Speaking of Animation

I'm excited to add a new link to the side bar.. This looks to be a promising new resource for animators, be sure to check it out. :)
http://www.speakingofanimation.com/
The awesome new site was started by 4 working professional animators who work at this mysterious studio? haha, I wonder if you can guess which one? ;)
Anyways, there will be podcasts as well as tips and tricks! Enjoy!

Disney is on a roll

I apologize about the lack of updates.
I wasn't sure if anybody reads this blog.. but I've received quite a few messages from readers! I will try to be better about posting, promise.
Thanks so much for continuing to stop by during my blogging hiatus. :)
(after this term at Animation Mentor is over I'll post my shots on Ice Age 3 and maybe some of my new school work)

Anyways, last night Disney aired the premiere of Prep and Landing on ABC. It was incredibly well done. Really really enjoyed it. I wish it was longer.. I want to see more! :)


Last week they also had a special on tv called "Dreams Come True." Here's the first part:


and to top it all off... The Princess and the Frog comes out this Friday! I absolutely can't wait. (I have to wait until Sunday though, because that's when I turn in my last assignment of the term at Animation Mentor ;)


I'm so glad Disney is on a roll. It's such an exciting time to be in animation!
I've always loved the magic of Disney! I grew up with all the classic Disney movies like most everybody.. and it is truly the reason I wanted to become an animator. All of this fantastic new material from the studio inspires me and takes me back to being a kid. It completely reminds me why I wanted to do this (not that I had forgotten.. it's just so refreshing and makes my passion to pursue this dream that much stronger)! Thank you Disney! :)

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them" -Walt Disney

Current Projects

So I'm super stoked! I think I already mentioned in my last post that I'm signed up to take an AM refresher course, starting Sept. 28th. However, I also have other plans to stay busy until I get another job..
I've been watching tutorials all day in order to learn Cinema 4D and help work on the pre-viz and then animation for The Ottoman!!!!
(I posted earlier about this project, but now I'm actually going to start working on it. yay!)
I'm so excited to be a part of this short film and help pitch in. The artwork that the guys have done so far is amazing and super inspiring!

Artwork by Vincent Morin


Artwork by David Ward


Artwork by Vincent Morin

I pulled this concept art from The Ottoman blog.. if you want to keep your eyes on the progress of this project you can follow the blog here http://www.the-ottoman.com/blog/
I personally cannot wait to see this short film to completion. It is going to be great! :)

In other news I've been fiddling around a little bit lately...
These are just bits and pieces from familiar songs I've picked up by ear, mostly Disney songs. Anyways, I just kinda mashed them together when I was playing around with my fiddle yesterday. I think there are about 15 or so different songs in there? I also tried to play it with the bow between my knees again, but it really doesn't sound too great... so I stuck it at the end.

-Kung Fu Panda, or supposed to be anyways.. I dunno I probably have it wrong , it was the most difficult to sound out.
-Pirates
-Flintstones
-Star Wars
-When You Wish Upon A Star
-song from Shrek
-A Whole New World
-Cruella de Vil
-Peanuts
-Mickey Mouse
-Mario
-Tale As Old As Time
-Harry Potter
-You've Got A Friend In Me
-Woody's Roundup

Uncategorizable gianormous update

Wow. Alright, so it has been forever since I've updated my blog.
I can't believe I haven't posted since Ice Age 3 was released!
It was such a surreal moment sitting next to my family in the exact same theater I use to work at... I can't even describe it. All the memories of sweeping up popcorn or dealing with customer service issues and longing to be making the films instead.. all of those feelings came rushing back.. Watching my name go by in the credits along with all of my friend's names in the first feature film I've worked on was crazy exciting.

Definitely a moment I will never ever forget as long as I live.
I've been dreaming of working on feature films my whole entire life and never did I expect to reach my goal so quickly. (especially one that is doing so remarkable.. now, the 22nd top grossing film worldwide..ever! That is insane). I had done my research on the industry and was fully prepared for the long hard struggle to get my foot in the door. I know I put in a lot of hard work and did as much as I possibly could, but I still feel like I owe a lot of it to just being in the right place at the right time and getting an extremely lucky break. I've looked to this quote for some time now and never has it rang so true...

"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity"

It feels incredibly odd to achieve my life goal before I turned 21. In a way I feel like the fish in the bags at the end of Finding Nemo "now what?" Although, it's not so much a question of "what?" as it is "how?" or "when?"
I know that this is only the beginning and I know I want to continue animating on films for audiences to enjoy. I'm now in the long hard struggle to try to keep my foot in the door and prove that I really want this.
hehe, I now have a more realistic experience of the job hunt... but I'm ready for it! It's really about time I probably pay my dues :)
Anyways, I've applied to a bunch of studios and had some dead ends as well as some possibly good leads. I'm still short experience wise, which is frustrating at times, but then I remind myself that I'm young and experience will come with time. :)
I've been continuing to animate in the meantime to keep learning and push myself forward. I'm planning on taking a refresher course at Animation Mentor until I find another job. I may have achieved my goal of working on a feature film, but I never want to stop learning and I hope to animate on many more. I figured continuing my education in a more formal setting is probably one of the best ways to keep moving forward.

One thing I miss most from Blue Sky are the people. Animator's are such amazing people and I miss all of the friends I made. It's the same withdrawal I feel after I get back from Animation Mentor get-togethers, such as the BBQ/Grad/or Siggraph. All of which I attended again this summer and had an incredible time. Siggraph was in New Orleans this year and was fantastic! I can't believe I'm going to wrap up BBQ/Grad/and Siggraph with 2 or 3 generic sentences about them being amazing! However, I cannot possibly cover all of their amazingness details right here. There is just too much... so I'm going to move on to some other news...

I finally bought myself a domain name... and switched the template on my website.
I now officially have my own .com for a year.
www.teresanord.com
I have updated it with my new resume and reel breakdown (including the shots I worked on in Ice Age).. but I still want to double check with the studio before I upload my new demo reel with Ice Age 3 material. I promise it's coming soon!

I also heard this really cool quote the other day and included it on the banner of my site mostly to remind myself...and I just sorta wanted to explain it.
(anyone who knows me knows I love motivational quotes, anyways here it goes)

"Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence." -Walt Disney

I really liked this because I know my greatest weakness is confidence. I've learned a whole lot about myself lately and know that it is something I need to work on. Going through Animation Mentor I was told that as an animator you need to have a thick skin so you can handle feedback. At the time I was convinced that I had thick skin.. I wanted my mentor's and fellow classmates to tear my work apart, because I knew it would only make me stronger. I loved a good thorough critique. I thought that was the whole definition of thick skin, being able to accept constructive criticism and being willing to take direction. I was great at that, I had it down. I know now, however, that I didn't understand the whole definition and wasn't as thick as I thought. Having thick skin means being able to separate yourself from your work. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it.. but being able to accept critiques is one thing and letting that effect your self confidence is another. I now understand and know what I have to work on. I'm prepared now to make that separation and I honestly think that is one of the most valuable revelations I had during my first work experience. I guess what I mean is, separate your critiques from your self confidence. You will be in a much better place emotionally. If you don't it can really start to drag you down... Just remember that you were hired for a reason. They saw talent in you and you do know what you're doing. Just believe in yourself... and yeah.. was that a little too sappy? I don't mean it to be.. but jumping into crunch time on a major feature film is a positively frightening experience when it's your first job, trust me. It feels like trial by fire. Even if it's the best experience ever and the people are incredibly nice and helpful.. it can be downright overwhelming.. and just going through that process I discovered lots of things. This being one of them. Anyways, it feels like the biggest accomplishment to come out at the end and say that "yeah, I did that and I made it through... and I learned a lot." There are lots of ups and downs in animation.. but I think having self confidence is definitely important. (lol, not too much self confidence that you're arrogant and have too much attitude or anything.. but don't have too little self confidence where you never stand behind an idea of yours or beat yourself up over everything). Anyways, there you have it.. one of the biggest most valuable lessons I've learned recently. :)

Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs Sneak Preview!

Oh my goodness, Oh MY GOODNESS... I'm so sO SO EXCITED for this! YaY!

http://www.iceagemovie.com/sneak/

Here's the website that has the list of theaters that are showing the sneak, so you can find one in your area. :)

Animation Mentor Student Testimonial

lol, here's the new Animation Mentor Student Testimonial video.
I'm on it toward the end (2:30) for about 2 seconds (the part about how would you describe AM in one word). I was a bit excited and used more than one word. I love Animation Mentor. Best school experience I've ever had! :)
It's so cool to see my friends on there!

The Magical Music of Walt Disney

Last Friday I saw an excellent Symphony pop concert for my birthday titled "The Magical Music of Walt Disney." It was truly amazing! I can't even imagine how wonderful it must be hearing a full orchestra perform the pieces for the first time in a recording session.
They performed everything from an opening Disney Medley to “Tarzan,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Mary Poppins,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Rescuers Down Under,” “Aladdin,” “Mulan” and “The Lion King.” For an encore they played "Pirates of the Caribbean."
Along with the music they had rare Disney stills as well as fully animated scenes projected on a screen. Anyways, this concert really inspired me and reaffirmed why I went into animation to begin with. I'm so excited to be telling lasting stories for a living! Animating is the best job in the world! :)

These are just some videos I found off youtube.. not the same symphony or even the same songs.. but still good :)

This is the same song they played for the encore, but different group.

Acting and Believability in your Characters

The other night Tom Hanks was on Charlie Rose. It was a fascinating interview, however, I found one part of it particularly valuable.
(it's something I want to be sure and remember to make my animation stronger)
He talked about why some of his most successful performances were successful (almost every role Tom Hanks plays is believable and convincing).

Anyways, his trick is to find out how his character is alone in the world and think about that as much as he can.
"In the past, Hanks has described himself as, deep down, a loner. ‘Everybody has something that chews them up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness."
Loneliness is something everybody can relate to. We all realize we are alone in the world and desperately try to form relationships to appear otherwise.
This is something everyone in the audience can relate to, because everyone knows what it feels like to be alone.
Tom Hanks thinks about this and incorporates it into his character's body language throughout the film.
Anyways.. I just thought it was interesting and a good thing to think about when animating characters and making them come to life.

Here's the full episode if you're interested.
(it's mostly on the upcoming Angels&Demons)

Fiddling Around...

Alright, so I hope to be posting my latest animation shortly.
I'm working on the current 11 Second Club entry. This will be my first time entering the competition after year or so of watching from the sidelines. I reckon there will be a lot of entries this month as the audio clip is particularly sincere and exciting to animate too!

In the meantime....
I've been playing the fiddle/violin for an awfully long time. Anyways, I normally try to find weird ways to hold it and attempt to trick fiddle. It just spikes my interest and challenges me to try to get it to sound good.. sometimes I'm successful..sometimes not so much.
Last summer, however, I was inspired by the Beverley Hills Hillbillies at Disneyland to try and play the fiddle in a completely different way!
Lately I've been practicing holding the bow between my knees and playing like that.
It's still pretty rough.. but I'll get there :)

The first song is "In the Mood" and the second is a little bit of "Orange Blossom Special" (haha I have a long ways to go with that one for sure)

Anyways... I'll keep working on it.. but I thought I would share :)

My Website is UP! :)

Hey everyone,
Just thought I'd let you know that I created my first website today! yay!
I will still be blogging.. I just wanted a site to keep my demo reel, resume, and everything together on. :)
Anyways, you can find it at...
http://teresanord.synthasite.com/home.php

By the way I'm horrible with HTML and everything website related... huge thanks to the person who told me about yola.com! Free web hosting and step by step instructions!



Oh, and by the way... Animation Mentor has a new video up featuring my mom and pop! They interviewed them after my graduation and I was super excited to finally hear what they said while I wasn't around! I love them and feel so lucky to have such supportive parents! Thank you mucho!

The video is located here if you're interested!
http://www.animationmentor.com/promotions/2009/ParentTestimonial/

Art with Teresa (the art of giving back)

Upon my return home from New York I have started volunteering weekly in my mom's 1st grade class. I love it! I go in every Friday and teach art for one hour and it is SO much fun, the kids are so cute!
Anyways, this weekly lesson has somehow gotten the official name "ARt with Teresa."
The other week the kids wrote a poem about our lessons and surprised me with it...



I can't even say what an amazing surprise it was.. it feels so great to be giving these kids an experience they might not have had otherwise. I myself always sketch in pen.. there is something about overcoming the fear of messing up and not having an eraser.. so I have passed this along to the kids. In my lessons they are allowed to use whatever drawing tool they want... as long as it's not a pencil (hence the markers part of the poem).
I was so excited that the next part of the poem was "we think." I honestly could not believe one of the kids had put that in there... that is exactly what I have been hoping to teach them. My goal is to teach them how artists think and how drawing doesn't need to be intimidating if you know how to think and observe. I'm teaching them to break things down into shapes. Drawing is like anything else, in that the more you practice, the better you are. For some reason or another, however, we are told somewhere early on that some people can draw and some can't... so those who can't and need to practice don't even try, because they are worried about how it will turn out. Everybody has 5,000 (or whatever it is) bad drawings inside of them and the faster you get them out the better! I want to teach these kids not to be afraid to make mistakes... not to be afraid of a blank page. I scribble in the corner of a page if I think I'm afraid to mess up, so that way it's already messed up and I won't worry about it. If a drawing turns out poorly and not how I planned, oh well, it was one of the 5,000 bad ones and the next one will be better.

Anyways, the first week I went I decided to stick with just teaching them how to draw Ice Age characters to get them excited. We drew Scrat and Sid and they turned out soo soo cute... I wish I would've taken my digital camera.. but I wasn't thinking. I taught them that even famous movie characters are made out of basic shapes and I challenged them to design their own character. They were all given the assignment of designing the Easter bunny being as it was Easter weekend. Some rabbits had round heads while others were more realistic.. some had clothes, while others had fur, jewelry, and uni brows. It was entirely up to them and they turned out brilliant! (lol, I never liked the coloring dittos in school where we colored in a bunny holding a basket and eggs.. it's so much cooler to design your own).

(oh, I do have a couple of Sid and Scrat pic's because of this darling little girl who went out and bought a sketch book after I showed them mine and she practices in it constantly. She was so excited to show me it the next week and I was able to snag a few pic's of some of the pages)




Week 2- I sort of jumped into the deep end for week 2. The lesson was extremely challenging and I could definitely tell it was a stretch for the kids. I started off making them draw hands.. one of the most feared subjects of many artists.. and not just draw hands... I had them draw their hands as a blind contour drawing. They were not allowed to look at their paper or worry about how it came out.. Blind contour drawing is one of the best ways to force yourself to really really concentrate and observe what you're drawing instead of drawing what you think you see. It was a struggle for a number of the kids. Some were just not okay with drawing a drawing of their hand and not having it look like a hand. Many peaked and just drew 5 or 8 little generic fingers and didn't want to try again. Somehow by the early age of 6 or 7 the notion that some people can't draw has already been implanted in them. I was impressed to see some of the kids truly going completely blind and drawing detailed scribbles of their hands over and over again.. one on top of the other. I was so excited that I held them up and showed them what a cool design it made when it covered the whole paper and how some artists do this just to create an interesting background. Showing this example seemed to help some of the kids who were struggling. The reward for this tough lesson was another movie character, Manny, the woolly mammoth.. granted not the easiest character to draw in the world, but yet again they turned out adorable. (I brought my camera this week, but the batteries were dead and I unfortunately don't have any pictures)

Week 3- Was super successful. I started off yet again by telling them that artists look for shapes when they draw. I also touched on how we see in 3 dimensions.. but paper is flat.. so artist need to find a way to draw shapes that have dimension. We drew a couple cubes and cylinders for practice. I then asked them how many people thought drawing people was hard (almost all the hands shot up, not surprisingly)... I then asked how many people in the room could draw stick figures...
I told them that lots of the time artists just start out with a stick figure, because it's fast, easy, and you can get all the information you need before the person moves. I then continued to show them how it was easy to draw people if we broke it down into simple shapes (I had my little wooden art model with me). The results were amazing! I was so proud of all of them! (pic at the top)
Oh, and lastly.. we ended the lesson with movie characters (again) that were made up of extremely simple shapes.. and this time I had my camera ;)













Anyways.. I really can't wait to continue teaching them all these things I think everyone should be taught at a young age. I don't remember being taught how to draw people when I was in elementary school.. All the art projects were always geared toward having a pretty result to take home to mom and dad (cut and paste, make it pretty, color inside the lines)All of the stuff that makes drawing seem intimidating later on, because you're so worried about the final product. You just have to turn part of your brain off in a way and not worry about how it turns out. That is how you truly learn.. by making mistakes and loads and loads of bad drawings!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Final Trailer

I'm so ExCitEd for this movie!!! Honestly! I really can't wait!
I was so upset when they pushed back the release date from last November to July...
Oy.. it really looks amazing!
I just re-read book 6 last week.. and it was just as good as the first time.
I have grown up with the Harry Potter books and love them so much! I received the first one on my 11th birthday from my mom, because the boy in the book was 11, lol. Didn't even know they were going to become popular!



There's a slew of movies coming out soon that are on my list of must sees for the Spring:
The Soloist
Up
Ice Age 3 :)
and HP6!!!!

How awesome is that? I can't remember a time I've been so excited about so many movies coming out so close together!

BTW- I have no clue why my blog is so skinny that the youtube clip hangs off the side.. frustrating, but oh well :)

The Waiting Game

Alright, so one thing I've always been horrible at is waiting patiently for a package to arrive in the mail.. but what I've discovered I'm even worse at is... getting overly excited when applying to animation jobs/internships!!!

I'm pretty sure I'm driving my parents crazy! Every couple minutes I get this sparkle in my eye and blurt out "wouldn't it be cool... if this works out. Do you know how awesome that would be? I can't imagine! ... Somebody has to get it... but I know the odds are huge.. I shouldn't get my hopes up, but wouldn't that be cool" :)
and then I stare off into space with a glazed look as I daydream.

I've been getting as much sleep as a little kid the night before Christmas, seriously .. but every single night!!! I just can't stop daydreaming about how awesome it will be if any of these job opportunities work out... but I know that I won't hear anything back for weeks and weeks.. if at all...

lol, how do I clam down and not get so ahead of myself? lol :) help!

Back Home

I just realized I never posted a picture of my puppet or the last Lost Boyz episode! Here it is even though it's late :)



Warning: language as always...


I had a WONDERFUL last 2 months!
It was TOTALLY AWESOME.... :)
I learned so so so so so so so so so so so so so so SO much!
The team at Blue Sky is super amazing and talented.
I can't even begin to tell ya how thankful I am for the experience.
lol, it was by far the most challenging and overwhelming thing I've ever done, but definitely the most rewarding.
I made so many friends and just had a wonderful time!
I really really can't wait to see the movie on the big screen!

Anyways, I spent one week in New York with my mom and dad before I came home.I absolutely love Broadway shows and we saw two amazing productions!
The first one we went to was a Broadway Play that won 4 Tony Awards and named August: Osage County.

It was incredibly well acted and so intense. I've honestly never ever seen such an intense play as this.... Oh, and the set was amazing! I found a picture of it online via good ole google images :)


We also visited the Natural History Museum where I was able to pay my last respects to Manny and Ellie....

I thought it was pretty interesting that most of the dinosaurs were dug up in Montana.. I didn't know that...

Oh, and we also sat in a box seat at Carnegie Hall which was super fun! It was such a great place to sketch... here are a few scribbles I did...





The second Broadway show we saw was the musical Billy Elliot, which had the most amazing dancing in it!!! (more pics found on google)




Oh, and on our last day we rented a car and drove up to Connecticut to see Mark Twain's house. It was super interesting! I guess back when he built it the average annual income of a working man was $300 and he spent $40,000 on this house!!!
(yet again more google pics)



This is the room where he wrote most of the books he's famous for like Huckleberry Finn.

Anyways, everything feels like such a whirlwind since graduation in January... I still can't believe all that has happened.
For now though I'm back home where I plan to continue animating and continue applying for summer internships and the sort :)

Almost time to go home

Wow! It's crazy to think about everything that has happened so far in 2009.
Very very crazy.
Time is flying so fast. I can't believe I only have 2 more weeks at Blue Sky! I'll be home before I even know it and wonder if this all really just happened?
I have had such an amazing experience, it really is incredible. I'm so thankful that I was able to have the opportunity to come out here for two months. All of the people at Blue Sky are extremely talented and fun, they have helped me learn more than I could have ever imagined. I'm really going to miss everyone.
(although at the same time I'm totally excited to see my family and everyone back home, yay!)





Going into the city has been so much fun... but when I was there last night.. all the bright lights and advertising made me SO excited to go back home to this....



As for what comes next.. or what the future will bring I don't know... I'm going to go home, keep animating, and keep applying... I'm just super happy to be doing what I love!

Oh, I do know that no matter where I am come this July.. I will be visiting a movie theater for two highly anticipated films.... I cannot wait to see Ice Age III and Harry Potter! :)

Treehouse Stuidos!

Just thought I'd post the latest episode.. I think it's my favorite so far!
(if you look carefully you might even be able to spot me :)

The Ottoman

Oh, I wanted to post about this too...
I've been lucky enough to be let in on a short film project that my good pals Mike Stamm and Dimos Vrysellas have been working on (on the side) for awhile now.
It's not quite ready for animation yet, but the rigs look fantastic and fun to work with. I'm super excited about the concept art and just really excited to help contribute when the time comes.



The site is up though and finally public, so I can share it with all of you!
Take a look if you want to see more or just let us know what you think! :)
http://www.the-ottoman.com/blog/

Lost Boyz video about Blue Sky Temps :)

hehe.. so I thought I would post the new Treehouse video, because my family wanted to see it! (btw hi family and welcome to my little blog that probably not that many people read..anyways, I miss all of you :)

So here's their most recent post... and I'm also going to include their disclaimer ;)

"This industry survives on temps….and a lot of them. So here’s an insight on what it’s like to train them during “crunch”. Although this video makes them seem like a bother, the truth is that we couldn’t finish any films without them. So special thanks to all you temps out there!!"

Oh, and here is the link to their blog if you want to follow or look at the other videos..
http://treehousestudios.wordpress.com/

Blue Sky!

Okay, so I wasn't able to update my blog right away, because I was too busy packing and moving!!!! :)

I'm in NY working at Blue Sky Studios for a couple months as a temporary animator on Ice Age 3!
It's incredibly fun and exciting. I know I'm going to learn a ton!!!
My first day at the studio was Monday and everybody is so helpful and friendly, I love it. It was really great to finally meet everybody!

If you haven't checked out the Treehouse Studios Lost Boyz videos... take a look :)

http://treehousestudios.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/episode-6-pete-makes-it-on-tv/

These guys work a few rows away from me and are hilarious!
I'll embed their last episode here, because it has a real tv interview at the studio.. :)
here's the real tv interview:


lol.. now here's the Treehouse episode..


So funny! I love work! :)

Animation Mentor Graduation 2009 and more!

Wow... so I know it has been awhile... so this is going to be a big post!

It's entirely too late to be typing this but I can't sleep, lol... I'm too excited for sleep ;)

This last weekend was amazing (to say the least)!!! I honestly don't know where to begin... so I apologize if I jump around :)

How about starting out with my first ever animation demo reel...

Teresa Nord Character Animation Reel 2009 from Teresa Nord on Vimeo.
Since my last post I have been super duper busy finishing up my short film in class 6 and putting this reel together.

I honestly cannot believe how much I've learned in such a short amount of time. It truly has been an amazing 18 months and I wouldn't change it for the world. Thanks so much to all of my friends, family, mentors, and of course all of the staff at Animation Mentor.

So.. I flew down to San Francisco Friday morning with my parents and we just got back tonight. Friday was a long haul since we got up at 3:30am to catch the plane in time to make it to the Animation Mentor Job Fair by 1pm. The Job Fair was so amazing though! I had such a great time not only talking to recruiters but also seeing all of my friends again and just ... I don't even have words for it.. it was awesome! I'm so convinced animators are the most fun people to hang out with ever! :)



btw- I didn't take a whole lot of pictures myself.. but I love a bunch of the photos Alexiss Memmott took and I dare say she wouldn't mind me posting them :)

Ok, so moving along..... Saturday... Saturday was a HUGE day :)
I graduated from Animation Mentor at Fort Mason, oh and btw the weather was beautiful.... (70 degrees in San Francisco in January and crystal clear? honestly? who could ask for anything more? ;)





TO BE CONTINUED IN SAME POST
(I don't think I can possibly write this entire post tonight.. I'm finally tired...so I'll try to get back to this tomorrow and finish it the rest of the way)