San Diego Dash

Last night, in a race against the clock to get to my 2nd Q+A session, I frantically peddled my bike around Pacific Beach, roommate at toe and lap top on back, in attempt to locate a wireless hot spot. Coffee shops: Closed, closed, closed, OPEN! Starbucks was open and I'd heard they had free wifi. Not true. Not true, 'tall. Oh boy do they make you pay. Their cheapest deal was $6 per hour and 10 cents a minute thereafter. Annoying, but do-able. So with 4 minutes left to spare until the session began, I attempted to pay... Couldn't log into the pay site. Of course. So I grabbed my roommate, who was just coming back to our table with her steaming chai tea and scone, and dragged her out the door. She had to come with me because her bike is co-dependent on my bike and can't be left alone. Hers doesn't have a lock or a kickstand, so it constantly leans on mine and shares my lock, making it feel claustrophobic and smothered. (Nothing personal Katherine!) We hightailed it to my boyfriends house (Katherine chucks her new delicious chai into a can) where he, in the meantime, had logged into the Q+A session for me using a neighbor's unsecured connection. And as Bret was taking roll, he flew out of view of the camera just as Bret clicked on my name to reveal nothing but empty space. I was only 5 blocks or so away at this point. I finally got there, and met a choppy, angry wireless connection, which is why throughout the entire session I kept getting kicked off!!!

The session itself was good. Bret went over the 12 basic principles of animation, and then we had room for questions/comments. I liked some of the comments Paul K. and Chad made about the fact that humans can easily detect the tiniest thing wrong with a walk cycle, for example, but it is hard to put your finger on what exactly to fix.