I Rule. But confused about things.

I am Cute. There no splanation fo it. Just am. And I get things wi my Cute. But there are many thing I don't get. It a puzzal to me. Me can't spell good or talk good, but I give happenings to describe:

When I eliminates, there be a perfect place it should go. I know that perfect place. When I finds it. It takes a time, but I will finds it. My Human doesn't think so, but that not make it NOT SO! Yet, My Human gets impatient when I search for my perfect place for eliminates. I sacrifice greatly for my chosey spot. I holds, holds, holds, quiver, and holds - Then I goes. But olly when it ih perfect.
I thoughts my Human impatient, but now there snow on de ground, and I takes MUCH longer to find my perfect place, and he tuggin and grumpin and complainin. But me standards non-nee-gosh-able. And so it go. I still find time to eats my eliminates, but olly indoors.

When I pee, no perfect place there. Just go! There be a compromise here. I hope he see dat.

My tooths hurt. But when I sinks dem into things - anythings - they feels good. Like a body rub. I likes doin it. My Human give me things, things be "Okay for Tooth-Sinkin", and I sometimes comply. And sometimes I don't. A lot. A LOT of times I sometimes don't. I find things, things ready and 'vailable. The edge of de carpet. The corner wood on de wall (mash!). Flesh. That's my fave. It mash real good and easy to get cause they alway tryin-da pets me! He dangle that fleshy flesh flesh a nail's length from my tooths without my neck out, then I sticks my neck out. And I sinks my tooths. My tooths stop hurtin fo 1 second, then he scream like little mouse. My pup mates bit back, but my Human does not. Good deal.

Just got my jewels removed. Look at me! Why not make more oh me? But dey's gone. Foh-eva. My Human tell me he LOVES me. So what gives? He got lots ah friends - but none of they's jewels come off. They there, cause I stick my nose there - they there. Does he LOVE, or does he LIE? I think de answer be written in the plastic cone round my neck that makes me hear bettah.

I tell you mo. Latuh.

Busy Bakson. Busy. Bak son.

My animation mentor education is so much fun, and you get crazy views like this:



I created this keyframe animation, all on hold-frames, and now that's the only way it looks right. Many AMer's are quite web-savvy, which I am not, and they know how put images like this in their messages to one another. I'm slowly figuring it out.

We also have a new member of the family: Izzy.



Between him, my job, my job, and my education, life is getting pretty interesting. Like a Michael Moore documentary.

The Really Not-So-Awesome List

In the tradition of Jennifer Stewart's "Not Awesome" Lists comes tonight's Really Not Awesome List:

- Virginia Buckley

- Allergist

- The Dream House

- paying to see the Dream House

- Mary Kay

- Crappy Faux Finishing

- Freakin' Bitches

- Jerks

- Yellow

- Eye Dilation

- Your Mom knowing People

- Zelda's Quirks

- Dominos falling

- Marilyn

- Camera Phone

- IRS

- Aids (in Africa)

- Keeping up a Blog

My Pattern.

Wake up. Hit 'Snooze'. Repeat 8 times.
Breakfast. Devotional. Shower. Work. Spaz.
Work. Save. Render. Save. Work. Work. Work. Render.
Xbox. Forget something. Get a phone call: forgot something.
Calm pissed-off friend. Take the blame. Friendship goes on.
Work. Sleep 3 hours. Repeat.

I'm WAY over-committed! A storyboard project for a 3-minute pilot, the standard class stuff, a conference paper (YAAAWWWWNNNN), a 4-minute animatic, preparation for school, and of course, living. My deadlines all seem to coalesce on September 18th at which time I will stand back and re-assess my tendency to say "yes".
As meager recreation, I just finished a classic book, "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. First of all, if you said to yourself, "HE hasn't read...?" you need to shut that flapper and get over it. The quarter system completely spoiled me. If you don't remember this book, re-read it. The last third I read in a single sitting; a real nail-biter.
I'm a bit ill right now. No, not physically, but mentally. I just finished 3 hours worth of grading - that already pisses me off, cause grading only extends my ability to analyze - then I look at "The Blackwing Diaries" Sketchbook and HOLY TOLEDO I feel like a complete loser. Bad Zealot! (bangs head on desk).

The Not-Awesome List for July 22nd, 2007

These things are, very simply put, NOT awesome:

• My Neck

• My dried-up contacts

• child molesters

• the unibomber

• Disappointing Character 1

• Hot fries Diarrea

• Let-down of a Personality 2

• Global Warming

• Made-up crap.

• receiving RedBlocks.

• paying for Harry Potter thrice, not seeing once, but seeing a woman throw up.

• bitches

• AIDs in Haiti

• Informatics

• Web work

• being at work at 8:30

BTW

Check out this ironic online advertisement posted with "Fight Club". (If you've seen the movie "Fight Club", and you know it's themes inside and out, you'll understand)


What kind of closet defines me as a person?

Just Saw Transformers

Yes, I gave in. And let me tell you this movie is absolutely BRILLIANT. From a marketing, product placement, and flexible budget standpoint. Plot: This giant Rubrik's Cube can change ANY electronic device (read: product placement)into a living, mechanical organism. The decepticons are after the cube to...take over the universe...and the Autobots must stop them. The autobots can change into any vehicle they scan (read: automotive product placement) and try to fight the other bots out of view of humans (read: cheap shooting locations until the end, when you can bring them in public for an all-out fight). They also learn English by browsing the World Wide Web!!!!! (read: any website product placement) Brilliant!
From a storytelling standpoint, Michael Bay's brillance at storytelling isn't so shiny - He doesn't know the meaning of "restraint"; in other words, when to TAKE SOMETHING OUT so it's more powerful. The music blares the entire movie, only stopping to take in redundant, action-describing dialogue or obnoxious sound effects and explosions. For example, the ice is breaking underneath the explorers' feet, they yell, "THE ICE IS BREAKING". When they pick up the escaping soldiers, the voice-over says, "Get'em home" when a single cut back home could say that better. I mean, the actors WON'T SHUT UP! If you don't believe me, watch it again for clarity. They won't shut up!
Bay has a lot of style backed by no sense of timing. The whole movie rolls by at a breakneck pace to cover all the material specifically designed to cover the widest possible audience. For example: Captain Lennox of the escaping force talks to his wife and kid, saying he's coming home soon. 30 seconds. We see a reaction shot of the wifey at home. 5 seconds. They reunite at home. 10 seconds. Just because Commander Cody, or Lennox, or whatever-his-name-is can kick some robot ass, that doesn't mean I'm going to care about him. And people won't STOP TALKING! And what's with those football villians imported from the 80s?
But with all the money made on this bitch from advertising, Bay can now independently finance his dream film. And that's how this merry-go-round works. Can you blame him? I would've done it! Bay: will you give me a job?

It all starts with a simple...

What a beautiful Sunday! Perfect day for crunch time in a dark lab working on a piece of motion graphics!
The image above is a cel I saved. I was inking day after day, staying late, when all of a sudden animator Joe Peery was looking for someone to quickly animate Scooby-Doo. I stood up and said "I can do it!" This cel was the first one in the sequence, and when Joe saw it he said (paraphrased) "Gee, why don't we have you doing more animation?" It felt amazing to be validated by an animator of Joe's caliber.

Sometime when my fellow employees in the insane world of Academia are down, I draw a little picture to bring them back to happy land. So, I created these two overweight schemers who have nothing better to do than scheme, lie, and fabricate facts since they don't really have real jobs. You may not think this is funny, but I do.

It's been happening right under your nose

This picture has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. It's a freebie.

I hesitate to say this, but...I'm an Academic. Though there are things I like about it, I'd say I'm pretty unhappy. I don't know if all institutions of learning are like this one but I must say it is mired by unscrupulous characters.

Let's define "unscrupulous".

Years ago, I was working in the art department of a fast and busy T-shirt company. At the time, we owned a single art computer: A Macintosh IIsi. The Quadra, a significantly faster computer, had just come out and my boss wanted one. The IIsi was slow. Adjusting the art by one click of the cursor keys in Photoshop meant around 5 - 10 minutes of waiting. Pressure!!
I came into work to start on a tight deadline project (ALL of them were tight deadline projects!) to find an empty computer desk. Everything, including my personal disk, had been stolen. Outside, car tracks on the lawn indicated the point of exit. The Police were called and the place was dusted; it looked like we all worked in a mechanic's shop and left greasy fingerprints on everything.
My boss and I set out to make a record of the equipment for the insurance company. Like anybody would do, we "guesstimated" the cost of things rather than going through the long ordeal of research. (The internet wasn't a household name, yet).
The next day, one of our new employees, nicknamed "Dizzy B" showed up with artwork from his brand spankin' (or should I say 'breakin') new Mac IIsi. He was promptly fired as punishment with no report to the police. My boss, in turn, bought the new Mac Quadra. Good trade.

Okay, picture people with less scruples than these people. That describes 20% of the people in my Department. It's very complex, but the state of academia virtually encourages their lack of scruples.

Another Day in the Trenches

Hey. I'm just now settling down at home with the lovely wifey. I've just finished reading "Man's Search For Meaning" by Victor Frankl and it' s good stuff. I don't know if you've ever read it but it concerns the discovery/practice of the psychotherapeutic method of Logotherapy. It says a lot about the human condition through the author's personal experience in Nazi concentration camps. I could say a lot more, but for now I'll just say, there's some real Nazis in Hollywood.
Here's my favorite storyboard panel I draw'd this week:

I'm trying so hard

I'm just not great on this blogging thing. I've recently been working for a studio in town that I really like. Above is one of the storyboard panels (1 of 32) that I draw'ed. I've also been quite busy with a animated series submission. We'll see how that turns out! I've also been working on my website and thought I might include a screen shot of it.



As a matter of fact, I did include a screen shot of it. I've been working on it on and off the past hundred years plus a month. But I think I'm finally almost virtually certainly probably ready to let it go and post it. I think.

Peace, Love.

Hello, Big Nothing.
I'm getting a little tired of the "Tax Man".  I buy food, I get taxed.  I buy entertainment, I'm taxed.  I'm taxed for clothing.  I'm taxed for water, heat, electricity.  I'm taxed for my obligation to register my vehicle.  And then, at the beginning of the year, my income and everything I make is taxed - 40%, almost half.  They're screwing me when the money comes in, and they're taking it when the money goes out.  When I park too long at a meter, I'm charged 20 dollars.  Just take it out of my account which is fat and well-funded and freaking enforced by this fine government.  That's why I - hard-working and long-suffering - can't get ahead.  Because I give 40% of my hard-earned dollars just to keep my government in its trillion-dollar debt