Amber's Birthday

We all got together for dinner and to celebrate birthdays.
Ashley wanted to sit by me. Cute.

We gave Amber a Transformers Rubik's Cube...
which Becky wonders if they got the idea from my entry for the Now Playing contest on Worth 1000.

Cards Found

Parker & I went grocery shopping this morning and on a special mission to find the Transformers Top Trumps card game. Like my Dad always says, "We found the last one."

Parker was way excited.

At Wal-Mart we saw this sweet Chevy with flames.

Transformers 2 x 2

The four of us saw Transformers again today at 7pm. We had to because Parker fell asleep last night.
The kids loved it! Their favorite characters are Bumblebee, Wheelie, Skids and Mudflap.

Optimus Prime on the IMAX

The four of us saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on the IMAX tonight. It was awesome. My favorite scene was when Sideswipe sliced through Sideways. Sideswipe is also my favorite Transformer, he's a skater and a Corvette!

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen "Ancient Power" from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

New Divide Video

Linkin Park – “New Divide”

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen "Drums" from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

Friday

It's Friday.
The new desk is starting to transform into something more of my liking. Across from my desk is where Blake works. Today he was spending his day making Perfect 10 movie cards for Team Members who do a really good job.
He works with a program that claims to be like Photoshop, which is completely ridiculous. This program is recommended for kids ages 3 & up. It comes from the creators of Barney's Pixel Fun. It takes Blake a little over an hour to make one movie card. He was told it's very easy to use. It would be easier to just install Photoshop.
This image is on the wall behind Blake's computer, it's pretty funny.
For lunch Sean and I met up with Paul and Gavin at Sweet Tomatoes. Paul's still looking for a job. We told him of a place where they turn softies into real men. It's a warm, inviting place. At least it looks friendly on the outside, "Insert Warm and Friendly Tagline Here." Why work there? It's a fun and exciting atmosphere where associates are truly valued! Here's an example that's taken from a conversation between 2 of their employees, "Where's the tomato sauce?" "What do you want me to do, blow it out of my A..?" Later in the afternoon my popcorn posters arrived and they look great!
On my way to Liberty Park after work I had the joy of winding through the wonderful traffic.
It was a beautiful day. All blue sky with a few tiny clouds floating around.
I skated 8 times around the park. Eight times is a little over 11 miles. After my ride I took it easy for a few minutes to cool down.

Fun Facts about Revenge of the Fallen

Here are some fun facts about the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

>14 robots last time, 46 robots this time (ILM only)

>Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.

>If you rendered the entire movie on a modern home PC, you would have had to start the renders 16,000 years ago (when cave paintings like the Hall of Bulls were being made) to finish for this year’s premiere!

>A single imax shot in the movie (df250) would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop.

>IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!

>Devastator is as tall as a 10 story building.

Read more facts at michaelbay.com

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen "Space Moms" from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

Storm clouds

Weather was on and off bad today. I went skating Monday & Tuesday but couldn't go today. I probably wouldn't have had time anyway since I had to pick up Parker, while Emily went with Grandma to a baby shower for Becky hosted by Arlena. 

It's been rainy for about two weeks now I think. I love rain but it kind of bums me out because it hinders me from skating. So while Becky was at the shower I did laundry, the dishes
and I scooped Parker up some ice cream with sprinkles and magic shell.

TRANSFORM YOUR POPCORN

Here's the finished poster!

I sent it to print and it should be delivered Friday.

The next time you go to a Megaplex Theatre give it a try.

Pastrami Burger & Candy Popcorn

Arlena stopped by today to get some pictures taken. We met in the Director's Suite and took pictures of her pastrami burger and a big bucket of popcorn mixed with candy. 

The new plan is to sell popcorn mixed with a variety of other things like: M&Ms, Junior Mints, bits of Butterfinger, Red Vines, cotton candy, olives, fried rice or Mayan refried beans. You can also request a spray from a mist bottle for added sheen.

Sheen is also available for the pastrami burger if you like.

To promote the new candy popcorn Arlena asked if I could make a poster to tie it in with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. She wants Bumblebee to be holding the bucket of candy popcorn.
Check in tomorrow to see the poster.

20% chance of more rain

GAMER

My New Mind-Blowing, Awe-Inspiring Desk

My computer was moved over to my new desk soon after I arrived at work.

It's in the heart of HR where it needs to be shiny and wonderful looking so when potential future employees come in for interviews they immediately get that feeling of boredom and drowsiness. I have an inspiring poster of March of the Penguins that I can occasionally glance at should I start having feelings of depression.

I was first going to have the only available cubicle so that I could put up all my movie memorabilia, but someone else needed it more than me and that's what really matters. I will sacrifice my own happiness for the happiness of others. 
After work I drove to Liberty Park to skate for an hour. 
It was great and I had to take advantage of the nice day. The weekend and the beginning of next week looks like more heavy rain.

Moving to the basement or something close to it

It's done. I packed up all my stuff today and tomorrow my computer is being moved to a boring desk with no walls for any buttons. It's going to be great, like that scene in office space when they moved Milton Waddams into the basement.

Becky sent this image to me with the following statement: "Um.... yeah.... I'm gonna need you to move your cubicle to a desk over by another cubicle that is only used twice a week.  So, if you could take down all of your posters, pins, etc. and move to the communal 3 x 4 foot desk over by Kathy, that'd be great." 

HiberNol

I think I'm finally over my bronchitis. I probably could've been better a lot sooner if I had taken HiberNol.

Changes are afoot in the HR building

I still remember the day I started as the graphic artist for Megaplex Theatres like it was yesterday.

I heard about the opening while I was working in projection. I had my interview on August 27, 2004. On Monday the 30th our recruiter, Kathy Farrow, talked to Sean and said she had a few more questions for me. I went across the street and we talked for a little. My good friend, Cal, was there and he had already told Kathy some good things about me. She wanted me to come in for a second interview Thursday. 

Tuesday the 31st, I had just clocked out from Yahoo at 4:42pm when I received a call from Kathy. (I know all of this so perfectly because I keep detailed notes of almost everything.)

So, anyway, she called and asked if I could come in for a third interview. "But what about my 2nd interview on Thursday?" I asked. Kathy replied, "Just forget about that interview. We would like you to work for us as our graphic designer."

I had the job! I was crazy excited. I started on September 7, 2004.

Things were great. I worked on newspaper ads, I drew a lobster to advertise the new lobster wrap, I made a flyer for the September 30th Team Awards (which still hangs in my cubicle) and then I worked on designs for the

5 Year Anniversary Celebration, including a T-shirt which a lot of team members still wear today. 

Things were great... until Natalie quit to stay home with her kids. Then Dave came in. He was a real go-getter. He taught me how to hammer things out and give things a consistent look-and-feel and make all the pieces we worked on, POP. I remember this one piece we had to work on, Dave stole a menu from another restaurant so we could copy their design. Then this other time he showed me how to make quesadillas pop by spraying them with water, it gives the tortilla sheen, which is a little trick the professionals do. I have a huge collection of stories but I'll save those for another time.

Simply put, I've had a fun time but now I have to take down all my buttons and posters. I was told today that I'm being moved over to the HR part of the building to be closer to Jeff. After Jared was let go Jeff was moved into his office. Now with he and I on opposite sides of the building they want to move me over to where his office is. I'm not excited.

After 5 years I love my little cubicle, but everything is coming down tomorrow.

I texted Becky about how I'm being asked to give up my domain. She called me to cheer me up, which she does very well.
She sent me a photo from the Justin Timberlake Punk'd skit from Saturday Night Live. I know the skit and had to laugh.

Justin as Ashton Kutcher: My life is perfect! But sometimes the pranks aren’t. That’s when you gotta use the ole noodle. Like when we tried to punk 50 Cent. Watch Dax make him think there’s a monster in his room! 

50 Cent: [in a bedroom, walks to the bathroom, jumps back and shuts the door] Yo, I’m not going in there. There’s a vampire in the bathtub. 
[Dax comes out and 50 Cent shoots him repeatedly, finally throwing the empty gun at him] 

Justin as Ashton Kutcher: [appears, laughing] Dude that’s awesome! You didn’t know that you were gonna kill somebody. And Dax didn’t even know he was gonna get killed. It’s a double punk! 

[jumping on the bed] 
I’m awesome! I’m Ashton Kutcher. I love Justin Timberlake. 

Thank you Becky, I love you.
Take a good look at this awesome cubicle because it's the last time you're gonna see it.

Sloppy Cones and Giant Rain

The weather guy, Damon Yauney on Fox 13 News, said it's going to rain every day this week. I'm bummed because I want to go skating.

This is how it was on my way to work. The sun was barely peaking through.

I started my day at the Megaplex 20 shooting pictures for Max. He needs pictures of his new fruit crepe cones or sloppy joe cones. He wanted to shoot them upright and we tried using long sticks to accomplish this, but it didn't work.


After two failed attempts he tried adding more sticks, but those weak sticks weren't going to keep the heavy fruit filled crepe with quickly melting whipped cream standing. "Bleep! This is bleep."

"Bleep!"
He decided to just take a photo of the crepe on a plate.

After work is when the rain really came down. It came down hard...

and for a couple of minutes it was raining golf ball size snowballs.