It's 24th December and the time has come for you to get your present. Ah, as I had too much time to think about this while I made the wallpaper, it won't be that simple. Getting presents is only half the fun when you can't unwrap them. So please imagine this entry to be your very own (strange looking) Christmas present. :)



( Open the present and take a look inside... )

Finished the winter redesign this afternoon. Better be done with it than having all sorts of ideas for it the next few days. I'm quite pleased with the result. It's just a few colors (and a new header that took a while longer than the "test" header before this) but it feels really different to me. :D

Torchwood returns for second series
Despite my mixed feelings about the series I'm still happy for all those involved and the fandom including me to a certain degree. As I said before, I'm gonna keep watching. The last few episodes of series 1 could be quite a ride and I hope they build on that for the next series.

That's it for today and now I'm gonna catch up with everything I delayed in favor of redesigning. ;)

I realized today why I haven't warmed to Torchwood more. There's simply not one character I can understand / identify with. They are all just there, going after the alien of the week. From what it seems, they don't know much about themselves despite being a rather small group, who's frankly spending most of their time together. What do they talk about all day?

/--Torchwood spoilers for episode 6--\
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That being said, today my package full of Doctor Who stuff from Amazon arrived. *squeeee* Now I can so gush over the Annual, The Inside Story, the Storybook AND my very own sonic screwdriver! :D Ooook, it's a bit plastic looking if you look at it up close, but to hell with that, it's a sonic screwdriver and the blue glow and the sound are absolutely fabulous fantastic! Love it! (says not merchandise buying me *shakes head*) Now I've got a lot to read and the Series 2 DVDs are waiting for me on Christmas. In spite of that, they are sitting on the table behind me and they look so much better than I expected. Also in the package: the Casanova DVDs. They should have written Merry Christmas all over the package instead of amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, anazon.fr and so on. :D The only thing missing is the Doctor Who calendar and that could arrive tomorrow.

Oooh, forget all of the bothersome project meetings, I'm happy now and absolutely in Christmas mood! After watching "Love Actually" there's no turning back. I can't believe it's still more than a month! And listening to "Song for Ten" and "Love Don't Roam" since the CiN concert doesn't help, either. ^^

After endless waiting for the final export, I'm once again in the process of uploading my finished new vid. :D The export never depended on luck this much before. A few attempts and a lot of crossed fingers (that there wouldn't be some bad frames this time) later, I only hope that I haven't screwed up my codecs completely with deinstalling, reinstalling and double-installing XviD. And that I didn't miss any displaced frames in the final version.

Despite all of the technical difficulties, I enjoyed making this one very much because it felt very different. I was going for 'different' (ok, and dark and depressing), but in the end that also describes the process. Maybe it had something to do with the song and obviously its influence on the vid, maybe it was because I hadn't used the character and most of the material before. *shrugs* BTW, this was the first time that the beginning of the vid was one of the last things I did.

Anyway, my point is, thank you once again, dune_drd for reccing this to me! I think I was also influenced by your character analysis of Jack a while back. *g* Well, there's nothing I can do now but wait if you like the result... Oh and this time I can also thank angela_caida (that's what you get for getting yourself an account ;) ) for pointing out the editing choices she didn't like. Don't know if you'll notice, but I changed most of it accordingly. (hey, a whole paragraph about special thanks!)


Artist: Linkin Park
Details: 38.6 MB, 3:38
Description: Jack tells Gwen the story of his life before Torchwood - his journey with the Doctor and Rose, dying in the process and finally being left behind.

Watch at YouTube
Download at Megaupload
Download at YouSendIt

Enjoy! And why is it, that no matter at what point I upload to YouTube, processing's never finished when I'm done writing?

What can I say? I'm in a writing mood. And I don't like to have a comatose livejournal. ;)

The new flat is looking better and better every day. And it better be! This constant hammering, drilling and many more unidentifiable sounds all day long is getting on my nerves. Especially now, that I'm at home most of the day. Oh, I couldn't think of a more peaceful way of waking up than by the sound of WHAMWHAMWHAM. Or the VRRRRRRRR and the whole ground trembling underneath my feet while I'm having breakfast. Also very annoying when you're watching tv. Dramatic scene with lots of almost-sobbing in it: I am soooo sorry... RRRROOOOOAAAAAA! *sighs* At least they are now getting to the point where it looks more homelike and tidier every day instead of more dirt and exposing ugly walls.

Next part behind a cut, Torchwood spoiler territory for episode 4:
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Then there's the new vid... Jack-vid to "In the End"... now that I've finished about 2 minutes of it, I have to thank dune_drd immensely for reccing the song and pitching the general idea for the story! :D I knew, it would be a challenge and it really is. So far, I'm mostly happy with the outcome and hope, that I don't ruin the remaining minute with lyrics and the beginning and ending without lyrics. I still need to decide how the next few seconds will come across best visually. Wanna see, what comes next. I was thinking tomorrow. *crosses fingers*

BTW, I'm struggling a bit with the vid in the technical sense. I had to deinstall the XviD codec for VirtualDub to open the files (strange, because they are XviD - and now I'm having some problems with MPEG2 files). Now, sometimes when the scene changes, like a cut from one person to the other, one frame from later on in the scene sneaks itself in. Most of the time it's only from a few frames later. And i have now idea why. Especially annoying when the clip I want to use is short already and I have to hide the beginning to avert twitching people. Whyyyy?

I also discovered, that HD is a gorgeus invention but will bring my pc to its knees. HD clips: bad idea. HD clips with lots of effects: worse idea. HD clips with lots of effects on two layers: *is killed by pc* Seriously, there's times when I have no idea what I'm vidding until I export it. Makes timing a nightmare. As much as I love the quality, I now decided on using HD only when I really need it. Like clips where I want to zoom. Everything else has to settle for normal quality. Downside: the logo is now a mix of BBC HD and BBC3. At least it's slightly amusing when I pay attention to it.

Must-stop-writing-now. Time to sleep a bit. Just when I wanted to mention, that I finished watching Casanova weeks after the first part. And yes, dune_drd, you were absolutely correct, I loved it. :D

After waiting patiently for the title sequence of Torchwood to appear on my screen yesterday, there's gotta be a brief reaction post today. On with the random thoughts - beware of spoilers for the first two episodes behind the cut .

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Remember when I said, I wouldn't advise to keep me from watching after days of dodging spoilers? Of course it had to happen. In the middle (not even in the middle - must've been during the first 10 minutes of epsiode 2) I had to drive around, deciding on some of the things for the new flat. Guess I was a little grumpy these 3 hours...

I started to fiddle around with the livejournal options a bit, used a tutorial to switch to custom css and now I have a header. Let me repeat that: I HAVE A HEADER! Double-yay, I had so given up hope of discovering that hidden option for a non-paid account!

Of course I had to test it and quickly put together a header that fit the new colors. It's not that I disliked the blue, just that I had seen the standard design often enough. Needs some getting used to... ahh, who cares about the colors anyway, if there's a new header (not over it yet ^^)?

And while I was off to give my livejournal a makeover, I realized Torchwood is running right NOW. Playing on British tvs while I was redesigning. With that in mind I couldn't delay my much needed Torchwood icon any longer. Hm, so the only thing that's not new are the mood icons? As far as I know, you can't change them without a paid account?

I have to admit, I wondered (only for a second, but still...) if I could watch Torchwood today instead of tomorrow. Creeps me out a bit, cause I shouldn't even think for a second of watching it now, when I have to worry about falling asleep tomorrow and therefore enjoying the first episode less than I should. It's not like there are overly many episodes, that I could waste one of them. So no Torchwood for me today... though I keep checking for it. *trys to stop herself*

Nontheless I'm so excited to experience this live for once. As I'm mostly watching US-shows I was always (at least as far as I can remember) asleep when they premiered. Now there's this British show that airs only "one hour away from here". So much less anonymous. And so much more tempting. *checks again*