THE SECRET CHAPTER OF THE HUMAN DIVISION

So as I mentioned in

my last post,

I got to hang out with

Hugo Award winning

sci-fi author

ninja

mallet of loving correction

wielding

John Scalzi

while he was in town

promoting

this:

Which is the 

fifth sequel to

this:

But

The Human Division

was published a little differently

than the others.

Once a week,

from 

January 15th

to

April 9th

a new chapter

was released digitally

for

99 cents.

And every Tuesday,

for 13 weeks,

I parked myself at my favorite

Mexican lunch spot

with a spicy

burrito Massiel

con pollo,

a Jarritos soda

and 

a chapter of 

awesomeness.

But now it's over

and

Tuesdays feel kinda

empty.

Fortunately,

Mr. Scalzi has announced

that he'll be writing a follow up to

The Human Division.

But that's

SO FAR AWAY!!!

So what did I do?

I asked him to 

write me a 

five sentence

chapter

of 

The Human Division 

in my sketchbook.

AND HE DID!

The story is,

of course,

THRILLING

EXCITING

and

filled

with

AWESOME.

See?

Wait...

Look closer:

Yup.

This is perhaps

one of the 

coolest things

that has ever happened

to me.

THANK YOU,

MR. SCALZI!

FYI:

The

hardcover

edition of

The Human Division

is out 

NOW.

Go get it.

And please

shut up

and

go see

Mr. Scalzi

while he's on tour!

SCALZI AND ME

You know I love me some

John Scalzi.

And you know I love me some

Felicia Day.

So the other day whilst

Felicia was recording

Angela for 

Fish Hooks:

We somehow hit on the subject of 

Mr. Scalzi,

whom she is good friends with.

I let slip that I had never actually met him in person

but had indeed made his

List of Awesome People Who

Are Awesomely Awesome. 

Shocked that we hadn't met,

Felicia immediately texted John

to see if he wanted to swing by the recording studio

since he just so happened to be in town promoting

this:

(more on that later)

Mr. Scalzi couldn't make it

but asked if I wanted to drive down to 

Redondo Beach and hang out

before his

book signing.

Um...

...

...

YES!

And hang we did!

We chatted about all nature of things

for a sooper long time

(books, KND, movies, stoopid people, etc)

and as expected,

he's a really

sooper

nice,

smart

and

FUNNY

guy!

He even bought me

a bottle of water!

(he had a diet Mexican soda)

And eventually

 it was time for his reading.

Mr. Scalzi read a chapter from

The Human Division...

And a brilliant

must-read

post from his long-running

blog

WHATEVER

called

WHO GETS TO BE A GEEK?

ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BE

But what was the

bestest

best

part

of meeting

Mr. Scalzi?

When he wrote me

my very own

chapter of 

THE HUMAN DIVISION

in my 

sketchbook:

But ima 

save 

THAT

for 

my next post!

FISH PROM IS ON!

Did you go to  PROM?
I didn't.
I took the train into downtown  Philadelphia to skateboard and buy punk rock records like these:

To be honest,  I don't feel like I missed  anything.
But I would have TOTALLY MISSED OUT on prom if it had  been like THIS:

That's right! The  FISH HOOKS season two finale is this Friday night May 17th at 9:30/8:30c
Getcha fancies on and  WATCH!

VOICE ACTING WITH DAVE WITTENBERG

This is what happens when you ask sooper-pro voice actor singer dancer Tap Out tee shirt model DAVE WITTENBERG (Kakashi, Numbuh 74.239) what it would sound like if he was  giving online voice acting lessons: That is all.

DON'T LET THE PIGEON BRITISH THIS ACTIVITY BOOK!

Look what I just 

got in the mail:

I know...

you're all like,

ANOTHER

copy of

Don't Let The Pigeon 

Finish This Activity Book?

WHATEVS, 

Mr. W.

But 

NO!

This is 

DIFFERENT!

This is the

BRITISH

edition of

Don't Let The Pigeon

Finish This Activity Book!

And

HOW

different is it?

Well, it's by a

TOTALLY

different

publisher:

And they totally spell words funny!

Like

COLOR:

and

FAVORITE:

and

AIRPLANE:

And

PRACTICING:

Which is cool.

They do that kinda stuff in the UK.

But then I saw

THIS:

And I was like...

YUH-OH!!!

They didn't fit the page right!

But in the back pocket

of the book

was

THIS:

Now

THAT'S

different!

A little

pigeon also told me

there might be a

KOREAN

edition in the works, too!

Can't wait to see 

THAT!

MIXING IT UP

Fish Hooks Creative Director's Log

Fishdate: April 29, 2013

Every two weeks we board the 

starship: 

ADVANTAGE AUDIO

to mix an episode of 

Fish Hooks.

General Maxwell Atoms and I 

immediately head to the bridge

of the ship where

Navigator Melissa Gentry Ellis

and 

Weapons Control Officer Fil Brown

await us.

Communications Officer Huy Luong

is also there ready to make sure

everything happens on schedule:

As you can see,

the bridge has many buttons and dials 

to get us where we need to go:

Mixing the audio for a show involves

three things:

DIALOGUE

MUSIC

SOUND EFFECTS

(this includes FOLEY which we talked about over HERE)

But if all three of these things 

are played at the same volume

at the same time,

all you'd here

is a 

MESS!

So it's Melissa and Fil's job

to ride the volume up and down

so the dialogue is crisp and clear,

the music is driving the action,

and the SFX are accenting the right points

all without drowning each other out.

It's no small task.

That's why there are

snacks and cookies:

General Burton and I watch the two episodes

Melissa and Fil have mixed

and take notes.

We ask for some dialogue to be clearer...

For some music to be softer...

(or completely removed)

Some monkey SFX added here.

A fart added there.

And then we watch the shows

AGAIN

only this time over 

small computer speakers.

Why?

Because not everyone has an 

eleventy billion dollar sound system 

like the 

Starship: Advantage Audio.

Most people have a regular TV

with regular speakers.

And we wanna make sure

Fish Hooks

sounds great on

EVERYONE'S

TV!

I heard a story that Ric Ocasek of The Cars

used to transfer all his songs to cassette tape 

and then listen to them in his car

before approving the mix...

because that's how most people

heard his music!

Troy Underwood,

our

Series Executive

from Disney Fleet Command

(not pictured for security purposes)

attends the small speaker pass

to give us another set of ears.

After the mix is done,

it's outputted and sent back to Disney

where we prepare the last and final step

of production:

PLAYBACK!

That's our one last

viewing to make sure

everything looks and sounds

PERFECT!

And now you know everything 

you need to know about mixing!

Captain Warburton,

out.

ORIGINAL GIDEON KENDALLS!

Here are a couple amazing  KND paintings I found by background artist Gideon Kendall. This one's from Operation: HAIRCUT, depicting the worst a clueless father can do to his child's noggin: And this is  a new strain of unpoppable zit  created by the KND to inflict on evil teenagers in  OPERATION: VIRUS: If you want MOAR of Gideon's work check out this interview over HERE and check out his sooper cool webcomic WHATZIT!