Bumblebee

Since Jim Kuroda is out for the week, I thought I'd post this picture of the animatronic they've made for when Bumblebee transforms. Those guys must have had a blast making it. It's HUGE! Even if the Transformers movie sucks, it's going to be some nice eye-candy. Thanks Thomas for the link - I guess they made "ain't it cool" take it down today.

EDIT: Blogger emailed me today and made me take down the picture of Bumblebee Transformer

Monet in Normandy

Yesterday Kaan and I went to SF to see a Monet show. It was hosted by Temple University where AJ got her Masters. She signed up to go with me as a guest and I walked in with Kaan and said "We represent Ms. Harlow - I'm Jason." Then she got out another nametag and asked for Kaan's name. There was a lecture that reminded me how interesting Art History can be and then the pieces they had were very interesting. They had, of course, a few of the well known Monets, but what I really liked was that they had a bunch of things I had never seen - earlier works that showed his progression to the "Impressionist" style. Everyone knows his "Waterlilly" & "Cathedral" studies, and some know of his "Haystack" studies, but I had never seen his "Wave" or "Cliffside" studies - which he did primarily while in Normandy - hence the title of the show.

This is the only pic I could "steal" without the staff noticing and nixing me. I was holding the camera at my side so the angle & framing isn't the best.


Maybe I should try harder to paint stuff... I have a bit of time on my hands now...

NO jury duty for ME!

YAY!
I had to wait around and be "on call" but I just called and they said we aren't needed. I never thought I'd be this excited to go to work. I got a lot done around the house in the mean time. Like I ironed all my shirts that I can't wear anymore because I ride my bike to work and I don't want them all sweaty. EWWW! Now I have to make up the morning hours I missed and work later. Oh well! Good thing my job doesn't SUCK!

Give PEEPS a chance.

Before AJ left for Costa Rica, we went out to get her some clothes that would be more appropriate for the weather down there. I saw this shirt and couldn't help but buy it. I mean, it's got a PEEPS dove on it! "Give PEEPS a chance." Gotta love it. It didn't hurt that it was only $10. SWEET lovin' PEEPS.

After riding home today, I sat outside with the cats and planted more seeds. Hopefully by then time AJ comes back, we won't have to buy any spices! We'll see... Anyways, the cat-grass has grown long enough that I let them have at it. They totally loved it!

Maddi eats sideways... LOL

Then Michael Thomas found another lizard. They live in the vines on the fence around the yard. Last time he pulled off the tail and grabbed the body. He played with it for a while, but after I saw he was just mangling the poor thing, I took it away. This time he only got the tail. And Maddi got involved. See the tail in front of Mike?

AJ went away... MUNNY came to stay.

Yeah, so yesterday I drove AJ to the airport and she took off to go to Costa Rica for a month. She's going to stay with a host family and go to school to study Spanish. She took 3 semesters already at HVCC when we were in NY so she's not starting at zero. Hopefully it'll be a really good experience for her and she'll be all kinds of fluent when she returns.

After I dropped her off I went up to Daly City to check on the bus. I figured I was practically there anyways, why not bug them?!?! Well, they haven't looked at the bus yet. It's been sitting there for a week. SIGH. I shall commence daily callings to ensure that it does not sit there for 6 weeks with no changes like it did last time. I like Tassi a lot - they are good trustworthy guys... but sometimes I don't know how they stay in business.


I headed up to SF afterwards to see if I could alleviate my disappointing state of mind by consuming some useless toys at Kidrobot. I believe I was successful. I bought one of the giant plain MUNNY figures so I can paint it all spaceJASE style. Give it my own "flava". They come with extra things inside and I got some cool gear. We'll see how that goes... people get crazy with their MUNNY:

Maybe someone will want to buy mine for $500. LOL (Jeff Soto does some pretty crazy stuff... Google image search = sweeeeeet!)

After that I met up with Drew and we watched the USA/Italy soccer game at a bar. It was good, even though we only tied. At least the USA wasn't shut out too early. They still have a chance.

Then I came home and checked on the cats. They were fine and a little surprised to see me. They know the suitcase and I'm sure they thought we'd both be gone for a while. We'll see if they show signs of missing AJ in the future. I will undoubtedly forget "soft-food time" at some point.

I then went to meet Craig & Jess & Greg at "Prince of Wales" in San Mateo. They were having a bite to eat before going to see Nacho Libre. We played darts and then they headed out to the movie. (I passed - maybe I'll go see CARS at the theater.)

I came home and played games until I was sufficiently tired. I think I did a pretty good job of keeping myself busy minus my wife. Sunday has gone OK too. Groceries and laundry today. I have to make some dinner and then maybe some LEGO building to pass the evening.

I'll try to update more frequently so AJ can keep up with the activities too.

Burning Safari

Recently I was introduced to this short CG animation at work. It's pretty neat. Nice pacing and good animation. It's worth a look if you have a moment.

Burning Safari Short

Enjoy!

Belgium - May 2006

OK so it took me a while to go through all the pictures I took on our trip. Here's the last leg when we went to Belgium. We stayed in a B & B in Brussels for a few days and took a day trip to Bruges. So take a look at the pictures and enjoy:

Page 1 - Brussels
Page 2 - Bruges

This ends our trip to Europe. We had fun.

Luxembourg - May 2006

After the wedding in Germany (see below) we went to Luxembourg. We stayed in Luxembourg city at the Cafe Francais right on the main square. It was lovely. Although a bit pricey at $150/night. Carsten drove us down from Germany so we didn't have to deal with trains and transfers and crap. Then he drove us to Vianden the next day and that was the best!

Here are the picture pages for you to enjoy!

Page 1 - Luxembourg City
Page 2 - Vianden
Page 3 - Luxembourg City #2

Luxembourg was so awesome I think we might go live there someday. Castles are sweet. Um... I mean Chateau!

Germany - May 2006

We went to Germany to visit the Schwarz family and attend Carsten & Tanja's wedding.
Congratulations Carsten & Tanja!

Check out the pictures from:
Page 1 - Visit from the girls.
Page 2 - Haltern
Page 3 - The Wedding Day

It was a blast!