8 Ounce

Listening to Small Time Crooks

2009-11-10T14:55:00.002-05:00

Do you ever hit that peak? That pinnacle of existence, where you realize that once, at this moment, you truly lived? Like everything you knew, learned, experienced, internalized and complicated just slid out from under like a stream of consciousness and the slush in your knees was the knowledge, the bone grown understanding that you can rest. Sit, and let your knees collide inside themselves and remember that this is it. What you wanted is yours. Inhale, hold, exhale existence.

There goes Jane!

2009-10-29T16:51:00.002-04:00

Jane trailer from Mark Roberts on Vimeo.

Here is the trailer for the upcoming fall feature: At the Pumpkin Patch with Jane! A beautiful little speed demon, we followed Jane as she explored the local pumpkin patch and posed for the cameras (if only briefly).

2009-10-21T11:26:00.002-04:00

Do you ever get that feelings like you never get anything done, yet you're constantly busy.

Ok, so that's an unfair statement. I am not constantly busy, but it feels like it. Today is the day when I start to get done what needs to be done. I need to start working on the highlight videos earlier in the week. I also need to edit these tapes that a guy sent me. I'm notorious for not doing things until someone starts to get privy to the fact that I haven't started working. His tapes were all messed up, and then I thought maybe my camera needed cleaning, so I did that and I can't tell if it's fixed anything or not. Mom needs me to convert those tapes and stuff for her, too. So I need to figure out how that machine works.

Unfortunately I have too much fun living in the glorious ether between being irresponsible and being an adult. I'd much rather lay around with my wife than work on anything, but who wouldn't?

Uh oh, she's home. I gotta go....um....do stuff...?

Hahaha. I'll grow up eventually, right?

!

2009-09-30T20:45:00.000-04:00

It was, like, instantaneous. Magic.

Odd, but good

2009-09-30T20:38:00.002-04:00

I recently got a lot more Mike Doughty music. He's a solid dude. Odd, but good. I like the nonsensical associations that he makes. In everyday conversation he would run the risk of making absolutely no sense, but on top of his beats and the staccato chords, he sounds like a new age prophet without all the dreadlocks and annoying personality ticks.

That's the thing I like though. Nonsense making perfect sense. In a roundabout kind of way, the most outrageous analogies are probably more true-to-life than the cliches. Not probably, definitely.

I had something to write about, but it took so long for the internet to load (SURPRISE!) that I forgot. I'm just sitting here waiting for a few phone calls. My boss was supposed to call me when he finished uploading some things for the new video, but he hasn't called yet. My friend from work was supposed to call me tonight as well, but he hasn't called either. So I thought "Hey I'll just post that thing to my blog." And then I forgot. Because the internet toook sooo looong tooo loooad.

Let's see how long it takes to load this post to the blog. Ready, GO!

Found it

2009-09-23T00:01:00.003-04:00

I had a good day today. I sleep in (it is Tuesday, after all), did my German test, which didn't take that long, snuck in a round of disc golf over on Western, during which I found my little red robot driver that I lost two days ago, go in a little extra exercise at home, had two showers and a decent day at work.

It's the kind of day that makes me feel accomplished, and totally makes up for the fact that after my Theater class is over, I'm coming home to take a mid-morning nap until German. It also makes up for the fact that tomorrow I'm going to have to confront the big bad boss man coach about his newest idea for the highlight video. A quick run-down of the idea might look like this: football, Nazis, violence, football, offensive finale. Taaaa-daaa. It's the kind of thing Dr. Vogel told me about last semester. It's the kind of thing he said you should put money away for, in a "Go to Hell!" fund, in case you have to refuse to participate in a project, tell your boss to "Go to Hell!" and ride out the job search with you fat old bank account. Too bad my last (first) paycheck was $33.47.... and I already spent it.

Words of Advice

2009-09-21T20:27:00.001-04:00

Would you rather have a Lexus or justice?
A dream or some substance?
A Beamer? A necklace? Or Freedom?

Rain, rain, go suck it

2009-09-20T13:30:00.002-04:00

I had a day full of frisbee planned and then it rained. Darn it!

Sam's at work and I don't have anything to do. She should be getting off in about 30 minutes, so that's exciting. I wish the sun would come out.

That is all.

YAY!

2009-09-19T22:13:00.002-04:00

Sam re-did my page for me!

Here's a quick recap of my last few days, ranked from most to least dorky:

1. Started trying to teach myself how to do yo-yo tricks
1 (tie). Left a note asking for people to call/e-mail me if they find my frisbee
2. Bought a new disc (see figure one)
4. Dyed one of my other discs with a new, Dave Matthews Band inspired design (see figure two)
3. Played disc golf

I also threw one of my drivers into the woods and it vanished. I spent awhile looking for it, but I gave up. It was the one the Jason guy gave me when I met him the first time I tried to play. Kind of sad, especially cause I had put the new robot design on it :( Oh well. I left a note so maybe if someone finds it they'll let me know, but not likely. I did get a whole round in, which was nice. Going alone is starting to lose its charm though, and Mike and Dave don't have the patience to learn how to play. And I quote Michael: "I'm just gonna stop playing this game if I keep sucking." This was on the third hole of his second outing. Although I had the same thought after I tossed that frisbee from the edge of the woods deeper into the woods.

Isn't that ROC pretty, though? I didn't even want to play with it for fear of getting it all banged up. That'll go away the second I slam it into a tree trunk, though. Read: the next time I play.

It was a nice day. Had luper with Sam then played golf then watched Scrubs with Mike and Dave. I'm thinking something awesome should happen tomorrow. If I could think of something specific, I'd help it happen. But alas.

Test of Will

2009-06-01T22:42:00.002-04:00

It is 10:42PM and in an hour I will start my shift at work. I get off at 7AM. I hope I don't cry at any point during the night.

I came home earlier without Samantha, which is always muy triste :( She had to stay and work the golf outing with Essenza, which seems to have gone pretty well according to what I heard. I came home to get the house straightened out for tomorrow, when Dad is bringing a real estate agent over to see how much Oxford House is worth. I tried to "pick things up" but we have so much junk that I just had to re-arrange it. There's a lot of stuff that just has no better place to be. Where do you put 100 old books when you don't have a bookcase? The floor, I guess. I cleaned up the old computer room, which I think looks waaayy better. I did the dishes, tried to put Sam's paint stuff out of the way in the bathroom. Hopefully she's not really interested in how clean the house is. Ugh. Cleaning isn't so bad with Tick around. Actually, it is kind of fun sometimes. But when she's not here to praise me like a puppy, it's just kind of depressing doing it by yourself.

I packed up a bag for tonight. They never told me I couldn't bring a backpack, so I've got one set up like I'm getting in the car to drive to Mount Pleasant: laptop, DVDs, Nintendo, a book. I'm not sure if any of that is going to be enough to keep me awake, but we'll see. If anyone finds me sleeping it results in immediate termination... so keep your fingers crossed. Although, technically I get a 1 hour unpaid break, but I guess I don't get that break if it's at night? Who knows, this job is the most confusing set of rules I've ever had to remember. There's supposed to be someone else there tonight. The only thing I know about them is their last name: Lowder. I hope s/he isn't a doofus, that would suck. I bet they're thinking the same thing. I'm not sure I would reassure them that I'm not a doofus. I feel like I have high doofus potential and at any moment it'll jump out and doofufy any situation.

Take One

2009-05-29T14:09:00.002-04:00

Sam has been talking with the people from Take One Studios recently. They're a primo videography service in Cinci and they're looking for someone to start taking stills for them. Huge opportunity for her. She also managed to bring me up and get me invited to come to the wedding tomorrow. The only problem is that Patti, the lady who is running this wedding, e-mailed Sam back yesterday and told her that they won't have any equipment for me to use. So that was pretty sucky, but I decided to go to Williams Hall and try to steal a camera even though I'm not supposed to have access to equipment until I get my independent study approved.

I walked in and Glenn was there. I emailed him a few days ago about filling out a recommendation for me to get into the internship class, so as I was sneaking through his office to get into the checkout room, he thought I was there to get my form. So he filled that out for me and I asked if I'd be able to get some equipment and lo-and-behold the guy hooked me up with everything a boy could need. I forgot how awesome these cameras are. There's something about holding a state of the art piece of machinery and putting it to good use that I hope never gets old.

So, in the end, I ended up all geared for the wedding tomorrow. Hopefully Samantha can knock the socks off of these peeps and get herself a job there. That would be fantastic. Also, this could be really get my foot in the door for maybe helping them out over the summer and making some cold, hard clams. If nothing else it'll be fun to use the nice camera again. I've never worked with Sam before, so hopefully we won't spend the whole day ruining each other's shots.

Battery check

2009-05-28T15:09:00.002-04:00

Lasterday I bought insurance for the scooter and today I went over to Autozone, who offers free battery charging. I have to go pick it up tomorrow.

Sam found interesting things on the internet. Out.

You got me on my knees

2009-05-18T15:33:00.003-04:00

*trumpets sound*

Layla is alive! I just got her up and running a few minutes ago and everything seems fine...besides that weird noise coming from the fan shroud. But we're excited and ignoring it for now!

Samantha and I wanted to go to Hamilton and get the title and everything, but it's too late because they close at 4:30 and I have to take the scoot with me, which means cleaning out the Jeep, getting gas and driving to the title office. I'll have to go earl tomorrow and get my title switched over to my name, order some license plates and get my temporary motorcycle certification all squared away. Oh happy days!

ALSO. Tonight is $1 margaritas at 45 and Tyler is coming up for the occasion. We'll discuss how seeing Star Trek three times was not only unnecessary, but reckless and snooty.

Sam wants to nap out in the sun but, as the Disney commercial goes: "I'm too excited to sleep!"

50 cents a minute

2009-05-16T13:02:00.002-04:00

So you may be wondering "What's new?"

That's a good question. School is over, which is weird. It's all nice outside, which is weird. I don't have anything to do, which is weird. But that last part I can fix. I got another job from Craigslist. A guy wants me to edit some home videos he's made down to their best parts and put it on a DVD. So that should be pretty interesting.

Last night Kamal, Kate, Samantha, Mike and I all ended up hanging out at our house and then going to Balcony for a show by the Sinsinnati Sinners, a two man band featuring a friend Matt. Matt used to drive a snow white Vespa, which was amazing, until he apparently traded it to a guy at Vertigo Tattoos for free tattoos for life. He's that kind of guy. So we went to see them, which was a total blast for me. I haven't had that much fun Uptown for a while. After the show came to an abrupt stop when the drummer fell off his stool and couldn't play anymore, we hung out with Matt for a few minutes and then headed home. We also worked out some details for a double date with Kamal and Kate.

Before that, Annie and Tony were in town camping in Hueston Woods. Sam and I visited them at their campsite and they came and had fun at our house when the world decided to rain all over the place. They actually went back to their tent about an hour before all hell broke loose and all the roads in and out of Hueston Woods flooded. We tried to go out there on Friday, but the road was covered with water and we couldn't get to them and Hueston Woods is so gigantic and confusing I couldn't find the road to get to the campsites from a different direction.

Oooh. Samantha, Mike and I also went to the park. Mike and I played half a game of croquet, because I'm missing 4 of the 9 wickets. Sam jogged while we were there. I had plans to lay out in the sun like Zeek, but the ground was soaking wet, so we just left instead.

Probably one of the least eloquent blog posts. Oh well. I'll review this list whenever I need to think of something to do.

As luck would have it

2009-05-15T13:08:00.003-04:00

I finally got the title to my scooter a while ago, but I've been to busy to take care of any of that junk. So I decided to start it up last week and natta. The thing won't start.... ugh. So it looks like I'm back to scouring the internet and taking the thing apart over and over again until everything clicks and it's running. I need it running in the next week, so that when I get scheduled I can ride it to work because that would be awesome. If I can't get it fixed soon... I'm afraid I'm getting tired of looking at the poor pooped out thing... and a garage sale is all but eminent.

Something about little cubes

2009-05-07T18:19:00.001-04:00

I found this while browsing Vimeo. The best animated short film I've ever seen.

La maison en petits cubes from javier cuello on Vimeo.

T Minus

2009-05-04T10:14:00.000-04:00

2:14 until German exam

Is this going to last forever?

2009-05-01T12:39:00.003-04:00

Just got home from my final day of class. It would be perfect if there weren't finals next week. But I'm willing to forget about them for at least a day, and just enjoy the molasses crawl of summer for a change.

I finished editing the show, and got it on DVD. I've watched it at least 4 times on DVD, not to mention the countless times on the computer. Mike, Kate and I decided to be real college students last night, so we agreed to meet up and head out to the free Girltalk concert in Millet. As Mike and I were sitting around and talking with Sam, who couldn't come because of stupid homework, Hans (the ShotBong guy) called and invited us to come experience his invention before the concert. Mike and I went over, because Tess lives right next to Hans and it was on our way to meet Kate. Good ol' Hans got Wildberry uptown to agree to stock the ShotBong, so I guess this is really working out for him.

We walked all the way to Millet, waited around for Girltalk, and once he started playing his music, we promptly left. I've never heard acoustics so bad. The old Macbook Sam bought like 6 years ago sounds better than that concert did. We walked all the way back in the pouring rain and hung out with Sam at home. It was way more fun than being at a concert. Kate also gave us free dance t-shirts. All in all it was a pretty interesting night.

As we left the house to go visit Hans and see if Tess wanted to hang out, Mike said "This is going to be the craziest thing we ever do in college."

He was right, just not in the way he meant.

Some Day

2009-04-29T11:38:00.002-04:00

This the brand new editing suite we've been using for our show. Both of those monitors are about the size of my television. I'm sitting here trying to export the video so I can burn it to a DVD...but looks like it's going to take another 30 minutes. It seems like blogging has changed from something I do when I'm bored, to something I do while projects are exporting. Let me take you on a tour of this picture while we wait.

Just off the frame left is a nice little JVC minDV deck, which you use to import tapes into the computer. It has a monitor hooked up to it, so you can see the playback in higher quality. There's also a VCR, but I'm not quite sure why... maybe just for nostalgia's sake. NExt is the gigantic Mac sitting on the desk. I would tell you what model it is, but they refuse to sully their desing with any kind of identificating marks. Holy crap, I just pulled up the "About This Mac" menu and it appears that this is a Quad-Core Intel.... I didn't even know they made quad core. I'm not even sure what that means. Right in front of me are two Samsung displays that look as crisp as Santana Champagne.

We're at 28% now and the time has gone up to 38 minutes... bummer. I think I'm going to go home and nap while this finishes and come back and burn it some other time.

Biblical Terms

2009-04-28T22:52:00.002-04:00

A translation of part of a dialogue for my final exam revealed the Old World nature of the German language.

Monuesday [Mawhn-oose-dai]

2009-04-28T03:15:00.002-04:00

n. colloquial- a) meant to emphasize the overlap of Monday and Tuesday b) when Monday and Tuesday blur together due to extreme workloads

14 hours of editing done, the video isn't. It's 3:20AM, and I'm just beginning the rest of my work for Monuesday.

Living the Dream

2009-04-23T22:07:00.006-04:00

So it's not really a secret to anyone that I've always loved to dress up. Super heroes, knights, policemen... anything with a definite uniform. Well, a little more secretly, I've always wanted to dress up in a giant animal suit. One summer I almost applied for a character job at King's Island, but thought about it too much, and decided it was a bad idea. Well, when I heard that we had access to a bear suit for my Com312 class, I jumped all over it. Tess and I wrote a character into our story who is a bear, or more specifically: an anonymous jerk dressed up like a bear. I'll admit that part, if not the only good reason I wrote this character was so I could get my hands on that bear suit.

I'm proud to report that I can now cross "wear a giant animal costume" off my bucket list.

It takes some people 70 years, others must face terminal illness, but me? I'm fulfilling one of my life's goals on the cusp of my 22nd birthday. It's good to know when hit your peak, instead of realizing it much, much later, and being all sad and lonely about it, you know, like in Wes Anderson movies.

Video madness

2009-04-23T00:15:00.001-04:00

Yet another. This time, the killer promo for The Tie That Binds. AKA Impromptu project to avoid reading that dumb play.

A Bear, Booze and a Banana from Mark Roberts on Vimeo.

The cool thing is...

2009-04-22T21:28:00.001-04:00

Introducing.... The ShotBong!

ShotBong promotional video from Mark Roberts on Vimeo.

Working from home

2009-04-21T19:35:00.001-04:00

Finished

2009-04-20T22:01:00.001-04:00

Here's a sneak peak still frame from the Caldwell/Turney wedding.

It was a lovely wedding. I hope the video does it enough justice.

"The cool thing is that the tube holds exactly 1.25 ounces, so you don't have to worry about over or under pouring."

2009-04-20T20:31:00.003-04:00

The ever-lovely Samantha and I just got back from Decibel, the bar above 45 East, where we were shooting a product demo for the ShotBong. It's an aptly named product that lets you take shots like a beer bong. It actually separates out the liquor and the chaser, so they don't mix.

I'm not sure I get it either, but it was a job. There was a lot of drink talk, and I'm not a big drinker, but the people who came for the shoot seemed to enjoy it. Free drinks, who doesn't enjoy that? So that's two commissioned projects "in the can" as they say in the biz. Craigslist was the best thing that ever happened to my bank account. This is like being at a hands on technical school, but getting paid to do your homework. It's turning out to be a heck of a lot of fun, too.

Today I used the sexy little Panasonic DVCpro HD. Although we weren't filming in HD, this camera makes everything else I've used look like crudely drawn cartoons. I'm uploading the footage now. Should be pretty interesting. The inventor of the ShotBong even suggested we keep in touch for future projects.

Actually, Hans just dropped by the house and gave us a $50 gift card to the Cheesecake Factory and thanked us again for the help. This has to be the nicest guy I've met in a long time... who on Earth would go through the trouble of driving over here to give up a little something extra that we didn't even agree on? Jeez.

In other news, the wedding video is pretty much done. I'm just trying to work out some glitches, and there are quite a few. I hope to get some snippets loaded on Vimeo. I won't load the whole thing because it's 45 minutes long and I'm pretty sure my free Vimeo account wont let me upload a file that big.

It's only 9 oclock and now I'm all jazzed. I wish there was something awesome to do in Oxford that wouldn't require me to spend my newly found wealth.

When the Birds come to Roost

2009-04-17T22:57:00.002-04:00

The Cardinal's Safe Haven from Mark Roberts on Vimeo.

This Cardinal set up shop on the deck. We discovered her when grillin some foods. Sorry for the poor quality, but I was shooting through windows and screens, trying to not frighten her off.

Ich habe meine Zukunft gekauft

2009-04-16T12:23:00.002-04:00

Check this beauty out. I heard rumors about Final Cut Express being much cheaper at the bookstore than on Apple's website. For once rumors are great! Check out the price point of $69, that's $131 less than online. Still kind of expensive for my budget and the educational edition can't be upgraded when new versions come out, but it'll be worth it. Now I can work from home on all my projects, near light and food, rather than the dark, empty, sad looking editing studio in Williams Hall.

If only I had waited to upload that wedding footage. It's all saved on the computer at school. Class is starting so I gotta jet.

Happy Time Fun Hour

2009-04-15T19:54:00.002-04:00

We started shooting "The Tie that Binds" today. For those of you out of the loop with my day to day academic career (don't worry, I'm pretty much in that category as well) "The Tie that Binds" is a soap opera I wrote with Tess Waldburger. It's a project for our studio production class, and our team of 7 is creating it from scratch. Kamal is even composing original music. It's kind of hard to explain... it's a show within a show. The soap opera follows the crew of a children's TV show named Happy Time Fun Hour, as they struggle to finish the pilot episode and their lives fall apart, all because of one mysterious force, the tie that binds them to each other. It's being heralded as "an emotional tour de force," and "the most suspenseful series since Dallas."

Today we shot a scene with Mike and Kate. Mike plays the silly dentist on the kid's show whose continuous struggle with drug addiction brings his producer and sister, Kate, to her last nerve. It went great.

I've never finished up an initial day of shooting and been excited. Everyone was really into it and we got more done than we expected. I have my fingers crossed that the next 7 days of shooting will turn out as well.

At the end of the day, I had everyone put their hand in for a classic "dugout" moment, like you see in emotional sports movies... didn't turn out quite how I expected.

It only took 4 months to upload this

2009-04-14T20:02:00.002-04:00

Another video, this time Samantha taking pictures in Buckwheat Park. I've also joined Vimeo and will be uploading all of my future videos there as well. It's much more artsy than Youtube... better quality too.

An Afternoon with My Wife from Mark Roberts on Vimeo.

One day, two posts? Both technically the next day? THIS IS MADNESS!

2009-04-11T00:56:00.003-04:00

Today, I went to a wedding that had less than 15 people in attendance. I wasn't even aware that was an option, I just assumed you had to invite everyone you knew. It was actually refreshingly simple. No music, no fan fare. Heck, the matron of honor, the mother of the groom and the flowers didn't show up until after everything was over.

The bride hired me to do some videography of the ceremony and the reception. Luckily there were a few photographers, because I was still messing around, trying to figure out what I was going to do when the bride rolled up in a car, hopped out and marched directly down the aisle. They started snapping pictures which served as my cue to turn my camera on. I was still waiting for music...or at least 1 person to sign as witness.

But it actually was really well done. The festivities were at the reception, instead of at the church. There were some great performers, a singer and keyboard player, a good DJ and a fantastic solo lyrical dance. I hope to god that footage turns out because she was great. Also because I got paid and if it doesn't turn out, we've got problems. To those of you who are planning weddings and want them video taped, remember: if there are no lights, there is no film.

I actually had fun. It took a few minutes to get used to the idea of being basically invisible while drawing an inordinate amount of attention to myself. There are two basic reactions to a video camera: a) attempt to play it cool, as if you are unaware of being taped, while smiling a little more than usual, ceasing conversation, and periodically glancing out of the corner of your eye to check if the camera is gone yet; or b) engaging with the camera as if it got you thumbing through your collection of unopened, mint condition Phantom Menace action figures (or some other guilty pleasure). I got more of the former, less of the latter. One lady, when her friend brought me to her attention, immediately stopped dancing and turned to look at me in a way not unlike the dramatic chipmunk.

Everyone seemed to have a good time, and no one got belligerently drunk. I think that should be the mark of a successful wedding: no one getting goners. Drunk, sure, but still sober enough to know the limits of the dollar dance. There are limits. I'm not making this stuff up. I figured they were just understood by all. I've been wrong before...

I'm kind of dreading and looking forward to editing at the same time. It should be interesting, if nothing else. If I had Final Cut at home, I wouldn't care, but having to spend 10 hours in the dark, windowless belly of William's Hall, trying to avoid Steve who specifically told me not to use university equipment to make money... it just wears on one's psyche.

I'll try and put up some snippets for your viewing pleasure in the coming days, or more likely weeks... maybe next month, but definitely by 2010.

Shazbot

2009-04-11T00:47:00.003-04:00

After nearly a decade, my glasses have broken. They've been faithful, useful and relatively stylish this entire time, which is more than you can ask for from a pair of glasses. I took them off my face and the left ear stick (for lack of a better term) just dangled from my ear. I thought "Oh I'll have to get a new screw" but the problem is more complicated. See the little silvery piece jutting off to the left, near the lens? That is supposed to be inside the ear stick, but the two have come loose. I just stuck it back together and am wearing them anyways. I'll just have to let them be all flimsy and fall off my face until I can get some white tape. What kind of tape are you supposed to use to fix glasses, anyway? It always looked like that medical tape to me.

My wife is pretty, awesome

2009-04-09T01:43:00.002-04:00

30 MPH here I come

2009-04-01T23:15:00.003-04:00

Got this pretty little number in the mail today.

Very official looking, complete with stags holding a shield and shiny metallic watermarks. The next step is to get to Hamilton and pay some fees to get this transfered to my name, and then the scooter will be ready to hit Kroger every night for the next 6 months. That is, of course, if I can get her running again. I made the mistake of being lazy and not winterizing properly (read: at all). I had lost faith in getting a title completely and had decided to hawk it this spring. But my lovely wife is tricky, and knows how to put together a bitchin' Christmas present. Sooooo, if anyone wants to take a motorcycle safety class with me, let me know your availability. Don't worry, they provide the motorcycles.

In other news Sam's gallery show in Covington is practically here! I can't believe it. It just came out of no where and BOOM, big time placement in a prime location. I mean, they call this place "the art district" which sounds just snooty enough to be awesome. I'm not sure what to expect once we get there, but I'm sure it's going to be delicious... erm, I mean artistic.

In other other news (today has been a good day) my Craigslist posting just turned to pure gold. Last night I was hired to produce a baseball scouting video for a high school student. His mom has hired me to shoot, edit and publish his techniques and skills for a kind of sports portfolio. It's something athletes have done to show to prospective college coaches and professional talent scouts. Not only that, but she wants photographs done as well, how convenient, so Sam has a job, too. We're even going to carpool. I'm pretty excited about my first real (read: paid) gig in video production. The team is a "select" team, which is for especially talented athletes and word in the dugout is that all the players are going to need similar reels produced. Guess who just got their feet in the door? That's right, we did. God I love the internet. Baseball teams have , what?, at least 9 players? Plus, she's already courting Sam to shoot her other son's football games, and let me know that, over the next few years she is going to need 4 to 6 of these types of projects done for her various children and their various sports. I don't want to count my eggs before they hatch or anything but....

*drool*

Youd got to be kidding me

2009-03-29T22:29:00.003-04:00

While surfing around on Craigslist under job listings I came across this gem. I'm not sure I want children to be anywhere near that school...

Craigslist

2009-03-27T20:39:00.002-04:00

So I've been trolling Craigslist for job listings recently. I've been looking for jobs beyond working in food or retail (there aren't many) and also for photography jobs Sam might be able to do.

Then I decided that, after the positive response to the video of Jane and Mom's suggestion that people might pay for such a thing, I should post a listing offering video services.

I never expected anyone to reply, but lo and behold. A window installation company contacted me and wants to go over some details about a promotional video. They also want some still photography. How perfect?

I just worked up some numbers and shot off an e-mail to Mr. Mann (no joke). So, hopefully, by next week Sam and I will both be out working.

Annnnnnd by the time I typed this he has responded. Looks like it's a no-go. So, hopefully, by next week I will receive another inquiry.

My Eyeball itches and I'm grumpy

2009-03-26T00:28:00.002-04:00

My eyeball decided to spite my face. I had this weird tenderness around my eye for a few days, which I naturally blamed on Sam beating me in the middle of the night.

Turns out something else happened. What exactly, we're not sure. I went to the health center and they hooked me up with antibiotics and antihystemine pills. I'm taking medicine 4 times a day. The doctor said that it "might start to get better in a week," which is not encouraging. My eyelid is about 10 times bigger than it's supposed to be, all red and itchy and irritating. I'm pretty sure the bulbulous growth has consumed my eyelashes. It's pretty bad, but it seems to be getting better. Sam says that when I have my glasses on, it's hard to notice. No one in my classes seems to notice until I mention it, so that could be a good sign. Or it could mean that people can't tell the real me from the Elephantitus me, which concerns me.... there's a difference, right? I mean, I don't look like this all the time, do I?

I've been coping in some new and exciting ways, namely lots of strawberry shortcake. Although I'll never abandon my true coping mechanism: being pissed at the world.

[note: I meant to include a picture of the Elephant man in a light hearted attempt to exaggerate my illness, but I didn't. Not because I couldn't find a picture, they are plentiful, but that shit's way grosser than I remembered.]

Yay!

2009-03-16T23:37:00.002-04:00

Lindsey Saum got engaged! Apparently she wasn't expecting it, but we all know she probably was.

Yay for her and Alex! They're going to lead a fantastically hyppie-istic life full of Reggae and Techno... oh and liquor.

I hope they invite us to the wedding ;)

Oh, BTW

2009-03-03T00:06:00.002-05:00

IT'S FRIGGIN MARCH!
RAWR!

Clams, Gs, Smackaroos, etc.

2009-03-02T23:35:00.002-05:00

Today I turned in my entry for the Edward J Montaine writing award. It's a thing Miami does every year to recognize excellence in English. I hope they don't hold it against me that I'm not an English major. I was for about 3 weeks... does that count?

My professor from my last creative writing class brought the awards to my attention and said I should enter. So I did. I guess at some point in the future I'll find out how it went. If I don't ever find out, I guess that means I didn't win.

It is kind of odd though, how this whole thing works. There are different awards for Seniors and Juniors, which makes sense I guess. The weird part is that all entries from all categories are judged for the same three or four spots. So non-fiction essays are compared to journalism pieces are compared to poetry are compared to fiction. I guess it's easier to only hand out over-all first, second and third than it is to give multiple awards for each genre. It's a good thing, though, because spreading the awards around too much would water down the $3,000 first place finish for Juniors.

If you had the same reaction to that figure that I did, go wash your mouth out with soap. It's no joke, either. First place is $3,000, second place weighs in at over $1k and third is still a hefty $500. Not that the money is the most important part of applying to be recognized by Miami and its panel of outside judges as a great writer, but it sure does get the imagination going.

I think whoever wins could officially consider themselves as a paid writer, which is the Holy Grail for writers. It would probably be the first time that person would ever earn money writing. Maybe I'm not as romantic as my starving-artist brethren, but damn, that's a lot of money. Needless to say, I'm not too egotistical to sell out.

Semester before last I was in a creative non-fiction class with a girl who wrote some of the best things I've ever read. She wrote stories from her life like they were a novel. And not any novel, a good one. She wasn't flamboyant or verbose, which a lot of people seem to strive for these days. She was honest, almost painfully so, and her writing made me feel both inspired and hopeless. She won last year's Senior award of $5,000. She won with a journalism piece. I hope no one that good is submitting this year.

Twitterpated

2009-02-25T14:46:00.003-05:00

It's almost spring and you know what that means.

Yeah, well Spring Break...right. But what else?

Mmhmm, warm weather.... and?

Baby animals? Okay thats a stretch. Try again.

Easter! Correct! But what about Easter?

The fabulous candy. Easter is the best time of for candy. Forget Halloween. Halloween is all about quantity. Children throw quality aside in a mad rush to accumulate enough candy to maintain a month long sugar buzz. Easter is a grown up's holiday, as far as candy is concerned. Need proof? Let me introduce you to some of my friends.
First up: Starburst Jellybeans. These are the best thing to happen to jellybeans since J.K. Rowling invented them. She did. She makes everything better, even the bad Harry Potter movies. The problem with normal jellybeans is that they don't taste all that great. Sure, its fun to mix buttered popcorn with lime juice and almost throw up, but beyond taste experiments, jellybeans never had much to offer. Until now.

Next: Cadbury Creme Eggs. Despite the fact that these have actually shrunk over the years, they're still delicious. There was one one Easter when my Dad bought like 8 eggs for me. I kept them in my room. I'm pretty sure there were at least 4 left months later. They're delicious, but I can't even ignore the fact that they're a little too much.

Lastly: Reese's Peanut Butter eggs. Nuff said. These are the best of all the shaped Reese's. Pumpkins? They're okay. Trees? Those are pretty good, too. But eggs are definitely the best.

Join me and together we could rule the Universe as father and son!

2009-02-22T19:42:00.005-05:00

Flame retardant jacket - check
Respirator - check
Goggles - check
Hard hat - check
Face shield - check
Gloves - check
Enough math skills to properly measure and cut metal tubing - ...almost?

I'm all about dressing up, and sometimes my job at the Scene Shop provides the perfect excuse.

If those respirators came in black, they'd be perfect for a movie featuring soldiers in a post apocalyptic hellscape chasing down the only people known to survive the nuclear fallout without contracting an ultra-mutated form of cancer, whom they'd like to force into highly invasive medical testing in order to find the cure. Holy crap that's a great idea.... I gotta go.

Feeling Official

2009-02-10T00:34:00.003-05:00

Today was the day that Dana Priest, reporter for the Washington Post, held a lecture on campus. She is the reporter who brought the conditions at Walter Reed Hospital to the light, among some other important news stories of recent years. For my studio production class we set out to do a mobile show, trucking 3 cameras and tri-pods, audio equipment, a full intercom system, two tape decks, a mobile switcher/graphics generator and a ton of cables.

I volunteered to direct the show and Mike signed up for Technical Director, so we had a lot to do during the show. Since the show was on location at Hall Auditorium we were extremely limited in what we could do. All of our cameras were set up in the balcony, which made for some awkward angles. Dana Priest also decided to talk for over an hour and a half, which, when you're shooting three stationary cameras (or sitting in the audience, for that matter) makes for a grueling experience. There's only so much you can do with tri-pods, so we had our cameras searching for interesting shots all night, mostly to no avail. We got some interesting stuff going about half an hour in, when Mike suggested adding some camera movement. We panned across the crowd and eventually ended up with one shot that was a pan, a tilt and a zoom all rolled into one (that is every possible thing you can do with a camera on a tri-pod without messing with the focus). Long story short: we were desperate for something interesting.

At one point Stephanie said," Is camera 2 on air?"
"Yes, you're still on," I said.
"Ok, I just wanted to show you something."
I laughed and had Mike put a different camera on. "Take camera 3. Okay camera 2, what was it?"
On the preview screen, camera 2 pulled off of Ms. Priest and passed over the heads in the darkened theater, then zoomed in on a guy in a brown shirt, completely conked out. His head had rolled over and come to rest on the shoulder of the guy sitting next to him.
We all started laughing and someone said, "That pretty much sums up the night."

I just checked my e-mail and Glenn has made an announcement:
"Hello Folks, Due to the unbelievably long program at Hall Auditorium on Monday night, I have decided to declare an official COM312 Skip Day. There will be no Com 312 class on Tuesday Feb. 10. Enjoy the day and don't say I never gave you anything. "

Another good thing about being married

2009-02-05T12:46:00.001-05:00

I can put garlic powder on my pizza, without harming my chances of getting a date.

Das tut mir leid

2009-02-04T19:54:00.006-05:00

For those of you who don't keep up with The Colbert Report (read: unAmericans) Stephen sometimes pulls out what he calls the "On Notice" board. Being put On Notice signifies the official rebuke of Stephen and the Colbert Nation. Pictured left is the dry-erase version available at Comedy Central's website.

As most of you know, I'm generally a carefree, fun-loving individual. With that said, I'm putting a few things On Notice:

1. The German language
2. Cold
3. My bank account
4. Whoever invented the German language
5. Germans (presumably invented German language)
6. Windchill
7. Miami University (I saw a girl writhing on the ground with a broken leg yesterday, from slipping on the snowy sidewalk)
8. John Mayer improvising live

EDIT:
9. Ohio is also On Notice until it decides to be warm

Superbored Sunday

2009-02-01T16:41:00.002-05:00

Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon...

Right now I'm waiting for my video to export. There wasn't anything to do today, so when Samantha said she was headed out to work on some homework, I drove over to Williams and finished up my latest video project. That's right, I actually came to campus on a Sunday. I'm pretty certain I have sworn to never do this. Of well.

I was expecting to spend an hour here. Looks more like 2 and a half. Unfortunately technology is never quite as fast as it should be. But, on the bright side, there's a new video coming soon! It should only take about 72 hours to upload it to Youtube, so check back.

WOOT! I think it's done. Peace.

Snow Day / Snow Crab Legs

2009-01-29T12:56:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a snow day. Samantha and I had Snow Crab legs. Mike and Dave came over and we played Call of Duty IV and watched House of the Flying Daggers. Needless to say it was pretty sweet just hanging out all day, which is making today feel like another Monday, which is a bummer.

But it'll be like today is Monday, tomorrow is still Friday. So, technically, this is a one day week. SCORE!

Plugged in

2009-01-27T12:06:00.002-05:00

Now that school's settled down or, more appropriately, I've settled down about school, I've had the opportunity to start getting into this whole "second semester" groove.

I managed to drop by the editing studio the other day and start putting together some footage I took of the darling wife when we went out snapping photos over Winter Break. Since I didn't have much to do and Samantha had to go back to campus and work on her printmaking projects, I just hopped over to Williams Hall. That's where they keep Final Cut Express on these little white boxes they call computers. It'll be a pain trying to get any personal projects done after about week 4, because everyone is going to be piled into the studio trying to get their video projects edited. So I started early.

Hopefully I'll be able to pirate some music and get it uploaded soon, which will seal the deal on another Mark Roberts Video Production.

In a related story: I'm taking suggestions in case anyone has a better name than Mark Roberts Video Production. Something like Blazin' Flapjacks Productions....except less dumb.

In 5...4...3...2...

2009-01-11T22:00:00.003-05:00

Annnnnnnd we're back with another exciting episode of second semester.

Back in Oxford after the long, long, luxurious, lovely break and oh what a sight it is. Snow lightly dusting the streets, etc. etc. It's hard to get excited knowing school starts tomorrow. Oh and so does my job (same as before). It's going to be weird being here and going to school again. A guy can really get used to mooching off his parents and doing absolutely nothing.

Check that...I did manage to catch a lot of good fish in Animal Crossing. But other than that, nothing.

3 weeks off!

2008-12-18T23:10:00.011-05:00

IT'S
CHRISTMAS
BREAK!!!

I finished all my crap! Eat THAT, procrastination! You're all like ooooh I'm gonna fart around and make you not do your stuff until the last minute. Not this time! I finished everything the night before it was due. Plus, you tried to distract me with that Mario game, but guess what? I finished that and then did homework, HA! And also, 3 weeks off! And also-also, CHRISTMAS! Suck it, Me! No matter how hard you try, I'm always gonna win. Just give up, do it, give up. Better yet, take a break over there on the couch for 3 weeks and do some online shopping for things you can use to distract me next semester. I hear there's good deals on eBay.

Official Internet Debut

2008-12-17T20:37:00.002-05:00

3 hours writing
2 hours of revision
2 hours creating a shot list and shoot schedule
10 hours of shooting
14 hours of editing

What does it all add up to? The internet debut of Last night, I think she left, my final exam project for Communications 211. It's not the most fantastic of videos, but I'm pretty happy with it. I hope to get everyone else's videos from my class and post those as well. Last night was written and directed by myself. This is the first of what I hope is many future (and progressively better) video projects.

We're receiving such critical acclaim as:

"Yeah, I liked it." -Some dude in my class,
"Good editing." -Professor Sholle and, my personal favorite,
"It's depressing." Samantha Roberts

Without further ado:

The Beginning of the End

2008-12-15T22:03:00.002-05:00

I finished up editing on my short film for Com211. I spent a lot of time in the editing studio. It's a grueling process, but it's actually pretty fun and interesting.

I planned on coming home and loading it, but I couldn't get the file to work right. I saved it properly (I think) but Final Cut is tricky. It'll only load on the computer I used to edit. I think I made a mistake by not copying the entire file, with all the raw footage and music. On every computer I've tried, either nothing happens or I get a message about missing video files. Luckily, I can play the audio perfectly. There's nothing quite like disembodied voices talking about god-knows-what.

This marks the end of my first day of finals. I turned in my English portfolio, so hopefully that goes well. I can't think of many reasons it wouldn't. I finished the video. And that's it for today.

We're convening tomorrow at 2:45 to watch everyone's videos. It's going to be awesome. Haley, Mike and I were in the studio together for 14 hours over the last two days. Both of their videos are looking great. Originally I thought Haley was insane, trying to do film noir lighting. Then I heard about a Model-T, and I was sure she was crazy. Today I looked over and saw her actors in period costumes, and I realized she was pulling it off. She's got the whole nine yards: fedoras, suits, a shoulder holster, a gun, a BADGE! I got a private viewing of her film, titled Watermarks, and I was impressed. It's funny how Haley thought her project was sucking, Mike thought his project was horrible, and I was sure mine was crap, but by the end of the night everyone was pretty happy with how things turned out.

I'm headed back in tomorrow to burn a DVD and turn everything in. Hopefully I'll have a viable copy to upload to Youtube and, of course, here on 8Ounce. Check back later for the online premier of Last night, I think she left.

If she gets kidnapped again, I'm gonna scream

2008-12-14T00:46:00.005-05:00

(Spoiler Warning)

Mario and I just saved Princess Peach again, this time on Super Mario Galaxy. I must say, that was a good game. It's amazing that they still make Mario interesting. As I get older, though, I realize that I sympathize with Bowser more. He always has a grand plan, albeit evil, and things never quite work out. Although this time Nintendo decided to keep him alive, I guess for the sake of continuity. Seems like an odd choice. By now I think we're all used to seeing his demise, and then him popping back up to nab the Princess come Quarter 4 a few years later (just in time for Christmas).

In a related incident, while Googling the picture shown at right I came across something interesting. Note: make sure your moderate safe search is on before Googling "Princess Peach," unless, of course... well... nevermind. That wasn't the interesting thing. The sweet Princess Peach cuff design, hand cross stitched by some dude's mom was what I found.

I've never wanted a princess shirt so badly. Who's thinking of a new screen printing project over winter break? Oh, I am. I AM!

I couldn't help it...

2008-12-14T00:42:00.003-05:00

Samantha went out for a run the other day, and posted about it.

Which reminded me of this:

It's funny because it's true.

Goodbyes are for losers

2008-12-10T19:01:00.003-05:00

Today marked the end of the best class I've ever taken at Miami: English 320. It was a fiction workshop, and everything you could ask for from that type of class.

It's not often that you can have a room full of people all sharing their writing without anyone blatantly being competitive or trying to make someone else feel bad in an attempt to feed their ego. My last workshop class was like that. There were a handful of people who thought they were the best thing that ever happened to writing (one in particular, the worst of all, happened to write exclusively about getting drunk).

When class was over people lingered around and talked for a few minutes before we all left for our next classes. A few of us decided that we should keep getting together and sharing our writing as a source of inspiration. Like exercise, I need someone around to threaten me. If I'm not watching someone else put forth the effort, there's no way on earth I'll do it on my own.

Need to See:

2008-12-08T23:35:00.002-05:00

Mike, Sam and I are drafting a list of movies we need to watch. The idea is to finally see some of the most famous and celebrated movies over the ages. If you have any suggestions add a comment. But not just any film, they need to be well known and celebrated. The Wedding Crashers, for instance, is a great movie, but it doesn't make the "rewatch" list.

Need to see:
Casablanca
Raging Bull
Schindler’s List
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Once Upon a Time in the West
Dr. Strangelove
Alfred Hitchcock:
-Vertigo
- Psycho
-Rear Window
-The Birds
-Dial M for Murder
-North by Northwest
Apocalypse Now
Lawrance of Arabia
Taxi Driver
Amelie
Amadeus
Chinatown
2001 A Space Odyssey
Alien
Pans Labyrinth
Mad Max
The Deer Hunter
Rashomon
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Rewatch:
Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Leon the Professional
ChungKing Express
The Pianist
Donnie Darko
Reservoir Dogs
American Beauty
Braveheart
The Lion King
Almost Famous

A Portrait of Liberty

2008-12-07T11:40:00.005-05:00

Weekends are lovely, in case you haven't noticed. I'm indulging myself with lazing around right now. If you haven't tried it this weekend, there are still a few hours left. Hop to it.

Today is Samantha's exhibition. Her class spent the semester in Liberty, Indiana taking pictures to create narratives about this small town just over the Ohio border. They are showing their work off today and the prints will be for sale. There are rumors that a few of Sam's pictures are already being eyed by a potential buyer.

She worked really hard this semester, standing out in the bitter cold. I'm not joking, I went with her a few times and it was cold.

I'm really proud of her. She spent the entire semester in various studios around campus, either perfecting her art or teaching. It wasn't easy, and sometimes I could tell it was the last thing she wanted to do, but she kept working. It's hard to spend days and days on something creative, only to realize your work is never over. A lot of times I finish something and never want to see it again. But Sam strives to make everything fit her vision, and this semester everything came out beautifully. She creates things I can't comprehend. How does she come up with these ideas? A lot of times I'm around when she does, but it's still amazing to see a vague idea jump from her head to a sticky note, to a sketchbook, to the computer and eventually to the wall of an exhibition.

That's the kind of attitude, the kind of perseverance, that I wish I could learn to maintain. That's the kind of woman I married, and I love everything about her.

Keep up the good work, Tick.

I wish I could draw

2008-12-05T00:15:00.001-05:00

I hate it when I'm right

2008-12-04T23:01:00.002-05:00

After e-mailing back and forth, and after several assurances that, in fact, she would be able to make it, my leading actress for my writing/directorial debut just e-mailed me and canceled. I called it.

Such a starlet, canceling less than 48 hours before the shoot. She was all about it until I sent her the script... hmmmmm... nah, must be a coincidence.

This means I'm going to have to convince someone from my group to step up. It shouldn't be a huge problem, seeing as their grade kind of depends on us finishing this project. I guess I could cut one part out completely. It's kind of hard to work out a vision when you've got 8 people, all of the students with different schedules at the crunch time in either their junior or senior year of college trying to get together and make a movie. But that's why we get paid the big bucks.

Well I'm off to e-mail the crew and let them know what's up. If there are any aspiring actresses out there who want to drop by and spend a few hours Saturday morning being on camera, let me know.

Hello out there

2008-12-03T00:04:00.002-05:00

Laying in bed, I noticed that Sam was updating her blog, which made me think "Oh, shit, I have a blog."

So here I am.

....how 'bout that weather?

I'm not used to being busy and, let's face it, I'm lazy. So, needless to say, this semester has turned out to be more than I bargained for. I didn't sign up for college to work. Where's the endless party that Hollywood promised? You know, the one full of free beer, drunken frat boys and girls in skirts doing keg stands ?

It's actually across campus and married people aren't invited. Oh well. I did get to play ultimate frisbee this one time, but I kept almost passing out.

So in my endeavor to make college worthwhile by attending classes and doing homework, I spent a bit of time working up a script for my production class. Professor Sholle chose four from the scripts everyone in class turned in, and mine happened to be chosen. Mike and I had this grand plan to work together and make an awesome movie, but his was chosen too.

I've been spending a lot of time getting things together to produce the short, and a lot of time working on a short story for my fiction class. The story is done, or at least I'm sick of it. It's been a solid month of reading and rewriting. I've got the script pretty much squared away, a shot list all worked up, at least 2 actors from the theater department and a tentative shooting schedule for Saturday. Things are coming down to the point of Reckoning. I'm hoping all my work over the past few weeks has prepared me for for shooting the video and to have my story workshopped in class.

It's exciting stuff. I've got the next three years planned out: the short is a huge YouTube hit, which is where Wes Anderson discovers it. We spend the next year working on the screenplay and the theatrical release opens to critical acclaim. Meanwhile, my short story works its way through the hands of various english professors until one, who happens to be good friends with the fiction editor at Esquire, hooks me up with a run in the February issue (the one with Natalie Portman on the cover). That's where Wes Anderson discovers it, and we spend the next year working on the screenplay. The critics are mixed, but it's a runaway blockbuster.

I like to cover all my bases.

In case you aren't a dork... yet

2008-11-16T14:55:00.003-05:00

The new trailer for Watchmen was just released. Erik was kind enough to clue me in. Here it is, in case you aren't already thrilled. Watch it and then go get the book. Read that, then wait with baited breath. This is the graphic novel that features Rorschach, the masked vigilante I dressed up as for Halloween.

ANNNNND... TIME!

2008-11-13T00:52:00.001-05:00

approximately 11 hours later, Mark finished the first draft of his research paper.

The List

2008-11-05T23:46:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow I must:

-write a paper for English 320
-read and write responses for two workshop stories for English 320
-study for an exam in Communications 353

Tomorrow I should:

-work on my workshop piece for 320 - due Dec 3
-work on my paper for Com 354 - due next Thursday
-begin writing (or at least thinking about) a scene for the next video project in Com 211 - due...uh...soon..?

Tomorrow I will:

-freak out

Positive Reinforcement

2008-11-04T15:44:00.007-05:00

It's such a pain to wake up, walk to your car and drive to the polling place. Then add the fact that you have to push buttons on an electronic voting machine or, even worse, fill out a paper ballet with a pencil, and then hand it over to someone.

Go through all that trouble and what do you get? A sticker? That's cool, but what else? I love a good sticker and all, but something with a little umph would help get out my vote.

Now we're talking. Vote, then mosey on over to your local Chick-fil-A and flash your brand new sticker and you can land yourself a free chicken sandwich, courtesy of those creepy cows.

If you give a voter a sandwich, he's going to need a drink. No problem.

Swing by Starbucks on the way home for a coffee, free of charge to voters.

Just another way capitalism helps democracy. Even if your guy (or gal, or both) loses, you'll still be encouraged to vote next year with the promise of free deep fried, over caffeinated foods. What could be more American?

Check out some other freebies at USA Today.

Film Ahoy!

2008-10-21T19:19:00.004-04:00

I got my camera two weeks ago and it's a real beaut. Everything seems to work fine. I got some discounted film from Kodak because they offer a sweet student discount on their website. Ektachrome 64T is the only color Super 8mm film still in production by Kodak. I got two cartridges because the shipping was too much to justify just buying one. So much for a discount when the shipping is $12 flat rate.

Last Thursday, while Tick was in Liberty, Indiana for the evening, I humped the camera to class and spent my sweet time wandering back, looking for cool things to shoot. With my new Johnny Depp sunglasses and the Super 8 in hand I felt very artsy. I headed up the slant walk looking for squirrels (apparently squirrels is a hard word to spell). I figured I could get pretty close to one, since Oxford is the Squirrel Capitol of Southwest Ohio. Go ahead, look it up...

Some of you might say, "I did look it up and that's wrong," but that's because you looked it up in a book. Next time, try looking it up in your heart.

So I'm crouched down in the grass behind a bench, zeroing in on this particularly interesting squirrel, who's hopping around and digging and all of a sudden his head snaps up and he stares right into my soul. I swear he squinted at me. It made me really uncomfortable, like he knew I was filming him, and did not intend to sign any release forms.

On my way home I had the camera on the tripod, thrown up over my shoulder, enjoying the day and thinking about how cool I must look with this neat camera. I came by the library and passed a girl who was holding what appeared to be a Grade-A digital camcorder, strap around her neck, headphones plugged in to monitor sound, a big old microphone sticking off the front and over each shoulder she had a nice, big digital SLR camera. I thought we might exchange a "hey, nice camera" look, but she didn't notice me. So much for feeling like the coolest kid on campus.

Today I finished off the last 20 feet of film in Liberty, where I went to help Sam finish up her project with one of the high school students. This is the project in the creepy, abandoned opera house, which is even stranger in person. Hopefully the film turns out and I'll be able to post a quick tour.

I'm not sure if I'll send off the cartridge to have it developed, or wait until I film the other one. I'd kind of like to just develop one in case the camera doesn't work and nothing shows up. No sense in possibly ruining two. Of course this whole Super 8 thing is by no means a practical way to shoot, but it really is fun. I'll have to come up with a script for the next cartridge, rather than just shooting squirrels and creepy buildings.

Hmmm, maybe squirrels in creepy buildings.

OMFG

2008-10-19T20:12:00.003-04:00

Delicious. Superb. I would write more, but I feel so heavy my brain won't work. Let my darling wife tell you about it. All I can say is that she continues to surprise me. Apple pie is just like icing on the cake, or in this case like pie in my tummy.

Today was kitchen experimentation day. I made Philly Cheesechickens, which turned out okay. I think a little more practice is in order to get them absolutely disgustingly delicious like Penn Station. The ones I made today didn't even soak through the bread :(

In an unrelated incident: Wii Fit told me I gained 5.3 pounds in the last 3 days.

We Eat a Lot of Cereal

2008-10-08T18:12:00.003-04:00

Samantha and I went gorcery shopping the other day. To cover more ground (mostly because I was incredi-grumpy and I didn't want to spend a single minute in Kroger) we split up. I had a few items to get, she got some. We both got milk and didn't realize it until we had already paid.

We've got to use this milk before it goes bad. I hate letting food go bad. It's just too expensive to mess around with. So every night I ask Sam how many bowls of cereal she's had. She's doing her best to help me defeat the milk burden in our fridge.

These bowls have all been used in the last 24 hours. We're on a good pace to finish the milk before October 16th. Only one half gallon left.

Goodbye Mozilla

2008-10-07T16:26:00.005-04:00

I feel bad, but I guess I should just say it. Get it over with.

*ehem* Firefox....okay... I don't know how to do this. It's hard, you know? I mean, we've been together a while. And it was fun. It was real fun, but sometimes things change. I'm sorry, but I've been using another browser.

Don't be like that. We both knew that when I said that I'd never leave you that it was wishful thinking. It just got stale, like we were sitting around staring at each other. You'd be loading

something and I'd just sit around and wait. Not to mention you'd just crash on me. That's not fair. Am I supposed to just wait for you to crash and then have to be the one to reboot you? I can't take on that responsibility, always fixing things. Why don't you just fix yourself sometimes?

Sure, it's not perfect, but Chrome is just new...exciting. It's so much bigger. I can see all this extra stuff. I can rearrange tabs, pull tabs to new windows, browse incognito! You always wanted to know where I was all the time. Chrome is totally cool just letting me wander around without tracking my every move.

I'm sorry, Firefox, but it's over. There might always be a special place for you on my harddrive, but Chrome is taking your spot on my desktop.

Radio killed the radio star

2008-10-07T16:11:00.004-04:00

The radio around here has been a heaping pile of dissapointment lately. So, once again, I've turned to Pandora Radio for my music fix.

For those of you who don't know about Pandora it's an online radio station. You create your own "channels" by entering a band, a song or even a genre and Pandora grabs songs that are related to your choice by using perameters set up by the Music Genome Project. Then you have the ability to approve or dissapprove of each song it plays by giving a thumb up or down. This tweeks your station to play only music with a style you like. And, luckily, if you give the same band thumbs down twice, they are banned from ever playing on that station again. I quickly used this ability to kill Nirvana. You also get the ability to ban a certain song from the station for one month, and skip a particular song you don't feel like listening to. Try to get that from 94.9

I've been playing my Modest Mouse station exclusively. My hope was that Pandora would grab some new music I haven't heard and play it for me, which it did a few times. It appears that I have extremely predictable tastes, because after about 2 weeks of various thumbs up and down, I've basically tuned the station to play my iPod. The only difference is that it's playing songs from bands from which I only have a few songs. So I'm getting what I like, but a wider array of what I like. And I like that.

Today's mix thus far:

Modest Mouse- A Different City

Cake - Short Skirt, Long Jacket

The Shins - Mine's Not A High Horse

The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

Modest Mouse - Never Ending Math Equation

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control

Death Cab for Cutie - Crooked Teeth

Spoon - The Way We Get By

Interpol - Narc

The Shins - Tun On Me

Death Cab for Cutie - Hindsight

The White Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button

See any patterns?

Silent Canosound

2008-10-02T22:07:00.007-04:00

Samantha recently found a blog at The New York Times website by a man named Jeff Scher. He is an experimental film maker and on his blog you can catch a few of his videos. He uses old formats, in this case a 16mm wind-up that allows him to film for only 30 seconds at a time. Actually, both examples use the 16mm. While You Were Sleeping really got me thinking about the strange, emotional effect that this old format lends to the film.

An even more exaggerated example is 8mm silent film. Silent film lends an extra layer to just about any subject. Take away the sound and all of a sudden you're looking at these tones and nuances you never realized were there. Or perhaps, and I'm sure Mr. Scher would prefer me to say, that feeling is brought about by the fact that the photographer can no longer rely on sound to tell the story. When you enter into this purely visual world, you're forced to make decisions, to propel your narrative without dialogue and that is what really intrigues me.

Long story short, I'm the proud new owner of a Canosound 514XL-S, which, ironically, is one of the few super 8mm sound cameras I've seen lurking around the internet. It took quite a bit of research to find a camera I thought would be well balanced between quality functionality and low learning curves. I'm not sure if this is the one, but it'll have to do because I already paid for it. Of course, after my long, adjective-soaked description of why silent film appeals to me, I should say I don't plan on actually using sound film. It's probably more expensive to develop anyway.

It was a good deal, $35 after shipping on eBay. Hopefully it will be here soon. Next I need more disposable income and after that a projector. I've been researching how to digitize super 8 for editing, and it looks like digitally recording the film from a projector is the best bet. After the projector I'll need some more disposable income, then after that I'll get some film developed and after that I'll be uploading and playing with editing.

So, family and friends who are willing (even if you aren't) could be showing up in silent, exaggeratedly emotional versions of themselves. The only danger here is that simple films highlighting people often come across as in memorandum.

I submit as evidence:

2008-09-30T17:55:00.006-04:00

We broke down and bought a new router to try and solve our internet woes. At first it didn't seem to do anything, but then Sam plugged the new router into our old on and then reconnected the computers to the old router. Somehow, and this makes absolutely no sense, it is a lot faster now. Perhaps the old G router feels inadequate next to his new N brother and is beefing up the signal to compensate.

Maybe they are in love and that love is projecting wonderful lovely router signals all over the house. Maybe in another hour it will suck again. Who knows?

Hypothesis:
A new, beefed up N router will undoubtedly improve performance over the old G system

Evidence:
Here's a table outlining the internet speed since Sam hooked it up. As a point of reference, 7000 is the level at which the signal is sent, but usually 1000kbps is lost along the way, making 6000 the best signal:

5:50 pm - 3307
5:50 pm (again) - 2446
5:51 pm- 3600
5:54 pm- 6646 (see bottom left of picture, indicating the last test results)
5:55 pm- 4518 (it dropped even more after I took that picture)
6:04 pm- 3779
6:11 pm- 2295

Then, at 9:31 pm:

Conclusion:
WTF?

The Honest Truth

2008-09-27T13:17:00.003-04:00

When he's not talking about math, Randall Munroe can really make me laugh.
Visit XKCD

I have awesome friends

2008-09-27T13:16:00.002-04:00

Cincinnati, Aug 5, 2008
Originally uploaded by adark248

A pair of glasses we found on the ground at the Dave Matthews Band concert this summer.

This is how we roll.

Whistle While We Work

2008-09-23T17:25:00.007-04:00

At work Saturday I helped put up the large metal bridge that extends across the stage in Ohio State Murders. It took about three hours to get the platforms up and bolted together. You can see how we secured each individual piece to the rail system and ran it up, locked it in place and then we worked underneath to bolt on the legs. Rinse and repeat. Needless to say those things were pretty heavy. They also had some sharp edges, which is how I cut a slice through my ring and pinkie finger on my left hand. I also nearly knocked my boss' eye out when the drill caught on the metal and wrenched itself out of my grip, swinging the chuck key a few inches past his head.

The set is huge. A lot more got done after I left on Saturday at about noon thirty. There's a dorm room nearly twice as big as any real dorm room, this bridge, two stair cases leading up to the bridge and a slew of steps, platforms and levels. I'm really interested to see how the choreography works with all of these steps and obstructions. I'm definitely going to try and see more plays this year.
I'll try and get more pictures throughout the construction process to document the evolution of a large-scale set.

Also please note the hardhats... riiiiight about here. The yellow/white/blue hats. Guess who had the honor of creating that lovely helmet holding area? Yours truly.

I survived the Blackout of '08 and all I got was inconvenienced

2008-09-21T22:23:00.003-04:00

Jesus H. Christ. The power was out for 5 days. I snapped some pictures throughout the week on my cell phone. Let's have a look-see:

Samantha being dissapoitned in the dark, followed by pizza on the grill. Those are individual sized DiGiornio's pepperoni pizzas you're looking at. Primo stuff. You can see the lovely coals glowing beneath them, some lawn detritus all packed up and ready for Rumpke. Those were the most disgusting pizzas ever. Sure they look good and they cooked all the way through... Have you ever had pizza that tasted like shrimp/steak/chicken/hamburger and burnt? I should have cleaned the grill first.

There was a riot/protest/party on campus during the blackout. I'm using the slash because your point of view determines how you label it. Over two thousand students convened on President Hodges lawn to "protest" class while most off campus students still had no power. The police showed up in riot gear and one girl told me she left because she "thought they were going to start throwing tear gas." It wasn't that bad, but the idea is haunting. It's a good thing they didn't try to take the crowd by force because then we would've had a full fledged riot in the streets. Imagine thousands of bored twenty-somethings raiding the liquor stores all over Oxford, cops on their segways weaving through the crowd tazing bros. Not a good image. Although a squadron of officers was sent to the liquor store in town. They were turning away thirsty scholars despite the fact that the store still had power.

Oh and also the post office lost yet another one of my packages, which means I'm going to have to eat the cost of sending out a replacement. So, all in all, this week was awesome.

Torndaic

2008-09-14T13:31:00.002-04:00

When I woke up this...er...afternoon the wind was blowing like crazy-go-nuts. Actually, it's still crazy out there. Completely sunny and pretty nice, but the wind is howling. I went outside to move Sam's car, because branches were snapping off the tree in front and landing all around the hood. I'd safely estimate the wind at 40 MPH.

The closest branch is about 20 feet long. For some reason this tree will gladly shed it's healthy, leafy limbs, but that one dead one I want gone holds on for dear life. There's a thumping noise every time the wind picks up, like when a bird hits the window. I hope the wind isn't blowing birds off course and into a collision course with our windows.

Payback for those devious Windex Birds.

What assholes.

You've Got Me On My Knees, Layla

2008-09-11T00:08:00.002-04:00

The latest update on The Misadventures of Legalizing Layla:

Not working out. It's finally boiled down to the fact that I have to contact the Court of Common Please in Columbus about getting the title for my scooter. Uck with a side of uck. I did, however, discover that Ohio has updated it's title FAQ website, including information for people who have bought a motor vehicle from an individual in state/ out of state and were not provided a title. That's me. I guess I'll call the number and listen to whatever run-around their passing out.

In the meantime, it's back to Craig's List, this time searching for a buyer.

The latest update on The Misadventures of Classes at College:

Things seem more adventurous than unadventurous at this point, which is good. I got the job at the Scene Shop on campus making scenery for the myriad of theatrical productions. It's a sweet job: the hours aren't bad, the people are nice and I get to use pneumatic staple guns that "could easily pierce bone." That job simultaneously makes me want to build something and gives me the opportunity to build things. It's a self perpetuating machine, pure synergy. Also, I get to wear a hardhat, which can make anyone feel surprisingly important while standing in line at the water fountain.

Here's a view from the gallery at the Scene Shop. Don't tell anyone, I'm not supposed to be carrying my cell phone around, but the only personal storage space I have are my pockets. I was trying to get a feel for the scale by shooting the railing, but it didn't work. Those panels on the right are around 15 feet long, the gray platform is probably 20. Monica and I screwed the gray platform to the deck and then flipped the skinny platform to the left over top to create a step up. We only had to do it 3 times to get it right.

On the far wall is the Rail System. Those white ropes are attached to rails that run stage right to stage left and are suspended in the air, even higher up than the gallery. We can attach all kinds of scenery (or anything else) to the rails and raise and lower them into or out of view. There are numbered 1 to 37, 37 downstage closest to the audience, 1 furthest upstage. We have to know where the rail are because when someone lowers them you have to get out of the way. There's a call and response system. Whenever someone drops a rail they call out the number so people know which way to dodge, and everyone in the shop responds so the rail operator knows that the message was received. I'll just go ahead and say it: I have high aspirations of one day being tapped as Rail Operator.

The rest of the shop is about as big as the stage area pictured, but back behind the camera and behind a giant fire door that slams closed (and I suspect would kill anyone underneath it) in case a fire breaks out on stage. There's also a giant asbestos curtain that falls off frame right, at the end of the stage, in order to protect the largest number of people (for the theater department's sake, let's hope the audience) from the fire. Of course that curtain was installed a while ago. Chances are that the giant asbestos cloud that falling curtain would let off would probably kill the first 10 rows. Admittedly, though, not nearly as quickly or painfully as a fire.

If you're the kind of person who enjoys surviving potentially dangerous situations twice a week, is this a job for you.

I'm starting to realize I am that type of person.

Blog of the Day award

2008-07-21T13:03:00.004-04:00

Holy hell. I got an email announcing that I've been chosen as the Blog of the Day on Fuel My Blog. Quite the honor, especially considering I post like, what, once every month? (I think Sam's jealous. Which makes sense considering she posts all kinds of great pictures and content on a near daily basis.)

It must've been that excellent review of Batman I wrote yesterday.

Anyways, we haven't heard back from the Northwest Tea Festival about the 500 shirts they wanted. Kendra says to be positive. I like being positive, so I guess I'll give that a shot. I didn't even think about how we haven't heard back until she asked how business was going. Samantha and I have the whole deal figured out, we just need the go-ahead to get started. Hand dyeing 500 shirts in tea happens to be on my bucket list. Yes I have a bucket list, I'm all of 21 now. I'm just getting a head start.

The other thing on my bucket list is to get back into making new shirts. The giant Roloflex shirt is awesome. I forgot how fun it is making new shirts.

We're still looking for some designs of an architectural nature for the lady who runs the Antique store where PearMcGee sells her handmade purses and handbags. I'm thinking some large pillars, kind of like the huge camera print. Those prints that are so gigantic you think they're never going to work are the most fun to make.

There's nothing quite like impressing myself.

The Dark Knight: a Bright light for movie making

2008-07-19T11:08:00.002-04:00

Samantha and I went with Tyler to see The Dark Knight last night. I'm not sure what I expected, but it was above and beyond what I thought it would be. Batman Begins was a good movie, but this was a great movie. I've heard people say that Heath Ledger "lost himself" in the role of The Joker. I 'm not exactly sure what they mean, but his performance is spot on. Creepy to the point of making you feel exceedingly uncomfortable when he's on screen, even if Batman is there to bust some heads.

They continued with the development of Batman, mostly illustrated through a few short mentions of upgrading the Bat suit, which was nice. Usually the sequel just begins with the super hero we all know and we're supposed to just believe that they figured out exactly how to use their powers, or in this case perfected their tools. Although I was worried in the beginning, because the Bat suit looked kind of stupid. Later on, though, Wayne sets out for another tweak to the suit, and it looks pretty cool for the rest of the movie. I think in the next one they'll have yet another update, because the suit wasn't perfect... yet.

There's also a lot of other characters. It isn't just shots of Batman terrorizing thugs on the streets and lounging in his penthouse like past Batman movies. Gordon, the Mayor and even other police officers play major roles, not to mention regular citizens who, in the chaos of The Joker's game, end up with one of the most important decisions in their hands.

Technically, the movie was great. They pulled back about 3 feet while filming the fighting scenes, which was a vast improvement over the (I now admit) confusing and somewhat frustrating fight scenes from Begins. The choreography was spot on. Coupled with the intense pounding sounds of Batman's fists, it'll make you cringe at how real the fights look. Those thugs really take a beating. The camera work was interesting, but not overtly flashy to the point of distraction.

All in all, it's one that anyone should see. If you're a Batman fan, I can't imagine you won't enjoy it. If you're not a Batman fan, I bet you really are and you just don't know it yet.

And now for something completely different

2008-07-17T00:36:00.003-04:00

Dear Mark,

Today you felt like a college student. Which is strange. Or maybe not strange, seeing as you are a college student (you're half way through at this point), but at least out of the ordinary. There were times when you've felt like this before. They usually come during the summer. They're always accompanied by friends.

Let's face it: you don't have a whole lot of friends. I'm not being mean, just saying. But that has to do with the whole quantity versus quality argument. Tyler came over, Dave followed a little later. Of course Samantha was there. We all watched X-Files episodes, Batman Begins and then sat outside about 20 yards from a failed bonfire. (You wanted to have a bonfire and no one else was interested. Also, for some reason, sticks don't burn that well around here).

Tyler, Dave and you played cards out on the back patio while Sam cleaned around the house. She didn't want to play cards.

It seems odd how a perfectly lazy, simple day can feel good. There's plenty of shit to worry about but we ignored it today. We sat outside and played cards, sweating and cursing over Death Cab for Cutie.

There might be something profound hidden somewhere in the details of today. Let's not worry about it too much. I just thought you'd like to remember today.

We should do this again some time.

-Mark

Forever 21

2008-07-11T16:07:00.005-04:00

I turned 21 on the 8th. It's been really hard work staying alive this long, but it's totally worth it.

I haven't done anything with this blog in a long, long time. Which is normally what I do with stuff like this.

We're headed up to Defiance with baby Jane, Velda and the girls this weekend. I think this is Jane's first trip. It's going to be Babypalooza up there. Jane, Brody and Riddick. Luckily babies aren't like dogs, so we won't have to keep them separated while they eat. There are few things worse than a baby fight. That'll ruin your weekend.

A few days ago we were contacted by a guy who's interested in ordering 500 of our hand tea-dyed shirts. Yeah, 500. When I read the email the first time I was terrified and said there was no way we could do it. But then I thought about it, Sam and I sat down and talked about some details and we think it is more than do-able. If we go about it the right way we should be fine. Plus, it's not like either of us have jobs, so we can spend 8 hours a day dyeing t-shirts. No prob.

I called him today and talked numbers. He isn't the decision maker, so he's passing along our info to the committee, who should be getting back to us within the next week. Sam's making up a few samples to send their way. It's pretty exciting stuff. This would be our biggest deal ever. I think it might actually be fun to fill an order so gigantic. Plus, the shirts are for the First Annual Northwest Tea Festival which sounds like a great time. I wish we lived in Seattle so we could check it out.

That's all for today. Don't want to over do it...

So Long, so very long

2008-05-05T13:00:00.002-04:00

My first (and last) final was today. Which might explain to those of you who read this blog (thanks, Mom) why there hasn't been anything new in quite some time.

I've been studying. Or, more appropriately: stressing. I don't really have any classes that require "study" this semester. English Lit was the exam I had today and even the professor admitted that we can't go back and read everything again. I turned in a portfolio for Creative Non Fiction on Friday, which was nice to get out of the way. My group finished our video for IMS which we debut tonight in front of the class. My COM paper on Citizen Cane isn't due until Thursday, so there's still time for that.

It's nice not having to cram for an exam. I think I enjoy the low, nagging stress of things piling up that can (theoretically) be done over a period of time.

In other news: Oxford is a gorgeous place. Summer here is amazing. I'd like to think that summer above the Mason-Dixon is more fantastic. Like how you appreciate Novocaine more after it's worn off and you feel like someone's kicked your teeth in. Samantha and I have been walking and riding our bikes around. The crazy girl has me convinced that we should buy what Eddie Izzard would call a Push-Me-Pull-You lawn mower, you know, one without an engine. Supposedly there have been great strides in motorless lawn mowers since the 1950s. Who knew they were still making those? So after the next batch of orders at TealTown, perhaps we'll be doing that. She said she would help mow the grass if we got one, because the motorized ones scare her. I think this was intended to suggest that she would help cut the grass if it weren't for the fact that the thing had an engine. Which I refuse to believe. No one likes to mow grass. My brother once told me he liked to mow the grass, but when he lived at home my mom still drug the mower up and down the yard in long green lines. Not that I was volunteering to mow the grass or anything.

Everything is green like you wouldn't believe. I've even been admiring the dandelions. And, for me, that is about the best thing I could ask for. Summer is one prayer that God always answers.

Stuck in my head today

2008-04-22T09:04:00.002-04:00

Karina, by Ryan Adams.

A quick Google image search for "Karina" turned up a handful of half-naked ladies and this:

For the benefit of Mr. Kite

2008-04-21T18:45:00.002-04:00

This week is a whopper of a week.

Today my group had to do our presentation on Wes Anderson for COM. All went fairly well, although we didn't take up the full 45 minutes. The professor nodded several times and seemed to take notes that took some considerable concentration. I'll take that as a good sign.

Tomorrow my Creative Nonfiction class is workshopping my latest piece. When I turned it in last week Pierce walked by to pick it up, looked at it, then at me and said "No title" and clucked his tongue like my grandmother. Last time we went over one of my pieces Pierce asked me to learn the english language. I'm not sure he enjoys my work.

Thursday I have a paper due for my other English Class, 1945-present literature. Really interesting stuff. I'm not exactly sure what to write my paper about. On my last paper my professor said "despite all its obvious strengths, I'm not sure you answered the question put to you. Next time try to answer the prompt." He liked my work, just wasn't right on target I guess. So I'm trying to be more careful this time.

I also want to send out shirts to some consignment jobs that I haven't done and should have last month. I also want to clean out my closet and get stuff ready for the Salvation Army. I also want to write more, just for funsies and read some books. There's a lot I want to do and more I need to do, but I'm not sure I'll find the time. The human drama continues, no?

Tagalicious

2008-04-16T17:51:00.003-04:00

I got hit. Kim Bagwill, a fellow Blogger and interesting artist (I meant the fellow part about Blogger. I don't consider myself an interesting artist... yet) tagged me. It happened a while ago but I never did it because... well because I didn't have time. Also I didn't know what to put. Then I realized it doesn't really matter that much. So here it goes!

The rules of tagging are as follows:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Six random things/habits/quirks about me:

1. My instinct is to never answer the door. When random people walk up to my house I always want to hid. Actually, I do hide. I can see them head up the driveway from my computer so I usually plaster my face to the desk and wait for them to leave. It doesn't matter if they're friendly looking. I did this today. My car was in the driveway with the windows open. The garage door was open, too.

2. Every once in a while I catch myself coming up with elaborate escape strategies. In class I'll look for the nearest door or open window. Then I'll think about how to duck and dodge my way outside... you know, just in case.

3. I have hobbit feet. People usually don't believe me until I show them. They're really hairy on top and each toe has a puff of hair on it.

4. There are three foods that I eat for a month at a time. Clementines, bagels and chocolate milk that I mix myself with Hersey Syrup. For some reason I rotate them. I'll have each fairly regularly for a few weeks and then not again for a year.

5. I once purposefully pronounced the word "gross" as "grahss" for a long time until I couldn't really make a distinction between the two. I'm not really sure why. I also taught myself to say "Do what?" instead of "What?" or "What did you say?" when I didn't understand or hear someone.

6. Every morning I wake up with a different song in my head. Sometimes it's a song I haven't heard for a while. Just one phrase will be stuck in my head until I either go out and start doing something or listen to it on my iTunes.

One Good Reason to Overthrow the Government

2008-04-14T23:13:00.002-04:00

Taxes.

I know, I know. Most people, those of you who have been doing taxes all your life, don't want to hear about it. I don't want to talk about it, either. And I especially don't want to hear about it.

We've never done taxes before. So, naturally, the whole thing was daunting. Add to that the fact that in 2007 we opened our own business (which I was determined to make legal, so that we could participate in shows and order from wholesalers). Then add to that the fact that Samantha has some kind of magical write off for spending money on school related things out of a specific magical fund. I call these things magical not out of cynicism or jest, but simply because, despite all my best efforts, I don't understand how they work. I just finished China Men tonight and have decided that mysticism, honestly, may be the only answer for some things; so they are magic.

My Dad gave me this advice: "I'd just wave my hand and pretend you started in 2008." He meant the business. But it's kind of obvious when I started it. I applied for a Federal Employer Identification Number and for a license from the State of Ohio. The one thing I don't need is for the IRS to show up and land me with an audit; my paperwork is hardly in order. So I filed the business papers, or at least what I assumed to be the business papers. This was all done with TurboTax which, contrary to popular belief, does not make taxes easy. Undoubtedly it makes them easier, but not easy.

I won't go into too much detail about Sam's school expenses. We made at least 3 phone calls to ask her Dad about the information we needed. He's one of those people who doesn't read numbers correctly, straight from Kevin James' standup. The best I can figure, he was feeding me numbers with decimals without my knowledge. However it happened TurboTax was showing that we owed the IRS upwards of $80,000. Which couldn't have been right. Sam ended up going through it line by line with him and, since they have the same numberspeak, was able to input the right numbers.

Like I said, I don't want to talk about taxes. But I also don't like the last post about going to Pittsburgh (which I posted because I didn't like the post before that, either). So, I'll have to post something in the next week to replace this post, and the next week to replace that post. It's like sweeping the dirt under the carpet, except I'm sweeping dirt under more dirt.

All's Fair in Love and Warhol

2008-04-07T12:28:00.002-04:00

On a whim (and I mean complete whim) Samantha and I joined my brother, Adam, and his wife, Kendra, on their trip to Pittsburgh this weekend.

I never thought of Pittsburgh as being awesome, which it is. I didn't know anything about the place before this weekend, so it seemed strange that Sam wanted to go. I was thinking "what's in Pittsburgh"?

The answer to that question is kind of complicated. It's a city full of the things I like. We hit The Strip and browsed a ton of street vendors and storefronts, and we headed over to South Side to check out that shopping district. There's a lot going on and the city was lovely. Or at least lovely as much as a city can be. My only real experience with a city is Cincinnati. Pittsburgh seemed to be much cleaner than Cinci and our hotel was smack in the middle of everything we wanted to do, so walking the streets gave you a real feel of liveliness that I've never gotten a glimpse of in Cincinnati.

We took a quick walk to the Andy Warhol museum and got in for $4 with a student ID, which was sweet. That place was pretty cool, with tons of Warhol hanging around and a fair amount of other artists. I'll fully admit that I never "got" Andy Warhol. I thought he was kind of a hack. And he is. He's a total hack. But after seeing what he was doing up close, and learning that he didn't really do much of the art himself, I started to get the point. It helps that I'm a screen printer. If you've ever learned to play an instrument, you have a new appreciation for music. It's the same here; when I saw his screen prints, knowing what it takes, I had much more respect for the art. Warhol's story is pretty great too, and the museum did a fantastic job of incorporating information about not only the art but its inspiration and method.

This cow is probably one of my favorite of Warhol's pieces. At the museum they have all of his source images laid out for this piece. You can see where the idea began. One of these prints is hanging in the poster store in Uptown, Oxford. Some day I'll get one and hang it in my house. Or maybe I'll just make it for myself.

The lovin' feelin'

2008-04-01T14:36:00.003-04:00

Can't stop, won't stop.

It's been a while, but lo-and-behold TealTown hits the front page of Etsy.com yet again.

I'd like to thank the Academy, everyone who has ever supported me and even some people who haven't, and God who probably had something to do with this.

Craft (Af)fair

2008-03-30T15:03:00.007-04:00

Yesterday was the 1st Annual Craft (Af)fair in Oxford, Ohio.

We got set up by about 11 and man was it cold. The sun was about and tricked me into thinking it was going to be a warm, summery kind of day. It wasn't. In fact, the wind blew so hard it felt like it was in the 30s all day. We powered through the first two hours and eventually I got so numb it didn't matter what temperature it was anymore. A lot of people stopped by our table and had tons of positive things to say about the shirts, which was fantastic. We're grateful for anyone who took the time to rummage around (and extremely grateful to those people who ran to grab things as they blew away).

The little knuckle buster I bought worked out, although I was so frantic to make sure I was processing cards fast enough that a couple girls skirted away with one free shirt. Lucky ducks. I love free stuff. I wish I got free shirts. This whole episode prompted me to panic because I absolutely hate myself when I make stupid mistakes (which is fairly often). I ended up yelling "I fucked it up!" which I think ran at least 2 people away from the booth, thinking I was losing my mind. Probably a safe assumption at the time. Very unprofessional of me and I was forced to chide myself. As you may know, when you're your own boss there's no one else to wag their finger at you.

We sold some shirts to a member of 64 South who said he's always looking for great stuff to wear on stage. They're working on getting a gig at Stadium. Hopefully that works out for them and they'll get a chance to play in town. If they do we might be designing and printing some shirts for them which would be incredible.

We were trying to get out of there at about 3 because it was so cold, but a few people came by and said they were going to be back, so we held out. Thank God we did, because we made a whole lot more sales waiting for a guy to come back. It's funny how things work out like that.

My parents came up for the occasion and Mom snapped some pictures. You can see how inviting it was to buy a t-shirt. Sam's wrapped up in, count them, 2 blankets and we're both drinking hot chocolate. I even wore that stupid hat I hate (it's too small) because my ears were going to snap off.

Thanks to everybody at Green Oxford for putting the thing together and letting us hang out. Thanks to all the people who came by and we're glad so many people enjoyed looking through our hard work. We'll see y'all next year!

The Prone Wars

2008-03-28T10:19:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is our first show ever. I'm actually getting a little nervous. Since we took Spring Break in Texas I put off doing a lot of prep work for this week, and then it turned out that this week was pretty busy. So I have a lot to do today, but I'm really tired. I think I'm going to get some sleep real quick before I set in on getting ready for everything.

I hope to have an exciting update tomorrow or the day after about the show. If you don't hear from me, it probably went poorly and I'm probably irritated. But no worries, I've promised myself that if it doesn't go well it isn't the end of the world (just the end of my aspirations to get a job outside of a cubicle).

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Our feedback rating has gone up over the last few weeks, which is nice. People are starting to really pour in the positive comments, so I'm adding the newest one to our "Praise" section at the top. You know, that section where I post great things people say about me. It's not egotistical, it's advertising!

Ugh I feel sick. I'm going to power nap and that should clear things up a bit.

Homecoming

2008-03-25T21:52:00.003-04:00

Spring Break is over and it's breaking my heart.

We flew from Dallas to Columbus, 75 and sunny to 30something and snowing. That was hard. Actually it was too easy. It's not like you can turn a plane around. While we were there in the sun we snapped some pictures of our shirts and expanded our inventory a bit, which was great.

We got some old, vintage suitcases over break too, which we're going to use to display shirts at the show on Saturday. Today they people running the show sent out an e-mail to the sellers and there were nearly 30 of us (they apparently don't know the purpose BCC to hide email addresses) which is good. Sam brought up a good point: The more people are there the more people are going to want to come. This helped put to rest my fear that we'd end up standing out in the park by ourselves looking crazy. Now at least I know there will be a bunch of other people looking crazy, too.

But being back has landed me in a seriously depressive funk. I've been trying to print the last 50 shirts to get us ready and I keep freezing up. I just didn't feel like doing anything today and when I got ready to make some shirts I didn't know which one I wanted to do. So I ended up pacing back and forth from the studio into the living room. Eventually I forced myself to just make one, which seemed to break through the fog and I made a few more. Hopefully I'll just make a few a day until Friday and we'll sell what we can. It was strange. I've heard of writers' block but this was apparently printers' block.

In other news: I also have writers' block. I can't let myself write more than a page or two on my last nonfiction piece. Luckily I found out it's due nearly two weeks later than I thought.

It's going to be a rough week.

Unplugged

2008-03-15T00:34:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow I'm going off the grid.

Well, for a couple of days at least. Samantha and I are headed out to Texas for Spring Break. My grandmother is flying us down and we're spending the week with our family down there.

Last I heard the temperature is going to be in the mid 60s all week. It's not 73, but, hey, I'll take it. I'll take it all year long.

Today was kind of crazy. I had to print a whole lot of orders I've been putting off. A customer wanted a set of curtains and can't wait until we get back from vacation so I had to do them tonight. "Man, this is getting easier." Famous last words. I had to run out and get another set of curtains because I messed the print up. I shouldn't ever declare that anything is anywhere near easy. People always talk about the power of positive thinking, but I think negative thinking works just as well. Low expectations lead to great surprises.

It'll probably rain all Spring Break. It might even snow. Hell, I should probably pack my coat.

Juxtaposition

2008-03-13T14:13:00.002-04:00

The world is fantastic.

Today my professors were laughing and joking, people are stumbling around decked out in Green Beer Day shirts, there's only a hint of the blizzard in the snowy gutters around town.

There's a tiny flower in the garden out front. On Saturday we're flying into Dallas where the temperature should hover right around 72 degrees. No school for a week. Randy's Burgers. My grandmother promised me a chicken pot pie. I'm going to sit outside and let my skin drink the sun. I'm going to watch to The Wheel at a torturous volume. I'm going to drive out past Bo Pilgrim's giant fiberglass head on my way to antiques. I'm going to ask Jack about his boots (the ones with the round toe, made of soft leather that don't come up so high). I'm going to walk barefoot in the broad, sharpened edges of the arid grass. I'll play with Ringo and Ginger and watch my grandma put food in their mouth and move their jaws "just so they get a taste of it." I'll forget to pick up the milk again and have a perfect excuse to drive into town with the windows down and the conversation up. I'll walk around the pasture with that mean ass pony, trying to get a look at the goose. I'll probably have fried chicken and talk about how it tastes just the same as it always did (she won't believe me). The mashed potatoes will be better than they used to. I'll hug them both and say goodbye. We'll fly back to Columbus on the 23rd and I might cry. I'll be rejuvenated, the summer will come and there will truly and honestly be no other time than the present.

The world is fantastic. So much more fantastic that it has ever been.

Blizzards aren't all that bad

2008-03-09T14:26:00.002-04:00

Apparently we had a legitimate blizzard this weekend. We got over a foot of snow in one day and it was pretty awesome. I'm of the opinion that if it's going to be ass-cold, it might as well snow.

Mike came over on Friday and the snows came and he stayed on the couch because the roads weren't all that great. We woke up to the most snow we've had in years. The neighbors down the street had a guy out with a snowblower going over the sidewalks and their driveways, he even did a little path to the main road for them. He didn't come down to our house so I attacked the snow with a broom to get Mike's car out so we could go to Kroger.

We came back and spent all day playing games and I made a new screen and made up some shirts. I can't find the little Kodak camera and the other one doesn't appear to be working with my computer today so I can't load some pictures I snapped of the design in the mirror. I'll have to wait for Sam to get up to get some pictures.

One good thing about snow: it makes an excellent light reflector. We can take pictures in the house now as long as the sun is shining down on that lovely snow.

Winter come late

2008-03-07T10:32:00.005-05:00

It's snowing today. Last weekend it was almost warm, and today it is snowing. Oh well. We were planning on traveling to Milford this weekend because it's been a while since we visited. Plus we need to deliver some curtains to Sam's sister and to pick up a copy of TurboTax my Dad bought for me.

We haven't uploaded any new designs in a while, mostly because we kept thinking we'd wait until the sun came back and then we'd get some nice pictures. Well, turns out that when the sun comes out we end up playing outside and don't really work on anything so we're working on new designs now. Hopefully we'll get some fresh stuff up soon, we'd like to have new designs before the Craft Affair on March 29th. I think it would be a good place to launch some fresh ideas and get some immediate reactions from customers.

I know, I know... half of this blog is promising new designs and the other half is talking about how we don't put up new designs often enough. In the eternal words of Everlast: "It ain't easy bein' greasy."

What that has to do with it, I'm not sure, but it's bound to be poignant to someone.

The fighting koi design I finished a while ago and never printed.
I drew the koi by hand, the cherry blossoms are digital.
Perhaps it will find its way to a t-shirt someday.

Craft Affair

2008-03-03T13:04:00.003-05:00

We've signed up for a art/craft show on March 29th in our new little hometown, Oxford, Ohio, home of Miami University.

It's being put together by a student group on campus called Green Oxford. They've set aside the park uptown for the event and it's sure to be a fantastic day. The application was the easiest thing I've ever done: a simple e-mail with a few tid-bits of information about us and what we do with a link to our site. They sent back a reply and that was that, they're not even requiring a booth fee, probably because the venue has been donated - the park has a lot of events during the warmer months like free concerts, student organization meetings and the such.

This is going to be our first show and we're really excited to get everything ready and see how the whole show scene turns out. I'm fairly confident that we'll have a fantastic time and I'm hoping to see a few fellow Etsians that are coming. It will be nice to finally meet some of the people I've met through Etsy and especially to see all the fine handmade merch that will undoubtedly be in tow.

If you'd like to participate all you have to do is e-mail the people at Craft Affair: craftaffair@gmail.com for more info. If you do come, be sure to stop by TealTown Ink's booth and introduce yourself!

2008-02-26T14:46:00.002-05:00

I turned my first piece in for my creative nonfiction workshop today. I emailed my professor yesterday worried that I had too many pages, which was a first, and that I wouldn't be able to get it together before the due date Thursday.

His response was to inform me that he too was concerned, the number of pages didn't matter, and the due date was actually Tuesday. You see we don't have class on Thursday, one of the only times not having class turned out to be a detriment.

I wrote 4 pages on Sunday and came to no point. It may not seem like a lot, but for me it was a large chunk of writing. I don't write a lot, a blog post is my most frequent style. The longest thing I've written in my life besides research papers is a mildly entertaining screenplay of a miraculous 8 pages of trite descriptions and epicly awkward dialog.

My piece is about a trip to climb Mount Baker with my dad and beyond some supposedly good descriptions I had no idea where I was taking the paper, much less where the story was taking me. I started working on it again at about 11 oclock on Monday and kept piecing it together until about 6:30. I bugged Sam to read and she did, all 11 pages of it, and confirmed my worst fears - it was rather emotionless. There were highlights she pointed out that I hadn't been to proud of before but I started to like.

It's frustrating to want so badly to do something, to reach some kind of goal and fall flat. I guess most people know that, but I'm only reminded every so often of the fact that many things, so many things, take skills that I don't have; or at least that I don't have yet.

It reminds me of sitting in the Shriver food court when Mike asked me what three skills I would want if I was granted them without any effort, without learning or practicing - to just wake up one morning and suddenly be able perform beyond expectation. I remember one of mine was writing. Michael chose cooking.

It's an interesting question and the ultimate illustration of our lazy asses. What would you do if you didn't have to actually do anything? Well, shit, I'd do any number of things, but limit it to 3 and it becomes a great philosophical debate: do you choose for the benefit of yourself or all of humanity? Do you become a neurosurgeon for the thick wallet, or to save the lives of strangers? Is it okay to be motivated by both?

When I think about that question now I wish I had chosen motivation. If I woke up having gained the skill to hone motivation into action I would have an endless ability to chase after any other thing I might want. It would be making your first wish for infinite wishes.

Brain annureisms never seemed so fun

2008-02-22T23:30:00.002-05:00

We just watched the pilot to Eli Stone. I wish I had known about this show before tonight, because it was one of the best pilots I've seen in quite a while.

It features George Michael's Faith which I'm fairly confident will be stuck in my head for a few days. Just when I thought I might be able to power through without being reminded of the song Sam pointed out that it's in my iTunes. It's a good song too. Let me demonstrate:

Well I guess it would be nice
If I could touch your body
I know not everybody
Has got a body like you

But I've got to think twice
Before I give my heart away
And I know all the games you play
Because I play them too

The show made me feel like doing something. I like it when shows make me feel inspired or whatever. I wish I had something to write about for my first workshop piece in Creative Nonfiction, it's coming up sooner than I'd like to admit and all I have is a few paragraphs sprinkled in a notebook, every one on a different topic. My problem is that I never realize where my writing is going beforehand. I don't set out with a goal other than to write, and I'm often surprised by the insights that seem to come from those rocky outcrops in my brain.

That's not an entirely bad thing, but it does mean that I have to write through an idea in its entirety before any of it seems to make any sense, so expanding all those paragraphs into full pieces will take quite a bit of time and I'm not sure if it's worth all the work if only one of them will turn out. But then again writing isn't supposed to be easy, right? I guess nothing is. And to think this is my plan for the rest of my life... sweet.

I guess I should give up on the idea that some day I'll be "grown up" and things will come to me more easily. I grew like 5 inches last year but I think that's the extent of my physical expansion, and I don't hold out much hope for my mental expansion - that just sounds painful. Plus if my arms get any longer my coat is going to be one of those three quater sleeved baseball shirts, and as good as I looked in those when I was 15, I'm not sure I could pull that off with a wool overcoat.

It's snowing outside

2008-02-21T19:22:00.001-05:00

Originally uploaded by sammysofa

I haven't been blogging much lately. I haven't been doing much of anything lately.

er... maybe I have, being lazy is always kind of a gray area

Samantha and I went to visit my brother Adam and his wife Kendra in Cleveland over the long weekend. Contrary to popular belief, Cleveland does not rock per say. It gets cold there, and no place that has blizzards can be said to "rock." Although Cleveland does have some fantastic things going for it.

One of which being the market where we had fantastic gryos and a decent discussion on the pronunciation of gyro. Of course the wife was there snapping pictures, and in all her glory. I'm stealing this pic from her flickr... hopefully she won't mind.

I'd just like to point out how gorgeous she is. She's asleep on the couch right now, I just snuck in to look at her. She's impressive in many respects. This picture just hints at the great work she does and her good looks.

I really like this picture. I like sitting in my chair and having her ask "Which one is better? This one... or this one... or this one... first... second?" It reminds me of being at the optometrist's office, except fun and entertaining rather than annoying. She doesn't puff my eyes with a giant air gun either.

She may sucker punch me up under the ribs sometimes, but it's still better than that damn air gun, plus I usually know when she's about to abuse me. The optometrist surprises you, Sam is pretty consistent.