Productive Weekend

My weekend to-do list didn't seem all that long, but I didn't come anywhere close to finishing it off. Still, I felt mightily productive, and accomplished a lot.

The further I get on my dad's biography project, though, the more historical gaps I discover...thus creating additional work. He mentions living in California, but doesn't explain how he got there. He talks about marrying my mom, but leaves out any details of their courtship. And even though he was alive when it happened, he doesn't mention the "War of the Worlds" broadcast at all! (Though come to think of it, he did live in Stafford, Kansas; they probably just haven't received those particular radio waves yet.)

So, my dad and I will both have a bunch more to do before we'll have anything ready for publication. I'll ask questions about those gaps, and he'll have to dredge up the appropriate memories (or maybe just make up something that sounds good...who would know?) And I still need to dig up the photos that go along with the text. That project will continue for a while. If I don't have to work too much over the Christmas holidays, though, perhaps we can shoot towards having something solid by early January.

I have to say, though, that I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday. I had an excellent swim practice, and then Tanner showed up at the pool to start shooting the Tazmanian Hula training video we decided to make. We struggled a little bit with the narrative intro, but I think we got all the footage we needed to begin assembling the instructional documentary. It may be a while before I'll be able to get the editing completed, but at least the shots are in the can.

["In the can" -- That's Hollywood talk for having the footage shot. It comes from the pre-digital age, when movies were captured on this stuff called "film", which contained a photo-sensitive emulsion laminated to a long strand of cellulose acetate. Once the "film" had been exposed in the camera, it was removed and sealed within a completely opaque container so that no further light could reach the emulsion. These containers were generally made of metal, and were colloquially called "cans"...thus the saying. Even though "film" is no longer used, we big-time producers still use the phrase, because it sound so much cooler than saying "the appropriate bytes of digital data have been recorded onto the storage media and are preserved in machine-readable format".]
The problem is, of course, finding enough time to do the editing, record the narration, and add the graphics...not to mention the upload to YouTube. And after that, I'll have to find time to deal with the calls from Hollywood producers, the guy from "Time" Magazine who wants to write one of those "Is he the next Spielberg?" articles, and all the various swimsuit vendors who'll want me to endorse their products.

Oh well, it was a good weekend, so I have no complaints. (Well, except for having to go back to work.) Let's do what we can to see that the entire month remains equally excellent, OK?