Who & Lindsay?

Oh, that's right I'm supposed to update this blog once in a while too.

I don't have a whole lot to write about. Lindsay does a great job of covering most of it, and posting pictures. (Thanks, Honey!)

Unfortunately that just makes it harder for me to think of new stuff. Let me see. We (finally) hung our curtains. True, there is only one wall with any sort of colour or interest, but now that it's done I think it's one nice looking wall. I'm sure Linds will update our Picasa albums with a more thorough view of our apartment, but here's one shot to show my handiwork.

Fortunately, you can't see the first set of holes I drilled in the wrong places. Even if they did show, we have Photoshop and we're not afraid to use it. In fact, here's another picture just because it has been a while since I last had a chance to play in Photoshop.

Work is going well. Every industry has it's pros and cons and right now I'm really enjoying all of the things that are better in the games industry. Stuff like brainstorming ways to define a character by his movements or how to distinguish one character's silhouette from another, or just the coolest way to get from point A to point B. I also love starting up the game and seeing all of the animation in context. It's totally different when you can interactively control those animations and see them from other angles. It's almost like your creating a living thing that feels very awkward and piecemeal at first, but grows into a cohesive, working machine by the time it's done. Film and television are strictly linear. The end product is what it is and that's all it is. A game is different every time you play it.

As for the cons; well, like I said, it's a bit ungainly at first. Sometimes you animate something for a day and then spend 2 days trying to get it to implement into the game properly. Or if it's a new feature it could be several days or even weeks before it starts working in any recognizable manner. There are so many variables that can prevent something from working correctly and you really have to get to know the idiosyncrasies of this game that started long before you got there. Then, just because you get it working is no guarantee that it won't get broken somewhere down the line.

You may be sick of hearing about Olive, but too bad, there are more pictures coming anyways. She's about 2.5 times the size she was when we adopted her, but she still has her puppy cuteness and gets lots of compliments wherever she goes from people who don't know her like we do. She got sick last weekend, probably because she ingests everything she can get her little whiskery mouth on. The results were rendering our puppy poop bags totally useless so we put her on antibiotics and are feeding her a "bland diet" for a few days. At least the "Fecal Parasite Screen" reassured us that she doesn't have Giardia, which can apparently take months to get rid of.