| on Holiday! |
[Feb. 7th, 2009|03:40 pm] |
Hi guys!
I've got a few minutes left on my internet cafe stint, so thought I'd update from here, just so I can say that I've updated from Hawai'i! It's really beautiful here, we've spent a few days in Honolulu and are now driving around Maui meeting all sorts of intereting people and seeing the sights; I've yet to fully feel like I'm on holiday, but I figure Hawai'i is a pretty good place to try and relax :) Also, I'm 22 in less than two weeks!! Noooooooooooooo. That's all for now, hope you're all going great!
Aloha! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 26th, 2008|10:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | musical | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | All of the below | ] |
I've been at work all day, listening to a varied selection of background music as I animated crazy ladies holding teacups. I find that music helps me concentrate (most of the time, anyway; if there's something really finicky I tend to turn it off), and listening to the same song over and over aids the concentration as well. And with our fabulous speedy work internet and Youtube at my disposal, I get to stumble around and come across some gems!
Let me share my random music with you! Be warned, when I say random, I mean random :)
Oh Howard Jones, you are awesome. And I want your hair, dammit! If you like this, check out 'No one is to blame' too; it's fantastic.
More impressive 80's hairdos and technopop - sigh. Nik Kershaw, you strange fellow. This music always makes me happy, and it's also great to belt out whe no one's around.
Ok, so it's bizarre (hey, it's Offenbach), but I love the characterisation in the voices - they're hamming it up and they don't care, and whenever I hear it the animated version of these guys ponce around in my mind.
I've sung and played a lot of John Rutter, the guy is amazingly versatile. This is a really nice song, even if you don't usualy like this sort of sentimental orchestral music.
Sung this one in choir earlier this year, from Vivaldi's Gloria.
And back to mellow-voiced guys with interesting hair; Genesis, Phil Collins. Love this song!
Ok, so this wasn't on the playlist until my coworker brought in his Human Nature CD the other day, and I don't like their new Motown 'style'; but gee, this is a pretty song. And GEE, the guy with the curly hair at 00:06??? A slightly masculine version of Emma Watson (Hermione), anyone? REally, I just posted this particualr video because of that :P
And the last one for the time being! There's nothing like twee songs with good backing vocals :B
ARG PHARMACY WORK TOMORROW NO. And what's more, I think tomorrow is the day I hand in my resignation for February.
I hope you all had brilliant Christmases! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 22nd, 2008|11:09 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  tired | ] |
Update TIIIIME!
Well, not really, because I'm going to bed - we've got the Bluewren studios Christmas ten-pin bowling party tomorrow and I intend to be in fine form, so I have to get more than 5 hours sleep like I did last night. Decent news though, I spent last most of the weekend doing extra work which now means that I have enough money to cover my Nullus Anxietas tickets if I book them this week, so, woo!
Anywhoo, a proper update will be coming I swear, but in lieu of its perennial absence, here's one of those nifty drawing MEME things. Ohhhh, procrastination :)
P.S Call me uneducated, but is it 'meem', or 'meh-maye'?.... |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 16th, 2008|11:05 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | sleepy | ] |
Hello everyone!! How are you all?
This is going to be a shorter entry than I had intended, because I've got to get up earlyish tomorrow for my 'first day' of work (full time, that is), but, I'VE FINISHED COLLEGE! WOO!
There's a lot to update, but that might have to come in a day or two, but for now, I've finished college, finished the play, and am at that 'tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life' kinda stage. It's exciting, but I wish I'd asked for another week off, because I'm still pretty exhausted. Anywhoo, a more detailed update is definitely on its way, but here's some random college/play-related pictures in the meantime:
( PICS )
So many things to do! So many things to organise! Work, christmas parties, holidays, conventions, bank accounts, projects that need wrapping up, ambitions for next year, future plans, life. If only I could sleep for a month first :)
And, a little shout-out to my darling Ray; thanks for putting up with me the last couple of months! And congratulations on your latest book! I hope it helps you acheive everything you want, so that next year you can come and frolic in Blackheath with me - hug!! :) xox |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 2nd, 2008|11:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Howard Jones - No one is to blame | ] |
I'm on the brink of heading into what will probably be one of the busiest weeks thus far (in my entire life, that is), but I'm probably over-reacting. I've got 7 assignments due before I graduate, and I have finished 2, with another one/two almost done. I have to do a presentation tomorrow.....groan! You'd think a semester of teaching students (i.e standing infront of a bunch of people looking like an idiot for 8 hours a week) would get me over the fear of public speaking, but I guess a little has crept back in since then. At least it's not a huge group this time, possibly one of the few advantages of having three-quarters of your class drop out of the course before we reached the end. Still, we are almost there! I can feel it, so tantalisingly close.
Bad timing though, because I'm in a play on Friday. GAH! I have to hand in 5 assessments, do another presentation, then dash back up for opening night - just my luck. I've never acted on stage before, and while being the heroine in a melodrama doesn't necessarily classify as 'acting', it's still something I'm not used to. Still, I'm doing it!
I've been forcing 'gently persueding' myself to do new, crazy, exciting things lately, and I do actually think it's being paying off in a big way, not just from the amount of growth I can see in myself, but also just because it's been damn fun doing different things. Which is why I think I'm going to take my choir conductor up on the offer of being a soloist for our December performance of The Messiah - his wife came into the pharmacy today and asked me if I was interested, being one of a 'limited number of competent altos', as she so kindly put it. I've had a look at the music, and it's scary with a few high notes and lots of frilly bits, but it's glorious. Singing infront of people scares me, but I'm going to make myself do it! *determined face*
ARG assignment!!! This presentation has been lurking in my mind all week... I have been Procrastination Incarnate this evening, although I've been procrastinating mostly by working on other assignments, so it's ok. Well, not ok, but better than watching tv. Which I really feel like doing right about now.
On a positive note, I got my Rincewind animation finished!! Yay! I think it's definitely one of the best things I've done at college, and although there's stuff I would change I'm quite happy with him :) I promise I'll post the link soon!
Anyway, I'm rambling, so I'm going to go open up all my presentation files, grab a glass of port (oh that'll keep you awake, Rhi, good one...) and do this damn thing. And if I fail to finish it, hey, my class isn't til 6pm, I've had worse last-minuters ;)
Good luck to all of my friends who are wrapping up uni for the year, just think of the sleeeeeeep! |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 20th, 2008|08:30 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | college | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
It's almost 10pm and I'm still at college trying to copy renders on to my hard drive, given that this network is incredibly SLOW. I'd better not miss my one-every-hour train, or I'm going to be TICKED OFF. 3 weeks and I'll be finished!
Sitting here trying to amuse myself with various things (including drinking caffeinated drinks with my equally-frustrated classmate, and munching on too-spicy Thai food and a Picnic bar), I've begun pondering whether I should go to this or not. It looks like a LOT of fun, and it would be perfectly timed, given that it's 2 weeks after I get back from Hawaii in February :D It would involve a trip to another state, but hey, I love Melbourne, could probably stay with friends for the nights I'm down there, and also I did the Sydney to Melbourne train trip not so long ago myself (albeit with good company that time, but I'm sure I could find something to do...). It's a tempting prospect, for sure.
Soooo, should I go? I think I'm trying to talk myself into it; it does look good, I can probably afford it and could probably get the time off work, and how many chances do I have to go to something cool like this, even if it is by myself? On the other hand, am I being too frivolous? I'm not sure. If only there were some fellow Aussie Discworld fans out there who'd come along with me!
Hmmm......
[EDIT: It's 10:09, and I just missed my train. FGGHJIILS. Now I get to ride on the train with even more creepy people - let's hear it for slow file transfers!] |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 16th, 2008|12:00 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  content | ] |
Here's an update on my steampunk matte-painting:
( .... )
Work again tomorrow, I got to animate an umbrella bird with a foppish accent yesterday, it was fun! Plus I learnt more about drawing and lip-syncing characters with elongated faces, which I've always found troublesome. Apart from that, I've been rendering short film frames, animating wizzards, organising recording sessions with elusive vocal talent and procrastinating too much the last few days - I'm so looking forward to this time 4 weeks from now :D |
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| WORK FAIL (but it's all good...) |
[Oct. 7th, 2008|09:04 pm] |
I spent the entire day today trying to animate a dancing spidermonkey. And, come home-time, had to concede defeat and commit my animated scene with a grimace on my face and my tail between my legs. FAIL. I'm tackling him again on Thursday, and am damn well going to earn my thursday beer (I don't drink beer, but it's an excuse for the office to go out for lunch and be immature in public). Stupid spider monkey, I like the iguana better.
I guess my brain just switched off today, and despite the understanding support and masterful suggestions from Andy, one of my supervisors, it appears I just plum forgot everything I know about animation :/ Left Ian a message on Skype, ending with, 'P.S Spidermonkey is now officially my nemesis', and when he called to ask about carpooling arrangements for thursday, he also asked me to elaborate, and then proceeded to make sure I wasn't feeling too dejected about the whole thing. These guys are amazing - they get you to a tee, they encourage you endlessly whether you succeed or fail, they let you make mistakes and ask questions and crack jokes all the time, and not only am I lucky enough to work with 3 of the most experienced animators in the country, I also get to work with 3 (well, technically, 7) of the most genuinely lovely people.
So, currently feeling a bit better about everything, and looking forward to getting some college-film rendering setup done tomorrow - I am going to finish this film, dammit!.
I'm going to start a picture blog of my 'Fill Ian's desk inconspicuously with wizard-related paraphenalia' project. Andy suggested that, when the project is nearing completion (probably when Ian either goes insane and sets fire to them all), my piece de resistance should be to hire someone to dress up as a wizard and stand in silence next to his work desk all day. YES.
I've also got a first-reading tomorrow night for a play (well, melodrama) I'm going to be in come November (unfortunately the first night of performances IS my last day off college EVER, so...don't know how that's going to pan out yet). I've got the part of 'Nellie', a naive, virtuous, dunderheaded heroine, so I get to flounce around and swoon and get tied to traintracks by people with moustaches a lot. I also get to swear, loudly :) The flouncing is so not me, I'm really going to have to practice that...
Shower, then HOMEWORK! I only have 5 weeks left of assignments! Yay! Then I can spend my entire evenings....well, at the computer....which I do anyway :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 6th, 2008|04:52 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | good | ] |
Meme, from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mollykami :)
Rules of the game:
- Choose a singer/band/group
- Answer using ONLY titles of songs by that singer/band/group
( THE_POLICE )
My mum and I just went around to our neighbour's house - she is moving out after seperating with her husband, and was trying to get rid of a bunch of things before she leaves. So, we had tea and sympathy, caught up on eachothers' lives, and then she let us pick around in her pile of White Elephants, and guess what I ended up with? A cool set of landscape paintings, a decorative iron birdcage, a little bicycle ornament made out of brass-coloured wire, and a honkin' big fibreglass Lion statue. SCORE.
Back to lip sync! I have only a tiny bit left to do, then I'm off to choir practice :D |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 5th, 2008|09:16 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Scrubs - musical | ] |
HAH! Take that, Photobucket!
( UPLOAD_SUCCESS )
Above are just some random things I'm working on from college at the moment, some half-done with impending deadlines looming. Only 5 weeks to go!!
I've got a lot of other things to update on, but over all at the moment I'm still plodding along with college and jobs, busy but enjoying myself, and looking forward to the middle of November! |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 5th, 2008|08:56 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  frustrated | ] |
FFGGHJDGH;;; WHY won't photobucket let me upload pictures, when for the first time in ages I actually have some to upload??
Grumble. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|08:06 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Scrubs - musical | ] |
I've been meaning to update the past couple of weeks, and I should have, because then my location tag could have read CALIFORNIA :D
Indeed, I've spent the last two weeks in sunny CA with my lovely boyfriend Ray, as a suprise for his 21st birthday. Best. Fortnight. EVER.
We went to Disneyland and bought way too many figurines, had Ray's car accidentally trashed by hungy raccoons because we left twinkies and candy corn in the front seat (and Ray left his door open by accident - I'm glad the raccoons liked the twinkies, because we deemed them inedible :P), watched a million episodes of Scrubs, saw Wall.E, made business cards for annoying clients, raided Ray's garage for old action figures, had a silly string fight in the desert, and drove through LA listening to The Beatles and Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog. I love you, Ray! You are so much fun.
Sigh... and now I'm home again, facing that undesirable thing known as 'returning to reality'.
I just changed my desktop background to a background I had a couple of years ago, because it reminds me of a time when I actually enjoyed having millions of assignments. Stupid college.
Hmm. I'm listening to the Scrubs musical episode, and the chorus of characters just sang 'You're going to be ok; that's what's going to happen, everything's ok'.
I guess I should stop killing myself with assignment stress - regardless of what happens, it's going to be ok. I think I came back from my spontaneous trip with many priceless things, a bit of perspective being one of them - I have a lot to be grateful for :)
I'm going to give this all my best shot in my last few weeks, and try to go out with a bang, but I'm not going to let it get me down.
Now, back to work. |
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| All hail the blobfish |
[Aug. 27th, 2008|09:10 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | refer to diagram 1.0 | ] |
My essence feels a bit like this at the moment. I've come back from a long, arguably pointless chemist-job work meeting to face an essay I've made no progress on despite an entire afternoon's work, and I still haven't managed to choose 3 movies to use as examples of 'matte painting', and it's stopping me getting on with everything else I still have to do. This question is so broad yet so obscure, and it feels like I've got a perpetual mental blank. Bleeegh....
I want to go down 20,000 leagues for a holiday in my as-yet unfinished steampunk aquarium matte painting; at least there are other blobfish there :/ |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 19th, 2008|02:41 pm] |
CAN'T. WORK. FAIL AT EVERYTHING.
All I can do is stare at my screen and eat lasagne as vindictively as possible. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 19th, 2008|10:59 am] |
Getting a lift home last night (whilst listening to The animation Podcast in the car with a coworker), we drove past a small town at the bottom of the mountains, that has big palm trees in the main street. As we drove past (it was dusk), all I could hear was overwhelming sounds of chirping coming from each of the long row of trees. The sound! Anyway, the sound of the birds reminded me of being in North Queensland a few years ago, and what it was like being on holiday somewhere nice and warm after just finishing highschool. In that momentary instant I had this great feeling of relief and excitement, and then of course the sound subsided and I snapped back to reality.
BUT, as I was musing, I realised that I do in fact have something similar to look forward to; two things, in fact, when I'm done with college in November. In the second week of December I'm going up to Brisbane for a week to see relatives and basically do nothing but lounge around and paint a mural on the wall of their shed; then in February sometime, it looks definite now that I'm going to Hawai'i! The plans for this have been in the pipeline for a long time, but now it looks like me, Ray, Kathleen and her friend Reidan are going to go, no matter what. We want to go exploring the valleys and walking along the beaches and surfing and horse riding and hula dancing (well, me, at least) and snorkeling and generally live it up for two weeks, happy and stress free and having an adventure. It's such a great thing to look forward to, I only wish it was sooner.
I must get work done today. And it's almost midday...@#$%^#. I did sleep in late this morning - I had a lot of melancholy dreams, but I had a long, deep sleep so am feeling slightly better. I was getting that hot, prickly sensation behind the eyes, and the dry throat and aching legs that always tells me my body has had enough for the day. I managed to get thursday off work, and that will be my assignment saviour, but all the same I must get work done today. On the cards = the matte paintings I didn't do last night, the 2D animation for my film (a lot of painting and animating clouds, let me tell you -_-), more work on the aquarium and my character model. If I start with the matte paintings, I risk spending all day on them, because I generally do. The only thing for it is to start with the animation, but I've yet to get over the massive 'starting a daunting thing' hump that I usually encounter with things like this. I really have no idea how I'm going to do this, but I've got to do it today, and that's that. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 17th, 2008|09:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | 'Wicked' soundtrack | ] |
I thought today was going to be terrible; in fact, I've spent most of the day in a relatively foul mood (I say 'relatively' because I'm usually quite personable, but today I just wanted to crawl under a rock and make snide remarks at oblivious passers-by). But, I'm feeling a bit better now.
I've just finished watching Dexter with mum (fast becoming a sunday night ritual - I don't exactly know why, but WOAH I LOVE THIS SHOW), and am about to do a bit more college work before heading off to bed; work again tomorrow. Between my two current jobs, I'm working 5 days this coming week. Smart, Rhianna, smart. There was a new pharmacy assistant at work today, and I think she already knows more than I do. Crumbs - I'm forever doomed to be the workplace numbskull in this job. Everyone's saying I should quit my pharmacy job now that I've got something else going, but I feel lousy abandoning them just after the shop has been refit and everything. I really do like the people there - I don't necessarily like the job that much, but it's not so bad.
Tomorrow night and tuesday are going to be my only real chances to get my assignment quota done before Friday, and I have a heck of a lot to do, so my apologies in advance to anyone who has to put up with my stressing - that means you too, Ray, sorry I'm not more entertaining when I'm like this :)
Anyway, here's some
( Various_Art_Stuff )
Argh! Bedtime! I don't like going to bed this early (i.e before midnight), but I don't like getting up at 5:30 either, so there has to be a compromise in there somewhere. More background work tomorrow, and a SoftImage/XSI demonstration on Wednesday! I really do love this job so far. |
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| Rhianna's Whinge Blog |
[Aug. 12th, 2008|10:53 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
I officially got NO work done today, even though it's currently my only 'specifically for getting college work done' day this week. I didn't even open any college files on my computer, which, even though I may not necessarily do any work, usually makes me feel like I've at least done something. Fffjgnvdsh. I am so stupid.
I'm heading in to BlueWren again tomorrow (just this week) to help out with more backgrounds, then again on Thursday, then I have Friday Of Doom with a tutor who is going to give me that horrible shrivelling worried look (and tell my I'm a 'Goose') because I'm falling behind on my assignments. I can't even do much work in the next couple of evenings to soften the blow, because I'm full up with rehearsals for an upcoming choir concert, and a life drawing class that I never seem to make it to anyway.
I did have a massage today (due to a scheduling error Mum had forgotten her appointment, and I was still owed one from a six-month-old gift voucher, so we swapped), which was good, and it turns out the last time I did such a thing was 3 years ago. 3 years! That's half a year before I started college! No wonder my back has been sore lately :B
In positive news, work is going great. The people are awesome, the art is lovely, the place is just fun to be in and I feel like I'm really fitting in, in a way I haven't felt with a job before. College is fast becoming 'that other thing I regrettably have to do sometimes', which is bad. Especially when I'm paying for it. At least for the next 13 weeks, anyhow. Where art thou, work ethic? I've spent 2.5 years as class nerd, damned if I'll slack off now!
Hmm. It's too late to be bothered doing anything tonight (and my eyeballs feel like they're about to fall out), so I think I'll just go to bed and hope for the best tomorrow. |
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| I'm dashing, but I'm sitting down |
[Aug. 9th, 2008|05:03 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | content | ] |
I have had no less than 3 positive comments about my new hat from complete strangers in the last couple of days. An elderly lady in the library complimented me on it today, and when I said 'It keeps my ears warm, too', she replied with 'Ah yes, but that's just an excuse to look good.' According to raisegrate, it makes me look like a 'detective librarian' (may it be noted that Ray was the one who bought it for me, so I take that as a compliment); my screenwriting tutor Michael used the terms 'fashionable sleuth' (with a penchant for elderly-gentlemen-hats) and has decided to find a cool hat himself so he can look like a film director, and my friend Ye Mann simply said 'It looks better than that other ugly one you usually wear'. Interesting hats = love.
My first two days of work have gone swimmingly and I get on well with the team, my tutor Nigel hasn't yet killed me for not sticking to schedule with my assignments, I got an awesome book of London photographs (published in 1890) today as research for a project with Ray, and I'm about to go to a 'Simpsons themed' 23rd party for a good animator friend of mine, although I had to tell him today that I'm lame and didn't get time over the past week to put a costume together, so I'm taking a cheesecake as consolation.
It's going to take a few weeks of testing the waters before I can tell if I'll be able to survive this semester with my current workload or not (not to mention I'm starting to be hounded by my choir friend to ressurect my non existant acting skill and be in a musical she's directing in November, like I can fit that in), but hey, it's only another 14 weeks; I'm willing to survive on as little sleep as possible until then - and then, why, then, I get to actually start constructing my life as a functional adult. A scary thought, that one. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 31st, 2008|01:35 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | sleepy | ] |
( Some_STUFF )
A picture of Rincewind, and a colour study for a steampunk aquarium :) |
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