it's nice to know that i'll always be remembered...by some search engine!

i knew I had this blog...from the RI days when I was holed up in an interior office somewhere in a far south tendril of Addison. now I might just use this blog again.

altho, i've got so many options for internet posting. i might have to develop a master plan. and then, of course, follow it.

blog here.
check my self-published course forums.
post pix at flickr.
maintain dfwagua, check abosg, dfwsiggraph, etc.

here we go.

are we still on?!

meanwhile, read this because it is infinitely more interesting and infinitely more frequently updated

[based on the principle that division by 0 -how often I update- yields infinity!]

no internet. no posts.




maybe someday




soon?!


...

yesterday (actually, today, but the part of today that has yesterday's date) was a cloudy, sleepy day.

my city was skipped over for the big 3December events...with no time for us to make our own event. so, my friend B and I hung out all day, ate lunch at El Chico, talked about 3D, shot pictures for 3D reference, and sat at computers modelling...i then found out that I had just a little work to do! so, here i am, into the next day already, and i'm just finising up a model of santa for tomorrow's presentation. santa as a lotion bottle. with a little spout coming out of the top of his head and all...why me?!

(quickly) a b c# (slower) e d c# b a# (hold this, then:) a

wasn't that satisfying?
[melody from aaliyah|aaliyah:hidden track]

sometimes, like tonight, i post from my office, nestled firmly in an anonymous business park somwhere in texas. the facade is non-descript, the hour is late, and i typically do not see another soul until daylight (or until i go back home).

but, just a few minutes ago, right before i started posting tonight, I saw a shadow move on the floor just outside my office door. i turned to look, and a man appeared in the doorway, holding a big flahslight, and wearing a dark blue uniform. "Hey!" I said loudly, as if to scare him away, throw him off balance with my vocal reverberations, or merely say hello at a rock concert.

He calmly stated, "you left the door open." I noticed that he was, indeed, a police officer. I had been preparing to leave and had loaded my car up outside our front door. But, it wasn't that door that had been left unlocked. It was, in fact, a door in an adjacent warehouse, which, in turn, has a door that opens into our offices, but locks from the warehouse side (that's how the officer entered our hallway). We walked back through the warehouse, and I explained that we don't control that space, but merely lease the offices. The officer said someone must have left the warehouse door open earlier. I thanked him and he left, making sure that I securely locked both the outside warehouse door, and the door that leads to our suite.

It's at least good to know, that no matter how anonymous we are, someone has an eye out for us.

i think i'm going home now...it is kinda late...

my friend has gotten a high-res digital camera from sony. it takes incredibly big pictures. portraits of people become studies of the pourous structures of their skin. i don't think you should get that close to people in real life. [there are notable exceptations] it's just too much...stop taking pictures like that, man!!!

okay...so there were absolutely no posts in the month of november...i was busy...really.

these late nights are going to be my downfall...now, exactly why did i want to go into business for myself?!

oh! so I don't have to get up early in the morning after working so late at night!!!

it ends up that you work overtime in the creative business whether or not you are self-employed...

i do need a day off, tho. my overall artistic output each day is going down because I haven't stepped out for a day's break. maybe I'll do that tomorrow [it IS halloween]...Thursday at the latest.

meanwhile, alex is playing my request right now...some sugary japanese girl vocals by kahimi karie. thanks, alex.

after that, i am definitely going home!!!

should i get NEXT DAY SHIPPING, or should I get 5-7 BUSINESS DAYS?

I won't even be home to sign for my package, and will have to go down to the UPS office anyway, so what does it matter?

not many of you will remember Votrax. It was a voice synthesizer for your 8600/186 personal computer. with a simple BASIC (not many of you will remember this programming language...) program you could get this thing to read stuff to you, or, with the output of another BASIC program, pronounce exotic, randomly-generated ALIEN names. It would've been a lot of fun with the poplular pop-psychological program ELIZA, which could respond remarkably intelligently to your cries for psychiatric help. for example:

you> I am having trouble sleeping next to my girlfriend.

ELIZA: Why do you think you are having trouble sleeping next to your girlfriend?

you> Well, she likes to sleep in her own bed at her own house.

ELIZA: Is this a problem?

you> Not really, but it would be nice to sleep next to my girlfriend.

ELIZA: Why do you think it would be nice to sleep next to your girlfriend?

you> isn't it obvious to you?

ELIZA: Is this a problem?

you> you're supposed to be helping me figure this out, Eliza!

ELIZA: Why do you think that I'm supposed to be helping you figure this out, Eliza?

you> because you're a shrink program!!!

ELIZA> Is this a problem?

you> only if you're not doing your job...why aren't you analyzing me?

ELIZA> Why do you think that I'm not analyzing you?

you> I don't know, maybe you are. Maybe you are trying to test me with all these repeptitive questions.

ELIZA> Is this a problem?

etc., you get the idea by now...

I miss Eliza. I miss Votrax. But I wouldn't give up my web pages or mp3s to save it all!!!! Is this a problem? Why do you think that this is a problem?

too busy...too busy...i've got a lot of fish on my frying pan, that's for sure!! but i've written many blogs IN MY HEAD. not that you can read them there, and even I'm having trouble accessing them once they are posted in my brain. i stayed up for 3 days straight to finish setup for an animated short last weekend...that was crazy...and I started having some mild hallucinations. that was fun. but the event we presented at was good. i got to do some public speaking, made some contacts, and gained some new friends. i like those creative opportunities.

of course, the more projects you agree to do, the more work you have to actually perform.

back to work!

i'm back from a 984 mile drive in my little CRX this weekend...

from texas to kansas and back...just a little more than the distance of crossing Afghanistan diagonally...it's not a big country at all!

mostly at night...just like the bombing in Afghanistan...except for I did do some drving during the day...just like the bombing in Afghanistan now.

my life is remarkably parallel to current events...hmmm.

blah...i'm afraid i've eaten dinner too late, and cannot digest it properly. i've got a headache now. i've just dealt with a flurry of phone calls and then emails, which has taken me away from writing. now i'll head back to it full force.

i'm still interested in the news, tho there's not much "new" about it in the last couple of days. it was sweet [dude, sweet] for awhile after the attack, with many people offering insights and novel viewpoints, but now we've seemed to have gone back to endlessly repeating that same few news stories again and again. surely we have not analyzed this thoroughly yet, have we?

if the news were educational, like it was two weeks ago, then I wouldn't mind my desire to watch it. But it's simply repetitive, so I feel I am wasting time, and not getting stuff done that I should, if I take the time to watch, and only glean one small new bit of "news."

the kicker is that I can watch all this stuff from my desktop, so even working on the computer (my main gig) is being distracted!!!

not to mention this blog thing...

i shall now turn of all broadcast media, and focus solely on the immediate task of writing a book!

right in the middle of "this old house" and just as they were getting ready to install an "egress" window into a newly renovated bedroom, since the small window currently there would not be grand-fathered in under local building code, and right before---here comes the news!!!

this stuff is so carefully chereographed by < someone >:

it seems that no two world leaders schedule their speeches for exactly the same time...how amazing...even enemies understand the importance of taking their proper ques.

i fell back asleep and woke up to tony blair...then suddenly fell back asleep again! it's been a series of late nights...

back to writing (isn't that what i'm doing?!)

i was working in the lab late one night

I am riding a writing wave! I need to stay here for the next month straight and just surf this baby across the ocean...but i'll probably fall asleep and then gulp down some salt water, and that's not good for me...

tomorrow there will be a collected cacophony of creative voices here, and i do need to get some sleep before the meeting, since i'm hosting it. we've got to get that project rolling along...!

i picked up a DVD from my friend Robert today. He says the special edition is coming out soon, so he could part with his version. I need to have it for class next week (to demo acting techniques in animation). he also saved me money on a Laser disc. I bought this laser disc player from my old boss right before I had to leave that job (massive lay-offs, eh?). Laser disc movies are massively cheap, but mainly just older movies are available. There is some recent material, but nothing new. Most people are unloading their entire collections, so I've picked up movies I'd like to see, but would never pay full DVD price for (sale or new!). I've got this shuttle control on my Laser disc remote that smoothly wipes through uncompressed frame by uncompressed frame. I need something like that for my DVD...

so now I get to step out into the cold.

btw, halloween is coming up, so the lyrics above are doubly appropriate...

the heady intoxication of fall has begun.

today is the day that life changed.

with the cold snap, i have stopped wearing my regular shorts, and have put on some nice pants. I can wear my nice shirts again, without fear of getting them ruined under the hot sun. people are wearing jackets and sweaters. it seems that, today, we have all made our change in wardrobe at once. together. and the relief from the heat has made us smile.

it's really cold outside now, with night fallen. i should dig out my jacket...

rain today. good. i like the rain...millions of little drops all collaborating to bring refreshment to the earth. and the coolness. and the breeze. it's fall at last. better than that hot ass summer! in the fall, my mood changes to a more contemplative acceptance. i am open to new love and connections. i find more inspiration and organization. [ rh is singing "rain down..."]

i have an incredible number of projects to write for currenty. an article. a book (!). a big money proposal. a blog. an animated short. another animated short. on top of that, i am producing about a dozen student animations this semester. creative thought running out of the ears...this is the life, tho.

the office is set up for focused thought. the walls in here are that deep green, and i've hung halogen bulbs from electric wires and pointed them discreetly away from the monitor. so my attention is easily kept on my work. and the eyes can rest without glare on the screen. the whole thing is a mix of ergonomics and feng shui. is this my success direction?

if you've missed alex on radio 1190, then you've missed a good show! well chosen music, it was a good intro for me to what's new in indiepop: "for twee folks"

you could tell she was nervous for awhile (the first two bits) - but by the end of the show she was smoother. [the first show is always rough, eh?] even some of that deodorant-dry wit slipped in ("if you didn't call in, you don't get thanks."). i'm sure in future weeks we'll hear a more confident alexandra!

you did a great job, alex!