A month has passed
9:51PM, July 14, 2007 - [ Permalink]
Well, nearly, and I apologize. I have been very busy with work and a mess of side projects of late, and I have to admit, I haven't had much to say.
But, let's see what has been going on of late. Back at the end of May, I had the opportunity to take a course at Canadian Screen Training Centre's Summer Institute of Film and Television workshop on Video podcasting with Andrew_Baron (blog)of Rocketboom fame.
The workshop was great - and timely - with one of my side projects, Speaking of Ottawa which is due to launch soon.
Andrew is a nice guy, sharing tonnes of information, ideas, and suggestion. He put on a great workshop - I'll very likely take it again next year if he comes back.
While at SIFT, I also had the opportunity to meet up with some great folks, some I have known over the years and some I only met then. Great chance to reconnect! I also got to see a movie - oddly enough that I had been considering purchasing the day before - Jesus Camp - which frankly scared the bejezus out of me.
My friend Brad Campeau has finally launched his bakery-in-a-truck business called B Goods. He has been selling his baked goods to places like the Natural Food Pantry in the market for some years now, and are regular treats on our menu.
I especially like the wholewheat chili chocolate cookies. Hard to go wrong there!
His launch party was held at La Petite Mort Gallery on Cumberland - a small gallery that I've walked past nearly a zillion times, but just haven't had the chance to stop in. Most of our brunch gang showed up, looked at some beautiful art, sampled cookies and beer, and had a generally excellent time. I chatted for a while with the manager, Monika, who promised to hook me up with one of the artists for an interview down the road.
Canada Day was busy - we ran out the door in the morning to do some video shooting (which didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, but hey, it happens), and began preparations for our party.
The tarp went up, veggies were chopped and then we kicked back with Dave, Pia and the kids until others started to arrive. The party went very smoothly, with people coming and going all day. I really had a great time, all day, wandering from conversation to conversation, chatting with friends.
On iStockphoto (buy my videos!), my fireworks videos are the most popular, so I figured I should do some more, so I carried out the camera equipment and shot the fireworks from down the street. Frankly, I could have just shot it from the street in front of our place (nearly perfect line of sight), but closer is always better.
After the fireworks some people left, and others hung out until roughly 12:30, a successful party by all accounts, I think.
Yesterday we went to Laser Quest (yay!) to have my overdue birthday games (there was a screw-up at LQ back in March). In the first game I *annihilated* the competition with nearly twice the score of the next closest player, my buddy in crime, Ray, and also securing the high score for the day. Tracey came in a respectable third place. The second game my score wasn't nearly as high, but enough for another first place finish. Among the players: Tracey, Ray, Craig, Crystal, Alex, Yun (and his daughter), Louis, and Bree. We should do that more often.
Today, I started shooting *another* video project, and I have to be up at 7:00AM tomorrow for the next round of shooting.
So much for writing a short, quick update.
Music of the moment: Castle Down by Emilie Autumn via eMusic
