Kung Fu Panda Fix
Several people told me that they missed my Kung Fu Panda updates whlie I was busy with Otakon Press Relations work. That has tapered off now, with me mainly following up on coverage and answering any remaining questions or concerns that come in. So back to your regularly scheduled programming!
Our doggie, Una, has voluntarily exchanged her Nurse Dog status for a full-fledged Nanny Dog. She follows me and Kung Fu Panda around the house, always positioning herself between us and the door. When he is crying, she stares at me with a concerned face until I do something to fix the problem.
The other day, when he fell asleep in his crib while I was taking a shower, I left him there, taking the baby monitor downstairs to enjoy a rare treat: lunch eaten with both hands! Una followed me downstairs and then, realizing I didn't have the baby, ran back upstairs and started barking outside of his room (where the door was latched, to prevent a curious cat from hopping in the crib). Then she ran back downstairs and stared earnestly at me, for all the world reminding me of Lassie running back to the farm: "Timmy's in a well!"
I assured her that I knew where he was and that he was fine, but she didn't relax from her alert mode until I finished my lunch and retrieved him. Once he was in my arms, where he belonged, she finally took a nap.
Kung Fu Panda, at eight weeks, has gained some muscle control. He no longer hits himself in the face, and his arms and legs are no longer tightly bunched all the time. One of his endearing recent habits is to stretch just one arm way above his head, like an overly eager student in class.
"He has a question," my husband, The Gryphon, will say.
"Yes? The baby in the front row. What's your question?"
So far, the question has mainly been "Eh... eh!" but this morning is was "goo!"
Anyone know how to answer that? Usually, I can't think of anything but kisses.
I participated in the "Life in a Day" project by filmmakers Kevin McDonald and Ridley Scott. All throughout July 24, I used a video camera to document little moments in the day.
Unfortunately, because of their needlessly complicated upload system, which created its own interface that brought up participant's recent videos, I was unable to share everything with them I would have liked. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the interface to display my favorite video of the day. It probably didn't help that I shot so much video that it took me several days to upload it all (constricted as I was to a few minutes here and there of stopping into the office/nursery to hit the "upload" button). Then, when I discovered that they only displayed something like 12 most recent videos, I tried marking videos "private" if I didn't want them to show up in the list. But I didn't get around to finishing this until I was at Otakon, and every time I looked, it was showing a smaller number of videos. By the time I actually submitted my videos, within minutes of the deadline, it was only showing the six most recent, and even marking videos as "private" did not bring this video into the available videos.
If the preceding explanation is too complex, I apologize. The upshot is that, however much I love this video, it will not be considered for the film project, and I think that's a shame. In many ways, it's the most genuine slice-of-life video of the entire day.
When I get time, I hope to put together my "editor's cut" of the video I shot that day. I took a lot of small segments, glimpses I hoped could be fit together to show a view of our life. Only a few videos from the later part of the day were even submitted to the project, much to my disappointment. Hopefully, at least one of them will be included in the final film.
Moral:
A project soliciting thousands of submissions should be user-friendly!
Our doggie, Una, has voluntarily exchanged her Nurse Dog status for a full-fledged Nanny Dog. She follows me and Kung Fu Panda around the house, always positioning herself between us and the door. When he is crying, she stares at me with a concerned face until I do something to fix the problem.
The other day, when he fell asleep in his crib while I was taking a shower, I left him there, taking the baby monitor downstairs to enjoy a rare treat: lunch eaten with both hands! Una followed me downstairs and then, realizing I didn't have the baby, ran back upstairs and started barking outside of his room (where the door was latched, to prevent a curious cat from hopping in the crib). Then she ran back downstairs and stared earnestly at me, for all the world reminding me of Lassie running back to the farm: "Timmy's in a well!"
I assured her that I knew where he was and that he was fine, but she didn't relax from her alert mode until I finished my lunch and retrieved him. Once he was in my arms, where he belonged, she finally took a nap.
Kung Fu Panda, at eight weeks, has gained some muscle control. He no longer hits himself in the face, and his arms and legs are no longer tightly bunched all the time. One of his endearing recent habits is to stretch just one arm way above his head, like an overly eager student in class.
"He has a question," my husband, The Gryphon, will say.
"Yes? The baby in the front row. What's your question?"
So far, the question has mainly been "Eh... eh!" but this morning is was "goo!"
Anyone know how to answer that? Usually, I can't think of anything but kisses.
I participated in the "Life in a Day" project by filmmakers Kevin McDonald and Ridley Scott. All throughout July 24, I used a video camera to document little moments in the day.
Unfortunately, because of their needlessly complicated upload system, which created its own interface that brought up participant's recent videos, I was unable to share everything with them I would have liked. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the interface to display my favorite video of the day. It probably didn't help that I shot so much video that it took me several days to upload it all (constricted as I was to a few minutes here and there of stopping into the office/nursery to hit the "upload" button). Then, when I discovered that they only displayed something like 12 most recent videos, I tried marking videos "private" if I didn't want them to show up in the list. But I didn't get around to finishing this until I was at Otakon, and every time I looked, it was showing a smaller number of videos. By the time I actually submitted my videos, within minutes of the deadline, it was only showing the six most recent, and even marking videos as "private" did not bring this video into the available videos.
If the preceding explanation is too complex, I apologize. The upshot is that, however much I love this video, it will not be considered for the film project, and I think that's a shame. In many ways, it's the most genuine slice-of-life video of the entire day.
Click to viewWhen I get time, I hope to put together my "editor's cut" of the video I shot that day. I took a lot of small segments, glimpses I hoped could be fit together to show a view of our life. Only a few videos from the later part of the day were even submitted to the project, much to my disappointment. Hopefully, at least one of them will be included in the final film.
Moral:
A project soliciting thousands of submissions should be user-friendly!