Failure.

I have come to realize that I haven't posted in this blog in yonks. Which means two things. 1. I haven't progressed in my animation skills and 2. The procrastination part of the title to my blog has taken over. Thank God nobody is reading this!! So I sincerely apologize to myself. I've let you down, but it won't happen again!!

With the New Year well under way I have decided to change my attitude to life. 2011 is going to be a productive year. Hells to the yeah!! I'm pumped and dead eager to rejuvinate my intelligent, yes intelligent, spirit! I've started a second blog called "So...". It's more of a personal blog so there'll be less waffleing in this blog.

Although what I can really see happening is me leaving this blog on a shelf and keeping up my new one. Oh well! Not every blog is cut out for the job! That rhymes. My future career in rap is unfolding before my eyes. I'll be a superstar!

Or not. I'm generally un-selfmotivated. Is that a word?? Well, it is now! See how influential I am?!?! I could change the world!!

Oooorrrr not. Yes, I saw that coming just as much as you did.




DAMMIT!!!! This procrastination is getting out of hand. Maybe starting a blog was a bad idea. I need a shrink.......That'd be pretty cool actually! "Hey Swell, are you coming to Wallows party later on?" "No I can't, I'm walking my shrink." Ahhhh the joys of being mentally deranged!

Any whore. I procrastinated way over my limit. I now owe you, my readers aka: ME!, two posts solely dedicated to animating. Pigs better learn to fly!

SWELL.

DEATH DREAMSSSS!!!!

I’ve had three dreams in the past month that are about me waiting to die or insinuating that I’m going to die. Oooo please share these intriguing dreams with us, do I hear you say? Well alrighty then!

In my first dream I was in a cafe like setting. Basically there were small tables everywhere with people sitting at them doing cafe-y things. At my table was me and my Mother.(Mother…that’s a bit harsh. Lets call her Mammy) I had a drip tube stuck into my arm at my ‘inside elbow’. I told this nurse-person that I was ready and there she goes and takes the drip out of my arm. Not a bother on her either! The bitch! Show a bit of sympathy, like! So I was sitting there waiting to die, when all of a sudden I became scared. Not shitting myself scared when some monster kills the blonde in a horror film, but genuinely fearful of what’s to come. I realised that if I died, I would no longer be able to experience strange but enjoyable conversations with my friends. I wouldn’t be able to laugh at my family any longer. (Yes I did mean ‘at’.) I wouldn’t be able to routinely Google my favourite celebs to see what they’re up to! I know the latter was a bit lame but I have no time for you critics! So I told the bitch-nurse that I didn’t want to die, that I wasn’t ready. So bitch-nurse, quite unemotionally, replaced the drip tube in my arm. Agus sin e. (That’s Irish for ‘and that’s it’. Please correct me if I’m grammatically wrong!)

 

Dream numero deux! (That’s Spanish / Italian and French for ‘number 2’. Yes I’m bilingual!) I was sitting in our TV room when I heard a call from my Mammy. She was in the kitchen. When I reached her she was looking out the window at a marvellous colourful bird. (Not a real bird might I add!) She commented on how beautiful it was and asked me if I agreed. But I replied something along the lines of ‘what does it matter, it’s not like I’m gunna be hear much longer’ (Typical teenage angst style!) That was that! End of the dream!

 

Dream number three was fun but sad, very much like the style of Roddy Doyle’s book ‘Paddy Clarke HA HA HA’. I was riding a horse in our field (in reality we don’t have any horses). Of course I fell off, but here’s the really fun bit. It was one of those brilliant exaggerated falls that you have in dreams. I must have fallen over the horses head because I went flying into the air! I was tumbling about and although it was very fun to experience I had to consider the consequences of my ginormous fall! So I thought that if I don’t land softly I’m going to really hurt myself. Do you know what I did to soften my landing? I rolled. Yes, I rolled onto the ground. Genius! I thought it had worked and all! But I felt my body become a bit stiff.

Next thing I knew I was in a town and I was looking for a doctor. I could feel my back and just at my shoulder blade there was a crack. Like a really pronounced crack! It protruded! I found the doctor and he/she said that my back was broken. DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!! (that’s me transcribing the music that’s played whenever something goes wrong. You know it! My transcription is brilliant!)

I went back up the town the way I had come and Mammy was there with me then. She’s one of those poofy Mammy’s, like a genie! I said to her could they not just fix my back? And do you know what she said?! ‘No, that’s the end of it now'. Nothing can be done’…………… The bitch! Wouldn’t even try to find help for her dying daughter?!?!?!………bitch……… 

 

There you have it. My three marvellous dreams about my impending death. BUT! Let me tell you what I found out! I wasn’t particularly worried about my dreams, but I just wanted to see what experienced(?) dream readers would have to say about my dreams and what they mean. So I went to the most trusted website for dream readers (<-----Sounds like a good film title. Kinda like Ghost Busters. Hmmmmm) which is Yahoo!Answers.com!

Three people answered, and all three of them replied with similar answers. They said that dreams of death are related to big changes in your life. A lot of young people would have these dreams because of the amount of times we go to new schools or new bushes. (The latter only applies to someone who has risen from the dead or transported into the future and they hail from the era of hedge schools which existed in Ireland during the 18th Century.) That makes sense to me since I started college in the last week! I wonder did you notice that Mammy was in all of my dreams. That meant that in order for me to grow up I would have to stop being molly coddled. Hang on, I’ll quote exactly what the person said: “You're growing, and to continue growing, you can't be mom's little girl any more.” Apparently I’m Mammy’s little girl! Pssh!

 

*Note to self: Dreams can make you rich according to Stephenie Meyer. But I wouldn’t believe her because she spells Stephanie a silly way. And she made vampires gay. Actually the fact that Edward sparkles is a telling sign that she wrote that story based on a dream. And I’m not a silly fan I just happen to know Edwards name!*

 

You may be wondering why I’m writing about my own personal experiences and not animation. Well this blog is actually a bit of both worlds. Lets analyze the title shall we? YES I hear you roar back. Well, the title is ‘Animate Procrastinate’. Animate refers to my animation which I will attempt and talk about through this blog. Procrastinate refers to the amount of time I spend not animating by telling you what has happened recently in my life. That ok? Good. See you in the next post then.

 

SWELL.

Right…Here we go!

HELLOO!! My name is Swell. It’s great isn’t it? You see I was born into a family of nature lovers. There’s a proper name for the type of people they are but I can’t remember it. That doesn’t look too good on my behalf since I AM a member of that family for over eighteen years. Any who… Swell is like a peaceful name. Apparently I bring peace to the minds of anybody I talk to. The fact that I’m a drug pusher doesn’t always give the right impression but…………… That was a joke by the way.

 

  I’m eighteen, and I’m starting University. Actually I just started today. It is miles apart from Secondary School. I don’t even know what the point of Secondary school is if they don’t even really prepare us for college life. It’s so different! I’m an individual here! In secondary school I was just another student. Another piece of flesh who couldn’t speak for themselves. Teachers don’t fully understand your personality because of restricting uniforms! Teachers judge a student by test results, behaviour in class and (this may not always apply) the type of personality an older sibling may have possessed during their school days.

School, I think, doesn’t prepare a student to speak for themselves (unless you do Transition Year maybe). The teachers don’t go out of their way to encourage you to come out of your shell. Well my teachers didn’t anyway. School should be more hands on from day one. It’d be way more interesting, I can guarantee that.

 

……………Slightly off topic? I think not! Actually I do but being dramatic can be fun. What are my interests I hear you ask. Or SHUT UP YOU DUMB BITCH WHAT ARE YOU NATTERING ON ABOUT??? I’ll just ignore that, because I am getting to my point!

You may have noticed my blog is entitled “Animate Procrastinate”. Well I came up with that title because I have started to delve into the art of traditional animation. You know, the type of animation used in magnificent Disney cartoons as “The Lion King”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast” etc etc. All the films before they joined forces with Pixar and created “Toy Story”.(I have a slight obsession with that film as do most children born between the years of roughly 1990 and 1993.)

Traditional animation consisted of drawing EVERY frame of the movements a character makes in order to create the illusion that the character is real and moves by itself. This type caught my attention way more than computer animated cartoons. I prefer the traditional way of doing things. It’s a shame for computers to take over everything, and I guess by me animating in this way I am contributing to keeping this art alive…… even though no one will probably see my animations. Or will they? (See…drama.)

I have a YouTube account which goes by the name of TheMoodymuck. Here’s a link if you want to have a gander:http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMoodymuck

If you’re going to look now, which is at 8:51 15th September, you will absolutely NOT find any animated videos, just videos from concerts and weird videos about dogs and diggers that I clumsily put together on Windows Movie Maker. BUT! I will have an animated short up sometime hopefully before December sometime because I’m actually entering a competition. And when I say animated SHORT(!) I mean short. The video has to be in around five seconds long. A lifetime for snails, a split second for cheetahs. *Note To Self: don’t ever try to take on job which combines the workings of David Attenborough and Neil Armstrong!

Here’s the video created by TomSka which lists out the entry requirements and the prizes:

 

And here’s a video of what my short animation could be featured in if I get through:

 

So there you have it! That’s my plan! But you see I always make plans, I just never normally complete them because I procrastinate A LOT!! Seriously, I should get a medal for it I’m that good! And that’s where I got the procrastination part for my title from. But I’m hoping this blog will help me overcome my talent at procrastination. Also I hope that if there is anyone who is even considering attempting traditional animation themselves, that my journey will help them learn what to do and not to do.

 

SWELL.