Thursday, May 27, 2004
Ah, a break, perhaps.
I have to keep this one short, unfortunately, cause there's a bunch of stuff I need to do before tomorrow morning, whence begins the moving orgy. See, as it turns out, the apartment people rented out my apartment to someone who wanted to move in *before* I would have been moved out. So they offered me an extra week of apartment-ness, free of charge, If I'd get my butt out of dodge early. And being as it's a long weekend, I said 'sure'. Unfortunatly, this has thrown some of my more clever moving plans into disarray. I'll probably be without internet for a week, which is unfortunate mostly because I access my masters classes over the internet. I'll be able to do those at work, though. I can check e-mail and pretty much everything else vital over the web at work, too.
Some other things need to be checked-up on too. I need to inform a bunch of nameless, faceless corporations that my adress has changed, and Derek and I can combine renters insurance now, too. Greater savings, woo-hoo!
But I need to watch a class before I hit the hay, cause tomorrow is all about the moving, and then saturday is all about the cleaning. Ta, ducks!
-N
I have to keep this one short, unfortunately, cause there's a bunch of stuff I need to do before tomorrow morning, whence begins the moving orgy. See, as it turns out, the apartment people rented out my apartment to someone who wanted to move in *before* I would have been moved out. So they offered me an extra week of apartment-ness, free of charge, If I'd get my butt out of dodge early. And being as it's a long weekend, I said 'sure'. Unfortunatly, this has thrown some of my more clever moving plans into disarray. I'll probably be without internet for a week, which is unfortunate mostly because I access my masters classes over the internet. I'll be able to do those at work, though. I can check e-mail and pretty much everything else vital over the web at work, too.
Some other things need to be checked-up on too. I need to inform a bunch of nameless, faceless corporations that my adress has changed, and Derek and I can combine renters insurance now, too. Greater savings, woo-hoo!
But I need to watch a class before I hit the hay, cause tomorrow is all about the moving, and then saturday is all about the cleaning. Ta, ducks!
-N
Monday, May 24, 2004
Enough serious: back to silly things again.
I had roughly a week off from school, and now I'm back on the wagon again. As much as I am not looking forward to having to do this for another year+, I'm committed to getting this thing done, so that's what I'm going to do. The teacher for this class has a great southern drawl, so it makes the class feel a lot more laid back than it actually is. It's not easy stuff. If it was easy, anyone could do it.
Oh, and by the way, I got an 'A' in my linear algebra class last semester. Booyah.
I'm getting a new address! Derek and I are moving in with each other, roommate-style, as of the 5th of June. Well, we'd better, at least, since that's when I'm supposed to move out of my apartment. Here's my new snail mail address.
Noel Preecs
9400 La Tijera Blvd. #1103
Los Angeles, CA 90045
The street address is different because the building is L-shaped, and we're moving from the part of the L on Lincoln Blvd. to the part on La Tijera. Our new view overlooks the pool and Lincoln Park.
I didn't do too much this weekend. Went up to Sunset for the first time. There are a lot of ways to waste a lot of time and brain cells up there. We jumped back and forth between 'Dublins' and 'Miyagis'. I liked Miyagis better, but I like sushi, too. Other than that, absolutely nothing happened. Intentionally. Tough week, got all nervous and pent up, I decided this would be a recovery weekend. Went out and rented a couple of movies, played video games, ate a lot of yogurt. (I'm trying to get healthy here.)
Speaking of healthy, I think I've started to shape up a touch. I'm still carrying a little bit of a gut, no surprise there, really, but I think my arms are beginning to catch up to my legs. Which is a good thing, 100 pickups, after all. I've started doing sets of 25 or 30 at work to keep awake. At the beginning, I had trouble doing 5 or 10. I'm getting there. Perhaps I should buy a scale, might help me better monitor my health. That and a thermometer, I'm never sure if I have a fever or not until the room starts spinning.
Next few weeks are going to be busy. Upcoming is a 4-day weekend (I get every-other Friday off on my 9-days, 80-hours schedule) that I'm going to use to get ready for the move. Weekend after is going to be 3 days, moving there. Weekend after that, Sandy comes to visit. Plus, parents coming down this weekend, and it's the Croatian independence day festival this weekend too. Who knows, my mom may get to meet my 'girlfriend'. I've already met her family, it's about time. Course, this is assuming I can get the information from Mary in time.
Know what I love about being young and single? Spontaneity. Guess what I'm doing for my birthday this year? I'm going to Hawaii. Yeah, that's right. The conversation went something like this:
Tarang: Hey, Noel, we're going to go to Hawaii in september, want to come?
Me: ...Okay.
Well, okay, the actuall conversation took a *leetle* bit longer, but in the morning I wasn't going to Hawaii, and in the afternoon I was. So yeah, spontaneity.
It's great, Tarang found this awesome group package where we can get tickets and 4 nights in a hotel on Oahu for a measely 450 bucks each. It's four to a room, but we're young and crazy, so that's allright. Happy birthday to me! Plus we have a crazy-long time to get ready. I'm going to have Coy teach me to surf.
Random storytime. Coy Hunter is a fellow workmate of mine. He's crazy-cool. (He's *ripped* too, ladies. I've seen those abs. *Who*!) But he's mostly crazy. His name is Coy Hunter. Coy Deerslayer Hunter. Deerslayer is his middle name. His parents let him pick it. Coy also has a knack for telling stories that you don't realize are less 'stories' and more 'jokes' till about halfway through.
Coy: "So one of my friends, he goes into this pet store right? And he's looking at this parrot. And the parrot looks at the shop owner and says: 'Hey, buddy, where's my lunch.', and the shop owner--"
You: The parrot said what?
And his stories make no sense:
Coy: "So I was hanging out down in Tiajuana, and the clubs were really awesome and everything, and afterwords we went back to the hotel. So the next day I was tuxedo shopping, right?"
Me: "What?"
That actually happened during one of his stories. But he's a good surfer, he'll give you a first surfing lesson for free, and he even shapes his own boards. Awesome guy.
Okay, see? An upbeat post. Was that so hard? Naw. Talk to you all later!
-N
I had roughly a week off from school, and now I'm back on the wagon again. As much as I am not looking forward to having to do this for another year+, I'm committed to getting this thing done, so that's what I'm going to do. The teacher for this class has a great southern drawl, so it makes the class feel a lot more laid back than it actually is. It's not easy stuff. If it was easy, anyone could do it.
Oh, and by the way, I got an 'A' in my linear algebra class last semester. Booyah.
I'm getting a new address! Derek and I are moving in with each other, roommate-style, as of the 5th of June. Well, we'd better, at least, since that's when I'm supposed to move out of my apartment. Here's my new snail mail address.
Noel Preecs
9400 La Tijera Blvd. #1103
Los Angeles, CA 90045
The street address is different because the building is L-shaped, and we're moving from the part of the L on Lincoln Blvd. to the part on La Tijera. Our new view overlooks the pool and Lincoln Park.
I didn't do too much this weekend. Went up to Sunset for the first time. There are a lot of ways to waste a lot of time and brain cells up there. We jumped back and forth between 'Dublins' and 'Miyagis'. I liked Miyagis better, but I like sushi, too. Other than that, absolutely nothing happened. Intentionally. Tough week, got all nervous and pent up, I decided this would be a recovery weekend. Went out and rented a couple of movies, played video games, ate a lot of yogurt. (I'm trying to get healthy here.)
Speaking of healthy, I think I've started to shape up a touch. I'm still carrying a little bit of a gut, no surprise there, really, but I think my arms are beginning to catch up to my legs. Which is a good thing, 100 pickups, after all. I've started doing sets of 25 or 30 at work to keep awake. At the beginning, I had trouble doing 5 or 10. I'm getting there. Perhaps I should buy a scale, might help me better monitor my health. That and a thermometer, I'm never sure if I have a fever or not until the room starts spinning.
Next few weeks are going to be busy. Upcoming is a 4-day weekend (I get every-other Friday off on my 9-days, 80-hours schedule) that I'm going to use to get ready for the move. Weekend after is going to be 3 days, moving there. Weekend after that, Sandy comes to visit. Plus, parents coming down this weekend, and it's the Croatian independence day festival this weekend too. Who knows, my mom may get to meet my 'girlfriend'. I've already met her family, it's about time. Course, this is assuming I can get the information from Mary in time.
Know what I love about being young and single? Spontaneity. Guess what I'm doing for my birthday this year? I'm going to Hawaii. Yeah, that's right. The conversation went something like this:
Tarang: Hey, Noel, we're going to go to Hawaii in september, want to come?
Me: ...Okay.
Well, okay, the actuall conversation took a *leetle* bit longer, but in the morning I wasn't going to Hawaii, and in the afternoon I was. So yeah, spontaneity.
It's great, Tarang found this awesome group package where we can get tickets and 4 nights in a hotel on Oahu for a measely 450 bucks each. It's four to a room, but we're young and crazy, so that's allright. Happy birthday to me! Plus we have a crazy-long time to get ready. I'm going to have Coy teach me to surf.
Random storytime. Coy Hunter is a fellow workmate of mine. He's crazy-cool. (He's *ripped* too, ladies. I've seen those abs. *Who*!) But he's mostly crazy. His name is Coy Hunter. Coy Deerslayer Hunter. Deerslayer is his middle name. His parents let him pick it. Coy also has a knack for telling stories that you don't realize are less 'stories' and more 'jokes' till about halfway through.
Coy: "So one of my friends, he goes into this pet store right? And he's looking at this parrot. And the parrot looks at the shop owner and says: 'Hey, buddy, where's my lunch.', and the shop owner--"
You: The parrot said what?
And his stories make no sense:
Coy: "So I was hanging out down in Tiajuana, and the clubs were really awesome and everything, and afterwords we went back to the hotel. So the next day I was tuxedo shopping, right?"
Me: "What?"
That actually happened during one of his stories. But he's a good surfer, he'll give you a first surfing lesson for free, and he even shapes his own boards. Awesome guy.
Okay, see? An upbeat post. Was that so hard? Naw. Talk to you all later!
-N
Thursday, May 20, 2004
[Post removed by request of management]
Been a rough week, worst part over, but evidently I'm still making some questionable decisions. Short version: relationsip woes that turned out to be (of course) more paranoia than anything else. If you want the long version, you can e-mail me, I might send it to you.
Feeling dumb x2,
-N
Been a rough week, worst part over, but evidently I'm still making some questionable decisions. Short version: relationsip woes that turned out to be (of course) more paranoia than anything else. If you want the long version, you can e-mail me, I might send it to you.
Feeling dumb x2,
-N
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Dude, this weekend sucked. I'm not even going to go into details, cause that would be depressing for both of us. So instead of prolonging the suck weekend, I called it off early and went into work today (sunday, for those of you keeping track.) If I'm going to have some time off, I sure as heck don't want it associated with a lame weekend like this one.
I feel down, I'll write more when I'm more up.
-N
I feel down, I'll write more when I'm more up.
-N
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Look! Look! Comments! I'm not sure quite how they work, but now y'all (anyone) can comment on my stuff! Use this opportunity to let me know what you think, talk amongst yourselves. Debate about the great questions of humanity. Comments are fun!
-N
-N
Ho, Hum,
Yesterday was pretty good. I had a final in my Linear Algebra class that went pretty well. Not a whole lot of preparation involved, since I understood most of the stuff. I just went in, answered the questions, and got out. I'm pretty sure I may have been a touch of on one or two, but only in the small, less-important ones. I checked the important ones pretty thoroughly, and they came out just fine. So I'm expecting good things from that class. Next class starts in a week.
I drove back from the final (yay for carpool lanes!) and went out to Dinner with Tabitha. We hit one of our favorite burger joints and tried the stuff with Gardenburger instead of meat-burger. It was all right, but not as *absurdly* delicious as the real thing. I think I need to cut back on gardenburgers, I may be getting tired of them.
But when I got home, I napped instead of running. Just entirely too tired. I'm a little disappointed, cause I'm trying to establish a pattern here, but I'm sure I'll get back on it. Probably go running tomorrow after happy our at McCormick and Shmicks. (Hint, don't order the oyster shooters. *Nasty*)
And now, in the spirit of capturing great thoughts, I present an essay on the nature of the martial arts. Martial artists, pay attention (And I expect a full double-spaced, typed, 3 page analysis essay from you by the beginning of class on Monday, Kevin. :)
I've always felt that arguments about 'whose martial art is better' to be, while sometimes enlightening, ultimately pointless. Especially when it comes to a self-defense standpoint. I am personally of the opinion that trying to determine which martial art would beat which in a fair fight to be a little silly, and deciding which is best for self defense is really rather dumb. Why, you ask? Here’s why.
The argument usually head fairly quickly into the realm of: “If we were on the Street, Kae Dun Hyuk would wail on Mok Jun Fist in a heartbeat.” “No way!” The problem with this argument is that it assumes two competent practitioners of the art. And these two theoretical people should never be fighting. I never plan to defend myself ‘on the street’ against someone with a Black Belt in anything, because I should never be attacked by someone with that degree of training. If there’s a Black Belt out there *starting fights*, then someone didn’t do their job. And if black belts aren’t fighting each other out there, what’s the point of worrying about their respective arts, hmm?
And when it comes to self-defense, I say do what you enjoy. I don’t care if it’s the least efficient, most gimpy martial art in existence. You do any martial art for 10 years and you’ll be doing just fine, because you’ll know what to do, you’ll have confidence and, if all else fails; you’ll be in good enough shape to run away. So stop arguing about good and bad martial arts, it’s a silly argument to begin with.
End lecture.
Other fake martial art names:
Dun Wei Do
Yak Jun Quip
Kimchee Do
Croatian Arm Grappling
Ip-Zam-Hill Karate
Syeng Buk.
Whip Thwam (Throwing art, obviously)
Okay, on to other things, Ta!
-N
Yesterday was pretty good. I had a final in my Linear Algebra class that went pretty well. Not a whole lot of preparation involved, since I understood most of the stuff. I just went in, answered the questions, and got out. I'm pretty sure I may have been a touch of on one or two, but only in the small, less-important ones. I checked the important ones pretty thoroughly, and they came out just fine. So I'm expecting good things from that class. Next class starts in a week.
I drove back from the final (yay for carpool lanes!) and went out to Dinner with Tabitha. We hit one of our favorite burger joints and tried the stuff with Gardenburger instead of meat-burger. It was all right, but not as *absurdly* delicious as the real thing. I think I need to cut back on gardenburgers, I may be getting tired of them.
But when I got home, I napped instead of running. Just entirely too tired. I'm a little disappointed, cause I'm trying to establish a pattern here, but I'm sure I'll get back on it. Probably go running tomorrow after happy our at McCormick and Shmicks. (Hint, don't order the oyster shooters. *Nasty*)
And now, in the spirit of capturing great thoughts, I present an essay on the nature of the martial arts. Martial artists, pay attention (And I expect a full double-spaced, typed, 3 page analysis essay from you by the beginning of class on Monday, Kevin. :)
I've always felt that arguments about 'whose martial art is better' to be, while sometimes enlightening, ultimately pointless. Especially when it comes to a self-defense standpoint. I am personally of the opinion that trying to determine which martial art would beat which in a fair fight to be a little silly, and deciding which is best for self defense is really rather dumb. Why, you ask? Here’s why.
The argument usually head fairly quickly into the realm of: “If we were on the Street, Kae Dun Hyuk would wail on Mok Jun Fist in a heartbeat.” “No way!” The problem with this argument is that it assumes two competent practitioners of the art. And these two theoretical people should never be fighting. I never plan to defend myself ‘on the street’ against someone with a Black Belt in anything, because I should never be attacked by someone with that degree of training. If there’s a Black Belt out there *starting fights*, then someone didn’t do their job. And if black belts aren’t fighting each other out there, what’s the point of worrying about their respective arts, hmm?
And when it comes to self-defense, I say do what you enjoy. I don’t care if it’s the least efficient, most gimpy martial art in existence. You do any martial art for 10 years and you’ll be doing just fine, because you’ll know what to do, you’ll have confidence and, if all else fails; you’ll be in good enough shape to run away. So stop arguing about good and bad martial arts, it’s a silly argument to begin with.
End lecture.
Other fake martial art names:
Dun Wei Do
Yak Jun Quip
Kimchee Do
Croatian Arm Grappling
Ip-Zam-Hill Karate
Syeng Buk.
Whip Thwam (Throwing art, obviously)
Okay, on to other things, Ta!
-N
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Boom, Shacka-lacka!
Today is the morning after a 7:00 pm to 1:00 AM jaunt up to six flags magic mountain. It was listed as a 'semi-private party', which meant that perhaps only a third of the regular impossible mob was there. I'm not sure who was invited and who wasn't, but I'll tell you one thing, the riding was *nice*. The lines were shorter, the rides were just as awesome, and I got to go on a few rides that I didn't try last time. I have a new favorite now. Deja Vu. It's a pretty short ride, but it's smooth, fast, and has two nice features. One, they start by pulling you backwards up a 90 degree vertical incline. And then, once the whole ride is over, you do the whole thing again, but backwards. Crazy. Very nice. My fave.
Another highlight of the evening involved the drive back. I was the designated carpool-hombre, which meant I was driving Derek, Mary, and Tabitha to and from. I'm not sure why I like driving a car full of sleeping people, but i do. Something very peacefull and trusting about it. I'm in charge, and everyone else trusts me so well that they can actually fall asleep. I'm a little bit honored.
Nothing else to report, though. Everything continues as planned. Final coming up, signing up for new classes, work still a pain, playing video games, etc. I'll let you know if anything else interesting happens.
*~~~~~Random link of the week~~~~~*
The House of Rave. Your one stop for all of your rave-gear needs. Mostly glowing lights and other neat things. Wonder what's so cool about them? In a dark room (dance floor), they start to look like this. OOOOOOH.
Today is the morning after a 7:00 pm to 1:00 AM jaunt up to six flags magic mountain. It was listed as a 'semi-private party', which meant that perhaps only a third of the regular impossible mob was there. I'm not sure who was invited and who wasn't, but I'll tell you one thing, the riding was *nice*. The lines were shorter, the rides were just as awesome, and I got to go on a few rides that I didn't try last time. I have a new favorite now. Deja Vu. It's a pretty short ride, but it's smooth, fast, and has two nice features. One, they start by pulling you backwards up a 90 degree vertical incline. And then, once the whole ride is over, you do the whole thing again, but backwards. Crazy. Very nice. My fave.
Another highlight of the evening involved the drive back. I was the designated carpool-hombre, which meant I was driving Derek, Mary, and Tabitha to and from. I'm not sure why I like driving a car full of sleeping people, but i do. Something very peacefull and trusting about it. I'm in charge, and everyone else trusts me so well that they can actually fall asleep. I'm a little bit honored.
Nothing else to report, though. Everything continues as planned. Final coming up, signing up for new classes, work still a pain, playing video games, etc. I'll let you know if anything else interesting happens.
*~~~~~Random link of the week~~~~~*
The House of Rave. Your one stop for all of your rave-gear needs. Mostly glowing lights and other neat things. Wonder what's so cool about them? In a dark room (dance floor), they start to look like this. OOOOOOH.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Things continue to happen, I catalog them here.
My class is nearing it's last gasp. I'm watching the final review class as we speak...or as I write...or type...man, the english language really breaks down in journal format. The final is on Tuesday of next week. May 11. Study plan involves making the cheat sheet...and that's pretty much it. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on this stuff, should be all I'll need.
Roomies! Here's the update. My lease expires in a measly couple-o-days, 31 to be exact. And Park West apartments requires at least 30 days notice if you plan to move. So today, right under the wire, really, Derek and I announced that we are going to be roomate-ing. Which is good stuff, as it turns out. All we had to do was pay a fee to have Derek move apartments (mine was waived, cause my lease was done) and on June 2nd, Derek and I can move into our new place. W00T!
And here's the extra-special news. My new lease was going to be 1200 a month. Lots. Up from 1100 previously. Derek and I were expecting to get a room at ~1800 bucks, so 900 each, a savings of about 300 a month. 300 a month! With caps lock on, that's nearly #)) a month! So the saving stood to be pretty awesome. But they went above and beyond awesome, in fact. It looks like Our rent is going to be 1670! Which is a savings of...let me do the math...A LOT! So most of that savings will go back into paying off my parents, RE: Student loans. Financial solidity, here I come!
Speaking of Derek and Me, would you like to see our movie? BAM! That's chapter 0 right there. A pilot/introductory episode. Most of the shooting has been done on chapter 1, editing will take a while. And chapter 2 has not been written or anything, yet. So that may take a while. But like I said. BAM! Check it out!
You'll note the new name. No longer are we 'Vision Films', cause too many people took that one. We are now Zeroth Power Films. Nerd jokes ahoy!
Zeroth power films: Our output is normalized.
Zeroth power films: We create unity.
Zeroth power films: Giving a real output from a complex input.
Zeroth power films: Lying on the unit circle since 2002.
Only, repeat, *only* engineers and mathematicians should get the previous jokes. They are cock-full of nerd. For the rest of you, raising any number to the power of 0 gives 1. (Including 0^0, as it turns out.) The rest, you're going to have to get an advanced technical degree to understand, and for just these jokes, it's not really worth it.
So Mary and I are still floating along pretty calmly. No major developments to report, other than the fact that she rested her head on my shoulder for the first time today, and I nearly *melted*. Aaah. Such a wuss. :) I haven't been able to see her as much as I might like, recently, she's actually teaching a Junior College class (cause the professor bailed) for the last several weeks of the quarter, and tutoring someone, and *still* being queen of the croatian cultural center. That and there's been a series of Croatian concerts over the past several weekends, and friends coming in. Honestly, I'm surprized she even makes it into work every day. And yes, I would normally go to the Concerts with her, but she and I differ on what makes good Croatian music. To her, the fact that it is Croatian is a point for, and for me, it's a point against. Now I like good music from any country, but it really has to be special for me to jump a language barrier to it. Example. Nicole. I. Love. These. Guys. As soon as someone releases one of their albums stateside, I'm *all over it*. You can download some songs from their site, too. They're crazy-rocking, so much so that I'm in love with their music and I *don't even know what they're saying.* That's good music. Mary's played some croatian music for me, and on occasion it's been pretty rocking, but the majority of the time, not so much. We both agree that Electronic music is sweetness on a stick, though, ...Where was I? Oh, yes, not seeing her much. Unfortunate, but probably not permanent. Just floating along, things seem to go best when I don't try and fix anything.
Got a couple new Game Boy Advance Games. Looking forward to having them come along. Next on my list is a game called Disgaea. You have to buy it used, cause it's not printed anymore. And this is one of those games whose popularity outstripped it's publishing run. It's going to get more expensive before it gets less. Same thing happened with another game I own. Rez. I bought it at $35, it currently e-bays for around $70. Video games are an investment!
Mothers day, I'm doomed. I'm lucky enough to not have to worry about calling, cause I do that *every* sunday. But I long ago ran out of things to simply *buy* a mom for christmas, birthdays, etc. I'm no good with gifts, and I don't like flowers. Seems like a cop-out, I'm far more creative than just 'flowers'. I have an idea, but if it doesn't work out, I'm pretty much out of luck. Plus, I have *two* mothers in the same location this year, a grandma too! I can't handle this kind of pressure.
Training update, new personal best: 1.5 miles at 6.3 miles per hour. This is up from 1.25 miles at 6.2 miles per hour. Eventual goal is 3 miles at 7.5 It's a ways to go, but that's a black belt test, there. So I have many many months to work on that.
Nothing more to write. The cool embrace of the bed and a fan awaits. Ta ta!
-N
My class is nearing it's last gasp. I'm watching the final review class as we speak...or as I write...or type...man, the english language really breaks down in journal format. The final is on Tuesday of next week. May 11. Study plan involves making the cheat sheet...and that's pretty much it. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on this stuff, should be all I'll need.
Roomies! Here's the update. My lease expires in a measly couple-o-days, 31 to be exact. And Park West apartments requires at least 30 days notice if you plan to move. So today, right under the wire, really, Derek and I announced that we are going to be roomate-ing. Which is good stuff, as it turns out. All we had to do was pay a fee to have Derek move apartments (mine was waived, cause my lease was done) and on June 2nd, Derek and I can move into our new place. W00T!
And here's the extra-special news. My new lease was going to be 1200 a month. Lots. Up from 1100 previously. Derek and I were expecting to get a room at ~1800 bucks, so 900 each, a savings of about 300 a month. 300 a month! With caps lock on, that's nearly #)) a month! So the saving stood to be pretty awesome. But they went above and beyond awesome, in fact. It looks like Our rent is going to be 1670! Which is a savings of...let me do the math...A LOT! So most of that savings will go back into paying off my parents, RE: Student loans. Financial solidity, here I come!
Speaking of Derek and Me, would you like to see our movie? BAM! That's chapter 0 right there. A pilot/introductory episode. Most of the shooting has been done on chapter 1, editing will take a while. And chapter 2 has not been written or anything, yet. So that may take a while. But like I said. BAM! Check it out!
You'll note the new name. No longer are we 'Vision Films', cause too many people took that one. We are now Zeroth Power Films. Nerd jokes ahoy!
Zeroth power films: Our output is normalized.
Zeroth power films: We create unity.
Zeroth power films: Giving a real output from a complex input.
Zeroth power films: Lying on the unit circle since 2002.
Only, repeat, *only* engineers and mathematicians should get the previous jokes. They are cock-full of nerd. For the rest of you, raising any number to the power of 0 gives 1. (Including 0^0, as it turns out.) The rest, you're going to have to get an advanced technical degree to understand, and for just these jokes, it's not really worth it.
So Mary and I are still floating along pretty calmly. No major developments to report, other than the fact that she rested her head on my shoulder for the first time today, and I nearly *melted*. Aaah. Such a wuss. :) I haven't been able to see her as much as I might like, recently, she's actually teaching a Junior College class (cause the professor bailed) for the last several weeks of the quarter, and tutoring someone, and *still* being queen of the croatian cultural center. That and there's been a series of Croatian concerts over the past several weekends, and friends coming in. Honestly, I'm surprized she even makes it into work every day. And yes, I would normally go to the Concerts with her, but she and I differ on what makes good Croatian music. To her, the fact that it is Croatian is a point for, and for me, it's a point against. Now I like good music from any country, but it really has to be special for me to jump a language barrier to it. Example. Nicole. I. Love. These. Guys. As soon as someone releases one of their albums stateside, I'm *all over it*. You can download some songs from their site, too. They're crazy-rocking, so much so that I'm in love with their music and I *don't even know what they're saying.* That's good music. Mary's played some croatian music for me, and on occasion it's been pretty rocking, but the majority of the time, not so much. We both agree that Electronic music is sweetness on a stick, though, ...Where was I? Oh, yes, not seeing her much. Unfortunate, but probably not permanent. Just floating along, things seem to go best when I don't try and fix anything.
Got a couple new Game Boy Advance Games. Looking forward to having them come along. Next on my list is a game called Disgaea. You have to buy it used, cause it's not printed anymore. And this is one of those games whose popularity outstripped it's publishing run. It's going to get more expensive before it gets less. Same thing happened with another game I own. Rez. I bought it at $35, it currently e-bays for around $70. Video games are an investment!
Mothers day, I'm doomed. I'm lucky enough to not have to worry about calling, cause I do that *every* sunday. But I long ago ran out of things to simply *buy* a mom for christmas, birthdays, etc. I'm no good with gifts, and I don't like flowers. Seems like a cop-out, I'm far more creative than just 'flowers'. I have an idea, but if it doesn't work out, I'm pretty much out of luck. Plus, I have *two* mothers in the same location this year, a grandma too! I can't handle this kind of pressure.
Training update, new personal best: 1.5 miles at 6.3 miles per hour. This is up from 1.25 miles at 6.2 miles per hour. Eventual goal is 3 miles at 7.5 It's a ways to go, but that's a black belt test, there. So I have many many months to work on that.
Nothing more to write. The cool embrace of the bed and a fan awaits. Ta ta!
-N
Saturday, May 01, 2004
Hi all. Feeling much better now. Sorness is long gone, and sniffles are on their way out. Derek and I shot another scene for our movie, today. Complete with fight scene that actually went pretty well. Have I talked much about the movie? No? I guess I'll do that now, then.
Derek and I have been shooting little, short movies for quite a while now. It's a fun hobby. This movie, named 'Alliance', is our most ambitious project to date. The current plan is for eight or perhaps nine chapters. Wow. We've finished chapter '0', which acts as introduction and pilot episode, and we're a good way through chapter 1. So we're going to be working on this for quite a while. You can download a teaser here at the moment. Not much, but it should whet your appetite. I'm not in the teaser. I'm behind the camera. Oh, and something else strange. The other guy in the Trailer, the hansome-looking black fella? His name is also Derek. Rather confusing.
We *will* be putting the whole movie up on the web, but not quite yet. Derek found a place that will host up to 300 MB of webspace for only 7 bucks a month. What a deal! We'll probably get the webspace when we have a chapter or two done, and If I ask nice, Derek will probably let me put up some of my music in there too, so I can make that available for downloading.
Let's talk music, by the way. I have, actually, managed to complete a few songs. They're pretty simpl ones, but I really like the way they've turned out. Three in total, one is an attempt at a 'theme song' kind of opening music for the movie, and a couple more that are really just background music attempts. Nothing particularly intriguing about any of them, except that *I* made them, wich makes them extra-cool.
I know I've been trying to move beyond it, but I think I'm going to go back to using 'Mixman' software. For those of you that don't know, Mixman is a program that lets you select from a wide variety of loops (drum loops, base loops, cymbal crashes, strange effects, etc.) in order to put together your music. I've been trying to keep away from it, because while the loops are pretty good, they've all been written by someone else, so it's more like trying to assemble a musical puzzle than actually composing music of your own. I've been trying out other programs such as Fruity loops and the like, but for the current movie project, using Mixman just makes a lot of sense. It doesn't sound too synthesized, and it's really easy to create lots of music, really fast. So I'll head back to that for a while, but I don't really consider it a forum for my greatest musical creations. Still some work to do.
Let's examine my to do list again:
1) Spend Gift Certificates at Best Buy and Amoeba Music -- Not yet
2) Talk with Derek about Rooming-up -- Done, no decision yet
3) Sign up for my next class -- Not till this one is done
4) Complete USC application -- Done
5) Invite Mary over, and decide what to do with weekend -- Done
6) Write music for Next Movie -- In progress
7) Write Scripts for next move -- In progress
8) Pay next month's rent -- Done
9) Deposit all checks -- Not done
10) Heal -- Almost done
Sweet.
-N
Derek and I have been shooting little, short movies for quite a while now. It's a fun hobby. This movie, named 'Alliance', is our most ambitious project to date. The current plan is for eight or perhaps nine chapters. Wow. We've finished chapter '0', which acts as introduction and pilot episode, and we're a good way through chapter 1. So we're going to be working on this for quite a while. You can download a teaser here at the moment. Not much, but it should whet your appetite. I'm not in the teaser. I'm behind the camera. Oh, and something else strange. The other guy in the Trailer, the hansome-looking black fella? His name is also Derek. Rather confusing.
We *will* be putting the whole movie up on the web, but not quite yet. Derek found a place that will host up to 300 MB of webspace for only 7 bucks a month. What a deal! We'll probably get the webspace when we have a chapter or two done, and If I ask nice, Derek will probably let me put up some of my music in there too, so I can make that available for downloading.
Let's talk music, by the way. I have, actually, managed to complete a few songs. They're pretty simpl ones, but I really like the way they've turned out. Three in total, one is an attempt at a 'theme song' kind of opening music for the movie, and a couple more that are really just background music attempts. Nothing particularly intriguing about any of them, except that *I* made them, wich makes them extra-cool.
I know I've been trying to move beyond it, but I think I'm going to go back to using 'Mixman' software. For those of you that don't know, Mixman is a program that lets you select from a wide variety of loops (drum loops, base loops, cymbal crashes, strange effects, etc.) in order to put together your music. I've been trying to keep away from it, because while the loops are pretty good, they've all been written by someone else, so it's more like trying to assemble a musical puzzle than actually composing music of your own. I've been trying out other programs such as Fruity loops and the like, but for the current movie project, using Mixman just makes a lot of sense. It doesn't sound too synthesized, and it's really easy to create lots of music, really fast. So I'll head back to that for a while, but I don't really consider it a forum for my greatest musical creations. Still some work to do.
Let's examine my to do list again:
1) Spend Gift Certificates at Best Buy and Amoeba Music -- Not yet
2) Talk with Derek about Rooming-up -- Done, no decision yet
3) Sign up for my next class -- Not till this one is done
4) Complete USC application -- Done
5) Invite Mary over, and decide what to do with weekend -- Done
6) Write music for Next Movie -- In progress
7) Write Scripts for next move -- In progress
8) Pay next month's rent -- Done
9) Deposit all checks -- Not done
10) Heal -- Almost done
Sweet.
-N
