Tuesday 5 June 2007

Month 2: The Revenge

Has it really been that long? Wow. What does one say at a time like this?

Well, everything's still going fine. Having lots of fun and working a lot. Still no internet at my house though. And it looks like it could still take a couple of weeks. They'll probably come install it right before I move back to Holland.
You see, in order to be provided with internet access, I had to get a phone line installed first. After a couple of attemps I finally became a customer of a certain telephone company. They gave me my very own phone number and would come round on Saturday the 19th to install the line. On Friday the 18th, while I was at work, I got a call from a mechanic from said phone company, who had come to install the phoneline. I explained to him that my appointment was on the 19th, but that was not what his schedule said. He said he'd try to squeeze me in on Saturday, but could make no guarantees. Of course the next day he didn't show up, so I had to make a new appointment. Fine. I called the phone company again, explained the situation, only to hear it wasn't that person's department and that she'd have to patch me through. About 30 minutes and ten pounds later (pounds as in: currency, I didn't experience any sudden rapid weight loss or anything) I finally got to talk to someone who told me there were thousands more customers like me and that they were working on it and that they'd get back to me in about ten working days. To be continued...

And now it's time for Marcel's movie reviews! "Pirates of the Carribbean 3: The Something of Someplace or Something". It's not very good.

So, I've finally picked up karate again, and my former fellow karatekas will be sad to hear that I've given up on Shotokan and have picked up Shukokai karate. (Anybody reading this who doesn't know what Shotokan or Shukokai means, just nod your head and say: "Why yes, that does sounds interesting!") Some of my former fellow karatekas from The Hague will be pleased to hear though, that this particular form of karate is a lot like the one we were taugh in The Hague, so it all works out.
As long as we're on sports, last Sunday I went rock climbing for the first time in my life. Well, it was indoor rock climbing, so there weren't any actual rocks. At first I didn't really know what all the fuss was about. Once you get up there it seems kind of pointless, because you'll have to make your way back down again, but I must say that it's actually kind of fun. In fact, I could be doing it right now and I really wanted to, but I could hardly squeeze the toothpaste out of its container this morning, due to aching forearms. (What do you call those things toothpaste comes in in English anyway?)
I'm also still playing squash, well, I've played it here once so far, but I wanna pick that up again too. The animators around here are an active lot I tell ya!

And on a cultural note: Two weeks ago (Has it really been that long? Yes! We've already gone through this!) I caught the last day of the local Pixar (animation studio) exhibit in the Royal Scottish Museum. If it's ever somewhere near you, go there! They've got loads of concept art and sculptures that yes, you can see in the "Art of" books, but now you can actually see it at its original size! Also, there was a so-called zoetrope which was just amazing. If you don't know what a zoetrope is, you can look it up, but I'll try to describe it to you as best as I can. It can be built in many ways, but basically, in this case, it's a big round disk on top of which several, three dimensional, characters are mounted, in sequential poses. The disk is spun at a certain speed, until it's hard to see the characters, because your eyes can't keep up and the picture becomes all blurry. A strobe light, that flickers a couple of times per second, (like the ones they use on dance floors and at concerts sometimes) breaks up the fast motion so the motion blur is gone and you can see the individual poses, one at a time, in rapid succesion, just like you would watch any other movie. That's about as clearly as I can say it. It just comes down to a big disk with a lot of characters from Toy Story "moving around" on it and it looks really cool.

If I can think of anything else to tell you, I'll let you know. For now, I bid you adieu. And that concludes the French part of this post.

Marcel (Yes, the Marcel)

5 comments:

Bob said...

Hee Marcel,

Even een reactie op je mailtje. Ik weet even geen andere manier om je te benaderen dan via je blog dus bij deze. Geeft verder niks het late reageren. Ik stel me zo voor dat je het erg druk hebt en ik ben zelf ook de snelste niet wat reageren betreft!! Ik heb inmiddels een portfolio plus showreel opgestuurd. Alweer zo'n twee weken geleden. Ik heb nog niks gehoord dus ik denk niet dat ik je binnenkort kan komen vervelen in Edinburgh maar je weet maar nooit. Misschien zijn ze gewoon langzaam. Ik zie mezelf ook niet echt als senior animator eerder als inbetween hulpslaaf of op zijn hoogst als junior animator. Nou ja, zou desalniettemin erg cool zijn. Miscchien kun je de recruiter even drogeren als hij mijn map plus showreel doorkijkt!!

Cool ook dat je de Pixar expo hebt gezien. Ben erg fan van de art of books maar heb nog nooit de originelen gezien. Het schijnt ook dat ze een zoetrope hebben in het Ghibli museum in Tokyo met allemaal totoro's en nekobusjes. Moet ik ook nog eens een keer gaan zien.

Verder erg veel succes met al het werk en alle sportactiviteiten ernaast. Je zal in iedergeval niet het vatsige animator stereotype worden waar we allemaal bang voor zijn!!

groetjes,

Bob

ps bij deze mijn hotmail adres zodat we wat directer kunnen mailen

bob_wolkers@hotmail.com

Annibal said...

Ah! He's alive! ALIVE, I tell you!

Fijn dat het goed gaat dear, hoop voor je dat dat internet-telefoonlijk-dingetje nu toch echt eens zal gaan lukken..

Benedict E Bowen said...

Thanks for writing in English! ^_^

Sounds like you're having a fun time, although I feel incredibly unfit reading this entry... us London based animation peeps are evidently far more slovenly.

Back in work at last. Feels good!

Unknown said...

what! you enjoy rockcliming and you never told me?! Damn you!Ik zoek al eeuwigheid een klimpartner en al die tijd was mijn eigen broer(tje, haha) in de buurt!? Zucht, heb ook nix aan jou... Anyway, how's life? Does it suck to be you? Voorlopig kom ik nog niet naar Edinblog, maar ik ga m'n best doen!! Spreek je gauw!

Renée said...

'Allo, 'allo, Marcel

Good to hear from you again... Wat een toestand is dat toch met die telefoon- en internetaansluiting. Hopelijk komt e.e.a. snel in orde.
Via Google even gezocht naar zoetrope en zo vond ik deze link (naar een filmbestand van ong. 4MB). Hopelijk lukt het invoegen van de link...

Zo te horen heb je het verder wel naar je zin en begin je je draai al aardig te vinden. :)
Groetjes van ons allemaal vanuit het verre Zeeuws-Vlaanderen.
Ton, Renée, Luuk en Marieke