March 2006 Archives

Just thought you'd all like to know.

Caught up on Bleach last night... only missed four or five episodes, depending on how you want to count one of them. I'm pretty sure they're still on filler arcs... though they had one really short one and now it's molding into another arc that... I THINK it's still filler. :\ But Rukia came back, so I'm all confused now. >_> Mandaaa! Actually, if it's still filler, I'm enjoying it FAR more than the Naruto fillers... those were crap. Speaking of which, I downloaded the remainder of Naruto too, but haven't checked it out yet... probably watch an episode or two during my lunch break today. :P

The voting period for the Xfire movie contest ended yesterday... at first I was all dejected cause I thought, damn, they're not going to announce the results until March 1st. But then I realized... wait, Feb, there's only 28 days in Feb. XD So they should be announcing today! Cross your fingers for Dev's film! ^_^ I'm totally going to crash the Xfire forums with the frequency at which I'm checking them. -_-

Would like it if people would keep voting from yesterday... blue vs bronze, if you haven't already. I'm actually surprised that the majority is blue at the moment, but I still want more opinions till I decide. >_>

Notes to self (but they're actually just to remind me for someone else >_>): preventing character cliches (e.g. Ishida, Zane), Ais vs Nelfgirl idea (underwater breathing! and fade)

Still hungry. Still got 30 mins. :(

~Kass

Xfire Contest Results. Fourth place. :P

Actually, I disagree with almost all of the results... but what can you do. Served Cold sprang up out of NOWHERE to claim first place over VC in the drama category... pushing Redshift down to 4th, when we had guessed it would place 3rd. (in popular vote, it would have placed fourth as well, but we knew the movie in second was not going to keep it when Blizzard and Xfire weighed in. didn't really expect that something else would creep up like that.)

IMVHO, it should've been like this...

Comedy: Illegal Danish, Chalice of Silvermoon, Atkins Switcher 2... don't care about 4th or 5th.
Dance: Billy Maclure, Goth Girl should have been moved from the drama category to dance and should have placed 2nd. Illegal Danish should NOT be in this category, even if they do have that very cool dance scene at the end.
Drama: Redshift or Aria should have placed 1st and 2nd, VC 3rd, Served Cold 4th, and Yoshio shouldn't be in the top five at all.

Buuuut what can you do. There's always next time. Congrats to Dev anyway. :x

Annnnd... Xfire is maintaining their monopoly on the movies' distribution for another two weeks. If you still haven't seen it and want to sooner than two weeks from now, go bother Lloyd. If you don't care, wait two weeks and Dev will then upload it somewhere publicish for public consumption.

Falala!

~Kass

blue vs bronze!

Johari Window! Please? :x

~Kass

My original Johari window is broken for some reason. -_-

So here's a working one!

If you did it before... sorry... do it again. XP <3

(and for the record, "Kirlune" is the name of my druid in WoW, since I already used "kasskat" on the broken one. -_- )

~Kass

~Kass

Decided on an idea for a final project for my VIS 141A class... the director one. :x Slightly modified from my original idea, but I like it a lot better. Gonna take quite a bit of work though, as far as animation is concerned. ::sigh:: Oh well. We'll see!

Also worth noting... the grand opening of filmcraft.org. I'll go into this more later at some point, maybe. :P

~Kass

So I had a rehearsal with the chamber choir plus the big choir plus the orchestra tonight, for the piece we're doing this quarter. I guess the concert's next Sunday and they wanted to get some practice time in with everyone and all. :P

I haven't worked with an orchestra in a long, LONG time... and despite the fact that this orchestra kinda sucked (college level and all... the french horn player was THE WORST. omg. and actually, the director snapped at the cellos near the end and was demanding that they freaking learn their part already. eesh.), it was kinda fun. The director was ... well, he was cool, in my opinion. ::lol:: I was surprised that he seemed to be so incredibly angry that so many choir people were late (I wasn't!)... after Phil's laxness, the strictness he exuded was kind of a shock. But I can understand where he's coming from, since that's what my original training was for... being late to a rehearsal like that is such an insult to all the people you're working with, it's really not at all funny.

It seems that all directors I've ever worked with have their quirks though... I've never met a single director that I considered to be completely normal. >_> They were all such... distinct characters. I'd have to say that Sharon was the most "normal" director I've ever worked with. :P But she was still amazing in her way.

The soloists... ::lol:: I was surprised, but it turns out PHIL is the bass soloist. :P And some guy from chamber is the tenor soloist. I guess they were low on staff, not that Phil or the other guy suck or anything. On the contrary, Phil has a marvelous voice and was definitely the one of the four with the most experience. I was also pleasantly surprised by the soprano. She had an awesome voice, not overbearing like some other soprano solos I've heard, but clear and focused and... yeah. I wouldn't mind having her voice. ^_^;

Anyway... concert on Sunday. Woo? Not sure. I need to find a shirt/blouse though... the one I used last time, I had to throw out due to stains. :( Argh.

~Kass

Gah. I forgot to call AOL. -_-

Oh. Um, Dad... you don't mind if I cancel our subscription to AOL now, right? You're not using it for anything anymore, are you? :P

~Kass

::LOL::

http://clocky.net/

Naturally, I do see ONE problem with this design... and that would be that, wherever it goes off to "hide", it might make it so that the alarm is not as loud and in-your-ear, therefore you might not wake up after it goes off. Still, it's a rather hilarious concept.

Want one, Manda? XD

~Kass

And while we're plugging new-fangled doodads...

http://hight3ch.com/post/next-level-touch-screen/

This one Lloyd sent me some time ago... but I actually saw it a couple days prior to that in my ICAM 150 class... and then, I saw it again TODAY and was like, dur... should note it down somewhere. The video's rather good... a lot of the programs that were used seemed very familiar to me and, if they weren't what I thought they were, they were pretty similar (e.g. Google maps, PD, that overlapping lines game). The whole thing rather reminded me of Minority Report.

tangent: the maps interface/navigation system reminded me a LOT of Black and White. :x

~Kass

Falala.

~Kass

Rawrgh.

Concert yesterday was decent. The people always change radically during a performance... no matter how crappy the rehearsals were, people are always more alert during a performance, so usually things are much improved. :P Everything went well enough. Except I've decided that I'm really not cut out for choir performances anymore... was stiff and sore from standing still a mere forty-five minutes, when I used to be able to go for entire two hour concerts with Chorissima. /sigh

And... one of the girls in chamber set her eyes on me at one point, prior to chamber's performing, and exclaimed... "You were in Girls Chorus!?" ... and I just blinked blankly back at her, because we had had this exact same conversation LAST TIME. "Uh, yeah..." Dur.

::ROFLOL:: This girl just barged into our class... and asked, in an obnoxiously loud voice, "Uh, so... is this a class or something?" And the prof got kinda annoyed, since he had been playing an audio clip for us and answered that it was and made the shoo-ing motion with his hands. And the girl replied that apparently she and her group of people had this room, that we were holding for lecture, reserved at 7:00 ... and that it had been reserved for them ALL QUARTER LONG.

Which is completely ridiculous, because WE have been having class here, from 6:00 to 7:50, all quarter. It's OUR room and WE have been holding lecture here. But she insisted that she was right, against a room full of students who are watching presentations on the screen! It's like the twins paradox from the theory of relativity... we can't BOTH be right, but we're both certain that we are.

And... what else. A few days ago, I cancelled my/my family's AOL account. :P Because my free AOL time was running out... and I didn't feel like paying for role-playing with relatively no one two nights a week. It was a sad decision, because we've had that AOL account since forever. But I suppose if I was ever going to cancel, I'd lose the least amount by doing it now... since I'll still have access to my AOL mail (not that I use it anymore).

Moo!

~Kass

Redshift links! See yesterday for a couple more measely details.

Redshift (on Google Video).
Redshift Outtakes (also Google Video).

~Kass

But Google Video is cool!

Redshift.
Redshift Outtakes.

New! The Great Masquerade.

Not really new, of course... it's the same video I did for last quarter's class or whatever it was. But Google streaming video is so nice... :x So I thought I'd put it up, in case I ever lost my copy or whatever. Obviously hugely different from Redshift in ... well, basically every single way. But still! There for kicks.

And yes, I'm just going to keep plugging these links until I get bored of it! SO GO WATCH. /roar!

~Kass

Note to self: gParserObject.child[1].child[1].child[7].child[5].child[1].text

Bleh.

~Kass

... But it'll alllllllllll be over after Tuesday night...

::slump::

~Kass

And yes, it IS completely useless. But what can I say... it's art. :x

http://kass.metaminstrel.net:8080/wowps/

~Kass

notes to self:
http://01sj.org/
make a place
Pacman GPS
UCSD Treasure (if you're a Notpron fan... this is a must-see. :P check out the "final project". and hopefully you know something about GPS/UTM coordinates. O_O)

Was working on my Director project when I stumbled upon this LJ entry... worth checking out, I assure you, if you've played SotC.

http://whispers-loudly.livejournal.com/63620.html#cutid1

::laughing:: Link to my project to come later, when I'm done with it...

~Kass

Changed my mind.

brevity_i.zip

It's an .exe file... so if you're on a Mac... tough break. :P I think, anyway... it's a Director file. Anyway, I just cleaned up the little things, because I decided I'm going to do at least one other version of it... and that one will need to be compatible with web browsers more than this one needs to be. So... yeah. Multiple versions, eventually.

For now, just check that version out and tell me what you think of it, if anything. I left it deliberately quite vague, so if you can figure out what I meant by it... then do try. :x

SLEEP!

~Kass

a-CHOO!

::sniffs::

~Kass

Moo.

~Kass

Tadaima.

And parents are gone, in Boston. Sigh. What's the point of even coming home sometimes, eh? :P

~Kass

Moo.

~Kass

Fliiip!

~Kass

So I went to Mountain View to visit Kenton at Google today.

o.O

Working at Google is like going to college, only the money is exchanging hands in opposite directions. Though they still have cubiclesish setups... not so boxed in, but cubicles nonetheless. Dry erase whiteboards everywhere... I suppose that's conducive to spontenaeity. The carpets are all polkadotted. Actually, the place is overall quite colorful and cheerful. >_>

And there's food. A lot... of food. Everywhere. In addition to, like, three cafeterias... they have a bunch of food stands in random places. All free. No one watching. It just SITS there and says "TAKE ME!" Drinks too. A little disturbing, actually, considering the sheer volume of people that were there. Google's a rather monstrous machine at this point, as far as raw manpower is concerned.

I had to sign an NDA before going in. :P Not that I saw anything worth mentioning anyway. Just Google's "master plan". It was quite ... er... comprehensive. ;P

Went to check out Kenton's apartment after having lunch... (btw, eggplant has officially moved off the "do not consume" list... but it has to be cooked good. XP ) ... because I'm a curious creature like that. Angelina said my apartment in LJ looked spartan... but I think Kenton wins the overall prize there. ^_^;

I was totally going to commandeer his computer while he was in the bathroom and update my log... but I realized quickly that it wasn't going to happen, since Kenton uses a Qwerty keyboard but with a Dvorak setup. So I couldn't even NAVIGATE to my weblog, let alone update it. Jerk. ;_;

Annnnnd... technically, this trip to Google was the farthest I have ever driven by myself. The nav system in the Prius was a godsend. Though I do find it a little disturbing that at one point, I realized that I had absolutely no idea where I was... but at the same time, I wasn't lost. :x

And my parents came home yesterday, so I don't have to look after the dog anymore. Woot.

~Kass

So much to do and so little time...

Oh, Manda, I finished the The Thirteenth House.

O_o

~Kass