This is Zach's personal blog. If you're looking for his movies, please click here. Otherwise, have fun!

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

The wife is away for three days on business. I'm already lonely.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

No, it's not a big bite; I can chew it just fine!

A friend of mine once said he had a pathological fear of letting people down. (Then again, maybe he said "spiders." That doesn't lead into this blog entry very well, though.) Lately, I feel like all I've done is let people down, mostly because I've over-committed myself in the World of Animation.
  • I am an animator for a project being produced by Hash, Inc. In this case I've already let them down, because I originally signed up to be an animation director, but as the project began to spiral far beyond its original parameters, and I felt more and more like I was drowning, I asked to be demoted. Now, I can't even meet my animation demands.

  • I told the cast and crew of Dracula that I would produce a spoof animation, and send them all a copy with the DVD of the play. That was in October, when the show closed. I've barely started, and frankly the thought of doing it is painful, mostly because I really, really hate the character designs I came up with. But what else can I do but work with what I have?

  • Some stupid idiot decided it would be Good Practice for me to produce a new animation each week, and for a while, it was. But the podcast is destroying any time I have for other projects, and to add insult to injury, I'm hemorrhaging viewers even as I make sure to stick to a schedule. I had nearly 800 people at one point, and now it's just over 300 (which, admittedly, is still more people than have ever read Rooster Spice on a regular basis).

  • Finally, I still have an open offer of a paying!!!! commission which is now two years old--and what have I done to further its completion? Nothing.

It's enough to make one wish for a nice cuddly arachnid.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

My sister works here. Aren't you jealous?

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Do this.

Hit this link and help NTodd reach his arbitrary goal. Now. I'm waiting...

Groan, creak, grrrumph.

I'd like to wish everyone a happy holiday. I refer, of course, to the season premiere of Dr. Who.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

And the kudos just keep a-coming.

I got an email yesterday:
I've been a fan of yours since I stumbled onto your vidcast several months ago. I kinda got behind on viewing them and just today saw Soap Opera for the first time.
Oh... my.... God! I just can't come up with enough superlatives. That is one of the most incredible and inspired works I've ever seen. You work has always at least mildly amused me, but this was PURE GREATNESS! The music, the singing, the graphics, the concept ... true creative genius!

I just hope sometime, somewhere, somehow I run into you at a tradeshow or something so I can shake your hand. You are a truly awesome creative spirit. Keep it up.
And <ESC> was just invited to the Milwaukee International Film Festival. Sometimes, things go right.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Did you know the original meaning of the word scumbag?

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

As dew in Aprille...

Spring break is next week. Ah, for the days when that meant a week at a Florida beach!

When were those days, exactly? I could never afford the trip.

Now it just means several full days spent trying to keep the little boy and girl from ripping each others' throats out.

Unbelievably, Rooster Spice will be four years old on Sunday. Celebrate as you see fit.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

La pellicola corta piccola che potrebbe.

Well, yay me. <ESC> was just invited to the SEDICICORTO International Film Festival Forlì, in Italy no less. Funny that Soap Opera wasn't, and it's actually in Italian. (Of course, the English translation is... erm... different than the actual Italian.)

I wonder when I'm going to start feeling like a one-hit wonder? But at least I'm now an INTERNATIONAL one-hit wonder!

Monday, April 03, 2006

Message received?

It's the silence that's killing me; a reply, whether good or ill, would at least be a resolution. It would also let me know whether I've caused great trouble, or (as I suspect) I'm not even a blip on a radar screen. Whatever the case, I can't do anything about it; I've worn out my welcome already, and probably eliminated any small chance of friendship there might have been.

Phonetic danger.

My folks are attempting to sell two homes at once, for reasons I won't go into, but have to do with Precarious Financial Situations. Yesterday morning, a buyer called who had fallen in love with the farmhouse in the country. My stepfather was on a plane, so my mother text-messaged him to let him know, and read the message aloud as she was writing it:

"Australian couple interested, 6 mil, offer in July or August."

My jaw hit the floor. "6 mil?!" I stammered. "I thought you guys were poor because of all this...!"

Mom looked at me blankly, and then said, "6 Mill Road. It's the address!"

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Back on the farm.

Well, here I am in Just-Outside-Of-Philadelphia, visiting my mom and stepfather, writing a blog entry on my sister's very annoying Toshiba laptop... why I even had to install Firefox before I could do anything! The horror, the horror! And if I hit "home" one more time when I mean to hit backspace, I'm going to scream. I never truly appreciated the simplicity of my PowerBook's keyboard layout until now.

Although I admit this Compose Mode thing for Blogger is pretty nice (it doesn't exist in Safari, alas).

Had great fun for April Fool's Day. I rented a car to come up here, and even though I had asked for an Economy vehicle, they gave me a free upgrade to a Cadillac (!), so I told everyone that it was my new car. Mom even added the wrinkle that K "had bought it for Zach for his birthday." No one bought it, though. If it had been a Mini Cooper I think we could have had them going.

And in other news, it's still not going away. Maybe it's time to write a song... that's always been good therapy in the past.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

I am an April fool.

It's not going away, damn it. It's not going away.