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fall from grace
2003-04-17 12:48:11
Today is technically an 'off' day before AniBo, but there's still progress stats to be noted, just from finishing up ep 4 last night, and other random crap as usual.
I was out buying high-test food supplies for the weekend, and picked up this week's Raijin. It sucks. They cut their best story, The First President of Japan, in favor of more Tetsuo Hara random-violence-crap. Fist of the Blue Sky is mildly interesting, but Keiji, the new one, is just crud. Boring setup, boring, repetitive plots, and violence so realistic and guesome that it fails to either shock or entertain. I want my goddamn five bucks back. Baki and Slam Dunk move so goddamned slow that without TFOP there is no reason to read Raijin.
Okay, maybe City Hunter, but there wasn't that much going on in this installment either. I'm not even going to go into Bow Wow Wata, the reasons behind the licensing of which still escape me. It's not just that it's dojin-style shoujo, it's that it SUCKS, and nothing ever happens.
Current videos: Bill O'Brien, "Old Shoes" to Haibane Renmei and Gamma Ray, "A While In Dreamland" to Haibane Renmei. Progress check: 45% and 41%. Expected catalog numbers: #75 and #76. Right now I'm looking at somewhere around 14-15 minutes of source already clipped, with four of eleven eps cut through. I could probably do the two videos on the slate right now, but I really need to get through the end of the series to do the Gamma Ray right. If I'm in any shape to work after AniBo, expect to see two more songs added to these updates early next week.
Working a little on the book, in patches, hopefully going to finish the current chapter (7/18) today, then get some sleep. I need a 4:30 rise to catch a 5:30 train to get to Arlington, find the hotel, and get processed before Wings of Honneamise starts. Sixty hours of anime interspersed with a metal show, some train rides, and homeless nights -- the way the life gotta be.
--Kai out
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i'm a wolf in human shape
2003-04-16 12:15:00
The march of time it passes on...in the form of extremely slow video progress. I think I got just about or just under 3 minutes out of ep 4, which is decent, and an expected reduction because Kana's character and actions don't often mesh well with the overall thematics of any of the four songs in this project.
This heat is stifling. I know it's going to drop down into the thirties by the end of the day, but it's still ridiculous. Hopefully that job in Maine will still be open, so I can strongarm them into taking me back up to a temperate climate. Cold is not a problem, but heat just drives me berserk.
Current videos: Bill O'Brien, "Old Shoes" to Haibane Renmei and Gamma Ray, "A While In Dreamland" to Haibane Renmei. Progress check: 43% and 39%. Expected catalog numbers: #75 and #76. In addition to being a big video project, this one is also an operational test to see how well Hasshin Ryu scales over long series rich in source. So far it's scaling pretty well, with pace only slightly slower than expected. The one-day-per-chunk rule has not changed, and the new standard of 7 hours' processing time (as opposed to 5) per proxy-cut episode is not an over-burden considering that the amount of source gained per ep has more than doubled. It's too early to call this test a success -- that has to wait until it produces a worthwhile video and finishes the production cycle on all associated works -- but all indicators seem to be pointing in that direction.
Offtopic: one of my friends (and the brother of one of the guys in MPD, btw) got arrested over the weekend for breaking into a Dairy Queen. Talk about stupid crimes. The place isn't even open yet this time of year; what was he gonna do, steal a soft-serve machine? Plus everything in this particular DQ had been ruined when some pipes burst back in January......
Dumbass.
--Kai out
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wait for an answer
2003-04-15 17:26:25
Sent off the latest two releases to the DC this morning, along with my entry for AX (#70; I'll have to correct the premiere date). Today being what it is, I took some extra time to drive out to a small-town post office, where I only had to wait like five minutes in line behind four people needing certs on their tax packages.
I absolutely can't relate to such scrambling. I telefiled back in January, so I've already filed, got my refund, filed a correction, paid overage, got the paperwork back on that, and more or less spent the rewards, to the point of nearly forgetting that other people have to screw around with ridiculous forms, and didn't take, say, the Presidents' Day weekend to iron 'em all out.
Current videos: Bill O'Brien, "Old Shoes" to Haibane Renmei and Gamma Ray, "A While In Dreamland" to Haibane Renmei. Progress check: 38% and 35%. Expected catalog numbers: #75 and #76. I've ripped the other two songs, but I'm not going to announce them until I've got 100% overage on them as well. Ep 3 yielded about 3.5 minutes, an expected reduction (since any clips from the first 1.5 min would have just duplicated those I got from 2), so the well doesn't seem in any way to be drying up.
I've been listening to my old Guardians records lately. It's been a while, so I had almost forgotten how much they rocked back in 1987-1994. Seriously. Try listening to _Somewhere in Time_ or _Follow The Blind_ back to back with _A Night At The Opera_ sometime. What a difference a decade makes. Some of their newer fans may not even know what Kreator and Dark Angel sound like, let alone that Hansi and the boys used to hang out with them. Depressing.
Anyway, 'Bijected Cosmic Face' and 'dead worlds' are newly on the Carrot, with 'show us your grace' currently uploading. I've got a couple more that can go up at this pace, but there's only so many that'll fit in <3 hours upload time, with content to match the rules, that have premiered, and don't have demo text or suck components.
--Kai out
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hey klm | at&t
2003-04-14 14:21:02
Work continues on Project Haibane. With only two episodes clipped so far (sue me, I spent the weekend watching Yawara and getting my panel demos ready for AniBo), my best estimate is that I now have full coverage for the two videos I'm currently committed to. At this rate, it's getting more and more likely that I turn this into a four-video project, and also that clipping will extend well into next week. I'm well aware that other videos have started out rich in the initial going, then dried up towards the middle of the series, but having seen this show through, it seems more accurate to believe that this rate of volume will substantially continue than not to.
Current videos: Bill O'Brien, "Old Shoes" to Haibane Renmei and Gamma Ray, "A While In Dreamland" to Haibane Renmei. Progress check: 33% and 31%. Expected catalog numbers: #75 and #76. Even at the new slower pace, I should be able to finish clipping by the end of next week and finish editing all videos the week after that, the first week of May.
Looking ahead, the DC and AX stuff will probably be mailed tomorrow, and further ahead, projects for major cons not defined yet look to include only AWA's Pro and Masters competitions. Pro is probably going to be #64 and one of the videos from Project Haibane, but Masters (thank you CNAnime) is genuinely undecided and dependent largely on how things go down in the AniBo dealers' room. If I can find two certain DVDs, the Masters project will consist of three fairly normal videos with a single theme; if not, it'll be one huge video that will take every ounce of knowhow and experience I have to execute at all.
Ofcourse, either way, it'll come out cool, and probably not win anything, but that's just the way things go.
--Kai out
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a new kingdom rise
2003-04-11 10:02:48
Finally, a good banner! Plain text, "The banners suck... ...but the videos are pretty good." Not great for advertising the site, but good for those of us who use it and have to endure the obvious typos, hideous color balance, and pretentious or plain stupid sloganeering that characterize 80+% of accepted banners and nearly 100% of those rejected.
I don't have enough time before club today to do any video work, so I'm probably going to try and remaster some more of the vids that will be going on Hasshin! 3, and maybe organize the two releases that'll be going to the AMV DC or output my AX tape. This bundle'll probably be mailed Saturday; with luck I'll also get through at least 3 eps of HaiRen this weekend.
Oh, btw, #56, 'LinkinBread K', is now up on the Carrot. I'll tap out a post in Announcements on Monday (I have another vid to put up by request over the weekend), but with so few people having access before then announcing vids like these seems almost a waste of time.
--Kai out
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JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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