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Things I Can't Do
Feb. 19th, 2007 10:37 pmHaving devoted my life irreversibly to computer science now, I'm in a position of constantly having to learn. This is something that people have said I'm particularly determined to do - I'm involved in a large number of Internet communities, and if there's something that I don't know about that takes my interest, I learn about it until I have some competence. I may not be particularly good at most of the things that I'm involved in, but I've released music, games, level maps, tutorials, walkthroughs, and various other things to various places and got at least some response for them. But there are a couple of things that I'm absolutely stuck on.
I cannot draw. I tried to learn this when I was younger (when Hart Beat was still on television, if anyone else remembers it) and it didn't work out at all. Art was a class that I really struggled in - I could understand what they were trying to teach, but I think it requires some natural talent to do it, and that isn't one I have. I can't seem to translate lines and shapes on to paper with any kind of coherency (perhaps due to the lack of motor control exhibited by my ghastly handwriting), and I have great respect for anyone who can produce anything remotely good-looking - something which I mention to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scellanis quite regularly. Have a look at her dragons. And charisma_love while you're at it, she's amazing.
I am also having to begin to come to terms with the fact that I can't sing. I have made a few attempts to fit my voice to my music, and every time I do so it's a total disaster, even with the attempted aid of a software vocoder (which I've never been able to get to sound remotely right). I tend to sing to myself all the time, apparently, though I don't often notice it - but when I do, in my head it sounds decently tuneful and pleasant. Not exactly a Roy Khan, but not a Mark Vanderbilt either. But sitting in front of a microphone and recording my voice, it suddenly turns into a horrible sequence of off-key squawks reminiscent of Justin Timberlake being run over by a steamroller. This is quite annoying when quite a regular comment on my music submissions is "Do you have a band? Well, why not?". So it seems that my ideas will be stuck in purely electronic form for some time to come.
Additionally, I started on Cave Story again (which is absolutely amazing, by the way) and yesterday discovered that to get the better ending I was supposed to do something vital about two rooms before where my current save is. So "winning Cave Story" also seems to be something that I can't do. I defeated the Undead Core (final boss 4 of about 72) on my fourth try this time, though. That'll teach him to be big and red. [R. Sleigh, 2003]
I cannot draw. I tried to learn this when I was younger (when Hart Beat was still on television, if anyone else remembers it) and it didn't work out at all. Art was a class that I really struggled in - I could understand what they were trying to teach, but I think it requires some natural talent to do it, and that isn't one I have. I can't seem to translate lines and shapes on to paper with any kind of coherency (perhaps due to the lack of motor control exhibited by my ghastly handwriting), and I have great respect for anyone who can produce anything remotely good-looking - something which I mention to
scellanis quite regularly. Have a look at her dragons. And charisma_love while you're at it, she's amazing.I am also having to begin to come to terms with the fact that I can't sing. I have made a few attempts to fit my voice to my music, and every time I do so it's a total disaster, even with the attempted aid of a software vocoder (which I've never been able to get to sound remotely right). I tend to sing to myself all the time, apparently, though I don't often notice it - but when I do, in my head it sounds decently tuneful and pleasant. Not exactly a Roy Khan, but not a Mark Vanderbilt either. But sitting in front of a microphone and recording my voice, it suddenly turns into a horrible sequence of off-key squawks reminiscent of Justin Timberlake being run over by a steamroller. This is quite annoying when quite a regular comment on my music submissions is "Do you have a band? Well, why not?". So it seems that my ideas will be stuck in purely electronic form for some time to come.
Additionally, I started on Cave Story again (which is absolutely amazing, by the way) and yesterday discovered that to get the better ending I was supposed to do something vital about two rooms before where my current save is. So "winning Cave Story" also seems to be something that I can't do. I defeated the Undead Core (final boss 4 of about 72) on my fourth try this time, though. That'll teach him to be big and red. [R. Sleigh, 2003]
