Life in 3D

Crash

The end of the semester was officially December 22nd.  Coincidentally, this is also right smack in the middle of the insanity we refer to as “The Holiday Season” which means that not only are you killing yourself trying to complete end of semester assignments, but you’re also working your ass off at work dealing with every kind of shopper you can imagine.

Well, that is all done now.  Christmas is over, the after Christmas shopping hoards have settled down some, and I have no homework that needs to be done for a month.

I’m bored.

Yes, I have been working on my own projects and stuff, but I just got five days off from work and I really don’t have anything that needs to be done.  Considering that (according to my Steam software) I have played Left 4 Dead about 20 hours in the last two weeks I don’t think I should be hooking up to the computer any more than I already have been.

I have been working on the wife’s new website design, I was trying to do it using Action-script 3.0 but there is so much new to it that I backed down to version 2.0 just to save my sanity.  All I have left to do is figure out how to make some preloaders and it will be ready to go. I’m even working on my own website for my stuff, it’s looking nice and I need to finish a few models so that I can post them up there, but overall I’m pretty sure I can have the design done by the time school starts up at the end of January.

So how can I be bored with all this stuff to do?  It’s the end of semester crash, you run on 100% for so long that once you actually have a moment to stop you just fall over and groan.  No moving, no thinking, just laying there like my cat Quazo – a big lump that happens to be breathing.  I’ve got a car, a plane and a bike to work on not to mention a couple of environments and a few characters but I just don’t have the enthusiasm or the energy.

So, I’m thinking I may just vegetate for a week or so before jumping up and getting to work again.  Maybe just read a book or something – a book that isn’t related to animation, that is.  Maybe sleep in some, or stay up and watch old movies.  The sky is the limit!

But for right now I’m bored so I think I’ll just go work on that website a bit more since I just found a good link on making a preloader

Happy New Year everyone!

GWB’s got the moves

Saw this over at my friend Jennifer’s site so I had to post it here too

Left for Christmas

Wife got me ‘Left for Dead’ for Christmas.  Nothing says “It’s the holiday season” more that shooting zombies with a shotgun.

She loves me

Oh, I got her some books about various artists that she wanted.  Yes, she was very happy with them.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all,

and to all a good night.

Customers

Christmas time must do something to people brains, you try to help them find the perfect gift, but sometimes it becomes impossible when the buyer really doesn’t care what the recipient wants and is instead buying to fulfill some weird fantasy they have of the way they want the world to be.  The lady that I was helping the other day was just that kind of person.

“I want a book for my son, he’s ten years old.  The thing is that he doesn’t like to read that much.”  A simple enough request, and problem, and one that I got often.

“OK,” I said, “What’s he interested in?”

“Well, he likes sports but I don’t want any sports books.  I want him to grow up to be a scientist so do you have anything like that for a boy?”

“Well,” I said, trying to appeal to logic,”if he doesn’t like to read then it might be a good idea to get him a book with a subject he is interested in.  That way he looks at it as something fun rather than work.”

“No, because all he is interested in is sports and there’s no future in just being able to do some stupid thing with a ball.” She huffed.  “Look at you, you were probably a jock and now you work at a bookstore.”

And yet she was still asking for my advice.

***************

“Could you help me find this CD?”

“Sure.”  I look at the piece of paper in her hand and know exactly where the CD she wants is at.  “Right this way”

As I walk her over to the spot in Pop/Rock I automatically straighten out the disks that are scattered around from other customers that had browsed, destroyed and left.

“Wow, it’s a mess over here.” My customer said. “Don’t these people know how to clean up after themselves?”

“Sometimes I wonder.” I say, pulling out the disk she is looking for. “My parents always told me ‘If you take it out, put it back where you got it from’”.

“Good rule to follow.” She says,”I can’t see just leaving your stuff laying around for someone else to put away.”

I shrug my shoulders in a ‘what can you do’ sort of way.

“Thanks for finding this disk” She says, holding it up, “And could you put this book away for me?  I’ve decided I don’t want it after all.”

I watch as she drops the book on the CD rack and heads towards the checkout counter.

**************

Our bookstore has a teddy bear name Chaucer for sale that is very soft and very furry.  I’ve been carrying one around with me all day because it’s a perfect way to get people to buy them.  They see me with it, ask about it and I sell it.  One of my co-workers wasn’t aware of this tactic.

“What are you doing with a bear under your arm?”

“He’s the only one that understands me.”

There’s a long pause as she wonders if I am serious or not.

“You are so weird.”

“Yea, but Chaucer likes me anyway.”

Cars and Time

The semester has just ended and even though I most certainly didn’t do my best this time around I think I managed to come out of there with two B+ and a C.  The C would be in my Art and Ideology of the 20th Century class (which I really had no interest or respect in)

Problem with the class for me is that it turned out that the only ideology they talked about was the socialist ideology, which I could really give a shit less about.  If I was a wanna-be communist, then I might care about all the “workers murals” and other crap like that, but I’m not and I don’t.  If it wasn’t a required class I would have never wasted my money on it.

God damn required classes.

Anyway, I have gotten further along with some of the features on the Camaro.  We now have studio lighting, and new tires.  Even worked on the focal length for the camera to bring it into better focus.

So now we have a few version of ‘the car’ – the first computer modeled car I have ever made:

We have the original grey model

Then we follow that up with the first color version

And now we have the studio colored version with newer, and better tires

One day I may even be finished with it.