lol...

We don't post here anymore. This is all just a figment of your imagination, and will all disappear when you wake up. ^^

Oh, and Happy Halloween! ^^

What the hell? I take a few days off and everyone else decides to go on vacation? What's up here, folks, seriously?

Okay, so Tristan Miles Theopolis Dalley. Tristan is, in fact, one of my oldest friends. We met in junior high school, did stage fencing together, hung out a lot and wreaked no small amounts of mayhem, chaos, madness and insanity across much of the greater Omaha metropolitan area for many years. Then Tristan's folks moved out of state, Tristan moved out of state and everything fell to pot. For about 4 years, Tristan and I lost contact. Then, completely out of the blue, a wedding invitation shows up in my mailbox. Tristan was getting married! This, the guy who had women throwing themselves at his feet, en masse, was settling down. Getting hitched. Tying the knot. Going to be the Mr. of Mr. and Mrs. Dalley! Tristan's fucking father was Mr. Dalley, okay, not Tristan! Tristan was the first of my friends to get married (and since then, it seems like everyone's doing it (I've been to two weddings this year alone), so I'm bucking the trend, being the rebel and going solo) and it was something of a mental kick in the nuts. I'd been trying to avoid thinking about the fact that I was getting older for some time. And Tristan just ran up and smacked me in the face with it. I should also mention that Tristan is a year younger than me. Anyhow, this was the fall of 1999 when this all happened, about 8 months before I graduated from college. After Tristan's wedding, we spoke a few times on the phone and then basically lost touch again around the same time I graduated from college (which, I suppose, is understandable as well -- I did move from Nebraska to California).

Since then, there's been the odd attempts at communication, but Tristan and I had seemed to go our seperate ways again. When I started teaching Erin stage combat, though, I started telling a lot of Tristan stories (which is natural, I suppose, since I tie Tristan to that part of my life) and Erin kept bugging me to try and find Tristan, so with a little luck and some work on the Internet, I found a phone number. First time I called it, I got Lana, Tristan's wife, and left a message. No response. So I called again, left a message on their machine. And again. And again. And again. And finally... I reached him. Holy fucking shit.

Tristan, as it turns out, is doing relatively well. Lana is newly pregnant (due in May, I believe he said), Tristan's in the middle of changing jobs, he's got a dog now and they're renting out a house, where it sounded like the in-laws were currently staying with them (although I believe they were just visiting) ... the funny thing about Tristan is that I'd always pictured him as the guy who'd be, as Bob Dylan put it, "Forever Young." And instead, he's getting older, faster, than any of the rest of us. I never thought Tristan would be the one who'd be with the wife and 2.5 kids before he turned 30, but it sounds like he's well on his way. He's still in theater, although he's doing much more managerial work now, having just given up his job of "building puppets" -- I kid you not, he really is that kind of guy. He sounded well, albiet tired and weary, and it was good to hear from him. He's got my cell phone number now (although knowing Tristan he'll never use it) and we both promised to try and stay in better touch.

Talking to Tristan made me realize something, though. I'm no longer a young man. I'm now at that phase in my life where I am a man. End of sentence, end of story. I don't particularly care for it much, I have to confess, being older, but we all go through it. I mean, Tristan is having a kid! Almost all my friends are married or on their way to being married! My ten year high school reunion is less than 3 years away! My younger brother, eleven years my junior, is in high school! It's all going by so fast... I blinked and somewhere along the line, years slipped away from me. Is this all that I've done? Is this all that I've created? Is this all that I would leave behind were I to pass away today? ... Have I really had so little an impact?

I've been giving it some time to settle since then, and I've come to understand that I'm okay with where I'm at now. I have made impacts in people's lives. I am important to people. Maybe not a lot. Maybe not even more than a handful, but to those in that handful, I am important, I am meaningful. And you know what? I think that's enough. That'll do. I am getting older, but I'm okay with that as well. It just means that I have to keep going, and keep working, and keep dreaming, and keep hoping, no matter how often those hopes are crushed, no matter how often the spirit is snuffed out.

I'm still a cynic, make no mistake. The world still deals me shitty hands and I expect that. Hell, I prepare for it. But I'd rather it dealt them to me than to my friends. And I can take it. Honestly. Bring it on. Because despite as depressing as I can come across as from time to time, I am strong enough to beat this. To beat all of this. To live, survive and thrive.

So, how was your day?

NOW PLAYING: Mogwai - "Take Me Somewhere Nice"
Lyrics: (a rarity for a Mogwai song) "ghosts in the photograph/ never lied to me. / i'd be all of that / i'd be all of that. / a false memory / would be everything. / a denial my eliminent. / what was that for? / what was that for? / what would you do / if you saw spaceships / over glasgow? / would you fear them? / every aircraft, / every camera, / is a wish that / wasn't granted. / what was that for? / what was that for? / try to be bad. / try to be bad..."

(P.S. I know I'm probably the only Mogwai fan I'll ever meet, but you all have no idea what you're missing...)

More in a few days, actually. Can't today.

Oh, got the archives fixed. Everything should be accessible now.

NOW PLAYING: Dave Matthews Band - "Grace Is Gone"
Lyrics: "Excuse me please, / One more drink / Could you make it strong? / 'Cause I don't need to think... "

Holy. Fucking. Shit.


I just spoke with Tristan Miles Theopolis Dalley. The man. The myth. The legend. I'm not even sure what just happened. I will relay more tomorrow.

NOW PLAYING: The Ataris - "up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start"
Lyrics: "Sometimes you gotta stop and remember/ That you're not gonna live forever. / Be young, think smart, stay true / And just follow your heart..."

I know there's no accompanying post, but this song's been playing a lot in my head lately.

I am in fact feeling much better. Still not top of my game, but a lot, LOT better than I was yesterday. I slept in late this morning until almost 10, which helped. The extra sleep is giving me more strength and making me feel better. I expect by tomorrow afternoon or so I should be fine again. I'm fighting this cold off pretty quickly. Strength of will, I guess.

You should be okay, Cliff. I'm feeling much better now, and it's only been two days, really. Hope you feel better, bro. :(

Cute and cuddly I won't argue with, but then again, so is a lion from the African plains... And I did cut the weapons too long this time, a mistake I will rectify for our next set. Still, unchecked aggression or something? Something we need to talk about, Erin? Thankfully I'm a good blocker, although this time I split on the attack, which means it was at least partially my fault...

Anyhow, I have currently contracted a mild version of the plague. Apparently it seems to be going around as Greg also seems to have it. I slept until 10:30 and declared this a work-at-home day (with my boss's permission, of course) and hopefully nothing will collapse in my absence, but I'd rather be home getting well than in the office spreading my plague to everyone I work with. Sorry to tell you this, Erin, but you may have a case of it coming up. *sigh* Thankfully, the extra rest seems to have done me some good, and I expect to spend most of the day puttering around the Maxis website and sleeping, and should be back into a reasonable approximation of myself tomorrow, although you're all more than welcome to pity me in my illness. (Although shoot some pity Greg's way as well...)

It's just a friggin' sinus cold and I typically get one about this time of year. I didn't when I was in Vegas because there was no serious temperature shift, but now that I'm back to the wonderful Bay area, I have to learn that there's actual SEASONS again... go figure.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Yes, once again, I have broken Cliff's practice sword. The score remains Erin: 2, Cliff: .5

Why do I say .5? Cause mine only has little chunks taken out of it, and is almost still usable, while both of Cliff's were split completely.

Greg called me the 'Scariest Woman on the Planet."

Aww... I'm just cute and cuddley and fuzzy (between showers) widdle me...

Tee hee. ^^


hey... I made a rhyme!

It's been a hell of a weekend, but I think I'm gonna go to bed shortly. Still, a brief rundown on the weekend:

-- Friday: Fencing went very well. Erin fractured my stick (it has a large slice of it that's barely attached) and I put some pretty good breakage points in hers. Erin continues to be a far better student than I had expected (and I had high expectations) and on top of that, it's fun just being able to groove with one of my best friends on a regular basis. Hung around and watched Firefly at their place with Erin, Sherrie and Christy (who demands a return of editorial comments to her name). Much fun was had. I was there way too late to safely drive home (and let it be stressed that I am *not* complaining -- I had obscene amounts of fun, honestly) and ended up crashing on their couch for the night. Thanks again, ladies, I very much appreciate it. Definitely a fantastic way to start the weekend.

-- Saturday afternoon: Picked up new sticks and grip taped them up for Monday. The new ones are the same width, but might be a little longer. Next few lessons should be interesting as we're starting to get into the slightly more complex stuff. Did a bit of minor cleaning and reorganizing. Also scanned in some pictures from both the weekend that we had the studio meeting and the Sunday where Joe, Lara and I went down to Santa Cruz and hung out with Erin, Sherrie and Christy (who doesn't really merit an additional comment here, but is getting one to prevent future bitching)... Thought you might want to see a picture or two, so here's one of the bunch of us at the studio meeting. For those of you out of the know, from left to right that's Joe, Greg, Liz, me and Erin. Lara took the picture, so she's not in it. If you want to see photos of something else, or different groups of people or whatnot, just lemme know. We have a whole ton and I can probably shrink them down to be managable.

-- Sunday: Joe, Lara and I went up to Sacramento to do the Ren. faire with Greg. More fun was propagated. Ended up buying a matched pair of sai for about $30. They're lovely swordbreakers and I'm probably gonna mount them on my wall. It's only 9 or so, but I'm gonna go read a bit and then turn in. Back to Santa Cruz for more merriment, mischief and fencing tomorrow!

Well looks like I've done it again kids! For the second time now I'm haveing to send my X-box back to Microsoft for repairs. I'll say this much...I'm certainly glad I payed the extra $50 3 year warranty. For how much the stupid DVD-ROM is acting up it's certainly worth it.

Well I am pleased to see that the trailer for "Catch Me If You Can" is finally up on the web so I can see it. For those of you who haven't heard me ranting and raving about how excited I am about this movie, it's based on the real life adventures of Frank Abagnale Jr., the youngest man ever to make the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted List... for, of all things, check fraud. In the 60s, Abagnale was the best con man around, passing millions of dollars in bad checks before his 18th birthday. It was all chronicled in the autobiographical book "Catch Me If You Can," which I picked up a couple of years ago when work on the motion picture was just beginning to get off the ground. I was enraptured with this book. Honestly, it was one of the funniest and most fascinating books I'd ever read. It was written with a sly wit and charm of an experienced thief or a roguish magician, and yet, you always felt like part of the curtain was being pulled back for you so you could gain some insight. It was a "Behind the Magic" book for a con game. I've read the book a few dozen times over since I picked it up, laughing all the time I'm reading it each time. What makes the whole thing even funnier is that eventually Abagnale went on to work for the FBI and is now the leading consultant on fraud as well as a highly ranked consultant on white-collar crime. But during his time as a criminal, Abagnale impersonated an airline pilot, a doctor, a professor and an assistant district attourney.

Now, I've lauded the book, but why would you want to go see the movie? Well, it's got this Leonardo DeCaprio fella who I'm told is quite popular with the ladies playing Frank himself, and Tom Hanks playing the FBI agent on the trail of him. Add in Christopher Walken playing Abagnale's father. Not enough yet? How about I throw in Steven Spielburg directing? Sold yet? It opens Christmas day and I'll probably see it a day or two later, and more than likely more than once. I loved "Minority Report" and while I'm not generally a big DeCaprio fan, he's not a bad actor and I'm willing to give him a shot. As long as they stick fairly close to the book, the movie should be both hysterical and insightful.

Wanna see the trailer? It looks fantastic... Catch It If You Can Here...

Oh, and if you don't know who John Woo is, go see: Hardboiled, The Killer, A Better Tomorrow, Face/Off, Broken Arrow and, oh yeah, Mission: Impossible 2. Then kick yourself somewhere important. Just for me...

So, by now it should be evident that I'm a pop culture junkie. It should also be obvious that there are certain directors whose work I generally adore. One of these directors is Mr. John Woo. Now I have a bit of John Woo news, but I need to set it up for you...

Last year, BMW (yeah, the car company) did these mini-movies last year in a series called "The Hire." They got five talented directors and let them each make a small 5-10 minute movie using one of their cars. Basically the only rules that I can determine is that the car had to be in like 1/2 or more of the movie. Other than that? Go wild... Frankenheimer did this great piece about a guy who may have swallowed diamonds. Ang Lee did a piece about perhaps the next Buddha. Guy Ritchie took his wife Madonna and made her shaken and stirred. And they were great fucking films.

Well, BMW is doing a second season, but only three directors this time. The third one is Tony Scott (who did Top Gun, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game and Beverly Hills Cop 2, for those of you who want the benefit of Cliff's patented Useless Trivia database). The second one is Joe Carnahan, who I've never heard of. And the first one? The first one is from John Fucking Woo. There's a trailer up for it now and the movie will go up for free next week. I highly recommend going and having a look at it. It's freakin' gorgeous, and it's just the trailer. Plus the movie will be FREE next Thursday.

You have absolutely nothing to lose and a whole ton of flashy cinema to gain. If you didn't watch the first season, go watch them and then check out the trailer. If you saw the first season, just go see the trailer and you can thank me later... seriously.

BMW Films

Okay, yes, I confess, I am an idiot. In retrospect, I should've turned around and realized it was 17 I was supposed to be turning onto, I should've called Erin and confessed I was lost, but I didn't do either of these things, and yes, I am an idiot, but I would like to say in my defense that I had not eaten, which is no excuse, I realize, but should be enough. Next time, I will call Erin and say "Look, I'm an idiot and I'm lost, but at least I'm calling this time, right?" I would like to point out that I have only done the drive twice before, actually, and that this was my third time doing the drive not my fourth. (I've been on this drive once with Greg driving, then drove down myself on Friday, Sunday and Monday was the third time.) But I will not make the mistake again and should I make a mistake, I'll call ya Erin and confess my total lack of direction when it's nighttime. (Strangely enough, I only seem to get lost at night -- during the daytime you could drop me into a desert with no compass and I'll have found a hotel within 20 minutes -- maybe my sense of direction is solar powered.) Every so often I have bursts of idiocy, just like everyone else.

I can't chat long. We're having a slower time around the office right now, so the boss has basically informed us that we should just compact what little work we actually have into a few short hours and then leave earlier. He tried slamming a ton of work on my desk on Monday and still didn't seem to have any effect, so I'm just going back to enjoying our light time while things sort of settle. All in all, I really like Maxis. The people here really have their shit together and make it a point not to overwork anyone. I like that.

*rushes into room*

Hey don't have time to talk! I leave for New York on Saturday. I won't be back until the 28th. So that leaves me 3 days before the big move. I still have to find people to help us haul all of our things around. It sucks because we need to get stuff from Tahoe too. So if you are willing to help *wink wink* you know where to find me. After that weekend is Greg's aunt's wedding in Concord. Then we get 1 weekend off before we travel to Disneyland. On top of all of this... I just had my responsibilities at work doubled. Its scarey and I have alot to do before Friday. *huffs and puffs* *breathes in and out* So... now you know why I haven't been able to post. BUT! I have a joke...

JOKE OF THE DAY

"A tourist is in Spain, and goes to a fancy restaurant for dinner. As he looks around, he notices a diner being served a beautifully garnished dish with two gigantic meatballs in the middle. When the waiter asks him for his order, the man asks him about the meatball dish. The waiter explains that the meatballs are bull's testicles, and when the bull loses the bullfight, the bull is brought to the restaurant, and this beautiful dish is made.
The diner tells the waiter that he wants the bulls testicles for dinner, but the waiter tells him that only one bull a day is brought to the restaurant, but he can have it tommorrow. The diner agrees. The next day the diner goes to the restaurant, and orders the testicle dish. When his food is brought out, he notices that the meatballs are extremely small. He mentions this to the waiter, and the waiter replies, ''Well sir you have to understand, sometimes the bull wins''. "


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! *rolls around on ground laughing* *realises what time it is and runs out of room*

It was still a blah day, even though it wasn't very busy.

Sorry I haven't been posting, but I've been pretty busy lately. I'd tell the work story, but it's not something that really needs to be shared. It involves police and dusting for prints, and that's all you get, folks.

Cliff, I don't know what crack you're smoking, but there is only *one* Highway 1. ^^ Mind you, Santa Cruz is a cursed city, and your doomed to get lost at least once, but still, you've driven back to your house from mine *3* times, how do you miss it on the 4th? ^^

Anyway, gotta go. I need energy of some sort, and I'm thinking the only way to get it is to suck it out of someone else. So I'm going to go attack my roommates with a pillow now. ^^

*poofs*

So, once again, I've proven that when I'm not paying attention, I can indeed get lost anywhere. Apparently there are two Highway 1's coming up from the Santa Cruz area. And since I missed the turnoff for the first one, we ended up getting onto the other one. Well, no harm, no foul, I always say. It was a longer drive, we ended up driving through San Francisco (which is gorgeous to come into at night with a fog layer going on) and getting stuck in baseball traffic for a bit, but in the end we made it back to where we needed to be.

Lara apparently had a wonderful time with Erin, Christy, Sherrie and Megan, and Joe and I accomplished a lot with the "guy time," and it was a wise decision by all, although next time I think Joe and I need to drag Greg down. You hear that, Dean?! You cannot escape!

Erin's fencing lesson went extremely well and she's doing fantastic. I'm really enjoying teaching again, but I attribute a lot of that to the fact that I have an excellent and attentive student (even if she did get a bit gungho on the attacks -- just kidding, E, you did fine ... but I'll be sure to pick up another set of sticks in case these get too cracked). Ooo! Ooo! Erin has a cool work story to tell, whenever she has time to get online (Tuesdays/Thursdays just suck for her, I know, so you'll probably have to wait until another day)!

The super-secret top-clearance online project Joe and I have been working on is almost ready -- we should be set to unveil it in a few days after we get the bugs ironed out. I think you'll all like it.

On the comic related front, I've just about wrapped up the revisions on the five pages, and expect to get the final touch-ups done today. I went back and made some changes based on the feedback I got from the whole team, and I wanted to punch up a few bits and give them a little more zip. I'm still doing the final mental storyboards and the last pass, but by the end of today, I should have our five pages ready. I've also been banging out ideas on cover proposals and how our cover should look as well as giving some thoughts to logo concepts. I may try and do some dummy pencil sketches (by "dummy pencil sketches," I mean they look terrible, as they were drawn by a dummy, namely me, but still show the general idea of what I'm thinking, even if they suck, and damn this sentence needs to stop, but no, I think it's out of control now and no one will ever be able to stop it because this joke has gone on far too long and it's hurdling forward without me even willing it toandohmygodI'velosttheuseofthespacebarsomeonesavemeAAAAHHHHH!! *CRASHTHUDBANGBOOM* Whew. Saved. Sorta.) so that people can see what I'm thinking. I also have to bang out the one page synopsis and a new "This is who we are and why you should buy this" page over the next couple of weeks, but those aren't immediate needs.

Well, I just remembered as Erin popped online that they're striking at Santa Cruz right now, so she doesn't have classes, which should give her a nice, relaxing Tuesday.

Oh! The Ataris play San Fran in December! I'm soooo there!

Anyhow, back to the trenches. And crew, post soon!

So since I'm pretty much the only one publishing right now, lemme tell you about today and Erin can chime in as she sees fit. I know that Joe and I had a blast down in Santa Cruz today, but I can't speak for Lara, since she's still down there. (Speaking of which, I was going to ask the existing Touched group if we should invite Joe/Lara to become posters -- I know Joe/Lara don't read this right now, so feel free to say whatever you will...) But I know that Joe and I had a killer time with Erin, Sherrie and Christy (spelled correctly, she told me today) and we'd love to do it again whenever. Lara is staying for the night and getting "girl time," which is good for her, and Joe and I have been chilling out and getting "guy time," which, in all honesty, we kinda needed. So it's been a good thing all around (unless Lara is driving the ladies in SC crazy).

We went and saw the Santa Cruz campus, which is gorgeous. We took a ton of pictures of the quarry, the rock face, the forrest and a ton of other places, as well as the beach. At least some of the shots should come out gorgeously. We'll see when I drop the film off at the end of the week -- probably on Friday or so. The big group had a couple hours of conversation before we went for breakfast, always a positive thing.

Unfortunately, some of us actually have work tomorrow (okay, *I* have work tomorrow...) so I won't be up as late as the ladies will, I'm sure. Tomorrow I'll go back and give Erin another fencing lesson, then bring Lara back to the apartment.

Well, I don't want to chat too long, so I'm probably gonna go crash pretty quick, but I thought I'd make some kind of post... And yes, Greg, I know, but unfortunately no one can resist the iron grip of The Sims. Maxis owns everyone and everything. We own you. We own your puppy. Or not. But a fella can dream, can't he?

Ahhhhh! Morning! Good god, man!

DAMN YOU CLIFF! DAMN YOU TO HELL!

For a total of 9 hours today, both Liz and I were GLUED to our monitors, playing the Sims. Damn you for giving this thing to us. And thanks, too. :D I'd forgotten how overwhelmingly addictive it was.

You know, I love my weekends. Seriously, they're like the best parts of my life. I had so much fun yesterday! Erin, Sherrie and Christy (if that's misspelled, blame Erin! She told me how to spell it!) took me to go see "Deathtrap" after the first part of Erin's fencing lesson. The show wasn't bad (if a bit underplayed) and afterwards we went back to their place and Erin got another fencing lesson.

Speaking of stage fencing, she's picking it up very quickly. I'm quite impressed, as she's getting good at the basic faster than most people do. I could tell she was getting a little frustrated when she missed blocks, but she really didn't miss all that many. I'm more than a little impressed, actually. Usually I have problems with students who are missing a lot of blocks, but Erin seemed to have the basics down pretty well, so I tried giving her the random blocks and she was missing a few of them, but a lot less than the average student does, AND she was doing the random blocks about a week early or so. Thankfully, the more I practice, the faster it's all coming back to me as well. I was a little worried that being quite out of practice that I'd be screwing up a lot. I missed just a couple of swings, but not many. And my pivot strike came back to me like I'd been doing it daily for years. That was reassuring.

Just hanging out there was definitely a nice change of pace and I'm looking forward to seeing the whole gang when I'm down to teach Erin. I was a little worried that I might be odd man out among Erin's friends, but I got along with them all great. We went to the show and were running a few minutes late. We dropped Erin off and went looking for a parking space and got food. I've also determined that college towns are built on a template -- they're all inhabited by the same people doing the same things. Maybe there's just an alternate universe where everyone goes when they enter a college town -- and it's all the same. I saw some of the same folks doing the same things walking around downtown Santa Cruz. It was kinda funny. Lots of merriment was had.

Anyhow, gonna wrap it up. Still got a little cleaning left to do in my room in a little bit here and we're all turning in fairly early around the house so we can get up at a reasonable time tomorrow morning as Joe, Lara and I are going down to spend the day with Erin on her turf, which should be fun. We're bringing cameras galore and will probably take quite a few pictures. I'll see if I can get any of those pictures up for you guys to see -- I have a scanner here at the apartment now, but I can't seem to get my film scanner the last piece of equipment it needs. I'm still looking for it, but we'll see if I can track it down. There's also a film attachment for our flatbed scanner, but I can't seem to get that to work either and since Erin took the prints, I can't put one or two up for your viewing pleasure. I'll see what I can do about getting some kind of picture for you guys to see soon.

Why is it on mornings when I get up earlier, I feel more energetic after the first hour or so, but during that first hour, I feel like crap? Anyhow, I've been up since about 7:30 this morning, and despite the fact that I didn't get to bed until about 2:30 or so (was chatting with an old friend, catching up on where things are at in our lives), I still feel pretty dang good. The first hour was terrible, and I hated every minute of it, but past that, I've been good.

Today's gonna be a wild ride -- we're having web troubles this morning, which it looks like the team is banging out, and I'm taking off early to drive down and give Erin her stage fencing lesson, which means I get to pound through "Friday traffic" although hopefully it won't be too bad. We'll see.

Anyhow, don't want to chat long. Gonna get some work done so I can get outta here early without problems. I know the archives aren't showing everything. I'll try and figure it out later. Maybe tomorrow, if I have time, but who knows... I may have plans.

NOW PLAYING: Jimmy Eat World - "Blister"
Lyrics: "Take advantage of these times, you said. / You let me down. / It hasn't been the first time. / As I'm falling in the pit of fire my mind's made up. / I'm never coming back here. / How long would it take me to walk across the United States all alone. / The West Coast has been traumatized. / I think I'm the only one still alive. / Is it just a coincidence to see you by yourself with no direction. / Now it's time to move on. / Don't you know that things aren't getting better. / Don't try and stop me. / Because I'm falling fast into this pit of fire which surrounds us all. / In a blanket of fear that I've been wrapped in for years. / You can't stop me. / When the world caves in what are you going to do for me ... "

Okay, I've figured out what was wrong and fixed the site, but I seem to have partially broken the archives again... damn touchy software. I'll try and fix it later...

Part of the reason I think my moods were shifting so fast was that I went a bit too far with my diet and didn't eat enough, by basically skipping lunch a couple of days in a row. This, needless to say, is a bad thing. When your body's trying to readjust to a lower amount of intake, turning that level down even more suddenly is never a good thing. On top of that, I think I'm finally getting through the tough point of cutting down on caffeine. You may not realize it, but cutting down on your caffeine intake is kind of like quitting smoking -- it's hard and you find yourself craving a soft drink regularly. I'm using water to help make up for it, but it's still not a perfect substitute. I may have just gone too far too fast and that caused the biological part of it.

On top of all of that, I've got a lot on my mind, but I think (I stress think) I've gotten to the point where I've done what I can and accepted what I can't. Just because I generally end up doing the right thing doesn't mean it's easy, and you better not forget that.

The apartment's gotten into a good rhythm now -- Joe and Lara both got jobs yesterday! Go them! And I'm getting used to having roommates again, which is taking quite a bit of effort, but I'm basically accumulated now. I've been living by myself for the last couple of years and that took some adaptation. But I like having people around. I knew that before and I know that now. The more I see my friends, the happier I am as a person. But I have to confess, I was a little worried at first because I hadn't been hanging out with Joe regularly for a couple of years and I didn't know Lara at all, really. And they're married! I mean, y'know, married! That's still a trip. All my other friends who're married are half the country away, but now I get to see Joe and Lara every day and see how married couples act. And I'm happy that I've got people to talk to all the time. It's nice. The "I'm a Loner, Dottie... A Rebel" act is fun for a while, but it's more fun hanging out with people you trust.

Anyhow, I'm not long for the office, heading home soon, so I'm gonna wrap this up. Those of you who are worried about me, don't be (well, except for maybe one or two of you... you can worry, but only a little bit...) as I'm really doing okay. I have my friends, I have my music, I have everything I need to keep me going. The fuel is in my blood, the strength is in my veins, the world is ready to rock'n'roll.

NOW PLAYING: The Get Up Kids - "Hannah Hold On"
Lyrics: "I never witnessed bitter like this/ You¹d think I'd have shot in cold blood/ If you won't admit it and I won't be around/ Just so I hear the applause ... / This isn't all we can do/ When in doubt you move on/ No need to sort it all out/ By the time you read this I'll be gone... / Hannah hold on / Hannah hold on / Its all been said / Its all been done / Hang on ... / You only disappoint the ones who don't believe... / Hannah hold on"

(P.S. I realize this was posted earlier... we're having blog problems and I'm trying to fix them. Be patient...)

Whoo...exhaustion. Just got back from dinner with Liz, her mom, her sister, her brother and his wife, her niece, and her sister-in-law's friend (I know, a motley crew, aren't we?). I think I'm starting to get to the point where I'm "accepted" by her family. It's pretty cool. Her mom even asked to see a copy of the sac bee article (I had saved a paper for her, since she lives in tahoe and it's tough for her to get a copy.). Fun stuff.

Man, I'm jazzed today. Last weekend Cliff and Joe got me a book on professional comic book inking (since that's what I'm going to be doing for this whole comic studio and all), so yesterday I went to the art store and picked up supplies. I got a crowquill pen holder with a bunch of nibs, a bottle of honest-to-god ink, and a few micron liners. (probably the least important of all of them, since the ink in these things PALES in comparison to actual ink.) So I pull out one of the bristol-board inserts in the book and practice inking today. This is the first time I've worked with real ink, not markers, and I think i'm actually getting pretty good at it. Laying down black areas is the best, cause I can just pull out a brush and slap some ink in the areas, and it comes out BLACK. I mean, REALLY black. Looks awesome. :D So, yeah. I think I've found my niche. I'm a Tracer, and I'm damned proud of it.

So, dammit joe, send me some pages! I wanna ink things! Everything! *inks a hot dog*

WE ARE CURRENTLY DOWN! I AM LOOKING INTO IT!

My mood last night was more along the lines of minor annoyances to goofing off with my friends.

But I really hate Tuesday and Thursdays. I'm in the middle of my usual marathon of classes, with my acting class starting in about 20 minutes, and lasting for three hours after that. I love the class, it's a lot of fun, but I've been going non-stop for the last 5 hours already, I'm sooo ready for a break by this time.

I complain a lot about school, don't I? Okay, now I'll be positive about it.

My acting class is amazing. I really like it, and the only reason I don't want to go right now is because I'm freaking tired. I'm surrounded by people who have been in far more plays than I have, and are better than me. You have no idea how complimented I feel just by being included in this class with my very talented classmates. The teacher, Marsha Taylor (I think that's right, we just call her Marsha), is great. She's an amazing teacher, with a great deal of knowledge that she just wants to share, and at the same time, she's a human being like the rest of us, and swears, and tells bad jokes right along with us. I just hope I'm doing okay by her standards. I worry because she doesn't talk to me like she does some of the other students, and I wonder if it's because she doesn't think I need help, or because she just doesn't notice I'm there. If it's the first one, that's okay, I guess, but I'd still like her to say something to me. If it's the other, then I need to turn off my l33t ninja skillz when I enter the class then, because they're not helpful.

Hmmm.... my other classes... well, my History of Theater Design is interesting. I've had about three classes with the teacher, Nick Nichols, before, and I like him, so it's going well. It's mostly just a lecture class, so nothing horribly fascinating. Just more random knowledge to add to the assortment of crap already cluttering up my head.

The only other thing I'm doing right now is working in the scene shop, which is always entertaining. Yay, lifting heavy objects and getting dirty. I've learned more about the rats problem we have in the department than I ever wanted to know. This is just about the only bad thing about having a school in the middle of the woods: when you store a lot of stuff in dark, mildly warm areas, you have rat problems. They've been eating wax in the foundry lately. Ewww....

Rehersals are going well. For those who don't know (I don't remember if I mentioned it), I'm in a play called "The Real Inspector Hound" in a Tom Stoppard Festival here in Santa Cruz. I've been working for this production company for a long time, and I'm friends with damn near everyone involved. I did the same play last year, so it's not as much work memorizing and such this year. But I've gotten better as an actor in the months in between, so I'm having more fun with the character, and trying to understand more, and so on. I'll post the dates and such, and let you all know when it goes up, so if any of you are in the area, you can come say hi to me. ^^

Wow, I've rambled a bit, haven't I? I guess I'm feeling wordy. ^^ I'm listening to John Mayer, and he's making me happy, so I guess it's just spreading to my fingers and making me type. ^^ "Which song, " you ask? '3 x 5' It's one of my favorites, and I plan on making a music video for it. I just need to get organized, and schedule around my actors. I'm in it too, cause I'm vain, and I'm the director, and I say so. ^^

Anyway, I've babbled enough. Go on with your lives. ^^

Everyone will be amazed to know I have beaten the Blogger software into submission and resurrected the archives. So now you can go back and see what madness has occurred since the beginning.

I'll make a longer post of some kind today. I was in something of a foul mood early last evening, but the work of friends brought me out of it. And I made a mix CD for myself, what I wanted to here. If everyone else in The Touched Inner Circle wants a copy of it, that's fine. But this mix was not made with you guys in mind -- it was made for me. Of course, I don't mind sharing.

Back in a bit.

(Naturally, now I've broken something...)

Well, I don't know how interesting everyone will find this, but I want to talk for a minute about willpower. It's something I was talking about with a friend of mine last night and she's a little amazed by my willpower. Let me tell you what I mean.

When I made the decision to lose weight, I set out a bunch of rules for myself and the amount of "infractions" I could let myself have. I allow myself basically two infractions a week, which I generally reserve for the weekends. But, on the whole, I'm eating a lot less, I've almost completely cut caffeine out of my diet, I'm eating better and I'm eating smarter. On top of all of that, I'm starting to try and get a little bit of a workout every few days. I may take up jogging or something soon, if I'm not fencing enough to get a good workout there. Since Joe and Lara's wedding, I've lost almost 30 pounds and it's starting to show. And it's not easy, controlling every moment of every day, watching what I eat and how I eat, but it's something I have to do for me. I got tired of looking at pictures and being disgusted with myself. I got tired of not wanting to look at myself in the mirror. I got tired of thinking that my looks were the only thing holding me back from meeting that special someone. I got tired of thinking that it was something I didn't have any control over. I do have control over it and I am starting to beat it. And it's a bitch, lemme tell you. Work doesn't make it any easier -- soft drinks are $.25 and they have a snack cabinet that's open after 4:30 for anyone to have anything inside of it. Recently, they put chocolate covered rice krispie treats in there. So every day for the last two weeks, I've walked in there at around 5 or so, opened the cabinet, looked in, stared temptation straight in the eye and closed the cabinet back up. I would love to have some chocolate. I would love to be able to eat like I used to. I would love to have just one of those treats. But I won't. It's not that I can't -- I can, but if I did, I'm succumbing, I'm giving in. And I won't do that. That would mean my willpower isn't good enough.

Life, all its trials and tribulations, it's a test of wills. It's a colossal game of mental chicken, but the only real player is you.

Escaping Las Vegas was the same way. When I knew it was time to go, I didn't care that there were a million reasons I shouldn't burn bridges, but there was one good reasons I should -- it gave me the will and drive to do what needed to be done. It's easy to say "Some day I'm going to do this. Some day I'm going to do what's right for me." The hard part is actually doing it. It's looking yourself in the eye and saying "Okay, what do you want?" And the minute you have that answer, you have to take it and run with it like your life depended on it. You can't second-guess it. You can't doubt it. I could've played it safe, kept things running decently at Westwood and then jumped ship when I had the opportunity, and not have told a soul in Vegas until everything was on paper. But I didn't. I didn't want them to think I was trying to screw them over -- leaving Westwood was my decision. It was partially based on my feelings about the company, true, but it was mostly about my desire to get back to San Francisco. And so I did what I had to do -- I willed it to happen.

How do you get willpower? How do you keep it? These are things she asked me, and I tell you what I told her. Willpower is a mark of your own personal strength. And it's often very low. A lot of people don't make simple decisions about what they want for lunch easily, much less life altering decisions. The first thing about getting willpower is that you have to learn to stand by what you do, even if it leads you down the wrong path. Every mistake you make is something you can learn from. Every error is only another tool you can use to teach yourself a little bit more about the world. You cannot let yourself get depressed by making mistakes -- this is the hardest part, even for me. When you screw up, and you will screw up as we all do, you need to dust yourself off and move on. You can't linger on your problem. You can't let your problems get to you. No problem in the world is worth your mental health. And every time I have a problem, I fret and I worry about it, and I replay it over and over in my head, looking for some viable solution, until my willpower clicks back in and reexerts itself. Accept what you cannot change, change that which you can. What you need to remember, though, is that you can change just about anything. Not everything ... but pretty damn close.

Getting willpower is easier than keeping it, though. Anyone can get inspired for a few minutes, start down a path of self-improvement and then drop it like a bad habit not long later. It's the long haul that isn't easy. The way is long and fraught with perils and temptations. And there are times to duck and burn, to cut your losses and get out while you're ahead. Having willpower also means knowing when to turn it off so you don't charge smack into a brick wall. Willpower alone is not enough -- you need wisdom, too.

I know, I know, I'm coming across like a bad Tony Robbins or something, but I'm trying to impart a little bit of wisdom to you without talking about any of the things that I'm having to apply my willpower to now, because they're really none of your business and I don't trust them to you for now. Maybe later. We'll see. Regardless, some people choose to have faith in God. Some people choose to have faith in family. Some people choose to have faith in friends. Some people choose to have faith in fate. Some people choose to have faith in luck. Me, I have my faith in myself, and everything else comes out of there. No matter what goes on, no matter what happens, I'm going to do what I need to do, damned be the consequences or ramifications, damned be the rules and societal norms, damned be what other people have told me and my own personal doubts. Because I made my own decisions, I stuck by them, and the only person who could've changed anything is me.

You can lose weight. You can reinvent yourself. The only person who has any control in your life is you. People around you will do what they want to, but as long as you are happy with who you are, what you're doing and where you're going, then you don't need any more than that. You won't always be happy. You won't always be content. You won't always be at ease. You may find yourself thinking about problems in your spare time. You may find yourself thinking about people in your spare time. You may find yourself questioning your status in life in your spare time. But make a decision on why you're going to do something and stick to it. Stand by your guns. When you think you're strong and it's becoming too easy, tempt yourself, even just a little. If you fail to temptation, kick yourself and start from scratch. If you resist temptation, pat yourself on the back and carry on.

I don't know that I'll ever lose all the weight I want to. I don't know that I'll get to the point where I love doing what I do for a living. I don't know that I'll ever get to the point where I don't feel alone in the world. I don't know that I'll ever find total happiness. I don't know that I'll ever be wealthy. I don't know that I'll ever find true love. I don't know that I'll ever be famous. I don't know that I'll be remembered after I die. I don't know that I'll ever get to the point where I am content with more of my life than I am trying to change. But just because I don't know ... doesn't mean I'm not going to try.

Feel free to ask things in the comments. Or just comment there. I'll post more later -- I actually have to go do some work. Back soon.

We're really not terribly interesting lately, are we?

I'd tell a joke, but I suck at that, and that's Liz's department anyway. ^^

Vote? I though we already did that... now you've all confuddled me...

I hate being up this early in the morning. I have to be at my class at 9am, which means I have to get up at about quarter till 8 to get everything done, eat, make my lunch and so on, leave by a quarter after 8, to get to school, get parking, and get to class on time. And then I don't get a break for the next, oh, 8 hours or so, since I have class non-stop till 5pm, then rehersal at 6:30, till 9:30.

Don't get me wrong, I love some of my classes, but Tuesdays and Thursdays wear me out...

Dammit, I still need to find something to wear today... I own too many clothes...

I thought it was just a front runner. I didn't think we had actually settled on it. But then again, I tend to miss a lot of things. That's okay, though. Sooner or later, they all catch up to us... so, is that the official studio name, then? Are we going to take a vote or something?

Cliff you 'tard, we got a name, remember? *cough*ANAGRAM*cough*?

*smacks cliff upside the head* :D

Finally! I now have a nice lamp on my desk, as opposed to that fluoroscent P.O.S. that come standard on the desk. It's a nice softer, warmer glow. It's a neat little paper lantern, essentially. I have one at home in my room, so I figured one for the office would be good...

NOW PLAYING: The Get Up Kids - "Walking On A Wire"
Lyrics: "I've been waiting / systems failing / walking on a wire on the ground / is this all your world tonight? / is this all your world tonight?"

So the studio meeting went well, although no studio name was yet found. We did, however, find and pick a proposal, and get some of the basics on timeframe and whatnot hammered out. We also talked about techniques, styles and approaches. Plans were made and we got ourselves ready to start to work. I'm going to pick up comic book page paper for Joe to start on in the middle of the week when I go to the comic shop in Berkeley, and then we'll start working. Get character sketches out and whatnot, preliminary concepts. I was a little surprised by the concept the group picked, because it's not the one I would have suspected they would have taken. I'm not displeased by any means ... I like the concept they picked and I'm going to be doing a little retooling to it this week, because it didn't come out how I imagined it to, but it's close. It's very close. So a few minor touchups here and there, as well as taking in a few suggestions from the group, and it should be ready to rock. Maybe we'll post some imagery up here sooner or later... maybe not. =P

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. Saturday was the best day I've had in a while, and things only seem to be getting better and better up here. I don't want to bore you all with the details, but I'm comfortable. I'm happy. Life is good. No, it's better than that.

Anyhow, I shouldn't drone on too long. Things to do today!

NOW PLAYING: Michelle Branch - "You Get Me"
Lyrics: "So I'm a little left of center/ I'm a little out of tune/ Some say I'm paranormal/ So I just bend their spoon/ Who wants to be ordinary/ In a crazy, mixed-up world..."

Eh...I'd use Trillian, but I just hate the program...plus my systems is fast enough to be able to run 2 screens at 2560x1024 without the slightest hint of chunking anywhere... so why deal with it when I can just hack my IM apps and remove the adds and keep thier individual parts? I tried Trillian once though and I just utterly hated it...My ICQ list is about 400+ people (after trimming the list down from a much higher #) and the insistant AOL open close sound gets on my nerves damn fast and I just don't care to tweak Trillian when it's history keeping is sketchy at best (50MB database for ICQ rite now). Plus I've tried all the afor mentioned apps pretty much and didn't think much of em since they were more of a pain to deal with than I wanted to put effort into. Plus for those of you that don't know I will be switching to Linux or Mac (if the desktop image wasn't a big hint there) before I will EVVVEEEEEERRRRR ever condone the notion of me switching to XP (or the new Windows Media Player for that matter). It's only the begining of that silly little thing called "Trusted Computing" that anyone that knows jack about computers should know about and BE AGAINST!!! If you have no clue what I'm talking about learn more about computers and look up the words "Trusted Computing" and "Palladium." The companies that are for it only talk about the good parts (wich are far and few for the general consumer...mainly a benifit for big buisness/big brother). If your like me and too lazy to go find info yerself on it this was a quick one I pulled up with Google...

Paladium

Trusted Computing

TCPA/Palladium FAQ

*boucing off the walls ranting incohearently at 2am in the morning*

Haha! I knew it was only a matter of time till I figured it out!

For those of you who care I've finally changed the GUI/shell for my Win2K machine and it's lookin pretty damn sweet! Bai bai Desktop! Bai bai most of my gripes about the Windows GUI...

Whats happening is that a good while ago I ran across a Windows NT4 box a while ago with a tweaked out GUI that rocked (ran better too) and have finally gotten fed up with my current setup you see on most any Win2K box. What I've got is a grand lil app that took me months to remeber it's name called Aston Shell...Damn beautifull what you can do to it. You esentially can skin any version of Windows from Win95 on up! It's got allllllll sorts of lil goodies and features that are just sweet. My recomendation? Go download it, install it, understand it, use it, love it (you will hate it the first day or so while you figure things out but you will like it if you your disatisfied with windows GUI). Pretty cool since you can essentially make your Windows System look like it's a mac almost flawlessly with a little work or the right skin.

Also on the downloading of new and cool stuff I downloaded Mozilla...Yes, yes...How do you spell Netscape? M-O-Z-I-L-L-A...But still...It's an open source browser thats pretty flipping cool...of wich I was turned onto it because of a friend here in Vegas from my hellish job. Now my main reason for even getting Mozilla in the first place was a really cool feature I WISH IE would impliment called "DO NOT OPEN POP UP WINDOWS UNLESS I CLICK ON A F#$%ING LINK TO OPEN ONE!!!" All other pop-up blockers I know of close the windows right when they open wich leaves some areas for problems to pop up whereas Mozilla doesn't allow them to open 50 pop-up add windows on your system just because the site owner feels like it. Plus Mozilla is skinnable too...I'm rather disapointed there aren't more skins out there for it so I guess I'll have to make a skin of my own for Mozilla and put it up (heh...another personal project I'll start but never finish...). But otherwise? I'm out! Link to my current system look wich is still undergoing change...

The desktop!!!

Meeting time!

Man, I'm knocking out pages for the meeting like mad....

NOW PLAYING: The Ataris - "up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start"
Lyrics: "sometimes you gotta stop and remember./ that your not gonna be young forever./ think smart, have fun, stay true/ and don't ever grow up. / out of all I've learned in life/ you always keep your friends close to your heart./ 'cause who will help you if you're falling down./ and everything is o.k."

Awww... you know we miss ya Dave.

You'll escape Vegas sooner or later. Just gotta make the big jump.

Of course this doesn't include good ol' Dave...But also Dave is stuck in the GRAND city of Las Vegas :*(

Y'know... it's good to be back in the Bay area... among friends... back with the people I enjoy hanging out with.

Greg, Liz, Erin... if I haven't told you guys lately, y'all rock. Just a friendly reminder.

No writing "Chairface" on the moon, dammit!

Hmmmm....so does this just involve the Earth? Because I certainly could go for the moon. Relitively hard to take over and I've really been wanting to try out my "Lazer Beam." Would have to shave my head and buy a bunch of Grey Tux's, but I could do it =P

Oh, here's some amusement:

So, I'm going to take over the world. Someday, when I'm not all sickly and stuff.

I'm a nice dictator, not too much enslavement.

My housemate Sherrie is claiming Italy and the Medditeranean, and the other housemate Megan is claiming Japan ("I'll have all the cute toys!"). Cliff's asking for Australia, and the surrouding islands, and to be the Corporal in Charge of Repression, which is fair, I suppose.

My brother get's Canada. Good snowboarding. ^^

I get Ireland. Why? I'm the dictator, I say so. ^^

Greg gets Zimbabwe. Why? Ask him.

The Psuedo Housemate Christy gets Portugal and Spain. "Cause Sherrie took Italy, dammit!"

I haven't discussed it with Liz, or Dave yet, so you two need to get back to me on that. ^^

But I still need generals and more people to rule over parts for me. Post suggestions/wishes in the comments area. ^^

I'd be entertaining, but that would involve having energy, which this cold has sucked completely out of me.

I hate being sick.

Besides, I posted! Right before Liz did on Monday. ^^ And then nobody read mine 'cause Liz's was more interesting. ^^ She tells better jokes than I do. ^^

*sniff*

Okay, naptime...

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I should make a post, I know. I know...

So, what's up in the world of Cliff? Depends on how much I want to talk about, really, I suppose. For those of you curious about work, this is officially all I'm going to say about work: It's worklike.

Now, onto more interesting and more pressing matters... Let me hint at several projects and tell you about one. Joe and I have begun work on a new idea that we think is going to be pretty cool. It's preliminary stuff right now, but I'll probably say more about it eventually. We'll see. I want to give it time to blossom and come to fruiton, but I will tell you I bought another web domain name (you know that's three I own now?) -- it should be cool if/when it's ready. More about that eventually.

This weekend is going to be the first studio meeting. What studio, you ask? Glad you asked -- I've always wanted to be a writer for a living. I've got stories coming out of my eyes, and getting them down onto paper will help a great deal. So about a year and a half ago, Joe and I decided to start trying to break into comic books. We made a pitch last year and got a lot of favorable commentary, but the main response was "Not yet." That's good, in my opinion, because most people just get "No" but we got "Not yet." So we had the potential, but weren't able to execute it quite yet... so Joe and I both went on creative hiatus to recover our energies and regroup.

Now cut to about four or five months ago. Joe and I are ready to regroup, as soon as Joe gets his wedding out of the way. There's only a few small problems. First off, we've lost our inker (tracer!) and I've kinda come to the conclusion that I won't be able to do everything else I'm going to need to and still letter, without breaking my legs. See, originally, Joe was pencilling, Joe's now-brother-in-law Wes was inking and I was writing/lettering. I also handled the proposals/business and Joe and I were splitting coloring duties for the front/back cover (he'd do the base colors and I'd go and do the digital finishes/touchups). Quite frankly, Joe didn't particularly want to ink for himself and the lettering was just too much for me on top of everything else I was doing. So we decided we were going to start thinking about what to do.

A few months later, solutions presented themselves. Greg and I talked about it a bit, and he was eager to take a shot at inking for us. I'm not sure if I talked him into it or if I just suggested the idea and he jumped at it. My memory of the whole process isn't that good. Likewise, I don't remember how Erin and I broached the subject of her lettering, but I do remember she was also eager to get a chance to work on this project. On top of all of this, we've been trying to con Liz into taking a shot at doing the colors for the cover, which means Joe is free to basically just take his time on the pencils and get them just how we want them, but I'm also free to actually take time to craft scripts and characters and dialogue and whatnot. (I'd like to think I'm pretty good at dialogue, actually. I mean, I've written a couple of plays, even if they've never been put on, and they were written several years ago. I'd like to think I've gotten much better since then...)

Cut forward to now. Right now, actually. I've been banging on story ideas and will probably have three or four sets of 5-pages to show at our first official studio meeting this weekend. It'll be a chance for everyone to meet Joe and for Joe to meet everyone, and we'll get to do all sorts of other fun studio stuff. We'll discuss and decide on a studio name, we'll kick around vague logo concepts, we'll look through the various pages and see what interests people and what people want to work on. The studio is a collaborative effort. I don't want this to be me coming down off the mount with these holy pages and handing out edicts. I also don't want everyone totally doing their own thing and ignoring everyone else. I want Joe, Greg, Erin, Liz and I to all be working on a project we're proud of. I want us to put out a comic that we'll all be proud of and that will be entertaining and interesting to read, as well as gorgeous to look at. I know, I know... I have very, very, very high and lofty expectations, but if you shoot for the moon, you'll be content when you get into outerspace.

I honestly believe that we have all the talent we need right here and that this group of people will be able to achieve whatever we want, as long as we work together and work hard. I will be a hardass about the work hard bit, but someone has to be the slave driver of the bunch, as artistic types are, on the whole, quite lazy. And hey, I'm including myself in that. But laying about won't get us anything (except a killer tan, but no time for that now...) and I want to be able to go to the next San Diego Comic Convention with something in my hands that WE made, that WE put out, that WE are getting profits back from... I want people to read what we're working on and go "Hey! That kicks ass!" I want to get asked for an autograph. But most of all, I want to hear someone say "I really enjoy your work," so I can know I'm giving back for all the comics I've been enjoying for years. I, the critic, want to put something new into the world. And that's just me. I imagine everyone else working for the studio has their own ideas on why they're doing it...

Man, I really can drone on, can't I? Let me change subjects quickly to keep people interested. So the pictures I took of Erin turned out pretty well, actually, and I had some prints made. One's hanging in my living room right now, one's going to my mother for her birthday and of the other two, Erin gets one and I'm keeping the other to either put on my desk here at work or hang somewhere else at home. I'll probably take Liz's headshot this weekend, and maybe a few of Greg as well, and even some of Joe and Lara, plus I'd like to get at least one of the whole studio together (though that will be a REAL pain in the ass, so maybe I'll do one of everyone but me or something...) My 35 mm film scanner should arrive this week, I hope. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get it to work with my PC yet, but I'll figure it out sooner or later. It'll just take some weird balancing act, but I should be okay. Maybe I'll even post an image or two up here from time to time. We'll see. As it turns out, it's much cheaper to just get 35mm film developed and worry about large-size prints only than getting a bunch of the small prints that I may or may not ever do anything with.

Oh, and in another story that should give a lot of you a good laugh, Lara needed to raise some money (because they don't want to just bum money off me) so she asked if there was anything she could do around the apartment for $20. I have thusly handed to her THE GREAT REORGANIZATION... that's right. I've gotten about 100 CDs that I haven't filed into my Big-Ass Collection™®, so I've got Lara working on it now. They're all in alphabetical order and I had to buy another 264 CD binder so that things would be okay. Supposedly she's starting this morning. I can't say I envy her. It's not gonna be an easy project -- usually I take a whole weekend to do it -- but I can't just GIVE them $20 when they're demanding they work for it. Still, it'll give them something to do so they're not just sitting around the apartment all day. I think they're both starting to go a little stir crazy. And with Joe starting to work on our other Non-Disclosed Project©, as well as developing a healthy addiction to match mine to Magic: The Gathering Online (yeah, I do go by Devinoch there...), we've all got things to do with our time. But I'll start posting daily again, promise... most of the time, anyway. *grins*

In one final note, I'm carrying over something I used to do on my old blog to here... I used to post what I was listening to all the time, and I stopped that for a while, mostly because I wasn't listening to music in the office when I first got to Maxis, but now that I've got my own cube and I'm listening to more music at home, I can do this again. So you'll get a bit of lyrics, the band name (with link to their site) and the song name...

NOW PLAYING: Dave Matthews Band - "Where Are You Going?"
Lyrics: "Where are you going, where do you go?/ Are you looking for answers, to questions under the stars?/ If along the way you are growing weary, you can rest with me until a brighter day/ It’s okay, where are you going, where do you go?"

*hears cricket noises*

What the hell happened to this place?

*hears more cricket noises*

er... uh... *notices she is on stage all alone* uh hi all...*sweat drop* I am sure you all are wanting some kind of entertainment... *gulps* so I am going to do flips. Er... ok here goes... what? You don't want to see me do flips? You want me to what?! Take off my clothes?! How could you ever suggest...hmmmm. I suppose I could.... its not like anyone is reading this thing....hmmmm *flashes the audience* Whew! What? You want me to put my shirt back on? Well fine then! See if I ever strip for you again!

**Please note: Due to the lack of enthusiasm from the audience when the author took off her shirt.. there will be no joke of the day. Nope.. none... not at all...**

JOKE OF THE (**hey! I said no joke!!!!!!!!**) DAY:
(** BUT!!!!!!!)

What do you call the moisture between two people having sex in Alabama?
Relative humidity


(** Well atleast it wasn't a good joke**)

.:Liz:.