Ep 8 etc

It's hard to imagine a time before The Last Jedi as part of Star Wars canon, because it's just so perfect. Alright, the Rose and DJ stuff is easy to imagine a time before of, but that's perfect because that exists more along, along the timeline, a lot of the stuff those two do really advancing Finn's character arc.

I mean it though; a lot of people seem to think that "the greatest teacher, failure is" contradicts "do or do not, there is no try," when (if you think about it) in reality they mean the exact same thing. Only, the failure thing clarifies the statement, pierces through the heart of it in a way that makes you wonder how we only lived with the first half of it.

And Rose and DJ, especially with DJ being a good guy then a bad guy then a good guy then a bad guy again (with the necklace stuff but then returning it, and ultimately betraying everyone) but also pointing out the hijacked ship's owner sold to both the good guys and the bad guys, not only tying in with the light/dark balance themes but also forcing Finn to confront his own identity in a way I'm sure we'll see more of next time; but then like with Rose, how Finn's got such a high expectation of the First Order and continues to think that running from them is the only way to survive, and how Rose tempers that, but then saves him when he ultimately figures he won't survive and so decides to make his sacrifice mean something, Rose saving him and proving that winning doesn't mean what Finn thought it did.

Anyway so yeah I got a piece of popcorn shell lodged behind my uvula, and it's still up there, and it's been up there all day. And that's terrible.

Jack Learns How to Draw Good

Okay so people who write how to draw books are just people, but who write how to draw books, and I'm not sure where I was going with that but it seems significant so remember that fact, but seriously they're just ordinary folks who happen to draw good. Draw good, I tell you. Actually, scratch that, illustrators in general, not just how-to-draw book authors, are just everyday folks, not even remotely close to being celebrities which-are-somehow-not-everyday-folks. Seriously, where was I going with this.

Oh yeah. So you know those blogs that consist of nothing but one or two (or three or four) posts, whose contents consist of some variation of the phrase "you know, I really should post here more?" And such blogs tend to be illustrators', I've noticed (not that I generally try to access the blogs of, say, postal workers; maybe there's not some statistical vortex around illustrators and their blogs, but those are the ones I've noticed.) 

Even if I may not do actual art-based, illustration-based social media that often, I've got a leg up on the blog department; mine's not a total embarrassment yay. 

Grawlix, dude, maybe I am more of a writer than I am an illustrator.

One Week Up, More Future Resolutions

I'm faced with it every night as a resolution of something that I really do need to get on doing. Don't have a job, though $700ish did come in of Pell grant money; considering going on that art tour after all, instead of trying to nail down some internship for a graphic design position I don't even want. One of the things I need to accomplish, get on, not sure when applications for those tours open up, maybe ask someone about that.

That would allow me to graduate before this fall, which would mean I wouldn't have to do that portfolio capstone that art graduates after fall have to start doing. Nice.

But Brother Keller still has that in with LAIKA, and he said to hit him up around graduation season. I'm not sure what they'd be looking for, what kind of portfolio I'd need to assemble this semester; I mean I've poked around their job openings on their website and everything but I'm not sure if his connection would mean an automatic "in" or not, so that's what I need to figure out; seeing how the only place I've yet to apply for is Taco Bell, everywhere else not even getting back to me regarding my application, I think prospects look pretty grim outside of the LAIKA opportunity representing an insta-job, no matter how entry-level.

But they're based in Oregon, and so another resolution that I need to make is actually hitting the DMV up for once and actually scoring myself a driver's license or something...

OWL Primer

Finished my new YouTube video. I'm even embedding it here; first I've done ever with this series.

It probably would have turned out 100% better (i.e. twice as good) had I not written, shot, and edited it all together in one day, but as it is I think these are beginning to get waay better. Or at least, I'm getting the hang of making them more. I really should stagger my workload.

The card for it also isn't terrible. Maybe the leading could use a bit more work(s). You know what we were told about the difference between good typography and bad typography, in class yesterday? 20 hours of work.

Overasis

I'm in the Tomb of Horrors right now, waiting for midnight to reset everything and remove Art3mis's magic barrier. Also in the real world, trying to get this post up before midnight. And a YouTube video up before midnight tomorrow night. The video will be about Overwatch, and it's something I've been thinking about.

The book was written in 2011; the film comes out this year. There's a Tracer in the trailer here, and what looks like a Mei behind her (EDIT: Upon second freezeframe, that's actually totally Chun-Li from Street Fighter, my bad). Overwatch of course only came out 2016, so there wouldn't be any of that in the book. Fascinating how quickly the future changes.

But what's really on my mind is the dedication, obsession rather, exhibited. By Wade Watts, gunter extraordinaire, memorizing every detail of 80s pop culture, twelve hours a day, seven days a week. By professional Overwatch players, daily engaged in seven straight hours of nothing but practice in order to stay so good. It's insane.

How many hours did Malcolm Gladwell say, practice needed to be world-class in any given category? Loads and loads, man. Not sure if I have a point to any of this, just, two things that I'm thinking about lately, that are synergizing right now.

Social Media Problems, and Why They May Not Be Problems

I went to bed at like 7:00 and hopefully will wake up early tomorrow. Though it's 12:42 here and I'm awake right now just to write this. Not sure I've got much to say. 

Dreaming there's a teammate in my head who wants me to talk about team composition. I did have the idea yesterday morning of like a YouTube video breaking down the fight scene in Captain America: Civil War as a lesson in metagame and derive lessons from it to apply in Overwatch. If done right, that has the potential of getting ALL the views. But as it stands... 

I realized last night that I probably wouldn't. Not, wouldn't view it, because seriously if watch that thing ten times in a row, but I wouldn't be able to make something close to that. Shouldn't try to make anything close to that. The way I use social media, I...

I've been trying to get myself to post more, more art or any art at all, like my artist friends all do. But it's not coming naturally to me. Up till now I've been thinking that's something I should fight against, but now I'm not as sure. There are some things that are hard and don't come easily but you should do anyway, and there are some things that are hard and don't come naturally that you shouldn't even try to force, and I'm not sure what this one is.

I blog every day, and I guess I Facebook but looking at it it's definitely not in the same pattern that everyone else seems to Facebook. I'm only technically a millennial; this stuff doesn't come naturally to me. I enjoy archiving and recording details about my life, which explains this blogging, but...

I just don't know. The only reason I should try to force it is if I genuinely WANT the marketing. I'm not even really a furry; I (well maybe loathe is a strong word) the mainstream fandom, the idea of this monoculture which is like the opposite of what it should be. There happens to be an overlap in basically all the other interests, except for that one, which seems rather fundamental to me. And that makes it kind of difficult to do anything, represent myself. All the other furry YouTubers all seem to be doing videos just on the fandom itself somehow, for some reason, and that leaves plenty of opening elsewhere, but it's about more they just whether there's an opening for it.

I'm trying to rethink the entire strategy, flip it on its ear. There's got to be something fundamental that we're taking for granted that we don't need to be. About, the way we use these platforms. I could go on and on about this; I'm sorry.

Week Upcoming

Monday: Well tomorrow's MLK Jr day, but I don't have Monday classes anyway. Probably going to go catch Jumanji finally. There's also some print business I want to get done this week.

Tuesday: Still need to get on that typography homework I slept through (did I tell that here, or was that to my diary?) and also accomplish some kind of, alphabet design, for that class. It's an ongoing assignment for that class, every week coming up with some creative way to write the alphabet, make letterforms. I have plenty of ideas, but still need to make and photograph those.

Wednesday: Also, after the relative success/disaster of my last YouTube video (wrote, produced, edited, and uploaded it all in a single day, but the production quality suffered as a result as well; got my first dislike so exciting!) I'm trying to get on the next one early. 

Thursday: If there's any homework assigned on Tuesday, I'm going to need to get it done here (it's a Tuesday/Thursday class.)

Friday, Saturday: ??? That's about as far out as my plans extend at the moment. I'm not sure when extracurriculars start this semester, maybe this week, maybe they've already started. But Tuesdays there's a YouTube workshop, Wednesdays there's Art Night and a hot date. We'll see.

Spanimation

Went to go see two animated films today, at Paramount 5, both in English but probably canonically both in Spanish in real life. Really enjoyed both of them. Those would of course be Coco and Ferdinand. (Put those two names together like that, it sounds like it could almost be a sequel to Harold and Maude or something.) Wanted to go see Jumanji some time, but there wasn't really a good schedule for it, for me. So instead, Coco at 4:50, quick bite to eat from Ramires', Ferdinand at 7:10 with Ryan and Angeles.

Ferdinand's character designs were gorgeous, how they could get multiple highly distinctive designs off of the same species. Coco's use of color was breathtaking. I'm going to need to study both visual elements later, in depth. Maybe do a YouTube video breaking down what I learn, each. Start a new series. Ferdinand and character design, Coco and color, Zootopia and worldbuilding. Maybe one about musical sequences, Moana, or the My Little Pony movie, or something.

The previews for Ferdinand in front of Coco didn't inspire much confidence, just a bunch of funny-animal stuff, but it was just a bad trailer. Good movie, though. None of the previews in front of Ferdinand inspired much confidence. Except for the one for Coco, which was good. Good trailer. Good movie.

I saw like 80% of Coco's plot coming from a mile off, but being predictable or even clichéd isn't a bad thing in my eyes. 

There's a random dance-off in the middle of Ferdinand, and song-and-dance just for the sake of song-and-dance isn't something I'm usually into, even if the music happens to actually be really good, but this movie, even the dance-off I kind of enjoyed (Singin' in the Rain doesn't "do it for me" as much as it seems to do others; the title song is alright, as well as "Good Morning," because those actually tell us something about the character's inner feelings, but, huge tangent, I could go in-depth on this, I'm sorry.)

I'm not sure what either of these films is rated, but if they aren't both rated G, the G rating is buried (we already knew it was dead, and had the final nail in its coffin, but this is what buries it.)

("Everybody dance" endings are more tolerable for me; the one in MegaMind goes on a bit long but other than that is fine. The one at the end of Hotel Transylvania can die in a fire. The ones at the end of Zootopia and the My Little Pony movie are of course flawless and wonderful. Anyway.)

k even more OWL stuff then

So far my trust in the Los Angeles Valiant has proven well-placed; they're the only team at 2-0 right now, although by the end of tomorrow they're definitely going to be joined in that by at least two teams (London Spitfire, Philadelphia Fusion, Seoul Dynasty, and Los Angeles Gladiators each won their round, so two of the three games tomorrow undefeateds are going head to head) and possibly three (if New York Excelsior comes out on top again- and once again, the Excelsior are the first team Valiant's playing next week, so if they do win tomorrow, Thursday's match should prove very interesting.)

I got a new At-a-Glance today, for this year. Last year's was like a plan-by-the-hour thing which wasn't much good, but placing a special order at the stationery place yesterday, my good old 70-6201-30 came in today, and I'm already, like, writing in it an' stuff.

More ESports Stuff; I've Got Deeper Thoughts on a Lot of Things, But I'm Just Going to Write Those in My Diary Today, So You Can Have This Instead

Fuel vs Valiant tomorrow. Should be good. I missed all the Overwatch League matches today, but whatever; the teams I was rooting for won I guess. Not 100% thrilled that the New York Excelsior won against the Boston Uprising, not that I was rooting for Boston or anything-- but the Excelsior is the first team LA Valiant's going up against next week, so that should make that one double exciting.

I went to the library today and checked out for the second and third times respectively, Dan Wells's Ones and Zeroes and Bluescreen. The Mirador series (the third of which comes out in one month, so excited) may be about a teenage girl and her friends, which I generally wouldn't care for as a subject matter, but they're cyberpunk and awesome and by my favorite author, and I'm sure I've told you about them. The main character and her friends play this VR e-sport called Overworld, which got me into League of Legends and Overwatch in the first place, and rereading those scenes now, now that I know anything about how Overworld would work, it makes a lot more sense now. Makes the books even more appealing for me.

I played a game or two of Overwatch today, but I didn't of League. I feel I've gotten about as much out of it as I'm capable of getting right now. Rumble is still great, still feel a very strong affinity to him for multiple multiple reasons, but having mastery 7 on him... well for the first couple of games that was neat, having that and getting to show it off, but now it's kind of, I think that made me a little too proud, or something. The idea of getting such a high mastery made me kind of covetous, before I got it, and then getting it and just flaunting it strutting around like a peacock... I don't need that. I really am amazeballs at Rumble. But I really don't need that. 

I'm still probably going to play again ever. But I don't need to do so every day.

SO MUCH OVERWATCH STUFF

Okay, so yesterday's encounter with Alex turns out wasn't quite how I'd thought. HE'LL EXPLAIN IT ALL ON HIS BLOG I'M SURE.

Overwatch League began today. I'm voting for Los Angeles Valiant to go all the way. Really though only because they've got my brother's girlfriend's name in theirs, kind of. I'm no jingoist.

But these guys, all of them, they're playing on such a high level I didn't even know was possible. A high level, on every level. It's like, me as a casual gamer, I'm just scratching the surface, while they're sucking the marrow dry, and I didn't even know this thing had bones. Is that what it's like, watching professional league football or something? And playing football yourself, and knowing how skilled each of those players down there must be.

I can't tell you how much I'd give to be as good at, anything, as Terence "Soon" Tarlier is at Tracer. Or Widowmaker. Or McCree....

So I'd been going to put this in yesterday's post, but it wasn't really appropriate. There's this awesome video from this awesome webseries Extra Frames from the YouTube channel Extra Credits, which is a channel all about video game art and business and behind-the-scene stuff, with Extra Frames being specifically about animation, even going over the 12 Principles and illustrating each with one exemplary game per Principle. Highly recommended. Also, when they're not doing that, they just seem to love Overwatch's animation (but who doesn't?) This is their latest video, Overwatch character animation stuff, how to use animation to convey character even in an FPS:

EDIT: Extra Frames is now its own channel, New Frames Plus. Which is pretty sweet, but it would have been nice if they'd not gone and broken my precious links and embeds.

Side Stories

First Advanced Typography class today. I'm not a big fan of what it represents, and how it totally blew my schedule of a few semesters ago to Kingdom Toast bending over backwards to have prerequisites all done for it but then it not even being the semester I'd thought and that all being unnecessary, or whatever the lump happened... but hur my gursh, so worth it.

Well, not totally worth it, having my schedule thrown off and never being able to see the girl I'd thought may have been The One, ever again, but, it's an awesome class, and worth having signed up for it.*

It really, well we basically just sketch letters, is what we do, but that's a great way to, I mean, I'm excited by it, like, this opportunity to do something kinda boring but kinda intriguing, so you have to bring the passion to the table, to make it engaging and to get the most out of the class.

Still I'm glad it's my only class this semester.

Alex and I happened to be on the same team in Overwatch today, not by invitation or anything, but by coincidence; we just happened to be playing at the same time, same mode, and wound up on the same team for a game. We won easily of course.**

Achievements in Achievement

New Pretzels+Prints+Repeat episode up. It's been up only about an hour, and it's already got 8 views, which is pretty typical for the total, lifetime number of views for one of these. So I'm guessing they're all from me, accidentally. Oops.

The camera is focused on the background instead of the subject, which happens when you're doing the camera work from in front instead of behind; and the editing is occasionally needless, like jumpcuts which you'd think would signify a change in topic but no, or a change in topic that could have used a jumpcut but received none... but I'm really feeling like we're getting closer and closer to my idea of who I would be as a YouTuber. And the puppetry is I feel the first halfway competent job this time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGNHrtZIBe0

So! I got an S with Bard today in League-- just one more and I get to level him up. Think I'm getting good/better with him. I mean, I'd thought I was already, but it turned out that I actually didn't know how to Bard, not really. But with today's match, I got not only an S but most honorable player, my first time ever achieving such an honor. It was sweet.

First Sabbath Back

Beds! Blankets! A welcome change here after having to sleep on the floor back at home.

Today was fast sunday, which was just as well, because even if we could eat, we wouldn't be able to eat. We've got plenty of food alright, I mean, but the only milk in the fridge is our roommate's (and it looks like there's just the one, this semester; our apartment's already small people-wise with only four men, but it may be even smaller this semester. Or larger, since there's extra space.) We'll have to wait till Monday to get any milk.

And the nuker's pooched. The outlets in this apartment have been replaced, so they're all nice and tight (as opposed to crazy loose like they had been,) and there's several other improvements and a new toilet lid and seat, but... our microwave oven is just sitting, a brick in the corner. Doesn't work.

But all of that should be jiving smooth soon.

My first class is Tuesday afternoon.

Reports from the Drive Up, in Photos and Songs

We listened to music and I took photos and tried to stay awake so that I could in turn keep my driver awake, and I guess this is what a parent feels like, and why they don't get that much sleep, because it was something.

This video was loaded on my laptop after having watched it last night, meaning it was viewable even without an internet connection:



And then there's this. This came on the radio, and it was amazing and hilarious and, turns out it was a Schoolhouse Rock song which makes a lot of sense (DOLLARS and sense!):





Anywaaayy. The weather was beautiful on the way up, but that doesn't mean clear. It was full of rainblasts and fog, really really low cloud coverage. When the sky was clear, it was clear, and the sun was bright, and dispersed just right to be a dream to shoot in. I got 100 photos, and 7 videos. Just thought I'd select a few for you to check out.

This photo is out of focus, deliberately. Sort of an impressionist thing I guess; those hills were rooouund.

This photo is not color graded at all; the colors were really like that (and probably even more vivid, with that brush by the riverbank):

Looking at a rainbow, or the left half thereof:

Found the right half several miles later:

And I guess we should round this off. I don't know, maybe this one?:

Also sorta half-deliberately out of focus; it's not that so much as, the shutter speed was at a third of a second, to get the late evening lighting condition just right. The whole sky was covered in these low clouds, which scale you can't get from this one photo of course, but then there was this one even lower, like a baby whale.

So yeah teal deer, I guess we made it safely.

Mastery Sieben

Got a Mastery Level 7 on my boy Rumble today in League of Legends. My first S+, giving me my third and final needed mastery token; also leveled up to level 50 same game, and...nobody honored me. No one. Well hold on--

Nope, nope, no one.

We're going home tomorrow morning. It's been, fun here. But it's time to go.

Woke Up at Noon

OH GOSH I STAYED UP UNTIL 4:30 IN THE MORNING PLAYING VIDEO GAMES NOW I KNOW HOW THAT FEELS HOW DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE WITH YOURSELVES. 

I played one-on-one against both Alex and Ryan today, some dope Overwatch custom mode; Alex is a much better player but I won my game against him and lost to Ryan (connectivity issues. Hahaha.)

I'm watching Bollywood on Netflix right now. 2001, Shah Rukh Khan; it's called One 2 Ka 4 and it's full of some of the greatest bad editing I've ever had the pleasure to behold. Let me see if I can find...

Nope, blocked on copyright grounds. The opening fight scene is very, very, mmhhmm though.

But anyway, yeah I guess I'm actually trying to be productive with my day- tomorrow's the last full day we've got here, and there's still one issue outstanding that I have to get done by the time we go back up to Rexburg...

The Like Three Things I Got Done Today

It'd be nice to get more than one thing done per day. I've actually got a to-do for tomorrow; as it was, today was hardly filled with even board games. Like, I played Summoner Wars against Alex and that was it (I won though!) I did get that haircut I'd been supposed to be getting for a while. Got to watch a cow being butchered. That was fun.

Don't you hate it when you totally dominate a League game though but then it turns out that it didn't count as your first win of the day and then just get slaughtered and slaughtered and slaughtered thereafter? I'm on Discord, voice chat app, so these people are my friends though.

Computer Gaming

The water here is perfect. It comes in a cooler, and is of that perfect consistency where it's satisfying, but not too satisfying where you're like dang that's satisfying, stop drinking and dehydrate to death. It's like video games. It's like video games.

We've just been playing computer games here, which we can do apart, but not board games which we can only do together. It's not all bad.

Like, Alex is teaching me how to Overwatch. I'm terrible at it, but my having it inspired him to have it, and he quickly got really good at it, and something we can only do together, him teach me how to not be so suck so more.

In League news, Sorcery: the Calamity turns out to be a way better rune loadout for me than Precision: The Perfect which is what I'd been using.

The Summoning!

I remember what I'd meant to post in one of the backlogs. It's this short cartoon, basically the greatest thing. Basically.