December 10, 2005
I'm definitely back on the music video track, though my next video isn't going to be a ReBoot one. I recently picked up Lionhead's "The Movies". It's a decent game, though not a great one. It's pretty much two things in one package: a medicore tycoon game and a mediocre movie maker. I imagine it will be like Sims 2 -- the mod community will make the game shine.
Anyhow, a while back I had an idea on a video about AndrAIa and Matrix set to the tune of "Stand By Your Man" (this is not the same as my Matrix video that I talk about below). However I couldn't find the footage I needed to create what I saw in my head. However using The Movies to make the footage I need, I can edit it externally (using Studio) to make the video. I won't even try to make the characters resemble AndrAIa and Matrix. Instead, it will be more of a trailer for a series of movies I'd like to make about a 19th century saloon girl who gets involved with a visiting alien. I still want to get back to my ReBoot stuff, and I'm hoping this will jump start the creative part of my brain so I can do that.
^ TOPNovember 20, 2005
I wanted to do a quick update to withdraw my endorsements of the two sites below. WAHM has a lot of advertising and almost all of them are scams. She gives some disclaimer about not having control over advertising content, but I don't buy that. She may have no control over Google Ads, but she also sells advertising one-on-one. Not only that, but many of the sites listed in the forums are also...well, not scams but fishy. For example, I did some home data entry work for CPG (listed on their site) and took 6 hours (not including 2 hours of driving time to pick up and deliver the work) to make $19. As for Associated Content (another one I got from WAHM), they are an SEO (search engine optimized) site. There are several sites like this. They don't care about the quality of the articles, they just want to attract search engines so people will click on their advertising. OK, that by itself isn't so bad but the problem is that they pay crap (like a penny a word or less). Again, by itself that's not so terrible, but people looking for real freelance writers think it is OK to pay them the same rate, so it just brings down freelance writer rates across the board. Not only that, but they are also a term paper mill. I hope to have some *legitimate* work at home links in the near future, but you know how everything slows to a crawl when the holidays come around.
^ TOPNovember 14, 2005
I've actually started doing a little work on my Matrix video. Not enough to make any real difference, but enough to make me remember how much I hate Pinnacle Studio. I haven't done any real (as in paying) work in months, which is the drawback of being freelance. Even ignoring my commitments to taking care of my niece, there is no way I could ever go back to the 8-to-5 wage slave thing. So I'm poking around looking for other little projects to make money, generally work at home things. Since so many work at home things are massive scams, it's slow going. I found a decent site at WAHM.com which seems to have some good links. I also hope to write a few articles at Associated Content with the idea of establishing a body of work then looking for some freelance writing jobs. At this time of year, no one is thinking about contracters so I won't have any programming work until at least February.
In other news, I'm learning to speak Greek. It's going fairly well. Reading Greek is surprisingly easy, even though they use a different alphabet. Once you get past the "B sounds like V, V sounds like N, and N sounds like I" type stuff, it's a breeze. It's great having the resources of the internet. Seriously, what the heck did we do before the internet? I can't remember. I can even watch Greek TV live. I can't understand more than one word in a hundred, but it's fun nonetheless.
I've added a number of links to resources about Greek and working from home to the links page.
^ TOPAugust 13, 2005
I keep thinking I'll update at least once a month, but how many different ways can I say "Nothing's changed"? :) I'm still very busy, I still keep meaning to get back to my videos, and time slips away very quickly. My niece has been doing really well lately, but still requires a tremendous amount of attention. We've got a good nanny plus we finally got her father here so that's helping. I've lost touch with the ReBoot thing, though I lurk over at The Java Hut about once a month and watch my old videos now and then just to keep the creative juices flowing. It's going to be at least another month until I have anything resembling free time. But someday I'll get back to this.
^ TOPMay 21, 2005
Today marks one year since I last touched the Dot video. I guess it's safe to assume that I'm never going to finish it to my satisfaction. I've also given up on every getting good copies of the PlayStation game footage. I had a couple of leads but they petered out. So with a complete lack of fanfare, here is the remastered and final version of The Many Faces of Dot Matrix. Pretty funny to see on the Dot page it says it would be out "April 2004".
^ TOPMay 6, 2005
One of those "no I'm not dead" updates. I can't even claim incremental progress on my videos this time. My niece still takes up all my free time. We tried her in day care, but her issues require constant one-on-one attention. So we've been trying to find a nanny, but that's not going real well. So I watch her when I can and my sister watches her the rest in addition to us both trying to do silly things like our jobs. Her father can't help because US Immigration feels that parents shouldn't be allowed to visit their children. I'm completely serious. He is not allowed to come this this country BECAUSE he has a daughter living here. Makes sense, no? No!
For those of you who have nothing better to do, Maria's started her own blog. Since she's only ten months old, I'm helping her out a little.
^ TOPFebruary 27, 2005
I continue to make incremental progress on the videos (emphasis on the word "incremental"). My niece has been doing very poorly lately; January was just a complete nightmare. On top of that my boss is getting annoyed at my lack of billable hours (i.e. this baby's crippling medical problems are keeping him from making money). I have no idea when I'm going to ever be able to put a significant amount of time into this stuff. But it stays on my mind and I hope to get back to it soon.
^ TOP