MatthewMeyer.net Blog

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April 28, 2004

Finishing Up!

What can I say besides "w00t!"? Today I finished my last class of Illustration this year. That's a relief on it's own, but I'm even more relieved that today I have come to a conclusion as to where I want to take my style. I'm much better at my cartoony style. Everybody likes it better. My sense of humor shows through in my cartoony work better. I've been doing it all my life, so it's more natural for me. Most of all, though, it allows me to stay in touch with my crazy side, which is the part of me most people are attracted to, I think.

I'm still going to be painting realistically of course, I'd never want to quit that. But I feel like I'm being a lot more honest with myself if I dive into my crazy cartoony side. :-) It's much more "me."

Finally coming to this conclusion really makes me happy.

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April 26, 2004

Ooh Look! Pretty Pictures!

Here's some of the promised collection of new pictures I've scanned...

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New Video

Man, sorry about the slew of confusing entries back there. My webspace is fixed now, and I've uploaded another video, Anger Management. I have scanned a lot of my work, but there's a whole lot more to scan still and at the moment I don't have the free time to resize, upload, and link all of them. I'll post them hopefully by the end of the week.

I made this video in my freshman year, so you'll have to forgive the less-than-perfect editing job. I've only now compressed it for downloading. You see there was a terrible spelling error that I made, and when I went back to fix it before the final render I spelled it the same wrong way again ("thereapy" instead of therapy") due to force of habit from typing it so often. So I finally recently fixed the error and am no longer too ashamed to show Anger Management.

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April 22, 2004

Back and Forth... Oi...

So it turns out the reason none of you can view my website (unless you're clever and remembered the blog address) is because the movies filled up my homespace, then my homespace got corrupted. Anyway, I had the library reset today so my homespace is working, but my webspace is still messed up somehow. I think maybe too many people downloaded Meet The Johnsons and I must have reached some sort of quota. That's a bad thing... I could get into trouble.

Hopefully IT will overlook the massive amount of downloads from my account and allow me to keep my webspace. If that's the case, then I've made enough space to put my movies back up here ;-) but don't tell them that. Really it'll be OK as long as there's no single day where about 20 people all download large movie files in a span of about 15 minutes.

Let's hope for some good luck.

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April 20, 2004

Curses! Foiled Again!

I've had to take the movies back down... they overfilled my website even in their newly-compressed DivX versions (though they really weren't *that* much smaller). Anyway, I can re-upload them one at a time, so if you want to see one, just let me know and I can upload it for a bit.

I'm leaving Meet The Johnsons up, cause it's new, and better than the others.

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The Rest of the Videos

Jurassic Kombat (synergy at it's worst, or best... you decide)
The Collings Witch Project (sans ending, which was lost)
The Miller's Tale (part of the Canterbury Tales)
The Franklin's Tale (part of the Canterbury Tales)

There's one more coming actually (Anger Management), but I need to fix a typo so it will have to wait for a bit. Remember that you need DivX to play these so if they don't look right to you, go to DivX.com and download the codec. I'm also re-posting links to the videos in the artwork section.

I also uploaded a cropped scan of the Frank Frazetta painting I copied in case you want to compare mine to his.

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Nine Days and Counting

That's right, only 9 days of school left for me this year, and in this time here is what I have to do:

1 self portrait
2 celebrity portraits
1 digital still life
1 self promotional piece
1 demo DVD

It's not all that bad, but it means I don't have any time to go to the beach or chillax a bit before heading home. It will be worth it though; my demo DVD is going to include the videos I made here at Ringling as well as the videos I made back in Colls (at least the ones that I have digital copies of -- the rest I need to encode when I get back home). It will also have a slideshow portfolio of my illustrations. My self promotional piece is probably going to be a DVD case for my demo tape. That's pretty dang useful. My self portrait is me as a pirate (I figure I have to do at least one pirate piece a year). I am doing one celebrity portrait of Bill Cosby in a bathtub of Jell-o, and the other of Abe Lincoln... though I haven't figured out what to do with Honest Abe yet. My still life will be completed tonight, since it's due tomorrow. ;-)

Anyway, soon I should have a few more videos up here to for downloading, including the one I made in freshman year that none of you have seen. I should also have a few more paintings that I did this year but never got to scan.

(Oh, and by the way, I had another set weird jaw dreams while I was napping... it was so close to snapping but each time I woke myself up before my jaw broke... it was quite unnerving.)

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Meet The Johnsons

Well I got back from the world premiere of the first Hydrogen Film Festival, and my film went pretty well. The audience liked it. Anyway, I've encoded it and uploaded it. It's a 37 meg file, so enjoy the download!

Meet The Johnsons

When you've seen it, post a comment telling me what you think.

(Also I'm beginning to compress my other movies into DivX, so you'll be able to re-download the rest soon. For now, start with Historical Matchmaker and Frankenstein.)

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April 19, 2004

Live Journal

Well holy monkey-shish-kebab, I just found out that like 60 of my friends have Live Journals. Well not that many, but I found my way to a friend's LJ page and happened to notice another friend had posted a comment, and then a friend had posted a comment on her LJ and another friend had posted a comment on her LJ... even my brother has a Live Journal (though I've known that for about a month now). It's crazy... the whole world seems to have gone Live Journal insane without telling me!

Oh well... I can't rant any more, tonight my video is playing in a local movie theater, so I need to eat and go down there. Next week it plays in L.A.!

But seriously, how many of you have Live Journals?

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Weird Jaw Dream

I usually don't write my dreams up here since I don't believe dreams have any significance, but the internet seems to be telling me that the sole purpose of blogs is to post your dreams and have people comment their analyses of them. So here goes (actually, please don't post an analysis... I'm just telling a story here, that's all):

So I have really mild TMJ, which means my jaw can pop or unhinge at times. It's very painful. I often have dreams where my jaw fully dislocates on one side, and those dreams suck, cause it hurts like hell and have to put a lot of stress on my jaw bone to "snap" it back into it's hinge. It's really physically and mentally uncomfortable to do that. So anyway I just took a nap and during the nap I had one of these dreams. I was at some school-like place and I went into the bathroom to fix my jaw which had just dislocated on the right side. I'm standing in front of the mirror, pull and stretching the jaw bone trying to fit it around my skull and get it to lock into its socket when *snap!* it breaks in two, right at the chin. Not only that, but the right half of my jaw slides of of my "chin skin" along with my lower right teeth and another piece of the top of my jaw that broke off during the re-socketting attempt. So blood is pouring from my half-flappy mouth while I'm carring 7 or so teeth and 1 half of a jaw bone that itself is also split in two.

I go outside to look for help, thinking I need to go to the hospital probably. I see my car, and I think that maybe I shouldn't drive myself, considering my mouth is filling up with blood rather rapidly. So I approach a group of strangers (which oddly includes my ex-girlfriend) and do my best to ask them to drive me to the hospital. Mostly blood just pours from my mouth, so I wave the jaw bone and teeth in their direction and they get the point, so they take me to the hospital. Every once in a while a lot of blood escapes from my mouth and pours down my chin.

So I get to the hospital, and I'm going as fast as I can, but I don't know if this counts as an emergency since I'm not really dying and I don't feel so bad aside from the lack of speaking ability and mouth overflowing with blood, so I get in the regular line. There's lots of people in front of me so I do the "uncomfortable dance" untill it's finally my turn. The lady asks what's wrong and amid mouthfulls of blood I finally manage to painfully squirt out, "Emergency." She points me to a door 5 feet away and I go in there and my dream fades to black.

That's about when I woke up, a little gorssed out and uncomfortable in the mouth region. But the dream quickly faded from my mind until I just now made a sandwich and as I took the first bite I could have sworn I felt my jaw about to snap like it did in my dream.

Anyway, like I said I don't believe dreams mean anything. I just felt like it was long time I wrote an entry more interesting than, "Sitting here in the ARC... bored..."

Man... it really does feel like my jaw snapped.

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April 15, 2004

Kill Bill

Well I finally saw it and I liked it very much. I thought it was a bit lacking in story, but as far as style goes, the movie was brilliant. The camera work was amazing, and so was the visual communication. I am quite impressed, and as a (hopefully) future filmmaker, inspired. I wasn't all that attached to the story, though I really did appreciate the cheesiness and the tribute to 70's B films (which I, too, enjoy). I was just so dang attracted to the cinematography, the screen layout... man it took some brilliant work to storyboard that movie. It makes me want to be five years older and already working on my own movies.

And the girl who plays Gogo is, as I suspected from previews of the movie, the same girl who plays Mizuho in the theatrical version of Juon. Do I have eagle eyes or what?

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Housing

Today we found the perfect house for next year. It's really close to campus, it's in a nice neighborhood, and it's got a really nice yard. It's cheaper than living at school, which is nice, but it's still more expensive than one of my future roommates can afford. That really sucks. I don't even know what to say except that just really sucks. We'll probably be able to cover what she can't pay, because it's not far out of her price range, it's just a little bit too high. And if we conserve and live frugally it should be much cheaper, and we're all good at doing that. I don't want to go into a super-detailed explanation about that becuase it's not exactly my story to tell, and it's also not exactly interesting enough to even put on a blog. I just felt like venting that stuff can really suck some times.

At least I really hope that she'll still live with us, cause I can't think of anyone who'd complete our trio better... Let's just hope things work out for the best.

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April 13, 2004

No More Filesharing?

This month our school cracked down pretty hard on filesharing. Some companies must have approached IT or something. Anyway I got caught using bit torrent and had to sign an agreement not to use it again. Not that the agreement matters so much as the fact that I can't use it even if I tried because they blocked all the ports... it does suck though. Not everything I was downloading was illegal, and I'd like to keep downloading the legit stuff. Oh well, it's not like I haven't already found ways around it. ;-)

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April 12, 2004

Video Done!

Aw man, what a relief. My video project is done. I don't image there's a way I can post it up here, but if I can find enough free web space, I will. It is such a relief to be done with that project, and it turned out pretty well. It's going to be played in a local movie theater this Monday, and after that it will be sent to California to be shown in the first ever Hydrogen Film Festival, promoting the transition from an oil-based economy to a hydrogen-based economy. Arnold Schwarzeneggar and lots of famous people will be at this festival, so hopefully I could get some kind of job opportunities from this.

With my video out of the way I can focus on other things... taxes for one (It's already the 13th!), Japan, and the huge load of work I have left. Thankfully the only thing due soon is my self-portrait-as-a-pirate, which is due on Monday. I've got a few portraits due for Illustration with the possiblity of a small spot illustration as well, and I've got 2 more digital illustration projects to do; a still life and a self promotion piece. I'll also be making a demo reel sort of thing in video class, but that should be easy and will most likely not take up any time outside of class time. As for Japan, I got a pdf of helpful tips and things to remember about Eastern and Western society. For instance, in Japan I am not allowed to use the number four, sleep facing North, or blow my nose in public. This should be very interesting...

There's also only 2 or 3 games of D&D left (depending on when I leave for NJ). So I've got to come up with a way to end the semester, even though the campaign ended a few weeks ago. It shouldn't be hard really, and I'm looking forward to ending it on a good note even though I'll miss it all summer. I doubt I'll be playing any Danjansu and Duragonsu in Japan.

I have to say that even though there is a lot of work left to do, finishing that video feels so great. It's like a big gorilla has been lifted off my shoulders. That was probably the most stressful assignment, becuase I really wanted to do well with it. I'm taking that as evidence that video is more important to me than painting, so it gives me a clue as to where I should be heading after college.

Now if only there was enough time for me to play a nice long game of Civilization 3...

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April 08, 2004

1337|\|355

This is amazing. The other day I went to Good Will, and I noticed something amazing: an old LP of 80's band Journey's album "Escape." What amazed me was not the fact that I found a Journey record, and that Journey is such a cool band that anyone should be amazed by that. No, what amazed me was the fact that the title was written "ESC4P3." It was written in 1337speak! Now before you scoff, remember that this was 1981... long before the internet went mainstream. Long before AOL. Long before geeks were writing to eachother about their 9600 baud modems in 1337 to sound cool and impress nerd chixxors. Long before 13-year-old children were cursing at eachother in 1337 while playing Everquest and looking at pr0n with their dad's credit card. Before all of this, only Journey new the secret language of 1337!

The cover of the album is a spaceship, which we know were hardly commonplace in 1981. The lyrics of many Journey songs ("Worlds Apart," "Don't Stop Believin'") imply faith in a parallel universe; onel ike our own, yet so far away. Possibly an allegory for the parallel dimensions created by time travel. The only possible conclusion that can explain these amazing phenomena is that Steve Perry was visited by a spaceship from the future. The inhabitants must have logged him onto the future internet where he played future Everquest and learned the advanced language of 1337. He was then transported back to the past, where he tried to capture the beauty he witnessed in the future with his supreme 80's vocals. (Future music technology is, of course, the only thing capable of creating the amazing music that Journey made.) The only clues to this encounter hidden in Escape -- the 1337 and the spaceship -- were too subtle and too trivial for the future spacemen to return back and liquidate Steve Perry's brain (or God forbid, his amazing singing voice). Future spacemen would hardly know the difference between 1981 and 1996 and therefore might not catch the small historical paradox. (Afterall, who among us is conscious of the fact that in 1793 people were picking cotton by hand, whereas in 1795 the cotton gin was roarin' down the fields, doing half the work for them?)

We are lucky to have brave souls like Journey to point out the proof that time travel does exist. I hope the next time you are visited by aliens, or spacemen, or Scientologists, you will remember Journey's bravery and find away to expose more of the truth that the future governments do not want us to know. Thank you, Journey. I won't stop believin'...

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April 02, 2004

Dinosaurs Loved Oatmeal

Or at least that's the only logical conclusion I can come to about this. You see, I went to make breakfast this morning (oatmeal, of course, or else I wouldn't be writing this) and when I pulled out the oatmeal packet I noticed something printed on the side... a "Factasaurus." Now, I distinctly remember dinosaur facts on my oatmeal packet the last time I ate oatmeal. That was some time around 6th grade. It's almost 10 years later, and there are still dinosaurs on my oatmeal. And also, you may remember when "dinosaur egg" oatmeal was invented -- it had little eggs in it that dissolved to reveal little candy dinosaurs. So really, what is the connection? Why dinosaurs and oatmeal?

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April 01, 2004

April Fools Day

This is one of my favorite holidays, and unfortunately I didn't get to fool many people today. But I wanted to post a link to a fantastic April Fools website that I discovered. Click here.

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Mandatory Thursday Update

Well I can't think of too much to say... no that's not right. I can think of stuff, but I'm not really in a talking mood right now. But I figured since I'm here in the ARC I should talk some (as this is the only time I usually update my page). I picked my classes for next year today, and I got a good schedule. I have Advanced Illustration, Advanced Computer Illustration, Advanced Figure, Portolio, and Understanding the Art of Film. It should be a fun semester.

It's funny that I don't stress out much at all, so when something does arise that bothers me enough to stress about it I always focus all of my attention on it and over-stress. See, my current problem is that I don't know where I want to move with my art. I know there is plenty of time in my life to change my mind, but for the time being I am good at a few things and I like them all, but to be *really* good at one of them I need to temporarily forget about the others. I'm trying to decide between a cartoony comical style, a realistic figurative style, or a focus on storyboarding and concept work. All 3 of these fields excite me. I'd love to make silly illustrations like I've been doing all my life. I'd also love to be a great painter of fantasy or historical pictures (sort of like Frazetta). And I really love film and animation and want to get into that some day, and a good way to go for that is to create a portfolio that shows my storyboarding abilities and concept work. (I can always go to Film School later on for actual film work.)

So that is my dilemma and it is driving me crazy. Part of me wants to just forget about it and say that it's not that important, but it actually is pretty important. This summer should be a time for me to experiment with styles and figure out exactly what I want to do.

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