My Fish Story: The one that DIDN'T Get Away

I don't like to eat fish, but I 8Fish. www.8fish.com
As you all know, I got the job at 8Fish. Which was a good thing, because on Thursday night when I went into work at my old job, my boss told me he was going to be laying me off due to a lack of money anyway. Apparently it was down to a choice between whether to pay me, or pay his family's bills, so you can guess what the best choice was. Really, I feel like the universe converged to a point to give me this job right now. But it's proof that once again, the Lord often waits til the VERY LAST SECOND to bless you with things.

Anyway, I start Monday, doing motion graphics and compositing, with some animation thrown in for good measure.

Right now I'm working in a pseudo-freelance capacity, making less money (but still plenty more than I HAD been making) while they evaluate my skills/performance. Then after a couple of months I'll have a performance review and (since I always do a great job) I'll get a raise and benefits and such and be hired on as an official employee.

The reason he's doing this is because he's had too many bad experiences where he pays an untested employee a lot (based on their demo reel or what they SAY they can do)and they don't deliver quality results. I was expecting this approach to hiring anyway, because that's what has happened at several of my other jobs--90 day performance review, etc.

They have a TON of work to be done, and I basically can work as many hours as I want.

They have done a lot of advertising for Maverik convenience stores, and they have a DVD series "FHE on DVD" www.fhedvd.com that he gave me some copies of to test out with my family.

They also did animation for "Baby Signing Time" www.babysigningtime.com, meaning that my first and my latest job are both tied into that video series.

Their office is really nice. If I pay 10 bucks a week, they provide lunch and lots of snacks and drinks--the secretary actually cooks lunch for all the employees every day!! (all that have paid for the lunches, that is)

The computer station I'll be working at has 2 monitors as well as a huge flat-panel screen up above that you can watch footage on.

Next Friday is apparently a company retreat. I don't know the details, but I assume it's not a Booze Cruise or a "Beach Retreat".

Now, because Amanda and I keep referring to 8Fish as "Big Fish" (as a side note, Roy from "The Office" is in the movie, which ties into my "retreat" comment), and because it's just a really good movie, here's the trailer for the movie, "Big Fish."

Spider-Man 3 Review

OK, so this is a little late. But as most of you know, I've been a little busy lately looking for (and hopefully getting) a new job.

But here's my first movie review of the Summer Movie Season: Spider-man 3.

Overall: B+

I thought the first Spider-man movie was OK. When I saw it in the theater, I was like, "Eh. Not sure what all the hype was about." But watching it on DVD (especially since Joel LOVED it) I gained a bigger appreciation for it.

I LOVED Spider-man 2. I thought the story was really strong and had an improtance to it that gave a silly comic book movie meaning and depth. I loved the Doc Ock villian, and the reveals were great, as far as who sees Peter is Spider-man, etc.

Spider-man 3 is fun, but does feel like they were trying to put too much into the movie. I didn't mind that it was busy, but it felt like some of the transitions from plotline to plotline were a little clumsy.

A lot of reviews have complained about "Bad Peter," especially his dance number. Personally, that was one of the highlights of the movie for me. It was a perfect realization of what a nerd would think was "cool." (Maybe stylized a little to fit a comic-book world).

I thought Topher Grace did a good job, except I didn't like him as Venom--he seemed like 2 completely different people, instead of an angry extension of the 1st personality. I also liked the black goo idea, but again, I thought that the introduction of it was a little clumsy, but that may change after watching it a couple times.

As far as the scariness factor, I didn't think it was any scarier for Joel/Maddy than the first one, though Venom's creepy looking.

Anyway, that's my review, and my next one, for Pirates 3, should be up in a couple weeks...once I see the movie...

I didn't do a Star Wars Fan Film this time around, but this is my favorite of the new ones so far, don't ask me why.

Finally, a new blog! With pictures!!!

OK, sorry it's been so long since I blogged. I'll blog more often now that summer movie season has started up--get ready for Andy's Summer Movie Reviews!!! The first one will be tomorrow (or shortly thereafter), after I see Spiderman 3.

News from the Peterson's place--Last week, Amanda's mom moved out of her house into an apartment. Since none of her other siblings would help (except Mikey, who was also moving) Amanda had to take the 3 kids over and help move while I was at work. Well, while Amanda was helping load in the washing machine, Abe (who was in the back of the moving truck) fell out onto his face. Luckily he only had minor scratches and a swollen nose the first day. It was really sad.

Because she moved into an apartment, she decided to get rid of her food storage, so Amanda and her sister split it, so here are some pictures of our pantry,


one of our cupboards,


and under Abe's crib.


This past Friday, Amanda's younger sister, Molly, got married. Maddy was a bridesmaid (wearing a dress Amanda sewed) and Joel wore a tuxedo. Here are pics:




Other than that, we've just been plugging along through life, hoping life works out for us OK.

Here's a picture of Maddy as a Horse (she made the horse-snout for her face)


Hmm...video clip...OK, here's one of my all-time favorite Sondheim songs, "I Remember"