Superbad

SUPERBAD: Go see this movie. If possible, see it with a buzz on, but by all means go see this movie. This is especially true for anyone who was mildly to extremely dorky in high school (yes, that's most of you). It is consistently funny throughout while maintaining storyline and provides a nice mix of juvenile and self-referential humor.

I went to see it with a group of other CMU grad students after our first day of class, and school couldn't have started better. I'm especially looking forward to the major project in lighting class. After a morning and early afternoon filled with classes I went home and continued teaching myself WYSIWYG until the "Welcome back BBQ" at school. From there it was a short design-grads meeting and some more WYSIWYG training before heading out to SouthSide Works' Irish pub for some drinks before the free Popcorn and $5 admission ticket special at the cinema there. Both 10:05 Superbads sold out and seeing the movie in a crowded theater definitely adds to the laughter.

In the News

Thanks to the ETC LDI Scholarship I'm on most of the major lighting magazines' websites:

* Live Design
* Light and Sound America
* Projection, Lights, and Staging News

Pretty cool.

Trip Report Days 2-5

Highlights:




* Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Studios -- this hotel is absolutely gorgeous with several small alleyways and piazzas to explore. It features several restaurants on the main piazza with a wine bar that we ate at one evening during sunset, breathtaking.

* Blue Man Group -- this production has very much the same content as their other shows, but a lot of the material has been tightened. It was the first time my parents and brother saw BMG and I always have a lot more fun when I bring new people to see their shows.




* Mythos Restaurant at Islands of Adventure -- I was drawn to a sign that said "Theme Park Insider's Best Theme Park Restaurant 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007" otherwise I would have missed it, but after looking at the menu on Monday my family decided to make reservations and give it a go on Tuesday. The restaurant has different executive chefs seasonally and August through September featured a "Celebration of Mushrooms" which was right up my alley. I had the wild mushroom soup appetizer, filet mignon with wild mushroom mashed potatoes, and "desert shots" of tiramisu and chocolate cake. OUTSTANDING all around.

* The Mummy Ride -- great combination dark ride/ roller coaster well conceived, executed, and (most importantly) lit.


I obviously had a great time at both parks, though Islands of Adventure needs the Harry Potter upgrade, nothing has been added since the park opened back in 1999. I hope they don't touch the Mythos Restaurant as its in the section of the park that will become Potterland since I've only just discovered it. The older park will do well to have its new Simpsons ride as the far end of the park is wanting as well. The other places we ate of note are the Thisty Fish Wine Bar at the Portofino, Margaritaville, and Pat O'Brians, very different from each other but all very enjoyable.

I also saw Jonathan Lester and the Boston Red Sox vs. the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night and we won by the skin of our teeth but the lead on the Yankees is back up to 6. Tonight we go back and see Dice-K before I head home tomorrow morning.

Trip Report Day 1

Highlights:

* J bats a thousand at TF Green Airport amoung other things finding a hiding ticket kiosk so we could skip an hour line to check in.
* Smooth Flight to Tampa
* Pirate Ship Booze Cruise! (damn straight)
* Hangin at the beach


People Drunk Dialed Today:
* J.Cro
* Goose

J Gets a New Toy

I decided to use some of my saved fun money on a new toy:

That's a 24 inch 1920x1200 monitor / television (by way of its native res and HDMI inputs). Let me just say that CAD and WYSIWYG are never gonna be the same. I can view an entire plot in a legible size without any zooming at all.

WHYB?... WYSIWYG

Where Have You Been? Why, spending all my free time learning the massive program that is WYSIWYG. Sorry to any blog faithful who have been deeply saddened by the recent dearth of entries (I know, who am I kidding right?). But I am happy o report that it's been worth it to get my head around this program and get a jump on school as we're learning a different lighting pre-vis program this semester (ESP Vision for the light geeks out there) and I've gained an important job skill. Here are some quick renderings I've done (note that because I'm using a demo copy, they're not as photo realistic as they would normally be).

PS> No one tell Alex Koziara or the Thematics people that the lightbox is now totally and unquestionable antiquated. It's like someone invented the typewriter 2 years before Windows came out.










In other news I had a great year at camp... almost certainly my last. I announced my retirement before the last performance of the Shakespeare camp and got a big hug from all the kids. I, of course, was a big friggin girl about the whole thing, but it's sad to know I have to move on from a job that's been so much fun and so rewarding for the last four years.

Modern Journalism

"I cry because I will laugh if I do not..."

Itinerary

Yesteray was my dad's birthday (Happy Birthday dad!) and we got to talking about the trips we're each slated to take in the coming months. My mom mentioned that she'd like me to come to California with her and dad when she presents at a conference. So it looks like I'll probably be going on the following trips in the next six months:

August: Tampa / Universal Orlando for a week to visit Shaneo.

October: Disneyland in Anaheim, CA for 3 days. Mom is presenting at a conference out there, so it only costs the airfare.

November: LDI in Orlando courtesy of ETC.

January: Caribbean-- the crazy cheap cruise I mentioned earlier (4 days/ 220 bucks). I can email the link if anyone's interested, the more the merrier!


In other news since the last update: Washed Away theater camp's pirate musical turned out really well, we've started production on Much Ado About Nothing which opens next Friday. Hard to believe the summer is winding down. I still haven't seen the Simpsons Movie, grrr. So far WYSISYG is fairly easy to pick up already knowing CAD, Vectorworks, Lightwright, and 3ds Max.

Cruel Intentions

WARNING: Harry Potter fans should skip today's post.

Friday at camp we were playing "It's Tuesday" a game in which everyone gets in a circle, the person to your left looks at you, says a true statement (like, "it's Tuesday" or "There's a 'B' on your cap") and you have to ridiculously overreact to it. Being near the end of the line I had a long time to decide what I would say. I mulled over saying "Harry Potter dies at the end of the book" or some other revealing tidbit of information I gleaned from picking up a friend's copy of the last Harry Potter turning to the epilogue and reading the last 5 pages. In the end I decided against it, the Potter fans would freak for real-- whether what I told them was true or not. However, I did see this shirt online today and despite it's cruelty, it's witty yet cavalier indifference more than makes up for it.