Done

While sitting in my disorganized room and looking out the window at a big pile of snow, I thought I should formally conclude this blog for anyone who may or may not still be checking it. I am no longer in LA, although I tried very hard to pretend I was while sitting at Logan airport and drinking an iced coffee. A poor plan in the end for I was quite cold, yet stubborn; I drank that whole thing.
Now, throughly exhausted by my long trip back to Dartmouth and the strain of moving into a new room, I say a final farewell to all of my readers. Perhaps one day I shall revive my blog, but I can already tell you that I will not have time to do so this term. So if you feel like hearing about my life, you must email me. Thank you to everyone who read my ramblings this past winter, perhaps we will meet again!

Mystery

Okay, this post is intended for only one person out there. I cannot say who though. Mostly because I have no idea who it is supposed to be. But I just got back from dinner at my dad's house and decided that before bed I would look through the small pile of mail on my dresser. Nothing too interesting really, except for a plain white envelope with my address typed across the front. It was sent March 14th from San Francisco (which could really just mean from the Bay Area). There was no return address and as I held it up to the light I could see that it was a newspaper clipping. My interest was piqued. A newspaper clipping that is pretty personal. I opened the envelope and confirmed that it is indeed a newspaper clipping from the March 11th Financial News, but who knows which paper. Attached was a yellow post-it saying "Gemma, Thought you'd be interested! -J."
J? Okay maybe the article will give a clue of who J is. But which side to read? It is not immediately obvious. J is either trying to tell me to learn how Mutual Funds work, or J is emphasizing that people should check out a free report so that their retirement fund doesn't go down the drain. Okay, I am missing something. I am no closer to deciding who J might be and now faced with the second problem of deciphering the article. I know nothing of finance. Perhaps J knows this and has decided that it is time I took initiative and dive into the world of finance. I have no clue why anyone would send me this. So I turn to Google, which of course producers the answer.
Confirming my growing suspicions, Google tells me that the clipping and note are a scam. Why is it that mysteries are better solved when on television or in books but only disappointing in real life?
This post is intended for that one person who handwrote my post-it. You just wasted 15 minutes of my bedtime with a mystery that didn't even have a good solution. You also wasted a perfectly good post-it note attempting to scare seniors into looking into a free report to help their retirement fund, but you see, J, I am 20 years old. One day I hope to discover and solve a real mystery with a truly satisfying answer.

I think I was bored. . .

Very recently I have had a lack of inspiration when it comes to writing my posts. I can't really see why because my life hasn't changed much save for the fact that I have been incredibly productive at the archive. The database is finally up and running on all fronts. I say this with extreme pride. I was able to take Steve's ideas and basic structure and turn it into a concrete being. I call it a being because it is almost a living thing. It is like my child. I shall make my database feminine. I made her basically from scratch and taught her do what I asked her to. Sometimes she did not obey me, like any child, but as she grew and matured, she learned that doing as I say isn't so difficult, like every ideal child. Soon she will be out of my hands and all I can do is hope that she can operate without me.
This leaves me with very little to do on my last day of work. I literally am sitting here twiddling my thumbs. Though, not while I type, that would be a challenge. Perhaps I do not want to write anything in my blog because I have realized that soon the designated time length I gave for my blog will be over. I am doubtful that I will be nearly as interesting once I have returned to Dartmouth. This is not to say that Dartmouth is not an interesting place, quite the contrary. Only, I won't have the same sort of animation inspirations surrounding me. . .
This is why I have taken to recently reading and re-reading the internships posted by Pixar and Dreamworks for this summer. I plan to get one of the internships offered by either of them. If anyone reading this happens to know someone high up at either of these places, I would greatly appreciate and introduction.
Ah! I am just so bored with this post, I don't even know if I should I post it. . . . Oh but I will just because I can. One of the best reasons ever made.

Problem Solver

So this is apropos my previous post which some of you may have seen when it was missing the picture. There seems to be a problem with uploading pictures to blogger if you are using Safari on a Mac. I was frustrated at first because I thought that I was doing something wrong until I poked around a bit and discovered that, no it was blogger's issue and not mine. I was momentarily placated. Then as I read through all the problems people were reporting with uploading pictures on their blog (the same issue over and over again I might add), I got frustrated again. Not because of the renewed feeling of being upset with my blog, but because I was upset with the people reporting the problem. It is one thing to say you are experiencing a technical difficulty, but quite another to scream it at the tech people and tell them how frustrated you are and how long can it possibly take to get it fixed.
I have never really thought of myself as a problem solver, but now I am forced to think that I must be in the general scheme of things. If something doesn't happen the way I want it to, I try going about it a different way until it does operate satisfactorily. This is standard operating procedure for me and for most people I am friends with. I have found however that not everybody goes about things in this way. More often than not people will throw their hands up in frustration and complain to the person nearest them. If I am that person next to them I suggest a way to fix it, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I don't come with answers, but I certainly do what is in my capacity to find them. I highly dislike those people who just complain and give up, declaring that they are no technology, math, science, VCR, remote, rat cage, etc. expert. Not being an expert is no excuse for giving up!
It bothered me that the people were so snappy and rude when complaining about the picture uploading problem to the tech people. They obviously are now aware of the problem and are trying to fix it, so please do not repeat again that you are frustrated or yell at them for not having fixed it already. As it turns out, they still have not fixed the problem, but you will note that I have gotten my picture up on the previous blog. How resourceful I am! I used another browser. So simple. Stop complaining.
Next time you encounter a problem you cannot solve immediately, step back, have a think, try going about it a different way. You don't need to give up then oppressively lean on someone who might know how to fix it. It will not make them want to help you in the future.
On a somewhat different note, I make have found a way to be a sloppy Gemma version of Google thanks to the simple questions of one Miss Erin: "How do you display search results for other things?" Brilliant! I think I shall call it Gemoogle. I like the way it rolls off the tongue.

Today

Yesterday, Steve got cataract surgery. For accurate details of how this surgery is done, see diagram below.



Today, I nearly strangled someone out of frustration. Today, Steve also asked me to make the quivalent of a search engine, like Google. I have previously thought that Steve asked the impossible from me, but I usually managed to deliver because I had been limiting the way I thought about things. However, I am not certain that I will be able to imitate Google within the next 4 days. Quite the predicament.

My Luck

I told my mum that I was really lucky this term.
She said that people make their own luck.
I am really lucky to have gotten this internship with the archive. Not only does it look great on my resume, but it has also taught me quite a lot about animation history. When I say animation history, I don't mean dates of when certain animators or studios were doing certain things and I also don't mean events that impacted the animation industry. While I do know some new dates and events that I did not know of before, what I really mean by animation history is the style, the way cartoons used to be made. Comparing them to today's cartoons is somewhat depressing. What happened to all the care and love that went into making cartoons in the first half of the 20th century? Now so many of the cartoons are shipped overseas to be animated. I would be very reluctant to send my child overseas to get the life put into her. That basically is what is missing in some of today’s cartoons: life.
Yes, the Simpsons and Family Guy characters walk, talk, and breathe ink but they lack the qualities possessed by animated characters of the past. Today's characters have predictable and drab movements. They are one-dimensional and wanting in true character. They are without life; they are lifeless. So what is this great standard I am comparing these to, you might wonder? Well, most older cartoons really. But one brilliant example is Popeye.
Now, for those of you who have seen some Popeye but maybe not a lot or not recently, you might be thinking, "Gemma, how is Popeye anything but one-dimensional?" He is a long-torsoed sailor who frequents land more than he does the sea and eats spinach in order to beat up a big guy so that he can win the affection of a tall, skinny, and quite odd looking woman every show. It is true, this is the basis for most episodes, but he most certainly is not one-dimensional. How many sailors have you met that sing, dance, ski, hunt, build ships, care for his father, and oh the list goes on! Not many I wager. Popeye may, at first glance, have a harsh exterior, but the more you get to know him (yes, get to know a fictional character) he has many more motivations and sympathies than the animated people of today. In fact I would say Popeye is quite a caring sailor even though the basis seems focused on him physically harming his rivals.
Well, this is not at all where this post was supposed to go, however, now you know how I feel about a sailor with abnormally large forearms. I meant to talk about I was also lucky that I got to meet all the people I did, and how I was lucky to find my job with Revolution Prep. . . but I have found that my writing really has a life and agenda of its own. So I let it run its course and I apologize that this title has very little to do with the content of the post.

Time for Truth

Blogging has made me come face to face with my true nature. Because I now type out what I think and feel and send it off for the whole world to view, I have realized that I have a somewhat fickle personality when it comes to people. I knew this before, but now I find it harder to deny when other people are reading what I only used to think. I can like and respect someone one day, and then find them to be a terribly annoying loser the next.
Those high schoolers might be snotty, but they are MY snotty 16 year olds and I was sad to see them for the final time tonight. Once the last of my students had left the room, after profusely complaining that the other class had already been let out, I felt a slow weight beginning to descend. I have taught them everything they need to know and now I must let go of their hands and send them out on their own to repeatedly color over letters A through E. The sadness that accompanies every parting I have ever made was just as strong and even more surprising than usual tonight. I attribute this to the fact that they were my first class and as annoying as they could get, they will hold a special place in my ever changeful heart.

Judged Again

Just a note on the last post: It was more an expression of my growing sadness that I am leaving behind the archive and LA than of me disliking any other volunteer. I quite like the girl I am training. She is friendly.
In other news: Something that Steve said to me a while ago has suddenly rung true, in a strange and completely unrelated way. Steve said that he was surprised by how many young animation students fight with things that John K. posts on his blog when the students are, as stated previously, so young and inexperienced in comparison to John. Steve was not implying everyone must agree with John, but whatever happened to respecting those with more experience and clout than you? While I agreed with Steve, let's face it, I couldn't really relate, not being and expert in anything let alone animation. But now I am forced to admit that yes, I have made myself an expert on the SAT. It is not something fun to admit to, but I worked pretty hard to become so familiar with something so dull. I then attempted to pass on my knowledge to my students, those ungrateful teenagers.
I have to say that after 6 weeks of teaching 16 year olds (a wealth of experience, I know) I have come to realize that there are just some people who do not want to learn. Certain children are surprisingly unreceptive. I realize that the SAT is not the most engaging of subjects, but how am I supposed to teach if the students are so unwilling to learn? Believe it or not I have become quite vested in my children's scores. While many have improved, some have not. Now it is time for them to grade me. I got a lot of "She's nice and helpful" but then I got the disappointing few saying that I was not clear etc. They also give me a letter grade on my ability to teach each section, my knowledge of the SAT, and a few other things. I can tell that the unreceptive children are the ones who gave me the less than stellar grades. This makes me angry because I am an SAT expert and how dare those tiny 16 year olds who have only just started to drive their own puny selves around say otherwise (I say as I stomp my foot in frustration)! Okay this is turning out to be very different from what Steve said, but I hold artistic license in this blog and that is the way I wanted to introduce my indignation about being judged by the snotty teenagers who refuse to listen in class or implement the really good strategies I showed them.
Really, who are they to judge me?

Old News

That's me. I am old news. I leave Los Angeles in a mere 13 days. I expect to be missed. But oh! How soon the young and brave (for a lack of more appropriate but less impressive adjectives) are forgotten! I have already been replaced! A new intern came into the archive on Saturday to solidify her position. I felt betrayed and cast aside. I had not even thought of packing and Steve had already shipped in a new girl to man (woman?) the machines. I had no clue what emotions hid behind the woman who strode into the archive that Saturday afternoon sporting a gray sweatshirt with a Mickey Mouse shaped American flag across the chest. (From boxers to sweatshirts, I own far less animation related clothing than many of the people I have come in contact with through the archive. In fact, I own none). But back to Saturday. . . Little did I know that behind that smiley and friendly exterior lay (wait for it) my replacement.
I smiled back at her as I explained my terribly complex job of burning DVDs and placing them into binders in the correct order so that they can later be taken out again and catalogued. I have to admit that it is comforting to know that someone will be able to continue to keep the archive organized after I am gone, I just didn't expect to "train" her let alone know she existed. I believe she found out about the possibility of interning for ASIFA-Hollywood from the video tour Steve made of the archive in which I am referred to as the intern. I should have known that with fame come troubles.
Perhaps I hyperbolize a bit too much than is necessary, but sharing my archival secrets so soon was not something I was fully prepared for on Saturday. I expected the archive to lament my departure and then search in vain for someone to fill my frequently complemented sneakers before finally finding someone who I would never know about. However, this only makes me more determined to finish the job I started so that I will lovingly be remembered as the intern who built a database! And the intern who cleaned Steve's office. Goodness, talk about a challenge! We also did that on Saturday. Cleaning and organizing, while difficult to get me going, is always so rewarding!
I am resigned. I will not be threatened. After all, I am the one leaving Burbank behind and not the other way around. Although it was suggested I drop out of school and move down here. But I have a feeling that there is still more waiting for me at Dartmouth and I am keen to discover what that is. So I will impart all my knowledge to the new intern and be satisfied knowing the archive is in capable hands trained by me.

The Vinci Family

This morning I continue your animation education. This is a lie. I continue my own animation education. I've found the best way to learn is to teach. This is why I know the SAT in and out.
Back to the Vinci family though. That reminds me of the Medici family from Florence. You know? The family that produced some Popes, other kinds of rulers and were generally fantastic patrons during the Renaissance. Yeah, that one. Well the Vinci family also has a great deal to do with art. Carlo Vinci was an animator who worked for Terrytoons, Disney and Hannah-Barbera. I suppose the most well known things he worked on were Mighty Mouse and The Flinstones. I have yet to be able to pick out who animated what when watching a cartoon but last night I got to experience Steve pick scenes out from Mighty Mouse cartoons that were animated by Vinci.
Vinci's son and grandson, Paul and Mike, came into the archive yesterday evening to be greeted with 6 DVDs of Mighty Mouse cartoons that I had burned for them (although I did not know at the time who the discs were going to) and, more importantly, that their father/grandfather had worked on. We all sat down to watch a few cartoons. Grandson, son, and Steve pointed out bits animated by Carlo Vinci. Even to my uneducated eyes I began to see his distinctive style. Because I am no expert and can no better describe his style to you than I could attempt to walk on water, I will have to refer to the "experts" (though not Jesus). John Kricfaulsi says, "Carlo moves things as if he invented animation himself and had never seen anyone else's animation. He made up all his own rules. He doesn't use simple lines of action like the Disney animators did. Instead he uses zigzagged poses that to most animators would seem awkward."
You should read more about Carlo Vinci at the animation archive site, which I have cunningly linked directly for you. I think it must be amazing to be related to an animator! Of course the son and grandson seemed perfectly normal. Oh! They knew who I was and where I went to school too when they came in! No, not because I wear a Hello my name is. . . name tag, but because I am practically famous to the people who frequent the archive blog. Steve made a video to introduce people to the physical archive to clean away the misconception that the archive is just the blog posts. I am in it! Working away! You should watch it here and see where I work, who I work with and what I do!

Work and Play

Most jobs that I have held have really just been a balance of work and play. In the end it is always more like play disguised as work. (Except for a two-day temp data entry job I held in high school. That was really boring). Working in the scene shop is always play, until someone falls through a trap door. . . or three people do. . . or your boss loses his mind. The bookstore was kind of like play because I got to hang out with my mum and read children's picture books. The archive is play because I get to watch cartoons if I want and hang out with fun people. If you don't understand why the archive is play then you haven't been reading my blog very closely. This is Steve playing (the ukulele). The archive is a fun joint. Teaching 16 year olds about the SAT is play because I get to make bad jokes and still sometimes get laughs. . . or total silence, which is fun too. Perhaps it is just my attitude that makes my work play; it is hard to say.
Well it is funny that my last post was about writing letters because I received a letter from the lovely Kim Owen (one of my cousins) last night! This amply stamped letter explained her job to me, which certainly does seem like play. Kim got a job as a bartender in Wellington (supposedly close to her flat and school). I think she just sort of fell into the job. . . makes me wonder why it is so hard to get a job as a bartender in the states. Not only does Kim dispense alcohol, but she also dispenses drugs. Oh the legal kind! Don't worry! Like "Red Hearts" a.k.a. ecstasy/speed. Yep, it is a legal drug in New Zealand, that ecstasy. I usually like to think of myself as pretty liberal as far as my views on drug usage go (not my own drug usage), but this strikes me as not the best idea ever. I suppose on the one had it could be considered better than the way drugs are handled in the US because at least in NZ the people will actually get exactly what they are paying for (the drug should be pure). Then again, because it is legal I feel that more people are going to be trying it, doing it with more frequency and in some cases getting addicted to it.
Ecstasy is an upper in simple terms. It fools around with your seretonin levels and acts as both a stimulant and psychedelic, producing an energizing effect, as well as distortions in time and perception and enhanced enjoyment from tactile experiences. (Anyone from SHP will remember the ecstasy presentation we were given in high school). On rare occasions the use of ecstasy can lead to death due to a sharp increase in your body temperature causing your vital organs to give up. I would think that if regulated, death would be even more rare. Yet even if the party pills sold on the street in NZ (Kim sells these pills out of a window onto the street) are not as strong perhaps as the ecstasy found "on the street" (in a much more sinister way) in the states, I figure it still must have the same sort of effects, like neurotoxicity. In addition, most party pill users in NZ usually take party pills in lieu of illegal drugs or in conjunction with them. Most people enjoy taking party pills for the energy they give you as well as the sense of euphoria and apparently most people who take party pills also think that they are a lower health risk than either alcohol or weed. I would find that difficult to accept as fact.
So I looked up party pills. Check out this product website. I can see why they are appealing with that packaging and those descriptions. It all sounds so innocent and candy-like!
Kim also says that she sells "energy pills" and "sex pills." First of all I would like to point out how uncreative these drug names are because there is also a "recovery pill" that people take after having used "party pills" to soften the edge of a hangover (oh yes, I did my research). Second of all, "sex pills"? Kim went into all sorts of details on the party pills and then only upon brief recollection mentioned the sex pills. Clearly the sex pills ought to have been given more attention in the letter. They sound like legalized date rape drugs. I can't imagine that this is what they really are though. I think they "enhance" sexual pleasure. Oh New Zealand, you amaze and amuse me. I can't ever see party, energy, recovery, or sex pills being sold so commonplace in this Puritan America.