The Tale of Three Finales

Happy Holidays.

12/10/14

Here's my WordPress: https://panichristie.wordpress.com/

I also forgot to make a post commemorating the 6th Year Anniversary of my first review, which was Dec. 6th. Oh well.

So I'm probably going to do more simple vlog stuff. We'll see how that goes.

About Old Videos

So it's been over a month (I think) since my Blip account was deactivated. The videos I uploaded to that channel no longer exist on that website.

However, I do have most* of the source files for the reviews, so I can upload them to whatever hosting site.

That's the problem though. Logically, I could just uploaded them to Youtube, but the Warriors of the Wind review gets blocked worldwide immediately. So I'm wondering where else to upload the videos. I tried Vimeo, but it only uploads 500MB files at a time on a free account. Yeah, you have to pay for some premium membership in order to upload files over 500MB (which most of my recent reviews were).

So I do not know where to put my old videos for everyone to see. I apologize, and I hope to find a solution soon enough, as well as figure out the future of my time on the internet.

* - When making the Rugrats Movie review, I put a lot of it together, and then sent it to Conner for finishing touches. However, over the years, his computer got corrupted (or something like that) and lost a lot of data, including the source file he uploaded. The file I have for the Rugrats Movie review is one I downloaded off of Blip via some obscure video download site.

The Boxtrolls and South Park's "The Cissy"

TL;DW: Imaginative, creative, but not funny. The villainous cross-dressing trope was the straw that broke the camel's back. The camel being my investment in the film. By about the halfway point, I stopped caring and just wanted it to end. So, a somewhat decent movie that I hated.



TL;DW: While the episode does discuss certain aspects of being transgender, there aren't really any transgender characters. Most of the characters who start identifying as trans are actually just cross-dressing for their own wants (Cartman wanting to use the girls' room, Wendy trying to prove a point to Cartman, Randy keeping up the Lorde charade). While not all that offensive, it's also not all that sympathetic.

Oddly enough, I was more offended by Boxtrolls. Probably because with South Park, I had watched quite a bit of the show a few years back, and I saw a few people reacting to the episode before, so I prepared myself for anything. But with Boxtrolls, I didn't know what to expect. Certainly not that.

I Am Agender - In Video Form

Here's the original post.

Here's the Washington Post article.

Thank you for your support over the years.

A Sick Update

Still working out kinks.

No Good Ideas

So I'm gonna try a bit of a new direction with my videos. We'll see where this goes.

This one time on Leverage...

I haven't yet made a video where I recount my experiences in acting. If I wanted to, I could upload clips from my high school productions. I could also tell you all the little things about auditioning for certain films you've heard of, or about the somewhat famous people I've met. But I haven't.

Whether or not I will tell you all the details remains to be seen, but for now, here's my work as an extra in an episode of Leverage.



I just remembered that I did at one point upload a Japanese music video that I was in, but it got taken down, and for some reason, the song is pretty hard to find. Weird.

Ice Bucket Challenge

Please donate.

Discussing the future and the Channel Awesome results.

I Am Agender

Something that I should probably get out there.

For the past few months, I have been trying to figure out my own gender, and at the moment, the label I am identifying the most with is "agender". Many sites will tell you that agender means "without gender" and that an agender person doesn't identify as either man or woman (obviously), but rather identifies as a person. To be honest, I feel a bit more gender neutral, but agender was that term that stuck out to me...in any case, I do not identify as a man, despite that being the gender I was assigned at birth.

With this new identification, I have also decided to go by a new name, Christie.

I'm sure that interested parties will have questions for me, and since I am still figuring things out, I probably won't be able to answer them all. What I do know at the moment are a few things: I wish to be called Christie, I wish to be referred to with gender neutral pronouns (they/their/them), and no, you may not call me Jake.

If you do have questions, feel free to ask.

Thank you and good night.

- Christie

A Planned Hiatus

Something I forgot to bring up in the video: I haven't figured out a plan for the old videos once my Blip account is deactivated. I could try uploading them to Youtube, but a few of these videos were blocked when I first uploaded them, so maybe I could upload them as unlisted videos, and then embed them here. We'll see how that goes.

Captain America and the Channel Awesome talent pick-up

Posted some thoughts on a movie and the talent pick-up.

Commentary: Rugrats Go Wild review

Two more commentaries on the last Rugrats review.

Conner's commentary:




My commentary:

Commentary: Rugrats in Paris review

Two commentaries on the same review.

My commentary:



Conner's commentary:

Commentary: The Rugrats Movie review

And now you know the rest of the story.

Cinematic Nutcase - Rugrats Go Wild

And thus concludes this mostly improvised storyline.

SakuraCon 2014

I've accomplished my goals in getting autographs and cosplay.

Heading to SakuraCon.

Later today, I'll be heading off on a long trip. I'll be driving myself, my girlfriend, and friends from one side of the state to the other for SakuraCon. Obviously, after the con, there will be the annual rap up vlog.

One of my goals is to get former Soul Eater cast members to sign my box-set. These guests are Todd Haberkorn (Death the Kid), Leah Clark (Blair), and Chuck Huber (Dr. Stein).

The past years have all been interesting, let's see what happens this year.

Thoughts

Good day all!

I have made a video detailing a few video plans I have for the future, as well as a clip of the Rugrats Go Wild review.

Check it out here!

Another Equestria Girls Joke Video

If I do finally make an Equestria Girls review, or end up reviewing this sequel, I may use this joke again. The things you do when you're bored.

03-20-14 The Lego Movie and Other Topics

Recorded a vlog, since I haven't in a while. Just kind of spouting off random stuff.

My Reaction to the Rainbow Rocks Trailer

The first Equestria Girls film was essentially the final nail in the coffin for me with MLPFiM. The lackluster third season wasn't much help, but the film was what made me realize that my interest was fading, with little possibility of recovery. Even a few fourth season episode weren't enough to get me back into it (despite them not being that terrible). And now we're getting an Equestria Girls sequel. 

So I made a quick video thing.

So yeah, not really that excited. It's doubtful that I'll end up watching it.

I find it interesting how Daniel Ingrim's songs in the show cover a wide range of styles, but almost all of the songs in the Equestria Girls movies are just light-hearted, catchy pop songs. Makes me wonder if it's a directorial choice, or if he's phoning it in on purpose.

Fandom Memories...

Growing up is an odd sort of thing. All these responsibilities start falling on to your lap and trying to figure out which issue to tackle first is a struggle.

A lot of the time, I just roam about on the Internet, watching videos and finding new music and just enjoying others' artwork, instead of trying to make my own. I do this to run from my responsibilities, usually for hours at a time. I know it's not really that adult, but that's not what this blog entry is about.

Some of us have the fandoms that we're only casually in, but some of us also have those shows/books/whatever that just mean so much to us, so much more than the others. For many, there's Harry Potter, or Doctor Who, or Sherlock Holmes, but for me, there were two: Avatar the Last Airbender and My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.

A strange combination, when you think about it.

With AtLA, it was the first fandom I ever really experienced. At the time, I wasn't really on the Internet outside of Nick.com, so I was still watching just about anything that was on. And then the fandom showed me so many possibilities. I've said before that this show was what got me into video editing in the first place, and that was no lie. With my videos, I owe this show a lot. And yet, I haven't really had the interest to go back to that show. I'm not caught up with Legend of Korra, and all around, there's just this disconnect I feel whenever I think about AtLA.

I guess it's because of how long ago that was. The other day, the show became 9 years old. So many years have passed, and I've basically hopped to a bunch of other fandoms for short periods of time.

Until MLP.

With MLP, I think I got into it mainly because I was latching on to a more childish aesthetic. Just something that would appeal to the part of me that didn't want to grow up. And with the editing skills I had acquired, I was able to make the videos I couldn't make during the days of AtLA. The fun had started all over again. The excitement of waiting for the new episode, the wonderful fan-made music, the fanfics, oh, the fanfics. It was fantastic.

But, like with AtLA, the fun had to end.

With AtLA, the show ended, so I gradually moved on to other things. With MLP, it was more abrupt. With MLP, I realized that the shows quality wasn't really up to my evolving standards. When watching an episode, I would pause and then complain about something in the writing. And after watching that TV movie I'd prefer not to name, my fondness for anything to with that show just started dissolving from there. And when I look back on that time, I feel that same disconnect.

I think that disconnect comes from realizing that there's no going back to that time. AtLA was with me throughout middle school, and MLP was with me at the tail-end of high school, and with those times are the memories I associate with good friends. Friends who I'm not all that close to anymore. And when I sit here and reflect, it does seem like losing interest in these shows was a bit like losing a friend. A show engrossing you for a number of years, and then the interest fading, like best friends who you lose contact with.

And now, I continue to hop to different fandoms, not getting as engrossed. Keeping my distance in some respects. Not wanting to get too involved, because of the inevitability of the fading interest.

I guess it does come with growing up, at least with me. Just kind of realizing what I do and don't have time for. Or maybe I have a slight depression and I haven't had an official diagnosis. Anything's possible, I guess.

FEZ in a nutshell

Because fun.

02-08-14

Something I Noticed...

My imagine has mostly been taken over by an "original" idea. So far, when it comes to these original ideas, I start with characters long before I start with story. With this case, I started off with a look. An outfit. And from that sprang a character. Then I kept thinking of the character. Trying, and failing, to draw him. And then I thought of a situation involving him. And then a few more. And from there, came three more characters.

After a while, I needed to start writing this down. I needed an outline. And when I started writing, I wrote out a sentence for each of the four characters. Today, I finally gave them names.

Out of these four characters, only two of them actually seemed defined. The other two, I'm still having trouble with.

Before, most of my fictional writing consisted of romance, so I thought of these four as pairs, as two couples. I knew that whatever their story ended up being, I wanted these couples to be together. But that may be why I'm having trouble with the other two.

Here's what I noticed: The characters that are more defined and identifiable in my head are characters that sprang from character arc ideas. While I hadn't before known their names, I knew what sort of arc they would go through. The other two, however, were not. When I started thinking of those other characters, I didn't have much of an arc for them, aside from the romance. Those two characters weren't conceived as characters with their own arcs, they were conceived as love interests whose arc revolved around their respective crushes.

So that's something I need to think about from now on. It doesn't matter what trappings of a story I want to incorporate until AFTER I fully understand and know who my characters are.

Tamaki as The Spoony One

I made a thing 'cause I was bored.

Academy Awards Nominations for Best Animated Feature 2014

I haven't been very current when it comes to films this year, mostly because of expenses and also because of not feeling like it. Like, I'm sure all the Best Picture nominees are well done movies, but I still haven't seen any of them. One thing I do hear about from a few critics is that American Hustle is basically David O. Russel pretending to be Martin Scorsese, and may end up getting the Best Picture award, and then going to be swiftly forgotten in the coming years, like many of the recent Best Pictures (i.e. The Artist).

But of course, the only category that I find myself giving a damn about is the Best Animated Feature category, mostly because I have actually seen a few of the nominations. This year, we have an interesting batch, so lets take a quick look.

The Croods

As someone who isn't easily entertained by slapstick, the beginning of this film felt pretty slow, but once the story got going and the characters became relatable and likable, I became very invested. Very well done. 

In general, I would prefer it if a film began clunky but then improved in quality as it went. One of the few exceptions I can think of is Pitch Perfect, where it was consistently obnoxious up until the last ten minutes, then it got good.

Despicable Me 2

I haven't seen this one, mostly because I wasn't that interested in the first one, so by extension I wasn't interested in this one. It makes me wonder why it's even nominated. I'm sure it's at least enjoyable, but it feels like the filler nominee.

Which reminds me, I remember hearing about the third Madoka Magica movie (The Rebellion Story) being submitted for this category. That would've been interesting.

Frozen

I love this movie so much. Are there things I could nitpick? Maybe. Is it odd that the film just kind of stops being a musical once the third act hits? Yeah, kinda. Do I care?

Also, "Let It Go" is nominated for Best Original Song. I'm hoping it wins that award, but I also hope that we bring back the Original Song performances. I wanna see Idina Menzel sing at the awards.

Ernest and Celestine

This is a French-Belgian production, and it looks pretty interesting. Though the story of a mouse befriending a bear and then both getting ostracized sounds like a story that has been done before, the style and animation look incredible. I do wish there was a way to see these movies (aside from torrents). The foreign animated movies don't really get screenings in my area, unless it's a Studio Ghibli film. Speaking of which...

The Wind Rises

So the buzz about this one was that it would be Hayao Miyazaki's last film before retirement, but then I heard something about him "rescinding" his retirement, and apparently he's been planning on retiring for a while now, I don't know. As for the film, I know little else about it, but I still want to see it. It doesn't come out here until February, a few weeks before the ceremony. I haven't seen all of Miyazaki's work, but I think Nausicaä, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle are enough reasons to go see this, for me at least.

So a good turn out, now let's see if I can go see a bunch of the Best Picture nominees.

Commentary - Boast Busters

I was bored and needed to feel productive, so here's a commentary.


 I also have an Instagram now, in case you are interested.

2013

In January, I decided that I should end my stay in Germany. By February, I had made it home.

From then to about September, I did nothing much except fill out doomed job applications and slowly writing scripts and stories.

In September, I started classes at my community college. Later on, I had started a job, which I foolishly quit less than two months later.

Much of the year was filled with depressed introspection and absolute confusion.

But through it all, there was someone to help.

Thank you all.

I hope to make more videos, so that I may bring joy to you all.

And thank you, Elizabeth.

Happy New Year, love.