Snow Watch 2008

The BBC and The Weather Channel are both predicting snow this weekend, but they don't agree on when or how much. The BBC says it will start Saturday night, and be heavy snow on Sunday, but the Weather Channel says light snow on Monday.

We'll see. 

The salt is still in piles on the sidewalk (pavement) in front of our house, but I don't know if it's still any use. They might reuse it, I think it'll still work.

Hmm... Can you tell I have my doubts?

Dave

Jan 31 Update - Heavy rain today, but no snow.

Feb 2 Update - No snow. No forecast for any either. Oh well.

Whirlwind Tour

My parents came over from California to visit us for five days. We had the most glorious, exhausting vacation that I've had in a long time.

They arrived last Thursday around lunchtime. I had hired a driver to take us and their luggage back to our house. I used the same company that we used when Kelly and the kids came. When he didn't show up, I called the company to ask what was going on. After searching through their records, they found that I had booked the car for Friday. Oops! They found another driver, who came and picked us up and brought us home.

They spent Thursday night with us in the kids' room, while the kids moved to the extra bedroom.

Friday morning, we got up early and walked up to Queens Road Peckham train station and took four trains to Canterbury. What an amazing trip that was. We had two suitcases for the six of us, and all of my parent's luggage and two strollers. Each time we changed trains, we had to go up a flight of stairs, across the tracks, and down another flight of stairs.

But when we got to Canterbury, I realized that I wasn't sure how to get to the hotel from the train station. I asked the gal who worked at the little coffee bar in the station if she knew where the Castle House Hotel was. She wasn't sure, but guessed that it must be one of the ones right across the bridge. After asking which bridge and where it was, I went on a quick scouting run across the footbridge that is right across from the station. It turns out that the bridge takes you across the four lane road that circles the city and over to the ancient wall of the city! I followed along the wall to the main opening (which would have been the city gates in the old days) and there was our hotel. It is where the guard house of the city would have been, and right across the gate from a 1,000 year old Norman keep. It was awesome.

The hotel was a nice little bed and breakfast. The rooms were big, but in normal English fashion, the floors were neither flat nor level. But other than that, it was fun to stay there.

That afternoon (Thursday) we walked around the city of Canterbury. The streets are exactly what you would expect of an British town, cobblestones, narrow winding streets, buildings making canyons. I was kind of excited to see the Cathedral, even though it is a big time Catholic place, but no one else was interested in paying money to see a church. I understood. And after they weren't into it, neither was I. We took plenty of pictures from outside the grounds. It is the tallest thing in the town, so you can see it pretty much where ever you go, which is the point I think. I was actually very surprised at myself for wanting to see this Catholic Cathedral. I think that just the architecture and antiquity of it drew me there.

The next day we took a quick train down to Dover to see Dover Castle. THAT was a great experience. We started with a tour of the secret wartime tunnels that were used in WWII to first extract over 330,000 soldiers from Normandy and then plan and launch D-Day from. We couldn't take any pictures on that tour, but it was a great tour.

After that, we walked up to the keep (which is the center of the castle) and walked around. Then I realized we could go in and explore all through the castle. It was so awesome! It was like walking into the book that I had read to my family just after Christmas about castles. And we could even get up on the roof and look down. What a great place.

That night we got back to Canterbury, and had fish and chips at a nice restaurant, called "The Deep Blue".

Sunday we got up and dragged all our luggage through the town because the station we wanted to use was at the other end of town. But that meant that we didn't have to change trains to get back to Waterloo station.

My parents stayed at the Marriott at County Hall, which is the most fabulous hotel I've ever been in. The view from their window was of Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, and some Star Wars Stormtroopers left over from the Star Wars exhibit that we had just missed. We ate take out from shop across the street right in their room, partly because we were all too tired to go anywhere, and partly because the view was so spectacular.

Monday we went on the London Eye. That was great. I loved seeing the city from that high. Then we went on the "Big Bus Tour" around London and had a fun tour guide.

Tuesday, we went on the "Big Bus Tour" again, but got off at Oxford Street and Regent Street. From there we walked over to Framestore and I gave them the quick tour. Then we went down to a great place called,"Hummous Bros." for dinner.

Wednesday morning, I went up and met them at their hotel before they left for the airport and sent them off. It was a whirlwind trip, but it was VERY fun.

I'll post some pictures later, but I wanted to get this outline posted since I haven't written in a while.

Dave

International Keyboards - The Undo

I got moved today into a real office. My desk is right by the window. I'm in a room with two other Houdini artists and a Maya FX TD.

But when the systems guys hooked up my computer, my newly acquired SGI keyboard didn't work. I had to revert to a British keyboard.

It was short lived, but it was good while it lasted. I may spend some time tomorrow trying to troubleshoot this problem.

Dave

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

Kelly took this one of me, just after I bought a little bag of chestnuts from a guy who was roasting them right there on the sidewalk. You can see him just behind me to the right wearing a white hat. The sign above him says,"ROASTED CHESTNUTS". 

I had never had chestnuts before. They seem a bit like small baked potatoes or very large soft peanuts. I liked them, but in the end it was more nostalgia than anything else.

Kelly and I both really like this picture. I love how everyone is swirling and blurry behind me and that I'm all lit up by the flash. This is how I feel walking around a lot of the time, just a big blur all around me.

Dave

International Keyboards

When I first arrived at Framestore, my computer had a British keyboard on it. It's very similar to an American keyboard with a few "key" exceptions (pun intended).

The @ and " are switched.

The # is £.

The ~ is on an extra key next to the return key.

And the | is on an extra key between z and the left shift.

I decided that rather than be a sore thumb and try to get a replacement, that I would try to be all international about it, and use the British one at Framestore.

But of course, my MacBook Pro has an American keyboard on it at home. So in the evenings I would spend the first half hour of working reminding myself that I was on an American keyboard and then the next morning I'd have to remember where all those fancy keys were.

I thought I'd get used to it, partly because Alex says that he's used to it and doesn't even have to think about it anymore. But he's been doing it for years. And I don't have to. I finally broke down and asked for an American keyboard at work. They brought me an old grey SGI keyboard. It has a nice nostalgic feel to it, and all the keys are in the right place.

It's amazing how the little things can make such a big difference. It's so comfortable to use an American keyboard again.

Oh well. I haven't picked up a British accent either.

Dave

The Beauty of Adversity

Those who know me pretty well know that I mull over ideas in my head for a while, but as I'm doing that, I usually talk out loud. But I don't like to talk to myself (much), so I share half-baked ideas.

The last couple of days I've had this topic running around in my head--"The Beauty of Adversity". I didn't actually have a name for it until tonight, but here it is.

I don't like adversity. I avoid confrontation. I don't like to deliver bad news. But I've also found that in those times, I'm much more likely to rely on Jesus and pray and read my Bible and study. When I have to do something that I don't want to do, or if I need to do something difficult, or something that I'm unprepared for, I seek help, eventually. The stubborn part of me starts by trying to ignore a tough situation, but when I finally have to face it, I seek help.

And I believe that is exactly where God wants us. He wants us to remember that we're dependent. Our nature wants to believe that we're independent and self-sufficient. But that's not true. It's easy to believe that lie when everything is going well. We start to think that we caused our string of good luck, or think,"Wasn't that clever of me to be in the right place at the right time for this to happen?" But the truth is that God is the cause of all blessing.

Isn't our purpose in life to bring glory to God? And if so, in times of plenty, we should be thankful for his bounty towards us, and in times of adversity and trials, we should look to God to be our strength and our hope. That way, when He works His purpose out in us, He gets the glory. 

I haven't really finished this thought, so if anyone else has any input on it, I'd love to hear it.

Dave

Around the World in Two Weeks

My friend Jacob just got back to work from his holiday adventure.

First, he went from London to L.A. for a couple of days to see friends.

Then to New Zealand to see his mom. While he was there, he went kayaking and unexpectedly found himself on the beach that is shown at the beginning of the trailer for Prince Caspian! Later they went to the mountains and saw Mount Doom. They actually went to one of the mountains near there and you could see the mountain that was used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy for Mount Doom.

Then he went to Paris for two days. After that he went to Switzerland and went snowboarding in the Alps. He said one of the best parts of snowboarding in the Alps was that by the time he was done in the evening, he was so tired that even though his body had no idea what timezone he should be jet-lagged from, he went right to sleep.

He got back to London last night and was back at work today.

Sounds like an amazing trip! Around the world in two weeks, with stops in Narnia and Middle Earth!

Dave

Halftime

Pastor Chris at King's Harbor Church in Redondo Beach, always give a sermon at the end of June or beginning of July that he calls, "Halftime". It's kind of a "State of the Church" address, where he reminds us of the great things that God has done in the first part of the year, and all the things we're looking forward to for the rest of the year.

I'm a little past halfway in my time here in London, but coming back from my Christmas break has put in the mind that I'm in the second half. For the first part of my adventure, I always felt like I was coming "into" the project--learning the Framestore pipeline, making friends, figuring out the transportation and housing issues, etc.

But now that I've been back at work for a couple of days since the break, I now feel like I'm "coming out" of the project. I had been saying,"I've been here for three weeks." Or "I've been here for two and half months." But now I find myself thinking,"I've only got three months left."

It's interesting how adventures can never be planned. There are plans to be made and preparations to be made when starting an adventure, but the actual course of the adventure cannot be planned. I feel a little like Sam and Frodo talking about being "in a story" and wondering how it will be told when they're done. Except that I don't have a magical ring hanging around my neck, walking into Mordor. (And by making this reference, everyone back in my office in California will say,"It all comes back to The Lord of the Rings.")

I'm looking forward to seeing how everything comes together in the end on our movie. I'm starting to think about how to get rid of the little bits of furniture that we've collected. I'm starting to think more about getting back to life in California and the changes we'll make as a result of living here.

But I'm also trying to savor the time I have left and not miss anything by getting ahead of myself and looking too far ahead.

Dave

snow watch 2008.

Well, of course it didn't snow today. Nor is it likely to snow in the near future. I knew that if I put SNOW WATCH 2008!!! on my blog I would jinx the whole weather system and it wouldn't snow. But I had to try the experiment anyway.

I'm not sure why they thought it would snow, since the temperature was only supposed to get down to 3ºC last night. That's way too warm for snow.

Oh well, it was fun looking for it all day.

Dave

SNOW WATCH 2008!!

They've come around and put sand on the sidewalks. The forecast is for snow tonight or tomorrow morning. I asked the guy who was putting out the sand if he thought it would be a little or a lot and he said,"A lot."

Let's hope so!

Dave