By Nous

                        October 25, 2004

REALITY BITES THE DUST (Monday Afternoon)

I was driving home from school and was almost to my street when I
remembered that I had to check out some books for a research paper
I was doing in english class. I passed up my street and headed to
the library, nearly driving into some houses on the way.
"Hmm," I thought. "Maybe I shouldn't be driving."
As soon as I said it, I realized there was truth to the statement.
I had been driving badly all day and really should have stayed off
the roads. Alas, Baby Lion, I did not. But I got to the library in
good condition.
I pulled into the library parking lot and parked in the shade,
saving my face from being further burned by the goddamned sun.
"How nice," I thought.
I sat there for a moment listening to a Beatles song. Paul said
that somebody spoke and he went into a dream. John sang haunting-
ly. And I wondered once again whether I was really where I was or
asleep somewhere else, far away, where no one had even heard of
the Beatles.
I eased out and planted my feet on the pavement. I steadied myself
and walked away from my vehicle. Next to it was a green car that
for seem reason seemed really tall. Or maybe he was really short.
What I mean is that I did not see anybody behind the car until I
walked beyond it and there was a young man walking towards me. He
said something very strange.
"Hello again."
Again?
Who was he?
After I did not reply, he added, "Are you from the college?"
"Uh..."
I did not know what to say to that, and seeing my confusion,
he continued with, "Are you going there right now?"
"Uh, no. I'm not."
"Do you know where it is?"
What the Hell was going on?
He looked and sounded sort of retarded, so I wasn't sure what
he wanted exactly. And I wasn't going to be giving this stranger
a ride anytime soon.
"Uh, yeah. You go down here and then turn on Spencer and drive
for a while and there are all of these lights - "
I don't know why I said that part.
" - And then you just see right there. It says, 'San Jac.'"
He looked at me and asked, "Do you know how to get there?"
Dude, I just told you.
"Yeah, just go down Spencer."
Spencer is a weird name.
"Spencer?" he asked.
"Yeah. You know where that CiCi's is? Down there?"
He paused and said, "Yes."
"Yeah, you turn there, and drive for a while until you see the
college."
"Where that Burger King is?"
I think so.
"Yeah, there. Where Target used to be."
"Where did Target used to be?"
"Right ... behind Burger King."
I pulled out my cell phone to tell my mom where I was, and maybe
to ask her to call for help.
"Okay. Thank you," he said. He stood for what must have been only
half a second, but seemed like a while, and walked inside.
When I told my mom where I was, I hung up the phone and walked into
the library, but did not see that guy in there. So I hurriedly walked
to the back of the library to look for some books before darting
out of there. I did not want that guy asking me for a ride.

MONDAY MORNING (Monday morning)

There are many contributions the Fleischer brothers - Max and Dave -
made to animation. The first and most important, I believe, is that
they made deviation from the Disney juggernaut not only acceptable,
but expected. Disney was by far the most respected and most well-
known animation studio in the United States, and Walt Disney himself
was considered the Father of Animation. But when Max and Dave
Fleischer eased there way into the scene, they showed that animators
did not have to work for Disney to make a good living. And though
their cartoons were clearly in the same style as the Disney cartoons,
they made the public want different styles of animation. This paved
the way for such animation revolutionaries as Tex Avery who himself
worked for Disney at one time.  Avery, along with a handful of others
such as Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones would revolutionize what cartoons
were meant to be. But before that, there were the Fleischers, who
encouraged this diversity by adding different interesting things into
their cartoons, some of these things themselves contributing to 
animation.
Max Fleischer developed a style of animation that made the Fleischer
cartoons stand out. If a script called for a dancer, Max would have
someone go into his studio and dance, while someone recorded the
movements. Once the movements were captured, Max would go over them
with pencil. The end result was incredibly smoothe animation that
was rivaled not even by Disney.
But aside from this, there was the ingenious Rotoscope, which Max
and his brother, Dave, developed. Note in certain Betty Boop cartoons,
and others as well, that the background was sometimes 3-D while the
characters were 2-D. This was the effect the Rotoscope had on the
cartoon.
It was a 3-D, cake-shaped model of a house, a park, a street -
whatever the story called for. In this case, let us assume it was
a street. Max would film the model as he turned it in front of the
camera. On film, it would seem as if the camera was going down a
street. Over this film, he would have 2-D characters "walking."
The end result would be 2-D cartoons walking down a 3-D street,
with 3-D buildings, 3-D stop signs, et cetera.
The Rotoscope could still be in use today because it is such an
ingenious idea, and adds a really nice surreal quality to cartoons.
This is what I was thinking about this Monday morning.

FORTUNE COOKIE (Sunday)

"You will soon receive an unusual gift."
You heard right, ladies and gents. The contest is underway. The
person who can give Nous the most unusual gift by Halloween night
will be declared the winner of the UPN/PIZZA HUT 'Y NOUS Y' MOST
UNUSUAL GIFT CHALLENGE!! The winner will receive all sorts of
incredible prizes!! Including, but not limited to, a lot of cool
things!!
To find out more information about this contest, go to the Official
NOUS OF THE WORLD GETS AN UNUSUAL PRIZE webpage. Copy and paste the
following address onto your address bar and find out all there is to
know about the upcoming UPN/PIZZA HUT 'Y NOUS Y' MOST UNUSUAL GIFT
CHALLANGE!! :

http://www.geocities.com/ravenousguitar/main.htm

Get in on the action TODAY!!!

DETERIORATION ;) (Saturday)

Dude, I am losing my memory. Though I must admit, I've known all
along that I was losing my sense of time. They are two different
things if you're wondering, which you must be, somewhere in that
cavernous mind of yours.
Speaking of minds.
I'm losing mine.
Dude
Listen
You gotta hear me out
6-0-6-5-2
Yes, that is exactly what you think it was.
Grossest rhythm ever
Here is a haiku I wrote:

I thought I had it
But I guess I really don't
I must have misplaced

It. Yeah. How 'bout it? Do you love it?
This little thing isn't even about what happened Saturday, because
as I mentioned before, I'm losing my memory.
I'm glad other people have it worse, because I don't think I could
stand it, Stella. I don't think I could stand it!

DON'T FORGET TO (Friday)

Get me the most unusual gift you can.

THIRSTAY

Last wednesday, i saw tuesday on a monday train heading sunday
towards the old mill where everyone remembers the way the old ladies
used to move.

FURRY EEL, THO (WENDSY)

There was a lot happening in my dream. But the last thing I remember
before I realized I was dreaming was my mom and me driving down a
dirt road basically in the middle of nowhere. For some reason, she
pulled over and I noticed a run down house with some trees behind it.
My mom said something strange and ran into the trees.
And then I knew.
"I'm dreaming."
At that instant, the moment I awoke in my dream, I could suddenly hear
the wind blowing. I could hear the silence. And as if my realization
was a signal for something to happen, I began to float up into the
air, onto the roof of the old house. I began to fly.
It was the most real I've felt in weeks.
But Jason, Sam, and some other guy that I have never met arrived to
see me flying. They yelled at me to come down, begging me to join
them on some adventure they were about to have.
I felt myself getting distracted. I knew that nothing around me was
real, and that I should not let myself get distracted, not let myself
forget that I was in a dream world. But as hard as I fought to take
control of the dream, I gradually began to "slide" down, losing my
ability to fly, easing onto the soft dirt. I entered the house, where
the next part of my dream took place.
In it, I tried to save everyone in the house from death, but failed.
Nobody would listen to me.

Over and out