Luis' Illustrated Blog

Obsession: A new smelly thing from Luis Escobar

March 6, 2008 in SOME THOUGHTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Mostly drawing crowds this week. We have a lot of them in this show. It’s dull work.

I’ve pretty much run out of Podcasts again. I’m going to have to find me some new ones. The ones I subscribe to aren’t enough anymore.

Got into work late once this week. That was annoying.

Once again the studio has passed out a memo asking artists to pitch new animated show ideas. Every time they do this, nothing ever comes of it. It seems everyone is jaded over the whole idea. I’ve tried it the last time they did this and the whole thing fell apart on them before anything could happen. I don’t know what to think.

SOME THOUGHTS

I’ve realized, after looking at my blog that I’ve just been writing a lot about board games. In fact, it looks like I write about them more than just about any other subject. Even more than what I write about the Simpsons. Why? Well, besides the obvious answer, “I like them a lot”, there are a few other reasons why. I‘ve found, after taking a good look at myself and seeing how I am, that I tend to go through these obsessive phases in my life. What do I mean my obsessive phases? That’s when I get into something so much that I’m thinking and almost always surrounding myself with it twenty four hours a day, every day. I’ve also found that I tend to use these obsessions as a way to relax when I get too stressed out. It also doesn’t help that I live in my head most of the time, in a type of anti social dream world where my mind is racing around thinking deeply about something meaningful or ridiculously shallow. This tends to feed into my introverted side which is very antisocial and tends to almost always make me feel uncomfortable and bored around large social gatherings.

My obsessive phases last between months to years. I don’t remember my first ones but I’m sure they began early. Maybe it was Garfield. I don’t know, the thing is they happen. Most of my obsessions never really go away, they’re always there but just not as dominant as they once where, while others go away completely. For example, when I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Batman, to the point where I was trying to get Encyclopedic knowledge of all things Batman, but now I could care less about him. On the other hand, at another time in my teenage life, I was obsessed with learning and “Game Mastering” Role Playing Games (RPGs). That really hasn’t gone away completely, I still buy and read new RPGs and I sit around wishing I had the time and energy I once used to have to play or run a game or two. It’s really weird. I was once really into vampires. I was obsessed with them for a year or so but that went away and I haven’t really gotten it back. Few years back, before the movies came out, I got crazy obsessed with The Lord of the Rings books and their history. That really didn’t truly leave me but I don’t have the urge to talk about them the way I once did. Perhaps the most useful obsession I’ve ever had was the three year obsession I had with Philosophy and Theology. That truly hasn’t gone away either but I’m not walking around with a Philosophy professor living in my head any more. My Catholicism obsession (which started at the same time) has also never left me. I used to study that stuff to relax. There was also the time I was obsessed with story telling and writing…I mean I’m always getting obsessed with something. Some people have one thing they get that way about, I get it with something different every three years or so. This time it happens to be board games. Although I have to admit, it was bound to happen. Every time I saw some sort of analog game using strange dice, or cards or chips or something, I would be very interested. Oooh that reminds me about the time I got crazy obsessed with chess and….never mind, time for my next point.

The more stressed out I get, the more obsessed I get. It’s been quite stressful around here lately. I need something to take my mind off things and I almost always turn to my obsession. When I was into video games, I would come home from work and just go to my room and stay there for hours playing on my Playstation. That was my sanctuary. That was my way of dealing with the stress. I was living with my parents at the time and they would very rarely see me because I was playing games for hours. Come to think of it though, I’m not too sure if video games were an obsession. It was more of an interest. I think the whole Board Game thing I’m going through right now is. It’s not mainstream enough and I have to go out of my way to know about this stuff. Kinda like the way my Anime obsession was…Nah! Who am I kidding? The video game thing was an obsession too.

I’m a bit weird…well, a lot weird. When I’m asleep I dream just like everyone else, but when I’m awake, I dream just as much. Most of the time I’m only half awake. Half of me is in “La la land” thinking about something while the other half is living out the day as it should be. I’ve found that about 80% of the time, “La la land” consists of whatever I’m obsessed with at the time. This makes it very difficult for me to really concentrate on anything that isn’t in some way associated with the things that happen to be going on in my head. One of the reasons I listen to podcasts is to try to control this problem. My job requires me to be focused and to get the job done, but if I was to sit down and try to do it, five to ten minutes into it, you’d find me blankly staring at my desk. I’d be in “La la land” playing with my pet thought of the moment. On the other hand, when I listen to podcastS, audio books, or audio lectures, that dreamy part of my mind stays focused on whatever I’m listening to while the part of me that needs to get things done, gets things done. It keeps my dreaming in check and allows me to do my job. The moment I take the headphones off though, POW, I’m back in “La la land” playing with my obsession.

This, as you may have gathered, causes no end of trouble to my social life. I go to a party and I haven’t got the slightest clue what to do with myself. I know you’re suppose to go make small talk with people and find out what’s going on in their lives and get caught up, but how do you do that when the part of you that can ask creative questions and really listen is in “La la land”? If I do it, it’s because a supreme superhuman effort on my part is taking place. This leaves me so exhausted that I don’t want to be around anyone for hours afterwards. What usually ends up happening, is that I end up sitting somewhere by myself or with my wife and just staring off into space, wishing I was somewhere where I could be satisfying the needs that my current obsession requires and generally feeling miserable. Thing is, if at that time you where to come up to me and bring up the subject I’m currently obsessing about, WATCH OUT, because you’ve woken the giant and I’d talk your ear off. After three or four hours listening to me talk about the same thing, most people are ready to jump off the nearest cliff. The thing is, you’d actually be talking to a fully awake me. The “La la land” me and the normal world me, have become one and I’m completely there. Currently, if you want me to be completely there, you’d have to play a board game with me. Lately when I’m desperate to feel fully awake and whole, I bring out a board game and ask to play. At other times in my life, when I wanted to be awake and whole, I’d try to get into a Theological discussion with you or ask you to watch a Japanese cartoon with me. It would all depend on my current obsession. Sometimes, I even revert back to an old obsession for a day or a couple of hours. You never know what the heck is going on my head.

So there you have it. The reason I’ve been writing so much about board games on this blog lately. I’m curious as to what my next one will be and how long it will last. But since I’m stuck with this one right now, I might as well have as much fun with it as possible.

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Back at work, William Shatner sighting, playing a game of Dune: The Board game

February 28, 2008 in BOARD GAMES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Started back at work this week. It feels like I haven’t left. I’ve been doing this for so many years that every day just feels the same here.

I’m grateful to be back and I’m glad that we’re just doing revisions right now. It helps ease me back into work mode. My first day back was very slow and that helped a lot also because I was tired from the day before.

We found out that the air date of the show we’re working on has been moved up. Our show will be the Season Premier this season. Lance (the director) thinks this is a good sign that they really like this show and the writers think it’s a strong one. Lets hope so. I hope that this doesn’t mean that the schedule they give us to finish it will be shorter than usual. If it is, it would be very typical of them to do this to us.

I asked the Assistant Director of the Universal Studios Simpsons ride how the ride was going. He said that they still haven’t finished it yet. That’s crazy! The way things seem to be going on that project, it seems that it’s going to be done a day or two before the ride opens. I’m glad I’m not on it anymore. I couldn’t deal with that kind of pressure anymore. Even though I’ve been off work for four weeks, I still haven’t really recovered from working on it. If I didn’t have bills to pay, I sure would have liked a another week or four.

On Wednesday something crazy happened that ruined my day. William Shatner came to the studio! Yeah, you read right, WILLIAM SHATNER, Captain Kirk himself came to the studio. How cool is that? That so rocks. Don’t ask me why he was there, I don’t know. All I know is, that he was there.

So why did this ruin my day? I DIDN’T GET TO SEE HIM. *SOB* What a bummer. I friend of mine told me that he got in an elevator with him to our floor. So we knew he was in the building but when I went around to look for him, I could find him. WEAK!

BOARD GAMES

Sunday Alesha and I went over to my brother’s place to play a board game. Deborah (my brother’s wife) placed out some finger foods to munch on so we could just get to the gaming part right away. The finger food would be our dinner. Nothing ruins a night of board gaming like a sit down dinner. It takes up too much time. They chose to play Dune: The Board Game.

Deborah chose to play as the Fremen, Alesha chose to play as the Bene Gesserit, my brother Juan chose to play as House Harkonnen, and I played as House Atreides.

The first round went relatively slow since everyone was getting used to the rules. Things began to get interesting by turn two though. After the discovery of a Spice blow in the western part of the planet, the Atreides sent an Ornithopter full of men to retrieve it. Taking advantage of the situation, the Harkonnen animals, decided to attack the Atreides stronghold. At the same time, the Atreides Spice Harvester was attacked by a large band of Fremen who also wanted the Spice. The Atreides managed to fight off the Harkonnen attack at their stronghold but suffered such casualties that it wiped them out from the stronghold. A Harkonnen plot of poisoning Paul Atreides was foiled by the fact that Paul had the power of limited prescience and he saw it coming. The Atreides did worse at the Spice blow location where the Fremen wiped them out completely off the map. Meanwhile the Bene Gesserit were wandering around Dune, aimlessly wishing they could find some Spice.

Later, after another Spice blow in the north west of the planet. The Atreides managed to get back control of their stronghold without a fight. The Harkonnen set down an Ornithopter of men at the new Spice blow location. They also shipped men down to a stronghold on the east side of the planet. The Fremen managed to continue harvesting their Spice but saw what the Harkonnen where doing in the eastern stronghold and sent men into it to attack them. They also took over a small stronghold on the west side of the planet near their Spice blow. After a brutal battle between the Harkonnen and the Fremen, the two factions managed to wipe each other out leaving no one in control of the eastern most stronghold. Meanwhile the Bene Gesserit continued wandering around Dune aimlessly wishing they could find some Spice.

Then it happened…Shai-Hulud! A Worm appeared and destroyed the Harkonnen Spice Harvester and the men who ran it. The Fremen took advantage of the appearance of a the giant Worm to ride it to the empty stronghold on the east side of the planet they had just recently fought the Harkonnen over. The appearance of a Worm caused a Nexus to occur. The Bene Gesserit had been secretly hoping that the Atreides would have taken control of the planet by now, as they had predicted, which would have cause them to secretly get control of Dune, but seeing that this was not even close to happening, they chose to ally themselves with the Fremen during this Nexus. Realizing that the Fremen and the Bene Gesserit controlled three strongholds on the planet which would give them complete control of Dune, the Atreides and the Harkonnen where forced to put their differences aside and become allies in order to combat this new threat.

There was a Spice blow near the North Pole and the Bene Gesserit rejoiced at finally finding some Spice of their very own. Meanwhile the Atreides helped pay for the transport of Harkonnen troops to the eastern most stronghold in order to break the Fremen/Bene Gesserit dominance. The Fremen counter attacked by sending troops into Harkonnen Head Quarters while the Bene Gesserit attacked Atreides Head Quarters. The Atreides/Harkonnen alliance was left with no choice but to win, against all odds, every single battle they fought in order to stop Fremen/Bene Gesserit dominance. The first battle to resolve was over Harkonnen Head Quarters. After the dust settled, the Fremen stood victorious in capturing the stronghold. The Atreides and Harkonnen had no choice but to admit defeat and were sent into exile crying like little babies. DOH!

Why do I keep losing every game I play against my wife?

I want a rematch.

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Templars, BattleLore, Birthdays, and Pupusas

February 22, 2008 in BOARD GAMES, CATHOLICISM, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Not at work yet. I’m still going back the 25th and I’m going to be working on Lance’s show again. We still have to finish it after we get the rewrites.

CATHOLICISM

So I heard (surprisingly enough in a board game podcast) that the pope pardoned the Knights Templar, so I decided to do a little research. Turns out that I’m still not sure what actually happened. There are a lot of different takes on the story and I’m not sure which one is accurate. The only thing that I know for sure is that a document was found in the Vatican Secret Achieves that deals with either the entire order of the Knights Templar or with just five individuals getting pardoned. In any case, I think it’s really interesting.

These are the four sources I read that talk about the story:

cephasministry.com – this one just has some information.

rumormillnews.com – this one rebuts the cephasministry.com information.

news.bbc.co.uk – this one gives you an unbiased overview of the story.

cnn.com – this one give even more good information but slants the story in a slighly negative light near the end.
BOARD GAMES

So since Alesha beat me twice playing Dreamblade last week I thought I’d try another game this week. That way I might be able to win a game. The game I chose was BattleLore. The last time Alesha and I played this game, Alesha beat me. So we sat down to play the game while the kids where asleep in the afternoon. It took about an hour to play the game and Alesha beat me again. It was a close game but she won again. What the heck is going on? I can’t seem to win a game against her.

It was my birthday this Wednesday, and my wife has told me she ordered Ingenious for me. Ingenious is boardgame I had in my BGG wishlist and she saw it there so she decided to get it for me. Below I’ve put a video from The Obsessed Board Gamers. It review the game and also explains it. It made me laugh. I’ve watched a few of their videos and I really like that they love board games but they don’t take them so seriously that they can’t fun of them, which they do in every review, it’s great and funny.

[video src="http://media.podshow.com/media/15871/episodes/98948/obsessedboardgamers-98948-02-11-2008.mp4" /]

MY WEEK

Speaking of birthdays, my parents gave me a birthday dinner on Wednesday. They bought Pupusas and other other El Salvadorean dishes. My cousin Carolina brought refried beans and my brother’s wife Deborah baked me a yummy chocolate cake. We had fun, too bad it was a Wednesday night because everyone had to got home early since it was a work day.

By the way I’m now 33.

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Strike is over, I have a start date, lost playing Dreamblade, waking up to change babies.

February 14, 2008 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, BOARD GAMES, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Well, the writer’s strike seems to be over and animatics are going to screened this week. I just got the call from the studio that I go back to work beginning the 25th. It was going to be the 18th but I asked for one more week so I could help my wife out with the kids for a while longer. We need the money but my wife also needs the help. Once I’m back at work, I’m gonna have to hit the ground running. I’m looking forward to earning the cash again but I’m not looking forward to the work. Still, I’m glad to be going back.

BOARD GAMES

I played Dreamblade against my wife this Sunday. Dreamblade is a game I really like but it’s been discontinued by Wizards of the Coast who make the game. They will no longer support it and once all the Dreamblade figures everywhere are sold out, they will not be coming back. It stinks because I really like the game a lot. The good news is, that now you can get the game for very cheap (50% off or more) because all the game stores are trying to get rid of the Dreamblade products.

My mom took The Munchkin for the evening and my wife and I had a little time to spend together. The Boy was asleep and we took the stroller with him in it to a quiet place in our housing community near the playground. Once there, we sat on a picnic table and played the game.It was the second time she was playing the game. I’d played the game with a friend of mine at work a few time. My wife sorta remembered how to play.

She kick my butt at the game. I mean, she really worked me over. I didn’t even score one point. I don’t know what happened but she just did everything right. I felt completely helpless. I’d never felt so dumb. I was dumbfounded. I wanted a rematch right away. My wife was just siting there laughing at me. I didn’t get my rematch because it was too late to play another game and Munchkin was gonna be getting home soon.

On Wednesday we tried it again. Munchkin was taking a nap and so since we had a small break, I thought I’d get my rematch. I lost again. At least this time, I didn’t lose as bad. The first person to six points wins and my wife won two to six. Man, I suck at that game. Needless to say, Alesha was having a lot of fun playing me.

MY WEEK

I thought that being at home would give me time to do other things. I thought I’d have the time to work on my web comic and draw better drawing on the blog but that turned out not to be the case. All the chores (still unpacking boxes from the move) and the kids have been taking up a lot of my time. Especially The Munchkin. I’ve been spending a ton of time with her and I love it.

Nights aren’t so bad for us with the new baby. I tend to sleep through most of the night. Alesha tends to be the one that wakes up to feed the boy because he tends to have a hard time drinking from a bottle and it’s just easier in the end to have her feed him. She wakes me up whenever he needs a diaper change though.

Little by little I’m getting better at using the Wacom tablet. My cartoons on this blog are never great works of art. I tend to just crank them out whenever I get a little bit of time and as long as they read well I don’t tend to sweat them much. If I wanted to do something really nice looking though, I’d have to scan it in.

ANSWERING COMMENTS
Katy in Scotland wrote:

Hey! I just found your blog yesterday. My husband and I just got back from a trip to Rome last week. It was my third trip to Rome, but my first since converting to Catholicism. Isn’t it incredible?! I love, love, love it.

I have an animator friend in LA, who works on Spongebob Squarepants. He said that the strike wasn’t affecting him – something about a different union. Anyway, I hope you are all alright. Congratulations on your baby!

Wow! You’ve gone to Rome three times? I’m jealous.

Congratulations on your conversion. Welcome home. It’s always great to hear when someone converts to the faith. Especially since Catholisism gets so badly misrepresented all the time. Hurray!

As to your animator friend in LA who works on Spongebob, I’m not suprised. The only shows in our industry that were effected by the strike were Family Guy, King of the Hill, and The Simpsons. The rest of the animation industry was not effected by the strike because the writers in animation are very often artists themselves. We all belong to a completely different union. A fact that I myself was not aware of until a few weeks before I got laid off. It was good to know that I’d have the possibility of finding more work at a different studio if worse came to worse.

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Comments Off on Strike is over, I have a start date, lost playing Dreamblade, waking up to change babies.

Welcome to the real world Dante, Qwirkle board game, Lame Superman/Spiderman video

February 7, 2008 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, FAMILY, RANDOM THING, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

No word on when the show will start up yet. I heard the ride was still being worked on by Friday. I also heard that thirty people in the studio called in sick. I got out just in time before the bug that was going around got me.

FAMILY

I am the proud father of a bouncing baby boy. He was born Jan. 31st 2008 at 7:07 pm and he was 6 pounds,12.3 ounces.

My wife had a c-section because he was in breach position and we had scheduled it for 6:00 pm. Strange thing was that as soon as my wife got in the car to go to the hospital, she started going into labor. Very odd. She was in labor that entire time at the hospital and it wasn’t good news when we were told that an emergency had come up and she was going to be bumped to a later hour. By the time it was her turn for the C-section, her water had broken. The nurses had never seen anything like it. Alesha and I had felt a little odd about having picked the day our son would be born instead of leaving it up to the baby to decide when he wanted to be born. Guess he liked that day also. He was going to be born that day whether we liked it or not.

The operation was quick and went as good as it could be expected. My son was pretty calm about the whole thing. He didn’t really cry that much. Very much like his sister only she didn’t cry at all. One of the first things that my son did when he came into this world was pee on the nurse. I would love to say that my first thought when I saw Dante where more pure and joyous. Something like, “He’s beautiful!” or “Oh wow, that’s my son!” but no. My first thought when I saw my son was, “Holy cow, how come his testicles are so big!? Last time I saw testicles that big compared to the body was on a boy hamster!” (sigh) a Saint, I ain’t.

I had eaten dinner with my parents in the hospital cafeteria, a few minutes before. Alesha had told me that, since I was hungry, I should go eat because she needed me to have enough energy to deal with anything that might come up. So I went to eat and stopped by the waiting room to see if my parents where there. They were. I had pizza. It was terrible. Worst pizza ever. I was gone for about thirty minutes or so. On my way back I went to check the waiting room to see if my in-laws had made it. They had. I let them know about the situation and the delay and then went back to see Alesha. When the baby was born, one of the first things I did was take a picture of Dante with my camera phone and send it to my parents. Turns out, they hadn’t been expecting him to be born so soon and freaked out.

I followed the baby to the nursery and then let my parents in to the nursery area so they could see their new grandson. Everyone was very excited. I would have been even more excited myself if I hadn’t been worrying so much about my wife. I didn’t know how she was doing. We watched as the nurse poked and flipped and flopped Dante like a hamburger patty ready to be cooked. He took it pretty well considering. Then he was left there under a heat lamp buck naked in front of the nursery window for all to see. It was as if he was left to wait until a drive through customer came by and ordered a McDante sandwich. My wife has often told me since, that Dante smells like a sausage. While laying there, I guess he thought he should put on a show for the on lookers because when there was no nurse around he shot up a small fountain of pee.

I left my parents at the nursery window and went to see my wife in the recovery room about twenty minutes after the baby was born. She was doing well but she was really doped up and groggy (at one point during the first night, as she was falling asleep, she told me that next time she wanted, “less noisy medicine”. Must have been the morphine talking). A few minutes later they wheeled her to her room. From this point on it became a waiting game to see what would happen and when we could go home. Once in the room, life got really slow and mellow. Alesha got to see, hold and feed Dante there for the first time. The first night there, I slept at the hospital in a cot by my wife. Munchkin was with my brother and his wife. Next morning she would get dropped off at my parent’s house. I took care of my wife as best as I could although the next night I drove home and brought Munchkin home with me. I did the same the third night but by the fourth I slept at the hospital with my wife again because she really needed me to be there. Munchkin slept at my parent’s house that night. The next morning, Alesha, Dante, the Munchkin and I went home together.

The Munchkin didn’t take her introduction to her little brother very well. On the second day, my parents came to visit brought her along. She got to find out where mommy and daddy had been. When she saw Dante, she was freaked out by him. He must look like one of her dolls to her but the fact that he moves around like a person freaked her out. She didn’t cry or anything but she got nervous and strangely hyper. As if, if she played and did thing loud and crazy enough, she could drive the strange things she was feeling out of her system. When it was time to leave and she realized that I was going to stay a little longer she started crying. My parents say she sat in her car seat unusually quite, holding her teddy bear, looking blankly into space all the way home.

The nurses were very nice. Especially the first four nurses that took care of Alesha the first two days and nights. There was one nurse though, that was really annoying. It was this Asian lady that would come into the room like a tornado and spoke so loud you’d think she was yelling. She was always in a rush and it always seemed as if she was only there to look in on Alesha real quick on her way to see a more “important” patient. “HEY! YOU OKAY?! YOU WANT DOPE?! I GIVE YOU DOPE! ANY PAIN?! NO?! GOOD! I GO NOW! I COME YELL AT YOU LATER!” Every time she’d leave and I’d managed to scrape myself off the ceiling, I’d find that my ears where bleeding. Very annoying.

I spent most of my time at the hospital reading or playing a game on my Gameboy DS. I would get up and help Alesha whenever she needed me and then I would go back to reading or playing. I was really enjoying myself. It’s my idea a great day when I could do that. Superbowl Sunday, I spent reading The Flash comic books and my Warhammer 4oK novel. I forgot about the Superbowl. I’m not an American Football fan though, so I didn’t mind that much. Heard it was a good game though. I went to Church at 5:00 pm that day and was wondering why there were so few people there. Didn’t find out until the next day.

Well, now we are home. Munchkin is getting used to the idea of having a moving doll around the house. She actually gave him a kiss on the head one time. Although she has started getting unusually disobedient lately and I don’t know if it’s because of the baby or because she’s getting to the “terrible twos” stage in her life. Alesha, is doped up all the time and it’s all she could do to breastfeed the Dante between her naps. Meanwhile, Dante is perhaps the easiest baby in the world to take care of. All he does is eat, sleep, and poo. The only time he’s awake is when he’s eating. The rest of the time he’s asleep. Meanwhile, I’m doing every chore around the house that a human being can do. I’m finding it very difficult to write on my blog or even draw. I’m more busy now than I was at work, or at least it feels like it. At work, I at least had a designated lunch break. The other thing I do is sit around and worry about money. I thought we’d be doing better but I haven’t gotten my unemployment checks yet and nor my wife’s maternity leave checks. Thing is, the way things are right now at home, I can’t get another job right now. I have to take care of everyone.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

Holy cow! I got a lot of comments this week. Lets begin.

Bill Ho wrote:

Holy crap, congratulations, Luis! A son and a daughter! Dante Gabriel…very cool that you named your boy after the 19th century poet/illustrator/painter. I’ve heard that people grow into their names, so it looks like Dante will aim high in life and restart the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in the 21st century.

Thanks Bill. The idea for the name Dante came from my wife who is a bit obsessed with Dante Alighieri and she’s been insisting that if we had a boy we had to name him Dante for years now. The middle name Gabriel was after the Archangel Gabriel who appeared to the Virgin Mary and told her she would bare Jesus. We needed to give Dante a Patron Saint as we did with Elizabeth. So far my son and daughter have “Marian” names. Turns out that Dante Gabriel Rossetti is another famous poet/painter, so it seems like Dante is named after two famous poets.

Chris wrote:

Hey Luis!

I’m a long time SQPN listener. And on a completely unrelated note, my wife is the designer of Qwirkle. Well, they were unrelated until I found Qwirkle on your blog! Glad you like it and thanks for the mention!

Chris

PS – Qwirkle retails for $24.95 so I don’t know what is up with that high Amazon price. The publisher sells it directly: www.qwirkle.com

Hi Chris,

So awesome when a designer, or in this case, game designer’s husband gets leaves a comment. I love it. Small world that you listen to SQPN. Get a hold of Greg and Jennifer Willits at the Rosary Army. They’ve been playing a lot of Scrabble lately and I think Qwirkle might be right up there alley since they share a few common mechanics.

Here’s what Board Game Geek has to say about the game:

From the back of the box:

While Qwirkle is as simple as matching colors and shapes, it is a game that also requires tactical maneuvers and well-planned strategy. The game consists of 108 wooden blocks with six different shapes in six colors. Using the blocks, players attempt to score the most points by building lines that share a common attribute – either color or shape. Qwirkle is a quick game to learn, but you’ll soon discover that you’ll need to think strategically in order to score the most points.

Ages 6 and up.

2007 Mensa Select
2007 Parents’ Choice Gold Award
2007 Major Fun Award
2008 Games Magazine Best Family Game Runner-Up

You’re right, the game is waaaaay overpriced on Amazon.com. Thing is, it’s not being sold by Amazon.com but it’s being sold by a “New and Used” seller through Amazon.com. They’re to blame. Maybe if you guys somehow have Amazon.com officially sell the game, they will sell it for the right price.

Carmella writes:

I read your blog in a regular manner and just love it
hope there will be more postings from you, keep on going
greetz, carmella

Thank you for the comment Carmella. I’m gonna try to “keep on going”. It’s getting tricky now that I’m at home. I’m gonna have to come up with a schedule that will allow me to draw and write on the blog during the week. Not only that but I don’t have a working scanner at the moment so either I draw directly on the computer with my Wacom tablet (which is what I did with week’s drawing, which came out so-so) or I draw it on paper and go to my parents house to scan it. It’s a pain.

I went to your site. I recommend you down load WordPress and upload it to your server like I did. Trust me, it’s not cheating. Your knowledge of html will come in reeeaaaal handy. I learned a bit of it myself before I put my blog up and it helps a lot. Meanwhile WordPress itself simplifies a lot of unnecessary work for you. Best of luck.

RANDOM THING

And the winner of The Oh God, how could you let something like this happen?! Quick, someone find me a gun so I could shoot myself in the face and end my misery! award goes to this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Pjo0WjBcs&eurl=http://samrowan.blogspot.com/

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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.

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.

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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Slowly losing my sanity, Superman supergeek and a frog.

January 26, 2008 in Featured, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

My slow decent into madness continues. I can feel my sanity slipping away. Perhaps it’s the fact that I haven’t seen my daughter awake since last Sunday morning. Or perhaps it’s that I only spend three hour a day awake in my house (one hour from the moment I wake up in the morning to the moment I get home and two hours from when I get home from work to when I go to sleep. Sometimes I spend one of those hours washing dishes or doing laundry.). The fact that it’s been raining hard these last couple of days doesn’t help.

I thought perhaps if I could hold on until this Friday (since that is the deadline for the Univeral Studios Simpsons ride) I would be okay but alas (or perhaps hurray?) My last day at work will be the 30^th of this month. Now I know I’m most assuredly doomed. The talking frog that lives under my scene folders has told me so. He also wanted to write an article on my blog but I told him he couldn’t because he’s wearing oven mitts. Instead, I let him draw the blog drawing for the week.

Who knew working on the Universal Studios Simpsons ride was as madness inducing as looking upon Great Cthulhu himself.

MY WEEK

It’s lunch time and I’m at work at my desk typing this in Open Office. I tend to do this with all my posts, then I transfer them to my blog when I’m going to publish it (I hope I can get this up by at least Friday). I’m really tired and I’d like to read a comic book but I think this will do me more good then just reading. I had a lot of plans for this blog post but I didn’t really get a lot of time to pull it off. I might not get enough next week either. One of the things I was thinking of writing was a “Superman is better than Batman” thing but I just wasn’t very into it. I then started writing about why I like Superman but then that turned into writing about Superman Returns, Smallville, the Superman cartoon, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Superman comics, Superman and Moral Virtue and each one of those subjects became it’s own separate essay, so that didn’t work. I wrote a lot too, I knew I was a Superman geek but SHEESH! I might eventually finish those but I can’t right now. It’s too much work, I don’t have any time and I’m slowly going insane.

The only thing that survived my attempt is the blog drawing for this week. Please excuse the crudeness of some of the jokes. It was written and drawn by an oven mitt wearing frog that lives under my scene folders. Enjoy your stay on my island.

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woppoijfa'[p-0\oijsdoijn;km;puer98i;alkdnmvn jh’apijdjflf……….ahhhhhhahahahhhhhahahahahahaha…..

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Simpsons show interships, Dresden books, Trailers, Birthdays, Working on weekends

January 18, 2008 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, BOOKS, FAMILY, MOVIES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

More twelve hour days. I’m really getting burned out. It’s getting difficult to stay focused. I’ve run out of podcasts to listen to and that isn’t helping.

Usually I listen to six to sixteen podcasts a day depending on the their length but since I’ve been working more hours I’ve been listening to around eight to twenty four podcasts a day. The podcasts I listen to just don’t update fast enough to keep up with the amount of hours I listen. I’ve started putting in TV dvds and listening to them as I work. I did this with 30 Rock recently. I hadn’t seen it before, I thought it was a pretty clever show.

Anyway, hope I can keep this up. They’re having me work Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Sheesh!

FAMILY

Friday was Eduardo’s birthday. He’s my daughter’s Godfather (Compadre, in spanish). He celebrated it on Sunday. It was a nice party. He had all his family over and it really looked like he was enjoying himself an awful lot.

After the party had gone on a while, Eduardo took out Ticket to Ride: Europe. He only managed to explain the rules before people had to leave so the game didn’t even get past the first two turns. He then thought that it would be easier to play a game of Texas Hold ’em. Mostly because he wouldn’t have to explain the rules. I’d brought Modern Art the card game by Reiner Knizia and I managed to convince everyone who stayed to try it out. I personally find this game feels a bit like Texas Hold ’em without being like poker at all. Here’s the Board Game Geek description of the game:

Buying and selling paintings is a very lucrative business, at least that’s what Hollywood’s led us to believe, and that’s the premise of this game. Five different artists have produced a bunch of paintings, and it’s the player’s task to be both the buyer and the seller, hopefully making a profit in both roles. He does this by putting a painting from his hand up for auction each turn. He gets the money if some other player buys it, but must pay the bank if he buys it for himself. After each round, paintings are valued by the number of paintings of that type that were sold. The broker with the most cash after four rounds is the winner.

Part of the Knizia auction trilogy.

Winner of the 1993 Deutscher Spiele Preis.

There where six people wanting to play but it’s a five player game so I sat out of the game and just played banker (which I did a lousy job at since I’m terrible at math). The game was played by Eduardo, Eduardo’s brother, his brother’s wife, my wife Alesha, and Eduardo’s daughter Carolinita. I think everyone had a good time. The game has you making really tough decisions through out the game. I’m not sure everyone understood all the rules but I think that game was played as good as it could have been. It didn’t help that we were playing on a really, really windy night, outside, with very little light. Eduardo played the game the way I did the first time I played it. He went all out on the auctions he really wanted the “paintings” in. Eduardo’s brother and his wife were playing the game really well. I was really impressed by the smart decisions they were making. I think one of them would have won if it wasn’t for the fact that Eduardo ended up spending all his money on an auction late in the game which gave Carolinita a ton of money since she was the one auctioning off the “paintings”. I think, I did something similar the first time I played. The game ended shortly after that and Carolinita ended up winning by a lot of money. She was very, very happy about that. Eduardo came in dead last, poor guy.

We then played Texas Hold ’em. Which I like playing, although I find it gets repetitive if you play for too long. I thought I’d be cool and see if I could guess what cards people had by looking at their faces and not even look at my cards. I’d play the game on just “tells” alone (I saw it in a movie once). I lost all my chips. We left a little after that. Not because I lost but because someone reminded me that it was Sunday and I had work the next day. Otherwise I would have stuck around and cried a little more. I had a good time though.

Happy Birthday Eduardo.

MOVIES

Here’s a few trailers that have caught my eye in the last few months.

Batman Dark Knight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqq4j52Fb4

Still not sure if it will be as good or better than Batman Begins but it looks interesting.

Iron man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgzIM-9lfA&feature=player_embedded#t=61

I just liked the shot were you see Iron man out running the jets. Too cool. I never read Iron man comics but I’ve read comics with Iron man in them and I think the idea of the character is great. As a kid he never really appealed to me but for some reason he appeals to me quite a bit now.

Prince Caspian :

I don’t know. I didn’t really like the book this movie is based on, all that much (I also didn’t like The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe book either) but this movie might be good. I didn’t much like the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe movie. I thought it came off as emotionally flat in places that it should not have been. So far I’ve only read four Narnia books and the only ones I’ve liked have been skipped as movies. They are: The Magician’s Nephew, and A Horse and his Boy. Personally I think they should have made The Magician’s Nephew the first movie.

I’ve read they’re making a Justice League Movie also but now it’s on hold. Read about it by clicking HERE.

BOOKS

A month or so ago I finished reading Storm Front, a Harry Dresden book by Jim Butcher, and I really liked it. Since the book I have is an anthology of four novels in one, I began reading the next one right after I was done with the first. I don’t think I’ll be able to get through it anytime soon though. It’s longer and I haven’t gotten back to it in a while. At the moment I’m in the mood for something a little different. Then I’ll get back to it. I like the Dresden stories a lot and I think Jim Butcher’s writing style is just really fun. The wacky situations Harry Dresden gets himself in are just great. I highly recommend these books.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

Alex wrote:

Luis, I find your story very inspiring, and truly appreciate where you are coming from. You seem like one of the hardest workers, and one more importantly, who will not give up on his dreams. In the same footsteps, I am an aspiring screenwriter with a focus on humor and satire; from the start have longed to write for The Simpsons. It has been a childhood dream, since my beginning days watching, and has followed me to college today. I was wondering if you would have any advice when it comes to getting an internship with The Simpsons, or if you would possibly be willing to talk more about your experience. I do apologize if it seems I am asking a lot, but I am fascinated by your story and your ability to succeed. If anything, please do not mistake me for just another Simpsons freak, I am a passionate and dedicated writer. Feel free to respond to the comment or email me.

Thanks so much, and great work for The Simpsons!

-Alex

Hi Alex,

First I’d like to thank you for the compliments. I really appreciate them. I must say, that the way a lot the things happened to me really felt like pure dumb luck or, since I’m Catholic, they where a bit Providential (and even then, on hindsight, it seems it wasn’t just for my sake these things happened to me. More on that some other time perhaps). If I was to try to do the same thing today, I would not be able to. The studio no longer has an internship for up and coming artists and I’m afraid that it never had one for writers. Most of the new artist that have gotten hired lately have done so through the presentation of a portfolio and then turning in and passing the Layout test they received afterwards. Some artists have worked their way from being receptionists to artists. They did this by befriending artists and learning how to do the work and then taking the Layout test and passing it. So that’s almost like the internship route I took except I wasn’t getting paid for my internship and the person who took this route took five years to make it as an artist.

I’m afraid the writing processes might be a bit trickier to get into. First of all the writers don’t work at the studio I work in. They work at the Fox Studio Lot. Second, I don’t think there’s an easy way to just get hired as a writer on the show except by recommendation (in fact, I think that’s the way it is on all TV shows). That means you not only need to be a really good writer but you also need to have the right connections. I’ve heard it’s very difficult to pull off, but it’s doable.

I spoke to a friend of mine at work, who is trying to get into sitcom writing (not on The Simpsons) and he gave me a rundown of all the things he’s learned so far after reading a lot about it and talking to a lot of writers and producers. You may already know this stuff, but perhaps there are others who don’t. Here’s some helpful tips he’s learned:

Tape six episodes of TV shows that you like that are currently on the air and study them. Pay close attention to their story structure (take notes on any conventions, variants on conventions or structural innovations), show formulas, humor, etc…
Get actual scripts for these shows. (On e-bay or Script Shack) Study the writing style, make a list of the type of humor in the show (example: Ironic humor, slapstick…etc.) Note what type of gags are used the most and how the show is structured to pay them off. Label each joke. Invent names for them if necessary.
Write a spec script for a show that is CURRENTLY ON THE AIR but not on the show that you want to write for. For example, if you want to write for The Simpsons, write a Family Guy spec script. Why? Because producers and writers will be much harsher on someone writing in a universe they know well than one they don’t. They will pay more attention to the writing on a spec script written for a different show than the mistakes you made writing in their’s. (This is also true for artists. It’s not a good idea to put Simpsons characters in your portfolio when trying to get a job on the Simpsons).
Get an agent. Studios will not read you script without one.

It’s possible you already own these books but I’ll put them here anyway. My friend recommends these books:

The Comic toolbox, by John Vorhaus

Writing Television Sitcoms by Evan Smith

Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer, Mark Shatz

My friend also told me that there is some sort of writers workshop program at Warner Brothers. It’s a program that is very much under the radar and as of the time of this writing it’s the off season for it. Besides there is also a writer’s strike so that also doesn’t help. You might look into it though. It’s possible to get a script writing assistant job from it.

When I worked on the Simpsons Movie, I worked at the Fox Studio Lot for about three months and I saw the Simpsons writers once in a while. I would also see Matt Groening almost at a daily basis because his office was near the place I was working and in order to go to the bathroom I passed by his office. One or two writers ventured into our work place out of curiosity just to see how we did things. They where real modest and very friendly. From the stories I’ve gotten from some directors, I heard they went through as much hell as we did in the movie, if not more. I gathered from things that they said when they came by that there was a definite hierarchy within the writers. Some were part of the “A team” and some the “B team”. Of course, I may very well have misunderstood because I’ve also heard (perhaps from the movie commentary) that there was a group that was having more fun than another group because one group was under the pressure of making the movie story work while the other group sat around having fun coming up with gags and laughing all the time. It’s possible that the “gag group” thought the “story group” was having more fun because they got the “important” job while they sat around feeling like second class citizens. Not having been part of the writing processes, I could only speculate from what I saw and over heard so take this with a grain of salt.

Well Alex, I hope this is in someway helpful.

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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 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:

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…

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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Bed rest, Munchkin beds, Selling ads, Playing games

January 3, 2008 in BLOGS, BOARD GAMES, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Had an easier week than usual working on the ride. I actually got to home on time most of the week.

There are less and less people working on the show every week. I talked to one of the character designers of the show today and he told me he only had two more weeks before he gets laid off.

Today is my dad’s last day on King of the Hill because of the strike. Please pray for him and all the people affected by it. We all need the prayers.

FAMILY
Alesha was put on bed rest by her doctor. She was feeling some long moments of “discomfort” a few days ago (and by discomfort I mean pain). Turns out she needs to take it easy so the baby doesn’t come too soon. It was bad enough so that on the 30th we went to register at the hospital and then she checked herself in just in case there was something wrong. There wasn’t, as we found out after being there for about two hours but it made my wife feel a lot better knowing that. That’s when the doctor gave her the bed rest prescription. From now on, she needs to take it easy until the baby comes.

Meanwhile, this New Year’s Eve we decided it would be a good idea to start training our sixteen month old Munchkin to sleep on a toddler bed. Especially since her baby brother would use her crib once he’s born. Also Alesha won’t need to reach into a crib to pick her up. I built the bed this New Year’s Eve and introduced the bed to the Munchkin who was overwhelmed with excitement when she saw it. She ran over to it, climbed into it, and began jumping and dancing around on it. She would then lay down on it (with her little butt up in the air) and say “nigh nigh” lay there for about ten to fifteen seconds before standing up on it to dance and jump again. She would do this over and over again. It was hilarious. I was having so much fun watching her.

So after all that, I took her downstairs so she could play for a little while longer before I put her down for a nap. When nap time came I took her upstairs and put her in her new bed. A minute after I left the room, we saw her in the baby monitor getting up out of the bed and playing with the toys around her room. I went in her room and put her back on the bed about three times before I just decided to let her be. It was funny because she would get out, sit by her bed and look at it for a long time with her bottle in her mouth. She would then touching the bed once in a while and would sometimes even kiss it but she wouldn’t get in it. At one point she got up and went off camera so we didn’t know what she was doing. I left her alone for a long time but she never made it back within camera range. I told Alesha that it had been long enough and if she wasn’t going to go to sleep, I would just go get her. When I opened the door, I found her on the carpet asleep in the center of her room. I put a blanket on her and let her be.

Since it was New Years Eve, the Munchkin spent the night away parting with our family at our aunts house (and she really partied hard. She danced and ran around and ate and played bongos. She had a blast). When we got home she slept in her new bed without incident. Next day though, when we put her on the bed for her nap, she got out of the bed again, began playing with her toys and next thing we know, she fell asleep in the same place on the carpet as she did the day before. She looked like a doll laying there as if some careless kid had just dropped her as they walked out the door. It was very funny.

We were a little concerned that she wouldn’t sleep in her bed when we put her down to sleep that night, but she was actually fine. She didn’t get out of bed and just lay down until she fell asleep. She moves around a lot and I was afraid, when I saw she had moved to a spot on the bed that didn’t have a rail, that she would fall out. So I got a big cushion we had laying around and put it under the opening. It’s a very very low bed so it’s no big deal but I just didn’t want her to land on the carpet get all bothered and begin to cry. Sure enough, a little while later I saw on the monitor that she was no longer in the bed. I went in and found her on the cushion completely asleep covered by blankets. She looked very comfortable and I almost left her there but I decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea and put her back in the bed. She didn’t even wake up. She slept the rest of the night without incident and even slept an hour longer than she usually does.

Now when we put her down for her nap she sleeps on her bed instead of on the carpet. She’s apparently gotten used to it and I think she likes her it.

BLOGS
I’d like to give a big THANK YOU to Science of Identity Foundation for paying to advertise their site on my site. I’m very grateful. Thank you. The link ad is located in the top right just above the “Pages” and “Top Commentators” tags.

It’s funny but considering the subject matter of the site, it makes me curious as to why they would have chosen my site. In any case, I’m glad they did. Yay!

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list. I’m listed on the site. I will try my best to call attention to you text ad and I’ll put it in the most prominent place I can.

BOARD GAMES
We played quite a few games this weekend. We actually got to play Dune! It was really fun. We only played with three people but we had a good time. My wife played the Bene Gesserit, my wife’s best friend played the Atreides, and I was Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV . The game ended in turn four and I won. It took us two hours to get to turn four but that was only because we were checking the rules every other minute as we learned the game. Next time we play, I doubt it will take that long to get to the fourth turn. If no one wins after fifteen turns, the game ends. I must say, that all the effort I made putting the game together paid off because the game was really great fun.

Afterwards we played a game of Liar’s Dice (my wife gave it to me for Christmas). That game was fun also. It’s a nice short “filler” game.

The next, day we had a little bit of time when we put the Munchkin down for a nap, so we thought we’d play a game. The game was Cleopatra and the Society of Architects. We knew we wouldn’t be able to finish it before Munchkin woke up but we played it anyway. We only played for a while before she woke so we decided to end the game and do all the end game scoring. The winner of the game is the person with the most money at the end of the game but there’s a catch…the person who has accumulated the most corruption tokens at the end of the game (even if they have the most money) gets thrown to the crocodiles and cannot win. My wife’s friend and I tied with the most corruption. Cleopatra threw us to the crocodiles so my wife ended up winning. It was a very fun game. I recommend it. It shares a few mechanics with Settlers of Catan but the point of the game is to build a miniature of Cleopatra’s Palace instead of building cities and roads.

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Luis' Illustrated Blog

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Bed rest, Munchkin beds, Selling ads, Playing games

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