Animals just steal my heart...

This picture is barely representative of how incredibly cuddly this cat was. If I could take pictures in my sleep, you would instead have an adorable picture of it curled up against my shoulder as we slept here.

Isn't she just beautiful?

I found this kitty on the street near my apartment. It was super sweet and friendly. After much consideration, I tried to bring it home. The poor cat was scared and did not enjoy being held. Then, I figured the cat would continue following me if it was lost. It did not. However, when I got home I could not live with that decision. After finding a suitcase, I went out to wrestle the kitty home. It turned out to be more friendly than I expected.

Found cat flyers with my phone number went up all around the area I found it. After a couple days I started to look for no-kill shelters. Someone recommended I post a flyer at the ABC Animal Hospital. When I was dropping off the flyer there a lady said she saw a Lost Cat flyer nearby. I found the flyer and called. I hoped dearly that it was the right person. However after a few phone calls it turned out to be a different black cat. Sadly I could not keep it for much longer.

One of my roommates will not allow a pet and the other is slightly allergic to cats. So the search for a home went on! After correspondence with ABC Animal Hospital, someone liked the cat from my flyer and called me to visit it. Of course they fell in love with it since this cat was cooler than most dogs. They took it home before I was forced to drop it off at the ABC Animal Hospital. Usually this office had a fee for dropping off a pet, but they were considering waiving it due to my circumstances. I am a poor college student that found a cat on the street, paying to get rid of it was not an option.

If you ever see a lost animal, please do something about it.

Taking this cat in was made more difficult by non-supportive roommates and friends. In fact, I was even insulted as being "one of those people that cares about animals so much they'll take them off the streets." I mean, what the hell is that about? I felt so frustrated that nobody was supporting me in my efforts, which is fine enough, but then I was actually harassed for doing so? My heart goes out there to the strangers that did offer help and called me to thank me for doing such a kind thing. To me it was not a big deal, but everyone else made it seem like such a dramatic thing. I am excited to live with people who are more understanding and flexible in the future.

Reel

I finally mustered up the courage to take time to make a reel of my own work.

I'm not much of an editor so I plan on having it re-cut once I have a few more things to put in it.

A Friend's Art - Found Pictures

Indoor stuff of me fixing my hair.

I'm supposed to be dead in this picture.

Acting self conscious of my hair.

People started to think I was actually crazy.

They even offered to help me look for something, as if I had lost it.

I've been organizing my life lately. My hard drives needed to be sorted out and I found these pictures taken last year by my friend, Dan. The assignment was an experimental still photograph slideshow. I was some sort of Medusa character who was self conscious of her hair. Most of the pictures are blurry or not well exposed. Here are a couple of the good ones. I just figured I should post them on here before they are lost in the depths of another hard drive.

Teaching

Working on background to be green screened in.

stop motion experiments

Blue screening some live action.

Team work was needed for the tissue paper flowers.

Reviewing a student's work.

How can we fix this?

Out to dinner!

Teaching green screen and pixellation

Crew photo

A wonderful cartooning of the staff

This summer I taught NYU's Summer Filmmakers Workshop.

This high school program was completely life altering. I'd always known I like working with kids, but this experience confirmed that I should follow this path.

Here is the music video my students made. They had never animated before. Teaching them stop motion was a total blast. Every time I said, "Hey, do you guys want to learn something?" they would immediately stop what they were doing and say, "Yeah!" How beautiful is that? My eyes water with joy every time I think of them and our experiences.

I just want to thank everyone involved in SFW for changing my life!

Websites

Thanks to the help of my friend, Gatlin, I have a couple websites going.

Here is my personal one.

Here is the one for the Student Producers Association.

Both need to be updated.  Once I have the internet set up at the house I will have the time to work on them and make them better.  Plus, I need to learn how to manage a website.

Scurrying Kitties

Last week I was about to pull into my driveway when I saw a cat at the side of the road.  I slowed down to make sure I did not hit it.  Then I looked forward and saw what looked like a weird leaf blowing in front of the car.  I realized it was a small animal struggling to run.  I put the car in park and approached it.  It was a small wild rabbit that was trying to run but was injured.  With pulled down sweater sleeves, I picked up the little guy and brought it into the house.

A small basket with old rags sat on my lap as I called around and tried to figure out what to do with the little munchkin.  I have no internet at the house so between my boyfriend and I we made a ton of phone calls to wildlife rescue people in the area.  Finally someone answered but she lived pretty far away, at least by Connecticut standards, and it was pouring rain.  I made the trek anyway to Essex.  It was absolutely beautiful there.  The woman took the rabbit, looked it over, and gave me her card to check in with the bunny's status.

It was still on its mother's milk supposedly.  Aww.  I am glad I brought it to someone instead of just keeping it as I was so tempted to do.

Its leg was broken and was probably infected by the germs from the cat.  She said it has a good chance of surviving.  I will update if I find out if the bunny made it.

And this is Wolfie (a cat if you can believe it).  She was found in a box of car parts inside a VW double cab at a mechanic's place in Bastrop.  The mother had been shot a few days previously and somehow this little one survived.  No others were found.  She is a bit bigger now, although I have not been home to see her in a while.

Just beginning.

Alright!

I finally created a blog.

I am not sure how much I will use this or who will read it, but what the heck?