Monday being without anything due was a blessing. Today I had one class, only one thing due... but I still managed to fail getting that done. Mmm. I'm never late getting assignments in... except when I am. So never mind.
Wednesday being the day I've the most classes, man I don't know. And my typography class, the stuff that would have been due Monday, it's due Thursday. What's my point in all this? I don't know, man.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Monday, May 30, 2016
Incoming! Cinematic Universes
I spent quite some time yesterday flipping through the complete schedule for all upcoming films they're planning on releasing. Like, all of them (Warner Brothers already has a release date for the third Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!) Bleeding and breathing Box Office Mojo as I have done recently allows me to see much of the logic behind film release dates; what remains beyond me is why some films are not only conceived in the first place, but made and subsequently distributed. I'll just never understand people, and I'd thought we agreed that.
I'd originally going to have this discussion on upcoming films only be a tangent to the main subject of this post, whatever it would have been, but turns out I've a lot to say, as I've thought about this more than I'd, thought, I'd thought...
Warcraft (already out in foreign markets and doing quite well for itself) up till now looked like one of those movies that looks pretty dumb but actually turns out to be relatively smartish. Like, a Nic Cage movie or something, you know? Turns out it was directed by Duncan Jones-- and not just directed, but co-written. Source Code was pretty good, Moon was awesome; Source Code was only directed by Jones while Moon was also written by him. So. Clear correlation here between level of his involvement and quality of a film. And then along comes this interview on Engadget, where Jones cites Once Upon a Time in the West as one of the film's inspirations? The next upcoming film that looks even vaguely interesting gets shifted up by months. I'm still, probably not going to catch it; I mean, I've been meaning to see Kung Fu Panda 3 since it came out but always kind of lacked motivation for it.
Universal are making a horror franchise cinematic universe; old news, but still super awesome, since theirs was, if not one of, but the original cinematic universe(s), with all the crossovers between, the Invisible Man, and, Frankenstein's monster, and, Dracula, and, the Wolf Man, and, the Mummy, and, and, Abbott and Costello... makes you wonder what their remake of that is going to be...
Kaye and Peele? Rhett and Link? Fry and Laurie? Webb and Mitchell? And one of those would be way far out. Ooh, ooh, I vote Keenan and Kel!
As more franchises head this route, it's going to be interesting to see how each company handles theirs. We know how the MCU is doing it, and though we've got a taste of the DCEU we're going to have to wait till Suicide Squad to see how it really handles itself. I suppose that with the Fantastic Beasts trilogy coming out Harry Potter is turning into a cinematic universe, and we've all heard about the Hanna Barbera thing. We'll see how those get handled as well. Our other best example of a cinematic universe, then, remains the Universal Horror films.
And the old Godzilla movies of course- which they're also remaking and turning into a new cinematic universe, with a Godzilla 2 and a King Kong movie, then a film in which we finally get to see them fight.
The old Universal horror flicks are tough to use as an example though- they didn't give much of a crap if any about continuity (altering the lore of the Wolf Man between films to include mention of full moons; having Frankenstein's monster speak in one installment, but regulating him to a mute again in the next; changing character's names completely between films, etc) but that approach wouldn't amount to anything more than an interesting social experiment in this age of mass communication and information dissemination... It WOULD be an interesting experiment, though.
Then again, X-Men prequels barely seem to give a crap about continuity... Then again again, that's gotten way better in the more recent installments...
Gosh darn it; I did not expect to turn up so invested in this. I really hadn't intended this post to be long at all, and now, and now I sound like a major nerd, going on about popular culture like this. I'm not whining about anything, at least. I view these franchises as a good thing- studios willing to make really weird projects (Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad) but give them awesome casts and massive budgets, experiment like mad but stay financially secure just by fitting the experiments into something more established. We can branch out! Or, you know, homogenize, but, like I said, we'll see how each franchise handles it.
You know what cinematic universe I'd really like to see, MSPACU...
But in the meantime, films to get excited about, Spider-Man: Homecoming, coming 7-7-17!
I'd originally going to have this discussion on upcoming films only be a tangent to the main subject of this post, whatever it would have been, but turns out I've a lot to say, as I've thought about this more than I'd, thought, I'd thought...
Warcraft (already out in foreign markets and doing quite well for itself) up till now looked like one of those movies that looks pretty dumb but actually turns out to be relatively smartish. Like, a Nic Cage movie or something, you know? Turns out it was directed by Duncan Jones-- and not just directed, but co-written. Source Code was pretty good, Moon was awesome; Source Code was only directed by Jones while Moon was also written by him. So. Clear correlation here between level of his involvement and quality of a film. And then along comes this interview on Engadget, where Jones cites Once Upon a Time in the West as one of the film's inspirations? The next upcoming film that looks even vaguely interesting gets shifted up by months. I'm still, probably not going to catch it; I mean, I've been meaning to see Kung Fu Panda 3 since it came out but always kind of lacked motivation for it.
Universal are making a horror franchise cinematic universe; old news, but still super awesome, since theirs was, if not one of, but the original cinematic universe(s), with all the crossovers between, the Invisible Man, and, Frankenstein's monster, and, Dracula, and, the Wolf Man, and, the Mummy, and, and, Abbott and Costello... makes you wonder what their remake of that is going to be...
Kaye and Peele? Rhett and Link? Fry and Laurie? Webb and Mitchell? And one of those would be way far out. Ooh, ooh, I vote Keenan and Kel!
As more franchises head this route, it's going to be interesting to see how each company handles theirs. We know how the MCU is doing it, and though we've got a taste of the DCEU we're going to have to wait till Suicide Squad to see how it really handles itself. I suppose that with the Fantastic Beasts trilogy coming out Harry Potter is turning into a cinematic universe, and we've all heard about the Hanna Barbera thing. We'll see how those get handled as well. Our other best example of a cinematic universe, then, remains the Universal Horror films.
And the old Godzilla movies of course- which they're also remaking and turning into a new cinematic universe, with a Godzilla 2 and a King Kong movie, then a film in which we finally get to see them fight.
The old Universal horror flicks are tough to use as an example though- they didn't give much of a crap if any about continuity (altering the lore of the Wolf Man between films to include mention of full moons; having Frankenstein's monster speak in one installment, but regulating him to a mute again in the next; changing character's names completely between films, etc) but that approach wouldn't amount to anything more than an interesting social experiment in this age of mass communication and information dissemination... It WOULD be an interesting experiment, though.
Then again, X-Men prequels barely seem to give a crap about continuity... Then again again, that's gotten way better in the more recent installments...
Gosh darn it; I did not expect to turn up so invested in this. I really hadn't intended this post to be long at all, and now, and now I sound like a major nerd, going on about popular culture like this. I'm not whining about anything, at least. I view these franchises as a good thing- studios willing to make really weird projects (Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad) but give them awesome casts and massive budgets, experiment like mad but stay financially secure just by fitting the experiments into something more established. We can branch out! Or, you know, homogenize, but, like I said, we'll see how each franchise handles it.
You know what cinematic universe I'd really like to see, MSPACU...
But in the meantime, films to get excited about, Spider-Man: Homecoming, coming 7-7-17!
Sunday, May 29, 2016
The Cause of My Headache and Other Obsessive Behavior: GIFists, Grosses and the G-F Word
I came down with something of a headache today, thinking about yesterday's date watching Zootopia. The date itself was wonderful; the headache-inducing part was this: today, when counting out the number of viewings before the one yesterday, I realized I had underestimated dramatically which viewing this had been for me. It wasn't "only" viewing number 17ish as I'd thought, but, going back through everything, it was viewing number... 20. It's just a few more than my initial estimate, so not that bad, but... it's still 20 viewings.
!
That's 10x more viewings than either Dawn of Justice or Civil War, so far; 5x more if you combined those of course; 20x more than, say, Jungle Book, also of course; and, getting to the previous record for obsessive compulsive viewings, it came out a full 4x more than the number of times I went to go see... actually, how many times did I go to see Force Awakens? Four or five? So that'd be 5x if it was 4 and 4x if it was 5. Can't quite recall... (And there have been a small handful more viewings since then on DVD, which don't count. Great little film...)
That's no where the math gets freaky, though. (!!). At 108 minutes long (1:48,) 20 viewings of Zootopia equals out to 2,160 minutes' worth, which in other words is precisely 36 hours, which in other words is precisely 1.5 days. (!!!) 1.5 days solid, just of watching the film itself. Count in, transportation time, the majority of it walking, and, not to mention trailers before the film began on any given viewing... Yikes. So yes, I came down with the tiniest headache, just thinking about it.
1.5 days solid is still less time spent than I spent watching all the seasons of 24, of course, but 24 consists of more than one episode repeated over and over again...
Lest anyone think this behavior obsessive: well, yeah, kind of. Though exactly what I promised when I first saw the trailer almost a full year ago. Giving this film as much revenue as I can, giving incentive for companies to produce more films like this, and our economy is really paying off- just $8.5 million to go before Zootopia becomes the fourth animated film (and the 26th film of all time) to surpass the billion-dollar international box office mark! Already you've surpassed the Lion King; I'm so proud of you! (Though turns out it had actually surpassed the Lion King by the time I reported its encroachment a week ago; Box Office Mojo's figures were apparently faulty until a few days ago, as explained here.)
I'm myself! Maybe to you I'm just some random crazy guy on the internet, for whom obsessive compulsive behavior is expected, but to me, I am myself.
It probably doesn't even come close to the number of viewings other people have put into it, so far; I mean, this is the internet we're talking about here...
One of the greatest things about the date, well not really but one of the great ways my date was great ("date" here meaning, lady partner in this exercise; it's only been one date so I would fain refrain from yet throwing around the "g-f" word) was, she also is used to being the last one in the theater, sticking around till the end reading the credits and maybe catching if Disney put in an extra post-credits scene. Which they didn't, here, of course, though there are those nice soothing jungle noises... Isn't she awesome, though, for that?
Speaking of post-credits "stingers," though unrelated to, basically any of the above, I have today looked upon the face of glory: quite possibly the greatest GIF of all time (easily surpassing that other guy, the one with Oprah Winfrey releasing a swarm of bees on the audience... heh heh, "stingers.") New greatest GIF, though!
From what I can tell, this is the story of how it came about. Inspired by this recent Bloody Disgusting article, regarding SECRET BONUS STINGERS at the end of the credits of horror films, Brad Miska of Bloody Disgusting had this to tweet:
!
That's 10x more viewings than either Dawn of Justice or Civil War, so far; 5x more if you combined those of course; 20x more than, say, Jungle Book, also of course; and, getting to the previous record for obsessive compulsive viewings, it came out a full 4x more than the number of times I went to go see... actually, how many times did I go to see Force Awakens? Four or five? So that'd be 5x if it was 4 and 4x if it was 5. Can't quite recall... (And there have been a small handful more viewings since then on DVD, which don't count. Great little film...)
That's no where the math gets freaky, though. (!!). At 108 minutes long (1:48,) 20 viewings of Zootopia equals out to 2,160 minutes' worth, which in other words is precisely 36 hours, which in other words is precisely 1.5 days. (!!!) 1.5 days solid, just of watching the film itself. Count in, transportation time, the majority of it walking, and, not to mention trailers before the film began on any given viewing... Yikes. So yes, I came down with the tiniest headache, just thinking about it.
1.5 days solid is still less time spent than I spent watching all the seasons of 24, of course, but 24 consists of more than one episode repeated over and over again...
Lest anyone think this behavior obsessive: well, yeah, kind of. Though exactly what I promised when I first saw the trailer almost a full year ago. Giving this film as much revenue as I can, giving incentive for companies to produce more films like this, and our economy is really paying off- just $8.5 million to go before Zootopia becomes the fourth animated film (and the 26th film of all time) to surpass the billion-dollar international box office mark! Already you've surpassed the Lion King; I'm so proud of you! (Though turns out it had actually surpassed the Lion King by the time I reported its encroachment a week ago; Box Office Mojo's figures were apparently faulty until a few days ago, as explained here.)
I'm myself! Maybe to you I'm just some random crazy guy on the internet, for whom obsessive compulsive behavior is expected, but to me, I am myself.
It probably doesn't even come close to the number of viewings other people have put into it, so far; I mean, this is the internet we're talking about here...
One of the greatest things about the date, well not really but one of the great ways my date was great ("date" here meaning, lady partner in this exercise; it's only been one date so I would fain refrain from yet throwing around the "g-f" word) was, she also is used to being the last one in the theater, sticking around till the end reading the credits and maybe catching if Disney put in an extra post-credits scene. Which they didn't, here, of course, though there are those nice soothing jungle noises... Isn't she awesome, though, for that?
Speaking of post-credits "stingers," though unrelated to, basically any of the above, I have today looked upon the face of glory: quite possibly the greatest GIF of all time (easily surpassing that other guy, the one with Oprah Winfrey releasing a swarm of bees on the audience... heh heh, "stingers.") New greatest GIF, though!
From what I can tell, this is the story of how it came about. Inspired by this recent Bloody Disgusting article, regarding SECRET BONUS STINGERS at the end of the credits of horror films, Brad Miska of Bloody Disgusting had this to tweet:
Which was apparently for some reason followed up (you know it would make a lot of sense if I'm groping the threads to a different convo entirely) by this from BD's expert GIF-ist Jonathan Barkan:I like to pretend Elm Street 2 has a second epilogue in which we see Jesse curled up in a prison cell laughing in Freddy's voice.— Swaggy B (@bradmiska) May 27, 2016
— Jonathan Barkan (@JonathanBarkan) May 27, 2016I don't know what that means, but my work here is done.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
John Wayne Cleaver: Far Away, So Close!
These John Cleaver books just keep getting better and better. Mr Monster surpassed I am Not a Serial Killer, no mean feat, and I finished up I Don't Want to Kill You just an hour or so ago, and it surpassed even that. The district library has The Devil's Only Friend, as well, but I only checked out the one book when I went last, because I'd totally forgotten how much of a page-turner Dan Wells books can be. And I'm going to have to wait till Tuesday, with Memorial Day weekend, man oh man...
John Wayne Cleaver. So alien, so familiar. As a sociopath (or, as a minor, not a full technical sociopath yet rather a teenager with, antipersonality, dissocial, order) John has theory of mind, but lacks empathy. Nothing's the same, yet everything's the same; it's the reverse of how it works with (some) ASDs. John has no difficulty reading people's faces, looking into people's eyes when he's having a conversation with them comes as naturally as a native tongue. And he has no empathy, no system of morality regarding other's emotions. But he still has to fake it in society. He's still driven by compulsions that others couldn't possibly understand, occasionally even defined by them. And he still finds it in himself to struggle against them.
His voice must be alien in different ways, to a neurotypical, I realize, but, I kind of like it where I'm sitting, getting a full effect of both the alien and the uncomfortably close-to-home. I cried many times, reading I Don't Want to Kill You, unbidden tears, tears without weeping, and not even on the particularly emotional highs/lows. When John decided to open himself up to Marci, even when there was a lot that he left out, it was unspeakably moving.
We're only ever ourselves. This kind of thing is the closest we can come to each other. To know how we fit or don't. Not just "this kind of thing" John Wayne Cleaver's voice, but the way I'm talking about it here- I talk about, having to fake it in society, but when does the mask become the face, and since we're only ever ourselves was it a mask to begin with, or was it my real face which I'd always been told was a mask?
Diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, but it's so friggin' mild as to be invisible, and if it's invisible what's even the point of the diagnosis, is it even real? I really don't have a problem reading faces, or recognizing parallel lines of thought, or looking into eyes. I kind of slouch, which sucks, but is that even a symptom of any mental disorder? I talk about how familiar John Cleaver's voice is, but, yeah alright it's pretty familiar. Though I've got no idea if maybe, everyone's the exact way.
John Wayne Cleaver. So alien, so familiar. As a sociopath (or, as a minor, not a full technical sociopath yet rather a teenager with, antipersonality, dissocial, order) John has theory of mind, but lacks empathy. Nothing's the same, yet everything's the same; it's the reverse of how it works with (some) ASDs. John has no difficulty reading people's faces, looking into people's eyes when he's having a conversation with them comes as naturally as a native tongue. And he has no empathy, no system of morality regarding other's emotions. But he still has to fake it in society. He's still driven by compulsions that others couldn't possibly understand, occasionally even defined by them. And he still finds it in himself to struggle against them.
His voice must be alien in different ways, to a neurotypical, I realize, but, I kind of like it where I'm sitting, getting a full effect of both the alien and the uncomfortably close-to-home. I cried many times, reading I Don't Want to Kill You, unbidden tears, tears without weeping, and not even on the particularly emotional highs/lows. When John decided to open himself up to Marci, even when there was a lot that he left out, it was unspeakably moving.
We're only ever ourselves. This kind of thing is the closest we can come to each other. To know how we fit or don't. Not just "this kind of thing" John Wayne Cleaver's voice, but the way I'm talking about it here- I talk about, having to fake it in society, but when does the mask become the face, and since we're only ever ourselves was it a mask to begin with, or was it my real face which I'd always been told was a mask?
 |
| Kind of this, again, but maybe I should explore that idea more specifically in a different similar new piece. |
Friday, May 27, 2016
2.0 Poll One
I've a poll now up on how to customize 2.0 now. Or even if it should be customized, I guess. Just, trying to distinguish further than just, the exposed hinges and everything. It doesn't feel like the same laptop anymore, and there's really no reason to try to replicate the way that it was. More polls to come. But I don't think whether to call it anything else than 2.0 will be one of those. I like it. 2.0.
I'm super tuckered out right now, so... spend the time voting instead of reading this. Seriously I'm nodding off. Heading to bed now. Alright.
I'm super tuckered out right now, so... spend the time voting instead of reading this. Seriously I'm nodding off. Heading to bed now. Alright.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Laptop 2.0
I'm on my laptop again! 3 days and $115 later, I've got back my laptop. And I'm deathly terrified of it. The lobby where I dropped it has concrete flooring; I'm in the apartment over carpet right now, with the laptop unplugged, but I'm still afraid I'm going to drop it.
What had happened was, tripping over the cord and sending the laptop tumbling to the ground, I shattered the hard drive, I'd imagine into fine glitter, because apparently those things are fragile. The hard drive broke, and with nothing to boot to, the boot just booted to the BIOS screen, where nothing goes on ever. But I can boot it now. Boot it to... still not much. I lost everything in the crash.
I'm kind of alright with not having any of my saved files left. All of my writing projects are saved to Dropbox or Google Drive, and my typography homework is all saved to my flash drive. I don't think anything that had been saved to the internal drive was all that unique; it was mostly projects of mine that had been saved from other computers/flash drives but conglomerated here.
This guy's basically 2.0. It even looks different now, externally. Dropping the laptop broke off the disk drive exterior part, the part with the button that you push to pop the slot open. And trying to figure out what had happened when I first discovered that my laptop was now a vegetable, I popped the plastic part out from the hinge bit, the part that covers the hinges and air vents. 2.0's basically this skeleton of a laptop.
And I'm running bare-bones now, on the inside, with not even the desktop background the same, and the only things on the desktop being Chrome, Adobe Reader, and the Recycle Bin. The desktop used to be swamped with files and folders pockmarking it; now it's totally bare. It's... disconcerting.
On the plus side, I've got 437 gigs of space suddenly free. That's a lot. I've got no idea what to do with that much space, especially now with a wider perspective on the importance of files in the first place.
On the downside. My Firefox is gone. I have none of my sticky notes anymore. My Chrome account has none of the cookies it used to. What are my passwords? I don't know; I have to sign into everything manually again. And my MSPA saved file is gone! It's going to take a while just to relocate my progress on that. And, maybe I did have files saved that were important? I certainly had things written on my sticky notes that I'd thought were vital to keep at the time, but thinking back on what they were, they really weren't that much.
Also on the downside: I'd really been super stoked to post today about, dang it could have been one of any number of things that happened; it was quite an eventful day. Especially one which consistent so darn much of just naps.
I'm installing Adobe CC again; I could totally use the space on massive Adobe Animate files...
I'm kind of alright with not having any of my saved files left. All of my writing projects are saved to Dropbox or Google Drive, and my typography homework is all saved to my flash drive. I don't think anything that had been saved to the internal drive was all that unique; it was mostly projects of mine that had been saved from other computers/flash drives but conglomerated here.
This guy's basically 2.0. It even looks different now, externally. Dropping the laptop broke off the disk drive exterior part, the part with the button that you push to pop the slot open. And trying to figure out what had happened when I first discovered that my laptop was now a vegetable, I popped the plastic part out from the hinge bit, the part that covers the hinges and air vents. 2.0's basically this skeleton of a laptop.
And I'm running bare-bones now, on the inside, with not even the desktop background the same, and the only things on the desktop being Chrome, Adobe Reader, and the Recycle Bin. The desktop used to be swamped with files and folders pockmarking it; now it's totally bare. It's... disconcerting.
On the plus side, I've got 437 gigs of space suddenly free. That's a lot. I've got no idea what to do with that much space, especially now with a wider perspective on the importance of files in the first place.
On the downside. My Firefox is gone. I have none of my sticky notes anymore. My Chrome account has none of the cookies it used to. What are my passwords? I don't know; I have to sign into everything manually again. And my MSPA saved file is gone! It's going to take a while just to relocate my progress on that. And, maybe I did have files saved that were important? I certainly had things written on my sticky notes that I'd thought were vital to keep at the time, but thinking back on what they were, they really weren't that much.
Also on the downside: I'd really been super stoked to post today about, dang it could have been one of any number of things that happened; it was quite an eventful day. Especially one which consistent so darn much of just naps.
I'm installing Adobe CC again; I could totally use the space on massive Adobe Animate files...
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
6 Ways of Looking at a Judy
I broke out my Zootopia Judy and Weaselton meter maid chase cart and figures from their case today. Didn't really want to have to do that but it turned out so worth it. The back of the box had a big old scratch on it anyway.
The reason I took the toy out of its original casing, in drawing class we're getting around finally to drafting from life, instead of math or picture references. I needed a small object simple enough to draw but complex enough to challenge me. I chose the meter maid cart, 3-wheel jokemobile.
As a plan B, I also made thumbnail sketches of just the Judy figure from the set. I'm sharing those with you; don't ask me why 'cos I don't know. Guess not letting the sketches go to waste when I went with the other thing for the art project.
The reason I took the toy out of its original casing, in drawing class we're getting around finally to drafting from life, instead of math or picture references. I needed a small object simple enough to draw but complex enough to challenge me. I chose the meter maid cart, 3-wheel jokemobile.
As a plan B, I also made thumbnail sketches of just the Judy figure from the set. I'm sharing those with you; don't ask me why 'cos I don't know. Guess not letting the sketches go to waste when I went with the other thing for the art project.
The reason why breaking up that piece of my collection was worth it, bringing in the Zootopia merch may have scored me a potential date to see that movie this weekend. It's the hot variety, of date, thanks for asking.
So yeah, anyway, meanwhile, my laptop's still being looked at, but I got the things up for yesterday's post, which you can check out.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Computer's at the Shop. Also, Peach Tea.
My computer's currently in the, you know, shoppy place. I'm on my Kindle right now, I've much to say, and I want an actual keyboard to say it. Once I get one of those, I will have more for you, here:
Batman v Superman! I watched it again and... it was actually really good. Alright, it was only pretty good. I mean it was alright. Decent, I guess. Dang it, it's happening again, where my opinion grows less and less glowing the further away from the viewing I get. Guess it's one of those things that's better in the moment, like, cotton candy or something. Delicious when you eat it, but within a few hours you can't remember what the big deal was. It's like that. Fettuccine Alfredo, like, it's delicious, and you can actually recreate the taste and texture in your mouth, and remember how awesome that stuff is, dang I gotta get me to the frozens section at the nearest grocery store, because my mouth is starting to get all lubricated. Seriously.
But analyzing the film, trying to figure out why it didn't work so well, really there aren't that many things wrong with it. Probably the biggest has nothing to do with the script or acting or, anything. The editing. Zack Snyder is kind of very guilty with the sin, occasionally, of not giving the moment proper time to play out. The most recent Every Frame a Painting talks all about when to cut. Here:
What else have I got to say. Jesse Eisenberg isn't the only one playing Lex Luthor. Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL also really help us get into the dude's head; the character wouldn't be nearly the same without their involvement. Super important.
Also a big shout-out to Heath Ledger, of course. You also played Luthor.**
I really like this Lex Luthor, though, for real. All that, Lex Luthor stuff, is stuff I'd meant to get to in the first review, but didn't have room for.
Batman v Superman! I watched it again and... it was actually really good. Alright, it was only pretty good. I mean it was alright. Decent, I guess. Dang it, it's happening again, where my opinion grows less and less glowing the further away from the viewing I get. Guess it's one of those things that's better in the moment, like, cotton candy or something. Delicious when you eat it, but within a few hours you can't remember what the big deal was. It's like that. Fettuccine Alfredo, like, it's delicious, and you can actually recreate the taste and texture in your mouth, and remember how awesome that stuff is, dang I gotta get me to the frozens section at the nearest grocery store, because my mouth is starting to get all lubricated. Seriously.
But analyzing the film, trying to figure out why it didn't work so well, really there aren't that many things wrong with it. Probably the biggest has nothing to do with the script or acting or, anything. The editing. Zack Snyder is kind of very guilty with the sin, occasionally, of not giving the moment proper time to play out. The most recent Every Frame a Painting talks all about when to cut. Here:
The world is introduced to Superman (or, the Superman, as the title puts it,) and Bruce Wayne cradles the young daughter of some employee and sees Superman and Zod crashing through buildings, his face contorted in rage, and... and nothing. We don't get time to really feel the emotion of the scene.
J J Abrams. Let's contrast Zack Snyder against J J Abrams. Remember the force torture scenes in Force Awakens? Abrams really liiingers on those shots. Perhaps for too long, but, erring on the side of caution is far far far more effective than, cutting away before the emotion of a shot sinks in. Like what with the Alka Seltzer in Taxi Driver above.
On second viewing, also, unrelated, it's not the not!-tea jar that shatters, it's the coffee pot dropped by Martha Kent. So that's fairly excusable. Zack Snyder, ever the visual director, sure does love his excesses. But... sometimes that's a good thing?
On second viewing, also, unrelated, it's not the not!-tea jar that shatters, it's the coffee pot dropped by Martha Kent. So that's fairly excusable. Zack Snyder, ever the visual director, sure does love his excesses. But... sometimes that's a good thing?
I think the over-the-top Citizen Kane-esque opening may in fact be deliberate: as in Kane, where Rosebud is the macguffin, the single issue unlocking the key to all psychology, Rosebud this pinnacle of lost childhood, in Dawn of Justice Martha is indeed the key. Not Lois. It's not like what Barry says; I still don't know what's up with that.* Martha is the symbol of Bruce's innocence, so when Supes pleads in the last possible moment to "save Martha," that probably, I don't know, means something. Save her memory. Don't kill in cold blood, like what Chill did (killing in hot blood remains totally fine, of course, because... Batman?)
...So about that.
...So about that.
We can't walk in knowing nothing about the Bat Mythos, of course- like how in J J Abram's Star Trek film, "beaming up" is used at the last moment to save character's necks, and we're totally fine with it because even though there'd been no beaming up at all previously in the film, if there's one thing everyone knows about Star Trek, besides pointy ears and live long and prosper and nerve pinching and possibly redshirts, it's beaming up. Civil War introduces Spider-Man, and it is glorious, though it's a big detour from the film so far. There's a lot like that that it just, expects you to know. Bucky Barnes. Winter Soldier. Ant Man. Spider-Man was in a different chronology up till now, but Sony's made a deal with Disney yaay! Spider-Man is awesome, and nobody gives a crap that his inclusion is the tiniest bit of a shoehorn.
We're willing to let these films get away with that, because it builds on what we already know culturally. If somebody's lost (like people were to the ending of, Lost) it's hardly the movie's fault any more than it would be if people walked into it not understanding english. Lost, you know. Just, have insanely in-depth knowledge about Gnostic philosophy from a thousand years ago, that kind of thing. It's easy. You walk in expecting this. People speak english. People sit on chairs. If you're confused by what's going on when somebody sits down, it's your fault and not the film's.
BvS, however, disregards/ignores one of the major things that everyone thinks they know about Batman, his whole "I will not be an executioner" deal (an element not present in the earliest of the comic stories, but Doyle only had to introduce Moriarty into the Holmes canon once.) It's like they expect you not to know that Batman doesn't kill people, which is strange because they sure the heck expect you to know that Bruce Wayne=Batman.
Maybe in the extended edition they'll have an establishing character moment near the beginning, where Batman is, I don't know, given a choice to use a gun, and blows some sex trafficker's brains out without hesitation. That'd be great. As it is, the first time we see him kill is kind of a dream sequence, so it's really ambiguous until, like, after the movie is over that, yes, Batman can kill people now. But only bad guys. Offing the Big Blue Boy Scout would still cross a moral event horizon.
This confusion is really strange, because a lot of what fails the film elsewhere is, the producers not expecting enough of the audience- is this part and parcel, oh of course people won't know Batman doesn't usually kill, or is it contradiction, oh of course people will be smart enough to figure stuff out? There are a few things where I'd doubt that the studio really expects that much of us.
Like Batman's opening monologue, saying how his "dream" ends. Like we really couldn't tell it to be a dream. With the bats carrying him up, without even touching him. And how the past blends into the present, and, I don't know, it's just, by this point we've figured out out.
Or the car chase against the kryptonite. It's rendered stupid by the fact that we know that the World's Greatest Detective is already tracking the truck with his conspicuously obvious tracker, but how great would that scene be without the insert of the tracker beeping after he's fired it? It just looks like he's fired a gun, but, like, missed out whatever, so then he has to break out the Batmobile and chase after the truck. And then Superman comes down and does his thing, maybe letting the moment actually play out a bit before Batman asks Superman if he bleeds, and all, but anyway it looks like he's lost the shipment, but, twist!, he'd been tracking it all along. And you only notice how stupid it is that he's chasing the truck the second time through. Or it just comes across as being a clever plan b, which, it probably was anyway.
Like Batman's opening monologue, saying how his "dream" ends. Like we really couldn't tell it to be a dream. With the bats carrying him up, without even touching him. And how the past blends into the present, and, I don't know, it's just, by this point we've figured out out.
Or the car chase against the kryptonite. It's rendered stupid by the fact that we know that the World's Greatest Detective is already tracking the truck with his conspicuously obvious tracker, but how great would that scene be without the insert of the tracker beeping after he's fired it? It just looks like he's fired a gun, but, like, missed out whatever, so then he has to break out the Batmobile and chase after the truck. And then Superman comes down and does his thing, maybe letting the moment actually play out a bit before Batman asks Superman if he bleeds, and all, but anyway it looks like he's lost the shipment, but, twist!, he'd been tracking it all along. And you only notice how stupid it is that he's chasing the truck the second time through. Or it just comes across as being a clever plan b, which, it probably was anyway.
What else have I got to say. Jesse Eisenberg isn't the only one playing Lex Luthor. Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL also really help us get into the dude's head; the character wouldn't be nearly the same without their involvement. Super important.
Also a big shout-out to Heath Ledger, of course. You also played Luthor.**
I really like this Lex Luthor, though, for real. All that, Lex Luthor stuff, is stuff I'd meant to get to in the first review, but didn't have room for.
Monday, May 23, 2016
😲
In true pioneer spirit, I am titling this post with an emoji. We'll see how that turns out.
The emoji in question is kind of this little frustrated guy, I guess?, in case you can't see it. I'd really meant it to be that one that's giving this, are you kidding me, face, with the eyes all like staring, but I guess I can't find that one. Today we won't have much of a post-- I'm writing this from my Kindle. The little emoji dude is so horrified because of the reason why.
I took photos before realizing I don't really have a way of displaying them, not being able to fit an SD card into a Kindle and all that. I could probably take photos just with the Kindle's built-in camera, but what fun would that be.
I tripped over my laptop's power cord. Is what happened. It's Monday, got a lot of stuff due, possible if I hurry, but, I guess I hurried too hard. Now all I'm getting is this strange MS-DOS-style system startup menu that is way too reminiscent of the kind of computer games I played in the 90s. I'm not sure how or if my computer's ever going to be able to recover.
On the bright side, I can totally be late turning in the stuff I'd been hurrying to get done, if I even need to turn it in at all...
The emoji in question is kind of this little frustrated guy, I guess?, in case you can't see it. I'd really meant it to be that one that's giving this, are you kidding me, face, with the eyes all like staring, but I guess I can't find that one. Today we won't have much of a post-- I'm writing this from my Kindle. The little emoji dude is so horrified because of the reason why.
I took photos before realizing I don't really have a way of displaying them, not being able to fit an SD card into a Kindle and all that. I could probably take photos just with the Kindle's built-in camera, but what fun would that be.
I tripped over my laptop's power cord. Is what happened. It's Monday, got a lot of stuff due, possible if I hurry, but, I guess I hurried too hard. Now all I'm getting is this strange MS-DOS-style system startup menu that is way too reminiscent of the kind of computer games I played in the 90s. I'm not sure how or if my computer's ever going to be able to recover.
On the bright side, I can totally be late turning in the stuff I'd been hurrying to get done, if I even need to turn it in at all...
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Grosses and Drawing
Civil War passed the $1,000,000,000 worldwide mark this weekend. Zootopia, now at the number 2 film of the year, should pass that mark in a couple of weeks? It's been surpassing $10,000,000 a week pretty consistently, over the past few weeks, so... a couple weekends more. Maybe things are even going to pick up. Or maybe they'll drop off; I'm no expert.
Either way, it's already within $8 million of surpassing Lion King worldwide, which is... frightening. Not adjusted for inflation, or ticket prices, but Lion King made its gross over multiple releases, and Zootopia is still on #1 that-wise, so... crazy.
I've got stuff to scan in the morning, which is, still Monday. Alright, one "stuff" to scan, one thing. Usually drawing assignments are due Saturday night, but this one was apparently extra ambitious, so we were given more time? I know I was certainly ambitious, probably choosing the most complex of the shapes to replicate.
Either way, it's already within $8 million of surpassing Lion King worldwide, which is... frightening. Not adjusted for inflation, or ticket prices, but Lion King made its gross over multiple releases, and Zootopia is still on #1 that-wise, so... crazy.
I've got stuff to scan in the morning, which is, still Monday. Alright, one "stuff" to scan, one thing. Usually drawing assignments are due Saturday night, but this one was apparently extra ambitious, so we were given more time? I know I was certainly ambitious, probably choosing the most complex of the shapes to replicate.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Steve Rogers
It was one year ago yesterday- meant to hit it on the one-year mark but missed- that our indoor cat became an outdoor cat. Now that the dog's MIA, having previously occupied the back room-pantry area which had been shared (yet partitioned) up to that point, I don't know what that means, but Steve's doing great for himself. Apparently stateside it's considered kind of, immoral, to have cats live outdoors, while the opposite is true in Europe? I don't think I'd ever heard that, but apparently it's pretty hot-button. Europe you're much less likely to get hit by a car, I guess, but same is true in Nevada. So we're fine.
Friday, May 20, 2016
Cwm Fjord Bank Glyphs Vext Quiz
The English language doesn't really have the greatest pangrams. Phrases that contain all the letters, or, pan the grams? It's got great ones, I mean, sure, but, not really any perfect ones that are all that legible. I was going to write about those a bit more, but it sounded familiar and indeed I did go into the subject during my random babblings here. Or just read about them on WIkipedia here.
Attempting to rectify the situation, I came up with a couple, that, use abbreviations, and still don't make much sense, but, hey, they don't reuse any letters or anything.
my K-car’s VFX pwn’d the J-blog quiz
MLB Jocky X finds veg pH w/ quartz
Attempting to rectify the situation, I came up with a couple, that, use abbreviations, and still don't make much sense, but, hey, they don't reuse any letters or anything.
my K-car’s VFX pwn’d the J-blog quiz
MLB Jocky X finds veg pH w/ quartz
Thursday, May 19, 2016
A Book Signing, or Not
The lobby is mostly cleared of my junk, by now, which I am grateful for, because today there was, in the lobby... a book signing? Or whatever, not so much a signing as, well basically a signing. Except all the books available already all had signatures in them. Other than that, picture a book signing and you'll have the right idea. My stuff may be moved out, but the lobby is still my lair, so I stuck around, mostly... except where I ducked out to tidy up the apartment in brief increments, with today being clean checks. I wonder how we did on the inspections...
Still can't find my camera. Which stinks because, photos! I took a few pictures just with the camera on my Kindle, which doesn't have nearly as nice of picture quality. I checked the Lost and Found at Fat Cats today, no dice there, though I did find a Fat Cats gift card with $30 on it... which I reported, of course, and actually the guy said he remembers the lady who'd bought it just that morning. So it looks like that's going to get back to her. $30 worth of movies or games or snacks or whatever, though... that was awfully tempting... but I did the right thing. Be impressed with me!
The book, anyway, is, well I didn't win the raffle for the free copy but it's only 99¢ for an ebook on Amazon, so I just leased a copy for myself (because, they're only e-copies, so they're not technically selling you a copy, only licensing you to have it on your device?) is by a student here, and apparently also living here at Crestwood, self-published through CreateSpace. The server's acting dumb so it hasn't even started downloading yet, but she read the first chapter out loud as part of the not-signing, and it was pretty strong writing, so yeah I guess it's probably good?
Bekka "RM" Donaldson's The Custodian Chronicles: the Rising is available in paperback from Amazon, hardcover from Lulu, or on ebook, Kindle format from Amazon or epub format from Lulu. And there was something in there about being available from Barnes and Noble as well, but I can't find a link to that? They'll stock it in-store if they get enough requests for it.
Photos of the not-signing here, when I've got time to upload them.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
This Post, Too, Shall Age
I've been reading through a lot of the old posts on this blog. A lot of it is really pretty good, actually. My past self is way more clever than he's got any right to be.
Another thing I noticed about a lot of the old posts is how short some of them are.
Another thing I noticed about a lot of the old posts is how short some of them are.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
More Zootopia, Animation Workshop, and the Obvious Gag
It's May 17th today, the date on the day calendar on Bellwether's desk in Zootopia. I offered after Animation Workshop to take those who hadn't seen it yet to go see Zootopia, with me paying for tickets, and I managed to snag both who hadn't seen it, plus two more who just didn't mind watching it again. It's a Tuesday, which means that theaters are selling tickets for cheap today. (I thought it was just Paramount 5, but I saw in going to see Civil War the second time on Saturday that Fat Cats also offers discounts on Tuesday, so I figure maybe it's more of a generalized thing... I noticed on Box Office Mojo that there does seem to be a dropoff in ticket sales during the week, especially on Monday, so I figure that in its natural state Tuesdays would be even lower than Mondays are.)
The way that came about was based off of the lesson for the workshop, which today was about critiquing versus just being a critic- in order to be able to successfully compare something to something else, specifically with media, they have to match in medium or genre or theme, preferably with more than one thing in common. As a random example of two things that would be difficult to compare, Taylor offered up a showdown of Zootopia and Back to the Future. And of course a couple of girls said they hadn't seen it (the former) yet, and so I had to offer to take them... or, tell, rather. Tell them. I'm taking you to the 9:00 showing.
And so we did that.
It was awesome. Such a good movie. I've lost track which viewing this was, 16 I think but really wish it had been seventeen only to match the fortuitous date, but pretty high up there anyway, and definitely covering ticket 17. 16th viewing; I still pick up loads of detail. Once I bother to get around to the write-up of the notes I took, you can read that on A Real Thing?
Another great thing from the lesson, which we explicitly discussed: I no longer have to be apologetic about my genuine enjoyment of Teen Titans Go!, because as Taylor pointed out the comparison isn't really fair: the genre and medium are the same, but the style/theme is completely different, which makes the two shows apples and oranges. Grannies and, hand grenades, or whatever?
None of that is really what I want to talk about, though, because the Chuck Jones video from two days ago is still on my mind, specifically regarding expectation and payoff. Every week in animation workshop there's an animation highlight where we showcase a favorite short animation; I'm next week and I'm seriously considering mine to be VivziePop's Die Young Fan Animation, but we'll see. This week's animation, chosen by Taylor hi'self I'm pretty sure, was the trailer for Sergio Pablos's Klaus.
Klaus teaser ©2015 Sergio Pablos Animation Studios, S.L. & ANTENA 3 FILMS, S.L.U.
All rights reserved from The SPA Studios on Vimeo.
Seriously I wouldn't mind how obvious all the jokes are in the trailer, as long as they don't, I don't know, have that scene in the movie or anything. What's that, they open right up with it? Well forget that! The movie does get better from there, but... I know the scene's probably not yours, but why do we even put up with that, Sergio? I know you're better than that.
The way that came about was based off of the lesson for the workshop, which today was about critiquing versus just being a critic- in order to be able to successfully compare something to something else, specifically with media, they have to match in medium or genre or theme, preferably with more than one thing in common. As a random example of two things that would be difficult to compare, Taylor offered up a showdown of Zootopia and Back to the Future. And of course a couple of girls said they hadn't seen it (the former) yet, and so I had to offer to take them... or, tell, rather. Tell them. I'm taking you to the 9:00 showing.
And so we did that.
It was awesome. Such a good movie. I've lost track which viewing this was, 16 I think but really wish it had been seventeen only to match the fortuitous date, but pretty high up there anyway, and definitely covering ticket 17. 16th viewing; I still pick up loads of detail. Once I bother to get around to the write-up of the notes I took, you can read that on A Real Thing?
Another great thing from the lesson, which we explicitly discussed: I no longer have to be apologetic about my genuine enjoyment of Teen Titans Go!, because as Taylor pointed out the comparison isn't really fair: the genre and medium are the same, but the style/theme is completely different, which makes the two shows apples and oranges. Grannies and, hand grenades, or whatever?
None of that is really what I want to talk about, though, because the Chuck Jones video from two days ago is still on my mind, specifically regarding expectation and payoff. Every week in animation workshop there's an animation highlight where we showcase a favorite short animation; I'm next week and I'm seriously considering mine to be VivziePop's Die Young Fan Animation, but we'll see. This week's animation, chosen by Taylor hi'self I'm pretty sure, was the trailer for Sergio Pablos's Klaus.
Klaus teaser ©2015 Sergio Pablos Animation Studios, S.L. & ANTENA 3 FILMS, S.L.U.
All rights reserved from The SPA Studios on Vimeo.
There's a beautiful gag 1:35 into that where the obvious joke is set up, and then subverted in the best possible way. Just blows my mind.
Sergio Pablos of course was also the guy who did the story for Despicable Me, as well as executive produced it. Which kind of confuses me, because Despicable Me is the exact film that I point to as an example of doing it wrong? But let me explain what I mean by that.
Every gag is obvious. Right from the trailer, below, watching through that I thought, frig, I can see every "joke" coming a mile off. I hope that none of this is in the movie. The only thing I didn't expect is how ugly the character designs are. My goodness. Kind of harsh, but, let's walk through it: right from the bus pulling up, you know that the American tourists are going to be tacky and morbidly obese. You know the kind with his airplane is going to go straight up the ramp into the pyramid. You know that he won't come to harm, and possibly even bounce. And when he does bounce, you know he's going to keep flying that tiny little airplane, and be stupid ecstatic about the genuine air he's getting. Oh, look, his mother's going to catch him, with his father standing like a lard in the background. Wonder what's gonna happen.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Mondays and Modern World
I was wicked busy today scramblin' at homework. True it is that I had nothing due throughout last weekend, except, I never have anything due over the weekend, and in fact I only have things due on Mondays. Except for odds and ends here and there, easily handled, which hardly even count as that. On Mondays, though, I owe something to every single one of my classes this semester. Either I've got class, or some project from class due, or both. I probably should be more proactive about getting the stuff due done, but, I should probably be more proactive about getting the stuff due done.
I said above and previously that I didn't have anything due over the weekend, though yes there's always one or two things (scan and upload Saturday the drawing completed Friday in drawing class,) and even then saying I didn't have anything due was less true than usual because of the Art History test on Saturday, which doesn't happen every week (could've been taken on Friday either, but, I do enjoy putting things off until the last minute, in a distinctly non-procrastinatory way.) There's a great story about that test, though the point really in bringing that up is, like, schoolwork, and, yeah well Monday's over now, and I've got a week of not having any homework ahead of me again.
Usually I find something to do. I don't know. My protein's been kind of low, which means that I won't be able to hit the Biomat for a week until the blood sample results get in... by that point, at least, enough time will have transpired since my latest clot-in-the-needle that I won't need to mention it at all during the screenings...*
Maybe instead I can start moving some of my sprawl out of the lobby back into the apartment...
You've been so kind listening to me ramble about my crazy scheduling stuff and how stressful Mondays are and how I'm too busy recuperating from the previous Monday to get on next Monday's stuff early, is what I think it is... I think I'll reward you with some Sub Pop.**
Your move, Radiohead.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Looney Tunes, Discipline, Inspiration
Watched a bunch of Looney Tunes. In the lobby again; it's where I'm basically camped out. Ryan says that I should move my stuff back into the apartment, but I still have a tendency to sprawl. Looney Tunes, anyway, two DVDs' worth on the TV in here, with the guys, when I probably should have been doing readings and stuff-- I did do a bit of that too, but had to put that down whenever the major classics came on.
With that much time taken up doing that, and other stuff still needing to be done now, I'll just hand this to you- Every Frame a Painting's video essay on Chuck Jones and what makes his cartoons work, which I rather like and thought, maybe, you would too?
With that much time taken up doing that, and other stuff still needing to be done now, I'll just hand this to you- Every Frame a Painting's video essay on Chuck Jones and what makes his cartoons work, which I rather like and thought, maybe, you would too?
If you liked that and want to support that kind of thing, you can click through to the YouTube channel; also Tony's Patreon is here, just sayin'...
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Those Things I Was Held To
Can't find my camera anywhere. It's not at any lost and found; probably in some pocket I haven't checked. Trying to locate it yesterday, overturning the mattress, I located my misplaced temple recommend... what it looks like is, it had been in my pocket when I dumped a pile of my clothing onto the bed, and it fell out and landed by the wall. So I could go to the temple again this morning, for the first time in over a month. Alright, I did hang out in the lobby of the Reno temple, over spring break; here I could actually, go in. It's been a while. It was nice.
I'm not sure what I've really got to say about Battleborn. Personally I'm not qualified to speak anything about it, really. One of the dudes who plays video games in the lobby rented it from the Redbox for the weekend, testing it out seeing if it's worth buying the whole game... I guess it is? But I'm not sure. Is one weekend enough time to gauge this sort of thing?
Taking a walk yesterday, for the purpose of, walktaking, ultimate destination the hospital to maybe check out the sculpture there by my Art 101 teacher last semester, clearing my head working out homework stress (still don't have anything due until Monday!) maybe something about not being able to attend any of the BLFC events in person this year (all the good stuff was yesterday, today's panels and workshops are pretty meh, though looks like there was a panel today dedicated solely to how awesome raccoons are.) There's a Bourne Identity-style protest outside the Walgreens, no wait, actually, it's just campaigners, the Nate family all out waving signs advertising that Ron is campaigning for four (or however many) more years as state representative. I'm not sure if state representative is even a partisan position, but it looks like Ron is a Republican (do we even have Democrats in Idaho?) because there across the way apparently was... an elephant fursuiter?? Photo op required; it's the closest I'll be to a fursuitor charity auction all year.
Back at the apartment, I try desperately to relocate my camera, and here's where I instead relocate my temple recommend. Camera, anyway.
Walking by again... totally wild and unexpected, but it turns out that the elephant is, not a stranger, but actually an FHE sister of mine? So I get those photo ops, up close and personal. Just like with a real elephant, except the opposite of how that would go.
There were two photos taken. I'm showing both this time! The first one was apparently too harshly backlit, from the camera's viewpoint, so he took a second one as well with us facing toward the sun. On the computer screen with better lighting I can't tell much of a difference... We adopted the same poses and everything.
For bonus fun, toggle rapidly between the two photos, they're seriously almost exactly the same except for the background. I chose the top one of the two to display yesterday because it's better context for what's going on, plus it won't seem like I'm necessarily plugging Mountain America Credit Union or anything.
Man, this is super disjointed. Treat your eyes and ears to some The Strokes!
...and two from the Shins.
I'd forgotten how rad Yo Gabba Gabba! was...
Friday, May 13, 2016
Battleborn, Bananas, and BLFC Livestreams
BLFC- Biggest Little Fur Con, in Reno- started today, had its official opening ceremony at least although there were a few workshops and events yesterday as well. The functions that took place in the main hall, at least, were livestreamed, so I could at least, join in or whatever-the-heck word you'd use, using those. Like how I used to watch the livestream of the Hugos at Worldcon, that one time... the dance is still going on, actually, as of this writing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emwpRxqnyTE
Still not as great as going to the real thing of course (though I guess it's the price you pay for, education?) For example, right as the opening ceremony was going on there were other panels as well, including one I'm really interested in. Let’s Move to Zootopia (...or not), which... frig, I suppose I could just copy/paste the description from the event schedule:
While I was watching the opening ceremonies, wishing I could be there and wondering if there really is anything Zootopia could have done better, the other dude in the lobby was watching some video about Japan or something, and apparently they've got collars now that you attach to your children and it shocks them if they frown? That's right, the tame collars from the abandoned early Zootopia conception are becoming defictionalized, although they were never canonically fiction in the first place.
Which is bananas of course. Absolutely, bananas...
I've got a lot else that I want to talk about, but it's pretty late, and I'd been meaning to hit the hay early. Stuff I didn't get to today but might tomorrow (hold me to it!): The Strokes, The Shins, Lost and Found things, Battleborn, and, this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emwpRxqnyTE
Still not as great as going to the real thing of course (though I guess it's the price you pay for, education?) For example, right as the opening ceremony was going on there were other panels as well, including one I'm really interested in. Let’s Move to Zootopia (...or not), which... frig, I suppose I could just copy/paste the description from the event schedule:
Zootopia is the biggest mainstream film to be laid at the feet (paws?) of the furry community since The Lion King--or is it? Did Zootopia live up to the hype? What could’ve been done better? What notable fan works are out there? And will we see a wave of rabbits enter furry spaces a decade from now? Come discuss what Zooptopia means to you, the community, and where we should all go from here.That's the livestream I would really have liked to see, but oh well. A, the Conlog, would be really useful right about now. I've got absolutely nothing due until Monday; do you think I might have been able to make it...? I guess I did still have drawing class to go to this afternoon, which was after the 11am-12pm time slot Pacific Time of the opening panel and everything, so, whatever.
While I was watching the opening ceremonies, wishing I could be there and wondering if there really is anything Zootopia could have done better, the other dude in the lobby was watching some video about Japan or something, and apparently they've got collars now that you attach to your children and it shocks them if they frown? That's right, the tame collars from the abandoned early Zootopia conception are becoming defictionalized, although they were never canonically fiction in the first place.
Which is bananas of course. Absolutely, bananas...
I've got a lot else that I want to talk about, but it's pretty late, and I'd been meaning to hit the hay early. Stuff I didn't get to today but might tomorrow (hold me to it!): The Strokes, The Shins, Lost and Found things, Battleborn, and, this:
EDIT: Alright, kind of a copout how I only lightly touched on Battleborn, when it's right there in the post title. I only got to Battleborn, a bit? (further alliteration woot!) Mentioned it once. Though (with BLFC taking place in the battle born state anyway, so it was kind of already covered?) I might as well round things out yon-wise with the third meaning of "Battle Born"... :
Because I'm already posting up plenty of music videos in tomorrow's post, what with the Strokes and the Shins... Maybe even Foxes and Peppers, whose performance at BLFC this afternoon was also livestreamed. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhdhg_rjUjk)
Thursday, May 12, 2016
"Who are You?"
I'm going nuts right now because I really want to go to bed, but I still have this to write, and a messageboard post or two to make for homework, and alright I posted on those message boards, I can focus on this for however long it's going to take me, and then pass out for several hours. I didn't get much sleep last night... whatever it was that I stayed up doing, I'm sure it was fascinating and enriching. Oh, yeah, it was, Disney multilanguage one-lines. Yeah. That was dope.
Okay, so, meanwhile, I started the Hollow City, by Dan Wells. It's so good. I'm kind of glad that the driver to the shuttle to Walmart totally failed to see me at the busstop though I was RIGHT THERE, on the wrong side and then crossing around behind instead of in front of but still. Not only could I get in my anaerobics for the day, chasing futily after the bus for however many blocks, but also I had to find something to do while waiting the 45 minutes for the shuttle to complete another cycle, so I went to the library. And, the Hollow City, anyway. So good. More narrators with schizophrenia; way better than any of those, reliable, narrators! Though, yeah, as far as narrators go, Michael Shipman is pretty reliable, so far. Which is nice.
I'm super excited for Things That Don't Even Come Back Around, or the adventures of Finnegan Michael Moone at any rate. I know I haven't posted on that blog itself in a while, but for that I do have a host of notes from Zootopia viewings which I'll put up there once I've got the time to polish them, and meanwhile yes I have been working on the Finn Moone stuff proper. I've a lot of ideas for book 2, working towards that, fleshing out the universe and the kinds of stories that can be told in it and the ways to tell them; I've also a lot of character interactions and relationship deals that I've pounded out for book one, which comes first, gearing up for writing that because I do not like to discovery write even remotely. And so I plan, and come up with ideas, and geek out over said ideas. It's super great stuff, I'm pretty impressed with myself right now.
And so I'm cooling down, by acting super amateur about writing and blogging about it where even the people who do care don't care. See? I'm a degions! Genius, I mean; I tried typing that and just, sort of, let my fingers do whatever they wanted... It's not even that late, but I didn't even get (that much of) a nap in today, so...
Okay, so, meanwhile, I started the Hollow City, by Dan Wells. It's so good. I'm kind of glad that the driver to the shuttle to Walmart totally failed to see me at the busstop though I was RIGHT THERE, on the wrong side and then crossing around behind instead of in front of but still. Not only could I get in my anaerobics for the day, chasing futily after the bus for however many blocks, but also I had to find something to do while waiting the 45 minutes for the shuttle to complete another cycle, so I went to the library. And, the Hollow City, anyway. So good. More narrators with schizophrenia; way better than any of those, reliable, narrators! Though, yeah, as far as narrators go, Michael Shipman is pretty reliable, so far. Which is nice.
I'm super excited for Things That Don't Even Come Back Around, or the adventures of Finnegan Michael Moone at any rate. I know I haven't posted on that blog itself in a while, but for that I do have a host of notes from Zootopia viewings which I'll put up there once I've got the time to polish them, and meanwhile yes I have been working on the Finn Moone stuff proper. I've a lot of ideas for book 2, working towards that, fleshing out the universe and the kinds of stories that can be told in it and the ways to tell them; I've also a lot of character interactions and relationship deals that I've pounded out for book one, which comes first, gearing up for writing that because I do not like to discovery write even remotely. And so I plan, and come up with ideas, and geek out over said ideas. It's super great stuff, I'm pretty impressed with myself right now.
And so I'm cooling down, by acting super amateur about writing and blogging about it where even the people who do care don't care. See? I'm a degions! Genius, I mean; I tried typing that and just, sort of, let my fingers do whatever they wanted... It's not even that late, but I didn't even get (that much of) a nap in today, so...
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
A Few YouTube Categories You Might Enjoy
You know what one of the greatest genres YouTube has to offer is? Multilanguage compilations of single lines from Disney films. "One-line multilanguages," as they're known. You can start with this search query here; particularly excellent are various languages' takes on "when I was a young warthog," of which there are a few, of various lengths (depending on how many languages are included in that particular compilation.)
Also fantastic: Disney songs, translated into other languages. It's fascinating to see what they did with the ideas and the meters and stuff; it really shows how dedicated Disney is to the craft.
So, you seen Civil War yet? No? Get on it, man, don't know what's wrong with you...
Also fantastic: Disney songs, translated into other languages. It's fascinating to see what they did with the ideas and the meters and stuff; it really shows how dedicated Disney is to the craft.
So, you seen Civil War yet? No? Get on it, man, don't know what's wrong with you...
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Zootopia, Civil War, Japan, Box Office Returns and Mojo
Tuesdays are just so open for me, I could actually go see Civil War! And, you haven't seen it yet, so I'm saying nothing. Whom am I kidding, though, you've seen it already; it's the number 1 movie worldwide right now, except for in Japan, which is going all-out for Zootopia. Now that the audience for Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare is dying down, at least. Zootopia's audience is also down, but this is nothing to the film's detriment; all theatergoing has dropped now that Golden Week is over. Zootopia is sitting at the top right now, with Cap three whole slots behind.
Civil War debuted there a weekend ago, opening up at number 3, and hasn't gone up since then, and, and, Box Office Mojo is such an addicting site, guys, nothing but a wall of stats (which is always awesome) regarding ticket sales (which makes it even more awesome.)
Maaath...!
Disney has now surpassed the $1 billion mark domestically for this year, which is more than a month quicker than the previous world record set by Universal last year. Internationally, meanwhile, Zootopia is still the number one movie of the year-- no film this year has quite gotten to $1 billion gross worldwide quite yet, but Zootopia's topping over Dawn of Justice by almost $100 million, with continued super strong legs. With the meteoric rise of Civil War, Zootopia probably won't be the first film this year to top $1 billion global cume, but it'd be surprising if it doesn't hit that point at least eventually, with them gams.
Domestically it's still at number 6 box office-wise, which is insane for how many weeks it's been out already. Civil War was the only movie that came out this last weekend, to genuinely positive reviews; nothing that's coming out this weekend has anything but middling to negative reviews; Zootopia is pretty consistently showing the lowest week-to-week drop of any of the top 10s, and like people are probably going to stop going to go see Mother's Day now that that's over, maybe, so: I believe that just maybe Zootopia may peek back up into the top 5 again, in domestic box office? Aw, freak, whom am I kidding with this one either, Angry Birds Movie is coming out this weekend, to displace if not Captain American than at least the Jungle Book, because of course people are going to see that, we live in a world where the friggin' Minions movie made more than a billion worldwide. Not that I've ever seen it, but if I ever do, I'd have well already gone all Oedipus on my eyes by that point.
On the other hand, when was the last time that a film based on a game actually did do well...?
EDIT: The Angry Birds movie is coming out next weekend, actually, apparently?, which means that there really is a good chance for Zootopia to peek back up into the top 5, as audience for other movies continues to die off at a more rapid rate than the audience for Zootopia. With just $40 million left to hit the one billion mark globally, audience rate remaining fairly strong in the states even with under a month until the DVD comes out, and a whole open horizon in front of it in Japan with fairly steady returns so far and positive word-of-mouth... I'm still not saying that Zootopia's going to breach a billion before Civil War, but $40 million isn't really that much of a gap to bridge, so, it's at least possible.
Civil War debuted there a weekend ago, opening up at number 3, and hasn't gone up since then, and, and, Box Office Mojo is such an addicting site, guys, nothing but a wall of stats (which is always awesome) regarding ticket sales (which makes it even more awesome.)
Maaath...!
Disney has now surpassed the $1 billion mark domestically for this year, which is more than a month quicker than the previous world record set by Universal last year. Internationally, meanwhile, Zootopia is still the number one movie of the year-- no film this year has quite gotten to $1 billion gross worldwide quite yet, but Zootopia's topping over Dawn of Justice by almost $100 million, with continued super strong legs. With the meteoric rise of Civil War, Zootopia probably won't be the first film this year to top $1 billion global cume, but it'd be surprising if it doesn't hit that point at least eventually, with them gams.
Domestically it's still at number 6 box office-wise, which is insane for how many weeks it's been out already. Civil War was the only movie that came out this last weekend, to genuinely positive reviews; nothing that's coming out this weekend has anything but middling to negative reviews; Zootopia is pretty consistently showing the lowest week-to-week drop of any of the top 10s, and like people are probably going to stop going to go see Mother's Day now that that's over, maybe, so: I believe that just maybe Zootopia may peek back up into the top 5 again, in domestic box office? Aw, freak, whom am I kidding with this one either, Angry Birds Movie is coming out this weekend, to displace if not Captain American than at least the Jungle Book, because of course people are going to see that, we live in a world where the friggin' Minions movie made more than a billion worldwide. Not that I've ever seen it, but if I ever do, I'd have well already gone all Oedipus on my eyes by that point.
On the other hand, when was the last time that a film based on a game actually did do well...?
EDIT: The Angry Birds movie is coming out next weekend, actually, apparently?, which means that there really is a good chance for Zootopia to peek back up into the top 5, as audience for other movies continues to die off at a more rapid rate than the audience for Zootopia. With just $40 million left to hit the one billion mark globally, audience rate remaining fairly strong in the states even with under a month until the DVD comes out, and a whole open horizon in front of it in Japan with fairly steady returns so far and positive word-of-mouth... I'm still not saying that Zootopia's going to breach a billion before Civil War, but $40 million isn't really that much of a gap to bridge, so, it's at least possible.
Monday, May 9, 2016
Queen Chrysalis, The Most Fascinating Fact of the Day and Where (Animal) Babies Come From
Blogger's 502ing like crazy right now (that's an error code!), so, man, I don't know, trying not to lie about the post time,
For my Color and Design class this week, I had to come up with a shape with plenty of negative shapes in it, and make a sort of silhouette of the outline of that shape, focusing on the negative space to the image, cropping it to add even more interesting negative shapes. One of the first things that came to mind when I thought "shape with negative space" was Queen Chrysalis from My Little Pony: Friendship is Sufficiently Advanced Technology (probably shouldn't call it that, that's most likely the name of an actual fanfic out there somewhere,) and so, that's what I went with, ultimately, though I did toy around with Discord for a bit there. Queen Chrysalis, she's got such marvelous holes in her, though, so yeah. I turned her in tonight, and now that I've got her scanned for that, I can exhibit her in glorious, 72 DPI.
I can tell you right now, though, it really doesn't. I don't know what kind of fascinating stuff you learned about today, but among the fascinating things I learned today, the most wonderful would probably have to deal with, animal reproduction. Apparently though when it comes to that topic, my definition of the word "wonderful" may be a little skewed? I tried sharing a marvelous fact I'd just learned about how giraffes make their babies, once, and it ended in, screaming, and, definitive proof that it actually is possible to block "traumatic" experiences from your memory.
Well, uh, I'd found it marvelous, at least... one man's trauma...
Sunday, May 8, 2016
to the Bone
The night is pitch, and still. But it had rained today, rained and hailed and thundered, with electricity clinging to the cloud ceiling and grumbling occasionally like an old man clearing his throat as though in protest. We're a cult, those of us who go outside when it rains. Those of us who listen the distant roar of the approaching stormwater, basking as it comes in the stillness of the diffused light, gauzy from the clouds, the air scrubbed clean. We're a cult, the cats of the city who all come out to stretch in the still of the vespertine hours, all called by something deep and unnamed, noticing one another, realizing we're not alone, but continuing on our ways eventually.
And then the hail started. I looked down the street perpendicular to my path and I could see it coming, a thick wall pushing through a thin. Pennies, cold and white and centimeters in diameter, dropped from the top of the Empire State Building. And I didn't head back. Even as the wall hit, I continued forward. Continued is a good word; "pressed" is not. I just, kept on. Not for any purpose, just thought to go for a walk.
I don't think it's possible to be soaked to the bone, though actually I have heard of a type of acid that does exactly that, seeps through the flesh leaving it undamaged, but eating right through once it finds something osseous to munch on. They have to inject you through the muscle, if you spill any of that on yourself, inject you with gel that coats your bones so they don't dissolve once the acid hits. It's supposed to be incredibly painful, but either put up with that or lose whatever part of your skeleton, I guess.
I've heard, even, of a man who spilled some of it on his groin, by accident...
The electrical storm continued on above, as well, throughout the rain and the hail. If I got hit by lightning, how much homework would I be able to get out of? Not that I've got much. It'd just be nice. But I didn't get hit.
I lay down, the day before yesterday, walking back from not-going-to-see-Cap, in the rain, on the grass. It was more of a drizzle, on that day. A lady pulling out from a nearby parking lot asks if I'm okay, or need a ride. I accept her offer, and get home that way. This time, there's a young family who offer to give me a ride, as I stand in the driving hail at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change, heading away from the apartment still but at least with my eye on shelter. I accept their offer. The young boy of the family has to crawl into the back, I think; at the time I thought that he'd been just sitting back there and that had left a seat open, but thinking on it now I realize that the other way makes more sense.
The hail against the roof and windows was very loud. We had to communicate in a combination of semaphore and American Sign Language in order to convey direction of where to head to bring me home, as the usual method of Morse obviously wouldn't have worked against the irregular patterns tapped out by the weather.
But I made it back, I guess.
And now the night is so still...
And then the hail started. I looked down the street perpendicular to my path and I could see it coming, a thick wall pushing through a thin. Pennies, cold and white and centimeters in diameter, dropped from the top of the Empire State Building. And I didn't head back. Even as the wall hit, I continued forward. Continued is a good word; "pressed" is not. I just, kept on. Not for any purpose, just thought to go for a walk.
I don't think it's possible to be soaked to the bone, though actually I have heard of a type of acid that does exactly that, seeps through the flesh leaving it undamaged, but eating right through once it finds something osseous to munch on. They have to inject you through the muscle, if you spill any of that on yourself, inject you with gel that coats your bones so they don't dissolve once the acid hits. It's supposed to be incredibly painful, but either put up with that or lose whatever part of your skeleton, I guess.
I've heard, even, of a man who spilled some of it on his groin, by accident...
The electrical storm continued on above, as well, throughout the rain and the hail. If I got hit by lightning, how much homework would I be able to get out of? Not that I've got much. It'd just be nice. But I didn't get hit.
I lay down, the day before yesterday, walking back from not-going-to-see-Cap, in the rain, on the grass. It was more of a drizzle, on that day. A lady pulling out from a nearby parking lot asks if I'm okay, or need a ride. I accept her offer, and get home that way. This time, there's a young family who offer to give me a ride, as I stand in the driving hail at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change, heading away from the apartment still but at least with my eye on shelter. I accept their offer. The young boy of the family has to crawl into the back, I think; at the time I thought that he'd been just sitting back there and that had left a seat open, but thinking on it now I realize that the other way makes more sense.
The hail against the roof and windows was very loud. We had to communicate in a combination of semaphore and American Sign Language in order to convey direction of where to head to bring me home, as the usual method of Morse obviously wouldn't have worked against the irregular patterns tapped out by the weather.
But I made it back, I guess.
And now the night is so still...
Saturday, May 7, 2016
This is Bad for Actors Everywhere
Woke up. Saw that Harrison Ford is playing Hobie Doyle. Strike that, reverse it; (the guy who played) Hobie Doyle is playing (a guy played by) Harrison Ford. Geeked out over that.
Missed free comic book day. Missed Civil War. So far. Did other stuff with my life. Like, eat tofu straight-up from the container, and, stress out over homework that isn't even that hard and isn't even due for a few days-- what else is there to do, I already got through my regimen of skillz practice for the day. So I've just been sitting around like a lard, anxious over schoolwork and feeling like today was a waste. Maybe I should have gone to see a movie; but, no I can always see it later, maybe a matinee where it's cheaper, even though I can afford it; but maaan I feel all guilty for going and seeing movies lately and spending money on that; and meanwhile there's stuff due ever...!
Alden Ehrenreich, anyway. Am I the only one excited by this? I look at comments, and it's like, everyone hates Star Wars all of a sudden. Or at least the casting. Alden Ehrenreich is such a good actor! You say he doesn't look like Harrison Ford, but Harrison Ford doesn't look like Harrison Ford! Rewatching A New Hope, it was like, geez, he's so young here. It's crazy.
I don't know. I really wish I had anything to report. Hey, though, I stumbled across this on YouTube, yesterday, Balance, which I've always wanted to see ever since reading the end credits on National Treasure: Book of Secrets where they acknowledge exterior inspiration for the balance sequence underneath Mount Rushmore:
Relevant.
Missed free comic book day. Missed Civil War. So far. Did other stuff with my life. Like, eat tofu straight-up from the container, and, stress out over homework that isn't even that hard and isn't even due for a few days-- what else is there to do, I already got through my regimen of skillz practice for the day. So I've just been sitting around like a lard, anxious over schoolwork and feeling like today was a waste. Maybe I should have gone to see a movie; but, no I can always see it later, maybe a matinee where it's cheaper, even though I can afford it; but maaan I feel all guilty for going and seeing movies lately and spending money on that; and meanwhile there's stuff due ever...!
Alden Ehrenreich, anyway. Am I the only one excited by this? I look at comments, and it's like, everyone hates Star Wars all of a sudden. Or at least the casting. Alden Ehrenreich is such a good actor! You say he doesn't look like Harrison Ford, but Harrison Ford doesn't look like Harrison Ford! Rewatching A New Hope, it was like, geez, he's so young here. It's crazy.
I don't know. I really wish I had anything to report. Hey, though, I stumbled across this on YouTube, yesterday, Balance, which I've always wanted to see ever since reading the end credits on National Treasure: Book of Secrets where they acknowledge exterior inspiration for the balance sequence underneath Mount Rushmore:
Relevant.
Friday, May 6, 2016
13 and 14
Zootopia now no longer playing at Fat Cats, its screening has now transferred to the far-less-expensive Paramount 5. I watched Zootopia at Fat Cats yesterday, the only member of the audience, on a screening the last day it was showing there; the next day, today, I watched it again, for half the ticket price, in a theater packed full of adults, children, and presumably adult children, on its first day at a new theater*.
Taken together these mark viewings 13 and 14 for me. Do I have a problem? Well, maybe I used to, but, not with these ticket prices now...
Viewing 13, yesterday, was the least enjoyable of all of them so far. Even worse than viewing number, what was it, five? Six, actually. That one was pretty miserable. Watching it with another person, another dude, not as part of a date... so self-conscious. And here, well it was my first time in a month... the sloth scene, I've been laughing at it in the trailer, not the sloth trailer but the full one, and I figured hey maybe it'd be good, maybe since I haven't seen the film in a month everything I'm so used to would be funny again... but, I was possibly even more self-conscious. I did laugh at that scene, a forced laughter. Nowhere else did I laugh. Nowhere else was it funny**.
Exiting the theater, I saw the new Huntsman movie playing right next door. And so I... I bought a ticket for that, missing only the first few trailers. That experience, that experience I enjoyed.
HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR is SUCH A GOOD MOVIE GUYZ. Really complex character interactions drive a story that deals with such themes as: love, chess motifs, child soldiers, and Jessica Chastain. The trailers all make it look like just some run-of-the-mill sfx-driven shut-your-brain-off fantasy flick, but the trailers are stupid, and they give away all the plotpoints. Having not see the first Huntsman movie, though, I was not visually literate enough for any of the spoilers from any of the trailers to stick for me, so graciously nothing was ruined. Really, though, I'd actually been going to mention some of the actual themes, but realized I can't get into any of them without going into some major spoiled-by-the-trailer-anyway territory.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I spend too much money at the movies. I don't buy any snacks, and I have money again now that I'm back to selling my blood plasma. And I already told Disney to take all my money, and I need to live up to that commitment. And Winter's War was just barely starting; I knew I'd regret it if I passed the opportunity up. And I'd been going to see Civil War today, maybe, but it's a pretty long movie and it would have trampled over my ability to make it to class in time. Whatever, I'm going to see it at some point anyway...
This evening's viewing of Zootopia, at Paramount 5, let's get to that now. I had a couple of options, after missing the 6:50 viewing (grocery shopping! see the, I've got money now, thing)- I could hit it 9:00, or I could hit it 11:10. I had things due at 11:30, if I'd go see it the earlier I'd have to scramble slightly to get those done... but. 9:00, that's where people would pack up to see it, that's where I'd be surrounded by fellow viewers again, that's where I'd be able to feed off their energy again. So I chose that one.
So. Zootopia viewing, take 14...
13 was the worst? 14, was, the most wonderful, of all the viewings. I'd seen that movie 13 times previously, and jokes that weren't funny even the second time were hilarious here... Even. The. Sloth. Scene.
Even the sloth scene!
Especially the sloth scene!
It's just such a friggin' good movie. No-- friggin' great. That's a great film. My goodness.
Zootopia is only a few million away from surpassing the $1,000,000,000 mark worldwide in box office gross, but it's still up in the air whether it'll have the legs to make it that far; every little bit helps...
Taken together these mark viewings 13 and 14 for me. Do I have a problem? Well, maybe I used to, but, not with these ticket prices now...
Viewing 13, yesterday, was the least enjoyable of all of them so far. Even worse than viewing number, what was it, five? Six, actually. That one was pretty miserable. Watching it with another person, another dude, not as part of a date... so self-conscious. And here, well it was my first time in a month... the sloth scene, I've been laughing at it in the trailer, not the sloth trailer but the full one, and I figured hey maybe it'd be good, maybe since I haven't seen the film in a month everything I'm so used to would be funny again... but, I was possibly even more self-conscious. I did laugh at that scene, a forced laughter. Nowhere else did I laugh. Nowhere else was it funny**.
Exiting the theater, I saw the new Huntsman movie playing right next door. And so I... I bought a ticket for that, missing only the first few trailers. That experience, that experience I enjoyed.
HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR is SUCH A GOOD MOVIE GUYZ. Really complex character interactions drive a story that deals with such themes as: love, chess motifs, child soldiers, and Jessica Chastain. The trailers all make it look like just some run-of-the-mill sfx-driven shut-your-brain-off fantasy flick, but the trailers are stupid, and they give away all the plotpoints. Having not see the first Huntsman movie, though, I was not visually literate enough for any of the spoilers from any of the trailers to stick for me, so graciously nothing was ruined. Really, though, I'd actually been going to mention some of the actual themes, but realized I can't get into any of them without going into some major spoiled-by-the-trailer-anyway territory.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I spend too much money at the movies. I don't buy any snacks, and I have money again now that I'm back to selling my blood plasma. And I already told Disney to take all my money, and I need to live up to that commitment. And Winter's War was just barely starting; I knew I'd regret it if I passed the opportunity up. And I'd been going to see Civil War today, maybe, but it's a pretty long movie and it would have trampled over my ability to make it to class in time. Whatever, I'm going to see it at some point anyway...
This evening's viewing of Zootopia, at Paramount 5, let's get to that now. I had a couple of options, after missing the 6:50 viewing (grocery shopping! see the, I've got money now, thing)- I could hit it 9:00, or I could hit it 11:10. I had things due at 11:30, if I'd go see it the earlier I'd have to scramble slightly to get those done... but. 9:00, that's where people would pack up to see it, that's where I'd be surrounded by fellow viewers again, that's where I'd be able to feed off their energy again. So I chose that one.
So. Zootopia viewing, take 14...
13 was the worst? 14, was, the most wonderful, of all the viewings. I'd seen that movie 13 times previously, and jokes that weren't funny even the second time were hilarious here... Even. The. Sloth. Scene.
Even the sloth scene!
Especially the sloth scene!
It's just such a friggin' good movie. No-- friggin' great. That's a great film. My goodness.
Zootopia is only a few million away from surpassing the $1,000,000,000 mark worldwide in box office gross, but it's still up in the air whether it'll have the legs to make it that far; every little bit helps...
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Star Wars and Arguments, and the Insanity Journals
Yesterday was May the Fourth! Watched all of the Star Wars films in the lounge, in sequential order. It's so great, Episode III Anakin fighting Obi-Wan, Twirling their lightsabers at each other at bullet speed, swinging on ropes over lava, making epic leaps. The next time they meet! It's been so long, they've both waited for this day for ages, the rematch of the duel of the century... They swing their laser swords at each other, very very slowly. It's so rad.
But, this guy, didn't even look up to look at his face, what with the Episode III going on, comes in, sees the Episode III, and was all, come on, if you're going to watch Star Wars on Star Wars day at least make it a good one. I counter with, we're watching all of them. He parries: not all of them are worth watching. I think they are, I say. Touché. Only... a few minutes later I think, maybe he has a point? Are all of them worth watching? Did I counter in haste? Saying the opposite of what he said, the first thing that comes to mind, just to win the argument?
Not a bad skill to have: on my mission, I counter "the LDS church is bull**** dude" with "thanks!" he parries with "it's all a big lie" and my pointé or whatever you call that, is, "it's the best kind of lie!" Coming up with the obvious response, though, is not necessarily the same as thinking on your feet. Mmm. It has occurred to me that the kid's "they're not all worth watching" may have been just as blustering as my "I think they are," and his breaking off at that point was an acknowledgment that we were both tripping over our own feet. But I don't know.
So, my last few blog posts. I think we're done with that for a while. I call them my insanity journal; if Fregly made his own wimpy kid "diaries," I'd imagine they'd have a lot to do with what the owls whisper to him, whatever that means. I don't think that Greg mentions anything about Fregly mentioning owls, but, that's what I've always figured it'd be like. Now that I'm no longer afraid of anything, I figured I should give others nightmares.
They're just, a product of a steady diet of Eliot poetry in high school, combined with a love of the "creepy" and little time to come up with any material except off the top of my head, having little time until midnight to put in a post, after having spent the past, however long, watching YouTube. Not just any YouTube, of course. Specific fuel for my inspiration. The entirety of the Llamas with Hats series the first night, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared the second night, with last night being topped off with all the Salad Fingers,es. Start each, and as soon as I'm finished write straight through until just before midnight. Kind of deliberate after what happened the first night, continuing on in a logical progression of "creepy;" I'm finished with that now of course. I think I've exhausted all the notoriously creepy serieses.
Does The Cat with the Hands have any sequels...?
It's fascinating to study what disturbs people, that gets put deliberately into these videos. I tried to carry a lot of that over. Viscera. Innocence in the face of disturbing things. The uncanny valley. And, I'm not sure where I saw this, but it was fairly recently, a week ago at most, perhaps from a dream, but, there really was some kind of song about Holy Moses, I'm so impressed with myself...? But I don't know. That, that was pretty creepy.
But, this guy, didn't even look up to look at his face, what with the Episode III going on, comes in, sees the Episode III, and was all, come on, if you're going to watch Star Wars on Star Wars day at least make it a good one. I counter with, we're watching all of them. He parries: not all of them are worth watching. I think they are, I say. Touché. Only... a few minutes later I think, maybe he has a point? Are all of them worth watching? Did I counter in haste? Saying the opposite of what he said, the first thing that comes to mind, just to win the argument?
Not a bad skill to have: on my mission, I counter "the LDS church is bull**** dude" with "thanks!" he parries with "it's all a big lie" and my pointé or whatever you call that, is, "it's the best kind of lie!" Coming up with the obvious response, though, is not necessarily the same as thinking on your feet. Mmm. It has occurred to me that the kid's "they're not all worth watching" may have been just as blustering as my "I think they are," and his breaking off at that point was an acknowledgment that we were both tripping over our own feet. But I don't know.
So, my last few blog posts. I think we're done with that for a while. I call them my insanity journal; if Fregly made his own wimpy kid "diaries," I'd imagine they'd have a lot to do with what the owls whisper to him, whatever that means. I don't think that Greg mentions anything about Fregly mentioning owls, but, that's what I've always figured it'd be like. Now that I'm no longer afraid of anything, I figured I should give others nightmares.
They're just, a product of a steady diet of Eliot poetry in high school, combined with a love of the "creepy" and little time to come up with any material except off the top of my head, having little time until midnight to put in a post, after having spent the past, however long, watching YouTube. Not just any YouTube, of course. Specific fuel for my inspiration. The entirety of the Llamas with Hats series the first night, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared the second night, with last night being topped off with all the Salad Fingers,es. Start each, and as soon as I'm finished write straight through until just before midnight. Kind of deliberate after what happened the first night, continuing on in a logical progression of "creepy;" I'm finished with that now of course. I think I've exhausted all the notoriously creepy serieses.
Does The Cat with the Hands have any sequels...?
It's fascinating to study what disturbs people, that gets put deliberately into these videos. I tried to carry a lot of that over. Viscera. Innocence in the face of disturbing things. The uncanny valley. And, I'm not sure where I saw this, but it was fairly recently, a week ago at most, perhaps from a dream, but, there really was some kind of song about Holy Moses, I'm so impressed with myself...? But I don't know. That, that was pretty creepy.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Holy Moses
You don't know what it cost me. On the seaside, as children, where the seaweed was our skin, sloughed off of some unknowable shuddering form, all-knowing, all-consuming. The eyes would collapse, sightless, leak out their seeing-fluid, deflate like balloons.
The living have such plump eyes.
Underneath the skin is sawdust, blood ringing as it flows. The eyes would leak, and we would replace the form of them with pebbles from the ditch and from underneath the briar, pebbles underneath the lids, closed, seeing as the earth sees, smelling far stronger, like the rain.
We would claw in with our teeth, and gnash, and mash, rend and tear. A spoon is enough to cut into the flesh, when the body has been deflating long enough. One could almost dip into it like serbet.
Pebbles in the eyes, sand in the teeth, sawdust in their bottoms, overflowing, leaking the putrid black smell.
Leave anything still long enough and it stagnates. Water, blood, bile, childhood.
Reaching out to it, on an endless beach, but the fog clings to the air, clings to the borders of consciousness and reality, and the beach isn't endless after all, can't be endless, the fog is too thick, too definite, definite of borders, if you can't see it then it's not real, and on this beach you can see nothing; the borders define the shape of your universe, though you reach out to it, reach to your childhood.
My hair is perfectly coiffed.
At my birthday, how the other children leer and wish to be me!
The grown-ups, too, are jealous of me
of my perfect teeth and skin and hair and fingernails and lips and eyeballs and clothing and sawdust and fat and lymph and blood.
There is none more powerful than I.
Look at me! Look at me and marvel, and covet!
Look at me and despair.
Moses on a pogo stick.
The living have such plump eyes.
Underneath the skin is sawdust, blood ringing as it flows. The eyes would leak, and we would replace the form of them with pebbles from the ditch and from underneath the briar, pebbles underneath the lids, closed, seeing as the earth sees, smelling far stronger, like the rain.
We would claw in with our teeth, and gnash, and mash, rend and tear. A spoon is enough to cut into the flesh, when the body has been deflating long enough. One could almost dip into it like serbet.
The air itself was of some great significance,
and the children would always act like grown-ups, and the grown-ups wouldn't know children, blank uncomprehending like a dog left to ripen in the sun. We would meet only strangers, just as ancient as we were, just as corrupted. We could blame something, at least.Pebbles in the eyes, sand in the teeth, sawdust in their bottoms, overflowing, leaking the putrid black smell.
He looked at me, surprised perhaps,
his hands long, like a clock's.
There isn't enough time to say what I wish,
always HURRY UP LEASE IT'S TIME. Hollow in voice, like our chest cavities were full of holes, more spacious than could fit, larger on the in that on the out, and peering right through, like the crawling sawdust was sun-yellowed maggots. He smiled, and his teeth slid past one another, an infinite row on an endless tread, hidden behind the lips.Leave anything still long enough and it stagnates. Water, blood, bile, childhood.
Reaching out to it, on an endless beach, but the fog clings to the air, clings to the borders of consciousness and reality, and the beach isn't endless after all, can't be endless, the fog is too thick, too definite, definite of borders, if you can't see it then it's not real, and on this beach you can see nothing; the borders define the shape of your universe, though you reach out to it, reach to your childhood.
And I remember a song:
Holy Moses. Holy Moses.
I'm the handsomest, cleverest, smartest.My hair is perfectly coiffed.
At my birthday, how the other children leer and wish to be me!
The grown-ups, too, are jealous of me
of my perfect teeth and skin and hair and fingernails and lips and eyeballs and clothing and sawdust and fat and lymph and blood.
There is none more powerful than I.
Look at me! Look at me and marvel, and covet!
Look at me and despair.
Moses on a pogo stick.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Shrieks
There is a layer of silence, peel it back, layer by lsayer, slipping between each with a fine blade, peeling them away, silence beneath silence.
When the atoms are still enough you can hear the not-silence, thrum thrum thrum, peel it away like skin on teeth, the silence beneath that, absolute quiet.
And the silence underneath that, the sound of the fuzz itself.
And beneath that there is an even deeper silence, your blood itself pouring through your tubes. Beneath that there is no silence.
Beneath that I am afraid.
Skin from teeth, you can pull back
the fatty layer of your cheeks,
gushes as you cut it.
And beneath the muscle, like the silence beneath the silence,
you can hear the bone of your skull,
and teeth.
The eye is held in place too tightly. Too much would need to be cut away.
The severing of the eye from its socket,
sight
to pain
to silence.
Death must feel like blindness, the detachment of the eye.
One eye is closed in a wink, like
you did as a child, holding
one eye shut the lids pinched tightly between
finger and thumb,
like
squeezing the head off of a bug,
with both eyes open and
one eye forced closed,
the bug's innards dripping down, into the eye, becoming part of the tears
the lacrima itself
otherwise.
You held shut your eye, your fingers tight vices,
until your muscles were strong enough to keep away the insects themselves.
We could always tell when the bugs were landing on the surface of our eyeballs, even if they were too close to see,
like searching for one lost balloon against the entirety of the sky.
You could have one eye shut,
like death,
like you were the one-eyed Allfather this whole time, learning and knowing about the world only through your ravens.
And if the ravens ever went for our eyes, it was
not because we were scared and alone. It was
not because they could read our nightmares the way one man might readddddddd another.
If the ravens went for our eyes, it was
to go after the bugs that we knew must have been there, though we could
not see them.
We had faith that the
ravens and rooks were
doing the right thing,
even as they
took their scalpels and their edged blades
and peeled away the eyelid
and sawed into the meat around our eyes.
The ravens spoke hollow riddles, and whispered myriad rivers, echoless against the balloonless sky.
We must trust them.
They will keep away the insects, from crawling into
our cavernous bones, ballooned inside like the brittle interior of the yeasted risen loaf.
We could shut our eyes against them now, first one, now the other. And
when we shut each eye in turn, the open was the only one,
the other side was not blackness or darkness, but nothing, as if the eye had never been there, and all along that eye was death, and the other eye was thought, and the other eye was memory.
And if we took our scalpels now, and plucked out the
offending
eye, would that be the feeling of death?
We would feel no pain, only the sensation to be dead.
Peeling away the skin, like thought
peeled from memory, like silence
peeled from silence, we
flayed the carcasses and harvested the fur, and the animals
the beasts
we left behind, they could feel
that,
the whole time,
and
they
were
screaming.
That is the silence underneath the final silence.
To have one eye closed, and the other, but
to have both eyes closed, that is death, and
that is what the ravens and rooks and magpies and crows know
that we do not,
and
that is why we worship them,
sacrifice for them,
drink the blood both hot and cold.
We skinned the animals
the beasts
in secret, away from the thought or the memory of the hoary black birds,
skinned them alive
dead
and felt the fur underneath our fingertips
and felt alive, alive where others were dead. To pet is to live,
to feel the slick feeling,
strand strand strand strand strand
each
individual so soft,
together a carpet,
of experience sensation.
I can still hear the silence.
But now the teakettle, as well, shrieks for me.
Monday, May 2, 2016
Closer Than Skin
Does blood scream?
Does blood scream?
Milk screams.
It screams and screws with its tiny little hands. Listen
It smells like
the voices
of the owls.
Do you know what the owls said to me,
mother?
I could hear the pleading behind their shrieks. Softer than the dust of moths. It whispers.
Weialala leia. Wallala leialala.
Does blood scream?
Milk screams.
It screams and screws with its tiny little hands. Listen
It smells like
the voices
of the owls.
Do you know what the owls said to me,
mother?
I could hear the pleading behind their shrieks. Softer than the dust of moths. It whispers.
Weialala leia. Wallala leialala.
He whispers milk. He bleeds honey. From his eyes.
His tears smell like milk. His teeth scream like owls. Like thunder.
It ripples like the shapes under your skin, perpetually writhing.
Infinitititite needles.
It hears, like the skin of your sister, the skin on the scalp, between the hair, within the hair, the skin that covers the hair of your mother. It fits like
a tongue
inside a mouth,
whispering the name of the last secret, but never arriving any closer from where it started.
Slipping between reality softly as the hands that wrung her neck,
once,
twice,
all over.
It's slips slips n e e d l e s s l i p s i n n e r in her.
His tears smell like milk. His teeth scream like owls. Like thunder.
It ripples like the shapes under your skin, perpetually writhing.
Infinitititite needles.
It hears, like the skin of your sister, the skin on the scalp, between the hair, within the hair, the skin that covers the hair of your mother. It fits like
a tongue
inside a mouth,
whispering the name of the last secret, but never arriving any closer from where it started.
Slipping between reality softly as the hands that wrung her neck,
once,
twice,
all over.
It's slips slips n e e d l e s s l i p s i n n e r in her.
Watching with dustwork eyes, mouths too dry to cough all but the shadowed dreams of the moths.
Faces with dustwork eyes, infinite fingers, small eyes, shrunken eyes, faces shrunken smaller still.
Weialala leia. Wallala leialala.
The chimes.
Heartbeat.
Faces with dustwork eyes, infinite fingers, small eyes, shrunken eyes, faces shrunken smaller still.
Weialala leia. Wallala leialala.
The chimes.
Heartbeat.
I heard it
as she watched.
He's a shadow to me, always there, bigger than the object casting it, deeper than the absence of light.
He's a shadow to me, the needles slip sinner.
I bit into her like a peach, and her skin felt like mushroom, like the gills of a much room underneath my finger nails.
The owl said.
I can hear it now, the milk.
There is never a time I can't.
Even when I close my eyes as tightly as I can, disappear from the world
just as we suspected
as children.
as she watched.
He's a shadow to me, always there, bigger than the object casting it, deeper than the absence of light.
He's a shadow to me, the needles slip sinner.
I bit into her like a peach, and her skin felt like mushroom, like the gills of a much room underneath my finger nails.
The owl said.
I can hear it now, the milk.
There is never a time I can't.
Even when I close my eyes as tightly as I can, disappear from the world
just as we suspected
as children.
Unspool thread. They all whisper. The needless lips in her.
I bit into her dead skin and it
smelled like citrus but it
tasted like breath, tasted like
midnight, when you eat in your dreams,
suck suck suck lick lick lick sticky sticky ice cream,
and it feels like sandpaper on your tongue and it tastes like your tongue,
like the earliest memories of drinking milk,
back when it may have well been blood.
Even the nose tastes it.
Close your mouth and breathe through your nose,
smell, and taste how it tastes
like ice cream in dreams,
already melted away.
I bit into her dead skin and it
smelled like citrus but it
tasted like breath, tasted like
midnight, when you eat in your dreams,
suck suck suck lick lick lick sticky sticky ice cream,
and it feels like sandpaper on your tongue and it tastes like your tongue,
like the earliest memories of drinking milk,
back when it may have well been blood.
Even the nose tastes it.
Close your mouth and breathe through your nose,
smell, and taste how it tastes
like ice cream in dreams,
already melted away.
It isn't enough.
The blanket screams against my skin, in this memory.
The skin that covers her hair. The blanket feels like sandpaper, like dust, like ice cream.
Sticky sticky sticky sticky lick it up quick quick quick.
Only you can't lick fast enough. And you can't turn away, or fall asleep, because you're already awake, and already dreaming.
As a child the curtains were so big.
Longer than needles.
The blanket screams against my skin, in this memory.
The skin that covers her hair. The blanket feels like sandpaper, like dust, like ice cream.
Sticky sticky sticky sticky lick it up quick quick quick.
Only you can't lick fast enough. And you can't turn away, or fall asleep, because you're already awake, and already dreaming.
As a child the curtains were so big.
Longer than needles.
And the sinner is there, bleeding milk, whispering honey, screaming like bees.
The sinner is always there.
Touching her.
Closer than skin.
The sinner is always there.
Touching her.
Closer than skin.
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Fasting, Practising, and Pinterest
First day of the month, first Sunday of the month, Fast Sunday, get that out of the way as soon as possible, it being the first this month, phew. Fast Sunday is a blessing, though, of course. 58:13 of Isaiah calls the Sabbath a delight, 59:14 of the Doctrine and Covenants says that fasting and prayer is just another way to say rejoicing and prayer. So it's alright to fast, and going without eating for a little bit at least is a healthy way of reminding your body that you're its master, and, heck, maybe once a month isn't enough sometimes? But, dang, I was super thirsty, like, all day, today. Going without eating is something I'm well practiced at by now, but going without drinking is kind of... eh.
There should be purpose behind fasting, anyway, of course, fasting coupled with prayer and all that, and, with the words of Channing Winget floating in my mind the way that the d12 floats inside of a Magic 8 ball, all blue and murky and mysterious, I aimed my fasting and prayer toward answering the question, how can I get practise in on stuff, pushing myself though I don't have much time when there's a bunch of other stuff I enjoy doing that I'd like to get practise in on, too?
My singing voice has been kind of lousy lately, but it was awesome today. How could that be? Range exercise after waking up, of course, but also: I practiced the harmonica today a bit, really great for breath control, and my voice is always so much better after doing that. It doesn't even require that much practise. It was great. So secret of compound practise number 1: harmonica, then singing.
I've got a Pinterest account now, as of, a couple of days ago! This was in the computer lab, working on art homework, printing out the things I needed printed out, and reading aforementioned Channing Winget tumblr post. And, Pinteresting. Have yet to pin a single thing; basically everything in the world is super pinnable, and so if I actually start to do that, instead of just looking at other people's pins, it'd be a super slippery slope... but, Pinterest, anyway, is a super useful resource, and another way that I can compound my practise:
Pinterest, step one: put on some scriptures on audio in the background. I've made a goal to get in at least 20 minutes of scripture study a day as a baseline, this semester, and have been doing, not the hottest, at it, so far. Listening to the scriptures is something that I can do, and/or conference talks, having those on in the background. I can never put music on in the background; for me, music is something that you concentrate on, have on in the foreground, can't have it as just wallpaper or anything. Movies and television are the same way; I see people putting on, like, Arrow in the background, and then going onto Facebook or something, and I can't do that, I have to pay attention. But for conference talks, the most significant important kind of deal, that I can totally put on in the background and osmose while I do something else, so long as that something else isn't too distracting. Practicing art, specifically say following tutorials on Pinterest, is the perfect balance. Secret 2.
Pinterest has a lot more than just art tutorials, of course! Another thing it's a fantastic resource for is writing tips, prompts, and inspiration in general. This is the only "secret" I have not yet attempted, though the rest of the day (and not even that much of it, that is, it didn't take up that much time) has been filled with following through with the inspiration received from my fast on how to improve on my talents. So, those secrets up there so far: totally legit. This one, it's not something I can yet vouch for personally, but it did strike me as being a good idea a couple of days ago when I first did sign up for Pinterest. I was all, dang, all these pins, my inspiration meter's filling up! An inspiration meter isn't something that stays filled up, though, so no matter how much you manage to absorb you're still going to need to find some way to apply whatever it is that's inspiring you, lest it go to waste. So I figured: yeah, getting in some (creative) writing, directly after browsing some of the insane imaginative stuff on Pinterest, that'd be the perfect time to do that.
So, schedule bit again: much like how singing is better after playing harmonica, or drawing practise is the perfect time to get scripture study in, I figure at least, that, after the 20 minutes of scriptures and drawing practise are up, take a short time, maybe 10-15 minutes but like I said I haven't attempted this yet so wouldn't know, take an amount of time long enough to absorb imagination but short enough to keep yourself on track and avoid getting distracted, on Pinterest miscellaneously, though more particularly toward creative writing and that sort of thing, and then clicking out of that and getting some writing in. However much time. I don't know. Ideally an hour or two, but, if we really had that kind of time to get things like that in, I wouldn't have to work on figuring out how to align practises to maximize each of them.
And finally, what was that other thing I said I needed to practise on (besides socializing, because, I really am getting a lot of that here,) it's piano. I also practiced that today, and so can vouch for this one. Piano- well, first of all, it goes quite well with socializing, actually, so that's another compound, one I wasn't even aiming for. But, piano practise, scheduling it...? I don't know. After or before drawing, or typing, my fingers don't really discern any difference between either. I reckon it would perhaps align nicely with singing or playing the harmonica though?
Meanwhile, though, I've been using the British spelling of the word "practise," because my spellcheck right now doesn't seem to like spelling it with a c? So I'm rolling with it.
So yeah. In summation: scripture study/drawing practise → Pinterest → writing → piano I guess after typing?/chilling with friends here? → harmonica? → vocal skillz. It's all pretty logical, I guess, though mouth organing, once again, doesn't really take that much time, so could get in there before everything, or independent of it, or anything. But that's where it fits logically within the, logical progression, so, there you go I guess.
There should be purpose behind fasting, anyway, of course, fasting coupled with prayer and all that, and, with the words of Channing Winget floating in my mind the way that the d12 floats inside of a Magic 8 ball, all blue and murky and mysterious, I aimed my fasting and prayer toward answering the question, how can I get practise in on stuff, pushing myself though I don't have much time when there's a bunch of other stuff I enjoy doing that I'd like to get practise in on, too?
My singing voice has been kind of lousy lately, but it was awesome today. How could that be? Range exercise after waking up, of course, but also: I practiced the harmonica today a bit, really great for breath control, and my voice is always so much better after doing that. It doesn't even require that much practise. It was great. So secret of compound practise number 1: harmonica, then singing.
I've got a Pinterest account now, as of, a couple of days ago! This was in the computer lab, working on art homework, printing out the things I needed printed out, and reading aforementioned Channing Winget tumblr post. And, Pinteresting. Have yet to pin a single thing; basically everything in the world is super pinnable, and so if I actually start to do that, instead of just looking at other people's pins, it'd be a super slippery slope... but, Pinterest, anyway, is a super useful resource, and another way that I can compound my practise:
Pinterest, step one: put on some scriptures on audio in the background. I've made a goal to get in at least 20 minutes of scripture study a day as a baseline, this semester, and have been doing, not the hottest, at it, so far. Listening to the scriptures is something that I can do, and/or conference talks, having those on in the background. I can never put music on in the background; for me, music is something that you concentrate on, have on in the foreground, can't have it as just wallpaper or anything. Movies and television are the same way; I see people putting on, like, Arrow in the background, and then going onto Facebook or something, and I can't do that, I have to pay attention. But for conference talks, the most significant important kind of deal, that I can totally put on in the background and osmose while I do something else, so long as that something else isn't too distracting. Practicing art, specifically say following tutorials on Pinterest, is the perfect balance. Secret 2.
Pinterest has a lot more than just art tutorials, of course! Another thing it's a fantastic resource for is writing tips, prompts, and inspiration in general. This is the only "secret" I have not yet attempted, though the rest of the day (and not even that much of it, that is, it didn't take up that much time) has been filled with following through with the inspiration received from my fast on how to improve on my talents. So, those secrets up there so far: totally legit. This one, it's not something I can yet vouch for personally, but it did strike me as being a good idea a couple of days ago when I first did sign up for Pinterest. I was all, dang, all these pins, my inspiration meter's filling up! An inspiration meter isn't something that stays filled up, though, so no matter how much you manage to absorb you're still going to need to find some way to apply whatever it is that's inspiring you, lest it go to waste. So I figured: yeah, getting in some (creative) writing, directly after browsing some of the insane imaginative stuff on Pinterest, that'd be the perfect time to do that.
So, schedule bit again: much like how singing is better after playing harmonica, or drawing practise is the perfect time to get scripture study in, I figure at least, that, after the 20 minutes of scriptures and drawing practise are up, take a short time, maybe 10-15 minutes but like I said I haven't attempted this yet so wouldn't know, take an amount of time long enough to absorb imagination but short enough to keep yourself on track and avoid getting distracted, on Pinterest miscellaneously, though more particularly toward creative writing and that sort of thing, and then clicking out of that and getting some writing in. However much time. I don't know. Ideally an hour or two, but, if we really had that kind of time to get things like that in, I wouldn't have to work on figuring out how to align practises to maximize each of them.
And finally, what was that other thing I said I needed to practise on (besides socializing, because, I really am getting a lot of that here,) it's piano. I also practiced that today, and so can vouch for this one. Piano- well, first of all, it goes quite well with socializing, actually, so that's another compound, one I wasn't even aiming for. But, piano practise, scheduling it...? I don't know. After or before drawing, or typing, my fingers don't really discern any difference between either. I reckon it would perhaps align nicely with singing or playing the harmonica though?
Meanwhile, though, I've been using the British spelling of the word "practise," because my spellcheck right now doesn't seem to like spelling it with a c? So I'm rolling with it.
So yeah. In summation: scripture study/drawing practise → Pinterest → writing → piano I guess after typing?/chilling with friends here? → harmonica? → vocal skillz. It's all pretty logical, I guess, though mouth organing, once again, doesn't really take that much time, so could get in there before everything, or independent of it, or anything. But that's where it fits logically within the, logical progression, so, there you go I guess.
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