I need you all to do something for me...

All 5 of you that bother to read this blog. I need you to go learn to play baseball. Just do it, man I use cliches as much my former supervisor wore hideous wigs in place of any good taste. AHHH, my analogies are even worse.

Back to my request.

Anyway, don't learn how to play baseball with a coach or any formal team with practices. Just on your own, in your free time. You can read books about how to play, watch games and discuss the game with your friends that you play with on the weekend. The last part will be very helpful.

Now that you're the best in your neighborhood/block/office/borough, I have one more step in my program. I need you all to go to baseball camp or fantasy camp run by a professional, or former professional, baseball player. This needs to be a quality camp with guys who have been playing baseball while they in their mom's stomach. It also needs to have other pros on the staff as well to guide you along.

The final step in this program is how you look compared to your peers. No matter how you try and look at it, unless you were blessed with some odd baseball godlike abilities, it's going to be an ego killer. Not just a killer you'll suddenly realize why the little league kid that picked his nose, and proceeded to lick said finger, played in right field, the virtual no-flyball-zone/no-man's land.

I currently am that kid, minus the public nosepicking.

Ego busted. Completely humbled.

The easy concepts are outside of my ability to animate. I don't mind starting from the bottom but it's sucks to go from a small time champ, UD animation with Tim, to global loser, AM. The global stage of which I speak is still school. This time my classmates are from the around world, for real. Nimisha and Muddusar are from India. Eyal from Israel. Jac, pronounced yauk, is from South Africa and Roberto from Costa Rica. Russia, Italy, Germany, the UK and the US, are there for some additional flavoring.

Not only do my animations noticeably fall short but their sketches add to my suddenly heightened awareness of suckitude. While it's not her fault the video part of the eCrit helps because you can read dana's face like a book, the wow-it-hurts-to-watch-this-I've-just-watched-10-more-enjoyable-animations-your's-is-the-pits types comments, while she says nice things out loud about your assignment. Oy. (For the record I don't believe Dana is that cruel but if I could show you the crtitiques, and I can't, you would understand what I'm talking about.)

Needless to say I have a lot of work ahead of me. The road isn't paved. Instead someone decided to throw pebbles the size of boulders directly in front of me, I realize that if a pebble is the size of a boulder it is a boulder (screw you, I'm writing here.)

Here is a preliminary list of things I need to work on:

-setting aside more time to get the assignment done

-reading the asignment and keeping it handy (in a hard copy form)

-making sure to take better notes from the lectures

-ask Dana more questions, even the stupid ones

-analyze my work more closely, and tell you all what's wrong with my work

-attention to detail, detail is the key (slogan from basic training, from when first got off the bus)

-work on my drawing (this is something I'm not sure I can fit in to my schedule at the moment but I'll try)

-make shorter posts to keep my readers

-make longer posts because "Reading is FUNdamental!" (GAH! Will the cliches ever end.)

-find other ways to express myself in writing (get a staff writer)

Now all I need is a sponsor to make sure I stay on the horse and AA, Animators Anonymous, should be a breeze. This post is getting excessively long. Time to go to work.

Which reminds me, shouldn't I be working right now?