Septmmmmmbruoference

I feel like I should post something about General Conference today, but I'm pretty darn tired after all that so I really can't go into that much depth about it. First of all, turns out it's this week instead of next week like I'd thought; weird like this is the first time I can think of where Conference starts September instead of October. And thenyway, there were a couple of themes/ideas stated in more than one talk, I noticed, but I want to talk about Arthur Miller's All My Sons instead. By which I mean, I can't remember what they are and actually what I really want to do is to go to sleep. Helping others was one, and... rejecting what's beneath our standards, is the second one. I'm good at this.

I'm more tired than loopy right now, but I'm still writing weird and funny things. wish I were on cough syrup or something to justify that. or maybe I'm like bruce banner; that's my secret cap I'm always on cough syrup.

You Know What That Sound Means

Homestarrunner.com came out with a new video a couple of days ago. It is eminently watchable.

EDIT: Oh, the irony. I'd originally been going to call this post "That's Right," but was afraid of misquoting it, like maybe I misremembered the phrase. So I called it You Know What That Sound Means instead, and the actual quote in the video is "you know what that time means!"

Ostriches, Ostriches, Barely Even Human

Yep, I checked Monday I think by the way, and it's official that it's too late to sign up for classes this semester. But the semester really seems to be heating up; a lot of stressed out people around me. I'm seldom stressed but I think I'm sad a lot...? 

I used the word "suicidal" a few days ago, but that's not too be taken literally. Mom called asking if I was alright after seeing my vlog, which I didn't think was all that sad but it's nice to, how did I put it in the vlog, nice to have people who care anyway. Suicide is what got me into this mess partially... but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Even like a job that pays less than minimum wage that like only has weekend shifts for me, would be nice though... Shooting begins next week, not for the film itself but for like promo shorts; here's hoping that pays anything but "exposure."

I'm not sure if ostriches really do have suicidal tendencies as Alfred Molina's character claims in the Prince of Persia movie, but I have read that they're like not zoophiles, or are, however you'd define that term? They're basically people, and that means they find each other just as ugly as we do, and find us humans just as handsome as we do. And it's a real problem because they just haven't been making ostrich babies, because they've got the hots for their human owners instead. Like gay penguins, which mate for life of course and so there's this penguin epidemic of homosexuality and the penguin are all dying out because of it...

Nature!

Anyway, yeah, I don't really have anything of substance to say today.

Art Night and All the Rest

Art night started back up again tonight, and so that's a thing. Tell you about that coming up.

Wednesdays are also Comic Book Workshop. Hosted by Taylor of Taylor Writes, who usually hosts the animation workshop while Anne "Hairball" of Hairball Draws usually hosts the Comic Book Workshop; they've switched this semester and it really makes you wonder why they didn't do that earlier because comic books are much more in Taylor's wheelhouse as animation is in Hairball's. For real.

Comic Book Workshop ends at 8:00 which is when Art Night starts, and that's perfect and there's no scheduling conflict like I thought there may have been since Art Nights have been on Wednesdays now instead of Thursdays and, like, these are the only things I do all week.

Comic Book Workshop also brings up what I wanted to get to last Wednesday and Thursday... but whatever, like I've said it's been put off this long. Maybe some other day.

Meanwhile, all this stuff:

Films- Shin Godzilla alternates, oftentimes from take to take, between Kafkaesque red-tape comedy and sheer destruction-movie horror. It's quite something. Also, I saw Cats for the first time in my life yesterday; I know all the lyrics to all the songs by heart basically but this is the first time I've actually seen it, with all the dancing and choreography and stuff. It is delightful. Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing is likewise quite something; you can actually understand what the heck everyone is saying somehow.

League- I purchased Blitzcrank the night before last; he isn't that expensive so I could afford him easily- I was literally one single IP away from getting him, though, so I played a quick player vs AI match on the easiest setting (it only gave me 3 IP from playing such a lowball game, but hey it was enough.) This was the last champion on my original list of champions I wanted to own, and so it was like, great I have nothing left to play for now after this; at the champion select screen though, I selected a champion at random it not really mattering whom I played as, and turns out she was totally awesome and I had to have her after that. Her name is Kayle, and... she's also incredibly cheap, even cheaper than Blitzcrank; I purchased her today. And now I have no more champions left to save up for.

Overwatch- I'm not sure how practical this is, or if anyone's tried it, but today I thought of a troll move you can do with Sombra. Basically you use her Thermoptic Camo to like sneak behind enemy lines, with her Translocator safely elsewhere so that she can zap back to it at a moment's notice. Actually firing her weapon takes her out of her invisibility mode, right, but I'm not proposing that; instead, she sprays her skull symbol on the wall behind the enemy, and Translocates outta there before her Thermoptic Camo wears off. Then it'd be like, oh crap Sombra was here and we didn't even know it, when they notice the graffito on the wall. It'd be like a friggin' haunting or something.

Other//half- To assure you I'm not just putting around playing video games and watching movies, I've got a 30 page document of notes on theme and worldbuilding stuff and everything, which I've been building up for at least 5 years. Reading through the themes sparks ideas which I write down, and it snowballs from there. I made some pretty good headway today.

Art night anyway. It was another 5-year plan meeting; last semester closed off with one, though this one focused on different things. This evening, we wrote down our most impractical dreams- we're artists, it's art, it isn't supposed to be practical anyway. The question came up, if I'm such a writer, if I want to go into television, whatever, why am I a graphic design student? Why not just have your major be that? (Though of course I tried to change already and it's too late and all that, thanks for rubbing it in.) Don't feel guilty for doing what you love, thinking what you should really be doing is something boring and unpleasant. What you love to do is what you should do.

I could go into more depth on the subject but I'm so tired right now I'm melting...

Meanwhile, I got contacted back today regarding the student film, and I'm going to be in it! I got the part of the antagonist. Which is weird, I figured if I wouldn't be the main character I'd be the wacky best friend or something, but they said they knew I'd be perfect for it, so I can't really argue against that.

I told them at Art Night and Joe (Horner) could guess just from my announcement of the news who the director is and everything- a friend of his, turns out. He's even read the script already, or an early draft of it, and could tell me a little bit about it.

O Vswatch

This is Shining Armor (part of a collection!) watching VSauce2's Why Do We Collect? with me.

Unrelated.
Re: Overwatch. Convo I overhear and write down word-for-word. A while ago, around the time as the above photo, so I'm not sure if the typo is sic or not, but:
 "It has everything I love about Halo slayer, by it has like  the diversity of League of Legends. And I love it."

By sheer coincidence I happened to have a discussion about Overwatch like an hour ago as well (just pulling this post out of the draft archives because I have nothing else to post today, and I'd forgotten that quote was here, put in the same post after the photo for some reason.) So. I could talk about Overwatch some now, but, draft archives, whatever.

Cashstrapped Again

The idea behind getting my webcomic up by the time Justice League rolls around, or at least the idea why I'm working so hard on it, is because that kind of thing can get you support over Patreon and ad revenue and everything. Kay though, what I really need is a job right now. I'm hemorrhaging savings money slowly but surely; the plasma money is paying for groceries and expenses but not for rent and subscriptions, and even without those I still need money to pay for the inevitable art history trip.

Also last night I calculated how much tithing I need to pay (since I wasn't paying tithing there for a while since I paid tithing on Pell grant money which isn't how that works) and by the end of the month it'll be $190. I'll make it work.

I'm kind of desperate, maybe even suicidally so-- nothing much left to lose, as 1) my entire career as a printmaker now consists of 100% experience and 0% portfolio, 2) I may never see my ladyboo crushfriend again, and 3) I think it may be too late to tuck into a class this semester, even though that's only going to be more expensive for me in the end. 

I said "suicidally;" I'm not sure if I've been depressed or what, but it flits into mania too many times for that, and I'm flirting with the idea that I may have some form of bipolarism or something... (I think I read something in a book on the subject about the episodes being so closely packed together, but I can't remember what that means... IIRC something about being more common in teenagers?)

I also said "desperate." How desperate? Well, a couple of things today. For one, I emailed McKenna admitting that I like her. That's pretty gutsy, but not nearly as gutsy as, applying for a job at a call center...

I kid, of course; not about applying but about the idea that it'd be that terrible a job. I've already applied to a different call center before, I've mentioned in passing, and like I said they never got back to me. Neither has the one I applied to today, even though they should have by now. I did man the desk at the FamilySearch center in the JSMB basement, and there were calls involved there; do I have that on my resume...? Perhaps none of my skills are workable?

So here's hoping that working on an indie student film pays, um, anything at all...

Space, Dogs?

Discovered the cinematic oeuvre of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. It's probably even weirder and more meditative than that of Terrence Mallick's. It's like, "oh, you think that 2001: A Space Odyssey is super long confusing and slow-paced? Yes. Yes it is." And then don't even bring up Solaris.

The 2002 version was directed by Steven Soderbergh, though, how did I even miss that...? (2002 film of the Stanislaw Lem novel Solaris, that is; there's no 2002: A Space Odyssey.)

So I'm not sure when the cutoff add/drop new courses date is, anyway; we're two weeks into the semester and I'm considering just getting school out of the way (not least considering that going just off of savings, I can't afford renting an apartment forever.) Not sure I know what I'd do after graduation, though- actually, there was that potential hookup to get a job at Laika (!!), which I'd always put out of my mind (though kept in my plans) because I always figured graduation was something I'd do far far later.

EDIT: And I realize after posting that the title of the post may be misleading since I talk about space and a dog in space but not actually dogs, especially when the Isle of Dogs trailer is out and it's something I'd maybe post on. But I totally haven't seen it. Maybe I'm trying to recreate a Spider-Man: Homecoming. Or maybe I was, but now I grow increasingly curious...

Who am I, Kylie? (PretzelsVlog no 7)

So yeah.

Arks, Bards, and Horseshoes, Yordles and Blue Moons, Premiere Pro and Dovetails, and Wonderful x2

There's this great scene in Twinkle Wish Adventure where I think it's Minty who crashes her hot air balloon into a Christmas tree and topples it over, crying "do over! do over!" as she realizes her mistake. It's how I feel all the time. All of it.

It's Friday night and I'm staying in. It's gonna be a long post...

I mentioned in yesterday's post (and I totally should have called the post 6ish 3ngs instead, oops,) how I had three things from the night before, and a few things from that day as well. It fits into a mostly coherent narrative, actually, even dovetailing into today's events. Although, in order for it to do that, first we're going to need to go back one week.

There's some kind of block party going on (speaking in present tense about events that happened a week ago) but I'm at the Snow building instead (that's the music and theatre building, the one building on campus (besides the Spori and the MC) whose name I can remember consistently because this one is named after a dead white chick instead of a dead white dude,) and holding the doors open for the people entering for the piano concert apparently going on at the same time. I'm not going to the concert either, even though it's free; there's some business or other I want to attend to at home. But I stick around the Snow for a bit. And there on the bulletin board...

Well first off, they're putting on an adaptation of Dracula this October. With an old buddy from my mission on the sound board! And Twelfth Night in November; that's my favorite Shakespeare play for some reason!

But also on the bulletin board was (and I'm switching back to past tense, using the present progressive of last paragraph as a seamless transition) a casting call for an upcoming 10-minute student film. There was a phone number listed as well as an email address, the audition process taking place next Friday (today) at someplace called the Rockland apartments. You were to contact the director and he'd give you an audition time, where you'd need to be prepared with a monologue and your best improv skills. 

I emailed a few days later and was scheduled for 5:00, which was perfect as it would give me enough time to prepare while also leaving enough space afterward to make it to International Cinema night on time.

I scouted for the building yesterday night, in the rain for hours until I located its address within the Byzantine roadway system (the streets here are all named after their geographic location on a grid, yes, but the sun rises in the north here actually and sets in the south, which leaves the condition of the street naming system in a state I can't accurately describe without selective and judicious use of "sailor jargon.") It was good that I did that yesterday, because I had no time to be lost today. I'd meant to be productive today, get there early, but no. It was down to the wire, heading out only at 4:50ish:

League of Legends, you get a bonus 150 IP for winning a game the first time in the day, and what I'd planned on taking maybe half an hour took three hours instead as my team kept losing. It's such a team-based game that even just one of your teammates acting like a lump can cost you the whole thing, and so game after game was lost due to either one of my teammates disconnecting, or this one time Ezreal was being lazy or something, seriously we had their towers destroyed and massive damage to their nexus we were three inches from victory but allegedly (I didn't notice but that's what they said in chat) Ezreal just stood by and didn't help out deal that critical remaining damage. I remember the exact quote angrily sent over chat at the end of one of the rounds (in which I happened to be playing Rumble): All of you except for Rumble fed (feeding the enemy is when you die to them, giving them points and buffing them up; I had a dream wherein we solved our problems through diplomacy instead of fighting each other, and it was weird.) 

http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/rumble/

That "except for Rumble" caveat made me kind of proud. But that was the last PvP match I played before falling back onto co-op against bots.

I wanted to finish watching Russian Ark today, checked out of the school library; it's a Russian drama/history film, one dizzying 96-minute long steadicam shot throughout the hallways of the Russian Hermitage Museum, going back and forth throughout hundreds of years of Russian history. The International Cinema night is tonight, which means that my 7:00 would be eaten up, and the library would close by the time it got out, so I needed to finish it by then (it being due today, school library DVDs having only a 2-day checkout,) and the audition being at 5:00 of course. Ideally I would have gotten the time to watch it somewhere before 5:00, but... man I just spent way too long playing video games today.

So with the League stuff I guess I can shoehorn the one thing from Wednesday I'd wanted to get to: I've netted a new champion for myself, and he is also pretty tight. I mentioned in the above-linked LoL-based post how most of my champions are fighters, but after saving up IP for weeks I managed to earn a support character. His name is Bard, and he, like I said, is awesome. I totally bit the first time I played him, like ate hardcore dirt, didn't know how to work him at all, but my teammates were so supportive of me in my learning experience that I made up my mind to get good at him, and I did, and by the end of the week I'd made up my mind to buy him, and (as of Wednesday) I did. I've earned an A+ score with him and everything, so yeah I'm pretty boss at Bard (Rumble's still my go-to; I've earned a S- with him, and Ss are even higher than As.)

http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/bard/

Anyway, I guess I should get to today's audition: not feeding in League isn't the only good thing I dun today! The auditions went swell. The casting call sheet said they would be in a certain apartment, but there were signs pasted up at the complex that said they would now be in the lobby-- there were also arrows on the signs directing where to go, but having scouted the location out the night before (and even having utilized the lobby's "facilities,") I didn't need the arrows.

The woman with the 5:30 audition behind me had a resume printed out; all I had was a verbal one of those, just telling them, when asked, my history of acting and working on indie films. I delivered my monologue (and am led to believe it was a tad bit longer than the others' usually were) and was also given two improv prompts to riff off of. I think I did well, made a good impression and everything, and they'll be calling me back next week. 

There were snacks laid out on the table tennis table, and was told to take anything; I took a bag of popcorn for myself to watch during Russian Ark, but ate it all on the walk back home. Watching the movie, I got super tired about half an hour into it, and needed to nap (especially if I wanted to catch the International Cinema film du jour.) Which meant that I wouldn't be able to complete watching it in time, and would need to turn it back in unfinished.

I returned the DVD before heading into International Cinema night... but then it turned out I did have time to watch it, oh well!, because the International Cinema night tonight is, if possible, even more packed than the time they screened Hunt for the Wilderpeople. They're showing an anime movie, and planning on catching every International Cinema film this semester I'd forgotten which one, Your Name it turns out, but I had to track down one of the International Cinema posters to remember (which involved trekking around the Spori building until I found one, marching up the flights of stairs to find a bulletin board that happened to have it posted on; it was painful revisiting the location whereat all my last semester's work was thrown out, but I managed to keep it together.) That's supposed to be a very very good film, and apparently I'm not the only one who's heard so; as someone who attends every International Cinema night except for the ones screening films I've already seen, I can't help but feel a little bit that the students showing up only occasionally, just for the popular films, are something of poseurs.

I guess I've got the live action version of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time I can watch instead (having already seen the animated version and having checked the live action one out of the municipal library a couple days ago,) but I think Your Name is over by now anyway. That brings us to the present.

I need to learn how to use Adobe Premiere Pro, meanwhile, because I accidentally told one of the guys at the audition that I know how to edit using it when I usually use AfterEffects. Like seriously, Premiere is kind of confusing to me. It just finished downloading now.

And as for the stuff that doesn't dovetail:

The two things are one thing actually, but in order to talk about that thing we're going to need to go back a few months this time...

meh, maybe later.


And meanwhile meanwhile, that's not even all of today. The latest Killers album came out today; it's finally out, and I've already listened to it! The fact that Battle Born came out five years ago, and I was around to blog about my first listen-through of that, makes me feel super, old, or something? This is another subject that feels like it should get a post all its own, so really I don't know...

6ish 5ings

Gosh, so. So much to say, such little motivation to say it. Or time, that too. I mean, this semester continues to be eventful; there are three distinct things that need a post dedicated to them, from yesterday alone. And today, hoo boy... I'm not sure...

Later. Maybe. 

Actually, I'm not sure if I've got more than two or three things from today...

*Sigh*

Just can't seem to catch a break. I'd assumed that the print finals had been trashed at the beginning of summer, or whatever, but turns out- turns out!- that the reason Ryan came home empty-handed that morning after I'd told him to look for them, was because they hadn't been thrown away yet. Turns out I received an email Monday saying that they still had them, even though they'd said earlier they'd have thrown them away by then, and the email said they'd throw them away Tuesday. Yesterday.

I told Ryan about it, and there's slim chance that the garbage hasn't yet been taken out to the Dumpster and is lost permanently. Nonetheless, they will check.

Mmmmnnn....

Doctor, Feel Good

Maybe I felt guilty about... oh, I daren't say it. Whenever the mission choir was scheduled to sing at the same time the Tabernacle Choir was scheduled to sing, a few of my fellow elders and I hookied the mission choir to go see the Tab Choir instead. Phew, I said it anyway. 

Whatever it was I felt guilty about on Sunday (still trying to figure it out,) I know I had a post in it somewhere.

So anyway NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE came in the mail yesterday, and, yep, so far it's my favorite John Cleaver book (big ol' shocker.) I mean, OVER YOUR DEAD BODY had its moments, like with the oooh and the ohhh and the ahhh, but dang it Dan Wells how you so good? I've, I've said how he's my favorite, right? Because he is.

And there's a new show coming out Monday nights on ABC? This, The Good Doctor, thing. There was a commercial for it Monday Night Football (I was in the lounge to read my book, because the light in the bedroom went kaput a couple days ago apparently,) and all I saw of it was that it stars Freddie Highmore, and is called The Good Doctor. "The Good Doctor," I declaimed theatrically, though I had no idea what it meant. Like The Brave One, or The Good Dinosaur, or something; if they make a biopic of me for some reason, especially one set during the late 2014, early 2015ish era, I'd want it to be called, The Mighty One... so the title actually hit a little close to home for me, as vagueish and lamish as it may seem.

But I saw a full version of the commercial today on YouTube, no distractions or anything so I could actually make out what people are saying. It's about Dr Shaun Murphy, this, Freddie-Highmore-aged chap, and he's a doctor, and he's a good doctor, because-- because!-- he's somewhere on the autism spectrum (the website states "autism and savant syndrome," whatever that means,) and being that and having that gives him, doctory superpowers?

Sounds about right!

This is ABC we're talking about, and I trust their track record with this sort of, thematic, material, lest you think I'm being too churlish toward them; they're the ones who portray cerebral palsy so brilliantly in the sitcom Speechless (though to be fair that does star an actor who actually has cerebral palsy; Freddie Highmore is, of course as far as I'm aware, neurotypical.) I love neurodiversity in the media if they bother getting it right (just one of the reasons I love Dan Wells so much;) I trust the writers/producers on this show, whoever they may be, to have done their homework on this. 

Actually to be frank I'm going to be disappointed if they don't have little Adam-Ruins-Everything-style sources, or, cameo Temple Grandin, or something.

Celestia Kingdom

One week into this semester and, boy has it been a long one. Each day so long an' momentous an' all. Still can't recall that regret from church; maybe it has to do with tithing...?

So I've had this recurring idea, and sometimes I even dream that it comes to pass (but then get disappointed when I think back on it and realize it was just a dream,) for whatever reason they mention bronies during General Conference? For whatever reason, again, I don't know.

But this conference takes place the day after the My Little Pony movie comes out. They have to bring it up. They just have to...

Cruel New Word That Hath Such Poodles in It

Somebody said something at some point which triggered the memory of something I regret or somesuch, and I believe that I'd been going to write about that, and it would also have tied to my current situation whatever that may be. Truest of true. 

Can't recollect currently though. I regret much a lot. Nothing's really standing out above the rest. 

All that's coming natural now is words unrelated. Like seriously the words are all unrelated to one another.

The westerners brought gunpowder and by the strength that was in their arms made many a righteous [mumble mumble mumble] 

got their land and that was good enough. 

And that kid was drowning. 

I may be channeling something. More likely not tho'.

Temperaturnal

I posted earlier, let me see if I can find it here it is, that maybe I'm electric lizard, electrizard, but maybe I'm just normal cold-blooded. Sleep patterns determined by temperature, temperaturnal. Because it's been getting cold lately finally, and I napped grazillion hours today, waking about once an hour when my Fitbit buzzed for me to take 250 steps that hour. 

Lack of sleep more likely, attempting to stay up until Ryan woke up (until I realized I could just set my alarm to right before his went off) so that I could tell him to look for my art.

Which I don't think he found. They probably got rid of it at the beginning of summer semester instead, so, probably while I was away at family reunion?

Art Pickup Redux Same Result

Alright so my print finals from last semester I arrived a few hours too late to pick up from the art office, so they've been sitting in the art office all summer; I forgot about them in the meantime. I was a few hours too late today to pick them up, realizing (i.e. getting the email) only after the office closed today that they'd still be in there- and it being the end of the week they dispose of the projects unclaimed. 

!!!

Luckily I happen to have a brother who happens to live with me who happens to work in that building in a role that happens to involve taking out the trash... but he's sleeping right now. ...

Wolf and Hound

So it turns out that OVER YOUR DEAD BODY isn't the latest John Cleaver book; Book 6, NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE, came out earlier this year (I knew that it was finished because Dan Wells tweeted as much, but I didn't know it had already been published.) I've already ordered it over Barnes and Noble's website (getting free shipping due to my membership) and it should arrive about as I finish book 5. So excited.

The downside of the Alta HR is that, in spite of its name, it doesn't count the number of stairs I climb in a day. I know I already climb at least 10 because our apartment is upstairs and I go outside at least 10 times a day.

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro was shown as a Fathom Movie Events special feature. It's Miyazaki's feature-length directorial debut, and is both 100% Lupin III and 100% Miyazaki*. I think I saw part of it on the Syfy channel once, back when it was still Sci Fi probably; it was a while ago. But the most familiar part of it was how acquainted I am with that era of Miyazaki; he left a television show to direct this film**. Sherlock Hound, it's called, and he directed 6 episodes of it, those episodes having many a plot point in common with The Castle of Cagliostro. The whole show is available legally on YouTube, here's the whole playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?playnext=1&list=ELJ7W8YJE1z_8

And if you're only going to watch one episode, for heaven's sake make it this one, though all of the first five~six on the playlist are amazing (being the ones directed by him; the playlist is out of order with the Miyazaki episodes first):



21:20-40 are about the greatest frames ever committed to television.

John Cleaver 5

Went up to the big city today (the role of the big city in this part of the world being played by Idaho Falls.) There was a, thing, and then also a place, but anyway none of that matters other than I was invited to go with. It's been more than a year since I've been to Hastings so I said yes.

According to his phone's GPS's Google though, the Hastings there is permanently closed.

You could see it from the outside, as we passed on the way to the "also a place," and it didn't look like it had burned down. Maybe only on the inside? I don't know. Could still go other places, like to the Barnes and Noble, where I picked up Dan Wells's latest John Cleaver book, OVER YOUR DEAD BODY. I'm 61 pages into it, at the chapter break (can't remember the chapter number but I remember the page number, go figure) and... dang. Just dang. Have I told you how good these books are? Like there's this huge twist (which is spoiled on the back cover, I mean it is only chapter 4 or whatever, and besides you would've been able to guess that it would happen just thinking about the scenario the characters are all in) but it's the juiciest most dramatic most amazing thing and I honestly have no idea what's going to happen next and ohhh it's just so good those are such good books I mean you think the first one is good but the second one is even better and the third one is better than that and the fourth one is pretty good kinda rough at the start since there's a time skip between the two trilogies and you need to be caught up but once you are the fourth one is even better than the third, but the fifth one... I have no idea how the sixth one is going to top it. I just, I just don't know...

And Then Act II

Into the Woods was on TNT last night and I was even watching it doing some of the writing of yesterday's post, and so it makes me really mad that only today I realize the connection between that and yesterday, how the day was going so terrifically until things took a turn for the weird. "And they lived happily ever--" BOOM. Talking Heads are great, but really I could have had both with very little difficulty.

Oh well.

Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime

Today was fantastic at the start. And it's still a good day. But at the end of it the future is left more uncertain than at any other point in my life.

The list I made for myself, the first of May of last year, goes like this:

1. scripture study/drawing practice → 
2. Pinterest → 
3. writing → 
4. piano I guess after typing?/chilling with friends here? → 
5. harmonica? → 
6. vocal skillz.

And I've managed to stick to it relatively closely. I mean, I can't find my harmonica or anything, and not everything was in the order I thought of 16 months ago, but I did get in the important stuff. 

I've set up in the lounge of the neighboring apartment complex, where there's an electronic piano for me to use (there's a normalstyle piano in our lounge but something out of tune and without all the keys working.) Yesterday's post I'd been going to mention musical abilities (specifically composition skills; I did a little songwriting yesterday) but decided against it for whatever reason, sticking to the subject or being modest or whatever. 

My writing-fu is weak so far, but I did get in some incredible ideas in a completely different project. So that's good.

I set up several boards on Pinterest and pinned every visual inspiration I've ever wanted to. There is some amazing-looking stuff out there. 

Fitbits I guess have planned obsolescence, because everyones' have been falling apart at roughly the same time. Ryan's band has begun to fall off, but mine kinda went wonky a few months ago. I recently received a new one, the Alta HR, which is good because the band is designed to be able to be taken off, yay. But it's also good because it buzzes at the 50 mark every hour if there's still steps to be fed toward 250 steps per hour, so I could also take frequent breaks, walk back and forth between apartment complexes. 

Between the two, this morning, there was a burst pipe, since fixed, water and raw sewage seeping onto street level. Mostly wet wads of toilet paper, but there was some solid waste product as well. It was fun to watch as people walked through it, realize what they just stepped through, and wipe their feet off on the grass nearby.

So things were amazing.

When I met with Devon last week, he gave me McKenna's mission email address (though he didn't remember her, he still knew what her email would be.) I emailed her and got added to her newsletter, and today was her first preparation day since then, so this is the first I've heard from her since, June, July of last year. And so I learned that for both Sister Zaugg and her companion, it was their halfway point just Thursday.

Doing the math then, she gets off right when I graduate, and not any time before then.

Well dang.

It all goes back to Fall 2016, man. I'd be graduating 2019, if it weren't for my needlessly taking classes that semester.

I've already made my decision, and think I received confirmation, I mean you can never be that sure, but I'm fasting again tomorrow. It's not too late to start classes this semester. I can do this and the other thing, both. If I'm never going to see her again, that's okay, so why would I graduate later, stay in town paying rent and everything, when there's no rent at home?

Which is that thing I said earlier, at the start, about how uncertain the future is. I never figured I'd live alone, ever, just like get married right out of moving out of wherever Ryan's living with me, but I could live alone somewhere, though I'm not sure where. It could be somewhere in town, which is, basically a lot of the advice I've received. Still need to pay for that though.

Things would be a lot easier if I had a job. Or a girl.

And there's a song been running through my head.

Fall Semester Plans Woooo

I've decided it would be in my imminent best interest to keep on my winter/spring track, that is, not take that class this semester. Which is what I would have done anyway and everything, had I known I'd be fine not switching majors or adding anything; still, insecurity has been doing its damnedest to bring me down, lately (you're allowed to say damnedest, right?)... 


Which leaves me with an open, self-directed itinerary for the rest of the year. I've applied for jobs but none of them have even gotten back to me, meanwhile... 

The Justice League movie is coming out in, 68 days. Remember, that was my deadline for having a webcomic out (Thespis in this case doesn't count; it was specifically supposed to be Other//half.) I'm developing a timetable of development, basically a schedule for myself to have everything in place in time for launch. 

I think I've been doing my artistic skills a disservice, drawing-wise. I've been downplaying my abilities there; I'm weak in parts and strong in parts and the growing recognition of which is which is allowing me to grow into my unique eclectic style. 

There was a female art student who spoke at church today, who went on the European art tour last year-ish, in much the same way I'm not doing that this semester. They'd said she'd been too late to apply, or something, but she managed to get in anyway because she'd been fated to take that trip, but then she was left needing to pay for it, and so she buckled down and painted stuff and sold her art and managed to make money off of it.

I think my resume is plenty marketable, but, seriously, not even responding to any of my applications, I don't know what these people want. Who needs a day job though, right...?

Best Bunny

I made a pro/con list of taking that class this semester vs next, made a decision, and prayed for confirmation. What that decision is... I'll tell you about tomorrow; I'm so tired it's lucky I remembered to post at all.

In re: yesterday's post, it's alright if you don't remember the name, if you can offer any more detail.

My brother finished Calvin as per my recommendation and it gave him all the feelios too. See? Read that book!

He posted in his blog about it but too tired to link it. This would make sense if not for that; I'm directly going to talk about things from that.

I'm sure I'll get all the way through Watership Down ever. I've seen the movie, am psyched for the upcoming miniseries, and even speak a little... lapine? lopunny? whatever the language was called again. (Hratha!) The lore is just amazing. Paranoidvisionrabbit is best bunny. Whatever his name was either.

Stranger Things is like the X-Files. I like the X-Files. I love the X-Files. When I first discovered the X-Files a few years ago, I was mad at my friends for having known about it all along but never telling me how great it really is. I should like Stranger Things. I should give it another shot as well.

There's a guy though, in episode 8 in those first few minutes I watched, talking about the number of children who disappeared or whatever, (and it may even have been the first line of the episode, IDK) he's like, "six... six...! six!" and I'm like oh I see what you did there writers, never seen that one before ever. <<Meh.>>

But really I would have done the same thing in their shoes, it's just too delicious to pass up. I blame the actor for taking the line too seriously.

6 has a weird name though, really.

Anyone Remember These?

I've been tracking down a lot of stuff from my childhood lately, but some things elude me.

1. Web video, live action, around 2007-2008. May have been BritANik but ????. A group of guys get into a parked car, all facing forward, and seemingly begin having a conversation that makes sense at first but gets more and more bizarre as it goes along. At the end it turns out that they were each having a different conversation, via bluetooth headsets. One was having girlfriend troubles, one was counseling his cousin how to hunt, etc. (which makes it sound at one point that the easy way to get rid of girlfriend troubles would be, “just two shots in the back of the head!” although maybe the other guy could have been talking about a dog instead of a girlfriend, kind of deal, the details are fuzzy.)
2. Live action TV movie where two brothers like crash a plane on like a desert island and there’s a white girl there who’s somehow native whom they name “Red” after her hair. Possibly miniseries, because I remember it being pretty long for a movie. Not Dinotopia. This was a little before Dinotopia’s time. 
3. Cartoon show, Science Court-era, takes place at a school and follows this group of friends. I hope it’s not Detention, because that show is impossible to find, but it might be. The floor is literally made of lava in one episode, perhaps due to virtual reality? And so they have to walk along the tops of the lockers, or along this ledge along the lockers, and encounter Indiana Jones-style booby traps. Something about an evil wheelchair-bound kid living in the boiler room in the basement, who turns out to be just misunderstood? And perhaps he’s got a big henchperson to do his bidding for him, I don’t know.
4. Live-Action film, seemed to be pretty big when it came out like everyone was excited for it, sometime in the mid-to-late 90s. I don’t recall it being that great, so I think the reason it was so exciting for us is that maybe it was shot locally? It’s about a boy who gets stuck inside what is basically an Iron Man armor, but which looks like a person from the outside so nobody knows it’s a robot/not him. There’s a very funny scene where he goes to Burger King and it’s the robot who gets to eat the food, and presenting just a very unappetizing-looking prechewed bolus to the inside of the suit, conveyor belted to a platform in front of his mouth. The climax takes place at night, with a lot of explosions, very action-packed which I remember being pretty tonally at odds with the rest of the film.
5. When it was still on I always thought that it was Charmed or Bewitched, but those are other things entirely of course. It’s a sitcom about a man with supernatural powers who lives with this family, consisting of at least the mother and two teenage children (whether he’s a wizard or a genie or a fairy godfather or what I don’t know.) I remember a gag where he’s magically conjured up a clothes rack and is choosily sifting through the items. There’s a tux and he says too fancy, there’s a t-shirt and he says too informal, kind of deal, but the punchline is there’s a ballet skirt and he says “too too.” Another episode the woman whose name I always thought was Samantha but the show turned out not to be Bewitched, the mom of the family, is given mindreading powers for the episode. She’s playing chess against the magic dude and he thinks, now it’s time to unleash my secret strategy, only she hears him of course and so he thinks, never mind, it’s not time to unleash my secret strategy. And then, we hear offscreen, the daughter of the family flushing the toilet while the son is in the shower upstairs, and he gets doused in cold water for a few seconds and screams, “Aah! [sister’s name] flushed the toilet while I’m taking a shower!” but inwardly he thinks, alright!
6. Mid-to-late ‘90s-early-to-mid ‘00s. It was like a Usborne puzzle book, full-page full-color illustrations each spread containing its own puzzle, kind of deal, though I remember it being significantly fancier and more difficult. It was separated into different sections/periods in which the story takes place; there was a medieval period, an Underground Railroad period, a future period with aliens, etc. I remember one chapter in the Underground Railroad section was named Midnight Rendezvous, because I had no idea what a rendezvous was or how it was pronounced. At the end it turned out that all the sections interconnected to tell a single story, and one artifact from one time period turned out to be a macguffin from a different time period under a different name, that kind of thing.
7. Something about dogs. Not Road Rovers, the dogs were non-anthropomorphic. Saw it on Cartoon Network, 1999ish (they were still doing the live-action Ed Edd N Eddy promo spots.) It opens with a prologue of sorts, something kinda on the violent side happens IIRC, and it cuts to however many years later, with the subtitle saying ONE YEAR LATER (SEVEN DOG YEARS), and outside of a warehouse I think.
8. A hilarious children’s book our thirdish-grade teacher read to us. Within the first three chapters the narrator is in the shower imagining he’s a rock star. No part of this up to this point has to do with the plot, that I know of- I believe I entered the class partway through the school year and was gone frequently so I missed most of it. The plot itself, as far as I heard, involves a tiny little man who, like, grants the kid wishes, or goes on magical adventures, or something? He’s described as being the man who shuts off the light in the fridge when you close the door, and who at the end of the book decides to pay a visit to the man in the freezer who makes the ice cubes.

If not I'm going to ask at TV Tropes, but I figured I'd start with family first since they're the ones who had these with me. Except for 1 and 8 and maybe 7. My parents would probably remember the live action TV, and I've asked my brother about #6 already I think.

Not Rachel

This bizarre little thing was part of my childhood somehow. Around the same time I saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the first time, so we know I first saw it sometime after 1975; actually Lucky magazine premiered in December 2000, so around that time then. I would have been 9 years old at the time.

I remember the mannequin's name being Rachel and not Cheryl, and I remember there thus being a chorus that goes "my best friend Rachel is a mannequiiiin!" which doesn't exist, and which is why it took me so long to find this, but this is most likely it, because seriously what else would it be?

Strange Major Lack-of-Change

So. Not doing the 24 hour comic right now either. Remembered/was reminded in time, that there's the white glove clean check tomorrow, and I need to spend this 24-hour period cleaning the apartment. One appointment or another shoots down my plans for the rest of the week from now on too. Was going to the degree counseling office worth it? Let me tell you.

What needs to be taken yet is this: two credits from a list of given classes (with the chosen class for me to take being three credits, so that's no problem,) and an internship or travel study in the arts program. We chose the travel thing; the internship is only mandatory for BFAs which I'm not getting, not this time. There's also a Portfolio Capstone class, but that's not actually required until students of fall of 2018; my stuff should be finished by then so I get a by on that. Leaving just the travel and the class.

We already looked into the travel study thing, and being gone like that would take a full half semester up, or at least with the one we looked at (going to Europe!) We set that for its own semester, next year, while this semester is when I take the chosen class Devon recommended me. 

It's, it's got a waitlist of 3 people, but usually those things clear up within a week of the semester's start.

Of course, it is my offtrack this semester, though, and I'm wondering if it'd be better not to have that class until later when I'm on-track. Though this semester might be the only track they're offering it, in the falls, and it does look pretty fun? It being my offtrack I am technically blocked/locked from signing up for any classes (I can see the courses being offered, but there's no checkbox next to them for me to add any.) I'd have to take it up with the office again, and as long as I'm doing that I may as well ask about the efficacy of getting that credit in now vs later in the first place.

So maybe I won't be beginning any classes next week, maybe, and I'd be able to do that 24 hour comic sometime soon after all...

Degree Decision Debrief

Alright so I'm not doing a 24 hour comic right now, by which I mean at this moment. Nor did I begin today. I realized that there were kind of pressing matters- like, what-to-do-with-this-semester, less than a week before it starts sort of things. Went to the art degree counseling office, well found it first (it's at this place called Chapman Hall, which used to be on-campus housing, but which is just a stone's throw away from the apartment; it used to be in the Manwaring Center) but went to the counseling office and, well just had a walk-in really, no scheduling needed. Imagine my surprise when the counselor (whose face I did not see as I pressed through the door, but whose voice I heard as he talked with someone on the phone) turned out to be a voice I recognized- it was Devon Watkins, whom I've told you about earlier. An old friend of, well you can click through the links.*

I told him about my degree, wanting to change it, seeing if there were any minors or clusters instead or something, how I may need to use the fall semester to hike my grades up so as to receive full aid next semester when I'm actually on-track, all that. At first I gave the pragmatic reason I do, like I do, for why I should have a minor, how bad I am at graphic design, and maybe some other discipline can bolster my skills somehow? But illustration actually isn't a minor,** and there's no real clusters I can take reasonably this late in the game, and the excuse is pretty weak anyway, but I know he knows McKenna since we three were this thing, and so, from the moment I heard his voice stammer slightly as he counseled over the phone, and recognized it as his, I knew I'd be able to play the matchmaker card, and tell him about McKenna.

I did. He didn't seem to remember her. But he gave advice anyway.

Long schedule-hammering short, I am not changing majors, I am not adding a minor, I am not even adding a cluster. It's brilliant, because without adding that extra load, I don't even need the federal funding; I can pay for the remaining few credits myself as it is, seeing as how I'm two credits away from graduation and had been planning on paying out-of-pocket for five this semester instead (having my GPA thus back up to 3.0, this is why it was important to add a declared minor or cluster, because even with that qualifying b-average, I wouldn't receive funding for credits that didn't go toward my declared major or minor.)

What exactly we plan on happening, I'll tell you about tomorrow I guess. Probably schedule that now, to go up during my 24 hour comic I'd been planning on? Also there are a couple of details to hash out. So. I'll get back to you.

My Champ

There are more than 100 champions to play as in League. There's some kind of rotation system in place, it looks like; you can only choose from a limited selection that are free to play for you (i.e. you don't have to unlock them) but what that pool is changes from, time period to time period (week month I don't know.) You can unlock the champions permanently for you by unlocking chests and gettin' stuff, or by purchasing the champions with RP/IP. RP you get by purchasing with actual money, but IP you get by playing games (the exact mechanism by which your IP for that game is tallied is arcane, or at least I have no clue whence the maths even after looking at the game stats carefully.) You get bonus IP for your first victory in a day; I've got just enough that a single game tomorrow will allow me to unlock permanently for myself a champion I've found I enjoy playing.

His name is Rumble, he's a Yordle (cute catlike creature) kid genius tinkerer sort of character who built his own mech suit. And he has the best powers too*-  his Q is this flamethrower that roasts a cone in front of him, which allows you to eat through minions quickly and gain rapid gold. His W is this shield thing that goes up in a bubble around him and also increases his movement speed, allowing you to get out of danger quickly. His E is this long-range bolt allowing you to damage champions from a distance. His R power, his R power I have not mastered, but it launches this row of missiles from the sky into a straight line on the ground which I can never aim the way I want to.

When he dies it's adorable. His mech ejects and he goes flying straight up, only for his charred, still-smoking corpse to splat the ground a few seconds later. Is another thing I like.

Unlocking chests has already given me Garen and a skin for him, but as far as tank-type characters go** I'm a bigger fan of Blitzcrank. I dunno.

And I haven't done a 24-hour comic in five years. That's insane. I mean, most people go their whole lives without making one 24-hour comic, but... heck, it's still summer for a bit, why not do one tomorrow. 

Untie the League

Had the best League game yesterday. I mean, my score by the end was 0/3/0, (zero kills and assists, three deaths, not the absolute worst but still,) but it was truly a pleasure to be on that team. Apparently a great way to inspire camaraderie is to question whether your current teammates are just bots? It really gets people to teamchat to assure you that they're not, and a conversation and shotcalling just flow forth from there. 

Also, I guess I'm playing League now.

There's been kind of a (pretty darn clever) advertising push on YouTube lately (or maybe it's just to me based on like demographics) which makes sense that they'd do it now, because it's tournament season, and --man you wouldn't believe how hard it is to track down an ad when it's unlisted, even when it pops up in front of every video, but eh did I say it's hard it's actually pretty easy I just copied the reference from the referral URL that links out of the video-- but the pitch perfection of this ad campaign is only one of the reasons I'm getting into it (I'm a graphic design student; liking advertisements instead of being annoyed by them is one of our prerequisites.)


You also see League stuff at Fandomonium[!] and I had no idea what was going on, what with all the turrets and minions and, do you control the minions themselves or guide them somewhere like with Age of Empires or something, or does each champion have their own minions, and what's the deal with jungling? (I still have no clue as to that last one. But the minions are just bots that go out in waves from both sides like some kind of two-way tower defense game, is the answer to how those work.)

Really though the tipping point that sparked my interest is Overworld, the fictional VR e-sport from Dan Wells's latest series, Mirador. Which books are totally awesome and great and you should consider reading them because I was pretty bored at first because I couldn't relate to the teenage girl protagonists at all but they were just so engaging and well written that I was wholeheartedly into everything by the end, and the latest book, set during an Overworld championship, is especially good (and may I say that Fang is a BAWSS.) Dan Wells has a League account, and Overworld is molded directly partially off of it and other Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas. With some elements of FPS in there, which actually makes it a lot like, BattleBorn (sigh...,) but everyone basically plays empowered versions of themselves instead of taking on the roles of any characters (it being VR and all.) There are similar positions on the teams and stuff, and item purchase works the same way, and it's explicitly stated to be the most popular e-sport of 2050, much like how League of Legends is the most popular e-sport of today.

So yeah. I feel like I should be more hipster about it, like aren't there smaller quirkier games out there that could use the support?, but, whatever, I'm not. It's free-to-play, no skin off of anybody's nose. I'm like Saitama. I'm just a hero for fun.  

Speaking of Leagues, though, there is zero chance for the latest DCEU movie coming out November to be anything but awesome. What a year!

Already Seem

Have I written about that one shot in Spider-Man: Homecoming from inside the Washington Monument, looking through the window and you can see Spider-Man getting ready to swing through, and behind him you can see the helicopter with the people inside, and through that you can see the sky, and all those levels are still in focus? I don't think I have, because it's such a specific thing to write about, but I was getting deja vu earlier that I had, so I'm not sure.

So speaking of deja vu though, free will+time travel kind of bothers me, not from the perspective of the traveler, but from the perspective of the people whose decisions are erased because they're not the time traveler. That has anything to do with deja vu because, what if time travel would be real, but into your own past self, and not real memories of the future because that would also break causality, but still there'd be some remnant, which would be deja vu? So essentially every time you experience deja vu it's because sometime in the future you screwed up so tremendously that you had to travel back in time to undo it, and you can remember somewhat of that forgotten future only through a sense that you've seen it before. Meaning people who get deja vu a lot travel back into their own selves a lot, that kind of deal.

Taunt (x6)

Doing research on procedurally generated content creation- perhaps after yesterday's experiment with the 36 dramatic situations, perhaps that's just coincidence. Either way, there are publishers and authors out there whose books are designed not to be read, but to sell copies. With that in mind maybe my wariness is justified, regarding cranking stories out as opposed to letting them percolate and build organically. Maybe I'd be able to take a scenario that preexists, into interesting places, quickly, but I'm incapable of putting out arbitrary content, wherein quality of work's an nonissue.

Not all procedurally generated, artificial content is depressing, though. That's what I really want to talk about. Not sure how much you'll get out of this if you don't play Hearthstone, but still probably a lot. Our humor reflex is stooped in absurdity, and absurd is absurd. Computers operate with no knowledge of context, a simple childlike innocence, and the end results are similar.

This guy procedurally generated Hearthstone cards, feeding the data (in this case Hearthstone cards) into a computer and having it anticipate future cards, like it's reading a pattern. Only the computer has no idea what Hearthstone is, or what it's doing. The results are, well...

I laughed so hard I almost pooped myself then died. I was crying. I'm not sure if it's the hardest I've laughed in my life (I can't recall quite how close I came to death laughing reading Hitchhiker's Guide for the first time, but it was pretty darn close;) it's probably only the second hardest I've laughed in my life, seeing as how I wasn't rolling around on the floor like the other time (though I didn't almost poop myself this time, so it might even out.) Even if it is only the second hardest I've laughed in my life- holy crap that's the second hardest I've laughed in my life.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/3cyi15/hearthstone_cards_as_created_by_a_neural_network/