Nephilim skeletons, writer’s strike offspring, Munchkin goes to work
January 11, 2008 in BLOGS, BOARD GAMES, FAMILY, MY WEEK, Nephilim Skeletons, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS
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:
At 11/08/2007 07:27:00 PM,
said…
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.
For more on this topic see my other post:Nephilim Skeletons again, Superhero geekness.
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Nephilim Skeletons again, Superhero geekness.
March 27, 2008 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, Nephilim Skeletons, SUPERHEROES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Not much to tell about work today. Just continuing to do layout revisions on act II of show 17.
I did go to the comic store this Wednesday with my friends though. I saw Bruce Timm buying comic there again…speaking of Bruce Timm…lets talk about…
SUPERHEROES
I’m such a huge Superhero GEEK. Man, I loooovve superheroes. I love their comic and their animated shows too. The animated shows have been great since the first season of the WB Bruce Timm animated Batman TV show. I’ve recently become aware that there’s a new Spiderman cartoon out right now. The Spectacular Spiderman. I love it. It’s great! The designs are interesting. Very pushed and very very very cartoony. It’s well written, fun and funny too. Me likey! Takes me back to the days when I used to read the comic. I also like the fact that he’s still in high school in this show. I never liked the fact they took him out of high school so fast in the movies. It makes for better drama if he has to deal with teenager things while being a superhero. Here’s a bit from an episode. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPUKJhhmDnw
If it doesn’t load, click here.
Another show that has caught my interest, is the second season of Legion of Superheroes. I caught a few episodes of the first season and I liked it. The superheroes in the show are really young and the writing is skewed for a younger audience so it wasn’t as mature as other animated Superhero shows I’ve watched. Still, I liked the designs and it had Superman in it so I can’t complain. Season two of Legion of Superheroes looks like it’s changing the formula a little bit. The heroes, while still young, are actually quite a bit older. The story telling is still a bit shallow but if you like super fights, you won’t be disappointed. I saw the first two episodes and it seemed that all they did was fight in the show. Again, I’m not going to complain, it’s got Superman in it. In fact it has TWO Supermans. The show has invented a new Superman character called Superman X. A clone of Superman from the 41st Century (the Legion is from the 31st). Imagine a Superman with the personality of Batman and a few extra powers for good measure and you get Superman X. He’s actually kinda cool. All the flaws of Batman and all the powers of Superman makes for an interesting character. Here’s a bit of the first episode from the second season.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOBJIrm5dnY
If it doesn’t load, click here
It’s funny but the Superman X design reminds me a little of Tom Welling, who plays Clark Kent on the Smallville television show. To show you what I mean, here’s a clip of one of my all time favorite Smallville moments (if you haven’t seen the show, the woman with Clark is his mother Martha and the bald guy on the plane is Lex Luthor):
If it doesn’t load, click here
You might be thinking that I’m making it up when I say that I’ve seen animated Superhero shows that were a bit more mature than Legion of Superheroes. I’m not. The Bruce Timm produced animated Superhero shows where actually really well written and some shows had entire seasons that where mindbogglingly good. Here’s an example from one of my three favorite Batman episodes from the first season of the WB (not the Fox) Batman animated show. From the moment this episode began, I was glued to my TV but when it got to this point in the story, my jaw hit the floor:
If it doesn’t load, click here
Of course there is plenty of mindless fighting in these animated shows too but they are so much more satisfying when they have a long story behind them. For example, the Bruce Timm produced Superman animated show introduced Darkseid into the animated show continuity. During the next three seasons of the Superman animated show he became Superman’s number one enemy to get under his skin. Darkseid did some terrible things to Superman. The Justice League and Justice League Unlimited shows, continued the Darkseid story line using the Superman animated show as part of it’s continuity. This gave the animosity that Superman felt for Darkseid a great history. So when he shows up one final time, Superman takes off the kid gloves. Here’s a small clip of what happens:
If it doesn’t load, click here
These moments are great pay offs for fans of the show who’ve watched the shows from the first season of the WB Animated Batman, all the way through to the last Cartoon Network Justice League Unlimited episodes (because they tell one big story). I highly recommend them. If you love Superheroes and you haven’t seen these animated shows, rent or buy them. They’re worth it.
NEPHILIM SKELETONS
By far the most popular post I have on this blog is the one called Nephilim skeletons, writer’s strike offspring, Munchkin goes to work.
It’s because of the Nephilim Skeleton pictures on it. I’ve gotten a few comments about the pictures I’ve put up. One of them in particular pointed out something about this picture:
Which I was using to disprove this one:
This is how it read:
I took a look at what he was saying and I thought he was right. At first I thought that the area might be lit by two different light sources but I rid myself of that idea. If you notice how cast shadows fall in a situation with two different light sources, you will notice that you get double shadows. Ever been in a stadium at night with the flood lights making everyone cast three or four cast shadows? Also, if you were to walk between two lit lamp posts at night you cast two shadows.
Thing is, the posts don’t have two shadows so either this photo is fake and the person who manipulated it did a lousy job or something else is going on.
Upon closer inspection I’ve found that the later is true. Something else is going on. This photo is not fake and here’s why. As an artist, I work with shadows a lot. I observe and draw the world around me a lot. I’ve often seen that reality seems to do some strange things when you observe it from certain angles. Often, an artist is drawing something and it looks odd from his perspective so he changes reality and makes it consistent so it doesn’t look like they’ve made a mistake. Many times, I’ve had drawing teachers that have told me to do so, so that a drawing reads better. If I was to draw that photo I would probably change the way the cast shadow falls so it would look right.
The truth is, the reason the shadow looks wrong, is because of our vantage point. The posts sticking out of the ground, give the impression that they are all sticking straight up, but what if they are not? If they are not and one of the posts is leaning to one side, then that means the cast shadow of that post is going to fall different than all the others, even though from above that post looks like it’s sticking straight up. This is why I still think the picture is real.
If my terribly, crappy drawing above isn’t enough to convince you, then test it out yourself. Take a pencil or pen, a lamp or a flash light and go to a table. Prop the pencil or pen straight up and shine the light on it so that it casts a shadow. Note how the shadow falls. Now, lean the pen or pencil to the right or to the left without leaning it toward or away from the light. Note how the shadow falls. Problem solved.
There was another comment I would like to respond to that went like this:
Don’t know anything about Lou Dobbs but I will say this about the photo he’s referring to, you can clearly see the remnants of the original photograph in the doctored photograph. I’ll show you what I mean:
I would love it if these skeletons where actually found and that these photographs were real, but the truth is that, (at least this one photo) is not. It’s some sort of prank. Sorry. [EDIT: I’ve just been informed that the this 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.]
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And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.
Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.
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