Friday, January 31, 2014

Bitchin’ Friday: Supper Bowl




            If you live in the Seattle area then you know that Supper Bowl Sunday is almost here.  With all the hype and excitement spilling out across the city it is hard not to get wrapped up in it.  There are still those who turn there noses up and proclaim that they do not care about sports.  You might be asking, if I don’t care about sports then why should I be rooting and celebrating something that I don’t care about?
            Well ok, but why not get your head out of your ass and just come celebrate the fact that an entire city (and the majority of the state) has finally come together as equals and are celebrating as one.  No politics or other agendas are in the way and everyone can agree on one thing, Go Hawks!  It has become a greeting and a way to wish someone well, much like saying Merry Christmas or Happy New Year.
            Many still may not get the idea of rallying behind a team for better or worse.  They may have never played in a sport so this concept of cheering on a team is foreign to them.  The feeling that the fans get when there team wins or loses is very similar to corporative gaming.  That excitement and joy you may feel when your team crushes an opponent in Halo, or when your guild has completed a dungeon raid successfully are the feelings that a sports fan feels.  That wave of excitement washes over you and won’t let you go.
            Even if you still don’t care about sports, it is still nice to have a bit pride for your city.  So slap on some blue and green, doesn’t even need to say the team’s name on it, and walk down the street head held high.  You love your city and you’re proud to be part of thrill that filled the cities street.  And when someone yells out “Go Seahawks” you respond with “Go Hawks” since it is now a greeting to your fellow citizen.  
 Go Hawks!



Wednesday, January 29, 2014

California Trip




            So I am finally back from my trip to California.  It wasn’t a business or really even a pleasure trip; it was more of a small family reunion for my grandfather’s 100th birthday.  As with any time family gets together there will be drama.  I only regret not taking more pictures.
            As many of you know I left on Thursday, thus the early Friday rant.  I have never been so thankful that my dad flies so much; he got my mom and me first class tickets down and back.  Holy crap, I will save up money to travel just for the leg room alone. 
Such Leg Room, So WoW
            We also were able to sit in the Alaska airlines board room.  It was nice and quiet; we even had breakfast in there.  The flight it’s self down had quiet a bit of turbulence, my mother griped my hand so hard I thought it was going to fall off.  When we landed and went to pick up my parent’s luggage my mom’s bag was missing.  They had lost her luggage and later we found out it went to Newport Connecticut.  This is why I packed everything in my carryon backpack.  Good news is it did arrive to the original airport but not until the next day.  This meant my mom’s cloths for the family portraits the following morning were MIA and we had to go to Target for replacement clothing. 
            Aside from the lost luggage, we had a shitty hotel.  The only upside to this place is that it was only a five minute drive from my grandfather.  The walls were thin, twice we had loud neighbors waking us up early in the morning (think 2am and 5am), the beds were a sleep number bed that would only inflate or deflate on one side, and the sink and toilet were so low you might as well be on the ground to do your business.  The name of the hotel was the Radisson.  Do Not Stay Here!
            The majority of our time was spent at my grandfather’s house socializing with family and plotting on how to escape conversations that were lasting a tad too long.  The great grandchildren had fun together and acted like they have known each other all there lives.  Overall everyone got along well.  There were only 3 planed out events that everyone had to participate in.  They were the family portraits, church lunch-in, and family only dinner. 
            The portraits were the first time I saw my cousin N since he got married.  He seemed very stand offish and didn’t socialize with anyone other than my grandfather and his family.  I guess that is the east coast arrogance peaking its head out.  His wife seemed nice, a little shy and skittish but nice.  After the portraits everyone went back to the house and had lunch.  One kid broke there arm and that killed the mood for a good 5 minutes then everyone went back to talking and playing. 
            Church gathering went well; it was good to see so many people out to celebrate my grandfather.  My sister was so surprised that I didn’t catch on fire for entering a church, and I had to remind her that I only catch fire if there was service going on.  Lucky for me everyone had speeches and no prayer was given.  It was kind of touching to see my dad get choked up when he gave his speech to his dad.   Afterwards a majority of the people went back to the house to continue to celebrate.
            The next day my parent and I meet up with my sister and her family at Knott’s Berry Farm.  I only went on a few rides since my intestines finally decided to give me a bowel movement after 3 days of nothing.  But I did go on a few: Montezoom’s Revenge, Jaguar, Hat dance (my sister could not stop laughing on that ride), Dragon Swing, and the Log ride.
            Monday night was my grandfather’s official birthday and we all had a lovely dinner at Cedar Creek.  This was the final good bye greetings to all the cousins and other family members.  My parents and I left Tuesday at noon on a bitching plane:
With some noms on the plane:


            When I arrived back home I was exhausted and thus the much delayed “Monday” post.  Now I stated earlier that there was family drama but I have only reported happy greetings and family bonding.  Well here is the drama behind the scenes.

            The drama started back last two Monday’s ago right before we were all leaving to fly down to California.  My uncle sent out an email asking my dad, my sister, and I for pictures of us growing up and our families to use in the slide show for the church gathering.  The big issue was that my sister was driving down the next day and did not have time to dig threw and send down pictures.  My mother and I scrambled and did send him some pictures for the slide show, but did anything we sent down get used, nope.  The only saving grace was the photographer used some of the portrait pictures of us in the slide show.  The shittiest part was for my sister.  Her oldest child died young (only 7 years old) and it would have been nice to include just one picture of her in memory of or something.
            Next up we have my grandfather’s second wife stirring the pot like she always does.   She tried to plan (without telling anyone) a day where my grandfather and her were going to go visit her kids (they were married in there late 80’s so her kids are my parents age) who only live an hour away from them.  The issue was my cousin N, who came across the country, wanted to spend the day with him and have his kids write a report on there grandfather.  They would be able to ask questions and get to know him better.  Once the news of my grandfather’s wife plans were for that day came up, my uncle quickly squashed them and N and his family were able to spend the day with there grandfather.  Sorry bitch, maybe next time.
            The biggest drama had bee bubbling up for over the past 15 years between my father and uncle.  When my grandmother past away 20 years ago, she told her boys to split up her jewelry between them and the grandchildren.  So for 20 year my uncle was responsible for the jewelry and he was suppose to divide it out with my father.  For 20 years this has never happened and my father was getting upset.  He would always ask my uncle for the jewelry and for them to go threw it but he would blow it off.
            The tipping point on this trip was one of my cousins was wearing one of my grandmother’s rings.  When I complemented the ring knowing full well that it was grandmothers she said thank you and that the ring was inexpensive and not worth much.  Here is the thing about my grandmother, she did not wear cheep or costume jewelry.  That ring sitting on my cousin’s finger was a gold and jade with diamonds around it.  Sorry cousin but I call you on your bull shit. 
            So that ticked off my dad.  He gave his brother one last warning to hand over the jewelry so he could at least pick some things out for my sister and I.  Well the last night we were there he handed off the boxes of jewelry to my dad so he can look threw it.  When we returned back to my grandfathers house (just my parents and I) we went to the back room to look at and pick out some pieces.  When we opened the boxes what did we find, spoons.  Lots and lots of silver and some gold spoons.   We did find some jewelry but according to my dad this was not the completed collection of my grandmother.  If my uncle had said he had already given it out to his kids or needed the money, then just tell us.  Don’t string us along for 20 plus years on soothing that is there no more.  Even my grandfather was disappointed that my dad’s family got screwed over.
            It’s not that my sister and I really wanted the jewelry; it is the principle of the matter.  I can only hope that my father keeps in mind of what my uncle has done and when my grandfather passes will have lawyer present with him so he doesn’t get screwed again. 

            So that was my trip.  Still very tired and trying to catch up on sleep.  I am suppose to go to a networking thing tonight but I don’t know.  This week I plan on taking it easy and watching the big game on Sunday.  GO HAWKS!!!!
           
            See you on the other side

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Bitchi’n Friday: Collaborating With Others




            You scratch my back and I will scratch yours, which is how it should go when you collaborate with some one right?  I wanted to write this for last week’s Bitch’n Friday, but I decided to wait a whole week to see if they would hold up on there end of the stick.  I am not going to personally call anyone out but you could figure it out if you went back a couple of posts. 
            It’s pretty shitty when you hold up your end or only complete what would benefit them.  As someone starting off in blogging or YouTube, it is great to be able to collaborate with someone who has a bigger audience in hopes to gain some more traffic.  But it is only good if the other person promotes you.  Now I will say that the person that my man and I collaborated with did promote us twice during the live stream session.  What failed was the follow up on what said person was going to do; that was to upload the session live stream to YouTube so the broader audience can see it.  
            It has been well over a week and said person has posted another live stream that they made after our collaborative stream.  This begs the question as to why.  Why did said person not upload our joint video when you said you would?  For that answer I can not say.  I don’t know if the captured file got corrupted, was too lazy, or forgot about.  In any case this is a low blow. 
            To top it off after the stream session on said person’s channel they left before we could make our own video for my man’s channel.  And that sucks because we all planed on scratching each other’s backs.  I go on your channel and you come on mine.  And said person failed to hold up on there end of the stick. 
            We don’t every plan on collaborating with this person again.  Already been burnt twice by them not going in for a third time. 
           
            What horror stories do you have about collaborating with some one, or would you rather not collaborate with anyone at all?  Let me know in the comments below.  See you guys on a late blog on Tuesday.

See you on the other side.



Monday, January 20, 2014

SEAHAWKS Are Supper Bowl Bound!



            I’m so excited and happy for my hawks.  Congrats to them on there epic win against the 40 whiners, I mean the 49rs.  I wish I was able to go to New York, but holy cow the tickets for the game alone is going to cost $2000+.    I know I don’t talk that much sport for the most part due to my audience leaning more towards the side of Geekdom.  But sport was a huge part of my life growing up and I love how Seattle rallies together in support of there team. So that was my Sunday, sweating up a storm of nervousness during the game.

            Ok now back to a regular blog.  So all last week I had this gig/job for a documentary short.  I know I mentioned this last week, but to recap I am paid to clean up the audio and mix.  I was able to finish it by Saturday morning, a day ahead schedule go me, and sent it off to the director and editor.  Now I am sitting back and waiting to hear what they think of the mix.  Fingers crossed they like it and can hear the difference between the original and my version.

            This week I am prepping and flying out for my grandfather’s 100 birthday.  Last night I received a message from my cousin requesting for the family photo shoot on Friday, which everyone in the photo has to wear matching attire.  If you have been reading my blog for a while you can see where this is going. 

What.
 The. 
Fuck. 
            Is this the 80’s where we do family portraits at Sears in our ugly sweaters and have creepy looking smiles plastered across our faces?  Also the only time people should be matching is in wedding photos so the damn bride can stand out!  To me this is silly and we are all going to blend in.  Well maybe not me due to my fabulous colored hair that I just retouched in bright red for this trip.  The only good side to this is the attire is jeans and blue or green top.  Yeah, I will still stand out from my family. 
           

            As a result from this trip I will be posting a blog Thursday in place of my bitch’n Friday’s blog.  Also next Monday’s blog will be posted either on Tuesday or Wednesday depending on when I get back into town.  Have a great week my little bots and I will see you on Thursday.

            See you on the other side

Friday, January 17, 2014

Bitchin Friday: Updates



            Good Friday everybody!  The weekend is coming up and I am still working on that documentary short.  I have a good feeling that I shall be done by to night or tomorrow morning.  Its sounding good, the over all mix level needs to be brought up. 
            As some of you know I am leaving next week and I have no clue if I will have internet in my hotel room.  As a precaution I will write and post an early Friday blog on Thursday and have a delayed Monday blog on Tuesday.  If by some chance I do find internet will post an update on Monday. 
            Time to get back to work and finish this project up so I can prepare for my flight on Thursday! 

            Come back Monday for my weekly wrap up.
           
See you on the other side.




Monday, January 13, 2014

Working Girl



            Hi little bots, hope you had a good week.  I for one was able to get a few things done and GASP, even socialize!   While I was able to get a majority of my to do be for I leave Seattle done, there are still a few bumps that I have to smooth over.

            This past week I went over to my mom’s to get a few thing for the trip and help bleaching my roots.  I returned back on Friday not feeling like writing a post for Friday’s blog.  Again sorry.  But I did have my meeting with the director to view the film and to receive the hard rive of the film. 
            We meet at a coffee shop near my place.  The film didn’t have that many glaring audio issues, but the “found” footage audio is bad.  The good news is the director knows this and doesn’t have high hope, just wants is audible enough for the audience to understand.  Good meeting all around.
            When I got home to open up the OMF file I was surprised that the editor did not include the video with it.  I searched the drive and could only find clips of the film.  So now I have to wait for the editor to send me a QuickTime file of the film.  When I told them I would need an OMF of the file, it usually includes the video file in it.  Sigh, new editors.
           
            So that freed up my weekend and part of Monday.  Saturday, my man and I went to the SyFy short film festival with our friend.  There were some shorts that were good but a majority of them were overly pretentious and very few science fiction themes.  We all felt hipsters have taken over the festival and thus the lack of good films.  Don’t know if we will go back next year.
            Sunday my man and I invited over our friend M and Kiri.  Kiri has a YouTube channel Whit & Whimsy, is a vlogger on Geek and Sundry called Kiriosity, and plays games on her Twitch channel call Kiriosity.  So they came over and we all played Diablo 3 on her twitch channel, I should have told you guys but I forgot.  I will post links of your game play when she posts them on YouTube.  I think it went well, forgot to plug my blog but whatever.  Let me know what you think when the video is up.

            This week I will be busy with documentary, when I get the video.  There is only so much a sound editor can do before we need the video to make sure everything is synced!  I will post something Friday, hopefully the twitch videos on kiri’s YouTube channel. 

             

            See you on the other side

Monday, January 6, 2014

Kicking Off The New Year On A High Note



            Good day to you little bots, I see you have been busy hustling about this past week.  For me, the start of 2014 is going great.  I am being more aggressive and it is turning out well.
           
            To start I applied to a couple of job and bam landed my self a gig.  Mind you it is not a great paying gig but one none the less.  It is a short documentary (only 22 minutes long) and all they would like me to do is clean up the audio (not that bad of recording but the found footage is jacked up, but they are cool and know it wont be perfect) and do the final mix.  The director seems cool, the only down side is that I wont be getting it until this Friday.  Now why is this an issue? 
            Well at the end of the month I am going to be out of town, traveling to California for my grandfather's 100 birthday celebration.  Yeah, I get to travel on an airplane and my parents paid for my trip down there, double yeah!  So while I am exited about traveling and having a gig, the one week to work on it seems to be a little daunting, but do able.  22 minutes should not take more than a day or day and half to mix.  I just have to plow threw it and plan wisely.

            This week I need to go over to my mom’s house to get a couple of thing (and my hair retouched) for the trip.  Also I will be doing a couple of let’s plays on my man’s YouTube channel and having brunch with an old high school friend.  It is going to be a very busy month but I am exited and glad that my new aggressive approach to life seems to be working.
            Just today I told one of those petition pushers (you know those people on the street corners asking you to donate to children or whale or whatever) to fuck off!  Well I didn’t say fuck off to them, I saw one coming to block my path (their way of stopping you) and I yelled out to him “don’t block my way, please!”  And it worked!  He stopped dead in his tracks and went to harass another poor soul. 
             
            Are everyone else’s resolutions working for them?  If not hang in there, it will get better soon.  Side not with all the chaotic engagements that I have this month no Party Wednesday will be up this month.  I will do 2 party themes for February.

            See you on the other side

Friday, January 3, 2014

Bitch'n Friday Happy New Year

Hey little bots.  Hope all of you had a good new year and your resolutions are going well and strong.  I know mine are going strong.  I usually don't make resolutions but this year I did make one, as you recal it is yo be more aggressive.  And I'm happy to say it is working.  Got a gig, been pushing hard on my work out routine.  

Just wanted to give you guys a little heads up since I did not plan out a rant or review today.  So here is a picture of Cheif and I: 

Catch you on Monday.

See you on the other side.