Oh man, I can't wait for tomorrow! Flying is a pain, but then I get to be at HOME for an entire week. A bit of a breath before the storm, as it were, since the finals push will be in full swing when I get back. At any rate, if any of you are going to be in Pekin/Peoria this week, give me a call. I would love to see you.

In other news, I finally got my hands on a copy of Guitar Hero, thanks to my dear friend RJ. He wasn't all that dear before he loaned me GH, of course ;-) I had played it before, but never for any length of time, so I was never any good. I'm still not any good, but I'm having SO MUCH FUN with it. For those of you who've never seen it (I'm assuming most of the aunts, uncles, grandparents, and parents fit in this category), here is a picture:


The guitar there is the controller. So you're mimicking (poorly) the real motions of playing a guitar. Guitar Hero is to playing a real guitar what Dance Dance Revolution is to real dance: not all that close the real thing, but it resembles it enough to be entertaining anyway. Seriously, if you've never played GH, give it a try. It's hilarious. I'm hoping to be at least not terrible at it by the time Thanksgiving break is over...there's a Guitar Hero 2, you see, and I would very much like to have it.

Okay, that's all I've got for now. For serious, folks, if you're going to be around next week, give me a shout. If I don't talk to you beforehand, I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

If you're still confused about what it is we try to do in Interactive Media at USC, NPR just did an interview with a couple profs in our program. Have a look:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6484624

I don't think we watch this clip nearly enough:

::whining:: Is it Christmas yet?

Okay, two major projects this week and then school will be CALMER for yours truly. Everyone cross your fingers that the film shoot tomorrow and the machinima shoot on Sunday go well!

Oh my, what a week. Highlights:

-Midterms are over! A thousand huzzahs! This doesn't mean I'm free and clear, of course, but at least things are moving at a much more manageable pace.

-The thesis space is almost done! I have to get someone to install a cabinet, have the plumber finish installing the kitchen sink, and do some inventory, and the project will be complete. Thank goodness...I was getting very, very tired of getting up at 7:30 everyday to go let the electrician in.

-Narcolepsy! Just kidding. I have been sleeping a lot, and it's not usually my idea, but it's not like I'm falling out of my chair in class or anything. I simply have developed the ability to stay asleep well into the afternoon on days when I don't have class until evening (sleeping through multiple alarms, and sometimes even phone calls, in the process), a habit I feel I need to reverse. Perhaps a new alarm clock? Or a monkey trained to tell time and poke me when it's getting late? Ooo, that would be cool...

-New projects! A couple more student films (one all me, one as part of a crew) that I think will be very fun. Both are in the planning stages, and will be in production in the weeks ahead. We're also starting a new scripting language (Processing, if that means anything to anyone) in my survey class. As much as I dislike scripting, I'm glad to be getting back into it. We're going to be playing with Arduinos, which as I understand it, are primitive little boards with processors and a tiny bit of RAM. Not sure what we'll do with them, but I suppose that's part of the fun.

-Halloween! Oh my, Halloween. People in LA don't fuck around when it comes to celebrating Samhain in style. My friend Al and I went costume shopping yesterday afternoon, and after visiting at least 7 places (all practically out of stock of EVERYTHING) we reached the conclusion that Halloween is not to be taken lightly around here. A bunch of us piled into Al's car later that evening and drove over to a friend's place, from there to walk what I swear must've been two miles, to get to West Hollywood. For those who are not familiar with the event, Halloween in West Hollywood is huge...locals were telling me that it's typical for about 500,000 (yes, half a million) people to show up, and from what we saw, that seems about right. I have never seen so many half naked people, elaborate wigs, applications of body glitter, or fake wounds in my entire life. It was so freaking great! We were down on Santa Monica Boulevard, which was blocked off for a stretch of about ten blocks. There were stages with sound systems and DJ's about every two blocks, and tents with food and drinks (no alcohol, which was kind of surprising), and most importantly, there were people EVERYWHERE. The pictures are amazing...I will post them to my Flickr once I get them uploaded.

All right, that's all for now. I have class in twenty minutes and my hair is still wet, so I should probably get on that. Hope you all had a great Halloween, and that life in general is good.