Barry Takes Flight!


Mike is clearly using my PC for evil.


I pitch my new ideas!


We build the great wall of mostly pure cane sugar soft drinks


It belongs in a museum... of art!



Welcome to Boom Boom Town!

Welcome to the office Lord Barricus!

Here we see Barry testing 2 of the 5 laptops he brought.




Take that Mike!




And this is for the nonbelievers... or me. I'm not certain, really.




Barry has been here for about a week now, and we're moving right along with the project. The whiteboard reflects our respective task, and by bedtime Sunday, we should be 80% out of pre-production (Scripts, storyboard, but not quite all of the concept art). Next week is voices, and I begin the moving storyboards in 3D, while also studying on various engine tools. A feature full trial run is still needed, but my gut says my plan of action will require minimal tweaking.

Also, you may have heard this already, but it looks like this year's Machinima Film Festival is go. I really, really missed it last year.

I'm sure everyone has seen this already, but if not, I highly recommend checking out the last BloodSpell blog entry.


For anyone who has ever attempted, or dreamed of being involved in a feature film, this last letter will touch home, resonate, and likely draw a few tears. If nothing else, it's yet another great example of, "And so can you!"

To that end, Strange Company has also been releasing a series of behind the scenes, making-of shorts that cover the creation of a feature-length Machinima film in your apartment. They start right here. I hope this becomes a trend with other studios, even if it's just covering a cute little short you did one Sunday afternoon...

Some days are long. Really, really long. Some days you're doomed to your office (sheeyeahright!), and some workplaces block all the good stuff. (I can honestly say, it's my own fault... I wrote half the block list!)

Sometimes, music is the only thing we have.

Not sure where I first got wind of the thing, but I found this site several months ago, and I've been hooked like a fish with a death wish. It's basically a social bookmarking site, like digg or reddit, but for music. They stream in music on the big list, and if you like it, you can add it, or bump it up. It's got some RPG elements going too. My roommates and I gtalk links to the sweet songs at least once a week, and it's just a ton of fun to promote your favorites. What I really enjoy, is that they give the artist free reign over their MP3s: buy, download, both or neither! For the camping road trip, I burned what I could from my playlist to CD, and it was quite the conversation piece over those longer stretches of Texas nothingness...

So, you may have noticed the site was unavailable a bit over the weekend, turns out there was a massive power outage at the NOC where my hosting service is based. When the power goes out, a diesel generator fires up automatically, and with the aid of a huge array of UPS batteries the servers are supposed to remain up and running without interruption. However, this past Friday, when the site suffered a blackout, a component of the UPS array failed. Ironic since it was recently inspected and a replacement was ordered for the exact part that failed. It was due to arrive the 27th of May. More

I, however, didn't care about any of this. I was trying to go camping.

Friday afternoon, we drive. Friday night, around 10:30PM Mike, myself, and my Bro arrive at the camp grounds. We relax around a fire, with friends who had been there all day. Saturday 7:30AM, Mike and I hit the road to Waco, a 2 hour drive. At 11:15AM, I can be found in a church parking lot washing my hair. Nearly an hour and a half behind schedule the bride and groom to be collect everyone they need for the wedding practice. All goes well. We go for lunch, and by 2:30PM Mike and I are on the road again, headed back to camp. After a few stops for additional steaks and cookies, we arrive to the fire around 7:15PM. Steaks are cooked with a Tequila based marinade, and served by 8pm. Everyone is happy. Sometime in the midnight hours, while telling stories, a creature is stirring in the woods. Lights are drawn, and a hunting party is formed. Half hour later, the culprit is discovered, a small armadillo. Sunday dawn, I awake, look around, and go back to sleep. Sunday 9:00am, I stumble my way to the park showers, I use a travel vial of shampoo leftover from Las Vegas. A number of insects and arachnids join me. After my return, we play cards. About 1PM we break, some go to town for ice, I choose to hike and take some pictures. Miles later, thirsty, drenched in sweat, and exhausted, I stumble into the main road. Somehow Carrie and Chris happen to drive right up, I hitch a ride back to camp. We have some lunch, and everyone decides to call camping a done deal. Mike and I have not even had full day, but since it's 90 something degrees and humid has hell, we concede that Memorial day may best be spent at home under an AC. Sunday 9PM, everyone has been delivered to their homes and I'm sitting at my computer, wondering what the hell just happened to my camping trip. We make plans to do it again this Winter. The next morning I shaved my beard, and made plans to get a haircut.