Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in James' LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Monday, March 31st, 2008
8:32 pm	Hey, gang. Not dead, yet. Kinda' feel like it, but... La-La Land is what it is, and not quite what this good-ole' midwestern boy was prepared for. I'm on the "other" one of these posty board things more often than not, despite my best intentions. Shoot me an email or look me up under "oroboros3d" on the cesspit that is Mi-Spache'. Later, all. -J (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
6:16 pm	Reading for FUN! Wow, two in one day! This is for my geek peeps! Apparently there's a new Starcraft:Ghost novel out. I was so busy that I missed it when it was released in December. Just got back burning through a Barnes & Noble gift card I got from mom. Just gonna spend my evening reading until M is done with class. Still waiting on the video game that never happened. M has family at Blizzard, so I may see if she can pry any intel out of them. Anyway, props to PA for the cool comic. Hope they don't mind me linking. Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: Sibillant Silence (1 Comment |Comment on this)
5:18 pm	I'm a baaaad man! Ok, so it's been how long? Yes, my idea to keep this thing up as a reference for my friends in KC has met with disaster. Well, I can't guarantee that this will change much, but I do have a few announcements for all of you. 1) I graduated with my BS in Computer Animation on March 9th. I am officially a grad! I also received the advanced achievement award for my class and got to give the grad speech. It made mom cry. In a good way. 2) My website is up, but still under heavy construction. Check it out at www.oroboros3d.com 3) I'm moving in with my girlfriend until I get a job or she graduates, whichever comes first. We'll then be heading out to So-Cal where she has family and the job opportunities are more plentiful. If this sounds like I may be stepping into a long-haul relationship, then yes, you've gotten the right impression. Her name is Marisa and I love her to death. She actually gets me. Or should I say understands? Either way, it's really cool, and I can't help but look back on my earlier posts and grin. Who'd 'a thunk it? Haven't heard from too many of you, but I hope that's not permanent. Any-who... Last I heard Darren & Jen were expecting and headed to Boston, maybe? Any clarification would be great. Drop me a line at the contact page of the website and I'll get in touch with each of you personally. James Current Mood: ecstatic Current Music: Faith No More "Last Cup of Sorrow" (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 10th, 2006
3:16 pm	So, Ok, it's been a year since my last post here! I'm OK, busy, but OK. I'm 2 weeks into my final project class for my bachelors. Got some good ideas but a few are movin' slow. Worked stuff out with my girl a couple of months ago. We're going to Myrtle Beach this weekend to help out her aunt and uncle for some business thing. Going to the gym. Having some computer issues at home, and I'm really annoyed at Ubisoft for a shitty port of the new Splinter Cell game for PC. Been trying to get ahold of Darren and Jennifer to see how the spawning is going, but haven't heard back. Emmy and Crhis are having a girl. I'm crazy, you're crazy, everybody's crazy! Or is that lucky? I forget. Later, all. Current Mood: Distracted Current Music: Clickety-click (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 8th, 2005
1:21 pm	Ok, so I'm not dead... I'm just a little scatter-brained. So much so that this is the first update in about 4 months! Things are getting crazy-busy around here. I'm in my last two classes before my final project months for my demo reel. Trying not to stress it too bad, but most of you know me well enough to figure that that won't happen. I'll be posting a new email update or two soon. Keep an eye out. Current Mood: sluggish Current Music: Q3A (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 9th, 2005
9:51 pm	Open Lab, yet again! Who am I kidding! I may have taken the last few days off, but I practically live here. Working on my rigging project. Figure I'll be here for a few hours or more. I've got a progress check on Monday. Wednesday at the club was good. Took me a bit to get into the groove, but I wound up having a great time. Shot pool with my buddy Rob last night. Didn't do too bad, though I was disappointed that the place we went was beer only. I'm a hard liquor kind of guy. Take that how you will! Hasta. Current Mood: restless Current Music: Nada, at the moment (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 7th, 2005
4:26 pm	Oh the joys of Summer Break! I'm doin' my best to not do a damn thing! It's not working out though. I've got the rest of the week off from school. Sleep has been a priority, as well as some serious decompression time. I'm doing pretty well, but now I gotta get on with all those things that have taken a back seat to school for the last 2 months. It's not too bad, a welcome change, even. Been trying to catch up with those of you out there that answer your phone or return messages, but if I've missed you, you know how to get ahold of me. I set myself up to start a new modelling project this week. Something a bit more sublime than my last. Haven't started it yet, though. I actually have a week where I'm not required to be behind a computer, so I'm finding it a little hard to motivate myself. Don't figure that'll last any longer than open lab tonight(yes, lab is still open during break, we're workaholics). I'm going to my brother's wedding in Oregon later this month, and then to SIGGRAPH in L.A. a week after that. For those of you that don't know, yes, I have a brother, and yes, he is getting married. Oh. The other thing? Yeah, SIGGRAPH is the international industry conference for computer graphics. Half the school, faculty included, is going. I won't have a demo reel or anything yet, but I'm gonna take some scans of my projects and see about touching base with recruiters and HR people from some companies I'd like to work for. Keep ya posted. Oh, and I started smoking again. Eh. http://www.siggraph.org/s2005/ Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Kid Rock - Devil Without a Cause (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 26th, 2005
9:43 am	Finished Character Modeling! OK, I finished it, turned it in, and it looks GOOD! The images went out today, hope that you all liked 'em. Animation project calls. Then sleep. Then alcohol consumption. Serious alcohol consumption! Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Kraftwerk - Minimum Maximum (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 23rd, 2005
3:24 am	The 3am Update! Ok, so I finally sent out another email update with some pics. Hope y'all liked it. If you didn't get it, drop me a line and I'll forward it to you. I'm in open lab for the next 4 hrs working on my animation scene for Monday. It was originally due on Friday, and I was starting o stress my ability to get it done on time, then the instructor gave us an extension until Monday. Happy day, happy day! I'm just plugging away, trying to make it through the end of the month. My folks will be coming down to visit for a few days next week, and then I've got my brother's wedding in Oregon at the end o July. It'll be good to see them all. Back to it. -J Current Mood: busy Current Music: This is Corrosion - Online Radio (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 15th, 2005
10:46 pm	Has it really been 2 months? Well, crap! Sorry, gang. OK, I hope you all understand the craziness of my life down here. If not, you might actually think I was avoiding all of you. So, without further ado... As of the end of April... I passed my 2 month art class with flying colors, and got a solid "B" in my model creation class. The group project I was working on didn't totally suck, and I got a decent grade on the Oakley sunglasses I modeled. It was really foreign to me, the way the MAYA program handled the modeling process, but I held in there. My meshes got a little dense, but overall not too bad. I took a few well deserved days off, and then jumped head-first into a full month of weed-out classes! I had Shading and Lighting and Fundamentals of Logo Animation. S&L is interesting, but the amount of time we didn't have and the ridiculous opinions and attitudes of the instructor made for a less than enjoyable experience. FLA was pretty nifty, though the 300 frame limit we had left me wanting. I wound up with full marks on all of my tutorials, pre-production and storyboards, but still managed to come out with a "C" in S&L and a "B" in FLA. In defense of the "C" I got, the instructor marked me down for using ray-traced shadows on my project, just because he doesn't like using them personally. It may sound petty, and a little far-fetched, but sadly, it's true. All said, I'm done, I passed, and I don't have to deal with that instructor again. My choice to stop smoking the end of April may have been inopportune, but I managed to make it through this month. On the social front, I had little time to spend my friends as I was averaging just 2 1/2 to 3 hours of sleep a night during the school week, and spent what free time I had on the weekends trying to catch up. I did, however, start spending some time towards the end of the month with a girl who's in my program. We have a ridiculous amount of things in common, and we understand each others schedules and motivations. Hmmm, have to see how this one turns out. Star Wars Ep. III. Need I say more? Yeah, yeah, I do! "Biggest Piece of Crap, EVER!" I could rant on this one for hours, so I will just state for the record that George Lucas should never again be allowed to write or direct his own movies. Leave that to those people with talent. Argh! As of the end of May... Character Modeling and Motion Studies. OK, I'm not a fan of Motion Studies. Don't think I've got the right temperament for an animator. Character Modeling on the other hand... I was really concerned with the last modeling class that I had. It was really unnatural and I had a hard time grasping the conceptual side of it. Now then, that was a hard-surface, static object. This month, I get to do organic characters! OK, confidence returning, interest peaking, yeah, I could do this as a career! I've been putting in crazy hours again, but I really don't mind this month. Either I'm getting used to it, or the subject matter is keeping me going. We'll see. My buddy Doug moved down to St. Petersburg from Lawrence at the beginning of the month and I went to visit him last weekend. It was good to get the heck out of Orlando for a day, and as it's only 2 hrs away, I can see trips down there becoming fairly regular. My friend Rachel was gonna come down for a visit again, but certain situational things kinda threw plans out the window. I was disappointed not to see her, but I can't fault the reasoning. I'm currently shopping for a new tattoo artist, though I'm not in any rush. I've got a new piece or two planned out, and want to be confident of the abilities of whomever I go to. Patience. It's 12:30am on a week day, so I'm in open animation lab, as per usual. Time to ge back to work. I'll be sending emails out this week with so stills of recent projects. Keep yer eyes peeled. If you're not sure if I have your address, send me a reply and I'll get you added on. Later. Current Mood: artistic Current Music: Mudvayne - Lost and Found (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 20th, 2005
1:08 pm	Stress, not good for you, no, not at all! OK, I'm a little twitchy. I've got portfolio review for my art class coming up on Monday, a final model creation project due the middle of next week, tutorials to catch up on, and a group project that's driving me nuts. I HATE group projects! If I'm gonna get a bad grade I want it to be my fault. I've got time yet, but I feel like I'm on the edge of snapping the neck of the next idiot who pisses me off. Probably doesn't help that I've chosen now as the time to stop smoking. It's been almost two whole weeks, and I still get nic-fits, but my will is strong. Mostly. Current Mood: stressed Current Music: Sin City Soundtrack (Comment on this)
Monday, April 4th, 2005
4:50 pm	Ok, so I've gotten some sun! I'm even a little full-on crispy! Just got done with spring break. Ok, hang on, stop. I should back up 'cause it's been like 3 weeks since I've posted... After an enormous amount of work, my first model for my 3D Foundations class got turned in. At over 29,000 polys and more than 20 hours of work I think I did a pretty decent job. Sleep came at a premium during that last week of class but I did a pretty decent job of catching up over break. During that last week of class, one of the guys in my program named Jason wound up getting really sick and needing to go to the hospital. As he did not have any friends or family in the area, I volunteered to keep an eye on him. We went to the emergency room at Orlando Hospital and spent 3hrs there before he even had anybody talk to him. We then spent almost another 4hrs in the waiting room and still no doctor. So after more than 7hrs of doing absolutely nothing, we said screw it, got the names of other hospitals in the area and went on a quest. Talk about a lousy situation. We finally got in to a much better hospital about 3 miles away and Jason got to see a doctor within 20min of being checked out by the admitting nurse. Seems the boy had a bug bite that developed into a staph infection and was running a temp of 102. The doc got him on antibiotics ASAP and then took the time to explain that had Jason not gotten attention when he did that the infection would have killed him in a few days, it was that bad. He spent the next 5 days laid up as they treated him, including opening up the site of the infection to help it drain. He'll have a nice 7 inch scar running from left hip to crotch, but I'm pretty sure that he'd agree, the scar's better than the alternative. I stayed in town until he got out of the hospital and then put him on a plane to go home to see his family over break. My buddy Doug came down to St. Petersburg to visit family and look for a place to live, so I went and spent a Tuesday with him. We had some good times at the shooting range(a fully auto AR-15 is nifty, but only when you're expecting it to be full auto. Surprises are not fun), went to an excellent seafood place just off the beach, and spent some time walking on said beach. The place he found looks great, spacious, affordable, and not more than 100 yards from the surf. Nice. I forsee more frequent visits, time permitting. Took a couple of days off and got some sun at the pool. OK, I look a little lobster-rific, but I tend to burn before I tan. Eh. Caught up on some reading, did some artwork, and pretty much relaxed. Went and saw Sin City on Friday. A solid adaptation of Frank Miller's noir comic of similar title, though I think it lost a little in the translation. Check it out if you like the genre. Everything's been pretty hunky-dory, though some of the isolation this last week has got me missing all my friends back home. Spent some time hanging out with a girl from school who proceeded to demonstrate just how not right for me she was. Why is it that people who value honesty, creativity, intelligence, and responsibility are so hard to come by? I just don't get it. Ah, well, I'll get over it. Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: nothin' (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 13th, 2005
3:48 pm	Not enough sun! OK, classes have been great, and my projects are really exciting, but I really gotta get outside more. Being in a classroom or studio all day is fine, I like what I'm doing, but I need more of this Florida sun. Oi. What free time I have is usually evenings, and being a night-person, you'd figure I'd be OK with that. I am, but dammit, I want sun! Argh, enough of the rant. I finally made it to the beach. It was kind of neat... for 3am. I haven't had class since Wednesday, although I've put in a bunch of lab time. Idle hands, as they say. So, I got a wild hair last night and drove to Cocoa Beach, which is like 45 min. It was a good drive and gave me some head-clearing time. I found a nice spot just down from Patrick AFB(I think that's the right name) and took a walk on the beach. The rip-tide was really strong, so I stayed out of the water, but the view of the stars was incredible. Saw a couple of meteorites, and grabbed a sea-shell as a memento. I'm taking a break from open-drawing lab right now, and will be working with my friend Casey's drawing tablet & Photoshop when I get home later. My robot project got me excited about digital painting, but I've got a lot to learn. Special shouts out to Brian & Jenny, and Emmy & Chris on their up-coming weddings. Sorry I can't make it guys, though I'll be there in spirit. Best wishes. Current Mood: bitchy Current Music: Tapping the Vein (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 8th, 2005
6:59 pm	Running OK, so I do my best with the updates, but it does occasionaly slip my mind or take a backseat to everything else going on. I'm in my third month of classes, these are the beginning of my actual animation core program. I've got a drawing class on Monday and Wednesday for 8hrs, and a 3D Fundamentals class and labs on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. We're doing a robot character design project and creating digital texture paintings to be applied when we create the 3d model at the end of the month. It's pretty damn cool! I've got it kind of easy this week as all the 3d teachers are out in San Fran for the Game Designers conference, so I don't have actual class, but I am going in and working in open lab to really keep up with my stuff. My roommate just graduated the recording arts program and headed back to New Orleans to visit friends and family for a week. He's planning on sticking around and finding a job locally, so no worries there. Got together with the guys I did the movie with last month and we're working on another one, though at a more relaxed pace. Kind of a film noir piece. Still trying to get copies of the first on made so I can show it off, POS or not. (Comment on this)
Monday, February 21st, 2005
8:41 pm	Local Music Had the chance to check out some local bands last night. Went to see a local Goth/Industrial group called Human Factors Lab. Playing with 3 others @ The Social in downtown Orlando. Opening act was some annoying Emo-punk/happy crap that I couldn't wait to get off the stage. HFL was pretty good. Nice presence, but nothing I hadn't seen before, and the music, while it rocked, was a bit more angry than these skinny little Marilyn Manson mongers could pull off convincingly. It was a mis-matched billing of 4 bands that some promoter is probably catching hell for. The last two acts, however, really impressed me. Turns out the frat-boy muscle-heads standing off to the side were actually a local hard rock band called Shine (no, not the nationally recognized band Shine). They proceeded to kick the musical crap out of the two previous acts and reminded me that good old fashioned rock and roll is, in fact, not dead. Berman, a local favorite closed the show with some good solid "oh, yeah, we look like nerds, but we can rock!". Kind of a hard version of Toad the Wet Sprocket. An odd analogy, I know, but accurate to the best of my ability. Other than that, the last few days have been pretty uneventful. Financial aid finally came through, so I can now eat something other than Ramen. Got calls from Scott, Natalie, Doug, and Rachel. My buddy Robert made some excellent home-made pasta & sauce for dinner on Friday. Excellent! When he makes tomato sauce, he doesn't just heat up some Ragu, he actually dices tomatoes, cooks them down, adds all the stuff, and makes sauce! Mmmm! Oh, and I nailed a 100% on my recent CMI test. Surprised the heck out of me, I was sure I missed one. Eh. School project for the week involves creating a rough web page that will eventually become my home page, so I'll be spending some time with Photoshop, After Effects, and Go-Live. Will keep y'all posted for when it hits the web. Not sure when my current mood is coming from, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Current Mood: aggravated Current Music: Computer Hum. Man I gotta get a walkman! (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 17th, 2005
11:52 pm	What a World! Oy, recovery can be a bitch! Had a good time with Rachel this weekend. The plan was to go to the mass showing of the movie my group made for the school film project, but the guy in charge of the DVD's never showed and wasn't answering his phone. They're supposed to reschedule for this weekend. We just wound up watching some movies and shooting some pool w/ my friend Robert. Robert's an excellent guy from NYC & Miami who's in the Recording Arts program here. He's one of the few people in the over-30 bracket and we tend to gravitate. He also drinks like I do, though he has a really nasty habit of doing one-too-many shots. Unfortunately I followed his lead and suffered just a bit getting Rachel to the airport for a 5:30am flight on Sunday. The beginning of this week was pretty low-key. KOTOR2 came out for PC, so I've been a gamer junkie for a few days. We didn't have class yesterday, so my group got together to do some re-edits and audio on our movie. It won't affect what we turned in, but we wanted to get it done and put to bed for our benefit. We then proceeded to go for seafood(gator tail)and beers. The Jimmy Buffet wanna-be owner of the joint kept turning down the jukebox whenever we put anything in, so we bailed. Took the guys down to I-Bar for Industrial Night. Looks like a few of them are planning on going back. Class tonight was pretty damn interesting. We had an open-forum discussion on computer AI that, surprisingly enough, didn't escalate into violence. Heated words and flaring tempers yes, but no violence. God I love intellectuals at times! It was a great discussion, and carried over into our break times. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity for something like this again in the future. Current Mood: energetic Current Music: Funky Israeli Rock (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 8th, 2005
2:48 pm	A Special Thank You Didn't pay too much attention to the Super-Bowl this weekend, but then I don't watch sports all that much, just the occasional Alabama game (Roll Tide!). Once we got our film turned in on Sunday, most of the group went home to chill or crash. Robert our sound/music guy and I went to a party with some of our classmates from last month. Something about being surrounded by people as passionate about their ideas and goals and creativity as I am really got me going. It was like an epiphany. This is where I belong and this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I want to say a special thank you to all the people out there that helped make it possible for me to be here: Erin, Darren & Jennifer & Olivia, John & Becky, Kevin, Yosa, Beau, Mom & Dad, Cory & Hollis & the boys, and everyone else who gave me the support and encouragement I needed to take this step. I couldn't have done it without all of you, and I'm glad I didn't have to. Thank you all. And just wait, 'cause you ain't seen nothin' yet! I should have a website going up by the end of this month/beginning of next for projects and content. Keep ya posted. James Current Mood: Honored Current Music: Just the hammering of my heart (Comment on this)
2:20 pm	I Love this Place! Been ridiculously busy lately, but I love it! Had a quiz on Friday, figured I stomped all over it, but I only got a 96%. :( Yeah, I know. Got out of class Friday at 2030hrs and promptly went to a preproduction for Another 48hrs. No, not the Eddie Murphy movie... Full Sail does a student film competition on a regular basis called 48hrs. Teams get together and have a total of 48hrs to complete and turn in a film using a mandatory prop and genre. The contest started at 1800 on Friday and the cut-off to turn it in was 1800:59 on Sunday. I got in as an actor for one of the groups, but spent considerable time & effort on several other areas of the production. Total sleep for the weekend ran really light. It was a crazy experience but I learned a lot and had a great time! We now have a group of about 5 or 6 guys running under the name Sinister Oatmeal Productions. We plan on doing the competitions as time and class schedule permit, as well as shooting other shorts during our time here. Post-production ran a little long and our finished product isn't all that polished, but we got it in on time. Just in time, as a matter of fact. Our submission was the last accepted for the competition, and I'm pretty sure I broke a few traffic laws getting it there. If we qualify in any of the 10 categories, our film will be shown on the big screen at Orlando's Universal CityWalk Theater this coming weekend. Wish us luck. Speaking of this weekend, my friend Rachel is coming down for a visit. Seems 68 degrees and sunny is preferable to 20 degrees and snowing in Iowa. Go figure. She and her friend Deb are also coming back in June for a vacation. Remember, everyone is welcome and I'll do my best to put ya' up, time and school permitting. Current Mood: energetic Current Music: Nothin' (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 3rd, 2005
9:25 pm	A little behind the times.. OK, so I've been a little lax in the updates... So sue me. Better yet, don't! I'm a student and don't have any money anyway. Final grades for my Media Arts class are in- 95.65% with 100% attendance. OK, so I'm proud of myself. The grades for my Behavioral Science class aren't posted yet, but I rocked so well on the mid-term that I was exempt from the final. Go Me! Things have been pretty busy down here. My current schedule for Computers, Math and the Internet runs 5-9pm M,T,R,F with lab from 1-5 on T,R. Wednesdays and weekends off, so I can't complain much. A quiz a week and a computer building project round this one out. Hello & greetings to Adam, Doug, Carey, and Natalie for the howdy-do posts. Thanks gang. I miss ya all. Doing all right making some friends. We all split into our core programs next month so it'll be interesting to see how things go from there. My friend Rachel is coming to visit next weekend, and y'all know you're welcome any time, as long as it doesn't directly conflict with school. On a Hell,Yes! note... John Ostrander & Tim Truman's classic comic title GRIMJACK has escaped comic purgatory and is once again gracing the shelves! I'm a happy monkey! Later all. J (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 20th, 2005
12:53 pm	Second group of test grades in! Ah, I see now the benefit of studying. Got a 104% on my Behavioral Science test and a 97% on my Intro to Media Arts midterm. Rockin' out with perfect attendance and a strong interest in all my classes! I love this school. So as not to let y'all think I've been replaced by some strange pod-person, I did go out to the Industrial club last night. No great shakes, but the DJ is willing to listen to anything I bring him, sooo... I do believe that some Rorschach Test will be in order. Got a group presentation in a half-hour or so. Should go over pretty well, but the problem with group projects is that you can't fully gauge the other members until it's down to the wire and too late. Keeping the fingers crossed. Found out about a comic & sci-fi convention coming to Orlando the end of next month. Lots of guests and a Japanese pop kabuki band. Will keep it posted. Later. Current Mood: busy Current Music: various cell phone ringers going off at inappropriate times (2 Comments |Comment on this)