ich habe einen kater

I think I've picked up a bad case of cat head.
The long awaited new Lego Bionicle movie: "The Legend Reborn" came out today. I picked it up first thing this morning and William watched it twice after school. I caught it the second time. It was all right although at times it was quite sloppy. Two scenes in particular bothered me. In one, the main character is in a cavern of ancient technology and triggers a gateway to open. He is surprised and jumps back. The scene then cuts to the group of characters 2/3 of the way down the stairway with the opening far behind them. Where was the moment of nervous first steps into the darkness? Cutting room floor? Later when two of the heroes have been captured the same main character declares that he will go alone to rescue them and the other heroes must stay behind to protect the villagers. He then turns and exits amid musical cues that lead us to believe his new mission is under way. Cut to him standing on a hill side watching the sun set and one of the characters from the previous scene walks up behind him and says "I thought I'd find you here" and they have a chat about the likely position of the hostages. Very obtuse. All the key creatives had European names. All the actual animators were Asian. I sense some major disconnects in the production.

William finished reading the 760 page "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" this evening. He started it on July 9 and has now started the sixth book.

less inspired today

I think all week I've been feeling uninspired. I've met with Eric three times and we've not done anything, I just think up reasons that we cannot proceed on a project and we go for coffee and talk about less practical things like a new superhero film. Perhaps I do need a vacation, but I've got too many things to do and only two weeks left. Getting stressed.
I wonder if it shows. Today, for the second day in a row, the cashier at Safeway has asked me if I need help taking my groceries to the car. Today I had two bags that I effortlessly carried with one arm. Why would they ask this?
George left town today. Before they left, the girls were over watersliding in our back yard. We then bar-be-qued some bison and Margaret's parent's house, took George and the girls to the airport, then went for second supper with my parents, who found William two new Bionicles at a garage sale that are older and no longer available. William also got to swim in their next door neighbor's pool.
I put up a new Professor Delusia video.
Margaret got stung by a wasp and her leg is all swollen, she's lounging and I should join her.

teaching

I began the two courses I'm teaching with two graduate students today. Chrystene will be working on the post production and animation for her feature film Sisu, and Janine will be working on photography in many forms. It seems that the Flipbook animation program doesn't work with an HD camera, so it may require an upgrade for the footage shot with it to match Chrystene's project. After work we did lots of shopping including the purchase of hooks and stuff to hang the hammock we bought in Mexico, some stacks of DVD-R on sale for $3.97/25 stack, some chocolate to paint the biscotti I baked last night, and the bionicle Toa Ignika for William.

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I posted my new video, the 12th of a 13 part series.
Most of day spent with William on a play date then shopping for clothes and Lego, then to Terry's for another play date and hanging out until 11pm. We borrowed the 3 Bionicle movies from her since the library's copies are very scratched and I can never find them in the store.

347: my Toronto vacation

We got back last night from Toronto where we were visiting Margaret's brother and family for a week. Of course, it is Toronto so we naturally were overly busy and did too many things. We made a rule when we lived there that we would only plan one thing per day. If we accomplished more than that, it was gravy, but it should never be expected.

The flight to Toronto was without incident. We stayed with Margaret's brother George and his family (wife Ivana and girls Katherine and Kristin, who are aged one older and one younger than William). Ivana picked us up then we dropped her back at work then we took her car on a long scenic route back to their house which is in Markham, which is basically a city adjoined to the north end of Toronto (if you don't know the clues, you cannot possibly know that you are passing between cities when you cross Steels Avenue). We made a stop at our favorite bakery, Nina D'versa on Keele. George and I picked up a mattress for William but could not fit the accompanying box spring down the narrow stairway. William, still on Regina time, stayed up two hours past when his cousins did, even though he was excited about the idea of sleeping in Uncle George's basement.

On the second day, Thursday, we went to the Village of St. Jacob where there was a Lego outlet store. For more information on it, see the photos and video I posted today on William's blog. On Thursday evening, George and I pulled apart his cappuccino machine, removing the pump and immersing it and other parts in vinegar to try to get it working again. More surprising than our success was the fact that George got it back together again at the end.

Friday we decided should be a calmer day. It was very hot again (and muggy) so we drove the 1/2 mile into the old main street of Markham and went to the shops there, including a pretty good used book store and a chocolate shop which sold both Belgium as well as French chocolate. (The Mug and Truffle) I think the French stuff was more bitter and balanced by a sweeter filling, nice but I prefer the Belgium. William had a Sprite out of a glass bottle. When Margaret was talking to the proprietor of the chocolate shop about art, he suggested we visit the church down the block where a painter is working. We did so. It is an eastern orthodox church where a painter from Macedonia, Georgi Danevski. He was painting the entire inside of this church, he was close to being done after two years work, perhaps only a year remaining. He was really nice, he climbed down from his scaffold and made us coffee. William was initially quite shy but warmed up after they began drawing for each other. He likes to draw horses and drew one for William beside the one William drew. William gave him a picture of Mary and baby Jesus onto which Georgi added the halo. Georgi wanted William to call him Uncle Georgi and said he'd draw William's portrait if we came back the next week. Unfortunately, we did not manage to. Back at the house, William built his new (old stock) Bionicle. It's not on his blog yet but will be soon. We took a short tv break and watched the first scene or two of High School Musical. Even William lost interest. How obvious and formulaic can you get!!? It could get a cult following for its absurdity, but I can't understand how it has an earnest following of kids, I don't care how naive they might be.

William with George Bessai

Saturday, as planned, we went to Christian Island where Ivana's parents have a really nice cottage. Margaret, Ivana, and the kids went out first while George and I mowed the watered the lawn (after 10 years in the house, Ivana is extremely pleased to have a back yard lawn for the first time as of this month). George took William on an ATV, the girls are already driving them on their own. Of course, George took him around with the little one so he ended up tipping and George took a good scrape to the knee. Supper was grand, lots of ribs. Discussion of the mineral content of the water on the island led me to discover that a similar issue exists in Markham. My poor sleep since ariving might be the result of the water, which I'm still trying to drink more of instead of pop and other sugary liquids. Whoa is me.

Sunday, Ivana's dad is building a new, permanent dock. He was doing some arc welding and got a sun burn on his arms from it (no sleeves). George took William on a two hour ATV ride, taking in all the sights and trails (and many places that weren't trails) of the island. We drove home without mishap.

Monday morning we drove downtown and went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). I thought we'd have a quiet day there, but there were hundreds of kids there on school trips, so it was a madhouse. They've put on a huge addition, the crystal, that is quite odd. In a few places such as the dinosaur area where skeletons hang from the ceiling, it works. Most places it is just obtuse. However, the old areas are very old fashioned; rectangular rooms with old wood and a sombre mood, so a shake up was needed. William was most excited about the Egyptian exhibits, that he would see a real mummy! See photo. After that we went to the Danforth area and the Big Carrot organic food store and adjoining cool book store. William got the Stink books he didn't have, including the new fourth one. As we fed the pigeons, just as he had done four years ago, there was a downpour and we ran for the car. My old friend Angelos Hatzitolios lives in that area and we got to his place, watermelon in hand, for supper. William had been getting grumpy but fortunately he was able to play with their son's Lego and it eventually became a bonding experience. After I mentioned the slides I had been posting (automatic postings that I set up before I left Regina) on my blog, he put me on to a website where someone buys photos and does something similar on a regular basis called Bighappyfunhouse. It's pretty cool, check it out. It rained a lot on the way home, but we still made fair time on the Don Valley Parkway. We watched National Treasure until late, kind of fun, wish I'd watched it with William as it is quite innocent and he'd have liked it. I'll put it on my list.

Tuesday I was tired so I had a nap while Margaret took William shopping for gifts for his cousins. They were taken with the Bionicle he built so we bought some for them. Later, we picked up the girls from their school, the Somerset Academy in Markham Ontario, where parents care a lot about their kids education, although not enough about their safety not to park their environmentally unfriendly SUVs all along the fire lane in front of the school. We took them to Margaret's cousin Tom's house, near downtown. His house is amazing as he has been renovating it into a modernist dream. Architect. Tom's brother John and John's wife Joan also came, so it was a crazy Bessai party. I met David Wellington (director of "I Love a Man In Uniform") there, seems to be a friend of John and Tom. I'd heard his name but not until I looked him up did I realize the Man in Uniform connection. That movie poster was up in the seminar room at York and I used to stare at it every day. Now we have a copy of it up in our office hallway. Anyway, since Tom is an architect has three boys it goes without saying that he has lots of Lego (not as much as we do though) so you can guess what William spent his time doing. Actually he did get involved with their water fight, although that has mishaps. Driving home did not. George's dogs (two ten year old German shepherds) had torn open our zip lock bags of Lego when we got back to the house, so I had to assemble until I was certain they'd not eaten any. They hadn't.

Wednesday was yesterday, our last day in Toronto. Our flight home was for 6:00 pm. We swapped cars around, taking Ivana's Lexus which, even with 300,000 km on it, drove very nicely. We went for lunch and ice cream at Nina D'versas then headed downtown. We showed William a few sights, mostly through drive-bys, such as Casa Loma. We ended up in Chinatown. Ran into Rory McDonald (sculpture prof at UofR) in Kensington Market. Got some nice new plates and bowls at our favorite store. It was hot again and we were getting worried that William was getting heat stroke, but he held up well. At three o'clock we started on our way to the airport where we were to park the Lexus for Ivana to pick up when she returns from her flight she was also going on that day and would be returning the following day. We drove past the new renovations at the AGO (not open yet) then headed to the Gardener Expressway. Suddenly, nothing. The car died. There was no electrical power. The car would not start and the windows wouldn't go up or down. We called CAA and explained, they guaranteed that we'd have a truck there by 3:29. The police arrived at 3:25 and told us to move it, they gave us 10 minutes. THOUSANDS of cars were being affected. William and I went looking for a phone since the cel phone battery died, and had a closer look at the CN tower before we eventually found one at 3:50. CAA told us they'd have one in 10-15 minutes. At 4:05 a truck arrived but not a CAA one. Here is where our luck turns; HE WAS A COURTEOUS, HONEST, HELPFUL TORONTO TOW TRUCK DRIVER!!!! Most people who have driven in Toronto will swear they don't exist, but my hat comes off to this amazing tow truck driver, a hero, D. Birko (sp?) of Laidlaw Towing. He hooked us up, let us drive with him, lent us his phone, explained how we can get CAA to agree to pay the bill, and drove us to the mechanic. At 4:40 we got to a Canadian Tire and he then boosted us enough so we could get the windows up in case of rain and he negotiated with the Becks cab for a flat fee for us to the airport. The miracles continued as the cab managed to get us to the airport by 5:30 through rush hour traffic (mostly on the QEW). The airline people doubted that our luggage would make it there, but we could board and they would try (you are no longer allowed to say you won't fly with your luggage, but if it's their choice/fault, that's okay). The flight was fine (a bit rough) and Sarah Abbott got on our plane at Winnipeg. I didn't realize until we were going to bed that we'd had nothing but bits and bites for supper. Miracle #3, the luggage made it! Paul was waiting with all of William's castle Lego assembled and the Hogwarts Castle restored. We were very tired and went to bed at 11.

Today I'm starting to get back to work (even though I seem to do nothing but write this blog) since I really did just vacation while away and didn't use the laptop I brought and only shot a bit of video for use in my web videos (got an interesting strobing one out the cab window of these intermittent dividers between left and right lanes, but I'll save that for another day). I met with Eric just to discuss future plans since my hope to shoot was crushed by todays rain.

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William and I made a video this morning. I posted it on his blog. Check it out.

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Saturday is cartoon day, William announced at 7:30 this morning. I'd told him he could wake me up in the morning to continue reading the Bionicle Legends book I'd started last night (volume 4 out of a current 9 book set, in that Bionicle series). However, my promise was before I decided to watch the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men at midnight, so was up until past 2. Ouch. We watched an episode of the Tick (vs Brainchild), then the Iron Giant (Brad Bird's masterpiece). This afternoon we went to the Sherwood Dunlop branch for the opening of Cindy Baker's "Gimmick" show, which I have mixed feeling about. This show features an array of objects which appear to be parts of magic acts. It looks pretty cool, but they don't make much sense without being able to handle them, which is partially allowed, but they don't all stand up to this type of scrutiny. See video: sorry if it's longer than most video I post (1:37). Leesa and Daniel were there and got lots of attention during the magic act that followed the artist talk. Supper was at Margaret's mothers houses as she is hosting a couple of kids from Africa who are part of a school of orphans who are touring North America and singing in church choirs. William played with them in the back yard for a while, it was nice. We thought we'd surprise them with the bucket of snow we were storing in the freezer, but apparently they've been here for six months already, so were not interested.

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Today I demonstrated the optical printer to Eric and had him reproduce some super-8 footage onto 16mm film while I developed some black and white film. Amazingly, I developed all of the backlog I had of black and white, this is the first time I've done that since 2001! Then we developed the colour footage Eric shot; however, the colour developer must not keep as well -- the footage is rather dim (as is the test control strip), so the test was inconclusive. I'll have to start it again tomorrow or Monday. I want to save the new batch of chemistry for the next batch of kinescoped images that I'll shoot next week.
I had Kalyn and her boyfriend over for supper. She figured out how to get me onto the server and allow me to update my own website. I have done a few changes, just minor things such as activate the return to main button on William's page and the Splice magazine page, and to connect the second How to be an Experimental Filmmaker button to its page. I've not figured out how to add new pages yet, but I should get it alter.
After Kalyn and James left, Margaret started falling asleep so Paul and I built Bionicles out of the box of parts, so William will find 10 assembled in the morning, instead of just 4.

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I got the colour animation out of the computer at the university (chose full compression, if you do not choose any of the codecs or specifically select the no compression, then the default is to not let you export). I recorded a bit of William's voice (I should also give him writing credit as this is all him) and put it together with an after effects background. Enjoy.

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Spent the entire day at the office today, mostly editing on the End of Life project. I need another half day to get the cut down to the right length, then some sound and graphics to make it presentable for our meeting in a couple of weeks. I've got an assistant who'll help with some of that work as well. I don't know where to buy sweetgrass anymore. You used to get it from Painted Buffalo on Dewdney but they closed a few years ago. There must be somewhere else but I can't guess where.
To break up the day, I worked a bit on the Flipbook computer, shooting a bit of animation with one of William's Bionicles. This is a software package that allows you to take single frames from a video camera into the computer and they'll be lined up as an animated film. I finally figured out how to shoot in colour (the trick being that the main layer that it defaults to will always be black and white and that you need to shoot onto the background channel, who knows why).
I also spent a while in my office finding missing elements for the website. I'll need to re-type a few things that I have lost the electronic copies of (I suspect a couple of them were typed elsewhere, perhaps the Filmpool).
William has been listening to a lot of books on tape before bed. Tonight I got him to record a Syd Hoff book (32 page Bernard On His Own) and have it on cd.
I am finally making use of my new 500gp drive. It has been sitting empty for a week. I have put all of my dvds into it (of my work, not my entire collection). I'll be able to burn copies of my work on the drop of a dime now (or about 30 cents actually).
I watched "Stardust" this evening. I've been really looking forward to it, it's based upon a Neil Gaiman novel that I listed to on tape last summer, amazing stuff. I was certainly not disappointed in the movie, but was disappointed that Margaret was feeling too sick and too tired to watch. We weren't sure if it was suitable for William (probably, but not on a school night, likely more for an early evening or a weekend afternoon due the occasional intense scene), so Margaret fell asleep and told me to watch without her. She'll love it, so I'll talk about it more after I see it again with her.

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I think I spent the whole day in the house. Margaret goes a bit crazy when she does that, which she did on boxing day. By the evening she was cracking windows open to get fresh (-30 degree) air, but I don't mind much. William and I finished watching "The Batman" season 4 this morning and then did some Lego time. This evening we were trying to wind down after some active running around the house and I wanted him to read a bit of a book. He decided he didn't want to and actually said "I'm out of here" as he left the room. He then surfed the net for a while (yes, he is six). Actually, he just carefully types in the site listed on his Lego package: www.bionicle.com and he can watch the 2 minute videos and try to play the game. We sat face to face in the computer room and he tried to navigate that site while I continued to try to figure out the sound problem on my new Dell computer. There is a severe echo in the sound and I can't find the control to adjust it. I think it's the Vista operating system that is crippling my attempts to fix it. I can't seem to figure out the help site, as far as I can see you have to either phone them or on-line chat with them, rather than sending them an email. If a help person isn't available, you sit on your ass until one is, and I just don't have that patience right now (or perhaps I just cranky from not getting any fresh air today). Anyway, William ended up staying up really late; I finished reading some of his new Mythology book to him at 10:15 and turned off his light, but he called that he was scared of the dark (the batteries for his night lights are all dead and on the chargers) so Margaret let him turn his reading light on and he eventually picked up and I Can Read "Little Bear" book that he's never read before and began reading it out loud. We could listen to him from our bedroom, trying to be quiet so he could sleep. It was 11:30 before he finally did. I caught up on a bit of my own reading then finally watched another episode of Supranos (thanks Kevin). I'm watching the first half of the last season, it's been really good, probably the best stuff since season one.

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Last night was very exciting for William. He opened some presents after dinner at Margaret's parents' house, he got some Lego of course. I got a new wireless hub from Paul, so now all the computers can be on line! William was up past eleven, but that didn't stop him from getting up at 9 am on Christmas day. Santa, who mysteriously came while we ate last night, dropped off even more Lego: it's taken over the house! Actually, the Lego is under control. William got a number of sets, the one we worked on the most was a large Bionicle set which, to our surprise, has a dozen small figures in it rather than the larger scale figures that dominate the Lego/Bioncle line. It will integrate in with his regular Lego better.
We went tobogganing with Daniel and then went for supper at my parents' house. Food was great, nice evening. Socializing and eating rich food is taking it's tole, I'm in the mood for some tv.

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I've mentioned the Lego toys (and movies) called Bionicles previously. They are some sort of robot warriors that can be modified almost as much as a regular piece of Lego. They made three movies, I don't know if they are making more. These movies give the characters a rich and HIGHLY complex back story, an entire world, philosophy, creation myth, etc. However, I've never been able to figure out what they really are. William and I watched the second movie this morning and during the extra features, one of the film producers describes them as "bio-mechanical", which is a new idea for William. In fact, I don't have a firm grasp on how to describe this idea. Since he was three, William has been conversant on the ideas and differences between robots, androids, and cyborgs. Bio-mechanical people are something else.
We got a tree today (required much moving of furniture - this never ends). I baked biscotti and tried Joanne's sugar cookie recipe, it's good and rolls out so shapes can be cut. There was a artist trading card session but we forgot and so Margaret went late. I've been working on a series of photo chemistry, but they are incomplete and not nearly as interesting to other people as they are to me. Watched Bourne Ultimatum with Paul and Margaret after baking was done.

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I spent all morning, and a bit of the afternoon, sorting out receipts and figuring out my paperwork for reimbursements on my trip in September and a hard drive I bought and some other things. It will take more work tomorrow as I need to bill these things to 3 different University accounts and I can never keep track of it all. This afternoon, William wanted to play Bionicles again and after we did that for a while (fortunately the big new guy that rides the spider is a villain so I get to use him) William agreed to do some baking with me. However, he got stubborn and decided he would only make gingerbread cookies shaped like people and that the round gingerbread cookies I froze a couple of weeks ago were no good. Eventually I convinced him of some random recipe which ended up being a bit complicated and required the food processor, the little chamber mixer, the regular mixer, and melting things on the stove. It also took about $7 in ingredients (3 cups of nuts and 3/4 of a brick of butter). I've got to read more carefully before I jump into these things. My eye still hurts and I've got an appointment to see an eye doctor (not my own but someone else in his office) tomorrow morning.

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I scratched my eye on Friday and it's still in pretty bad shape; all red and sore. William and I watched the first of the three "Bionicle"movies today - not terrible - it contained a huge amount of implied backstory that was lost on William but which I quickly absorbed and could explain to him from time to time when we paused the movie. We borrowed the dvd from the library so it was horribly scratched. In fact, it wouldn't play in our primary dvd player, I had to put it into the recorder deck for it even to run, and even then is skipped 5 second bits throughout.
The "tornado"episode of Desperate Housewives was on tonight, I assume this is the last one until after the writers strike. Some great moments as some characters die and others are left with their status unknown (one family is in the basement of a house that is completely collapsed). I've remained a bit addicted to this show (yes, I do recognize that it just a over glamorized soap opera) since the first season, but it does contain some occasional good (even great) tv writing.