a little blue

Chick didn't make it.

Happy Easter!

There are lots of military Easter postcards, mostly printed in Germany, from the early part of 1900's. Here's a fine example. Nuts!

Found this chick late this afternoon. Notice its stub beak, (is it called the eye tooth?), used to break out of the egg. The whole phenomenon of eggs hatching is so amazing.

Unfortunately one of the moms is psychotic, so I've had to move this chick to the laundry room, with a heat lamp and stuffed animal chick for company in a cardboard box. Unidentified psychomom was pecking away at the baby. eek, it happens. (cause of last chick's demise.)

I'm guessing it was Pirate, the one eyed hen, because we always wondered if she lost a part of her brain when she lost her eye.

I moved the parakeets into the laundry room too, so chick can hear their melodic sounds. Here's hoping chick survives. Chickens live a pretty brutal life, let's face it. And don't even talk about turkeys... (or maybe I will.)

Come ON chickens!

Our silkie chicken hens have been sitting on 13 eggs for three weeks, so it should be time for some chicks to show their cute faces. We had one early hatch that didn't survive. These gals have been so dedicated to warming the eggs. It would be a shame if none hatched. There were two roosters to provide the essential brew. But these chickens are so inbred now, they're almost like that song, "I'm my own Grandpa."

Video video everywhere

Suddenly there are so many opportunities to post your video. I'm just testing brightcove.com. It's not clear to me whether you'll see an ad when you look at this, and honestly I wouldn't even want to look at this myself, but I just wanted to test the code and playback.

I've seen a startup that's charging money for downloads,cartoon brew films. Everyone's looking for the missing dollars, knowing how popular internet video has become. I don't have an ipod, so downloading to my ipod doesn't exactly appeal to me. I kind of like the scruffy bus station feeling of youtube. These other places are trying to grab the bucks with more dignity. Just thinking about it.

A Delightful Surprise

Have you ever received a chocolate cake out of the blue? No, of course not.

Imagine my surprise and delight this morning, when Mr. Fedex, whose name is Country, brought me a mystery box and inside was my own chocolate Easter egg cake from my new internet pal Linda D, totally unexpected, and already half eaten!

WOWOHWOW! And love those candy worms!
Thank you Linda!!!

Amidst my chocolate frenzy, I suddenly thought I should take a picture before it was all gone. If only I'd had more self control, you'd see more of the cake in this picture.

Pepper needed the emergency vet

Got a phone call last night that Pepper wouldn't get up-- the news a horse owner dreads. Dinah and I rushed out to the stable. He had a fever, was breathing heavily, wouldn't eat. Ben gave him some Banamine, which worked wonders. The vet said to hose him down because it sounded like fever. She heard sand sounds in his gut. They've been feeding him on the ground the last month, bad bad. But by morning he was okay again. This is a picture from the early days. He's now about 25.

I live in Northridge

If you don't see this, it's because you don't have a flash player.

A rock for Linda Davick

Linda Davick
has some nifty rock faces on her blog, so I had to post one of our own moss smiley face rock in Colorado.

Year after year this dear rock keeps smiling.

Driftwood Horses

Whinsey asked me to post this. I love the look in a natural setting. More pictures here.

Look out April Fools!

Got a busy weekend ahead,
with a trip to San Diego today,
back tonight, and two herding
lessons in Fillmore this weekend.

It's a dog's life, or is it a duck's life?

I've plunged into the code world of Flash CS3 regular expressions, my idea of fun.

Watch out for whoopee cushions or exaggerated statements on Sunday. Oh what the heck, have fun on Mars!

Robert Blake in cold blood

Jon ran a Cinemascope print of this movie last night. I watched it reluctantly, and was amazed.

Released in 1967, the movie's documentary style photography captures an America that seems so distant.

The artistic and intelligent story telling and acting were astonishing, reached a level which movies just don't begin to touch anymore. And for Robert Blake to be playing the slightly sympathetic nutso real life killer...

The sound track by Quincey Jones certainly helped build the mood. Which reminds me, some time I'll have to spill the strange saga of Quincey Jones, me, and the weird Bugs Bunny anti-drug rap cartoon that never got made.

Springtime in London 1983

london tree
Originally uploaded by Big Chicken.

While setting up the silly Flickr badge at the bottom of this blog, I thought this painting I did long ago in London might give you a happy spring feeling. The color is a little more subtle than this old gif shows, but the mood is about right.

Molly and I are off to another encounter with the sheep in Leona Valley. I'm attempting to blog more often, but a little voice inside keeps saying, "aah, shut up."

The inside of my computer

How dirty is your garage?
Originally uploaded by Big Chicken.

No-- wait-- the inside of my garage. Ahh, springtime, when you hope no one will think to open that door except me, and imagine spring cleaning will be done by elves.

Rooster Elle spends the nights in the cage, and Jon's friend left the two 35mm projectors. That's an extra seat from my Honda Element on the little red wagon, a dog crate that the other rooster was over nighting in, a heat lamp for those cold winter nights, and straw so Elle has a nice landing pad when he jumps out of the cage in the morning. I forget why I made the large white papier mache chicken with Egyptian necklace sitting on top of the cage. Three bicycles with flat tires complete the scene, as long as you don't turn your head.

lickin

lickin
Originally uploaded by Big Chicken.

Molly, don't you know it's tacky to lick your lips when you go to meet the sheep? We were sheepherding on Sunday, and those fuzzy young ones looked mighty tasty.

Interview with me in 1980 at Snazelle Films

(On youtube you can never choose the featured image- it's the frame half way through!)

I found this old interview with me and had it transferred, then uploaded it to youtube, source of many new friends... Can't resist including this amazing message I got from a youtuber today:

Sally,
your film Quasi at the Quackadero is tacked onto the end of a very old and mysterious video tape my father has owned since I was very small, although the opening credits are lopped off and I never knew it was yours until very recently. The tape starts out with Warner Brothers cartoons, which get weirder and weirder and then suddenly switch to your cartoon after almost an hour. After Quasi, there are a few other things such as a surreal cartoon about a mutating fly and a terrifying claymation piece about Hell, but Quasi at the Quackadero is the pinnacle of the tape. Watching it has always been a sort of ritualistic journey for me, as it progresses on and on and on from innocent Bugs Bunny cartoons to the strangest, most far-out things. The enduring of the entire tape is a mind-altering experience, to be sure. I was very excited to see you with a YouTube profile, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thankyou for providing the psychedelic climax to a bizarre and wonderful childhood ritual.
-Atticus

Keyboards of the Future

This is a keyboard that's already available, but once they start projecting that keyboard into the space in front of you, rather than on the flat, and people are typing into the air, it will be as if sign language and keyboards have merged... or maybe in the future they will.

Even though I'm 57, I like to think about the future a lot. I think humans are evolving into an insectivorous form, hive-like. I think the constant partial attention syndrome relates to that.

Linda Davick Nice Artist

Linda Davick interviewed me this week and posted the results on her attractive blog:

http://ldavick.blogspot.com/

Her site is wonderful. I put together some code last night to make the find it game more interactive.

Whale Watching

We spent Sunday on an Island Packers boat out of Ventura, whale watching. We saw a couple of humpback whales and two gray whales also. We cruised past Anacapa, and were out for a couple of hours. Last year's whale watch was disappointing, so it was great to see quite a few this year. The Channel Islands National Park is a wonderful place to visit. I've been to every island that's open to the public. There are a couple that the military keep closed. Amazing to think that pygmy mammoths once inhabited these islands.

I'm selling artwork online now

I've been doing a lot of code work, lately. I tech edited the latest Flash for Dummies book, soon to be published. My critical nature helps me with tech editing because errors just jump out at me.

After building a friend's custom jewelry site in Flash with Paypal, I decided to use what I'd learned to sell my own artwork. I have a simple art gallery
with very inexpensive pieces for sale. I'll be adding more items as free time permits. This piece is from the youtube/Sesame Street song, "Above It All."

If you're an artist who wants a simple method of selling your work online, I could build you a sales site quite readily and inexpensively.

Escalator Safety etc.

Ahh, accident-proof excalators. I'm off to visit my mother in South Jersey this weekend. I've got Whinsey back on line and I think she's working. I've been in code frenzy state this week. Off for two hikes now. Also, if you go to my youtube channel, do check out the piece "impossumble." Youtube seems to grab the image at the exact center for each video's icon, and I lost on that one, as it's an image from cnn. But the piece has more going on than that I promise.

Just a pretty swamp picture.

I'm so pleased to finally get Flash 8 to work on my blog. There was nothing difficult about it, I just didn't know exactly what code would work. This is another experiment based on code by pixelfumes It doesn't animate- in fact I had to switch out a jpeg for it due to blog complexities. But the lovely reflection and blur are created dynamically in Flash.

The artwork is from the Sesame Street song I did, "From Your Head", sung by jazz great Betty Carter. You can see it on youtube

A Flash Kaleidoscope

I found the code for this at quasimondo
and popped an image into Flash 8. Loved the results. Move your mouse over this one!

Back in the pencil and cel paint days it took me a 40 hour week to make an animated Kaleidoscope sequence. I still have the cels.

where them gators?

No trip to Florida is complete without a "Do Not Feed the Alligators" sign. What's Dinah doing at the Tramp pickup?

What was in her bikini!

We're going to Florida in the morning and I couldn't help but think back to the bikini fish that turned up in the shower, with shrieks, last time we were there.

aww poor fishie.

Molly, our mega bright German Shepherd, is now at the fancy kennel, signed up for Yappy Hour, Kindercare, Busy Bones and Agility. We signed up for guilt. Well at least we didn't choose the option to pay for someone to sleep with her in the theme cottage... (an option!) plus the web cam.


Dinah's dear horse Tia survived colic surgery two weeks ago but it was too shocking and bizarre and scary and expensive to write about. The surgeon did a great job.

Original Quasi art for sale

UPDATE Feb. 14: (relisted, url is current.)Since some of you who stumble by are "Quasi at the Quackadero" fans, I thought I'd point out that I'm selling an original watercolor sketch from the film on ebay this week. This is an idea sketch I did before I ever started animating the film.

Smiley Face Premieres at Sundance 2007

I had SO much fun designing and animating the main titles for Gregg Araki's "Smiley Face", which premiered over the weekend at Sundance Festival in Park City.

Some Days it all Falls Down

Like yesterday. ..

Did the weight of Dinah knock over the tree?
Did Molly the German Shepherd pull it over?
No, the nasty nasty winds knocked over our lovely pepper tree. The tree man said pepper trees never survive repositioning.

Then later in the day when I backwashed and rinsed the pond, I somehow got the valve stuck. When I went out in the dark last night, to put the roosters in the garage, I discovered the pond was almost entirely drained and the koi were gasping. Emergency work restored their home at least.

Then this morning got an email from the nice fellow who hosts my site saying the hard drive holding all my files was destroyed.

The chickens weren't happy about their loss of tree. Anyone want a gorgeous silkie rooster? We have one too many.

Retiring my Chat Bot

Some of you may have had conversations with my talking horse Whinsey, a chat bot I built myself over the years with a code brain consisting of regular expression in JavaScript, and a lot of php backup from various search engines.

For those who don't know, a chat bot is a character that you can talk/type to, who attempts to answer reasonably, and in my case I tried to make her funny too. I used a php script to grab an image off of google images, so the funky tv in Whinsey's barn would show an image related to what you were talking to her about, while she "spoke" (text only) her response to you.

As search engines have gotten more and more personable and astonishing, the effect of the chat bot began to seem last century, to me at least. The various chatbot contests were seeming increasingly inbred and rigged.

I did see an amazing chatbot yesterday, missdewey.com
Not sure who's claiming credit for that. If anyone can tell me how that super real flash/live action effect is accomplished, I'd love to know. It's not that she was so smart, and her answers were kind of lame, but the presentation was superb.

Today I learned my server had lost ALL my files, and though I could put Whinsey back together again, every time google or answer.com or thesaurus.com changed the layout of their pages, all my pretty php scripts ceased to work, and it seemed like a good time to retire the talking horse. She's still a continuing character in my flash animation.

Just as an aside, code freak that I am, I'd written a log script that logged everyone's conversations with Whinsey, though it never id'd them. All those logs vanished yesterday too. Probably just as well. Another reason I took the horse gal off line is I was tired of reading all the hot and dirty things people typed in. I mean, I worked hard for her to have a response to "Who was Sylvia Plath?" but most people just wanted to talk about sex with Whinsey.

ROSE BOWL 2007 we were there

Aloha all around

Christmas greetings from me and our horses Tia and Pepper, co-starring in "Hawaiian Honeymoon. " Well, why not? Actually they've just been moved to a new and awful location at their five year home in Bell Canyon Equestrian Center, and it's no walk on the beach.

I found this amazing link to the M.I.T. Drawing Project yesterday. I've installed "Stumble" on my Firefox and it pops up treats frequently when I click on it. But this is yet another step towards making animation so dynamic you won't even think of it as a process. Be sure you watch it all the way through. At first it seems like a Mr. Science demo, but it's quite astounding.

Above It All

Wow 3500 views of this Sesame Street song I did in 1989. And such nice words of praise too. If I got a dollar for every viewing I could give extravagant presents this Christmas. But then I don't own rights to the piece-- oops-- but then I got paid peanuts-- oops-- but then what is happening to copyright law these days? I never particularly liked this song, "Above It All", but it was run more than any of the others, and seems to have really struck a memory ping in the youtube audience. Some of the comments people have posted have great depth to them. Oddly, my other films are also up on youtube, and have only a fraction as many views. You can see it here.

Right now I'm doing a new animated piece for youtube. So stay tuned.

Halloween Postcards

I have a large collection of Halloween postcards from the turn of the century. I like the way they sentimentalized images of fear. I used to collect various Halloween items, but have lost the desire to collect, which is a good thing! Halloween's been a bit over taken by the Hallmark crowd these days, and the inflatables really give me the willies.

I have recently put a great number of my animations, including Sesame Street pieces, on youtube. The image quality really goes down the tubes by the time they chew on it at youtube with their video codecs, but I'm happy to circulate them. Maybe if you like them you'll buy my dvd at www.funonmars.com. Shameless Sal.

Got Work? Yes!

Shh- I'm doing animated movie titles for a very funny comedy. I'm not supposed to reveal the specifics, so don't ask! I'm doing it all myself in Flash, exporting through After Effects. Those two applications are dynamite. This is a very far out piece and the director is a delight to work with.

Nuff said. Every morning I walk Molly twice around Lake Balboa, at sunrise. The abundance of bird life is thrilling, and constantly changing. I'm headed there right now. I get up early!

Golden Boots etc.

A few weeks ago we went to the Golden Boots awards dinner. It honors motion picture Western stars and forgotten workers, with an ever shrinking list to honor. The money raised goes to the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills. People come in Western costume, if they wish. The men seem to get into dressing up for this more than women do.

I had a nice new Rockmount shirt to wear. This fellow came dressed as a sidekick, or maybe he just sloshed into the hotel lobby.

Clint Eastwood got the top award, at the end of FIVE HOURS of slow ceremony. No one told him that the top of his hair was sticking straight up like a rooster comb. Maybe he took a snooze before the dessert course. Burt Reynolds told a funny story about how cheap Clint is, then rambled on like a beatnik poet till they pulled him away from the mike.

I thought it was pretty tacky that they asked us to bow our heads and pray for God to give us more opportunities to make Western movies and tv shows. No one mentioned Brokeback Mountain. They also brought some army guy in from Iraq who proselytized about harm's way, the usual crap. The emcee should have had his speech checked at the door.

July 4 in Telluride

We spent the first part of summer in Colorado, loved the fourth of July parade in Telluride, pictured here. A lovely time with hiking and reading. Best book I read was "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry. I was so sorry when it ended-- I just loved that book.

I'm back in L.A. working on movie titles-- yay hooray. I published a children's book that my mother wrote in 1957 and my sister Carol illustrated, when she was only 16. I used www.lulu.com, and am going to try other projects there. The book, for young children, is available here . It's quite amazing how easy it's become to self-publish.

I've made a first chapter animated online

Maybe this is the sort of thing that people would enjoy getting on their cel phones, but I don't know since I don't even have one. Just a little story I got started on. It's about five megs, but on my high speed line starts playing pretty fast.

I welcome any comments on it. I used the AT&T voices because it means I've got voices, even if I'm not thrilled with level of emotion. Anyway, if you'd like to see it, it's here: http://www.funonmars.com/ajax/futuregirls.html

R.I.P. Lulu

Our beautiful Chow Lulu died unexpectedly during what we thought was a routine vet visit. She was only seven years old. It's so hard to lose a dog....

Sourdough Slim and the Cowboy Festival

We went to the final day of the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival on Sunday. It was formerly the Santa Clarita Cowboy Poetry Festival, for many years, but I guess Poetry sinks the audience-- not sure why that changed. There was actually a signifigant drop in audience size from the year before. So many gray haired guys dress up in their once a year (I'm guessing) cowboy duds for this event and look really great. Far fewer are women in theme clothes. It's held at Melody Ranch, where many Westerns over the years were filmed.

We were absolutely won over by Sourdough Slim, an eccentric vaudeville style cowboy, who created a unique persona with hints of W.C. Fields, Cliff Edwards, Frankie Marvin, and his own nice singing style and great physical comedy. http://www.sourdoughslim.com
I bought his CD, and low and behold my old buddy Robt. Armstrong plays the musical saw and Hawaiian guitar on some of the cuts. Small world.

R.I.P. Kokomo

I've been feeling gloomy since the sudden demise of my bronzed wing Pionus, Kokomo, who was about fourteen years old and had been with us since before the Northridge Earthquake. Birds don't show symptoms of illness until they are very sick, and I have no idea what went wrong.

I was his principle person all his life, but he hated me and would scream when I came in the room. I loved him anyway. He was a feather picker, and disturbing to see, as he looked as if he was headed into the oven. This picture is from the start of his feather picking days.

We had another parrot, Big Boy, who really loved me, but he's been gone four years now. He flew away, and I always have hoped he landed in a back yard where someone made him a pet. Once he was quite ill and went to the bird hospital. They told me I could come see him during visiting hours. I went for my visit and was admitted into the room. They brought Big Boy in. He looked at me, struggled with his tongue, then said, "You poor thing."

I guess we won't be getting more parrots. If we move to Colorado, it will be too cold for them. I've been having troubles with aging animals generally. My horse Pepper is not really interested in being ridden anymore, at age 23, though he still loves to run and buck if I'm not on him. And last summer dear old Luna, my first horse, went on to the big corral. So it's been tough adjusting to life without riding, which may sound quite spoiled but I really love to ride.

Reading Banned Classics

I went to visit my mother at her retirement community and had a computer free week. I really enjoyed reading an assortment of novels and non-fiction, and with my mind disconnected from the internet could really think about them.

The two classic banned books I read were "Huckleberry Finn" and "Catcher in the Rye." I'd read "Catcher in the Rye" a few times before, but somehow never "Huckleberry Finn." Of course on the scale of banned books these are such innocent low weights, but they appear on many of those stupid lists. It was just coincidental that I read them together-- I only put the connection together later.

The first third of "Huckleberry Finn" is very great, mysterious, original, and moving. I didn't expect it to be that good. Then it takes a big narrative shift with the entrance of two con artists/pitchmen, the King and the Duke, and turned into a very different book, which I didn't particularly enjoy. By the time Tom Sawyer enters near the end I was quite sick of it.

But the edition I was reading was annotated, (and also included the original illustrations), I learned he took a break from the book at just the point where the tone changes, and returned to it four years later. The magic was gone by then. Jane Smiley wrote a defense of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at the end of this edition! Wow, there's a new point of view. Actually it made me want to read the book!

"Catcher in the Rye" still kept me involved. As I first started it, it seemed so involved in a prep school vision, but then that fell away for me, part of a world described that no longer exists. There are moments when he writes things that no one else has ever written. That's how it struck me at least.

I read an awful short story in "The New Yorker" by Louise Erdrich. I remember reading an early book of hers where the descriptions were so beautiful they took my breath away, but this story had a character with a "mop" of brown hair and sensitive brown eyes. geez.

The Land of Make Believe

When I was little I had this poster on my bedroom wall. It delighted me. I could explore this world. The image is laid out in a way that makes it easy to enter and travel around, in your mind. Later in the hippie years it was sold in head shops. I was never a hippie by the way. I've learned the artist's name, Jaro Hess. It's from the 30's. I don't have a copy anymore, but maybe I'll order one.

I've been working on a new Whinsey/Anita story in flash. I'm using the IBM text to speech voices-- not quite what I'd like but by grabbing voices to use in the animation it makes me more likely to continue with the project. My old source for text to speech voices is no longer available. If I had to get a microphone etc. I would probably just not do it.

I feel sort of like Tinkerbell in the Peter Pan tv show, begging for claps to fly, asking for encouragement to continue. Actually I've received so many nice emails from total strangers who've enjoyed my animation over the years, and I think that, (plus total lack of work), is what's gotten me started on a new project.

ebay makes me SO MAD!

I've been selling on ebay for years-- postcards, horse stuff, movie memorabilia. The last year I've been selling copies of my own cartoons on dvd-rs. Since I am the copyright owner, this is legal on ebay. However, dvd-r is also a frequent format for bootlegs. Something in the ebay system punches reject and they pull my listings, considering them taboo.

I protest, they check the listing, they concede, I relist.The people who want these dvds really want them, remembering something from their crazy youth, etc. All the feedback on the dvds positive. (More than 1200 feedbacks and only one negative all that time.) Each time ebay concedes they apologize and say they've added a note to my account so the same mistake won't be made again.

Tonight I listed the dvd again and they have suspended my account. Means I cease to exist on ebay. Meanwhile I had about twenty five other auctions on-going, with bids, and they get suspended too. I know ebay will re-instate me, but meanwhile all these auctions are screwed. And ebay has no support phone number, you are totally at the mercy of their support email. In the last two months I sold more than $6000 in one thing or the other-- means nothing in the mega giant corporate world of ebay.Worst part is I really want to get re-instated. grovel grovel. groan. groan.

Soviet Sal

I was about nine or ten, it was the late fifties, Kruschev era, Sputnik, cold war. I lived in New Jersey, a Republican town, all church going families, the burbs... I was very interested in everything Russian. Really I don't know why, thinking back on it now. I kept checking out a little phonograph album from the public library to teach myself Russian, and I would play the records in my room on a kiddie record player. "Nyet Nyet Nyet" I was careful to renew the album when it was overdue. Then I decided to subscribe to "Soviet Life." It was free. It looked like LIFE magazine but was even bigger, and more color pictures. But the pictures were sort of dull, young women on tractors in giant wheat fields with bright blue skies. I got interested in other things.Then summer rolled around, and two men in suits came up on the front porch to talk to my mother. They were from the F.B.I.!!! They wanted to talk to her about ME! Little Sally, the soviet spy!!!!

There's probably a record on me somewhere in Washington!

Of course in the George Bush era of "all your information is mine" this may not seem so funny, but it still cracks me up.

Entertainment of the Future

I've been thinking a lot about entertainment of the future, where is it going? I've had so little work the last few years, but it's been that way for lots of creative people I know around L.A. We're not retired, but we might as well be. 2-D animation is another obsolete format, it seems, but maybe so is the linear narrative.

In his important book, "Understanding Media", Marshall McLuhan pointed out that break-through media formats are often predicted by earlier art movements-- his example that the color tv had antecedents in Seurat may seem far fetched, but I have always felt that the sudden beginning of independent animation in the early 70's was somehow foreshadowing an event or media form that has yet to fully take shape. Will it be on a hand held device, or perhaps a screen right in the air in front of you, or on your clothes?

R.I.P. Video artist Nam June Paik, who died this week. Many of his video installations now sit in storage rooms because the video components require spare parts that are no longer made. I find this sort of mind boggling. For years video art was regarded as the newest, the hippest, and in such a short period of time it too has become obsolete.

Happy New Year!

Thanks to everyone who bought my DVD last year. I got so many nice emails back, but none can top this one I received last week:

"Sally, I am thrilled beyond words to find this! My husband courted me in 1983 by playing Quasi at the Quackadero when I would come over. The old beta tape (copied from channel 11PBS) has long been useless/lost, but our 4 children have heard the story often. (They are now 21, 18, 16, and 13). My husband will simply explode when he opens this! "

Santa Massacre?

Santa Massacre?, originally uploaded by Big Chicken.

I drove by this house to show Dinah how overdecorated it was, but they'd turned off their blowers on the inflatables, and the front lawn looked like the scene of a crime, Santas and Polar Bears flattened all over the lawn! To tell you the truth, inflatable decorations give me the creeps anyway.

Charbucks further

On my site I have a flash version of one chapter of my Charbucks saga. It ends proclaiming that more will soon follow. However, the wonderful online source of the voices has been removed. Formerly rhetorical.com had an amazing free feature where you could type in dialog lines and get a specific voice saying it back. Their Valley girl voice was exceptionally good, and they also had a variety of foreign and American voices to choose from. They didn't have the usual Radio Shack answering machine voice quality.

However, the site is gone because it was sold to a bigger fish, I learned recently. It made it so easy to create the voice tracks to animate, and you could just drop the voices right into flash and go.

The Charbucks saga was a multi-chapter adventure I wrote and illustrated with animated gifs around 1997, just when Starbucks were starting to appear all over the place, including some pretty odd places. The story was pretty amusing but the artwork began to look awfully rough as the Flash look came to dominate internet animation.

Anyway, not that anyone's asked me, but just thought I'd report on it.

thai dinner is coming

thai dinner is coming, originally uploaded by Big Chicken.

After the peace event we waited in the car while Jon got dinner to go at a Thai restaurant. I enjoy passing time taking time lapse photos, and especially liked this one.

Peace Vigil 10/26/05

on the way to Sherman Oaks, originally uploaded by Big Chicken.

We took Molly to a peace vigil on a street corner in Sherman Oaks last night. I made the sign. People held candles inside of paper cups. There was a coffin and signs, and about sixty people. Molly almost got in a fight with another German Shepherd on the two feet of available sidewalk. So much for peace in the dog world!

Las Vegas Grand Prix

We drove to Las Vegas on Saturday Oct. 15 to see the Grand Prix of Las Vegas, an incredible international horse jumping event. You can see a full slide show of the event here. These were the most outrageous jumps I've ever seen. The Europeans handled these fences with vigor and authority. The Americans were definitely more challenged, and none made it to the jump-off, which is the final event.

After the Fire

The horses came back last night, and today I went to look at it all.

Passed a lot of fire engines leaving. You can see what a narrow way in, and the only way out, is Bell Canyon Blvd.










The fire came incredibly close to some houses.


Unfortunately there is still plenty of dry brush out there with Santa Ana winds starting up again next week.




But Molly enjoyed her first moonwalk.