HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Found this picture online and thought it fit us perfectly. Happy Halloween everyone!

A New Job!

John-
Hi everyone! I'm sorry I have not written in a while. I just started a new job! About four weeks ago I gave my notice at my job. Kitty was getting worried about my mental and physical health working at Threshold Entertainment so we sat down and talked and prayed about it. We asked God to give me a solid sign on when to leave Threshold. Well, I got the definite sign four weeks ago today, so I gave my notice the next day.

I spent two weeks decompressing and getting my sanity back. Then about two weeks ago, on Tuesday, October 16th, I saw posting for Dreamworks looking for layout people. I thought I'd put a resume in there and check the web for other job postings. On another web site I found a posting for MotionBuilder people (that is a program I used at Threshold for manipulating motion capture information.) I saw that the company name was Lightstorm Entertainment, which is James Cameron's company (if you don't know who he is, do a web search for his name.) I sent my resume and a link to my on-line demo reel to the e-mail address listed. 10 MINUTES later I got a response asking if I could come in the next day for an interview. I said I'd be happy to come in! At the interview they told me that the project was AVATAR, which was the movie I was hoping to go to New Zealand to work on with Weta Digital (Peter Jackson's company.) The interview went so well they offered me the job at the end of the interview. A couple days of contract negotiations and I had a job by Friday, October 19th and started last Monday. Mr. Cameron will be in New Zealand until the end of the year filming a bunch of live action parts for the movie. He'll be back "in office" at the start of the year to do some work with the mocap.

We have discovered God works in wondrous and exciting ways when you have faith and trust your whole life to Him.

Happy Writing!

(Kitty) For all you writers out there, here's something you want to know about - or you may already know about it. November is National Novel Writing Month. Somebody came up with the idea that we should all try writing 50,000 words in a month - and do it together. So they created a web site and now nearly 100,000 people around the world are writing together every November!

So, many of my writer friends and I are planning our stories, our word count, where we're going to write, where we can write together, and how we can write nearly an entire book without also eating an entire grocery store aisle's worth of food (or worse, an aisle worth of Halloween candy). :)

Let me know if you're participating, too! I'll see you there!

We're Safe

(Kitty) Hi everyone! Sorry - I can't believe it's been three weeks since we posted!! So much is going on, and there's so much to tell you, but all that busyness is why we haven't posted!

Just wanted you all to know we're currently safe and well in regards to the fires. We found out in church Sunday morning, near the beginning of the disaster, that one of our sister churches, Malibu Presbyterian, had burned to the ground that morning. Very sad, but there is going to be such a swell of help and support that we'll see all kinds of blessings as people come together. As their pastor said, the Church is not a building.

Of course, I think it's far worse to lose your home, and so many people have. One of our friends is trying to keep us updated for prayer purposes - her home has not burned, but it's been in the line of fire for a couple days. Another friend sent out a prayer request for her family's house as they were being evacuated. Another friend is using their home as a "refugee camp for their family in San Diego."

I've been in Temecula, a part of Riverside county, this week, housesitting and writing. It's been disturbing to go out every day to the store or to get my friend's mail and see a new fire, more smoke, darker skies. Two fires popped up Tuesday about 30 miles away, and they've gotten worse, but truly aren't near me. Still, the situation is so sad for so many. I pray for safety for the firefighters and for those whose homes are near the fires, and I've also been praying that people's insurance is current! One friend said that her parents' house is uninsurable due to its proximity to the Northridge earthquake some years ago. Wow. Who knew you could own a home that couldn't be insured? (Not me.)

Anyway, John and I are safe and well. I'll be in touch as soon as I can to tell you all the interesting and wonderful things going on in our lives this past month. Sorry to keep you waiting so long. But know that we love you!! :)

Better Safe Than Sorry?

(Kitty) Just a little LA ranting here...for the last 20 years I've been driving a car. In that time, I think I've gotten one parking ticket, two "fix-it" tickets, and that's all. Every now and again I think, "You really shouldn't be so over-careful. There's almost no chance that someone is going to run that red light. (But people do!) There's almost no chance someone's going to whip around that blind corner." (But people do!) Etc., etc.

In the last week, I've almost been hit about three or four times! Now that isn't different from any other week in LA, but this week it just pissed me off. How come I'm the one being careful and "everybody else" thinks they can just do what they want? Tonight in a parking garage I slowed way down at a place where I was the only lane that had the right of way - if I hadn't, I would've been rammed by a 30-something cute guy in a big expensive car. He was looking down at the seat when he almost hit me. Then he looked up, stopped fast, smiled, and motioned for me to continue. As if!!

Buddy, you really better watch it. Someday I might recreate that scene from Fried Green Tomatoes when Kathy Bates rams a sports car with rich, hot young people in it - they steal her parking space and call out, "We're younger and faster." She punches the accelerator and repeatedly rams their car, then calls out, "I'm older and have more insurance!"

Series Premiere

(Kitty) We had such a great time last Monday. We watched our friend's Internet series - like a TV series, but with short episodes - at a Premiere party! The series is called Dirty Bomb Diaries and it's a cool kind of "War of the Worlds" thing on a smaller scale. Click on the link and watch an episode! Or all of them! :)