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with hate each day i burn
2005-02-20 18:23:59
The recs continue pounding along, but the price is a lack of video work: I've been at work since 9:00 today and when I get home it's time for Nadia, Czech beer, and desperately trying to get some nutrition down. Maybe tomorrow -- if I'm not entirely consumed by travel bullshit and taxes which I also didn't do yet -- I'll put in an hour or two on #94.
Reviewing so many videos, I thought I would start thinking less of certain people I recognize on the forums due to the fact that so many videos (50%, actually) are 'average' or worse. Then I realized that there are so *many* videos under scope that I can't *remember* who did what. So it all goes back to the music, where it ought to be in the first place. How it is.
--Kai out
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pushing me from black to white
2005-02-18 11:31:56
Not much work last night; I was reviewing videos, which fortunately fit almost exactly onto a normal curve in terms of ratings. Some good surprises, some that just sucked nonstop and became extremely frustrating. Lacking the credentials to post a Recomendations topic, it's up independently on mine own space:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~psdel/recs/
Club tonight, and then Sunday I'm probably going to do some editing. Just have to get my goddamn travel stuff done today and wrap up some docs. Saturday is a bunch of administrative stuff including a donation so that I can do this mass audit without the bloody donation splash pages (and because I've got like a gig and a half on the local server).
I still have to find somewhere to move my stuff to once my UM account closes; that'll probably happen next week, or possibly while I'm in Germany, with the actual content move occurring after. Just gotta be careful not to run afoul of TOS....though lack of poularity will help with that.
--Kai out
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changing gear
2005-02-17 12:53:50
With the release of the recommendations forum, I stopped and thought, "what if I actually watched videos rather than just making them?" The result was a lot of downloads this morning as I work towards recommended AMVs using real metal, a sadly neglected area. After tonight, I should have some solid recs for artists beginning with the letters A and B -- that are online, not mine, and not .wmv; even though I can technically view this format, it is still a net negative and WILL NOT be promoted by anything like this that aspires to underground ethics. So far there have been some good videos and some that truly suck; most of the videos under survey will be watched tonight, which will allow me to do C and probably also D tomorrow. Progress, progress; next week may involve fake ratings so I can get through the alphabet before I go to Germany.
I will also be grinding on the video; I think I have the first part done up fine, but need to double-check this. There's an interesting production trick I want to try, but it may or may not be successful. I did get a legit version of the first 2:49 built, but that's far from any kind of "done", and I still have to do a shitload of other stuff (mostly relating to taxes and club responsibilities) over the weekend.
As mentioned above, I am going to Dresden effective about the 28th in the course of my job. Lucky I already got my passport -- and a thick file of expense forms. Only problem is that it's going to be balls-to-the-wall all next week as I get done the stuff under my other two hats that would otherwise have gone in the following week. If I wanted to sleep I'd have done grad school in German, and I'd be somnolently plodding toward a doctorate right now. Instead it's field support, and life turned to 11.
--Kai out
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dye 'em black
2005-02-16 12:27:29
Today, lack of video progress is brought to you by Blacklight Braille, Kenji Miyazawa, Type O Negative, and San Miguel. Drink the last while reading the second and listening to the first and third, and see if YOU feel like doing anything.
Naruto was licensed yesterday, and fandom and the fandom industries embarked on what will surely be a months- if not years-long sociology experiement in which many people will be ethically tested. AnimeSuki is the first on the hot seat, not taking down Naruto torrents because the show remains to be licensed to somebody who will actually put it on TV or in stores. Many people think this is a bullshit action in violation of ethics, but many more DEMAND that it be taken, in order that they continue to receive free Naruto -- or that their fansub group, which hangs its hat on Naruto, will continue to receive attention.
When fansubs are done for glory -- characterized by competition between multiple groups working on the same title -- rather than as a service, it stops being about anime and starts being about the fansubbers, who ought to have no more fan status than any random group of bootleggers. Anyone else remember the old encodes of Daa! Daa! Daa! that were deliberately done WITHOUT reference to ANY groups or individuals involved in their production? Now THAT was ethical fansubbing; this ceaseless modern promotion of groups and channels in competition for properties, hanging their hats on past release catalogs like the commercial companies that they pretend to despise (yet fall short of becoming, as AnimEigo did), is decidedly not.
I got my schedule shaken up today; I'll be in the US till about April 1, absent a week or so (probably the first week of March) chaperoning a simulator. This has positive prospects for several videos, but I have to get my ass back in gear and do some work, period, before this can become a reality. There are also increasing concerns about the adequacy of the company laptop I'm using; I may just buy my own kit (to fit up as a temporary editing station) and get work stuff loaded. Or NewEgg myself a system once I get to Germany; have to see how the living offset comes down and what exactly is going to be "furnished" with the apartment.
As always, no rest for the wicked.
--Kai out
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the circle is completed now
2005-02-14 10:34:50
No progress this weekend; put that up to 27 episodes watched Saturday, which is a personal "best" if certainly not a world record. Fortunately, there was a thick measure of Genshiken in there for correcting perspective. People occasionally state that Genshiken doesn't get after otaku, but if they can't pick up on the subtext that the club members are, despite their good points, DEEPLY FLAWED PEOPLE, who it is NOT OKAY to turn out like, they are missing the point. Genshiken is funny principally because it points out stuff that we do as fans and holds it up to ridicule; we laugh at ourselves and say, "man, that's so true; I really need to go outside more".
As regards actual video work, #94 may finish before the end of the week, with one or two more videos in the remaining 26 days before I allegedly go to Germany. Of course, that's dependent on work schedules (not having to come in on Saturdays) and other stuff, but I'm at least going to get #94 done. At this point, it's mostly a case of going back into the editor and getting down to hacking. I should probably run another check on some production stuff before getting back to it in earnest, but straight application is all it's going to take. Either the video gets finished, or it's just not going to work as is and I have to start over from scratch.
Maybe tonight. Or maybe I'll just drink and watch Tico & Nanami and rip stuff. I should be more productive, but that countdown to emigration keeps rolling, and working hard for eight to nine hours on stuff I get paid for kind of fills up my appetite for effort.
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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