The Guild BTS

After hanging lights, I finished my first behind the scenes piece for the DVD of the second season of The Guild. This first piece is the only piece that will play on MS Video after they air the fourth episode. I think it turned out pretty good and both Felicia (creator) and Kim (producer) enjoyed it, which is what is important. I brought the hard drive with the quicktime of the piece over to Felicia's. We chatted for about 15 minutes and then I was on my way home to try and enjoy the last remaining few hours of my long weekend. All in all a very fun and Christmasy extended weekend.

Christmas Lights

On my last day of my four-day weekend I was able to put up our Christmas lights on our house. I got up early around 8am and started to sort through the stands of lights. I was amazed at how many of the strands were half-out and unusable. Luckily we bought some a few days after Christmas last year so I had some back up lights. So I climbed onto the roof and started to hang lights. Last year I wanted to write Merry Christmas on the roof but didn't have enough lights but this year I had plenty. I am happy with the results and I think I'm going to add a few more lights to the garage and front door area but for the most part it's very Christmasy at our place.

Roses

I seem to be doing more watercolours lately than oils - when I was in Greyton I only took my watercolours with me. The red rose and the bud come from the garden there - I had them in a vase in front of me, sitting on the verandah in the warm Spring mornings, watching the birds and trying my hand at still life flowers. I was quite pleased with the result, but felt they were a little overworked.

On my way home that Sunday, I stopped off at the Houwhoek farm stall and bought a Hanepoot vine for my garden - (I've always wanted a grape vine!) - and the rather gruff elderly lady who looks after the nursery saw the painting, loved it, so I gave it to her.

The second painting of the pink roses was done last Monday in our watercolour group - it was a 10 minute exercise and I rather enjoyed stopping when I had to.

Christmas Shopping

Today Harry and I finally were able to get out and start our Christmas shopping. Well we really started a few weeks ago but only online buying. Today we actually went out to the stores and man were they busy. So many people and a ton of traffic... I think we lasted about four hours before Harry and I looked at each other and said "we are done". Both of us don't like crowds and there were some big crowds. But we did manage to get a bunch of stuff. This year is going to be a lighter year but we enjoy giving and will give what we can... tomorrow I'm putting up Christmas lights.

Christmas Decorating

Well as tradition with me it's the day after Thanksgiving so now I have permission to decorate my house. Today I did the living room and dining room. This is my favorite time of the year and I love putting up as much stuff as I can. Next up are the lights on the house.

Thanksgiving

Today Harry and I went to my Mom's for Thanksgiving. Along with my brother and sister-in-law, grandmother and step dad's sister and boyfriend. Traffic was horrible and it took us nearly 2 hours to get down to Newport Beach. But once there is was a good day and an excellent Turkey dinner.

More Guildie Goodness

Today is the premiere of the Second Season of The Guild.

This season is sponsored by MSN, Sprint and XBox Live. You can watch all of season one (about 40 minutes) and the first episode of season two here.

I have been doing alot of behind the scenes videotaping (as you know if you read my blog on a regular bases) and I'm very proud of being part of The Guild family. Of course most of my work won't be seen until the Season Two DVD comes out but I do have a few things that might be released before hand. I am also taking all the still photos of the BTS and those are starting to show up on the main website www.watchtheguild.com.

Please support this great webseries, Felicia Day (creator/writer/actress) is the sweetest person you can ever met and deserves all the success she gets.

Rock on Guildies!!!!!

3rd Pass on BTS The Guild

Today I was able to cut in the opening credits and tweak some of the audio for my BTS The Guild piece. It looks great, going to send it one more time to Felicia and Kim just in case they want to make any changes. Then on this coming Friday I'll uprez it and output it.. Once BTS piece down.. many more to go. They are so much fun to work on I can't wait to see what else I can come up with.

More DVD Screeners

Over the past few days I have gotten a few more DVD screeners. Of note I got Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda, both we saw in the theater but really enjoyed them. We actually watched Wall-E on Sunday... but today I got The Dark Knight, which is awesome since I haven't been able to get to the movies to see this one. So I'm very excited to sit down this weekend and check it out. I love getting these screeners as this past year I have been so busy and we haven't had many chances to get to the movies so I love getting movies I haven't seen yet.. let's hope I get many more.

Sushi Taro and Mr. Yogato

We had the great pleasure of dining recently with J & J. Wow that's so cute it's almost wrong. Anyway, being city slickers and all, J-squared reeled in these suburban couch potatoes for a Dupont Circle evening. You might remember that we only recently started understanding about good sushi and better sushi. Well, Sushi Taro is DELICIOUS sushi. First there was miso soup all around, and delightful vegetable tempura. I will say that the veggie pieces were quite large, so at times you had to look to your neighbor and say, "Listen, I really want the eggplant, and it's awkward to share such enormous pieces of lightly fried vegetable with you without knives."

For dinner, the four of us shared two spicy tuna rolls, one yellowtail, one Alaska (salmon and avocado), one eel with cucumber, one plum with shiso leaves, a rainbow roll (spicy tuna with more fish and avocado wrapped around outside--see the visual), and the baby snapper nigiri from the "special" list. Everything tasted as it should--fresh and flavorful. The service was attentive and understanding (we asked a handful of questions). I'd definitely recommend Sushi Taro.

Afterward, we were full but not stuffed--at least not too stuffed for frozen dessert. We went around the corner to Mr. Yogato, one in a smattering of recent yogurt joint openings that still doesn't rival the burger explosion of 2008. You can get original soft, original tangy, or a rotation of yogurt flavors at Mr. Yogato, and then there are a zillion toppings. Including olive oil. I had original tangy with bananas, mini Eggo wafflse, and honey. It was AWESOME. Standard chocolate toppings abound, for the traditional folks. The best part about MY of course are the games. Besides the standards, including answering a trivia question (like "Name 7 countries that start and end with the same letter"--Jeff's question!), the night we were there your yogurt was 100% free if you could stand on one foot on your tippy toes (not quite ballet style, but raised up) for 15 seconds with YOUR EYES CLOSED. The eyes closed part is the kicker, people. Try it. Right now. As J said, you go to Mr. Yogato when you're with friends but Tangysweet when you're alone.

Sushi Taro
1503 17th St NW
Mr. Yogato
1515 17th Street NW
Metro: Red Line to Dupont Circle (South Exit)

Rest and Notes

Today I pretty much rested. I still wasn't felling 100% and I had done some running around and really shouldn't have. I had planned to do some Christmas shopping and get out all our Christmas decorations but once I was on the couch it was hard to get off.

I did get an email from Felicia saying how much she loved my BTS piece and had only one note about adding the show's opening credits to the beginning. Whoo hooo.

2nd Pass on the BTS The Guild

Today I was finally able to work on the notes that Felicia and Kim gave me and cut in the directors interview as well. After a few hours I am very pleased with the results. I can't really talk about what it is as it's all very top secret but I do know it's a companion piece for Episode 4 of season two.. it will also be an extra on the Season two DVD. Now I get to send it off to Felicia and Kim for final notes.

Picture is of Sean (Director), Me, and Jared (Gaffer) looking tough... well trying to anyways.

Signing Books

Here's me signing books this morning at Flagler Palm Coast HS. 7:30 am. Sheesh, that's early!

The Road-wise Ranger theatre group entertain us!

Year 3 joined KS1 for an hour's entertainment on Thursday afternoon. There was a serious message associated within the comedy sketches however, it was all about obeying the rules of the Green Cross Code and crossing the road safely!

Pushing Daisies Cancelled

I was so bummed to hear that ABC in all its wisdom cancelled Pushing Daisies. I guess it's not a surprise as this is a very unique and one of a kind TV series and there is nothing else like it on TV... so of course it had to be cancelled. In it's first season last year it was a modest hit and a fan favorite. Unfortunately the writers strike ended it's first season with only 9 episodes and ABC never repeated it during the break so it disappeared for nine months. The second season has been great it seems the audience never came back. At least we got 13 episodes this season and since the producer said they ended it on a cliffhanger he plans to continue the story via comic book or maybe even a movie.. so Pushing Daisies may be gone from the airwaves, it's not the last will see of this wonderfully whimsical world.

Feeling Better

Today I am feeling better, I had another rough night last night as my body was so achy and I couldn't find a good position to sleep in. I did go into work around noon and that was a mistake. You know how you feel better so you start to do your normal stuff but you really aren't better and should rest... well I made the mistake of thinking I was better.. got home around 5pm and rested the rest of the day..

Food Poisoning

So about 10pm last night I wasn't feeling so hot. I felt as though I was going to throw up and my stomach was being ripped apart. I knew something was wrong and because it came on so fast I realized that it must have been food poisoning. Harry and I had the same dinner (I made Chicken and rice) and he was fine so I'm thinking it was the Jack in the box I had for lunch. All I know is that I was in major pain and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I slept on an off getting up over and over to run to the bathroom thinking I was going to throw up.. well nothing happened. I had taken several baths to sooth my stomach. I had not eaten all day and had no desire too.

Well today I called into work and told them I wasn't coming in as there was no way I was able to stand for more then five minutes. Finally around 10am after another bath I was going to make my self-vomit. I knew that once I got this stuff out of my stomach I would start to feel better. Well I got out of the bath and was about to stick my finger down my throat when it happened. Four times in a row.. I hadn't thrown up in six or seven years and it's such a horrible feeling.

But once it was over I started to feel better and I even had a few spoon full of tomato soup, which my wonderful husband made for me. Slowly I started to feel better.. not great but better.. I hope to feel better tomorrow.

DVD Screener

Today I got my first DVD screener for the upcomng award season. Being a member of the PGA (Producers Guild of America) this is one of the perks.. I hope this is the first of many. BTW the movie is Rachel Getting Married.

It's Monday

Today I was woken up to the noise of repair crews scrapping the asphalt off of the street in front of our house. Trucks and large machines start to arrive around 5am and they start making very loud noises around 7. I guess it's all for the better as we will be get a new street and this wasn't a total surprised as we were warned but it's still not fun being woken up an hour before you were suppose to get up.

What made it even worse is that I had gotten a call from one of my Loggers over the weekend that they were having problems with the system so I had to get into work extra early anyways to figure out what the problem was.

What a great way to start my week.

Official Star Trek Movie Trailer

Today Paramount released the new Star Trek trailer in all its HD glory. I had seen a bootleg version of it on Friday but it was like night and day. I watched the trailer six or seven times and downloaded it in HD and watch it frame by frame. This day started off pretty rocky but ended on a high with this fantastic trailer.. and the funny thing is my brother called me and said.. I just saw the trailer.. OMG when are we going to see this.. and if you know my brother he is a huge Star Wars fan and never much of a Star Trek fan so this was a big deal.

You can check out the trailer here.. http://www.startrekmovie.com/

Catch-up

I've been gone. Here are a few people to blame:
Christoph Schreuer
Frederick Lawrence
President-Elect Barack Obama

Anyway, I don't want the kids to know it, but we're definitely in a R-E-C-E-S-S-I-O-N, so folks aren't eating out at restaurants as often. Here are a few things I have been enjoying despite the tough times.

1. Cupcakes. At Baked & Wired in Georgetown I've enjoyed the coconut, the pumpkin, the chocolate/peanut butter, and the downright chocolate. Some flavors have a softer, spongier cake part than others, which are more dense. Seems kinda random, depending on the flavor. I like both. I gloated a little when the pumpkin w/cream cheese frosting that I chose was overall better than the coconut J chose. Sorry J. No, I don't know if this is better than Georgetown Cupcake or Hello Cupcake or Hello Dolly or Strawberry Shortcake (OK, I made the last two up). I know that there isn't usually a line, it's on the earlier side of Georgetown (read: closer to civilization/Metro), and they also have FOOD, so if you want a wrap or a coffee or both, you can have that and eat your cupcake too.

Baked & Wired
1052 Thomas Jefferson St NW (Georgetown)

2. Founding Farmers. [If you don't know the deal, it's owned by a consortium of a zillion American farmers, it's LEED certified, etc.] When we went for dinner before the sunset brought on Yom Kippur, I was slightly disappointed at first. I ordered a "roasted chicken salad" which I thought would be a salad with roasted chicken on top, but instead it was CHICKEN SALAD, like with the mayo? Anyway, it was fine, but at least 2 of our 8 or so meals came out cold, and we all waited for new, hot food to come out. Service was spotty, but the size of our party mandated a huge tip. In response to our concerned voices, a manager sliced 50% off of our bill. We were shocked and very gracious. I returned for brunch and had the vegetable scramble with asparagus and mushrooms, which was a very reasonable portion but was a little cold. Not the thing you want when you wait almost an hour for your breakfast. My friend M had the smoked salmon hash which was awesome. I was surprised that the English muffins that came with our meals were not whole wheat or grainy, but the apple preserve made us really happy. Almost as happy as the fun milk-jar-type-holders that the water comes in :)

Founding Farmers
1924 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (Across 20th from Johnny Rockets)

3. Java Green. Java Green is about to become a staple in my near-school existence. It's DELICIOUS. I enjoy fake meat and other typically vegetarian/vegan food items because I was vegetarian for so long, so this vegetarian joint is perfect. Besides the typical sandwiches (soy turkey, soy chicken, vegan burger, veggie burger--soy cheese, sprouts, and avocado are typical toppings!) there are some yummy hot dishes, too. My friend A recommended "Rice and Beyond"--organic rice (it was purple, the hottest color of the fall), cabbage, onion, carrot, jobche noodles (interesting, almost a little spicy), broccoli, kale, a dumpling, and I got soy orange chicken as my topping. It was SO GOOD, a really good balance of protein, starch, and veggies, without the usual 89239234234 grams of sodium that would be in a typical Chinese takeout situation. For $10 I got a hot meal that stuck with me all day--I literally didn't eat another meal for 9 hours, just a few pieces of fruit and a granola bar for snack. The place is packed around lunch, so head over early (12pm on the dot) to beat the crowd, or wait until it dies down. Also, FYI--they have brunch on Saturdays, which is hard to come by in this town; it's more of a weekday-lunch atmosphere, but breakfast could work in a Teaism sorta way.

Java Green
1020 19th St NW
Metro: Farragut North (Red) or West (Orange/Blue)


4. Ray's Hell-Burger. Despite how I usually feel about web-site-less places, I'm still head-over-heels for RHB for three reasons. (1) It's fast--even if there is a line, there's no sitting and waiting for the server, then ordering and waiting for the drinks, then waiting, then ordering the food, then waiting, then eating, then waiting for the check...; (2) It's cheap--it's not Five Guys cheap, but it's a hell of a lot better tasting and is a major value, which leads me to the next thing; (3) It fills you up. If you can eat that 10 oz burger and drink a root beer and tell me you aren't full, then we need to have a serious talk about shrinking down your stomach. The heck sauce is awesome, you can get guacamole (always a plus), grilled onions, a zillion kinds of cheese if you want, blackened/au poivre burgers, and I swear the buns have improved since the place opened. They heard our call [for better buns]!

Ray's Hell-Burger
You know, in between Rosslyn and Courthouse in the tiny strip mall

5. Cooking. That's what people do when they are afraid they will be unemployed forever and they realize not only that they still need to eat, but also that the food they eat must be mostly made/prepared in tiny kitchen.


See challah dough sit


See challah dough rise


See food

Also, perfect sugar cookie sandwiches with a pumpkin butter/cream cheese frosting filling (thanks S for recipe, which originally called for apple butter):


That's that for now. I'll post more round-up type entries soon.

Driving to Dads

Today Harry and I went to visit my Dad. At first I wasn't sure we were going to go because of all the fires in the area. We knew freeways were shut down and that traffic might be really bad. So we checked online to see if any of the freeways we take were closed and everything was opened at the moment. I then called Dad to see what it was like out in his area and he said it was blue skies and not a hint of smoke in the area.

So Harry and I got in the jeep and headed over. It was hot in the low 90's and we had to roll down the windows so as we were speeding along we had smoke filled hot air rushed into the jeep. I kept looking around and noticing that everyone around us had their windows rolled up but Harry and I had decided that we would rather have smoky air then be sweaty and hot. As we drove the air got worse and worse. I had never seen it that bad here in southern California. The skies were brown and the air had a brown haze hanging about.

Once we got to Burbank the air was really bad and I started to have breathing problems. I asked if Harry was okay and he said he wasn't having any problems. it was though I was at a high elevation and the oxygen was very thin. I almost turned around and went home as I didn't like the feeling of not being able to breath. But we continued and as we went we would find decent area of light brown skies to really bad areas of dark brown skies.

We saw blue skies as we got to Chino Hills, it was amazing as it just suddenly was blue and there was no smoke as far as the eye could see. When we got to dads in Corona it was a beautiful sunny blue day. It seems the hills kept the smoke back and you would never know there were raging fires just a few miles away. So we spent a very nice "smoke" free day with my Dad, brother and sister-in-law.

Worked on BTS of The Guild

A few days ago I sent my first pass of the Behind the Scenes piece I was working on for The Guild. Yesterday both Felicia and Kim looked at it and gave me some notes. I also interviewed the director for the piece. Now I just need to find some free time to work on my 2nd pass.

Dvp Sr200p Multiregion

When words are just

Words really do not stop ...

I can justify my recent lack of creativity in myriad ways, but the truth is that my muse and I decided to dedicate ourselves to write on paper, yes, as I met the letters. I went back to experience that pleasure becoming less common to slip a tip on a piece of paper and remembered how pleasant it is to write only to a reader and also could repeat over and over again that even in this blog, just write to me " but that would be another lie, all public blog readers and the author seeks to enjoy them. Wandering about I can confess that I enjoy every criticism, reaching the email and those that are published as "comment". There is no enjoyment, are pleasing to the author or not be enjoyed because they indicate that one of the objectives of the publication is true: words are read.

Returning to the pleasure of writing as such, the last 20 days have filled more than 150 sheets of paper and enjoyed every one of them, enjoying every stroke on paper and listening to the rustling of the leaf to be checked. Each letter written during the past 20 days has been extracted from the depths of the thoughts of the author, has been accompanied by countless feelings and sensations, headaches and sighs ... and I published many letters in this environment for so long that finally passed it was obvious that would happen: no more words. Gone are the words that needed to be read by someone other than the author, my words quenched their thirst to be read and the author needed to let them rest outside her eye and she needed rest.

Some words began to hurt and wants to talk it over. The words are gone painfully slow, like when you break a piece of paper and creaks and bends to resist being destroyed ... muse and found me in the silence of my room in my space. The letters began to flow and those words that hurt demanded to be reflected on paper. In the trance of the storm surge itself left me the paper and pens, inks and pencils on my desk was insufficient.

Time passed, and the quiet returned and gradually stopped hurting words ... I must confess that even if they were painful at all times pleasant, was like taking a thorn deeply nailed slowly. I reconciled with the publication and here I am, wandering about. Justifying the absence with the firm intention of leaving a testimony of what happened and is to be were done with words, is that saturated letters to the author and the letters themselves do not help much.

A letter should be a word to make sense of something and my world has always been an imperative to write, lately even I felt empathy with each letter. The letters take shape with strong lines caused an emotion as strong, weak points with strokes caused an emotion with little encouragement to be expressed but equally valuable. Learned each letter, every word I knew something and rediscovering the letters rediscovered the simple pleasure of writing on paper ... reconnect with words I met again and reconciled with the letters did me.

needed no more.

Roland

This is Roland. He is a gardener in Greyton. I hope there are some gardens left for him to garden after these floods that hit the Overberg. This is an oil I did of him and when I took it down for him to see, I had to take his photo with it. Unfortunately I don't have the combined photo, but I have the memory of his face when he saw the portrait. So I also did a watercolour of the same picture and gave that to him.

This first one is a work in progress, which I thought I'd include
The final picture. I was never absolutely happy with it, but decided to leave it as is, anyway.


And the watercolour, which Roland took home with him.

Tagged

I have been tagged by Dianne.
I have also been tagged by Carolann.
And yet again I have been tagged by Sharon.
And now I'm supposed to do the same thing to 7 other unsuspecting artists! Oh dear! I hope no-one minds if I combine all these and just do 7 and not 21.

There are also rules -
1. Put a link in your posting to the person who tagged you.
2. List seven (7) unusual things about yourself.
3. Tag seven (7) other bloggers at the end of your post and comment on their blogs to let them know.

It has taken me this long to do something about it, because I didn't have a clue on how to link names. Thank you Di for that.

7 things about myself? Here goes -

1. I finally got my pension card so I can go to Kirtenbosch for free on a Tuesday.
2. I slaved in the advertising industry for 33 years and was relieved to finally stop. Ad agencies are heavy work - I was on the media side.
3. I have a son who is 34 years old and lives at the top of the world in Sweden with his wife and my grandson (and a granddaughter on the way).
4. I teach fabric painting to a group of people in a church hall in Maitland - it's a great way to introduce people to some form of painting, and I love their reactions when they finish a piece - they feel so proud.
5. I have season tickets to Newlands and am a staunch Western Province and Stormers rugby supporter. I also love cricket and am a member of the Western Province Cricket Club. Watching a 5 day test with Australia or England - just the best!! Especially when we beat them!
6. I have never done any fine arts or artistic courses of any kind. The last time I did any form of art was in my matric year. I have been painting now for just over 18 months, started off with acrylic and now am sold on oils and watercolour.
7. I love my garden, especially in summertime, and share it with the birds, moles, snails and caterpillars.

Here are some pictures of my garden!

And now, please forgive me, the following artists whose names I have included.

Carol Hadfield
Thea Burger
Heather Selby
Carol Schiff
Sylvia Jensted
Susan Carlin
Dianne Mize

Another Guild Shoot / Fires

When I woke up today and took the dog out for her morning walk it was like walking through fog, but it wasn't fog, it was thick black smoke from the surrounding fires. There was ash raining down and if you didn't know better you would have sworn the fire was a block away and not 10 miles up in the hills.

It was another Guild shoot today and I figured since it was at Felicia's house in Hollywood I would be able to escape the smoke and ash... well I was wrong. More fires had started south of Hollywood and combined with the ones raging north of Hollywood there was smoke everywhere. We all did our best and finished shooting. It was another 12-hour day and it was kind of bitter sweet as this was going to be the last day of shooting at Felicia's house as we are starting to wrap up season two of The Guild. Besides the bad air it was another fun shoot.

2 Minutes of New Who

Today in England they premiered the Children in Need special and like past years they had a little clip from Dr. Who. Normally it's a scene that plays between the two seasons but this year they played the first few minutes of the next Dr. Who Christmas special. I managed to get my hands on a copy and got to enjoy some new Who. It was only two minutes but it looked great and I'm looking forward to this years Christmas special.

Another Trailer.. well kind of

Today with the new 007 movie they released the new Star Trek movie trailer. I did manage to find a bootleg version of is pretty good. After watching it I am really excited for this movie. It looks like Trek and has some Trek qualities but man it feels totally different then Trek. I've heard good and bad things from friends who have seen the trailer. I don't think you can judge the entire movie based on this two minutes of footage but I know the more I see of this movie the more excited I become.. can't wait till next summer.

Harry Potter Trailer

Today out of nowhere WB released a new full length Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie trailer. This was such a wonderful surprise. The trailer is AWESOME. As you know I'm a huge Harry Potter fan and as some of you may know the movie was suppose to come out today but due to the recent strikes they postponed the opening till next summer, as WB had no good flicks to carry the summer of 09. So instead of the movie we get a really cool movie trailer. The trailer was fantastic and I must have watched it at least ten times and then downloaded the HD version and watched it frame by frame. This made a stressful day at work so much better. You can check it out here..

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince/

Year 3G's British Museum photographs are here!

This photograph shows everyone in Year 3 posing in front of the British Museum in London. We all look really excited don't we because we're about to go inside!



This is Geevitha posing with one of the Isle of Lewis Chessmen at the British Museum Children's Shop.





This is Mr. G standing beside a Roman artefact (it's a kind of inkpot!)found by his friend Justin Hayes in a field near Bishop's Stortford 30 years ago. Mr. Hayes sold it to the British Museum and he received so much money in payment for it that he was able to buy a house!

Work, Work, Work

Today I got in around 9am and didn't stop running all day long. I have six editing bays running and I'm digitizing none stop. By the time it was time to go home I was so exhusted. If this is how this show is going to be I'm in for a real hard and tough road.

Hoarse, But Happy!

I spent yesterday morning talking myself almost hoarse with 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students from Oak Mountain Academy in Carrollton, GA, reading and discussing my YR series, Cynthia's Attic.

At first, I was a little leery about the comprehension level of my books with 2nd graders, but they were wise beyond their years!

The Missing Locket is set in 1964, with chapter one including twelve-year-old best friend, Cynthia and Gus listening to a Beatles record. I mistakenly assumed that these youngsters wouldn't have a clue as to what a record, record player, and especially, what a Beatle was!

Was I ever wrong!

When I pulled out an old circa 1963 Beatles album, they not only knew what records and record players were, one student shouted, "I have that album and listen to it all the time!"

To say my chin almost dropped to the floor wouldn't be much of an exaggeration. My morning with these delightful students was a satisfying, but humbling experience and reinforced my opinion that you should never assume. (We all know what happens then!)

Above all, never, NEVER talk down to young readers.

Mary Cunningham Books

Cynthia's Attic Blog

More Guild Stuff

Tonight I had one of the Guild cast members come over to my house to record some lines to help fill out the piece that I am working on. It's getting closer to being finished.

Uncle Kenny

Today on my way home from work I got a call from my brother and he said.. "how are you doing Uncle Kenny". It took me a second then realized what he said. After trying for 2 1/2 years my sister-in-law is pregnant. I have never heard my brother so happy or proud. This is their first child and will be my first niece or nephew. We are all very excited.

This pregnancy won't be easy but we are all hoping for the best and in about eight months we should have a new addition to our family.

Mom's Birthday

Happy Birthday Mom.. hope you have a great day.. love you.

Donavan

It was back to Greyton this past week for me. Gosh, I really love the place - to wake up to the birds, no traffic noise and pollution free air is absolute bliss. Maybe one day I'll get to live in the country.

Some time ago, before I started my art lessons, when I was struggling with the beginnings of oils, I painted a picture of a Rasta who lives in the Imizamo Yethu settlement in Hout Bay. His name is Donavan and he feeds a colony of about 8 stray cats in the area. To feed them, he makes a fishing line and goes down to the harbour in Hout Bay to catch fish. I did a pencil drawing of him and then I tried my hand at an oil.The last time I was in Greyton, I met two Rastafarians who live and work in the area. Of course I had to paint them. I will be posting them in the next week or two, as a comparison to Donovan!

Editing The Guild BTS

Today I got to re-cut the BTS piece that I am currently working on. Since I got footage of my interview with Felicia I wanted to re-work the piece. Right now it runs about 3 1/2 minutes. I still have to do some ADR with one of the cast members and then add some music and polish it up. I hope to have it done be next weekend.

Another Guild Shoot

Today we shot a "special" Guild episode. Can't really say much about it but it was half a crew so things were a bit quieter and we all wore many hats. Not only did I do BTS footage but I also helped with art direction. I also was able to interview Felicia for the BTS piece that I am currently editing. It was another fun 12-hour shoot.

Star Trek The Experience Lives

There have been rumors that Star Trek The Experience will live on in Las Vegas and today I read a pretty cool article giving more details about the new Experience. It's now going to be located downtown at Neonopolis. They say parts of it will be open by May for the new movie so all we can do is wait and see. It very exciting news and I hope everything pans out.

Podcasting and Editing BTS

This morning I did my podcast with Rick and Jen. I don't think I have mentioned my podcast before. I've been doing a podcast called The Ready Room for the Treks in sci fi forums where I run a rpg (role playing game). I've been doing it once a week for the past 40 weeks. So I did another episode of that then I started to edit one of the BTS feature that is due December 1st.

Rico's Birthday

Happy Birthday to one of the coolest podcasters out there. I met Rico through his podcast Treks in Sci Fi and his podcast forums. Thanks Rico for the years of entertainment.

Another Great Clone Wars

Once again I'm blogging about my love for the new Clone Wars cartoon series. This episode was set around one of my favorite characters R2D2. It was a fun roller costar ride and I literally yell "No" when it ended with a To Be Continued. This series continue to amaze me with their stories and I look forward to new episodes every week.

Prop 8

Well I woke up this morning and jumped on my computer to see if a miracle had happened.. but atlas Prop 8 passed 52% to 48% Marriage in California is now defined as one man and one woman which means gay marriages are banned. I have to say that I'm not surprised; in recent weeks the trend was leaning for it to pass. I really don't know why people care if gay people marry or not, we're not hurting anyone. We want to be treated like human being and not second-class citizens. Of course protest have been popping up all over the place.. this issue is far from over.

They may have won this battle but the war is just beginning.

Spy Museum

I signed books at the Spy Museum in Washington D.C. Too fun!

Prop 8

I don't know even what to say.. this night started off so great with president elect Obama. Then the local news comes on and we find out that Prop 8 is winning the Ban on gay marriage is going to pass. As of right now it's too close to call as there are still a few million votes to count. But things aren't looking so good. I'm going to bed and hope things look better tomorrow when I get up.

President Barack Obama

Today history has been made. The United States of America elected its first African American President Mister Barack Obama.

I watched the polls all day today and at about 4pm the results started to come in. The later it got the better it looked for Obama. By the time I got home from work Obama had won Ohio and New Mexico who traditionally voted Republican. Harry and I sat there all night watching the results until 8pm moments after the CA polls closed the Networks called the election for Barack Obama. Harry punches the air and yelled. I was speechless and had tears in my eyes.

Soon after McCain came out and gave his concession speech, which was very gracious. I have nothing against McCain, it's the people he surrounds himself with that I don't like. And about a half hour later Obama came out and gave his speech and again I cried.

People always comment about JFK and how they felt hearing him speak and I finally know how they feel. When Obama speaks my heart swells. He brings hope and change and the outlook that things will be better. It might not happen in the four years of his presidency but it will happen. Na sayers have asked me why I believe in him as he hasn't done much politically and I just tell them ... Obama brings hope.. and hope brings change.

Election Day

Today is Election Day... this is probably the most important election that I have voted in since I started voting. I'm a Democrat and a gay man so I will be voting for Barack Obama as our next president. I feel he is the best man of the job. Bush has torn this country apart and Obama can put it back together.

There are also several propositions on the ballot, the biggest one for me is prop 8 the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. It looked like it my go down in defeat but the past few weeks tides have been changing.. I'm worried.

New Gig

Today I start my new job. I'll be Post Production Supervisor on the Discovery channel show Deadliest Catch. This is the fifth season. It's going to be a tough show as there is a lot of footage and very little time to get it in the system and cut. I'm the only one working in the office this week. But soon the post staff will be six editors, three assistant editors and seven loggers.

A cool thing about this job is it should run till July/August.

Science news!

This term we are looking at materials and their properties!

Another Guild Shoot

Today was another guild shoot.. seems like things are slowing down now. We shot at Felicia's house with Tink, Clara and Bladzz. It was another 12 hour shoot day. I got more interviews for my BTS extras and they asked to me be an extra in one of the scenes, which is always fun.

I saw the first three episodes of the second season and they are fantastic. This second season is shaping up to be 100 times better then the first and that's saying alot since the first season is AWESOME. Anyways another fun day on the set of The Guild.