how to make a face like this

i had the notion that the facial animation class was a tough, second-year kind of course.  not really sure why, and when i looked around the room one day in the latter half of the semester, i noticed that everyone was a first year like me, with one exception.  and there were also three underclassmen, too.

am i in love with animation and learning to sync speech?  no, not really.

was the class pretty interesting?  yeah, i'd say so.

part of what made it so cool was that my teacher was a pioneer in computer graphics and facial animation and was the guy who made the first computer animated face, a handful of years before i was born.  so it was fun to  just ask him questions and listen to the ensuing stories.

the class was set up for us to make two faces, which was a good method, since we'd discover what was wrong with our first design and could improve it for the second one.  my initial plan was to model chloe o'brien from 24, for not particular reason than i thought it'd be fun.

i found some nice reference images and started modeling my favorite computer analyst.

it was probably around 11:30 the night before this was due when i joked that she kind of looked like lord voldemort.

then i realized that, if i chose to make the dark lord, i wouldn't have to both with modeling a nose.

bonus!

and at this point, chloe o'brien began to evolve into tom riddle.

you don't see you-know-who making a quizical expression often, but i think i did a decent job with him.

he's very blocky because that shows the geometric design of him, which is important for understanding if he'll be able to move and talk correctly.  in computer graphics, the geometric design is kind of like the muscle structure: you want things in the right place according to what it's going to do.

press one button in the computer and he comes out smoothed:

he had some problems, but i was able to make him say "happy" with moderate success.

(one of my friends make a really scary zombie clown and it didn't occur to him until too late that, without lips, it would be very hard for him to talk.  admirably, though, he did his best with that and it looked pretty good!)

at spring break we started into our second face, which would become our final project: animating full speech. i tossed around some ideas and decided to do "destro", the villain with the metal face from g.i. joe.

trying to find references for a fictional comic/cartoon character is kind of tricky when you want to make him in three physical and realistic dimensions.

this was kind of helpful, but hardly ideal references from which to sculpt.  eventually, i found this, a replica mask from some comic nerd website.

incidentally, these masks were never actually produced, due to low pre-order numbers.  still, i thought it looked seriously awesome; strong, powerful, imposing, definitely a mask but also very human.

now, our first model was due the day after we got back from spring break, and since i spent the whole time out snowboarding in colorado (never did get around to posting about that, did i?), this was my initial model:

mask: awesome.

this thing: goofy and dumb-looking.

but it was a nice exercise not only in matching to a model but also looking and see what was right and what needed to be improved upon: much bigger lips, a matching broader chin, shift the jawline, and, well, the list went on.

eventually, i got to this:

i would continue to make adjustments until the last possible moment, but he's certainly looking a lot more bad-awesome.  i adjusted the "collar" at the base of the mask and added a seam around the longitude of his head, where the mask would split into halves, just to add some realism while ignoring the question of how a metal mask deforms for speech or any sort of comfort issues.

i really would have liked to give him some cool textures for his face, some scratches on the metal, some spots duller and some spots shinier, etc.  but like i said before, textures are not my thing and we weren't too heavily graded on that, anyway.  so i just cranked the shininess levels and called it good (more or less....)

now, there are several different ways to do just about anything in computer animation, and we used a few methods in animating our faces.  one of the main ways is what's called "blend shapes."  basically, you make a lot of copies of your face and then sculpt each one into different expressions and poses.  this ranges from "right mouth corner up" to "left eyebrow down" and anything else you might want, as well as different speech postures: "oo", "ah", b/p/m" (all the same lip positioning) and so one.

soon, it looks like this:

then you press a few buttons in the computer and you magically have a row of buttons that controls those expressions on your face.

after that, you move through your vocal track and start matching up the mouth positions with the spoken syllables.  once that's done(ish), start working on the upper half of the face, adding eye blinks, brow movements, and whatever else to add expression.  one key thing is that the eyes should almost always be moving; motionless eye pretty much equals deadness.

since all of our faces will be shown together, we tried to have a common thread linking what they were saying.  in past years, they've answered the question, "what happened to your body?"

in maintaining the acknowledgement that we were working with floating heads, we asked "what were your last words?"

while i couldn't think of anything particularly creative, i decided to play against the stereotype and have my big tough guy's last words be him begging for his life.  meh.

a few weeks before the end of the semester i took a week and really focused, really pushed myself, and was super dang happy (and surprised!) when my teacher only a had a few--and very specific--suggestions for me the next day in class.  i added some lighting and a backdrop and also put a few objects off-screen to be reflected in his shiny metal face to make it more interesting to look at.  then, for funsies, i animated the camera to move like a documentary camera, adjusting the framing as he was talking (tried to do some focus work, but that was more hassle than i felt like dealing with.)  a few more touches and he was done.

EDITOR'S NOTE: THERE'S SOUND HERE NOW.

and i finished without having to do any terrible all-nighters.
which was nice, because i inexplicably needed a lot of time to work on my compositing final....

let's play hungry hungry hippos instead

five or six weeks ago i planned a trip to utah for the break time between semesters.  as the trip was getting closer i began to wonder i was overzealous in staying for eight days, if that would leave me sitting around bored for a lot of the time.  but so far it's been a good balance between having plenty to do and also having enough down time to relax, unwind, think, ponder, and work on some pre-visualization for our summer course.

it's strange driving around provo.  i moved away nearly nine months ago and yet it feels so natural to be home, almost as if i hadn't left at all.

i'm also not as good of a dancer as i thought, but i did learn a few new moves tonight.  still need plenty of practice, though.

like i'd never left.

(i tried some new cologne while browsing at bath and bodyworks tonight and sitting here now all i can think is dang, i smell good.)

2-D meets 3-D

here begins the chronicling of my work and classes from this semester.
i think it would be safe to suggest that my favorite class was my digital compositing class, although a more accurate answer is probably whatever class's deadline wasn't looming over my head like the sword of damocles at any given moment (which effectively rules out my undergrad 271: programming for dummies class, but more on that later.)

digital compositing, which i signed up for at the very last minute because i didn't know it existed, was really interesting nonetheless.  the class revolved around inserting ("compositing") images/objects into a 2-D image.  this is essentially beginning off that path that culminates in computer-generated monsters and alien invasions in every movie coming out between now and the end of october (after which time the remainder of the year is filled with so-called "oscar fare", movies that involved no apparent c.g. and instead have to rely on things like being "critically acclaimed.")  in january, i had no clue at all how to do anything like that.  now i have a bit of a clue, but don't expect to see my name in the credits of the next michael bay movie anytime soon (or at all, for at least two reasons.)

much of the first half of the semester was taken up with lectures consisting of our turkish professor explaining  how computers read color information and writing equations that soon left me a little baffled.  but i miraculously drew in photoshop a box on a pile of other boxes.  i was so seriously dang proud of myself.
the rest of the assignments just got cooler.

there were four variations on assignments for our second and third project.  mine was to take this picture

and have an object fly through it.  it had to cast shadows correctly and the lighting had to match.
ok...... so, where do you start?
ima tell you.

along with this picture we were given a few more helpful things.  we were given measurements, such as the dimensions of the box, the various distances of the camera from the box, how high off the ground it was, it's angle of declination, and this other photograph:

'k.... great.
well, yeah that is pretty great, actually.  that little peg is a pretty good indicator of how the light is, based on the shadows it casts.  well come back to this in a bit.
so, if we're going to have an object fly through here, we need to build a 3-dimensional scene to put over this.
after an hour or two of frustrations and discovering, it looks kind of like this:

there are the basic objects that will need to receive the shadows: a plane for the ground, another for the wall, and a simple cube for the box.  and i've set up some distance locators to ensure that my camera is the same height as the real camera was, so that the perspective will be the same, too.
since the real wooden box has many different sides and faces that will all receive shadows differently, i needed to model a box that looked just the same.  and so i did.  you can see the wire frame of my box against the background image of the real deal.

if you were able to move around and look at it, you'd see that it's not a perfect shape.  i got it looking pretty close but after a point just had to start grabbing edges and corners and pulling them to where the looked right.  as my professor at byu said, "in computer graphics, if it looks right, it is right."  and if you could change your viewing angle a bit here, you'd see some definite skewing going on.  but you can't, so we're good.

i should note here that this was not the method my teacher intended for us to use on this.  he expected to do it in a way that didn't involved modeling the whole complex box, which he felt was much simpler.  i didn't realize this until later on in the semester; i was just doing what seemed the easiest to me.
meh, anyway....

so, we've got a big fake box.  great.  here's where it gets kind of sneaky.  in cg, the look/texture of an object is called its "shader."  and you can apply a seemingly limitless variety of shaders using all manner of voodoo that i really don't understand very well yet (hopefully that will change in the coming summer months.)  but one of the sneakiest is the "use background" shader.  i'll let you figure out what that does.

maya signifies an object with "use background" as bright green.  so it soon looked like i had made a leprechaun casket.

"ideally", and that's a very unpredictable term around these parts, the box will render essentially invisible, since it looks like whatever is behind.  but you can still tell it to receive shadows (as well as a myriad of other options, the joys of which i will expound upon in coming posts.)

at any rate, i'm off to a good start here.

next up is getting the lighting right.
remember that picture of the little pink peg casting a nice shadow on the white matte?  well, now that i know kind of how to place objects in the scene, it's time to make my own peg and try to get it to cast an identical shadow.

ok.... let's look at the positive here: my peg's shadow is similar-ish to the real shadow.  definitely needs some fill light so that the shadow isn't pure black.  but we're getting there.
the problem with this scene, in case you didn't notice, is that half it is a jagged black mess.
i spent a few hours pouring over every setting, trying to find what 0 had been changed to a 1.
i tried using a different renderer and got this:

i guess that's better.....?  now it just looks like a beam of dark matter from some super villain cut through my scene.
eventually i found the (embarrassingly blatant) problem and everything was peachy.

good. great.  i got an image that looks like i stuck something into a real scene.  never mind the still-very-too-dark shadows.  i'm celebrating my accomplishments, not my faults.
i think it's time for a dress rehearsal, to see how it all looks together, magic green box and object and all.

heh.  whoops. yeah, i need to take out my peg and, more importantly, turn off "reflections" on all of my crafted green objects.  this is very encouraging, even if it does look like it just rained out here.

dang.
it works.
: D
whomever was closest to me got a high five.
i mean, that's pretty cool.

now, part of compositing is compositing: putting things together in layers so that it can all be controlled individually.  which means that i rendered out an "object pass" that had the object flying through by itself (actually, since i didn't know quite what i was doing i had the background included in that, but this scene was simple enough that that wasn't an issue.)

then i rendered out another pass of just the shadow; no object, no background, just a mysterious dark spot against white.  i didn't worry about the shadow's intensity earlier because now that i have just the shadow layer, i can lighten this to however i want it to be.
yeah, pretty slick.

and, at my professor's suggestion, added an occlusion pass.  occlusion is the shading that occurs based on proximity between two objects: place two cereal boxes next to each other and the shadowyness that happens between them is occlusion.  it takes a long time to render because there's a lot of calculations that have to happen, but it really makes it look nice.




put it all together with its simple animation and it looks like this:

excitedly grab your nearest friend, pull them over to see your little slice of awesomeness, and catch the next bus home, telling yourself that you've done enough good work for today that programming can wait until tomorrow.

red card

i don't mind fighting a losing fight.
just because i'm losing doesn't mean i've lost.

but i can't stand this feeling like i've been thrown off the field, that i'm sitting on the bench or, worse, pacing in the locker room, having to watch the final from a tv monitor rather than being out there.
i'm not competitive in a lot of things, but the times when i want to fight and am no longer allowed, i hate it.
sitting here. doing nothing.

so close.
2000 light years away.
fair.

editor's note: we are fully aware of the two previous posts.  we're fine with the contrast.

the crowd

i remember seeing a movie in my film history part one class many years ago (saying that i remember seeing "a movie" is actually pretty accurate; the class was at 10 a.m. and while my passion for antiquated movies wasn't as strong as it is today, i was still interested in it, yet managed to sleep through just about every movie in there) that had a moment that stuck out to me. i think the movie was "the crowd", a relatively famous silent film by king vidor. the family in the story had decided to take a trip to the beach and everything was spread out on a picnic blanket. the kids were playing and in some way ruined the cake that the mother had made. i remember her getting upset with the children and it kind of ending their fun day.

something about that stood out to me: how the mother had wanted the day to be perfect and happy, but when the kids accidentally ruined the cake that was a part of that plan, that effectively ended the day, when really that was an inconsequential part of it and they could have brushed it off and enjoyed each other.

on the shuttle to the airport this morning, a family boarded with two small girls. the mother apologized to the rest of the shuttle for their slowness in boarding and getting all of their luggage on. i don't think any of us minded, but she was clearly irritated with her sitauation. i saw her sifting through her bag, making sure she had everything to make their week-long trip in mexico go like she wanted, yet i couldn't help but suspect that she'd likely be that exasperated for her whole trip.  i wanted to tell her to relax and just enjoy things, but that probably wouldn't've been very effective.

still, it's left me thinking.  yes, it is easier said than done, but i'm going to try and not get as bothered by little things, especially if they're insignificant towards the bigger goals, particularly if getting bothered by them takes me exactly opposite of where i'm trying to go.  it's just a cake.

dang, i was hoping this would come to a less cliched conclusion.....
meh, i won't sweat it.

the silence

i don't own many children's books, and the few that i do have are mostly gifts (for which i am appreciative.)  but there's one (only one?) that i've bought for myself.  it's called zen shorts, a story of panda who moves in next to a couple of children and within the story tells them three short zen parables.  with all credit to author jon j. muth, here is "the farmer's luck."


there was once an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years.

one day, his horse ran away.  upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.
"such bad luck," they said sympathetically.
"maybe," the farmer replied.
the next morning the horse returned, bringing with it two other wild horses.
"such good luck!" the neighbors exclaimed.
"maybe," replied the farmer.

the following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown off, and broke his leg.
again, the neighbors came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.
"such bad luck," they said.
"maybe," answered the farmer.

the day after that, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army to fight in a war. seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by.
"such good luck!" cried the neighbors.
"maybe," said the farmer.


now, the zen idea of being so tranquil that one is never bothered by anything doesn't fully appeal to me, as it seems that, without lows, you don't feel the highs, either.  a few years ago i saw a sign somewhere that said to the effect, "if you don't try too hard then losing isn't too disappointing and winning isn't very exciting."
also, i don't know where the line is between things "just happening" and it all being a part of God's plan for us personally, but i do believe that He is actively an interested part of our lives, even on a daily level.

that all being said, i think this is a very good story that i can do well to remember.

an audience

i've been thinking about the theatre some lately.
the bohemian romance of it all, the devotion, the passion, the madness that surrounds it; the thrill and rush and surge of a live performance.
sometimes i find myself wondering if i took the safe and boring road, trading things like that for job security, insurance benefits, and more time with my elusive future family.

tonight was "viza-go-go", the a&m viz department's version of "final cut" for all you byu alumnuses out there (hmmm, the computer didn't get mad at me for saying "alumnuses."  interesting....)  i wasn't sure what to expect, since at final cut we were at least watching (attempts at) movies with stories; i wondered how much of this would just be technical achievements of texturing or effects.  and there was some, but overall it was pretty interesting, even for my non-industry date.

my "how to float" video was selected to play.  as i've said before, i never gave much thought to it once i moved on to the next project, and so i was surprised when so many people told me they liked it at our fall show.  and i was a little pleased to see that it played at tonight's show near the end (which is kind of sort of reserved for the better works, although they may have put it there so that it could be the dud surrounded by plenty of good stuff....)
for what it is, it's something i'm happy with.

more than that, though, it was fun to sit in that audience, surrounded by the unknown general public and to see them laugh at the little video that i made last fall.

for a moment, i got to perform again.

zombies of narnia

i'm standing just off to the right...

i walked into the fargo ward church just as prince caspian was rounding the corner.  we acknowledged each other and he continued his patrol.  i walked into the cultural hall where different members of the royal family were seated in thrones around the room.  kind peter was off in one corner, pacing and preparing for the impending battle.  i went to a throne in the back left corner of the room, where sat a girl who had the gift of foresight.  she was essentially autistic and so no one really paid attention to her, despite her ability to foresee the future.

and so, when she began to say that zombies were coming, no one but me paid any attention.  i was just thinking that i should've brought my zombie sword in from the car, and ran to get it.

but i was too late.  already, legions of yellow, swollen spongy skinned undead were at the doors outside the cultural hall.  i pushed through them and ran to the doors leading to the parking lot.  more zombies were outside, although they looked much more like people with good black and white halloween makeup.

thankfully, i made it to my car and grabbed my zombie killing sword and spent the rest of the night battling the evil creatures alongside king peter.

needless to say, this was one of those dreams i didn't want to wake up from.  : )

death of a poet

i just have to say, this is one of my favorite shots i've ever done.....

special thanks to brandon on this one.

spending so much time at the computer is significantly brightened by getting my hands on a camera occasionally.... : )

60%

editor's note: going to bed at a good hour is only really productive if one actually falls asleep around that time.  after lying on my bed for over an hour, i'm here, blogging instead.

i used to be big.  i used to rule the world.  seas would rise when i gave the word.  producers would call me, insisting that i was their favorite and that they didn't want anyone else.  i would finish the shots when the director went home.  every tuesday evening my house would fill with friends, gathering to watch whatever cinematic oddity i had decided to show for the night, and many people came just for the social aspect.  afterwards we'd play rock band until midnight and, if we didn't feel like calling it a night, we'd run off to ihop just because none of us wanted to say goodnight.  it was my place, my world.  i was the host.  inside the red door, i knew who i was.  my place was the place.  it was where we met before, where we reconvened afterwards, where we went when there was nowhere else to go.  everyone knew your name there.  it wasn't a perfect era, but the rough times were scattered in between awesome times and moments of sheer dangness.

then sound came.  people no longer wanted silent physical comedy, but verbal gags and flashy song and dance numbers.  now, in the morning i sleep alone, getting up every day just in time to be seven minutes late to class.  some days i come home in the evening enough to eat, then i'm back at school until midnight or later.  i'm a side act, a supporting character.  i ask questions instead of provide answers.

it takes time.  transitions always do.  and i'm inertial.  i move slowly, establish security and identity gradually, but with permanence and depth.

ok.  patience.  mr. demille, i'm ready for my close-up....

nattvardsgästerna

one time i tried to sing about spring and a storm
but you know how it goes

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah
all along

but all the rain comes down the same, falling to from where it came
on the ground then back around up into the sky

i wish you could have heard the music when the clouds growled overhead
i finally felt enthusiastic....
i finally felt alive

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah
so you said

(would it please you to listen to thunder instead?)


man the rain came down that day and it drained my soul away
and i wondered why i even bothered to try


we have so much left to sing
there’s a storm for every spring
all you see and you and me became from a star

create until nothing is left to create and the universe bursts with an overworked sigh then pretend to pretend to re-crown the creation and sing the same thing ‘til the clouds start to cry and then
over and over and over again and then

over and over and

never again....

get me some scriptures!

many springs ago i took a "religions of the world" class at byu.  i think i ended up dropping it, because i can't remember how it ended....  anyway, on a wall in the classroom was a picture of a man perishing in the desert.  on the picture, someone had drawn a word balloon and had him saying, "scriptures.... please! i need some scriptures...."  i really liked that perspective of seeing the scriptures as that important in our lives.

like everyone, there are some aspects of the gospel i'm good at and some that i'm working to improve on.  scripture study is one that i got into during my mission and never really got out of.  i hit it hard when i graduated from college and suddenly had a lot of free time as i was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.  and, as life would get busy and i would long hours on movie sets, i would often listen to the general conference cds in my car, as that was really the only time i had.

grad school has been like that, too, only more relentless.  and as i've become busier, many days my scripture study time has been reduced to a talk or two that i've listened to in the 7-minute drive to and from school late at night.  some days, it's only been a few verses as i've remembered before going to bed.  this certainly isn't ideal. but it hasn't bothered me too much; i'm doing what i can and know that that's my best.

but thursday was an particularly frustrating and discouraging day for not particular reason.  but i found myself home at a decent hour and took time to have a proper scripture study.  i sat down and read from the book of mormon and then revisited one of my favorite talks from last weekend.

dang it felt good!

sometimes we don't have time to eat a full meal.  we just grab a quick snack as we're running out the door.  there's nothing wrong with that; it's simply how things go sometimes.  but whether it's our fault or not, we're still not getting very much nutrition.  whether we're super busy or not, if we're not sitting down to a good and balanced meal, we're not getting what we need.

as i was working on a personal project on my computer that evening before going to bed at a respectable hour, i realized i felt calm and at peace.  it was incredible and really awesome and suddenly the mound of schoolwork looming in front of me seemed like something i could conquer and proclaim in my name.

scriptures are awesome.
seriously dang awesome.

twelve keys

despite the numerology inherent in the title, this is not about the priesthood.  at least, not directly.
we had a fireside tonight, given by the patriarch of the waco stake and his wife.  on the chalkboard in front was written "twelve keys to lives of hope and peace."  i was expecting them to list nice and simple answers, the kind of things we usually see in lists like that.  ....and i guess they did, although the answers were actually really profound and helpful.  so i'ma post them here for you to read.
i also noticed that they really did team teach; he and his wife were balanced in taking turns teaching.  it was really cool.  (future wife, we're so doing that....)

::twelve keys to lives of hope and peace::

1. live a simple life (don't follow the world's trend of being overly busy)
2. spend less than you earn (put away some for a hard time, because hard times will come)
3. think constructively
4. develop a yielding disposition
5. be grateful (especially towards Heavenly Father)
6. give generously (be wise and within your means)
7. rule your moods
8. work with the right motive (the highest purpose of our life should be to grow spiritually)
9. be interested in other (peace and happiness will be natural byproducts)
10. have a hobby (this can help deal with stress)
11. live one day at a time (don't wait until things get easier to be happy)
12. keep close to the Lord (strengthen your testimony)

pretty cool stuff.

plus, we got strawberry shortcake afterwards.

txt #s

it's the usual suspects again....

jaime::999

jess::425

dana::400

joel::368

kristin::277

the semester effectively ends in three weeks.  hopefully i'll have time to post most frequently after that.

lotso learning

one of the things i remember  commenting on after first seeing toy story 3 was how cool lotso the bear's fur looked: it just looked perfect, like a tattered and worn and dirtied old toy.

today i had the chance to meet and talk with the guy who did that.  it was pretty cool to see his process in tackling that challenge.  and just to get some more insights into working in the industry.

i seem to remember having more to say about this when i was thinking about this post half an hour ago.

i'm pretty stoked that the conference talks are online now, too.

something for everyone (and plenty for me!)

this weekend has been phenomenal.  yes, it would have been great to be at temple square for conference but, watching it online, i was still able to listen to some incredible talks that have left me refreshed and recommitted in faith and hope.

the talks that especially stood out to me (i had initially hoped to have a short list of just three or four, but i can't really list any of these as anything less than "words given for me"):

• elder nelson's talk on effective prayer
• elder oaks's talk on the power of righteous desires
• elder snow's talk on hope
• elder johnson's talk on enduring afflictions
• elder scott's talk on the joy of love between a husband and wife
• elder christofferson's talk on the trials and challenges God gives us to help us become who he wants us to be.

and i found elder holland's talk to be rather unique in a way i can't quite describe, but i loved it just the same.

i'm already anticipating reading them and listening to them again.

bring on the next six months.  : D

jacob 3:1-2

wish i was there

as you may have noticed, jaime and i text a lot.

yet we really didn't spend a lot of time together, even when i lived in provo.  the one time of the year that we were pretty much guaranteed to see each other was general conference.

this one's my favorite

this will be, i think, the third time in ten years that i haven't gone to salt lake during conference weekend.

i always enjoyed the peripheral traditions surrounding our excursions up there as well: of stopping at mcdonald's with my sister for a mcmuffin and hashbrown before waiting in line early saturday morning, of marching through the streets afterwards, sun or snow, to baba's afghanistani restaurant, and, in subsequent years, to the house of kabob (where they seemed to have only one cook and our group of 10+ overwhelmed them).

or of sustaining the general officers of the church while driving back home down I-15 and watching the other cars to see who else raises their hands.

and the day that we just sat out on temple square and listened to a session on the lawn.
it was an absolute thrill when, 9 1/2 years ago, me and my friend got into the conference center after waiting in a very long line.
yet i made sure to never lose that reverential excitement and i don't think i did.
i will always love standing when the prophet walks into the room; it's one of my favorite experiences with being there (and i will never understand why there were--without fail-- "false alarms" at every session for the past two conferences).

over the years, it kind of became a given that, for one of the sessions, jaime and i would go up together and bask in the awesome gospel sunshine of it all.  it was her comment last september about it being the first time we wouldn't be going together that was the impetus for my trip to slc last october (not that i didn't want to be there, but sometimes a little nudge from a friend helps....)

so, check that off the list of things that i took full advantage of while i had the opportunity.  i'll dearly miss being there at the center of one of the most wonderful times of the year, but i'm even more grateful for the times that we have had.

and i'll be back again some day....

editor's note: our recent postings have consisted largely of pictures.  this is due to our head writer being three inches over his head in schoolwork.  as soon as the semester ends or he flunks out, the usual neurotic writings that brought you here in the first place will be back.
in the meantime, those of you have that must battle small childrens and other variety of offspring in order to read this, consider this short picture posts a break for you.

"once i fell in love"

this is my friend emily.  i used to hometeach her.  she loves cats and disney channel movies.  we've gone to the planetarium, had an easter egg hunt, have enjoyed thai food, smash burgers and almost every place we could find to eat along state street in orem.  she has good taste in movies, goes to the opera and symphony with her family, and loves to read.  she knows the world of harry potter inside and out, was a part of the hpbc, and is in love with ron weasley (as well as fred and george....)
and she pretty much defines the word "adorable" as far as i'm concerned.

she can also draw.
i knew she could do cute doodles; she once drew me a "hometeacher cat" (complete with bowtie) that i still have on my desk.  but a few weeks ago she posted this story on her blog.  i absolutely love it: the illustrations, the colors, the story, the cuteness, all of it.  so, with her permission, here it is on sheep go to heaven.

=^..^=