News:
Elena and I are now in Sunnyvale, California. The family friends we’re staying with already have broadband connection setup (and compared to the cable connection I had in China, theirs is blazing fast), so I’m actually typing this on my own desktop workstation (which was taken apart and flew with us on the plane). However, for some reason my powersupply isn’t powering any of my hard drives, and I had to use an external power connector to power the hard drive with Windows on it. Unfortunately, everything that’s important are kept on the other hard drives (I never store anything important on the OS drive, in case I have to reformat and reinstall the OS), including all of my works, email archives, pictures, mp3’s, videos..etc. Tomorrow I’ll get a new power supply and see if that changes anything.
Weblog:
We survived the trip, coming out the other end of San Francisco International Airport with only sore shoulders and backs, a throat infection, and sleep deprivation (children who won’t stop crying or shut up throughout the flight). Our luggages were overweight–all of them, but no one charged us any penalty fee–locally or internationally. We felt blessed.
While on the plane, we watched every movie they showed, because we couldn’t sleep with the spawns of Satan crying non-stop anyway. Watching Kingdom of Heaven for the second time made me like it even less than the first time. During some parts, it felt like Ridley Scott was bored out of his mind–as if he was just going through the motions. Seeing Bourne Supremacy for the second time also wasn’t as fulfilling as the first time (although it’s still a good movie). Seeing it the second time, the handheld cam and the quick cutting got a bit annoying. It’s a style of photography that’s overused these days, and when most people use it, they almost always overdo it instead of using it in appropriate amounts and during appropriate times.
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Tomorrow begins a long string of things I need to take care of–get car insurance, a cell phone, replace my workstation’s powersupply, change of ownership for my car (my dad is awesome–he’s got an old Acura in great shape he’s not using, so he just hands it over to me. Saves us the headache of going car-shopping)..etc. I also need to teach Elena how to drive (oh joy!)–which probably won’t as scary as many think it would be. I’ve taught ex-GF’s how to drive in the past, and I managed to get through each time without exploding with impatient anger–which I’m sure some husbands/boyfriends would find impossible. I’m pretty mellow when it counts. 😀
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While looking at a bunch of concept art a few days ago, it occured to me that as amazing and imaginative some of them are, on their own, they collectively convey a singular notion, and that is “what if?” Presenting the “what if’s” is what good concept art should do, and the answers to the “what if’s” are the stories the concept artworks support–be it a screenplay, a video game, or a comic book. Inevitably, the what if’s are never as exciting as the answers, because our curiosity is only satiated by answers, not questions. I think that’s precisely why I’ve always been a storyteller at heart and an artist second–the story is what engages my emotions and intellect.
