A Day Working with a Video Company

I've been working for the last eight months as a videographer around Abilene. I had an opportunity today to with a professional production company out of DFW named Aires Productions. They were shooting part of a video at the local branch of Martin Sprocket. My job in this gig is what they normally a "grip." It means you move the lighting and video equipment around, plug it in and then step back and let the director and video shooter do their piece. It was interesting to watch and be involved in the process. It was also a bunch of work. But I enjoyed it and will maybe get the chance to do it again.

Here are a few photos of the event.

Space Center Houston

We spent this last weekend in Houston, visiting with Derek and Deanna, eating way too much food and catching some of the sites. We spent Friday afternoon at Space Center Houston. Here are a few pictures from that visit.

Weekend Event

We've been working in the garden this weekend. Trying to get it ready for spring planting. Everyone has gotten into the act.

There's the boys ...










The dogs are in the middle of everything ...

I promise I didn't fall asleep at the wheel ...

Of course, Karen is behind the camera ...

But, in the end, the only thing being lost is apparently the cleanliness of the house ...

Joshua Turns 10

Joshua turned 10 yesterday. He got what he wanted for his birthday: a DSLite and Pokemon Diamond. His party is tonight. He invited three friends over for burgers, an evening at PrimeTime and a movie. It will be fun.

My Latest ARN Video - Counting Bird

Here is my latest video.

http://reporternews.com/videos/detail/counting-abilenes-birds/

The Final Hurrah!

Before heading back to school for the Winter/Spring semester, we told the boys they could invite a friend over. By the time we got started, it involved eight boys, seven of which stayed the night in the house. Let's just say, it was intense.

In an attempt to run the energy out of them so they might actually sleep a little, I took them up to ACU to run around the track and play at Jacob's Dream. What they discovered was that the light on the ACU football practice field were on. At some point in their 2.5 hour football game, I stopped them long enough to get this picture.

Well, did my evil plan work? ARE YOU KIDDING!?!?! At 1:00 I had to get pretty loud so I could get their attention and at least have them get out their sleeping bags and lay down and try to be quite. From all reports, the last of them fell sleep around 2:30 in the morning.

Let's just say, it will be a long time before we do that again.

Movie with Jason

Twice a year, once in the summer and once at Christmas, we take the boys to bonafide movie at the theater. This year, we took all the boys to see "Bedtime Stories" with Adam Sandler. The good side of this movie is that for once it wasn't full of the usual Adam Sandler crudeness and sexual overtones. It was actually a good, clean movie that kids can watch. But, Jason is getting a little older and wanting to see more mature movies so he and I went to see Valkyrie, as evidence by the picture. I think Jason enjoyed being out with his dad, or maybe it was being out without his brothers. Either way, I had to capture the moment on my iPhone.



As for Valkyrie, it was a good movie but not a great movie. What made it less than great? In my opinion, the actors like Tom Cruise and others, made no attempt at sounding or acting German. I lived in Germany and Italy for ten years of my life. I know how they sound and interact. These actors didn't even make the attempt. I was also surprised to hear the "F" word in the movie ... quite prominently, I might add. In my opinion, a PG-13 movie should not have such language. Jason is only 11 but this is not even appropriate language for a 13-year old. I guess it goes to show that the rating folks in Hollywood really don't care what our children see and hear as long as they sell another ticket. The movie should have been an R rating. Shame on you, Hollywood.

After Christmas Skateboarding

We were blessed this Christmas season. Jonathan received a much-wanted skateboard for Christmas and spent the first four days skating every chance he got. Abilene has a nice skate park where other skateboarders ride their boards and use words like "Raw" and "Rad." Jon did really well and even went down a small hill or two on his skateboard.

This One's for Karen

I found this video on the internet, courtesy of one of my co-workers, and thought I would share it with you. This video is for all the mom's out there that have spent too many hours everyday trying to help their children grow and become productive members of society.

Craig MS Christmas Concert - Jason's First Concert

Jason is playing the clarinet in the Craig Middle School band. The band had their Christmas concert at Abilene High School last night. This was Jason's first public concert. They played two songs: Little Drummer Boy and Jingle Bells.