My life

I have lived another day…

I still haven’t gotten past page 8 of my screenplay [The Shadow Prince]. I seem to be having trouble getting the tone I want from the scene I’m working on, because I’m not really sure what I want, and it’s a pretty dark scene. It might not seem that dark to a reader (or movie viewer) who reads (or watches) it in a minute or two. But trying to understand the world from that character’s point of view, it’s pretty terrible, nothing I’d want to experience. So it’s one of the basic challenges of writing: how do you get a character to react believably to an experience real people could never have? One could write a book chapter on that. Or maybe an entire book. (And probably someone has.)

I finished reading William Goldman’s book Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade the other day. Very good book. But, gah, kind of frustrating because you know you can’t just all the sudden be a part of the [film] industry, and it’s all written from the perspective of someone who’s in the industry. Don’t you hate when famous rich people do that? They’ll be in an interview and nonchalantly say “so I had lunch *famous name here* and discussed my project” … blagh.

Also, I created a formspring.me page, after seeing a bunch of other people do and jumping on the bandwagon. Basically anybody can ask you anonymous questions through it. Might be fun, might be stupid and annoying, but it’s all the rage. I put widget for it on the side of this blog, as you should be able to see. As if the columns weren’t cluttered enough.

Hey, guess what? They’re calling for snow Friday night and Saturday! I am scheduled to work on Saturday! If the fates are kind, maybe, just maybe, I won’t have to go? We’ll see. Come on, sky. Give me a storm. Paint the outdoors an ocean of white. Let it tear the people from their schedules, let it frighten and anger the innocent drivers on their weary ill-fated journeys through the restless roads. And let me sleep! O, dear fates, let me sleep and rest and dream of the goodness I shan’t wake up to see!

Bravo! Bravo!

Thank you, thank you.

By S P Hannifin, ago

The new year is boring so far

Mostly because I haven’t been up to much. I spent New Year’s day sleeping in as long as I could, and then I spent the day after at work, and I plan on spending Sunday asleep or at work (hopefully not at the same time, of course). And same for Monday.

Actually, I did spend some time playing Super Mario Galaxy on Wii a few hours ago. It’s fun.

I also applied for a couple jobs last night, raising the number of jobs I have applied for this year to 2. Let’s see how high the count gets.

Oh, I’ve also been writing a ton of melodies in my head. But I haven’t been writing them down, so they are getting lost. Nothing to fear, though, since my melodic creativity is infinite. Well, maybe not infinite, but close enough that I don’t notice the difference.

By S P Hannifin, ago

Goals for 2010

I don’t think I really like the idea of giving myself goals, at least not these kinds large goals that are so easily influenced by uncontrollable events in my life.  But I’m going to do it anyway just to see what happens.  It might give me a bit more focus throughout the year.  Or I might become too disinterested in them and try other things instead.  I guess they can be considered “Goals I currently think would be interesting to achieve in 2010” and not so much “Goals I will use to judge myself at the end of 2010.”  In other words, I’m not going to strictly hold myself to them; it will all depend on where my interests lie when I have the time to pursue them.

And so here they are, the Goals of 2010:

1)  Get a full time job. I kind of have to put this on.  Obviously.  The alternative is to go to grad school.  But, c’mon, can you see that happening?

2)  Continue keeping Hannifin World updated daily for the entire year. This shouldn’t be too hard as long as I can keep thinking of ideas and don’t run out of ink and paper and the scanner keeps working.

3)  Finish writing a novel. Or a novella.  Or a novelette.

4)  Continue practicing sketching. I hardly did any sketching at all this year, but I got some extra drawing supplies for Christmas, so I should try to spend some time practicing with them.

5)  Finish writing screenplay for The Melody Box. This was a screenplay I started this year that needs to be finished.  I don’t know what in the world one does with a finished screenplay, but it was fun to write; I really need to get back to it.

6)  Get started on animating a short film. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for the past few months.  It doesn’t need to be long, it doesn’t need to be drawn very well, but I should at least get started.

7)  Finish album! This is something I’ve been working on since the end of 2008, and I’m still not finished!  2010 should be the year for that.

8)  Listen to all of Mozart’s work. In other words, finish the Mozart Listening Project.

9)  Make some sort of progress on a machine creativity program. Either make progress on my music generator (which still doesn’t generate music), or try creating a story generator.  This [machine creativity] is the subject I’m most fascinated by at the moment, but it’s also the most frustrating and hardest area to make any progress in, as it floats near the invisible edges of the impossible.

10)  Become a millionaire. While I’m at it.

Well, there are only 2 goals I know I definitely won’t achieve!  A-heh heh heh…

2010… a nice decade-ish number…

By S P Hannifin, ago

Christmas aftermath

Hope y’all had a wonderful Christmas.  It was a very good Christmas here.  It was actually a white Christmas here, since we still had some leftover snow from a snow storm the previous Saturday.  The storm was so nice that it got me out of having to go to work for the entire week, thus it exceeded my expectations.  It’s melting away at a good pace now, unfortunately.  I love snow… mostly because it gets me out of work…

This picture represents my best Christmas gifts.  I was a bit surprised to get the book “The Creative Process” … it’s a somewhat expensive academic book.  It’s about machine creativity in the area of storytelling.  It’s a bit outdated, having been written in the early 1990s (I think), but it’s still full of ideas I find rather fascinating.  Maybe in the year 2010 I’ll try my hand at programming an automatic story generator, eh?  Yes, I think that would be fun.

And I know my whole family is jealous of me for getting the first 100 episodes of Spongebob.  Oh yeah…

Despite programming somewhat obsessively for the past week, I still haven’t made much progress on my Automatic Music Generator: Version 2, but I still have quite a few ideas left to try.

Anyway, I’m going to take a break from doing anything too intellectual for just a short while while I watch my new blu-rays and DVDs and read my new books and play my new computer games.  This is not because of laziness or anything, it’s simply because I need to make sure right away that everything is working properly to make sure I don’t need to return anything.  Of course.

I’m looking forward to New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day now.  4 days left!

Oh, and I’m quite proud of myself for so far having been able to keep Hannifin World updated everyday.  Not sure the comics are always very funny, but who cares about that, right?

By S P Hannifin, ago

Pure of heart

Didn’t do much today since I had to go to work all day. Still haven’t heard anything from iTunes regarding my podcast The Compose Pile being added to their podcast directory, but I guess that’s to be expected, what with today being Saturday and all.

I have nothing else to say, but I’m keeping this a daily blog and updating it even when a day is uneventful and unworthy of blog-posting.

Right now I’m tired, but I’m watching the new Race to Witch Mountain with some family members… it’s an awful film, with some of the most dreadful film music I’ve ever heard, but I care little, for the fire by the chair I sit in is warm and the rest I am experiencing is much needed and wholesome, and I am pure of heart.

By S P Hannifin, ago

New Compose Pile is up

I sat in front of my computer all day (well, after waking up at noon) and edited the sixth episode of my podcast The Compose Pile. It took forever to edit; I say “um…” way too much, take long pauses, flub my words, and I hate listening to my own voice in general, it just doesn’t sound how I’m used to it sounding.  I also spent some time formatting the orchestral score (which there’s a link to on the podcast post) so that listeners can follow along the score while listening, if they so desire. I also tried submitting the podcast to iTunes, but I guess they have to review it first, so who knows whether or not they’ll accept it, or when.

Other than that, I spent some time last night buying a bunch of Christmas presents on online.  I only have one or two more things I want to buy, and then my Christmas shopping will be done.  14 days left until the big sleep-in and play-all-day day!  I wish we’d get more snow, but the outlook isn’t so good.

By S P Hannifin, ago

Eh blither blather

Still haven’t edited that The Compose Pile podcast episode yet, mostly because of having to go to work all day. But I have off on Fridays, so hopefully it will be up by tomorrow night at the latest.

Oh, someone I know won this celebrity-autographed PSP from an online Disney giveaway. Can you read the autograph there? No, you can’t, because it’s sloppy sloppy sloppy. But that’s a Miley Cyrus autograph. *gasp* I know, like OMG! I wouldn’t mind getting a free PSP, even if it was pink and had someone’s sloppy handwriting all over it. But now the PSP is doomed to play poorly designed girly games… too bad… (and, actually, I would mind)

I’m on page 308 of Lamentation … it’s really getting exciting; I can’t wait to find out how it ends (even though it’s only the first book in a series). Only about 100 pages to go.

That’s all for now.

By S P Hannifin, ago

Maybe I’ll start a webcomic…

22 days left until Christmas…

I work 8 hours on Thursdays, so there’s not much to say, because I haven’t done much. During my break I read a bit and watched Flash Forward on Hulu, which I’m really behind on. I also thought up some ideas for some comic strips… I was thinking of starting a daily web comic. Not sure if I will or not, but I have some ideas I think would be funny.

I’m also looking forward to the Monk series finale tomorrow night. And then the show will be over and there’ll be nothing to watch on Friday nights at 9 PM (especially since Dollhouse got cancelled). Have you noticed that in just about every other crime-solving show besides Monk, they always try to portray the lead character as being really cool. The promos have the lead characters squinting, looking serious off into the distance, maybe with a half-smile. That’s what I like about Monk; he’s not “cool” at all. Well, none of the characters are “cool” by my standards, but Monk is the only one that doesn’t try to be. Anyway, series finale! It’s gonna be great! Yay! Woohoo!

By S P Hannifin, ago

Lazy Tuesday

I was going to work a bit more on my Android game today, but they needed a sub at work, and I need the money to pay for my Droid. I spent the morning playing Mass Effect on my laptop in glorious HD resolution with all the graphics settings cranked up as high as they go because my laptop is just that good. Then I watched an episode of House; I’m just starting to go through the 3rd season on DVD because hopefully I’ll be getting the 4th season for Christmas… because we bought during the holiday sales for $13 at Best Buy… woohoo! I wish I had a bunch of days off work so I could just watch an entire season in a day or two… but those days are gone, after never having been here…

My sleeping schedule (because I know you care) is back on track; going to bed before midnight and waking up at 8:30 AM. I’m not sure how or why it’s correct now, and I’m not sure long it will last, but it’s kind of nice. I guess.

And now it’s already December 2009! So, a countdown can begin, can’t it? 24 more days until Christmas!

By S P Hannifin, ago

Birthday presents and whatever

We celebrated my birthday on Saturday, and I must say, it was a happp birthday!  I got some hand-made bunny pajamas from my great aunt.  (I didn’t get the BB gun I wanted, though, because apparently I’d shoot my eye out.)  I also got this blu-ray and these books.  So, ’twas good.  And the cake’s already gone.

I also finished playing the game Portal the other day.  It’s a short game; only takes about 6-8 hours (though I’m sure one could get good at getting through the thing in less than an hour with some practice).  It’s a puzzle/action game, and is very addicting.  You basically use a “portal gun” (or whatever it’s called) and create portals in the walls that then connect to each other.  For examples, you could create a portal right in front of you and one right behind you to create an infinite hallway.  Or create one right above you and right below you to create a bottomless pit.  To win the game, however, you must create portals to solve puzzles, getting yourself and boxes and weird energy balls from one place to another, over and around obstacles.  And, at the end, it plays this really catchy song.  I haven’t played the bonus levels yet.

I still haven’t done any more programming for my Android game, but I did compose another short 2-minute piece of music called “Clockwork.”  It’s not really as bombastic as my other pieces; it’s kind of light-hearted background music.

By S P Hannifin, ago