Wednesday was the last day of work for me. As of this day, I’ve heard that the writers are back in at the negotiating table. Hopefully an agreement can be had this time. I hope it happens sooner than later. I’ve got enough saved to last a month or so but you never can tell.
The Universal Studios Simpsons ride deadline was Friday. We didn’t make the deadline. I worked Saturday but I spent time at home with my wife and baby girl Sunday. We had a lot of errands to do. I went back into work on Monday and it didn’t seem like much was done by anyone on Sunday even though some of us worked that day. When Wednesday came, it still looked like there was a lot of work left to do. Doesn’t seem like the work will ever end on that project. It did for me though. Pray for us.
FAMILY
My son Dante Gabriel will be born this Thursday January 31. He’s in breach position so it will have to be a C-section. It’s exciting and worrisome at the same time. Hope all goes well. Munchkin will have a crazy day. She’s going to be passed around like a baton for the next day and a half from Godparents, to Aunt, to Grandparents. Once she’s gone I won’t see her till I pick her up at my parents the following evening. I wonder what she will think is happening? I hope she doesn’t freak out when we bring the new baby home and she discovers that we can’t give her all our attention all the time like she’s used to.
In a strange way, getting layoff right now is turning out to be a really good thing. It means I’ll be able to help out when I’m needed most. On the other hand, the money would come in real handy now more than ever.
PODCASTS
I often listen to a Podcast called: The Dragon Page Cover to Cover. It’s basically a podcast where they interview hot Sci fi/Fantasy books authors, as well as discuss Fantasy books and writing. It’s a great podcast for people who like reading Sci fi and Fantasy books. The podcast is great when they keep to the topic of fantasy books, but the thing about Sci fi and Fantasy books is that they tend to bring up subjects that are often controversial, like politics, religion, or secular philosophy. Therefore, sometimes the hosts of the show, which seem to me to be secular humanists, tend to say things about subjects like Christianity that maybe they shouldn’t say. As is typical in these discussions they tend to be subtly and not so subtly anti-Christian and even anti-Catholic. Most of the time, I tend to ignore stuff like that because this kind of bigotry is so normal in California that, even though it bugs me, it’s usually not worth making a big stink out it. Thing is, sometimes, I just can’t stand it anymore and I have to say something. In the case of The Dragon page podcast, I couldn’t keep quite about something that was said by one of the hosts.
I think that this host is great. I have nothing against him personally and I find myself being really disappointed when he isn’t on show because he’s working or something. He’s great because he’s a published author of many best selling books and he often gives great insight to the inner workings of publishing. He also goes out of his way to help people learn to write and has a general reputation of being a stand up guy. Thing is, I get the impression that he’s a fallen away Catholic and as many fallen away Catholics, he tends to give out a small air of disdain about Catholicism, it’s dogmas, and it’s hierarchy. This wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that this bias comes through once in a while in his comments.
There was a particular episode where he brought up something that seemed to me to imply a lot more than just the surface statement. It bothered me so much that I called and left a message asking if I thought I heard him right or if I was just reading more into his statement than he meant. He was good enough to answer my question. I’ve listen to the answer a few times and think he did his best to answer as best he could. I think I understand what he was trying to say but I’m not sure. Problem is that my question was rather long and had a lot of examples, I think there where multiple questions or statements in it and only having heard it once, it’s difficult to just answer everything in a nice little package. It’s obvious that he has read some books about the history of Christianity and since I haven’t particularly read the specific book he mentions in the podcast, I don’t know exactly what information he may be referring to that I don’t have. I do get the impression that the book he talks about puts forth an anti-orthodox theory stating that there where many legitimate Christianities in the beginning and the strongest ended up surviving. While an orthodox Catholic would say that there was only one true Christianity from the start and there were many heresies that tried claiming they were truly Christian but were proven wrong. Of course these kind of arguments use the exact same data but each use a different way of interpreting it based on the interpreter’s world view. I’m not a relativist so I think only one of these points of view is the correct one.
In any case, I’m thinking of maybe sending him an e-mail just to follow up and to thank him for answering my question. I admire his work and the good things he does for others and I hope that he continues to do well.
If you wish to hear the question and the answer, the episode is Cover to Cover #293A. My question begins in the 2:30 mark. Let me know what you think.
For some reason, this entire event has called to mind a quote from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. It goes like this:
Besides playing Lost Cities and Lord of the Lord of the Rings – The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition against my wife this week and losing both games to her. I thought I might play a game with you. I was watching one of the latest Board Games with Scott video casts and he reviewed a party game that really caught my attention because of how clever the premise is. I will let Scott explain it in the video so I won’t go into it here. In the video, he actually plays a round of the game with the audience after explaining the game. I thought it would be fun so I played along. I was thinking that maybe you can also.
Directly underneath this paragraph is a small thumbnail of the drawing I came up with (it’s a bit difficult to see). DON’T CLICK ON THE THUMBNAIL UNTIL YOU’VE PLAYED THE GAME YOURSELF. After you’ve done so you can look at what I did. In the comments section below I will write what my score was. Did you manage to beat my score? No fair pausing the video. I didn’t.
ANSWERING COMMENTS
I don’t have a specific comment I want to answer this week. I would just like to thank everyone that has commented positively on the last cartoon I put up. Because of the response, I’m planning to make another one that will follow a similar style also involving Superman, Batman, and even Spiderman this time. I’ve already started writing it and it’s gotten a bit out of control in how long it is. I’m even thinking of animating it a bit more than the original one and I might have to use Adobe Flash to do it I haven’t made up my mind yet if I’m going to go that route. Now that I have a little more time, I might be able to do something as elaborate as that. Stay tuned.
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My slow decent into madness continues. I can feel my sanity slipping away. Perhaps it’s the fact that I haven’t seen my daughter awake since last Sunday morning. Or perhaps it’s that I only spend three hour a day awake in my house (one hour from the moment I wake up in the morning to the moment I get home and two hours from when I get home from work to when I go to sleep. Sometimes I spend one of those hours washing dishes or doing laundry.). The fact that it’s been raining hard these last couple of days doesn’t help.
I thought perhaps if I could hold on until this Friday (since that is the deadline for the Univeral Studios Simpsons ride) I would be okay but alas (or perhaps hurray?) My last day at work will be the 30th of this month. Now I know I’m most assuredly doomed. The talking frog that lives under my scene folders has told me so. He also wanted to write an article on my blog but I told him he couldn’t because he’s wearing oven mitts. Instead, I let him draw the blog drawing for the week.
Who knew working on the Universal Studios Simpsons ride was as madness inducing as looking upon Great Cthulhu himself.
MY WEEK
It’s lunch time and I’m at work at my desk typing this in Open Office. I tend to do this with all my posts, then I transfer them to my blog when I’m going to publish it (I hope I can get this up by at least Friday). I’m really tired and I’d like to read a comic book but I think this will do me more good then just reading. I had a lot of plans for this blog post but I didn’t really get a lot of time to pull it off. I might not get enough next week either. One of the things I was thinking of writing was a “Superman is better than Batman” thing but I just wasn’t very into it. I then started writing about why I like Superman but then that turned into writing about Superman Returns, Smallville, the Superman cartoon, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Superman comics, Superman and Moral Virtue and each one of those subjects became it’s own separate essay, so that didn’t work. I wrote a lot too, I knew I was a Superman geek but SHEESH! I might eventually finish those but I can’t right now. It’s too much work, I don’t have any time and I’m slowly going insane.
The only thing that survived my attempt is the blog drawing for this week. Please excuse the crudeness of some of the jokes. It was written and drawn by an oven mitt wearing frog that lives under my scene folders. Enjoy your stay on my island.
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And while you’re at it, scream really really loud at your pet hamster and Digg me too.
More twelve hour days. I’m really getting burned out. It’s getting difficult to stay focused. I’ve run out of podcasts to listen to and that isn’t helping.
Usually I listen to six to sixteen podcasts a day depending on the their length but since I’ve been working more hours I’ve been listening to around eight to twenty four podcasts a day. The podcasts I listen to just don’t update fast enough to keep up with the amount of hours I listen. I’ve started putting in TV dvds and listening to them as I work. I did this with 30 Rock recently. I hadn’t seen it before, I thought it was a pretty clever show.
Anyway, hope I can keep this up. They’re having me work Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Sheesh!
FAMILY
Friday was Eduardo’s birthday. He’s my daughter’s Godfather (Compadre, in spanish). He celebrated it on Sunday. It was a nice party. He had all his family over and it really looked like he was enjoying himself an awful lot.
After the party had gone on a while, Eduardo took out Ticket to Ride: Europe. He only managed to explain the rules before people had to leave so the game didn’t even get past the first two turns. He then thought that it would be easier to play a game of Texas Hold ’em. Mostly because he wouldn’t have to explain the rules. I’d brought Modern Art the card game by Reiner Knizia and I managed to convince everyone who stayed to try it out. I personally find this game feels a bit like Texas Hold ’em without being like poker at all. Here’s the Board Game Geek description of the game:
Buying and selling paintings is a very lucrative business, at least that’s what Hollywood’s led us to believe, and that’s the premise of this game. Five different artists have produced a bunch of paintings, and it’s the player’s task to be both the buyer and the seller, hopefully making a profit in both roles. He does this by putting a painting from his hand up for auction each turn. He gets the money if some other player buys it, but must pay the bank if he buys it for himself. After each round, paintings are valued by the number of paintings of that type that were sold. The broker with the most cash after four rounds is the winner.
There where six people wanting to play but it’s a five player game so I sat out of the game and just played banker (which I did a lousy job at since I’m terrible at math). The game was played by Eduardo, Eduardo’s brother, his brother’s wife, my wife Alesha, and Eduardo’s daughter Carolinita. I think everyone had a good time. The game has you making really tough decisions through out the game. I’m not sure everyone understood all the rules but I think that game was played as good as it could have been. It didn’t help that we were playing on a really, really windy night, outside, with very little light. Eduardo played the game the way I did the first time I played it. He went all out on the auctions he really wanted the “paintings” in. Eduardo’s brother and his wife were playing the game really well. I was really impressed by the smart decisions they were making. I think one of them would have won if it wasn’t for the fact that Eduardo ended up spending all his money on an auction late in the game which gave Carolinita a ton of money since she was the one auctioning off the “paintings”. I think, I did something similar the first time I played. The game ended shortly after that and Carolinita ended up winning by a lot of money. She was very, very happy about that. Eduardo came in dead last, poor guy.
We then played Texas Hold ’em. Which I like playing, although I find it gets repetitive if you play for too long. I thought I’d be cool and see if I could guess what cards people had by looking at their faces and not even look at my cards. I’d play the game on just “tells” alone (I saw it in a movie once). I lost all my chips. We left a little after that. Not because I lost but because someone reminded me that it was Sunday and I had work the next day. Otherwise I would have stuck around and cried a little more. I had a good time though.
Happy Birthday Eduardo.
MOVIES
Here’s a few trailers that have caught my eye in the last few months.
I just liked the shot were you see Iron man out running the jets. Too cool. I never read Iron man comics but I’ve read comics with Iron man in them and I think the idea of the character is great. As a kid he never really appealed to me but for some reason he appeals to me quite a bit now.
I’ve read they’re making a Justice League Movie also but now it’s on hold. Read about it by clicking HERE.
BOOKS
A month or so ago I finished reading Storm Front, a Harry Dresden book by Jim Butcher, and I really liked it. Since the book I have is an anthology of four novels in one, I began reading the next one right after I was done with the first. I don’t think I’ll be able to get through it anytime soon though. It’s longer and I haven’t gotten back to it in a while. At the moment I’m in the mood for something a little different. Then I’ll get back to it. I like the Dresden stories a lot and I think Jim Butcher’s writing style is just really fun. The wacky situations Harry Dresden gets himself in are just great. I highly recommend these books.
ANSWERING COMMENTS
Alex wrote:
Luis, I find your story very inspiring, and truly appreciate where you are coming from. You seem like one of the hardest workers, and one more importantly, who will not give up on his dreams. In the same footsteps, I am an aspiring screenwriter with a focus on humor and satire; from the start have longed to write for The Simpsons. It has been a childhood dream, since my beginning days watching, and has followed me to college today. I was wondering if you would have any advice when it comes to getting an internship with The Simpsons, or if you would possibly be willing to talk more about your experience. I do apologize if it seems I am asking a lot, but I am fascinated by your story and your ability to succeed. If anything, please do not mistake me for just another Simpsons freak, I am a passionate and dedicated writer. Feel free to respond to the comment or email me.
Thanks so much, and great work for The Simpsons!
-Alex
Hi Alex,
First I’d like to thank you for the compliments. I really appreciate them. I must say, that the way a lot the things happened to me really felt like pure dumb luck or, since I’m Catholic, they where a bit Providential (and even then, on hindsight, it seems it wasn’t just for my sake these things happened to me. More on that some other time perhaps). If I was to try to do the same thing today, I would not be able to. The studio no longer has an internship for up and coming artists and I’m afraid that it never had one for writers. Most of the new artist that have gotten hired lately have done so through the presentation of a portfolio and then turning in and passing the Layout test they received afterwards. Some artists have worked their way from being receptionists to artists. They did this by befriending artists and learning how to do the work and then taking the Layout test and passing it. So that’s almost like the internship route I took except I wasn’t getting paid for my internship and the person who took this route took five years to make it as an artist.
I’m afraid the writing processes might be a bit trickier to get into. First of all the writers don’t work at the studio I work in. They work at the Fox Studio Lot. Second, I don’t think there’s an easy way to just get hired as a writer on the show except by recommendation (in fact, I think that’s the way it is on all TV shows). That means you not only need to be a really good writer but you also need to have the right connections. I’ve heard it’s very difficult to pull off, but it’s doable.
I spoke to a friend of mine at work, who is trying to get into sitcom writing (not on The Simpsons) and he gave me a rundown of all the things he’s learned so far after reading a lot about it and talking to a lot of writers and producers. You may already know this stuff, but perhaps there are others who don’t. Here’s some helpful tips he’s learned:
Tape six episodes of TV shows that you like that are currently on the air and study them. Pay close attention to their story structure (take notes on any conventions, variants on conventions or structural innovations), show formulas, humor, etc…
Get actual scripts for these shows. (On e-bay or Script Shack) Study the writing style, make a list of the type of humor in the show (example: Ironic humor, slapstick…etc.) Note what type of gags are used the most and how the show is structured to pay them off. Label each joke. Invent names for them if necessary.
Write a spec script for a show that is CURRENTLY ON THE AIR but not on the show that you want to write for. For example, if you want to write for The Simpsons, write a Family Guy spec script. Why? Because producers and writers will be much harsher on someone writing in a universe they know well than one they don’t. They will pay more attention to the writing on a spec script written for a different show than the mistakes you made writing in their’s. (This is also true for artists. It’s not a good idea to put Simpsons characters in your portfolio when trying to get a job on the Simpsons).
Get an agent. Studios will not read you script without one.
It’s possible you already own these books but I’ll put them here anyway. My friend recommends these books:
The Comic toolbox, by John Vorhaus
Writing Television Sitcoms by Evan Smith
Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer, Mark Shatz
My friend also told me that there is some sort of writers workshop program at Warner Brothers. It’s a program that is very much under the radar and as of the time of this writing it’s the off season for it. Besides there is also a writer’s strike so that also doesn’t help. You might look into it though. It’s possible to get a script writing assistant job from it.
When I worked on the Simpsons Movie, I worked at the Fox Studio Lot for about three months and I saw the Simpsons writers once in a while. I would also see Matt Groening almost at a daily basis because his office was near the place I was working and in order to go to the bathroom I passed by his office. One or two writers ventured into our work place out of curiosity just to see how we did things. They where real modest and very friendly. From the stories I’ve gotten from some directors, I heard they went through as much hell as we did in the movie, if not more. I gathered from things that they said when they came by that there was a definite hierarchy within the writers. Some were part of the “A team” and some the “B team”. Of course, I may very well have misunderstood because I’ve also heard (perhaps from the movie commentary) that there was a group that was having more fun than another group because one group was under the pressure of making the movie story work while the other group sat around having fun coming up with gags and laughing all the time. It’s possible that the “gag group” thought the “story group” was having more fun because they got the “important” job while they sat around feeling like second class citizens. Not having been part of the writing processes, I could only speculate from what I saw and over heard so take this with a grain of salt.
Well Alex, I hope this is in someway helpful.
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THE SIMPSONS NEWS
I heard the deadline for the Universal Studios Simpsons ride is the twenty fifth of January. So now I know what the potential day of my layoff is. I’m glad that I have this job even though I’m really reaching burn out. I’m making quite a bit of overtime money which will help once I haven’t got a job. I’d much rather be able to pay off debts or put the money in savings though.
I overheard a conversation at the office the other day about the writer’s strike and how it effects the animation industry. Animation writers are not part of the Writer’s Union. They are part of the Animation Union. This means that writers other than the ones on The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy (who are part of the Writer’s Union) can still work. In other words, writers at Cartoon Network, and other studios that are part of the Animation Union are NOT on strike. They still have work. This means it’s possible for me to find work in another studio.
BLOGS
So I thought I’d go on the internet and find studios that I might be able to work for and I stumbled on a fire storm that I didn’t even know was going on by my fellow Animation Union members about how they want to get residuals for the work we do. If you’re interested in this, click here. It’s crazy. Some of these guys are saying pretty much what many of us are thinking. I just didn’t know how complicated things were. Here’s a small taste of what is said on the post:
Some artists talked about taking action to get residuals like the writers.
I think that’s something that should be address too. Artist have been creating shows from zero scripts in tv and feature. Where’s the piece of pie for them?
FAMILY
Brought my wife and the Munchkin to work last Friday. We got there at six o’clock a.m. They both had doctors appointments one after the other in Pasadena in the afternoon and it was the only way that I could take them and not lose too much work time. Since my wife is on medical bed rest and that entails not driving, I had to take them.
Munchkin had a great time. She sat on my lap most of the morning as I worked. We have these giant, life size, wooden cutouts of the Simpsons family on the wall and she loved to look at them. Especially Maggie who was exactly the same hight she was. She kept staring at her and pointing.
We brought a portable playpen with us and when it was time for her nap, we put it and her in Lance and Tommy’s office. They where out on vacation so they weren’t using it. She was having so much fun that she didn’t want to be put in the crib and started to cry. She only cried for about thirty seconds before she realized she was too tired to continue and fell asleep. Unfortunately she was only able to sleep for about an hour before I had to take her out so we could go to the doctor’s office.
At the doctors office, my wife was told (again) that the baby is still in breach position, which means she’s gonna get a C-section. The doctor told her that the baby would be coming in two to three weeks (around the time of my layoff). Meanwhile the Munchkin got a flu shot at the pediatrician. She was on my lap when it happened and before it happened I covered her eyes. She didn’t see it happen but she felt it and cried for about fifteen seconds before I “rescued her” and made her feel better. It couldn’t have gone better.
Afterwards, I took them back home, and drove an hour back to work. I got back at three o’clock and worked till seven. I actually managed to work my eight hours that day, in spite of all the driving around I did.
BOARD GAMES
Played Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery board game this weekend with my brother and his wife Deborah. This time we played with the correct rules (I really messed them up the last time). It was awesome! We had so much fun with that game. It definitely plays better when you know the rules and don’t have to constantly be looking them up. We played it for a bit over three hours. Don’t know why it took us so long. I guess I need to take into account the fact that it was a learning game for my brother and Deborah. In any case we had a lot of fun. They told me that we should play it again sometime soon. I don’t know when since it’s a long game but we’ll see. I still have a few longer games that I want to try that I haven’t gotten around to.
PODCASTS
I got mentioned a few times on Geeklabel radio podcast #67. Man, that podcast cracks me up. I still need to send them some things I owe them. Man, I need more time.
MY WEEK
So a friend of mine at work had gotten all apocalyptic on me. He was telling me how, in four years a planetoid called Nibiru is going to pass by the earth and wreck havoc on the planet. He then proceeded to show me a You Tube video about it. It was very interesting but it was also very typical of the apocalyptic videos that where making the rounds in 1999 except that this one combines biblical passages, and UFOs. It would make a great Sci-fi movie. It took him a few days to realize how much misinformation and hog wash was in the video. I will not put it up on my site because it’s just silly.
The thing that struck me about this video though is that they talked a lot of about the Nephilim. You know, the off spring of the sons of God and human women in the book of Genesis 6: 1-4.
4 Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they brought forth children, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown. (Gen 6:4)
Well, the thing is that the video showed pictures of people sitting next to excavated skeletons of GIANTS. The pictures had me wondering if the photos where real or if they where just doctored photographs. Where they really the excavated remains of the Nephilim? If they where, how come no one ever talks about them? I thought they must be fake because if scientists made such a big deal out of the “hobbit” skeleton, they would go nuts over skeletons of giants. Here are the pictures:
Pretty creepy looking, huh? So I went on the internet and found a few places that explain all the photos but one. The first one is obviously just a forced perspective trick. It’s one of the ways they made the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings movies look short. The skeletons are close to the camera and the men are down in a ditch farther away. Here is another picture that was taken of the same two guys:
The second…I don’t know, the lighting on the man doesn’t match the lighting on the skeleton so the photo seems doctored.
The third is a digitally doctored photograph. [EDIT: I’ve just been informed that the third photo was made specifically for a Photoshop contest. It won third place. This is the site for the contest: Worth1000.com. They’ve got other weird Photoshoped photos there. Check them out.] One of the original pictures used in this photo is this one I put below:
Sure would have been cool if they were real. Just imagine if you were to go to a Museum who had some…
Of course, Genesis 6:4 may have a deeper symbolic interpretation than just a literal one. The New Advent website puts forth this commentary to the DOUAY-RHEIMS version of this passage:
Giants… It is likely the generality of men before the flood were of a gigantic stature in comparison with what men now are. But these here spoken of are called giants, as being not only tall in stature, but violent and savage in their dispositions, and mere monsters of cruelty and lust.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Had an easier week than usual working on the ride. I actually got to home on time most of the week.
There are less and less people working on the show every week. I talked to one of the character designers of the show today and he told me he only had two more weeks before he gets laid off.
Today is my dad’s last day on King of the Hill because of the strike. Please pray for him and all the people affected by it. We all need the prayers.
FAMILY
Alesha was put on bed rest by her doctor. She was feeling some long moments of “discomfort” a few days ago (and by discomfort I mean pain). Turns out she needs to take it easy so the baby doesn’t come too soon. It was bad enough so that on the 30th we went to register at the hospital and then she checked herself in just in case there was something wrong. There wasn’t, as we found out after being there for about two hours but it made my wife feel a lot better knowing that. That’s when the doctor gave her the bed rest prescription. From now on, she needs to take it easy until the baby comes.
Meanwhile, this New Year’s Eve we decided it would be a good idea to start training our sixteen month old Munchkin to sleep on a toddler bed. Especially since her baby brother would use her crib once he’s born. Also Alesha won’t need to reach into a crib to pick her up. I built the bed this New Year’s Eve and introduced the bed to the Munchkin who was overwhelmed with excitement when she saw it. She ran over to it, climbed into it, and began jumping and dancing around on it. She would then lay down on it (with her little butt up in the air) and say “nigh nigh” lay there for about ten to fifteen seconds before standing up on it to dance and jump again. She would do this over and over again. It was hilarious. I was having so much fun watching her.
So after all that, I took her downstairs so she could play for a little while longer before I put her down for a nap. When nap time came I took her upstairs and put her in her new bed. A minute after I left the room, we saw her in the baby monitor getting up out of the bed and playing with the toys around her room. I went in her room and put her back on the bed about three times before I just decided to let her be. It was funny because she would get out, sit by her bed and look at it for a long time with her bottle in her mouth. She would then touching the bed once in a while and would sometimes even kiss it but she wouldn’t get in it. At one point she got up and went off camera so we didn’t know what she was doing. I left her alone for a long time but she never made it back within camera range. I told Alesha that it had been long enough and if she wasn’t going to go to sleep, I would just go get her. When I opened the door, I found her on the carpet asleep in the center of her room. I put a blanket on her and let her be.
Since it was New Years Eve, the Munchkin spent the night away parting with our family at our aunts house (and she really partied hard. She danced and ran around and ate and played bongos. She had a blast). When we got home she slept in her new bed without incident. Next day though, when we put her on the bed for her nap, she got out of the bed again, began playing with her toys and next thing we know, she fell asleep in the same place on the carpet as she did the day before. She looked like a doll laying there as if some careless kid had just dropped her as they walked out the door. It was very funny.
We were a little concerned that she wouldn’t sleep in her bed when we put her down to sleep that night, but she was actually fine. She didn’t get out of bed and just lay down until she fell asleep. She moves around a lot and I was afraid, when I saw she had moved to a spot on the bed that didn’t have a rail, that she would fall out. So I got a big cushion we had laying around and put it under the opening. It’s a very very low bed so it’s no big deal but I just didn’t want her to land on the carpet get all bothered and begin to cry. Sure enough, a little while later I saw on the monitor that she was no longer in the bed. I went in and found her on the cushion completely asleep covered by blankets. She looked very comfortable and I almost left her there but I decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea and put her back in the bed. She didn’t even wake up. She slept the rest of the night without incident and even slept an hour longer than she usually does.
Now when we put her down for her nap she sleeps on her bed instead of on the carpet. She’s apparently gotten used to it and I think she likes her it.
BLOGS
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BOARD GAMES
We played quite a few games this weekend. We actually got to play Dune! It was really fun. We only played with three people but we had a good time. My wife played the Bene Gesserit, my wife’s best friend played the Atreides, and I was Padishah EmperorShaddam Corrino IV . The game ended in turn four and I won. It took us two hours to get to turn four but that was only because we were checking the rules every other minute as we learned the game. Next time we play, I doubt it will take that long to get to the fourth turn. If no one wins after fifteen turns, the game ends. I must say, that all the effort I made putting the game together paid off because the game was really great fun.
Afterwards we played a game of Liar’s Dice (my wife gave it to me for Christmas). That game was fun also. It’s a nice short “filler” game.
The next, day we had a little bit of time when we put the Munchkin down for a nap, so we thought we’d play a game. The game was Cleopatra and the Society of Architects. We knew we wouldn’t be able to finish it before Munchkin woke up but we played it anyway. We only played for a while before she woke so we decided to end the game and do all the end game scoring. The winner of the game is the person with the most money at the end of the game but there’s a catch…the person who has accumulated the most corruption tokens at the end of the game (even if they have the most money) gets thrown to the crocodiles and cannot win. My wife’s friend and I tied with the most corruption. Cleopatra threw us to the crocodiles so my wife ended up winning. It was a very fun game. I recommend it. It shares a few mechanics with Settlers of Catan but the point of the game is to build a miniature of Cleopatra’s Palace instead of building cities and roads.
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Baby birth eve, Last day of work, The Dragon Page Cover to Cover, Portrayal.
January 31, 2008 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, FAMILY, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEO GAMES
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Wednesday was the last day of work for me. As of this day, I’ve heard that the writers are back in at the negotiating table. Hopefully an agreement can be had this time. I hope it happens sooner than later. I’ve got enough saved to last a month or so but you never can tell.
The Universal Studios Simpsons ride deadline was Friday. We didn’t make the deadline. I worked Saturday but I spent time at home with my wife and baby girl Sunday. We had a lot of errands to do. I went back into work on Monday and it didn’t seem like much was done by anyone on Sunday even though some of us worked that day. When Wednesday came, it still looked like there was a lot of work left to do. Doesn’t seem like the work will ever end on that project. It did for me though. Pray for us.
FAMILY
My son Dante Gabriel will be born this Thursday January 31. He’s in breach position so it will have to be a C-section. It’s exciting and worrisome at the same time. Hope all goes well. Munchkin will have a crazy day. She’s going to be passed around like a baton for the next day and a half from Godparents, to Aunt, to Grandparents. Once she’s gone I won’t see her till I pick her up at my parents the following evening. I wonder what she will think is happening? I hope she doesn’t freak out when we bring the new baby home and she discovers that we can’t give her all our attention all the time like she’s used to.
In a strange way, getting layoff right now is turning out to be a really good thing. It means I’ll be able to help out when I’m needed most. On the other hand, the money would come in real handy now more than ever.
PODCASTS
I often listen to a Podcast called: The Dragon Page Cover to Cover. It’s basically a podcast where they interview hot Sci fi/Fantasy books authors, as well as discuss Fantasy books and writing. It’s a great podcast for people who like reading Sci fi and Fantasy books. The podcast is great when they keep to the topic of fantasy books, but the thing about Sci fi and Fantasy books is that they tend to bring up subjects that are often controversial, like politics, religion, or secular philosophy. Therefore, sometimes the hosts of the show, which seem to me to be secular humanists, tend to say things about subjects like Christianity that maybe they shouldn’t say. As is typical in these discussions they tend to be subtly and not so subtly anti-Christian and even anti-Catholic. Most of the time, I tend to ignore stuff like that because this kind of bigotry is so normal in California that, even though it bugs me, it’s usually not worth making a big stink out it. Thing is, sometimes, I just can’t stand it anymore and I have to say something. In the case of The Dragon page podcast, I couldn’t keep quite about something that was said by one of the hosts.
I think that this host is great. I have nothing against him personally and I find myself being really disappointed when he isn’t on show because he’s working or something. He’s great because he’s a published author of many best selling books and he often gives great insight to the inner workings of publishing. He also goes out of his way to help people learn to write and has a general reputation of being a stand up guy. Thing is, I get the impression that he’s a fallen away Catholic and as many fallen away Catholics, he tends to give out a small air of disdain about Catholicism, it’s dogmas, and it’s hierarchy. This wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that this bias comes through once in a while in his comments.
There was a particular episode where he brought up something that seemed to me to imply a lot more than just the surface statement. It bothered me so much that I called and left a message asking if I thought I heard him right or if I was just reading more into his statement than he meant. He was good enough to answer my question. I’ve listen to the answer a few times and think he did his best to answer as best he could. I think I understand what he was trying to say but I’m not sure. Problem is that my question was rather long and had a lot of examples, I think there where multiple questions or statements in it and only having heard it once, it’s difficult to just answer everything in a nice little package. It’s obvious that he has read some books about the history of Christianity and since I haven’t particularly read the specific book he mentions in the podcast, I don’t know exactly what information he may be referring to that I don’t have. I do get the impression that the book he talks about puts forth an anti-orthodox theory stating that there where many legitimate Christianities in the beginning and the strongest ended up surviving. While an orthodox Catholic would say that there was only one true Christianity from the start and there were many heresies that tried claiming they were truly Christian but were proven wrong. Of course these kind of arguments use the exact same data but each use a different way of interpreting it based on the interpreter’s world view. I’m not a relativist so I think only one of these points of view is the correct one.
In any case, I’m thinking of maybe sending him an e-mail just to follow up and to thank him for answering my question. I admire his work and the good things he does for others and I hope that he continues to do well.
If you wish to hear the question and the answer, the episode is Cover to Cover #293A. My question begins in the 2:30 mark. Let me know what you think.
For some reason, this entire event has called to mind a quote from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. It goes like this:
BOARD GAMES
Besides playing Lost Cities and Lord of the Lord of the Rings – The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition against my wife this week and losing both games to her. I thought I might play a game with you. I was watching one of the latest Board Games with Scott video casts and he reviewed a party game that really caught my attention because of how clever the premise is. I will let Scott explain it in the video so I won’t go into it here. In the video, he actually plays a round of the game with the audience after explaining the game. I thought it would be fun so I played along. I was thinking that maybe you can also.
[video src="http://ia360629.us.archive.org/3/items/bgws_044/bgws_044_lq.mp4" /]Directly underneath this paragraph is a small thumbnail of the drawing I came up with (it’s a bit difficult to see). DON’T CLICK ON THE THUMBNAIL UNTIL YOU’VE PLAYED THE GAME YOURSELF. After you’ve done so you can look at what I did. In the comments section below I will write what my score was. Did you manage to beat my score? No fair pausing the video. I didn’t.
ANSWERING COMMENTS
I don’t have a specific comment I want to answer this week. I would just like to thank everyone that has commented positively on the last cartoon I put up. Because of the response, I’m planning to make another one that will follow a similar style also involving Superman, Batman, and even Spiderman this time. I’ve already started writing it and it’s gotten a bit out of control in how long it is. I’m even thinking of animating it a bit more than the original one and I might have to use Adobe Flash to do it I haven’t made up my mind yet if I’m going to go that route. Now that I have a little more time, I might be able to do something as elaborate as that. Stay tuned.
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