Up, up, and... dissapointing.

UP! was one of the bigger movie disappointments for me this summer. While Star Trek and Watchmen were better than I expected, UP! is now my least-favorite Pixar Movie. It was a rather sad movie, and the pacing seemed off.

On the other hand, it was beautifully done. What I can only describe as the "porcelain" faces Pixar has been developing throughout their past few movies have never looked better. The hair especially impressed me, as did the pallet and cinematography.

Lou Romano did a lot of the sketching and color work for the movie. In addition to some beautiful sketches he's also posted his color script. You can see the strange pacing here too... half the movie passes before Carl goes on his adventure.

Presenting the EATS

In my spare time I am an advisor to an engineering club at my old High School. For the past few years we've entered a rocketry competition, but last year we returned to the JETS-NEDC contest. The goal is to design a new product to assist a handicapped individual in doing their job.

We had a great group who came up with a design to help a wheelchair user access a book-bag or briefcase, and easily stow it behind the chair. They called it the Easy Access Transport System (EATS). The judges were impressed with their report and 5 minute video presentation, and ended up as one of 5 teams winning an award at the National Finals this past March, including a special award for best presentation.

It got a lot of press.

The students are now trying to commercialize their product while at the same time, along with a few new-commers, enter this years contest with a new idea...

Back from Hiatus...

Was my last post really in May? It's been quite the summer, with the development of Pack Tiger Hybrid and a few other big projects, my blog has fallen to the wayside.

It's time to catch up...