“Collapsing Under the Crushing Weight of the World”?
That’s not the opposite of taking it over.
I designed a couple of hit videogames.
Not exactly, but pretty much.
Oh yeah, I got the top rank on Yahoo! Answers before my account was banned. I forget the stats but it was something like a 30% “best answer” rate or something.
Not fame but a close call perhaps – used to work for a concert promoter and was walking through the green room with catering items when a member of KISS started yelling at me. Apparently he was sighting in a gun (using a target he stuck to the wall) and I had nearly gotten shot so he was upset that I had gotten in his way. (I learned a life lesson that day but it didn’t have anything to do with being shot – it was that my job might suck but at least I wasn’t the KISS wardrobe person who had to use a hairdryer to freshen up their tall black costume boots. Ewww.)
Physically closer to fame, I helped drag a rather listless John Cougar (before the Mellencamp) out of the green room and give him a little push onstage. Luckily he pepped up after that.
I’ve been in an elevator with Michael McDonald, alone in a room with John Kerry (while he was on the presidential campaign trail), and had an exchange and a handshake with John Edwards (best handshake of my life, aye charisma!) Most recently I had a one-on-one conversation with my favorite singer Duncan Sheik but I couldn’t come up with anything interesting to ask him even though it was the second time I met him. I think famous people don’t want to be bothered so I err on the side of offhanded.
Ermm… I did 90% of the visual effects and CG character animation for the independent film He Was a Quiet Man with Christian Slater, William H. Macy and Elisha Cuthbert.
Since it was produced by the same production house in Project Greenlight 3, they saw my work and had me create a quick scare-shot of a CG bat in the* Project Greenlight 3* film Feast, at the eleventh hour of production. (which was a surreal experience, because I had just watched the entire season as a fan, and I get a surprise call at home from one of the producers featured on the show comeplementing me and asking if I could take the gig. What a weird feeling when you just watched a series documenting not only them, but their business practices and candid frustrations!).
So, they flew me out to LA for the premier of both films, and I got to meet John Gulager (director of Feast and did the voice work of the talking gold fish in He Was a Quiet Man… Awesome guy!) and a bunch of the cast & crew. Unfortunately not Matt Damon or Ben Affleck. But it was the first time I got to see my name roll in the credits on the silver screen, so that was a cool moment. And the very last name listed as well — bottom billing! 
Other than that, I’ve done a ton of CG work for national broadcast commercials many of you have probably seen.
Oh, and I did make Michael Madsen laugh with a bit of bathroom humor when he made an unexpected appearance in my (at the time) office. He seemed so short in person, and I’m only 5’ 10". Cool guy, and I immediately played Stuck In the Middle With You at full-blast in the studio as soon as he left… Although the place cleared out fast when I brought out the gas can.
At this very moment, you’re reading words typed by a direct descendant of Millard Fillmore.
(hope you were sitting down for that one…)
Hey, howdy cuz! Millard Fillmore was my 3rd cousin, 4 times removed. I’m a descendant of his great-great grandfather, Nehemiah Millard, who would be our common ancestor. Seriously.
And Betsy Ross!
Which amused me to no end when I was sewing my Captain America costume for Halloween years ago.
I was one of the three little kids (all different ethnicity represented) representing all the kids of the world for Unicef and shook hands with the governor general of Canada in the early 70s. It was in the papers but no nemes were mentioned.
I’ve written a few online articles that had their 15 minutes of fame in video game circles. One of them even spawned legal action by a certain crusading lawyer.
This could be a fun topic…
What stands out…
I made edible severed heads and other goodies for rock bands (We were known international) for years
Alice Cooper said he was our biggest fan!
At one point in my life I had a chance to make people’s dreams come true and had the time of my life doing it
I have a shoplifting cat
I’ve been in a few movies… (the shoplifting cat was in one too…so was our Boa…talented pets…lol!)
Am known for my paranormal associations
You could say I’m somewhat eccentric…
I LOVE cats!
I am working on a Feline HCM Awareness group
It’s his birthday tomorrow; party down for M-Fil!
This thread reminded me I once wrote a letter to Newsweek that got published. I wonder if that’s an achievement?
Ooh.. do tell!
Like **Chefguy **said, WIN!
:;curious:: which ones?
Details, please !
Me, I must have the best ratio of things made/published around.
Of the four Strongly Worded Letters to the Editor I sent to my national newspaper, three have been published.
Of the five serious drawings I made (I don’t like drawing, but am good at it) four found commercial use.
Of the five times I modelled for a picture or painting, three times the result was bought and exhibited or published.
I was commissioned as a Flight Deck Officer on the United Space Ship Enterprise.
When I was a kid in the 60s I was a huge Star Trek fan. I used to write fan letters asking for autographed pictures and other stuff. I had autographed pictures of Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock and the two of them together (Nimoy’s signatures were identical on the two photos, as were Shatner’s. Even at 10 years old, I realized they were rubber-stamped).
I wrote in asking for a tribble, a phaser and an earpiece like Lt. Uhura wore. Instead I received a signed 8x11 certificate like this one with my name on it. I framed it and hung it on the wall next to my photos. I kept it for a long, long time but eventually it disappeared. I wish I still had it.
Let’s see…
During the 1970s, my mother worked with Ed Broadbent, then leader of the NDP. One time we visited his apartment in Ottawa and had dinner; this was where I discovered Astérix books.
My grandfather ran for Parliament back in the fifties.
My great-grandfather was a somewhat well-known cricket player.
Um…
So far I haven’t done anything of notice.
I helped organize Vanna White’s wine celler.
1.) I was a model that appeared on the cover of a national catalog when I was 10
2.) Co-authored two papers with an astronaut
3.) Got a book published on a topic completely outside my recognized expertise.
4.) to make up for that, got another book published on a topic IN my field of expertise
5.) Wrote and published articles on a variety of topics in Science Journals, History Journals, and Anthropology journals
6.) Four Patents
7.) worked with the co-Founder of the L-5 Society on Laser Propulsion
I hope to get an article published in Mad magazine one of these days.