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The Requisite Update

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I’ve avoided this post for a long time, but I suppose now is a good time considering I can’t sleep. I haven’t really posted in awhile and a lot has happened and a lot has changed in that time. 2006 has been a very odd year so far, full of big changes. Some are great, some are terrible, some are still pending.

The year began with me miserable at work. I was ready to quit and take some risks involving my own business. Precisely at the last moment, I was offered a promotion to a Design position. I was at first reluctant, but then decided to accept it. It was a good decision. I am much happier, making better money, and learning lots of new and valuable things.

During this time, my great-grandmother, Mima died. That was one of my last posts. That is one of those inevitable moments I have dreaded my whole life.

Shortly thereafter, my girlfriend of eight years and I split up. The details don’t need to be paraded around here, but it boils down to this: while our relationship was great and she still means a lot to me, a certain amount of necessary passion had fizzled out and we couldn’t rekindle it.

I am now living alone in a studio apartment and I have a new girlfriend. She is a great girl, she makes me happy, and makes me feel things I’ve missed for a long time.

I’m still doing puppet shows regularly and I have been offered additional lucrative comics-related freelance work. Hopefully, this will all help me get my debt in order and finally buy a car. I haven’t had one in four years.

Things are promsing, but that doesn’t change the difficulties of getting there. I have always been relatively comfortable being alone, I often preferred it even while Jennifer and I were dating. Now, it’s really hard to be alone. It’s very uncomfortable, but I imagine it is necessary and beneficial I work through it. Some times I feel like a part of me is missing and I am living in a surreal parallel world I don’t recognize. This is going to be a very difficult, but seminal year in my life. I hope it works out for the best and I hope everything works out well for Jennifer too. Although we both want to remain friends, I fear that won’t be possible. That fills me with a pain I find hard to cope with.

I’m not one to cry much. I hadn’t cried in a few years that I recall. This year, there have been many tears.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. This sort of post is out of character for me. I’ll be back to sarcasm and violence soon.

-Chinny
Glendale, CA
Monday | 10 April 2006 | 2:04 AM

Greatest Lady Gone

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Back in High School and College when I used to do drama, I would sometimes try to eke out tears or melancholy emotions by thinking of the saddest thing I could. Wednesday that “saddest thing” happened, my great-grandmother died. My parents called me that night and I caught a flight to Louisiana shortly after midnight. Irma (eed-ma) Sosa was born in Cuba in 1912, but no one called her that. Everyone called her Mima, which means “mother.” It was a very apt name. Mima only spoke Spanish and a handful of English words. She also spoke a silent language, an ancient language everyone can understand. Everyone who met Mima loved her, whether they could understand her or not. She was a saucy old lady and a prankster known to brandish a broom like a billy club. She had almost no belongings, anything she owned she would give to someone else. She made the best black beans on Earth and she always made sure everyone had something to eat. Joy for her was making everyone else happy. Nothing I can say here can even begin to do her justice. Everything I like best about myself came from Mima. I’ll always miss that old lady. I’ll miss her hobbling in like Yoda at Christmas time with a big grin on her face. I’ll miss hearing her call me “Yason” and my uncle “Estebey.” If everyone could be a little bit like Mima, the Earth would be paradise.

Things will never be the same.

Toy Story 3 Recalled

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I found this article very amusing.

From AWN
January 26, 2006

One of the first signs that things will change at Disney under Pixar’s Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, Lasseter informed Walt Disney Feature Animation employees that TOY STORY 3 would cease production immediately, reports the ASSOCIATED PRESS.

The film was announced by former Disney head Michael Eisner the same day that Pixar announced that it was not going to renew its agreement with Disney, who owned the rights to make sequels on its own based on the Pixar film character library. As part of that deal, Pixar had first refusal on all sequels. Disney later formed the Circle 7 division to specifically produce sequels to the Pixar films. Lasseter allegedly told the approximately 100 animators of Circle 7 that their skills would be used in other areas of Walt Disney Feature Animation.

Bradley Raymond was set to direct TOY STORY 3, based on a script by Jared Stern, who pitched the idea to the studio while a participant in Disney’s feature animation story development program. Planned to be released in 2008, the film saw Buzz Lightyear recalled to his Taiwan manufacturer after a series of malfunctions, leading to Woody and all the rest of the toys in Andy’s room to travel to Asia to save Buzz.

This aint Fight Club

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I have seen lots of crazy people with imaginary friends over the last few years. They are all over L.A., or at least the parts I frequent. Generally, they talk and sometimes argue with another person only they can see. On the way to work Friday morning, I saw something I have never seen. I saw a woman fighting her imaginary friend…and I don’t think she was winning. She was flailing her arms and cursing. She would punch at the air, bend over like she had someone in a headlock, and repeatedly punch herself in the face. She did this while slowly making her way down a long sidewalk. It was awesome.

Chinny Goes 3D?

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I have wanted a piece of software called Vue 5 Infinite for a while now. It’s a 3D terrain generation program with all sorts of fancy features. I could use it for so many things: animation, videos, even comics. Recently, E-On (the company that makes it) teamed up with Newtek to offer a pretty damn good deal. For $795, you can get Vue Infinite and Lightwave, plus an upgrade for Lightwave 9 when it comes out. Basically this is two apps and an upgrade for the cost of Lightwave (which is $200 more than Vue). I’m definitely considering it. I have until the end of the year to make the decision.

I prefer working in 2D, but I want to get some 3D skills as well. What’s the word on Lightwave nowadays?

I am getting very close to completion on my 12 Years Ill Spent book.
I am also considering selling Crow Clock Shorts DVDs in the future.
Anyone interested?

Even More Domains

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About a week ago, I fed my addiction yet again. I’m not proud of my actions. One day I will learn to stop. I can stop any time if I really want to. I bought 3 more domain names. Added to the list:

www.chinnymedia.com
www.chinnytoons.com
www.chinnycomics.com

Here is the thought process behind this purchase. Let me know your opinions on this folks–

Instead of fourchinnigan.com (4chinny.com) being a massive site full of multitudes of different content, it will become home-base. All info about me and Fourchinnigan Productions will be available there. This includes background info, contact info, forums, an updated portfolio, etc. It will also work as a portal to all of my other websites.

-chinnymedia would strictly be a site for video and audio content by me and friends.
-chinnytoons would be devoted to all my animation both new and old
-chinnycomics would showcase all my comic-book and strip work

The thought behind this is that I can better showcase work in each area this way. Also, the design of the individual sites can be radically different and created to better house the content.

What do you folks think about this idea?