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<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto+Slab:400,300,700,100' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'><style type="text/css">#wwbody{font-size:1.125em;font-family:"Roboto Slab", sans-serif;font-weight:300;background-color:#eaebec;padding:3em 1em;box-shadow:-8px 0 0 #244673;text-align:justify}#wwbody>img{padding:1.25em}#wwbody>h1{margin:0;color:#244673}</style><div id="wwbody"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/TGIfO1T.png" style="position:relative;top:-3em;float:left;clear:both">ooray I officially hit a button 3000-ish times! Go me!
I really wanted to save this post for something really special, but unfortunately - and as always - things take longer to materialize than we ever plan for. And by things I mean... well I can't tell you but, I'll let you try to guess from what you've seen from me lately.
Posting-wise my community activity has significantly dropped off in the last year and a half. That's not because I'm getting jaded or losing my passion, but rather that I got officially staffed on TL and started working on a lot of really massive projects in that time:
- Various graphics for posts, fanclubs, and announcements. Also, a bunch of staff usericons.
- TL Strategy, managing and creating layout and platforms for the writers. I wish I had more time to be more active helping them because they are such a hardworking group of guys, but needless to say a number of projects have pulled me in other directions and the result is that I can't be everywhere anymore, but more on that in a bit.
- Liquid'Hearth and Liquid'Dota. I was the main front-end developer for both of these projects, while R1CH made the magic happen. While Hearth consisted of a lot familiarizing myself with the codebase and content strategy for TL, Liquid'Dota gave me the space to really try to improve upon a lot of aspects of how and what we do what we do here.
- I always envisioned the changes I worked on with Dota to be company-wide so we've been working on the new additions and updates to Hearthstone and eventually getting all of them back ported across all of Liquid. This includes some concepts of future ideas here and there that may see the light at some point, or mutate into larger projects down the road.
- Undisclosed Project "Evil Robot" was the first really major project I was brought on to, and boy do I want this to be done because you will be floored when you see it. Unfortunately with passion projects time is always an issue and dev schedules get delayed for a bunch of various reasons. And that's all I'll say about it.
- I actually sat down and starting learning to program javascript/jquery in the last few days. I learned portions of AS3.0 a long time ago, and it was past due that I learned the syntax of a more widely used and more universal platform to improve my front-end skillset and be more self sufficient (and maybe even get more freelance work)!
Due to the crazy amount of work here this does mean that a lot of my personal interests and things that I've wanted to write about (2013 summer sale series, interludes, music theory knowhow, game reviews, etc...) have all been mothballed because of these larger projects, but also in that life recently took a major turn in the last 5 months. Some context regarding that is needed.
<h1>Liquid</h1>I joined TL in 2010 after frequenting on the battle.net forums for few months, and subsequently getting fed up with the relatively un-moderated community there. It was also at a time where I was not doing so great personally. I had lost my recently acquired job due to a crazy boss, and had a notable premiere of a work where the rehearsal process was 'less than ideal' as a direct result of my losing my job. This space of a few months, I can't really explain to you how much of an emotional blow that was to me. I was never the most idiomatic and I always liked to push boundaries but it was hurtful and frustrating to have the performance result so subpar, and almost all of that entirely in my control. I started questioning my career beginning to wonder if I should stop pursuing composition.
I think it was because of the frustration/dejection and subsequent lack of feeling useful that I tried to be productive in other ways. I had other outlets performing as a singer and dancer, and creating platforms as a web developer. Here I felt a little more useful like my skills were more appreciated, and Liquid was at the forefront of my feeling more relevant. So I began researching and exploring esports, and technologies to try to make my time here (and hopefully everyone else's) a more pleasant one. All the while I was continuing to write very sparsely, in part because of the elements that held so much sway over me at the time, finances and artistic upheaval being the most salient ones, sapping my motivation and drive to write at all.
So, what happened between then and now? Well, amidst working on several major projects for Liquid, and performing more expertly in my craft as a web developer I got a job as a radio announcer for a television and radio broadcast company. Almost 3 yrs out of work and I started with a part time job where I got to program music, and talk about classical repertoire (something that I have extensive training in). I also got some more teaching experience, and subsequently actual money for my work as a composer working in school systems. I also made the decision to try one final time (having done so for a few times) to apply to schools to finish my degree track, and in early April I received a letter while at work confirming my acceptance into the Doctoral program at the Eastman School of Music. To say that this was good news would be understating it. Eastman has always been one of the premier schools in the United States for musicians, and to get accepted where the composition program was top notch is pretty amazing (as well as getting a generous financial package). I'm actually finishing writing this blog entry from my apartment having recently finished taking my entrance exams, registering for my courses, and getting all the little things set to begin my degree on Tuesday.
I suppose that brings me back to the crux of this blog entry however. I've been rather terse as of late because of all the work I've been doing here, and the preparation for my degree program - which is only going to get more intense as it progresses - so the result is that you'll probably see even less of me as time goes on, which is really frustrating as I have a lot of passion about bringing TL into the modern web space and will increasingly have less and less time to do so in a proper fashion...
My time here has been one beginning small and growing myself and my confidence towards feeling more assuredly of my skills and abilities, and that deserves a special nod to the people and place that fostered it.
Now... off to write a sinfonietta piece by the end of October. I'll be quoting a few themes and ideas from video games soundtracks, so translating them ought to be fun. :D
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You beat me in TSL4.
Well. TL were using anti-spoiler bnet accounts and would randomly assign them. And I was eliminated by wolfswood :/
Can we listen to some of your compositions anywhere?
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Estonia4644 Posts
goodest of shits nik
good luck with the beginning school year
and dont become a stranger on skype despite your workload, okay?
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Seeker
Where dat snitch at?37025 Posts
Wow... Them HTML skills...
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28090 Posts
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Italy12246 Posts
and dont become a stranger on skype despite your workload, okay?
This!
TL Strategy...because they are such a hardworking group of guys
but we lost monk months ago!
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On August 30 2014 10:40 LaLuSh wrote:
You beat me in TSL4. Definitely not me as I didn't participate.
On August 30 2014 11:38 thedeadhaji wrote:Wow, so awesome. Congrats on everything you've been able to accomplish!  Quitting the piano has been one of my biggest regrets in my life  Is there anywhere I can listen to your classical broadcasts online? Show nested quote +In the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings of speciality areas among music schools in the United States, Eastman was given the following ratings:[citation needed]
1st in instrumental performance
1st in piano performance
1st in music education
1st in composition
2nd in conducting
2nd in opera/vocal performance
2nd in jazz
Source: Wikipedia
O_O damn. Are you doing the Ph.D or the D.M.A.?
I'll be starting my PhD, and hopefully it won't take more than 4 years to complete. 
On August 30 2014 12:09 fusefuse wrote:
goodest of shits nik
good luck with the beginning school year
and dont become a stranger on skype despite your workload, okay? I'll likely be around I'm sure, you guys are too cool ya? :D
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Congratulations, keep up the good work.
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Everyone enjoying our sites today should know wo1f is an absolute beast and has contributed to lots of important projects that allow us to keep going.
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Netherlands19135 Posts
What a boss, I applaud your efforts good sir. Gl with the PhD :D.
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Katowice25012 Posts
Wolf has done an insane amount of great stuff on LiquidDota and LiquidHearth and also has the patience to teach me how to fix things since I can never make anything in CSS work properly.
On August 30 2014 19:54 wo1fwood wrote:Definitely not me as I didn't participate.
We had to make dummy accounts in TSL because our cast was from replays, and we would name them after Song of Ice and Fire locations. I've never read any of the books but know a lot of the geography now because of it.
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TLADT24920 Posts
Sounds like you've had quite the journey. Best of luck in your program 
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Since you are getting an PHD in music. What is your opinion on composing computers? Things like Lamus and Emily Howell. Will they in the long term replace most composers or do you think it just a fad?
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On August 31 2014 02:53 Yurie wrote:
Since you are getting an PHD in music. What is your opinion on composing computers? Things like Lamus and Emily Howell. Will they in the long term replace most composers or do you think it just a fad? They'll never replace humans. Art being what it is, there's always going t be a level of subjectivity in the aesthetic desires of the end user. One way to look at it is the more that computer intelligence starts to rival human intelligence the more the choice to go with a computer's generated work (either listening to, using, or programming) is based on who's in the drivers seat, and what their end goal is.
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Seeing lots of praise from the more well-known TL staff... never knew you were such a heavyweight contributor to this wonderful place. Thanks for all your efforts and best of luck to you, wo1fwood! This musical opportunity sounds amazing.
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Canada16217 Posts
The work you do/have done is quite awesome, I wish you the best in getting your PhD.
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Estonia4644 Posts
On August 31 2014 14:01 iamcaustic wrote:
Seeing lots of praise from the more well-known TL staff... never knew you were such a heavyweight contributor to this wonderful place.
If people only knew how much work wo1f actually did
his list hardly summarizes it
what a monster
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On August 31 2014 15:28 fusefuse wrote:Show nested quote +On August 31 2014 14:01 iamcaustic wrote:
Seeing lots of praise from the more well-known TL staff... never knew you were such a heavyweight contributor to this wonderful place. If people only knew how much work wo1f actually did his list hardly summarizes it what a monster
Yeah, definitely sounds like a silent hero to me.
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On August 31 2014 09:01 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
Have you not seen "Her"? apparently not? is it good?
On August 31 2014 20:11 nunez wrote:
your op's are beautiful.
^^ Thanks, I try to abuse my html privs make them nice to read whenever I can.
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After you feel comfortable with javascript/jquery, you should give a crack at angular.js and/or polymer.js. As a fellow developer myself, I was on some hard times just using JQuery for everything, as there was tons of small things that needed to be bug checked when a user manipulates the dom. Debugging with large amounts of dynamic content was a headache. Then along came angular. Those two libraries really make user interaction and site creation insanely amazing.
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On September 01 2014 21:23 wo1fwood wrote:apparently not? is it good? ^^ Thanks, I try to abuse my html privs make them nice to read whenever I can.
Congratulations on your 3k you make Liquid what it is today. And Her is a pretty touching film and feels ever so relevant in the near future where technology encroaches into human relationships.
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On August 31 2014 15:28 fusefuse wrote:Show nested quote +On August 31 2014 14:01 iamcaustic wrote:
Seeing lots of praise from the more well-known TL staff... never knew you were such a heavyweight contributor to this wonderful place. If people only knew how much work wo1f actually did his list hardly summarizes it what a monster
No kidding, no matter what crazy idea we come up with it always ends up being better than expected.
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It's a bit early to know what my dissertation will be on. I had an idea of perhaps doing some in depth analysis on symbolism and engraving practices, but it'll be a few years before I start.
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this makes my 31k posts on nadota depressing.
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EPT
