While Tracy and Dyson were away, I took the opportunity to attend a figure drawing session.

I struggled with this one for a while. But one of the guys there suggested that I focus more on the overall tones instead of the details and that helped a lot.

Sometimes I get discouraged because it seems like I keep on making the same mistakes after a decade of doing this. But I try to tell myself that I’m getting better, even if I can’t see it.

I think part of the problem is that my discernment is improving at much a faster rate than my actual skill. So the more I do this, the lower my opinion of my own skills becomes.

Ah, ignorance was indeed bliss…

I’ve had chronic starter problems with my motorcycle for a couple years and the shop I kept on taking it to couldn’t figure it out so I tried Addiction Motors and they were fantastic! In addition to:

• replacing the starter
• cleaning the exterior
• power-hosing the brakes
• adding cleaner to the gas tank
• finding and replacing a missing front fender

… and generally being really cool and explaining all sorts of stuff about my bike, James also added safety reflector lining to my rims that glows when lights hit them.

So not only did they do a great job fixing up my bike, I am also one step closer to owning a Tron lightcycle. If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area and have a motorcycle, I highly recommend them!

As I mentioned, I’ve been playing a lot of Draw Something recently and I’ve discovered some helpful tips:

• The first color pack you should get is “Mardi Gras” because it has green and orange. The second is “Ice Cream” because it has several flesh tones.
• Drawing specific people (like Tina Fey) is hard unless they’re kind of distinctive looking (like Snooki).
• Know your audience. Most men don’t know what Uggs are. Also, it doesn’t matter how good your drawing of an Ewok is if your partner has never seen Star Wars…

See if you can guess some of my drawings! Hover your mouse or click on the thumbnails for the answers:

Tracy took Dyson to go visit her parents so I’m all alone at home for a bit. I’m taking the opportunity to try to do some stuff. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to get done, but here are the goals:

• cut my hair
• make a short film
• go to a couple parties
• finish an app or two
• do some figure drawing
• finish cleaning up the house
• run a role playing game

On the one hand, it’s amazing just how much time I seem to have now. On the other, it sure is quiet around here. Also, I have been playing a ton of Draw Something.

I have a Mac and I use Time Capsule, which is an amazing device that provides WiFi, automatically backs up your computer, and can be used as an external harddrive.

But it stopped working on Thursday giving me the error message, “The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk. The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk.”

I tried a bunch of different things including disk repair, removing the last partial backup, and connecting the computer directly to Time Capsule. But then I remembered that I was messing around with my directory structure around the same time that my backups started failing. In fact, one of the things I did was to replace a symlink to a directory with a copy of the directory.

That turned out to be the problem. So if you have problems with your backup after replacing a symbolic link to a directory, try renaming the copy to something different first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQC3jRqH2eo

Among the things that set Dyson off, possibly the biggest is when the cat takes his spot. When that happens, it’s time to pull out the big guns. And by guns, I mean cookies. Because no matter what he’s upset about, cookies will distract him from it. Unless it doesn’t. In which case, it’s time to pull out the ear plugs.

On the one hand, I know that giving him a cookie might make him think that he’s rewarded for getting upset. On the other, I do it infrequently and … sometimes you just need to get through the day.

Dyson recently turned two and as if on cue, has started having meltdowns over such transgressions as: Papa eating discarded food from his tray, walking down the steps in front of him, and flushing the toilet.

Other times, the transgressions are unknown to me as he has not developed the verbal communications skills required to articulate his grievances and I have failed to acquire telepathy.

These are indeed trying times, but I take solace in the fact that a human can only scream continuously for so long. He has to take a breath at some point, right? Right?!

Remember the electronic game Simon? My friend made an all-new game for the iPad based on it called Dancing Touch.

It features beautifully rendered graphics and a couple new twists on the memory game genre. The first level starts simply with just one color at a time and then the game moves on to pairs of colors. Eventually, the board starts to rotate and it gets even more challenging.

If you’ve got an iPad, check it out! If you don’t, he’s working on an iPhone and Android versions so look for those soon.

It took a couple months, but it’s finally here! You can now use your very own backgrounds for Mach Dice.

Start up the latest version of the app, hit the icon button in the upper right corner, and select “Custom Backgrounds”.

Now you can roll dice on any surface you want: your table, a screenshot of your iPhone, your bathrobe, your baby…

Oh, also, I updated all the backgrounds for this update so that they’re in higher resolution for all you people with Retina Displays or iPads. Enjoy!

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend a great talk with producer Gale Ann Hurd. She produced such movies as Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss. She is currently producing several projects including the TV series The Walking Dead.

During the Q&A, one woman asked how she balances work and raising a child. It’s a good question because it’s an incredibly hard thing to do. But it occurred to me that I bet no one’s ever asked that of James Cameron, director of such movies as Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss. Hurd gave Cameron his first real break in the industry and he also happens to be her former husband.

But if you’re a mom, the assumption is that no matter how awesome you are at your day job, being a mom is still your major role in life. If you’re a dad, especially 20 years ago, that was just an aspect of your life. It didn’t have to have consequences to your career. I think that’s slowly starting to change because the expectations of fathers is starting to evolve. For example, people ask me how I balance work, having a kid, and doing iPhone stuff. (I like Hurd’s response, “I don’t sleep a lot so … I guess it works out.”)

Still, if I ever get the opportunity to ask James Cameron a question, I’ll ask him how he balances being a director and a dad.