2008 Resolutions

In the spirit of the New Year, I am going to skip the obligatory apologies for not posting in a while...It is a 2008, and I am full of vim and vigor. I am going to do my best to actual create a few Captain Capitalism cartoons this year, as well as finish my first episode of "Alabama in Space."

I have already started on some storyboards and animatic and should have some new drawings to share for the few folks who visit this site.

I got one of those Franklin-Covey goal oriented planners for Christmas. Normally, I would be the first to dismiss such a cheesy thing. I am not necessarily a "7 Habits of Colored Parachutes and Moved Cheese," kind of guy. But I went through the exercises in the book with Internet cartoons in mind, and I guess we will see if it works out.

Another project that I have been working on recently is a spreadsheet that tracks the amount of money spent per foot on various animation projects throughout time, adjusted for inflation. I must say it is a Captain Capitalism way to look at the state of our industry. The sheet include lots of projects, from early Fleischer shorts to current Flash based TV programs. I have also gone through a lot of salaries of various animators and directors throughout their careers. In a weird way, it has been inspiring. I have had some great help from folks like Cold Hard Flash's Aaron Simpson and and Cartoon Brew's Amid Amidi. I have just about finished the research and am just trying to figure out the best way to organize the information for people to view online, and organize some thoughts about it.

As I write this I am little blog "taking a break" from an online defensive driving course. On Christmas, while driving back from Houston, two hours from my 32nd birthday, I got a speeding ticket. It was my first ticket in many years. I elected to do defensive driving to dismiss the ticket. The course I am doing was produced in Flash. I think it is actually a program that our studio made a bid on at one point. Apparently, they went with an overseas studio. One clue to this is they have an road-killed armadillo character that looks like a warthog.

Apparently, I skipped some chapter of Inferno back in undergraduate school because I was not aware of this part of the concentric circles of hell. In this portion of the dark realm, Flash animators who travel 11 mph above posted speeds are condemned to watch 300+ minutes of the worst Flash animation ever produced.

The punishment does not fit the crime. I don't think I will ever speed again. I am actually considering never driving again.

In order for this not to be a purely textual post, here are some cakes.

The guys at the office got me for my birthday:

And another cake that the fine folks at Bakerman's made for a Powerhouse party:

I am going to try my best to post weekly in 2008, so stay tuned.