Waving your guns at somebody new

[gwyn]

Been a long time since I posted. I keep thinking of things to say, and at night when I hit the pillow, I have these lengthy meta and review posts in my head, and they sound fantastic, but then the next day I have no desire to actually post anything.

In the past couple weeks I've been busy finalizing some freelance editing jobs, one of which was really difficult because the author couldn't be arsed to actually get anything done even remotely on time. I confess I just don't understand it -- getting a book published, for something you created and devoted your recent life to, is the dream come true of thousands of people. Yet he acted as though it was some kind of bee buzzing around his Pepsi can or something. But I also got to copyedit a friend's novel, which was awesome, and then I've been doing something I loathe, taking editing tests to try to get on with more publishers. I hate them so much. Thirty years in this field and I still have to take fucking tests. The two I've had this past week were heinous, too, and one I should have returned on Thursday, but I'm still not done -- I think I'm just going to finish up the editing part without a lot of work, and do a cursory whack at their two pages of notes and two pages of bibliography and send it back and tell them, essentially, that I have too much work at this time to take a 20 page editing test plus four pages of citations, so that should give them an idea of my abilities and they can take it or leave it. I'm just really tired of it all. I know I shouldn't be so cavalier about potential work, but...

I have another self-publishing author book coming up soon, anyways, and one of the tests people got back to me right away and want to add me to their freelancer pool. Hopefully something good will come of it, I don't know. They have the most convoluted system I've ever seen, but I guess if I can get consistent work, that will be good.

Because... I really do want to get a puppersons. That is my overarching desire right now. I have a feeler out about a cutie pie I saw online, but I haven't heard back... I didn't last time, either, so I worry that somehow these rescue folks aren't getting my mail. I know the kitties are going to go ballistic. But it's gotten so bad with both of them -- Olive won't even eat anywhere near him because he often bullies her away from her food -- that I don't know that adding a dog into the mix will be any worse. I don't know if cats go through terrible twos, but Blues sure has gotten worse and worse the past year. He's officially three now, but... sometimes he can be so awful I just don't know what to do with him. And I lose my temper with him really easily when he's bad, because he's just soooo bad and so recalcitrant about being good, which never helps.

Olive has been smelling like pee lately all the time, and I finally found out why yesterday -- at some point, she must have peed on her bed, which is an old egg-crate foam neck pillow I had someone make a cover for and the only thing she will deign to sleep on, and it's been sitting there moldering for I don't know how long now. When I took the fleece cover off to wash it, it was so revolting... and I threw it all out, but she's unhappy because it won't be for a few more days now till I get a replacement, and even longer before I get a new fleece cover. I discovered on Etsy that you can ask for custom things to be made! This is news to probably no one but me, but I was excited... and lots of people put bids in on the cover so I'm going to get one made for her.

Today I started working on a Justified vid. I'm so disgusted with myself -- I cannot figure out how to make the kind of effect I want to make, and I've googled and read and watched but still can't find anything like what I want to do. I know I'd have to use Motion, which is... really hard for me to understand, but if I could find anything like what I want to do, then I would at least have an idea of it. These are the times when I wish I had a pal with AfterEffects training or something. Curse my crappy personality that I have hardly any friends, let alone friends who know AfterEffects. ;-)

So it won't be quite what I want it to be, but I just want to make it anyway. I love looking at Raylan, and thinking about Raylan, and isn't that what makes the agony of vidding worth it? I'm working on an unusual POV for the vid, which I think will either be interesting or annoying to people, but I kind of like it... and it makes it a bit more of a challenge from a narrative perspective. Timothy Olyphant is so expressive, it's a joy to work with his acting. And also, he is teh sex.

And let's see, I guess that's it largely. I've just been really busy, having lots of trouble sleeping, trying to exercise more and lose some weight but not having any success, spending time with Dad, and planning some classes I'm going to teach this fall and next spring.

Oh, I finally bit the bullet and got a Blu-Ray player, but of course, I have no Blu-Ray discs to play. Got Avatar from Netflix though and watched it (man, that is a rant I will spare people, but boy, did I post a long diatribe about it in my head). I'm kind of pissed, though, in that both Panasonic and Netflix advertise being able to stream Netflix movies with this player, but nowhere do they tell you that if you want to use your wireless network, you have to buy a USB adaptor thingie that costs at the very minimum $70. Fuckers. I was so angry when I realized I had to buy that thing, so no Netflix streaming for a while until I either buckle to the pressure or get a different player. Guess that's why it was so much less at Costco! It's not really any skin off my nose to get the discs in the mail.

What are you up to these days?

Comments

[fan-eunice.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Dude, do you want a Motion book? I bought one before the iMac died and I had to switch to a PC, but I never got rid of it because I figured I could pass it along. What kind of effect are you trying to get?

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Hm... that's a tempting offer. Not that I would be likely to understand anything in the book, but who knows? Which book is it? I have the manual that came with FCP but of course, it's gigantic and largely unintelligible to me.

What I want to do is make streaky light. You see it a lot in flashbacks on some tv shows -- the points where there is lighter material in the clip kind of have this vertical, faint light streaking over them. It's not as specific a place as a lens flare, but it's kind of like that in a way. I've tried every variation on blurs and flares I can, but nothing allows me to stretch it vertically like that. It ends up blurring or obliterating the visuals, and the effect is more like a veil over the clip. If I can find an example on YouTube, I'll add a link here... I see it used in Flashpoint in flashbacky things a lot.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Waves.

I spent almost three years looking for dog #3 (so that when Chopper goes, Puccini wouldn't be alone) and I had no end of bad experiences with shelters/rescues: they didn't return calls or emails, the were actively unhelpful when I managed to get someone on the phone, they loved my references but wouldn't let anyone without a fenced yard adopt, etc, etc. (I ended up buying a puppy from a responsible breeder.)

I have successfully and with ease adopted a hedgehog and a chinchilla from animal shelters, fwiw, but dog adoption in the north east is both difficult and expensive (dog adoption fees run from $250 to $850 with most being in the higher end of that range).

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm actually thinking of going to their adoption event in about an hour, just to say, hey, I sent a mail, and if she's there, look at her and see if we like each other. I don't understand why they don't respond. Some of those dogs are there for ages. She costs a lot, but I have no objection to helping them out, I just wish they would be... more responsive.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I think it is easy for shelter/rescue people to get burnt out. I hope they'll be better in person.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I went up to the event, and the pooch I was looking at wasn't there, but they said they'd check to see if my mail came through, and I also gave them my mail and ph. number... still nothing, though. They seemed like really nice people, so I hope something happens, but I'm starting to feel like there's something wrong with me. I'll take your story as hope that it will maybe just take a little while.

[mollyamory.livejournal.com]

I'm not up to much! Work and sleep and writing, with very little room for anything else. Having work is good, having to GO to work is not, but you know how it is. :) I plan to be more active and in touch with people as soon as the job situation stabilizes and I get my routine down.

Until then I mostly just stare at the internet and fantasize about the gadgets I will buy when I have paychecks again on a regular basis. :)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that there's a silver lining to that horrible experience with the last "job". Oh, gadgets. If I get a doggie, that's going to seriously curtail the gadgets.

But... um... because I know you will not judge me... I just bought a new Macbook. I found a refurb one on Apple's site that was about $275 less than usual, and even though it's just a tiny one, I need to have something with both wi-fi and that I can install my new Acrobat on, because I'm running a workshop on editing in it come Nov. I dithered for a long time. The old G3 laptop is fine for everything except it can't get wi-fi, and I can't really use the Dell because I got a copy of Acrobat for Macs... and it takes, no exaggeration, 20 min just to boot up. Moving around in programs is slooooow. So in the end, I really had to get it but I feel incredibly bad about it. I know I will use it a lot, because it does get wireless and now I can actually watch tv and do chat (not that I have anyone to chat with, because I don't really know where everyone hangs out) or write and look stuff up on the interwebs. But I still feel bad.

[anoel.livejournal.com]

Well I'm learning After Effects so if you want to try me and see if I know of it or can look it up in the book I have on it. Another option is to ask in a forum like Creative Cow or the Adobe one and see if anyone can help you.

Also, if you want any support on the exercising and losing weight front, I'm doing the same thing right now and would be happy to be there for support or whatever. Or not, it's all good.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Hm. Well... it's actually, I would think, pretty simple, but damned if I can find what I need to know about it. It's basically a faint, streaky light effect, like you see in a lot of shows where they have flashbacks. I am trying to find something online I can reference to show people. The only options I have for light in FCP are spots and lens flares, and they don't allow me to make them vertical.

I don't have AE myself -- I only have Motion, which I have no idea how it is in comparison to AE.

[slavelabour.livejournal.com]

I do exactly the same thing about posting/not posting. Or I'll let too much time pass between when I was thinking of posting and actually doing it and then I won't remember what I wanted to say.

We're in the market for a rescue pup, too. And congrats on the Blu-Ray (you're the second person on my flist this week) but I still haven't seen Avatar. I like J-Cam but Avatar sounds like nothing I haven't seen before. (Altho it sounds gorgeous, I'm a gamer and as a gamer that CGI tech isn't new to me at all.)

Justified vid, yaaaaaaaay! Well, you just totally made my month. I've been missing the show like whoa and now a vid is in the works from one of my favourite vidders, ever! Uh, no pressure. OK, a little pressure, maybe? I'm just so happy! :D

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I used to love James Cameron. After all, he made my favorite movie ever, The Terminator. But lately he just... he's making me angry. And disappointing me. I think I need to sit him down and have a chat.

I ended up wasting the entire day today on that effing test and going off puppersons searching, and not working on the vid, but I hope I'll get back to it tomorrow. Where the @#%*^% are all the Justified vids? I can't find any! Well, not without going to YouTube and searching through the dross there, which I'm not easily inclined to do.

[mockerbee.livejournal.com]

Stephanie has an girl iggy that she is fostering right now. Are you still interested in Italian greyhounds? If you've sent in your application, I could let her know that you're interested.

I didn't take me long at all to adopt Daisy. I saw her on Pet Finder, submitted my application and got a call the next day. The application is very important. I know they contacted my vet to see if I was providing Chloe with routine care.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

You know, I would still love an Iggy. But I never heard back from the rescue group and I sent two emails. I don't know if they never got them or were just rude, but I'd have thought they could at least respond so I would have known something to fill out the application. I never did fill it out, because I had a question... I'd be happy to fill one out if I could just get someone to talk to me.

Is her girl promised to anyone right now? I don't want to get my hopes up, but I would love to have a girl Iggy, for sure.

Man, you seem to have better luck than me!

[mockerbee.livejournal.com]

I saw Stephanie a week ago today and she'd just gotten the new little girl. Stephanie takes a couple of weeks with each rescue to work on behavior issues so my guess would be that she's not up for adoption yet.

It's really important that you complete the application. I talked to Stephanie about you last spring and she thought you'd be a great canidate. She emphasized that you need to complete an application. I think the rescue folks want to make sure that you're serious about adopting and that you meet the requirements.

I was contacted very quickly by both rescue organizations I applied to once I submitted my application. Hopefully, you'll get a similar response.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

No, no, I mean, I know they want an application. But when I sent email to them to request one, they never responded, and so I went to the web site and looked at the one they have there, but I had a question, so I sent mail asking about the application, and again, nothing back. That's on top of the first email where I asked whether I should even fill it out for that first dog I noticed, but that one was adopted pretty quickly.

I did get a response from Motley Zoo though today, and I'm going to fill in their application for this little oddball girl I found, and I'll see how it goes. Not that I don't still want an Iggy -- if this one doesn't work out maybe I'll try again even though they don't seem very responsive. I have to take pics of my house and yard and stuff, and right now my backyard is such a mess I can't imagine anyone wanting to let me have a dog at all.

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

I bought FCP in order to get Motion too. Then what do I do? I find a need for in a vid but I'm too impatient to learn how to do it in Motion so I go back and make it work in FCP. It's usually the long way round but I get it to work.

I think I need to just stop vidding for a while and get to learning how Motion works...