Running and Avatar review

A few months ago I ran. I was in an all out sprint down the street to catch a bus, and it didn't hurt! I was grinning and tearing up as I entered the bus, as my fear of not being able to run again lifted a bit. (see what my back looked like in January) Hopefully I confused the driver with my weeping and smiling.

I'm not 'invincible' yet, but I'm getting there! Starting to work out about twice a week on the elliptical. Bless you Larry D. Miller.

Looking forward to the ECCC, trying to punch out images while successfully (but slowly) paying off the credit card of chiropractic bills.
Our dear friend Samwise, is going to teach us D&D! As curricular as this sounds, it's great background research for what my audience at ECCC is interested in. I'm mulling over doing some D&D character illustrations.

As for Travis....he has sent in his application to University of Hawaii, and we're currently reading over application requirements for School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) and Tyler School of Art (Philadelphia).

I know family and friends keep asking us what we're going to do if/when he is accepted...frankly it's really difficult to look beyond that as his application process is so complex, and even when he has completed all of them, we won't know until March 2010 if he has been accepted. After that, it's assessing if he can take on the loans to go and transfer to a Walgreen's at given location.
For myself, I'm weary of how I would pursue my still infant career of illustration. Seattle seems so promising with Wizards of the Coast nearby, ECCC, and in general it seems like it is booming with the arts. Then again, I've been seriously at it (fantasy illustration, that is,) for just under a year. Should I have gotten results by now? If I get a lucky break at ECCC, and depending on what that would entail, we're nervous about the decisions we would have to make at that point. There are many many variables up in the air.
and I have yet to research local companies of interest to me in potential future locations.

So, so far...
Hawaii: We will ask about student housing, and will they allow a girlfriend? With regards to a job, I'm a little nervous. From talking to multiple people that have recently come from or lived in Hawaii, they're not too keen on employing a "non-islander." However, some of these accounts are from folks that didn't like living in Hawaii in the first place, which may color their view about it. Still, as I understand it the culture is different enough that I foresee it taking longer to adapt, which in turn could take longer for me to get a day job. For the pro, I have a Cornish peer that now lives there (back with her folks,) that I could ask for advice.

Boston: Our friend Chris lives there, whom we would be living with right now if he had stayed in Seattle. (he moved this last summer for a great job opportunity.) I hear (and see via craigslist) that it is stupid expensive to live there, but in turn would be eased by shared living with Chris.

Philadelphia: I hope he doesn't get into Philadelphia. It's plan C, and I haven't even looked at this location in google maps. It's east, right? har har.


So, If you've read this far, you'll be relieved that I'm going into my Avatar review now. SPOILERS WARNING! Scroll below if you've seen it or don't intend to!



















General consensus is that it was GORGEOUS with a flat storyline.

I'm going to disagree that the story was flat. It's more that this storyline has been done so many times in film. It is boring in its repetition, so it comes off flat.
What was flat, was the main character. I know he's a Marine, and after chatting with one of the friends I went to Avatar with, she reminded me of the mentality that is taught to our trained forces. He appears to have played a Marine very well, but I was left hungry for SOME kind of intense emotion besides frustration from him. Example: there was a point when he held his lovers face in his hands and said he had fallen in love (with her), and I just wasn't feeling it. When the female Navi is sitting over her dead father wailing, I felt it. Even with the crazy general with scars across his face, as cliche as his character was, I could believe his character felt emotion.

I suppose I could forget that they didn't develop the Navi tribe/clan very well, or at their level of biological technology why couldn't they fix his legs? But wtf was going on with the scientists having Navi avatars? I understand that initiated the premise of the Marine going on his journey, but it felt like a lot of back story was needed to explain how they got to the point of regularly occupying an avatar, why the Navi let them hang out with them, and wouldn't it cost the government a heaping amount to fund that project? Say, as much as they would gain by mining the resources under the Navi's home? Then again, I did go to the bathroom sometime within the first 25 min. of the film...

Of course I'm going to go see it again, as I was suddenly given free tix. Anyone that knows me, would understand that the creatures alone would leave me quite satisfied and going back for more. I'll just....pretend I don't hear that Marine numbly reading his lines.