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creepy computer o_o
2006-05-19 01:52:11
OMG, my computer makes weird noises. It's freaky.
Set up - so I've been wanting to review a video, right? But I've had the baby all week and I fall asleep as soon as I send it home. Well, I got tired today and went ahead and used my headphones. Now, when I use my headphones everything is like a thousand times louder. I have to open the volume control box and move the 'wave' bar all the way down. Even then, if I have the volume on the lowest setting, I still have to turn down my players so my ears don't hurt.
With this setup, it means I can hear every little sound my computer makes - things I normally can't pick up with my speakers. Well...I was unzipping a large file with winrar. And I had my headphones on at the time. And my computer gave a sound effect to go with the winrar program. That's not supposed to happen. I turn all the sound effects off on my programs because they annoy me. There is no sound effect in wirar that plays when it's unzipping a file. But there was a sound this time. It was a wirling pinging noise, like insects talking to each other from inside my computer.
Yes, I need more sleep. It is still decidedly creepy. I could understand if I heard it outside my computer - coming from the harddrive as it struggles to do some difficult task. I get that sometimes when the little yellow-gold light flashes and I'm compressing a video or ripping a dvd. This sound was different - it only existed inside the headphones. o.o
That means...if I turn my volume up full blast without the headphones, I may suddenly find my computer talking to me every time I use any random program. Ever seen that move White Noise? Yeah. I don't think I'll be using headphones when I'm alone at midnight anymore. It's too weird.
>.>
Whirly gurgling pinging noises...I'd hate to hear it if I had the volume up a notch.
<.< -
I wrote a review~!
2006-05-18 20:13:18
Yes, that is such a big deal I had to make a journal entry about it. That makes an even 510 ops in...3 years... ~_~;; I know for a fact I did over 300 my first 4mnths here.
I swear, I don't know how I used to churn reviews out so easily. I used to give an op for every one I received. I opped newbie vids in the forum, too. It was like bragging rights that I'd given twice what I'd received. My goal was to top MJ on the usefullness chart. Like that meant something.
Ah, the good ole days of free time and motivation. Now I can't even write an op unless someone specifically asks for it, and even then I have trouble sitting down and actually starting it.
I really want to make a free op thread. But I don't want THOSE PEOPLE to post in it, and I know they'll be the first to drop links to their vids. You know the people I'm talking about. The ones who gripe about how ops are pointless. The ones who go on and on about how we should just scrap the op system entirely. The ones who snub their noses at me because my opinion doesn't matter. The ones who ALWAYS post first in my op threads like I'm too stupid to remember what they wrote in the other sections of the forum. Those people. They ruined reviewing for me and they always pop up when I get the motivation to try again. I think I hate them. Hypocrites, the lot of them. Unless they do it on purpose to make me waste my time. In which case I know I hate them.
No. I won't be trying again any time soon. I'll just keep an eye on the announcement section for new faces who honestly want and care about feedback. And maybe I'll have another review done sometime this year.
I miss the intro section something awful. It's lonely here, stagnant. Or maybe I'm just too old.
There's always fanfiction. ^__^ -
next best thing
2006-05-15 19:37:52
There's a fun thread in the forum about how we need a new Euphoria. Insane effects and common content isn't "new" anymore, and it seems Euphoria wasn't new when it came out. But they want a new Euphoria anyway, because that will be new and groundbreaking while also uniting the community behind a new trend of creating new and groundbreaking videos. Even though Euphoria wasn't new or groundbreaking when it came out. Confused? You're not? Ah, well, I figured it was just me.
I haven't seen anything new in a long time. What's new? I thought Euphoria was a new tend-leading video for the pretty effects cause. Then I watched a few MADs and realized effects like that are just like the opening credits of anime taken to a new level. Sure, it's more intensive and difficult looking, and prettier, but it's not really new. Then I thought Naruto's Technique Beat (sp?) was new because I'd never seen an amv done in such a game-style way. But it turns out the effects used to make that video aren't difficult and that means it's not new. So...difficult effects = new? I don't get it. But that's what they say, and they'd know more about effects and newness than I would.
I still think crossover videos are new. I can't say that in the forum because I'll get responses about how "it's been done before and thus is not new". It's like saying no dbz videos can be new because we already have dbz videos. Or like saying no romance amvs can be new because we already have romance amvs. There are no crossdressing crossover videos that put shonen anime characters in Sailormoon type transformation scenes. If I did a crossover like that, I'd consider it very new. But it wouldn't be new because we already have a dbz/bebop crossover and one crossover in existence means all other crossover vids are not new. The Race isn't a new video because Chibi Things That Kill already crossed more than two anime so all multiple anime crossovers are not new. So a new brand of softdrink isn't new if a different company already made a new brand, even if the two brands have nothing in common besides being new brands of softdrink. And that makes sense? I don't get it.
If all the "this is not new because someone already made an amv before" is true, then there's no such thing as a "new amv" because the first person to make an amv already made one. What's the point of looking for new if new doesn't exist? Makes no sense. I just don't get it.
First it was any anime that's been used before is automatically old. So there's no such thing as a new Sailormoon amv because the anime has already been used and thus everything done with it is old. Then it was any effect that's been used before is automatically old. So even if you make the effect by hand and use it in a way you've never seen it used before, it's still old because effects done by hand have been done before and thus every effect done by hand is old. That counts for any and all effects because once someone made a video using difficult effects, all difficult effects become old and not new, even if you've never seen that particular effect before. It's still an effect an effects are old. Now it's all crossovers are old because someone did a crossover once and one crossover video means all crossover videos are automatically old. Is it any wonder I pull my hair out trying to understand the way these people think?
I've read thousands of romance stories, fanfictional romance stories using canon characters. No one will every be able to convince me that all romance stories using a set pairing are old just because someone has already done a romance story with that pairing. I've watched hundreds of dbz amvs, and I refuse to believe they are all the same just because other people tell me one dbz amv in existence means all others are identically and no longer new. It's like I'm trying to argue that my computer is unique because I hand painted little chibi Hiei's all over the monitor - when to them all computers are identical because they're all computers no matter what they look like. I can't win, and just trying to win makes my head hurt.
I don't like new, anyway. I like happy. If it makes me happy, it's good. I'll leave the new versus "automatically not new" to people who can argue with brick walls better than I can. New is a subjective term like good or bad. I don't care how many pencils I own, the one with my teeth marks on the end from my fifth grade history test is different from the others. No one can convince me otherwise. If they can't see how the teeth marks make that pencil different, that's their problem, not mine.
Still a fun thread. I hope the artists make a studio and put out an opus or two. I might not appreciate art, but as long as there's an anime in the video, I might end up liking it. I'm all for anything that results in an amv I end up liking.
/I'm doing a review tonight. Mwahaha! First one this year...? o.O Can't remember. -
New vid + manga rant
2006-05-14 04:59:36
I know I have commitments, but this is a quickie. Single women my age are allowed quickies now and then, right? Well, not *too* quick. It took a few weeks to get all the footage gathered up and anything that takes that much prepartion better not be over too soon. I figure a week - two weekends. I do have plans that will mean adding effects to nearly every frame in the video, so that'll take a while. But most of them are just filters, and I can add those on top of the finished video. The cut-outs are the same, just playing on the borders and a few transitions - again, that can be added in after the video's finished. Ah, but it's so CUTE! I love the song so much, it just makes me grin every time I listen to it. And I've had it on loops for weeks now. Definite replay value, if it still hasn't ceased to make me grin every time I listen to it. Hee. Yeah, fun quickie. ;p
The rest, well, I got bored halfway through my rental copies. I'll get back to that after my quickie, should have it all gathered in a month's time. That'll leave a month or two to put some vids together. It turns out having a huge extra drive for vid clips doesn't make it any easier to make videos. It just inspires me to procrastinate even more since I can now store multiple projects instead of being forced (by space limitations) to do one until it's finished or officially scrapped.
Ah, well. I don't change. That's comforting. I'll leave it to everyone else to get tossed around with crisis after crisis and mini-hysterics. I never thought I'd get to be this old. Now I've got years ahead of me. No rush. If I die tomorrow, I'll probably be one of the few who can honestly say (assuming there's an afterlife) that I was happy yesterday. Hah. How's that for optimism?
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Off-topic: I read up to chapter 100 of Death Note. I loved the first half of the manga series, and then I skimmed and wasted hours reading the other half. Great concept and interractions. But the author took it too far and it got really ridiculous and "grand scale" unbelievable. It doesn't help that they switched around the cast halfway through and filled it with a bunch of characters I could care less about. It's like the second half was written by an entirely different author who decided to turn it into an alternate universe - using the main theme and going in a completely different direction. Or maybe I just never cared for stories where the villain is the main character and I don't like or hate him enough to care what happens when the supporting characters grow boring and the story becomes absurd. That's funny. The main theme of the story was never believable to begin with, but it was still plausible for an anime/manga story. There's a limit, though, when you try to write a story like that set in the "real" world. All the countries used and the supposedly "realistic" way the characters approach law-breaking and criminal profiling. It's plausible and realistic, and that's what makes the story so interesting and addictive. Take that and suddenly turn around and write the "world" in an over exaggerated and unrecognizable way and it just turns out overdone and ridiculous. I just don't get why the author went that way. It's like the "three year jump" in Naruto. Why take something good and make it absurd and completely different? Better to end the story and make the next story a sequel or ova. If the two don't fit, you're just punishing the loyal reader who tries to force himself through the crap after the first (good) story ends. Seriously. I'll probably skim the rest of the manga just to see what happens in the very end, but I'm not the least bit interested in any of the characters and the storyline has gotten so absurd it's almost painful to witness. I feel sorry for the fans. I hate seeing a good story get ruined, especially by the creators. It's like Saiyuki Reload or the Fushigi Yuugi ovas. Just kind of sad and upsetting. I'm embarassed for the original, being followed by such tripe. The manga's editor should have smacked him upside the head when he told him where he wanted to take the story. >.< -
definite new project
2006-04-24 01:17:53
I'm still lurking daily, skimming the forum and journals, though the latter is as full of uninteresting chatroom posts as ever. So I think it's safe to say I'm not missing much. Anyone whose vids I follow, hopefully knows to pm me if they put out a new one. I do check the vid announcements, but I haven't seen anything (title + poster) that caught my eye.
I'm mostly posting here to cement my newest commitment - put it in writing so I won't be so quick to change my mind later. I'm finally set on doing my next fan-drawn vid. It won't actually be drawn by me, technically, well, it sort of will but only as far as tracing and editing goes. The coloring will be entirely mine, so I think I can count it as fan-animated. Semantics. Mostly it's a manga video done in color with a little bit of animation here and there. I don't plan to make my own scenes from scratch, so mostly the movement will be pans and zooms - to make the manga scenes look like they would if they were shown in an anime version of the series. It's not a new idea, but I think the vid will be...cool. Yeah, as cool as anything I can do.
I'm using the Devil and Devil manga. I still have hopes that it'll make it to anime someday, but I'll probably be dead by then, so in the meantime my vid will be the closest I can get. I wanted to do a general video, highlighting the main parts of the story. But since it takes *so* long to do a vid like this, I'm defaulting to the main characters. It'll probably be passable as shonen ai, but only because almost no one has ever heard of the manga - they won't realize two of the four characters are supposed to be twin brothers. I don't think I'll tell them, either. It's more fun that way. ;p
So, yeah, just wanted to write that down. I'm still working on a multi-anime vid, but once I get the footage gathered it won't take that long to put it together. I can work on it when my wrists start to hurt from coloring and sketching with a mouse in PhotoImp. Fun, fun. ^__^
JOURNAL: Arigatomina
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