Schools out!!!
Oh, wait, I have fall orientation tomorrow. Dang.
Yeah, not much of a summer break for yours truly. The class I was teaching for the fall admits bootcamp finished on Friday, and was followed by much celebrating. Not sure if that had anything to do with my teaching skills. ^_^ Also my friend Marion just arrived in NYC to start this week at SVA to study illustration. If any more Oregonions move to the big apple, someone is going to have to open a microbrewery around here or something…
Lilia showed me this Japanese Manga strip; its called Hana-Usagi - A Day in the Life of a Bizarre Rabbit. Very quirky and very Japanese. (You can roll over the Japanese text, and it will translate to english for you. Also remember that Japanese comics read right to left.)
Speaking of funny, quirky and Japanese, the Japanese toy company Medicom now makes a Kubrick based on the film Amalie. Apparently the film has been a huge hit among Japanese girls, so I am sure that this is just the tip of the merchandising iceberg. You can see an image here (you'll have to scroll down to the bottom.) They are also finally making a Lupin the Third series, much to my joy.
Ok, I will probably be busy over the next week with various school things, but after that I should get back into the groove of updating this thing. It will be cool to see everyone again.
Not much to report lately. Teaching, and dealing with the dog days of August have been putting a damper on my sociability. Although today is actually cooler and sunny. When i walked out of my apartment, I was puzzled for a moment, until I identified the strange sensation as a cool breeze. its been a while since that's happened in this neck of the jungle.
Teaching has been going well, although I can't tell if I am going through the material too fast or too slow. This weekend, I did head out to central park with a friend to see cornershop play the summer stage. suffice it to say that everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but it was still fun anyway.
My sister had a successful phone interview with Herr Baker so she will be heading to Cologne to be a poor starving apprentice baker, which is pretty ambitious, considering that her German skills are pretty rudimentary. Needless to say, I will be heading over to visit over winter break.
Also yesterday in the mail, I received 2 packages. One was a copy of Asuka's BFA project; an interactive CD-ROM on the history of the Kimono. very cool, and very Asuka. The other was a package from Lilia, with an Autographed picture of Coffin Joe, and a CD of Brazilian psychedilia. Both came on my half birthday, which i am not thinking was an entire coincidence. (The half birthday is the day 6 months from your actual birthday. As someone whose birthday falls in the gray rainy winter season, I am a hearty supporter of the observation of half birthdays.)
hm. still need to think of a thesis idea in the next 3 weeks. crud.
Exit Godbox
Well today is my last day at the Godbox, better known as the Inter Church Center. You might wonder what I am doing there- but I have been working for the last couple of months for a department of Columbia U. that rents their offices in this building. Its been an odd experience working in this huge, cubic, Cold War bastion of Christian thought. The high point was riding the elevator with Jesse Jackson… (who makes me feel short.) Will miss the people at this job, but not the 1+ hour commute to Harlem.
As far as what I have been doing this summer, you can check out my iffy Wearable Technology site, and also the Animation I made for Broadcast Design. (each has a couple megs of Quicktime to download, so dialup-ers beware.) I'm not super happy with either project, but they are done done done. Onward, as they say.
Monday I start teaching my class in programming. Should be interesting, Otherwise I will spend the next month trying to relax and iron out my thesis project, and figure out another part time or freelance job to pay the bills.
slow weekend
Well what with all the explosions and power outages, this has not been much of a going out type weekend. Probably just was well. Got most everything done for the summer term, so chilling out and just reading has suited me just fine.
Hey, I think I just found my dream digital camera. Its all retro style. Too bad I'm a starving student and can't afford it, huh?
Hey, its friday. This is mighty good. Too bad I have to slave away all weekend…
One more week until the Apple SoHo store opens. (I have been wondering when they would get to this thing open- the space they rented has been just sitting there since spring of last year.) And I am not a "Mac Lover" as some have asserted. I dig them just as much as my PC. It's the typical elitist Mac user I can't stand.
Also pictures from last week's beach trip are up, here.
Finally, go check this out. It is hilarious.
yawn. Went to Coney Island beach today with various people from school. Never done that before, and it was pretty fun- the weather was not too hot. came home and crashed, and am awake again. Definitely got some sun, and have that sunburn lethargy now. Otherwise, I have managed to get Office v.X installed, and it is rather dope. OK, off to sleep again.
Pre-independence day, and it is bloody hot around here. It is supposed to get up to 105° in the city today. ik.
Just figured I would toss out some sites to check out, since I purposely don't have a links page. First off, everyone I know should spend time over at the Booth. It is good for both reading about films, and laughing at the kinds of idiots that like to analyze them. But it is a great site run as a labor of love by my pal Scott. Otherwise I would recommend Coming Attractions, just for being able to read up on film in production. I also have taken to reading boingboing- it is an interesting mix of geek & news.
Laurie sent me a grab bag of music, and so I have been enjoying an old school mix of Metal & Punk on my 'phones. That, and I have been deep into Hindi music since going to see Indian Ocean play at the Paisley last weekend. I dig it— not out of some exoticism thing, but simply because the rhythm and melodies remind me of Bluegrass. (I must be missing Lex, if I am hearing bluegrass in hindi jams…) Most of the Hindi songs I have downloaded are either old Bollywood tunes, or techno remixes of old Bollywood tunes. Mixed in with Laurie’s thrasher music, has made for some interesting musical segues.
OK, here are the pictures for the first half of ‛02. They cover the holidays, my trip to seattle and vancouver, Scott & Janet's trip to NYC, and the party after final reviews in my Physical Computing class. Need to get around to replacing my digital camera and take some more shots…
Also my first short film for my DV class is up. Addiction (6.5 megs) was made with the help of my friend Jett, who puts up with a lot of my crazy crap.
yargh. 4 months without an update. I am not so good at this talking thing, ne?
OK, I am deep in the middle of Summer School right now. I am taking Intro to Digital Video, Wearable Computing Collaberation Studio, and the Broadcast Major Studio. Between that, work, the heat, and staying up all hours to watch the World Cup, I am hurting deeply. I don't even reply anymore when people comment on my bloodshot eyes. Ah, well- if I had not wanted to live in Pain, then I would not have gone to Grad School.
My fav class so far is DV. Final Cut Pro is just fun to use, and makes me really want to shellout and get a DV camera of my own. Animation class is pretty tough- I am glad I didn't take any animation classes at the UO. I think it is something best left to the professionals. Saw Lilo & Stitch- uber-cute Disney fare. erratic schmaltzy plot, but fun. It is really just the pilot for their new TV series though.
For the month of August I will be teaching Bootcampers at Parsons ActionScripting. That will be cool; I like ranting about stuff like that. Having a captive audience is just gravy.
For a guy who has 8+ cameras, you would think it would take me less then 6 months to finish a 24 exposure roll. Well, I will get those photos from the first half of 2002 up soonish.
My beverage of choice today (7-up) declares to me "NO PUR. NEC." in its contest rules. Is that supposed to be hip street slang in the bottling industry? Very odd.
School is going great- am becoming sucked into school life completely... I'm afraid nothing much to report yet. I have a page set up for my school projects- I'll add a link soon, but in the meantime it is here.
Careful, the beverage you are about to drink is extremely hot.
-My coffee cup this morning
Sorry for the delay in posting - Almost a month. But I think my excuse of going to Seattle/Vancouver & starting grad school is a darn good one.
Seattle is mighty keen, but heavy on the lakes and freeways. Got to check out Microsoft's main campus, and aside from my endless comments about Windows Brain chips, it was actually cool. I am destined to be an odd ball- a designer who prefers PC to Macs. Well, despite that I did get a Mac laptop two weeks ago, and it is might sweet. I really like OSX- perhaps because it uses file extensions like god intended. I realized that the previous Apple machine I owned was an Apple IIe, so I completely skipped over that little "unpleasant" 20 year period where Macs didn't use file extensions. Actually though, the OS and the Apps are really well thought out- and I am a sucker for good design. Plus the Airport card is a hoot- automatically figures its setting out when I am on campus.
Starting the MFA in Design & Technology @ Parsons has been an experience- mostly because I caught the flu on the first day, and also found out that I needed to change all of my classes around, and also had not received the emails telling me about the orientation meetings. So Grad school started as a bizarre surreal Kafka-esq experience as I ran around lost in a feverish haze seeking signatures on incomprehensible forms. oy.
But Now that I have gotten settled in, I have met some really great people, and my classes look to be quite interesting. Now about this crushing workload, on top of my freelance work. again, oy.
Kung Hey Fat Choi (Happy Chinese New Year)
Well I had a fun and busy holiday season. Traveled a bit, and had a number of visitors. You can't beat the holidays in New York though. ...must be the aroma of those Hot Nut carts.
As far as my quest for the best ramen shop in New York, I may have found a successor to the crown (previously Menkuitei on 55th st.) Its a little place in Chinatown called AJISEN RAMEN at 14 Mott St. Very good and very affordable. But I have also heard of a place on St. Marks place that opens at 10pm that my friend raves about.
Anyway, my big resolution (well, in addition to the usual,) is to be more regular with these updates in '02.
I have finished some final tweaks on my portfolio. The QuickTimes are working properly, the Flash examples are now working, and I have improved the descriptions. Had a very nice Thanksgiving, and rolling on into the Xmas season.
Went in to my corner coffee shop the other morning (the Flying Saucer here in Brooklyn) and in the process of asking the counter girl for a Latte, I yawned in the middle, causing it to come out rather strangely. So much so, she made a comment about me speaking "wookie", which was very entertaining. I asked her if she was familure with the Chewbacca song from the Clerks soundtrack, which I happen to have on my MP3 player. She said 'of course,' and went on to tell me about how back when she was in Jersey she was one of the Foley artists who did the sound effects for Clerks. nice.
This past week has been pretty nutty- feels like a little Eugene in Manhatten. Niels, Marion and Asuka are all visiting the big apple over the Thanksgiving holidays. So that has been huge fun. On the down side, Miwako is very nearly ready to move to Atlanta. Having her go will suck. At one point she was the only person I knew in the City, and was the one that gave me the springboard to move here in the first place.
Also picked up an Xbox, which is pretty spiffy.
Hey, this is my new site. Hopefully it will be more interesting then my previous siteI am trying to make it a bit more about me. I am also trying to reduce the amount of 'travel time' spent on my page, by pulling things together on few pages. (still working on that.)