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Four hundred forty sixth entry - I'm a twelve credit kind of girl
2010-04-10 12:23:30
Time - 10:58, Noise - Onimusha OST
I don't think I ever mentioned my schedule for this semester. Not that it's relevant to AMVs, but then, when are half of my entries anymore?
I finished all of my general requirements, and my major (Spanish) was finished with my return from Spain, so basically, I could have been out of here in 4.5 years. The trouble is that I was silly and didn't start my minor (French) until I became a junior, and the classes offered for it are few and far between, so I have to stick around for a sixth year to get it all in - and I'm STILL taking independent study just to make up three credits.
Anyway, my schedule this semester is amazingly fun because of the fact that I only had four credits of the required French and the rest was just making twelve credits to remain a full time student.
Piano Technique 1 (yay, finally learning how to play piano, and it's HARD)
Intermediate French (with my original teacher, who rocks in ways untold)
Gay and Lesbian Literature (fabulous class, really)
Band (as always)
Intro to Theater (not as much fun as I originally thought it might be)
So that's this semester, and aside from the fact that my Tuesday is kind of annoyingly/perfectly spaced out, it's a very light schedule (obviously, it's only twelve credits). Some part of me wishes I had planned better, started earlier, and taken heavier semesters, because I could have been out in probably five years (and managed to go to Spain for a full year instead of just a semester), but I like school, so I can't complain. It also gives me the opportunity to take classes that I wouldn't have otherwise bothered with.
As soon as my advisor gets my PIN to me, I'll be able to sign up for next semester's classes, but I already have what I'm taking picked out.
Piano Technique 2
Advanced French Grammar and Composition
Basic Drawing I
Poetry Writing
Modern European Thought and Culture
Band
That's another twelve credit schedule, and I don't really like how it's laid out through the week, but there's not much I can do about that. I'll be struggling to find classes for my final semester here. I've been asking around and trying to find things to take. I was considering Piano Tech 3 (1 credit), Band (1 credit), whatever the next French class is (but I know it's 3 credits), Independent French Study (3 credits), possibly saxophone lessons (1 credit, and the sax specialist on campus has been pestering me to do it for three years), and maybe Creative Writing if the time slot isn't too painful (3 credits, I think). That would be twelve credits, just barely.
Well, that's a lot about school. I was going to say something about AMVs, but all there really is to say is that I've been downloading a lot lately. Even though I'm pretty scarce for posting on this site anymore, I do still check it several times a day for updates and I download all of the latest videos I'm interested in, so I'm still in the wall of the community, but I'm just kind of a silent brick. I need to go through my hard drive and clean off anything I don't plan on using. A lot of what is on my external is AMV-related, like for the FMV Projects, for example, and I need to figure out what I'm going to keep and ditch of that stuff, since I'm kind of running out of space both on the lappy's HD and the external.
Hm, I'm dragging.
See you, folks.
- Jen -
Four hundred forty fifth entry - and there it goes
2010-02-11 01:19:08
Time - 12:14, Noise - an Explosions in the Sky album
So I'm noticing that I basically don't know any of the anime being used in AMVs these days. Guess I've finally fallen far enough behind the bandwagon that I can't even see it riding off into the sunset anymore, huh?
...that's really all I had to say.
Oh, and every single one of my classes this semester is made of total and utter win. Just saying.
G'night, all.
- Jen -
Four hundred forty fourth entry - more down than up
2010-01-12 17:10:31
Time - 3:15, Noise - Avatar soundtrack
And the tally for 2009 is... one opinion and five quick comments. Ha. Not bad considering I haven't released a video in... ever. This isn't to say that I've stopped editing, so at some point you folks will still have to suffer a video from me. My apologies. ; )
In related news, I dug out ye olde compy and scoured the hard drive looking for my lossless copy of The Chosen Two. Unfortunately, it must be on the other drive that I gave to my friend as a gift eons ago when I got the new(er) one. I was looking for it because I'll be giving the tower to a different friend so that he can try and figure out why it's a stupid whore that likes to restart randomly and has been faulty since the day that yet another friend had built it for me. I just wanted to give it a quick once-over to look for that video and also to see if there's anything that I cared about removing from it before I hand it over to my friend to potentially put into Eternal Bluescreen Oblivion. Anyway, I don't know if I'll ever get my hands on that lossless copy again, if it even still exists. Oh well. It's no big deal. If I'm ever able to get a DVD recorder and record the in-game scenes from Fatal Frame II, I'll end up remaking that whole video anyway someday.
So, lovely little story. My laptop has a faulty graphics card, which just so happened to be a known problem on this model (unknown to me until it was too late, of course), and as my warranty has run out, I can't get it replaced for free, if they even made that card anymore... which they don't. It can only take one other card, and that is no longer being made either, so... I basically get to live with a laptop that can't play PC games for the next two years. I can use it for everything else I need, though, which is good since I won't have the money to replace it for quite some time (the aforementioned two years, to be exact). The only other thing I was thinking was that I could get an Xbox 360. Since it's Microsoft, I'm guessing that just about anything that comes out for that will be out for the PC and vice versa. It's certainly more within my price range, although given the fact that I'm trying to save up something like five thousand dollars by the end of two years, I'm reluctant to spend any money where I don't absolutely need to.
Gee, my birthday is in May - any of you .org dwellers want to donate an Elite 360 to your good buddy Ulty? No? Nobody?
Speaking of money, among other things, this whole month of winter break has basically been the worst few weeks of my life - and I'm not saying this in the dumbass couldn't-get-the-$200-pair-of-jeans preppy bitchy self-absorbed slut kind of way (sorry, personal vendetta there; I'll have to relate the story of my previous college roommate in another entry). Oh no, these are REAL problems.
On the day that I was supposed to be brought home from college, I was taken to a hospital to see my grandfather, who was in very poor condition stemming from problems that had been afflicting him for the better part of the last year or two. Let me tell you, when I saw my grandmother on her deathbed ten years ago, I didn't realize until much later just how useful the ability of children to bounce back after emotional trauma really was. Now, as an adult, seeing my grandfather in those same conditions... it was incredibly unsettling, and I didn't have a child's naivete to fall back on to explain why I didn't know how to deal with it.
To put it shortly, Grandpa passed away two days before Christmas, two weeks after that I had to pay my mother about $1500 just to keep a roof over our head, and a week after that, my sister found out that she miscarried her baby - a baby that she spent ten thousand dollars trying to have and won't be able to retry for quite some time, if she's even capable of carrying at all, and if she can bring herself emotionally to do it.
So yeah. That's the gist of life right now. Pretty depressing, actually, as far as home life is concerned, but I'm doing quite well in college right now. I got straight A's last semester (a first for me since entering college, due to my unparalleled laziness). I get to take piano lessons next semester, which ought to be awesome. And frustrating. Awesomely frustrating. It's a skill I've always wanted to pick up, though, so I'm willing to put the work in. This semester will round out my fifth year, with a spectacular sixth to follow.
Anyway, this is dragging on awfully long, so I'll shut up now. It's about time to fix myself some dinner anyway.
See you, folks... and for Whatever-You-Believe-In's sake, go out and tell the people you love that you love them, okay? You can never say it enough.
- Jen -
Four hundred forty third entry - thoughts
2009-11-01 20:35:49
Time - 7:12, Noise - Final Fantasy Song Book Mahoroba
@Cornwiggle
Yes, contests are stupid - but not for the reasons you mentioned. There have been many occasions when an unknown editor came in and used an obscure or unpopular anime and then pumped out a great video that took a contest by surprise. I mean, come on. We were all newbies once; this community isn't just made up of the same tiny group who started AMVs all those years ago. It has changed over time, and new talent has popped out of the woodwork, sometimes taking a while to gain momentum with their skills, and at other times, like I said before, taking everyone by surprise with a fantastic first video. As for the anime, that's all just a matter of opinion. Some people are only interested in the classics, while others prefer whatever happens to be the fad. Some pick their anime by genre, and others by animation style, or length, or the studio that produced it, or a million other factors! There's nothing wrong with any of those mindsets. The only important thing is that when we get ahold of whatever it is we love to watch that we should let our creativity dictate what we do with it and not abide by some preset idea of what makes a good video.
This brings me to what I think is a better reason to say that contests are pointless: everything about this hobby is subjective. Every rule that exists for "what makes a good video" was completely invented by us, and we change the definition constantly. Some videos we loved years ago are hated now - for example, Euphoria was a breakout use of effects, and it was one of the first ones of its kind. People praised it up and down for its execution, but now that effects are old hat, some of those same people look back on it with scorn. Our hobby doesn't have definite guidelines any more than music or fashion, or any of the other sorts of things which are subject to taste. Therefore, judging videos we make seems rather silly, because it really is a popularity contest above everything - whether that means a popular editor, a popular song, a popular anime, or a popular (standard) style of editing, it doesn't matter. It's all just a matter of who or what happens to be in vogue. Again, it's not a bad thing, but it's not a good thing either. It's simply pointless to judge it.
To make a long story short, if you don't like the contests, editors, or anime now, come back in a year and maybe they'll have cycled around to something you do like.
Of course, if you just tl;dr'd me instead of giving this argument a chance, then I have a one finger salute with your name on it.
See you, folks.
- Jen -
Four hundred forty second entry - someone who needs lovin'
2009-10-03 14:45:27
Time - 1:42, Noise - hum of the lappy
So like... I just wanted to post to pimp a new video that I ran across recently. This editor gets a "meh" for technical merit, but a "kickass" in concept, as well as praise for following through with the whole thing. Definitely a video worth watching once, even if you don't know the sources:
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?vid_id=171685
- Jen
JOURNAL: dj_ultima_the_great (Jen )
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