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(This was mostly written Tuesday night, though I’ve since made minor changes)

There are not enough EEEs in SQUEEE! to describe today. While the courses and panels and such at SIGGRAPH are intriguing, it’s difficult to compare with the sheer emotional drive and sensory overload of the Exhibition, which started today. The event began with the traditional mad race to the Pixar booth for posters, which resembled a toy store at opening time the day before Christmas. Then, swag-lust abated somewhat, we started winding around to nearby booths and basking in the electronic glory. Many of the larger companies set up teaching centers and/or demos. It was hard to decide where to go for each scheduled tutorial! There was just so much stuff going on, all at the same time. WILD.

One constantly bustling venue was the AutoDesk (publishers of the industry standard 3D software Maya, for one) fortress, which ran demos of all its latest products, including MAYA FREAKING 8. And here I was, dangerously close to upgrading to Maya 7! Truly, God smiles on the procrastinators.

My most frequent repeat visits were the displays for ILM and The Art Institutes. At ILM’s huge display, I fist saw a demo of the next-gen A.I. for the upcoming Indiana Jones game, which is SWEET. Then I got a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the CG creatures of Pirates of the Caribbean II, specifically on the the tentacle effects for Davy Jones (effects aside, Bill Nighy is even more my hero than he was before), which was fascinating. They also spoke briefly about the matte painting and rotoscoping used in the film, which was far more extensive than I’d thought. This seems to be a theme for me in a lot of effects films. I was equally thrown by the amount of background augmentation in King Kong and HHGTG, to name a few. Anyway, the tentacle effects thing ran short, so they showed a short blooper reel, which I captured on my digital camera and will hopefully share with you tonight. [Edit: Here it is!]

At the Art Institutes, I took a tutorial in Avid, where we learned a few of the most common features, plus some of the editing tricks used in 24 like splitscreening. I’d never used the software before, so it’s nice to get some brief experience, at least. Who knows when it’ll come in handy? Then I squeezed into the tutorial on Matte Painting, which presented an approach to photo manipulation in Photoshop completely different from my experience in the past. I’ll have to see where I can implement these tricks in my own work!

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Today was all kinds of nifty. I slept in to compensate for waking up at 4:30 yesterday, and I met with former JETSie Ashley and her friend Nancy to tromp around Boston. First, we visited the Gardner Museum, which was very cool, but really awkwardly arranged and poorly lit. It was like a very condensed version of the Frick in New York, but not as well executed. Still, the contents were extraordinary!

Then we went to the Bostom Museum of Fine Arts, which was fabulous. I wish we’d had enough time to do the museum justice, but we only had a little over an hour before I had to head back for SIGGRAPH registration. Ashley guided us through 18th century paintings, which were jaw-dropping. I dragged us to the ancient art galleries, representing Egypt, Greece, areas of Mesopotamia, and much of Asia. Ever since hearing Christian Lorenz Scheurer‘s lecture on worldbuilding at Industry Giants, I’ve been intrigued about what the art of ancient cultures says about the culture itself. This intensified when I went through the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s exhibition on artifacts from native tribes of the Americas. By looking at the natural resources available, how these natural resources are used, what was deemed valuable, what items were traded, etc etc etc, you can infer a great deal about the culture and its values. Fascinating!

I arrived for registration at about 5:20, 40 minutes in advance. The line was already about 25 people long. I arrived just in time, as a few minutes later, the line tripled. We were finally allowed in at 6, and I was out in 10 minutes. At 6:10, the line extended all the way to the end of the wing. Multiple-hundreds of people, easy. They’ll be waiting a lot longer than my 40 minutes, I guarantee.

And now I’m back at my hotel, eager to change my shoes. I’m so glad my mom cajoled me into bringing my tennis shoes, as the sandals that have been so comfortable this past summer have metamorphosed into… you know in the Grimm’s version of Snow White, where at Snow White and the Prince’s wedding, the evil Queen must dance in red-hot iron shoes until she falls down dead? That’s what my feet felt like an hour into our excursion. I have blisters the size of cats.

And that was my day! The real conference starts tomorrow morning, and I can’t wait! *would do a little dance, but that would mean her feet touching something solid*

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Looks like the Dresden Files tv series is probably going to air on Fridays, starting January 5th or 12th. I just hope it isn’t set for 10/9c, which would conflict with Psych. Or anywhere in the 8-10pm EST Slot of Death. *crosses fingers*

Anyway, I was cleaning out my camera bag last night, and I came across ticket stubs from February of 2000, when I first met Renata in person (after knowing each other online for two years and change) and we saw Rent together. It was on this trip that we coined the term “Cult of Lincoln.” Man that’s surreal.

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Your regularly scheduled me telling you about horrendous airport hijinks has been pre-empted by me sleeping. Good night, everybody!

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Here’s a fun science fact! Did you know that when you take my favourite pair of flip-flops and add a freak apocalyptic thunderstorm, you get the frictional properties of teflon?

Now you do.

I spent the afternoon/evening strolling down Newbury Street and browsing the shops. Some cute stuff mixed in with the inevitable dross. There was one ridiculously priced boutique that had clothes that reminded me strongly of River’s “I’m a mentally traumatized little girl that has no idea how to dress herself” Safe outfit, done in white. Though it’s quite possible that I still had Firefly on the brain after coming across a shop called “Firefly,” with its logo done up in Papyrus, the Serenity font. As soon as I stepped in the door, my eyes fell on a rack of jewelry by “Serenity.” It was kind of great. I made sure the Firefly buttons on my purse were in plain sight when I walked past the proprietor, hoping for a reaction, but none came. Alas.

Anyway, I’d walked quite a distance from my hotel when clouds started rolling in and the wind started picking up. I turned around, grabbed some quick takeout, and ran into CVS for an umbrella. As soon as I left the drugstore, it started drizzling. After I’d walked about a block, the clouds burst and started drenching the unfortunate pedestrians, myself very much included, in a torrential downpour. The winds were so ferocious that I had to hold my umbrella almost more horizontal than vertical. Suggested soundtrack: Flight of the Valkyries.

At this point, I was about 4 blocks from my hotel. My pants were completely soaked through, and my shirt was following suit (hee!). Then my shoes became so wet and slippery that I seriously considered taking them off and going barefoot. I had to walk like I do in snow slush, carefully planting each foot to ensure I don’t slip, but with the ball of my foot or my heels falling out of the shoe with nearly every step. And these are somewhat stacked sandals, so when my heels fell out, the ground was two or three inches away? There was twistiness. It was sad.

Also, while fighting with my umbrella, I was juggling a calzone that was really too hot to touch. All the ;_; faces in the world cannot express my woe.

Universe: 1
Priscilla: -4 + calzone, which at least counts for something, as it was delicious.

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Just arrived in Boston, after a somewhat staggering series of unfortunate events. No relatives were killed by a demented actor out to steal my family fortune, but there did include an entire concourse being shut down at my connecting airport due to a security breach! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Full story at 11, after I watch Psych tonight at 10. (Dude. Seriously. It’s hilarious. It’s like my heir apparent to Wonderfalls, insofar as any other show in existence can even hold a candle to the hilarity of Wonderfalls. Why aren’t you watching?)

My foray into the city was delayed slightly when I realized my digital camera batteries were near dead, so I’m chilling in my hotel room and unwinding for a few minutes while I build up a decent charge. I’m staying at the Harvard Club (because every other hotel in Boston is either booked or asking for one year’s college tuition per night due to the insanity of SIGGRAPH). The room is smallish, but the view from my hotel room window is awesome. It looks right only Commonwealth Avenue, which my handy Boston travel guide bills as Boston’s answer to the Champs-Elysees. Also: free wireless internet! Huzzah!

And wow, that camera battery recharged a lot quicker than I imagined it would. Maybe it wasn’t as near dead as I’d imagined. I’m off!

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SIGGRAPH draws me Northwards with its siren call of geekitude! I’ll be back Thursday night. I’m fairly sure that I’ll have internet access at my hotel, but I’ll have other priorities. Email me if there’s something you need me to see. W00t!

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So Mom doesn’t like the main image for my new blog layout, convinced that any potential employer will run screaming when they (obviously) inevitably see my blog. My reaction is “Question mark?” She should be glad I didn’t pick an image of a man being attacked by a ravening horde of weasels. :D

*cackles* Apparently Oni Press is going to be doing a comic based on Stephen Colbert’s fictional fiction, Tek Jansen Adventures.

In Pictures: Software and coding tutorial guides, free for a limited time. *downloads the guides on PHP and MySQL*

Cute interview with James Roday of Psych from TV Guide! If you’re not watching Psych… what’s wrong with you? :D

Will Ferrell — Bush on Global Worming