Tag Archives: cartoons

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Busy times

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I’ve packed more social activities into this week than I have in ages! Granted, they all took some form of nerdery, but it’s still hard to stay “on” for so many consecutive nights. I shall look forward to a day of rest in the morning. Not to say that I’m complaining!

We’ve started up a mostly-weekly board game night at work, and this week I brought my cards to the table in the form of Give Me the Brain and my favorite card game, Once Upon a Time. It is an absolute joy to play Once Upon a Time with a group of creative storytellers who play in to the cooperative part of the game! I really do need to get a whole deck of blank cards to expand the storytelling arsenal. It’s an exhausting game, however, requiring a lot of creative energy, so it is paired well with Give Me the Brain, which is quick and low-key.

Friday night was the first in a twice-monthly D&D campaign, again with friends from work, and it is a fantastic adventure so far! I love pen and paper RPGs, and have nothing but respect for people who are willing to DM. The format is lax enough that people can come and go from the core group, so that we don’t face the often-game-killing dilemma of not being able to get everyone together at the same time. We’re playing 3rd edition, as it was all of our favorites (I have no experience with 4th edition, but the ones who had played it didn’t like it at all compared to 3rd).

Today I visited with Josh and we gave Borderlands a try, and ended up playing all day long! I really enjoy the game, but I can see how it shines best when played cooperatively. I think the music in the game has been under-appreciated – it sets the mood so well! It’s a good combination of genres for my tastes, too. The FPSness is pretty mild, and the RPGness isn’t too deep. A good “casual” blend, though I realize that casual is probably an inappropriate word for what I’m trying to describe. Plus, anything with quests is a hook in my mouth, and I foresee playing more in the future.

Tonight, I went to Will’s to kick off the Venture Brothers Marathon which we have been talking about doing for some time. We skipped season 1, since I’ve seen it in full several times, and got good headway into season 2 tonight. It always surprises me what a well put-together show that is!

As for tomorrow, I intend to do some nesting, a bit of cooking, and then spend the rest of it in bed. Is the last week of January upon us already?!?

Personal Blog

Animation

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Hey Internet, I wanted to show off some of my classmates’ work, and get you guys to give them some feedback.

This student group worked this semester to create a 4 minute animation addressing issues that come up in working in cross-cultural environments. In particular, it talks about language barriers. It’s done in a “Creature Comforts” documentary/interview sort of style..

Please watch it and fill our their survey so they can polish it off…

http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/cultural/finalCut.html

I’m very proud of them, I know they worked their asses off to put together this animation in such a short time, and I think they did a great job!

Personal Blog

Cat Short

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Attention internet! I need your help trying to remember a cartoon short from my youth.

It was a short that ran on Nickelodeon when I was little about two cats. There was a black cat and a gray striped cat, and they pretty much embodied the two stereotypical cat types: the black one was the moody one with an attitude and the gray one was a big doofus. I’d be willing to bet money that it was Canadian, but who can say.

They were normal, everyday cats, and the short had no dialogue and was set to music. It just sort of went through the day as the black cat went along doing normal cat things, and the gray cat innocently caused disaster and screwed things up, angering the black cat. I distinctly remember that every time the black cat got angry there was this shrill, grating sound effect (a lot like feedback on a mike).

Anyway, as the short goes on the black cat just gets angrier and angrier (whiles’t the gray cat is oblivious and cheerful). At the very end, the gray cat lays on the black cat or sits on him or something, and the black cat is furious, and you think he’s going to attack the gray cat. Then gray cat licks him on the face, and black cat’s anger sort of fizzles out, and he’s sort of like “oh well” and they fall asleep.

I remember the short distinctly, but I don’t have anything I could pinpoint to, say, find it on youtube, or something.

(fyi, ‘s recent posts about Athena and Ben remind me of the short so much, which is why it’s been on my mind lately.)

EDIT: Steph wins the prize! The short is “House Cats” by Peg McClure *quietly puts a tic mark in the “California” column*. It is also apparently not up on the internet anywhere.

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Atlanta Adventure

The perk of working at a school is that I get most of their breaks for myself, so I plotted to give myself a for-real vacation over fall break. I flew down to Atlanta for some good fun times and adventuring.

I came in Friday night and met up with Marji and Hanna, whom I met through Will via the not-so-secret-anymore-secret-summer-project (that being JamJams, which Will outlines a bit in his journal). They are good awesome folk and made me feel right at home.

On Saturday Will and Cari drove up from Savannah, and the group of us went trouncing around in the city. Most of it was idle wandering, but we did at least get to the Center for Puppetry Arts and had a good look around. They have some Lion King mask prototypes there, as well as a skekse from the Dark Crystal. It was a fun place and I’m glad I was able to go (in spite of the terrifying “Puppet Storeroom” exhibit). Our former plans of also visiting the Coke museum were thwarted by the infrequency of the MARTA, so we headed back to Marji and Hanna’s for video games and cooking. Pie also happened.

Sunday was mostly lazy napping (on my part), homeworking (on Cari’s part), and visiting Cartoon Network while Hanna went to pick up work stuff (on Will’s part, much to his enthusiasm). We all reconvened for video games, which was very fun, and Will and I beat yet another Dynasty Warriors campaign. That night, we accompanied Marji to a Radical Axis party for the opening of Squidbillies, on which she works. I was fearful of a major social event at first, but fortunately for me it was an evening of exhausted animators all watching cartoons, with little to no need for mingling. Hooray! (yes I know, I’m a social cripple).

Monday, while Hanna and Marji were at work, I spent the day with Wheeler, who has conveniently relocated from Sante Fe to Atlanta. We went to the zoo, and then spent the evening at the arcade. We played quite a bit of DDR, and I’m proud to announce that my former panicky “I CAN’T DO ANY MORE THAN 3 FEET!!” bar has been raised to 4 feet, comfortably. Strother would be so proud! *tear*

We also played a bit of pool, Time Crisis 3, and then I had a go at Ms. Pacman. I immediately regretted this, for I had forgotten that Ms. Pacman is actually a VERY stressful game, most of which I spent panicking. Also, I affirmed the fact that I’m good at those light-spinny ticket games by winning the jackpot of 316 tickets, which I used to buy Marji and Hanna thank-you presents for being good hostesses. Anyways, it was great to hang out with Wheeler again.

That evening I cooked dinner for Hanna and pie happened a second time. All in all it was a fantastic visit, and I hope to make another one in the future. I feel very rested and ready to spring back to work. Boing!

(note, i haven’t forgotten about the activity i posted last entry, I’ll follow up on that soon)

Personal Blog

Cowboy Beebop

Someday, I’m going to make an animated TV series. And you know what? It’s going to have a happy freakin ending. Warm, fuzzy, self-gratification happy.

It might not be the correct ending. It might not be the appropriate ending. It would certainly make the Centre drama department shake their heads and tsk-tsk, such an ending. But I don’t care.

The end will make people so happy that they’ll finish watching it, go outside, and dance on clouds and make sunshine. The kind of sun with the smiley face. It will be so happy that people will pee spring water and their sweat will evaporate into euphoric gases. People will be so freakin happy they won’t know what to do with themselves.

So…so there! *sobs in her pillow*

Personal Blog

Incredible

Finally saw The Incredibles last night. It was, well, incredible! I will agree with Jaster that Syndrome looks surprisingly similar to Checkerboard Nightmare, perhaps with a little Freakazoid thrown in.

Anyway, I’m going to blow glass today for the first time since the spring! I’m super excited, although I’ll probably just make some cups to get back into the swing of things.

Personal Blog

Why a Duck?

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So, for the past week or so, the amount of dreams I have had involving the Marx Brothers has been steadily increasing. I can only take that as an omen for the upcoming Centre production of The Cocoanuts which…well…one thing I know for sure is that the kids involved have been working HARD on it.

I like the Marx Brothers fine and well, though most of my knowledge of them…much like Apocalypse Now and Citizen Kane…has come from cartoons making parodies of them. I remember one episode of Tiny Toon Adventures where the students had to study comedians of the past, and so they did this Marx Brothers bit where I *think* Buster was Chico and Hampton was Zeppo. My memory is a little fuzzy on that one, but I know for sure that Babs was Groucho and Go-go Dodo was Harpo. Ah, Harpo, he’s always been my favorite Marx Brother, you know.

DON’T DISAPPOINT ME COLIN!!!! No pressure or anything.

So let’s have a contest. Who is YOUR favorite Marx Brother?

Reply with a comment here and tell me, and then I’ll tally up the votes and the winner…….well. I don’t really know yet. Maybe I’ll draw a picture of Wertle dressed up as them, or something silly like that.

Anyway, vote here, go see The Cocoanuts this week if you are on or near Centre’s campus, and have a lovely week.

while we’re on the subject..