Friday, April 16, 2004

   Jeh Returns/Relaxes

Thanks to all for your comments on my last post (as always). Today is going to be the first truly relaxing day that I've had in the last two weeks. I may take the time to work on something 'net related, actually. You see, I've been on a term break here for the last couple of weeks. During the first week, I had a lot of "real world work" to attend to. And during the second week, I buried myself in online work, particularly for N-Sider, which I've been behind on. But it hasn't been the most comfortable week. My sister's boyfriend was practically living with us for the entire week. It's not that I have any problem with him (he's a very cool guy), it's just that everything feels like it's in a state of disarray when this happens. The fact is, there are six people (including me) living in this house. As you can imagine, we all crave our privacy, under those circumstances. Adding yet another person into the mix only makes it more difficult to enjoy some quiet time. Part of the problem is that our house is sort of cavernous, in the sense that it's very "open". So, I'm sure that every time I make a large movement in my bed while sleeping, everyone knows about it (my bed has become creakier and I'm sure that it registers quite an echo around the house). Needless to say, this makes a love life difficult at times (though somehow I manage; it takes more than a creaky bed to stop Jeh-- okay, enough). Ahem. Moving on... So, living with a lot of people around me makes me appreciate quietness so much more I think. Whether I'm reading a novel by myself, or sitting here on the computer with headphones on...it doesn't matter. The quietness and time alone is great. Everyone was here yesterday though, sans my dad. And that's a good thing, because we were watching Kill Bill at full volume in the lounge room...and my dad would have been complaining the entire time. He's really the male equivalent of a nun (my brain isn't telling me what that is right now -- a monk? Meh). He complains if a movie has any kind of sexual content or violence. So of course, Kill Bill would really ruffle his feathers. Having said that, my mother is the complete opposite. As she heard the title music play, she ran upstairs giggling and cried out to everyone "LET'S GET READY TO KILL BILL!" ... No joke. That's what she said. She's so lame. She's like Marge Simpson, only with a very dark sense of humor. lol Anyway, there's possibly the most rambly post from me in a long time -- I seem to ramble a lot though. At least I'm doing it here rather than on OB, I guess. ~_^

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   Jeh Returns

I'm baaack! Well, I wasn't gone for very long...but I needed a little break. Things weren't quite right. Anyway, today was a pretty interesting day. I had a semi-fun OB chat (I haven't been to one of those for a while, apparently). That was nice. Lots of discussion about nads and naked suits though. Yep. I also closed a thread in the Music, Movies & TV forum. Actually, I wasn't sure if I should have closed it, but I asked the opinion of several others and they seemed to support the action. It was basically a "Matrix Bashing Thread", in response to Petey's challenge to Sciros in the Kill Bill 2 thread. While I can't particularly blame Sciros for making the thread, I do find his attitude incredibly condescending. Although, I'm absolutely certain that when I told him he didn't understand The Matrix even on a basic level, I made his blood boil. But I believe that one is always responsible for one's own statements. I am more than happy to make that comment to Sciros, without any ego involved. I can make the comment because it's true. I think that Sciros really personifies the "typical Matrix-bashing person". You know, people who think that The Matrix is far more shallow than it tries to be, that Animatrix was totally useless and that the Wachowskis are no-talent bums who want to bleed the world dry of its hard-earned cash. I don't mean to pick on Sciros specifically; I'm mostly picking on a mass ideology or something. An uneducated viewpoint, that a lot of people seem to share. It's a shame. Alex spoke about something similar on his myOtaku recently; why people are unwilling to open their mind a little and try to learn about a work of art. If it's too challenging at first, or if something about it rubs you the wrong way...you automatically hate the entire art no matter what merits may be apparent. Sciros even said that The Animatrix bears no relevance to the trilogy. For those who have seen Animatrix and the trilogy...I think you know that this comment speaks volumes. Anyway, I don't want to spend forever talking about that. Frankly, I'd rather let Alex discuss Matrix in-depth with Sciros. I just don't have the energy -- there are just too many people who don't get it. If you don't get it now, you probably never will. Let's just leave it at that, shall we? Good. On an entirely unrelated note, I rented Kill Bill on DVD today. IGN's review of the DVD seems, so far at least, to be somewhat off the mark. Or should I say, their criticism of the DVD's actual picture/audio quality seems to be incorrect. I didn't notice any issues with sound or picture, bearing in mind that Kill Bill deliberately avoids using the very latest sound effects techniques in some circumstances (3D karate chop? I don't think so). Having said that, I haven't yet seen the special features (the whole thing is on one disc). So I can't comment on the entirety of their review. In regard to the reviewer's overall criticism of the movie...well, like The Matrix, I think you either get it or you don't. And it's not a cerebral thing, mind you. It's much, much more subjective than that. If you ever watched an old Jackie Chan film, or if you ever watched an anime, you'll get some idea of the many subtle references in Kill Bill. If you do get that, you'll either appreciate the references or you won't. Neither side is right or wrong in this case, I don't think. But if you have never been much of a Jackie Chan viewer, or if you've never seen an anime, it will mostly be lost on you. For example, I noticed a lot of very deliberate comedic moments the second time through (like when Go-Go and The Bride are leaping from table to table and the accompanying sound effects with that). It's deliberately comedic...it deliberately pokes fun at itself and I find that to be an endearing trait. Anyway, enough rambling from me. I'm certain that all of you nutty Kill Bill fans are already watching the DVD...so I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you enjoy Volume 2 when you see it. ^_^

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Tuesday, April 13, 2004

   Future Shock

Ahh, thank you Sara. Your Kill Bill art inspired me to change the design of my page momentarily. I will no doubt revert back to a Matrix style (or something related to it) at a later date. But for now, I need the change. I wanted to use this post to address a couple of points though. Firstly, Kill Adam. I know that some of you are waiting for new chapters and so on. Part of the reason that I haven't added new chapters just yet (other than the most recent one, starring sweetreyes), was because I was simply too busy. No, it's not hard to add a simple chapter. But most of the upcoming chapters star my character as well as others. And these posts take a long time to write; it's not exactly a quick process for me (or for anyone else, generally). Secondly, I've been uncertain as to the status of a few people. Most noteably, Jenna. But also Josh. I wasn't sure if he was still interested in the RPG. But I spoke to him yesterday, and he mentioned that he still wanted to be involved. Also, Desbreko has kindly uploaded all of the avatars that were outstanding. So this eliminates one of my tasks. This will now allow me to go ahead and kick the RPG back into gear. We don't have very long to go, either. I'd say, maybe three or four chapters are left in Volume 1. Yes, it will still only take up two or three pages when it's done, but if one looks at the size of each post...I think that becomes less of a concern. On a related note -- and probably to the surprise of many -- I've actually been quietly working on something Kill Adam related. But I haven't mentioned it until now. Actually, I had planned for it even before Kill Adam went up. And you will see it soon. In fact, I'm thinking of posting my little teaser in the art forum (it's a more bold version of the background to this post). The Reanimatrix has really taught me that collective storytelling on OB doesn't even have to be limited to RPGs. Don't be surprised if you see less RPGs from me now on, in favor of something a bit more "free-form" in the Literature forum. KA II might take the Reanimatrix route. You never know. And...The Matrix Revelations will be starting within the next couple of weeks I imagine. I have more preparations to make, but some things can't be fixed (related to art). I don't see any point in waiting another month, just so that I can waste more time focusing on the non-important issues.

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Monday, April 12, 2004

   Dissolved James

I'm just a little tired. I've been getting all of the proper sleep lately, but I'm still a little tired. I have been stressing over this new myOtaku homepage, which I want to get done as soon as possible. I know it shouldn't be a source of anxiety, but sometimes these things are. I want to get it done in a timely manner, and if I feel that I'm hitting roadblocks with something (especially if I run out of ideas or something), I start to feel very anxious about it. I'm also getting pulled on from every direction. I have to finish a postbit for OB, I have to put up a new Kill Adam chapter, I have to complete another OB skin in a hurry, I have to upload every last avatar to the library, I have to do the team pages, I have to set up the team system, I have to begin theOtaku.com's redesign, I have to set up more than 50 pieces of graphics for N-Sider, I have to organize E3-related stuff, et al. So, if I ever tell you "sorry for not doing that on time, because I have a lot of stuff to do", you might want to step back a little and give me some room to breathe. I don't mean to complain, I just mean to state facts. By all means, I enjoy most of my online work. But it shouldn't get so piled up that it starts to drain my soul. lol I read Sara's post in The Reanimatrix just a few minutes ago. It was very impressive. I urge you to read it if you get the chance. It's almost a crime that some of the very best writers on OtakuBoards are also the people who show off their writing the very least. But I guess that's how things work. Each piece stays with you for a while. It's not like this stuff is being mass-produced. Each one is special and each one is worth the wait. I feel this way particularly with Sara and Charles. I always love what they write. And to have them create their own stories for my thread is a very great honor indeed. Not to say that everyone else hasn't created amazing stuff. This thread has actually made me a fan of quite a few other people, in terms of their writing. I think it's brought out the best in some members, creatively speaking. So it's been a very positive experience, whether I'm writing or reading. For some reason, I feel really weird as I write this update. I'm not quite unhappy or depressed...it's not that. I just feel odd. I'm not myself. Oh well. These things happen. I'm sure I'll be right as rain very shortly. ~_^

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Saturday, April 10, 2004

   Revelations Cometh

Put the text here.

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Friday, April 9, 2004

   Consuming Me...

I'm going to say two things in this update. Firstly, making that falling "rain code" is hard. It's especially hard to make it seamlessly tile by hand...and it still doesn't quite tile properly on the left and right. But I figure it's good enough for now. Also, I have an embarassing admission to make. I now know that The Matrix is conquering my life. You know why? Okay...here it goes. I had a dream that Keanu Reeves had a crush on me. <_>;; Yes. I won't go into details, because I'm still too scared to even think about it. And no, there was no love making involved (I'm looking at you, Red). But yeah, um...that's all. Ahem.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2004

   RPG Concerns?

I wanted to take a moment to make a comment on something I'd seen on Baron's myOtaku. Specifically, a couple of comments by DDG and Radaghast. They were both commenting on my upcoming RPG and I noticed a common trend with their comments (and Baron's own comments too I guess). The only thing I'm worried about with James' RPG, is that ONLY the greatest members of the boards are going to get in. The means a gaggle of moderators and the usual member who's in fourth year of college English! So I ask myself: Why bother? This was Radaghast's first comment. Baron and DDG pretty much agreed with it. But I must say...I find it really disappointing. I had no idea that I came off as some kind of uber-demanding lord of English or something. lol The truth is, if you look at say...Kill Adam, I did have very specific requirements there. But I had those requirements for two reasons. 1) Because the RPG was "R Rated". I didn't want young kids posting in there. 2) Because it's the sort of RPG where you really have to have seen the film it's based on, to understand how the weird mix of humor/violence goes. Even if someone with amazing English skills had wanted to join, I probably wouldn't have let them in if they hadn't seen the movie. In regard to my upcoming RPG...I did mention that it would be semi-restricted. But there are reasons for that. And none of them relate to people being able to use amazing English. I figure that I want to make a story that would gel with The Matrix trilogy pretty nicely. But if I open the floodgates and let in everyone -- even if they don't undersatnd the basics of the movies -- the RPG could end up being a bit of a mess. I didn't think that seemed too unreasonable. I say all of this for a couple of reasons. One, because Radaghast, Baron and DDG are using completely appropriate English. Do you guys really think that I wouldn't let you into one of my RPGs because you have bad English or something? You should know that you have nothing to worry about. ^_^ And secondly...it really saddens me that anyone would say "he probably won't let me in, so I won't even try." Don't doubt yourself like that. You might be surprised. Half the reason that a lot of people don't get in on occasion, is because a lot of people (like yourselves) who have perfectly acceptable post quality aren't signing up. Maybe the people who post really poorly seem to have less concern about signing up. lol I don't know if my post is making much sense, but, this is something that worries me a little. Are people really avoiding the sign-up process because they think that they aren't good enough to get in? And here I am, thinking everyone just doesn't like my RPGs, or something. lol I say, if you are interested, give it a shot. If you don't get in, who cares? It's probably not because of your post quality at all. Also...this is why I've made The Reanimatrix thread. Did you notice that it has no sign-up requirements? All you have to do is write something short, related to The Matrix. It can be whatever you like. So far, I'm 100% happy with everything that's been put in there. And I urge people not to avoid posting, just because you feel that I may not like what you post. Seriously, the thread is for everyone to have some fun with creative writing. I want you to post your creative writing in there, regardless of whether you think you can write well or not. Besides, my English certainly isn't the best out there. There are plenty of people on OB who use a much wider vocabulary than I do. So, please don't feel inadequate on my account. ^_^ Interesting... You are a GRAMMAR GOD! If your mission in life is not already to preserve the English tongue, it should be. Congratulations and thank you! How grammatically sound are you? brought to you by Quizilla

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Monday, April 5, 2004

   Reanimated

Thanks to those who responded to my last post. I got some great responses, which is always cool. It's great to hear people's thoughts on the subjects that I ramble about. ~_^ I spent more time on my upcoming RPG yesterday. I've designed a Jukebox (which Tony has been kind enough to assist me with, on the coding side) and I've begun to develop a more robust framework for the story and characters. Remember how I mentioned that I'd be making characters that others would be selecting for use in the RPG? Well, I've begun to actually develop the backgrounds of these characters. The only real thing I've excluded would be the specifics of their personalities. I want the participants to do that. But as I created these backgrounds -- mostly for my own notes -- I realized that I wanted to go into some deeper explanation. I also realized that, rather than provide a relatively quick summary in the sign-up thread, I'd like to give a more fully-loaded background. So this led me to an idea; The Reanimatrix. It will go up before the actual RPG. And it won't be an RPG, it will be a collection of short stories in the Literature forum. How will it work? Well, I'm going to post my short stories, based on characters from the upcoming RPG itself. But I'm also going to let anyone post their own Matrix-related short stories. They might post a ghost story, for example (remember that ghosts are a problematic assimilation in the Matrix?), or something entirely different. It doesn't have to be related to my RPG at all. Basically, it's going to be like a second Animatrix, but it will be text-based. I was also thinking of posting short stories from professional authors, who worked on the comic/short story projects for the Wachowski brothers. So, it'd be a big mish-mash of my own short stories, "official" short stories (that aren't on Animatrix) and the short stories of anyone who chooses to participate. They can lay the story out as they like, they can write a poem, they can include images, they can do anything at all. I want it to be totally free and open. But also, hopefully it will get people into the right mindset, so that when the RPG does launch...they might be interested to take the extra step. And it will give me the chance to see who has written some really great Matrix-related stuff. What do you think of this idea? I think it might be a novel approach in the Literature forum. EDIT: Well, the thread is now online. I have an interesting idea, to tie it to my new RPG as well. If you're interested, click here to view it. I encourage everyone to have a go at their own short story/poem/comic, etc. ^_^

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Friday, April 2, 2004

   The Matrix Revolutions DVD

Finally, the DVD has arrived in Australia. As I mentioned in a previous entry, I had reserved it a couple of weeks ago. And tonight I watched the movie itself and checked out all of the special features. I don't really see any point in reviewing the movie itself, because many of you have already seen it at theatres. I will say a couple of things though. One, watching the movie on DVD is obviously increasing my understanding of what this franchise really is. More viewings equates to greater understanding, which is pretty obvious. But moreover, I've noticed a lot of truly beautiful/artistic shots in the movie, upon closer inspection. The Siege scene is still impressive, even on the small screen. The complexity, artistry and sheer size of this scene really hits home the more you watch it. Also, Don Davis's score is probably better in Revolutions than in the previous two movies. There's a better sense of continuity, greater emotion and a very "final" sense about everything. Even during the opening credits, where we see that "gold particle explosion", accompanied with the slightly more urgent opening theme, there's a strong sense that everything is finalizing and coming together. And of course, that's what happens. Even the untimely death of Gloria Foster (the woman who played the first Oracle) didn't manage to significantly set the movie off its core track. Obviously, the Wachowskis had to explain why the Oracle looks different in Revolutions -- and they had to do this after the fact, which, as you can imagine, is insanely difficult...especially when the script had been completed. However, it was done, and it was done quite well. Luckily, it doesn't become a focus of the movie. The woman who plays the new Oracle (May something? I forget) was also involved with Gloria Foster on stage. So she has a good understanding of how Foster works. And I think that in general, she did a great job as the second Oracle. I didn't find it as jarring as I had expected. As with Reloaded there are two things that helped me to appreciate the movie further. One is the repeated watching/research that was involved on my part. The other is taking a look at how things were done, and the kind of investment of energy and creativity that was involved. This is where extra features come in. And luckily, Revolutions has about twice the number (probably more, in fact) than Reloaded. And that makes for quite a lot of content, as well as the answers to some important production questions. I thought I'd do a really brief rundown of the features, for those who are considering purchasing the DVD. Trailers: Pretty standard fare, except that this DVD includes trailers for all of the Matrix movies, including Animatrix. It does not include every trailer/teaser variant (like the web site), but it certainly contains more in this department than the other DVDs. Revolutions Recalibrated: Much like the "making of" documentary in Reloaded, Revolutions Recalibrated is really almost a conversational piece. It's a very loosely structured documentary, which focuses on the opinions of the various actors and creative personnel behind the project. You learn a lot of fantastic little tidbits when watching this, though. And you do get an overall appreciation for the sheer innovation that went into much of this movie. Even with this one film alone, new techniques had to be created that didn't exist for the first or second movie. Some of it is definitely very self-congratulatory, but I don't know what else one would expect. I think it's a pretty accurate overall viewpoint of how the filming went, how long it went for and what the various challenges were, on all fronts. It's a good overall production summary. CG Revolution: Pretty self explanatory. We hear a lot about the sophisticated CG techniques used throughout the movie, which includes raw CG and compositional elements. Of particular interest to me, was the way that "Megacity" was constructed. It was based on Sydney, but it was also reconfigured with CG elements. So it was kind of a "hyper Sydney" -- Sydney, but with more buildings and with some reconfigured elements. There's also plenty of information about "The Siege". This was a truly impressive feat of CG animation and it's covered quite thoroughly in this documentary. We also hear about CG rendering of human figures, as well as various compositional CG elements (the way "fat rain" was made for the Super Burly Brawl, and how a composition of real/CG was made). Very worthwhile. Super Burly Brawl: Again, pretty self explanatory. This entire documentary relates to the SBB and I found it very interesting. You may be surprised at how challenging it was to develop that scene. I was under the impression that a lot of elements were CG, when many were far more based on CG/non-CG compositional elements. On a technical basis, there's a huge amount of stuff to go through here. Those of you who are even remotely interested in "how things work" will love this piece. Future Gamer: The Matrix Online: This is kind of a "making of" of The Matrix Online, which is a sequel to Revolutions. The game isn't yet complete, so obviously we don't really get a fully rounded "making of" video. Instead, we get more of a "this is what it will be when it's done" type of thing. That's not to say that the video isn't worthwhile. You get a better idea of how this game will play and in particular, there's a strong sense of the kind of scope that it will represent. I can't say that I'm majorly interested in TMO, despite my love of the franchise itself. But we'll see how it turns out. There's more...I'm only about halfway. I think I will write the rest tomorrow, because I'm too tired now. But rest assured, if you loved the movie you will really enjoy the DVD. Even if you felt indifferent toward the movie in theaters, I think you'll still get something out of the DVD. I would say that this represents one of the most feature-packed DVD releases I've yet seen.

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Thursday, April 1, 2004

   Can't Sleep, Clown'll Eat Me

I'm up late again -- way too late. Today is my last day of school for the term though. Then I have a two week break. This will be great, because it means that I can focus a lot more of my time on Otaku-related stuff (read: myO v2 and new OB things). Of course, there will still be schoolwork set during this period. But it won't be too much to handle. My biggest concern is actually that I'm going to be too tired later tonight. You see, tonight's a big night. Everyone is coming over here to watch Matrix Revolutions at 10pm. I had booked the DVD two weeks ago, to ensure that it would be there for me. So that'll be nice. On the weekend, I'm going to go through the extra features and stuff. I won't offer any spoilers (of course), but I might provide a little review on here, for those who are interested. When I get home from school, I may even sleep for a couple of hours, just to be fresh for the movie. It's going to be a lot of fun, because a lot of people will be here. It's times like this that I'm really glad my dad decided to blow nearly $10K on a home sound system. I'm sure it'll make Revolutions more fun. o_O;; Anyway, aside from that, it's been business as usual. In my last update, which I posted only a few hours ago, I was talking about the buttonmania going around at the moment. I've been posting a lot of entries here lately, so if you miss one, feel free to delve into my archives. ~_^ It wasn't too important though. On the subject of buttons, I think I'm going to have to arrange some way of dealing with them that is more effective. I'm going to end up with too many on my page. You see, I didn't expect everyone on my friend list to make buttons (not that they are, but a good portion of them are). So, I obviously don't want to fill my page with that many buttons. Either I'll try to get a button feature built into myOtaku v2, or I'll make a clickable pop-up window with them, or I'll put a handful of different buttons up each week...or something. On that note, TVE asked about submitting buttons...well, I have to be able to see your button to put it up here. If your host displays it for a period of time (even if it's limited) and I see it, I can then upload it on my own storage for you. You can always use the button submission thread on OB, but obviously, I can't link from there because guests are unable to view attachments (therefore, they won't display themselves away from OB). On a completely different subject, I just saw the Appleseed trailer that AzureWolf posted on his site. It looks gorgeous. I've never seen Appleseed, and I may check this one out if only for the aesthetic factor. I sure hope there's more to it than that, but I guess I have no way of really knowing at this point. I noticed that Sennen mentioned his general distaste for CG animation on there, too. To some extent I agree, at least as far as anime is concerned. I'm definitely not an anime expert, but I'm aware of most of the CG-animated animes that have been put out there over the years. And on a purely aesthetic level, I think many of them have fallen short. Too often, the animation is really clunky/stiff and things look very "plasticky". Obviously, animating a series at "Toy Story standards" would probably be far too expensive -- or so I assume. This new Appleseed anime looks to be cel-shaded, based on the trailer. I think this shows what cel-shading can achieve, and how complex it can be. People get this idea that it has to be an insanely simple style by default. Or that it has to be happy and bright. But that's not at all true. There's potential to make something three dimensional, that also has a very "comic" (or "anime", in this case) style. I know I'm probably preaching to the converted, for the most part. But I find it interesting. I think that The Animatrix was really one of the first "animes" that demonstrated a really nice blend of CG/non-CG elements, at least in terms of the mainstream scene. Of course, it's great when beautiful art meets advanced technology. The combination of pretty aesthetics with very fluid 3D animation could make this Appleseed anime pretty legendary, if only because it sets a new bar in animation. I'd actually like to hear everyone's thoughts on Appleseed, in terms of the anime and manga. Maybe you could fill in me in terms of what you thought about it, and what your impression of this trailer was. That'd be interesting. I also noticed that Paul Oakenfold and Basement Jaxx are mentioned in there; that's got to be pretty out there for any kind of Japanese animated production. lol o_O; There was something else I was going to talk about in this post, but I don't want to make it too long. Maybe next time.

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