SteamBot

My oldest son, Milo, LOVES trains every since he was a year and a half. I got into trains because he was into trains. The above is a sketch of SteamBot, a robot that 's modelled after a steam train.

My New Obsession...

When I discover something I like, I really dive into it completely. I immediately rented all of "Deadwood" Season 1. I binged on "Battlestar Galactica" Miniseries, Season 1 and half of Season 2 from iTunes. Well, move over Battlestar, you've jumped the shark - and hello to my new obsession...

"Avatar: the Last Airbender"

Yes the title is pretty forking lame. And the characters at first glance make it look like it's "just for kids". But this show is seriously good.

First, the animation is GOOD. Usually you don't find good animation in television cartoons because there isn't enough of a budget and time to make it good. That started to change when Bruce Timm developed Batman the Animated Series in the late 90's - he gave a sense of style and grace to the movement and character design as well as great storylines, in a medium that was still cheap. A lot of Japanese anime shows are more like animatics, where it's just a still frame with camera pans - very cheap and uninspiring. But the animation in Avatar is smooth, graceful, intricate even.

Second, the story is GREAT. It is character driven. It is well researched. It is well designed. Again, I'm talking about Story. Plot points come full circle. Episodes link with one another in an epic sweep. It is well executed.

Third, it is pumping on all cylinders. The voice actors are good to great. The character designs are brilliant, the layouts are gorgeous and they didn't skimp on any production detail. Wiki this thing and watch it!

Blink - written by Sideshow Bob

I just finished reading "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell. He also wrote "The Tipping Point" which was, like, a must-read for any silicon valley resident/employee (like, oh-my-gawd, like).

Anyhoo, Blink is also a very interesting, compelling read. I drew many parallels to my experience as a UI Designer at high tech companies in the valley. But that's not very interesting. What is interesting is that the author, Malcolm Gladwell, looks exactly like Sideshow Bob (see pic above.)

I didn't doctor the pic in photoshop. He intentionally grew his hair out as a sort of social experiment (as explained in the Afterword of Blink) with interesting results. He did not mention however, that he now looks like the Kelsey Grammar-voiced Simpsons character. ("The Bart The") You have to believe somebody told him thought. Hafta.

Iron Man

Going back to my roots here. Iron Man is going to be a movie, directed by the same guy that did Elf and wrote Swingers.... hmmmm.

Myth Restaurant (SF)

After reading this blog review of Michael Mina, complete with very nice photos, I commented on a recent trip to Myth Restaurant which I'm reposting here...

Recently went to Myth Restaurant. The chef was an alum of Gary Danko I think. It's more casual than GD - a hip restaurant but full of older people...? Food was quite good but not outstanding. (Absolutely loved GD btw.)

Interior design is very open so you can see across the whole room. We were seated next to a pair of women. I ended up staring at one of them who I thought was strikingly unattractive. Then I realized she was a man. Yep, a man, baby! (Austin p) She was decked out - very convincing wig, full-on makup, nice dress. His date was a (biological) woman who looked just like him. He/she must have been a regular b/c many of the staff, including the chef i think, kept visiting their table to make conversation.

Made me think of that movie with Tom Wilkinson and Jessica Lange...what was it...googlesearchnetflixsearch... found it!

(i use y! movies for cast & crew profiles, better than imdb.)

Narbonic

The above are the main characters from an online comic called Narbonic. This was a daily online strip that ran for about 5 years and never missed a day until it recently concluded its run on December 31, 2006. I've met and hung out with Shaenon Garrity, the creator, several times and she's supercool. I got into the strip in the middle of its run but now that it's over they're re-running the strip from the beginning with "director commentary" written at the bottom.

Quickie

A drawing of Merritt at the computer desk in the basement room.

Monterey was fun and relaxing. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium every day, getting the full value, and then some, of our membership. The food at their cafe/cafeteria is quite good and impressed us every time we ate there. Their coffee it oustanding. Oh, and the aquarium is great too.

Monterey

Every Christmas/New Year we've made a pilgrimage to Monterey. We stay at the Carmel Valley Ranch where you can find a decent deal in the offseason. We go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which is wicked cool. Monterey is a nice town and Carmel, though pricey, is also nice. Since my mom-in-law was in town this past xmas we postponed our trip till this weekend. This ain't much of a post but I've been on a roll so I want to keep it going.

GNO - Bowling

Every month I try to organize a "Guy's Nite Out" (GNO) for me and my male buds. The first successful congregation was a Thai restaurant in Portrero Hill. The second was the movie "Babel". A few nights ago we went bowling. The above sketch includes the guys who showed up: Ethan, Geoffrey, Mitchell and myself. It's fairly random as to who shows up. But it's good to bond, hang and have a few beers.

I suck at bowling.

First we went to Serra Bowl in Serramonte, but they are closed to the public from 6pm to 9pm Mon thru Fri for League play. The entryway reeked of pot smoke. My friend, Mitchell, ran into a highschool classmate from Little Rock, Arkansas. She introduced Mitchell to her fiance and he, too, reeked of pot smoke. We were on our way to Yerba Buena Bowl instead. The fiance said he used to manage a league there. We asked if they had league night that night, he said no, they're more into the "corporate" thing now. I have no idea what that means.

We liked Yerba Buena Bowl. Small but fairly empty. And they had beer. But instead of pot smoke in the doorway they had cops.

Tracing the Progressive Raunchiness in Modern American Television

I start with The Simpsons in the 1980's. Matt Groening's depiction of the American family gripped the nation by the funnybone and never let go. It was accurate, blunt, unapologetic and hilarious. Only in animation could you get the spontaneous timing and outrageous visual gags. It stereotyped and made fun of stereotypes and became its own stereotype. There was subversive content in television before, but this was raunch on primetime television... for over two decades!

Married with Children took the Simpsons into live action but with two twists. First, there was no didactic punchline, nor redeeming quality, nor lesson learned. It was even more bold than its animated counterpart because it just gave a slice of ugly life, let us laugh at it, and left us with the conclusion that that's just the way it is, fugly. The second was sex - and lots of it. Married with Children flirted with cancellation almost ever season but continued to defy the networks it made money for.

And then came South Park. The Santa vs. Jesus tape of South Park made its way around thanks to the internet in 1997, heralding the current age of viral video youtube-ification. And people were just slack-jawed at the boundaries the cut-out kids were crossing, stomping, demolishing. Raunch reached all new levels thanks to Stone and Parker. But in their comedy there was often a point being made if not a moral, illustrating a "Hey look at how ridiculous this is."

Then Family Guy arrived and said, "You thought that was raunchy? I'll show you raunchy." It was cancelled amid controversy and then revived due to rabid DVD sales and audience uproar. There is no moral or point being made other than, "Let me show you how bad we can be on national tv." It's often just plain gross.

Robot Chicken on Comedy Central is nothing less than pure genius. And just plain wrong. It takes Saturday morning cartoons from our childhood, soap commercials, current celebrities and everything under the sun and puts them all together in a stop-motion extravaganza, juxtaposing elements in a way only animation can. It's rude, crude satire and you can't help but gawk at what new stratospheric levels of raunch American television has reached today.

Pyongyang

Irene got me this book for the holidays and here's my review.

"Pyongyang: Notes from North Korea" by Guy Delisle
A Canadian animator goes to North Korea to supervise the production of the television animation he's working on and he tells his tale in graphic novel format.

It was good. Pretty straightforward but dry and witty and honest. Nothing glamorous but the honest depiction illustrated the extreme situation in an extremist country.

My mother is originally from North Korea. Just as the Korean War was breaking out her family fled, as many did, to South Korea. She remembers them carrying lots of rice and riding the train with many other people. She still has relatives back in North Korea so whenver there are talks of reunification it's too difficult for her to contemplate. I think there are a lot of stories like hers.

So reading this story made me think a lot about her and the relatives I'll probably never meet.

The mexicans are coming...

Last night I saw "Children of Men" directed by Alfonso Cuaron who also directed "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". It was very good.

Last week I blogged a review of "Babel" directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who also directed "Amores Perros" and "Life's a Bitch".

Both of these directors hail from Mexico. Both films put the audience right in the action, the panic and the confusion. They are visceral. While Babel is set in modern times, Children of Men is set in the scifi but not-so-removed future. I can't say enough about the quality of both these films and the skill of their directors. But if I were an Oscar voter and had to choose one I'd probably choose Babel.

Brothers

The next pencil test animation I'm working on is called "Brothers" and the above is a concept sketch of the three characters. Although I was learning 3D animation with applications like Maya, I was also introduced to "Traditional" animation using the good ol' pencil, paper and a light table.

I've found the traditional pencil test animation to be a very quick and rewarding way of seeing your idea come to life. Animating in 3D can be quick once the models are created, getting to that stage takes a gargantuan amount of time. So I do pencil tests.

Movies I'm looking forward to:
Pan's Labyrinth
300
The Transformers

"Bare" Storyboard

The assignment was to tell a story in 24 frames. I used the '3 tries' method where the main character tries something 3 time and on the third time succeeds or fails, leading up to the punchline. I made an animatic out of the boards above but when I upload it, some frames are lost for some reason. Hopefully the image above is big enough (click for larger image) to read.

I realize that I'm just posting older material and have not been actually making a new drawing a day. But it's better than not posting at all...?

Dad

This is a drawing I did of my Dad several years ago. He had just taken a shower and was reading a book on the bed.

When my Dad stopped drinking for good I asked him if he noticed any difference in his life. He thought about it for a while and said that when he read a book before going to bed, he would wake up the next morning with no memory of what he had read and would end up re-reading the same pages night after night. After he stopped drinking he could remember what he had read and got through books much faster. That was the only difference he could think of.

My mother snorted.

Book Reviewk

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
I had heard of this author years ago but not read anything by her. I recently saw a trailer for a movie called "The Namesake" based on her novel of the same name. So I started reading this book of short stories before said novel. It's excellent, beautifully written. Why are most short stories so freakin sad and depressing?

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Again, beautifully written. I liked the story as well but thought it really glossed over certain obvious areas like sexual identity/insecurity in a predominantly white town. Or maybe that was just me.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Oof. Great book. A page-turner. Sad. Romantic. Satisfying. Didn't end poorly which lots of books with great premises often do. Highly recommend.

Model sheet

For my thesis, I'm developing 5 stories. All five will be storyboarded and one or more will be created into an animatic. I have 3 stories that are close to finished and 2 others yet to be conceived.

One of the stories is called "Heart" and it's about a robot that wants to be a part of something. The original version of this story can be found as an animatic at this link.

Some feedback I got from this version was that they didn't understand why the robot fell in love with the car and why he'd go through such drastic depths to 'save' it. So I went on a long twisting, winding, convoluted plot redesign that ended up with a practically brand new storyline. The above image is a model sheet for the characters in the new Heart story.

Movie Reviewee

I've seen 3 movies in the theatres that are probably going to be nominated for an Oscar or two if not Best Picture.

Little Miss Sunshine
Very funny, very good. I'm a big fan of the ensemble cast. I listened to the Creative Screenwriters Magazine podcast of Michael Arndt who wrote the film and currently works fulltime at Pixar. Excellent interview. My favorite bit, "And where is your grandad now?" "In the trunk of our van."

The Queen
Good film, well made but I wasn't completely blown away by it. Helen Mirren was, as usual, perfection. An interesting film but a little dry and not very dramatic. But I still give it the thumbs up.

Babel
Harrowing. A very very good film. I felt the panic of all the situations (and there were many) and I wasn't taken out of the story at any point. I highly recommend this flick but not if you don't like tense films that leave you feeling more than a little drained.

Farmer Jim

This is Farmer Jim. I drew the sketch of him above then modeled him in Maya then made his tractor and created the animation found at this link

The animation came out slow for some reason but you get the general idea.

A post a day makes the guilt go away

My main New Year's Resolution is to post a drawing each day. What I really want to do is draw every day, practice drawing everything so I have more vocabulary of physical objects in my fingertips to use in my stories. The above is from my sketchbook, made up monster type.

Thanksgiving in Seattle

My oldest brother has been living in Nairobi, Kenya with his wife and son. He is an epidemiologist doing AIDS research, she works for PEPFAR. He is associated with the University of Washington in Seattle and comes back to the States to write a paper and teach for a few months out of the year. So this Thanksgiving my family had a Chung Reunion in Seattle. It was the first time all the Chung cousins would be together, my middle brother lives in Las Vegas and they're expecting their second in April.

I like Seattle a lot. Even though it rains a ton. Apparently it's been a record-shattering November in terms of rainfall, but we actually had a few days where the sun came out. It was a very nice Thanksgiving. My parents really lucked out with 3 great daughters-in-law who all get along really well with each other. Everybody helped out with everything and I think everyone had a relaxing time. It was special to see my sons interacting with my brothers' sons.

Next week, my brother returns to Kenya and we will not see him for at least another year.

Listing

There are animation/storyboard artist blogs that I read out there that are very good. Right now there's a trend going on amongst them where they're listing their favorite 20 movies of the PAST 20 YEARS. So from 1986 to 2006 here's my short list that I can come up with
Adaptation
Big Night
The Iron Giant
Traffic
LOTR
Sexy Beast
6th Sense
Finding Nemo
Memento
Kill Bill

But if I were to get rid of the time limit and say all-time favorite films, here's a quick list (note some movies above may have not made it to this list):
Amadeus
Star Wars (1977)
Jaws
Breaking Away
Tron
The Iron Giant
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Three and Four Musketeers (1973, 1974)
Glengarry Glenross
The Hunt for Red October
Resevoir Dogs
You Can Count on Me
Big Night
The Man Who Wasn’t There
Heat

web app reviews + book review

If there is one book every person must read this summer - or, er, fall - it's Freakonomics. If you've already read it, read it again. I'll be quoting from this book in future blogs, there are some really fascinating excerpts to digest. The premise is basically that conventional wisdom doesn't explain reality - human self-interest does, and the numbers prove it. Go. Read. This. Book. Now.

WEB APP REVIEWS:
GMail
I like Gmail but have not migrated to it as my primary mail client, mainly because Y! Mail is just good enough and I'm too lazy to make the transition. However, some migrations are worthwhile, more on that below.

New Y! Mail Beta
I've tried the new Y! Mail Beta and while I think it's nice that it's following the "Outlook UI" (clean and powerful)... it's just too damn slow. Within a few days I had switched back to the old Y! Mail. Why? Because of performance. The new UI isn't worth the slow performance hit.

Google Calendar
The most impressive user interface I've used in a long, long time. I'm not the most savvy web calendar user, so maybe there are some great internet calendar apps out there that are better or that Google is copping from, but this thing blew me away. Love the color labelling mutliple calendar feature and it's a very straightforward UI. Can't say enough good things. One drawback is my general complaint on Ajax - yes, it's fast but it can be buggy and sometimes I'm not sure if something has been stored or not. Makes for some annoying run arounds. But I was so impressed with this product that I manually transferred all my datebook data from my Palm Desktop app to Google Calendar. And it's already worth it.

Firefox 2.0b2
Two steps foward, no steps back. The new icons are nice, but so were the old ones. At least it wasn't a step down, but not a huge improvement either. (When it comes to icon design my motto is "as long as it doesn't suck." Harder said than done.) Fading out the tabs is brilliant - it differentiates them from the browser chrome. Giving each individual tab a delete "x" button is a no-brainer, allowing for users to delete a tab they're not presently viewing. Also nice is if you click on a link that opens a new tab, then deleting that tab pops you back to the original tab. If you don't know what I mean, too bad, I don't want to try to explain it any better.

Digg.com
I'm a recent convert to Digg. Apparently it's a brand new web design which is also quite nice.

Flying with Four

We have just returned from an 11 day trip across the country.

First we flew to Bald Head Island, North Carolina. Milo was reunited with his Richmond cousins again. We had a bed and breakfast all to ourselves and a couple of babysitters to help out. We got around the island by golf cart. The weather was nice and warm, not too hot.

Milo made more big strides in swimming at the pool and overall he did really well, playing with his cousins and acclimating to the new environment. Ben had trouble getting used to the new location. We had to sleep train him and let him cry it out all over again. Fortunately our room was at the far end of the hall. It was a very nice retreat and turned out to be quite relaxing.

Next we flew to Chicago and spent the night at a hotel. The following day we drove to Michigan City, Indiana where we rented a big house on Lake Michigan with four other families. The occasion was a reunion for Merritt and her Duke friends and their families. Ten adults and 11 children ranging in age from 3 months to 6 years old all under the same roof. The house was nice but it was still quite crowded.

Again, Milo did exceptionally well, playing with new friends, enjoying the pool and the beach and sleeping well in a new bed. Ben continued to struggle with his sleep and both he and Milo had a cold. Milo complained about his ear hurting and we took him to the urgent care clinic where they said he had an ear infection.

Although at times chaotic, we all had a great time at Lake Michigan too and we were grateful to be able to see old friends again. The last night of our stay, there was a major hail/thunderstorm, complete with a tornado siren going off and loss of electricity for twelve hours. When we drove out the next morning we saw many full-size trees that had blown down, trunks cracked like matchsticks.

The trip home from Chicago O'Hare airport was miserable. First we drove at 7:15am through heavy highway traffic to get to O'Hare for our 12pm flight. This flight was delayed until 2pm, so we hung around the airport for several hours. The previously mentioned storm had delayed many flights in and out of Chicago. Finally we got on our plane and waited to take off. And waited. And waited. Eventually they announced that the flight was cancelled. The flight crew were on the ground for too long and legally they couldn't fly the plane. So we all had to get off the plane and scramble to get on another flight to San Francisco.

Milo was unhappy but soldiered on. Ben was a mess. Merritt was quite upset. I did my best to keep it cool.

I managed to get us on a 8:30pm flight to Oakland airport in First Class. The bad news was we had 4 hours to kill. So we went to the adjacent Hilton Hotel and splurged on a day-rate hotel room where we ordered room service, watched TV and calmed our nerves until 7pm. When we got to the airport we saw that our flight was delayed until 9:30pm. Then it was delayed until 10:30pm. It was well past Milo's bed time and he was barely holding it together (thank god for the dvd player.) Ben was trying to sleep in the baby bjorn on Merritt and Merritt was on the verge of packing it all in and heading back to the hotel. But they did finally board us on the plane and the plane did take off at 11:30pm.

We arrived in Oakland at 1:30am Pacific Time which was 3:30am for us on Chicago time. We arrived at our house at 2:00am and promptly fell into bed.

Needless to say, the entire family is glad to be back home again. Ben is back to sleeping almost normally now. Milo is doing great. Merritt and I are breathing a sigh of relief that the return flight is finally over.

TV is good for the gums

As I've blogged before, I'm a big geeky fan of Battlestar Galactica. I bought my brother in Vegas the first season dvd set. Then I sent my brother in Nairobi, Kenya my dvd set so he could get hooked on the show too. It worked.

As adults, my brothers and I rarely communicate with each other because we don't have as much in common. Having our own families changed that some but now that we're all hooked on Battlestar we email each other more often about the show. I even bought us all BSG logo t-shirts. Yes, I did.

I'm pretty amazed at the quality of writing these days on television. In the 70's there was some pretty groundbreaking stuff which are re-imagined into films because Hollywood can't find any original ideas elsewhere. In the 80's it was pretty darn shite. The 90's was mediocre at best. But at the turn of the century all of a sudden we have serious shit on TV. Writers have the freedom to take chances with their characters and stories. Maybe it's because of cable and HBO, maybe it's because studios are more willing to loosen up because they're losing eyeballs to the internet. Whatever.

I don't have time to watch all of the acclaimed dramas on TV. I catch the syndicated "Law and Order" and it's "SVU" counterpart every now and then because it's essentially on 24/7. "House" is on reruns until the fall. One new show called "Rescue Me" is pretty darn funny. My wife likes to watch "The Closer."

The point is, I like TV.

The Comfortable Gig Question

Since I left Yahoo! in 2001 there have been waves of people who have left and then there were single exits. I loved it while I was at Yahoo! It was an exciting time, like the wild west, where we were launching stuff out the door left and right. Much of it was crap (designed by yours truly). Some of it was ok, a few were gold. But I learned a ton and worked with lots of completely different product groups. As Yahoo! grew and grew I felt like it was becoming more of a traditional media company in one respect - it's become a comfortable gig.

There's nothing wrong with being comfortable. If a company is paying you well and you got lots of options and you're vesting, and/or you can work from home once or twice a week, still have the great bennies, vest, etc etc. - it pays to stay (golden handcuffs and all.) Again, nothing wrong with that. It's a good gig, a comfortable one.

Everybody has a risk vs. reward meter especially when it comes to making professional career choices. How highly does an employee value the comfort of consistency?

How does that affect the culture of a company?

the Switch

I am changing my focus in school from Animator to Storyboard Artist/ PreVis. The process of making a film in a very rough nutshell:

1. First there is a Writer who writes a Script.
2. Then there is a Storyboard Artist (or Story Artist) who takes the script and stages it into visual sequences.
3. Then it gets passed on to the Actors or Animators who put the performance into the scene

In between 2 and 3 is a rising discipline called PreVis which is someone who creates 3D animatics. Animatics are animated storyboards. It provides not only camera angle and staging but also timing as well.

Also in animation, the Story Artists work in the Story Dept and are essentially the Writers. Storyboard Artists can go on to direct their own feature or short feature.

I felt pretty torn about this decision since I really enjoy animation. But I think Story is where I really want to be.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" Review:

I loved it.

While Superman was an fairly good movie that was too long, POTC:DMC was a great movie that was also too long. Yes, it was too long at 2 and half hours. But, boy was it fun! Some of the great action special FX sequences were actually too much, too draining. And yes, the plot was convoluted, twisting and turning as much as the stuntmen did. But boy, was it entertaining.

The next movie I'm looking forward to seeing that has been getting a lot of very good buzz is Monster House. This summer may turn out to be a great movie season after all.

"Superman Returns"
I was very excited to see this movie. It was the one of two big movies of the summer I was psyched about. Initially the buzz was excellent. But after last Wednesday I was reading a few bad reviews. Then I started talking to people who'd seen it and they were underwhelmed. Both mentioned the length of the movie at 2 hrs 34 minutes. That's long.

Superman was a very long pretty good movie. not a long bad movie and not a long great movie. Shave off 20 minutes and it would've been a really good movie. The major action scenes were AMAZING. Brandon Routh did a fine job, Kate Bosworth was so-so, Spacey was good, Parker Posey was surprisingly excellent. Some people I know had issues with a big surprise in the middle, but not only was I not surprised by it (kind of expected it actually) it didn't bother me that they didn't resolve it completely.

"Cars"
This was the other big summer movie I was excited about. And it was good. Not great, but good. The second act had too many equally weighted subplots and it was hard to believe the change in character of the protagonist, Lightning McQueen.

But the racing scenes were great and the ending still pulled at my heartstrings. The look of the film was absolutely incredible.

Tonight we've rented "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" since my wife hasn't seen it and we're planning on seeing "Dead Man's Chest" this Thursday.

TABBED BROWSING IS THE ONLY WAY
I want to be able to log into anyone's Firefox browser and bring up my own bookmark buttons for tabbed browsing.

GOOGLE HOMEPAGE THOUGHTS
The Google homepage ONLY has the searchbox on it. Simple. They're notorious for not putting anything else on that page, neither advertisement nor other Google product. Smart.

If they were to link to Google Maps, for example, from their homepage, then they'd immediately invite all of the problems Yahoo! has right now - "We want to be everything to everybody, so let's flood the page with links to everywhere."

Right now, they're about one thing - search. Search leads to all things anyways. They are so right to bury all their products on the Labs page. Let's see how long they maintain that wisdom.

THEMERY
What is annoying to me is all these themes. I know users LOVE it and it's essential to provide it, but I find it, well, annoying.

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING
What I've read this summer so far is Bel Canto and Everything Is Illuminated. Both good, recommended. By far the best book I've read in the past year is Kite Runner. About to read Interpreter of Maladies.

I'm back from a week in southern california. It was a good trip in that we had a great time but the boys didn't sleep very well and Milo was particularly testy. We went to 3 theme parks which I'll rate below...

1. Legoland - the best of them all, the best ease of use experience, very much designed with families in mind. I'd go here again and again.

2. San Diego Zoo - also very good, more low key, recommend going on the bus tour first.

3. Sea World - it was ok but also frustrating in that there was very little shade in the entire park. The shows were nice but not sure I'd come back here until Milo's a little older.

I recommend getting your tickets online so you can skip the ticket lines and getting there earlier the better. Again, Legoland was the bomb.

Every morning, my son Milo likes to watch the Sprout channel on TV with a sippy cup of apple juice and a bowl of Puffins. He will wake up anywhere between 5:50am and 7:00am. My wife just got a clock from the Discovery Channel (pic above) that is also a nightlight that glows a different color for every hour. Milo can't tell time yet, but we'll tell him that he can't get up out of his bed until the clock turns (whatever the color for 7am is). Very cool item. We just got it tonight, can't wait to see if it works.

Meanwhile we're off to southern California for a while. Four days in Irvine with my folks, then a week in San Diego for a little family vacation. Going to hit the San Diego Zoo, Legoland and Sea World. We're renting a little house in La Jolla which is a block from the beach as well as close to stuff we can walk to. Looking forward to it.

The day after we get back to SF I start my summer semester which I'm also looking forward to actually.

I love our cleaning lady. Her name is Shirley and her husband's name is Gilmar and they rock. They are from Brazil. A few years ago they went back to Brazil saying they would return in a month. In the interim they had a replacement cleaner sub for them. They were not very good. Nothing could compare to Shirley and Gilmar. Then we received a note saying that Shirley and Gilmar were staying in Brazil indefinitely due to unforseen circumstances. We let the replacement cleaners go and hired a new woman named Maria. Maria was better but still she was no Shirley and Gilmar. Then about 6 months ago we heard that Shirley and Gilmar were back in the States. We fired Maria and immediately re-hired Shirley. That made me happy. If you or anyone you know needs a great cleaning person in SF let me know and I'll ping you their contact information

I'm falling in love... with Yelp.com! Every Thursday, my wife and I go out on a date. It's hard to come up with new and interesting places to eat or see that we've never been to before. I used to use Citysearch.com which was okay but I recently started to use Yelp and I've been hooked ever since. Excellent UI. Looks like Yahoo! Local (also great ui redesign job btw) but it's better cause it's completely user-driven. And users are more motivated to review since Yelp has a clever reward system in place. So it's more reliable reviews and not just spam. I've made some nice discoveries and love to browse not just for restaurants but other services too. Go Yelp!

At the Academy of Art's 3D department you're in one of three majors of interest: character animation, visual effects, modelling or games.

* Character animation: responsible for anything that has a personality, moves, talks, lives.
* Visual Effects: responsible for things like realistic fire, water, explosions etc
* Modelling: building everything in an environment from the paper clip to the 18 wheeler to the people to the animals.
* Games: all of the above but at a lower resolution, substitute character animation with game design.

Places like Industrial Light and Magic, Rhythm and Hues are special fx houses. Pixar, Blue Sky and Dreamworks make movies (character animation) both types of places hire modellers. Then there are many game studios all around. I'm learning more about who does what and who hires whom as I get more semesters under my belt.

My take on the school continues to evolve as well. I think it's a good school if you know where to look. I was lucky to get the good Maya I teacher this past semester. The way it works at any school is the more you put into it the more you get out of it. Still it amazes me how much the faculty let students get away with. If the teacher were an employer and the student an employee, more than half of all my classes would be fired within a month. I sound like a crotchety old man.

A review of Yahoo!'s new frontpage design by a former Yahoo! Gooey...

First, I really like the new visual design that Yahoo! is standardizing, first with 360 and now with the frontpage. It's clean, simple, elegant and minimal. It lets the content pop off the page and doesn't call attention to itself. I like it very much.

As far as layout goes, I like the left column listing the major properties and I guess I like the rest of it as well, all except for the masthead.

I think it's a fairly bad decision to offset the Yahoo! logo with the search box to its side. By offsetting the logo, it minimizes its prominence, importance and brand. By putting it alongside the searchbox it seems like a weak attempt to bring more prominence to Yahoo!'s search. But now you have two elements that are weaker by being side by side. Plus it throws the balance of the page as a whole out of whack.

If you want more people to use your search engine, build a better search engine.

I was driving on the highway in San Francisco and I saw a billboard in the distance. It was a guy holding up a sign with handwriting on it that said,

"Some day I'll RFID my 70 kittens."

Wow, I thought, that's interesting. When I got closer I realized I misread the sign and it was really saying,

"Some day, I'll redo my 70's kitchen."

Oh, not so interesting. It was a Wells Fargo ad about saving accounts or something.

Personally, I think it would be a far wiser investment to RFID the kittens. Especially if you had 70 of them. How else would you keep track of them all? Which would you rather have, a 70's kitchen or 70 kittens? What the hell would you do with 70 kittens? RFID them, that's what. And if you dont' know what RFID is then this post is not funny. Nope, not one bit, so go back to your 70's kitchen. How would they RFID the kittens? I'd use a staple gun. Who the hell picked that illegible handwriting font anyway. Giving commuters a baaad trip.

This post by Kelly inspired me to write about my own age issues. It's a little bit of a sore spot for me that I look like I'm 18. On a good day, 24. After people get to know me then they guess 28, tops. I'll be 34 this October goddammit!

Now that I'm a student again, I feel way older than my peers because, well, I am way older. But they don't know that. Just the other day, during a break in my Maya I class, I got into a conversation with one of my classmates. I asked him whether he lived in campus housing and he said lived in Belmont and that he takes CalTrain to class every day. Then he asked where I lived and I said the Inner Sunset. He wasn't sure where that was and I explained that it's a neighborhood in the city.

Kid: "In an apartment?"
Me: "No. A house."
Kid: "Really?"
Me: "Yeah, with my family."
Kid: "Oh, that's great. That you have family in the city to stay with and everything."
Me: "No, no - my family. You know, with my wife and two kids. That's what I mean."
Kid: "Oh, uh-huh. [Pause] Oh! Ohhhhhh. Huh."

He didn't say anything after that.

When I was 25 I was travelling with my parents somewhere. The airline attendant was moving our seats around and he was going to put me in the emergency row on the plane. Of course you have to be over 18 to sit in there, so he asked me for ID. The dude carded me to sit in the emergency exit row. My parents got a big kick out of that. Laughed the whole rest of the plane trip. Goddamn airline attendants.

semester sum-up

History of Character Animation
Basically we watch a ton of animation from 1918 to the present tracing the history of animated characters in film and television. It's a great class and I' ve learned a lot from it. The teacher is the Director of my 3D Graduate program and he's been around, worked for a while at ILM and has met many of the animation greats. Really digging this class.

Storyboarding
This is more like a story theory class and less of a storyboarding class. Meaning that we're learning a lot about story structure and plot points than how draw and visually solve problems. Still a very important thing to learn and definitely a good tool for putting together my senior thesis which will be a 1 to 2 minute animation.

Maya 1
The teacher is good but sometimes he gets bogged down in tangential details which is easy to do because Maya is such a complicated honkin piece of software. The modelling bores me but the animation is fun.

I have to rant a little about this new product Yahoo! is promoting the heck out of on their frontpage... Yahoo! Answers. Why would I ever use this? If I want to know about something, I SEARCH for it. SEARCHing for it is pretty simple: you type in a keyword you get results. With Y! Answers there are at least two more steps to complete to get an answer! And then it's from a human being...!?? This probably sounds ironic but I trust a search engine more than a human because the human could be an idiot while I know the engine is just an engine. With the engine I have more control to decipher the results, with the human I'm taking my chances.

Before I left in 2001 there was Y! Experts and this looks like a revision of that same product. Dude, Y! Experts sucked. You know why? You had to trust that the human on the other side knew what they were talking about. Why not browse search results and decide for yourself whether the links are trustworthy or not - a much quicker proces.

I would LOVE to see the stats on this product and get a sense of how it's doing. I'm really at a loss as to why Yahoo! would be promoting it so heavily. If anybody has had a good experience with this product please let me know.

I read the Economist. I don't understand everything I read, but I can feel my cranial capacity expanding every time I finish an issue. If nothing else, it's very well written. I find the New Yorker to be hit and miss while the Economist is so dense there is bound to be something pretty interesting.

On my DVR list are shows which I ingest and delete almost immediately: PTI, House.
Then there are shows that have rotted in the queue for months now: Chappelle, Charlie Rose, Office, My Name is Earl.
Then there are shows that I just recently started to record: Robot Chicken.

I eat a few regular podcasts: Slate's Political Gabfest is consistently entertaining, Ebert and Roeper is always satisfying, CNet is hit or miss and nowadays I ignore most of NPR's Story of the Day. I used to regularly listen to This Week in Tech but now I find those guys to be fairly out of touch, catering to the grumpy geek mostly. I really appreciate the synopsis text blurb which I can browse before deciding whether an individual podcast is worth listening to.

There are two great animation podcasts: The Animation Podcast and Spline Doctors. Podcasting is a great medium for animators to share information, interviews and experiences. For some reason animation knowledge is not well-documented and this technology is beginning to correct that.

Ooo. Me likey Google Video.

I've been wanting to show the work I've been doing in (animation) school but the files are so big I can't email them or post them on my website... until Google Video. I would've posted it on YouTube because that site kicks butt (especially for catching SouthPark episodes that no longer air Tom Cruise trapped in a closet) - but they have a 100MB limit. Google has no such limitations because they plan on storing the entire multiverse's personal information so they can do evil one day. Lots of evil.

Here is a pencil test (rough animation) called Man vs. Frog.

Here is an animatic (animated storyboards) called Heart.

Enjoy.

Merritt and Milo bought ladybugs to put in the garden. Usually Merritt places the ladybugs on the plants but this time Milo wanted to. He ended up with ladybugs all over his hands and sleeves so Merritt had to brush him off.

Later that afternoon I come home and we're all sitting in the basement. Milo's on the piano bench when he says, "Mommy, I head wind in my ear."

Immediately Merritt suspects, "Uh-oh, maybe a ladybug got in your ear." I'm doubtful but I quickly check and looking into his left ear I see the bug's face looking back at me. Then turn around and crawl in.

Milo was pretty freaked out.

It wouldn't come out so we went to the hospital ER at UCSF which was less than a mile away. Fortunately we had already booked our nanny to come that night and she was looking after Ben. At the ER, the nurses took his vitals and then we had to wait for the Pediatrician to arrive. While waiting, Merritt noticed that the ladybug was trying to crawl out and held Milo's hands so that he couldn't scratch his ear (which was probably what was keeping it in there for so long in the first place) and it came crawling out on its own.

As someone who hopes to work at Pixar some day, people have been asking me what I think of Disney buying Pixar. Something like this was inevitable and it makes sense that the buyer would be Disney. Pixar needs the powerful marketing and distribution experience Disney has for children's media, only Nickelodeon can come close and still Disney is the best. Disney needed Pixar's content which was making them money when they took 50% of the profits.

I hated Disney. But that was then and this is now and the difference is Michael Eisner ain't the big cheese no more, it's Robert Iger. Iger is not Eisner. He made the bold move of distributing ABC television shows on iTunes. Then he bought Pixar giving Jobs, Catmull and Lasseter big positions in the stake of the company. Now he's offering the TV shows for free in iTunes in May.

The man has balls of brass.

Now the question whether he and Jobs will continue to get along. And the whole animation world is waiting to see what becomes of Catmull and Lasseter's new positions and how it affects (or doesn't) the new content to be released by both studios.

Personally, I'm optimistic.

There's a story about soap operas and talk shows being bad for the brain, or that bad brains like soaps and talk shows. The last line is the best, "If an elderly woman says she enjoys watching talk shows or soap operas, Fogel said, that might be a sign that she's having cognitive problems and should undergo special screening."



Spirals are our friend.



Bad UI is the source of all our problems.



I'm the Green Lantern, who are you?



Marvel Comics is trying to trademark the word, "super-hero."

Because of this.


I give you this.



(All the internet is good for anyway.)

When the FIFA World Cup was being played in Korea in 2002 I was living in an apartment that had cable. We had just bought a house and moved all our belongings to our new home. But the house did not have cable.

Korea had made it to the semifinals to play against the Germans. I had asked a friend to tape it for me and was going to avoid any media mention of the game result until I could pick up the tape and see the game for myself. That night I couldn't fall asleep, thinking of the game.

It was something like 2am and the game started around 3am. Our apartment was bare but we still had the lease until the end of the month. So I went downstairs to our basement, unplugged the TV, put it in my car, drove to the apartment, plugged it in, watched the game, saw Korea play great but lose, put the TV back in my car, and drove back to the house and finally fall asleep.

Hines Ward, MVP of the SuperBowl, is half-Korean and Korea just beat the USA in the World Baseball Classic tonight.

Earlier i wrote about the decision to circumsize  my first newborn son.



Today there is an article  regarding a legal battle surrounding the issue of circumcision for a couple's son.



This past Monday, my second son, Benjamin, was born.  And yes, he was circumsized as well.  But I have to admit, I'm not 100% sold on the whole cut-the-penis-for-your-health thing.

Learning Maya 7.0 is like learning how to sail a boat, drive a car and fly an airplane at the same time. All those activities are fun, once you figure out what all the controls are for. I find the UI very interesting. Very clean and consistent but they layered on the complexity which allows for power. Ease of use is solved by teachers teaching you how to use it. That's practically the only way to really figure out how to use it well.

Our second baby refuses to come out. We have a C-section scheduled for this Monday avoiding Valentine's Day by one day. I'm guessing it's a girl.

I've been working out at the gym regularly and am finally feeling the difference in the weights and cardio. But I still have a little pain in the throat - considering seeing the doctor once again. It feels like my tonsils but I can't be sure. It hurts when I move my tongue.

Pimp machine for sale...
My Mom sent me a package months ago. Inside it was her mink coat, complete with shawl thingy and a hat. She and my Dad recently retired to Irvine, CA; so she asked me to sell it for her online. My wife tried it on and she looked like a pimp. Our babysitter tried it on and she looked like a pimp. I refuse to put it on. But if there's anyone out there interested in looking like a pimp, let me know. I have a pimp machine for sale.

Bling.
Bling.

I have a long list of shows that I've tivo-ed (technically dvr-ed) but haven't watched. I don't have the nerve to erase them but I dont' watch them either. I will end up erasing a show here and there if I'm running low on hard drive space.

The one show I regularly record and actually watch is PTI: Pardon the Interruption with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. Basically it's two idiots who argue about sports for a minute and a half before moving onto another sports topic. They berate and they fight and they mock one another's intelligence and manhood when it comes to their opinion on trivial sports trivia.

It's just like hanging out with my friends.

The wife can't stand the show when it's on. Even if she's not watching the show the constant yapping gets on her nerves. "How can they even understand what each other's saying with all the yelling," she asked.

It's exactly like hanging out with my friends

Character actors. They can have the most fun because they are more able to play a variety of roles rather than be pegged as a particular type like many celebrity actors. Though the character actor can be as pigeon-holed as any, the good ones, like Kevin Spacey and Philip Seymour Hoffman have gone on to do a wide variety of roles and even made the leap from supporting actor to main protagonist.

There are some character actors who have done so many television and film roles that they always look a little bit familiar but you just can't quite remember where you saw them last. One of my favorites is Bruce McGill .

I first saw this guy in a Miami Vice episode, the one where Phil Collin's "In the Air Tonight" is playing as a soundtrack as his character takes a sledghammer to a wall, revealing a skeleton hidden inside. Great epsiode, just before the series jumped the shark. He had a memorable scene in the movie "The Insider" as the lawyer who rips the cigarette laywers a new one with the line, "Wipe that smile off your face!!!" And on and on... He's awesome.

There are such things called Food Movies. Obvious examples are:

Eat Drink Man Woman,

Like Water for Chocolate  and

the Oscar Award-winning (Best Foreign Film) Babette's Feast .


These movies aren't necessarily about food, but tend to revolve around food and the cooking of food and all the nice metaphor and ethnic symbolism that spills forth in a cheesy "oh that's so meaningful" way.  They make good date movies.


I kind of like food movies.  The past few years as I've played househusband here in chez Chung I've found that I have a knack for cooking.  Nothing too fancy.  I keep it simple a la Naked Chef . I have a gas grill, it makes things quick and easy.  This is a long way of getting around to recommending my favorite food movie called...


Big Night

Written and directed by Stanley Tucci and starring one of my favorite character actors, Tony Shalhoub , now famous for playing Adrien Monk  on TNT, not a half bad network.

Sometimes I read "spoilers" in media websites where a movie script or tv show plotpoint is leaked out before it airs. There are plenty of warnings for spoilers for those who don't want the fresh experience ruined for themselves. While I don't seek out the spoilers I don't avoid them either. For example I pretty much know what happens in XMen 3 and I'm seriously debating whether to go watch it in the theatres because it sounds pretty crappy. But I don't know any juicy tidbits on the new Superman movie other than the general synopsis and I'll likely keep myself 'fresh' for that film which I'm looking forward to very much.

But every once in a while I like to go into a movie "blind". This is easier to do with DVD rentals, especially with older black and white movies. One such movie that I rented without any idea of what it was about (this was many years ago) was the 1962 original "The Manchurian Candidate". That experienced rocked. If you haven't seen or heard of the Denzel Washington remake then I highly recommend you rent the 1962 original with Angela Lansbury and Frank Sinatra and plopt it in. Don't read the boxcover or anything. It's a trip. And yes, Frank can act.

I reviewed James Frey's book, A Million Little Pieces, and commented on the brouhaha surrounding the falsifications in his book. I thought it wasn't a big deal since he seemed to be fibbing on areas I thought were fairly minor.

I did jibe that at least he wasn't fibbing on the root canal with no painkillers ...

Uh, well, perhaps he was, as he now is fessing up on a recent appearance on Oprah.

Dude, Oprah is seriously pissed off at you.

Saw Syriana on Tuesday night. There were tons of people at the Metreon theatre in SF and it surprised me. Then we ran into our friends, Seth and Mia, at the same movie and they told us that the New York Times was giving out $5 tix for their subscribers for this theatre only.

Syriana was very good. Stephen Gaghan the writer and director also wrote the script for Traffic which Stephen Soderbergh directed and I really liked that film, so I had high expectations.

I had heard that you really have to pay attention to what is going on because it's difficult to discern relationships and backgrounds. This was true but I liked it that way because it kept me very focused and tuned to what was happening. For what was mostly a talking heads movie it was shot quite beautifully.

Syriana - ***1/2 out of possible *****

(Giving it the stars reminds me that the Netflix stars system sucks. You cannot grade a movie by the half-star. There are SO many films I'd give a 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 stars.)

Disney buys Pixar for a buttload of money and Steve Jobs is sitting pretty.

While I’m definitely not a fan of Disney over the years, one has to remember that the Eisner era is over and the Iger one has begun and so far Iger has made some bold moves with ABC content on Itunes and now buying Pixar. Buena Vista is a powerfully dominant distributor. I have to say it makes sense for both companies here.

What will be interesting to see is how the Pixar culture remains intact. The fact that Catmull and Lasseter have top jobs at Disney creative now bodes well that things will not only stay the same in Emeryville but also progress in socal as well…?

The Story I Made Up For Milo...

Poopoo the Choochoo and the Broken Down Train

One day, Poopoo the Choochoo was chugging down the track when he saw a broken down train on the next track. He stopped and asked, "Hello, is there anything wrong?"

The broken down train said, "Yes, my wheels won't turn and I have to be mended at the works."

"No problem," Poopoo said, "I can hitch you to my train and take you to the works."

"But what about my passengers?" said the broken down train, "they have to be taken to the next station."

"I can call my friend, Boogaga the Car," replied Poopoo, "and he can take your passengers to the next station."

"That would be great, thanks," said the broken down train.

"My name is Poopoo the Choochoo," said Poopoo the Choochoo, "what's your name?"

The broken down train replied, "My name is Bop. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you."

Poopoo the Choochoo then called his friend Boogaga the Car on his radio and Boogaga came and picked up Bop's passengers and took them to the next station. Then Bop was hitched to Poopoo the Choochoo's train and Poopoo took him to the works to be mended.

And they lived happily ever after.

The End

Fall Semester Summary
My first semester in the MFA for 3D Animation program at the Academy of Art program was OK

Pros:
- I found it more fulfilling than I thought I would
- I'm pretty good at it
- I'm enjoying it

Cons
- the curriculum politics of grad school is to be expected but still sucks
- classmates on the whole are oddly not very serious about the work
- quality of the faculty is decidedly mixed

Classes I took:
Aesthetics in the Renaissance
It's both an Art History and Philosophy class. The first hour the philosophy professor teaches you about the thinking of the time. The second hour the art history professor teaches you the art of the time. You can see the relationships and influences back and forth. I was pretty resistant to taking this class since it wouldn't do anything for my portfolio but it was definitely worthwhile.

Principles and Pipelines
This was basically Animation 101 and we were working in 2D for the whole semester to get the basics down which was fine with me. The teacher had a lot of good experience (used to work for Pixar for a while) and gave excellent feedback on whatever you brought to show. But he was terrible at managing the class and for lectures he just showed us DVD extras which I found kind of lame. The final project was a 15 second rough pencil test animation. We started by pitching an idea, presenting it in storyboards then doing the animation scene by scene, all the while getting feedback. I was pretty happy with my final project which turned out to be 63 seconds and far too big to post on a website.

Figure Studio
Your basic figure drawing class in charcoal pencil. I have had a lot of experience in figure drawing but I really got a lot out of this class. The professor was excellent and pushed everyone very hard. During class I progressed a lot and did well. But I really floundered on the homework assignments which he expected us to spend a lot of time on.

Spring Semester Courses (starting Jan 30):
- Maya 1
- Preproduction
- History and Techniques of Animation

A Million Little Smoking Guns

I actually finished a book. Read it from start to finish. All by myself. It was A Million Little Pieces by James Frey and it had a sticker on it. The sticker read "Oprah's Book Club". This means the author made bank.

It was a good book. I recommend it to anyone who has ever gotten drunk, smoked pot, smoked crack, heroin or crystal meth. Interestingly just as I finished this book there was an expose on the author from The Smoking Gun about how he may have fabricated some parts of this autobiographically inspired book. I flipped through the article briefly and wasn't very disturbed with the allegations. Even if the parts of the book that The Smoking Gun has said are untrue really are untrue, it doesn't change my overall impression of the book or of the author. The sections in question are relatively minor to the story as a whole. Now, if the author really DIDN'T have a double cavity/cap and root canal with absolutely no anesthesia (because he's in rehab) and if the author never attended a rehab clinic at all then yeah, I could see the big deal.

Movies I want to see:
Syriana
Munich
Match Point

Books I've Started but never finished (not b/c they sucked but b/c i suck):
From Beirut to Jerusalem
A Brief History of Time
Middlesex
The Known World

New book I'm about to start:
A Million Little Pieces

Latest Fiasco:
dealing with my fucked up epson scanner not working goddamn hightechnology

Upcoming Schedule Convergence:
spring semester begins january 30
2nd child due february 8

A man in a hot air balloon realized that he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted

"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 50 and 51 degrees north latitude and between 114 and 115 degrees west longitude.

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.

"I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "Everything you told me is technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information. The fact is, I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip."

The woman below responded, "You must be in management."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, you've managed to make it my fault."

Earlier I wrote about how the video ipod is the harbinger of media consumption to come. Particulary for television content where screen size isn't as crucial as most people think it is, especially when measured against the portability factor.

Itunes Music Store has been steadily adding more and more television shows to their video category and they just recently listed the new Battlestar Galactica series. I mentioned in another blog entry about how much of a geekfanboy I am of this show.

The season 2 dvd set for BG is available on Dec 20 for $34.99 on Amazon.
It's available on Itunes for $19.90 right now.

The dvd set comes with the extras.
The commentaries is available for free as a podcast already.

The disks are nice to own, add to my collection.
I'll probably only watch the shows once so why not buy the download.

Another interesting bit to this is I don't own a video upod but can watch the stuff on Itunes via Quicktime. Itunes is a trojan horse. Apple markets the heck out of the variety of ipods but it's the iTunes app that they want on as many machines as possible, it's the gateway for all their media consumption, enabling non-ipodders to also consume content. The iTunes app is key; it's no secret if you think about it for more than a second but it's worth mentioning.

Fred: "I just farted and burped at the same time."

Merritt: "Great, honey, that's just great. You should put that in your blog. Everybody should know about it."

Fred [long pause]: "That's a great idea! 'Fred - I just farted and burped at the same time. Merritt - great honey that's just great you should put that in your blog, everybody should know about it.' "

Merritt [sighs]: "You're such an asshole."

Last week I was very sick. Had a bad case of diarrhea that lasted several days. Did not urinate for a long while. When you're not urinating, it means you're dehydrated, when you're dehydrated things can deteriorate rapidly. Went to the doctor's office just as things started to get slightly better (slowed down on the hourly diarrhea, actually urinated once) but just to be safe the doctor had me take home a stool sample kit to be dropped off at a lab at my earliest convenience. Giving a man with diarrhea a stool sample kit - hmmm. (How many times can i mention diarrhead in one blog?)

I'm better now. Not completely out of the woods yet, but much much improved. I won't bore you with any more details on my bowel movement but let's just say this - impressive. How about another word, just one more - purged.

During my whole hiatus from the land of the living I ended up weaning myself off of coffee. I was never much of a coffee drinker even when I worked at fancy schmancy high tech companies that offered latte's for free. But since my wife got pregnant with our first son, for some reason I got into that morning cup o' coffee and the occassional vanilla latte. Now that I'm on the caffeine-free wagon, I plan on staying on until I get my butt back in the gym on a regular basis.

Why I think Hollywood should continue to worry about slumping box office numbers and why the video ipod is the harbinger of consumption to come:

1. Going to see a movie in the movie theatre is a very sucky experience. You have to deal with driving, parking, long lines, people talking, cell phones ringing. It's hella expensive and time-consuming. The only movies I will go to the theatre to watch are those which MUST be experienced in the theatre like the upcoming King Kong.

2. DVR/Tivo and Podcast's popularity have signaled a new way of watching media. Tape it then watch it at my own leisure, or tape it and take it to go with me.

3. Small images like thumbnails and icons read better than you think - small screensize and resolution isn't necessarily a big barrier to entry.

4. An audience is more interested in what happened, what were the sequence of events, than how well they were able to see it on a high res screen. If they can watch the sports highlights with audio, or the latest episode of Desperate Housewives with audio, and experience where the story went - that is the core of what they're buying and worth the download time and price.

5. If you could take your DVR/Tivo list of shows and watch them on the road, would you pay for that? If you could take all the dvd's you haven't watched yet on the road, in your hand, would you pay for that?

I would.

Tomorrow I get to spend an entire day in traffic school for a speeding ticket I got in Orange County, CA this past summer.

Oh. Joy.

On a far more interesting note, when I image-googled "Traffic School" the first image came from a florida traffic school website, the masthead of which is above.

I love florida traffic school websites.

One of my brothers is a doctor. After 4 years of medical school, 3 years of residency, a year for a Masters in Public Health and now doing AIDS research for his specialty in Infectious Diseases - I ask him what's the most important thing you've learned?

He thought for a second and replied, "Wash your hands."

I thought this was a little too simple of an answer. But whenever I meet another doctor in a social setting and I tell this story they all nod their hands and repeat, "Yeah, wash your hands."

--

I also had this writing teacher in undergrad who was a bit of a prick who once started the class with this statement,

"Do you want to know what the secret to a long and happy life is? Flossing."

The guy sitting next to me nodded his head solemnly. Apparently they both had had dental issues.
Sunday, Oct 23, 2005 - 05:05pm (PDT) Edit | Delete | 0 Comments | Permanent Link

Router-less web-browsing question...
A few years ago a friend of mine who works in IT support came to my house and checked out my computer set-up. He shook his head in disappointment at my computer's vulnerability. He immediately had me download and install Zone Alarm's firewall software (showing me how random computers were routinely pinging mine.) And he highly recommended that I get a router even though I only use one computer in my home. The router would act as a physical firewall which is much safer. I did so without any problem.

Recently, I switched to cable high speed internet. Unfortunately when I did this, having the ethernet go through the router does not work. I tried and tried all different things with tech support on the line, hooking/unhooking while the modem/computer was on/off in every and all possible combinations but it still doesn't work via the router. So, my computer is currently plugged directly into the cable modem riding the information superhighway with no physical barrier.

Another friend of mine has said that while the router is better, the ZoneAlarm software should be fine. I would like to solicit your opinion on the matter. Am I safe or should I get the darn router to work one way or another?

Thursdays I have a class called Figure Studio 600. It's my favorite class of this semester. The teacher is very good but that's not the best part. The best part is getting to class.

I take the N Judah train (2 blocks from my house) downtown to Powell. From there I hop on the cablecar. That's right, I take the trolley to class. Fortunately my monthly adult FastPass includes the cablecar routes or else it would be prohibitively expensive.

There's nothing like starting out your day at 8am in the morning riding the cablecar up Powell in the city of San Francisco. It's pretty uplifting. Of course, I have yet to ride it in the rain. That would probably suck.

I frickin love the new Battlestar Galactica series remake now in its 2nd season.

This show rocks. It's a retelling of the classic series from the 70's which is near and dear to my heart but it does it in a completely different way. Very dark, mature, unpredictable and kickass in every way. The writing is superb, the cast is great, the production is excellent. Every detail is thought out and made use of.

Fortunately I'm not the only one watching as it is a very successful and praised show. The producers are technopiles and have astutely created podcasts which can be listened to as audio commentary to the individual episodes of season 2.

When I first moved to SF I got cable for free/spliced from my landlord who lived upstairs (I lived in the basement of a family home, that's another story). When I moved in with my girlfriend we got free/spliced cable from the downstairs neighbors. Then when we bought our house 3 and a half years ago we decided not to order cable and see how long we could go without it.

Well, after 3 and a half blissful years of being cable-free, I've caved in, fallen off the wagon and went all in for the basic + premium cable + cable internet + dvr set up. $68/mo for the 1st 6 months. After that I'm probably going to drop the premium channels. Previously I relied on Netflix to catch up on my favorite TV shows. Now I used DVR (comcast's version of tivo) and needless to say, I love it. The question is whether I can utilize the DVR to limit my watching or whether it will just put my media-head habit over the top.

When I get real tired, my left eyelid gets heavier and doesn't fold all the way under. (See pic above.) This used to be the norm and I thought that's how I looked until I got a lot of sleep one week and it went away. Now I get it when I don't get enough sleep especially when I'm drinking lots of coffee. Those two things usually happen at the same time. I think I need some sleep right now.

Thanks to Kelly for giving me some advice on how to fix my funky 20GB ipod. Unfortunately it didn't work. I downloaded the updater but the problem is the ipod won't even successfully mount on the computer in order for the updater to restore the ipod. Doing the menu/select button restart doesn't help it mount onto the computer either. sigh. Yesterday, I popped into the Apple store to check out the nano. I'm not much of an Apple-phile anymore but that thing is wickedcool.

Still listening to "The Kite Runner" on MUNI commute to animation classes. Must resist breaking down in sobs of remorse and heartbreak in front of other MUNI riders. Instead I make grumpy face. Muy macho.

Latest animation is called Jumper 1 at the bottom of the list of this page...
http://hstrial-fredlandcom.homestead.com/

Enjoy,
Fred

I have just started my second full week of classes at the Academy of Art. On the one hand I'm a little frustrated at my curriculum of classes that I feel I shouldn't have to take or that I couldn't enroll for because of a late application entry. But when I take a step back and when I actually take the classes I realize I'm actually enjoying learning about something I've always wanted to do with my life but never had the balls to pursue. So maybe I'm just getting frustrated out of worry because I'm doing something so different, something that is artistic, something that is truly a leap of faith for me. I'll have some stuff to show once I get it in .avi format and take a few snapshots of my drawings from the figure studio class. I'm also enjoying my MUNI ride downtown in the mornings, I "read" by listening to audiobooks on my ipod. Or rather on Merritt's ipod mini since my 20GB ipod just died yesterday. It won't even boot up. It was acting up the past few weeks and then yesterday it just never started. Bummer. Good thing Merritt hardly ever uses hers. It will be interesting next semester when our second baby arrives in February, considering there's no such thing as paternity leave for students. Heh.

Today is the first day of classes at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. I am an MFA student in the 3D Animation program. Currently I'm waiting to meet with the director of the 3D program to see if I can waive a studio class (or two) to save myself some time and money or substitute a different studio course.

It's been repeatedly encouraged to keep a diary or skectchbook journal. In fact, said journal will be the thesis statement down the road. Let's see if I can keep an online version going as well.

I'm trying to deliver a sketch or animation a day.

Previous animations...

Running Man

Hand

Dancer

Peter Jennings died.  He was the anchor I watched the most growing up.  I'm not sure why my dad preferred ABC News to the other stations but for a while I thought Peter Jennings was the only anchor for all of the nightly news stations.  He was cool as a cucumber at all times.  It's funny how a fixture of your childhood has a bigger impact then you think.  I actually feel sad that he's just died.

I'm a huge Netflix fan, not just for the service but because I'm also interested in the distribution channel and its evolution over the past decade.  Lately the biggest competition was coming from Blockbuster, Walmart and Amazon.  Blockbuster has stumbled a bit when it started offering it's netflix subscription option.  Walmart bowed out and partnered with Netflix itself.  But a recent article reminds us that Amazon is still interested in this space.  Which would make things pretty interesting.

Netflix has two advantages. They have experience in distributing the dvd's across the nation.  They have a database of personal recommendations based on ratings by its users including user reviews.  Amazon has a similar ratings program for their current products so it will be interesting to see if they can leverage that when they launch their own dvd rental product. Plus they definitely know a thing or two about distributing physical products across the nation. If you'd like to add me as a Netflix friend just send me an invite at 'fesper@yahoo.com' I've rated over 1027 movies. (Not all seen via Netflix but seen over the course of my entire life.)

My goal this week is to produce a sketch each day and post it here. Get into the habit so to speak and gear up for animation school.