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Family Relations

The Miles Family

A lot of family events have taken place this summer, so I’ll highlight a couple of them here.

Marissa Smiled Alot

Marissa Gregg, my lil-sil, graduated from high school in May. Thus begins the long, arduous, painful process of learning how much alcohol you can tolerate. I mean, “college”. Holli and I travelled down to help with the celebration by arranging plates of cake in neat, ordered rows. I’ll be honest, helping to run the graduation party felt a little like being part of The West Wing or Studio 60 or Sports Night. You’ll just have to trust me on that one. Still, everything went well, and there was plenty of soda and sub sandwiches for everyone.

Bryce and Lindsey Cut Trees and Changed Diapers

Even with the economy the way it is, and their work schedules, they were able to make it out to our area just before July 4th. It just so happened, that was the weekend we all helped out Grandma, so it was a mini-reunion. While it involved a lot of hauling branches, stacking wood, painting, cleaning, and just general grunt work, we still managed to discuss Bryce’s unique work frustrations and to give our cousin, Tom, some girl advice. Plus, Bryce almost sold a monument.

We didn’t get to see Lindsey nearly as much, seeing as she was spending time with her family, too. When we did get to see her, it also gave us a chance to meet the newest member of her parents’ family, a dachshund. The dog was cute, made cuter by the tiny diaper she was wearing. Why was she wearing a human infant’s diaper? Because she was menstruating. Oh, good. Thankfully, the diaper had a tendency to come off, so we all got a chance to help out with putting a human diaper on a small, struggling wiener dog.

It’s always good to see them, and it’s a shame that we can’t see them more often. If necessary, I could become a world famous serial killer in the Sioux Falls area, allowing Lindsey the chance to crack her first big case as she explores the underworld of The Queen City, Sioux Falls (which would allow them to move closer). The offer’s out there. I’m willing.

Everybody Carried Something

If you were, for whatever reason, in the Sioux Falls area around July 4th, we probably asked you to help us move. The first day of moving was greatly aided by fellow L&Ser, Dave Haan, and his daughter, and uncle Kevin, whose truck was the greatest benefit. We actually managed to get a lot accomplished, just three guys with a truck and a morning to kill. That night was a major second round of packing, using the boxes we’d just unloaded, and saturday the parents came down with a trailer. On Saturday, everything was moved in in time for lunch. Clockwork, people. That’s what it was like.

Molly Watched Baseball

I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from my cousin, Molly Brass. She was in Lennox for only a couple more days, and she wondered if we could get together. It had just so happened that Holli and I were going to be attending a Canaries baseball game and were able to get an extra ticket for her. So, we watched a little baseball. Mostly, we caught up, learning about the inner drama of working at a museum. Apparently, she sees Mark Walberg, like, all the time.

After the game, we came back to the house we were then renting and showed her around. Then we talked again until she had to leave. It was great to see her, especially all the way from Boston. If she didn’t have her parents in Lennox, we probably would only see her at reunions. If Jenny Brass keeps this London stuff up, that’ll be what happens to her. Hint, hint.

David, Houa, and Brenna Rode The Mexican Train

Holli and I decided to have a little house-warming get-together with friends, and, at first, it seemed that we would be hanging out alone. Then we got word that Mike and Sonja could come. Then David and Houa were coming. Then Brenna Proczko was going to be in town. Before we knew it, it was a hopping party once again.

We played board games (barf), gave tours (awesome!), and ended the night with dominos, which Mike and Sonja brought.  The game of dominos rounded out our night (well beyond when Holli usually goes to bed) as it takes about twelve rounds to finish. However, it was good fun, no one was seriously injured, and the police gave us a warning instead of a second strike. Mike and Sonja left and the rest of us tried to get connected to the Internet.

The next day, Brenna showed and narrated over pictures of her honeymoon to Iceland and England. I believe she has at least a portion of them up on Facebook, so if you’re friends with her, you can check them out. Otherwise, just know that they were awesome, and we saw dragons and waterfalls, they bought really expensive lobster bisque. Holli went to work, then David and Houa headed back, then Brenna and I talked for a while, and then she headed back, and then I was all by myself, and I pictured what it would be like to meet a dragon, and then Holli came home from work.

(I didn’t know how to end that. Just know that it was awesome seeing Brenna and David and Houa.)

The Miles Family Reuned

It has been ages since the last Miles Family Reunion. They used to occur quasi-regularly, but then my great-grandmother died, and things became much more sporadic. Now (hopefully) there is a revival in place. This year’s reunion was held in Maple Grove, Minnesota, which is in the Twin Cities area, Minneapolis-side. Holli and I drove up on Friday and checked into a Venice-themed Holiday Inn. It was one of the nicest Holiday Inns I’ve ever slept within.

The actual reunioning took place at the Acorn Shelter in some national park or whatever in the area. The plan for the day was as broad as “eat and talk”, and that’s exactly what we did. Eventually, food was cooked and then consumed. Holli joined a substantial volleyball game which I helped to coach. “Cyber Fox” made impressive progress against “Cyber Wolf” (the copy cats), until Coach Faletti went in to help his team. How can I compete with that? I can only yell so loud. Holli ended up with a fairly bruised forearm from that game, an injury painful enough that she “couldn’t drive home”.

Eventually the evening came upon us. Holli and I hit up Target and met up with everyone at the hotel. The kids went swimming whilst the adults sat around and talked. Then a tornado was spotted, so Dad and I had one last drink while everyone cowered for their lives in the hallways. When I see bad weather, I say, “Lay your head upon my sweet Crown Royal,” and drink up. Or, at least, I did this one time.

The next day we attended mass at great uncle Dick’s church, which was much more “modern” than I had assumed. Great uncle Dick told me a number of times about how he almost made the trip to our wedding. Afterwards, many enjoyed a chicken dinner, but Holli and I had a long drive home. We stopped a couple of times to kill vagrants, but it’s still a long drive. I think Amber and Jill did a great job getting the family together.

Hopefully we can keep the family reunions going. Just as long as I don’t have to do anything.

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YouTube – Social Media Revolution

YouTube – Social Media Revolution.

It’s positively astounding how much social interaction has been changing. Even back to my high school days, instant messenger was the closest we came to online interaction. With things like Facebook, I now know what happened to all my classmates. I don’t have to sit there, wonder, and sign up for a Classmates.com account to find out. It’s amazing.

Class reunions are going to be so boring.

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In junior high, we students got our firs…

In junior high, we students got our first taste of performance competition. It’s been called by many names, but we called it “oral interpretation”. I can’t now recall the exact categories; perhaps: dramatic, humorous, and poetry, but I may be wrong.

I remember that the most difficult part was picking a piece to perform. I poured over the works we had to choose from, even asking at one point if we could write our own. I was told you can sort of do that in high school. That category, it would turn out, was called “original oratory”.

I remember practicing a piece with the oral interp instructor. The piece used a regular foot and meter, and it even rhymed. As I began to read the lines, the instructor stopped me. She informed me that, for competition, poetry is not supposed to be read that way. Read it by the sentences; don’t pause at the line endings, and don’t make it obvious that you’re rhyming.

Honestly, I was put off by this. It seemed unnatural and contrary to read poetry that way. It felt like an attempt to read poetry as if it were prose. Wouldn’t this do a disservice to poetry? I asked all these questions of myself, but I did not ask them aloud. Instead, I did what I was told, and I reread the poetry, apparently to her liking.

I mention this because I just read some poetry. I mention this because I still think about how odd it felt to read poetry that way and how it runs across my mind whenever I come upon poetry. I think about that, but then I compare it to my own poetry. When I write poetry, I am very much aware of the line endings. That break, that step, is as much an important part of the poem as the meter and foot. It equal in importance to the words themselves. Why, then, shouldn’t someone read poetry for the lines?

I, deliberately, choose the life of each line. To read poetry ignorant of its physical structure is as graceful as somersaulting down a flight of stairs. The steps are there for a reason.

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Evernote and Celtx sitting in a tree

Celtx has long been my favorite script-authoring and script-project-management tool of choice. Every Newsbleep episode (that was formally written) was written in Celtx. Actually, pretty much every script I’ve ever written I’ve done so in Celtx. I’ve worked with the product for a while now, and I’ve had the benefit of seeing it grow, most of which I’ve welcomed with open arms. That is, until recently.

The release of Celtx version 2 resulted in one particularly significant change; online project sharing and management would no longer be free. This service, which had previously been called “Project Central”, became “My Studio” and was only available at the price of $5 a month or $50 a year. With a sigh, I said, “No, thank you,” and began looking for alternatives.

Enter Evernote. I was first introduced to this product through its iPhone/iPod touch application. Essentially, it’s a digital notebook. The features that I’ve really come to enjoy about it are its ability to share and publish notebooks, its ability to index text within images, and the host of native applications available. Evernote is perfect as a memory tool. I can capture a thought, idea, or todo item on my work pc, modify it online through the web interface, star it on my iPod touch for the drive home, and finally file it or delete it when I get home.

Like Celtx, Evernote has a subscription-based “Pro” plan. For months, the free version of Evernote’s services was more than enough for me. I honestly didn’t see much of a need to upgrade for the way I was using it. Then we began moving, and I found that I had exceeded my monthly limit and needed to sync some notes. So, I upgraded for the year.

This brings me to why I’m writing this post. One of the features that a pro Evernote account gets you is the ability to drop any type of file into a note. This includes .celtx files. Boom. I now have just as much access to my Celtx projects as before, but I can also use Evernote to add collateral notes, images, pdfs, and more. Anywhere I have Evernote, I’ll have this script. Any changes I make to it will be synced to all my Evernotes. If I want to publish the script, I can just publish the notebook it’s in.

I’m still testing this arrangement out, but so far it works like a charm. If you’re looking for a “My Studio” replacement, Evernote fits perfectly for me.

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Galactic Mail

Galactic Mail from Asterokid on Vimeo.

Galactic Mail is a project I made along with my friend Jonathan Vuillemin aka Motraboy. It was produced by The Mill in 2008. We used XSI Softimage as a main tool. Check my website for more infos: asterokid.com

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One thing I love about Sioux Falls is th…

One thing I love about Sioux Falls is the residential areas. There’s a variety of sociological groups here that one doesn’t typically find in a smaller town. One trip in five through the inner streets produces a scene such that I feel the need to comment on it.

Last week, for instance, I was driving home from work. A flash of green caught my attention. I turned to my right to see, in a brief moment, a man taking a picture of a woman. The woman was wearing a green sleeveless dress with texture. I’m not sure how else to describe it, other than it’s obviously a dress produced for comfort, not class. The woman appeared visibly annoyed and put off. The man, by contrast, appeared to be zealous in his photography, despite the obvious age of his camera.

My mind concocted a scene.

EXT. Lawn – Day

MAN is arranging equipment on the ground. He scurries around the yard, seeking the best light and wind locations. He plots, somewhat audibly, good, better, and best positions for photography.

WOMAN (O.S.): This dress doesn’t really fit me. Where did you get it?

MAN: The dress, like my inspiration, was given to me by the Muses themselves. Calliope, muse of epic poetry, Erato, muse of lyric poetry, Polyhymnia, muse of choral poetry, Melpomene, muse of-

WOMAN (O.S.): Did you steal this dress?

MAN: No! It was a rummage sale. Six dollars and a song. Are you ready yet?

WOMAN exits the house. She appears uncomfortable, and she awkward in the sleeveless, green, textured dress. She has obvious misgivings about what is about to happen.

WOMAN: Where do you want me?

MAN is struck by her beauty. It takes several moments for him to catch his words.

MAN: You’re beautiful. I knew it! I knew that dress was the one! Ha!

A moment of jubilee more, and then he composes himself.

MAN: Uh, right. Here! You need to stand here, and face here, and I’ll be right over here.

MAN instructs Woman where to stand, striking the pose, himself, that she will take. Then he takes his place. He begins taking pictures immediately, far before she’s ready.

WOMAN: What do I do? Just stand here.

MAN (to himself): You are gorgeous. I can’t stand it! These are going to be beautiful.

A car drives by. Woman has forgotten how close to traffic they are, and she instinctively covers herself.

MAN: I’m telling you, when I get this film developed, these pics are going to be museum quality. You, right next to the Mona Lisa. I’m telling you babe. Beautiful…

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Office Magic

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A number of weeks ago, I moved into an office. It’s an office that had had a curse of departing WebWorkers cast upon it, but I saw no fear in it. My only concern was the “stomach lining” wallpaper. I didn’t like it. In particular, I wanted smooth walls upon which I could hang my project folders. What I had inherited was a topographical map.

My original goal was to strip all the wallpaper and paint the walls beneath. Time, and resources, however, were a concern. After doing some testing in a discrete corner of the office, I discovered that the wallpaper was both easy and fun to tear from the walls. I soon found my discrete corner a ravaged half-wall. I had to come up with a decoration style that made sense with this. Eventually, I decided to take the large prints I had had done for my apartment in Madison, and I would treat them as if they had been hiding beneath the wallpaper all along.

It worked pretty well. I put up two New York and two France photos. Actually, they were this one, this one, this one, and this one. It was a pain to get the photo to hang seemingly without assistance, so I opted to add some artist and functional bands of tape across each one. Time will tell how long everything holds up.

I have more plans for the office. One wall, in particular, is lacking full appreciation. I’ll add more pictures when the time comes.

Do any of you have a unique work space?