Astinus

Done that test yet?

Alas, still no luck for me with interviews. :< Apparently I do well in them; just that there are people with a better background for the jobs I've reached the interview stage with so far. >_> Ah well, I'll just keep trying.

(Did my skype message ever send btw?)

Obviously the writing is great, but it's good that you're getting into other new things as well. Getting your driver's license is a huge step, that's really cool. Do you have your permit already, or are you starting from there?

We just have to get through a week long road trip across the country first. Did Geoff give you the play by play of what I was doing? Haha

Good! What are you working on?

And I hope my life is about to get a lot better, haha. Not that it's horrible right now, but a big change is coming up and I think I'm making a good choice. Late last year I moved down to Reno with a friend, now I've been back in Washington living in my parents house for a month before I move again next Thursday and go live with Geoff!

Aw, let's change that.

How's it going?

We haven't talked in forever, and something tells me that you don't use Skype anymore (who actually does?). :(

Also this is our first VM what

Is this thing still on?

Here the minimum age is 16, and you just need to do a computer test on road rules for the learner's permit. In my state you have to have an adult drive with you for (at least when I was doing the tests) a minimum of a year and 120 hours of driving to be able to take another test, this time computer and driving. After that I can drive by myself but with a bunch of restrictions, and another 2 and 1 year wait with two more computer exams at the end of those periods later I got my full license.

*sends luck* Wonder what american driver tests are like actually...

Not going to canada, but have had two interviews since, both within Australia. Not even regular job season for astronomy yet... Seems I missed out on one, but the other interview was only yesterday but we'll see.

No trips this year yet planned; was a chance earlier to go to the US but then I didn't get a talk and also I have this thesis to finish up this year anyway. Will let you know if it happens down the track though! On that note, there's currently a non-zero chance I could move to Canada for a job too. But we'll see.

Never been to an Outback Steakhouse but I like steak at any rate! :V

And I am fine, just all the busy, haha. Gotta move back to parents in a couple months too (lease expiring, flatmate who started earlier and hence runs out of money earlier wants to move out, so I shall too). I still am on Skype! Discord is cool too, but not without some issues (but then nothing is). Yourself?

Thank you :D

Ham eating is good. I had a bbq with family so had a good variety of meats. Also ham. Enjoy your vacation!

I also met up with some friends who I haven't seen in many months so that was a good overdue catchup.

How was your Easter? And do you get to take advantage of Easter chocolate sales at your store if there are any?

Heh, well done. Good to hear you enjoyed it too!

I remember seeing it before, I was just inspired to comment on it when I saw you post again, haha.

And they just announced Ash Hat Pikachu for Japan in SM. Glasses Pikachu would be better than those imo. (But maybe not the kind the... 'Smart' Contest Pikachu had?)

Glasses Pikachu is cute.

Your mountain of words about Digimon got ninja'd by my mountain of words about Digimon, lol

Episode 20:

So my memory was a little fuzzy; this episode ends with the introduction of Magnamon and the actual fight is next episode. Thought it was all one episode for some reason. Anyway, this is still the best episode of 02 so far. There were two great touches with audio that stuck out to me. 1) the first shot of the episode is silent and it shows the Kaiser's attack on a town ramping up from a distance, after which they cut right into the thick of it. Much better use of silence than that weird silent-movie thing in the latest Tri movie (yes, I'm still miffed about that movie). 2) Ken's laughter superimposed for a moment with Devimon's before Ken hears him and it messes him up. It's a great way of reinforcing the story idea that Ken is treating metaphysical darkness like the video game he thinks it is, as if he's just playing a Lawful Evil character in D&D, while the reality is that the darkness in the Digital World is real, terrifying, and overwhelmingly greater than he is. Going along those lines, it's a great scene where Ken first realizes that the Digimon are alive when he remembers seeing the baby forms in the real world, and provides a much better plot reason for villain-doesn't-kill-heroes-when-he-has-the-chance than you expect from children's anime. Another nice thing about this episode is that there are no stock evolution sequences (I don't count Magnamon's as stock even if it technically gets used more than once), unlike the latest Tri movie where there a like a billion. What I'm saying is that 02 Episode 20 is better looking, sounding, and written than Tri Movie 4, which is just embarrassing.

You've just reminded me that I still need to watch the next 02 episode. >_> Kept meaning to, but I've been going after my current fic at a feverish pace by my standards. I'll get back on that this week.

As for the latest Tri movie, I thought it sucked! Seriously, I was not happy with it at all. My favorite part was how we saw snippets of the adults' past as chosen children, though it was odd that they chose to show so much of it in silent-movie style. I mean, it's still the digital world, so that's kind of incongruous. I suspect they were running low on sound budget.

As for the rest of the movie, one word: filler. I watched it with my RL friend, and when the credits came up for the first "episode" we were honestly bewildered that 20 minutes had passed because nothing happened. And the way Machinedramon/Mugendramon's attack sent them to random places in random combinations was so contrived, so obviously "we, the writers, have no idea how to get them split up but we're convinced it has to happen" that I felt embarrassed for them. The Sora and Biyomon/Piyomon plot was equally contrived. If there was a reason why Biyomon is super-suspicious of Sora while all the other Digimon warm up to their forgotten partners in a heartbeat, I missed it. It's a conflict that exists because there has to be a conflict, and they couldn't figure out how to have it make sense with the rest of the story so they gave up and tried to over-manufacture some emotions instead so that people won't notice. It's exactly the kind of contrived story I worry about writing myself, and when an amateur can look at your finished product and see a resemblance to their roughest drafts that's a bad sign.

The technical side of things is impressing me less and less, too. I think their budget is shrinking, and it clearly wasn't huge to begin with. The pyrotechnics are particularly disappointing as the series progresses. There are too many attacks that are similarly-drawn, awkward energy things that are aesthetically blah. Phoenixmon's special attack in particular just looks like a version of Birdramon's that fills up more of the screen. I am saying I preferred the attack animations in a cheap TV anime from the year 1999. That shouldn't happen.

The nadir of the movie was definitely Suddenly Rapey Gennai licking Sora's face. That was ick and I don't know what made them think it was a good idea. My friend almost turned it off, and now I'm wondering if I should have told him to go ahead.

So that's what I thought! :D I'm still going to watch the rest of it. I've made it this far and I honestly want to see them recover. What'd you think?

I miss you Asty. :< Hope things are going well!