Birth
"It's Sneha-aunty's birthday today, isn't it?" Amit asked on IM earlier today.

"Yes," I replied, "it is."

"Doing anything special?"

So... just what do you do on a dead woman's birthday, anyway? I'm sure there must be some ritual in Hindu lore regarding the first birthday after death; there has to be, because otherwise brahmins wouldn't have stomachs the size and roundness of pregnant ghatams (Hear one here). Being of brahmin lineage myself, I look wearily down at my own gut and wonder if, twenty years from now, I'm lying in bed watching a hairy hill with a depression rise and rise some more with each laboured breath.

Not that I have a flat gut right now; it's sufficiently paunchy, thank you very much, but puppy fat is a surprisingly flexible thing, and I can do this tidal wave impression that is only outclassed by Thomas Gibson in the hilarious Psycho Beach Party.

Today I achieved even less than what I set out to do. No writing. No Loomis (which I have yet to start). Not even an attempt at Drawing Jam (they have some really fine stuff this time in 4/10, check it out. Note: nudity galore).

The year's nearly half done and I am not even on step one of my year plan. Granted, the plan itself has changed; TwineGirl has been replaced by either Chorus or one of its brethren; I'm still unsure about The Cleaving of Xaria until I finish Tale of a Thousand Savants. West of Copenhagen is the one thing in the plan that is still there intact, but only because I know the least about actually making it (still not even tried Blender, so planning CG films of any length are a little premature right now).

I suppose the main reason the plans are stalled is that I've shifted focus away from quick-fix things, like TwineGirl and the novel towards building a better foundation for myself. Hence resolving to apply myself to the Loomis book, Drawing Jam and shorter writing projects.

Once Archetype is done I'm ploughing straight into A Gnome for Leela; I want to get a first draft of it done by the 10th, as that will leave me enough time for the other two planned shorts. I keep telling myself I should spend a few hours a day critting at Fantasybits -- hey, I have the time, really -- but never do. At least now there is healthy activity, with at least 3 crits coming in for most stories, but I'd still like to be there doing detailed constructive criticism instead of the safer and more common, "Great Story! Love you dragons!" that I myself have built an early critting career on. I've vowed not to ever resort to two line 'crits' (if you can even classify them as such) again; ego boosters they may be, but I certainly wouldn't stake my writing health on them, and generally don't like receiving them.

Thought up a few more ideas to bolster Samir's home video/animation/post processing orgy of a technique, and it seems the better for it. Now all we need is a story and we're set to go. In City Centre the other day we were ogling one of Canon's XL range of DV cameras. Since I first got interested in video cameras 10 years ago there's been only one I really wanted to buy when and if I had the cash; seeing its new DV incarnation only makes me want it more. That and a good Hasselblad with a Tamron lens are all my tech cravings extend to.

And to think that as little as two years ago I'd have given anything to own a bleeping Playstation 2.

V
Achievements:
Nil


Also-Rans:
Further bits and pieces to the great Video/Animation/Post (V/A/P?) technique definition.


Entertainment
Street Fighter Alpha: the Animation -- entertaining, but also worth seeing purely from an academic point of view, to study how to make an action packed anime on a lower budget with the minimal of wide shots and the maximum use of cinematic gesturing; nearly pictographic film-making.


Brain Screensaver of the Day:
None... imagine!