Missile Toes

A little seasonal playlist.

An audio adventure.

Hit play. 

Minimize window.

Go about your internetting.

...and all through the house

Here is a little vid to go with the pics.

'Twas the month before christmas...

Visited a place called Tehachapi for my Mom's birthday where we had a Thanksgiving dinner in a house decorated for Christmas. It was a wonderland of sorts... I took pictures.

Pixar and Story

This was so cool I had to share...

Pixar's 22 Rules For Storytelling.

By

Emma Coats  
@lawnrocket

Graphic made @ PBJ Publishing.
Go download a free hq JPG of it!

OR you can buy a print and make your wall much more awesome!

Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful for:

Friends (new and old, future and forgotten).
Family.
Life.
A place to live.
Food.
Water.
Dipping sauce.
Dance.
Movies.
The new golden age of TV.
Old TV.
Cheers.
Black & White.
Boston.
Earth.
Disneyland.
Pizza.
Memories.
My hair.
Health.
Clothes.
Coitus.
Video Games.
Apple.
My camera.
My future.
My past.
My present.
Presents.
Empathy.
Generosity.
Coconut water.
The five senses.
Motivation.
Happy.
Fun.
Vaginae.
My Penis.
Sunscreen.
Boots.
Underwear.
Intuition.
Muppets.
Joss Whedon.
Music.
Monkeys.
Ukulele.
Pizza.
Novels.
Storytelling.
Air.
Hope.
Faith.
Wine.
Weed.
Magic.
The Unknown.
Ampersands.
Randomness.
NaNoWriMo.
Sports.
Invention.
Modern Medicine.
Eastern Medicine.
Alternative Medicine.
The Moment.
Electricity.
Love.
Like.
Like Like.
The Obscure.
Women.
Computers.
Compassion.
The Rain forest.
Forest Gump.
Bigfoot.
Ghosts.
Destiny.
The Force.
Haunted Theme Parks.
Sunglasses.
Really Cool Jackets.
The Bottom of the Ninth.
The Lakers.
The Dodgers.
Stop Motion Animation.
Traditional Animation.
Computer-ie Animation.
Teeth.
Functioning Body.
Pizza.
Creativity.
Opportunity.
Pistils
Stamens.
Honey Bees.
Documentaries.
Rain.
Sun.
The Earth.
The Universe.
The Multiverse.
Sheldon Cooper.
The Princess Bride.
A Christmas Story.
Danny Kaye.
Steve Martin.
Bill Cosby.
Consciousness.
Art.
Comedy.
Headphones.
Fantasy.
Science Fiction.
Jean Shepherd.
Blankets.
Imagineering.
Writing.
Calvin and Hobbes.
Socks.
Spirit.
Books.
Farscape.
Bargain Theatres.
Chance.
No. 2 Pencils.
Zeal.
Built in Bookmarks.
Beginnings.
Satisfaction.
All Body Parts (inside and out).
Neil Gaiman.
Ray Bradbury.
Writers.
Dogs.
Soul.
Rock N Roll.
Possibility.
Good People.
Nature.
T-Shirts.
Jeans.
Dreams.
Shoes.
Duct Tape.
Soap.
Trees.
Used Bookstores.
New Bookstores.
Publishers.
Editors.
Toilets.
Showers.
Plumbing.
Headache Medicine.
Windows.
Doors.
Nubbs.
Filmmakers.
The Little Guy.
The Underdog.
Ability.
Luck.
Obi Wan Kenobi.
Chefs.
Money.
The Moops.
Brains.
No Zombies.
Buffy.
Ballads.
Billiards.
Baking.
The Letter B.
All the other letters.
Cats.
The Beach
Pachinko Machines.
Pinball.
Poetry.
Backpacks.
Laptops.
Pizza.
Other.



...andtomorrowi'llbethankfulformore

Truth & Fiction

Epiphany & Sunscreen

Another bit of NaNoWriMo inspiration fodder:

I had an epiphany. It came at an odd time, as epiphanies love to do. It came when I was answering a question. The person who I was talking to was worried about being original. To be honest, originality has always been very important to me, so I'm not entirely sure where this came from, but I said, "Don't try to be original. Just be honest." Like all epiphanies it wasn't original, but it was the truth...

"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." 
-C. S. Lewis

And now we have an oldie but goodie! (great... a cliche after my originality and honesty epiphany.. well two steps forward ones step back.. Damn! I did it again!)

If you have never heard the Sunscreen Song, which actually started out as a commencement speech, you should definitely check this out..

Gaiman and Palmer

I am doing NaNoWriMo this year. We are 4 days in so far, so there is still chance to get in on the action if you have the metaphorical balls. If you don't know what it is then check out their website here. Or type www.nanowrimo.org into your address bar and hit return. Basically what it is is this. Write a novel in one month. 50,000 words in 30 days.

But instead of doing it on your own the site provides a forums for support, tips for completing and other helpful tidbits. They have Write-Ins where you can go and write with other WriMos. And my favorite: a little stats thing that tells you how much you have written, what your average word count is per day, when you will finish based on what you've written so far, etc. Wait, I take it back, my favorite is when they send pep talks from successful writers. Every once and a while you get a piece of writerly-nano-advice from somebody in your nano mailbox. Last one was from Kate DiCamillo. I wouldn't mind if they did this daily. #hinthint

Well, it is tough to do something as big as a novel without some encouragement. Some inspiration. Some laughs. And there are a couple of things I wanted to share since they provided me with all these things and more. I found them at different times although they go very well together... almost as if they were meant to. Or as if the two who created them were married or something. They are commencement speeches given by Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. Collectively they clock in at under 30 minutes and no matter who you are I think there is something in it for you. In fact I think they should each do a TED talk. Thank you Neil Gaiman. Thank you Amanda Palmer.

Anyway, here are the links to the speeches:


Amanda Fucking Palmer Commencement Speech
Neil Gaiman Commencement Speech


Oooo. Another thing I really want to mention is Mur Lafferty. I usually listen to Writing Excuses (which comes out today). If you are into writing, if that's your bag, check out www.murverse.com. Especially her podcast I Should Be Writing (ISBW). It is a great parallel to Writing Excuses. Where as they usually focus on technique, Mur has a more emotional approach to her podcast. She has nice meaty interviews with writers and does a feedback show where she answers your emails. She also has some good insight into depression and writers. Check out ISBW located in Podcast System of the Murverse. Also available on iTunes.



PS I have a little word ticker at the top of my page here to show my up to date word count for this National Novel Writing Month.

......................................................................................................

Happy Halloween...

...now run.

All Hallow's Read

I am a big Halloween fan. Always have been. I spent many years creating scary worlds in my bedroom as a kid and on my porch and lawn when I was in college. All in celebration of the Pumpkin Holiday. But I also love books. And now thanks to Neil Gaiman we can celebrate them as one.

Gaiman has invented a new holiday tradition. And its simple. Give a scary book to a loved one on Halloween Night. I thoroughly and sincerely endorse this book giving holiday.

And if you don't want to stop there, I think Joe Hill's idea of an out-loud reading a scary story on Halloween Night is a great addition.

So go out and get a scary book.
Give it to someone.
Then trudge into the Pumpkin Patch... and read.
Then tell the Great Pumpkin I say 'whatup' when you see him.

Here are a few of my recommendations for this year's of
ALL HALLOWS READ.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Cell by Stephen King

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark written by Alvin Schwarts Illustrated by Stephen Gammell

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill art by Gabriel Rodriguez

At The Mountains Of Madness H.P. Lovecraft





They are all scary treats I promise, no tricks here.

Jacuzzi + Toilet

The newest commercial I wrote and directed.

3 different cuts.


Flushdance v.1





Flushdance v.2





Flushdance v.3

Michaels and V8

A couple commercials I wrote and directed.


Michaels



V8

So.... this happened.

http://vimeo.com/48293774

My One Line Review of The Watch

That was the weirdest fucking Costco commerical I've ever seen.

The Great San Diego Con

Here are some screenshots from a little thing I slapped together from Comic-Con 2012. Click any one of them and instantly teleport to the video from which they came! Then... watch it.

I originally titled this post simply "Con", but put a bunch of o's in it so as to reference Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn... but it just looked like I was yelling "coon"... so I decided against it.

Easter Eggs n Comic-Con

So, yeah, I was lucky enough to snag badges to this year's Comic-Con. It is crazy how crazy its gotten. Ah, I remember the good ole days when you could walk up and get day-of passes, which was not that long ago. It was good times as always, mixed in with a bit of the Comic-Con Curse. But I think the curse is waning.

Spent a good deal of in line for Hall H, looking for outlaws, sitting in Hall H, snacking on jerky n granola bars, talking up single serving friends, Heck! I even snapped a couple fotos and rolled a tiny bit of video (which I edited sloppily to the Avengers Theme and will post).

One of the highlights was learning of Ready Player One and hunting down in the Exhibit Hall. While in line for H, my brother handed me a book and told me to read the prologue. OOOHHHH MYYYY CARRLY RAAEE JEEPPPSSEEENNN! Any book that goes into detail about Adventure for the Atari in the first couple pages, and quotes "dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria" has got me. Call me maybe ready to read the book in one setting.

My horrible back jacket synopsis: The year is 2044. This dude, who is the creator of a virtual reality construct that contains hundreds (thousands??) of different worlds and obsessed with 1980s pop culture, dies. He has left an easter egg somewhere inside the construct with three keys leading to them.  Whoever finds easer egg inherits his entire estate. Five years go by and nobody finds anything... Until a teenager from a trailer park finds the first key...

So I needed this book...

...and through some trials and puzzles that popped up unexpectedly in my way of trying to hunt it down on the last day of the Con, I finally found it. When I got it home and started reading WHAT DID I FIND??? I FRAKKING EASTER EGG!!!! The book was signed!!! And there was a little symbol next to Ernest Cline's autograph that I haven't seen in any other signature of his I could find online... just realized what the symbol is... awesome.

And now for some more pictures from in and around the Con... 

XP increased. 

You have learned the skill: Randomness.

Level Up. You are now an 11th level CCI attendee

Outside Petco Park where they were doing the Walking Dead Experience. Inside you could be a zombie, survivor, or spectator in exchange for cash. Would have loved to do this, but too rich for my blood. You also got a Walking Dead #100 Limited Edition for participating (prolly would have paid for  the whole thing actually).

Waited in line on Friday for 5+ hours and didn't get in to see Sheldon, but I did see a picture of him on a bus!!!!

Vader and Playboy bunny... pretty good.

Vader has gone on hard times after the Star blew up for the second time. He's sad. But he doesn't want your change, he only wants hugs.

Frankenweennie walkthrough.

Walking back to the car to go to our horrible horrible digs in National City

(would have rather stayed here).

Pop Up Petting Zoo!

Saw this spotlight waiting for H. I think it dressed up for the Con as Vader's Lighsaber...

Carrie SWAG... clever marketing.

The Exhibit Hall is now closed.

Finally tracked me down an outlaw. FINALLY!!!