Unbelievable

"Mousetrap. I wanted to play Mousetrap. You roll your dice, you move your mice. Nobody gets hurt. Mousetrap."

I have a group project due in 2 weeks. There are 5 of us working on it. Strike that. There are 4 of us working on it and one pain in the ass who's doing an amazing job of sabotaging things. Since he's a pain in the ass, let's refer to him as 'Pita.'

We're designing a boardgame. We came into it wanting to design something that kids and adults could play together with a bit of a 1950s campy sci-fi 'feel' to it.

The basic idea I came up with can be summed up like this: It's a last-man-standing game where the last player to reach "the end" is the winner. It's a game where you move after you roll the dice and depending on cards you might pick up along the way, you could keep on moving if other players gang up on you. Honestly, in a worst-case scenario you could move up to 50 spaces before you roll the die a second time.

So, here comes Pita. He wants to add all sorts of odd rules. Momentum. An alternate way to win by scoring points. Special mathematical calculations to some of the special in-game cards. In his words: "fun."

Not fun. Annoying. So, he gets outvoted 4-1 and the ideas are dropped.

Well, they should be dropped, but somehow make their way into the rulebook, so we tell him it has to be redone. After I spend countless hours in Photoshop on the gameboard, he whips one up quickly (and poorly, missing some of the key items we decided to put in the game) and insists it's the one we're using.

and then he wonders why I go ballistic?

There's a good chance Pita would no longer be with us if it weren't for our instructor stepping in and seperating the two of us. I've been the smart one and kept him "in the loop" by blind-copying him on every email. Covering my own ass and proving what a pain in the ass Pita really is.

2 weeks. And it's all over.

Latin Active

I mentioned earlier in the week that I was getting annoyed with emails going ignored & such. One such "ignorer" was 'Latina Lady,' who used to work for me 2 years ago now. We've kept in touch over the years, but suddenly she stopped replying to emails and disappeared off of MSN. Honestly, I thought she'd put me on 'ignore.' We'd gotten together one day for a drink and I was a little nervous that she was hoping for a little more. She really did herself up for a simple drink.... and, oh, she did look hot.

So, wouldn't you know it. Thursday night (when I finally got some sleep after being awake for 61 hours) she tries to contact me over MSN. Ugh.

We talked yesterday over MSN and it was like nothing negative happened since we last saw each other. Weird, I know. And she really wants to get together again soon.

I don't know.... It was just good to hear from her again. I know she talks on occasion to my old boss (From Hell!) because they both workout at the same gym. She doesn't really like him and she hates the co-workers from Hell, so we always had sometihng to laugh about.

Oh, and yep, there were rumours about us around the office too. When she was graduating with her B.A., I managed to snag an extra half-dozen tickets for her family flying up from Mexico, just so she didn't have to wait overnightin the rain with all the other students desperate for 1 or 2 extra tix for their families. I pulled strings and got away with a good haul. There were hugs and kisses galore as a thank you and I tried to pull her away form the doors when she did it (basically so no one would see, but it's pretty difficult to do). I bring this up because it was brought up by the VP as a long list of excuses on My Last Day.

In some ways, I'd love to have her tell my old boss (From Hell!) that something did happen. That way, he'd go back to the office and wonder if all the other rumors were true as well. People would wonder how I managed to get any work done.

And, of course, how I did it better than them.

I'm a Pimp

The picture is way too "Hasselhoff," but that made this "test" worth doing...

Your Pimp Name Is...

Big Playah Pump

What's Your Pimp Name?

Drunk & Ugly

Since I'm on a roll...

You're A Passed Out Drunk

Drinking gives you that warm fuzzy feeling, until you're thrown in the back of a police car...

What Kind of Drunk Are You?

Unlocked

Taking care of the kids today, so ZERO production on assignments & projects due in the next few weeks. Thanks to Mad, I do have this to add:

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free. In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored. You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy. You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Take It As a Compliment

Super-stressful week. Assignment is stayed home to work on on Tuesday has had its deadline extended to next Tuesday. After several hours' of struggling with it, I was still no further ahead. As always seems to be the case with this friggin program, one extra keystroke was the difference between success and oblivion.

Wednesday's assignment was faring no better as designing anything as a 3D model can be done in such a way that you're only working with half of the model before "mirroring" the image to complete it. Basically, anything functional (cars, planes, ovens, chessboards, etc.) can be designed with only half of the model and then mirriored for the full model.

Only the style of modelling we were using for Wednesday's class wouldn't let us use the "mirrior" command. Nope, instead, we had to (& I only found out 5 minutes before it was due) go into one section of the program and switch a number from '1' to '-1'. Too bad I still had about an hour's work before it would be finished... I handed it in anyway and that was better than 1/3 of the class who ddin't even do that.

The next big challenge was Thursday morning's assignment which took a few hours longer than expected. Having woken up at 9am on Tuesday, I knew I was pushing it Wednesday night when I opted to go out with my wife instead of finishing up the work. I did that when we got home aorund 10pm.

I finished at 5:20am and my alarm clock was set to go off at 5:30. No sleep for this Hoser.

I admitted to my carpool buddy that I'd been awake for nearly 48 hours just before the 90-minute commute to school in a dense fog and with slippery roads. Hehe. I think it's the first time he's stayed awake for the entire commute.

I got it done and apparently it was one of the better texture designs she'd seen. I was happy to hear that, but even more surprised when, later on in class, she came over to compliment me on my painting in Photoshop. I wasn't using texture samples like everyone else in class. They'd take a sample and paint over it to give it an "original" look and feel. Nope. I was painting red clay roof tiles.

And she complimented me. She never compliments me. Or anyone else for that matter. I felt... weird. No matter, she also said she could see me working for one of the major studios very, very soon if I kept this up. ('very, very soon' meaning within the next 4 months, this Hoser could be pulling in $50k a year!) And the compliments kept rolling in. She made mention of me in the next class for both the assignment and for my painting style.

Actually, before I go on, let me dirgess a bit. Apparently she found me quite freaky just becuase as I was painting in Photoshop, I was also writing down notes in my book --at the same time. So, while the right hand was moving the mouse to draw, the left hand was making notes of the colour palette I was using and severity of the dark & lights. I guess it's hard to read people when they're not showing if they're a lefty or a righty... freaked her out.

One instructor last seemster who proved extremely difficulty to please (especially for me) commented on some of my artwork this morning. I'd showed him a few samples of my life drawing, including a few pieces I'm most proud of and a few others to point out "highlights" of the work. "Kicking my ass" was part of his compliment --and more than I ever got from him last year. I've now been invited to Thursday-night sessions in Vancouver to meet with other artists in the industry.

Cool. Networking.

And compliments. To think on Tuesday I was about ready to pack it in...

Absent Without Permission

I didn't go to school today. I couldn't handle it. Assignment's not done, for the second week in a row. Something about Tuesday classes....

That, and the 2+ hours of commuting (there & back) just don't hit me well today.

I've been trying to find a way for people to relate to my frustrations and this is the list I've come up with:

• If you're trying to change a TV channel on your remote, you'd have to hold down the TV button at the same time as pressing the 'up' or 'down' buttons.
• Typing anything in MS Word requires a special key to be pressed after opening a new document otherwise every word comes out in Pig Latin.
• Imagine the only way you start your car is if you use a key to turn on the engine and a key to turn on the steering wheel. And there's a different key position for each season of the year.

I decided this morning to go out a find a book on the 3D program, but to no avail. The local library has a great selection of Windows 95 books, but nothing from this century. The 2 local book stores no longer carry computer books. The local shops that used to have computer reference sections have also shut them down. S-O-L, unless the book downloads come through sometime soon.

Oh, and why do things like this happen to me?

It was recommended to me yesterday that I read a book published 4 years ago as it has some ideas that might help influence my group for the graduating project. Keep in mind, this book came out 4 years ago. So, off to the library for this book as well:

1. Although there are usually 2 copies available at the local library branch, both copies were signed out.
2. One was signed out yesterday.
3. The other within 30 minutes of me arriving today.
4. 2 other people have requested a hold on the books.
   
5. Meaning the earliest I can get my hands on a copy is early January 2006.
   
6. Getting a copy from another library branch was not available as 3 copies have been discovered missing in the past week and there are hold requests at those libraries for the book as well.

Seriously. Does this happen to anyone else??

On the upside: Needing more movies to watch while I work --something about the pace of movies really helps speed things along (when the program works), I had a cool coupon to rent 6 DVDs at a low price. So:

1. The Italian Job (I've never seen it before)
2. Alien Resurrection (enjoyed it, but haven't seen it since it was in theaters)
3. Daredevil - Director's Cut (gotta see what the difference is.... 30 minutes of additional footage, hopefully with lotsa Jennifer Garner *sigh*)
4. Hero (again, enjoyed it but only saw it in the theater)
5. American Wedding (just watched the 1st two after downloading them, but couldn't find a cohesive version of the final part of the trilogy)
6. Insomnia (locally filmed movie with Robin Williams and Al Pacino. Haven't seen it before)

OK, time to get back to "schoolwork."

Respond/React

Well, it's a bit of a surprise to see 5 emails in the inbox regarding posts on the blog.... yep, just the 2 readers, but a surprise nonetheless.

I know I forgot to mention that I've been trying to get to Washington state to check on an Amazon order that should've shipped to my PO box at the end of October. Well, it's only November 18, so I'm not too far off. Fortunately, the ladies at the post office all know me (& like me?) so they put up with my semi-rgular visits to pick up parcels.... as long as it's gone before Christmas!!

This post is pretty much doing 2 things:
1 - Helping me procrastinate on the first-ever assignment extension I've requested at this school.
2 - Responding to the 5 emails from earlier this morning.

Speaking of earlier this morning.... Dreama, we may now (myself and my 2 major readers --gave you both a promotion!) all be in the same timezone, but that doesn't mean I'm on MSN at fricky 6:30 in the morning! That's 3 hours after I've passed out!!

Onto, the emails:
From Madley:
I have a question about drawing the butts though... are the models different sizes and shapes? Don't butts look different, like some you can't even FIND any musculature?
Models come in different sizes and shapes, but most of ours have had some definition in them. some it's been more difficult to find... Our instructor is looking to see if we grasp the concept of whuch muscles belong where --and why. So when we have a model who doesn't have the definition (usually the legs have the least definition, believe it or not) is in front of us, then I play to the audience's 'wants' and define the muscles. :)

It sounds like you're in a good mode though... actually probably started with your leaving your job last year... it's called DEFINING YOUR LIFE FOR YOURSELF, calling your own damn shots. And people who yak, distract and don't fit... well, the Universe just kinda Calgon's them away. Thank Goodness.

This annoying guy was actually short-listed for our graduating project team. Although we're in charge of the project, we pull students in from at least 3 other programs to work with/for us. He went from the short-list to the un-list in one day. One talented artist has joined another team, but he mentioned he'd like to see their project leader be nothing more than an errand boy (the lead has limited skills, but will fight for his ways to be done) and fetch coffee. Our group is already meeting and discussing what we need to do (months before anything's assigned to us by the faculty) already and we're ahead of other groups with that. We hope to snag him for our group by next week. I'm surrounding myself with talented people so that my weaker areas vanish... Wonder how Dreama's feel if I took that job in Montreal? :D

Don't forget to write on your other blog too... I'd like to see at least SOME of those derrieres.

There were some images added a few weeks back --a drawing I was very proud of. I have a couple more to add as well, but those won't be up for a few more weeks. I need to focus on getting my work done (hehe) before any scanning takes place. Oh, and they're all quality glute's.

Ciao and... you don't have Thanksgiving there, do you?

Thanksgiving in Canada has come and gone. We have it in early October. Although my wife's family celebrates both Thanksgivings as her father is American. Actually, until yesterday. Now he's a fully-fledged... hoser.

From Dreama:
As for the [email list], I think I missed something. If anything, I think the group is just bored and restless right now, but who knows. Haven't seen much chatter going on lately. You weren't the only one who didn't comment on my trek. No one did. Hmph...s'alright, no offense taken.

Swear to God... I will post comments on your new blog.... as soon as I have some actual free frittering time! And you didn't miss anything on the list, I think. I made a comment and braced for the eventual attack. Then, to concede, I posted something give everyone a "I told you so" bit to get me. And no one responded. Then, a congratulatory message flamed my inbox with messages accusing me of calling them ignorant. How a message starting with "I don't know if everyone got this" translates into: "You're all stupid and ignorant."

But it did.

Honestly, I'm sure if I posted a message today, everything would be fine. No one would even remember the issue. I just don't feel up to posting right now...

So you sound a little sour these days. Your program doesn't agree with you? Sounds like you're doing well though, congrats on the butt drawings...wish I could see Matthew McConnaughey's butt right now, particularly since People voted him the sexiest for the year...pant, pant, pant...ok, have to go.

Sour.... stressed. Having a tough time handling some things when I start seeing weaknesses in the school and in myself. We've had 2 teachers fired this semester, one unfairly and the other shouldn't be referred to as a teacher --couldn't teach! The final 5 weeks of the semester is 5 assignments worth 20% each to give us our grade for the course. Everything we toiled through beforehand became meaningless --and 30 precious hours wasted.

I've seen enough butts I could probably fairly accurately describe his butt.... BUT there's no way I'm going there. I'll leave that to you... um, both of you! ;)

OK, am now going to attempt getting to the post office!!

Cheeky Monkey

Busy time.... busy-busy-busy. Lots to talk about too.

Latest life drawing course is over-and-out in 3 more Thursdays. It also means in 3 weeks I basically give up drawing sweet-EFF-all for the remaining 9 months of school. Not really looking forward to it. I'm one of 2 students continuously singled out in class because of the "quality" of my work. In quotes 'cuz the instructor actually uses quality to describe it *blush!*

My comrade-in-quality is also an "older" student at the ripe old age of 28. She's graduated with a degree in fine arts, but is no further ahead in life than me (and I won't warn her it doesn't get any easier). We sit side-by-side in life drawing, but may change it up a bit next week simply because we're getting a little sick of the poses we're seeing.

We're seeing a lot of butts.

OK, seriously, I counted today after the 5th pose where the model was looking away from us and toward other students. 144 cheeks have made their way into my sketchbook since October.

One hundred and forty-four.

Cheeks.

I didn't even bother drawing some of the poses today because I've seen them all before..

[note: never, never, EVER, never did I think I'd ever say I've seen enough of naked butts]

Some classmates thought I was exagerrating, until they watched the model get into a pose (which she held for 15 minutes) -yes, with her back to me-- I looked at the pose once, then proceeded to draw it out, complete with proper musculature (teres major, minor, deltoids, etc.). Never looked at her for the rest of the drawing. No need. I've memorized the bloody back (& butt).

I'm bombing one course so far, but I'm hoping the latest assignment will bring up my mark. I spent 27 hours "tweaking" a 3D model and he only made on correction during the class critique. So, hopefully... Everything else seems to be progressing fine. The 3D computer program & I have a hate/hate relationship and I've managed to stump 2 instructors with problems I've encountered. Great. This could very well be the future I've mapped out for myself...

What else?

I've resigned from my positions in the church. No time and getting less every day. I'll finish out the year and then part ways most likely for a few years.

My wife had an interview for one of my old jobs. She didn't get it and the 3 co-workers she would have worked with are all upset about the decision. Why none of them volunteered to be on the hiring committee, I don't know.... Typical.

So much thought into one of my old jobs brought back the nightmares for a few days. Kept dreaming I was getting called into the office to help them find things (it's been a year, you'd think they'd have found the stuff by now!). I also had one dream where I found out my boss had killed his wife (in reality she died of cancer) and he was trying to kill me now that I knew. It was a crazy adventure of a dream and I woke up shaking.

A major mailing list I'm on... how do I put this? I'm *part* of a major mailing list for my old university. We talk virtually daily, but about 2 weeks ago I just stopped. I was good for a few quips every week, but it seems the last few comments were taken the wrong way or just completely ignored and I just haven't bothered to post anything else to anyone. Dreama is a part of that group and I haven't commented on her cross-Canada adventures either. Nothing against Dreama, though. She's still near-and-dear to me, even if she attempts to wear sandals in the Yukon.... I just don't feel up to talking to the rest of them right now.

I've kind of had that "screw you" attitude over a few things in the past few weeks. "Latina Lady" didn't reply to a few emails, so I can't be bothered to try anymore. A couple former co-workers were excited to get in touch with me again, but suddenly stopped emailing as well, so again: screw 'em.

I've even turned on a few classmates recently. Hate doing it, but I'm finding them just plain disruptive and annoying during lectures and a detriment to my education. Shut-up or go away. We've started 2 project groups recently. One for our graduating project (yep, 9 months from now!) and one for a term project. We have one guy who "joined" himself to our term group and everyone else thought I was going to punch him out in the middle of class. He's got some good ideas, he's eager and energetic, he's willing to work. He just can't process a thought and makes the simplest tasks complicated. This guy would make buying property difficult in Monopoly.

I think that's enough to tide everyone over for now. All 2 of you.

I'm still working on a mega-post (it's actually in 'edit' mode!) for the end of 2005 explaining a theme I've had going all year. It's a lot of work as I've had nearly 250 posts.

250 posts and not much happening. Sad.

She Falls Asleep

By late Thursday afternoon, a few of us were getting "punchy" in our life drawing class.

And our model falling asleep while posing did not help matters.

She had the 'Jimmy legs' too.

Seriously, try drawing a woman posing with one knee in the air and her arm wrapped around her head. Within 15 minutes, she had her knees together (I should point out there was nothing sexual about the position) and was sound asleep. It was the 3rd or 4th time she'd dozed off.

The next time she woke up (trust me, no one could figure out how the instructor missed all this), she asked one of the guys to plug the little heater in so she could warm up. And he zapped himself on the cord....

Later, when she woke up again, she asked for some of her music to be played. It was great sleepytime music and off she drifted again.

The music was too quiet, though. You know how annoying it can be when you just barely hear some music playing? It was that annoying. One of the other guys asked for "electro-shock boy" to turn it up so we could at least hear it. ESB said it was pretty loud already. The rest of us just looked at each other and wondered what he was hearing because there's no way it was the stereo! "Maybe the shock gave him super hearing," was all I could say.

Two of us were also called up to the instructor's desk. He'd already let the class know we were the "A students" in the class, and now he wanted to give us a challenge. No more drawing they way we do. It's all shading now. Start out fairly dark, and darken in spots where there's shadows and light erasing for spots where light reflects off the skin.

Not really a challenge, but he thought it was.

The challenge was drawing the model who kept laying down and snoozing away the afternoon.

Karma for the Day

Granted this post should've come out on Wednesday, but I got busy... VERY busy and didn't get to sleep until 2am Thursday morning (with a wakeup time of 5:30am...).

Thursday's my full-day for classes and I had a meeting to go to last night, plus my car went in for servicing today, so I'm finally getting a "break" right now to continue my consistently inconsistent posts...

Where was I?

Oh! Karma.

On Wednesday afternoon, I did my "good karma" deed for the day. Now, I need to go off on a bit of tangent here (I do it all the time, but for some reason I feel obligated to warn anyone reading this today that I'm going to speak tangentially).

Tangentially. My big word for the day. Look it up. Actually, don't --I probably misused it. (if I did, use misuse as my big word instead).

That wasn't my tangent --crap. This is. As a Christian, "karma" isn't supposed to play a part in life. "We" don't believe in "karma," but we believe that every good deed deserves another and what good you do will be repaid in kind.

Karma's a whole lot easier to say.... And I'm feeling lazy.

So, back to my Wednesday and where this whole karma thing comes in to play.

I had class in the afternoon and when I sat down at my station in the lab, there was a set of headphones and a very cool/expensive-looking MP3 player sitting there looking quite lonely. I asked the guy at the next station if he saw who'd been sitting there and he didn't know.

So here was a very cool/expensive-looking MP3 player in my hands.

I turned it in at the security desk.

And no one came back to the lab to look for it. Hopefully, they checked at the front desk and did get it back. As tempting as it would be to "own" a very cool/expensive-looking MP3 player, I know how I'd feel if something like that happened to me. Total bummer, so I did my good karma for the day...

Now don't think I immediately start thinking I'm invincible or anything because I'm going to get what's due to me after my good deed. Oh no! I don't think you actually can or should expect anything. If nothing happens, it means nothing bad happened. If something happens, well..... good?

Not for me on Wednesday.

It had been fairly sunny out when I got to school and parked 'lo those many blocks away. But hey, it was nice out so the walk was good for me. Except that at 5 at night, it was pouring rain very, very hard and it was honestly a difficult walk back to the car.

And, just before the spot where I cross the road, there came a large delivery truck.

Who introduced me to the rather large ocean-like puddle right in front of me.

I was beyond wet in my thin silk jacket. Oh yes, I honestly felt like the back of my neck got splashed from that puddle which no longer seemed to exist.

The girl with the umbrella 10 feet behind me didn't fare much better, except the 'Hoser'-shaped outline where she was blocked from the tsunami effect.

I got to my car, and sat for a while as the de-fogger tried valiantly to "de-fog" the car as my body heat (what little remained) and the liquid layer around me didn't mix with the car interior.

20 minutes later, we pulled out to go home.

"Home" was an understatement as I came in, kissed my wife and children, changed out of my damp clothes, swallowed a few spoonfuls of dinner, and ran out the front door to the honking van. I'd "volunteered" to help paint a friend's new condo. There were 6 of us going in the van and I was supposed to be the 6th one picked up. I wasn't, I was first, so 45 minutes later we finally got to the condo.

It was after 9pm when the pizza finally arrived, giving me my second full meal of the day. (the first being 2 slices of toast 12 hours earlier. Dinner at home didn't count as I didn't make a dent in the food on my plate.)

Before we ate, though, the guy who owns the place wanted to move a few things so we all had somewhere to eat the pizza. As he moved things, he held a full tin of paint.

Which he then accidently dumped on my jacket.

No, it wasn't the same jacket from the tsunami. I'd hung that up to dry at home. Ths was my super-nice rian jacket which in an instant turned from black to some greyish-green mizture matching his kitchen walls.

I laughed. I mean, no one's expecting something like that to happen, so all I could do was... laugh!

He grabbed my jackety and took it to the bathtud to try and wash as much of the paint out as possible. And he did a great job as it actually went back to its original black.

But he hung it up to dry (WHA???) and I didn't realize that until we left a few hours later.

So, no jacket for the couple-block walk back to the van to go home. And it was raining harder than it was before....

I was very, very wet.

Imagine how I'd've felt if I thought my good karma deed meant everything would be going my way...

Except for all that water that went my way, that is.