Luis' Illustrated Blog

Simpsons Storyboard artist. Artist and storyteller. Exploring how to make a living, by being creative.
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Still working. Thankgiving and Dinosaurs

December 4, 2008 in Dinosaurs, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I still have a job.  I got put on a show that needed help for the week.   We managed to finish Lance’s show on Monday.  He told us that we are going to be back on his show next Monday to work on any revisions the show has after the Board-a-matic screening.  Afterwards, he thinks we’ll be on the layout crew as well.  This means that I’ll have work, at least until the first week of February.  After that, I don’t know.  Hopefully I can stay on, helping other crews.

The show I’m currently helping out on is the Halloween special for next year.  Yeah, we start it this early.  Looks like it will be a fun show.

FAMILY

Thanksgiving was good.  We celebrated it at our house. My in-laws came early in the day and we played a game of Ticket to Ride: Europe. They left about as early as they came though.  My cousin Carolina came over with her kids and they actually stayed the longest.  It was nice to have the girls over, although I felt bad because it was obvious they wanted to play a game or something and it just didn’t work out.

Alesha cooked her first turkey and it turned out awesome.  Everyone liked it.

My parents came by late and my brother and his wife came by even later.  By that point, everyone seemed real tired and no one wanted to do anything.  It was a nice day anyway.  Munchkin and Dante seemed to have had a great day.

FAMILY

Saturday, Alesha wanted to take the kids to The Science Center and the Natural History Museum, at Exposition Park in  LA.  It turned out to be a bigger hassle than we expected because there was an “American Football” game going on in the stadium at Exposition Park.  Parking cost us more and the place was ridiculously crowded. We managed as best we could and got to go in.

Munchkin loved The Science Center.  Just about everything there, was interactive, so she got to pull, grab, and play with buttons, instruments, blocks, sticks, wires, nobs, and doodads.  She even got to go in a simulation ride where you swam along with dolphins as if you were one of them. She did a lot there.  She had a blast.

After that we went to the Natural History Museum and looked at Dinosaur bones, and the animal Habitat Halls. The highlight of the Museum was, by far, the Dinosaur presentation with the Dinosaur puppet.

t-rex-puppet-at-the-natural-history-museum.jpg

It was really cool.  I think I enjoyed the thing more than Munchkin did (especially since she was afraid of it).  I wanted to see more.  When we left the museum I left wanting to see the next presentation.  It was fun. Here’s a video I found that shows what it really looks like:

It was an interesting weekend.

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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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Mom visits the grandkids. Opening a can of worms.

October 30, 2008 in FAMILY, POLITICS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Okay, so I’ve gotten pretty used to my position and the program I’m using now.  As to what’s going to happen once we finish the board-amatic, I don’t know.  I’ve been hearing more and more that we are just going to tighten the rough board and then send that off to Korea rather than do a cleaner layout.  We might even show the writers another board-amatic, which seems weird since the point of the first board-matic is to get a working show up and running fast.  If we show another board-matic then do we need yet another revision period?  Seems counter productive. In any case,  I’m thinking I’d like to do more storyboarding since the show seems to be headed into more of a storyboard show (which is the norm in the industry).

FAMILY
My mom came back from seeing my sister and my new niece and she gave me a call.

Grandchildren withdrawl.

She came over and got to see her other grandkids.  They were happy to see her.  I got to see a lot of pictures of my niece.  She’s so cute.  I wanted to hold her.  She’s really tiny. Yay Hunter!

POLITICS
My blurb up at the top of my blog doesn’t say anything about me writing about politics.  I’m going to write about politics anyway since at this point they can’t help but make me reflect on my philosophical world view and my theology.

First I’ll say that I’m not registered under any political party.  I’m an independent. I haven’t found a party that is fully Catholic enough for me.  Each party has it’s good points and it’s bad.  Lately both parties seem only to have bad.

I’m very disappointed in the choice of candidates we have in this election.  I’ve recently become aware  that Ambassador Alan Keyes is also running for president.  It’s too bad no one was paying attention, (including me).  Even if Keyes was in the spotlight, I doubt he would have gotten elected president.  Mostly because he comes across as really arrogant and condescending. He also lacks tact, doesn’t sugar coat things, and tells you straight out what he believes. He’s often rude, thoughtless and is completely and totally politically incorrect. It’s also great fun to hear a politician be this honest. He is completely and totally orthodox in his Catholicism and (as Joe the plumber put it), “he might be too smart for his own good”. “Too smart” is an understatement, the guy is brilliant.

Keyes ran against Obama for senator and lost, probably for the reasons I stated above.  Still, he pretty much whupped  Obama during all the debates.  It’s a pleasure to see someone with actual brains and guts debate Obama and show how hollow his rhetoric is.

You’ll notice that I don’t have any videos of Keyes debating McCain.  I couldn’t find any. Besides, I think most of the traditional media goes out of it’s way to attack McCain  as often as they can.  I’ve yet to see this truly done to Obama.  I can’t go to the supermarket without seeing his face on just about every magazine cover. What gives?

So anyway, here are some videos of Keyes debating Obama.

The first one is how both candidates feel about their faith and how it informs them. Note, the reason most people of faith hold a particular belief, whether it’s Islam, Buddhism, Wikka, Christianity, etc…is because they believe it to be true. Otherwise why bother holding that faith at all? Fashion? Just because you feel like it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md2bf9DNVB4

If it doesn’t load Click here.

I like the way Obama’s rebuttal was the political equivalent of, “you’re not the boss of me!”

In the video below, It’s funny to see Obama try to explain his position 0nly to realize he doesn’t actually have a religious foundation for it.  He should have asked Keyes to argue it for him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG5u04Gbg0A&feature=related

If it doesn’t load Click here.

I think Obama’s intention with his last argument (which he wasn’t very eloquent in putting forth) was to point out to Ambassador Keyes that his incest argument was not truly something that is ONLY linked to gay couples and perhaps should be it’s own issue. I agree and I don’t think Keyes should have forced the argument the way he did (especially since male gay partners wouldn’t have that issue),  still, the logic of the argument in itself was sound.   All that Keyes says before that incest argument though, was fantastic.  I loved the reactions of Obama and the mediator as they tried to understand Keyes‘ Catholic  argument over why marriage is between a man and a woman. Keyes was clearly answering the mediator’s question but somehow he made it look as if he wasn’t.  It’s obvious this guy never took a class in logic.

Okay this next one is a question that is meant to show a contradiction between Keyes‘ faith and his political positions.  As usual the question itself is flawed in it the fact that the questioner never bothers to actually learn what the Church teaches and HOW the Church teaches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyOL8TxtexM&feature=related

If it doesn’t load Click here.

Obama gets the last word here and I think he’s right.  Keyes’ lack of tact must have really hurt his campaign. On the other hand, it’s obvious that Obama hasn’t got a clue what an act of  “intrinsic evil” is. Also, Obama said that the harming of children was “an act beyond the pail” and yet is that not what abortion is? The legal “right” for a woman to choose to harm her own child (painful circumstances or no) to the point of death? Keyes’ arguments here are rock solid. Wish he had been given a chance to respond to Obama in the end.

This next video is interesting.  As much as I like Ambassador Keyes, he is still a flawed sinful human being.  Though I like his answer to the question, he actually avoids answering the actual question asked.  But that’s okay because something ironic happens that I will comment on below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT7qhGvykiQ

If it doesn’t load Click here.

The irony is that Keyes daughter “came out of the closet” sometime after the senate race was over.  His reaction? He treated her very harshly (fired her from his campaign and kicked her out of the apartment she was living in that was funded by his campaign. Essentially leaving her “homeless and jobless” ).  That’s a really unchristian reaction.  That said, I only know what I’ve read on the web and don’t have any real information on how he treats her in private.  Still, it bugs me.  I think Keyes should have answered like Obama. I would have said, “I would love that child and seek to understand them… though I wouldn’t support or encourage her homosexual tendencies I would support her in every other way that I can.”

On the other hand, as loving as Obama sounds, he wouldn’t hesitate to teach his daughter about how children are punishments and how abortion might be a possible solution to that “problem”, if he found her to be pregnant. He’d be perfectly fine in allowing his daughter to kill his grandchild. That ‘s one of the values and morals he’s going to teach them?

“Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old,” he said. “I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information.”

Ambassador Keyes is not above critiquing his own party.  He makes sure to try to be more faithful to his faith before his party.  As it should be.  See that Biden?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Xy6FOq92w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86hPrKUDbM4&feature=related

If it doesnt load, Click here and here

This final video is the beginning of a six part youtube video taken from a radio debate the canditates had, which deals with other issues besides the ones above.  I highly recommend watching the whole thing to get a more well rounded view about both these men.  Pay very close attention to how Keyes really tears down Obama’s bad arguments, and completely dominates the debate, leaving Obama with many “deer in the headlight” moments. It’s interesting to note that many of Obama’s arguments are the same ones that we’ve heard him say during his presidential campaign. Especially about the situation in Iraq.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53QapiHA0Lg

If it doesn’t load, Click here.

If you agree or disagree and you wish to comment, please be polite. Your comments are welcome.



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New things going on at work. As short game of Dreamblade.

October 23, 2008 in BOARD GAMES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Lots happened this week.

Last Friday they dropped a bomb on Lance (my director).  Seems the shows from now on are going to be done differently than what we’ve been doing AND the way that the other digital shows have been done.  The situation on Friday was such that it made me worried about the employment situation on the show.  I was worried and stressed out all weekend.  Monday I got more info so I’m no longer worried, now I’m just a bit annoyed (which is how everyone else feels too).

Okay so, I’ll first explain how the shows have been done so that it might be easier to understand the change.  After the writers write the shows and the actors do the voices, the storyboard artist, with the help of the director, creates a storyboard.  Once that is done, the Layout artists (which is my job) gets the storyboard and is assigned a few scenes (about fifteen) to flesh out per act.  This entails, finalizing the shots to look like what you see in the final show along with camera movements and all the acting of all the characters in the scenes.  Once the Layout artist is done, the scenes are timed and shot. Sound is then edited in and it’s all put together as a rough pencil test pass of the show called an “animatic”.  The writers watch the show along with the directors and make revisions.  We then get all the notes on all the revisions with the new revised script.  The storyboard is revised (which is something I sometimes do as well) and the scenes that need fixing are handed back to the Layout Artist to fix.  Once done, the scenes are final timed and sent to Korea to be animated and put in full color.  When the show comes back, the writers see the show again (without the director) and they, most of the time, make changes.  The Retakes department fixes the scenes (not the original crew nor with the advice of the director of that show) and sends the fixes to Korea. Korea then finishes the revisions. The show  then goes through color correction, is given sound effects and music and then broadcast.  That’s basically the process in a nutshell. It’s about six months worth of work (maybe five, I didn’t go into any detail about the writing process).

So what’s different?  Well, at first the only thing that was different was that instead of doing the Layout part on paper, it was being drawn on the computer using Cintiqs.  Which is really no big deal.  The only thing that was a pain is learning the new program that we are using for that.  NOW, they are doing something very different.  Instead of going straight to layout with the show after it has been storyboarded, what we’re doing is taking the storyboards and we’re making them move.  The storyboards are digital so now we get storyboard pages on our computers and we cut out the characters in the board and move them around so that we can create what is known at the studio as a “boardamatic”.  There is no more animatics.

This is big because now the quality of the first pass  of the show is not as good as it used to be. The theory is, we will work faster and rougher and when they make changes, it won’t cost a lot of man power.  After the boardamatic we then do the Layouts as we’re used to doing and they are sent to Korea.

I’m not sure how I feel about the new process.  We are doing the next 13 shows this way and the method has not even been proven to work.  It’s a very odd thing to drop on us in the middle of a season after 20 years of doing the show the same way.  It’s been like clockwork all this time.  Even when the Directors and the Assistant Directors aren’t around, the artist just go on automatic and the shows get done.  Now we are reinventing the whole way we do the shows and no one really knows what the heck we’re doing.  In many ways, the chaos is like working on the movie all over again.

new-desk.jpg

I’m getting used to the new program.  It’s not the program I was taught. It’s  similar enough that I can figure it out.  By next week, it shouldn’t be a problem.  I’m already pretty comfortable with it and it’s only been two and a quarter days. It’s times like these that I’m glad I played so many video games and owned so many temperamental computers.  They really helped get me used to working with programs, figuring them out, and understanding how things generally work in computers.

Now if I could only figure out what’s expected of me in my new position, I would be very happy.

BOARD GAMES
So I managed to play a game of Dreamblade with my friend Andy (see post: The Simpsons montage, Playing games, Meme. for more info on him).  It was really fun.  It was also a really close game.  I managed to win the game by one point.  Problem is, it was a hollow win because we found out after the game that we played a rule on one of the minis wrong.  That kinda cheapened the win for me and it just makes is seem like the win “didn’t count”.  Oh well, next time we’ll get it right and see who REALLY won.

 BOARD GAMES/VIDEO GAMES

In other gaming news, my friend Mischa (a.k.a Rossum), trounced me at a game of Chase this week over at the Super Duper Games website, and in doing so, ruining my three game undefeated winning streak. VENGEANCE SHALL BE MINE!

 

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Dante gets Baptized. Train rides. Great books classes.

October 16, 2008 in FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Looks like we’ve actually managed to layout most of the scenes in the show before deadline.  There are only six scenes left to finish.  There are so few scenes left that there isn’t enough work to go around.  Two of my fellow crew members took the day off today and tomorrow.  There wasn’t anything for them to do.  They were happy to do it.  I’m one of the few people to still have a scene left to finish, but it will be done by the end of the day.  I hope I don’t have to take the day off Friday, I rather not use up a vacation day.

FAMILY

Dante got baptized this weekend (finally).  The ceremony was very nice.  We didn’t invite very many people to come, mostly because there wasn’t going to be a party afterward.  Our house is too small to host one.  We were planning on having it at my mom’s house but she’s out of town visiting my sister and my little niece in Pennsylvania.  We’ll be having the baptism party when she gets back.

The baptism itself went very well.  The only hiccup was how late Dante’s Godmother showed up.  Her car was overheating and she had to drive real slow.  The ceremony began before she even got there but she got there in time for the more important parts.

We were asked to not dress Dante in his nice clothes until after the water was poured on him.  He was in his “underwear” for half the ceremony.   Poor baby had no idea what was going on.  He wasn’t very bothered by it though. He didn’t cry or anything but by the end, he started getting fussy because he was getting sleepy.

A few people came over to the house afterward and stayed for about an hour or two.  The rest of the day was spent recovering from all the fuss.  It was a good day.

dantes-baptism.jpg

FAMILY

Sunday, we went out to an outdoor shopping mall with the kids.  It was a very nice time and it was fun to just do something like that, just the four of us.  The mall has a little kid train ride that goes around a small part of the mall.  The train is not really a train on a track, it’s just a train shaped car that has two small “passenger” carts that it pulls.  The rides cost two bucks and Munchkin and I went on it.  I don’t think Munchkin understood what we were going to do up until the moment we actually got in the train.  Even though she saw the train would stop and let kids out to allow other kids to get in while we waited in line. She was just waiting in line with me because I asked her to.

Once in the train, she wouldn’t stop smiling.  It was really a bumpy and uncomfortable ride but Munchkin was loving it.  She turned up and looked at me smiling like crazy.  I tried to get her to look out the window and I even tried to get her to wave at people, which she did, for about fifteen seconds only to turn back to look at me and smile.  It left such an impression on me that whenever I think about it I still get the mental picture of it.  It’s something like this:

Munchkin’s train ride

Later, after we told mommy what we did,  she saw the train pass by.  She started running after it yelling, “Wait! Wait!”  She would have chased it all over it’s route if Alesha hadn’t stopped her in her tracks by asking her if she wanted ice cream.

FAMILY

At work, Alesha proposed a “Great Books” class.  She really wanted to teach it.  She knew that it would be a great class for the Seniors and Juniors in her school. They gave her permission to teach it.  She was so excited.  The class is an elective and many Seniors and Juniors told her that they had signed up for it.  Alesha prepared and the syllabus for the class and she showed it to me.  She explained why she had picked certain books for the first semester and we talked about what other books she might want to put in for the second.  I could tell she was happily anticipating teaching the class.

There were a few problems the first two weeks of school with schedules and she had to wait until the third week before actually being able to start teaching any of her classes.  When she finally started teaching the class this week (the class she had proposed for Seniors and Juniors), she discovered, to her great dismay, that the class was all six graders.  There had been a huge mix up with the class schedules.  Many of the kids didn’t even know what the class was or what it was about.

One of the books they are going to read is The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. The only time she got any kind of reaction from the class about the books they were going to read was when they discovered he was the same author who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia series.  Then everyone cheered.

aleshas-great-books-class.jpg

Needless to say, Alesha is horribly disappointed and she hopes that she could at least get some of the students the class was designed for, in the class.

 

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Grendel Rose, Houses of the Blooded

October 9, 2008 in FAMILY, ROLE PLAYING GAMES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Nothing much to report, except that we seem to be doing well for once. We might actually ship the show on time. I’ve worked on a few scenes this week and last week that have been a combination of 2D art with 3D elements. Besides that, there hasn’t been as much drama at the studio as there was a few weeks back.

FAMILY
Yay, my sister (who was pregnant all this time. Something I’ve forgotten to mention) had her baby last week. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. I was sooo excited and got all choked up when I saw the pictures. I want to meet the little munchkin. It’s too bad we can’t afford to fly over and see them right now.

My sister is doing well. She had to get a C-section because of some issues that turned up but she sounds very happy.

The baby girl has been given the unusual name of Hunter Rose Miyan. It’s unusual but it’s pretty. My sister, has all the symbolism behind it all worked out. The funny thing is, when I first heard the name, after my dad told what it was, my first question was, “Hunter Rose? Like the comic book character?!” Yes, I’m a comic geek and yes, one of my favorite comic book characters is called Hunter Rose. It’s a comic originally written and drawn by an artist by the name of Matt Wagner (who owns the character). Hunter Rose is a character who is a thief, wares a mask and goes by the name Grendel.

In any case, I just thought it was funny. To me, it’s as if she would have named the kid: Clack Kent (aka. Superman, or Kara Zor-El (aka. Supergirl), or Barbara Gordon (aka. Batgirl/Oracle). My sister had no clue Hunter Rose was the name of a comic character.

Well, now I have a niece, and she’s a Grendel and I think that’s cool, so I’m very happy.

Baby Hunter Rose

ROLE PLAYING GAMES

I’ve recently been reading the rule book of a Roleplaying game that I think has a fantastic setting. In fact, not only is it a fantastic setting, it’s a fantastic game as well. It’s called Houses of the Blooded by John Wick *edit: I forgot to credit John  originally*. This game describes itself as the anti-D&D game. What does it mean by that? Well, this game is to D&D what Micheal Moorcock’s character Elric, is to Robert E. Howard’s Conan. D&D is all about being a nomad adventurer going around exploring, having adventures and killing monsters for fame and glory. Houses of the Blooded is all about, being a person who is settled, has all the fame and glory and is trying to keep it and gain more power. Houses of the Blooded makes use of all the things that are completely useless in a D&D game. Things like, land you own, vassals, personal fashion, status, intrigue, spouses, children, retainers, etiquette, style…etc. Everything you’d never think would be useful in an RPG is really useful in this one. You can even use the property you own to develop resources that can allow you make things that could give you advantages in the game, like in a game of Civilizations or Settlers of Catan. That is just really great.

The mechanics are really cool and unique. I won’t go into it too much here but let me just say that there is an element in the game that is called a “wager”. What you are basically doing is wagering dice from the pool of dice you use to try to overcome a conflict, by putting the aside and not rolling them. These dice then come into play if your roll succeeds by allowing you to embellish the circumstances that occur. For every dice you wager, you can add one new circumstance. If the conflict was a contest between two players, this becomes a bit of a game of wits where each player is trying to one up the other trying to find creative ways to add to the circumstances to benefit their side of the story. Trust me, when you actually see an example of how this works, it’s just really neat.

The setting, in this game totally ROCKS. I will be as brief as I can be since the background history and flavor text was 70 pages long. In a nutshell, you play a character of a race called the Ven, who were created by the Sorcerer-Kings to be their servants. The Sorcerer-Kings fought for thousand of years and finally ended up destroying each other and the world. Out of the rubble the surviving Ven slowly rebuilt civilization by taming some of the crazy chaotic world that was left. After taming as much of the land as they could, they fought each other for dominance. Some found some ancient relics or sorcery left behind by the Sorcerer-Kings. Out of the this came fourth those who called themselves The Blooded. They split off into Noble Houses and little by little, “The Great Game” or “The game of Houses” began. I would love to tell you the whole history because it’s fantastic but it’s waaay to long so I can’t. You can download the first 40 pages of the 436 page book with all the history for free from the website if you want to read more. All you need know is that, the game is all about intrigue, backstabbing, out witting and out maneuvering your opponents, rituals and playing with outlawed sorcery without getting caught while all the time attempting to get more statues, more lands and generally more power over everyone else. For some reason, this sounds like so much fun to me. It would be interesting to see what a crazy mess you can get your imaginary character into, living out a machiavellian life.

You can buy the book in Pdf form for 5$ at Indie Press Revolution or you can buy the actual book for 45$ there also.

 


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Prayer request. Simpson show review. Dante’s teeth. Sleeping Beauty

October 2, 2008 in Copyright Protections, FAMILY, MOVIES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

FAMILY
Before I write anything else, I would first like to ask for your prayers. My daughter’s Godfather’s mother is very sick and maybe dying, It’s a very difficult time for them right now and I would please ask you to keep him, his mother, and their family in your prayers. Thank you.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Last Sunday, the second show I worked on this season was broadcast. I didn’t watch it because, to be honest, I always forget the show is on. The show was mainly about Homer and Flanders teaming up to become bounty hunters, while the “B” plot has Marge getting a job in an erotic bakery. In any case, my co-workers who saw and worked on the show were really disappointed in the show. It turns out that the show was overwritten which means that it was two minutes longer than it should have been. In order to be able to air it, the show had to be edited down. This meant cutting quite a bit of content. The result was that a lot of the best gags were lost. For example, the show has a sequence that spoofs The French Connection. In the cut we saw, it goes on for a while as Homer almost runs over all kinds of people, but in the version that was aired, they cut the sequence down so that he only runs over one person and then it ends. There was also a great running gag with Chef Luigi that was cut completely. There where a lot of things like that, that were cut. Not only that, but during the retakes processes (which is the processes where they fix all the mistakes the colored version of the show has. And sometimes, where they re-write gags they think they can improve) they re-wrote some fun silly gag with an angry Leprechaun and replaced it with the Hulk instead. That really stunk because that was one of the crew’s favorite gags. Sometimes the writers, re-write stuff because they don’t think it’s funny but that’s only because they’ve seen the gag too many times. To everyone else, it’s still fresh. This happens just about every show. Sometimes I think the writers should watch a show with an audience so they could see what gags are working and which ones are not. There are gags that, we at the studio laugh our heads off, that they cut just because they don’t think it’s funny anymore.

I think the thing that has me most bummed out about hearing how much of the show was cut, is that fact that no one is going to get to see these gags but us in the studio. It MIGHT come out in the season 20 box set but I’m not sure it will. So far, not everything that gets cut gets put in the box sets. In any case, it’s just disappointing.

FAMILY

Dante’s Teeth
For picture of Munchkin with teeth bigger than her head, click here.

FAMILY
Well, Munchkin is no longer obsessed with Snow White, she’s obsessed with Sleeping Beauty instead. I decided to show her the movie to see how she would react to it. I wanted to see if the movie would caught her attention like Snow White did. It was actually kinda funny because when I put the movie in, and the movie began to play, Munchkin had a frown on her face. She was looking at me and at the movie as if she didn’t trust it to be any good. This suddenly made me feel responsible if the movie failed to entertain her. So I sat there watching her watch the movie wringing my hands anxiously, hoping she would like it. It was very silly. She pretty much kept the expression through out the entire movie. When it was all over, Munchkin stood up, looked at me and asked me to play in again. Now she asks to see the movie every chance she gets.

The things, she likes about it, really surprise me. For one thing, she loves the music. That’s not as surprising so much as the fact that she loves to listen to the orchestral part during the opening credits. Since the movie is old, it has the credits at the beginning of the movie with a sampling of the music that will be played through out. Munchkin loves to sit there and listen to it. She smiles, listens and turns to me with anticipation during that opening. Unsurprisingly, she gets up and tries to move and dance like Princes Aurora in the forest but what surprises me is during the times that Maleficent in on screen, she doesn’t seem to get very scared. She’s completely fascinated with all the fairy tale elements in the story, including the exciting finally against the dragon.

For my part, I’m glad she wants to watch this movie. Why? Well I’ll explain myself below…

MOVIES
Sleeping Beauty is by far my favorite “girl marries prince” Disney movie. It’s an amazing movie to look at. I can’t help but admire all the artwork in every scene of that movie. The art direction is simply amazing. The background paintings are drop dead gorgeous.

The animation, by “The Nine Old Men” is masterful. The music by Tchaikovsky is beautiful. The character designs are great, the consistency of the drawings of the characters is remarkable (a major flaw in modern 2D Disney movies). The fact that every line on all the characters was hand inked, with different colored inks, on different parts of their bodies, onto a cell is just mind blowing. The bad guy in the move is one of the coolest bad guys in the Disney pantheon.

The dragon she turns into is sooo awesome and the design is simply amazing. As little as we get to know about Prince Philip, he comes across as really cool. Even though he had A LOT of help fighting Maleficent from the good fairies, he still comes across are very heroic. Not only that, but the iconic symbolism of that fight is really great.

I mean, he’s protected by The Shield of Virtue and he fights with The Sword of Truth and with it he slays a dragon. It really calls to mind Biblical passages:

7 And there was a great battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels. 8 And they prevailed not: neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world. (Revelation 12: 7-9 Douay-Rheims)

11 And I saw heaven opened: and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true: and with justice doth he judge and fight. 12 And his eyes were as a flame of fire: and on his head were many diadems. And he had a name written, which no man knoweth but himself. 13 And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood. And his name is called: THE WORD OF GOD. 14 And the armies that are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp two-edged sword, that with it he may strike the nations. (Revelations 19: 11-15 Douay Rheims)

Just having his shield be Virtue (like the Four Cardinal Virtues and the three Theological ones: Fortitude, Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Faith, Hope, and Charity), made me think about what it must mean to be protected from the dragon by it. And you HAVE to like a movie that has goblins in it (I guess that last part is just the Tolkien/Fantasy/D&D geek in me, talking).

COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP


According to our sources
THE HOUSE WILL TRY TO PASS THE ORPHAN WORKS BILL TODAY

10.3.08 

If this Bill is only meant to help libraries and museums, why did they draft it behind closed doors?

Why have the doors been opened wide for commercial infringement of the work of living authors actively licensing their work?

Why do they want to pass it when nobody’s looking?

Why do they want to re-write copyright law without an open debate?

Stop this effort to give content to Big Internet firms by undermining copyright law.

Get the word out.

    · Light up Washington and home offices of your Congressman.
    · Contact the media.
    · Deny them cover. Do not let them hide.


Tell them we will hold each of them accountable.

THE MESSAGE for your Congressman, Key Leaders, Aides, Media

· The “Dark Archive”  – where infringers can register their paperwork in  secret  – will not protect our copyrights.

· An “Open Archive” – with orphaned work exposed to to the public – would be a come-and-get-it bank for plagiarists and infringers.

· Artists cannot monitor tens or hundreds of thousands of images every day to see if somebody somewhere has infringed their work.

· There are more than a trillion images subject to orphaning each day.
 
· If someone can’t find me, that doesn’t mean I’ve orphaned my work.
    
· An unsuccessful search for a property owner should not be a license to steal.

· Artists should not have to digitize their life’s work at their own expense to comply with a law they don’t want or need.

· The high cost compliance would make compliance prohibitive.
 
· The loss of exclusive rights would undermine contractual agreements with clients.
 
· We cannot sell exclusive rights to clients if others can publish our work without our knowledge or consent.

· The loss of exclusive rights would devalue our entire inventories of work.
    
· Small business owners should not be forced to subsidize the business models of Big Internet firms.
  
· No rational business owner should have to give access to their inventory, metadata, client contact information, etc. to outside business interests.


Tell lawmakers to prevent passage of this bill until it can be subjected to an open, informed and transparent public examination.

Tell them this is no way to re-write copyright law.


Tell them it will affect millions of rights holders worldwide.


Tell them you would support a true orphan works bill, but this is not it.


Tell them to to consider the amendments presented by the Illustrators’ Partnership, Artists Rights Society and Advertising Photographers of America

Phone, fax, email these Congresspeople immediately

DELAHUNT  Phone: (202) 225-3111     Fax (202) 225-5658
Phone: (617) 770-3700   Fax: (617) 770-2984

CONYERS    Phone: (202) 225-5126    Fax: (202) 225-0072
Phone: (313) 961-5670    Fax: (313) 226-2085

NADLER       Phone: (202) 225-5635     Fax: (202) 225-6923
Phone: (212) 367-7350     Fax: (212) 367-7356

BERMAN      Phone: (202) 225-4695     Fax: (202) 225-3196
Phone: (818) 994-7200     Fax: (818) 994-1050

PELOSI        AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov
Phone: (202) 225-4965      Fax: (202) 225-8259
Phone: (415) 556-4862      Fax: (415) 861-1670

HOYER       steny.hoyer@mail.house.gov
Phone: (202) 225-4131      Fax: (202) 225-4300
Phone: (301) 474-0119      Fax: (301) 474-4697

YOUR REPRESENTATIVE
To find Washington and District Office phone, fax and web forms for your Representative
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/dbq/officials/
and enter your zip code

YOUR LOCAL MEDIA
To find the contacts for your Local Media go to
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/dbq/media/
and enter your zip code

– Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership

Please post or forward this message immediately to any interested party.

_______________________________________________________________


For news and information:
Illustrators’ Partnership Orphan Works Blog: http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/

Over 75 organizations oppose this bill, representing over half a million creators.

U.S. Creators and the image-making public can email Congress through the Capwiz site: http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ 2 minutes is all it takes to tell the U.S. Congress to uphold copyright protection for the world’s artists.

INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS please fax these 4 U.S. State Agencies and appeal to your home representatives for intervention. http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00267

CALL CONGRESS: 1-800-828-0498.  Tell the U.S. Capitol Switchboard Operator “I would like to leave a message for Congressperson  __________ that I oppose the Orphan Works Act.”  The switchboard operator will patch you through to the lawmaker’s office and often take a message which also gets passed on to the lawmaker. Once you’re put through tell your Representative the message again.

If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com Place “Add Name” in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area. Illustrators, photographers, fine artists, songwriters, musicians, and countless licensing firms all believe this bill will harm their small businesses.

 

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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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