Caucus Race

In case you wondered if I got my milk and cheese...Mom finally came home from work and pick them up on the way. Yay Mom :)

I feel defeated because after the 3rd mile of my 10k my IT band started to swell up. This sucks. It feels better after ice and Aleeve. I would cycle the rest but the rec center has already closed. Mom's cat likes to use my stretch time to steal pets.

Oh that thing about humans misusing the gift of speech- I believe that was in Gulliver's Travels- that people lie and animals don't. That is not true. Animals totally lie. I know this because the dog and cat have 3 feeding times and they know it. still, they try to hit up food from anyone who walks through the door. They cry, they whine, they give affection as if they were Mogwai after midnight.

I'm thinking of starting the caucus race animation of Jose and his money...running circles in water trying to get dry. I would draw Tricia of Florence with a job but she hasn't contributed to the Leukemia Society for my Marathon.

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

I am so pissed. I'm a 15 year old kid that can't go anywhere and can't contact a living soul to fix this problem.

wallah! the internet.

It's 10:30 Friday night in Ark City Kansas and all I want is milk for my tea and cheddar cheese for my egg sandwich. However the "Town" Jeep my dad left for me thinks I'm trying to steal it. I unlocked the door with the key and BEEP BEEP BEEP the alarm sounds. The street is dead and I know everyone inside their house can hear this. I can even hear the echo answering in the distance. So I called my dad on his cell and he did not pick up. So i called again and again. then I called mom. no answer. then I texted both of them to call me because the car thinks I want to steal it although I shoved a key in the ignition.

Dillions (the grocery store) is only 5 or 6 blocks away, but I can't walk there alone. It's way too dark and I can't take my dog to the store. What happened to the street lights? It's safer to walk in Harlem.

GRRRR this stupid car. I want go to the store before it closes but I think it already has. Now if the car will let me in I will have to drive to the super walmart, which I don't want to do, because it is so far. Oh yeah this jeep has a special way of operating... my dad showed me earlier today. "You have to start it in 3rd then when hear it make a knock switch it into Drive. When you come to a red light you have to put back in 3rd. Remember you can't this out of town it won't make it." He told me like 5 times to not leave town. I told him I would probably only go to the store. Why does it have an alarm system?

Also I am sitting in front a 4 foot widescreen tv that doesn't work. Apparently the the bulb or something burnt out and costs $300 to replace. Doesn't that sound like buying a new tv?

wall-to-wall is the worst idea ever

wall-to-wall is that thingy on facebook that can trick you into thinking you are sending or continuing a message to someone but really you are writing it on their message board for god and everyone to read.


by the way, I spent days-DAYS- composing Stand by Me in Mario Paint when I was 12. I found this pic online of someone's game and it must sound like a car wreck of quarter notes.

How can you book a flight and not have a seat?

I'm on the AA site booking a flight to Kansas. I would have done it sooner but for some reason I thought I had to ask which day i got off. Finally I decided to just do it, but now it's almost $700.00. That's crazy and it's not like the service is any better. I almost want to see what first class is going for.

So I ended up going through the airline site instead of the "deal" sites because I thought it maybe cheaper. I got my price under 500 now, but I have no seat on one plane...


....American Airlines was no help. By the time they did help the $480 ticket went up to $687. So I went back to orbitz and I'm now flying out of Newwark at 6am but the ticket is a decent price.

Oh yeah, I know I've pushing this Marathon pledge this a lot, but I only have 3 months to go, so it will be over soon if I can meet the fund raising goal. I want to Thank Cynthea and Simon for helping so much. oh and here is a link to my running blog so you can be on my ass about training: SeeChristiRun.blogspot.com/

me running again animation

Mostly I've been running and animating myself running. I'm so terrified I'm going to injure myself but I'm taking it pretty easy except for last practice when I ran 4 miles without walking at all. That hurt the next day.

Anyway, as part of my fundraising I baked cookies last night. I need to bake more. Plus I am building a site to sort of persuade people to contribute. I don't think anyone will buy me looking determined while gazing over a mountaintop, so I tried to draw myself running. Yeah, I'm not finished but here is another work in progress.

ideas for fundraising

I'm trying to think of ideas to raise $5,900 by March 5th.

So far I'm going to learn to make cookies for Friday's bake sale. Do you think it would be a good plan to offer drawings or maybe a simple animated loop in exchange for donations? Those are usually things I would do for free if I wasn't so lazy. If I do draw for donations who do I draw for? For how much should I ask? This could help me practice animation...if it won't take me away from training.

I think I will also learn some Smith songs on my Sax. I think the main reason I never made much money was because I didn't play anything people recognized as a song. Then again they may not recognize Smiths.

Since only people I know read this I'm just going to start asking for money now. I don't know what I can offer you, so let me know. I guess at this point I'm offering favors.

I will get you more information soon. So far I know that 75 cents of each dollar donated goes to cancer research and donations are 100% tax deductible.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training

I'm working on a little vain little animation of me for my funds site. It may end up being a blog site, but that might be ok too. Here is a rough. It isn't much right now.

Marathon

so today I will sign up for the Rome Marathon, then swing dance.

I know I'm going to have to lie to myself about being able do this and then make that lie not a lie. In other words I'm trying to be positive. Ok, not only do I have to train for 26 miles, but believe I can actually raise $5,900 for Leukemia by March. This is possible.

So like I met Lisa Loeb today and completely flirted with her. I have no idea if she could tell. 

Anyway, she performed at my work and I didn't know I was not supposed to video tape her. It sucks that I can't show her playing her guitar way close to my lens so as to not give me a good shot. Really, I can't read subtlety. But I apologized to her after, which is why I can not post it online or show it anywhere. I do have a still photo. I don't think she would mind me showing it. 

I hit a person

I'm totally not proud of it. Actually, I'm a little disturbed. Maybe I can rationalize it. Okay this is a first-person- kind-of-drunk-point-of-view. The girl is my coworker. The fist is mine. and the dude is um a staff member.

You have to click on it to get the real experience.

So yeah, my friend was shoulder checked by a passing guy. It must have really really hurt because she cried out in pain. Like my picture, I saw her crying, man walking passed, my arm striking him. Like a reflex. As my fist lunged at his back shoulder I read the words STAFF but couldn't do anything to stop. It wasn't a hard hit, but I began apologizing immediately by trying to massage out the hit. The guy turned around holding a broom and long handled dust pan. The man was sweeping the floor. I felt like shit.

I am not an angry drunk, but quite the opposite. And I don't fight. Really. I've had the opportunity many times. What with girls at starbucks pissed that I looked at them and fat scruffy fagots in lesbian bars calling talking shit right in my face. I'm always calm. So what happened? I wasn't mad. It just sort of happened.

Sara Rabbit

It looks like i'm making a series of girls in costumes saying Grrr. I wonder how many more I can do?

a few pictures from Halloween

I forgot to take photos of myself, but Cynthea took this one.

My camera and I are still having disagreements. I have more pictures from the party but I'm afraid to put up terribly unflattering pictures with the flash. I blame my camera. Camera always thinks it's way too dark for the photo I want and insists on using the flash. I hate flash. We are going to have to work this out soon. Anyway here are just a few photos. Some are blurry. I'm putting them up because I liked the lighting and colors.

Christi Solo

okay so like I didn't want to ruin my costume but my Blaster just came and it wasn't what I expected. This is so not butch. This is puny. How can I shoot Greedos?


My gun was supposed to be this size. I used to dress like this everyday when I was 6. When I wanted to really be Solo. I drew it before before Tricia and Cynthea but I was trying to keep it a secret.

Cynthea Queen

Atreyu Tricia and Pepe off model

Twinkie the Kid

So yeah this is me sketching like I was in Eric Eisers class again. I scanned the metro card cus I don't have a flat ruler.

Do I believe in The Devil?

I called home today because I forgot to call yesterday on Arkalalah. My dad picked up. at some random point in the conversation he asked me, "Did you tell your grandmother that you didn't believe there's a Devil?" I was thinking oh great I'm in trouble. I probably did at some point say I didn't know if I believed there was a devil or not, but that had to have been a long time ago. Was she thinking about this recently?

I knew I didn't want to talk about it with him. Why? Because it's pointless to expect someone to believe what you believe. I know people do it all the time, but really everyone has their personal beliefs outside of their religious doctrine, no matter what they might say. So I told him "Well if it makes her feel better to believe that I believe in the in the Devil then tell her I do."

Other than making my grandmother feel better he wanted to know if I really didn't believe in The Devil. "Why do you think the world is in the state that it's in?" he asked. I meant to say "Cus people are selfish greedy assholes" but he doesn't like when I curse so I had to reroute the sentence which probably came out sounding stupid. Something along the lines of man has free will and it's silly to place blame on some immortal being and not take responsibility for ones own actions.

Then he said "But we raised you to believe there was a devil." I said that lots of people believe in God without believing there's a devil. The Jews believe in only God and it was their religion first. Then i tried to get off the subject.

Really was this important at all? So what if I don't believe in the devil. You can't believe something just because someone raised you to, or told you to, or even if you told yourself to believe. Perhaps if you were brainwashed. Perhaps you could for awhile. After a while you would feel what you feel and you either believe what you feel or you lie to yourself.

I could go on about why I question the existence of The Devil. Why the story of Lucifer is not even in the Bible but in a 17th-century epic poem called Paradise Lost. or why Satan in the book of Job was not clearly an evil being at all. What I find strange is that Christians see Satan as the immortal embodiment of evil with the power to corrupt mankind, but will not admit that by believing that, they have made him a god. In Judaism there is only one god. If there is another being who represents a different aspect of humanity(evil), that makes it a second god regardless if you called them a god or not. You don't get one god and one devil. If you really need two immortal polar extremes then what you have are two gods. A good god and a bad god. And this is why I do not believe in a devil because I believe in one immortal being, God.

Actually even that is not true. Because I may believe in other gods such as the Great Spirit or Apollo. Our Lady of Guadalupe. For that matter there could be a Devil. Who is to say he isn't simply the guy that runs Hell. Maybe it's a shitty job and he doesn't care if who's there or not. Like Hades. Or maybe there really is The Devil and he's really pissed off that people aren't calling him The Evil God.

This is why I try not to talk about religion or politics with my family anymore. I know we just believe and think differently. it will only start an argument which no one will win. I care for my family far more than religion or politics.

And I really don't know if there's a Devil in the sense of evil personified. No one does. And if tonight the DEVIL decides to reveal himself to me...yeah I will be scared out of my wits and then believe he's real. But really if that were to happen I would think the Devil is a lame loser with nothing better to do.

I guess I'm taking requests. This one goes out to my homie, Tricia. I hope you weren't bit by that spider. this is an alien on a horse. I made him an Indian or perhaps just very interested in Native culture.

I feel like I'm going to throw up tangerine seeds.6 or 7 or them.maybe 9. I bought tangerines for the first time. They were part of my homemade egg mcmuffin brunch. Now I picture baby tangerine trees incubating in my belly. I feel so sick. Should I try to throw up? I can't risk losing my egg muffin and hazelnut coffee.

I have the most awesome bruise of a soccer ball imprint on my thigh.

Thursday is the ASIFA open screening and I plan to show the lighthouse animation there. Hopefully finished but if not I will show it anyway. I don't know what happened to me for the past month and a half. Guess I've been too depressed and gave up on art in a way. But recently I've had the urge to study Hopper and other Ashcan school painters. This means I need to visit the Whitney.

I also need to take more pictures with my digital camera. It's silly to have unlimited film and not use it. Here are a few I took the other day...












Cynthea wanted me to draw a mermaid. Here it is

The Innovator

According to the US Navy website's Officer Planner quiz I am "The Innovator." They totally lifted their quiz from The Spark personality tests. Here are the results. This all reminds me of so 8 years ago...

The Innovator Profile
Innovators are artistic and like to apply their imagination to invent creative things or find unique ways of doing things. They see themselves as expressive, original and independent. Does this sound like you?

Activities and Interests
If you’re an Innovator, you may currently enjoy activities or hobbies such as:

* Performing: music, dance or drama
* Photography
* Visiting art museums
* Painting, sketching, design or creative writing
* Making homemade crafts or sewing
* Travel
* Learning foreign languages

Work Environments
Innovators like unstructured work situations and prefer to work in roles where creativity is valued.
As an Innovator, it’s likely you’ll enjoy careers that allow you to:
* Express yourself creatively
* Think imaginatively or conceptually
* Produce or review artistic works

It goes into a break down of the Navy quiz...

Do-er = 8
Persuader = 4
Problem solver= 2
Adviser = 0
Planner = 0

I think I problem solve much better than "2," but I said no to any question involving computers or sitting. I don't think I am a "do-er" so much...either. there isn't a category for loner or loser. Procrastinator.

You might wonder why I'm on the Navy website. Because I like to flirt with the idea of joining. Seeing the world. Owning a motorcycle. One of those very old bikes with the double headlights and short handle bars. Palm trees. Looking out onto the horizon and seeing ocean in every direction. I've never been on a boat. I road the ferry a few times and I tried to stand as close to the front edge as they would allow. I want a change in my life. Sometimes I'm afraid I might "just be a dreamer."

Being a dreamer had always sounded like a good thing. A creative dreamy way of seeing thing world. People also use it as a bad word. Inventors, artists, musicians, writers where always dreamers. Right? That's how it goes? You dream dream dream even if no one has faith, and then you keep dreaming and believing -and oh yeah hard work and dedication- it happens right? Right? Is the only way that it might not happen is if you give up?

This was really not supposed to go in this direction. I really want to think about the Navy more.

You know I think it's odd that the quiz results didn't tell me any specific careers I could do in the Navy.

yay concert pics

I bought 4 tickets to Tegan and Sara thinking more people were coming. I kinda forgot to invite until the last minute. Anyway I was stuck with 2 extra tickets so I tried to sell them on Craig’s List , but everyone was selling their T&S tickets. I ended up selling them for drinks just so they wouldn’t go to waste. It worked out. Sara and I got “free” drinks and two random people got to see the show. 

I took my camera. Here are some burry pictures I took while trying to understand my camera

Tegan next to the EXIT sign

Sara in red light. 

Sara took the next two. She found that it worked better when the flash was on, but covered up the light.

The clock says 10:10. That's Tegan signing.

yay

Here are a few I took.
Tegan on keyboard. Sara picking something off the stage.

Sara singing something sad.

Here is a little bit of video. I know it isn't great, but its hard to steady a small camera above everyone's head.

I watched the debate

I tried to pay attention when Biden spoke. really I did. But his eye's look just like Sam, the Eagle from the Muppets. So this is what I saw.


Up until this week I was voting for Obama. Now, I'm not so sure. He and Mccain do not support gay marriage and he supports the $700 billion bailout. Cynthea says you have to vote for the person you agree with most on many issues. I still can't think of an issue in which I agree with Obama, other than I don’t want McCain for President. I actually used to like McCain before he started to run.

I'm looking into other candidates. There is a woman named Cynthia McKinney running with the Green party. So far I like her stance on issues but I know little about her.

apparently 4.6 miles looks like this

This is the path i ran today for lunch.




In other news, my landlord is threatening to take legal action unless they receive this months and last months rent by Oct. 3rd. On top of that, they have an employee who is now claiming she is a lawyer. I would love to see what goes on in that office. I bet its like a sitcom. "YOU! Be the attorney today!" I should have known something was up when I saw that their restroom had two toilets side by side with no divider.



one more thing.
I DID NOT draw this frame but I did color it. This is another "Stacy and Lisa" (as Charles Spranklin would say) and of course they are lesbians. Can't you tell? You can not? Notice the way they look at each other... the brunette is towering over the blonde. They are alone in a dimly lit setting. It is the job of one to dress the other. This is totally 1950's code for lesbian pulp. My boss is a genius and doesn't know it. oh yeah, Cynthea does't like my blurry airbrush curtains.

ALGORITHMS अल्गोरिथ्म्स

It's really weird the the title is in well i'm not sure. I'm gong to say Hindi, because i just googled it and i think it was Hindi that came up. I was trying to copy the word algorithms in lowercase. I don't know what key i pushed but the word(s)/non word is what happened.

I typed algorithms because that is what I have been studying to solve the Rubik's Cube. I don't have a cube yet, but I'm going to get one....and when my ass bone no longer hurts from riding that mechanical bull (twice) I'm going to get back on the skateboard.

-side note. I don't why Lisa Ling has been on tv for the last hour and a half. I have the sound turned off, but I like that she's in the living room. It reminds me of watching Channel 1 in middle school. Wow how old is she? I thought she was an adult when I was 12. whoa Oprah's on here too? Am I watching Oprah? Is Lisa Ling on Oprah? I wonder what Oprah means? Is it in relation to opera? Operah.

I haven't exercised much lately so I ran home from work. It was the first time. I have walked home many times and biked home many times. It's about 5 miles.

I should draw pictures from memory of the things I see on my commute. You know the nice thing about running in midtown is you feel like your on a ride. Not a like roller coaster but a little more like riding a bike on the sidewalk. only you are jogging and dodging people and leaping over potholes and sewer grates. Ok that doesn't all sound fun but it is. The buildings look taller and glassier because you are actually looking at them. Not carrying heavy bags forcing you to hunch over. And you get to see a bunch of the city in minutes. Riding is a lot like that too but it a bit scarier at times. I don't look at the tall buildings. I look at the traffic. perhaps soon I will video tape my ride to work and post it.

At work I tried playing in Flash while waiting for boards to come. And I was not having a good time with it. I do so wish that stupid program would make some brush tools that I like. I hate the way flash looks. I hate when I try to sketch the bush tool latches onto the previous mark and makes a vector clump. I do not like that I can not rotate the stage (same problem with photoshop)and I still hate that there is no brush consistency when I zoom in and out.

this post can not be an algorithm because I'm too tired to finish it.

It's not a good idea to ask God to give you a sign through your itunes. It doesn't really work.

other things:
I saw Richard Williams at the MOMA last night. Lets say I saw a 2 hour infomercial. The man in an amazing animator and if i had the money I would drop it for his master's class.

All he had to say is he's not giving the class anymore because he's working on his personal feature....so please buy the master's class dvd set to fund the film and pay his rent/mortgage. That's honest enough and for the most part that's what is was, plus we got to see a lot of his cool animation. However, it bothered me when it became a sales pitch. In one word the interviewer called Dick Williams "giving." I almost laughed. Really, it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to convince people that it's a great class or that he learned from the classic animators. It's totally fine that he has to make money off of the $1000 dvd set. It's ok. so why do people think that you have to be shady about selling it?

I also have Tegan and Sara tickets. yay. I bought them from a guy driving an Audi who also gave me a lift to the MOMA. Normally I don't take rides from strangers, but it was a very nice car we were in Midtown.

I also have an appointment with a lawyer about my landlord situation. It's not free, so i really hope good things will come of it. I'm getting nervous. Next week is the 1st and I don't plan on giving my landlord a dime. I hope I'm on the right track. Suddenly, people are buggy out about a possible eviction. They are telling me I will never be able to rent in the city again if I am evicted.

I think I have volunteered to be the building photographer. I took some pictures of a tenant's apartment because she was going to use her camera phone and camera phones suck. I think soon I have to take pictures of a missing fire-escape. I don't know how well these will help our cases. I wish I could get into the basement to see the con ed meters. The landlord claims that some tenants had jumpers on Dakko's meter...but no one but Dakko has keys to the basement and I don't think any of us would know how to rig that. Plus he has to show evidence of that right? There are camera's everywhere. You can't make a claim like that and not provide evidence. can you?

it's so late and I have to work now.

I have finally decided to meet more people, so I placed an ad. Not that I really have time to date with work and other work and perfecting long letters to my slumlord...

I'm not interested in one night stands. They were never that fun. And so after wringing my sleeve into a letter about how I wanted to meet someone to kick the soccer ball around or play handball in the park with maybe ice cream or coffee afterward. And admitting how incredibly conceited I am, yet always kind and sincere to others. This is the response:
Hi:
22/Asian/F/attractive/sensual/looking for 1st time bi experience. Upper west side 70's here. Are you looking for this evening?
M****

99¢ store

This is what I saw this morning while rushing to the 4/5 train at 125th ST (on Lexington). It looks like someone robbed a 99¢ store.

They need to change that sign because it is not close to Mother's Day. Oh no I just realized they are advertising that their items start at 99¢!

RENT

Last night our electricity went out for the 6th time in three months.

We have hot water again after 4 days without it. It works a little wonky still.

After the landlord had promised that the boiler would be repaired on Saturday we were still without hot water come 12am Sunday morning. At that moment I canceled my rent check.

My email:
Hello Tom,

I am writing to inform Dakko Property Management that our apartment (**** *Th AVE #** NY, NY 1****) is still not receiving hot water. Your email said the boiler would be repaired today, September 13th 2008. Our apartment has been without hot water since September 9th 2008. It is simply irresponsible to not promptly repair the problem.

In July (2008) the electricity shorted out on 5 occasions. Each time the problem was not addressed until 12 - 24 hours later. It left tenants in the blistering heat overnight while food rotted in the refrigerator. Again, it was irresponsible to allow the problem to continue for so long.

I have stopped payment on September’s rent check #**** and will transfer the $***.** into an escrow account for as long as my apartment does not receive hot water and the boiler is not truly repaired. I had truly hoped the issue would not elevate to this level, but DPM’s lack of responsibility is impossible to ignore any longer. I will print and certify mail this letter on Monday to insure you have received it.

Sincerely,
Christi Bertelsen

I am not the only one. It turns out that everyone is so sick of out landlord that we are making a tenant's association. Our neighbors across the hall wrote up a petition and my roommate is also very driven to get the tenants together and sue the landlord. So far they are wanting to use the rent money to pay for new wiring since our slumlord never will.

I took a shower at the gym this morning after I beat the shit out of another punching bag.

Here’s a video I made last night. I call it “No Lights.”

Yesterday, I bought my first pack of cigarettes. Perhaps it was because I didn’t remember the name of the brand or because I first purchased a Pellegrino then asked for the cigarette pack and a lighter, but they actually thought was under age. That would mean they thought I could be 17.

The pack (Organic American Spirit) was about 11 dollars. The clerk said, “Wow. Those are expensive.” And I was like “Yeah…I know…” as if I already knew the price because I burn money on cigarettes all the time. It’s strange that I tried to act like veteran smoker when my ID is real, expired but real. In six months I will be 30 years old. I don’t know why I felt I had something hide.

So I walked to Central Park and found a good spot to smoke one. I really don’t see what the big deal is over the price of cigarettes. I mean 11 dollars for 20 smokes is 55 Cents per cigarette. That’s like buying a lollypop. I guess it would really add up if you ate lollypop after lollypop, but that’s unhealthy. You can get diabetes that way. Anyway, I wanted to be alone because I have never been able to smoke without coughing and I didn’t want to be embarrassed.

Mostly I smoked it like a cigar. Holding in the smoke; let it out. I wanted that relaxed feeling that people have when they smoke. It’s like they are thinking, “You know…I really love to exhale most” as if this was their verdict after a quiet personal debate of inhaling vs exiling.

I ended up walking home after that. It’s about a 4-mile walk from that part of the park. It was dark by the time I reached 108th street. I saw my old slum apartment. “If I still lived there I’d be home by now,” I thought, which is the same new thought I have every time I walk passed my old place.

A girl came up to me with a subway map. She had an accent I couldn’t place, but she wanted to know where the 9/11 concert was held. I had no clue. Then I realized I had been walking up CPW the whole time with the WTC lights at my back.

At this time last year I was in Malaysia and I was so homesick that I watched the lights from a live webcam. It was September 12th morning there while it was September 11th night in NYC. I drank a coke everyday because it was made with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup. I swam everyday in the pool outside my condo. I’d take a walk to the mall or around a soccer field when guys were playing in the evening. I always wanted to join, but I was afraid my game sucked too much. I’d look for dirt I to take with me. Then I’d take a nap. Afterwards, I’d go to the café at 10pm and stay there until 2am every night. I sat outdoors under an umbrella table. That song, Um-ber-ella was always on the radio. At that time I’d try calling the States. I’d talk to my mom for about 10 mins. Then try calling other people. It would be about 10 AM in the states. I once wrong-numbered some poor guy in Malaysia when I tried calling Tricia in S. Korea at 1 am.

About this time two years ago I think I was commuting to White Plains. I was working at BlueSky. The commute wasn’t bad at all. I learned how to read train schedules. Leaving the city everyday made me feel really lonely. The air felt nice up there and I started actually reading on my commute. “Music For Torching” was the first book I could not put down. At home I was working on “Positive Reinforcement” (Caton’s film). Tricia had moved back from Kansas and I knew about Porto Rico Imports coffee because I remember drinking it on our roof. I would stare downtown very often. I’m starting to get the craving for French Hazelnut. I never did camp on the roof like I wanted to. I loved seeing central park turn red and orange like a carpet leading to midtown. I could see St. John the Divine, which was right around the corner from my old place on 108th street. I can still see the church on the fire escape in my current place.

Today was a nice morning to walk to the train. The air was cool enough for a jacket. I walked down the stairs, over the 400 foot long extension cord which was stretched from an apartment on the 5th floor to an outlet on the first floor hallway. The cord winded down the stair rail in such a way that you may not notice it if not for its bright orange color. I passed a middle-aged fat white man with three younger hipsterish people knocking on a door. I assumed he was probably a broker. He said “good morning” and I said “hi.” Inside I was laughing because with the very obvious extension cord stealing power there was no way he was going to make a sale. I walked out the front door and there was short black woman talking to two police officers. I over heard “repairs” and I wanted to stop and vouch for whatever she had to say but I was so late for work already.

Something I failed to mention- my building has no hot water. I showered at the gym yesterday and this morning I boiled water for the dirty dishes. My apartment sucks.

What I found out later was that the woman, Ms. Jones, called the police because she “was going to hurt someone if the repairs weren’t made today.” The middle-age man was Tom! Tom the douche that works for the landlord. My roommate emailed me a list of the 10 worst landlords in nyc and ours was #3.

My landlord emailed me today saying that I am in breach of contract because they have not received my rent check, which I sent on the 5th of September. I do not know why they do not have it. It will cost $15 to cancel the check and to send a new one certified mail(so that I’m positive when they receive it) will cost another $15. Plus they probably want to give me a late fee. However there is still no hot water in my apartment.

I have a soccer game tonight and I’m not looking forward to a cold shower at home.

Mary Louise Parker is high

Someone colored MLP's eyes high at the 59th stop on the 4/5/6 train.

Ok I'm still not finished with the animation project. soon, very soon i will be. then i don't know. i guess i will run another 10k or in my case jog-walk. I may go to closed coney island or bike that 30 miles around central park. Maybe i will do both. I have the craving to eat Indian food on a banana leaf with my hand. i don't know of a restaurant like that. I don't know what i want to do. but I don't feel like drinking and I don't feel like doing nothing.

Here is a test frame of the Raft scene clean-up (before shading).


and here is my artificial view at work. on the left is the west view of the Puck Building on Houston St. on the right is the north view.

I call this blog look "1997."

If you can read this without [Option- plus sign] making the text larger then I have abandoned this idea for the idea of legibility. My other thought was to make the text light grey on a white background.

I'm still working on the animation project. It's a good thing that the whole project is behind schedule and not just my part.

I slept last night which is good.

Today, I went for a very long run with my roommate. I think running makes me feel better. I feel sick today. First jogged to Columbia, then down to the CP reservoir and back. When I took off my shoes I realized I had on one of my Two Sock socks. For fun I drew faces on two socks. That was a long time ago and I forgot I did.

I sometimes wonder if I will ever finish the sock film. what's the point? Am i really a filmmaker? Sometimes I think I'm just a dreamer. I feel like doubting myself and I'm not looking for a pep talk. I just thought I would say it to anyone reading. I took a picture of it anyway. I even posed like in my storyboard frame.

This has nothing to do with anything but I want it to be Autumn. I want the brisk air on my face. I have the strange desire to sit in my dad's old Z28 with the cold leather seats and the windows rolled down. The doors were heavy and long. The colors were yellow orange and black and that reminded me of Fall. He sold the car years ago.

need more sleep

I was talking to Jose about my follies receiving animation work from other animators this weekend. This is really always a problem when working freelance. I don't know how the mafia does it. They must be really on the ball, but artists are different.

Actually, there is an anime called Animation Runner about a messenger girl who has to pick up and deliver animation work. Her job is hard because she's pretty much a producer with a bicycle.

Anyway, Jose explained it to me as I have these princesses spread throughout the land and I have to go around conquering worlds just to find that well...my animation maybe in another castle. so yeah. i tried to draw it.

me working

I love the idea of work

I took these pictures the other day while working on a freelance project. I was setting up my camera to test layout poses, but the light was so nice that I wanted to capture my workspace too.

As you can tell...even while posting this, I am just procrastinating. I’m not sure why it’s always this way.

In my head, all work should be a montage of great lighting, good coffee, upbeat music, pencils in hair, and the occasional developing puppy love. This all happens while fixing a muscle car or studying for the calculus exam. I want life to be a movie. Or maybe I just want to skip to the end or just know that it will all be all right. I am a little worried and I think this post has become a little too personal. I should get back to work.