Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...

Wow...lots to catch up on, here we go. It's been a busy couple of weeks...

A week ago Friday, my Chicago transplant comedian cousin, Jon, and I climbed in my car at 7:30pm to drive home for the holidays. Jon seemed to think the drive was gonna take somewhere between 16 and 20 hours. I thought he was nuts. Google said 12 and I put my chip in the Google column. I took the first shift and we headed on south on interstate 55 through the black abyss of a barren Illinois landscape. Our conversation covered a wide variety of topics through the night and the wackiness of said topics seemed to increase with the the steady march of the hours. Some examples of our memorable topics include the craziness of women (some, not all mind you), why both the democrats and republicans suck at present, and concluding with if ghosts are possibly simply temporal displacements run amok. At that point it was 2:30 in the morning and Jon needed some sleep to prep for his last leg of the drive. So, I put an audio book on and let my headache grow from a soft tap to a nice solid pounding sensation by the time my shift was complete. At 4:30 or so I passed the baton and got some much needed rest. 7:30 found us pulling into my mom's driveway grateful to get out of the car. Jon got some hot chocolate and headed on down to Dallas to see his fam and I went to sleep and didn't wake up till 4:30 in the afternoon.

Sunday, I met an old friend for coffee before church and then headed over to the church I spent the first 17 years of my life attending. It's a bit more traditional than I prefer nowadays, but it was a good to be there all the same. After that, I picked up some food at Johnnies Charcoal Grill and took it over to my uncle and grandmother. After visiting a little while I started feeling pretty crappy and laid on the couch for the next 3 hours hoping my head would just explode rather than continue to pound incessantly. When I finally mustered the strength to leave, I got back to my mom's and went to bed (sadly having to skip the Candlelight Service which is one of my favorites, ah well)

The next day, we headed down to Dallas for the big fam shindig and I pounded as much Advil and vitamins as possible. Christmas dinner was great eats as always and my sickness was kept at bay for the most part. After dinner, some cousins and I decided to catch a movie and went to see Casino Royale which was absolutely fantastic. I had had serious reservations about seeing it from the trailers and a James Bond who looked nothing like the ones in the past. However, he was great and the action was non stop. Highly recommended.

On Tuesday, my brother showed up with my nephews and we had a family breakfast (eggs cooked in bacon grease, good bacon and sausage, biscuits, fresh fruit, juice...the works). One of my cousins downed 7 eggs...nutso. I spent the rest of the day nursing my headache and hanging with my bro and the nephews. At the end of the day we headed back to Oklahoma and I was feeling crummy enough to decided to try to find a doctor the next day.

One of my nephews, my brother, and I

And so I did. I went in, he told me to open my mouth and say "Ah" and two seconds later diagnosed me with Strep throat and prescribed some antibiotics. A couple of days later I was feeling much, much better.

Spent the rest of my time in OK hanging with my family and eating way too much chex mix and candy. However, it's the holidays so we let that slide.

Saturday, I climbed back in the car for the solo drive back to Chitown (my cousin had already gotten a plane ticket cause I wasn't sure when I was coming back). For being solo, it really wasn't that bad. I had filled up my iPod with some talks of one of my favorite authors who happens to pastor a church up in Michigan. So, it was a nice 12 hours of introspection and some seriously challenging thinking. The message on Christianity and America was especially stretching. It added some substance to a lot of what I've been personally thinking about as to how Christians might be "missing it." I've got a lot more stewing to do on it, but it was a much needed kickstart in some new avenues of thought.

Oh, and my computer died again. One thing's for certain, I've learned the art of detachment when it comes to technology:)

I also learned another lesson. When you pay 12.95 for a hair cut, you really shouldn't get too upset when you say trim the top and you end up with a semi buzz cut. May be time for a new barber shop. Ah, well...it'll grow back.

I've got some thoughts for the New Year, but no time to write. I'll get around to it.

Lata.

Pixar's New Short - "Lifted"

This is a backdated post...sorry...

A bunch of guys from work and I went to Colombia university downtown last night for a little screening of a short from a certain company we all know and love. It's the Chicago film festival this weekend and will be screened on Saturday there.

The seed of the story is alien's driver's ed and Pixar quality hilarity ensues.

The director of the short was there for a Q&A, short talk and to screen it. The director was really funny and showed us a lot of stuff. The shaders they used for the "gel" bodies are deceptively amazing. You don't even notice how sweet it is while you're watching it, but seeing a turn around on the characters made the complexity amazing. Another sweet tech thing was the jiggle factor. They've got some sort of tech for pretty much impacting a character and seeing how the jiggle cascades through the body.

HOLY CRAP I loved this short. I think it is my favorite short to come from the studio. It was absolutely hysterical, the timing was perfect, the design was beautiful...I can't wait to see it again when it screens with Ratatoulie next June. If you can find a way to see it before then...

GO!

A Sigh and a Movie...

First, the sigh - My freelance gig is completely rendered, composited and template setup for the client. All I have to do now is a few promotional things for the DVD cover, advertising, behind the scenes, etc. Holy moly am I ready to be done.

Now for the movie. Earlier this week, one of the guys invited us to see The Ant Bully at the IMAX. His girlfriend had a lead on getting premiere passes through her work. Very little arm twisting was necessary to get me on board. So, Tuesday after work we headed to the Navy Pier and got a bite to eat at healthy and wholesome McDonald's. A 10 pack of chicken nuggets, fries and a diet coke later I was lethargically rarin' to go. I don't eat fast food very often at all anymore. Something in my system decided a few years ago to punish me every time I surrendered to the greasy caloric gluttony.

Punish me it does.

We then headed to the movie and received our swank 3d shades...

Jae, me, Randy

Jae's girlfriend likes to take pics and was kind enough to share. The movie was a lot better than I thought it would be. The animation was very good - a lot higher quality than Jimmy Neutron and was a pleasant surprise. The lighting, sets and art direction were nice takes on themes that had been done before. Two other ant movies done before covered a lot of ground but this film was able to stay out of their wakes for the most part. The 3d effect was very cool as they actually rendered the shots twice (one for each eye). When I saw Chicken Little in 3d last fall I was a bit disappointed by their implementation. It felt more like a children's story book pop up book in motion then true 3d perspective. Another nice surprise was that the director of the film was at the premiere and the kids and parents asked some funny questions. There were one or two more technical questions but for the most part it was just fun stuff.

Good fun.

Lots O' Nothin!

• Never ending rendering - So my never ending project is about at an end. I really can't thank the client enough for being patient. Let's just say that rendering at HD res adds just a "wee" bit of render time AND Lightwave doesn't render the hypervoxels so fast at that res. I'm pretty tired of not having my main computer. That and losing a hard drive a few weeks back makes me ready to give my computer a little break. About 30 frames to go!
  
• Running after being sick - I was sick for about 3 weeks. Not too bad of sickness - tired all the time, headaches, etc. So for about that much time I didn't really jog. So last week, I tried to start up again. Wow did I lose a lot of my runnin' mojo. Before I got sick, I was running 6 miles most days and close to 10 every other weekend. This week, I started at completing 2 of my 4 mile circuit and after a week of it, I'm only barely back at 4. The funny thing is I lost nothing on the lifting front....strange.
  
• Pirates of the Caribbean - Saw this last weekend with some friends. To get ready for it, I watched the first one the night before. The movie was a fantastic popcorn flick...just a whole lot of fun. It was a little long, but not too bad. On the special effects front I just have to say, "Wow!" Davy Jones is the most amazing cg character I have yet seen on the screen. The greatness of Golum has been eclipsed and my mind is still reeling at the how's of it. It was a special effects smorgasborg and I can't wait to pick up the DVD to see the behind the scenes.