#fannish problems

Handbrake: Rips and encodes DVDs in one go, but only in MPEG or MKV formats

Me: No I need lossless AVI or something as high quality and widely supported

AnyDVD: Rips the raw VOBs but doesn’t do much else with them

Me: Now I need an encoder for all these VOBs

Open DVD Ripper: Rips and encodes DVDs in one go, including into AVI

Me: Looks very nice, but you only compress in distribution formats and I don’t want to take a second quality hit compressing after editing. You know, why don’t I read a seven-year-old guide, front to back 3-4 times because I don’t get it, that requires a bunch of software that stopped development 10 years ago? Which also requires that I create an index file, run that index through a separate scripting program using a specific plugin, correct for aspect ratios, and encode the result into AVI using yet a third program? That makes sense, right?

to rewatch season 3 and chew more on my feelings about what i liked and didn't like.

to finish one of my fic wips.

to start a new witcher vid.

to catch up on all my exciting fics in my to-read tabs.

to keep cruisin' through my reread of baptism of fire.

I’m pretty sure y’all don’t understand the level of Escus trash that I am. I legit took this Art History course JUST for the section on ancient Roman art and architecture to make sure a scene in my fic was as close to historically accurate as possible. I was genuinely unsatisfied by the info I was finding online, and the lack of availability of scholarly journals without paying money that I don’t have so... I took a fucking course instead. The state of MA is currently funding my fannishness. I mean it satisfies graduation requirements and stuff, I’m not a total moron, but the chapter we’re currently working on is the ONLY ONE I really care about. Excepting the small sections on ancient Celtic art, which are FASCINATING, y’all. I learned all about torcs! And it really put Esca’s storyline into perspective for me, in a “prince of his people to Roman slave” sense that I didn’t fully grasp from the movie, which is way more focused on Marcus, LBR. 

We’re talking about a canon that is not in and of itself particularly historically accurate. Like... the basis of the whole thing is totally flawed. The Ninth Legion wasn’t lost in ancient Britain, and most likely wasn’t lost even in a physical sense, but in a records-keeping one. If it was lost in a physical sense it would have been much, much further north. Like, Scandinavia. 

So considering that the canon I’m working from basically throws historical accuracy out the window from the first, the fact that I care enough to take a course to learn about ancient Roman building techniques for a fic in a fandom that died two years ago is basically insanity.

You guys I’m probably never even going to finish the fic.  It’s like 8,000 words and maybe halfway finished on paper, 3/4 finished in my head, and it’s gonna take probably 3 or 4 great writing nights with a bottle of good Sauv Blanc apiece for me to get it all out into a document. 

Yuletide Nominations are open and I just know this year is going to end in a frenzy.