Today was my last day of work at the office. Technically, it wasn’t my last day at work because I have some more projects that need to be accounted for, especially the delivery of some postcards and the finishing of some video editing.

It was a bit unusual because of a few reasons. One was the lack of real good-byes, because I’ll probably see most of the staff at some point this year. And most of them anticipate that I’ll join staff anyway. The second was the way I spent my final few hours, on the road.

On my final day, I ended up going to downtown Toronto to pick up about 300 t-shirts. I helped to design the new shirts for Guelph C4C and Waterloo C4C. I was really excited to see them and the final product truly makes me happy. I would love to buy a shirt from the Waterloo C4C. I’m proud of it that much. The white on navy just absolutely glows, and the gold/yellow on black has an edgy look to it. The Guelph t-shirt which is white on cardinal red looks really good too. I can just imagine everyone at Summit from Guelph wearing a red shirt.

The t-shirt designs are very simple. Simplicity is good. There comes a time in graphic design, I feel, that the designer starts realizing that good design can be really basic. A design that will last for ages is something that is clean, clear, and universal. There are design stages that are fads, that look cool for a while, and that kind of look is worth doing for time-sensitive materials. However, I want to be able to wear my t-shirts for a long time — I hope others feel the same way.

As I drove home, I cranked up the classical music on Classical 96.3FM. I love it. I have been playing mainly Switchfoot while driving this summer, but after I returned the iPod nano, I started listening to other CD’s and other radio stations. The other week I found AM740 Classic Hits — they play oldies music from the 40’s through to the 70’s. I discovered the music of Frank Mills, really positive and major key piano music set to orchestral arrangements and old school drum kit beats. Like really old school, before old school was cool the first time around. But the classical music on 96.3 is also really good sometimes. Relaxing Debussy and early Mozart. Schumann also hits the spot. I mean, what else can you do when the traffic is just rolling along slowly?

I like driving in the truck lane. In Ontario, the left-most passing lane on the expressway is technically illegal for tractor-trailers. Trucks usually line up the lane right next to the left-most lane as a result. So during fast traffic, it is best to go on the far left passing lane in the express lane. But during slow traffic, when everything is almost stop and go, I find that driving in the truck lane is actually much faster sometimes. The reason is that the truck drivers, who are all professional drivers, do not step on the brake unless they really need to slow down or stop. Thus, they are much better at coasting than the typical automobile drivers. In the left-most lane, in contrast, drivers frequently stomp on the gas and then stop soon afterwards because they are too close to the car ahead, even in heavy traffic. That’s why in rush hour I will now frequently sit in the truck lane and coast along with them. It takes a lot of trust to just stare at the back of a large tractor-trailer and see another tractor-trailer in the rear-view mirror, coasting at 10km/h. I observe that most drivers get frustrated by it and switch lanes so they can see ahead and figure out what the whole congestion is caused by.

Kind of reminds me of just following God, and trusting his judgement. He knows where he’s going, and I just need to follow him. I think I would be less prone to visual distractions on the side of the road if I would just keep following the professional.

Today I hardly left the house. I was supposed to go into Guelph, but I wasn’t able to book something necessary for a video, so the filming was bumped to Wednesday. So I stayed at home and worked from my room.

A big mistake, as I’m really not that productive here. The regularity of going to the office was lost. I wasted a lot of my earlier hours and instead worked later into the evening. Editing video, stuff like that.

One thing that I have discovered is necessary when making videos is the need for a wide range of music. Big buck corporations with large advertising budgets can hire agencies specifically to make advertisements. These agencies have large databases of music and sometimes people specifically on the lookout for the perfect music to accompany film footage. Homegrown operations, like myself, have little to work with aside from personal music interests and what is found on iTunes. And working with legal video means I actually need to be using purchased music for all my purposes. I have a lot of CD’s, but I definitely do not have a generous selection of music that can be used for background music.

Back in high school when I had ambitions of really doing something on my own, I purchased some music software and made some low key music out of stock samples and stuff I recorded using “Microsoft wave recorder”. I’ll try to dig it out sometime and post it online. At the same time I was delving into Flash animation, elementary Photoshop techniques, Fruityloops music programming, and JavaScript rollover buttons. When I look back at those times, I can say that those experiences of bumming around and not studying when I was in in junior high and high school definitely contributed to my design tilt now. I would spend some whole evenings perusing and downloading fonts from the web. Through all that, I learned what was cheesy looking (through trial and error and doing what was cheesy) and what was professional.

Today this morning I watched some of the Hillsong United “United We Stand” DVD. If you want to listen from a worship standpoint, the CD does that job really well. Music that just leaps from the songwriters’ and the crowds’ hearts. If you want to listen from a musical standpoint, you can definitely draw out a lot about the insane drumming, electric guitar riffs, and bass grooves from the CD and watching the DVD. But from watching the DVD from a video-editing standpoint, holy crap they have some crazy video technique in there. They are cutting edge. They use what is essentially the crap transitions and unfocused angles, slice it up and make a music video that totally gets you riled up and into the song. How they do that is truly art. In a media-driven world where youth demand so much from what they see, this DVD truly delivers.

Oh and Taryn visited today. He is in Newmarket visiting Lyndsay and they both took some time to visit me at home. That made my day.

Stuff to bring back to Guelph tomorrow:
- bikes
- cameras
- tripod
- dress shirt and suit
- and pick up Bahy

This past weekend at Paul and Laura’s wedding it was quite an experience. I was asked to video their wedding day. So that meant going to Scarborough to film the photography of the guys and the Curtis family, and then to Hamilton to film the girls and the Siverns family, and then to Guelph to film the wedding ceremony and the banquet. It wasn’t absolutely that they asked me to film all that, but it was my choice to film as much as I could so that I would have a lot to work with to make them an awesome wedding day video. I’m really glad that Turnbull agreed to driving for the whole day. I don’t think I would have had much energy left after filming all day. My parents suggested this ride thing, and they were right.

I had a fun time doing the filming, but all in all I don’t think I would ever do wedding videography ever again. Firstly, I don’t have the experience. And I don’t really want to spend more weddings gaining that experience. Secondly, to take good footage, I would need a lot of expensive gear, in the long run. To do professional videos for weddings properly, I would need a proper tripod, a shoulder-mount camera, lots of extra batteries, a wireless mic, a powerful camera-mount light, and a second person to help with gear. Ideally, I would need another person specifically for filming other angles. And thirdly, sitting through offloaded video footage isn’t the funnest thing. For Paul and Laura, I definitely don’t mind doing this, and it’s something I’ve committed to. I’ll do my best with the footage I’ve got.

In some ways, I would rather do still photography, however. I could spend a lot less money and get a good camera rig — lenses, flash, memory, and all that jazz — and spend more time composing the shot I want, rather than spend a lot of time trying to capture what happens. No matter what happens, you can’t “recapture” video. But with photography in weddings, it’s frequently possible to take multiple shots of the intended scene. Artsy things, like playing with the depth of field, are easier with still cameras than with video cameras.

I have some photos from this past week in the photo gallery now. It has a few photos of clouds and the sky and airplanes. A theme would be “airplanes”. Some photos have some magnificent cirrus clouds, mainly caused by high-flying airplanes. The photos along the highway are along the way back from picking up my younger sister from the YYZ Pearson Airport. And there are a two photos that I took from a couple of great spots extremely close to the airport runway. Those spots I went alone and also with my sister, but I could anticipate them to be great places to bring a date. I have a running list in my head of fantastic locations for photography and for scenery.

Tonight I emptied out my closet and dresser of clothes that I no longer wear. I discovered that I have a lot of suit jackets and pants that were given to me when I was in junior high, that now fit. They didn’t fit back then, but for some reason they fit now. I also counted that I have about 21 ties, and realized that I actually own a few short sleeved dress shirts. I knew they existed… two of the three I found were from Air Cadets a long time ago. Apparently my neck hasn’t grown much in 9 years. There were a lot of dress shirts in the closet, enough that I could wear one each special occasion of the year (weddings, funerals, and statutory holidays included). I’ve now arranged them by colour and sleeve length.

Oh the reason why I have so many ties is because about 6-7 years ago (at least) an old man from our church passed away. His wife is still very active in the church, and my grandma knew them well. In his passing, his wife decided to give many of his ties to me. I inherited a bunch of ties from a dead guy. Well, some of the ties were pretty cool ties. He was a trendy guy. Now I have some cool ties that are becoming cooler because the trend is bending towards old-school and retro stuff.

I have a lot of suit jackets and pants because we know someone who used to own a formal clothing store. We also had a family friend who happened to have extra sets. So they gave a bunch of suits to me. Apparently, at that time the suits were too big. Now, the jackets fit just fine, but the pants are still too wide. I considered waiting 30 more years until my waist grew and I fit the pants, but decided against it and we’re going to give them away. If I kept it, that would just be asking for myself to grow into them. *shudder*. I need to do more exercise.

Since coming back from Africa, I’ve been making smoothies a lot more. I just find whatever fruits are in the house and throw some into a blender. It turns out I’ve been taking some of my grandma’s fruit too, so I either need to cut back, or go out and buy my own fruit. I don’t think I’ve ever had the dilemma that I was consuming too much fruit.

On Sunday after church I was pretty exhausted so I came home right after service. ON the way back, I stopped at a “content sale” (so called because there were no items for sale in the garage) and ended up purchasing a wooden shelf (4 shelves) for $10. I thought it was quite the steal. Luckily I had the family van and was able to bring it home. When I told my parents, my dad humourously suggested that I should have only offered $5. At an original marked price of $15, $5 would have been even lower than the general 50% that we bartered in Africa! Imagine that…

It’s late but I need to process some things.

I appreciate the help Kirsten, Vanessa, and Jamie gave me today in helping me film some stuff for Summit videos. It gives me something to work with now.

I appreciate Shuesty coming into Mississauga the other day to help with video ideas. I have been feeling quite worn out in terms of creativity. I feel like I have none left to go into videos.

Today’s bachelor party for Paul was fun times… definitely a different one from Trevor’s. I observed, is there anyone who doesn’t enjoy playing pool? I mean, not from a “I suck” standpoint, but you know — nerds, football dudes, rich people, and smokey druggies all enjoy playing pool. It is a game that enjoys the rare status of being “cool” to any demographic of people. It can be very intelligent, or physical, intense, or chill.

It hasn’t been entirely easy being back at home now. I am so used to a lifestyle in Guelph how I don’t report to anyone. I don’t need to tell anyone I’m going here or there, and I have a lot of freedom. But when I’m here at home in Toronto, I need to tell my parents, my grandma, where I am going or where I am so that they are secure in the knowledge that I am safe. Of course a main component of that is the fact that I’m driving a lot, and driving long distances now. That is indeed a sufficient cause for concern.

I need to find a good regular way to relax. From working as an intern doing graphic design, I have determined that I can be quite a workaholic. I know that when I enjoy something, I can become engrossed in it so much that I don’t walk away from it. As a child I used to play with Lego for hours on end. Nowadays, it seems to be Photoshop and design that is pulling at me. How do I know? I’ve started eating shorter breakfasts, taking faster lunches, and being late for dinner. And I haven’t had a chance to take my bike out for a while now.

Drink more water.

Here is an example of just how much I’ve done with Photoshop to get the image I want. The original picture is shown first, and the photoshopped image is shown afterwards.

Before

After

Usually I don’t edit much, but there really wasn’t any good way to get a stellar image with the poor lighting in the banquet hall. The photo turned out somewhat better because I managed to captured another camera’s flash in the process of taking my own image.