I need to get some banannas at Safeway, be seeing you.
Monday, January 26, 2009
sketches - January 2609
A rare occasion these days, I'm sure, but here it is, a long awaited update of the missing blog sketches. Perhaps it's because I have been drinking Scotch all freakin night and in need of some entertainment and amusement - I sure need a muse... Happy freakin Chinese New Year! I sure hope it'll be better than the last one.
I need to get some banannas at Safeway, be seeing you.
I need to get some banannas at Safeway, be seeing you.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
sketches - December 0408
Well, looks like my hiatus from blogging has been called out by The Discourser. To tell the truth, I have not been feeling myself since I’ve got back from my eight month tour at the outer office of The Corporation. I feel that I have changed, mentally, from burning the candle on both ends for over twelve months. Though the experience was great, it has also utterly depleted my END reserves, and my REC is piss poor – need to buy that up somehow. I really want to crawl under a warm rock and sleep for six months and maybe that’ll clear my head, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon, unless I win the lottery or something, hahaha, I digress. Anyway the point is that my head is a bit empty, hence the lack of sketches. Hopefully things will get better with the coming of the New Year, but in the meantime, I will try and get my mind off of its lazy ass and find some motivation to sketch more. If this lack of motivation persist, then I'm going to need some professional help, so if anyone knows of a good head shrink, pass that info along:p
Saturday, November 01, 2008
sketches - November 0108
Happy Día de los Muertos! This week has blown by quit fast. Finally got some of the reference photos from the plein air paintings I've been doing printed up on 8x10s, so I can touch up/finish them.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
sketches - October 1608
The beginning to the middle of last week totally sucked. I did not get a decent nights rest for over half the week and was tired and unfocused at work because of it. Well, I was also not really into work, I just feel like some thing's missing, but at least there is one thing at work that's starting to get me excited.
I am starting to get a little excited about all the positive reviews of Dead Space. Since I've been buried under the stress of making this game for the past year, I feel that this project has taken a lot out of me, and now that it's out in stores, It's good to see the fruits of that hard work finally paying off. It is just too bad that I was not able to create any extensive content on this project due to the constant supervision of the content team in Shanghai, but I am very proud of the work that they have done, and so have everyone else on the team.
Last weekend was full of physical activities. I was planning on a bike ride with some co-workers on Saturday, but that didn't happen due to other commitments that they had forgotten, and so I went riding by myself. Started from the abode and headed down Delaware towards Twenty Fifth Avenue. From Twenty Fifth Avenue, I then turned North on Palm Avenue, went through Central Park and then up Fifth Avenue to connect up with Crystal Springs Road. Crystal Springs Road meanders through a long valley and connects to Highway 35. From there, I took San Andrea Valley Road (Sawyer Camp trail) all the way North and exited at the top Hillcrest Boulevard, at which point I turned down Highway 35 to Millbrae Avenue, and coasted all the way down to almost reaching El Camino - that was totally awesome, I hit a top speed of about forty five miles an hour. From the bottom of Millbrae Avenue, I turned South, meandered through parallel streets all the way home. My ride was indicated by a GPS distance reading of twenty miles.
Sunday was a planned jog with another co-worker. In the morning I went through my usual routine in preparation for all my jogs, which is the consumption of at least two liters of water, and maybe an energy drink of some kind. After a few hours, I was totally hydrated. I find that if I do not hydrate, I will get cramps, and that totally ruins the jog. The co-worker dropped by a little after noon, and we headed back up to the start of Sawyer Camp Road. By the half way point, a little over three and a half miles, I had to take a break - my shins were tight and sore. After a quick restroom break, we headed back to the beginning. I told the co-worker to go on ahead because he was a much stronger jogger than me, I am a totally slow jogger, and I was totally dying by the time I had reached the beginning of the trail. I think I would have done better if it were not for the previous days ride.
Sunday was a planned jog with another co-worker. In the morning I went through my usual routine in preparation for all my jogs, which is the consumption of at least two liters of water, and maybe an energy drink of some kind. After a few hours, I was totally hydrated. I find that if I do not hydrate, I will get cramps, and that totally ruins the jog. The co-worker dropped by a little after noon, and we headed back up to the start of Sawyer Camp Road. By the half way point, a little over three and a half miles, I had to take a break - my shins were tight and sore. After a quick restroom break, we headed back to the beginning. I told the co-worker to go on ahead because he was a much stronger jogger than me, I am a totally slow jogger, and I was totally dying by the time I had reached the beginning of the trail. I think I would have done better if it were not for the previous days ride.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
sketches - October 1408
Middle of last week I got an email call-out for landscape painting for that Saturday. The plan was for a two o'clock meeting around the southern tip of Lake Merced, south-west of the City. I was a bit apprehensive about the time because it is Fall and the sunlight starts changing drastically by late afternoon. I tried to get them to go out earlier in the day, but to no avail. By the time we had met at the designated location, it was already past two. The location that was specified was not all that great in terms of "scenery", and so we all decided to go to another location on the North-East side of the lake, by SF State.
The new location seemed OK. By the time we had all set up, it was near three o'clock. The place that I had set up to paint was a little out in the open with no protection from the massive winds that were starting to pick up as the day wore on. At one point, a gust was so strong that it toppled my easel over along with my open palette of paint. It was quite annoying to have to scrape off a bunch of sand covered paint and squeeze out a new set. Two hours into the painting, I was cold, and my fingers were totally numb from the wind chill. Frustration also came on as the light kept changing faster than I could mix and lay down the colors, but no matter, I had brought my camera and took reference photos so I can complete the painting at home, where it will be nice and warm.
The new location seemed OK. By the time we had all set up, it was near three o'clock. The place that I had set up to paint was a little out in the open with no protection from the massive winds that were starting to pick up as the day wore on. At one point, a gust was so strong that it toppled my easel over along with my open palette of paint. It was quite annoying to have to scrape off a bunch of sand covered paint and squeeze out a new set. Two hours into the painting, I was cold, and my fingers were totally numb from the wind chill. Frustration also came on as the light kept changing faster than I could mix and lay down the colors, but no matter, I had brought my camera and took reference photos so I can complete the painting at home, where it will be nice and warm.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
sketches - October 0808
Went to the drawing workshop at work last night, but that was not that great. The instructor was lecturing on facial expressions and so there were not a lot of figurative poses. Any figurative poses were only five minutes long, I decided to check out the walk-in drawing shop down at the Palo Alto Art Center, thinking that there would be hour long poses.
What I found out was that the longest poses were twenty minutes, way too short for me to really get a good drawing out or do a painting. There were quite a few people there, too, at least twenty five! I believe there's always two models working together on any given pose. What's good is that the sessions were only five bucks for the three hours that it goes on for - good if you want more practice. So, Supergoober, if you are up for that, let me know.
What I found out was that the longest poses were twenty minutes, way too short for me to really get a good drawing out or do a painting. There were quite a few people there, too, at least twenty five! I believe there's always two models working together on any given pose. What's good is that the sessions were only five bucks for the three hours that it goes on for - good if you want more practice. So, Supergoober, if you are up for that, let me know.
Monday, October 06, 2008
sketches - October 0608
Had a nice weekend. Went to a rave with the Raveboy and his other half and had a great time Saturday night. The music was fantastic and the sound setup was totally awesome. Have to go to more of these when the chance arises. Normally, I would indulge myself with some fire water, but did not due to the objections of the Wife - she does not like the smell of alcohol on me when I arrive home from a night of drinking. I can't really blame her, for I don't car for the smell or the after affects of alcohol on me either.
Sunday was a bar-b-q with the GM, his other half half, at a mutual friends' house. We grilled Salmon, oysters, spare ribs, and veges, mmmm, mmmmm. It was good. Beer and wine were also provided and of course, I have to partake in the liquid refreshments, heh, heh. Sunday night was good as well. Went sketching with the sketch friend at the local book store. We haven't sketch with one another for quite sometime, and it was good to catch up. There's a drawing workshop tomorrow night at work, as well as one in Palo Alto. I have made reminders in my calender every week and will try and follow up with either sketching or painting, but I'll need to do some recon to see if it's feasible to do painting in Palo Alto. As for painting at work, I'm quite positive that the people would not appreciate me stinking up the conference room with paint fumes, what little of it there is.
As for today, went to the art store during lunch and picked up a few more blank canvases. I have a nice collection of eight or ten of them that's been sitting on the printer, reminding me that they need to be used! At the end of the day, I had to make sure everything in my cube was packed up and ready to be moved - yes, I'm being moved, yet again, so tomorrow will be a half day at best. I'm also quite sure that I will move, again, in another six or ten months when the team gets larger, again, in preparation for full production - I'm not even going to bother with unpacking...
Sunday was a bar-b-q with the GM, his other half half, at a mutual friends' house. We grilled Salmon, oysters, spare ribs, and veges, mmmm, mmmmm. It was good. Beer and wine were also provided and of course, I have to partake in the liquid refreshments, heh, heh. Sunday night was good as well. Went sketching with the sketch friend at the local book store. We haven't sketch with one another for quite sometime, and it was good to catch up. There's a drawing workshop tomorrow night at work, as well as one in Palo Alto. I have made reminders in my calender every week and will try and follow up with either sketching or painting, but I'll need to do some recon to see if it's feasible to do painting in Palo Alto. As for painting at work, I'm quite positive that the people would not appreciate me stinking up the conference room with paint fumes, what little of it there is.
As for today, went to the art store during lunch and picked up a few more blank canvases. I have a nice collection of eight or ten of them that's been sitting on the printer, reminding me that they need to be used! At the end of the day, I had to make sure everything in my cube was packed up and ready to be moved - yes, I'm being moved, yet again, so tomorrow will be a half day at best. I'm also quite sure that I will move, again, in another six or ten months when the team gets larger, again, in preparation for full production - I'm not even going to bother with unpacking...
Friday, October 03, 2008
sketches - October 0308
Wow, this week went fast! I was barely ready to work and now it's over. But I'm starting to get back into the game. I have to because there's actually work to be done, and it involves complete concentration or else I will not be able to get it done on time. I'm going to miss being lazy:(
Monday marked the completion of a painting that I have procrastinated on for over a year! Wow, now that's laziness. What's worst is that the painting was supposed to have been given to someone...over a year ago. No more promising and not delivering
Monday marked the completion of a painting that I have procrastinated on for over a year! Wow, now that's laziness. What's worst is that the painting was supposed to have been given to someone...over a year ago. No more promising and not delivering
Monday, September 22, 2008
sketches - September 2208
This is Monday of the second week back to work and it has been dog slow. Mentally, I am still on vacation in need of more rest. Although things are slow here in the office, there's lots of work to do for the Marketing department. I have to touch up and enhance some screen shots of creatures from our game to be used for web promotions - not very exciting work, but I got my share to complete by end of day tomorrow.
epilogue
The jog went well. Went four miles and breathing was steady with hart rate around one-sixty. Got home, took a shower and made dinner, ate and then headed to the book store, but was not feeling it tonight. The drawings were hard to establish, so after struggling through a few crappy attempts, decided to go home.
Until next time
I guess there's lots of buzz around this project, and from all the emails that went out regarding awards here and there, I'm still not convinced that this game will be big because seeing is believing. I do truly hope that Dead Space becomes a huge hit and a big seller because then the second one could be more fun than the first - keeping my fingers crossed, though it may be more of the same, sigh.
As for the Fiat, got it temporary patched up. Seems the problem was not the differential, but the U-joint bearings. They were so old that they seized up and that caused too much stress to the drive shaft bearings, which in turn failed causing gear oil to spray all around the connection and the low rumble sounds that I was hearing. I only hope that the drive from San Francisco was not too damaging to the differential. The mechanic indicated that the drive shaft was a little bent and that I should not drive it too hard. A replacement would be around eight bills, ouch. Additional work starts on the eighth of October where both back brakes get an overhaul with new calipers, pads, and rotors. There's only five percent left in the current pads and there's a slow leak from the right, rear caliper, hence the decision to get it fixed now, rather then finding out about it when it breaks while I'm driving - been there, done that, not fun. This will set me back a grand!
The clean-up efforts for the garage is going well, it's half done and soon, I will start making some stuff again, woo, hoo! The rest of the house is relatively clean, all that's left is mopping the floors in the kitchen and bath rooms in preparation for the return of the Wife this Friday before taking off North with the GM. Plans for this evening is a thirty minute jog and off to the local book store for a sketching session, which will be put up afterwords when it's scanned in. Don't know if the Goober will be reading this today, if so, and are still interested, should join.
epilogue
Until next time
Be seeing you
Thursday, September 11, 2008
sketches - September 1108
It's almost the end of the forth week of my brain recovery time and I think I'm starting to rise out of the sand that's been keeping my mind buried for such a long time. I have a feeling that it will have to take more time to fully recover, but that's not really an option that I can take without just quiting all together. I'm sure the wife will not go for that option with so many bills still coming from the horizon of life. Anyway, I think it's just going to be an unproductive week next week at work, or at least I'm going to give it a good try if I don't get bothered by the supervisors, hee, hee:P
I still have not gotten to the mass clean-up that is required of the garage, but I have taken a few things to Goodwill that makes the garage less cluttered - a good start, anyway. This all has to happen real soon, too, because two of the four projects are for other people, and one of them has been paid for with a painting in advance, DOH!!!
As for today, I finally got off my ass and went sketching at the local book store.
As for politics today. I am quite annoyed about the conservative direction that this Nation has been heading, but I can't say that it's a surprise to me.
Here's why:
I am working in an industry that's constantly changing and the recent direction to go "Outsource" for a good percentage of my recent project, was, well, foreshadowed when I first started working in this industry. Back then, I didn't really think much about it because I was new to game development, and we were under a tight schedule that required outside resources to complete the project. At that time, ten years or so ago, we were "outsourcing" to small companies in Idaho, and India. Even though the idea was sound from a cost and time savings standpoint, the results were quite disappointing and ended up with me completely redoing their work from scratch - not much savings there. The artist in those companies were not trained in the standards of the time, what little of it there were, and communications were piss poor. A few years after my arrival at EA, I saw another attempt at outsourcing with the Godfather game.
Even though I was not involved with the outsourcing efforts on the Godfather game, I did hear the complaints over the assets that were received from the outsourcing partners. When the assets were review, the modeling lead was way pissed off and the outsourcing manager was totally frustrated. Those assets could not be used and had to be cleaned up to be used at all. The clean-up effort took away precious time and resources from our internal team that had little to no bandwidth in dealing with the problem, and thus, lots of over time work were put in by the already stressed out artist, only to have those assets used in limited fashion. Needless to say, outsourcing efforts for the Godfather did not go as planned, but still, outsourcing has been part of the development cycle since then, and will continue. But outsourcing was never a huge part in the development cycle until recently. Take for instance, my recent project, Dead Space. As most of you know, I was sent to China for three months, that became eight, to help with the "outsourcing" effort, because last year it was deemed mandatory to have most of this and future games "outsourced" to stem the tide of ever increasing development costs. I can see the logic from a financial point of view. When you can get six to seven junior artist for the cost of just one junior artist here in the States, it's a no brainer, and this is where I come in. The companies can eat the costs for one senior level artist to go over to China and train the six to seven junior artist the tricks of the trade, and by the end of the development cycle, that junior artist has just acquired the same experience as a junior artist in the States. Now with a promotion and a raise, you still get four or five to one in cost of labor. Now expand this scenario to the whole Nation, and you can understand why middle America is damn scared and pissed off, and hence more defensive and Conservative.
But the thing is, people don't see the new jobs and opportunities that are springing up around them. As jobs goes overseas, other jobs are coming here, but that's another discussion. It's now way late and I am way tired. So much for cleaning the garage tonight:p
be seeing you
I still have not gotten to the mass clean-up that is required of the garage, but I have taken a few things to Goodwill that makes the garage less cluttered - a good start, anyway. This all has to happen real soon, too, because two of the four projects are for other people, and one of them has been paid for with a painting in advance, DOH!!!
As for today, I finally got off my ass and went sketching at the local book store.
As for politics today. I am quite annoyed about the conservative direction that this Nation has been heading, but I can't say that it's a surprise to me.
Here's why:
I am working in an industry that's constantly changing and the recent direction to go "Outsource" for a good percentage of my recent project, was, well, foreshadowed when I first started working in this industry. Back then, I didn't really think much about it because I was new to game development, and we were under a tight schedule that required outside resources to complete the project. At that time, ten years or so ago, we were "outsourcing" to small companies in Idaho, and India. Even though the idea was sound from a cost and time savings standpoint, the results were quite disappointing and ended up with me completely redoing their work from scratch - not much savings there. The artist in those companies were not trained in the standards of the time, what little of it there were, and communications were piss poor. A few years after my arrival at EA, I saw another attempt at outsourcing with the Godfather game.
Even though I was not involved with the outsourcing efforts on the Godfather game, I did hear the complaints over the assets that were received from the outsourcing partners. When the assets were review, the modeling lead was way pissed off and the outsourcing manager was totally frustrated. Those assets could not be used and had to be cleaned up to be used at all. The clean-up effort took away precious time and resources from our internal team that had little to no bandwidth in dealing with the problem, and thus, lots of over time work were put in by the already stressed out artist, only to have those assets used in limited fashion. Needless to say, outsourcing efforts for the Godfather did not go as planned, but still, outsourcing has been part of the development cycle since then, and will continue. But outsourcing was never a huge part in the development cycle until recently. Take for instance, my recent project, Dead Space. As most of you know, I was sent to China for three months, that became eight, to help with the "outsourcing" effort, because last year it was deemed mandatory to have most of this and future games "outsourced" to stem the tide of ever increasing development costs. I can see the logic from a financial point of view. When you can get six to seven junior artist for the cost of just one junior artist here in the States, it's a no brainer, and this is where I come in. The companies can eat the costs for one senior level artist to go over to China and train the six to seven junior artist the tricks of the trade, and by the end of the development cycle, that junior artist has just acquired the same experience as a junior artist in the States. Now with a promotion and a raise, you still get four or five to one in cost of labor. Now expand this scenario to the whole Nation, and you can understand why middle America is damn scared and pissed off, and hence more defensive and Conservative.
But the thing is, people don't see the new jobs and opportunities that are springing up around them. As jobs goes overseas, other jobs are coming here, but that's another discussion. It's now way late and I am way tired. So much for cleaning the garage tonight:p
be seeing you
Friday, September 05, 2008
sketches - September 0508
090508
This week has been full of unexpected turns that has further delayed my need to get the garage cleaned and organized. The Warden decided to stay for two nights because he did not want to face the horrific traffic to go back home - don't blame him for not wanting to be smothered in the valley heat. It was a good opportunity to just hang out with him. The Classmate called and wanted to do landscape painting - how can I refuse the chance to do more painting, which I did today.
As for last Saturdays air show, here's some photos I took of the Thunder birds. I was quite impressed with the precision flying and the speeds these fighters fly at, totally awesome! The A10s are bad ass!
This week has been full of unexpected turns that has further delayed my need to get the garage cleaned and organized. The Warden decided to stay for two nights because he did not want to face the horrific traffic to go back home - don't blame him for not wanting to be smothered in the valley heat. It was a good opportunity to just hang out with him. The Classmate called and wanted to do landscape painting - how can I refuse the chance to do more painting, which I did today.
As for last Saturdays air show, here's some photos I took of the Thunder birds. I was quite impressed with the precision flying and the speeds these fighters fly at, totally awesome! The A10s are bad ass!
Monday, August 04, 2008
sketches - August
082908
Went out for another landscape painting today with the classmates. This time we headed to Golden Gate Park around one of the lakes in the Botanical Gardens. We set up around a little pond with lily pads in it, surrounded with Japanese bamboo. I had a tough time with it all, too many reflections and small details, so it was hard for me to keep focused on an area. After painting, we grabbed some lunch and went to an art store where I got some stretched canvases, some raw, unprimered linen, a large tube of white oil paint, and some white art tape for masking the canvases with. The damage was under eighty dollars, not bad due to their "Back to School" sale. The rest of the afternoon was spent at another location, but due to the short amount of time left in the day, I decided to skip another painting and take a nap in the car while the classmates painted for a little over an hour.
082808
It has been a full day of activities starting with laundry in the morning. Since the day was going to be really hot, I decided to go old school and took the cloths out to dry on the cloths line. Afterwords, it was the chore of heat control by means of closing all windows, curtains and doors to prevent any hot air from circulating through out the house during the day. The house still gets warm by sunset, but not as much as it would have if I did not prep it, then everything gets opened at night to cool off til morning. Around noon, I headed down to the gym at work where the crazy co-worker insisted that we jog around the man made lake across from our campus. After the two mile jog, which was misery under the noon day sun, we did abs. Although I wanted to stay longer to complete my workout, I had to leave, so after a quick shower to wash off the sticky sweat, I headed on up to the City to meet up with a classmate to do landscape painting.
We decided to head to the coast in search of cooler climate and went down Geary to Ocean Beach. We parked the car on the North side of the Cliff House and had to climb down some hills, which sucked for me because I had to carry my heavy ass travel easel and a backpack with camera and a liter of water. The classmate had all his stuff in his new lightweight easel in his backpack - the bastard, I hate him! After painting until almost sunset, we grabbed a bit to eat, and after I dropped him off, I headed over the Bay Bridge to meet up with the Acupuncturist. But since I have never been to his place, I took the wrong detour and headed South from the Bridge, per his instructions, and never saw the exit he had instructed to take. By the time I reached the Oakland airport, the Acupuncturist called, by which point I decided to keep going South towards home and said that we'll meet another time.
I am beat...
082108
Last weekends' fishing trip with the Warden, his co-worker and the Professor was quite nice and relaxing. The GM was supposed to go with us, but the stresses with his work prevented him from going on the trip. I guess it was a good thing that he did not make the trip because we caught no fish, other than lousy catfish, which no one wanted to eat. Trout was what we were after and the Warden was the only one that caught one with a lure. Anyway, it was a great weekend non the less, we did catch a good amount of crawdads and that was part of the meal along with plenty of steaks. The Warden got plenty of sleep, which he commented on, and that goes the same for his buddy - I guess finishing off three quarters of a bottle of eighteen year old Scotch between the Warden and myself that first night of camping helped a great deal, hahaha. Here's a panoramic of Frenchman's lake
Although I had brought along my painting easel with the intention of getting in some landscape painting, the mood never struck me and I was happy to just be lazy and relaxing for the weekend. But here's the painting I did with a classmate on the eighth at China Camp in Marin. I had to stop a couple of hours due to the tide coming in and I was on the beach. I had to scoot a few times because the water was covering the legs of the easel and causing it to sink into the sand, also if I had moved anymore, my whole painting would have been off. Going to have to try and do another painting this week.
080408
Went to see the Carl Sammons show yesterday with a few class mates at the St. Mary's Collage in Moraga in the East Bay. There were a lot of landscape paintings by Carl Sammons, and they were very inspiring. I loved liked his pastel paintings of the desert and Grand Canyon, which were very beautiful. Maybe someday I'll be able to put on a show like that, which means I really have to start working, hahaha.
After the show the five of us went and found a spot off the side of the road where we painted some landscapes of our own. It's funny how all of us were Art Center grads, and even though one of the guys, whom I've just met for the first time yesterday, was in Trans major, was totally into painting, and from his stories, a lot more of one than me, doh!
As for the next painting, the current plan, so far, is to go paint a lighthouse next Friday with Cameron.
Went out for another landscape painting today with the classmates. This time we headed to Golden Gate Park around one of the lakes in the Botanical Gardens. We set up around a little pond with lily pads in it, surrounded with Japanese bamboo. I had a tough time with it all, too many reflections and small details, so it was hard for me to keep focused on an area. After painting, we grabbed some lunch and went to an art store where I got some stretched canvases, some raw, unprimered linen, a large tube of white oil paint, and some white art tape for masking the canvases with. The damage was under eighty dollars, not bad due to their "Back to School" sale. The rest of the afternoon was spent at another location, but due to the short amount of time left in the day, I decided to skip another painting and take a nap in the car while the classmates painted for a little over an hour.
082808
It has been a full day of activities starting with laundry in the morning. Since the day was going to be really hot, I decided to go old school and took the cloths out to dry on the cloths line. Afterwords, it was the chore of heat control by means of closing all windows, curtains and doors to prevent any hot air from circulating through out the house during the day. The house still gets warm by sunset, but not as much as it would have if I did not prep it, then everything gets opened at night to cool off til morning. Around noon, I headed down to the gym at work where the crazy co-worker insisted that we jog around the man made lake across from our campus. After the two mile jog, which was misery under the noon day sun, we did abs. Although I wanted to stay longer to complete my workout, I had to leave, so after a quick shower to wash off the sticky sweat, I headed on up to the City to meet up with a classmate to do landscape painting.
We decided to head to the coast in search of cooler climate and went down Geary to Ocean Beach. We parked the car on the North side of the Cliff House and had to climb down some hills, which sucked for me because I had to carry my heavy ass travel easel and a backpack with camera and a liter of water. The classmate had all his stuff in his new lightweight easel in his backpack - the bastard, I hate him! After painting until almost sunset, we grabbed a bit to eat, and after I dropped him off, I headed over the Bay Bridge to meet up with the Acupuncturist. But since I have never been to his place, I took the wrong detour and headed South from the Bridge, per his instructions, and never saw the exit he had instructed to take. By the time I reached the Oakland airport, the Acupuncturist called, by which point I decided to keep going South towards home and said that we'll meet another time.
I am beat...
082108
Last weekends' fishing trip with the Warden, his co-worker and the Professor was quite nice and relaxing. The GM was supposed to go with us, but the stresses with his work prevented him from going on the trip. I guess it was a good thing that he did not make the trip because we caught no fish, other than lousy catfish, which no one wanted to eat. Trout was what we were after and the Warden was the only one that caught one with a lure. Anyway, it was a great weekend non the less, we did catch a good amount of crawdads and that was part of the meal along with plenty of steaks. The Warden got plenty of sleep, which he commented on, and that goes the same for his buddy - I guess finishing off three quarters of a bottle of eighteen year old Scotch between the Warden and myself that first night of camping helped a great deal, hahaha. Here's a panoramic of Frenchman's lake
Although I had brought along my painting easel with the intention of getting in some landscape painting, the mood never struck me and I was happy to just be lazy and relaxing for the weekend. But here's the painting I did with a classmate on the eighth at China Camp in Marin. I had to stop a couple of hours due to the tide coming in and I was on the beach. I had to scoot a few times because the water was covering the legs of the easel and causing it to sink into the sand, also if I had moved anymore, my whole painting would have been off. Going to have to try and do another painting this week.
081108
Earlier last week I had the old Specialized dusted off and the trainer set up so I can start riding again. I even went and got a new seat because the old one was rock hard and torn - not very comfy on the buttocks. IMed a few people and the plan was to do some riding on the weekend. Of course, when I proposed that, I didn't really know if I was up for it, and therefore was going to try and slip quietly out of it if no one followed up. Well, that didn't work and I was called out to ride the Berkley hills yesterday.
Yesterday, we started kind of late. We were supposed to head out at eleven in the morning, but my co-worker, Mike, didn't quite get up in time, even though I called him around nine AM. He said to meet up at an ex-co-worker's place at 11AM. Since I was not fully prepared with not having found everything I needed, i.e., water bottles, and only one of two riding gloves, I had to go on a bike shop run. First, I went to Talbot's bike shop around ten in the morning, thinking they should be opened by then, but no, they open at eleven - I was denied! I had to think quick, and I knew there were two other bike shops in the area and headed there right away, but they were also closed and I had little choice but to go back to Talbot's for the eleven AM opening. By the time I got to the designated apartment, it was eleven twenty five, way late, but not as late as the co-worker, he didn't show up until after noon and then we loaded up the Trooper and headed to Berkley.
We got off at the Ashby exit, stopped to grab some lunch before finding a place to park at the foothills. There, we unloaded the bikes and started a five mile ascend. The ride was brutal on my out-of-shape legs, and by the time we got to the top of the hill, I had stopped three to four times and my legs were burning with pain and fatigue! As we took another path before the final decent, the road opened out to a full view of the bay! The view was absolutely gorgeous! The day was mostly clear and one could see the blanket of fog covering the City and the peaks of the Golden Gate Bridge poking through. I wished I had my camera, and next time, I will! The decent was totally fun with the wind in my face and the best thing was not peddling. The only thing that would have made it better was if I didn't have to constantly ride the brakes, for if I didn't, I would have blown past the people I was riding with because they were on mountain bikes, which have a lot of drag, also I didn't know where the hell I was going. After we got back to the car, we headed back to the point of departure, where after unloading the bikes, we all went for a two mile jog! After that, everyone hung out and had dinner together and that was a full days activity.
As for today, my legs were not too sore, but then again, they don't usually start getting sore for at least a couple of days, we'll have to see.
080608
Earlier last week I had the old Specialized dusted off and the trainer set up so I can start riding again. I even went and got a new seat because the old one was rock hard and torn - not very comfy on the buttocks. IMed a few people and the plan was to do some riding on the weekend. Of course, when I proposed that, I didn't really know if I was up for it, and therefore was going to try and slip quietly out of it if no one followed up. Well, that didn't work and I was called out to ride the Berkley hills yesterday.
Yesterday, we started kind of late. We were supposed to head out at eleven in the morning, but my co-worker, Mike, didn't quite get up in time, even though I called him around nine AM. He said to meet up at an ex-co-worker's place at 11AM. Since I was not fully prepared with not having found everything I needed, i.e., water bottles, and only one of two riding gloves, I had to go on a bike shop run. First, I went to Talbot's bike shop around ten in the morning, thinking they should be opened by then, but no, they open at eleven - I was denied! I had to think quick, and I knew there were two other bike shops in the area and headed there right away, but they were also closed and I had little choice but to go back to Talbot's for the eleven AM opening. By the time I got to the designated apartment, it was eleven twenty five, way late, but not as late as the co-worker, he didn't show up until after noon and then we loaded up the Trooper and headed to Berkley.
We got off at the Ashby exit, stopped to grab some lunch before finding a place to park at the foothills. There, we unloaded the bikes and started a five mile ascend. The ride was brutal on my out-of-shape legs, and by the time we got to the top of the hill, I had stopped three to four times and my legs were burning with pain and fatigue! As we took another path before the final decent, the road opened out to a full view of the bay! The view was absolutely gorgeous! The day was mostly clear and one could see the blanket of fog covering the City and the peaks of the Golden Gate Bridge poking through. I wished I had my camera, and next time, I will! The decent was totally fun with the wind in my face and the best thing was not peddling. The only thing that would have made it better was if I didn't have to constantly ride the brakes, for if I didn't, I would have blown past the people I was riding with because they were on mountain bikes, which have a lot of drag, also I didn't know where the hell I was going. After we got back to the car, we headed back to the point of departure, where after unloading the bikes, we all went for a two mile jog! After that, everyone hung out and had dinner together and that was a full days activity.
As for today, my legs were not too sore, but then again, they don't usually start getting sore for at least a couple of days, we'll have to see.
080608
I am ecstatic that half the goobers are blogging to keep all the goobers informed and entertained. Although I had my doubts in the beginning as to the value of all this blogging, other than a place to jot down one's thoughts or ideas, and wondering who the hell would actually read this stuff. It is by far quite fun to do, especially with friends. It is good to see the Discourser writing again, and the Super Goober participating. It's awesome to see the Professor starting his short stories and the rants of Steve T, It's always good to keep up to date with the Kawanga kid and his newborn across the seas. Now only if we can get the rest of the goobers to join in, hint, hint;) Anyway, it feels good to see that some of us are not just sitting back and waiting for the next entry, but demanding for more updates more often, hahaha.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to briefly sit in on a weekly drawing workshop at work. It's been a long while since I sat in on one due to not being around for eight months. Although I wanted to stay longer, a co-worker wanted to go get dinner, so I was only able to sit in on the two minute poses. Since I didn't like sketching the figure in such a short period of time, I decided to concentrate on the head and face, even that was too short.
Went to see the Carl Sammons show yesterday with a few class mates at the St. Mary's Collage in Moraga in the East Bay. There were a lot of landscape paintings by Carl Sammons, and they were very inspiring. I loved liked his pastel paintings of the desert and Grand Canyon, which were very beautiful. Maybe someday I'll be able to put on a show like that, which means I really have to start working, hahaha.
After the show the five of us went and found a spot off the side of the road where we painted some landscapes of our own. It's funny how all of us were Art Center grads, and even though one of the guys, whom I've just met for the first time yesterday, was in Trans major, was totally into painting, and from his stories, a lot more of one than me, doh!
As for the next painting, the current plan, so far, is to go paint a lighthouse next Friday with Cameron.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
sketches - July
072308
Went out today and attempted to do a landscape painting with a classmate. I think it turned out a lot better than I thought, which is always good. We went to paint at the Crystal Springs Reservoir and the day was quite beautiful. There was a slight breeze and the sun was shinning and not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately, I forgot to wear a long sleeve shirt so I got a slight sunburn on my left arm – won’t do that again. Since I had a pre-stretched canvas laying around, that’s what I painted on, and I like it. The canvas just feels nicer to paint on than a hard surface, such as masonite or luan, which are much cheaper to use.
I think my computer needs an upgrade, because I’m having a hell of a hard time trying to use the browser. Both IE and Firefox have problems connecting to my email accounts as well as this blog site. It just hangs whenever I try to edit my existing blog entries, so I have to transfer images from computer to computer via USB flash drive – major downer! I’m going to need the Warden and Craftsman’s’ help on getting a new computer built before things get back to normal...
071508
Just hear from one of the talented artist from EA Shanghai this evening. His name is Johnny Sun and he's one hell of a sculptor. Talk about a goob, he's totally into his hobby of model building and sculpting - puts both the GM and me to shame. I find it funny how much he was like the two of us when I first met him, and I think the GM would love to meet him and check out his workshop. He would be totally into airsoft if it weren't for the fact that replica guns are totally illegal in China. Here's a little sample of the latest thing that he's been working on. I got mine on personal order, muahahahaha! The photos were taken with his new Canon 40D DSLR
http://www.onesixthwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82783%0D
070608
Hooked up with the sketching friend at our usual sketch place - Borders. Drawings are a bit rusty, though, after such a long hiatus. Going to try and get back into the daily sketching habit, but it might take a little motivation. I guess it will be just one day at a time. Also got the itching for painting as well, so I will have to get psyched up for that too:)
Went out today and attempted to do a landscape painting with a classmate. I think it turned out a lot better than I thought, which is always good. We went to paint at the Crystal Springs Reservoir and the day was quite beautiful. There was a slight breeze and the sun was shinning and not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately, I forgot to wear a long sleeve shirt so I got a slight sunburn on my left arm – won’t do that again. Since I had a pre-stretched canvas laying around, that’s what I painted on, and I like it. The canvas just feels nicer to paint on than a hard surface, such as masonite or luan, which are much cheaper to use.
I think my computer needs an upgrade, because I’m having a hell of a hard time trying to use the browser. Both IE and Firefox have problems connecting to my email accounts as well as this blog site. It just hangs whenever I try to edit my existing blog entries, so I have to transfer images from computer to computer via USB flash drive – major downer! I’m going to need the Warden and Craftsman’s’ help on getting a new computer built before things get back to normal...
071508
Just hear from one of the talented artist from EA Shanghai this evening. His name is Johnny Sun and he's one hell of a sculptor. Talk about a goob, he's totally into his hobby of model building and sculpting - puts both the GM and me to shame. I find it funny how much he was like the two of us when I first met him, and I think the GM would love to meet him and check out his workshop. He would be totally into airsoft if it weren't for the fact that replica guns are totally illegal in China. Here's a little sample of the latest thing that he's been working on. I got mine on personal order, muahahahaha! The photos were taken with his new Canon 40D DSLR
http://www.onesixthwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82783%0D
070608
Hooked up with the sketching friend at our usual sketch place - Borders. Drawings are a bit rusty, though, after such a long hiatus. Going to try and get back into the daily sketching habit, but it might take a little motivation. I guess it will be just one day at a time. Also got the itching for painting as well, so I will have to get psyched up for that too:)
Sunday, June 01, 2008
sketches - June
063008
Camping this past weekend was good. The only complaint was the weather. What was supposed to be nice warm weather turned out to be kinda chilly and over cast, but that didn't stop us from enjoying it anyway. There were lots of food and lots good company - eight in all! I really enjoyed the hike through the redwood and fern forest that we camped in. Due to the many forest fires up and down the state, a lot of smoke hung heavily around the region, causing the sun to cast an interesting orange-ish light that made everything look like sunset in the middle of the day. All of which made for interesting picture taking. It was sad to have to leave Mendocino coast so soon, but at least I had a chance to do a little sketching. of rave boy's gf, who was kind enough to stay still for fifteen minutes or so.
062408
It's been over a week since I've been back home, and wow, it's been totally awesome! The weather has been great and I've been lazy. I've been so exhausted, but it's comforting to know that you have all your familiar stuff around you and you're not going anywhere soon. But, let me tell you about the crazy trip home after I've finished writing it, hahaha.
This is one of first drawings that I did since I've gotten back. Sad that there's only a few. I am going to try and start the daily sktches again soon, I hope.
060408
The past three days have been absolute misery due to the cold. The virus attacked my system all day Monday and by evening, my whole body and joints ached and I had to leave work early. That night I had to break out the NyQuil that's been sitting dormant on the kitchen shelf ever since I got to this place eight months ago - I was hoping that I would not have to open it before I leave. Oh, well, so much for that. Tuesday was a little better, but I was still in a weaken state of being. I got to work late, around noon, and had to leave early due to the soreness of my throat. Again, I went straight to bed with a full dose of NyQuil along with some pain killers for my throat. Cold sweats blanketed me all night long and well into the next morning. Again, I was very late to work and arrived after lunch. Though a little better, hopefully the worst of it is over and I can be on the road to recovery before the weekend.
060208
One week left, and I am totally looking forward to it. First ting to do is to take in the blue sky's over the Bay Area and to start the mass late Spring cleaning that needs to happen before I can finally settle down to a, hopefully, relaxing week to unwind. The house needs a long neglected dusting to get rid of the mass dust buddy infestations under the furniture and vacuumed, and the back yard needs a major weeding. The last time I was back, the weeds were taller than I was - quite scary! But, at least I was able to uncover the patio furniture, and scrape off the thick layer of algae that's been growing uncontrollably on the glass of the fish tank. One thing that will be a pleasure to do is to uncover my little red Fiat Spider and take it for a long drive in the mountains, heh, heh. We might just have to install some new custom 10" vented disk brakes that I've been itching to do for the longest time, but we'll have to see what that damage would be to the pocket book, if the wife does not object, for safety of course! There will also have to be a day of BBQ with the GOG to celebrate the long absence next weekend, so for those GOGs that have been keeping tabs on this site, apologies for the spotty entries, mark it down on your calenders! And, finally, heading into the office for the final stretch from Alpha to Beta.
As usual, I can not view this blog myself due to the site being blocked!!!
be seeing you
Camping this past weekend was good. The only complaint was the weather. What was supposed to be nice warm weather turned out to be kinda chilly and over cast, but that didn't stop us from enjoying it anyway. There were lots of food and lots good company - eight in all! I really enjoyed the hike through the redwood and fern forest that we camped in. Due to the many forest fires up and down the state, a lot of smoke hung heavily around the region, causing the sun to cast an interesting orange-ish light that made everything look like sunset in the middle of the day. All of which made for interesting picture taking. It was sad to have to leave Mendocino coast so soon, but at least I had a chance to do a little sketching. of rave boy's gf, who was kind enough to stay still for fifteen minutes or so.
062408
It's been over a week since I've been back home, and wow, it's been totally awesome! The weather has been great and I've been lazy. I've been so exhausted, but it's comforting to know that you have all your familiar stuff around you and you're not going anywhere soon. But, let me tell you about the crazy trip home after I've finished writing it, hahaha.
This is one of first drawings that I did since I've gotten back. Sad that there's only a few. I am going to try and start the daily sktches again soon, I hope.
060408
The past three days have been absolute misery due to the cold. The virus attacked my system all day Monday and by evening, my whole body and joints ached and I had to leave work early. That night I had to break out the NyQuil that's been sitting dormant on the kitchen shelf ever since I got to this place eight months ago - I was hoping that I would not have to open it before I leave. Oh, well, so much for that. Tuesday was a little better, but I was still in a weaken state of being. I got to work late, around noon, and had to leave early due to the soreness of my throat. Again, I went straight to bed with a full dose of NyQuil along with some pain killers for my throat. Cold sweats blanketed me all night long and well into the next morning. Again, I was very late to work and arrived after lunch. Though a little better, hopefully the worst of it is over and I can be on the road to recovery before the weekend.
060208
One week left, and I am totally looking forward to it. First ting to do is to take in the blue sky's over the Bay Area and to start the mass late Spring cleaning that needs to happen before I can finally settle down to a, hopefully, relaxing week to unwind. The house needs a long neglected dusting to get rid of the mass dust buddy infestations under the furniture and vacuumed, and the back yard needs a major weeding. The last time I was back, the weeds were taller than I was - quite scary! But, at least I was able to uncover the patio furniture, and scrape off the thick layer of algae that's been growing uncontrollably on the glass of the fish tank. One thing that will be a pleasure to do is to uncover my little red Fiat Spider and take it for a long drive in the mountains, heh, heh. We might just have to install some new custom 10" vented disk brakes that I've been itching to do for the longest time, but we'll have to see what that damage would be to the pocket book, if the wife does not object, for safety of course! There will also have to be a day of BBQ with the GOG to celebrate the long absence next weekend, so for those GOGs that have been keeping tabs on this site, apologies for the spotty entries, mark it down on your calenders! And, finally, heading into the office for the final stretch from Alpha to Beta.
As usual, I can not view this blog myself due to the site being blocked!!!
be seeing you
Friday, May 09, 2008
sketches - May
052708
It's near the end of May and near the end of my tour of duty. The weather is definitely turning ugly as the past week has been hot and humid, it was like walking into a sauna today as went to lunch around 2:30pm. I want out before the "real" heat of summer hits this city. They say temperatures reached forty degrees Cecilius last year and that's persistent for two months!
As for the gang back home, got some custom necklaces made from coins from 1500 to 2500 years old. Pretty cool, I think, the ironic thing is that the hand braided necklaces cost more than the coins themselves.
It's near the end of May and near the end of my tour of duty. The weather is definitely turning ugly as the past week has been hot and humid, it was like walking into a sauna today as went to lunch around 2:30pm. I want out before the "real" heat of summer hits this city. They say temperatures reached forty degrees Cecilius last year and that's persistent for two months!
As for the gang back home, got some custom necklaces made from coins from 1500 to 2500 years old. Pretty cool, I think, the ironic thing is that the hand braided necklaces cost more than the coins themselves.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
sketches - April
042108
This Friday marks the third instalment of a four parter of mile stones and I am hoping that we actually hit it solid in the face! Current major issues are the budgets for one of the levels Shanghai is doing. It's pretty damn ugly and it needs to be tamed in four days. We've made a good pass so far, but needs to cut another five or so percent. Anyway, this past weekend the AAD and I participated in a team outing, arranged by the Company for the team, to an old village, XiTang, an hour and a half outside of the main city. This little village on a river is supposedly a thousand years old. This is also the village that MI3 was filmed in. But ofcourse, the weather was crap with overcast and rain. It would have been a lot nicer if the sun was out.
Saturday night saw the team gathered at a local bar, one of, surprisingly, many within this little village. There were lots of drinking, and not surprisingly, the most by the two "foreigners" in the group. I, of course have controlled myself and did not want a repeat of the first visit by the AAD a month back, where I prayed to the porcelain thrown. This time it was the other way around, and it was glorious, and I have pictures to prove it, heh, heh.
040108
The last mile stone was quite good with all things considering - we're only one week late! Now the big problem becomes getting the budget down for all the levels, so we don't crash and break the build once all the audio, game play, and effects goes in. We have a grace period for now so we have better cut geometry aggressively, otherwise things will get ugly!
The AAD's going to be here Thursday and he better bring me the Macallan 18 that he keeps promising to bring me. He has a pretty bad track record for following through on what he says he's going to do outside of work, so we'll see...
On a brighter note: I'm actually able to see the blog site! Woohoo. Now to try and catch up on all the blogs that I'm not able to see from the other goobers in the group.
Just read "The Funniest Thirty Seconds in Geeking" by the Discourser, hahaha! That was some funny adventuring, almost like some of the dangerous ones way back when in the dungeons of old, doh!. Oh, how I wish I was there to partake in the mass slaughter of an entire party in thirty seconds due to just plain bad luck. This should be made into a short animation or comic strip, hahaha.
This Friday marks the third instalment of a four parter of mile stones and I am hoping that we actually hit it solid in the face! Current major issues are the budgets for one of the levels Shanghai is doing. It's pretty damn ugly and it needs to be tamed in four days. We've made a good pass so far, but needs to cut another five or so percent. Anyway, this past weekend the AAD and I participated in a team outing, arranged by the Company for the team, to an old village, XiTang, an hour and a half outside of the main city. This little village on a river is supposedly a thousand years old. This is also the village that MI3 was filmed in. But ofcourse, the weather was crap with overcast and rain. It would have been a lot nicer if the sun was out.
Saturday night saw the team gathered at a local bar, one of, surprisingly, many within this little village. There were lots of drinking, and not surprisingly, the most by the two "foreigners" in the group. I, of course have controlled myself and did not want a repeat of the first visit by the AAD a month back, where I prayed to the porcelain thrown. This time it was the other way around, and it was glorious, and I have pictures to prove it, heh, heh.
040108
The last mile stone was quite good with all things considering - we're only one week late! Now the big problem becomes getting the budget down for all the levels, so we don't crash and break the build once all the audio, game play, and effects goes in. We have a grace period for now so we have better cut geometry aggressively, otherwise things will get ugly!
The AAD's going to be here Thursday and he better bring me the Macallan 18 that he keeps promising to bring me. He has a pretty bad track record for following through on what he says he's going to do outside of work, so we'll see...
On a brighter note: I'm actually able to see the blog site! Woohoo. Now to try and catch up on all the blogs that I'm not able to see from the other goobers in the group.
Just read "The Funniest Thirty Seconds in Geeking" by the Discourser, hahaha! That was some funny adventuring, almost like some of the dangerous ones way back when in the dungeons of old, doh!. Oh, how I wish I was there to partake in the mass slaughter of an entire party in thirty seconds due to just plain bad luck. This should be made into a short animation or comic strip, hahaha.
Monday, March 03, 2008
sketches - March
032308
Thursday saw a brief clearing of my mind that was enough to give specific directions to the artists on the "level that is way behind". By Fridays review, we had managed to pull our asses out of the fire enough so we didn't look like total chumps, again - the AD was happy, so we are happy. We still missed the mile stone with Saturdays final review of the week, but I think we'll be able to meet it with only a few days of work, and not a few weeks like the last time. Even the artist are happier for that. A comment of "That was a miracle" was made by one of the project managers described the situation perfectly, and now my mind is, again, enveloped in deep fog that will require sleep to clear for Monday's continued direction. Hopefully we'll nail it by Tuesday so we can continue forward. To give some perspective, several people actually did not go home for two days before Fridays art review.
032108
It's 1:20am and I've been here at work since 8:30am of the 20th. The first day back in the office, the 19th, was a tough one. My mind was totally i a fog and I could not think clearly if my life depended on it. I sure didn't want to be here, but with another mile stone three days away, I was not happy, and was quite annoyed at the artist for this one particular level. Let's just say that this level was, and is still my bane, and a total pain in the ass. Now it's 2:17am and I am totally out of here, but need to be back at 8am for an art review with the Home Office.
Be seeing you
030608
Well, this is it. The last day, yet again, before I leave for the far outer regions of where I call Home. The brain is still a little slow and on idle, so we'll see how I fair on Wednesday when I go back to work. Two and a half months left, woohoo! Also, I went sketching again with a friend at the local Borders. Now back to cleaning the house.
031008
I flew back last Saturday so I can be back in time for a co-worker's wedding yesterday. It was a good excuse to come back and enjoy the clear blue Sky's over California, and the comforts of home that I always miss. Also, the road trip that I hope will unwind my head so it does not bust with anger and frustrations of work. The next two months are the final gauntlet months for this project, and will test my patience and endurance before a final crunch back here at the Home Office.
030308
It's been a really busy two weeks since we miss a very important mile stone, and sadly, one team still didn't hit it tonight. This is quite a blow and doest not give the Home Office a very warm and fuzzy feeling inside - they pretty much yanked the last level from this place and that's going to be very bad for the senior management team here. I felt pretty bad for the lead of that art team, because he tried really hard to get all the issues done by tonight, but with lack of experience, there's nothing I can do. Even with the associate AD here to help with the overall look, it's been slow going. At least the AAD implemented some processes that will help in the long run. Although I was happy that the last levels were pulled from the schedule, here, something I requested months ago, but never taken seriously, so I can't say that it's all Shanghai's fault, it was every body's fault. This is the new frontier of game development for this corporation, and there's no going back, so we have to make this work for all future projects.
Still haven't had a chance to do any sketches, but maybe that will change with the shifting of my production work to the art team, so I can concentrate on their progress for the next three months. I can't believe that it's almost over. I have to admit that it will be sad to leave the artist that I have worked with for the last five months, but i do miss home and can't wait to sleep in my own bed this Saturday. Then I get to play dress-up for a co-worker's wedding and then a nice road trip with some other friends later in the week.
And finally, as no. 6 would say,
Be seeing you
Thursday saw a brief clearing of my mind that was enough to give specific directions to the artists on the "level that is way behind". By Fridays review, we had managed to pull our asses out of the fire enough so we didn't look like total chumps, again - the AD was happy, so we are happy. We still missed the mile stone with Saturdays final review of the week, but I think we'll be able to meet it with only a few days of work, and not a few weeks like the last time. Even the artist are happier for that. A comment of "That was a miracle" was made by one of the project managers described the situation perfectly, and now my mind is, again, enveloped in deep fog that will require sleep to clear for Monday's continued direction. Hopefully we'll nail it by Tuesday so we can continue forward. To give some perspective, several people actually did not go home for two days before Fridays art review.
032108
It's 1:20am and I've been here at work since 8:30am of the 20th. The first day back in the office, the 19th, was a tough one. My mind was totally i a fog and I could not think clearly if my life depended on it. I sure didn't want to be here, but with another mile stone three days away, I was not happy, and was quite annoyed at the artist for this one particular level. Let's just say that this level was, and is still my bane, and a total pain in the ass. Now it's 2:17am and I am totally out of here, but need to be back at 8am for an art review with the Home Office.
Be seeing you
030608
Well, this is it. The last day, yet again, before I leave for the far outer regions of where I call Home. The brain is still a little slow and on idle, so we'll see how I fair on Wednesday when I go back to work. Two and a half months left, woohoo! Also, I went sketching again with a friend at the local Borders. Now back to cleaning the house.
031008
I flew back last Saturday so I can be back in time for a co-worker's wedding yesterday. It was a good excuse to come back and enjoy the clear blue Sky's over California, and the comforts of home that I always miss. Also, the road trip that I hope will unwind my head so it does not bust with anger and frustrations of work. The next two months are the final gauntlet months for this project, and will test my patience and endurance before a final crunch back here at the Home Office.
030308
It's been a really busy two weeks since we miss a very important mile stone, and sadly, one team still didn't hit it tonight. This is quite a blow and doest not give the Home Office a very warm and fuzzy feeling inside - they pretty much yanked the last level from this place and that's going to be very bad for the senior management team here. I felt pretty bad for the lead of that art team, because he tried really hard to get all the issues done by tonight, but with lack of experience, there's nothing I can do. Even with the associate AD here to help with the overall look, it's been slow going. At least the AAD implemented some processes that will help in the long run. Although I was happy that the last levels were pulled from the schedule, here, something I requested months ago, but never taken seriously, so I can't say that it's all Shanghai's fault, it was every body's fault. This is the new frontier of game development for this corporation, and there's no going back, so we have to make this work for all future projects.
Still haven't had a chance to do any sketches, but maybe that will change with the shifting of my production work to the art team, so I can concentrate on their progress for the next three months. I can't believe that it's almost over. I have to admit that it will be sad to leave the artist that I have worked with for the last five months, but i do miss home and can't wait to sleep in my own bed this Saturday. Then I get to play dress-up for a co-worker's wedding and then a nice road trip with some other friends later in the week.
And finally, as no. 6 would say,
Be seeing you
Sunday, February 03, 2008
sketches - February
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Had a restful nights sleep the other night and had a really great dream, but like all dreams, the details are slipping through the fingers of my mind. All that's left are small flashes of interesting events and the overall feeling, oh well.
We had an art review yesterday over the internet through this program call WebEx, which is really helping out on the communication side of this whole "outsourcing" move in the games industry. The reviewer is now in Beijing and will be here next week. WebEx allows the connection of many computers through a broadband connection where one can share ones desktop for all participants to see, and also have direct "annotation" abilities for people to make marks on documents or pictures without being in one location - very cool! Where was this six months ago? Maybe I would not need to be away from home? Probably not! I miss painting and working on boxes and driving at night to relax my mind during stressful times. I'm such a whiner
This weekend is supposed to be the end of the Chinese New Years celebrations from what people are telling me, there should be a lot of fireworks and celebratory activities going on. The coworker in Beijing was awestruck by the amount of fireworks going on last night as that city seems to be celebrations early. His comments over the phone were about how loud the fire crackers were and how long it's been going on, and how he was a little scared because it sounded like a war zone outside his hotel
As always, I can only update the blog and not able to see it - this is reduclous!
021708
Friday was a major milestone that this studio had to hit, but didn't. Now everyone is scrambling to meet it by Monday, meaning my ass is sitting here in the office with everyone else to answer questions, trouble shoot build errors, give art direction, etc, etc, etc. I think I will need to hit a local bar and get pissed, but not too pissed for tomorrow is a work day. As for my own work, obviously, I'm not too into it for the moment, otherwise I would not be blogging in the middle of a "work" day:p
The weather here for the past two days has been very nice. I was able to walk to work today without zipping up my jacket - I'm guessing the humidity must be pretty high, but it's also pretty cold for there are still small piles of ice left over from the snow storm a few weeks ago. Today is also the day that a friend fly back to SF after cutting his trip short. This was due to an unexpected break-up of his relationship here, and there was no point in staying any longer. I feel kind of bad for him because he thought this might be the one.
021508
The flight back to the country that's not my own was actually not too bad. With the plane only three quarters full, I had the middle seat empty next to me - thank goodness, I actually had elbow room! The ride back into the city from the airport was also quite interesting. Every so often, amateur wireworks could be seen at the sides of the freeway, and the roads were noticeably clearer of the usual traffic congestion at the city limits. Within the city, one could hear bangs and rattles from people setting off fireworks for the New Year. Unlike the US where the New Years festivities only last for one day, here it's a whole week! Every day, on my way to work, I can hear and see people setting off fireworks on the streets of Shanghai. I am totally amused and amazed to see long bandoliers of fire crackers, a hundred or so feet long, exploding six feet into the air and sounding like a machine gun as the sounds echo through the streets. It must have been crazy on that first day of celebrations with the streets covered in a blanket of red firecracker confetti!
As for work, well, it's work. I'm getting extra crispy. Enough said.
020808
Tomorrow I leave for another tour of duty at the office across the sea, so I've only been back a week, and let me tell you, it was a good week - I miss home! I am finally able to, actually, get some quality sleep, and a whole weeks worth at that. I guess I just don't feel comfortable sleeping far away from home. Then again, on the down side, I was not able to make the progress on the area of the game that I wanted to finish up this week. Oh, well, I guess it is going to be a lot of overtime to get it all done by end of this month. So, until next time - be seeing you.
020308
It's good to be back home again after another month on foreign soil. It appears that I have missed a huge storm that caused all kinds of power and water supply problems in the region, hopefully it'll be straightened out when I fly back next week. In the meantime, I have been throughly enjoying sleeping in my own, comfy bed - it has been a while since I really had a good nights sleep. Also, it ws great to get together with the goobers for a night of BBQ and RPG fun.
Had a restful nights sleep the other night and had a really great dream, but like all dreams, the details are slipping through the fingers of my mind. All that's left are small flashes of interesting events and the overall feeling, oh well.
We had an art review yesterday over the internet through this program call WebEx, which is really helping out on the communication side of this whole "outsourcing" move in the games industry. The reviewer is now in Beijing and will be here next week. WebEx allows the connection of many computers through a broadband connection where one can share ones desktop for all participants to see, and also have direct "annotation" abilities for people to make marks on documents or pictures without being in one location - very cool! Where was this six months ago? Maybe I would not need to be away from home? Probably not! I miss painting and working on boxes and driving at night to relax my mind during stressful times. I'm such a whiner
This weekend is supposed to be the end of the Chinese New Years celebrations from what people are telling me, there should be a lot of fireworks and celebratory activities going on. The coworker in Beijing was awestruck by the amount of fireworks going on last night as that city seems to be celebrations early. His comments over the phone were about how loud the fire crackers were and how long it's been going on, and how he was a little scared because it sounded like a war zone outside his hotel
As always, I can only update the blog and not able to see it - this is reduclous!
021708
Friday was a major milestone that this studio had to hit, but didn't. Now everyone is scrambling to meet it by Monday, meaning my ass is sitting here in the office with everyone else to answer questions, trouble shoot build errors, give art direction, etc, etc, etc. I think I will need to hit a local bar and get pissed, but not too pissed for tomorrow is a work day. As for my own work, obviously, I'm not too into it for the moment, otherwise I would not be blogging in the middle of a "work" day:p
The weather here for the past two days has been very nice. I was able to walk to work today without zipping up my jacket - I'm guessing the humidity must be pretty high, but it's also pretty cold for there are still small piles of ice left over from the snow storm a few weeks ago. Today is also the day that a friend fly back to SF after cutting his trip short. This was due to an unexpected break-up of his relationship here, and there was no point in staying any longer. I feel kind of bad for him because he thought this might be the one.
021508
The flight back to the country that's not my own was actually not too bad. With the plane only three quarters full, I had the middle seat empty next to me - thank goodness, I actually had elbow room! The ride back into the city from the airport was also quite interesting. Every so often, amateur wireworks could be seen at the sides of the freeway, and the roads were noticeably clearer of the usual traffic congestion at the city limits. Within the city, one could hear bangs and rattles from people setting off fireworks for the New Year. Unlike the US where the New Years festivities only last for one day, here it's a whole week! Every day, on my way to work, I can hear and see people setting off fireworks on the streets of Shanghai. I am totally amused and amazed to see long bandoliers of fire crackers, a hundred or so feet long, exploding six feet into the air and sounding like a machine gun as the sounds echo through the streets. It must have been crazy on that first day of celebrations with the streets covered in a blanket of red firecracker confetti!
As for work, well, it's work. I'm getting extra crispy. Enough said.
020808
Tomorrow I leave for another tour of duty at the office across the sea, so I've only been back a week, and let me tell you, it was a good week - I miss home! I am finally able to, actually, get some quality sleep, and a whole weeks worth at that. I guess I just don't feel comfortable sleeping far away from home. Then again, on the down side, I was not able to make the progress on the area of the game that I wanted to finish up this week. Oh, well, I guess it is going to be a lot of overtime to get it all done by end of this month. So, until next time - be seeing you.
020308
It's good to be back home again after another month on foreign soil. It appears that I have missed a huge storm that caused all kinds of power and water supply problems in the region, hopefully it'll be straightened out when I fly back next week. In the meantime, I have been throughly enjoying sleeping in my own, comfy bed - it has been a while since I really had a good nights sleep. Also, it ws great to get together with the goobers for a night of BBQ and RPG fun.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
sketches - January
012808
Looked out my window this morning to see what appears to be rain. What was unusual was the fact that the parked cars below had a light covering of snow. when I left for the ten minute walk to work, I find that the rain is actually light hale and my walk to work was through slushy ice. By lunch time the hale had turned to heavy snow for about fifteen minutes, now all the roof tops of the city looks like a winter wonderland. Crazy.
012708
The weather here is quite cold of late, it snowed all day yesterday! From what people are telling me, it hasn't snowed like this for over six years. Yesterday was also the only day that I had to get some shopping done before I leave for the bay area next Friday. Got two stone pots, one for K-bong and significant other, and one for the goober for his b-day. Picked up a bronze Buddha head for myself as well as an old clay tea pot. There were more I wanted to pick up from this one table of dealers, but the owner was not there. I'll have to check again some other time. I want to take a ceramics class and make my own, one of these days, when this project is over. Back in the office today, since people are working over the weekend because they're taking vacation, starting next week, to go back to their families to celebrate Chinese New Year. I think the office will start to get empty by the end of next week.
011408
Well, I just can't keep this daily sketching going anymore, not because I don't want to, because I just don't have the time any more. Being on this, supposedly, "four month" tour of duty for the company, has turned out to be quite taxing on my personal life - I'm in a perpetual crunch mode for the next six months, and my tour has been extended to the end of the content creation here across the Pacific. I am also not a happy camper for the moment because I'm just recovering from a case of food poisoning. I think it was the cold vegetable dish that did it while doing some training up in Beijing for an outsourcing partner - no more uncooked food! I am burnt, and I want to go home, dam it!
011308
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And another year ends, how sad to see it go. I hope this year will be a better one for everyone, who knows? Seems like some of us have had a hard ending and are still uncertain as to what's going to come next. Big congrats to some with new buns in the oven. This has been a great week of rest and relaxation for me, but it is way too short. For most, tomorrow is the first day of work, no big deal, except I won't be driving, but getting on a plane to my cube across the sea, fun, fun.
Looked out my window this morning to see what appears to be rain. What was unusual was the fact that the parked cars below had a light covering of snow. when I left for the ten minute walk to work, I find that the rain is actually light hale and my walk to work was through slushy ice. By lunch time the hale had turned to heavy snow for about fifteen minutes, now all the roof tops of the city looks like a winter wonderland. Crazy.
012708
The weather here is quite cold of late, it snowed all day yesterday! From what people are telling me, it hasn't snowed like this for over six years. Yesterday was also the only day that I had to get some shopping done before I leave for the bay area next Friday. Got two stone pots, one for K-bong and significant other, and one for the goober for his b-day. Picked up a bronze Buddha head for myself as well as an old clay tea pot. There were more I wanted to pick up from this one table of dealers, but the owner was not there. I'll have to check again some other time. I want to take a ceramics class and make my own, one of these days, when this project is over. Back in the office today, since people are working over the weekend because they're taking vacation, starting next week, to go back to their families to celebrate Chinese New Year. I think the office will start to get empty by the end of next week.
011408
Well, I just can't keep this daily sketching going anymore, not because I don't want to, because I just don't have the time any more. Being on this, supposedly, "four month" tour of duty for the company, has turned out to be quite taxing on my personal life - I'm in a perpetual crunch mode for the next six months, and my tour has been extended to the end of the content creation here across the Pacific. I am also not a happy camper for the moment because I'm just recovering from a case of food poisoning. I think it was the cold vegetable dish that did it while doing some training up in Beijing for an outsourcing partner - no more uncooked food! I am burnt, and I want to go home, dam it!
011308
010408
010308
010208
010108
And another year ends, how sad to see it go. I hope this year will be a better one for everyone, who knows? Seems like some of us have had a hard ending and are still uncertain as to what's going to come next. Big congrats to some with new buns in the oven. This has been a great week of rest and relaxation for me, but it is way too short. For most, tomorrow is the first day of work, no big deal, except I won't be driving, but getting on a plane to my cube across the sea, fun, fun.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
a sketch a day - December
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Last week was just pure crazy as Murphy turned his ugly head and stamped my forehead with his name. One thing that has always been a pain working in Shanghai, is the fear that the Home Office checks in a broken build, because that means there's a good chance that we could be shut down for a day, and there's no one around who can fix it. There's no way to verify any new work, and so people are forced to slow down within an all ready tight schedule. Not fun. If last Thursday was any indication of things to come, we're going to be in a worlds of hurt. Here's a brief description of the things that went wrong;
Wednesday morning:
Went into the office and started syncing all the new data for our build from the Home Office. A few minutes later, one of the artist raised his hands and indicated that his, proprietary Maya tool for our complex pipeline, is not working. Oh, what could that be, pray tell, let me take a look? Anyway, to make a long story short, I tried a lot of things and finally tracked down the reason - broken code from that morning's check-in by the Home Office. As artists started to come in, more of them had broken tools - this is not good; the TAD is off to Beijing setting up another studio, and I'm no tools expert. The only thing I could do was to revert some of the tools to the previous day and hope that nothing breaks because of it. That got six of the artist going by that afternoon, but only one had other problems and could not be fixed until the next day. One of the artist here checked in some broken data at the end of the day, causing me many hours looking into the problem. i didn't get home until midnight.
Thursday:
Went into the office and find out that the link that was sent to me the previous day was the wrong one, which explains why it didn't work. Th rest of the day was spent on fixing other issues. Another day gone.
And, so I have had no time to do the daily sketch and have mist a few.
Be seeing you.
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This has been one hell of a long week, so long that it feels like I've been back for several week because I can barely remember what happen, except that I have been work super long hours and didn't get home til midnight on Wednesday. I have also been working the past two days, that is the weekend, playing catch up for all the missing work that I've miss last week. Am I having fun, yet? I think not. I just want to zone out and do nothing for a month!
123007
122907
122807
122707
122607
122507
Last week was just pure crazy as Murphy turned his ugly head and stamped my forehead with his name. One thing that has always been a pain working in Shanghai, is the fear that the Home Office checks in a broken build, because that means there's a good chance that we could be shut down for a day, and there's no one around who can fix it. There's no way to verify any new work, and so people are forced to slow down within an all ready tight schedule. Not fun. If last Thursday was any indication of things to come, we're going to be in a worlds of hurt. Here's a brief description of the things that went wrong;
Wednesday morning:
Went into the office and started syncing all the new data for our build from the Home Office. A few minutes later, one of the artist raised his hands and indicated that his, proprietary Maya tool for our complex pipeline, is not working. Oh, what could that be, pray tell, let me take a look? Anyway, to make a long story short, I tried a lot of things and finally tracked down the reason - broken code from that morning's check-in by the Home Office. As artists started to come in, more of them had broken tools - this is not good; the TAD is off to Beijing setting up another studio, and I'm no tools expert. The only thing I could do was to revert some of the tools to the previous day and hope that nothing breaks because of it. That got six of the artist going by that afternoon, but only one had other problems and could not be fixed until the next day. One of the artist here checked in some broken data at the end of the day, causing me many hours looking into the problem. i didn't get home until midnight.
Thursday:
Went into the office and find out that the link that was sent to me the previous day was the wrong one, which explains why it didn't work. Th rest of the day was spent on fixing other issues. Another day gone.
And, so I have had no time to do the daily sketch and have mist a few.
Be seeing you.
122407
122307
122207
121707
121607
121507
121407
121307
121207
121107
121007
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120807
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120407
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This has been one hell of a long week, so long that it feels like I've been back for several week because I can barely remember what happen, except that I have been work super long hours and didn't get home til midnight on Wednesday. I have also been working the past two days, that is the weekend, playing catch up for all the missing work that I've miss last week. Am I having fun, yet? I think not. I just want to zone out and do nothing for a month!
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