Upcoming and outgoing

Women in Animation had their first public meeting last week. I think it went really well- good attendance and great people. They sought input on what people want from the chapter, which was welcome- it's good to be able to give input. I expect great things from them, and am so happy I played my small role in getting it going.

ASIFA meeting last night discussed upcoming events: Animation Show of Shows on Saturday, a drawing trip on November, a Show and Tell in December, Drinking and Drawing in January, and we're thinking about putting on a freelancer resource fair/panel discussion/something in February. Let me know if you have any insights on content for the freelancer event- I'm sort of spearheading that one, so I'm looking for input and suggestions as I try to see who would be interested in participating.

Work is busy and just doesn't seem to slow down. Which is good, I know- good for the company, good for the economy, good all around, but personally, selfishly, I wish I had a little more down time in a given day. I'm out of touch with all the blogs I used to read at work. We've had a really great group of clients lately, though, which helps immensely.

Last week (was it only last week? It seems forever ago), my mom and I took a trip down the coast to visit the aquarium and see Newport. I don't think I had ever been to Newport, and it's silly to miss things that are so close. I need to get to Crater Lake someday. I took a couple pictures that I'll put on Facebook eventually.

I've been reading a bit, but mostly fiction, re-read Neuromancer and some Gaiman. Here are some gems from Dune:

Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of mankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him.

I am like a person whose hands were kept numb, without sensation from the first moment of awareness--until one day the ability to feel is forced into them. And I say "Look! I have no hands!" But the people all around me say, "What are hands?"

Finally, it looks like I've been keeping this blog (more or less) for a year now. It went so fast.

It's been a while

Going to iSite's anniversary party on Monday. The people I've met from there have made a great impression on me at cre8 camp and on Twitter, so I'm looking forward to it. They have a handy RSVP form on their website where you not only say that you're coming, but can tell them if there's any expert you'd like to talk to, and then adds the date to your Outlook calendar. Nice!

Also coming up- Science Pub and Interesting PDX.

I'm taking a couple days off in early April and really looking forward to it. It always seems like a person should take vacation when they have somewhere to go, but I never can afford to go anywhere. So I try to remember to take vacation anyway and just relax. I have to admit that I worry a bit about everything when I'm gone, but that's just because I take it seriously and feel a personal commitment to our projects- it's good that I worry, and good that I leave anyway.

Tomorrow we start putting together the baby board for the Portland chapter of Women in Animation- that should be exciting!

Also on Twitter, I'm late to the party, but Christopher Walken is my current favorite tweeter. He's hilarious. Someone really needs to put together an audio set, though, so you can hear him saying this stuff.

Also, shout out to some ex-Laikans who are staying in town and taking a shot at their own studio. I wish them all the best.

miscellany

A crucible is a heat-resistant container in which materials can be heated to very high temperatures.

Cre8 Camp on Saturday. To be perfectly honest, I'm feeling a little apprehensive that the event will be something of a forum for the OCI peeps. That makes it feel less organic and participant-driven than the Legion of Tech events, which is precisely what I value about them. However, I am looking forward to it.

Women in Animation stuff is happening- I've been really busy at work so haven't followed up on it as much as I keep intending to.

Still reading James P Carse and listened to his Long Now lecture last night. Really interesting, and surprisingly consistent with some stuff I was thinking way back when I studied philosophy, although, of course, much more cogent. His thinking is an interesting mix of rationality and mysticism that appeals to me.

Women in Animation exploratory meeting

That was a great meeting. The community in Portland is pretty small, so most people were connected to each other one way or another, and the sheer talent at the table blew me away.

The outcome seems to be that everyone wants to do it- to form a local chapter and become more involved with each other, to build community and support, to share and mentor, and, for me of course, to host some kick-ass events.

For those who don't know, yes, of course men are allowed and invited to participate, but we also want to acknowledge that women have a lot to share with each other, and need different kinds of support and mentorship.

I'm really excited for this opportunity, but equally excited that I don't have to spear-head it and push it forward. :-)

Miscellany

The exploratory "who wants to do this" Women In Animation meeting is on the 29th. Kate's gotten a huge response- she's starting to worry if there's going to be enough room at the table for all of us. Wonderful!

I just got a notice from the library that Altered Carbon is due sooner than I thought it was, and I haven't made much progress on it due to being sidetracked by Don Quixote. I'm going to try to finish it this weekend- I don't have a lot on my plate, so I should be able to jam on it.

Interesting Portland is moving forward, and I'm bummed that I missed all the meetings- they've been in the morning, before/into my work hours, and I just can't hang with those times. However, the event itself should be pretty cool, and the tickets are already on sale at a steep discount for the adventurous who are willing to buy tickets before the agenda is announced. For more info, go here.

Drinking and Drawing

Turnout wasn't as high as I had hoped, but everyone had a really good time. It's funny, because the group of people who ended up doing the bulk of the drawing really took ownership of the final product. I hadn't seen that happen before, but I think it's because at prior events there were so many people drawing that they only got to go once or twice.
I had a really good time and saw a lot of people I wanted to see, and finally met some people I had only met on Twitter.

My use of Twitter on this event was really interesting to me. I created a Twitter account for DrinknDrawPDX, and specifically sought out people on Twitter that I thought would be interested. Over time, DrinknDraw developed a social network that only slightly overlaps my own, and introduced me to people I wouldn't have met otherwise. And I'm still not sure that all those people know that I'm DrinknDraw and DrinknDraw is me. Funny.
So DrinknDraw developed a small social network on Twitter, and I spammed the hell out of everyone from my own Twitter account, and Facebook, and the Oregon Media Network, each of which had a slightly different result from a different but overlapping group of people.
The DrinknDraw account ended up being followed by some local art and media outlets, and had people volunteer to post press releases, as well as volunteer for the event itself.
That was pretty cool, actually- normally the process of getting volunteers for chapter events involves sending an email to a massive distribution list and then having interested people contact a coordinator who tries to coordinate them- in this instance, I called for volunteers from both Twitter accounts and within minutes I had one confirmed volunteer for each account. I love the speed and ease of tweeting those kinds of requests, and how quickly the community passed on the info. It's really cool.

At the event, someone I had never met before showed up and took the lovely photos posted here. Her name is Heather Zinger, and I think there's a wonderful artistic sensibility in her photography. And lo, she's interested in animation, so will show up to our WIA meeting.

On a different note, I think I need to set aside Don Quixote for now- it's a huge time sink, and I have some library books I'm dying to get to. It's a strange book- I spent a long time expecting a Decameron/Canterbury Tales kind of thing, and then just when I had accepted that it was going to take on the novel form, it switched over and seems to have become that. Which makes it easier to set down, actually.