Wow it's febuary.

ok ok . sorry for taking so long to update this. Life as usual has been crazy, and any spare time I've had I've spent taking a deep breath. Jen is in Canada for her mom, and isn't due to return until march 16th. Hopefully she will return on that date. Life as a single dad has been an eye opener for me.

Future plans

So... my efforts to update my web site are proceeding. I do not yet have a design that i love, and frankly speaking I doubt I ever will. I have a few things going against me for that, one is the technical how to build it, and the other is I like so many different designs I have trouble limiting myself to just one, and when I do I feel the limitation. Ah well it is good to create stuff on my own again. When jen gets back she will help me with the technical. This means you won't see an update for at least 35-40 days. My google count down clock has set jens return at 28 days (that means she will arrive home on march 16th). I figure I'll give her a few days to get it built. ;)

The image beside this will be on my about page. I was going to cut out my girls, but then I was missing arms and frankly didn't want to have to rebuild them. The picture was already a composite.

Once my site is up, and I'm slightly happier with it, I am going to try some outside development. As tough as this sounds with my family situation going, and being a "single" dad for a bit, I have decided to help my crew develop their portfolios. Many of them have expressed a desire to improve their vfx type portfolios. I, by no means have a rock solid vfx portfolio. But I want to help these folks, and figure I will learn from it too. I will need to run it past my work to make sure it does not conflict with any legal obligation or ownership. We are not going to sell anything, just learn from it and enhance our experience.

It will be interesting to see who wants in. More so to see who actually contributes what. Time for some to step up I think.

STAR WARS CLONEWARS ANNOUNCED

http://www.starwars.com/video/view/623.html

http://www.starwars.com/theclonewars/news/announcement.html

Pretty cool eh? Nothing shown here (except for one or two scenes) was done at the studio I'm at. But is can show you roughly where it's going. Personally, I like our episodes better, but I might be biased.

I'm re-working my professional web site. I've always hated the one I had, but never really had the time to make it better. Jen made it very functional, but I want a bit more flare.

If you have any good reference sites please pass them on.

cheers

ryan

Life goes on...

As per usual, my life is full of drama. Jen has been back in canada for... 5 days? Something like that. She has returned to help her mother. She has also asked me not to go into details about that saying that it is private, and not really my business to post on a blog. She has a point. So... well... what I can say is I miss her horribly. When I was here on my own, it felt very different. Strangly I feel way more alone this time, even though I have lily and the girls with me. I guess I'm trying to be a super dad. I'm not quite cut out for it I'm afraid. Jen is much better at the super parent thing. I enjoy work far too much. Fortunatly work has been helping me out there latly. ;) My episode, (not really mine but the one I was leading on my own) has faultered a little bit. It has nott been my fault, nor the fault of my crew who I still respect highly. Sometimes the best of intentions, are not enough. Sometimes no matter what you do in the battle you still loose the war. I'm not saying I've lost, but I have not been as wildly succesfull as I would have liked. Sigh. I will prevail eventually, and the episode does look fantastic. It's just running a little long. Ok sorry. Thats enough work talk.

Melanie is growing up quick. I'm gonna post some pictures of her all dolled up for her first dance. I can't believe she is only 11. I seem to have lost my post picture option button. I'll post this and see if I can't get it back. I've got a great pic of mel in her dress before she left for her own adventure.

Heh heh. Clearly this is not melanie in her dress for her first dance. But it is a picture. It's a cute one of emma in her school uniform on her first day of school. I lvoe them both. The picture I wanted and mentioned earlier must be on the other computer. That coment would have been so decadent 5 years ago, but now it just seems regular!

PS the spell check doesn't seem to be working today. maybe because I'm on the wireless... anyway sorry for the typos. I hope you understood everything anyway. ;)

Might be time to change my blog title.

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!!

It has been a while since i have updated this. Sorry everyone I hope you have not given up on me here! We have had a good holiday. My parents came to Singapore for Christmas for two weeks, which was very nice. We showed them bits of Singapore like sentosa (the island resort) and little India and some of china town. It was a bit overwhelming for them I think, but I hope they still had fun. I was very worried about the crowds and heat here. My dad brought a picture of snow up to his waist in front of his house. It seems they have lots of snow. I imagine the temperature alone was quite a shock for them. Fortunately it was rather cool here. Not more that 27 degrees for the most part.

It was really great having them here. As usual the pics of their visit are on the other computer, so I will post them up tonight. Here is one of my "local" family taken after we set up our meager Christmas decorations.

One of the things that I realized while my parents were here was that I was comfortable here. I don't miss Canada anymore. I've come to accept my life here and it now feels like... dare I say... Home. I know my mother will be very upset to hear that. (sorry mom) It became quite clear to me that this was no longer a "vacation spot", but my life. I don't know what that means in the long term, only that when I do move back it will be a starting over again, probably just as difficult as moving here.

Work has changed a lot in the last 6 weeks. We have had a great visit with the "circus" from San Fransisco. I enjoyed it a lot. I got to spend a lot of time with Dave Filloni, the supervising director of clone wars. He had lots of great stories to tell. He is one of those people who can tell almost any storey and make it interesting. He also managed (and I didn't think it was possible) to restore my love of star wars! After one visit I was practically glowing I was so enthusiastic about being a part of this.

Our CG supe Matt Gidney has left clone wars for bigger and brighter things in Australia. I wish him luck and hope his new endeavour will satisfy him. It does leave some managerial holes here though. I am hoping Ben and I will be able to maintain what is needed to get the season done and then perhaps, he can be replaced more smoothly for second season. I think that will be difficult to do on the fly during production because the role is relatively undefined, and to define it would be to adjust every ones job. Something that would require great fortitude, and endurance to make happen. Colum Slevin, the man that hired me, has also moved on. He will be missed though he never really fit in Singapore as family issues held him back State side for some time. He was replaced by Xavier Nicols, who was them promoted to replace Chris K. (sorry Chris I'm not gonna even guess how to spell your name. I can't even pronounce it!) as head of studio. He seems very intelligent, and I'm looking forward to his leadership. He seems quite natural at it. Athena has gone back to San Fran and was replaced by Tim Smith. He is a good friend from my CORE days on the wild. I"m glad to be working with him again. It sounds like there has been a lot of change here, and that is true but most of it was well planned for in advance. The studio has been in production for two years here, and peoples contracts and promises are now up. Most people will only commit for two years at a time, so this transition is natural.

The episode I've been working on is looking amazing. We had created a shot of the week award, and it is becoming very difficult to award because so many shots look so good! We are behind as usual but I expect we will pull through by the end. We always do. ;)

heh heh

My first post from work I think! I feel like I'm being very naughty. Thank you for the kind words about my last post. It means a lot to me to think people still read this. :D

I'm heading up my first episode from the start this week. For the past few epsiodes I've remained behind to do clean up work, and only watched the prepro happen from a far. For this one I'm in the thick of it from the get go. I hope it will be good. I awnt to do a really good job of getting things ready without doing too good a job because I don't want the other guy to look bad, or create a competition. I'm just eager to try my hand at it.

ok back to work.

Mid Nov

This isn't her happiest expresion, but I like it anyway.

Sorry everyone it's been a while again. Lots have happened in the last three weeks. Singapore is in it's rainy season... or a rainy season... I have no idea how many they have. So it seems that it rains for at least two hours every day, instead of the usual 20 min. It's still hot.

I bike to work every day here. It takes me about 10 min. 15 if I count the time to lock and unlock my bike. It has been really good. Though I did have on e accident a few weeks ago and I think I broke something in my hand. My left hand fortunately. I had thought it was just bruised or sprained so I've not seen a dr about it but it still hurts and I only have about 15% of my strength in it. It's not really so bad. It just makes me a bit crankier than usual.



I've had my birthday. I am now 33. Very old by industry standards. It's been a hard birthday. I realized it's my first birthday outside of Canada. That shouldn't make any difference but it did. I believe I am deep in the miserable stage of culture shock. I'm also heading into a mid life crisis and begin to wonder what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life. This isn't exactly what I want for the next 30 years. And I don't relish the idea of moving into management anywhere. My opinions of management these days are pretty low, and frankly speaking I want better. Lots to think about.