Garret's blog!

Pleasurekraft makes awesome sounds

2011-07-07T23:54:00.002+02:00

A friend and I contemplated that there was a missing element within the current housemusic scene. namely happy house! We think music might me getting to serious.

Couple of months later, pleasurekraft comes out with this track:

When listening to this song, you just know that the producers were having fun while creating this track. There focus is on melody and not taking themselves to serious, I hope more dj's will follow their example and create fun tracks!

Cool pictures in cool resolution

2011-06-07T22:52:00.000+02:00

following up on my last post, I read in the comments that some of u used the images I posted as wallpaper.
...Therefore I decided to post some more images, but this time in EPIC resolution...

Feel free to request any of my previously posted images in higher resolution.

Nice pictures for supertwiks

2011-05-26T21:05:00.008+02:00

A promise is a promise, Supertwiks made me google 'HTML for dummies' to make this post happen ;)

I like colors

Mystery eyes

Peaceful scene

city's never sleep

What does it mean?

Renders can be cool too

Get your kicks on route 66

You can never go wrong when posting kittens

Edit: Sorry about the delay guys, they should work now, trial and error style! :p
Next time I'll upload pics I will make sure to make them wallpaper resolution, i see they have been scaled down a bit :(

100 followers, you decide!

2011-05-25T23:30:00.000+02:00

Thanks to all of you I finally hit the 100 followers mark!

I actually just hit the mark on sunday, but my last post made me actually lose some followers (let's not talk about that anymore:p).

Anyway, As a tribute to my 100 followers, I'll let the comments decide what i will write about in my next post. So tell me what subject you like to read about (music type/technology/whatever) and I'll pick one of the comments as subject for my next post!

Much love to all of you!

Happy Hardcore, why did it die?

2011-05-23T23:55:00.000+02:00

Ok, most of you will hate this song/type of music, but not posting this would almost be as if I was denying my very existence.
This song is part of the 'happy hardcore' scene which started in the 90's as an happy answer to western Europe's house/rave music scene which was getting faster, harder and darker by the month.

Although record sales shot through the roof after the introduction of this style, the happy hardcore scene almost bled to death just 5 years later. Lets hope for a comeback :p. Let me know what you think, I might circle some happy hits on the frontpage if there are likes!

5 lifehacks; car theft prevention edition

2011-05-21T12:13:00.000+02:00

Since my car got my car stolen in front of my house about a year ago and my roommate’s car got stolen at almost the same spot recently, I took some time thinking about practical ways to bring down the odds of stuff like that happening. So I thought I’d share some of my knowledge with you;

1. Cheap steering wheel lock. Although it is really easy to remove a cheap steering wheel lock, a thief will see this obstacle and leave your car alone and steal another car without a steering wheel lock. Therefore, even a 5 dollar lock will protect your car in a urban environment.

2. Bad neighborhood trick. If you are forced to park your car in a really bad hood for a short amount of time, remove a small but vital part of your car. Examples are; fuse of the start motor or engine management, main battery fuse, main spark distribution cap. Epic tier is definitely to take your steering wheel with you; this annoys the thief even more!

3. Don’t make enemies where you park. I’ve lived in quite a bad neighborhood for about 2 years, but the youngster/oldsters hanging on the street corner till early morning knew I lived there and what car was mine. No junkie car thief will steal a car in a hood like that because he knows he can get into trouble with the group of people standing on the corner ‘protecting’ ‘their’ hood. My car never got vandalized in that part of town, it’s my new ‘good’ neighborhood where my car got stolen and molested one too many times.

4. If you have a car that’s worth it, invest in a car alarm. This one is obvious, my cars never were worth the money to install a good alarm system, but if you car is…protect it. There are even GPS trackers on the market which let you track your car on google maps for less than ~$200 !

5. Crank down your sound when you get home. This sounds a little weird but it’s actually quite practical, a professional thief will know a good sound system when he hears it. Also thieves tend to be outside for most of the time. Therefore, turn down your sound when you are about turn in the street where you are going to park. The villain won’t know what you’re sound system is worth, so it is less likely you will find your car with the window smashed and your audio ripped out.

These were my tips, reading them back I see they are mostly useful in urban environments. Oh well, thanks for reading!

Quick update: Song for the summer

2011-05-20T01:06:00.000+02:00

It's always hard to find touching music for such a broad audience...But i cant imagine someone taking the time to listen to this song and not like it.
The short version of this song is the one above, it's really good, but if you like house music and have 8 1/2 minutes.... i suggest u skip the short one and listen to the full version of the song below instead!

This track is from 2008/2009(can't be sure), It reminds me of party on the beach and summer sunset...I like it a lot.

Thanks for reading, i'd like to know your thoughts on this song, and suggestions on any other tracks of the same style!

5 random lifehacks

2011-05-18T22:10:00.001+02:00

For as long as I can remember lifehacks have been quite a fascination for me. Trying to make every move you do as efficient as possible can save a lot of hours in a lifetime and therefore I try to reason as many decisions as possible to prevent randomness from taking over my life.

Today I will share 5 random life hacks/tips with you.

1. Always have a roll of duct-tape nearby; This is probably the most relevant when you are in a stage of your life where you don't allow yourself to spend more money than absolutely necessary(college ;D ). Anyway, a lot of malfunctioning around your house/car/vacation can be an easy temporary fix with duct-tape.

2. When you walk in an elavator, thirst thing you need to do is press the close-door button. There is no use in first pressing the floor number and than close door (or just wait for the doors to close by themselves), because the doors themselves will need at least 3 seconds to close before the alavator is ready to move. This leaves more then enough time to find your floor number on the pad and press it.
Rumors are that there is a hack to make the lift go directly to selected floor. this is for emergency personell and will piss off regular users who are waiting in line to get on the elavator, google 'elavator hack' if you wish to know the details.

3. Close the lid on your coffee storage container. Nothing smells better then fresh coffee, lets keep it fresh. Tell this to your room mates.

4. If you have trouble falling asleep, dim the light and read a book. Bright colors on your computer screen triggers the brain to stay awake, shutting down all tv's/flatscreens/laptops an hour you plan to fall asleep will help a lot.

5. Drink a lot of water. I don't remember the exact percentage but the majority of headaches are caused by mild dehydration (the hangover ones too!) drinking water regularly will also flush a lot of toxins out of your body. Also remember, water fills you up but holds no calories(think about it). Under normal circumstances don't drink more then a gallon per day.

Thanks for reading, I have a lot more where that came from! Tell me if you like them.

Roller skate in a buffalo herd

2011-05-17T02:08:00.000+02:00

Quick update:

This song made me laugh, it might just do the same for you!

You have any remarkable songs/gadgets that are worth mentioning? share them with me by commenting!

5 tips to get healthy

2011-05-11T00:49:00.000+02:00

Being overweight will shorten your life expectancy. Being fit will make you feel better and gives you energy in everything you do. Remember, the road to being fit isn't that big of a mountain to climb. It is all about balance.

Some quick tips to get you on the right path:
- No coca cola regular; regular contains a lot of sugar, start drinking diet coke instead, within a week, you realize diet coke tastes just as good as regular, you just had to get used to it. This goes for any drink with high sugar value. Clean water is always a good choice.
- Find a sport/excersize you enjoy; Finding an activity you like is not easy yet it can be a lot of fun. Take your time and try everything at least once! Don't give up too easy on this one, it is perfectly normal you don't feel comfortable running half a marathon in the park, there are more fun and easy ways to burn calories anyway.
- Like yourself, set achievable goals; Stay motivated by setting achievable goals, this will make you more confident you can lose those pounds.
- Learn about food; Food isn't just food, it is important you know what nutritions you need and don't need. Read about this and make a habit out of checking the package for nutritional value for everything you eat.
- Getting fit is not a diet: Getting and staying fit is a way of life, therefore you need to find the balance you are comfortable with. This way you can keep your improved lifestyle and stay healthy for the rest of your life.

Hopefully these tips are helpful...at least they work for me :)

Misirlou

2011-05-09T23:18:00.000+02:00

So you think the song Pump it - Black Eyed Peas, is just an overrated song they produced back in 2005? wrong, they stole it from Dick Dale who actually stole the tune from some guitar trio...Anyway listen to this track from Mr. Dale and tell me if you can find any positive additions the Black eyed peas made to it!

(warning; recorded from 'pulp fiction', first 13 seconds contain profanity)
If this is old news for you, I am sorry, just had to get it off my chest.

On an unrelated note. I have been getting a lot of positive reactions to the portal song, so I will keep that on my blog a little longer. Maybe I'll add another one too.

what grinds my gears

2011-05-06T20:33:00.000+02:00

So when I feel like sitting in the library all day, I always get annoyed by someone booting up his laptop with the startup sound blasting full volume through the room. This doesn't happen one time in a workday, no this phenomena averages around 5 times a day. So you might think, what is the big deal here Garret? Stop complaining about stuff like that, who sits in the library all day anyway!? Well, it isn't so much the sound that bothers me, I just can't grasp why both Apple and Microsoft have the annoying startup sound enabled by default. Why would someone need to be reminded that he or she just pushed the ON button 20 secs ago? It doesn't even tell you the computer is ready to use anyway(at least for windows that is), because the desktop will still need another minute or so to become responsive. And that is what really grinds my gears.
Thank you for reading, next message will probably contain more happy thoughts and less grumpiness. Feel free to comment on this matter, I look forward to it.

Let the Blogging commence

2011-05-03T20:55:00.000+02:00

So it was about time I started blogging, since everybody is already doing it I figured I might as well join in on the fun! This simple layout is the best I could find, Probably will be giving some thought on a custom layout in the near future...