Withnail · Estate · West

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/euhs-rmp061504.php

Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and Atlanta's Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) have found transferring a single gene, the vasopressin receptor, into the brain's reward center makes a promiscuous male meadow vole monogamous.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/120395.php

"The researchers found that men with a particular variant of the AVPR1A gene (that codes for vasopressin in humans) scored lower on the bonding questions and were less likely to be married compared to men who did not have the variant."

I've stepped out of a dream, and into, someone else's dream.

I'm now surrounded by expensive cars, athletic (yoga) wear, goretex. Everyone speaks english, but I no longer understand it. I overhear conversations about people's children's credit cards.

The climate is at once rainy and obscene. The obscenity stems from the ridiculous affluence.
This is very upper middle class white, granola, left coast society. These people have never known hardship. They're very soft. They put on their athletic wear to drive their SUV's to the organic food store on the corner.

Am I in the right place?
This is not my beautiful house.

Seems like every day I meet some interesting Brits. They´re drawn to my awesome facial hair. I guess I look Ingle, or Irlande, or Escoce, maybe even Canadiense.

Anyways, Friday morning, before I went to work, I dropped into a cafe for breakfast. As I was about to sit down, I was motioned over by three interesting looking chaps. Straight out of 70´s and 80´s punk, these guys looked like they could have been in the Sex Pistols or Suicidal Tendencies, or DOA. Perfect charicatures.
Except for the fact that one of them was Huge! A modern punk; musclebound. More like Henry Rollins.

It didn´t take Sherlock Holmes to see they were trashed. Already. At 8am. The table was littered with alcohol. There were at least three drinks in front of each chap, all in various states of consumption.

So.. I´m off to work, but three Brits want me to stay for drinks. They´re already hammered, and one of them is huge! How to handle this?

Oh, maybe you don´t have this perspective. Believe me, drunk men get offended at the slightest provocation. They pick fights at the drop of a hat. Not what I needed before I started work.

When dealing with drunks, you kind of have to humour them, and play along a bit. Be nice, but don´t just agree with everything they say, because they´ll realize you´re trying to placate them. So you have to welcome the friendship, and make fun of them at the same time. But in a friendly way.

So I joined them for breakfast, but cordially refused their repeated offers for drinks... Basically, I laughed at them. Meanwhile, the waiter, receiving the same offers, similarly decl ined, but forgot to make fun of them. As time progressed, these three guys got more and more pissed off at the waiter, and more and more friendly with me. Eventually I had to intervene and tell them to leave the poor waiter alone.

And I had to get out of there, so I bought them a round of drinks and made my escape. Wishing them well for the Sex Pistols concert this weekend.

Shame I didn't make it to that one.. but it was a bit pricey at 120€.


Oh yeah, almost forgot.. The police showed up while I was sitting with the three drunks. I'm VERY glad they didn't cause a disturbance and get us all tossed in jail overnight (at 8am Friday).

Here's another cut of a video I was involved in creating.
(I did the 3D modeling for the temple, island and gates of hades. Plus a whole lot of previs work.)

My artwork made it into the Vancouver Sun on Friday. Page 4 of the Business section.
http://flickr.com/photos/williamwithnail/2273052987/

The film got shortlisted for a webby award, (even though it's not finished).
http://mdm.gnwc.ca/?q=content/student-work-short-listed-webby


You can watch the unfinished video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dshaKpFN-xs

Or you can watch a blender tutorial I produced here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2147908803300216703&hl=en

Or you can watch some of our technical demos from the Fisheries project here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/williamwithnail

I'm finally done my first semester at school. (http://mdm.gnwc.ca)

Here, I post, for my benefit rather than yours, a list of my notable accomplishments.

• Provided Initial IT infrastructure setup and ongoing IT consulting.
• Brought (father of cyberspace) William Gibson into Cyberspace for a virtual book reading.
• Provided technical setup and support for the event
• Operated his avatar during the event
  
• Brought (BC Premier) Gordon Campbell into Cyberspace
• Provided technical setup and support for the event
• Created and operated his avatar (along with one other) during the event
• Created three short films
• Digital Runner
• Bang Bang
• Crossing
• Created several short mockumentaries or mashups
• Big Boys don't cry
  
• Crossing storyboards and making of video
• Completed four notable Virtual Worlds projects
• Snowball Fight Club
• Time Traveller
• Reaction Gallery and Soundscape
• Rhizzies (Virtual pets in Second Life)
• Wrote the most important (first) chapter for a book, a Primer for Video Game Development, wherein I documented :
• video game history
• why interactive media will surpass traditional broadcast media
• how to get into the interactive media industries
• what the future of interactive media will look like
• Provided instruction and teaching assistance for the Virtual Worlds class
• (This was a lot more notable than it sounds, but you'd have to have been there to understand)
• Learned a lot of software (with no formal instruction)
• 3D Studio Max
• Maya
• After Effects
• Set up a system for remote participation, so a sick foreign student could still participate in classes
• (less notable than it sounds. An iMac and Skype video. Still, I convinced the administration that the individual can remain enrolled, despite his lengthy physical absence.)
• Acted as trusted advisor to the administration.
• They frequently solicited my opinion on how the program was running and what changes should be made.
• Acted as trusted advisor to most of the students.
• They frequently sought my opinion on how they should proceed, and how best to influence the program.
• Provided leadership and project management expertise to every team in which I participated.
• Provided public speaking expertise for every team in which I participated.
• (Basically, I kicked off every pitch, demo and presentation)

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll collect screenshots and/or videos for some of these projects.

With our short film, Crossing, we accomplished the impossible. An exceptional story, with extensive CGI (think Sin City) with  only 8 people, no budget, and six weeks. You'll love it when you see it! Unfortunately, I can't post it for public consumption until I figure out where we want to take it.

BC Premier, Gordon Campbell, was at the Centre for Digital Media today, presiding over the official launch.

I operated his virtual Avatar in Second life for the "virtual unveiling".

What's particularly cool is that I was in tophat and tails, shook his hand, and had lots of press people photograph me. Keep your eyes open for me on the local TV news and newspapers.

Oh, I also got to jam with Patrick Pennyfather. He's a remarkable experimental/improvisational musician!

Pictures Follow.

( Read more... )

I feel accomplished. I built a small render farm in my home.
(All the software is free: Ubuntu, Blender, DRQueue)

I haven't done much with the render farm yet, but it should improve my workflow. I don't have to sit around while animations render.

I also figured out how the Non-Linear Action editor work in Blender.
(Still need to figure out how to use the stride bone for stride length. Anyone else out there use Blender?)

William Gibson did a "Virtual Book Reading" today. He went to the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver and we streamed his voice to a relay server for "Second Life". Meanwhile, he operated his SL avatar. By the way, I did the technical setup and monitoring for the event.

So in a sense, I brought William Gibson into Cyberspace.
Which is pretty cool, considering that he invented cyberspace.

I frequently find that I "Know" something to be true, then later realize that I should have challenged that assumption.

Certainty based on experience is often an emotional shortcut intended to accelerate decision making. It's very often useful in troubleshooting, critical thinking, and deductive reasoning; wherever one must quickly rule out possibilities in order to come to a conclusion. However, this "certainty" is generally fallible. An incorrect assumption of certainty impedes the deductive process and wastes a great deal more time than it saves.

I must make an effort to challenge my own convictions.
Can we really be certain of anything?

I figured I should learn to do some 3d animation and modeling before Sept rolls around.

So here's my first real attempt at animation.

I've been accepted into the GNWC Master of Digital Media program. http://www.gnwc.ca/mdm/
You may call me Master Withnail from now on. (No point waiting until I'm finished.)

The sad part is, I won't be retired anymore. Back to the grind.
Oh well, I had a couple of months off with 4 more to come.

Thanks Amy and Jeremy for the reference letters!