- geh 2009-04-10 06:22:47 Apparently Ego Trip was shown at some contest this year. I'm guessing it was the one where they asked for recs on the forum, for each year counting up/down. I vaguely recall that thread. It's frustrating. That vid has shown at over six amv contests now. I've never sent it anywhere but yaoi-con. And every time, I don't find out until someone who saw it remarks on it here. Which means it could have been shown at more places where no viewers were interested enough to track it down on the org. What did people used to call losers who kept spamming contests with the same amv over and over? A troll?
-
glance glance
2009-01-15 16:51:05
I am watching amvs again.
Thank India, my bff. <3
And the various AMV Hell segments we watched in sequence the other weekend...
Weird crack stuff and where the heck do they come up with those songs weirdness.
And that guy in Iowa (?) who's being charged with a felony for buying yaoi.
I'm currently sorting through four years worth of emails, so those old "watch this/review this" requests will be gotten to eventually. Any new ones should be sent via email or PM - I *will* respond promptly this time since I'm actually watching amvs again. Any vids that have come out in the last two years you can be sure I've never heard of, feel free to rec. They will be opped.
What? You thought I'd watch and not op? Hah. I'm not going post a thread in the forum and I'm not promising anything helpful/critical, but I will be opping everything I watch. Feel free to spam me via email - arigatoumina@hotmail.com since my org pm box is probably full again (and doesn't seem to be auto-deleting old pms so new ones can arrive like it used to).
That said, I'm doing a few old requests first (gotten during my "I'm not the least bit interested in watching amvs, catch me when I'm interested in the hobby again" phase). Then all the D.Gray-Man amvs on this site - all 14 of them. >.< Then a vague super-search for any vids with "yaoi" in the comment box that I haven't reviewed yet (no Gravitation, Loveless, or Mirage of Blaze since I'm not interested in those anymore). Then maybe I'll glance over the top lists and the rec threads...maybe. I'm more interested in stuff with few ops where even a random out-of-nowhere "this was fun because/I wish you'd done this" op will be nice feedback.
Point? Time to combine hobbies again. Last time was Dark Half and Gmen where fanfiction and fanart came together as a vid. This time...I've gotta do something with those djs and that "samurai shinji" I did that looks so good as a gif it's scary to think how it would appear in a vid with an actual moving background. Maybe this time I'll pick an audio source that won't end up banned within a month of its completion.
Watching vids is the start. Thank India. Now, wait...
How did Alanis put it? That's right...
thank you India
thank you providence
thank you disillusionment
And save the nothingness for another day. -
o.O
2008-11-16 22:52:45
429 people have emailed me since Friday afternoon.
That doesn't include the ones who contacted me via livejournal, deviantart, and ffnet and I'm still averaging eight new ones per hour.
I only locked two sections (out of 36).
Imagine what would have happened if I'd locked the entire site.
It's flattering and scary and makes me wonder what fraction of the total that 429 consists of. Mine is not the small drop in the ocean I thought it was.
I miss amvs, pressure-less anonymity.
Which reminds me, despite all the trouble going on with the org someone did get my email and recorded my donation before I got marked as defaulted. Sweet. I'd already resigned myself to losing all privileges (not that I use them).
/ranting on lj and reading org journals between email-responses on my old computer, playing FF8, and watching the newsreel extra from the Dawn of the Dead Remake on loop on my new computer = multi-tasking fun.
Yes, I'm still alive. Yes, I'm still into djs. No, I still don't consider them stupid. -
packed org
2008-10-08 21:30:38
Hey, Yeihweh, I'll see your 60 vids and raise you 12. That's 132 local vids between the two of us. Now if other creators were notified that we're out of space, they'd jump on the "get rid of my old vids" bandwagon and we'd have a clean harddrive in no time.
Because actually, I've got about 100 vids stored on local all by my lonesome. The local links are disabled, but the vids are still there. The org is like my great grandma. Packrats don't believe in throwing anything away. Remove the links but keep the vids on the drive to collect dust. And back them up on a second drive, so they're not just useless an inaccessible once - they're useless twice!
Come on. Get rid of the vids that no one except the admin (and maybe not even them) have access to first. See how much space you can clear. Then get rid of the ones people are willing to pay (donate) to have deleted. See how much space you can clear. Then notify non-forum-going-members that they can get those 50 vids worth of crap from their first year here removed from local. I could name five people offhand who did over a hundred vids, most of them joke vids at 70mbs each. See who bites and delete accordingly. See how much space you can clear. When you've gotten rid of the useless and the unwanted, then you can calculate how much is needed for the future.
But it's not gonna happen. My great grandma's attic won't be cleaned out until she passes away and whoever sells the house has to hire a dump truck to take away the boxes. That's how it is with packrats. I can relate. My own attic is already pretty packed just from the useless post-college move. It could all go the dump and I'd never miss any of it. But that would require me sorting through it all. I'd rather build a second attic than clean out the full one. -
stupidity & bs
2008-05-24 20:05:20
So a friend of mine's in bootcamp right now. I wrote her a letter the other day, one I'd been putting off for a while because it contained bad time-sensitive news and I'd hoped the news would get a bit more positive if I waited. Well, it didn't get more positive, in fact it got worse - from $3.79 per gallon two weeks ago to $3.98 per gallon now. Exactly as I predicted would happen, but that's another rant. I finally broke down and wrote the letter of bad news. Then I ran out to my car where I just so happened to have two stamped envelops. I put my letter in one of them, licked it shut, and popped it in the mailbox. Three days later - aka, today - I realized I never addressed that envelop.
Um... Somewhere there's a letter with no address being dumped into a garbage bin.
This is as bad as going to get a fresh cup of coffee, dumping the cold coffee down the sink, and then coming back to my desk and trying to drink the empty cup because I never actually poured any fresh coffee into it. Maybe it's lack of sleep times 10 yrs. My brain is so shot.
/Complete subject change
Funny. My credit card used to take up to two weeks to process a check. I'd get the bill late - a week or two after the E-Bill hits my email to let me know the real one is coming. Then I'd write out a check as quickly as possibly and mail it out the same day. And then I'd have to wait two weeks and pray they process it before the "payment due" date.
Obviously they processed it so slowly in hopes of making my payment late, so they can charge the omg %50 interest for late payments. I've looked over my records since I took charge of this card and they used to do that a lot when my mom was making the payments.
[Ex so I don't look like a child: My mom got the card for her own use, despite it having my name on it. She has four credit cards in my name and uses them when an emergency arises with me or my sister or my brother - like a car accident in my case, or a pregnancy in my sister's case, a girlfriend leaving him so he has to get back on depression meds in my brother's case. Oddly enough the balance got huge over the years so by the time I took the card over the balance was $2,800 owed with a $3,500 cap. I haven't whittled it down much, what with my own charges to it, but at least I've kept it from getting bigger. And unlike my mom, I've never been late for a payment.]
Anyway! I've noticed recently they're processing my checks super fast. I got the bill Wednesday and mailed out a check the same day, as always. Yesterday they processed the check. Amazing. Here I was hoping they'd hurry it up so I could charge some more - my balance got a bit low last month since I had that Bush-check getting added to my bank account. It seems they finally figured out I'm a frequent spender. The quicker they process the payments, the quicker I can max it out again.
Somewhere there's a list of all the infrequent but big spenders, whose payments are delayed because interest is the only new debt they'll get from those people. Somewhere nearby there's another list of frequent small spenders, whose payments are speedily handled because the faster they're processed the quicker the spender can make new charges to the card. And my name just went from that first list to the second one. ;p
/complete subject change
Forum: "I don't tell my friends their videos are good when I actually think they're utter dog crap. That would be wrong."
Me: "....how can you type that with a straight face?"
I'll believe the flamers and critics have no problem with strict honesty. They have a track record for being especially nasty and creative (and thus funny instead of offensive) in their efforts to point out exactly how stinky is the dog crap they've just watched.
I believe those with few close friends who make amvs could be mostly honest when they have to give their opinion right to the editor's face. So long as they crouch their critique in friendly language the strangers aren't likely to realize how badly they're really saying the video stinks. Most people who don't know me won't realize that a "It's good, but ____" from me means it's pretty stinky but I'm trying to give positive aspects to offset the negative because that's how I was taught to give feedback. If it's entirely negative they'll ignore it entirely. And you can always find positive things to say about something no matter how stinky. That pile of dog crap on the side of the road is covered in the prettiest butterflies. Butterflies like dog crap, even if I don't.
I believe some people are cynical to the point where even their close friends know better than to expect undeserved praise for their crappy efforts. Not many people on the org like that, but they do exist in the world. I've met a few. I'd be one of them if my friends didn't have such thin skins and the tendency to hold grudges.
I don't believe the "nice" people are honest when they convince their friends that they're all wonderful with just a few minor flaws. Most editors are crap with a few minor redeeming qualities. Unless you happen to be friends with the wonderful few, who really are as good as you consistently lead them to believe they are, you're lying through your teeth.
I hate being asked to read a friend's story. How nicely can you explain that their writing is utter tripe and the only way they'll improve is by going back to grade school and learning how to write a simple sentence? You can kill yourself trying to come up with positive things to say about a story, but if the person writes like a retarded five year old because they slept through elementary school, no amount of sugar coating is going to help them. Going back to school is the only way those lacking the basics will improve.
Translate that into amvs. Some people are just hopelessly bad. And if you're unfortunate enough to have these people as "friends" then you have three choices. Take them back to the beginning and walk them through the entire thing, teaching the basics as you go along, because you're a nice person who helps your friends even if it means making their videos for them; point out the positive aspects and then provide moral support (ignore them, they're just jealous) when they get rightfully blasted by strangers for being hopelessly bad; explain to them as nicely as possible that maybe they should try a different hobby.
I believe there may be people on the forum who are willing to walk a friend through editing from the beginning. I've heard stories of this happening. The resulting videos usually look like they were made by the helper instead of the person being helped. Go figure.
I know for a solid fact that there are people who tell their hopelessly bad friends to "ignore them" because "they're just jealous". That's where the circle-jerking phenomena comes from, after all.
I don't believe there are people who would risk losing a friend by explaining that they're beyond redemption and should give up before they make an even bigger fool of themselves. You don't tell your friend that she's grossly obese and likely to die of a heart attack, even if you really like her and wish she'd live past the age of thirty. You don't even tell her that she's unlikely to pass the cheerleading tryouts when her fat rolls are more energetic in their flopping than her breasts. No, you pat her on the back and avert your eyes, and hang around to sympathize and make her feel better after the wolves have ripped her a new one. That's what friends are for.
Actually, I love that thread. It's like having someone come into the forum and post a "I know we're not supposed to, but does anyone here use downloaded footage or bootlegged programs?" And then having a dozen replies of "We would never do that because that would be wrong."
Yeah, right. Excuse me while I laugh.
JOURNAL: Arigatomina
Current server time: Nov 21, 2009 04:14:44