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William woke up at 7:30 this morning. Margaret had been planning to let him sleep as late as he needed to and had even left a message with the school in that regard, but he didn't need to miss any (not that he didn't want to...). I got my new video up on Youtube. This is the last episode of my "She Said" series, posted exactly 13 weeks into the year. I need to get to work on my new series, I had intended to write more while lying on the beach, but that didn't happen (I wrote a few lines, but nothing significant). Saw my doctor today, just to get referrals to see other medical people regarding my feet and my tri-glycerides. Margaret, William and I went to the big Gale's warehouse after school, amazing amount of stuff. I got some heart glitter for ray-o-grams and some needles for film scratching tools for after Christmas. Paul came over this evening and we all watched "How To Eat a Fried Worm" or whatever it was called. Not bad, although a bit drawn out.

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The trip home was grueling, but we had bits of fun. We got on the bus at about 1am (it was late) and it took us to the airport where we found a huge line of people already waiting. Once in line, we noticed two things: the line was not moving and no one was being processed at the head of it, and that the schedule on the monitors said that our flight was delayed over 4 hours! We played cards on the floor for a while but eventually the line was processed and we got past security and were given ten dollars each in food vouchers. Of course this never goes far in an airport, but it covered a few pancakes (William's new obsession). Once on the plane, it took an hour to get the luggage on (they initially put the wrong luggage on our plane and had to swap around) then they had to fuel up. The crew on board were surprised we'd been waiting so long; they were only told at 1am to divert away from Ottawa and come to Cancun to pick us up. I am suspicious of the travel rep on the bus who didn't tell us about this, even though they must have known by then. The flight crew had no idea what the mix up was. Margaret hid the five "bobbleheads" that I bought yesterday inside William's rabbit puppet for him to find while on the plane, he was much happier with them than I could possibly have anticipated. He probably played with them for an hour. I thought he could share some with his friend Teegan (who collects them) but he lies them too much. Customs in Regina took 45 minutes since two planes arrived at the same time and there wasn't enough crew at the airport to unload luggage. I was at the house at a bit past four o'clock. In the end, the trip from hotel to home was 15 hours, with the flight being 4.5 hours of that. At least I could just go home, my sister Sharon had to drive back to Calgary after that as everyone had to work and go to school (7-8 hour drive).

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Saturday, our last day, was pretty good. There was fun in the pool in the morning and an early lunch and cards for Margaret and the kids in the restaurant by the pool. The only mishap was when William convinced me to join him on the kids play structure. It is big and made of real stone, so I had no worries about climbing it, but my 18 year old nephew told me was too big for the spiral slide, so I wasn't doing any of that. However, I was convinced to go down one straight slide. It was only 10 feet long and wide, probably 7 or 8 feet, with water pumped down it continuously. No curves, no way to accidentally run into a kid, no problem. Wrong! The water slide aspect of it meant that I went fast, and unlike the regular pool, everything in the kids play area is shallow. I hit the 10 inches of water much faster than I'd ever have expected and skidded along the cement bottom on my right elbow. It still hurts and I cannot lean on it four days later as I write this. I drowned my pain with a couple of paralyzers (one vodka, one tequila - the latter was better) and some mescal and a silly thing called the Miami Vice which basically combines pina colata and strawberry dackari mix with some rum. I sat with Margaret and everyone with lunch but I opted to eat in the bigger dining hall (which doesn't serve until 12:30) primarily because I was still staking out the perfect video clip for She Said 13. I ended up using one I'd shot the day before by the pool, I ended up being a bit late for lunch and not many people were in appropriate positions. However, the great surprise was that they were finally serving mole', a really great Mexican dish made of a spicy (not sweet) chocolate sauce (see photo). I was in heaven. Last night was supposed to be "Mexican Friday" and staff wore traditional costumes (and the theatre played its rather uninspired traditional folk songs) but during my stop at the buffet after the Steakhouse I was told that mole' was not on the menu. Tanya told me last week that I could buy canned mole' at Tony's here in Regina, so I'll probably do that sometime.
We had our last meal at the very entertaining Japanese restaurant (see video of inverted onion slices with brandy on the stovetop).
After supper, my sister Sharon, her 18 year old son Chris, and I took a cab to the market on 5th avenue in the nearby city of Playa del Carmen. Our cab driver, "Burger", had a nice new car and a dvd player running concert videos. The laws in Mexico differ and he is allowed to have the screen installed in front so he can watch it while he drives. Chris and him talked music and they hit on a mutual interest, Guns and Roses, and in a moment he was running one of their early 90s concerts. Chris says he caught the whistle when he went to their show. The city shops were very touristy but a great experience. I was approached by my first crystal meth dealer (I just don't go into the right neighborhoods anymore), I bought some bobble-heads, and a $37 bottle of Tres Generations tequila (that Stephano our tour guide from Wednesday said was the best).
We checked out at midnight and waited in the lobby for the bus.

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Everyone stayed close to the resort on Friday. William's heat rash returned with a vengence; Margaret wrapped wet wash clothes on his arms to keep them cool and we stayed in the shade except for a few dips in the pool (which tended to cool him off well). There is a fairly big open air (roofed) restaurant off the pool area where we could eat and play cards much of the day. It rained a bit, but that didn't cool things off significantly. We got our picture taken with an iguana (getting smarter, had both of us in the picture so spent only $8). I talked at length with some storekeepers about a prominent image they sold drawings and sculptures of. It depicted an Aztec warrior holding a sleeping Mayan princess in his arms. One foot of his is on a stone. She wears a crown. It is apparently a tragic love story, Romeo and Juliet-like. I didn't buy any copies of it and can't seem to locate it on the internet (I will keep searching, but the language barrier got in the way again, preventing me from fully understanding the names and reliance). We ate at the steakhouse, it was good but less exciting than the other restaurants. I went to see the stage show but found it dull. Apparently it was the worst of the week, so I chose poorly. I didn't stay to the end.

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On Thursday for breakfast I sampled the honey that is always available beside the syrup, wondering if it is from the native bees that live here. The language barrier came into play, questions of this nature can never be answered by the staff. They will confirm that what I am eating is honey, but nothing about its source. The most important trade item the Mayans had was honey, as they had no metals and the shallow soil made agriculture limited (which in turn is likely a key reason for the collapse of their cities). We saw the bees along the path, they create large hives of their own in the trees, probably 2 feet across. These bees are small, the size of house flies, and do not sting. The honey I ate was dark and intuition tells me that it is honey from regular, domesticated bees such as we have here (European in origin), since the honey was plentiful and to be poured freely onto pancakes.
Sharon bought a blow up raft for the pool; I floated on it for a while and I think it was responsible for my rubbing of my sunscreen off the front of my shoulders and my only sunburn of the trip. I got a lot of sun today. Grandma (my mom) gave William a small, second-hand Star Wars Lego set, he went out of his mind with joy. We made him wait until after lunch (for Siesta) to assemble it. I made sure the parts were all apart and he put it together while I napped - a nap I really needed since I got up at 5:30 in the morning for no good reason. My ears still have not opened up since the flight and when I'm tired I get cranky for being so unable to hear people.
After supper at the seafood restaurant, we played cards in the lobby (see below). William was tired so I took him back to the room and we both were asleep by 9:15.

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Today we took a trip to see the Mayan ruins at Coba. These were really amazing, we were able to climb the tallest pyramid in the region (took twice as long to got back down). The tour guide, Stephano, was from Italy and he gave a lot of information although I felt some items were more myth than fact. I began to notice the complete absence of any books for sale about Mexico, either in Spanish or English. I think someone could do well selling coffee table books to tourists. We also went to a village and met a real Mayan family. They live in complete squaller. We were told not to give them money because they were supposed to earn it and not get lazy. The soil is only a few inches thick but they live on food from their yard and a bit of extra earned from these tours and from weaving hammocks. A hammock takes about 40 hours to create and they get 25% of the sale - they go for 20-30 dollars in the market. That's about 15 cents per hour. Apparently, about 70% of Mexicans are either aboriginal or of mixed blood and could claim aboriginal status if they wanted to. As a result, there is no distinction made, no history of reservations or that sort of thing. The Mayan language still exists and, due to the fact that this region has no gold or silver, they were never aggressively conquered. The 3.5 million pure blood Mayas along this coast cling to some traditions, but their cities fell before Columbus and their vast number of books were burned by the Spanish (I believe under orders from the pope). We also went for a swim in the healing waters of a sink hole; these holes are abundant in this area, they are spots were the vast number of underground rivers hit the surface. William got a heat rash on his face and arms. In the evening we were pretty tired but we played cards with the whole family in the lobby.

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First thing this morning (7am) my brother-in-laws Paul and Al went to the beach and reserved 10 of the lounge chairs and guarded them until we could all go out there a couple of hours later. It was our plan to spend the whole day in the sand and surf. However, the wind decided this was the day for it to cool off. Not that it was really cold, probably 27 or 28 degrees, but the wind made you feel cold and uncomfortable, especially if you were wet. We spent the morning there. Margaret went the resort store and bought a cheap plastic bucket and a couple shovels for sand castle work, billing the $15 dollars to the room. I was a bit outraged at the price, but I found things of that nature to be similarly high priced when I went to town a few days later. I picked up the pictures of William and Michelle with the monkey that were taken on Monday night after supper - they are show with no commitment or even name taken but cost $8 per print, no negotiating. Steep by Mexican pricing but not really bad. Monkey's hands are really warm and they feel wonderful when they are on you. After supper we spent the evening in our room with all the kids and played cards and watched "Goldfinger". William seemed really pumped, even though he discovered the tradition of the siesta (see above) but eventually fell asleep this night between Michelle and Sean. "Old Maid" became the game of choice, it has no winners, just one loser.

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On the second day in Mexico, after trying in vain to avoid drinks with ice in them, I was informed that all the water being used was bottled, including pitchers of drinking water poured at the tables and all of the ice made in the whole hotel. William and I watched a few minutes of Tv, we caught some Mexican wrestling where they wear the masks and all that. The ring has 6 sides and the action is fun and not nearly as believable as the WWF!!! We spent most of the day at the pool. There were a number of pools, there was one for swimming laps (my sisters, brothers in laws, and my nephew Sean spent lots of time doing that, I didn't), there was a kids water park with a big structure and small water slides, and there were two large pools that spanned much of the complex. These large pools were 4 feet deep throughout, so William was generally able to keep his face above water when standing on his toes. Again, great food. I took a chance on a desert at lunch time, it was a small cake shaped like a strawberry with a red glaze covering it. Just looking at it made a bit queezy, knowing how sweet it was going to be - but I only thought I knew. It proved to be a subtle, flavorful treat that I could have eaten 10 of, had one not completely satisfied me. The deserts, which are available with every meal, were generally all of the best quality I've ever found, better than any I've found in any bakery in my life. While some were flavors I didn't prefer, they were always a nice experience. That night my family had reservations at one of the restaurants for 9:30, so we didn't go but rather spent time with the kids. After supper we took William and my niece Michelle and nephew Quinn to the beach to look at stars but were distracted by a fountain that sprayed out of the sidewalk along the way. The kids (and eventually Margaret) ran through it and stood on the jets, screaming and laughing until they were completely soaked. We went back to our room and played cards until their parents were finished at the Italian restaurant.

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I'm going to do something I've avoided in the past, I'm going to be altering the posting dates of this and the next few postings to give you updates on the vacation I just returned from. Since it is clear who I am and where I live, it is inadvisable to announce in my blog when I intend to leave town. Last Sunday, March 23, I went with my entire family (15 of us in all, everyone except my niece Nicole) to a five star resort on the Mayan Riviera in Mexico. The flight out there was delayed four hours, so we had to be at the airport closer to midnight rather than 8. William and I went to bed early and got some rest, Margaret was the trooper and got the packing finalized. Arriving there was pretty amazing, the heat was expected but still surprising. We also didn't have our room until 6, so we spent the afternoon in long pants eating from the amazing restaurant and drinking fruity drinks. After supper we took a walk on the beach in the dark and looked at the stars. We got back today, March 30, and faced similar delays with the plane so I'm too tired to continue my description of the trip today.

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Our flight out of town is delayed, so our vacation won't start until 5 am now. I'll be away a few days and if I can't find a computer, I may have my first gap in the blog (I'm not taking a computer, just a pad of paper). I don't know if you have looked at the video I posted last night, but someone did. It got over 2800 hits in the first nine hours! Not many hits since then, but I didn't even have "sex" in the title! I made the technical corrections to Tanya's dvd this afternoon, and while the machines did their bit, I shot more animation with the puppet/doll Frederick, the apple-headed character who is the Golem of Sock's creator (the same character seen as a drawing in my blog a few days ago). He is pretty inflexible as his body is made of coat hanger wire covered with loose clothing. I was fantasizing about a full production with these characters in which I could get fully jointed armatures for each of them, then put apple heads on top. Collision of old and new technologies just cracks me up. Here is a clip before I start removing backgrounds and that sort of stuff.

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Good Friday, but I spent the first few hours of the day at work, trying to fix the glitches in Tanya's compilation tape I was helping her with. We got it cut, but the dvd creation hasn't worked well and I'll have to go back tomorrow. William stayed home, ran around in the yard a bit, and watched more Munsters.
I finished my new video, finally back on schedule. Here it is:

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I posted my new video today, the third last in this "She Said..." series. We coloured Easter eggs at our house this afternoon (I know June will flag this as another "egg" event, but what am I supposed to say, that we coloured Easter doorknobs?). I had to cut out early as we scheduled a Filmpool meeting for 3pm. This evening we watched the first 3 episodes of the Munsters season1. I enjoyed it, not profound but fair innocent tv, William was into it and kept asking to see more episodes. He refused to watch even a second episode of H.R.Pufnstuf, which I value for nostalgic reasons but am fascinated by today for it's audacious surrealism hiding beneath a candy coating.

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Screened my new cut of the End of Life project, it went generally well although I feel strongly that it remains far too long (I cut it from 2.5 hours to 1.5 hours but think taking another 30 minutes will do it good). We also met with an artist who is going to do some interpretations of Elder Betty's dream that she feels is associated with this project; I think this will help us set the tone and separate the project from other informational films.
This evening I went to the Filmpool premier screening. Lots of good films, but I was certainly struck by both Surviving the Tribulation by Dylan Worts and Brent Braaten and Shuya Show, a gut bursting comedy done as if it were an eastern European film badly translated to English by Jason Shabatoski, David Stefanyshyn, and Jon Tewksbury. This last one I am looking forward to seeing the longer, 47 minute cut of, every scene hit. The only thing that bothered me about the screening was the lack of experimental films. It might just be the timing, but it also might be an affect of the shift to video screenings in some way. More thoughts on this later.

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Today I got the new cut of the End of Life conference video authored to dvd. It is starting to look okay. John Hampton shot some great looking smoke for me. I had great shape although it was too fast. To make it seem more meditative, I've slowed it to half speed, it's almost impossible to tell. This is just used over the titles and intertitles, but it makes a difference. I'm scheduled to show it at our meeting with the elders tomorrow, so it's obviously been weighing on my mind.
While waiting for a render, I searched my office for the Golem of Socks again and finally found it. I was mistaken about having seen it recently, as it was in a box I've not opened in about a year. I shot a bit of animation with it, although at the end I realized I didn't have his flag stuffed into his head (how can one fly without a flag?). I'll be using him in some web videos later this year.

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I got a message from Adam Budd today, he's a young filmmaker and performance artist as well as being the co-star of Mark Wihak's "River". He's out in Montreal now, trying to find his path I imagine. He's brave and bold, more than I was at his age or even now, so I'm certain he'll make his name known soon enough.
I spent time at the university today, preparing the edit for the End of Life screening/meeting/discussion on Wednesday. John delivered a tape of smoke (sans mirrors) to help give some style to the otherwise talking head piece. While the machines were doing their thing, I almost caught up with my filing. I have so many papers on my desk and in boxes on my office floor that I can hardly stand going there. It's taken me 8 months to file, and I'm not even generating any new paper there. I also spent more time trying to find the Golem of Socks doll/puppet. I know it is somewhere safe, but cannot find it to save my life. I search the house and decide it must be at the office, then search the office and decide I must have it at home. Grrrrr.
Margaret and I finished watching episode 9 of Torchwood season 2 tonight, dying to see more.
Based on something Paul told me about search engines only looking at sites that are updated, I've taken to going into my old blogs and adding new material. It's like a treasure hunt: I added a new piece of video to a previous blog this evening.

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Kevin got back from Disneyland and surrounding parks such as Legoland. He brought me a Lego foam pirate clever, it's amazing. When I got home with it I discovered that Margaret had set his last gift on fire, or at least charred it beyond recognition. Sorry Kev, she forgot to remove it when she put the oven into cleaning mode.

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Today I bought William the giant Harry Potter Hogwarts Lego set that was on half price at Toys-R-Us and Paul came over and we built it. This evening we went to the Dunlop and to the Neutral Ground art openings, both good shows. The Dunlop show is on contemporary independent Canadian comic books. The gallery is filled with pillars with alcoves in them in which stacks of comics are stored. There are lots of comfortable places to sit and read them. There is no original artwork up, the curator claimed that this fetishizes the process, and instead presents only the comics as they were published.

256 test for Sock character animation in 3D

Finally started finishing some things today, delivered Tanya's disc she needs to her, and delivered all the work for New Dance Horizons to them. I can now purge my drives of all the material there and start on something fresh. At home I began trying to work with the 3D features in After Effects. Instead of the layers being flat on top of each other, they have a Z axis as well to allow the layers to be further from or closer to the camera. I've not figured out the viewpoint yet. I'd like to build the town out of tin buildings and let the characters move throughout them, but it seems you need to keep track of where the buildings are because if you don't, your moving characters will simply pass through them.
The BFA show opened at the MacKenzie Art Gallery tonight. I went alone, got Allan Dodson for my Warhol series. The art was very good, probably the best graduating show I've seen in many years.
Margaret and I watched two more episodes of Torchwood season 2 (thanks for downloading them Paul), both of tonights were tragic and more than a little melodramatic.

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I bought and assembled a new chair for my computer today. It's not that I had a bad chair, but it was actually too big for the small space I have, so I often had to sit awkwardly to type. There was a sale, so I impulse bought. I might get William a new chair tomorrow as well. Felipe called me from the Filmpool and asked if I'd write program notes for an Ian Toews screening. As I'd planned to write an article on Toews in the near future, I said I'd be delighted. I've got about 4 weeks. I have the first two of three New Dance dvds done, and the third is probably done (left at lab burning, haven't picked it up and tested it yet). Paul came over and ate cheesecake, played Lego, and now we'll watch Torchwood.

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A busy day, the Avids at work seemed to be functioning well today, I made one of the three New Dance dvds, and left a second one burning - it should be done as well. I should be able to purge those drives tomorrow and get on to other stuff. I just finished my new "She Said..." video. This required me to figure out how to do traveling mattes, which were easier than I first anticipated. There are no Daleks in it, but I did use some inexplicable sound effects that were vaguely reminiscent of Dr. Who and I do find that a popular reference in the title helps get hits. William had to go the dentist again to have a casting made of his missing teeth for a spacer. The last time this happened he was traumatized, but this time it seemed quick and fun and he declared it the best trip to the dentist ever. In anticipation of it being a bad experience, I rented a movie, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. It looked great, and I even sort of liked the script (writing was okay even though it was just a watered down Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and I liked the cast except Dustin Hoffman. For being the most experienced actor in the cast, he gave a terrible performance. He gave himself some ridiculous lisp and was never endearing. William and I then baked an amaretto cheesecake for tomorrow (sure be great to snack on during Torchwood).