There's no place like home

We made a day trip down to Hollywood last weekend to have some lunch on Sunset Blvd and see the Broadway musical Wicked. I will go so far as saying that this was probably the best play I’ve ever seen, but to be fair, I haven’t seen too many other plays of this caliber. I’m usually not a big fan of plays. I don’t like the over-acting and voice projection. Dramas are too dramatic; comedies, too annoying. But Wicked was enthralling. I liked the music, the visuals, the clever plot... it was an impressive show.

The weather has been amazing around here this week. Our friends in the Midwest are suffering at 40 degrees below zero while we are enjoying temperatures in the mid 70s. To top it off, the oranges on the trees in our courtyard have been ripening over the past few weeks and we have been indulging in them. This is the time of the year when SoCal really shines.

My post-work project this week has been to construct a star field generator, as seen below. Shooting an actual starry sky doesn't work because it's too dim (or my camera isn't sensitive enough), so I poked holes in a cardboard box, stuck the camera in it, and shone a light at the holes. The results looked great. I even had the ability to control the twinkling.

All of this was for a one second shot in my music video. The closer I get to finishing the video, the more excited I get about it. I also get more and more worried that my hard drive will crash or I'll fall and break my wrist before it's finished. I really need to wrap it up soon, but there is so much going on during the next few months that I have a feeling it's still going to be a while.

Next week Lost returns and the first single from U2's upcoming album hits the airwaves. It's an exciting time to be alive! I'm actually re-watching last year's finale of Lost as I write this. It just so happens the episode shares its name with the title of this blog entry.