the yak occidental

November is my favourite month of the year! Here's what happened. Painting above: Stag on Watch (c.1883) by Rosa Bonheur November Excursion: Butterfly World My spouse and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary with a trip to the island. We went to Butterfly World and it was a delight as always. It's nice and warm/tropical inside and we enjoyed our time there very much. I forget it is always a little unnerving to have the butterflies swooping around so much, but it is enchanting. The tortoises were very active and the macaws oddly peaceful as they had their lunch. My only regret is that we didn't see the iguana! We tried a couple times to spot him in his enclosure but no such luck that visit.  There was a little parrot who was being quite cheeky and puffed up at us so we scrambled away before we got any further on its bad side. Most-liked Chore: Being grateful for emergency preparedness It's been global news that BC has experienced phenomenally damaging weather...

I have a list of duties but I don't know what the role itself is. Do you recognize this job? Hilma af Klint: Group IV, The Ten Largest, No. 2, Childhood, 1907 I have a bit of a mystery that I'm trying to solve. I have a list of duties that I would like to do for work, and I am unsure of what the job connected (i.e. the job title) to these duties is. Do you recognize what this role might be? For some context - I am currently a Production Manager in 3D animation  based in British Columbia. LOTS of talking for someone who is an introvert like myself, talking talking talking Delegating tasks to people, moving people around, in charge of something More on my feet, not sitting at a desk as much Hours maybe a bit odd, possibly less than 40 hours a week There are a lot of screens and possibly cameras around me This is a slight shift from what I'm doing now and would be learning on the job, no new schooling Fast-moving environment When I show up to work I'm "On"

Who needs work-life balance when you can 'Drop the Ball' or put your priorities 'in conversation' with one another? With the onset and endurance of the COVID19 pandemic, there have been many hot takes and disturbing changes in work-life balance. All over North America at least, we have seen women drop out of the workforce at such an alarming rate that many experts are calling this pandemic-induced trend a “shecession”. In animation, we have fortunately been able to work from home, though the balance between work and life has become a lot more blurred, if existing at all. Production staff and supervisors have observed a rise in ghost hours - people quietly logging on and working on their shots or assets at all times of the day, night, weekends because our work is well, there . This is a very complicated issue, and as I am neither an economics or business expert, I wanted to offer two specific takes on work-life balance, one from Tiffany Dufu and the other from David Why...

Here is a selection of memorable quotes from Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple Painting above:  Le poète Guillaume Apollinaire et ses amis , 1909, by Marie Laurencin She was used to feeling bitter; there was something stimulating about bitterness, but sadness was insupportable. p.100 He wasn't much given to speculation about people. Unlike his wife, who jumped to conclusions or pursued eager inquiry, Avery didn't bother. People usually revealed themselves in time for what they were, and he left them to it. p.110 He was as remote as a young god. p.133 A moment like that was better for the looks than any beauty-treatment in the world. p.139 Madame Piquet was just telling me only the other day that grandchildren are a woman's greatest happiness. Just pure pleasure without any anxiety. p.144 Homes, like people, died. This had been a cheerful, comfortable, beloved house but now it was dead, and they were trying to dismember it as quickly as possible and finish with it. p...

You can plan, organize, and schedule all you want. Sometimes though, you just get lucky. If you’re in Production in the Animation industry, you plan. It is literally our job to plan, schedule, be organized, provide reports, and study likely outcomes based on charts on Shotgun Shotgrid. As such, we are particularly familiar with Murphy’s Law, an idiom that reminds us that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong . Like when it’s a Friday night, you have three major deliveries, and the network goes down.  Being in Production of course, there is the rote advice of preparing for Murphy’s Law: getting it all in writing, extra-clear communication, due diligence, etc. This is all fair and I would still encourage this. For this video, however, I want to get us thinking about something rather controversial when it comes to Murphy’s Law and Production: Luck .   For this, I’m turning to two women who are experts in completely different fields. One is Annie Duke a corporate consultant a...

Here is a selection of memorable quotes from Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi. Painting above: Whitening Canvas (c.1917) bu Zinaida Serebriakova She thought it something of a mercy for the gullible to die young, as being too often mistaken breaks the spirit. p.4 At the hospital Margot tells Harriet that, on the whole, it's probably better to have sons. Daughters are enigmatic minefields of classified information, she says. p.28 She surprised them with the discovery that once an avid reader runs out of books, she reads people. Harriet read everybody she met, and when she met them again, she reread them. p.62 Gretel's expression was a soundless fireworks display, the sort you see when someone's trying very hard not to laugh or cry. p.116 There was a triplicate softness to the man, as if he were a combination of poet, invalid, and monk. p.135 Handmade and heartfelt; Harriet wanted everything she did to be like this. p.136

I work in an industry with never-ending deadlines and quotas. Here are a few things I've tried that help keep me on track. Painting above:  The Central Spiritual Sun (c. 1930s) by Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn As a Production Manager, one of the questions I get most from my artists is how they can stay on track and manage their workload effectively. Over the years, I've built up a little arsenal of time management resources and things to try when you find you're getting distracted or otherwise are struggling to meet deadlines. Personally, I use the tomato timer the most for work (has been especially helpful in my transition to WFH!), though I find the batch work method works best for my personal interests (like this blog and my video series)!   Time Tomato Timer: https://tomato-timer.com/ Tomato Timers collection: http://www.tomatotimers.com/  Batch your work: https://witanddelight.com/2021/02/how-to-batch-your-work-be-more-successful-and-liberate-your-leisure-mind/ I haven't rea...

Here are four of my favourite books about work that aren't technically career advice or business books*. Being in Production in the animation industry means I usually work long hours, think, and talk about work a lot. In my downtime, regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I enjoy reading .  These four books bring together these two big preoccupations of mine - work and reading - making a quick list of non-traditional career/business books that are nevertheless inspiring for work. Also a bonus - two of them are actually about (more or less) working in entertainment. The Lady From The Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara This nonfiction account by O'Meara, a filmmaker and writer, resurrects  the legend of Milicent Patrick. Patrick was a designer responsible for some of Hollywood's most famous monsters, and also worked for Disney at the start of her career, including some classics like Fantasia!  It's ...