The day is here again

Well everyone, it's the 23rd. That means that Festivus is here again.



Happy holidays to you all, which ever holiday you celebrate this season.

I will be back, with more personal and production stuff in a week or so.

Computer Get!

I have my computer.

I first decided on the $1399 13-in Macbook Pro about a month ago. After a while, I finally bumped up to the $1999 15-in Macbook Pro, realizing that 13-in was a step back from my last laptop in terms of screen size. However, once I was in Best Buy, the dude started trying to upsell me on the $2199 15-in Macbook Pro with the i7 processor...

So I bought it. Yes, he was trying to up-sell me, but I didn't take much convincing to do it, I was already thinking that was the way to go.

I have my nice, new computer. I'm still adapting to using a Mac again after about 6 years of being Windows-exclusive. I really like it though.

Next up...Final Cut Studio.

Break on Through to the Other Side

I had a breakthrough last night while I was sitting down thinking about my series. I had a great cliffhanger planned for the end of season 2, but last night I thought of an awesome resolution to it for the beginning of season 3. Up until last night, I wasn't sure how I would get out of the corner I painted myself into with the cliffhanger, but this is just a great solution. I also added some elements to the ending that I believe make it stronger, more exciting, and somewhat more ambiguous. I like that, I am definitely keeping these additions.

So mostly my main concern is the beginning. I have all these awesome ideas for the 2nd and 3rd acts of my story, but only a vague outline of how to get there in act 1. Its quite annoying, I guess that will be my next focus.

In other news, anybody see the new EMH video, 'Damsel'? Holy shit that was awesome. The first time Jeff has been the bad ass in a video, instead of just moping around. If Jeff becomes more awesome in the upcoming videos, that may soften the blow of my favorite character so far, Evan, being a force of evil (most likely, if he is Habit).

...I'm at the point where I ran out of titles for posts.

Not much happening. Just sitting here at work, doing some plotting in my mind while I'm earning some scratch. You know, milking the ol' cash cow. Just got my pay check...I'm really eager to get my new computer, but I have a coupon that I can get a $130 Best Buy gift card with the purchase, which won't activate until the second week of Dec. So I'm waiting until the coupon starts, because it would be stupid not too.

This anticipation is driving me nuts. I want my computer, dammit.
Oh well, gotta just be patient.

Also, I didn't want this to turn into pretty much exclusively a production blog, but it feels like it's drifting that way...so I leave you with:

Where in the world is Bob_Bobbson?

Alright, Updates n' shit.

-Slendy Series: I have not gotten too far. I have the over all plot, broken into 3 acts (which will probably equal 3 seasons of around 15-22 'episodes') I have the ending already written (And it is awesome) and from there some seeds of how I can carry on after for a season 4 if I ever decide to. Don't worry though, if not, the Season 3 ending is very conclusive and satisfying. I also started plotting out the first couple episodes. I do not have any cast yet, no costume. Just my camera...

-Other ARG-y elements: While this will be just what some call 'Chaotic Fiction', not an ARG, I will work in a few elements to increase immersion. For example, I will make a blog, a Twitter, a last.fm and a couple other various social networking accounts for the characters involved. For the characters that it makes sense for, I will also make youtube accounts. My hope is to have the actors I get fill these out some and sort of get a chance to stretch their legs and flesh out their characters as they see fit.

-Video Shit in general: So, I have my really nice camera...what's next? My Laptop is probably about 4-5 years old now. It's slow, I've filled most of the HDD, and the editing software I am using (Sony Vegas) keeps fighting with me. I just can't get the hang of it, and it runs slow on my slow ass computer. So, I have a plan. I'm getting a Macbook Pro. Yep, some time between now and Christmas, I will pick up a Macbook and Final Cut Studio. This works great because I need a new computer anyway, I learned how to use FCP in my high school TV class, and the software is cheaper (w/about 7 other programs bundled in) than the software on PC. All I need to do is get used to using a Mac again after about 6 years...

That's it for now, Just really happy Marble Hornets came back last night. Hell Yeah.

Writing again.

About 6 or 7 months ago, I discovered the 'Slenderman' phenomenon. In the months since, I have gone all the way through 'Season 1' of Marble Hornets and I'm up to date following EverymanHYBRID. Now all I have to say is...looks fun, I want in.

Yeah, I started to write a Slenderman web series. I know, I know. I'm not trying to rip anyone off. I am just a huge fan of both series and the mythos of the character that were built on the Something Awful forums.

My main objective is to take small bits from both series and also the mythos from the forums, and create a 'Bible' of sorts for all things Slenderman. Basically compile as much as I can, as thouroughly as I can. Then, with that I will bring in and blend in my original ideas, making sure as to not contradict the established mythos. Will there be a few similarities, refrences or shout outs to the other series? Sure. But I'm not going to go through and lift things wholesale. (Although I am intrigued with finding away to film Troy's 'unfilmable' alternate Marble Hornets ending he mentioned)

So basically, what am I doing? Firstly, I am plotting out the story and the over arching plot of the series. I am also planning on exactly how in the hell would I make a Slenderman costume. I do have some exciting ideas for that. My main concern is the writing...

I am pretty decent at plotting. I also have been told I have a 'knack' for dialog. My main struggle is focusing my ideas into a cohesive, well paced narrative. For that, I hope I can get someone to help. I'll have to get in touch with some of my friends. I've always written better with a partner, hopefully that works out.

Wicky Wicky Wah- Wicky Wicky Wild Wild West.

Yeah, I relize I haven't written anything for a while. I'll probably write something this weekend. Sorry.

Also, who the hell am I appologizing to? No one reads this.

I am so smart. S-M-R-T -- I mean S-M-A-R-T

I just thought of something, something that is I think is briliant (but that could just be my lack of sleep talking.)

In Marvel and DC comics, events are on a 'sliding time scale'. That's how they explain how the characters never age.
For example, the Fantastic Four stole a rocket and blasted into space on that fateful day back in 1961, which led to them gaining their powers by cosmic rays. Except it didn't, now it is considered that it happened only about 10-12 years ago (comic time). Time compresses and slides in continuity so that the events always happened more recently than they really did.
Also, Peter Parker was 15 in Amazing Fantasy #15 when he became Spider-Man. Now, 58 years later, Peter is still in his late 20's/early 30's. So what am I trying to get at here? What if he wasn't? What if he was 73 right now?

I think it would be incredibly interesting if someone would create a comic book universe that moves (for the most part) in real time. Characters age a year every year. You have new heroes introduced, old heroes retire/die and everything all flows like reality. I don't know why, but this idea facinates me. And I'm not talking about elseworlds miniseries, Dark Knight Returns type things. Their main Universe and continuity ages in real time.

Really, I think that'd be sort of cool.

Microsoft Fixing things that aren’t broken: Messenger.

Okay, this is just a quick post.

I installed the new Windows Live beta a few minutes ago, this includes a beta of the next version of Messenger. Guess what…

They removed customizable display names. Yep. I’m serious. Have any contacts on messenger that you don’t want to know too much about you? Too bad, now when they talk to you they see your Full (First & Last) name. Sure you can turn it off, but then they just see your email address and no name.

And yes, this applies to all contacts. Say you have your cousin on messenger and some dude you just met on a forum. You don’t mind your cousin seeing your real name, but don’t want forum dude too. TOO BAD, either they both see it, or neither of them do.

Really stupid idea from Microsoft. If they don’t fix it, I can see quite a few people moving on to a different IM program over this (I’m considering it.)

The Devil Went Down to Queens, He was looking for a Marriage to Steal.

Spidey Retcon A Go-Go: O.M.I.T.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

I have made it very clear, on many occasions, that I hate One More Day. Hate it. It threw out years of development and had Peter Parker act completely out of character, making a deal with (Marvel's Facsimile of) the Devil to save his 800 year old aunt. He sacrificed in this deal his loving, supportive wife, MJ, to save a woman that has been on death's door for 20 years. Hell, Aunt May 'died' once about 20 years ago and Peter grieved and moved on fine then. Oh but I forgot, this was all mandated (and written) by the Editor-in-Chief because he hated the marriage. But I digress...

Taking care of business and working overtime

Well, yesterday was an interesting day.

I work in an office with 2 other people (well, and the bosses). They both have one day a week off. I work a full, 5 day week. I also work the late shift, begining around noon.
Anyway, one of the people I work with is pregnant and very near her due date. She called me yesterday at 7:30 AM and said that she couldn't make it in. It also happened to be the other person's day off. The thing is, that person said they will not give up their day off when the other is on maternaty leave. (Whatever, she has her reasons, not a big deal. I'm not that upset about it.) The bosses said they would cover on the one day a week that person is off.
...The problem is my bosses don't do the day to day work and don't come into the office that often, meaning they have no idea how to do the work they are covering.
Long story short, I worked from 8 AM to 8PM yesterday. I ran the entire office and did most of the work myself.
I am so happy it's friday. Yesterday sucked.

Inner Voice

If you know me, you know I am a Conan O'Brien fan, and I'm not really that big of a Leno fan. That said, I found this hilarious.

Conan O'Brien's 60 Minutes Inner Monologue - watch more funny videos

This is my private life, come and get me out of here.

Yeah, I just realized I don't really write about my self that much. Looking over my last few posts, I have 2 game reviews, a promise of a TV review, and a draft of an album review. Aside from that, all my posts have been about me making a video, one that I may never release now. So a total of 1 post was about me, and that was me bitching about work.

Who am I? Well, I'm hoping to shed some light on that. I've decided to write about more than just some media I've consumed and spit out my opinion on. I've realized looking back how little of me is actually on here. Sure, I typed out my thoughts on things, but everyone can do that (and they do on the likes of amazon and other sites).

I figure I'll write a bit more about my life from now on, along with the reviews. I'll throw in things I find on the web that I like. All in all though, I plan to inject into this blog something it needs, personality, and even more importantly, some fun.

Later

Stop. Collaborate and listen, Ice is back with a brand new invention.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - Reinventing what wasn't broken.

I love Silent Hill. It's probably my favorite game franchise. I like it so much that when I realized I missed 3 somehow, (I rented it but never actually bought it) I paid $60 for a sealed copy on ebay. In 2010. $60 for a PS2 game.

So yeah, I really love this series, and because of that, I had been following Shattered memories for a long time. Everything about it just kept getting better and better. From the interesting concept (re-imagining of the 1st game) to the game altering depending on your personality, to the numerous accolades it received from gaming publications. Then came Phelous's review...

The Waiting is the Hardest Part.

Okay, so I said I was going to finish my review last weekend...yeah...

I forgot it was easter weekend. I ended up being pretty busy, including going up to Canada to my grandparent's house for Easter dinner. I am on call this weekend, so I'll work on it then, since I'll have a lot of down time.

Sorry to all 0 of you reading this.

Better Off Dead

Deadly Premonition, Or How I learned to stop worrying and just enjoy the ride.

Deadly Premonition is a game that is getting a lot of surprise buzz lately, mostly in part to Destructoid's bizarre 10/10 review. Believe it or not, based on that review and some positive word of mouth, I decided to take a chance on it.

I proudly plucked a copy off of the GameStop shelf and marched up to the counter, my $20 in hand. The Clerk looked at me funny and asked if I had heard anything about the game. I told him that I had heard it was "Really bad, but really fun." He just nodded and said, "Hmm...I guess there's much worse ways to spend $20..." He gestured towardss a clearance table with a used $19 copy of MGS4 and continued "... but there are much better ways too." What he didn't realize, is he couldn't have been more wrong.

Carry That Weight

Alright, I took a bit of a break from editing, relaxing for a couple of days. I found my V.O. mic (The USB Rock Band Mic, haha) doesn't sound that great, everything is slightly muffled. Because of that, I have to record all the voice overs on my camera's onboard mic (which sounds great, btw) and import the video into Vegas and delete the video track. It's a bit more of a hassle then I was planning on, so I decided to take a break, resuming work on it this weekend.

Also, I need to stop watching other video reviewers online, it just keeps making me nervous. On Spoony's forums I found this dude "The Necro Critic" (He's not too bad, but he's not really my 'cup of tea' you could say). Anyway, I noticed he's wearing the same zip front hoodie as me in my up coming video! Not only that he sorta waves in the intro, as do I! ...Yeah, not a big deal but I'm paranoid that people will come after me claiming I'm ripping him off or something. After the reaction Brad got to his cameo in Phelous's video, anything's possible.

...People always overreact to the stupidest shit.

Everybody's workin' for the weekend.

Abba Zaba, you're my only friend.

Alright, got most of my filming done. I was running around pulling my hair out trying to get it ready. It seems right when I'm about to start filming, everything that can go wrong, does.

Then I kept fucking up and having to do things over and over again. Good thing this review is a little light on on-camera parts, because it ended up only taking about 2 hours to film.

Now I'm just editing and getting ready to record voice over.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Okay, I finally fixed the width on the main column. I'm going to do some more tinkering with it, probably create a banner picture of some sorts too.

Last night I got my 2nd draft of my script written and printed. Tonight I am watching that god awful movie a 3rd time while editing this draft into the shooting script. I am then aming for actually shooting this fucker on Sunday, giving me some time to pick up a few last minute props and set decorations Saturday.

Then after that, it's super editing fun time. Not sure how long that will take, but after that I will share it with a few close friends. As long as they don't hate it, it then goes onto blip and I post it both here and the tgwtg blog/forums.

I hope it turns out good, considering I've already picked a second movie to review...

Camera is here! or I have another hurdle now.

Me holding my new camera and a Dr. Pepper; doing my best overweight, stoned Jake Gyllenhaal impression.

Alright, my camera got here Friday. I had a rough week at the office, so I sat around for a while drinking some Heritage Dr. Pepper and goofing around with it. So please excuse the messy hair and tired, unshaven look, I took this around 3 or 4 AM.

The camera looks great, it films in 1080i and has Sony's new 'G' Lens. Also, this camera records straight to the 120 GB HDD, so I it's pretty damn convenient, and I don't have to worry about picking up the noise of a tape motor on mic.

There's another thing that got in my way though. I was going to type up the next draft of my script (Some edits to, y'know, make with the funny) and my copy of Word told me that it was not authentic and deactivated itself. Of course it was torrented though, so I can't complain. Haha. So I have to drop some coin to get a real one from Best Buy. Good thing I had a whole bunch of reward certificates banked.

That's it for now. Time to listen to the Silent Hill 3 Soundtrack and experiment some more with the camera and Vegas.

Later.

First Review Update

Yep, First draft of my first review script has been edited, and I need to pop these changes into Word.

After this, one more viewing of the movie while editing draft 2, for any missed details/jokes. Then that will be turned into the shooting script.

Also, I ordered my camera on Saturday. It's pretty awesome, and probably more than I ever needed to spend as a beginner...what can I say, I love the expensive stuff.

I'm also trying to quickly learn the ropes on Vegas Movie Studio HD. It's been about 6 years since I've used any editing software, and that was Final Cut Pro back in High School. Vegas is a bit different, to say the least.

Aside from that I'm just trying to work hard to get all the music, clips, and pictures I'll need to make it. And it's so exciting, and fun, to be making a video for the first time in ages.

Also, I don't really want to say what movie it is yet, I'll give a hint. It's a terrible late 2000's horror movie directed by a Oscar nominated director.

Now Listening To: Shiny Toy Guns - Chemistry of a Car Crash

Work sucks, I know.

I'm sitting at work right now, but really I'd rather be writting something.

My bosses have decided to switch computer programs, which in my field is pretty much the nervous system of our business. Everything we do depends on our program and how well we can use it.

So I am put in charge of this new program and the training that comes along with it. This thing is cumbersome and slow as hell. Work I used to be able to get done in 30 seconds, now takes five mintues. To top it off, this program is giving me ill-advised advice on the data I am entering, automattically changing what I enter to what it thinks it should be, and even transmitting information that I never entered in.

We brought this up with my boss yesterday, and he admitted that this program was probably not the way to go, but he told us to deal with it. It came off almost as he is doing this to spite our previous computer programmer, who he has yet to even tell he is letting go.

This thing is so bad that I got to the point last night that I almost flew into an ADAMANTIUM RAGE! Okay, not really, but I got so pissed that I went home afterwords wanting to work on my script, but in that mood I just couldn't write comedy.

...I just don't know what to do. This sucks. Thank God it's friday.

Oscar Night Twitter

So, I signed up for twitter about a week or so ago. Mostly it was having both Conan O'Brien and Craig Ferguson on there that drove me to do it.

Anyway, last night I was sitting there watching the beginning of the Oscars when it occurred to me that I could keep a running monologue of my thoughts on the show. I checked Roger Ebert (who I am following) and he was doing it, and I decided to jump in and tweet my take on the show. So I missed the opening number, but I did start with the first award. A few commercials in, I decided to add my "Commercial Break Commentary" where I'd just comment on anything about the show so far.

A Fresh Start.

Well, I've moved to blogger in anticipation of working on my first internet video. I decided that I needed to move somewhere that I know I can embed blip videos. The last place just wasn't cutting it. Besides, it looked like ass (too cluttered) and as a bonus I can put a twitter widget on here (couldn't there).

So, no one is reading this anyway, so I should wrap it up.

Later

P.S. the old blog is located at http://bob-bobbson.spaces.live.com/