01.27.07
Posted in California Life at 8:20 pm by winz
I have accomplished many things since I have moved to California but yesterday I reached a new milestone. I drove to San Francisco by myself! I’ve been to the city a billion times, but Matt has always done the driving; this was my first time sans Matthew. Oh my, it was nerve racking but I am proud to say that I made it. Driving in Houston is nothing like driving in the Bay Area. To give you an idea take Houston, cram all the people, freeways, and cars into the Humble/Atascocita area and you have the concentrated efforts of trying to drive out here. Way too many people, cars, bike riders etc, for the amount of space.
In order to get from our house (or anywhere in Oakland) to San Francisco you travel across the Bay Bridge. The Bay Bridge is an awesome, long, suspension bridge that crosses the bay between the two cities. The bridge is traveled by millions of people everyday and has a toll ($4 to be exact). I was registered to attend a workshop in the heart of the city that started at 8:30 which meant that I needed to travel across the bridge and into the city during rush hour! Could I have not planned my first driving trip into the city at a better time?? I set out on my journey with 2 hours to get to the school, I know it’s a bit neurotic but the bridge is known for taking a good amount to time to cross during rush hour. I began my drive armed with coffee, directions, and a container of change for the toll (yes change – 4 dollars worth of dimes and nickels, I know the guy at the toll booth loved me) it wasn’t long before I was greeted by the masses who also were waiting to cross the bridge – it was unreal, so many cars waiting to pay a toll and cross. I waited in line for 40 minutes – no really 40 minutes – and having a Fast Trak (EZ tag) doesn’t make a difference; you still wait in line with the rest. I finally made it to the toll booth, greeted the “toll man†with my change (and he did love it). After getting through the toll booths it was pretty much smooth sailing over the bridge. Somehow all the traffic that was so congested at the toll booth dissipated while crossing the bridge. I enjoyed watching the sun rise over the city and Alcatraz. Driving in San Fran is crazy, not only because of the cars and one way roads but add to that bike riders, walkers, trolley cars, and busses and you get one huge mess! I did manage to navigate the city successfully and arrive at my workshop early. Whew! Hooray for such an accomplishment.
My workshop was a wonderfully inspiring opportunity. Humble did a great job of providing opportunities for professional development — which I never was truly thankful for until now — but Piedmont doesn’t provide any such opportunities. My office mate Rochelle and I managed to talk the Special Ed department into sending us to a Mel Levine workshop (www.allkindsofminds.org). I had never heard of the famous Mel Levine until I moved here but he is amazing (he’s even been on Oprah). It would be like getting to see Debbie Miller in person for all you Humble folks. Dr. Levine is a pediatrician from Harvard Medical School specializing in researching children with learning disabilities. Not only is he brilliant and hilarious, he was motivating and inspiring. The workshop made me want to quit my job and go get a teaching gig. I’m on the look out if you know anyone hiring! I am thankful that I had the opportunity to get to listen to such an awesome speaker. Everyone needs a little motivation every now and then.
After the workshop I enjoyed spending the evening in the city with some of my girlfriends from work. It was nice to hang out with girls. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that opportunity. Overall it was a great day full of new experiences. I’m not going to make any plans to be in the city early in the morning any time soon but now I know that I can navigate my way there and back. I don’t think I’m firing Matt either, I do enjoy having a chauffer every chance I get.
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01.20.07
Posted in Design Work, Videos at 1:55 pm by mathagat
Today is our last day in Motion Graphics I. I’m here at the school now to present our final project at 11 am. Just dropped Lindsey off and work and thought I’d come on over here and kill some time until class by posting the work from this class.
The first piece below was an assignment to create a timeline based ad “bumper” for a fictitious tv show on any number of topics for the History Channel. We weren’t supposed to brand the show with a title or add the History Channel logo, just do the meat of the ad.
The second project was the final project. It is a show intro for the web cast of the live Iron Science Teacher gameshow that happens at the San Francisco Exploratorium, a neat museum of science and human perception over in the city. They have been broadcasting this show live online since 1999, which is quite a long time as far as web broadcasting goes. They have quite a following with 100′s visitors tuning in online semi-weekly as well as a nice archive of all the shows they’ve broadcast since 1999. This piece, if selected, could be used as the new intro to the show online.
If the video has trouble playing smoothly from the start, press pause and let it load all the way before pressing play again.
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01.18.07
Posted in Design Work, Videos at 5:56 am by mathagat
You know how they say if you can’t sleep at night you shouldn’t lay in bed torturing yourself? Well, I couldn’t fall asleep tonight, so I got up and played a bit.
Remember that Michael Jackson music video Black or White from the early 90′s? There was this sequence at the end with different people morphing from one to the next. I wanted to try and do that. Here is my first shot at it. This was just with still images taken over Christmas. I could only imagine how tricky it was to do it with moving video, and in the early 90′s too when CGI was a toddler.
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01.13.07
Posted in Holidays, Vacations and Trips at 7:03 pm by winz
An end to a great time in Texas
Our trip came to a close with a fantastic visit with Adam and Genie (Matt’s brother and his girlfriend). Adam and Genie had enjoyed a week of skiing in Colorado during the break and were not able to celebrate Christmas with us. They made sure to come home in order to see us for a night before we headed back. Matt and I were very thankful for their sacrifice and the time we got to spend together. They arrived in Houston on Friday evening, shared with us their fantastic pictures from Colorado. We also enjoyed another time of gift giving and present opening – it was too much fun! Adam, Genie, Matt and I had a wonderful Pappasitos dinner and had a great time catching up. We hope that we will have more time to spend with them next time we are back in the South.
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Posted in Holidays, Vacations and Trips at 6:56 pm by winz
Anticipation of great things
I waited for Thursday the 28th with much anticipation for many reasons. One, Texas A&M was scheduled to play in the Holiday bowl against University of California – Berkeley (where Matt and I live now). And, Ronny & Carla had planned a holiday surprise for a group of us. I spent a good amount of the break trying to guess what Ronny’s surprise could be and finally found out on Thursday when we arrived at a horse ranch. The Tuckers, Schimers, Matt and I were all being treated to an afternoon of horse back riding! Oh my goodness! I think I can safely say that most of us were a little nervous about the adventure that was ahead of us. My horse Tarzan (do we see any foreshadowing here) had a mind of his own. I only got “stuck†once, we blazed our own trail twice, but made it home with the rest of the group safe and sound. Matt was given the Alpha male horse of them all and was instructed to stay away from the rest of our group. I think he enjoyed his alone time with Legend and looks forward to the next time we get to go horseback riding – maybe down the beach out here when it warms up.
After horseback riding the whole gang enjoyed dinner at Pappa’s BBQ before Matt and I headed out for our second anticipated event of the day – the Holiday bowl. We live in Oakland, near Berkeley which is were the University of California is located. I was so excited when I learned that Texas A&M would be playing Cal in this bowl game. I made a point of talking smack and placing bets with many of my students and friends in Cali. So, needless to say I was looking forward to watching this great game on TV but, unfortunately the Aggies were outscored and the game had a less than desired outcome for those who wear maroon. I have humbly accepted the results of the game and allowed my students to rub in the victory of Cal. Even with the score of the A&M game the whole day was a ton of fun for us.
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