Fresh Start

Edit 5/27/2013
Got off of the workouts a few days the last few days and didn’t watch carb intake either. Going to try to get back in to it going forwards… Anyways, since it’s Memorial Day, here’s a video from this memorial day and one from last. If I remember, I’ll try to take one every year to show progress because I DO PLAN TO GET TO MY BMI GOAL WEIGHT BY AGE 45!!!

Memorial Day 2013:

Memorial Day 2012:

===============================
==============
Today is my birthday and I’ve decided that it’s time to restart the daily workouts after this weekend. I’ve had enough time to rest and recover after the surgery a couple of months ago. So.. here’s a new ‘before’ video…

Weigh in 2/8/2013: 277.5 lbs.

======
Here’s a couple of Birthday Self Portraits. Many other artists do annual self portraits on birthdays, and I started this little tradition last year, so figure going forward I might try it more often.

=====
The self portraits got me thinking about things so I started some photo self portraits shortly after that…
=====

More photos:
http://halfwaytoseventyfour.shutterfly.com/pictures/187

=================================
Today’s video:
2/8/2013
277.5 lbs

………..
The hernia issue happened October 29th, 2012. I overdid it on doing a Power 90 workout. Up til that point in time I was using 10 lb weights on each arm for most of the exercises. On that day I upped it to 20 lbs on each arm for the exercises, with was just too damn much… so I got hit with a hernia and had to have it repaired with a surgery. The doctor said that it was an odd type of hernia unlike one he’d seen before because it wasn’t a tear all the way through. Instead a very long piece of fatty tissue had essentially come out from the back area up through where it should not be and the overdoing it caused that to just strain all of it much worse than it should have been which caused the surgery to be needed. The surgery was in the early part of December and I was out of work a couple of weeks to recover from that. Then I went to work about a week and half and was on a scheduled Christmas vacation that was planned before the surgery thing came up… I kind of have not gotten in to the working out too much since then. I tried a time or two to do some of the workout videos, but the strain on the area where the surgery was for some of the kicks, crunches, etc. was just too much at the time. I am hoping that I’m now ready to re-start fresh now that I’ve had another few weeks of down time that I have not been doing much exercise.

Past videos and weigh ins on the weight loss journey up til this point in time:

10/2/2012:
273.6 lbs:

9/3/2012
292.6 lbs

I went up above 290 since the ‘rest’ I had to take to let the stab wound heal was days I gorged and ate extremely badly. That was a HUGE setback!… Hopefully junk like that won’t cause me to have setbacks again in the future.

…
Video of ‘The stab wound’ the monring after it happened. Sorry for the crappy video quality. I was using a low resolution webcam since it was the only video recording device I had available on that day. I accidentally stabbed myself with a steak knife while doing dishes. It was in the rack drying with the point up, but our sink is very small so I just moved wrong while washing a dish and accidentally the knife went right in. I bled a ton when it happened. Very scary situation since Tekla was not home when it happened. Very hard to hold the phone and call 911 when one of your arms has to hold a towel to stop blood and the other is bleeding like crazy.

…

8/21/2012
284.6 lbs

8/16/2012
285.3 lbs:

8/9/2012
281.8 lbs

8/1/2012
284.8 lbs

7/24/2012
286.2 lbs

7/17/2012
289.2 lbs:

7/14/2012
288.6 lbs

Before then

6/29/2012
292.1 lbs

6/24/2012
296.5 lbs

Memorial Day
May 28, 2012

4/30/2012

4/10/2012

Weight Chart prior to the videos:

Just as a reference for this old chart…
135 kg = 297.624 Lbs
130 kg = 286.601 Lbs
125 kg = 275.578 Lbs

The chart sort of outlines my ups and downs… The time when I was at the heaviest was a very dark time. It seemed like death was everywhere I looked.

(https://jeffthomann.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/2189/ – list of most of the recent funerals in the family)

I think I was in a pretty deep depression at the time due to many family deaths those few years and various economic problems, as well as a lot of stressful political bullshit at work… One of my coworkers quit/got fired in a big huge spat that happened after several months of building up to it. They fought her getting unemployment checks, and that all ended us all in a courthouse type of setting in Jefferson City… one of the most nervous days I’ve ever had… It was a big fiasco. I’m not sure if she ever got her unemployment or not, or if she sued in a real lawsuit or not like she was planning to do… but anyways, in some of it I had to get sworn testimony in there about how the Associate CFO, who was sort of the head of our area had pounded fists on a table in a meeting a few years prior to this in some heated contractual negotiations, etc. (she was trying to argue something about a hostile work environment, etc.)… A few months after that whole fiasco, I was told that there just wasn’t room in the budget for me any more, and I was ‘reassigned’ to another department.

There was quite a bit of hostility in myself after that retaliation for speaking up… which is exactly what I still think that was all about… add in that type of getting pushed around to depression, etc. and with my personality being to overeat when feeling down or nervous, and it was just a horrible situation all around… I was a walking time bomb and heart attack ready to hit. Luckily, my rationale side, and amazing better half kept me sane during these insane times – so I didn’t buy up big bulks of fertilizer to use as a weapon of mass destruction, and stuck with causing havock in video games like Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, San Andreas, various old NES games, etc. Entropia Universe, the video game, was a part of the depression, etc. as you can read about in my other blog as the developers in that game love to make promises they can’t and just won’t keep… and the love to break expensive items and estates in game that you pay for with real cash after you pay for it, sometimes for months, or years (taming still isn’t back since version update 10, etc)… However, even despite all the bull shit with that game, it was something I had some control over in my life… sort of this little escape from reality that was always there since I started playing it in 2007. There was some documentary on Eminem I watched on youtube the other day that talks about how his alter ego existed vs his real name use because it was this sort of alter ego he went in to deal with reality sort of and have control over… the documentary said that lots of folks that grew up in some conditions similar to his had the same type of issues sometimes. I think my avatar in Entropia has sort of turned in to that type of alter identity for me. I guess, like Neverdie, I am my avatar.

(note – blog link in above paragraph is now on a private blog, so it won’t work… new blog for entropia can be found at https://entropiascams.wordpress.com/ – I had to start the new blog and make old one private (although backup does exist in xml file that you can find a link to over on the new blog if you use a password in one of the posts over there… hint: password is a simple name that most folks that have played entropia a long time should know… it starts with an M and ends in an O… 🙂 ))

(August 2015 update on the job issue… currently working as a Dual Rate First Responder/Security Officer at the Isle of Capri Casino in Boonville, Missouri.  I’ve held this job less than a month so far. Before that I was only a Security Officer a few months, and prior to that worked as a Steward at the Casino. I have a few updates to resume still needed.)

I have grown to love my new job… so sometimes the God(s) do have a plan. I actually kick ass at work now since I’m 3000% hyper focused. Also, I don’t have the constant man hating bullshit that I had to experience daily in my previous department. At one time back then my Supervisor back then actually hung up the phone and outloud gabbed about how the problems they were having was all his fault because he was a man. It was highly funny/ironic/sad at the time because the only other guy in the area we worked in and I had to go to a human resource training session the day before that talked a lot about how sexual discrimination was so bad to have in the work place, etc. In that department, at least at one time there was a massive amount of sexual discrimination of men in the department was happening by the female supervisor and boss… All the while chitty chatty brown nosing gossipy bitch who sat in the cubicle next to mine got a raise. They never really did this discrimination stuff openly. What they’d do is this stupid crap of creating a new position that did the exact same job of who they wanted out… then after they purposefully got the job duties overlapped enough they’d assign the old worker they wanted out the bullshit jobs like manually closing out 50,000 or so accounts in a huge database where a pulldown menu had to be selected to close it, and this backlog of unclosed visits existed because the brown nosers never did their job but did a good enough job of hiding that fact until months later that they were never reprimanded… and then after assigning the crappy job they’d say that due to the overlapping of duties, there just is no need for the person that was there longest, etc. It’s all political bullshit…

However, luckily the new position I’m in now has much less of that type of stuff going on. For the first time in my life I work for a Department Manager that actually gives a damn about what her employees think! Just the other day I had an hour long meeting with supervisor and department manager just to discuss a handful of emails I’d sent where I explained some concerns I had about processes in the office that I didn’t agree with. At no other job I’ve ever had in the past has anyone ever taken the time to care that much… That’s an awesome feeling. It’s nice to have control over your own real life world a little, and have coworkers that actually care about what you have to say and think. Also, even though I do have to listen to some coworkers and their phone conversations nowadays, it’s nothing like the hateful bullcrap I used to have in my old department where the brown nosing bitches like to slam phones down after the call, call names to the other party after that, and then repeat back the entire conversation they just had voicing out loud with as much hatred as possible why the other party was wrong, on every paragraph in the conversation, EVERY time they take a call or make a call, either on the office phone or on their own private cell phone… That type of venomous poison is easily spread as it’s yelled out daily. Kinda sad to say it but it’s almost too bad that rattlesnake they found in the hallway outside of my old department didn’t find it’s way in the mail slots. Might have adjusted some attitudes in that area, but I doubt it would have done any good. Hopefully some of the self-loathing venom being spewed from that old office can recede from that area in the future as it really just causes endless cycles of negativity to draw itself in more and more daily…

Hopefully, as I continue down a healthy past in the near future, this control over my own life can only get better and better over time. We are now in the age of Aquarius. Enlightenment that was just beyond grasp is now within reach! 🙂 😉

Advertisement

New goals…

I’ve been procrastinating on things a bit, but no more! I’ve decided that I want to start getting up at 4 AM instead of 5. Up til now I’ve been trying to get up at 5, but usually ended up going back to bed til 6 sometimes, or more often got up and just wasted time online on forums, etc. Going forwards, I want to change that… I have no idea if I’ll be able to do this or not but think if I can I’ll see some major improvement in my art, in my attitude, etc.

Goal is to do more art, do it in a way that suits me and gets things accomplished, and make time to live life a little too more than in the past. No more wasting time…

so… tentative schedule is…
Up at 4 AM. Do 3 pages of Morning Pages for The Artist’s Way/Journaling/diary type stuff… Then eat breakfast (probably a bowl of cereal, maybe fruit on occassion) In theory, that’ll take up til about 4:30 ish… maybe 4:40 or 4:20 sometimes?

4:30 AM – 5:00ish (maybe earlier depending on the above) do a 10-30 minute drawing… probably with ball point pen since it’s a speedy thing, but maybe other stuff like charcoal or color pencils sometimes?… maybe even graphite even though I hate the shine graphite produces. Number one reason I hate acrylic too unless lots of matte medium is used – also why I love oil paint and have decided on encaustic as painting medium of choice…

5:00 AM – 6:30ish = Work on 3d Modelling. I’ll probably do speed modeling for now… then go back and redo the fine details as needed later on. Maybe do a whole week of work without going back in to finish it up til the weekends?… I’ve been on Turbosquid for a very long time, so am at the level in there where you can get the keywords for free, so those keywords will be my subjects for these 3d models since that’s stuff that is known to sell, etc. I’ve been trying to copy/paste the keyword lists in to an open office file every morning, and will continue to do so and then will pick the subjects that interest me… I may sometimes stray from that and use my own ideas or keywords/topics, but there’s lots of ideas in there, so I think I’m going to focus on that a bit.

6:30 – Take a Shower, Make Lunch, Get ready for work, etc.

7:00ish – Head to work…

At work, walk with my Aunt on my morning and afternoon breaks (assuming I’m not on hold with blasted insurance companies when she takes a break)

11:00ish (my time for lunch varies) Eat Lunch and Read a page or two out of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain or The Artist’s way… Maybe other books on kindle, etc. Possibly do a 5 minute doodle session at lunch, but probably not as there’s not really much time since I only have half an hour lunch.

After work – Start up the Encaustic heating up as soon as I get home… Maybe draw for a few minutes while it’s heating up and the wax is melting. Paint after it’s hot with the encaustic til Tekla gets home.

When Tekla gets home, we’ll head to the Arc to workout. This is something I’ve neglected doing way too long, and is really why my sugar’s not under better control at the moment, even if it’s not too hugely bad yet.

After that we’ll have supper, and enjoy the rest of whatever is left of the night spending time with one another and enjoying our time together.

Go to bed around 10 or so since that’ll give me 6 hours of sleep. If I can get myself off of caffeine, I think 6 hours of sleep is enough… Going to be hard to do, especially at work since it’s free there and they have a huge thing there that keeps 3 pots going all day every day… they usually have one pot of decaf, one of regular, and one double strong – I usually try to mix half decaf with regular but half of the time the decaf is gone… need to drink water more, coffee less… very difficult to do, but I think if I can and can excercise more, this crazy schedule might work…

confusing gta timeline

After reading through some Grand Theft Auto websites and things, it looks like this is the timeline, in brief (some websites go in to a lot of details on the stuff in each game)… so if you want to play them in chronological order instead of in the order they came out here you go:

1984: The events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories take place.
1986: The events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City take place, in summer.
1992: The events of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas take place.
1998: The events of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories takes place.
2000: The events of Grand Theft Auto Advance take place.
2001 (October): gta iii
Catalina and Claude arrive in Liberty City, having left the state of San Andreas nine years previously

What makes it even more confusing is that the events in the original GTA, and GTA: London 1969/GTA London 1961, GTA II, and GTA IV series (GTA IV is on Playstation III) are not a part of the official cannon in the above games… so it’s like alternate realities sort of, or something like Star Trek and Star Wars, or Days of Our Lives and General Hospital – two different timelines/reality things entirely depending on which game you are talking about… not like a Star Trek TNG and DS9 and how they are all interconnected and stuff.

Pre-1900
1798: Liberty City is founded, according to the 200th anniversary of the city in 1998 in Liberty City Stories, 22 years after the declaration of independence from the United States.
1835: Earth begins its existence according to the Epsilon Program.[1]
1842: The 66th Cavalry under Colonel Henry Bolt left their base in Fort Carson to head to Las Barrancas to heed the calls of homesteaders as bandits attacked. The entire force fell down a hole whilst running to the nearby Las Barrancas. The hole then took the name of the “Barrancas Mass Grave”.
1869: Is the year Tentative of the founding of Liberty City Police Department. This date is derived from the insignia of the Department where you can see at a glance the number 1869.
1872: Is founded the Liberty City Fire Department, this date is obtained from the emblem carried by Fire Trucks in Grand Theft Auto III: “Putting out Since 1872”
1888: Ranch starts operating in America.
1897: Sweeney General Hospital opens in Portland View, Portland, Liberty City.
1900: Auntie Poulet is born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
1920s
1923: The Liberty City Memorial Stadium or “Bush Stadium” is completed and opened to public use.
1925: Juan Cortez is born in Central America.
1930s
1930: The Portland El, a commuter train, is introduced for commuters living in Portland, Liberty City.
1932: Barber Black Sheep, a barber shop in Vice City, is established.
1934: D. Flour Bakery, a cream bun filler, starts operating in San Fierro.
1950s
1950: Tommy Vercetti is born.
1952: Moorehead Rides Again, a show featuring Gordon Moorehead and Molly Malmstein, is cancelled.
1953: Francis International Airport in Shoreside Vale, Liberty City is opened for public use.
1953: Ken Rosenberg is born.
1956: Victor Vance is born.
1960s
1961: Mercedes Cortez is born.
1961: Candy Suxxx is born.
‘1963 : CJ is born.
1964: Alberto Robina opens the Café Robina in Little Havana. In the future (1984, 1986), this facility will be the main meeting point for Cubans.
1964: Zero is born.
1964-1965: Kent Paul is born in England
1965: Maccer is born in England [2]
1967: 700 hippies choke to death on toads on the “Notorious Blackfield Bad Trip of 1967” in Blackfield, Las Venturas.
1968: Howlin’ Petes Biker Emporium opens for business in Vice City
1968: Momma’s Restaurant opens for business in Saint Mark’s, Portland, Liberty City and was run by Momma Cipriani.
1969: Jazz Magazines, a magazines store, opens.
1970s
1970: The rock radio station K-DST started broadcasting in San Andreas, the data obtained from radio slogan that reads: “There are radios that promulgate drugs and women, but we have been doing well for 22 years.” (GTA: San Andreas takes place in 1992.)
1971: The Forelli Family sends Tommy Vercetti to kill a man. Tommy is ambushed and attacked by eleven gangsters. Tommy kills all his attackers and is taken to jail under the nickname “The Harwood Butcher”.
1973: Carson General Hospital opens in Rockford, Staunton Island, Liberty City.
1977: Burn Baby Burn and spray’n’go open in Vice City
1978: Ken Rosenberg starts his career as a lawyer in Liberty City, defending the Forelli Family.
1978: Ricardo Diaz, a very powerful drug lord from Columbia, bribes the INS for a green card, allowing him to take residence in Vice City.
1979: The construction of Hyman Memorial Stadium is completed in Vice City and the stadium opens.
1980s
1980: Alex Shrub is elected Congressman for Vice City.
1980: Maurice Chavez begins working in Vice City as Sal, the Wheat-Free Clown.
1980: The band Ambulance (featuring Bernard “Crow” Gordon and Trev) become a hit in Vice City.
1981: Wave 103, a new wave radio station, broadcasts its first show in Vice City.
1981: The Florida secessionist movement begins.
1981: Evacuator, a film starring Jack Howitzer, premieres and is shown nation wide.
1981: Kent Paul is arrested in Kent, England after smashing Mark Cosgrove’s car (after Cosgrove stole Kent’s girlfriend May).
1982: Kent Paul leaves England for Florida.
1982: Cluckin’ Bell begins operations in America. [3]
1982: Barry Stark stops wearing clothes.
Mid 1980s: Salvatore Leone takes control of the Leone Family after a bloody conflict in Sicily. A brother of Salvatore’s is believed to be involved in the conflict.
1984: The events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories take place.
1984: Hurricane Gordy heads for Vice City, but bypasses the state.
1984: The car company Maibatsu releases a new sports car called the Thunder.
1984: Local radio station V-Rock intern Lazlow goes to a school out of Vice City to learn how to be a DJ. In the next year or two, the station fires DJ Cousin Ed and when the station becomes more successful, Lazlow is nationally famous.
1984-1985: Maurice Chavez has a baby with Michelle Montanius.
1985: The Home Degenatron games console is released.
1985: Giggle Cream is released with the slogan “Make Desserts Funny”.
1985: Jack Howitzer is nominated for an Oscar, but does not win the award.
1985: Jenny Louise Crab was named Vice City’s civilian of the year
1986: The events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City take place, in summer.
Victor Vance is killed during drug exchange at Vice Port and Lance is killed not long after by Tommy Vercetti.
1986: After Sonny Forelli’s death, Franco Forelli is the new head of the Forelli crime family in Liberty City.
1986: Hurricane Hermione devastates 4 Caribbean islands, and approaches Vice City but safely bypasses.
Unknown (1986-1992): Ken Rosenberg is disbarred from the law and goes to rehab in Las Venturas for his cocaine addiction. By the time he is released in 1992, Tommy Vercetti has stopped associating with him.
Unknown (1986-1992): Lazlow is fired from his radio DJ job at V-Rock, later to become a talk show host on Entertaining America in 1992.
1987: After Carl Johnson is blamed for letting his brother Brian Johnson die, he moves from his hometown of Los Santos to Liberty City, later to work for Joey Leone in a stolen car ring. Meanwhile, the trend of crack cocaine empowers the Ballas and Vagos street gangs, weakening Grove Street Families who refuse to sell it. Seville and Temple factions also divide from Grove and begin a three-way feud; according to Big Smoke, “Seville wrongs Temple, Temple wrongs Grove, bad blood leads to bad blood”.
1987: Giggle Cream is withdrawn from the market two years after being released.
1987: Blox is withdrawn from the market and is used as an American defense strategy.
1987: Swapmeet, a sitcom, premieres.
1988: A pollution leak occurs in Liberty City, presumably with some harmful effects as a government body report stated: “This spill is nowhere near as serious as the pollution leak of 1988, so I don’t know why people are complaining”.
1989: A damaging earthquake strikes the San Fierro district of Doherty, levelling buildings and collapsing a section of a double decker freeway.
1990s
1990: Madd Dogg releases his first two albums entitled Hustlin’ Like Gangstaz and Still Madd. GMW also releases an album entitled GMW: It’s a GMW Thang!
1991: Yakuza queenpin Asuka Kasen first arrives in America.
1991: An emulator for the game One Eyed Monster War for the eXsorbeo is released [4].
1991: Rochell’le released her album Leg$.
1992: Kent Paul becomes the manager of the Gurning Chimps and proposes the band goes to America. The lead member, Maccer, is excited at this prospect.
1992: Paulie and Johnny Sindacco, Salvatore Leone and the Forelli Brothers form a truce and business partnership in Caligula’s Casino, an impressive corporate-scale Las Venturas hotel and casino. Ken Rosenberg, only days out of rehab, is chosen as their middle man.
1992: Mayor Roger C. Hole is first elected into City Hall.
1992: A large earthquake rattles the State of San Andreas, prompting the closure of inter-county bridges throughout the state.
1992: The events of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas take place.
1992: The sitcom My Five Uncles premieres, replacing the cancelled sitcom Just the Five of Us, which starred Jimmy and Claude Maginot. Both shows aired Friday on VBS. Jimmy is arrested the same year, in possession of cocaine with several prostitutes at the Four Dragons Casino in Las Venturas (while being interviewed by WCTR news’ Richard Burns at the child actor convention).
1993: The infamous million dollar lunch incident takes place in Liberty City, in which Mayor Roger C. Hole, three Russian prostitutes and a senior manager from a construction company were caught attempting to secure government contracts.
1994: Madd Dogg releases an album entitled N.L.A.D.B. (Never Leave A Dogg Behind), which is poorly received and directs him to retire. Rochell’le releases an album called Dangerous Curves before her career spirals downward as well.
1994: Toni Cipriani kills a made man for the Leone Family, forcing him to go into hiding outside the country.
1994: Ohio State sues Cluckin’ Bell over the side effects of their meals, which includes mammary gland swelling, although no link could be proven. [5]
1995: Liberty City Mayor Roger C. Hole is photographed having lunch with Franco Forelli.
1996: Believed to be when Yakuza leader, Kenji Kasen, first arrives in America.
1997: El Burro, a prominent porn star since 1986, is placed under investigation by the LCPD because of the leadership position he allegedly holds with the Diablos street gang.
1997: The “Hong Kong Handover” takes place in Liberty City, resulting in a massive influx of Chinese Triad activity.
1997: Liberty City mayor Roger C. Hole is accused of securing drugs for city officials in exchange for sanitation contracts.
1997: Zaibatsu Pharmaceuticals, unveiled their new wonder drug, Equanox. Zaibatsu are claiming that Equanox will combat lethargy, depression, melancholy, sexual dysfunction and allows you to see your environment very slow.
1997: Car jacking in Liberty City is at an all time high.
1997: The FBI makes false allegations against Liberty City businessman Barry Harcross, who also had offices in Colombia. The charges were that of money laundering and buying more than flowers from his Colombian office. This may suggest links to the Colombian Cartel gang.
1997: The first known usage of the drug SPANK takes place in Liberty City.
1997: The American Road Safety for Everybody (A.R.S.E.) Group starts a protest to ban motorcycles from Liberty City.
1997: A protest is started to take Swampmeet, off the air before the premiere of it’s 9th season.
1997: The Pilgrim’s Pantry opens.
1997: RAILS, a breakfast cereal that you snort, goes under an FDA Scrutiny.
1997: Mayor Roger C. Hole opens up an absolute legal killing mayhem for a week in honor of his 59th birthday celebration.
1998: The events of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories takes place.
1998: Jesus Max Sentenz founds the new vigilante group Avenging Angels. They become defunct by 2001.
1998-2001: Big Shot Casino is renamed Kenji’s Casino, still controlled by the Kasen Yakuza and renamed for Kenji Kasen, the new waka gashira (second-in-command, likely under his father in Japan) of the Yakuza.
1998-2001: Donald Love avoids the Columbian Cartel by living on a yacht in the Carribean, and his investments make him a billionaire.
1998-2001: Toni Cipriani’s apartment building in Saint Mark’s is destroyed, and the portion of the street directly west is damaged. Cipriani moves into his family’s restaurant with his mother.
1998-2001: The Jefferson Street Credit Union Building construction work is finished, making it the tallest building in Liberty City. The Callahan Bridge construction is also completed.
1998-2001: Liberty City radio stations LCFR and Radio Del Mundo are shut down. In addition to most of the DJs from those stations, radio DJs Boy Sanchez, Cliff Lane and Natalie Walsh Davis are all fired. Gardening With Maurice is taken off the air for claiming the possibility of cross breeding a peach and a Pekingese midget.
1999: The car company Maibatsu comes out with a 12 seat SUV called the Maibatsu Monstrosity. The car is advertised having a submarine feature.
2000s
2000: The events of Grand Theft Auto Advance take place.
2001 (February): Barry Harcross is cleared of all the allegations dating back to 1997 and returns to Liberty City. Newly-elected president George W. Bush announces plans to visit Liberty City and improve Francis International Airport.
2001 (March): The license for the Red Light District in Portland, Liberty City is up for renewal, with Mayor Miles O’Donovan planning to revamp the area to compete with Amsterdam, Bangkok and Baghdad, although a report states that there is no tourist industry in Liberty City. Winston Cole confirms that the Porter Tunnel project is behind schedule and will be finished within six months (October).
2001 (April): A report is released stating that the pollution from a recent oil spill in the Liberty City Harbour (presumably the Portland Docks on Portland) will not effect the residents of Portland. Salvatore Leone walks free from court with only a $450,000 fine for illegally importing tomato sauce from the docks in Portland, Liberty City. He had been on charges of racketeering and tax evasion.
2001 (May): Cheung Industries of Shanghai, a Chinese company, expands into Liberty City with a mackerel factory in Callahan Point, Portland. Mayor Miles O’Donovan denies he has misused government funds to support a nail gun business.
2001 (June-July): Donald Love purchases Chatterbox FM, hiring Lazlow to host a month later. All senior members of the Leone Family are under investigation. Liberty Tree states that killer bees are not a threat to Liberty City.
2001 (August): Leon McAffrey, once the most powerful crooked cop in Liberty City, snitches on his trainee Ray Machowski (and his connection to Yakuza) to gain a dishonorable discharge instead of prison time.
2001 (October): 8-Ball is sentenced to a long stint in jail after being convicted on 85 counts of owning a gun without a license. The Oriental Gentlemen arrives in Liberty City, and is quickly arrested for not providing a valid reason for being in America. The authorities begin plans to deport him. The dog ban in Liberty City is upheld.
2001 (October):
Catalina and Claude arrive in Liberty City, having left the state of San Andreas nine years previously. The two rob a bank, however, Catalina shoots Claude, leaving him for dead, before speeding off with high ranking Colombian Cartel gangster Miguel.
Claude is later arrested and recovers from his gunshot wound. He is convicted but escapes when being transfered from Staunton Island to Portland Island when the Colombian Cartel attack the police convoy. They kidnap the Old Oriental Gentleman and, in the confusion, Claude and another prisoner, later identified as 8-Ball manage to escape and avoid the shock waves of a bomb left by the Cartel.
Claude and 8-Ball escape to a safehouse and change out of their prison clothes, before driving to Luigi’s Sex Club 7. 8-Ball convinces the clubs owner, Leone Family made man Luigi Goterelli, to give Claude a chance and he has him drive Misty from the hospital back to the club.
Claude continues to work for Goterelli, who later introduces him to Joey Leone, who has him stir up tensions between the Leone Family and both the Forelli Family and the Triads. Joey later introduces Claude to Toni Cipriani, the right hand man of the Don, who has Claude continue working in the ongoing troubles with the Triads.
Claude also begins working for factory manager Marty Chonks and Diablos leader El Burro.
Claude is later introduced to the head of the Leone Family, Salvatore Leone, who is keen on tackling the Colombian Cartel’s rising power base and has him team with 8-Ball to destroy a freighter used to manufacture the drug SPANK.
Claude was later called to Salvatore’s home and has him drive to move a car from Chinatown before the police discovers its contents. Claude, however, receives a message on his pager from Maria Latore, the Don’s wife, who tells him to go to a small dock, where she explains the situation, that she had told Salvatore they were an item and that he’d had a car bomb planted in the car. The two, with Yakuza co-leader Asuka Kasen then escape to Staunton Island by boat.
Claude, in an attempt to prove himself to Asuka, returns to Portland Island and kills Salvatore Leone as he leaves Luigi’s Sex Club 7. He then continues to work for Asuka, protecting her from the paparazzi and an undercover policeman. She then introduces him to her brother and co-leader Kenji and the crooked policeman Ray Machowski.
Claude works for Kenji and helps him maintain his honour, including busting Kanbu out of prison and ambushing a deal between the Colombian Cartel and the Uptown Yardies. Claude also begins to work for corrupt policeman Ray Machowski, attempting to cover up his dealings with the Yakuza, including killing his partner and killing his former partner partner.
Claude then briefly works for King Courtney, leader of the Uptown Yardies, before he is betrayed when the Cartel succeed in forming an alliance with the Yardies.
Media mogul Donald Love contacts Claude and employs him to rescue the Old Oriental Gentleman, who was in the police convoy with him and helps Love with his business interests, including defending a Securicar from the Cartel. Love also has him kill his former boss Kenji Kasen in an attempt to drive down property prices. Love, however, disappears without a trace.
Claude also begins working for D-Ice, leader of the Southside Hoods sub-sect
Asuka Kasen, following the death of her brother, becomes enraged and manages to capture Miguel, Cartel leader Catalina’s right hand man. She begins to torture him and uses the information to have Claude attack the Cartel and their businesses interests. This results in her death at the hands of Catalina, who also kills Miguel and kidnaps Maria. Claude later rescues Maria and kills Catalina. Claude and Maria begin to walk away from Cochrane Dam, where the final battle between Claude and Catalina took place, and he fires a gun, which may have been intended to make her stop talking or to kill her.

History of Caligari… and a little 3d industry history.

This is all ancient news to those that pay attention to the 3d industry, but I’m posting here anyways just for folks that may not be aware…

http://www.caligari.com/company/timelinenew.asp?Subcate=Company&SubV=Timeline

1982, Roman Ormandy defects from Czechoslovakia and spends three years in New York. Starting in the shipping department of a suitcase factory making Apple suitcases, he breaks into the PC business.

1985, Roman attends Siggraph ’85 in San Francisco. He admires the SGI workstations, but buys an Amiga PC and the trueSpace vision is born!

1986, Video tape of Caligari prototype is displayed in Commodore’s booth at 1986 Siggraph which generates tremendous interest. Octree Corporation is founded, setting out to revolutionize the 3D marketplace.

1988, Caligari1, one of the first 3D visualization products for the Amiga is released. It does not do much yet but it has a novel interface and integrated workspace.

1990, Caligari2 is released for the Amiga. Positioned as a design and video production tool, it supports photorealistic rendering and “real time response to all user actions”. (2Mb of RAM required)

1991, Caligari Broadcast sports animated deformations, sweep tools, interactive spline based hierarchical animations, a visual time editor and resolution up to 8000×8000.

1992, Caligari24 is released with upgraded features such as 32Bit color, organic deformations and further improvements in perspective interface. It soon becomes clear, however, that MS Windows would become the standard operating platform.

1993, Octree moves from New York to the Silicon Valley. Leaving the East Coast behind, it designs a new software architecture and changes its name to Caligari Corporation.

1994, trueSpace, powerful, usable 3D graphics and animation for Windows is released. It changes the landscape of the 3D market with the first integrated 3D animation and modeling package.

1995, trueSpace2 is released to receive critical acclaim and industry awards. It is the first 3D software to support 3D acceleration, alas no 3D accelerators are shipped at the time.

1996, Pioneer is released as the 1st VRML authoring tool integrated with a built-in browser. Wins critical acclaim but VRML fails to live up to user expectations.

1997, trueSpace3 builds upon the excellence and ease-of-use legacy by integrating VRML, inverse kinematics, physics, metaballs, 3D paint and collision detection. More awards follow.

1998, trueSpace4 – Born to Accelerate. 8th generation and a major step forward in 3D authoring, trueSpace4 closes the gap between high end and ease of use.

2000, iSpace – a web graphics tool that enables the creation of stunning 3D graphics in HTML and Flash format. It delivers photorealistic web sites and uses simple drag&drop interface.

2001, trueSpace5 – Reality Designer, providing designers access to an affordable and powerful 3D design tool for all stages of the creative process including conceptual design.

2002, trueSpace6 improves workflow and professional design tools like layers and deform tools. It also reduces repetitive tasks through arrays, mirror modeling and more, making everything from modeling to final render, faster and simpler than ever before.

2003, trueSpace6.6 – introduces non-linear animation, and improved physical simulation. Workflow and modeling are further enhanced, keeping trueSpace the ideal choice for animation, design, illustration and game creation.

2003, gameSpace – 3D content creation for game development software and game engines, based on the trueSpace6.6 core and providing tailored modeling and animation tools, import and export, at a realistic price point. 2006, truePlay – free application to allow anyone to enter the shared 3D spaces, for collaboration with colleagues, friends and peers.

2006, trueSpace7 – introduces a whole new software core, which includes the first ever collaborative workspace that allows people to work together in the same shared 3D space. V-Ray renderer, new DX9 real-time view, and new scripting, physics and procedural objects also introduced.

2007, trueSpace7.5 – expands on the tools introduced in trueSpace7, adding better character animation, and more tools in the new workspace aspect of the program.

2008, Caligari and Microsoft join forces – Now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, Caligari is able to release trueSpace7.6 for free. With further expansions and improvements to the tools, now anyone can make professional 3D at no cost

It’s been interesting seeing this company come to life, and die by being bought by one of the biggest companies around. Caligari was a neat startup. Unfortunately, a lot of neat startups get gobbled up by gigantic corporations. This is just one of the latest examples of this in the 3d industry…

Autodesk and Adobe are too other giants that eat their competition like Microsoft did with Caligari, and other companies are too to various degrees..

Alias bought Kaydara in 2004. Kaydara had created some awesome software called Motionbuilder, and they actually were selling it to individual artist very cheaply. Go check out the history of it on the forums at 3d buzz… Back when I got my personal edition from Kaydara itself it costs about 100.00 or 200.00…

Autodesk bought Alias in 2005 thereby taking over both Motion builder and Maya…

and looky here at what happened… Now the personal edition is long gone and Motion Builder costs $3995.00!

Adobe did the same thing with Flash a long time ago (originally owned by Macromedia).

It is nice that what used to cost a lot (TrueSpace) is now free… I originally bought version 3, then upgraded to 4, then 5… and quit upgrading after that because I switched over to Lightwave around that time… but it is sort of sad to see a company get gobbled up… especially one that was nice to new users and had a very good interface that helped developing 3d artist learn the ropes.

If you like the fact that trueSpace if free since you are an artist or want to become one, you might check out http://www.wings3d.com/, http://www.anim8or.com/, and http://www.blender.org/since Wings, anim8or, and blender are also free. Other freebies are out there, but these are the main ones that I know of that a lot of folks use.

Gmax is also free, but it’s several years old and is really just a dumbed down version of 3d Studio Max, which the big corporation Autodesk owns and wants you to pay a lot for…

It’ll probably just be a matter of time before Microsoft execs figure out some way to make Caligari’s trueSpace and gameSpace technolgy become massively expensive toys for the rich.

(If you can’t tell by the tone in this post, I’m not a huge fan of Micro$oft. I can’t tell you how many crashes have killed my artwork and other creative endeavors because Windows 95, 98, and XP all were pure junk. Vista is not far behind, but it a little more stable… Also, as someone that plays Entropia Universe a lot, I have a little bit of a grudge against Microsoft for when they tried to kill of Project Entropia in it’s early days by falsely accusing them of being pirates.)