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.

I have a question for you.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I used to work at Yahoo! In a nutshell, it kicked ass, I loved every minute of it. Although I worked on a number of different 'properties' as a UI Designer, one of my favorites was the Fantasy Sports games. I had never played a fantasy sports game in my life before being assigned to design one. (Sorry, Chuck, I lied.) Fortunately it all worked out fairly well and in the end, I became something of a fantasy sports addict. I've cut back on my habit and now solely focus on one game, NFL Football.

The season is nigh.

There is one private league that I've been a part of over the past 6 years or so that matters the most. I call it the 'LarryLeague' after its commissioner, who, while adept at producing these games, ranks beneath me as an overall fantasy player. (Brian has the stats to prove it.) Just recently the live draft order was determined for this year. This brings me to my question...

Where do you prefer to be in the order of the draft?
1) Top of the draft
2) Bottom of the draft
3) Either top or bottom, I like being on the ends
4) In the middle
5) I don't care either way
6) I don't know I've never drafted a fantasy sports team in my life you geekloser.

Personally, I'm a #3 guy. I much prefer being on the ends because it means my draft picks are close together so I can strategize what my next two picks are. When you're in the middle you have to wait an eternity for every single pick while keeping a close eye on whether your queued player is still available or has been snatched up.

This season I'm pick #7 out of 12 teams. Smack dab in the middle. Fuck.