Hi hi! Beautiful day, innit?


Not much to say, just wanted to say hi and stuff. Things are well in my land. Scored another job, which will bring my hours to just about full time. More importantly, it means I can start eating into the debt and saving for the wedding! Hoorays! I do need more restraint when it comes to games though, so much I want to play and so little time and money!

Also looking to see more movies. Gemma and I finally went and got a Video Ezy card, so we want some movies to rent! Any suggestions? Comedy, action, arthouse, send 'em my way! Also really want to go see Moon. Really!

Speaking of Gemma, she's been getting her craft on developing some purses and things. Working quite hard at it too. She hijacked my poll to get some opinions, so check it out and tell her what you think! And if you do vote, tell us why!

Purse poll!

Lastly, with dA's mobile website, where's the comments? Or am I just being epicly retarded? The site is kind of useless without comments, as it's supposed to be a community and all.

Bye!

Hiyo!

Apologies for not being around and such, it's been a hectic couple of months! News in bullet form:

Gemma's here, as mentioned in the last journal!
Ziggy, Gemma's cat, is also here!
After a week, only 1 week!, of house hunting we found an apartment!
This apartment is in Brunswick East, on Lygon St, about 5 years old. Our dream little apartment.
All of Gemma's goods arrived from England pretty safe and sound. We now have a severe lack of storage space.
I've got a job interview on Tuesday, and I'm currently still working in Epidemiology generating this report: [link]
I do all the data management stuff, the pdf we send out looks better. I don't know who puts it online, tbh.
We had a devmeet a few weeks back, had a great time!
Had a barbeque a few weeks back at Maree and Angus' place. That was a blast!
Gemma got a job at T2 in Melbourne Central!
I'm using a lot of exclamation marks!
We got our internet about 2 weeks back, and boy is it awesome. iiNet, you rock. ~12mbps, 15 on, 20 off, unmetered xbox live, iTunes, on demand premier league games. Just awesome.
Discovered the joys of food market shopping. Seriously, the quality and the price is unmatched.
Looking forward to the time when we can go to the beach!
Aaand that's all I can remember.


If you want to see my more than a two month update, and general thoughts about things, follow my tweets: Tweets!


Any news I should know about? What's been the haps around here? And someone tell me when Groups is available so we can make *melbournites a group, damnit!

So, just a quick one.

Things are good in general! Gemma is here in 3 weeks exactly! Passed and finished my last subjects at Uni, just got workplacement to go! As for work, I got extra work upstairs so a little bit more cash and at least a little bit of job security! Bought an iPhone!

Alright, enough exclamation marks.

How the hell are you guys?

Well, big shock it was to suddenly see lots of attention garnered to my gallery. Being as art-reclusive as I am now, it took ages to cotton on.


Big thanks to ^Synfull for featuring it, and to the many hundreds who favourited one of my beloved old faithfuls..





Like it was when my emotes were added a couple of weeks ago, it's fantastic to see that some of my work - in this case created three and a half years ago - still is relevant and good enough to be featured in such a manner. I love the fact you guys still get a kick out of 'em, it makes me feel like I've created some good stuff.


Cheers once again!

Hey guys, just a quick heads up on movies tomorrow night. I know a couple of people are coming, but I'm quite happy for heaps of people to come. What we're doing:


Seeing: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Where: Melbourne Central Hoyts
What session: 6:15pm

I finish work at 5:30 in North Melbourne, so I'm aiming to be there about 5:40-5:45. We should meet just outside the box office since we need to get tickets (the queues might be big). It's pretty crucial to be there on time!

If you wanna get in contact with me, either text me (not call, I'll be at work) or get me on twitter which I'll check at lunch and when I'm done. You could also get in contact with ~the-zeo as I'm pretty sure he'll be coming along.

Feel free to come if you can!

So, in the last journal I showed you some progress renders of my character. Well, he's all done, put in a temporary scene and he's been animated!

He now exists in a short 11 second animation which is my first proper shot at doing character animation. And I absolutely loved it. The piece itself isn't perfect, but I'm pretty stoked with his slide.

Click on the image below and then give me your feedback!

The emoticonists may have heard that there has been a drive to add a couple of new emotes in the past couple of days be $eStunt and ^Synfull. As a result:





I'm stoked that stuff I made nearly 5 years ago is still relevant to the community today. Get some good use out 'em guys!

Guys, Transformers 2 comes out Wednesday. I would love to see it opening night, depending on work circumstances and whether I can get out a bit early.

Who's up for seeing it at Melbourne Central? Maybe the 6:15 session? 9:30 is too late for me, I'll miss my train!



EDIT: for some reason, intersected when I typed 9:30 earlier.

It's high time we had sometime to celebrate. Today, we celebrate @vastblue on his promotion! Hoorays! Go give him some lovin'.


Me, I'll be up all night. Fucking assignments. Here's a sneak peak of something I've been working on (here's hoping it doesn't break my css):






Everything else I've done this semester isn't worth talking about.

Hiyo.

Point of this journal?

If you see me around in the next week or so, demand I get back to work. Do eeet! I've done my usual thing of leaving assignments to the last minute. And it's uh, backfiring.

Big thanks to all the congrats we got from the last journal. Really, thank you!

Apart from that, all's well. How's things with you?

So, it's about time I update this stuff eh? The last update wasn't really an update, it was more of an appeal.

You guys haven't had a rundown of my English jaunt, or of what I'm doing now, what I'm doing in the future and all that. Soooo I'll give you a rundown now, yeah? Good deal?

I know people say it's cliche and all that jazz, but I had the time of my life. I adored London. Loved it. I was enthralled by it. A wonderful city, very busy, very dirty, very crowded, very expensive, quite quite spectacular. The last time I've been to a city outside of Australia (and the only time) was when I went to KL when I was 12. This place was just in another league.

I stayed with Gemma for the entirety and it was awesome being based out of Hackney. I saw a lot of diversity out that way, experienced the basics of snacks from the off license and trips on the bus. I saw lots, but not as much as I wanted to. You know the case, you get there and thing "Seven weeks is ages, no need to rush" and then you look up and you've got two days to go. It just went so quickly.

The first week I had a lot of short sleeps as my brain was all out of whack. I settled eventually, but Gemma didn't enjoy me waking her up at 5am to get some milk . One of the things I really remember strongly is the second day. A lot of firsts, like my first tube and first jaunt into Oxford and Regent Sts. But I vividly remember Westminster tube station (awesome station) and coming out at the base of Big Ben. An astounding piece of architecture, and I was in awe.

After I settled we trooped around seeing things, and broke it up by having lazy days at home eating lots of lindt and watching things. I got addicted to digestives and Diavolos. I learnt the huge class difference in basic shopping - an entirely new concept to me. We have basic class shopping with stuff like Target to Myer here but nothing on the scale found in England. I found class supermarkets the most amusing, finding us shopping mostly at Waitrose and M&S and avoiding places like Tesco and the like. Does that make me middle class?

We went to museums like the Tate, National History Museum and the National Gallery, we went for long walks (the prime one would be walking all the way down the Strand looking for KFC () only to end up at Trafalgar Sq eating pizza!), short walks, stood in the freezing cold welcoming in the New Year, traditional tourist places like Westminster Abbey, St Pauls, the Tower, Harrods, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, went on the London Eye, travelled down to Worthing for a late Christmas, ate donuts at Brighton Pier, went up to Liverpool, got all fanboyish about Anfield (!!!!!!!!!) while Gemma got bored shitless, saw a West End show (Rowan Atkinson didn't perform, unfortunately ), saw a cockney market seller ("Three dafs for a fiiiiiiiiiiver"), spent loads of money, .

We went to Paris for six days, catching the Eurostar, ate at the same place three times, were completely stumped with language numerous times, walked the Louvre, walked the Champs Elysees, went up the Eiffel Tower (at night! ), went to the Palace of Versailles, climbed Mont Matre, went to Notre Dame, marvelled at rubber tire trains and generally had a fantastic time.

The best day I had though was when it snowed. I cannot describe how great that day was. Just pure wonder, happiness, silliness, joy, more happiness, love, more love, more fun. Best day I've had. Best best day ever.

Through all of these though, I enjoyed them because I had a wonderful person to share them with. Those seven weeks were truly amazing, and in hindsight I wish I had stayed fo... ]]> `budgieishere http://budgieishere.deviantart.com/journal/23073772/ http://budgieishere.deviantart.com/journal/23073772/ Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:17:50 PST

Hey I think I've mastered irregular posting.

Big thanks for all the birthday wishes

Me, I've been flat out at uni for ages, and it all finished up yesterday. It's a massive relief since I spent the last couple of weeks averaging few hours sleep a night to get my animation done.

Yep, it's a new work! Hooray!

Check it out here: [link]


I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.


In other news, I'm going to England on the 15th of December. For 7 weeks. It cannot come soon enough!

How you guys doing?

Been a bit, eh? Month and a half by my count. So, where are things now?

I'm back in Macedon. Been here about 4 weeks.

Bit behind in Uni work. I'm coping alright though.

Work is draining me immensely. I'm spending way too much time ontransport there, or waiting for trains.

Bought myself Spore earlier this week, so add me if you play, I'd like to see your creations.

Have been watching a lot of comedy related stuff. I love it.




So how are you guys?



Oh, also I'm 23 today.

Sooo, journal journal journal. What's been going on?

• Quick summary. Uni started last week, but I forgot. So I missed a class. Harde har har .


• Been trying to keep myself busy on weekends, as those are the times I think the most. I've been to my parents a few times, and I'm trying to do little projects.


• I went back and looked at some of my older work today, and thought some of it isn't too bad. You may or may not see new (or old) work up sometime, it just depends when I get around to it. There are a couple of flash things, a vector piece, and some pixel art which need some work.


• I'm moving back home in a month, and I'll be saving as much cash as possible to attempt to go to England at the end of the year.


• I've decided to try and make myself a more disciplined, healthier and happier Thomas.


• When I mentioned projects before, I mean I've taken up origami and knitting. No fucking shit.


• I watched every stage of Le Tour and now I'm so tired it's not funny. D:


• Ming, my crazy neighbour, wiped a muddy broom over the bonnet of my car last week. I was pissed. D:


• While my mood has been quite erratic, it's calming down. Helped to no end by seeing people. Who woulda thunk it?


• On the topic of seeing people, Scav Meet was great even though I was tired. I still can't believe I gave $20 to a choir to sing She Bangs.


• I need to see people more often.

Off the top of my head that's all I can think of. I'm sure there was a lot more when I originally thought of writing, but it's always the same isn't it? Once you start writing it it becomes less spontaneous and more boring. Oh well.


So, enlighten me dear people. What have you done recently that can be summed up in list format?

First up, more important than anything, I want to thank everyone who commented on the last journal, told me about movies and stories and iPhones and everything. On the day I needed it the most, you succeeded in moving my mind on, cheering me up and helping me feel less helpless and more positive. Thank you so very very much.


Currently, I'm doing good. I'm coping a lot better than I expected, although the empty house is still niggling at me. Gemma is home safe and sound at her Dad's place after spending three days in Singapore. She's got herself a sim card that I can text to - although calls are a problem at the moment - but it lessens the distance considerably.

What am I going to do? Well, I have just over one month left here. After that, I'm going back to Macedon. It will make both work and Uni hard to get to, plus it will add a lot of extra travel time and so forth, but it will enable me to save money. Hopefully a few grand by December. My aim is to go to England for as long as I can afford - see the sights, the people, and the country. That's the target, and hell it's a target that will give me drive. And everyone needs a drive.

Now, after reading `zacthetoad's journal and wondering how the fuck he saw it today, I discovered that Chris Nolan's new Batman film didn't come out tomorrow - it came out today. Here I was planning to see it tomorrow after work and it was already out!

So I jumped in the car, headed down to Highpoint and got myself a ticket for the 8:30pm screening. And boy, am I ever glad I made that decision.

I loved it. I came out with my mind full of thoughts all about it. There's so much I enjoyed about it; the story; the depth of the underlying themes; the truly amazing Joker; the darkness; the fear and suspense. I just wanted to go see it again.

I won't spoil anything. You just have to see it. Form your own opinions. But I haven't been in a completely full cinema completely transfixed, silent and tense in a long time.

So.


Empty house. With just my belongings and a few left over tidbits. Silence. Cold.



Gemma will be leaving on her flight about now. I've been home about an hour. We've spent every day of the past year and five months with each other, bar a couple of days when she went down the ocean road with her dad. Every day.



If you have my number, give me a call. Tell me a story, or about your day. Tell me about the last movie you saw, or some weird dude on the train. I desperately need the distractions. There's just not enough to occupy me in this house without Gemma.




Quite sad Thomas.

I said in the last journal I'd put up some of the stuff I'd been working on throughout semester. I took `thespooks awesome advice and signed up to Vimeo as it's quality is made of forty versions of win.


First off:


For 3D, we had to develop an attic space, along the way learning how to model, texture, light and animate in Maya. I thoroughly enjoyed the process, and I think it paid off. My marks back for this final aspect of the project were wonderful; I only lost half a mark out of 65 - that was for some texture dropout. I'm ecstatic!

Secondly:



This was done for my Video subject, a subject that is interesting in it's own right but my impressions were dented by a pompous lecterer for the first half of semester. I learnt that the production process is a long one that requires a hell of a lot more planning than I put into my projects. Oh well!

This assignment was the final group one. Our brief was to make an ad for one of three things: the Creative School, my course - B Design, or for a community service announcement. We went for the middle one because it was the easiest concept.

The basic story in the ad is mine, I did the camera work and the 3D post in Maya.



Just in case you missed them, the links are in the huge text sections. I might put up some renders of the Attic and submit them, you'll never know!

But for now, opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Who knew rendering a 15 second 3D animation could take so long?

Currently, it's done about 160 frames out of 375, and taken 30+ hours. That's over double what I estimated. Sad Thomas.

However, it is looking quite snazzy, so I will try and post a low res version on somewhere like youtube so you folk can have a gander. I'll also put up my ad (!) and maybe my programming animation.


How are you folks?

So I'm going to have a rant about Indiana Jones. It might contain a few spoilers so if you don't want to know, just skip to the next box. Or skip the part inbetween the huge spoiler warning sections.



So yesterday Gemma and I headed down to Highpoint to catch this latest incarnation of the bloke in the fedora. Going into the cinema I was never really expecting that much - I'm a big fan of the previous films (less so Temple of Doom though) and while I was a bit excited about a new adventure, I knew that it had been 19 years since the last one, and that Lucas' obsession with CG shit would lose some of it's grounded-in-some-form-of-realism. Man, I was surprised. Very surprised.


Not that it was good. Oh no, it was far from it. For me, it was awful. Absolutely disappointing. But where to begin? The non-existent plot? The bland, boring, characters? The blending of CG and set pieces? The utterly absurd moments during the film? The lack of any type of suspense or humour? The farcical "villains" and the feeling that Indy was just reciting lines? The feeling of relief when the credits roll that I never have to sit through that shit again? The complete lack of any emotional feeling? The ending? Fuck. I'll just start typing. Here on lie ze spoilers.



Firstly, the story. From what I gathered, it's set in the late 1950s and the Russians are trying to get a hold of this mythical artifact which will be better than any kind of weapon. Ok, thats basically the premise for Raiders just pushed back and with different villains. Here is where it starts going all odd. This "artifact" isn't one based in some form of human reality. It's a psychic mind control like device, except this device is a crystal skull. From an alien. Which just happens to be ridiculously magnetic but not if you cover it with some cloth. The skull is one of 13, a missing one in fact, that when brought back to the original resting place would form this ultimate weapon.

If I wanted to see a movie about aliens and spaceships, I'll just go see any other science fiction film out there. It's not what I expected in an Indy film, and I definately didn't like it. The skull itself is given way too much screen time. Where is the wonder and suspense? The Last Crusade built up the whole movie towards the grail, and the moment when the Ark is found in Raiders is one of wonder. But in this one? It's behind a cut open mummification of some 15th century Spanish conquisitor, just kind of sitting there. But leading up to it, there's a drawn out crawling through cobweb filled passages sequence which doesn't have any danger (bar a scorpion) or intrigue.

What happens to it then? The ruskies capture them as they leave this temple and take them to the jungle, where they meet Marion (from Raiders) and some old friend called Ox. Ox originally had the skull, and put it back, but had stared at it too long in the process. The only way to understand him and find the location of this temple? By getting Indy to stare at it. Right. Only after there was a very slight threat that they would kill Marion. After over twenty years of not seeing her or talking to her, leaving her before their wedding. Why would Indy work so willingly together with the enemy? And he does it with no fight whatsoever, no struggle. Just a "get me a map!"

I just don't get it. Just like how I didn't get Mutt. A 50s greaser wouldn't talk like that, or act like that. He wouldn't be able to fight off a utterly unmenacing Cate Blanchett in a sword fight (coincidently her chosen - and I assume most proficient - weapon) while straddling a gap between two jeeps that are slowly moving apart - all the while having his balls whacked by a number of plants. I mean, what the fuck. And then there's Cate Blanchett's Russian villianess, who was entirely unmenacing. She was no real threat, never was. Then there is Mac, who changed sides so often it just got stupid. And Indy still wanted to save him. He was double crossed twice! Why save him?! I did like John Hurt's crazy portrayal of Ox though.

I couldn't understand the characters, the lack of charm, likeability (or hateability), humour or empathy towards any of them. Harrison was just going through the motions, no substance in what he was doing, no wonder when he worked something out or discovered something. But that is nothing towards some of the outlandish scenes within this film. Surviving an atomic blast by being inside a lead lined refridgerato... ]]> `budgieishere http://budgieishere.deviantart.com/journal/18073898/ http://budgieishere.deviantart.com/journal/18073898/ Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:26:58 PDT

Have a fuckin' great one!

Just a short one for the time being. I have nothing to write about.

That exam on Monday. Piece of piss. And now we're on proper holidays!

Oh, we rented A Scanner Darkly this week. I really enjoyed it, even if it confusing me in parts. Anyone else seen it/read ze book and have opinions on it?

Courtesy of ^thespooks amazing css genius, here's a little contents menu to make splitting things up easier. :B

• cog gig


• Exams - one more!


• Movies - aquisitions and suggestions


• Opinion - DDs


• Finale!

Ok, I lied. It doesn't really, because I have nothing important to say. But it's damn cool.

Finally, after a couple of years, managed to see cog live last Monday at the HiFi Bar with local band Laura supporting.

Laura were an odd band, full of long building tracks, but little lyrics. Their sound however is quite impressive, yet because of the lack of lyrics Gemma and I lost a little bit of interest.

Cog lived up to my expectations. Although I was a little disappointed they didn't do an encore or any material from the Just Visiting EPs, I was blown away by their live sound and the intensity of the gig. Lucius, their drummer, was fantastic to watch and the input all three have to their sound is refreshing to watch. I'll definately be going to see them again, as well as trying to pick up a cog hoodie for myself. :B

Tomorrow is my last exam, Business. Really can't be arsed about it, but it should be alright.

My other two exams were two weeks ago now, on the Friday and the Saturday. I'm pretty sure I've at least passed, which'll mean that I'll pass all subjects this semester. Yay!

On an annoyed front, I'm frustrated at RMIT holding it's exams at MSAC. With all the classes finished, surely they have enough room on campus for the exams, so apart from money holding them at MSAC is completely pointless. And did they entirely not think about the students? There is only one public transport method to get there (trams) which is how the majority of students will get there. To not organise with Yarra Trams for more services is appalling. Trying to cram 200 students into one tram is appalling. Waiting at the tram stop at MSAC for half an hour is appalling. Can you guess that I'm appalled?

About fucking time, really. Dunno really what I'll do with 5 weeks off though. Gemma and I have already done a little bit of shopping and we're starting to look at places again. Apart from that, we have fuck all else to do.

So, I'm hoping I'll get some damn art done. I've got a couple of emote (shock horror!... ]]> `budgieishere http://budgieishere.deviantart.com/journal/13167614/ http://budgieishere.deviantart.com/journal/13167614/ Fri, 01 Jun 2007 05:23:15 PDT