Heather Dixon Wallwork's Blog, page 15

I'm a Jerk (episode 127)

Every Thursday I go to Orem to teach my cousins piano lessons.  My aunt has 9 kids (and one on the way!) and I usually get to stay long enough to have dinner and play with the kiddies.  This makes Thursdays are my favorite day of the week.  (And I really mean that, too.)
And holy mother of pearl, is it fun to mess with the minds of these kids.

Example:  last week my little cousin, Gina, said:



And I was like,







And Gina was like:






Later...










EEEEHEEEHEEEHEEEEEE!!

Nazi Darkness / Radiant Light

A post for The Creative Think Machine.


It was a Halloween topic, but I think I might have gotten a little too dark with this one.  Hard to work on.

It's inspired by a book I'm reading right now, by Jacques Lusseyran.


Jacques was one of the leaders of the French resistance during WWII.  He was born in France, in 1921.


When Jacques was 8 years old, he was coming in from the schoolyard, all rowdy with his buddies, and accidentally knocked into the corner of the teacher's desk.


Hard.

So hard, in fact, that the lenses on his glasses embedded themselves into his eyes, and rendered him blind.  He had to have his eyes removed.

But here is the strange thing: even though he was totally blind, Jacques could still see.


He saw, he said, a sort of radiance, or light.  He could see it "rising, spreading, resting on objects, giving them form, then leaving them."


He could feel this stream of light between the leaves of trees, or the auras of people, like in his parents.  He couldn't tell whether the light came from within himself, or from some unknown source, but it was there.  It coursed through him in a stream of radiance.


But this light was conditional; if he was angry, or afraid, the light withdrew, and darkness enveloped him.  If he was playing with friends and he "suddenly grew anxious to win, to be first at all costs, then all at once I could see nothing."  If he was jealous or unfriendly, the light left.

But, if he focused on being calm, and serene withing, and "approached people with confidence and thought well of them, I was rewarded with light."

When Jacques tried to tell people about this light, they didn't believe him.  So, he kept quiet.

In 1938, Jacques heard the first Nazi broadcast on Radio Vienna, and was horrified.  He could immediately see the "outer darkness" of the words that emanated from the radio.


As the months progressed and the Nazis drew nearer, Jacques realized that there were two sides in this battle, "with love on one side and hate on the other; fear one way and joy another."  So, Jacques got to work to fight the darkness he saw.

He studied the German language for two hours every day, for the next five years.


And, after the Germans invaded France, 17-year-old Jacques--who was not terribly religious, or was raised by religious parents--adopted an ascetic way of life, and began each day at 4:30 am with a soldier's prayer, praying for the strength to fight this monster of darkness.


Jacques became good enough at recognizing light that, after he formed the Volunteers of Liberty (the resistance group), he was in charge of recruitment.  It was a risky job--any member might let  slip to a Nazi soldier, and destroy the resistance overnight.  The members of the resistance would tentatively bring a friend to meet Jacques.  He would talk to the friend for a while, listening to their voice, would shake their hand, and see the light about them.  And by this he could gauge if they were trustworthy and fit for the resistance.


It's a good book so far.


One last picture:


I did this entire post on my new Windows Surface Pro.  It's like a mini cintiq and I'm not just saying that.  Two thumbs WAY up.

Mounds of Mounties

When I'm ruler of Can-mer'ca(And Florida's sunk into the sea)

When my tyranny's establishedThen I'll make just one decree:
Every Mountie in Ca-nah-dahWith their gorgie little hats 

With their gorgie little bootsiesAnd their tunics, breeches, spats

WILL BE MY SLAVES

I'll gather them like tribblesin my Mountie-catcher truck

Take them to my Mountie Mansion
(Oh those lucky duck Canucks) 
I'll have Mounties in the kitchens

I'll have Mounties in the halls

If there's Mounties at the fences 

I'll have Mounties on my walls 

They'll feed me grapes by poolsideThey'll feed me Lean Cuisine

They'll love, adore, and fear meAs their reigning Mountie Queen.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Soon, my friends.  Soon.  All I need to do is wait for the government to become completely corrupt, then I take over.  So, obviously, not long.

On a completely related note...Did you hear Bill Nye the Science Guy is on Dancing With The Stars this season??


You cannot make these things up.  I'm totally pumped.  I'm gonna watch every episode.  Even if I'm scared out of my mind about seeing him do moves like THIS


I'll be strong.  My innocence might crawl into a corner and die, but I will be strong.

Why is my innocence so small??

Violet Winner!

The time has come!  The Randomizer has spoken:

Jim my friend, email me at storyboarder@gmail.com with your address!

I like giveaways but I like coloring contests even more, so soon here we may have a coloring contest.   In the meantime, this song I discovered yesterday is AWESOME:


Ya, I think I've found my new favorite ABC's song.

Disney Infinity (& giveaway!)

You may have heard!


Disney Infinity, a game I worked on, just came out on Sunday.  You can probably find it at your neighborhood friendly Target or Walmart, or even your neighborhood unfriendly ones.  It was funner to work on than feeding a stork sugar.  
I'm actually pretty terrible at playing video games.  In fact I'm so bad I couldn't even finish a race on the Cars game.  No no...not place...finish.  I'd always end up going the wrong way and then careening off the cliff like a maligned Prognoviach.  My coworkers and I would all have a jolly good laugh and then they would tie me up and throw me in the dumpster behind the building and then they would lock all the doors and not let me back in!  Hahaha!  What scamps they are!
I was lucky enough to help with the Cars & Monsters U cinematics, & some of the Lone Ranger & Pirates boards as well.  AND if you want an insider secret...the Violet Parr action figure is by far the most powerful character in the game.  She has force field and invisibility.  This girl packs a punch.
SO!  In honor of Infinity, YOU can get the most powerful player in the game!  Cos I'm giving away Violet Parr!

 All you need to do is comment below and say "want!" and at the end of 1 week...midnight, August 27th...a winner is drawn!  The giveaway is open to anyone from anywhere, and I'll be sure to get your address after the drawing.

So you know how cool the Violet figure is...here's a top view:

 I took these pictures in my car, late at night.  I felt like a drug dealer.  Tee hee.
Great fun to work on!  I am a lucky kid ^_^

Golden Afternoon Rose

One of my favorite songs.

That flower was a BABE.

Ball Pit Anatomy

It really is a shame I'm too old for the McPlayplace.

Pool Noodle Furniture

Lots of times I have dreams that are lame.  But sometimes I have dreams that are awesome.
Last night's was awesome.
It went something like this:
 
And my mom was like:


 And I was like:







 And my mom was like:



I'm not one to let anyone tell me what to do so obviously I had some work ahead of me.


I thought it turned out really cute!!  Even better than I thought it would!


Sadly, however, it turned out to be really saggy and I couldn't sit on it without squashing it flat. 

So either I needed to lose some weight...or mom was right after all.  I hate that!

I was pretty upset about it, and I really didn't want to lose weight, so I promptly...



 ...dug a pool in my living room/kitchen area.


(Gotta be me)

When it was finished, I hosted an awesome indoor pool party for my family and friends, just to prove that pool noodles won't make a fool outta me.


 ^^awesome pool party, pictured above.
My mom had disappeared from the dream at this point, so I don't know if she was impressed with the indoor pool or not.  I'm pretty sure she would be, though.  (She's probably offscreen in this picture, freaking out over the bulldozer-sized hole in the wall.)

The BEST part of the dream, however, was that from now on I'd never have to get out of the pool to get stuff from the fridge!!!





Gosh I have great dreams!  (It took me about 30 minutes of looking at pool digging websites before I fully woke up...)  Do dreams get any better than that?

I know what you're thinking folks.  The real question you want to ask is, "Does her mom actually wear pearls and a fancy apron every day?"  The answer is YES.  She DOES.  I bet you wish you she was your mom.

Some speedpaints (you lucky, lucky thing)

I used to be pretty good at doing speedpaints, but I've kind of slacked off since I started at Disney Interactive.  Notwithstanding, here are a few to ogle.

I'll get in the groove again soon.  Keep checking in...planning to update more often!

Just half a post

I wasn't happy with the last header, so I changed it.  (I'm fickle like that.)

The




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