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Simpsons Storyboard artist. Artist and storyteller. Exploring how to make a living, by being creative.
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Monthly Archives: November 2008

The Sandwich thief and gaming

November 27, 2008 in BOARD GAMES, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
I’ve had a very stressful couple of days at work.  Mostly because I’ve had to make sure to get my work done on time.  We have less time to finish what we have because of the Thanksgiving holiday.  I was really cranking out the work as fast as I could.  I even worked through lunch on Tuesday because I was given an unexpected last minute scene that morning and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to finish it in time.  The scene I was already working on was very complicated.  I finished though.  I made the mistake of carpooling to work with my wife that day.  If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have had to worry so much.  Carpooling doesn’t allow me to stay late so since that wasn’t an option, I had to get my scenes done before my wife came by to pick me up.  It was a pain.  Of course, I didn’t know I was going to be given a last minute scene.  If I hadn’t finished, I would have had to come in and work during the holiday.

Now that I’m done with work and I’m off for the next couple of days, I have to worry about whether I’ll have a job after I come back.  It’s not going to be a very restful holiday.

FAMILY
The kids are sick.  They have a cold and they cough and sneeze and are generally irritated a lot by it.   I’m not sure if that is why Dante decided to wake up at 5:00 A.M. Sunday.  It was awful for me to wake up early, mostly because I’d gone to bed a 3:00 A.M. that morning (more about that in the BOARD GAMES section). Alesha took care of him for a while and let me sleep a bit but in the end, I was forced to get up having had only four hours of sleep. In order to not get mad at Dante for keeping me up, I decided to take him to Mass with me at 7:00 A.M. That way I could at least have something to do while I waited for him to get tired and go back to sleep.  Not only did it energize me, but by the time Mass was over, Dante was ready for a nap.  Of course, by that point Munchkin was awake, so I didn’t get to take one myself.

Later that day, I took Munchkin out to ride her Hummer again (see last post).  She drove over to the playground where she stopped and played with the car radio.  I rode my skateboard around the playground, just for fun.  Almost fell once or twice.  Munchkin saw a cat out by the playground and we went over to pet it a bit. She also tried riding my skateboard but couldn’t really manage it.  In the end, she just sat on it and pushed herself around.  When she got tired of the playground, she drove around the housing community and then we went home.

Alesha was at home on a Sunday for once but she wasn’t able to help out with the kids because she had work to do.  I was really tired from my lack of sleep so, playing with the kids was really difficult.  My body was just shutting down on me.

My brother Juan and his wife Deborah, had called me the day before to see if they could come over and visit.  Since I hadn’t seen them in months I told them they could.  It was good to see them again after such a long time.  I found it interesting that my sister-in-law is about six or seven months pregnant but doesn’t look it.

Well, while they were over, Munchkin had been given some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat.  She’d pretty much abandoned them half eaten on her little kids table.  Dante, of course, kept prowling around the little table like a hungry puppy.  Even though, he’d been given two jars of gerber and some treats only fifteen minutes before.  I had shooed Dante away from the little table more than once and he looked like he was going to behave.  I had gotten into a conversation with my brother and when I decided to turn around and check up on the kids I saw this:

peanutbutter-and-jelly.jpg

I ran over there to take away the sandwiches and Dante began crawling away from me as fast as he could.  He knew he was in trouble.  Problem was he didn’t let go of the sandwich slices which he smashed into the carpet as he “ran”, leaving jelly and peanut butter behind.  When I finally caught him, he refused to let go of the sandwiches and smashed them in his little hands.  After cleaning up the mess and getting Dante clean, my brother noted that Dante seemed to have a very self satisfied expression on his face. What am going to do with this kid?  It was funny though.

BOARD GAMES

(All pictures below, I got from Board Game Geek)

Andy came over twice this weekend to play games; once on Friday night and once on Saturday night.  On Friday we played a game ofDreamblade (which I won), and then we played two games of Battlelore (which I lost).  It was the first time Andy had played Battlelore and he really enjoyed it.   It was great.  I’m glad because that’s one of the games I own that I like to play the most. The second game we had played of it that night, was really close. It was decided by one die roll.  It could have been anyone’s game.

At the end of the night, he had so much fun that he asked to come over the next night.  I said, “of course!” and so the next night he came over to play some more.

On Friday, Alesha had shown some interest in playing a game, but she was too tired to play, so she went to bed.  On Saturday she had enough energy, so when Andy came over, we played a game of Agricola (a game about farming).  It was the first time that I had played it with people (I had played the solitaire version of it before) and it was the first time Andy and Alesha had played it. We had a great time playing it. Lots of banter going on around the table and lots of laughter.  The game lasted about two hours.

Andy came in first, I came in second, and Alesha came in third.  Alesha had not realized she needed to have as balanced a farm as possible in order to score well.  She said she had a great time even though she came in last.  Andy had gotten a crazy amount of good cards that really helped him out and that he really used well.

Alesha went to bed after the game but Andy and I stayed up and played two games of Dreamblade.  I lost the first game pretty badly and barely squeaked out a win, in the second game. By the time it was over, it was 3:00 Å.M. (and if you’ve read the above post, you know how that turned out).

Tuesday night, on our drive home, Alesha asked me if I wanted to play a game when we got home (as if there was a time I don’t). When we got home and after the kids went to bed, Alesha picked out The Settler of Catan Card game to play.  It’s a two player only Catan game.

On a different day, we’d tried it once but hadn’t had time to finish because we played it late at night on a week day and had to stop playing it so that we could get some sleep.  This time, we played it all the way to the end.

I’ve never seen seen Alesha have so much fun playing a game.  It was great to see her that happy.  She loved the game.  Especially because she won by really jacking me and messing up some of my cities and settlements.  The Catan Card Game is really fun but I was very surprised at how mean some of the cards are.  You can really jack your opponent pretty badly in the game and Alesha played a very aggressive game that night.  It was fun, even though I lost.

I feel liked I got a lot of gaming in these last few days,  I like it!

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The beginning of the end. Munchkin driving.

November 20, 2008 in BLOGS, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
The  deadline for the board-a-matic is fast approaching. I got my final section for the show this week and I’m trying to finish it as fast as I can.  Meanwhile I can only hope and pray that I still have a job after the Dec. 2nd deadline.  I still don’t know what’s going to happen to me after the board-a-matic.  Hopefully, I’ll just have to move to a different desk and continue on this same show. The work season is slowly coming to an end. The final show of the season is now in production.  After that, there isn’t a new show until next season (if there is a next season).  Hiatus is coming soon.

FAMILY

Once again I stayed at home with the kids this Monday.  We couldn’t drop the kids off at daycare until Tuesday.  It was a very busy day that day.  Usually staying with them is fun and it has it’s “down times” when I can sit down and recover my energy.  Monday was not like that.  By the end of the day, I was really tired. I think part of the problem was that Dante asks for more attention now.  He wanted me to be there playing with him the same way his sister does.  It used to be that I could leave him in a corner with a pile of toys and he would play for a long while. He still does that but now I have to be there next to him while he does it.  Meanwhile, Munchkin wants me to play with her. It was tough.

I decided, to make things a bit easier, to take them out for a walk in the afternoon.  It was a nice day and a nice walk.  We stopped at the playground and the kids played for a while.  Then I got an idea.  My father-in-law had gotten Munchkin one of those electric powered kid cars that they can drive.  The first time we put her in it, she was too small to reach the pedal and when it moved she got scared.  I thought that maybe now she might be able to drive it. We went back home and I took the car (a Hummer) out from where we had stored it.  Munchkin sat in it and I was glad that, not only could she reach the pedal but she wasn’t scared when the car moved. After playing with the car’s working radio for ten minutes, she began driving it around our housing community.  I helped steer because the steering wheel was a bit hard to turn.  She was having a lot of fun.

We went around the community once and then I thought I’d take my skateboard out and ride it while I helped Munchkin steer the car. I put Dante in the passenger side or the car, put the seat belt on him, got my skateboard and off we went.  Turns out the skateboard wasn’t very helpful.  It kept getting in the way and I couldn’t help steer the car the way I thought I would.  In fact, Munchkin started getting annoyed at me and she ended up telling me not to help steer anymore.  When I tried she would yell at me so I said, “okay…have it your way”.  A moment later they had crashed into a fire hydrant.

going-for-a-ride.jpg

After bailing them out, we went around the community once again.  Munchkin happily driving, while Dante was on the cell phone (okay, he sucked on the cell phone).  Although Munchkin would often take the phone away from him and put back in it’s slot, in the car. A second later Dante would take it and put it back in his mouth.  It was fun to see the two of them in that little car.

After that, we went back home, put the car away, went upstairs to the kid’s room and played for a few more hours.  There was a lot more to the day than that, with all the feedings and the dish washing and the  laundry…but I won’t go into all that.  The point is, it was a busy day and it really wore me and the kids out.  We had our fun though.

BLOGS

You ought to read this:

the human condition…is everywhere

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Making up time. Bad Dante. Dreamblade.

November 13, 2008 in BOARD GAMES, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
I stayed home Monday this week. The lady that takes care of the kids at the daycare went to the hospital Sunday because of a problem with her arm and has been there all this week so far.  Please pray for her.  She’s a very nice lady and the kids really love her.

Since I stayed home for a day, I had to make up the hours. This meant staying four hours late for two days.  I hate doing that because it’s really tiring.  I could have just done two hours extra for four days but that would have meant leaving work at the peak of rush hour. I just couldn’t stomach a two hour drive home.

I’m working as hard as I can at work.  In the past, I would often come in to work and slack off a bit in the mornings.  I’ve found I can no longer do that, the pressure to finish my scenes is too great.  Maybe it’s because my entire work load is on the screen at one time and it really puts the pressure on.  Also, the fact that we have two weeks less time than we used to, doesn’t help.  Not having as many people working on the show, also puts on the pressure.

Worst of all, I found out this week that after the screening of the board-a-matic the stuff we’ve been doing on the computer is all going to be printed out and the show is going to be finished on paper.  I don’t have a desk that I can do paper work on.  Am I going to stay on Lance’s show or am I going to help out someone else? If I stay on his show, does that mean I’m going to have to move again or am going to get laid off for a few weeks?  If I ask about these things, I’ll get the same answer Lance did when HE asked, “I don’t know”.  The people in charge of the show don’t really know how things will change from one day to the next and are as frustrated as we are.  I hope things will work themselves out.

FAMILY
Staying with the kids Monday reminded me of how much fun it is to be with them. Dante is just so active now.  It’s funny because when ever I put on my “daddy voice” and call out his name in order to warn him against doing something naughty, he turns to me wide eyed and says:

dante-sandwich.gif

On Tuesday, when I went back to work, I really missed them.  We played a lot on Monday and generally had a great time.  (Sigh)

BOARD GAMES
My friend Andy came over to play Dreamblade  this Friday.  We managed to play four games in four hours, which is really good.  That means we are getting the hang of the game.  We still discovered places where we were playing the game wrong though.  We fixed that fairly early on.

I lost three out of the four games.  After the first game (which I won) he began playing the game with a rare figure that  really turned the tide of the game pretty badly.  I was sure it  there was still a way for me to beat it, but it was very difficult.  I was getting better at playing against that figure as the night went on and by the fourth game I managed to only lose by only one point. This was actually pretty good.  I think I should have used a different “Warband” (this is what the group of miniatures you play with is called).  Maybe next time I can take that figure down.

https://i0.wp.com/www.mrbass.org/boardgames/dreamblade/images/dreamblade01.jpg
It was a fun night. I really was itching to play a game.

If you’re curious about the game and you don’t really want to spend money but you want to play it;  here are some PDFs you can use to print out and play a  paper versions of the game.

01Dreamblade40mmValor.pdf 1.3MB
02Dreamblade40mmMadness.pdf 1.2MB
03Dreamblade40mmFear.pdf 1.3MB
04Dreamblade40mmPassion.pdf 1.4MB

DBM_Base_Set_Stats.pdf 748KB
3299A_DBMS01_enc_W.pdf Base Encyclopedia 50MB
3298A_DBMS02_enc_W.pdf Baxar’s War Encyclopedia 41MB
DreambladeReferencev4.pdf 140KB
Dreamblade_Rulebook.pdf 3.2MB

Dreamblade_Virtual_Starter.pdf 2.1MB
dreamblade_virtual_booster.pdf 1MB
DBM_Color_Map_Full.pdf 1.9MB
DBM_BW_Map_Full.pdf 176KB
Dreamblade_Map.pdf 384KB

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Simpsons season premier. Halloween.

November 6, 2008 in FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Season premier happened last Sunday with the Halloween special.  There was a season premier party for all the people who work on the show.  It took place at Universal Studios this year.  It happened at night. The park was closed, except for us.  We were only allowed to be around a small fenced in section that surrounded the Simpsons’ Ride.  As far as food went, this was by far the party with the most variety. All of the food restaurants directly around the ride where available to us for free.  That was very cool.

I went with my Alesha, of course, and after we had eaten and finished watching the show (which I enjoyed), we went on the ride.  It was the first time for Alesha.  I pointed out the things I had worked on as we waited in line and she took pictures.  We then went on the ride.  She really liked it.  I had fun going on it again as well.

Afterward Alesha wanted coffee so we went and go some.  I got a hot chocolate.  It was really cold and it helped out.  We left shortly after that, mostly because we didn’t want to keep my parents (who were watching the kids) up too late.  It was a Sunday night, after all.  Alesha hadn’t managed to finish her coffee before we left and the guard at the exit wouldn’t let her leave with her coffee.  He said that open drinks were not allowed outside the park.  She ended up throwing the rest away and was very annoyed after that.

Overall, we had fun.  Alesha had been very stressed out lately and going out, just the two of us, to a party with a ride in it, really helped her unwind.

FAMILY

This was the first Halloween that my daughter was “aware” that it was Halloween. Alesha got her a Snow White costume to wear.  I think she liked it, but I’m not really sure because she was a bit puzzled by it when we first put it on.

She went to work with my wife instead of getting dropped off at daycare with Dante.  There was a big Halloween celebration at the school and Alesha said she was had a blast.  Midday Alesha came by  my work and dropped her off on her way to do an errand.   There was a Halloween party going on at that time at my job, so it was fine.  When I took her out the car, she was asleep and I carried her around for about an hour because she didn’t want to wake up.  After she finally did, it took her about thirty minutes before she stopped being cranky.  She finally livened up and she started having a good time at the party.  One of my fellow co-workers also dressed up as Snow White.  Munchkin didn’t want to leave her side.  She wanted to be everywhere Snow White was.  It was very funny.  Everyone loved Munchkin and she had a great day.

On the way home, we stopped for the night at my parents house.  Dante and Munchkin spent the rest of the night playing with the toys they have at their house.  Dante had a great time too. There was so much he could play with, he was overwhelmed.  We didn’t take Munchkin out “treat or treating” because she was having too much fun playing and I don’t think we really had the energy for it anyway.  Still, she and Dante had fun.

She stayed up very late that night and by the time we got home, she was out cold.

munchkin-snow-white.jpg


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Hi, Welcome!

This blog is your window into the daily life of a Simpsons artist. See what it's like work on a hit TV show!

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