How I Turned Nursery Songs Into Nightmares

This is a story I've already shared with some friends, but I think it’s worth commemorating in writing as well. It is best told in two movements.

I. Adagio, suspenseful
The background of this sad tale is as follows: in my Engineering 102 class, we’re building and programming small Lego robots that are tasked with searching an arena for yellow and blue canisters, capturing the canisters, and delivering them to separate landfills, one of which is marked by a strong light source. (If you've talked with me recently, you've probably heard about this robot thing, because it is somehow the most stressful project I've ever undertaken, even though from all accounts it’s very hard to get a bad grade in the course.) For the purpose of the preliminary competition, which is the focus of this story, we’ll ignore the yellow canisters and the landfill without the light source.

My group coded a search function that makes the robot run in an increasing spiral from the center of the field. This involved a lot of switches and loops-within-loops, which got seriously confusing, so we decided to take an upperclassman’s advice and put bits of sound into our code at important points, in order to know what the robot was running at any particular time.

What a great idea, I thought to myself at 11:43pm as I was adding the sounds. In fact, I’ll choose the musical notes to be recognizable songs at each part of the function, so I can immediately know what’s going on. How about the first four notes of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” at the end of each search loop? It’ll be cute, I thought.

It’ll be cute. Cute.

Try this out with me. Sing the first four notes of “Mary Had A Little Lamb”—just the first four. You’ll find yourself singing “Mary had a—” and stopping there. And this is precisely what chimed its charming way through our heads every single time the robot completed one square and prepared to enter another.

Mary had a—
Mary had a—
Mary had a—a what?
What did Mary have??

II. Vivace, enunciated
For the other sound bytes, I foolishly chose snippets of Brahm's Lullaby. In particular, the robot declared that it had found the direction of the light source—when the light sensor read 50 or above—with a loud, four-note ascending melody before it would drive towards the light. This was all right in practice, when we used a phone flashlight as our simulated “light source” and only heard the melody a few times before the robot reached a threshold where it released the canister, backed away, and turned around.

On the actual field, during our competition, it came to our attention that our wheel motors were out of sync, enough that our robot had a significant left-turn drag whenever it tried to go forward. This meant that every time it tried to drive towards the light, it would turn left after about two inches, lose the light, rotate again until it found it, play the melody again, and repeat the whole process.

At around the tenth repetition of the melody, I started to tremble and cover my ears. At around the twelfth repetition, the robot leaped forward into a dramatic left turn near ninety degrees, then stopped in utter confusion, as the light readings on that particular part of the field fluctuated constantly between 49 and 50.

The melody began to play endlessly.

I yelled in anguish, lunged to the other side of the arena, and scrabbled at the robot’s off-button until the whole program aborted.

“Shut UP SHUT UP SHUT UP,” I screamed.
Fellow students nearby backed away, some laughing nervously.

Throughout the rest of the day today, Brahm's Lullaby has kept needling its way into my brain and taunting me with its deceptively innocent tones, but the song is ruined for me, forever. I've had to keep myself from clawing at my own ears in the middle of the street.

Needless to say, the sound bytes are coming out of our code as soon as we don’t need them anymore.

DFESA 6 - Artist Dump 1 (Jon, Keane, and Sara)

Davina has many, many favorite English-speaking artists.
Davina doesn't have very much time for blogging nowadays.
The previous format for DFESA was pretty comprehensive, but incredibly time-consuming.
Therefore: I'm putting a few artists into one post here, with shorter descriptions and stuff, because I don't want to discontinue the series. (Although, I have no idea if people even read DFESA. Heheh.)

~~~

Jon McLaughlin
A singer-songwriter from Indiana, Jon has been sharing his music with the world since around 2003. He plays the piano phenomenally well and writes lyrics that sound like he actually thought about them. Also, his songs are ultra-catchy. Also, he sings "So Close" from the movie Enchanted, which is totally awesome.
Check out: ^ that, all of the album Indiana, "Beating My Heart," "Four Years" (this one is about high school and I love it so much), and "We All Need Saving."
I am still in the process of listening to all his music, so I may add to this favorites list in the future.

Keane
These guys are a British alternative piano rock band, formed in 1997. They're pretty darn popular--Strangeland, released in May of this year, reached No.1 on the UK Albums Chart, following the trend set by their previous three albums--and for good reason. The piano-driven rock is such a delight to listen to, and the beautiful music and lyrics give off this surreal-ish dreamy feeling that I love.
Check out: "You Are Young," "Silenced By The Night," "Disconnected," "A Bad Dream," "The Frog Prince" (this is probably my absolute favorite), "Somewhere Only We Know" (if you haven't already heard it), "Bend & Break," "Everybody's Changing," and "Bedshaped."

Sara Bareilles
Another American singer-songwriter and pianist, Sara is most well known for her 2007 hit "Love Song," which you've probably heard at some point in your life. The rest of her music is equally excellent, or more, though that does depend on your tastes. But yeah, aldkgabbldkfhg I love her so much she has such a good voice and writes such beautiful songs and is just so wonderful maqlwekrh okay recommendations before I fangirl too much--
Check out: "Uncharted," "Gonna Get Over You," "Hold My Heart," "Let The Rain," "Breathe Again," "City," "Gravity," "Love Song," "Once Upon Another Time," and "Bright Lights and Cityscapes."





ALSO, if you like them, check out "Summer Is Over" by Jon McLaughlin ft. Sara Bareilles. I almost died of joy when I found out this song existed. (Plus, it's finally applicable to the season. I've been listening to it all summer and felt kind of guilty every time, but no longer!)

"The Prayer"

I'm sure many of you are familiar with this song. Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli sang it. Charlotte Church sang it. Josh Groban sang it. Celtic Woman sang it. Everyone wants to sing "The Prayer." Not that that's a bad thing, of course--it's a very pretty and inspirational song, much like "You Raise Me Up."
I am not sure how many of you are familiar with this song's origins. It's from a movie called Quest For Camelot, and is sung by the main character's mother as said main character races off from her village on a horse, presumably towards Camelot (presumably, because I haven't watched the movie, so I don't know). I didn't look up the actual clip until today.

Um. 

Nobody mentioned that it was a chase scene.

Nobody mentioned that it was a chase scene involving monster things with metal arms.

Nobody mentioned that it was a chase scene involving monster things with metal arms riding on warthogs.

DFESA 5 - Mew

I am posting this nearly a month overdue and two days late. Sorry about that. To make up for it, this DFESA installment deals with Mew, which I have liked for a very long time and treasure as one of my favorite-favorite artists. Pay close attention! if you care, that is.

Brief Description:
Mew is a three-member indie Danish band that was formed in 1994 and has achieved much commercial success in the UK since then. Their sound has been called "alternative rock," or just "indie," or "stadium rock," among other things. Apparently it's difficult to classify the precise genre. In my opinion, the best approximation that I found was "progressive rock electro shoegaze alternative dreamy indie-pop."

What I like about this artist:
I've always found it hard to put my fondness for Mew into words, but I'll try.
It's really quite a bizarre style (or unique, I should say), with an ethereal feel that's half-grounded in a bit of rock, but sometimes doesn't make much musical sense at all--at least, when you first listen to it. Everything makes more sense with each subsequent listen. Part of what I love about Mew is the songwriter's ability to mix sounds and rhythms that I'd never have thought could go together, and in some strange dimension they work surprisingly well. For me, listening to Mew is akin to reading a particularly good poem: it stretches my brain to consider new possibilities.
I also love the ridiculously long title of their last album (pictured above): No more stories// are told today// I'm sorry// they washed away// No more stories// the world is grey// I'm tired// let's wash away.

Some of my favorite songs:
Since this is late, I've included more than the usual four:

"Introducing Palace Players" - One of the weirdest tracks in its composition, but also one of my favorites.

"The Zookeeper's Boy" - Gorgeous.

"Snow Brigade" - Probably the oldest Mew song I remember listening to.

"Hawaii" - SO HAPPY.

"Comforting Sounds" - Nine minutes long, but ridiculously relaxing.

"Sometimes Life Isn't Easy" - This one's weird too.

who would have thought

we would turn out to be hipsters?

We totally were.

DFESA 4 - Of Monsters and Men

This band is a pretty new discovery for me, but have risen so quickly in my list of favorites that I simply must write about them.

Brief Description:
Of Monsters and Men is a six-member "indie folk/indie pop" band from Iceland (which really should be enough to convince you of how awesome they are) that was formed in 2010. Their debut album, My Head Is An Animal, was released just last year, but they've already won a lot of awards and titles and such.  Here's the full list of their names:

• Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir (co-lead singer)
• Ragnar "Raggi" þórhallsson (co-lead singer)
• Brynjar Leifsson
• Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson
• Kristján Páll Kristjánsson
• Árni Guðjónsson

I've been trying to read them out loud and enjoying the sound of my failures.

What I like about this artist:
Um. Everything? I guess we can start with the voices: Nanna's high and airy voice is beautiful, reminds me of Ellie Goulding, and blends really well with the richer, more unique texture of Raggi's voice. Sometimes they sing together without doing any harmony, but the contrast in their voices alone makes for a really cool sound, which I love. As for the tracks themselves, the instruments can vary from brass and accordions to simple guitar, and I really like how dreamlike it sounds sometimes. And the lyrics, well, the lyrics are cool too. The topics range from loneliness and insanity (Little Talks) to "a whale that has a house on its back, on which people travel across the ocean, exploring different places and having adventures" (From Finner), but all written in the most beautifully poetic ways.
So yes. These people make awesome music, and they seem to be getting quite a bit of recognition nowadays. Goodness knows they deserve it!

Some of my favorite songs:
They only have one album out, so...all of them.

For those of you with Spotify (this launches the program):


For those of you who like Youtube playlists:


And for those of you who prefer Grooveshark:

DFESA 3 - Ellie Goulding

I discovered this awesome lady a little while ago (last summer?) when one of my brothers started playing "Lights," and I was immediately hooked by the sound and style. Heh, I guess you could say that my musical tastes are kind of really influenced by my brothers.

Brief Description: 
Ellie (Elena) Goulding is a 25-year-old singer-songwriter from England whose debut album came out in 2010. That album, Lights, was No.1 on the UK Albums chart shortly after its release. Her style has been described as electro-folk-pop. She works with another musician/composer/DJ called Starsmith who acts as her producer. It's pretty cool. That's all I have to say.

What I like about this artist:
"[It's] pop, but a bit more emotional," Goulding once said of her music. Yes. Emotion. Dripping everywhere from her delicate, almost fragile voice. Piano. Electro-stuff. Drumbeats that hit me deep inside. (I don't know what exactly that means. It feels strange. It's hard to describe. I like it, though.) Lyrics that take a bit of effort to figure out. It's a lethal combination for me. I love it ALL.

Some of my favorite songs:

 "Lights" - Of course I have to include this one. It's still my absolute favorite.

"The Writer" - I sing the chorus of this song over and over, all the time.

"Home" - Addicted to the drums here.

"Black and Gold" - I think this one's a cover, but I love the way she sings it.

DFESA 2 - Nightwish

Nathan introduced me to this band a few years ago, and I've liked them ever since. Nightwish is probably responsible for giving me the taste for metal that I have. (Understandably, this confounds my mother and delights Nathan. "You're such a metal-head like me," he told me today.)

Brief Description:
Nightwish is a Finnish/Swedish metal band that's about as old as I am, having debuted on New Year's Eve of 1996. It's gone through a progression from folkish-ambient mood music with metal elements to more exclusively metal to metal with a bit of orchestral sound. Nightwish has had two lead singers. The first was Tarja Turunen, who has this powerful classical voice that can be kind of scary sometimes, but she was dismissed in 2005 and replaced with Anette Olzon, who has a good-but-not-so-powerful voice. That switch of main vocalists naturally influenced their style, so the metal is a little lighter in their recent work.

What I like about this artist:
Nightwish is headbang-worthy. I don't really headbang, but I enjoy music that makes me want to. Metal stuff kind of has a weight that other music doesn't have (maybe that's why they call it "metal"?), and when all that weight is thrown on top of songs that have very little melodic variation and lots of screaming, I don't like it so much. However, when that weight is put into songs that have very singable melodies and lyrics that I can hear--as Nightwish usually does--I tend to like it. (*Note: There are exceptions to this. Occasionally I like songs that are completely screaming and growling and really heavy metal, but I haven't exactly figured out why I like them.) I quite enjoy the imagery in Nightwish's lyrics too: phrases like "the dark rain from her eyes" and "land of the daybreak" and "into a child-man's heart."
PLUS THEY DO ORCHESTRAL VERSIONS OF THEIR SONGS AND I LOVE ORCHESTRAS.   

Some of my favorite songs:

 

 "Nemo" - One of the first I ever heard. (Tarja's the vocalist here)

 "Creek Mary's Blood" - Instrumental orchestral version. It's very long :P

"Eva" - This is one of their prettiest songs--and very tame. (Anette sings here)

"Storytime" - From Nightwish's most recent album, called Imaginaerum. It's kind of creepy :D

Typical Conversation #10

NATHAN: Hey Nina, Dragonforce is coming out with a new album.
ME: What's Dragonforce?
NATHAN: Brt-nan-na-na-na-brt-na-nan-ba-ba-nan-na-nan-na-na--
ME: Ohhhhhhh.

DFESA 1 - Celtic Woman

I think this group deserves to be the first post of this series because I was legitimately obsessed with them for at least six good months (though that was two years ago already). They're still some of my favorite singers now.

Brief Description:
Celtic Woman is a New Age/Celtic/Adult Contempary/Classical singing group made up of 4-6 members at any given point in time. They've had ten or eleven members total since their debut in 2005, though they started out with five. The music is usually either Celtic-with-a-modern-twist or modern-with-a-Celtic-twist. Usually. It's a little hard to define their genre. Some people don't like Celtic Woman because they're not Celtic enough. Basically, it's a few Irish women singing, one fiddler--and behind the scenes, an ultra-talented music director named David Downes.

What I like about this artist:
This Downes guy is a musical genius. He was the one who assembled Celtic Woman in the first place, and he's the guy who chooses all the new members when old ones leave. Because of this, not only are his arrangements absolutely beautiful, but he's familiar with all of the singers' voices and uses that knowledge to his advantage. Sometimes their voices blend so well in harmony that I can't distinguish them at all (which actually throws off a few people, but I like it a lot). Add to this the fact that the members are top-grade professionals when it comes to singing--or fiddling in the case of Máiréad--and you get some really good music. Also, they usually have an orchestra playing with them, and I love the full sound of an orchestra.
Plus, I'm a big fan of Celtic music, no matter how watered-down it might be. There's just something about the melodies that makes my heart ridiculously happy, and the lyrics tend to be about more than love-and-breakups. I mean, I'm fine with love-and-breakup content to an extent, but songs about yearning for home or nature or prolonged separation just interest me more. And the songs that are about love, they do hilarious things like refer to men as seaweed.

Some of my favorite songs:

Oh my. There are a lot. I will post four. 

 

The live recording of "The Sky and The Dawn and The Sun," which may be my absolute favorite song.  

I went to see them live. Máiréad actually plays like that. o.o

ACAPELLA.

And this one's a little more Irish-y. Yay for drinking songs! (I like their dresses.)

[ALSO, ALL OF THEM.]

i do not only listen to asian music

Here is a snippet from a chat that took place a while ago:

Stevie: you officially need to
listen to more English music.
lol

...

LOL INDEED BECAUSE I LISTEN TO A LOT OF ENGLISH MUSIC.

Just in case you don't believe me, I'm henceforth beginning a series of blog posts called Davina's Favorite English-Speaking Artists (DFESA). If all goes well, I'll post every week--maybe every Thursday--highlighting one of my favorite English-speaking artists, and you will see* that I do not, in fact, only listen to Asian music.

*or hear

Last Day of Blog Challenge, Squirrels, and Other Miscellaneous Stuff

Today is the last day of the Blog Challenge! I think I've succeeded.
It's sad that January has come to an end already. I can't believe that we're a month into the new year so quickly.
I wish I had something extremely insightful to say on this auspicious day, but I don't.

Our AP Biology midterm is tomorrow. Wah.

I don't want to quit piano lessons, but I'm seriously doubting their worth when I don't get to practice enough during the week. The piece I'm working on now is really hard, and I feel guilty that I can't give it the time it needs to be good. I don't think I'll be ready for a recital in May.

Apt Visual Depiction of High-School Students at USP:

they say you're really not somebody
until somebody else loves you
well i am waiting to make somebody somebody
soon.
~ Are We There Yet - Ingrid Michaelson
(Emmie showed me this today and I love it :D)


Look outside. Stick your head out the front door. It's a beautiful day today.

"trickies"

That's a folder in my bookmarks. It contains all the sites I find useful in a slightly sneaky sort of way.

So in case you were all wondering.

Convert Files - This nifty little tool lets you upload, convert, and download files (though not always in the best quality). It also lets you download videos from quite a few video-hosting sites, like YouTube. Which is how I watched YouTube videos back in the days of Jorund, my old computer. It takes a while, but is mostly reliable, so I still like this 'un a lot.

YouTube to MP3 - This essentially performs what its name says, converting YouTube videos to mp3 files that you can download. It's useful, but I liked it a lot better before it got all fancy and advertisement-happy. Convert Files (above) also has a convert-to-mp3 option for videos, so I tend to just use that.

Video Toolbox - A pretty nice video-processing website with a lot of cool functions like adding watermarks, embedding subtitles, trimming the video, etc. It works but not all the time, at least not for my computer. Sometimes I try to upload a video and it never uploads.

Site2Pic - I actually haven't used this, but it gives you a screenshot of a site from a URL, plus a link to that image. I used to use Aviary's Firefox extension for that function, but it doesn't work anymore, so I might use this sometime soon.

sleepyti.me bedtime calculator - I LOVE THIS ONE. It calculates sleep cycles and tells you when you should try to fall asleep in order to wake up feeling refreshed at the time you need to, because it'll be at the end of a sleep cycle as opposed to the middle, which makes you feel groggy.

media.io - Another conversion site, but this one just for audio. I like it because it has a neat, compact interface, and also because it works really quickly.

Dropbox - Basically allows you to access the files you upload into Dropbox from anywhere. You can work on the files on multiple computers, and it'll sync the updated versions to all connected computers after you're done.

My Favorite Music Videos

 because i had nothing else to post about.

Warning: Majority of content will not be in English. I'm sorry about that. I need to listen to more music that's in English. Ohhh well. 
Advice: Do not watch all of these in one sitting unless you have time to spare. This is not a good-enough reason to waste time if you have something important to do.


CATEGORY 1: Made Me Laugh

  

CATEGORY 2: Is Well-Made and/or Pretty

 

CATEGORY 3: My Favorite Dances (not quite music videos anymore...)

 

Zombie Attack Survival Manual

Method #1: Follow what the mathematicians say.  “Hit hard and hit often.”

Method #2: Follow what the CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response Zombie Apocalypse Manual says. (Basically, prepare as you would for any natural disaster.)

Method #3: Obtain your own chainsaw and be an awesome hero.

Method #4: Pretend that the zombies outside aren't real and continue to kill the virtual zombies in your zombie attack game.

Method #5: Shuffle.

and then the winter came...

I love this game.

Song Lyrics Mashup

in the dark
i hear a call
from across the distant shore

why do you weep?
what are these tears upon your face?

hope fades
into the world of night
through shadows falling
out of memory and time

what can you see
on the horizon?

o shenandoah
i long to hear you
away, you rolling river
away, i'm bound away
lift the wings
and carry me away from here

(cut me free
leave me be)

find me,
look for me
where stars are rising

somewhere beyond the sea
somewhere over the rainbow

over the hills and far away
a light on the water
voices                  
clear and pure
find the way home somehow

open your heart

i am calling you
right from the very start
your wounded heart was calling too
the never-fading
rain in your heart
the tears of snow-white sorrow
slipping through my fingers
all the time.

dont your feet get cold in the wintertime?
the sky won't snow
and the sun won't shine
but you cant jump the track
we're like cars on a cable
and life's like an hourglass
glued to the table
so cradle your head in your hands

it isnt strange
after changes upon changes
we are more or less the same
after changes
we are more or less the same
sometimes i think i see familiar faces
but they're always strangers
staring back at me
and i've been lost
in so many different places

and you know
city parks have daffodils...

if you miss the train i'm on
you will know that i am gone
you can hear the whistle blow
a hundred miles

oh how i wish
for soothing rain
all i wish is to dream again

all my memories keep you near

there's no escape now
no mercy no more
no remorse
cause i still remember
the smile when you tore me apart

you're the best thing
i never knew i needed

you and me
we can ride on a star
if you stay by my side

we can rule the world--

and you'll be here in my arms
just sleeping...

 ~~~

If you happen to just know all the songs here, then you must be exactly like me, and I will love you forever.
(Well, the love-forever part is a maybe. But we might be soulmates.)

Other than that, you can see the list of songs used here.

Into the West - Annie Lennox, LOTR

Shenandoah

Lift the Wings - Riverdance

10th Man Down - Nightwish

Homecoming - Lisa Kelly

Beyond the Sea

Over the Rainbow

Over the Hills and Far Away - Nightwish

Into the West (again)

Non C'e Piu - Celtic Woman

The Call - Celtic Woman

Amaranth - Nightwish

Slipping Through My Fingers - ABBA

Desperado - Eagles

Breathe (2am) - Anna Nalick

The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel

Sometime Soon - Lynn Hilary

500 Miles - Peter, Paul, and Mary

Nemo - Nightwish

Memories - Within Temptation

Angels - Within Temptation

Never Knew I Needed - Ne-Yo

Rule the World - Take That

Into the West (again)