I'm 3.6x less poor

Since my 12 Ringgit lattes are actually almost 4 dollars and since I have turned down 30 Ringgit restaurants because I thought those 12 dollar plates were too expensive...I got my hair cut today.

Tomorrow is Malaysian Independence Eve and some people from production have invited me to join them. I think this means I will have friends and may not be so grouchy. Today became high school when I decided to eat with the cafeteria and not the restaurant away from everyone. First I was to eat with Hardy but I lost him and then found some other people from production and then ran into Maya from the office when she asked me to join her friends. I think they liked my interested in very bad movies. So I hope its fun.

My students aren’t so bad. It would be cool to hang out with them if I wasn’t grading them and possibly a factor in them being hired. Then it just seems uncomfortable. I really hope I’m not the one who decides that. I still haven’t graded them on anything. I figure I’ll let them go back and correct things on their time. Then hand it in the last week. And I’m still planning for them to have very very a short film. I think this will be good also for those who aren’t great draftsmen. I have shown them some Mary Blair inspired animation and UPA stuff. I also showed the Dot and the Line: a Love Story in Lower Mathematics. I’ve actually shown them a lot of animation that I don’t think they would see other wise. Did you know Jack Hanna directed Lambert the Sheepish Lion? Or that Muybridge murdered someone?

Random drawing

I'm in class now...here's a drawing of something like a new york street. not a real one but i think it would look like this.

I have made a syllabus for class and that plan is to start the four leg walk cycle tomorrow. then the lip sync will probably be next week which is cool with me. In the tradition of Don, Ira and Marty i am going to have them make a short film. and i will only give them 2 and 1/2 weeks to do it. so it better be very very short i will tell them.

I'm not eating inside my apartment again

So far i have violently thrown up after drinking what a was possibly very very bad milk. Milk tastes so different here so I can't tell whats good or bad. The date said 07-09-07 what i take as the 7th of september 2007 since some places say DD/MM/YY. But that would mean the milk had a live span of way over 2 weeks. So i poured it over my Life cereal and ate away. The cereal did a good job of disguising the taste, but about 15 minutes later i started puking.

Today I decided to finally use the scary stove. I can't even call it a stove. I have 2 burners on my counter. under the counter is a large tank of something that lights the burners. actually i still have to light them with a match, but first i must turn on the big blue tank. It read "Propane." The only thing i know about propane is that Hank from King of the Hill is always priding himself on how Propane is a cleaner burning than I don't know...but anway I tried using it to cook my pasta. yeah I bought pasta and Prego and olive oil. First the whole apartment smelled like gas but it went away or i got used to it. Then I ate my pasta and i kept thinking it tastes like gas...then i was feeling kind of really gross. so I came back to the Friendster cafe and I am eating a yummy club with bacon and egg on it too. here's my stove:

It has occurred to more than once that my condo is a ghetto fire trap. so i drew a plan of my escape in case of a fire. First i don't trust my electricity. there is no need for every outlet to have 235v of power and now there's the propane oh and lets not forget the gate which i will no long lock once they replace it.

Trapped

Before I was talking how the gate on my door made me nervous. The one that required 2 keys (a skeleton and padlock) to open it. Somehow i accepted it becuase no one else had a problem with it. I don't know, maybe it will stop assassins. Should I worry about that?

So this morning I was on my way out the door to a someplace with internet before work when my gate would not unlock. after trying for 10 minutes I called Loh, the super or somthing and he came to help. then he ran off to get more help. This was really staring to freak me out. what if there were a fire inside and i couldn't get out? its a bad idea to ever lock yourself in anywhere where you need a key to get out. yes. Loh didn't come back for while and the taxi was on its way to take me to work. finally i kicked open the gate with a jumping front kick. i guess 2 years of karate finally did some good. so with my door frame busted and the gate wide open, i left. i tried calling Loh to tell him about the door but my phone said i need to 'top up' so i left a note with the guard.

My Place

I still have to write about top up, but for now I wanted to show some of my studio apartment. I still don't have a camera so here's a few sketches.

This scared me at first. I don't know why i would need a padlock or a gate to my door that is inside a secured apartment building.


This is the view from the door. my bed is behind the couch. To the right of the near table is the shower window. a very large mirror is on the left wall. you can see the shower window in the reflection.

My view is nice. I'm on the 11th floor and look over other high rises and beyond that i think is a rain forest with power lines.


This is my shower. I have taken only one hot shower when the electric power worked. you can see this threw the window from my bed or the couch. It actually reads "Electric Power."

I hate flash

i hate flash because when you ask for one inbetween using an arc you get half the class taking the artwork from the first pose and rotating it 8 times.

Animation Teacher

I went total Eric Eiser on them. I started them off with drawing from xerox copies of animal walks and total them "i don't want to see pretty pictures." I don't know if eric would be proud or angry i stole his thunder. eh hes a cool guy and it was the way i was taught. then i moved onto the bouncing ball which i thought would take them quite awhile. they finished quickly and so i make them clean it up haha haha most of them didn't draw 16 frames but over 40. but i let them do it again- clean it up and add a colored backgound. still they were finished by lunch. so gave them the flour sack toss which again some got it right away but the others resisted and wouldn't follow my instruction to fist make a layout so there are no surprises. oh and strong poses. most don't know what that is. so the afternoon lasted forever. i thought it would be hard to critique their animation but it was easy to be a dick.

And so at the end of the day I gave homework of 5 hands with strong poses showing force. hahaha. so there it is my 74,000 dollar education. they should be happy. oh plus i should them cynthea's film to show acting with a circle and entire story of course. oh god. it's a god thing they have a basic knowledge of flash. im not sure how to introduce characters yet but i know they like the head a symbol but don't nest the rest of the body. ok. im not sure how i am as a teacher but i'm trying to be like Eiser, Beckerman and Morgan- even a little Mattesi with the homework.

I'm not sure of my lesson tomorrow. I passed out when I came home. the electricity works again. still scary. I need a Malaysian plug to work from here. I wish i have my other animation books.

I am the only teacher

I’m at the friendster cafe watching a football game on tv. I still don’t know who is playing. I saw kids playing soccer outside today. I wish I had brought my cleats. I still don’t have an alarm clock or watch. Maybe 7-11 has one.

Oh yeah I am the animation faculty after this week. There is one other teacher but her class will end this week. So I plan to focus on the bouncing ball and drawing cartoon characters ‘not as pretty pictures’ just like in Eiser’s class. But then apply that in flash. I need a plug for my computer.

I found out why I blew out my electricity. The converter I used allowed too much power through. I am now using the big thing Cynthea gave me which has a switch for low and high. Still I fear for my computer which is my life.

Wish me luck tomorrow on waking up:)

Blew out my electricity

It’s 2:30am in Kuala Lumpur, what time is it in New York?

I blew out the electricity in half my outlets when I tried to plug in my surge protector. I have 1:30 hours battery left on my laptop and I am scared to death of trying to plug the power plug..

I don’t live a hotel. I live in an apartment in Selangar. Which is like saying I live in NYC but really live somewhere in Long Island where I would have to drive to the train. I think this place is kind of ghetto but maybe it’s normal for all the 30 story apartment buildings to have little canals running behind them into a manmade pond over yonder.

My apartment is kind of cute. I looks like a small version of Jose’s mother house. I have porcelain floors. A couch, full size bed, tv (that doesn’t work now) and cute fridge. The bathroom has a large corner window in it so I could watch someone bath from my bed or the couch or the dinning area. The toilet leaks and there is no hot water. And I don’t have a phone yet to call that guy who is not a super.

I went shopping today with my bosses assistant. We went to a place that was exactly like Super Wal-mart. It was great because I get lost in walmart even in the States. So I bought a pan, bowel, plate, pasta, sauce, milk (Dutch Lady) chocolate milk and orange juice. No alarm clock. I forgot to pack it and my phone reads the time for the satellite it can not see. Plus it’s dead not.

I think I will wait until to got the 24 hour 7-11. Everything here is supposedly 24 hours but half the stores looked closed in the daytime. Plus I don’t see anybody walking. Everyone has a car or motorbike of some sort. I want one. Or even a bike but I can’t ride a bike on the highway which how I could get to ikea mall or cinema.

Once I get online I need to find a Malaysia power plug for my computer. I can risk blowing it out too.

new apartment

I'm designing the my new room. Can't decide if i like red accent walls or green. here are my ideas. There is a little nook for my studio/office stuff. oh and its smaller in real life.