T'giving

Hello, friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving 2007 to you. This was a rather unusual one for me as it is the first one I've spent alone. But please don't feel sorry for me. It was my own choice, and I don't have any regrets. I did get to see my lovely wife for a little bit this morning when I drove her to airport (at 3:30 am!). As I alluded in my last entry, she is visiting her sister, who is five months pregnant and living in the country of Honduras. R and I are looking forward to becoming an aunt and uncle to this new person when he or she arrives. It was sweet of R to make the trip down there to check in on her sis and to hand-deliver a big pregnancy care package. She's also hoping to find some time for the beach and to possibly see some Mayan ruins. R is adventurous like that. I'm more the type who likes to relax at home... as if you didn't know that already. The idea of eating my mom's turkey dinner today was appealing too, but I just couldn't deal with the hassle of travel right now. We'll be in Minnesota for a week at the end of December, and I'm sure I'll eat enough then to make up for missing this one.

My meal today was a steak off the grill, a salad, a potato, and some cranberries (see, I got into the spirit). I also enjoyed a jog, some editing time, and a movie. I've got a series of movies lined up for the next few nights that know R doesn't mind missing. Tonight, it was the ultra-bloody 300. Tomorrow, it's the widely-considered-scariest-movie-of-all-time, The Exorcist, which I somehow never managed to see up until this point of my life. And finally, on Saturday, I'm thinking it's gonna be Fire Walk With Me because I'm jonesing for some Twin Peaks but holding out until Christmas for the new DVD box set. Plus, it's going to sound killer on our new sound system.

Speaking of electronics, I am dedicating some effort this week to purchasing a new video camera. This is not an easy task for me since the camera I want is worth more than the current value of my car. All of the money I made from my video work during the last year (14 paid gigs in total) amounts to a little over half the cost. Not only that: buying a camera will end up snowballing into a bunch of other expenses -- a new case, a new wide-angle lens, an extra battery, etc -- all of which are of a professional grade and thus more expensive than I am used to. If I keep up the video work, a new camera should eventually pay for itself, but I still have to wonder if this particular one is more than I need right now. Am I ready to make the jump to HD, even though my current computer won't even be capable of editing it? (I'll have to shoot in standard definition mode until I upgrade -- oh yeah, there's another thing to buy, a new computer.) Even in standard definition though, with 3 CCDs, this camera will shoot better looking footage than I'm shooting now. It's like the difference between using a point-and-shoot versus an SLR in the world of still cameras. The harsh reality of the situation is, if I want to be taken seriously as a videographer, the Sony Handycam I've been using has got to go (or at least become my backup).

I should be thinking about gift ideas for everybody else, not myself. I can't believe the Christmas season is already here. I'm dreading the crowds this year; mall traffic is especially horrendous in Delaware. The lack of sales tax here draws people from all of the neighboring states. I'll make it my goal to do as much shopping as possible online.

Man, this is more than I was planning to write. I guess being alone today has left me loquacious. I have to remember the week is not done yet -- I need to work tomorrow. Time for bedo.

Another awesomely average weekend

The weekend has come and gone. This was another one spent in and around the area. Maybe you aren't interested in reading about an average weekend, so skip this if you want. I personally like to have a record of this stuff, and for that reason I will continue.

On Friday night we attended a surprise 30th birthday party for a friend, Chris, who you might know from his appearances as a host of four of the Bud Light videos. The party was a good time. I spent part of it shooting video that I will be editing down as a gift for the dude. Chris has done a lot for me upon moving to Wilmington, including getting me the connections I have with Out & About magazine. He does IT work for a few different companies and organizations around town, so he might throw me some additional web video work in the future. I look forward to the opportunities.

After Frisbee on Saturday, R and I drove up to Philly to visit Calumet Photographic, where I drooled over the video camera I've had my eye on, and Ikea, where we picked up some shelves and things for the house. We also went to a unique Mexican restaurant called Xochitl (pronounced so-cheet), which, as the name implies, didn't serve your typical tacos and burritos -- R ate cactus and I had steak. We followed dinner up with Blades of Glory on DVD at home, with sleep grabbing us about half way through.

On Sunday we spent a good chunk of time assembling our new shelves and re-organizing the living room. R also made some butternut squash soup that was really tasty, especially on the cool fall day that it was. Before we knew it, night was upon us. I've always had a love-hate relationship with Sunday nights: I enjoy our typical frozen pizza dinner when we get each other caught up from our respective phone calls to the 'rents, but I hate to see the weekend end as another long week looms. Oh well, at least I don't need to deal with Sunday night homework anymore. R, however, is not so lucky. Did I ever mention she's taking graduate courses in engineering at the University of Delaware? That's keeping her busy.

Coming up soon on Jeblog:

• R visits her pregnant sister in Honduras, leaving me to my own devices for six days.
• The first segment in a possible series of late-night written ramblings called "Zomething Different."
• The final Bud Light Film Crew video before I take at least few months off from them. And it's going to be about dodgeball.
• Plans for new video work I will doing during the aforementioned few months off.
• A 2007 year-in-review post.
• More weekend recaps.

With the lid off

A good friend / former roommate visited us over the weekend. He was in Tennessee for work and decided to take the 8-hour drive on over to Wilmington to kill some time when he had a few extra days. On Saturday night we went out to the Iron Hill for dinner and drinks, and on Sunday we showed him around Philly, with stops at the usual historic tourist sites. There was time for a little Super Nintendo in there too. We've been known to like to battle it out Mario-style once in a while. It was a good weekend. Meeting new people gets old; I enjoyed seeing a familiar face and having a history with somebody again. R gets along with the guy too since we all roomed together at one point post-college. I'm glad he made the trip over. Here's to you, L.

Bud Light Film Crew #11 - Censored

The shoot for the November video was our wildest one yet. It took place at the tailgating event before a University of Delaware football game, and the college kids there were wasted. There were times when they erupted into melee, spraying beer everywhere, throwing full cans in the air, dousing their friends. One gentleman took his pants off and attempted to get on camera. Everybody was willing to chug a beer... for a free beer. Unfortunately (and understandably), Bud Light and the university do not want to be associated with over-consumption, so my first cut, which included some of the craziness (but purposely not all of it), was rejected. I had to remove 20 seconds, perhaps the heart of the video, in order to appease the censors. That was painful for me. I have decided to restore some of the footage in the version that will be on my compilation DVD and possibly on YouTube after a while. Watch out for it. Until then, you can see the censored version here:

http://www.budlightfilmcrew.com/