Saturday, November 30, 2013

11-30-2013: It is Finished...Kind of

Well, today is the last day of NaNoWriMo, and I hit 50,000 a couple of days ago, but my novel only about halfway finished.  I'm going to try and stick to schedule of posting on this blog every Saturday in the month of December, and see if that works out.  Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I might actually start doing things again and have something to write about!

Random Fact:  A 2012 Gallup Poll concluded that the most despised country in South Korea is Japan, with 44.1% of people surveyed putting it at the top of the list.  North Korea only topped 11.7% of the Koreans' list of disliked countries.  South Koreans also have bullfights, but their's pit bull against bull in an epic fight until one of them surrenders.  read more about it here

Sunday, November 24, 2013

11-24-2013: Trust me...

This novel will be awesome.

Random Fact:  The original Play Station had only 2 MB of RAM -- but that is still 512 times the amount of in Apollo 11's guidance computer.  In other words, it takes more than 500 times the memory to play Final Fantasy VII than it took to get to the moon -- and that is still less than 1% of the memory required for modern video games.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

11-14-2013: My Life this November...



Random Fact:  Until December 3rd, you can pay for your Russian subway ticket in squats: Details here

Friday, November 8, 2013

11-8-2013: Did I say Daily...?

I meant weekly....Check out the VLOG!

Random Fact:  At Marineland in Ontario, Canada, an Orca taught itself to catch seagulls by barfing a fish out onto a nearby ledge, then hiding underwater until a gull came to eat said fish.  Then the whale would jump out and consume the bird.  Not only has this Orca begun to hunt airborne creatures, it also taught all the other Orcas in the facility to do the same thing!  More awesome Orca facts can be found here.

Monday, November 4, 2013

11-4-2013: I May Just Do It This Time Around....

After nearly three months, I have finally returned to the text-based blogosphere.

             Since August, I have made several big(ish) changes.  First and foremost, I decided not to go to Film School, because after further research I confirmed what I was somewhat worried about: that you do not really learn anything in film school that ye cannot teach yourself on the outside for much cheaper -- that is, if ye are dedicated enough to learn, and if ye are not dedicated enough, ye probably would not succed in the biz anyway.  The only real advantage to going to school is the contacts you make, but there are really only two types of contacts: the ones that ye go to class with, and the ones that will give ye an "in".  These latter types are almost always only found at the big schools like UCLA, and meeting them really only prepares ye for about a dozen years of slaving away in the lower levels of LA before getting a chance to move up in the Hollywood machine.  They are *usually* of no help in independent film-making, which is what I want to do -- except in the gathering of experience, but that comes at the cost of sacrificing your time and/or soul to Hollywood.  The former type of contacts -- your classmates, people that will be probably close to you and learning skills that you can later put to use making films in the real world -- are very useful, but with the internet and time I can find good people to work with without spending nearly $60,000 to do it.
             But I had already lined everything up to leave Wal-mart before coming to this decision, so that led to the second major change.  Even though I had decided not to go to film school, I went ahead and left Wal-mart's employ.  I just got really tired of it so since I had everything set up to quit anyway, I went ahead and left.  I do still have some plans though:
             NOW my plan was to apply and go get a Master's Degree in Engineering, but I have nowhere near the requirements for that, so I settle for a second Bachelor's.  I was thinking of doing Engineering from the beginning, but went with the Humanities because is a much easier degree to complete quickly, then I figured with my degree I could get a job and just learn more on the side.  That failed.  To get almost all of the jobs I wanted, they wanted you to either have a degree, or several years of experience, so I guess I have to get the degree.  So I was going to apply this month so I could start in September of 2014, but I have to take additional SAT tests before applying, and I will not be ready to take these tests in time to apply before the January deadlines.  Therefore, I am going to spend this next year doing Maths and Science stuff so I can take the SAT's hopefully in May 2014, then apply around September so I can get in the Fall of 2015.
             Because I now have about 2 more years of free time, I am probably going to go back on the RV trip after Thanksgiving, and maybe do some other stuff as well.  Besides schoolwork, for November I am participating in NaNoWriMo.  The National Novel Writing Month is a time when you are encouraged to write at least 50,000 words of a brand new novel.  So I am trying -- and so far succeeding in -- that quest.  I also recently started a weekly Vlog.  I will be filming Week #3 today, and I try to post them on Tuesday, but last week my editing software was giving me issues, so exact dates may vary.  Thirdly, I have finally broken down and gotten a Twitter account, which ye can check out by clicking here, BUT BE WARNED!  Your perfect image of me as a rational human being may be forever lost upon observing such drivel as I post there.
             All this productivity has been a result of the establishment of my Schedule, which was made possible by my no longer having such odd work hours due to my job.  Although the schedule has not been 100% kept every day, it has generally helped me to stay on track and has increased overall productivity by at least 75%, therefore I should now be able to post at least a short blog post every day, since I have incorporated this time into my daily routine, but we shall see.

Random Fact:  The combined RAM of the 61,900,000 Nintendo Entertainment System units sold, is about 118 GB, or the equivalent of 59 Wii U's.  The combined weight of all these NES's is roughly equal to that of 448 blue whales.  [source]

Disclaimer:  The above is the opinion of a free-thinking human being, unfettered by the chains of Corporate America, and therefore is no longer in need of a disclaimer.