Somewhat Daily Words

I celebrated 11 years of marriage to my wife, Michelle just a few weeks ago. We're trying to keep the budget tight, so this year we kept our anniversary celebration low key. I got a green screen (green fabric & a couple of floodlights - total spent - $30) and Michelle, she got the fruits of my first labor with that green screen - which you can see below. I tried uploading this to YouTube, but thanks to some pesky copyright laws, they pulled the audio, so I deleted it. This copy is from my Facebook page. So, to clear things up - no, I didn't write or perform the song. I don't own it. It's owned by the Proclaimers. I don't make any money off of this website, or the content. Once I do, I'll pull this video. Anyway, what I really wanted to do with this video is start building my online portfolio, complete with assorted multimedia products, showcasing my skills with Adobe After Effects, and Final Cut. Since I have a limited amount of work produced (since...

So, for the past two years or so, my Web Site has looked like this: Nothing special - and it didn't really offer much, other than a link to this blog, and a pdf copy of my portfolio (which is old and needs updating itself...) Anyway, I've avoided the daunting task of updating my site because, well, I'm an idiot when it comes to web design. I've been intimidated by Word Press, which seems to be all the rage these days, and a novice with Flash, with very - VERY limited knowledge of Dreamweaver. But I've been looking for a job and trying to drum up more freelance business, so I've come to the realization that the time has come for me to finally get my presence on the web at least up to code. (get it? Code? I kill me!), so I dove in yesterday, and I'm about 45% done. I won't be uploading it until it's completely finished, but here's a sneak peek: Hopefully, if time (and coffee) allows, it will be up and running by Monday.

I'm starting to learn a few things about myself. 1) I like being busy. 2) I work better under pressure from myself than pressure from others. Lately, I've been picking up more work, most volunteer, but there has been some paying work here and there, and that's been nice. But with work being pretty sparse over the past few months, I've found myself getting pretty lethargic. But, when it does get busier, I seem to get a real boost out of the pressure of self imposed deadlines. It's a nice feeling, to have a job, and to finish it in a timely fashion - and to be pleased by the result. For instance, I've been helping out some friends of our family who are dealing with a devastating illness, as they have been developing and putting together a tribute slideshow for the man fighting said illness. Mostly I've been working on the audio side of things, but I was given the opportunity to flex my Photoshop skills this past weekend, and, I'm so proud of the results...

Call me naive, or blame it on the freshness of his death today, but I'm pretty sure at this point, that John Hughes had a bigger impact on popular culture and popular film than any director of the last thirty years - and yes, that includes Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas. Don't get me wrong, both Uncle George and Stephen have done wonderful things for film, but just hear me out. First of all, look at the resume of all three - George and Stephen have, together, produced a hand full of what I believe to be classic movies - The Star Wars Trilogy, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Schindlers List, and Saving Private Ryan - to name a few. And while I don't diminish their impact on popular culture (Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Jaws, mostly) or their impact on the art of film (Schindlers, Private Ryan), I still don't see their overall mark on the popular culture of movies and life to be as massive of that of John Hughes. Look at his resume: Mr. Mom - changed the way America looked at ...

I was a Cub Scout for a couple of months as a kid. I'm not exactly sure how old I was, but I remember that I didn't continue on the path of Scouting due to the lack of men involved in our troop. My mom wanted me to join Scouts because I didn't have a strong male influence around, and she figured I'd found it in the Scout program. Instead, she found that the leaders of our local troop were all women, and pulled me out after a while. I don't remember if I liked it, I was always a shy, awkward kid, and never quite gelled with most macho stuff, like camping and the outdoors. I was far more comfortable with my books and my drawings. Come to think of it, that might have been the other major reason my mom put me in Scouts -- she could have been afraid I would never be very masculine. But that's beside the point. Being a home school family now, Michelle and I wanted to do as much as we could for Josiah to get interaction with kids his age, and to offer alternative ...