MIT Sport TKD: the docudrama

allright. i am tasked to produced the dvd for the 10th year MIT Sport TKD Anniversary/alumni reunion. Which is great because it will finally force me to make the documentary that i've wanted to make for years. since 2003. and 2004. and then 2005 when we officially became a dynasty (three years of the cup). then in 2006 i got old and bored and tired so it started to drift and I realized that I would never make this documentary, about how we started up and became amazing and had so many achievements.

and now the script is done.

as far as my filmmaker's resume goes - i actually have quite the list of imbd accomplishments - "I Am Bobby Director", not imdb.com. my first genius works came as a high school junior or senior in ap environmental science class and english class. we made some film about culling the deer population but made it ironic in that the deer were culling the human population. i also made a political ad for simon in lord of the flies, in which special camera effects involved stop and go recording, a paper dove hanging on a string, and flour thrown to imitate smoke from an explosion. that was what jump started my film career.

my masterpiece came in senior year with the mystery "duck and run" whose theme song was the same title by three doors down. in it i realized that music made everything better, and script writing and camera special effects always happens best initially so FILM THE MOST IMPORTANT SCENES FIRST. otherwise you lose patience and the ending is just a hack. we actually had a premier for the movie - at my friend's house, with me wearing a black shirt and black tie and being as hollywood as i could possibly be while being from north carolina.

and since then, as a has been, i've found myself exploring more creative media - music videos. and recently i've looked back on some of the work and there have been some really good highlights work...and some very repetitive work. you can tell that the first one in the year is great, then i learn to follow the formula so closely that later tournaments are not served justice. but there are several good ones that i am very proud of. i think those were made just so my 80 gb harddrive could be freed up for more footage.

oh yes, i forgot about the martial arts movie we made in the MAC courts. conor, erica, i've forgotten completely about that and will not mention it again.

so now with a million small projects still on my mind (WUTC video, poomse video), i have given myself to the task of this documentary. because honestly if I finish it, I can die a happy man. and i think that i'd be able to do anything else i want afterwards.

so look forward to a great two part film about MIT Sport Taekwondo. as seen from bobby's eyes, but you'd never really know that.

motorcycle

paint master

last night i pulled off a feat worthy of being featured on a TLC or HGTV house flipping show. actually more like some cooking show where they give you a bunch of random ingredients and say GO! and you have 2 hours to accomplish something.

here's the back story: I bought a nice light white paint/primer for my renovated room. except i calculated the square footage wrong (and the first layer has to be thick) so I ran out of paint. Later i brought the can back to the store to buy a second can...but somehow the color they gave me was completely off. some poor sap out there is going to have a nice white ceiling for his nice reddish grey den. but since i had someone moving in, i had to paint the ceiling. it was at least a coat of primer.

i had to redo some of the seams in the living room because of unrelated taping issues (well, related in that i'm a n00b at renovations) so i needed wall paint as well as ceiling paint to cover up the corners. fortunately the previous owner of the house had done some work as well, and had about 10 half used cans of paint left in the basement. three of those were decent, light colored white paints, so i decided what the heck, i can get two full cans of a soft white from these three cans of bluish white and very white, and greyish red. (some of the paint had rust flakes in them too.) and after an iterative mixing procedure done very precariously over the tarp in the room, i did have two full cans of a color that almost came out like the existing wall color. in the right lighting (atmospheric mood lighting) of the room you can't tell.

but the important thing is that i have more than enough paint to finish the wall and ceiling, and maybe even repaint my hallway. and i got rid of some old paint. THAT should go on ikeahacker.

extended education

I attended one day of motorcycle school today. I went to bed at 1 and got up at 6, with several intermittent (3:30, 4, 4:15AM) waking and checking my clock moments. I didn't want to miss another learning opportunity in my life. More than that, I didn't want to forfeit the $275 I choked up for yet another hobby that I hope I will have time for.

That's when I realized that here was another one of my recent stints sitting in classrooms listening to some craftsman, artisan, or professional who has gotten so good at his trade that he can get paid teaching it to others. But I love to take classes to learn the proper way to do things - it's like a woman collecting shoes that she never ends up wearing. And it's just another hobby that will eventually get hung into my closet, after I shell out a few more hundred bucks for accessories to go with it. Will I ever use these adult education seminars? Do we get the choice to take more classes because finally, as an adult, we can take classes for skills we enjoy rather than skills needed to get a job?

The most recent one before this streetwise motorcycle school was a home brewery class. Fortunately that one came from a groupon so for $35 (?) I got a full kit and a beer brewing lesson that comes summarized in a handbook. And the brewery kit paid off once, failed horribly once, and is now sitting in my cabinets. At least I can always tell my friends I'm a brewmaster, and in case I lived somewhere where a constant beer supply helped run a household, I would be proud to uncork my 5 gallon bucket again.

Before that, there was bartending school. Which, of course, really taught me the right way to do things whether at an actual event or just with some friends. And I still do it, just on my own, with far fewer standards, and with no possibility of screwing up or making money. It's just that now I meet people who are more successful than I am at getting bartending jobs, but at least we can all chat and say wasn't bartending school fun? And when I see someone else try to mix a drink I am filled with contempt at their ignorance, and sadness that my bartending snobbery brings me no extra joy. College kids can do fine with college bartending skills. It's like I got a PhD and now work at a McDonalds.

And another thing before that in which I spent weekend days listening - sailing. I took the sailing class - books all morning, sailing all afternoon, and with that they sent us out on the water with the sail in full motion. I made it back that time - the next time I didn't, and haven't sailed since.

So hopefully this time the motorcycle lessons will pay off. Because once I drop another $2k on a bike, $1k on gear, and decide I'm brave enough to go onto the road and eventually commute to work...this class will have paid off. Because I will be much better at not dying while riding my bike than if I had "learned it from Uncle Joe" as our instructor said.

So...maybe it'll actually be better if this habit gets hung into some cabinet as well.