A Very Bera Christmas

Yes, yes I know that this is extremely bera, but I have been at work over the last couple of days working. No, not non-stop I have taken breaks to spend Christmas time with the family and to see my friends and such (I even managed to squeeze a viewing of Yogi Bear in there somewhere, but that was more to get out of the Christmas heat than to watch the film) but yes, most of my time has been spent feverishly sketching animation frames and then inking, coloring and animating them.

I don't have too much experience with animation, but thankfully, we have the internet to teach me the basics, for run cycles and such, as well as lipsync. This time is interesting because I don't really have anyone to tell me if it's any good >_<

The last animation project I worked on (waaaay back when) was with Mr. Kaoskongo and thankfully I had his expert guidance behind my hand. And also his ability to annoy me by repeating Fat Boy Slims "Bird of Prey" while we were working. I cannot listen to that song nowadays without feeling a pang of stressful worry. Strange really, how we associate music with feelings, but there ya go.

Anyway, that's what Christmas was for me. Time spent mostly in the office, or sleeping.

And although it's late, I do wish all of a Very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Festival of the Dark Elder Gods of Frost.

Kniiiife Fight!

Lan Session at Wilsons was super fun. Pizza for dinner, Street Fighter 4 against Lawrence "Shoryuken" Cass, Gears of War 2 (in which we discovered that the Locust can ride other Locust into battle) and then we played PC games ^_^

I think the winnar that night (and the next morning) was Call of Duty's multiplayer. Even Apples played! She screencheats though, totally.

I didn't sleep all night. And the sunrise after a hard night of shooting pixels is quite beautiful. Even if it is just a gradient. Lack of sleep made me a bit competitive I think, I remember constantly checking the scoreboard toward the end, and trying extra hard to stay at number one >_<

Also, went to church on Christmas day, and my uncle (who was preaching) told the congregation about my e-card. Talk about being ousted in front of a crowd. Luckily I was sitting in the front, and tried to make the back of my head look as innocent as possible. Thanks for that uncle :P

Happy Christmas Birthday

Stay safe this holiday season! Can't afford to be losing anyone who reads this blog :P

Ho ho ho, and all that

So it's christmas time again. You eat too much, and you drink a little bit too much, stay out until 2 in the morning on Christmas eve and then show up for church at 9. Good times. I personally love the holiday season, except for the commercial bits, but you have to take the good with the annoying i suppose. This is the first year in a long while where i'm not in the advertising business during Christmas, and i tell you what, some of my cynicism has been worn away. 

Also, presents are nice. 

To escape the heat today, my mum, sister and i went to see Valkyrie. I honestly wasn't very interested in it, but it was the only thing that was on at the right time. It's basically a historical thriller, and some of it is very very slow. And i mean sloooow, i can't say much without spoiling the plot, but bear with it. It was also interesting to see the German Resistance to the Nazi movement, as opposed to the American and British perspectives that we see a lot in world war 2 movies ( and admittedly, videogames). 

Tom Cruise was alright in it, he seemed very American though, which i thought detracted a bit from the film. Half the cast is also British, and their German accents were sometimes pretty laughable. But all in all, i was a little choked up at the end. After all, the film is based on the true story of the German resistance and all that. Real people gave their lives to fight evil, and paid the ultimate price for it. 

I also really don't like Nazis. I'm part Gypsy, and yeah, the Nazis didn't like them much. All in all, if i were to rate Valkyrie, i'd give it 3 slices out of 5. Which is a lot of slices of cake to eat. 

Pictures are like stories without having to talk to people

I do not often leave this great metropolis that is known as Suva. But when i do, i sure as hell make sure that there is photographic evidence! Here's a couple of the Pre-Christmas holiday that i went on...kind of randomly. 

That's me trying to harness the power of the Hard Rock Cafe for Awesomeness. It worked, as you can tell. 

Thats the sister and I at this really Remarkable Sweet Shop. It was actually quite remarkable at how remarkable this store was. I may in fact, make a remark about it. 

I like to point out things. For example, the fact that we are at The Fijian. 

Or those strange plant men hiding in the bushes.

And the Kraken. I took care of that though, with some Kraken-punchin'. I really love my awesome hat by the way. It keepses the head warm, a very important thing if you're planning to move to a cold locale. 

Finally, i made this really unprofessional looking collage of some of the landscape pictures i took. As you can see, i have absoloutely no experience in the realm of photography :P