Merry Christmas from Oklahoma

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. This morning I got up and spent a little time talking to God which is one of my favorite things to do on this day. The weather here in Oklahoma is beautiful- at least when compared to my first abysmally cold Chicago winter. It's like 40's and 50's here. Yesterday, I went jogging in shorts which is a far cry from the bundling up I do just to walk the 75 some odd yards to my gym from my apartment up north. I flew into Oklahoma City Friday night for the week and am very much looking forward to the break. Last night, I went to the candle light service at my old home church which was as beautiful as always. The lighting of the first candle and the passing of the flame to the hundreds of unlit candles until the lights in the house are brought down and a sea of little flames lights the auditorium in flickering beauty. A single verse of Silent night is sung and the blowing out of our candles is our communal good bye. I am a sucker for Christmas carols; I love the old ones. I saw some old friends as well which is always a pleasant surprise. The son of a couple of my high school friend's cancer is in remission and that is wonderful news indeed. In other news though unrelated to Christmas, my buddy Jon just let me know that the book (who is using an image from The Potter on the cover) just went on presale on Amazon and it now has a thumbnail. On top of that bit of good news, as long as everything went in alright, there should be an article in February's issue of 3d World on The Potter. Very cool. Gonna have to jet, time for the annual pilgrimage to Dallas to see the rest of my family. That and my nephews need to be held upside down by their ankles. Merry Christmas.

Another lesson at Josh's expense...

Saturday night I wanted to finish off the left over tacos I had in the fridge, so I warmed up the meat. I had a funny feeling in my gut that maybe I was pushing the safe time table in which it was safe to eat said left overs. But I said, what the heck, and ate it anyway. I got a stomach of steel. About 10:00pm, I sensed things to be amiss. My new roommate wanted to play some Mario Kart, so we played for about forty five minutes or so and my stomach was starting to do some funny things. After that, it seemed like bed time was calling loud. I heeded the call and was looking forward to a long night's sleep. However, my gut was not happy with my choice for dinner and it was about to let me know just how much displeasure it had. It proceeded to do so just about every hour on the hour until 5:00am. Two words - violently ill. Fun times. This morning my new roommate was so kind as to go get me some saltines and gatorade and then some meds this afternoon. I'm grateful for him being such a good sport after only two days here. Lesson - When your gut tells you not to eat something and you ignore it, your gut just may make sure you get the message in the end.

The importance of correct power supplies...

Did you know that even though two power supplies may have the same connector for the back of your electronic gizmo, they may not work correctly when interchanged? In fact, the same shape connectors can have two very different voltage outputs. This was apparently something I had missed somewhere in my electronic pilgrimage. The last week or so, I've been clearing out my second bedroom to make room for a roommate and i had disconnected my wireless router and modem in that process. Well, last night, I went to hook the net back up and plugged in my modem and my router. The modem started up fine, however, I quickly noticed a peculiar smell- burning carbon and plastic. If you've never smelled this before, I assure you it is an unmistakable scent. I picked up the router and felt the bottom getting rather hot so I unplugged it as quickly as I could. However, the damage was done. That little piece of electronics had served me well the past 4 years and it wasn't going to be routing anything anymore. It was probably time for a new one anyway, I just wish it could have gone out more gracefully - perhaps as a donation rather than in the garbage can. Alas. Lesson - Label any unmarked power supplies when moving things in the future.

The things you love...

I'm reading this collection of John Eldredge. He's a great writer who happens to write in a style I can connect with. He's been talking about life, heart, desire for more than we find in our day to day lives. It speaks to me. In the reading I did today, he said to write down those things you love - the moments that make life amazing. I thought it would be a fun exercise.

• The eureka moment after having spent hours on a problem
• Sitting under the stars away from the city lights
• Fishing on a quiet lake
• Seeing my team excel in their gifts and accomplishing what we couldn't do alone
• Hearing one of my friends say they've met Jesus
• Sketching and sketching and sketching to finally meet that character you've been searching for
• The fellowship of family and friends on a lazy Sunday afternoon
• A baby's hand curling round my finger
• Really great animation that lives and breathes
• Eddy's Frozen Fruit Coconut Bars
• Hearing God speak when I slow down enough to really listen
• A great movie that takes you from laughter to tears and back again
• Really great finger-licking BBQ from some place you've never heard of
• Waking up to a fresh snow before the plow man has gone to work
• Worshipping God in those rare services where God infuses the air like incense and, no matter how many or few people may be in the room with me, in that moment I am alone in the presence of my God
• A roaring fire and a mug of hot chocolate
• Holding a sleeping baby
• Turning the last page of a great novel
• An old friend with whom no span of years makes our friendship diminish
• My mom's pasta
• My aunt's homemade french fries
• Seeing someone connect with one of my films or stories
• Seeing little kids dance with reckless abandon to no more music than what plays in their little heads
• Finding a new author who grants me a new perspective
• Knowing that I am loved and accepted by the God of the universe
• Rich Mullins wailing on the hammer dulcimer
• Climbing a mountain and seeing the horizon laid out like a painting

By no means an exhaustive list, but it made me smile just to make it. Give it a shot.

I'm a lousy neighbor...

This morning, my rental office called and said the neighbors below me complained that it sounded like I was throwing weights around or something. The truth of the matter is that I've been clearing out my 2nd bedroom all afternoon and was setting some books on the book case in my bedroom when the shelf in the case suddenly shifted. That can't be good, I thought. All of a sudden, two shelves of books came crashing down on top of me and it was all I could to to hold the rest of the bookcase up. What I should have done was empty the rest of the case and taken care of it in the morning. However, I was tired and grumpy at having had some rather heavy art books fall on me and so my first instinct was to fix it. So I did. Tearing up some cardboard, I wedged it under the front of the case so it would have a natural back tilt. I then grabbed my hammer and stud finder and resecured the bookcase to the wall with a Thud, Thud Thud. I suddenly heard a reply of Thump, thump, thump coming from the floor below me. I figured it was a neighbor irritated with my hammering. I thought, wonder what they're so uptight about as I turned and looked at the clock. Oh. I had been so busy with the work that I had completely lost track of time. It was just shy of midnight. I, of course, felt like an inconsiderate dufus. In the future, should a shelf of books fall on me, I will look at the clock before grabbing my hammer.

To anonymous commenter...

Thank you for the comment. I'm glad you liked my work. On the rest, I definitely hear you. It's difficult to speak directly to your thoughts lacking knowledge of how you view the world. But I'll try. I agree that we accept a certain amount of risk and exposure when starting relationships - be they romantic or strictly friendship. Free will means that the choices of two people will probably not always conincide. With conflict comes many possibilities - rejection, reconcilliation, misunderstanding, growth. But to be afraid to take those chances would result in a life that wouldn't be really living. We can only truly be alone by choice. However, that stems from my belief that God is real and loves you and I unconditionally and there is no place I can go, no sense I can lose, no pain I can suffer that will change my faith in that. Even if you reject that notion, the fact that another person seems to be at the same crossroads you find yourself at at the same time surely must mean something. For everyone that is at this place of finding their hearts shattered, there is another that is ahead or behind us on the same trail. Life is a communal experience that way. I'm continually amazed when I read the words of some centuries-old mystic writing in a country that no longer exists crying out to God and their words could just as easily have been mine at that exact moment. It's as if their pen dipped in an inkwell so long ago was dipping into my very heart. If I understand your implications, I think healing is the most important step to take at this point. We do funny things when we're in pain, things that would normally repel us suddenly seem the only logical decision to be made. Time will change that, sharing life with others will heal that. Don't force life, let it come. You can chug a glass of wine but you ruin the flavor.

A broken mac and thoughts on life...

Last week I was writing some emails on my 7 month old Powerbook and, having finished, closed it up and sat it down. When I came back to use it, it was off and when booted only showed a gray screen of nothing. I searched the web for a while looking for answers and tried the reasonable ones (seriously, are there people that take a part lap tops themselves?). Nothing worked, so I took it to the Apple Store on Friday. The sent it off and I hope to get it back soon....I miss the little guy. That baseball bat to the face life threw at me a while ago is still stinging but I'm working through it. I’m a thinker. I want to understand it all, but I know that’s not possible. That’s where knowledge ends and faith begins. It might be nice to have more control in what happens to us, to be able to mulligan our mistakes, to not let the decisions of others shatter our realities, to choose only the things that make us happy to meet us on this road we tread - It might be nice, but it wouldn’t be life. Life is isn’t so much about what circumstances we find ourselves in, but who we become in those tempests.

So windows can whistle...

This past weekend a good buddy of mine from my days in DC came to stay with me for the weekend. I've not seen him for almost 4 years but it was like I'd seen him last week. Friends like that are rare and far between and it was great to hang out again. Back to the point, Saturday night was a windy one here in the Windy City. Tonight is as well, which is what reminded me. So it seems that the windows of my apartment are so positioned that a heavy wind happens to interact with the sealing on my patio door to cause a high pitched whistle. I had the pleasure of being awakened at about 3:00 am to such a whistle- I'm sure you can imagine my happiness. I just heard it again...I'm sure this is the beginning of many a fun evening as Chicago's winter season settles in.

Savannah Film Festival and catching up...

Headed out a week ago Thursday for the Savannah Film Festival and had great time. The festival went out of it's way to make sure we were taken care of. Talking to some of the other festival hoppers, that is most definitely not always the case. I met some great film makers and saw some phenomenal pieces. I had a great time overall. I'm heading to California for Thanksgiving to hang with my brother and nephews which should be great times- nothing makes you smile like having a couple of pint size nephews jumping off your back. Also, my brother is getting an Xbox 360 which should mean some late night frag-a-thons. I saw Chicken Little last week in 3d which was a treat. I really enjoyed the film overall. The story wasn't as strong as I'd have liked but the animation of the main characters was outstanding overall. The fish was my favorite character- great attitude sans words. When I first started seeing stuff on the film, I was worried that Chicken Little's "pupil eyes" would have issues being as expressive as "real" eyes. However, I think they worked great. I wonder how it would work on a character without glasses as they are a good natural cheat. Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I some vacation days I had to use before the end of the year- nothing like being ordered to take paid time off.

Stuff...

Life has a funny way of hitting you in the face with a baseball bat when you least suspect it. Well, I got a doozy. Things suck right now; that's all I'm gonna say for now. Back to pretending it's all good. In other news: • I'm heading to Savannah tomorrow for the Savannah Film Festival. The Potter is showing there and they were kind enough to invite me out. I'm really looking forward to getting away for a few days, see some old friends, and watch some animation. • I got a call from a publisher who wants to use an image from The Potter for a book cover which is very cool if that goes through alright. • Freelance work is going well and I have had a very interesting lead turn up that I'm very excited about. • My best friend recently had his first child...err, his wife did but I imagine he had something to do with it • There is a great collection of concept art - here Should be writing soon on the wonder world of Tivo and gonna have a ton of movies to talk about. How can a CG nut not be excited about movies in the next two months?!

Sweet, sweet Prevacid...

About a year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with Acid Reflux. Simply put, that means that if I look at food I get heartburn. My doc in Savannah got me on a sweet little drug called Prevacid which stops such heartburn. Since then, I've been heart burn free so long as I took my pill every morning. Miss it one day, and the burn is back. When I got to Chicago I was on another insurance plan for a month as my company was in a healthcare provider changeover. I ran out of Prevacid during that little changeover and tried to get a refill. The pharmacy said that my healthcare provider said that there was an age restriction. I thought maybe I was too young or something so I called them for clarification. They told me that I was not too young, I was too old. I said, "Too old? I'm 27, how old is too old?" "We only authorize it for infants." I stared blankly at the phone. "But it's a gel cap, does it come in other forms?" No answer to that question but, "We can offer you something else." So I went and got replacement A and proceeded to have terrible heart burn from that day on. I was popping extra strength tums like candy and swigging Malox at night. So that was my routine for a while. October came and I made an apointment with my new doc and had it this week. When I asked him about it, he smiled and said there was no reason for that restriction, but that insurance companies make deals with drug companies and put asanine restrictions on said drug company's competitors. Nice, everyone wins....right? Turns out my new provider has a deal with the makers of Prevacid and so I can go through the day now and not feel like my stomach acid is going to burn though my lungs. . . go healthcare!

My email postman has been a little lax...

Apparently my email isn't working quite right and I've missed two VERY important emails that only providence revealed to have been missed at all. So, until I get this figured out with my host, please email me at "j j b u r t o n @ g m a i l . c o m" (please remove spaces, added to stop stupid spam bots). If you've tried to reach me in the past week or two and I've not responded, please resend. I appologize for any inconvenience.

Great making of vid...

This is a great making of vid from Le Building which was a pretty spectacular looking toon shade film of the summer. Check it out... Here it is

Finally a sketch or two...

It would have come sooner, but in my move the power adapter for my scanner seems to have been misplaced. You'd think I could just call the company and order a new one for a reasonable amount of money.... You'd think that. Oh no, a new adapter was 2/3 the cost of a new scanner, so I plunked down my card and got a new scanner today. Sorry Epson, I won't be purchasing from you again. My new one even is powered through the USB cable, how cool is that? Here's some sketches from the past few weeks. I've been playing a lot with animals which may or may not having something to do with what's in my creative crockpot at the moment:). More to come.

Katrina...

I've struggled over what to say about this travesty. A few days before it hit, my uncle told me on the phone that it was a shame I hadn't been to visit New Orleans cause, well, it would be gone. I laughed that off thinking that the thought was improbable at best. Watching the TV and taking in the news though out the day via the web one breaks at work, I just couldn't understand and many thought raced through my mind Why did the people stay? Why weren't there supplies at the dome? Why didn't help get there faster? Then the blame game started. There is a time for everything under heaven, but this is the time to help, not to hinder. By all means, look at what went wrong, but not while people are still in need of rescue and shelter. I just don't get it. I hope we all help any way we can and pray for those ways we are not able.

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....

Another week, another....blog entry

It was a good week-nothing crazy good or bad. Picked up another freelance gig which should be fun. A little cg add-on ladybug for a live action movie that filmed here in Savannah. My buddy Jon and I are gonna handle that. He's heading off to Europe for one last quarter before letting go of his school days, so hopefully we can get his match move knocked out early in the week. Made some good progress on a spot I'm doing for a little studio up in New York. I'm pumped to get to play with Tiko again. I'm grateful for the chance to work on some freelance gigs that involve some animation instead of just design. Good stuff, but gonna be a busy few weeks. I've been trying to decide what to spend my gift certificate money (grad gift from my brother and his wife, though the fact that its for a game store leads me to think my brother was making the call on that one...thanks, Mike!). I've been fighting the call of Azeroth for a long, long time....is it time to give in.....? I gotta say Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has to be my new favorite cartoon. The get so much antic, squash and stretch and just fun-to-watch animation in the simple style, that you just gotta love it. That and, Bloo is selfishly awesome...he cracks me up. Had a good phone interview with a company and heard from some others. One is flying me out this week which I'm excited about. All of my packages have arrived at the studios I sent them out to, so I guess I'm in the waiting game to see if I get any responses there. All the responses so far have still been from posting on the web, so I guess that's a good way to go to get some response for my fellow job seekers.