Late November Catch Up

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged. Why? Because my days have been pretty boring. My change-of-season-sickness turned into a sore throat/cough/ear infection/sinus infection...thing. It ended up hanging around in some form for about two months. Thankfully, it has FINALLY passed as of recently. I am still fighting with my ear as it continues to randomly plug and unplug. Fun, fun, fun.
Oh, and I also got my swine flu shot two weeks ago today, so hopefully I won't have to worry about sprouting a twirly tail and feeling the urge to roll around in the mud.

So, the major frustration of the long sickness (besides being sick), is that my work on The Girl and the Ghost was delayed. Bigtime. I had hoped to have it finished by the end of the year, at least the actual animation phase, but that's pretty unlikely now. It WILL get done though. This one has been far too long of a journey to turn back now.

Some recent highlights have included Halloween and Thanksgiving. Halloween was great because little Matthew made me proud and dressed up as Superman.
Check this awesome little nugget out.


I also carved a Jeff-Goldblum-O-Lantern.

Thanksgiving was nice, I had fun just chilling out with all the family. On top of that, it was also Matthew's second birthday. It was a blast to watch him open his presents and dive into his cake. Can't believe the little bugger's only been around for two years, it kind of feels like he's always been here.

As one of my gifts to him, I made another video to follow The First Four and The Following Fifteen. Here's Eighteen Through Twenty Four.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly7y7vqqSAQ

Thanksgiving weekend was rounded out with lots of hanging with the gang. It was the first I've gotten to hang with Corey, Eric, Brendan, Jeff, Mikey, and Mo all together in ages.
Twas a good time.

There's also a bit of big news I'm excited to share. A couple weeks ago, Larry, Aaron, and the guys headed out to LA for a week of meetings. On November 19th, I got a text from Larry that read

"Lotr producer just took us to breakfast to tell us he's investing in our new toon"

Mark Ordesky, producer of Lord of the Rings, is investing in our next animated project, Four Tanks and a Healer.

You can read Larry's account of the trip here.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/notes/larry-longstreth/onward-to-awesomeness/207207984601

This is so mind-boggling to me that my brain has yet to fully process it. It'll definitely be interesting to see where our projects go in 2010.

But before that? Christmas. I'm really looking forward to it this year. I'm ready for some Christmas spirit.

Pumpkin Fun

Happy Halloween from me and my Christopher Walken jack-o-lantern.

Last Minute Pumpkin Run

Halloween has come and gone and now November is here. Thanksgiving is three weeks from today with Christmas and snow and all that is wintry right behind it. The year sure is flying by. I think I say that every year. Yesterday, on the other hand, seemed to go on forever.

I had to be up ridiculously early (9 AM is ridiculously early for me) for a doctor's appointment. Just a check up, all is well.

From there, I did a little shopping with Mom and bought myself the sixth season of Scrubs on DVD. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed out to hunt down some pumpkins.

We learned an important Halloween lesson this year: don't wait until Halloween to buy pumpkins. Something came up every time we were planning to go, so it came down to the last minute. When we got there, the pumpkin patch was just a patch. On the bright side, I guess it made it easier to decide which ones to get.

Look at all of them!

Back home, I tried to come up with a design. I usually start planning days in advance, but I just got too distracted I guess. Animating will have that effect. With the clock ticking down to the arrival of trick-or-treaters, I had to come up with something fairly simple and fast. Friends gave me some great suggestions like the Guy Fawkes mask, Jack Skellington, my own face, characters from The Girl and the Ghost and a lot more. I know I could have lots of fun with those, but I just didn't have enough time. Of course, Eric suggested a series of Battlestar Galactica options. Maybe next year. I ended up deciding on our design of Darkseid from The Greatest Fan Film of All Time.

It actually kind of looks like me as a zombie.

I rounded out the night by watching Pushing Daisies and Ghost Hunters.

The news just said we might get our first snow next week. I'm already under a blanket. I'm prepared.

Those Pumpkins'll Getcha Every Time

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Everywhere I go, I hear Christmas music. Even as I type this, I'm listening to Dido's "Christmas Day" on the radio. It's nice and calming, it would be a perfect little holiday moment...except for the fact that it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Not to mention that I've been hearing Christmas music in stores since before Halloween.

I'm a guy who likes tradition. Every Thanksgiving morning is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, at the very end of the parade is the grand arrival of Santa. That is when the holiday season starts. The music, the decorations, the lights, that's when they should all begin.

Now, don't go thinking I'm channeling Scrooge here, ask anybody who knows me and they'll tell you the Christmas spirit takes over during the season. What's going on right now, though, is overkill. Everyone's going to be sick of these songs weeks before the holiday arrives, the meaning of them will be sucked dry from the overexposure.

So, I'm going to try to shield myself from the premature holly jolly tunes and enjoy my Thanksgiving for the day it actually is. I love Christmas too much to jump the gun and spoil it. Candy canes aren't quite as special if you eat them every day.

Change of Plans

At the last minute, I got a quick and easy costume idea that I'm confident nobody else anywhere was wearing tonight. I decided to go as...

Cartoon Jacob!(click for full size)

And now for my pumpkin. The star of my most recent short...

Batman!
(click for full size)

Yeah, I'm weird, but it's fun.

Ghosts in the Machines?

Technology hates me. I no longer have any doubt in my mind about that.

Our TV (only 5 years old) died back in July, then the one we put in its place died, leaving us with a ridiculously tiny one. It looks like the old TV got pushed back about twenty feet through the wall.

I listen to music as I go to sleep. I pick the CDs that'll help me relax, press play, and drift off. It's just what I do.
From the beginning, my stereo (only 3 years old) never worked quite right. It would skip songs or entire CDs for no apparent reason. Sometimes it wouldn't even read a CD. It was pretty much just a minor annoyance, then it got worse...after the warranty expired.
A couple nights ago, it died completely. Dad opened it up and found the wires warped and discolored from heat as well as a hot smell to it.
Toast.

I haven't gotten a new video games in nearly a year. So, what happened when I recently got one?
If you guessed "the Playstation 2 died before I ever got to play the game", give yourself a gold star.

I love electronics...when they, y'know, work. Is nothing made to last anymore? This stuff costs so much to repair, you might as well just replace it. If you can afford it. Which I can't.
Bah.

I can't believe it's Halloween already. Where did the rest of the year go? This is the first year I haven't dressed up in at least a thrown together costume. We'll be carving pumpkins in a bit here and handing out candy later, though I doubt we'll get many trick or treaters with the chilly and rainy weather.
After that? Veronica Mars, Boston Legal, and tonight's live episode of Ghost Hunters. Low key, but works for me.
I'll probably watch Silent Hill tonight too, gotta have a scary movie. Reviews seem mixed on the movie, but I'm a fan.

Maybe I'll put up some pictures from Halloweens gone by a little later.

Have a fun and safe one!

Hmph.

I haven't posted an entry in a few days. I wish I could offer a good excuse, but the only one I have is that I've been excessively bored.

It's been cold, windy, rainy, and snowy these last few days. Add to that that there's really nowhere to go around here that really interests me and I'm sure you'll get the picture that I'm already going a bit stir crazy. And it's not even November yet.

As I've said, I don't like the cold months all that much, but I am looking forward to November for two specific reasons:

1. The concert trip up to St Catharines
2. The end of the increasingly annoying political ads on TV

I'm still keeping myself really busy writing. I've written the next installment of Ask the Reading Monkey, I finished a poem for a friend, and I'm working out some ideas for possible film projects.

Along with all that, I'm also re-working my script. I was given some brilliant and very helpful advice from Rachel, who voiced Batgirl in Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face.
I took a few days off between drafts (as Larry advised) and like magic, I felt the creative spark. A tweak here, a minor change there, and I can already see some drastic improvements. It's always nice to have friends who know their stuff. Thanks, guys.

In the spirit of Halloween, I'll leave you with something kinda scary. Check out this creepy (and seemingly pointless) commercial for the upcoming Playstation 3.