Super Train Station H

I may have made a 100 mile drive today, but I also wrote a whole lot and just having time to sit behind the wheel cleared up my thoughts a lot and let some new ideas germinate that I think will make the story I’m telling much better, so today wasn’t unproductive in terms of writing at all.

What I’ve been writing lately, I’d consider it akin to being told to engrave the Declaration of Independence on a grain of sand without leaving any details out, but I’ve gotten the hang of it and I’m very pleased with the results so far.

While I’m backing off on making gaming related YouTube videos, I’ll have something cool to share with you tomorrow there.

But speaking of gaming, I got through Dodongo’s Cavern in Ocarina of Time 3D, making this the first time I’ve played this far into the game since 1999 on Nintendo 64.

I visited Lon Lon Ranch today for the first time in this playthough and wow, there was something really oddly emotional and magical about entering the ranch and hearing Malon sing Epona’s Song and meeting Epona and learning the ocarina song that totally went over my head the first time I played it.

I could write a big essay here, but I can sum this up MUCH quicker.

I’m not just some curmudgeon who hates modern re-imaginings of established characters and settings, in fact when its done right that’s probably one of my favorite things, and as far as I’m concerned the more unique and markedly different the re-imagining is the better as long as its true to the spirit of the original work.

In the case of the 2011 The Smurfs flick however, the promotional material just makes it seem like it was cobbled together by people who don’t give a damn or know the first thing about the source material.

Case in point, one TV ad I saw featured voiceover copy to the direct effect of “the Smurfs hit the big screen for the first time ever”, I don’t remember the wording, but the intent was to make a big deal of the fact that this was The Smurf’s first theatrical feature film.

Except for FREAKING THIS:

Come on. Any kid could have browsed the Smurfs Wikipedia article and found this in 5 minutes, and these people are paid to be crafting and representing this film and either didn’t know about this earlier Smurfs feature film, which was actually good (yes, I did see it on tape as a kid) and true to Peyo’s world and characters, or flat out didn’t give a damn and chose to ignore it entirely in suggesting that the 2011 The Smurfs film was the first.

It just shows me that either way, you don’t care about what you’re doing, and combined with what the marketing geniuses chose to show off in the promotional material to represent this film, its hard not for me to expect that this stinks as much as most of the people who’ve seen it have.

I like how they put Frank Gehry in the Author cartoon by literally just making his skin brown and putting little tiny, nondescript Author style ears on him, making look absurdly off model compared to all the other characters, kids or adults.

I was channel surfing for something at 7:15 AM other than infomercials or news and happened to see that. Author is one of those cartoons I know is a very good kids cartoon that takes the intelligence of its target audience seriously, but I still can’t stand it.

Its incredible that the words “Shark Vacuum” still attract me enough to change the channel before I remember its an ad for a vacuum and not some kind of awesome show about… bionic sharks or something. Or someone who hunts sharks using vacuums.

The TV is sort of like the fireplace i need on to ignore while I work indoors, though I always prefer going outdoors when that’s possible.

“it’s hard to eat sausages while wearing a sars mask. be sure to enjoy your sausages in a SARS free area so this obstickle can be avoided and your sausages enjoyed to the max.”

WHY WAS THIS IN MY AUTOCOMPLETE?

WHAT IS THIS I DONT EVEN

So I found this 

“News footage of the German Zeppelin Schwaben being intercepted and shot down en route to a bombing raid on London during World War I.”

Just one problem, the LZ-10 Schwaben wasn’t a warship shot down in a battle during World War I. It was a civilian passenger ship destroyed in a gale years before the war even started.

I guess the newsreel company decided to use some stock footage and didn’t care to specify.

As to why I ended up finding this? That’s a story for another day.

I will say however that since officially saying that I’d be making fewer YouTube videos, my computer is acting properly again. I guess it was stressed out or something. And I eased its mind by letting it know I’d be making fewer videos.

Now work is moving along at an acceptable pace.

Thank you to all of your comments and messages to me since yesterday, they’ve been tremendously motivating and supportive.

My day started at 4:30, because I knew what I was in for.

All work I today was related to career advancing/revenue earning endeavors.

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Switching from the Lasso tool to the Pencil tool -  30 minutes

Copy & Pasting a 2 Megabyte JPEG file - 2 Hours

Delay between keystrokes and their on screen results - 5 to 30 seconds

Switching from Photoshop to my video editing program and back again -  dont even go there

Putting up with the mealless 18 hour grind it took to complete the 30 minute task without going totally insane - priceless

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And in regards to my keeping my sanity, I’m not counting the moment where I pretended to be Lord Voldemort.

An epiphany has struck me in a way that I can describe only as a really incredible plot twist that’s exciting, yet I’m not sure if I like it or not, and am also not sure if its just a red herring and there really isn’t any plot twist going on at all.

I can’t go into much more detail than that, because I don’t want to speak or act prematurely.

All I can say is that this is interesting and unexpected.

To ease the tension, a pretty little piano waltz.