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for may long years i buried
2003-12-03 09:48:57
Yesterday was moderately productive. I got #85 done, and it may or may not be suitable to show in public (need to get some expert opinions on that, probably tomorrow). Unfortunately, I've got to write off most of today because of what I did after that.
It had been a couple months since I defragged anyways, but getting up over 11 GB free (when I normally run less than 10) probably put the nail in. I was trying to cap Cat Soup this morning and get a lead on #86, but the program was being unusually uncooperative. Time for ScanDisk and defragging, or 14 hours of not being able to use the system. At least I can use this time to do work for school and catch up on planning for the end of chapter 12, but I really should have set this down last night. It'd save a little time at least.
Current video: Bix Beiderbecke, [undecided] to Cat Soup. Progress check: 3%. Expected catalog number: #86. I'm thinking that this one will be going to Katsucon/Sakura Con, but before that I have to decide whether I'm going to use "Singin The Blues" or "Copenhagen". This means listening to both again, which unfortunately means that I can't do it until the computer is available again.
Today's band that's better than yours is Czech cult-metal gods Root (quoted in the title), who give RedBlack (www.redblack.cz) the money to sign and produce a whole horde of cool and innovative "more than metal" bands from Bohemia and Moravia. Despite having become less black metal over their history (not like the common understanding of the term ever really applied to them), Root still rock damn hard. Yet another CD I have to order.
--Kai out
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my skin the canary in the coalmine
2003-12-02 13:45:58
Some work on the video, some on homework that I didn't strictly need to do just yet (but which will help me out towards the end of the week), and no progress on the book.
The recent forum bullshit with regard to someone with a NS message in their sig just amazes me. So many allegedly intelligent people just parroting back the "Nazis bad" mantra, without offering real arguments. Threats to ban for thought crimes. It's the lack of thought going on here that's the real crime.
I've been a true-believer fascist. I've been an active anti-fascist. And thus I have ground to stand on to say a plague on both their houses. No dumb fascism, no knee-jerk antifa. Munich teaches the wrong lessons: the reason Chamberlain et al caved was that they had observed how the Nazis went from strength to strength by painting themselves as crusading martyrs when the other German political parties tried to ban them or fight them in the streets. Those are fascist tactics.
Governments can hold the line, but as long as we're fighting over the same hearts and minds, fighting fascists with fascist tactics dooms antifa to failure. Look at Germany. The whole country has been on a blind-repression (neo-fascist) antifa kick since 1945, and there are still more fascists in Germany than in the rest of Western Europe combined. Fighting fire with fire just produces more fire. Yes disprove, yes debunk, yes fact-check, but don't just say BAD.
Like Lemmy says on this topic, life's too short to be dumb.
Ontopic:
Current video: [secret audio] to [secret anime] for [secret purpose]. Progress check: 75%. Expected catalog number: #85. Will do the timing chart tonight, and maybe initial-stage editing. I'm not sure that I like how much of this one is relying on subs for humor (conceptually), so I'll try to rein that in and cover all the bases I need to. It should be done by deadline.
Hopefully, the same will be true for chapter 12; I'm hoping to bang that out before semester break. Shouldn't be too hard, but there's a lot of stuff that may tend to get in the way.
Today's band that's better than yours: The Fifth Sun. That's who the title quote's from; find 'em, crank the samples, and marvel that a band with this strong a claim to being the heirs to Chuck's throne isn't even signed yet. The label world is doing a bit better lately (Sigh is on a major, Chastisement finally has a deal), but a few gems still slip through the cracks.
Speaking of Chastisement, the new material is pretty cool. They really dug themselves a hole with the explosive success of _...but lost we are_, but the new stuff manages to reprise that feel with just enough difference to say "yes, we wanna stay successful, but fuck you if you're expecting the same songs over again". "Destructutorial" is just an inch away from being "Rapid Fluid Part II", but that inch makes all the difference in the world. I like the old rougher/rawer guitar sound and lower vocals better, but the overall level of writing has definitely been stepped up, and the style is now more unique than it was before, by virtue of staying the same. Too many other Swedish bands have hopped on the neo-thrash train and too few are staying true to death metal.
Right, that should about do up your offensiveness RDA.
--Kai out
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walk without limbs
2003-12-01 09:28:54
That's the good part about not being in the mainstream. When the bands you work with find out you do videos with their stuff, they don't ask you to take down the ones you've got online, they ask you to put up the ones you haven't. I probably shouldn't release which band contacted me about which work (until they've decided whether or not they dig it), but hopefully it'll be a win-win situation; they get a bit more exposure as well as me getting to hear some of their more recent stuff. They'd been silent for a while, so I can't wait to hear their new material.
No progress on the video, but #82 and #84 ('WCFYCB' and 'Gunwomen of the Apocalypse', respectively) are now up. Enjoy....maybe/hopefully. I didn't get any work done on the book either, but working on CS is the reason I'm supposed to be in school. Then again, with the way the economy's been, perhaps writing ought to be more of a priority than it is......
First things first; gotta finish up homework and take care of that request.
--Kai out
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find the key, lock the door
2003-11-30 15:33:24
HEY!!!!! THERE IS VIDEO NEWS!!!! HOW THE FUCK 'BOUT THAT!!!!
Yeah, #84 is complete....and there was much rejoicing. I'll be putting it up tomorrow, but I've got a pile of work to go through for today...the one day I'm not working on AMVs, though I probably could have....put the last ep I have to cut through on CD with my standby VDub and old-beta TMPEG, remember to haul a blank, and I could have been cutting and rendering-out all day. As it is, though, not.
Current video: [secret audio] to [secret anime] for [secret purpose]. Progress check: 50%. Expected catalog number: #85. This video has to be done by the end of the week, including an intro sequence, which will probably mess up timing just like back on #46. It may be released to the .org sometime after that, but that will depend on the input of two people, either of whom may hold back on their conditions. Oh well. At least the homework's getting lighter and the thorny part of chapter 12 is written out, so I may be able to finish the next video (#86) before the end of the semester. Similar expectations for the one after it are probably just a pipe dream.
There's a reason why I haven't started a metal project since September. Early '03 is going to see the production of something far beyond immediate comprehension, slated for what is now an inauspicious number, but that's just the Loki-spirit at it again.
Offtopic:
I can't reinforce enough that despite the lack of legal restrictions on shinken in the US, any serious student of the sword-based martial arts who doesn't also own a bokken is only hurting themseves. The additional price is a drop in the bucket (good red-oak bokken for $14 vs. floor-model, non-differentially-tempered shinken for $150), and the reinforcement effect is immediate. Two weeks with a bokken in the practice repertoire and I've thoroughly unlearned three years of bad shinken-only habits. The bokken's greater air resistance compensates for its low weight and forces your strokes into proper patterns. Shinai are for sparring. Shinken are for demonstration and combat. And bokken are for training. You *will* see and feel immediate results. I'm currently doing two sets of each practice in my repertoire with the bokken, then one repetition with the shinken, all in fairly quick succession so that the muscle memories are easily transfered from the bokken's patterns to the real-steel, which is where they're actually useful. Now all I need is a shinai and someone to train against...if only I could count on a bus to Ypsi when the only kendo club in the state holds its meetings.
That's sit, I've got work to do. Videos will go up tomorrow.
--Kai out
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the circle is completed now
2003-11-26 07:48:30
Quick post, I've got a bunch of other stuff to do.
Look for two videos after Thanksgiving break; I'm definitely going to finish #84, and even more certainly going to get #82 upped. I also should be able to smash up the prank video (maybe even with some MEIMI stuff like an interesting cinema-combo effect I've been meaning to try out) as well, but that's not going to premiere until after the 6th.
And I got some research materials so I'll be able to finish the end of chapter 12. I was feeling a little under the weather last night, but tonight should be good to go. I can multiplex all kinds of stuff and maybe even get out to Scorekeepers tomorrow to watch the Pack go house on the Lions.
Speaking of football, what the fuck is going on with the Patriots? When I left, they had just sold off Lawyer Milloy, practically their frickin franchise player, and got their asses handed to them by Buffalo. Now they're one game back of the Chiefs and ruling their division with an iron fist. Who knew?
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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