Yes yes capslock is cruise control for awesome - but really we do have too much to do.
Keith has another case study to do for his human relations course ... we have the UK Machinima Festival as well as the lecture in Southampton to prepare for. We're also going to hit the game expo in London this month. I think its pretty safe to say that we aren't gonna film any weddings in October .. maybe a very small FEW but we honestly don't have the time this month.
We're designing some NSS t-shirts to wear when we go to the Machinima Festival as well as the London Expo. Yes, we're gamer nerds so what? Keith and I have even talked about taking up a few card games (I outright refused to play Pokeman).
So far pretty much every weekend in October is filled with something. I'll just list all the days that we will NOT be filming.
Weekend of Oct 6 ---- My RL Birthday Weekend of Oct 13 --- UK Machinima Festival Weekend of Oct 20 --- London Gaming/Anime Expo Oct 25-28 ---- Lecture @ Southampton Solent University Conference Centre
Before I elaborate on the title ... Just making note that there are 2 weddings to edit this weekend. I was supposed to film a wedding last night - but when I tried (REPEATEDLY) to log into SL it just hung on the "initializing world" screen and wouldn't go any further. Has anyone else had this problem? Of course I tried to send a bug report - but the crash logger thing freezes too so that's a big no-go.
I refunded the girl her money and apologized. Definately wasn't fun for me to get up at 1am and try for an hour straight to log into SL. After that first hour I just gave up and went back to my warm bed and snuggle up with that one cute guy I know. Ohhhh what's his name ..Keith! Yeah that's it.
And I found a video today that absolutely cracked me up. In my younger years I used to play games that scared the living daylights out of me. The ones where random stuff pop out .. Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Evil Dead, and recently (though i haven't played it) F.E.A.R Anyway here is a YouTube video of a guy playing Resident Evil 2 .. and recording the audio WHILE he plays it. Its subtitled for those that don't know Japanese (I only know a few cuss words myself LOL)
I just did a video to show how far dance animations have come in SL :)
No real point to the video itself other than my avatar dancing - from old dances to the newest release from Sine Wave.
Anyway - I just wanted to try out some new editing techniques mostly. I'm still working on my on-beat edits which I got quite a few of them in! I'm proud.
I do read what I write - and I'm fully aware that it seems that all I do is bitch about my life. The fact is: my life is pretty good - and the ONLY things I have to complain about are small things. Yes I realize that I just ADMITTED that they are 'small' but when they occur over and over again - they become bigger annoying things. Anyway - bitching about my amount of bitching isn't any sort of incentive to make me NOT bitch on my blog. Its my blog, after all isn't it?
Last night I went through a lot of trouble to make shrimp alfredo, garlic cheese biscuits (like the ones from Red Lobster) served with a nice Australianshiraz (that's wine). I had to yell at Keith 4 times to get him to come sit down in the kitchen at the table ... by then the shrimp alfredo was already barely above warm .. at any rate I gave Keith more food than me thinking that if I didn't that he'd tear through it and would get up and go back to filming straight away.
What was I hoping for? Hours later after sleeping I can't say for sure. I can say that I was hoping for maybe a little romance. Lately it feels like I go out of my way to do cute and romantic things just to get an "Awww thanks!" then he skips away like I have cooties on the playground. My friend (of like 13 years) Stef says "Oh that just happens over time. Its called being married. Once you're married for so long ya don't really care about those things, and the other person isn't so much the center of your universe anymore ... its getting comfortable." Well I hate it! I don't want to be comfortable!
I'm glad that winter is coming on here in England - all these skinny pretty girls will be hiding themselves in coats and I won't feel so bloaty :D Hahah bitches! That was mean :( But its true!
So I'm really getting over saturated with the lack of fun that I used to find on YouTube. Seems these days its either people uploading content that isn't theirs - or its middle aged balding men complaining about how other people are more popular than they are on the YouTube. SHUT UP! One guy claims to have a full time job for a Fortune 500 company .. yet all he does is bitch and moan about how he wants to do videos for a living. With WHAT talent?! Keep your day job dude.
At any rate - Keith and I have been talking for a year or so now about starting a vlog to accompany our site and blog. Its mostly a 'meet the directors' type of thing and not so much a "Look what we can do" type of thing. There was a point in time that we both kinda hid behind our avatars. Sure we were never afraid to BE ourselves - but there was a time we were worried about SHOWING ourselves. And by us I mean me. I'll just cut to the chase by saying that I feel unattractive and felt that the general public would put more emphasis on my outward apperance rather than my talents and whatever ... but at this point I don't care.
Maybe watching all those middle aged balding men whining and crying about their wishes has brought a new sense of 'me' around. They don't seem to care that they should spend their spare time with their kids instead of making videos -- and the general public on YouTube doesn't seem to make a single comment to that degree so why so I even worry about anyone thinking I'm fat?! PFFT. Bring it, bitches. Seriously.
On a fat note - I do plan to start working out this winter once Keith and I are able to actually put a schedule together. I realize that his work schedule changes at the drop of a hat - but he'll just have to fork out a few extra bucks a week on gas in order to let me get out more. The past couple weeks I have been going out on Saturday or Sunday for a couple hours while he works on videos .. but that's really lame. I should be able to go wherever I want whenever I want to do it. I honestly don't think that a couple bucks in gas money is a lot to spend considering the benefits from it.
He and I got into a little bit of an argument a few weeks back about how regardless of how bad of a tourist I am ... I want to NOT be in the house all the time. He gets to go to work and come home - whereas for me work IS home so its like I'm always at work. He saw my point, but said something to the effect of a waste of gas blah blah blah ... at any rate he's just going to have to stop keeping such a leash on me as far as who's allowed to spend money and who isn't. I always feel like I'm not allowed to buy anything or spend money - but he can do whatever he wants cuz its 'his' money.
Its almost 6:30pm and I'm heating up some water to wash dishes. Once he comes home this weekend ... he'll be working on that video probably non stop again. Oh joy oh rapture! I have a wedding scheduled for Sunday so he'll have to at least take a break for a couple hours while I film and edit that .... and we are in desperate need of groceries. We needed groceries LAST week but I couldn't tear him away from filming and editing in order to get that done. Maybe I'll just do it myself this weekend. We'll see!
So this nerd test thing has been circling the blogs lately .. and I only sat down to do the thing today. And .. I'm not a bit suprised by the outcome. I know, I know - its a test based on MY answers so I shouldn't be surprised ...
I did a Mean Girls post last week and mentioned a New Kids on the Block shirt that was (to my knowledge) non-existant. Well once again the shopping fanatics have proven me wrong and when I logged in yesterday there was a gift waiting for me.
JellyBean gave me a NKOTB shirt at a place called illuminare (I think I spelled it wrong but the link is a SLURL anyway). Chelle Moore was on a mad hunt for one - THANKS YOU!!! I could SLdie happy now. Seems, though, that my mention of such a dorky thing that I enjoy to which I can only laugh. Honestly I had no idea that anyone shares any of my 'eccentric' likes of anything. I have been proven wrong.
Keith and I were at the pub last week when Step by Step came on the TV and I started singing along .. much to his embarassment .... but the waitress laughed and when I went to the bar for a cappuccino she admitted to singing it too only not as boisterously as I was.
This of course calls for a Song of the Day by none other than New Kids on the Block. Oh and I was really sad that JORDAN was the guy in the middle :( Joey McIntire was *mine* once upon a time when my girlfriends and I each chose a NKOTB guy to be 'ours'.
Alright so for those interested I uploaded a few more pics to Flickr. I had fun with that whole 'map' thing for a while but now it wants you to zoom in more to drop the pics ... ugh I can't remember streets we took the pics on - is just the town not good enough for you, flickr?!
Anyway - so I put up our London pics (some of them) and a few others from Norwich that I forgot to post last time. Keith is STILL editing that footage and its a gorgeous day out. Kinda didn't want to be in the house today since we were inside yesterday but what can ya do?
Nothing else to really update with other than a song of the day ... Can't Stop Moving by Sonny Jim --- this song makes me feel all happy inside.
So I picked up a couple bottles of wine. Keith said he wasn't a wine fan - but I grabbed some white zinfandel and said "Weeee!" He likes it, he likes it!
Alright so the Andre (pink champagne) was cheap and we picked up a couple bottles of that, too. We're bargain shoppers what can I say?!
He's editing the video that we filmed earlier - and I'm sitting here reading blogs and drinking wine - which was relaxing about an hour ago ... but now I'm pretty much drunk. So now I take random breaks to entertain myself ... luckily the laptop has a built in camera.
Even though the quality isn't so great - the pictures themselves crack me up ... except for one and its kinda scary - but still funny in some weird way.
Oh and Keith is drinking wine too! I wanted wine glasses so he bought me some a couple weeks ago. Wine isn't quite the same without a wine glass. Maybe I was just prissy at the moment. I think now that Keith likes wine enough that we'll actually put our wine glasses to use! Wine is soooo good with seafood (of any kind!)
Anyway I took a bunch of random pics with the webcam on my laptop -- and I thought I'd post em. Why the hell not?!
Most know that it doesn't take a whole lot to make me happy. Ice cream makes me skip, and wild colored nail polish makes me sing.
I took Keith to his class the other night and decided that I needed some loud purple nail polish. My nails is the only 'girly' thing I do. I will spend money on a manicure before I buy myself new underwear or shoes. Its just my 'thing'. Anyway - I haven't owned any good, bright, or colorful nail polish since I moved to be with Keith. I keep forgetting that HE'S the one in the military - not me - so I don't have to conform to their rules. I don't have to keep my hair a certail length .. I don't have to dye my hair 'natural colors' only .. and I certainly can wear any color of nail polish I want! So I did!
I had forgotten how hard it was to paint my left hand (I'm right handed) and needless to say I made a bit of a mess on my fingers - but its the overall effect I was going for. Looking at my hands makes me go "WEEE!" so mission accomplished.
While I was out I also picked myself up some perfume. Seems every time Keith and I go to the BX I have to make a detour at the perfume rack and smell all kinds of perfumes. Most of them I don't like .. but I did find some that gave me a happy feeling inside when I smelled it. Keith said it smelled like cotton candy - which is probably why I like it so much ... but I bought a bottle. I later found out that it was 'made by' Britney Spears (its called Fantasy) but y'know if she ran around smelling like cotton candy maybe she'd be a happier person!
Today Keith decided to put a video idea into motion and started filming .. I was kinda BOOOOO about it because it was a REALLY pretty day .. and its going to start getting nippy here soon.
So Oct 13 or 14 he and I are going to the UK Machinima Festival since they are showing one of our videos .. and on Oct 26th we'll be giving a lecture in Southampton so we have a lot going on next month!
Proof that we do stuff
I was gonna do a song of the day - but I'll save it for a later post :)
As the title says I've got quite a lot to talk about. One subject mostly, but still quite a lot nonetheless.
Keith was scheduled to give a short e-lecture on October 26 but plans have changed. Now we are going to Southampton to give a lecture in person at University of Kent on the subject of film and machinima. We're both really excited as we see this as a wonderful opportunity to show who diverse Second Life is for filming.
Movies are expensive - everyone knows that. The staff it takes to run a film set is almost staggering and each of those people have to be paid. Filming in virtual platforms can narrow the staff down to just ONE person - on top of the set(s) being able to change according to your mood. You haven't got to worry about actors breaking character or anything of that sort - not to mention you can collaborate with people from all over the world to share your vision!
I'm fully aware that I'm not the film/editing Guru that Keith is - but I bring just as much to the table as he does and pick up in areas that he's weak. He may have named his 'company' back in Highschool but the company didn't come to light until 2005 when he and I started the ball rolling. Natural Selection Studios is anything BUT a solo effort. Never has it been just one or the other.
On October 26 (we'll be leaving on the 25th and coming back the 27th) we'll give our hour long lecture as well as taking questions to a crowd of film students as well as metaversal enthusiasts. I'm really curious to see the diversity of interests, but I'm most happy about our efforts being taken seriously.
For a long while now many companies have been open enough to see Second Life for what it is - though many have fallen by the wayside. American Apparel pulled out because sales were bombing ... but what can you expect? You aren't going to make a fraction of the cost off a shirt in SL when you could sell the same one IRL and make double the profit. I somehow feel that some companies were misinformed.
Do I feel I'm tooting my own horn? Not really. NSS has never really catered to RL companies. We've never pitched an idea to a 'real' company - and have never attempted to bring a company or organization into SL. We do what we do because we love it - not because of anything else. Yes I use videos as a means of extra income - but we ALWAYS use the money we make from videos to better our equipment in order to make BETTER videos. We're in the process of saving up to buy me a new computer so that I don't have to use Keith's.
I get a lot of people asking me to teach them how to film/edit - and I always turn them down. On the shallow end there is the common sense of: If I told everyone how to do what I do the way I do it - I'd never profit. But on the deeper end is the fact that if you go back and watch some of our earlier flicks you will see that visually - they are terrible. Both Keith and I have greatly improved over the past two and a half years and I feel that sort of experience should be had by anyone trying out anything new. You have to be bad before you can become good. That's just how it is! I can't teach anyone how to learn - does that make sense? Experimentation is key in anything you're trying to learn .. and that kind of thing can't be taught.
I do plan to film our lecture in October - but I'm not sure if we'll "air" it or if we'll just keep it as a momento for ourselves. I don't see any reason in over-saturating the machinima public and be all "Look at US! We have some credibility!" like SOME people do. At any rate - you won't see any advertising diarrhea from me. I'm sure I'll do a blog post at/after the lecture to highlight a few moments - but that's not the same as force-feeding anyone.
On a different note: I need to get more pics uploaded to Flickr. Keith uploaded a lot to his today - but I still haven't updated mine. I know, I suck.
SONG OF THE DAY
I TOTALLY love this song. And after being kinda "blah" for a few days - this song really gets me dancing around the house like a complete idiot ... but at least Keith thinks its cute!
I Need to Feel Loved by Reflekt
Come and touch me baby I need to feel loved Come hold me babe I need to feel loved I need to feel loved
Come and catch a fire Don't let me fade away Come and catch a fire babe Don't let me fade away
Come and catch a feeling, it's electrifying me With eyes wide open, I'm dreaming Breathe for me baby, awake before I'm down Come and free me baby, awake before I'm down
Come and touch me baby I need to be loved Come and hold me babe I need to feel loved I'm in love I'm in love I'm in love I'm in love, love love I'm in love in love in love I'm in love I'm in love
Come and touch me baby I need to be loved come and hold me baby I need to feel loved Need to feel loved I need to feel loved I need to feel loved
I'm in love in love in love I'm in love in love I'm in love in love in love I'm in love
Alright so the other day I was seriously pissy - and though I said I wasn't gonna really go into detail I will just say: My family drives me up the ever-lovin wall.
I've been trying to call them for the better part of 3 weeks and they never take my calls. Its hard enough being 7 hours ahead of them and trying to 'schedule' phone calls - its worse when I get it all orchestrated and they don't even pick up. Just a big downer, I guess.
Couple weddings coming up this month - and spent a few hours today revising Keith's case study for class. He started off well enough but it just went downhill kinda quick. No matter - its all fixed and turned in now.
So I got some bread on the discount shelf from the bakery .. warmed it up .. slapped some hummus, cream cheese, and butter in a plate and sat and ate while insence was burning right when keith got home. It was a nice relaxing snack type of thing while we discussed our days together.
Not entirely sure what to update with. Our Noob Be Gone: Camera Tutorials was dubbed in Italian so that's pretty cool. Bwah I'm hungry after talking about our bedroom picnic!
