tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300Sat, 18 Oct 2025 17:47:13 +0000readingpoetryPortland EventsanimationAsifa PortlandTwitterdrinking and drawingBeTweenanimation festivalwomen in animationcreativitysteampunkLegion of TechartsuperstructworkLong NowkittenlifetechnologyDr. Horrible's Sing Along BlogEsozonePortlandeconomyfreelanceignite Portlandjobslaikalayoffsoregon creative industriessocial networksthe futureBobbsey TwinsEavan BolandInteresting PDXMarilynne RobinsonMercuryNeal StephensonSalman RushdieSam AdamsTerry ChildsVanessaWhereCampamericabailoutbest practicesbooksbutohcalendardepopulationeventsfreelance fairimprovinspirationlife tipslossman-monthmiscname dilemmapaperperformance artplantspodcastsproject managmentprojectsreelunemploymentvisual effectsEvents and ideas that connect me to my creative community.http://afflated.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)Blogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-7419128430016179763Thu, 18 Oct 2012 23:25:00 +00002012-10-18T16:27:45.893-07:00lossMercurypoetryThe First Elegy Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the Angelic Orders? And even if one were to suddenly take me to its heart, I would vanish into its stronger existence. For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, that we are still able to bear, and we revere it so, because it calmly disdains to destroy us. Every Angel is terror. And so I hold myself back and http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/10/loss.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-728169787895717681Sun, 02 Sep 2012 01:10:00 +00002012-09-01T18:10:57.878-07:00animationanimation festivalAsifa PortlandcreativityPortlandPortland EventsreadingTomorrow morning I head to China for the ASIFA General Assembly. While there, we'll have the assembly and an in-person board meeting, and most of us will also give presentations to the Jilin Animation Institute. Mine will be on stop motion technologies here in Portland, with a focus on Laika's use of rapid prototyping technology in Coraline and Paranorman. To be honest, I'm not sure what to http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/09/going-to-china.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-6164314325142862861Sun, 10 Jun 2012 20:02:00 +00002012-06-10T13:02:23.644-07:00Well, I left France just as I had gotten in the habit of speaking my Franglish to everyone, and was even doing that sing-song inflection they do.Annecy is beautiful, and I had a lot of fun there. And saw some great animation and met some fascinating people. I decided to skip Milan and go to Verona before arriving in Venice. So I booked a B&B on hotels.com a couple days ago, and then noticed that http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/06/verona.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-8905071201610024014Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:01:00 +00002012-06-07T13:01:54.944-07:00Yesterday I finally met up with some ASIFA people, and it was a pleasure to put names to the faces. Hung out until quite late discussing film and religion like people do. Learned both "hat" and "pot" in Russian, got some good gossip, and had a thoroughly pleasant evening.Today was just beautiful - it seems the weather in France likes to alternate sunny days with stormy ones, and it seems to http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/06/rebekah-day-off.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-8789569531092603157Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:39:00 +00002012-06-05T11:39:07.368-07:00Well, unreliable wifi connections and other tragedies have taken up the past couple days. I won't take the time to go back over everything at the same level of detail as I was doing, but here are the lowlights:Dropped my iPad on the train platform in Paris, shattering the screen. It still works, but it looks terrible and I'll need to replace it when I get home.Arrived in Annecy late Sunday night,http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/06/annecy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-4867103727014344559Sun, 03 Jun 2012 04:04:00 +00002012-06-02T21:04:20.033-07:00Well, this is the thir morning that I've been unable to sleep past 4am. May as well catch up!Arrived in Paris and was immediately hustled at the train station. And the guards are no joke - full military uniforms with machine guns at the ready, in dramatic contrast to Amsterdam.Got to the hotel and checked into my tiny room. It's a good location, very close to a lot of things I wanted to see, but http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/06/paris.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-4807145530993908814Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:41:00 +00002012-06-01T03:41:44.115-07:00On the train to Paris. Thought that if I'm actually going to try to blog everything that I do, I should try to make smaller posts more often. Besides, there's excellent wifi here.This morning I had breakfast at the hotel, only slightly hungover. Then I went out looking for a drug store in order to obtain eye drops, since my lens solution does nothing. I found a supermarket, with a little http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/06/train-to-paris.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-974266798864382994Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:50:00 +00002012-05-31T21:50:56.833-07:00My plane departed PDX on Wednesday at 1:30pm. The flight was a little over 9 hours, and extremely smooth. I wish i could have slept, but every time I was just about to drift off the flight attendants came around with more food. I think they try to feed you in accordance to whatever time the olane happens to be in, as opposed to a normal human appetite.Amaterdam airport is enormous, and with http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/05/amsterdam.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-2592260450858825473Wed, 16 May 2012 03:40:00 +00002012-05-15T20:40:10.245-07:00poetryEvery drought-resistant plant has its own storyeach had to learn to livewith less and less water, each would have lovedto laze in long soft rains, in the quiet dripafter the thunderstormeach could do without deprivationbut where drought is the epic then there must be somewho persist, not by species-betrayalbut by changing themselvesminutely, by a constant studyof the price of continuitya steady http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/05/farewell-adrienne-rich.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-3797549064799700583Tue, 08 May 2012 21:41:00 +00002012-05-08T14:41:35.879-07:00Six months without a post? Shame on me. Let's see. I'm still at R2, making infomercials. I work with some really fun people, and it's good experience for me.A few weeks ago I was pleased to be a judge for the regional finals of the Student Academy Awards. They had some amazing work, and I'm truly pleased for everyone who made it to Hollywood for the finals.And in a couple weeks I'm headed to http://afflated.blogspot.com/2012/05/recap.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-3197685159489536016Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:20:00 +00002011-11-21T18:22:17.908-08:00readingI meant to close the previous post with this quote from the Mahabharata, translated by William Buck:Then the Universe is water; waterwithout end or beginning; withoutEarth or sky; without space or light;without sound or movement. Thenthe dark waters lie still and silentand waiting, touching nothing.What shape shall I take to rescuethe Earth from this flood?http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/11/mahabharata.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-904557568115297720Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:03:00 +00002011-11-21T18:22:43.244-08:00animationanimation festivaloregon creative industriesworkI've been freelancing for the past several months as a post-production producer at Respond2 here in Portland. The first several projects I worked on were infomercials - they are 28 minutes long, and extremely time consuming. For the past week or so, I've been working on short commercials; 60 and 30 seconds, and they are really fun so far. It's a pleasant change of pace, and I'm looking forward tohttp://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/11/commercials-rock.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-7419522220760253516Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:16:00 +00002011-08-25T02:16:47.534-07:00poetryLeap Before You Look The sense of danger must not disappear: The way is certainly both short and steep, However gradual it looks from here; Look if you like, but you will have to leap. Tough-minded men get mushy in their sleep And break the by-laws any fool can keep; It is not the convention but the fear That has a tendency to disappear. The worried efforts of the busy heap, The dirt, the http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/08/leap-before-you-look.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-6413635089138056494Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:51:00 +00002011-06-23T11:51:56.060-07:00animationAsifa Portlandoregon creative industriesPortland EventsOh, so much has happened.I'm now the president of Asifa Portland. I'm really excited about it. Mike did a great job of reviving the chapter and putting on some great events, and getting us in the habit of having events and planning ahead. Now I'd like to look a bit further out, and think about how we strengthen the whole community, and become a real resource for animation in Portland. I've http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/06/catching-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-3094250873925396654Tue, 03 May 2011 21:56:00 +00002011-05-03T19:25:18.950-07:00man-monthproject managmentreadingI just finished reading The Mythical Man-Month. It's interesting, because it was written in the late 60s, and is an analysis of managing large software projects at that time. The title intends to debunk the idea that if it takes one programmer 12 months to do something, it will take two programmers 6 months, and three programmers four months, etc. The man-month, Brooks admits, is still a http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/05/mythical-man-month.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-5254274130665032435Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:52:00 +00002011-04-27T16:12:59.338-07:00best practicesimprovI just finished an improv class from Brainwaves, and not only was it a lot of fun, but it gave me a lot to think about. Here are some principles of improv and how I think they apply to non-performance situations:Be fit and well. "Fit and well" means two things. Firstly, it means that you project, physically and mentally, that there is nowhere you would rather be. You are present in the moment http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/04/improvisation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-7641769812583045331Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:02:00 +00002011-03-29T12:23:13.034-07:00freelancelifeSo, yeah, it's a little weird for a private person to make an annual report. I did think about making it all super-glossy and beautiful, but this is only the first year. Maybe I'll step it up next year. It was an interesting exercise, and I would like to continue it. In addition to spelling out my mission, vision, and objectives, did a fairly comprehensive assessment of 2010- financial, emotionalhttp://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/03/2010-annual-report-completed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-5101383110205838486Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:55:00 +00002011-03-25T09:08:29.004-07:00BeTweenfreelanceunemploymentSo, my first week of unemployment draws to a close, and it's been incredibly fun. I've had a lot of lunches and happy hours and coffees with my amazing smart friends, who have ideas and resources and inspiration every minute. I feel so grateful for all of these people who are willing to invest in me. I've got my first freelance gig, a really interesting woman who is struggling with getting http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-week.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-2077292037473499935Mon, 14 Mar 2011 06:40:00 +00002011-03-13T23:42:13.244-07:00reelWell, it took all day, but here's my reel from ADi! It looks like it could also double as Kalina's reel, since her designs are prominently featured, but I just love her work.http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-reel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-7708697513185104846Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:53:00 +00002011-02-24T20:57:34.169-08:00lifeworkIf you're a friend on Facebook, you might have noticed that I'm trying to name this undertaking/enterprise. There are words that I really like and find evocative, but I'm actually starting to think that it might be a mistake to look for a permanent name. I might name/theme each year, with the symbols and language that are powerful to me at the time. After all, I don't need to register a domain orhttp://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/02/stuck-on-name.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-1757964522260202321Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:59:00 +00002011-02-22T19:04:43.028-08:00lifeworkI've got to be honest, I'm getting interested in the prospect of being a freelancer. I like the idea of having a business, of being a business. It elevates the discourse beyond the idea of "getting a job", and puts me in a position to think about my mission, my vision, my one-year and five-year and ten year plans, of actually trying to design my work and my life. I have always allowed work to http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/02/business-of-rebekah.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-23562189784394504Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:46:00 +00002011-02-21T18:50:40.876-08:00http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/02/some-of-my-old-drawings.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-849990806391326747Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:42:00 +00002011-02-18T13:04:56.448-08:00Asifa PortlandjobsPortland EventsWhat a year 2011 has been so far. The big news, which I may as well announce here, is that, after 3.5 years, I'm leaving ADi. March 17th will be my last day. I think I'll freelance for a while until I figure out my next step, and am really excited about some of the opportunities and conversations I've had in the past week. I mean, yes, nervous about money and stability and all that, but I http://afflated.blogspot.com/2011/02/ch-ch-ch-changes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-6919064516235291126Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:13:00 +00002010-12-12T15:40:09.340-08:00paperprojectsForward: I'm really annoyed with the way this post is laying out the images, but don't seem to be able to fix it. Will continue to mess with it. I really enjoy making things, but I don't like having things. And unfortunately, I forget to take pictures of them. I didn't take pictures of the big paper crane I made for my mom several years ago, or the origami bouquets I make, or the paper birdcage, http://afflated.blogspot.com/2010/12/making-stuff.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867343506912559300.post-846094617412648456Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:00:00 +00002010-11-15T19:12:02.622-08:00Asifa PortlandpoetryPortland EventsI had been thinking about this poem a lot lately, but only knew parts of it by heart. Then, as often happens, I was in Powells with $5 to spend, and spotted an anthology that includes it. Adrienne Rich - SongYou're wondering if I'm lonely:OK then, yes, I'm lonelyas a plane rides lonely and levelon its radio beam, aimingacross the Rockiesfor the blue-strung aislesof an airfield on the oceanYou http://afflated.blogspot.com/2010/11/serendipity.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rebekah Villon)0