suck-ass ass sucking

Fun game: find three hints in this photo that today sucked ass.

1) Using two computers to work at once: One layer of my 200-frame render wasn't working, I had to restart my animation software after every 3-4 frames. Eventually I transferred to my 64-bit laptop, which seems to work better for these renders. (It's happened before).

2) Piles of cable on the floor: Wireless router went down. I think it overheated in the sun - it hangs in the window so my landlord can steal a connection from it. He had a bunch of internet stuff to do today, so he was running in and out of the house (sometimes without knocking), in a panic. Tom, if you read this, it's all good, but you're a crazyman!

3) Bodum of coffee on the desk. This means I'm too intent on work and too multi-task-y to even get up from the desk to get a cuppa joe.

I enjoy being a one-man-show, but one huge disadvantage is that you have to troubleshoot every problem. No tech department to call. It can really screw with your momentum sometimes.

Bonus Round:

At sunset I walked down the road to the pub, ordered a pint, put it on the deck table with my wallet and shirt, went across the street to the water, swam, came back and drank and created this piece of malarkey. I kind of like the overall composition:

sequence

I've been hesitant to show much of the film lately, but I guess it's good to give a little away every once in a while. Here's a few shots from it. They're screengrabs from compressed Quicktimes in my editing software, so the picture quality isn't great.

I'm really happy with the flow of the last part of the film. The pace feels good, there's lots going on, and the camera moves and onscreen action flow into each other well. I find myself being drawn in whenever I review the cut.

I'm not as sure about the first half of the film. There's a few shots where the conflict settles more than I'd like, and if it makes the audience drift away for even half a second, I'm going to lose people. So I have to go back and fix that. I've already cut four shots from the middle, which helps a lot, but I might have to cut more. Weeks of work down the drain! C'est la vie.

The ocean was colder today because of a wind change, had to swim harder to stay warm but I'm growing more confident that I'm not going to suddenly cool down and stop swimming in the middle of the water. I'm still not sure why that happens to people, but I've had to drag friends to shore on several occasions, so I know it happens.

An osprey snatched a fish out of the water while I was swimming, and on the way back to land, took a detour and swooped over me to see what the hell kind of creature I was.

C'est la vie!

swim calculations

Here's what I figured today.

The yellow line is what I'm swimming now - across the cove and up the shore and back again, without stopping. I do a little jag to avoid a big kelp bed, which is scary to swim over without goggles, because it gets all tangly and touchy and crabs hang out all over the kelp.

The big red line represents that same amount of distance stretched into a straight line.

So I can almost swim out to Entrance Island (but not make it back safely), if no freighters / ferries hit me (it's a big-ship corridor, but only gets used 6-8 times a day). I've seen photos of killer whales in that channel as well. Plus 1 knot currents depending on the tide, and colder water. Not safe, I'll likely never try unless a kayak is with me (but I sure do think about it a lot).

I think I can make it along the sheer cliffs on the West side of the island now, though. I've never swam that entire distance yet, but the first half is mostly rock climbing, so the second half is the nonstop swim. I've been looking at it carefully whenever I take the ferry. I'll likely do that with a kayak spotting for me, too.

My new daily swim plan is to swim from my cove right out to the far Northwest tip of the Island, where the red line to Entrance Island starts. Then back. If I can do that, I might make a go for Entrance Island before September, when the water starts to cool off. There and back would be about two kilometers of swimming, taking currents into account.

I was thinking today that I should buy a marine chart to get the currents in the area, and start timing myself so I can calc. how fast I swim, so I can plot vectors and figure out where I'd have to swim towards to hit Entrance Island. (You wouldn't want to swim right towards it if there's a current, because you'll be pulled away. Instead, you want to swim on a different course so you're pulled right towards the Island if your calculations are right.)

I'm also thinking about getting a diving knife, just to give me some parity with the seals. I would never stab one unnecessarily, but if I got bit or was being held underwater, I'd like to be able to bite back.

Even writing about this stuff puts a big grin on my face. What kind of bizarre hobby am I making up here?

cramerotti crop cycle

Here's my steed. He's light on his feet, and if you treat him right, he'll get you where you need to go every time. His name is Guiseppe, otherwise known as the Cramerotti Crop Cycle.

Here's a note written in my sketchbook a few days ago, when I was drawing chairs that had weird perspective:

don't see things as they SHOULD be.
instead, observe without judgement, carefully and neutrally, then
try to understand why
they are as they are.

"Nice place to visit, better place to rob."

Did about 30 pages of 2B pencil sketches this weekend. Here's one.

Amazing how only three days in the city filled me with tension and drained me of fulfillment. It's easy for me to feel "not good enough" there. Who's got the nicest bike, who can ride the fastest, who has the nicest IPhone, who's more toned, have you seen the latest movie, where are you working, etc etc.

I prefer my own little fucked-up universe, thank you very much. In my world, when an old man shouts a question across the coffeeshop, you don't smirk and ignore him like he's crazy, you shout back an answer. Who's crazy, the old man, or everyone else in the coffeeshop who's too embarrassed to see a man is just looking for a conversation?

For the first time ever, I pulled up to a stop light alongside another cyclist, and he consciously ignored my greeting and turned away to avoid contact. He had an IPod in, which made it even easier for him to avoid the present moment. Biking with an IPod?!? Bikers ignoring each other?!?

I do like that there seems to be a rebellious undercurrent rising up. Lots more tattoos and insane haircuts around. I'd love to see a real rebellion of street art slam all the new buildings downtown. I'd like to think the city is getting big enough for people to overrun bylaws and make their own rules.

Did you know you're not allowed to have a chair on the sidewalk outside your business in Vancouver without a permit?

Did you know you're not allowed to paint grafitti at the skate parks? It's the only place in the world where I've ever seen that. Even small towns like Gibsons let you paint at the skate parks.

One of my Top Ten Things To Do is bike through Vancouver's downtown core (from my courier days, I guess). Bikes can react so much faster than cars, you can rule the street if you're aware enough. One big trick - take control of car traffic. Point at a driver, make eye contact, then point to where you're going. It's amazing how they'll obey. It works best if you're going the same speed and direction as the car, so you're basically 4 feet away from the driver looking into his / her eyes. It works when you're in a car as well. Unroll your window and use hand signals instead of blinkers. People will stop and let you merge way faster. I think it's because they see an actual human extremity, instead of a blinking light.

more than words

Here's some of the things I did in the city this weekend. Only two of these situations were related to each other - it was a mad wander into like 15 different scenes:

- Chased a car on my bike.

- Trespassed and climbed onto a roof.

- Consoled a friend who just lost big in the stock market.

- Stole water and gave it away like Robin Hood.

- Watched the sun set on the beach while talking about Boroque music, honour, and duels to the death.

- Wiped cat hair off a quilt. (This is significant because it took a LLOOOONNNG time to clean cat hair off the quilt.)

- Called 911.

- Planned a dance / animation show.

- Swam and rock-climbed at Lighthouse Park.

- Chased someone into a crackhouse.

- Played with children.

- Washed blood off someone's hands.

Fantastic times, but I'm hoping nothing else happens for the rest of the day. I'm drained. Tonight I'm sketching at a theatre rehearsal. The play includes a sperm-stealing witch and a man with a ginormous penis.

100 Shots, Boulders, etc

Check out this rock. I stretch myself all over that sumbitch at least twice a day. The routes I boulder / climb always change because of the tide. When the tide is low, I can climb lower and use the hightide footholds as handholds. When the tide is really high, I can climb vertically instead of horizontally, because the water is there to catch me if I fall from too high. I fell for the first time yesterday while trying to climb up to the grass from a new route.

New challenge - wasps are building their nests in some of the choicest deepest handholds, so I have to work out new ways to travel. I accidentally twiddled my finger on a nest yesterday, but no harm was done to either party.

The wind really blows in the morning when the day is going to be hot - it's a real workout to swim. You gotta keep your eyes on the waves, and you often have to break your rhythm to get a good push over a breaking wave.

I definitely have the same evening swim pattern as Missus Seal. I think we're developing a mutual respect. Neither wants to get too close. It seems like she appears whenever I submerge, though, which freaks me out. I go under for 10 seconds, and when I come back up, there's her big head (and huge powerful bulldog jaws) staring at me. I usually talk calmly, and make growling and huffing sounds, and hope I'm saying "Stay Cool", instead of "Hump Me".

Working on shot number 100 today! Actually blocking in all the remaining shots to get the pace right. Shot number 100 is called "POV_Carnage". Whoa!