Border Patrol

2004.08.25

The US recently announced a whole bunch of new money for increased border security along the US/Canada border here in the northwest. All I can say is: about time!

Ever since September 11th the US has accused Canada of being soft of terrorism. We don't patrol our borders enough, we don't have a big enough military, we don't keep "dangerous" people out of the country. Whether you agree with any of that doesn't really matter. What matters is that it's not Canada's job to keep people out of the United States. If they want more border security, they can pay for it. Fine by me. I guess the news is worthy of a few lines in the newspaper, but I really don't consider it a huge deal. I'm somewhat surprised it's taken this long, but other than that, I don't care.

Abbotsford Airshow 2004

2004.08.21

I'm going to avoid the usual airshow report this year simply because it's largely the same as last year. Still, this year's show was better by far, and not only because of the weather. All of the military acts were fantastic, including the Super Hornet kissing the sound barrier and producing a visible vapor effect in level flight. Jimmy Franklin and his Jet WACO are always fun, especially with his son wing walking. We all agreed that for now, wing walking on a jet powered biplane is probably as close as a human can come to being Superman. Everything else was great, although as usual, Bud Granley could have spared us one of his acts. What was it this year? Four?

So here is my new airshow report method: pictures. I got a few decent ones, considering my lens only zooms in by three times. Pictures are for the ground anyway, I like to spend most of my time watching the planes fly, not tracking them through my camera. A great show, in every way!

As usual, I can't wait for next year!

Wow

2004.08.20

I think this is the longest I've gone without posting since I put this site up. Needless to say, things have been busy lately and doing a daily post isn't very high on my list of priorities. I don't seem to be missing very much either. Even if I had the time to make posts, I don't find inspiring things to write about on a daily basis like I used to. Maybe that's just a realization that posting on a website really isn't very important, although don't tell that to all of the "big time" bloggers out there.

I've been trying to play as much Doom as I've had time for, which isn't much. All I can say so far is that it's a ten year old game wrapped in the best looking wrapping paper ever devised. The graphics are amazing, and all we need now is someone to take this engine and make an amazing game to go with them. The game also kicks the shit out of my box, but it's still playable, so I suppose I don't need a new computer just yet. Next year though, for sure. Half-life 2 is going to wipe the floor with Doom, just you wait and see. It's going to be a busy winter for gaming. Should be great!

Galactica

2004.08.07

This past Tuesday I started on "Battlestar Galactica" as a lead previz animator, working through Atmosphere. It's been a great experience so far. Working at production is usually nice. It's a busy office with lots of people, and no one can complain about craft services or the catered lunches.

I sat down and watched the pilot miniseries on Monday, and was pleasantly surprised. The show completely disregards the 70s series upon which it is based, and in this case, it's definitely a good thing. There have been a lot of complaints about the show, mostly from meaningless old people who don't understand why the new Galactica isn't like the one they remember from when they were eleven. I could care less about them. The style of the show is awesome, and most of all, the visual effects are interesting and fun to work on.

Watching "Battlestar Galactica" made me realize just how tired and boring Star Trek has become. Galactica is so far beyond "Enterprise" in terms of energy and style that I can't even describe it. I seriously don't know how Star Trek's boring ass visual effects and space shots keep getting nominated for awards. They haven't done anything new in at least seven years. I just wish Star Trek would go away.

Time Off

2004.08.03

I wasn't really planning on taking last week off, but once I missed a couple of posts, it seemed like a good idea. It's definitely somewhat relaxing to not worry about finding something to write about, nevermind making the time to actually do it.

Did anything exciting happen last week anyway? I don't think so.