Chase-Man

Long before Chase began using their name as an adjective... My friends and I referred to the bank as "Chase My Money". I guess I could have made the chase logo gobbling up other banks but that's old news. Besides, this blog is really all about me.

Last week my landlord was unable to deposit a Chase cashier's check from me. It was very embarrassing because not only did it look like a bad check, it wasn't even for the full amount. I've been paying rent in portions lately. I always send a cashiers check because they do not bounce. Yet, something was up. So I called Chase and they had no idea what was wrong with the check. It's not the first time I've had strange bank troubles and banks troubles which were not my fault. I would complain more but the representative was very understanding. She gave the impression that she felt that everyone else in the company was an idiot, so I liked her. Maybe it was a new tactic but it worked. She also offered to send my landlord a good faith letter.

Anyway, I hope it works out, because I don't want to switch banks. I came up with Chase-man chasing money ghosts with Jose at Applebee's.

Hello World,

I am gathering my files, program cds, and backing up bookmarks to prepare for the reformation of my computer in order to download more 30 day trials of A*obe programs.

My Animation team, The Giants, lost the championship last night. Thank to you everyone who voted for us. The Spartans just had a larger team. The good news is that my websites are up and running again. Newly designed christibertelsen.com (still a little buggy) and my donation page, seechristirun.com

The sooner I hit $1000 donation mark the sooner I will show a new background of Brooklyn :)

I'm going to animate another short piece for Adasport. I need to get *fterEffects on my computer first. Here is a frame of the idea... shhhh. I'm not supposed to tell.

The Giants are in the Champianship competition

Yay! My team has made it to the last round. If we win tonight (May 23rd)...we split the 15,000. prize. And I get to pay rent. For real. So please please vote for the Giants. http://www.adasport.com/

yay another post from me.

My website is still down. I hope my new design will look professional and direct enough to scare off the crazies.

The following reply email should explain why I have a three sentence cover letter policy for my craigslist inquiries:

" Hey Thanks for writing about the craigslist posting. here is my proposal in a short email because its to much to write down and if your interested you can email me back and i will be happy to have a phone call conversation.
I am looking for 2 artists....one that does tech packs (the specs for the manufacture to print my clothes) and one that can turn jpeg images in to a vector format. if you think your the person for this task then please let me know right away because i am in production for my first collection as we speak. one problem is that i cant afford to pay any one so i am looking to hire some one that is willing to work on a percentage fee of my whole total net income of my ********* ***** clothing line (men and female) with a 1 year contract. a certain percent for a certain amount of work done. this is a tempory side job bacisally. you just take an hour or two at the end of your day or night which ever is best for you to do a little work for my company as your invest of time for the percent that you will recieve. the contract doesnt start till my clothes get sold then it starts so its better for the artist or whom is willing to work with me. i am rushing this and i cant afford to pay no one because i am in for almost $140,000 with my production line and the money i have left i am going to the magic show in vegas at the end of august. so here i am looking for 2 artists to work with me on a percentage if your interested i will be happy to call you or you can call me any time after 12:00 noon (i am located in nyc area).
thank you and hope to hear from you soon,
********* *****
***-***-**** cell number"

OK

Well after close to straight 48 hours of building and rebuilding my website. The site is down. This sucks not only because I can't showoff my new portfolio but seechristirun (my fund-raising page) is on the same hosting. Meaning, no one can donate through the link I promoted in all my emails.

So, here is My Team in Training page:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/nyc10/cbertelsen


Here's what the html verson looks like

Finished my site

I've been awake since Sunday. I just finished putting up my site. so maybe that means I will finally fall asleep. Although...I'm going to be hiding from the sun like a vampire.

I really don't know anything about websites. I "built" my site sunday night-er-monday morning based on my photoshop mockup. When I was close to finishing I realized my logo and menu shifted on each page even though they had the same table measurements. After fighting with that for a while I just started over. So now I think I'm finished. I hope. I set up forward/masking because I my old site is a mess and can't simply take it down. But I don't know when the forwarding will set in so here is the link http://christibertelsen.com/animationsite/pages/home.html

I'm thinking of buying a new computer.

I've been looking at dell desktops today. I have only owned 2 computers in my life. Both were laptops. My inspiron was a college graduation present. I had it for 4 years and was able to make short animations, my reel, my website and an 8 minute animated film on it before it pooped out. So my parents gave me another awesome birthday present. A new xps that I am using now. It is 4 years old.

For the most part my computer is ok. It is not super fast but reasonable. These are reasons I don't want to give up on it. Well, I did have a scare a few months ago when my computer issues set my project back more than a week. but it recovered and I finished the project. But I don't think I can make another one minute animation on it without problems. Oh yeah I have strange dll missing warnings and my ethernet controller will not repair no matter what I try.

A new laptop will cost close to 2000. I can't afford that. But I might be able to get on a monthly plan for a $700 desktop and take on more animations. Plus, a new computer means more 30 day trails of A*obe programs before I have to figure something out.

I have not posted in a while so I here I am.

Ive been trying to redesign my website for a while now. I took time off to work on the stencil animation and a few other projects. So even though I had posted images of my "new" site awhile ago... I've been trying other ideas. The images at the top are in the direction I'm going now.

The main problem I have (other than people confusing my bosses drawing for mine- although it says I only drew that backgrounds and colored them) is that people don't understand what it is I do. My site (like many artists sites) have several categories. It is very understandable. I animate so I have a page for my animations, I storyboard so I have a page for that and so on. I thought that a jack of all trades thing was fine. It not even all trades. As an "animator" you have to be able to do a variety of things because animation work is always scarce. I always thought having a site that says I can do one thing is like saying "i only have green apples." So that's why I and most artists try to show all the ways they be employed. It's not like "Cat Sitter" is a category.

Since my Yellow site is confusing I have been directing people to my vimeo video page lately. Only one gig has come of it, but It's nice that site the says "hey I make animations." I've done illustration work, but I've never seen myself as an illustrator. Yet it is still a category on my site.

What I want to do is direct films, commercials and music videos, but I have little experience with live-action and well since I can draw I might as well try to make money that way. I've thought about trying become an art director but not sure how to get into it. I can also drive...commercial vans with expensive equipment. I can ride a bike. I just learned how to make and use wheat paste. I have found that by not practicing my sax for 3 years or more...i sound like a beginner. So that idea is out.

Well, here is the title page I designed but was told that it's a better idea to start on my film and animation page. So I thought I'd show it anyway. oh those are actually photos that I scanned. Except for the top one. I know it doesn't make sense.

Urban Stencil on Adasport :)

Please VOTE for my video "Urban Stencil" now on http://www.adasport.com/

(You'll have to register for the site) Thank you Thank you :)

Training for NYC Mararthon

I have finished the animation for the first "Stage" of my NYC Marathon Funding Raising...game?

Team in Training's pre-training for in ING NYC Marathon will start this week on May 4th. Running this marathon has been a secret goal of mine for more than 10 years. Well maybe not a complete secret, but I hadn't imagined it really coming true. I also like the idea of doing it for charity.

While training, I plan to animate backgrounds based on the 5 boroughs of NYC. I hope that will give would-be donation givers incentive to see me reach my funding raising goal. oh here is the site if you would like to make a donation I and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society truly appreciate it. http://seechristirun.com/