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The Midi file I began in my previous post is now finished. It’s located here. Hope you enjoy :-)

The beginning of something new.

Yeah, I must be in a music writing zone at the moment. It’s fun at least :-)

Here’s the string section for the “anthem” portion of my riverrun midi file. (BTW: the anthem section in isolation can be heard here.

So now music lovers can see some of the behind the scenes aspects of the midi file.

I’m borrowing season 1 of The X Files from my brother-in-law and my sister. It’s been a while since I watched any episodes of it, and I had forgotten many of them anyway. In fact, given that I didn’t watch The X Files until roughly season 5, there were a lot of beginning episodes that I hadn’t even seen yet.

There is one thing about The X Files though. It gives me good inspiration for writing. Since the shows have to fit within an hour, they’re like watching short stories. And while that means sometimes the episodes don’t go into as much detail as we might like, they were still very well written for the most part (with the occasional turkeys that must come about in a nine-year long run).

Anyway, I’ll have to watch more later. But since my bro-in-law and sister have all nine seasons…. :-)

Today, after church, I went with my brother-in-law and my sister up to my grandparent’s house to celebrate the fourth birthday of my nephew. While there, naturally, we had to watch the Broncos play the Chargers too. And that game, as those who watched it would agree, was also extremely interesting! Once again, the Chargers managed to lose a game in the closing seconds (although not on the very last play this time). And the loss did begin on a fortunate (for Broncos fans) missed ref call where Cutler fumbled but was ruled an incomplete pass on the field, and because the whistle was blown by rule it ended up being the Broncos ball at the spot where the ball hit the turf even though the Chargers actually recovered it.

But then when Denver scored their touchdown and were down 38-37, instead of kicking the extra point Shannahan went for 2…and got it.

I have to say it’s nice watching him be a little less conservative on the field now that he knows his offense is good. (Broncos still have massive problems on defense though.) It was first seen in the final seconds of the first half when, instead of kicking the easy field goal, they went for the touchdown (and got that one too). And then the gamble at the end by doing the 2 point conversion. I think the Broncos have a great chance with their offense this year…but defense wins championships and the D feel apart in the second half.

Oh well. I just can’t wait for hockey to begin.

One last thing. Normally when I am at my grandparent’s home, I leave with a massive headache. That’s because I’m allergic to one of my grandma’s cats. However, apparently the cat that I am allergic to has disappeared. Most probably, it was eaten by some of the foxes that roam their neighborhood. So while on the one hand that’s a bad thing for my grandma, at least now I don’t get a migrane at her house….

Oh well. I just can’t wait for hockey to begin.

I think I said that before. Oh well….

Well, Colorado is not Texas, so we’re not getting a hurricane coming our way. Nevertheless, it’s been raining nonstop all day here. They even had to close a bridge over Sand Creek because it was considerably less sand than it was creek today, and it sort of eroded away the foundations for the bridge.

Oh well. The good news is that we could use the rain. The bad news is I’m pretty sure this proves Global Warming. Because it was snowing at the Eisenhower Tunnel, and it would never do that in September unless Bush made it do it, and the only reason Bush would do that is if he wanted to trick people into not believing Global Warming was real.

Stupid Bush.

If you’ve been following along with my several midi “works in progress” I have good news. I think it’s no longer a work in progress. It is now a work.

I’m calling it riverrun. I first thought of it because the opening reminded me a bit of a mix between the Russian Easter Overture and The Moldau. The Moldau portion got me thinking of rivers, and that lead me to “riverrun” which is the first word in Finnegans Wake (which starts in mid-sentence). While that has nothing to do with the piece, and while it has progress with the percussion to sound somewhat more militaristic, I’m too lazy to come up with a new name. So riverrun it is.

Hope you enjoy.

Earlier today, I picked up NHL 09. I’ve been looking forward to this game for a while because of the “Be a Pro” mode that it had. For a while, I’ve thought that there should be an NHL video game where you play a specific player and view the game similar to a first person shooter game. The game comes close to that, although it’s still third person since the camera follows after your skater. (You can also play as a goalie, but I haven’t tried that yet—that’s for tomorrow!) If you pick the “Authentic” setting, then when you come off ice you get to sit on the bench and watch the game too. So the level of realism is spot on there.

Since I just got it, and since I like to simulate full games (i.e., 20 minute periods instead of 5 minute periods) I haven’t been able to test the AI yet to see how realistic it is. The final scores seem to be fairly accurate, given the first test was on Rookie level. After the first period, the score was 1-1. But then in the second period, my team scored 7 goals. The final was 12-4, which isn’t realistic for NHL standards but when you’re playing on Rookie settings it is about what is to be expected. Tomorrow I’ll see what the higher difficulty settings do. The best result would be to get a 60 minute game where you have a realistic number of shots (around 30 per side) and a realistic score (ranging from 1-0 to, say, 6-5). Unfortunately, since AI is geared towards 5 minute periods, this is almost certainly never going to happen. Typically, the games cheat by making the goalies super goalies so you have the correct looking final scores, but you’ve had 80 shots on each side.

Oh well. As much fun as it is to try to recreate an accurate simulation, I will say that the “Be a Pro” mode alone is definitely worth getting the game if you like hockey games. One other thing that looks promising for the game is you have the option to switch to the classic NHL 94 controls. You know, back when game controllers only had two buttons. So instead of having to deke a player by RS [Left] + LB + LT + X + A (and by the time you remember all the buttons to press, the computer has already crosschecked you and is heading the other way on a breakaway), you can just press “A” to shoot and “B” to pass. So I might give those settings a try too, when I play some more full games, etc. It might be especially useful if I do a dynasty mode, since you’re playing 82 games/season (plus playoffs) for 25 seasons…

JOHN: Welcome back to Televised Competitive Chess here on PBS. I’m John Loftus, alongside my partner Lee Randolph. Now Lee, when we went to the commercial break, Black had just made a move you described at the time as brilliant. Can you further elaborate?

LEE: Thank you, John. You can see the position now.

Black’s last move was: 36 … Qb4 and, as you can see, he is now threatening White with a back-rank mate from both his Queen and his Rook at c8.

JOHN: Can you explain a back-rank mate for both our viewers?

LEE: Certainly. You can see White’s King is contained in the corner of the board with his own Pawns holding him in place. The bottom row is completely empty and the only piece that White can use to block the attack is his Queen.

JOHN: Well, it’s White’s move now. How does he stack up?

LEE: White is severely disadvantaged in this position. In fact, it’s difficult to think of a worse position other than outright checkmate. White has played incredibly poorly this game, and it’s obvious in this position. Right now, Black has a certain checkmate in two moves unless White plays perfectly. White might be able to pull out a draw here.

JOHN: What would you recommend White do then?

LEE: It is tempting to bring his own Queen down, but he can’t plant the Queen on the first rank or it’ll just be taken by Black’s Queen, which guards the e1 square. However, White needs to do something. He could move Queen to a1, which would guard against an immediate back-rank mate, but I can’t imagine Black wouldn’t move Queen to c4 to create a battery which would win. White’s only hope is to move one of his Pawns to give himself an escape. But objectively, White is completely losing. This is one of the worst games I’ve ever seen televised.

JOHN: Okay, and White looks like he’s getting ready to move. And…it’s going to be a Queen move after all!

LEE: He’s obviously not listening to me.

JOHN: And…oh my goodness. Queen to b8, with check. What is he thinking?

LEE: Oh, this is terrible! Just terrible. Of all the moves that he could have done, White is simply giving away his Queen now! I thought he couldn’t possibly play any worse than he had, but he proved me wrong.

JOHN: Wow. Well, this is a no brainer. Black is going to take White’s Queen with his King—

LEE: Actually, he can’t do that. White’s Bishop at g3 guards that. I can only surmise that White overlooked the fact that Black can take with his Rook anyway! Or maybe he was thinking of trading his Queen for Black’s Rook—a terrible mistake, since Black’s Queen can still mate! And now, with no Queen to block, if White doesn’t move a Pawn next move, it’s an instant back-rank mate!

JOHN: And here goes Black, taking the Queen.

LEE: I cannot believe White is playing so bad. White is going to capture the Rook with his Bishop, which will guarantee a back-rank mate with Queen to e1! I wonder how this man ever got rated in the first place. This is simply dismal playing. He’s been making the absolute worst possible moves ever in the history of chess.

JOHN: And here he goes. And…wait, he’s not going for the Bishop.

LEE: No, he’s doing a Knight move! That’s even worse! He needs to move a Pawn or else…

JOHN: Oh my.

LEE: What?

JOHN: Checkmate? Is that checkmate?

LEE: It can’t be.

JOHN: But look. Black is in check, but he can’t move his King. And nothing can take the Knight. It’s checkmate!

LEE: White got lucky, that’s for sure. He made some of the stupidest moves ever in the history of chess, but managed to hold on.

JOHN: It’s almost like he planned it from the start that way.

LEE: No, he couldn’t have. My game theory analysis says he made the worst possible moves ever up until this point.

JOHN: Hmmm. If it was a normal person, I’d disagree. But since it was God playing…

LEE: Like I said. He got lucky.

Part Four of my work in progress is now uploaded. I’ve got the general format for a percussion track added now. There is still much room for improvement, as using Cakewalk to put in a drum track note by note is not the easiest thing to do. But it suffices to give a flavor of what it would sound like in the future, after some smoothing out, etc.