-
an x-rated disneyland, groovy t-rex...
2001-10-09 09:44:38
Haven't talked about video ideas in a while...still haven't decided which video to do next. Finish my Karekano or do the FY video that has been eating a hole in my head since last summer. I don't want to hang on to Quu's DVD box set for too long, but I don't know if I'm ready to tackle it yet...it's just a "normal" (ie, no sf/x, no wildly original concept, etc.) video, but it's still going to be a massive undertaking. 52 unsubbed episodes to capture from...that's a major difference from 52 fansubbed episodes to capture from.
I'm so preoccupied these days about doing a "next-gen" video like Odorikuruu or Tainted Donuts, though...and all the videos I have planned on the horizon are "normal" videos. I should stop worrying.
I did have ONE idea though, that I thought was pretty original. Unfortunately, it's another Perfect Blue video, so I don't really want to do it. I've had this idea for a while as well, but it lacked the immediacy of "Film," so I did that one instead.
The song I wanted to use starts out with the following verse sung by a little boy:
Twisted little daydreams
Memories of pain
Locking me behind the closet door.
I will be a good boy,
Promise I won't run.
Sit quiet in my room
And play with my toy gun.
I wanted to find some anime with a neglected, lonely little boy...his footage would all be black and white, with filters to make it look like old home movies. The idea is that he is the boy who grows up to become the Me-Maniac. Then the next verse is sung by the grown man (ie, the Me-Maniac):
Now I'm older but the memories still eat me like disease.
Alone in the darkness watching you on my TV
Why did God make you so famous when he only spit on me?
I want to bathe in your light
I want to be on the news
If I take your life, it's nothing personal.
Just a boy and his toy gun
Dying for attention.
It would alternate (depending on the particular lyrics) between scenes of the grown Me-Maniac stalking Mima, and the little boy watching her on his TV (using After Effects to put footage of her into his TV, I guess). I realize this doesn't make sense, as there would be a 20-year time difference between the boy watching Mima on TV and the grown man stalking Mima, but in this video she would be purely symbolic, and so would not change during the 20-year time gap.
Later the song explodes into heavy guitars and yelling with the lyrics:
For a moment I can see myself trapped in your reflection
I'm angry and I'm lonely,
And I'm dying for attention.
That part of the video would explode in violence, with some overlays of the little boy to show what he has become.
I abandoned this idea for many reasons...first, I wasn't sure how many people would actually get it. It's a slow song for the most part, and I think people would probably get bored as opposed to being drawn into the story. Also, I couldn't think of any anime where I could get appropriate footage for the part of the little boy. I was reminded of the childhood version of Jim Carrey's character in "The Cable Guy," but I didn't know of any anime with similar scenes. I also didn't know how I'd work around the "toy gun" lyric...I'd be lucky enough to find anime footage of an appropriate little boy, but hoping to find footage where he also happens to be playing a toy gun is just ludicrous. And I didn't want to do another Perfect Blue video. I don't even like the movie that much.
But anyway. That's the one idea I had for a video that I thought might make people go "Wow!" -
black coat, white shoes, black hat, cadillac, yeah...the boy's a time bomb..
2001-10-08 15:04:15
Oh, this is just dandy. Now I have official license to sit around the office and do absolutely nothing productive. 8 hours a day of surfing the web for me...at least for a while.
The way new hires get their feet wet at this company is that for the first year or two, we take on several short-term 3-4 month assignments, and then afterwards we pick a department to "go permanent" in. I've pretty much wrapped up all work on my first assignment. And I haven't found a second assignment yet...the one that I was interested in (and which would have entailed my living in Sunnyvale, CA all expenses paid until January!) required a full security clearance, which I don't have yet.
So...my current assignment supervisor has told me he's totally out of work for me to do...so I guess the bright side is now I can stop feeling guilty about wasting so much time on the web...then again, this gets pretty fucking boring after an hour or so.
I need to find a better way to waste my time here...maybe do some writing (aside from this journal :Þ)
I wish there was a Barnes & Noble near me. The closest one is downtown on the Harbor. That's a 15-minute drive, $5-15 for parking depending on how long I say, and a 10-minute walk. I'm fine with everything but the parking fee. -
skimera dink ee dink ee dink...skimera dink ee do...
2001-10-08 10:53:32
(delayed for an hour because of site outage or something)
Boy, this site really dies during the weekends...I coasted through a few times, but nothing interesting was going on in the forums, and I didn't feel compelled to write in my journal.
Sigh...weekend after AnimeUSA my parents are probably coming up. Now, my relationship with my parents is fine...mommy bought me toys, daddy never beat me...but that's just one more weekend where I won't be able to relax. I can try, but then my mom will start vacuuming or something, and then I'll feel bad so I'll take over. Urgh.
I don't want to be here more than usual today. I was talking to that punkass mofo Jason Salce (hehe) last night on the phone, and he mentioned that didn't have to work today because of Columbus day. So then I got all excited, since my company is a government contractor...but alas, here I am today. The coffee is lukewarm and I'm workless again.
Read "Rage" by Richard Bachman/Stephen King last weekend in one sitting. That's some seriously fucked up shit...I can't believe he wrote that in high school. I think the original title, "Getting It On" was far more appropriate.
Had a detailed discussion about religion with my gf last night...since neither of us is religious, it was a purely intellectual conversation...it was interesting how well our opinions on the matter complemented each other. Sigh...what a girl.
-
Solve the puzzles or join the tormented souls forever...
2001-10-05 11:25:58
I'm writing in my journal. AGAIN. Sue me. I'll refrain from writing in here for the rest of the weekend, I
promise.
Finally got a chance to sit down and play Ico for a couple of hours last night. It's fun, but people seem to be
giddy over it, which I don't get. Basically you play a little boy trapped in a huge magical castle, and you have to
protect a princess who is nearly helpless and has to be led around by her hand. So far it's consisted of running
around, climbing ropes and ladders, and pushing boxes around to solve puzzles. I found a door I couldn't open at
one point, so I picked up a barrel and hurled it with all my might...it bounced off the door and fell off the
balcony. Darn. Oh well, maybe it will get better. I don't understand the combat either. All these shadow
monsters attack, and they seem to beat the crap out of me...but I never die. I always seem to be able to beat them
back. The only way I've managed to die so far is by stepping wrong and taking a flying leap into the clouds (the
castle seems to be in the sky). Right now it's looking too much like one of those games where I'll get helplessly
stuck and then put it down for awhile...then when I come back to it, it's been too long and I can't make heads or
tails of where I am or what I'm doing...so then I end up quitting.
Somehow I don't feel sick after attending my company "Crabfeast" last night. Beer and crabs...and lots and lots of
Old Bay...just thinking about the combination makes me feel like I should be queasy.
People in the cube next to me are talking about strippers, golf, and extreme sports. Being a guy can be so insipid
sometimes.
They really need to give me work to do here. Yesterday a guy complained that I was working way too fast. Maybe
that's the problem. Most people here seem to be constantly working and putzing at the same time. I tend to get all my work done, and then putz continuously for long periods of time. Quite the opposite of what I did in college.
Lunchtime. -
"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I've ever known."
2001-10-05 09:20:11
Ack...I wanted to respond to something EK mentioned a couple days ago in her journal, but then the site went down. Ah well, here it is anyway:
Robert Jordan can kiss my ass. Back when I was in high school, I was just coming out of my Pier Xanthony phase, and a friend was like "Drop that kiddie shit, and check this series out!" He pointed me to "Eye of the World," which was the first "serious" fantasy I read. I read through it, and somewhat enjoyed it...nothing special. Then I read "The Great Hunt" and "The Dragon Reborn" in a span of about a week...I still fondly remember those snow days back in Michigan, sitting in my bed all day with books in hand...sigh...
Anyways, books 2 and 3 I really enjoyed. The next few were mediocre, and I noticed that every subsequent book seemed to cover a shorter amount of time. More pointless bickering between characters, less actual things happening. It took me over a year to finish "Lord of Chaos." I was forced to finish "A Crown of Swords" in a week because I checked it out as a new release from the library. Then I turned into a complete dumbass and actually preordered "Path of Daggers" in hardcover.
That semester, I was taking engineering stats, organic chemistry, biomedical instrumentation and something else. In each of those classes I had three choices:
1. Sleep
2. Pay attention in class
3. Ignore the professor and read "Path of Daggers."
It should be obvious to you which choice I opted for the most...but you KNOW there's gotta be something wrong with a book when option 2 is preferable to option 3. I mean, ENGINEERING STATISTICS! Gah. Anyway, I read about 100 pages of neurotic Knitting Circle women fussing with each other until I quit. Damn hardcover is still sitting around at my parents' house somewhere.
For fantasy I'd recommend Terry Goodkind, Stephen King's Dark Tower (get past the first short, slow book, and I promise you will be rocked on your ass like never before), Tad Williams (unlike most fantasy writers, this guy can actually *write*), and maybe David Farland...I read the first of his Runelords series, and it had a nice little twist that I liked. It was kind of like when I first saw "The Rock"...I knew nothing about it, so when the soldiers broke into the Rock, I thought the movie would be about the soldiers fighting the terrorists with the help of Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery...but no, the soldiers get wiped out immediately and Cage and Connery fight all the terrorists by themselves! Kick ass.
I did somewhat enjoy "A Game of Thrones", but it's been so long, and the story is so damn complicated that I'd have to read it again if I want to continue...I should just wait until they're all out. It's a little gratuitous in the sex and violence department, though...
Damn...my hair is getting long again. I can see the back peering out the side of my neck...at least the top is long, too. Just say no to <a href="http://www.mulletsgalore.com">mullets</A>. Does HTML work here? I hope so.
God...I write too much useless crap in here. Who actually wants to read it?
Happy birthday, sweetheart...love you.
JOURNAL: Kusoyaro (Hsien Lee)
Current server time: Dec 27, 2025 09:36:10