On Saturday I did the last load of laundry that I’ll need before heading back to Texas – including all those Ralph shirts I bought for my family. I spent a little more time figuring out some thesis research interview details, reading more Three Cups of Tea, and watching some Olympic cycling. The British women really aren’t messing around this year; I watched them set a new world record three consecutive times in each of their heats on the way to a gold medal in team pursuit.
Later on that evening, I went over to Sam and Mike’s apartment to watch Battle Royale, the 2000 Japanese film about a class of students dumped on a remote island and forced to kill each other as part of a government-run game. The film is heavy on satire and black humor, but it’s pretty brutal nonetheless. I can see how many folks thought The Hunger Games borrowed heavily from the premise of this film.
On Sunday I headed over to the Glendale Church of Christ to change things up a little and see what manifestation of Stone-Campbellism existed there. After worshiping in Episcopal churches all summer – most of which were cathedral-type buildings – the much plainer Glendale CofC building seemed almost spartan in comparison. Once worship started, though, I could very well have been in a small church in central Texas because the service followed a pretty standard Church of Christ ‘model.’
More importantly, though, I was warmly greeted and chatted with several people after the service. I went to lunch with James and Kristi, who came from Colorado several years ago, and had a good discussion with them about the church and its ministries in the area. We ate at Hook Burger over in the Burbank Empire Center, which reminded me of the recently-opened Grub Burger in College Station.
I did some more reading that afternoon, and remembered to tune in online for the landing of NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity. The rover was entering the atmosphere of the planet, and I listened with people all over the country and the world as NASA live-streamed the reports from the JPL in California. When Curiosity landed and touchdown was confirmed, the whoop of celebration and sheer exuberance of the NASA engineers was totally infectious. In a time when federal funding for science and space is being slashed, it’s incredible to be reminded what we’re capable of.
Today a group of Aggies (in town for SIGGRAPH) came to the studio for a tour. I walked around with the group, providing some color commentary for Michelle’s tour, and ate lunch with them before departing back to the training area to get some work done. I spent some time fixing technical issues with some of our assets and preparing everyone for my absence tomorrow (I’m headed to SIGGRAPH for the day). I learned how to use Harmony (the 2D animation software we’re primarily relying on for our short) to color one of our shots, which I finished at a totally unreasonable hour before heading home. Tomorrow I’ll brave the L.A. Convention Center at my very first SIGGRAPH Conference!
fighting in a sack 