ENTRY #203
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12:12 AM, Saturday, June 1st, 2002:
 
I'm not sure what I'm more suprised about... The fact that I'm this far removed from my "career", or that I'm completely alright with that. It's like I have this little internal clock, that is telling me to chill - get away, and when it's time - it'll tell me to come back. I guess that would be "my heart". An interesting thing to follow for sure. But hell, even without my heart, every other part of my body has told me to get the hell outta dodge for awhile. I reread some of those February/March entries yesterday. Wow. It still shocks the hell out of me that any one person could put me in such a state. I digress...
 
The past 2 weeks of my life has been so involved in the gaming world it's mind-blowing. First of all, I'm up to 650 MiniCases sold, with over 100 unique members - and NO end in sight. All of this with only word of mouth. It's really looking to become a "resource nightmare" come this fall. How I'll keep up is beyond me. But as I said before, where there's a demand - there's a way to meet it with profit. I'm still amazed though, that this all started from me trying to get rid of the 22 extra MiniCases I had to buy when I only wanted 3. God love the internet.
 
But more than that, this past week...or hell 2 weeks ago? My sense of time is so screwy right now... Anyway - E3 2002. The HUGE videogame expo where everything that's videogame related come to meet for 3 days. It's a friggin' war. Right now, Nintendo, Xbox and Sony are going at it. It's so fun to watch everyone draw their sides - explain their strategies through slick press conferences and silly spin. As it stands PS2 has sold 30 million units in nearly 20 months, Nintendo selling 4.5 Million units in a little over 6 months, and Xbox selling 3 Million units in a little over 6 months. Basically, this generation's war is over. PS2 has won by an outrageous sum, and Nintendo and Xbox are bound to be fairly "tied" no matter when you look at it. It all comes down to the games of course - and all 3 consoles are buying up rights to exclusives and producing their own little masterpieces at break-neck speed. It's an exciting time to be a gamer as you sit and watch videogaming moving into the mainstream incredibly fast. First weekend Game Sales measure up to Box-Office releases now, and with the convergence mindedness of Sony and Microsoft, entertainment is becoming one big BLOB as opposed to different segments. Very fun to follow.
 
And this year I got to follow it a bit more from the inside. A few months back you may recall that I got in contact with Planet GameCube and offered some of my time to help them out. They had an E3 Video last year - but it was delayed for nearly 6 MONTHS, and they lost a BUTT-LOAD of money. I couldn't donate money, but I offered to edit their project for this year - and have it done within a week. So instead of a refular "lackey" e3 badge - I got the nice gold Media badge and was able to attend the media press conference before the show. And that allowed me to do this:
 
 
What I find most humorous about this picture is that, if you know who it is - you're losing your shit right now. If you DONT know who it is, you could care so little, that you may be angry you were forced to download the picture. LOL. Shigeru Miyamoto. An absolute legend to any gamer. He created Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong - he singlehandedly made the gaming industry what it is today. When it crashed from Atari's CRAP in 1983-84, guess who brought it out of the mud? NES - Super Mario Bros. This man continues to create absolutely brilliant games. That and he's a big Beatles fan too. I have such an immenesly deep seeded admiration for the guy - it's uncanny. Creativtiy on his level is genius. Pure and simple. Even if you don't like videogames, there's an inherent ART in them that can't be denied. Especially these days - where so much is possible. And to have the vision back in the mid 80's when the gaming world REALLY was moving pixels on the screen - wow. He was absolutely as nice as can be - and even managed to plug Planet GameCube for us. "I love Planet GameCube". I'll make that be the next entry's video - it's pretty funny.
 
The show itself was quite cool. Nintendo uncharacteristically seemed to release every single big game they'll ever have in one show. Mario, Zelda, Starfox, Metroid - they just kept on coming. Very, very impressive stuff. Actual public release dates are (according to them) only 9 months apart - with Mario touching down this August. We'll see. Heh. But as usual at e3, Nintendo's polish shined through. The amount of work some of these games have had sunk into them is just insane. Eternal Darkness for one has been at 4 E3s. FOUR. Over 5 years of work has gone into a title that we'll all be able to buy for $50. Seems almost like stealing. People poor their hearts and souls into a project for half a decade - and we have it all for $50? Heh. I'll shut up now, before they raise prices.
 
So it was a crazy 3 days for sure. I had to leave early every day - just to come back home and load footage. Turns out this is gonna be a 4 hour DVD. Whew. And let me tell you - every day since Tuesday, May 21st, it's all I've done. Hell I'm rendering as we speak. This project actually rivals The Trinitrons in size. Wheras there was a lot more details in The Trinitrons, it was only 30 minutes. This is EIGHT TIMES bigger, and everything is all timed out, with music and effects - easily the biggest single project i've ever done.
 
Just to give you an idea, Billy (founder of the site) wanted to spoof Nintendo's GameCube Open for the beginning of the DVD. I figured I could do it. The 5 second open took 5 hours. I mean, it looks good - but this would normally net me over $125 just for this. Instead I'm doing about 200 hours of work for free. I'm also doing all the encoding and burning of the DVD and creating the menus - whew. A lot more than I signed on for, but I keep telling myself it's a one-time deal, that it will REALLY help the site out financially, and it's a good deed.
 
It does make me wonder though - I was gonna give 'em $20, but decided to donate my "time" - LOL. $5000 later....LOL. But seriously, every staffer I met at E3 was COOL AS HELL - and they do great work. I'm really pumped I get to help them out with this, as it will surely keep the site going "FOR FREE" to the rest of the gaming public. It's like helping the independent radio station against the big corporate meanies - you just gotta do it. As well, if any of you are even remotely interested in Video Games, this DVD is easily the coolest $25.99 you've spent. It's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO worth it. It's some of the tightest production I've ever done. It's the quickest 4 hours you'll ever watch. Can't say enough about it. And it'll be finished and shipped Monday morning. Giddy-up.
 
But you know, you look up - and it's June. But it's a June I'm here to enjoy. I've said this about 10 times the past 2 months, but I was so close. Pills in hand, final entry up - DONE. Ready to end it. A phone call to the Comedy Store when I felt like I had nothing else to lose, pretty much saved my ass. Truly amazing. So each day now, is a little slower, a little wiser, and a little happier. Yeah, of course - when I look at my career - I'm depressed as HELL, but it's not my time right now. It's time for me to work on other projects, meet other people, and try to find some passion ELSEWHERE. ANd what's amazing is, I have it. I have so much passion for so many things, it's really incredible. And again, it all comes down to creating new things. I'm tellin' ya folks, creating those MiniCases is such a boner. It just is. It's something no one else thought of, and people love 'em. Same thing with 4tvs. It's what moves me. The key of course, is finding an apporopriate way to "sell" the concepts to get me to where I want to be. It will come. I'm in no rush right now. I'm just so happy to have control over my life right now, it maks me want scream from the mountaintops.
 
This month there'll be another Trinitrons show with the Improviders. I'll most likely be performing WITH them as well this time. Although I must say, I'm pretty much NOT a part of this team. Nor am I really sure I want to be. There has to be a comradarie between the members, and certain "hobbies" by them will always keep a wall there. As well, I simply have very little patience for poor preperation skills. Hmm, did I say "Very little"? I meant NO patience. It's gotta be the biggest pet peeve on the planet to me. Oh well, again - we'll see what tomorrow brings - you never know.
 
And finally, I have a stack of headshots here that I will most likely never use. LOL. I paid for them knowing my MANAGER said this was my path. Unfortunately, it's never been MY path - and now I'm stuck with the $800 bill. So if anyone wants some signed headshots - lemme know - LOL. I'll sign 'em with somethin stupid that'll be good for a laugh in a few years.
 
Christ, will any of this be good for a laugh in a few years?
 
Adam
 
original video file
 
JUNE 2002
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