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trapped in a wasteland
2003-10-10 14:27:36
Somehow, one of my vids that still has an aggregate star score under 3.00 made it onto #15 on someone's faves list. Further proof that some people have no taste. Whether those people are those who like my work or those who don't is an exercise left to the reader.
I output and tagged the Loki tape very late last night, and I'm actually pretty well caught up on 478 (I got hosed on HW #2), so I'll probably zip through Excel DVD 5 this weekend. I've got a bunch of stuff to do tonight, and I've got to write up a bunch of stuff for 481, but writing is easy. Logic minimization isn't.
I'll get these two vids out, mail off con stuff for at least AUSA, maybe Sugoi, plus Project Haibane, then tell Ian to get me some damn shows. It's less than a month to the con, and I've only got one tape dumped. Taihen taihen.
Offtopic:
It's cool that Morbid Angel is going out with Superjoint on the coming tour. It is NOT cool that they don't add till they've left my region behind. Well, it's not like I'd actually be able to find anyone to go in to Harpo's with me; the scene here sucks. The big hard music acts do come from Ann Arbor lately have been Andrew W.K. and Taproot. If I wanted to join an emo band, I'd have no problems, but I don't cotton too well to being a moron.
What's even less cool is that I don't have _Heretic_ yet. I don't have _Dance of Death_. I don't even have fucking _Anthems of Rebellion_. That's how pitiful the record-store scene around here is. Sure, I can get Ven Buens Ende from five years ago in Encore, but I want to be able to buy good NEW metal without having to walk five miles to Ypsi. All the complacent scene heads from the East Coast who think we've already won need to come out here and see what the rest of the country's still like.
And bring out some new releases; I'll trade ya some Saxon vinyls for 'em.
--Kai out
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in a world that's unforgiving
2003-10-09 08:00:13
I'm going to be a little late with my 478 homework. Suck. I've got to gin up an espresso file and run that sometime before 11, producing something printable. I may just skip 492 and get it done.
I should have done this last night, but did not. That's just called paying the price. I'll get it done -- done well is another story. Hopefully I'll be able to make up the points.
I'm almost done outputting Ragnarok 3, and will put these eps onto tape sometime tonight or tomorrow. Then I can get back to AMVage until Ian decides it's time to go into high gear. I don't know if I accurately emphasized to him that rendering a single episode can take as long as 16 hours. Whatever. He's got a TV-out card as well, so it's not all on my shoulders. I'm only responsible for making sure the stuff *I* output doesn't suck.
Touch makes a great crash course in baseball-insider-ism. I now understand much better *why* the Old Towne Team was able to tool all over the Evil Empire last night. Good anime and useful side knowledge -- why isn't this series (or for that matter ANYTHING animated off Adachi's work) licensed here yet?
(offtopic:)
Speaking of licensing, there is apparently an Initial D trading card game being marketed. This is one of the dead-stupidest ideas Tokyopop has ever come up with. It's not like Yu-Gi-Oh, which is pure fantasy, or even DBZ or Pokemon, which at least have some pretense of reality around the edges. Initial D is about driving cars, and this is not a car-deprived society. If you have one, you can even give the intro warnings on the eps the finger and go practice street racing maneuvers on back roads in your area. Driving cars hard and fast is not a fantasy that can only be lived out by flipping cards over, but a blood-pumping reality that can be easily done *instead* of buying the stupid cards and finding someone else with little enough of a life to play.
Warnings to follow traffic safety rules to the contrary, otaku culture would be a lot more healthy if more of us actually went outside and challenged the corners, threw some elbows while boxing out (Slam Dunk), put a couple hours into the heavy bag (Ippo), or suited up and took some falls (Yawara), instead of just fantasizing about how cool it would be if we could. We CAN; it's just that too many of us DON'T.
--Kai out
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and the only splash of color
2003-10-06 09:09:45
Behind the eight ball. I've got a ton of classwork to get through (hoping to do 478 tomorrow since it's all using espresso), and I have to catch up with my group on meeting times and what I've got to do for next week. SDS time...crap. At least I've got most of my AI studying out of the way, and I should be able to take care of most of the homework today as well
I've got to clear out the current video and get a good drive management scheme going posthaste, though, because I have to output probably seven hours of anime for track 2 of Con Ja Nai X. I need to get some tapes as well, which I can hopefully expense. I also need to get said eps; I can start working on Matantei Loki Ragnarok right now, but most of the stuff we're showing I don't have. That's the price of spending all my MITAC borrows on Cooking Master Boy and Konjiki no Gash Bell.
And, of course, Early Reins, which I need to find a song to go with. Classic oat opera plotting with high-budget OVA production values and Hong-Kong-inspired cinematography. What the hell's not to like? They even got all the little stuff right too, like cartridge compatibility, even if the subbers don't know how to spell Gatling and don't know what an Accles tube is. It's so different from Hoshi no Koe that I can't honestly determine which is better, but it's definitely the best one-off OVA I've watched since. It just rocks. Three weeks, and I'll probably be able to premiere a video with it and prove that.
--Kai out
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wipe the ice from your eyes
2003-10-03 09:06:47
It's been tough, but I've got some actual progress to report, and even accounting for all the studying I have to do for my AI miderm, I'll probably be able to premiere the video(s) under current production at the Animania showing weekend after next. I'll probably be able to chop through the four eps most recently capped tomorrow, and get a good way into DVD 6 (and last) over Sunday and Monday. Almost there....
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 53%. Expected catalog number: #82. I have enough source to do a second video in tandem with this, but I don't feel right about announcing it straight off, because it's a little shaky. It'll probably be only anounced when this one finishes and it goes gold. Retractions suck, and I've already had to do far too many of them on here.
Project Haibane should be going to the distro center in the imminent future, probably mailed the same time as my Anime USA entry: within the next two weeks. I've got to steal some brown paper bags from the co-op; I've got wrappings for three more mailings, but I'll probaby send out at least one more entry (Ohayocon or Sugoi-Con) and maybe two (the other as well) in addition to the two I have to post. Other videos will be delayed; I've had some problems converting and lost a few MPEG2 con-level copies. Of course, everything's backed up on CD, but most of it's backed up on CDs 800 miles away. I'll have a lot of mailing to do come January.
--Kai out
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so let us depart
2003-10-01 08:26:34
Absence has been due to being sick and having too much work to do. I'm probably going to get cracking on the videos this weekend, as well as get at least the next chapter of the book done. I've got 11 chapters done of 18 now, and have approximately 165 pages at final proof. The next couple are going to be pretty long (chapter 10 [0-9 and 17 are done] is an excruciating flashback), though, and I've got a lot of good material already plotted out. There's one chapter that, as planned, is still an absolute giant hole, but hopefully I'll be able to get some kind of framework up for it by the time I need to write it. By any measure, I'm over 50% done, with good hopes of finishing the book by the end of second semester.
I finally watched the September Newtype disc, and noticed two things. First: the trailer for Scryed (SKU-RAI-DO!!! --Phil) looks like a typical crappy, over-effected action AMV. If they're trying to sell it to the Dragonball audience, I'd say they're on the right track. Second: Angelic Layer is the frikkin Beverly Hillbillies of anime. Every single one of the main characters has a really sharp and noticeable Kansai accent, in some cases so bad as to almost completely distract from the plot (shoujo Pokemon with octopus-in-the-pants gags, so it's not always a problem). No idea what CLAMP was thinking with this, but in the light of their other works, the series is probably good in spite of it.
And all is not lost. At least this semester, the center for Japanese film studies on campus is showing offbeat anime every week on Fridays. Wartime shorts this week (which I didn't see in AS213), then The White Snake next, followed with The Adventures of Horus. I'm a little pissed about missing Ninja Bugeicho, but there's no such thing as a perfect world.
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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