Vacation Continued

We've returned from Packwood but that doesn't mean that the vacation has ended. After reluctantly putting all our crap away, doing some grocery shopping and putting that stuff away, we retreated to the back patio, put a couple lawn chairs up, and let the kids be one with nature playing with their golf set and water pistols, while I read a little, watched some video podcasts, and tap away on the sidekick.

Its been really relaxing, other than the fact that the children have destroyed half their toys due to rough play and general chaos. But they're having fun, even if they are out a golf set.

Was at Freddys and saw inFamous on the shelf and was deathly tempted to get it, but I'll have to wait and pretend to save a little in order to purchase that. Played the demo and its a pretty amazing game, and I wouldn't mind supporting that game because is a pretty neat original IP, is exclusive for the PS3, and above all, fun as hell. There is nothing more fun than doing some free running/parkour in an urban setting, then using your electrical powers to blow stuff up.

Also downloaded the Rock Band Unplugged demo and that's a no-brainer. It has got a slightly different gameplay and while the single instrument warmup would've been fun, the track switching aspect of the gameplay makes it a true Harmonix game, one that's fun to play, tough to master. I look forward to rocking out on June 9, and I'm not even paid to say that.

Got 3 more days of this, and thankfully so does my wife, because even though she's been off since last Thursday, there really hasn't been much time spent together because we were constantly surrounded by people.

Should contemplate dinner shortly. Something about a balanced diet that sustains my childrens' health? Hmmm.

Packwood

Sunday

"Camping" has officially begun, and we are at a visitors center somewhere in the pass. I don't really even know what pass this is, but we are probably halfway to Packwood. There's no reception whatsoever. We stopped for the restroom and we're off again...

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Here at the shed, at around 2pm, so it was pretty good time. We didn't even get lost, which is fairly rare for me. The lot is a little overgrown, but not too bad.

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So I guess twice a year, Packwood has a flea market event whereby the food vendors and antique dealers come out and peddle their overpriced food. We spent 10 bucks for 2 corndogs and 7.50 for 3 sno-cones, one of which was actually a replacement for Zoe because gravity had claimed hers. Afterward, Alex looked like he had feasted on Smurfs, with his blue face and lips and streaks of blue running down his arm. We walked about a little and looked at all the stuff before returning to Carla's. We'll be here for the night and be helping out tomorrow at the lot and the yard.

Monday

We decided maybe to skip the hotel and just stay at Carla's so that we can save on some costs. Besides, Carla has a microwave and a fridge so that's a major plus. Not quite sure what we have planned for today but it might be a leisurely day. Tomorrow we will be cleaning out the RV shed and maybe doing some yard work.

Been trying to do a little bit of reading, maybe some writing , or maybe catch up on some podcasts but I'm trying awfully hard to be socialable as well. I'm not the chatty type, I'm usually secretly hoping that nobody sits by me at work so that I could be by myself. But I suppose a small part of me is grateful that people don't mind sitting with me, so I just surrender to my social responsibility.

The sun has cleared the morning fog and now Mt. Rainier is framed brightly with the morning sun and the forestry around it, and the morning air is brisk, a little cooler than what's comfortable, but I'm sure it'll be a nice day today.

Well, maybe i'll go snap some photos.

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After a detour of two due to roads being closed, we ended up picnicking at a mound near a scenic stop, which was alright. We also spent a little bit of time hanging out at La Wis Wis, this little spot where the glacier runoff streams past you. So we hung out there for a while before heading back to the lot.

Later in the afternoon, the kids and wife went swimming while I took some video and watched Garnette intermittedly. I was the killjoy that didn't want to swim but it was nice to get some videos of the kids in the kiddie pool and being so proud to be in the big people pool with floats. They just had the best grins on so it was worth it.

After a steak dinner we sat about the campfire for a little bit before I took the kids back to the house. The kids fell asleep to Hello Kitty cartoons and Jael and I had a really nice talk, probably the longest talk we've had ever. She's grown so much since she's left and it was nice to see that chatty side to her, and really seeing her adoration and love of Garnette come through her words. She really wants the best for her daughter and it really shows. So we talked for about an hour and a half, then Elaine joined in for another half hour or so before we got tired. I really did enjoy talking to Jael though, because she really opened up and it was nice to hear about the going ons in her life.

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Tuesday

Today was project day, and I pretty much accomplished what I wanted to today. I admit to not being the handy type whatsoever, I'm a bigger nerd than anything, and I have a relatively low tolerance for mechanical obstacles. Fortunately, the project today was clearing out some of the junk in and around the RV shed, so I can do hard labor just fine. We cleared out odd things like spare parts, rotten wood, even an electrical meter out of the back and made a big pile for the dumpster. The project took less time than I anticipated, and was a lot easier as well. After that we just chilled for a bit, before we split up and some went swimming, while Carla, Rocky and myself went driving balls at the range. Seeing how the last time I went I was four years ago, I did ok. Nothing impressive, just happy with getting some straight shots into the 100 yard territory was good enough for me.

After that, I went back to the house and had some quiet time, watching podcasts and dozing off on the couch with the warm afternoon sun. It was kinda nice, Carla read her book and I just watched watched silly little vids about games and such. It was just a nice break.

So now I'm just waiting for pizzas, and then back to the RV lot.

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Wednesday

We headed down by the river to play around, take some photos and just enjoy the time. Back at the house, sandwiches were had and then Rocky and Ramona were on their way, and the rest of us went down to the driving range again. Then I finally pinpointed where my aches were coming from, it was actually from swinging those clubs, and not bad food like I had speculated. After that it was more swimming, where I got some good photos and videos of the kids splashing about. I returned to cook some burgers and we just spent the rest of the evening chillaxing.

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Thursday

After cramming all that junk back in the trunk, we headed back to reality. Strangely enough, all night I didn't sleep very well because I kept having stressful dreams. About overspending and not being able to access my bank accounts to balance it. Having things due but they weren't ready... all sorts of stress related shenanigans. And indeed some of it was rather prothetic, I did end up bouncing a couple transactions because I had forgotten to check the accounts when I left.

Since I've gotten home I haven't been able to relax. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

5/11 post

I am either getting less sensitive and forgetting all the major holidays, or I'm just majorly lame. Anyway, Mother's day kinda crept up on me and here I am, sitting in a diner I'm reluctant to sit in, but the kids are late for dinner and at least they seem to be having fun decorating their fold-up plane with stickers while I'm sitting here mentally balancing my checkbook.

This afternoon we did break out the bikes and went to Marymoor, which was kinda a nice day for it. I used the trailer bike for Alex, which all in all wasn't too terrible, except there were a couple times when the balance in the back was so off that I almost dropped him. There's likely something still not quite right about my assembly, because sometimes when I take a sharp turn, the trailer grabs my bike seat and twists it off to the side, and suddenly I'm facing at a 45 degree angle while riding forward.

Took my Flip UltraHD to the park and captured some video, and although there is still an obsence amount of camera shake, the color quality is really quite good. It has a good color separation and the colors are rich and vibrant, and even the subtle colors show up as they should. Nothing is too washed out, or the camera doesn't focus on giving one color too much attention and undersaturating the others. It performs really quite impressively.

These past few days I've been feeling a little under the weather, just feeling like someone performed surgery on me and left like a cell phone inside of me. My body temperture is completely out of wack, my body is often too cold and my head is burning up. I've also been afflicted with some major dull headache, also with a little fatigue. But you know, nothing weird coming out of me so I'm assuming that its just allergies and fatigue.

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Thunks in my head

Truth can be such a relative concept that I often have to accept the notion that there has to be several versions of the truth that makes up a whole story. Yesterday I was challenged to add to a story with preexisting facts and they contradicted in a semi-grand scale. I spend some time wondering if indeed some lies or rumor might've made its way to my ears but I think that ultimately, they're probably all a little true. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I never really know who my audience is, but I'll say this much. It is about a relationship.

Getting the general feeling that I should be spending more time reading and writing. I'm by no means a very good director, just a capable one. I'm a good editor - whenever I get around to it. Editing to me is something sacred, in that the conditions have to be perfect whenever I start it, but easy when I get to it. Its rewarding when its all done, but I dread the road to completion. Writing I'm not that hot at, my vocabulary isn't that verbose, and I've been told that my grammar sucks donkey anatomy. But my storytelling skills is somewhat intact, even if it is subconsciously tainted by the many plotlines that I've already seen. I don't know, maybe i'll take a stab at writing some short stories. Perfect for someone with my attention span.

The One Where I Feel Old

This post is going to make me sound old, and I suppose that's the reality of it. So on Friday I decided to get a new camcorder, and yes, that sort of makes my camcorder count to about 4, but I decided that that cheap Aiptek camcorder was too much of a weakling to handle any of my life's memories. There was terrible lag so the audio was never synched. So I was looking online and saw that Flip, which was something I was looking at when I looked at the Aiptek, had just released a new HD version going for 200 clams. And so after much thought, I went and got it at Best Buy on Friday.

So here's the old person part - I have a Sony VX2000 which is a high-quality, feature rich camera that I shot weddings and films with. It did break a little more when I did my film festival thingy, but I was just thinking about how I was just missing out a lot of life stuff because it's really awkward to lug around that monster to anything. So I opted to get a camera that was compact, and easy to use. Seriously, just two buttons and you're recording. There are only three options - set date and time, tone or no tone, and light or no light when recording. That's it. There's a laughable 2x digital zoom, but other than that, it's completely featureless. But I love it. Even though both my computers are too slow to play a 720p mp4, I still love it. My PS3 can handle it and I'm thinking forward. So yeah, I'm old because I opted for light and easy instead of heavy but high quality.

The second thing that made me feel old is one of my old co-workers in Bellingham, her daughter got married today and I don't quite know if it's because she's marrying young in my mind or that I'm just too damn old, but I remember filming her sister's wedding years ago. Like 5 years or something. She was like 14 at the time and now she got married. So that made me feel ancient.

The last one made me just sad.



I have the one that's in the back middle, the hamburger that turns into a robot. Alex plays with it now, for some reason he's attached to it quite a bit. So I was telling him that that's not like a toy I had, that is actually a toy that I have that he's playing with. It was from my childhood, came over to America with me. I was trying to frame it so I looked at the bottom of the toy and it said 1987. The commerical says 89, but there you have it. The toy is 22 years old. I have a toy that's older than the girl in the previous story.

Well, with that, I better go to bed. Us old people need our rest.

Perhaps doing a time sensitive film project at the end of two weeks of overtime laden work was not such a good idea after all.

So after months of anticipation, I walk away from this experience slightly crushed, because I didn't really pull it off, at least not to my standards. The film was not complete when I drove it to a destination I didn't know how to get to, and when I saw the signs on the freeway that delays should be expected and I had 15 minutes to go, I just turned around knowing that it would be a disservice to everyone to submit the incomplete film. So I had the heady task of telling everyone that we didn't make it. And now I'll be spending some time reediting it as well as punching it up with some bloopers and such before posting it online and sending DVDs to folks.

Seriously, in that time frame I was up for almost 40 hours straight with only about 4 hours of sleep. I had to work in the morning at 5:30, went to bed after finishing the script at 1am, then woke up at 5am again to pack and move out. Didn't get back to bed till about 10 something at night. Needless to say, I was fatigued and mentally exhausted.

But I did meet some nice folks, most of which may not even want to work with me since I missed the deadline, but I'd like to work with them. So we will see. Dave asked me if it helped motivate me to begin doing creative things again, and the short answer is yes. Mostly to do something that improves on this one, which was restricted by time and theme.

This weekend it should be all edited and done, so hang tight...

A Story from my Wife from Last Week

Alex lost his speck today
Where it went we cannot say
A piece of paper round and small
From his hand it did fall

Oh little speck where did you go
This little boy he loves you so
We have to find this little speck
If we don't I'll sure get heck

This day is ruined we cannot play
Cause Alex lost his speck today
Little boy will sit and fret
Because he's lost this little speck

This is a true story. He found a little piece of paper which he lost and he was really worried all the way home because the windows were opened and he didn't wan't the speck to get out.
Silly boy.

One thing that's good/bad about Twitter and Facebook is that I do a lot of microblogging, so the guilt of not writing on the blog is slowly dispensed through my phone 147 characters at a time. So the need to blog is cut down quite a bit, which can be unfortunate for my wife, who's such a fan of my writing that often she shuns the real me to see if I wrote on my blog.

Anyway, been working entirely too much lately, since Monday it would've been 60 hours or so, which is really quite crazy since last week and next will likely be the same. It culminates in the 24 hour film festival on the last day, so we will see if fatigues claims my brain and my story idea would just be, "Yodeling in tights" or something completely unoriginal.

Not sure if its the work or not, but the kids seem to be on some hidden agenda to drive my wife and I to the brink of sanity. Alex got upped his obsessiveness to 11, and Zoe's got more attitude and sass than her tiny self can contain sometimes. The kids bicker back and forth and the soundwaves that emit from that is actually turning my hair gray. I'm actually sporting a balding pate on my head but a well placed rug conceals my shameful hair loss.

My Rock Band Obsession keeps growing, even though the news trickles slowly and some of it isn't even really news. For instance, Paul McCartney performed at Coachella recently and he's got possible RB Beatles footage behind him, and it looks cool. Also, the other thing I found out today was a "Jukebox" mode in RB, which is basically letting the game perform the song with the in game characters without actually playing the instruments. Basically, a music video jukebox. A lot of the songs on the game is music I'd listen to anyhow, so that's a really good feature to mess around with.

Today I just realized Eeeny Meeny Miny Mo is a complete setup. It's an illusion of choice. What a disconcerting revelation to my childhood.

Anyway, gotta chill now. Have to go back to work tomorrow. Sigh.

Best Day Ever

Couples Who Drum Together, Stay Together