dorobo_hamster

I guess I can't be an encoder. An encoder's job is to use filters to produce a product with higher quality than the original (first I've heard of it). (From two independent sources.)

Now if you come from the audio world, this is impossible. You are always striving to encode audio to sound like the original. People have done extensive tests to determine which codec compresses the best and the bitrate at which an encode sounds indistinguishable from the original. Nowadays, people use lossless just for peace of mind.

Video is not the same as audio (as I discovered). It takes a much higher amount of data and sight is more important for people than sound [insert disagreement from audiophiles]. This means that even the DVD "master" is a much lower quality than the original. (Combined with the codec it's why I'm not fond of DVDs.)

So an encoder has to try to make it look better. Better than the original producer's vision? I would try to stay away from that because it becomes too subjective and you're trying to outdo the producer. So an encoder should try to make it closer to what the original would have looked like, i.e. removing noise and other artefacts introduced through the transfer process. This is a bit like how people digitally remaster movies from film sources. There have been anime groups who do quite a bit to sources because the companies didn't do a good job.

In the audio world, the original is usually high quality. People don't use equalisers to improve an encode, they let the listener do it. Video is different. You don't rewatch videos as many times as audio to make the tweaking worth it.

So this event that made me realise that I can't encode was for encoding anime. In anime you know what the original was like because of the lines: an original would have sharp lines but an anime DVD does not. Any (well most) operations performed result in a loss of quality. So there comes a tradeoff on how much you sharpen it to look closer to the original and how much information you lose, which makes it less like the original.

Now the dilemma is that it does look better applying filters. Why would you settle for an encode that looks like the DVD when you can have a better looking encode? And that's why I can't be an encoder: I would pick the DVD version over a version that had filters applied to look better because it's "safer". I mean sure if you got rid of noise or significantly improved it, but there isn't much you can do to a clean source.

I think this is very specific now. You can only really sharpen because changing the contrast means taking artistic liberties. And it only applies to anime since you can sharpen all round and have it look better for most of the scenes. Even though it looks better, if I watched the DVD I wouldn't have thought "those lines need sharpening". Given that, I don't think it's worth it. I mean if it takes this much debate and philosophy, maybe it's not that important. I'm a traditionalist (i.e. from the audio world but I'm not sure if I'm dedicated enough to claim to be part of the audio community) so I like originals (but transfers from the master are bad which is a pain since that defeats the purpose of holding originals to high value). It means that the source is a lot more important than encoding. Encoding for me is about number of bits required to make it like the original, not "improving" the original. And these days storage is large enough so that we have conquered DVD resolution (but not 1080p) in the same way people are using 320kbps MP3 and FLAC.

Yes I would download the tweaked releases and revel in their perceived quality, but I wouldn't encode them.

Hail. In the MIDDLE of Summer. All I can say is: no comment.

It was freezing this morning. I was wondering whether I really like cold weather anymore. I've been progressing to a warm blooded person and have even felt cold at night. I'm not sure if it's my blanket wearing out (or a different one) or my metabolism going down or lack of/too much sleep (not really sure if I have a lack of or too much sleep :S) but I never used to be cold at night.

I could see my breath. That's really nice. I wondered how it could be this cold and thought it must be coming directly from Antarctica. With that thought, I instantly liked the cold weather again. Antarctica <3. The fresh untouched wilderness close to Australia.

Oh yeah I always thought of New Zealand as just small country towns and sheep. But I should have realised that it's full of awesome forests (and mountains, rivers and waterfalls etc.). I'm not sure if it was the location of Avatar (some was filmed in Hawaii) but I Wikiied it and it is pretty amazing. My review of Avatar: well done, with respect to fitting all the elements together to form a work of art. It didn't enthrall me as it should have, but the scenery was the stuff of dreams. It was something new: in all of the spectacular scenery in my dreams (and places I've visited), I couldn't have imagined something like that, and it reiterates why external influences are essential for imagination. I was wondering if I could keep from being bored if I was trapped on a desert island or something only using the knowledge that I already know. To some extent, yes, but I'd be missing out.

There was an article on Sankaku about two types of people, those who like superficial beauty or the storyline. I guess the article generalised too much to be worth anything but it did raise some interesting discussion. Someone mentioned that James Cameron had a view that characters are the most important, followed by setting and then story, which is the opposite of the way you traditionally think about it.

I realised the importance of characters by watching US TV series. What gives life to the series are the actors and not so much the story or themes of the show. I was wondering how you would go about creating a series because you have to have an eye for which actors will make or break the show. One thing about that comment was that I never thought about setting when it comes to evaluating or creating a story. I always thought of it as integral to the plot. However when I think about it, you can really mix and match where you want the setting and it doesn't affect the plot much. It does change many details and the whole feel of the show though.

Focussing more on characters now could be because I now have a lot of experience (I guess that Uni subject Entertainment Experience had a point) and so I know most of the generic stories and can now focus on other things. The cliché stories are quite awesome if you've never seen them before. Wouldn't it be great if you could rewatch something as if you've never seen it before? People often criticise things and don't think about the younger people who haven't had enough experience to concentrate on other aspects (re: Twilight, *shudder* Actually I can't comment since I haven't read or watched it). Although some things are always fun. Is Twilight just indulgence? Who cares about the story or unrealism that makes you scoff; it feels good. An analogy is that sweet things are still sweet when you get old (actually I'm only guessing). Older people tend to be more conservative when it comes to that, maybe because of their experience. Does eating ever get boring having to do it every single day of your life? (Okay I've mentioned it before, no need to do it again. I'm getting old, repeating stuff and not being able to remember what I've already said. But understandable given a large amount of stuff.)

All aspects of a story are important and make each other better than each of them by themselves. A measure of how good something is might be if they're worth talking about long after you've finished watching it, although that's too generalised. If you've seen enough, they become repetitive. A good show overcomes this by executing things to perfection. However, once you know all the generic stories, settings and characters, it doesn't mean you've seen it all. There are countless ways you can combine different elements to make an entertaining show.

Games have one extra advantage: gameplay. Their interactivity allows for an extra dimension of enjoyment. But can they be combined or is it in conflict? Final Fantasy XIII was probably too linear. But was it a good "movie" in its own right? What about compared to visual novels? There are people who enjoyed playing it. People have expectations of the Final Fantasy brand and what it needs to live up to.

Is creativity really just about permutations? There is one more thing: knowledge. You don't know everything in the world right? The only new thing that can be introduced are things that you never knew, whether it be real or new things made up to create the fantasy universe.

I used to be uncomfortable with wasting so much time on public transport. However I have found that now I just think about things and the trip just goes past without me noticing. Why do I have so much to think about nowadays? I'm worried that my brain is too full. I used to think it was impossible. But that was 7 years ago. In seven years I have probably doubled the amount of knowledge I had. That's a lot of gigabytes. I used to wonder how much adults must know since they have lived three times longer than I have. They certainly don't seem very smart. I am very much saddened by the conclusion that unfortunately the human brain does have limits :(

Why seven years ago? I have always craved for more knowledge, but I think around then was when I started filling it up really quickly. I had unlimited access to the Internet and naturally the data flowed to an area of lower concentration :P Well I think I watched too much anime. I have experienced hundreds of lifetimes in that time.

I thought that the brain was able to conjure up ever more efficient compression schemes. This is just wishful thinking because from computer science research you know that there is only so much you can compress something until it becomes very hard for each additional bit you want to reduce it by. My brain has progressed to lossy compression. I mean the brain is always a bit lossy but I used to be able to remember every line in a movie word for word. But now I will only be able to paraphrase the line (compressed to something that I already know), that is, if I remember it at all. It might be to do with watching anime because it's harder to memorise lines of a language I don't know, and that reading the subtitles means that I only store the meaning and not the exact pronunciation. Anyway, I think I've already talked about this on an earlier post.

It could be that now I am aware of how much I forget. It could also be that I've lived enough years to forget things. Age is a weird thing. When I was younger, every year would be adding on as much as ten percent of my total conscious experience. Each year was a very long time. Now, it seems each year is just flashing past me. Can you imagine living three or four times as many years as you have already lived? Subtracting childhood would make it six times the amount you've already experienced. It's not merely an illusion that time is getting faster. It is a real psychological effect inherent to the way we experience the world.

tl;dr. I'm feeling old. And inadequate. I don't even know what I set out to blog about >_<

Oh yeah I remember now. Why am I wasting time blogging? You're supposed to document stuff, right? It actually takes a lot of time. I mean just say I do some research, usually I would just walk away knowing it. But if you're at work it looks like you've done nothing. And you need to communicate your findings to other people anyway (and your future self who inevitably forgets things).

Well, another year has gone by too quickly :(

I guess I can't write a summary of the year because there are too many random things that I can't generalise. The major things were going to Singapore and Sydney in terms of... I don't know, spending multiple days and somwhere where you don't usually go? The rest of the things I did are significant in their own way. Yeah I can't make a summary because I don't even know what's major and what's not.

2009 was a year of waiting. I was waiting for Haruhi season 2 to come out and when it finally did, it didn't cover much (Endless Eight was okay but it meant that there was less of everything else). KyoAni wasn't releasing much so I didn't have anything to look forward to every week. Also I couldn't watch K-ON! every week anyway because the subbers fail at releasing the widescreen version. And I probably wouldn't be able to download it anyway because I was waiting all year for ADSL2+ but it never came. I got sick of waiting and got ADSL1 instead, which was activated in time for me to celebrate the new year (although then I got router problems). I also got sick of waiting for K-ON! and had to get it off a friend and watch it in non-widescreen. I was waiting for the Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san DVD rips but eventually I just watched it at a friend's house.

2009 was a year of lack of time. It was unfulfilling because I hardly watched any anime at home due to a lack of time. It's true that I did watch a lot of anime outside of home, but that's the only way I can watch anime. If I didn't go out to watch anime, I still wouldn't have watched anime in the time I freed up. The explanation is a bit complex, but it's similar to the phenomenon of not being able to do any homework at home.

I guess waiting and lack of time is nothing new. It's been happening ever since I started to think for myself. But it's just made worse by the fact that I wasn't in full time education or employment. Dropping all activites doesn't free up time. Taking up every activity possible doesn't decrease my time. The world is very strange indeed. 2009 didn't feel any different from the years I was in Uni. If anything, I did more when I was in Uni because of the free time before exams. Completely the opposite, right?

I'd say 2009 was a disappointing year. I did have fun. I did do a great many things. Nothing really bad happened. I lived quite a perfect existence. But it should have been so much more. So. Much. More.

• I played Badminton.
• I went to Singapore.
• I went to 4 Friday dinners.
• I went to two other dinners, a lunch, a pub and two family birthday dinners.
• I went to a Christmas party and played Pictionary and Taiko, and another where I played DotA.
• I went to Sydney and watched Wicked.
• I played games at the Nintendo place on EB Swanston.
• I lined up for the Mario Coin Hunt and wrote a complaint letter.
• I went to Minh's birthday karaoke.
• I watched Four Weddings and a Funeral, Juno, Nacho Libre and Ocean's Thirteen.
• I watched the movie Did you hear about the Morgans? at the cinemas.
• I finished watching Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou.
• I went to half of a WWWA marathon and watched Summer Wars and Minor ja nai.
• I started reading Singularity Sky.
• I hung out at Glen Waverley twice.
• I went to X-man's three times and watched School Rumble, Gintama, Harui-chan and Churuya-san and played New Super Mario Bros. and Magic: The Gathering.
• I played poker at Koshy's twice and at Jack's once.
• I laid bricks.
• I cooked noodles for a party and and curry puffs for another.
• I played Facebook games and uploaded photos on Facebook.
• I participated in the Travian Christmas tree colouring contest.
• IRC went down and I had fun when it went back up without Services.
• I read the Malodrox story.
• I played Audiosurf and FlyFF.
• I installed VMWare and jailbroke an iPod touch.
• I hit golf balls at the driving range twice.
• I played Travian.
• I didn't do NaNoWriMo.
• I did things that I have not mentioned here.

I can't believe I'm posting these publicly.