George Hildreth had a full funeral. Standing room only and very nice until the power went out. After people had a chance to talk, after a few songs and the pastor had said a few things the lights went out and didn’t come back until just about everyone was ready to leave.
It was sorta fun actually, we had a recording of my Grandpa singing a song and right when it was time to play it, everything went dark. I guess Grandpa figured that if you weren’t around to hear him in person, then you missed your chance. It was nice to see some extended family and we got a good family picture out of the day, so there were some perks.

My vacation has been great so far, I’ve got some work to do but, for the most part I get to just relax for the next few days.
Last week and the one before were not good weeks, not good in a lot of ways. So I’m doing all I can to enjoy this time at home.

Our Advent video series finished up last Sunday, here are the last two videos:

Reaping the rewards of giving – Advent from Praxis Church on Vimeo.

Giving for the sake of community – Advent from Praxis Church on Vimeo.

Every now and then I’ll let a video get the best of me. Most of the time cutting something together is rather utilitarian, it’s just putting things in order, or getting a few points across. Somehow that last Advent video became complicated though, I think I started on it too early. My naming system allows for me to keep major changes in my edits and early last week I was already on major revision number four. I like the way it turned out, but it could have been better.

We started production this week on the latest series. I’ve handed off editing duties to another guy on our team. I had been doing basically all the post, so it’s time to spread the work around. I’ll still have some animation and color to do… and will probably do the online edit as well. We have a lot of talent on our creative team, it’s nice to be able to assume another role for a project or two.

Whether you spend it with friends or family enjoy your holiday.

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Winter

I woke up Monday morning after a great weekend and as I stood up I immediately felt all the walking I did in my legs and feet. Public transportation is not something that guy who’s existed in suburbs all his life is accustom to, but it’s something I could definitely get use to. It felt great to be out doors all weekend and even better to not be tied down to a car on crowded streets.
I got off my flight at SFO Friday just after noon and proceeded to take BART into the Haight. We had a couple beers at a cool pub called Toronado and ate some Vietnamese sandwiches. I love walking into a bar that has beers on tap that I’ve never heard of. Toronado had beer from Belgium and California that I had never seen, from breweries I never knew existed, it was glorious. Evidently Greg got my departure and arrival times mixed up, so he had been waiting around for me since I walked onto the plane back in Phoenix. The beers helped.
We went back to his place, which was bigger than I anticipated. The building he lives in once housed one family (and probably some staff) but now has five apartments. They have one half of one of the three floors and it makes a very comfortable one bedroom apartment. I can’t imagine having the whole building, much less paying for it.
Naomi got home from work and we set out for the Giant’s game. The best thing about Baseball is being outside and leisurely cheering for your team, the worst is paying $9.75 for a Stella Artois. Even in a neighborhood market in San Francisco you can get a six pack for that. The game was fun, the Giants played terrible but I’m not a Giants fan so I was over it pretty quickly. Again, the beer helped.
Chris, a guy Greg and I went to High School with, had just days before moved to SF and was supposed to meet us at the game. He decided to just come late and meet up with us with his car. In the chaos of the game ending that obviously didn’t pan out. We walked down to the restaurant that Greg works at and he soon found us. The Thirsty Bear Brewery was pretty cool, an odd mix of traditional craft beer and tapas. I’m sure the menu looks pretty odd to most people expecting to get pub food, but trust me it was delicious.
Saturday morning I was a bit slow to get started but we headed up to Twin Peaks and had a nice view of the city. We then walked through the Castro and down into the Mission neighborhood. After standing in line for some sandwiches we settled down in Dolores park and had a nice lunch. The sandwiches were well worth the wait even if I wasn’t able to finish mine. Walking and consuming a fair amount of liquid makes me pretty protective of my stomach. I certainly don’t eat like I use to, and that’s fine, but having to be constantly aware of my digestive system just gets annoying.
That night we hopped a bus to Hayes Valley to this great German restaurant called Suppenküche. The Oktoberfest beer was amazing and so was my Schnitzel. We walked through the Haight on our way back and had a couple more pints. Chris got back to the house before too long and like the night before my eyes were shut for good a little after midnight.
This trip was fun but it pretty much cemented my suspicions about being an old man. Even with traveling and beers and food you’d think I could manage to stay up past midnight to hang out with people I hadn’t seen in a couple years.

It was a great trip, you can see some photos I took on Facebook.

Work has been interesting this week, but all in all it’s really just par for the course.
There are also a lot of things in the planning stages with Praxis creative. Concepting the Advent video series has proven to be much harder than I anticipated.

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Lots of walking

I’ve got another Church project to share. Initially I was only going to have a week to throw something together to announce a more permanent home of Praxis’ Tempe Mission. Thankfully the announcement was pushed back a week because the video wouldn’t have made it. You’ll hear the VO change when the date comes up. I did all I could to make the two recording sessions match but it’s really quite an impossible task. I was more personally responsible for this project and was definitely more embarrassed when it played in service. No matter now many times I watch my own work in front of friends or superiors or clients I still get nervous. Especially when that break in the VO was coming… lol, I doubt the people sitting next to me knew why I was staring so intensely at the ground.

Praxis Tempe Misson Promo from Praxis Church on Vimeo.

I found out early on that our creative director and pastor are big fans of kinetic typography. To be more honest that I should… I’ve really grown to hate that style. It’s played out, don’t get me wrong, there is always room for more creativity. I just don’t feel like I’ve got the chops to do anything new with it. If the style was more natural for me I guess I’d like it better, but my kinetic typography just comes out more simplistic than clean and modern.

I also finished some composites for Everything’s Eventual yesterday. I had promised the work a week earlier but I can’t exactly tell my boss that when he changes my schedule. I’m looking forward to getting the shots to the director and off my hard drives. I know he’s looking forward to getting them into the movie so they can finish it.

Take it easy, I should have pictures of my little trip next week.

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Working for the weekend

HALFORD III: Winter Songs Promo from David Hildreth on Vimeo.

After a small disaster with Amazon.com I got my hands on The Beatles: RockBand on Wednesday. I’m not sure I can really even explain how fun the game is, you really need to play it. The attention to detail is astounding, the songs are well chosen and it’s just a great experience. I invited a few friends over last night to rock out with me and had a great time. I have yet to try out the harmonies but I’ve heard that it takes the game to a whole other level.

It’s another busy weekend. Having four concurrent projects is proving to be no fun. Even though half of it is free I can’t complain, there are too many people around without any work.
I’m really looking forward to the end of the month, a carefree weekend visiting friends in San Francisco is just what I need. :)

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What did I know

I spent the weekend in my beloved Boise and then a few days on the Oregon Coast. It was great to see family, including both sets of grandparents and my older sister and brother in law. Though just being in Boise for a couple days was well worth all the hassle of leaving town.
I had really forgot how much I like my parent’s house. Their back yard is so much different than anything I’ve seen here in Phoenix. It’s big, it’s shaded by a huge tree and the grass is so thick it has to be mowed about twice a week.
When I got into town on Friday my dad and I made the drive down to Twin Falls to see his parents. My grandpa is dying of just about everything you can die from and it seems like he’s been on the verge of leaving us for a few years now. It was great to see him, but every time I do it feels like the last time. There is even a running joke now about how many times he’ll ask me to be a pallbearer. I know that doesn’t sound like a funny joke, but what else can you do. There really isn’t any reason to pretend that he isn’t going to die and it’s nice to know that it means a lot to him that his grandson is involved in his funeral. I’ve actually carried a few caskets, it’s an odd duty. Not to mention that even with five other people helping it’s not exactly a walk in the park.
We saw my other grandpa in the hospital and had dinner with that grandma, which was nice. Neither one is really all there all the time, but both seemed to recognize me with a little help. That grandpa is 91… yeah, ninety-one years old. There is a part of me that doesn’t really want to live that long.
I hung out with Luke for a bit on Saturday. He showed me the Gameboy cart he uses to make music and we talked a bit about how we both don’t really miss Wow but maybe miss some of those friends. That night we had a pitcher at 10th Street Station and dodged the sprinklers well enough to lumber up Camel’s Back hill. That is the sort of thing I miss about Boise, it’s a familiarity with places and people. There really isn’t anything special about Camel’s Back park and there definitely isn’t anything special about 10th Street Station. It’s just that I’ve gotten a little tossed and gone up in the foothills enough time to really treasure it. Maybe in a few years I’ll look back on things I do in Phoenix that way. Chances are I’m just being a little too emo about my early twenties. :)

On Monday my parents, little sister and I set out for the Oregon Coast. We met my older sister in Portland and had lunch with her, my brother in law, and a cousin of his, before going on to Seaside. Our family has been going to the Oregon Coast every year or so for forever now. We use to go with some family friends, but on the last couple trips we’ve gone to a time share my parent’s own north of Cannon Beach. I have been up and down the Northwest Coast and it just never gets old. There was sunshine two of the days and a great overcast day in between. We built a fire on the beach the last night and I really had a great time with my family. It’s funny to go to a place and constantly talk about how you miss trees and weather, the desert really gets to me some days. In the end this trip was great because of my family and friends though, that’s for sure.

There are pictures of my trip on Facebook, check em out.

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Northwest passage