Vance & Brittany

I got a good nights sleep last night until about 6am or so.  I don’t know why but I keep waking up at 6am.  I think my internal body clock is thrown off by that 3 hour time difference.  I always used to wake up involuntarily at 9am instead of 6 so that has to be the problem.  The annoying thing was I didn’t have to get up for 3 more hours but this vacuum outside started soon after and it was so loud.  I eventually shut my window but could still hear it pretty good.  I slept through it but it did wake me up a time or two more…grr.  I got up and got ready quickly, checked my email, drank a Slimfast for breakfast (haven’t had one of those in YEARS), and headed to work.  Nobody was there when I arrived because I was about 10 minutes early so I had to wait for Vance to show up.  I’ve yet to get a key and all that jazz.  I finished putting in the music for The Book of Ruth and did a few other odds things before I had to render out internet files of the film to send to the “bosses.”  Since the render had the computer occupied, I had nothing to do.  I helped Brittany alphabetize some envelopes (o joy) and played some music in the office.  I honestly found something like that to be mentally stimulating, and it got my mind doing something else.  It also gave me the opportunity to play tunes as I already said so it wasn’t all that horrible. 

Vance and Brittany asked where I wanted to eat today for my birthday.  This has to be the millionth time I’ve “celebrated” my birthday.  I didn’t expect them to ask at all.  I chose the Olive Garden because I hadn’t been there in ages.  There was one 2 minutes from the office so it was easy to get there.  We had some really funny conversation and talked it up the entire time.  I like my co-workers  I look forward to meeting the main boss tomorrow at the office.  His name is Mike Scott and he has been out of the country for meetings lately.  His office has a slew of awards in there and pictures with Arnold Schwarzenegger among other things.  He has won 3 Telly awards in the past I believe and a few others.  I look forward to meeting him.

Dell 2408wfp (24in) woo!

Today I checked my bank accounts and made a pretty big purchase that I’ve been waiting to make for a few years.  I finally have a dual monitor setup on the way.  I bought two Dell 2408 monitors.  They are brand new and I got them both for $750 total.  That is a STEAL considering just one Apple 23in Cinema Display is 900 new.  I researched this monitor in the past and it’s amazing for the price, and has hookups on the back the Apple can’t shake a stick at.  It has HDMI on it which is what my PS3 uses so while I’ll be hooking both up to my computer, I can change the input in the menu when I want and have a Blu-ray playing on it while I work on the other monitor.  I look forward to giving them a shot.  Technically I bought two computer monitors but two TV’s at the same time.  I’m still hoping to sell my Plasma at home, I don’t know how I’m going to get rid of that.  That’s a lot of dough sitting at home in a box… :/  The next step on the purchasing list is speakers, something I don’t have here.  I’ve been playing audio through my Mac’s internal speaker which is basically just enough to hear things.  Sooner or later I’ll get this room to where I want it.  It’ll be my own mini-studio, something I had semi-done previously at home but also never got it where I wanted.  We’ll see how I do here.  I might have to buy a desk I’m not sure.  We’ll see how this desk handles the two monitors and how much room there is for speakers.  As far as I can tell there isn’t any room on both sides to put them, so we’ll see what happens.

I also got an email from Greg who is on Christian Radio out here.  They have been gracious enough to mention Standing Firm in a segment or two and I plan to meet with their team on Saturday to eat then go back to watch them do their program and chat afterwards.  They are on 99.5 KKLA out here and a lot of their talk centers around evangelism.  I’m pretty excited to meet Greg finally and the rest of the folks over there at the station.

It also rained here today and we had some thunder throughout the day.  Everyone was a little freaked out by it but I was right at home.  Perhaps NY loved me so much it decided to follow?  Anyways things are getting more and more settled here as time goes on.  Eventually I’ll work up a routine for myself like I do wherever I live of whenever something new comes my way.  Where will I eat on a regular basis?  What gas station will I normally go to?  When do I know I have time for things?  When are the local stores open?  There are many things I’ll get more and more used to as time goes.  I look forward to finally getting a handle on it all.  The past 2 days I’ve gotten home without any GPS to help me so that’s good.  It’s not complicated around here.  Once you get used to how many streets to go and what’s at the intersections it’s pretty easy.  I can’t really see street signs before I get to them so I like to memorize places around the streets.  If your in the wrong lane and need to get over to turn or something just before a street, good luck.  Being in the right lane is important and actually harder it seems on normal roads than on the freeway.

I haven’t touched Standing Firm at all since I got here.  I’ll get on the ball eventually, don’t worry.  I can’t afford to lose pace but moving did put some sort of halt on things temporarily.  It wont be for weeks that’s for sure.  I want to have a cut of the film by the end of June.  Nothing missing, and basic sound editing in.  Something someone can sit down and actually watch.  We’ll see what kind of film we have here, and what is needed in the edit to make it work better.  It’s all part of the process.  It’s tough working on something like this alone, that’s for sure…but I’ll get there.  I look forward to finding a composer that I can collaborate with.  A friend of mine, Jeremiah Daws suggested this guy out in LA he met that has done music for some features before and lots of commercials and stuff.  I’ll be getting his name to check him out soon.  Music is VERY important in this film.  The film is meant to be an emotional ride and I specifically shot it and made each scene to be something emotional and dramatic.  If the music can’t compliment the camera work and context of the scenes, then it’ll ruin things.

Tomorrow is another day.  There are some small groups that meet from the church I go to (realityla.com) that I might check out.  There are quite a few of them around but they are hard to choose between.  I don’t know much about them.  I’ll have to just pick and try some out I suppose.  I want to find some friends I can really grow with, not just buddies I see once a week or two.  I wont find them unless I go look right?

What Did I Eat Today?:

Breakfast – Slimfast (chocolate…mmm)
Lunch – Salad, Manicotti (Olive Garden)
Dinner – Dried Fruit, Bottle of Water
Odds-N-Ends – Gummy Bears