I got laundry done. My gi was back to being a nice, pretty white rather than icky from the dojo’s mat and sweat. That means it once again smells awesome and makes me want to cuddle with it. Still resisting the urge to do that…

I came back home after packing the laundry into the car and thought about the gym but never made it there. I worked on the freelance project instead and finished cooking the corned beef meal I had going.

I got the food packed into lunch containers and cleaned up the kitchen before having lunch and running through the task list I had for the rig.

I sent the file off to Tre for a once over, but overall she was fine. He recommended one change. Since I had an attribute for hiding the wing geometry he suggested having the attribute hide the icons as well, so they weren’t left floating in space and confusing the animator.

I made a quick podcast for Ray to walk him through the rig. Not that he really needed it. I’m sure he’s competent enough to figure things out. But it’s nice to know what you’re getting. It also allowed Tina to see my work.

So I got that uploaded to Vimeo and sent Tre a link so he could scrub through that. I say ‘Um’ a lot. But it was the first run through, and very informal, so I wasn’t worried about it. It got the message across, and wasn’t awful while doing it. That’s a win in my book.

If I wanted to re-record it I would have had to wait until 8ish that night, which wasn’t something I wanted to do. My goal was to have the files emailed to Ray before EOB.

By the time I had the video online and had showered it was time for work. I went to the SAL lab where I finished off the change for Cyphera. Encrypto was solid as well. Tre thought the video was fine, so I packaged everything up and emailed Ray the files.

I worked on homework from there, finishing off the reading for this week. I took the quiz and got a 90 on it. I’m alright with that.

Frank ended up having to pick up his son from school, which meant I was alone in the lab for about an hour. I guess his dad normally picks him up, but he was having car issues.

I didn’t get a whole bunch of questions while I was alone, and most of them were more about the artistic quality of the renders. Nothing I couldn’t handle.

After lab I went over to FS4B to the upstairs offices to finish off my assignments for this week.

While I was setting up my computer I heard Marcus talking about a rigging issue, so I snuck over and offered my help.

He was trying to make his rig scalable. Which isn’t hard, but by default it normally breaks the rig. The trick is knowing ‘where’ it is breaking, so you can get the connections set right.

It took me a few minutes to figure it out, but we got the rig cleaned up and working perfectly, so that was a lot of fun. It’s like solving a puzzle. It makes me feel good when I’m able to figure it out.

I got the two exercises done for this week’s assignments, which only left replying to the discussion board and a Lynda.com tutorial.

We heard back from Ray before I left work.

He loved the video, and said he didn’t see anything that needed to be fixed or changed, and that he couldn’t think of anything he would wanted added. He also said that the facial deformation we were able to add was more than he had been hoping for with the models, so that was fantastic to read.

Got to love overachieving.

It was really good news for Tre and I, and we’re both doing little happy dances. Realistically we can have this wrapped up within the week. Good feels all around.

We asked about the UVs again. If they are going to change then Tre and I need to know about it since that affects our work.

Ray said that once he had the final models from us (since we had to change things) that he would create the UVs.

I told him that was fine, but once the UVs were done, Tre and I would have to go back to the rig files so the changes didn’t mess anything up. To keep the workflow lossless Ray would need to reference the rigs into his scene instead of importing. Which he said he had no problem doing.

I’m glad we talked about that issue before any animation work got started. If he had imported the files it would have been so much more of a hassle later down the road.

But yeah. Freelance is going smoothly and well. Which I’m totally ok with. : D

Once homework was done and all emails replied to I packed up so I could go to aikido. Last night was Fundamentals and Open.

My gi wasn’t done air-drying by the time I had to leave for work, so I packed yoga stuff and hoped that it would be ok to practice in civvies.

Sensei Jan is back from his trip to Canada. I guess he had to go there for work, though I’m honestly not sure what he does outside of the dojo.

It was so good to see him again. And Sensei Beata was there as well. Jan ran the fundamentals class. There was only one other student last night. I don’t remember his name, but I see him fairly often. He is going to UCF for Mathematics.

Because the class was so small it was really one on one training.

Sensei Beata taught the open class. The guy from the fundamentals class had to leave, but Richard was there, so again, it was more one on one training. I really enjoyed both classes.

Richard is another person that I see fairly often and have become comfortable with. I never knew his name because he is always referred to as Butterfly.

I asked about it last night, if there was a story to the nickname.

Sensei Jan smiled and explained that he had been teaching Richard some technique during a class when Richard was a new student and that Richard kept using muscle and trying to force the move. Jan had said that Richard needed to be more like a butterfly, and the name stuck since then.

It made me smile hearing the story because Richard is anything but a butterfly. Seriously, he reminds me of an ox. Super broad, wall like shoulders and chest of pure muscle. You couldn’t get him to budge if your life depended on it sort of stature. So thinking of him as a butterfly, all fairy like dancing around on his tippy toes is just too cute of an image not to smile at.

During the first class Sensei Jan really helped me with attacking. He said he appreciated me not wanting to hurt him. But that if I didn’t give an honest attack than there could be no aikido.

He can ‘feel’ things like me. So he could feel even when I did follow through with my attack when I was holding back or pulling the momentum back.

I can feel it in myself too. I can feel when I have that knee jerk reaction to stop my hand from contacting. I can feel the tension in my arm, restricting the flow, killing off the energy.

It’s so much different when I follow through fully with the motion. There’s so much more potential.

And when I give all of that energy into the movement Sensei Jan is able to seamlessly blend with it. I do absolutely nothing, but some how I am turned and end up on the ground.

When I don’t resist or analyze or try to control, when I just go with what feels right and natural, it’s amazing. I can feel the transition.

So yeah, that was awesome and I’m glad I was able to spend the time working directly with an instructor.

During the second class there was a lot of attacking as well. A lot of work on keeping our extension and space, and not letting the arms collapse towards the chest during the moves. It was about not being afraid to meet your attacker.

Instead of starting from static, pre-set positions, we were moving towards each other. There was momentum from the attacker, which you, again, have to blend with in order to transfer it back to the other person.

Really fun, cool stuff, that makes my brain happy.

Richard and I stayed for about an extra hour just talking with Jan and Beata. They’re pretty amazing people, and I enjoyed just chatting with them. That’s where the butterfly story came up. I also got to find out more about Jan’s introduction to aikido.

There was a card for Sensei Mike which I signed. We all want to show our support for him.

Once I left the dojo I ended up coming home and having chili for dinner.

I watched the tutorial for my class, which was only about 40 minutes long. Since it was pretty much just people talking I cross stitched more on the tiger while I listened to it.

The tutorial was about pitching projects and ideas. There was some pretty interesting things mentioned. Some of it I already knew, though it was good to hear again. All of it was well done. It was actually one of the better tutorials I’ve seen from the site.

Once that was done I showered and messaged Mother Earth for a little bit until J got home from work.

I didn’t have to take anything to fall asleep last night though my shins were still dodgy. I think it was a combination of getting so little sleep the night before and then doing two pretty solid classes.

My muscles want a break… I don’t think that’s going to happen though.

Today I think is going to be a run day.

Hear me out first though, since I know I’m still bitcing about my legs. The last thing that sounds like a good idea is running to piss them off more.

Runkeeper, an app that I use, just partnered up with ASICS, and they have some pretty awesome running schedules. So today, according to my ASICS track, I’m supposed to run a half mile. Since I’m normally between 1 to 2 miles I know the distance won’t be an issue.

The big thing is that it’s supposed to be a solid run. No intervals or stopping. That means it would be six laps around the track at the gym. The most I’ve ever done at one time is 3.

I think I’m going to go for it though. I want to do it. Even if I do three laps, walk one and then run another three, that would be a really awesome achievement for me.

Since the distance isn’t that far I want to give it a shot and round out the workout with upper body or core work. If the half mile doesn’t kill me that is…

I feel like I can do it, but we’ll have to see. Maybe I’ll chicken out once I get to the gym and go to the elliptical. Maybe a treadmill would work better than the track because it cushions the landing more. Easier on the shins and knees…

I have options, and I’m not really married to any of them. It’s just something that I’ve been kicking around this morning.

Once I actually get around to working and not being a slacker I plan on starting the second freelance file. The character’s name is Cognito, but I call him Nito for short. Since he’s neat and stuff.

Yes. I am that lame and did go there.

Since all my schoolwork is done I have more time to focus on the project. I want to have the rig done by Friday.

There’s more aikido tonight. An open class followed by weapons class. I’ll most likely be at both of them.

I was actually thinking about canceling my membership to the YMCA last night since I am spending so much time at the dojo, and not as much time at the gym.

If I’m only going to the gym once, maybe twice a week, and that’s only to run around a circle… I can’t really justify $45 for that when I like running outside more anyway.

I don’t know. But it’s something I’m thinking on.

That’s about it for now though. I’m off to attack the day.