Sorry everyone, just a tad behind. Its been a busy couple of days, and I am sitting here, FINALLY with internet connection, but trying to get to sleep.... and theres a massive party going on next door.
I need to find a new apartment. This is not working for me. Apparently it is just way too much to ask for some quiet in Auckland. I shall find it, if it kills me....
Yup. First order of business tomorrow: start calling places to search for apartments.
More update tomorrow, after I have hopefully had some sleep....
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Nov 9th and 10th
Nov 9th & 10th.
Well, past two days haven’t been anything incredibly exciting, so I will just lump them together (since I went to bed too late last night to write).
So, yesterday was a good day, productive. Picked up my Debit card at lunch, so its nice to have that now. Then I got two more shots done. They weren’t bad, felt like I kind of breezed through them. The BEST part: two of my shots didn’t even need revisions, they were good to go and passed the first round for Primary animation!!!! SO happy. That was a very very good feeling. So now, I will get some kind of feedback after round one, and then go on to smooth things out and move into Secondary. THAT will be interesting for sure. Hoping that goes well, and that blocking was the hard part.. but you never know. Myke is very particular, which is good, but difficult. Still good.
Anyway, then came home to the house, everyone home, and TELEVISION! We finally have tv. Just a couple of channels, but at least there is tv now. STILL though (Wednesday the 10th) NO internet. SUCKS. That’s what I’m pissed about, and I know I rave about it a lot, but its my only solid communication home.
Aside from that, had a good evenings, had my leftovers for dinner, and then headed to bed a bit late. Was up talking with the room mates and watching some tv.
Today, got up and headed into work again. Today I worked straight through the day (over 10 hours), with small breaks, but nothing substantial. Today was not a very good day in terms of productivity. I just wasn’t feeling it. Was getting easily frustrated at things, and of course, then got my first feedback on a Primary shot that needed to be changed. That took a while, cause I had a few things to change, and it went through a couple of rounds. Got that down pretty much though, and re-submitted it. It was just a rough day. Everything was fine, but you know, just hard to get into the new shots. Very dialogue heavy, and the Animatics have nothing in them except staging, so its up to me what they do really. Good, but also difficult.
I moved offices today too, which was actually nice. That also hurt the productivity a tad, cause I was in a room with the other animators. Which is GREAT, but the headphone jack in my computer doesn’t work, so when everyone is talking, I can’t hear the audio in my work. A bit hard for dialogue heavy work, but that’s ok J. It was fun, I love being in a room with them. Im sitting right next to Matt, and across from Mercedes and Nick. Cristina is behind them, and Sushil is on the corner. Great group of people. A few more it sounds like will be coming into that room, there are 3 vacant desks I believe. I hope Kate comes, she is a lot of fun. Great group really. We had a nurf gun fight early on in the day, and THAT was fun. I got to participate this time, even though I didn’t have a gun. Kate has two, so she let me use one of her others. Gooooood times. Haha.
The rest of the day was just sitting down working on the shots. Nothin too snazzy. Just hard to stay focused today. Blah Wednesday.
After work, I went out to “steak wednesday” with Nick, Cristina, and Kate. That was a great time. Decent food (can’t complain for a $10 steak! It was cooked perfectly too!), great beer, and awesome conversation. Great way to wrap up a long, frustrating day. Unfortunately, I have two shots that I just got critique on to fix up tomorrow, but that’s alright because I kind of knew that at least one of them would have some changes (sometimes the staging and timing of Animatics doesn’t work so well when actually put in Animation in Maya, so there are changes that have to happen later on). So, tomorrow will hopefully be a better day for productivity… though I’m not sure.
We have a bunch of media and people from Nickelodeon (high up people) coming in tomorrow and Friday to film / take photos, and see what we do. So that will possibly be distracting, but at least Im in a separate room with just a few animators, so hopefully not too bad. Looking forward to Friday, we are having a big party after work at the office. Should be a blast :-D. Can’t wait. This weekend should be busy actually, which is nice! Of course when I finally have a novel to read :-P. I have some errands to run, got to go get some more pillows, since the two I have are cheap-o and tiny (I smacked my head against the cinderblock wall night before last when I got into bed, since my bed is in a corner, and I mis-judged my distance..), and I need a duvet. I have the cover, so I essentially have two sheets, but no comforter. NEED that. I need more hangers for sure too. I think that will help. I hung up all my sweatshirts, but since theres no dresser, I think it will help to have more. It’s a big closet, but the stacking bins I got just aren’t enough for everything I brought. So I’ll do that Saturday.
Sunday, I think the day is mostly free, but then at night, theres this place called “Big-Ups” that I am going with the people from work. Its like, $20.00, and its some crazy big like, play house thing. They have sumo suits, fighting arenas, a blow-up obstacle course… haha, looks hilarious. So that should be fun. Really looking forward to that. I love the people from work, and that they hang out together. THANK GOODNESS for that. Should be a good weekend. Sounds like tomorrow night too, there are people coming here to our place for a BBQ. Nia’s friends are going away to travel for a while, so she thought about having a good-bye BBQ for them. A few friends of the other room mates are coming, so hopefully it’s a good time.
OH! I forgot too, since I didn’t write yesterday… but everyone here at the house wants to do Thanksgiving… even though none of them are American!!! HA! So excited about that. They all were like “what do you eat on Thanksgiving?” They knew the staple things, but all were really excited to do it. Hopefully we’ll get that together, that will be fun. I am thinking about starting to find out who will be around for Christmas too (whose not going back to their home), and hopefully Kyle will be here, but maybe I could get a group of people together to make a big Christmas dinner. That would be fun J. Looking forward to the holidays, though they will DEFINITELY not be the same without the family. That part will be hard. But hopefully I can make something of it and still have a good time, and a good meal. I’ll be bringing around all the recipes from home that we always have! Gotta get them from the family.
Anyway, already after 10. I want to get to bed so that I can finally get up and run or something in the morning…we’ll see how motivated I am. I hope that might help with the slump I had today at work. Hoping it stays a bit more quiet tonight. Nia and Terry aren’t home (I think they’re both working), and Scott and Kira have gone up stairs I think, so its just me, Alvaro and Ernesto watching tv. Haha.
Alright, bed time I think. Later.
Well, past two days haven’t been anything incredibly exciting, so I will just lump them together (since I went to bed too late last night to write).
So, yesterday was a good day, productive. Picked up my Debit card at lunch, so its nice to have that now. Then I got two more shots done. They weren’t bad, felt like I kind of breezed through them. The BEST part: two of my shots didn’t even need revisions, they were good to go and passed the first round for Primary animation!!!! SO happy. That was a very very good feeling. So now, I will get some kind of feedback after round one, and then go on to smooth things out and move into Secondary. THAT will be interesting for sure. Hoping that goes well, and that blocking was the hard part.. but you never know. Myke is very particular, which is good, but difficult. Still good.
Anyway, then came home to the house, everyone home, and TELEVISION! We finally have tv. Just a couple of channels, but at least there is tv now. STILL though (Wednesday the 10th) NO internet. SUCKS. That’s what I’m pissed about, and I know I rave about it a lot, but its my only solid communication home.
Aside from that, had a good evenings, had my leftovers for dinner, and then headed to bed a bit late. Was up talking with the room mates and watching some tv.
Today, got up and headed into work again. Today I worked straight through the day (over 10 hours), with small breaks, but nothing substantial. Today was not a very good day in terms of productivity. I just wasn’t feeling it. Was getting easily frustrated at things, and of course, then got my first feedback on a Primary shot that needed to be changed. That took a while, cause I had a few things to change, and it went through a couple of rounds. Got that down pretty much though, and re-submitted it. It was just a rough day. Everything was fine, but you know, just hard to get into the new shots. Very dialogue heavy, and the Animatics have nothing in them except staging, so its up to me what they do really. Good, but also difficult.
I moved offices today too, which was actually nice. That also hurt the productivity a tad, cause I was in a room with the other animators. Which is GREAT, but the headphone jack in my computer doesn’t work, so when everyone is talking, I can’t hear the audio in my work. A bit hard for dialogue heavy work, but that’s ok J. It was fun, I love being in a room with them. Im sitting right next to Matt, and across from Mercedes and Nick. Cristina is behind them, and Sushil is on the corner. Great group of people. A few more it sounds like will be coming into that room, there are 3 vacant desks I believe. I hope Kate comes, she is a lot of fun. Great group really. We had a nurf gun fight early on in the day, and THAT was fun. I got to participate this time, even though I didn’t have a gun. Kate has two, so she let me use one of her others. Gooooood times. Haha.
The rest of the day was just sitting down working on the shots. Nothin too snazzy. Just hard to stay focused today. Blah Wednesday.
After work, I went out to “steak wednesday” with Nick, Cristina, and Kate. That was a great time. Decent food (can’t complain for a $10 steak! It was cooked perfectly too!), great beer, and awesome conversation. Great way to wrap up a long, frustrating day. Unfortunately, I have two shots that I just got critique on to fix up tomorrow, but that’s alright because I kind of knew that at least one of them would have some changes (sometimes the staging and timing of Animatics doesn’t work so well when actually put in Animation in Maya, so there are changes that have to happen later on). So, tomorrow will hopefully be a better day for productivity… though I’m not sure.
We have a bunch of media and people from Nickelodeon (high up people) coming in tomorrow and Friday to film / take photos, and see what we do. So that will possibly be distracting, but at least Im in a separate room with just a few animators, so hopefully not too bad. Looking forward to Friday, we are having a big party after work at the office. Should be a blast :-D. Can’t wait. This weekend should be busy actually, which is nice! Of course when I finally have a novel to read :-P. I have some errands to run, got to go get some more pillows, since the two I have are cheap-o and tiny (I smacked my head against the cinderblock wall night before last when I got into bed, since my bed is in a corner, and I mis-judged my distance..), and I need a duvet. I have the cover, so I essentially have two sheets, but no comforter. NEED that. I need more hangers for sure too. I think that will help. I hung up all my sweatshirts, but since theres no dresser, I think it will help to have more. It’s a big closet, but the stacking bins I got just aren’t enough for everything I brought. So I’ll do that Saturday.
Sunday, I think the day is mostly free, but then at night, theres this place called “Big-Ups” that I am going with the people from work. Its like, $20.00, and its some crazy big like, play house thing. They have sumo suits, fighting arenas, a blow-up obstacle course… haha, looks hilarious. So that should be fun. Really looking forward to that. I love the people from work, and that they hang out together. THANK GOODNESS for that. Should be a good weekend. Sounds like tomorrow night too, there are people coming here to our place for a BBQ. Nia’s friends are going away to travel for a while, so she thought about having a good-bye BBQ for them. A few friends of the other room mates are coming, so hopefully it’s a good time.
OH! I forgot too, since I didn’t write yesterday… but everyone here at the house wants to do Thanksgiving… even though none of them are American!!! HA! So excited about that. They all were like “what do you eat on Thanksgiving?” They knew the staple things, but all were really excited to do it. Hopefully we’ll get that together, that will be fun. I am thinking about starting to find out who will be around for Christmas too (whose not going back to their home), and hopefully Kyle will be here, but maybe I could get a group of people together to make a big Christmas dinner. That would be fun J. Looking forward to the holidays, though they will DEFINITELY not be the same without the family. That part will be hard. But hopefully I can make something of it and still have a good time, and a good meal. I’ll be bringing around all the recipes from home that we always have! Gotta get them from the family.
Anyway, already after 10. I want to get to bed so that I can finally get up and run or something in the morning…we’ll see how motivated I am. I hope that might help with the slump I had today at work. Hoping it stays a bit more quiet tonight. Nia and Terry aren’t home (I think they’re both working), and Scott and Kira have gone up stairs I think, so its just me, Alvaro and Ernesto watching tv. Haha.
Alright, bed time I think. Later.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Nov 8th.
Wow, today was a good day! Really. Very good day. I got up early, unfortunately didn’t get a workout in, but either way, got up, rode the bus early to work with Nia, and stopped off at the grocery store before heading into work to get some ingredients for dinner. I decided to go through my cook book and find some good options for foods. WOW is that thing amazing. Seriously, so many healthy things! And easy to make things. Very excited to be doing some of this cooking. Unfortunately, some of the ingredients I don’t have, so I may be running back and forth to the grocery store until I get a bit better about preparing things ahead of time, but oh well.
So got my groceries and made it into work just after 8. Then, Mercedes made me, Matt, and other new Animator some espresso mochas. MAN that was good. No sugar needed. She makes those very well. So that was a nice wake up.
Then I sat down and got to work. I don’t know what it was, but I was on top of it today. At least in terms of hitting marks pretty well. I was animating the Elephant, Burt, and I showed what I had to Myke, and he was like “I am LOVING it!” He said, “not only is it working…but you have really made the most of his appeal!!!” Seriously. I was SO SHOCKED, and SO HAPPY! Omg. Talk about making my morning! And it was stellar cause then later, he came by the office and told me again in person that I was doing really good work. * jumps up and down with happiness * So needless to say, yes, fantastic morning.
So after working on that shot for a while and getting it turned in, I then moved on to another acting shot with Skipper the Penguin. That one was just a tad harder, which is funny because the elephant had a trunk to animate, which you would think would be so much harder! But no, the Penguin was harder. More because… it’s about getting a balance with Skipper. They are poppy and quick moving, but there’s a fine line between also having too many poses / movements, and not having enough. Also with having it be TOO snappy, or too flowy. Hard to get that when you’re not completely familiar with the characters! I seem to be doing ok though, because even though the shot with Skipper needed some adjustments (more than the elephant one), Myke still came in again later and told me I was doing a great job. AND, he assigned me two more shots! Haha. I guess that’s good! They are acting shots too, I have one with Maurice, and a culmination of the other characters, and then one with Marlene the otter, who is notoriously hard. A lot of people don’t get to animate her as a featured character because she is difficult. A lot more organic. BUT… for some reason, I have a shot that features her acting… surrounded by another culmination of characters. So yea. Apparently I am moving right along I guess! WHO would have thought?! CRAZY! I hope I can stay afloat. I will do what I have to. SO EXCITED THOUGH!
Fantastic day at work.
Then I headed home, and began making my dinner. I made burritos from scratch! Cooked the chicken, cooked onions with a Cajun spice, mixed with tomatoes and kidney beans. Mixed it with corn, sour cream, and rice. It was great. Yum!!! And I am actually really liking the people that I am living with. They are all so friendly and welcoming. So it was me and Nia, Scott and Kira were home as well, so we were all cooking in our very small kitchen, and then Alvaro and Ernesto (I remembered this time!) came home shortly after. Its kind of fun, we are all right now chilling in the living room. Nia rented a bunch of movies, so we have just been putting them on as background noise and hanging out. Alvaro is so nice, he is learning English, he is one of the two from Chile. He is a lawyer, and is here studying both English and law (I believe), so its cute, he’s always asking us for help pronouncing words and sentences. Just very, very nice. He’s studying English now and reading a book to help him practice. Good for him!
I am just shocked at how well our group is bonding together… like… I don’t know, I find it so funny and so cool that a group of people who had no idea who one another was a few days ago, could all live together WELL. And so far, so good. I definitely don’t mind coming back here now that I have gotten familiar with everyone a little bit more. Its fun. Reminds me of school. So yea, this is turning out to be a good situation. All noise and annoyances aside, it is really really nice to be here right now, not alone in an apartment, but socializing with people from all over the world. Turns out Nia and Terry are from Wales, Kira is from Ireland, and Scott is from England, as well as the other two boys from Chile, and me from the US. Nutso. Pretty cool! Extremely multi cultural. We’ve had some really good discussions too. Couldn’t have turned out better for the meantime.
Also to day I was looking into how to get Kyle over here, and was semi-successful. Looking into Partnership Visas and what not. He CAN come over off of my Visa, but there are a few stipulations we have to work through. On another bright note though, Kyle did get a response back from a potential employer today! YAY! Unfortunately, he was sick as a dog it sounds like with a migraine, so he was unable to talk to the woman on the phone, but will get in touch with her again tomorrow. Crossing fingers its something he wants, and someone who wants him. We shall see!
Anyway, still without internet and television, and all of us are getting annoyed at it, so HOPEFULLY we will get it tomorrow…? At least I have access at work. Just don’t want to be ON it at work of course.
Well, time for bed for me. Back to work tomorrow, powering through shots so that I can stay on my game I hope!
G’night.
Wow, today was a good day! Really. Very good day. I got up early, unfortunately didn’t get a workout in, but either way, got up, rode the bus early to work with Nia, and stopped off at the grocery store before heading into work to get some ingredients for dinner. I decided to go through my cook book and find some good options for foods. WOW is that thing amazing. Seriously, so many healthy things! And easy to make things. Very excited to be doing some of this cooking. Unfortunately, some of the ingredients I don’t have, so I may be running back and forth to the grocery store until I get a bit better about preparing things ahead of time, but oh well.
So got my groceries and made it into work just after 8. Then, Mercedes made me, Matt, and other new Animator some espresso mochas. MAN that was good. No sugar needed. She makes those very well. So that was a nice wake up.
Then I sat down and got to work. I don’t know what it was, but I was on top of it today. At least in terms of hitting marks pretty well. I was animating the Elephant, Burt, and I showed what I had to Myke, and he was like “I am LOVING it!” He said, “not only is it working…but you have really made the most of his appeal!!!” Seriously. I was SO SHOCKED, and SO HAPPY! Omg. Talk about making my morning! And it was stellar cause then later, he came by the office and told me again in person that I was doing really good work. * jumps up and down with happiness * So needless to say, yes, fantastic morning.
So after working on that shot for a while and getting it turned in, I then moved on to another acting shot with Skipper the Penguin. That one was just a tad harder, which is funny because the elephant had a trunk to animate, which you would think would be so much harder! But no, the Penguin was harder. More because… it’s about getting a balance with Skipper. They are poppy and quick moving, but there’s a fine line between also having too many poses / movements, and not having enough. Also with having it be TOO snappy, or too flowy. Hard to get that when you’re not completely familiar with the characters! I seem to be doing ok though, because even though the shot with Skipper needed some adjustments (more than the elephant one), Myke still came in again later and told me I was doing a great job. AND, he assigned me two more shots! Haha. I guess that’s good! They are acting shots too, I have one with Maurice, and a culmination of the other characters, and then one with Marlene the otter, who is notoriously hard. A lot of people don’t get to animate her as a featured character because she is difficult. A lot more organic. BUT… for some reason, I have a shot that features her acting… surrounded by another culmination of characters. So yea. Apparently I am moving right along I guess! WHO would have thought?! CRAZY! I hope I can stay afloat. I will do what I have to. SO EXCITED THOUGH!
Fantastic day at work.
Then I headed home, and began making my dinner. I made burritos from scratch! Cooked the chicken, cooked onions with a Cajun spice, mixed with tomatoes and kidney beans. Mixed it with corn, sour cream, and rice. It was great. Yum!!! And I am actually really liking the people that I am living with. They are all so friendly and welcoming. So it was me and Nia, Scott and Kira were home as well, so we were all cooking in our very small kitchen, and then Alvaro and Ernesto (I remembered this time!) came home shortly after. Its kind of fun, we are all right now chilling in the living room. Nia rented a bunch of movies, so we have just been putting them on as background noise and hanging out. Alvaro is so nice, he is learning English, he is one of the two from Chile. He is a lawyer, and is here studying both English and law (I believe), so its cute, he’s always asking us for help pronouncing words and sentences. Just very, very nice. He’s studying English now and reading a book to help him practice. Good for him!
I am just shocked at how well our group is bonding together… like… I don’t know, I find it so funny and so cool that a group of people who had no idea who one another was a few days ago, could all live together WELL. And so far, so good. I definitely don’t mind coming back here now that I have gotten familiar with everyone a little bit more. Its fun. Reminds me of school. So yea, this is turning out to be a good situation. All noise and annoyances aside, it is really really nice to be here right now, not alone in an apartment, but socializing with people from all over the world. Turns out Nia and Terry are from Wales, Kira is from Ireland, and Scott is from England, as well as the other two boys from Chile, and me from the US. Nutso. Pretty cool! Extremely multi cultural. We’ve had some really good discussions too. Couldn’t have turned out better for the meantime.
Also to day I was looking into how to get Kyle over here, and was semi-successful. Looking into Partnership Visas and what not. He CAN come over off of my Visa, but there are a few stipulations we have to work through. On another bright note though, Kyle did get a response back from a potential employer today! YAY! Unfortunately, he was sick as a dog it sounds like with a migraine, so he was unable to talk to the woman on the phone, but will get in touch with her again tomorrow. Crossing fingers its something he wants, and someone who wants him. We shall see!
Anyway, still without internet and television, and all of us are getting annoyed at it, so HOPEFULLY we will get it tomorrow…? At least I have access at work. Just don’t want to be ON it at work of course.
Well, time for bed for me. Back to work tomorrow, powering through shots so that I can stay on my game I hope!
G’night.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Funny things about NZ, Round II
-A Toyota 4Runner at home is a “Hilux Surf” here.
-A convenience store is called a “Dairy.”
-Sandals are called “Jandals” (Japanese Sandals).
-Sweatshirts are called “Jerseys.”
-A parking lot is a “car park.”
-Renting something is called “hiring.” Car Rental = Care Hire.
-Car insurance is not required to drive or own a car.
-You write the date as: day / month / year
-Maori is pronounced “Mowry”
-The word Bed sounds like “bead”
-“How you going,” means “How are you doing?”
-You are not allowed to buy fireworks at any time in New Zealand unless it is Guy Fox weekend. This is because New Zealanders are “hooligans.” Which is completely true.
-A grocery store is a “Super Market.”
-The sun is a lot stronger here than at home because of the hole in the ozone layer above New Zealand.
-A post office is a "post shop."
-A yield is a "give way."
-A convenience store is called a “Dairy.”
-Sandals are called “Jandals” (Japanese Sandals).
-Sweatshirts are called “Jerseys.”
-A parking lot is a “car park.”
-Renting something is called “hiring.” Car Rental = Care Hire.
-Car insurance is not required to drive or own a car.
-You write the date as: day / month / year
-Maori is pronounced “Mowry”
-The word Bed sounds like “bead”
-“How you going,” means “How are you doing?”
-You are not allowed to buy fireworks at any time in New Zealand unless it is Guy Fox weekend. This is because New Zealanders are “hooligans.” Which is completely true.
-A grocery store is a “Super Market.”
-The sun is a lot stronger here than at home because of the hole in the ozone layer above New Zealand.
-A post office is a "post shop."
-A yield is a "give way."
Nov 7th Much better day :-)
Nov 7th.
So today was better than yesterday in terms of how I felt. Definitely slept in cause last night I was up pretty late. Around 1 / 1:30am. I went to that party next door, which involved stepping out MY front door. I decided while I ate, that I was just going to be social. So I made a salad, and saw that two of the guys were sitting outside at the table talking. So I went up, and sat with them and started talking. Ended up talking to them most of the night. It was pretty nice! Nice guys, pretty funny. Definitely not people I would be friends with really… they all smoke, both had been into some pretty heavy drugs in the past, but we had some interesting conversation for sure. One guy, Hamish, just a unique dude. A bit of a risk taker. He’s like, 10 yrs older than me, and was talking about how he used to deal drugs, race cars, and how he like, owns two businesses and works at a third.. crazy guy. Who knows how much of that was true, but it was entertaining talking with him either way. And Mark, who lives across the court yard, is hilarious. He’s SO awkward. It’s funny though. You can tell he’s a good guy, but a tad short on people skills. Lol.
Anyway, so it was a fun night. Unfortunately lots of cigarettes and weed was everywhere, and I have no interest in partaking in that, so I just had a couple of drinks and worked on just having a good time. So the night was good overall really. CRASHED at 1:30 am tho, SO tired. This morning, I slept in, then took my sweet time getting dressed, and decided to head up to Ponsonby road to a little café that Mom and I had found when she was here. Really cute place, REALLY good coffee (even tho it’s a tad expensive… $4 for a mocha coffee… yeesh!), and FREE INTERNET! So I went, and bought my obligatory coffee, which was delicious, and used internet for like, 2 hours or more. It was really nice! It kicks you off about every 15 minutes, but then you just log back in and continue what you were doing. Internet usage is SOOO weird here. I don’t understand why they don’t just do it the way we do it. Is it so hard to just pay a monthly fee and get as much internet as you want?? I swear. Oh well, at least I have access at work if I have my laptop. Haha.
So I got to talk to Kyle for a bit, and video chat. So nice to see his face. I miss that boy. He cracks me up. I tried doing some research on how to get him here off of my Visa, but nothing was very clear, so I will be calling the immigration office tomorrow during lunch to see if I can talk to someone about what to do. He has been looking for work, but for some reason a lot of the companies are telling him they want him to have a Visa already. Which seems weird…because it doesn’t require anything of a company to sponsor you to get a Visa, but a letter saying you’ve been hired. Seriously. I did all of my stuff myself, I just had a letter proving I was employed. Weird. So I don’t know. Since we’re not married and have never lived together, I’m not sure I can sponsor him to come over here. You must have been together for longer than 12 months, be in a stable relationship, have been living together, and you must be able to prove it by either joint bank statements, or mail sent to both parties at one residence. I wouldn’t be hard to fake, but still… I don’t know. We will see I guess. There are other options too. He could come here just on his passport and stay for like, 3 months and look for work while he’s here. I don’t know what its like trying to get a Visa though if you are IN NZ already. No idea. Its all complicated and stuff. But we’ll sort it out. I hope.
Counting the days til Christmas… tis about 46 for now. Hopefully that’s when I’ll get to see him again. J That would be an awesome Christmas.
Anyway, after the coffee shop and doing a bunch of research there, (I was also looking for other apartments), I got a call from Matt telling me about a book sale going on downtown. On that note, I packed up and ran home to drop my backpack, and caught a bus down to the Whitcoull’s on Queen street. NO KIDDING they were having a sale! It was like, you pick up a coupon on your way in the door, and you can use any combination of them. SO, I got a novel (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, recommended by Gen I believe) for half off (it was $31, so I got it for $15), I got a cook book that was $40 for $20, and then a Calendar for next year for like, $5. It was great!!!! SO happy. Now I have something to read at all those parks I want to hang out at. So funny, I have never wanted a book to read so badly as when I have been here. There’s just a lot to enjoy outside I guess. I want to lay out in a park in the sunlight and just read a book. Funny how I never really wanted to do that before.
After that, I headed back to the house cause I was STARVING. Turns out Nia and Terry came back from their weekend away, and they are great. Really fun. So they were sitting outside with two of their friends who came by to visit, and invited me to join them. We all sat and talked and laughed for a while while I had some food, and they gave me one of the drinks they were having. I found out too that two Chilean guys just moved into the last two open rooms as well. They are very, very nice. Thank goodness. So the house is full. All 7 of us. It’s going to get interesting! Haha. But I had a really nice evening. Sat and hung out with Kira, Nia, Terry, Scott, and the two guys are Alvaro and… ahh, I can’t remember the other one’s name! Ah well. Either way, we all had a good time. The two of them went to bed early, and the rest of us stayed up talking. Kind of reminded me a little of school. Only in a much smaller space, with WAY different people. But everyone gets along shockingly well. Granted, its been like, 2 or 3 days, but still. I think it will be good for a bit.
One thing that I have noticed though about this place that I dislike, is that the floors seem to be really thin? Whenever someone walks upstairs, its like BOOMING in my room. Sucks. Pretty sure this is just kind of a stopping point in places to live. Its pretty quiet overall really, I mean last night around 1:30, others were still up and hanging out next door, but as soon as I closed the outer door, and the intermediate door (theres two I guess for noise), and then MY bedroom door, it was quiet. The place is made out of like, big cinderblocks, kind of like our house at school, so its pretty good about regulating temperature and noise. But the floors man… SUCK. Meh, it is what it is. I do have to say though, I am just grateful that I have the room mates I do. They are all seemingly very mature, grounded, and chill people. No one is crazy. Next door man, they smoke pot inside their place like, EVERY day. You can smell it outside. Thank goodness they aren’t doing that here. I appreciate that a lot. And it’s nice since we’re ALL new, no one had any like, pre-formed groups or anything, we all met each other roughly at one time. Good stuff.
Nia and I are going to ride the bus to work together tomorrow. Its sweet how she wants to do that. It was nice when she wanted to the other day too. She’s just so friendly, and open. Totally what I was hoping for. So yea, overall, it’s not bad. Just not where I want to live for the year I think. I really do want to have my own little apartment. Things that are just mine, or mine and my significant other. I don’t know why, but I want that really bad. So this is good for the meantime, settle in, start to be comfortable with being in another country, and having people around, and then switch it up later when Kyle comes. We can afford something nicer then too. I could afford nicer than I’m in at the moment to begin with, but this is saving me a lot of money.
I feel badly for Matt and Carla. I think they are in a good place, but they have just run into some problems. I guess like my internet / tv problem, but they have had a few more to deal with. They were told they could rent a washer and dryer for the apartment (have it installed in their apartment in the big hole that’s intended for a washer/dryer), but they are being told now that it costs a WHOLE lot more than they were initially told to rent it. AND that they can’t have both, just a washer OR dryer. Crazy. That sucks. There are no Laundromats around either apparently. They don’t have an oven either, so they had to buy one to put like, on the counter top. Their DVD player didn’t work, so they had to wait for that to be replaced. Their keys didn’t work right away… You know, all that annoying crap right when you move in. Luckily I guess the only thing missing for me is that whole internet / tv thing. The rest has been fine. Not that there was much in here to deal with anyway, but at least all the cooking utilities worked. Ah well, they will sort it out. Glad they are somewhere they are happy though.
Alright, getting a bit late. Debating running in the morning… not sure, my legs are store from walking around the city (ive been doing it all in sandals… probably not the best way of walking long distance…), but it might be nice. We’ll see.
Later!
So today was better than yesterday in terms of how I felt. Definitely slept in cause last night I was up pretty late. Around 1 / 1:30am. I went to that party next door, which involved stepping out MY front door. I decided while I ate, that I was just going to be social. So I made a salad, and saw that two of the guys were sitting outside at the table talking. So I went up, and sat with them and started talking. Ended up talking to them most of the night. It was pretty nice! Nice guys, pretty funny. Definitely not people I would be friends with really… they all smoke, both had been into some pretty heavy drugs in the past, but we had some interesting conversation for sure. One guy, Hamish, just a unique dude. A bit of a risk taker. He’s like, 10 yrs older than me, and was talking about how he used to deal drugs, race cars, and how he like, owns two businesses and works at a third.. crazy guy. Who knows how much of that was true, but it was entertaining talking with him either way. And Mark, who lives across the court yard, is hilarious. He’s SO awkward. It’s funny though. You can tell he’s a good guy, but a tad short on people skills. Lol.
Anyway, so it was a fun night. Unfortunately lots of cigarettes and weed was everywhere, and I have no interest in partaking in that, so I just had a couple of drinks and worked on just having a good time. So the night was good overall really. CRASHED at 1:30 am tho, SO tired. This morning, I slept in, then took my sweet time getting dressed, and decided to head up to Ponsonby road to a little café that Mom and I had found when she was here. Really cute place, REALLY good coffee (even tho it’s a tad expensive… $4 for a mocha coffee… yeesh!), and FREE INTERNET! So I went, and bought my obligatory coffee, which was delicious, and used internet for like, 2 hours or more. It was really nice! It kicks you off about every 15 minutes, but then you just log back in and continue what you were doing. Internet usage is SOOO weird here. I don’t understand why they don’t just do it the way we do it. Is it so hard to just pay a monthly fee and get as much internet as you want?? I swear. Oh well, at least I have access at work if I have my laptop. Haha.
So I got to talk to Kyle for a bit, and video chat. So nice to see his face. I miss that boy. He cracks me up. I tried doing some research on how to get him here off of my Visa, but nothing was very clear, so I will be calling the immigration office tomorrow during lunch to see if I can talk to someone about what to do. He has been looking for work, but for some reason a lot of the companies are telling him they want him to have a Visa already. Which seems weird…because it doesn’t require anything of a company to sponsor you to get a Visa, but a letter saying you’ve been hired. Seriously. I did all of my stuff myself, I just had a letter proving I was employed. Weird. So I don’t know. Since we’re not married and have never lived together, I’m not sure I can sponsor him to come over here. You must have been together for longer than 12 months, be in a stable relationship, have been living together, and you must be able to prove it by either joint bank statements, or mail sent to both parties at one residence. I wouldn’t be hard to fake, but still… I don’t know. We will see I guess. There are other options too. He could come here just on his passport and stay for like, 3 months and look for work while he’s here. I don’t know what its like trying to get a Visa though if you are IN NZ already. No idea. Its all complicated and stuff. But we’ll sort it out. I hope.
Counting the days til Christmas… tis about 46 for now. Hopefully that’s when I’ll get to see him again. J That would be an awesome Christmas.
Anyway, after the coffee shop and doing a bunch of research there, (I was also looking for other apartments), I got a call from Matt telling me about a book sale going on downtown. On that note, I packed up and ran home to drop my backpack, and caught a bus down to the Whitcoull’s on Queen street. NO KIDDING they were having a sale! It was like, you pick up a coupon on your way in the door, and you can use any combination of them. SO, I got a novel (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, recommended by Gen I believe) for half off (it was $31, so I got it for $15), I got a cook book that was $40 for $20, and then a Calendar for next year for like, $5. It was great!!!! SO happy. Now I have something to read at all those parks I want to hang out at. So funny, I have never wanted a book to read so badly as when I have been here. There’s just a lot to enjoy outside I guess. I want to lay out in a park in the sunlight and just read a book. Funny how I never really wanted to do that before.
After that, I headed back to the house cause I was STARVING. Turns out Nia and Terry came back from their weekend away, and they are great. Really fun. So they were sitting outside with two of their friends who came by to visit, and invited me to join them. We all sat and talked and laughed for a while while I had some food, and they gave me one of the drinks they were having. I found out too that two Chilean guys just moved into the last two open rooms as well. They are very, very nice. Thank goodness. So the house is full. All 7 of us. It’s going to get interesting! Haha. But I had a really nice evening. Sat and hung out with Kira, Nia, Terry, Scott, and the two guys are Alvaro and… ahh, I can’t remember the other one’s name! Ah well. Either way, we all had a good time. The two of them went to bed early, and the rest of us stayed up talking. Kind of reminded me a little of school. Only in a much smaller space, with WAY different people. But everyone gets along shockingly well. Granted, its been like, 2 or 3 days, but still. I think it will be good for a bit.
One thing that I have noticed though about this place that I dislike, is that the floors seem to be really thin? Whenever someone walks upstairs, its like BOOMING in my room. Sucks. Pretty sure this is just kind of a stopping point in places to live. Its pretty quiet overall really, I mean last night around 1:30, others were still up and hanging out next door, but as soon as I closed the outer door, and the intermediate door (theres two I guess for noise), and then MY bedroom door, it was quiet. The place is made out of like, big cinderblocks, kind of like our house at school, so its pretty good about regulating temperature and noise. But the floors man… SUCK. Meh, it is what it is. I do have to say though, I am just grateful that I have the room mates I do. They are all seemingly very mature, grounded, and chill people. No one is crazy. Next door man, they smoke pot inside their place like, EVERY day. You can smell it outside. Thank goodness they aren’t doing that here. I appreciate that a lot. And it’s nice since we’re ALL new, no one had any like, pre-formed groups or anything, we all met each other roughly at one time. Good stuff.
Nia and I are going to ride the bus to work together tomorrow. Its sweet how she wants to do that. It was nice when she wanted to the other day too. She’s just so friendly, and open. Totally what I was hoping for. So yea, overall, it’s not bad. Just not where I want to live for the year I think. I really do want to have my own little apartment. Things that are just mine, or mine and my significant other. I don’t know why, but I want that really bad. So this is good for the meantime, settle in, start to be comfortable with being in another country, and having people around, and then switch it up later when Kyle comes. We can afford something nicer then too. I could afford nicer than I’m in at the moment to begin with, but this is saving me a lot of money.
I feel badly for Matt and Carla. I think they are in a good place, but they have just run into some problems. I guess like my internet / tv problem, but they have had a few more to deal with. They were told they could rent a washer and dryer for the apartment (have it installed in their apartment in the big hole that’s intended for a washer/dryer), but they are being told now that it costs a WHOLE lot more than they were initially told to rent it. AND that they can’t have both, just a washer OR dryer. Crazy. That sucks. There are no Laundromats around either apparently. They don’t have an oven either, so they had to buy one to put like, on the counter top. Their DVD player didn’t work, so they had to wait for that to be replaced. Their keys didn’t work right away… You know, all that annoying crap right when you move in. Luckily I guess the only thing missing for me is that whole internet / tv thing. The rest has been fine. Not that there was much in here to deal with anyway, but at least all the cooking utilities worked. Ah well, they will sort it out. Glad they are somewhere they are happy though.
Alright, getting a bit late. Debating running in the morning… not sure, my legs are store from walking around the city (ive been doing it all in sandals… probably not the best way of walking long distance…), but it might be nice. We’ll see.
Later!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Lonely Saturday
Nov 6th,
Ok, so today was my first day feeling really really lonely. Its weird… at work, I always have something to do, and people to talk to. Everyone at the office is awesome. But now, throw me on a weekend by myself, in a new place to live, with no tv and no internet, where I don’t really know the other people around…. And OMG it’s an overwhelming feeling of loneliness.
I don’t know what it is. Maybe I’m just not really good at being by myself. Granted, I value my alone time, like most people do, but I value it most when I’ve been running around like crazy, and I just want to sit down and be mindless for a bit. Watch some tv. Rent a movie. But here… I can’t do that! Haha. It sucks how dependent on technology we are. I hate sitting around, with my mind swirling, going “what the hell am I going to do with myself now?” I mean, I had things to do, I had to go to the grocery store (that was interesting…), and I had to go and pick things up to try to get my room organized since I don’t have a dresser… but I don’t know.
I was fine grocery shopping. Happy actually. I woke up, had a slow start to the day, and grabbed my rolling suitcase to try to find the store. I didn’t know exactly where it was, but I heard it was back in the neighborhoods somewhere. Unfortunately, I took the most round-about way there possible, so it took me an extra 30 minutes or so. Fine on a beautiful day. Not when you have other things that you want to do (there was a rose festival going on… more on that later). So anyway, finally I make it to the store, go through my list and get some things that I needed. Should be enough for a bit. Its weird… I don’t really know how to grocery shop!! I don’t know how to plan meals, I don’t really know how to cook… and its not nearly as fun when you’re just doing it for yourself.
Anyway, I got what I needed (saved a decent amount), and headed back for the trek home. Then, I rushed to put things away, Carl the landlord came by, and still wasn’t able to connect the internet (they dropped off the wrong type of modem?), so anyway, he showed some other guys through the place to the open rooms, and I headed out. I was going to meet Matt and Carla at the Rose Festival on the other side of town. Unfortunately, since I took my sweet time this morning, and the grocery store turned into more of a grocery excursion, I got there way later than I wanted, so Matt and Carla were ready to go by the time I got there.
It was a nice festival though, the rose gardens are beautiful! And there was all kinds of food, crafts, booths, etc as well. Not to mention the fact that the park is just absolutely gorgeous! I love how scenic and green all the parks are. And I do mean ALL of them really. So anyway, I hung out there a while, Matt and Carla headed on to do the Auckland Museum, and I took photos of the park. Took my time, wandered through, and then once I left that, I decided I was going to find my way home, by taking other streets I had never been down. I had a nice little walk in the sunlight around Parnell. Its really nice over there. Nice homes, clean, quiet, and just beautiful. Expensive though it sounds. Maybe if Kyle comes we can look for a place out that way… though it’s a tad far from work. Ah well, who knows.
Anyway, I found my way back to Parnell road, wandered down there, and checked out some of the street shops. I want to get a book really bad. Something to read. Unfortunately, its like, $30+ to buy a book. Any book. Even on sale! I need to find a Library, or a second hand store or something. So this is about when I started to feel really lonely. Wandering through the city, by myself. Thank goodness it was a nice day, so I had a reason to be outside all of it pretty much. But still. I wandered through, and found Albert Park again. Started texting Mom on the way. Thank goodness I decided to do that. We had a little chat via text, and I told her I was feeling lonely, didn’t know what to do with myself. I sat down in Albert park in the sun while we texted back and forth. It was nice. She made me feel better, gave me some ideas of things to do on my own around town. But you know, I still teared up a bit. I miss everyone at home a lot. I’m still a little sad… like in that “I could cry at the drop of a hat” stage. I’m not used to being alone. Like, AT ALL really. At home, I always had something to do, or someone around. Whether it was work, or working out with Gen or Amy, or Heather, watching tv with Mom and Gary, running errands with them, going out to dinners with people, or just going out just to be out…but always WITH someone. It’s SO WEIRD being in a place where you only have a couple of friends. And even so, Matt and Carla are married, they have plenty of things they want to do on their own, just the two of them.
I think I’m a bit jealous of them. More like, that they have each other. Always someone there. After work, on the weekend, when you’re bored or lonely. I mean, I have Kyle too, but he’s so far away, and the time difference is proving to be a bit harder than I had hoped, being that right now, at almost 9:00 at night, he and everyone else at home are fast asleep. And I have no reason to feel this overwhelmingly lonely… its ONE DAY by myself. I don’t know. It’s hard for me for some reason. I think its just knowing I don’t have access to anyone, even if I wanted it.
On the positive side, I did meet some of the other people in this complex today. They seem alright. The one girl, Joanna, is actually really nice. She and I had a nice conversation when I came back from my second round of errands (after Albert Park, I went to get some stuff for my room at the Look Sharp Store), and she let me plug into their internet for a minute to check my email and upload a blog post. There is a party going on next door tonight (literally in the building attached to mine) that I have been invited to. No idea when that is happening, but right now people are eating and showering and whatnot. I made a salad. I was hungry… but not really anymore. I made it, and then sat down and went “well, its me with my salad. Nice.” Hahahaha. Its so funny how much I’m affected by this. I actually can’t wait for Monday when I can go back to work.
Maybe tonight will be fun, and the party next door will be cool, and I can really get to know more of the people here. Maybe they’ll be people I enjoy spending time with. Who knows. Joanna said everyone is really nice, and they’re all “sane,” haha, so we’ll see.
I know I say this in just about every post, but I hope that Kyle comes. I want to be a couple SO bad walking around the city. Its funny how overwhelming the feeling of wanting him here is. All the time too. I see things that make me think of him, I go places that I wish he was with me at. I want to go places, and I want him to go with me. Sucks. Well, its good but it sucks when I realize that might not happen. That I might be here alone for a year. It’s a little daunting right now. But I’m sure that everything will be fine and I will make more friends, and be overwhelmed with things to do, like I always seem to be.
I kind of just want to go to bed. I don’t even really want to go to the party. But I’m going to go anyway. Cause its probably good for me. And my lonely-ness. Haha.
Alright, enough for now. Guess I should eat my salad. I did walk a few miles to get it :-P !
Ok, so today was my first day feeling really really lonely. Its weird… at work, I always have something to do, and people to talk to. Everyone at the office is awesome. But now, throw me on a weekend by myself, in a new place to live, with no tv and no internet, where I don’t really know the other people around…. And OMG it’s an overwhelming feeling of loneliness.
I don’t know what it is. Maybe I’m just not really good at being by myself. Granted, I value my alone time, like most people do, but I value it most when I’ve been running around like crazy, and I just want to sit down and be mindless for a bit. Watch some tv. Rent a movie. But here… I can’t do that! Haha. It sucks how dependent on technology we are. I hate sitting around, with my mind swirling, going “what the hell am I going to do with myself now?” I mean, I had things to do, I had to go to the grocery store (that was interesting…), and I had to go and pick things up to try to get my room organized since I don’t have a dresser… but I don’t know.
I was fine grocery shopping. Happy actually. I woke up, had a slow start to the day, and grabbed my rolling suitcase to try to find the store. I didn’t know exactly where it was, but I heard it was back in the neighborhoods somewhere. Unfortunately, I took the most round-about way there possible, so it took me an extra 30 minutes or so. Fine on a beautiful day. Not when you have other things that you want to do (there was a rose festival going on… more on that later). So anyway, finally I make it to the store, go through my list and get some things that I needed. Should be enough for a bit. Its weird… I don’t really know how to grocery shop!! I don’t know how to plan meals, I don’t really know how to cook… and its not nearly as fun when you’re just doing it for yourself.
Anyway, I got what I needed (saved a decent amount), and headed back for the trek home. Then, I rushed to put things away, Carl the landlord came by, and still wasn’t able to connect the internet (they dropped off the wrong type of modem?), so anyway, he showed some other guys through the place to the open rooms, and I headed out. I was going to meet Matt and Carla at the Rose Festival on the other side of town. Unfortunately, since I took my sweet time this morning, and the grocery store turned into more of a grocery excursion, I got there way later than I wanted, so Matt and Carla were ready to go by the time I got there.
It was a nice festival though, the rose gardens are beautiful! And there was all kinds of food, crafts, booths, etc as well. Not to mention the fact that the park is just absolutely gorgeous! I love how scenic and green all the parks are. And I do mean ALL of them really. So anyway, I hung out there a while, Matt and Carla headed on to do the Auckland Museum, and I took photos of the park. Took my time, wandered through, and then once I left that, I decided I was going to find my way home, by taking other streets I had never been down. I had a nice little walk in the sunlight around Parnell. Its really nice over there. Nice homes, clean, quiet, and just beautiful. Expensive though it sounds. Maybe if Kyle comes we can look for a place out that way… though it’s a tad far from work. Ah well, who knows.
Anyway, I found my way back to Parnell road, wandered down there, and checked out some of the street shops. I want to get a book really bad. Something to read. Unfortunately, its like, $30+ to buy a book. Any book. Even on sale! I need to find a Library, or a second hand store or something. So this is about when I started to feel really lonely. Wandering through the city, by myself. Thank goodness it was a nice day, so I had a reason to be outside all of it pretty much. But still. I wandered through, and found Albert Park again. Started texting Mom on the way. Thank goodness I decided to do that. We had a little chat via text, and I told her I was feeling lonely, didn’t know what to do with myself. I sat down in Albert park in the sun while we texted back and forth. It was nice. She made me feel better, gave me some ideas of things to do on my own around town. But you know, I still teared up a bit. I miss everyone at home a lot. I’m still a little sad… like in that “I could cry at the drop of a hat” stage. I’m not used to being alone. Like, AT ALL really. At home, I always had something to do, or someone around. Whether it was work, or working out with Gen or Amy, or Heather, watching tv with Mom and Gary, running errands with them, going out to dinners with people, or just going out just to be out…but always WITH someone. It’s SO WEIRD being in a place where you only have a couple of friends. And even so, Matt and Carla are married, they have plenty of things they want to do on their own, just the two of them.
I think I’m a bit jealous of them. More like, that they have each other. Always someone there. After work, on the weekend, when you’re bored or lonely. I mean, I have Kyle too, but he’s so far away, and the time difference is proving to be a bit harder than I had hoped, being that right now, at almost 9:00 at night, he and everyone else at home are fast asleep. And I have no reason to feel this overwhelmingly lonely… its ONE DAY by myself. I don’t know. It’s hard for me for some reason. I think its just knowing I don’t have access to anyone, even if I wanted it.
On the positive side, I did meet some of the other people in this complex today. They seem alright. The one girl, Joanna, is actually really nice. She and I had a nice conversation when I came back from my second round of errands (after Albert Park, I went to get some stuff for my room at the Look Sharp Store), and she let me plug into their internet for a minute to check my email and upload a blog post. There is a party going on next door tonight (literally in the building attached to mine) that I have been invited to. No idea when that is happening, but right now people are eating and showering and whatnot. I made a salad. I was hungry… but not really anymore. I made it, and then sat down and went “well, its me with my salad. Nice.” Hahahaha. Its so funny how much I’m affected by this. I actually can’t wait for Monday when I can go back to work.
Maybe tonight will be fun, and the party next door will be cool, and I can really get to know more of the people here. Maybe they’ll be people I enjoy spending time with. Who knows. Joanna said everyone is really nice, and they’re all “sane,” haha, so we’ll see.
I know I say this in just about every post, but I hope that Kyle comes. I want to be a couple SO bad walking around the city. Its funny how overwhelming the feeling of wanting him here is. All the time too. I see things that make me think of him, I go places that I wish he was with me at. I want to go places, and I want him to go with me. Sucks. Well, its good but it sucks when I realize that might not happen. That I might be here alone for a year. It’s a little daunting right now. But I’m sure that everything will be fine and I will make more friends, and be overwhelmed with things to do, like I always seem to be.
I kind of just want to go to bed. I don’t even really want to go to the party. But I’m going to go anyway. Cause its probably good for me. And my lonely-ness. Haha.
Alright, enough for now. Guess I should eat my salad. I did walk a few miles to get it :-P !
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Nov 5th.... more. Yea, still no internet (all weekend)
Nov 5th
Yea, there are a couple of posts today. But today was a good day. Work was awesome. Seriously, even though it’s a bit stressful with the pressure of putting out some good animation…. I love it. Everyone is SO awesome. I must have met like, 4 or 5 more new people today, that introduced themselves to ME. Its awesome. People were shooting nurf guns across the room again, and this time I got in on a bit of the action. Honestly, that’s a place I wouldn’t mind working long hours. I don’t care to leave necessarily. Never felt that way about a company. I honestly like going to work. J
Warren, who I share the office with temporarily, is just so nice. We goof off and talk some of the afternoon. Its funny, sometimes I’m unproductive at work, because of my coworkers! Haha. Hilarious. Oh, and there’s no internet on the work computers. Which even though I thought it sucked at first… its fantastic. I had internet today cause I had my laptop at work… since again, we still don’t have internet. I’m going to start asking for some money back if we don’t get it soon. Ridiculous. Anyway, it means people are more social, and more productive overall if we don’t have internet access.
So yes, today was great. I ended up learning a lot today too, since Matt and I got handed some Layout shot fixes to help out with. Apparently the deadline was today, and they were a little short, so we jumped on it. Kinda cool! Learned some things about camera fields, and how to re-stage the camera. Little random more technical things. And we got everything done! I still have two shots I’m working on, and then two left to start. So still a bit behind I feel, but I’m not really sure. I’m being told I’ve been good keeping on top of things by some of the other animators, so who knows. I guess I’ll find out soon enough if I’m keeping up. I was working on that one with the elephant today, and it’s a bit hard! But fun. I was really enjoying figuring out how to make his trunk move. I think I tend to over-pose sometimes, adding in too many poses in one short period. But I’m learning. This is so good for my career. I love it!! SO happy. In case you didn’t notice.
Another fun thing: at 5pm every Friday (I think I mentioned this before, but I don’t rememer) there’s the “drink trolley” that comes by all the offices, with wine, beer, snacks, etc. for everyone. Like a mini happy hour. Everyone gets up and mingles for a bit and then most head back to work for a bit before heading home.
Now, the BEST part of the day: a huge group of us (around 10 or so) went out to dinner after work!!! It was GREAT. We had some fantastic food, and it was really reasonably priced! A big Sushi / Sashimi platter thing, for $18.00. Sounds comparable to home to me. And there were a lot of things that were good that were much cheaper too. Anyway, it was a blast! Kate, Nick, Cristina, Tiffany, Matt, Carla, Levi, another Matt, me, and Robin. Fantastic. We were all joking and enjoying good food. We must have been there almost 2 hours or more. It was great.
THEN, we headed out to go set off fireworks! No joke. Its “Guy Fox” (I think?) weekend, where apparently years ago, this guy named Guy tried to blow up Parliament? I’ll look up more details about it when I have internet. Anyway, so he tried to blow it up, but failed, and he was quartered… pretty gruesome. But they celebrate it, well, back then it was more of a reminder of not to attempt to blow up Parliament again. Haha. So over here, its more an excuse to be stupid with explosives. No joke. You’re not allowed to buy OR set off fireworks anywhere in New Zealand apparently except for this weekend. It makes sense… its surprising actually how reckless people here are, overall.
Anyway, so the group of us headed over to Tiffany and Matt’s place and picked up their big box of fireworks, ran by the office to get a couple of things we needed (like a bottle of water to put out the embers later), and said hi to a couple people there still working (around 10pm), took some photos of the group, and headed down to Victoria Park. Its like, a big open football field out there, and there were a bunch of others setting off fireworks as well. It was awesome. I got a ton of pictures, and we all just hung around, goofing off and enjoying one another’s company. It was a great night. SO glad I went to that dinner. I think these people are going to be a blast to hang out with. Everyone has a great sense of humor, and they’re all so nice.
So, now I am back at my place. Its now Nov 6th, and the fireworks are still going strong out around town. Apparently some of my room mates are awake.. I can hear them upstairs, but I have no idea what they are up to. This place is kinda noisy with people upstairs, so I will probably only be here a few weeks / month or so before looking for somewhere else to live. We shall see. Once I have INTERNET, I will find out what else I have available, but at least I don’t need to rush to find anywhere in the mean time.
Ok, off to bed.
Yea, there are a couple of posts today. But today was a good day. Work was awesome. Seriously, even though it’s a bit stressful with the pressure of putting out some good animation…. I love it. Everyone is SO awesome. I must have met like, 4 or 5 more new people today, that introduced themselves to ME. Its awesome. People were shooting nurf guns across the room again, and this time I got in on a bit of the action. Honestly, that’s a place I wouldn’t mind working long hours. I don’t care to leave necessarily. Never felt that way about a company. I honestly like going to work. J
Warren, who I share the office with temporarily, is just so nice. We goof off and talk some of the afternoon. Its funny, sometimes I’m unproductive at work, because of my coworkers! Haha. Hilarious. Oh, and there’s no internet on the work computers. Which even though I thought it sucked at first… its fantastic. I had internet today cause I had my laptop at work… since again, we still don’t have internet. I’m going to start asking for some money back if we don’t get it soon. Ridiculous. Anyway, it means people are more social, and more productive overall if we don’t have internet access.
So yes, today was great. I ended up learning a lot today too, since Matt and I got handed some Layout shot fixes to help out with. Apparently the deadline was today, and they were a little short, so we jumped on it. Kinda cool! Learned some things about camera fields, and how to re-stage the camera. Little random more technical things. And we got everything done! I still have two shots I’m working on, and then two left to start. So still a bit behind I feel, but I’m not really sure. I’m being told I’ve been good keeping on top of things by some of the other animators, so who knows. I guess I’ll find out soon enough if I’m keeping up. I was working on that one with the elephant today, and it’s a bit hard! But fun. I was really enjoying figuring out how to make his trunk move. I think I tend to over-pose sometimes, adding in too many poses in one short period. But I’m learning. This is so good for my career. I love it!! SO happy. In case you didn’t notice.
Another fun thing: at 5pm every Friday (I think I mentioned this before, but I don’t rememer) there’s the “drink trolley” that comes by all the offices, with wine, beer, snacks, etc. for everyone. Like a mini happy hour. Everyone gets up and mingles for a bit and then most head back to work for a bit before heading home.
Now, the BEST part of the day: a huge group of us (around 10 or so) went out to dinner after work!!! It was GREAT. We had some fantastic food, and it was really reasonably priced! A big Sushi / Sashimi platter thing, for $18.00. Sounds comparable to home to me. And there were a lot of things that were good that were much cheaper too. Anyway, it was a blast! Kate, Nick, Cristina, Tiffany, Matt, Carla, Levi, another Matt, me, and Robin. Fantastic. We were all joking and enjoying good food. We must have been there almost 2 hours or more. It was great.
THEN, we headed out to go set off fireworks! No joke. Its “Guy Fox” (I think?) weekend, where apparently years ago, this guy named Guy tried to blow up Parliament? I’ll look up more details about it when I have internet. Anyway, so he tried to blow it up, but failed, and he was quartered… pretty gruesome. But they celebrate it, well, back then it was more of a reminder of not to attempt to blow up Parliament again. Haha. So over here, its more an excuse to be stupid with explosives. No joke. You’re not allowed to buy OR set off fireworks anywhere in New Zealand apparently except for this weekend. It makes sense… its surprising actually how reckless people here are, overall.
Anyway, so the group of us headed over to Tiffany and Matt’s place and picked up their big box of fireworks, ran by the office to get a couple of things we needed (like a bottle of water to put out the embers later), and said hi to a couple people there still working (around 10pm), took some photos of the group, and headed down to Victoria Park. Its like, a big open football field out there, and there were a bunch of others setting off fireworks as well. It was awesome. I got a ton of pictures, and we all just hung around, goofing off and enjoying one another’s company. It was a great night. SO glad I went to that dinner. I think these people are going to be a blast to hang out with. Everyone has a great sense of humor, and they’re all so nice.
So, now I am back at my place. Its now Nov 6th, and the fireworks are still going strong out around town. Apparently some of my room mates are awake.. I can hear them upstairs, but I have no idea what they are up to. This place is kinda noisy with people upstairs, so I will probably only be here a few weeks / month or so before looking for somewhere else to live. We shall see. Once I have INTERNET, I will find out what else I have available, but at least I don’t need to rush to find anywhere in the mean time.
Ok, off to bed.
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