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I'm contemplating a mini summer trip. It has occurred to me that for some reason or another, I haven't gotten out enough to enjoy the summer weather.
Granted recently the "summer weather" has been near-apocalyptic and very, very wet. But, whatevs.
Now the real question is where to go. The furthest I'd be willing to travel is Yellowstone. Which is tons of fun, but I was there, like, 4 years ago, and not much has changed. It's a huge tourist destination so it's basically like going to a big city with no buildings and mooses instead of serial rapists. Though chilling out of the black sand beach of Yellowstone lake is nice.
I could also do something within the state of Colorado. There's lots of stuff in the mountains. But nothing is really sticking out in my mind as a really interesting destination. Plus most of the interesting stuff (like Rocky Mountain National Park) is only about an hour away, so it's not really exotic to me.
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Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
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You remember Legend? A little steampunk adventure show starring Richard Dean Anderson and John de Lancie. It premiered back in 1995 when UPN was a bright, shiny new network full of promise. Before it poisoned itself with desperate ratings pandering and zero imagination.
This little gem ran for only 12 episodes, but it made such an impression on me as a kid that I remembered the theme song from when it was canceled to just a few days ago when I downloaded the entire series.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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I just got back from a week-long vacation to California. The reason for going was a family reunion in Los Angeles, but we (my brother and mother) found time to do some actually fun stuff. I won't bore you with the details, so here's the relevant points:
- I found a dollar on the sidewalk in Las Vegas, put it into a slot machine, and won $15.
- Stayed at the worst hotel in Canyon Lake. The screen door to the balcony derailed and jammed the door. I lost my temper and threw it off the second story. Much to the chagrin of my family.
- I do not particularly enjoy being around my extended family, but there are a few cool people here and there. As well as some dangerous idiots.
- Drove down to San Diego to eat at some world-famous restaurant in Mission Bay. Not entirely sure why else we stayed down there, but I didn't complain. Later we drove up to Dana point and hung out on the beach.
- I finally went to Disneyland! It was very awesome. I loved the Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and especially Space Mountain. I hit Space Mountain twice.
- Hit Las Vegas again on the way home. No drama to report, though I did get sick after the all you can eat Buffet.
There are two major thoughts that run though my head after this whirl-wind adventure. First of all I was a bit surprised by what Disneyland actually is. The rides (let's face it) suck. There's nothing there you couldn't find at some two-bit amusement park. But it's the ambiance... the production design what's really special. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I think it's wonderful, it's just not what I was expecting.
Second is Southern California. It's a very pretty area, but good lord is it good to get back to Colorado. The sunlight isn't as bright (smog and humidity), you're surrounded by dead vegetation, endless concrete, and you can't get away from humanity. It's like this ceaseless subliminal noise that grates on your mind. I didn't really notice it until it stopped around Western Colorado, when everything was lush and green again.
It'd be nice if you could have Colorado's vast wilderness and discreet urban centers coupled with California's beaches and nice weather. This may be why Oregon is becoming so popular, because I think that's the closest match.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
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What? an early comic? Yup, I'm heading out to California and I don't know when I'll be back, or if I'll have reliable internet. But you can take the next couple of weeks to come up with some questions for Dr. Helmig! (Seriously, though. Do that.)
Don't forget to send your qvestions to helmig@weeklygeekshow.com
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So I guess I should instigate a life update.
Work on my animation grinds along. It's about 50% done. I think I'm going to wait for it to be totally done before I post it for the world to see. But a few test screenings have been encouraging even though it's mostly animatic.
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On the 22nd I shall be heading to the Los Angles area for a family reunion. Terrible, I know, luckily it's only going to be for Sunday, then we're free to wander around. I'm really hoping I can peel off to do some actually fun stuff like go to Disneyland or Universal studios. Buuuuut that's going to be difficult tagging along in a car with 3 adults who would rather not. Regardless it should be an interesting diversion.
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I think I may have finally found a steady job. It's been sort of crazy the past couple of months. First I found a job as a graphic designer for a science center, but they would never give me anything to do. Then I found a video editing position at the continuing education building on campus, but it was boring and they wouldn't give me enough hours. Finally I found an IT help job at the Registrar's office. They allow me to make my own hours and when there's no work, they don't expect you to look like you're working. It's awesome. Yesterday between helping people I played Peggle on the iPod Touch.
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Ah, the joys are car ownership. As it turns out, that really subtle grumbling noise I was hearing from my front brakes was, in fact, the worn-to-the-metal brake pads chewing up the rotors. There's $130 I didn't want to spend. Suppose that was entirely my fault for not checking them.
What really annoys me is when I got the snow tires taken off, I asked the Costco guy if maybe he could check them, since I was still wondering about the noise. They have the wheels off anyway, so it'd be a simple case of looking. He said sure, and when I got the car back he said they were fine. Of course I didn't believe him, and checked them myself later that day.
Ok, I know Costco only does tires, it is not their job in any way to check brakes... but don't tell me you're going to check them, don't, and then lie to me. Just say "no, sir. We're not smart enough to do what you ask of us. Now excuse me, I have to go bang a hammer on the cement floor. DOOIIIII."
After all that, I also changed the differential fluid, which is an unpleasant job. Gear oil smells like cat diarrhea, and it gets everywhere. Plus my axles don't have drain plugs, so I had to remove the covers (10 bolts each.)
I can't wait until I make enough money where I can just pay somebody to do this. Though I guess there will be some things I'll just always have to do myself.
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Ok, animation update! I've finished inking all of the backgrounds in Illustrator, and have moved onto coloring them. There are 15 backgrounds in total, so I've got a lot to do.
I have completed the animatic and most of the sound mixing... though I think I'll wait until after I completely finish to post that. A DVD extra, if you will.
I also broke down and bought a new tablet. The dinky $70 Graphire3 I had before was really starting to get on my nerves, and with many hours of drawing directly into Toon Boom, I figured now is the time to upgrade to some professional-grade. So I got a Wacom medium-sized (about 9x6") Intuos 4. I'm really liking the feel of it and the features. Hopefully I can justify its $400 price tag over the long run.
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Saturday, April 18th, 2009
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Well, a spring storm just finished dumping 3 feet of wet, soggy snow all over the front range. And a nice little side effect of this is I haven't had power at my house for the past 30 hours. Also, since my house gets water from a well, I have no running water since the pump runs off electricity.
So I'm finding every excuse to be in the city. Last night I went on a pub crawl with my roommates, and was bought an alarming amount of free booze solely because of my Matrix-like leather trenchcoat. An incredibly drunk 20-something grabbed me, dragged me over to his friends and loudly proclaimed "Thish... thish muthafucka saved tha world! get 'im a beer." It was a bit of a surreal night to say the least.
So... hmm. I guess on the way home I'll grab some more glow-sticks and a lantern from the hardware store. I wish I could take a shower or something. Sigh.
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Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
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Work progresses on my Amazing Cartoon animation 2, or "AC2". Right now I'm finishing up the storyboards and working on some character sketches. Hopefully I can start on an animatic later this week, and start character animation next week.
I've so far found 2 actors to do voices. It'd be cool if they can do a range of characters, but I at least have Penny and a secondary character covered. Tomorrow I drag my high-end mic system to one of the abysmal sound booths in the basement of the Macky building.
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Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
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Well, here we are again. I'm once again planning on making a very ambitious animation as a final project. It will be another Amazing Cartoon affair.
Luckily, no more of this cel and film nonsense. That was a great exercises, but, yeah, I'm not a masochist. No, this time it will be drawn out by hand and inked and painted in Toon Boom Studio, a vector-based animation program. Individual frames will take minutes to complete as opposed to over an hour. No drying time, no mixing paint, no dust.
So does that it mean it'll be easy? Fuck no. This animation will about 10-12 minutes long and contain dialog. Which means lip sync and dealing with actors. Now, I once again extend this offer that if you want to be a part of this and lend your voice or any other talents you think might be useful, that would be an enormous help. Hit me up on AIM at LCARSXJ or email. I need voices for:
Lars (the one in my icon. Need some amount of disdain and anger.)
Penny (sassy girl with a voice bordering on madness)
Sabin (a geeky voice. I dunno.)
Slater (loser next door neighbor)
Engineer at laboratory (anything goes.)
Random FBI agents (official-sounding, but silly)
I could also use some musical talent. Orchestral/industrial I think.
More information will be posted as it starts to exist. At this moment I just have the script written.
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Thursday, March 26th, 2009
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http://weeklygeekshow.com/2009/03/the_weekly_filmschool_1_cel_a.php
New post! Where I explain in unsatisfactory detail how I made my cel animation. Fun times. You should check it out why not.
Also, it would appear that the Front Range is in the midst of icy death. They're calling for 2 feet of snow where I live, and the roads are all solid ice. I've never heard the phrase "thirty car pile-up" thrown around with such frequency or casual tone.
This has made me want to go out with my camera.
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Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
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Oh, um, hey.
You should probably read this concerning Ask Dr. Helmig: http://weeklygeekshow.com/2009/03/dr_helmig_is_dead_long_live_dr.php
I hope to do a comic at least once a month, but mostly I'm going to be having little film school blog posts. Either educational or exbitational. This decision stems from rather dismal reader participation, as well as finals looming for my two production classes. Not to mention my desire to whore myself out to any student's final films for their degree. Taking 4-6 hours to make a comic just ain't realistic anymore.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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