Awesome Swedish Power

Things I Like.: What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:04:53 -0400

Things I Like.: What would you do if you weren’t afraid? :

[Update 3/28]

I apologize in advance for the vulgar language.

Yesterday a lot of the fears that kept me from speaking out for so long were realized. Although the general response to my words was overwhelmingly positive, I was and still am being called a stupid bitch, a cunt, and “all that…

Wonderfully written and entirely true. This does indeed need to stop. Let us hope that people will eventually be mature enough not to act like complete idiots.

On second thought...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:53:43 -0400

… Keep following me on this tumblr, too. I’ll keep using it for quick blogging, cool links and stuff.

I have a blog you should follow someplace else

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 09:02:34 -0500

Yeah, well, you know. I like Tumblr and all that but I like this one better. If you want to continue reading about me and what I do, please go here:

http://fredrikhathen.blogspot.se/

Updates each week! At least once a week! … as often as I can! Yeah!!

‘Forced’ Seeks Funding, Boasts Co-Op Arena Combat | The Indie Game Magazine - Indie Game Reviews, Previews, News & Downloads

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:01:20 -0400

‘Forced’ Seeks Funding, Boasts Co-Op Arena Combat | The Indie Game Magazine - Indie Game Reviews, Previews, News & Downloads:

This is awesome. It’s a game I’m doing music for.

Twitter username changed!

Mon, 07 May 2012 07:59:26 -0400

Twitter username changed!:

This shouldn’t really affect any of my Twitter followers, but just so you know, I am now known as @FredrikHathen on Twitter. Why? Well, I’m a freelancing music composer, and I kinda want to do my own thing instead of referring to myself as a fanboy of another composer’s work.

Stuff that is a bit more private/informal won’t be affected though. I will still keep my old nickname for this Tumblr and some other places (like my old YouTube account) for Let’s Play related things as well as other stuff that I want to do outside of my work.

Well, now you know, I guess. All three of you!

So I had this idea

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:04 -0400

Yeah, so I had this idea that I was going to write a Tumblr post in bed before I went to sleep because that sounded like a fun thing to do. So I did. Write a post that is. Or I am. Writing it. Right now. Yeah.

I’m back in Denmark again after spending some time in Sweden. I did what I was supposed to do and I saw the people I wanted to see. I got some freelance work stuff done. I spent time with my fiancée. I saw my dad.

Returning to my office on the other side of the Öresund bridge is always strange. I always get this odd feeling in my gut, a mixture of melancholia and trepidation. Will I do good things? Will I work hard enough? Will I succeed? Will I bring home money?

Well, one thing I know is that I absolutely LOVE my new shiny iPad. It’s beautiful and pretty and awesome and cool, and yes, I do get it. I understand why owning an Apple product is cool. You really do feel special. I get it.

I also love not being a hardcore Apple/Android/whatever fanatic. I use whatever I want and need, whatever suits what I want to do. In this case an iPad was the better choice for me. I still own a PC. And a PS3. And a 360. There are good things to be said about all of them.

Finally I have this to say: Fuck off, everyone who’s complaining about autocorrect. I have yet to have any problems with it whatsoever. If you proofread what you’re writing you will have no problems. Don’t press send before you check what you’ve written. It’s common sense. Come on, people.

Alrighty, I’m gonna sleep now. Nighty-night.

Recent Software Recommendation

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:48:04 -0400

So if you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m a bit of a new software buff. I really like software that can do things easier and more efficiently, and I’m constantly on the prowl for new stuff to jazz up my computer.

My recent find: ObjectDock Plus.

Basically, this little program turns your PC into a Mac. Well, not really, but it DOES give you a little sexy program dock at the bottom of the screen. It does more than that, however; it also gives you the ability to create “toolboxes” that are essentially dockable windows that can contain shortcuts to just about anything; documents, URL:s, programs… anything! You can create as many of these toolboxes and docks as you like and you can customize them to your heart’s content.

At about $20, this is a no-brainer for anyone who wants to customize their PC and make it easier to find things you usually have to dig around in folders for - and especially if you (like me) really hate desktop shortcuts.

Go check out the free version of the program - yes, there is a free version too which contains some of the functionality the plus version has - and let me know what you though about it!

Either post a comment here (you can all get the Disqus thing to work, right?) or throw me a tweet about it.

Social Media Software - My New Discoveries

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:23:10 -0400

‘Sup, peeps.

So, I’ve recently acquired some new programs to help out with that whole social media thing. If you’ve been following my Twitter (and why wouldn’t you have?), you’ll know I like to use stuff that lets me post crap about myself everywhere and anywhere. I also like to know who’s following me and what’s going on in general, and I like to condense things into one, simple platform where I can subsequently reach everything I need.

Because I’ve used quite a lot of programs that try to do this, I thought I’d give y’all a little recommendation:

RockMelt (http://www.rockmelt.com/). This is basically a souped-up version of Google Chrome, much more geared towards social media. It adds a nice column to the left (or right, if you prefer it that way) that displays “apps”; i.e. Facebook, your Gmail, Twitter and various websites that support this function (among these are 9gag, CNN, Dorkly, The Escapist and many more). You get handy little notifications when anything is happening on any of those icons; if you get a new mail you will see a “1” next to the Gmail icon and so on. You also get nice popus at the bottom right corner of your screen even if the browser is minimized.

You can easily post anything quickly to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr (doing it right now, as a matter of fact) and Gmail. There is a great button for this that essentially brings up a new small window, where you type whatever you want to share and to where. You can even select certain people on Facebook to share things with, and choose whether or not you want the post to be on their wall or as a private message. Awesome!

I’m continually discovering new, awesome features in RockMelt. I just now realized that if you type the name of someone you have as a friend on Facebook in the URL bar you can get directly to their Facebook profile - a really neat feature. Also, loads of sites already support the “app” function of RockMelt so you can get a great, quick overview of what’s going on.

On top of all this, RockMelt is essentially Google Chrome, which means that if you’re using Chrome you can happily switch to this instead and only get added benefits. Anything RockMelt doesn’t have access to directly (Google+, for instance - no one knows why) you can simply add as an extension which will pop up when you open a new default tab. Which brings me to…

SocialBro (http://www.socialbro.com/). Yes, the title is ridiculous. SB is, however, a VERY nice little tool that monitors your Twitter account and provides you with loads of nice statistics at your fingertips. You can easily see how many has recently started following you, if you lost any followers and when, if anyone influential is following you and so on. SocialBro - despite its stupid name - is a very, very handy tool for anyone who’s active on Twitter. And it’s available as a Google Chrome extension, resides in its own little tab and is just generally great to have. I can recommend it to just about everyone who uses Twitter.

Don’t, however, bother with the desktop version. Like TweetDeck, SocialBro’s Windows application runs on Adobe AIR. This is never a good thing; AIR programs tend to be sluggish and laggy, and comparing the two versions of SB makes that incredibly apparent. While scrolling and browsing categories is fast and slick in the Chrome extension, doing the same thing in the desktop version is excruciatingly choppy. Don’t bother with it; just get the extension instead. Unless, of course, you’re not running RockMelt/Chrome (why oh why?) in which case I think you should check out the desktop version. It might cause you to switch to another browser before long.

Anyway, that’s today’s giant wall of text! I’m off to rest my wrists; apparently being a piano player, composer and frequent writing on a keyboard will eventually cause you to develop painful cases of carpal tunnel syndrome. Who knew, right?

Love Letter From the Swedish Government

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:14:29 -0400

“Oh, hello!

We hope we find you in good health this fine evening, dear Mr. Häthén. This is a letter where we tell you about your tax return - should you be eligible for one - in a very confusing manner which usually necessitates an interpreter who can speak legalese. We hope you will enjoy this letter.

It is our great pleasure to inform you that this year, you will actually get some money back! You are eligible for quite a large tax return because we took quite a lot of money from you last year, don’t you know. We are feeling generous and we’re going to return some of that money to you. Wasn’t that nice of us?

We bet you would love to have that money on your bank account soon. In fact, seeing as you’re quite poor and have almost run out of student loans, we’re sure the news of more money trickling in fills you with joy. And as you know, most Swedes only have to submit one simple online form to us, and then they get that money in May! Truly, we live in a marvellous age of wonder and glory!

You, however, used to own a small company in 2010 so you will have to fill in three extra forms that aren’t available online for no reason at all, and then you won’t see a sniff of that money until December. Because.

Fuck you, and have a nice day!

Yours truly,

The Swedish Government”

I'm an author! (#NaNoWriMo)

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:37:16 -0500

Yup - I’m a winner!

Naturally, everyone who even writes even a few words can be considered a winner. Then again, the goal was to reach 50,000 and I can now proudly tell you that I did! Afterimage clocked in at a proud 50,009 words and I can now consider myself an author!

Well… not quite an author. What I have created - and what I am very proud of - is a very sketchy first draft of what will eventually become a book. One day. Sometime in the future.

During November, I learned a couple of things about myself. First off, I’m a slacker and I love procrastinating. If I can push my writing till tomorrow, odds are I’ll do it. This is not a very good thing. Second, I write extremely nonsensically, going from thought to thought without thinking much about the places inbetween those thoughts. This leads to a very disjointed and confused narrative where plot points are introduced and then dropped, only to resurface for no reason when I remember them.

I’m not saying I should plan my books better, because I don’t think that’s the answer either. I, myself, love to feel the story grow as I write it. If anything, I think Afterimage might have been just a tad overplanned; I knew where I was going with it, and that sort of ruined the surprise for me. It caused the first draft to feel like me rushing towards a conclusion without really focusing on the oh-so-important middle bits.

For those who have been asking me: No, I will not be making this draft available to you. The only one who will read it is my fiance, and then, after rewriting it once or twice, I might let someone else look at it. Right now, it’s just way too unfinished.

Anyway! On to new stuff!

The Indie Music Bundle - Support Indie Composers!

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:27:21 -0500

There’s a fantastic offer up right now which you should immediately run and take advantage of. What is this offer of which I speak? Why, the Indie Music Bundle, of course!

This is just way too sweet to miss.

“I’m lazy,” you say. “I don’t want to click that link before I know what it’s all about.”

Well, here you go.

This is pay-what-you want.
If you pay $1, you get ten indie game soundtracks. Yes, you heard me correctly. Ten.
If you pay $10 or more, you get an additional seven soundtracks, bringing the grand total of soundtracks you get to seventeen.

What can you expect from this greatness, then? Who are the cool composers whose music you get to purchase for whatever you feel like paying? These composers have their albums featured (keep in mind that some albums are only available if you pay more than $10, but of course you will pay more than $10 because doing otherwise makes no sense whatsoever):

C418 - Minecraft: Volume Alpha, 72 Minutes of Fame
Danny “dB Soundworks” Baranowsky - Super Meat Boy (Digital Special Edition Soundtrack), The Binding of Isaac
anosou - Cobalt EP
Big Giant Circles - Impostor Nostalgia, Contingency
zircon - Return All Robots! Original Soundtrack, Antigravity!
SoulEye - PPPPPP (VVVVVV Original Soundtrack), Extreme Road Trip
Josh Whelchel - Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion, Wind-up Knight OST
Hyperduck Soundworks - A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda
yogurtbox - Tree of Knowledge, Milksnake OST
Jake “virt” Kaufman - Mighty Milky Way / Mighty Flip Champs

So you see, that is a huge pile of music from a really talented group of people. Go on - buy it now! Remember that the offer lasts a very short time - today only - so don’t wait too long!

My Tumblr has been censored!

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:04:47 -0500

Oh noes!

Do you see that banner up there, to the left? Yeah, that’s right. That’s what might be happening to all o’ y’all pretty damn soon if you don’t do something about it. I wondered when they were going after our free speech here on teh Intarwebz, and it turns out that now is when they’re doing that.

Click that banner. Spread the word. American citizens: call in and get them to stop this madness. Seriously. If you don’t do that, you don’t care. I know you care.

Game Jam @ BTH 2011 - 6:32 A.M. to 11:50 A.M.

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:54:00 -0500

Whew!

Well, I didn’t have time to finish everything (I had estimated that I would make 10 tracks; it turned out 6 tracks was my limit for 24 hours), but I’m very happy with what I managed to write.

I don’t know what to do with the music, though. I mean, I might release it as is as pay-whatever-the-heck-you-want (with an option to get it for free) just for the heck of it, but I don’t know if this’ll somehow reflect poorly upon me as a composer. I mean, stuff I make can sound a lot better than this, but 24 hours is not a whole lot of time.

Also, after tweeting, Facebooking and writing here about it and getting just about zero response, it’s clear that my followers and readers aren’t very interested in this. I’ll have to think about my next step.

Anyway, I’m tired as hell and really damn hungry, so I’m off to lunch. We’ll see what the participants of the Jam think of my stuff later today.

Toodles!

Game Jam @ BTH 2011 - Start of Day 2 (6:32 A.M.)

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:36:01 -0500

Wow.

I no not enjoy waking up that early. Well, I’m back at the Jam, trying to focus my eyes and attention on the task ahead. No breakfast yet; we’ll see if the local restaurant’s usual breakfast service works on Saturdays too. Otherwise I guess I’ll have to find breakfast somewhere else.

Well, I’ve promised to write some music for two (or three) games being made at the jam. I’ll try to be quick because I still want to work on my own stuff. Not that much left to do there, though… about 4 more tracks, and I think I have enough time.

Wish me luck!

Jam @ BTH 2011 - End of Day 1 (1:07 A.M.)

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:10:27 -0500

Yeah, I wasn’t strong enough. I’ll need an hour or so to sleep. Still! Got five tracks done. Tomorrow I’ll help a few pals out and write some quick music for them, and then I’ll finish the Nebulaventures OST! Hopefully I’ll have time to make an album cover too.

Well, off to bed for a few hours. G’night!

Game Jam @ BTH 2011 - 11:32 P.M. to 12:17 P.M.

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:21:43 -0500

There we go - now my little soundtrack consist of a whopping five tracks! It’s been a lot of fun so far and I’m actually really proud of my little creation. I’m listening to the tracks as I write this and yes, they do actually sound quite good! I mean, sure, they could probably be a whole lot better, but if I release them as a pay-what-you-want thing after tomorrow, perhaps someone will download them and enjoy them. Who knows?

In related news, I have drunk so much fucking coffee these last few hours. And I continue drinking! Goddamn it, I will be right back to Ulcer Town before I know it. Ah, hell. You only live once!

I know not a whole lot of people read this, but I hope that the few of you who do are psyched to listen to my 24 hour bastard child. :D

Game Jam @ BTH 2011 - 9:12 P.M. to 11:32 P.M.

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:34:55 -0500

Hell yeah! Things are goin’ down. I’m about halfway through track five now, and that’s good progress! This one was supposed to be a lot of things before it finally turned out to be a happy, Super Mario Galaxy-ish flight theme. My remade VSL strings are really working their magic on this one; some passages sound pretty damn decent. So, perhaps this wasn’t an RPG at all but some kind of Jamestown-y SHMUP? Who the hell knows. Still running on sugar high from chocolate and soda, and a lot of coffee is in my system. We’ll see if I last the entire night or if I have to go and sleep a few hours before continuing.

Game Jam @ BTH 2011 - 8:03 P.M. to 9:12 P.M.

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:14:19 -0500

There! Track #3 done. It was supposed to be the heroine’s theme but it turned out to work better as a sort of “mission briefing” track. I used a theme that has been floating around in my brain for quite some time now (it was also used in the opening track). I can’t say this is the best I’ve ever done, but it’s a lot of fun to see how much music I can squish out of me in 24 hours. Getting a little tired now but I still have energy reserves. Time for track #4!

Game Jam @ BTH 2011 - 7:44 P.M. to 8:03 P.M.

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:04:19 -0500

Well, crap. Seems someone on the open stage has decided to start playing loud music which makes it impossible for me to work. Let’s hope it doesn’t continue.

Game Jam @ BTH 2011 - 6:30 P.M. to 7:44 P.M.

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:46:38 -0500

Track #2 is finished! This means that the title screen thingy is covered and I can move on to the next one on the list. That’s the Heroine’s Theme, and it will probably utilize the same theme as the opening did. We’ll see. The night’s still young!