The Part Where I'm Feeling Kind of Uninspired ....

Hey y'all, sorry I missed yesterday. I got home, and was SO dang tired that I pretty much went straight to bed. Me and E saw Django Unchained (the 'D' is silent, kiddos, don't forget that.), which was really cool, but REALLY tiring because it is pretty epic. It was a very solid film overall, but not as good as Argo (which I will rave, and rave, and rave about if you let me). Either way, from the films I've seen this year so far, I totes want Leonardo DiCaprio to win for Best Supporting Actor this Oscar season. I saw Titanic for the first time last year (teehee, it's still kind of weird typing that), and he was awesome, and I loved him in Inception, and his creepy crazy sociopathic plantation-owner character in Django is pretty much the best thing ever, so I hope he wins something this year for all his hard work. The screenplay should probably be up for something too, but, personally, there was far too much use of the n-word to let me be comfortable, but considering everything from a historical standpoint, the use of the word was apropos to the situation ... which makes me glad that America, as a country, has come so far in the 150+ years since the Civil War (though, we still got a ways to go...).

Anyways. I'm not really in the mood to start something, but here are the two pictures from yesterday and today:

January 6, 2013. This is my friend C, who's an animation major still at LMU. It's kinda funny because each year, there's like one or two majors who are Catholic and go to mass at the 8PM at school, and she's one of the ones from the "junior" class (she's only a junior in my mind, really, because she's in the year below me). Anyways, she got back from a cruise in the Mediterranean on Friday, and we went to church on Sunday, and we were both pretty out of it (her from jetlag, me from having work from 5-9:30AM), and it was pretty funny after mass was over. It's a little under exposed, but... meh, I still love her expression. She's probably going to kill me for posting this ^_^

January 7, 2013. This is the intersection down the street from my workplace. I think, if you squint, and get creative with your imagination, you could see the building I work in (it's blocked by the trees! a.k.a. you can't actually see it; I'm just pulling your leg). But yeah, like this post title's says, I'm feeling kind of uninspired. And unfortunately, the laziness follows. I'm a little sad that I can't seem to see anything, the way I did last the last time I did a Project 365 ... it was like, everything was opening up everywhere and I was finding super cool shots left and right! But this time around, not so much. I think maybe it has to do with the fact that I haven't really touched a camera since, oh... summer time. That's cause for a big unhappy face. But I guess: all good things with time. I just gotta get back into the groove of things, and then shots, sequences, scenes... they'll all open right back up to me.

In other news, I'm watching this really great youtube series called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which E recommended to me right before Thanksgiving. I watched them all, over the course of the end of November and December, and because of it, started rereading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (which the Lizzie Bennet Diaries is based upon, and which, hilariously enough, I couldn't stand to read when it was assigned reading in high school, and barely understood for that matter). I just got the part where Elizabeth Bennet is starting to realize she maybe has feelings for Darcy, but then gets a letter from Jane saying that their younger sister has potentially eloped with the nefarious George Wickham, and all I can think about is the fact that I am, once again, stuck between the boy who is trouble and the boy that I (inevitably) cause trouble for. And I'm thinking, "This time around, I'm not sure I'm going to pick the right one, but all I really want is a Darcy." 

Dammit. Go figure. Literary figures trump every guy in real life. Disney didn't set me up for relationship failure; Jane Austen did.

Oh man, just when I thought my life couldn't be more hilariously soap-operaish.

Peace out, kiddos. Stay drama free. Lol. It sucks from this side of the fence.

--Tiffany

The Part Where I Went on a California Science Center Adventure

Had a pretty wonderful day today with E. We planned to go to the California Science Center to see the Endeavour exhibit and the Cleopatra exhibit before it left, and we planned it on like Tuesday or Wednesday, but then she got called in for overtime at work today and we decided it was worth trying to go down to the Science Center earlier and see if we could change our Cleopatra ticket times right when the museum opened, so we headed down to USC for 10 o'clock, got there, asked around, and proceeded to pretty much get shut down. But we were there, and there were a few other things around so we walked around the museum for a bit and visited most of the other exhibits, and it was all together pretty cool. Found out that I'm a pretty terrible drunk AND sober driver (that's almost a story all of it's own), that more than one live cockroach at a time is pretty much 100% disgusting, and that E is pretty bad at being a barnacle. heeheehee!

We saw the Endeavour at our scheduled time and then were off to Burbank so E could do her work, and then we swung back down to the Science Center to get back just in time for the Cleopatra exhibit. That was pretty neat, I'm not going to lie. Definitely learned a number of things that I never would have guessed about Cleopatra and Egypt and etc... It was a totally unexpected adventure today, and I'm super glad that today was as epic as it was, because I've got work at 5 A.M. tomorrow morning O_O. That should be fun!!

Now E and I are watching Hope Springs, and I have to say, this movie is relatively delightful. As E just put it: "This movie is both adorable and totally awkward." Totes true. But I will always love me some Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. Never thought I'd see them in a movie together, but this is pretty hilarious!

Anyways, here's the picture of the day:

The Science Center has a miniature aquarium on the first and second floors by where the Endeavour is stored. I'm not going to lie, aquarium tunnels and being under water level kinda terrifies me, but, at the same time, being under water level always creates the best pictures. Gotta love little kids. They always see the best things, and end up unintentionally creating the best pictures. One of my favorites of the first Project 365 I did was at the Seaworld in San Diego:

There's just something about the view through a sunlit water scene that is so immensely beautiful. 

I can't wait for what the rest of this year is going to show me ^_^

--Tiffany

The Part Where Banality is My Life

Pretty low-key today. Just went into the animation lab today and worked on re-doing my reel. Watched Brave (Xmas present from the bro), ParaNorman (Xmas present from the wonderful E), and Tangled while I worked and oh! got bored and decided it would be a good idea to design a real background for this blog, so it's getting posted as soon as this one is done. Picked up some friends from the airport (good Lord, who knew the first Friday of the year would make LAX so disgustingly overcrowded).

Here's the picture of the day.

The view from the senior labs in the Animation department as the sun set. Not much going on, but soon! I hope soon!

--Tiffany

The Part Where I'm Feeling Blessed Today

Just got off of work at Loft; I'm not totally sure why I decided that picking up another shift this week was a good idea, but thankfully today's shift wasn't too bad. Lots of monotony and very little customer interaction (which was a very good thing today, because I wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with people).

I'm going to go back to the animation labs tomorrow! Kinda feels weird; I don't think I've been back to LMU to work on stuff in like three weeks, so I'm excited but a little nervous about my productivity levels. I've also gotta go get a ton of stuff for my bedroom, so I'm debating between looking semi-presentable and not even trying ... which creates the question: is it socially acceptable to go shopping wearing pajama bottoms???? Chime in, folks, I really don't even know anymore, and working in fashion retail has skewed my view of what's acceptable and what's not to go out in. On one hand, a pajama bottomed outfit would be just my style, but part of my would probably feel a little guilty...

Meh. I'll figure it out when I wake up tomorrow.

Here's the picture for January 3, 2013!

I have a board on pinterest called "colors" and this view made me think of it, so I snapped away. I think the exposure was a little high for ISO I used, but I was going for the grainy look, so I'm pretty happy with the contrast and the color gradient. There's nothing like the view nature paints every day as the sun sets (or rises, for that matter). I'm glad I'm blessed with the ability to look up and see it. =)

--Tiffany

The Part Where I Saw the Stars

Today was a quiet day. Had a solid 8 hour day at Loft and then tried to go see Djano Unchained with E, but she got held up at her job, so ended up sitting around at the food court at the mall and doing a little writing. Tried to work on my outline, but couldn't figure out the 3-act/9-part breakdown for my story, so just worked on random scenes. Still trying to figure out if I want it in 3rd person-limited or 1st person POV, which I really need to figure out soon!

Here's the picture of the day! I'm bushed. Good night!

See y'all! Los Angeles does have stars. You just have to look up and search for them. They're waiting. There's no denying that the city lights have a draw to them, but there's nothing like the beauty of balls of burning gases millions and millions of miles away. 

--Tiffany

The Part Where I Say, "Welcome to the New Year!"

Hey folks!

It's January 1, 2012 2013, which means it's time for me to start on keeping my New Year's Resolutions! So here's my first entry for this year's Project 365, fresh from a long and tiring day at the Rose Bowl. Got some great shots! I'll probably do a photo dump on facebook next weekend so everyone can see all the pictures that I didn't choose...

So this is post-Stanford winning. the Wisconsin bleachers had mostly filed out, and the celebrations on the field were raging with LOTS of confetti everywhere (I pity the suckers who are still probably cleaning that mess up). I looked up and across from where we were sitting, and the stadium lights were illuminating the flying confetti, and there was my picture!

So that's that. Happy 2013 everyone!

--Tiffany

The Part Where I Talk About What I've been up to, and New Year's Resolutions (pt. 1)

Well, as promised, I didn't keep up the blog as much as I had hoped in the past six months. If anyone could see me now, I would be chuckling quite heartily. Anyways. Down to business!

I haven't been keeping up the blog that well, but that's in part because I've found myself much more busy than I expected to be. Since June, I've moved from the little house I was living in to an apartment by UCLA (after couch-hopping for two weeks), redid my reel, and started work with Ann Taylor Loft. Working in retail has been quite the experience. Also, my roommate, E, got me to do this crazy cool thing called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org, if anyone's interested), in which you're supposed to try to write 50,000 words to a novel in one month (and that month is apparently November). So, we got to it. She's writing a pretty cool paranormal teenage drama novel, and I wrote an idea that's been bouncing around in my head since I was in high school or so. I made a great attempt, but only got half way through before I ran out of ideas. Still, I wrote so much that it almost seems ... irreverent to not finish, so that's on my to-do list.

So, my life's pretty much been: go to work at Loft and work on my reel. Pretty boring life, if I don't say so myself, but ... it's what I've got until I get a full-time job with a previs company.

Anyways, the year's coming to a close, and what good is a year ending if I can't make promises that I intend to keep (and hopefully will this time around)? So here are my New Year's Resolutions, pt. 1.

1. Keep up this blog! - no explanation necessary, honestly. I've found, via NaNoWriMo, how much I missed writing. There were crappy short stories back in Junior High and High School, all of which I enjoyed making but were never really that great. Now that I'm older, and in somewhat need of an alternative creative outlet when I get discouraged with previs, writing comes out. The blog will hopefully relieve some creative itchings, and I'll be able to post stories, ideas, outlines, or whatever else I can think of.

2. Re-do Project 365 - I did one in 2009, and started one 2010 with my camera phone that never got finished. The 365 days of the Project that I did over 2009 were some of the coolest days ever, and some of the pictures that I took then are still some of my favorites today. Thus, with the idea to do the things that make me happy, I'm going to restart the Project, starting at 12:00 AM January 1, 2013. I look forward to the things that I'm going to see next year.

3. Complete a detailed outline of my novel that I started in November - similarly, no real explanation needed here. The reason I stopped writing is because I ran out of ideas! Having heard of the program literally days before it started, I only had my initial idea and sketchy, vague extraneous veins that were mildly related. I want to finish this thing. I want to keep writing. I just need a plan!

4. Complete another outline of a second novel idea for next November - let's be real ... I don't do things at half-speed. It's ALL or NOTHING for me. When I've got one idea, I've got ten ... so I need to do my best to see at least these two through.

5. Get a pre-vis job! - this is, after all, the point of this blog. To start something that gets me out there. Gotta keep truckin', basically, until I've gotten to where I want to be.

Well, that's it pretty much, for now. I'm sure more ideas for resolutions will come as the 31st swings into view, but for now, I'm done with this post for the night. Cheers!

--Tiffany