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I finished the intro for the tango vid (amazing how you can work on a vid for 4 hours or so and end up with a 30 sec piece of it). Putting the audio bits in at exactly the right spot is a bit tricky. That's what they have those clapperboards for in the movies, if you don't have something like this, putting the audio track in exactly the right place is almost impossible. I am pretty satisfied with the outcome so far. Actually I skipped my chorus rehearsal tonight to be able to keep working on the vid. I can't do this too often. I sing in a Musical ensemble, but we are between production at the moment, so I figure I was not missed too much. Live365 had some problems today, so MisterUniverse was offline (*cough* so much for no one can stop the signal :wink:), but now the radio is up and running again.

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I was off work today and spend a lot of time editing the tango vid again. It is now about 3/4 done, so I hope to finish it tomorrow. I had a hard time with the soundfiles. The video software cannot cut them exactly to the frame when they are in mp3 format (probably because of the compression, I don't know if audio compression uses something like key frames, but that would explain some of my trouble). I downloaded the lame encoder (another amazingly great open source initiative...

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The tango vid is finished. If you are interested, you can check it out on my homepage (

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Actually I did not want to spend an entire day in front of the computer again, so I had planned to do no video editing today. I wanted to go to the local library (yeah, you know, those places where they have all those oldfashion things called books, with the many pages and stuff...) and check out some novels or the like. But the weather was awful and the deskchair suddenly seemed a very comfortable place after all. Since I did not want to go back to video editing right away, I decided to try out something new. I always wanted to do a screensaver, but had no idea how to do that. I found a shareware tool that works decently in the trial version with the only pay-off that it puts in a little commercial text in the screensaver. Apart from that it did everything I wanted (well almost) and I am quite happy with the result. If you live in a Windows world and want to give it a try, you can download it from my homepage (I put it under "FanVideos", since it is at least related).

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Well, that was a long night last night, inlcuding some weed and all the funny talk that comes with that. Mostly on music. Music is a great topic once you are stoned. Well, music is a good topic almost always. So today was just a totally relaxed day, slept long, did not leave the house at all, watched a lot of Firefly songvids on the PC, then watched some Farscape eps, because I was in the mood for it (it is a damn good show, too). I wanted to participate in an Instant Story contest that was on on a German website today, they have this every month, you get a topic and have 90 minunets time to write a short story about it. Normally I am quite good at coming up with something, but this month I am so in Firefly mode, that I could not think anything else. The topic they gave was: "three things somebody needs". You are not allowed to enter FanFiction in the contest, so I wrote some space opera stuff about a starship pilot who has a one man transportation business. His motto is he needs nothing but his ship, some business and depth of space, or so he likes to think. (Actually this guy turned out to be pretty much like Mal, no wonder, him being on my mind all the time). One day he finds a blind passanger on board of his ship, a beautyful young woman who holds him at gunpoint and forces him to change course... It was supposed to lead to all kinds of romance and adventure, but somehow I so fell in love with the characters and the spaceship that there was just no way to finish this story in 90 minutes time. I might make more out of it in the future. Mr. Universe just announced that he now has a Master Playlist and you can select songs and they will be played automatically in the next free slot in the program. That sounds really neat.

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Okay, after spending many days (and especially nights) playing around with the fan vids and screen saver stuff, I finally got back to do some serious writing. Makes me feel better and settles my conscience some. I wrote a little SF story, actually not intended as fan fic, but it does fit quite well into the Firefly 'verse, even though it has nothing to do with the Serenity or its crew at all. I did post it in the Blue Sun Room anyway and hope that people will not hate me for it. I wrote it in German and then translated it to English, which was quite a challenge. I am content with the result, though. Found another role player for my Serenity rpg group (so I now have three players already, I hope to get a fourth one on board soon and then we are ready to rock'n'roll). That is a cool thing. I wrote to Tobias just because I have played with him before and would love to have him in the group, but did not dare to hope that he already knows Firefly. His response was "I do not like Firefly, I LOVE it." He has watched to movie, too. A fellow Browncoat! Too cool. And I unsuspectingly found another one among my colleagues at work, today. Like an army we come! Germany goes Fireflying!

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Yesterday and today I have been totally busy with building a website for my role-playing group in spe. I translated some of the rules to German, created a little forum where we can put the charcter descriptions, keep a flylog and so on. This is just so much fun. I love to create things like this. It is far from finished yet and it is in German and it pretty specifically aimed at this group, but if you want to take a look anyway, of course you are more than welcome to do so. It has some sounds and graphics. You can find it here:

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There were so many things I wanted to get done today (I definitly need to do a huge pile of dishes and wash some clothes tomorrow, I am running low on clean cups as well as underwear and my apartment looks a mess). I kept switching between my computer and the telly instead for the whole day. First I watched the first ep from the Battlestar Galactica series. I do have to agree that the regular series is better than the piloting mini series. The ep was really good. I might become a fan of the new series after all. Then I resumed translating parts of the Roleplaying Game for my players and uploading it to the website. By now I have the most important character generation stuff up and two of my players already know about it and have started working with it. I also translated and uploaded Joss Whedon's article on the history of the 'Verse from the movie guide. And p:censored:t was totally legal? LOL If he presented that article to FOX when he created the series, it is no wonder they cancelled it. :evil: I rewatched Jaynestown and Safe today. Enjoyed both of them of course, even though they are not among my favorite eps. Oh, and I had a wonderful dream last night which ended with Mal kissing me. Now, that was something... I will go to bed now and hope to repeat the experience.

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I did watch War Stories with the audio commentary on today. Oh what fun! Alan and Nathan just do a wonderful job on it together. But still, it was not a new episode. There are no new episodes. I keep rewatching the ones which are already there, and I still enjoy them, but it just is not the same thing. It is just never as good as the first time! Oh how I wish I could dicover Firefly again! (Those of you who read the story I posted in the Blue Sun Room a few days ago will now know where the idea came from). I am an addict. I have experienced the coolest kick ever when watching Firefly and now I am out thrill seeking and just want this kick again! So, what was I supposed to do? I went out and bought season one of Angel today. I saw some eps of Angel when they were on German TV a few years back, but never got into it (I did not watch Buffy either). Now I decided that they can't be that bad and two friends who are also great Firefly fans, kept telling me that they are really good. I wanted to buy Buffy originally, but they did not have the first season at the store, so I went for Angel instead. I watched the first six eps already. So, yes, I do like it. It is nowhere near Firefly, but it has all that knight in shining armour saves damsel in distress stuff and I have to admit, I really adore knights in shining armour. It is a surrogate, but it is a satisfying one.

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hm ... I am beginning to understand what some of my friends have tried to tell me years ago. This whole Buffy/Angel thing ... I have watched all 22 eps of the first Angel season now and I enjoyed them immensely. I even started rewatching them right away. And I have lots of ideas for fanfiction which I will probably never write, or if I write it, I will keep it to myself and never publish it, because it is all Mary Sue-ish. Did I mention that I really have a thing going for knights in shining armour? And I am not even the type that needs a lot of rescueing in daily life. Well, but backt to the things that really matter :-) I have just talked to my remote-player for the RPG via Skype for the first time. The connection was not too good and he does not have the newest version yet, so we could not try out the video connection, but still it was good to hear his voice (I had not seen him or talked to him for almost six month now). I mean, we could have used the phone, of course, but that's just not cool. (Did I mention my nerdyness-factor yet? I guess for a woman I rate pretty high, think Daria and then add some nerdyness :smile: ) And I found a fourth player today and another one who will not participate regularily, but wants to join in as a guest player from time to time. This is so cool! I can't wait to get started and have the first adventure already mapped out (secretly plotting and scheming while at work, hoping that my boss never looks into the folders of my desktop PC)

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This is going to be a rather long and personal log entry. I just have to get some things out of my system. You are really welcome to read (and comment, of course), but don't say I did not warn you :wink: Do you know the Angel ep where they have a sesitivity training at the police department and go all emotional (I think the ep title is "Sense and Sesitivity")? It was a little bit like that at work today (minus the training part). Everyone was just venting over something or yelling at someone else. And I sat at my PC screen on the verge of tears all day (more on that later). I really could not figure out a reason, until the thought came to me that, hey, maybe we have a full moon? And then when I just got home from work, there she was, staring me in the face, all big and round and satisfied with herself, laughing at me. Luna can be a real bitch sometimes. My life is a little Whedonesque at the moment. I am having relationship issues. Well, actually it is just one relationship issue and the issue is more or less that I don't have a relationship. That's something I share with roughly estimated a fourth of the human race, so it isn't half bad and I should be able to live with it by now (my last steady relationship ended 8 years ago and there weren't many unsteady ones in between either) At that time I fell in love with a man who did not return my feelings. That hurt, of course, rejection always does, but I got over it (or so I thought) and we became friends. Good friends. Close friends. Soulmates even. We really developed a brother/sister like relationship, we had so much in common it sometimes was almost scary. We are both pretty smart (the "gifted is the term" variant of smart), but were underachievers in school and especially at university, dropping out of our academic careers at almost the same time, found work at the same company, we both seemed unable to get a steady relationship on the way, we spent vacations together, wild ones, too, we shared a tent and a bunk on a sailing vessel more than once, we were rope partners when rock climbing. We are close, as close as you can get without starting a sexual relationship, but never would even as much as a kiss pass between us. He was the one who drove me to the hospital when I sprained my ankle, he fed my chicken broth when I was sick and he was the one I could call when I needed a strong man to help me redecorating my apartment. He depended on me to help him with his resume for a new job, he asked for advice on dating women. We talked on the phone for hours, we exchanged up to 20 emails a day. We were close. We needed each other in the way you need someone when you are single and still want to share your life with someone. Half a year agon he fell in love with another woman, the right one, this time, as far as I can tell. He is as happy as can be, they moved in together after only three month and they are going to get married in two weeks. I am sure that he would say that his feelings for me have not changed, but he just does not need me anymore. And for that reason I cannot keep calling him and depending on him the way I did all the years before. I feel like I am losing my best friend. I really do. And it hurts just so much. I hate myself for this, acutally. I don't want to need anyone, I want to be in control of my life and the last thing I want is to go all weepy about a man who does not even love me back (because as much as I want to blame it on the best-friend-no-longer-there part, I am afraid that this is what it is all about, still. He rejected me and marries someone else). I know it is time to just let go and be happy for him. I just can't. I am not Julia Roberts. I can't go to his wedding party and wish him luck on his way (and I don't have a gay friend who would show up and dance with me instead, either ... goodness, I even watched this stupid movie with him once). I know I would break down and cry as soon as the ceremony starts and I would probably be the one waving and screaming at the "if anyone here knows a reason..." part. I told him I will not atte

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Wow, thank you all who commented on my log entry yesterday. I am really feeling a lot better today, actually, I started feeling better last night already. Funny what two bottles of beer and four episodes of Buffy can do for you :smile: It wasn't just that of course. Your wonderful comments really did comfort me a lot and made me feel that I am part of the crew. One of my real life friends (and fellow browncoat and player in my rpg-group) called me on the phone and cheered me up, too. So I really could end the day with the feeling that I am not alone and that was a very good thing. Today everything is back to normal and I am my old wisecracking ironic self again. And now I will watch some more Buffy and then I will go to choir rehearsal and then probably watch even more Buffy ... life is just so nice :biggrin:

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What would have happened if FOX had not cancelled the show so early? I mean, yeah, we would have all got more eps to see (something I really would have loved), we probably would not have seen teh BDM. But apart from that! I mean, it would have been a hell of a TV-show, but that would have been it, I think. There have been other good TV-series before (okay, maybe few and far between, but I know a couple), and there will be new good TV-series in the future, because there are great filmmakers out there. We would just have been fans of a TV-Show. Just like there are Farscape fans or Star Trek fans or Buffy Fans out there. The cancellation of the show, the feeling that there was injustice at work here that has to be remedied, is what makes us more than fans, is what makes us Browncoats. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that the cancellation is a good thing. But in a way it is what brings us closer together. It is just like the crew of the Serenity. They would probably not get along that well if they were not constantly in trouble and up against the rest of the world. Nothing brings a group of people (be it crew, tribe, clan, community or family) closer together than a common cause or better yet a common enemy (even if it is a TV network :evil: ).

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I found another player for the role playing group. I don't even really know the guy, I think we met once on a Mensarian meeting. But since then he is kind of tuned in on my website and now read that I want to start the roleplaying group, so he wrote me an email. He does not know Firefly yet, but since he is a fan of Buffy and Angel, I am sure I can recruit him as fellow browncoat quite easily. We decided to do some serious DVD watching in the next days. I finished watching Buffy Season 3 today. Wow! I just loved the Graduation Day episodes. Also, Marnie, the Hitchcock movie, was on German TV today. It is a wonderful film, I had heard a lot about it, but never watched it before. Great camera work, there. And a very handsome young Sean Connery. Definitly worthwhile. Also, I hunted and killed a ghost last night. Okay, I admit, that is the dramatic way of putting it, but hey, life is just so much more fun when you picture the world being full of magic creatures and supernatural powers :smile: I had been hearing strange noises in my bedroom during the last few days. At first I thought it might have been a mouse or another small animal, but it sounded too loud and too random for that. Then I suspected that it was the computer cooling off or maybe the pneumatic spring in my new deskchair or something like that, but I had to cast all those theories overboard. The noises were not too scary, but they were a little disturbing, in fact so disturbing, that I prefered to just draw my blanket up over my ears and fall asleep on them instead of switching the light back on and look for the source. Last night my curiousity finally got the better of me, though, and I crawled out of my bed to confront my "ghost". It turned out the audio speakers on my PC sometimes shortwire, even if the PC is turned off completely, and give short bursts of static noise. Once you draw the power cord, the noise is gone. So, no ghost, no supernatural powers at work, not even a mouse, just a plain stupid technical defect. :blush:

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No, I am not in a morbid mood today :wink: I just finished a new fanvid (I will post the link as soon as Illuminix uploads it to his server) and it uses only material from "Out of Gas", so I did a lot of rewatching that episode and now know it frame by frame, more or less. It is definitly one of my favorite eps, maybe _the_ favorite. The camera work is just so awsome on this one. The usage of lighting and colors as well. I almost felt bad when I had to cut into a single shot for the fanvid, because they are just so perfect, each one a work of art. The song I chose is "Real World" by Queensryche. I had not listened to it for ages and when I did yesterday, I just had to make something from it at once. This song is sooo much Firefly.

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Okay, the new vid is online. You can find it on my homepage:

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Since Cedric from the Bedlam Bards asked if anyone would like to make a song vid for one of their Firefly related songs a few days ago: Here it comes. It is a tribute to our hero and mighty creator :biggrin: I used stuff from the Firefly DVD specials and from two Serenity trailers. It is about the show, the cancellation, the fans, the movie and, well, about Joss. Check it out on my homepage: