Cold Summer

Photo of Amsterdam

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 11:05:24 -0800

In London, Amsterdam

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:28:17 -0800

Just thought I'd post a note to my family about my Amsterdam/London trips. I've been staying with Nadya Peek in Amsterdam and with Colin Hall in London. Both wonderful hosts! I'm in Amsterdam Sat/Sun-Tuesday, London Tues.-Thurs., and Amsterdam again Thurs.-Friday. Then Friday I return to the States and will drive immediately from the airport to Reedley with Justin and then see everyone at Grandma's bright and early on Saturday.

I slept for 20 hours upon my arrival in Amsterdam from San Francisco. I think that may be a lifetime record for me. For a few hours after I woke up (slept from 8pm to 4pm the next day) I wasn't sure I was awake. Justin got on video chat with me to help connect me to reality, then Nadya took me out with some friends and we had a great night. Oh also, before I slept for 20 hours I went to a sauna/spa called Deco Sauna on Herengracht. It was so warm! Great way to relax after a 10 hour flight. Most likely contributed to my following 20 hour sleep-fest.

On Tuesday morning I flew from Amsterdam to London, to meet our GameLayers CTO Duncan Gough in the flesh for the first time. I was heavily interrogated at immigration. Colin later said that Amsterdam is thought of as a shady place to have arrived from. The immigration official asked to see my return ticket. I welcomed him to the internet and had to pull up my email on my iPhone to show him that I did indeed plan to leave his country on Thursday morning. I told him I was there to meet some friends: my business partner, a friend who works at Channel 4, and my future brother-in-law. He asked me "How do you know these people?" Uh... through mutual friends, conferences, and my fiance, of course. I have never been asked that at any immigration stop before. Though judging by the horror stories of US Immigration I'm sure I got off lightly compared to the way our government treats people.

Being an American in Europe can be kind of humiliating. I listen while people switch fluidly between two or three languages and feel like such a country bumpkin. And the ever-weakening dollar makes everything much more expensive than even last summer. It's now $2.11 for one pound I was told.

I stayed at Colin's last night in Kensington, a very nice neighborhood in London. His building and his flat both smell really marvelous for some reason. This morning on the way to the Tube (the London underground public transport system, very thorough and easy to use) I passed a school just at arrival time. Little girls all dressed like Madeline! It was so so so cute.

Today Duncan and I are working out of a private club called Hospital. There's wifi, food, and comfortable seating. Tomorrow I fly back to Amsterdam and then back to the States from there.

See you all this weekend! Love, Merci :)

Mina Solaris character creation - Maya 8.5

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:48:02 -0800

What I spend my time doing

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 18:22:39 -0800

This is called UV mapping. It's a way to take still shots of a 3D object and stitch them together into a 2D, or flat, surface that you can then paint on. It's the grunt work of 3D art but it's necessary and it's very useful to be good at it.

What you're looking at is a screenshot of my computer screen. I imported this model after sculpting on it in ZBrush. The left window is the main work space - the right window is the UV Texture Editor window. I move around the model in the left window and select faces (like facets, small polygonal areas created by intersecting lines) on one axis or another (X,Y, or Z) and then take a snapshot of it. The flat shape created by the snapshot appears in the right window. I move it off the workspace and continue taking snapshot.

Once I have every available face grouped and translated into a 2D representation I can sew the pieces together. I had not done any sewing before I took this screenshot, so what you're looking at is a collection of pieces. The picture might be too small, but at the top you may be able to make out the pieces of my model's head. Her face is in the center, and her ears (not to scale) are on either side.

After I've sewn all the pieces together I moved and shrank them and put them in the top right hand box. Then they're ready to be exported and painted!

I love doing this.

Diploma arrival

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:29:26 -0800

Here are a Pointer's paws

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:49:16 -0800

Tired
Originally uploaded by jodik.

I am going to be one of those parents who can't talk about anything except their kids.

Save yourselves, it's too late for me.

Obsessing over my dog

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:39:23 -0800

Rub my belly!
Originally uploaded by dakotaduff.

Justin and I adopted Pixley Wigglebottom (dogs should not have dignified names) from the South LA Shelter - they said she was a beagle mix.

The picture to the side is a picture of a beagle puppy. Her paws are very different from Pixley's:

I think Pix might be a German Short-haired Pointer. Their paws look very much like Pix's.

So... my little dog might grow up to be about 40 pounds! Whoa!

Better pictures of Pixley Wigglebottom

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:43:21 -0800

As per your many requests. ;)

Dog ownership so far

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 09:26:03 -0800

We decided on a name: Pixley. Yes, like the town in the Central Valley. Justin remarks on that name every time we drive up the 99. The name seems to fit her - small and sprite-esque. It's harder to settle on a cool "girl" name.

The first night we put her to crate around midnight and she only whined/barked/howled for about a half hour before giving up and going to sleep.

Last night we crated her around 11:30 (after a long, fast walk) and turned down the lights (thank goodness for dimmers). Then Justin and I talked in the kitchen, drank some water, walked around. By the time we were both actually sitting in bed she'd fallen fast asleep. No whining, howling or barking at all that night.

She was up around 5:30 this morning - we waited for her to stop moving around in her crate before coming out and walking her. She fell asleep in my lap after the walk and let me move her into her crate after ten minutes or so. I walked around the house a little and then went back to sleep. She barked at the dump truck this morning and was fully up by 8:30. Another walk and now she's tiring out again.

It seems that the key to getting her to peacefully sleep is really tiring her out. Looks like we'll do a lot of walking and eventually running. A dog is a great reason to get outside - we have a tendency to stay indoors all the time.

We got a beagle puppy

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 19:10:57 -0800

We got her at the South LA animal shelter on the 12th and picked her up today. We haven't named her yet. I suggested long Russian words: runny nose (naasmork), Ahkmatova (the last name of a Russian female poet). She is starting puppy training classes at a park near our house one week from today.

She is so cute! Her body is taller and thinner than pure bred beagles but she has a beagle face and coloring.

She feel asleep on Justin's lap while he was using his computer.

New York, New Year

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:05:49 -0800

What a wonderful trip.

I'm graduating from college

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 03:15:25 -0800

Yay for me!

Happy birthday to me!

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 19:36:16 -0800

Justin made a wonderful dinner for me and five of our friends last night for my birthday. His menu was impressive: First course of steamed artichoke with lemon butter sauce, baguette and soft cheese; second course of asparagus parmesan soup, tossed salad with homemade carrot ginger dressing; main course of standing smoked rib roast, mashed potatoes, grilled onions, and sauteed Brussels sprouts. I made a fresh blueberry pie for dessert with a flaky butter crust. Good times were had by all. Sara Pine, Felicia Lucas, Ben Gigli, and Dan and Kozy Kitchen came. Thank you to everyone!

Thanksgiving 2006, Again in Chicago

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 04:43:37 -0800

Justin and I went to the Chicago History Museum and Lincoln Park. We've had a great time so far and Colin flew in for a surprise visit from London. Here are some pictures from our week.

Justin on the street he lived on from ages 0-15. The same street as the original Playboy Mansion.

Us at the Chicago History Museum.

Me in front of the Lincoln statue in Lincoln Park.

If you're interested in seeing more pictures they're in a brand new set on Flickr.

Hello family!

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 08:31:02 -0800

I've been really busy and happy lately. This is Justin and me in Chinatown after going to a couple of galleries - we're eating at Ocean Seafood with our friends.

Here is a still from the set of the stop-motion animation I shot tonight. I'll post an embedded video on here later, when it's fully edited. My fiction writing teacher, Aimee Bender, wanted us to experiment with story-telling in another medium. I went a little overboard because I've been wanting an excuse to play with character and world making in film. The set was 20" tall.