We found this rock design on a hike up the Hot Spring Trail the other weekend and I just had to share it. Well done, unseen hikers.
This week has been a bit of a rush again as we prepare for an upcoming weekend getaway. I'm going to keep quiet about the details of the trip until we return in order to avoid repeating myself later. But if things go according to plan, you can expect to see some spectacular scenery in an upcoming entry.
R and I are also celebrating our fourth wedding anniversay this week. Today is the actual day... and we're spending it working and then taking a six-hour car ride. Preparing for our trip has been our top priority this week, but we did go out to dinner at Bouchon, one of the best restaurants in town, on Saturday. Additionally, last night we opened a bottle of sparkling wine to drink with some strawberries, Thin Mints, and an awesome episode of LOST. I love a woman who is willing to indulge me with a little sci-fi, even on an important occasion. It's just another reason R still melts my heart after all these years.
Let's plan on catching up again when life quiets down a bit. Right now I have a bit of an outdoor adventure to attend to.
Some friends of ours recently purchased a house in Santa Barbara and it has a jungle for a yard. They asked me--their local, budding videographer--to help them enter the "America's Most Desperate Landscape" video contest currently being held by the DIY Network. Since I've been itching to start a new project (and to try out my recently acquired microphone), I immediately agreed to do it. We brainstormed for ideas over email and got together one night to choose one and shoot it.
We went with a LOST parody. Because this is one of my favorite shows, spoofing it was a bit of a dream project of mine. The downside was that we didn't have much time for preparation and had to pretty much make it up on the spot. A blank slate, a setting sun, and a one-man production crew can make for an intimidating combination. The trick was to keep it simple. It also helped to treat this like a reality show versus a full-blown art project, allowing for a fair amount of imperfection.
It came together extremely quickly in the editing too. I put in an hour or two each day for less than a week. Compare that to "Fake Empire", which took me months to edit on that schedule. Even my Bud Light Film Crew videos absorbed more time than this one.
The version of the video we submitted to the contest is slightly different than the one you see above. After we had shot it, we went back to the contest website and realized we were only supposed to include the front yard. I had to remove any verbal references specific to the back yard along with any shots that were obviously from there. The above version is my preferred cut with some of those references and cuts put back in.
The judging for the contest is based on creativity, originality, and the personality of the homeowners. I think we have all of those aspects covered... but the winners of the $20,000 worth of landscaping work are yet to be determined. Good luck to Mike and Aimee!
This isn't going to be much of an entry, but I feel the need to post at least something each week so you don't abandon me (I worked too hard to pick up my three regular readers; I'm not going to lose them now). Plus I wanted to move the previous entry down the page because of it's lack of a photo. That was bothering me.
I'm having a busy week at work and attempting to focus on some editing during my free time. Thus I'm holding back on the social networking and blogging that usually seems to take up more time than it should. It was either that or give up my nightly hour of television, and we all know that can't happen.
Last weekend was nice. I shot a new video on Friday (details coming soon). We went shopping and out to dinner on Saturday. On Sunday (Easter) we did the church thing and flew a kite on the beach during the afternoon. We took pictures and video of the kite, but I haven't had the chance to prepare those yet, so expect a special entry sometime after I finish my more urgent video project.
R is out of town on business Wednesday through Friday of this week, making things slightly more lonesome around here. Also of note, starting next week she's going to begin working normal hours again, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM or so. In some ways I will miss having the evenings to myself as I felt very productive during them and enjoyed following my own, uncompromised schedule, but it will be great to have her around too. We're both excited that she'll be able to attend happy hours, take evening hikes, and help me cook again :-)
Okay, I wrote more than I planned, but this entry still doesn't feel like much more than a tease. Y'all come back now, ya hear?
My birthday celebration sort of stretched through the weekend and into Monday, giving the week an enjoyable, yet exhausting start. I'm happy with the way the events played out, but--whew--I'm glad they're done.
We spent Saturday frantically preparing for a get-together to be held at our condo on Sunday. The cleaning, shopping, and cooking took up most of the day. During the evening we found some time to relax, going out for a steak dinner out and then coming home to watch Milk. This is a good time of year for DVD viewings because most of the Oscar nominees are showing up on Netflix. Say what you will about award campaigning and mainstream pedigrees, but Oscar nominated movies are usually worth watching. Milk was no exception.
Our housewarming/return-of-spring/my-birthday-celebration BBQ started at 3:00 on Sunday. Despite living here only 9 months, this ended up being one of the largest gatherings R and I have ever thrown. We pretty much invited everybody we know out here (coworkers, Newcomers, a few others) and about 25-30 people showed up. Sorry to report I didn’t take any photos. You know how much I like to document things, but having a camera around sometimes makes people uneasy or self-conscious and plus I was simply too preoccupied with co-managing the event. As you probably know, there’s a lot of work that goes into keeping a house presentable, making sure people are introduced to each other, monitoring food levels, etc. But the party was a success, and I’m happy we threw it. It definitely made my 30th birthday more memorable. R, you were right about that.
The next day, Monday, we had some guests arrive around the time my workday was ending. They included a couple of family friends (known as the H brothers) from Minnesota and a friend of theirs who lives in Vegas. The trio is spending the week visiting SoCal, so they made the drive up from LA to see what Santa Barbara is all about. I took them on the signature hike to Inspiration Point in the afternoon. Later on, R dropped us off downtown and we spent the evening eating dinner and doing some bar-hopping. It’s not very often I engage in a guys’ night out, so I took advantage of the situation and had a good time. Yes, I drank too much and stayed out way too late for a weeknight, but really, is there a better time to act immature than the point in life when you begin to feel old?
This clip is nothing new if you caught it on Facebook last week or if you are a lucky owner of the limited edition Cottage Cheese DVD from a few years ago. It's not exactly brilliant filmmaking (nor singing for that matter), but I wanted to include it here because of its connection to the title of my blog. I had completely forgotten about the video when I wrote about the origins of "Midnight Toast," but it would have fit into that entry quite well.
What any of this has to do with my 30th birthday, I don't know. The big day was yesterday, and it got me thinking about things. Two years ago, I questioned whether or not hitting 30 would bother me. To be honest, I feel better about it now than I did then. I think a person reaches their full potential in their 30s, and there will be a lot of things to look forward to in my next decade, like having kids and seeing how Lost ends :-)
29 was one of my favorite ages, right up there with 4, 17, and 21. I won't bore you again with a list of everything that happened in the last year, but I've been very fortunate to have things work out the way they have. I really like my life right now. It scares me a bit to have things going so well because it seems like they can only change for the worse. But let's not talk like that. I'm just going to knock on wood and keep thinking positive thoughts.
Positive thoughts... like how wonderful yesterday was. Work wasn't too stressful. Afterwards, I took a bike ride along the beach. R arrived home early, and we went out to a happy hour at The Melting Pot. Then we returned home and uncorked a bottle of good pinot noir to drink while I opened my gifts. I was once again reminded why I love this woman so much: she got me a chess set (I'll explain this in a future entry) and a shotgun microphone for my video camera! Now I have no excuse for not shooting more video. I can't wait to start some new projects.
I also received a few cards in the mail with some kind words in them (as well as some moola :-). My parents also went so far as to record a video and email it to me. Between the acting, the editing, and the U2 soundtrack, they did an awesome job. I'd love to share it with you, but I'm not so sure my parents want it online. Let's just say I can see where I get some of my toast-singing lunacy from.
That's all I'm going to do for tonight. Thanks for reading, everybody.
We found this rock design on a hike up the Hot Spring Trail the other weekend and I just had to share it. Well done, unseen hikers.
