29 April 2010
24 April 2010
Comfortable posting schedule:
I think I've been able to settle into a decent routine for blog posts, doing about one every week to two weeks. That usually allows me enough time to compile enough to write about to warrant a blog post.
The most recent Rifftrax I've been able to view were New Moon and Avatar. Avatar just came out a couple of days ago, both the Rifftrax and the movie, and it was a very solid Rifftrax. The riffers themselves knew exactly how long (and draining) the movie was towards the end, making comment on it, and it certainly was an epic in the time scale alone. The enjoyable part for me with the Avatar rifftrax was that if you don't turn your brain off, you can usually see what the riffers will target next, and the riffs were very good.
Bonus Avatar (the movie) review: it's painfully long, the story is just this side of implausible, I caught myself humming "Colors of the Wind" under my breath, and the ending was so telegraphed. I found myself feeling sorry for pretty much every other character in the movie except the hero. And the hero was a chunderhead jerk to boot, who entirely deserved the name of Gristle McThornbody. The MacGuffin was painfully obvious and could have been dealt with in a way that did not lead up to the subsequent two hours and forty minutes. But the graphics were decent. Woo-hoo, decent graphics...
The New Moon rifftrax was good too. Certain other "contributors" to this blog may disagree with my assessment, but you guys like me better, right? I will admit that the riffing got off to a slow start, but there were quite a few riffs in there that absolutely had a cutting edge... they're the type of riff that you can see is the absolute truth, yet is painful to realize. Considering the aspirations of this movie series and its fans, there are many absolute truths that *should* be realized yet are not. The Rifftrax crew is there to illuminate them to the world. If the Avatar rifftrax was humorous commentary, this movie could certainly be classified as pop-culture skewering, and both are such an integral part of the humor generated from Rifftrax.
As for the personal life, I have one more week left before the semester ends. This essentially means that next week is my final exam. In a class where I'm going to struggle to pass, I really just want to get it done. (I have never taken any class before where I had to struggle to pass, and I really felt like this was my worst professor that I have ever learned from.)
I had a job interview for a job that was about 1000 miles away from my current location. I really am looking to leave my current area because it seems that there is really no way forward unless you know someone who can help you through. I know that this is also 95% of the rest of this country, but there's no 5% other around here.
Unfortunately, only two days after the interview, I received my rejection notice. The email I received did not say in the subject that it was a rejection notice, but it did note that there was an attachment. The eternal optimist that I am, I was hoping that it would be either an itinerary for a face-to-face interview or (gasp) an offer sheet. No, it was just the graphics that are present in the signature, attached as if it were an image. Arrgh. I think this is about the eighth interview or so I've had since 2007, the first this year, not including all the federal positions I'd been applying for. I know and realize that it just takes one acceptance through all these rejections, but they hurt all the same.
So, going full circle, I'm already bummed out and now facing a final exam when I've pretty much stunk at the other two tests in the class. I only hope that I can bring myself up to do a decent job on the final, and to motivate myself to study for it.
The lone bright spot -- the MST that Megane and I have been working on is at final draft status, and will likely be posted within the next two weeks.
The most recent Rifftrax I've been able to view were New Moon and Avatar. Avatar just came out a couple of days ago, both the Rifftrax and the movie, and it was a very solid Rifftrax. The riffers themselves knew exactly how long (and draining) the movie was towards the end, making comment on it, and it certainly was an epic in the time scale alone. The enjoyable part for me with the Avatar rifftrax was that if you don't turn your brain off, you can usually see what the riffers will target next, and the riffs were very good.
Bonus Avatar (the movie) review: it's painfully long, the story is just this side of implausible, I caught myself humming "Colors of the Wind" under my breath, and the ending was so telegraphed. I found myself feeling sorry for pretty much every other character in the movie except the hero. And the hero was a chunderhead jerk to boot, who entirely deserved the name of Gristle McThornbody. The MacGuffin was painfully obvious and could have been dealt with in a way that did not lead up to the subsequent two hours and forty minutes. But the graphics were decent. Woo-hoo, decent graphics...
The New Moon rifftrax was good too. Certain other "contributors" to this blog may disagree with my assessment, but you guys like me better, right? I will admit that the riffing got off to a slow start, but there were quite a few riffs in there that absolutely had a cutting edge... they're the type of riff that you can see is the absolute truth, yet is painful to realize. Considering the aspirations of this movie series and its fans, there are many absolute truths that *should* be realized yet are not. The Rifftrax crew is there to illuminate them to the world. If the Avatar rifftrax was humorous commentary, this movie could certainly be classified as pop-culture skewering, and both are such an integral part of the humor generated from Rifftrax.
As for the personal life, I have one more week left before the semester ends. This essentially means that next week is my final exam. In a class where I'm going to struggle to pass, I really just want to get it done. (I have never taken any class before where I had to struggle to pass, and I really felt like this was my worst professor that I have ever learned from.)
I had a job interview for a job that was about 1000 miles away from my current location. I really am looking to leave my current area because it seems that there is really no way forward unless you know someone who can help you through. I know that this is also 95% of the rest of this country, but there's no 5% other around here.
Unfortunately, only two days after the interview, I received my rejection notice. The email I received did not say in the subject that it was a rejection notice, but it did note that there was an attachment. The eternal optimist that I am, I was hoping that it would be either an itinerary for a face-to-face interview or (gasp) an offer sheet. No, it was just the graphics that are present in the signature, attached as if it were an image. Arrgh. I think this is about the eighth interview or so I've had since 2007, the first this year, not including all the federal positions I'd been applying for. I know and realize that it just takes one acceptance through all these rejections, but they hurt all the same.
So, going full circle, I'm already bummed out and now facing a final exam when I've pretty much stunk at the other two tests in the class. I only hope that I can bring myself up to do a decent job on the final, and to motivate myself to study for it.
The lone bright spot -- the MST that Megane and I have been working on is at final draft status, and will likely be posted within the next two weeks.
13 April 2010
Updates for ACen, and NetFlix plug:
We all received an update from Anime Central regarding the fanfic panel. The best that they could do for us was to give us time on Friday, from 12PM through 1:30PM. Therefore, we're up against the opening ceremonies and hoping that all the writers (and/or fans) will show up super-early on Friday. By all means, come on out and hopefully we'll still have a good time.
I signed up for NetFlix recently, and I must say that this $9/month subscription is far better value than the $55/month that I pay for cable. There's just something about a movie that goes right, or even a movie that goes wrong. It's so much more fun to crack jokes at bad movies than it is at bad TV shows. I think it's because busting TV shows is like criticising high-school basketball players for missing shots. They're going to miss shots... it's high school. They're going to make bad shows... it's television.
Movies are a whole other animal, because someone had to approve the specific story line. TV shows don't get that kind of scrutiny. So when a bad movie escapes Hollywood with a huge budget yet sucks on toast, it's sad yet funny.
And of course, you get movies that actually were decent ways to spend time. I watched the Jim Carrey movie "Yes Man" about three times before sending it back to NetFlix. Wasn't terrible, even if it had Zooey Deschanel's huge nose chewing up (or, really, snotting up) scenes. I had a chance to watch "The Men Who Stare at Goats" yesterday, and that was amusing too. Clooney needs a good straight man, but when he gets it he's usually pretty good.
The best part though is that those movies can be given back. While I was laughing at both movies, I was feeling darned good about the fact that I didn't buy either one of them for upwards of $20. Neither of those movies deserve that, especially since I'm not sure I'd willingly put either of them in my DVD player again.
As far as cable goes, there's two options now. Either check it out online (hello, Daily Show and Colbert Report) or get seasons through Netflix. In both circumstances, it's far cheaper than $55/month. Once the cable contract's up, I'm outta there.
The semester is close to ending. Thank heaven for that, as my backlog has grown larger. My significant other bought a copy of "New Moon", and the Rifftrax has been terrific through the first half-hour... though I haven't watched the rest of it. I've still got to finish Transformers 2 (as well as Transformers 1, which is still sitting at home). There's games to finish, and even MSTings to write if I ever get to that point. Much less, jobs to find. Anyone outside Michigan currently hiring?
I signed up for NetFlix recently, and I must say that this $9/month subscription is far better value than the $55/month that I pay for cable. There's just something about a movie that goes right, or even a movie that goes wrong. It's so much more fun to crack jokes at bad movies than it is at bad TV shows. I think it's because busting TV shows is like criticising high-school basketball players for missing shots. They're going to miss shots... it's high school. They're going to make bad shows... it's television.
Movies are a whole other animal, because someone had to approve the specific story line. TV shows don't get that kind of scrutiny. So when a bad movie escapes Hollywood with a huge budget yet sucks on toast, it's sad yet funny.
And of course, you get movies that actually were decent ways to spend time. I watched the Jim Carrey movie "Yes Man" about three times before sending it back to NetFlix. Wasn't terrible, even if it had Zooey Deschanel's huge nose chewing up (or, really, snotting up) scenes. I had a chance to watch "The Men Who Stare at Goats" yesterday, and that was amusing too. Clooney needs a good straight man, but when he gets it he's usually pretty good.
The best part though is that those movies can be given back. While I was laughing at both movies, I was feeling darned good about the fact that I didn't buy either one of them for upwards of $20. Neither of those movies deserve that, especially since I'm not sure I'd willingly put either of them in my DVD player again.
As far as cable goes, there's two options now. Either check it out online (hello, Daily Show and Colbert Report) or get seasons through Netflix. In both circumstances, it's far cheaper than $55/month. Once the cable contract's up, I'm outta there.
The semester is close to ending. Thank heaven for that, as my backlog has grown larger. My significant other bought a copy of "New Moon", and the Rifftrax has been terrific through the first half-hour... though I haven't watched the rest of it. I've still got to finish Transformers 2 (as well as Transformers 1, which is still sitting at home). There's games to finish, and even MSTings to write if I ever get to that point. Much less, jobs to find. Anyone outside Michigan currently hiring?
02 April 2010
New post of random thoughts:
I'm sitting here, waiting for the bus and using a Wendy's internet connection from across the street. (Thanks, Wendy's, I buy your chicken nuggets all the time, they're pretty good. Plug over.)
1) The Anime Central fanfiction panel has hit a snag. At present, the ACen organizers said that they would not provide space for a scheduled panel. I'm sure that there will be some sort of alternate plan, but this absolutely shocks me that an anime convention will not grant space for a fanfiction panel (but, thank heaven, the lemon writing panel is still on! Literature is SAVED!) I will post any updates I hear about this situation. I am still going, but there are absolutely no plans for a live MSTing at present.
2) Transformers 2 really sucks. I watched the first fifty minutes while riding buses, and it's utterly amazing how bad the movie is so far. So far there are humping dogs, Megan Fox doing everything she can to drape herself over freaking Shia Labeouf, the freaking Autobots draping themselves over freaking Shia Labeouf, and military security that couldn't guard an ocean. I'm not saying it's implausible, but MST3k itself had better narrative continuity and less implausibility. Thank heaven the Rifftrax is around, the riff they cracked about Buckcherry songs and a pole in Megan Fox's future was terrific. Can't wait to get to more.
3) The only problem, though, is that half my headphones died. I have--- I *had* a nifty pair of over-the-ear headphones that allowed me to shut out most other noise so that I could hear things while riding on the bus. My wife just bought a Nintendo DS, which came with a pair of ear buds... but they are a far cry from what I had. Ordered a new pair from TigerDirect, noise-cancelling and hopefully over-the-ear (though the pictures could have been clearer...) I'm crossing my fingers that it'll work.
MSTings still march along, Meg and I are still editing our most recent. Meg, in his wisdom, pointed out our next project... to continue a MSTing that we had already started but put aside. I think that the break will help the MSTing, it was dragging a bit but the action scenes are still to come. Hopefully, we'll be able to publish a couple of MSTings this year.
1) The Anime Central fanfiction panel has hit a snag. At present, the ACen organizers said that they would not provide space for a scheduled panel. I'm sure that there will be some sort of alternate plan, but this absolutely shocks me that an anime convention will not grant space for a fanfiction panel (but, thank heaven, the lemon writing panel is still on! Literature is SAVED!) I will post any updates I hear about this situation. I am still going, but there are absolutely no plans for a live MSTing at present.
2) Transformers 2 really sucks. I watched the first fifty minutes while riding buses, and it's utterly amazing how bad the movie is so far. So far there are humping dogs, Megan Fox doing everything she can to drape herself over freaking Shia Labeouf, the freaking Autobots draping themselves over freaking Shia Labeouf, and military security that couldn't guard an ocean. I'm not saying it's implausible, but MST3k itself had better narrative continuity and less implausibility. Thank heaven the Rifftrax is around, the riff they cracked about Buckcherry songs and a pole in Megan Fox's future was terrific. Can't wait to get to more.
3) The only problem, though, is that half my headphones died. I have--- I *had* a nifty pair of over-the-ear headphones that allowed me to shut out most other noise so that I could hear things while riding on the bus. My wife just bought a Nintendo DS, which came with a pair of ear buds... but they are a far cry from what I had. Ordered a new pair from TigerDirect, noise-cancelling and hopefully over-the-ear (though the pictures could have been clearer...) I'm crossing my fingers that it'll work.
MSTings still march along, Meg and I are still editing our most recent. Meg, in his wisdom, pointed out our next project... to continue a MSTing that we had already started but put aside. I think that the break will help the MSTing, it was dragging a bit but the action scenes are still to come. Hopefully, we'll be able to publish a couple of MSTings this year.
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