astridv | (no subject)

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By way of

midnightsjane I found an unexpected treasure: Calvin&Hobbes fanfic. No, really.
Reminiscence by Kenya Starflight
Summary: Calvin is all grown up... how has the passage of time affected him and those around him? Gen.
***I keep thinking that an Angel and/or Bones vid to Oingo Boingo's 'Dead Man's Party' could be a very shiny thing indeed, but that song runs six minutes long. I figure if I actually ever want to veer into vidding it would be advisable to start with something several minutes shorter. The other problem is that when I listen to the song, I'm getting flashes of a Bones crossover in which Booth is shanshued Angel... only I don't buy into the shanshu angle myself, at all; it has never worked for me because the characters are too unalike.
***Via

tkp's post here (which is chock full of info) I followed the wiki link to cat macros (I just wanted to know why they're called that) and thusly discovered lolcode, a code entirely based on lolcat 1337 sp34k!!1! Here's an example:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
GIMMEH VAR
IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10?
	YARLY
		BTW this is true
		VISIBLE "BIG NUMBER!"
	NOWAI
		BTW this is false
		VISIBLE "LITTLE NUMBER!"
	KTHX
KTHXBYE

I mean, is this the coolest thing or what? I'm not really kidding... It's hilarious, but I also find it really fascinating to watch a language evolve before ones eyes. I even may have a *cough*Klingon guide*cough* lying around somewhere..
***I gave my roommate my printout of

stoney321's PotC fic 'You Had a Charming Air, All Cheap and Debonair' (which I haven't found the time to read myself because I am still busy with my stack of unread Bones fic). And now it looks like the roommate is hooked. Since she's not on LJ and I'm not in the fandom, I thought I might ask the flist for recs. Do you know any good PotC fics? Jack-centered preferably, and I'm pegging her as a gen reader, but not-overly-graphic slash or het are fine, too.
***I found another longish Bones fic. :) I'm only a few chapters in and like it muchly, very promising. And I found it at ffn, too. Fanlib's continuous dissing of ffn has really made me appreciate the good old pit so much more.

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I could always shorten the song for you. I have the software to do it :o)

Which kind of software do you use for cutting music files and for vidding? Are there any programs available that are freeware/not horribly expensive? (I don't like to use pirate software.)

Weird. LJ ate your comment notification.

I cut my audio tracks in Sony Vegas Movie Studio, which is what I also vid with. I think it's $90 US - very reasonable for such a high-powered editing programme. I find it very stable and user-friendly. I had to buy it on Amazon and get it posted to me by a friend because they wouldn't ship it to New Zealand, but that was a long time ago when it was known as Screenblast. You may be able to buy it as a download now. I don't know of any decent freeware. There's Windows Movie Maker, but, ew.

For a really professional job, I sometimes get hubby to edit music in Cubase. That's proper recording software - I believe the Red Hot Chilli Peppers recorded Californication with it. Some of the burning programmes like Nero come with audio track editors built in.

HTH!

Thanks! I'll look into it. $90 really sounds reasonable, and maybe there's a good deal to be found on ebay.

Alright, Amazon has it for €34. So I'll definitely keep that one in mind.

Sweet. The only drawback of it is that it won't use MPEG 4 files (ie Divx and Xvid). But it will use just about every other sort - Real, Quicktime, MPEG 1 and 2, Windows Media, avi, and vob. I vid with the raw vob files. They're big and can slow the system right down, but they give a great quality finished product. The key is to pre-render as you go.

Pre-render? /noob

Well, when you put all your files together into a video, you render it as an avi or whatever. It all becomes one single file. When you're previewing it in the timeline while you're working, it can be quite jerky because the programme needs to go away and find the location of each clip in your hard drive to display it. So you pre-render small sections of completed work so that when you preview it, the preview plays smoothly. It's best to do it in tiny chunks because when you make a change the pre-render covering that particular clip is negated.

Okay, that makes sense.

Thanks for pointing out how unalike Angel and Booth are---I think they are different in so many ways, myself.

I agree. Booth is not a very introspective guy. There are things about himself that bother him but he deals with it by ignoring it and moving on for the most part. The opposite of Angel, pretty much.

Yes, that's it exactly.

Thanks for pointing out how unalike Angel and Booth are---I think they are different in so many ways, myself.

Yup. I think a2zmom nails it.

On a superficial level there's the redemption angle as a similarity, but it feels to me like that was thrown in mostly as a nod to the Angel fans in the pilot. Then pretty early on, I'm thinking, DB took the character in a different direction.

There's also the fact that Bones has become pretty much a comedy at core. «A romantic comedy where people solve murders», that's how Hart Hanson described it in my local newspaper.
There are some similarities (he likes to protect people, for one) but Booth is much more open than Angel. Having rewatched some ATS season 1, I'm amazed how much DB's energy is different on Bones. Might explain why a number of fans who never really fancied him in Angel suddenly «discovered» his hotness (I've seen that quite a few times). Yay for epiphanies...
Virginie

There's also the fact that Bones has become pretty much a comedy at core. «A romantic comedy where people solve murders», that's how Hart Hanson described it in my local newspaper.

Yup. I like the comedic aspects. Just sometimes I do miss that blend of darkness and lightheartedness that we're used to from Joss' shows.

(I've seen that quite a few times).

Me too. Heh... as far as I'm concerned, the tall, dark, and brooding thing Angel has going on pushes my buttons quite nicely.

Agreed on both accounts. :-)
V.

I find that FF.net totally depends on the fandom as to what percentage of stories are any good. For example, in the Batman comics fandom, I'd say between 85 - 90% of the Bat fics are pretty damn good, probably because the fic tends to be plot centered.

Yeah, you really can't generalize. Though 85%, wow, that's a pretty decent ratio. The Buffy section OTOH I always found disappointing. And Bones seems to fluctuate like whoa... a few months ago all I could find were Mary Sues and B-and-B-go-on-a-date/have-kids kind of stories, which, yawn. But recently it seems that lots of plotfic gets posted.

A six minute vid for your first foray into the medium is scary to say the least! Im sure you could edit it though.

I have been looking for a good song for a Bones vid everywhere, because sooner or later I have to vid something other than the whedonverse, still no joy. You've intrigued me with your idea though.

Btw your icon is awesome and I loved your Fray/Angel crossover graphic novel you did with yhlee. Sorry I should have fb at the time I read it.

Btw your icon is awesome and I loved your Fray/Angel crossover graphic novel you did with yhlee. Sorry I should have fb at the time I read it.

Thanks. And, no need for feedback angst. :) I try but I never manage to fb everybody I feel I should... stuff gets in the way all the time.

As to vids, I just got a feeling that Oingo Boino and Bones would go well together, mood-wise (But maybe that's because I'm a huge OB/Danny Elfman fan.)

I'm not familiar with the song in question (that is, I think I heard it once but utterly can't remember any of it now) but most popular music is structurally fairly repetitive and can be safely trimmed. (I am doing preliminary work for a post on that very topic.)

I've done longer vids, but I have found that doing a two-minute vid is a lot of fun--enough time/lyrics to get across a point, short enough that everything remains zippy and you don't run out of clips if you have a very tight focus.

Booth and Angel would totally not get along. :-D Among other things, Booth would (try to) punch out Angel for moping so much.

--and oh goodness,

astridv, I think you have given me an idea for a Bones/Angel crossover fic.

I have? Oh, good. :)

I'm not familiar with the song in question (that is, I think I heard it once but utterly can't remember any of it now) but most popular music is structurally fairly repetitive and can be safely trimmed.

It's very repetitive, the actual text consists of just a dozen lines. I suppose it's possible to trim it, though it'd be a challenge to do it smoothly. Funny, the song never seemed that long. I've checked out a few other songs that I thought would work for the show, and they were all of similar length.

I've done longer vids, but I have found that doing a two-minute vid is a lot of fun--enough time/lyrics to get across a point, short enough that everything remains zippy and you don't run out of clips if you have a very tight focus.

Two minutes does sound a lot better than six. I guess those two minutes can still seem awfully long if you have to fill them with clips of a few seconds each... hm. Can't say I'm not intrigued.

an unexpected treasure: Calvin&Hobbes fanfic

*pounces on Hobbes*

I hate being an adult.

*big big sigh*

*sigh* Such a wonderful fic.

When I was a kid, one day we went to visit the excavated Roman city of Xanten... they'd just dug out the old amphitheater, and a number of other ancient buildings, all beautifully preserved. My brothers and I spent the whole day chasing each other through the catacombs of the theater, wielding imaginary swords since we had to leave our swords at home (we had this whole Gauls vs Romans phase, hence the swords, which were really just ex-crocket-clubs). I still remember it vividly, how *real* it all was. That ability is lost.

I know a couple of role players, and on occasion I envy them a little bit because I think they retained some of that ability. Nowadays, I'd just feel stupid doing that...

we had this whole Gauls vs Romans phase

I always wanted to accompany Asterix on his many adventures. I have searched everywhere here for those comics and can't find them. Must be a Canadian/European thing.

I'm almost certain I've seen English translations of Asterix, but that may have been in the UK. Definitely a European thing... Asterix is one of the classics as far a Franco-Belgian comics go.

If your roommate is interested in crossover fics, I did a Fanged Four/PotC fic here (http://www.tthfanfic.com/Story-8177/spikeNdru+Welcome+to+the+Caribbean+Luv.htm). Because apparently I am unable to write in other fandoms without bringing the Jossverse in somehow or other. *g*

Thanks, sounds great. Crossover should be fine, she's into Buffy as well.

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