Friday, July 30, 2010

Romeo and Juliet: Balcony Scene (abridged)

In my latest animation made using, I decided to test the master playwright against the robots. It's a close call, but the playwright won!

Or is it because I've seen so much bad Shakespeare, and so read it to get past the bad acting, that my ears would hear the poetry anyway? A major point for the robots, they don't fall into the rhymey sing song that humans are prone to. But the gesturing, well, I guess it's universal!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Monday, July 26, 2010

The Importance of Being Present

The Captain must communicate an urgent message to her chief minion, Rarthon - but he receives a text!

The Dog Nose

A new video created on Turns out if you use the default characters you can make animated videos for free; while if you choose from the menu of "talent" you need "points" to make animations (points cost money).   Here we have another literary classic made into a mini-play for your entertainment and education.

Ghost Town Tumble Weed Papers

A piece of philosophy for future writers: your friends won't read your stories.  If you give your stories to your friends, you'll always wonder, if they say nothing, whether they read your stories and didn't have the heart to tell you they didn't like them, or if they just never got around to reading them. Chances are, since you're their friend and they hear your voice enough day to day, your stories will wait, but won't be read.

So either way, it's a pinch for you.  So, send your stories to strangers if you want them read. In the old days, we submitted to magazines and got form letters back.  Now adays, we can blog, which is nice, 'cause friends might read a blog and can comment anonymously, and yet you will never know if they ever even looked so you'll be free to stew about your characters instead of your friends. 

And that is the end of this story, my friends.

Friday, July 23, 2010

It Calls for Understanding II

"Simple Complexities" says the phrase, "It is what it is" equals, "I don't want to talk about what matters to you right now."  I agree!  Saying "It is what it is," is not an acknowledgement that is meant to comfort or calm, it's a power move, and a rather aggressive one at that, meant to put a stop to what is perceived as a complaint, to halt to a nagging concern. Not only is it rude, but it does nothing to resolve the issue at hand. 

How about this: "That's a fact!"  Well, there it is. 

"I sure am upset about the oil catastrophe in the gulf."

"Well, it is what it is."

"I feel so hopeless now!"

"That's a fact!"

Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Past is Prologue (Again)

Here is a brilliantly presented historical view that needed to be said and needs saying again about the insidious history of the “good ol’ boy” mentality – and the actions it generates!

"Rachel Maddow explains that the Sherrod scandal-spun-out-of-thin-air is political strategy to stoke fear and racial resentment among white voters."

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Seek and Go Find

My latest cinematic marvel, created on "If you can type, you can make movies". Fun! At this point you can't really preview before publishing (unless you have lots of time on your hands) so pardon any questionable gesturing.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

My, What a Lovely Brain You Have, My Dear...

Some people are just impossible, aren't they?  Inherited brain traits are not necessarily bound up by fate.  But to understand complicated personalities, it helps to understand how how the brain functions.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Who Turned Out the Lights?!

Prince says the internet's over.  I tend to agree, but think he's about ten years ahead of his time (as usual).  At the end of the brief article he mentions the uselessness of the quick information and numbers our techo toys fill our heads with.  He's got a significant point there - the constant jumping around the virtual world is depleting our attention spans.

Follow the train down the track a little: as attention spans decrease, the ability to explore anything in depth decreases, and boredom sets in.  So we have all these toys and flashing lights and we're bored because we're really not studying anything.  And what do bored people want? Entertainment!  And what did Julius Caesar say about that? I'll paraphrase, but he said if you can keep the masses entertained you can put pretty much anything over on them.

(Hey, where'd the Gulf of Mexico disappear to?  And what the hell happened to the economy?  What do you mean affordable higher education in California is falling into the sea?  What Texas sized plastic garbage patch in the Pacific ocean? I don't see it on Google Earth...)

I love the internet, it's fun and useful, I'm just calling for balance, and if Prince says it's over let me weigh in to suggest it's just not the be all and end all we've made it out to be.

I saw a promo for a TV show where people were actually racing to pull kleenexes out of boxes.  How long can ya watch something like that before you need something new?  Now: how about humanity spending its free time learning about each other, maybe even considering ways to address the needs of societies and nature?  How about solving problems instead of turning away to lucious little fixes?

Oh the notion is complex, it might induce meaningful conversations leading to increased compassion and passion for life!  Why, we might go outside at night, away from the glowing screens, ponder the stars again and consider our place in the universe.  Somebody could fall truly in love!  The moon would glow a little brighter!  Interactions beyond the 134-character limits might just take hold and soulfulness would ensue! 

I might laugh!  I might write a poem or paint a picture beautiful enough to make me cry! 

And here I am all out of kleenex.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Good Practice

People like to say that if it weren't for the bad times, we wouldn't appreciate the good. I wholeheartedly disagree! I guarantee you I would LOVE all good, all the time, even with no contrasting agents to spell it out for me.

Of course the cynic might suggest the absence of bad would neutralize good.  Then a conversation could go on for hours engaging the concepts of good vs. bad, or holy vs. evil.  But even an argument wouldn't need to exist if all good was pervasive.

But what about people's different definitions of good?  Ah yes, thinking from here in 3D that is a problem. Some people find others' bads good and others' goods bad.  Maybe that's why the concept of Heaven was invented.   What would happen if everyone on this earth, regardless of their dogmas, just said, and meant, and acted upon the following for a complete year: "Today I will work to see how heavenly I can make this earth."?  I bet we'd find more agreement about the nature of good than we would discover through academic argument.

...but maybe some people wouldn't want to do this because they feared it wouldn't be good, or their minds were the literal kind that would presume this meant a remodeling of the earth to mimic their envisioned heaven.  I don't think we could make enough dry-ice fast enough.  And here we have the not-good on the first day of all-good.  Great.