Okay kids...   so, should you ever be in the position where you are asked to upload art files for print to an FTP site, do the world (and the prepress department that is receiving them) a big ole' favor.

Take all your files...   and I do mean ALL your files...   the mechanicals, ALLLLLLLLLL of the fonts used in the file, ALL the source files (jpgs, PSDs, etc.), and any PDFs you might have created of the art for reference...   and STUFF THEM OR ZIP THEM ALL INTO ONE GODDAMN FOLDER BEFORE YOU UPLOAD THEM!!!

Contrary to popular belief, there are many 3rd party file servers that don't allow you do drag and drop the entire folder, now will it allow the download of an unstuffed folder.  So having to download each and every little font and source file is just stupid and wastes en enormous amount of time...   and bandwidth.

This has been a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood prepress and QC guy.

Haven't had a whole lot to report as of recent, honestly, save a few speedbumps in life stuff, but this week has been one for the record books. 

On tuesday we had massive layoffs through out the company.  6 people total; 5 within our building and one in our remote Dallas, TX office.  The two Financial Officers kinda saw it coming.  Ever since Innerworkings acquired our company, we knew that because of how their billing and accounting system was set up, we'd have no need for in-house financial management.  The others were completely out of the blue.  It terrified everyone.  We heard about one through the whispering grapevine at around noon...   then 30 minutes later another...   then another...  They also have furloughed the two design ladies I share an office with currently, making it so that only one of them is in here at a given time, trading off every two weeks.  Thankfully I seemed to have ducked the axe in all this, and though I am a little surprised I am so exceedingly thankful.  It seems that because I wear so many hats in the company, they need my "Emergency Help OMGWTF" skills to be around all the time.

So for the next 2 weeks there will be only one designer in here with me.  And technically, neither of us are officially designers.  We're considered QC/Prepress/Proofing/Archiving people with design knowledge.  We also have our "Design Manager" (that currently resides in Colorado...   don't ask me how she pulled THAT little trick off) who will likely be reluctant to help pick up the slack.  So we're going to be floundering...   trying to figure out what the salespeople need, how they need it, and trying to turn it around in a reasonable amount of time...  which is generally unreasonable to start with.  I will be talking to one of the bigwigs today about whether they want me to be putting in overtime within the next two weeks.  Since this furlough move is to save money and keep any of the art dept from being laid off, it wouldn't make sense for me to put overtime in and just cost the company time and a half.  I'm the only "hourly" employee in the front offices, so it's gonna have to be a consideration.  It's like seeing a hurricane on the news, knowing it's coming right at you, and not being able to get out...    you just have to ride it out and hope it doesn't wipe you off the map.  I know i can keep up, at least to a certain degree, and I'm willing to do the work...  but I don't know the jobs or the "processes" well enough to just fly through them like the designer does.  It's gonna be some scary shit...   and I'm not looking forward to it.

The salespeople are about to revolt because of the hit the art dept took.  They feel like they're getting the rug pulled out from under them.  We got the "we have to find more business and increase sales numbers", but at the same time, the support staff got a major cut.  They're panicking because they know they won't be able to turn around artwork and conceptuals as fast as we have in the past...   and some of the jobs coming up are pretty massive.  I know the management couldn't have anticipated that business would pick up RIGHT after layoffs and furloughs.  But I don't think they're gonna budge on how they set up the time off for the designers.  it doesn't make much sense, honestly.  I think everyone would have preferred, including the ladies in here, would have preferred half-days...   one lady in during the morning, and one in during the afternoon.  Just so that nothing would slip through the cracks on any given day.  *sigh*  But the management is holding tight on their decision, even with the torches and pitchforks being brandished outside their office doors.  We'll see as the day goes on.

In less gloomy news, we have the Eclipse War day going on tomorrow.  In the rain.  And possibly snow.  :-)  Which doesn't bother me all THAT much, honestly, because I had time to prepare for it.  Rain gear, nerf guns, new boffer weapons, and much less gear than I normally carry around.  I think it'll be fun in the global scope of things, but it's not like this team of Imperials work all that well together. It's not like the "Bar" team, who have been larping together for years and know each other's brains.  We're a bunch of misfits, and most of us don't particularly trust or like each other In-Play, so it's gonna be a bit tricky.  It could go a multitude of ways, really, and all we can do is hope we catch everything visually we need to catch, fight intelligently and as a unit, and go home victorious without too many dead PCs.

On the home front, we've begun the renovations on the house, but taking baby steps at this point.  We started on the guest bathroom, and finally got the final coat of base paint on the walls.  Next step is rag rolling the top coat of the lighter grey color and seeing how it looks.  The we move on to the computer room which will be MUCH easier than the bathroom though about being.  Way too many damn things to tape and tarp off in the bathroom.  So once we get the silly "child nascar" wallpaper border off the walls in the computer room, we'll get that all painted up...   that's make me happy.  :-)

Also began the HUGE push to chop down all the blackberry vines and honeysuckle vines from the edge of the backyard.  It's a hell'uva undertaking, but with the gift from my Dad of a 28" hedge trimmer that can cut through half-inch branches...  it's like buttah'!  I just need to get out there, cut it all back and down to the dirt, then have a nice burning to get rid of all the crap.  I started it last night and made some serious headway...  kinda fun actually, but it's far from done.  That way I can get to the rain run-off ditch and make it look a little more pleasant than a muddy, root-covered ditch.  Then I get to tackle the BACK of the backyard...  which has more substantial overgrowth than just vines, but the hedge trimmer should make the job 200% easier.  Hoping to have all that cut back and leveled before late April...   that way, if I want to start some moderate landscaping back there, then it won't be too late in the season to plant.  Then I'll be pulling all the mulch from the islands and edges in the front yard, ripping up all the current crappy landscaping plants, replanting with a more intelligent landscaping eyeball, and then filling it all in with white chipped marble.  Still have no idea what the marble chips are gonna cost...   probably much more that I'll be willing to pay for it, but I'm done with the mulch.  Done.  It fades, you can't leaf-blow the leaves out of it, it washes out of the beds and floats away, and you have to replace it pretty much every year.  Screw that noise.

Well, that's a quick sum-up, I suppose.  King's Gate thoughts, financial ponderings, and other ramblings will have to wait for another time.

Have a good weekend all...  and to those I'll see this weekend, here's hoping we don't all catch pneumonia saving the galaxy!   :-)

If you liked the most recent Indie movie, don't read this.

If you haven't seen it, and plan on seeing it sometime in the future, don't read this (HUGE spoiler alert!).

For those that felt a little disappointed or let down by the most recent of Spielberg's creations, then feel free to read on. I'm about to rip it a new one.

( Read more... )

So King's Gate is now complete, and for my part, I must say I was rather pleased with how things went down on on my end.

There were some speedbumps, and some COMPLETE derails, but we chugged on and most of what we needed to happen this event did so. Go us. :-) I was EXCEEDINGLY pleased with the encounters I personally arranged, especially now that I know at least one or two of the PCs there were being watchful, careful, and purposely cordial. Glee! I did a LOT of thinking on my feet and pulling out what seemed to be some pretty creative and entertaining solutions. I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed the RP encounters I handled, or so it seemed. And last but not least, I got literally about a gallon of freezing cold, homemade fake blood poured on me. It's always a good weekend when you have to plastic-bag ALL of what you're wearing because they're dripping with red goo.

And lemme' just say I am constantly amazed at the innovation/creativity/general crazy shit some PCs can come up with in the course of an event. *laughs* I am in a constant state of "You gotta be kiddin' me? That's AWESOME... in a twisted sort of sense, I guess!"

I should shut up now, before I spill anything I would prefer to keep to myself or shouldn't be spilling to the players, but I personally had a great event. It's tough work being on plot.... you can't frickin' goob to all the people you used to be able to goob at anymore! Gah!!!! :-D

And speaking of my encounters, ... imperatrix, suibhne, blackseven and pipistrella (hopefully you'll all read this at some point), could each of you guys send me a quick email detailing "things" from your own perspectives, while it's still fresh in your heads. I'm keeping close documentation on everything thus far. ;-)

Just a quick post, simply because I lack the brainpower to come up with the large list of thanks you's and comments I want to express.

Until I get much more sleep, I will say this: WHY, OH WHY, DIDN'T I PICK THE BLUE PILL???

Wait, that's not it. Oh yea... thank you everyone, both players and staff (most specifically the rest of the Plot staff), for making this one of the best and most pleasing (from behind the scenes) games I've had in a very, very long time. Every single encounter I was involved with seemed to go swimmingly and I couldn't have asked more from the players I interacted with. Holy crap, you are all awesome.

Thanks for making my first "officially on Plot" event fabulous. :-D

Now... I have a slightly broken smiths_hammer to pamper and about 12 hours of sleep to catch up on. Longer post later.

Cross-posted to the KG OOP boards (because weirdly enough, not all of the RB people read LJ. Weird, I know, but true.)

A strange thing has happened that I didn't think I would experience for some time...


My King's Gate floon has now exceeded my Eclipse floon, which has already buried the needle.
Plot brainstorming session last evening pushed it over the edge.


Oh my... if this year goes the way I hope, it will be spectacular. *murrow fingers* Muahahahaha!!! :-D

A meme stolen from loresinger:

( Read more... )

Well, I must say that all in all, our Christmas break was quite fabulous. One of the better that I can remember, despite not being able to really capture the "holiday spirit" much throughout. We got the tree up, got the presents wrapped, got decorations and such out and tacked up... but the jolly spirit just kept eluding us. Strange. Nice and quiet, cold and rainy, mostly happy and relaxing, so while I guess the Christmas Spirit passed us up, we found most of what we look for in the holidays. :-)

We got to visit with a multitude of people we haven't seen in a long time, got to do some much needed relaxing around the house, finished shopping with only a minor level of panic on my part, and now have MOUNDS of gifties and HUGE amounts of food left to remember the occassion. Huge loot. Huge. My big present from the wifey was a GPS. Love this thing!!... considering I can get lost in a round room, this thing is really a blessing!!

One of the highlights of the weekend was having two specific friends over who are interested in LARPing with us, but haven't been hooked completely as of yet. With a little help from other dear friends of ours (some one-on-one conversation), showing off of some costuming and props, and further discussion of character concepts, we're pretty sure they're hooked. Woot! :-) There are a few other possibles which we will continue to pester throughout the year as well, so the assimilation continues.

The other really surprising highlight of the weekend was the obligatory trip to my sister's house. Normally it's a very forced occasion, it's not loving or family-esque, it's not any fun, and smiths_hammer and I try to get the hell out of there as soon as we can (just like my father does). It's not any secret that my sister and I see the world through very different eyes, and that goes along with the way she and her husband have raised my two nieces. Hardcore home schooled, very repressed, and have been very socially inept up until the past few years. It seems that now they have reached their mid-teens, their nooses have been loosened a bit and suddenly *gasp* there seems to be a pair of intelligent and unique young ladies under there after all! It was fabulous to finally be able to talk to my nieces without their parents looming or acting as if we're going to corrupt their precious little angels. Very pleasant, indeed. College is still going to blindside them like a runaway freight-train, but sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.

So yea... now I sit at work, wishing I was elsewhere. I even have work to do (ick), which is odd for the week after Christmas. But now that the first color proofs on all 4 jobs have been pulled, and the designer who needs to sign off on them left early today, I get to sit and waste time once again.

So, here's hoping everyone had a great holiday! And if you're still enjoying said holiday... I'm envious. ;-D

Yea, that's about right... except I'd throw in a little more elvish blood. :-) ( Read more... )

This is by far the coolest house EVAR!!! Minus the tight spiral staircases, this is a dream come true!

But... I already have a house! I guess since we haven't started renovated the basement yet, we could possibly fit the pegasus stable in there.

However, the Zombie-Proof Safe Room! Now there's a house seller if I ever heard one!!

So besides the bedroom decor... yea, I'll take it. :-D

Your home is a Philanthropic Gamer's Mansion Your kitchen is stocked with chips, dips, and assorted caffeinated beverages. There's a pantry with emergency backup caffeinated beverages. You also have some breakfast cereals in there, but you haven't had breakfast since last Spring. Your master bedroom has blankets printed with images of Mario and Link. Your study includes unread copies of various gamer magazines, each purchased for the free demo CDs. One of your garages holds your collection of ferraris, and is measured in acreage. Your home also includes a guest wing and private quarters for your servants. Your guests enjoy your collection of every console and associated game ever made. Except the Intellivision -- those controllers drive them NUTS. Outside is your hedge maze and gardens, meticulously tended by a team of world-class botanists. And, you have a pet -- a koopa named "Shelly". Below is a snippet of the blueprints:

Find YOUR Dream Home!

So apparently there's a place out in LA called "The Edison Bar". Not set in the trendiest side of the town, located down an alley called "Harlem". But if I EVER visit LA, this will require a visitation, far before anything like Hollywood-star hand prints embedded in cement. The decor is done in a funky mix of steampunk/victorian and it's gorgeous!

I read about this place on a site called Brass Goggles. They're big into the whole steam-punk culture and art scene. But this club... this, my friends, is a TRUE piece of art. Check out the links below for some shots of the place (especially if you're into warm and movie-set feeling interiors).

And smiths_hammer and I were wondering "theme-wise" what to eventually do with our downstairs room... oh, this would so be worth it to try something in this style (minus the large industrial equipment, of course... though faux faces of equipment would be possible). I mean... wow. It's such a groovy style of warm elegance to me.

Yea, I'm a big ole geek.

http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com/2007/06/edison-bar-analyzed.html

http://flickr.com/photos/eecue/tags/edisonbar/

Ya' know, just when my inner child thought it was safe to come out of hiding, and had come to grips with the fact that "The Transformers" movie didn't completely suck or destroy all the happy memories it represented... I see this.

My inner child has now crawled back into a dark hole and is crying... profusely.

*sigh*

From the same guy that gave us the award-winning "He-Man" and "Street Fighter". Yea... him.

.......Make the bad man stop.......
_____________________________________________________________

www.darkhorizons.com
New Regency Doing "Voltron" Film
By Garth Franklin
Friday August 10th 2007 12:22am

image New Regency is close to a deal with the Mark Gordon Co. to adapt popular 1980s Japanese animated TV series "Voltron: Defender of the Universe" into a live-action film reports Variety.

Justin Marks is penning the script, described as a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico. Five ragtag survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth's invaders.

Marks is also adapting "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" for Joel Silver at Warner Bros., "Street Fighter" at Fox and the Green Arrow pic "Supermax" for Warners.

Just something I thought was kinda neat for you web-designer type folks. Not sure how widely used something like this is, or should be, but I thought it was cool nonetheless.

http://www.rovion.com/

As I kill off the last few minutes of the day, I figured I would list the movies coming up within the next year that many reading this (not necessarily all) would be interested in knowing about. Of course note this is a purely opinionated list that covers the period, fantasy, sci-fi, and comic-book movie dates. It's about all I'll drop $10.00 on these days.

I'm well aware that many of them probably aren't going to be worth the film their captured on (especially "In The Name Of The King), but hey, they at least look entertaining. And the bonus is there seems to be a decent release or two release almost every month.

I left out a few that I would have normally included (Wall-E, The Incredible Hulk, Escape From New York, Sherlock Holmes, etc.) because they were so far into 2008 that there's almost no information about them on the web, and hell... they may never reach the editing room.

So anyway, here's the list for you happy movie-goers:

Stardust
Opens: August 10th 2007

The Last Legion
Opens: August 17th 2007

The Dark is Rising
Opens: October 5th 2007

Elizabeth – The Golden Age
Opens: October 12th 2007

Beowulf
Opens: November 16th 2007

The Golden Compass
Opens: December 7th 2007

I Am Legend
Opens: December 14th 2007

In the Name of the King (Dungeon Siege)
Opens: January 18th 2008

The Spiderwick Chronicles
Opens: Feb. 15th 2008

10,000 B.C.
Opens: March 7th 2008

Iron Man
Opens: May 2nd 2008

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Opens: May 16th 2008

Indiana Jones and The City of the Gods
Opens: May 22nd 2008

The Mutant Chronicles
Opens: No specific release date yet - sometime 2008

from www.darkhorizons.com

Gaiman Talks "Sandman" Film
By Garth Franklin
Friday July 27th 2007 12:02am

Neil Gaiman thinks a film version of "The Sandman" will be coming sometime in the future.

Speaking at the Paramount presentation on Thursday, Gaiman says "Death: The High Cost of Living" is very likely to come first as its cheaper and Gaiman himself gets to direct.

He adds that it's going to take someone with the passion for the material like Peter Jackson had for "The Lord of the Rings" and be able to push it through the studio system

Saw this in Graphic Arts Monthly. This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. And one of those "why didn't I ever think of that?" :-)

There just... just aren't any words.

I've always thought that a good glass of wine, and maybe a little cheese to go with it, can cure just about anything at the end of the day. Apparently it also cures robbery... but you have to give a group hug too. :-D

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19740787/

I was amused... I mean, the guy didn't even break the crystal wine glass when he left. They found it in an alley later, empty and unbroken. How odd is that?