But! My awesome friend Niv went and got me a Spongebob thermometer!!!
It even plays music when it's done taking your temperature!!!
I <3 you, Niv!! ^.^
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Being sick sux, but Spongebob makes it better!
Well, I've been sick since yesterday with who-knows-what. Fever, sore throat, and now cough... meh, hopefully it will pass soon...
But! My awesome friend Niv went and got me a Spongebob thermometer!!!
It even plays music when it's done taking your temperature!!!
I <3 you, Niv!! ^.^
But! My awesome friend Niv went and got me a Spongebob thermometer!!!
It even plays music when it's done taking your temperature!!!
I <3 you, Niv!! ^.^
Finally... more about the Javinale wedding
Now that I'm finally moved and mostly settled in my new place, I have time to write a little more about Javinale's wedding ^.^ It was really really awesome, with the ceremony being a mix of Indian and Christian traditions (although admittedly there were many more of the Indian segments). So it was definitely exciting, since I'd only seen Indian weddings in Bollywood movies before :-P Amazingly enough, the real thing was pretty much as ornate and crowded as the movie ones!
The night before the actual wedding, they held a dinner reception with a talent show, which was lots of fun. I played the violin for their talent show, and even though I thought I really did poorly, given that I hadn't actually practiced the violin for about a year, everyone apparently was very pleased, so that was good ^.^
I also got henna art done on my hands. That was super-exciting because it's the first time I've had it done by a real henna artist (rather than just random friends playing around with henna).
The reception after the wedding itself was also lots of fun, with speeches by family members, videos/slideshows made by family, and then at the very end, open dance floor.
I had a great time, and hopefully I'll be able to find some more pictures from this to post!
The night before the actual wedding, they held a dinner reception with a talent show, which was lots of fun. I played the violin for their talent show, and even though I thought I really did poorly, given that I hadn't actually practiced the violin for about a year, everyone apparently was very pleased, so that was good ^.^
I also got henna art done on my hands. That was super-exciting because it's the first time I've had it done by a real henna artist (rather than just random friends playing around with henna).
The reception after the wedding itself was also lots of fun, with speeches by family members, videos/slideshows made by family, and then at the very end, open dance floor.
I had a great time, and hopefully I'll be able to find some more pictures from this to post!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Javinale Dreamcatcher
August has been a really busy month for me, and it's barely even started yet! In the midst of moving from my one dorm to another, I also went to the wedding of my friends Javier and Finale. I was trying to make them this dreamcatcher for their wedding present, but didn't finish in time. Luckily, they're coming up to Boston for another get-together celebration with all us MIT peoples, so I finished it for that ^.^
It's an interesting and symbolic (in my head at least) variation on a dreamcatcher that I came up with, although I'm sure other people probably have done it too, I just have never seen it myself until I made one. It's two overlapping dreamcatchers woven simultaneously. In addition to the obvious parallel to Javinale's lives now being intertwined, it also forms a Venn Diagram, symbolizing that their two distinct lives now have an overlapping component representing their relationship with each other, but at the same time still maintain their distinctness, representing their unique personalities and interests. Or maybe I'm just a nerd... That's okay, they're nerds too.
So without further ado, pictures!
The entire dreamcatcher:
Closeup of the green and blue medallions (instead of feathers because I was having trouble finding ones that I was sure were synthetic, also, they're circular, that seems to be a theme...):
And a closeup of the web:
The webbing was made from LionBrand Suede Yarn (I don't have the exact color names anymore, I threw away the wrapper). The frames are actually a pair of bamboo purse handles that I ordered a long time ago and didn't end up using (for that Geisha swap purse, in fact). The medallions and beads were all from the bead section of the Pearl Art in Central Square.
Now I get to go back to packing my room up for moving.... X.X
It's an interesting and symbolic (in my head at least) variation on a dreamcatcher that I came up with, although I'm sure other people probably have done it too, I just have never seen it myself until I made one. It's two overlapping dreamcatchers woven simultaneously. In addition to the obvious parallel to Javinale's lives now being intertwined, it also forms a Venn Diagram, symbolizing that their two distinct lives now have an overlapping component representing their relationship with each other, but at the same time still maintain their distinctness, representing their unique personalities and interests. Or maybe I'm just a nerd... That's okay, they're nerds too.
So without further ado, pictures!
The entire dreamcatcher:
Closeup of the green and blue medallions (instead of feathers because I was having trouble finding ones that I was sure were synthetic, also, they're circular, that seems to be a theme...):
And a closeup of the web:
The webbing was made from LionBrand Suede Yarn (I don't have the exact color names anymore, I threw away the wrapper). The frames are actually a pair of bamboo purse handles that I ordered a long time ago and didn't end up using (for that Geisha swap purse, in fact). The medallions and beads were all from the bead section of the Pearl Art in Central Square.
Now I get to go back to packing my room up for moving.... X.X
Friday, July 11, 2008
Mad Hatter
Here's some more creations! This time... hats!!! Winter hats, to be exact...
The first hat is a red hood I knitted up. It's made with Lionbrand's Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Cranberry, so it was a really fast knit!
It's really warm and I absolutely love it! Plus it matches a new coat I just got :)
So without further ado...
The front view: please excuse my awful facial expression, I'm bad at pictures :-P
The side view: you can see more detail on the braided edge.
The back view: you can see the seam :)
And the second hat is a pink tam, which I love wearing, but it's not nearly as warm as the hood. This one is knit with Lionbrand Wool-Ease in Blush Heather, an absolutely beautiful color. I made the edge band a little small for the amount of hair I have, but it still works :)
The front view: can't really see much of the hat itself, but that's how it looks from the front.
A side view: you can see how it sits, slightly slouchy at the bottom, which I like a lot.
A different side view: gives a better idea of the back, plus the pompom actually shows up!
An actual back view: You can really see the segments on the hat, and the pompom!
And that's me being happy because I really like this hat :)
That's all for today, folks, but I'm in the process of knitting my boyfriend a 6-foot long scarf, which I'll be sure to post when it's finished!
The first hat is a red hood I knitted up. It's made with Lionbrand's Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Cranberry, so it was a really fast knit!
It's really warm and I absolutely love it! Plus it matches a new coat I just got :)
So without further ado...
The front view: please excuse my awful facial expression, I'm bad at pictures :-P
The side view: you can see more detail on the braided edge.
The back view: you can see the seam :)
And the second hat is a pink tam, which I love wearing, but it's not nearly as warm as the hood. This one is knit with Lionbrand Wool-Ease in Blush Heather, an absolutely beautiful color. I made the edge band a little small for the amount of hair I have, but it still works :)
The front view: can't really see much of the hat itself, but that's how it looks from the front.
A side view: you can see how it sits, slightly slouchy at the bottom, which I like a lot.
A different side view: gives a better idea of the back, plus the pompom actually shows up!
An actual back view: You can really see the segments on the hat, and the pompom!
And that's me being happy because I really like this hat :)
That's all for today, folks, but I'm in the process of knitting my boyfriend a 6-foot long scarf, which I'll be sure to post when it's finished!
Nice cup of tea
I'm back with another update of projects I made for a Craftster swap. The theme was tea time. I found some really cute tea time related charms at the crafts store and decided to make matching earrings and ribbon bookmarks.
The earrings were really simple, just a colored bead and then the charm. I ended up making five pairs:
I made the matching bookmarks from ribbon, and attached the charms and beads with wire. The ribbon I liked only came in the wired variety, so I had to pull those out before making the bookmark. I made four bookmarks (with a closeup of corresponding charm at end):
I also made a recipe book full of recipes involving tea. On every page I put a picture of a different interesting-looking teapot that I found online. There were ones shaped like turkeys, frogs, Conestoga wagons, ladybugs, and tons of other interesting shapes.
I also made a small tea wallet. It's basically a wallet with pockets the right size for teabags and sugar packets. There was even an elastic in the centerfold to hold stirrers!
And here's what the inside looked like! The orange rectangles were actually Post-It notes with labels for what flavor of tea was in the pocket, since I sent it with teabags already in the wallet.
The earrings were really simple, just a colored bead and then the charm. I ended up making five pairs:
I made the matching bookmarks from ribbon, and attached the charms and beads with wire. The ribbon I liked only came in the wired variety, so I had to pull those out before making the bookmark. I made four bookmarks (with a closeup of corresponding charm at end):
I also made a recipe book full of recipes involving tea. On every page I put a picture of a different interesting-looking teapot that I found online. There were ones shaped like turkeys, frogs, Conestoga wagons, ladybugs, and tons of other interesting shapes.
I also made a small tea wallet. It's basically a wallet with pockets the right size for teabags and sugar packets. There was even an elastic in the centerfold to hold stirrers!
And here's what the inside looked like! The orange rectangles were actually Post-It notes with labels for what flavor of tea was in the pocket, since I sent it with teabags already in the wallet.
Shiny!!!!
All of these are items I made for a Craftster geisha swap in January 2007.
The purse looked much better than I expected, especially after I closed up the gaps for the straps a little bit (by hand). It's reversible, so I took pictures of both sides.
The red side:
The black side:
The fabrics were really beautiful; so much so that I had to take swatch pictures of them (these are without flash because that caused a weird glare).
And here's 3 pairs of kanzashi hair clips made to go with the purse:
I also made these earrings as one of the small items:
My favorite of all the things I made is definitely this barrette. I might even make one for myself in colors I wear more often.
Closeups of the flowers and the trails:
The purse looked much better than I expected, especially after I closed up the gaps for the straps a little bit (by hand). It's reversible, so I took pictures of both sides.
The red side:
The black side:
The fabrics were really beautiful; so much so that I had to take swatch pictures of them (these are without flash because that caused a weird glare).
And here's 3 pairs of kanzashi hair clips made to go with the purse:
I also made these earrings as one of the small items:
My favorite of all the things I made is definitely this barrette. I might even make one for myself in colors I wear more often.
Closeups of the flowers and the trails:
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Airi Suzuki - The Evolution of a Voice
With her big voice and prodigious vocal control, Airi Suzuki ranks among my favorite singers in all of Hello! Project. She is able to handle all different styles of singing, from the jazzy flavor of "Boogie Train" to the cute overload in "Ookina Ai de Motenashite" to the mature pop style of "FIRST KISS", and she has a fantastically clear and bell-like high range (makes her fellow soprano green with envy). Her range does not extend very far into alto domain on the lower end, but what she has of those low notes is generally in a rounded and velvety tone. While the low and high extremes of Airi's vocal range seem to have maintained a fairly stable quality over the years, her mid-range has definitely gone through a sort of evolution since 2003.
What first caught my attention was actually the juxtaposition of two different performances of "FIRST KISS". The first was her original role as part of Aa! in 2003. The second was a solo concert version performed in 2007 as part of the °C-ute Autumn Live Tour. Maybe part of it was the lower quality of Youtube audio, but I don't think that changes vocal timbre to this large of an extent. The opening line of the song sounded rather different to my ears in the two versions, and the difference was only further emphasized in the rest of the song. Whereas Airi's voice in the original version slightly childish but overall what I would consider round and resonant, the solo version seemed to have a brighter but also more pinched sound.
Of course, this contrast then made me wonder if her voice was just tired from singing through a long concert, or if it was indicative of some actual trend in Airi's vocal development. And being the speech processing nerd that I am, along with some inspiration from Kawaiirhea, I decided it would be interesting to run some voice analysis software to find out what scientific basis was underlying the changes I perceived.
Because my computer's power supply decided to go kaput recently, I've been using a different computer with inadequate RAM to really run big programs, so I selected four songs I felt were representative of Airi's singing between 2003 and 2008:
* FIRST KISS/Aa!
* Suki ni Naccha Ikenai Hito/H!P All-Stars
* Sakura Chirari/C-ute
* LALALA Shiawase no Uta/C-ute
I then selected segments (or a conglomeration of shorter segments) lasting between 0.5 and 1.0 seconds total. I tried to make my segment choices as uniform as possible by selecting sections where she is singing in about the same range, and holding a note constant rather than going through lots of pitch changes.
Because formants play a large role in determining the perceived timbre of a speaking voice, I figured they would probably also be influential for a singing voice as well. Generally, fundamental frequency and intensity are also important for speaking voice timbers, but fundamental frequency/pitch tracking was not going to be particularly enlightening since the point singing is in fact to modulate and change pitches, and intensity too is variable in a musical manner and not necessarily a property of the voice itself in singing. Thus, I plotted spectrograms for my musical selections, with the formant tracks drawn on them:
FIRST KISS:
Suki ni Naccha Ikenai Hito:
Sakura Chirari:
LALALA Shiawase no Uta:
And to summarize, since it is difficult to glean much information from the spectrograms without closer zoom, I list the average frequency of the first four formants for each song in chronological order (F1 is the lowest, F5 is the highest in the spectrograms):
Ignoring all scientific analysis, my ear tells me in listening to these four songs that there seems to have been three different stages in Airi's vocal development in the last five years: the early stage, happening between 2003 and 2004 with the first two song selections, a middle stage around 2006-2007, and the current stage. The sound of the early stage, is childish but has a nice resonance to it, with a hint of breathiness. The middle stage seems to be characterized by a more focused but also more pinched sort of sound. I was relieved though that the sound of the current stage seems to have dropped the pinchedness/brightness while maintaining a good focused core.
These intuitions appear to be supported by my formant analyses as well. The "acuteness" of a timbre, meaning perceived brightness and tenseness, is generally correlated with the frequency of the second formant. A low second formant results in a non-acute sound, whereas a high second formant results in an acute sound. If we track the progression of average F2 frequencies chronologically, they begin at around 1900 Hz with the first two songs, increase and peak at 2046.94 in "Sakura Chirari" (early 2007). They then exhibit an amazing drop down to 1695.28 in "LALALA Shiawase no Uta" (2008), hence the three stages I had perceived.
There could be several factors in this development pattern, not the least of which is puberty. The rising acuteness between 2004 and 2006 I suspect is most likely attributed to voice training. If we observe the distinctiveness of the formant lines in "FIRST KISS", there seems to be a tendency for the second formant to alternately blend with F1 and F3, which I think corresponds to a less focused, more breathy and fuzzy kind of sound. While that can still be a pretty sound, it also means project requires more volume and thus effort, and in general I think a clearer sound is preferred for the style of the H!P Kids groups. The best way to create a focused sound is in fact to make it a brighter tone color, which when taken too far results in some pinchedness in the sound. This probably why the F2 frequency exhibits an increasing trend. As she got more experienced with creating a focused but still open sound, the F2 frequency naturally lowers again. I think the drasticness of the drop is probably due to the her learning how to create an open sound coinciding with puberty causing her voice to fill out and mature.
With the current timbre she is getting, I'm very optimistic about Airi's future vocal development. She has a beautiful voice and she definitely seems to be getting the hang of how to use it. She'll have to make adjustments as it continues to mature, obviously, but she seems to be on a good track thus far. Ganbare Airi!
Disclaimer: I don't claim to be an expert in singing voice analysis, and all of this may just be a coincidence... But the observed patterns seem to make sense as far as I can tell based on my experience with speaking voice analysis.
What first caught my attention was actually the juxtaposition of two different performances of "FIRST KISS". The first was her original role as part of Aa! in 2003. The second was a solo concert version performed in 2007 as part of the °C-ute Autumn Live Tour. Maybe part of it was the lower quality of Youtube audio, but I don't think that changes vocal timbre to this large of an extent. The opening line of the song sounded rather different to my ears in the two versions, and the difference was only further emphasized in the rest of the song. Whereas Airi's voice in the original version slightly childish but overall what I would consider round and resonant, the solo version seemed to have a brighter but also more pinched sound.
Of course, this contrast then made me wonder if her voice was just tired from singing through a long concert, or if it was indicative of some actual trend in Airi's vocal development. And being the speech processing nerd that I am, along with some inspiration from Kawaiirhea, I decided it would be interesting to run some voice analysis software to find out what scientific basis was underlying the changes I perceived.
Because my computer's power supply decided to go kaput recently, I've been using a different computer with inadequate RAM to really run big programs, so I selected four songs I felt were representative of Airi's singing between 2003 and 2008:
* FIRST KISS/Aa!
* Suki ni Naccha Ikenai Hito/H!P All-Stars
* Sakura Chirari/C-ute
* LALALA Shiawase no Uta/C-ute
I then selected segments (or a conglomeration of shorter segments) lasting between 0.5 and 1.0 seconds total. I tried to make my segment choices as uniform as possible by selecting sections where she is singing in about the same range, and holding a note constant rather than going through lots of pitch changes.
Because formants play a large role in determining the perceived timbre of a speaking voice, I figured they would probably also be influential for a singing voice as well. Generally, fundamental frequency and intensity are also important for speaking voice timbers, but fundamental frequency/pitch tracking was not going to be particularly enlightening since the point singing is in fact to modulate and change pitches, and intensity too is variable in a musical manner and not necessarily a property of the voice itself in singing. Thus, I plotted spectrograms for my musical selections, with the formant tracks drawn on them:
FIRST KISS:
Suki ni Naccha Ikenai Hito:
Sakura Chirari:
LALALA Shiawase no Uta:
And to summarize, since it is difficult to glean much information from the spectrograms without closer zoom, I list the average frequency of the first four formants for each song in chronological order (F1 is the lowest, F5 is the highest in the spectrograms):
| F1 | F2 | F3 | F4 | |
| FIRST KISS | 929.77 | 1864.04 | 2810.03 | 3994.20 |
| Suki ni Naccha Ikenai Hito | 1050.59 | 1904.04 | 3140.82 | 3961.91 |
| Sakura Chirari | 979.70 | 2046.94 | 2780.12 | 3918.58 |
| LALALA Shiawase no Uta | 760.45 | 1695.28 | 2915.59 | 4077.39 |
Ignoring all scientific analysis, my ear tells me in listening to these four songs that there seems to have been three different stages in Airi's vocal development in the last five years: the early stage, happening between 2003 and 2004 with the first two song selections, a middle stage around 2006-2007, and the current stage. The sound of the early stage, is childish but has a nice resonance to it, with a hint of breathiness. The middle stage seems to be characterized by a more focused but also more pinched sort of sound. I was relieved though that the sound of the current stage seems to have dropped the pinchedness/brightness while maintaining a good focused core.
These intuitions appear to be supported by my formant analyses as well. The "acuteness" of a timbre, meaning perceived brightness and tenseness, is generally correlated with the frequency of the second formant. A low second formant results in a non-acute sound, whereas a high second formant results in an acute sound. If we track the progression of average F2 frequencies chronologically, they begin at around 1900 Hz with the first two songs, increase and peak at 2046.94 in "Sakura Chirari" (early 2007). They then exhibit an amazing drop down to 1695.28 in "LALALA Shiawase no Uta" (2008), hence the three stages I had perceived.
There could be several factors in this development pattern, not the least of which is puberty. The rising acuteness between 2004 and 2006 I suspect is most likely attributed to voice training. If we observe the distinctiveness of the formant lines in "FIRST KISS", there seems to be a tendency for the second formant to alternately blend with F1 and F3, which I think corresponds to a less focused, more breathy and fuzzy kind of sound. While that can still be a pretty sound, it also means project requires more volume and thus effort, and in general I think a clearer sound is preferred for the style of the H!P Kids groups. The best way to create a focused sound is in fact to make it a brighter tone color, which when taken too far results in some pinchedness in the sound. This probably why the F2 frequency exhibits an increasing trend. As she got more experienced with creating a focused but still open sound, the F2 frequency naturally lowers again. I think the drasticness of the drop is probably due to the her learning how to create an open sound coinciding with puberty causing her voice to fill out and mature.
With the current timbre she is getting, I'm very optimistic about Airi's future vocal development. She has a beautiful voice and she definitely seems to be getting the hang of how to use it. She'll have to make adjustments as it continues to mature, obviously, but she seems to be on a good track thus far. Ganbare Airi!
Disclaimer: I don't claim to be an expert in singing voice analysis, and all of this may just be a coincidence... But the observed patterns seem to make sense as far as I can tell based on my experience with speaking voice analysis.
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