The Floating Cat

Version 2

Andrew Green — Sat, 04 Aug 2001 07:00:00 +0000

Welcome to version 2.0 of FloatingCat.com. Not only do we have a new Floating Cat to answer your questions, but we also have newly redesigned sections with really spiffy designs. Mind you, not everything has been upgraded across the board, but you should be pleasantly be surprised with enhancements to some old favorites like the Little Yellow Guys House and Little Yellow Guys Playground. So take a gander at the new look, and let me know your thoughts by clicking on the Contact Us button on the front page.

I got married

Andrew Green — Wed, 20 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000

Ok first off, Jessica and I got married on February 2, 2002 (02/02/02). You can see some pictures and recaps from our trip to Florida at her website. Secondly, if you can go see "Donnie Darko" in theatres or on home video. I really enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I'd suggest watching the movie first, then reading the website, then watching the DVD commentary. If you read each bit of information that they give you, it really helps add value to the film.

Cheetoe's First Birthday

Andrew Green — Thu, 04 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000

Cheetoe has turned 1 year old (his birthday is April 1), so up goes a slightly updated frontpage. We've got a new picture of Cheetoe to look at, as well as removal of quite a bit of animation to speed things up. It's just a nice change of pace. I do actually have plans for new content, and everybody can keep track of my laziness now with the update counter at the bottom of the front page. It should say how long its been since I last updated the site in any way. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

Last Update

Andrew Green — Tue, 16 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000

"Contact Me" on the front page is now a Flash form versus an email link. Try it out. I also updated the front page with a better picture of Cheetoe.

Updates Page

Andrew Green — Tue, 14 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000

*whew* Jessica and I finally finished our backyard (and some frontyard) landscaping. Lots of brickwork, lots of concrete, lots of desert rock, and lots of late evenings after work. The final product is pretty amazing. I should have pictures and more details about it coming soon. In website news, I've added an update section which keeps a log of my site updates. I also built a cool little FlashMX effect with Cheetoe on that page, so be sure to take a peek. You can get to the page by clicking on the little colored box on the front page.

Neverwinter Nights

Andrew Green — Mon, 24 Jun 2002 07:00:00 +0000

So I haven't been keeping up with the updates, eh? My excuse... Neverwinter Nights That is all...

Define Floating Cat

Andrew Green — Mon, 22 Jul 2002 07:00:00 +0000

float·ing (flõ'tîng) adj. 1. To be suspended in or move through space. 2. To move from place to place, especially at random. cat (kãt) n. 1. A small carnivorous mammal (Felis catus or F. domesticus) domesticated since early times as a catcher of rats and mice and as a pet and existing in several distinctive breeds and varieties. float·ing·cat.com (flõ'tîng kãt dot cöm) website. 1. A personal website built by Andrew Green that is rarely updated.

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Andrew Green — Wed, 04 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000

(Today is my wife's birthday. You can go wish her birthday greetings yourself at her website - www.jessicagreen.com)

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Andrew Green — Thu, 31 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000

For some web nostalgia, check out my ol' Little Yellow Guys' Haunted House. So what's my excuse for not updating? I haven't felt creative, and I've been playing lots of videogames. In other news, why don't you check out my boss William's ten year plan.

Yawn

Andrew Green — Thu, 23 Jan 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Rip Van Winkle here. 83 days between updates! What craziness, that's like 1/4 of a year! Anyway, check out William's new site underconfident.com. Let's hope this iteration lasts longer than a couple of months...

New Section

Andrew Green — Sun, 09 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000

As spurred upon by the informal photography competition with my co-workers (and my wife), I've added a new section to add the new content. The preliminary competition was to take 5, unaltered photos of UFO related imagery. Check out the first batch of photos via this link. Check out Jessica's photos here.

Reflections

Andrew Green — Sun, 16 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Another week has past, and we have more results for our friendly little photo competition. Check out the revamped Photography page to see the details of the latest experiment. Links to all the participants can be found there too.

Motion

Andrew Green — Sun, 23 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Even more photos this week, this time dealing with the concept of motion. As always, the latest photographs can be found on the Photography page.

Microscopic

Andrew Green — Sun, 02 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000

This week's photos turned out amazing because of the recent weather here in Arizona. I started taking them off after a series of rain storms, and which left behind blue skies with lots of pure white clouds. Therefore the lighting was amazing and even my mundane photos turned out great. See them at the Photography page.

Vegetable Personification

Andrew Green — Sun, 09 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Fruit and vegetables pretending that they are human. Photos of them caught in the act can be found inside.

Portrait of an Adjective

Andrew Green — Sun, 16 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000

I am struggling to keep my creativity alive by pushing through with the photography projects. A little bit of rain this weekend gave me the opportunity to take this week's photos. As always check out the Photography section.

Wide Angle

Andrew Green — Sun, 23 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000

This week's topic was to try and take wider angled shots. A short trip to Tucson helped us accomplish this weeks project. Yet more photos can be found in the Photography section.

Primary Colors

Andrew Green — Sun, 30 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Still plugging away with the photography projects. This week we were to take 5 shots focusing on the colors: white, yellow, red, green, and blue. Check them out at the Photography section.

Odd Views

Andrew Green — Sat, 05 Apr 2003 07:00:00 +0000

I've gotten tired of the standard, horizontal photograph and decided it would be a good experience to try something with a skewed view. Hence the photographic concept of odd views. As always they can be found on the Photography pages.

Digital Heirloom

Andrew Green — Sat, 12 Apr 2003 07:00:00 +0000

The sheer desire to keep updating this website with weekly photos is what made me push through and take this weeks photos. I tried to take five shots dealing with "me", but without being as obvious as to the meanings of the photos. Check out my vague images at the Photography pages.

Food Photos and Shrimp Chase

Andrew Green — Sun, 20 Apr 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Two updates this week: 1 - More Photos This week's photo topic is food. Check out my latest photographs on the Photography page. 2 - New Game A brand new, hopefully entertaining Flash game is available. Check out the Floating Cat Shrimp Chase.

Solarize

Andrew Green — Sun, 27 Apr 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Still more photos this week. This time they were taken with the solarize feature of our digital camera, and most of the shots were taken in downtown Phoenix. And if you missed it last week, The Floating Cat Shrimp Chase is still available.

Showing Your Age

Andrew Green — Sun, 04 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000

After 13 weeks, I'm still taking photographs. This week's topic was on the concept of age, and to take photos of aged subjects. If you haven't tried it, the Floating Cat Shrimp Chase is waiting to waste your time.

How Sweet It Is

Andrew Green — Sat, 10 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Candy, cats, and a flower. Check out the latest photos here.

Be a Ninja

Andrew Green — Mon, 19 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000

My photos this week ended up being pretty weak in my opinion. Hopefully next week will be more fruitful.

Midnight Madness

Andrew Green — Mon, 26 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000

My photographs this week were taken after-hours at a nearby elementary school. I wonder what it would be like to drop off your kids before sunrise...

Falling

Andrew Green — Sun, 01 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Sometimes some of my projects don't turn out. The photos from this week is one of those times. Oh well.

Shadows

Andrew Green — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Still kicking in the photo taking department. This week's photos dealt with shadows, and the photographing of them.

Broken Frames

Andrew Green — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000

I still just like the look of food/product shots. Hence the majority of my photo submissions this week. Note that the last photo is of a "Dinner-plate Dahlia", and the size comparison to my left hand.

Color in B&W

Andrew Green — Mon, 23 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000

This week's photography project was the interesting concept of portraying color via black and white photos. Hopefully, the base colors of my subjects are apparent from my photos.

Action Figures

Andrew Green — Mon, 30 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000

There was no particular photo challenge, or topic this week due to my wife's surgery (she's doing well). I still felt the need to keep up with posting photos weekly. So I took 5 shots of some of my action figures. The traditional challenges will continue next week.

Corporate Identities

Andrew Green — Sun, 06 Jul 2003 07:00:00 +0000

This week Jessica and I went out driving to take shots of lit up corporate logos. Feel free to take a look at them on the photography page.

Afraid of Heights

Andrew Green — Mon, 14 Jul 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Yet another vacation helped with the weekly photo project. One trip to Las Vegas later, as well as some home-based photography, and we have some great height-concept shots.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Andrew Green — Mon, 21 Jul 2003 07:00:00 +0000

You would think in Arizona during the Summer it would be easy to take "hot photos". I must've dropped the ball cause all I got were some good shots of BBQ hot dogs.

Song Titles

Andrew Green — Mon, 28 Jul 2003 07:00:00 +0000

I've had nothing but songs from the 80's stuck in my head. So when the photography concept of Song Titles came along, I instinctively used them for inspiration.

First Person Shooter

Andrew Green — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Still kicking with the photography projects, and still trying new techniques. This time the photos were taken from the eyes of the cameraman. As a side note: I've also begun sketching and doodling every day in a little notebook as practice. So far I've kept up with it every day as well.

Varied Lighting

Andrew Green — Mon, 11 Aug 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Originally, the plan was to use different light sources for this week's photo topic. I changed my mind, and instead used 5 different versions of plain ol' daylight.

Magazine Covers

Andrew Green — Sun, 17 Aug 2003 07:00:00 +0000

More photos this week, this time photos suited for magazine covers. Enjoy.

Texture

Andrew Green — Wed, 27 Aug 2003 07:00:00 +0000

I tried to make this week's photo topic simple because both Jessica and I's weekend would be occupied with surgery. So hopefully, you'll enjoy our simple texture photos.

Circles

Andrew Green — Mon, 01 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000

This week I kinda slummed with the pictures, but my circle photos turned out ok. More importantly, its my wife's birthday this week (the 4th), so why don't you go wish her a happy birthday.

In-Camera Compositing

Andrew Green — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000

It was a struggle, but I got this week's photos (of my topic nonetheless) done. Enjoy at the usual photography location. In other news, it seems that my wife and I are pregnant (well she is...). We'll have to see how it things progress, but Jessica is about as happy as a clam at the moment :)

Negative Space

Andrew Green — Mon, 15 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Nothing like waiting to the last minute, but by Sunday evening week finally took our photos this week. This week had more pregnancy talk as well. We'll find out in a week and a half whether we have more than just one baby on the way!

Solo Color

Andrew Green — Sun, 21 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Surprisingly we're still keeping up with the weekly photos. This we we took photos that all had objects of the same color. I chose orange and my color of choice.

Hidden Household Hazards

Andrew Green — Sun, 28 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000

This week we took photos of hazards inside of our house that we need to protect our upcoming child from. Also from the looks of things, we have just a single child on the way. The fact that it isn't multiples has been less stressful.

Having Fun

Andrew Green — Sun, 05 Oct 2003 07:00:00 +0000

The cats seemed to have a blast when we let them outside this weekend. It's nice that the weather is getting nicer to boot.

Groups of Four

Andrew Green — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Since groups of four don't usually balance out the layout of compositions, I just chose whatever groups of four I came across to photograph.

Day-of-the-week Photos

Andrew Green — Sun, 19 Oct 2003 07:00:00 +0000

I felt that the exercise of taking at least one photo every day of the week would help us take more photos, more often. Hopefully this week's photos turned out okay.

Five Angles

Andrew Green — Sun, 26 Oct 2003 06:00:00 +0000

We attended our friend's Will and Kelly's wedding this weekend, so that topic this week was simple. Take five photos of the same object from different angles.

Scary Sights

Andrew Green — Sat, 01 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000

We always plan big for Halloween each year, and this year wasn't any different. So we took a bunch of photos for this week's topic.

N is for November

Andrew Green — Sun, 09 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Only with the help of a huge dictionary was I able to find enough "N" named words to take this week's photos.

Desert Wildlife

Andrew Green — Sun, 16 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000

A trip to the local Desert Botanical Gardens gave us the opportunity to take tons of photos for this week's project.

All Alone

Andrew Green — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Another day trip. This time we took photos of us "all alone" on South Mountain.

Storytelling

Andrew Green — Thu, 27 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000

I started early this week and got my storytelling photos done on Thursday. And speaking of Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving to all.

It's Shiny

Andrew Green — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000

Took some quick shots this week of shiny objects. Simple and quick.

Gift Wrapped

Andrew Green — Sun, 14 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000

I tried to make myself be creative this week... but unfortunately fell short of that goal. Oh well, Jessica's gift wrapping photos are amazing.

New Web Host

Andrew Green — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 19:00:00 +0000

Well not an important content related announcement, I've now moved the website's hosting to Dreamhost. Now I'll have the ability to use PHP and mySQL where I previously had not been able. In fact, this update was made and stored in a database.

Reach for the Sky

Andrew Green — Sun, 21 Dec 2003 19:00:00 +0000

This week the sky was the subject of our photographs. I think my photos this week turned out quite well.

Bad-but-Good Shots

Andrew Green — Sun, 28 Dec 2003 19:00:00 +0000

More photos this week, this time of sloppy photos. I personally like the cannibilistic white chocolate snowman myself. We're coming up close to one year's worth of photos. It'll be nice to hit that milestone.

Something Old; Something New

Andrew Green — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 19:00:00 +0000

This week's photos dealt with the coming of the new year, and so we were to concentrate on both new and old subjects. On a minor note, I also slightly updated my About Andy page that was out-of-date with info 2 years old.

Contrasting Colors

Andrew Green — Sun, 11 Jan 2004 19:00:00 +0000

More photos this week, we used the simple subject of contrasting colors. Some of my photos are interesting, but not terribly inspired. I've also slowly been sketching and putting down notes for a persistent flash based game. We'll see if I ever do the art and programming.

Here, Kitty Kitty!

Andrew Green — Thu, 15 Jan 2004 19:00:00 +0000

We took some quick photos this week because we need to get ready for our trip to Michigan next week. The cats were the simple subject of this week's photos.

Ice Cold

Andrew Green — Sun, 25 Jan 2004 19:00:00 +0000

We spent the past week visiting Jessica's family in Michigan. Temperatures ranged from -3 to 20 degrees. Needless to say it was cold, and made for excellent winter photos.

Simplicity

Andrew Green — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Tomorrow is my wife and I's second wedding anniversary. Feels just like yesterday that we got hitched :) This week's photos dealt with something simple: Simplicity.

Western

Andrew Green — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Well the final week of photos has been posted. This weeks topic: Western. We'll be taking a break from taking photos as we have just completed our year-long effort of photo projects.

I have a secret.... game

Andrew Green — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 19:00:00 +0000

With no weekly photos to keep the content flowing, the site has started to get stale. I had planned on adding more content, but I've been busy these past months with something that I haven't been able to talk about until now. I've been a Alpha tester for Blizzard's upcoming game World of Warcraft. Now that the Alpha NDA is listed, and the Beta has started, I can finally start talking about the game if I wanted. Needless to say, WoW has been an extremely fun time sink for the past few weeks.

April 1st

Andrew Green — Thu, 01 Apr 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Today is the third birthday of the real Floating Cat, Cheetoe. Send him well wishes via Ask the Floating Cat. On a side note, it is also little Tumbleweed's first birthday.

Atmosphere

Andrew Green — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Jessica and I started taking photos again this week. We got our topic for this week from Photo Friday. This Friday's topic is Atmosphere. I also updated the Photography section to use PHP with my database. This should allow me to present photos in different listings than just plain HTML layouts.

Discovery

Andrew Green — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Yet more photos, this time of discoveries made on Easter Sunday. Enjoy.

A good run

Andrew Green — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 19:00:00 +0000

This week we had to put the original Floating Cat, Dusty, to sleep. She was over 16 years old and spent the last couple of years living at my parent's house. She will be missed. I also took photos this week, Self Portrait. I'm not happy with the results, but at least I took them.

Go back and Ask the Floating Cat

Andrew Green — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:00:00 +0000

This week I updated Ask the Floating Cat to use a more up-to-date photo of Cheetoe. I prefer the new look, but I still need to add some small animations and design changes. Having the photo projects start on Friday and end on essentially Thursday isn't the best fit for my photography style. I prefer having a week to think of the project, with the weekend being the catch-up days if I need them. Oh well, go check out my "Junk" photos. I'm fairly happy with them.

Natural

Andrew Green — Fri, 07 May 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Lots of flower and plant photos this week for the Natural project. Nature photos are always fun to take. I also slightly updated Ask the Floating Cat this week to add animation and a better looking answer system, thanks to the advice of Jessica. Enjoy.

Play

Andrew Green — Thu, 13 May 2004 19:00:00 +0000

This week I took a single semi-decent photo for the photo project, and I hope that I will put more effort into future attempts. We'll have to see...

Parts

Andrew Green — Thu, 20 May 2004 19:00:00 +0000

I bought some little Pixelblocks from a local science store and started to create a version of my Floating Cat logo with them. The first batch of blocks didn't quite complete the project (the tail was unfinished), but with another stop to the store I was able to finish my little transparent sculpture. Surprisingly, the little blocks themselves made for good photos for this week's project, Parts.

Macro

Andrew Green — Thu, 27 May 2004 19:00:00 +0000

We went to the Riparian Institute in Gilbert last Saturday, and I again took the opportunity to take photos. I snapped a couple of Macro photos for this week's project to boot.

Lack of Photos

Andrew Green — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Well for the past two weeks I haven't taken any photos to speak of. I just haven't been in the mood and the Arizona summer heat doesn't help either. Maybe I will, and maybe I won't get back on the photography bandwagon. I haven't been totally uncreative. I did create this little parody to my friend Eric's site and logo, sonoftwins.com.

Creatures in My Head

Andrew Green — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 19:00:00 +0000

I hope you didn't come here looking from content from me. You won't find any of that here at the moment. Instead go visit Creatures in My Head. The artist, Andrew Bell, has a drawing of a different creature every day for the past few years. It actually got me to start doing daily drawings. I did 100 pages/days straight, but then grew tired of it. Regardless, as far as the Creatures go, here are some of my faves: this one this one is good oh and this one!

Spiderman 2

Andrew Green — Wed, 30 Jun 2004 19:00:00 +0000

We saw Spiderman 2 tonight. Quite an amazing movie, but not in the way I expected. As I was watching, I kept wanting to watch more about Peter Parker's story more so than Spiderman in action. The Spidey action is great, but the plot and story actually were my favorite parts of the movie. I'd recommend it if you liked the first movie or Spiderman in general.

New Art

Andrew Green — Sun, 11 Jul 2004 19:00:00 +0000

I tried to finally make a art/wallpaper design that I've had in the back of my head. It didn't turn out quite as well as I hoped, but at least it should be a good exercise. You can check out Floating Cat vs Airplane by clicking here. If you like it, please let me know. In other news, I had lunch with my High School friend Julie Cotton whom I haven't seen in a couple of years. It was nice seeing her again.

More art, possible redesign incoming

Andrew Green — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 19:00:00 +0000

For the past two weeks or so, I've been a bit down on things. Of course this almost always leads to a big desire to be creative again. Being more creative traditionally leads to more content on my site for the masses. Yay for the masses. So after grabbing a couple of new CD's for inspiration (the Amelie soundtrack and this cd), I'm ready to start working on my artistic hobbies again. I have plans for a lot more illustration, animation, and full blow stories this time. We'll see if the creative mood I'm in sticks with me long enough to actually produce something.

In design mode...

Andrew Green — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Listening to my inspirational music is sure helping with my creative mood. I have far too many ideas to implement any time in the near future. At least I'm still working on the initial designs, versus filing them away for future use. I don't quite know if I'm going to do piecemeal updates, or wait until I have a huge batch of new creations to show off a once. I think I'm leaning towards the latter. Regardless, I have a nice little movie to share with you. I found this little bit of animation off of a site I frequent, and hopefully you'll enjoy it if you haven't seen it yet. I sure do wish I could create final work like this... but I'd imagine a full animation studio is helpful for those kinds of things.

Still working

Andrew Green — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 19:00:00 +0000

I actually did a bit of work this weekend on my upcoming artistic ideas, but I want to save them up for when I "re-launch" the site. Hopefully I'll speed up with my plans and get more stuff done sooner. I did update my stagnating Photography page with some scripted pages. You can either view all the project thumbnails, or you can actually browse through all my photos. I find the latter quite useful.

Too darn busy

Andrew Green — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 19:00:00 +0000

No actual design work has been completed since my last update. I've taken some more photos (not posted), and pretty much been busy with stuff around the house. Hopefully I'll get back to work after we get back from Hawaii. By then it'll be time to break out the buggy whip to get myself in gear. In other news, Will got a new blog aptly titled - American Blogger. The logo that Eric did for him looks awesome, and hopefully he won't take this site down like he did with the last one.

Back from the Islands

Andrew Green — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Jessica and I got back from our Hawaiian vacation Monday morning. We've been slowly trying to get back into the swing of things. No more humidity, no more mosquitoes, and no more sleeping in till noon. I read the 3 books based on Halo during our trip, and so I've booted up the PC version of the game again and have been playing through it again. Once after I acheive victory yet again over the Covenant and the Flood, I'll be sure to get back to working on my artwork... maybe...

New Inspiration

Andrew Green — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 19:00:00 +0000

A while back I bookmarked a site that had a very intriguing flash game with an interesting side soundtrack. With the holiday approaching, I revisited the site and found its sister sites as well. I strongly suggest that you visit theskeletonshop.com, johnnyhollow.com, and mypetskeleton.com. All the sites are a quite dark and gothic, and not quite for the kiddies. I'd suggest if you just visit one site, visit johnnyhollow.com. They have an amazing flash based navigation with great art, haunting audio, and the best use of riddle/reward system I've seen yet. If you get stuck with the riddles, send me a line and I'll help you out.

Paper Biscuit

Andrew Green — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 19:00:00 +0000

We started working on Halloween this weekend, putting up our hand-made tombstones from last year. This year's project should be interesting to say the least. It'll take a lot of man hours to finish it. This past week I also found an illustrator who's stuff I've grown very fond of: Ronnie Del Carmen. His style is a style that I've always wished I was proficient at, and I'm determined to at least take a couple of practice swings at it. Mr. Del Carmen has a couple of self-published books out called Paper Biscuit that I'd recommend. Did I mention that he works for Pixar?

Hello-ween

Andrew Green — Sun, 24 Oct 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Seems like the past few weeks have been nothing but stuff to do at home and continuous work on our Halloween spectacular in our garage, a Haunted maze for the kiddies. We're almost done... we hope that kids will actually venture through the maze versus chickening out. We'll have to see. In other news, I finally took the time to go see Team America: World Police. It was about as funny as your standard South Park, but not quite great. The theme songs on the other hand were awesome, especially the main one, have been stuck in my head all weekend.

Rusted Halo - A Novel in 30 days

Andrew Green — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Well Halloween was a blast. We should have pictures and video to share of our Halloween maze in the coming days. I definitely scared a whole lot of kids and their parents. Stay tuned. Today I started out on writing my novel. The goal is to complete a 50,000 word novel by the end of November. This idea comes via Will and is part of the NaNoWriMo competition that happens every November. My novel Rusted Halo is about the life of a bitter old warrior. I'm happy with the 3300+ words I've written so far. I just hope people actually get around to reading it.

Writing like crazy

Andrew Green — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 19:00:00 +0000

I broke the 12,000 word count this Sunday. I'm really starting to like the story I'm writing, and looking forward to the next batch of content that's coming up. The next chapter is going to be a turning point for the protagonist, and is something I've been planning since the beginning. We'll have to see if I like him after I write the chapter... In other news, I bought a old art nouveau poster for my home office. It's the standard Le Chat Noir by Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen. It makes the room look so much bigger, the ceiling is vaulted, and I can see getting more poster prints mounted along side of it in the future.

Past the halfway point

Andrew Green — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 19:00:00 +0000

As of Tuesday night, I was at 28,000+ words for my novel Rusted Halo. That is over halfway through the whole NaNoWriMo project. I'm feeling pretty good about it as a whole, and I think the detail and plot are very strong. The theme and concepts might not be appealing to everyone, but I beleive its a great read regardless. Of course with the writing, I have been neglecting my poor video games. Halo 2 goes completely unplayed, whereas Half Life 2 has only received about 10 minutes of my time. Sorry guys. I'll get to you eventually.

Past the 50,000 word mark

Andrew Green — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Here is it, like 2 AM and I have just finished posting the last bit of Rusted Halo to get me over the 50,000 word mark! The story isn't finished, it's close, but I'll be finishing it within the next two days. Amazing that this huge weight is now off of my shoulders. I'm not done yet thought, I have to write the climax yet.

Rusted Halo - First Draft Completed

Andrew Green — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Here it is 1:30 am in the morning of December 1, 2004 and I've just published the final chapter of Rusted Halo. I didn't just want to hit that magical 50k mark, but I also wanted to have a complete story. That is what I ended up with late on November 30th. Now all that is left is to edit the beast, and get a few copies of it printed. If you are interested in a print copy, please feel free to let me know.

Xmas and Video Games

Andrew Green — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 19:00:00 +0000

After finishing my novel and getting all the shopping and holiday stuff done, I've had more free time to do what I usually do: play video games. I purchased 14 (yes fourteen...) on the dreaded Black Friday. Some deals I just can't pass up, and that day was a perfect example of my weakness for "cheap" games. Been a blast playing them all: Sly Cooper, Katamari Damacy, Time Crisis 3, etc. Oh yeah, Half-Life 2 is awesome too. Go play it. And forget Happy Holiday... Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night... or something.

I gotta get the new design rolling...

Andrew Green — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:00:00 +0000

Not that anyone terribly cares, but I need to finally bite the bullet and update this darn site. Prolly the best thing for it would be a blog that would have the usual fun links and comments on news items... standard blog fodder. I'd prolly be more apt to post sketches, experiments, and photos too if I had a real blog and not this flash based update screen. I just need to hanker down and redo the front with some true blue CSS. None of this 100% Flash stuff, nor wimping out and using tables. Need to think for the future... for the kids of tomorrow... that need to ask a floating cat questions...

21" inches of digital glory

Andrew Green — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 19:00:00 +0000

On Friday, I finally received a new CRT monitor to replace my dying 19". I theoretically could have kept the 19", as it only got "wonky" for a little while after coming on, but it was driving my nuts all the same. So I broke down and bought a 21" ViewSonic G220fb. It needed to be black, and of course why not go bigger. I've never used a 21" before and I'm surprised how much bigger it is than my old one. I actually have to lean back away from the monitor in order to comfortably view it. My corner desk just barely lets this 65lb badboy fit on top of it. Will a new display lead to more work on this site? Let me ask the cat... "Sure"... Gotta trust him I guess.

Jakalope.net

Andrew Green — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 19:00:00 +0000

I found another site created by the owner of MyPetSkeleton.com. In addition to the awesome JohnnyHollow.com site, he has also created the new Jakalope.net. I wish I could build sites like these... go check em out.

Eight years on the web

Andrew Green — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 19:00:00 +0000

Today marks the 8th year that this website has been online in some shape or form. Even the very first bit of content is still online. No surprise eh? I still plan on adding a "real" blog. Too bad work, life, and especially video games get in the way. It is also too bad that you have to have regular visitors in order to want to update, and you need updates in order to have regular visitors.

March Movie Reviews

Andrew Green — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:00:00 +0000

Sin City This movie is an amazing piece of work. It's just like seeing a version of the graphic novel in motion. Recommended for anyone that digs a unique style, noir films, or just violence in general. Prolly the most violent movie I've seen in a decade. Robots The other side of the coin is this wonderful family flick. Not just for kids, the design and animation are top notch. Amazing style, with a unique look and feel. Highly recommended for anyone that likes CG and/or robots.

Enormous Omelet Sandwich

Andrew Green — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 19:00:00 +0000

Ever since I found out about the new breakfast sandwich from Burger King, I knew I'd have to try it. I always seem to try whatever new thing a fast food place comes out with. This was no exception. The Enormous Omelet Sandwich tasted like any other bacon, egg, sausage, and cheese sandwich. There was just a lot of it, a whole lot of it. It started off great, but slowly started to go south. Final verdict: meh...

Teakwoods... times 4

Andrew Green — Tue, 10 May 2005 19:00:00 +0000

Well I certainly didn't plan on eating food from a restauarant/bar called Teakwoods over the course of the past four days... but eat I did. Inauspiciously Jessica and I decided to choose Teakwoods over KFC for a quick lunch on Saturday. We enjoyed our meal, and went about our day. The food was quite good we decided that we would suggest it for Mother's Day with the immediate family. The next day after going to a Diamondbacks game, the family ended up at a different Teakwoods right next to my parent's house. Meals were liked by all. So far so good, but Monday ended up being a leftover night... leftovers from Saturday's visit to Teakwoods... And so to summarize what all occurred, I just finished a meal with the folks again at good ol' Teakwoods. *Burp*...

Videogame Violence

Andrew Green — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 19:00:00 +0000

There is a very good set of interviews regarding videogames and violence up on the site 1up.com. The two inteviewees take separate sides, with lawyer Jack Thompson saying that games are a factor while Henry Jenkins believes in the opposite. I definitely am of the thought that while games can rise someone's aggression level, the violence within a person is from something far deeper within them.

Videogame + Music Video = Excellent

Andrew Green — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:00:00 +0000

Below you will find a link to a small web-based videogame that doubles as a music video. Not only is the game quite good, but the music isn't half bad either. Enjoy. http://www.rektor.no

Basin Street Blues

Andrew Green — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 19:00:00 +0000

Today's entry is a link to another quirky animated piece with even quirkier music. Take a bit of odd sounding jazz, mix in some smooth animation made from hand-drawn art and voila, you have Basin Street Blues. The whole design scheme and French Quarter scenery make this a winner.

The Escapist

Andrew Green — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 07:00:00 +0000

I just recently came across an amazing web magazine called The Escapist. Not only is the content great, its both a web and a psuedo-print magazine all-in-one. The layout looks just as it was on paper, and is just as easy to read. Highly recommended.

NaNoWriMo 2005

Andrew Green — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 07:00:00 +0000

How long has it been since an update...? 68 days!?! Maybe I should finally publish the new main site's layout versus hesitating until it's all done. Well it'll have to wait until December at the least. Anyway, I've gone ahead and set up a new side blog for this year's NaNoWriMo challenge. This year I hope to write a happier, more uplifting story. It is still in the same universe as Rusted Halo, but a much different tone. I'm looking forward to writing it, but I don't have a solid roadmap for the plot like I did last year...

It has begun

Andrew Green — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 07:00:00 +0000

After some deliberation, I've decided to continue with NaNoWriMo. Or at least, I'll try to. I almost didn't write tonight, but with a newspaper article about the event and the fact that the word count graph is now online I decided to make a go. I decided to forego a bit of sleep so that I could get a couple of words down. Not too shabby to be starting in the middle of the night. Start reading Bag of Snow.

Bag of Snow - still in progress

Andrew Green — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 07:00:00 +0000

Against my better judgement, I'm still hanging in there with the whole NaNoWriMo thing. Why? No clue. I guess I don't want to fail... As of this post, I've finally caught up with the necessary daily word count since the start of the 'competition'. So far about 22000 words, almost half way. If you'd like, you can read the story in progress via the link below. Bag of Snow

Bag of Snow - NaNoWriMo 2005 Winner

Andrew Green — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 07:00:00 +0000

After much pain and suffering (at least it felt that way), I have met the NaNoWriMo 2005 challenge and my second novel, Bag of Snow, has reached the 50,000 word mark. Yay! It ends on a cliffhanger, so I still have at least 2 more chapters to write. Hopefully I'll get to those in the middle of December.

New Year, New Site

Andrew Green — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 22:11:02 +0000

So I've been sitting on this here design for the past year and a half it seems. Regardless of whether the subsections are done, I'm gonna post it. Was really getting tired of the only flash home page. So now I have a basic custom scripted blog, with updated sections coming soon (yeah right...). Only other part that is new content is an 'updated' About Me page. Buttons are forthcoming, but until then you can click on the link above.

Art of Carlos Gomez

Andrew Green — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 04:35:01 +0000

I'm often amazed at the sheer number of amazing artists out there on the world wide web. Seems that every other day I find the work of an artist whose work blows me away. Today is no exception and I was linked to the deviantart site of Carlos Gomez. The pic above is just one of his many works. Hopefully I'll be able to improve my skills just a bit so I can attempt pieces like this. Hopefully my upcoming Life Drawing class will help to get me back into drawing and other physical artwork.

Shabu Fondue

Andrew Green — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 05:22:13 +0000

Jessica and I went out for fondue tonight at a restuarant in Chandler called Shabu Fondue. She had been there once before with my mom and sister (I was sick that day), and so it was my first time to try out this place. For what I would assume would be a reasonable price, we got our three courses over a period of ninety minutes. We started with a cheddar cheese course that was served with cubes of bread, apple slices, and tortilla chips. The dip had a slight kick but was nice and smooth. For the entree Jessica chose chicken, while I got half shrimp and half prime rib. You boil the meats in flavored broth to meet your tastes. Add some veggies, rice, and several flavorful sauces and it was a nice middle section. We finished it all off with the chocolate course that comes with different fruit and snacks. It was definitely the course Jessica most looked forward to and it was a nice way to finish off the meal. We left full but not stuffed. We would recommend it to those looking for something a little out of the ordinary. At the very least, one should stop by for the dessert course.

First Friday and the Art of Lisa Albinger

Andrew Green — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 05:34:17 +0000

Last Friday Jessica, her boss Rod, and myself went to the art walk held in downtown Phoenix for an event called First Friday. A bunch of small, oddly designed galleries located within once-vacated buildings were set up to display the work of the local artists. Sculpture, paintings, photography: you name it. There wasn't a lot of work present, or at least not as much as you would expect from a art festival. There were a few good pieces, but for the most part there was less stuff then what I had assumed. It still was an interesting night. One of the more clever exhibits was being held in the back of a U-Haul trailer. An enterprising individual simply hung his digitally altered photographs from the rungs along the trailer's walls. He installed a large flood light, extended the hidden walkway, and he had an instant portable gallery. Quite ingenious. The other notable artist from the evening was a painter named Lisa Albinger. Her pieces are created using cotton swabs, paper towels, paint, and a lot of imagination. I heartily recommend checking out her work on her site. It is quite impressive.

Black Cherry Vanilla Coke

Andrew Green — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 03:05:26 +0000

I'm kinda a sucker for new types of non-alcoholic beverages. Strange flavors, odd sodas, and other stuff high in caffeine. Coca-cola has come out with a new flavor called Black Cherry Vanilla. I love Cherry Coke, and I don't mind the occasional Vanilla Coke. Add them both together and you get a new favorite of mine. If you get a chance, try some out. It comes in both regular and diet versions. It's very close to the Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper that was released not too long ago. Although, I do prefer this newer Coke version.

Life Drawing I

Andrew Green — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 00:58:10 +0000

Last Tuesday I went to my first class at a school within the past seven years. I'm taking Life Drawing I at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Jessica works for the Maricopa Community Colleges and so because I'm her spouse I get the opportunity to take courses fairly inexpensively. Due to my want to be able to draw the human figure, coupled with Jessica's persistence in me taking the opportunity to do so, I just recently enrolled. No real work to show for the class quite yet, as tonight is my second class. I do have the supplies though and hopefully it will be a good learning experience.

How 'bout them apples

Andrew Green — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 04:54:34 +0000

Eyes, Noses, Mouths, and Ears

Andrew Green — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:12:07 +0000

I'm continuing to trudge through Life Drawing I with little problem. The class is still enjoyable so far, even if I don't like using the charcoal too much. To the left is my latest homework assignment where I had to draw 2 sets of eyes, 2 sets of eyes and noses, 6 different mouths, and 4 different views of an ear. I guess if I had been smart enough, I would have done the work over the weekend versus staying up until midnight to finish it.

Features

Andrew Green — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 03:00:43 +0000

I've added a small navigation bar to the homepage right underneath the main logo, which currently links to the About, Features, and Archive sections. In the Features section, you'll find classic FloatingCat.com content like Ask the Floating Cat, Little Yellow Guys, Avocado: The Whole Truth, etc. If you can't find something that used to be on this site, chances are it's listed there. Future content will also be listed on this new page. As far as the rest of the site, I still have to add a galleries section, as well as an updated contact form. I want to do some more visual tweaks to the pages as well (I'm looking at you blog comment form).

4 Years of Marriage

Andrew Green — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 01:22:42 +0000

Today is the fourth anniversary of the day I married my lovely wife Jessica. We got married in a small ceremony in Florida just four short years ago. I've actually known Jessica since January 27, 1997 when we met at ASU during a computer class. We've been together ever since. It feels just like yesterday that I met her walking into that class, and I can't imagine who else I'd want to spend the rest of my life with. She truly is my soulmate and best friend.

Drawings from Live Models

Andrew Green — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 04:36:19 +0000

Tonight was the second class of my drawing course in which there was a live model. Kinda crazy if you aren't familiar with the practice, but it's amazing how helpful it is to have a nude model standing there in front of you in 3 dimensions, allowing you to take down the form much more accurately. Too bad the longest pose so far has been 20 minutes, with the average being 5. I know that it's hard to hold a single pose for a long period of time, but needless to say most of my stuff is very sketchy. I'm still proud of how quickly I can turn the gesture onto the paper though. Now if I could only start making the limbs a bit thinner than how I currently draw them. I guess I have the rest of the course to practice. Each class period from here on out should have a similar model for the entire session.

Kenny Rogers Nude?

Andrew Green — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 06:21:14 +0000

Last Thursday was my first encounter with a male model for my Life Drawing I class. Somewhat unexpected, but something that was obviously going to happen eventually. Strangely enough, this particular model brought his own props like poles, rope, etc. And add the fact that he looked very much like a current day Kenny Rogers, it was somewhat disturbing. My initial full figure drawings were somewhat poor as I slowly got into the swing of things. By the time we got to drawing close-ups of the head, my line work got significantly better. All three head shots I drew came out quite well, and the final oddly posed shot came out better than I had expected.

Need a Hand?

Andrew Green — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 06:47:54 +0000

More homework from my Life Drawing I class and therefore more body parts to draw. This assignment was to draw four different arrangements of hands. I'm getting quite happy with my line work and speed.

Step To It

Andrew Green — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 06:01:27 +0000

Class continues and so do the miscellaneous detailed drawing assignments. This session's subjects were the feet, ankles, and toes. The sketches above are the handiwork of about an hour or two worth of work.

No Model Yet Again

Andrew Green — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 06:22:01 +0000

Well this is the second class in a row of my figure drawing class, where the model failed to show up. In fact, it was the same model who was late for her first session. So we ended up doing ten minute sketches of the heads and faces of our fellow classmates for both days exercises. I of course couldn't draw my own head when I was asked to volunteer, so unfortunately that wonderful picture will be forever lost to the winds... On Thursday's class we did however have a more detailed tutorial using projected photographs. The image below is the first one I did and I'm quite proud of it. As much as I like it though, I hope that a model shows up for the next class.

Back into the groove... sorta

Andrew Green — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 06:28:03 +0000

Well we did in fact have the opportunity to draw from a model for this Tuesday's class. However, with the long period without drawing the full body, coupled with the lack of homework for the weekend, my skills were quite rusty. Each sketch I did for the night failed to meet my standards. I struggled to get the proportions, lines, and shading right on each one. The pic to the right was the best of the bunch, especially with the shading, and hopefully from Thursday on my work will be better.

More naked drawings, now with better shading!

Andrew Green — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 05:52:52 +0000

So tonight I actually made it to class on-time and awake, quite a surprise. Maybe it was the smoothie from Jamba Juice perhaps? Anyway, I think my results from tonight's class are much better than the ones from previous weeks. I conciously tried to limit what detail I was working on, so that I could focus more on the shading. In addition, I tried to kick the contrast of the shading up a notch just to see if the results looked any better. Even if it was slightly more unnatural than normal. In the final example below I think that going for darker blacks really helped to make the depth pop out a bit more, which is something I will try to do more of in the future.

Is it odd that for 2006, 99% the posts on this have had nude people in them? Perhaps, I should post more family friendly fare...

Creative Rut

Andrew Green — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 03:06:38 +0000

Work continues in my art class. It is really starting to become tedious and annoying. When I registered for this semester, I didn't quite put 2 and 2 together. At that time I didn't quite realize this was an actual college course. And since it's an actual college course, that meant there was homework. It wasn't going to be a simple "crafts" class like I mistakingly assumed. *Sigh* So all these late nights spent completing homework are starting to become a bother. The class has been slightly tainted from all this evening effort, and it's beginning to lose its appeal. Images listed in this post are from March 7, and I've just now got around to publishing them. There are a few other images I haven't catalogued since the ones above were done, and I don't quite feel in the mood to photograph them right now. Looking back at them, I'm rather unimpressed with the work to boot. The only thing that might help reinvigorate this blog (which is turning into an art/sketch blog), is my possible attempts at Illustration Friday projects. Just like Photo Friday, and the photograph project Jessica and I spent over year on, this is a similar concept but deals with topical illustrations. We'll have to see if I actually gather the will to try my hand at them.

Ultraviolet

Andrew Green — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 06:57:55 +0000

Jessica and I went out tonite to see some movies. I went to see 'Ultraviolet' (guy flick) and she saw 'Failure to Launch' (chick flick). Seeing separate movies, while lonely, worked out well. Ultraviolet comes from the guy who wrote and directed another cult action movie called Equilibrium. This one was along the same lines with a little less story, cheaper effects, but a whole lot more action. It's a fun ride starring Milla Jovovich in what can be described as live action anime or japanimation. From the story, style, and pacing its exactly like an anime. Not totally recommendable to be seen on the big screen, I would definitely recommend as an above average rental when it comes to DVD.

Back to Class

Andrew Green — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 06:40:17 +0000

Well my short "break" from going to class comes to an abrupt end tomorrow evening. Much to my disdain, I'll be going back to my life drawing class. I have already gotten back into doing the homework, as seen in the picture below. I'm happy with how this portion of the assignment turned out (mostly due to the shading), but I hate how the first awkward sketch got put down. I pretty much gave up trying to fix it to my liking and just finished what I had. Kinda sad how I'm already tired of this class (mostly due to the homework), and I'm arguing with myself as to whether I should take another class next semester in the Fall. If I do decide to take another course, it will probably be another art related class like painting or some other physical form of art.

Another drawing and a note about Flash and IE 6

Andrew Green — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 05:49:46 +0000

Looks like I might actually be able to start working with other sketching medium other than charcoal. Charcoal is great, but I cannot place down clean or thin lines for the life of me. Supposedly next week we are going to be using regular graphic pencils, white chalk, and other non-charcoal medium. Honestly, it will be a nice change. In other news, apparently a recent auto update for Internet Explorer for Windows causes an odd "error" when a web page tries to load a flash movie using the old embed and object tags. Users get a message stating "click to activate and use this control". Now after the patch, unless you are using a different way of placing it on your page, users will have to click inside of the flash window (actually an ActiveX control) in order for the movie to start playing, or even do anything for that matter. The first frame appears and simply stays there until the flash is clicked or focused. Quite annoying and it's all due to a plug-in patent lawsuit that Microsoft lost. My bits of flash should not have this problem as I use a javascript file called FlashObject in order to include any flash movies in my page. You can learn more about the freely available code by visiting the script's website.

Raw Fish

Andrew Green — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 06:50:21 +0000

Well tonight contained a first: I ate sushi. Jessica, myself, and her coworker April's family met up at a restaurant called Ra Sushi in Ahwatukee. With an intent to be adventurous, I ordered the base Sushi Combo. The others ordered specific single pieces along with some saki and japanese beer. Ra's sushi combo platter primarily included the prerequisite California rolls. It also had single pieces of Tuna ("Maguro"), Salmon ("Sake"), Whitefish, Yellowtail ("Hamachi"), Shrimp ("Ebi"), and Sweet Egg ("Tamago"). In addition to this range of odd tastes, I also tried their Cucumber Roll, a Lobster Roll, as well as the Fresh Water Eel ("Unagi", and the best of them all). The experience was interesting to say the least, and I can still feel that first piece of Nigiri between my fingers just as if I were eating it now. The taste of sushi is definitely not something I would call great, but I wouldn't be against going out again for another adventure with the raw and semi-raw fish. I probably would stick to Ahi (tuna) in most cases however. After the meal, Jessica and I headed to see the movie "V for Vendetta" that was playing next door. I can't recommend the flick enough, as it was probably the best movie I've seen in the last few months.

Creative Spurt?

Andrew Green — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 06:58:05 +0000

For most of last Thursday's Life Drawing class, I was unhappy about being there and it showed in my work. The drawings were out of proportion, shading was horrible, and the outlines were crude. Overall I was disappointed with the work. So towards the very end of the class, I decided to switch things up. I chose to focus on only a portion of the model's body and not the entire figure. With this change, my drawing skills u-turned. I was able to better capture the model's proportions and the smaller details. I was also able to add more distinct shading and the sketches turned out better than anything else from that evening. In fact as it turned out, these last two pieces ended up being some of my favorites from the past few weeks.

Kenny Roger's Knee

Andrew Green — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 05:16:24 +0000

The drawings I've continue to crank out are pleasing me more and more as time goes on. I think I've found a sketching style that I'm satisfied with. I'm also trying to change up my line style with more variance in my lines. Often I don't outline the lighter edges in pieces like the ones to the right. In addition I'm not worrying about drawing the whole figure. I've been focusing on muscle groups and more detailed shading. Tonight's class contained the return of Kenny Rogers. I had an easier time with his more "squarish" features, and I even completed my favorite sketch to date for the class. Behold, Kenny Roger's Knee!

Drawing on Black

Andrew Green — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 05:33:53 +0000

We started using non-charcoal materials this week. We briefly used graphite pencils on Tuesday, and today we used white pencils on black canson paper. The images from this post are from today's excercises. It has been a nice change of pace, and I like the results. The "She Hulk" one is interesting with the green pastels as a base, but I'm not a fan of the blending I used. But it is definitely something to look at. My favorite is the close-up below.

Corn Dog Air Freshener

Andrew Green — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 06:54:46 +0000

Well, it seems I've neglected this blog with all the things that have been going on recently. Amazing how one can get too busy to keep up one's journal. I'll try to do a quick recap and then finish off with something spectacular. I'm still going to the Life Drawing class and my pictures have begun to improve. We are in the final weeks and recently I've been fooling around with graphite pencils. With them I've been able to get finer details and play around with linear shading. I have taken pictures of the pieces, but honestly they were from the past few weeks and I'm too lazy, so I probably won't post them. Last Friday, my team from work visited Google Headquarters. It was my second trip to the idyllic location, and the experience was great. Recaps from my co-workers can be found here and here. Right after arriving back home from the Californian pilgrimage, Jessica and I headed off to Las Vegas for just over a day. We stayed at Treasure Island (now known as just 'ti') and caught another Cirque Du Soleil show. I finally was able to see the original "Cirque in Vegas" show, Mystere. I honestly found it to be one of the weaker shows of the few I've seen. Awesome giant inflatable snail though. And to conclude, what sparked my desire to post was the image that I came across to the left. Quite amazing isn't it? I can't believe there really is a Corn Dog Air Freshener. I can't imagine what other great stuff is available from Archie McPhee's. Oh wait, yes I can.

Childhood Fear

Andrew Green — Tue, 02 May 2006 03:33:56 +0000

I watched a lot of PBS growing up. Mister Roger's Neighborhood, 3-2-1 Contact, and of course Sesame Street. For the most part, I loved Sesame Street. Grover, Big Bird, even Oscar the Grouch were entertaining and interesting. Unfortunately, there was always one skit that scared the crap outta me: those blue and pink Sesame Street aliens. Their wacky mouth movements, voices, and special effects would force me to turn away. But now thanks to the popularity of YouTube, I can watch those little bits with no fear at all. Quite funny to see them in this new light, even if they are still a bit scary. Yip yip yip yip uh huh...

Digital Artist's Dream

Andrew Green — Thu, 04 May 2006 03:25:43 +0000

I first began using a digital pen tablet back when I originally made this site with my family's Macintosh. Almost 99% of the Little Yellow Guy's art was done in Dabbler, using my old school Wacom pad. I think it was almost 5 x 4 inches if I remember correctly. Tiny, but quite useful. Shortly after getting my own Windows PC, I bought another cheap Wacom pad to replace the Macintosh one I could no longer use. The Graphire 2 tablet I currently own works admirably, but it doesn't seem anywhere near as smooth or accurate as my old serial pad. It's imperfections are a big reason why I don't do much digital art anymore. I've always liked the thought of using a tablet type system, and on several occasions I debated as to whether I should break down an buy a Tablet PC. For one reason or another, I've put the thought into the back of my mind. And now comes along the tablet above all other tablets: the Wacom Cintiq. I had seen advertisements for these before, but the sticker shock has always scared me away. I thought owning one, let alone using one, was a pipe dream. But recently I saw a live video of one of them in action, and now I'm in complete and utter awe. The video must really be seen. The tablet is so much larger than what I thought it was going to be. It must be amazing to even be within it's gigantic presence. Of course, it's still like a million dollars (about $3000 to be exact). But hey, I could always lease one right?

Bitey, Littlefoot, and the YuYu

Andrew Green — Wed, 17 May 2006 06:00:28 +0000

I am often amazed at what someone is able to do with Macromedia Flash. Whether it's a great visualization, smooth animation, or just great design I'm usually impressed. Well I've been following the work of Adam Phillips since his first or second Flash animation. He is truly a master at what he does, and I can only strive to have work that somewhat mimics his. His skill with effects animation is unparalleled. Recently, his next animated short was released and it's his best ever. The YuYu continues the story of Brackenwood and its main character Bitey. If you haven't seen these pieces yet, you really owe yourself to sit down and watch them. This latest one is actually split into two films. So here is the first part (Littlefoot), and here is the second (The YuYu). While you are at the site, I recommend watching the other films Bitey of Brackenwood and Prowlies at the River.

What I've been up to

Andrew Green — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 04:31:39 +0000

Hello there. Can you still see this site through the remaining cobwebs? It's been a while since my last post, so I had to evict the resident spiders who moved in this past May. I'm sure they'll be back soon enough... As far as updates, it's not like there wasn't anything that has happened this past month. Instead it was almost like there was too much information to post... and then I'm lazy. So here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to:

Went to Mexico for the first time
Casually and cautiously strolled the streets of Los Abogados
Ate in Mexico with Jessica and an old friend
Purchased and consumed the south-of-the-border delicacy called Pepsi Gold
Walked on the bare asphalt on a new stretch of freeway (the extended Loop 202) a little over a mile from my house
Went to California with Jessica, my mother, and her friend Barbara
Visited the Getty Villa in Malibu, CA
Visited the Santa Monica Pier
Visited the Getty Center in Los Angeles, CA
Visited the steps in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Drank a beverage called Love Potion No 69
Felt no ill effects from said beverage
Although I did enjoy the taste immensely
Celebrated five years of employment at my current job
Got a decent raise because of my work this past year
Finally added Previous and Next buttons to the individual post pages (mostly for my own sake)
Sat on my rear for the gaps in between everything else

See, I did a lot of stuff. I wasn't completely useless. Anyway, the family and I are heading on a whirlwind tour of the British Isles in the coming weeks. I should have more to write about then.

The Blobber: The T-Shirt?

Andrew Green — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 06:08:56 +0000

For folks that know me, it's pretty apparent that I'm addicted to the fine quality t-shirts provided by Threadless.com. My closet has a cornucopia of rainbow colored shirts which are decorated with imagery and phrases that I only seem to find interesting. It's a simple pleasure that makes casual Fridays all the more enjoyable... at least for me. So I've debated submitting my own designs for their competitions before, but I never got around to it. Their current catalog is driven by user-created submissions that are voted on by the users themselves. Popular items get a higher ranking and might possibly be turned into real live shirts. Enter the logo for the Blobber. The Blobber used to be the mascot for a short lived web site put together by my coworkers, which resided at oddly enough theblobber.com. The site no longer exists, and the Blobber is no more. The basis for the site were a bunch of silly eating competitions we dreamed up, and we've since outgrown that. Pics from its humorous history can be found in my boss' Flickr albums if you are interested. Our motto was: "Masticating for your pleasure". I'm quite proud of the Illustrator work I did on this piece oh so long ago. I still feel it holds up, and so I figured I'd submit it to the latest Threadless competition just for the heck of it. The original had a much larger, softer color palette; but I was required to reduce the unique color amount to 4 because of the rules for the competition. Two different variants of the original can be found here on white and here on black (my fave). It still has to be approved in order to be voted on, but as soon as it is (prolly when I'm travelling abroad oddly enough), I'll be whoring for votes left and right from whomever I know. If I can, I'll post again when voting becomes available. At such time, I'd really appreciate a vote or two. Feel free to be honest with your opinion, but think of the possibility of wearing such a magnificant shirt for your casual Friday...

The Blobber Voting Now Open

Andrew Green — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:18:00 +0000

Well that was fast. The Blobber T-Shirt detailed in my previous post is now available to be voted upon. Vote People, Vote!

C'mon people, vote on this thing. Let your friends know about it too!

The Blobber Voting Now Closed

Andrew Green — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 05:26:13 +0000

Well, just as quickly as it was posted and approved, the masses have spoken and they do not want a Blobber t-shirt. The average score over 700+ votes was 1.6 out of 5. That automatically removes it from the voting area, essentially knocking it out of the competition. Oh well, maybe another design later on would garner more votes.

Pillow Monsters

Andrew Green — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 04:22:44 +0000

Well yesterday the family arrived back home from a whirlwind tour of the British Isles. I might have a recap up of what we all saw, but then again I might just let Jessica explain all the details. More importantly, I must share with you a video starring little pillow monsters. It's a music video on YouTube for the song "One Man Wrecking Machine" by Guster. The animation is quite good, and quirky enough to stand out.

Now with RSS

Andrew Green — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 02:26:13 +0000

Well mostly for my own use, and just so I could research it a bit more, I've added an RSS feed to this site. Since FloatingCat.com runs off of its own blogging software written by yours truly, there wasn't a default "Add RSS" option for my site's posts. So I spent today adding a bit of code that generates a correct RSS 2.0 feed. Available from both FeedBurner and directly off of this site, the RSS feed can be used for a number of things. Information about RSS can be found here. So if you like, you can add the feed to Google Reader or your favorite feed reader of choice. The amount of posts here should increase soon, and the feed should make it worth your while.

Cats at the Dog Park?

Andrew Green — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 04:39:30 +0000

Jessica and I visited the brand new Cosmo Dog Park in Gilbert, AZ today. The park is located right off of the 202 freeway, and it is a dog park to shame all other dog parks. There is a huge amount of green areas, tons of dog obstacle course activities (steps, tubes), and the dogs can even take a swim along the coast of the man made lake. This isn't just a bit of grass surrounded by a fence. No siree. Jessica and I currently do not have a dog, but not having a dog did not stop us from donating a few bucks so that we could get a commemorative brick at the park. They put a call out for donations and so we responded in kind. And not having a dog, what did we put on the brick? Why the names of our three cats of course... It's just a shame our three little kitties won't be able to visit said park where their names are enshrined, but at least they are there in spirit.

A New Doolan

Andrew Green — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:11:39 +0000

Congratulations to Eric and Jennifer Doolan on the birth of their daughter, Estella Beatrix Doolan. Estella arrived this afternoon, and we give the newly updated family our best wishes.

Purple Explosion

Andrew Green — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 03:02:14 +0000

We woke up this past weekend to see that the pair of texas sage bushes sitting in our front yard had exploded. It always seems that at some point during the year, all the sages around town start bursting with their bright purple blossoms. The once dormant plants begin to show their violet colors across the dark green leaves. It is quite nice to see them in this state, even if it is just for a short amount of time. Their blooms only last a few days. Oddly enough, if you have never had the chance to see one of these desert plants close up before, the blossoms have tiny little hairs upon their petals. It is a strange sight when you first realize the flowers are bearded. So instead of just a regular explosion of color, we had a a fuzzy purple explosion...

Dolphin Olympics

Andrew Green — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 05:56:00 +0000

I found this gem of a game the other day via Jay is Games. Called Dolphin Olympics, it's a simple-but-complex game built entirely in Flash. Using a combo-type scoring system similar to the Tony Hawk games, its quirky gameplay is fun and quite addictive. The visuals and audio are also above the norm. The controls are very simple, but take just a bit of finesse in order to really grasp them. It took me a couple of tries to realize that you could add spin moves with the down arrow. It is also important to make sure to land in the water at the correct angle to keep up your speed. Also just like in Tony Hawk, once you learn how to combo moves and perform flashier tricks, you'll be putting up some big numbers and huge leaps. You'll be leapfrogging your own scores in almost no time at all. Some funny things to look for in the game are items such as how the background changes depending on when in the day you choose to play the game. Also try to catch a fish or two inside of a combo, and then leap high enough to reach some fireworks. If you have a chance, be sure to check it out.

Dreamsicle Cake

Andrew Green — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 02:40:22 +0000

What do you get when you mix the taste of a Creamsicle ice cream bar with cake? Why a Dreamsicle cake. For those that don't know, a Creamsicle is an ice cream bar that consists of a vanilla ice cream core covered with an orange popsicle covering. It is a unique taste, and quite refreshing. The same could be said for the cake that shares its flavors. Jessica originally made one of these for me a while back from a mix we bought, and we've been sitting on another box of it for quite a while (the expiration date of the mix had long since passed...) The cake is made from a standard sponge cake that is flavored orange. Drizzled amongst the layers is an orange flavored gelatin that soaks through the cake. Finally a light vanilla mousse is used to fill the center as well as ice the cake.

30 Day Update

Andrew Green — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 19:28:59 +0000

Ah, it happened again: Procrastination. Amazing how strong its hold can be on you. So the short list of what I've been up to:

Saw the first motorsports event held at the new Cardinals Stadium, Monster Trucks Live
Saw a monster truck at said event ruin one of the walls of said new stadium (doh!)
Went camping on the Grand Canyon's south rim with friends
Stunk after 2 days of not showering
Saw the travelling Cirque Du Soleil show/concert Delirium
Was surprised at how much the music matched the CD of the same name.

So, let's see if I'll write again in less than 30 days.

Guardians of Altarris: The Sinless Blade

Andrew Green — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 04:24:06 +0000

This expertly made Flash game fell out of nowhere for me. I had seen traditional arcade style beat-em-up games done in Flash before, but this one takes the cake. Guardians of Altarris: The Sinless Blade is a free web-based game that is available at shockwave.com. The gameplay is very similar to classics like Final Fight or Streets of Rage. You get to pick your character, and then punch, kick, and butt heads with the invading enemies. The art style is top notch, with a mix of cell-shaded 3D and new Flash 8 visual effects. The design and gameplay really can't be beat as far as games like this are concerned. The only thing that is a shame is that like most games of this calibur: it is quite short, almost a demo of sorts. Regardless, you owe it to yourself to try it out.

Jet Li's Fearless

Andrew Green — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:54:25 +0000

I just got back from seeing Jet Li's Fearless, a great martial arts movie. It is definitely one of the classier movies of this type, much like Crouching Tiger or Hero. Good acting, excellent choreography, and superb camera work. Some of the visuals are very breathtaking, even if you have seen other chinese period films. The film is apparently Jet's last martial arts epic. As such, his work in Fearless is by far his best work to date.

Classic Advertising Illustrations

Andrew Green — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 19:55:28 +0000

What an amazing look at the past this Flickr set is. There is something to be said for classic illustration work like this from several years back. So simple, yet so different and interesting. It's a far cry from the anime-influenced work being produced for today's kids. I'm sure one day this style will return, but for now we can only look back to see artwork like this. For more images of this type I'd recommend visiting Mister Toast's Blog. This type of work with its simple muted colors and very basic curves is a style that I wish I could replicate. Artwork like this stands out in our current world, and hopefully if I can pull pieces like this off my work too would stand out.

Yes, I liked the new Godzilla

Andrew Green — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:46:13 +0000

I'll say it right now, I loved the new Godzilla movie that was released in 1998. In fact, I would have to say that I liked it better than all the original Godzilla movies from Japan. The film was one of the first DVD's I ever purchased. There was something about the visceral nature of the updated Godzilla that just worked for me. Whether it be the mix of real and CG effects, the new Godzilla design, or his new roar: it just all was great. As a matter of fact, I was even into the marketing of the whole thing. "Size Does Matter" was the tagline. It was all over Arizona and California the summer it was released. Buses, blimp hangers, building were all decorated with Godzilla posters. I still remember all the related movie tie-ins. Ice cream with chocolate Godzilla pieces, animated toys that roared with a push of the button, Tamagotchi-themed Godzilla game, and even a Godzilla hand puppet that also roared. Jessica even got me a giant vinyl poster from Toys-R-Us. It hung on my office wall for more than a year before retiring up into our attic. Who knows what other Godzilla gear I have hidden away. Finally, I didn't even mind the scene in the movie where the baby Godzilla's run amok in Madison Square Garden. It was just something more to add to the Godzilla experience. So... did you like the new Godzilla?

Tuna Melt Pizza

Andrew Green — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:01:57 +0000

Tuna Melt Pizza from Pita Jungle It's odd, but it tasted good. The dish might just have had a little too much tuna on it though.

True Fact for Sept 28th

Andrew Green — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 04:44:30 +0000

Today's true fact: Rice tastes better when eaten with chopsticks. It's absolutely true...

Looking forward to Vista

Andrew Green — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:08:48 +0000

Yesterday my main hard drive decided to start doing the "drive death dance". Clicking sounds emanating from a piece of computer hardware is never a good thing. So what did I decide to do first? Why install Windows Vista RC1! The new Aero interface with slick transparent windows, transitions, and widgets is pretty amazing. If my machine of 3+ years was any faster I'm sure it would be even better. It's nice to see such a clean and more efficient package from Microsoft. It'll be a much better user experience for users when it is finally available for sale. So until I purchase a new main hard drive, I'll be computing in the wonderful new world of Vista.

Meat Cake

Andrew Green — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 04:28:56 +0000

Delicious Meat Cake! Some people are just too clever for their own good. Take for instance the mastermind behind the wonderful creation above, Black Widow Bakery. While I'm not a fan of mashed potato icing, I must admit three layers of meatloaf sure sound good. Maybe replace the taters with some sort of cheese icing?

Swords and Sandals

Andrew Green — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:39:07 +0000

Today's diversion at work was Swords and Sandals, a quirky gladiator sim built in Flash. You can build your own character, name them, change their stats, buy equipment, and then head for the arena for a fight to the death RPG-style. The game definitely does not seem totally balanced at the moment, but then what Flash game ever is? Regardless, it is quite a time waster and lots of fun. My co-workers are still schooling me in our little mini-league we have set up for the game, but every once in a while I am victorous. Now if I could only get that theme song out of my head... "Swords and Sandals... gladiators..."

Toasted RAM

Andrew Green — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 06:14:05 +0000

Note to self, don't toast the RAM. Eventhough I was enjoying it, my time with the Vista RC1 was quite short lived. This was because my 75GB finally gave up the ghost and I installed the replacement 400GB drive this weekend. As it turns out, in order to install the new hard drive into the drive bay, I have to first remove the memory from the motherboard. This is so they can slide in and not get caught. That part went fine: the memory came out and the HD's went in. Unfortunately I must not have been paying attention as I accidentally installed one of the RAM modules upside-down! I noticed that it didn't quite seat into the clips like normal, but I felt that it installed just like it was supposed to be. Time to power up. Two full seconds pass... "What's that burning plastic smell? Why won't the PC boot into the BIOS? My screen is still black. Uh oh..." So I quickly unplugged the power cable from the back of the case and began my inspection. A mark against the motherboard's yellow plastic catches my eye. "What is that black spot along the RAM stick?" Turns out that while the memory did not seat (it's not supposed to when its upside down), it did happen to connect with the slot. It had apparently sparked across part of the slot to one of the contacts on the RAM stick. A tell-tale sign of a black starburst in both spots uncovered the source of the burning smell and my new found problem. So, with little hope in my pessimist heart, I reseated the RAM correctly and booted back up. I hear the motherboard beep. "Wow, it's on. And it's doing the memory test... and it's passing!" Then quite normally, the Windows XP logo appeared and I was back online. So surprisingly, I am currently working on said computer with said burnt RAM. My office did stink for a few hours after the "incident", but the computer is back up and running with a clean install of XP. I'll just have to wait and see if the toasted RAM (and singed motherboard) can continue to perform in a normal fashion for the forseable future.

The Art of Nicole Chartrand

Andrew Green — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 06:46:10 +0000

I've been on an art kick recently, and I've been scouring artist galleries across all of the web. My main destination of late has been deviantart.com, and it all started with a simple image. For whatever reason, I hit up the World of Warcraft site to look and see if anything had changed since I last played. Not much has, but I still decided to see what amazing fan art people have been submitting to Blizzard. Then I came across this pic. The artist's work instantly grabbed me and I looked to see what else they had done. As it turns out, quite a lot; and definitely some amazing stuff at that. The artist in question is Nicole Chartrand. Her main art web site can be found at kitsune.rydia.net, but she also posts images up on her deviantart page as well. She really does some great stuff, and I recommend that you check it out if you have a bit of time to spare.

Joe's Farm Grill

Andrew Green — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 02:40:38 +0000

Jessica, my mother, and I went to a new restaurant that recently opened near our house in Gilbert: Joe's Farm Grill. The namesake of said grill is the well known owner and operator of the eastern Arizona restaurant: Joe's Real BBQ. Joe's really does have the best BBQ that you can find in Arizona, it's just amazing. We even like their food so much we've had them cater our yearly casino parties. Maybe Joe was getting a bit bored with just the BBQ, maybe wanted to try something new, maybe he wanted to do something in his old neighborhood. That something new is the grill. Located at, in, and around his childhood home at Ray and Higley roads, is this new post-modern eatery. Built using portions of the original brick farmhouse nestled amonst some very old trees, is the grill. The restaurant is partially open-air with a breezeway and patio tables, but they also have a dining room that once was the family's living room. The building is also situated within Agritopia: a housing development with urban houses, farmland, and farmer's markets. We got there at around dusk, so I couldn't really take any pictures, but Joe's is a sight to see. I'll be sure to take more shots on our next visit. So of course you are probably asking, "How's the food?" Well I got an Ahi Tuna Sandwich with a side of sweet potato fries, which I thought was quite good. It was much better than I was expecting. Jessica got a chicken tenders meal that didn't quite suit her tastes, but my mother got a BBQ pork sandwich that she thought was quite good. Overall, I would say that the available options are great (salads, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, BBQ, etc) and the flavors were above average. So if you get a chance to come out to Gilbert, be sure to stop by Joe's Farm Grill and see what all the fuss is about.

Photos from Sedona

Andrew Green — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 04:41:55 +0000

Jessica, her friend Nora, and I took a day trip up north to Sedona. We were looking to photograph the fall colors of the trees while we still could. Unfortunately, the colors weren't quite what we were looking for with only a few of the leaves being amber and orange. No red to speak of, and still lots of green. My camera also seemed to be acting up (maybe it was user error). So most of my landscape pictures were blurry and unrecognizable. Strangely enough my best shots were of two insects, shown below.

Making Halloween Lemonade

Andrew Green — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:24:11 +0000

Well when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. Tonight that is what Jessica and I did. Except we did it with fire, and lots of it. Yesterday evening around 9-10pm, someone or someones decided to steal all of the outdoor Halloween decorations that we had previously put up. What our Halloween display was supposed to look like can be found on Jessica's blog. Also what happened last night can be found there too. Our motivation to celebrate this Halloween diminished tremendously after the theft, but we couldn't let that ruin the holiday for the kids that had nothing to do with it. So we decided to at least hand out some candy and have a bit of reckless fun while doing so. So Jessica put a sign up explaining why we didn't have our standard display up (as a notice to our neighbors), and we set up shop in the driveway with our front porch bench. I sorta dressed up in my monster costume for a little bit, but I really didn't stay in character for very long. I did manage to spook a kid or two with my glowing eyes and dragging chain, but it wasn't long before the mask came off and I was no longer scaring the kids. Instead, what was amazing the kids were our flaming pumpkins of death. Using a tip from extremepumpkins.com, we decided to set our jack-o-lanterns ablaze. Simply soak some toliet paper rolls in kerosene, place in the carved pumpkin, and then light it. What you get is a 3-foot tall flame that lasts about 30 minutes per roll. Once it dies out, simply shift around the ashed paper and add another flammable roll. Jessica got some amazing pictures of our impromptu art display, some of which can be seen below:

Other photographs can be found at her post about tonight. We also got some video footage that Jessica brilliantly compiled into this short little vid.

So while next year we probably won't be putting up lights again anytime in the near future, at least I feel we had a semi-successful Halloween in 2006.

NaNoWriMo 2006

Andrew Green — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 04:15:23 +0000

So it's the second of November... and I'm not writing a novel. *shudder* It feels so strange not to be writing this year. Something feels missing not having every evening, every thought, and every moment of the month of November consumed by writing. Not devoting all my time to creative writing just feels weird. I'm, of course, better for not doing it. I'm not the nicest person when I'm consumed by 30 days of writing. So to feel some sort of accomplishment, and to satiate the desire to write, I'll link to the first drafts of the previous two novels of years past. Rusted Halo (a revenge story) Bag of Snow (a love story)

Our New Front Yard

Andrew Green — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 04:30:32 +0000

After several weeks of waiting plus a few days of actual work: our house has a new front yard. In place of a completely flat, sparsely covered yard; we now have boulders, a riverbed, and cactus. And we think it looks amazing.

We had a local landscaping company, KPW Landscape, do all the work for us. We originally had a several bushes, a mini-rose garden, a messy flowerbed, and lots of bare spots of dirt. Needless to say, we were quite unhappy with it. Now we have a rolling riverbed with river rock, large ribboned boulders, bermed hills, and several small cactus. It should be a lot easier for us to take care of in addition to looking quite good. In fact, it looks great when viewing it from our kitchen table. It makes spending time in the dining room much more enjoyable and relaxing. Finally, we had to keep a Caterpillar tractor in our garage for a night. The landscaping company had to hold it there overnight between days when they were working. Apparently, the tractors have common keys and if you had one you could have taken off with it. So I took an opportunity to take a few funny shots of myself sitting in it. Can you feel the drama in my face as I work the controls?

5 Sodas of Thanksgiving

Andrew Green — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 02:16:26 +0000

So last year around Christmas-time, we picked up one of those Jones Holiday Packs. The packs are sold at places like Target and some grocery stores, and consist of rather odd flavored beverages. In the pack were 5 different holiday themed flavors, a serving spoon (spork), a moistened towelette, and a wine list. Definitely odd stuff. So I meant to try them last year, but I guess I never got around to it. So for the past 12 months they have been sitting in our pantry collecting dust. I think it's about time I drank them. So that is what I'm going to do, drink one of the five beverages per every two days starting with this evening. I vow to finish every drop of every bottle even if they are beyond putrid up until Thanksgiving. It should be a hoot.

1st Soda of Thanksgiving: Brussels Sprout

Andrew Green — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 02:55:41 +0000

Well my self-pledge to drink each soda to the last drop didn't last long. At least not with this Brussels Sprout Soda. I let Jessica pick out which one to drink first, and much to my dread she picked the Brussels Sprout Soda from the fridge. I guess it is better to get it out of the way first, because I assumed it is going to be the worst. Upon cracking the seal upon the bottle cap, the odd putrid aroma snuck into my nostrils. A smell that I assume is just like the sweaty feet of a dead man, I winced the first two times I tried to take a sniff. The taste itself wasn't as bad as the smell, it was almost buttery in flavor, but the dark green liquid did not go down all that well. It did not taste in anyway like a vegetable either. I had planned to down it all eventually, sip by sip, but Jessica made me see the error of my ways. She stopped me from drinking it and in such prevented myself from getting sick. So I still assume it'll be the worst of the bunch (and they are over a year old), and the half filled bottle still sits upon our kitchen countertop.

2nd Soda of Thanksgiving: Cranberry

Andrew Green — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 06:23:38 +0000

Tonight's drink of choice was the cranberry flavored Jones Soda, the second soda I've tried from the Jones Holiday Pack. Jessica was kind enough to grant me a respite from the previous disgusting soda by grabbing the red hued bottle from the fridge. The initial scent of the freshly opened drink wasn't appealing at first. It didn't smell anything like cranberries, and it most certainly didn't smell "fresh". The first taste also wasn't anything I'd consider good. Maybe I had waited too long to drink these. As it turned out, it did start tasting like cranberries about a quarter into the bottle. The problem that I found was that like most recent Jones sodas, it was sugar free. The missing sugar taste is what I was missing. So unlike the Brussels Sprout soda, I did finish this one. Not much of a challenge I must admit, but those other flavors will have to wait for another day.

3rd Soda of Thanksgiving: Wild Herb Stuffing

Andrew Green — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 06:48:40 +0000

We're just a few days out of Thanksgiving, and I still have 3 more Jones sodas to drink. Today's drink of choice, Wild Herb Stuffing. I must admit that the bottle looked quite pretty. The pale yellow hue of the liquid inside looked like it might taste somewhat decent. Upon cracking the bottle cap, I was surprised to find that the aroma was shockingly sweet. I would have expected this scent from something that would be much more fruity. It almost smelled like a fruit punch of sorts, which was very odd. "Maybe this one won't be as bad as I think it will..." The first swig didn't taste like anything. Like it literally tasted like nothing other than seltzer water. No fruit taste or other taste to speak of. I took two more sips. Then the after-taste hit. What followed the first swallow was a taste far worse than the brussels sprout soda. Coating my entire tongue was a bitter taste of rotten and putrid herbs. It felt like someone had painted my entire tongue with crushed weeds. I instantly winced when the flavor appeared and ran to grab another drink. I quickly washed the bitterness away with some watered down Sprite. All in all, it didn't take more than 3 sips of this particular soda to call it a day. It has be delegated to sit next to the previous bottles, where it is destined not to be finished.

4th Soda of Thanksgiving: Pumpkin Pie

Andrew Green — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 04:13:02 +0000

Just two bottles away from finishing off the Jones Holiday Pack from 2005. With just the two left, the final pre-turkey day beverage was the Jones Pumpkin Pie Soda. I had higher hopes for this one over the Brussels Sprout and Wild Herb Stuffing drinks. I assumed that with it being dessert themed, it would actually be pleasant tasting and be more along the lines of the cranberry flavored one. As I had done with the others, I first partook of the beverage's aroma. The scent definitely smelled like what manufactured pumpkin pie would smell like. Almost like a scented candle from this time of year. The first sip led to the standard, "Ugh, sugar free" reaction. Nothing like trying to make something taste good by leaving out the sugar. The flavor was bland and about as strong as I had expected. It was "pumpkiny", but nothing to really say this was made from pumpkins. I've kind of come to the conclusion that for the majority of these holiday themed drinks; they simply carbonate the water, add some food coloring, and then add the essence of said flavor so at least your nose helps with the illusion. I'd imagine that if you couldn't smell or had a stuffy nose, these drinks would pretty much taste like diet seltzer.

5th Soda of Thanksgiving: Turkey and Gravy

Andrew Green — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 05:34:06 +0000

First off, Happy Thanksgiving! Secondly, today was the day when I drank the final bottle of soda from the Jones Holiday Pack of 2005: Turkey and Gravy Soda. I assumed it was appropriate to save the oddest and most memorable drink of the bunch for turkey day. Following standard procedure, I first took a few sniffs of the orange hued carbonated liquid. As was the case with the others, this one didn't smell like I had expected. The scent was something along the lines of boiled carrots or some other musky vegetable. The first taste was also somewhat surprising in that it actually tasted like turkey and gravy! It really did! Strangely enough, that flavor is what this drink most closely resembles. In addition, it didn't seem to have that sugar free taste that the others had. Had I not been full from dinner earlier, I would have finished the full bottle. The soda was easily the best tasting of the group. So to rank the beverages, I would say they would fall into this order:

To be honest, I'm glad that the 2005 pack is done. There must be something to the expiration dates on soda, and especially on specialty ones like these. Hopefully the upcoming Jones Soda Holiday 2006 and Dessert packs I'm going to be drinking (and blogging) will fare better that these out-of-code beverages.

Five Great Years

Andrew Green — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 06:57:32 +0000

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the day I was privileged enough to marry the love of my life Jessica. These last five years have been great, and she is definitely a lovely lady whom I enjoy spending my time with. I don't know of anyone else who would be a better match for me other than my wonderful wife.

10 Years on the Web

Andrew Green — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:56:26 +0000

Ten years ago the very foundations of this site were built. Using a Mac application called Claris HomePage, I built my very first web page called oddly enough, "Andy's Homepage". There were tons of self created animated GIF's, stupid pictures, and bits of dumb text. It was very ugly, but it was also hidden behind a FTP server for a few months while I cleaned it up. Here we are ten years later, and some of the content is still available on this site today. It's kinda crazy to think that I've been working on the web for more than a decade. Wow.

Optimus Prime Cake: 1984

Andrew Green — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:57:45 +0000

My first try at a Transformers cake came back in December of 1984, almost 23 years ago. Using a simple sheet cake made straight from the box; all I needed was some white frosting, a little food coloring, and some colored gels to let my creativity fly. All in all, I think it turned out well for someone who was 8, had no real experience and only used basic grocery store bought tools. In the end, it tasted good and that was all that really mattered.

Optimus Prime Cake: 2007

Andrew Green — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:16:42 +0000

Last week I sent a link to Jessica about a Transformers cake that was coming to Wal-Mart. It was your standard grocery store sheet cake with a toy topper that was a real transforming Optimus Prime from the upcoming movie. That link set the gears spinning to do our own Transformers cake. But instead we were going to not just do the topper. Oh no, instead the entire cake was going to be Optimus Prime. And he was going to be big. So after baking 12 8x8 white cakes (9 of which were used), using 5lbs of white fondant, 6 cans of Color Spray, 3 batches of buttercream, 2 vials of silver dust mixed with vodka, and 2 very long days crafting this piece of edible art: we had ourselves our own Optimus Prime cake.

YouTube video

More details about the process are available in the Flickr set about the project, as well on my wife Jessica's blog. In the end, it looks like we completed our goal and also made the 1984 cartoon variant of Optimus Prime quite happy. Digg this post

Transformers (2007)

Andrew Green — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:36:26 +0000

Just got back from an 8pm showing of the new Michael Bay directed Transformers. In a word, it was awesome. It was worth the wait. Now I just got to determine when I'll go see it again.

My Transformers Collection

Andrew Green — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:34:19 +0000

In order to build our Optimus Prime cake, I needed to go into our attic and get down my classic Transformers toys. We needed to see and measure the classic Generation 1 Optimus Prime toy as reference, and in order to get to him, I needed to get them all down. So for the past couple of weeks, I've had my entire Transformers collection sitting around in my office just dying to be played with. I figured it was a good time to document all of my stuff, and so I spent a day this past weekend cataloging them all with photos and video. I took tons of pics with at least 2 for each toy; once in robot mode with all their gear and once in vehicle mode. I don't think I'll be putting any YouTube videos together, but I did post all of my stuff up on Flickr. Each toy is named, and funny anecdotal information that I could remember was thrown into the descriptions. It's quite interesting seeing just how much Transformers stuff I actually have.

Making an Optimus Prime Cake

Andrew Green — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 20:42:06 +0000

A bunch of people have asked Jessica and I how we went about making that semi-famous Optimus Prime Cake of ours. This post should contain information on how to go about making one for yourself.

I hope this information will help any of you would-be Transformers bakers. Let me know if you need additional help and be sure to share any pictures if you attempt to make the cake!