A Free Weekend!

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.