Well, the last time I blogged was almost a week ago. I still can’t get over the feeling that a week is too long to go without blogging. Could this be an addiction? Do I just need more friends to talk to?

Anyways, last Thursday night was another debaucherous night that ended up in a way I would rather it not have. Thursday was Amanda’s last day at Omation, so we had to go watch her play in the company softball game. Adam and I went together and had a couple beers. Afterwards we went to the bar and had some more drinks. After a little while, we ended up at the beach passed out in the surf. Luckily our friends to us to their house where we crashed. The morning was worse. At 7:30 in the morning Adam and I walked back to his car to drive home before work. He was still wet and covered in sand. I was only wearing shorts because I didn’t know where my shirt and shoes were. I felt bad for all the kids on the corner waiting for the school bus as they watched these two disheveled guys walk up the street. I think both of us have had it with drinking for a while. We both said the same thing during SIGGRAPH, but I think it will stick this time.

By Friday afternoon I had started to feel better. I was actually holding down the liquids and food I was eating. I was happy about this because I had to get on a flight back to Seattle. I had to camping with everyone at Deception Pass.

I was really excited to get home to Seattle, so when I got to the airport at 5 o’clock to catch my flight I was disappointed to see that the flight was delayed. I said to myself that it was okay, since I would still get into town on time and Sandra and I could still drive up to Deception Pass that evening. Unfortunately due to something, fate, act of God or whatever, I guess I was not destined to fly out of John Wayne because as soon as the plane landed and the passengers got off we were informed that the flight was cancelled and we had to either stay the night or go to LAX for a 9:30 flight. I opted for the LAX flight and eventually made it home at midnight. I was a little upset because we weren’t able to get to Deception Pass until Saturday morning, but I did get a bunch of frequent flyer miles for the delay. (I will be glad when I am back in Seattle and I don’t have to worry about flying anymore).

Anyways, the camping trip was really exciting. I had a lot of fun seeing everyone again. Unfortunately the weekend was too short for me. I only really got to enjoy Saturday because the last day of camping trips is always about cleaning up. Sunday was pretty much the same old drill of waking up, taking down tents, cooking breakfast / lunch and then tidying up the camp site. On Saturday I got to play a little basketball. After the basketball game we all headed down to the beach for a little relaxation. Kagan, Eric and I also wanted to do a little climbing. We didn’t really know whether there was anything to climb on the beach, but we brought our stuff anyways. When we got down to the north beach I was a little disappointed because there was not a lot to climb. We clambered over the rocks to the west beach where we found a little wall that provided some pretty fun little routes. We started with some climbs straight up the face. To have a little more fun we did a small traverse route that brought us out over the water and the climbed up the face that faced the water. We pretty much climbed around until we were tired and then we hiked home. Oh yeah, like always, I hurt myself. I also have the other camping photos in my gallery.

This week has started out well. I realized this morning that I need to move by this Thursday because my lease is up when I get back from labor day weekend. This evening I packed up all my stuff, so it is ready to move. I figure that tomorrow sometime I will get a uhaul truck and some friends to help me move my stuff. Jentzen and Steven have been nice enough to let me crash in their apartment for a couple weeks. Thanks guys!

Well, it is about bed time. I need to be well rested for another action packed day at Omation.

Before we watch March of the Penguins on Sunday, Steven told about a guy named Derren Brown. He is from the UK and sort of like a David Blaine, but he works more on manipulating and exploiting the human mind in terms of suggestion …. I guess, sure, whatever.

Anyways, Steven told us about how he convinced a guy that he was really playing in a zombie video game. At points I was skeptical and at others I wasn’t. In any case, whether this is true or not, it is an interesting concept to think about. Plus he flips out. Just watch and you will see.

So I though Google Maps was a secutiry threat (check out the local nuclear plant). I won’t mention that Camp Pendelton is right nearby.

Then I thought Google Earth was invasive, yet … super cool. I could even look at the Church at Wangfujing where I went skateboarding.

But now, Amazon has a brilliant new idea to jump on the bandwagon of mapping the entire globe. I never realized that the drop in price of storage would lead to such a need to photo all the corners of the globe. Does anyone feel like this whole thing is a passive version of 1984? In any case, Amazon has a new set up where, when goods are delivered to a business they will snap photos from the delivery truck as they are delivering it.

Someone delivered something to Omation and this is what happened ….. when the truck came.

And if, you were all wondering who Mike Beal, my render farm buddy, is. Click the link above, click ‘walk left’. Check out the second picture from the right. The guy parking his car is Mike. How ridiculous is that?

After doing a little research on residential addresses I knew I could not come up with any photos of neighborhoods, so I think it is only related to businesses. However, I was able to find 5 businesses located on my block, so I guess it is only a matter of time before some photos get up.

If you want to read more about this new ‘service’ then read the following articles.
Amazon search pictures your destination
Amazon Rolls Out Multimedia Yellow Pages
Amazon/A9 joins the crowded maps field

So, here is my question. If the delivery van was delivering to a company in a neighborhood and it just so happened to drive past someone getting robbed or carjacked. Could the company A9 be held responsible? I guess as much as any other bystanders are responsible … I guess. I wonder whether someone might try to hold them responsible.

This week has seemed to go by really fast. I am still trying to figure out where it went. Not too many exciting things happened this week. Steven did get a car though. He bought a Volkswagen GTI, which is pretty sweet. It makes me want to go get a car now too. Aaron finished up his C++ programming classes at RIT today. Jason was the proctor for his exam. I wish I could retake some intro programming classes. Maybe then I could get some better grades. I started Yoga this week. Since Chris’ girlfriend started working at Omation there have been daily Yoga sessions on the mocap stage. I never realized how relaxing and energizing Yoga could be at the same time. I can’t wait to get back into it next. I even have my own little mat now. Most exciting is that I got to meet Jentzen’s family today. Unfortunately Mike and I were busy working (riding the white horse), so I didn’t get a chance to hang out with his kids.

Work has been good this week as well. There has been some confusion as to what Mike and I should have been doing, but that was cleared up in the middle of the week. It was great to have four people involved in what we were supposed to be doing, all of which thought they were the ones who were supposed to be telling us what to do. That was kind of confusing. Needless to say, we got our task and we completed it. This weekend we will test out what we did and hopefully by Monday we will be able to utilize artist’s machines for renders when they log out.

So this weekend I don’t have many other plans besides working. I will probably read more of the Half-Blood Prince. I might also try to work on some mental ray shaders. I don’t want to do anything really complicated. I just want to get back into writing them by doing some simple, but useful shaders.

If you want to see something a little strange and possibly disturbing, Rubber Johnny.

Here are the photos you have all been waiting for …. I am sure of it …. yeah right. Anyways, follow this linkymabob and you will see the photos. (Note: there are in reverse chronological order, end of trip first).

Road Trip with Sandra

Here are photos from the Max X Adventure.

Max X Photos

Also, you can check out these little vids too.

Route 1
Route 2

I thought it was time to go rock climbing again. I also thought it was time to ride my bike 60 miles again. So this week I decided to combine the two. I had already ridden to Newport Beach once, so I didn’t want to boulder at Corona Del Mar. This left me with only one other place to climb, Ortega Falls.

To make a long story short. The ride was tough and I ended up going to the San Juan Falls, which are just down the road from Ortega Falls. I did’t realize this until I got home and I read different directions and looked at some more maps. I had a lot of fun anyways.

It took about two and half hours to ride the 30 miles (with 2000 ft of elevation gain) to the San Juan Loop trail. I hiked the short loop trail and then went into the San Juan Falls. There was no water because of the summer heat, so I was able to get right into the little canyon and boulder around. There were no routes, because I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. At about 5 o’clock I decided to come home. I needed daylight because I left my bicycle lights in Seattle. It only took two hours to get home, thank god, because my legs were killing me.

I am still debating on whether or not to go back to the real Ortega Falls. I am sure it will be a fun place to climb, but at the San Juan Falls I was at least able to use my imagination to try some new things and make up routes. I also want to wait for my legs to recover before doing that again.

On Friday August 12th Omation’s favorite adorable TD, Steven Caron, turned 21. The evening was really nice. We were finally able to give Steven the typical Omation welcome, a trip to Ole’s.

We started the night out at Ichibiri for some good ol teppanyaki cuisine. The crowd was small was smaller than had been expected, but it was nice because we were all about to enjoy the meal together and not just with the one or two people sitting nearest to us.

The first drink Steven had was a glass of Merlot, as recommended by Chris. We all got the lesson on how to taste and drink the wine properly. After that it was time for some sake. After the meal it was time for the louder part of the evening. It was time to play foosball at Ole’s. I have been itching to play since I was in Seattle and this was the first time for Steven to play with us at Ole’s, so I was excited. We had some pretty good games last night. I had a great time and I hope Steven did too.

For anyone who hasn’t seen the trailer. I am assuming it is a lot of you, here it is a link:

Barnyard the Movie

Here is an article with some pics from the making of the Softimage Testimonial Video. It basically follows Jason and Anthony around. If you want to check it out here is the link:

Making of Softimage Testimonial

Actually, I haven’t worked a lot lately. The middle of the week was sort of interrupted by SIGGRAPH. Things have been going well at Omation. When I was gone I expected there to be a lot of development on the render farm done, but apparently I was wrong. When I came back, the coding was pretty much the same as it was when I left, but some of the processes had been changed. The past couple days I have been staying late at work to work on the farm. The work has been pretty fun. It is a pretty complex project combing databases and networking. I have been learning a lot and I really hope the people higher up will say, right on guys, we are going to use your solution. That will make Mikey, Alastair and I really happy. Plus, how many people get to say, you know that film. Yeah I helped develop the software to render the movie.

Speaking of work. I know it is Sunday, but I should probable head in soon, so I can get some work done for our demo tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Oh yeah, by the way, when I was in Seattle Diana let me borrow Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. I finished reading it the other day. It is a great little read. It deals with the story of two boys during the cultural revolution, but it focuses more on their interested in western literature than with any of the details of the cultural revolution, so it is a pretty charming short read. I would recommend the book to anyone, whether or not they have an interest in China.