Arg… I went on holidays for a week, then got psycho-busy at work right up until today. I have a bit of a calm eye of the storm before things get busy again, so I’ll update my blog. NOTE: A lot of stuff has happened, so I won’t be going into great detail, altho’ every item below deserves it.
I took the week off because I was getting really stressed out. I was also using the time to help Syl and Carmina prepare for their wedding on October 9th. There was a lot of running around and - to illustrate how good a friend and Best Man I am - I did a lot of driving around in downtown Toronto. I HATE driving in downtown Toronto! I really become a mean mofo and even (unwittingly) ran a red.
The wedding went really well. My speech was what I was most looking forward to, but it kinda bombed. Most of the attendees don’t speak English as a first language (and some barely understand it), so I blame that. Not my lame timing nor how uncomfortable I was in front of an audience.
However, as it turned out, the more important job of the Best Man went well. I had many complements on how I managed to deal with any and all ‘complications’ that came down the pipe. As I see it, it’s the Best Man’s job to deflect any stress away from the Bride and Groom and onto himself… in that respect, I did a VERY good job! I was quite stressed out through the day, evening, and even the next day.
The important thing is that the event went well and Syl and Carmina have a long, happy life ahead of them. Simone also got to see me in a tux, which she says was a plus. I also got to see her with her hair straightened… kinda looked like Jennifer Aniston. grrrrOWWLL!
Turkey dinner was up at my parents’ place in Barrie on Sunday, and Simone hosted a veggie-lasagne dinner on Monday night for her family. Happy tummy.
Last Friday, Simone, Paul and I watched Shaun of the Dead. Talk to me about it, because I’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about it here. However, as the aspiring film-maker, I was particularly entertained by the technique of filming comedic scenes with cinematic techniques usually reserved for the scariest of horror scenes.
Saturday, I drove to John’s place in Ajax. Along the way, I very nearly got tagged for my FIRST EVER speeding ticket. That would have sucked, because I was barely doing over 120 km/h on the 407, where the usual ‘flow of traffic’ is in excess of 130. The guy who DID get tagged was probably not doing more than 125 km/h. Counting my blessings, counting my blessings, counting my blessings…
Once at John’s, we watched all five Star Wars films currently on DVD in chronological order to the SW Universe. Opting out of beer, we just had a ‘kids day’, eating chips, “corner store” style candy, pop and pizza. John’s childhood friend, Kieth, was there too. The two of them have watched the movies together more times than I’ve probably watched them at all.
Sunday was a work day. Outside it was dark, raining and a high of 10 degrees, so I didn’t feel that I was missing THAT much. However, I was in at work at 9:30 in the morning and left sometime after 10:00 PM. We received footage from a few manufacturing plants from one of our clients, and I had to compile them into a 12-13 minute video.
I pieced everything together on Sunday, had the client look at it, then made more changes on Monday up until around 7:00 last night. Threw together a quick DVD menu, produced a back-up VHS copy and voila! Very professional. Not my best work, but definitely impressive work for the dramatically short timeline… but of course, that’s when I excel. Oddly enough, my extended timeline work is rarely as beautiful or inspired.
Finally, Simone gave me a combination Anniversary, Hannukah & Christmas gift all in one. An ATI All In Wonder 9600XT!!!
This card has one of the very fastest 3D gaming processors on the market. It has the Theatre 200 chipset which lets me watch, record, and pause live TV on my computer. It has a remote control. It also supports dual-monitor, which makes it the ONLY All In Wonder I would buy, even if I was considering buying one.
Fuckin’ super!
With a card like this, I’m not likely to even notice that Christmas has come and gone, so I won’t be missing ‘additional’ gifts!
Fuckin’ super!
Well, that catches me up to now. Just about to go into another stretch of short timeline work, but I don’t mind that too much. I’m going to get a day back with all the OT I’ve put in, and I’ll probably spend the day playing video games on my new card. I’ve already loaded up Halo, turned on Anti-aliasing, turned on all effects, knocked up the resolution and played a couple levels…
Fuckin’ super!
