Not that I went anywhere. If you'll remember from last year, writing the first book effectively killed my blogging time. So, even though I managed the time way better on this book, The Hess Report was the first to suffer (I was also making a short animation and keeping up two other blogs). To show my good faith, I'm going to give you a threefur post: two brags, and one normal thing. First, the brags:

• The Essential Blender is the 3rd most popular book in Amazon.com's 3D category, despite its many reviews that point out the completely botched printing of the book. I'm still pissed about that, but what can you do? Once it's out of your hands, it's out of your hands. The top book in their 3D Graphics category is another Blender book (on which I was the technical editor), so that's cool all around and bodes well for the future.
• Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish now has its own page at Amazon and at the publisher (Focal Press). It should be out in September. The manuscript is done and turned over to Focal Press for editing and composition. The short animation that accompanies the book, The Beast, is in the process of final render and editing right now. I'm striving to get it done by next Monday.

And finally, the normal kind of Hess Report thing:

Phantom Buzz
I've noticed a strange phenomenon since I've begun to leave my cell phone on vibrate all the time. Personally, I hate hearing people's phones ring in public (to be honest, I hate it at home too), and so choose not to burden other people with my own ringing. That means putting the phone on vibrate and carrying it somewhere that I'll actually feel it, usually the front pants pocket or the breast pocket of an appropriate shirt. I know that a lot of guys carry it in a holster on their belts.

Maybe most dudes who do that (a lot of them) don't give it a second thought, but to me it seems like a substitute. It's like there's this vague notion that carrying technology on your hip grants you some kind of status or powers. Here's a hint: it can. You really want to be packing a .45 there. You know you do. A cell phone is a poor, pathetic substitute. Oh right, it's convenient to have it there. But guess what? It looks dumb. The only acceptable thing to carry on your hip in polite society is a sidearm. Period. Don't be a dork, guys. Man up. If you want something there, make it the real thing. Otherwise, keep it in your pocket like me. (Speaking of keeping it in your pocket, Kel-Tec makes a sweet little 9mm pocket gun.)

Back to the point, though. I've noticed that I often feel the phone buzzing, even when it isn't. I'll be walking along and feel the buzz in my pocket. I put my hand over the phone to confirm, and find that it was not ringing. Phantom buzz. Weird. I've talked to a couple of other people who have experienced the same thing.

My theory is that we have always felt sensations like this, probably for our whole lives. It's just part of the random goofiness of having a body made of flesh and controlled by electrical signals. But once we've been conditioned to recognize a certain buzzing sensation as significant, when our bodies do it normally/accidentally, we feel it as the phone ringing. That's weird.

I hope I grow out of it.