Magic Hour

07/11 - The summer seems to be flying by. Are the days getting shorter already? Wasn't it just yesterday that summer began?

Summers used to mean long vacations for me, where I'd go to cheer camp or work at the theater, and for the most part I'd have all the time in the world for my little projects. Now that I'm out of school and working full time in the real world, the seasons all seem to flow together seamlessly, and everything except the weather is the same from one quarter to the next.

This morning, I realized that my high school reunion will be coming up soon; it'll be ten years in 2001, so the next Homecoming game will probably be a big deal. I talked on the phone with one of my old friends just recently, and she mentioned that some of "the girls" were planning on putting on their old uniforms again for Homecoming, and would I be able to do the same?

**Sigh** I still fit my uniform, but I feel so old and out of shape. That's what makes the speed of summer flying by so hard to take. Not only is the reunion fast approaching; so is the Homecoming game, and I haven't done a thing yet to get myself ready for the body-exhausting kind of work I used to do. I'm sure I'll hurt or embarrass myself the first time I try to do a high kick or a toe-touching jump.

Ouch. What an awful thought.

06/18 - My new layout design for the fourth version of this site has been done for quite a while now, but as I still have to create new content for it, it may be a while before I can put it up.

Anyone else on the web would have had it up by now, but for some insane reason, I made a silly vow to myself at the start of all this that whenever I put up a new design for this site, I will also post completely new content with it; that is to say that none of what you read here or on the other sections (with the exception of the collaborations and maybe several of the movie reviews) will remain.

Why do I do this? Well, I did mention the word "insane", didn't I?

In any case, when the fourth version of this site is up, I'll have a completely different set of artwork in the gallery, different activities in the activity section, a new bio, different guestbook, et cetera, et cetera. I'll even have a journal in the library for once, and I typically don't even do online journals.

Ah... the things one does to increase one's audience. Pathetic, isn't it?

By the way, I saw a sneak preview of Chicken Run yesterday, and I absolutely recommend this to everyone. It's great!

06/13 - I'm flabbergasted. One of my web idols mentioned me on her site! Her name is Robin, the proprietor of Quietsiren.com, and I visit her site practically everyday to read what she has to say. Her way of looking at life is mainly what attracts me to the site, but her dragon art is amazing.

I'm so on cloud nine right now, I'm actually thinking in italics. If you haven't visited her site, go see her before she does any redesigns!

06/04 - The collaboration projects (Fugue and Jaunt) have been redesigned, and a new layout for the entire site is in the works (::tapping head::) -- something a little more colorful than the current monotone gray this time, though I'm still somewhat partial to my fireflies.

I'd actually been hoping to get more people finding my eggs before I made any changes, but I'm bursting with too many ideas to wait any longer. So here's the deal:

* The first egg can be found in the library.
* The second egg can be found in the gallery.
* The third and final egg can be found in the navigation area of the entire site.

There. Big ol' hints for everyone -- more specific ones can be found in the guestbook.

So go find them already!

05/27 - My entire life has been updated. Oh, yeah... and a few pages on the site, too.

05/06 - I'm leaving the bat cave, the studio in which I've worked for almost a year, scanning and digitally manipulating images of animals for print publishing. If there is just one thing I've learned doing the work that I've been doing, it's this:

There is more than one way to scan a cat.

Bid me good journey. The road ahead is exactly the one I've wanted to take.

04/21 - I just read an article about browser stability on Linux, and I know that my fireflies probably wreak havoc on WebTV browsers. So I've decided not to have any DHTML on my next site version--if I ever get around to working on it, that is.

Right now I'm doing some overtime on my staff job and some freelance work on a biotech e-commerce site, so it might be a while. In the meantime, I'll continue with the updates and collaboration projects. Why not leave me a note in the guestbook to let me know you were here?

04/08 - New stuff in the updates. And Sunday's my birthday. :o)

03/25 - Much happens, except recent changes on this site. Until now, of course... Awards! Awards!

The Oscars will be given out this weekend, and I have no predictions to share - regarding the Oscars, the Dow, or otherwise. But like anyone, I have my hopes and guesses. In the meantime, I continue adding to the movie reviews.

Oh, and congratulations to Brian Fernandez! He's the first to find all three eggs on this site and take credit for it. What did he get for being the first? His award was a free desktop wallpaper designed by yours truly. Thumbnail below:

Check out the "special people" page in the guestbook section and see Brian's credits. If you'd like to find the eggs too, click here for clues.

03/11 - I was lazy this month. Rather than do an entirely new piece for the Fugue March project, I delved into my archival files from school and brought my uncle back from the past.

But as I wrote in the Author's Note, I may do an additional art piece to go with it.

03/04 - I've finally posted my first Jaunt project. I decided on fiction because all of my Fugue projects are personal essays, and I needed a change.

02/25 - A little news: I was inspired and joined Jaunt. Next thing I knew, I was invited to join two more groups, Seraphine and Back Alley Idols.

I'm very excited about working with the Jaunt projects, but I'm not sure exactly how I'll fit in with Seraphine (I'm still trying to get an idea of its atmosphere). As for Back Alley Idols, the only requirement is honesty and lots of content; I'm honest and doing my best to cram my 2 megs of web space with wisps of thought, so I hope I fit that to a tee.

I noticed something about myself through all of this; I'm a sucker for flattery (so long as I believe that it's heartfelt), and I simply can't refuse an honest invitation. Out the 10 or 11 online communities I've joined so far, I proactively signed up for less than half of them (i.e. - I took the first step and signed up for them on my own because they caught my eye); as for the rest, I was pleasantly surprised and graciously invited.

02/19 - The Academy Award nominations came out Wednesday, February 15th, and I'm excited; all the movies I loved or graded well in reviews got multiple nominations: American Beauty, The Sixth Sense, The Green Mile, The Cider House Rules, The Hurricane, The Insider, etc. It's wonderful having my opinions validated!

02/08 - The phrase "magic hour" is a movie term thought to be coined by Billy Bitzer, a cinematographer who worked in the early 1900's with director D. W. Griffith. It refers to that moment on either side of sunrise or sunset, when the light is subdued... kind, gentle, and forgiving to the subjects being photographed or filmed.

I decided to adopt this phrase as a title for this version of the site and build a theme around magic, twilight, and movies.

Magic has always intrigued me; I've been a great fan of fantasy and science fiction since childhood. And although twilight actually occurs specifically after the sun has set, it seems to go hand in hand with magic; it's the time the fairies and elves are supposed to revel, and fireflies, which I've never personally seen, come out to brighten the glowing horizon with their own sparkling lights.

As for the movies... I think moviemakers have always understood the magic of their craft. They understand the nature of their surroundings and are able to recreate it for our viewing. They spin tales of fantasy out of thin air, using the tools around them to mold ideas and thoughts into something more tangible.

I can't think of anything more magical than that.

This site is dedicated to those moviemakers and to my boyfriend, who explained to me what fireflies really look like.

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