Motivation

This is just a quick note about motivation. To be honest, I’m not sure why some people have it and others don’t. It’s also surprising how much it varies from person to person.

My observations since I came to the US have indicated to me that the people who are most motivated, almost always get where they want to in the end. Some people start out strong, but give up after a while. It’s most obvious in college graduates. They come into the workforce full of wonder, excitement and optimism. Only to be crushed by the monotony of work and the crushing, failurist* attitude of superiors.

(*a word I just invented, but you get the gist of it)

Need proof, look at any young person who started their own company straight out of school, doing what they wanted. Let’s see: Bill Gates (didn’t even make it through college, so bonus points for him), Steve Jobs, those guys from Google, David Karp (a really smart guy), practically half the people in the Rich List and so on)

I know what it’s like; I’ve been there myself, and to a certain extent, probably still am. I thought work would be a great, uplifting experience, and to a certain extent it really is. Especially when you see the road you designed actually being built.

But I have been rather taken aback by how much workers in general in the US don’t seem to be motivated in their jobs; in other words, to attain a long and rewarding career by working hard, climbing the ladder and striving to achieve their best.

I recently read an excellent article called ‘Are You an American Zombie?‘. I found it fascinating because it basically describes a huge swathe of the middle classes. Becoming and American Zombie is something I’m deathly afraid of. To be absorbed into the bland landscape of the American workforce, to become a face in the crowd and to end your career in near the same place you began.

I don’t think I’d want to work in a place for 10 years only to be forgotten within 6 months of leaving (or getting fired). My Irishness helps in this regard (the whole office knows when St. Patrick’s Day is getting close), but it isn’t enough, at least not in the long run.

Now that’s not to say that everyone should be out there trying to get their names known far and wide. You can go into many places and people are perfectly happy to work at a bank or post office or hairdressers or office or factory for 40 years, there’s nothing wrong with it, but you can see the difference between someone who enjoys their job, and someone who’s just there for the paycheck. Millions have done it before us, although in the past, many would argue that food on the table was more important than brown-nosing the boss.

So, what’s motivating me?

I wish I knew, I really do. If I did, I’d have the answers to the hurdles I face every day. I’d know exactly what I need to do to get the career I want. Sadly I don’t; I have to take it one day at a time.

What I do know though, is that you will never, ever get anywhere just waiting on life to give you the opportunity. When I was back home finishing up at college, there was zero chance a US company would come knocking on my door offering me a job. I was extremely lucky that my uncle knew the right people, who, after two interviews (and $1,000 of my own money for airplane flights), were gladly offering me a job.

So I don’t know what’s motivating me, but I do know where I want to end up. It’s a feckin’ long shot if ever there was one, although others have gone further, a lot further, so there’s hope for me yet.

What is my goal? Ha ha; I’ve told precisely 3 people; all in different parts of the world, none of them know each other, and they’re not my parents or family.

I know exactly what I’m aiming for and I’ll get there in the end, because I’m motivated to.

The Secret of Kells US Premiere

At long last!

Just there the other day, I caught wind of a date for the premiere showing of The Secret of Kells, possibly the movie I have been anticipating seeing most this year.

Not to babble on too much with excitment, but it will be shown at the IFC Centre in New York as part of the New York International Children’s Film Festival. The dates are the 18th and 19th of July at 11am both days. Tickets are about $12 so tey won’t break the bank too badly.

The film itself is a fantastically animated feature set in Ireland around the time the vikings began invading and centres around a young boy named Brendan, who sets out to complete the illuminated manuscript known as the Book of Kells, which is porobably the most famous literary work to come out of Ireland in the last 1000 years.

The film is traditionally animated with some flash used here and there, but that’s not why I’m so excited. The fact that it is an Irish production with an Irish story is something that makes the old patriotic pride rise up inside me. The absolutely stunning quality of the film is secondary.

Other US showings are possible, but none have been confirmed yet, if you live anywhere near NY, come on down to see it, you will absolutely not be disappointed.

A praise post.

Today, I think I’m going to give some very well deserved praise to the good people over at Frederator.

If it wasn’t for them, I probably wouldn’t have had the inspiration to move to the States and engage in all the fun events in New York that I’ve done to date (for which I have become famous (infamous?) within ASIFA-East for more than one reason).

Of course, they have an exemplary role model in founder Fred Seibert, a man who has been on the leading edge for the most exciting 30 years the media has ever seen. The term ‘visionary’ simply does not do him justice.

Check out the blogs, it’s almost impossible to remember a time when outsiders didn’t have an open portal into how cartoons are made.

Every company needs to be more like this.

Crowdsourcing Animation

Everyone loves a contest, right? I know I do, they’re a great way to arouse interest in a particular cause and people normally make a decent effort because they want to win the prize. Some contests are boring though; like the one to choose the very lucky contractor that will someday have the distinct pleasure to build, yes, that’s right actually construct, the intersection in south-east DC I’m currently designing.

With all that in mind, let’s turn our attention to the FOX-Aniboom contest, where the submissions are 2-4 minute cartoons and the prizes total $35,000! (caution: exclamation point contains sarcasm). The overall winner also gets a development deal with FOX.

If one is to take it at face value, then it would appear that FOX is looking for animators to contribute content that could give FOX a new animated hit. In theory, this should work (although as Homer Simpson notes: “In theory, communism works”). However, it’s just not that simple, and as you already know; if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

The first big pitfall is for the entrants. They absolutely have to create the content in their free time. The official rules state that the content may not have been previously published, broadcast or marketed in any way. In which case a product like Geoweasel (hi Niko!) would be ineligible because it’s already been successfully established. You’d also be signing away your rights to the content. Matt Groening saw this one coming 20 years ago, which is why he created a family named after his own so that he wouldn’t lose the rights to the bunnies in his comic, Life in Hell.

The prize money, while it sounds nice, consists of $15,000 for the grand prize winner, along with a $25,000 development deal. That sounds great, until you realize that Seth McFarlane (oh, you should know who he is by now) got $50,000 to develop Family Guy, and he ended up doing the entire pilot episode (that’s kitchen sink and all) by himself.

So there’s not much, if anything in the contest for animators, but what about the network? I believe they’re highly unlikely to get a full series out of it, despite the development deal. While many series’ being life as a pitch, they are developed over a period of months (sometimes years) before getting the go-ahead. Pitching a series is also a bit of an art in that you have to get in there and sell yourself, getting a series based on a short clip is very, very rare (South Park and The Powerpuff Girls are the only two I know of).

For a very thorough guide to pitching, you can pre-order Animation Development: From Pitch to Production by the exceptionally knowledgeable David B. Levy.

All in all, I think this competition is just a chance for FOX and Aniboom to engage in a bit of self-promotion. It’s also highly unliekly that we’ll see any serious animtors having a go either; they’ve got access to the people they need to talk to and can therfore skip this contest. There doesn’t seem to be any long-term benefit for either party, so I don’t expect to see a series coming off the back of something like this any time soon.

Sit Down, Shut Up (or Why I Can’t Think of a Wittier Title)

Stuart is the only cast member who still has a positive outlook for the show.

FOX is well known in animation circle for being a somewhat “friendly” place for animation on network TV, and in a sense, it is justified. FOX has shown more primetime animation in the last 20 year than any other network. The reason is plain and simple. As a young network, FOX needed programming and decided to take a risk with an offshoot of the Tracy Ullman show. The Simpsons have since gone on to define TV comedy, not just animation.

Following on from the Simpsons were King of the Hill, Family Guy and Futurama (another Matt Groening production). Well, none of these other shows copied the success of the Simpsons (although King of the Hill lasted 13 seasons, it has been on the chopping block after more than one of them). Family Guy has the distinct honour of being the only show to have been cancelled and brought back by the same network, twice. Futurama, on the other hand, was not so fortunate, being thrown around by FOX so much that it ended up having five broadcast seasons despite only four being produced.

With that in mind, I had a certain amount of apprehension when Sit Down, Shut Down was announced. Besides the fact that American adaptations of foreign shows have been historically bad (Men Behaving Badly, Teachers, and so on), this one was going from live-action to animation, and it was being done by Mitchell Hurwitz, the guy behind Arrested Devlopment. Which, sadly, was one of the those shows that was the darling of the  critics but not everyone else (for my previous rant about critics, click here).

So imagine my surprise (and delight) when I finally got to see an actual episode. It was much better than I anticipated. The animation (mixed with live-action backgrounds) proved interesting. The characters were well thought out and despite some shallowness in the pilot, have developed quite well. I found the jokes really funny and intelligent. I didn’t even mind the rather blatant breaking of the fourth wall. Overall, I found the show seemed to improve with each new episode. Sadly, nobody else seemed to think the same way.

Premièring to (supposedly) dismal ratings, FOX shifted the show to 7pm after two weeks before finally swinging the axe on Tuesday. So, now, in this fifth paragraph, I will outline the reason for today’s post: an analysis of how and why I think the show failed.

Starting with the period leading up to the première, FOX did do some fairly heavy promotion during the ‘Animation Domination’ block of programming. Practically every ad break there was either a long or short promo piece about the show and what we, the viewing audience, could expect. The frequency and detail of the promos became greater the closer we got to the big day.

On that particular Sunday, the show premièred and we were diligently informed that there would be another episode the following Sunday. So far so good. However, on Monday, the ratings came out and apparently they weren’t up to scratch. They were lower than expected, and the 18-49 demographic seemed particularly weak. Talk of imminent death was already being heard around the internet.

Fast-forward to the following Sunday, and I was watching FOX as usual. Despite Sit Down, Shut Up being in the same timeslot as the previous week, there was one, ONE promo for the show, and that was right after the Simpsons ended. Again, I watched the show, had a few laughs then went to bed wondering what I was going to read the next day. Surprise! The viewing figures were even lower than the previous week, in fact they seemed to drag down the entire line-up (the theory of one show dragging down an entire lineup is one I find flawed at best). FOX was quick to move the show to a 7pm (?) slot, where it died a death this week before the final blow.

Firstly, the show itself. It’s not the greatest show out ever broadcast on FOX, and it was crude at times. The animation, while certainly a bit left-field, is certainly not the worst I’ve ever seen. Was it the humour? Perhaps, but there was a good mix of intelligent and fart jokes that would entertain most people.

I guess I have a few questions for the executive(s) responsible:

1. Can I have your job (after you’ve been promoted)?

2. Why did you cut all the promos the second week? What if I missed the first episode, I would have had no idea there was going to be another one; aren’t pilots normally a one-off broadcast?

3. I’m 18-49, why wasn’t there any on-line promotion? I spend less than 1 hour a day watching TV, and that’s normally taken up by a rerun of The Simpsons on the CW. The rest is spent online in one form or another. Couldn’t you have maybe put the next episode up there first, so I could watch it and tell my friends?

4. What’s with the move to 7pm? OK, maybe it was to remove the poison pill from the lineup, but there’s another problem. I didn’t see any promos for the move, so when I tuned in for the Simpsons at 8, wasn’t I surprised to see King of the Hill afterwards. I missed my new favourite show.

5. I don’t have a Nielson box. Personally, I think it’s an antiquated method of determining viewership. You should look at which show is the most pirated shared on BitTorrent. Everybody that downloads there isn’t watching your network, or Hulu for that matter.

6. So now that you’ve lost money (hopefully not too much, and hopefully not enough to cause Sony’s first loss in well over a decade), what will you do with the unaired episodes? Can we expect them on Hulu? [Adult Swim]? DVD? I can only hope, but it would appear that you may have a future cult hit on your hands, if you can take advantage of it and grow a market eager enough to pay for it.

OK, rant over. I’m not holding anyone specific to blame for the show’s failure. The cast and crew did a great job, it’s just that the viewers didn’t come in as expected (how do the come up with the expected numbers anyway?), but that’s beside the point. TV shows need time to generate a following. Heck, Cheers finished dead last among all TV shows on it’s debut, and look how long that went for, feckin’ forever, that’s how long.

I guess I’ll just have to join the game and change the rules.

Animation in New York: The View From Baltimore

Last night ASIFA-East held a (very) well attended discussion panel on the state of the animation industry in New York City (read the official recap here). Thanks to the seating arrangement in room 502 at SVA, I managed to block about three rows of people, but they were very polite about it.

Linda beck acted as moderator and did an excellent job in that regard, pitching in questions and even responding to some from the audience. On the panel were Steven Conner, Howard Beckerman, David Levy and David Watchenheim (who spotted Mr. Warburton among the audience and promptly plugged his new book). All well-known in New York (especially David Levy, who apparently knows every single person in New York).   Coming from such diverse backgrounds, I anticipated a spirited discussion.

I wasn’t disappointed either (clocking in at 2 and a half hours, how could I not be). After a quick rundown on the backgrounds of each panellist, Linda threw pointed questions at them dealing with the challenges then industry has faced in the past. Howard had some of the best responses from a historical standpoint, having been in the industry for such a long time, as he explained to me himself, he’s seen it all before. There’s nothing happening right now that hasn’t occurred at sometime in the past; it’s just the industry as a whole has changed.

David Levy had some great advice from a career perspective which I’m sure the students who made up the vast majority of the audience greatly appreciated. Of course they should, David wrote this book, yes it’s an Amazon.com link. If you don’t own it already, then now is the perfect time. Another point brought up later on involved pitching ideas on which all the panellists had some good advice, and yes, David will soon have a book out on this too, you can get yourself ahead of the curve and pre-order it here.

Steven Conner started off rather quiet, but he was soon in full flow, giving his unique perspective on the industry in New York. he also provided honest advice and opinions on the current state of the industry and the very difficult challenges that he has faced in securing work, noting that New York is in competition with many other cities, and indeed countries, when bidding for work; either as TV shows or commercials.

David Watchenheim did a great breakdown on the technical side of things, explaining how flash came to the forefront as an animation tool. He also drew on his experience as a producer so that we got opinions from both sides of the fence as it were.

So what is the state of animation in New York?

Well, just like everywhere else in the world, the economic situation isn’t helping matters. With clients spending less money, budgets are down overall, but clients are also demanding more for their money. The increased competition in the marketplace isn’t healthy for business either.

TV production is also down. Nickelodeon closed their studio’s doors last year and since then, the independents have been taking up the slack (if any) in the market. On a related note, commercial projects seem to be lower. Howard Beckerman pointed out that in the past, animation tended to do better because companies spent more on advertising. However someone noted that this does not seem to be the case at the moment.

My involvement in ASIFA-East is coming up close on year (June, I think). In that time, I’ve learned that the animators of New York are an extremely plucky bunch. they’re tight knit, supportive (as Linda Beck pointed out, historically, no-one would have their own demo reel, relying instead on word of mouth), and extremely adaptive.

On a related note, Kevin Gamble brought up an excellent point on how finding people can be difficult if they don’t have a presence on the internet. he was looking for websites with demo reels. During the spirited discussion afterwards, I mentioned that at the very least, one should have a blog. Any eejit (even me) can set one of those up and get posting with artwork or demo reels and at least have a place where prospective clients or employers can gain valuable information about yourself.

So why is that New York seems to get pigeon-holed with commercials and pre-school animation? Like the panellists said, the talent for a great, hit TV show is there. All major TV networks are either headquartered or have a base in NY and are constantly on the lookout for new ideas.

I’d hate to think there is a stigmata that producing animation in New York is more expensive than anywhere else, and if there is, it’s severely misguided. Judging by rates a client was quoting to Steven Conner, New York sounds pretty good value for what you get.

Towards the end of the discussion there was a shift in the questioning towards why New York doesn’t seem to have any mainstream TV animation, such as The Simpsons. The point was quickly made that the talent is there and willing to do a show. Why the major networks (both terrestrial and cable) haven’t picked any up is anyone’s guess. I want to say that it’s location.

Viacom (or at least Nickelodeon) is headquartered in New York. That means the people making the decisions that matter are right on the doorstep, indeed you might run into them on occasion or attend the same functions they do. That can make a difference. As Linda pointed out, an executive from FOX flew over from LA and bought everyone drinks in order to get to know them. That’s fine, I do the same whenever I travel somewhere too, but unless I live in the city (or near to it) I won’t be in the regular contact with anyone, at least on a physical level. As people, we communicate a lot, but doing it in person takes on so much more meaning and creates a stronger relationship than one done over the phone or internet. I’m just gonna throw it out there that Atlanta isn’t exactly the center of the TV universe either, being far from pretty much all the main TV centres both physically and culturally.

So after all that what do i think? Well, I don’t know. Although I participate as much as I can, I’m still a civil engineer working outside the industry. All I can offer are my opinions on what I see looking in. When Howard Beckerman asked the audience if this was the 19th century and animation didn’t exist what they would be doing, I was tempted to shout out that I’d still be a civil engineer. Someone else shouted ’shoemaker’ before me however and the momentum was lost.

Let’s put it this way; if I didn’t think the animators in New York were as talented, creative and as motivated as they are, I would probably have never moved to the US. After a year and half of moving, I’d like to think I made the right choice.

Voice Actors in Animation: Why I like professionals and not celebrities.

Maurice LaMarche in full flow at a Kids Next Door recording session

So a while back I read a blog post by a certain Nico Colaleo over on his rather decent I Love Cartoons! Do You? blog. The topic was cartoon characters and how once upon a time, they were the stars of their own cartoons rather than the voices behind them. It’s a good read although he focuses more on the visual (title cards, promo posters, etc.) than the actual concept in question. Yes, today I’m going to talk about celebrity voice actors.

In the past, professional voice actors did pretty much any animation work, heck, Mel Blanc did pretty much every voice to come out of Warner Bros. for at least 30 years, even after he died! The reason professionals were used, and still are to this day for television, is that they knew what they were doing, had a real knack for the job and yes, could do more than one voice (usually).

That’s pretty much the way television has stayed with many professional voice actors, including Maurice LaMarche as shown above (and on Mr. Warburton’s never-fails-to-make-me-smile blog), who I swear, if it wasn’t for himself and Tress MacNeille, we would have seen about two cartoons for the whole of the 1980s. But I’m not going to talk about TV today, I’m looking at the bigger picture, literally, movies.

Disney has had a pretty good grip on the theatrical film market since around abouts the beginning. OK, so Don Bluth gave them a scare a few years back but that’s irrelevant. What is relevant is that they enjoyed tremendous success for the longest time. Pretty much all of the films put out used professional voice actors, and many of them did a lot of work for Disney, almost exclusively so.

I guess what brought me around to the topic was when I watched The Little Mermaid a couple of weeks ago. Yeah it was kind funny to see the rather simple, idealistic plot that even kids wouldn’t bother with now and some rudimentary computer CGI thrown in for good measure (so good in fact that a reviewer on Amazon thought it was added in later as part of the restoration).

Watching it a second time, I was struck that a) all the credits were at the start (seriously Hollywood, let’s bring this back, you could even run them before everyone has got their popcorn) and b) the voice characterisation credits were listed as one block, no top billing or anything. And all the actors were unkown to me (at least until I hit up Wikipedia later on).

I liked that; knowing that the actors whose performance I was about to listen to seemed to be just regular people (regular except that their names were on the screen and mine wasn’t, yet). What’s unsurprising is that they do a great job. Of course, they wouldn’t be employed otherwise.

Compare that to today, where big Hollywood names are trotted out to the public to flog the latest animation feature they’ve done. Nico uses the posters to good effect here, noting that for Shrek, the names of the actors are bigger than the images of the characters themselves. Other films throw as many actors as they can in there, hell, even Delgo had celebrity actors and that was the biggest flop of last year, although it still remains a favourite of the otherwise perfect Mr. Elliot Cowan.

What’s the point? Sure celebrity actors can bring a bit of glamour to your film, but they won’t help if the film itself sucks. Having seen Monster Vs. Aliens there recently, I was honestly disappointed. It was not a great film; technically, it was brilliant but script wise it was very weak. The celebrities roped into this one didn’t help matters. Nothing against them, but they’re absence would not have made a difference.

It’s not all doom and gloom however. One could argue that Pixar is on the greener side of the grass. Well, sorta, they still use regular actors, just less well known ones that are more suited for their roles. For this, they should at least earn a wee bit of respect. The same goes for Michael Bay, Tom Kenny manages to get on the payroll for Transformers. He didn’t harm the movie’s chances.

Personally, if you’re movie is good enough, people will go see it. If I want to see Eddie Murphy in a movie, I’ll go watch Beverly Hills Cop or something like that. While he is certainly capable of voicing a donkey, so am I, and you won’t see my funny face either. Mainstream actors are known for their looks, not their voices. I think Elvis would come close to breaking that rule, but he hasn’t made any films for a while.

I’ve neglected to mention the relative costs savings that professional VAs bring because I feel that’s a bit of an afront to them. I see no reason why they can’t make a blockbuster like Shrek and get paid millions for it, even if their name isn’t splattered all over the poster.

However, as I write this, we’re just over a week away from the premiere of the series Sit Down, Shut Up. A show which casts actors rather than voice actors. Hopefully this is a once off. TV is the last bastion of professional voice actors.

With animated features consistently increasing in popularity, it’s unlikely we’ll see a change in policy, which is a bit of a shame, but then I remember that I like film I like and don’t like films I don’t like, regardless of who’s in them.

So, for your gratuitous enjoyment (and maybe also as a reward for reading all the way to the end), here are some of my favourite voice actors (in no particular order whatsoever).

• Mel Blanc
• Billy West
• Dan Castellaneta
• Harry Shearer
• John DiMaggio
• Hank Azaria
• Phil LaMarr
• Grey DeLisle
• Candi Milo
• Janice Kawaye
• Scott McNeill
• Tara Strong
• Patrick Warburton
• Seth McFarlane
• Rachel McFarlane (accomplished in her own right you know)
• and that’s all I can think of now because it’s late and I have to work tomorrow, yes, it’s Friday but falling asleep at the desk isn’t an option. We’re still pushing for a couch in the corner in order to create a loophole though.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

Today I’d like to talk about something that is bothering me. It’s not a huge problem that’s going to destroy my life if it’s not fixed right away, but it has been lingering in my mind for a while.

The issue at hand is so-called ‘restorations’ of old works for DVD release ( I may be singling out Disney in this post).

The general idea behind such restoration is to bring the quality of a film up to the expectations of the general public. Back in the day, the resolution and quality of VHS (bonus points for guessing what it stands for) were so low that nobody cared about minor imperfections. But in today’s Hi-Def, 60″ plasma widescreen world of tomorrow, there seems to be this apparent ‘need’ to make everything ‘perfect’.

Now I don’t disagree with the fact that film masters age over time and become worn and dirty. Heck, I see brand new films at the cinema with the odd blip or scratch in them. I don’t see anything wrong with that. It’s like static on a phonograph; it adds a bit of life to the experience.

One of the great things about film as a medium is that it’s about as Hi-Def as you can get. Transferring the film to DVD should simply be a case of cleaning any dirt and fixing any scratches. Pretty simple. right? Well, yes, in an ideal world that’s exactly what should happen.

The very nature of film means that when viewed on a screen, the colours are vivid. There’s a fair amount of science behind producing films on film. Levels must be adjusted and constantly monitored. Of course all of this can count for nothing if the local projectionist doesn’t do his job, but for the most part that’s not an issue.

So what’s my beef here? Well, there are a wide range of factors that need to be taken into consideration. Modern TVs are not the same as those of yore. LCDs screens in particular are exceptionally bad at reproducing colours; namely blacks and reds. So much so that early DVDs made in Hong Kong supposedly had the red levels cranked up so far that when played on a tube TV it looked like someone had left the DVD out in the sun for too long.

Which brings us to today. I’m going to pick on Disney because, for the most part, they’re the most obvious example I’ve seen; they have a large back catalogue of works that they’ve been releasing steadily since DVDs were introduced.

Lou Romano did an excellent comparison a while back for Sleeping Beauty but I can’t for the life of me find it now so I apologize. The difference between the first DVD release and the ‘restored’ versions were marked. Colours were muted and in some cases changed entirely. Why would this be? TVs today aren’t any better at displaying colours than they were 5 years ago. In addition, the picture was noticeably more darker overall.

One thing I have found interesting about Disney’s advertisements for such DVDs is that they show a comparison between the ‘old’ and ‘restored’. Where exactly are they getting these ‘old’ clips from? Dodgy video tapes? C’mon, YouTube has better quality than them. Besides who cares what the ‘old’ version looked like if the new one isn’t up to par.

Right. That’s the picture part of things out of the way. Now, let’s get onto a much more serious issue. Not content with just fiddling with the colour, it has become obvious that the picture itself must be meddled with. now this i nothing new, filmmakers almost always go back and change stuff, or issue a ‘director’s cut’. I’ve no problem with that; if I had to do my dissertation again I’d write it differently.

I guess the ultimate example of this meddling is George Lucas. Not content with how Star Wars turned out, he went back and practically redid the first three movies claiming the finished product was how he always wanted them to look. Sorry, I can’t fully believe that. But anyway, he’s just an example. What I’m getting to is the kind of editing that’s done to cover something up, maybe something embarrassing or politically incorrect.

The case in point is The Little Mermaid. A great film (not near the best, but up there with the rest of them). I recently watched the DVD and was a bit curious to see the infamous scene with the minister at the wedding. Appaerently his knee looks like something else (I won’t way what but Wikipedia will satisfy your curiosity).

Now personally, I never noticed it when I was younger and it’s something that only adults will pick up. So why did Disney go and digitally insert a podium in the DVD to cover it up? Pressure from outside groups? The lawsuit that got thrown out? To avoid any future bad press? Beats the heck out of me. I’ve seen worse innuendo in cartoons and their shown repeatedly. Let’s just assume Disney was playing it safe.

Nonetheless it’s disheartening to know that companies feel the need to go back and paste over past actions, intentional or not. Of course The Little Mermaid is just one such example. I’m not exactly sure, but I also have a feeling the Who Framed Roger Rabbit was similarly censored, and no, I’m talking about more than that one very infamous scene. I’ll edit this post to include anything new if I find it.

So there you go. A bit of a rant about companies who can’t leave well enough alone when it comes to releasing old stuff on DVD. There’s tons of examples coming out all the time (Gulliver’s Travels being the most recent as far as I know). What can be done? Not much I’m afraid, just hope that your favourite movie or TV show turned out all right.

And now for something completely different

If you read or indeed follow my Tumblelog (and I hope you do), you may see the odd post about or relating to Linux, the free and open source (FOSS) operating system. So why am I writing about it now? Well, I thought I’d write a bit about my personal experience with it.

Although I can safely say I would fall into the “geek” demographic (with one foot in the real world mind you), I’m not one to bash technophobes over the head with facts and figures and whatnot. Nope, what you read below is the honest and truthful account of a leap into the unknown and of coming out the other side older and wiser.

Back in the beginning (not the very beginning, as in 3.1, that’s a different story), I bought my laptop, an Acer TravelMate 4402WLMi  with 64 whole MB of dedicated video memory! Being the cautious buyer that I am, I got the TravelMate businees line, with Xp Professional (get the kitchen sink if you can afford it is my ethos). In fairness, I still haven’t used the 64 bit Turion processor for the reasons it was purchased, but the time will come.

After 3 and half years, I can still say it was the best $1,200 I ever spent (on a computer that is). After a year of solid final-year university work, it returned to more mundane duties like surfing the internet and playing games. But then I started to get bored (it’s a failing, 7 mobile phones in 7 years, I’ll let you figure it out for yourself).

Immediately I thought of a new purchase; I mean, 2.5 years, that’s about the average life for a laptop right? So I started looking at the options available for a new computer:

1. Windows
2. Apple

You can see the dilemma I faced, yes? Well, I looked at a Macbook/Powerbook but I ended up scratching them off for the same reasons I didn’t buy one before: cost. The premium the Apple commands is one I couldn’t justify, especially as they now use Intel chips.

So that leaves Windows. Vista was something I was wary of from the start, being a tech kind of guy and with Vista being out for a while, I was familiar with the problems the OS was having. The more I looked into it, the more certain I became that I did not want Vista on my computer. My options were limited however; XP was rapidly disappearing from shelves and I did not want to have to buy a new copy of something I already owned. Downgrading was an option for some business customers, which would probably have been the ultimate decision had I followed through.

I can’t remember what it was, but I remember thinking about Linux. I was aware that it existed, but I had no idea what it was like. My only recollection was seeing a copy of Red Hat Linux at a shop sometime in the mid 90s. So off I went on a bit of research.

I was surprised by what I found. Not only did Linux still exist, but I could try it out too! Using a LiveCD, I could try Linux on my computer without installing anything. I’d never seen anything like this before. Not long after, I’d bought a magazine (with the free LiveCD) and was giving it a spin in the laptop. Admittedly I got really excited seeing my computer do stuff it never did before.

Within a few minutes I was exploring a new desktop with new programs. I couldn’t believe that I was running a fully functional OS from a CD. Granted I couldn’t save anything, but I was only testing it out anyway.

Over the next couple of days, I kept going back and discovering new things, and every time I did, I became more and more impressed. The distribution I had was PCLinuxOS, a community-run version of Linux, as opposed to one of the commercially supported ones like Ubuntu, OpenSUSE or Red Hat (now Fedora).

Long story short, after I figured out how to get the wireless working, I decided to install; a relatively painless process in the end. That was January 08. I’ve been using Linux since then, and have been practically Windows-free for the last six months, something I never thought possible.

So what are those benefits I mentioned above? Cost is one; the LiveCD cost all of a magazine, and even then I could have downloaded it for free from the web. Of course, all the programs are free as well, and I’ve found most are not only equal to their Windows counterparts, they’re actually better!

I can customize my computer however way I see fit, with tons of user-made content on the internet. If you think OS X has some fancy eye candy, you’re wrong, Compiz-fusion blows it out of the water, and it runs comfortably on my 3.5 year old laptop with 512MB RAM!

Another nice aspect is the package manager, a central application that manages every program installed on the computer. You can update (0r download) every program here, instead of manually updating each program individually.

Linux advocates normally go on and on about how the OS is virus-free, and yes, this is a massive benefit for all the obvious reasons.

Are there any downsides? Sure! It can take a while to figure out how to make stuff work, although the advancements over even 12 months ago have been huge. Hardware detection shouldn’t be a problem for anyone anymore. You’ve also got to be bold when it comes to the command line. Some people freak out when they see the blinking cursor, but it is possible to never have to open it. Besides, did you know Windows has the same tool?

One last note is that with Linux there is a choice; not just white or black, but all the colours of the rainbow. if you don’t like the windows desktop type, you can switch to a mac style one. With the LiveCD, you can try pretty much any distribution out there before installing it, all for the cost of a CD.

After a year, I can safely say I made the right choice. Not only did I gain a new perspective on software, I also saved some money. That’s right, I didn’t buy a new laptop after all: I didn’t need to. After 3 and a half years, my computer is as up-to-date as any other out there, and with a bit more RAM, will run faster than my brother’s brand new Acer with Vista!

The one lesson I did learn from all of this is the real reason why people use Linux:

It’s fun!

Fantazmigoriuh! Salutes Double D8

Because they’re awesome and supremely talented compadres.