JOURNAL: june

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  • guess who's back? 2004-11-24 20:08:40 *laugh* i just re-read all my previous entries in one go.
    what was wrong with me!?!? why was i always so hyper and insane!?
    hahaha!

    yes.. i see the last entry i wrote is just almost exactly two years old.

    it's kinda strange coming back after so long, a part of me feels like it's coming home.
    (nah that wasn't meant to be moving, i'm gemini and i have homes everywhere :p)

    the past couple of years've been crazy~ a lot of crap happened, and it snowballed and i kinda went a little insane for a while, i thought it was never going to end. i never really want to talk abt it again. uh huh *sighs* it was that bad. but it's all over now! and i've gotten up, i've gotten stronger. now that i've sorted myself out a bit.. i'm kinda playing catch up with everything that passed me by. one part of which is ff/amvs~ of course there're also tons of other stuff, but this one is kinda more relevant here.

    first up, ffviii-cwm has been uploaded to the local server!! go download it! go tell everyone! spread the message! i'm just about thinking of announcing it in the forums but you know me.. i don't like making a big fuss and creating a scene and stuff.

    so i'll just say it only here and see where it goes..
    FFVIII-CWM HAS BEEN UPLOADED TO THE LOCAL SERVER :D
    (and june is back~ say, new members probably don't know who i am? not like a lot of older members know who i am. i have like.. one video? *roll eyes*)

    next on the agenda is ffx. i remember i got into it really early -- the short of the story is that i didn't care much for ix, mainly coz there was no nomura tetsuya so i was reeeally looking forward to x -- i even remember the first time i went to the preview site and heard the piano piece now known as "zanarkand ni te". i was like.. wow. anyways. i don't think i really had a firm grip on the storyline till much later, but i just knew i had to make an amv for x.. one day :p

    near the end of 2002 i finally got around to experiencing ffx. i say experiencing and not playing.. coz i didn't play it. down here in this part of the world some smart-ass decided to capture his gameplay (fmvs, cutscenes, everything, minus battles) into vcd format and market it as kinda like a reeeally long movie/anime/?/whatever, you get the idea. so i kinda watched that.. but i don't like to say i "watched" it either coz that just sounds plain lame :D i'd really have loved to play it but no ps2~ no money!

    it was in japanese btw, so don't mind me if i say things like ebon-ju, inori-go, genkouchuu instead of yu yevon, fayth (seriously.. "fayth"!?), pyreflies (and i thought "fayth" was bad). trust me, my japanese has improved leaps and bounds since you last heard from me, and it all sounds wonderful perfect in japanese. no specially made up words to sound "cool" or whatever. machina is kikai = machine(s), pilgrimage is tabi = journey. ain't it so much more understated and beautiful?

    i guess you've realised i'm playing catch up with the ff/amv part of my life now~ i've just finished reading the ffx memorial album actually (which i bought way back when ffx was released. i mean the japanese release date. told ya i got into it early! but my japanese wasn't good enough to read it then) to get back in touch, coz my ffx experience was like.. 2 years ago? (besides, the vcds missed out on clues to plot understanding.. like maechen and jecht's spheres) and also for amv research.. coz honestly i think the only reason why ffviii-cwm turned out so well-received was coz i made it knowing ffviii inside out~ and i don't have that kind of inside out knowledge for ffx. i should play it maybe? (but not like knowing what powers up caladbolg helps to make an amv..) but i'm slowly getting there~ i think i've even sorted out the whole zanarkand/dream/sin/yu yevon thingy.. i think~

    anyways. gawd i must be turning into maechen or something :D the short of the story is that i loved ffx. tragic ending and all. the characters, the plot twists, the themes.. fake religion, discrimination, waaay complicated father-son relationship.. it was one helluva fine piece of storytelling. and i love stories~ i'd sit around listening to maechen talk all day if i could :p ffx~ i was beginning to think it would take over ffviii as my #1 (but the first is always the best, ya know. like how you never forget your first love?)

    and then ffx-2 promo cg images came around.

    reaction #1: why is yuna wearing so little?
    #2: what's with the smirk on her face.. i thought she was hurting inside!?!?
    #3: why is she wearing so little.. i thought she was hurting inside!?!? that !@#$ al bhed cousin of hers..
    #4: square is selling out, man.

    in order not to be simply passing judgement, i've done quite a bit of research (all that's left is.. play the game??), i've also done the psyche-myself-into-liking-it thingy i do all the time but it just seems sooo hard with x-2. yuna singing at a concert.. what's up with that? dresspheres.. is this little girls playing dress-up or what? last mission.. was there a point? multiple endings.. at least there's a happy one, shouldn't shoot themselves in the foot again ya know.

    and then it came to me~ the 3 things i love about ff's (yes i mean viii and x.. and vii. so shoot me) just weren't present in x-2.
    #1: nomura tetsuya. let me stress a couple hundred times that those dressphere costumes were not done by nomura-san. yuna and rikku's new clothes (or lack thereof) too.
    #2: uematsu nobuo. need i say more?
    #3: a good story.

    she says: "this is my story." i thought she was going all out to look for tidus but nooo she was too busy singing and mating monkeys and what have you, and suddenly it was just someone else's story altogether -- shuyin and lenne's. living someone else's story, and wearing someone else's dress *roll eyes* it could have been anybody else. it was just still *her* story by virtue of the pathetic fact that shuyin looked like tidus. if she even mistakenly felt something for shuyin, that would have added to "her story" but all the time she was just "i'm not lenne!" shuyin could have *not* looked like tidus and it wouldn't have made a difference to her. she has a couple of flashbacks abt tidus and then he just pops up at the end because she has 100% comple.. i mean, she helps all the people in spira. ooh that's a really strong storyline.

    it's really like an itch i can't scratch. ix i didn't like but i was able to just ignore it. x-2 is connected to x.. so it's still there no matter how i try to push it to the back of my mind ya know, it's hard to deny its existence. i'm kinda at the point where i wish someone would just point out the good bits to me because i seem to be missing them totally. then maybe i could learn to like it~

    but it could've definitely done without the hideous clothes (or lack thereof).

    and then in complete opposition to x-2, there is vii-2. well yes it's not "vii-2" but ffvii: advent children. like wow! a movie!!! actually just one reeeally long fmv.. but omg! cloud, sephiroth, tifa.. aeris?? and they're all proportionate and looking really good, and lifelike too -- this is what the final fantasy movie should have been! instead of that nasty "the spirits within" which no one could relate to anyway.

    thank god for nomura-san <- he's the director too! sure, cloud/tifa look like squall/rinoa (esp cloud in all black sticking his buster sword into the ground, the clashing of swords with kadaj (who is also freakishly gorgeous >_<) just like viii's opening, and tifa with that ribbon around her left upper arm and in that shot surrounded by petals).. not like that's a bad thing! uematsu-san in charge of the music! one-winged angel!! *passes out* now that's what i call an ff. i wish viii could get a movie sequel too~~ i just would kill for certain scenes in the game to be fmv-ized and for everyone to have voices ya know.

    pity vii-ac will probably be the last ff title i'll pay any attention too. i ignored xi, it was playonline (i don't do online *laugh*). xii, well, no nomura-san for character design, not even amano (i'm not an amano fan and still i'd prefer him over whoever that is over there). of course, no more uematsu-san forever. and nojima kazushige-san (scenario for viii, x and x-2 with watanabe daisuke) also quit square nov last year (he's also scenario for vii-ac btw). and digicube went bankrupt~ i think also this time last year? and of course square merged with enix. seriously.. it's like the end of a generation. isn't it?

    and i am seriously going waaay off course.. i was supposed to talk about the next amv~ is there or is there not one? weeell let me leave that to the next entry.. this is seriously long! till next time *waves* 
  • long time no see~! 2002-11-21 13:51:52 oh god i have not been here since march right??

    and i said i'd be back in may? eck. well the story is that i had the most crap semester (as you can tell from some of the prev few entries) and then i decided to abandon everything and like have the funnest summer ever (which i did) so i shelved — yes i shelved <i>again</i> — the re-doing of ffviii-cwm and/or other amv plans.

    then this semester happened and i'm still in it... my last paper is sat.

    i was just re-tweaking my website blog and i re-read some of my old entries and found my way back here (the place looks wonderful btw).

    firstly thank you everyone for the lovely opinions and constructive comments for cwm. you all are very sweet people and i really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. sounds cheesy but it's true 'kay? ;p

    secondly i really wish i could do something abt cwm's audio (something i've been promising everyone) but i've just lost my hdd in an unfortunate crash and i'm in mourning right now (listen to me, children!! backing up is important!!!) so i'll still put it on hold a little. gomen!

    lastly, errr... i know i had a lastly. gimme a sec. yes okay. i'm not sure i'll ever make a second vid, i mean i do wanna make one but then i haven't been watching amvs for sometime, so i dunno what everyone's doing and that kinda thing. also i've expressed a number of times my interest lies only in ff8 and not exactly anime itself (although through my embracing of japanese culture in the recent times, my indifference towards anime has lessened). if i were to make another it'd be ff8 again or at most ff10. (which i still haven't watched/played but don't worry, i know the ending... found out accidentally ugh)

    the other thing is music. the only sorta music i listen to nowadays is jpop and jpop only. the only western songs i hear are the ones from movies or tv i watch, i don't follow western bands anymore. (actually this was already true from the time i did cwm — the song stood out enough for me to like it) so i guess if i were to do a vid now i'd probably use a jpop song. but how would that work? i can't expect everyone to know what the song lyrics mean and all that so they can see how it goes with the vid. i could subtitle the vid or provide a translation... but.

    i dunno how it'll go really... i don't even know why i'm talking abt all this! :p it's 4am here so forgive me.

    maybe in some way i'm just scared that the second video won't be as good as cwm. which i suppose is sorta good since there're people who do think so.

    hmmm i don't think i feel very stable right now *laugh*

    talk to you all another time :) 
  • last entry... until may! 2002-03-21 18:57:25 i changed my email add on my profile coz the other one seems problematic.

    and i'll make this "official": i'll be on hiatus from my entire (well maybe not entire per se) online life until end of this semester, which is about early may? i know i've not been actively online for abt the last month or so already, my webpage is like even worse, i'm just really not having a good semester. there's so much work and i'm not sleeping enough and all. so if i don't reply to your mails or anything it's coz i really don't have the time to. i'm shelving all my other projects (including videos) until may as well.

    i think the server holding the cwm vid is up nowadays. again a reminder, the sound may be screwy for some people, i'm shelving the fixing of that problem as well so d/l at your own risk.

    that's abt it. thanks for your understanding, ne. have a nice day :) 
  • : 2002-02-24 16:08:11 put cwm updates back on the video page itself so that it's more obvious...

    i have a headache.

    and the hit counter for my profile thingy jumped a lot again. weird. 
  • 2002-02-09 16:14:21 firstly cwm video updates:
    adiamante has a few problems with hosting so the video might be down. and/but he also said that if he can find some way to host again he will put the video back up. nice isn't he :) well, considering the worst-case scenario, which is he can't host the video anymore and also no one else can, then i'll just not have it put up at all. probably you can get it from someone else who has it (there *has* to be someone else who has it right? after all the download hit counter thingy reads almost 600).

    just don't ask me to send it to you or something coz i'm on a 56.6k modem. okay? i haven't the time either, coz the software project is really taking up all my time (yes, the one with the uncooperative group members).

    other stuff:
    - i watched spirited away again
    - i didn't get nominated o_O
    - i got a copy of this limited edition vcd that is selling super fast
    - i have a report waiting to be proofread
    - i kinda have this job as a webdesigner coz... i'm good at it. but i hate it! anyone else have this (strange) problem?
     
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