A Hobbit, A Mouse, A Time-Machine.

The three books that I enjoy the most are:

The Hobbit

Taggerung

Timeline

   I chose these books because they will always be entertaining to me, I have enjoyed the sci-fi/fantasy genres since I can remember. They all have extremely different settings and characters.

   My first choice, The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. will probably end up being my choice for the course project. I put this on the list because it is the book I am currently reading, I REALLY enjoy the Lord of the Rings series, and the movie is in production. I love the art style and era for The Hobbit, something about medieval mystical creatures has always grabbed my attention.

   Taggerung by Brian Jacques made my list mainly because of the nostalgia factor, it was the first "big" book I ever read and I loved it. All the characters in this novel are animals of some kind, yet they can speak and fight like that of humans. The book follows a specific rogue warrior along his quest for survival. Since this book was never made into a film or commercialized my imagination isn't influenced by anything other than the book cover.

   Timeline was written by Michael Crichton was published back in 1999. I read it because it was part of my summer reading for highschool. The reason this book is on my list is because it combines my two favorite genres, fantasy and sci-fi.

   Out of all three selections, J.R.R. Tolkien is my favorite author, I just recently decided this when I started reading The Hobbit this summer.

Observations...

   I began working at The Overtime Grill as a line-cook and in the past week I have learned a lot about how the restaurant business works behind the scenes. It's remarkable how smoothly everything runs, even with 4 cooks on duty in a small kitchen. Although I was new there, I got a hand of it quickly and soon became part of the machine that is known as "the line".
   Because of the lack of space in the kitchen there is a no-crossing policy, which means you don't try to squeeze behind someone in the middle of the rush unless necessary. Out of the 4 cooks on duty one is in charge of call-outs, this means he is managing the order slips as they are printed and he makes sure everyone else knows what there duty is for that order. Occasionally one end of the line will need to know when something is half done, so the head-cook will say, "I need half on that," at the end of the order. So then whoever is watching the food will need to let them know when it's half done.
   I thought this was very efficient, considering I had never worked in a kitchen with more than one other cook before. Once the order is complete it is then sent to the expeditor who see the dish right before it is brought to table. The expeditor is in charge of garnishing the dishes and making sure they are suitable to go out.
   Even though it gets incredibly busy at times, cooking the line is never overwhelming because of how organized and precise the pipeline is.

First Post

   Hi, my name is Tim Normington. I'm from Southern NH, but I'm living in Rochester, NY for school. I plan on graduating this year and hopefully landing a job in the 3D field out of college. I love to draw in my spare time, I have some of my work on my website. I also enjoy camping and hiking.

Here is me:

And this is a drawing I did: