2011, Make A Wish!

Unbelievably, in less than 3 days, we will be living in the year 2011.

This year had several ups and several downs, but stirring in just enough of the right ingredients seems to keep things going strong. We have been in a holding pattern for quite some time, with freelance opportunities and side projects here and there, but our patience has paid off and now I have at least 6 months of employment to look forward to with SpeakeasyFX! Season 2 of "Abby's Flying Fairy School" begins!!!

The last two weeks were spent as a layout supervisor there, putting together layouts and assisting in composition and creative direction for the first episode. It's fantastic to be back. Not everyone has returned yet, but we're only days away from full production and I am super excited that I'll be returning as an animator as of January 3, and get to see all my SEFX friends again.

Since the studio was closed this week (for Christmas through New Years), I've been taking it easy at home, cleaning and making turkey-egg-and-cheese breakfast sandwiches to freeze for myself during the workweek. Despite the massive snowstorm that hit the northeast, I did get to travel "home" to Wisconsin (and back, without incident!) to see most of my family. We arrived on the afternoon of Christmas Eve and stayed through Monday, visiting my dad's mother and some family, as well as mostly my mom's side (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins), went to church for vigil mass and Holy Family Sunday, and enjoyed tons of excellent home cooking and bakery, games like Apples to Apples, and quality family time. Now that I'm back in New Jersey, my attention is back to getting to work on another Sesame Street project, which everyone asked about over the holidays and triggered further excitement!

This year has been tough, though. I've learned that if I want to be happy in this line of work, I have to prepare for more seamless transitions between jobs. I absolutely love animating in a creative studio of folks, all working together toward something bigger than a project I'm merely kicking around at home. It's taken me a while to decide that if you are a project hire, it isn't disloyal to spot new opportunities and take them. If I am willing to do that, I am being loyal to myself, and frankly it makes me feel more saught after, which is rewarding when it happens. Until a place puts you on staff, you have to keep the ball in play at all times, sending reels out and applying places where you feel you can make a positive difference in the product, and also to be happy and make others happy during production.

January is a great time to get hired, and it is also a good time to develop and finish side projects, deciding whether they are reel-worthy, and put that development cycle on a continuous loop, rather than to expect so much from a single project. You shouldn't be developing for a reel, you have to develop the talent. Gotta take the blinders off and make broad improvements.

That said, may it be a Happy New Year to all -- a year of relentless strength, proactive perseverance, marked improvement, open-mindedness, calculation, and confidence. And be happy!!!!!

Naveen and I opening gifts at our apartment in NJ.

Making breakfast sandwiches with Pillsbury Grands, turkey, egg, and cheese.

The Milwaukee airport, Christmas 2010.

The storm that skipped over the midwest but walloped the east coast.

Naveen and I on Christmas Eve 2010. Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!!!

The holidays are here!!!!!

I am super excited.. and I haven't even gotten my flights yet to go home yet. It's been a crazy time lately, wondering what the future holds for us. But as of Monday I'll be back on at SpeakeasyFX putting together layouts for a new season of "Abby's Flying Fairy School" for Sesame Street! I am so excited. I wish we could put together a Christmas special for next year. I've always wanted to work on one... like Disney's Prep & Landing, a relatively new ABC holiday special. Last night they aired a short called "Operation Secret Santa," which I caught this morning on YouTube. It's a SUPER cute new holiday Disney series, featuring Betty White as Mrs. Claus, Dave Foley as one of the elves, among others.. well done!!! Check it out.

Watch on YouTube



Official Prep & Landing Disney Site

Story Telling...

...is something I sincerely want to get better at. A handful of friends and family tell me that they already like my storytelling, but I tend to be long-winded, full of details that may or may not be necessary or critical to my audience -- the kinds of stuff people might skim over in a book that they're cramming in a hurry to get to the end. Being concise is not a strong suit of mine.

One thing you learn in animation is to tell stories -- not just through the animated expression of the character, but also through composition, lighting, texturing, aspects of your set and props, etc.

If someone were to animate me, in my life right now, they may put together a jovial essence with a lot of hinted backstory of struggle and hard work in my facial expressions and how I hold myself when I'm sitting at my computer desk, playing Angry Birds on my Droid, reading books on Autism and stars and religion and fuzzy Muppets. Gradually, they could tell a bigger story by modeling a fantastic array of clutter on my desk, consisting of power cords, pencils I used in the fourth grade, handmade felt flowers from Nepal, several external hard drives, travel receipts, honeymoon vacation brochures, Tylenol Cold medicine, coupons, bank statements, demo reels, pads of paper with scribbled dates, recipes, and wannabe-Matt-Groening-slash-Jhonen-Vasquez-style sketches of myself and my husband.

Then you add more story-telling layers. Many items are covered in a thin layer of dust and/or cat hair. Papers are generally a bit crinkled throughout with worn looking edges from getting thrown in and out of travel bags or my ever-stuffed purse. The honeymoon brochures have those transparent circle seals, which are yet unbroken. In the looming shadow behind my flatscreen monitors are my demo reels from this past year as well as blank dvds for new reels. Also back there is my webcam, which I used to use daily when my husband and I had to live 800 miles apart (but now he's at the desk beside me, tinkering away at his work as well).

All those details add so much to that crazy ol' Laura character with the goofy-serious face, hunched camel neck, and famed librarian hairstyle... typing away thoughtfully at her machine.

Staples..That Was Hard

Telemarketing calls are annoying.

It's bad enough to get unwanted calls from time to time. It's almost more annoying to continue getting unwanted calls regularly per month from the same venue.



I've gotten many calls in the last year claiming to be from Staples Rewards.. many times I ignored the call, let it go to voicemail, etc. But the last couple of months I started asking to be removed from the system, with no luck.

On September 16, I got a call from a pleasant sounding woman named Shiny (yes.. Shiny) who claimed to be my Staples Rewards account manager, which seemed weird to me because to be honest I rarely shop at Staples - I made a large purchase a few years ago when I was initially setting up my home office (desk, chair, etc) but I don't have many office supply needs. I think I signed up for rewards at the time, but to my knowledge I've never received any Rewards information or benefits, and had since forgotten about the program. She seemed perplexed because there was activity on my Staples Rewards account, $12 here, $30 there, etc. That certainly wasn't me - I don't know the last time I shopped at Staples. I gave her updated information (no credit card, just email and home addresses) and she said the Rewards checks would come to me now, but I have just found this very confusing and thought I should report it. The contact info she gave me was Shiny Varghese, 866-319-8181 extension 7654, but she called me from 306-584-6705.

I reported exactly that to a customer service contact form online, but never got any response. Then today, I got another call from Shiny. Of course now she had all the updated information I had given her the last time, but I had still not received any rewards checks or even any account information - no mail at all from Staples. She was again perplexed to hear this, and I just told her I didn't mean to be unfriendly but I wish to stop the unwanted calls as I am not currently a Staples customer, my former account information is not accurate (and has not been corrected), and someone else is using my rewards checks (although they are buying with the card so they should be getting the awards.. I just don't want the calls anymore)...

So I reported again to the online form that I had received another call from the same person and now I absolutely would like to be removed from their system. I even went to the Staples customer service live chat and spoke briefly with a person who didn't know what to do, and then gave me a number, (800)793-3320, which I could call to get my information removed. I called, and reached a woman who said my telephone number wasn't in their system. Frustrated, I asked why I am getting calls from reps, and she suggested it might be this other department, so she gave me another number, (877) 235-9088. When I called that number, I spoke with an operator, and got redirected back to the original number. At this point I was so fed up that I just disconnected. I imagine the next time Shiny calls me, I will demand to speak to a supervisor. All of the roundabout calls ignite my dramatic side and makes me just want to organize a boycott of Staples (if it is actually them, and if not I just wonder if these are just some amazingly connected scam artists up in Saskatchewan -- which is apparently where Shiny calls from).

There are other people as frustrated as I am out there. I searched Shiny's phone number on Google and made a complaint on this 800notes.com website along with maybe a hundred other people who also have received calls claiming to be from Staples.

No "easy" button for this ongoing problem... :(

Virtual Me #1

This is hardly the first digital representation of myself that I have made. Nor is it anywhere near the best. I just thought I should share the 5 minute pose exercise I did yesterday morning over coffee and waking up my animation brain for the day. It's not a great pose, but I want to do more of these "quick sketches" since they prove useful to do with a sketchbook and pencil or vine charcoal.



Thanks to Animation Mentor for the customizable Bishop 2.0 rig. It's very versatile even in its beta/first released version. So all you AMers, check it out!