Third Mouse

Vividcon 2017 premiere: Wild (Xena: Warrior Princess)

thirdblindmouse — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 07:05:15 GMT

Fandom: Xena: Warrior Princess
Song:"Wild", by Poe
Subject: Callisto

Password = that night in Cirra

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Vividcon 2018 premiere: Dellamorte Style (Cemetery Man)

thirdblindmouse — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 05:33:03 GMT

Fandom: Cemetery Man (1994)
Song: "Style", by Taylor Swift
Summary: Things that never go out of style: sex, death, and flesh-eating zombies.

Password = james dean

Note: Made for Brendan. Premiered at Vividcon 2018. Downloadable copy available by request.

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Vividcon 2018 Challenge: Zero Sum (Star Trek: DS9)

thirdblindmouse — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 17:30:10 GMT

Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Song: "Zero Sum", by Nine Inch Nails
Summary: Bajor and the Prophets: all this is consequence.
Password = nonlinear

Note: Premiered at Vividcon 2018 as part of the challenge "Full Circle". Downloadable copy available by request.

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Vividcon 2018 premiere: Moody (Phantom Lady)

thirdblindmouse — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 17:29:46 GMT

Fandom: Phantom Lady (1944)
Song: "Moody", by Bitter:Sweet
Summary: After her boss is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, she hunts down the witnesses who could have been his alibi...

Password = relentless

Note: Made circa 2015, premiered at Vividcon 2018. Downloadable copy available by request.

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Dear Festividder

thirdblindmouse — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 21:30:36 GMT

Dear Festividder,

Sorry for the late letter! And thank you for offering to vid one of these fandoms. You have excellent taste. Or terrible taste? Either way, we have something in common.

I will enjoy any music you choose to use in your vid. No, really, feel free to go as experimental as you like. I've loved plenty of vids to music I'd have hated on its own, as well as vids to audio tracks that were not technically even music. If you want more specific guidance on genre, I like dance music, and I'm partial to vids set to rap.

* Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) [SAFETY]

A frame-by-frame restored version of this odd 1924 Soviet science fiction film is available for free download from Archive.org.

What draws me to this film is firstly, the imaginative and visually distinctive depiction of the Martian world. In the science fiction story in this movie, astronauts build a rock ship and fly to Mars to answer a distress call from Queen Aelita. When they arive in this strange-looking, alien world, they find themselves embroiled in (not exactly symbolically subtle) politics involving the Queen of Mars and her downtrodden workers. However, this is simultaneously a socialist melodrama. The journey to Mars is framed as the dream of the wife of one of the "astronauts", who is a good Soviet woman seduced into the world of the black market by a former member of the bourgeoisie.

I would be interested in a vid that focused solely on the Martian story, or in a vid that explored the film's use of the science fiction story as political allegory/metaphor/dreamscape.

* Dwarf Fortress

(source)

Dwarf Fortress is a free single-player fantasy game for Windows, Mac, or Linux. In it, you control a dwarven outpost or an adventurer in a randomly generated, persistent world. Note that while the world persists, the outposts and adventurers tend not to. Losing is fun! The real joy of the game is found in the strange stories, creatures, and scenarios your game produces. Dwarves whose obsession with socks leads them to run willingly into the maws of a forgotten beast, wagons that worship gods, worlds overrun with weremarmots, and so on.

The catch is that Dwarf Fortress has very, uh, minimalist in-game graphics. I'm requesting this source in part as a challenge: I dare you to make a vid out of this game's graphics, or else to find a different way to approach making a Dwarf Fortress music video. If the in-game graphics don't satisfy you, you could enhance them with plugins and third party visualizers. (Speaking of plugins, autotuning SoundSense for the audio track would be hilarious.) Alternatively, you could treat Dwarf Fortress a source without visuals, and vid it as you'd vid a book, using fan art or footage from unrelated sources.

Since Dwarf Fortress does not have a shared storyline, the story told in the music video is up to you. It could be the story of a particular fortress or adventurer or forgotten beast or civilization. It could be a polemic against elves, a PSA about keas stealing equipment, or a recruitment video to encourage immigration from the Mountainhomes. It could be a vid about the experience of playing Dwarf Fortress. All I ask is that your ☼vid☼ convey something of how ‼fun‼ Dwarf Fortress can be.

* Hungarian Folktales | Magyar népmesék (TV)

I grew up with the third volume (1984-85) of this series of animated fairy tales (available in English on YouTube). These film shorts influenced my ideal of what animation should be. The stories are beautifully drawn, in a style more metaphorical than strictly visually realistic, as is appopriate for fairy tales. I'd love to see a vid celebrating the beauty and cleverness of the animation.

* Jack of All Trades (TV)

I know, how do you make a better vid for Jack of All Trades than the show's own opening credits? It is a conundrum. Bruce Campbell hijinks are what I'm after here. Or Emilia. Jack and/or Emilia hijinks, please. (Season One can be found on YouTube.)

* Tintin and the Golden Fleece | Tintin et le mystère de la Toison d'Or (1961)

If you'd asked me if there could be a live action Tintin that completely captured the spirit of the comics, I would have laughed. But here it is: the athleticism, the feats, the vivid setting (Istanbul in the sixties!), the friendship, and the humor. Really, the only criticism I could have of this film is the fake beard on Captain Haddock. (Seriously, what even is that thing?)

* The Young Pope

I was convinced to watch this artistically shot show by Jude Law's promise that the first shot would be of the pope crawling out of a pyramid of babies. I was not disappointed. By the point of Voiello's confession scene in the first episode, I was head over heels in love with The Young Pope. "Tommasino, don't waste my time. My sins have to do with high finance and diplomacy. Even if I were to confess them, you wouldn't understand a thing." (Voiello is a wonderful mess of a person.)

One of my favorite things about the show is its refreshing clarity on Lenny being the villain, even as it gleefully digs into the faults of the people around him. The title character isn't written to be anyone's power fantasy; he's a nightmare, and the show does not admire him. He drops babies! He has possibly divine powers, but he's a failure of a leader, because everyone hates him for being a fanatical asshole, and he has the emotional maturity of a psychopathic child.

I deeply enjoy Sister Mary and her dysfunctional relationship with Lenny. They have an Alfred & Batman sort of dynamic, where at first you think the younger half of the pair is crazy and the older half of the pair, who supports the younger one selflessly and tries to moderate them, is sane... until you realize the older person is the one who raised the younger person to be this crazy in the first place.

I would love a vid that captures the absurd humor and the sincere scariness of this show.

* Wanted (2008) [SAFETY]

I love dumb action movies, the less plausible the better. I'm pretty sure this spectacularly dumb action movie was written by a 12-year-old boy who thought it was awesome and then given to Timur Bekmambetov (director of Night Watch, Day Watch, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) to make look just as awesome as it was in his imagination:

(spoilers)

So there's this guy who's a nobody, see? And he has anxiety, and his boss bullies him, and his friend and his hot girlfriend are mean to him. But THEN he learns that he's secretly the son of the coolest super-assassin of all time, who was a member of a society of super-assassins trained by an ancient mystical group of, idk, weavers or something, to be so badass that they can shoot the wings off a fly and their bullets can curve around corners! He inherited his dad's powers, and what he thought was anxiety was actually his cool super-assassin powers. Bad guys show up to kill him, but a hot lady super-assassin who looks like Angelina Jolie shows up to save him, and she drives a really fast car and flips it through the air over other cars to shoot the people inside while she's upside down over them! His stupid girlfriend dumps him for his stupid best friend, but then the super-hot assassin kisses him in front of them and they realize they were so wrong about him, but it's too late cuz he's left his old life behind. He learns to be a super-assassin like his dad, and the, idk, mystical cloth gives him orders to kill some guy, but then it turns out the guy he was sent to kill was his real dad and the weavers are actually the bad guys! He breaks into the bad guys' fortress with an army of bomb-carrying rats, and then the lady super-assassin realizes they were the bad guys all along so she shoots them all down at once with a single bullet!

*deep breath*

...What it all comes down to is that Angelina Jolie doing hilariously unrealistic driving stunts fills my heart with unsurpassable joy.

Happy vidding!

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Festivids recs

thirdblindmouse — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 01:13:38 GMT

Festivids are live! I got three vids of my heart, for a TV show I love and an astronaut I admire:

Cheaper (Terriers)

In summary: A pair of small-time, not very successful (I mean at life in general, not specifically at investigating) private detectives in southern California stumble onto a mystery that ends up going deep ~~into the black unknown~~, and, in the grand and unwise tradition of Philip Marlowe, refuse to stop investigating even when people try to pay them to go away. If you've watched the show, I strongly recommend this vid. If you haven't watched the show ~~why not??~~ this vid will give you a taste.

Mood: bittersweet

Going through space with the world (Chris Hadfield)

In summary: So this astronaut went to space, and then was like, "How about we share this experience with everyone, I mean EVERYONE?" And lo, it became a beautiful vid, and we cried with happiness.

Mood: excited

Satellite (Chris Hadfield)

In summary: Space isn't easy. There's a lot you have to do and risk to get there, and there's a lot that you have to do and endure when you're there. But there's also so much you can do and see, and it is very worth it. We laughed, we cried, we had fun with gas masks.

Mood: awed

There are almost a hundred other vids, and I might make recs later. I've really enjoyed all the ones I've watched so far.

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Festivid: For I am the Cape

thirdblindmouse — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 07:47:24 GMT

Alternative title: The one with the raccoon.
Fandom: The Cape (2011)
Music: "Mahala"
Performer: Életfa
Summary: Vince Faraday becomes the Cape. A gift for seekingferret

Password = festivids

This vid started three Festivids ago, back in fall of 2013. Roughly three things had happened simultaneously, to the extent that I cannot remember what order they happened in, and combined to form the genesis of this vid:

- I started watching The Cape.
- seekingferret posted this Dear Festividder letter.
- I was thinking about instrumental vids.

The topic of instrumentals was on my mind because the previous year I had received this hilaricool Face/Off vid for Festivids, set to instrumental music. At that point I had never made an instrumental vid, because one of the things I enjoy about making vids is how constrained an art form it is. The song provides me with a verse-chorus-bridge structure. The lyrics provide me with direction. Without those, I'm left adrift in a sea of clips, with nothing to guide my vidding. But I started thinking about instrumental sections in songs I'd vidded, and which parts I enjoyed making, and realized I love having nonverbal cues in my vid music, possibly even more than I love lyrics (and I love lyrics a lot). I realized that as long as I had a piece of instrumental music that provided me with those cues continuously, from the first note to the last, an instrumental would be no more difficult to vid than a song with lyrics -- possibly even more fun. The obvious place to turn for such a piece was a genre that was inherently kinetic, i.e., dance.

So everything came together at once -- the show, the request, the music -- and I was vidding The Cape to a Transylvanian folkdance. However, that year I was also working on four other festivids: a challenging assignment, a treat I'd already started for elipie, an "I'm freaking out about my assignment" treat, and a treat that turned into a pinch hit. As the deadline grew near, I realized that I could stress out over finishing a fifth vid, or I could put the Cape vid on pause and gamble on the possibility that seekingferret would request the same thing for festivids the following year. I liked where the vid was going too much to rush it, so I took that gamble.

Unfortunately, seekingferret did not request The Cape for festivids the next year. Or the year after that. At this point, a sensible person would have either a.) finished the damn vid, or b.) given up and deleted the project and the ten episodes of The Cape from their laptop. But not I! And in 2016 I was finally vindicated, and didn't even have to copy any files back onto my hard drive. So there, imaginary naysayers!

This year, I did not have any treats in progress to distract me, but I did manage to catch the flu the week of the assignment deadline, which was also the weekend of MIT Mystery Hunt. I did not make it to Mystery Hunt, which I'm sure everyone taking the bus to Boston that weekend thanks me for, but I did stay up late finishing a draft of the vid to submit. I submitted the draft at 2am, noticed I was running a fever, and did the only reasonable thing, which was to do a quick google search for The Cape + Chess Piece Face to see if anyone had ever combined the two. They hadn't, so I did.

Then a few days before Go Live, I ripped out and redid a minute of the vid, re-edited the music, and thank goodness, because it's so much better now you have no idea.

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Dragon Age Origins bi mods?

thirdblindmouse — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 14:48:19 GMT

I tried Equal Love, but judging from the scenes with Mardy & Teli and some odd lines from Gorim about it later, those were just flag changes and not serious consideration into making logical changes. I know Alistair Male Romance and Marriage takes care to make the dialogue logical for same sex romance and/or marriage with Alistair, but is there anything that does this for Morrigan's romance, the Dark Ritual, or female Couslands marrying Anora?

ETA: Completely predictably, I have started working on my own. Wish me luck.

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Snowden (2016)

thirdblindmouse — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 15:07:50 GMT

A while back I went to see that Snowden movie. It was an enjoyable and good-looking movie. At the same time, it crystallized for me Hollywood's problem with movies about computer scientists, which is that they have only one template for them, one they will apply no matter how inappropriate to the story it may be. "Extraordinary genius misfit shows them all" was a stupid enough template when used in that terrible Turing movie, and being a computer science visionary was what made Alan Turing special. For Edward Snowden, that template was laughably wrong. What makes Edward Snowden special is not any particular genius. I'm sure he's very smart and was very good at his job. So was everyone else hired to do the kinds of jobs he did. That's not an area where the US government skimps. What makes Edward Snowden special is not being 1337 h4xx0r who can do things that other people can't, because he's not. What makes Snowden special is his conscience and his courage to draw his own conclusions about right and wrong in face of extreme ideological and practical pressures to go with the majority opinion. His story is more 12 Angry Men than Hackers. It bothers me that the film decided to fabricate a story of technical badassery to gloss up a gritty story of wrestling with what is right and what is justified.

Other notes from the person I saw the film with:

- The cheesy scenes of colleagues and mentors secretly cheering Snowden on don't ring true at all for him. His acquaintances in the NSA and CIA are the opposite of Edward Snowden fans. The people who work for those agencies do so because they believe in them, as Snowden once did, and largely consider Snowden a traitor, even suspecting him of ties to foreign governments. Again, this is where the film did his story a disservice: it's not that a man with skills nobody else had saw what everyone around him saw, it's that a man with skills everyone around him had saw what nobody else was willing to see.

- He would have thought that the scene at the end of the movie featuring the real Edward Snowden was scripted had he never heard Edward Snowden speak. That's just how the guy talks.

- Despite any other inaccuracies of the film, the way Snowden's colleague (the one with the backpack) dressed and spoke was eerily true to his experience. "I know that guy," he said with a rueful shake of his head. "I know five of that guy."

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Dear Festividder

thirdblindmouse — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 06:30:27 GMT

Dear Festividder,

Thank you for vidding for me! I'm glad we matched on one of these six rarely vidded fandoms, because these are great sources that deserve vids. And don't worry about what kind of music I like, because I will like what ever music you choose as long as you feel it fits the vid. Yes, even that weirdo music you like that nobody else you know tolerates. It's all good.

Tintin and the Golden Fleece | Tintin et le mystère de la Toison d'Or (1961)

AKA Tintin in Istanbul. Of all the comic books I never expected to see satisfactorily translated to live action, Tintin would be at the top of my list. And yet here Tintin is in the flesh, exactly as he appeared in the books. This movie may not be an Hergé-penned adventure, but it captures the spirit, the humor, and the physicality of the comic books amazingly well. I would welcome both gen and Tintin/Haddock vids.

Terriers (TV, 2010)

Hank and Britt Exhibit Poor Judgment: The Series. I love everything and everyone in this short-lived drama/mystery/comedy about private detectives in Southern California, and I will love your vid too.

Hungarian Folktales | Magyar népmesék (TV, 1977-2011)

Ah, childhood... I grew up with the third volume (1984-85) of this series of animated fairy tales, and in some ways they are still my ideal for what animation should be. The stories are beautifully drawn, in a manner that is more stylized and metaphorical than directly literal, which is the appropriate way to tell a fairy tale. I would appreciate it if your vid included some of the third volume, because those are the episodes I am familiar with.

MacGyver (TV, 1985-1992)

You don't need deadly charm, a pressed suit, and beretta when you have a genuine smile, a pocketful of rubber bands, and a head full of useful facts. MacGyver can improvise his way out of any situation using probable science and improbable coincidence, and that's what makes him my hero.

Chris Hadfield (real person)

|

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of Col. Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut, science educator, and generally cool dude. If your vid overflows with love of science, enthusiasm for astronautics, and the weirdness of space, then it will have everything it needs.

Dwarf Fortress (computer game)

"My dwarves are annoyed after drinking water without a well. Which they wouldn't be, if they'd chosen to drink booze or water from a well. But no, they chose to drink from the waterfall to hell."</blockquote>

Urist screams, "I must have vids!" ...I admit that this is not the most graphically stunning source, unless one means "stunning[ly confusing to new players]". That means it's up to you what ingredients you want to include in your vid. Vanilla game videos, alternative tilesets, graphics sets, 3D visualizers, fan art, web posts, whatever feels right to you. All I ask is that your ☼vid☼ convey how ‼fun‼ Dwarf Fortress can be. As for music, anything is fine as long as it's set to a proper soundtrack and not just the screams of your dwarves.*

*Although I suppose you could autotune SoundSense...

In conclusion, happy vidding!

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List of Killjoys fanvids

thirdblindmouse — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 20:39:49 GMT

In the process of nominating Killjoys for festivids I made a list of all the Killjoys fanvids that exist on the Internet as of September 2016. I haven't watched all of these, so let me know if I've listed something that's not a Killjoys fanvid by mistake or if I missed any other Killjoys vids out there. Not all of these vids are at least a minute long; some are shorter.

10fireflym:
* king & lionheart
Artic17wolf:
* Davin and Dutch | I will find you (s1)
* Davon and dutch | into the fire (1x07)
* Davon and Dutch
bulletproofcouch:
* fly
colls:
* Castle
danielpalido:
* Khlyen Tribute
Em Lou:
* Dutch and Da'vin - So dirty and raw... [1x10]
FallenQueen2:
* Propane Nightmares
galinaverbonol:
* Я не твоя война (Dutch/ D'Avin)
heresluck:
* Play Hard
H. Holmes:
* Lean on
* (Dutch & D'avin) feat. Groenland- "Immune"
joeyclauk:
* Dutch & D'avin ::: you say that you're no good for me
* Dutch & D'Avin ::: I can’t get you out of my mind
leaf on the wind:
* D'avin Jaqobis - Gasoline
Librarians-Assistant:
* John Jaqobi Gets Stupid
LithiumDoll:
* Been Better
Lynarii:
* Ashes of Eden
Mel M.:
* Fight Song
pinkladyhaley *:
* Dutch & John | Warning Sign
* John and dutch | Get Lucky
* John and Dutch | Home
* Dutch and Delle | i'll tell you my sins
* Sealion
* John and Dutch | we can just fly away
RosalieHale1995:
* Dutch ~ I Burn MEP
Shami:
* John and Pawter Tribute
* John Jaqobis - So Cold
shirasade:
* The Reclamation Agents (Professionals style)
tbm:
* Super Trouper
twilightsleeper:
* Dutch/D'avin - Little Do You Know
* Iris - Dutch Soldier
Veniva5:
* Dutch & D'Avin - In Your Arms
* Dutch & D'Avin - Everything I Wanted
* Dutch & D'Avin - How You Love Me
* Galaxies
* Get Well
* Hearts Under Fire
* Dutch & D'Avin - Halo♡
* Dutch & John - Need You
* Dutch & John - Close Your Eyes
* Dutch & D'Avin - Last Forever
WineCheeseGoats:
* Dutch x D'avin - Tigerlily
* Dutch x D'avin - Eye tango ;)
Елена Трухачева:
* John and Dutch - Crush
Сериальный Weekend:
* Stare Into The Light

Enjoy!

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Vividcon Premiere: Fly Me to the Moon (multifandom)

thirdblindmouse — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 16:10:37 GMT

Song: "Fly Me to the Moon"
Performer: Frank Sinatra
Summary: ...and let me play among the stars.
Notes: Premiered in the Vividcon 2016 "A Spankin' Good Time" vidshow.
Warnings: NSFW, but not as much as you'd expect.
Sources: "Cartoon Heroes" by Aqua (music video), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), Barbarella (1968), The Expanse, Jupiter Ascending (2015), Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), Farscape, Star Trek (TOS), Futurama, Babylon 5, Star Trek: Voyager, Galaxy Quest (1998), Battlestar Galactica (2004), Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Stargate Atlantis, Coneheads (1993), "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by The Darkness (music video), Torchwood, Mass Effect 2, Enterprise, Alien Nation, The Sims 4, Queen of Blood (1966), Men in Black (1997), Mork & Mindy, Star Trek (2009), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), "Out of the Woods" by Taylor Swift (music video), Mass Effect 3, Doctor Who.

Password = in other words

Download: 33MB .avi (zipped) + .srt subtitles from my website.

I'll be frank: metaphor, schmetaphor, I always thought this song was about banging aliens and having sex in space. elipie and bironic's kink vidshow gave me the excuse to share this vision with the world. The biggest challenge in gathering footage for this vid was weeding out all the sources where the sex was A.) non-consensual*, B.) non-sexual for one of the participants ("You think you're getting laid, I think I'm getting dinner"), or C.) indistinguishable out of context from two humans fucking the usual way on Earth. There's also a shocking dearth of consensual male human/male alien sex out there, to the extent that the only clear m/m footage in this vid was produced by tricking a video game into allowing a romance it otherwise doesn't.

Many thanks to franzeska for pointing me to music video footage I never would have found on my own, par_avion for last minute beta, and settiai for invaluable assistance with Mass Effect ~~and getting me hooked on that game~~ without which this vid would not have been made. Sims footage comes from YouTube users MattShea and CaptainSauce.

*For the few people who have seen Queen of Blood, yes, that is the one clear exception. He is hypnotized and does not consent. But how many sources out there have humans fertilizing alien eggs? It's less common than you'd think! As for the rest, the Sims had a rollicking good time on that flying saucer, Barbarella's orgasm machine is her best friend, and the giant space squid and the spaceship at the end of the vid love each other very much, thank you.

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New vid! Smallville, Lana Lang, "It's Not My Birthday"

thirdblindmouse — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 21:46:45 GMT

I don't remember when I began this vid, but I do know that most of the timeline was drunkenly filled in during a Vividcon room party last year. I finished it on the train ride home from the airport today.

Fandom: Smallville
Song: "It's Not My Birthday", by They Might Be Giants
Subject: Lana Lang
Summary: She doesn't understand why these things keep happening to her! (AKA: Lana Lang vs. the writers)

Password = whatnow

Download: 22MB .avi (zipped) from my website.

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To-do list before leaving tomorrow

thirdblindmouse — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:36:04 GMT

- ~~hair cut~~
- ~~CVV outfit~~?
- ~~packing~~
- ~~breakfast~~ lunch ~~dinner~~ ~~breakfast~~
- ~~bring up new litter from stair well~~
- ~~change litter~~
- ~~take old litter out~~
- ~~put out lots of water~~
- ~~put out two days of food~~
- ~~turn on cat cam~~
- ~~decide whether to leave AC on or windows open for cats~~

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Vividcon 2015 Premiere: The Sound of Settling (Star Trek: DS9)

thirdblindmouse — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 00:15:57 GMT

Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Song: "The Sound of Settling", by Death Cab for Cutie
Subject: Rom
Summary: There's more than one way to be a successful Ferengi.

Password = vividcon

Download: 30MB .avi (zipped) + .srt subtitles from my website.

I've got a hunger
Twisting my stomach into knots
That my tongue was tied off

My brain's repeating
"If he's got an impulse, let it out"
But they never make it past my mouth

Ba pa... this is the sound of settling
Ba pa... ba pa...
Ba pa... this is the sound of settling
Ba pa... ba pa...

Our youth is fleeting
Old age is just around the bend
And I can't wait to go grey

And I'll sit and wonder
Of every love that could've been
If I'd only thought of something charming to say

Ba pa... this is the sound of settling
Ba pa... ba pa...
Ba pa... this is the sound of settling
Ba pa... ba pa...

(repeat)

I've got a hunger
Twisting my stomach into knots

I made this last year, and ended up premiering it at VividCon, even though it was unlikely to be comprehensible to anyone who hasn't watched DS9. This vid started when I was thinking about making a Leeta vid, because she's in few enough episodes that a vid about her would be easy to clip for. Naturally, while looking for a song for her I came across a song for a Rom vid, so my "easy clipping" plan turned into taking notes on about seventy episodes. (NB: if you're thinking about vidding Rom, Nog, or Leeta, I have notes on every single scene they are in, and I'd be happy to share.) Rom's story isn't always a happy one -- a central theme is his abusive relationship with his brother -- but it ends happily and has an arc that I find very satisfying and engaging throughout the entire series (not true for many DS9 characters).

Rom is not a good Ferengi in the classic sense. He has a talent for electrical engineering, but he has no lobes for finance, and so he is a disappointment to his brother, Quark, who abuses, belittles, and exploits him. At the beginning of the show, Rom is an unhappy man who believes fully in his brother's view of what it is to be a Ferengi, and who passes that treatment along to his son, Nog. This might have been his whole life if not for Keiko Ishikawa O'Brien and her plan to start a school on the Deep Space 9. She persuades him that although Ferengi tradition does not encompass Federation-style schooling, attending school could give Nog an advantage in Ferengi business. Keiko doesn't challenge the values he's currently struggling to live up to, but opens the possibility that his son could struggle less. He takes the offer. I believe his willingness to try new things, and to even listen to a Human female, can be attributed to his parents, one of whom did not live up to traditional Ferengi ideals and the other of whom, his mother Ishka, refused to be held down by them.

The experiment with sending Nog to school doesn't last long, because Rom cannot stand up to Quark or Grand Nagus Zek and their insistence on Ferengi traditions over his family's happiness. Other influences like Starfleet and Bajorans cannot overcome how beaten down Rom is. He sticks to traditional Ferengi ways, and in traditional Ferengi ways he fails again and again. His brother values his business acumen less than that of another Ferengi who turns out to be a female, when women aren't supposed to have the lobes for business at all! His attempt to escape Quark's control leads him to work for a new boss who is just as greedy and shows Rom just as little respect. The theme of the first two seasons of Rom's story is settling, settling for the devil he knows.

Nog changes everything. Nog's taste of Federation-style school leaves him with a hunger for knowledge, and after his father forbids him to attend school, he studies in secret with his friend Jake. Nog is a smart kid who understands his father's weaknesses and who understands his fate could be the same, but unlike his father, Nog wasn't raised on Ferenginar. Nog can see a wider universe with other options. The scene where Nog attempts to arrange a Ferengi apprenticeship with Starfleet Commander Sisko is one of my favorite moments in the entire show. Never let it be said that Nog lacks chutzpah. And never let it be said that Rom doesn't love his son, because when Nog succeeds in negotiating an opportunity to join Starfleet, Rom supports him wholeheartedly over his brother's objections. Quark's objections culminate in sabotaging Nog's Starfleet entrance exam. Seeing his son's dreams go down the drain is the final straw for Rom. For the first time we see Rom stand up to Quark and not back down, not give up, not ultimately acquiesce to the status quo. Nog will attend Starfleet Academy. This is the experience that teaches Rom he can stand up for himself, and for other people. He leads his coworkers in a successful labor strike, and Quark learns that not taking Rom seriously is a mistake.

His relationship with other Ferengi starts to shift. Rom isn't the only one re-evaluating his reality. Grand Nagus Zek has a brief bout of Prophet-induced insanity and rewrites the Rules of Acquisition. By the end of the ordeal, the brother who used Rom as a ~~Human~~ Ferengi shield at the beginning of Zek's visit shields Rom from Zek's wrath with his own body. The episode is notable for Quark's growth in how he regards his "idiot brother". Rom also develops relationships with a Bajoran woman, Leeta, and with the Deep Space 9 engineering staff. Rom is no good at business, but he is excellent at making a holosuite, bar, or space station hold together with gum and string, and he is the one who saves the day in the war against the Dominion with his self-replicating cloaked minefield. Rom is now settling into himself, into a role in life that fits him.

Rom almost settles too far, almost trades his culture for Leeta's in his excitement to marry her, but his new Starfleet friends warn him off it. This is the moment when Rom, like his son, finds a third way between forcing Ferengi traditions on Leeta and abandoning them himself entirely. He takes the step no other Ferengi would have taken, of giving up his wealth to avoid asking his bride to sign a demeaning prenuptial agreement regarding that wealth. It's a revolutionary loophole to take. My greatest regret of this vid is that I could not find a good shot of latinum to illustrate Rom giving it up.

In the end, Rom finds happiness and respect with his loved ones, coworkers, and friends. Quark even indulges Rom's interest in non-Ferengi culture, though he will never understand that interest. And ultimately Zek (now partnered with Rom's rebel mother, Ishka) recognizes that Rom may not be the classic Ferengi success story, but he's the success story Ferenginar needs. And that is how the least likely Ferengi became the Grand Nagus.

...I really need a DS9 icon.

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My new favourite thing

thirdblindmouse — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 00:51:42 GMT

I have finished Mass Effect 3 and I am ready for more Mass Effect vids in my life, if anyone has recs.

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Gotham season 2.5 continues to be everything I dreamed

thirdblindmouse — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 01:10:33 GMT

Sometimes I wonder if the A.V. Club Gotham reviewers went to Wrongness School of Advanced Study to be this wrong. Nobody can be that consistently, bewilderingly wrong about everything without training.

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William Henry Harrison

thirdblindmouse — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 15:34:50 GMT

Amazeballs.

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Mass Effect advice sought

thirdblindmouse — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 04:53:17 GMT

I'm seeking confidential advice about which of ten Mass Effect pairings to include in a multifandom vid. Would anyone with knowledge of the games be willing to advise me?

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thirdblindmouse — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 16:31:28 GMT

AlphaGo has won 3 out of 3 games so far. There are two more games in the match yet to be played, and I wonder if Lee Sedol will do better in these now that winning the match is out of the question. Computers may simply be better than humans at go -- Fan Hui seems to think so (with some excitement), and AlphaGo certainly plays outside human orthodoxy. But it is also clearly an advantage for AlphaGo that it does not feel intimidation by its opponent or by the eyes of the world on this match.

Were chess players as excited by Deep Blue's win? I've never heard that Deep Blue's moves blew anyone's mind, just that it played well by human standards. But everyone seems to agree that AlphaGo is crazy like a fox.

ETA -- Lee Sedol won game 4!

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Man: 0, Machine: 1 (or, Go Neural Networks!)

thirdblindmouse — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 15:15:27 GMT

The A.I. AlphaGo has won the first round of a five round match against go grand master Lee Sedol. Until now, two decades after Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov in chess, the best go-playing computers were no better than human amateurs. The game of go is more complex than chess, just as chess is more complex than tic-tac-toe. Go has simpler rules, but the board is larger and more freely used, and the state of the game is more difficult to judge at any given time. AlphaGo uses neural networks extensively trained to be able to strategize at that level. There are four more games ahead (all streamed live on YouTube) to see if AlphaGo's victory over Lee was a fluke, but it is clear it is playing at a professional level.

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Festivid: Super Trouper (Killjoys)

thirdblindmouse — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 23:26:57 GMT

Killjoys — "Super Trouper" — for Scribe

Password = festivids

"Light the world up."
Download: 75MB .avi video from my website.

</center>
You were meant to live large, come on, take charge
Let's go light the world up
Let's not wait until the end to be the things we wish we'd been

You were meant to live life, come on, let's fly
You're a super-trouper spotlight
We're gonna jump on the count of three

Here it comes now
1 - 2 - 3 - jump!

If you were a country you'd be Switzerland
You never take a stand
Your policy is never to offend

If you were in a movie you'd be thug #5
'Cause you don't try out for a starring role
But your name belongs in lights

And if you got a G.I. Joe you'd never open up the box
Safe inside its plastic prison
Waiting for the day it rots

And I'm sorry that I'm getting on your case
True friends, they stab you in the face

'Cause you were meant to live large, come on, take charge
Let's go light the world up
Let's not wait until the end to be the things we wish we'd been

You were meant to live life, come on, let's fly
You're a super-trouper spotlight
We're gonna jump on the count of three

Here it comes now
1 - 2 - 3 - jump!

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thirdblindmouse — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 15:34:39 GMT

Internet was restored while I was out of town in Boston visiting family and a few vidding friends (but sadly missing a few others). Now I'm back in Brooklyn alone for New Years with a pair of sweet but deranged cats, thinking about vidding. I don't usually make New Years resolutions, because I'm no good at keeping them, but after vidding very little in 2015, in 2016 I hope to finish more than a half dozen of the WIPs on my computer. Besides for current festivids in progress, I have three Smallville vids ranging from 30-90% complete, one Deep Space 9 vid, one Voyager vid, one Xena vid which I even have beta notes on, and at least one multifandom vid that I'd like to finish.

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Dracula

thirdblindmouse — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 16:27:49 GMT

At long last, I have finished reading Dracula. The book is a frustrating mix of well-structured suspense and eerie descriptions interspersed with several of the most tedious lulls possible, in which characters maunder on about logistics and repetitively rhapsodize over the saintly virtues of the opposite sex. If I had been reading Dracula in a print copy, it might have been easier to power through those sections, as I would have been able to acquire a sense of their finite length and more easily keep my place. Instead, I began reading it on printouts from Project Gutenberg, which were frequently shuffled out of order, and I was never able to tell at the outset whether I was rereading a section or reading a new section that started on a similar theme as a previous one. Eventually those printouts got lost or buried on my coffee table. Over a year later, I resumed reading on my new Kindle. The Kindle obligingly kept track of where I was, but the greatest flaw of the Kindle is that it provides no visual or tactile impression of how much book you have read or have left to read. Adrift in an apparently boundless sea of tedium, I more than once lost the will to read on. But now I am happy to report that there is none left, that I have read it all. I am glad to have read it, because the good sections really were good. I would even say the last few pages(?) were a good section. Sinister apparitions in the snow, mountainside chases, sawing off heads: good times.

Along the way, I would have paid good money for a version of the book with Van Helsing's English corrected to an even slightly more standard form. I don't even object to some amount of reported dialect or reported dysfluency, but when not only Van Helsing's reported dialogue but also his letters and written journal entries are in the same (at times incomprehensible) quasi-English, it is too much. I don't buy that his carefully composed writing is no more correct than his extemporaneous speeches. It's downright unfair that speech he reports is translated into his broken English when the native English speakers apparently have the capacity to remember and record the peculiarities of Van Helsing's speech and all the details of other dialects not their own verbatim.

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Dear Festividder

thirdblindmouse — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 14:05:33 GMT

Dear Festividder,

Thank you for vidding for me! I'm glad we matched on one of the below fandoms, because I'm excited to get a vid of any one of them. As far as music, I can offer you no guidance, but I can promise you that I'll like whatever music you choose. I'm not picky at all, and I think every one of these fandoms would go well with a wide range of musical styles. Especially Hieronymus Bosch -- are those paintings choral, country, metal, Lady Gaga? Who can say? Only you.

* The Hazards of Helen (1914-17)

Two incredible stunt women from the dawn of film history made this film series a must-see, and will make your vid a must-see as well.

* Hieronymus Bosch, paintings of

Go crazy, go experimental, go Hieronymus Bosch and his many imitators. (When it comes to ye olde painters I'm not picky about attribution.) I don't know how you intend to vid this, but I'm interested to see the result. The important part is to have fun with it.

* MacGyver (1985-1992)

Unassuming dork saves the day with science every time! I've been hoping for a vid of him for a long time. Could this be the year?

* Night Watch (2004) & Day Watch (2006)

I've written about this fandom in past festivids letters, but in summary, these movies are cool, creepy, gorgeous, badass, scary, silly, and generally fun. Highlight any or all of these aspects and I'll be happy.

* RPF - Ian McKellan/Patrick Stewart

I fell in love with them in the X-Men movies, and they've continued to be adorable and funny together ever since in performances and interviews and twitter pictures.

* They Live (1988)

Wrestler Roddy Piper (RIP) stars as an itinerant construction worker who finds a pair of sunglasses that reveal the lies behind modern capitalist society -- it's a fiendish plot by space aliens! He and his best friend argue about it by punching each other in the face for 10 minutes. It's that kind of a movie.

* Zombie Strippers! (2008)

Look, it's all there in the title. Zombies. Strippers. Strippers who are zombies.

Happy festividding!

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