So Long to SL Machinima/My Old YouTube Account

As most everyone knows or has noticed - I haven't done videos in SL in well over a year now. I used to get a kick out of making videos and stretching my editing muscles, but those days are over.

It started with filming peoples' weddings, then moved on to other projects - but I no longer have interest in such things. As a matter of fact, SL itself has pretty much served its purpose for me. Will I be leaving SL? Hell I only log in now to talk to friends every now and then as it is.

About 7 months ago some random person I don't even know had posted a video response to an old video of mine. Before allowing it as a response I viewed their video and wasn't too impressed. I understand that with hobbies and even real work that when you start out you're no good. I mean hell, Keith and I weren't that great when we started out either. He had video editing knowledge but unfortunately SL lacked the ability to give us the results we wanted. Anyway - I am off track.

So this person's video was of them dancing in a single animated loop for about 5 minutes to a song. Typical youtube video on most accounts, really. Since I didn't feel their video was an actual response to me - I didn't allow it to be marked as a video response. They took it upon themselves to say something like "All I was doing was showing you how much better these new dances are compared to the ones you showed". Fine. Still, it wasn't what I would consider an actual video response.

Over the course of a few weeks (about 3) all their friends were sending me nasty messages on YouTube which I chose to ignore. I had critiqued their video after being harassed saying "Hey next time try putting in some transitions or at least do more than one animation" - which I find to be a very NICE critique considering the content. Apparently giving anyone your opinion when there is room for improvement is a bad thing and this should never be done.

The nasty messages on YouTube continued until I decided to not allow comments, replies or ratings and put a big long rant in the description box which ended with : I understand that not allowing comments, ratings, or replies ruins the entire spirit of what YouTube, SecondLife and Machinima is all about - but I refuse to be harassed over something so juvenile. Way to go shebaspyker &co. Way to ruin it for everyone.

Today I logged into SL to talk to my RL friend Stef and recieved an offline saying (and I'm paraphrasing):
Your little rant on YouTube has really upset my girl Sheba. She doesn't dictate me or tell me who to go off on or anything like that. I don't know who has been contacting you and caused you to go off on this rant - and I don't know the laws in the UK but in the US you can be sued for slander for publishing comments about someone. I'm contacting YouTube and they'll probably delete your account.

I was going to respond to this .. um .. guy (I'm being way too nice) but decided to just put him on ignore. After sitting and thinking about it a while I decided to just delete my YouTube account myself. There are lots of reasons I did it - their harassment not really ranking very high - but if it'll save me a few minutes of telling strangers to "go back to your Gorean RP and stop being so butthurt over the fact that your friend makes shitty videos" then that's a bonus.

My live has evolved beyond SL. I joined SL as a lost 24 year old looking for an escape from the small town life I was trapped in. I found that escape and I relished it. I lived for it in a lot of ways. I was able to express myself in ways that I couldn't do beyond dying my hair purple and causing everyone in town to stare at me. Then I met Keith.

SL then evolved from fun pasttime to vital means of communication to a way of being physically close to someone when it wasn't actually physically possible. As most know, we're now married (just celebrated our 2yr wedding anniversary in March) and have the means of being actually physically close.

We started making videos in SL as a way to fund trips between Illinois and Missouri and thought it was rather 'cute' that we did so by filming other people's SL weddings. Because of all those weddings we were able to save up money to travel to see each other for 3 years before I made the big move after he had finished Basic Training and had been stationed in Oklahoma. The money we made from those videos allowed me to move to Oklahoma and afford things while we figured out exactly what we were going to do next.

Now that we don't need the money from making videos - we don't make videos. Not only do we not need the money but we also don't need the stress. Getting up at 2am to film a 3 hour wedding then turn around and spend 2 hours editing it to upload it - all for about $40 is just not worth it.

Will I still make videos in SL? Maybe, but it will be a leisure activity. Will I dedicate an entire YouTube channel to it again? No. I already have another YouTube account which I planned to post things like my nail art designs and maybe do some makeup tricks - but I won't do the whole SL thing again. Like I said - SL and SL Machinima have served theirpurpose for me and I think its more than time that the torch be passed to someone else.

I've tried for years to mentor those that were interested in making machinima. I love talking to people who are so eager to learn that I feel that my opinion is actually valued. I really love it when people ask me "How did you do that?!" but I don't feel that SL Machinima is my 'thing' anymore. I guess you could say I've just lost the passion for it.

I blog about SL on TheRev - but I never feel that my opinions on anything are valid. Why? A combination of things. I've been in SL so long that most of the people who are 'respected' or whatever don't even know WTF I talk about when I talk about anything that was 'big' or was going on in SL before like .. 07. I also feel like I'm not in SL or up to speed on things that are going on in SL like I used to be, and therefor have no real business in talking about SL. Some people eat, drink and breathe SL (and I used to be one of them!) but I've just moved on.

So in short - my SL videos that used to be on my YouTube account no longer exist. I deleted everything as a nod to myself that 'Yes, its definitely time to move on. Whatever that was, it isn't you anymore.'

As for my nail art/beauty/health/makeup blog thing - once I get that rolling I'm sure I'll post the info here somewhere.

2007 Machinima Festival - Europe

Okay then! Most everyone knows that Keith and I attended the Machinima Festival (the first EVER in Europe) which was held in Leicester (pronounced Lester). It was technically a three day event of which we attended one day. A two hour drive (each way) may not sound like a lot - but by the end of Saturday I was worn out. We did have a VERYYY busy day though!

We arrived early - and we were both kinda bummed when the girl didn't find our name on the list. I told Keith not to worry about it .. but he later ran back downstairs and had them look again. Lo and behold we were on the list. Anyway we got our goody bags and sat down in one of the many rooms in order to hear some presentations.

The first we heard was Paul Marino. For those that don't know who Paul Marino is ... he's like the grandfather of machinima. Other people may have brought machinima into the mainstream (which I'll get to later) but he more or less started it all.

"So what are they like?" Keith and I spent a lot of time talking to different people at the Festival throughout the day. Paul seems to be a very reserved guy with a strong 'matter of fact' sense about things. Even though he was being ushered everywhere and people were wanting interviews and such - he still found time to talk to everyone who wanted to talk to him - which I find highly admirable. Paul is definately a guy I'd like to sit and talk to more - the type you want to pick their brains, really.

Keith with Paul Marino

I didn't do a whole lot of interacting with the folks attending the festival - I'm shy like that. Keith was walking up to people left and right "So what video have you done? I've seen that!" And I just sat back and took pictures.

The funniest thing about the entire festival is that even though we felt like we knew a lot of those people through their work alone - we couldn't pick them out. ASIDE from one incident which I'll document later ;)

We were talking to Paul for a bit when I snapped the picture. He heckled me about not submitting a film for the festival. I thought that since the director of the festival had asked if she could show our films that it would be in bad taste to submit one ... I was wrong and it'll never happen again! So Paul gave me a razzing before another guy walked up and he and Paul started talking, shaking hands - anyway it was obvious they knew each other. Paul asked us "I'm sure the both of you are .. but I'll ask anyway. Are you familiar with FRAPS?" Duh yes! Its practically all we use. Then Paul said "Well this is the guy that made it."

Keith laughed a bit and shook his hand "Well you have about $30.00 of mine!" He was kinda coy and shy and just laughed "I thought it was cheaper than that these days." We all talked briefly and of course I took a picture.

Keith and FRAPS Guy (I forgot his name SORRY!)

I sat in on the "Distributing and promoting your machinima" panel while Keith jotted off to attend the "legal" panel. He got a lot of questions in (to hear him tell it) whereas I simply listened on most of the event I was at.

Keith even hung out with a group that was filming the festival - Lit Fuse

who had a film or two shown during a couple presentations. One of the teammembers even contacted Keith in SL so I think he's made a new friend out of it.

As far as the SL end of things went at the Festival .. it seemed everyone was familiar with it - but no one really knew how to utilize it. De Montfort University even has a sim there (as well as La Interactiva head Ricard having a Machinima Sim) but the guy behind the computer really didn't know how far Second Life reached. We sat in the room a couple of minutes before taking the keyboard away from the guy and cutting loose. moo Money and Geius Dassin were in the sim and watching the festival on the feed so Keith said - "Hey watch this! I'm gonna run down to the main room .. get in front of the camera - and wave!" He did - and it was funny. Not only that it was nice to show the other guys "Hey look we DO have friends!" Anyway - moo and Geius took a screenshot/snapshot:



At any rate - that's all I'll post for now. The other post would dominate all this as its more of my documentation and not a mash-up of info from both Keith and I. Just a first person narrative on what went down :)

HUGE POSTS COMING

In the next day or two (or three) expect quite a few huge posts which outline the 2007 Machinima Festival :)

That's all for now!

Pleasure DURING business?

Keith stopped off and picked up some pop last night - so I was happy!! For some reason I'm far more productive with pop than I am with coffee. Coffee is more of a relaxing type drink for me - whereas pop says to me "Get your butt in gear!"

I responded to some business e-mails while sipping on some Mountain Dew and it really felt like I got everything done much more quickly than what I normally do with just coffee. Its probably all in my head but that doesn't really matter when it comes to being fast, accurate, and articulate!

My Undead Priest is up to level 24 now. I abandoned my raiding 70 Warlock on a RP server in favor of playing on a PvP server (Crushridge) with a few SL friends. I forgot how lame it was to play such low level characters - but I really don't mind it all that much. Anyone over on Crushridge who wants to group with a 24 priest (Horde) give me a holler! The name's Morcheeba.

I've been doing weekly Mean Girls posts, but haven't yet come up with a post for this week. I'm starting to feel kinda stingy that I keep posting every week and soon everyone's going to be like "WTF is this the Orchid and Meat of the Week blog?!" I think this is all in MY head but yanno.

My birthday is Saturday - and either Keith hasn't planned ANYTHING or he's better with suprises than I thought. We'll see!

Next weekend is the UK Machinima Festival and of course I'm looking forward to that! It'll be great to see/hear everyone's reaction live in PERSON while they are watching our videos. Its always easy to type "lol" but seriously - how many times do people actually -mean- it when they type it?

Guess that's all for right now. I have some shrimp out to cook for dinner and I'm thinking about cleaning the house. It isn't dirty ... but a vaccum wouldn't hurt it :P

YouTube Celebrities are crap

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!

Nail Polish feels like happy

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 :)

Protect it Like You Own It!

And they do! I see it more and more these days in Second Life. There are free things everywhere. I know this as I've been around almost 3 years. Some people prefer to give out things for free because hey - sharing is instilled in most of us at a very young age.

For a long time now people have been re-marketing the free stuff in order to turn a profit. For what means who knows, but they do it. I totally do NOT agree with that at all - but at the same time there's an argument of "Well I acquired it so isn't it up to me whether I want to give it away for free or re-sell it?" I think of all the stuff I've bought over the years .. all the crappy clothes from high priced stores that I've turned around and sold at yard sales (I'm talking RealLife here) .. did Abercrombie intend for me to sell that $40 sweater for $3? Probably not but what can they do? They made their money already. But that's the difference .. the stuff I'm talkin about is F-R-E-E to begin with.

There are things in Second Life that enhance things. Textures, scripts, humungous blocks that you can't even make anymore but were exploited in 03 due to a bug .... at any rate ... should these free things still be free? Or should they be shut into their creations merely because the person who used these free things want you to not take their exact copy of an exact copy which they got for free anyway? Its just a never ending circle.

If you got it for free - you should give it for free. That's what's fair and right. If you paid for it - sell it .. but don't expect a profit because let's face it: Things in Second Life progress quickly so used items just a few weeks old could be outdated. Don't try to turn a profit on an outfit/hair you bought 3 years ago from a designer that no longer sells their things.

And new residents: Don't expect to not have to buy lindens. You come in with nothing and that's what you'll have until you either buck up and learn to market something .. or you start peeling off clothes. If you want to be a beggar that's fine - but remember - beggers are homeless for a reason usually ;) It isn't rocket science for the most part.

Machinima Teaching

I am not naming any names - but I am taking this all in a whole. I do not mind at ALL to help someone learn anything about machinima or anything else I know about if they share a genuine interest. If you're just asking me questions to turn around and just ask me (this goes for Keith too) to turn around and do the work for you and pass it back so you can slap your name on it -- forget about it. Its not going to happen. That's like walking up to Grim Misfit and saying "Yeah dude check out this awesome idea I have! What you do is .. I tell you what to build .. you build it .. give it to me full perms then I sell it and split the profit! That's badass, isn't it?!" Fuck no, it isn't.

Machinima is really starting to take off in SL compared to the two and a half years ago when Keith and I started filming - and I'm really glad to see that! Its awesome to see people who want to do things with this 'medium'. Making a film costs a lot of money - even if you just film little home videos in Real Life you have to buy a camcorder (which can get pricey) But in this virtual forum its free (as long as you use trials of things - it can get expensive if you buy full registered versions as Keith and I have learned).

Seriously though - I will sit and help anyone out that's willing to learn. There are some things, however I feel should be learned on their own. Everyone has their own artistic eye so I never tell angles and stuff - but I don't mind holding a hand or two for those that really lack any kind of vision for it. I can't count the times I've sat and talked to people and told them step by step how to do things - then a few days later they're all on their own like big boys and girls. No leashes and no arm floaties (JellyBean is the first one that comes to mind.)

Everyone has to learn a little something from somewhere - so no question is a bad question because I'm sure I sat and asked someone the same thing at some point. Really though - I'd never ask a designer step by step how they made a certain shirt .. and I just expect the same kind of artistic amnesty, I guess. There are lots of effects achieved a lot of different ways - and there are some things that I just call "film magic" and leave it as that -- and that's just because if everyone filmed and edited like Keith and I did then they'd have no need to have us film and edit anything to begin with because there were 40 million others that could do the same thing. You understand, right? /rant

England

The British Consulate hates me. They've jacked up the prices of a visa from $120 to $430. Yeah huge inflation. At any rate Keith was able to push back our date of departure until the 21st in hopes that my Visa comes back in time so that I can leave with him. Hopefully I can - but there's never any guarantee with anything as far as the military is concerned .. and especially when you're dealing with things out of the country. It'll at work out - but I am quite high strung over it and I just want it all to be over with already! RawR!

Song of the Day

Trigger Hippy by Morcheeba

Tune in, drop out of love,
Pull the trigger, I'm a hippie,
So said a truth, and blood,
Alive and well,
You push the buttons.

Standing in line of fire,
For the whole,
My soul,
Step codes,
The drums,
And sing,
Love the children,
Learn to live with everything.

Love love love, i'm a trigger hippie, yeah
Love love love, we're trigger hippies, yeah.

Zoom in, cut out at sound,
Make it feel so trippy
Hung up, let down to ground,
Forget the kill it's far to sticky

Love love love, i'm a trigger hippie, yeah
Love love love, we're trigger hippies, yeah.

Love love love, i'm a trigger hippie, yeah
Love love love, we're trigger hippies, yeah.

Love love love, i'm a trigger hippie, yeah
Love love love, we're trigger hippies, yeah.

There are no Cafes in Second Life

For hours I trapsed around in search of a good looking cafe in Second Life. There was once a cafe on Tya Fallingbridge's sim that I used to absolutely love but it is no more. After seeing it was under construction I lept over to Lost and Amby's because I remember hanging out at a positively posh cafe on their sim also. Alas, it too was no more.

Why? Why are there no casual semi quiet hang out spots on Second Life? I'm not talking about a cardboad box in the middle of a shopping mall sim. I'm talking about Barnesworth, Nylon, Toast, Makaio or Cory quality friggin cafe!

Maybe I'm simply asking too much from builders and content creators inside Second Life. Again, a simple hang out doesn't bring them business for the most part. I understand that completely, really I do. But as both an ambiance driven writer, and as a maker of machinima within SL I find it really difficult to find things I want to look at or be in for long periods of time.

After hours of searching, my persistance paid off. I found one tiny cafe in a sim I've never heard of and sat down to write all this. Thank you to Kewl Beans Cafe, for being so unique. Many many thanks for providing a relaxing environment that's of such high quality. I can't get enough of this place.

Hangout

So upon arrival I found a few spots that suited my ocular pleasure as I opened some frequented blog pages and settled in with a cup of hot spearmint tea. I read about JellyBean's day, read a few lines of Perez Hilton's vile rubbish (I do find the captions entertaining at times), then checked my e-mail. Funny how some trash celeb e-zine comes before my own email, but it did. I hung out alone in a virtual world while being invited to enter one of mine and Keith's videos into a machinima contest. Do not think this is sad, because I rather enjoy being alone for the most part. When I want some form of company or companionship I ask for it.

Machinima

Once upon a time Keith and I used to make many many music video machinima shorts. There was no real point other than me hearing a song and wanting to get my 'spin' of it put to film for nothing more than to just see it.

He's no longer interested in producing videos like this. Let me reiterate: I do not remake existing music videos. I don't watch an artist's music video and recreate it. Instead, I listen to a song over and over and listen to the lyrics. Its not often that lyrics are literal. Most of the time they're quite cryptic and mean something other than what they say. With a poet's ear I listen and take every thought and emotion I have that relates to the song and I write it down. Ugh I've gotten off point ...

I plan to start making those music videos again. If I have to do it alone with no extras I will. I've taught myself so much as far as filming and editing go that I feel I should do some, if for nothing else to say to my husband "See. I can do this without you and it is marvelous." Though now isn't the best time for me to commit myself to such projects, I will have time to do so soon.

England

Keith has gotten his orders and we leave May 18th for England. My visa still hasn't come in, but we were told that we have plenty of time so that I can leave with him and not have to stay behind. We're both very excited, but we also know that its going to be very intimidating and quite hectic. How often is it that someone packs up everything they own without being with their belongings while they move? I think that scares me most. Putting all our things into boxes and arriving with nothing but our suitcases in hopes that our boxes show up within a day or so of our arrival. Maybe I think too much.

Music

While Keith and I were visiting my family I had said that I would take all our pictures, make a slideshow, and set it to music. My mother instantly insisted I use all these modern 'pop' songs and I cringed. My 44 year old mother wants me to put pictures to the music of Eminem, Pink, and Akon? I didn't even know who Akon was until we got back home and I loaded up imeem. I thought "Surely she can't be serious" but she is. Somehow my mother has digressed into listening to music that most teenagers listen to. I found it odd, but who am I to judge? Once upon a time my parents made fun of me for listening to The Cranberries, Garbage, Moloko ... and suddenly I found myself on the verge of laughter. She calls that music?

Instead I've decided that one day soon I need to sit down and make her a CD with one song from each of my favorite artists. I'm sure it won't be something she'll listen to in the car on her way to Forever 21 - but maybe she can learn that there is more than just Modern Pop and Bob Seager out there (those are the only two things she listens to). She's always had an open mind and been a bit of a free spirit, but at the same time she's always been so sheltered.

She's never been exposed to anything outside the state of Missouri, or even outside of the US for that matter, and I find that tragic. She's never tried sushi or sake. Never have I seen her wear anything other than 'acceptable fashion'. Its like she's in this shell that doesn't fit. My trip to the UK for the next 3 years is very much going to involve me indirectly exposing her to things. Maybe then she'll have my father book a trip to somewhere they've never been.

Possible Book

I've actually had a few ideas lately on a book I'd like to start writing. Again, the only drawback is the fact that Keith and I will be leaving soon. That means I can't work on it exclusively, which I'd positively love to do. Again, this is one of those things that will have to wait until we are in England and things are sorted. I'm sure I'll find plenty of coffee shops and cafes in Cambridge or even London to sit in and write the day away.

Friends

I came to a realization earlier that along with this move - once we are there I will have to make friends. I didn't bother while we were here in Oklahoma because if I wanted to go anywhere it isn't as if I can't find my way back and whatnot. But I realized in England, even though I'm going to be living there for three years, things are going to be quite different. I will be in a new place that I'll most surely want to explore, but there's no fun in doing that alone.

Yes of course Keith and I will go to London and such on weekends when he's not at work - but what about other times? What if I want to go shopping? It would be rather nice to have girlfriends to do things like that with. For most my life I had the same girlfriend, Stefanie. She and I did everything together whenever the other had the urge to do something. Even grocery shopping. Here in Oklahoma I haven't really missed that because I've got Keith - and I've lost interest in simply 'hanging out' since I left home.

My hanging out is done when Keith comes home. We talk about what we did while away from the other one, we cuddle up after dinner and sometimes smoke hookah or just drink tea together ... and as completely dreamily wonderful that is there are times that I'd like to leave a note saying "Darling - Went out with the girls for drinks and will be home around 11pm. Love, Me."

At any rate -- life is simply great and I couldn't be happier (I say that quite a bit I know). I didn't even think of putting up a Song of the Day today - so that will come later or tomorrow when it crosses my mind again. For now: Pictures of my outing to Kewl Beans Cafe in Second Life

Well alrighty!

Things are still going strong, steadily and nothing drastic has happened --- except for Keith waking up and yelling while pointing to the corner of the room. Come to find out he was having a dream about tornadoes or something weird like that. He does some creepy stuff in his sleep sometimes. He sits straight up and talks - with his eyes open yet never remembers a thing. Its quite entertaining, really.

Second Life has been running like crap for both of us so we've steered clear for a bit. He's been editing footage here and there - but mostly he's been really busy with work when he isn't freaking out in his sleep.

I finally got my epic mount in WoW. Huzzah. I'm the sexiest alliance warlock ever. That's just all there is to it.

While Keith was sleeping earlier today I got bored and lonely - so I made another video. I'm not going to call it machinema - because it isn't. Its simply a music video. I didn't plan anything - nothing is original .. its just a music video. And while I'm on that topic I just want to rant for a minute.

Keith is very busy and doesn't keep up with things on the 'virtual plane' but I do. I watch everyone's videos, I comment when I deem it necessary, give pointers when I feel they are wanted/welcomed -- that kinda thing. Just because you have FRAPS does not mean you make machinema. Just because you can use a few transitions doesn't mean what you are making is movies. There are some people in WoW (and SL too) that make these videos that are just spontaneous. There's a guy in WoW that does one almost every week. It has no dialogue - no real story line you can follow ... so I call it a Vlog. Its a video blog of your gaming experience.

There is a difference in a vlog and machinema. There are differences. I realize most of my problem is because I'm so protective of Keith, his work, and his ideas. He's such a soft spoken 'nice guy' that sometimes someone has to stick up for him. Anyway - we've kinda been insulted in general as far as the 'machinema' community goes. No we don't have time to play a video game 24/7. We don't get paid for those tutorial videos. We do those for free as a service to the community - and simply to do what we like to do. We genuinely enjoy making videos. I love to write - Keith loves to edit. Its one thing to be a fan -- its quite another to be a demanding person who has no idea what it is they are asking. So to clear it up - I'll just go into detail. Maybe some people will calm down. Oh and call me a bitch .. but I just want everything crystal, k?

Keith is in the military. He works 12+ hours a day at least 5 days a week (sometimes 7+ days in a row). The Air Force is his full time job. Anything done outside of his working hours is merely a hobby. You cannot expect him to keep appointments on short notice. He's in the military. He never knows when he's going to get off work at 0300 only to be called at 0900 and be asked to work another shift. Now if there has been sizeable notice given then usually something can be arranged. As far as filming goes - if he HAS to go to work I can fill in and film it for him on his computer. But with all that in mind - it really makes things crappy for us when people cancel at the last minute. We have to schedule things - and to send an e-mail hours before an event and say 'Oh we got someone else' is just fucking rude. I mean really!

And I'm probably just tooting my own horn ... but who else could you possibly get to film your fake weddings and put as much talent into them as Keith does? I mean seriously. There are a lot of self proclaimed 'machinema-masters' in SL -- but like I said just because you have FRAPS and you used a couple transitions doesn't mean a thing. Just like lining up MP3s in SAM doesn't make you a DJ. The SL wedding thing has really been a strain on Keith .. which is why I've really been working on my skills lately. Unlike Keith I'm completely self-taught. He's the professional and it shows -- but still. I plan to start filming the weddings and editing them to let up on Keith's schedule some. He has contract work to worry about -- I'll start taking care of everything else.

Sorry about my slight detour -- but a few things suddenly sparked my mind and I just had to get it out. Anyway! Keith and I will be gone for 3 weeks starting March 16th. His papers say to report no later than May 31st .. so that's when we'll be moving to the UK :)

[back to my video]

I don't have the YouTube link for it yet - so here's a quick snapshot from the footage reel. Just cruise over to the right toolbar and head over to NSS to view the video. Its on the main page :)

UPDATE