I left school that day, and it was only because I was lazy to put it in my backpack.

A few days after, I decided to wear one of my nice coats with sherpa lining. That turned out to be a terrible mistake because the heat was still there. Because of how thick the coat was, there was no way I was fitting that into my backpack. You also need to know that March was still a few days away. Even early March isn’t supposed to be hot in the slightest.

sun

(Camilla Cannarsa / Flickr)

May usually isn’t burning, but oh my god May 2017 was easily one of the hottest times and it wasn’t even summer. I remember walking to school in the closest thing to a heatwave and I was sweating by the time I arrived. You would think it would be better inside the school. Dear lord, I was wrong. It was just as hot inside as it was outside. We had four fans in one of the classes I was in and it still didn’t fight off the heat. It was better in the two classes I had after, but when the final class came, the heat picked up again. There were over 50 of us in the classroom which didn’t help with the heat. Having that many sweaty teenagers in a relatively small band room is not a fun time. The fans that we had in the classroom didn’t help one single bit.

Then you have last September and October. For almost two months straight it didn’t snow. There wasn’t a single day during that time when I needed to put on my rain jacket or wear more layers. I was able to get away with wearing my denim jacket the entire time which is something that should not be happening in October. I wasn’t even checking if I brought an umbrella inside my backpack. That’s how dry it was during that time. Only in early November did I have to start wearing more layers but it didn’t even amp up until later in the month.

fan

(cat’s_101 / Flickr)

You might think this is nice, and you’re somewhat right. Nothing sucks more than having to change your outfit to accommodate precipitation. That cool outfit you’re going to wear now has to be covered up with a raincoat. Those cool shoes you were going to put on now have to be replaced by something you’re okay with wearing in the rain. Sometimes, you wish the heat would knock it off and just go away for a little bit. Whenever it was cold in the morning during the summer, I didn’t wrap myself up. I just embraced it because I wasn’t sure about the next time the cool temperatures were coming back.

We all want to not be freezing when we go outside, but we don’t want to be sweating just by standing. While it’s supposed to rain for a few days this upcoming week, how much can we guarantee that? We had a few false alarms last month about pouring days that turned out to be shockingly bright. That wasn’t the mood I had in mind for a few days during January.

It’s kind of the same deal when the heaters are on inside the house. I was once hanging in my living room, trying to record myself playing my instrument. By the fourth take, I had my shirt off because of how hot it was. Turns out, the heater was on super high which explains why I was sweating in the middle of November while I was sitting. I asked my dad why we had to turn the heat on super high. While it makes sense for the house to not freeze over and bust open our pipes, I wish we kept it down a little bit so we’re not burning. We start turning it down more when the winter months are coming to an end. If we keep the heater on during those months, I’m pretty sure our house will turn into an oven. I even stop turning mine on during January and just wear a sweater.

Heater

(Felipe Skroski / Flickr)

The heat is something no one is prepared for in the winter. You put on your jacket, scarf, gloves, hat, and everything else you need to stay warm. The moment you step outside, you notice something is off. You think it gets better throughout the day but still, you feel like something is off. You get home, and that feeling is still there. You start taking off each layer one by one and that’s when you realize it is hot outside. You check what month it is. Your calendar says it’s January. That can’t be right, it’s probably late April. Nope, it’s January. That wasn’t something you expected.

As long as global warming is still a thing, it will keep getting hotter during the winter months. You can either embrace it or be concerned. I would be concerned for the world burning during these months. In this case, I wouldn’t mind the rain coming every week. At least it keeps things in check and doesn’t make the hotter month more dreadful than they’re supposed to be.

Yes, you’re tired all the time

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You wake up one morning. You’re brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, taking a shower, putting on clothes, and going wherever you need to go. You’re now doing whatever you need to do that day, hoping to get home soon. You get home later than you anticipated, shower, and prepare a large dinner because you forgot to make time for lunch. After you eat, you’re tired and go to bed. Then you wake up and do it all over again. The weekend comes and you’re cleaning up your house and catching up on things you couldn’t get done during the week. Sunday comes and you spend most of the day relaxing, only for the night to come and you have to go to bed early, only to realize you’re not tired because you slept in that day. You get less sleep than the last few nights and start the week like any other weekday but even more tired. You go through your week once, talking to people, walking around, and coming home when you’re too tired to do anything. The weekend comes and you try to have fun, but you’re stressed out about what’s coming up that week. Yep, you’re too tired to do anything.

New alarm clock

(Bernt Rostad / Flickr)

You no longer have the childhood you once had where you had time to do things that you want. When I was a child, I would come home at 3 o’clock, have food, do homework, and play games. Then on weekends I would just play games and live life carefree. When my school days started getting longer with morning and after-school music rehearsals, my energy levels to do anything fun were taken away. While the pandemic managed to restore that to some degree, it went away once more restrictions started getting lifted. Once again, I can’t find the energy to do stuff like play games during my free time anymore.

 

It blows that I can’t find the energy to do fun things in my free time. Whenever I have free time nowadays, I would rather just sit down and listen to relaxing music like Eye of Melian or anything that Charlotte Wessels has put out. It requires less brain power than playing any game. The last thing I want to do after a mentally exhausting day is to do something that requires me to use my head. You’ve probably been in a similar situation. After a long day, the last thing you want to do after talking to a lot of people is to hear more people. If you’re the type to socialize after, good for you. You already have more energy than a lot of people on this planet. For the rest of us, we have no idea how you do it.

 

Ideally, you would want a four-day school/work week with a three-day weekend. Four days is what we can handle realistically handle before getting worn out. Then you would have the first day of the weekend to do some catching up like finishing any leftover work, chores, and errands. The second day can be used exclusively for downtime such as playing games, going outside, and other things you might not be able to fit into your week. Then the third day can be used to relax a little bit before having to start your week. By then, you’re getting a little sick of your break which gives you the right mindset to start your week. This is what you call the ideal world. This has already been experimented with in other countries with solid results. Why people are against this is beyond me. Sure there might be a few technicalities, but if the pros outweigh the cons, why not? You’ll be able to spend time with the people you care about, take care of yourself, and your productivity will go up. Who doesn’t want that?

Fountain ... and cityscape

(waferboard / Flickr)

I would’ve killed to have a schedule like this during my childhood. At the end of each weekend, I was always dreading going to school the next day. Sometimes I would leave homework off until Sunday night because I didn’t want to dedicate my weekend to doing things I didn’t like. Mondays were dreadful because I felt like I didn’t spend enough time during the weekend to do things I like even if I did them all day. I go through my week, just trying to get by before finally having all day to do stuff I like during the weekends.

Large breaks sort of makeup for this, but once you’re finished school, you no longer get those big breaks during winter, spring, and summer. The weekends are all you get but with more responsibilities, half of it goes away.

Look at you now, you’re sitting there, probably waiting to get back to whatever you were doing. Normally, this is where I would tell you to change your life, think beyond the confines of life, yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah. Yeah, we know this isn’t happening. People expect us to be contributing members of society with real-world responsibilities. Yeah, no one actually likes it when people tell us that. Can’t the real world be about exploration and enjoying yourself? Like in that one commercial where the kid says something along the lines of “I thought growing up means getting away with being a kid.” I wish this was true. We all wish we were never tired to do the things we love.

Picture this: You start your week completely energized, excited to talk to people, get your goals done, and other things to be a good human. Then your three-day weekend comes. First, you clean your place while jamming out to some tunes from your childhood. You also do your homework just to get it over with just like before. Then the next day comes. You’re walking in the park, talking to even more people and learning from them. Then the next day comes, you relax, talk to more people, and finally get prepared for another exciting week. That’s the dream right there.

The art of covering a song

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Cover songs have been around for decades. You might feel inclined to like the originals and loathe the cover. Other times the cover just blows the original into obscurity. Covers can range from being an absolute copycat of the original to the song being recreated to fit an artist’s style.

When the cover is better than the original, sometimes people forget the original exists. One of the best examples is Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper. This is probably one of those songs that make you think “Cyndi Lauper” right away. Except for the fact that she wasn’t the original performer. That song was originally by Robert Hazard. Hold on. A man is the original artist who made Girls Just Want to Have Fun? If you didn’t know that already, I can’t blame you. Hurt by Nine Inch Nails is another one worth mentioning. When people hear the Johnny Cash version, they don’t even try to compare it to the original. Johnny Cash’s cover of the song reworked the meaning to the point where Trent Reznor liked his cover better than he did originally.

Then there are covers that are clearly made as a joke. Britney Spears’ “Oops!..I did it again” was covered by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom as a bonus track for their 2005 release “Are You Dead Yet?” This was clearly made as a joke by the band itself but some fans saw this as a betrayal, saying things such as “they’re not metal because they’re covering a pop song” as if it means anything. Making covers that are out of field is a lot more interesting at times than covering something that’s already in your style.

Speaking of covers in their style, sometimes bands will cover something that sounds like something they would’ve made themselves. Epica will sometimes do a live cover of Follow In The Cry by After Forever. This makes sense as Mark Jansen, rhythm guitarist and harsh vocalist of Epica used to be in After Forever before being let go in 2002. Then you have Once Human covering Davidian by Machine Head. Just like how Mark Jansen used to be in After Forever, Once Human guitarist Logan Mader was in Machine Head early in their career. Some people called the cover soulless as they feel like it’s overproduced, from possibly using drum samples to just noticing how clean it is compared to the original. For covers that stay true to the original, I like to look at Trivium’s cover of Metallica’s Master of Puppets. Other than being a half step lower and noticeably faster (reminiscent of Metallica’s live performances), they kept it pretty close to the original, even down to Matt Heafy tapping into his inner James Hetfield. Speaking of Metallica, they’ve done a cover of Queen’s Stone Cold Crazy that’s pretty close to the original, minus James Hetfield not sounding that close to Freddie Mercury. Hetfield would later perform Stone Cold Crazy with Queen along with Black Sabbath guitarist Tomy Iommi during Freddie Mercury’s tribute concert. For covers that try to adapt to another style, Heaven Shall Burn did a cover of Blind Guardian’s “Valhalla.” The original was more of a thrashy power metal song while the cover tried to adapt it into melodic death metal/metalcore.

There will always be covers where people will prefer the original over any cover. People are often critical of Five Finger Death Punch, and their cover of Faith No More’s From Out of Nowhere is no exception. The common complaint is that they made the song unnecessarily heavy, which isn’t wrong. The synths were replaced with guitars which can take away from Faith No More’s distinct sound. Another notable case is Bullet For My Valentine’s cover of Pantera’s Domination. The big complaint people have here are the vocals. The metalcore screams don’t exactly fit the song as they should have. Again, people aren’t wrong. There’s also Cellar Darling’s cover of The Prophet’s Song by Queen. Most people do like this cover but Queen fans feel offended that someone would attempt to cover a song that’s already perfect for them.

You might also see covers on YouTube or any other social media. Some people are pretty supportive of those who do covers. Someone who has been gaining traction is Beast In Black vocalist Yannis Papadopolous. He’s been doing covers for years now, ranging from metal to pop. One of his most notable examples is his cover of Ghost Love Score by Nightwish. This song is usually done by a female singer since that’s what Nightwish always had. For a ma to hit every single one of those notes in the original key and octave is a feat not a lot of male singers can do. Considering the number of times female artists sing songs that were originally done by male artists, this is a nice change. Another artist that has been doing covers lately is Kristin Starkey. She is an operatic vocalist who has been doing metal covers such as Epica’s Essence of Silence and Twilight Force’s Twilight Horizon (which she has performed live with on tour).

Speaking of performing covers of artists they have performed with, Gee Anzalone uploaded a drum cover of DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and Flames,” back in 2011. When then-drummer Dave Mackintosh left the band a few years later, Anzalone joined the band which can be seen as his biggest accomplishment. The biggest success story of being a cover artist to joining the band is Tim Owens. He was in a Judas Priest cover band for a while, even gaining the nickname “The Ripper” which is a reference to a song off Sad Wings of Destiny. When Judas Priest was looking for a singer to replace Rob Halford, drummer Scott Travis directed the band towards Owens and was given the gig, singing with them until Halford’s return in 2003.

People’s standards for covers will always be weird. They either want them to be close to the original, completely different or not touched at all. However, covers are going to stay as long as people love the artist. There’s no bigger sign of respect than having someone do a cover of your song.

The different ways people have cooked steak (and why people enjoy them a certain way)

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People have always debated what is the best way to cook steak, and there doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer. Some people swear by fully cooking it while others see this as sacrilegious. Steak isn’t the same as chicken or pork where most of the bacteria live on the outside rather than the entirety of the piece of meat. However, there are still some grounds for what people see as an acceptable way to cook steak.

Cooking it well done has always been controversial. While it’s nice to know that whatever you’re eating is “safe”, some people see this as the absolute worse way to cook steak. This is because of how tough steak can be, especially cuts that don’t have a lot of fat. While it might be good to have slices of this style in soup, eating the meat as it is can be pretty tough. People like to compare eating well-done steak to eating leather. If an expensive cut like wagyu gets cooked like this, people will see it as grounds for violence. However, at least these more tender cuts of beef don’t suffer the same issues as cheaper cuts. They’ll even make jokes such as the person still chewing the steak the next day.

flat iron steak

(stu_spivack / Flickr)

Next is medium well. This is a little more tolerable than well-done but can still be pretty chewy. However, it is a good stepping stone for anyone who doesn’t want to cook their steak well done. I thought this would be the style for me since I was scared of having a steak that was “undercooked.” This is the type I prefer if I know I’m not going to eat the meat as is. I like to put these cuts in things like instant noodles. This is also the result of me reheating leftover steak since it’s hard to keep it the way it was originally cooked without eating it cold.https://flic.kr/p/6ygh8o

Beef Tenderloin - Guillaume at Bennelong

(Alpha / Flickr)

Medium is where a lot of people would be comfortable. People can chew it pretty fast but it’s not as tender as it should be. People will often cook it this way as a means to feel safe without losing some of the tenderness. This is the way my parents [refer since they grew up eating their meat well done due to safety concerns their parents had back in the day.

Rib eye steak for my wife - cooked medium

 (Ryosuke Hosoi / Flickr)

Now we have medium rare. This is what people see as perfection. The right amount of pink or red on the inside, while still looking pretty cooked on the outside. The amount of red is enough for people to want to try something less cooked than usual but not enough that it looks like raw beef. Generally, you want the internal temperature to be around 130 to 145 degrees. Personally, I like mine to be on the lower side at 130 degrees or to the point where it’s almost rare. Most people have found this to be the most tender steak they ever had, but only because they have yet to try anything rare.

Medium Rare - 400g Grilled Wagyu Rump Steak - Caledonian Hotel

(Alpha / Flickr)

Rare is where people might be turned off. To them, they see it as completely raw and inedible. The internal temperature for rare should be around 125 to 130. This is around the area I like my steak to be in. I first tried this when I was given a steak that was cooked less than medium rare. I was already curious to taste it so I decided to not send it back. I was met with perfection. The feeling made me picture waterfalls in my mouth. The only time where I didn’t like it was when I tried prime rib. For some reason, I was expecting the perfect amount of tenderness. While it was a lot more tender than most steak out there, it felt a bit squishy for my liking. I was not getting the hype it got from people who enjoy it.

Toro Steak

(snowpea&bokchoi / Flickr)

Blue is probably the most dangerous way to have steak cooked. The inside is basically raw while the outside (including the edges) is cooked. I sometimes like it this way but sometimes it makes me concerned. Because the bacteria only live on the outside, this makes blue steak safe to eat.

People will go even more extreme than blue and will just eat the meat completely raw. It doesn’t even get a name for this one. This is the basis for steak tartare, where raw ground beef is shaped along with adding ingredients such as mushrooms, onions, and pepper, along with topping it off with a raw egg yolk. This is the type I would never let near my mouth, which might be hypocritical since I’m not opposed to having rare or even blue steak. There are health concerns when it comes to completely raw beef as raw meat can have parasites. Because of this, people with health issues and pregnant women aren’t advised to eat steak tartare in any capacity. If people do find this safe, maybe I’ll try it one day but that’s still unlikely unless I’m forced to.

Steak tartare avec frites

(Stewart Holmes / Flickr)

People will always debate what is the best way to cook steak. Well done might be the safest but it will generally be the chewiest of all the cooking methods. Medium well might be a good stepping stone into not eating it well done but might still be a bit too leathery for enthusiasts. Medium is at least acceptable to me but not to others. Medium rare is where it’s at for most people. It’s red enough to be attractive to people but not enough that people will think it’s raw. Rare is for the enthusiasts but not for the people who aren’t into steak. Blue is for those who are crazy enough to risk their health for the ultimate tenderness. While different cuts of steak can also affect how tender a steak is, people will still see these cooking methods as universal across all cuts. Regardless of how you like your steak, you will still be enjoying a piece of meat people have eaten throughout history.

How lyrics can affect a song

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Listen to the lyrics from your favourite song. Those words speak to you in ways that others may not be able to decipher. Songs these days have a variety of lyrics.

Party lyrics are the type to get you pumped up. These songs are telling you how to live your life that night on the dance floor. When you hear The Macarena, you immediately start doing the dance moves. Or when you hear YMCA, your arms start making the letters. Or when you hear the Cha Cha Slide, you start listening to the instructions. Even if you absolutely despise these songs, you are probably going to dance.

Next are the songs with more profound lyrics. These ones are my favourites. They can range from joyful content to more sorrowful themes. The ones that are happy are best described as “victorious.” Angra is a band that does this the best. There might be a sense of sorrow in it but there still seems to be a sense of joy. On the dark side, you have lyrics that are based on sadness. This is the type of music people see as “raw.” However, I have a problem with people that see this as the peak of lyric writing. When people write sorrowful lyrics, they’re usually in a dark period of their life. Rather than people feeling sorry for the artist, people instead celebrate it.

Then you have lyrics that are super corny, which can be about anything that was listed above. This is easily my least favourite kind. Let’s start off with the kind where the positivity can be a little too much. This kind of party lyrics ends up sounding super uninspiring to the point where you want to leave the party. This is the type you hear from a lot of pop artists who are clearly only in the music industry without any care for music at all. They only want money and fame out of this and while it’s not a bad thing, they should at least care about the lyrics. The other kind of corny lyrics is the ones that try to be serious but fail miserably. I see this in metalcore where bands who used to not take themselves too seriously decide to “mature” in their songwriting but end up making something that sounds like a high schooler who procrastinated on their poetry assignment and started writing the morning it was due. Everyone who likes these kinds of lyrics will go “But they have meaning!” Alright then, tell me what it means without having to write it out. Yep, it’s just a bunch of poetic nonsense like someone who is taking a liberal arts class and is making up stuff to impress their professor. Trust everyone around you, nobody likes when people do that.

Some genres like country and power metal can reuse the same ideas over and over again. In the case of country, the stereotype goes that all country music is about beer, trucks, and women. This is mostly applicable to modern pop country and while I can’t say that all of it is like that, I do know songs that talk about this. In the case of power metal, most of it is about fighting dragons, being victorious, finding treasures, and other fantasy or fantasy-adjacent things. You can listen to a Dragonforce song and count how many times they mention fire and being far away. Let’s just say it will take up more than two hands to count them all. You also have bands that create their own lore such as Rhapsody of Fire, Twilight Force, and Seven Spires. Their lyrics take you on a quest that can’t be easily translated into other media like books and movies.

On the opposite end of creating your own lore, you have bands that write songs based on books and movies. Ice Nine Kills and Blind Guardian are my favourite examples of bands that borrow from film and books. Ice Nine Kill’s 2015 album Every Trick In The Book is based completely on literature while the next two albums The Silver Scream and The Silver Scream II: Welcome to Horrorwood are based on horror movies. Blind Guardian, on the other hand, bases most of its music on fantasy media. While most of their albums have individual songs that borrow from different pieces of literature or movies, they have one album that’s based entirely on one. That album is Nightfall in Middle-Earth, based entirely on The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. The entire album is a retelling of the book and is considered a cult classic by power metal fans.

History is also something to base your songs on. Sabaton is the best example of this as every song they have written is based on a historical event, mostly wars. They even got a Christmas song out of this by making a song about The Christmas Truce. While people are concerned about their songs about Nazi battleships, they have stated that their songs are nothing more than just telling history lessons.

The language you use in the songs also matters. From personal experience, songs that use modern-day slang don’t age as well. You may have seen that video online where Alexandra Starr starts the song off with “No cap,” which translates to no lies. The tone of the song already didn’t call for it, but once that term falls out of favour, the age of the song will easily show when someone in the future discovers the video. It’s not a bad song by any means, but the language will be criticized.

Good songwriting comes a long way. You can write chords, obsess over the instrumentals, and implement as many vocal techniques as you want, but if the lyrics aren’t good, then people will either tune out the vocals or turn off the song together. We get it, writing lyrics isn’t easy, especially when you have to fit them into a melody. However, there’s a lot to pull from. There are world events, books, movies, and personal experiences you can pull words from. No matter what you choose, write lyrics that are inspired.

Frame rate can change everything

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Turn on a new TV nowadays. That show or movie you’re watching looks smoother than a freshly paved road. The movement is as fluid as the Korn moshpit at Woodstock 99. Then watch the exact same thing on your phone or tablet. All of a sudden, it starts looking, correct.

The mode that’s on that new TV goes by many names, such as motion smoothing or motion interpolation. That setting basically doubles the frame rate for any video that is 24 or 30 frames per second, taking advantage of the screen’s 60 frames per second. It adds frames that weren’t there in the first place. This kind of change can be kind of subjective. For someone like you who may not know much, you might think it looks pretty, but purists see it as wrecking the original product. Honestly, I can’t blame them for that. It can look a little unnatural at times.

I was once watching Mulan at a relative’s house and noticed something was off. I then realized motion smoothing was on because of how fluid the movements were. I really wanted to turn it off but felt like it was going to be rude to do so. But still, it felt super distracting. It started to look like a cheap Disney Channel show rather than a high-budget animation.

Let’s look at Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as another example. That movie had a distinct style where the frame rate is less than the average 24 frames per second, kind of like flipping through a comic book. 24 is approximately the minimum the human eye needs to process motion. Some people decided to use AI software to make the movie in 60 frames per second. While it looked silkier than Spider-Man’s web, it ends up removing some of the charm from that movie. Imagine seeing an older stop-motion video get its frame rate increased. The more distinct jump between frames is what gives stop-motion its magic. When you increase the frame rate, it ends up looking funky.

Live-action TV shows can also suffer from this issue. Most shows that run in 60 frames per second are usually soap operas. These are the kind of soap operas you watch while you’re home from school or work because you’re sick that day. That kind of soap opera looks pretty cheap and also dated by today’s standards. When you see a current show with that frame rate, all of a sudden you feel like the show is ten years older than it’s supposed to be. I was once watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine at a friend’s house one time and I felt like I was watching an episode of Days of our Lives. It brought down the comedy factor which is something that feels impossible.

Other things like (live) music videos have also been ruined by increasing the frame rate. People have been “remastering” old music videos using AI. While the resolution increase is nice, the increase in frame rate can be pretty sour. Epica has recently started uploading their old music videos in 4K resolution and they look stunning when it comes to video quality. Once you see them in motion, you immediately notice how distractingly smooth they look. All of a sudden, they look like a cheap soap opera your mom probably watched while doing chores with your family.

Sometimes, having a lower frame rate can be distracting. This is the case for video games. Most games run in 60 frames per second which allows players to respond quickly. Some games can even get away with running in lower frame rates if they don’t require such accuracy. However, higher frame rates matter more when playing online games. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a game that can be played online but can suffer from frame rate issues. Due to its online system, sometimes frames will start dropping and renders the game almost unplayable at times.

Other games, like Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, run in 30 frames per second natively. This is mostly because the Switch and Wii U couldn’t properly run the game in 60 frames per second. While I was someone who complained about it at first, I then realized it actually looks better that way. Sure, people have modded the game to run in 60 frames per second and it looks stunning. However, I think the game looks good as it is.

Turning on frame interpolation for video games is something you NEVER want to do. Turning it on for video games will add enough lag for you to notice. It’s like maxing out your performance on your gaming PC. While it’s nice to run the game at its max specs, it might not run the way you want it to.

This type of frame rate difference is what sets high quality from cheap budget stuff. You will be able to tell the difference between something that was shot on a film camera and something that was shot on your phone using whatever camera app it came with. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are 3rd party camera apps that will shoot in 24 frames per second rather than the typical 30 or 60 frames per second. I used to use an app called Filmic Pro. Despite its flaws, it was the app on my phone that shot in 24 frames per second. If you look around hard enough, you might find a better app that can shoot in 24 frames per second. I was watching a music video by Chaoseum one day and I didn’t know it was shot on a smartphone until someone told me. If they used the default camera app using default settings, I would’ve been able to tell.

While we obsess over things like resolution, the frame rate is what matters the most. You want to be able to tell the difference between an amateur shot video and something that was shot on a high budget. Sure, the cinematic look doesn’t just happen with gear. However, the quickest way to get it is simply by shooting in 24 frames per second instead of the usual 30 or 60.

Listen to your friends when they talk about their favourite music artists (or don’t)

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Your friends probably talk about their favourite music artists all the time. You don’t get why they love them, or you’re intrigued but not sure when you’ll be ready to check them out. I’ve been in this situation multiple times in my life. Sometimes I throw them out. Other times, I understood what they were talking about.

A band that I recently started listening to is Seven Spires. I’ve been a fan of symphonic metal for a long time and heard their name as well. To be honest, I have no idea why in the world I did this. I thought I already knew which symphonic metal bands I liked so listening to them was unnecessary. One day, I just happened to be in the mood to go through their discography. I happened to have all the time in the world so I started from the beginning of their discography. Oh. My. God. I didn’t know what I was missing out on. Dark fantasy lyrics, mixed in with clean vocals that soar through the heaven, with harsh vocals that might make you jump, riffs and basslines that melt your face, and bombastic symphonic elements. This was completely up my alley for things I enjoyed. Discovering Seven Spires for me was like looking for copper but finding gold. Since that day, I don’t think I went a day without listening to them. I’m even salty over the fact that I missed out on seeing them when they opened for DragonForce last year during their North American tour.

Next is Bad Omens. I’m a metalcore kid at heart and this band has been on most metalcore kids’ timelines lately. I decided to check them out to see what the hype is all about. If you know what Bring Me The Horizon during Sempiternal sounds like, you will know what Bad Omens sound like. They’re definitely the best ones to copy that style because they try to bring something new to the table. But I can’t get the hype around them other than that. People are treating them like the best band in the scene when they’re not that different. I honestly couldn’t get the hype around them. They’re definitely talented individuals who can write catchy songs, but I think everyone overhyped them. I still like what they’re doing, but you would have to be a diehard fan to love the music.

On the lighter end of the spectrum, we got Snarky Puppy. I’ve heard about this group since high school. By this time most of my jazz listening started to dwindle down but Snarky Puppy was a name that I was still interested in. I finally gave them a chance. I was met with soul-crushing solos, spicy chords, and intense rhythm. I felt like I should’ve been a fan for years but just wasn’t sure how to approach it.

Arctic Monkeys are a name you’re probably familiar with. I was interested in them for a while but didn’t know how to jump right in. After some research, I jumped right in. I wasn’t impressed with what I got. I was met with music that I could mix in well with stuff I can hear on the radio.

With Bad Bunny becoming the most listened-to artist on Spotify for the third year in a row, people were quick to jump on others for not knowing who Bad Bunny is. They were always saying things along the lines of “You know if you expand your music taste you will enjoy his music.” However, I don’t think they should be obligated to listen to him if they don’t want to. Even someone like Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater) said that he has never listened to a single Beyonce song. It’s not like he actively avoids her or anything like that. He just happens to have never heard a song from her. He should not be obligated to listen to her if he doesn’t want. Even my sister who listens to a lot of BTS tries to sometimes get me into them. While I admit they make good music, I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to them.

As someone with more obscure music tastes, sometimes it’s a lot harder to try to get my friends to listen to some of the stuff I’m interested in. After discovering Seven Spires, I immediately tried to get my friends into them. So far I got one of my friends into them. As for the others, I feel like they’re in a similar spot as me for other bands where they just don’t get the hype.

Another example of this for me is Falling In Reverse. People always talk about this band and I have heard some songs out of my free will. However, I have absolutely no interest in them at all for personal reasons I don’t want to get into. You might try to force me to listen to them. I’ll hear it, but I’m not going to pay attention the entire time and just write them off.

For metal, people have always checked off metal as just noise. These people claim to listen to everything but the moment you mention metal to them, they will say “Oh, I don’t like all that screamy growly stuff. I only like REAL music.” This just shows close-mindedness. YOu might call me hypocritical because I refuse to listen to Falling In Reverse, but completely discrediting something isn’t the move.

Your friends and family will always try to get you into the music they like and you will do the same for them. When you give them a listen, you either say to yourself “Oh my god. Why haven’t I heard this before” or “I don’t understand why they’re excited over this.” However, maybe don’t always write them off. Give every artist your way a chance. Even if you don’t like it, you at least tried. When you do like it, you’ll probably become the person that was recommending them to you.

Your favourite candy tells the world something

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We all have our favourite candy. Whether that would be a chocolate bar or something small, there is something for us all. However, your favourite candy says something about you.

Let’s start with M&Ms. You are a simple person who likes simple things. M&Ms are basic with their colourful shells and chocolate insides. You don’t like it when things melt and also like simple fillings like peanuts or almonds.

Then there are Smarties, M&M’s younger sibling. You probably know M&Ms more than Smarties but you are impressed by what they can do to you. I once had cookies with Smarties in them and was sad when we were running out of them. Something about the paler colours gets to you and you don’t even realize it until you’re finished.

Smarties

(Ben Crowe / Flickr)

For the few Americans that read this, the thing you call Smarties are called Rockets everywhere else. Rockets tell us you are not afraid of anything. Not a lot of people like Rockets which means you want to stand out from the crowd. You are someone who wants to make a statement.

Reese’s peanut butter cups say you’re not basic. You like peanut butter more than chocolate. You don’t conform to society’s perception of a chocolate bar. That cup shape is a lot more attractive than any other bar you have seen. On another note, Reese’s Pieces also say you’re not basic. You got tired of eating Smarties and M&Ms so you started eating Reece’s Pieces. Now you’re the most annoying person on the block, think you are superior to everyone.

On the opposite end of Reese’s, there are Hershey’s bars. You are a lot more basic than the M&Ms person. You are telling us you don’t like candy but will have something every once in a while. This is what you think of when you think of a chocolate bar. However, if you feel a bit risky, you’re going for the cookies and cream ones. You swear by these things and you are willing to kill anyone that steals your bar. I learned this the hard way when my sister yelled at me for touching her cookies and cream bar.

KitKat is an interesting one. You are probably hostile when it comes to everything. You get violent when you see someone eat the bar whole instead of breaking them up into sticks. No one knows how to eat these things. You either eat each piece like normal or treat them like a wafer.

kitkat

(kaex0r / Flickr)

Speaking of wafers, you are just as, if not more violent than the KitKat enjoyers. You get mad immediately when someone doesn’t eat each piece layer by layer. You swear by eating them layer by layer or else it’s sacrilegious.

Twizzlers are another interesting case. You get pretty excited when they’re there. You think you enjoy them, but when you bite into them, you immediately remember why you don’t go out of the way to eat these things. You believe the type of people that enjoy these things are the same people that order their steak well done.

On the same spectrum are Almond Joys. You remember them not being as bad as you thought. You decide to bite into one, but the coconut decides to hit and you regret your decision. “I thought they were Almond Joys, not Coconut Joys,” you say as the people around you are disgusted by the thought of an Almond Joy.

Let’s not forget the gummies here. Gummy bears and worms are the things you probably thought of first. You remember filling up that candy bag with a bunch of these colourful confections. You get them today and they are exactly how you remember them. You may not enjoy it as much, but at least they taste the same.

Sour Patch Kids (or any other sour gummy) tell us you love store candy. You will buy a bag of these and will finish them in the car. This is the closest thing you will ever get to liking something sour.

Chips aren’t exactly candy, but I feel like they should be a part of this. Lay’s originals tell us you are an adult. You don’t want anything more from your chips other than potato, salt, oil, and the other chemicals that are in there. You don’t mind the amount of air that is in each bag. If you like to have something more flavourful, you are probably buying sour cream and onion-flavoured Lay’s. Or if you want to be super Canadian, you are reaching for that bag of ketchup Lay’s.

Lays

(Mike Mozart / Flickr)

Cheetos and Doritos tell everyone you are not afraid to get messy. You don’t care that your fingers are now covered in cheese dust. You are probably the reason why the second player controller at your friend’s house is covered in said dust.

Pringles tell us you like things the be organized. The luxury of having them in a can instead of a flimsy bag is enough for you to buy. While you would like to explore other flavours like salt and vinegar, you always want to go back to the original. You can’t fathom the idea of eating another flavour other than the original.

Let’s get back to chocolate. If you enjoy Coffe Crisp, you are telling us you are a go-getter. You like to be on the move. Sure, they’re not healthy, but you feel like they are better than you think.

Oh Henry! tells us you are someone who likes things to be interesting. No more of this regular chocolate-covered wafer garbage, you want nuts and caramel all in the same bar.

Candy tells us a bunch of things. It tells us where your sweet tooth lies. Chocolate people are simple and want nothing more from their sweets. Licorice and drier candy tell us you are bold. Chips tell us you are not a candy person but like being treated. No matter what, there is candy we all enjoy, even if we can’t agree with everyone’s opinion on them.

The Transit Touch

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We all have taken transit at some point in our lives. A lot of us may also take it regularly. Regardless of what the situation is, there’s something you always dread. That thing is accidentally making contact with a person awkwardly. You will think about that moment for the rest of your commute or even the entire day. Some people hate physical contact to the point where it makes them feel disgusted.

I’ve been in this situation a few times. Once, I was boarding a bus and it starts moving. I was walking towards the back and held on to a pole. I felt it wobble more than it should’ve. That’s when I realized it wasn’t a pole. It was someone’s hockey stick. According to the guy holding the hockey stick, I wasn’t the first person to do that. While it wasn’t physical contact with a person, it was still someone’s personal property and I haven’t forgotten about it.

This next one happened while I was already on the bus. I was standing on the step between the front and the back of the bus. This bus decided to stop somewhere where it wasn’t anticipated. I was holding on to a pole and had both feet planted on the platform. Somehow, I still managed to swerve right into the people in front of me. This lady who was sitting down saved me from completely falling over by grabbing my arm.

Finally, this one happened this morning. I was grabbing a seat on the bus and was in the process of sitting down. There was a lady in a seat that was left of where I was going to be sitting. While I was sitting down, I held on to the pole that was on the left. When I say down, my arm landed on her bag and I immediately apologized. The sad part is this could’ve been prevented had I held on to the pole on the right of my seat.

You will eventually make contact with someone in an awkward way. Whether you decide to fixate on it for the rest of the day (or the rest of your life) is up to you. Let’s be real for a moment, that person is feeling the same way you do.

You can only save one album, they say

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You may have seen those posts online (usually on Twitter) about which album you can save. Typically they are all part of the same genre. Each post will use four album covers and you get to pick which one you’ll “save” (referring to which one is your favourite).

The ones I have seen so far are mostly for metalcore and post-hardcore. It makes a lot of sense for these fandoms since the music is more focused on albums than singles. Since albums can sometimes contain songs you hate, you’re left with a choice between an album that has your favourite song or the one with three from your top five.

There are a few flaws in these. For one, people will just pick the one for their favourite artist. Even if one has more songs they like, they need to pick the one their favourite artist has made. Next, at least from my experience, there are always two albums that wouldn’t be worth saving. Even if the albums weren’t bad, they might not be ones that people would want to save. While part of the process is about sacrificing an album, should they all be albums where people:s brains would explode if someone can only choose one? Whenever I did a few of these, I felt like it was too easy to pick which ones I would ditch right away. Another point from this is that the number of arguments isn’t at the level you would expect them to be. Sure, people will debate or jokingly attack others, but violent outrage doesn’t seem to exist.

You might have that album that you would save no matter what the circumstance is. You might also have that album you would leave in a ditch. No matter what, you will always have something you enjoy from the one that you saved from whatever is affecting the other three.