This week I’m on Spring Break. It’s been strange having my evenings free, especially since Andrea’s break was a few weeks ago, so she’s in school at night. I’ve been watching movies (“Casino Royale” and “300″, which will be showing up in my movie journal one of these days) and playing a little Wii. Needless to say it’s been a nice break thus far.

Last night I started watching “Hellboy: Sword of Storms”, an animated film based on a cult comic book, which became a mildly successful live-action movie a few years ago. I’ll save the plot synopsis for my movie journal for now and just tell you that it inspired me a great deal last night. I have the inklings of a series of stories in mind that are a slightly different angle on the Hellboy world, but the two share enough similarities that watching the film helped me see that I’ve been going about my story concept all wrong. Now the story ideas are flowing out of me, almost to the point I want to start writing them all right now.

Here I’ve had 2 nights at home and already I’m planning my next project. I think that speaks volumes about my desire to write. However, I also think that speaks volumes about how school has prevented me from writing. Yes, I know that if I really want to write I’ll make time to do so, rather than letting life dictate when I can. Yes, I could skip a few episodes of Mythbusters or Lost and get some writing done. The problem is, when I get home from school after a full day at work, my mind is exhausted and all it wants to do is veg out in front of the television. There’s nothing left to do anything even remotely interesting or creative.

On a similar note, Sunday night, after a weekend where I had to keep reminding myself that I didn’t have to do homework, I got inspired by a show on the Discovery Channel, Planet Earth (which, by the way, has made the switch to HD completely worth it). The beauty shown during the program made me want to create something, too. So I got out Andrea’s computerized drawing pad (AKA Wacom Tablet) and began sketching. I was going to attempt something similar to the technique used to make the film “A Scanner Darkly” with its excellent rotoscoping, but wound up going in a slightly different direction instead:

Again, I think the simple fact that I have free time is allowing me to be more creative once again. I have the brainpower left over from the day to actually do something other than sit in front of the television all night. It also helps, I suppose, that I get home about three hours earlier, too. I can only watch so much TV before I just get bored and need to find something else to do. Those few hours between when I get home from work and Andrea gets home from school this week are just about all I can take of TV before I have to go find something more tangible to occupy my time and mind.

So as if I wasn’t excited already about next semester being my last, this little reminder of what life can once again be has been enough to keep me going for a while. But even if it is short-lived due to the inevitable hectic schedule of summer, I have a feeling I’ll be able to get it back come about Christmas 2007. It’s a long ways off, but at least there is some light at the end of this long, dark tunnel.

Ah, but this is a different kind of movie post. This one doesn’t go to my Movie Journal, but to YouTube, where I’ve posted a few videos that we’ve made since Christmas when my parents gave all of us kids cameras as our big gift.

I’ve only uploaded two for now, so go check them out when you’re bored at work or something.

The first is titled “Rufus Under Glass”, which shows how brilliant our little kitten really is.

And the other one is JK & Eric Wii Boxing, which is fairly entertaining as well. Don’t you hate hearing your own voice on video? I sound like an idiot…

Anyway, enjoy!

Larry “Bud” Melman has passed away at the age of 85.

Larry “Bud” Melman, whose name I never heard said any other way, was a bizarre, beloved little man. He was always a strange character on Letterman’s show who seemed to play up a sort of naivete that was at once hilarious and endearing.

I’m really happy that they mentioned “Nothing Lasts Forever” in the obit on CNN. I have a buddy, Mike Streeter, who wrote a book about the writer/director of that little-known, little-seen film, so it was very cool that they used that as the main example of Bud’s film work. (By the way, hit “Streeter’s Edge” in the links to go check out Streeter’s blog and buy his book.)

Sorry I haven’t been writing much lately. School took up pretty much all of my time last week as I had two mid-terms to study for and a paper to write.

Then I’ve been really busy at work too, as we are preparing to do a presentation on how we put GPS units in all of our trash trucks so the drivers can see on a map if the house they’re driving up to still has trash service and therefore whether or not they should pick up the garbage can out front. I know it seems bizarre to have that much technology inside a garbage truck, but it’s estimated that the City was offering services to people who weren’t paying at a loss of somewhere around $1 million in revenue per year. So, yeah, this is a big deal and is worth putting a little money into it.

We’re also looking to ask our big bosses if we can buy a major piece of software that would revolutionize the way we share map data with the employees and the citizens of the City. It’s called ArcGIS Server and it’s a pretty big deal, so we’re trying to get all of our ducks in a row for a presentation so that we can get a guaranteed “yes”.

Oh, and Andrea and I have been cleaning our condo like crazy, rearranging things, and building things. I’m going to post some pictures tonight (I hope) of our projects and redesigns, so be looking for those.

Long story short, life has just been really crazy for me the last few weeks – at work, at school, and at home. So I haven’t really been able to find much time to write or, well, really do anything enjoyable. Needless to say I’ve been sort of slacking off this week, watching some movies, and doing tons of laundry that has been piling up for far too long.

Next week is my Spring Break, so look for a few entries then as I get you updated and share a few things that have been keeping me occupied.

Talk to you again soon…

Wow. Does this look familiar or what?

My wife is home sick today and was watching a TiVo’d episode of MTV’s “The Hills” when this ad came on. Her jaw dropped when she saw how similar MTV’s mobile logo was to my logo, which I designed way back in 2001. Pretty amazing similarity, huh?

Now if only I had a team of corporate lawyers to go defend my logo…