Portrait of the Artist as a Young Geek

Question for all you icon-makers: is there a (free) way to rip a series of images out of a DVD for the purposes of making an animated gif? (Other than to take very precise individual screencaps.)

Failing that, a way to convert to MPEG or AVI? I can convert from there to image sequence.

Ask me one question - any one - about my writing, then post this in your LJ so I can satisfy my curiosity about yours, not that you haven't already...

Those who have never written a creative word in their life may feel free to skip the second step, though I think this meme works best as a way for authors to exchange tips.

I'm confident enough in my abilities that I think I can upgrade the site to use CSS. Two problems with that, though: CSS still isn't the most consistantly well-handled language, and I'm not sure those donating bios and boardfics will be able to work with the new system. (Of course, I generally let the boardfics remain in whatever format they're given in anyway.) So, time for some opinion grabbing.

[Poll #339096]

[edit] Meh, I forgot to include "3" as an option. Not really important, though... I've yanked it.

And just HAD to make this icon after that one scene.

I know it's possible to make a GIF that fluidly animates on both major browsers: mullenkamp uses one as her default icon. So how do I do it? I personally use Adobe ImageReady to construct my animation, but either I've got some setting wrong when I render it or I just need some other program, because it either flies by on Netscape or moves jerkily on IE depending on the delay time I set for each frame.

And while I'm on the subject, do any of my other animated icons seem to be moving too fast?

As a fan of Five Minute Voyager, I've occasionally toyed with the idea of writing my own fiver. But today I started typing out a few lines for one, just to get a feel for it, and suddenly the ideas started pouring out like crazy... ten hours and plenty of crumpled digital paper later I've got a complete rough for the first Five Minute Firefly: "Serenity". So much for my prior plans for the afternoon... Anyway, anyone who is a) interested in giving some constructive criticism for a fiver and b) familiar with Firefly, reply with some way for me to contact you (assuming I don't have a way already). I'll bounce it off you.

( And speaking of writing... )

I was going to work on my thesis yesterday. I really was. Then suddenly, then of all times, I got inspired about how to do a little scene in Asunder (latest fic project). So I decided to work for an hour on that... and next thing I knew it was 2:30am and I had five more scenes plus the entire general layout written. And no thesis work done whatsoever. Great news for people like thunderphoenix, who I know have been waiting for the completed version, but really bad for my thesis progress. Especially since now I'm too exhausted to even think straight.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should just drop from the project entirely. There are other people on the team, and I seem to be, if anything, holding them back. I've already had to apply for a personal thesis extension, while the overall project deadline remains steady at about two weeks from now. And it's not like a thesis is required to graduate; it just gives me that nice pretty "With Honors" slapped on the diploma. Not to mention the team leader probably couldn't get more fed up at me...

...then again, maybe it's just the exhaustion talking. *sighs* I'm meeting with the team in about half an hour anyway... we'll see what happens.

I've got a mess of kanji work and a couple worksheets due in two days. I've got a speech to memorize by tomorrow morning. I also need to cook dinner for the next few days before the fish goes bad. And yet the only thing I can concentrate on is this accursed plotbunny someone gave me (for something I have no intention of springing for another two or three months at the least, no less).

Stop bouncing around my head already! :p

I've been planning to move TOEMS (yes, again) to DigitalRice, because United Net has been running a little slow (might have something to do with the server being on a different continent). I recently got approved for an account. So I start uploading... and find out I'm over the size limit. I could have sworn they said 10 Meg when I applied, but nope, I've only got 5 available. My site takes about 7 if I never expand it.

Guess I'm staying on United Net. And trying to figure out what to do with 5 Meg of webspace that doesn't allow outside linking. (At least, I think it's not allowed... Testing...

Thanks to both the jumpstart I gave my mind Sunday, and activity on the boards a day later, I'm suddenly swamped with ideas. Which would be fine, except it's making it hard to do homework. >_