I bought Final Fantasy XII at last in celebration of this holiday. Hooray for me!

Early but, I went out and rented Odin Sphere finally for a couple nights, and got a Castlevania game on the PS2 as an after thought.

There will be no winter-een-mas video from me this year, dispite what I have said. And here's why:

I spent alot of time at vixy and youtube looking up clips and downloading them for the content of what was to be the 08 weenmas vid. After taking 2 days to find everything, I started putting the clips together. After I was almost complete, all the tracks turned green. I had no idea what to do. I tried deleted the track and re-editing it, which didn't work. I tried moving the original file from it's location on the hard drive and re-pointing the file to it's new location. Didn't work. Re-named the file and loaded it back up into Vegas. Still didn't work. Deleted and re-made the .sfk files associated with the original .avi files... didn't work.

So I started over completely. And when I started new... all the clips magically worked again. So I started over thinking it was a freak accedent... untill, right as I was upon completing it... it happened again. I tried a few other tricks... but nothing could save the file.

So I thought I'd try one more thing. Since I have two monitors, I stretched vegas across both screens and kept my eye on the begining of the vid to where I was making the ENTIRE TIME so I could see when it turned green. I made the video just like the last two times... and on one of my test plays through... it just all started turning green. I quickly stopped the vid... which caused all the other tracks to turn green.

This frustrated me to no end and I ended up quitting. The next day (today) I somehow talked myself into giving it one more shot. This time, I made individual tracks for each individual clip. Thinking that maybe all those separate clips were too much for one track to hold.

I was wrong...

I even made it a point to save a new file every so often. The original name was weenmas08... and I kept test playing it and saving whenever it worked.



Everything dropped out again. And even loading previously saved files yeilded this abysmal green death. I thougth it might be just one corrupt clip that's ruining the file... but it's given out on several different clips, and I doubt that all those clips are bad. I'm sick and tired of it now. 4 tries and many hours later only to have this bullsh*t thrown in my face is really wearing on me. I minimized each track and took a this screen for you to see what's going on. Looking online is of no use... all results end up descriptions on how to use green-screening in video editing (just my lick, no?) Gnasher, I think you are the only other member with Vegas knowledge, right? Do you have any idea of what the hell is going on? If not... no worries.

Anyway, with that said... I am tired and probably won't be making any more videos for quite some time now.

So instead of a video... I'll type out a detailed discription of the play concert that Sk, Kajak, and I ventured out on just last weekend. Hope everyone else's weenmas is a bit more productive than what mines being.

^_^

Sorry, can't help you... =/
I have no Vegas knowledge. =x

Lmao, sorry... I was referring to Kumo.

Nothing like a social faux pas to top off the night. ^_^

HAPPY WINTER-EEN-MAS ALL!

Today is the first day of Weenmas. This weekend I will be finishing Return to Exia... I'll also be playing some multiplayer Final Fantasy 4 with SK. And with Sk, my room mate, and another friend... we will be playing a sh*t load of rock band.

I also plan on working on a bit of my little RM1 game as well.

Anyway, I haven't really spoke about my trip to the Play Symphony yet. Well, alot of things ended up not going as planned. But we did have a good time. A wonderful time actually. Before the concert, we kicked back and played some smash for a while. I busted out my camera and tried to get Kajak and SK to say something. It really didn't go as according to planned... but oh well.

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Well, the next day we piled up in the car. Passivescars wasn't going to accompany us on this trip. Instead it was Kajak's fiance and my significant other.

After a good 3 hour drive... we made it. It only took us a good 50 bajillion hours to park too... wee! Well, we went to eat at Bennigans and enjoyed some Monty Cristos of which I accedently called Monty 'Crisco'... we still get a laugh out of that.

Afterwards, the girls got dressed. Us guys just had to throw on our fancy dancy coats and we were set... the girls just didn't want to ride for 3 hours in dresses. I dunno, I guess they are uncomfortable or something.

We got to the parking place and valley took our car.

Here's were I fail. There was strick warnings that cameras were not allowed and you would be excorted out without refund otherwise. So I left my camera in the car.

Well, when we all got in to the hall... I felt as if I was a bit over dressed. I mean, there were kids with jeans and t-shirts. Like... mario t-shirts and such. So there i was... looking all snazzy. Then, I lost all attention.

The cosplayers began to come.

It wasn't long before Link passed me by. Followed closely by Luigi and Sora. Then Serge, Reno, Axel, Sephiroth (two actually, one from FF7 and another from Advent Children), Aries, Serge, YOUNG link, Pyramid Head (from Silent Hill), and other gaming characters began to flood the hall.

Then the camera's came out. Apparently we COULD have camera's... it's just that they weren't allowed in the actual concert hall. Bugger... and valley took my car to a garage that I had NO IDEA were it was.

*stamps 'FAIL' on forehead*

Anyway, the main hall opened eventually and we got to our seats. We were in Box Tier and had a wonderful view from the second floor. It was then we started to play "Where's Waldo" with the cosplayers. We found Aries sitting with Sephirtoh. I wanted to cry out to her something like, "NUUUUUUUU, he wants to kill j00!!1!!111"

Actually, me and Kajak were checking to see if she had a flower basket with her. We were going to pay SK to ask her if he could buy one for 1 Gil and offer her a dollar.

We sat talking and enjoying it all as we could here the band tuning up in the background. eventually, the curtains went up and the crowd roared into applause.

The conductor came out and shared a few words before playing their fanfare which you can hear <a href="http://www.play-symphony.com/">from their web site</a>. They played through Blue Dragon and a melody of Super Mario Brother songs. All the while 3 huge screens rolled gameplay of said games.

Here's a list of everything they played that night... not in any order
* FINAL FANTASY
* SUPER MARIO BROS.
* CASTLEVANIA
* METAL GEAR SOLID
* BLUE DRAGON
* LOST ODYSSEY
* SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
* THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
* HALO
* CHRONO TRIGGER
* CHRONO CROSS
* WORLD OF WARCRAFT
* KINGDOM HEARTS
* SILENT HILL
* THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION

It's here that I would like to point out that the suprised us with a change. Silent Hill was replaced with Guild Wars. The ONLY 3rd person horror game was replaced by another MMO. And that poor Pyramid Head cosplayer... what did he ever do to anyone. I hope he likes Guild Wars.

Here's some videos from other play preformances, if you are interested.

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Anyway, they finished up the show with One-winded Angel after a quick word from Nobuo Uematsu. The way they worded it, it sounded like he was actually THERE. But alas, it was just a video. Ah well...

After the song, everyone gave a standing elevation. And we stayed there. Until the conductor came out and played an encoure. He made the fatal mistake of asking the audience what they should play again. Heh, and after 5 minutes of screaming, they settled on One-winged Angel again. I personally would have liked to here the Chrono Cross/Trigger melody one more time.

After the second go-round, another elevated applause stayed filled the hall again. Afterwards we left our little booth in Box Tier and walked out. We talked about it for the longest time... we were a good ways out of Fort Worth still.

It was here about 1 AM that the drive was getting boring... I was tired.... and wanted to get home. There were no other cars on the road, so I was being a bit of a lead foot.

Well, it sure payed off. I got picked up by a cop. 87 mph... and here's the kicker. At night, the limit isn't 70... it changes to 65. I look forward to paying THAT ticket.

Anyways... we made it home some time after 2 AM... and we all crashed into bed. The next morning, we woke and packed up. After a bit of fairwells, we went our separate ways.

And that was the trip to see Play. If ever I get a chance, I will see them again. It was a wonderful experience and ai highly recomend anyone take the oppertunity to go if ever given the chance.



Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful Weenmas this year.

^_^

Sounds like you had a blast, Lantis. Except for that cop scenario

Sounds like you had a blast.

I will go to Play! eventually.

You should. ^_^

This past weekend was probably the bulk of my weenmas as it was chalk full of games... and SK was there to tag along.

We played some rockband (I like teh drumxxorz, it's alot closer to... say... stepmania in the fact you just hit right as the note passes instead of the guitar which doesn't matter when you hold the note as long as you strum with it held down.) SK picked up on expert the second he got his hands on it. I hate that guy...

After tearing Rock Band a new one, we moved on to our mutli-player Final Fantasy 4 file. We were able to take out the two stronger summons in the game Asura and Leviathan. Saddly we are still just over half way through the game though.

Afterwards we took a break for a while and kicked back with some Wii Golf. That game is starting to annoy the piss out of me. Once you get your score so high, you have to get better than -2 just to keep your score the same. Here's SK's and my score.



*snickers* Heh... leet. (Also, if you remember about two years ago, way before SK joined the forums... he went by the alias "Eagle". I still reffer to him by that from time to time still.)

After that, I just messed around with Tontie 2 here at the mag. It is then that I mannaged to beat the SOB...



If it wasn't for that diamond heart, I would have been completely and hopelessly dead. Also, the only reason I have full health is because when the boss dies, every last little square turn into a group of 5 hearts (which is strange because there is no next level).

Anyway, after frying my brain with that... me and SK got Ix's Return to Exia up on the PS3. We played up till the Crystal Cave... but then we pretty much had to crash as it was getting a bit late.

I made another save file and continued the next day after SK went home (though since he's moving in with me and my room mate next weekend). I was able to play through the rest of it and finish the game, myself. And boy, it was a bit longer than expected. But yeah, I finished it. [spoiler]...even beat Mainframe. ???'s ftw.[/spoiler]

Anyway, then I pretty much finished the weekend playing Crysis. I can manage to get most of the graphics on medium with no frame rate lag. Also, anyone interested in Crysis should see the TAC launcher:

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And this is what happens if you shoot it too close...

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At some point bibby came over and we killed some more time with Crysis. The game is pimp... no question. Also while Bibby was over, I showed his wife the ropes on Mario Galaxy. I still haven't managed my 120 starts yet. I guess I just haven't found the time to just sit down and do it. Part of the reason being is because I'm not sure how to get those freaking commets to appear, which is where the majority of the stars I need are.

After they left, I loaded up rock band again and played a solo tour till I needed to go to bed. Yay game-filled weekend.

Well... that's it.

I hope everyone had a good winter-een-mas. Looking forward to the one in 09.