Animation @ MindSay

More to come on her later, maybe. No, I did not draw her, but I created the character.

So say you're living in Iran, 5,200 years ago. You're a potter.  You're decorating your finished product. A bowl.  This is all perfectly normal.

But someone was decidedly amazing. Some potter had the fabulous idea that if he made a goat in different stages of jumping from one plant stalk to another, he could see the goat actually JUMP if he spun his bowl.

And so he did.  You can see more about this first known animation --> here.  Blows me away. :) 

Animation discovered on 5,200-year-old pottery

A 5,200 year old piece of pottery from Iran has been discovered to embody the oldest known animation in the world -- a wild goat eating vegetation: The wild goat motif can be seen on Iranian pottery dating back to the 4th millennium BCE, as well as jewellery pieces especially among Cassite tribes of ancient Luristan. However, the oldest wild goat representation in Iran was discovered in Negaran Valley in Sardast region, 37 kilometers from Nahok village near Saravan back in 1999. The engraved painting of wild goat is part of an important collection of lithoglyphs dating back to 8000 BCE. However, wild goat representation with a tree is associated with Murkum, a mother goddess who was worshipped by all the Indo-Iranian women of the Haramosh valley in modern Pakistan, which culturally had closer ties with Indus and subsequently the Burnt City civilisations, than Mesopotamia, which could had influenced the ancient potter who made this unique piece.
Source:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/12/animation-discovered.html

Hello Mindsay, long time no see.

I'm not going to bother catching up with all the crud that’s happened since the last time I updated. I really cant be bothered with all that.

the only reason I'm doing this again is that school requires me up put up a "production research blog" (thanks Mark!) and I'm to lazy to deal with all the hassle of starting up a new account.

Ok. for this assignment (or homework or whatever) we had to read a short story by H.P Lovecraft called The Unnamable and after reading it we had to draw 4 concepts based off the monster in it.

Mark (my teacher. Awesome man, but I suspect he is quite evil) said we're doing this 'cause sometimes scripts and such we get from our employers will end up being that vague at some stage of our careers. and boy is it vague, there’s a mention of a skull with “four-inch horns, but a face and jaw something like yours and mine." wounds that seemed to some from an ape, the impression of a goats hoof and then there was the last line: “a gelatin - a slime yet it had shapes, a thousand shapes of horror beyond all memory. There were eyes - and a blemish. It was the pit - the maelstrom - the ultimate abomination.”

I gave the last sentence to my housemate and being a scientist she said it reminded her of a Macrophage I got to admit that at human size one of those would be pretty freaky. And I like how it has those string things. Now I just have to try adding horns, ape-arms and hooves to the thing.

 

Gotta say, finding research images for horns is proving to be a bit of a challenge. There are heaps of pictures of horns, just none that show how the damn things look from the inside out, or how they are formed, or anything like that. Still… Heres some horn pictures I found interesting.

 

A feral goat

 

The biggest bull horns ever

 

One, two, and the first link to some curly rams horns

 

And one page that has a whole bunch of images but hooked me with their picture of the bottom of some goats feet.

 

Some monkey skeletons to try and figure out the “APE arms” bit. There doesn’t seem to be that much on that subject on google though.

 

Some more picture of Macrophages

 

On the subject of macrophages the housemate that suggested them has access to her schools online medical texts (and unlike me knows what to look for) and she suggested some goodies like “Kala Azar” or  “Leishmaniasis” and something called “Chegas disease”

 

She now thinks I’m evil ‘cause I said that the image of the woman with Chegas was “both horrible and awesome” and accused me of perverting the suffering of innocent people into “some sideshow freak monster” and that I was a horrible person for using these people to get good grades.

 

I found that funny ‘cause she gave me the pictures from her course notes.

 

I’ll put the pics up later when I’ve converted them all to my photobucket account.

Things like this make me happy....


Do you know what else makes me happy? Getting closure, resolving issues, and feeling like a huge weight has been lifted from my heart.
I ran into Ryan today. It was quite unexpected, as I had just been standing there talking to Amy when he randomly walked up and was like "Hey Mea." I was so surprised that I actually jumped. No, I'm not exaggerating. And then, after I'd returned the greeting...I just stood there. I hadn't seen him in months or even talked to him since that fateful day back in November, right before he stood me up. I couldn't think of anything to say, so I fumbled and bumbled until he asked how I was and I was able to reply and inquire the same question. After a few moments of awkwardness, Amy (who knows everything in relation to the whole Ryan issue) was like "Well, I've got to go." and just left like that. Well, after that he asked about my classes, what I'm taking, etc., then if I had any plans/anything I needed to do right then. I didn't. Neither did he. He said he'd come on campus to check his P.O. box and to go to the bookstore and return/pick up some stuff. He asked if I wanted to go around with him. I said okay.
We walked and talked, occasionally joking, occasionally letting moments of awkward silence pass. He acted like everything was normal....like nothing had ever happened. He made a point to try to include me, though. Finishing with different errands and inviting me to go with him to do the next thing, asking me what paint brush to buy, and telling me that I had made his Ryan outing successful. He seemed to be trying to show my by his actions that I'm, for lack of better word, valued or appreciated. However, when we were getting ready to go our separate ways and he was saying it'd been good to see me, etc., I had to get some clarity and resolve this issue once and for all. And so, I swallowed my fear and simply said something along the lines of "Okay, I have to ask...if for no other reason than to just make things awkward....what is this, exactly? I know it's kind of mean to put you on the spot like this, but I need to know. I mean...do you want to be my friend?..I thought you did but I don't know. I don't want something like before to happen again. I don't want to be thinking one thing when the other person is thinking something else."
I was really surprised that I got enough nerve together to say that. But you know, if I want to be friends with him then I should feel comfortable being upfront and honest with him about that type of thing. And so, anyway, he responded, saying that yes, he does want to be my friend, what happened before was all on him, and that he knows he needs to pull his weight this time.
:)
So, we're good. And maybe in some ways even better than before. Because I had always kind of wondered in the back of my mind, "Are we friends? Are we classmates? Are we classmates on friendly terms? What the hell, man?" and now, I know. We're friends, both wanting the other's friendship. So I can act like we're friends. I don't have to feel like I need a reason to call him and see how he's doing, etc.
I feel so much better. I mean, I'm still stressed about stuff (school-related, of course), but it's unbelievable how much lighter my heart feels after talking to him about all of this. It's incredible.