Nature / Writing

Friday December 07, 2012 Steve and I have a lot of stuffed animals in our apartment. Some of them are from my childhood, but many are much newer than that. They are spread around the place, perched on shelves and lounging on the back of the couch. There's even a Remy the Rat in the kitchen.  But several of our stuffed animals spend their days sitting together on a small bench in the living room. And yes, ours is an adults-and-cats only home. So the other day we realize December has snuck up on us. We respond the only way we know how, by decorating. Among the other things I get out of the Christmas chest are the holiday-themed stuffed animals we've carefully packed away. We're quickly running out of places to put things, and so I say: "We could pack away the guys on the bench, and put the Christmas animals there." Steve immediately agrees, but then we both look at the bench. Neither one of us moves. Finally I say: "How lame is it that I feel bad a...

Monday August 13, 2012 In which I ramble about animation choices, a topic on which I have absolutely zero expertise.  (If you already know all about using white rims to humanize the eyes of drawn animals, you may want to skip down to the "But What About Angus?" section.) [I took the photos in this post; all images from Disney films were available on the official movie download and gallery pages available at Disney.go.com/brave , Disney.go.com/up ,and Disney.go.com/tangled   Some images have been cropped for commentary purposes.] Why? Chicken eye. The first time I saw Disney Pixar's Brave , I paid a lot of attention to the way the animals' eyes were animated.  If you've seen the movie, you probably noticed it too, although you may not have noticed yourself noticing it. The thing is, in real life you don't see much of the whites (or sclera ) of many animals' eyes, unless they are looking sideways or are angry/scared/upset.  Yet cartoonishly ani...

Friday August 10, 2012 When I was a kid, my mom would often spend part of her summers taking classes to increase her skills and qualifications as a teacher (and later as a teacher-librarian). I always respected that, and have grown up to be a big fan of the idea of lifelong learning.  Now that I'm an adult (or so I'm told), my problem is that I have multiple careers on the go, and none of them have a clear continuing-education path.  I'm constantly coming across classes and workshops of interest, but with a split focus and limited budget, I rarely* sign up for any of them. Well, last weekend Steve and I finally took the plunge and committed to learning some new skills.  So, with all those choices, what did I go with?  Here's a hint: "O, pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth..." Then there was this: Somebody needs to pull on his butt...  And also this: Quite the baby.  And quite the babysitter. Above photos all courtesy of Mik...