Wow, it has been a while since my last entry. I've just been too burned out and had no motivation or inspiration or energy to update. This year has been a bitch. I'm hoping that next year will be better for everyone.
Happy holloween!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
sketches - October 0109
Wow, it has been a while since my last entry. I've just been too burned out and had no motivation or inspiration or energy to update. This year has been a bitch. I'm hoping that next year will be better for everyone.
Monday, July 06, 2009
sketches - July 0609
July 4Th was one of those days...
One of those totally awesome days! Yeah! Seemed like all the planets aligned, well, almost anyway. The day started out with waking up around 9:30am. The sun was bright and the sky was totally clear. The Warden was in town so we decided to have a late planned/impromptu BBQ. As expected, with this late of a notice, brought up the night before, not a lot of people showed. But that's ok, less to cook;) The original plan was to do some BBQ'n and then hit the range, but because BBQ'n takes a lot of time and by the time we would have been done eating and cleaning up, we would have miss the window for the range visit. They close at 4pm. So, we decided to do the opposite, and everything worked out perfect.
We hit the range and was also accompanied by Rave Boy and GF. The Warden had brought down the Kimber as well as his 38, SIG and TRP. We got two lanes and while I started hitting the targets in front of me, The Warden was instructing Rave Boy and GF in the second lane. My aim was not as true this time as it was the last, but didn't do too bad either. Got all shots on the target sheet and even three of ten shots in the 20 ring, at twenty five yards! Not too bad for me:) Rave Boy and GF didn't do too badly either, and both seemed to have had fun. All in all, range day was a success. Next comes the BBQ'n
As for who did, or did not show? The Professor was not going to make it because he had chores to do at home, but he did show up just a an hour or so before everything was cleaned up. He had some food and chatted. The Acupuncturist could not make it due to previous plans, so did not show. The only ones left and did show were Rave Boy and GF. As for the BBQ itself, everything rolled like clockwork. Even though we were in no rush, we didn't seem to stop at any one moment, thinking that there's nothing to do - everything seemed to have flowed like water. Awesome!
The Warden prepared chicken Adobo, stuffed mushrooms, and Portabella mushrooms with ground beef.
I started up the BBQ and cooked two filly's, two tri-tips, hot Italian sausages, and sliced red and green bell peppers, as well as the rice - all the while sipping on twelve year old Scotch;)
One of those totally awesome days! Yeah! Seemed like all the planets aligned, well, almost anyway. The day started out with waking up around 9:30am. The sun was bright and the sky was totally clear. The Warden was in town so we decided to have a late planned/impromptu BBQ. As expected, with this late of a notice, brought up the night before, not a lot of people showed. But that's ok, less to cook;) The original plan was to do some BBQ'n and then hit the range, but because BBQ'n takes a lot of time and by the time we would have been done eating and cleaning up, we would have miss the window for the range visit. They close at 4pm. So, we decided to do the opposite, and everything worked out perfect.
We hit the range and was also accompanied by Rave Boy and GF. The Warden had brought down the Kimber as well as his 38, SIG and TRP. We got two lanes and while I started hitting the targets in front of me, The Warden was instructing Rave Boy and GF in the second lane. My aim was not as true this time as it was the last, but didn't do too bad either. Got all shots on the target sheet and even three of ten shots in the 20 ring, at twenty five yards! Not too bad for me:) Rave Boy and GF didn't do too badly either, and both seemed to have had fun. All in all, range day was a success. Next comes the BBQ'n
As for who did, or did not show? The Professor was not going to make it because he had chores to do at home, but he did show up just a an hour or so before everything was cleaned up. He had some food and chatted. The Acupuncturist could not make it due to previous plans, so did not show. The only ones left and did show were Rave Boy and GF. As for the BBQ itself, everything rolled like clockwork. Even though we were in no rush, we didn't seem to stop at any one moment, thinking that there's nothing to do - everything seemed to have flowed like water. Awesome!
The Warden prepared chicken Adobo, stuffed mushrooms, and Portabella mushrooms with ground beef.
I started up the BBQ and cooked two filly's, two tri-tips, hot Italian sausages, and sliced red and green bell peppers, as well as the rice - all the while sipping on twelve year old Scotch;)
After the great food, and some chatting, I began the clean-up effort. Clean-up went just as smooth as butter. The Professor left for his home and we all agreed to meet at his place for some pyrotechnic fun - burning things!
And thus ends a perfect day:)
Friday, June 12, 2009
sketches - June 1209
It's been a trying week filled with the sickness that is the common cold, at least that's what it seems like anyway. Caught the damnable thing from the Warden, who got it from fatigue and snoring all night long last Wednesday. I could hear the sawing of logs from his room - he confirmed the illness the next day. Although I had suggested to him that if he did not feel well, to stay home and recover. But he did not head my advice and came up to hang out. As always, it was great to hang with the Warden, but when he left, he did not take everything with him - and he admitted so! I felt the disease Monday morning with a slight sore throat. First thing that I did, after cursing the foo, was to start eating raw garlic. Yes, raw garlic, with food of course. Can't eat those things raw without burning all the taste buds and setting the nerves on fire - pure torture! I do believe they did help quite a bit because the symptoms were relatively mild compared to what a cold usually felt like.
Took Tuesday off because I didn't want to get anyone at work sick and get blamed for it. Pretty much stayed in bed all day to try and recover. Throat felt sore but was not "sand paper" sore like it usually gets when I catch a cold. More garlic with all meals I ate. Woke up Wednesday soaked in sweat, but felt well enough to go to work. The rest of the day was uneventful, the same for Thursday and Friday.
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Went climbing Saturday with a couple of co-workers at the Planet Granite in the City. It was Gorgeous day in the Marina District. Had lunch together then chilled for the evening.
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It was hard getting up Sunday morning when the jogging friend called around ten in the morning. Postponed that jog til noon and we completed eight miles, woohoo! The rest of the day was just trying to relax for the coming week at work. I'm going to need it because we have a big push for a milestone at the end of the month. I'm anticipating long days and nights. Can't wait for the upcoming Mendocino trip! Did laundry, chores, and though I received the new rotors for the other half's car, did not get a chance to put them on. That will have to wait for the following week.
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End of transmission...
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
sketches - June 0209
It's been a busy few weeks at work. As for the past few days, I have been busy being "the Cleaner", with a laundry list of things to do in and around the house. With the other half coming home in a few weeks, it will not do to have a messy reception - heads will roll! Besides, I was also fed up with the mess as well. Since I am forced to take PTO for this week, that is what I have set out to do. The insides are pretty much in order, now need to make some time for the outside. I will need to fertilize and mulch the lawns and pull out the three foot weeds waving at me from the fence line - I'll give them a wave real soon... Gave the patio table top and two chairs one coat of Danish oil, and they will need at least a few more by this weekend. The rains do not help, and why on Earth is it raining in June!?!?! I'm also thinking about getting some new plants and trees for the side planters, but we'll see how much time I have:p
Going to the Warden's house tomorrow to hang out for a day, and I'll be unplugging this old ass computer and bringing it with me for him to help upgrade. I'm still running 2K and it can't run shit anymore, much less games:( While I'm at the Warden's, I think we will hit the rage for some target practice, hee, hee. I liiike...
As for today, went mattress shopping in the morning and got one purchases and delivered on the same day, today! Frikin sweet! You see, it was necessary because I'm tired of waking up everyday with lower back pain! I hope I can finally get a decent nights sleep from this night forth!!!
With the bed all set up, I drove to meet the Sketch Friend in SF. It was a beautiful day at the Marina today, and I asked to meet there because I felt like changing it up a bit from the local book store we usually go to. We were only sketching for about a half hour before the winds started to pick up - it was damn cold! so with only one finished sketch, we hit a cafe to warm ourselves up a little before we went our separate ways. We'll try it again another time.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
sketches May 2009
Crazy busy with work and tired as hell.
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I love my new bike! Took it on a maiden ride last Sunday, after Bay to Breakers, in the Berkeley Hills with the ex-coworker who use to ride it all the time. This is the third time riding up Tunnel Road. Unlike the first time with my old road bike, which was a total bitch due to being out of shape, or the second time, which was easy with granny gears on the mountain bike. I was psyched for nothing! The ride was, in my opinion, moderate. It was pretty much around 5.54 miles of medium accent, which I think is much less of an incline than say Ralsten Avenue, which I will try and tackle this Friday morning.
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Over and out.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
sketches May 0509
Tuesday nights are usually bouldering nights, but since a co-worker wants to do figure sketching, I decided to do the same. The only place that I know of, that's close to home, is the figure drawing workshop at the Palo Alto Arts Center, off of Embarcadero and Newell Rd.
They have open workshop every Tuesday nights that's open to the public, and cost $5 a session. I think climbing will shift to Wednesdays and Saturday mornings, got a membership so might as well milk it for all it's worth.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
sketches - March 2409
This one goes out to the Warden
Last night I had the weirdest dream, I dreamt about zombies! That's right! Zombies! There were a lot of them in front of me, and I don't have any weapons to defend myself with! I was freakin paralyzed from fear! That woke me, slightly, but I feel right back to sleep.
Back in the dream, I noticed that I was on the steps of a church, and that the zombies were not coming up the steps after me. The zombies just milled around at the foot of the steps as if being stopped by some invisible barrier. Then I kind of "stepped back", or rather "floated back" into a third-person perspective, looking back at myself. But the thing was, I was not "myself", per say, but Steve Austin!
I thought to myself; Why the he'll am I scared? I'm freakin Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man, with freakin Kong-fu grip! Put a machete into my hand and I can decapitate a zombie with one swipe! I can run through a crowd of zombies so fast that by the time they reacted, it would be too late! Their heads are gone!!! And even if I was cornered in a dead end alley, it would not matter, because I can super leap my ass outa there. If I was backed into a wall, I can leap up, and at the apex, punch my fist into the wall to stop myself from falling, and then kick the wall in with both my feet and repeat that kicking all the way up and climb to safety!
Then the alarm went off and woke my ass up...bizarre.
Last night I had the weirdest dream, I dreamt about zombies! That's right! Zombies! There were a lot of them in front of me, and I don't have any weapons to defend myself with! I was freakin paralyzed from fear! That woke me, slightly, but I feel right back to sleep.
Back in the dream, I noticed that I was on the steps of a church, and that the zombies were not coming up the steps after me. The zombies just milled around at the foot of the steps as if being stopped by some invisible barrier. Then I kind of "stepped back", or rather "floated back" into a third-person perspective, looking back at myself. But the thing was, I was not "myself", per say, but Steve Austin!
I thought to myself; Why the he'll am I scared? I'm freakin Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man, with freakin Kong-fu grip! Put a machete into my hand and I can decapitate a zombie with one swipe! I can run through a crowd of zombies so fast that by the time they reacted, it would be too late! Their heads are gone!!! And even if I was cornered in a dead end alley, it would not matter, because I can super leap my ass outa there. If I was backed into a wall, I can leap up, and at the apex, punch my fist into the wall to stop myself from falling, and then kick the wall in with both my feet and repeat that kicking all the way up and climb to safety!
Then the alarm went off and woke my ass up...bizarre.
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 DÃa 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.
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