Monday, June 21, 2010
Here we go, another week, another dollar...
I did get back in touch with my best friend from Junior High and High School - Benjie Butler. He has always been an inspiration to me, because he followed his heart and did whatever the fuck he wanted, no matter what his parents or anyone else said. Of course, he did have some very supportive parents, unlike me, so it was probably easier for him to have the confidence to follow his dreams. My mom constantly crushed my dreams, calling them stupid or unrealistic, so I didn't grow up with a great sense of self-worth or self-confidence, which is why I spent so many years drowning myself in drugs and bad relationships that only increased my self-loathing.
Even today, it's the same with her. Just about everything I want to do is shot down with some negative response or lecture about how wrong it is or why I shouldn't do it. Getting the motorcycle is a prime example. She won't even talk to me about it. She doesn't even want to hear about it. It's a shame we can't pick our parents. It's a shame when some parents can't get over themselves to support their children. I always swore that I would never be like her towards my own kids, sometimes I catch myself slipping, but for the most part I've done pretty good.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Schwag - good to get
Friday, June 11, 2010
Inequality in the workplace - still!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Star Wars does it old school
Star Wars was the movie that changed the world, from the way people looked at movies, to how movies were made, especially when it came to special effects. Even at 6 years old, when I saw Star Wars, I knew that I wanted to be a part of the magic behind the scenes that made everything on the screen so believeable. It was like watching a documentary it was so real. Below are some of the tricks they used to make those wonderful effects, but they are so cheap and homegrown that it's hard to believe it's how they actually did it - but that's all part of the miracle of George Lucas and ILM.
To pull off the trench run into the Death Star, effects artists sculpted a miniature Death Star surface out of urethane foam and cardboard and shot it using a high-speed camera mounted on the bed of a moving pickup truck.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Friday on the Rocks!
Man this was a week that I wanted to be over all too fast. Monday I was sick, Tuesday wasn't much better, but went to work anyway and sat in a training class that was rather boring but necessary. Wednesday was another meeting with a developer and that was just downright humourous, if not inane. Developer's - sheesh - far too many of them just think they are the Universe's gift to the computing world - sure they make stuff happen - designer's make it look pretty and can make stuff happen too. So it really makes me mad when a developer thinks he is some kind of designer as well and takes on the tasks of a designer - all the while, doing a pisspoor job at it - but they get all pissy when a designer, develops and does a great job at it! I think I just answered my own question. Better check the ego at the door, fellas - if designers didn't do as much development as we do - you're job would be just that much harder! Think about it. If a designer gives you a design, that hasn't been coded yet - who has to do the code? YOU! That's who. I learned a long time ago, it was better to code my designs to make sure they work before giving them to the developer - that way he doesn't have to do as much coding or any at all!
Obviously, not all developer's are proma donna's - this guy sure was. First he tells me that CSS and DHTML can't be used due to the restrictions of the CMS - we're talking about simple rollouts, popups and ALT tags, guy! But he's already got rollouts in place! HUH?! Then not 10 minutes later, he tells another developer - on his team - that he can use CSS and DHTML to achieve the results they wanted! Do what?! Did I not just ask that?! I hope his sock sandwich tasted good. Blah!
The beauty part came when he said if he has his way, he would develop a Flash application to do everything that was needed in a single shell. I gladly and quickly pointed out that I had already made one and that was why I was in the meeting in the first place - of course, I was immediately shot down - of course! May the Earth shatter if someone else came up with it first!
Ugh, Developer's!
Yesterday was pretty uneventful, just stuffed envelopes and worked on a shell design and goofed around alot. Today will probably be much of the same. But getting to work was all too eventful, what is with these people that drive 30 miles an hour down a clear freeway and then look at you like you've lost your mind because you want get around them so you can go the speed limit?! Fucking cow! It's called a gas pedal people - you'll find it on the right, next to the brake, but that doesn't mean you use the brake with the gas pedal! Idiots!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
jeans on thursday!
On the tech side; I thought i lost my bluetooth earpiece, i couldn't find it for over a week, well, i found it and let's just say - it's the cleanest earpiece around. yup - i found it in the dryer when i took out my jeans this morning :( but the red light came on when i stuck it on the charger, so maybe it still works :)
There must have been something in the coffee this morning - there was a wreck on 35 and george bush! needless to say, i didn't get to work before 8 :(
Monday, May 3, 2010
You Call This Work?
With only 40 minutes left of work, I figured I would kill the time and write my blog for the day so I wouldn't have to do it at home, because when I get home I don't want to do anything. Unfortunately, I got an email from a client that they want more changes done to their project, a project I really don't want to work on anymore and most certainly do not want to even look at anymore, especially after spending all day at work. I guess the only good thing that is coming out of this is that i will be getting paid extra to make these changes, but in the "sick of looking at it" state of mind that I'm in about it, it isn't about the money. In fact, after the client sent me a flaming email that would make a stone cold killer tear up, I told him he could keep his "damn money" after I made the corrections he listed. Not only was he in the wrong for sending me such an email, he actually apologized after I proved him wrong in his accusations of "cheating and taking advantage" of him. I've never cheated a client, nor have I taken advantage of their good will, when and if I ask a client for special favors (i.e. getting paid early), I return the favor by going the extra mile for them, but this client in particular certainly did not warrant such favoritism, even when he did fulfill my request, because his attitude was one of complete barbarism and pig-headed ignorance about his own project.
So enough about clients, I certainly did not write this blog today to talk about that ordeal. Just those few short sentences about the situation has brought me down and I want to be happy because I'm about to go home after my first day of "work"!
After not working for a year, it feels good to be back in a cubicle. The irony is that after 6 months, I'm going to wish I were spending my days at home, although in today's job market, maybe not so much. At my last job I was still pretty happy that I had a job even after a year of putting up with their insanity, but I also had my own office. So I will most likely still be pretty happy working in a cubicle after 6 months here. After all it can't be any worse than my last job, where I got into trouble for coming in early or for being ambitious enough to come up with new projects that would save the company money or help other employees perform their jobs better or even for doing the job I was hired for! Yes, it was indeed the strangest work environment I had ever worked in - ever! Not that I have anything against gays, but the two queers that owned this company definitely had issues! They would sit in my office and argue and fight about advertisement mockups like they were sitting in their living room fighting about whose cat peed on the sofa! I had one tell me that they wanted me to come up with more cutting edge advertisements and the other would want me to rehash the old ones and then they would both get mad at me, because I wasn't do a good enough job!
If I ever have to face another situation like that, where the company is owned by two individuals in a relationship, I think I will have to pass. Thankfully though, I don't expect to run into too many companies like that after I get my bachelor's degree for 3D Animation - which I will begin going to school for next year. My goal is to either work for ILM, Pixar or Dreamworks or maybe even Stan Winton Studios. I have also considered gaming, considering the level of detail and story that goes into today's games. God of War III was by far the best game that I've seen for the new generation console gaming platforms - I have the PS3. After watching the bonus features behind the scenes, it was clear that a new era of gaming has been reached and just as life-changing for the industry and it was when the Playstation first came out.