Deadlock Victim: 07/04/2004

Night tree.

Silhouette.

Fire!

I swear, that picture below is unedited. I did no photoshopping on it, nor anhy of my other photos thus far. I love how it came out!

Fire!

Skin Hunting.

I was browsing over at Blogskins.com, looking for a new skin to use for The Victim. There are a lot of lousy skins out there. Pointless graphics, bad layout, and bad color choices abound. I can't believe what passes for good work over there. Of course, once in awhile a gem can be found, The Musings skin was found over there, and I think it is one of the best around, it's classy and functional and has a clean look. Another thing that disturbed me, was the lack of spelling ability. The descriptions and such have atrocious grammar and spelling. It's a wonder they are literate at all. I don't mean this as an insult to anyone, just observations.

Sadly, I am not terribly familiar with style sheets or blog code to design my own, or else I would. Also, if anyone knows of a good, dark colored theme, like this current basic template, drop me a line.

Too Many?

I know, that's probably just 1 (or 3) too many lousy looking photos that look pretty much the same. I tool them with my camera-phone from a decent vantage point. I thought they came out decent considering the bad photo lighting conditions. They came out better than the one I took at the Motograter concert a couple of weeks ago. I hope you will indulge me in these pics...

Ticket stub signed by Don Dokken.

Don Dokken behind the club, after the show.

Dokken, strobe flare during the encore.

Dokken on stage.

Dokken, on stage.

Dokken, lights out.

Dokken, stage before they went on.

Metadox, onstage

Livesay on stage.

Getting ready for the show.

Ladybug

Outcast Caste?

I was reading the paper the other day, rare occurrence I know, and I came across something a little startling. It was an article entitled "Japanese bias against 'outcasts' still lingers'. The article started by relating a story of a young woman who was thrown out of her boyfriend's family home on the event of announcing their engagement. The cause of the stir was her background her family came from the burakumin caste. I read on and the gave some more background on the burakumin. They were the lowest caste in the hierarchy of feudal Japan, relegated to jobs such as grave digging and chopping meat. They were even made to live separately from the other castes, even today their communities still exist. This background is readily available to employers and families, anyone who wishes to look it up. And as proven by the opening story, it can cause families to break up, and other cases it can cost people job opportunities. In the feudal periods they were known as filth, or non-human, forced apart from the other castes of warriors, artisans, farmers, and merchants.

I found it disturbing that, in this day and age, bigotry like that still exists. The article also mentioned that this burakumin discrimination is hard to understand outside of Japan. That got me to thinking, I don't think it is that hard to understand, I don't want to believe it exists and I do not endorse or practice it in anyway, a similar form of discrimination exists right here in America. It reminded my of the discrimination that exists against minorities to this day across the country. In order for our individual, as well as the world, community has to get over these biases in order to grow as a community. The caste system has been abolished for over 100 years, yet the feelings still exist for a lot of people. I know that this does not apply to a lot of people, hopefully the majority, but for those that do cling to these beliefs I have to ask why? Why discriminate? How have these people offended you? We are all members of the same species, we are all human beings, and as such deserve to be respected by all.

This is idealistic, but that is what we need to strive for. There is no place for hate, this applies to more than these discrimination cases, but to all parts of the world. I don't want to sound all preachy or anything, but we need to put the past behind us and work for a better future.

I was just a little shocked to open the paper and read that. I had been aware of the old caste system, but had been unaware of these so-called 'untouchables.' Maybe I was blind not to realize that caste like that would exist, maybe that is a lot of people's problems....

Link Button.

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My Tarot Reading

I found this like to a Tarot reading on MSN at Randomness of Lori, and decided to give it a shot, here are my results:

Daily Spread for Chris:
Love: The Hermit
Touchstone: Death
Career: The Empress

There's a sad day ahead in terms of your personal life, dear Chris... Under the influence of the Hermit, you're inclined to withdraw into your shell, while the Death card lends a solemn atmosphere to your emotional situation, suggesting that a disagreement or separation is in the air. Perhaps you need to take stock of the situation with regard to some element of your emotional past? A person, a place, a memory. Ponder the question, but don't make any irreversible decisions today. As for work, there may be a few changes in the way you approach this. You may be about to change jobs or colleagues, reorganize your schedule, transfer to another department, get promoted, absolutely anything is possible when Death is holding the reins! Luckily, the Empress will be there to guide you all day and she'll help you handle these changes with detachment and skill.

Curious to say the least. Thoughts?

You lookin' at me?

The Realm Part 8.

It is now time to bring this party to a close, what follows is what I had originally written and posted on my old site. It was a tough project considering the numerous obstacles in my way. If I get the opportunity, I will try to get some screen caps and post them. In the meantime, enjoy this final roundup!

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This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang, but a whimper
T.S. Eliot
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That was how it seemed as the semester came to a close. You see, I got the bar location I needed, but could not get my cast and crew together to go there. I had what I needed to get done at the studio on campus, I was able to get one and a half days worth of work done, problem was, I needed three or four days worth.

I ended up rewriting the story two nights before the project was due. I performed the voiceover myself, recorded the soundtrack myself (this, fortunately, was a track from a project I had done years previous that fit the tone of the film), filmed the remainder by myself at my house, and editing it all into one piece all in a matter of two days. The overall quality wasn't at the level that I had initially wanted, but it was impressive for two days work.

I rewrote my original story into something simpler, yet equally compelling. I also internalized the story making it the tale of a man alone, rather than a man seeking help. It became the story of a man who had nowhere else to turn. This version had a more tragic ending, which I am proud of, technically speaking. The climatic suicide was achieved visually by using a cardboard tube over the lens to simulate looking out the barrel of a rifle.

I must brag a little here, it made me feel better about the almost failed project. When my teacher first saw it in class he said that he liked it but..... When I saw him again just prior the graduation commencement, he said that he had watched it again at a more leisurely pace while at home, and said that he was very impressed with the short, considering the short span of time I had to put it together, and still making it a cohesive story.

In all I was happy with the result, a 7.5 minute opus. Something I can say I am proud of and would like to, one day, expand into a longer work. I will hopefully be turning this section into something of a forum to share my developing story ideas. I hope you have enjoyed your journey through my Realm. Please e-mail me your comments, I would love to know what you think!!