I got nearly 12 hours of sleep last night. Mmm. Next stage in The Gauntlet: Finish modeling all characters, props, set objects, etc. for 3D Animation final project. Due Monday. Oh, and Saturday and Sunday are out, because they are Load In and Tech for Lady in the Dark, so I’ll be at the theatre all day, beginning at something like 10 in the morning. So I have a couple hours today, then all tomorrow to model two hero characters (old ladies with walkers), their various props, and their Nursing Home environment. And I’m about a third of the way done with the first lady. Hah, that’s funny.

Whee! One more tight squeeze overcome in the Gauntlet of Academic and Extracurricular Doom that is my life right now. The Virtual World Design game really came together. It’s slow-loading at the beginning, but it works perfectly. And my models and graphics are pretty, and the 28-second intro animation I put together in the last 24 hours went off without a hitch! Well, actually, there were a lot of hitches, but it worked in the end. Even though AfterEffects can’t compress Quicktime files to save its life, and the 28-second animation at Medium/High quality at 640×480 was nearly 500 megabytes. Yeah, that was fun to transfer from the animation lab. Thank gravy for the grand abundance of webspace in tnm.n’s new plan at Dreamhost!

I’m heading for bed now, as I pulled an all-nighter to finish the project, but before it disappears under a huge mental stack of other things to write about, yes, I did get to see Terry Jones today, and because I had to go to rehearsal before he finished his lecture and therefore missed the booksigning, Will graciously agreed to get my books signed for me. I haven’t talked with Will since then to verify that he indeed was able to, but Keith: I’m pretty sure you can expect something shiny and political in your mailbox soon. I don’t have your address on file, so let me know where to send it at priscellie at gmail.

And now: blissful unconsciousness. Good night, everybody!

Meme, ganked from Tanja and others:

01: Take a screencap of your desktop.

02: Upload the screen cap to your image server.

03: Reply to this entry with A LINK TO your screencap. Along with any explanations you feel are necessary.

04: Post your cap in YOUR LJ along with these instructions.

DAS LINK.

Bwaha! I love it when schoolwork coincides with fandom. I keep up with several Copyright blogs for class, and today, one of them posted about the hilarious thorn in the WB’s side, Wizard People, Dear Reader, an “alternative sound track” for Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone.

Meanwhile, I realized today in Animation class that if I ever were to start vidding (which I never will, as I have far too many time-consuming hobbies as is, and my computer would choke and die), my first project would be to set Buffy season 4 interactions between Spike and the Scoobies to Avenue Q‘s “The More You Ruv Someone (The More You Want to Kill Them).” [Edit: Though come to think of it, it would be even funnier and more fitting for Spike/Angel. *cackles*] I love how all the dorky vid ideas I’ve had are all for songs from musicals… I’d love to see the Hobbits with Leprosy singing “Oh Fabulous One” (Lady in the Dark) to Glory, or a delightfully OOC Spike singing “Let Me Walk Among You”, from Bat Boy. Or a Bangel “Inside Your Heart” for the “Blood of a Slayer” scene in Graduation Day part 1. Clearly, ship loyalties mean nothing in the quest for a good laugh. XD After all, I helped facilitate Cyth’s Simon/Inara vid because her idea was hilarious. (You ever going to post it, Cyth? Or do you still need the boot of “Shindig”?)

In short, if you ever see me walking to or from class, listening to my iPod, snickering to myself with an impossibly wide grin, now you know what I’m thinking about.

A few fannish things:

Oooh. Mirrormask soundtrack, coming September 20th (on Amazon)!

Haha, ABC offers a Lost refresher course! Also Desperate Housewives, *snerk*.

Dom nominated for a PRISM Award, honoring “outstanding efforts in the accurate depiction of drug, alcohol and tobacco use and addiction in film, television, interactive, comic books, music, and video entertainment.”

And Dad — 42 is the Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything. Don’t you recall your literature?

I love it when I see a new movie with an actor I already know and love and I don’t automatically see them as their previous roles. I was delighted when I didn’t constantly see Merry in Charlie or Magneto in Gandalf or… I dunno, Qui-Gon in Valjean. And now, major props to James Marsters for joining the Few, the Proud, the Able to Act in a Versatile Enough Manner That I Can Actually Concentrate on Your New Character Without Uncontrollably Associating it With A Preexisting Fandom!

Yes, I acknowledge that his changed appearance was a major contributing factor. It’s why I couldn’t see Naveen Andrews in Bride and Prejudice without thinking “OMGSAYID” or Nathan Fillion on Buffy without thinking “WAH why is Mal evil?”. Will mocked me the other day for my blog entry on “Chance”, saying “It’s because of people like you that well-known actors can’t get jobs!” Hee, yeah, that’s true.

Though it’s not just change of appearance: I saw Gollum in every frame of Andy Serkis’ performance in 13 Going on 30. And there was this moment on James’ appearance on The Mountain (why oh why did I endure that agony when I knew the James bits would be up on Buffy.nu in a matter of days?), where he let out this sad sort of chuckle, which conjured memories of that same chuckle in “Lessons,” after Buffy asks CrazyintheBasement!Spike if he’s real. Okay, so appearance and voice. Memorable mannerisms. I should just stop talking, yes? This post really isn’t going anywhere, and I sound like even more of a deranged fangirl than usual. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a deranged fangirl. La la la.

Suffice it to say, I enjoyed Cool Money. James was great, and the reliance on human ingenuity rather than just a bunch of high-tech devices was refreshing. Though I admit, I started with slightly low expectations for the quality of the overall movie, based on the credits that were a blatant ripoff of “Catch Me if You Can.” In sum, good movie. I’ll get back to work now.

Yay for a delightful evening! I just met with Chris, my Virtual World Design partner, and it looks like he’s a lot further along with the coding than I had thought. Also, modeling is going very well! I really think we’re going to get this done by Wednesday without losing too much sleep. *knocks on lovely mahogany shader used in the dining room environment*

Now I’m taking a quick break to make cookies for Matt (it’s his birfday! He is TEH SCORE!), blasting Abbey Road on my delicious iPod speakers. They’re so tiny, but they can produce so much noise! And of such high quality! Mmm, speakerlove.

I can breathe again! Momentarily, at least!

You know that computer science midterm I took right before spring break, the day after my first day back in classes after being bedridden for two days due to Ebola or Plague? When I spent all time not in class or rehearsal asleep, and all time in class in a brain fog? Somehow I managed to do even worse than I thought I had.

What the heck am I doing in a Computer Science major?

Rehearsal is now pushing past four hours a night. I’m seriously considering not doing a production in the fall. The QSA chair keeps coming up with inane tasks that he insists must be completed immediately (stuff he could easily do himself; he has the coding savviness to do it) and finds idiotic, nitpicky faults with my LAYOUTS, which take ages to change and re-implement. He doesn’t seem to understand when I tell him that I need EVERY WAKING MOMENT to work on models for my Virtual World Design project, due Wednesday. I want to scream. And every day that goes by diminishes me in the eyes of my 3D Animation professor, whom I asked for an extension when I was unable to get my rat walk cycle to a stage I could be proud of in time for the due date Wednesday.

How on earth could Spring Break have already come and gone?