Luis' Illustrated Blog

Simpsons Storyboard artist. Artist and storyteller. Exploring how to make a living, by being creative.
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Halloween. Chuck Jones stories. Animation Expo

November 5, 2009 in ART, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

We had the studio Halloween party last Friday.  Overall it looked like it wasn’t going to be much fun. The studio has so few people the party almost looked deserted.  Things pick up when the costume contest began.  Suddenly the party got really fun.  Lots of cool costumes, including a group of people who dressed up as the cast of Gilligan’s Island (Ship and all).

As far as the rest of the work week, not much to report. Just churning away at scenes.  Today I’m going to be staying late to make up for the fact that I’ll need to come in late tomorrow.  Outside of the party, it hasn’t been too eventful

FAMILY

Taking another break from the trip to Disneyland story to write about Halloween.

I don’t like Halloween.  I’m not into dressing up and I’m not into going to parties, so Halloween does nothing for me.  That being said, I had a great Halloween this year.  Perhaps the best one I’ve ever had.  Why? Because of my kids.

We didn’t know what we were going to dress the kids up as for Halloween.  On Friday at daycare, they had gotten their faces drawn on so that Munckin looked like a dog and Dante looked at like a cat.  Munchkin really enjoyed that. So much so that when I wiped the paint off later, she got very sad. After that, we knew what she was going to be for Halloween. Dante was not so attached to the cat idea.  He really didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

On Saturday, we made our way to some Halloween stores where we bought some paint and a tail for Munchkin’s costume and figure out a costume for Dante.  He didn’t want dress like a monkey so in the end, we dressed him up like Superman.  When I showed him the costume we got him, he laughed out loud.

I had fun painting Munchkin’s face.  All I did was paint a white eye patch around one eye and then I painted her nose and put some “muzzle” lines around her mouth. She looked great.  Alesha later did her hair to look like floppy ears. When we put on her tail, she shook her hips to make her tail wag.  She was having fun being a puppy.

We met my parents, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my nephew Paolo in front of a library where the stores in the area where doing a trick or treating event.  There were tons of kids and parents everywhere and we saw all kinds of costumes.  Little Paolo and his mommy were all dressed up like 50s greasers; even down to Paolos converse sneakers.  He was very cute.

Once we met up, we went Trick or Treating. This is where it just became super fun for me. Dante was too little still to really enjoy what was going on.  He had a good time but not in the same way that his sister was having fun.  She was really into it. It was a joy to see her go up to get candy.  She’d been watching Halloween cartoons for days and, for her to actually be doing the Trick or Treating that the cartoons showed, must have been the best thing ever.

Unfortunately, not everyone in the group was up to the task of taking the kids Trick or Treating for long.  After, about an hour an a half or so, we had to call it quits.  The ordeal was too tiring.  We all went back to my brother’s house, hung out and had dinner there.  That was fun too.  The kids ate candy, played and ran around. Meanwhile we watched Looney Toons talked about them and other things. It was fun.

halloween.jpg

We had to leave at 7:00pm though because my brother had to wake up early the next day. Still, it was a great day.

PODCASTS

Last week I wrote about the art podcasts I had been listening to but I left one out.

The Man vs. Art podcast.

Well, I just thought I’d plug it again.  Especially since the latest podcast has a Halloween theme and a Looney Tunes theme as well. Which is a strange coincidence since watching  Looney Tunes was part of my Halloween.

Raul goes into some interesting stories that Bill Melendez told him about working at Warner Brother on Looney Tune cartoons, back in the day.  Check out the podcast.

ART

Nov.  20-22 is the CNT Animation Expo, here, at the Burbank Convention Center.  It actually sound like great fun.  It’s like a little Comic Con but only for animation. Some of the best artists in the industry will be giving talks over their area of expertise. Many of the major studios will also be recruiting there. It’s a great place to get connections and network. It’s also only a block away from Starz Media/Film Roman, where I work.    I really want to go.

The only thing I don’t like about it, is the cost.  If you didn’t sign up before Oct. 31st, you have to pay 70$ to get in, in order to participate in any of the panels (which is really, the best reason to come). Otherwise, you just pay 25$ and you get the run of the show floor.

If you’re interested, CLICK HERE to get to the website.

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CLICK HERE to buy an Uncle Chestnut T-shirt with my art on it.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.


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Crazy deadlines, Trip to Disneyland part 6, Larry’s reel, my new obsession, Munchkin plays Dora on the PS2.

October 29, 2009 in ART, FAMILY, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Before I begin, I just wanted to ask you to leave a comment if you like what you read or if you like a specific thing I do.  I tend to just write about what I feel like writing about but  I like knowing what you like to me writing about or would like me to write about. I’ve only received one or two comments in a long time and maybe it’s my fault for not responding more often to comments but it also seems like no one is out there.  Thanks.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Crazy work week this week.  I was given an enormously complicated section late Friday. I had to combine three scenes into one long pan scene. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it wasn’t for the fact that I had been given many more scenes besides this one to finish.  The pressure came because I only had Monday and Tuesday to really work on the scenes before I was to move on to another crew.

I worked on and finished as many  priority scenes as I could get to before I got to the big one.  When I finally did get to it (on Friday near the end of the day) I discovered it was a technical nightmare. I had to figure out a way to use the original scenes’ artwork with the main scene I was combining them with.  It took a very long time just to get all the artwork to be the right size. Then I had to add acting as well as separate the characters so that animation cycles could be made out of them and figure out all the camera movements.  This took me all day Monday and by the end of the day, I still wasn’t finished.  On Tuesday I went back on the scene and started hacking away at the last of the scene.  I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to get it done.  To my surprise, I did. It took me 20 minutes to export the artwork so that it could be edited into the reel.  This usually takes seconds, or at the most, a minute or two.  I had finished with hours to spare.

This allowed me to finish working on all the other scenes I hadn’t gotten to that were of lower priority. I needed to get those scenes done before 3:00 pm because at that time, I need to be at a story reel meeting for my next crew. That, and the fact that it was almost time for me to leave work because I had gotten in early and I was not approved for overtime. I managed to finish those scenes with 15 minutes to spare and I felt very relieved and good about myself when I finally left work

When I got into work on Wednesday I checked the reel to see how the big complicated scene played out in the end.  Turns out the director must not have liked the way it looked because he had re-separated the scene into five scenes. I felt VERY frustrated.

Sometimes a scene has to be tried out before it can be seen to not work well.  I just happened to have worked on one such scene.

FAMILY

For Part 0, CLICK HERE.

For Part 1, CLICK HERE.

For Part 2, CLICK HERE.

For Part 3, CLICK HERE.

For Part 4, CLICK HERE.

For Par 5, CLICK HERE.

After our walk through Mini Mouse’s house, we made our way to Donald Duck’s boat and Goofy’s house.  We all took a small break in Goofy’s house while the kids played with all of Goofy’s things. They had a blast playing on Goofy’s piano:

singing-at-goofys-house.jpg
We were all hungry and needed a restroom break so after leaving Goofy’s house, we made a restroom stop and then made our way to the Toon Town food Court.  The options were very limited.  The food was not very good either.  The entertainment, on the other hand, was great.  Goofy decided to take a break for a few minutes, by going into the Library (as in back stage) when he came back out, he did so with much fanfare.  He was trying to do a cool dance but kept messing up and having to go back inside in order to come back out and try it again.  After three times of doing this, he managed to pull it off. His big finally was semi-standing on his head. It was pretty impressive for a guy in a big suit and mask:

goofy-handstand.jpg

To be continued…

ART/PODCASTS

So, if you’ve been paying attention, you’d notice that I was writing a lot about board games a few months back, and then it slowly drifted to writing a lot about Role Playing games.  This is because all my free time was spent listening to podcasts, reading and thinking about these things. Mostly because of the podcasts though.  There came a point a few weeks back where I ran out of game podcast to listen to and I began listening to the non game podcasts on my ipod.  Some of the podcasts I listened to were illustration related podcasts like:

  • Ninja Mountain Scrolls podcast (a very funny group of sci fi and fantasy illustrators that give you a taste of what being a freelance illustrator is like) and
  • W.I.P. (similar to Ninja Mountain with a different group of people. Very enjoyable).  This lead me to listen to the
  • Escape from Illustration Island podcast (interviews with people who have illustration friendly resource sites for artist), which in turn lead me to listen to
  • Chris Oatley’s Artcast, (podcast about a fellow artist in the animation industry. He still has the fire that I once had when I started in animation.  Listening to him has helped me find that fire again) which pointed me to both the
  • Big Illustration Party Time podcast (two illustrators who are trying to work on their own comic on the side) and the
  • Art and Story podcast (two other artist who talk about the process of creating their own indy comics) as well as the very inspiring
  • Steve Silver artcast (an animation character designer and caricaturist who loves to draw. He’s one of the best in the animation business and I was really surprised to discover he had a podcast).

As the gaming podcasts lead me into an obsession with games, the art podcasts has lead me back to my first love, art.  When I listened to gaming podcasts, I often wished I could game more or even create my own games.  I found no one wanted to game with me and I didn’t want to put in all the work I needed to do to create a game.  On the other hand, listening to art podcasts, has inspired me to start drawing again.  This, I can and will put effort into since it directly ties in to my work life and because it’s fun. If you suddenly start seeing a little bit more effort put on the artwork on my doodles or if you see the cartoons come out less often in place of some other kind of illustration or drawing, it’s because this is really where my mind is at right now.  I kinda want to keep it there for as long as possible.

FAMILY

I got Munchkin a used ($15) Dora the Explorer video game about half a year or so ago.  She loved it but she wasn’t old enough to figure out the controls. Not only that, but the game would often not even load on my old PS2.

Dora the Explorer: Journey to the Purple Planet Boxshot

A week ago I was talking with my brother-in-law Michael and he told me that he got a CD/DVD cleaner and it helped his old X-box play games that wouldn’t load.  I bought a CD/DVD cleaner last weekend and used it on my PS2 and my PS1.  Now all the games I load into the systems work.  I put the  Dora game in for Munchkin and she started playing it again.  Surprisingly, she was able to navigate the game better then the last time she played it.  She figured out how to move the character around the game world. No small feat for a three year old since the game is in 3D (ala Mario 64).  She also listened very carefully to what the game needed her to do and she began to do it.  She started to problem solve the game’s “problems” and came up with the right solutions.  It was amazing.

Now she plays the game for thirty minutes to an hour before bedtime.  She really enjoys it and I’m amazed at how good she’s gotten at controlling the game and problem solving.

ART

My friend Larry Whitaker has put up his demo reel up on Youtube.  Take a look and please leave a comment for him at the Youtube site.  He’d really appreciate it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c18k0-04bMY

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CLICK HERE to buy an Uncle Chestnut T-shirt with my art on it.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

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And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

 

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

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A trip to Disneyland: Part 0. Dungeons and Dragons Podcast. Free D&D clones

September 10, 2009 in FAMILY, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Since I had to make up the hours from our little trip to Disneyland (see below) on Tuesday, I had to work late this week.  It was especially difficult because, since it was Labor Day on Monday, I only had three weekdays to use to make up the work.  It was even more difficult because a house insurance person was appointed to come over to the house early Wednesday and came really late.  This meant I had to make up even MORE hours.  Needless to say it’s a hectic week.

FAMILY

We wanted to take Munchkin to Disneyland for her birthday.  We chose not to take her on her birthday months since it was still summer vacation time, which meant that it was peak season.  It would have been crowed and the lines for the rides would have been awful. Taking advantage of the fact that we live in Southern California, we decided to wait for an off season month and go on a weekday, thus avoiding the crowds. We chose Tuesday of this week.  I took some pictures and missed a lot of good picture moments which I’m going to have to supplement with drawings from my head. In any case, I’ll be writing about our trip for the next few weeks, when I get a chance.

disneyland-intro.jpg

To go to Part 1 Click Here.

PODCASTS

So I write a lot about table top role playing games. Well, if you’ve ever wondered what playing one would be like, there are a few podcasts out there where gamers record their game sessions for everyone to hear.  One of these, and by far the most entertaining one you can listen to, is the Dungeons and Dragons game session podcasts.

Starring such internet celebrities as:

The folks at Penny Arcade (webcomic):

  • Mike Krahulik (Gabe from Penny Arcade): as Jim Darkmagic of the New Hampshire Darkmagics
  • Jerry Holkins (Tycho from Penny Arcade): as Omin Dran, CEO of Acquisitions Incorporated

The creator of PvP (webcomic):

  • Scott Kurtz: as Binwin Bronzebottom

and of Star Trek Next Generation fame and geek superstar extraordinaire:

  • Wil Wheaton: as “Al”.

They all play the funniest game of D&D 4th edition I’ve ever heard.  It truly is entertaining to listen to.

They’ve been playing the game for quite a few sessions already.  I will put a link below starting with their newest adventure.

If you like any of these guy’s web comics (THE most successful on the internet) or  Wil Wheaton’s comedy (which is fantastic), you owe it to yourself to listen to this podcast.

Episode One of their new adventure.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/podcast_papvp3_1.jpg

Episode Two of their new adventure.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/podcast_papvp3_2.jpg

Caution: The podcast contains strong language.

ROLE PLAYING GAMES

…and speaking of Dungeons and Dragons…

As you may know, D&D is now on it’s 4th edition (4E) and it’s a bit of a pricey hobby to get into…BUT…

If you want to get into it and don’t want to spend any money, there are a lot of people who have created “retro-clones” of the original editions of D&D. Editions 0 thru 2.

For an in depth look through all these books go to: To the Blogmobile! (which is where I got all my info).

Here’s the gist of what you need to know. The games below are free to download:

Inspired by: Dungeons & Dragons (1974) and Supplements (1979)

  • Swords & Wizardry: White Box
  • Swords & Wizardry: Core Rules  (ENnie award winning free game!)
  • Microlite74

Inspired by: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1978)

  • OSRIC  (Old School Reference & Index Compilation)
  • Labyrinth Lord
  • Basic Fantasy

All these games have a lot of support from fans and are compatible with any old school D&D supplements and modules you can find on the net.

It is also possible to find the original D&D books to download.  I recommend the retro-clones first because the original games’ rules are poorly layout out and often confusing.  Once you’ve read the much better written retro-clones, it will become much easier to figure out the what the original rules are trying to say. (Not to mention that I’m not sure it’s legal, but I could be wrong).

I also recommend downloading and reading this:

  • A quick primer of old school gaming.

It shows the difference in how these old school rule differ from the new modern versions of D&D, and the mindset you need in order to understand how the game is meant to be interpreted and played. In other words, why the game is so simple and how in blazes do you play something so simple.


If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

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Finishing up on a crew. Board gaming with Munchkin. Eduardito’s birthday

September 3, 2009 in BLOGS, BOARD GAMES, FAMILY, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Chaotic work week. Alesha started work so we started out carpooling together. Do to the crazy amount of last minute work I need to get done, that soon changed. I had to get all my work on one crew done by Tuesday because I started on a new crew on Wednesday.  I wasn’t told until late Monday.  It wasn’t a very happy situation.

FAMILY 

I just thought I’d take the time to say,

“Happy Birthday!” to Eduardito. My cousin’s boy has turned 3 years old, hurray! He had a really fun birthday party Saturday.  I kinda wished we could have stayed a bit longer since Munchkin was just starting to have fun but, Alesha wasn’t feeling well.  Best part of the party was seeing Dante hit the pinata. Very funny.

BOARD GAMES

So I asked Munchkin if she wanted to play a card game with me.  Of course she said, “YES!” So I took out a Memory game.   It’s a Mr. Potato Head Memory card game we got as a McDonalds Happy Meal toy a year or so ago.  I’ve been waiting all this time to be able to play a game with her with these cards.  I tried to do so a few weeks after we had gotten them but she was too little to understand the memory matching.

At first I wanted to test her to see if she would be able to understand what we were suppose to be doing.  I put the cards face down and she flipped one up, then she took turns flipping every card, looking at it, then putting it back down face down until she found the match.  This is how we played the first two times.  I didn’t take any turns.

Then I decided to test her to see if she would play by the “rules” by only allowing her to flip over two cards. If they didn’t match, it was MY turn.  That way, if I flipped over a card she was looking for, I wanted to see if she would remember it.  Also, I wanted to see if she got the idea of taking turns.  I did this with a few cards at first and with every game I added more.  She did fantastic.   We were playing with all the cards in no time. I was amazed.  She even beat me at the game quite a few times, she was really good at it.  I handicapped myself, only a little and unintentionally.  When I would find a match, I wouldn’t take another turn, but when she found a match, she took another turn.  When I tried to take a second turn after I found a match, I found she got impatient and thought it was unfair. She felt I was skipping her turn so I stopped doing it.  Otherwise, we played the game by the rules.

To me, this was the greatest thing ever.  I was FINALLY playing a board game with my daughter.  One that wasn’t mindless.  One with choices. It was as if the clouds had parted and God (looking like the one in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail) came out of a cloud saying:

Monty Python God blessing my Gaming

So having realized that Munchkin is old enough to play games with me now, I made my way to the local Target store the next day to look for games I might be able to play with her.  I looked at games and found a few but I wasn’t sure if they were any good so I wrote down the names of all the ones I thought looks interesting and went home to look them up on BGG.

None but ONE of the games where any good, and even the one I thought sounded good wasn’t really all that good.  What I was searching for was a game that she could learn to play now, but that would still be challenging as she got older. Though a bit dull, Memory is exactly this type of game.  All you do is add more cards and it gets more difficult. Candyland was right out.  No decisions and too easily outgrown (not to mention I did NOT want to play Candyland).  So I searched online for some games.  These are the games that caught my eye that I think fit the criteria I was looking for:

Kids of Carcassonne:

Yes, that’s right, there is a Carcassonne game for kids and it looks great. I think Munchkin would “get” this one to some extent and she could grow into it.  Check out this review of the game:

Next is…

Gulo Gulo:

This is a dexterity game with a modular board where you play a cute wolverine who takes eggs from the vulture nest in the middle. You do this so you can rescue the baby wolverine that has gotten himself trapped in the nest. Here’s a video review explaining the game:

Finally…

Chicken Cha Cha Cha:

A memory game with also with a modular board. The object of the game is to steal the feathers of the other player’s chickens by jumping over them.  The way you move your chicken forward is by flipping over a card in the center of the board that matches the picture in the square in front of  your chicken.  You continue your turn until you fail to find a match.

Out of  all of these, I think I can make a homemade version of Chicken Cha Cha Cha.  It just won’t be as silly as the chicken theme but we will be able to play it.

I’m thinking of using the Qwirkle tiles to do this.  They work really well to play Memory.  In fact, after I got tired of the Potato Head Memory game I subjected to Munchkin that we use the Qwirkle tiles.  We took out a set of matching pieces, flipped them around, shuffled them up and played a game.  It was much more difficult and still, Munchkin did amazingly well.  She won most of the time and I think I tide her once.  Although I suppose I did let her win sometimes.  Still, she remembered where tiles were or the general area where tiles were.  Sometimes she remembered tiles I hadn’t, and as a bonus, after we were done playing she decided to just play with the tiles.  She like telling me the colors and shapes as well as counting them.

I love being able to play board games with her now.

BLOGS/PODCASTS

I’ve recently been asked by two different bloggers/podcasters if for permission to use my drawings for their posts.  They’ve both used the drawings for very different purposes and I find that kinda neat.

Here a link to both the sites:

St. Mary Catholic Church Podcast – My drawing is used as a compliment to a “sound bite” of a sermon on the Sacrament of Reconciliation (a.k.a. Confession). It’s two minutes long. Check it out.

No More Lives – This a blog (and soon to be podcast) which tries to be, in their own words, “the New Yorker of video games”. In an attempt to bring in a little variety to their content, they’ve gotten a board game geek on board to express a different position. My drawing was used in one such article on their site called Gaming Without Batteries  by Kyle Bolin. Great read.


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Hurray for overtime. Reading through Alesha’s story. Raul, superstar. Green Lantern: First Flight

August 20, 2009 in BLOGS, FAMILY, MOVIES, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

This is the second time I’m writing this since I lost my original version somehow.  I have to make sure to make a back up. This post is the MUCH ABRIDGED version of the original.

I’ve gotten permission to do overtime at work.  This is good since I need the money.  It’s bad because I don’t get much time to do anything else (like re-write my lost blog post).

FAMILY

Alesha finished the first draft of her story. I’ve been reading it and giving her my two cents.  It starts off really well and then it begins to get a bit rushed.  She needs to double her word count so it’s not a big deal.  She just needs to slow the story down a bit by adding more.  It’s fun to read.  We’ve been bouncing ideas back and forth on it. Once it’s done, maybe I’ll put up a chapter or two on the blog.

reading.gif

BLOG/PODCAST

Raul is at it again. Making himself a multimedia superstar. Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a72BKO2JwMo

MOVIES

Alesha and I saw, Green Lantern: First Flight on Monday.  I rented it late last week.  I really enjoyed it. Not for the kiddies.  This is rate PG-13.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1yAArJe8c

I’m also looking forward to the next animated movie DC is coming out with. It’s based on a great comic I own called Public Enemies. Take a look:


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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.


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Our fifth wedding anniversary, Munchkin’s Birthday. Rosaries and Deaths in the family. Raul’s new blog and podcast

August 13, 2009 in BLOGS, BOARD GAMES, BOOKS, FAMILY, PODCASTS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Not much to tell. Just plugging away at the scenes I need to finish.

FAMILY

This weekend was a very eventful one.  It began Friday. Alesha and I celebrated five years of marriage.  Well…we technically didn’t celebrate it until Saturday.  We gave each other presents on Friday.  I got her some “hair goop” that she wanted and a book I thought she would enjoy (Here There be Dragons by James A. Owen). She gave me a board game. A very cool one I wanted. It had won the German Game of the Year this year.  Big honor in the board game community.  It’s called Dominion.

Friday, instead of going out for our anniversary, we ended up NOT spending the day together at all.  I got home and went to a Rosary that was being held at my Cousin Carolina’s house. Alesha was planning to go too but Dante decided he reealllly wanted to go to bed for the night.  We kinda didn’t have a choice.  One of us had to stay home with him so Munchkin and I went to the Rosary together.  Munchkin had a blast playing with her cousin Eduardito.  They played pretty hard.  It looked like an awful lot of work to be playing as hard as they were.  I was very happy to see them enjoying themselves as much as they did.  I was really tired myself.  Problem is, when I’m really tired or stressed or emotional, I tend to want to be by myself.  Being around people and attempting to socialize just about kills every ounce of energy I have.  I spent most of the time playing a video game on my DS while listening to conversations other people around me were having.  I tend to isolate myself so much I don’t really have anything relevant to say to anyone about any subjects people bring up at parties so I end up listening and, by default, learning a few things.

Praying the Rosary in a group is very enjoyable to me.  I always feel happier after it’s over.  It always brings home what’s important in life.

We left at about nine o’clock and of course, Munchkin didn’t want to leave.

Saturday was spent, mostly, with the kids, but we had made arrangements with my mom to take care of the kids at four so Alesha and I could go on a date. Our date was a simple dinner and a movie.  It had been a long time since we had eaten Japanese.  I was desperate for some sushi.  I love that stuff. So we went to a Japanese restaurant near us that has a really good reputation.  It was great.   We had a very enjoyable dinner.  We then went to go see the GI Joe movie.  It was a highly entertaining, ridiculously stupid and silly movie.  We had a fantastic time watching it and we had just as much fun laughing at how cheesy it was afterward. I’d so buy that movie when it comes out on DVD.  It’s that lame and fun.

We then picked up the kids, who were asleep by then, but who had just as good a time with my parents as Alesha and I had on our date. After we put them to bed, we opened up a bottle of the wine we always open on our anniversary and watched The Princess Bride in bed until we fell asleep.  It was a great date night.

The next day was Munchkin’s birthday.   The kids must have had a really tiring day the day before because they didn’t wake up at seven on their own the way they usually do.  By a quarter till eight, they were still asleep  and it didn’t seem like they were going to wake up anytime soon. I woke Munchkin up and told her it was her birthday. She acted as though the whole idea was surreal to her. She was given a special birthday breakfast of pancakes with sprinkle on it.  Afterward we all got ready for church.  Alesha and I made the huge mistake of going to a ten o’clock Mass with the kids.  It was a mistake because that was Dante’s nap time.  He was sleepy and cried pretty much the whole time.  Alesha missed most of the Mass because she had to take him out the church. When we got back we put both kids down for a nap.  They had both fallen asleep in the car.

I took this time to go get Munchkin a present.  I had an idea of what I wanted to get her but the store that had what I wanted was closed. I ended up getting her something else. Alesha was desperate for me to get back home.  Dante had woken up crying and there was no consoling him.  I had to stop and get some things Alesha wanted at the store and then I hurried home as fast as I could.  We needed to get to my parents as soon as possible so Alesha could help my mom with the food.  Dante cried the whole way.   We suspect that, since he is teething, it had to do with that.  We had given him something for the pain but it didn’t stop him from crying. He had been crying for about an hour and half when we pulled up to my parent’s house. Then, when Dante saw my dad, he stopped.  We’re still not sure what it was all about.

Munchkin had a blast at her party.  She played with her cousins and had a great time. She opened presents and got lots of nice gifts.  The last gift she got was a plastic princess crown and jewelry.  The party ended around eight.  We really needed to leave so the kids could be put to bed. They had to wake up early to go to daycare the next day.

lollipop.jpg

…figures.

FAMILY

My cousin Tony passed away early Monday morning. He had neuro muscular dystrophy. I want to write more but I can’t…except to say that my one regret is that I wish I would have spent some time with him while he was still alive…but was too much of a coward to do so. I spent no time with him at all, either healthy or sick. Please pray for him and the family. Especially his widow.

BLOGS/PODCASTS

Raul has decided to go multimedia. He now has a blog and a podcast.  You can find them at: http://manvsart.com/. He’s got two episodes up. An intro episode and a second episode.  The second one is darn entertaining and he made me laugh.  Go check it out.

Self portrait


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Storyboard revisions, Rosary army baby, Daycare, Alesha’s Birthday Orphan Works

September 11, 2008 in Copyright Protections, MY WEEK, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Storyboarding, Yay! Been revising the boards for the show all this week as well.  I’m having a blast and I’m very happy to be doing it.  Meanwhile, the studio is moving forward in a big way to get us to go digital.  I’m going to be having classes on the program we will be using  tomorrow, (Friday).  That way, by the time I get on the machine, I’ll at least know my way around it a bit.

The head of the Korean animation studio that does the second part of the work on the show, came by this week.  He had a list of things he wanted to see from us that would help them be more efficient and help ease the work load.  That way, we can get the shows done faster for less money.  It was very interesting.

Speaking of budget.  I’m pretty sure this show tends to make an awful lot of money and yet, we always seem to be penny pinching on our end.  We don’t always have the money we need in order to do what we need to do.  Why?  Well, some people who work on this show get paid extremely well.  So well, that it’s actually making the show more and more expensive to produce.  It’s only a matter of time before Fox decides the show is more of a loss than a gain and it’s not worth producing anymore.  We are trying real hard to do what we do on our end to make the show cheaper, to avoid that happening too soon.  Sux.

PODCASTS/WEBCAST
Just thought I’d congratulate Greg and Jennifer Willits from Rosary Army, once again.  Last week they sent out a Podcast/Webcast (RA show #240) which allowed us to ease drop on them discovering the sex of their baby.  It was very moving and exciting.  You ought to check it out it you haven’t yet.

Okay, I’m going to spoil it for you now, so my apologies if you haven’t heard it:

It’s a girl Rosary Army!

MY FAMILY
Lots of things are changing.  My wife is going back to work.  She’s  going to meetings all next week.  She’s going to be working full time.  This means that we are NOT going to be able to take care of the kids ourselves and we can’t leave the kids with friends of family.  So for the first time, we are going to leave them in day care everyday.  They’ve had experience with a Day Care environment before, but not every day for months.  Just an occasional one day a month kinda thing.

To be honest.  I’m not happy about it.  It’s expensive and we are not raising our kids ourselves during the time they are in Day Care.  On the other hand Munchkin needs to be more social and be around kids and it’s not like we are not around during the times they aren’t in Day Care.  The place we will be leaving them in will do many educational things with the kids, including take them to the library (which is something that we tend to do with our kids when we get the chance anyway).  It’s not all bad.  Still, I just don’t like doing it.  Especially with Dante being so young.  Who knows, maybe it will be good for him to be around all the kids.  I pray this will turn out well.

MY FAMILY

In much happier news…IT’S ALESHA’S BIRTHDAY TODAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY! YAY!

COPYRIGHT PROTECTIONS

The Orphan works battle is still not over.  There is still a chance that it may come up again.  Last time it was a close call.  This is what’s going on now:

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS‘ PARTNERSHIP

With Congress back in session this week, Orphan Works rumors are back too.
According to some sources, deals have been made to pass the bills quickly.
According to others, the bills have stalled for this session.
Here’s what we know, independent of conflicting sources:

SEPT 6 OpenCongress Lists “8 Controversial Bills That Congress Still May Pass”
In Congress Gossip, by Donny Shaw, the article notes that the Orphan Works Bills “have been called out by concerned citizens… but are in a good position to quickly become law” in the next several weeks. The author quotes artist Brad Holland and attorney Larry Lessig in opposition to the legislation, and ends with this quote from “an anonymous OpenCongress user”:

“Isn’t it funny how music is getting huge, sledgehammer like protection in HR 4279 and visual art is getting devalued and made worthless by this bill, HR 5889? Music must just be soo much more valuable. It’s all about the corporate interests. Artists need to band together for our own protection and fight this dangerous bill. I’m an art student, and while I will never stop making art I’m worried I’ll be unable to make a living at it. It’s never been easy to be an artist without this kind of stuff coming along and making it impossible for us.”

Read the full article here: http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/636-8-Controversial-Bills-That-Congress-Still-May-Pass

SEPT 10 Authors Groups Submit Opposition Papers to Small Business Administration
The Illustrators’ Partnership, Artists Rights Society and Advertising Photographers of America have submitted over 60 papers and articles to the Office of Advocacy of the US Small Business Administration. These written statements were filed on behalf of attorneys, illustrators, designers, fine artists, photographers, songwriters, musicians, writers, members of the art licensing community and other small business owners. All are opposed to the bill.  

These papers are the written statements submitted in conjunction with the Orphan Works Roundtable, conducted by the SBA  August 8, 2008 at the Salmagundi Club in New York City. The package will be distributed to lawmakers in both houses of Congress.

The webcast of the SBA Roundtable is available here: http://videos.cmitnyc.com/asip.html

A PDF of the collected papers will be available soon from the Illustrators’ Partnership Orphan Works blog: http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/

AUGUST 30 Copyright Expert Releases Analysis of Orphan Works Bills
Leading copyright expert Jane C. Ginsburg of the Columbia Law School has published a major Orphan Works piece, the first of a two part article:
Recent Developments in US Copyright Law: Part I – “Orphan” Works.

Professor Ginsburg’s scholarly paper raises several critical questions about the current legislation. Among various points, she notes that certain provisions appear to violate Article 10.1 of the Berne Convention, which prohibits prejudicial exceptions to an author’s exclusive right of copyright. She states that the preclusion of injunctive relief with respect to derivative works would appear to force authors to tolerate “even derivative uses they find offensive or that distort their works,” and she adds that this “has economic consequences as well,” depriving the author of the right “to grant exclusive derivative work rights to a third party.  The bill thus potentially devalues the derivative work right.”

“The US proposals,” she writes, “may run afoul of EU restrictions” for various reasons, and adds: “[t]here may also be Berne- compatibility problems regarding the inclusion of non-divulged [unpublished] works in the proposed orphan works regime…[T]he bills should exclude “orphan works” which have never been disclosed to the public, and whose authors are still living.”

“The ‘progress of knowledge’ to which US copyright aspires,” she writes, “is achieved not only by putting works into circulation, but also by fostering conditions conducive to creativity.”
The full paper can be accessed here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1263361

SEPT 6 French Magazine Telerama Sounds Orphan Works Warning
Main basse sur les images “orphelines” by Olivier Pascal-Moussellard. In this article, initiated by artist Etienne Delessert, the popular French magazine notes that 60 organizations oppose the controversial US bill and warns that it threatens to harm international artists as well “if they don’t wake up.” In opposition to the bill, it quotes Brad Holland and Dr. Ted Feder, President of the Artists Rights Society, which represents the estates of Matisse, Picasso, Chagall and tens of thousands of others.  It also quotes Stefan Biberfeld, legal director of Corbis Europe, noting that stock agencies such as Getty and Corbis will benefit from passage of the legislation because it will allow them to market orphaned work without fear of being “intimidated” by copyright owners. The article is in French.

“LE FIL ARTS ET SCÈNES– Menace sur les droits d’auteur : une loi américaine veut rendre libre l’usage des photos, tableaux ou dessins dont on ne connaît pas l’auteur. A qui profite-t-elle ?”

“Simple question de bon sens, disent les uns. Hold-up légal, rétorquent les autres. Légal, car perpétré par les députés et sénateurs américains, téléguidés en coulisse par les géants d’Internet. L’objet du casse ? Les droits d’auteur des peintres, dessinateurs et photographes américains, mais peut-être aussi ceux de leurs collègues étrangers s’ils ne se réveillent pas.”

TRANSLATION: “Threat to artists’ copyrights: A U.S. law would free up the exploitation of photos, paintings, and illustrations whose creators cannot be located. Who profits?
 
Some maintain that “It’s a simple question of common sense”. Others retort that “It’s legal highway robbery.” Legal, because the law is being perpetrated by U.S. Congressmen and Senators remotely controlled by internet giants operating behind the scenes. The target of this break-in: the copyrights of American painters, photographers and illustrators, but perhaps also of their foreign colleagues if they don’t wake up in time.”

Read the full article: http://www.telerama.fr/scenes/main-basse-sur-les-images-orphelines,33013.php

For ongoing developments, go to the Illustrators’ Partnership Orphan Works blog: http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/

Take Action: Don’t Let Congress Orphan Our Work
E-mail your Senators and Representatives with one click. Go to:
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/

This Capwiz site is open to professional creators and any member of the image-making public.  
Sample letters have been provided. International artists will find a special link, with a sample letter and instructions as to whom to write. Two minutes is all it takes to write Congress and defend full copyright protection for creators.

 

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Adventures at Comic Con 2008 Part 2. Good news for Rosary Army

August 7, 2008 in COMIC CON 2008, PODCASTS, RANDOM SKETCH, THE SIMPSONS NEWS


THE SIMPSONS NEWS

EDIT: (Okay, I’m keep the original post up but we are no longer accepting suggestions.  Thank you all who participated. Hopefully some of your suggestions will be used when the show airs.)
First I’d like to thanks Sara J. Monge for contributing a few more show suggestions. She sent me an e-mail. She asked me if we could use more. I e-mailed her back telling her we still could. I’m not sure if she got my return e-mail though. So just in case you didn’t, thank you. I’ve already summited the suggestions to production. So that everyone knows what shows she suggested, I will repeat them here, that way everyone know what has already been suggested and there are no repeats:

  • The Homer They Fall– Homer is a boxer. He gets hit over and over, but doesn’t fall down (4F03).
  • Two Bad Neighbors-Homer fights with Pres. Bush (Sr) and also falls at the end of the episode w/ Eisenhower
  • Homerpalooza-Homer gets hit with Cannon Balls and an inflatable pig (3F21)
  • Itchy & Scratchy & Marge– Maggie hits Homer with a hammer & the red paint runs into the drain parodying Psycho. (7F09)

 

Had a meeting yesterday about stepping up on our work load. It seems we’re falling behind. Personally I’ve been doing well just about every week so I don’t know what the problem is.

My Director Lance brought in a sculpture of Batman he made off of a drawing my friend Paul made years ago. It turned out really great. At some point they’re going to take pictures of it and put it on Paul’s blog. When they do, I’ll let you know so you can see it. It’s great. People were going in and out of his office all day looking at it. It’s always fun to be surrounded by so many creative and talented people. You never know when they’re going to surprise you with something like that.

COMIC CON 2008

Having rid myself of the Hulk (see last week’s post), I continued on my way around the Con. Past by a booth with an interesting sculpture under glass.

Feast 2 at Comic Con

Then as I went up and down more aisles, I came across two clone troopers oddly guarding a cardboard box that was labeled “George Lucas’ Good Ideas”.

Clone Troopers at Comic Con

When I was a kid, I always wondered why the Millennium Falcon toy wasn’t to scale with the action figures. Well, now I know.

Toy Millenium Falcon at Comic Con

For the second year in a row, the Dark Horse booth had a large partition with a life size line up of the characters in one of their Star Wars expanded universe comics, drawn by one of my favorite artists, Adam Hughes.

Adam Hughes Star Wars at Comic Con

legacy_centerfold_by_adamhughes.jpg
The Sideshow Collectibles booth is by far one of the best booths at the Con every year. You see all kinds of fantastic sculptures, props and things. It was amazing this year. They had life size Hellboy busts, and Ironman helmets and all kind of amazing things. There is just too much to see at the Con.

Ironman Bust at Comic Con

Sideshow Collectibles Ironman at Comic Con

After I was done going through the whole entire floor, aisle by aisle (which took me four hours). I decided to sit down for lunch. All the seats were taken in the designated eating areas and I couldn’t find an empty spot along the walls to sit down and eat because they were also being used. After looking for a while, I finally found an uncrowded place to sit and have my lunch at.

Castle Greyskull at Comic Con

After my lunch, I got a bit sleepy so I decided to take a nap. I had made a friend earlier in the day and he hooked me up with a place to sleep.

Jabba the Hut at Comic Con

After my short rest, I decided to go see some panels. After all, the panels are one of the best things about the Con. That’s where you get to find out the latest news about upcoming movies and favorite Sci Fi or Fantasy TV shows. When I inspected the Con’s program guide, I discovered, to my horror, that Thursday’s panels had none of those things scheduled. All the high profile, cool panels where happening the next day and on Saturday. I was crushed. I couldn’t believe it. I was going to miss out on all that cool panels. So that really stunk. I should make sure I come on a more panel friendly day next time.

Since there was no panels to go look at, I decided I was going to go see some Anime on the screening rooms. As I walked over to them, I checked the schedule to see what was playing. I didn’t recognize any of the shows so that didn’t help much. I was in the mood for something with Sci Fi action. I went in to a screening of something that sounded promising but it was something with characters talking about relationships and it was really dull so I left that room and went to another. The other room’s movie looked like it might at least have some action in it but the characters kept stopping the action sequences to have these long monologues about something completely incomprehensible, so it didn’t keep my attention. I started trying to come up with something to do. I decided in the end that, since I was at Comic Con, I might as well buy some comics.

I went back down to the dealer’s hall, and started off on my search for some cheap trade paperbacks. I figured, since there are many comic stores selling comics there, they must have discounted trade paperbacks to compete with each other for customers. Turned out, that was not the case. Not only where the comic stores at the Con few, but there was only ONE store with trade paperbacks that were being sold at a discount. You’d think Comic Con would have more comics. I was amazed at the lack of them.

One of the comics I was looking for was The Watchmen comic. It is being turned into a movie and I wanted to re-read it. Here’s the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3orQKBxiEg

I read a friend’s copy when I was in high school and I enjoyed it, but the story was too smart for me at the time. I don’t think I truly understood it. Now that I’m older and have a point concrete world view, I’m curious to find out how I would react to it. Since I don’t own a copy, I thought I’d buy it there, since I saw so many of them earlier that day. Turned out, by the time I went to buy one, the whole Con had sold out of them for the day. I couldn’t find a copy anywhere.

In the end, after wandering around, feeling disappointed, I ended up buying House of M trade paper back written by Brian Micheal Bendis and The Settlers of Catan Card Game. The other trade paper backs I saw that I wanted, weren’t discounted enough and I figured, I could probably get a better deal on Amazon.

So I left the Con. It was 4:00pm.

On my way back to my car, I happened to pass by a large crowd taking pictures up a flight of stairs. I looked up and saw a large army of Ghostbusters getting their pictures taken.

Lots of Ghost Busters at Comic Con

When I got in my car, I was still disappointed about not getting the Watchmen comic, so I intended to stop off at the comic store by my house and get it there. An hour, forty minutes later, I got back to my town and drove to the comic store, only to find out, that they had run out of the comic also. Foiled again!

Not exactly the Comic con experience I was hoping for, but at least I got a few good pictures out of it.

PODCASTS

So my friends Greg and Jennifer Willits, from Rosary Army and That Catholic Show fame droped a huge bomb on all their fans on this weeks podcast: Show #238. I recommend you listen to it because it’s great the way the tell it. All I’ll say it that it involves Sirius Satelite Radio and 15 hours a week.

Congrats Guys! Sorry I didn’t draw you a picture but I found out too late in the week to meet my blog deadline.

RANDOM SKETCH

I was at work last week when I randomly started thinking about Munchkin. It made me smile and then I got this image in my head so I decided to put to paper:

munchkin.jpg

 

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Baby birth eve, Last day of work, The Dragon Page Cover to Cover, Portrayal.

January 31, 2008 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, FAMILY, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEO GAMES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Wednesday was the last day of work for me. As of this day, I’ve heard that the writers are back in at the negotiating table. Hopefully an agreement can be had this time. I hope it happens sooner than later. I’ve got enough saved to last a month or so but you never can tell.

The Universal Studios Simpsons ride deadline was Friday. We didn’t make the deadline. I worked Saturday but I spent time at home with my wife and baby girl Sunday. We had a lot of errands to do. I went back into work on Monday and it didn’t seem like much was done by anyone on Sunday even though some of us worked that day. When Wednesday came, it still looked like there was a lot of work left to do. Doesn’t seem like the work will ever end on that project. It did for me though. Pray for us.

FAMILY

My son Dante Gabriel will be born this Thursday January 31. He’s in breach position so it will have to be a C-section. It’s exciting and worrisome at the same time. Hope all goes well. Munchkin will have a crazy day. She’s going to be passed around like a baton for the next day and a half from Godparents, to Aunt, to Grandparents. Once she’s gone I won’t see her till I pick her up at my parents the following evening. I wonder what she will think is happening? I hope she doesn’t freak out when we bring the new baby home and she discovers that we can’t give her all our attention all the time like she’s used to.

In a strange way, getting layoff right now is turning out to be a really good thing. It means I’ll be able to help out when I’m needed most. On the other hand, the money would come in real handy now more than ever.

My pregnant wife is almost due

PODCASTS

I often listen to a Podcast called: The Dragon Page Cover to Cover. It’s basically a podcast where they interview hot Sci fi/Fantasy books authors, as well as discuss Fantasy books and writing. It’s a great podcast for people who like reading Sci fi and Fantasy books. The podcast is great when they keep to the topic of fantasy books, but the thing about Sci fi and Fantasy books is that they tend to bring up subjects that are often controversial, like politics, religion, or secular philosophy. Therefore, sometimes the hosts of the show, which seem to me to be secular humanists, tend to say things about subjects like Christianity that maybe they shouldn’t say. As is typical in these discussions they tend to be subtly and not so subtly anti-Christian and even anti-Catholic. Most of the time, I tend to ignore stuff like that because this kind of bigotry is so normal in California that, even though it bugs me, it’s usually not worth making a big stink out it. Thing is, sometimes, I just can’t stand it anymore and I have to say something. In the case of The Dragon page podcast, I couldn’t keep quite about something that was said by one of the hosts.

I think that this host is great. I have nothing against him personally and I find myself being really disappointed when he isn’t on show because he’s working or something. He’s great because he’s a published author of many best selling books and he often gives great insight to the inner workings of publishing. He also goes out of his way to help people learn to write and has a general reputation of being a stand up guy. Thing is, I get the impression that he’s a fallen away Catholic and as many fallen away Catholics, he tends to give out a small air of disdain about Catholicism, it’s dogmas, and it’s hierarchy. This wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that this bias comes through once in a while in his comments.

There was a particular episode where he brought up something that seemed to me to imply a lot more than just the surface statement. It bothered me so much that I called and left a message asking if I thought I heard him right or if I was just reading more into his statement than he meant. He was good enough to answer my question. I’ve listen to the answer a few times and think he did his best to answer as best he could. I think I understand what he was trying to say but I’m not sure. Problem is that my question was rather long and had a lot of examples, I think there where multiple questions or statements in it and only having heard it once, it’s difficult to just answer everything in a nice little package. It’s obvious that he has read some books about the history of Christianity and since I haven’t particularly read the specific book he mentions in the podcast, I don’t know exactly what information he may be referring to that I don’t have. I do get the impression that the book he talks about puts forth an anti-orthodox theory stating that there where many legitimate Christianities in the beginning and the strongest ended up surviving. While an orthodox Catholic would say that there was only one true Christianity from the start and there were many heresies that tried claiming they were truly Christian but were proven wrong. Of course these kind of arguments use the exact same data but each use a different way of interpreting it based on the interpreter’s world view. I’m not a relativist so I think only one of these points of view is the correct one.

In any case, I’m thinking of maybe sending him an e-mail just to follow up and to thank him for answering my question. I admire his work and the good things he does for others and I hope that he continues to do well.

If you wish to hear the question and the answer, the episode is Cover to Cover #293A. My question begins in the 2:30 mark. Let me know what you think.

For some reason, this entire event has called to mind a quote from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. It goes like this:

There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different thing.

  • Foreword to Radio Replies Vol. 1, page ix

BOARD GAMES

Besides playing Lost Cities and Lord of the Lord of the Rings – The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition against my wife this week and losing both games to her. I thought I might play a game with you. I was watching one of the latest Board Games with Scott video casts and he reviewed a party game that really caught my attention because of how clever the premise is. I will let Scott explain it in the video so I won’t go into it here. In the video, he actually plays a round of the game with the audience after explaining the game. I thought it would be fun so I played along. I was thinking that maybe you can also.

[video src="http://ia360629.us.archive.org/3/items/bgws_044/bgws_044_lq.mp4" /]

Directly underneath this paragraph is a small thumbnail of the drawing I came up with (it’s a bit difficult to see). DON’T CLICK ON THE THUMBNAIL UNTIL YOU’VE PLAYED THE GAME YOURSELF. After you’ve done so you can look at what I did. In the comments section below I will write what my score was. Did you manage to beat my score? No fair pausing the video. I didn’t.

my-portrayal-drawing.jpg

ANSWERING COMMENTS

I don’t have a specific comment I want to answer this week. I would just like to thank everyone that has commented positively on the last cartoon I put up. Because of the response, I’m planning to make another one that will follow a similar style also involving Superman, Batman, and even Spiderman this time. I’ve already started writing it and it’s gotten a bit out of control in how long it is. I’m even thinking of animating it a bit more than the original one and I might have to use Adobe Flash to do it I haven’t made up my mind yet if I’m going to go that route. Now that I have a little more time, I might be able to do something as elaborate as that. Stay tuned.

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Nephilim skeletons, writer’s strike offspring, Munchkin goes to work

January 11, 2008 in BLOGS, BOARD GAMES, FAMILY, MY WEEK, Nephilim Skeletons, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
I heard the deadline for the Universal Studios Simpsons ride is the twenty fifth of January. So now I know what the potential day of my layoff is. I’m glad that I have this job even though I’m really reaching burn out. I’m making quite a bit of overtime money which will help once I haven’t got a job. I’d much rather be able to pay off debts or put the money in savings though.

I overheard a conversation at the office the other day about the writer’s strike and how it effects the animation industry. Animation writers are not part of the Writer’s Union. They are part of the Animation Union. This means that writers other than the ones on The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy (who are part of the Writer’s Union) can still work. In other words, writers at Cartoon Network, and other studios that are part of the Animation Union are NOT on strike. They still have work. This means it’s possible for me to find work in another studio.

BLOGS
So I thought I’d go on the internet and find studios that I might be able to work for and I stumbled on a fire storm that I didn’t even know was going on by my fellow Animation Union members about how they want to get residuals for the work we do. If you’re interested in this, click here. It’s crazy. Some of these guys are saying pretty much what many of us are thinking. I just didn’t know how complicated things were. Here’s a small taste of what is said on the post:

At 11/08/2007 07:27:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

Some artists talked about taking action to get residuals like the writers.

I think that’s something that should be address too. Artist have been creating shows from zero scripts in tv and feature. Where’s the piece of pie for them?

FAMILY
Brought my wife and the Munchkin to work last Friday. We got there at six o’clock a.m. They both had doctors appointments one after the other in Pasadena in the afternoon and it was the only way that I could take them and not lose too much work time. Since my wife is on medical bed rest and that entails not driving, I had to take them.

Munchkin had a great time. She sat on my lap most of the morning as I worked. We have these giant, life size, wooden cutouts of the Simpsons family on the wall and she loved to look at them. Especially Maggie who was exactly the same hight she was. She kept staring at her and pointing.

We brought a portable playpen with us and when it was time for her nap, we put it and her in Lance and Tommy’s office. They where out on vacation so they weren’t using it. She was having so much fun that she didn’t want to be put in the crib and started to cry. She only cried for about thirty seconds before she realized she was too tired to continue and fell asleep. Unfortunately she was only able to sleep for about an hour before I had to take her out so we could go to the doctor’s office.

At the doctors office, my wife was told (again) that the baby is still in breach position, which means she’s gonna get a C-section. The doctor told her that the baby would be coming in two to three weeks (around the time of my layoff). Meanwhile the Munchkin got a flu shot at the pediatrician. She was on my lap when it happened and before it happened I covered her eyes. She didn’t see it happen but she felt it and cried for about fifteen seconds before I “rescued her” and made her feel better. It couldn’t have gone better.

Afterwards, I took them back home, and drove an hour back to work. I got back at three o’clock and worked till seven. I actually managed to work my eight hours that day, in spite of all the driving around I did.

BOARD GAMES
Played Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery board game this weekend with my brother and his wife Deborah. This time we played with the correct rules (I really messed them up the last time). It was awesome! We had so much fun with that game. It definitely plays better when you know the rules and don’t have to constantly be looking them up. We played it for a bit over three hours. Don’t know why it took us so long. I guess I need to take into account the fact that it was a learning game for my brother and Deborah. In any case we had a lot of fun. They told me that we should play it again sometime soon. I don’t know when since it’s a long game but we’ll see. I still have a few longer games that I want to try that I haven’t gotten around to.

PODCASTS

I got mentioned a few times on Geeklabel radio podcast #67. Man, that podcast cracks me up. I still need to send them some things I owe them. Man, I need more time.

MY WEEK
So a friend of mine at work had gotten all apocalyptic on me. He was telling me how, in four years a planetoid called Nibiru is going to pass by the earth and wreck havoc on the planet. He then proceeded to show me a You Tube video about it. It was very interesting but it was also very typical of the apocalyptic videos that where making the rounds in 1999 except that this one combines biblical passages, and UFOs. It would make a great Sci-fi movie. It took him a few days to realize how much misinformation and hog wash was in the video. I will not put it up on my site because it’s just silly.

The thing that struck me about this video though is that they talked a lot of about the Nephilim. You know, the off spring of the sons of God and human women in the book of Genesis 6: 1-4.

4 Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they brought forth children, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown. (Gen 6:4)

Well, the thing is that the video showed pictures of people sitting next to excavated skeletons of GIANTS. The pictures had me wondering if the photos where real or if they where just doctored photographs. Where they really the excavated remains of the Nephilim? If they where, how come no one ever talks about them? I thought they must be fake because if scientists made such a big deal out of the “hobbit” skeleton, they would go nuts over skeletons of giants. Here are the pictures:

big_nephilim01.jpg

nephilim-skeleton.jpg

Pretty creepy looking, huh? So I went on the internet and found a few places that explain all the photos but one. The first one is obviously just a forced perspective trick. It’s one of the ways they made the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings movies look short. The skeletons are close to the camera and the men are down in a ditch farther away. Here is another picture that was taken of the same two guys:

The second…I don’t know, the lighting on the man doesn’t match the lighting on the skeleton so the photo seems doctored.

The third is a digitally doctored photograph. [EDIT: I’ve just been informed that the third photo was made specifically for a Photoshop contest. It won third place. This is the site for the contest: Worth1000.com. They’ve got other weird Photoshoped photos there. Check them out.] One of the original pictures used in this photo is this one I put below:

Sure would have been cool if they were real. Just imagine if you were to go to a Museum who had some…

Nephilim Museum exhibit

Of course, Genesis 6:4 may have a deeper symbolic interpretation than just a literal one. The New Advent website puts forth this commentary to the DOUAY-RHEIMS version of this passage:

Giants… It is likely the generality of men before the flood were of a gigantic stature in comparison with what men now are. But these here spoken of are called giants, as being not only tall in stature, but violent and savage in their dispositions, and mere monsters of cruelty and lust.

For more on this topic see my other post:Nephilim Skeletons again, Superhero geekness.


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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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