It’s been a crazy semester, packed full of projects and the like, and I’ve done my best to detail the best of them on my portfolio.

Over the summer I had some pretty major things going on, from my trip to Poland to the New Hampshire follow-up project I participated in, which were great projects.

I started the semester off performing in a poetry slam.  I came in 3rd place (out of 3 performers), but received very positive feedback.  Next I tackled a short film idea that’d been running around my head for a while, and made some good headway with it.  No plans for filming or even redrafting the script yet, but hopefully eventually; it was just nice to get into a project like that again after being out of it for a while.

Outside of school I rarely have spare time, but I found myself perusing Instructables pretty often, and entered their Halloween contest.  I didn’t win that one, but I did win 3rd place for their pocket-sized contest with my fork-knife-spoon piece from last year.  I wore the prize t-shirt last night :).

After that the workload picked up, and the projects got more serious.  At the end of the Spring there is an annual all-school-show where each department displays their best work.  One of my majors has a Fall show they put on as well, to showcase their department and the variety of work it produces.  Much of this is performance-related work (music, theater, dance, sound, light shows), and I was asked to be the stage manager for this year’s show.  It’s called the SIM Big Show, and it was a pretty huge event, with over 200 people in attendance.  In addition to stage managing, my music video from last year played in one of the video screening rooms, and I had a piece I called Practical Nature in one of the galleries in school.

Following that was the final show for my Food & Art class, the only requirements being that we make food to serve the audience and we make a piece to display in the show that had something to do with both food and art.  Mine had some more complex messages to it, and though simple, I was satisfied with it.

Lastly – and perhaps obviously, judging by the trend in my work so far – was my woodworking final.  All Sculpture majors are required to take a woodworking 101 class called Projects in Wood.  More artistic than last year’s Joinery, we made an experimental carving, another box – simpler than the ones from Joinery – and the final was an “interpretive box,” which I’ll detail more in its post.

Winter Break has been great; I went home for about a week for a period of total removal from everything school- and work-related, hanging out at home for Christmas and much time with no obligations, and it was wonderful.  Now I’m back in Boston, tackling some personal and home projects I’d set aside during the semester, and preparing for the semester to come.

Up ahead: casting & moldmaking with plaster, kinetic art, beat research (studying and making music and hip-hop beats), and hopefully being a TA for the Projects in Wood class I just completed.

Aside from that, I’m continuing working at Henry Bear’s Park toy store and as an usher for the Blue Man Group during vacation periods.  With the new year I feel more methodical about my approach to projects, and life, which I’m hoping will help ease the next semester, bringing less stress and a bit more time for relaxing between things, be they projects or simply moments in a day.

Hoping each of you are well,
and wishing all happy holidays,
Blake

Anyway, I was randomly inspired to avatar myself today, so after Googling I came across this post, and decided to try a few of the services.

My first attempt was with the Lego face builder, but not enough options and oddly-placed features (glasses and beards were too high), I left it by the wayside.  After weeding through the list I tried the Wild Self idea.  That was pretty awesome.  I came up with this guy:

Ibex horns – Your Ibex horns can grow up to three feet long. Unlike antlers, which are shed every year, you get to keep your Ibex horns for life.

Fossa Ears – Your fossa ears are a hunter’s best friend. They can help you track down your favorite snack…lemurs.

Bush baby nocturnal eyes – How well do you see in the dark? Now you have your very own night vision goggles, courtesy of your bush baby eyes.

Red Ruffed Lemur Arms – Your name comes from the rusty red color of your woolly body fur. It’s so soft that females use it to pad nests for their young.

Lesser bird of paradise wings – Your beautiful and elegant wings are from a bird of paradise. Most birds of paradise live in Papua New Guinea, where they’re so revered the nation’s flag bears their likeness.

White-throated Capuchin monkey tail -Your White-throated Capuchin monkey tail is called a prehensile tail. That means you can use it like an extra arm to hold and grab things, even swing through trees.

I guess that means I’ll be super stealthy at night, swingin’ through the trees, stealing ur babies with my dexterous hands, knockin’ you out with my horns and takin’ to the sky with my midnight snack :P.

Next, I figured I’d do a more realistic one for use online, so those are the other two I came up with on FaceYourManga.

!! SPOILER WARNING !!

It starts out simply: a farm girl is bought and enslaved into a kingdom for a centuries-old prince. Chalk it up to Memoirs of a Geisha in a fantasy world, she breaks out and becomes the savior of the entire kingdom. And that’s only halfway through the book. I found myself – as would anyone – wondering just what was going to happen next.

// END SPOILERS

Through the many adventures we follow her on throughout the rest of the book, there is a strong tone of sexuality, of violence and lust, throughout the book. I often chuckled at the pages, wondering if all the women in this world were lesbians, and just how that would come about. Maybe it was the Avatar craze coupled with a ‘cat-like woman’ in this book, but I found myself noticing and rooting for cross-breed romances, at least in fiction, and wondered at that. Was it a purpose of Lake’s to spark the mind with humans and animal-beings romancing or was it simply writer’s curiosity?

Asking questions or wondering about those things aloud seems presumptuous to me, but I do wonder. I wonder what it might be like if we humans had other races around us. Would we adopt them as equal beings, to be wined and dined, or would it be the age-old race conflict? I guess I’d like to think that with the proliferation of science-fiction into the mainstream and stories and ideas like Avatar’s romantic storyline becoming widely accepted – at least as fiction – that just maybe it’d bleed over into reality someday. If we were ever confronted with that reality. Who knows? Maybe there’s some cat-species or monkey-breed out there on the brink of discovering safe spaceflight technologies. What would you do?

In large part, this book is about just that: the coexistence of different species, gods and spirits, humans and other humanoids. Not to mention the various magical and mystical beings. While not delving much into the social issues, they are certainly present, and more than a few times surface as Green makes her way through the hardships of freed slave life.

Green herself is an easily-lovable character. She’s full of spunk and fight, angst and attitude. She’s calculating and hard, but can be soft and gentle, sensual. But we’re always brought back to the heart of the tale: revenge. Revenge and violence permeate the book as if they were the meat and the rest side dishes. She struggles simply to survive in a world rife with fear and control, power struggles and flawed, perfectly believable creatures.

Full of insights into hard life, adolescence, the mind-games of rulers and academics and lovers alike, Green is an entertaining read for fantasy fans looking for something different.

Total: 4/5 stars

It’s never been much of a holiday in my family, but as kids my sister and I would go out huntin’ for ye old baskets o’ chocolate and such, pick up plenty of sugar rushes throughout the day and crash at night.  Of course I’m far beyond that now. Far…

Apparently today was to be an exception however, my sister made us all french toast and I even got a basket of chocolates!

Anyway… here’s hoping you all have a good holiday too :).

Catheryne M Valente sets her writing pattern right away. Using simple typography, she sets apart the real world and the other, but the writing style is what makes the real difference. It’s almost as if two people wrote the two worlds of this book. There is such a sense of depth and realism – surrealism – in each, likely so noticeable because of the stark contrast, that you can’t help noticing just how real the real parts are, and just how surreal the surreal parts are.

She plays knowingly with descriptions in both worlds, and lets your mind race and wander, varying the pace. Always, though, we return to the two worlds, the two mindsets, of the core characters. She paints a solid portrait of desperation and loss and trying to interpret and process grief by the end of the book. It’s supremely easy to get lost in the words and the images as she hurdles through the dream and real worlds of human need and desperation.

Nearing the end pages, my mind was fixed on finishing. I wanted it done so I could call it done, so I could move on, so I could understand. Having finished it, I’m not sure I fully understand, but I think what this book does best is it transcends the boundaries of logic and understanding and gets to be a book about feelings. I’m not talking chick-flick feelings; I mean what each world makes the characters, and by extension the readers, feel that communicates what each world means and why it’s so important. Despairing in the dizzying drain that is loss and uncertainty, these characters find some feeling they need in order to survive – to thrive – and their need for it becomes pure and painful. Somehow these people were lost in reality and found Palimpsest, and that belonging makes them whole.

A few days after finishing the book and setting it on a shelf, I feel twinges of nostalgia; I miss the world a little bit. As if it were a dream I wish I’d have again, I find myself thinking fondly of the city, the characters, as if I yearned to go back to Palimpsest myself.

Total: 3.5/5 stars
Addendum: I’ll probably re-read this later in life and love it, I’m sure.

The Header

Most obviously, the top header is my actual resume (recreated in Photoshop, but the text is real, check it over at my portfolio site). Thought that was a cool touch :P.

Also, the color bars are an actual swatch from Adobe’s kuler web-app, very useful in web and graphic endeavors. I use it all the time. I was trying all kinds of things design-wise and just wasn’t getting anywhere, so I just plopped it down on the canvas, liked it, and took it from there.

The floppy disk was a funny accident, I was going to make a Polaroid – very simple, very common on websites – and just happened to look at it a certain way and think it looked like a floppy disk. I have bunches of ‘em left over from elementary and middle school, and a purple one just like this was actually sitting in front of me at the time. I looked down, chuckled, and thought ‘what the hell.’

The Body

Pretty standard left-aligned body section. I know, it’s small (only 479px content space, if you’re curious), but I work on a small screen, and since the blog’s mostly about me and I’m most of the audience (that I know of) I figure it doesn’t matter much anyway. Plus, it’ll probably get redesigned in the next 6 months anyway :P.

The ‘Older Posts’ and ‘Newer Posts’ links were cool. I’ve done little page curls in a few designs since these. They look better now.

The mini-business-card links to my AnimiVirtus homepage, the main portal of my animivirtus.com domain and the place I’m trying to advertise the work-stuff I can do for people (if you or someone you know needs something, send somethin’ my way, I’d be happy to help out if I can). The Polaroids are just a cutesy way to get you to email me. About anything. Honestly. I’m lonely.

Lastly, the delicious section is the latest 7 links from my del.icio.us account, freshly collected and totally random. Enjoy the mix :P.

The Footer

Ah, the footer. Somehow it seems either really complicated or I’m really slow on the uptake to get Twitter posts conveniently embedded into a webpage. My method’s definitely not the most advanced, CSS only barely gets its hooks into these buggers, but it gets the job done for a first-time job. Maybe sometime I’ll look into better ways to pull this off, but for now you’ve got my posts, and they look just fine.

Next to that’s my latest work from my portfolio site, updated manually for now but I’m toying with ideas for making that automated. Maybe…

And the standard footer with navigation and info links. I even credit myself for the site design :P.

The Future…

If you read any of the blogs I’ve kept up (or not) over the years, you know I’m good at talking about things and less at making them happen. Well, some good news on that front is I’ve already got drafts of about 5 posts in various stages and seem to be coming up with ideas lately that don’t take away from regular life – often the cause of previous latent posts and unannounced hiatuses and such.

Nonetheless, if something does go amiss and you’re not hearing from me, email me here or with the cooler link above and I’ll try to put something out to assuage any concerns.

Thanks for checking out the blog, I hope you like the new look and feel free to send any comments or questions you’ve got about the design, the content, or anything else, and I’ll do my best to address them. Any ideas for better usability or functionality would be cool to hear too. Let me know, happy browsing :).

I’ve moved back to VT. For the holidays, but also for the foreseeable future. It’s vacation, then working, saving up, and if all goes as planned, film school starting in the Fall. I’ve taken a two-year detour from what was really my dream, and I’m back on track. So that’s good.

Before I left, I got to check out a MAKE IT! fair and was pretty impressed. I’d wanted to go last year in Vancouver but looked up the vendors that had websites and was pretty turned off. This year I just took the plunge and am sure glad I did. From Cocoa Nymph (awesome chocolates) to Thyrza Segal’s Plantscapes to Daughters of Bastards Warrior Wear (awesome chain mail jewelry, no website, sorry) there was plenty of awesome stuff to check out and to gawk at. Catalyst Reaction had some cool leather stuff and I picked up some great Christmas cards from Hug + Kiss Designs.

Other than that, not much else to report. T-day in Seattle with the bro, a week in NYC with an old friend, then getting settled in here, ready for Christmas, watching the last of my funds slip away.

Moved onto Season 2 of Fringe and giving Leverage a second chance. Finished Dexter Season 4 last night. I’m still traumatized. Fantastic show…they don’t pull any punches. Hoping to start in on Supernatural Season 2 soon. Being Human was a no-go for me; the emo vampire dude was waaay over the top annoying, I couldn’t even look at him. Watched Slither and Gremlins recently. Both were awesome. Definitely to-purchase. Great fun. Excited about Chuck’s Season 3 and Burn Notice’s continuation in January too. Workin’ away at my to-watch lists…

I’ve been on a pretty major Star Wars kick lately. Partly nostalgia (I found my first screenplay – a Star Wars fanfilm, almost 70 pages!), partly reading Death Troopers (fun!) and partly finally getting around to watching Star Wars Clone Wars from Cartoon Network. Pretty awesome series, I’m having a blast. You know it’s good when it gets you excited about watching the prequels. Yea. That’s serious.

Listening to lots of industrial and gothic, generally dark stuff lately…Rammstein mostly but Imperative Reaction, Assemblage 23, Zombie Girl a bit, I:Scintilla, Heimataerde, Icon of Coil and Birthday Massacre. Got Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play on in the background right now. Never a baddie :P. Awesome album.

Hope all’s well with everybody reading. And everybody not reading. And no I didn’t get you presents. Have great holidays! :)

Smitten: [link]
Fear: [link]
I’m Me Again and it’s All Because of You: [link]

First up…my new demo reel is online! Finally, I can share the last few week’s (and June’s) work with people. Also, after watching that [link], check out my new portfolio site here.

Also…in other newses….I’ve got a few new poems up at DA (my profile’s linked to from the portfolio site, but I wanted to give ‘em a shout-out on here too). They’re posted below with links to the DA pages.

It’s You

I keep sitting and thinking,
getting lost in daydreams of you.
My heart skips and jumps, clinking,
feels fragile as glass, sticky like glue.

It shudders with fear, closed and cold,
shedding its own tears of self-imposed
solitude, emptiness, will I be alone when I’m old?
But you send me smiles through wires like electric hoses.

I’m showered, bathing in your love,
I’m warm and safe cuddling your heart,
your smiles mystify what I’m afraid of
and glorify Cupid’s fateful dart.

I’m shivering in the grey city tonight,
but your giggle comes across the airwaves,
makes the fire in my heart re-ignite,
and I revel in a chance to see your face.

Link: http://runeshai.deviantart.com/art/Reminders-141881842

Life

I’m filling my head with punk-rock tunes,
ingesting the lyrics like revolution fumes,
talking about progress, changes, unity,
while I’m caught in everyday reality.

Stuck in my thoughts, lost in my head,
one of these days I’m gonna end up dead,
ghost heart and soul, a tired old ghoul,
drenched in depression, a sober old fool.

My life is my choice, as the days come along,
I better start living soon, and stop writing stupid songs.
I keep getting lost in my mind, floating into space,
maybe I’ve got what’s wrong with the human race.

Life won’t wait, they sang,
It’s your choice, songs rang,
but I can’t stop worrying,
I can’t fight off the fear.

Without you I’m lost in myself, aimless,
without them I’m lost in the world, gameless,
I’m tired of fighting, hoping and pretending,
this feels like a trick question that’s never-ending.

So I’ll retreat to my songs of meaningful days,
waste time away in the sun’s faded rays,
I’ll wish upon stars that I figure myself out,
and avoid life until my time trickles out.

Life is like a quest, but without a grail,
a goal I once had, I feel I failed,
but the days keep moving, the sun rises and sets,
so I guess I’ll do the same, and give it my best.

Link: http://runeshai.deviantart.com/art/Life-142037871

I’ve been playing a lot more with rhyming recently in my writing. Mostly inspired by a good friend’s writing, who’s super-talented at applicable rhyming in poetry (as opposed to non-applicable rhyming, which is what I’m good at :P), and read me a new piece recently. I’ve always admired good writing that rhymes, because for me, it takes much more thought and effort to get not only the thoughts into the right words, but to arrange those words lyrically and have them match a pattern, that can be pretty tough. So it’s nice when I get a rhyming piece out there that I still like a day or two after writing it (I almost always allow a ‘cooling period’ after which I re-read my stuff, then decide if it’s worth showing to anybody). Of course, sometimes I’ll throw a rhyme in to fit the mood if not necessarily the feeling I’m trying to convey, to move the piece along and get me into a new rhyme that might afford a better opportunity to express whatever it is I’m trying to express.

Anyway….rambling…I’m content with the pieces above, they’re linked, and my new demo reel’s online (yay!) so check all that out and let me know what you think (of any of it) :P.

*moviegasps*

RROOAARRR!!!!! I’LL KEEL YOU WITH MY POERTY POWERS!! YESS!!!!!

*nomoremoviegasps*

…no? Garrhrhrhrhrumblerumble…fine….then just listen for a sec…

Okie…..ignoring the above, here’s two new(ish) pieces. I say ‘ish’ because only one’s new (written this morning), the other I wrote about a month or more ago but forgot I had and never put it online. Which is odd, because I do like it. So, here goes…

Punk-O-Pocalypse

War paint on my face
stand up, join my race,
fists raised, voices loud,
make our parents proud!

Patches, pins, leather straps,
platform boots, all that’s crap,
hair spiked, eyes right,
come join the fight!

Lookin’ up to the dawn of a new day,
working toward building us all a new way,
climbing up from the age-old trenches,
throw our coats on the corporate fences!

Criticize, it’s more than lies,
keep your faith, love and hate,
compromise, but be wise,
don’t give in, we can win,
stand your ground,
keep your crown,
leave the dust in the past,
make the bright future last,
raise your fists,
bind your wrists,
show the love we’re dreaming of,
make things right and join the fight!

Lookin’ up to the dawn of a new day,
working toward building us all a new way,
massing armies to rival the Pope’s,
who’d have thought? The audacity of hope!

…and for the next, older piece…it’s a bit of a love song with some serious pop-candy-goof orientation. Good fun :D.

It’s You

Why do I hear your voice
when you’re not around?
Why do I see your face
when you’re not to be found?

I’d cast aside my dreams
for you;
I’d kill to make your own
come true.

Passion, love.
Passion, love.
It’s you that I’m dreaming of,
it’s you that I’m dreaming of.

I miss you,
cuz you’re far away,
I miss you,
why couldn’t you stay
after last time?
We had a good time.
But you had to go back to school,
and that was really not cool,
cuz now you’re my little beacon,
and we only really talk on the weekends,
and even that’s not dependable.

Trust me, love.
Trust you, love.
It’s you that I’m dreaming of,
it’s you that I’m dreaming of.

Direction, I got some;
Interest, I got some;
Dreamin’, I got tons;
come on, come on, with me!

But I’d cast my dreams aside
for you;
I’d kill to make your own
come true.
I’d give everything
just to hear your voice
whisper in my ear
‘I love you, I love you too!’

Passion, trusting, dreamin’,
love…
It’s you that I’m dreaming of,
it’s you that I’m dreaming of!

Yup, so them’s the two new poems I’ve got fer ye fer now…I’ll be sure to let ye know iffen’ there be more anytime soon. Got some newsy things in the works right now, but I’ll post when there’s something to show, not yet. Lotsa life stuff goin’ on…probably include some of that then too. Best wishes, thanks for readin’, hope you’re havin’ fun :P.

Also, these are both obviously viewable at my DA gallery page.