Gerald Saul

ironically unsteady

2012-02-01T21:59:00.002-06:00

I built this contraption today to shoot through the viewfinder of an old Brownie camera. However, the video was always unsteady, like it was swimming around and never holding in the framing I wanted. Ironically, this was all due to me having left the lens stabilizer on. Once I turned it off, everything was much better. To see the film I shot, go to my vimeo of Glance.

Errands with William

2012-01-31T21:47:00.000-06:00

I finished my report by lunch time. After William got home from school, I took him to pick up the replacement glass for the bathroom light fixture he bumped and broke two weeks ago. He felt really bad about it and wanted to give me all his money. I let him pay for it but then took him to Toys R Us and we stocked up on the new mini-figs (series 6). He opened the genie and the two gun western bandit. We also stopped at the refinery and watched the flames for a while.

Forgotten work

2012-01-30T21:39:00.000-06:00

I remembered yesterday that I still have to complete my year end information report, regardless of whether I'm on sabbatical or not. It is due tomorrow, creating a bit of a rush to my day. Doing almost anything extra in my day makes it difficult to do my readings and create a film.
Margaret shot this snowman around the corner. It's been warming up again and the snowmen that are here are withering.

games

2012-01-29T23:00:00.000-06:00

William began a weekly workshop on game design with Allan Dotson today. His friend Griffin is also in it. I had a Filmpool meeting. Didn't get much else done, there was a lot of noise all day and I didn't get much reading done and my film didn't go on line until after midnight. One delay was that I misplaced my whale footage from the Maritines. I was going to replace it with lobster footage so modified the script and title, but then found the whale footage and changed it all back.

The Matrix

2012-01-28T21:56:00.002-06:00

I put on "The Matrix" for William and I to watch this evening. "What's the Matrix?" he asks. Not only had he not seen it before, he'd not heard of it nor did he know any of the secrets. He says it was awesome.

Opening night at Rob Bos Art Projects Gallery

2012-01-27T23:36:00.000-06:00

William was off school today. I had intended to do something with him but he ended up having a friend over all day. I wanted to shoot a video in the basement but ended up needing to clean my space for most of the afternoon including building a shelf that was sitting there unbuilt but cluttering my area, fixing a standing lamp which was lying on the floor (I actually didn't fix it, it seemed too far gone, but I stole half of it and upgraded another lamp with its carcus) and went out shopping for the glass shade for it (costly item but I saved a bit of money and got vintage at the same time at the antique store (still came in at $125)).

This evening Rob Bos held his first opening exhibition of the year at his Art Projects Gallery. The show was all new work and he included a booth where he ran the videos I've been making, all of them from January 1-24. The crowd got pretty big by 10:00 and they seemed to be paying attention.

scars

2012-01-26T23:00:00.000-06:00

William went tobogganing with his class today. He phoned us in the middle of it all from his teachers iphone to say he was in a big collision with other kids and could we come. I drove over to "the bowl" where they were. When I got there, the light was amazing but I felt a bit self conscious standing by a group of grade schoolers taking their picture, so I just grabbed a couple from the hip (photos that is). William sauntered over eventually and I gave him some hot chocolate, and checked on him. He admitted that "most of the scars were emotional".

Putting on the Ritz

2012-01-25T22:49:00.001-06:00

William and I collaborated on this snowman today. I'm also struggling to put an HD video onto youtube. The quandary is that I can't find the correct output method. The Adobe media composer software keeps exporting the audio as a separate file but Vimeo doesn't want to accept it that way. I'll figure it out eventually.
I gave Rob Bos the works I've been posting to Vimeo. He'll be putting them in his show at the Art Projects Gallery this Friday. See you there.

new pinhole

2012-01-24T22:24:00.001-06:00

I rebuilt my pinhole I've been using for the Canon 5D. It is still built into an extra body cap, but I've replace the piece of black wrap with the hole with a piece of 2mm copper with a small hole, sanded smooth with a piece of 600 grit sandpaper (thanks Steve). I shot material downtown this afternoon while Margaret and William were at the eye doctor (William's eyes are still good, no glasses).

playing mom

2012-01-23T22:21:00.002-06:00

This morning I took Margaret for her eye test and to shop for new glasses to replace the ones she dropped the other day. This afternoon I took William to the dentist to check on a sore tooth he has. It ends up it is pressure from incoming teeth and should fix itself when the next one or two come out.

Ravenous Ravens

2012-01-22T23:25:00.000-06:00

William went to a birthday party at Laserquest today. We popped into Northgate Mall afterwards (it's very close) and I saw two ravens in the parking lot. They were very interested in some fast food. I feel somehow that there is a connection between that and our watching of "Live and Let Die" after supper. Macabre but full of trash?

got soul?

2012-01-21T22:06:00.000-06:00

Helped William and his friends make a video today (not yet on line, much editing to do). One of them appears to have dressed up as Ryan Hill.

Student fundraiser

2012-01-20T23:58:00.002-06:00

Had krazy good time at film student fundraiser this evening. This song about being a film student was being performed. It was very funny so I started to video it but when I heard my name, I was literally so surprised that I inexplicably hit the trigger and stopped recording. Bravo. Regret that I had to leave early to connect up at the MacKenzie Edward Poitras show (which had awesome food from the Sioux Chef). Thew my back out, probably on the stairs.

Krazy Kat and Krazy Rob

2012-01-19T22:49:00.002-06:00

We dream that someday all of life could be in 3D.

At noon today William and I made a video about how hot water evaporates in very very cold weather.

French Science Fiction

2012-01-18T22:59:00.001-06:00

This morning I finally put up a version of the website for the conference on French Science Fiction I'm helping organize for this fall: www.sf-fr.ca
I braved the cold to renew my passport this afternoon. While there were over a dozen people in the waiting area, they must have needed special attention because I got served before I had a chance to sit down. My photo looks something like this:

The Roberto Lopez mural at the Regina Inn was in the paper today; it is coming down soon and you can purchase raffle tickets to get panels from it. I drove past and documented it.

rise from bed

2012-01-17T18:43:00.001-06:00

William's new bed arrived today. We've just put it on his old wooden futon frame, but with the thick box spring and thick mattress, it is a good rise off the floor. He's pretty happy with it.

This Big World 3D begins

2012-01-16T23:30:00.000-06:00

This evening was the first session of the 3D puppet workshop/seminar for This Big World, led by Chrystene Ells. I'm participating in this over the next four months. Not sure what I'm doing yet. I got thinking about very small puppets. I'll need to hit the library and look through the Prairie History room books for ideas (they are also part of the process). It looks like this will all lead up to an event one year from now.

Neckties

2012-01-15T16:42:00.002-06:00

Made a film about Mr. Saul's neckties. They weren't conservative enough, even though I omitted the Sonic the Hedgehog, Bugs Bunny, and skull ties. I wear a tie about a half dozen times per year, maybe eight at the upper limit, and there are three or four which are definite favorites that I wear repeatedly, so why I have 30 ties is beyond me.

Paint with light

2012-01-14T22:48:00.002-06:00

William had his friend Griffin over most of the day. In the evening, I got them out of the house for a while to create some work with flashlights and long exposures. This is one I did for them to demonstrate the range of techniques. If you click on it and see it larger, the ghost of me in the top right is pretty interesting.
I also finished off William's animated film he started before Christmas; Mister Malaria,

Are there consequences for speed?

2012-01-13T22:44:00.000-06:00

I didn't think things were ever supposed to be quicker than expected. Only 11 days ago I called my optometrist for an appointment. I got in to see him four days ago. I came back the next day and ordered new reading glasses. Today I picked them up. Now I can read with both eyes. It's a whole new world (or at least half a new world).
I guess things balance out somewhere, sometime. My on-line fortune cookie today said "Bad luck and ill misfortune will infest your pathetic soul for all eternity." I don't see much wiggle room for interpretation on that one.

Bed time for William

2012-01-12T17:45:00.002-06:00

We went bed shopping for William today. There is always a sale. Never buy a bed for full price. He's slept on a futon since he was two so this is his first mattress. We'll have to wait for delivery.

Winter

2012-01-11T23:08:00.001-06:00

We took down the tree last night. This morning I was at work with a meeting regarding the French Science Fiction and comics conference this fall. I'll build a web site for it soon.It got cold again, winter is back. Some messaging with Rob Bos this morning led to a suggestion that I make a video about old man winter, so I did. I shot the video with William's help, which was quick, but post production was a nightmare. I think it would be quicker if I'd prepared rather than shooting them all on the day I conceive of them

HD technology

2012-01-10T14:53:00.001-06:00

I'm no sucker. I'm not going for this year's HD reading glasses, I'm going to wait until next year to get reading glasses that allow me to see the world in 3D.

Eye check up

2012-01-09T23:30:00.000-06:00

Had eyes checked today. My left eye, as I suspected, is not only still strong but is actually better than when last tested. With eye drops in, I didn't get much work done but did relax and listen to some of "Good Omens" book on tape. Also posted a video based upon some of the footage I shot during the test (The Eyes So Slow To Focus).

Head-ache day 4

2012-01-08T19:59:00.001-06:00

So I've had this head ache that is rooted in a really sore point behind my right ear for four days now. It comes and goes. If I don't move at all, it almost goes away. When I'm moving and talking, it grows blinding and I can barely think. I canceled my plans for the evening because I'm not sure I can trust myself to drive. Yuck.
I've spent the day at home. I got William to record all the missing sounds from his animation so I can help him finish that up. I put together my new video, Mr. Saul and the You Tube.
Unrelated, I was curious about this building on Broad and 11th (or 12th?). The construction around it was confusing; are they fixing it or tearing it down? It was never as interesting until the other day when I saw it with the sidewalk blocked and I noticed the design of the second floor. The street level is blanked from my memory but must be so ugly that it distracts from the interest above.

Family Saturday

2012-01-07T21:55:00.003-06:00

Saturday; instead of making my own video today, I helped William finish one of his (Tick Talk part 2) pictured above. We also spent much of the afternoon with William's friend Aria and her mother because they are moving away on Monday.

Hugo and the challenge of light

2012-01-06T22:45:00.000-06:00

Read, went to meeting at work to discuss a group presentation I`m a part of in two weeks, picked up my pinhole cover for the 5D, shot my video (Pinhole f300: Glass and Light) which I`d hope to shoot of the aquarium but there wasn`t enough light so I could only get some stills as above, watched some Buffy with William (season 6, episode 7), went to Hugo after Margaret got off work, Hugo was a lot of fun and great visually. I`d seen an image of his glass studio but it was not well presented and I didn`t really grasp the nature of how it was used before; like a giant greenhouse to give shelter but allow all the needed light. Cool .

427 photos

2012-01-05T23:51:00.001-06:00

I picked up my 427 free photos from Don's today (part of the 500 I got for buying a camera there). No hassles, no hidden surcharge or taxes or anything, sweet deal. I have my photo album up to date (this only happens once per year now). I was reading about photographing statues in "The Original Copy" this morning and that inspired me to videotape the statue in front of city hall and include it in my video today, a city symphony called "Regina 1".

Free photos, cute cat, and a robot

2012-01-04T22:48:00.001-06:00

I dropped off my photos to be printed at Don's Photo today, part of the great deal they gave me when I bought William's new $150 camera. They give you 500 free prints which they usually charge 30 cents each for (that totals $150 in freebees). I picked out extras from the past two weeks so there are over 400 in my order. Most of the day was spent working on a video about my Canister robot character which I think is a bit of fun, please watch it and post it around even though it does not contain any cute cat images; those are reserved for this blog.

Reading glasses

2012-01-03T22:36:00.000-06:00

I've had reading glasses for at least two years, perhaps longer. I made half a mistake when I ordered them. Until 12 months ago, it was hit or miss if I was ever wearing my contact lenses so when I requested glasses they were for reading in bed when I would never have lenses in. Therefore I had them try to make the lenses appropriate for lenses eyes. This is the mistake. I have Keratoconus, an eye condition that is not corrected by glasses. I have finally gotten completely in the habit of wearing only my right lens (every day for over a year now) so the glasses do a fair job of correcting my left eye but never helps my right eye, with or without the contact in. What I need to do is get my glasses fixed, replacing the right lens with one that tweaks the contact eye. Of course it will do nothing when the contact is out, but that is basically what it does now.
I read today, made a short video about snow (Snow Machine) and watched some tv with William after supper. I got a slow start to the day after taking William to the doctor (the bumps which were bothering him are just warts). I also shot some self portraits wearing glasses for my sabbatical facebook page and some shots of my glasses sitting on top of books for my sabbatical reading blog.

Stitchpunk film

2012-01-02T23:06:00.002-06:00

Inspired by some reading on Edison's 1910 Frankenstein, I spent most of the day listing to Good Omens on audio book and making a couple of crude puppets, shooting a video (partially outside due to the need for fire), and editing (which included two hours to build some rather unconvincing traveling mats. It is on Vimeo.

Cousins depart

2012-01-01T23:56:00.001-06:00

The girls returned to Toronto this evening. It's sad to see them go. They won't be visiting again until summer. We didn't make any movies with them while there were here, but we did watch some shows and play some games. Only one sleep over at our house, but the truth is that they are here to visit their father, not us. It was great seeing them.

New Year's Eve comes and Sabbatical begins.

2012-01-01T00:58:00.000-06:00

This new year's eve we spent at Gertrud's house; had some great lobster that George and the girls made, played a bit of a game, lit some sparklers and other fireworks (in the park), and headed home nearly stone sober. As of 51 minutes ago, I am on sabbatical. I'll be creating a new blog and posting material in this blog and a special facebook page to document my activities, starting in the morning.

Daytime party lead up to New Years

2011-12-31T17:00:00.000-06:00

William and I spent the afternoon at the Bjerke house, visiting, eating snacks, etc. It was a nice crowd although it seems that the kids are getting to old to use them as the basis for all conversations with other parents like we did just a couple of years ago. I did meet Yens Pedersen who has been an NDP candidate in Regina for the past couple provincial elections. He was pretty interesting. William played battleship and his harmonica.

not how he was dressed while eating canapes

The Tempest

2011-12-30T22:15:00.000-06:00

William at Mercury Cafe, wishing he was Russell Brand

Being a bit sick and exhausted, this evening we had a great stay-at-home movie night, watching Julie Taymor's "The Tempest" which arrived from Amazon just before Christmas. William particularly liked all of the Russell Brand scenes, his performance, costume, dancing, and his behind the scenes clips, everything. Great film.

Game night with cake

2011-12-29T19:00:00.000-06:00


Carcassonne game

The cousins plus Paul came over today and we played a few games including two shorter sessions of Carcassonne and some Dominion. We icing sugared the chocolate snowman cake; the detailing on his carrot nose and buttons was excellent. I was rather shocked that we had completed our games by ten; the girls had to go home so I'd only set up limited versions of Carcassonne, half the pieces we could have used. I don't know if we'll have another chance as they are leaving in a couple of days.

Day down deep and evening at Leslie's

2011-12-28T23:50:00.000-06:00

We went to the overpriced but interesting Titanic exhibition at the science Centre today. Got some over priced memerobelia as we left, but with the 100th anniversary coming up, I guess it's good that we did something. This evening we went to Leslea and Leif's and brought along the newly decorated gingerbread teepee, all decked out for the holiday smashing and eating.

Catching up on tv

2011-12-27T23:30:00.000-06:00

Wow, this is one of those days I feel ashamed to blog. William is still sick so we stayed home while Margaret went to work. We watched some tv, played some computer games (I got rather hooked on "Cargo Bridge") and made some soup. I guess I also made a cake with William's cousin in the new snowman shaped cake pan William was given for Christmas. We watched the cheap "Men In Black II" which was clearly labeled as having a 1.85 aspect ratio but was in fact cropped to 4:3. We also watched the new Christmas episode of Dr. Who and some more of Metropolis.

Boxing Day idleness

2011-12-27T09:21:00.000-06:00

William has a cold and cough which has escalated significantly in the past day. He coughs about once per minute, maybe more, so he stayed in all day and I didn't go to either party I was invited to. I did slip out to a couple of stores, bought some sale dvds including the Tin Tin animated films, Men In Black II, and Angel season 4. Margaret went to Gerda's party for the evening while William and I (and his cousins for a time) watched tv or played computer games. We started watching the newly restored (with Argentinian clips) version of Metropolis. I'm getting really engaged with it, especially sitting with William and discussing the possible story turns and historical restoration issues. Everyone should watch silent films with their kids from time to time.

No coal for Christmas

2011-12-25T22:06:00.000-06:00

I got the coonskin hat I always wanted... or is it a koala?

I fortunately was able to get both volumes of the Adele Blanc Sec books for Margaret. Margaret loved volume one (from the library) and we saw the film based upon them a couple of weeks ago.

Santa brought William a big Lego Star Wars canon. It looks cool and functions well.

Gerda gave William a fake lego set, pictured here on his white horse (the standards don't seem to be high).

Christmas Eve at Gertrud's

2011-12-25T00:36:00.000-06:00

Today the girls slept in after the sleepover. The activities of last night (undisclosed in yesterday's blog) included drawing on the wrapping paper for a new 51" plasma tv for Fred and Gertrud (George's idea that they need it and that their basement reno, slated to being in January, will need to revolve around the tv. We bought it two or three weeks ago on a good sale and have had it squirreled away in our basement ever since). We snuck it back into their house and revealed it only when all the other gifts were open (German tradition of Christmas Eve goose dinner and then opening presents). William will open most of his gifts tomorrow but I did give him his camera so he could begin to shoot videos and photos of the evening's activities.

Tin Tin, baby, and yet more baking.

2011-12-23T22:00:00.000-06:00

Today was William's first full day off of school. We had a whirl-wind day of A&W, TinTin in 3D (quite a bit of fun, could have been in live action with the Spielberg level of effects/funding but this way will give the series more longevity), then to George's friends Joel and Cindy to see their new baby Isabel. The girls are having a sleep over here tonight so it is sugar and tv and crafts and baking until the cows come home, put their feet up to do a crossword puzzle, then go out again.

Gingerbread Teepee

2011-12-22T22:47:00.000-06:00

Gingerbread Teepee

I thought that this gingerbread teepee would be easy to create but it proved to have a few tricks. I wanted to have Pockys for the poles but substituted straight pretzels since I missed the Chinese grocery store again. Due to my limited ability to do simple calculus in my head, there are only seven sides instead of thirteen. However, I am pleased with the overall dimensions.

The oven is hot

2011-12-21T22:04:00.002-06:00


Clockwise from top: chocolate pecan cookies, cheesecake, cranberry cookies, lemon square.

With my only meeting for the week cancelled at the last minute, I spent almost the entire day baking! I made a new lemon square I've never made before as well as some passion fruit mini-cheesecakes, cranberry cookies (made sure not to skimp on the lemon zest; it is a fine line between them being Margaret's favorite and being miniature hockey pucks), and a double batch of chocolate, pecan, coconut cookies which turned out fantastically (I'd not followed that recipe in about four years because I would usually make a variant that William (at age 6) had written out for me that were similar but lacking any real punch and had forgotten how good the originals were).

Elementary

2011-12-20T23:22:00.002-06:00

Saw Sherlock Holmes today; the later afternoon show. Loved it. The two new Holmes series' are difficult to reconcile into my thoughts on the Holmes/Watson relationship I discussed at the Doyle conference a couple of years ago. The Guy Ritchie version reflects an increased complexity of their relationship, based as much in respect as it is in friendship. The BBC television series "Sherlock" is far more troubling. If we, the viewers, are to see that Holmes through Watson's eyes, we seem to take a role of the masochist, an even less palatable position than that of the Rathbone/Bruce idiot. Love that one too, regardless, and can't wait for it's return in the new year.

I made my awesome Nanimo bars this evening, based on my mom's secret recipe (which you can see scribbled into the margins beside the inferior recipe.

School Carnival

2011-12-19T22:44:00.000-06:00

After a long day of shopping, we unwound this evening with a three hour winter carnival at William's school. I was going to try to sound very sarcastic (instead of just a little sarcastic) because it was a fairly good time and with William's cousins along, there wasn't much stress of supervision needed. They cut out snowflakes, ate cotton candy, and watched a bit of the Grinch.

Shopping was partially for gifts but mostly for kitchen, bathroom, and computer. We got a new kitchen scale to weigh baking ingredients (I made my chocolate crackle cookies this evening and put in exactly four ounces of chocolate instead of the usual "this looks like about right" ounces). I replaced the card reader on my computer that has been on the blink for the past month (still on warranty), and got some new ceramic coated baking trays. Margaret is experimenting with some drawer holders for the bathroom drawers so we can finally put all of our stuff away.

Playing around

2011-12-18T23:50:00.001-06:00

Today we hung around with George and the girls. Brunch then tobogganing and this evening we went to the Globe Theatre production of Robin Hood. I like the theatre, but I don't tend to enjoy plays.This one hit the right chord though; it was spirited and coy without being overly obvious. I liked the acting and the staging and script. Good job.

Visitors (blurry)

2011-12-17T21:32:00.001-06:00

William's cousins, Katherine and Kristin, arrived for the holidays today. We only saw them for an hour or so as they were busy with their dad, but we went to the Muppet Movie with Mike for his birthday and then for some pizza.

I am blaming my poor night's sleep for my overly shaky hand today; sorry for the blur.

Cat photo

2011-12-16T23:27:00.002-06:00

Got most of my grades in today. I held off on one class, even though I'm late with it, because there are two assignments that I know are coming and I don't want to give "no papers" to those students. It's a lot of trouble to fix and I figure it's the weekend now so nothing will really move ahead until Monday anyway. I won't feel right starting a sabbatical with unfinished business like that.
There is no reason for this cat picture except that it is a cat picture.

Completed bathroom video

2011-12-15T23:09:00.000-06:00

The bathroom is, more or less, complete. It took exactly two months. The cat has enjoyed it and gives you a tour in this video:

Bathroom surprises

2011-12-14T22:20:00.001-06:00

After returning home from my department lunch and the liqueur store (the lunch was next door to the liqueur store, not at it, although that would have been a novel idea), I faced a sobering surprise: the bathroom was leaking again! The tub faucet was the culprit as it was seeping water backwards through the wall to drip down below. My ceiling on the kitchen is removed again to inspect and help dry it out. Fortunately the plumber arrived and was able to fix it without cutting into the walls again. We are back on track. Margaret is painting the window trim so the final steps are few.

William is animating Terry Gilliam style

2011-12-13T20:47:00.000-06:00

William has been printing and cutting and planning for days to make a Terry Gilliam style cut out animated film. I got him started this evening. We'd have started earlier but we had a health scare as he had an inflamed area behind his ear. However, it had pretty much disappeared by the time he saw the doctor and was told not to worry.

Sick Day in a very active house

2011-12-12T23:30:00.000-06:00

We all slept in this morning. I jumped out of bed at 8:30, made William bacon and eggs and grapefruit and got him out the door in time for school (prompted by the desire to hand in the "Happy Birthday Little Witch" book-on-tape he recorded yesterday and I spent until 1 am editing). Moments after I ate my own breakfast I was struck by a serious and devastating gut pain that lasted most of the day. Still feel some of it now. I cancelled my meetings and stayed home for the most part, although I did go out this evening for a Filmpool 35th anniversary planning meeting. Margaret and William decorated the tree while I was out, and Margaret also did all the touch up painting in the bathroom, bringing it to the brink of completion, an impressive day for her, especially considering she was up half the night finishing a draft of another art article. Sylvie is enjoying the tree and has already taken to drinking from the water beneath it.

Christmas Tree is going up

2011-12-11T18:31:00.001-06:00

Ran around and did some crazy shopping for minor items today. This was obviously a bad idea as there were 100,000 people in the stores. We mailed the Santa letter and we did find some great junk at Winners including new bow ties for William and some Lego. I got three blue ray box sets of James Bond films on a great discount at Best Buy. We started the tree-putting-up process when we got home.

Santa letter

2011-12-10T23:18:00.001-06:00

Last night William wrote his letter to Santa. He put a lot of time into it, obsessing over it in the middle of the previous night, waking up at four to work on a draft of it.

Meanwhile, I obsessed over the Leader Post sudoku puzzle, not realizing that I had mistakenly thought that I needed to include the number one.

Not a snow day ... or is it?

2011-12-09T22:47:00.001-06:00

Busy all over today; Trevor Grant did his very enthusiastic end-of-term presentation regarding his MFA status (spoke at length about the films he made in the summer with my course). I met with Erik (after a certain degree of kerfuffle around cars not starting) and had been planning on getting him to copy all of the Sockvile sessions into my computer so we could both be working and discussing them. However, we realized that he is working on a higher version than mine so this will be difficult. We'll move a copy into the university next week, but since Evan left the process of purchasing a high end PC to run HD footage is on the back-burner. The work Erik is doing looks great. In many cases, the eye is completely fooled into believing that the puppets are in front of complex sets: the project will certainly look grander than it started off. This evening I took William to the Filmpool to see a set of animated films with filmmakers Xstine Cook and Jesse Gouchey present to show and tell. They also did some workshops at William's school recently but he either missed them (he was sick once and also took a half day to go to Agribition, so perhaps he wasn't there or perhaps they didn't come to his class). Anyway, he loved the work and asked questions. Tanya was there and he got to ask her questions about chemistry as well. We bought the Oilfields of Catan add on set on the way home. I then made good use of the speed of my new computer to compile a set of all digital photos we have of snowmen since 2004. There are over 1100. We certainly have another few hundred on film since we got obsessed with this in 1991, but that will need to wait until I can scan large numbers of my old negs. Here is one from 2004:

Infestation! God help us!

2011-12-08T20:56:00.001-06:00

Something is lurking in our walls. I hope we don't have to tear the whole thing up.

Perhaps it is the work of Satan, but who will help us cast him out? The religious book store appears to have changed it's philosophy:

Work pot luck

2011-12-07T23:14:00.001-06:00

Pretty good work lunch today, some tasty curry and lots of deserts. I felt compelled to tell people that I'm starting my sabbatical in a few weeks and they felt compelled to ask me what I'm doing on it. Mostly I said I wasn't doing anything but when I was talking with Shawn Whalley I made the mistake of actually listing off about half of my projects and have now officially spooked myself. I think I'm already running out of time.

Mini-cheesecake

2011-12-06T23:00:00.000-06:00

I wanted to bake mini-cheesecakes for the potluck at work tomorrow but to do so, I felt an urgency to clean all the residual dust out of the kitchen which has been building up due to the kitchen ceiling being partially open and the bathroom renovation happening above it. I washed almost everything and I replaced the ceiling panels and THEN I finally did some baking (Belgian chocolate and espresso).

Last Class for 8 months!

2011-12-05T18:02:00.001-06:00

While my half year sabbatical doesn't officially start until the end of the month, today was my last official day of classes until next year, probably early September (barring the possibility of a summer course with a grad student or two). I still have a few meetings with students and with committees as well as some grading, but my official uniform is now My Pajamas.
See metaphorical shattering/reconstruction of my self in video above by CS grad student Fatima Masiri who is studying computer animation with Howard Hamilton but is taking a single course in traditional animation from me this term.

Plains Hotel

2011-12-04T23:32:00.001-06:00

I've never been a fan of the Plains Hotel. Yes, it is a landmark and the sign was cool, but I just don't count myself amongst those who enjoyed karaoke night there (I did attend once and had a lousy time). I guess it would be cool if we could retrofit every old building to be comfortable on the inside and retro on the outside, but other than the sign, the Plains was neither. They finally started tearing it down the other day. If I can manage, I will try to film some of the "deconstruction" but I'm afraid that my teaching schedule might prevent me from getting there until it's too late.

Lego Craze(y)

2011-12-03T22:06:00.001-06:00

Rather manic picture of William and the Lego Star Wars guy he got from the Lego advent calendar yesterday. Today was filled with tv watching, a visit to my mom's church bazaar, and some most excellent venison sausage thanks to Ed and his trusty rifle.

Filmpool premiere screening 2

2011-12-02T22:35:00.001-06:00

Last day of Film 412 today. This evening was a Filmpool screening and Christmas party. Attendance a bit low but had some good chats with Eric Hill, Chrystene Ells, Berny Hi, Adrian Dean, Janine Windolph, and others.

drip drip drip

2011-12-01T23:01:00.001-06:00

Just when the end was near, there is water leaking in the bathroom by the toilet. By the time the specialist toilet plumber arrived and determined that it was the shut off valve to the toilet and not the toilet itself, it was too late to bet a new valve so this is put off until tomorrow. It also requires removing the baseboard (which George managed to do without damaging it) and perhaps cutting the wall. I spent the day in the house, getting my grading done and submitting "Rerun Amok" to the $100 Film Festival.

End of a (45 day) era

2011-11-30T22:18:00.001-06:00

Bathroom wall is patched (still need some sanding and fixing of plaster and painting). We've not installed the lights yet since we are painting an area near them. It's the end of the month so I fulfilled my promise and shaved the ugly old mustache (45 days old). Worst part of the day: in the middle of our all day "End of Life" research meeting at work, Mary wanted a group photo for our forthcoming website so it will look like I'm being attacked by a caterpillar for all to see.

My First (green) Car

2011-11-29T20:04:00.001-06:00

Today I worked at compiling student files into a dvd to give them so that they can have copies of each others projects as well as their own. I wonder how many ever watch them? I've been doing this for about five years and never get feed back. It doesn't matter actually, I know it is valuable to me to have them together and I also regret not having copies of my colleagues' projects from when I was in school and would like to have had something like this.

With periods of rendering and capturing time, I started leafing through junk on my office shelf and found this Polaroid photo from on the set of "Jimmy's Game", the infamous Gerry Horne Filmpool workshop film from the late 1980s. The image is the only colour photo I have of my car, a mid-70s Datsun 210 or something close to that. I can't recall who the person/actor is in front of it. I was on set one day and played an undercover cop for one shot. Rather ridiculous, even then. Margaret has always claimed that I forget colours of things and that this car was likely orange. I was delighted to have found this in a Filmpool box about 10 or 15 years ago to prove it to her.

The Baking race is on!

2011-11-28T21:04:00.000-06:00

We began the first of the Christmas baking: gingerbread men. One week of classes remaining so no lectures to prepare, just some grading and packaging of videos of projects for the students (not required, but something I always do for my experimental film course). I'm having trouble importing some videos which have an Avid codec so will need to convert those at the university before proceeding. Oh bother.

Melt down

2011-11-27T22:58:00.001-06:00

Just in time for the snow to melt, I put in our storm windows today. I'd not done so earlier because I thought we might need more air in the house while renovating (various toxic materials and paint were in constant use). No other house progress; George watched the game I guess. This morning I worked on assembling compilation dvds of student work. I had a Filmpool meeting all afternoon; I chaired it since both the president and vice-president were unable to attend. It went well; lots of discussions about 35th anniversary, other programming, web site, goals, etc. Meetings are a funny thing; I generally don't want to attend them and hate about 30% of the discussions we have, but actually love the other 70% (not just Filmpool, but practically every meeting I attend, regardless of the topic).