Appetizer
Describe a toy you remember from your childhood.
I had lots of great toys when I was a kid, but I was really into action figures so I had all the GI Joes, and all the original Star Wars stuff.... too bad I don't still have that stuff (although it has to be inthe packages to be worth anything and what good is a toy if no one plays with it?)
Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how observant are you?
6 sometimes I'm ultraobservant and other times I'm completely vacant
Salad
Where would you rather be at this very moment?
What's wrong with where I am right now?
Main Course
When was the last time you learned something new?
Every day I learn something new.
Dessert
Fill in the blank: I have ____________ but I haven’t ____________.
I have been shopping all shopping for art supplies all morning but I haven't purchased anything.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Friday
It has been a very long week so far, made longer by the stress of reformatting my computers. I finally got my animation computer back up and working, now the chore will be to get the editor done this weekend.
It has been really hot, which I totally love, unfortunately the aquarium inhabitants don't. We will have to tinfd a way to keep them cooler in the daytime if this weather persists, which I hope it does.
I've heard Facebook has been having some legal problems and lately it has been Down for Maintenance an awful lot, so I spent a little time yesterday backing up e-mail addresses etc from old firends I reconnected with through Facebook, just in case. I'd hate to one day go to sign on only to find out it's been shut down with no warning and then lose contact with those people again because of it.
This week we are puppy sitting for Darrell's business partner Mike, so there are four extra paws added to the eight already in residence. He's a fairly old dog, so he's not hard to keep up with, but he is a beagle so he has to on the leash outside at all times or he'll stick his nose to the ground and be gone in search of whatever scent he fancies.
I spent this morning shopping (not as fun as it sounds) for prices on art supplies. I need to come up with a cost for supplies for my painting course in the fall. The school likes to have all supplies etc included in the course fees so all parents have to do is drop the child off and everthing else is done. I hit the Dollar Store, Kent, Walmart (argh), and Michaels looking for prices on stuff. Michael's is not very competitive in their pricing, in fact I'm suprised they seel any of their paint with Walmart right next door selling the exact same brand for less. Their brush selection is head and shoulders above all others though, although it would be nice to find a brush set of just the basics. One set of midsized brushes that covers all the types... is that so much to ask for? They have plenty of different sets, but you'll find one set has almost everything except and anglebrush, and the next set will be missing the fan brush etc. There is not one set that just has everything a beginner would need without adding another brush.
This weekend it is supposed to rain all weekend so hopefully we will be able to get some work done downstairs. I found a tile I really like that could go on the back wall above the cabinet, and it's on sale....yay!
It has been really hot, which I totally love, unfortunately the aquarium inhabitants don't. We will have to tinfd a way to keep them cooler in the daytime if this weather persists, which I hope it does.
I've heard Facebook has been having some legal problems and lately it has been Down for Maintenance an awful lot, so I spent a little time yesterday backing up e-mail addresses etc from old firends I reconnected with through Facebook, just in case. I'd hate to one day go to sign on only to find out it's been shut down with no warning and then lose contact with those people again because of it.
This week we are puppy sitting for Darrell's business partner Mike, so there are four extra paws added to the eight already in residence. He's a fairly old dog, so he's not hard to keep up with, but he is a beagle so he has to on the leash outside at all times or he'll stick his nose to the ground and be gone in search of whatever scent he fancies.
I spent this morning shopping (not as fun as it sounds) for prices on art supplies. I need to come up with a cost for supplies for my painting course in the fall. The school likes to have all supplies etc included in the course fees so all parents have to do is drop the child off and everthing else is done. I hit the Dollar Store, Kent, Walmart (argh), and Michaels looking for prices on stuff. Michael's is not very competitive in their pricing, in fact I'm suprised they seel any of their paint with Walmart right next door selling the exact same brand for less. Their brush selection is head and shoulders above all others though, although it would be nice to find a brush set of just the basics. One set of midsized brushes that covers all the types... is that so much to ask for? They have plenty of different sets, but you'll find one set has almost everything except and anglebrush, and the next set will be missing the fan brush etc. There is not one set that just has everything a beginner would need without adding another brush.
This weekend it is supposed to rain all weekend so hopefully we will be able to get some work done downstairs. I found a tile I really like that could go on the back wall above the cabinet, and it's on sale....yay!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
New Post
I haven't put anything here since last week. The weekend was really productive. We started tearing out the wall downstairs where the built in cabinet is going to go for the new 130 gallon tank. Darrell also cut strips of drywall out of the ceiling so he could run a dedicated outlet for the aquarium lights. We are going to go with the highend metal hallide lights and that mean three 175 watt lights plus 4 35 watt actinic lights.... therefore they get their very own circuit. He has the line runn through the recroom alraeady and now has to go through the freezer room and into the utility room. I will have my work cut out for me patching the drywall once the wiring is done.
Sunday the weather was awsome so we tried not to spend time indoors even thought there was work to be done downstairs. I did some routine chores, dishes, laundry and such. I dried everything on the line of course.
Monday was work as usual. Afterwork we stopped by Hunter Lake Lumber and discovered they have hardwoods. I nearly cried when I found out their price on oak and realized if I had found them before hand I could've saved about $600 on my aquarium stand.
This morning I had another hour and a half long animation session for the school's full day summer camp. It went really well. Looks like I'm going to be really busy in the fall with the school. I will have four different animation classes ans as of this morning I will also have at least two introduction to painting classes.
I spent the rest of today cursing and swearing as I tried to reformatt my work computers and continupously ran into set back after set back that eventual made me feel like taking the whole shittload and dumping it in the Bay. Perhaps tomorrow the gods of patience, luck, and serenity may smile on me as I try again to get things up and running.
Sunday the weather was awsome so we tried not to spend time indoors even thought there was work to be done downstairs. I did some routine chores, dishes, laundry and such. I dried everything on the line of course.
Monday was work as usual. Afterwork we stopped by Hunter Lake Lumber and discovered they have hardwoods. I nearly cried when I found out their price on oak and realized if I had found them before hand I could've saved about $600 on my aquarium stand.
This morning I had another hour and a half long animation session for the school's full day summer camp. It went really well. Looks like I'm going to be really busy in the fall with the school. I will have four different animation classes ans as of this morning I will also have at least two introduction to painting classes.
I spent the rest of today cursing and swearing as I tried to reformatt my work computers and continupously ran into set back after set back that eventual made me feel like taking the whole shittload and dumping it in the Bay. Perhaps tomorrow the gods of patience, luck, and serenity may smile on me as I try again to get things up and running.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Rainy Days
I generally like rainy days, but not pouring. Too bad Harry Potter wasn't released yesterday, because today would've been the perfect day to stay in bad with a good book. It was absolutely treacherous coming into work this morning. The MacKay highway is probably the worst designed road I have ever driven on when it rains. It doesn't have proper runoff in many areas and there are huge standing pools of water everywhere... it's terrible, the only thing worse than driving that highway during a rain storm is driving it during a rain storm at night, when the paint onthe road completely disapears and all you can see is a shiny black surface with no visible end or beginning. At one point coming into town I was going past a truck when he hit a huge puddle and showered so much water onto my windshield I was completely blind for about 3 seconds... yes very scary and extremely dangerous.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Somethings off
I don't know what it is but something is definitely outof whack with me right now. Today's run just wouldn't go right either. Not from anything physical this time, but my MP3 player kept f&cking up and my shoe laces came untied three times, and it was just not good. I normally feel great at the end of the 20 minutes, but today I felt relieved it was over. Then I did three reps on the chest press and before I could move on to the next machine I just felt an overwhelming desire to be anywhere else but there, so I showered and sat in the sauna for a couple minutes. There's something gone wonky with my system somewhere, I wish I knew what it was.
Is it only Wednesday???
This feels like such a long week. Both my computers are running like total garbage. they've obviously reached their Windows xp best by date and need to be reformatted. I find windows run beautifully for the first six months, then slowly starts to degrade over another threee months before you just can't ake it anymore and have to zero fill the entire thing and start over. Better to do it now before I start getting to serious into a couple projects I have on the go, than to wait until I'm in the middle and have no other choice.
Monday at the gym I had a terrible run. I just couldn't seem to catch my breath and ended up walking out the last 10 minutes of the treadmill cycle. I didn't make it out to the gym yesterday because the guys had a meeting when I normally go and I was the only left in the office. Hopefully today will be better.
Yesterday morning I did another 1 and half long animation session for the school's all day summer camp. One of my kids from the week long camp was there and one of my regular Friday night kids was there as well, the rest were young rowdy boys. Luckily I managed to keep them fairly occupied until about the last 15 minutes when two of them started getting restless and a little unruly. Luckily they were someone else's problem by then....hehehehe. the hour and a half session are quite a bit harder than my actual week long camps because the kids there aren't neccessarily interested in animation or working on the cumpter. The session is part of an overall program that gives the kids a week long sampling off everything the school offers, so it's not like I'm used to. I'm used to teaching kids who are there because they want to learn animation, not because this is what is scheduled for this hour and a half and they have to do it.
Monday at the gym I had a terrible run. I just couldn't seem to catch my breath and ended up walking out the last 10 minutes of the treadmill cycle. I didn't make it out to the gym yesterday because the guys had a meeting when I normally go and I was the only left in the office. Hopefully today will be better.
Yesterday morning I did another 1 and half long animation session for the school's all day summer camp. One of my kids from the week long camp was there and one of my regular Friday night kids was there as well, the rest were young rowdy boys. Luckily I managed to keep them fairly occupied until about the last 15 minutes when two of them started getting restless and a little unruly. Luckily they were someone else's problem by then....hehehehe. the hour and a half session are quite a bit harder than my actual week long camps because the kids there aren't neccessarily interested in animation or working on the cumpter. The session is part of an overall program that gives the kids a week long sampling off everything the school offers, so it's not like I'm used to. I'm used to teaching kids who are there because they want to learn animation, not because this is what is scheduled for this hour and a half and they have to do it.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Fun Weekend
We had a pretty good weekend all in all. Darrell took Friday off, but I had to do my summer camp so I couldn't. He managed to get the grass cut which, since it was left for a couple weeks, was quite a chore.
Saturday night we went out to catch up with our old friend, who I found on facebook, Evelyn. She and her son Tyler used to be our roommate back when we first moved out to Saint John. She had a video of the christmas we all spent together, it was nice to look back. It was kind of hard to look at myself pre-tranplant though, before all the nasty damage.... I was actually kinda cute. Oh well, can't turn back the clock and it's better than the alternative.
Sunday I came into work to do a picture project for an upcoming baby shower. I wanted to do it on my own time and not company time, but ended up having to finish today because my DVD authoring software, was F%cking up and it was already 11pm. I got it all wrapped up this morning and am not working on a simple vhs to loopable dvd dump. I have to backup everything and redo all my computers because they are all acting up again. I think windows has a "best by" date, like most products have an IDF (intentional design flaw meant to burn out in a few years.). Windows works perfectly for about 6 months then the computer starts going for a shit and you have to reformatt everything to get it working all nice and shiny again. Still I'd rather work on PC than Mac any day of the week. Even for all it's flaws at least a PC will do you courtesy of just crashing instead of hanging up with that stupid coloured wheel doing absolutely nothing and impossible to get out of.
Well, back to backing up!!
Saturday night we went out to catch up with our old friend, who I found on facebook, Evelyn. She and her son Tyler used to be our roommate back when we first moved out to Saint John. She had a video of the christmas we all spent together, it was nice to look back. It was kind of hard to look at myself pre-tranplant though, before all the nasty damage.... I was actually kinda cute. Oh well, can't turn back the clock and it's better than the alternative.
Sunday I came into work to do a picture project for an upcoming baby shower. I wanted to do it on my own time and not company time, but ended up having to finish today because my DVD authoring software, was F%cking up and it was already 11pm. I got it all wrapped up this morning and am not working on a simple vhs to loopable dvd dump. I have to backup everything and redo all my computers because they are all acting up again. I think windows has a "best by" date, like most products have an IDF (intentional design flaw meant to burn out in a few years.). Windows works perfectly for about 6 months then the computer starts going for a shit and you have to reformatt everything to get it working all nice and shiny again. Still I'd rather work on PC than Mac any day of the week. Even for all it's flaws at least a PC will do you courtesy of just crashing instead of hanging up with that stupid coloured wheel doing absolutely nothing and impossible to get out of.
Well, back to backing up!!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Finally Friday
It's been a very long week of earlier than usual mornings. I'm good with getting up earlier, not a problem....getting up earlier and then heading into a room with 7 kids for three hours is a different story. All in all though it was a really good and productive summer camp. Even my guy with special needs got his project done and had a good time. I had one girl who didn't get finished, but not because she's slow by any means, just because she picked the longest piece and is such a good artist that she put a lot of detail into her work, and that takes more time. She'll be back for my regular class tonight so hopefully she has enough time to completely finish. If not maybe we can convince her to join our regular class full time. It's nice to be in an environment where kids are excited and eager to learn, I can't say I'm doing a teacher's job, because I'm not trying to teach people who have no interest in the subject and have to be there. I'm teaching people who are there on their own time and are interested in learning... it's a totally different scenario.
I changed up my workout schedule this week as well and have been really feeling it. For a while all I was doing was cardio, but now I'm back to the weights as well. I'm running for twenty minutes each day and then doing one muscle group a day. Back on Mondays, chest on Tuesdays, shoulders on Wednesdays, arms on Thursdays, legs on Fridays. Crunches everyday!!!!! It feels a lot more intense than upper body, cardio, lower body, cardio, full body, cardio. Now if I just get my diet completely nailed down I'll be golden.
Addition: I will have four classes in the fall at Atlantica, provided there is interest. We will be doing three month classes for - Beginner aged 7-12 (I believe), Beginner aged 12-17, Beginner Adult, and Intermediate all ages. It would be an hour a week for each course...wooo hooo. If you know a creative kid of adult who wants to come play tell them about it. It think it's only $50 a month for the three months, but don't quote me on that!!
I changed up my workout schedule this week as well and have been really feeling it. For a while all I was doing was cardio, but now I'm back to the weights as well. I'm running for twenty minutes each day and then doing one muscle group a day. Back on Mondays, chest on Tuesdays, shoulders on Wednesdays, arms on Thursdays, legs on Fridays. Crunches everyday!!!!! It feels a lot more intense than upper body, cardio, lower body, cardio, full body, cardio. Now if I just get my diet completely nailed down I'll be golden.
Addition: I will have four classes in the fall at Atlantica, provided there is interest. We will be doing three month classes for - Beginner aged 7-12 (I believe), Beginner aged 12-17, Beginner Adult, and Intermediate all ages. It would be an hour a week for each course...wooo hooo. If you know a creative kid of adult who wants to come play tell them about it. It think it's only $50 a month for the three months, but don't quote me on that!!
Monday, July 09, 2007
Very long Saturday
We had a very productive weekend but it made for a very very long Saturday. We went up to Moncton in a rented van (That incidentally the guy at Delta is now trying to screw us over onthe price of claiming there's a bunch of damage to it that isn't there....don't ever rent from Delta)and shot several sections of our pilot. It all went very well. We left Saint John at 8 am and didn't get back until 10pm so it was a full day. At noble Aquariums I picked up a really cool Flame Lobster and a sea cucumber. The lobster is really really colourful with orange and red and purple patterning... he totally rocks.... That's right he's a.... wait for it.... Rock Lobster. He's pretty shy still so we haven't seen much of him since he entered the tank but eventually he'll be out and about where he can be admired by his adoring public.
Sunday I had very little energy for anything, but managed to do a little cleaning before flopping on the couch for the rest of the evening.
This morning was day one of my summer camp. I started with 7 kids but one is autistic and the camp may be a little too hard for him. I'm hoping, if he stays with it, that I can find something cool to do with him that will keep him interested, but three hours in front of a computer each day is a long time. Everyone is pretty gung ho to do some fun stuff, and I think they got the general idea of what I was tyring to teach them today. I haved out a bunch of poems and they eachpicked the one they liked best, so tonight they are practicing them and tomorrow we go into the studio to record them so they can get to work animating them.
Sunday I had very little energy for anything, but managed to do a little cleaning before flopping on the couch for the rest of the evening.
This morning was day one of my summer camp. I started with 7 kids but one is autistic and the camp may be a little too hard for him. I'm hoping, if he stays with it, that I can find something cool to do with him that will keep him interested, but three hours in front of a computer each day is a long time. Everyone is pretty gung ho to do some fun stuff, and I think they got the general idea of what I was tyring to teach them today. I haved out a bunch of poems and they eachpicked the one they liked best, so tonight they are practicing them and tomorrow we go into the studio to record them so they can get to work animating them.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Busy Morning
I spent the majority of the morning catching up, answering messages, and trying to get the things on my end together for tomorrow's shoot in Moncton. This pilot idea is the first time I've had this much to do with a project, I basically created the show from scratch... came up with the idea, wrote the script, did a little concept designing of the look of it, and will now be off to shoot parts of it tomorrow. Thomas Daigle has translated everything into french and will be hosting the french version of the show while I do the english. the company has rented a van and Darrell and Mike have everything together for tomorrow... so exciting. I hope I don't forget something crucial because that would suck.
Also, my summer camp starts next week, so will have a week straight of very busy mornings. I found a great website called poems4kids.com and it has lots of short funny poems that appeal to kids. I printed off a tonne of them and have permission from the author Kenn Nesbitt to use them in the class. The kids in the camp will get to pick the one they want to use and then we'll do a sesssion in the recording studio to have them recite their poem of choice. After that it's story bording time and the animation work begins. It's so great to have material already ready instead of trying to get them to write something because we only have a week and that's not alot of time in the world of animation. Thankfully these poems are short and sweet and the kids should have a finished product at the end of the camp.... also so exciting.
If the summer stays this exciting I may just explode.
Also, my summer camp starts next week, so will have a week straight of very busy mornings. I found a great website called poems4kids.com and it has lots of short funny poems that appeal to kids. I printed off a tonne of them and have permission from the author Kenn Nesbitt to use them in the class. The kids in the camp will get to pick the one they want to use and then we'll do a sesssion in the recording studio to have them recite their poem of choice. After that it's story bording time and the animation work begins. It's so great to have material already ready instead of trying to get them to write something because we only have a week and that's not alot of time in the world of animation. Thankfully these poems are short and sweet and the kids should have a finished product at the end of the camp.... also so exciting.
If the summer stays this exciting I may just explode.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Heroes
Am currently on the NBC Heroes website and am downloading 24 graphic novels from the show. They are only little 7 page stories about the characters, but what the hell, they're fun!!
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Long Weekend!!
What a nice long weekend. We got alot of stuff done around the house that really needed doing. Darrell go the huge mess I made downstairs building the aquarium stand completely cleaned up and reorganised. Gregg Hemmings Dropped by and gave us a hand to move the huge 130 gallon tank out of the back of the blazer and down into the basement. Now I will be making a huge mess building a nice built in cabinet in the recroom for the big tank to live on.
Sunday was Kizzy's awsome Canada Day BBQ. Lots of fun people and good food. Darrell had to work for Rogers that day so he couldn't make it over, but I partied hard enough for both of us. I baked some pies to take over, and when I popped home to let the dogs out, I loaded up on some firewood so we could all sit around the fire and sing with the guitars. It was tonnes O fun!!
Monday we took it easy. I did some cleaning. Brian and Helen came over later in the evening and we BBQ'd some hamburgers and hotdogs then sat around watching a marathon of "Next Design Star" on HGTV... the Miami Hunkmachine David ultimately won. It's nice to have friends pop over who can just hang out and watch TV and you don't feel like you have to entertain. I was up a little late last night to see the end because I had already invested all those hours on the other shows I wasn't about to go to bed without knowing who ultimately won. I must've slept wrong on Sunday because yesterday and today my neck has been super stiff. Hopefully some stretches will fix it up. I have a pretty busy week ahead getting ready for my summer camp next week, and preparing everything for our "pilot" shoot up in Moncton on Saturday....please let there be sun.
Sunday was Kizzy's awsome Canada Day BBQ. Lots of fun people and good food. Darrell had to work for Rogers that day so he couldn't make it over, but I partied hard enough for both of us. I baked some pies to take over, and when I popped home to let the dogs out, I loaded up on some firewood so we could all sit around the fire and sing with the guitars. It was tonnes O fun!!
Monday we took it easy. I did some cleaning. Brian and Helen came over later in the evening and we BBQ'd some hamburgers and hotdogs then sat around watching a marathon of "Next Design Star" on HGTV... the Miami Hunkmachine David ultimately won. It's nice to have friends pop over who can just hang out and watch TV and you don't feel like you have to entertain. I was up a little late last night to see the end because I had already invested all those hours on the other shows I wasn't about to go to bed without knowing who ultimately won. I must've slept wrong on Sunday because yesterday and today my neck has been super stiff. Hopefully some stretches will fix it up. I have a pretty busy week ahead getting ready for my summer camp next week, and preparing everything for our "pilot" shoot up in Moncton on Saturday....please let there be sun.
Monday, July 02, 2007
HummingBee???
I was out in the beautiful sunshine doing some gardening and saw this little guy popping from flower to flower. At first I just thought it was a bee, then I looked a little closer at it.
It's furry like a bumblebee or a moth. It's shaped kind of like a moth. It has six legs (so it's an insect) and antennae, but it also has a beak and flapps it's wings superfast like a hummingbird. I have never in my entire life seen one of these guys before... anyone know what it is????
Never mind, just did a google search and it turns out he's a Hummingbird Moth.
link for info
It's furry like a bumblebee or a moth. It's shaped kind of like a moth. It has six legs (so it's an insect) and antennae, but it also has a beak and flapps it's wings superfast like a hummingbird. I have never in my entire life seen one of these guys before... anyone know what it is????
Never mind, just did a google search and it turns out he's a Hummingbird Moth.
link for info
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