the good and the bad

the good is the blessed rain that has come and given us a break from the heat.

the bad is that i just spent all Saturday tuning up the car only to have it running great and THEN the check engine light coming on....grrrrr

This is the craziness I encountered at the con

I am so freaking tired and don't need to see another lightsaber for a long time.

Ben...

The strangeness that is Comic Con

I have a unique job and sometimes it takes me to unique places to meet unique people. This week I am at Comic Con. This is the biggest comic book convention around and it takes place in San Diego each summer. This is my first Comic Con and it is quite the experience. My wife would say I am a nerd and most times I would not argue, but dear lord I am nowhere near the level of those that attend "the Con" as they call it.

Set aside the countless attendees dressed up like thier favorite characters or even characters they made up, these people are a complete subset of culture all of thier own. You can check out some of the videos that we are shooting to cover the event.

Ben...

and I've learned that a lightsaber can compliment any ensemble wheather it be a Jedi outfit or just jeans and a t-shirt, bring the lightsaber.

sitter

today at work i was a 'sitter'
sometimes patients get confused and try to get out of bed.. when they have - say - a broken hip - and cannot/should not get out of bed.. and when they try to get out of bed they fall.. and that is bad for the hospital.. so the hospital employs us sometimes to become 'sitters'.. which means we sit in the confused patients room all day long.. doing nothing but reminding them not to get out of bed..
that is what i did today.. and not knowing my job today, i didn't bring a book with me.. so i grab whatever book the hospital had.. happened to be a harlequin novel (only thing i could find).. and sat for the next 9 hours.. that's right.. i got paid to read smut and sit all day long..

48 Hour Film Project: The film...

Here it is. The final product of 48 hours of writing, shooting, editing and such

grab some popcorn and enjoy


Let me know what you think

Ben...

kiddies come for a visit..

and we had so much fun... we had a slumber party.. and we went swimming in don and lou's pool.. we had a fantastic time.. and i am now exhausted..
 
 
  

The last 15 minutes looked something like this

The movie had to be dropped off by 8:15 PM at a Marriott one mile from where i was editing it.

7:00 Finishing the movie, plenty of time. cleaning up the audio.

7:20 start to export it to uncompressed Quicktime to deliver it

7:35 crap, uncompressed is too big to fit on a DVD, ok i'll turn it into a DVD

7:47 DVD done, throw it in my DVD player at my desk, crap TV remote won't work so i can't put in on Video1. Throw it in my computer to watch, ok it looks good, scanning through... oh crap, it cuts out 80% of the way through!

7:50 re export movie again

8:03 CRAP!!! IT DID IT AGAIN, ONLY 80%

8:07 I find a version that has the whole movie but i have no idea the quality of said version. I rip out everything plugged into my laptop and RUN out the door. Get into the car and tear out of there heading 90mph down the road screaming at the lights to turn green.

8:12 I arrive at the place, laptop in tow, compressing and burning the movie as i wait in line to turn it in...

And thats how it went... Not sure how the final version looks. I think its ok, but i think the aspect ratio is off. We'll see. All in all, very fun, and i could see how its addicting. I met many people in line to turn thiers in that do many of these things at the various cities and such. I think we will do it again as we know now what we want to do next time.

stay tuned and I'll put the movie up here soon.

48 hours, 1 hour left

The final movie is exporting now.. cross your fingers

and the tired is starting to hit me. Yesterdays filming in the hot hot sun took it out of me, and yes we did end up filming on a record breaking heat day, 108 degrees. Damn global warming...

11 more minutes to export, then burn to disc, then i go drop it off and go home and sleep

48 hours to make a movie - day 1

the clock started last night at 8:15 PM.

we have 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and whatever else to get a movie made by 8:15 PM Sunday night.

Myself and co-workers and friends are participating in the 48 Hour Film Festival, where as just described we have 48 hours to get the job done.

Last night was spent eating, drinking and planning. We wrote part of a script (first mistake) and wrote down the scenes we wanted to film, and where we wanted to film them at (second mistake).

With partial script in hand we headed out to Ramona, the location of our shoot. I don't remember why we decided to film in the desert, but it was required for the movie so we did. And what a day it has been. I am sunburnt and oh so dehydrated. Spent much of the day in the back of a van driving windy roads filming.

Its 9pm now and I'm back home and beginning to edit, which i'll be doing for much of the night.

tomorrow we shoot one more scene and spend the rest of the day finishing the movie to meet the deadline.

overal, much fun, many things learned, like don't film in the freaking desert, and we'll see how it goes from here. Stay tuned for an update tomorrow.

Ben..

I love my job

I figured i would lighten up by blog with all the "I hate..." posts lately


How cool is it that i have a huge green screen in my office?



I really do have a great job.

I hate Radioshack

everytime i have to go to Radioshack i get this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach and just dread the visit. I only go because they are close by and might have the cable or thing i need. But i seriously hate going and hate shopping there becuase their staff is creepy and thier products are horrible and way overpriced. I went today and walked out after i was told the price of the small cable i needed to buy.

ugh....

Rock climbing with the guys

Chara had to work on Sunday and boy did she work (13 hour day)

so me and a couple guys, Kevin and Matt, set out for the hills to do some climbing

actually we just drove out to lake Dixon...but whatever

Me arranging some gear
 


Kevin scaling the rock like a pro
 


Matt doing it in Converse (not an easy task)
  

i hate the red cross part two..

you might remember a year ago when i went to the red cross to donate some blood and they told me no.. they didn't want my blood because i had been to thailand.. but they said to come back a year later.. and they'd let me give them some blood..
so.. today.. a year later.. i was ready.. i've been taking my iron.. eating some liver (which was gross by the way)... made an appointment. and went to go donate blood.. and the stupid red cross said to me.. no.. they couldn't take me today.. they could take my blood tomorrow.. but not today.. Because it has to be a year and one day.. so.. tomorrow i would be good to go..
now.. i know you might be thinking that this doesn't mean that the red cross hates me personally.. but i say - yes it does.. because they took bens blood.. and ben has only been back from thailand for one year.. same as me.. but his blood was ok for some reason.. they don't hate him..
so.. i decided that i hate the red cross.. and called san diego blood bank.. who said that they would happily take my blood.. and i told them i had been to thailand and they said as long i didn't travel along the laos border (which i didn't go near)they'd take my blood..
so i went down there.. and they took my blood.. no iron issues.. no travel issues.. no issues..
moral of the story: donate to the san diego blood bank - they are much nicer.. and have less issues..
*also.. while you are donating blood at the san diego blood bank.. they can take an extra vile and type you for bone marrow donation..

the more you know..

again.. working on the floor that i work on i'm learning quite a lot of things..

when you walk down the street you have about a 1 in 4 chance of passing someone who has the same blood type as you.. someone who you can share blood with..

but.. if you need bone marrow.. you have a 1 in 46,000 (roughly) chance of finding some who matches your type..

ben and i are going to a bone marrow drive that is open to the public on Sunday July 9, at the Community Lutheran Church (3575 E. Valley Parkway Escondido, CA 92027)
8:00 AM - 12:30 PM... if your interested in joining us.. let us know.. i'll set up an appointment..

*just so you know.. on sunday.. it's a just a blood test.. that's about it.. maybe have to fill out a form or two.. no major surgery or anything like that..

Scuba on a Saturday

Went out diving yesterday down in La Jolla

I borrowed a friend from work's camera for another project, but here is some video of the event. Visibility wasn't the best, but it was fun to get out.

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