jetpack_monkey_ljarchive

I think my days of vidding with any regularity are narrowing to a close. And it's because I am very bad at listening to music. You'd think this is something that one couldn't actually suck at, but it is and I do.

I don't listen to music, really. I don't put on iTunes and listen to favorite tracks or check out a new artist. It never occurs to me to do so and even now, I'm blanking on a scenario where listening to music for funsies would be something I would do instead of anything else.

The only time I listen to music is when I'm actively trawling for vidding material. And frankly, over the years, it's become exactly as frustrating as clothes shopping. It even tenses up the same neck muscles. I find something that I like, but they don't have it in my size or worse, they have it in my size but it doesn't quite fit. It's just a shade wrong. And I could wear the shade wrong thing, but I would know all the ways it doesn't fit.

Same with songs. Even when I'm just generically listening to stuff for general "put it on the vidding list" music, I hear songs that are great in some ways, but either structurally or lyrically go to a place that make them ill-suited except in very narrow scenarios in which I have no interest. Listening to music with the knowledge that the songs could be used for vidding but aren't suitable for my needs makes the whole process awful. (And yes, I realize that the solution is "Stop looking at it that way" -- see above, re: I wouldn't listen to music otherwise).

It gets worse when I run into the vidding scenario that's been plaguing me for the last year -- I find something that seems a perfect match for a fandom or a multi scenario, spend days or even weeks gathering source and clipping, and the *instant* I get more than one clip on the timeline, I see exactly how the two are a terrible match. And now I've wasted oodles of time clipping something. Trying to find a song that's like the one you were using but is different in key ways is nearly impossible.

It's even more frustrating because I don't tend to vid things I'm actively obsessively fannish about. I prefer to vid in weird niches that I have some technical or historical interest in. So all of that time I spent clipping was really wasted, because it was only to support that specific vid idea for that specific song. The clipping work can't be repurposed for another vid in the same fandom because I'm not attached enough to the fandom itself to explore another angle. So I either find a replacement song for that specific idea or I fail.

The short of this is, you are not getting my ultimate lulzy Run Boy Run vid at Vividcon Premieres this year. I'm not sure I have any more vids in me for this year's Vividcon at all.

I've spent the last two weeks working studiously on an ambitious project. I found a digital model file for a 2'4"-foot-long LEGO replica of the Normandy SR-2 from Mass Effect 2. I've been completely stoked about this ever since I found the file online several months ago.

I spent a couple hundred dollars on parts, building what I could while I waited for my orders to come in. I dealt with the frustrations of working with the LEGO Digital Designer's auto-generated instructions that would occasionally hang pieces in mid-air at step 100 only to come back to the connecting pieces at step 700.

However, the whole thing became a lesson in not jumping into the deep end of the pool without checking that it's filled with water first.

Throughout the building process, I ran into little idiosyncrasies that indicated to me that perhaps the designer had only put the model together conceptually and never practically. I was convinced of this when I put together the super-cool looking model stand and found it collapsed under any sort of weight.

I soldiered on, figuring I could design a sturdier stand later. After a lot of hard work and some ingenuity, I managed to create all of the individual elements of the ship. However, I was unable to connect them together. There were two or three major structural flaws in the backend of the ship that fed into each other. The designer had created a working (hollow) shuttle bay with hangar door. He'd also hinged the back part of the roof so you could see the little model bridge. Further, two of the key pieces that helped attach the front, bottom, and rear sides did so by a bare thread, disrupted by the slightest pressure (like, say, the pressure of attaching Lego bricks to each other).

I found the page where I acquired the digital model file again and found that, yes, the design was entirely theoretical, he knew of the issues with the model stand, and he'd never practically put the whole thing together because the pieces cost too much. I'd somehow missed all of this when reading through the first time.

To say that this has been a frustrating experience is... understatement. One of the joys of LEGO is watching strangely attached pieces somehow become something recognizable and whole. Here I got as far as recognizable.

I've stowed everything I've built into drawers for the time being. I'm going to refocus on my vidding until I don't have any further deadlines to worry about. Then I'll review and revise the design, eliminate some of the structural weak points, and complete the model. Maybe. I'm not actually terribly confident in my ability to do so.

I've been fighting this weird rolling illness where one or two low-level symptoms will present themselves, mess with me for a little while, and then step aside for other symptoms. I'm talking stuff like wooziness, aches and pains, sore throat, congestion, low energy, etc. Never all at once. It's super weird. It's been going on for about a week now.

I'm convincing myself that my body is doing last minute upgrades to prepare for the release of Jetpack Monkey 30 in a week and a half.

I haven't been able to respond to all the comments on my Festivids yet, but I will get to every single one. Some day.

What else? sweetestdrain has been guiding me through some of the major vids of the past 10 years that I've missed. There are some excellent vids that I've completely missed. [Edited to add: wow I really am sick]

Finally watched Scooby Road last night, for instance. I became all sniffly during Here Comes the Sun. I like how the vids start as looks at a handful of episodes or a particular character relationship, but then expand to consider larger thematic concerns within Buffy. With that said, a lot of the power of the vid album, especially in the later tracks/vids, hinges on Buffy Summers's emotional journey holding resonance for the viewer already. Buffy's character arc was not the one that hit me when I was watching the show; I was far more invested in Xander, Willow, Tara, Anya, Giles, and, to a certain extent, Dawn. So the parts where people promised me I would be a bawling wreck I... wasn't.

Revisions on the book essay have been turned in now, so my part in that is done.

Ugh. So out of it. I'm gonna go read a book with pictures.

 If it weren't for Festivids, my life would be total crap right now. Work stuff. Just, argh. Every time things seem to be getting better, something else goes completely wrong.

So, thank you Festividders. Thank you all!

Just an ounce of stability. Give me just one ounce.

My Uncle Tim died this morning after a struggle with lung cancer. It wasn't an easy death, I'm told. Mom is going back to Des Moines on Friday for the funeral. Unfortunately, neither my sister or I can afford the trip out right now.

Of all of Mom's brothers, I was least close with Tim, but he was good people. He loved his family more than anything -- even more than Green Bay or the Cubs.

My heart goes out to Mom right now. She lost her mother nine months ago. Losing her little brother now seems too soon.

Apparently, my life is a big snob. When it is made of fail, it must be made of 24-karat fail.

*headdesk* *repeatedly*

We had coltsbane staying with us from Monday-Wednesday -- she arrived Monday afternoon and left Wednesday afternoon, so we only had Tuesday as our one full, proper day with her. From the list below, choose the the worst possible things to occur on Tuesday:

A) I have my first serious hangover in YEARS.
B) midnightfae stabs herself in the leg.
C) I get food poisoning.
D) midnightfae gets food poisoning.
E) All of the above.

If you chose E, you have accurately selected what actually happened. Two words of warning -- do not drink a heavy-on-the-rum rum and coke and a Mike's Hard Lime at the same time and avoid, when possible, the IHOP that's south of Thomas on Central Ave. in Phoenix.

Also, if you must carry a kitchen knife in a thin-material canvas bag, remove it once its purpose has been served.

Neither midnightfae or I are fully recovered from our food poisoning experience. I think I'm actually feeling worse than I did yesterday.

Also, I was extremely late to work because we're dogsitting Abby, the Coolest Bulldog Ever, and I was running late and she really needed to go out... but not so much that she couldn't take her sweet sweet time getting her business done. Silly Abby.