New digs.

I’ve finally got things set up at Thunderclap Films so I’m moving myself over there permanently.  This was a nice home away from home but it’s time to set up shop at my official domain.  The site is fairly rudimentary right now but as new projects happen and new content needs to be conveyed, well, that’s where it will happen.  I have a blog set up there and will leave this one up as a touchstone for anyone that might not read this on a daily basis.  As if that were possible with my infrequent posts.  I hope you’ll continue on this journey with me.  Our next destination is at www.thunderclapfilms.com

Just click on the word BLOG at the top of the page and you’ll find my new posts.

I’ll see you there.

The light has gone out.

Early this morning my grandmother passed away.  Her warmth, grace and wit will be missed by those who knew her.  Her capacity for love and compassion will be missed by those who were touched by her kindness and generosity.  Her smile, her sly smile, will be missed by all.

All grandmothers have stories and grandchildren who will begrudgingly listen to them if there’s a chance for candy.  My grandmother was no different.  Except that she was different.  She was MY grandmother.  She was unique to me and my cousins and no one will ever know the joy of waking up early in the morning at her house, the aroma of coffee filling our noses and the soft, red carpet muffling footsteps as we made our way down a long, picture-filled hallway.

That hallway was how we kept up with our families.  It was a rare event when more than one extension of the family was staying with her at any given time but I could chart the course of my cousins’ lives, the branches of my family tree that seemed to be growing much more rapidly than my own, through their school pictures.  Or candid shots in the backyard of some imagined utopia or interior shots as they studied, laughed and played.  I could see what my grandparents looked like when they were a little bit older than I am now and I could imagine them as real people with real lives .  I could do the same for my own parents.  I could get the sense that I was part of something bigger than myself.  A towering oak, of which my grandmother was a strong root.

To remember her is to know love and joy.  Her country twang and slow, deliberate way of speaking will forever dominate those memories.  Saturday night hamburgers and Wheel of Fortune, the constant clacking of the wheel as a subconscious metronome for our time together.  We are a family of board games and swimming pools and large gatherings of people over on Sundays after church for lunches beyond measure.  She is our pillar and now she is gone.

I will miss my grandmother more than I can adequately state.   She was a constant in a life of uncertainty, a beacon for those of us lost in ourselves.

The small tree that my grandparents planted so many years ago has become a large forest.  We are strong and vibrant and our roots grow even as we speak.  Their legacy will live on in our children and our children’s children and their names will echo through eternity.

Love in the Afternoon

I haven’t had much to say lately so I’m sorry I haven’t updated in a while. My life, as usual, is boring. I changed my major, changed my school, changed my job and yet feel like I would bore people. I think when you put yourself out in a public forum like this you have a self-imposed desire to entertain, provoke and inspire. Sometimes that’s just too much pressure so I opt out until I either let it go so long that posting about not having posted is the entire reason for breaking silence or until I have something wonderful and amazing to relate (I wonder which category this post will fit into?).

I’m watching the Patriots/Steelers game right now, having witnessed the Cowboys comeback earlier, and it’s a wonderfully cold day outside. It’s football weather and if we had a fireplace I would be hearing the crackling of wood and feeling the soft, subtle warmth radiating around the living room. Sadly, we do not have a fireplace. Brady just hit Moss for his second touchdown in about 2 minutes. Unstoppable.

As far as Christmas goes, we’re pretty much done. I finished all of their presents earlier this week and Leanne is out doing some shopping to finish up her family and get some of mine. I hope. Currently we have about twenty-something presents under the tree and zero, ZERO, are for me. That doesn’t seem right to me. I have faith though. On Christmas morning I will have at least one present under there, otherwise I’ll be a sad panda.

London had a friend over last night. They had a good time, getting rambunctious at times as boys do, and he got to play with someone other than his parents for a while. I think they played video games more than they actually interacted but that’s what the kids are doing these days. We were going to make ask them to go outside and, you know, experience the world but it was cold and rainy today so…..

I start my new job tomorrow and I’m excited. We’ve already been invited to the office Christmas Party on Wednesday night so that should be fun. Food, drink and casino night. Leanne and I will have fun, I’m sure, and we’ll get to feel like adults. I know we are adults but since we’re both still in school and not actually doing what we want professionally with our lives yet we always feel like we’re stuck in a state of perpetual young adulthood instead of full-on adulthood. We are no longer twenty-somethings but sometimes still feel like it. It’s a weird sensation because in almost all aspects of my life I’m doing what my parents did when they were raising us and I just don’t feel like I’m that grown up yet. Maybe I am and I just fool myself into thinking I’m not. Maybe it’s Peter Pan syndrome. Or, maybe, the world has just changed what it means to be an adult and Leanne and I are doing what we can to raise our family and give ourselves the life we want.

I hope you are all doing well and, in case you don’t hear from me again for a while, have a happy holiday season.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I had a great visit with my family, both sides, and got to see some people I haven’t seen in a while. It was fun and we’ll definitely have to do it again soon.Hope you all had a great holiday and are resting up for the Christmas stretch now. From my family to yours, happy holidays. I’ve included a link to a slideshow I prepared. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving 2007 Slideshow

Sunday

Another week has passed. I’m currently watching the Colts play better than the Patriots. Today Leanne, London and I went out to eat for lunch (I had the baby back ribs bonus meal at Chili’s) and then did some bowling for an hour at the local bowling alley. We had a good time and Leanne actually had the highest total after two games. She also ended up in second place when we played darts with some friends on Friday night. She has apparently been hiding these blue-collar past times and her ability to beat me soundly at them. I can still kick her ass at cricket though, I swear.

London got his progress report for this six weeks and he’s doing very well. All A’s , one B and a high C. If we can get that last C up and not have him go down on anything else then we’ll be very pleased with his work this semester. He’s such a smart kid and I’m starting to see him taking interests in certain subjects and it’s so exciting to see him starting to write with more authority and confidence. If we can just get him to read for fun a bit more (he sometimes feels like its something he HAS to do and not something he should WANT to do) then we’ll even notice a bigger improvement in those writing skills.

My parents will be here in about two weeks for Thanksgiving. We’re pumped for them to see the place and for Josh to get his first glimpse at our life here in Frisco and we should have everything pretty well setup when they arrive. I won’t get to spend as much time as I would like with them but the time we get together will be quality time. My Mom is still working on getting a transfer down here so that they can move closer to their family. If and when she gets it then we’ll be able to see them more and have them over for dinner. We don’t entertain nearly as much as we would like but that has more to do with my work schedule right now than anything else. I’m just not here enough and when I am here I want to spend time with my wife and son. Things may change on that front very soon though

Work is going fine. It’s actually getting slower right now but will get much more busy as we start making cards and calendars for Christmas. I hear it gets crazy during the holidays.

This game is getting good. I think I’ll go back to watching it. Enjoy your week!

Horton Hears a Who

Yesterday I planned out my schedule for the next semester of school. I would like to get all of my classes on the same two days so I can cut down the amount of time I have to drive out to Denton but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this spring. My French II class is throwing it off because they require me to take it four days a week for shorter periods, plus a lab. Maybe next year I can get them all on the days I want them so that I have more free time to work on movies and do homework.

Leanne also figured out what degree plan she is going to pursue this spring up at UNT. I know she’s glad to finally have it all planned out (there was some debate about which one would be feasible and which would give her the best shot at teaching as quickly as possible) and it looks like she and I will be graduating at roughly the same time. It would be great to walk the stage together but even if we’re a semester apart we’ll be extremely happy just to have finished.

I can’t wait to finally have my degree and start my career. I’ve had a number of vocations (exactly how many jobs they comprised is privileged information and, sadly, you are not privileged) but none of them ever felt like my career. I never got that sense of putting the job on the same level as other aspects of my life. I was always, and to some degree still am, treading water and waiting to do what I really want to do. I have supreme confidence in my ability to find a job that I like in the industry and I believe I will draw immense satisfaction from working on those projects.

The (great) Pumpkin Patch

London, Leanne and I went for a drive on Sunday afternoon to The Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound. We were ready for a nice, leisurely stroll through the pumpkins and were hoping to have a bit of a chill to get us in the fall spirit. One would hope that the end of October would bring some cool weather, even in Texas, but nature had the last laugh. It was a nice, balmy 80 degrees with no breeze and no cloud cover. It was also incredibly crowded and noisy and you couldn’t turn in a complete circle without bumping into the person next to you. Nor could you walk more than three paces without stepping into someone’s photo op with their little boy or girl.The place was nice enough and was probably a blast for the smaller children. They had cut out figures littered throughout the farm depicting characters from Disney films, books and other movies and cartoons. There was a hay bale maze for the little kids and one for the not-so-little kids (though London said the passages were so narrow that even at his size it was too small) and they had various bounce houses and slides. London, being the maturing boy of eleven that he is, professed disdain for the “kiddie” stuff and was rather focused on picking out pumpkins and eating some food.

All in all we had an adequate time. Leanne got pumpkins, maize and various other centerpieces for her fall decorations and London discovered that all popcorn is not created equal (he’s like me and doesn’t really like kettle corn). Plus we got to spend some quality family time together. We probably won’t go back next year (it’s a bit of a drive and the cost of the pumpkins is about three times that of the ones available at the grocery store) but we might try the Frisco one. Pictures below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shutter-bug

I want to start taking more pictures.  I remember always having pictures of my childhood around, from every stage of it, and going to my grandparents’ houses and looking back through the voluminous amounts of pictures of my parents as children.  It let me view them in a different light, to really see them as real people and not just my parents, and I feel like we’re cheating London out of that experience with his children.  We have pictures of him at almost every age and in a lot of different kinds of activities but I have noticed a slow down in the amount we take these days.  This past baseball season we didn’t take a single picture of him playing.  I didn’t record a single bit of footage of him playing.  I think we need to rectify that.  We’ve talked about taking a family portrait together, and we probably will for the holidays this year, but I think I’m going to try and break out the camera for pictures that show us living life.  Photo-journalistic in style, very candid and not posed.

Lay Lady Lay

Movies I am excited about:

The Mist – Frank Darabont adapting another Stephen King tale. One of my favorites and another of my lost pet projects.

American Gangster – Ridley Scott directing Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. My how far they’ve come from Virtuosity.

Lions for Lambs – Robert Redford directing an indictment of the War in Iraq with Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep along for the ride.

No Country for Old Men – The Coen Brothers returning to form after two lackluster entries (Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers) and working from the book by Cormac McCarthy. Plus, Javier Bardim as the ultimate badass. I read the book a few weeks ago and can see how the Coen’s would be interested. I think the narrative kind of peters out at the end but I trust them and it has gotten rave reviews.

Margot at the Wedding – Great cast in this one. Noah Baumbach, you had me at hello.

I’m Not There – Todd Haynes is an interesting director and while I might not like everything he does, he is out there trying things and telling stories that no one else is attempting. This one has Cate Blanchett as one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan in a retelling of his life. The trailer was amazing.

Lust, Caution - Ang Lee could film Tony Leung reading from a phone book and I would find it engaging. They’re both that good at what they do. Plus, you know, nudity. This one is a divider and will probably not play that many theaters because of the NC-17 rating but any new Lee film is worth a look.

There Will Be Blood – Paul Thomas Anderson directing a period piece starring Daniel Day Lewis as a despicable man and a town overrun by oil-boom greed.  Working from a source story by Upton Sinclair you know that this is going to be bleak and unflinching and it’s a different kind of film for PTA.  The trailer is intriguing and, once again, Lewis is getting Oscar buzz.

The Lay of the Land

I took the car in today to get a diagnosis on some problems that have cropped up in the last couple of weeks. When I went to get my oil changed a couple of months ago the technician (I guess they have to call them something other than mechanic sometimes and it sounds a lot better and more plausible than “automotive scientist”) indicated that I should probably have my transmission looked at because he saw a few things that could be problematic in the future. The mechanic-on-duty was, conveniently, off duty at the time so I mentally filed it away for a later date. That date came early last week while driving my car to class.

The car was running a bit louder than usual and it seemed like it was taking longer to change the gears in my automatic transmission. Like most people, I am quite in tune with my car and don’t hear the noises it makes until there’s a problem. Leanne drove my car once last week and she also noticed that it was running and sounding different. Due to my school and work schedules the only day I could take it was a Friday and last Friday I was already booked up with activities that needed to be done. So I figured that it would give me a chance to listen to the car for a full week and understand the problem as well as I possibly could.

So today I decided to skip my French lab and class because if I didn’t get it checked out and have something fixed that needed to be fixed ASAP then I wouldn’t be making to many classes all next week anyway.  I took it to our local Goodyear, where I have a credit card, and gave them all the info I had to go on. It was pretty much the same though the shifting problem seemed to have disappeared completely. It took them about 45 minutes to diagnose the problems. The myriad problems.

The good news is that none of them are damaging my car in any way and their repair isn’t going to do anything for me other than make it less noisy. The reality of the situation is that my car is now 12 years old and has over 140,000 miles and I’m currently putting an additional 85 miles per day on there because of my commute. I have several leaks (exhaust, head gasket, etc….) and I had an oil pan leak. The total amount to repair all the leaks, including the labor, is more than the car is really worth so I decided to forgo them. I fixed the oil leak but the others are ones I can live with. I should be able to drive this car for another couple of years, until I graduate is the plan, and then trade it in for a nice new one. The technician said that as long as I keep an eye on my oil and transmission fluid levels then I shouldn’t have any real problems.

At least the engine isn’t falling out. At least the car starts up when I need it to. At least I have a garage in which to park it every night. At least there’s no major leak or repair needed. I actually do consider myself lucky.

In other news, Leanne and I were going to have some couples over for dinner or dessert and a game night tonight but the car thing put the kibosh on that. We rescheduled for next Friday night before we found out that my car wasn’t going to be laid up in repair but I think it’s for the best anyway. This place could use a nice cleaning before we have company and I hate trying to rush and clean the day before I have people over. When we do entertain we always have a good time and we have a much better home for it now than we did back in the apartment. With over twice the square footage and a better layout for eating and relaxing, not to mention a place for the kids to play and stay in earshot, this place really is a great place for us. We’re very happy here even though we’ve seen evidence that these were hastily put together and we now look forward to full home ownership in the very near future.

School is going well. Leanne was running around the last two weeks stressing about her classroom observations but she has worked it all out and was able to observe at the elementary school behind London’s middle school on Wednesday. She actually ran the lesson and did a great job, I’m sure. She’s working on being more forceful with the kids when she needs to and realizing that even though she’s a visitor there when she runs the lesson then she is in charge. She’s going to be a great teacher and I’m very proud of her and all she’s accomplished so far.

I had another test in my Radio/TV class on Thursday and I got my first French test back on Tuesday. I got an 83 on it. I’m pleased with that score and now I know what and how to study for the next one. I’m really enjoying the language and it’s starting to come together in my head. I’m starting to remember verbs and adjectives by memory and I don’t have to look up nearly as much as I did before. It’s all starting to click.

Life in general is pretty good right now. We’re settling into a routine and Leanne changed her schedule at work so that she can be home in the mornings with London and, if the need arises, she can drop him off at school when it’s raining so he doesn’t get soaked riding his bike. I’m behind on my movie watching, both on DVD and in the theaters, but I’m going to try and catch something next week or this weekend maybe. We’ll see. There’s a lot of good stuff coming out soon.