Animation

Toon Boom is being buggy. When I first tried to export this as a video, everything was flipped horizontally. Really, I'm supposed to be falling out the LEFT side of the screen. I really don't care much about which side I fall out, though, so long as it's consistent. However, when the text is flipped horizontally as well so that you would need a mirror to read it...

Rather than go back and flip everything, I just went back and flipped all the text so that it was backwards and exported it again. It looked okay in the preview, but let's see if it worked.

Here be the mirror writing one:

Back!

California was a blast. Got to see an old friend. Pretty much the only thing we did was eat and walk the dogs. I have absolutely no complaints however, as they were both really, really fun, strange as that may sound. :)

Also! I got my first In-n-Out hamburger in almost two years. Hallelujah. Every person should make at least one trip to Southern California, if only for an In-n-Out hamburger. There be no better, I assure you.

Got a camera the day before we left to come back, so I don't really have many pictures. What few I do were mainly taken from behind a window, or from the plane. Not so sure any of them will turn out, but it was fun being one of those annoying, clicky tourists. Especially because I used to live around there, once upon a time.

Not too much had changed, which is surprising. Here, things are rarely the same as they were a month ago. In two years, it might look like a foreign country, compared to what it was two years prior.

S. CA still requires you speak Spanish if you want something. Almost everyone down there who works with people has a little thing under their name tag saying 'Yo Hablo Espanol'. After four days, I'm beginning to wonder if they shouldn't change that to 'I speak English'.

Oh, and I might be taking a trip to Beijing in the future. Wayne, a business man down there, was already making plans for it before I reminded him that it takes money to get to Beijing, and I didn't have any. So he told me to make a plan to get some. I told him that it would take a while to save enough for two tickets: Mom and mine. He said that if we paid for the tickets, he would pay for the rest. Hotel, food, everything.

So it looks like I might be going to China!

...But not for another few years. ;)


Next quarter:

• Psychology
• Creative Writing
• World History

This next one is going to be my funnest quarter yet, I think. All of those subjects rock. ^.^ Can't wait.

What?

One of my last assignments that I need to do for this quarter is for my sociology class. So far, it's been an eye-opening class, and it was a fun ride, particularly since it involved us, the students, performing experiments that were slightly wacky. This, however, was completely unexpected. Here it is, the last thing I need to do for the class:

(a) At one of your meals, preferably dinner, before you begin to eat, simply stop, be still and observe what is on your plate for five minutes. Observe it closely, in detail, with an open mind. After that, proceed to eat but without utensils. Don’t use any piece of technology. Use your hands. Be aware of your food as precisely as you can. Identify with it and follow its journey.

[We’re inserting a gap here in our ordinary eating rituals and we’re tearing open the cocoon of technological distance that we inhabit.]

(b) After your meal, go directly to the bathroom. Observe the toilet bowl for ten minutes with an open mind. See what you can see. Then, drop a piece of food from your meal into the toilet. Observe it a moment, then flush.

Now, write a report of your experiences and insights.

Two pages seems about right.

...Just like that! He tells us to stare at the toilet bowel for ten minutes and then says to write about our insights and experiences. This has been the most interesting and the strangest class I've taken in my life. I love it. The only worry I have with this assignment is my parents, my dad in particular, walking by and seeing me while I stare at a piece of food floating around it the toilet. I would never hear the end of it. >.<

But then, this isn't due until after I come back from California, and it'll just be Mom and me down there. Mom, I really don't have any issues with, if I explain the assignment ahead of time. Dad... if I told him ahead of time, he would be watching me, just waiting for me to start on this assignment so he could tease me (in a nice, loving way, of course). :P Perhaps I'll take care of this assignment down there.

:)

Dreamer