SPONGENEWS 2003

June 19, 2006
Blog blog blog! Everyone has a Blog They're easy. They're free. They're SO QUICK TO UPDATE!

Bah!

You know, THIS, This "web log" that I keep here at Nakedsponge, this is the real deal. It's hard to update, slow, complicated, confusing... why would I want a simple, easy, user friendly setup when I can code by hand with this outdated HTML tool that's three versions old? Why?

Yeah, I couldn't think of any good reasons either.

So I've set up a "prototype" blog; which, if it works and I dig the testing, will become the "NEW" NakedSponge. This'll still stay active, of course, it'll just be a link from the NEW Blog; like "Click here for NakedSponge 1.0; the original, still online for your continued enjoyment". It's just a pain to update and I figured I'd try something new.

Click on over to the "new" NakedSponge (which hanging out temporarily at another of my domains while it's in "beta") and let me know what you think. It's even got little comment boxes, like all the other Blogs.

I have been... assimilated!


June 18, 2006
We're BACK!

MAN, that was frustrating. Talk about bad timing - I was moving the control of my domain away from iPowerWeb (my old host) to GoDaddy (which is way easier to manage). However as soon as I started the transfer - which I did while I was at work - my home email had received a message (which I didn't get) from my current host, Midphase, who had decided to move me to a faster server. All I had to do was change my DNS pointers and I'd be good to go.

Problem is, once I started the domain resistration transfer, I couldn't make any changes to it - and the fucking transfer took a WEEK! A WEEK to do something on the INTERNET! Have you ever heard anything so stupid.

So that was the problem. The domain finally moved over last night, I changed the DNS settings, and we're back online.

I was thinking of actually doing an overhaul anyhow; anyone tried iWeb? It looks really pretty. Someone send me an email if it's worth picking up.


June 01, 2006
Who wants to go to the US this weekend!

I'm borrowing a truck to drive down to Target in Washington State to pick up one of these babies. It's on sale! Anyone want to come along for a happy saturday jaunt to the USA? Fun times! Give me a yell. I got the gas covered, all you have to do is help me lift this monster into the back of a truck. Then into an elevator. It's actually going to my work where it will play a very imporant role - on cocktail fridays! Hey, it's "jungle" themed show, so every couple of friday afternoons I make jungled-themed cocktails for the crew.

and NO, I don't wear the hat while I'm making the drinks.

Speaking of work, the Blog for my new series is online. It's still really rough but it's operational. I'm trying out "Wordpress" which is a PHP powered blogging engine; if it works well, it my even replace this old decrepit page! Yeah, the ol' Sponge is getting a little long on the tooth. She needs a new coat of paint... or something.


May 28, 2006
Lach's most recent africa adventure update is now online!.


May 25, 2006
Do you subscribe to anything? Magazines? Email newsletters? The "tequila of the month" club?

Well, I bet I'm one up on you. I subscribe to BUTTER CHICKEN.

Yes, as previously written, the couple who maintain my building run a little side business - they sell Butter Chicken and Rice for seven bucks a serving (and it's one big-ass serving) on the weekends. I bumped into them last week and explained that whenever they have food, they are HIGHLY encouraged to knock on my door and let me know. So for the past three weeks, at 7pm sharp on Saturday night, there's this little knock-knock-knock on the door and presto, dinner is served.

A BUTTER CHICKEN subscription service. Savory goodness, delivered to my door with a smile. Can it get any better?

Lach sent in a load of photos - a final recap of his trip. It's been really busy and I haven't had time to get to them (George is now in full swing, and the evenings are the only time I have to read scripts, which leaves little time for internet updates). I've resized them all for the web and hope to have them up and posted in a day or two. Sorry for the delay buddy...

talk soon! Love kev.


May 05, 2006
Big Daddy Gio has joined our elite clique of online supernerds.


April 23, 2006
Whoah, long time no update. Sorry! Been a little busy. George starts design tomorrow, which should be fun - be great to finally have a crew kicking around (pre production has only been a few of us so far). I'm hoping to put together a "behind the scenes" Blog for the series, but that has to clear certain channels first. Should be fun if it gets the green light!

Lach has gone and done a final report from his Africa trip - check it out at the Lach Africa page.

So, my building - it's mostly young people. The couple who do the maintanence are this really lovely east indian husband and wife team, and they've taken up a side business - the wife cooks up a load of grub, and friday and saturday nights they stand in the lobby with a little basket of take-away indian food and sell it to all the bachelors who are too lazy to cook. Let me tell you, for seven bucks you get the best god damned Butter Chicken I've ever had in my LIFE! I hope they sell it every weekend! Now only can they maintain a building, but DAMN, man, can that lady COOK!

Oh, and here's something fun. My pad is pretty wee - it's only one room. I've dreamed of building a little loft bed that would allow me to ditch my back-breaking futon and sleep on a real, honest to goodness mattress - but building someting like that would probably set me back 300 bucks in lumber alone, say nothing of the fact that I can hardly work a hammer, let alone build something complicated. So when I saw THIS beauty for sale in my apartment, well, no brainer! I was totally awesome, the perfect size, and already built!

The problem is, while it's advertised as "designed to be dismantled and re-constructed", that is, in fact NOT the case. The guy who assembled it used, for the most part, nails. Now, I'm nut much of a carpenter, but I do know that the nail is pretty much a "one time" use kinda thing. So after skippy had beat the thing apart, I helped him lug it piece by piece down to my apartment (and man, we're talking a shitload of wood) where he spent the next two hours trying to remember how to put it back together. When we started screwing, it became this wobbly, crooked mess - and then he decided he was "too tired" to continue. So all the bits sat in my apartment until this morning, when he called to tell me that he didn't think he'd be able to put it back together at all, and even if he did, it may not be the safest thing going. So all the wood had to go BACK upstairs again. Yahoo.

Long and short of it - I'm back to sleeping on the Futon. I tried to make up for my lost day trying my hand at online poker (I used a Beadle drawing for my avatar!) only to end up losing a hundred dollars. I fucking HATE online poker. I am ready to give up. Conservative, Aggressive, middle of the road, it makes no fucking difference. ALWAYS just out of the money on tournaments and ALWAYS losing on the river. Faaaaakkkkk!

...BEST WEEKEND EVER!

Friday night was fun, though, we geeked out at Hopkins house. A few sets of Guitar Hero, a half dozen Xboxes all networked together, and a shitload of booze. Good times!

As you were.


March 31, 2006
I am a total idiot.

I left work late, picked up my backpack containing my iPod (which was loaded with my "homework" - a load of work I needed to review this weekend at home (scripts, springboards, outlines, the works) and headed off to the local mall's foodcourt for a cheap lonely dinner.

And I left my bag in the fucking food court!!

My iPod! MY SCRIPTS! Fuck! I hope the person who finds it is too stupid to figure out how to enable it as a firewire device and just deletes it. Well, no, I hope the person who found my bag and didn't hand it in to the lost and found gets hit by a BUS, but failing that, if they can just delete my iPod and NOT post all the scripts on the internet that would be a good thing.

They were only first drafts and have a long way to go.

You know, well, on a positive note, now I have an excuse to pick up a new video one. That G3 20 gig was getting a little long in the tooth.


March 20, 2006
God damned Ebay cancelled my auction! Fuckers! Apparently a fucking BB gun is considered a deadly weapon and could be use for horrific acts of destruction and foul deeds. What a load of crap. I can buy THIS on Ebay, which I'm pretty sure has the ability to inspire more foul deeds than a fucking BB gun. What dinks. It was up over 400 bucks! I can't even see who the top bidder was either to email him personally since they've locked the whole thing down. Bah!

Anyhow, Chris Buckley found this gem of a link - You may know that I'm a bit of a fan of Japanese culture. They have the coolest gadgets, crazy awesome history, and when you flip on the TV you get to watch shit like this. You can also buy a fucking Airsoft gun in Japan, too, like, in a store and nobody gives a rats ass. Japan rocks.

Fucking Ebay.


March 12, 2006
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then, I guess I should be flattered!

Oh, and for those of you who complain that I have "too many toys and too much crap" in my apartment, I am taking steps to get rid of things I don't use anymore. I PAINS ME to sell this thing, but I figure if I get rid of the stuff that's hardest for me to part with first, it's sort of like taking off a band-aid quickly.

Can you believe Ebay charged me NINE DOLLARS to list this thing? PLUS they get a cut of the sale price! Damn, no wonder they were able to buy Skype for four billion dollars.

I hope I didn't set the reserve price too high. Then again, I do really enjoy shooting holes in pop-cans with this thing. It rips carboard boxes to ribbons!


March 05, 2006
This is NUTS! A few days ago the marketing manager at my new studio asked me if I wouldn't mind answering a few questions from Animation World News, which is pretty much the "world hub" for animation info. I thought Studio B was looking for a couple one-liners that they mght take, rework, and use as thier own... well was I wrong!

Check out this online panel - with ME as one of the key speakers! How craza is this, my opinions and thoughts about the animation business are up there with the giants of the industry like Fred Seibert. Rick Mischel laid me off three years ago, and according to this article my opinions are on par with his. HA

Bananas.

Check out the article here - i need better photos for next time, I look DREADFUL. If you don't want to wade through it all, my photo is on page 4.


February 26, 2006
Lach has completed his mission (albiet not quite in the manner he had envisioned). Check the latest (and possibly final) update to his Africa saga.


February 21, 2006
Some guy has gone and charted the ENTIRE REALM of "Electronica". Not only has he listed every possible genre and sub-genre (and there are a LOT of them) he's got friggin' SAMPLES, so you can hear exactly what the differences are between the genres. How are Tribal & Tech House different? Dive in and take a peek. Some of the comments are pretty funny. While he's obviously not much of a Trance fan (he says that Trance began to "die" right around 1996 or 1998 (sadly enough, around the time I decided to start playing it) he does have his shit down in terms of what defines the genres: click on "Classic Trance" and the first sample that plays is "Age of Love", with Speedy J's "Fill 25" a few steps behind. Yup, you got it.

...I mean, fucking Age of Love! Man, I still love that god damned song. I remember hearing it for the first time in, I think, 1993... or 1992? At a nightclub in Budapest. Aaah, memories. It was the dawning of a new age! Lyrics were for sissies and nerds playing records were the new rock stars.

The kid dates himself, though. When making fun of the sub-genre called Dream Trance, saying it was Trance for Soccer-moms (and I agree with him) he mentioned that he heard Robert Miles "Children" at his first rave. Pfah. I got started way, WAY before that! See, here's a ticket from my first rave. And here is what happened at my first rave; it got shut down, and I ended up in the back of a police cruiser charged with "inciting a riot" and "disturbing the peace" (some nice girls eventually convinced the Police Man that I was no real threat and he let me go).

Anyhow, the site is a fantastic resource for anyone who's remotely interested in electronic music. Hell, I may just go dust off some records, lay down a mix, and toss a couple of shoes in the dryer.


February 19, 2006
Arthur C Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Go back in time a thousand years, and show someone a pen-light and you'd either be worshipped as a living god or be burned at the stake. There's no magic - just technology we haven't figured out yet.

But when I see stuff like this, I think we're getting closer. God, look at that video. How fucking amazing. This is the future. Computers that just WORK. Effortlessly. Flawlessly. Intuitively.

I see shit like this and I get excited. VERY excited. I'm a geek, and to me, this is geek porn. I stare at the screen and say silly stuff like:

"My God. It's full of stars".

Anyhow, the Future. Bring it on. (Props to Cam for the link).


February 06, 2006
More from Lach! Vegas this weekend!

Poor Mario.


February 03, 2006
In a fit of nerd frenzy, I've gone and set up an Xbox section. They had this little demo on how to put your GamerCard online and I kind of went overboard. If you're on this list and there's no photo, mail me one! If you're not on this list, well, buy a 360 you doink! Drink the Kool-aide and become one of us!


January 30, 2006
HA! National Post! Half Page! Here it is small, and here's a bigger version.


January 29, 2006

Hey's ALIVE! Lach's sent us an update from the wildes of Africa. Check the Lach page for more info!


January 25, 2006
So, my new gig. Yeah! Going great. The only real "minus" is the commute to work. See, I usually walk to work. Cause, you know, the gym. Let's be honest - I'm not gonna go. Like, ever. Not even with the PSP on the treadmill playing movies. So I walk. The walk to my last job was nice; a 20 minute jaunt along a reasonably quiet street, next to a park, with a gentle incline at the end that made ol' ticker beat a bit.

But, see, the NEW walk to work... yeah, it's not so nice. I hike straight down Main. The BEST part of the city. See, I love urbanity, but I'm not a big fan of horror films. To be honest, I don't much care for them. Heck, Clint even scored one and I won't watch it. I can't. I get nightmares. I know, I know. So silly.

Well, let me tell you, friends, that the second wednesday of every month (ie - today), my walk to and from work becomes a bit of a horror movie. I call it "The Zombie Walk". I walk to work and have to literally dodge Zombies. They're everywhere. It's like fucking Raccoon City out there, with the decaying yellow skin and the crazy mumbling and shit. The only difference is I don't get to shoot them, but MAN, I gotta be honest, it's crossed my mind.

There was this poster on a telephone pole that had some ramblings about the coming "class war" and how the Lower East Side was being "gentrified" and people should come out to this bongo circle at such-and-such a day during the where they can, you know, fight the system and just... be one.

I'm thinking of actually attending... I've got a question . This gentrification of the East Site... is there, like a fund I can contribute to so that we can speed that process up? Cause MAN, those Zombies? They gotta go.

Fucking Zombies.


January 16, 2006
Hey WOW! I've got a website! I forgot about it.

Ok, well, big news for those of you who haven't already heard; I've left Nerd Corps, and will be starting at another Vancouver based animation shop called Studio B tomorrow as the Producer on a new FLASH series called "George of the Jungle"! Yes, the Classic Media property, the one about the big dumb guy running around the jungle in a pair of leopard print underpants (though we're going to make sure George isn't quite so big or quite so dumb).

I was in New York earlier last week for some meetings about the direction of the series with execs from Teletoon and Cartoon Network . The Networks, the Series Director, the dudes from Classic, the Story Editors and I all banged our collective heads together and came up with some fun ideas and new directions for George, and I'm really pumped about the show now. Should be GREAT!

It's a super opportunity for me too; I'm like, a real, honest to goodness Producer on this one, which is great. I'm not a "pretend" Producer taking orders from a toy company or some massive entertainment client or a hundred VP's for a change. It's a tight team, with me at the helm, and it's gonna be a blast to make and a whole lot of fun to watch, I promise.

No photos of New York (drat) because my stupid camera is getting repaired AGAIN. Oh, the "extended warranty" program of London Drugs sucks, too. Be warned!

On a side note, a bunch of us are heading to Vegas the second weekend of February (the 9th to the 12th). I got a flight for under 300 bucks and I'm staying at this place called the "Summer Bay Resort" in Las Vegas, which is directly behind the Imperial Palace - you get to the Strip by walking THRU the IP's parking lot. It's 90 bucks CANADIAN a night on hotels.com and the reviews weren't horrible. Can't beat the price and the location is decent! What the heck! I'm flying in friday night late, FYI.
So, if you're looking for something to do in February, come on down to Vegas and roll em' with the Gambler!

That is all.


January 06, 2006
Beadle, I'm sorry it took so long, but your photo has joined the "friends" gallery.

...which, to all my other friends who are there... is hopelessly out of date. I'm working on a re-make, but it's... just... you know, with the Xbox right next to my computer... it's hard.

Anyhow, enough about that, more about COLIN BEADLE, THE BESTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD!


January 04, 2006
Happy New Year, everybody! Like last year, I took off to LA to attend the "biggest party on the west coast" - this was the webpage for it last year, and it was awesome. Digweed, Jimmy Van M, Crystal Method; four square blocks of downtown LA turned into the a massive nightclub. It was awesome.

This is the web page for it THIS year. NOT so awesome.

So, the ticket says "rain or shine". Well, it started raining in the morning of the event and it was supposed to get worse, so they cancelled it. It didn't end up raining in the end until late the next afternoon, but rain in LA makes people crazy. It NEVER rains. To the average Angelino, rain is this feared, horrible monster that shows up two or three times a year and, much like the Merch, reaves your torso.

Anyhow, the good thing about LA is that if one party tanks, there's fifteen more just around the corner. We managed to roam down the street and find another party at the Sports Dome which featured Paul Van Dyk, Judge Jules & Marcus Shultz, and was a blast.

Some photos and videos here if you are interested!


December 21, 2005
Whoah! 'Tis the season for endless parties. Old Man Marley turned THIRTY a few days ago, and to celebrate we had one of the best cakes I've eaten in my life by famed chocolateer Thomas Haas, who just so happens to be the Marley's neighbour. VERY handy!

Not to be outdone, Clint threw his yearly Christmas party the following day, and there were a few photographers present to document the madness. I manned the bar and mixed a few tee kee favorites. Click here to check out the photos.

The next day was my neice's third birthday, and boy, let me tell you, I was in pretty shabby form. Felicity got her first trike, which was a lovely Dora the Explorer model. I noticed that quality control was pretty low though; the image of Dora on the seat is missing the "brown" layer, which means she has no color in her eyes and it looks like she's not wearing any pants. Dora looks like a half-dressed serial killer!


December 10, 2005
Lach's got a couple more updates for us - check them out. Check out that man's MOUSTACHE! What a nut!


December 04, 2005
If you haven't seen the nine minute "super trailer" for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, you should most certainly check it out. Totally, totally awesome. I can't wait for this film, as a kid it was one of the books that helped get me into fantasy (the LOTR trilogy was the clincher). Sure, Lewis sometimes gets a little heavy on the bible references, but he still created a great world and filled it with some fantastic characters. I'll be there opening night for sure - drop me a line if you wanna come along!

The shot in the trailer of the Griffins on the "bombing run" was done by and old co-worker and friend of mine named Shawn Walsh (I got the link to the trailer from his blog, which is here). Nice work, Walshman!


November 30, 2005
Well, Lach has sent in what may be his final bike trip report for some while. What a drag. Well, it could have been a lot worse, at least he walked away from it.

Lach's previous post now has all the missing pictures filled, which you can check out. Hang in the Lachie!


November 22, 2005
Where were YOU today, this fine Xbox 360 launch day? Waiting at Best Buy? Camped out at Future Shop? Lined up at EB?

Or in the middle of the Mojave desert at the UBER EXCLUSIVE Xbox 360 Zero Hour party? Oooooh yeah, you know you wanted to be there. It was GREAT!

Check out the photos and videos of my big time adventure with fellow gaming legend and buddy Rob!


November 12, 2005
Holy SHIT! I won something! I never win anything! I can't believe it! Well, it's not like a million dollars or anything, but it is kinda cool - i've been selected to attend the official Xbox 360 launch party in the Mojave desert from November 20th to November 22nd. Here's the link to the official site and here's more detailed info for attendees. They'll be food, drinks, concerts, hundreds of networked 360's where you can plan all the launch titles over a monster LAN, and a even a freakin' Kaiju Big Battel right there in the desert! How dope is that!

Plus you can pick up a 360 right at the event, hours before the official launch, and well before they sell out (I've already pre-ordered one here, but I won't get it until after Christmas).

I've convinced gaming legend Rob Davidson to come along for the ride. All I have to do now is convince my company to give me a few days off!

Yesterday was also, of course, Remembrance day, and it rained like nobody's business down at Victory Square & the Cenotaph. A few of us wandered down to pay our respects and endured a right soaking while doing so! Jason and Andrea were there as always (god my camera sometimes takes horrible photos) along with Mike and Brandon (home from London for a short while) and Jason Boyce. There was no shortage of umbrellas, literally a sea of them wherever you looked. The amount of vets on parade gets smaller every year - yet amazingly there are still five vets alive today who served in World War One!


November 08, 2005
One more report from Lach, but some of the pictures are missing - he's not on the road again, and hopefully he'll send me the missing shot when he finds an internet connection again.

The lovely and talented Sarah Wall is leaving in less than 48 hours... for, quite possibly, the rest of her life. She'll be driving down to San Francisco, where she'll be working here (there's no hiding from Google Maps, George). Here's a closer view so you can see where her office is. I believe it's called the "Carriage house", which is a few doors down from "Main Victorian".

Yes, Sarah Wall is going here, to work with him, on this. Like, at the Ranch, and everything. The Ranch that has the lightsabers and the idol and the hat and the whip in a display case in the main hall that greets you when you arrive. The one where you can walk into the prop storage room and literally sit there, with R2, and touch him.

Just close your eyes and imagine that for a second: You can sit in a room full of props from the movie, and literally put your hand on R2's fucking head. The REAL R2, not some dumb-ass Lego version or some home-made cardboard job from Comic-Con.

And you can do this alone, so you can savor the moment. Because you work there. I imagine the sheer emotional power of that moment and honestly, I get tears in my eyes.

While Sarah spends the next few years charging the dreams and sparking the imaginations of pretty much every english speaking kid in the known universe, I"ll be staying here, wearing a Fez.

Yeah, well, there you go. I guess it's a good thing, in a way... if I worked on the Clone Wars series I'd spend every waking minute trying to sneak in a shot of an AT-ST stepping on Jar-Jar and crushing him flat. In fact, I'd probably open my big fat yapper in a script meeting and be like "yeah, well, perhaps Yoda could use his stupid Midichlorean magic space-bugs in this scene, or whatever the Force is called nowadays? Yeah, and Jar-Jar could belly-dance in the BG while Clone Troopers pepper him with blaster fire, how about that?"

...I fucking HATE Jar-Jar.

Aaanyhow, there was a party for Sarah's going away on the weekend, here's a few snaps from it - I sadly couldn't attend, but Gio grabbed some snaps. If you too attended and have some good ones, send em' over.


October 28, 2005
Lach is being incredibly verbose! Two updates in as many days. Some amazing photos here of the city of Petra - the last ones before his camera packed up the ghost and died. I'm sending him mine via DHL tomorrow so that he can keep shooting these amazing photos!


October 24, 2005
Another update from Lach - his camera is broken, so this one is all text. He'll try to get it fixed when he's in Cairo (the next major city on his route). For now, we're stuck with a text only update, so you'll have to use your imagination, or have someone read it out loud and pretend it's a radio play.


October 16, 2005
Gio is back from his honeymoon in Italy and sent me some great pics, looks like a lovely time!

Another travel update from oversees as well - Lach sent a new update from Jordan, which you can find on the "Africa Lach" page.

TeeKee Baar TeeVee is the NUMBER ONE rated Podcast in the USA. How stupid is THAT?!

Dunno if anyone watches Fox's "Reunion", but this guy took a whole whack of money off me playing poker tonight. Why do I even play? I really just suck at the stupid game. I should stick to Halo!


October 13, 2005
So Apple! They announced the new iPods. Cool, eh? Yeah, they support video. You should check out the Apple site - hit "reload" if you don't see the iPods scrolling from right to left. Go on. Really.

Yeah, there's no shortage of cool stuff you can do with your new iPod, for sure. You could listen to Harry Potter. Or watch a major TV show. Heck, how about a music video by Bono, or a Short from the wizards ar Pixar?

Or you could watch a drunk geek in a funny hat.

Yeah, they debuted the iPod all right. Steve happily pointed out that it does lots of neat stuff - like play music videos with Bono. Steve also happily pointed out that it plays Video Podcasts... with me.

A hundred foot high video screen. A packed "invite only" media event. And there's Steve Jobs in the spotlight, and right behind him is a fifty foot high drunk Gambler, in a funny hat, sipping on a te3h ke3y cocktail. Sandwiched between Harry Potter and Bono and the Gorillaz and Lost.

Hell yeah.

I have not stopped smiling since 10am this morning. I have somehow become the poster boy for Video Podcasting, and now I'm on the god damned Apple homepage!

Steve showcased a new interface called "FrontRow". Steve showed how it can plays videos... and, look, it's got a Video Podcast section! We'll skip over RocketBoom, they do a show every day... let's check out THIS ONE. Oh, yeah, Steve's a funny guy - he's got a sense of humor. Here, let's watch out this little show.

Jeff and I thank you, Mister Jobs, for giving birth to the computers and operating system we love, for having a solid sense of humor, and for somehow, by some insane, bizarre twist of fate, showing the world our little show and sending a million viewers our way.

The funny thing is I called my Dad and said "hey Pop, check out the Apple website, you might have a good laugh! He types it in - no images appear. Only text. Wha? How old is his browser? "Do you have the latest version of Explorer" I ask? After trying to walk him through how to update his XP PC - with no success - I admit defeat. The "update your PC now" thing in the Start menu is too complicated for him to figure out, and trying to do it over the phone is just an exercise in futility. He's frustrated, and gives up. His browser remains in the stone age, or flashless, or non-complient, whatever the problem is.

"Why, what's on the Apple page?" Dad asks.

"Me."

My friend Foley emailed me today and proclaimed that I am now "the alpha geek". Thanks Foley - I'll wear that one with pride! Sharing a stage with Steve Jobs? My face on the Apple homepage?

All you can do is just smile, shake your head, and laugh!


October 11, 2005
Lach Fergusson has a report from the field - as always, the action is kept on this page. Enjoy!


October 05, 2005
We're BACK, baby! the idiots at Ipowerweb failed to inform me that my domain registration had expired, so the site went into shutdown until the repairs could be made - which, by the way, took two days longer than it should have. Thanks, dinks. Anyhow, we're back, the Sponge lives. Yahoo!

Unless you've been living in a cave (or you don't like Apple products) Apple has something up it's sleeve - there's a big secret announcement next Wednesday in San Francisco. Rumors are abounding - so keep your eyes peeled.

Anyhow, on to local news... TheKid, alias Ryan Marley, has returned home from Toronto to work on a new series called 969, which is apparently going to air daily on MTV Canada. So in order to celebrate, Clint and Andrea were kind enough to host a little get-together to welcome him home. The usual suspects showed up: Jeff, as usual; then Mike popped in, along with Mark, Ryan's cousin; heck, even Jay flew in from Toronto to send Ryan home (or at least it was a way for Jay to finally get Ryan off his couch and get the apartment back).

We started with the Kirsch, then went to Margaritas, then it quickly spiraled downwards from there. Apparently there was some bree and roasted garlic at some point too, but things were pretty messy by that hour. We eventually got too drunk to stand so we all sat down to play poker, and that's when it started to get a little silly.

All in all, a fine night. Even though that brat Andrea took me for twenty dollars bluffing all in pre-flop with a fucking Queen Eight off suit to my suited Big Slick. She landed a flush on the river. Pfah!

Ah well. I guess I owed her for eating all her cheese anyhow.


September 22, 2005
I'm off to the Ottawa Animation Festival, and I'll be back on Monday. For the next three days I'll be a "booth babe", staffing the Nerd Corps booth, collecting reels from east coast artists. If you're lucky I'll post a couple photos of me in my lycra mini-skirt and chain-mail bra collecting demo reels from Sheridan animation students and graduates!


September 18, 2005
Gio and Michelle's wedding last night. What a party!

Well, I lost count of how many bottles of champagne I drank after about four. After polishing off the first bottle I decided the champagne flute was an inefficient vessel, and began to drink directly from the bottle. The bartenders thought this was very amusing and encouraged it wholeheartedly, because whenever I approached the bar they would simply take my old bottle of empty champagne, and replace it with a freshly chilled new bottle.

This was, I think, a bad idea. So were the tequila shots. And the Doctor Pepper shots. And all the other shots.

Here's a load of photos - an online gallery is going to be easier than my usual "photos with witty captions". I'm having a hard time writing my own name today, so trying to write a large number of witty captions for all these photos is probably not a good idea.

If you missed the wedding, here's some photos.


September 11, 2005
It's Sunday now and only TODAY is my hangover from Friday really gone. Fridy night was one of those "dual stream" stag parties, where the groom-to-be and his guy friends heads off in one direction, while the bride-to-be and her lady friends do the same. Once both parties are sufficiently drunk and foolish, the "two streams" converge.

For some weird reason the entire event took place on friday night, with an early start, which meant I had to bolt home right after work, change in about seventeen seconds, and bolt out the door (and I was still thirty minutes late). The egress from my apartment was, in fact, so rapid that I forgot a few things - namely my damned CAMERA!

Luckily, Gio had his Lomo Colorsplash with him, so the photos from "guy" stream are imbibed with a "lomographic" quality. Sarah Wall mailed in a few snaps from the "girl" stream.

The photos are here.


September 03, 2005
I've received the first update from Lach, and taken a crack at putting together the "trans africa adventure" page that will hopefully serve as a way for us to follow along as Lach makes his way across Africa. The page is here, you might want to bookmark it. I"ll also have a link from Lach's bio.


August 28, 2005
The man, the legend, the keeper of the peace and the resolver of global conflict has announced his next mission. Two weeks from today, Lach Fergusson will be taking his now heavily modified 1993 Honda Dominator across the entire continent of AFRICA. From the top to the bottom. His target is to be in South Afrrica by Christmas.

One man, one bike, one big adventure.

Lach's bringing his digital camera and powerbook, and promises to send updates from the road so we can join in on the fun. I'll set up a page here containing all his reports from the field. Good luck and god speed, buddy!


August 15, 2005
You know, nobody loves you quite like your mama loves you. But have you ever wondered... who's lovin' your mama? Kennedy has the answer.


August 05, 2005
Long overdue, photos and videos from Gio's Stag in Vegas are up!


July 21, 2005
Comic-Con is over and done! Tonight I fly to Vegas for Gio's stag party. Yeah, that's going to be a bit of a mess. Anyhow, here's some photos and videos from Comic-Con 2005... ENJOY!


July 16, 2005
Quick update from Comic-Con! Wish you were here! Here's a video of a remote control R2-D2 made out of LEGO. Comic-Con!


July 08, 2005
It's that time of year again...a time for Nerds! A time for back-issues! A time for bathrobe jedi and home-made klingons and braces and video games and D&D and everything wonderful like that. I leave tonight for LA, and by wednesday.... I will be at COMIC-CON once again!

I love Comic-Con.


July 03, 2005
Ok, this video is just too silly and fun not to post. It's an Italian commercial from the 60's for the then brand new Lambretta Vespa scooters. It'll put a smile on your face and a spring in your step, because it's turbocharged with SCIENCE!

Right Click / CTRL click here and save it to your desktop, it's 33 megs.


June 21, 2005
Well, I've been eying this little gadget for quite some time and lucky me, I happened to receive one for my birthday. Am I the luckiest guy in the world or WHAT?

Man, the thing is SWEET. It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to rip a DVD to my Mac and then move the file to my PSP (which required a bigger memory card). At it's highest encoding rate, the software I'm using did an amazing job converting VOB files into PSP sized Mpeg4 videos - the quality is great, and most movies get compressed down to 500 - 600 megs. Combined with the PSP's equally fantastic 16:9 screen, I now officially have NO excuse not to hit the exercise bike with this thing to keep my from getting bored as I ride to nowhere!


June 15, 2005
Super DJ John Digweed came to town - the night before my 32nd birthday! Most of my friends are too old an creaky to go out dancing anymore, ESPECIALLY on a Sunday night, so I did it alone - and I'm glad I did, because it was a super fun night. Man, three hours of dancing is some fine cardio! Check it out!


June 07, 2005
WOWIE WOW! Kids, we've got a special update for you today. Remember my buddy Lach, who I see every now and again? He's been living abroad for years now, and is currently stationed in London and is far too busy to send me photos with any degree of frequency to let me know what he's up to.

I have another friend who's living "abroad" as well, but he's a little closer to home (sort of). Peter has, for the past several years, made his home in Saskatchewan. Lach may live across an ocean, and is TECHNICALLY further away from me, but at least he lives in a hospitable climate. but Peter... he lives in a freezer. I mean, it's Canada, and I should see all of it, but let's be honest. I'm more likely to visit Mars then I am to visit the frozen north of my fine country. I mean, It's REALLY cold there.

Well, while I may be a sissy fruitypants, Lach rose to the challenge, faced the elements, and went on a mission to find Peter in his new home, shoot some photos, and document the whole thing for us here at NakedSponge. And MAN, did he do a great job!

It's almost like being there, except without the frostbite. Check out the excitement and follow Lach's grand Canadian adventure!


June 04, 2005
The filing and long overdue cleanup continues! Look at this recently unearthed beauty. Years ago, when I was a Producer at Mainframe, my gig was managing the schedules and budgets and stuff like that. Well, sometimes it was my job to wander into a suite and enforce what were some pretty crazy schedules. I didn't want to be a cock and just walk in and say "alright you slugs, hurry the hell up! We're not delivering this show late, not on my watch!", so I came up with a happy, fun way to let the crew know we were a little behind schedule and it was time to buckle down a little.

When we were running a little late and I needed the crew to take notice, I would don my custom made SCHEDULE HEAD hat and I'd walk into the suite, do a funny little dance, sing a song about "The Gipper", and then dance out. People would laugh, get the message, and we'd be back underway. Schedule Head helped keep many a deadline. Sometimes I wondered if the crew slowed down just to see the dance, but they always got back on track, which was the utimate point.

I wanted to immortalize Schedule Head... he's now destined for the trash, sadly. I like to think of things like this as part of my "Comedy Management" style. People work well when they're happy and amused. They slow down when you yell at them, when they're scared, or when and treat them like peons. If you're a manager working with timelines, by all means, feel free to create a Schedule Head of your very own - I find the Fex Ex flat pack foam liner works nicely.

And don't forget to do the funny dance.


June 01, 2005
Been a while since an update... I got this filing cabinet and i'm attempting to make some sense and file the paper from the past four years of my life because I cannot stand looking at damned boxes any more.

Filing is a funny thing, though. It's like an archelogical dig. As you go through the layers, you make fascinating discoveries. Old receipts. Discarded clippings. Hidden, ten year old Kodak Photo CD's.

Oh yes. What a nerd. Long before digital cameras came to be in every purse and backpack, I was burning my 35mm photos to CD: The "Kodak Digital Science Pro Master Disc". Good thing I did, too, because it means I can put it online easier.

Here's Tmac, circa 1995, on the set of a short film called "Latte Love". which the Reel Underground Film Festival called "A mildly humorous comedy about a barista looking for love". Jeff has just left Film School. Here's the 1995 Sean and Aslam working on the same set. And here's ME, 1995 again, finishing my student film, about to graduate from the esteemed 10 month program that i'm still paying for today.

Aah, memories!


May 20, 2005
So I'm at E3! It's awesome. Lots of cool stuff this year, which is nice, since it's my first time. I was a little confused - it's supposed to be an "industry only event", but everywhere I look are just gamers waiting in endless lines. There's TV's everywhere, but in order to see anything really, REALLY cool, like ANYTHING from the PS3, you have to wait in a THREE HOUR LINEUP because they're only showing it inside thier "special Sony theatre". What "industry professional" has time to wait in a fucking three hour lineup? Not me, I've got meetings! "Industry exclusive" my ass. Any dolt with a pulse and a website can get in there. Xbox360 was everywhere - you could even play some games - but Sony had everything all "secret". How stupid. STUPID SONY AND IT'S STUPID LINES!

However, there's still the occassional pricless gem that you get to see, like these un-coordinated gaming execs trying out Konami's latest dancing game.

Here's a couple of photos that I took at E3 - I shot lots of video, too (oh yeah, my camera came back to life!) which I'll cut together when I get home.

Yay!


May 16, 2005
Disaster! I'm in LA right now, having returned last night from a 4 night stay in Mexico, where I hung out under the thatched roof of Zamas in Tulum (along the Mayan Rivera) drinking margaritas. But late yesterday my digital camera packed it in! I'm off to E3 tomorrow with no camera! ARGH!!

So I hit this little beach bar one night in Tulum - and by little I mean, like, four stools. It's me and my gal and this mexican bartender who doesn't speak english. So I'm like "Dos Tequlias, Amigo!" and he pours two, and I slide one his way and I'm like "mano et mano!" and he just LOVES IT. I don't think people really had ever bought him drinks before. So we shoot the tequila, and he's like "un momento, por favor!" and he digs around under his bar and takes out this giant, unlabeled bottle of yellow liquid that has a palm leaf submerged in it. Turns out it's home-made Mexican Mezcal, and he ends up pouring the two of us, like, christ, I don't know how many shots. We had originally arrived to grab a "quick drink before dinner", so I'm already running on an empty stomach, and this guy unloads his back bar of Mexican moonshine on my unsuspecting honkey ass. I took one for Canada, did the best I could, but in the end, the drinker from Mexico kept tending bar and working while the drinker from Canada retired defeated and shamed.

Dude, let me tell you, there's drunk, then there's homemade, make-you-blind, no fooling around Mezcal drunk.
Daaaaamn.


May 03, 2005
The problem with everyone having a digital camera is that when there is a big "group event" and everyone takes a load of photos, they all send copies to me to post online. So I've got, like, two hundred photos from Georgia's & Tim's recent Baby Shower to sort through! Been busy at work this week, so let me pick a few and put up a page for those of you who couldn't attend (Georgia and Tim will happily accept a mailed cheque). After the shower we went to Eric's house where I discovered a new super poker hat that I think is the best invention ever. Am I bluffing? Who knows!

Oh, yeah, speaking of work, it's official - I work here! Well, official-ish; I still don't have a contract, but at least my bio is online.

I'm off a week today for Tulum, Mexico (to see Mayan ruins!) for a few days and then I'm heading to E3. I've had multiple requests for a revised "travel video", I'll see what I can come up with.

Heading offline now to install OS X 10.4 (Tiger)! Ciao!


April 26, 2005
So, my phone rang, and it's this lady with a government poll who has a few questions to ask me. She proceeds to tell me, in about three seconds and using a single breath, that she's not selling anything or soliciting donations so please god don't hang up because everyone hangs up and oh god i'm going to get fired and i really need this job and oh man oh man oh man... Well, that's the SUBTEXT of what she's saying, anyhow. It's obvious that the poor thing spends the majority of her day getting hung up on. Not by me, though! I LOVE TAKING POLLS! Think about it: Somewhere in Victoria, or Ottawa, there's a group of people studying my replies and planning political moves. That's some serious power - my opinions, in some tiny way, are helping to shape policy. I think more people my age should answer polls because generally the only people who take the time to talk to pollsters are 85 year old right wing homophobic bible thumpers who are INCREDIBLY lonely. If none of us free thinking youngsters ever take the time to answer questions, it's no wonder Steven Harper has policies like he does - he thinks it's what the public wants, based on his polling data!

Plus, the polling ladies are REALLY easy to get to laugh. I've had a couple in tears by the end of some surveys. They're also a SERIOUSLY captive audience, so I can try out lots of new material in a low-risk environment before pulling it out in public.

Anyhow, after my 10 minute poll about the upcoming BC election, the Single Transferrable Vote Referendum, and a little comedy routine, I think to myself "youi know, I think I deserve a drink". So I walk over to my liquor cabinet to select tonight's libation and it hits me - if anyone happened to walk into my house and saw this bar they'd probably think I was a raging alcoholic. So I'm going to come clean right now and just get it out there. Here's my bar. You can draw your own conclusions, but honestly, I'm not THAT bad. Come on over, I'll fix you a drink. Whatever you want, odds are, I can mix it. I've got a few nice Shag cocktail books to help out, and everything is guarded by kid-friendly versions of the classic Star Wars Bounty Hunters. Boba Fett and IG88 hang out in the Mexican section, Dengar & Boskk chill by the Rums, and 4Lom and Zuckuss cold lamp it near the Malibu and the Vermouth (come to think of it, why are those two bottles sharing the same shelf?).

So anyhow, take time to answer polls or we'll get more stupid policies. And if you're ever in the neighbourhood, by all means, stop by for a cocktail and come visit the Bounty Hunting Buddies in my bar.

Speaking of Bounty Hunting Buddies, they can be seen here in this fine painting by renound local artist Colin Beadle.


April 18, 2005

So, you know, I don't have a car. Well, I HAVE a car, but it's way busted. And really geeky. Besides, I live inside the city core, and walk most everywhere I need to go. Still, it'd be nice to have a car a couple times a month for when I need to hit Safeway for a flat of soda and tonic water or Costco for a fifteen kilogram tub of dishwashing detergent (I just finished the last one, which took me three years, literally). Or sometimes I need a car to get to Ikea for a Nurbley or Pluurm or SplortBurgen or some damn thing. But with cost of insurance, the current price of gas, and the repairs I'd need to get my 92 yellow Geo Metro back on the road... well, it's just not worth it. I kind of gave up on the idea of owning car months ago.

Well, I found an alternative, and it ROCKS! I've joined the COOPERATIVE AUTO NETWORK, and now I've got access to over 100 vehicles in Vancouver, ranging from trucks and vans to compacts (even a Mini Cooper!). It's a car-sharing collective, and you book a car whenever you need it. You reserve online, and pay two bucks an hour and .28 cents per km for the vehicle (even for the trucks!) which INCLUDES gas, insurance, everything. Even BCAA. So a trip to Ikea or Costco will run you like eight or ten bucks. Awesome!

The cars are scattered all over the city - within a five minute walk from my house alone there's three vehicles, plus a TRUCK which is ten minutes away. My online booking form, which defaults to showing only my local cars, looks like this. The most you can pay is 12 hours, or 24.00 a day, and 11pm to 7am is FREE - you just pay the kilometers you drive! Perfect for friday and saturday nights. There's a super-secret compartment on each car or truck that holds the key to the ignition, and everyone has a copy of the key to the compartment. When you need a car you just book it online, walk to the vehicle, open the secret compartment, take out the key, and zoom, you're off. If you need to get some gas, you keep the receipt and it's DEDUCTED from your monthly bill. No oil changes, brakes, or headaches. And you know all those parking spots that are "Permit Parking Only"? Well, Co-op cars can park in ANY of them! Awesome.

Let's face it, if you live in the city, You probably doesn't need a car all that much. Take the bus to work or hop on skytrain. Or walk. Less cars means less industrial manufacturing, which means less shit in the air (I'm doing my part for Kyoto!). Less driving (which happens when you only get a car some of the time) means less cars on the road, which is way better for the environment. Plus the whole solution is reasonably priced. Win-win!

Nobody seems to know about it, either, so do yourself a favor, make Vancouver a little more green, save some cash, and get in on the action.





April 10, 2005
Texas Hold em is sweeping the nation! Everyone, it seems, has become a poker playing fiend. I got invited to a fun-tastic poker tournament this weekend, here's a couple of snaps.


March 28, 2005
A couple weeks ago I wrote about Podcasting, which is essentially a way to make a homemade radio show that you can distribute across the internet. Well, truth be known I was introduced to the idea by my old dear friend Jeff. He read about it, emailed me a link, and we were hooked.

See, Jeff and I have this history. We started making movies when we were nine years old. We shot a short film a week (on VHS) and learned to edit by trial and error by sneaking into a government owned editing suite when nobody was looking. As kids, we loved the idea of having our own television stations, and actually went about setting up two of Canada's smallest cable networks - MacTV and KGTV. No joke, when we were kids we found a way to splice into the cable feed coming in to our respective homes, and by adding a switcher into the head of the line, were able to intercept the feed coming into the house and replace it with a feed of our own - which was usually us, reading the news, live, from behind a desk in our respective studios (bedrooms). KGTV and MacTV often traded reports so that our loyal viewers could get different stories from across the neighbourhood (by viewers, I mean Jeff's grandparents, and the tenants downstairs at my house). Like it or not, when we flipped the switch and intercepted the cable feeds for our respective buildings, you either watched us or you watched static. No joke.

Sadly, as most of the shows were live, not much recorded footage exists, and that which does exist is so god awful that I'd never post it here. We quickly grew out of our respective mini-broadcasting phases (repeated complaints from our tenants helped speed along the process) but we never really got it out of our systems. If only there was a way to broadcast to a bigger audience...

Enter VIDEO BLOGGING. Podcasting - in VIDEO. Now, we're older, fatter, drunker, and we have access to better technology. So Jeff decided to relive the glory days and has relaunched MacTV - with cocktails.

<edit: name and URL deleted upon request to avoid random Google searches.> Enjoy.


March 19, 2005
You know, most of the digital cameras today have a little feature that most people don't use (or even know about) - the ability to shoot 30 or 60 second video clips with sound. Now, I'm a bit of a geek, and a big fan of this feature (which you have have noticed). I use it quite a bit..

Additionally, my digital camera is REALLY small - it fits in an Altoids tin. So I take it almost everywhere, like parties, or events... or when I head out to enjoy a couple of cocktails with friends. See, drinking has this sort of self limiting effect. We all know that the more you drink, the messier you become. However, thankfully, the more you drink, the less you tend to remember, which is usually good, because when you're in that sort of state you don't really want to be presented with a clear account that shows just what sloppy trainwreck you actually were.

The problem is, I've got this stupid camera, and when I get a little tipsy, I seem to really like recording the events of the evening. I'm pretty good at flipping the thing around and recording myself, as well, so I get a nice firsthand account.

I woke up this morning with a particularily hazy memory, a pounding headache, and a stomach that felt like I'd been punched repeatedly by a dockworker. I open my eyes and see my little camera, sitting there, on my table. Jeez, what HAPPENED last night?

Well, my camera is happy to remind me - with TWO HUNDRED MEGS worth of video clips. Horrible, messy, trainwreck video clips that get worse and worse. In this case, I would have much preferred faded memory to crystal clear digital video.

This was the first file on the camera.


March 13, 2005
The internet has done amazing things for the everyday shlub. For five bucks a month you can host a site, exposing your words, audio and video to millions of eyeballs. Blogging has allowed you to put your writing out there, and the medium is expanding with PodCasting. People record audio, shoot video, whatever... then link that media to a tracker, like iPodder. You can then subscribe to that feed, and iPodder will check your subscriptions daily. If new media gets posted, iPodder downloads it to your computer or iPod.

So now random poeple now have the power to create, for instance weekly radio shows about everything and anything and distribute it. For example, I subscribe to a video blog called RocketBoom which is a 2 or 3 minute daily show by this girl in New York. She talks about stuff, makes jokes, reads news, and shows cool clips - like this kid breakdancing in a high school talent contest.It's weird, cool, and different. I used to love University radio, it's alternative edge... but it's too scattered, too hit-and-miss. PodCasting kicks it's ass. It's like Tivo for home-made radio stations.

Now, when I walk to work, I can listen to homemade radio shows from all over the world. If I dig what they have to say, I make an appointment to visit them again. Viva la revolution!


March 02, 2005
I've got a couple of photos and stuff that I'm still trolling through from my New York trip, so I here's the first of a couple updates. Remember Jay? Well, he's now living in New York, so when I hit down I called him up and we checked out the recently renovated Museam of Modern Art together. Follow the excitement and experience the gallery right here, on NakedSponge!


February 22, 2005
Ok, so I'm back from New York. The flight back was interesting - there were a few babies on board. Now, when I say "a few", you might think three, or four... or FIVE, I mean, that would be a lot of babies. How about TWENTY FOUR? Yes, I'm not kidding, TWENTY FOUR infants on one plane. From my seat I could see, without moving my head, FOUR. One directly in front of me, one in front of him, two to my immediate right. if I turned my head a bit to the right, there were two more. Babies are like car alarms, if one goes off, it'll trigger another, and then another.... here's what four babies crying on at the same time sounds like.

Five hours, dude. More updates later. Not now. Now, it's time for drinks. Many, many drinks.


February 15, 2005
Mission accomplished.


February 11, 2005
I heart NY! I'm taking off tomorrow morning for the Big Apple for Kidscreen 2005. It's a pretty crazy week of meetings, so I'll try to post a couple fun snaps of New York, but no promises! I've been told that I MUST visit The Carnegie deli, home of "the best corned beef sandwich on earth". I was a little skeptical until I found THIS PHOTO of a Carnegie corned beef sandwich the internet. Seriously, if that's the size of this fabled sandwich, I say BRING IT ON!

I'm back on the 22nd. See you then!


February 07, 2005
A while ago I announced that my good buddy Gio Corsi was engaged to a lovely gal named Michelle McKibbon. Well, following up on that news story, this past weekend was the official "engagement party" for the two of them as organized by the Best Man, Mr. Jason Delong.

Gio scooped a couple of shots, I snagged a few, and you can take a peek at em' here if ya like!

OH! and don't forget, Colin Beadle, my favorite artist in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, has a show at the DV8 lounge this month. He's got 20 new paintings for sale, and the opening night is TOMORROW, FEBRUARY 8th at DV8! So COME ON DOWN AND BUY SOMETHING!


January 30, 2005
I LOVE commercials. I think it's an amazing storytelling feat - you have thirty seconds (or sometimes a minute) to elicit an emotional response, to tell a story, to get your point across. When it's done well, it's art. When it's done poorly, it's an annoyance (or worse). People have a natural aversion to "being sold" something, so I tip my hat to the storytellers who make you smile, laugh, cry or cheer, and then willingly and happily decide to part with your money in a minute or less. Classics like Apple's "Think Differnet" ad are prime examples of ads that do just that.

In fact, I actually PAY a couple hundred bucks a year to see the best commercials, believe it or not. I subscribe to a monthly DVD of all the latest and greatest commercials, promos, and music videos which is delivered to my house every month. I highly recommend you pick up if you're into animation, graphic design, FX or the like.

There's a new spot out there that is just AWESOME, so I've decided to post a copy of it here. It's a new commercial from Volkswagen, and it's fantastic. Follow the link to check it out.


January 24, 2005
I'm almost a month late, but I've finally managed to get some photos up from our two yearly "everyone's here, let's go our and get hammered" annual Christmas celebration. We had two installments...check out the photos from "piss-up number one" and then roll on to "piss-up number two".


January 14, 2005
Well, I attended an interesting New Years event this year, for sure! I went to America's biggest 21 and over New Year's Celebration. Basically, they close down a big intersection RIGHT smack in the middle of downtown, stick a massive bar in the middle of it, and surround it on all sides with stages sporting some of the best DJ's in the world. It was totally amazing. They erect, in the middle of the street, a freakin' Ferris wheel! there's a mob of 12,000 people, and I was there, grooving to the tunes of John Digweed until 4am! Totally a blast. People everywhere, with no shortage of entertainment. Lots of fun. DJ's knocking em' dead. Awesome time, highly recommended!


January 02, 2005
So I'm down here in LA, recovering from the New Years party I went to (which was AWESOME) but I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the idea of sitting here writing about what fun and games I had when halfway across the world we've got a bunch of poor sods having a real hard go of it.

Send some money to the Red Cross and make a difference, and we'll talk about how fun my New Years was in a couple of days.


December 23, 2004
Christmas comes early to NakedSponge. It's not often NakedSponge gets to be a world premiere, but it looks like today is a lucky day for myself and everyone who takes the time to visit this website.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with GREAT pleasure that I present you with the PREMIER works of a young composer & musician who is sure to be the next great pop icon of the 21st century.

Kai Miles Todd-Darrell, (son of Kamala Todd and Johnny Darrell), presents his three current singles "Doing The Mess", "Marble"
and "Say No To Pants."

PLEASE, before you email me: I don't know when the CD is coming, nor do I have any information on tour dates. Please direct all contract inquiries and fan mail to his management company, 4th Portal Entertainment.

Enjoy.


December 18, 2004
An old workmate of mine, a fantastic artist named Jay White, who I worked with at Mainframe years ago, is spending a year living in Canada's Yukon with his girlfriend. We're talking SERIOUS log cabin action here, with the snow and the ice and the hey hey hey. His girlfriend is a really greay writer and the two of them are both excellent photographers, and they've setup an online blog to profile their year in the Yukon. Check it out here, it's really something to behold.

I've got a special treat courtesy of Johnny Darrel that I'm working on now... check back in a couple of days.


December 08, 2004
Ok, so... See, Halo 2 came out... so it's been a little quiet around here. It's hard to sit down and work on the page when I'm busy having games where the total score is 50 kills to 5 (which is so VERY satisfying). The funny thing is a large number of my friends are also online, and part of our little online geek-group, or "clan", called Meet the geeks.

However, when I did manage to take myself away from the Xbox for ten minutes, I met a pretty cool dude named Vladimir Yarets. He's a deaf Russian who's been riding his motorcycle around the world since May of 2000, which is just amazing. Check out this map of his travels. We communicated with each other by pointing, smiling, shaking hands, and making gestures. In fact, I was so inspired that I ended up buying him forty bucks to buy gas to help him with his trip. If this guy can ride a motorbike around the world while DEAF, well then hey, what am I doing at home wasting my time playing games?

Ride on, dude. Stay safe and good luck!


November 15, 2004
A week late, but here's some photos from Sarah Wall's birthday party last week! The theme was a kind of Hollywood glamour style red carpet party (complete with red carpet). Good times! Oh, and if you're looking for something fun to buy, Gio's latest animated project is done, there's some news about it on AWN, and you can pick it up locally (in BC) here for cheap.


October 31, 2004
Well holy Hallwe'en have we got some great news! Gio and Michelle are getting married! Gio popped the question today (here's a photo taken seconds after the question was asked) and Michelle didn't hesitate to take the G-Man up on his offer. Oh, sweet billy jesus jimminy is there going to be some good eats at that wedding. I'm going to stop eating right now just so I've got enough room. Ooooh, and the bachelor party? FUGGEDDABOUTIT. Congrats Gio & Michelle!

On a side note, the little show that I produced called Scary Godmother did some fantastic numbers when it aired on Cartoon Network this week. And man, did it AIR! It ran every day for a WEEK! Scary Godmother, apparently, is the CN's #1 rated "animated special" for 2004. Cool! Good to know that millions of little peepers are checking out my work and getting a kick out of it.


October 20, 2004
Jimminy christmas I got lots of stuff to put up here. Ok! So a couple of weeks ago my friend Brett and his fiance Kathy threw a little harbour cruise as a "pre wedding" shin-dig. Ever been directly underneath a freighter's anchor? Check it out here!

Then, the same day, I stumbled off the boat and went directly to the birthday party of my friend Jason Boyce. Here's a couple of snaps from that excitement!

THEN, last but not least, my little sister got married! Big excitement! Here's some photos from THAT!

So there you go.


October 06, 2004
Hey, I'm back from the Ottawa Animation Festival. I've even got a couple of photos to show you! Sure, it took a while, but what can you do.

You know, I've spent the better part of this year flying around to different animation markets and festivals, meeting all the buyers and telling them about my wares and the great company I'm working with. I've spent a whole lot of hours in planes in the air this year (hell, I even shot a video to pass the time on one of my more epic trips). I usually have my digital camera with me, and it just occurred to me that i've been amassing quite a collection of photos taken from airplane windows. Nothing I was planning - it's just that i'd see something neat, and grab a photo.

It's an odd assortment, but hey! Odd is what NakedSponge does best. Perhaps somebody out there will find these interesting. Hope you enjoy!


September 20, 2004
Well what do you know! It's birthday season. Gio celebrated his 32nd birthday this weekend. Check out some of the photos.

Oh, and on a technical note: stupid GoLive! I had a corrupt file - the "news archive" page has lost a month's worth of it's info. I dunno where it went, but it's gone. Ah well. More detailed backups are obviously required.

I'm off to the Ottawa Animation Festival starting tomorrow, returning in a week. See you then!


September 13, 2004
Here's some photos from the last night of the Park Royal Hotel!


August 24, 2004
Couple of long overdue reviews to check out if you're remotely interested. If you haven't done it already, be sure to check out Mike Ferraro's site - he does great reviews. His site is here.


August 16, 2004
Holy Weddings, Batman! Saturday, August 7th was Jason and Andrea's wedding in Powell River. It's taken me a while to troll through all the photos, but I've managed to finally select a load, which you can check out here.

I'm currently in LA - I came down to check out Siggraph, which is this big 3D animation trade show. One of the coolest parts of the show is an exhibit called the "emerging technologies" area, which is a collection of bleeding edge technology. Most of it is, essentially, useless - it's almost like someone threw a load of money, a coffee machine, and a few scientists in a room and locked them up for a year - just to see what would happen. I shot a few little video clips, which i'll post in a couple of days.


August 03, 2004
My old friend Tanya, sister of Jeff, got married last weekend. Check out some photos if you like!


July 27, 2004
Ok, back from Comic-Con - check out the photos!


July 19, 2004
I'm presently down in LA a couple of days before the San Diego Comic-Con, so keep tuned to NakedSponge because i'll try to post a bit of an update and some photos of the event - which is a collection of 90,000 nerds enjoying every facet of pop culture. It's awesome.

However, a couple of past parties that need some coverage first... here's some photos from the 7th annual Italian Night at the Park Royal hotel. Additionally, July 17th was Delong's stag party - he's getting married in a few weeks, so we took him out for a night of boozers and stupidness. I'm told it's "against the rules" to bring a camera to a stag, but you know me - i've never been one to pay much attention to rules. Follow along and watch the debauchery for yourself!


July 12, 2004
With a large number of my friends living in different cities - Ryan (and soon Sean) in Toronto, Peter in Saskatchewan, and Lach in London, I decided to turn to technology to help me say in touch. So I wandered down to my local Apple store and picked up an iSight camera, which, when clipped to my PowerBook and paired with Apple's iChat AV, allows for amazingly cool real time chatting over the internet - for free, with both audio and video. Clint borrowed my DV camera and we gave it a test - and it ROCKS! Amazing! Now all my friends just need to get cameras (or install Panther - RYAN, you lazy slug, install the god damned software already!) and we'll be happily chatting away, free of charge. Awesome stuff!

This weekend was the Park Royal Hotel's seventh annual "Italian Night", which is a yearly gathering of Italians and the people who love them and the wonderful food that they make. The food rocked, Mario Corsi kept the wine flowing, and I had an awesome time. In a few months the hotel is being bulldozed down to make way for condos, so to make the most of what may be the last big event at the hotel I brought my dad along, which was great fun. I took a few photos, so i'll troll through them tomorrow and post a bunch.

In the meantime, if you're looking to find me, why not give me a try using iChat? My iChat AIM name is "RocketChicken"... get a camera and send me an invite!


July 05, 2004
Here's some pictures from Canada Day... We celebrated the nation's birthday by means of a BBQ and a few cocktails. Maximus, Jason's dog, didn't feel much like celebrating because he had his balls cut off the day before and is now wearing this silly cone hat for the next two weeks to prevent him from nibbling his empty nutsack. It was nice and civil until the scotch came out, at which point it broke down rapidly. Check out some photos here.

My apartment is this tiny little concrete shoebox, and in the summer it just BOILS. I get the sun in the morning and all day long - it bakes the concrete and the place just becomes unbearable. So I broke down and bought myself an air conditioner, but it's one of those kinds that has to hang out the window - which I can't do, so I had to use plastic foamboard and duct tape to connect the thing... behold! My installation skills are second to none. What a mess. Hey, it may be ugly as sin, but it works.


July 01, 2004
HAPPY CANADA DAY! What better way to celebrate the birthday of our nation than to laugh at the pathetic Conservatives who tried to take my job away. Ha ha! So long Ted White, you film hating freak. What kind of moron openly mocks the film industry when he's got a major motion picture lot sitting in his riding? He's got 5000 people making thier living off film and television - what better way to make them vote Liberal (which they did) than threaten to destroy their industry? Sheesh!

Anyhow, I was so excited that the Conservatives got bounced that I went out and got myself a new cool phone. It's solid geek. Looks like my industry will be around for at least another year and a bit, until we have another election and the idiot Conservatives try to screw it all up again!

Going to be lots of fun and games today, so keep your eyes on the 'sponge for some photos of the Canada day craziness.


June 21, 2004
Headline news! Our old dear friend Lach Fergusson has FINALLY sent some photos of his exploits on the other side of the world!

Ok, it's soapbox time. I know some of you don't vote. Well, you undemocratic slugs, on June 28th you better get off your lazy asses and vote for ANYONE but the Conservatives! That insane twit Stephen Harper has decided to destroy the Canadian film and television industry by taking away the tax credits we use to lure foreign prouductions into Canada (and support local productions). What the moron fails to realize is when they government spends 10 million in credits they get 100 million in income taxes from people like me (and all my friends). HEY HARPER! DO THE MATH! THE SYSTEM MAKES MONEY, YOU TWIT!!

Anyhow, get out there and vote for whomever has the best chance of beating the Conservaties. In my leftist riding, that's the NDP. No, I don't like voting for them, but they're the best chance I've got at keeping the Conservatives out of my riding, and hopefully keeping my career!

After the election is over I may need a stiff drink - like this Margarita I had in LA the last time I was there!


June 09, 2004
You know you're getting older when the frequency of wedding invitations starts rising. But a couple of days ago I received TWO wedding invitations in the mail ON THE SAME DAY! Man, it's a mad footrace to matrimony. It's like somone's yelled "last one with a baby and a picket fence is a rotten egg!!" and everyone has just bolted off the blocks in a mad matrimonial powered dash!

Not that I'm complaning, mind you! I love weddings! Love is in the air, the buffet is plentiful, and the bartenders pour "magic sized" cocktails into the wee, wee hours and it's always a great time.

So pleasse join me in congratulating some wonderful people as they get ready to join forces (much like the WonderTwins!) in matrimony. There's TANYA (Jeff's sister) and WADE, who are getting married next month, and JASON and ANDREA getting married in august (more on Jason here). Aaah, the belles of summer!


June 04, 2004
The spring is apparently in full force - we've got BABIES and PONIES! Cam and Kim had their first baby just yesterday, here's a photo of the new family. Say hello to Tyler Skye Mackinnon! This kid will be swinging dice by the time she's three. Daddy's little gamer!

Another way to tell it's the spring - the ponies hit the track. And where you'll find ponies, wagering and alcohol, you'll find the Royal Order of the Hastings Hatsmen. (**PAGE NOW CONTAINS WITTY CAPTIONS**!)

Oh, and a couple of weeks before that a couple of friends and I did some voicework for the new "Storyeum" thing that's coming to Vancouver. It's supposed to be this big live tourist show with all these scenes with backgrounds and actors... so who better to call than some of the biggest overactors around? If you check out Storyeum, you'll get to hear Jeff predending to be scottish, you might hear Lee Tokar with a fine spanish accent, and you might even hear me pretending to be a cockney dock worker. Lesley spent most of the time in the booth saying things like "could you try to suck less".


May 25, 2004
Ok! Remember how a couple of days ago I reported that Ryan Marley managed to land a job at the CBC? Well, Clint got so excited by the news that he went and made this wonderful tribue to hallmark the start of Ryan's new gig.


May 24, 2004
I haven't written a movie review in a long time because writing reviews about ho-hum films just seems so boring. But Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind got me typing again. It's great. If you haven't already done so, go see it.


May 19, 2004
MIRACLE OF MIRACLES! Ryan Marley has landed a JOB! GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT! After six long painful months seeking work in Toronto, my buddy Ryan has finally landed a dream gig at the CBC. He'll be shooting setments for a new CBC "teen" show called NERVE. It's all edgy and hip and stuff. Congrats Ryan!


May 12, 2004
Ok! We're FIXED!! The Powerbook's been re-installed and Foley Lynn, the nicest fellow in the world, gave me a LEGAL copy of Adobe GoLive 6.0 in trade for a bottle of vodka. GOD LOVE FOLEY LYNN, AND GOD LOVE VODKA!

Ok, let's get NakedSponge BACK IN ACTION! Here's some photos from Michelle's birthday party a few weeks ago...


April 06, 2004
Back from France! Here's something fun. Before I left I bought this cool little digital camera to take with me. It's really wee, literally the size of credit card. The night before I left, I discovered that it actually records video; it can shoot up to 60 seconds worth of video (15fps 320 x 240 AVI's for you AV nerds) which, I discovered, imported directly into Final Cut Pro. Since I was travelling with my Powerbook, I figured I'd shoot some footage during my epic multi-plane 20 hour trip from Canada to France, which I put together on the plane as I shot it. I then trolled my iPod to find the perfect song and assembled the thing while waiting for my last flight to board.

It certainly helped to pass the time! Check it out here!

April 02, 2004
It's the MIP-TV television market right now, and I'm here pitching some of my animated TV series ideas at anyone who'll listen. Studios, networks, production companies; you name it. Lots of people are here doing the same thing - there's 10,000 people here pitching too, which can get a little depressing - until you come across shows like this one, or like this one. When I see ideas like this, well, it makes me feel a whole lot better about my own projects!

Take a peek at some photos from France here. I'm still working on the "trip video", should be ready and uploaded tomorrow!


March 30, 2004
It's the MIP-TV television market right now, here in France! I'm here! In France! Here's ME, on the balcony of our apartment downtown! Here's a view of the street! Wow! Amazing! Here's another! La Belle France! Here's a shot of the place where they park the boats! Here's one of those big fancy industry parties! Wahoo! MIP is nuts. I pitched a couple of networks and people seem to dig my show idea, which is awesome. I also realized my new digital camera has a cool video mode that shoots 15 frame per second video in 320 x 240 resolution; i've cut a little video of my trip to MIP, it's almost done. I'll post it here in a couple of days!


March 24, 2004
Avast! Last weekend saw us all getting together to celebrate Clint's birthday - Pirate style! The tea k33yLounge was all done up in a Pirate theme and there was rum and dubloons for all! Well, dubloons for some, potato chips for others. Check out the photos.


March 15, 2004
Hey, for those of you who I know from my days at Mainframe, this might be of interest! Right now in my little animation studio here at SecondSun Entertainment where I work you'll find a couple of familiar faces working on a cool CG animated MUSIC VIDEO! Patrick Carrol is directing a team of crack artists and creating a cool crazy video which i'll post online as soon as it's done. We've got Superstar Supervisor Walter Heish and Rockin' Rohd Santos bustin' out the art here! We've got Lawrence Wong layin' down the keyframes! It's a non stop CG party over here!


March 14, 2004
Not much to report; had far too many cocktails this weekend. More later!


March 02, 2004
Wow, it's been a while since I've made an update. I'm taking off in a few weeks for MIP-TV in France, which should be interesting. Yes, the young jet-setting TV executive flies off yet again! I'll be sure to bring a camera to document all the action this time (I got a couple nasty emails from people saying "where are all the New York photos?!). We're gonna be staying in this slick villa on the french coast. Tough gig, eh? Check it out! The kitchen even has a Crock Pot! Sweeet. Sure, France is cool, but it sure would be fun to return to Vegas sometime in the near future... ;-)

Hey, Jason Hopkins has gone and set up his own webpage, check it out.

Has anyone noticed how sweet the weather here in Vancouver has been? It's been AWESOME! I think it's almost time to take out the bike! Hey, speaking of bike photos, here's a TOTALLY nerdy photo of me on my first bike, taken WAAY back 1993. What a dork-store! I look like some sort of budget X-man wanna-be in those lame 80's leathers
February 23, 2004
Hey, check out who I made friends with while I was at the Kidscreen Summit!


February 20, 2004
Back from New York! The Kidscreen Conference was awesome, good times had by all. While I was away Gio went and decided to buy himself a condo in Deep Cove! Wowza. Check it out in all it's suburban beauty.

Lach mailed out this crazy news; apparently some wacky American "accidentally" drove across the Canadian / US border with a LIVE freakin' HAND GRENDE in her glove box. The US media is writing it off as a "funny accident". Wow. Check out the story for yourself. Ha ha ha! Big funny joke MY ASS! As Lach puts it, "If the grenade was coming from the other direction, there'd be Apache gunships and Marines occupying Ottawa right now!". Who the hell carts around hand grenades in their freakin' glove box anyhow? Was she planning on using it if she got car-jacked? What's the plan, let the theif get into the car then frag him as he tries to drive off? Sheesh.


February 10, 2004
No updates for a while! Been busy! Leaving in a couple of hours for New York for the Kidscreen Summit! I won't have my Mac because the stupid thing is going in for repairs. Three months old and it's already broken! Pffft.

See you all in a week! Check out my lavish accomodations!


January 28, 2004
Back from Vegas. I had a great time at NATPE, met lots of cool people, pitched some show ideas. Hey, check out the cool one-sheet for "Crashed" (.PDF format). Cool drawing, eh?

It was my first time in Vegas, and it amazed to me just how many different slot machines there were kicking around. I mean, I knew there were a load of slot machines, but SERIOUSLY, I didn't think that meant there were THAT many. I mean, there were machines that were offering a BMW as the prize! Nutty!

Additionally, it occurred to me that it was as if each machine seemed to be designed for a specific player...


January 18, 2004
NATPE update! Wow man, Vegas is just awesome. It's my first time here and I love it! It's definately NOT a city, however, designed for a lone person - I've yet to find a restaurant with a table that seats less than, like, ten people. Do you know how dorky it feels to be sitting at a massive table in this restaurant all by yourself? It's way lame! I did it once, but subsequent meals have been at fast food joints to cut down on the "lonely dork" image.

Regardless, I'm having a great time - the sights are great. The water fountain display at the Bellagio is amazing, it's like fireworks made out of water. Inside the Venetian hotel is just mindblowing, it's this phoney mockup of Venice, with canals and all. I walked through it today and there was this roving five person modern opera troupe in full restoration costumes doing a performance. Fun!

Here's a couple of photos; here's me, after my first night of gambling. Vegas left me with a total of six dollars.

Here's the view from my room at the Stratosphere. Lovely, isn't it? If you have a choice, DON'T stay at the Stratosphere. It's really cheap for a reason. I've since moved to the Monte Carlo, which is a thousand times nicer. Here's the new view from my room, with captions pointing out some of the sites.

Today was also the first day of NATPE, and I had a great experience - I attended (along with 400 other people) this big workshop on pitching. The coach looks around the first two rows and decides that she wants to hear an example of a pitch. And she decides that she wants to hear MY pitch, and pulls me up on stage where she lets me pitch the room. The ENTIRE, 400 person room. She basically told me the approach I was using was wrong, and gave me some tips on how to make it better. It was a little nerve-racking, but her tips were great - I'll be using them when I pitch tomorrow at Cartoon Network and Kids WB!

More updates tomorrow!

Oh! I finally got a second to upload some photos from Paige's cocktail party. Take a peek.


January 16, 2004
Ok! I'm three hours away from leaving for NATPE in Las Vegas, where I'll be pitching some show ideas to the American networks. I've got my one sheets all printed up, I've got my show bibles, I'm ready to go, baby! I'm a little nervous - my first time pitching a network, and my first time in Vegas. With a last name like "Gamble", I've got a feeling that I'm going to be leaving Vegas with a LOT LESS money that I've got now. However, apparently my hotel offers "all you can eat bacon" with breakfast, so that'll take the sting out of losing all my money, I suppose. Check here for updates, I'm bringing my Powerbook and i'll try to post some photos of the event.

Hey, you know Gio? He's a super duper guy, what with the GioChannel and all. He also does voice work now and then, and he did a voice for this kooky Xbox game called "Kung Fu Chaos". Check out this interview with the G-Man himself!


January 10, 2004
Happy New Year! Wow, ok, took me a little while, but here's some photos from a few of this year's holiday events. The first big shin-dig was Clint and Andrea's party, which ended up with several puddles of vomitus on Clint's lawn. A good start to the season!

After that, Mike and Shona threw a "apres ski" themed party which encouraged guests to wear their worst 80's sweaters. I only snagged a couple of photos - check out this prime example of 80's horror, and when your done laughing at that, here's another.

My old family friend Paige Birnie threw what could be considered the "cocktail party of the year". Open bar, with two shirtless male models pouring endless martinis. I'm not really down with the whole topless male model vibe, but the free drinks were a nice touch.

Jeff kicked off his new tea k33y lounge with a swanky boxing day party, which was great. Lach, Peter, Jay and Ryan all attended this one, which is great since they no longer live in Vancouver. When the boys get together, it's messy.

Jeff then locked up the "overall party of the year" award with his New Years bash. The place was PACKED!

Good times! I'm looking forward to 2004, I think it's going to be a FANTASTIC year. Good, solid, positive vibes.


December 28, 2003
Wow. Well, 'tis the season for random Christmas parties. Last night my old friend Paige Birnie threw an awesome cocktail party at her swanky studio loft, and the night before that Jeff hosted a cocktail bash at his new tea k33y-ensconced downtown pad. Days before that, Clint and Andrea hosted an awesome barnstormer at thier lovely suburban rancher.

While the next morning never fairs well for anyone, the worst off is usually the host - who is left with a total mess. Check out Jeff's place in this "day after" photograph. What a disaster!


December 24, 2003
Well season's greetings! What to do. I'm a single guy, sitting at home, alone, on Christmas eve. So, to make the best of this lonely situation, I poured myself a lovely festive glass of vodka and tonic, flipped the TV on to the "virtual fireplace" of channel 4, popped on a relaxed trance DJ mix, and fixed myself a "Christmas dinner for one". Now, it's just nutty to cook a turkey for one person, so I cooked up one of those pathetic little cornish game hens, steamed up some frozen corn, cooked up some instant mashed potatoes, and enjoyed a lovely festive dinner for one. Wahoo!

So, a very Happy Holidays to you and yours from all of us here at Nakedsponge dot calm... which is, essentially, me.

Oh, here, you might get a kick out of this. I wanted to give my friend Carl Potts (creator of the comic book "Alien Legion" who I worked with this year, developing the comic into an animated series) a little something, so I had local artist Colin Beadle doodle up a canvas with a painting of Carl, Captain Sarigar, and me. S'funny!


December 23, 2003
A FOLLOW UP TO THE KOI LETTER! If you haven't read Jeff's "Koi" letter, click on the link at the bottom of the grey sponge and hit the a