Jellybeans and staples.

So yea just when you think things are going well and you are getting back into a routine… Bam!  Something big happens.  For me it was a giant gall stone that formed in my gall bladder.  The pain was so bad that I had my mom drive me to the ER a week ago at 1 in the morning, and I was getting cut by noon the same day.  All in all it was an unpleasant experience and now I am lacking another useless organ. (Tonsils were gone when I was 6… I’m coming for you appendix!)  The worst of it was when they gave me morphine before knowing what was causing the pain.  They then told me later that morphine actually causes the gall bladder to contract, in essence doubling the pain instead of getting rid of it.  Also I was told the pain of a large gall stone like mine was comparable to child birth.  So considering the morphine’s pain doubling properties I like to think I had twins. :P Anywho all is well and I will be getting my staples out today and receiving the gall stone to examine, so that should be entertaining.

In other news my brother Tyson and his fiance Jessie are having a kid and went in for their ultrasound.  We are not sure of the sex yet so we are just referring to it as “The Jellybean.”  Also included is a picture of their current child Marilla.  She came to visit me before my surgery and helped me get through it just by seeing her face.  I also wanted to thank my family and friends for being there for me.  (Thanks again for the bear, Amy)  Anyway hopefully things will be back to normal soon and I can get some work done and posted.

Not as painful as it looks... just itchy.Little Harry as a small jellybean fetus.Marilla loves her new tricycle.

Triumph & tragedy

First off I would like to extend my thoughts and well wishes to the friends and family of today’s horrible events at Virginia Tech.  I am very sorry that this kind of thing continues to happen and I hope that this does not start some new trend.  Again, you are all in my thoughts.

On a lighter note, I finally have my computer up and running without any kinks.  I made some final renders of a few of my latest projects which can be found under the Models section.  I have also been working on a website for my former highschool art teacher Mr. Heaton.  I am having a lot of fun with it and I hope it turns out to be something they really enjoy.  More updates will be coming soon as I start to finish up my current projects and demo reel.

Things go splode!

My good friend Didier has had a recent obsession over these small remote controlled helicopters which can be purchased on thinkgeek.com. The first one he got had a broken tail fin and would not fly straight, so he sent it back to get another. I am not sure how the second one flew, but I knew it was not long for this world. So one night he charges this thing atop his Wacom tablet while he watches a movie downstairs. Long story short, the copter shorted out, smoke alarms went off, movies were interrupted, and his helicopter was reduced to nothing but the bubbling fiery mess seen here:

So he sends these pics into Wacom along with this letter:

The helicopter melted on the Wacom tablet.Clearly the tablet was totaled.He is lucky it did not burn down the house. :)

“Dear Wacom,

My name is Didier Donne and I am an aspiring digital artist. As so I am the proud owner of a Graphire tablet.

About a week ago I purchased a small indoor helicopter toy to fly around with. It was plugged in for charging on my desk on top of my wacom tablet. I proceeded to go downstairs to watch a movie. Halfway through the movie the fire alarm went off and my wife found the helicopter ablaze and melted halfway through my tablet.

Though I can’t use it in its present state, the tablet still works !! It’s amazing how sturdy this thing is. Congratulations on making great products ! I hope to be able to purchase a new one once I have the necessary funds.

Thank you,
Didier Donne”

He got a letter today from Wacom saying they found his story very amusing and if they ever do ads on Wacom’s durability they will use his story. But here is the awesome part; they asked for his address so they could send him a new Graphire 4 for free. I found that extremely nice of them. Way to be Wacom, you rock!