Random Balance

I've seen this video before, but I think it's interesting so I figured I'd post it here so I wouldn't lose it.



Anyway, so I had a really awesome, productive day Monday, followed by 2 really crappy, unproductive days. Crappy, because I was tired (I was getting up earlier and staying up later), and I didn't have a good workout on Tuesday (Weds. was ok, but I was still stiff from Monday), and I didn't have any coffee or fresh fruit to keep me going throughout the day. Among a few other regrets, I put my feet up after a work-related fiasco (that is, for CVC): old source files being lost somewhere on the servers, data not being backed up correctly, lack of organization or assignment clarity, and various other problems that I didn't cause but which made my day pretty stinky. It isn't always like this - but they're hitting another busy season and trying to rope me in last minute to solve certain issues. So all in all, that's what made it unproductive - I spent most of that day waiting on files that never came (they finally arrived this afternoon). Now I have about half a day to get done about 29 pages of an event program using InDesign, which of course is due to the printers sometime tomorrow.

Additionally I've been somewhat concerned that I might not make it to SIGGRAPH this year. It would be my fifth year, back in San Diego again which would be lovely. Unfortunately, though, Naveen has no way of going, and the only friends I know who are going are Team Leaders and people who have their housing arranged. Even with the cheapest hotel out there, the cost would be $1000 for the week, between the flights, hotel, food, and conference ticket. I could shell it out more easily last year, but remote contract work can vary and since it's the summer, I'm not sure what I can expect. So we'll see...

...and then... there is this incessant beeping coming from the building next to ours, from the electric boxes. It's been beeping about once every four seconds for the last six days. Continuously. I've reported it twice but no one seems to care...

Something else that stunk the other day: finding out that although AM has been promoting the idea of taking a 6-month version of class 6 (vs. the usual 3 months), what that actually means is that you aren't following the usual schedule, and that you are effectively failing the class and retaking it. I find this out after I developed my production schedule, and let me tell you, I wasn't PLANNING to fail, I was planning to use 6 months instead of 3. So now I'm back to considering a 3-month version, even though it's going to go hellaciously fast.

My critique for the final revised animatic didn't go so well either. Even for the amount of time and effort I put into it, it still did not come out the way my mentor would have liked. It's slightly frustrating, because I think we have somewhat different senses of humor. And it wasn't just my animatic - I watched some of my friends' critiques as well, and the changes they made to accommodate for his suggestions made the shorts less funny, in my opinion. That isn't to say they were bad suggestions - but they weren't the original ideas, and I liked the original ideas. I liked the sense of spontaneity and uniqueness... now it seems some people are kind of struggling to find themselves in their films (and I'm one of those people). So now, somehow, I have to revise it again to clarify certain things and lose some of the complexity, despite an already crippling schedule (well, with critical last-minute contract work on top of my AM progress).

That all said, today went well, and I've been mostly productive, so it all seems to balance out. Some days are better than others. Duh.

I have to get ready for class - but I'll be back later. There's something else, more positive, that I have to get off my chest... :-)