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Stupid, but:
2008-11-25 12:40:34
I couldn't resist clicking on the masking/compositing thread in the forums when I saw it was on 19,999 views... XD
Five-day vacation starts tomorrow, then less than a month until I get almost two weeks straight off. This may sound ridiculous, but I'm actually considering lugging my PC with me to Rhode Island over Christmas so I can attempt to make some headway on XII while I've got all that time off. If I could put in 6-8 hours a day, for at least five or six days, that's equal to over a month's worth of editing I would otherwise be trying to cram into weekends. That could make a HUGE difference.
In any case, I'm off! So Happy Turkey Day. This year I'm thankful for many things, but today it was getting to work safely even without snow tires in the middle of a nasty winter storm. A lot of people I passed, their cars off the road this morning, weren't so fortunate. -
And continues some more:
2008-11-24 19:41:45
Over the weekend I marveled that I've had my coffeemaker for four years without anything going wrong with it. I wondered what it would be like to have enough extra cash on hand to whimsically go out and buy a new one, even though mine is still perfectly serviceable. I also thanks my lucky stars that I haven't broken anything glass lately, which used to happen a lot (mostly the fault of my pets, but still...).
Tonight, doing the dishes, I notice the coffee pot somehow got a perfectly round pencil-lead size hole in the side of the glass, explaining the small leak it had this morning. *sigh* What I haven't figured out is if I'm the cause of these things I premeditate, or if I'm just unconsciously predicting the future.
ALSO - weird 505/504 errors inflicting my attempts to log in at the .ORG from home lately. Still not sure what that was about, but restarting my computer seemed to fix it. I suspect Spybot is to blame, since a lot of odd things have begun happening since it was installed.
XII - The Propaganda Machine Part I
In typical gotta-psych-myself-up-for-this-torture fashion, I put together my AMV desktop stimulus package tonight. I've done this for the last few AMVs I've made, in fact Takeout's ending screen was on my desktop for almost eight months, taunting me viciously every time I sat down. It's a nice jab in the ribs: "HEY, Lauren, you're supposed to make this AMV, REMEMBER??"
XII is notably different in that I have quite a complex artistic endeavor going on that's actually interesting to look at in and of itself. This desktop, I'm hoping, will serve as a reminder of how high I need to prepare myself to jump to make this AMV. It's downright scary. Here I am, end of November 2008, stating for the record that I feel like I'm running out of time. Only five months until this AMV is due at Anime Boston!! I don't know if I'll make that deadline, but I do know that's my AMV attention span limit, so either way it's really got to be done by the end of March. Wait. That's four months. Oh maaan...this time last year I was already well on my way with 'Bustin! *cue panic mode*
Meep meep: 80 more hits to go and my journal reaches 10,000...hits. I don't know who's so interested in reading my journal, but there are a lot of them and they keep doing it. :P -
The stunning lack of coincidences in my life continues...
2008-11-22 14:33:48
It often happens that things will cross my mind only shortly before they actually happen. For example, I will wonder if X author ever got around to publishing the sequel to a book I liked, and then soon after - completely randomly - be confronted with a newly published book.
Anyways. Yesterday I was wondering about an interview I did almost exactly two years ago for some researchers who came to this site seeking info on otaku culture. I honestly haven't thought of that interview in the past year and never made an attempt to find out of the research culminated in anything. Today I discover, thanks to doki, that the findings have just been released: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/book-creativeproduction
Reading the segments having to do with AMVs, some parts of it really make me laugh because you can see AMV editors' slant on things coming through loud and clear (ex. the masses are ignorant sheep, we're creating "art" their feeble minds can't appreciate properly and rankings/contests are for chumps.) The whole separation of AMVers from youtubers and the like also is pretty stark. Cracks me up. It makes me wonder if it's something the researchers actually have "in writing" or if it was something they picked up through general observation. I don't recall specific questions about those things (but then that was a time period when my memory was shot, so maybe that doesn't mean much).
What I DO remember quite well are three things:
1. Relating my twisted tale of becoming involved in AMVs. It's basically in that autobiography thread thingy. The researchers were NOT expecting that, so I'm curious as to whether I'm considered an anomaly or what.
2. Negating the issue of my age. Hey, they picked ME for their interview, so I guess they thought my age didn't matter. I was 29 at the time and hardly anyone's going to call that "youth," however since I was doing much of the same stuff people 10 years younger than I was, maybe that made it ok? I suspect I also might have been doing that stuff longer than a lot of other folks, so perhaps that also put another twist on it? Why do I get the feeling I was a throwaway statistic? LOL
3. Making a statement about Canadians vs. Americans, in regards to their familiarity with anime. As far as I could tell, the researchers were lumping North Americans all together for this survey and my statement threw into question whether that was appropriate. I'd love to know whether it was.
One thing that bugs me a LOT about the way this research is presented: anime in North America today is not what it was in 2006, nor what it was in 2004, 2002, 2000 etc. This research is at least two years old right now and probably outdated in certain areas. To say that it comments on the current state of affairs is not true, it's more like an explanation of what led up to the current state of affairs. Maybe that's getting too nitpicky, but look at the enormous number of AMVs on the Tube today as compared to 2006. The research kind of implied that AMVers congregate here (amv.org) while other types of vidders are on the Tube, which is completely inaccurate. Some of us are over there, too, but a lot of people who make AMVs are over there and NOT over here. It came across rather heavily in that article that AMV.org is, apparently, the place to be if you're a "real" AMV editor. I bet a lot of YouTubers would have a fit over that kind of insinuation, and that's exactly the kind of thing that makes me wonder how heavily AMVers from here influenced how AMVing were represented the survey. We're not the only ones doing/making these things, nor are we the final authority on the subject - as much as it may gall some people to admit it.
Clearly I find it all very interesting. lol -
This is sort of like moving, except we're all still here.
2008-11-18 21:22:23
Fixed signature: Check
Fixed avatar: Check
Added friends: Check - although this made me a bit nervous.
The forum seems to take this adding friends/foes thing very seriously. It warned me, "Are you sure you wish to carry out this operation?" I sort of sat there and blinked a few times and thought to myself "I didn't realize this was considered an 'operation.' Maybe I DON'T want to do this..." but then I did it anyways. Do friends get notified they've been flagged as friends? Foes? Do my friends think I'm a friend? :(
Building a Web site definitely is lower on my list of things I really don't like doing than making AMVs. This is pretty sad considering that one of my hobbies is AMVs and that I avoid anything associated with HTML like the plague. Perhaps I need to redefine "hobby" as it applies to my AMVing endeavors, since hobbies are generally considered a enjoyable pastimes, but if it's not a hobby, then what is it? Maybe I don't want to know?
It's stubborness!!
Oh, right, yeah I got that to spare. Good call.
Also: what the hell is up with Mnemosyne??? The whole time watching it, all I could think was: "Now how would I explain this to someone?" Best I could come up with is Angel Sanctuary+Night Shift Nurses+Speed Grapher+Kiddy Grade+Noir. :| It's been quite awhile since I watched anime and wound up feeling slightly traumatized. Plus, I accidentally watched the episodes out of order, which made it all that much weirder...funny thing is, it works and actually makes it all far more interesting. -
:|
2008-11-17 08:05:41
My logo's orange in the forums. :| :| :|
The emoticon says it all.
Also, yay I can login.
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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