I created a new YouTube video for one of my latest pieces, The Secret Lullaby, another piece I’m hoping will be on my album:
Didn’t do much else today besides catch up on a couple shows on Hulu. Oh, and I’ve got about 150 pages left to read of Ken Scholes’ fantasy book Lamentation
I woke up with a really bad headache today. Fortunately by the time I had to go to work it had subsided enough that I could act normally, but it didn’t fully go away until about 10 hours after I woke up. So I didn’t do anything but rest and pace around in the morning. After work, though, I did draw about a week’s worth of new comics for Hannifin World. It gets addicting when you start doing a bunch of them.
I’ll probably start watching Dollhouse on Hulu again because, from what I can tell, the creators are indeed going to try to wrap up the story as best they can in the final episodes, so hopefully there will be some closure.
And now I shall dedicate the rest of this post to talking about why you should watch a film before reading the book, or at least why I prefer to:
WATCH THE MOVIE FIRST
I know a few people who, when a movie based on a book comes out, they refuse to watch it until they read the book version. When such a situation comes up, I prefer to watch the movie first for a couple reasons:
1) Time Investment – The movie will take less time to watch; reading the book could take ten times as long, or longer. If the story ends up to be stupid, it’s better to spend less time experiencing it, in my opinion.
2) Books always seem better – Books and films are two different art forms. You tend to get less *story content* with a film, because films only have a couple hours to tell the story. Reading the book first gives you a high risk of comparing the stories of the two different art forms, and of course the film’s story will then seem like a “watered-down” version of the story, as they almost always have to take things out for a film, because of time and pacing considerations. In other words, reading the book first tends to taint your expectations for the film, which sets you up for disappointment. If you don’t read the book first, and you find the film to be good, there’s a greater chance you’ll also enjoy the book, as it will then seem like the story has been expanded. If you don’t enjoy the film, you may or may not enjoy the book, but at least you won’t have wasted more than two or three hours with the story.
That said, my favorite films based on books tend to not only just take out story content, but also change the story content, so that what’s left flows and fits together nicely. The Prestige is one of the best examples I can think of at the moment. The Harry Potter films, on the other hand, I find terrible, and not just because of the acting. (Actually, even though it would’ve made far less money, I think Harry Potter would’ve worked much much better as a TV miniseries.) (John Williams’ Harry Potter themes are brilliant, however. I cannot imagine more perfect melodies to fit the Harry Potter world.)
So, when a film comes out based on a book, I just watch it!
Some people might argue that watching the movie first makes them think of the actors playing the character in the movie when they read the book. To which I say: well, then, you must have a weak imagination! But I suppose it’s a valid argument…
19 days left until Christmas…
Didn’t really do anything today, except go to work, which was exhausting. And now I’ll probably go to bed early since I’m… well… exhausted. But brownies are in the oven, so I suppose I have to wait around until those are done so I can have one.
I changed Hannifin World so that you can only view one comic at a time. For some reason viewing more than one on a page seemed cluttered to me, while only being able to view one at a time kind of makes each particular comic the center of attention, kind of “frames” it. Which I guess is what a lot of webcomics do. Some kind of weird psychology-of-humor property behind it perhaps? If you “frame” a joke as a single entity, it will seem funnier than if it is seen as only a part of a collection of jokes. If it’s in a collection, there’s more of a chance one will compare the jokes, and not give some jokes much attention.
Also, on a completely different note, I really hate the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, where they build new houses for people who they think deserve them and then film them as they cry when given a new house. To me, it seems to put too much importance on material items, while at the same time trying to spread the message that they’re not important. It’s like Oprah sharing a sob story with a poor person and then flying her personal jet somewhere. Hypocritical. Annoying. But I guess when a network is offering a free house, who cares?
20 days until Christmas…
Didn’t do much today… I hardly ever do much on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays because of work (imagine how worse it would be with a full time job). It snowed quite a bit today, but it was too warm for it to stick much to the road; it only got it slushy and annoying. Now if it freezes in the night, the morning roads will be terrible. Which stinks, because I need to go somewhere in the morning.
I uploaded a bunch of comics, so I’ll have enough content for Hannifin World to update everyday at 8 AM until at least December 22nd. Isn’t that exciting? Yes, it is.
Oh, I found something interesting on YouTube. If you do not yet know, one of my favorite films of all time is Amadeus, the true story of Mozart’s murder. In fact, I memorized Amadeus really well; I can recite it right now, and have you rotflol. Anyway, it looks like the guy who played the wigmaker (in a short 30 second scene) has his own YouTube channel. And he also uploaded some unused takes of them filming the scene. He says somewhere that they shot the scene for around 7 hours, with him ad libbing his lines. That’s a lot of work for about 30 seconds of film! Anyway, it’s some really fun stuff to watch (if you’re an Amadeus fan, at least).
Oh, by the way, Amadeus looks fantastic on blu-ray
Well, there it is.
Is it “webcomic” or “web comic”?
Anyway, I spent the day creating the Hannifin World site, my new web comic. Not sure how long I’ll be able to keep it up. Not sure I’ll keep the name either, but I couldn’t think of anything better. I definitely won’t keep the web design, but it’s something to start with at least. I spent a while scanning in at least a week’s worth of comics, so it’ll at least keep going for a week!
Other than that, I enjoyed the Monk series finale. I would’ve written it differently, but it definitely gave a sense of closure. And the montage at the very end was nice. Gah, I’m really gonna miss not being able to look forward to new episodes of Monk! *sigh*
22 days left until Christmas…
I work 8 hours on Thursdays, so there’s not much to say, because I haven’t done much. During my break I read a bit and watched Flash Forward on Hulu, which I’m really behind on. I also thought up some ideas for some comic strips… I was thinking of starting a daily web comic. Not sure if I will or not, but I have some ideas I think would be funny.
I’m also looking forward to the Monk series finale tomorrow night. And then the show will be over and there’ll be nothing to watch on Friday nights at 9 PM (especially since Dollhouse got cancelled). Have you noticed that in just about every other crime-solving show besides Monk, they always try to portray the lead character as being really cool. The promos have the lead characters squinting, looking serious off into the distance, maybe with a half-smile. That’s what I like about Monk; he’s not “cool” at all. Well, none of the characters are “cool” by my standards, but Monk is the only one that doesn’t try to be. Anyway, series finale! It’s gonna be great! Yay! Woohoo!
And now, 23 more days until Christmas…
I worked a little more on my Android game; I created a poorly animated bouncing head to represent the player, which bounces in whatever direction you move him. Unfortunately his directional movement is a bit jittery; I need to figure out how to update his position on every frame, but not when a frame isn’t being rendered. And then I have a bunch of other work to do on him. (If I ever actually finish programming the game, I might look into hiring a pro artist to do the art for it… but for now the game can look visually awful.)
I also added a “readers” counter on the side of this blog; you can see it over there below the subscribe buttons. So if you’re ever feeling low on self-esteem, maybe taking a look at my low reader count will give you a boost (but then reading the blog and realizing what a genius I am in all that I do might lower it again).
The only other thing I’ve done worthy of note (but not really) besides going to work is to watch my new Dr. Strangelove blu-ray last night. Quite a funny film, and it looks great on blu-ray. Blu-rays are the way to watch movies. DVDs are losers. (Except for TV seasons, because blu-rays currently cost too much for those.) I will say, though, Stanley Kubrick’s sudden endings are kind of annoying. You really get into the ending scene and then BOOM it’s over. No closure. No goodbyes. Just BOOM. The end.
For my blog, I would never–
I was going to work a bit more on my Android game today, but they needed a sub at work, and I need the money to pay for my Droid. I spent the morning playing Mass Effect on my laptop in glorious HD resolution with all the graphics settings cranked up as high as they go because my laptop is just that good. Then I watched an episode of House; I’m just starting to go through the 3rd season on DVD because hopefully I’ll be getting the 4th season for Christmas… because we bought during the holiday sales for $13 at Best Buy… woohoo! I wish I had a bunch of days off work so I could just watch an entire season in a day or two… but those days are gone, after never having been here…
My sleeping schedule (because I know you care) is back on track; going to bed before midnight and waking up at 8:30 AM. I’m not sure how or why it’s correct now, and I’m not sure long it will last, but it’s kind of nice. I guess.
And now it’s already December 2009! So, a countdown can begin, can’t it? 24 more days until Christmas!