I displeased that the text labels optimism and pesimism as black and white. After reading (Pg 124-126) and doing a few thought experiments I came to the conclusion that most people I know don’t fall into the ‘optimist’ or ‘pesimist’ category. I, for example, don’t expect things that happen to me to be good or bad, but instead expect them to be the result of what is really the case. It is what it is, in other words.The book seems to use both optimism and pessimism in conjunction with some state of self delusion, as if most kid themselves into thinking they’re going to do great or fail. This might be the case but in my experience I don’t have many expectations or preconceived notions about what might happen (circumstantial, I suppose).

If I had to choose, I would probably choose optimism because I would like to think that I control a portion of what happens to me. Obviously, nobody lives in a world where they control every variable of their life; after all, your actions are the only ones you CAN control. There are both negative and positive things that can happen to people, and all you do is lean yourself in one direction or the other.

I haven’t really thought through how this effects preparedness in a person. I mean, if you think the outcome of something is going to be bad, why even try? I can’t imagine every person who labels themselves as a ‘pessimist’ doesn’t lock their doors at night just assuming it won’t make a difference.

More school work here.

I occasionally check the Tehachapi news site (I’m guessing the same people who run the local paper) to see what’s happening in the community and the topic of Walmart came up in one of the community forums. “So what ever happend to Tehachapi getting a Walmart?” This topic started a barrage of comments and controversy (as Walmart tends to do). The main point people made I wanted to emphasize were the comments basically saying that Tehachapi USED to be a nice small town, but is now growing out of control. Everyone seems to agree that people move to Tehachapi largely because of the ’small town’ feel, however once a large number of people do that, they’ve destroyed exactly what they’ve come for. I still subscribe to the belief that it has it’s ’small town’ feel, however people that have seen it grow throughout the years might disagree.

I was raised in a small town (Taft, CA to be exact) where I went to visit my parents today. I guess it has the ’small town’ thing going but rarely are any good things said about it. Not too many people were raised here in an environment where the town was praised. To be blunt, the city sucks and everybody knew it.  After having breakfast with my grandma this morning she took me and my sister down Center St. where she pointed out where all the business used to be. It sounds like it used to be a lively place, however that’s not the Taft I grew up in; by the time I got here it seemed to be far along in it’s decline.

So I ask the question, can you keep a small town feel and still have a desirable place to live? Tehachapi is a great town but growing at a tremendous speed because of it; and I can’t imagine any reason why someone in their right mind would move to a dying town like Taft. However, Taft will be sure to retain it’s ’small town’ status because it’s simply not desirable to live in. I guess the real question is, can you keep the ’small town’ a secret, or does it even matter? I would like to think if you attract enough people who want to maintain the small town vibe, it can be done, but I suppose only time will tell. Maybe I’ll look back at this in 20 years with an answer.

(photo of the Sante Fe Motel in Tehachapi, CA via Capwell)

I discovered that there is a ‘revolution’ going on in term of life-cycle norms for people; for the better and worse.

I was born in 1988 so I don’t have first hand experience with what life was like before I was here, although I’ve always been very interested in it. I’ve often thought, things now seem SO different even if we take technology out of the equation.

It seems as though you didn’t have kids that talked back to their parents (in such great numbers). You didn’t have an ‘everyone wins’ policy and education in general seemed much more comprehensive and challenging (a good example here is Charlie Brown; if children watched that today, would they understand the vocabulary they were using?). I don’t know where the change was made (to think you could pinpoint the problem is oversimplifying it) or if these changes were for the better. The general consensus between people older than me seem to think these aren’t good things.

On the other side of things you DO have early diagnosis and prevention of disease and difficulty and a more comprehensive knowledge of who we are psychologically and physically. The question is, are we really using that knowledge in a meaningful way?

As technology advances and we move further from our roots of a simple life it seems life becomes busier and more complicated. I see the next revolution being the opposite of ‘advancement’ as we understand the word today. A life more simplified and sustainable; one more in touch with our roots.

I may have revealed my goal to one day make a 3D short. I generally don’t like to talk about my projects before they’re done (dampens the excitement imo) but I really can’t wait to get started on this thing. I’m currently looking at doing most of the work in Blender (open source ftw) or maybe Maya. I did 3D in high school and really enjoyed it but never continued working with it for whatever reason. (I guess I figured it was one of those things; the movies you watched in high school seemed MUCH better than when you watched them at home. This is because I had nothing better to do at school then watch this crappy movie, so I became interested in Zorro despite seeing it three times in one semester. We’ll see how 3D holds up.)

As far as animation is concerned, I’ve always liked the 3D model better than 2D. Don’t get me wrong, 2D is beatiful and I actually think 3D is overdone today (dreamworks vs. pixar etc.) but the idea of modeling, rigging and the more ‘mathematic’ (for the lack of a better term) way of doing things seems more efficient and overall just a better fit for me. And lets face it, 2D is just plain HARD.

Long story short, these are some characters I can hopefully manage to model/rig/etc. I have much learning to do in the meantime…

(full size image)

This last month has been different. I have walked past the fax machine and sitting next to it has been a nickel. One single nickel. I don’t know how it got there and (more importantly) why nobody has taken it considering everyone walks past that fax machine (I hear that some people even use it). Sure it’s only a nickel, but our soda machines are 65 cents and snack food is 45 so I can imagine a nickel would have to be useful for someone at some point during A MONTH of it sitting there.

Regardless, I have seen that nickel every day when I come and go and thought it might be fun to do a little experiment. One day as I was leaving there were very few people left in the office and I took my chance. I picked up the nickle, put it in my pocket and replaced it with a dime. I imagine people will think two (4) things:

1. Hey, that nickel turned into a dime.

2. If that nickel turned into a dime after a month of sitting there, what will it turn into next?

2a. Will someone take it because it’s a dime now?

2b. Should I wait to find out what it turns into, or take it now?

This was 3 days ago that the switch was made, and the dime still sits next to the fax machine. I suppose next week sometimes I’ll have to replace it with a quarter. The general consensus between those who know about this little test say the quarter will get snatched up quick. (Let’s hope so, otherwise I’ll have to track down a 50 cent piece somewhere)

Now it IS possible someone put this nickel here as some sort of morality test and is waiting to see who’s take it, in which case I guess I’m messing up their test (or making it better imo). Only time will tell.

Will keep you posted…

Most of my work  at the office and home is now digital. I try from time anyway.

For these journal assignments we have to start a sentence with a certain phrase (I realized… in this case) and expand on something we’ve read in the chapter. Here’s my entry on first impressions:

I realized that first impressions are powerful and at times out of your control. This is a fairly obvious assessment but the books seems to articulate it well. Often times someone can build a perception of you before you’ve even met, which is something we’ve probably all experienced.

We all think we have an initial sense of someone’s intentions or motivations; the gut feeling when meeting someone for the first time. That being the case, it’s worth mentioning that people who are really aware of this subconscious perception have an opportunity to change how people perceive them for the better or worse.

A fun example is the russian scam trick as performed here by Derren Brown.

I guess it’s important to remember that your ‘gut’ feeling is important, but to understand your conscious faults and limitations. Things often aren’t what they seem; don’t judge a book by it’s cover; so on and so forth…

There are only two humans I know to have this power: Wolverine and Catwoman.

Decided to make a pinkguy wallpaper. Also used this for a myspace layout of sorts.
This one is 1280×1024, let me know if you want a bigger one (twss).