Last weekend Rosie and I headed into the studio of her friend Megan for a photo session. We needed to take some engagement photos (one of many things I didn’t realize was a thing prior to popping the question) and pictures to use for our “Save the date” cards. Our plan for said cards was to snap a picture at the Fox in front of a poster display and then Photoshop in a fake movie poster of ourselves with the relevant information.
If you live here you know how nasty the weather was last Saturday. So we decided to skip the Fox and just shoot in Megan’s studio. In addition to the shooting we did for engagement photos and our poster idea, we also played around for about a half hour or so with light drawing (google image search it and you’ll see some neat examples). We all liked how these experiments turned out (at least on the camera’s little screen) so we may abandon the movie poster idea.
Now we’re just waiting for the CD to come in the mail. At that point we then dig into Photoshop and see what we can do. I’ll upload some of the best pictures as soon as I have them in hand.
(Sidenote: As we are having to foot the majority of the cost for the wedding ourselves, our guest list will, by necessity, not include many people with whom we’d love to share the day. After the wedding (and, hopefully, the honeymoon) we’ll have a massive party so that all who weren’t there can give us gifts, I mean, celebrate our union. So if you don’t get an invite, it doesn’t mean we don’t like ya!)
A week or so ago, Rosie finally convinced me we should go ahead and start up our wedding registries. We had planned to set one up on Amazon and, because of her great love for the place, at Macy’s and a third place to be named later (probably Target).
In setting up the Macy’s registry we discovered they were holding a “Sip and Scan” event at Lenox this past Thursday. I didn’t even need to ask her if she wanted to attend. Once we got down there and signed in, they handed us a free tote bag (made by Victorinox so a decent quality item) with a bunch of flyers and ads inside along with a free wine bottle opener called “The Bunny”, clearly a knockoff of “The Rabbit”, but still better than anything we had at home.
Aside: The free gift item was particularly amusing for us. A bit over a year ago, before I moved in with Rosie, we needed a corkscrew at her place. So we set out to buy one. We couldn’t find one that wasn’t ridiculously expensive. We did finally find one, but ever since, anywhere we go, we find corkscrews, even in places that we looked before. So showing up for our first real wedding event and being given a free corkscrew? Priceless.
They then handed us a Palm-based Symbol barcode scanner (I’m a geek, I notice these things) and set us loose. After sampling some of the hors d’œuvres and a bit of aimless milling around we started scanning up a storm. OK, we didn’t go crazy with it, but got a decent amount of items registered.
At one point, I took a look around at the other couples and had the feeling of being in an exclusive club. All of the people there, as varied and unlike us as they may have been, are our peers in one very significant way. That’s part of why I’m going to try and be a bit better about blogging this year. This experience is completely new for me and, hopefully, something I’ll only go through once.
All in all, it was an enjoyable way to spend an evening.
Wow. For the past couple of days I’ve been getting calls from an 800 number I didn’t recognize. Figured it was some marketing thing so just haven’t been answering. Finally took a moment to see what it was and if I could I’d chop up my credit card right now.
It seems that my credit card company wanted to warn me about the CARD Act which takes effect in February. The one aspect in particular that they thought I needed to know about was the ban on allowing over limit charges. Apparently they consider it a feature not a bug. They gave me a lovely example of how it is great if I’m in an emergency, like running out of gas, and need to go over my credit limit to fill my tank. Ye gods, how will we ever survive without that option?
The woman on the phone then assured me that I could keep the ability to go over my limit and, as a bonus, they would be dropping the over limit fee by $10! So that $5 of gas that keeps me on the run from the zombie hordes would only cost me $34 instead of $44 (plus interest of course). She seemed a little surprised (which surprises me) that I declined and asked to have the “feature” removed. Are there really that many people who agree to this offer?
So if you have a credit card, make sure to check before February and be sure they don’t opt you in to keeping the over limit “feature” (unless you really want it).
Nothing new on the making side. On the watching side though I finally saw Inglorious Basterds last weekend. I quite enjoyed it, particularly that, given the setting, the usual pop culture chatter was restricted to early German cinema. And thankfully, Mike Meyers managed to restrain himself from hamming it up.
magic (and now magick too)
I’m still exploring my renewed interest in magic and determining if I’m more interesting in actually performing tricks or just academic study. Whichever direction, I’m still trying to pick up little tricks. On that front my interest is still more in looking for tricks I can perform with little to no prep and as few props as possible.
The latest issue of Genii appeared in my mailbox a few days back and I’ve been really digging it. The majority is devoted to a tribute to an old magic ‘zine called The Jinx that ran from the 20s through the 30s. Hadn’t ever heard of it before, but judging from the content put together for this new “issue”, it’s now high on my list of items to track down.
As for the other field of magic (the supernatural kind, which I’ll go ahead and refer to as magick to keep them straight), I’ve started looking back into that again recently. What started as a bit of research for a story I’m working on is slowly becoming a full fledged pursuit. I’ve just recently worked my way through Promethea as a way to get a bit of an overview of the topic (an idea spawned from attending Damien Williams’ DragonCon presentation [video may be online by now, but I don't have the link]). I would appreciate any recommendations on another good primer/magick 101 tome. From some seeking I’ve done, I’m considering Crowley’s Magick Without Tears as a possible next step, but know that some of you probably have a ready answer.
technology
The Monday after MMS went live on the iPhone, I contacted AT&T tech support (via online chat) to see why I still couldn’t send messages. After having me reset my phone and various other pointless time wasters (if I have to turn off WiFi to send a message, your system is broken), I was told their system is still overloaded and I should try again the next day. Now, it’s a week later and I still can’t send.
I’ve seen numerous reports online from people like me who once had an original iPhone and still had a block somewhere on their account. I mentioned that to the unhelpful tech support person, but he said my account looked fine which is clearly not the case. Despite having been with AT&T Wireless since it was originally AT&T Wireless (pre-sale to Cingular and back when getting a pre-paid phone got you an 800 number instead of a local one), given the questionable network and service, if Apple ditches them next year, I’m going to leave too.
life
is life. Which is to say a mix of work and not-work.
writing
I’ve been working recently with my beloved fianceé Rosie on a story she came up with via a dream and the mood of a Bruce Springsteen song. She plotted it out and now I’m in the process of constructing it. Out of all the stories I’ve been working on (read: researching *cough*dicking around*cough*) lately, this is the first one that’s gotten me excited enough to actually start spilling ink. Indeed, it’s flowing like it used to back when I considered myself more a writer than a filmmaker. It certainly helps too that I’ve just finished off Promethea. Alan Moore’s reverence for language really helped me rediscover my own love of words and my trust in them.
Also, given that my current creative focus is more on writing than making movies, I’m switching out “movies” for “writing” in the sub-head/focus of this site. No that doesn’t mean much of anything to anyone, but just a bit of notation for myself. Any future blogging about movies will be done via the Wacko Productions site (and then reposted here, either in full or in the daily digest).
No matter what I say, whenever I get a haircut it’s always shorter than I’d like. Which means next year, I can’t just show up a day before my wedding and get a trim. How far ahead should I go then?
Well, for the next week or so I’m planning to take a picture a day so I can determine that. More work than necessary? Probably.
(And no, going to a different barber shop is not an option. I’ve been going to the same place for 20 years now. It’s run by two Asian women and they give a free shoulder rub with each haircut.)
