This video may be old now but to anyone who hasn't watched it this is a valuable "last lecture" from Randy Pausch, a brilliant professor who was diagnosed with liver cancer (which irreparably spread) and had a predicted life-expectancy of 3 months (2 months when he was doing that lecture).

It's a long lecture, I know, (1:18 minutes) but it's definitely worth it:

15 downloads : 4 votes (sinister plot)
28 downloads : 14 votes (space derelict)
21 downloads : 6 votes (glory)
46 downloads : 28 votes (The Empire's Gates)
41 downloads : 13 votes (Metal Nightmare)
etc. etc.

Why do people download and not vote?

(To anyone who gives half a rat's ass) I'm kinda-sorta back from what seems like ages of Newgrounds absence. I've been making quite a load of new tracks, but decided to avoid spamming NG with what might potentially be a bunch of crap that simply takes up server space. The reason is that I've decided to practice many lacking skills of mine before uploading anything else. It might take a while, but I hope that what'll come out will be worth it.

Anyway, casting that aside, what have I missed in these 5 months of absence? Any particularly inspiring flash animation? Any awesome ear-jizzing music? Any trolls around to throw shit at me?

...the answer to all my problems...

Thanks to her I can connect:

1)my Guitar
2)my 15 y.o. Yamaha 61 keys

(and eventually)

3)my 35 y.o. Schneider mic... lol

All at a reasonably cheap price.

I'll be off-line for a few months. I don't know if you guys will be reading this, but it's worth a shot.

to Boux, Georgem124 and Stalagmite:

I was supposed to check all your creations a while back, damn it! It's just that I never found the time to do it. Boux, I don't know if you'll be reading this, but I wanted to let you know that I wasn't snobbing your e-mails, it's just that I didn't check my sfapil2@live account in quite a while. Sorry :o(. I randomly heard some of your stuff and it sounded as splendid as ever, but I want to spend more time appreciating it as soon as I can. Stag, I saw alot of new stuff in your account, but didn't manage to check it, either. When I'll manage, I'll surely drop by to get a good laugh ^__^. George, I'll be curious to listen to your improvements.

See you guys in a bunch of months.

to Echo418 and Zcool888:

I didn't forget about your projects and the soundtracks that you guys needed. Perhaps I'll be working on them in my spare time. If I'll come up with something, I'll let you guys know. If you need something else, let me know in the e-mail below.

to anyone interested in my stuff:

If you guys need something just pm me or send me an e-mail at "sfapil2@live.com". I'll be trying to check both accounts as soon as possible.

Bye!

The forest, the main characters, the deforestation, the betrayal and the fact that "the unified power of nature wins over evil" are all almost equally present in both movies... the only main three differences are that:
1) One's an rainforest on Earth and the other's on Pandora
2) The fairies in Ferngully are 5 centimeters big and fly whereas the Na'vi are something like 6 meters tall... and blue
3) The single bad guy in Ferngully is the personification of pollution, greed, hate and indifference whereas in Avatar the bad guys are the mercenaries and corporations that personify (you guessed it) greed, hate and indifference.

... but you know what? I just can't help but appreciate the movie anyway. ^__^

Yes, it's the traditional story that has been used plenty of times, but to hell with it... it's nice to get a spiced up version of it once in a while. I can get over the fact that "Ferngully" was produced in 1992 and that "Avatar"'s story was supposedly created in 1995 (inspirational theft anyone?).

Somehow it manages to create both nostalgia and renewed surprise at the same time, and for once the happy ending IS a happy ending (*ehem* with the obvious space for a sequel =__=). No bitter-sweet conclusions like in Pan's Labyrinth (... brutaly beautiful movie, btw), just a simple-minded happy ending.

I came in the movie theater with skepticism and came out surprised at how tecnology in the movie industry has evolved. A delightful experience that reminded me how a movie watched outside of the movie-theater just isn't the same.

Everyone else is free to think differently, but from the way I see it a movie is a winner when it manages to give you a breath-taking experience. James Cameron... you're an unoriginal bastard, but those 1.8 billion (!!!) dollars were well deserved.

6+ WIP songs, but I just can't manage to complete them... ugh.

Any suggestions to solve this?

Not much else to say... DAMN YOU NEXUS!!

Once upon a time, I used to have in my 8-16 channels in Fruity Loops that were comprised of Sytrus, FLkeys, FPC and many others. All was balanced and happy. I'd have to bitch at FL8 sometimes because of the lack of realism some of it's presets had, but all was good.

Now that this god forsaken Nexus tagged along in my life, three fourths of my channels belong to that bastard VSTi from hell! And what's worse is that it's fueling me with so many damned ideas! I have 4 active projects right now (I submitted one today) and I somehow know that I can do much better with it since it's been a week or so and I still haven't learned about all its functions (mod, arp, etc.).

I must control myself or one day I'll find myself helplessly dependent of Nexus. I'll... become... its.. bitch!

The solution... the alarmpressor (mind the strange strange fellow who invented it).

If IKEA would sell it... I'd buy it.

Oh... and one more thing... WoW is hazardous to your mental health ^__^ (wtf... why shove the remote up your ass?!)

This should become a new kind of artform

This russian guy's good!