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and i'm on my way
2003-09-19 09:34:48
Put up five or so ops today, more coming soon. And I will eventually fulfill all those commitments made on the free-ops thread.
A lot of schoolwork for this weekend; I plan to probably finish clipping tonight and tomorrow morning on eps 15-17, then cap DVD 5 while doing work tomorrow, and put all of Sunday into school stuff. Still no response from the people I'm trying to get a job from, which sucks. And I just got my bill too -- if I don't get a GSI job next semester, I can't afford to go to school. Fuckers. What the fuck is with charging me extra for that third course. There will be blood.
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 44%. Expected catalog number: #82. Work continues to proceed, but there's still other stuff that needs doing, like making sure I get credit for my classes and trying to find some way to pay all my expenses here.
Sooner or later I'll get a job, and not have to worry about this, but it's looking a lot more like later than sooner. Not fun.
--Kai out
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you will stop breathing
2003-09-18 08:11:42
Work never stops; I'm current on homework, but I've got a bunch of reading still to do, and two more assignments drop in the next two days. AARGH. I'm currently aiming the current video at Anime USA, but who the hell knows if I'll be able to get it in on deadline? If not I'll take a week encoding #79 and #81 to standard; why can't they add their six-second bumpers themselves?
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 42%. Expected catalog number: #82. DVD #4 is capped, and I may be able to clip some of it tonight if things don't get too hectic around class today. I've got coverage for both songs, even if I end up editing the main one to remove some of the verses that Peter just repeats.
As all four of the people in AMV-land who have ever even heard of Razor know, this song, per lyrics, has a lot in common with Possessed's "Death Metal" (used in SH073/KK09): a pretty straight take on Night of the Living Dead et al. So why Excel Saga? Because in covering it on _The Final Chapter_, Hypocrisy already expropriated it and recontextualized the song within the alien-encounter concept of that album. The 'evil invaders' in this context are not necessarily zombies, but something generally from space or outside the normal experience. Tagtgren's deathgrowl obscures the initial lyrical intent and allows a takeoff like this to work. Mostly action, but some comedy, because it's always funny to watch Puchuus get mutilated.
Dakara sou. The other song will probably be announced shortly, as soon as I get overage for it. Any video done with this will probably be much in the line of #68, which should go up in the near future.
--Kai out
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reflecting the cruel part of your soul
2003-09-16 07:47:37
No work on the video yesterday. I did a bit of my homework, though, and put like 15-20 pages into the book, so it wasn't a total loss. I'll probably clip one ep, finish the 478 homework, and see what time I have left for other stuff tonight.
I sincerely apologize to anyone whose mail I haven't answered, or who I still owe opinions or other stuff to. There's a bit of a break ahead, so I should be able to get a little caught up. I'll probably do some ops after I finish clipping this DVD, and I'll definitely get the AAT archive out. If I had a working floppy drive, this wouldn't be a problem, but I'm not going to go to that trouble when burning CDs is more useful and less expensive.
I'm probably over the hump as far as the book goes; 10 of 18 chapters done. The next chap shouldn't be too hard, as I've got a paragraph or two to blend in (probably near the end), and it's probably going to have a good bit of combat. Writing combat is easy. Combat and dialogue are the two great pagecount-stretchers, and while with dialogue you have to create a believable conversation and two distinct character voices, in combat all you have to do is make sure that everything happens like you've planned it. My only real concern was to keep the combat real and dirty, to fit in with the rest of the narrative. Standard high fantasy doesn't have to capture the blood, sweat, pain, and fear, but the way I'd written so far forced me to, and it's tough. If it's accurate in any way I have Tim O'Brien to thank for it. If not, as always, all mistakes are my own.
--Kai out
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and my soul went down
2003-09-15 08:52:16
Uneven weekend -- got a bunch of work done, but not as much as I had initially hoped for. I'm a little further along on the video, but I could be much closer to completion. I need to suck it up and seriously get stuff done, because when I start working in addition to class, it's gonna get intense.
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 31%. Expected catalog number: #82. Clipped eps 6-8 and capped the 3rd DVD, all on Friday, but I couldn't get myself rolling enough to clip those four eps over the weekend. It sucks, because I had a ton of time, especially yesterday, but did basically nothing.
Three good points: we beat the tar out of the Irish Saturday, with the biggest crowd in college football history on hand -- about 10,000 more than the stadium can even seat. People were parking for the game in front of my house, way the hell at the other end of Ann Arbor. I now have a wall scroll of Gatts hanging over my system to inspire me to kick more ass.
And finally, Cat Soup. It's like watching someone else's acid trip for 35 minutes, and may be the biggest reason I didn't get any work done. Just lying on the couch eating chips and going wowwww maaaaan......
Roight. I've got jobs to hunt for and 478 homework to get cracking on, and ofcourse video processing. I got some requests in for #68 and #55, so I'll see about putting those on the Donut. #68's good to go, but #55 I have to watch again to be sure (I think it'll clear).
And, of course, I've got to actually FTP them up. Later...
--Kai out
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purify the divine
2003-09-12 09:49:11
Not much to report; worked on the book a little yesterday, but spent most of the day in class, and then had a meeting laying out design requirements and business-planning a semester-project-cum-startup. We probably won't make any money out of it, but I should be able to use the opportunity to learn PHP or really learn Python, and maybe get an idea to the point where we could sell it to Adeco or somebody.
Having finished Yawara (I still need eps 1-4 and 50-53, so if anyone's got those, pref unsubbed VHS, drop me a line or look for a short-haired dude in a metal shirt at Animate next week if you're around A2), I watched the first for eps of Ninku TV this morning while the laundry was going. It's pretty cool, but I can't really see anyone paying money for it, especially these days. Not even sure anyone'd really want to fansub it. Oh well.
Then again, as that Vampire: The Matrix (ok, so the producers call it Underworld, but that's what it IS) movie opening the end of next week shows, there is no accounting for what corporations think people will pay money for. I'd point at anime corps as being a little more rational, but hey: somebody thought Madox and Yumede Aetara would sell.
I'm anticipating a good amount of work on both the book and the video project over the weekend, as even if I wanted to go to the Notre Dame game, not only would I not be able to get tickets, but due to the traffic going down to the stadium I'd find it difficult to get out of my house. Nonetheless, go Blue! If I'm going to have to put up with this crap, we damn better well win.
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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