Screening our Christmas movies

We finally got our chance to watch the Christmas video. Although my girlfriend's mom didn't cry, as we had anticipated, she did appreciate it. The kids also enjoyed the Kids movie we had made, that showed my girlfriend's brother's children in the activities we had taken them to throughout the year. That video was received with a lot of laughter as the kids recognized themselves in the pictures we had selected.

Later in the week, my girlfriend's mom asked me to watch the video again. She said "I don't think I will get tired of watching the video again." I replied, "That's good, because I don't think I will get tired of showing the video again."

Song Assessments - Isabella and Detours

I sent off my submission of two of my songs, Isabella and Detours, to the Song Assessment Service. It should take 6-8 weeks to receive my completed Assessment, so I expect to get it back around mid-February.

While I'm waiting for that to come back, I plan to take the updated version of Friday Nights at The Wedge to a Date With a Tape to get a new assessment. There is one scheduled for January 11.

Making movies

For about the last year or so, I have had the desire to use the pictures I have taken with my digital camera to create a slide show that would tell the story of the year 2004. Well that thought has remained just that - a thought - until this past weekend.

My girlfriend's mom (I'll call her GFM) complained about my digital camera. She said that once I transfer the pictures from my camera to my computer, she doesn't get to see the pictures. At least with a conventional camera she gets to see photos.

Well, feeling a need to defend the honour of my maligned digital camera, I became inspired to take action. A conventional camera more useful than a digital? Let me show you what can be done with digital, I thought. Off to my computer I went and fired up Windows Movie Maker.

My goal was to create a slide show using last year's Christmas photos, add a soundtrack, save it as a video and hope we'd be able to play it back on GFM's DVD player. The song I had in mind was Pachelbel's Canon. It's a well recognized song and is often played around Christmas time, so I thought it would be well suited to the subject matter.

I have two different cd's that each have a different arrangement of this song. One was on a Solitudes cd that was in the basement. The other was a cd that was in my car, outside in sub-zero temperature. I tried the Solitudes version first but it just didn't work. It has a long intro of the sound of waves, and the dynamics were just too low key. It's a great track for solitude and meditation, but not suitable for what I had in mind.

The other version was on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra cd The Lost Christmas Eve that was in my car. So I bundled up and trundled out into the cold and brought in the cd. It was a labour of love.

It was well worth the trek outside into nature's freezer. The TSO arrangement (called Christmas Canon Rock) is punchier, and has some wonderfully dramatic transitions. The part of the song where the vocals come in just happened to coincide with where we put pictures of my girlfriend's sister and her family ("We are waiting, We have not forgotten") and it just has an amazing impact. My girlfriend said "My mom is going to cry when she sees this."

It was pretty late at night when we finally finished this production. All in all, we'd spent about three hours putting together this six minute video, but I am totally pleased with it - and the TSO Canon song is still running through my head several days later.

Lake was frozen and foggy

It's been really cold these past few days. I'm talking like minus twenty or so. Driving to work this morning I noticed the lake was frozen. It was all white, and I couldn't even be sure where the lake ended and the horizon began. There were wisps of fog emanating from the lake. A chilling sight, but beautiful.

Excerpt from Mission: Dawn - "Let's Go!"

Here is an excerpt from my story "Mission: Dawn". I welcome your feedback, questions, or constructive feedback.

"Morgan,"

"Arjay. Is it time?"

"Start packing."

"I'll round up the troops. Which one is it?"

"542."

Morgan smiled. "You convinced Starfleet."

Arjay nodded. "We leave in five days. That going to be a problem?"

"No, the troops have just been waiting for the word to come down. When do you want to hold the briefing?"

"Two days."

"Alright, I'll set it up." Morgan paused.

"Morgan?"

"Arjay," he began.

"Come on Morgan do we have to go through this every time?"

"You know my positon."

"And you know how I feel about this." Arjay glared at the image of Morgan on his viewscreen.

"And you know how Starfleet wants it."

Arjay grunted. "Who is it this time?"

"Ensign Ian Green."

"Ensign? How old?"

"Nineteen."

"He's a kid!"

"He's Starfleet. He's a valuable resource."

"He doesn't have any experience. Dammit, space is no place for kids!"

"He's bright, he's enthusiastic, he's motivated. As far as experience, it's our job to provide him with that. You can't deny him that, Captain!"

"Is that an order?" asked Arjay, getting his anger under control.

Morgan grinned. "Of course not. Look, approval has to come from you. But why don't you at least meet him before you make your final decision?"

Arjay paused, took in a deep breath, and let it out with a measured sigh. "Where is he?"

"Space Station."

"Hmmpf. I'll think about it." Morgan opened his mouth to add something but Arjay cut him off with a tone that was final. "I said I'll think about it."

"Alright, alright." Morgan knew he had scored a small victory and that it was time to back down.

Arjay switched off the viewscreen,and the image of Morgan vanished, leaving him alone in his office. He leaned back in his chair and looked out the window, gathering his thoughts. A moment later he stood up and spoke aloud to himself in a firm voice.

"Let's go. It's time to get the action started."

The Written Word

I remember my first field trip to the public library, in whatever grade it was. What grade do they take you to the library for the first time, maybe two or three? I was fascinated by the books and I remember deciding on the way home that I was going to write a book at some time in my life.

Well here I am, I turned 40 this year and have not yet written a book. Or started. It's funny though, that writing a book has never appeared as an item on any of my to-do lists. Yet the passion remains. I have written a number of songs, I have written some short stories. No novel yet though.

Sometimes when I tell my friends one of my life's ambitions is to write a book they ask what it would be about. And that's a very pertinent question. Perhaps a big reason I haven't started one yet is because I can't decide what to write about.