Vlogging...

So I started a YouTube account! =) Rather: I started using my YouTube account, because apparently Google owns YouTube now and if you have a Google account, you have a YouTube account. So here it is if anyone's interested: http://www.youtube.com/user/cjsiapco
I got a new camera and have been carrying it with me everywhere. I like the idea of blogging (as is obvious by this blog) and I like the idea of video blogging (because there are so many things I can do there that I can't here) but I'm still getting used to talking to a camera. It's awkward to stare into the eye of a machine and pretend that you're talking to someone. It just feels weird. At least, right now...

YouTube...

I've wanted to start making YouTube videos for awhile.  Watching other "YouTubers" inspires me. I think I'm going to start an account.

Weird...

My school went on the first ski/snowboard trip to Mt. Baker on Monday. It was far more enjoyable than I anticipated. I was afraid that I'd have forgotten most of what I learned last year and the day would be rough, but that wasn't the case. =) It was awesome! A bit cold, perhaps, but we're on a mountain, so what do you expect? (It was also mostly my fault because I took off the inner liner of my ski jacket because it was restricting my movement and bugging me.)
This last weekend, we went to California to celebrate my dad's birthday. He's a surfer, and so even though it was positively frigid, we went surfing. (Though apparently there are many dedicated surfers who are willing to go surfing in 40 degree weather.) It wasn't too bad though, because I forgot how cold I was when I was too busy swimming for my life. =) I'm terrible at duck diving (shoving the board and yourself under the wave to get past it) and so I got knocked about quite a bit. The next day (Sunday) was far less rough and I managed to catch a couple of waves. Whilst I was waiting for a wave, I contemplated the oddity of the fact that the very next day at about that time, I would be snowboarding. Aircraft are not exactly a huge shock to us anymore. Yes, we look up and stare for a little bit when a plane flies overhead, but it's not "weird." I realized that it IS "weird." Lots of things are weird. It's weird that we walk into a building that is filled with food, wall to wall, and we don't even see where it comes from. It's weird that it's not a huge deal if I forget to print my homework before I come to school, I can go to Google Drive and get it off there (if I remember to store it there, that is). It's weird that I can talk to someone miles away at the push of a button (or a few, if you don't set up speed-dial). It's weird that I can type whatever I like into this page and anyone who is interested can read what I'm thinking right now. Lots of things are weird. And they're a lot cooler when you remember how weird they are. Think about that today, if you happen to have read this far into my post. Think about something you're doing today, driving, checking the time, closing a door, flushing a toilet, and think about how weird it is. Then be happy you're doing it. =)

Surgery...

Yesterday, I woke up at 5:30 and drove to Skagit Valley Hospital and observe a surgery.  Dr. B let me go in and watch him do a C-section.  It was pretty amazing!  I learned more about human internal abdominal anatomy in 15 minutes than I had ever known before.  All the organized layers of tissue and the organs all neatly arranged.  I was surprised by how textbook everything looked.  Now, I was pretty sure I was going to feel at least a little bit queasy because I don't even like dissecting frogs or gutting a fish, but I found instead that, for some reason, I'm okay when it is living tissue being worked on.  The thing that did shock me that I didn't expect was actually seeing the baby.  I knew it was there, of course, but I wasn't "expecting" it.  One minute, the doctor is working on separating tissue and cauterizing blood vessels, and the next minute, there's a baby!  One of the nurses took the baby someplace else to clean him up and take care of him.  After that, they took out the placenta.  Look it up if you don't know what it looks like, because one side of it looks really cool.  The other side looks gross, though, so look for a picture with the side the umbilical cord is attached to, or you'll be wondering why I think it looks cool.  Lots of smoke from the cautery, a few stitches, and a bunch of staples (that was kinda weird too) to finish it off, and we were done.  The lady was awake the whole time, her vision obstructed by a sheet.  She had a spinal injection to numb her from the chest down, so on that side of the sheet, she could talk with the nurse and her husband and not have any idea that she has a huge hole in her stomach.  Very strange incongruity.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! =)  I'm going to leave my Christmas lights up until June (or as long as I can before Mom removes them forcefully).  I like Christmas lights...

(Garrett: "Merry Christmas" had a glow effect on it until I upped the samples to 200 and let it render for the night.  The rest of the image improved quite a bit, but the glow on the text disappeared.  Any ideas?  I think I can fix it, I just wonder if you know why that happened...)

Final Day...

Today is the last day.  It's the last day of regular school (we won't have regular classes tomorrow, only a Christmas party) and also the supposed last day of the existence of mankind.  =) Have we forgotten so soon the Mayan calendar?  The 21st of December, year 2012.  The world shall end.  x) supposedly.  In actuality, my friends and I are going to have a "Still Here" party on Saturday night.  We'll get a hold of a bunch of the best "end of the world" type movies and watch them, feeling thankful that we're still here.  Any suggestions?  So far we have 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, and Armageddon.  I think there's one more, but I can't remember what it's called.
In other news, I am attempting to pick up blender again... and simultaneously falling behind in other work.  I wonder if there's a connection...

Long Time... Now It's Christmas.

So much happens in life, and yet I don't feel the urge to write it down.  At least, I stopped feeling the urge.  I suppose it's a habit thing.  If I begin writing things down again, it will begin to feel natural to write things down.  I haven't had time to do much in Blender, so that's why there haven't been any art-related posts.  However, I am making something in Blender now.  This time of year, I have to write a lot of thank-you cards: my birthday is on the 7th, Christmas is on the 25th.  I have a hard time writing cards.  I think most of it is that I don't like to write the same thing over and over to everyone, but I can't think of anything unique to say to each one... so I get stuck.  Instead of all that this year, I decided I would make a Christmas-themed "thank-you animation" to email to the people I would like to thank for gifts given.  Unfortunately, it's going a bit slower than it used to because I'm rather out of practice.  Hopefully things will speed up once I figure out how to get the lighting down.  Modeling comes fairly easily to me, but lighting... uff.  Not so much.  Texturing is even worse but I'm going for a simple, cartoon look, so the texturing is fairly easy.  Lighting is the challenge this time.  Oh, and I'm using Cycles.  It's a lovely engine, but I do miss Blender Internal... just because it was familiar.