April 23, 2008 It has been a long time, but I finally have news! Three days ago, I returned from my first genuine vacation, having spent two weeks in the country of Peru. It
was a great experience, but I cannot possibly go into the details
here. However, feel free to view the 300 pictures that I have uploaded
to my site, at: |
March 6 , 2007 I'd never been to a concert before. My brother's band had performed in coffee shops, and city market before. And I had gone to those. But they were free and small affairs. The band I went to see tonight was Medeski, Martin, & Wood ... a moderately famous jazz fusion band that's been around since the early 90's. Obviously it wasn't as big a concert as, say, Aerosmith .. but it was legitimate. I've liked MMW since I was in middle school (maybe even elementary?). None of the other kids did, but I was influenced by my older brother. I have just about all their CD's, but I wasn't even aware they were playing locally. My girlfriend learned about it and decided to get us tickets. The show started with one of the trio (Wood) and his brother (another Wood) doing their own thing together. And it was good. At the time the crowd was pretty small, and things were going along well. The Wood Brothers performed for about an hour. When the finished they said MMW would be out soon. But in reality we ended up waiting about half an hour, maybe more. It was a long wait. And in the meantime, the crowd began to grow. ...and the smoking started. I'm not a smoker, and I hate being around it, but I grew up around a smoker, so I could tolerate the 'average' amount of it in the theater at this point. Eventually MMW came on stage, started playing, and it was good. The music was great and I enjoyed hearing it. Lots of strong grooves and funky basslines, and so naturally there were lots of people bobbing around as expected. And while I was perfectly comfortable around those people who bobbed (though I was not one of them) ... I was a bit alarmed by the crazy dancers. Granted, the music was good....but if the drunk (I hope!) people wildly flailing and twisting around weren't a bit much, then I certainly think that the crazed hippie girl dancing with glittering hula hoops was! After about a half hour to 40 minutes of playing, MMW took a break. And this was, again, a long one. Myself and my girlfriend were sitting on the upper level, overlooking the crowd below (and by this time, it had indeed grown to be a very large, very dense crowd). And among the chatter, a shrill scream that rose above the din seemed a bit out of place and unexpected. I looked down upon the crowd to see a girl, hand covering a mouth aghast, go running from the theater with a friend. And then seconds later...upon looking for the cause of the alarmed scream, I spot two bulky men dragging a clearly unconscious man out of the theater, yelling for people to clear out of their way. What interested me the most was how completely unphased the entire crowd was by this spectacle. I and my girlfriend, however, looked down upon the crowd, hoping to glean some bit of information. But we learned nothing of the cause. Though minutes later I overheard some conversation that the paramedics had come, but the guy was doing alright by that time. Another 10 to 15 minutes later, MMW returns and continues playing. It's getting a bit late at this point, and I notice my girlfriend starting to get rather tired. I'm doing alright, except for now I'm convinced that everyone in the theater besides myself and my girlfriend are smoking. It fills the theater, my lungs, my eyes. I don't like it... and even as I sit here now I can smell it on me, with my new change of clothes even, as I'm sure I will for another day or two. After another half hour or forty minutes...as we approach midnight... the music was good, but my tired girlfriend and the smoke in the air was making me consider it time to leave. I was still listening to the music though, when much to my surprise - lights started flashing in the theater, and a shrill whistle sounded in sync with the music...which continued to play. For a moment, I genuinely thought that this jazz-fusion band I liked so much had decided to turn into a techno-rave band. I was confused, and apparently so was the band, because they continued to play for about another 20 seconds until they and myself realized it was a fire alarm going off. The band stopped, and then all the power went out, except for the emergency lights. Seeing no evident sign of fire, the crowd remained patiently, except for some cheering, and booing, and laughing. Meanwhile, the power was still out...including the lights on stage, the amplifiers, and the sound technician's control panel. I took this as a sign that it was time for me to go. So myself and my sleepy girlfriend make our way outside, where we discover a police officer chatting with an unwashed looking fellow, who is saying that 'he didn't expect the fire alarm to be so sensitive that it would go off as he leaned against it while talking to his friends'. .....dumbass Our car was parked across from the theater, and as we were leaving the parking garage, two firetrucks pulled up in front of the place. Heh, false alarm. But what struck me as most funny, is that in the duration of this one concert.... the paramedics, the police, and the fire department all had to show up at some point. It was one hell of a night. And this was only just my first concert....I wonder what the second will be like. |
January 25, 2006 Today my peaceful little subdivision became a center of police activity. Cops and dogs, SWAT with assault rifles, firetrucks and ambulances, news vans and helicopters....all right outside my window. The reason? A guy who lives around the corner from me (who I've met a few times...seems rude...and with very expensive cars) was going to be arrested for fraud. When the cops arrived apparently he didn't go peacefully....he armed himself and barricaded himself inside his house. After that, the full force of the Raleigh police arrived. Around 5:00 I heard an explosion (I learned later this was the door being blown down). And then nothing else for a long time. Eventually all the police left, and just about an hour ago the police tape came down from across the road. About a half-hour ago, finally the News reported something newsworthy: he shot and killed himself. Interesting day |
January 1, 2006 Long-time no update. But here I am, half an hour into the new year, and I figure now's a good time. I seem to be done with the contract animation job. It ran a bit longer than I had expected, but no complaints at all. I'm thrilled to have been involved, and to have something official under my belt now. I'm sure I'll be eagerly looking for more work in the field soon. Otherwise, life continues on about the same. Still working my retail job. Also still working with my pal TogaMario on a game project. Really working though this time around...not just talking about thinking about working. Let's hope it develops into even one half of what we're planning for. Anyway...happy new years all. And I'll be sure to keep you up to date should something news-worthy occur. |
October 13, 2005 I have been hired by NuMedia Productions for a contract animation job. This project shall last until mid-December. |
October 5 , 2005 I actually have some news. First off, that big project I mentioned I was going to do has fallen through. It was just too big. But I have been working on other projects, which you can read about on the forums (and even suggest your own!). At my current job, I'm being promoted to a low management level. It's been a year, I've earned it. But I'm also excited because this week I've got an interview for an animation contract job. Lookin' forward to it. |
August 24, 2005 The "Words" page wasn't doing anything for me, so I changed it to a "Works" page. For the moment it's got some web stuff that I've done. If I do find or make some writings, they'll also go in there. And if someday I can get a game or a small demo completed, that'll be its home as well. If you're having issues with getting directed to the now deleted "words.htm" page, just do a Refresh on whatever page you're coming from. |
August 23, 2005 - 1:00am Only a few hours after my last news update. This time just to say that I've uploaded two animations to the Art page. |
August 22, 2005 Today I've begun an independant animation project. It's one of many that I've had in my mind for a while now, and yesterday I decided that I should go ahead with it. It's a fairly large project, but I'm dedicating myself to it. Four characters, a city street environment, and a playtime of roughly two and a half minutes as the characters act out a song. More details will be made clear as I progress further. I spent today working on character design. Over the next few days I'll be working on poses and facial expressions, then scene design and storyboarding. Check my WIP forum over the next few days (and months!) as I intend to post various elements for peer review. |
August 16, 2005 I've added another 2D drawing to the Art page. It's a close-up shot of Grimore Fleischer, a villanous character of mine who's always been a favorite among my peers. He's one small part of a very big story with lots of characters that I hope to expand on one day. And it'll all be posted here. Thanks to Molotov for reminding me to put up the picture. Also because while hunting for it, I found a few animations that I'll be wanting to upload here. That is probably the next update. |
August 15, 2005 The forums are now up and running (that's one more thing to check off my list). I do hope that it will become a place of some activity, but at the very least I hope everyone who visits will drop in and say hello in the Guestbook section. In other news, I learned something interesting recently. What I learned is that in spanish, "veo" means "I see". I find this interesting because my avatar online has often been the eye of Sauron, and also because in the banner up top I've got a close-up on my eyes. I suppose it's also uncanny due to the fact that I do visual arts as opposed to music. Anyway, I find it neat. |
August 10, 2005 I am pleased to announce the opening of Veo-works.com. This site may not be too flashy or too proud, but I think it'll serve its purpose well. And, it's still a work in progress. The Words page is lacking words, and the forum is a dead end, but they will be worked on. I also intend to add animations to the Art page, and add to the 2D and 3D sections as I complete more things. I'm glad to be online. |
August 5, 2005 The site is not live. The domain is not registered. However, the news page is now complete, and that seems newsworthy. |
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