#dystopiapiapia

December 22, 2014 - Commute Day 207

Wow!! The year is really winding down. And while this was a pretty crappy year for a lot of people (and especially the world at large-- some truly terrible events everywhere...) I am incredibly grateful for the year I've had. Especially these last couple weeks have really been fabulous in terms of wrapping up various concerns hanging over my head, and I feel maybe more fresh than ever for approaching that artificial time stamp we call the new year.

7:30 - alarm

7:55 - get out of bed

8:03 - depart in Mazda. The roads are surprisingly good~! (there was snow this weekend)

8:18 - train departs. I work on my synopsis of Dystopiapiapia for a couple of the competitions I'm submitting it to. After getting it to a point I was fairly happy with, I read various stuff about the Hobbit in my Pocket app. I think most of the critics are on the same page as I am-- entertaining, strong battle orchestration, but not enough character work done to make us really care about the characters and their plight-- particularly the ones who died. 

9:26 - train arrives in GCT. I quickly buy my January pass (so I don't forget), enjoy the stress-load taken off my brain for that (and enjoy knowing that transitchek will be aiding all of my future purchases), and grab the last Citibike on my way to work. No issues there, and I enjoy listening to the 2010 WTF Louis CK episode with Marc Maron.

9:41 - arrive at the office

December 18, 2014 - Commute Day 205

Decided that I’ve been getting to work on time so much lately, that I deserve a day to sleep in a little (weird mentality right?) Well that totally backfired. Oh well... I’m grateful I don’t work in a job where I’m in danger of being fired for being (ridiculously) late one day.

7:30 AM - alarm. I hit snooze instead of dismiss.

7:40 - alarm. I hit snooze instead of dismiss then wake myself up enough to properly hit dismiss.

9:12 - wake up. Oh boy. I try to check the phone to see when the next train is, but it’s not loading. Suddenly I see it’s at 9:39, and freak out a little... it’s barely enough time where I think maybe we could catch it. Ugh.

9:17 - depart. Liz isn’t quite as aggressive a driver as me, so we have a few slow moments.

9:38 - we see the train arriving at Peekskill and feel pretty confident we don’t catch it. I suggest that maybe we try to catch the Cortlandt train, but going the route where we don’t loop back a bunch. Pretty quickly though, we learn the direct route to Cortlandt is a dumb one... mostly speed limit 30, and even 20 at one point since you pass the school.

9:44 - we arrive in Cortlandt, and Liz says to text her once I’m on the train. 10 seconds later, I see the train pulling away, so I go back outside, and see Liz driving off in the distance. What the heck? Oh well, I figure the next train can’t be more than half an hour from now. Nope! It’s not until 10:40. I try desperately to get a hold of Liz in hopes that she can bring me to Croton-Harmon (or back to peekskill), but no dice. Oh well... I try to get some stuff done, even downloading a sketchup model from work, hoping to receive some kind of useful direction so I can feel like I’m using this time productively, but nope. Oh well, definitely one of those moments where it’s a good test to let go of that which I have no control over (though I did briefly consider walking (nope, 5 miles) or a taxi (is it really worth it?). I give myself a B.

10:40 - train departs. I write a bunch of this stuff and work on Dystopiapiapia editing. I’m falling into more of a rhythm now. It’s easy when all I do is watch until I see something I don’t like, then try to fix it. Good stuff.

11:41 - train arrives in Grand Central. What? But it... made extra stops. So confusing. Express from Tarrytown, apparently good luck! Oh well, no Citibike trouble. Well... the seat was kind of high :)

12:01 - arrive at office.

December 17, 2014 - Commute Day 204

Still no dice with my computer. Last night Ian and Lindsay dropped their dog Bonnie off with us. It should be a fun week with her, but she can also be loud. Good thing we're not in an apartment anymore!

7:30 - alarm. I hit dismiss.

7:50 - oh crap I need to drive myself to work today! Bah! Get up quick!

8:03 - I depart the house on my own in the Mazda. Liz and I for the first time are using separate cars today! Road is muddy.

8:15 - arrive at the train station just as the train is arriving, but ah crap it looks like I don't have time to put money in the meter. Also I can't find metered parking! Looks like I'm risking it and not putting money in. I run to the train and, after falling over and having trouble getting back up (heavy laptop bag), make it onto the train.

8:18 - train departs. I find a comfy seat with leg room so I can stretch out and use my laptop. I'm really not in the mood to work, so guess what? I start editing Dystopiapiapia and things go great. I basically just start at the beginning of the movie on Night 3, watch until I see something I would like to see improved, then search the other nights for a good, matching camera angle. Fun! 

9:25 - train arrives at GCT. No trouble finding a bike. I listen to Benedict Cumberbatch on Nerdist-- what a cool, grateful, grounded guy. I'll never forget how excited I was the first time I heard his name spoken out loud.

9:38 - I feel kind bad taking the last open citibike spot when another woman is struggling with one of the dead ones, but there wasn't really a way to reserve mine for her (other side of the station), and if I had to bike to another station it kind of negates the point of me leaving the house and risking a parking ticket when I did (so I can leave on time). So I feel bad, but there it is. 

9:42 - arrive at office after a nice chat with Jules Fisher on the elevator about marketing my Oculus Rift/ Google Cardboard skills.

December 12, 2014 - Commute Day 201

Packed up my motherboard last night and am shipping it back to NewEgg today. I hope that's what's broken and not anything else!

7:30 AM - alarm. OKAY I'm getting up, gosh darnit. 

7:55 - really get up.

8:06 - depart. we see the train arriving, so decide to go the extra mile (or 10) and run over to Croton. Could have made it to Cortlandt, but we played it safe.

8:33 - train departs Croton. I'm trying to keep up a habit now of having a simple, half-hour task where if I complete it, I can do something more relaxing like reading. After procrastinating by running through feedly, I tried to get myself to apply to a playwriting competition (always a struggle for some reason), and found that I needed something like Adobe Acrobat. So I decided to take another look at Dystopiapiapia (since that's what I'd be submitting) and hey! Guess what? There were things I wanted to change. Cool! Worked on Act 1 for most of the trip, then once we got underground I switched to listening to 'Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan,' where they basically just made me glad that I stopped watching Sleep Hollow.

9:26 - train arrives at GCT. I'm carrying my NewEgg box so no biking.

9:34 - delayed 6 train departs.

9:49 - arrive at office. 

November 3, 2014 - Commute Day 174

Another busy super fun weekend with friends. Becca and Blake this time. We played board games and went hiking. Last night Liz and I watched Edge of Tomorrow, and it was fantastic. Rent it! Watch it! Buy it! Also, thanks to the time change, we went to sleep early. Ultimately didn't make much of a difference!

7:30 AM - alarm

8:16 - get up

8:30 - depart

8:41 - arrive at train station

8:44 - train departs. I work on editing Dystopiapiapia but am now starting to run into the processing limitations of the laptop-- it takes a few seconds to refresh any given frame, and that makes precise editing rather difficult. 

9:44 - train arrives. I left my keys (and helmet) at work on Friday, so no biking. The subway was fine. 

10:05 - arrive at office.

Total commute time this morning: 1:35

October 29, 2014 - Commute Day 171

Whew. Got home about 1:30 AM after night 1 of a big ol' Revit charette with FMS and their Renzo Piano LA Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Surprised that on the ride home I found the energy to work on my Dystopiapiapia videos. 

7:30 AM- alarm

8:12 - get up. ughhhh so tired.

8:28 - depart

8:44 - train departs. I start by working more on my review of Scenes from a Marriage (why is this taking me so long?), and then move on to editing Act 1 of Night 03 of Dystopiapiapia. Surprised I can pull this off on a laptop!

9:48 - train arrives. It takes like 7 minutes to get a bike. And the 'sex attack' move that's supposed to work on yellow bikes didn't work. Boo. 

September 25, 2014 - Commute Day 164

Late night in the office last night, but still was home by about 10:20. Can't say that was the case at Vinoly particularly often! 8:11 AM - I do not remember my alarm going off, but I guess this was the first time I looked at the clock. Weird... I was awake for a solid hour beforehand, but just thought it was much earlier.

8:25 - Depart for train

8:39 - Arrive at train

8:43 - Train departs. I'm reading over Dystopiapiapia one final time and 'punching it up' (though I think I learned from making my Sims film that that's never really the case). I really like this play and hope it can continue to find new life in other productions, completely independent of my involvement. Also started reading a little bit of Deadeye Dick, which I don'y remember particularly well. Oh look, another end of the world scenario! I guess Kurt and I share that interest in common. 9:46 - Train arrives. Oh crap look at all that rain.

9:48 - Got a wet bike. 

10:00 - Arrive at my office, more than a little wet.