"My name is Ryan Langelier. I'm a 28 year old computer animator/designer living in Hollywood, CA. I'm a complex guy - nothing simple or basic. I like creativity, technology, nostalgia, and I'm bursting with sarcasim. Enjoy my blog!"
Hurry! Catch up! Last week is a blur. I spent Thanksgiving at my uncle's house out in Hemet. I had a lot of fun with my cousins and aside from my Grandma not remembering who I was - it was a nice holiday. Star and I shared turkey sandwiches all weekend.
At work... we signed a contract with Warner Bros for a flash-animated project. Production should start very soon and I expect to be crazy busy... I'm looking forward to animating again - its been a few months since I cracked open Flash. We are also doing development work on a Christmas related movie - so it's been quite festive around here. Lots of Christmas music already.
I received a replacement XBOX 360 last night. I mailed my broken 360 to Microsoft on Nov. 12th - so it took them just over 2 weeks to send me a replacement. I'm actually surprised! My last 360 that broke took nearly 6 weeks to be repaired/replaced.
Each morning I have been spending a little time with the video editing software we have at work - Final Cut Pro. I've used it in the past, but that was several versions ago and I'm still learning my way around. As you can probably tell by my last two videos, I've been playing with video speed - slow and fast.
In this video, I recorded nearly 15 minutes of myself playing a multi player match in Call of Duty 4 on my xbox 360. I didn't have much time this morning to play with it, but went ahead and uploaded what I got. The video is sped up to fit in around 3 minutes, and I threw in a couple simple effects. Enjoy ;)
My camcorder hasn't gotten much use in the last few years. I busted the firewire port that connects to the computer and stopped using it all together. Earlier this week I decided to see if it could still record by shooting my entire drive to work. I sandwiched the camera between the passenger seat and it's headrest and hit record.
The drive is about 20 miles from Hollywood to Montrose. It takes a good 30 minutes (depending on what time I leave). Traffic was rather light due to Veterans Day. I made it in about 25 minutes.
I geeked out a little with the intro on this video. The space sounds are from the planet Saturn and were recorded by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The spacecraft has been hearing these radio-signals coming from Saturn's auroras since 2002. more info here...
I uploaded episode 2 of Perfectly Frank to all of the video sites yesterday! In this episode, Frank and Red (the drunk santa) get to know each other a little more as Red becomes increasingly drunk.
I've been dreaming a lot lately. Very rich and detailed dreams. I love to dream while I sleep, and it seems to be something that comes in waves with me. Unfortunately I've also been revisited by a reoccurring nightmare that I've had since I was a kid. The details vary but the basic script is someone bad is breaking into my home through a window. Each time, I am in the room as the break in occurs and each time its violent/loud/scary.
Last nights nightmare was strange. In the dream I was in my apartment, looking toward the front window. The screen on the window started to rip and three big slimy frogs came jumping into the apartment. They jumped right past me and went into the bathtub. I was freaked out but couldn't resist looking into the bathroom. All of the sudden my cat Star comes jumping into the bathtub and quickly bites the necks of all three of the frogs - killing them. I remember standing there looking at the dead frogs and thinking, "what the fuck was that all about?".
Then, I woke up.
3 Frogs, of all things?! And what's with Star being a killing machine!? Crazy, right!?
The first episode of Perfectly Frank premiered last week on the web! I've been so busy with editing the episodes at work and playing Call of Duty 4 at home that I have neglected to share episode 1 with the few of you that read my blog.
Without further ado.... (what does that mean anyway? ado?... thanks California school system!) I present the very first episode of Perfectly Frank:
I also updated the trailer for Perfectly Frank - Meet Frank Blogger:
I've been whoring the videos out all over the web - they are now on YouTube, GoogleVideo, FunnyOrDie, iFilm, and Myspace. I even put together a myspace page for Frank (be sure to add him as a friend if you have a myspace account!). It's been a fun project and the episodes are getting funnier and funnier.
If you aren't familiar with Perfectly Frank - check my previous post...
My xbox 360 is broken, once again. For the second time this year I am sending my 360 back to Microsoft for repairs/replacement. As I turn on my console... instead of the green lights flashing in perfect sync with the 360's startup sound and animation on the screen - I am getting 3 red lights and no display on the TV.
I immediately called Microsoft support to begin the lengthy process of repairing/replacing the console. The perky attitude the support rep had just pissed me off even more, but being at their mercy - I kept my cool. Afterwards, I called my friends to vent about it. Aaron and Scott recommended I try the rumored towel fix. I searched for the towel fix online and found that some users had success - some temporary, and others permanently. The towel trick involves wrapping the console in two towels - leaving it on for 10 minutes - making the console very hot and apparently correcting bad soldering. While skeptical, I figured I may as well give it a shot.
After a good 10 minutes of the console powered on and the towels wrapped around tightly - the red flashing lights began to get quite faint and the console was very hot to the touch. I let it cool down before powering it back up and sure enough the green lights came back! It appears everything is all good - however I am still going to go through with the repair. I haven't been gaming as much in the last month due to a lull in decent multi player games to play. Next Tuesday, Call of Duty 4 comes out - the game all my friends and I have been waiting months to be released. I don't think I am going to power up my 360 until Tuesday - just in case the towel fix is temporary. Hopefully I can get a few days of playing in before the red lights come back or my 360's coffin arrives.
Microsoft has had nothing but problems with the xbox 360 since its release in 2005. I have dozens of friends that have gone through this exact same problem - the 3 rings of death - and some of them have had to replace their 360 several times. Earlier this year my DVD drive was failing, causing my games to be unreadable. The repairs took 6 confusing weeks as I spent several hours on the phone with xbox support - trying to find the status of my repair and an estimate for how long the repairs would take. Xbox support estimates the entire process takes a minimum of 3 weeks as Microsoft first has to send you an empty box (the coffin) - you then send the box back to Microsoft with your damaged console inside - they have their way with it and send you back a new 360.
Why Microsoft? Why must you make such a flawed product? Why do you suck us into this addiction called gaming and then take away our fix? Is it your way of trying to make us appreciate you more? Fuckers...
