Have you read it?  Great.  Just about everything he says in the letter is true.  Visual effects are the reason why people go to the movies these days, and yet we get the short end of the stick.  I’m glad to see Lee speaking out about this issue.

However, since when is it James Cameron’s responsibility to speak up?  If anything, it’s in his best interests for things to remain as they are.  I do think that Cameron is sympathetic to the visual effects artists’ situation.  In the credits for Avatar, visual effects artists were listed before traditional artists and other film staff, and the significance of that was not lost on me.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Cameron does speak up on behalf of VFX artists at the Oscars.  It would be great for visual effects artists and a generous act on Cameron’s part.  For a brief time, it would bring the issue center stage.   It would be a news story, and people would talk about how wrong the situation is.  And then that would be that, and the news cycle would move on.

The bottom line is, if VFX artists want things to change, we will have to do it ourselves.  The movie industry isn’t going to suddenly say, “oh hey, you know what?  You’re right.  We’ve been treating you like shit.  Here’s some health insurance, and some profit sharing, and a retirement program.  And we’ll see what we can do about some job security.”   If we want those things, we’ll have to take the responsibility on ourselves to get them.

One would think that once the holidays are over, a relaxed period free of social engagements, entertaining, and gift-giving can be enjoyed.  But for us, that has not been the case.  Last weekend we celebrated Neil’s birthday; we had a few people over and indulged ourselves in lasagna, macaroni & cheese, and cake.  And this weekend, we attended a baby shower for our friends.  I’m delighted for them, and I enjoyed the party.  The party was c0-ed, and for the most part, the couple did away with those silly games that are played at those parties.  Nothing is more boring than a “party” where a bunch of uptight women sit around and play stupid games while they are silently judging each other on their outfits, and silently judging the hostess on the cleanliness of her house, and the quality of her hors d’ouveres.

All of this activity has kept me busy and exhausted.  My personal goal is to avoid getting sick.

Hi! I’m an American! I’m writing this because I have a small request to make. I’d appreciate it if you’d stop insulting my country to my face. It’s rude and uncalled-for. I know, you assume I’m just an ignorant bully who doesn’t know anything about history or culture. But guess what? I’m not as dumb as you might think. For instance, I have enough manners not to criticize YOUR country in front of you.

I understand why you enjoy talking trash about the United States. We are a pretty easy target. What I don’t understand is why you think it’s okay to tell me how stupid and horrible you think my country is. Do you think that, by giving me your opinion, I will somehow be able to remedy the situation? Do you think I don’t know about America’s problems, both the ones it possesses and the ones it has created? Believe me, I’m well aware of the problems. They worry and sadden me. But insulting my country to my face isn’t going to improve the situation. It’s just going to piss me off.

How do you think it feels to have the whole world hate you and blame you for its problems? Let me tell you, it sucks. It sucks that there are people out there who hate my country so much that they are willing to sneak onto a plane with explosives strapped to their tender bits in an attempt to blow up as much of my country as they can. It sucks that our Congress is so caught up in partisan politics that they can’t set aside their differences and do the right thing for the American people. And it sucks that I get mocked and insulted for being an American every time I travel to a foreign country.

As a visitor to your country, I don’t go prancing around, pointing out your country’s faults. I know that you expect me to be an obnoxious, uncultured loudmouth. For that reason, I go out of my way to be polite, civilized, and well-behaved. I came here to see your country, learn about your culture, and enjoy myself. I don’t need you getting in my face and telling me how crappy America is. So don’t do it.

For Halloween, Neil and I attended the wedding of our friends Jason and Frederique.  It was a costume wedding, and people really got into it.  Neil was a groomsman, and I went as a survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

If you’re interested, more pictures are here.  Not all of the photos I took are up yet; I’ve been slowly adding them over time.  So check back periodically.

I also had the opportunity to tour the main house at Skywalker Ranch.  It was amazing.  The layout team for our project went up to the Ranch, had a lovely lunch (they make a great fruit crumble, people) and toured the first floor and library of the main house.  It was gorgeous.  There are numerous original paintings by great artists like Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish.  It was a true pleasure.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos, because I forgot to bring my camera that day.  If you do a google image search for “skywalker ranch”, I’m sure you’ll find some good photos.

Let’s see, other news… Neil and I went apple picking with my good friends Julianna and Lara.  It was a lot of fun, but then we were overrun with apples!  I made two or three apple crisps before I just got tired of having a box of apples on my counter, so I cut up the rest, and cooked them down as applesauce.  Now I have a large vat of applesauce in my fridge.

I also successfully made sweet potato gnocchi!  I was truly amazed at myself for this.  In my mind, gnocchi is a food that you can only get in a restaurant.  Neil and I had been out to dinner recently, and Neil had some really excellent gnocchi.  I started to wonder, “how hard is it to make gnocchi?” so I decided to look up a recipe online and find out.

Turns out, it’s not that hard.  It is pretty labor intensive, however.  I used this recipe.  Next time, I’m going to make regular gnocchi, instead of the sweet potato kind.

Ok people, that’s all I have for you right now.  More soon, I promise.  I will sincerely try not to let a month go by before the next post.

I started watching Guiding Light when I was in high school.  I think there were two main reasons why I started watching it in the first place: one, it came on at 3 pm, which is when I would get home from school, and two, because my older sister watched it, and she got my other sisters and me into it.  We would all watch it together, and we’d talk about the plots and characters, and we would speculate on what was going to happen.  It was fun, it was something we shared together.  Over the summers, my sisters watched other soaps, as well.  They seemed loyal to the CBS lineup: The Young and the Restless,  As the World Turns, and Guiding Light.  I watched As the World Turns sometimes, but I never really got into it.  Guiding Light was the only soap I really followed and knew the characters.

In some ways, I am part of the reason why GL is going away; I used to watch the show when I was in high school and to some extent in college, but as my life moved on and I started working, I left Guiding Light behind.   I’d catch it sometimes, on holidays or if I had a day off.  It was nice to check in every once in a while, to see what my old friends were up to in Springfield.  I haven’t watched it in a while, though.  And now, I won’t be able to catch the show any more.

I’m recording this last week on my TiVo, and I’ve been watching at night.  It takes me back.  A lot of the same characters are still there, saying their goodbyes.  I guess I have to say my goodbyes too.  Farewell, Guiding Light, and thanks for being there in my high school years, when I needed you the most.

Oh well.  To hell with that.  Back to work.

Neil and I have been taking evening strolls lately.  The sky is often spectacular in the evening, and we sometimes see deer, or other wildlife, out and about.  Because of the beautiful sights, we’ve been bringing my portable camera with us.  I thought I’d share these photos.  After I took these,  Neil hauled out his digital SLR and tripod for an impromptu photo shoot of the moon.   The photos he took make a nice animated movie of the clouds moving across the sky.  I’ll make the movie and post it soon.

Here’s a little illustration I did in Photoshop recently.  I’m kind of inspired by the art of Samurai Jack, and I’m trying to incorporate some of the illustration techniques I see in the SJ artwork and put it in my own work.  I still have a long way to go in terms of scale, composition, and color, though.

I realize that I have a bit of an obsession with forests.  Looking at these images, I see that I’m sort of painting the same image again and again.  It’s time to move on from this basic forest composition.  I’m not saying I’ll never paint another tree/forest image, but I recognize that I need to explore new compositions and subject matter.

For the past several months, I’ve been working on these lace gloves.  I started them in February, and I would work on them whenever I got the chance.  Finally, they are done.  I knit them out of some blue sport weight cashmere I had sitting around.  In spite of the fact that my lace knitting has some fundamental technical problems, I’m very pleased with them.  I know they’ll come in handy when it starts to get chilly in the office.

They are perhaps the most challenging knitting project I’ve undertaken so far.  To begin with, I find knitting on double pointed needles to be ungainly, and it slows me down.  (I do not understand all of those dedicated sock knitters.)  I’m also new to lace knitting.  I modified the pattern from its original form, and added the cutoff fingers.  The pattern is here (but in Swedish).  An English version can be found on Ravelry, the Wristwarmwers with Falling Leaves pattern.

As a break from the intensity of these gloves, I’m currently chilling out with some scarf knitting.  However, friends of mine keep getting pregnant, which makes me feel the pressure to make baby sweaters.  Ack.  Who knew that being a knitter could be so stressful?

I’ve been wanting to use this time to improve my artistic skills, but I wasn’t sure where to start.  I decided to do a speed painting of clouds in Photoshop, just to warm up.  I used a photo as reference, but only for the general “look” of the clouds, and for the value range of the picture.  I wanted to improve my brushwork and try a few new techniques.  I’m not displeased with how this turned out.