Happy Weeny Hallo there!

It's that time, y'all.

Got up at about 11:45, and contemplated what to do for the day. I headed up to the kitchen, and made some tea, some waffles. Had an issue with the toaster, as one of the waffles got stuck at the bottom. Several attempts to both pinch it out and fork it were unsuccessful. It wasn't until the piece was ripped out bit by bit did I get space for the stuck section. Even then though, once I got it off it fell the grill so I spent another few minutes rattling the toaster upside down to get the crumbs out.

Ate up, and later went into Waitrose to pick up drinks and snacks. Back in the kitchen I noticed there wasn't the Coka Cola. I could of sworn I had plenty left from last night...what happened? Didn't seem to see the rubbish in the bins, maybe someone took it to their room?

At 6:30 or so, it came the time put on the uniform.

Oh! Edgy thermal camera!

Sophie, PJ and Jamie were up in the kitchen. I turned off the light in the communal hall, and listened in on Sophie's panicked remarks. After a while,  I tried peeping my head up to peek through the door window and they were already watching out at it. I was shouted a hello by PJ, and eventually opened the door. Sophie was laughing away at my full-fledge ninjutsu uniform. Took off the mask, and had a look at the pumpkins Sophie had made. They looked pretty good! Even Jamie had made one, on one that looked like some sort of cross-breed between a pumpkin and water-melon.

The gang were planning to head off to PJ's to watch a film, and Sophie mentioned she'd be popping back up to No. 92 after saying her good-byes to a friend. Waited a while in my room for her to return but by about 8:00 or so I gave up and put on supper. (It'd take about 55 minutes to cook) Whilst waiting for the oven to pre-heat, I sat on a chair in the corner of the kitchen, just right to the door. Georgia came up, and she didn't see me - just as I had wanted. Yannis was up there too, seconds later. After a minute or so, Georgia noticed me and jumped. No scream so to speak, but it was obvious that I had sent a chill down to her spine. Wish I had my mask on, or even wore a Scream costume...

Yannis dug the costume, and I chatted with the two of them whilst waiting. Due to the absence of coke, or any drink to speak of, I ventured out to the vending machines as a ninja albeit without the mask (Sunday and all). No one else in the campus had dressed up, so I didn't want to put myself at risk of a Halloween egging. Unfortunately, the vending machines weren't taking my damn monies - none of it. I was reluctant to give up and let bad luck take its entire toll, so I stubbornly marched on over to the one last place I'd know that'd be selling drinks at this hour (aside from the pubs) - the burger & chips mobile, just outside Waitrose! They didn't do bottles so I went and bought two cans of Pepsi.

20 or so minutes before the potatoes and chicken, ham and leek pie was ready, I was alone again and decided to play a computer game on the laptop to the pass the time. I spent a fair amount of time alone today, when I think about it. The dinner was surprisingly nice though, I was reluctant to eat either of the two ready meals because, well, I guess I was fearful about the end result.

Cleaned up my utensils and what not, and made my way over to PJs. My ninja pants were repeatedly on the verge of falling down, because the string fasteners would repeatedly come undone. Had an obvious solution and wrapped the string around to the front where I could actually see it. As a pretend ninja, it'd be more than dishonourable to go and have my ninja pants drop out of no where. I had this issue last time wearing the uniform a couple of years ago, and would walk around holding them up, somewhat.

Anywho, Becky advised me to find her (and PJs) flat by the wire-steel man sculptor just outside. I tried the south-east side of the main halls, and came across Flat L. Was mainly convinced it wouldn't be the right place but wanted to ask for directions anyway. Ninja asking for directions is dishonourable, though.

Becky came and answered! So I had found the right place to begin with, which was great. Headed into PJs room. It's nicely sized, roughly the same as mine. Everyone was watching Panic Room on his iMac. James and Louie were there also! The film looked interesting, and I had seen bits of it before - but unfortunately because it came from the University's library, the disc typically had been damaged a fair amount. The film was pausing and skipping an almost unwatchable amount at times, so we had to give in and find another film. Everyone took this time to have a break, however.

James, Sophie, Jamie and I headed back over to No. 92 for some food. (I didn't grab a bite to eat, though) James went and got a couple of DVDs from his place - The Shining, Dawn of the Dead, Donnie Darko and something else. It's Halloween, so obviously we should watch something horror orientated. I kept throwing around the idea of showing everyone GhostWatch (on the way back to 92 as well) but felt...it wasn't the right time. Back at Flat L, the corridors stank. PJ was in the kitchen making some good ol' student food, Super Noodles! James showed the variety of films to watch - leaning towards Dawn of the Dead since it was a classic. The Shining was the winning pick, which I didn't mind. It's an equally as strong (imo) a classic to horror genre as Dawn of the Dead. Plus Jack Nicholson.

We had all seen it before, sans Sophie. She hid behind her blanket/scarf at times, which was cute. PJ was resting his legs on his desk and eating his Super Noodles. To Jamie and Sophie, all their mind could really focus on was the beautiful silhouette of a man eating away his noodly concoction. Incidentally, Jamie pointed out two rather apparent mistakes in the film. I had to enquire how he was able to notice those, and was told that doing film production sort of has that Chekhov effect. The movie still spooked me at various occasions, even if I was trying to type up this blog at the time of watching it. (I hauled it over, it was 11:00pm when I got there.) I completely forgot about a furry-costume man in the bedroom with some other guy. CRIPES, that gave me a creepy chill. 

The film finished, and we headed back. On the way up, I remembered that the kitchen had to be cleaned for tomorrow. In a cuss, Sophie had forgotten yet headed upstairs to give me a hand. She was spooked too much, so keeping herself busy would subside the fear. We chatted away during the chore, and discovered Sophie hadn't ever been in a relationship. Well, having to put up with social group splittings, as well as counselling a friend endlessly due to relationships gone awry put her off a far amount on finding one. Having had those same scenarios before, I could empathize with her. Sophie cleaned up a fair amount, so I finished off the smaller details.

At about 2:00am I finally finished, and cleaned myself up. I wanted to write up the rest of this entry but aside from the time, I was also just too tired. Went upstairs to put on waffles and tea, and passed by Kit, his friend (Sev, I think his name is?), Sophie and Yannis. Kit and his friend popped upstairs shortly thereafter. Sev gave me an adequate handshake and introduction. Kit looked like was preparing some bread with butter. I feared he'd leave the stuff out on the draining boards whilst I was gone, but I think he took it downstairs.

At 2:55am or so, I finally nestled up for some shut-eye. Phew.

Thanks for Visiting

Got up at 11:50 or so. Also, I missed a call by my aunt. Any time the phone goes to silent, and maybe also the headphones plugged in I'll be expected to miss a call...

Got up, and awaited for my dad and sister's arrival at 1:10. Whilst waiting I pretty munched through an entire pack of biscuits. Holly called and mentioned being about 10 minutes away, and with a minute to go I made my way down. Outside I could hear a dog running about - of course, it was Iggy - the dog of my father's friend. It meant also Holly was nearby, and couldn't be sure at first if it was me. The rad jumper I got from my aunt is not my usual kind of wear, but it doesn't change that much of me. :(  Then again, I'm the worst at recognising people I don't see all too much of.

Headed over to the car park where my dad was, and gave me a warm greeting. Dropped off Iggy in the car, and headed over to the arcade to find a place to eat. At first we tried a rather elaborate looking restaurant but I hunched that it'd be fully book. Jamie once told me that his family needed to book a seat for lunch starting from early morning to get a spot. It's often full.(but good quality looking catering nonetheless) We tried, and sure enough if it was indeed packed. 

Tried looking elsewhere, and found a rather homely looking restaurant. It was a house converted to one, in fact, but it's cramped as shit and the whole style of it brought in mainly the elderly. Regardless, in great juxtaposition, we were served by a girl with blonde hair featuring streaks of strawberry red to the side. Once seated we ordered our drinks. Holly wanted to hear how I was doing, as of course was dad. Talked about having a crit yesterday for my Digital Skills. Dad didn't have anything to properly eat last night, doesn't do breakfast, so he ordered a starter to be served alongside his main course - a beef stroganoff, if I recall. Holly had a soup of the day and I settled with some beer-battered fish and chips; It was one of the cheapest on the menu, at just £12. 60 or so! Dad was a little down from hearing the death of his ladyfriend's mother this morning. At first, he believed the frantic calling was because she wanted him to pick her mother up at the hospital.

Before the meal arrived, my dad gave me the iPad to have a look at it. So he did buy one after all! He was against them initially, and couldn't see the point. Looked quite nice, and he even decided to get 3G for his. (Because Wi-Fi is shit and can't be relied upon, traveling wise) Checked out the apps like The Times and BBC News. Some good stuff, there! The interfaces look great. Tried also Google Earth and had the maps locate us. It was off by 1/4 mile or so, but the pin-point humorously crept over to where we were.

The duo popped outside on occasion for a smoking break, or as they put it - "fresh air". When the strawberry-streaks came over to deliver my dad's ice cream I told her he was currently getting some "fresh air". She rolled her eyes and jokingly stated "you mean cancer air." Hehehe! :(  Dad would often nag me to have a dessert, possibly because it's a practice he carried from childhood. I got into some kind of odd mood (Can't quite remember why) and rather sternly put my palm up with a solid "No." I felt really dickish for doing that, not too mention fraught with guilt even if I give up to his persistence. I don't think he was particularly bothered by it, but I tried to swing things back to neutral standings by thanking him for seeing me and taking us all out to lunch.

Finishing up, we departed from the restaurant to head onto Boots. Dad popped into a store to check it out along the way as he often does. In Boots, Dad primarily got some ear buds for me (UNIVERSITY LOL!!!) but I also picked up some razor blades, shaving cream and...shower brush! Repeatedly intended to bring one at home back, but kept forgetting. Instead, Holly suggested I buy a new one because the former is a few years old and hygienic concerns. We frequently lost one another in Boots, and at one point Dad was distracted once again by complimentary goods. (In this case, the counter for perfumes.) Holly got herself some listerene which I at first mistook as being for me.

We made our way back. Going through the arcade, Dad had disappeared yet again - he wanted to check out a shop and lagged behind us. It wasn't an issue anyway, he caught up moments afterwards. We were going to head into Waitrose, but I told the family I was fine for food and stuff, and so were they. We passed by it, heading to the car. On the way there, Holly mentioned my teeth looked odd, following that they need a brush. This pissed me off into stubborn silence, since I wish them twice a day anyway. She was quick to fall into an apologetic, guilt riddled state. Recently it's been becoming a sort of gag for Holly to announce either a cynical comment or get angry, with me getting over-dramatic and upset in response, following with which she becomes rife with guilty concern.

After several attempts to find the bag of washed clothes (each time opening the car door, Iggy assuming he is going for a wander) we headed up to the house. Along the way, my dad asked "Oh! Who's the person with long hair and glasses?" - he probably saw Rory. Dad waited outside, and Holly came up to my room (Encountering Yannis, coming out of Georgia's room along the way) to see how things were, as well as to give me the clothing. Headed back out and gave my good-byes to my sister and father. It was nice to see them!

Relaxed for a little bit and at 4:00 I headed to Waitrose to pick up some Listeriene, Coca-Cola and Doritos. Such a lovely amount of stuff! Waiting in the que, one man ahead attempted to prompt one woman, working at the job/enquiries counter, to get someone else into the tills.

When I got back, the house seemed kind of empty. I got straight on with the cooking, heating up a ready-made Moroccan Spiced Lamb Tagine. 30 minutes before it was ready, I also thought ahead from my previous mistakes and got some water boiling (or in process of) for the rice. Georgia was there initially, and Kit came up shortly thereafter. Sophie and everyone were out to a cinema in Guildford to see Paranormal Activity 2 - Georgia had wanted to go along with them, but she was working until 5:00 and as such was bummed out. Saw a modestly sized spider race behind all the utensils near the sinks, into a kitchen wipe. With Georgia nearby, I touted her to "look at this...peek-a-boo!" She hopped back and questioned WTF that was. I revealed a little more and she wondered away, hand covering mouth, stating how disgusting that is. Left it alone to hide in the wipe. 

Partway through the cooking, Kit had already made and devoured his meal. Chatted a little bit, and talked about where each of us were at with the course. I disgruntled over how I'm procrastinating at the moment, due primarily to lack of self-confidence. Kit reassured me how he is a gigantic procrastinator (That's pretty damn noble of him, I... reckon). He apparently had went to a Casino in London before, and came out with £500 in cash! That's awesome, even if his relatives lost money instead. Did he have less than £500 before he gambled? I didn't think to ask! I'm not sure how that conversation started, either. He associated his winnings to 'beginner's luck' - a term that raised my eye-brows because I am absolutely sure I've had encounters with this multiple times before, from gaming, gambling to lucky dips. I never realised there was a term specific to that until now. Or, I just forgot about it entirely since it's thrown around often in the media.

When the dinner was nearly cooked, I got started on some of the washing up. Even getting half-way through it, the kitchen still looked congested and messed. My dinner was nice, and after finishing it continued further on washing. At times, when-ether hearing the sound of foot-steps up the stairs, I switched off the lights and hid in the corner intent on scaring the unlucky victim to come through the door shitless. It was a false-alarm every time, though. Minutes of waiting in anticipation, all for nothing. Even when the others got back, of all the times, they decided not to come up to the kitchen. Even now, I don't think anyone has fucking been up there. When it came of 9:00, I called it a night with washing, and will finish the rest off tomorrow.

On the way down the stairs, I could hear Sophie and Georgia talking. Determined to get at least one spook in, I let off as good an eery scream as I could. Unfortunately, I somehow managed to end up sounding like if a woman had her gonads kicked up her ass. (Please do not picture this for both your sake and mine.) It startled Sophie though, who had believed it was from downstairs. She quickly questioned Yannis if it was him, following Jamie. After a moment, I walked down the stairs with a smug look on my face. It wasn't any attempt to conceal my doings  but then I was so amused, it'd be nearly impossible to. :D

Spook fest tomorrow. It'll soon be time for my alter-ego to took root once again after 3 or so years of inactivity.

Need to find tutorials on YouTube about how to get that freaking thing on, though.

Critical Ideas

Might of already used that title before, so whoops. Never mind.

Wanted to be up for 7:00am today but instead it was 10:45. Briefly checked my e-mail to be sure if I was in the right group for the right times today and thankfully I was. Felt like a prune for having not produced the assets today.

Waltzed on over to the library, seeing fellow classmates ahead of me. Lagged behind and squeezed my way into the undercroft corridor with everyone. I saw Erika come out - I'm in her group, so I suddenly spooked that I might have got the times mixed up - but I'm sure enough that I'm in the right place at the right time - Group B for 12:00 at the undercroft.

Jon Hunt took off to refill his water bottle (talking all day, and all) and I talked with Farideh. She's had a tough time as of recent; illness gets her down, and she had to work today before 12pm, only getting a few hours sleep last night because her bedroom is above the kitchen wherein the students raise the roof with the bangin' choonz. Jade Midson, her friend and also the subject for my digital skills animation wasn't in today due to choosing to sleep in, apparently. Her uncle died recently though, and brought upon depression.

Back came Mr Hunt and before starting the lesson, he explained to us (or those guilty of this) the tighter recording on those who are either not turning up to lesson or being in the wrong group. As it turned out, Erika was in our group - but requested to change. (Why would you need to?)  E-mails have already been sent out to those missing 2 or more sessions and Jon diligently tried not to sound so pressed by the matters.

We got on and learnt some more of Adobe After Effect's powerful wizardry. The prime focus on today was manipulating various assets using keyframes. I've practiced this before with Adobe Premier although not to the sort of flexible extent that this software can deliver. Our guidance lead us to spinning the wheels of a quad-bike and using one of the preset effects to give the main body and driver a realistic rattle. Similarly, we did the same with the background and were taught the prime element on fake panning - one huge and wide picture to scroll across the extent of the canvas, or 'camera'.

Parenting was explained in which with a few clicks, various other layers can copy the same functions and parameter of another. (Ex. moving in the same direction, at the same speed) Actually, I ended up using a similar tool for getting the quad-bike and ground to wiggle at the same rate - a spiral icon in which you can parent/copy specific parameters to something else. At the end, I had a 6 second clip of a biker racing along the alps with a realistically dramatic Bourne camera shaking. I didn't let the wheels spin for long enough but eh. Oh well!

Outside, we (mainly I) began to worry over both the tutorial's captivation (or lack of) and worth. Two peeps headed off to get some food and drink - having had neither due to the plug sockets in the kitchen gone ca-put from last night, I felt inclined to follow. Didn't want to turn up late though, and so went onto the Graphic Design building. As it turned out, it wouldn't of mattered since the class going about 15 minutes over-time. It would sure be annoying if that....happened to us as well, right???


Headed on in to catch Luko also leaving. He looked similar to the bad state he was in a good few weeks back - this time once again due to a hang over. Dan, our tutor, welcomed us in and quickly got to business. We were to explain our, what should be by now, solidified and final idea for the 30 second animation. From what I've heard this is a form of 'crit', or I believe, 'critical analysis'. Dan went off to get a drink and we were given 10 minutes to produce a scene on Photoshop for our movie. Cracked on ahead and made a scene of a pin board complete with scrap paper, Pixie Lott poster, post-it notes and other stuff. Lamp and MacBook Air were on the fore-front of the scene, blurred in with the Gaussian filter. Not only was this to give a better sense of a bedroom but I may use it as a focus for panning in.

Dan came back and went spent nearly the entire two hours of the lesson explaining to the group our ideas. Since Dan pointed out that this was the last lesson we had with him for the duration of the project, it was important to get the finalised ideas across and be told of any critical judgements on it. One guy had to do a movie based on his partner's enthusiasm for Pairs, and shopping there. I avidly (because I love that sort of style) suggested to him on using those sort of fanciful, vintage high-fashion illustration styles and colour/text for it. I think that one song from Princess and the Frog has influenced me too much.

Towards the end of the session, including gasp 15 minutes over-time, we were taught the basics of using the 3D virtual camera in After Effects. Dan suggested we open our scenes and follow along, but After Effects was botching up the placement of the objects in the PSD file. The result of using the virtual camera did look pretty damn cool though, so I look forward to using it.


On the way home, I caught up with Farideh. Outside of her place, near to mine, we talked and talked and talked. I didn't mind personally but I did need to piss really badly, so I buggered off when one of her friends happened to pass on by. The electricity returned to the kitchen returned by this stage so thankfully someone (Likely Georgia) contacted the Accommodation Office and sorted it out. The food in the fridge/freezer is saved! Headed to Waitrose to pick up ingredients for a stir fry tonight, passing Lucinda with a friend of hers there.


Got back and yet again rested a little bit. By 6:00 or so, I bolted upstairs to start cooking when I heard the others come in. Wanted to use as much space of the kitchen before everyone else. :(  The package of diced steak had quite a lot, and spent a fair amount of time transferring one batch to a plate and frying the rest. Whilst making the stir fry, Sophie came up with a friend of hers none of us had seen before. Natalie, I think her name was. Yannis was putting on some rice, peas and a personal pie. Initially he enquired Sophie for advice but she turned him to me, despite how I don't know that much more on rice and cooking it.


Stir fry was great, and Sophie/Georgia ordered a pizza from Dominos. Georgia at first was going to do the Buy One Get One Free but no one made up their mind - in particular Yannis whom Georgia mainly asked. He jumped off, claiming to be having pie. (also pretty tired from today) Sophie's arrived before Georgia's despite ordering afterwards, and went to the car park outside the Library which was apparently riddled with long worms at the time. Not only did she utilise the BoGoF deal, but also got classy black boxes with handwritten typography across them. I couldn't finish all of my Stir Fry, and whilst cleaning up chatted a bit with Kit. Apparently the halloween party was (durr) last night. I thought it was Friday! But it did explain the large amount of ruckus, particularly by Sophie and the others later on at 1:00-2:30am. PJ came up later, having got back from his trip to Marlborough, New Zealand a few days ago.


Everyone is upstairs at the moment, so I'm going to end my entry here to shave up and shower. Need to find out if my sister and father are over tomorrow or Sunday. Clean clothes and a showering brush would be great!!

Ethos and Pathos

Lazy title!

Awoke at 7:45 and did the usual routine in the morning. Headed over to Maltings, and went upstairs to the Barley Room for the 10:00am lecture.

Awaited for Luko to turn up, eventually doing so. Budged up to give him a spot. Jon Weinbren asked for a show of hands from Animation and Computer Games Arts. Animation was brimming with hands, but only a few went up for the other course.

Today, Jon covered narrative, story and structure! He kicked things off by asking -  'what is a story'? As one person put it, a series or sequence of events. Palms together, Jon smirked a 'Maaaybe!'. That wasn't quite it, though he wasn't looking for the right answer. I felt inclined to suggest jack-in-the-box but that'd be a little too abstract.

One of the first essences to a story explained was typically the basic dramatic structure - beginning, middle and end. Cinderella was used a classic example, although I couldn't at all remember anything of that story. It seems that neither did a lot of students, granted it could simply of been their refusal to participate in any form of vocal feedback. Before moving onto a V.I.P, we were given a list of books to look into, such as The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

I remember hearing his name, but never quite got the full grasp of who this Aristotle man is. Ancient Greek theorist, dating back to roughly 300 BC! The powerpoint displayed various key points, like Aristotle's Elements to Drama. Along with the mandatory English terms, Mr. Maximus Profoundus deemed it necessary to include the original greek counterparts, too. Actually, I've seen them used before - words such as mythos (plot), ethos (character), opsis (spectacle) and so on.

Other terms were also thrown around, stuff like pathos, minuses and a particularly important one - catharsis. Jon went into detail with this one, and I've thought about ways I could eventually utilise a plot point to make something cathartic. It's, to put it simply, the emotional purging of a character or such. They go through a tough spot, find out something horrendous or generally contend with a heroic breakdown. Anything like that. When asking for examples on 'cathartic moments', I suggested Jacob's Ladder, or the ending of, despite having never even seen it.

Other necessary story points were explained, most being fairly elementary. Global Story Elements - theme, setting, style and so on, and Structural Elements, be it turning points, obstacles/challenges and quests. The last point there applied more to the group doing game arts, but it still holds meaning to animation as well, no doubt.

We went on a break, and me and Luko sat on the foyer unwilling to go buy a drink. (He brought one with him, anyway) Line would probably be gargantuan like last week. Luko mentioned watching an entire run of Dragon Ball Z for a hefty amount of hours straight. Not sure how he pulled it off, but I myself have once been guilty of that addicting cycle.

Back to the lecture, and Jon carried on and the next part had focused mainly on character. Such as: subtlety! Mr.Weinbren made a note that he intentionally put 'appearance' smack-dab at the bottom of the list for subtlety. What he meant was that defining traits of a character come first, be it back-story, personality, conflicts and so on. One student asked if surely it wasn't important to actually keep an appearance in mind for the character, but Jon mentioned that it was sort of what he meant initially anyway.

Then, delivering story information. Be it action, straight-up exposition (Jon considers this lazy), Flashbacks, narration and my personal favourite - foreshadowing! I love this. An example the lecturer used was that old saying "A storm is coming!" Some students quickly made a point that this is...uh? I forgot. They argued though between the words pathetic and prothetic. One student having done Media Studies insists that she was told it was 'prothetic'. Because of my love for foreshadowing, I asked Jon if he knew what viral marketing was. He did, and for some reason he chuckled at it. I hesitantly explained how I like those methods of foreshadowing are used to explain a film or game's plot. Yeah! Hrmm.

Dynamic elements was next talked about, going over character arcs, relationships, external events and geography/nature. The final - or one of - slides was an important one wrapping up what we learnt with observations; 'Plot' problems are often character problems in disguise, archetypes are more useful than stereotypes and constraints are helpful rather than harmful. I'm a firm believer in that last point, and always thought that before coming to UCA.

Right before the end, we were shown a Pixar short (They're great) called One Man Band. I'll leave you to see it for yourself, if you haven't. It pretty much, as any film would, hit all the notes on what we learnt throughout the lecture. One guy miss-assumed the setting of the film was a couple of thousand years ago, causing Jon to break into laughter. (His educated assumption was about 700 or so years in Prague)

With 5 minutes to go, it was time for some Q & A. Unfortunately, as mentioned, our culture is completely against raising any sort of word amongst the herd so Jon was left with just one. We were all itching to go, anyway. Heading out, me and Luko headed to Subway. On the way there, Su said a quick hi. Likewise, I asked her how she was doing in Japanese. This prompted the Philippines girl (need to catch her name) to ask if I knew much in that language. I gave a shot, somewhat, attempting to say that the weather was bad. Su giggled and nodded so it must of been somewhere on the mark - then the Philippines girl briskly brought up entire sentences in Japanese. I was sort of gob-smacked, although it was about damn time I met someone outside of the net who could speak an ample amount of that language. It also explains how she was helping Su out on Tuesday, and why Su opts to hang out with her.


Me and Luko made headway to Subway, and upon getting there the que was a dire length. It didn't stop us, though. Ordered the sub of the day, the Italian B.M.T. Whilst waiting in line, James from next door (who'd visit us a lot this past week) was there too. Nice place to bump into one another! As I whipped out my iPhone for scanning, 3G was failing miserably and I initially feared it didn't process the points at the time. Greedy bastard that I be, I got a donut with it as well. We weren't sure whether to get seats or not, but a I eventually managed to borrow one a table wasn't using. Lucinda popped in with her friend, too. I took forever to eat my sandwich.

After eating up, Luko took me over to a pub near to Maltings (trek right the way back, then! :< ) called the William Cobbet, I believe. Couldn't find a bin nearby for my drink so I left under a standing-chalk sign. Inside, we payed a £2 deposit for a game on pool! Luko was pushed into getting a drink regardless, but us two headed upstairs. The room itself, and the pool tables are damn impressive. About five of them, and the room has a lot of cultural history behind - mainly brands and pop. I sucked badly at pool, despite Luko's measurement that we may have been worse. With 4 or 5 white balls pocketed on the second game, though, I have a hard time believing this.

We headed on back, and Luko spotted the games shop his friends kept mentioning. Parting ways, I headed on back to my place. I felt pretty...tired, for some reason, and at 3:00 or so I dozed into a kip. At 6:00pm, I got up. Throughout the resting I heard the noises of various equipments out in the communal hall. As it turned out, Yannis was further expanding on portrait photography and in fact asked to borrow me for one of the shoots. It was fine, even if I had to be topless for it. There was an entire white screening behind me, and all sorts of lamps and stuff. The guys here must be so fortunate to be living on campus.

Headed upstairs to put some supper on. I heard Sophie being next up for Yannis's shots and she was throwing quarrels over the event here and there, unless he was teasing her. (Supposedly Sophie had also gotten into a bath of orange juice for a photography subject once, for her friend) I put on some sausages and red onions, and whilst waiting for them to cook, James showed me some videos on YouTube of Peter Serafinowicz. I haven't ever heard of this man before, but he's pretty amusing. Elephants and Trains magazine! And poisonous sockets! The kitchen is in a pretty iffy state.

Close to cooking my food, Kit came up. He was in a pretty talkative mood, and was talking away to his mother on the phone at point (because... that is relevant information). Mentioned that a friend gave him some tickets for a halloween event over the weekend. Lucky man! UCA e-mail is already getting various requests and pleads for second-hand tickets to Halloween Balls and stuff, since they had all sold out by yestarday or Tuesday. Me and Kit also talked about bouncers, and why they are pricks.

Outside during this write-up, obviously the HALLOW'D EVE fest is already well under way. People outside, making sum noiz. Spider-man was strutting about at one point and the girls squealed and screamed in delight for about an entire 2 minutes.  Sophie and others have headed out somewhere, I think Rob and Yannis are yet again progressing further with photography experimenting.

Need to get my After Effects assets done for Friday tomorrow!

The Domino Effect

12:30 waking hour. Murrrr.

Heard Sophie was intending to go to Waitrose, outside my room. Hopped out, and enquired when she was planning to go. Popped into my shoes, and brought on a coat, and headed off with the group: Sophie, James, Tom and possibly Yannis? Needed some milk (cheekily borrowing someone else's last night) and orange juice. But, also bought some crisps and some cheap Waitrose biscuits for 86p. I didn't see anyone around despite them queuing up ahead of me at one point, so I carried on home.

The kitchen was a in a bit of a state, so...hm.

Spent most of today (although I feel not enough) wasting my time on working away at the Photoshop door exercise some more. There are more important things to be done, but I'm afraid there is that old bastard the Procrastination floating around - more specifically, one wherein I'm fearing it isn't possible to fix up what I feel has been screwed over. (Even if it might have not of been in reality)

Throughout the day, Rob, Chris and Georgia have been focusing on doing their round of Photography shooting. Georgia in particular was exploring or working on portrait photography, and had booked a variety of equipment associated with model photography. I am ignorant on the actual terms here, but photography lamps, flash guns and the like were set up (surprisingly) in Sophie's room. She was used the subject of Georgia's shots. I sat for a little bit to watch the going ons, desperately withholding my random smirks and chuckles.

Later met Rory up in the kitchen. This afternoon at 1:00 or so, he sounded a little irritated when I saw him, with only short replies - my hunch is he got irritated by the mess. Later on, at this time, he seemed fine. He baked an entire Brownie for a friend of his at another house, who'd cooked for him. It wasn't even with a pre-made mixture, Rory did it entirely from scratch and that's impressive considering desserts up the ante in terms of timing and process.

Apparently Sophie had intended to tell others earlier back to clean up their stuff, but they all had to head off to a studio to work on Photography. As such, Rory told me to leave the stuff for the others to finish off. Took a look at the big recycling bin of ours, and checked if some of the stuff in there was alright. Initially consulted the label on the front of it, instructing what's good to go in and what isn't - it was mixing itself up though. For instance it would say plastic bottles are ok for bottles, but on something else, plastic bottles is a no-go. It couldn't be suggesting to use the bin for just one specific substance, as that would be blowing over the point of it being large. The other notice concerning recycling on the fridge mentioned most of the stuff inside was fine.

At first I planned to take it down, but Rory stepped in and generously took it down instead. I noticed also that Sophie and the others had cooked biscuits from the mixture they bought at Waitrose, even decorating faces on it with chocolate icing.

Later that evening, I received a call from my sister Holly. Despite my awkward pausing, and that my sentences would die mid-way (I was just lost on energy for conversation), it was nice to talk with her. My dad kept sort of butting in talking to her despite being on the phone to me. He might get an iPad tomorrow, after being sincere with a guilty desire over the weekend about getting either that or a MacBook. Dad's also intrigued by Virgin's 100mb broadband speed, soon to come. Holly and my dad want to come up to visit me over the weekend, I look forward to it. She mentioned my brother Ben's birthday occurring on Monday the 8t of November. I'll stay over for that.

After the call, I wanted to order a pizza for tonight because I suppose my subconscious is not satisfied with itself until I have blown a minimum amount of money. Dan was over at one point, wanting to chill out with the gang. Told him I wasn't sure myself where they had gone to (at the time, anyway), and suggested to give one of them a ring if he had their number. That smile of his is really uplifting.

Later, everyone arrived back, with Yannis and Rob hauling some large-ass equipment. Chatted to Dan some more, and asked which site is best to refer for moves on street dancing and such. He recommended YouTube, looking up some manoeuvres there. Dan was interested further by my tidbits over who-found-what difficult between his and the other instructor's lesson. Headed upstairs, and kept nagging people on a pizza they'd like. Domino's do a student deal for a buy 1 get 1 free, and wanted to take advantage of that just once. Eventually, I settled on the same pizza as mine. Left my Laptop upstairs in the kitchen with everyone which is risky in terms of potential Facebook raping. I accidentally let slip on Jamie's naughty act on Sophie's homepage last night.

Pizza arrived shortly, and surprisingly at the door! It's often, likely due to regulations, outside in the car park outside of the premises. At first the delivery guy didn't realise I payed by card, and this often happens. Brought the pizza up stairs for everyone to enjoy the free one I got. Good times!! We enjoyed looking up funny clips on YouTube from a kid tripping balls after the dentist to a boy and girl quarrelling like a husband and wife.

Later on, I chatted with Sophie, Georgia and Yannis in the halls - during a break on this blog, in fact. Yannis brought out his awesome didgeridoo and it was cool to make some sweet Aboriginal hum-dinging noise out of it. I was told of some surprising techniques to using it right.

This was a pretty small entry today. I just didn't really do much, which is obvious from the post size here. I only ever left the place once, to go to Waitrose. Tomorrow is the lecture at Maltings. I look forward to it!

Andy, we have a PROBLEM

Not that bad of a day, though, despite the titling.

Got up at about 8:00 and about half way to 9' the fire alarm went off whilst I was in the kitchen making some tea and toast. For a split second, due to how anal fire safety is, I thought this was my fault. But alas one of the two random drills has finally occurred, coincidentally as I was relieved not to be out doors in the frosty air.

Headed outside, and the housemates shortly followed. Most of us hung out around the front doors, but I kept suggesting the idea to move to the car park as I remember reading as part of the drill. It's until the flock of other village students begin following a group to the car park did we do so. We conversed for a bit about how much this sucked, and James hung with us during the event. I was shivering, obviously. Quite a few were in their pyjamas - I think me and Rory were the only two fully dressed. The drill finished, and we all heady back. Jamie (and just behind me) raced back to warmth.

An hour before lesson I sent an email requesting to book the recording room for today. Andy Joule was the one to reply, and appreciated my generosity towards China James (I should of done it yesterday, though). He told me to find Julie Flude, in the booking office. I headed off at about 10 minutes before 10 (Or 10 'o clock, I might of been that stupidly inconsistent) and for some reason, I had the idea he meant the Faculty Office. They directed me to the real booking office, and there I almost stepped in front of the girl waiting. I apologised whole-heartedly, but she was light hearted about it, stating that the line tends to go back and wrap into the corridor. Whilst waiting, Andy passed by and called out my name, following that I need to be in lesson. With a grimaced expression, I raised my arm to the booking office in regards to James. Andy Joule quickly decided he'd book the room for me. I headed on after telling me yet again to get to class.

About 13 or so minutes late - ouch. But it's not a huge dilemma since Ron was basically just talking us through the art that is lip-syncing. I missed the opportunity for a hand-out sheet, so I'll have to get one later on. I've heard from other students just how much of an annoyance it is to get the frames of animation to time correctly with the audio.

Actually, Ron mentioned a useful sounding tip - although if I recall he added it was how Disney use to do it: animate the body gestures first, then proceed with smaller accentuations finishing with the mouth on lip-syncing itself. Up to this point today, I've been wondering if that's how animation in general tends to be built. Start with the main, big pieces of 'gears' and then add in the smaller bits of gears to the frames as it progressed. I've already applied this method to my walk cycle, the arms, and it's not bad even if the initial amount of frames on the largest asset decides a lot on the further ones.

Ron went onto to discuss vowels, an important part in terms of bridging the gap of visuals to voice acting. As a part of this, he brought up teeth.
Here is an interesting tidbit: the top or bottom (or both) row of teeth show depending on the sort of consonant or vowels used - certainly an important element to visual speaking - but many animations tend to find ways of somewhat 'lamp shading' this element due to design style that shows and films aim for. In many cases, showing the bottom row of teeth just doesn't sit well in almost any circumstances (We rarely, if ever, see the average character flash their bottom set) because it detracts a casual essence away from a character. So, what's often done? Show the teeth only when necessary - when it resonates with both the audio cues and the design. The Simpsons, as Ron pointed out, is a prime example of this instance.

We were shown an excerpt of Behind the Scenes on Toy Story, which was focusing on how animation towards gestures was done. Even back then, computer animation seemed stream-lined as sliders were used to 'tween' various limbs and muscles. The face on Woody apparently had 200 'muscles', much less than animations today which likely have over a million individual bits. That Aardman show on animals, uh, I forgot, was also shown in regards to teeth (in particular, having buck-teeth mysteriously vanish on certain frames and no one questions it).  The best example of lip-syncing was undoubtedly The Jungle Book, though. This scene shown was of Sheer Khan the tiger and Kaa the python. Sheer was trying to find the boy Mowgli whom Kaa was wrapping around to hide. The tiger had a very pompous, upper-class British accent and the best element to his character was how his bottom set of teeth, despite a predator, didn't show whatsoever. Hiding his 'fangs' was a really brilliant way of demonstrating his modest and arrogant attitude. Besides this, Milt Kahl, one of the key animators for this film, really demonstrates his amazing expertise. It's no wonder Richard Williams sought so avidly for advice from him.

During a break, I gave Su back the DVD films she leant me. Tekkonkinkreet, a somewhat anime film by Studio 4o, was very creative and great if not predictablly creepy and morbid at times. The background work in it was stunning - and no surprise, it had collaborative contributions going on with a slap ton of other animation studios in Japan from Production I.G. to Gainax to Tatsunoko to even Studio Ghibli. (The mix of superb detail and surrealism struck me as Ghibli-like, funnily enough)

Throughout the rest of the lesson, we got on with the designs needing to be done - either for Character Motivation (chair to door, which I am yet to begin animating) or the lip-sync. Ron got together the group of people who missed recording last Tuesday - quite a few, in fact. Andy had incidentally dropped by to give a message in mute, via note, that he booked G23 from 12pm to 4pm, and that I needed to rent a microphone along with it. James initially didn't want to be within the circle of people who've yet to be recording, maybe from nerves or because he was comfortable that me and him would be needing to do it anyway. Um, well...I already did mine, and this fact came as quite a penny-dropper to him. It put him off somewhat, I think, but I tried cheering him up that I'd help him regardless. He joined the group eventually anyway, thankfully.

Nattered non-stop with the guy next to me, I've sat not far from him once during the first practice on the walk cycle. He has some rad dreadlocks going on. T'was lunch time, and...I was hungry! Waitrose I go, to get some crisps and biscuits. There was something I felt I needed, and forgot to buy every time, but couldn't put my finger on it. (It was a scrub for washing) When queuing up, Erika and her friend happened to be in front as well.  Her friend from the Philippines (need to catch her name) has been enjoying the Taekwon-do club a fair amount, and suggested I try it out. Before during the break (she sat with Su and helped her out with understanding some things on the lesson) I asked her to try Street Dance. Fairly puzzled as to why I just bring it up, um "You look like the sort to do it." As it so happens, she did try Street Dancing a few weeks back and mentioned Dan's amazing skill. Taekwon-do is her main interest, though.

Headed back to relax and try and download a video in time. With this crappy wi-fi, and a download rate of 34kb/s it clearly wouldn't make it within 40 minutes.

Back to class at 1pm, I shortly took the group down to the Sound Recording studio. Unfortunately, uh, it wasn't open. I headed back to the booking office, having to que up and then got the keys for the room, along with the Condenser Microphone and stand. Back there, I got on with setting up the sound, whilst everyone rehearsed their scripts. Getting as far as plugging in the mic, and the stand, I kind of panicked and ran back to nab someone from last week to give me a hand.

As it so happens, Lucinda (who recorded my script with me) offered to do so and complained about her still-lingering cold. She got things set up with the microphone and stand, and set up the digital sound boxes, all was going smooth until a major road block. The sound from the microphone was not running through into the two main speakers (or Monitors, as they're called) which caused issues since despite Pro Edition wasn't able to do any sort of output playback despite receiving input fine. She and I tried various things to get it going, and I was forced yet again to get assistance.

 I raced to B124 and asked Ron if James Nutt was around and typically not - he was appointed for only the previous week. He suggested to contact Andy Joule. I tried his number but my call wouldn't even go through for a second (guess my mobile can't process it or something) so I had to find his office. Initially I glanced at one office for a second but it was for BA Photography. Kind teacher asked if I was alright, and suggested the corridors ahead in regards to my scenario.

Eventually, I found the office or Animation - but the large, laminated sign (thank god I pay more attention to notice them these days) claimed it a large no-no on straight up knocking, and had to use the phone at the other end. It gave no number so I just tried picking it up to see if it puts me through automatically but there was no result. Was it a button or something? I checked the sign again but Jon Weinbren happened to pop out. I asked him if Andy Joule was about - yes he was! In the office, in fact. He went back in and I waited outside. Jon called me to come on inside, with a hint of surprise in his voice over how I was waiting.

The first thing I saw in the office, bang in the middle, was a massive fucking Skaletrix track. Is knocking the door so bad because what, it'd jinx someone's heated competition with their cohort? Anyway, Andy was ahead in his own corner. Asked him for some assistance on the sound recording. As it so happens, James Nutt did leave instructions from start-to-finish on setting up the recordings but these had to be deleted off of the MyCourse due to file size. Regardless, Andy printed out some copies. He was having issues with the printer which was a typical situation as I was pressing to help the students get their lines recorded. Eventually I was handed the instructions, and thanked Andy sincerely. As I passed out, I told Jon Weinbren I look forward (I do!) to his lecture on Thuresday. He reminded me it's in the Maltings.

Charged back to G23 and me and Lucinda aptly followed Jame's instructions which had cleared up various things but it...still didn't get the situation wit the speakers anyway. Lucinda tried various other ideas, with Oscar assisting on advice too, but it was to no avail. It eventually became a dead-end problem, and it was a whole hour and a half into the lesson.

Everyone was clearly becoming fed up. Needing to get things moving fast, I headed to the Booking Office to call for a technician. I was pretty tense at this stage, and my karma responded wonderfully - the line for the office was 4 or so people, and two people ahead head three things to give back in and expected, of the three, two were huge steel boxes with a shit ton of stuff inside. This was becoming a joke, but it wasn't a big enough emergency (I felt) to warrant shoving in line for assistance. I'd just be bollocked at by the staff, unless perhaps I was an actual staff member at the University. Eventually it came to my turn and a technician was called up. On the way to the room, I tried explaining to him the problem at hand. Was it just something we weren't doing right, or an actual issue with equipment?

He popped in, and had a look at the stuff. At this stage, the group had a solution by plugging in the headphones to the digi-box within the recording room for output. After some examining, he noticed it was the red lines (L/R) for the speakers, but at first explained he couldn't check the stack of digital audio machines because the panel for them was locked. Luckily enough, it was broken anyway as Oscar discovered. He brought it off, and saw the problem. The red cable(s) somehow were unplugged from inside. After some initial struggling trying to dig and wrap his fingers around inside to plug it back in, he succeeded. EUREKA! Audio was coming out the speakers, and playback was finally the way it was normally.

The groups got on with recording their lines, finally, and Lucinda headed back. When Erika and her friend went ahead as the first group, I totted in and antsy-pantsily nattered some guidelines on using the microphone. China James requested that I record his lines with him - sure thing. It came to our turn, and I tried to put on a cockney accent as good as I could. (Shitty father and feeble son scene) James did quite a startlingly convincing act on the weak, upset boy. Despite a slight tongue slip or two, he even made it all the way with a large chunk on the script. We heard our playback...man, I'm no good on cockney, at least at the moment. One of the guys mentioned I sounded like Chuck from the IT Crowd, although I hadn't ever watched the series. (Is it good?)

Su and her partner went in for their recordings. Unfortunately they had gotten the same script as mine - with one character having hardly any lines whilst the other bickered away non-stop. It's a fairly girl orientated one. Despite this, man, Su sounded so sweet she delivered her lines :(  She chuckled at some parts, but Oscar (nobly manning the computer for most people) left the recordings as-is. When Bouncing (exporting, somewhat), Su covered her ears over her parts. D'awww. It was fine, anyway.

Oscar and his partner went in as the last pair, and recorded their scripts. I botched up recording, as I wasn't entirely sure how to use Pro Tools LE (had to rush through it last time, James Nutt was tight on time) but Andy Joule popped around to see how we were doing. Was glad to tell him we were nearly done! He mentioned that they brought in a full-on sound technician and he'd be starting in a few weeks. I'm not entirely certain but I think he also said the sound recording might be moving up stairs to a better room. I may be wrong though but that'd be nice. This one is kind of crappy imo. :( He also gave advice on reducing sound echo by killing said echo using boxes or other props. Oscar avidly mentioned doing foliage sound recording - sound effects in simple terms - and Andy had said that in the 2nd year, it'll be explored and taught thoroughly. Oscar continued to mention something of putting a cracker on top of a melon then smashing it for a convincing giblet-gore infesting sound.

Recorded their sound, and everything was all done. Now all was left to do was to put the files on a USB dongle. Simple, right? Nope, more problems arose yet again. When it came to my USB dongle, I yanked it out forgetting to eject it properly first. I thought it was fine to shut down the Mac, but the idea was the files are Bounced first then copied onto external storage media. Mac got all anal and refused to shut down because of Pro Tools, thankfully. Even then, continued uses of the USB devices weren't working, including mine - which at first I believed mine became corrupted or something. Oscar could of used his hard drive but the keyboard USB couldn't supply enough power for it, and the USB slots in the back were all taken. Eventually mine worked, and were put on there. FINALLY, it was done. All of it.

Packed up the equipment, with Su helping me out. She went ahead to take the stuff back to the Booking Office, but I caught up with her to help her out (besides that, I think it had to be returned in my name) since the Mic stand was heavy stuff. We talked about various things, like "What is your favourite beer?" and asked her if she was tired; for some reason she it cute that I used one particular Japanese word - "Kutakuta". She doesn't like Osake, Japanese rice wine, and I told her how much I LOOOVE Kirin beer. Lemon Kirin, ooooooh. O:

We went our separate ways, and I headed back upstairs to B124 to grab my bag and stuff. Yes! I had believed the recordings wouldn't take all day. I assumed for some reason that James Nutt would be there again, or have some sort of staff support.

Headed back and conked out in a kip for about an hour and a half at 5:30. Got up at 7:00 and forced my way up to the kitchen to put on some dinner. Fishcakes and potatoes. I should vary my ready meals a little more. Before getting them out, I sat on the chairs near the table in a sort of daze, staring blankly ahead until I woke up a little more.

Whilst washing my stuff up afterwards, James, Jamie, Sophie and others went downstairs in the communal hall to watch a film. I kept shifting to and through past Jamie to get into my room. Whilst writing up this blog entry, I popped out to check up on what was happenin' with my peeps. Whilst Sophie was lavishly dressing herself in pink, Jamie snuck onto her laptop and changed her default homepag to a porn site. It was a while, a whole 30 minutes I think, for her to notice. Jamie had already disappeared to his room at this point, but Sophie noticed and quickly blamed Rob. She was clearly annoyed, and it was damn amusing to see her reaction. She quickly went onto tattle Yannis, who innocently defended himself by stating he'd rather set her homepage to bikes or his favourite band, Foals.
During this tantrum, James hinted (or rather, outrightly) it was Jamie but Sophie didn't hear him at the time. She firmly stated that no one is to touch her laptop ever, aside from Georgia and maybe someone else.

Hope everyone's files was stored okay on the USBs. Even it wasn't able to in the end, I think thankfully the Mac doesn't delete the local files like most Education networks tend to (unless they are saved in specific locations). I should e-mail the files to the students, or similar, tomorrow or soon.

Regulation #3803

Weekend was a comfortable time, and it was great seeing my dad and sister again. Paranormal Activity 2 even managed to exceed my expectations!

Awoke this morning and may laptop fortunately reminded me of an important meeting at 12:30pm in B124. I didn't make myself anything because the cleaner was up in the kitchen. Oh, the lights (and possibly shower door) were fixed today! One of the electricians reminded me of actor Richard Wilson.

Just to be sure on time and place, I checked on the original e-mail and I was off by about half-an-hour. It was 12pm on the spot. Already five minutes into the lunch hour I scantly flung on the coat, and hopped into some shoes whilst mumbling negative remarks to myself. Whilst running down the stairs, I had to squeeze past the cleaner and the vacuum cleaner, and hurried by Yannis and Georgia.

Arriving at B124, the former group that's in today was there which included Luko. Sat beside him, and he stated I was only the 2nd person of the other groups to turn up. I didn't completely dismiss this instance - I was only able to remind myself of this occasion (brought up about 2 weeks ago) because I scheduled it into Entourage. Besides that, turning up 11 minutes or so light didn't really put a hinderance on anything - the two people giving the presentation were having issues trying to log onto their laptop. Due to the hold up, Ron told us in about 40 minutes or so that we'd have a lunch break in which to come back by 2pm. (Whilst making it clear we should be working on designs and whatnot)

Five minutes into this instance, avast - the laptop was logged in and the presentation could go fourth. One of the two was the leading representer of the Faculty Office. She seemed kind enough, but her actual topic most certainly was not. Regulations.


Generally speaking the presentation covered just why we should stay on top of the work and what should ever happen if we fail a single unit. I didn't remember the details exactly - which will come back to haunt me later on in the year no doubt - but simply failing one unit has so much detrimental circumstances that dropping the course altogether would frankly be a more practical choice, in my opinion. How the woman brought this across wasn't bad, but there was some obvious dead-in-your-face glancing on her part (along with obnoxious pausing), complete with fucking irritating Mr. Mackey 'mmkay's abound. They tried ending the presentation on a light note but it didn't soften the burns already inflicted on student confidence.

Spent the lunch time talking away with Luko and heading around town to get some stuff - mainly a cut of beef from the butchers (who didn't have the right ones, so skipped it) and some ingredients from Waitrose. Before that, we headed into Robert Dyas because Luko needed a cheese-grater for cheap and I had the bright idea from memory that the shop sells 'em for a good price. Nope - instead, Luko tried Sainsburys. He found one for about £2-3 which is a good buy and I bought some various snacks there.

On the way back to the UCA, I wanted to head into Waitrose to find a chuck or brisket cut of beef. Found a whole 500g worth of brisket for £4.50 or so - not bad. Whilst queuing up in the baskets line (Hardly anyone uses trolleys, what the fuck? Elderly...) I forgot to get the obviously necessary vegetables. Hopped out and tried the new scaling system. Pop 'em on, pick what they are, and it'll print out a receipt to stick on. I had just the right amount of potatoes, onions and carrots. Queued back up to the long line yet again and bought Luko's Lockettes for him (still down with a cold, and he payed me in advance). We headed back and I parted ways.

I decided to head to the library with my Laptop to check how fast their internet speed is. Last time I checked on their computers it broke past the 50mb limit. Holy moly! Tried it with wireless on my MacBook (originally planned to test it in the quiet study zone but that felt awkward) and received a poultry 3mb/s. Suppose 'EduRoam' is separate in service to the network's ISP. Checked up on the Fresher's timetable for this week and spotted Dan's Street Dance lesson at 4:30. I told him I'd go, and since I missed his lesson last week, I felt I owe it to him more so to try it out. It was 4 'o clock seeing this, so I raced back and took off to the Sports Centre down in Farnham with little regard to what I'd be getting myself into. Oh boy, I wish I had known.

After getting to the centre and failing to spot the obvious entrance like a twat (I walked around the entire parameter of the building to find it) I headed in, and consulted the desk about the session with Dan. There were those gate-mechanism with rotating bars at torso-level, which I assumed you'd need to pay up or something. Upon hearing that there was another girl asked to "Follow that man in front of you" I barged in through and found it's just there to...uh. Not sure. What are they for, then?

Went on ahead down the corridor and found Becky along with her friend Ben, waiting outside the Activity Room.  I hadn't expected Becky to here although I roughly overheard Sophie (a friend to her) planning to go which was indeed but unable to due to her lesson time. Dan arrived shortly, with that awesome feel-good grin, and took us upstairs to one of the other rooms instead. Uh, this one was clearly intended for dancing which put me in a tense mood. One side of the wall an entire pane of mirror - obviously to self-examine the dance routines - the one thing I really don't want to see myself doing.

There was another instructor there, and she wanted £2.50 which caught me completely out of the blue. It's possible that pricing wasn't decided yet before this point, but I went ahead with the assumption that Street Dance was free volunteer work (especially since Dan is a student and all). Didn't have enough change - just the ones that Luko had given me, and felt prompted to leave. Becky then offered me a pound more, and I payed up. I owe her the £1 back.

Whilst waiting, Dan warmed Becky, me and Ben up with some straight-forward dance steps. They didn't seem so difficult, and it gave me a touch of confidence. The 'lead' instructor then kicked us all off with some actual warm ups regarding physical activities. Including: leg stretches, push-ups, and hand-on-floor stretching which I couldn't at all do (and neither could Dan, thankfully). Whilst laying flat on the floor for some of them, I had my entire head facing behind me, upside down, to try and watch what the instructor was doing. I also kept sliding myself around on the floor to get myself into uselessly (but mutually nice) alignment with everyone. One of the pull ups, with the legs in the air, left me as meatless goo.

Now that was out of the way, we were onto the actual dance regimes. The girl instructor taught us a variety moves, some I caught onto okay and others I just completely fell flat on my ass with. There is no way Dan or her could see me and not drop an "uh oh". Her manoeuvres cause me to struggle a lot because of the multiple limbs that would need to be animated, even if that's what dancing is about. One leg out, twist foot whilst raising out left arm, then switch to other feet whilst raising arm in the air and tilting head, etc. It sounds easy in theory, and no doubt to various people who hadn't danced before, it would come naturally (as appeared to be the case with Becky) but my slow-learning hindrance really put a scar on my confidence and ego towards how I could perform.  I sucked so much in pulling off the steps effectively that I was becoming inclined to just pack my stuff and go. Knowing this would just put an even worse appearance on myself, though, I stayed through.

Her dance regime, partly forgetting even now, consisted of this:

1. Bend left leg down, right leg out-stretched. Right foot facing right. Right hand on the right leg knee, and pointing the left arm outwards to the left.
2. Switch over leg positions, instead having right arm and hand pointing straight to the sky. Left arm limp.
3. Keeling over somewhat, legs together. Hands near face (Think squirrel eating a nut)
4. Normal stance, right leg ahead. Left leg behind. Hopping to switch leg positions over three times.
5. Using right leg, shuffling it over to the right using heel and toes each time. (Need to be quick)
6. Using the the upper body, twisting it over so it faces the 45 degrees. This is kind of awkward.
7. Facing opposite direction. Boys do nothing, girls out-stretch arms, hands on top of one another and rotate their hips in circular fashion.
8. Both boys and girls carry on as normal. This is difficult to explain. Bend one leg slightly, the other bent down slightly more. With arm on the side of the bent-most leg, it's bicep is left outstretched, with the forearm facing directly down. Other side arm is stretched directly downwards. Switch the position to effectively mirror it on the opposite side of the body, four time. (Left, right, left, right.)
9. Cross one leg over the other, then turn and hop to the originally facing side.
10. Left leg crosses pass the right leg (on the front? back?), right foot makes a small step on the spot. Left leg then crosses back past the right leg.
11. During the last part of step 10, the right elbow then juts out, effectively like you are intending to elbow somebody.

Dan's dance regime, once it kicked in, I felt far more comfortable with. His involved slightly more erratic positions (TEA POT, MJ SPIN) but because it was all taking place in either top or lower body - not both - it helped a lot in picking it up. I still sucked ass, but at least I could fit into the choreography with everyone else. Dan also let us practice more, and didn't move us onto other steps as quickly as his counterpart had. If I recall:

1. Body facing right. Both legs bent down, left leg bent more. Two arms out-stretched to the right, hands left flopping limp. Left foot twists to the front whilst the elbows flop down and up to neutral for the time the foot flips. (Like a mechanism, I guess)
2. Body faces forward again, standing normally, except the palms of the hands are faced side by side of the head, with the elbows bending to the sides respectively. 
3. Hands to normal standing position (I think).
4. Jut/twitch the hips and arms ever so subtlety, and raise the two arms up with the entire body facing to the left. Lean the body out slightly, with both arms stretching out in similarity to a pool-dive. Both legs bent down again, with the right leg outstretched.
5. Flop both arms down, one just after the other with hands still in position. Both have to be kept as static as possible during the process.
6. Hop body back around to the front. Like with the arms in Step 2, the palms are instead facing down, and the hands are positioned in front of the chest. Shoulders are stretched back.
7. Using just the shoulders, twist the chest to face 45 degrees or so.
8. ?????
9. Using the position that Step 7 should make the legs, use left leg to push the body into a single spin on-the-spot, using the right leg as a centre point for the spin. Right foot's heel is lifted.
10. Neutral standing, kick right leg out to the right and follow through with hopping the left leg over in result.
11. Neutral standing still, then place right arm over the waist, and raise it up. Whilst doing so, spread the knees out (left knee to face left, right knee to face right) whilst keeping upper body still. Left arm lowers during this process, and the head tilts to the left in conjunction with it.

During step 10 I kept making a mistake of jumping too far to the right, ending up in front of Becky. (And preventing seeing herself for context in the mirror)

It possibly sounds as complicated as the last regime, but the fact it often focused on either the upper or lower body made it easier for me to manage. We finished up at this point, and went over to Sainsburys with Dan. Ben and I lamented over our first lesson, and Becky found Dan's choreography harder to follow, or simply do, which intrigued me as she did a much better job the dance floor than I ever could...or can. Dan asked how I felt, and I tried to be sincere about it. I did enjoy it, but...eh. I need to spend a whole night practicing these steps just to keep up with everyone else. Dan encouraged me by saying he was impressed with how far our group had come in comparison to when he was young (a boy?) but that's them - I was a pretty saw spot on the thumb. He was eager to hear some insight on the lessons, and is intent on improving the structure and method of teaching. How it is now seems cool, though.

We caught Georgia outside Sainsburys, having gone there with Yannis, Sophie and James. She was pissed, though, as she lost the trio inside and attempts to call them up failed. I headed home with her, and carried some of the shopping she had. Really wanted a drink after that lesson, by the way. It made me sweat, in a good way of course.

Back home, quickly rushed for some orange juice which tasted a little too strong for my dry mouth. Gulped some water quick, and shortly went to start on my Niku Jaga. Yes! I made it last week but discovering that flaw on the amount of stock to go in only made me see if I can make it better this time.

During the course of cooking, it sure was a bad night for me to do so. James and Sophie arrived back - they did a shop up (payed for by Yannis, I hear) so James could cook up a nice lasagne, teaching Sophie in the process. Rob also came up to cook a stir fry, and Georgia wanted to fry a steak. It was packed, but it didn't get in the way too much.

Eventually cooked up the Niku jaga (wasn't sure if half the stock had simmered off, though, and some potatoes weren't cooking fully in conjunction with the others) and it tasted...yes! It was the right flavour and everything, I pretty much hit the nail on the head. It was so good, I ate it all for myself! Intended some for everyone but hey, they already eaten and James, Sophie and Yannis were happening to have a lasagne. 

Also forgot, SHIT, I was meant to book the recording room for me and China James tomorrow on Tuesday but forgot. I'll have to see if I can consult Ron on this matter tomorrow in lesson. (James was away on Monday anyway, and I was up over the weekend.)

Long Story Short

Nearly forgot to write this entry up. Again, I'm home for the weekend (actually seeing a film this time around) and so there won't be any posts for Saturday or Sunday.

Kept trying to get up for 9:00am this morning, but cold air and cold feet magnetised me under covers.
In the kitchen, someone went and left the heating on again over night.

In Jon Hunt's lesson on Digital Skills, at 12pm, we had our first proper introduction to Adobe After Effects. What a fun and versatile program! We were shown the basics of manipulating the various properties for assets (ie, opacity of clip, volume of sound etc) and also taught how to bring in .PSD files, 'nesting' them into other compositions. Our finished result was to eventually make a 15 seconds or so movie, with a live-footage DJ amongst a chosen background (usually a club, in my case, beach rave) with animated text. It was a lot of fun, and a night scene made sense because all these tacky effects could make sense only in that sort of area. Out of all the occasions, I didn't bring my notepad to take notes - but then I was keen on today's lesson that it's sunk in quite deep. Before finishing, James, from China, popped in and asked if I was able to help him with the voice recording this afternoon. Ouch, I can't quite as my dad was picking me up later. Told him I'd do it on Monday or Tuesday, guiltily.

When the lesson finished, I asked Jon if he ever saw the video I told him last week of an animated projection - video-mapping - on the 600 year old clock tower in Prague. Nein, he did not. I guess he couldn't find it, but thankfully he then started searching for it right away on a computer. Various search results, despite the nescessary key-wording, weren't bring up the video. Eventually he found it, and said he'd watch it later. He asked if I ever plan to projection of animation. ...maybe. One person in Foundation, last in Chichester College, did it on a surfboard, and someone else through an art rack. It was a neat touch - and the student near me said she once used animated projection as well.

Got back, and called up my father who should of been back by that stage. He was! Asked if I was going to head back tomorrow, but I'm doing it today. It sounded as if I'd have to head back by train, this time. My father would of also planned to pick me up from the station, but I'd be getting back at a time he'd be picking my sister Holly up from work. So in that regard, I started packing up at 2:00 or so. Whilst charging up my laptop and phone, I popped over to the Porter's Lodge and Accommodation office. Heading there, Jamie was on the way to his next lesson and told me of YouTube videos presenting Flash Mobs. (T-Mobile dance is a famous example of this) Of one in particular was a Ninja Flash Mob at a University campus. We parted ways at the 'lodge. I was there for bin liners, but as per usual it had to be closed during that time. So instead, headed up to the accommodation office for some maintenence forms.

Filled them out back home (flickering light in toilet, and jilted door in shower), and washed up my stuff in the kitchen. Packed my stuff up, this time utilizing logic and carrying things in a plastic bag with HANDLES. Left out my pencil case, so I could also make cleaner room for my laptop. Checked again and again to see if all the electricity in my room was off and then headed off to the station without leaving a trace of departure to anyone. I just hope I did lock my bedroom door.

On the way, I dropped off my maintenence form and traveled through Farnham. Carrying a bag with a handle this time is so much simpler than with full-on elbows or a luggage case (as handy as it was). The difference was noticeable quickly to me. I figured I'd definetly miss the 3:24 train, so I popped by Subway for a bite to take with me. Felt quite hungry. There, I found out a free drink is on offer when showing my student card - only when getting a normal sub, though. At first, I mistook it as being Sub of the Day to get the offer, or an actual 'sandwich'.  Headed onewards and upwards to the train station, and brought my ticket. Asked a lady working there if I just missed the train to Aldershot...no. Oh? Much to my delight, it pulled up just then! It was late by about 2 minutes. That's some handy timing.

Nibbled on my sandwich, and kept on obsessivley attempt to sort out the packing and wrapping for the sub which went all over due to the cramped nature of the seats. Switching to the 17 minute train to Guildford, I ate both my sandwich and chocolate donut (I must of been pretty hungry...). At the Guildford station, I didn't see any of the Chinese students I saw working at the cafe stop last time. When the train pulled up, a pretty angry person hopped on ahead, causing the public's heads to turn in curiosity. Hearing more of him, I began to wonder...it's not untill his burst of apollogizing had I realised he suffered from tourretes. Initially, he stood opposite me on the train to Portsmouth harbour. It's nothing personal, but I kind of wanted to find a seat since my Uni bag was killing my shoulder (I swear last Friday, my muscle felt mushy afterwards) - sat opposite a guy with not one but two iPhones. And a Kindle. Tourette man passed on by, again prompting heads of the public to lift in response to his outbursts, akin to deer or cats to any form of wordly happening.

Trolley passed by, I wanted a KitKat but they costed about 80p. It's extortionate (despite buying one onboard last time) and didn't have the change for it. The double-whammy iPhone + Kindle diva opposite went the way of the pub and bought a packet of Walkers ready salted and a can of Carlsberg.

Eventually arrived at Havant, and the train for Emsworth was late by a few minutes. Sunk myself into some fast-paced orchestra on the train to Emsworth, and walk back.

Made it home, again. Whilst chilling out in my bed room (my father left my heating on for my arrival, which was kind) it wasn't untill 6:30pm that my sister got back with shopping - my father wasn't with her. Apparently, the car broke down at Waitrose and they attempted to contact me a bunch of times (4 missed calls, a text message requesting to call and a voice mail). I felt very guilt-ridden, and firmly pissed with myself for this being the 5th or so time missing a call because I acidentally set the silence on without noticing. That, and I cleverly left the phone flat, face-first, on my a soft bed. Holly calmed my guilt down, and wasn't too fussed over the scenario. She had a pretty damn bad day, though. Only £10 left, but ATM giving only £20 notes, unable to pay taxi driver, spiling something on herself, messing up an order, break-down at Waitrose...yeesh. Relieved her that at least this is the last of bad events, hopefully.

Next blog on Monday.

Taxonomy of Meaning

What a lecture today.

8:15 waking time, and as I made some tea and toast in the kitchen, Rory was up shortly too - he had a 10am-5pm schedule today. Left at about 9:30 but just after leaving the front door I ran back to the bedroom to do just another last check if everything was switched off and in place. I left the heating on, as it happens. Well there I go! Oh, and got a letter in the post box from TV License. They said I haven't told them I do not need one, which is a filthy fabrication since I did so the moment I received a letter formerly regarding letting the company know.

On the way to Maltings, I checked in Subway for a breakfast sub. Nah. Made my way further - and passing by Sainsburys, Su happened to depart from her house. We walked together up to Maltings, and I felt it was necessary to tell her what a gazebo was. Luko was behind us, and we headed to the place. What exactly is Maltings, anyway? It's a building for venues and clubs, seemingly. None of us were sure where the Cellar bar is - an undercroft in which our lecture is to be held. Asked at the desk who knew immediately that we were UCA students - it was right next to it. Oh! Ok. Everyone just next door heard and made headway.

Jon Weinbren, our lecturer whom I know finally remember the name of, was already in the cellar busy setting up the equipment: laptop, projectors and speakers. Su once again flustered on who to sit with, and decided on her other friends. She gave me a DVD on an animated movie she mentioned to me back on Monday, looks wacky and weird but worth a look. Jon eventually started off the lecture.

Today was mixing Computer Games Arts (whom had all stolen the back seats) and us, the Animation. Due to issues in budget restraints and asshole Film Production nicking our usual rooms, I think, mixing courses together (of which Jon used an unnecessarily technical term for that) was the way to roll.
Much of the lecture was based on the topic of anticipation and meaning. It got me racing because these are areas that, throughout my life, I always explored in the back of mind. Several books, including How to Draw Anime and Video Game Characters, advices the readers to 'surprise' the audience with unexpected outcomes.

The power point covered a variety of areas; one of the first being 'form'. Film Form, for instance, being "when we see patterns, we organise, arrange, anticipate and decode". There's the significance of artistic form and of course, form in moving image. The next part Jon taught us was expectations, one my favourite. What he was bring up numbers that revealed themselves with each click.
First, there was a 2. We were asked, what comes next? Suggestions made, some saying 4.
It was indeed 4. Next? 2. Few could guess. Then 6 came up, and the majority caught onto the math pattern. Up until past 8. With a large grin, Jon asked what was after 8.

Squirrel!

Naturally, no one saw it coming. The point was, our expectations were broken: we were surprised. Like babies reacting to a peek-a-boo, the twist on anticipation caused all of us to giggle and laugh. Actually, in my notepad, after jotting down the numerical pattern, one of the notes I written was: 'This is how some stories are written.'

Obviously I'm no story writer by any means, but I can't be far off to how that ever-revealing pattern of numbers relates to the controlled anticipations of the audience. (But do correct me if I'm wrong here, please)

The Powerpoint presented another facet of story telling:

Emotions represented in the artwork. Emotional response by the viewer. Dramatic irony. Jon quizzed us on what Irony means - I took a shot at the answer but nope. It's a tricky word to decipher correctly. (Many think they know, when the meaning isn't that straight-forward) I failed to jot in the rest of the slide that time.

To help us understand what anticipation and expectations, or rather breaking them means, we were shown an introduction to Toy Story 2. I couldn't remember much of the beginning despite watching it a bunch of times. When it finished on Rex grimacing over his weeny arms for failing at a very Space Ace styled game, Jon gave us an interesting question: "Why can what we just saw not be a video game?"

He let the animation side have first cracks at answering, some throwing technical answers even before the Computer Game Arts side were given the shot. They didn't get the answer either.

The camera shots are not plausible for the controller (at least one Rex was using). And, well, it's true. At least for the most part. Jon probably hasn't picked up on most games today having that overused SABOTAGING-SIMON-SAYS button pressing sequences which are there often to incorporate the same theatrical camera shots that we saw in Toy Story 2.

Before break, we were run through various meanings, that is: intended meaning (author's intention) and perceived meaning of the audience's interpretation. In terms of the latter, Jon gave us an example of a story he wrote back in his late 20s. It was about a free-spirited surfer from California who'd travel the world, being a beach guard for a time in Australia. Eventually he ran out of money whilst in Norway, but met his dad in a town. Needing some work bad, he shovelled snow with his whimsy surfboard. At some stage, his father is kidnapped by terrorists - eco-terrorists, in fact. Etc etc.

Anyway, Jon intended the story to centred around environmental damage, but to his shock and possibly dismay, his then-Producer revealed that he interpreted the story as being more about a father-son relationship, a cycle of breaking and forming it.

We then were shown more on meaning - a Taxonomy of it was displayed on a slide.

Basic surface level:

Relationship to the surrounding world.

Explicit meaning:

Often independent of context, a straight-forward reading usually shared by the audience and maker.

Then, the deepest,

Implicit meaning:

Often abstracted from both the context and the events of the film.

Example here are endings that leave the rest to your imagination. I don't mind this too much, and like it when it's done properly. If it's done in a throw-away feeling manner, it feels more like a pretentious cop-out to me. For the above 'meanings', The Wizard of Oz was used as an example.

During the 10-15 minute stop for a coffee, me, Luko and Subaru headed over to the cafe with all 50 other students. The line was crazy large of course, so neither of us bothered. Nor did Jon, who intended to get a drink but reluctantly headed back.

Back at base, Jon went onto the subject of Evaluation and Judgement. The distinction between personal taste and evaluative judgement. Internet communities are rife with hot-headed opinions, and if my good friend Josh ever saw this presentation he'd probably have his arms tightly crossed right about now.

To really drive this point home, Jon put on perhaps the most obvious example for a film. Not Twilight! Next to most obvious - MAMA-MIA. I haven't seen this film ever and...now I don't want to watch the rest. Cheese-ball opening (featuring a self-moving boat with no engine, what the fuck man?) and teen-squeelings shredding our ear-drums wasn't my tea at all. The moment Honey-Honey started to play, my very heart was being molested by this sugary girl filth. 

Anyway, PERSONAL TASTE AND OPINION. The movie closed and all the students up-roared into a frenzy over the film - just the saw of reaction Jon was looking for. He was looking for 'Objective Evaluation', which was asking for a lot considering the film. I chipped in and said we, the guys, weren't the target audience. Jon rebutted by stating his two kids watch the film. Are they males? If they are males, what sort of AUTHORITATIVE FATHER FIGURE ARE YOU? :( You want your boys to grow up inspired by love-letters and girls prancing the Greek coast singing honey-honey?

The final topic (or one of) was element. Specifically, each motif usually has a function and it's executed through the notion of motif. Motif is indeed important, especially in props and objects, for that iconic value. Mr. Weinbren asked if we knew any props that had a motif, and for some reason I tried to use the back-gammon pieces from LOST as an example. Up came another film, and a familiar tune played. Indiana Jones! Of course. It was Raiders of the Lost Ark, upon which either I haven't seen or just somehow forgotten entirely. Well, off to pop-media limbo I go. Watching the introduction play out, I was reminded just how quirky and effective Stephen Spielberg's directing was. We were shown this of course for Jone's hat and whip. The day he hit the big screens, whips were slightly less on sexual connotation. (Or more, if someone had the hots for Harrison Ford)

Various other facts were explained on Motif, although I couldn't jot them down fast enough in my notepad, thus left with embarrassingly blank paragraph spaces.

We headed off, and I tapped Lucinda - the girl who assisted me in voice recording on Tuesday - to go and get a subway with us. I promised her one. She actually did go, which surprised me as I figured we were both displaying a mutual amount of hypotheticalism. (This counts as a word, ask Jon Weinbren)

Me, Luko and Lucinda went to Subway. The Italian B.M.T was the sub of the day and I stupidly bought a footlong worth of it. Combined with Lucinda's meatball sub (egh) and drinks, it came to £7.00. Uurggh.

We headed to the park, the place I had went to yesterday with Sophie, Jamie and PJ, and passed this morning to Maltings. There, we all talked about previous educations in college, flatmates and how it in the case of me and Lucinda, not being able to get a grant or loan. Also, Luko smokes? It caught me by surprise, I figured it was a recent thing influenced by his flatmates. Nay - he's done it since about 2 years ago. DARK ADULTHOOD SECRETS. Hate you, smokes.

We departed our separate ways. It was nice eating with Lucinda and Luko.

Got back home to Room 5 at about 3:15 despite finishing the lecture at 12:30. Rested for about an hour which I need to quit doing, and went to Waitrose for some milk and crisps. Kit was casually chatting away with Yannis, and then shortly Sophie, Jamie and James. This is the first time I've seen so much of him today. Caught him earlier skating down the student village with his buddies when I gave my farewells to Luko. Before everyone else arrived in the kitchen, Yannis and Kit were nosing through Georgia's NOW magazine looking at girls they'd want to have in bed. Upon Kit saying he'd want some black celeb, Yannis responded with "some jungle-fever?" Kit was taken aback by that statement, all WTF over it. 

When everyone was up, Yannis, James and Kit avidly talked about Magic Brownies. I asked if you can have Magic Burgers. Of course! Any food can be made magical, which I wasn't aware of. (I know what they're on about here, just to clear things up) Yannis tried to further chip me on something, but James was telling me too. As I was listening to James' 2-cents, I could Yannis mumble "--ok and...I guess you're not listening, sorry." Prodded him after to repeat, guilt ridden.

As, and after cooking a Chicken Korma with rice, I chatted away to Rory when everyone was gone to that clothes-swapping party (seriously?).  Of the things we talked about, aside from Gran Turismo and other PS3 games, was some of the stuff I learnt today in lectures. We also talked about the sad facts of life when you can't pioneer a great idea due to lack of money, shitty staff/company and other reasons when some other corporation instead does so years later. ('Sup, Apple) Rory told me of an Australian in his class today that was being freaky critical and cynical towards presented ideas of his fellow group members. Rory fortunately was not a part of this inferno group, but apparently one of the girls broke to a tear from that beat down. The course encourages critical decisions and comment, and that's cool. I just hope they put a stop on the people that throw an egotistical gauntlet on the centre of the table.

Went down here to write a blog since 8pm. It's now 10pm. Someone outside had a burglar siren, and my sister rung me up to SMS my dad about the location of the keys. He returns back from India tomorrow, whilst my sister is at work. Tomorrow, I head home yet again.