My Blog

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Carnildo — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:44:41 GMT

For those of you who have both Chrissy and I as cyber-pals, you this might be a repeat -but hey, you get to hear the story told two different ways. This was too good a story to leave alone. it was a dark and stormy night... Well it was night anyway. Last night to be more specific. Around 11:30. Chrissy and I (or should I say Carnildo and Vexin), were backed into a corner in Stranglethorn Vale, killing endless numbers of Kurzan Medicine Men, hoping like crazy to get them to drop some kind of "remedy" -a quest item. Anyway, things were pretty tense, I kept getting jumped by re-pops and then there was this panther that kept going out of it's way to jump me as soon as I rezzed. You know how it is (or more likely you don't , but bare with me here). It was late, I was tired, and I kept dying 2 drops away from wrapping this stupid quest, when suddenly there is a great torrent of barking and noise from downstairs. Crap! I'm gonna die again, but I have to see what's going on with the DOG! Actually, Chrissy got there first while I tried to run for cover near a rocky outcrop (little did I know that that same blasted panther was just waiting for me to get up from my computer to finish me off). Anyway, in the few seconds I took trying to park myself in a safe spot, I heard voices from downstairs. Chrissy was talking to someone. I figured it was a neighbor with some kind of emergency. But I got up anyway to see what was up. From the top of the stairs I saw a very tall woman standing in the hall by the front door and I heard Chrissy say "I need you to leave". "Are you sure?" the woman replies. "Yes." Chrissy says, calmly, but firmly. And the lady walks out. At this point I had made it to the bottom of the stairs, but didn't get much of a chance to say or do anything. "What was that about?" I asked. "She let herself in the house! " answered Chrissy. "When I asked her what she was doing here she told me 'I was told I had reached my Final Destination'" Wow! Holy Shit, this is freaky! Anyone out there watching John from Cincinnati by chance? I was waiting for one of us to start levitating! After getting over the initial weirdness, we both found ourselves disappointed in Tonka's performance. Yes she had barked, but then dropped the ball on the "Pounce and Eviscerate the Intruder" part. So we fired her on the spot, but later forgave her. The next step was "Gee, I guess we should call the cops?" So I did. Gave them the details. Told them there was a large crazy woman letting herself into houses and the last we saw she was headed out in the night, off for parts unknown. They wanted to know if we needed them out at the house, and I told them no, that was OK, she wasn't violent or anything. We'd just lock the doors and hope they picked her up. Frankly, we were more concerned for her safety at this point. I can't say that many of our neighbors would respond as evenly to a six foot black woman walking into their house around midnight as we did. So the big weirdness had passed and we survived. We went back to WoW and of course the panther had eaten Carnildo again. So we moved along and tried to get those last few drops when BAM! there was a knocking at our door. This time it was the cops -I have to say in light of the evening so far, I was grateful for the knock. I guess they wanted more info. They took our names. phone number, etc and told us they thought it might be "Loretta", the town drunk that sometimes bums rides after drinking herself silly. I have to say I was pretty amused to hear that we have a town drunk. So they tell us that they were going to head out and look around a bit. We wished them good luck and went back to Wow -again. Rezzed, this time I killed that SOB panther as he came around the corner and skinned him for the trouble. Got the final drops, turned in the quest and went to bed. I thought the story was over at this point. We spent the next day as usual, doing work around the house and running errands. When we got home, the phone rang and it was one of the cops. She wanted to make sure she had our names and birth dates correct. But then she started to tell me the rest of the story! I've never gotten to hear the conclusion to something like this and it was so cool1 I couldn't believe she was telling me all this ! "We found her, you know, on North Constitution, her car had run out of gas." the cop began. "She was acting really weird, I figured she was intoxicated so I administered a PVT(?) and she checked out OK. So I figure she's on something, so I asks her 'Are you on something?' Well, I finally get out of her that she's OFF her meds, that she's bi-polar. She wasn't violent or nothing, just really acting weird" "Yeah" I interjected, "that's how she seemed to us, just weird, not necessarily drunk". "Right, so she throws her keys in the bushes then tries to throw herself in the bushes too! When i tried to get her license and registration, she literally threw every credit card and such she had in her purse at me. She was a mess." the cop continued. So we can't get her car going, she's out of gas and lost the keys so later we got her parents to come up. She's 28, but lives with her parents. We told them she really needs to stay on her medication." " So, is she a local then?" I asked. "No, she's up from Baltimore" "Wow! how the hell did she get all the way here? To my house?" "She told me she followed the Yellow Brick Road"

I want to go to Mars

Carnildo — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:02:48 GMT

Well, Barsoom anyway. Kaor! John Carter , Warlord of Mars confirmed at Pixar Ed Catmull finally spilled the beans: http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_ezine&task=read&amp;page=1&category=2&article=2537 Good Lord, maybe the movie will finally get made. There have been so many attempts at this (including a version in the 30's that WB madman Bob Clampett tried to get done). I have just enough confidence in the Pixar guys to know better than to toon it up and try something true to the spirit of the series. I just re-read the first book last week and it really has me jazzed to see what they do with it. Man o man I wish I was working on that project...I actually spent the other evening working out plausible anatomy for a 4 armed green martian ( in a Mignola-ish style for some weird reason). I wonder if I have time to get a portfolio together....

The Imagineering Workout -a Review

Carnildo — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 21:55:54 GMT

I recently recieved The Imagineering Workout -Exercises to Shape Your Creative Muscles as a Christmas gift. I have to say, despite my natural suspicion of this sort of book, that I REALLY found some of it very informative, affirming and even, dare I say, comforting. I have worked as a game developer for the last 16 years, and have often drawn parallels between what I do and what the Imagineers at Disney do. OK, quick definiition for those who need it: Imagineers are the crew that build the theme parks. We both generate creative ideas and then actually build those ideas into actual, usable, interactive experiences. The main difference being that games are produced to be experienced on a computer screen and theme parks are produced to be experienced as a real-world environment. Other than the final form, our goals and methods are often much the same. Both employ a diverse array of talents to bring these projects to life from artists to musicians to engineers. One of the areas that I find most similar and unique to our fields is that we essentially engineer the creative vision of artists and storytellers (game designers). That diversity of talent is both a strenght and a weakness. It is an uneasy marriage at times between the touchy-feely expressiveness of art and the practical, efficiency of engineering. I have always found, with the exception of most of the Eisner-era work, that the Disney parks are concieved and completed at a level of fit and finish far above the nearest competitor. In fact there is no other competitor, they are in a league of their own. I believe this was the legacy of Walt. He did the same with his films and it carried over into the parks. I have often asked myself what enabled them to imagine, let alone accomplish, a level of work so far beyond what everyone else was doing. It couldn't just be hard work. It has to lie in their methods and the way they think. This book goes some way towards getting into the mind of the people that take raw ideas and make them real. What I also appreciate about the book is how it demonstrates the value in getting the traditionally "less creative -read "artsy-fartsy" " jobs such as mechanical engineering, legal and administrative caught up in the process so that everyone is on the same page and working in the same environment in mutually supportive roles. A few favorite excerpts: " Art is not devoid of reason or intellect. It's packed with it. It's just not driven by it. How can i put this? Maybe it's that the artist is like a train riding on the tracks of experience and logic, but the steam which drives him or her is emotion and vision." -Steve Cook Senior Staff Assistant, Creative Development "You can't tell and artist when to have an idea or how many to have" -John Hench (Disney Legend) "Getting a "feeling on the feeling" is a key element to visual storytelling. This means identifying early in the creative process the project's overall essence and emotion -the effect the project's story should radiate...I've discovered that it's the image vocabulary derived from a dominant feeling that maintains visual unity thoughout any project." - Leticia G. Lelevier Senior Show Producer, Creative Development "I've learned that it's best to have a vision. It's underlying structure enables designers, production talent, or field art directors to stay within the intent of the story when making adjustments to the project or maintaining a completed one." -Cicero Greathouse Art Director, Walt Disney Imagineering Florida "You know what you want because you have seen or felt something like it before... The analogy is a powerful, descriptive, creative tool for painting pictures that express ideas....Analogies will help you move from what something's like to an idea you are seeking to communicate to others." -Tom Gilleon Former imagineer "If the audience or the product user doesn't have their expectations met, the goal hasn't been achieved. Even if they enjoyed what was created, they will feel that something was missing." -Joni Van Buren Art Director, WDI Theme Production "Words that build energy and confidence allowing ideas to flow are words that make things possible: will, can, like, love, do, make, be, happen, build, bridge...There are words that deplete and drain energy; these are the bad words that contribute nothing to a brainstorming session. Some of these words are: try, maybe, might, should, could, sort of , kind of, not sure, but." -Steve Beyer Senior Concept Designer, Creative Development As a project leader, it's your number one goal to get the best person for each and every task that needs to get done. One way is to imagine what kind of animal each person would be based on his or her personality....For example the tortoise is steady and determined but slow and may be perfect for more tedious jobs requiring patience and attention to detail. Cheetahs are typically good for jobs requiring short bursts of high speed and energy. Let the owl help you make wise decisions, but don't put the rhinoceroses to work until you've decided in which direction you want them to go." -Bruce Vaughn Vice President, Research and Development "Go for the simple, creative solution -it's the best." Joe Carter Senior Software Engineer, Scientific Systems Show/Ride Engineering "If you have ever wondered how your idea became something other than what you wanted, you were probably in need of story...Sometimes you have an idea and you think it's great. Then someone else likes it too, and with their help it's going to become a reality. You're excited. But as the project goes through it's phases there's nothing worse than to watch the original bright idea become dull and something you didn't want. At Imagineering a wonderful thing happens: ideas are expressed as stories. The team discusses the story to make sure everyone understands it. In telling the same tale, everyone working on the project makes it richer. They bring ideas, skills, and creativity to the project. Each individual on the team adds layers and details that make the end result not only as good as the original concept, but better. Story keeps the original idea bright." -Barbara Wightman, Principal Show Concpet Designer, Creative Development, Disneyland Resort Paris That last quotation really hit me hard. I've been there, and wish I had had something like the technique of "story" in my toolbox. It may well have prevented a lot of grief. The Imagineering Workout illuminates a number of techniques and methods for maximizing creativity and minimizing frustration -or more importantly how to turn frustration to your advantage. It also makes clear and demonstrates the importance of methods used to identify and communicate the essence of ideas. This book has a few really great big ideas that I would love to try to work into my work environment. Sure, it has it's share of shallow exercises and an almost slavish devotion to the concept of "story" ( ref: http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/2006/11/myth-of-story.html for a great discussion of the history of the "myth of story".) But all that said, the few pearls it provides make it worth the read.

Marked for Life

Carnildo — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 01:49:03 GMT

Well I finally went and did it. At this relatively late point in my life, I went and got me a tattoo. Not that this was a sudden idea or as some may suspect a manifestation of a midlife crisis. Rather, it was the inevitable end result of a long chain of events, thoughts and desires. I would like to avoid making this post some kind of explanation about why I got it or what it means to me, but that may not be possible. I decided a while ago that there is no point in explaining why I did it. Either you get it or you don't, there's no point in my trying to make sense of it for you. I would like to apologize for not including a picture yet, but I didn't get a picture when it was fresh and at the moment, 5 days after getting it, it looks like ass (flaky, peely, scabby). I'll amend this post with an image once it's looking pretty. As for the imagery, if you want to try to picture it, the image takes up the majority of my upper left arm (but doesn't yet wrap around the inside -that's for later :D) and is essentially in the all-black tribal style, but in terms of form, it is made up of La Tene Celtic spiral motifs. I was going for something non-figurative because that has been the key to the great design problem I had to solve. I'm a professional artist that deals with non-abstract imagery , the idea of making a tattoo out of some kind of representational art really gave me a problem. I know that any image I would have designed would have had some glaring error that I only would have found a year later. So after all these years of trying to figure out what I wanted on me forever, I finally realized that I could go with something purely graphic and decorative. The design also appeals to me because it has such deep roots in history, it comes from Bronze and Iron Age imagery. The oldest extant example of tattooing comes from a Bronze Age Scythian chieftain whose body was preserved by ice and thus his tattoos survived to be discovered centuries later. Although my tattoo is not a copy, or even derived from his, you could say that it comes from the same "school". In fact, I'm beginning to think about adding one of the animal style motifs found on him to myself at a later date and it would blend seamlessly with what I have. As with most things I do, I never start small. I usually end up attempting something that had I known better, might have hesitated to try. The artist -)Stacy McCleaf of Chrome Gardens in Gettysburg, PA ) even said "You were like working on a seasoned vet...not too many people can walk around saying something that big was their first tattoo, non the less they did it in one session." That one session was 3.5 hours. Now I'm not claiming that this was some heroic feat on part, but had I had a smaller tattoo first, I might have known that "this is going to be a lot of pain over a long period of time". I'll be honest, at some point about halfway in I was thinking "I really wouldn't mind if this was over really soon". But I was in for the duration and it really wasn't that bad... no worse than getting my braces installed or a really long time at the dentist. Some places hurt a lot and some hurt more than a lot, but it's really about wanting it more than you mind the pain. In the end, I had a hell of a piece of work on me. I'll be honest, when I got home, I looked it over and I was in a bit of a state of shock! Despite having worked on the design for months and I had lived with it as an idea for the better part of a year, the reality of was still a bit overwhelming. It was freakin' huge! it was bold! It was so obvious. This was no typical little tattoo. This was a big bold thing that said "I'm a little different". I think that lies at the center of it. I've always been "different". I'm not like anyone else in my neighborhood, I'm not "normal". I'm fine with that, hell I relish it, but I have always been so outwardly conservative that I think most of the suburbanites always assumed I was "one of them". On the other hand, I've never been "radical" enough to be comfortable with being too much of an outward freak. This is a chance to put something of the me inside of me on the outside. I think it was the sudden reality that it was now there for all to see that kind of surprised me at first. Now the initial shock is over and I am loving it more and more everyday, even as it begins to peel and crust and flake. Funny thing is , no sooner did I get over the initial "holy shit this thing is major!" reaction than I started feeling like it needed a bit more....In fact when I designed it, I worked up a larger body of work -another arm, a back piece and more work on each arm. Maybe now I will go forward with those as well. The cherry is busted, might as well go for broke (well without going broke if I can).

The House of Mouse

Carnildo — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 23:53:21 GMT

Whew! We just flew back from Walt Disney World and boy are my arms tired! Still there? Yes, we finally made the pilgrimage to Orlando and I have to say I can't wait to go back. There is something truly magical about that place. The kind of magic that keeps a smile on your face while the money is removed from your pockets. Yes it costs a lot , but you won't find that kind of value anywhere else these days. Like most things Walt created, WDW concieved itself at a level of quality and value far in excess of any peer. Walt's films were and are the gold standard, the same can be said for the park. It's been nearly 30 years since I was last there so obviously it isn't fair for me to compare the two trips, but I have to say that this time, seeing through the eyes of my kids, I was absolutely enchanted. It was all I remembered and more. We were all talking about how we could move down there. Chrissy could give massages at the swanky high end resorts, Syd wants to be a Jungle Cruise Guide (she is a jr one officially -has a card and everything), and I could....I could....hmmmmm, I suppose I could be one othe caricture artists they have all over the place :P Time was there was an animation studio there before Disney swore off traditional 2D animation. Well I guess I could have had my shot if I had tried. Right out of school Disney was a possibility for employment, but I was too cynical. I thought Disney would mean short hair, polo shirts and clean living (of course now, what hair I have is short, I am known to wear polo shirts, and my living is more or less clean). At that time that wasn't me. So I went into Game Development instead. Oh well. Maybe Lasetter will bring back the Florida studio, maybe I could start over at the merry old age of 40.... The place had that kind of effect on me. It made me want to be a part of the place. To see the realization of high fantasy like the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and Pirates of the Caribbean, heck even Small World is crafted at a level of design you can't find anymore (thank you Mary Blair). To paraphrase someone else, Walt was able to create through the eyes of an innocent, unlimited by the knowledge of the possible. Anyway,I could go on editorializing and tell a very long story, leave it to say that we had a great time and I invite you to see the pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carnildo/sets/72157594408088978/show/

Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry

Carnildo — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:19:09 GMT

"The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience "very low food security."" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501621.html Bullshit like "very low food security" is a criminal act of deliberate obfuscation utilized by government agencies. Why we do this is beyond me. I've always agreed with George Carlin on language, it's use, and it's importance. Language and words define the scope of our ability to think. The words we use frame the context and meaning of all we think about and discuss. Carlin: "There's a lot of groups, a lot of institutions in this country want to control your language. Tell you what you can say and what you can't say. Government wants to tell you some things you can't say because it's against the law. Well you can't say this because it's against the regulation. Well here's something you can't say because it's a secret. "You can't tell him that, because he's not clear to know that." Government wants to control information and control language, because that's the way you control thought...and basically that's the game their in." "...I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protest themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse. I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war, that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the second world war came along and very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock! Battle fatigue. Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called operational exhaustion. Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car. Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called post-traumatic stress disorder. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-traumatic stress disorder. I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it shell shock, some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha. But. But, it didn't happen, and one of the reasons. One of the reasons is because we were using that soft language. That language that takes the life out of life. And it is a function of time. It does keep getting worse. I'll give you another example. Sometime during my life. Sometime during my life, toilet paper became bathroom tissue. I wasn't notified of this. No one asked me if I agreed with it. It just happened. Toilet paper became bathroom tissue. Sneakers became running shoes. False teeth became dental appliances. Medicine became medication. Information became directory assistance. The dump became the landfill. Car crashes became automobile accidents. Partly cloudy bacame partly sunny. Motels became motor lodges. House trailers became mobile homes. Used cars became previously owned transportation. Room service became guest-room dining. And constipation became occasional irregularity. When I was a little kid, if I got sick they wanted me to go to the hospital and see a doctor. Now they want me to go to a health maintenance organization...or a wellness center to consult a healthcare delivery professional. Poor people used to live in slums. Now the economically disadvantaged occupy substandard housing in the inner cities. And they're broke! They're broke! They don't have a negative cash-flow position. They're fucking broke! Cause a lot of them were fired. You know, fired. management wanted to curtail redundancies in the human resources area, so many people are no longer viable members of the workforce. Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralize people...or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The pentagon actually measures nuclear radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos. Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part of it to us, do they? Never mention that part of it. " Well George , here's more grist for the mill. Rock on brother. More on the use and abuse of language: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/projects/strategic/simple_framing

Today's Playlist

Carnildo — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:00:14 GMT

Completely tuned to my own personal taste -your mileage may vary. Bela Lugosi’s Dead (Live at the Old Vic, London) 9:35 Bauhaus Every Day Is Halloween 6:36 Ministry Lullaby 4:10 The Cure Disintegration The Killing Moon 5:50 Echo and the Bunnymen Red Right Hand 6:10 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Careful With That Axe, Eugene 8:50 Pink Floyd One Of These Days 5:58 Pink Floyd Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) 5:12 David Bowie Aisha 5:54 Death In Vegas The Contino Sessions Living Dead Girl (Subliminal Seduction Remix) 4:09 Rob Zombie I'm Your Boogieman 4:29 White Zombie Zombie Eaters 6:05 Faith No More Live @ Brixton

All good things must come to an end

Carnildo — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 02:31:35 GMT

I might be jumping the gun a bit, but the faire season is drawing to a close and with all but next weekend's last huzzah at PARF, I figured it was time to get the season's worth of pictures up on Flickr. So with out further adieu, for your viewing pleasure: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35622463@N00/sets/72157594343761242/ I'll add whatever I get from next Sunday , but this is most of it. ..sniff...it was a good run :)

Shakespeare coming to a virtual world

Carnildo — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:01:32 GMT

At the risk of being busted cross-posting to numerous tribes, I'll blog it instead. Pass it along if you find it of interest! "Three-dimensional digital worlds and the world of William Shakespeare--it's hard to imagine two more disparate universes. But bridging the gap between them is exactly what Edward Castronova, an associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University and the leading expert on the economies of virtual worlds, is doing. On Thursday, the MacArthur Foundation is expected to announce a $240,000 grant to Castronova and his team to build "Arden: The World of Shakespeare," a massively multiplayer online game, or MMO, built entirely around the plays of the Bard. That means players can expect to trot around in 17th century regalia, buying ale in Elizabethan taverns and joining guilds aimed at toppling dukes and earls. " Full story here: http://news.com.com/2102-1043_3-6127294.html?tag=st.util.print Being a Rennie, a game dev and an avid MMO player, you can be sure I will be following this one! The budget seems really small so I won't be expecting a lot to start, but if he can attract several million more dollars, he might have a going concern. The premise does sound a bit convoluted -maybe too much for commercial success. The idea of getting power-ups via uncovering the Bard's manuscripts seems a bit contrived. I'm also a bit confused by the article's description of playing in an Elizabethan world, yet the game apparently is set at the time of Richard III -I am assuming this confusion is due to the writer's lack of historical knowledge. Hmmm, maybe I should send him my resume......

Who's this Carnildo Guy?

Carnildo — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 13:32:45 GMT

Most have probably NOT noticed that my Tribe "handle" is Carnildo. I came across it in an interesting (to me) way and I thought I'd share. OK, back to the beginning. I came across this site: http://www.elvish.org/elm/names.html What the author did was rather clever I thought. I'm sure you've all come across a "what's your Elvish name" or "what's your hobbit name" generators. They are fun, but AFAICT, pretty random. What this guy did was take a list of given names, and research via a baby name book the "meaning" of a name and then using his knowledge of Tolkien's Quenya to translate the name. "MARK, MARCUS (m.) - probably connected with 'Mars'; Carnil "Mars", thus could be Carnildo or Carnilmo or others; someone suggested also Marcarnildo " Carnilmo was a tad squishy and Marcarnildo was just a long form of Marc as far as I am concerned (but I've always longed for a long form of my name -Marc is simply Marc (Ma? Mar?...). I settled on Carnildo. It sounded vaguley like some mad Italian and was appealing. Of course that wasn't enough. To be honest, I'm not familiar enough with Tolkien to know if Quenya naming convention typically incluides last names, but I was determined to work one out for my last name anyway. The site above doesn't cover last names per se unless you have a last name like "Lee", so I needed to do my own legwork. I found this site: http://www.searchforancestors.com/surnames/origin/ which informs me my last name is synomynous with Hodgins, Huggins, etc. "from Hug, the nickname for Hugh, and the patronymic termination ings, belonging to, or the son of" (Anglo-Saxon I believe). So now I have a first name to work with and a patronimic termination. Back to the first site where I look up Hugh: HUGH (m.) - Germanic 'heart, spirit, mind'; óre "heart", so jist Óre or masculinized Óro or Óron (see HUGO below) So now I have the Hugh (Óre) part. Now I need the "son of "part. I did some digging in the Silmarillion and I can't point to the reference now, but best I can do is tell you that to the best of my knowledge, the proper tag for "son of" would be "ion", thus Órion or Óronion. Please any Tolkien Scholars out there feel free to correct me -I am but an egg, the true grammar eludes me. Therefore: Carnildo Órion/ Óronion. This is still not enough. I have the words, but not the proper setting, as the Latin alphabet is not the proper home for a Quenya name. So I found this: http://at.mansbjorkman.net/tengscribe.htm A Quenya Word Processor! Now I could enter the name and get the proper inscription (as seen in the image above, both in a standard script and a cursive script). I'm such a geek. * update! Best guess at the Sindarin form is Carano Emelion now with 50% more geek

Pichu Come Home

Carnildo — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 16:27:55 GMT

The other night, my eldest daughter Sydney, age 6 came to realize she had misplaced her beloved plush pokemon, Pichu. For those of you without first-hand knowledge of Pokemon, a Pichu is the baby form of the famous Pikachu, star of the animated show. Pichu is quite literally her baby he never leaves her side, and she sleeps with him. She knows he's just a toy, but somehow all that love and attention a 6 year old can invest in a toy, really brought him to life for her. It is as if all that fluff and stuff get marinated in affection and imbues the thing with an undeniable essence that makes it so much more than a toy. She has had him for a year now and they have never been parted. It seems most likely that he fell out of her backpack somewhere between home and school and home again. She insists on keeping him in the backpack because she is afraid he would get lonely while she was at school. Once she realized he was missing she was hysterical. She cried for an hour or more, fell asleep exhausted then woke again in the middle of the night howling for Pichu. So we left calls with the bus company and the school. She checked in her cubby but didn't find him. She came home yesterday heartbroken. Chrissy managed to calm her and we did find a new one on eBay (but you can't really replace the original). We've made up Lost Toy posters hoping that might help. I am so sad for her. This is one of those really intense life lessons for her that if you didn't have a kid you might have a hard time empathizing with. Man, it is so awful to see the pain she is in. It's more akin to the death of a pet than anything. And I feel so helpless. I want to go over to the school and look myself, but that isn't permited, so she's going to have to handle this herself. So, if by chance you see a cute little 4" tall yellow guy wandering around looking a little lost, let me know.