Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

This is on the presses right now…
I can't wait; it's one of my favorite designs that I've drawn…

I'll post again about it in a day or two when the run is complete.

I had a great time at RI SusCon… First a big thank you to Rachel for convincing me to go in the first place (maybe she just wanted to be rid of me for a while, it looks like she got a lot more done without me here!). Anyway, travelling, as much as I do like to do it, stresses me out a lot and I wouldn't have gone without her prodding. Thanks also to Clive who split the driving with me, and to Blandrea who also accompanied us for (half) our journey.

Big props go to Frank for putting together such a well managed event.

(That deserved it's own paragraph. Seriously, he really did a great job.)

It was really cool seeing old friends again. I'm really tired right now so I don't want to link names because I'll forget people I don't want to leave out (Ron, Allen, Mishel, Emrys, Brian, Shawn, Trash, Liz, Cere, Rebekah, Atom, Baital, Kromedome, Joy, Craig, Femgoddess69, Godaikan, Lobez, Leo, Primate, Robert, Make Yourself, Evan, Vayne, Warren, Clayman, Phil, Badur, Marty, Rachel, Mike, Grazer, Adrian, x31337x, Mr. Nobody, Code Zero, etc. etc. etc. — and I know I've just left out at least twenty names of people who I think are awesome). But there were people at RI that I have literally known for a decade (makes me want to go to RABcon… for the first time), most of whom I rarely get to see in person and one that I think I met for the first time in person. Lots of amazing beautiful suspension facilitators as well, and of course seeing people go up both for the first time and many experienced people as well is always rewarding.

I was allowed to take part in some really special things and I greatly appreciate the people involved letting me be a part of it. Thank you, I hope if you're reading this you know I'm talking to you.

It was also nice getting to see a lot of people (this was a big event) that I know from IAM, both in person and from online. It's funny — because I've been editing so many of the BBQ videos that Badur and Johnny shot, I really feel like I know a lot of people when I meet them for the first time. There were a number of people that I talked to that I know well both from IAM and from the videos that I was utterly convinced I'd met before (but they swear I haven't).

Saw some very cool procedure work as well and saw a somewhat hilarious IAM soap opera unfolding (I think with a positive conclusion). Also met some new friends for the first time which is always nice. ROP definitely draws a nice crowd of people. The vibe must have been good, because I found myself stepping into people's nervous systems accidentally and looking around… I don't know if I should feel guilty about that, but because it just kind of happened (normally I have to force it or at least control it) I figure it's not a violation of privacy any more than looking in an open door. Why should I feel guilty about reading someone's mind if they keep it open?

Oh — the RI suscon photos are going to be used to give birth to a new section on BME for ritual-type events (sort of like the tattoo convension section). I think it makes sense. I'll probably split up BME BBQs that way too from now on… So if you're sending in RI suscon pix, please make sure that I know that's what they're from if it's not obvious.

PS. Very cool stuff coming from Ron in the not too distant future. Stay tuned.

This is from Rachel's page:

Yeah, so I'm lazy and ignored the “write down” part.

My cable modem is definitely messed up in some way. I can't make my network work at all when I'm attached to it, but I can get a single machine working — sometimes. Which sort of sucks because I need to be online to register some of my media editing software… The clip below looks really blurry as a WMV file, whereas when I render it as a QT file it's gorgeous and crisp, so it would be nice to have that option…

I'm also going to try and get the “stuttering” problem sorted out on the editing box today (basically my real-time preview monitor isn't working right). If that goes I'll do a bunch more capturing — re-capturing actually, because a lot of what I captured before seems to be incomplete, as if I've deleted large segments (which I may well have quite literally done, not understanding the interface).

[Update: Avid are a pain in the ass it seems. When I bought this system, they officially supported FireWire 800 boards and drives. Now they're saying that unless your motherboard has a segmented bus, they don't support them any more. Nice. So now I may have to go replace my motherboard before I can do proper playback.]

I'm very much enjoying working with this new system. It's been a long time since I've had to really learn a new set of large skills from the ground up, and it's really fun. Plus it feels a little bit more like being an artist, which I prefer to being an engineer (no offense to any engineers that may be reading this).

Other than that I'm waiting to hear back from a killer new project involving ##### ######## and some other very big name “underground” celebrities in something that really could go interesting places. Vague enough for you? I can tell you that there are zombies involved, ninjas, and urban sports… (Totally unrelated to BME though).