JOURNAL: Bowler

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  • The sonic boom will hit you in just a few seconds... 2001-12-20 00:22:15 What in the hell happened today. There is some seriously effed up karmic boomerang thing going on. It's like I throw out a good karma boomerang, and wind up catching the karmic boomerang of some liar/serial killer or something.

    Instance the first: Liz and I decided that we're going to send my parents one more gift before sending out the package to California. This is that stupid generosity thing I mentioned in an earlier post. I'll go bankrupt buying gifts for people this year. I just can't stop. We decided to throw in this "hand-made" thing we put together by putting four hand-made scented candles in Ball (tm.) jam jars that Liz's friend made with some straw in a basket we bought at Michael's. Very country/craftalicious. Mom'll love it. So the package had to wait one extra day to be shipped out so we could throw this little concoction together and feel even better about all the stuff we're giving this year.

    I head on over to the Mailboxes Etc. down the street, and find out that that extra day bumped my shipping cost from $37 guaranteed delivery for Xmas Eve to EIGHTY SIX FREAKING DOLLARS guaranteed delivery for Xmas Eve. That's a one-day difference of fifty dollars. Oh, but the day gets much, much worse.

    Instance the second: There's a ton of other little instances that don't even compare in between these two. This one was the humdinger of the day. The meat and potatos of my main course of disappointment. I'm driving my friend home from work on the North side of Chicago. It's something I do everyday because I'm a good buddy, and I like helping people out. It puts an extra fifteen minutes on my already long one hour+ (each way!) commute. I get jammed in the typical tight place on Damen between Armitage and Fullerton, where there's only room for about 6 cars and you're literally jammed inbetween two cross streets (one at your nose and one at your rear). We're in the front row, so it's not so bad.

    Out of nowhere, we hear a siren. Oh great. Here comes a cop, and it's rush hour. He's flying up behind us like the Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Armitage and Damen is on fire, and I suddenly realize that there's nowhere for us to move over to (no joke, there's 6 cars crammed into a 40'x15' space). So this cop starts laying on the bullhorn, switching his siren like mad, basically letting us know that his parnter is lying in a ditch bleeding from a sucking chest wound and he needs to get there *NOW*. So the guy to the left of me starts rolling forwards and to the right, evidently in an attempt to give the cop another few inches to squeeze by with. Folks, I can't impress upon you enough how right of a jam we're all packed in right now. So I start rolling forwards and to the right, to give the guy next to me even more room to move over. I *always* pull over when I hear the siren and see the flashing lights in the rearview, so I was more than happy to help out.

    Well, it turns out that the gentleman next to me was inching up so that he could turn right in front of me from the left lane, in an attempt to free up that lane so that the cop could get through. He was checking oncoming traffic on the left, and evidently never looked back to his right to see that I had moved up (cars have to move forward if you want them to move laterally, it's just an unfortunate rule of cirucmstance), so he proceeded to shave off the paint and trim on the right side of his car on my front bumper. He might have made the turn without incident if I hadn't moved up, but if I hadn't moved up and to the right, he would have scraped the side of my car when he tried to inch over initially. It's like we were DOOMED to swap paint. Fated since birth to bend fenders.

    Somehow, this accident happened because two guys decided to be good citizens and do the right thing. If I had just been a dick and not moved, there's a chance nothing would have happened to my car. I guess I'm just lucky this guy's an insurance salesman, and is probably just going to cut me a check personally as soon as I get an estimate to avoid the insurance red tape.

    But hey, my day's not done yet. There's still icing for this cake.

    Instance the third: After my debacle with the bank earlier yesterday, I finally got my Credit Card problem cleared up. It's really boring, and not worth discussing (which is why I didn't say anything about it yesterday), but the gist of it is that I realized a couple months ago that I never got my replacement card for my Visa...from MARCH when it expired. So half an hour later and they're going to overnight the card via FEDEX for me, since I kinda sorta need it to buy that last magnificent gift for the wife sometime between now and Monday the 24th.

    I stop by FEDEX on the way home, since it's now 8:05, and FEDEX closes at 8:30. The time it would take me to get home from FEDEX's location (it's on the way home) and back again just to grab the claim ticket left on my door would make me late, and unable to pick up my card.

    To cut this already boring and lame story short, the bank didn't ship the damn card. You'd think if you spoke with someone at around 10:30 in the morning, and they promised to have your new card out and in an overnight package the next day, they could do that. ::sigh:: And I don't even want it for a selfish reason! I just want to buy someone another gift with it! AAAAUUUGGGHHHH!!!!

    It's like I try to be a nice guy and the universe is insisting I go back to being a dick or something.

    Oh well. If nothing else, this day was certainly a lesson in being a better and more patient Buddhist. ("Huh? A Buddhist celebrating Christmas?"). Well, at least a more patient Catholic born Buddhist, anway.

    Amida Buddha. Merry Christmas. Happy Channuka. Krazy Kwanza, and Rockin' Ramadan. Hope everyone here's having a Happy Holidays, PLEASE. :) 
  • Give me the gatekey/What gatekey?/Fezzic, tear his arms off/Oh, you mean *this* gatekey! 2001-12-18 00:52:16 Not a whole lot of time to post.

    Just here to b&m because now XP won't recognize the tablet again, and the fabulous $42 modem I bought to replace the $11 one is giving me the same effin' problems, which means it's probably a glitch in my motherboard or OS (since I can hear noise on my phone line even when I'm not trying to get online).

    Why must PCs be such an uphill struggle? I just want to share my art with the ::Homer impression:: stupid lousy world.

    On the bright side, we got to conference call Jim the Packers Fan from work since he (wisely) stayed home on vacation today. We simply cheered "way to go Packers! Woooo!" and he hung up on us. Imagine! ;)

    Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Bears. 
  • My. Wife. Rules. 2001-12-17 00:25:11 I'd just like to send up a shout-out with mad props to my wife for fixing my tablet problem.

    Good god it was hell, and I have to admit that I *did* act like a child, but damn if she didn't have good advice.

    When Com port 1 doesn't work, try Com port 2.

    Hey, it works! [Editor's note: the problem was actually much more complicated than that]

    So now I can return to the world of Oekaki, and hopefully I can get back to work on the fanart.

    Now, if I could only figure out how to make my 56x CD drive slow the ef down so that it stops writing errors into my installation files, I might be able to get Photoshop to run. (For the record, it took me 4 hours and 18 or so attempts just to get Wolfenstein to install bug-free). Just a word to the wise out there:

    There will never be a CD drive that works faster than 44x. Don't buy it. Just stick with your happy little 26x or 32x or whatever you have that runs significantly slower than 50x. I'm not the only one with the installation problems with a 50+x drive that I know of. 
  • Untitled. 2001-12-15 19:13:20 So I figured I'd finally get around to talking about my AMV ideas that I'm going to start on Dec. 26th or so. I would really appreciate any sort of feedback from the experts here regarding subject matter and music selection.

    I've downloaded two videos that use the music, just to make sure that I'm not stealing anyone's ideas, and it seems like I'm in the clear so far, but again, I'd appreciate any advice and/or feedback.


    --First AMV Idea--

    The first one is a Cowboy Bebop one titled Spike, This is Your Life. I'm using the Dust Brother's This is Your Life Featuring Tyler Durden as the music track, and it should prove to be a good Character Profile video. I checked out the Eva vid with the same song in it, and the ideas are certainly different enough.

    ::WARNING, SPOILERS FOR COWBOY BEBOP FOLLOW::

    ::DISCONTINUE READING AND SKIP AHEAD TO SECOND VIDEO IDEA IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE ENTIRE SERIES BUT WISH TO::

    The whole concept of the video is that Spike is going to see his whole life, the good and the bad, flash before his eyes in the moment just before...well, you know. I've already got a ton of tricky edits and effects lined up for the majority of the song, so I'm hoping that I should be able to finish it in about a month's worth of my spare time. I just couldn't get past the lyrics when I heard the song. "It's only after destruction that we can be resurrected (Spike getting blown out the church rose window)/It's only after we lose everything that we're free to do anything (Julia being killed)" Another line that grabbed me was "You have to realize that someday, you will die. Untill you know that, you are useless (Spike aiming up at the can in the sky and saying "bang." in the episode where he has the shootout with the kid [can't remember ep name off top of head]/intercut with him saying "bang." at the end). There's just so much there that coincides with Spike. I have to do this one, even if no one thinks it's a good idea.


    --Second AMV Idea--

    The second video is just going to be a fun action one. It's going to be a Robotech vid called SDF:LIS (Super Dimensional Fortress: Lost in Space). I'm using Apollo440's Lost in Space Theme (from the newer movie, not the original series) for the music. I thought it was a good thematic piece mainly because the SDF gets lost in space (to a certain extent) in the show when they jump-gate to the outer reaches to Pluto (and don't know where they are) and have to fight their way back to Earth. I've actually got the whole story planned out in advance, and I need to just pour through the eps at this point looking for the footage I need. I'm basically going to attempt to give a quick synopsis of the plot of the series throughout the song, focusing on action footage and *not* focusing on Minmei, although she'll be in a few shots out of necessity. It's a fairly weak idea, but I think it's going to make a very fun AMV.

    As far as reference goes, I checked for other uses of the song, and someone made a Cowboy Bebop vid using the song, but again, I think the ideas are considerably different enough to merit the creation of this one.

    At any rate, if you have opinions or insight, feel free to throw them at me. I'd appreciate it. 
  • Bass/How Low Can You Go 2001-12-15 03:17:50 Finally saw Blood tonight. I'd seen clips of it while over at a friend's apartment, but really couldn't tune into it because of the company. Nothing like having armchair anime lovers* who are about 50 tell me how anime is made. For the love of [insert diety here] I can sometimes tell you what ink and paint software was used just by looking at the footage, old man, I doubt you have any insights I can't come up with on my own. "Dis here movie was made usin' tha three dee!"

    And a whole lot more, my aged friend.

    So they used AfterEffects to render a lot of the lighting effects. Which is interesting. My old Technical Director used to do stuff like that the hard way by playing with individual frames in Photoshop, and take notes about the settings with a whole lotta paper, frame by painstaking frame. I guess they did that a bit in Blood, too. Mostly, though, I was impressed by the playing of focal depth and lighting, to recreate that 'hand cam' type footage. I need to find a version of AfterEffects now so I can play with it. The FMV guys at work are using it to enhance their 3D generated footage once they get it to the editing phase, but I think they're just using the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

    I guess the only reason I'm not madly raving about how awesome that movie was is because I was very much pissed that it was only 45 minutes long. It left me with the distinct feeling that Blood was a premier episode that aired in Japan, and either never got signed on for a series, or Manga only brought over the one ep. 45 minutes is conspicuously "one hour TV with commercials" length. Especially when you consider the open-ended ending, almost guaranteeing you another ep. At those prices ($30/hour), you can bet I won't be collecting the whole series, should there ever be more.

    One other thing I thought was interesting from a cultural point of view: It seemed that it aired in Japan with people speaking in English (since it's set on an American Army base in Japan). I thought at first that the Audio setting was stuck to Japanese since all of the background characters were speaking Japanese (with Eng. subtitles). Then the characters started speaking in English and I got very confused. Then, when the girl (Sayan?) gets to school, everyone starts greeting each other. This is my favorite part.

    Now, mind you, I can't speak more than about 5 words in Japanese, but nobody was saying "hi" to each other, even thought they were supposed to be speaking English. They were all saying "yes" in Japanese. "Hai." "hai." "HAI!" It was subtle, but definitely noticeable. It's not bad, mind you, but I enjoyed a knowing smile over it. :) That's when I started wondering if it aired in Japan that way, and that those were Japanese people trying to speak American English (not American voice actors doing a dub). Turns out in the "making of footage" (and after watching the credits) that it seemed that it did air in Japan that way. I have to admit, their English and accent was perfect. I think only people as stupidly anal as myself and maybe some language professors would have caught onto it, or at least cared. ;)

    Oh, and Manga, should you include a "Disk Setup" option in your future DVDs, it might be neat to have more than 2.0 or 5.1 Surround Dolby. Don't show me three subtitle options that I can highlight with my cursor if I can't actually *change* them.

    -----------------------------------
    Second part of Journal post.

    *armchair anime lovers.

    I feel that I should cover my arse when using this term.

    I am in no way trying to convey that I am some sort of ultrafanboy of anime, because I'm not. There's certainly more anime that I haven't seen than that which I have seen. And I wholeheartedly accept that anyone has a right to enjoy any anime, even if I hate it. For instance, I can't discredit anyone who enjoys DBZ, Sailor Moon, and/or Digimon. www.Penny-Arcade.com actually ran an excellent dissertation on this very same (or at least closely related) subject today. Go read it, because it's way better and funnier than I can do it, but you know I'll try anyway.

    If you're into anime, you have no place to judge anyone else's taste in anime. I don't want to hear anyone saying (and I'm not saying that I've heard this here yet) that only sissies watch Sailor Moon or that Pokemon isn't *real* anime. Because guess what: the rest of the world doesn't care that you only like GiTS or Gundam or whatever else you think is cooler than Jesus this week. The word GEEK on your forehead is merely written in a cooler font than the Sakura Card Captor fan standing next to you, and both read the same to the guy in the suit sitting next to you on the train on the way to his Raquetball game. Mind you, the GEEK on my head is in Arial Bold for the time being.

    But what I meant by "armchair anime lover" was more "armchair animation expert." Nothing gets my goat more than someone who doesn't know me trying to tell me how my job is done. I can point out when someone didn't put floating pegs on a character that's running right and animated on 2's or 3's in a scene that's panning left, so it's frustrating to hear someone point to a painfully obvious 3D background and tell me that they used 3D to make it. It's hard to not come off elite-ist about this kind of thing, but I imagine a similar instance would be for me to tell my mechanic how my car runs. He knows already, and he certainly doesn't need me telling him.

    I'm sorry. I can be such a huge prick sometimes. It's just my pet peeve, and I probably shouldn't expect anyone to understand. :) 
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