The Year of Vlogging Dangerously by the XerialKiller

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Nuchtchas

You may have listened to a Nutty Debate or two in which we had the XerialKiller as one of our debaters. This year for 2012 he has decided to do a VLOG a day, that’s right, everyday he will VLOG. (What is a VLOG, you might ask? It’s a video blog, a video journal, a video diary, a guy who films himself rambling about what he did that day.) While I often don’t watch many VLOGS, they keep me tied to a computer (or iPad, or other device that supports youtube video) I do check them out from time to time. I don’t see yet why this is a VLOG over a podcast because there isn’t much to see other than his head… well there is that happy fat Buddha in the background, but it’s a short VLOG so it holds my attention. Have I mentioned I have ADD? I do, and not in the turn of phrase I have ADD because I get distracted but in the clinical sense, I have ADD, my mind works differently and I use that to my advantage but it often makes me rambly and easy to distract.

Anyway, go check out his channel, watch the videos, they are kinda fun and I’m waiting for him to do some crazy things on camera, because he can. You will notice he isn’t swearing much, but if he does swear random words like taco and potato aren’t covering his swears, so dad. (I mention this because XK is the guy who recorded all my swear word covers for Nutty Bites.)

Below is the first VLOG from January first, he has now done 11 of them (as I write this, and as I publish it he should have done 12, yes, I am prewriting this, muhahahaha!) and I can’t say that any one is tied to another, nice and random, just how I like it. Also, XK taunts me in one of his videos calling carbonated beverages “pop” he is wrong, it is soda. (Yes I know it is pop to some and soda to others and some odd folks call all walks of carbonation coke, but it is soda to me and the one time I called it pop I felt dirty)

PS: I find the idea that his project can easily be referred to as VD (Vloging Dangerously, dropping the rest of it, it makes sense in my head so just go with it) highly amusing and would love if that abbreviation catches on.

I should be recording, but I’m blogging instead

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Nuchtchas

I said I wanted to blog more in 2012 and it has taken me ten days to come up with a second post. (Granted, I was away in New York Celebrating my family’s christmas and not able to blog for 8 of those days and I don’t really have a blog topic per say.) I need to record Nutty Bites, but they are doing construction to the foundation of the house behind me so every 30 seconds to ever minute there is a loud thud sound that makes it sound like I’m under fire, not to mention startling my nerves. I am currently avocado (this is a term my husband and I have come up with when you use your big headphones to block all audio from the real world and tune into music, a game, a video or podcasts) to save my sanity.

I wanted to post this picture when I painted it, but I couldn’t because it was part of the present I gave to my Kris Kringle (confused? I refer you again to my family’s christmas) so I didn’t want to give away the surprise. The painting is a water color of a sketch I did a while ago of an elf, a specific elf, an elf my sister plays named Caelan (or some spelling like that, she has a few characters with the name.) Again I will say I am really enjoying getting back into watercolors, I can see why a lot of artists like acrylics these days, its faster, but I just don’t like the flatness when the painting is done, yet with the watercolors, which are even faster, and easy to clean up and set up but I feel like I can get a lot of depth to the images.

A lot of people tell me they can’t get behind watercolors because they are so drippy and uncontrolled, I hope that from my few paintings I have shared so far you can see how much control you can get over the medium. I wish I had images of the sailboat scenes I’ve done for my mom years ago to show you. I didn’t document my work as much then as I do now and it’s a shame. Then I only used film on the most completed of works, I didn’t want to waste film (remember those days?) Now it’s easy, everything is digital, scan it, photograph it and it’s saved forever.

I’ve been trying to draw on my iPad but I just can’t control the stylus like I can with my tablet, the iPad isn’t sensitive enough, I know that Cynical Woman does amazing things on her iPad, I’ll have to get her to show me how she does it at Balticon or something.

I cam home from vacation with stacks of day job work and all the stacks of voice work and recording I’m already behind on. Coming back to construction wasn’t helpful for the recording side, but I’m hoping to do some late night recording to get it taken care of. I really need a sound proof booth because the new house just picks up every sound from the outside, you’d think I would hear our neighbors a lot more (it’s a duplex) but I have heard them perhaps three times since moving in. I’m not creating excuses for why things are behind, I don’t like it when other people do that :) I’m just reflecting on what’s going on in my life.

Something I have done, that isn’t recording or paying work but is a good break is I’m playing Star Trek Online again. I played this when it first came out, and since the game is going free to play they are allowing anyone who have subscribed in the past to play now, before everyone else (Jan 17th) which is pretty nifty. There is a bit of learning curve as they changed so much about the game since I played last, a lot of really good improvements. The game is sleeker and runs a lot nicer, there doesn’t seem to be any wait to get onto the server, which used to be a problem. There has been almost no rubberbanding, which also was a problem before, I haven’t had it happen once, Tek had it happen I think on the first day and that’s it. Going back to STO just reinforces my decision to not play an MMO in the first six months, I know that doesn’t help the game thrive, but I can’t take the adjustment period. Also, I LOVE free to play games. I still play a subscription for DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online) but I can’t see myself paying for more than one MMO, I can see myself buying items from the store and doing micro transactions. I think it’s a great business model and the way to go for MMO gaming, I never feel guilty if I don’t play LotRO, Champions, Conan or now STO, because I’m not paying monthly for it. I actually think just describing this I may have talked myself into switching to F2P for DDO.

I got a lot of comics for Christmas and Epiphany, Kill Shakespeare, Game of Thrones, Dollhouse, Mause, Iron Man Nior and now Vol 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 I think of Buffy Season 8, I need to get my hands on 3 & 4 before I start that though. I looked into getting the digital versions, but they sell those by the issue number, not the trade volume number, so I need to figure out what issue number was the last in vol 2. I also started downloading a ton of Sherlock Holmes books in digital format so I can reread them, I started reading and am just loving every minute of it, it’s transporting me to happy childhood days of reading.

What are you reading now? What are you playing?

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Nuchtchas

They say what you do on New Year’s Day is what you will set the tone for the rest of the year, so you might as well set things off right. So I’m blogging, so perhaps I will blog more in the new year. I have wanted to blog more and to really find a better focus for the blog. My blog is more than a landing page for my podcast (it does that too), it is more than where I showcase some of my art (it does that too) and it’s more than my place to talk about cool events and things going on (it does that sometimes.) What my blog is, that is what we will find out in 2012, hopefully.

A friend of mine asked me to help set up her blog and tips on how to keep it going strong, my advice was to know what you wanted to say as a whole right off, set a schedule, even use alerts if you need them to make sure you post regularly enough to keep people coming back. I also talked about pimping your posts out and getting others to talk about what you have written, that last bit I think I have down, but the first part of my own advice I really don’t follow at all. I need to change that, and yet I still find it hard setting up that alert in google because then I would actually have to do it. Do you ever find that happen to you? The only thing stopping you from achieving your goal is your resistance to actually doing the work?

I also discussed the idea with Tek of him having his own column on the NIMLAS Studios blog. He likes the idea, and has been wanting to blog more himself, but finds that he can’t support readership on his own as his posts are often few and far between (anyone who followed his LJ knows of the year long gaps, but when he posts its good food for though) so we shall see if he picks that up. If there are other people that think they might like a column here then please email me or message me and we can chat about that. I named the blog NIMLAS Studios to make it open ended just for the opportunity to have multiple authors and projects.

What I know I don’t want the blog to be is a blog that “re-blogs.” I see a lot of that already by the money making blog sites and while yes I visit those sites, A) it’s being done to death, B) I hate clicking on an article that links to another article that links to a DIGG, that links to Reditt, and so on, and C) NIMLAS Studios is about creating things, not repurposing things. Creativity is key.

I want to kick off a few more podcasts, yeah, I find it hard to get the time to record my prime podcast as it is, but these two new ones have an end since they are based on TV shows that are both long since over. The first is a show Tek wants to do, this would be his show really, not mine, but it would be a NIMLAS Studios production. It would be a 15 minute or less podcast about Get Smart, yeah, that Get Smart, the old TV show. The next is I want to do an IntroCast on My So Called Life. (What’s an IntroCast you ask? I’m glad you asked that, got to the BTL Studios Page and IntroCast to learn more. There is also a facebook group, if you are interested in joining that, let me know and I can give you the details.) I have two possible newbies and a possible oldie that wants to co-host the show with me, I’d love to have a newbie under 22 to join us just so we would have perspective from someone of the right age group, if you know someone, let me know.

I want to get some more Digger Chat’s set up and recorded for SciFi Dig. I really like doing those, they are always so much fun but I haven’t done a single one all fall, and that is not cricket :)

I want to get my NaNoWriMo Novel finished, I want to edit it, and I want to rewrite last year’s novel. I want to write more fiction short stories and read those for Nutty Bites.

I want to clear away outstanding projects and have more time for these new goals.

You will notice I have not used the R word (Resolutions), that’s because the R word means failure to me. If I think of something as a resolution then it’s a gimmick that is soon forgotten by February. I prefer to focus on more long term life changes, much like I don’t diet, but focus on making healthy choices and life changes in these choices I make.

What are you looking forward to in 2012?

EDIT: What is that a picture of? You’ll find out in a week or so :)

A wordle. I do wordle. You too. You do wordle too

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Nuchtchas

Facebook has that new timeline nonsense, so of course I had to try it out. I have to try everything out, didn’t you know that? Right, so when making my timeline I needed a cover image, like a big banner that you have almost no control over (Big shock, facebook is limiting our control over something and then claiming it’s a feature, big fun) and at first I had my beloved cougar Jaspurr as the cover, but then I decided to change it to a wordle I made of this site’s RSS feed. Don’t know what a wordle is? Well click the image and it will take you there (While you’re at it, click the stop censorship bar and make your voice heard about how you think SOPA is just plain wrong), you can make it from anything with a RSS or ATOM feed, I learned all about this years ago from @smoran8m and I use it all the time when I want something interesting but nonspecific (I also use tagxedo for more options and importing a document)

Movie Review: Tomboy

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Nuchtchas

“A 10-year-old girl, settling into her new neighborhood outside Paris, is mistaken for a boy and has to live up to this new identity since it’s too late for the mistake to be clarified.”

Today I watched this movie, it’s in french with english subtitles. It’s slow going but it held my attention mostly because of the realistic acting from these child actors. It was pretty good except it left me with a sadness at the end. I thought I saw a real natural progression of what a young person might be going through if they were able to realize at such a young age they would prefer to be a boy rather than a girl.

SPOILERS BELOW:

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