New Years Eve

Well, it's December 31st. I survived another one.

I don't really know where the time went. I can go back and read my journals, this blog, and see what I was thinking and doing, but whatever it was it went pretty fucking quick. I remember when I was a kid time moved so slowly. Now it just flashes by with "birthday, birthday, birthday."

I know time passes and we humans have figured out a way to plot it out and measure it. But I really don't have much use for time. I know we have to have it because without it how could we have deadlines and things being completed by Friday? But time doesn't mean much to me. It guess we need it. It can't always be Tuesday, for example. But the construct of the weekend starting on Friday. Really, we could have the weekend start on a Tuesday. Then Wednesday would be the morning they play cartoons, and Thursday would be the sabbath for some religions.

This year was okay. I wanted more, but that is just a human thing to want more than you have and be more than you are. No one wants to be average. We all want to be special. Or extra special.

This year I will risk more than my life. In other words, I will have more skin in the game.

Camelback Mountain Conquered Again

Terry and I went up Camelback Mountain in Phoenix again while i was there visiting my folks. I looked up Camelback on Wikipedia (it has everything!) to see how big a mountain it is.

It's only about 1400 feet above the valley floor, and the two trails are 1.2 and 1.4 miles. But the way is steep and it's not easy.

I had a heart rate monitor on me as I hiked the trail. I tested at one point 182 beats per minute. I don't know if it was right, but I was struggling, my heart was pounding. Thing is, 190 is aobut the limit for the human heart. After that you kind of explode.

About 1/3 of the way up I was in a lot of pain. I was feeling my hip terribly. It's one of the mileage things I deal with. ("It's not the years it's the mileage," Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.) I really wanted to quit. I just didn't think I'd be able to make it up to the top. Terry, my friend who knows what buttons to push, basically shamed me into continuing. And I'm glad he did.

I made it to the top in 47:54 minutes and the way down was 40:02 minutes. The way down could have gone quicker, but my shoes where hurting my feet after the laborious climb up. You know where your toes are smacking into the front of your shoes? That's the thing that happened to me.

At the top we were asked to take the picture of a mom with her two sons. One was soon headed to Afghanistan in the Army. The other was also in the army. A redheaded daughter came puffing up shortly thereafter. She was going into the Navy. I am impressed that all 3 kids are serving. I didn't learn their names, but I hope they all stay safe. She took the picture you see at the top of this post of me and Terry.

There is a Christmas tree at the top of the mountain. A climbing club drags it up every year in a night climb. So you see flashlights spidering up the mountain in the dark. But they are taking a full sized fake tree to the top. It's pretty impressive. Next year we will remember to bring an ornament to put on the tree.

I do this climb every year to test myself. To see if I am broken down. This year the answer is NO!

Christmas Held Hostage

The past 2 years Christmas was not held hostage. In the years past, Christmas used to be held hostage... by my brother.

Presents would be opened Christmas morning after everyone had eaten breakfast. No exceptions. Everyone had to have eaten breakfast. It's the rules. Since I am still a 5 year old somewhere in my fevered brain, I would get up early, eager to open gifts. My brother would get up later than the rest of us. At a certain point I would pound on his door to wake him, though I suspect he was awake but waiting.

But even then we couldn't open gifts because he hadn't eaten. It pissed me off that he would have my mom make him breakfast like he was a 5 year old who didn't know how to cook. Which is ridiculous. So he would have coffee and eggs and toast or some such. And he would chew slowly.

Are you fucking kidding me!?! It's Christmas! There's loot to open!

Eventually we would get to open gifts. All much later than if he didn't intentionally dawdle. He did it on purpose I think because that was the only power he had in the family dynamic.

But this year and last, for various reasons, we opened gifts on Christmas Eve. My mom used to do it that way when she was a kid on the farm she grew up on. Mainly because they had chores in the morning, I think. Cows to tend to and whatnot. So last year we opened the gifts on Christmas Eve for the first time ever. My brother just about had a meltdown. He hadn't wrapped anything, and there was no tree up, and, and, and...

He calmed down and we all exchanged gifts.

But what I secretly think is that he didn't want to lose his leverage over the rest of us. He could no longer keep us waiting by having a leisurely breakfast. i.e. Hold Christmas hostage to his timeline. We didn't have to wait for him.

I kind of like the opening of presents on the night before. And I really like not having Christmas being held hostage by my brother.

Determination and Goals

Jordan Romero of southern California has become the youngest climber to summit the tallest mountains on all 7 continents. He finished his last one recently. Antarctica. He did Everest at 13.

I wrote about this kid here: http://spartacus2001.blogspot.com/2010/06/bad-parenting-2-examples.html

I got to hand it to this kid. It's an impressive thing to do just one of the higest mountains. But Antarctica? That's a whole other thing just for the climate alone.

If he did this at 15, what will this determined kid do as an adult? He might be able to accomplish pretty much anything. I see a movie about him being made. A movie was made about the guy who got trapped an had to amputate his own arm. Think how much more uplifting this story would be?

So, congratulations to Jordan. You make the rest of us feel like slackers. Though I did climb Camelback Mountain again this past week. It's only 1300 feet high and a 1.4 mile trail, but not bad for someone who has not been 15 in a while.

Directors

I was at a screening of War Horse recently. There was a guy sitting in front of me talking to another guy. Apparently Guy #1 is in some sort of school. A directing program. I didn't catch which school. I was trying to read but this guy was saying some things that struck me as crazy. So I split my attention between my book, and Guy #1.

This directing school has him taking a lighting class. Ugh. Such a bother. (Really?) And he would have to take classes to learn about cameras. Ugh. (Really?) And they had done field trips to Panavision and Arri, and Clairmont.

This guy's thought was, "I'll just tell someone what I want the shot to look like."

This one statement made me think he had no idea or clue. Did he really think he could skate thru a shoot, any shoot without knowing how to line up a shot? Know something about lighting?

Most of the directors I know, either big time professionals or ones that do small projects, know how to handle a camera, line up a shot, something about lighting. Does this guy think that Speilberg doesn't know what camera lenses do? Yeah, you have a DP to do the heavy lifting, someone you can speak shorthand with, but really... On commercials I hear the director tell the DP to change lenses, go from a 50 to a 28 or something similar. They know what the lenses do, they know how it's going to look rather than describing "I'd like more of a fish-eye look..."

I know a director who teaches a class on guerilla film making at Comic Con every year. He seems to know something about probably every camera format there is for use by small productions. And probably the bigger systems. He's intensely curious and looking for the next thing that may be cool which he can use. That's the director I like. Smart, curious, and not someone who feels superior and entitled to a career.

This Guy #1 reminded me of a director I worked with on a sketch comedy show years ago. He was not very good. Couldn't tell the arc of a story to save his life or make the day go quickly. On a tech scout the DP said, "We could do this from the dog's POV." The director said, I shit you not, "What's a POV?" There was a pause when everyone stopped and looked at him, "I don't know and I don't care."

God forbid Guy #1 is connected or has a famous last name. I hope he has someone take him aside and mentors him on how things are done.