OK, I just came back from Vividcon a couple of days ago and I'm feeling still high and emotional and stuff, and there was this completely heartbreaking early season Willow/Xander vid by pipsqueaky and I just found out it's online!!

t /incoherent gibbering

Ordinary: It's the first vid on the page. I defy anyone (who is not Elena) to watch this vid and not cry at the end. And smack Xander realllly hard.

Vortex, we screwed up our PC, and I can't watch the vid. Can you spoil some of the highlights in white font, please?

Vonnie, stop pretending you are Vortex, all right?

Vonnie, stop pretending you are Vortex, all right?

But I have so much more fun as Vortex! Damn.

Cindy, the vid is set to Paula Cole's I Am So Ordinary and if that's not the most perfect song choice for early season Willow/Xander, I don't know what it is. (Spoiler for the vid) It's a very simple concept, and a very straightforward vid, but just marvellously done. Each verse tells of Xander's infatuation/relationships with his non-Willow objects of affection--first Buffy, then Ampata then Cordelia--through Willow's eyes. The vidder uses one simple special effect to a *great* result; she slows down the shot the end of each verse (in tandem with the song), tight on Willow's hurt face. One of the participants on the Vid Review said it was like visual representation of how time itself seems to come to a halt when you're 15 and your entire world is destroyed, and you just stay there, huddled and in pain, seemingly never to recover. It's like the vidder put you right there into Willow's shoes. And the vid ends with a shot of Willow's face from... I think, "The Pack" and I swear you watch her face and you heart just snaps in half. Gah!

Man, my description sucks. You really have to watch the vid. Or failing that, wait for the Vividcon DVD sale announcement and buy a copy, because it would be so worth it.

How does one get a vid to play, anyhow? I've downloaded both formats and tried every single image and/or movie viewing/making/playing program I have, and they all just look blankly at it and tell me it doesn't exist in any meaningful form. Word wants to open it, but all Word does is convert every scrap of info into gibberishy text, which is only likely to make me cry with frustration.

Thanks, Vonnie. I will try to watch it at my mother's house someday.

It depends on the format. "Ordinary" is available as .rm, which plays in RealMedia, and .wmv, which plays in Windows Media Player. Having one of those applications would help. Also, you should probably tell Word not to try and open your video files. If you want more info on how to do that, I can meet you over in Buffistechnology.

Ah-ha. Never mind. It runs on a program I don't have and can't download because I do not have administrator privileges on my own computer here at work.

I SO. FUCKING. HATE. THIS. SYSTEM.

JZ, is your Window Media Player/Real Media Player the latest version? If you have an older version, you may need a... you know, uhm, a new codec or something technical-sounding thingy beyond my ken. If you use Window Media Player, I'd go here and download the latest version. Then you right click on the WMV version of the file on the vid page, save it on your computer, and just double-click on it and it should open. I think.

Edit: Aw. I'm sorry about that. You or Hec would probably have WMP at home, so it can wait. The vid has been up for a few weeks and likely will stay there a while longer.

Vonnie, you are so right about that last shot. Heartbreaking.

I have QuickTime and bunches of other Mac-based stuff, but no Media Player in any form, and I am not allowed to download anything except pdf docs and images from anywhere, ever. I can't even add one lousy font to my copy of Word. Hell, I can't even delete the friggin' huge memory-sucking skateboard and fighter pilot games that came preloaded on the hard drive, which I will never, ever play in this or any other lifetime, because I am not an administrator.

I can't even set my own preferences for viewing files on our server; the administrator likes icons rather than lists of docs, and so icons rather than lists of docs is what we all must live with, unless we manage to bribe him into coming to every individual user's individual computer, admin'ing in, resetting the individual preferences, and moving on to the next one.

If it weren't for the New Orleans decadent food and endless fabulous sex and the hot tubs and martinis and general bath of erotic romantic lovingness of it all, I'd say that going on my honeymoon was a horrid, horrid mistake. I fucking hate the new-and-improved network system I came back to just exactly that much. Hate.