January 2006 Archives
Ah... Last weekend I had to work overtime to meet a deadline for Charlotte's Web, the current film I'm working on. The deadline for us is the beginning of March, while the film will premiere in December. We're still on track, but it was nice to not work OT this weekend.
Since Lisa gave me a poker set for Christmas, I thought it only appropriate to try and organize a poker night here at our humble abode. So, Friday night, I had a bunch of coworkers and significant others over to play No Limit Texas Hold'em. We held two games, the first with eight people, and the next with six. We had an enjoyable time! The buy-in was five dollars, since it was the first time for several of us. I did fairly well among the group, winning the first game . Not too bad. Unfortunately, the second game I ended up being the first one eliminated! You win some, you lose some.
On Saturday, Lisa and I went out to see Underworld: Evolution, the sequel to Underworld, with Kate Beckinsdale. It was surprising violent and gruesome, but definitely excellent. Way better than I expected. What, exactly, can you expect from a werewolf vs. vampire movie? If you liked the first Underworld, this film will definitely appease your bloodlust for a sequel. Lot's of sweet visual effects, some mediocre animation and comping, but nothing that truly detracted from the film as a whole. The werewolf transformation effects were much nicer this time around than the first film.
For most of Sunday I've been working away on AutoCAD 2006, learning the ins and outs, ultimately planning a manufacturing design that will allow me to send an .stl file (rapid prototyping, stereolithography) to a manufacturer for a prototype. I'm not sure how long it will take me to get through the tutorials. It's been ages since I even looked at AutoCAD. Probably a good ten years. It's definitely advanced over the years! I'm about a quarter of the way through the book. While I'm designing the prototype, Lisa is comparing the various business types, and what is the best for our situation. In my free time I've been searching through the USPTO patents for a similar item to what I'm developing, and I haven't found anything. That's a good sign. I've decided that I'll probably license the technology as opposed to marketing it myself. The main reason being that I don't have the widespread contacts that my possible competitors have! So license the tech to them, and take a royalty. We'll see how that goes. I'm still on schedule to have real, working prototype by the end of the month. I ended up creating one out of wood and aluminum, and the concept is sound, but need tighter tolerances that only stereolithography can provide.
Lisa's green card process hasn't really been started yet. We will receive the final paperwork from our lawyer tomorrow. We'll check it over, and then send it off to the Department of Homeland Security.
So, after several years of not regularly updating friends on my where-abouts and goings on and the like, I've added a bunch of you to the notify list for this blog. So now you know exactly what I've been up to! I'm going to try and post something one or twice a month to keep you all informed. If you don't want to be on the list, let me know, and I'll remove you promptly.
We had an enjoyable time this weekend with Lynn visiting. On Saturday we did the driving tour of San Francisco and the surrounding areas. We started out by going up Twin Peaks in San Francisco to catch a very sweet view of the city, and then driving down the street to see the Painted Ladies, a collection of houses near Alamo Square that represent the city's classic Victorian homes. The weather was fairly clear, with patches of fog here and there. After the Painted Ladies, we went down several streets to Lombard, where for the four or fifth time, I drove down it. It was much less busy on a Saturday morning in January that it was last year during the summertime! After Lombard Street, we headed east towards the Presidio, where ILM is now located. This 1430 acre National park contains an assortment of wonderful buildings. You can also live on the Presidio complex! We searched the area for ILM and we found it at the entrance to the Presidio in the Letterman Digital Arts complex. There is a lifesize bronze statue of Yoda which adorns the front of the building, and it's pretty cool.
After the Presidio, we journeyed across the Golden Gate and up into the Marin Headlands, where we encountered fog and a flurry of rain! Such a shame, since the view of the Golden Gate is magnificent from that vantage point. We continued through the Headlands and eventually found our way into Sausalito, which was also slightly fogged and rained in. Since it was so rainy, we didn't stop for a picnic as we had hoped to do, instead driving home over the Richmond bridge and eating our picnic at home. The evening ended nicely with dinner with Kent and Bonnie in the city. We had some excellent sushi in the Castro district.
On Sunday we awoke late in the morning, and after a healthy dose of pancakes prepared by Lisa, we started the drive towards Monterey. The traffic was light, yet busy. The two hour, 140 mile drive was uneventful, and the weather was gorgeous. We stopped in Cannery Row and browsed the stores, and ended up leaving with some nice hot sauces, a poster, and some fudge. The Monterey Bay aquarium is usually a half day affair, and we didn't have the time. At the adult admission price of $21.95, I think it was the right choice to miss this time around. We drove around Monterey for a while, going down the coast along Pacific Grove. Usually I would drive down 17 Mile Drive, but since we had gotten there later than usual, we decided to skip it this time. We did see more of the wonderful coast coming up Highway 1, and saw the sun set around 5pm! Last night ended with a dinner of lamb and artichokes that we picked up from a roadside store.
Happy New Year everyone! Things are going well here in the Bay area. We've just had some amazing rainfall this past week. Flooding, chaos, mayhem. Other than the torrential rain, it was quite nice. We stayed inside during the week. We had some friends over from my work to talk and introduce Lisa to the people I hang out with down here! Quite fun.
Christmas was nice this year as well. Lisa and I had a budget of 100 dollars this year, just like last year. It's nice to have limits. ;) Lynn, Lisa's sister, came down on Friday of last week, when it was raining hard. Her flight was delayed coming out of Vancouver and landing at SFO by a couple of hours. It was quite a drive, but the MINI handled the rain well. No slipping and sliding. The only pain was the fog! She'll be here for another week, before flying back to Vancouver. The two of them are spending the time visiting San Francisco and the surround locales, and this weekend we'll probably take a drive up the coast or down the coast. The weather is quite sunny now, but the rain isn't supposed to be over yet!
It's a new year, and with that, come new resolutions. 2006, I think, it's going to be a time of innovation and progress for this west coast Inversin household. Lisa and I are discussing a pet, but we'll see. Once a dog or cat or bird or kid come around, it'll be tough to go overseas to work for a while! In addition to the pets or kids discussion, business plans still bloom to my mind. I've been reading up a bit more on the types of businesses, and I'm hoping we settle on one this month or next. I have some brilliant plans on paper, so we'll see what this year brings on that front.
We just finished applying for Lisa's green card this week, and all that remains is for our lawyer to prepare the paperwork and for us to sign it. I'm hoping it will be sent off by mid month. Roughly 4-6 months later, Lisa should have permanent residence! Won't that be nice.
I talked to a bunch of coworkers about possible manufacturing possibilities for this product I'm developing. For this particular one, I hope to have a prototype by the next time we play paintball! That would be nice. I came up with yet another idea this morning, and hopefully will have a working prototype this evening, or if I put it off, this weekend! I've been looking at a provisional patent (which allows patent pending) for it. It only costs $500 for the filing (199 for application, 299 for patent search), and I have a year to file the actual, proper, patent application. If I can get this prototype working by this weekend, I'll be filing by mid-month, and then the rest of the year will be testing and customer feedback and manufacturing. Yay! By this time next year I hope to have the actual patent filed and have a number! Provided that no one else has thought of this. :) I haven't found anything like it on the net, so we'll see.
