Certain Patterns May Trigger Seizures With No Prior History.

My tax return finally came today and surprisingly, I did not go batshit crazy at all. I picked up Aliens Vs Predator for the PS3 and put a $10 pre-order down for Silent Hill: Downpour at Gamestop. I did not realize that it's finally coming out on Tuesday, after waiting since October, it's finally here. And it shows that I am losing long tracks of time, it's startling me. I've had my PS3 since Christmas and I haven't had any problems, until now. I popped the game in and started playing as the "Alien" and within two minutes, I find myself sweating bullets. I felt like I was spazzing out because the character I was playing can walk all over the place and it was driving me nuts and really driving my senses over the edge. The back of the PS3 boxes states:

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE A HISTORY OF EPILEPSY OR SEIZURES, CONSULT A DOCTOR BEFORE USE. CERTAIN PATTERNS MAY TRIGGER SEIZURES WITH NO PRIOR HISTORY. BEFORE USING AND FOR MORE DETAILS SEE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PRODUCT.

So, that second sentence is what made me realize it was the game. So, I have placed the game aside and I cancelled my plans on going out to see Red Tails. I decided to lay down and chill out for a while and now I have decided to start my blog for today. I was liking the game play but I don't really know why it was triggering an effect on me.

Misleading, but sweet artwork.

Going back to earlier in the day, I found my rebate check in between two VHS tapes that were sent from two different ends of the U.S. I opened the first package which was a nice box containing Lady Terminator which I bought off Bill Knight who runs Midnight Legacy; he released Alien 2: On Earth on Blu-ray. The other package was one of those yellow-orange bubble-padded envelope containing Warriors of the Wind. And to those who do not know, Warriors of the Wind is the 80's American cut of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I had heard a lot of bad things about this cut of the film and even that Hayao Miyazaki detests this cut of the film. I can see why, but, I didn't find it that bad after watching it.

Sure, the name changes were not needed, but I was surprised when they first said Princess Zandra instead of Nausicaa. Given that the film is edited and about twenty minutes are cut, I can see why they ditched it all together since it's not Miyazaki's true version. It happens all the time that movies get cut and it's a shame. With Warriors of the Wind, I feel the hatred is all hype because I'm sure not a lot of people have seen it. More or less like people like to bitch about Star Wars being re-edited countless times by George Lucas.

I have finally narrowed my choices down on an external Blu-ray burner; Lite-On eHBU212-08 or Samsung's SE506AB/TSBD. Prices are similar with an extra three year warranty for about $27; places this to be about $175 and shipping is free. Both average a 4/5 in user ratings on NewEgg.com and what draws me to both is that they claim to handle BD-R DL discs which is what I need for making masters. From my perspective, I am cautious towards the Samsung BD burner because it's main power source is from the USB input; you plug it and you're good to go. With my old Lite-On, it had a power source and you had to plug it in; and that's what makes me lean towards that Lite-On BD burner. Then with the Lite-On BD burner, I am cautious because my old Lite-On BD-Rom did have problems reading certain Blu-ray discs, for example; Destroy All Monsters, Dracula 2000 (Canadian Release), Silent Hill (German Release), and various others I cannot think of off the top of my head.

It's such a shame that BD drives are still not that common in desktop computers. With the desktops that I am looking at; if you want an internal BD drive, it's going to cost you an arm and a leg. I know about nine years ago when my parents got the desktop that had our first DVD burner, it was a good $1.5k for it and for that time, it was a strong desktop from Dell. Now, if you compare the strength of that desktop with ones made from today, it's a joke. That desktop only had 60GB of HDD, 512 MB of Ram, and I am not sure about the GHz because it's dead now. What I am looking at now for my planned new desktop is something stronger than my three year old Toshiba laptop; 230 GB of HDD, 4 GB of Ram, and a Dual Core 2GHz processor.

I am about to kick back for a bit before sleeping; I might give AVP another try or pop in Lady Terminator and call it a night. Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D starts tomorrow at the dollar theater and I am going to go see it. And to give a quick update on my DVD-R series Exploitation in the Third-Dimension, we're going to be assembling volume one soon.

2012: Out with the Old. In with the New.

The year has been a rough start, due to technology not lasting, I'm pretty much having to go out and get new stuff. And last night was another development in terms of having to get new stuff to work with. I was cleaning the house when my little Maltese was wanting to play. He brought out his toy and I had told him to go lay down. He dropped the toy in front of me as I was wiping down the side coffee table that I put my laptop and various external pieces on. I had picked up my external Blu-ray drive and held it in my hand while I used my other hand to wipe the area down. Without looking, I took a step and my foot landed right on his toy.

I lost balance and the only reason that I lost my balance was for the fact that the toy has a squeaker that was what did it. Now, one of two things could have happened; I could have fallen and hit my head as I came crashing down. Or, brace for impact throw the Blu-ray drive out of my hand and have my hand push down on the seat to the chair that I leave beside the door and the coffee table. Needless to say, the last thing is what happened; and the Blu-ray drive went flying into the kitchen. In my horror, I got back up and screamed out the "F" word like thirty times as I went to get the drive. Something broke off inside as I could hear it when I shook it. I plugged it back in and popped in a DVD and loud noise is being made from the drive. As soon as the noise started, I pushed down on the eject button to have the disc come out without any major scratches, to my relief.

My two dogs were not harmed as they were both in the bedroom. But, I am now without an external Blu-ray drive. Which means, on top of shopping for a new desktop to do my video editing and 3D converting; I now have to shop for a new external drive. This time, I am planning on going for an external Blu-ray burner. I feel a Blu-ray burner is now needed as the desktops I am looking at that have a good amount of Ram and HDD space are lacking Blu-ray burners built into them. It seems with each day passing, this Toshiba laptop is seeing it's final days. I do not plan on retiring it completely as I plan on using it to write my screenplays on whenever I am out with family members. I have had both the laptop and the Blu-ray drive for a good three years.

I did not have much time to freak out over the loss of the drive as I was cleaning the house and doing the laundry. I was going to be heading out in a few minutes to get a late dinner and head off to the movies to see the remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The film was ok, but I honestly preferred the original Swedish film. The remake felt more sleazy whereas the original was more tasteful and you really felt the intensity. I didn't honestly feel that at all whenever those types of scenes played out.

Nothing much on the agenda for today; currently converting another film to 3D and hoping that my tax refund makes it in today. One thing I really enjoy about the 3D conversion process is all I have to do is just push a button and sit back and relax for a few hours while it does all the work for me. I might watch a few movies to pass the time. That would be great.

I'm Going to Bed.

It is currently a little after four-thirty in the morning. I am going to be going to sleep in a few minutes. I have started yet another blog after doing several and letting them fall to the wayside. I plan on keeping up with this blog from now on as I get things ready to go with my studio. I will be posting some reviews I have written from the Blu-ray website over here. I plan on slowly copying and pasting them for you to read here; as well as share news from the studio front.

I am finally deciding to make the jump and getting a new computer for editing and studio work. My piece of shit Toshiba laptop that I have been stuck with for almost three years is giving up the ghost. It took it fifteen minutes to boot up tonight after I clicked "Restart". I am looking for a desktop and basically just getting a tower. I have decided on passing on getting a monitor and having the tower hooked up to my Vizio via VGA. My television's HDMI ports are both occupied by my Insignia "Region Free" Blu-ray player and my PS3. I could get an HDMI switcher, but I am too strapped for cash right now.

Today is payday and after I get my checks in the bank and have them go on my credit card, I am going to be ordering some stuff off eBay. I am going to be getting an ethernet CAT-V cable to connect my PS3 to the internet and getting 100 feet of speaker wire to have my ancient sound system completely hooked up. Five of the seven speakers are currently connected, but I need to get wire to have my two big speakers connected in the back of the living room. I am also keeping my eyes peeled on a Multi-System VCR.

In the next week or two, I will be listing my DVDs up on Craigslist and other places. I am selling them off to pay for equipment and put some of that money towards getting film and shooting on my Super 8mm camera. I will also be putting some of the money towards getting my film print of Nosferatu transferred over to HD. Even though shooting in HD is more simplistic, I would love to shoot on film and to go through the whole process of having the film negative transferred over and edit it digitally on my computer.

Going back to Nosferatu, I am excited towards getting it out on Blu-ray when the time comes. It has been a favorite of mine for years and since it is Public Domain, I am happy to add it to my legacy. It is the granddaddy of all Vampire films; it's the first film! I stumbled across the copy of the film when I lost out on a chance to get Night of the Living Dead. As soon as I saw it listed from the seller, I notified him and paid up A.S.A.P.

Well, it's getting late. I got to get some sleep and then pay for some video tapes I got on hold for me; one being the Indonesian rip-off Lady Terminator. I will be giving some updates on Saturday about the horrific process and a great update on my first feature Traumatic Possession 3D. Stay tuned...