Spring Break with Moody Mother!

Man.. Mother Nature is moody!!! It's Spring Break this week. Under normal conditions, this would mean it's finally time for some warmer weather.. maybe a few days of rain. But this year.. wow.. In my 14 years as an Oregonian, I have never seen anything quite like this. Let's take Friday for example. We had sun, wind, driving rain, falling ice, snow, and hail. Every 15 minutes it seemed like something new.. and drastically different. As I was leaving the office, the sun was out, the temperature was warm and I thought to myself "I need to get home so I can try to get a bike ride in". 15 minutes later and halfway home it was snowing so hard I could barely see the road. Another 15 minutes later as I pulled into the driveway, the sun was back out for a minute. Then wind and hail hit. Just bizarre! Today (Sunday) it was sunny at I went to church, snowing as I left church, and at 3 this afternoon a giant hail storm hit blanketing the area not in white snow, but in little round hail balls. And the whole week has been like that.

Luckily, our plans for the break were not dependent on good weather. We spent the first half of spring break with the kids in a beach house on the coast. Spending time at the coast... it's just good for the soul. The sand, the waves.. it's therapeutic.

Saturday we headed out out of town and got settled in at the beach, before beginning our Easter tradition of dying easter eggs. As is customary, the girls goal is to make them pretty, and the boys goal is to mix the most disgusting color that can be created with egg dye.

Sunday it was off to Easter church services.. me in my pirate t-shirt. Now.. this wasn't planned. In our quest to get loaded and out of the house, we neglected to load the hanger with our white church shirts. And so there I was in nice slacks, black shoes.. and a pirate t-shirt. Luckily, I kept my jacket on so no one could see it.. but I knew I was wearing a pirate shirt making for an Easter service I'll never forget. And what better way to spend the rest of the day? The weather forced us inside to play games all day.. a perfect way to spend the holiday.

Monday.. we got a little stir crazy, so we headed North to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Depoe Bay and OSU Marine Science Center. The aquarium.. another relaxing wonder.. due the giant walk through tanks built in the old Keiko the Killer Whale rehab area. The deep sea display where visitors can walk through long tubes surrounded by water and fish is filled with sharks and all kinds of cool marine life. I don't know what's more fun, watching the animals that close up, or the kids when a shark comes right up behind them. Good times..

By late Tuesday, it was time to head back home, although we all could have used a few more days by the ocean. But.. work calls and I only have so many vacation days. And just as luck would have it, the day after we left, the coast got one of it's ultra rare beach snow storms, dumping an inch of snow all down the beach. How terrible to miss that.. just another sign of our wacky weather. Mother Nature.. I swear.. the old lady is losing it..

R.I.P. Vader

Flashback: Anyone remember this post from almost exactly two years ago? Let's refresh.. Little Calvin, just weeks earlier, had gotten his first two "real" pets... the tank full of fish don't REALLY count to little kids as pets, since you can't scoop them out of their tank and play with them on the floor.. (well... most times... I'll save that story for another time..) Anyhoo.. He had just gotten two little gerbils, Max and Vader, and he was loving life with them. Playing with them, taking such good care of them. Then suddenly, one became sick and for the first time, we thought we'd have to start explaining the concept of death, life after death, dealing with death.. all that hard stuff for a child to come to grips with. Luckily, the little gerbil came through, recovered and went back to his active gerbil life.

Fast forward two years later. Inside Little Calvin's gerbil cage sit... Max and Vader. Still going strong. And in that two years, Little Calvin has become the little gerbil expert. He works very hard to keep the cage clean, water in the bottles, food in the dish (sometimes a bit much.. but that's ok) and he pulls each one out multiple times each day to give them their proper attention. He loves on them, kisses them, let's them run around in their play areas under his close supervision. He has been a fantastic pet owner!

Then came Monday night. He had both gerbils out to watch him play a computer video game (apparently gerbils like to do that since when he asks them if they want to watch.. they nod.) He made the observation that the entire time he had been playing, his gerbil, Vader, hadn't tried to bite him even once. Side note... Vader was not the friendliest gerbil.. he liked to bite.. go figure. He suddenly became concerned that Vader was getting sick. He carefully brought him to us to check, and sure enough, we could tell that something just wasn't right with the little thing.

From there on out, we switched gears from gerbil playing to gerbil hospital. We had to move the cage out of his room to keep an eye on what was going on... we started to use a syringe to help him drink water every few hours. My wife and I could just look at him, consider his age.. and we knew it was highly unlikely that this would end well. We began to prepare Little Calvin for the fact that his little pet, may soon be going to "become God's gerbil". Tears poored down on Monday night as he struggled to understand why this had to happen. Suffice it to say.. it was not an easy evening in our house.

But.. much to our surprise.. Tuesday morning, it was still alive. Obviously not doing well, but just too strong to give up. Tuesday night.. still going.. just not moving much and occasionally convulsing. Wednesday morning, he was still alive, just not moving around.

Wednesday evening, Dawn had a later meeting and so I picked up Little Calvin from school before heading home. I meant to get in the house before him to go check the cage for a status update, but by golly.. Little Calvin is FAST getting in that house when he knows one of his gerbils needs to be checked. He sprinted for the cage, and rather than looking through the plastic to watch for a breath first, he just dove on into the cage, plucking up Vader and held him to see if he was ok. Instantly, he looked at me, very puzzled. "Dad!" he said, very confused, "Why is he so stiff.. he feels all hard"!! I told him to gently put him back in the cage and come get in my lap. That's when I had to break the news.. "When they got all hard like that.. that means that they have died." I didn't want to have to tell him, I felt like ripping my heart out.. but it's a lesson we all have to learn somehow. Once again, as they had many many times in the last three days, the tears came on strong. I held him.. wishing I could wave the magic wand and make it all instantly better, to bring back his typical ultra happy self, but I knew that I had to give him time to mourn and to try to understand.

Soon, Dawn was home and together we could help him come to grips. We found the perfect little box.. just Vader sized, put him inside with a little favorite chew toy and Little Calvin found a flower for him. Then looking inside the box, but trying to be strong, and with tears in his eyes as he gently pet him, he said "Good bye Vader. You've been a great gerbil. You'll be ok." Then.. on his own he shut the box and returned to his Mom's arms for some much needed hugs.

Since we are short on land that we can dig up, I delivered the box to a friends house with lots of land and the experiences of many children and grandchildren of their own having had similar experiences. They promised to take care of it and make it special so that the next time Little Calvin came to visit them he could see how it all turned out.

I know.. it's only a little gerbil. But for Little Calvin, this was his first real experience with death. This week there have been so many tears, so many hugs and even more questions. It's been totally exhausting. It's just such an interesting thing to think about as a parent. I know from looking at my own life, that those really dark times.. those horrible experiences.. those really sad times... those are the things that really helped me to grow.. to learn.. and to understand. Yet as a parent, it's the hardest thing in the world to watch you child hurt and grieve and really struggle. It's almost like you don't want them to have to endure the very things that will make them who they will eventually become.

And so now we become a one gerbil household. We learn to treasure all the time we have with our family, no matter how big or small. There is time to grieve and there is time to slowly let it go. We know it will be a rough few days as we make the transition, but as they say.. this to shall pass.

But... to little biting Vader.. You've been a good gerbil.. you'll be ok... And so will Little Calvin.

Spy Guys Mayhem

Two posts ago, I reported on the creation of my little viral campaign for my company, tracking it's progress as it was created and was about to be unleashed to the public. Rather than continue to update that entry where know one will probably notice the updates, I'll start fresh, as many have inquired as to how this ended up.

Let's just say.. my whole little idea.. worked. In a big way. For the last several weeks all I have heard is "Spy Guys.. Spy Guys.. Spy Guys." And I must say, it really has been a lot of fun seeing the hype that I was able to create. My ultimate experiment worked.. I was able to spend next to nothing to produce a small little video, use the internet to freely present it and spread the word to our base audience. All free! It has made the point that I have been trying to make for a long time: This little thing called the internet... if used properly.. can be the best way to spread the word to large amounts of people, for the cheapest amount of money. And for marketers that know how to use it, it can be a great thing!

Sure, I was nervous about how this might go over.. its like nothing we have ever done before. But that is what makes it successful. People watch it and say "This can't be from you!! This is not the kind of thing we'd expect from you. Man, my friends need to see this" and.. so it begins.

Just days after we launched the site, people began e-mail the CEO directly saying "What a great way to generate some buzz! And just when the industry needs some laughter". Then, the local media picked it up the story and I had reporters calling my desk wanting to do interviews, resulting in stories such as these:

Click here to view the Register Guard article.

Then, the Industry magazines and websites picked up the story. With each new publication, magazine, website, blog and message board that picked up on the story, that many more people started hitting the site and watching the video. While I can't print any of our numbers.. suffice it to say, the website got hit... A LOT as word spread. The number of people who signed up to say they were interested in more episodes just shocked me. And in carefully tracking the results each day, it was just astounding to me to see how quickly it spread, and WHERE it was spreading to. Soon after the launch, I had people watching from Canada, England, Mexico, Germany, France, Switzerland.. even Singapore, plus many others. It was just a fun thing to watch explode onto the internet.

Now.. it's time to begin the next phase. Next week we'll post a new video to the site, to give our new fans some fresh content to watch. And I've already mapped out the next episode and plan to have the script done soon. We have noted from others that have tried this that we can't burn this out too quickly.. so it may be a little while before our next installment hits the web.. but it is coming. And, honestly, without sounding like my head is getting big, now that I know what we can accomplish, what our actors can (and can't) do and I have the feedback from the first go around... I think that the next episode will be far better than the first. Time will tell.

But.. the RV Spy Guys will be back.. trying harder than ever to accomplish their mission. (Cue the Mission Impossible Theme DAH DAH, da da DAH DAH...)

Blown Away

I have now seen the future of cinema.. And it is COOOL! Two years ago, after loving life at the U2 concert in Portland, I began to hear rumblings that the band was filming their South American shows using state of the art, IMAX 3-D cameras. I was intrigued... The rumor mill stated that U2 was planning a new concert film for exclusive release in IMAX theaters using some new 3D technology.

Suddenly I was reminded of my last "U2 in a theater" experience, back when I was a junior in high school. My buddies and I saw "Rattle and Hum" almost as soon as it opened, and then... Mom.. don't read this.... The film became the "play hooky from school to go see repeatedly film", until the day the theater pulled the movie and I was stuck with Schwarzenegger's Twins. (Ug). I much preferred the thought of seeing them in a live concert setting, especially after my parents vetoed my seeing the Joshua Tree tour live in Denver.. they said I was too young and had a camp out with my boy scout troop. So in its place, the movie sufficed, especially when seen at the old 70 millimeter Century 21 gargantuan theater with mega sound system.. our preferred theater for the "big" movies. Even if it wasn't "live" live, it was still cool to just see the band larger than life, and both hear and feel the music pumping through the system. I thought those days were long gone. Until now...

Last year, it finally appeared I may get a chance to relive those glory days as the new U23D film was announced. But I was concerned... The film was set to be an IMAX film, and here in Oregon there were no IMAX theaters in the state. Could I actually convince my wife to let me drive to Seattle just to see a movie? Luckily, I didn't have to. Low and behold the perfect timing, just before U2 was set to open, I learned a new IMAX theater had been built in Portland.. just 90 minutes north. Bingo.

And so, with eleven year old Tyler bouncing with excitement in the passenger seat, now a big U2 fan like his old man... we made the trek North.. a short road trip to see our band on the BIG screen, just as I had done so many times.. while I was supposed to be in high school.

At last, we arrived, fully loaded with Mountain Dew caffeine buzz we grabbed our 3D glasses, pulled our jaws off the floor at the sight of the giant screen and settled in for 90 minutes of music nirvana.

So.. how was the film? Man, did it ever suck!!! Just kidding. Quite the contrary. We were totally blown away. The film is getting rave reviews from both U2 and non U2 fans and we could see why. Forget the trendy Hannah Montana 3D film... this was the FIRST ever live action 3D IMAX film. As such, it was created to be a thorough experience, not just a concert taking advantage of 3D trickery for cheap thrills. As such, it literally makes you feel as though you are right there in the concert. You find yourself wanting the dumb people in front of you to put their hands down so you can see better, only to realize that they are part of the film.. not actually in front of you. Then suddenly you are on stage with the band. It's almost like being a fly.. buzzing around this 3D world all around you, going where you'd like. Simply amazing.

The music was great too! Some personal favorites.. Love And Peace Or Else, a song I didn't find really interesting on their CD, but live it becomes an amazing event. And "The Fly" was an experience never to forget with its hard rocking performance and visual experience like no other in the film.

What surprised me the most was that this was actually a film... I think I was expecting just a 3D concert and this felt like so much more. It had much more of a film quality, art design and concept, and that was fun to see. In between each song, Ty would lean over to me and say "This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!!!" I'd just smile and be grateful at least one of my offspring would find this enjoyable.

And so with goofy smiles on our faces, both of us talking a mile a minute about what we had just experienced, we got in the car to head back south. Sadly, we realize that this is not an experience we can ever recreate with our DVD player at home (until I can convince my wife to let me build on an IMAX theater onto our house), so we just have to enjoy it while it lasts. And then count the days until we can experience it again on the smaller scale of a regular movie theater screen, when it opens in Eugene in 3 weeks. The nice thing about this show... I can keep experiencing it, at least while in theaters without having to pay $175 a pop for concert tickets!!



So... If you've managed to find an IMAX theater in your city... GO NOW!! Do not hesitate! And when this film comes to a regular theater near you on February 22, go!!! Then you too (hey!) can experience the future of cinema.. and rock out at the same time.. without the dealing with the drunk guy spilling his beer on you at the concert!

Click here to view the trailer, learn more about the film and its technology, and find a theater near you!

Shooting Saturday

"Aaaaand... Action!" Much to my pure enjoyment, this was my most common phrase over the weekend. After a short break, it was time to pull out the cameras once again only this time, it wasn't for a "side project". This time it was part of my regular job. So what exactly were we producing? Sorry, I can't fill you in on all the details, my company may not like me spilling the beans on an upcoming campaign on my personal blog. So here's the story in a nutshell.. without really telling you anything.

Early last week, we began talking about how to promote an upcoming show. As my job deals with online marketing, I naturally started pushing the powers that be to do something big for the web. I have been pushing for a long time, trying to make my case to the company that we need to do better at harnessing the power of the internet. It's quite simple, really. We create some kind of inexpensive video that no one has seen before in our industry. Something totally different from what we'd normally do, so that when people see it, they'd be so surprised that this video was somehow connected to us, that they'd just have to pass it on to their friends. You stick something like that on YouTube (totally free), or you stick it on the right internet message boards (totally free), you send it out in e-mails (totally free) and then you watch it go. Assuming you don't spend a ton on the production, and it can get some legs on the internet, then you can potentially create a very wide reaching marketing campaign.. for next to nothing.

With that as the goal and my boss giving me the line that always fires me up "We'll use this as a test of your creativity", I was off. Before long, I had written a quickie story line that I thought was intriguing to me, I had written the script and I had my video producer signing off on the concept. This was also an easy sell as I conceived the thing to look like a youtube style video. Leave home the tripods, the dolly tracks and wireless mics, this was just a down and dirty, run around and shoot style project. This allowed me to get the right look, and to keep our costs down.

So after a very quick pre-production cycle, the weekend came.. time to actually film. Due to our quick schedule, we didn't have time to really cast the film, we just ended up with what our casting agency sent over. We all met yesterday morning, scripts in hand, props ready, costumes done (yes, I had to create a costume for one character) and we began to film, working through the day to get it all done. To me, this was just great fun. For once, I didn't have to be a one man show. I could direct the film and concentrate on what I was after and, with the exception of a few shots that I just had too visualized in my noggin, I had a cameraman to do the filming. Add in a production assistant and suddenly I begin to realize why it is nice to have a big crew. This wasn't a Saturday of work.. this was a Saturday of fun!!

So.. now what? After reviewing the footage today.. I am.. actually.. scared... to.. death. Like I said, this is something we have never tried before.. so how will people, especially those higher up, respond to our little experiment? And in reviewing the footage... I am not too pleased with how my actors delivered. It comes across as cheesy and painful to watch.

And so begins the challenge... take all this footage, create something from it that will work... produce the film, create the website and have it all done by next week (and get both execs and legal to sign off on it) and get it live on the web by the end of the month. Yikes. I love these challenges!

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UPDATE: JANUARY 25TH: Finished the film today. It was quite the little puzzle to put together. In the end, the film is totally different than what I scripted last week... funny how that happens. We ended up shooting new footage several nights this last week thanks to a last minute creative idea. But, I have gone from scared to feeling a little better. I finally had the guts to begin showing it around in my own department and to a few down at the studio. They all laughed through it. Good sign!

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UPDATE: JANUARY 29TH: Today was my scariest thus far. The video is done and locked. The site is now done. Next, I submitted the whole thing to my boss, who has known I was working on something, but still very fuzzy on exactly what. For a few minutes after sending the e-mail.. I got to sit there and sweat, wondering if he would think this was the stupidest thing I had ever done, or if it was ok. With him.. you just never know...

Luckily, he loved it. And suddenly things exploded. Next thing I know, there is talk of future installments, trademarking, t-shirts, etc. And the site that was all set to go live on Friday... had to be launched early so that we could begin spreading the word early. To further ease my worries.. it actually passed legal. And when the video was shown to the CEO... "He laughed his a$$ off" was the official quote. Ok... I can suddenly sleep a little better now.

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UPDATE: FEBRUARY 1ST:
Now the site is live and we begin to promote it across the internet, I can safely add my link here. Now.. will the site perform over the next few weeks? I get to sit back and track it, and hope it spreads. Time will tell.

Letter To The Tooth-Fairy

Dear Tooth-Fairy,
Ok, winged one... enough is enough. My kid is getting rich from you! While I understand it is nice to reward kids for losing teeth, I think you are starting to spoil my child. First, Tuesday night, your second visit to our home (and how'd you get by the security system, by the way?!), caused Little Calvin to excitedly run from his room, money in hand the next morning. One visit this week? Ok. I can handle that.

But then came Friday night. After spending several days working on two more teeth, Little Calvin decided he'd had enough of the discomfort and agreed to let his Mom pull his top two teeth out, as the new teeth were already coming in. And what did you do to reward his bravery? You added more money as a reward! So that's three teeth this week, plus a bonus buck!

Now, several years ago, I lost the last of my baby teeth (yup, I'm weird). I had been dentist phobic for years, and finally had to work up the courage to go back, only to end up having a tooth surgically removed... Well, ok.. maybe that wasn't actually considered "surgery", but they put me under so I wouldn't remember anything.. or bite the dentist.. so that's close enough. I was brave!!! I lost a tooth! And what did you bring me for my bravery? Nada. Nothing, ZILCH!

So what gives? I get left in the tooth lurch while you spoil my child... That just aint right...But at least you are giving us lots of opportunities to see Little Calvin's cute, although very temporary toothless smile and grin at his lisping all weekend.

But give me a break.. any more teeth and Little Calvin will be outspending even me with his new found riches. Since we are trying to slow down his growing.. it's all happening way to quickly... you need to not be visiting quite so much!!

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Quick side note.. I was just doing some internet surfing, checking out the sites I frequent and discovered I won a small Disneyworld contest. While It's nothing earth shattering, it was at least fun to stumble upon it pretty much by accident. The contest, held by the WDW Radio podcast allowed listeners to submit a name for the various mile markers for this weekends Disneyworld Half and Full Marathon, while also answering trivia questions. I had entered the contest to name the final mile of the Half Marathon race, mile #13. As I was keeping up with the events of this weekend's races and festivities, I found a course map and sure enough.. the name of mile 13.. was mine.

Now.. have I been notified yet? Nope, and the podcast episode that announces the winner won't even be out until next week. But considering I stumbled across it and there's my name.. I am taking that as a good sign that I'll be getting an extra cool package in the mail soon. So I'll eagerly be waiting for several new books, some Pirates of the Caribbean swag and my official mile marker naming certificate. This will all come in quite handy for this summer's family vacation to Disneyworld!

2007 in 5 Minutes

Happy New Year! Now I just have to recover from our late night last night. Yes, Little Calvin did make it to midnight... barely, and then he conked out immediately afterward. The house was even shaking like World War 3 had just started, what with all the firework mortars going off on all sides of our house.

Now that it is New Year's Day, and I have the day off from work, I (of course) have a new project to work on, whose goal is two-fold: 1. Make sure all my video footage taken this last year is safe and preserved so I can burn it out to DVD, thus taking away the chance of accidentally erasing it. and 2. Once that footage is all together, I make a montage of our memories from the last year.

Now, after making a DVD of the last few years worth of these montages last year, some who saw them asked me why I do this... It's not like its a quickie project. It does take time to sort through a years worth of video footage and condense it down to five minutes. Especially when we have shot footage on 4 different cameras (in 3 different formats) and on two cell phones.. let alone sorting through all the photos to augment into the video, select music, create opening graphics, and label everything so that when we are old and gray with our memories gone we'll have some sort of clue of what we are looking at. So... just a little New Years Day project...

But as to why.... several reasons actually. First and foremost, it's fun for us to watch. In just 5 minutes we can watch our kids grow over the course of a year. We can see them participate in sports, have fun, and remember the fun times. It's a fast paced way to see what we have done. The second reason is a little deeper. In a world of negativity, where every day we have challenges, lots of things to do, jobs, responsibilities, stresses, etc. it can be difficult to remember the bigger picture of life. What I record is not like a reality show.. I'm not recording when my kids do something stupid and get it trouble. I am not recording the break downs, the temper tantrums, or the disagreements.

A show my wife and I like to watch on the cable network TLC, is "John and Kate Plus 8". If you ever think you have a hard time with your family and its challenges, just watch this show. The family has 2 6 year olds, and 6 3 year olds. It's just nuts. Only with this show, the cameras catch everything, Parents John and Kate do bicker and fight, and then have those quarrels broadcast to the country (to be fair, they seem to get along great and that aspect is also shown). If that were my life, I don't think I'd want THAT much shown.

What I am doing is recording the fun stuff (well, mostly... I do show Dawn's broken arm, but that was a biggie moment for the year). So when I go back now and look at 2007, or any of my previous years, its like just watching the blessings. As a church hymn says "Count Your Many Blessings", well this videos help me do just that.

So I don't show these to brag... or to say "Look at all the cool stuff we have done", I do them to remind myself of my great kids, my wonderful wife and the opportunities we have been given to learn, grow and improve ourselves each day. And what better day to drive that home than on New Years Day.

So for those that are interested... here's my 2007 recap... a quick look into the fun times of 2007. Here's to remembering the good times, and remembering the bigger picture, as we head into 2008!