I have my Halloween costume all set... first time I'm dressing up in about five years. I shall be Coraline, complete with yellow rain slicker and a cute blue wig. :-D

Not expecting to have a totally crazy evening, as there's NO way I'm heading into the city and I just did something very nasty to my knee and will have to spend the day sitting.

Oh my GOD that was the biggest miscommunication EVER.

Developing an unhealthy obsession with panel games. Mock The Week is amazing.

Projector arrived today! Can't wait to get home and try it out. Methinks I'll be hosting movie nights soon. Speaking of which, 17 DVDs of BBC nature docs should appear on my doorstep next week. (Anyone up for a Planet Earth marathon?)

And, speaking of movies, I'll be trading the ten foot picture on my wall for seeing the only surviving film print of The Lion in Winter at the Loews tonight, complete w/ Q&A with the director.

There are days I really love living in the media capital of America. Yesterday was one of them.

We started last night at Rockefeller Center, watching NBC/MSNBC's election coverage. They had a giant map on the ice rink and guys pulling banners up the side of the building to count electoral votes.







The crowd was very heavily Obama, and gave a huge cheer when they called New York and New Jersey (even if it wasn't exactly a shock). The confusing thing was having MSNBC on one side and NBC on the other, and the two networks calling things at different times in different orders.

It was crowded, but not nearly as bad as ABC/CNN's stuff in Times Square, where we wandered to next.



There were just as many people there, if not more, but traffic was still flowing so everyone crammed together on the sidewalks and islands.



It was such a madhouse and we couldn't hear anything so we decided to head to a big party hosted by one of the Dem organizations in the city.

Right as we were about to head in, a girl came running through the door screaming that they had called CA and FL for Obama. She yelled "OH MY GOD HE'S THE PRESIDENT!" and collapsed crying into someone's arms.

Instead of cheering along with a giant crowd watching ten-foot-high TV screens, we found out he'd won from her.




Two links for today:
http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=152

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7708893.stm

I haven't posted in forever.

I have been trying to cut down on coffee, and attempted substitutions have resulted in me becoming completely addicted to making this: Hot Cocoa Chile Chocolate. It is utterly amazing, easy as hell, keeps well, and great both chilled and hot. (Also particularly tasty with a dash of cinnamon and a sprinkle of salt on top.)

The Loews Jersey is the best theatre. They've restored the organ (which took something like 11 years) and the sound of this thing is unbelievable. Seems to have attracted a lot of attention, too, as last night's Phantom of the Opera screening was almost sold out. I've never seen a crowd like that there, but it was a very welcome sight! I really need to get around to volunteering.

Also, hands down the cutest video of the election: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/26/fifth-grade-reporter-in-f_n_137929.html. This kid is awesome.

I leave for the UK in less than a week. Can barely wait. I'm working for the first 2 weeks of the trip, but after that I have real, live vacation time! It's going to be wonderful to finally get to spend an extended amount of time with David, particularly the bit sans work. We're hoping to find a little B&B somewhere in the Lake District and enjoy a few days' escape from the city, but we haven't made any definite plans yet. It's so pretty up there, and I think we can both really use the fresh air.

Picked up John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise today. How could I not purchase a book with a cover that includes the phrase "Here are the 700 hobo names you have requested"? I bought it for the plane, but I don't think it's going to make it that far. They never do. I have no book-willpower.

Work's crazy-busy, but I'm getting to do things for an ABC special and I'm really excited about that. The show doesn't have an airdate or final name at the moment, so you'll have to stay tuned for more info. I'm also animating the history of juries. Hooray trial by ordeal! Next time you get called to jury duty you might end up watching our film. I was going to include Hector as one of the jurors, but he's really hard to disguise as a person. People just aren't cubes.

My website is down again. This is unsurprising:

Dear Clients,

At this time our server has experienced a massive hardware failure due to power fluctuations at our datacenter.We are currently restoring last nights backups to a new server located in Dallas, TX. Please bear with us at this time while your data is migrated. Our current ETA on return to normality is less than 12 hours. We apologize for this inconvenience.

New Photoshop tutorial: Okay Paintings.

Date:	2008-05-19 00:13
Subject:	BRAAAAAAIIINS
Security:	Public
Mood:	bouncy

Wow. My long-given-up-for-dead laptop has returned! It's eaten three hard drives, so I'd been reluctant to feed it another, but David got Ubuntu running on here from a CD boot, and the wireless connection just... works. So now I have use of the pretty, pretty giant screen on here again, and I can hook up an external drive for Actual Work purposes. The main thing I'd like to do is run DVDs, though, and I'm not sure how to do so considering I'm running the OS from the disc drive.

Still... laptop!

Alas, linux doesn't seem to want to recognize the SD slot on this computer, so this entry does not include a photo of David's shiny new Eee900 ("Eee!" indeed, it's so cute and tiny and useful and I reallyreally want one) sitting on top of this BEAST of a laptop. (Which is, amazingly enough, still fairly powerful by current standards, even though it's five years old now. The fact that it weighs ten and a half pounds, well, that's more of an issue...) But still! LAPTOP!

Anyone interested in getting their video work on ABC?

I can give you advance info on a new series that's going to have a web video element that influences the content of the TV series. It's a neat little film competition, and the videos are easy enough to do with what you have on hand. It's not for HUGE CASH PRIZES or anything, but it's a chance to do some great creative stuff that addresses real issues.

Let me know if you'd like more details, and I'll email you the show info and first round prompts -- the site doesn't launch for another week, but we're especially looking for people willing to get started early. (It's a bonus both ways: you get more time to work on your films, we get 'seed' videos (that can also become part of the show narrative) to get other entrants started.)

Yay new Photoshop tutorial!

This one took some figuring out, but I've done the hard part for you. All you really have to do is download the brush and layer style and plug 'em in.

Embroidered Text Effect

I finally got the rest of my GIANT after effects tutorial posted on my website. I've been working on that thing for way too long.

My question is this: I want to post a video at the end of the finished results. Quicktime or FLV?

Date:	2008-04-06 17:33
Subject:	I has a website!
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

www.victorianece.com

Things you can choose as a prefix if you book a flight with American Airlines:

Mr.
Mrs.
Ms.
Miss
Dr.
A.V.M
AB
Adm.
Amb
AMN
Archbishop
Baron
Baroness
Bishop
Brig. Gen.
Brigadier
Bro.
Cantor
Capt.
Cardinal
Chaplain
Cmdr.
CMSGT
Col.
Consul
Count
Countess
Cpl.
CPO
CWO
Dean
Duchess
Duke
Earl
Ens.
Eur Eng
Father
Fr.
Gen.
Gov.
H. E.
Herr
Hon.
HRH
Lady
Lord
Lt.
Lt. Cmdr.
Lt. Col.
Lt. Gen.
M.
Maj.
Maj. Gen.
Master
Mlle.
Mme.
Mother
MSGT
Pastor
PFC
Pres.
Prince
Princess
Prof.
Rabbi
Radm.
Rev.
Rt. Hon.
Senator
Sgt.
Sgt. Maj.
Sir
Sister
SMSGT
Speaker
Squad.Ldr.
Sr.
SrA
Sra.
Srta.
SSGT
Swami
STSGT
Vadm.

I'm procrastinating on getting ready 'cause I don't want to go outside.

It's so cold today it's almost funny. But my bed and apt are nice and toasty-warm. And my main concern at the moment? Wondering whether or not the snack truck will be back outside work. It wasn't there yesterday and this seriously confused my morning routine. I'm that much of a 9-to-5er. Er, 10:30 to 9pm-er? Either way, it's kinda sad. But I almost hope they're not back today -- don't want those guys standing out there in this cold.

Iowa caucuses today. Not gonna predict anything, 'cause, well, I have NO IDEA who'll come out on top.

Date:	2007-12-21 19:05
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	nostalgic

I miss my old laptop. It was a nice little machine. I think my goal for January is to get it up and running again.

So my apartment building caught fire today. I just read it was a 2-alarm blaze and someone's being treated for smoke inhalation. But I'm ok, no one else was home, and it seems like my apt is completely fine as well (my AIM sn is still signed on at home, which is a good sign). The fire started on a 9th floor balcony at the other end of the building, and as I essentially live inside a solid block of concrete, I wasn't horribly concerned about it spreading all the way to my place. But getting woken up by the fire alarm and a lot of sirens is definitely not a pleasant experience, and I've been kinda disoriented all day. Doesn't help that I forgot my glasses. :-/

The firefighters showed up almost immediately after the alarms went off, and they were already putting out the fire by the time I left for work. Looks like Metropolis Towers will have one very crispy balcony to show for this morning's events, but seems we're otherwise no worse for wear.

I am so stressed out right now.

Oh Wikipedia. You have everything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_denominations_of_United_States_currency

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointy_hat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Norton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contest_to_kill_100_people_using_a_sword