Sigh.

Yes, I'm beginning my entry with yet another "sigh."

I actually worked out our budget and figured out that Whateley and I are living paycheck-to-paycheck... on mostly Whateley's paycheck. That sucks. We're living pretty meagerly to begin with, but if we want to buy a place of our own (and raise a family one day) then I'm going to have to earn more money. Sigh.

I don't have much options. I could:

1) ask for more hours at the bookstore -- which I loathe to do since I hate retail and the thought of doing 20 more hours of it just sucks
2) get a full-time office job through a temp agency -- which I really don't want to do for many reasons, one being that I've had a job like that and it's a soul-sucking experience that leaves no time and energy for art, and two being that then my hours would completely not mesh with Whateley's and we would not ever see each other
3) get a full-time job as an animator/ tracker/ 3d-generalist/ some-entry-level-schmo-in-an-effects-or-game-studio -- which would be ideal... but I don't know when that will happen and I can't shake my stupid unmotivation and I can't seem to get my act together

Sigh.

"Be Easy" by Young Hot Rod. That's the video I worked on. I was looking for it for the longest time, and I couldn't find it, and then I realized it's because G-Unit is the name of the record label (or else it's the name of the group but the songs are by individual people), and so I did a search of the name of the song.

Anyway, I did the tracking for a number of those shots... but you can't really tell cuz the cuts are so damn short, and also they cropped a lot of the shots in close. But it's cool recognizing the footage (and realizing the shots I did were the "tame" ones). There's this really tough shot near the end where Young Hot Rod is walking funky and then he comes in close to the camera and they edited it so that it pulsed with the beat. Well... that shot was a bitch of a shot. I got done with all my work a couple of hours early on that third day, and I spent the last two hours working on that shot... and I just couldn't track that shot once he got close to the camera. Dang director. Didn't he realize he should've made him do it farther away so you could cut in close later? But I think Young Hot Rod liked the idea of strutting right up to the camera. Nevermind the hassle it was for the post people.

So... um... just waiting for my check and footage from the studio now....

This past "weekend" (which in our case is Tue-Wed) was great. We didn't play any WoW, I cleaned and vaccuumed our room (which hadn't been done in months) , and basically we had a weekend of lots of snuggling and being together non-stop. Sooo... when's the honeymoon suppose to end?

The most satisfying thing, sad to say, was getting our room clean. We had a pile of stuff on our floor that hadn't moved in months (case in point, it contained a bag with a pair of jeans, socks, and underwear... that Whateley took with him to Vegas last March when we went scouting for chapels). Yeah... we don't clean much. The pile of dust in the vaccuum cleaner was mighty. I found our wedding paperwork, and promptly realized that we now have two (not one, but two!) copies each of our wedding certificate and wedding license (cuz we got a copy when we got the license and I just sent away for one), which means that I can go to the Social Security office again and change my name. Finally.

Alright, back to procrastinating.

So I'm on the "honor grind" in WoW... and I don't know... I feel a bit guilty about it. Like, I shouldn't have the time to do this, but I am... which means that I'm neglecting something else. Which I am. For one, I have to mail a letter or call the Las Vegas Marriage License Bureau to get a copy of our marriage license so I can change my name. Two, I've got to call a company and complain that when I tried to cash in my gift certificate, they refused... which is against California law! Three... well, I'm sure you all know what #3 is.

Sigh.

I can't respond to any comments because something's wrong with blogspot.com and my blog is not coming up. So I'm sure people won't be able to read this blog until that gets fixed anyway.

Vegas was fun... though Whateley and I decided we are Vegas-ed out for the moment. We need to give that city another year for everything to reset and for old things to become new again. Besides, how much money can you shovel into Megabucks with nary a multi-million-dollar-jackpot before you give up?

We stayed at the Hilton so that we could stagger up to our room after getting drunk at the Trek bar instead of having to sober up to drive afterwards. But then we had the dinner buffet not too long before the Trek bar, so we didn't get drunk. Damn. And our room sucked. The view was nice (who knew there was a giant golf course beside the Strip?), but our bathtub drain was really slow.... and they didn't do anything to fix that while we were there. Nuth-thing. So the Hilton -- not a great hotel. In fact, the only reason to stay there is if you're attending a convention in their convention center. While we were there, they had the "Alien Encounters Convention." Sweeeeeet.

Anyway, that little trip ended up costing us about what I made on the freelance job, but then Whateley used a floating holiday... so money-wise, we're at what we'd have been at had I not had that freelance job and Whateley didn't have a floating. Dead even?

Speaking of money, I have the opportunity to move out of the cafe into selling books. The pay would be the same (I think... it's all kinds of hazy about exactly when I'm suppose to get a raise) but I wouldn't get tips. But on the other hand, I wouldn't have to deal with all the stupid people who come in and order Frappuccinos. I used to think that was funny when Whateley complained about that years ago. Back then, I was working for Dr. Evil's Evil Empire, so I was used to making Frappuccinos. But now, it's just damn annoying. I mean, Starbucks isn't the only frickin' coffeeshop in the whole world. Geez, all it takes is looking at our frickin' aprons, or the millions of Seattle's Best signs frickin' everywhere. Now, if you came in and asked if we had something similar to a Frappuccino, I don't mind. But frickin-a, don't just waltz in and order a frickin' Frappuccino! When a lady ordered a "tall soy latte" today, I felt like saying, "so you want a large soy latte? Okay!" Then have her stammer out, no, I said tall, and I'd say, yeah, tall, as in large, right, cuz we only have small, medium, and large here, like normal coffee shops.

But no... I'm too nice... or more like, too chicken to put a customer in their place like that, cuz I'm too ingrained in the "treat the customers right" mentality that I've been brainwashed with. Not to mention, if they complain, I could get fired.

People, PEOPLE!!! Don't be that person! Don't be that stupid customer that orders whatever without even checking to see if they have that item in the first place! Don't be that stupid customer who assume every coffeeshop is a Starbucks! Above all, DON'T BE A STUPID CUSTOMER!!!!!

Whateley and I will be gone for the next three days, re-living our wedding day at Las Vegas. Well... more like... the hotels are really cheap right now!

Please feel free to leave us good messages, and if we don't come back, it's because we won the Megabucks and we decided to take off for a trip around the world. Or something like that.

I got thiiiiiiiiiiis close to gaining the rank of Knight Lieutenant. Darn it.