Le Petit Kandinsky Prince

   Alright, so I totally kicked the butts of those tests I told you yesterday that I had! Kind of mean of me, I know, but... they're tests. You really can't anthropomorphize them all that much.

   First off, anyway, let me start today's post with a big shout-out to '90s post grunge, jangle pop band Deep Blue Something, who really happened to tie together my really weird lines of thought today under one neat little bow of a post title. Yay.

   Okay, so. This is going to matter, but... our landlords, the Potters, are just the greatest in the world, and sent out a survey this afternoon on suggestions for this winter semester activity they're thinking of doing. Remember that now. And let's zoom out a bunch.

   I was people-watching today. There was a devotional today, with Elder Bednar of the 12, which I can't remember a word of seeing as how I was unconscious for it; asleep for basically the whole thing-- it's a General Authority, which is probably pretty major I guess? Though spending 2 years on Temple Square may have damaged my significance sensor, regarding that kind of thing... Everyone showed up, though, so I spent the couple hours beforehand just watching all the people pour in (and became absolutely terrified when I realized how many different ways there are just to walk and how unique everyone's gait is, not even counting for the arm movements.) But, people came in. Alone, in groups, as couples holding hands. Or whatever. I like watching people. This experience is also important, and you should remember this as well. Let's zoom in now, but elsewhere.

   As a culture we've got a really weird relationship with art, but... it's art. So first of all, yes, you really can't anthropomorphize it all that much, and also first-point-onest of all it'd be more of personification, but, second of all: it's art, how else is our relationship with it going to be? A relationship doesn't have to be non-weird to be healthy still. Still.

   Wassily Kandinsky was a painter. You know him. Believed that, like, music doesn't need to be representational to still be beautiful? He made, the more awesomer of, his paintings non-representational as well, just like music. And we love him for it.

He also died more than 70 years ago, so his works are totally public domain in the US!

   Imagine a Kandinsky painting-- let's say this one in fact, Delicate Tension, though you could go for On White II or even On White I for that matter, or just, whatever-- imagine this painting as, instead of a painting, the layout to some particular bit of graphic design. Most likely an advertisement. Would that be somehow heretical, if that were the case? Something tells me that it is. And yet... We make kitschy little refrigerator magnet reproductions of the Mona fridging Lisa; is that heretical? Or is it because the Mona Lisa isn't, itself, a fridge magnet, that makes it so that it can be so?

   If Kandinsky paintings, as paintings, didn't exist, and there were text and logos instead of his swoopy squigglies and solid shapey shapes, would it be remotely the same, even if his designs are just layouts at the core? What if we took the originals, we've got reproductions anyway we don't need these, and applied our copy and graphic directly onto the paintings, so that the new originals, they're all adverts from now on? That's, basically, my original question.

   We used the Mona Lisa as a comparison beforehand, so let me point out that this same thing happened to the original of that-- though it was more of, sawing off the ends of it to make it fit the wall better, than actually any LHOOQy loos scribbling 'staches on the original there or anything, still-- it was to the most priceless painting of all time. What difference really is there between doing that to the Mona Lisa, and taking less valuable art, and put it to use, selling something...? And if you do do that to the art: it's still awesome, right?

   That's all very interesting to ponder in the hypothetical, but how about we apply questions of the relationship between art and consumerism to the real world...?

   There is, of course, a (pretty darn gorgeous-looking) Little Prince movie coming out this March, a couple of weeks after Zootopia arrives. That's where the Winter Semester Activity from earlier comes in, albeit with a totally different moral dilemma: if we were to go see a movie at Fat Cats for this activity, what would it be? I have no interest in either Allegiant or Dawn of Justice, and though of course I said the same thing of The Force Awakens, it still comes down between The Little Prince and Zootopia. Zootopia I'm going to see anyway, of course... probably, barring extreme circumstances, more than once. Do I make one of those times with the activity, or do I catch something I wouldn't otherwise have the chance to, seeing as how I never go to movies except under exceptions like this, and Star Wars, and Zootopia? It strikes me as a moral decision, the choice between values and, values.

   I put in my vote for The Little Prince, over Zootopia. Wild.

   But that's not the moral conundrum I wanted to talk about.

   Browsing Amazon, getting suggestions for things I might be interested in, there was a lot of Little Prince stuff. Like, a lot, a lot. Some of it was even connected to the movie... This is the real-world, here. The question, about the relationship between art and consumerism. I'm willing to let Zootopia come out with a bunch of, vinyl figures and everything, because it's Disney, and more power to them. I'm willing to let My Little Pony do the same, because it's Hasbro and that's their job. And besides, all of those things are amazing, amazing things.

   Same with the Little Prince stuff. I mean, have you seen this? It's wonderful stuff, and it increases the world's total pool on wonderful. But it's also... I don't know, but it reminds me of the scene in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, where, yes it's great that steak is falling from the sky, but isn't the steak a bit... big?

   It's not sawing up the Mona Lisa, by far. But it is releasing a slew of tie-in merchandise for The Little Prince. The book that taught us what it means to be a child, and what it means to be a grown-up, and what really matters in the world.

  Do overpriced imported action figures of characters not even in the book (yet who are essential audience surrogates and figures to states the book's central themes) matter? Do the opportunities for imagination the figures provide matter? Does Jeff Bridges have throat cancer or something, or does he really just put a bunch of marbles in his mouth before saying anything nowadays?

   I don't know.

   But, remember the people-watching from earlier? How human beings themselves, ourselves, can put me into the uncanny valley just through normal human movement? How we walk together, and walk alone? How  we reach out and hold each other so tightly, grabbing each other's hands as though it meant something? I thought a lot about how beautiful people are, and how I'd quickly be able to find common ground with anyone in the large large stream of crowd, enough even to know and to love and to be loved and to be in love, with any of those people, potentially any at all.

   And I thought about the Prince's rose, and about the field of roses, and about the quality that separated them...

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/andy-warhol-thirty-are-better-than-one-1

Phascinating Thing

   I've got a big test in the morning, for Art History 202... I also have a project due tomorrow, but I finished it early and have it turned it already (no time to work on it tomorrow); isn't that phascinating? With a "ph," because with all this stuff going on and my need to turn in early today (seriously I would have gone to bed a couple of hours ago if it weren't for that project that I needed to finish) I'm going to have to phone it in today, do-ho-ho. Also I'm tired and no longer cair about spelling.

   Alright, so I feel that I need more post for you other than that announcement, so luckily this day did not go uneventfully regarding things I've been posting about. Meaning here, blog traffic. This stuff might be boring to some of you, but to me it's pretty fascinating.

   Earlier this month the hit counter tripped 700+ views per month, with that having been the previous ceiling, so the ceiling became 800. Today the ceiling jumped by 100 again, at 900 on the overview screen. 803 views, so far, this month, and there's still a week left to go... June 2015, 562 hits, the high up till this blog became a regular thing again; 619 hits in December the all-time high, and we're on an upward, thing...

I'd click on that if I wanted to see it bigger...

   So, yeah, that's it. Yes, phoning it in. No, I really don't deserve that many hits if I accept such a lackluster blog performance from myself. ...oh well?

JBU (Justa Buncha Updates) (Plus Zootopia Watch)

   Alright, if anyone actually reads these, the Zootopia Watch Trailer Reviews are now all up:

Part 1 again just for continuity's sake
Part 2, and the Noo Year Revyoo also up
Part 3
Part 4

   I also recently freed from the shackles of "post preview version"dom, Trippiness Postulate Redux Plus, which turns one year old tomorrow and is already the fifth most-viewed post on the blog for some reason? I don't think it's the name... figure it's got something to do with the metadata. But all this time, the, robots or whatever the heck it was that was giving me all those hits, were viewing an incomplete post, from back when I was falling behind on my posts but still wanted to get something up, no matter how incomplete...

   Speaking of popular posts, I'd like to thank everyone for making Touch Your Screen also so inexplicably popular (alright, maybe these things do have to do with the names...) It hasn't been up for two days yet, and it's already the, something like 11th or 12th most viewed post on the blog... The stats page only tracks the top 10, but I can only see one post that'd be a competitor for 11th place in terms of hitcount...

   And, as long as I'm still at it, I added footnotes to yesterday's post, in case you're interested in delving into the science a bit further. http://dielikeadisneyvillain.blogspot.com/2016/01/on-anthropomorphic-snow-figures-plus.html

ZOOTOPIA WATCH
   There are TV spots up on YouTube if you want to check them out... they've been out for about a week now, but I'm so late to the punch sometimes... There's some pretty nice so-far-exclusive content there, too, so. You can track them down, if you want?

   But I'm just kinda bummed right now-- well, not really bummed, but, one of the French language trailers gives the release date in France as being Février, vingt-six, I think, so, like, the French get to see it legally a whole week before it comes out in the States...!

On Anthropomorphic Snow Figures (Plus, Zootopia Watch!)

   I woke up at 5:20 this morning. I feel great. Well, right now I feel tired, but, earlier, yeah, that felt great. As for right now... I feel tired. But earlier, I felt great!

   Did I mention, though, that right now I'm pretty tired?

   I saw a snowman today. Well, not only one snowman. Today, over the course of it, I saw many snowsman (that's right, kiddos, fun fact: the word "snowman" takes an internal pluralization.)

   I'm not talking about those snowsman, though. I'm talking about the first snowman I saw today. Which I saw, this morning, before 6:00, this morning. I saw it. And I realized, wait, that's supposed to be a person? 

[I'd been going to take a picture of the exact snowman in question, but didn't get around to it. But you know what one looks like. Picture a photo of a snowman here. Go on, I believe in you.]

   If there were a snow, like, dog that came in three lumps, bag-bang-bang snowlump-snowlump-snowlump, we wouldn't recognize that as a dog. That'd be a giant ant. And, as anyone who's never seen Ant Man could tell you, those two are impossible to get mixed up. Unless, of course, the dog really is really messed-up looking. Or maybe you're that guy from The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. You'd probably be able to mix those up then. 

   And I am tired.

   I'm just going to proceed based off the assumption that you do not, in fact, live in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or Earth 99,999, as it is known by people way too geeky to have lives. And, me, of course. I, know that... 

   And I am tired.

   Neurologically, we're willing to accept almost anything as being human, or at least the face part. There have been, sciences, done on that. Sciences, man. We clearly accept a lot of stylization when it comes to identification of facial features. As long as it doesn't swing back into the uncanny valley, we're fine, yeah? But what's the degree of stylization, has there ever been any sciences done on, what we're willing to accept as a human bodily form? That's an excellent question, and it probably wouldn't be terribly difficult to look up, would it?

   But I am, putting way more mental energy into an internal debate on whether to keep "I am tired" going on as a running gag.

   This much I know, or at least have read (so if I'm wrong don't blame me): we use different parts of the brain to "read" cartoons than we do to read real life.* Neurotypically, we use different parts of the brain to "read" faces than reading objects. With autistic subjects, of course, freakin', amazing stuff, that's not the case; the same part of the brain is used when viewing objects as faces.** Also, I was probably going somewhere with that. Just pretend I quoted more science at you here. And that I wrapped all of these facts and theories up for you in a neat little bow that perfectly encapsulates how the heck we're still able to take the (not even stylization, man, but abstractification) lump-lump-lump as the human form. Pretend that, for me.

   I really am, you know.

   You know, furries are supposed to have, like, some significant number, higher percent chance of having Asperger's Syndrome than the general population. You've done a lot of imagining so far, and I'm proud of you, so just imagine that I actually bothered to look that statistic up as well.† There are so many possibilities on the causality behind that that I could probably do a whole post just speculating, but I've (to whatever degree of "always" you'll accept) always wondered if that might be part of it, something about, facial recognition, and animals?‡

   I think it does.

   I am, just, too tired right now even to finish this sen

ZOOTOPIA WATCH

   I didn't even know Walt Disney Records had a YouTube channel, but this came out on it yesterday:

   Wow! I'd totally comment on that more if I weren't among the living dead right now!

   As it is... hey, check it out, more sweet overhead sweeps of the city. Zootopia itself is, like, my 71st favorite thing about Zootopia. So yeah, it's really pretty high up there (did I mention how immensely psyched I am for this movie?)

   Alright, well, that's a day's post! Sayonara!

Touch Your Screen

   I brought in my AlphaSmart to the computer art room this morning, used the scanner cord to download that sweet sweet wordcount, so all that backlog Zootopia Watch Trailer Review will be up... soon. Once I can figure out what I'd meant to type, clean that up into normal human conversation. I'd been going to chill around the Spori building until something happened to alert me to where Thomas Hull was holding his workshop, but right there on the door to the computer room was the notice which I'd seen telling of the activity, and so, oh, is that where I saw it, I guess I'll just hang around for the next half hour. I could do my sudoku for this week-- I'm getting better, or the puzzles are getting easier; I don't even need to digitize them anymore to solve them. I suppose I could check which... I do have that photo I took of the first week's sudoku...

   The workshop (for lack of a better term; it was basically more a presentation) lasted from 9:00-11:00, and was comprised mostly of a series of... case studies, I'll call them, from his career. This time, I not only have my notes but kept them too, so if I wanted to I could go into it, though it was far from the only thing that happened today... Like Star Wars; I finally caught The Force Awakens in 3D.

   But anyway.

   There weren't many others at the workshop, and so we could each get a copy of one of the books whose creation he profiled, A Communicator's Guide to the Neuroscience of Touch, a paper company's commision to explain how much better tactile, haptic material is over digital media. Which it is. Present medium notwithstanding. It gets really deep into weird fascinating science. And of course it's gorgeous to the fingers as well as eyes.

Reach out and touch the screen. Go on. Do it. It'll make you feel good.

   Alright, so you can't actually feel the paper the book's made from, but it does feel as fantastic as it looks. It feels like... have you ever unboxed an iPod, iPad, or iPhone? Apple's boxes are made out of hopes and magic, and most certainly not manufactured, of course; if they were, we wouldn't be allowed to talk about it, so I'm most certainly not implying that these are the guys who make those. Nope. Definitely not.

   I also can't say that famed neuroscientist David Eagleman contributed his expertise to the book, even though he did-- Thomas Hull outlined the whole history of the project, and having to talk Dr Eagleman into supplying material though in between hosting serieses of PBS documentaries, doing a TED talk, and having his wife give birth-- and also there was the tiny issue of conflicting interests, where the original study that the campaign had initially been supposed to be based on was less-than-scientific (having, for one, a sample size of only eight people), and also one can seriously jeopardize one's scientific credibility if one appears to endorse things for corporations. So, yeah, I guess I can say David Eagleman contributed his expertise to the book.

   From such a shaky beginning, now the whole thing is on the level, with bonus material from Dr Eagleman if you use your Layer app over the silver-bordered pages in the book. However the "Layer" app works. Presumably it really is magic this time.

   So we each got to take one of those home, since he brought a pack of six and there were only six of us, plus that seventh person who walked in but there were a couple extra copies floating around the campus from earlier somewhere. And also the company will gladly mail you one if you write in and ask.

   Except your copy won't be autographed.  

   Thomas Hull also offered to draw a turkey hand for me (the signature is in the back of the book with the right hand, because he's left handed and so he'd be able to trace his right hand,) but I said he didn't need to do that if he didn't want to, soo...

   I finished off and submitted my sudoku, went home for a couple of minutes to drop off my AlphaSmart and stuff, and also finish off my breakfast, and then went off on an adventure! Which could be a whole post on its own, though, yes, it does include Star Wars. I only got back after sunset.

   And even then, there was dinner, and people invited over, and we all watched Fantastic Mr Fox, and I want to go to bed but I had to finish this blog...

   And to think, I'd wanted to get in some studying today.

Art 297 Seminar: Thomas Hull

   Alright, so, this evening at 6:15 there was an art seminar, of the sort that you need to attend on more than one occasion for a course credit required for an art major. Apparently you have to enroll beforehand in order for it to count as such, but I didn't even know it could be for credit and just went for fun. And there's always another seminar, so I can get my credits in the future.

   The speaker was Thomas Hull, of Rigsby Hull, and the subject was graphic design. (The firm-or-whatever is named Rigsby Hull, and there's a building on campus here named Rigby Hall, which is not where the seminar was held. No way that's confusing. I, totally didn't get lost trying to find where the seminar is held and walk in like 10 minutes late, alright? It was more like 15.)

   Mostly it was because I didn't even know where the Ricks building was. It's on the north end of campus and, up until that point, I had never been that far north in my life (Rexburg Idaho = pretty far up there.) Thomas Hull's also doing a thing tomorrow morning at the Spori, which I do know the location of, though I couldn't locate the time this time.

   Anyway, you probably want to hear a few notes from the seminar.

   Well, so would I; you have to turn in your note paper as part of the proof of attendance.

   I took a picture of my notes before turning my sheet in, though, so I'm still able to sum it up for you. My takeaway was this: 99% of graphic design is storytelling. Storytelling sticks with people. Juries aren't swayed by evidence or legalities; they're swayed by stories. Find the story first, do as much research as you possible can, have the index cards of your mind always full of unique ways of looking at the world... and laying the copy is the very very last thing you do in the process, after you've solved the story.

   (Same thing with portfolios, which is good to know. When you're presenting a portfolio, the story behind the piece, the problems you had to overcome and the reason you're so proud of it, sticks a lot better than just rehashing the exact same 1,000 that the picture's already telling.)

   There was a lot more to it than that; fortunately I managed to catch all 6 of the points he laid down, though late as I was I may never know the celebrated story of his father and the toe jam. I think I'm okay with that? but it sure sounds entertaining.

Elephant Uplifts: Transcending the Genre! (Plus Zootopia Watch)

   You'd probably love to hear about the Comic Book Workshop tonight, wouldn't you?

   Well, I'd probably love to go to bed. But... sometimes you get what you need.

  BARSK came in the mail for me today, forwarded and finally I can stick the bookplate into the book, which is going to be awesome and I'll be sure to get a picture of its consumption... conception? Cons...titution, Concession, Convection... Consummation, that's it, consummation.

   Looking back over my initial review, I thought I was going to have to backpedal on things I said, making claims of genre transcendence or anything really snooty like that (to say, "this work transcends the genre" is code for "I've transcended my snobbery," though it should be code for, "hey guys you should really transcend your own snobberies, and maybe saying bad things about the genre this work actually does belong to wholly will get you to somehow like the thing I guess.") I put that review better than I'd be able to had I written it now.

   My second review, the one with the view from the second sight of a breather, is, from second sight of a breather, not as dead center as the first, to put it nicely... Maybe Chapter 31 does make sense, though it doesn't really contribute to the plot in any meaningful way... neither does Chapter 14. It's still beautiful stuff to have.

   Anyway. Wednesday, bleeding day (wow bro you find any way to make it more creepy?), a few things due, and also I went grocery shopping...

   You see, you know how I said I'd miss Mom's ombudsmanship? Turns out that there are technologies nowadays for communication over vast distances. I called home to confirm that my cell phone was working when I first activated it, and, long distance ombudsing: turns out, my parents wouldn't actually let me starve? That's... comforting.

   It's nice to be a starving artist, but it's even nicer to have money.

ZOOTOPIA WATCH
   And it's a doozie.

Source: Random House / Disney, via Amazon

   Alright, so, for those of you not already in the know, the official Zootopia tie-in books started rolling out yesterday. I say "started" rolling out because we still have to wait for March 1st for the official Art of Zootopia book, grumble grumble... It's gonna be awesome, though.

   March 1st is also of course the same day the Disney Infinity 3.0 Zootopia stuff comes out, but you can totally preorder them now.

   Nick

   Judy

   Anyway. New books, yesterday, came out. Since then I've been trying to collect them like Pokemon trading cards, but, there are a lot of them, and seriously man crack would be a cheaper hobby. (See the starving artist grocery thing up there? I do need to eat people food, you know...) Not that I mind...

   Alright, so, we learned a lot from, the few books that we could afford. Including who the mastermind is and everything; seriously what the heck I thought they tried to keep at least some spoilers out of the junior novelizations. It doesn't look like humans have to do with anything, so, so far my theory from the Zootopia Watch, covered in the second of the above BARSK links, isn't looking too accurate, but...: the tie-ins for The LEGO Movie, even when they had the existence of Finn, still kept his exact role smoothed over, so there's still a chance that things go beyond the [PLOT SPOILER BITS CENSORED.]

   But, at least now we know what Nick was doing randomly in the background of the line of Popsicle-eating lemming businessmen at 1:40 in the trailer. Though make that, Pawpsicle. Amazing. And we also know character names!

   Alright, I wasn't expecting this actually, but my favorite so far would have to be Super Animals!, breaking down essentially the animals' wild animal talents: "Mr. Manchas is a jaguar. Jaguars have very sharp teeth... for smiling."

   Yes, in case you couldn't believe it for yourself, let me confirm for you: that is exactly as amazing as it sounds.

A Bit About Sellouting

   Do you believe it's possible to be a sellout? A topic that merits considerable consideration. What is this "selling out," and to what degree is it a good or a bad thing? I think about the role of the artist a lot, but the only reason I'm bringing it up here is because I came this close (holds up thumb and forefinger two to three inches apart) to posting up something today based on, based on what I perceive the blog web-hit trends to be, and what kinds of posts seem to generate the most views. Until I realized that I don't have any such material prepared of any of the latest clickbait (Zootopia trailer screenshots, Jor-El-related shenanigans, cat piracy...) And also, yeah, that'd kinda be selling out, to do that...

   As much as I do enjoy posting up pictures of pirate kitties that I found on DeviantArt. (Which the hit log says is actually suuuper popular series, generating this month a great many hits (but really who can blame them?)) If I post up pictures of pirate kitties it's on my own terms, internet. Besides, we're, not going with Cap'n Patches for the Comic Book workshop, it's been decided...

   (One day, Patches...)

   I suppose that's what selling out is: doing something because other people want it, and not you. Like how it's okay to be girly as long as it's your own choice, and if you try to touch that, feminists, you're doing your own cause a disservice? So let it be with sellouts: if you're the one who wants something, it's not selling out just because other people also happen to want it. Your motivation is your own and not others'.

   I've studied waaay too much neuropsychology during my off hours, though, to think that there's actually much of a difference...

   Also, what the heck do I want views for; I don't want people reading this blog it's super embarrassing...!

   [Here's the part where I'd link to a YouTube video with embarrassing subject matter, just to "prove" how unembarrassing my blogging actually is, but... I just realized, I don't know what embarrassing is, anymore...]

Hey There, America! Happy Let's-All-Have-Some-Basic-Human-Rights Day!

   The creative team I'm in as part of the Comic Book Workshop here had a good long discussion today about what we want out of our comic, and what we're able to do within the 8 pages we're given (going on a working basis of one page a week throughout the remainder of the semester-- it usually amounts to being able to get down maybe the prologue or at least the first part for a larger work, which it looks like is going to be the case here.) I had some ideas, my co-writer Jimmy had some ideas, but it was all three of us together to come up with the story we're going with, basing it off of none of our previous ones. I'm holding back on revealing any details, but it's lush and dark and more than a little trippy, and actually not too much like anything I've heard of before.

   Anyway. I'm celebrating my holiday by having a whole bunch of homework and tests that I need to study for! We don't need a doorstopper post every day, so I think I'll end it here and hit the hay. Peace.

Hatching

   I can't tell you when it started for sure, but I can say, always, and you'll understand.

   I've always been fascinated by three-dimensional form.

   It's always baffled me, however. It's one of those things that I love, but which has never come easily to me, like music or mathematics. I'm terrified of the consistency of math, how 3x8 is the same as 4x6, both being the same as 2x3x2x2 which is the same as both 3x2x2x2 and 2x2x3x2. The same thing with three-dimensional form: staircases blow my mind; the positive and negative space, the dimensionality of floors of a building.

   I'm in love with architecture, but I'd never be able to go into it. There's something there about the relationship of, "objects in space," that I can't grasp (does that seem right to you?). I suppose that's why it haunts me so much.

   It's one of the themes that keeps on cropping up in my art over and over again, I've noticed. I've never thought to put it into words until right this minute, until right before starting this sentence, but when it comes to my independent art, art not part of any comic books or illustrations but art for art's sake, I'm a surrealist, if it wasn't immediately obvious-- it wasn't to me until just now, yet I've been aping Magritte all these years. So when I say, keeps cropping up: foreground treated as background, positive space treated as negative space. One of my first "cartoons" (in the classical sense) from my mission, if not the very first I think, is of Christ with his crown of thorns, only we see the crown as though a vine hanging underneath an arch that is the shape of the top of his head: it's not a crown at all, but a Vine, the True Vine.

   Masks and faces, that's another major theme. Masks, especially, tying into one of the central themes: the idea of Man as Animal.

   I'm not sure what the above painting, completed today, symbolizes: it's less about Man incubating an inner animal, but about how the animal had always been there, and is now showing through. The Man, in this instance, was the Mask; he'd always been hollow, as thin as eggshell, but it's only now that the shell is cracking. None of us is alone, we're always surrounded by other people, and now the inner nature is poking through for all to see: do they see it? Or do they only see what they've always seen? And how many others share the secret, of being eggshell thin? Is he alone? Or is everyone else secretly an animal too?

   I wish I had more for you than that; that's as much as I've figured out for myself.

Holographic Jor-El Kicks Butt! (The Misadventures of Plasma Bleeding)

   Rereading the Ghost Sequence again, first of all parts of it were excellent (heh) and actually pretty fascinating even to me, nothing that couldn't stand a rewrite and even reformatting one day maybe, but... I apologized, like, a lot. How many time there, two, three, did I point out that reading this blog is a voluntary choice, and you don't have to read if I get too, best word I can come up with is, amateurish? Yes. And, uh, man, I can't tell if I should apologize for those apologies, when I should have just done better in the first place and let everything stand for itself...

   Maaan, though, even without apologizing, I think this might get boring, here, because I'm all obligated to tell you this story. Go away, critics, it's not for you (ham!). This story, anyway, is about my trip to the Biomat on Wednesday, and all the wacky adventures I had...

   (If this were A Real Thing, I'd place the jump break there, but this is Disney Villain Death instead, where I only do jump breaks for footnote purposes. So.)

   Every day I have classes, so Monday-Thursday, they start out either 7:45 or 8:00, and I have a break for however long with classes starting at 3:15 again. Wednesday has the longest break before 3:15, so it's the day I've got time to pull stuff like this, but: time to go in for my second plasma donation (they throw away your precious fluids if you don't come back a second time, probably to make sure you're not a bioterrorist or something.) As long as I'm out before 3:15, we're good.

   Easier said than done...

   I told you how I saw the 40% off sign, and so pooched the duck by screwing into the Game Pulse next door fir-- or, wait, what?

   Hold on...

   Yeah, sounds about right.

   Where was I. There's a card they give you on your first time through, to present on a future visit-- I think generally the next, but I haven't used mine yet-- which allows you to cut to the front of the queue, but I figured I didn't need to here; there weren't that many people sitting around waiting to be cleared and admitted onto the donation floor.

   There's a movie playing- they make sure there's always something to look at while you sit there. Is it fantasy? There's this really angry guy, going wild on all these nicer guys, and there's this chick with the angry guy who looks a heck of a lot like the chick who played Faora-Ul in Man of Steel, and there's this royal-looking guy, and is that Russell Crowe? and the insignia on the royal crest is this diamond, and, oh, okay, it's Man of Steel. Not long after the beginning, either-- Clark Kent is still on that oil rig, and I know enough about the film to know that's more or less where it starts off.

   I read the AIDS notice plaquart they give you to read every time before donation. It takes a while for them to call me up after checking in. I don't have all day, should I have used my VIP access pass? But my name is called, eventually, to go into booth 1: to be weighed, and my blood measured, and my temperature taken, and my risk of disease transmission probed.

   There's some kind of accident that's happened on the rig. Everything's on fire. Clark Kent saves everyone, but says something about seeing another guy up there that still needs to be saved? The tower collapses onto him, but he holds it back, the weight pressing him through the floor, until the rescue helicopter leaves and everything explodes.

   In the booth, they make you give your full name and the last four digits of your Social Security number, the way they have you do to prove it's you. I'm also weighed and everything. The girl/lady human female person there, she asks for a finger to extract blood from to test. I offer my left index this time; it'd been the left middle the first time and it doesn't hurt or even throb like I'd remembered, and OW goshdarn it my pointer is so much more sensitive than my middle apparently. She milks the blood into her glass tube, centrifuges it, separates the red from the plasma, begins to do science on it.

   The computer fails. Is it my fault? I think it might be my fault. I'm sent back out until a second booth can hopefully have a computer work for me.

   When Clark was a boy, the Earth's yellow sun gave him powers, and he became overwhelmed by his super senses.

   Booth 2.

   Full name and last four.

   The computer fails here, too.

   It's probably my fault.

   When Clark was a boy, his bus crashed off of a bridge. He saved everyone. Including the bully.

   We transfer immediately to Booth 3. Full name and last four again, even though we weren't apart for two seconds. It's required.

   The computer fails again.

   It's not just ours that's having the problem.

   It's not my fault.

   When Clark was a boy, they talked about him. He was witnessed being a hero. Was it God who made him a freak?

   The problem turns out to have been a, failure to reset the computer after installing the new thermometers, or something, only manifesting itself here because of the science.

   Back into one of the booths. Full name and last four. They need you to state your current address as well.

   Wait, seriously? I needed to know that? I saw my documentation of address back at the apartment and deliberately didn't pick it up.

   Address, address. They allow you to look it up, but they can't tell you themselves. The wifi here's protected. There's a printer wifi, but it proves to be impossible to connect to-- what's the wifi password here? I ask.

   She tells me, but doesn't explain how to spell it because by now it's superfluous-- it's on a little card on the bulletin board on the wall, and once I figure out my address I can take it up at the desk and they'll call me back into another booth. She attaches a sticky note to my file folder, noting that my health stuff is all completed, and I just need to verify the last couple of things.

   There's something mysterious and ancient underneath the ice of the Antarctic. Is it General Zod's ship? Is that how long ago he'd been banished? Was he an ancient dude? What are the odds that he's awakening right when Kal-El is also on-planet?

   It's the Fortress of Solitude! Of course.

   I find the wifi information and look up the address.

   Clark and Lois are both investigating the place at the same time, although the last time I'd seen Clark, he was hitchhiking across the country, not beating up rude dudes but doing plenty of damage to their logging trucks. There's probably loads of insurance on that kind of thing, though.

   I'm called into a booth eventually. Full name, last four. Address, I got it. But...

   They also expect you to know the ZIP code.

   I take a stab at it. Nope, the dude (it's a dude this time) says.

   I already have a connection to the wifi, of course, so it's not that tough to look up the code for Rexburg: 83440. I'm verified.

   Now I get to wait in the blue chairs. Zod is messing with Supe's head, drowning him in ESP skulls and everything.

   They have you show your arms for bruises-- they refuse to stick needles into bruises. Last time, my first time here, the anticoagulant didn't take, or something, and so the blood clotted inside of the needle. I'd had them stick my left arm, and so they had to restick me, in my right. My left arm is covered in bruises from that, and so they have to use my right arm this time for sure. There might be a tiny little bruise on that vein, but it's alright. If something goes wrong with this one, they won't be able to transfer the needle to my other arm, and that's just always the risk.

   Zod's got his gravitic technology and is attempting to implode the earth. You know whom this looks like a job for.

   I finally get in onto the floor, for them to bleed me. It's a couple of hours later than if I'd have been prepared, and, hey the same movie that was playing when I got in is still going on.

   Man of Steel is a looooong movie, man. Holographic Jor-El was awesome, closing doors with the power of his AI fist clenching. The alien signal hacking first contact scene with all the different languages being broadcast, that was genuinely pretty chilling, and I can see the effects that that would have on the world which the trailers to Dawn of Justice hint at to be more fully explored in that movie. The fight scene at the end wasn't just one solid hour of Supes and Zod flying each other into buildings irresponsibly like the critics made it seem.

   That movie ends, Amazing (Incredible?) Spider-Man 2 begins, Electro is so cool, and the way he gets his powers is just awesome, in a no-kill-like-overkill kind of way.

   I take a Poweraid, sit around till they allow me to leave. It was a long process. I've still got enough time before classes that I'd probably be able to watch through Spider-Man as well if I really wanted, but it was still a long process. Oh! And I didn't tell you throughout the entire thing:

   They make you drink plenty of fluids before donation, of course. And there's a urine test your first go-through... though apparently not the second? Which I did not know. So I made sure to drink plenty of fluids, and not relieve myself of anything or anything, beforehand...

Leo: Realizing the Gravity of the Situation (Plus Zootopia Watch)

source: y2d-shows.com/leo

   I'm kind of paranoid that nothing is real, today, because I received a robocall or at least I'm pretty goshdarn sure it was a robocall but it was actually seriously literally a robocall, with some kind of AI on the other end. I... I think? But there's no way to be sure-- I've accused callers of being robots before (alright, it was one time) but that turned out to be wrong... but of course you could program a robot also to deny that it's a robot... I didn't even try this time, just, hanging on the line, eating up my minutes, hoping they'd be the one to disconnect like a human would do, or responding to my "no" when asked if I was still there...

   Turing threshold... not quite passed, except maybe it was, I just don't know.

   Anyway... that's not the only way I was forced to rethink my concept of reality today. With that awesome segue, let me introduce you to LEO.

source: y2d-shows.com/leo

      Let me set the stage: on stage left, a room, bare save for a lightbulb descending from the ceiling; next to it, on stage right, a screen. The room is sideways: the lightbulb is not descending at all, but is sticking out horizontally. The room being filmed, however, with a sideways camera so as to correct the image, which film is projected onto the screen. The audience can choose which version of reality to view at any one time: the reality of the performance, wherein the wall is "down," or the reality of the achievement of the performance, wherein the wall is only playing "down."

   In the room is a man. Leo. Not that there's anyone else around to address him as such. No, the man is alone, save for the lightbulb and his suitcase.

   On the screen, the man is leaning against the wall. On the stage, the man is lying on the ground. He appears to be waiting for someone, or something. He appears to wait a long time.

   Until he realizes that not everything is how it initially seems...

   Really fun, mind-bending stuff, great for all ages (though actually pretty scary sometimes.) There's lighting effects and music and more than just the physical reality featured on the screen, but nearer to the end animation and multi-layered exposure effects, which you can catch a bit of in the above video.

   And absolutely no wires throughout the entire thing.

   There are three tours going on right now; this one features Berlin native acrobat Julian Schulz in the title role. After tomorrow's performance they're heading down to BYU Provo for a week, doing performances but also workshops, which makes me really disappointed when I realize that I'm pretty sure Utah Theater Association conference is at the U of U this year instead.

ZOOTOPIA WATCH
   Hey, four new items at the Zootopia store were added today! Also, hey, I'm apparently keeping track of the number of items at the Zootopia store!

   Judy hits Duke Weaselton with her Meter Maid cart! Nick drives a convertible with parking meter included (which the packaging seems inordinately excited by)! Judy Hopps chills with May Bellwether! We learn of the existence of a new character, Safety Squirrel!

    I noticed almost immediately after posting my original Disney Store post, but just from the playsets, the fact that the Nick and Finnick action (?) figures are packaged together, and, yeah, described as being buddies and scamming and suckering together, they're... flimflam fellas, together-- shoot, I literally just realized this, but they're both foxes.

   By "just" I mean immediately before you read that, of course. This blog is live. Anyway, um... Weird, eh? They might even be cousins! How...ever biology works, in the Zootopia world...

   And don't you find it suspicious that the little dude's name is Fin-nick? There's no way that that... yeah, alright, it's totally a coincidence.

10 Views Per Post... Woot?

   I noticed tangentially my pagestats on my Blogger this morning that DVD now has more than 10 views per post on average (tangential, like, way tangential-- signing into Google on a public computer so that I could have a search I was making saved, using Blogger to sign in because there was no obvious sign-in to Google on the web browser I was using, and the search turned out for nothing anyway.) That was the stat this morning; it's at 13,978 now, which is... still, more than a 10-view-per-average post rate.

   I think that's supposed to be good; I don't know... looking at the statistics from that other time I posted up blog stats (not the 666 one, but the one where I thought Thomas "Ohnitsch" Novotny was stalking me) it's, arrggh I can't be bothered to do the math.

   There's a whole tab thing dedicated to traffic monitoring like that, which paints a much clearer picture, showing that last month had the most hits of any month, with this month being third highest and not halfway over yet... So, yes, traffic is up? But delving deeper into the stats on where the links are actually coming from, only one or two appear to be, actual, websites... And actual pageviews don't seem to correspond to posting at all; a full 93% of those pageviews from last month were from before I started posting regularly again (Dec 25th-31st pageviews number 40, out of the 619 total hits from last month, and oh sure now I can be bothered to do math.)

   I don't like talking about this anyway. It's like on FurAffinity when people freak out about having 300 views to their page, or something... I actually don't know what's up with that; whether they feel famous for it or if that's actually a milestone and they get boosted in, rankings, or something. Is that the case? And is that still the case, with the IMVU thing now or whatever? I suppose I could look it up...

   ...not that it's anything new but man there is just so much about FurAffinity that I don't understand...

   Anyway, I suppose now I can post the solution to last week's Sudoku, now that this week's one is due tomorrow (I did not win the contest, thank you very much for asking...)

EDIT: This throws the stat off, but I just realized that it's more like thirteen views per post, seeing as how this is the 1052nd post up and the number given on the dashboard is a signifier of all posts, not just the ones published. Sorry. 

My Nerdery Compels Me to Try New Things

   There's a hobby game store right next to the Biomat, right... It's called Game Pulse. I've always been curious about it, ever since first walking by last Wednesday-- so, alright, I've always been curious about it, and by always I mean for a week. I've been curious about it for a week. Passing by this morning heading in to give my plasma, I saw this table with a, 40% off, paper plaquart on it, and I just had to duck in... So, no, technically, I did not "pass by."

   The place was totally dead in there. Just, the lady, sitting by that table, and nobody else. Apparently it's just because they're experimenting with new hours, for the month, and, like, nobody knows that they're open this early? So I got lucky that they happened to be open in the first place.

   It was a pretty neat place. Dragon head on the far end of the wall; big ol' boxes of nothing but MTG mana cards; Killer Bunnies expansions nobody's ever heard of. Pretty sparse place as well-- just one big open space, with a few shelves around. Reminds me of that one store from that one Far Side strip, with the high shelves...you know what I'm talking about;.If you don't... well, I'd link to it, or something, but Gary Larson doesn't tend to authorize images of his work put up onto the internet. Sparse store, anyway, but I've peeked in before during MTG tourneys and things and that exact design looks ideal for Friday Night Magic.

   Game Pulse, anyway. I wish them success, even if I couldn't patronize them at that time. (Whatever happened to Next Dimension comics back in Fallon? It just... died, one day? I'm so paranoid about that kind of thing happening to those kinds of places, now...)

   All the crazy crud that went down donating my plasma was a-mah-zing, so I'll just skip to this evening, coming out of computer art class, wondering if they've got the weekly apartment inspection this evening handled without me. (They did; we got a smiley face score on apartment cleanliness.) And, I see a collection of comic books on a table in the classroom to my right, and I notice on the door a slip of paper in comic book art style, advertising the BYU-I Comics Workshop, and I notice after that that there's people in there as well, all sitting at the desks and working on drawings of themselves designed as introductions, and...

   And I'm co-writing a comic book, now.

   It's part of the, thing, the extracurricular, curriculum, to team up with one other person, depending on whether you're more into writing or drawing... My teammate, my original teammate, can't make it to the workshops, though, so another duo graciously took me in... My co-author and I have no idea what it's going to be about, yet. Our artist is pretty incredible, though, and generically versatile (versatile in, genre, that is?), so it can go in some interesting places if we let it...

   Aside from that, there's a lot of talent throughout the group in general... There's a show-and-brag after, if anyone wants to show and brag, and so here we've got some really neat stuff you should check out.

   For this week's brag-and-tell, we had Madeleine Fisher, the artist of  Brainstorm (written by her older brother, who is it appears on his mission right now so is on a bit of hiatus) preview some of her work for this week's Precious Metal, which is ongoing, and which she is both the writer and artist of.

Brainstorm.

   Brainstorm, having only 13 issues so far due to the aforementioned hiatus, is a quick read, obviously, and very Scott Pilgrim-esque. It's about a boring guy with interesting powers, namely, to manifest his imagination into reality.

Precious Metal

   Precious Metal meanwhile is getting a Patreon sometime hopefully soon, and is by this point quite a bit larger than Brainstorm, though it probably wouldn't take over an hour to read the whole thing. It's about a thief, and his "sister" he rescued (and continues to rescue) who has magical powers and eats... well, you know. It's right there in the comic's title. It is the comic's title.

   It's reminiscent of Cucumber Quest and Paranatural in the best possible ways (and, indeed, both sites are linked to in the webcomics' obligatory link-to-fellow-webcomics collection.) It's also probably reminiscent of Nimona and Rice-Boy Universe, since those comics are also linked to, but I haven't read either of those? Though I probably should... just as you should read these!

   And that's what I've got for you.

My Second Day of Classes (Plus Zootopia Watch)

   Since I've got all the exact same classes on Tuesdays as I do Thursdays, now would be a good time to tell you about it, I suppose.

   Tuesdays and Thursdays I've got nothing but art classes. Mondays I've got nothing but religion, but I've got that extra art class on Wednesdays, so though my classes go Monday-Wednesday Tuesday-Thursday, that computer art course on Wednesday throws off the prospect of having my entire week composed of "themed" days.

   Another difference between days is, my graphic design course switches between instruction and lab days-- they're the same class and everything, but doing completely different things on completely different floors, depending on which day of the week it is. Today was an instruction day, upstairs, on the third floor.

   Yeah though, that's actually a pretty intensive class. I've got three or four things I need to do tomorrow for it even though I don't have that class that day. Most of them involving paying for things. With money. Which I'm alright with, I guess. It's nice being able to have a needle stuck up in your arm, now, bleeding but getting it back and getting paid for it to boot.

   They say I'm saving lives, too. Which hey is also alright. Though from the looks of it most of the plasma goes to medical research instead of directly pumping into other people? Medical research saves lives too, of course, and hey did you hear we've figured out the cure for like five different forms of cancer, go science, but, man, if these guys are actually some kind of evil corporation deliberately withholding cancer cures from dying patients, or something... Well, what you gonna do.

   I'm writing this pretty late at night, in case you couldn't tell.

   Not, 2:30, 2:45 late, of course. I was... up that late already, finishing up on that once-during-the-semester Book of Mormon paper...

   A fun thing about my other two art classes, the ones in the morning, anyway, is that not only are they both super fun and exciting, but they're back-to-back in the same classroom. And neither as intense as my other art class(es.) Just, such good stuff.

ZOOTOPIA WATCH
   And that's in Times, just to show you what I see when I look at it. Isn't that so much better than Arial for that subheading? I think so.

   The Official Zootopia Disney Store is now up. I read (part of) this article in Fast Company magazine today, from around 2011 when Disney was getting a new, CEO or something?, and so, fun fact! a thing that Disney always do when reviewing a film prospect is, like, branding opportunities, or something? Or something. GAAH I don't seem very sure, or intelligent, right there, but of course I must be intelligent! I just invoked reading Fast Company.

   ...frrrreaak it's so late at night...

   So, yeah, the moment we've all been waiting for; official merch! Yaay merch.

SO ANY SPOILERS?
   ...Can I... do that? Create a second subheading? I'm not even, formatting them as headings, so how'd you be able to tell that this is a subsubheading... Well, I did do that first one in Times... But, yeah! Juicy little tidbits, there's apparently a "bat eyewitness," Nick's catchphrase is apparently "I'm good," and, THIS IS ACTUALLY SERIOUSLY A SPOILER RIGHT HERE, that cute little midget elephant chile, with the big mysterious popsicle? They call him, "Ele-Finnick," which means... which means that that elephant child was, the whole time, neither an elephant nor a child.

   Mind equals equals blown.

   ...What... what is Finnick's role in the story? I'd always assumed him to be just another member of the ensemble cast, but if that really is he in the stroller Nick's pushing there at the beginning, and being all, elephantine, right there chilling with Nick later on... It means...

   It means something, I guess.

New Look

   In case you couldn't tell, I've made a few updates to the site...  The URL is the same, but the blog's official name is Disney Villain Death, which I've been using to refer to it for a while now anyway, and so I updated the title to reflect that.

   The longer DLaDV title was included in the blog description of, I'd say about a little more than a year, from about the time I got back from my mission:

"Die Like a Disney Villain" is an eclectic daily weblog whose subjects range anywhere from the crappy art I doodled on the math homework I didn't do in junior high, to technology's holistic effects on how we view reality and identity, to how weirdfunky my hair can get in the mornings. Stick around. There's a very good possibility there could be puppies.

   That description never really did much for me, so I removed that section of it just now. Hey hey.

   The biggest change is in the post layouts, of course. Well, the layouts themselves haven't changed. Just hopefully the posts are a little more readable. Still trying to maintain the Disney Villain-esque feel to the theme, but realizing that light text against a dark background isn't much fun to read, I switched to dark text on light background, and then realized how close in appearance that was to the stark cardstock of a slip from the Machine of Death, as in the blog's logo.

   Took me tinkering until 2:30 this morning, figuring out the exact line of HTML that edits the post border radius, to curve it down to replicate the edges of a card from the Machine of Death; even when I did find it it took me a bit to remember the code wouldn't take unless it had a / after the value="20px". Now the overall appearance is a bit more cohesive, and I hope a bit more conducive to  the weblog of a graphic arts major.

   I may or may not be finished making edits. I'm not sure I like the background color I've had, but I can't find any I prefer, for one. I'm also waffling between the Times New Roman and the Arial as the text body for posts... Times New Roman is what the editor uses as the default display, but the default font for the posts is Arial. Arial matches the sans serif look of a Machine of Death slip, and it looks nice enough, but the ZOOTOPIA WATCH announcements just don't look the same in Arial as they do from my edits' POV as Times New Roman, which I think I prefer for...

   Shoot, I should probably have screenshotted the old look so we could do a before-and-after. Huh.

EDIT: Wayback Machine comes to the rescue...

https://web.archive.org/web/20141224030231/http://dielikeadisneyvillain.blogspot.com/

https://web.archive.org/web/20160127122520/http://dielikeadisneyvillain.blogspot.com/

I Wasn't Around in the 1970s, But I'd Imagine It's a Very Similar Filmgoing Experience, Going Out to See Star Wars and Superman Multiple Times...

   Last week marks the first in which I did not see The Force Awakens in theaters since it came out on the 18th of last month. I'd thought I'd feel bad about missing a week, but... Yesterday was beautiful, and I'll never forget it, and I'll never regret it. And at least I flipped through a couple of Star Wars magazines at the rack at the store, and even read an interview or two, so I'd still say that counts?, though I didn't patronize anyone, which makes it the first week since Dec 6th-12th they didn't get any revenue from me (though the Fox Peak Cinema viewing, with the Dolby ATMOS, was free for me, it came out of the Cinema's pockets and still counted as a ticket? Or... or I thought, but I just realized don't know for sure. So maybe this wasn't the first week... but I'm still pretty sure.)

   The showtimes for the 3D showing of Star Wars are ridiculous. 10:40 at night? I could have gone 2D once more, I suppose, but, like I said, no regrets. Yesterday was an adventure, full of delicious Korean food and fascinating textbooks and excellent music, and I tear up a little even thinking about the lyrics to Try Everything. Almost broke down right there in the Biomat.

   Thank you, Sia. Thank you, Shakira. Thank you, Stargate. Thank you, J J Abrams. Thanks Mom and Dad and God while we're at it, but it's getting away from me here...

 TFA is, in its fourth week, *only* the third highest-grossing film of all time still, not accounting for inflation... or, TFA was, at least, in its fourth week.

   Well, welcome to week five, Star Wars.

   (I would still like to see you in 3D, in theaters...)

Eric Perazzo is On Top of Everything

   Including your waffles.

"Made it, Ma...!"

   ...

   (I don't have Photoshop yet, but I need it for Art 130... it comes in little subscription packets now...)

   But yes, for real, I'm feeling... on top, of everything.

   Maybe I bit off a lot needing that 2-page 200-point-worth paper (or at least my report on insights gained from writing it) due on Monday, but I've already read everything I need to, and it's a religion paper and tomorrow's Sunday, so I can tackle it. Today was relaxed, much more so than yesterday, though today marks one day closer to everything. I'm feeling out the flow of the days here, and though some of the courses I'm taking are rigorous, well, we'll see.

   I don't have classes on Friday, and neither did any of the girls in my Art 130 class group, so we'd met for an assignment at noon. I'd set up an appointment for 11:10, 50 minutes before the group date, to see about how to steer my path toward a BFA, which meeting was short enough to allow me time afterward to compare the additional needs of the degree against my current proposed one (it's still too early to think about applying for the BFA, and it is and application, but I know what needs to be done now.) I went down to the Biomat today to sell off some of my plasma, having set up an appointment early Thursday morning. All of these incoming futures I fielded, and in most cases instigated in the first place. Where is that coming from?

   I mentioned recently that my focus lately may be because of my failures (referencing a post that I'd written but not actually polished and posted up, though it's up now,) my failures giving me permission to try, loosening my inhibitions and allowing me to join the cycle I discuss in the post linked. And, this isn't even Zootopia watch, right now, but the official "Try Everything" single was released yesterday, and...

   ...and I'd forgotten how warm tears are.

ALRIGHT BUT THIS IS ZOOTOPIA WATCH

   Oh hey the official lyrics, posted on Disney's website, are here!

http://blogs.disney.com/oh-my-disney/music/2015/01/06/try-everything-lyrics-shakiras-song-from-zootopia/

   Though apparently posted a year ago, and my memory is pretty hazy but I'm pretty sure that was before Shakira was even officially announced as being attached to the project, and all we really knew about it was that concept art with Nick being taller than all those bunnies at the train station?

   The Oh My Disney blog tags anything Zootopia related as being under Zootopia (2015), so it might be the same anomaly?, but seems codified enough that I don't think anyone's going to fix it. Seriously, follow that link ASAP though, in case someone actually does catch that and the link I gave you breaks.

An Elephant Never Forgets

   I'd preordered the book, and confirmed my preorder with the author's website, gaining me a complimentary bookplate for my patronage-- but giving the address for delivery as my home I hadn't realized I'd no longer be living at for the time period when it would arrive. I hadn't asked for or expected the letter be forwarded me when my parents alerted me that something came, though distinctly I wished for it.

   And by some small fate...

   "Barsk," I read breathlessly, realizing not-quite-immediately afterward that the letters weren't even remotely close to our legible alphabet, and that logically I shouldn't have been able to "read" them at all. I'd been confused, in that infinite half-second, how my parents hadn't known the return address. Clarity and confusion followed by confusion and clarity, it immediately made sense how they wouldn't have been able to read it.

   And from understanding something I'd never learned, then, to a profound feeling, right now, of deja vu...

   I'm not sure what I'd been expecting on the inside.

   I find myself unable to read these new letters...

Sudoku Whupping (Plus Zootropolis Watch)

   Shoveled snow for, about an hour? And then went to a birthday party at a different apartment complex entirely from mine, probably the nicest around BYU-I. Played, that one app that's like Charades but you hold it up to your forehead and try to guess? Until a couple of minutes ago, when it turned out it was almost midnight and we needed to hurry back (curfew is midnight, but I'm not sure if that's the rule that you need to be in bed by that time or just in your apartment-- I'm up right now, so...)

   I don't have classes tomorrow, which is today here (though not in Pacific Standard Time which is when this blog goes up, so ha! I'm not late) but I still have things to do, and want to get to bed, so I'll make this quick, and not elaborate on my second day of classes at all (great stuff, though!) I do have enough energy to explain Sudoku to you, though.

   The school paper, The Scroll, apparently runs this Sudoku puzzle at the back of the newspaper, and if you complete it and turn it in on time, they'll randomly select one person who did (and presumably got it right) and that person receives... a prize. Of some sort. I hope it's monetary or at least valuable in nature, because I spent a crapton of investment on that Sudoku puzzle, which just may have been not only the hardest one I've done in my life, but also the hardest puzzle of any sort I've ever done, and heck maybe it's even the hardest single thing I've ever done. Three or four times, I thought to myself that maybe they'd made a mistake, or maybe it was deliberate to see who'd catch on and that was the real puzzle, or maybe they just like trolling people or what.

   But I solved it. And so, no, I guess not, it's not impossible. Though it took me digitizing the puzzle and working it out in a more editable form to do it.

   I wish in retrospect that I'd saved the numerous failures, making notes directly on a Snip of the photo of the puzzle I'd managed to complete before deciding to go higher-tech, but whenever I failed I tore it down and started over, or even just tore it down all the way and needing to take a new Snip when I decided to have a second (or fourth, or fifth) go at it. It would be so nice if I had saved images of those attempts, not only so I could show them to you here but also more pragmatically so that I'd be able to know what I'd already tried. Because, seriously, having to redo that work that I'd already figured out was wrong, that was annoying.

   At some point perhaps 2/3rds of the way through, I figured that the penciled-in notes from the photo I was working off of were too distracting and possibly outdated, and my reliance on them may have been a factor in my constant failure, going from bad assumptions (I did draw fresh number dots as part of my Snips, but I mostly based those off of the dots on the sheet below (some of which had been erased which wasn't as clear from the photo as it was in real life.)) I thus plopped the numbers into an Excel sheet and worked from that.

   This image is from when I realized that I should have been saving my Snips the whole time; it's not actually one of my work Snips but I still find it worth sharing because it's pretty interesting. It delineates the relationships between numbers that would only be able to go in either of two slots, with the remainder of slots proving to be impossibilities for one reason or another:

   The yellow highlights around the edges indicate that I've checked all numbers in that row/box/column, to find any strays that could only have fit one place. The different color inks also mean specific things, with red being experiments and blacks being definitively locked-in numbers. The red scribbles on the left side are "administrative," that is, they deal with me experimenting with my pen tool (the Cisco-like bars are me experimenting with pressure, and that circle gave me a place to rest my cursor so that I'd be able to find that tiny thing again easily.)

   I'd post up my solution images as well, but the contest only closes to applicants Friday at 5:00...

ZOOTROPOLIS WATCH

   So, I know I'm not telling you about my second day of classes yet because I don't have time to get into detail, but I seriously needed to get to how my Art 130 Introduction to Graphic Design professor showed us the sloth trailer of all things. (!)(?)(!). Not as part of the class or anything, just, something about, slow reaction times or something? Only it was the British version of the trailer, exactly the same except "Sorcerer's" Stone-esquely called Zootropolis instead of Zootopia. And my Art 202 History of Art Renaissance-Present professor showed us the London New Year's fireworks, so I guess it's... shoot, actually, it could be a major holiday today in the UK and I wouldn't know it.