Monthly Archives: November 2010

Sunday Morning 11-28-2010

It’s Sunday morning, the coffee is brewing and I’m a bad blogger.

Normally I feel like it’s customary to write a “What I’m Thankful For” post – I see them all over the blogosphere – but do you really care what I’m thankful for?  The things I’m most thankful for (family, wife & dog) you can probably guess and I don’t know that any major epiphanies are going to rise out of discussing them however, in a kind of weird associated way, Thanksgiving at my parent’s house did get me thinking.

Rene and I went to my parent’s house on Friday – we had two separate days of Thanksgiving, one for each family, this year – and after all the turkey was gobbled and we were sitting around double bloated from that dinner and the dinner from the night before Rene reminded me that this would be a prime opportunity to play Just Dance on the Wii and try to work off some of the mountain of food that we ate.  I had forgotten the game at our house (we had taken it to her parent’s house the night before) and needed to go get it.

On the drive back, with the winter light, the smell in the air and powered by the sentimentalism that goes along with the holidays my brain somehow was reminded of a conversation that I had had back in high school with my friends Jeff, Scott and Dan.  It was one of the kind of conversations that you have when you’re “16 and angry” and you’re tying to figure out your place in the world.  The way I remember it Dan had been talking with his parents about something, I believe it was how much he thought high school sucked, and his dad told him to try and enjoy high school because they were the greatest days of his life.  Dan took a great deal of offense to this and told us that if these were the best years of his life then he must be aiming too low.  Then I completely agreed with that!  I still do.  All of my greatest years have come after high school – all of them – but it took until Friday evening for me to really see what people mean when they say that the high school years are the greatest years of your life and finally I see that it isn’t about the accomplishments but the opportunity!

High school is the last bastion of childhood before adulthood.  We throw out the term “teenagers,” but in reality that term is just a marketing device designed to convince 12 to 17 year olds to spend their parent’s money on stuff that only 12 to 17 year olds want.  They are the last years where you have the guaranteed safety of family and school and you can test your boundaries without risking your future beyond the school year.  It is four years of opportunity just waiting to be used populated by by the very people who will willingly choose NOT to use it.  It’s a wonderful juxtaposition.  Adults looks back and think of the different number of things they could have done while teenagers knee deep in it barely scratch the surface.

When I think back on my high school years I have very little that can pass as a regret, my high school experience was pretty good, and although they may not have been the greatest years of my life I unwittingly did make quite a bit out of them.  Even still I know that there is more I could have done.  I will always wonder what it would have been like if I had accepted that position on the wrestling team, if I had taken student government just a bit more seriously or not abused the absence policy my senior year.

…Who am I kidding, the absence policy needed abusing.

So if you’re reading this and you’re still going through high school I hope that you’ll take advantage of the different opportunities that are there for you and enjoy them.  I know that it can seem like the pits – I remember – but even the pits are nice to look back on later.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under friends, high school, rene

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Blatant Plug: I LOVE the NPR podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour!

I know that there is a risk of sounding pompous or hipster, but I do not care!  To quote a segment from the show: Pop Culture Happy Hour is something that is making me happy this week – and really every week when it shows up in my iTunes.  This morning when I was dropping Rene off I saw that I had a new episode and I felt as my face rose into a huge smile and I couldn’t click fast enough to start it.

Let me tell you a bit about the show as I see it:

It’s a round table conversation show – with real conversation, not just talking points.  Your hosts are writers and editors from sections of the NPR studio that deal in pop culture specifically Linda Holmes of the NPR Monkey See Blog, Stephen Thompson from NPR Music, NPR.org arts editor Trey Graham, and comics blogger Glen Weldon.  They are friends and colleagues that genuinely enjoy talking to each other and make you feel, as a listener, like you are as much a participant even though you can’t actually add to the conversation.  They talk about current television, movies, books, music, whatever but also aren’t afraid to dip into pop culture’s back catalog and pull out the more obscure references and gems.  There have been a few times when an old show or reference has sent me to my own archive and the internet to hunt down and see for myself what all the hubbub is about and they have also opened my eyes to the possibility of reading The Hunger Games books (thank you StephenReadsABook@gmail.com).

At the risk of sounding like a complete drooling fanboy, the biggest reason that I listen is because this show reminds me of the conversations that I enjoy having with my own circle of friends.  Replace Linda, Stephen, Trey and Glen with Rene, Dean, Zeke and myself and the conversations drift into the same places – except I can rely on a weekly dose from PCHH and it can be hard to get all of your friends into the same place at the same time.

I’ve included a link HERE!

Check it out, I think you’ll like it.  Or if you don’t let me know why in the comments.  Each show is about 45 minutes long – but it goes by fast!

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under blatant plug, friends, podcasts

Budgets, Books & Boxes

There seems to be no end to moving in.  Rene and I moved back in September and here we are, mid-November, and out place still looks like we moved yesterday.  I’m finally getting up the gumption to get everything put away and un-boxed. A lot of that comes from the fact that I’m selling off a bunch of crap I didn’t even realize I still had.  Right now eBay is my best friend!  I’m am so happy that my geeky 20’s can now be passed on to new 20-somethings who appreciate geeky stuff too!

And are willing to pay for it.

Speaking of paying for stuff – I’m all about movie budgets right now.  I have completed an updated budget for the documentary we are working on – more about that on the Wiggy blog next week – and we have been asked to produce a $5million budget for CMD!  I swear the little project that could just keeps getting bigger than we ever expected!  Now I just hope someone will finally fund it!

I need to go sort books right now, some to sell and some to store, so have a great remainder of a weekend!

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under business, ebay, making movies, moving, rene

Mobile Blog: Writing on the Go on a Day I thought I Would Spend Entirely at Home

Ever since August Rene & I have constantly been on the go. Between work, other work, the dog, family, shows & work we just don't have a lot of free time. We choose it, so it's hard to say that it is a complaint, but when you are so used to "going" all the time it is easy to forget what real free time is like & it makes you all the more miss it when you expect to have free time & it is suddenly used up.

Take today, for example. I had nowhere I was scheduled to be for the first time in 9 weeks. I had grand plans to finish unpacking, do laundry, work on a couple budgets & create some forms for the movie we're working on. It was going to be a work day, but a casual work day without the pressure of having to be anywhere by a particular time.

The morning was mostly on track, I did get to unpack a bit, Dean & I moved some furniture, the dog & I were able to play & I got to enjoy my coffee as I read the news…

.Then I had to go to the post office.

Then I had to go to the bank.

Then I had to go back home.

Then to the mall.

Then to the post office again.

My day of "nowhere to be" became a day of "lots of places to be". I'm really looking forward to a day when I really have no plans, but I'm over the moon happy that a day like that probably isn't in the cards for a while.

See you tomorrow!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

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Blog Epic Fail!

Oh, I’m laid low in my shame about how poorly I’ve kept up with my blog.  It’s been nearly a month since my last posting and the whole idea of “making sure I write once a day” and “project 365 2010” have completely fallen off the rails.  It’s not that there isn’t good reason – getting married, several projects all moving forward and starting work on a new documentary – but I’m not a fan of excuses, I prefer results and the current result on this blog is failure.

So I started asking myself what I should do next?  Should I keep up Project 365 2010?  I have a bunch of pictures that are ready to be uploaded, but I’ve definitely missed many days and so it’s starting to feel like the project is actually getting in the way of itself.  It’s also gotten in the way of general blogging since I feel like I need to go back to catch up to what hasn’t been posted – but there are so many things happening RIGHT NOW that my brain has a really hard time focusing on things that happened last month when I really want to talk about things happening today.

So this is what I’ve decided to do – I’m going to post the last remaining pictures I have for Project 365 2010 right here – in this very blog – with no remarks or days and then the project will officially be over.  The blog will hopefully begin again as a daily thing since I’ll be able to mobile blog again without worrying about the pictures.  The end of 2010 is going to be CRAZY busy and there will still be a bunch of pictures, but I think it’s time to drop the whole “picture a day” deal.

Here are the pics!

 See you tomorrow!

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Filed under business, fail, Frankie, making movies, project 365 2010, the wedding