Neil Gaiman is awsome

Friday:

I was so excited to sleep in but it just didn't happen! Took the day off work and toodled around. Had breakfast. Had a bunch of my new tea that arrived today! It ships quick. I love my new tea brewing thingy. It steeps and then you put it on top of a mug and the tea comes out of the bottom and the leaves are separated. Really cool gizmo. Anyway. I put on my loudest top and I packed up my things and headed out at around 3:15. Traffic was horrid on 101! So much slow going and then stop and go once I got into San Francisco. I didn't get into the parking garage till 5:30ish! The line for the theater went down a couple blocks and wrapped around the block. So many people for Neil Gaiman. I struck up a conversation with the guy behind me in line, Anderson. Pretty nice chap. His friend Susan arrived in line too, and she was really nice. Some people on tour buses asked who we were waiting for. "A band?" "A writer!" When Anderson, Susan and I got into the theater, we ended up sitting together on the mezzanine. It was a nice vantage point, and we were right on the edge so we could lean over and spit on the front row (we didn't do that).

Neil Gaiman came onto the stage to massive cheers, and when he made a little “shhhh" motion and everyone went silent in seconds. Amazing. He talked, he read from The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Fortunately, The Milk, and answered questions. All of it was enjoyable and lovely and just all around great.

The signs said “no photography or film" but they DIDN’T say no sketching. Okay granted it is really difficult to sketch in the dark of a theater from a far off point of view, but I gave it my best, though I could never figure out how to draw his hair. At 8:20 he started signing, and the theater put people into line based on seating section, which was awesome! Being up high and clearly far back in the signing time frame, I had the chance to go get something to eat and hang out with Steve a bit (who came downtown). I was so hungry and the pizza really hit the spot.

It also gave me the time to chat with Susan and Anderson about such topics as speculative fiction, Ramachandran, travel, eye brows, and all sorts of things. Really cool people to sit and chat with. Much better than standing in line for hours and hours. And my oh my were the signing staff efficient! They had people getting the names on sticky notes, then the to be signed materials were handed down the line to someone who opened it to the correct page, so that all Neil had to do was sign and interact (not that interacting with several hundred different people in a few hours is an easy task). While sketching the signing line, I found that when I drew someone at the back by the time I finished, their stuff was already signed and they were off the stage! Amazing!

I got into the line at 11:40 and I was through at 11:59. Neil and I had the briefest of interactions. He saw my name and I spluttered out a “my parents are big Hitchhiker’s Guide fans" and he said “Nice to meet you Trillian" and in my book there is a little heart (along with his signature and my name). He looked very tired, but oh so understandably so. He took breaks, sure, but damn he signed for hours! I hope some day I get to meet him again, but I don’t know what exactly I’ll say. It was an amazing night for memories both new and old.

I met up with Steve again after the signing, and I drove us back to his place in Daly City. It was nice to sleep there instead of driving all the way down to Santa Cruz.

Saturday:

Steve and I got brunch at Boulevard Cafe in Daly City. I had the eggs benedict and they hit the spot. Not the best that I've had, but they were pretty good. From there we went to the ocean and walked along the bluffs for a little while. I got sand in my shoes and the back of my arm and my back is a bit pink from the sun exposure. It was a nice mellow day of hanging out and enjoying the sunshine. I was melting yesterday as I drove up to San Francisco. 99 degrees! No good for lil me!

I returned to Santa Cruz at around 5:20ish and set about scanning my sketchbook. I finished my current one off whilst sketching the Neil Gaiman signing. It's so exciting and fulfilling to start a new one. Have to have some more adventures soon!

Tomorrow I shall read The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Maybe I'll sit in the sun and read. Get some rays. That'll be nice.

Things are good.

three day weekend extravaganza begin!!

The final little revision is done! Whew! But that feels good. It's all done. The video should be online really soon. Hurray!

We ran a job that had a ridiculous amount of shirts ordered for the amount of effort that it took to print. They really need to order more shirts. I taped screens. I sweated my tookus off. Cleaned squeegees and floodbars. Finished The Five Red Herrings. Damn it was hot. The day ended relatively early in terms of immediate tasks, but I stuck around a but and removed the tape and excess ink from the huge stack of screens. They are now waiting for all the ink to removed and then reclaimed! Odds are that will be my Monday.

Three day weekend! Neil Gaiman tomorrow! I'll probably be spending the night in The City, so expect a report from me Saturday night.

Ohhh I'm excited! Should probably leave around 3/4ish. I'll still sleep in. That'll be nice.

Now I'm going to watch some new television and then tuck into bed.

Also got a very nice letter from Serenity. She is so nice.

Annnnd I treated myself to some more Adagio tea blends + a tea brewer thingy as a reward for finishing the video. I should be set on tea for the time being. Mmmm tea. I want more tea in my life, and I shall have it!

I want to buy more Adagio teas..damn they are tasty

I'm all caught up on Bob's Burgers so I guess I'll go to sleep or something. Boo.

At work my bosses kid took over my job for a little while. Just the catching shirts part of the job. Hopefully I have a few years before I'm elbowed out entirely, still he stopped after about 5 minutes. At least my work ethic is better than that.

We ran plenty more shirts today. Did the fronts and backs on a doozy of a shirt to line up. And another front. Burned some screens. Andrew cut patch fabric. A shorter day, which was nice to have.

I finished another round of edits on the video. Hopefully the FINAL final edits. We shall seeeee.

And I watched Bob's Burgers. Whoo!

Relaxing tiiiime. Though I think I have other stuff to do..err

I stand with Wendy

Did you guys see Wendy Davis' filibuster? I came home from work, heard that this Senator was doing a filibuster to block voting on an anti-abortion bill and I was absolutely riveted the instant I pulled up the livestream. The shouting of the crowd to block the vote as Wendy's right to filibuster was pulled from her. The voting AFTER Midnight, which was the cutoff. Just a radical bit of politics, holy cow! I really hope they don't pass the bill in this utmost slimy way. Major props to Wendy for being on her feet and without food or relief for 13 hours! Amazing woman.

And during all that I ate dinner and working on final animation revisions.

We ran four different shirt jobs at work! The front on one, the front and back on another, the front on a third, and the front and back on these sweaters. Nice and productive. And I found time to coat all those screens.

Solid big full day.

I did it whoo yay/visitors from the east

Saturday:

Set my alarm and got up at around 10ish, and then spent the rest of the day in front of the computer animating. Drew more assets. Scanned them. Edited them. I did spend some time talking to Alana and I got some ice cream. Nums. Late in the day, After Effects crashed when I was a bit too enthusiastic with adjusting a position curve whilst zoomed in. So I got a nice little chunk of time to freak out. I crawled into bed at 4, with all the sequences done in large part, with only a few touch ups. It was a long frustrating day, and I hope to not repeat it.

Sunday:

Slugged out of bed at 10ish and had some tea and got to work. There was tweaking to do (the karate chop scene was key) and colored art to insert and other edits. It lasted a few hours but dang I got all the rendered pieces to Carmen in time! We did it! What a ridiculous turn around but it was turned aroooound!

And right when I got them all to her, Kevin and his friend Yue pulled into town. Kevin as in Komatsu Japan Kevin. He is doing a coast brewery tour, and was cruising through town so we met up and went to Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery. Janet has a growler, so we filled that up with their seasonal IPA. A really nice lavender/dandelion smelling beer. We all got food, Kevin and I shared a sampler of the brewskies. It was a nice little victory luncheon. We parted ways as they headed north (Yue was designated driver for the stretch between here and the brewery up above San Francisco, I forget which one). I took a nap with Joey. Then I went and got shampoo and piles of much needed groceries. Had a bit thing of tea. Started watching Bob's Burgers. Feeling really good right now.

I don't know when the video will drop online, but it shall be soon. There might be a bit of tweaking, but I know that it premiered tonight so that is super cool.

Next week I'm just going to take it every kind of easy.

And Friday I am GOING TO SEE NEIL GAIMAN! AHHHH!! IT'S HERE!