A brush-by with a vampire

I remember events o the past, as I am want to do when feeling a bit nostalgic. lol! I once said to a friend of mine, who thought I should write it all out in a book, that I would try to put fingers to keyboard and share a little here.

I remember meeting a vampire. Oh I know what yer thinkin... there is such a creature though. and the one I met was in a crowded hall of a convention. Yeah I know, haha.. just someone pretending etc.. you have any idea just how many times I have heard that one by now? There was nothing in physical that made this guy stand out in that hall to me, other then he was tall and had a stately carriage to him. but He spotted me at the end of the hall first. All the mental alarms went shrieking into life, and startled, I looked up from my aimless saunter down the hall to see his dark-eyed gaze and the slight bemusement haunting around his lips. Everything in me screamed to run away and yet it was all i could do to maintain a balance on my own feet, as he neared. He wasn't human. this was something I just 'knew' with every fiber of my being. there were others with him, i think, but i couldn't see them at the time. he too, seemed to know I was hovering being stiff stillness and outright flight, and i think it amused him. He had totally surprised and unnerved me within the span of a single thought and I suddenly broke and ran pell-mell for an open door. I really had just seen a vampire. I'm sure of it even to this day.
I have no idea what sort of vampire he was, but surely a dangerous one.

Cgi love for the movies..

I have loved the idea of CGI realistic enough to fit in with a live action movie without missing a beat.. ever since I saw the opening scenes of the flying owl in labyrinth. Since that time, many movies have copied the style, improving amazingly as time goes on. seamlessly fitting into the live action so well the watcher barely notices, if at all, the differences between the two.
just look at the differences between the changes of the werewolf in American werewolf in London, to the changing werewolf in twilight, They're gasp-worthy!. and Movies are getting better and better in the 3d CGI use.. like LOTR and the hobbit past and present.

Tonight I watched a set of movies, Dracula untold, and Seventh Son. Such epic battles in both.. the flying bat/vampire descending on the army of the enemy and a showdown between the master and his apprentice and a whole collection of bad guys with special and spectacular powers. Or, as I'm reminded, the evil Chinese dragon in the night watchman. just... all of that is so fascinating to me!

Of course this then leads me from a fiery passion for many years now, to a lack of direction.. or is it willpower? to apply my passion to an occupation. Maybe its the realization of mortality catching up that has me despairing?
In my last semester, I took a class on 3d modeling. I loved it, but for the issues of getting the program to stay stable long enough to let me do what I wanted... which seemed fraught with freezes, crashes, and corruption booboos. I received compliments.. but didn't feel even close to the par of some of the students there with so much more experience and ease in getting the program to work for them. It was frustrating!
Now I sit here for the whole summer, half thinking I know more now then I did.. but still don't really know what to do with the knowledge.
I could perhaps find a way, as my confidence grows with experience, start with a digi children's book. I think I can still do that, once I can get all my scattered ducks back in a row.. which hasn't happened as yet. Its not animation, nor is it something over the current knowledge bar, but I think it could work... maybe. Just don't have a whole lot of confidence to make it happen. I will keep it in mind though... so it will happen, even if its just to finish the first one. Ive wasted the summer thus far...

What were the writers thinking?!!

Was looking at drama reviews today.. read about one, a JP drama called Sapuri.. which I regard as the worlds most booring drama I have ever tried to watch. It wasn't really funny.. or romantic.. but dull, uninteresting, depressed office work with a sprinkling of witty and wise sayings. I didn't even make it all the way through this drama.. maybe 6 or so episodes in.

I mean.. ok, I'll give you something for the whole "different strokes for different folks" thing. Some people watch movies/drama's to cry their eyes out, while others prefer being frightened half to death. I'm more the sort who would most enjoy laughing over funny films and enjoying my day after it has ended. I'm just like that. So, following that pattern, I enjoy romcoms... especially if they have something of a fantasy feel to them. I have also been a fan of asian drama's for some number of years now, just check the earliest date of my drama blog then add about a year, and youl have a better idea as to how long. So I like to think I have a little experience regarding them anyway. (it all got started with a good friend recommending My Girlfriend is a Nine-tailed Fox and it scored a direct hit in my fascination criteria list.)


I loved The drama Flower boys Ramyun Shop. It had a good mix of comedy and romance throughout, along with conflict needed to make a good drama. It even had quotes worth remembering, and scenes worth rerunning. There were dark sad situations and light sparkling flavor that ended in a happy manner.
Koizera, on the other hand, was a total bleh for me at the beginning and got worse and worse.. dragging through the mud of tragedy until it finally, mercifully, ended. It wasn't funny in the slightest, and was not even really worthy of a smile. At the end, I was left wiping my eyes and wondering just why I chose to watch it in the first place.

I even liked the Coffee Prince really. Even though I will often skip over the 2nd lead parts. (boring parts) I loved the fact that the girl in this story was just not a girly girl, or a girl 'pretending' to be a boy so much as.. it was simply not something that stood out in her basic personality.
She needed the money, was how it started. Why she kept it a secret... was simply because she didn't want to lose her job. And then, when it got complicated.. she didn't quite know how to come clean about the original (not really important at the time) oversight.
That in itself, was probably the main reason I liked the whole of it, in spite of the other distracting and rather boring parts of the drama.

And then to top it off,... There are the dramas That either just lose their meaning before the end or simply do not sit the genre that people assign them well at all. (this being the main point of my rant/rave session here)
Blood Had a good start.. it had an ok storyline that seemed to flow from one thing to another fairly well. and then, it was like as if the writers or some-such abruptly gave up on it before the end. what happened? did they suddenly run out of ideas.. or time? Seriously, the drama was going along well, I thought, until the ending episode or so. Make me want to shout with the unjustness of it all.

Writers please!! Its ok to take a little of the 'silly license' when your already dealing with a fantasy/unreal/futuristic style subject.. but don't fall over a sudden cliff into the absurd and unbelievable! People won't like it if they lose the "believable" connection. Even fantasy stories have this connection, you know. Stretching it a bit is one thing, breaking it will kill the story outright.

I have also run into several drama's that people label as this or that genre, that really have nothing to do with the drama in question. Seriously, Raters and Reviewers, did you actually bother to watch it? This is a bit like the common complaint in question/answer forums. Don't be answering the question if you don't even know what the questioner specifically asked about. I suppose its alright to over-answer.. in stating it was this genre because of this, and that because of that.. As long as you are actually answering the question. was there romance in the drama? was there actual comedy? was there? I mean, not just a single moment where the characters smile at eachother or something, but scenes that were actually funny? Was there enough of these scenes to actually say there was comedy in the series? If not, then don't put it under the comedy genre.

A good romance can stand in that genre alone if needs be. Just as a funny sitcom or such can firmly sit amidst the comedy genre all by itself. It's ok, It doesn't 'have' to be a romcom to be good. (Although being a romcom 'can be' make the difference of who/how many watches it imo)
Just don't call something funny if it isn't. and if you care to state 'eye of the beholder' to me, that's fine too. while your own sense of whats funny might be unique, or even uncommon, when you rate a drama for genre, you are rating it for the general public, not just you, right? I see that you call it a romcom, get all excited to watch it and.. get so disappointed, I not only abandon the drama part way through, but consider you as having lost creditability in my book of sites/links to return to. So there ya have it. Straighten up and fly straight or I'll take my ball and run away with it to play in someone else's lot. lol!

Seriously though, genre raters/reviewers and answerers, please give a complete answer -After- you have read -All- of the question first. What genre was the drama in? You can always explain further in the review without giving away too many spoilers. If the questioner is asking for romcom dramas, don't be giving them horrible, tragically ending, horror movies. I may have been your all time favorites, but that wasn't what they asked for!

In the odd news..

Idly surfing about the net netted me some interesting news bits, I thought it was idle enough to be worth the comment.

From the 'Rocket News' blog posted Here comes a piece about a youngun who was given the Japanese equiv of about 10 bucks and told to use it however he wanted. and because he chose to turn it into an art project. he got.. how was it put.. "got scolded very badly" for it. ~.~
I can easily agree with the blog poster. good to know that at least someone taught the kid to use scissors.

To expand on that thought though.. both the person who gave the money to the child, as well as the child could use a bit of correction... any maybe a little applauding. Smart creative kid you gots there. creative enough to make something cool out of the money, and smart enough to possibly take it that way... on purpose or by accident. out of the mouths/minds of babes, as the saying goes.
Shame on the person giving it to the child for not only giving so much to a youngster free and clear.. but also for not better defining what was to be done with it. they did say 'use it' not 'spend it', you know. and then getting upset with the child for 'using it' however he/she wanted to, afterward.

So the question following the whole deal should be.. Was the artwork worth 1,000 yen of goodies to the child who made it? if not, then perhaps he/she should properly know to spend it on more worthwhile ideas after this. If so then, yay!! go you, kiddo!
and to whomever gave it to the child, perhaps you will better know to further define whats to be done with the money, and also.. know for the next time, to teach said child what else can be done to 'use' the money properly, better knowledge, smarter decisions.