Monday, September 6, 2004

Twilight Zone I seem to say this often, but I'll say it again: this last week felt like the Twilight Zone. Why? Maybe it's because I was feeling very rushed last week. Maybe it's because I was actually getting reasonable amounts of sleep. Maybe it's because many of the people on my friends list hadn't updated their myOtakus. Maybe it's because I only saw some AIM regulars a very limited number of times...I don't know. Perhaps all of the above. In any case, something felt different about it. ~_^ Anyway, Kill Adam has been a little more active lately, which is nice. Tori's post was brilliant, as were all the posts in that chapter so far. I really loved Charlie's post too. Those "background" moments are what help to flesh out the universe so much more. My post is very...all over the place. It's also the most yaoi-like post I've written so far (if that's the right term). But that's only a warm up. Next chapter will probably have a bit more of that (as it will deal with my character's history somewhat). Aside from that, I'm interested to see how the chapter ends. I'm a bit concerned that Sweetreyes may not have been following things, as she hasn't posted in the Underground thread. But eh...maybe she has. We'll see. I'm also really keen to work on this new RPG with Arcadia. Our first chat was great, and I'm looking forward to fleshing things out even further. It's also going to be so much fun to develop a soundtrack. I want to make it many times larger than the Kill Adam version, simply to offer more choice. The RPG may also need a web site, so we'll see how that goes. I certainly don't plan to have web sites for every RPG in future. Only the more elaborate ones. I've also been following theOtaku.com's progress this week. It's nice to catch up on that. I still have a few things to do, but for the most part, my role has finished. Right now I get to watch Justin build a brilliant site. It's true to say that the new version will be far, far superior to the old version in every single regard. Apart from anything else, the integration and the...smoothness of that integration will be really stunning. Everything will be interlocking, which is going to be very cool. I guess that's all I have to say in this overly-rambly post. Go and visit Justin's myOtaku page if you want to learn more about our star programmer.

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Saturday, September 4, 2004

Stairway to something. Thanks for your comments on my last post, everyone. Wondershot, it's awesome that you posted in Reanimatrix; your post was very cool. Thank you. While I'm on that subject, I should reiterate that anyone who posted in Reanimatrix is encouraged to include a title for your story if you haven't already. My intention is to do something with that thread beyond the thread itself (and apart from an RPG). And I'd really like to be able to actually list the names of the stories. If any of them have no names, then I won't be able to include them in that. Anyway, I'd like to take a moment to respond to some of the comments directly. demonboy: That's a good point. And it's actually partly answered by The Architect. Zion is another Matrix. That's part of the twist. It's not a digital universe like the Matrix itself, obviously, but it is another form of control. I can elaborate further on that some other time, if you like. Bio: Interesting question. The red pill makes you "wake up" and the blue pill makes you "go back to sleep". At least, those are the metaphors. Let's remember that those pills are actually pieces of code. They were written by somebody and each one has a specific purpose. The red pill is a code that actively forces a mental rejection; once this occurs, you are obviously of no more use to the Machines and you are expelled. It serves a dual purpose, too. Taking the pill allows those on the ship outside the Matrix to pinpoint your physical location, so that they're able to pick you up. I love the moment just after Neo takes the pill, when he touches the mirror. At that moment he's actually experiencing the subconscious rejection of the Matrix. So, the fact that the glass turns to liquid and crawls up his arm is very cool. I imagine some very strange things would happen, depending on where you are when you take that pill. If he takes both, I would say that the red would cancel out the blue. You can't reject the Matrix and then not reject it. Only the Machines can re-insert you, as far as I know (and who knows what that involves). Wondershot: That's an interesting concept; I guess I'm just wondering how to write it or how to display it in the post. I had thought about using different backgrounds for it or something...I don't really know. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, as you may remember, I made a post about the Democratic National Convention when it occurred. And as an avid political observer, I thought I'd mention the Republican convention too. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see all of it. I missed several speeches, because I've been so busy during the week. But no matter, I think I got the gist of it from what I did see. Although the tone was somewhat different from the Democratic version, I think I preferred it. It had more bite to it; it wasn't as waffly or vague. The issues were more clearly laid out. All of the speeches that I saw were great, although, I think only President Bush's acceptance speech matches up to Bill Clinton's speech during the Democratic convention. Clinton's was one amazing speech. Bush's had the usual language fumbles here and there, but honestly, I think it's unreasonable to focus on that stuff. He even poked fun at himself on that point, which was probably a good idea. He also displayed a lot of emotion and sincerity, which I appreciated. This was in contrast to Kerry, who was as flat as an ironing board. So, although I am not American, I have been following politics in America very closely for a long time. I think it's a unique situation, because obviously the American elections have major repercussions on the rest of the world; not just America itself. So in that context, I would say that America's foreign policy is probably of more interest to me than anything else (and probably of more interest to most non-Americans). As someone who observes this stuff, I do notice that the anti-Bush and anti-Kerry people are very aggressive all the time. But I often wonder if these people have really sat down, opened their mind, and listened to a complete speech by either of these men. Bush gets made out to be a totally insane, right-wing nut who wants to kill everybody and Kerry gets made out to be a morally bankrupt waffler with no clear goals. Neither is true. But with all the junk that flies around, it's hard to really know...unless you actually watch the speeches. And it seems like a lot of people simply don't. So who would I support if I were able to vote in those elections? Well, for a while, I was really a fence sitter. On a social level, I'm disappointed with several things that Bush has done. And in terms of foreign policy, some things have been handled in a clumsy manner. On the plus side, I think that Bush's answer to today's security challenges is correct. I'd challenge anyone to actually watch the speech he gave in Turkey, about Iraq, if you disagree with his policies on that issue. In that speech, he very clearly laid out his own line of thinking on the subject. And to me, it makes sense. Prevent terrorism by removing the causes (the causes being poverty, oppression, etc). I think that Kerry probably has some better aspects to him in terms of domestic policy, although he doesn't seem to have laid out an actual budgeting plan. It's easy to promise things, but it's not so easy if you have to explain where the money will come from. Also, Kerry's infamous flip-flopping, as it's known. I think it's more than a bit questionable. It seems like he'll say whatever he can to whatever group, to get their support. It's cool if you change your mind about an issue, but if you change your mind twice a day, that's not a sign of mental stability. So...I would have to say that I would probably vote for Bush. In reality, I'm never going to like everything about one particular candidate. Invariably, that person will be in opposition in some area. But I find more to like about Bush than Kerry, I have to admit. One thing I do get sick of though, above all else, is that the most vocal political pundits (on the OB especially) tend to be the people who are the most partisan and who know the least about politics. I do often wonder if these people have actually examined the policies of both candidates and if they understand the context in which they're presented. Oh well. That's a whole other debate I guess. I could go on forever about the nuances in my own views on the subject, but I'd be here for too long.

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Saturday, August 28, 2004

Reanimatrix Revisited Thank you for your comments. Sara, your comment was particularly pleasant. As for the whole poo thing, well, I guess hugging me does make some people lose control of their bodily functions. What can I say? ~_^ Anyway, discussion about The Reanimatrix has reminded me about the Matrix RPG that I had been planning. I've spoken a bit about it before, but to my knowledge, I haven't mentioned any story details. Right now I don't plan to produce the RPG in the near future. I have another RPG planned for after Kill Adam 2. But I'd still like to do it; especially if Reanimatrix continues. My original goal with that thread was not only to include short stories with a variety of personal styles, but also, I wanted to introduce stories that relate to this new RPG. Basically, my intention was to set the RPG's story after The Matrix Revolutions. If you have followed The Matrix at all, you will probably know that The Matrix Online (upcoming online RPG) also takes place during this time period. As far as I know, the Wachowski brothers are involved with providing the direction of the story on that...so, they clearly have ideas of what would happen after Revolutions. My RPG has similarities with The Matrix Online. But from what I understand of that game, the similarities are only skin deep. Er, there might be spoilers ahead...so, warning about that. ~_^ If you have seen The Matrix Revolutions, you know that the machines agree to a peace deal with Zion. And if you know about the overall story of the franchise (including Animatrix), you also know that this kind of reflects a break in the cycle (ie: man creates machine, machine destroys man and takes over, machine creates program, program destroys machine and takes over). The Matrix Online pretty much continues the cycle, despite this peace deal. The cycle continues because, although Smith was destroyed, there are underlying problems that still haven't been addressed. Namely, the exiles. The exiles are programs that have left the Source and headed to the Matrix. Examples would include characters like Merovingian, Persephone and the Keymaker. Remember all of those programs in Club Hel? They were all exiles also. In fact -- if I can go on a tangent for a moment -- this is one of the cool and beautiful parts of the film. Club Hel is presented as a place for degenerates and outcasts. It's like a little community within the Matrix, hidden far away from authority figures (ie: Agents). These exiles (as you will know if you remember the conversation between Neo and the Oracle in Reloaded), are programs who became, for whatever reason, obsolete. Either they suffered an error, or a newer program came along, or they were doing something that wasn't related to their specific goal/purpose. This is why Rama Kandra was trying to smuggle out his daughter; programs aren't supposed to make children and fall in love. This situation very closely mirrors what happened with the machines during the early times. In the case of B1-66ER for example, his owners wanted to replace him. They regarded him as a piece of property. He was too noisy when he climbed the stairs -- madame complained that his noise gave her headaches. When he overheard that they were going to scrap him, he murdered them, because he didn't want to die. I really love that parallel. That concept is pretty much brought out in The Matrix Online, where the exiled programs start to become a more organized group. In my RPG, the Exiles become a serious threat to the machines. They actually build up a resistance movement, in an attempt to overthrow their oppressors. Part of their strategy is to hack the Matrix (remember that they have the ability to create loading programs -- Trainman, for example), in order to gain some level of control. The twist is that the Zionites actually have to fight the programs. So the Zionites and the Machines are basically working together. If the programs were to take over, the machines could collapse. If that happens, all of those connected to the Matrix would be at risk of dying. Bear in mind also, that only a certain percentage of people can leave the Matrix (the ones who "want out", referenced at the end of Revolutions). There are plenty of people who are simply too reliant on the Matrix to survive. Physically tearing them away from it could kill them, or, at the very least, drive them insane. So, my RPG is based around that context. There are some issues that I still haven't sorted out (like how to represent bullet time in posts). But I'm sure that can be worked out. Thank you for enduring my ramble. ~_^

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Stuff I don't have much to say in this update, so I'll just type the stuff that comes to mind. 1) You know that cut-out of Uma that I have? Turns out the video store now has a similar-sized one, but this time, it's from Volume 2. They put my name down for it, but now they want people to pay for these things. Sheesh. Hehe. But yeah...I would be happy to. We're now setting up a home cinema (as in, turning one room into a movie theater), so I think that Uma and Uma can sit happily in there along with all of the other funky stuff that I plan to put up. 2) Check out my new wallpapers. All my comments were somehow deleted, so, go and leave some more. Although it has two errors on it, I somehow like the Windows PK wallpaper. I can imagine Pikmin taking over Windows. Liberation for all us Microsoft-slaves, huh? 3) I love the cute sound that my iPod makes when I put it into the dock. 4) My mood has been so weird for the past few days. I can't quite explain it. It's not at all a bad thing -- but I know why the feeling is there. Spring is coming. And whenever the weather starts to get warm, there's a kind of fresh crispness to the air. That's the best way I can describe it. Does that make sense? o_O 5) I need a hug. Hugs are good. 6) I intend to kickstart The Reanimatrix again. If anyone has any interest in posting there, please feel free. I have a couple of pieces in mind (tied to a potential future Matrix RPG), which I'm still wanting to put up. But they aren't yet finished. 7) I was going to say something else, but I forgot what it was. Anyway, feel free to comment. Perhaps you could suggest a topic for my next post. ^_^;

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Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Advertise your way outta this! So, today was fun. The project I was doing in my team of three? Today's the day we did our presentation. The entire thing was set up in a very professional way, so...we'd make our presentation and leave the room to allow the class to discuss it. Then we'd come back and suffer through the verdict. ~_^ I was quite happy with our presentation (I ended up shouldering most of it, but that's okay). However, the team that came before us was pretty shocking. Shocking, because their idea was almost identical to ours. It was scary. Were they listening in on our conversations? Possibly. ~_^ Having said that, I feel that our "version" of the idea was better than theirs. And our campaign was more cohesive. So I guess it all ended up turning out just fine. And now I'm home and I can relax for a little while. Phew. Tomorrow I have a lot to do (particularly for my experimental design project). There's so much going on right now. Not just in terms of work, but also in terms of various changes. It's a little weird. Anyway, I'd better go, before I start rambling too much. Before I go, I'll leave you with a question: what was your last big public presentation? How well did it go? I do them really often now (it comes with the territory), but that doesn't make me any less nervous each time. X_X

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Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Chibiness You know that report I was talking about? Well, it's done. I spoke to my comrades earlier today and we got our roles very clear. So that was good. I think everything will work out for the best. Also, as you can see, I have changed my layout again (and I'm going to need a new song to go with this style...eventually). Sara-chan, is this going to brighten your day a little more? ~_^ Some of you may recognize the girl up there. She is from a new game called Phantom Brave (which I believe is the successor to Disgea). You may recall that I used that girl (and even elements of this colour scheme) for one of the iterations of OtakuBoards v6. In a sense, I'm going to be bringing some of that back for theOtaku.com: ReDefined. Although, not quite to this extent. But you'll see. Anyway, something truly bizarre happened yesterday. I was talking to Arcadia on AIM and she asked me what music I'd choose if I were making an RPG about a certain topic. Turns out that the topic she mentioned is identical to the one I'd been developing for my next RPG. Weird, huh? So we kept talking and pretty quickly, we agreed to collaborate on this new RPG. It was great. We were bouncing ideas back and forth in a really seamless way. And we were really getting excited about each other's ideas. Arcadia raised some points on issues that I hadn't thought about yet, and vice versa. The end result is that we started to formulate a really cool concept. I'm really looking forward to this new RPG. It's going to be a bigger groundbreaker than Kill Adam could ever hope to be, I think. ^_^;

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Sunday, August 22, 2004

DVD Madness I had heard that Warner Bros./Village Roadshow were going to put out a nine disc box set for The Matrix, by the end of 2004. What I didn't know, was the extent to which they'd go. The set is actually a full 10 discs and includes a variety of awesome extras. Click here to take a look. Thanks to SaiyanPrincessX for the heads up on that. It's going to be very cool (albeit expensive). I had sort of held out when it comes to buying Matrix stuff, in the hope that they'd do a kind of "everything you could possibly need" set. So at the moment, I only own The Animatrix and The Matrix Revolutions. I'm going to be interested to take a look at a lot of the extras on those DVDs and the art assets will also be very worthwhile, I think. Does anyone else plan on buying this set? It seems as though quite a few people have held off buying the individual DVDs, so that they could just go out and purchase the entire franchise (well, almost all of it) in one big set. Seems like a wise move, now that this set has been announced. In other news, I'm doing a project for my advertising/media class at school. And basically it's supposed to involve teams of two. The idea is that you have to come up with an advertising campaign for Jaffas (I don't know if America has them, but they're sort of like spherical M&M's, with a red shell). The maker is lauching a new fluro orange version and we have to come up with some exciting ideas to market it. Basically it involves creating a television ad script (which my team has already done), a storyboard layout for the said ad and a 2,000 word report on our research findings. However, it gets a bit sticky, because I'm in a team of three rather than two. This is because we had an odd number of people in our class. Now, that might sound like a good thing. But it's not. For one thing, they've added another 1,000 words onto the report just because there's three of us. Is it just me, or does that seem highly arbitrary? I mean, all of the teams will have a similar level of research. Even 2,000 words is quite a lot for a product with a relatively thin background. In addition, we have to produce both a press and billboard ad (because we have one extra person). And we have to do a creative brief. To add insult to injury, it was originally suggested that I'd write the report and the brief, Paul would create the storyboard and the visual components and Beam would be responsible for research. As it turns out, it seems like I'm now responsible for the bulk of research, the report, the brief and the press ad. How on earth did that happen? I think I'm going to have to have a pretty frank discussion with those two on Tuesday, when we plan to have a meeting and discuss the progress of everything. On that note, I want to ask you another question. Have you ever had to do a "group project" where you have ended up shouldering most of the burden? Perhaps you can share your experiences there. I tell you, it's not very much fun.

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Thursday, August 19, 2004

Excitement Redefined theOtaku.com's next version is progressing nicely. I've been talking to both Adam and Justin today; Justin showed me some of his updates (which are very cool) and I revealed "Blue" to Adam. Blue's cool. You'll like it. You know, when myOtaku started to really become a big success (which was pretty much from day one, I guess), I had wondered what role theOtaku.com would have in the future. If everyone is gravitating toward our interactive sites, what can theOtaku.com provide? It's interesting, because now when I look at the next generation version...it makes more sense than ever. The new site is like one giant hub. It makes navigation really easy and it has plenty of cool additions and features. I don't want to give anything significant away here, but I think that regular visitors of theOtaku.com (and everyone else, hopefully) will enjoy it. I am also very pleased that I've now finalized a layout for Killing-Bill.com. Phew. It's still a way off, but progress is being made. On a similar note, I finally purchased Kill Bill: Volume 1 today. For those who don't know, Miramax made some kind of deal with the video stores in Australia, to delay the DVD release of the films. This was done presumably to drive up rentals. And it stinks. On this occasion, Kill Bill came out in Australian cinemas at the same time as in the USA. Yet our DVDs are months behind. Volume 1 came out yesterday and Volume 2 comes out early next month. What a gyp, huh? Interestingly though, the DVD packaging was a bit different than I expected. The rental version has a regular DVD case with the traditional yellow cover that you've seen. But the retail version actually has yellow-dyed plastic and a fairly thick cardboard slip-cover that goes over the plastic case. It's quite nice, actually. I don't buy many DVDs though. In fact, I own less DVDs than anyone I know. It's funny, because while I can really fall in love with certain movies, I rarely feel like spending the money to actually own them. Maybe that's because there are few movies that I'd want to watch multiple times...who knows. Do you own many DVDs? I know some people who will buy anything that is on DVD, even if they never watch it. One of my friends has something like 100 DVDs or more, but he hasn't seen many of them. He just...buys them. lol I guess it's a habit. ~_^

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Monday, August 16, 2004

Slipping away. Thanks to those who commented on my last post. Sara, I promise you, my next theme will be as pleasing to you as I can possibly make it. I just needed a brief change. ~_^ There hasn't been a whole lot of news lately. I feel like I've been saying that pretty often, but there seem to be less and less things to talk about. I'd say this is partly due to the fact that, aside from the recent changes on OtakuBoards, things have been going pretty smoothly over there. And I've really said all I can about theOtaku.com's new version as I can. One thing I have had a bit of time to work on recently is my new site. Work has been going slowly, for obvious reasons. But very shortly, all of my work for theOtaku.com will be complete and I'll have more time to push this new site ahead. I've sort of come up with a design that I like. I say "sort of" because I can't quite put that finishing touch on it. I absolutely hate it when this happens. The same thing happened with theOtaku.com for a while; I hit a roadblock and couldn't pass it for a while. Designer's block, or whatever you want to call it. But having said that, I haven't lost any enthusiasm for the overall project. And I would say that I probably discuss Kill Bill with Alex once or twice a week, at this point. It's interesting because the discussion, in addition to the research I've been doing, has helped to draw out a lot of potential points of analysis for the site itself. There are a lot of elements in the movie that the casual observer won't notice. And the relationships between characters are incredibly interesting. Although there's a simple basis for most of it, there are many subtleties involved, which are all quite clever. It's not Matrix-type stuff, certainly...but it's definitely a film with a tremendous amount of subtle qualities and elements. For me, I notice some of these things when I first see a film. But it usually takes repeated watching to draw the most out of it. By combining that with actual research (ie: reading all of the press information, interviews and so on), I find that I can gain a lot more enjoyment from the movie. I think I might spend my next post talking to you about one of my upcoming school projects. I'm excited about my idea and hopefully at some stage I can take some photos to show you what I'm working on. It's always a lot of fun to present your concepts to a large group (especially when they're really understanding your idea and getting into it).

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Saturday, August 14, 2004

Pink is Cool Here I am again...as I mentioned a couple of updates ago, I've been wanting to change my design. And I have. I can tell you now, this is probably the most random design I've ever done. I wasn't thinking about structure at all, only colour. The end result is just due to experimentation or whatever. Also, I wanted the opportunity to include some pink on here. As many of you know, I tend to gravitate toward less popular colours. Yellow has been the big one to feature on many of my layouts here. In my view, yellow can be absolutely stunning if used well (just look at Uma's outfit in Kill Bill -- and the whole theme that goes along with that). Pink is the same. Yes, you do see a lot of pink on cute chibi sites and everything...but a lot of "serious" web designers seem to totally discount pink as being ditzy or girly. Well fellas, you're wrong. Pink is funky and it's here to stay. ~_^ (You'll have to forgive me if I make little sense, the lateness is making me a bit crazy...even moreso than usual). Anyway, as Adam has mentioned on his myOtaku page, both Justin and I are really pleased with theOtaku.com's new direction. I think you will be too. Although it's kind of a logical progression, it's still something that is quite different in the context of our overall history. I won't spill the beans now though; Adam deserves the honor of making all the relevant announcements. ~_^ I am also very pleased that the site design is going so well. Justin has been there to satisfy my every whim and the end result is something that is pretty darn close to my original concept. To describe how it looks...I would say that it has a more "mature" design than anything you've seen before. It's a lot darker, for one thing. And the scope of the new site is a whole lot larger for various reasons (as Adam will no doubt mention before or after the actual launch). Also, I have changed the song on here. As much as I adore Mr. Berry's piece, I wanted something for this new style. So I chose my favourite song from Kill Bill: Volume 2. Just listen to those lyrics. Aren't they cool? ~_^ Having said that, I'm thinking of putting up another song soon. Something that I haven't had on here or OB before. I have a few in mind, so we'll see how it goes. Edit: Well, that was fast. I've chosen another song. It's one I've been listening to over the last few days; I'm pretty much addicted to it. I've brought it down to 96kbps, to make it more download-friendly. I hope you enjoy it. ~_^ Edit 2: Erm, I should probably add that the song may include offensive lyrics. Hm...should I put up a warning? I hadn't thought about it until now. But hey, some people swear on their myOtaku pages, so maybe I'm safe. ^_^;; I'm sure most of you will be able to guess the artist, too. You saucy devils.

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