Check those fluids...

You walk up to your car and start seeing little puddles of greenish fluid underneath. At first it's just a few drops here and there, however with time, it becomes substantial little patches. If you're a car mechanic genius like me, you just chalk it on the list of I'll take a look at that later. However, I'm here to testify that you let that go long enough and you'll have a morning like mine. I got up this morning, checked my email and on the back up restore of an old client's site who got hacked by some eastern European hacker group whose message was both incomprehensible due to complete lack of command of the english language and reprehensible due to a the graphic imagery of infanticide. I really don't understand hackers. However, back to the story. Got on the road at my normal time and headed towards work. I started noticing something funny was going on as my little civic was idling strange (jumping between 800 and 1500 rpms which even my mechanically challenged self knew wasn't right). It was sporadic and I thought I outa get that looked at sometime as well. About a third of the way to work I noticed smoke coming from the hood and took a peek at the temp gauge- it was pegged. Actually past pegged. Thinking it might be wise to pull off the road, I looked in the rear view mirror before changing lanes and saw that my car had a full Spy Hunter smokescreen in tow. Blinding the drivers following, I got off the road and shut 'er down. I thought I forgot my cell phone so didn't bother to look (how is it we know we've forgotten something without actually looking? But I knew). A cop showed up about 20 minutes later and said he'd call for a interstate help service to bring me some water for my radiator. I asked him if I could use a phone, but all he had was a personal one and I guess that's against regulations or something. I got back in the car to await some thirst quenching water for Sarah (my car's name, I've met enough people that do the same that I know longer thing I'm the oddball there). The guy finally showed up and poured water in and as fast as he poured it in it started pouring out. He said, "I don't think you should drive on that." I believed him. I thanked him and called the insurance company to arrange the tow. 'Bout an hour later, the driver showed up and had me pull the car up on the truck cause he couldn't work a stick. So Abdul from Palestine and I chatted it up all the way to the mechanic. My boss said I could just stay here as most of the day was spent but I got a meeting that my suggestions and requests were a major point in bringing about, so I gotta head in for a bit for that. That and so the rest of the guys can laugh at my story. In other news, my buddy Scott Englert from The Potter was up here last Friday for an interview and looks like he'll be starting in early October. So, grats to him.

Cool link of the week...

Came across this high-speed video site. Great reference for fx artists and animators and people who just wanna see someone's face jiggle as a fist impacts it at high speed. How do you get a guinea pig for that? "Hey, Jim, come ere', I wanna film your face for a sec..."

Festival Updates and a bit of the (other) Potter...

Work is going well, but busy. It's hard to find time to update the sites. However, I did update The Potter site last night with the latest in festivals and the team page as well. I found out about 3 festivals in the past week which is pretty darn cool. It's a finalist in the Stash DVD GSAA comp so it'll be in one of those issues and Animation Magazine's Student Competition so there might be an image in that. I also found out that it was accepted to the Savannah Film Festival so I'll be heading back to Savannah in November. Thankfully it's then, and the hot humid days they're going through now will be long gone. Speaking of, some of the guys here are complaining that it's hot and the radio is making it sound like "Black August" or something. After living in the soup that is summer in Savannah, it feels just fine to me....reminds me of Oklahoma. I've gotta get caught up on blogs. I read an article last week in Time that I've been wanting to harp on a bit about Harry Potter in which the author feels a need to bash C.S. Lewis the whole time. I'm a huge fan of J.K. but I'd rather not have to read her praises juxtaposed against a poorly researched caricature of Lewis...reminds me of why I don't read the paper much any more. I'll get to it. I read the latest Potter book in a day and it was very, very good. I'm taking it piece meal now on my second time through. I'll wait a bit to write on that to give people plenty of time to read it without getting a spoiler from me. The 3rd is still my favorite...ah, well.

I'm a commuter...

For the past four years, my commute has consisted in getting up, walking 30 feet and sitting at my computer too start my freelancing day. Dress was "house casual" and lunch breaks were sitting and eating while watching a bit of TV. No more. I've joined the hustle and bustle of brake lights and 5 mph on the interstate and have to say that though it takes some getting used to, it's not that bad. Driving my 5 speed is much more enjoyable in traffic than my automatic for no other reason than it gives me the opportunity to keep my mind on something else and coast at times. My game of the week has been to see how long I can go in bumper to bumper standstill traffic without stopping. Nothing dangerous, just giving enough buffer room between me and the car in front of me that I don't have to slam on my brakes every time they touch theirs. I really don't understand how some people follow as closely as they do in this traffic. ANYTHING happens and you have a 20 car pile up in no time. The truck drivers leave a big buffer and they're on the road all the time, so I'm gonna follow their lead. Life in the big city. There must be some speciality of science to understand traffic patterns, cause I just don't get it. My drive time can be as short as 40 minutes to as long 2 hours. I haven't found any rhyme or reason to it. I can leave at the same time 3 days in a row and have completely different drive times. Forget about weather forecasts, I want traffic forecasts....