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1,145 subpoenas

Apparently there are 1,145 subpoenas in the RIAA database, are you one of them? Find out here:

EFF: RIAA Subpoena Database Query Tool

Suspended Animation

Ever wonder what the Disney Animation studios were up to these days? Well, they're going through a radical change right now. They're basically reinventing themselves from the ground up. If this change will be seen as a success or a failure is still yet to be seen. Here's an angry article that gives a somewhat accurate description of what's going on:

MousePlanet | Mouse Tales with David Koenig

Top Grossing Animated Film

Yesterday "Finding Nemo" became the officially top-grossing animated film in U.S. History at $328,517,513 (this doesn't take inflation into account). But I doubt you'll hear any fan fare from Disney while they're still in contract negotiations.

Shrek 4D

In-between working on the ill fated Shrek Imax and Shrek 2, I worked on a project called Shrek 4D. Shrek 4D is a ride at Universal Studios. You can check it out in Florida, California, and somewhere in Japan. Now Shrek 4D has a making off website. It's pretty cool, it has lots of video and what-not. You won't see me in any of the video, but you can see my name listed in the credits. Check it out:

Link

End of August Stuff

Not a lot going on. Allison has friends coming to visit so we’ve been cleaning the place up a bit. It’s always nice to have a clean place every once in a while. Of course we’re always cleaning the place up for other people not for our selves. Allison’s friends are going to stay on Friday, and then they’re going to go drive to Santa Cruse on a photo shoot. Apparently there are a lot of fun things to photograph in Santa Cruse. I’ll be staying here. I’ll be working on our new website and going to a party that one of the animators are throwing.

I’ve also been busy ripping our CD collection onto our hard drive. I think I’m about 20% done. I’ve already used up 20G.




Birthday Recap:
Allison, Mel, and Mariko decorated my cube at work in Skull and Cross Bone flags, Black Balloons, Tomb Stones and Black Beaded curtains (I wonder what they’ll do when I turn 40). That evening we all came home and watched Logan’s Run (RENEW!!).

Allison got me a new Gameboy SP
Mom & Pop got me a Linski Wireless networking hub and a cool pop up book
Mel & Brian got me a Book on Ventriloquist Dummies written by our director.
Devin got me a great book of Jean Dinch’s Comics when he worked for a Jazz Record magazene.

All in all it was a good hall.

Other then that it’s been life back to normal.

Happy Birtday To Me!!





Today I turn 30. That means I'm no longer a kid. I'm still waiting for my "I'm 30" crises to start. Seriously. I know no one believes me, but I still haven't had the "I'm getting older" crises that everyone has been talking about. Maybe it'll hit me later today, maybe later this year, or maybe I just have to wait until I'm 31. Until then, it's just another milestone birthday to me:) When that crises does hit, I'll be sure to Blog it.
I might add that when I turned 22 I did go through a minor "You won't stay young" and "old age--->death is now a real possibility" kind of crises, so maybe I was just an early bloomer.
Anyway, I'm not 30 I'm still exactly one year younger then Ben Affleck, and unlike him I've never had Botox! And unlike him, I still haven’t been paid millions of dollars to appear in a high budget lo plot feature film like "Pearl Harbor".
Here's all the people born on August 15 that I could muster of the internet:

1972 Ben Affleck - actor

1968 Debra Messing - actress

1967 MCA - rapper (Beastie Boys)

1950 Tess Harper - actress

1950 Princess Anne - daughter of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, sister of Princes Charles

1945 Gene Upshaw - football player

1944 Linda Ellerbee - TV journalist, TV hostess

1942 Peter York - drummer (Spencer Davis Group)

1933 Bobby Helms - singer

1925 Oscar Peterson - jazz pianist

1925 Mike Connors - actor

1925 Rose Marie - actress

1925 Bill Pinkney - bassist (The Drifters)

1912 Wendy Hiller - actress (Oscar winner, 1958)

1912 Julia Child - chef, author

1887 Edna Ferber - author

1879 Ethel Barrymore - actress (Oscar winner, 1944)

1771 Sir Walter Scott - author

1769 Napoleon Bonaparte - French emperor

But on the other hand, I think I have a lot in common with Napoleon and Julia Child. Maybe there is some truth to this whole astrology thing after all.




Also this happend today:

This Day in History
1057: Macbeth, King of Scotland, was slain by the son of King Duncan (former king of Scotland).
1620: The Mayflower set sail from Southampton with 102 Pilgrims.
1914: The Panama Canal opened (under budget).

And Last butn not least, here's The San Jose Mercury News Horoscope:

Look beyond the obvious, and don't get tied up in your stuff. Detach and intellectualize if need be. Do needed research. An important no-no is having a knee-jerk reaction; instead, see a problem with some distance. Tonight: ***** Respond to e-mail invitations and take off ASAP.

As if you needed one: Another reason to oppose the RIAA

This scary piece of speculation came across my desk today:

STEALING THE INTERNET
The RIAA's recent rash of lawsuits over alleged file swapping on the Web is
only a small part of a larger plan to reshape the Internet, argue Jeff
Chester and Steven Rosenfeld. A cadre of Internet, software and
entertainment companies are working to create a pricing structure for
different levels of broadband service and content, threatening to render
moot the Web's early promise as a free medium of exchange. Last week a
coalition including Amazon.com, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Disney and others
told Congress that ISPs should be able to impose volume-based fee
structures, a proposal that would force lower-income users to limit the
amount of content they can access. The potential for Internet "metering,
monitoring and monetizing" has led to various new business ventures while
delaying others, including the introduction of next-generation digital
television, as the industry "figure[s] out how to impose [its] pricing model
-- to extend [its] current distribution and sales monopoly." While the
authors agree that a fee-based introduction of some high-bandwidth content
may be legitimate, they also caution that public interest content, such as
streamed video of political candidates or public meetings, should clearly be
exempted from this model, striking a balance between "private sector goals
and public policy needs."
SOURCE: TomPaine.com; AUTHORS: Jeff Chester and Steven Rosenfeld
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8528

Want a Job at Micorsoft?

Here's an interesting read. Its tells about the much hyped interview process they have at Microsoft:

Link