Night of the Living Blog

New computer New AMV

2009-08-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest AMV attempt. The song is "Fireflies" by Owl City and the Anime "Grave of the Fireflies" Fairly obvious, I know, but this is largely an exercise to see how iMovie works and whether or not it will be usable. Honestly I still don't know yet but I would appreciate any constructive feedback.

48 Hour Film Festival

2009-01-22T19:46:00.000-08:00

Some times things are lost in editing... or our terrible writing at 4 in the morning. This was a lot of fun to do though and I may work with the director again.

New Video.

2008-08-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the next video, it took me a while to get some inspiration. I guess that's my Update for the next six months.

New hobby

2007-11-19T19:51:00.000-08:00

Well for those of you who haven't heard. I have recently started dabbling in AMV (Anime Music Video) editing. It is something that I have thought of before, but it took the encouragement and instruction of a new friend to get me started. So I finished my first video, it's not great technically (I'm still learning exactly what I can and can't do with my computer.) but thematically I think it holds together nicely. Hopefully after this there will be many more to come.

Here it is:

A higher definition version is available at www.animemusicvideos.org My account is aclau826.

a brief re-prose

2007-11-11T14:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was ill and now I am well. My immune system dances like an exotic Gypsy maiden whose feet step too close to a fire only to spin away before any real damage can be done. Cursing the impending down swing and my week fortitude I stumble from bed searching for a glass to fill with water. The life giving water that will quench the fire or at least give a rest to the tattoo that encourages the maiden's tireless feet. Slowly, civilly, my senses return to me with the grace of a melancholy kitten barely able to lift it's own head from the burlap before it hits the icy water.

Then Absolute clarity. My symbol heavy life suddenly bleeds away with an insurmountable tenacity leaving me alone in my room, cold and naked. I am drenched in the sweat of what must have been an intense dream, though it's contents has now vacated my head. All that remains of me is the physical, and that physical is cold. shuffling towards my closet i drag a warn out terrycloth robe from the tangles of unfinished laundry. Secure within it's flimsy folds I continue to the kitchen where I run the coffee machine, sans the coffee, to get water for tea. Once the tea has steeped and I have calmed my aching bones with a stiff shot of chi I am able to slip back, back to the metaphor. I search for my dreams with the obsessed tenacity of a B-movie buff looking for the rarest of prints. I dig through hours of those unlabeled reals that make up my dreams, and then it strikes me.

I am looking for a complete fragment, when what I need is a fragmented whole. A dream shouldn't look like an uncut dolly-shot. It has clipping and angles and mine was not only conforming to the rule but it was in all fact the rule itself.

(more to come... maybe... maybe I don't yet not sure where it was going just wanted to write.)

Annual

2007-09-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

It feels some times like I should just give up my blog. I rarely update and I know it frustrates the hell out of you my friends. But just when I think I've had it with the Internet I feel the need to pontificate on my life and let people know what's going on. I make no promises and I hope for no expectations, but here I am and here it is.

I have started collage again, to be a teacher. Classes started with an exuberant apathy that I Don't believe I have ever seen in a collage town. The weekend before the start of class was herald with silence and a lack of students. Those living in dorms stayed in their territory, afraid of what a journey around the little town might bring. Those who lived off of the campus felt no need to move in until the first day of classes, either driven by a desire to delay the inevitability or a realization that there was simply nothing to do without a concerted effort in this agrarian university town.

Even so classes started off well enough. I was at first intimidated by the education department until I realized that those who were intimidating me seldom knew what was going on and those that I felt comfortable around knew but were ultimately there to help. The English courses I have begun to take have been fascinating and engaging. I have especially fallen in love with a multicultural lit. class that only meets once every week. The discussion during class is engaging and energized; and the list of material we'll be covering is fascinating. I will even have a reason to stop procrastinating and read the graphic novel Mouse. I am going to have to remember to try and take further courses with the professor.

Free time has been at a solitary premium lately. I have been making attempts at gaining friends and have so far managed to make several solid acquaintances. Hopefully the Japanese culture and Anime club I have joined will prove fruitful in this endeavor. The club consists of an hour of presentation on Japanese culture followed by three hours of Anime. I will probably be presenting on Kabuki makeup this semester if I can figure out a time when I will be able to do it and I have a notion to do a talk on Japanese suicide culture next semester after some extensive research.

That is my life right now. I am living in a lonely little apartment on the top floor of a house. I encourage those who know me to call or visit me. I miss your voices and presence as the best company in this little secluded island of shelter is myself and I think I'm starting to creep out the neighbors.

Carpe Canum
Andrew

P.S. Yes that means "Seize the Dog," No it was not a typo.

So easy a Caveman did it.

2007-04-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

Today is a sad day, maybe. It all depends on how you felt about the syndicated comic strip B.C. with it's gentle yet stale comedy. It's creator John Heart is dead. Why does this inspire me to finally update my Blog after several months? Other than the feeling that I have to eventually, I felt this is as good of a time as any to let people know who still actually check my blog know my feelings in this matter and call them to action. Mr. Heart is dead but B.C. is not. His family still plans on using his archived artwork to continue with his comic strip.

I enjoyed B.C. the same way I enjoy a slice of toast with grape jelly. Sure it tastes good, and gives you a bit of sustenance, but over time one grows board of it. Now we have the same piece of toast but it has artificial grape flavored jelly substance on it. Give it up heart family. Charles Schultz didn't keep posthumously publishing Peanuts. Both B.C. and Peanuts were small pieces of my childhood reading. Peanuts is registered as a fond memory, if B.C. continues it will only live as an abomination of a family who doesn't respect the memory of their loved one enough to let go. I encourage anyone who has a local paper that publishes B.C. to write into them and suggest that they let a new comic into their pages. Have them give a chance to some one who may touch our hearts and funny bones like Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, and Garfield did.

Now on to the more personal. I have been struggling with the administration of my new school already. While I believe that I am on the correct course to getting in to collage it feels like I am having to jump through every hoop imaginable to register for classes. But as one of my advisers says "Close enough for Jazz." Everything aside I will be joining the students of UW White Water this next fall and I am happy to do so. the biggest problem so far has been meeting the requirements for admission into the Education department. The weirdest of which is the need to attend a lecture (also available on DVD apparently) before I can get into classes. I'm glad that you have to do some work to become a teacher but damn if it's not a lot of bureaucratic bullshit. The time is slowly ticking down towards my departure from NYC. I have to say that I will miss it. Not my crappy job or my asshole customers, but rather the people who have made me keep my faith in my fellow man, or woman as the case may be. To those of you out there reading this who are my friends from the midwest and otherwise. thank you so much for being friends. Friends and loved ones are what the worlds about. Money would be nice too but I can live without.

Peace and love
Andrew

RIP John Heart... you were mildly humorous and safe but your time is now past.

List of current web comics fit for syndication:

I can only think of one

Suzie's view (http://hackneyed.net/comics/sv/)

the classic art style of Sunday paper cartoons with the heart of a little boy and his stuffed tiger.
If you agree send your love and support to the author and local papers.

Teaching, Learning, Living

2006-12-15T08:58:00.000-08:00

Hello my friends and other random strangers who go around reading peoples blogs. I have been having a real interesting time recently trying to figure out life. Something has been missing and I have been working on figuring it out. Well as of a week ago I'm signed up to take the PRAXIS I test. (for those of you who don't know that is one of the early steps of becoming a teacher.) I have also been in contact with a couple of schools to gain information on their Theatre Ed programs. This all having been said, I am now undergoing the process of re-learning Math and preparing for this test. That's essentially life right now. I work I study and I breath. My personal life is tough right now but it is also filled with people who care for me, even if they aren't in state at the moment.

I am looking forward right now to spend new years in New York with good friends. I would like to thank now all of my friends. I feel blessed (wait did the typically blasphemous Andrew say blessed?) to have such a close network of people who I care about and who care about me.

And to those random people reading this because they have nothing better to do. You people are weird... do something else worth while like supporting a good web comic like Venus Envy (http://venusenvy.comicgenesis.com/) or Dr. McNinja (http://drmcninja.com/index.html) and donate to them too you web-crawlers, because they could use the money to support the art they do. If that's not your cup of tea try Sam and Fuzzy (http://www.samandfuzzy.com/).

Happy Holidays! (Chanukah starts today)

Where I was a week ago...

2006-11-18T22:07:00.000-08:00

Ok lovely and loyal blog fans, it's time for the third update in under a month. That having been said I actually wanted to do this one earlier but I was waiting to make sure I could include some pictures with the post.

Any way, last week I hopped aboard a train and headed south to North Carolina to visit my good friends Ryan and Kristen. It was interesting being in NC as a lot of the phisical environment reminded me of Wisconsin and yet it was just off enough to make me feel like I was in another dimention. The ride down was fairly uneventfull. I had some time to write, sleep, and think. Mostly sleep really but it made the ride go faster. I was met at the trainstation by an exuberant Ryan, who I hadn't seen since I crashed his place in Montana in March. There were the typical greating and bsing about the normal things: Sports, girls who've broke our hearts, the Matrix. (little Clerks for ya.) And that was pritty much saturday. We all went to bed in anticipation of our Sunday activities.

Sunday we went to a Ren Fare. While I was in a fairly bad mood at the begining of the day (to the point where I was looking arround me and thinking about how commercial the Fare was) that soon changed as I watched preformances and enjoyed the sights and sounds of people having fun. It's funny how being arround happy people is infectious. We watched nuns sing dirty songs, a man tell the tale of Romeo and Juliet in spoonerisms, and a Joust durring the course of the day. I even sampled some delicious local beers (though I have forgotten their names). The highlight of the evening however is when we were on our way out and decided to catch the final preformance of the "Washer Wenches" on our way out. Now the Washer Wenches are women who stand on a stage washing clothing and singing dirty songs, and the last show of the night is always the filthiest as there are far fiewer families at this point in the day. While we were origionaly going to pass them by we noticed that one of the women was about to fall out of her costume and was displaying nipples at half-mast. So we stoped and grabed a seat and I bet Ryan dinner that she would fall out before the end of the preformance, A bet which I lost thanks to well made costumes... or tape... or maybe magic because she was serioustly just bursting the entire time. While we were watching the preformance they needed a vollentier for a song as "none of them could play the virgin," and low and behold who would they pick but me. Well I wasn't one to not stand up when called upon (a little fib never hurt anyone). Aparently though in their three week run I was the only person to ever get up on stage after being called a vergin, so for the first time that festival they had to preform "Do Virgins taste Better." Of course I hammed it up and had a great time. After that I got reffrenced in several other songs and even after the show was over by people I hadn't even seen watching the show. So here is a picture of that.
That's all for now.

*: as a note this is so late as our internet connection (which we were stealing) was cut off Mid post. thank god it was saved.

Playing with my Wii

2006-11-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

Hello true believers! Another blog entry in under a week, I must be feeling sick or something. The fact of the matter is that I have to share with you an experience I had today that I think is going to revolutionize (no pun intended) (If you got the last bracket you are a true nerd) the way I waste away my free time.

In the late hours of my shift a man walked through the door of the game store. He was wearing a Nintendo polo and was carrying a backpack full of wonderful things. Amongst these was the set up kit for the Nintendo Wii interactive demo that we had recently received at our store. After some set up and some BS it was ready to be played. It is glorious, innovative and deceptively easy to use.

For those of you who are lost (and most of my readers may be). The Wii is the new game system by Nintendo to be relised on the 19th of November. It is going to feature (among the typical processor and graphics upgrades) a specialized control scheem that utilizes a motion sensitive remote control that optionally attaches to a joystick, or "nun chuck" as Nintendo is calling it, with a motion sensor of its own. This allows you, through quick intuitive movements, to interact with a virtual world in ways that we have only dreamed of up to this point.

Why is this important? Well, while video games have been growing in budget and popularity over the last Nineteen years (I am counting from the nation wide appearance of the NES to present as it marked the true end to the Video game crash that occurred thanks to Atari and other companies of the early days) they have also been growing more complex and stagnant at the same time. Any new innovation has been minor at best and quickly copied by all of the competitors (Analog sticks were introduced by Nintendo with the N64 and quickly copied by everyone.). At the same time the controllers have been garnished with more and more (unnecessary and poorly placed) buttons. This has lead to a steep learning curve for people who haven't grown up on video games. Grandparents who want to spend time with their video game addicted grand kids, friends who maybe played a few games years ago but aren't exactly adept at using all those wacky sticks and buttons. These are the people we are shutting out. I remember my grandfather (god bless his soul) when I first showed him the NES he tried to figure it out but in the end we just ended up playing Duck Hunt. This was because it was intuitive to play; you aimed and pulled the trigger that was it.

That brings us to now... Nintendo has done it again! they have created a control scheme that is simple to use. I was playing a racing game and all you had to do was hold down a button (the gas) and tilt the controller left and right to steer! It's brilliant! It was so simple to use that after only a few seconds of playing i had completely grasped how to play with no instruction whatsoever!

That is my rant for the day true believers. You know what I'll be doing the evening of the 19th and probably as much of the 20th as I can. I know you may not really care, and I'm cool with that. But now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

*: "Hello true believers" is a quote from Stan Lee that preceded all of the episodes for the
Spider-man TV series in the 70's.
**: "Now you know, and knowing is half the battle." is graciously ripped off from G.I. Joe public
service announcements. Which I might add are hilarious even before people reduced them
on the internet.

South to North

2006-11-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a while I know, but I’m terrible at this as you may have figured out by now. Any way, New York has been great so far. It is big but I rarely feel a threat from my surroundings. I have been working at Gamestop again in my transfer store (or as I like to call it the Gametanic), which is essentially a sinking ship they have placed me on. The store just was removed from impact, for those of you who don't work at Gamestop that means we were in trouble because of inventory problems. Other than that it is just really busy during the day meaning we have NO TIME FOR ANYTHING! And I’m not talking about the crap we did at the old store I worked at, I'm talking about basic work on an everyday level. It takes a concentrated task force to get anything done in the store other than checking customers out. Insane, crazy, busy. To top that off my dad just finished having surgery to remove some prostate cancer. Fortunately he's doing a lot better now.

With everything that has been going on there have been some recent changes in life that have been stressing me out. As a result I have taken the next weekend off and have planned a trip to North Carolina to visit my dear friends Ryan and Kristen (and all of their cats who will inevitably make me stuffy). It will be a good chance just to spend some time with friends, maybe catch a Ren. Fare and Detox from city life.

That having been said I hope everyone is doing well, especially those who I don't hear from on a regular basis. Give your loved ones a big hug! no reason really, it just never hurts to hug!

They Live..... In New York apparently.

2006-09-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hello all of you people in blog land. Well it has been a long time since my last post (several months in fact.) but I finally have something to add to this blog.

Yes that's my excuse, nothing more grandiose than that. But now there is something that has been a year coming. I'm finally moving out to New York City. I was able to secure a transfer out to a Game Stop in the area (yay for having a starting Part time job!) and I am moving into a very reasonably priced three-bedroom apartment with Greta and Humphrey (We have a balcony!). It's exciting and scary all at the same time. The best part is that I'll finally be close enough to Samantha to visit my lovely fiancé when I have extra time! Also near the top of the list is the ability to actually make a serious start towards working in the Theatre. All is planned and we are leaving soon. Hopefully this will lead to having more to post.

Until next time!

Q-Ball in the corner pocket

2006-04-05T23:42:00.000-07:00

ok post time!

It'll be brief but I just wanted to let everyone know what I have been up to. I am out in Montana at the moment working on a one act festival with a new theatre company "Mercury Theatre" The work has been exciting and it's good to be back in the swing of things again. Um... so far no good news on any of the grad schools and that means time to plan to move out east to be in the middle of action but more importantly closer to the one I love.

I have a picture for you all of a new andy. I wish I had taken it a few days ago when the cut was fresh but... I shaved my head. Yes I said it shaved head. I then went outside and managed to get myself sunburned all over my skull... so now I feel like a lizard shedding my skin.

Keep on me to keep updating! I need the encouragement, I'm lazy.

Oh yeah go and read this webcomic. I honestly didn't know what transexual's really were untill I read this well written comic: http://venusenvy.comicgen.com

Read it now.

Oh and also:

Boondock Saints... who are you?

You are Special Agent Paul Smecker. You are conservative but you can lose your cool and start trampling through bushes in a rage. You are very keen and you care.
Take this quiz!

Moon for the Mythbegotten

2006-02-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

hello everyone! Here is my mythical creature. I have my first interview for grad studies this upcomming Monday and I am verry excited about it. in the next week or so I'll be posting my reviews of the scripts for "Topdog Underdog" and "On Tour" two scripts that nichole let me steal (they will then be shiped off to her). Updates to come.

Oh before I forget, while laura is ranting about Brokeback don't forget the other nominees. This includes "Howl's Moving Castle" as best animated feature (and the only film on the list that doesn't use stop motion animation). Here are the rest of the nominees: Oscar Nominees

You are Form 3, Unicorn: The Innocent.

"And The Unicorn knew she wasn't meant to

go into the Dark Wood. Disregarding the

advice given to her by the spirits, Unicorn

went inside and bled silver blood.. For her

misdeed, the world knew evil."

Some examples of the Unicorn Form are Eve

(Christian) and Pandora (Greek).
The Unicorn is associated with the concept of

innocence, the number 3, and the element of

water.
Her sign is the twilight sun.

As a member of Form 3, you are a curious

individual. You are drawn to new things and

become fascinated with ideas you've never

come in contact with before. Some people may

say you are too nosey, but it's only because

you like getting to the bottom of things and

solving them. Unicorns are the best friends

to have because they are inquisitive.

Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Dream Team

2006-01-17T01:49:00.000-08:00

Hadn't updated for a while and I thought I would just show this little bit of photoshop that I stumbled on while searching the web and update my links. For those of you unfamiliar with "Lupin the 3rd" it is one wacky animated show that is full of crude sexual jokes and antics. The US translation (I balk to call it an English translation because it is so Americanized) is sketchy at best containing references to many pop culture icons in the United States including Denis Rodman. This is in spite of the fact that the references have nothing to do with the time period that the show is set in. Any way I found this and I have to say I don't know that I could have done a better job casting it. Well... I always felt that one of our former classmates would make a far better Fujiko than whom they have selected, but hay not like I know anything.

Any way, as the end of the month draws near and the prospect of graduate school interviews grows closer I grow both excited and nervous at what the future holds for me. While I have the utmost confidence that I can appear competent in person I am more concerned about getting the chance to have that interview. Oh well there is nothing like a little bit of nerves to add interest to life.

Other news... hmmm... Well I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain" yet but it seems to be cleaning up at the golden globes. Not a surprise that it hasn't been to the area... Rogers’s cinema hasn't been known for their support of good movies. I have however finally seen "Wedding Crashers." I didn't want to like this movie; I didn't want to like Vince Vaughn. I never want to like Vince Vaughn. But the script was at least passable and the chemistry between Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn is irrefutable. Also the nuances of Vaughn's performance never ceases to amaze me. Maybe it is because I don't go into a movie expecting to like him that I am always so impressed, but nonetheless it is worth the $3 rental fee if you are looking for a good laugh.

Speaking of a good laugh I would like to tell all of you who haven't seen "Boondocks" on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim that you have no idea what you are missing. As far as I am concerned it is the best written most socially conscious show on television right now. On a side note it is up for an NAACP image award so you do the math. All the more impressive is the fact that I didn't much care for the comic that the show was based on. I do think, however, that I have finally figured out why. The art in the comics feel like they have a lot of potential energy waiting to be released. The show takes all of that held back potential and turns it into kinetic energy to amazing effects. So let's everyone get out there and throw a folding chair at a fox news anchor and see if this world isn't a better place for it.

I have now have had to edit this post twice since I initialy posted... any who I found this interesting article on christian gamer clans and felt that it was interesting. I don't know quite what my opinion is on everything expressed here but my initial reaction is that they can't be a bad thing. that having been said I some how doubt that most players of some of the games they are on get the games in the same way they do and I also would probably would want to take some games off of their list of "Games with Violance for Violances sake." But other than that it gives me hope for a future understanding between religion and gamers. Now if we could just get people to look at the context of other forms of visual media.. oh yah here is the link: "God Mode"

Posting to save this dog and the gradschool tango

2005-12-18T16:13:00.000-08:00

While it has been too long since I have posted on this blog I am fortunate enough to have friends who will threaten animals to get me to update the ol' blog.

That is out of the way now and on to happier things there are only two days until I get to see Samantha again and I can't wait it's been too long and I miss her more than I can ever say. But that will all be better soon as I am prepared to barrel towards Milwaukee to meet up with her plain.

In other news I have my first graduate school application in and have begun working on my next three (far more then begun but it still feels like there is so much to do). Any way I've been working hard and have managed to beat the machine allowing myself to get my hands on a Xbox 360 at very minimal cost to myself (less then 15 bucks for the whole thing) I won't say how but needless to say I was lucky.

My advice for this post is a little bit more on the serious side (as much as I am ever serious). Be careful during this season the roads are icy and may be unsafe. Also a happy Chanukah to all of you who believe in old testament traditions. Noodle that one.

Hour and a half 12 shells and a bottle of egg nog

2005-11-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

Hello again friendly blog reading public, I'm currently killing a good chunk of time before I have to be in to work selling video games to other people. It looks as if big brother is starting to place the blame on the decenters again as our loving president is trying to use scare tactics to bring back the guilt that our nation felt over the treatment of solders durring Nam.

Is it just me or do the words unpatriotic fly arround this country more then birds in migratory season? It just seems like we are quietly moving towards some new disaster that will rally the nation. Recently "Boston Legal" a program on ABC of all places compared the current war in Iraq to the viatnam war only without people being upset about anything that is going on over there. While I feel we can't blaim any of the troups I don't want to see people scared into backing down from their opinions.

Not that any of you would back down, and even if a Macarthy esq witch hunt started I feel safe knowing the people I associate with would rather be ridiculed then give up on their principles.

on a side note I want every one to remember these three simple rules if the zombies ever decide to make a run for top rung of the food chain:

1) In an open space you can be surrounded but in an inclosed space you can be
cornered. best to seek the high-ground as zombies are natoriously bad at climbing.

2) Aim for the head, body shots aren't going to do you a shit lot of good so don't
even waist your time or ammo on them.

3) Don't get greedy, greedy people and people who try to hold on to things other than
what they need to survive make stupid mistakes and end up dead.

That's all for today but always remember the number one rule of survival, a person who is slower then you is an asset as the masses of zombies will have to slow down to chew them up.

2005-11-08T22:07:00.000-08:00

One foot shuffling infront of the other

2005-11-08T21:08:00.000-08:00

Hello Bloging world this is the first post in my bloging, blog blog blogington blog.

Well now that is over with we can get down to business. This is all part of a promess to keep people up to date with my life without having to actualy make contact. Also It allows me to write something every once in a while.

Have you ever noticed that when you walk arround listening to music you get a lot of weird looks from book store employes? Well I do and I just want to say that book world has another thing comming to them.