So I'm in San Francisco.

I still can't quite believe I'm actually in the states. My flight got in 7pm local time, so like, 2am home time. I'd got up at 5am to get my flight. I didn't end up going to bed until 3am San Fran time coz we went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter.. I was up for like 30 hours.

I am sleepy today. I got up around 10am as I'm staying in Ashley's 'Cobana' (basically a little pool house/tent/shed thing outside which has a double bed in and is awesome but gets stupidly hot first thing in the morning.

Ashley took me on a driving tour round San Fran today which was ace. We went for lunch with her stepdad and grandad at a local mexican place, then we drove everywhere. She wanted to give me a feel for everything so we could go and see other places more in depth later. I'm still totally in awe of everything from fire hydrants to yellow cabs to cable cars to freeways to the golden gate bridge to seven elevens and well, pretty much everything american ever..

Need to sort out my schedule for SDCC and actually sort my flights down for it.. ARGH much to do before I can stop feeling stressed out about it. SO excited though.

Tomorrow we're going to Monteray for the day, then to San Jose and back across the Golden Gate to the boardwalk and some rides at Fisherman's Wharf. Cant waaaiiiittt :D we've got a barbeque and a party planned in the week as well as trips to Napa and half moon bay. Ashley's mom cooked incredible steak tonight too. I am going to eat SO well here. I've got friday on my own as Ash has to go into work, I might get the train and tram down into town and maybe get the boat over to Alcatraz as it's like, the other thing that I think of when I think of San Francisco.

..Im probably going to go and collapse into tiredness in my little tent now. I'm taking many, many photos which I;m sure will make it here sometime.

Maybe in a couple of days this will start feeling real..

..The day that Simon Bisley and the-dude-whose-name-I-can't-remember-who-owns-forbidden-planet are coming for dinner is (probably) the 14th of July.

THE DAY I FLY TO AMERICA.

..I am less than impressed by this :(

I HATE hayfever. I made the foolish error of cutting the grass yesterday (I say cutting - I was strimming down 3ft high dandelions..) and that rendered me wheezing and unable to breathe properly. This then led to an appalling nights sleep so now I've been half dead at work all day. Wheeziness is just easing now, I'm almost quite thankful for the rain today.

I like proper heavy rain. Much better than the drizzly crap we often get. Wish I'd seen some of the thunder people had today though..

First things, uh, second.. errorism - I am officially the most terrible friend EVER because I was so caught up with organising Eve's birthday that I didn't send you a message or anything on yours :( feel free to hate me. But only until we go to ComicCon, or that will be a LOT less fun.. In other news, we're going to see Bill Bailey :D (I need to pay you for that - Let me know how much..)

I go to the states in.. some days that is a number less than 40. 38 maybe? (I counted the other day but I forget how long ago it was and I'm too asleep to work it out). I fly from Gatwick at 9.30-ish-am on Tuesday 14th, I change at Philidelphia on the way there (I will totally be singing Springsteen the entire time I'm there, or 'are you going to San Francisco', coz I will be..) then catch a plane to San Francisco. I get in sometime around 4-5pm local time, and my lovely friend Ashley is picking me up from SFO airport :D

Heading back to her 'kooky house o'random' as she calls it.. I'm staying in her pool house/guest house type thing (she has a pool, yay!) - I'm thinking something like the OC/Fresh Prince.. and she's gonna show me all around San Fran and the surrounding area. Apparnetly we're going to the premiere type thing of the Harry Potter movie on the 16th. At midnight. Dressed up. Oh. God ;D

Then on Wednesday 22nd I'm gonna catch a flight down to San Diego and meet up with errorism and metronome (What time are you guys getting there by the way?) for Comic Con (!!).. then lots of geekery and such until Sunday when I'll be heading back up to San Francisco.

Flight home leaves San Fran on Tuesday 28th at 7.30am (ouchies).. I change at Charlotte, NC, then head back to Gatwick. Get back there at 7.10am local time. Bloody timezones..

So yus, that's the plan. I cannot wait :D aaaand now it's time to leave work, woop!

Holy crap in a handbag I'm rubbish at posting aren't I? I do still read my friends page every day and I lurk around.. I've not forgotten I just never seem to have time to do ANYTHING at the moment.

Knee-deep into reshoots for Zomblies, and work has been pretty manic recently too.

We did two days shooting over at the UCZ Bunker in Exeter over the last couple of weeks. Both were incredibly awesome fun (as usual). I've missed being on set muchly. Have a look at the blog, various bits and bobs from the shoot on there (including making a fake wall out of carpet and throwing loads of breezeblocks over dave..)

I don't have time for a totally indepth post but TWO exciting things..

1) we might maybe, possibly be meeting SIMON BISLEY. OH. MY. GOD. Friend of ours who has come and helped us out with a couple of shoots happens to know him (she also got stoned with Bill Bailey once).. hopefully setting up a meeting. HELL YES.

2) We're now in contact with a local filmmaker who is about to film a fairytale short on dartmoor. Her concept artist (and friend of 20 years) is... ALAN LEE. THE Alan Lee. Lord of the Rings concept artist Alan Lee. Eeeek..

Tim, Dave and Eve also spent a couple of days helping out on a friend's shoot, the crew included a guy called Ash who was the Gaffer on Da Vinci Code, Tomb Raider and Stardust.

So yes.. exciting things possibly happening.

In other news, SDCC is like, no time away at all. Stupidly excited and a little bit scared..

I'll make a proper post soon. Honest.

oi errorism

you're famous dude :D

Hey kids, apologies for not being around much - been pretty darn busy with work and film related work and such..

We've just finished overhauling our website for Zomblies II >>WWW.ZOMBLIES.COM<<. The new design is awesome (thanks to Tim mostly). We're going to be updating the blog regularly (which is my job to make sure it happens) and there will be new production diaries every fortnight.

We're desperately trying to promote ourselves everywhere as much as possible so if anyone could pass on the link and such, I would be very, very grateful.

Also, if anyone here has any input into content/style etc etc, I would love any comments from anyone (:

... Tim was trying to get me to title my post 'I HAZ BOOBS'.

Edit: Also, check out Dave's post below mine for 360 pics of our office (where I am right now) and our basement (before Eve tidied it I hasten to add..)

This was going to be a proper post, but alas now it is not for I am too full of homemade pizza and am rather sleepy.

..After errorism posting pictures of her mockingbird costume for SDCC yesterday, I am seriously thinking about what to dress up as.. Delirium was an idea but I'm not sure how well I can do her justice. Although I probably would shave part of my head for SDCC. And make better fishies. Ramona from Scott Pilgrim was suggested but I don't know whether she has a continuous enough theme to make it obvious? Other than the bag and skates (which I am SUPER bad on) and semi-regularly goggles and such.

Meh, I don't know!

Been looking at Cath's pics from when she went to visit Ashley in SanFran last year.. I am SO excited now. Stupidly so.

Roll on July..

I've spent the last hour or so reading the photo blog of a guy I sort of know. Well, I know him really well but..

It's odd I suppose. I met him in a bar in Nottingham a couple of years ago quite randomly. Somehow I ended up with his number (it was something to do with him wanting to hit on my friend or..something) and we've been texting on and off ever since.

I just found him on the internet through boredom. His photo blog is very, very good and highly interesting. It made me feel like I should, y'know, blog properly. Rather than this chronicle of uselessness and whining.

'A friend of mine tried I an iPhone. It burst into flames and gave him cancer. He said every minute was like being pricked by thousands of tiny pins. That were hot.'

I love my housemate Tim.


Tonight I am mostly cooking spaghetti bolognese. Only with various different shaped bits of pasta we have left, not spaghetti. Then we are having a Zomblies production meeting to plan timescales and dates so that one day, we might actually finish this darn film.

We're re-launching the website soon; putting up a new documentary episode; planning re-shoots.. It's my job to create a better web marketing campaign for us, which is going to involve regularly updating the zomblies blog. Maybe that can be my 'proper' blog.

In other news, money is utterly, utterly rubbish. I have none. Struggle through til I get paid, then lose lots of money all in one go.

In the meantime, I am using my shiny new pink (!) credit card and booking my flights for July.. current plan is flying into San Jose on Tuesday 14th, getting picked up by my lovely Ashley then hanging out with her and her eccentric grandfather in San Francisco for a week or so, then flying down to San Diego to meet up with errorism and metronome and others for SDCC, then flying back to San Fran on Sunday then back home on Tuesday.

I am going to be paying this off for a long time, but I absolutely cannot wait.

I was up until 5.10am rotoscoping for the fantasy short we're making.

For the thankfully unenlightened, rotoscoping is essentially, drawing lines around things. In our short film, a man (Shaz) is running through a snowy forest, and then gets shot by an arrow. We are adding falling snow in post-production. In order to make this look like it is actually falling behind and infront of Shaz, we need to track where his body is in every single frame of the film so that we can layer snow behind and infront of him. Using a specially designed computer programme, we draw lines around Shaz with various points that we can move around to fit it to the movements of his body. If you have a difficult shot with lots of movement then you pretty much have to move these points in every single frame.

Shaz rotoscoped one shot which had 455 frames. Ouch.

I think I fried a reasonable amount of brain cells last night. I need a nap.

Had to get up this morning to take Tim and Evie to South Devon College to meet up with an archer called Glen who has an old looking longbow. We dressed him up in chainmail and did some little shots of him notching an arrow for the introduction. I think he was confused.

I also discovered that Morrison's garage sells Reeses' Pieces. My attempt at being healthy is officially over.

It is Friday. There is no work for 2 days. This is a good thing.

In other news, I got a speeding ticket on Friday. Going through some roadworks out of Exeter onto the M5, I was doing 58 in a 50mph zone. Great. My Mum said she does that all the time and so has pretty much everyone else I've spoken to. Thats 60 quid I could really do without having to spend on nothing, and 3 points on my licence. Not such a happy event.

The office is a hive of activity at the moment trying to get our 2 minute short film ready before the Cannes '09 deadline. The boys have been up until silly o'clock trying to get it done. Here is a little snippet...


Fantasy Effects Test from Shahriar Abdullah on Vimeo

I sorted out a guy who is coming over tomorrow with a medieval looking longbow to get a few shots, and I've been buying sealing wax and other such things. Also been liaising with the guy who is scoring it for us, who is putting a whole score together in a week, which I think is pretty incredible to be honest. Exciting times..

Spent way too much of my free time over the last few days reading Scott Pilgrim (thanks to errorism) and i'ts bloody brilliant so it is.

I have pretty much no money at all until payday. ho hum. We got an enormous electricity/gas bill the other day. I also need two new car tyres, my MOT and whatever comes with that, this fine now (grr) and to somehow afford all the stuff for SDCC.. ARGH. I hate money. Well, I don't hate IT per se, just my lack of it, and the way it rules pretty much everything in life. Why can't we go back a few hundred years and trade in turnips or somesuch again?

I'm sure I have other things to say, but my mind is fuzzy from the sudden chocolate intake since I got home (Shaz got some celebrations for winning a dance contest, a limbo contest and coming second in a donut eating contest for comic relief today..)..

Oh! I got tagged by a dr_ghost but my brain is too fried right now to actually do a meme of any kind. I will later, I promise.

Radio 1 cheered me up when I got in the car after work today. The wonder years was on, and I turned it on to the sounds of Haddaway - What is Love, swiftly followed by Blur - Country House then Dodgy - Good Enough.. it was a big pile of 90s cheesey goodness. Ahh, nostalgia.

Right. Back to work I think..

I just spent way too long doing nothing I should be doing and making a new Userinfo.

Now I should really do some work or something.

The kitchen needs tidying after we had people over for dinner last night.

Pah.

anyone know anything interesting i can do tonight?

the rest of realm are off to dorchester for the night and i can't go because i'm working tomorrow.

grr.

i don't like being home on my own much..

i'm hungry. perhaps i shall go out and get something unhealthy for dinner.. hmm.

i keep forgetting i changed my username and getting really confused.

work was tiring and a little stressy but me awesome homies make up for all of it. i love coming home to people who can make me laugh so hard i can't breathe.

realm family, i love you ♥

..there is little point to this post.

OKAY

SHOULD I CHANGE MY USERNAME TO

jaffacakes?


(i like angrybiscuits too..)

Edit: Okay so, I think I'm going to go out of leftfield here and go for angrybiscuits.. much as jaffacakes is ace, I'm just not the worlds biggest jaffacake fan and i'll feel mean taking it from someone who might be..

Edit Again: OH GOD I DID IT

I want to change my username.

I've wanted to do this for a while. I've had this journal since May 2002 and this one really is not me any more.

I need some help deciding what to name it.

currently suggestions include various things involving the word zomblies (such as 'ohnozomblies' or something) and all tim's suggestions which were too long.

I NEED HELP.

Edit: I WANT THIS ONE biscuits.. can I make them give it to me? i LOVE the word biscuit more than... biscuits themselves.

..eating my leftover betty crocker chocolate fudge frosting from the can.


oh dear.

I JUST BOOKED MY PASS FOR COMIC CON




... this is really happening. ohsweetjesus.

I know I say this often but, I bloody love my housemates.

Dave and Eve cooked us an incredible pancake day dinner. Starter pancakes with mushroom and goats cheese, main course pancakes with bacon, cheese and oregano and sweet chocolate batter pancakes with chocolate chips, caramelised nuts and vanilla ice cream. *is full*

also, everyone dancing around the kitchen to blues brothers = love.

Shaz: You gotta love Aretha..
Tim: *blank*
Shaz: That was Aretha, not Urethra..
Tim: You've gotta love your urethra though, or you'd be like *puts hands out like a fat person* I'M FULL OF WEEEEEE!
The Rest of Us: ..........

Shaz: Hey! Hey Tim! Look!
Shaz: *produces small plastic dinosaur from pocket*
Small Plastic Dinosaur: *is little and green and dances*
Tim: *sings to Jurassic Park theme* OH MY FUCKING GOD
Tim, Dave, Shaz and Me: IT'S A DINOSAUR, JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE FUUUUCCCKKK!! (whilst moving arms up in epic gesture style)

So. Much. Love. So. Full. Of. Pancakes. ♥♥

In other news -


Hugh Jackman rocks my world :D

This post was brought to you by my annoyance with html and my crazy loves :)

It's been a good few days.

+ Went to Swansea, spent an evening talking crap about llamas and warcraft with Chris, then picked up Tim and all his stuff and brought him back down here to move in with us. Which is totally awesome and I still can't quite believe he's here. Realm House is complete :3

+ Had a dentists appointment. Felt slightly cheated out of my £16.40 inspection fee as my teeth were fine.. also, managed to take my labret bar out then promptly drop it in my car and now have no idea where it is, so had to buy a new one which is slightly fatter at the back and I can't stop playing with it because it feels different (I have a plain steel ball rather than one with a little diamond stud in it now too. I am so much less bling..)

+ Bought a new motherboard, DVD drive and hard drive and now have a new desktop computer which is in the office with everyone elses and is highly sexy generally really :D

+ ... I installed warcraft again. I'm going to level to 80 nice and slowly. Then possibly raid casually again. Maybe. If my housemates let me.. I miss everyone on wow loads. And my Mongrel. She has been woefully neglected recently.

+ I took creatore_magico to give blood but alas no joy :( darn blood of fail..

+ Ku made me a scarf <3

+ We've been editing a short 2 minute film that we shot the other weekend when it was snowing. It's shaz dressed as a night getting shot in the back by an arrow. Basically. I emailed X-Ray Dog earlier to ask for permission to use one of their tracks.. eeeeep :S we're hoping to maybe send it to Cannes '09..

+ On another film/realm related note, Dave has decided that my official title is now 'Project Manager'. I think this sounds cool. Essentially, I boss everyone around and tell them to do their jobs. Which is true. I've spent ages today researching project management software and am currently trying to make head or tail of Microsoft Project 2007.. (ILU Demonoid ♥) and MindManager and how they work together.. I might work this out in a few years..

+ I love our house. It's been an incredible day today. Dave and I just spent about 10 minutes bouncing on the trampoline in our garden looking at the sunset. Nimue was looking at us in a very confused way..

+ I don't know why this is all bulleted. ho hum.

+ Going to see a play called Lysistrata tonight that a friend of ours is in at exeter uni. apparently there is nakedness and cross dressing and vibrators. Could be.. interesting..


..I should actually tear myself away from the office and get ready to go out now. Apparently there's an aftershow party too but I reeeaaallly don't want to go *sobs* I thought my days of pretentious student theatre were over. Alas..

01.YOUR REAL NAME: Corinne
02.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother and fathers middle names) Susan Mary James
03.NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad) Henry Newton
04.STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name) Nesco (sounds like a supermarket..)
05.DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Green Lemur
06.SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, town where you were born) Mary Leeds
07.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning) The Blue Soco (southern comfort sounded silly..)
08.FLY NAME:(first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name) Coes
09.STREET NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie) Half-Baked Matchmakers (I wish I lived there..)
10. PORN NAME: (1st pet's name, street you grew up on) Kushka Moorland
11.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of last name plus izzle) Loyizzle

..that was amusing :)

a horrible customer made me cry today T_T