Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Busy Busy

Last night was the first of my new classes. I have one new girl, a returning Girl whose quite advanced, and a returning boy who came to few classes in the spring, so it's a nice small class with lots of oportunity to spend one on one time with everyone. I wouldn't mind a couple more kids though, because once they get the hang of what they're doing and get into their projects I'll be mostly pacing around, plus it's better for the school if we have a couple more to fill the class out.

Last night was animation and tomorrow is painting night. I'm very excited to start the painting classes, partly because I never seem to find time to paint anymore, and partly because I already know some of the students who will be attending and have a pretty good idea of what they're capable of, so I can't wait to see what they start turning out.

I don'thave a as many classes as originally planned out in the flyer, but that may be a blessing in disgise. I don't want to suddenly find myself overwhelmed by an unruley schedule. Four classes spread over three nights should be a good start, and hopefully in the spring once word has spread and some results are in from the fall, we'll fill out those other classes.

My animation project at work is going quite well, and seems to be on pace. I actually have some character animation in it which excites me. Doing mostly corporate work doesn't call for much character stuff, so it's nice to get something that lets me play. I may have to come in and work another weekend if I ever want to finish Cabaret. So that's what I may end up doing this weekend if I get the time.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Back to School

Tonight I start back to teaching in the evenings. Not all the classes that were planned are going to materialize, because there wasn't enough interest in all of them, but that's actually a bit of a blessing in disguise, since I don't want to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of classes I have on top of my full time job. All my painting classes are full which I'm really happy about, and my animation for kids classes are a go, but I think we're breaking it into just two classes, one for beginners and one for intermediate, instead of the age group breakdown, I'll know for sure when I talk to Kelli tonight. Tonight's class is beginner animation, so I have to print off some poems and in preparation. The number of hours in the 12 week programs actually works out to less than the number of hours in the summer camp, but I'm planning to do the same thing with the beginners as I did with the summer camp. The intermediate class is another story, because it is filled with kids who have already been coming regularly and many of them have stuff on the go already. I'm going to have to structure what they're working on a little better, because they're all at different levels and places, but I think I can streamline that and get them all in the same ballpark. To tell the truth, once you get the basics of animation the higher level is really just about adding more detail, and making things more complex and professional looking.

When I got off work and got home yesterday Darrell, pointed out that the anemone didn't split into four. It split into five. There are three that are quite small and then two that are larger. The largest of the two is still not formed up together and is strung along the rock still, so it may actually rip in half again. I'm hoping it doesn't. I've heard when they break into just three the mortallity rate for the little third one is usually pretty high, so breaking into five can't be a good thing. We are keeping our fingers crossed and our breath held that they all form up properly and are healthy and happy.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Monday Monday... baah daah, baah dah dah dah

We had a pretty kicked back weekend. I got another couple panels done on my stand downstairs, it is taking a long time because we are trying to do this one without busting the bank.

Sunday we spent the day watching one of the coolest things ever. Our Bubble Tip Anemone decided to split. I don't know if it was just time for it to do it, or if there was a water quality issue or what, butover the course of the day and last night it divided into four. So now there are four little anemones where one used to be. It was really quite amazing to watch, because we were watching a living creature quite literally rip itself in half, which is probably why it took so long. I know if I were going to rip myself in half, well quarters actually, I would take my time and make sure I got that right. I only wish we had known what it was doing when it first started happening so we could've set up the video camera and done a time lapse on it. At first we just thought it was stressed from the change in water flow and the new filter and moving to a new location. Then Darrell thought it was dying for a little while, although I figured it would take more than just one day of wonky water levels to kill an anemone. Then before we knew it it was inthe process of ripping apart and we missed our oportunity to film. It would've made a great feature in my pilot. Oh well, live and learn. We will be prepared next time.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Last Week before School

So this is the last week I have left before my classes start at Atlantica. I am excited to get going, and if the open house last week is any indication I will have really good students who are excited and interested, so my job is going to be super easy.

I spent the weekend at work, editing. It is very hard to get a pet project finished when it is continually pushed to the back of the line by company business so I took the oportunity this weekend to finally edit Cabaret. Don't cheer too loudly yet...I'm not completely finished. I have the play edited, but I realized Sunday that I didn't have two programs installed that I really needed, and they're things Darrell had to install so they didn't get put on until Monday. I still have alot to do for the DVD, including making all the menus etc, but the heavy lifting is finshed so (fingers crossed) you'll be getting a call in the near future. At the moment I am burried beneath and animation project that will take up my week, but hopfully I can find a little spare time to squeak out some stuff.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Update

It's been a little while since I've posted anything here. Not that there's been much to post about really. The long weekend was really good. As usual we took the extra day and stretched it into a four day weekend. It kind of screwed Darrell though, since he was already taking a week off, and it having a four day weekend in the middle of it meant he only really got three days holiday instead of a full week.

The editor is finally back up and running (I hope I didn't jinx it by saying that) and I've finally got all the programs reinstalled and files moved back over to it. I've been editing my ass off the past few days trying to finish up some stuff before a bunch of new stuff comes through the door. Yes I'm working on it, and yes I'm getting a lot of it done, but I'm not saying anything more about it because I don't want to jinx anything. You all know what I'm talking about anyway, so we'll leave it at that.

I ended up coming into work for a couple hours on Friday even though I had the day off, because I had to shut stuff down. I left a bunch of files transferring before leaving Thursday so I had to finish that up.

I broke a vow this weekend... twice. When we got our cleaner wrasse in the aquarium I did some research after the fact and vowed if we ever lost him I wouldn't replace him. Well, we had that hot spell and didn't have an airconditioner yet, and the tank overheated and he jumped out while we were at work, and I lost him. I was really sad too, because he was oneof my favorite fish. This weekend Pets Unlimited had some in and, even though i know I shouldn't buy them because they should stay in the wild, I bought one and put it in the main tank. Then just to make matters worse, I bought another one and put it in my small nemo tank (He now seems to be missing... completely vanished for the past two days). We also got a really pretty racoon butterfly fish who will live in the 77 gallon tank once everything else has moved to the 130.(He eats corals and anemones so he can't go in the main tank). My stand downstairs is coming along...it's moving a lot slower than the original stand because I don't have the cash to put it together all at once and I'm doing it bit by bit.

We did a little visiting with the Bonds this weekend as well. Helen's mother Margaret is visiting from England for a few weeks, so we got to catch up with her. We'll be seeing them tonight as well.

So far this week has gone very fast. Last night there was an open house at Atlantica for people to come and see the school and talk to the instructors about upcoming classes. I had a lot of interest in my animation and painting classes, and signed up several new people, so it should be alot of fun in the next couple weeks when everything starts up. All my classes start the week of the 20th. I've made a few exceptions in the age areas, because there's a couple mothers who want to take the painting classes with their daughters... which I don't mind at all. In fact if I had enough interest in that regard I'd open another night just for that. I don't like the idea of everyone sitting behind their own easle painting in their own little space and the instructor wandering around the room looking over everyone's shoulder... it's took sterile. That's not how I learned to paint, infact I probably wouldn't have learned to paint if that were the case. I like the idea of everyone sitting around a big table... more like we're getting together for coffee and just happen to be painting as well.

I've also decided to throw in a guitar lesson for myself on mone of my class nights. I already know most of the chords and can strum the guitar okay, but I'd like to be able to go to a party and actually sit around the fire playing the guitar with some confidence. Also I would like to be able to sing whatever I want as compared to trying to find songs the guitar player and I both know.