I've been meaning to update my website for a while now. It wasn't very search engine friendly, and was not as easy to update as I had originally hoped. So after I upgraded to Adobe CS4 I decided to give the new Dreamweaver a spin.

Stop by and check it out.

Box Full of Sky

Feedback welcome.

How often does New Jersey have earthquakes? ...Not very often. So when my entire house shook last night the possibility of it being an earthquake was the last thing to cross my mind.

I was on the computer checking e-mail around 10:30 when there was a huge BOOM, and the entire house shook. ...I could feel it in the foundation. It felt, and sounded, like the blast of an explosion! My first thought - after "what the hell was that?" was that there had been an explosion at the local oil company. Their facility is a few blocks a way... but there was no glow in the sky. My next thought was that there had been an accident and a car had come up the front lawn and hit our front porch... but there was nothing there. I ran upstairs and met my wife, who'd just jumped out of the shower, and in almost unison we asked each other "what the hell was that?" I went back down stairs, grabbed my coat and went outside. What I was greeted with out there reminded me of a scene out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind: everyone in the neighborhood was outside. Some with flashlights, some in pajamas and a coat, but they were all asking each other "what had just happened," "did you feel that," "was it an explosion," "did a plane crash." People were wandering around, looking at the sky, looking down the street... And that's when I noticed that beyond the nearest intersection there were no lights on - anywhere... The power was out down there. It started to feel creepy. I went to the back of our lot and people were out there too wandering around in the dark looking for anything.

I somehow felt better knowing that so many other people had experienced it too, but the fact that the lower part of the street was without power was unsettling, and considering that even 10 minutes after the blast there were still no sirens it felt even more unnerving. I contemplated calling the police to see if they had any info on what had happened, but I decided against it. Why? I'm not sure.

I eventually went to bed, but I kept looking out the windows for another few hours to see if there was any indication of what might have happened.

This morning we were listening to the radio and we hear that we'd had a 3.0 earthquake. The epicenter was in Victory Gardens - a town a little over a mile away from our house.

No one was hurt, and the most damage seems to have been to gas lines and temporary power outages. But I have to say, that once I realized that it wasn't a man-made incident I felt humbled by nature!

This is from the today's New York Times:
A small earthquake hit central New Jersey late Monday night, according to seismologists. No one was reported to have been injured.

Residents likened the earthquake, which struck just after 10:30 p.m., to everything from “a bomb” to an underground explosion to “a thump.”

The epicenter of the quake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 3.0, was reported at Victory Gardens, although it could be felt in Rockaway, Dover and Morris Plains, according to Won-Young Kim, a seismologist for the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in Palisades, N.Y.

The communities near the earthquake’s epicenter are in Morris County, about 35 miles west of Midtown Manhattan.

While 3.0 is a rather large earthquake for the metropolitan New York region, a temblor of that magnitude is unlikely to cause any major damage, Mr. Kim said.

Read the full story here.

Newly unemployed and already the freelance work is staring to come in. ...And interestingly enough it's coming from my former employer. They may not be offering the service anymore, but it seems their clients still want it. I just got a call from my (former) immediate boss wanting to know if I was available to take on some work they just got in. Bring it on!

He spoke about the possibility of trying to get the department back in working order, and having me at the helm again. It's a tempting offer, but the commute really was a bear (add 5 hours onto an already 10 - 12 hour day) had the job been more local it wouldn't have been such a n issue, but in recent months it had really begun to show signs of wear on the family. There's also the fact that I've been getting scuttlebutt from folks who are still there about how some of those higher on the food chain who'd really lobbied to get the CG dept. in place, and to follow through with my initial proposals 2 years ago were part of the recent decision to let me go and close the dept. I realize that business is business and it's about as fair as love and war, but I can't help bet feel a slight tinge of betrayal there. So I'm not so sure I'd jump at it again... especially given my focus on getting my own studio going. But I can't burn that bridge, because who knows how things will go down the road.

In the mean time I'm more than willing to take on their needs as a freelance artist. ...Plus, working from home is always a big plus in my book.

Well, once again I find myself unemployed. Comp24's parent company was purchased and the new management decided that for the new year, and the given economic situations, it would be best to re-examine the company and trim the fat where ever necessary. ...Well, my department - the in-house CG department I'd put into place, configured, and managed - was among the "fat" that was trimmed. The new management didn't see a purpose for, or understand the benefit of offering clients renderings of products (either conceptual or existing... despite attempts to convince them otherwise). Add to this that the department's sales numbers had dropped in the last few months of the year (which is normal for end of fourth quarter) and I was let go, the department was dissolved, and the services it offered eliminated from the company's line-up.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't upset. That department was my baby. I'd seen it through from proposal to production. We'd turned out some work that I'm really proud of, and had recently started turning out a steady stream of QTVR renders. There's also the fact that I have a family and house to take care of. My freelance work had pretty much dried up in the past 8 months (largely due to clients not wanting to spend money so they cut back on requesting renders). However, despite the inherent nastiness of the situation I see this as a potentially good thing. The commute added to otherwise long days, which was becoming a serious point of stress on my family. I now have to opportunity to really focus on my family again while I re-assess and re-assert my position as a freelance artist. I am able to work from home while I look for full-time employment. ...And if I can play my cards right working from home could turn into a full-time gig. This is not to say I don't have feelers out, and haven't been probing my network of friends and colleagues, but what initially presented itself as a really bad thing could turn out to be one hell of a doorway to a better opportunity. One example of how this could really play to the positive is that a former colleague of mine and I have already discussed the possibility of opening our own studio.

...And so far my sons have really like the fact that their daddy is around more often.

I'll keep you posted.

Well, it's been several months since I last made any updates to my portfolio. This is largely because the work I do is conceptual and pre-launch. So unless it sees the light of day on a shelf, or the NDA expires I can't share it. I still have others that I need to keep under wraps, and at times I'm nearly busting at the seams by not sharing it. ...But such is the nature of my work.

I'm still working at Comp24 - the head of the in-house CG dept. And we've expanded our pipeline to now include Modo... and I gotta say that I am quickly becoming and A-1 Modo fanboy! Not only is modeling incredibly intuitive (and fun), but last week I turned out an 18"x24" 300dpi radiosity render with 3 bounces in under 2 hours on a 3GHz MacPro Dual Core. That would be unheard of in Lightwave.

So what's been going on in my life? In a word: "A Lot." ...yeah, I know - that was two words. Work has been getting extremely busy - to the point where I need to start hiring to fill my department. As it is I've been leaning on some of my friends in the CG community (nods to you Andy! ) to help out when crunch time hits and I have more in-house than I can handle. ...which seems to be more often than not these days. Not that this is a bad thing - quite the contrary. I relish being busy.

Aside from work there is the growing family. My wife and I are expecting our second son next week. Next Wednesday (June 4) to be exact. She's having a planned c-section (provided she doesn't go into labor first ). So I've been busy at home and at the office. At home I've been remodeling and prepping the baby's room. By the way... a little word of advice: if you aren't that familiar with electrical work hire some one! ...That's all I'm going to say on that one.