Phone Apps, a Disco Dancing Smurfette and Release

This past week, in addition to continuing to build Maranappta, I've dusted off my traditional animation skills by creating an original short clip called "So You Think You Can Smurf", which stars Smurfette from the Smurfs shyly tiptoeing onto the dance floor and finally succumbing to "Boogie Fever" by The Sylvers. It was inspired by a visit on Monday to the McDonald's at Main and MacArthur in Irvine, CA next to John Wayne Airport, where "Smurfs 2" Happy Meals are being promoted and clips from "Despicable Me 2" were playing on the in-house TV channel. "Boogie Fever" is a running gag in the original minions movie, and I had a goofy idea to mash up the two, developing and promoting my animation skills in the process.

Smurfette was an easy choice because she's not only the first female Smurf, but also the most popular one of all based on merchandising and overall fan appeal. This isn't the saucy seductress as reimagined by Katy Perry in the recent movies but the original innocent, girly and spunky Smurfette from the original Hanna-Barbera TV series as established by her original voice actor Lucille Bliss, which became the defining role of her decades-long career and her all-time personal favorite.

It's been an interesting past few weeks. As I wrote in my last post, I got a temp job at a real estate software company in part because I've been a lot more open about my technical skills in web development, coding and creating apps. I've been getting a lot of smiles at church and with my friends about the above Smurf video with the new movie on everyone's mind. And at church the pastors have been teaching us to stop making excuses to God for not obeying His call on our lives to serve Him with the gifts He's given us, and to learn to release (let go) of controlling everyone and everything, entrusting it all to His loving hands. Very timely messages if you ask me.

Animators are often actors through their pencils or software as they bring their characters to life, infusing their personalities into their creations. Smurfette's dance moves in the above clip are my own choreography, acting out each step when I'm sure nobody else is looking (or doesn't care), draw the movements onto paper and translate them into the computer. So yeah, that's basically me in her poses. But don't get any pupule (crazy) ideas about me, even though I live in hopelessly weird California.

I Got a New Job, Possibly Made Indirectly Possible by Maranappta :)

It is interesting how the Lord brings things together for good in spite of our craziest ideas. In the past month I've been aggressively developing Maranappta, setting up a web app for testing and including it in my status updates to all the staffing agencies I'm registered with. My original idea was to utilize my web design skills in new ways to show that I'm not just sitting on my gluteus maximus while unemployed. Well, I haven't yet landed a web or graphic design job, but on Friday I started a new temp-to-hire job at Yardi Systems, a real estate software company in Santa Ana near John Wayne Airport. It's an IT/data entry position that could become a permanent position after three months if it's a good match. It seems that the technical skills I've been practicing are just what the software company was looking for.

Meanwhile, Maranappta continues to get good feedback and I'm now well on my way to developing a dedicated Android version. I may upload a web version to this blog and ask Android phone and tablet users to give it a try. I would like to also develop an iPhone version, but what Apple charges just for the privilege of submitting to their app store is out of my budget for now--and there's no guarantee that Apple will accept my apps anyway. From what I've been told, Google is far more forgiving in accepting apps for sale than Apple. By necessity, the current web app for iPhone may be the only version for iPhones that will be out there for now.

It's an interesting way that God is providing for me, in a roundabout way, but I'm praising and thanking Him all the way.

Maranappta Update: Adding Podcasts and Bible Study Series

I'm at the Chapman University Student Union where I took a nap this afternoon after church. After waking up, I fired up my laptop, logged into the free campuswide wi-fi and started working on more features to Maranappta. By Monday morning, Podcasts will join the menu of features, with iTunes links to various Bible teachers and radio programs. Your cell phone must have iTunes and/or QuickTime in order to hear the podcasts. I am also building a sample list of Bible Studies by various Calvary Chapel pastors, with a link to the entire lineup at CalvaryChapel.com.

As a deliberate shameless promo, teaser and bribe to get you to try it out, I will include podcasts from nationally syndicated pastors such as Chuck Smith, Brian Brodersen, Don Stewart and Waxer Tipton, as well as the weekday talk show "Pastors Perspective".

Update July 29, 2013: I haven't uploaded the new features just yet. I've been busy making phone calls and searching for full-time work. After talking with a friend at church, I have decided to drop Hank Hanegraaff and "The Bible Answer Man" from the final podcast lineup because while Hank is an excellent apologist and biblical scholar, his combativeness in recent years in attacking Christians holding a different eschatological view than himself--an issue Hank claims is a non-essential but in practice acts like it is--makes him divisive and a big turnoff.

Maranappta Update: Subject and Verse List is Growing

At the advice of a small group leader at church last night, I am expanding the Subject and Verse section of Maranappta with a few more subjects. I just added Bible verses related to Love, joining those dealing with Devil/Demons on Monday. Another subject, Comfort/Hope, is in the works, and another specifically for Evangelism based on a collection of verses known as "The Romans Road" will follow.

Newport Muse Now Linked to Newport Muse Live

I was planning on doing this later this week, but the chronic server problems at my now ex-web hosting service prompted me to add a direct link to the Newport Muse website immediately as I moved all the content to a new service as an emergency measure. Just click on the Website tab at the top of the page and you'll be sent to the site. Everything's still there; it just has a new URL.

As for my ex-web hosting service, I think Mr. Spock said it best at the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country:

If I were human, I believe my response would be "Go to hell". That is, if I were human.

Live long and prosper.

Here We Go Again... My Website's Down

I was about to upload more content at this moment to my web app Maranappta, but the hosting servers at Zymic are down again for the second time this month. It's a free web hosting service, and the quality of its server hosting has always been good, until this month. I don't know if it's because their servers are crashing from data overloads, but this isn't good. I created a backup site with a different address just in case something like this happened again, so it looks like I'll have to fire it up.

I may also finally get a registered domain name for the site. More on that later. In the meantime, keep posted to this blog for more details.

Maranappta Update: They Like It, They Really Like It!

Forgive me for that Sally Field-at-the-Oscars moment. If you don't get the joke, here's the reference:

Miss Field's sincere and often-parodied acceptance speech, which is actually a reference to a quote from "Norma Rae" (her first Oscar win), is often called "The First Like", long before the birth of social media. :)

Okay, now for why the Sally Field moment. A few friends at church have tried out Maranappta on their iPhones and Androids, and they really like it--the layout, its native-app feel, the links to online Bible search engines, and especially the live streaming of Calvary Chapel radio stations from across the United States. Many of them bookmarked it on the spot and are looking forward to how the final product comes out.

And finally, I think Miss Field looks really cute in her acceptance speech. But she's Gidget, The Flying Nun and Forrest Gump's Mom all wrapped up in one, so of course we really like her.