2 Months of Insanity

Time to take a breath! Time to come back to the real world, step away from the camera and video editing software for a moment. Time to finally post a blog update.

Most regular readers of the blog know that May and June can be some of the crazier months for me, what with so many video projects hitting at once. As it's been a while since I have posted, let me do a quick recap. Over the last 2 months, here's what's been on the schedule:

1. Filming the Colorado documentary: I already posted on the filming process and a quick trailer for the upcoming film, which is finally starting the editing phase this week.

2. The "Sound of Music" performance DVDs: To help finance my Mom's documentary film, and since I was there anyway, I offered to film my mom's last musical, not as part of the documentary film, but for the performance, for people to buy to remember the actual play. A simple guy would just pop a camera on a tripod, press record, and burn out the results to disk. But me being me, I don't do things the easy way. I had to film all three nights from multiple camera angles and then put together a "performance" not from one night, but taking the best from all 3 nights and combining them into one. That translates into big workloads, and a fast turnaround as we promised to have finished DVDs delivered to them prior to their graduation just 2 weeks after the performance.

3. Marist Senior Tribute: A HUGE project for me, taking a ton of time. This is a special tribute DVD developed for the graduating class of Marist High School. There is an interesting story for me to tell in conjunction with this project, but I will save that for when I can post bits of the video online, whereas now, that could hurt DVD sales. So for now, suffice it to say that the project took a lot of time over the last 3 months, but the huge order of DVDs was dropped off yesterday.. and I can finally breath again.

4. Territorial Elementary: Each year my wife and I work together to document the year for Little Calvin's class and their growth. From classroom activities, to assemblies, to field trips, it all gets combined into one DVD for the parents. Since all the schools end at the same time, the deadlines for this disk are usually the same as for the Marist videos, making for one hellish, sleep deprived week! But we get it done somehow. Luckily, Dawn does a majority of the editing and assembly for these, but it still requires clean up, special introductions, and sound mixing from me.

5. Marist Graduation: Although its for the same school and related to the graduating class, it's a completely different project: filming the graduation ceremony (requiring multiple cameras and a lot of coordination) and then editing and producing the DVDs.

6. Camp Wilani DVDs: Every other year, Little Calvin's school, and I mean the ENTIRE school spends a week at a local summer camp for outdoor school. The experience is very rewarding for the kids (even when freak, intense, severe storms cause the evacuation of camp one day) and of course that means that our cameras are rolling, filming the week. This project has a FAST turn around, as the camp is held shortly before the end of school, and the disks must be produced in time to get them to parents before summer break starts. Again, my wife works a lot of hours keeping up on the editing, and I work the other details. I'd say we make a very good team!

7. Business projects: In my free time (ha!) I also produced a video for a local engineering firm to use to help sell one of their high tech products. Due to the specifics on the contract and the proprietary nature of the shoot, I can't go into details, but.. suffice it to say it was a fun shoot, and interesting video to put together as a break from looking at high school or elementary school students.

8. "The Great Pine Cone War": Finally, in a bit of insanity, I somehow agreed to help our local scout troop earn their cinematography merit badge. I joined them on an overnight camp-out to direct them in the filming of their movie, necessary for earning the badge. Sure, it was a lot of fun returning to my boy scout roots and spending a day chasing teenagers through the forest with a camera in hand, dousing them with fake blood, as well as a number of creative ideas. I also worked with them to get the film edited.

So there.. 8 big projects in 2 months. Anyone wondering why I have grossly neglected my blog, Facebook postings, and e-mails? There you go! Now it's time to enjoy my summer.. oh wait.. I have more to edit! And since I have no shortage of work to be done, anyone guess what I proposed to Little Calvin as something that might be fun to do this summer? Yup.. video production! Every day! For his blog we are doing a video diary of "almost" every day of his summer vacation, requiring nightly editing sessions together. So far we've made our own episode of Wipeout, survived the death of his beloved first pet, and had fun coming up with new ways to present each day. You can see the episodes here, and remember we are attempting to post each week day, so check back frequently.

So that's the latest from the Calvin household. Now that the "strict deadline" projects have been completed I will be able to return to more regular updates, Growing Up Calvin features and crazy family stories and adventures.

Now, I can finally scratch "update blog" off the "to do" list... Back to the video editing..

"Last Week" Trailer Released

Just a quick note today...

You read about my crazy week filming my latest documentary in my previous post, but now I am releasing the trailer for the film. Traditionally, the film is completed FIRST, then a trailer produced, but in order to take advantage of a marketing opportunity, I had to switch those around for this one. So, it may be a bit early, but at least you will be able to get a visual look at my week and the film yet to come. Enjoy!

Telling the Story.. Regardless

Two years ago, I was sitting in a middle school gym, watching my daughter performing in her choir concert. This was a special occasion. Her choir teacher had been teaching choir at the school for the past 30 years and was now getting ready to retire. This was his final performance of his long career. As I watched this whole event unfold, with tears, with flowers, with standing ovations and many hugs, I wondered what it must feel like for him. Was he relieved it was all over? Was he sad to see it all go? He had obviously made a huge difference in the lives of thousands of students.. but what kind of things were going through his head as he had prepared that week for his last show?

The filmmaker in me was very intrigued by this, and as I drove home I thought ahead to my own mother's retirement just two years later in 2009. Her story was similar.. teacher for the last 40 years. She took over the schools speech and debate team in the early nineties and turned it into the most dominating speech program in the state for ten years, with teams of 75 students. She had taken over the drama program, staging elaborate spring musicals each year. But she had done all this with the philosophy of "teach the student, not the subject" that had made her one of the most popular teachers in the high school for years. So that begged the question from me.. what would it feel like for her as she prepared for and performed her final musical of her career? Suddenly I had a story that I felt could make for an interesting and inspiring documentary film and I began to make my travel plans.

And so, last Saturday I flew to Colorado with all my film gear, ready to document the week leading up to this final performance at the high school I had graduated from YEARS ago (returning there after all these years was a bizarre experience in and of itself..) The musical was "The Sound of Music" my mom's all time favorite that she had saved for her final year. The week's schedule was packed filming all the rehearsals and the interaction between the kids as well as driving around the state interviewing former students, friends, colleagues, the cast, everyone that I could track down to give insight into the story.

This whole experience was a bit different for me. In my past sports related films, the typical "emotional" moments came when the key player on the team is injured at the end of the season and the rest of the team must figure out how to pull together to play and win without them. But this story was a very different beast as it had a much more in depth emotional story to go along with it. Most of these kids and teachers had been involved in the random school hostage crisis and the in-school killing of one of their classmates, Emily Keyes, 3 years ago (read about it here). The girl that was killed was one of my Mom's speech students and several of the lead cast members in the play had been the hostages. There was still a lot these people were dealing with from that event, causing some very emotional interviews. I certainly was not used to watching both men and women break down in tears on camera and I left many of the interviews just feeling emotionally exhausted. While that killing was not a HUGE part of the story, it was still an important part that had to be told as my Mom was one of the instrumental people that day, in helping rally the students together to cope, and in pulling the community back together with her speech at the funeral.

So I had my job... I had to document the events of the week.. regardless of how they unfolded. My goal with the project was to be realistic, not some reality show type of story where events are exaggerated to create more drama. I just wanted to tell the story of what my mother had done and the difference she had made. I wanted to visually see what she went through.. the stress, the emotional swings, and the chaos that has made the final week of prep before the spring musical become dubbed "Hell week". I was worried everything would go smoothly and I would be left without a compelling story to tell.. turns out.. I had nothing to fear.

It started first thing Monday morning with a freak snow storm, sending my mom into a panic that school (and her biggest rehearsal of the week) would be canceled.

Luckily all arrived at school, but that rehearsal was so lousy, it about sent my mom over the edge and she doubted this play would come together on time.

Then there was the truly wacky, unexpected events of the week... the two kids that attempted (for whatever reason) to crawl up into the air ducts above the auditorium (I think they were trying to ditch class) only to have one almost fall through the ceiling, as it gave away under their weight. Luckily, he caught himself and got out, preventing a potential deadly fall to the concrete auditorium floor three stories below. (the poor students who were alarmed watching his leg suddenly come bursting through the ceiling in a crash, were rather upset, however..). Then there was the cast member that was standing between two cars on a sloped driveway. When one of the cars accidently rolled backwards, she was pinned between the two cars, causing quite a bit of damage to her legs making her unable to perform. Soon I had to wonder if every time the phone rang I needed to start filming, as we never knew what to expect next.

Stress and anxiety filled the cast as everyone prepared for opening night. A week's worth of rough rehearsals was weighing heavily and no one knew if they could pull it off. But to their credit, the Thursday night opening show went off without a hitch, leaving everyone excited and ready to do it all over again for the next 2 nights.

By the time Saturday night came along.. I was very pleased with myself. I knew I had the story, now captured on camera, that I had been looking for. I had captured the events of the week, the thoughts of the students and others through their interviews, I had the emotions.. from sheer happiness and pride to the emotional breakdowns of saying goodbyes.. and I had the emotional element from showing how everyone had recovered from the Emily Keyes tragedy. It was a good story and I knew that all I had to do was get the last few shots.. odds and ends of the cast, and the standing ovations and community accolades my mom was sure to receive at the end of the night. And so I set off early to the high school to get all the cameras prepped and in place to film what I needed for the night.

Shortly after I arrived and 90 minutes before show time.. the "call" came in. Saturday afternoon, one of the students from the high school.. one my Mom's speech team members, and very active member of her drama department, had been killed in a head-on car accident on the highway west of the school (news reports here). No one saw this one coming.. no one was prepared for this pain. Suddenly I found myself in an odd spot. My job was to document the events of the week.. regardless of what they might be, and so I quickly grabbed the camera and began to film what was happening, but filming these poor students who I had come to enjoy so much over the past week, as they walked through the door looking confused as to what was going on around them, then hearing the news that their friend was dead, then collapsing in their own grief and sobs.. part of me felt really creepy and uncomfortable and intrusive filming this.

Yet this was what the story had turned into... So I had to. Suddenly this whole, documentary filmmaker role took on a different meaning from what I had experienced in the past. Sure, you want a compelling, emotional story to tell.. but watching people have to suffer and grieve.. just isn't a fun experience. I never thought even for a second that someone would die in the process of my little film!!

Soon, my mom gathered the cast in the auditorium, everyone one of them sobbing almost uncontrollably. The decision had to be made.. go on and perform the final show, or cancel it and reschedule it for another night. Although she feared the backlash from public school parents, she pulled the cast together and offered a prayer, asking for comfort to them and to the family. All the students seemed to want to be a part of it and felt bonded together from the experience. Soon the decision was made to go on with the show, knowing that so many people had traveled a long way to witness that "final show" of my mom's career. They decided to dedicate the play to Kjersti. Her schedule had not allowed her to be in the musical, but she was still a part of the drama department and friends with all the cast, even having been there the previous night to watch the show, and the cast felt it appropriate to go on for her.

By show time, most had found a way to dig deep, to turn off the tears (most just barely) and go on stage and that nights performance turned out.. brilliantly. They all did fantastic in their roles. Even the poor sophomore lead playing the Captain, who had been scared to death to kiss a girl on stage, took the opportunity to "just go for it" to the amazement of the cast!

The school principal even stated afterward that he had never been prouder of a group of kids as this one, to go on with a stellar performance so quickly after getting such shocking news. But a moment I will never forget came at the very end of the show. I don't know who had the idea or how it circulated, but just after the final curtain call, the cast all lined up in the front of the stage, held hands and sang an impromptu acapella version of the song "My favorite things" from the musical.

"When the dogs bite, when the bees sting, when I'm feeling sad. I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad," came their unified voices. Everyone knew what that meant, what they had all been through and overcome, and there wasn't a dry eye in the audience.

And so Sunday morning as I packed up my gear and got on my plane, I knew I suddenly had a story much bigger than I had ever expected. I was completely exhausted and ready to sleep for days. But now it's time to put this all together, to tell the story of my Mom, the effect she has had and one that will adequately honor both Emily and Kjersti.. two students whose lives ended up cut much too short.

It was a fun, insightful, busy, exhausting, emotional week, but having the opportunity to tell this story, regardless of how it all turned out, I feel will be very rewarding. Now.. on to the editing booth...

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Update: Here's a more in-depth article, addressing both the death and the decision to go ahead with the musical performance, even after the cast had just been notified.

Growing Up Calvin: The Fireball

It's time for another episode of "Growing Up Calvin", although this time, I am fast forwarding through time, when I was a bit older. Lets just say I was in high school. (If you are wondering what this "growing up" thing is all about, click here to read what this whole series is about, so you'll be up to speed.)

Like always, the story begins with "One day when I was bored..." This particular story takes place at a time of celebration. My friends and I had just finished our final day of school before spring break was to begin. I was very happy to have time away from home as we were getting ready to spend spring break driving over to Utah to spend time with my Grandmother and Aunt in Provo. But there was a small gap of time in between when the bus dropped us off and when my mom would be home to make us start packing to leave the following morning. What to do... what to do... Sadly, the solution came with one of my secret favorite activities: lighting things on fire. I was a huge pyromaniac, legend for what I was crazy enough to do with fire and explosives. Good thing I grew up back in the 80's where none of this stuff was considered a "warning sign". In today's world I would have been arrested long before this little episode.

My friend Alan was visiting and it didn't take us long to come up with an evil plan. It all started out so simply.. We decided we wanted to play with fire... you know, like when you take a little black powder, scoop it into a pile and light it up so you can see that little fireball jump into the air. We wanted to do that... just bigger.

We began by digging a hole in the driveway. Yes, you read the correctly. Back in these days, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, we didn't yet have paved roads or driveways. So it was nice and easy to dig holes, and just make sure they were filled in by the time my Dad got home, so as not to raise questions. It didn't have to be deep, just a few inches down to be safe (safety... ha ha!), and to make room for our... ingredients.

With that done, it was time to raid my Dad's explosives storage, the one he never dreamed would be used this way. First things first, we filled the hole with, not one, but two full cans of gun powder, the more the merrier, right? But that didn't seem like a lot, so suddenly our brains vanished. We added everything we could find that had the potential of burning... Anything that had the "WARNING: FLAMABLE" label on it was fair game from the garage.. paint remover, paint thinner, flares from the back of the car, fireworks from my secret stash in my bedroom, a few bullets from my Dad's ammo case (that one really gets me today.. man, were we stupid). All of this stuff went into the hole, all mixed up like a giant stew. Then to top it all off, we grabbed the spare gas can, and added enough gasoline to the hole to turn this whole concoction into thin mud. Yes, a black powder, gasoline, bullet mud.

Now we had to have a way to ignite this thing and turned to the gasoline as the simple solution. We just drew a line with the gas from the hole, back into the garage, so that we could hide out behind the car. (Yet another thing in retrospect that makes me shake my head... It never dawned on me that the line of gasoline burning INSDIE the garage, next to a vehicle could be an issue.. luckily this wasn't an issue that day)

The plan was now all in place, 20 yards away was our mud pit, and there we were, matches in hand ready to light off our little explosion to revel in the wall of flames. I struck the match, set it to the ground and watched in awe as things were about to get really exciting. The end result? Let me just say...

It was amazing! Wall of fire to the sky!!!! Fireworks erupting, noises everywhere from the fireworks.. flames in different colors thanks to things like the flares.. it was brilliant.

Now to a few other.. issues we had not even considered. First, we had just finished a rather dry winter. Not much snow and things were nice and dry.. key word there, dry. Second, this was not a calm day, it was actually rather gusty outside. So there we were for that split second rejoicing that our plan had worked, our fire ball reaching to the sky. But that excitement turned quickly to panic, as a wind gust picked up that wall of fire, and set it back down just over the driveways edge, into the dry brush of the yard. As you can imagine, it quickly ignited, spreading fire all over the place. It became instantly obvious that if we didn't put this out, the fire would quickly spread.. up the giant trees, to neighboring homes... this could get bad.

I lunged for the fire extinguisher, as Alan ran for the hose. Meanwhile, all my poor sister could hear as she was down in her room packing, was the two of us running around upstairs in a panic. I am sure she was rolling her eyes as she came up the stairs to see what the commotion was about. At this point we had used up the extinguisher, the hose wasn't long enough to reach around the house, and so we were lugging tubs of water in and out of the kitchen at a high rate of speed.

She immediately joined the fire fighting effort, and eventually (thank goodness before we had to call the fire department) we got the fire out, just was it was reaching the tree bases. Upon surveying the scene, a nice portion of my Dad's precious land, was black and torched.. and I knew that I was dead meat, yet very lucky as it could have been so much worse.

Amazing for me, a little ray of light shown down on me that day, or rather... dark. By the time my folks got home that night, it had already gotten dark, therefor no need to confess anything... heck, what they couldn't see couldn't hurt them, right. And we (My Mom, sister and I) left early the next morning for Utah, before it was light. And as my Dad was working long hours that year, he left in the wee hours of the morning for his job, and got home late at night. It wasn't until 6 days later that I saw my mom, talking on the phone to my Dad, get a puzzled look on her face, suddenly look at me, and said "Ummmm, your Father has a question for you..."

Gulp.

Amazingly all I heard was "would you like to explain to me why my yard is all black?" To which I simply replied "No... I'd rather not.. trust me, you probably don't want to know." He agreed he didn't want to know. I think it helped that we were a state away for several more days, so that by the time we got home, he no longer had the urge to kill me.

Now.. to the part of the story where I tend to get the hardest time from people: Most people hear this and say "so what.. you were in 7th, or 8th grade? A Freshman?" Nope.... I was a senior." Yup, I lit my little fireball 2 months prior to graduation.

Sadly, this was not the last of my pyromaniac experiences, they do continue on, but those are stories for different times. But, this is one I especially shake my head on now that I have learned better. We were so stupid.. it could have been so much worse... I guess it's all a part of growing up Calvin.

By the way.. the bullets in our little mixture.... we never found a single trace of them. They vanished, not even the casings to be found. Yikes!

The "My Eyes.. My Burning Eyes!" Dilemma

One of the many things that I do to help bring in some money while I continue my search for a new job is media conversion. What that means is this: a lot of people have many great family memories, filmed long ago, that are stored on old VHS tapes, 8mm camcorder tapes, or other media formats. In this day and age, it not only does them no good, but risks that footage as old tapes wear down. So, people bring their old tapes to me and I convert their media to a digital format, either putting their videos onto DVD or providing them with the digital format, that they can now edit in their own software.

For the most part, doing this for people has been pretty straight forward, and rarely are there issues... until today. A friend of mine contacted me and told me they needed some old 8mm tapes converted from a bunch of footage shot in the early nineties. They then handed me a pile of tapes, admitting that they had no clue what all was on them and asked me to convert them so it could be edited into something useful.

This afternoon I took the first of these tapes and began to convert it over, as it can be a lengthy process, while I was watching the afternoon session of general conference, no less. Now... keep in mind.. I don't sit there and watch other people's video footage as it converts. By default, I do have to look over every few minutes, long enough to make sure that the transfer is still taking place, the quality is ok, and that there have not been any funky computer or software crashes, but other than that, I pretty much tune it out... its none of my business.

But today.. again.. while watching General Conference, I happened to glance over at my monitor, only to see my friend... um.... well... how do I put this.. let's just say "doing something on videotape that I don't think they expected to have leave their bedroom...." Yes.. my eyes boinged out of my head for a brief moment as I franticly tried to turn my monitor off.. still seeing WAAAAAAYYYY more than I ever thought I would of this person...... Not too many people can claim to have watched general conference and..... that... simultaneously.

But that leaves me to the question I have been pondering the rest of the night... what do I do now? Do I just give my friend the tapes back and the digital version and pretend like nothing happened.. and wonder how long it will take them to realize the reality of what they gave me to convert, potentially leading to some seriously awkward future conversations? Do I hand the tapes back with a warning to preview the tapes for potentially embarrassing footage before handing them over? Do I delete the embarrassing footage, hoping they don't realize it was there and will never miss it, thus taking away the chances for the "awkward discussion"? Or is that part of what they were intending for me to convert, looking forward to using it and not ashamed of having people see it?

Right now I seem to be leaning towards just handing it all back to them, and then let them learn their own lesson about previewing tapes first. But I know that the next time we talk... there could be some awkward questions.. things I'd really like to avoid. That way I did my job, I didn't make judgements for another person based on my own morales. But still..

So I pose the dilema to you.. what would you do? I welcome any comments and you can even take the poll on the right... Ah my crazy life. I guess it's fun never knowing what you'll see next, even if it could be a bit, shocking.

Series Finale

I am always intrigued by watching how my favorite TV shows end. You know.. all the popular shows have to end somehow, and you get the big marketing push to watch the final episode.. the "series finale". So how do they conclude these popular characters and situations? Some of my favorites include the Seinfeld characters getting sent to jail, the gang from Cheers faking everyone out that big events will happen, but then nothing worked out and the day ended just like any other, or my all time favorite.. Newhart, where the main character realized the whole show had been some crazy dream, as he awoke in his bedroom from his previous sitcom. But the most common send off seems to be when the characters move on to a new place and you get that stereotypical final shot of the door closing to the empty house or apartment, representing the show, that is now being left behind forever.

Today.. I had my own Series Finale. Not on life, of course, but on my own adventures of the last 12 years. And I must say.. it felt very strange. Lots of hugs, lots of tears, lots of shock and unbelief as all my co-workers finished packing up their things, slowly trickling out of the building. As I watched my own office, slowly get condensed down to a vary large pile of boxes, too many memories came flooding back and I swear I had that typical TV montage playing in my head.. the "lets look back at our favorite moments from the last 12 seasons" video that let's you see just how far you have come.

I began my job at Monaco Coach Corporation in 1997. Then, I was finishing school and trying to find something part time to help pay the bills and get through college with some kind of real world experience. I spent quite awhile trying to find a good job, but found nothing that would work. I resigned myself to having to become a pizza delivery driver, when I suddenly had the inspiration to call the college career center and low and behold, on their phone line, I heard the perfect job description. I immediately faxed in my resume that Wednesday, Thursday I had my interview (inside the giant window lined boardroom that intimidated me to no end) and on Friday.. I had my first "real world professional" job.

As I said, I have continued to stay at the company since then. The company changed and went through many cycles causing a lot of my co-workers to move on, but the fact remained throughout: I REALLY liked what I did, and I REALLY liked my co-workers. My wife used to roll her eyes when I left the house each morning. I wasn't going to work.. I was going to play. I certainly enjoyed my weekends, but come Monday morning I didn't dread waking up, I looked forward to getting to the office and getting back to work. It was a fun job, and a great time.

Obviously I can't go into too many memories here.. This blog post would just last too long. But needless to say.. life for me was good at Monaco. I believed in the products and in traveling the country in luxurious RVs. I loved to travel to shows, to meet the owners, to hear their stories and adventures. I loved that we had a private jet, making the world such a small place.. where I could fly to meetings and back in a day (or to visit family for a weekend in Utah). And even when times were crazy.. I loved staying up for all-night photo shoots, tirelessly setting up trade show displays to wow people with my stuff. I didn't care if I worked extra hours on salary as I loved what I did and what all that hard work represented.

But in all this fun, I had to keep a solid fact in mind: If anything went wrong in the world.. one of the first things people would stop doing is making major purchases.. like $400,000 motorhomes, which could put us on a quick road to destruction. And every time I visited a dealership and looked out at the huge numbers of used RVs sitting there waiting for a buyer, I asked myself "how long can we keep building new ones at the high rate that we do, until the market is saturated?" Deep down.. I knew this would all come down.. at some point.

2008 was that point and one crazy year, as the economy began to slow, gas prices rocketed and the mortgage crisis began. It was the perfect storm in the RV industry: consumer confidence slipped, people who would normally buy coaches suddenly couldn't sell their old ones, nor could they sell their homes for any money. Potential new customers suddenly walked away from the idea, scared off by the fuel price surge. And then.. the credit markets dried up causing the banks to refuse to lend money for just about anything (and especially things they saw as luxury purchases). Suddenly we saw our Indiana plant shut down and many layoffs. But, again.. I loved my job and the challenge of marketing in these new conditions and so I stayed put.

In December, the company announced we'd all be getting an extended (unpaid) Christmas break, causing us a lot of panic. That break grew and grew, making us all wonder if we'd ever see the office again. But I was honestly surprised when the phone rang this morning and I heard the words.. "The company is laying off most of the work force.. you have to come in immediately, turn in your computer and clean out your office. There are no severance packages.. your insurance ends today and you lost any unused vacation time.. too bad" Suddenly.. my 12 years of fun.. came to a crashing halt. Yes, I had been on a break for the last 2 months, but most of me really believed that somehow we'd survive and come back strong. I missed my office and co-workers and just wanted my old routine back.

But instead.. today is our "Series Finale". We said our goodbyes.. we gave our hugs and then left what used to be our world behind for the big great open. Just like that cliched series ending, it finished with us walking out of that empty room so full of memories.. and shutting the door.

Today.. is a day to mourn. To mourn the job that I loved that I don't get to do anymore. To mourn the company that I really believed in that I have now watched, (like a plane doing a nose dive from 30,000 feet,) smashing into the ground and to mourn the people I don't get to see anymore on a daily basis. Its a tough pill to swallow. But today is it. I can't keep mourning. Tomorrow is, as the saying goes, the first day of the rest of my life... time to find my next big series and my next great adventure.

And so.. goodbye awesome job. Goodbye to my large cushy corner office with giant windows and comfy couch. Goodbye to jet-setting all over the country. Goodbye to great people with great talents, and great customers whom I will never forget. Goodbye to a great team of people over the years, to "Friday fun lunches," to laughing hysterically in meetings, to watching co-workers trip over chairs in the hallway. Goodbye to all my travel.. to Vegas, Orlando and California, my most frequent destinations.

It's been a great 12 years. The series is over.. now its time for my next adventure, however long it takes to find it.

The "Random List"

If you are a visitor to my Facebook page, this all may be old news. Below is one of those Facebook trends that work its way around. The point is for people to list 25 random facts about themselves and then tag others that they'd like to get a similar list from. Since I went through all the work to think through my list, I figure I might as well post it here too. So.. here are 25 totally random things from me, you never know what you might learn.

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1. While I enjoy lots of things, I really get obsessive about a few things 1. Star Wars (both the movies and collecting Galactic Heroes toys), 2. The music of U2 (even after all these years I can listen to all their stuff over and over, it takes up half my i-pod and I am obsessing over the new CD and possibility of a tour.) 3. Disney theme parks (and all things related to them) and 4. Calvin and Hobbes (although due to the series being over, there's nothing left for me to buy).

2. One of my all time favorite treats: butterscotch pudding, the cooked kind. You cook it and immediately pop it in the fridge.Give it a good 15 minutes so that there is a nice, thick pudding skin on top, yet it is still very hot in the middle. Eat the hot stuff first, pudding skin last: the perfect treat! (I have been told I am out of my mind for this... but I like it)

3. My senior year of high school, I played the role of Marcelus in the play "The Music Man". I had to both sing and dance on stage. While many old high school friends will remember this, anyone who knows me as an adult would never believe it.

4. My family is my sanity. My wife is my best friend. Simply curling up next to her for a movie or a game of Phase 10 is a great way to finish my day. I also love my kids and doing simple things with them. An ideal evening is just playing board or heated card games for hours. Now I just need my dog (a golden lab) and the fam will be complete. (Stupid small yard...)

5. I love pulling off a great practical joke. Whether its scaring Miki with giant spiders, or sending the song "ghostbusters" repeated constantly over the top of my boss's radio station (while he scratched his head in confusion), pulling off classic jokes can make my month.

6. My drink of choice: Mountain Dew (or Nectar of the Gods, as I like to put it). But it must be COOOLD. Keep it in the fridge, make it nice a cold, then put it in the freezer for 10 minutes prior to opening. Just before it starts to form ice crystals: totally perfect.

7. I get my most creative ideas when surrounded by hot water. Now if I only had a hot tub.. but the shower works too.

8. My life philosophy is simple: A good life is not about money or worldly standing, but about having a good attitude. I believe that even if you go through trials or hard times, life can still be a happy place if you keep a positive attitude. You could have the best life possible and still be miserable, if you have a bad attitude. It's all what you make it to be.

9. I wish I had learned to play the guitar as a kid.. It looks like something that would be lots of fun and I get excited watching my son learn to play.

10. I secretly like the TV show I-Carly. It's a cute show. (Just don't tell my wife.. she'll give me crap forever)

11. I seem to be be happiest when running around with a camera in hand. I don't care if it is a still camera, or a video camera. It's when I am creatively engaged that my mind just feels right.

12. I am fascinated by the power of mother nature. For the sake of my family and our safety, I count my blessings every day that I live in a state without much extreme weather, but I have to admit when I see news of giant hurricanes or tornados, part of me wishes I could experience the thing. I guess I'll just live vicariously through the "Storm Chasers" shows on the Discovery Channel.

13. Add the TV show "Lost" to my obsession list in answer #1. I love ripping every episode apart looking for little details, I can't wait to learn all the answers, yet dread the ending of the show as I wont want all the fun to end.

14. I am one of the few people on the planet that could win the world's biggest lottery prize and still not have enough money for my ultimate dream: building my own theme park. Unless someone is giving away 5 billion dollars... That doesn't mean I live my life unsatisfied.. it just means I dream big.

15. I love wearing my socks half way off and half way on. It's the most comfortable way to go..covered toes and bare heal. It's the perfect foot blend of warm and cold. It drives my wife crazy. Someone needs to make "half-socks". I'd buy them all.

16. My testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings me strength and power. To me it's fun being the odd man out while traveling on business, to be the one who's NOT drinking, sleeping with co-workers or looking up the local strip clubs. When I travel I find the closest local temple and catch a session, then enjoy all the bewildered looks from my drunk co-workers as I walk into the hotel lobby in my shirt and tie.

17. I think I can do way more than I can in reality. I look at obstacle course shows like "Wipeout" and think "no problem.. I could totally do that" and yet deep down I know I'd die in 2 seconds.

18. I watch the "making of" features of movies far more than the actual movie itself.

19. My favorite month is October.. the psychotic halloween decorations, the smell of fall, the colored leaves and fall sports season. It's a great time of year!

20. When I experience periods of stress in my life, I tend to dream I am visiting a Disney theme park. I have decided it's my brains way of going to a "safe, stress-free, happy place" to keep balance.

21. I love reading kids books and reading bed time stories to the kids. "Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type" and "Where the Wild Things Are" are two of my all time favorites.

22. I avoid conflict like the plague. I hate to argue. To me, it's just a waste of time as it is a heated exchange where no one really says what they mean, they just try to defend their positions and don't really listen to what the other person is saying. When people start to argue or fight, my primary goal is to get away from it as soon as possible.

23. I loved burned things: Especially cookies. And a roasted marshmallow, just isn't right unless its engulfed in flames.

24. And speaking of burned things: My ideal lunch is a Quiznos Chicken Carbonara sandwich, extra heavy sauce, no mushrooms, and double toasted (to the point where it almost catches fire)

25. Even as an adult.. I still love toys. They inspire creativity and imagination in me, two things I don't want to lose as I get older. Christmas and birthdays are not for practical things... they are for the "toys" we just can't justify during the rest of the year.