| Updates from the world of Mike! |
[13 Jul 2009|02:14pm] |
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This is a pretty easy week for me. Today I'm in the office. Tomorrow I'm driving down to south Jersey to film / interview / etc. Wednesday I'm coming into the office early to record a couple podcasts, then going home to edit the rest of the day. Thursday I'm working a half-day from home in the morning to do some more editing, then heading down to Baltimore to rock a fun weekend with y'allz.
It's tough doing podcast and video stuff for work and not sharing it with the entire outside world. I could easily bring in exponentially larger numbers and attention to all of our great work that we do here... but it wouldn't be genuine, and it would be far from the right/target audience. I can't express how frustrating it is to do fun and interesting work... and compare the numbers to my hobby stuff. But that's the point... my expertise is in creating original and engaging content to develop sticky audiences. I excel at it, and I know it takes time. I just hate that it takes time :P.
On the nerdy front, last night ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) meritot and I watched all of Macross Plus. I saw it 9-10 years ago, and didn't remember a single thing about it. She'd never seen it. The woman's also been burned out on less-than-mediocre anime (and I just don't ever feel like watching any), so checking out a genuinely good OVA sounded like a good idea. I didn't intend on watching all four episodes (and we did take a break between parts two and three), but it was so good that we just kept plugging away. It helped that they were only ~30 minute episodes. My only previous Macross familiarity was a few months back when I watched Do You Remember Love? for the first time, which I feel like re-watching. Never saw any Robotech or dived into any other portion of the show. I commented how I love robot shows that aren't actually about the robots, so I really think I want to just go ahead and watch the entire/actual, original Macross TV series... :/ Drama! And music! Yay!
I think I've given up hope that I'll ever complete my current run of Final Fantasy VI. I checked vgconvos and it looks like I started it about a year ago. I only have ~20 hours logged, too. After re-watching all of Game Trailers' FF retrospective(s), I realized I didn't even remember what the greater story was in the game, nevermind all the tiny things here and there. If I'm ever going to see it through to the end, I'm going to need to re-start it. I don't have too much of a problem doing so, either, but it can't be right now. I'd much rather dig into a different type of portable RPG. Chrono Trigger is still waiting for me! Toriyama goodness, c'mon!
I'm sorta still playing FFIV: The After Years. I think I'm closing in on the default-purchase portion of the story. I doubt I'll continue it any further after that. Maybe I'll pick up the final chapter just so I can see the end, but that's about it.
Still in the same place in Punch-Out!!, 'cuz I haven't played in a couple days. Looking forward to completing it, though!
One last challenge to beat in Star Prince in Retro Game Challenge! I just spoiled it for myself by looking at the Wikipedia article and seeing the rest of the games. Oh, snapz! I had no idea I'd get some of those! I just figured the RPG was next and that would be it! It's weird that I'm excited for fake-sequels to fake-games :P.
I (finally) got in my JP Donkey Konga 3. Looking forward to playing all the fun songs on there. I'll probably do a quick video showcasing the game and its "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" inclusion for the Daizenshuu EX Facebook Fan Page (which just crossed 200 folks!), a la the one I did for the Playdia system.
And... that's really it. If you can't tell, life is pretty decent right now. Lots of good hanging-outs with the good folks of New Jersey the past few weekends, saw my family for a little bit, got a haircut last week, car just hit 60,000 miles, no-one took my ticket on the local train to work this morning for the first time ever, passing Rush songs on "Hard" drums like it's nothing, back to listening to lots of new music instead of podcasts taking full control of my ears, DDR is set up in the basement...
OK, so I think the Shuttle is dead and we need to get a new computer, but that's just a "whatever".
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| Friday shenanigans~ |
[10 Jul 2009|08:36am] |
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A week from today, we'll be up and getting ready for the first full day of Otakon 2009 (#11 for me, #9 for meritot)! It's weird to be excited for it, since I didn't do any videos, didn't submit any panels, have no huge guests I'm particularly interested in seeing... I guess I'm excited about just chillin' with friends in the atmosphere. I still love Otakon the most for the locale, the "grand"-ness of the con, and other stuffage.
Today I'm working from home on video stuff. Since the big 30th anniversary video project I did a couple months back, I've been doing some quick 2-10 minute spots for our organization, mostly for YouTube. I have two in-the-works on my hard drive right now, and one I'll be finishing up to go online next week, and the other just needs some finishing touches (and approvals/blessings from the people actually in it). I've got ANOTHER one that I haven't started yet, but there's plenty of time to get these all done. I'm finding I enjoy this stuff waaaaaaaay more than AMVs, these days. It's a short amount of material (as opposed to 26+ episode shows, or even a standard movie), I don't run into export problems, it's a better balance of creative/grunt work... Plus, I get to work from home on them :).
Been playing a lot more Retro Game Challenge and Punch-Out!!. In the former, I'm up to TOMATO's second shooter, and anxiously awaiting the release of the (delayed) RPG! In the latter, I keep getting temporarily stuck on the title matches. I'm in the second set on the Indian dude, now. Tiger Mask, or something? I just call him "Dhalsim" 'cuz he teleports. When you mess up in that game, it's such a terrible feeling. The way I explained it to meritot last night is that it's really just a rhythm game, and when you go with the wrong flow, it's almost like someone asking you what 2+2 is and you excitedly just keep yelling out "Five! Five! FIIIIIVE!" despite calling yourself an idiot inside your head before you even speak.
The Daizenshuu EX Facebook Fan Page just hit 150 people. I'm still not entirely sure what to do with it, especially since we already have our forum community which is closing in on 3000 people. I know some people have no interest in forums, and this is how they communicate/interact, so that's mainly why I want to have it there. I do this all in my line of work, and I know it's all about building that sticky audience in any way you can, because they will be there for you when you ask for it later on because you've proven yourself so committed to them. If I have some time later today, I was thinking about making a quick video for it (not for YouTube... >.>) of maybe just showing off the Bandai Playdia or something.
I think we're interviewing Lanipator and Takahata from TeamFourStar for the podcast tomorrow night.
What you all got this weekend?
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| Heyooooooo~ |
[06 Jul 2009|08:59am] |
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mood |
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What a fantastically long weekend. I worked from home on Thursday, which is also when my family showed back up again to stay for the night on their way back down to Virginia. Friday (which we had off), we recorded half of the still-upcoming Daizenshuu EX podcast episode 182 with saiyajedi in the morning. I later headed over to gambitt's to record lo-fidelity episode 24. In the evening we hopped over to the Target plaza in town with andrewdeluxe to see our only-relatively-wimpy local fireworks. On Saturday we ran a few errands, chilled for a bit, recorded the manga-review portion of the show with gambitt, waited for reifirstchild and then andrewdeluxe, had some dinner, and played some Rock Band. Yesterday, the woman and I headed out to "Point Pleasant" (that name amuses me to no end) and chilled on the beach/boardwalk for most of the afternoon.
In gaming news, I started up Retro Game Challenge on the DS and Punch-Out!! on the Wii, both received as gifts. Much love for both so far. I'm only up to Haggle Man and King Hippo, respectively. Probably do some more Haggle Man during lunch today. I played a little more The After Years at some point this weekend, and got to the point where "Hooded Man" and Theodore head back into whatever town that was and get captured sleeping or something. I don't really remember. Now that I've realized I would have to pay $37 to get the full story and it's all soft-unlocking content already downloaded, I'm incredibly angry at the game. Totally suckered, that I was.
I also received a crap-ton of Microsoft Points, most of which are now gone on tons more stuff I had backlogged-wanted in Rock Band, (amazingly) a few songs in World Tour, and King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match on XBLA.
Since I'm also now the proud owner of not one, but *TWO* live-action Street Fighter movies on Blu-ray (thanks to andrewdeluxe), we've come to the conclusion that we need to have an all-day event of watching these movies. The plan would be to start with the JCVD version, move to Chun-Li, and potentially finish out the evening with the original animated movie (you know... the only good one). What are some good weekend availabilities for all you moderately-local peeps? I know Otakon's in a couple weekends, so that's out. Crash space available.
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[30 Jun 2009|12:03am] |
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| Random Anime Watchings |
[29 Jun 2009|02:14pm] |
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So I kinda don't really watch much anime, anymore. I find that I mostly just don't have time for it (between work, gym, other hobbies)... and meritot's acknowledging that most of what she tries out via Netflix is middle-of-the-road mundane monotony isn't doing much to sway me, either.
So I recently decided that I would just watch absolutely terrible stuff. It started with popping in the Tekken OVA a couple weeks back (dub, of course, to rock out with Stabbing Westward). Since then, we've also re-watched (well, "re" for me) the Toshinden OVA (subbed) and the Fatal Fury movie (subbed); we watched the Fatal Fury OVAs a few months back.
Masami Obari does one bang-up job of proving how terrible he is as a director.
I'm thinking about going ahead and just completing the run of 90s OVAs/movies based on video games. I've got everything Street Fighter more than covered and well-known. I own Art of Fighting, but I feel like that was also recent enough that I shouldn't subject myself to it again. Thinking about tracking down the Samurai Showdown OVA and the Night Warriors (Darkstalkers) OVAs, as well. It looks like Netflix has the Virtua Fighter series available, so that's excellent.
What other fighting-game anime has there been? I have fansubs of the recent King of Fighters shorts...
Otakon's comin' soon. Website and podcast are cool.
How about them animes?
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[29 Jun 2009|12:02am] |
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[28 Jun 2009|12:02am] |
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[27 Jun 2009|12:03am] |
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[26 Jun 2009|12:03am] |
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[24 Jun 2009|12:03am] |
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| Hey ho~ |
[23 Jun 2009|11:04pm] |
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mood |
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Feel like I don't have a lot to share lately that can't be summed up in 140 characters. Sorry :P. Guess things are just pretty status-quo here, lately...
Here are a couple things, though.
WEBSITE STUFFAGE:
All stuff is going strong. Fell to pressure and created a fan-page for Daizenshuu EX on Facebook. I'm... not entirely sure what to do with it just yet, though. For now I'm just sharing pictures and brief updates. Part of the problem that sites like Kanzentai and I have are that we don't serve the biggest audience for our niche audience (if that makes any sense), but there are still tons of un-served fans of the series who would find us of interest. Aaaaaand... the best advertising would probably just be spamming forums telling people, but since we have too much dignity to do that... uhh... Facebook page? I don't know how much good it'll do (like our super fun "Inconsistencies" videos getting nothing but typical YouTube trash comments), but it's an option.
WATCHINGS:
meritot and I finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender this week. After meghsta lent us the first season boxset, we... uhh... kinda binged. Really, really, really enjoyed it. I've said it before, but I still think the series was plagued with a few problems (specifically some character arc/direction inconsistencies toward the end of season two), but overall...? Best thing I've seen in a long time. Hopefully I'll get around to writing something in more detail. I'd like that. We watched the movie Fanboys tonight and had a fun time. It was nothing particularly special, but the soundtrack was certainly awesome (specifically "Limelight" and "Tom Sawyer").
VIDEO GAMES:
I dunno about going any further in Final Fantasy VI. I'm at the part where I'm getting Locke back on the team, got frustrated going in circles, and I think I'm past the point of no return with playing it any further. I've been playing IV: The After Years on Wii, though. It's got all the same problems as every other Final Fantasy game, but I'm giving it a free pass for now since it's short. I know I'll have to purchase add-on stories if I want the "full experience" later on, but they seem like they'll be cheap enough (300 Wii Points) that I won't mind. Oh, and I was totally wrong about who the "Hooded Man" was going to be (I still don't know, but it's clearly not who I thought it was going to be, since I just started playing as said person). Requisite Rock Band 2 going on, and I played a little bit of Braid the other day for the first time. Looking forward to digging into that a little more.
HOUSE:
It's nice :). We rocked the basement out with posters and stuffage this weekend. Gotta take more pictures. Waiting to see if my "Yeah! Break! Care! Break!" (Kai ED) CD single will come with another special first-pressing poster bonus before we do the final placement on a couple things, though. Also, my family's driving up this coming weekend and will be seeing it in person for the first time. Whoa! Only staying one night (Friday), though... which means I don't think I'll be able to record that interview for the podcast on Friday... I guess Saturday...?
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[23 Jun 2009|12:03am] |
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