300

No, not 300 weeks pregnant (I can't even imagine that). Rather, 300 blog entries. Sorry to switch counts on you.

How's this for a nice bit of symmetry? My 300th post comes exactly two years after my 200th post. In that entry, I discussed the future of Midnight Toast (called Jeblog at the time) and listed some goals for the site. Being on the brink of a big life change right now -- and at another multiple of 100 -- makes me think tonight is the perfect opportunity to do something similar.

My big announcement is that I started a new blog called Three Peas in a Blog. There's a permanent link in the menu bar at the top of this page. The design of the new site is still under construction, but I'm happy to report I found a way to post larger photos on it since the primary purpose is for sharing pictures (and video) of our sweet pea with family and friends who may be interested. The writing will probably be minimal on the new site because I don't want it to slow down my photo output, but we'll see how things play out. Maybe I'll even open up the gates and let R post some thoughts on it if she ever gets the urge.

Midnight Toast will continue to exist in its current incarnation. It will be reserved mainly for my creative projects and musings, similar to what you have seen in the last 300 entries. My free time will be limited in the coming months and years, so I can't promise there will be a lot of activity in this department, but there will be some, and I like the idea of keeping it separate from the flood of baby photos that is imminent. There may be some gray areas in my categorization of material, but I'll try to keep the overlap to a minimum.

In summary...

Midnight Toast
Creative doings, random thoughts, and an occasional recap of events. Example of content: a scripted "Cottage Cheese 2" sketch starring the wee one.

Three Peas in a Blog
Family photos and videos, with very brief descriptions. Example of content: footage of the wee one taking her first steps.

And of course there's always Twitter. That will continue to be a more immediate and less calculated look at day-to-day life.

My time has run short. I wanted to tease some info about my "Introspection" film trilogy that I'm planning to cover on Midnight Toast in the future, but it will have to wait. Unless you consider that right there to be a tease.

A few quick things

I love how colorful the main page of my blog has been lately with all the stills from my backdrop project. I'm afraid to post anything that doesn't contribute to it. The sunset above should do. There are a few more shots from that incredibly scenic evening as well as some other recent events in my Santa Barbara 2010 gallery. I'll be adding to that album as the year goes on, so check back once in a while.

You may have noticed a new link labeled "Questions?" in the menu bar above. It will take you to my page on a social networking site called Formspring. I think it's a cool idea. Everybody likes to be interviewed, right? It makes us feel important (sometimes invalidly so :-). If you've ever wondered something about me but were too afraid to ask, now's your chance. You can do it completely anonymously. Just keep in mind, if I don't like your question, I don't have to answer it.

I was off to such a good start with blogging in January, and then I let it slide when our schedule filled up. Plus, I started editing a wedding video in my free time. Those sons of guns are a lot of work; it's still going to be a while before I have anything to show you. But I did take a break from it to put together some additional ThreadSpinner clips, so you can expect the backdrop series to continue again soon. The next two should be pretty epic.

That's about all I'm going to do for today. We've got a lot of fun stuff coming up soon: the SB film festival, wine class, a few trips. I'm also feeling inspired to start on a fresh video project. Up next I want to make some kind of narrative short film. It'll probably be a while before I get to it, but I will enjoy dreaming it up.

Web address

Just a quick note... If anybody out there is still using www.jeff-finc.com to access this blog, please update your bookmark to be www.jeff-finc.blogspot.com instead. I decided not to renew the domain name since my old website no longer exists. The auto-forwarding will stop soon and you might not find your way here. This blog is my website now (and has been for the last year or so).

Sorry for the boring entry. The next time I post I will have a new video for you to make up for it :-)

A note about the labels

You may have noticed that I started adding topic labels to my posts. The idea here is that you will be able to click on one like "Minnesota" and all of the posts about Minnesota will be magically laid out in front of you. I'm hoping this organization will eventually make my archives more useful and accessible. But keep in mind the labels are not yet complete. I've been working my way back in time, reading my existing posts and summarizing them with keywords, but the going is slow. It will probably be another week or two before the process is complete. Just wanted to give you that heads up in case you picked up on any gaps in my history.

P.S. It's raining outside.

New look

It may not be the Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition you were expecting, but there are definitely some new colors (or lack of colors) present. I will probably continue to tweak it here and there. I couldn't decide between a black background and a dark green one, so that might still change.

The image of the forest came from our New Zealand collection. I love how the photo turned out and was just waiting to have somewhere to use it. Of course it has nothing to do with toast, but that wasn't going to stop me. As for the meaning behind the new title for my blog... an explanation is pending. I don't want to get into it right now.