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Daily Tip:
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| Wisdom teeth and Star Trek geeks |
| 06.28.04 (2:45 pm) [edit] |
So, I went into hiding for a few days after Pow Wow. Mostly because I got my wisdom teeth out on Wednesday. Here I thought it was going to be this hideous ordeal, after all the horror stories I'd heard, so I booked myself off work from Wed - Friday. (Considering I'd put in 32 hours over two days, that's only 8 hours short of my usual time for a week...)
It wasn't that bad, actually. My dentist was a huge Star Trek buff, which I discovered while flipping through the channels. (Yes, she has TV's embedded in her ceiling. That is why she rocks.) I had paused on the Space channel while she was putting the freezing in, and realized that it's been about five years since I've seen a full episode of Star Trek, and couldn't remember which one I was watching. She filled me in, and then her, her assistant and I proceeded to have a full-scale Trek trivia fest while we waited for my face to freeze.
The highlight of the entire procedure was when the other dentist yells from the next room, "You guys are a such bunch of geeks! That show sucks." And Dr. Pollock promptly responds: "Shut up Gary! Like you're one to talk, you watch Nip/Tuck!"
Ok, so maybe you had to be on laughing gas to get that one...I thought it was hilarious.
There was no drilling or incisions required, so things went pretty quickly. Which was good, because the freezing was starting to come undone on my last tooth. It was especially difficult to get out, and I felt a wonderful crunch when it finally did. (And could see something red and bone-like attatched to the root when they took it out of my mouth.) Luckily, I was so dopey all I thought was, "Wow...That's really going to hurt in a while."
I spent the rest of the day relaxing on a reclining chair and playing video games. Ahh, sweet bliss...
My friend Pauline got her teeth out the next day, and her procedure was far more difficult. Her roots were right around a nerve, so she had to get put under for her operation. I had called her after mine were out and told her how easy it was, so she was pretty confident going in. However, I didn't hear from her until Friday, and she was on some pretty strong painkillers. Owies...
I guess I must have the Lucky merit (or a hell of a lot of fortitude...), cause I never felt any pain, even without painkillers. I was back on my feet the day after getting them out, and there wasn't even any bruising or swelling. Yay for no pain.
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| Cultural marathon |
| 06.22.04 (3:46 pm) [edit] |
So...tired.
I finally snuck away from the Pow Wow for my first real break in 28 hours in which I wasn't unconcious. Even though I posess an almost disgusting amount of energy, I have to admit that I'm getting a little tired out.
Yesterday I was at work by 8:30, scrambling to get all the last minute details in place before Grand Entry at 7:00 pm. Considering that Wanuskewin is not the most organized place at the best of times, and Pow wow is definately NOT the best of times, the amount of stuff that needed to be finished was impressive. Somehow, we pulled it off.
I even managed to talk my way into running into town around noon, and grabbed a quick lunch with Tonia, Elmer & Keith at the Asia Buffet. That was important, because I knew from past experience that I probably wouldn't be eating later...
As we left, Bettie called, wondering where I was. I dropped them back at school, then ran out to help get the volunteers in place. It's kind of a blur, but we got everyone where they were supposed to be with no major catastrophies.
Around 5:30, I even had time to drop in and catch the tail-end of Andrea Menard's preformance in the main theatre. It was such an intimate setting, and the guys from Solid Sound did a great job on the acoustics...it was great. Her rendition of "The Mother Song" had everyone in tears.
I grabbed some leftovers from the BBQ they held for the corporate sponsors afterwards, but it took me two and a half hours to eat it, because every time I sat down, something new would crop up that needed me to fix it. I belive the term Melanie used to describe me was 'harried'. All I know is that I ended up running back and forth from the building to the pow wow grounds because all the Gators were gone. Grr...
Then, I was supposed to sell these Funky Flasher things. They are like pins, but with LCD lights stuck in em. Cheap, but cheap. That, and glow sticks. I must have looked like some raver reject wandering around with all of these flashing lights...That, and I'm a horrible salesman. I just couldn't take myself seriously wandering around yelling, "Glow Sticks! Getcher glow sticks here!"
Luckily, that didn't last long. I was able to dump that job on one of our volunteers, (the only perk to being volunteer coordinator, I've found...) just in time to run into my Grandpa. He took me over and introduced me to Gordon Tootoosis, and we had a little chat on the hill overlooking the Pow Wow grounds. Then it was off to work again...
I got home around 1:30 am, and promptly collapsed. I was just beginning to feel the throbbing in my feet when the phone ran this morning at 8:45. It was Bettie, in a panic because some volunteers had shown up early. (Pow wow didn't start until 1:00 today. Why they came out that early, I will never know.) So, I dragged myself out of bed and drove out here for more fun.
Today was more of the same. The ache in my legs has spread up from my ankles, through to the core of my calf bones. I think I've sat for roughly 45 minutes total today, and not counting sleep, about 3 hours in the past two days. I managed to eat half a burger this morning, and Mom brought me a Booster Juice at lunch, which I'm just now finishing. It's raspberry, with some kind of power boost thing, and is actually remarkably close to actual nutrition. Yum.
So now there's a brief lull before the next Grand Entry at 7:00. I snuck off to the office to 'download the camera.' It's quiet, and I'm finally off my feet. So, my brain finally has a chance to wander, and it came up with some interesting things...
I spent the weekend at my Uncle's Sun Dance. My mom and grandpa both danced for two days with no food, and little rest. It's almost like working Pow Wow, but they got a spiritually cleansing experience. I get one hell of an overtime cheque, and a headache. Interesting...
Anyway, Bettie's back. I gotta run. I might get out of here before 2 am, but then again, I might not. Yay.
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| Busy, busy... |
| 06.18.04 (2:00 pm) [edit] |
Wow, interesting day here at the park. We've had German high consulars, a CTV news team, and the Bhuddist Abbot of Burma. I was asked to cover the front for a bit, and all of a sudden this monk wanders up and asks if I have any DVD or VCD's of pow wow dancing. That was pretty cool...
Pow wow's on Monday, so everyone's running around trying to get things together. Well, half the staff if. The other half is still taking care of our important visitors. Last night, I worked until 7:00, serving soup and bannock to the kids over at Princess Alex school. Well, sort of...See, I had talked to the community schools coordinator last week when I was setting these suppers up, and she was quite excited to have us over. She even said that she'd put it in their newsletter. No big deal, right?
Well, when I showed up last night, there was no one there. Mykal, one of the visitors services guys, managed to track down the janitor, who let us in. Nothing was set up, and no one had arrived by 6:00. So, we ran over to White Buffalo and invited them to come over and eat. We had just missed a softball team, but there was a kids play group who were more than happy to come eat. There was one little girl who followed me around everywhere, and told me all sorts of stories about the other kids in the play group. Such a cutie!
Tonight's Mike & Evie's housewarming party for the Sabbat game, which I think will be a lot of fun. I'm hoping the characters will be a lot more relaxed than they are at the head counts. Then, first thing tommorow, I'm heading out to the reserve for my Uncle Marshall's sun dance. I'll hide out there until the Pow Wow on Monday.
Whew...I need a vacation!!
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| Taking on the big boss |
| 06.16.04 (9:45 am) [edit] |
Gods, I hate office politics. Actually, I'm not fond of politics in general, but the situation at work got sufficiently stupid to make me want to storm into the C.E.O's office and ream her out.
So I did.
Ok, admittedly, it was probably not the smartest thing in the world to do, but hey, they can't get rid of me. I'm the only one who knows how to run the computer systems out here, and there's no way they can find someone else to do graphic design for the wages I'm getting paid. Plus, it felt really, really good. And it was deserved...
Our C.E.O. has this horrible habit of crisis management. Meaning, she only manages when (she thinks) there's a crisis. If there's not a crisis, she either invents one, or goes out for expensive luncheon meetings. Yesterday was apparently a 'invent a crisis' day. My boss, who's a real sweet older lady, has been setting up this Andrea Menard concert for Monday to raise funds for the Pow Wow. Now, the CEO decides that the concert will take away attention from the Pow Wow, even though it is being held at 5, when the Pow Wow Grand Entry is at 7. Now, in my mind, this means that anyone who comes to the concert will stay for Grand Entry, and therefore will be promoting the pow wow, but apparently that's too simple an explaination.
So, the CEO goes in and yells at my boss for setting this up, 'without her approval'. They were in there for awhile, and I'm not sure what all went on, but around 2:00 I got a call from Bettie, asking me to come into her office and bring plenty of Kleenex. Now, my boss' mom has been really sick, and has been in and out hospital for the past few months. I thought that something had happened with her, but no. She was crying and on the verge of resigning because the CEO had bitched her out over nothing. She's been under enough stress without something stupid like that happening.
So I booked a little 'meeting' with the CEO. I had to book one, because she's never available to talk. Grr...We were in there for a good hour. Most of the staff were wondering if I'd be fired immediately, or if I would resign first. I think there was a betting pool...Anyway, I didn't really care at the time. I was too busy making my objections to her management style known. (Ie - Bitching [i]her[/i] out.)
I'm either not very bright, or brave and crazy. Either way, it didn't work out too badly for me. (See what I mean about being a lucky little bugger?) I mean, I still have a job. And, to top it off, the CEO addressed staff morale in our staff meeting this morning. Granted, she didn't address it well, but it was a step in the right direction. It might just be enough to keep people from throttling her before Pow Wow is over. :D
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| Here I come to save the day... |
| 06.14.04 (3:01 pm) [edit] |
Sunday morning I got a call from work. Apparently, no one had bothered to set-up the Archaeology Day events that we had spent three weeks planning, and once again, they needed me to come in and save the day. And me, being a sucker, drove out to play the hero.
I got there at around 10, which meant I had to leave the house at 9:30, and as they said, nothing had been set up. And, to top it off, it was raining, so all of the ourdoor activities, like the tours of the dig site, had to be cancelled or moved indoors. I managed to put the Rock Art and pottery demonstrations in the Activity room, and I got the flint knapping guys set up in the Circle Area. I even managed to track down a tarp for them.
The lady who was supposed to be doing tours of the Dog Child dig site had nothing to do, though, so I rummaged around in the archaeology lab and managed to find a buffalo skull, some scrapers, a few scraps of hide, and an old display on arrowheads. We threw that all together, and it was actually a reasonable display.Then, she came up with the idea of filling a box with sand and letting kids dig in it for flint shards from the flint knappers. That worked out really well. The kids loved it!
At 11:00, CTV News showed up. The only problem was, no one else had. We had advertised the event as starting at 11, but didn't really expect anyone to show up until closer to lunch time, especially with the weather being so foul. Luckily, there was a group sleeping out in the tipis, so they came in and made the place look populated until other people started showing up. It was a pretty exhausting day, but I got to play around with fingerpaints on the Rock Art wall, so it wasn't a total loss.
I went out for a walk afterwards, because the valley had this beautiful mist of fine rain hanging over it, and I love walking in the rain. I wandered over towards the medicine wheel, and found two newborn fauns hiding in the sage bushes. That's a moment I'm going to treasure for a long, long time. They were both curled up against each other, and one of them opened it's eyes and looked at me. It had the most incredible expression of calm and trust...I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before.
I drove home in a happy, surreal fog. At 7, I went over to Skippy & Ginger's house for our pack's little scene...It didn't work out at all how I'd expected, and it left a lot of things unresolved. Which, I suppose, is good, because now we have RP fodder for a long time to come...Anyway, Valerie wasn't involved much, which suited her fine, but left me wanting to do more. Oh well. That's what the forums are for.
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| The Animation Show |
| 06.12.04 (8:02 pm) [edit] |
I love rainy days. They're the best for getting some writing done, and there's nothing quite like going for a walk when it's just sort of drizzling out...
My brother and sister are gone to their dad's house this weekend, so Mom and I went out to Broadway after dropping them off at the exchange center. We poked around in all the little stores, saw some really cool hats, and got samosas from the Bulk Cheese Warehouse for lunch.
After lunch, I worked some more on the script for my comic. I have most of the first issue written out, but I still need to firm up the dialogue a little bit and pick which shots I want to use. I can see the whole scene in my head, kind of like a movie, but the problem is, I can also see -multiple- versions of the same shot, from different angles. It's kind of like having the director's cut on DVD, but in your head. I'm not crazy, really...
I needed a good walk after all that writing, so I walked to Broadway. It was drizzling slightly, just a fine mist in the air, and everything smelled so moist and alive. There's a feeling of stillness when it's raining.
However, by the time I got to the Broadway Cafe, I was pretty wet. I didn't think I'd need an umbrella, but I suppose walking for twenty minutes, even in a fine mist, can make you a little wet...Anyway, I was a bit early, so I saved us a table and managed to dry out a bit before everyone showed up.
We goofed around, scared the waitress, and generally had a great time. Then we went over to the Broadway Theatre and saw [url=http://www.animationshow.com/...]The Animation Show.[/url]
Mmm...Animated goodness. There were some pretty crazy shorts, like Ident, but there was also a lot of great stuff. There was a Japanese peice called "Atamayama', which translates to Mt. Head, about a guy with a tree/lake growing out of his head. It was really well done, and the animation had a very interesting feel to it.
There was also a great 3-D piece called "The Cathedral." The motions of the main character were beautifully done, and quite natural. The story was a little wierd, but hey, it's indy stuff. That's to be expected.
And, of course, you can't beat the humor of [url=http://www.bitterfilms.com/]Don Hertzfeldt. [/url] He's got the craziest sence of timing. I'd heard about his "Rejected" shorts before, but this was the first time I'd actually seen them. He also did the intro, intermission and end shorts for the film, and I can't decide which was funnier. Probably the end one... Anything where tiny fuzzy things get attacked by robots is fine by me!!
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| Now you've got me started... |
| 06.11.04 (12:36 pm) [edit] |
Wow...The past week has gone by in a bit of a blur. Work, sleep, rinse, repeat...
I guess I kind of needed a week with nothing much going on. It feels great to get a reasonable amount of sleep, and even better, I was able to spend an hour drawing before bed every night. Yay! Did I ever need that...
A lot of people think that it's just something that you can turn on whenever you need it, which it is, to some extent, but I find that I need to keep in practice for the drawing to flow really smoothly. And since I'm at my most creative between 10 pm and 2 am, the best stuff comes out right before I go to sleep. I really want to get started on a picture of the Darwin Effect, my pack in the Sabbat game, but I can't do anything until after our 'little issues' have been sorted out.
Luckily, we're doing a scene on Sunday, and that'll (hopefully) resolve things. The forums have kept me busy this week, cause there's been lots going on. We lost our Ductus just before the last head-count, and the decision process is keeping things interesting...I won't say any more than that. I'm really enjoying playing Valerie, though, because she's so different than any character I've played before. She's very subtle, even in her humor, which is a big change from playing Jakkal. It'll be interesting to see where she ends up after Sunday.
Tonight, I'm staying in a watching my brother and sister while my Mom goes out and sees Shania Twain. I find that hilarious, because she's a metal-head from way back, and despises country, but the guy she's been seeing won free tickets at work, and he's a big country guy. It's cute... I want to watch some of the anime my friend Fluff brought back from Ontario for me, cause I haven't had a chance to yet. Mmm...Wolf's Rain. ^-^
Tommorow night, there's a showcase of under-rated animated peices over at Broadway theate. I can't wait to see it. I love indy cartoons. Ok, so I just love cartoons, period. Well, maybe not some of the new crap they've got on Cartoon Network and YTV, but that's why I don't have cable. The old-school 'toons from the late eighties, early ninties were actually well written, but since they started shipping things off to Korea and cutting back on writing budgets, everything's gone down the drains. I can't believe some of the stuff they've got on the air these days. Case in point: Beyblade.
Yes, that's anime, but in much the same way as Home Videos is Western animation...But I digress. It's been awhile since I've had a really good toon rant. ^-^
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| The runaround. |
| 06.08.04 (7:59 am) [edit] |
See, now yesterday is a prime example of why I'm always tired...
I went into work at my usual time, which means I'm on the road at 8:00 so that I can dodge Idylwyld traffic and still get out to Wanuskewin by 8:30. (Or, 8:45...Which is usually when I arrive. So sue me if I actually like having breakfast in the morning. So far, no one's talked to me about it yet, so I guess I'm ok.) Bettie and I got things ready for the volunteer orientation. We hold it once a year, before pow wow season, so that our volunteers aren't totally lost when they're thrown into the midst of the pow wow grounds. We did that once, and it wasn't much fun for anyone involved. (Especially the one guy who got stranded out at the parking booth for 4 hours...So glad I was just a grunt that year.)
Anyway, around 3 p.m., my boss informs me that I get to run the orientation by myself. I can't be too angry with her, because her mom's sick, and she's under a lot of stress, but still...Talk about short notice. I love twelve hour work days...
The good part was that she let me run into town around four, so I was able to get myself a haircut. I also stopped by McNally's to check for this month's issue of Pure Woman magazine. Now, before you all get the wrong idea, no, I was not interested in fourty ways to woo a man or this spring's latest push-up bra... In fact, when I walked into the magazine isle to look for it, I had no clue where to even begin looking. (Though, in my search, I got to read the graphic designer zines. Woot. ^-^)
Anyway, one of the reporters from Pure Woman ran into me at the YWCA thing, and asked if she could interview me. Not remembering what Pure Woman was, I stupidly said yes. (Cory said he remembers showing me a copy of it just after it's launch, and we picked it apart. I can't remember a thing. I think it was one of those espresso nights...) Anyway, she called my up at work the next day and did a phone interview, and I had forgotten about it until yesterday, when I put two and two together, and got "oh, shit..."
I was on my way to Amazing Stories to check if the latest issue of Runaways was in (yes, I'm a comic book geek too), and halfway up 8th, got a horrible mental image of my face next to some article about the latest diet trend. So, I quickly pulled over into the McNally's parking lot, and ran to the magazine isle. Once I found it, I had to work up the nerve to actually pull the damned thing off the rack, because the cover was skank-tacular. (Thanks to Jenn for that adjective...) Luckily, my article had been bumped by something on how to climb the corporate ladder. (By showing as much panties as possible.) Whew...Was that a relief.
So, then I wandered back to the safety of the sci-fi/fantasy section, ran into Cory, and chatted about gaming. Ahh, sweet geekdom...Turns out that one of the girls I work with saw his infamous Dobby costume at the Order of the Phoenix launch. "Yeah, there was, like, five Hermionies and this one guy..." "Dressed up like Dobby?" "How did you know?" "Err...I know him..."
After McNally's, it was a quick stop by Amazing Stories (Runaways is -not- in...Grr) and some Taco Time drive through, (it wasn't taco tuesday though!) which I ate in the Harry Bailey parking lot. That lot's got one of the best views of downtown in the city...The volunteers that I was supposed to pick up, which was my reason for being in the city in the first place, didn't need a ride anymore, so I came back out to Wanuskewin and got things set up for the orientation.
It went pretty well. I explained things to the ones who hadn't volunteered before. Sharon LaFlamme, who works with my uncle over at Joe Duquette, is volunteering, so her and I had a great chat. Plus, I got to meet Janet Acoose, the "voice of Wanuskewin." You know that film they play in the main theatre? Yeah, that's her. I was wondering why her voice sounded so familiar over the phone..
We wrapped up early, so I still got to watch the last twenty minutes of the hockey game. Gah...No Stanley Cup for us. I also got mauled by my brother and sister, who haven't seen me in about a week because I've usually had something going on in the evenings. It's so nice to know they care. ^-^
So, yeah. That was my day. No wonder I'm so tired today...
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| Plasterfest |
| 06.04.04 (1:40 pm) [edit] |
Nothing like spending an evening with friends, getting completely plastered...
Well, not completey. Just our faces. (Yeah, dumb joke, I know.) Anyway, on Wednesday, Michelle was kind enough to let Quinn and I invade her home and make a wonderful mess. We were making casts of our faces so that we can sculpt our prosthetics for our Tzmisce characters big show. We decided on a theme for the night, but I'm gonna keep that a secret, just to keep you all in anticipation. I can say that these costumes are going to be pretty cool looking, and very very fun to wear!
Michelle summed up the night pretty well in her blog, so go read her post. The only thing I have to add are a few quotes from the night. It was really hard not to laugh while your face was being plastered. I had so many smart ass comments I wanted to make, but couldn't!
Anyway, here's the lines of the night that made me laugh.
"Eww...Quinn nose boogies.."
"I can't tell if this has been up someone's nose or not."
"Oh, don't worry. The cat's just chewing on your feet."
"You know, when he's lying still like this and you can't see his face, he's really more of an object..."
"What?? Paint Quinn's balls?"
"I have plaster floating on my eyeball." "That could be painful."
Anyway, tonight is the last SbN game in the Harvest of Blood chronicle. I'm looking forward to it because I'll get to really go all out with Jakkal's...personality. This is gonna be fun!
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| Art vs money |
| 06.01.04 (12:15 pm) [edit] |
I've been doing a lot of thinking the past couple of days. The sheer creative energy at the conference I went to over the weekend was incredible, and at the ending gala, all the stars gathered on stage and sang about how we as Aboriginal people need to get out there and make our own dreams seen by the world. I was in tears.
I rarely, rarely cry, but this struck such a chord with me.
It was something I've been mulling over for months. I wasn't really happy at University. I mean, it was ok and all, but I didn't feel as if I was learning anything. Still, I jumped through all the professor's hoops and get some decent grades. It was like high school all over again, except parking was horrible and I was working part time.
My band will fund me for one degree/certificate/progra m, and only one, and if I stop at any time, I will no longer be eligible for anything. It would be wise, says my left brain, to get a degree in something, just in case. I've considered commerce, because I already have marketing experience, but every time I consider spending four years of my life in the college of commerce, I get kinda depressed. That's almost the complete opposite of what I want to do with my life.
I'm an artsy fartsy creative person to the core, and now that I think about it, most of my recent jobs have all had elements of art/design to them. There was the newspaper I worked on in Fiji, and now all the graphics stuff I get to do for Wanuskewin. But even that feels temporary, like something I have to do until my chance to work on my own stuff comes along.
Which brings me to New Media campus. It's got the best 3D animation course in the city, but considering that it's up against Heinz, that's not saying much....Tonia & Elmer are going there this year, and I've seen some of the stuff that they've been doing. It gives me the warm fuzzies just thinking about it. Rigging, texturing, having the power to make your own films...Which is to say nothing about integrating live-action into a 3D environment. They did a Star Wars fan film that blew me away. Let me see if I can find the link...
In case you can't tell, I get excited just thinking about the prospect of animation. It's been my dream for years now. I even took a year of Classical animation over at SCETCH college, back before it collapsed. (Damn you Steve! Damn you to hell!) I'd be in the program at New Media right now if it wasn't for one little thing.
Tuition at New Media is $12,000.00 per year.
Yes, that's twelve grand. I suppose that dreams don't come cheap these days. And, even if I do get trained in 3D, there's no guarantee I will get a job afterwards. Artists usually work on a job-to-job basis. No security, no stability. Most are lucky to put eight straight months of work together. I'll have to fight hard to even get a job, which I may only have for six months! But, on the other hand, I'll be doing something I love. It's better than being stuck in a cubicle for the next fourty years of my life. And, even with a university degree, there's no guarantee of employment. Look at my mother. She's a Native woman with a PhD, facing unemployment cause everyone's too scared to hire her.
So, I guess, I know what I have to do. I might, might be able to come up with some of the twelve grand. The rest will come from loans. My band might fund me, but I wouldn't bet on it. They lost enough when SCETCH crashed. I was damn lucky to land on my feet after that one. (It was another twelve grand investment, but that time I had educational savings plans and my band to fall back on. This time it's just me and the bank.)
I heard someone say once that the higher the cost, both in money and in lost experience, of one choice, the more it will pay off. Gods, I hope that's true.
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