Three Strikes Policy

I have, for many, many years now, had in-place a 3 Strikes Policy in my life.  This Policy applies to both individuals and groups.

It goes like this:

You can disrespect me, or demean me, or insult me, or degrade me, or offend me, or humiliate me, or any combination thereof – and you get to do this 3 times. -OR- You may stand-by as a silent witness and watch others do this to me 3 times. Silence is complicity in this regard.

The FIRST TIME I will confront you and request that you not do it again.

The SECOND TIME I will confront you and request that you not do it again.

The THIRD TIME I will confront you and we are done. You are unceremoniously ejected out of my life permanently. I will not explain myself; I will not spell it out for you.

This is obviously because:

  1. You are not listening to me.
  2. You hold the mistaken belief that you can carry-on like this indefinitely.
  3. You think your behavior is acceptable and appropriate …

… and it’s not.

Until next time …

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I Quit.

Until next time …

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…And Then You Meet Someone Who Makes You Say “WOW”

So now, on to what’s IMPORTANT.

I met someone.

I met someone online.

I met someone who made me say “WOW”.

I don’t say “WOW” that often. In fact I don’t ever say it.

But I’m saying it now …

WOW

Until next time …

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Making Changes

Time for change.

Changes in priorities, changes in lifestyle, changes in focus.

Until next time …

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Corporate America: We Need More Parking Lots

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE.

I work for a 3 Billion Dollar American Corporation in Northern California. They recently decided to tear-down an older building and put-up a new building with a redesigned parking lot.

Northern California is home to some pretty spectacular trees – the Ponderosa Pine, The Great Oak and the Redwood. I’m talking about Mature trees over 7 stories high with trunks 8 feet in diameter and over 200 years old … BIG FUCKING TREES.

But what the fuck? Let’s just CUT THEM ALL DOWN so we can extend the parking lot of our bright and shiny new building!

That’s right – Healthy, mature, majestic heritage trees being cut-down for a parking lot.

My question is – WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? They couldn’t design a parking lot around these trees? REALLY? They’re a bunch of fucking Corporate morons.

I won’t lie to you dear reader, I drank a lot of beer this week – every day watching these beautiful sentinels being slaughtered- every night coming home and drinking beer trying to forget what I saw – trying to get over my anger, resentment and sadness. Until last night when my soul mate suggested (this is one of the reasons she’s my soul mate) that I write a scathing article about what is happening. So here it is.

This is what’s wrong with Corporate America – ABSOLUTE POWER AND GREED. Not just in money but in everything – it has to be THEIR WAY. And it has to be THEIR WAY regardless of what or who they destroy to get THEIR WAY.

All this bullshit about Environmental Responsibility in American Corporations is just that – BULLSHIT. They don’t care where they dump their toxic waste, they don’t care how many trees they kill, they don’t care how much wildlife they displace – they only care about the bottom line – PROFITS, GREED and POWER.

20 years ago I wrote an article about how Corporate America owned our political system – and nobody payed any attention to it.  Well – people are now, aren’t they? Today I’m writing this article – If we don’t wake-up from this nightmare of Corporate American Greed soon – there aren’t going to be any trees left. There aren’t going to be any clean rivers or streams, there isn’t going to be enough habitat left for wildlife. It’s going to be ONE BIG FUCKING PARKING LOT.

Until next time …

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Feels Like Goodbye

As my 3 week vacation winds-down to a close and I must re-enter the Real World and resume all the responsibilities that go with it – I must say, this feels like “Goodbye”.

I have really enjoyed my time exploring and writing about virtual worlds, making new friends and playing with concepts and constructs that just a few months ago were very foreign to me.

I’ve especially felt compelled by the emotional transference that came with all this. It has been a wonderful peek into my own personal psychology. A revealing look at how I relate to others as well as myself. Truly this as been an Odyssey.

I have a sign in my living room in Real Life as well as my living room in Second Life – the sign reads: “EVERY THING CHANGES.”

I believe that is the one constant and the open secret of the Universe. I was recently mocked for this belief while trying to explain it to someone. Which I find endlessly amusing – because really – REALLY – what other truth is there? Don’t get me started.

And it certainly applies here.

My headlong descent into the complexities of virtual worlds was both exciting and revealing but now it’s time to re-surface. Although I will continue to maintain a home in Second Life – (one that I hope will provide a safe starting point for friends whom I’ve given my house key to) the emotional intensity and feeling of liberation that it once gave me has faded. It is, after all, just space on a server – as impersonal as it is unreal.

What was real, and what I’ve already written about over the past 3 weeks – were the experiences I had and the lessons that I learned. Invaluable to a degree and applicable in both worlds.

Now I’m going to get in my truck and drive through the Redwoods over to the coast where I will walk on a real beach and reflect on my time walking on a virtual beach …

Until next time …

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Cross Pollination

Okay – I will admit to having an agenda.

Facilitating the creative cross-pollination between disparate factions of our communities – iClone, MoveStorm, The Sims, Second Life, MuviZu, The Movies, DAZ and Poser, Blender, UDK and anyone else who comes to the party.

I am not alone in my quest, thankfully, I am joined by other visionaries who also see the real potential in this venture. You know who you are.

We are growing a community. What could be more exciting or rewarding? As one by one, members of different camps wander into each others territories, meet and become friends and begin working together … I find it thrilling!

There’s a bigger picture here too, as I feel this is a model for the future of society in general – namely, ‘Cooperation rather than Competition’. I recently watched the documentary “I AM” from filmmaker Tom Shadyac. Eye-opening to say the least.

Personally – I enjoy the opportunities for “schmoozing” this continues to afford me. HA!

So carry-on Peeps! I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Until next time …

Posted in Animation, Art, Film, Life in General, Machinima, Second Life, Software, TMOA Radio, The Studio, Unreal Development Kit, iClone, sub-culture | Tagged | Leave a comment

Happy New Year!

What a year 2011 was!

Lot’s of work and lots of play. The highlights?

At the end of June I became the Co-Host of TMOA Radio’s Sunday Show with TMU founder and radio host extraordinaire, Ken White. What a ride this has been! Ken is a great boss and a good friend, despite what he wants you to think – he’s a good guy.

About 75% of the way through this year I decided to stop working 12 hours a day professionally. I stepped-down as a department lead and although I am still with my beloved crew for 25 years now, it is as a peer. This decision was the best one I made for the year!

My decision to sponsor the 2011 Machinima Expo was rewarded in a way that was unexpected and amazing – I met my Soul Mate at one of the after-parties. This woman’s beauty and grace, her creativity and wit and the gift of her friendship is more than I deserve and I am so very grateful that she is now in my life.

And Sam! OMG! He’s still alive and going strong. For regular readers – remember he was supposed to pass-away LAST DECEMBER??? LOL – so much for his Oncologist’s predictions.

It’s been an incredible year, really.

Tonight I’m busy prepping for our 9 hour Special Show tomorrow – booking guests from around the world and having a blast doing so.  Hope you will join us!

Until next time …

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Owning Online Experiences

Continuing my series on virtual worlds – this time with a broader brush. The internet itself. The extent to which you choose to describe it is up to you, but I think the internet itself and our dealings on it are, for the most part,  in themselves virtual. You’re not really in a bookstore when you shop on Amazon and you’re not really in the same room as your friends when you are in a chat room. These are non-persistent virtual experiences.

These experiences exist for us because we all agree on them either consciously or unconsciously. When we are in a chat room we take it for granted that everyone in that room can “hear us” – see our speech typed out. We do this because we “agree” that we are all in the same room together. But it’s not really a room, is it?

Last night I sat on a beach with friends at a bonfire, drinking wine, talking and kicking-back. The waves were rolling in, the night sky was dappled with stars, seagulls flew past and soft, relaxing music played in the background. Before we’d gone to the beach, we had watched a movie together with some of our other friends in a theater. It was a very enjoyable evening for me.

Cue the Naysayers: “But it’s NOT REAL!”

No, the theater and the beach weren’t physically “real”. But the people inhabiting the avatars and screen names were “real” as was the conversation we shared. We were having a shared experience of a being in a theater and later, on a peaceful beach together and it was those EXPERIENCES that were real.

I have many online friends, people who I have never met. They exist in my “reality” as screen names and avatars. Yet I believe that my friendships with them are very “real” because my experience of their friendship feels very “real” to me.  Some of them I have “known” for years – we have collaborated on projects together and when times got tough we have shared each others pain. Yet, for the most part, the only access I have to them is when I turn on my computer. So does this mean they are not “real”?

Of course not.

The subtle psychology that exists in my perception of experiences online is at once both extremely delicate and extremely robust. Frankly, until I began writing these articles, I never even thought about it.  Writing has forced me to think about it and distill my observations and feelings into clarity for both myself and my readers. It has also forced me to “own” my online experiences rather than passively experience them. There comes with this a feeling of mastery and definition.

The boundaries and lexicon of what we call “Virtual Reality” are not fixed things. They are as varied as the individuals who experience them. From being “in a chat room” to hanging-out “on a beach” the degrees of shared perception are only limited by our imaginations and openness to new experiences.

So, to those Naysayers who tell me “But it’s not real” – all I can say is, “It felt pretty real to me.”

Until next time …

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Merry Christmas!

To all my friends and family around the world -

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

From -

Cathy, Sam and Oscar

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