June 30, 2003
Am I the only one who’s seen an upswing in incest spam over the past month or two (“father goes down on daughter!!!“)? I’m rather surprised to see this sort of thing in my inbox, since there’s been such a crackdown on it lately. I managed to read through two books this weekend, which is a refreshing change after several months of struggling through only a few books. Book #1 was Feel This […]
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Yesterday, I went to Arlington National Cemetery. You ascend the hill slowly, like a pilgrim ascending towards enlightenment, past dozens then hundreds then thousands of bone-white gravestones. Each one is engraved with a name and a dozen painful memories. Youc an almost see the families clustered around each grave. You ascend to the top and are almost shocked by Lee’s garden, an oasis of color and serenity. It is formal in structure but […]
Friday, June 27, 2003
Ugh. The day stretches out before me like a vast, featureless, grey plain, dotted with a few ten-minute tasks. I feel like Kiki sitting in the bakery; “Booooooooring.” I tried to draw some birds in preparation for my next animation, and realized something important: I can’t draw birds. Hmmmm. I’ve decided that, rather than push forward with my own artwork in the hopes that it’ll be good, I’ll be better off […]
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Awhile back, I tried to start a collaborative fiction project on p1k3’s wiki. It never really went anywhere, partially because I didn’t really know what I was doing. Now, I want to try again, but I want to do it on my wiki. Why not stay on p1k3? I don’t really know. I feel more in control on my own wiki, which is kind of silly, since wikis are all about communal ownership. But […]
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Sometimes, I feel like I just don’t have the energy for these things. Had a good talk with Saalon (as usual) last night, where we (as usual) talked about everything from Extreme Programming to writing to work woes. I always enjoy our talks, since we can just talk. There’s no need to search for something to talk about; it just tumbles out in a never-ending stream. Work’s getting better. I had […]
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
I’m lucky. I have very little debt. I’ve paid for my truck, I have no student loans, and I only have about USD $3,000 on my credit cards. On the other hand, credit card debt is expensive, and I’ve been unable to eliminate it despite my best intentions for the past several years. So, I’ve decided to turn the knobs up to eleven and purchase nothing other than food and household essentials until I’ve paid […]
Monday, June 23, 2003
I’ve been struggling with the question of what to do for my next animation. I’ve had the idea of animating a few stylized birds at a bird feeder, and found a neat little piece of Classical music to go along with it. But I wanted to tell a very brief story, maybe fifteen seconds long, and I couldn’t come up with a story that fit. A one-minute story would probably take me months to draw and assemble. I was […]
Saturday, June 21, 2003
New poll, and new anime music download. I have nothing to do today. I considered going to see Finding Nemo or Hulk, but now I’m indifferent about the prospect. I just don’t want to spend the hours required to get to the theater in time and pay a hefty chunk of change for a ticket, all for the benefit of Dolby speakers and an audience. I videotaped the Redemption club last night, in the hopes of recording the fun times we have. It revealed a few […]
Friday, June 20, 2003
Animaxis.com sends out daily e-mails to subscribed customers, describing new products on the site, most of which is anime toys and other miscellaneous merchandise like figurines, trading cards, and pencil boards. I like having a feel for what anime merchandise is available, so I subscribe. But I find myself slightly depressed after reading through each one, because it’s just a huge advertisement for consumerism. “If you liked Prince […]
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Despite the problems, I finished animation #4 on Tuesday. It’s an eight-second clip of a man talking, complete with audio and multiple layers of animation. The character in the clip is Suranta, First Emperor of the Continent, from my Seeing Things Invisible world. I pulled that line from the middle of a speech he delivers to a bunch of politicians, which is part of why it feels so stiff and unnatural to me. Oh, I’m not seriously complaining. The clip’s […]