Hey kids, come on out tonight to the Angelika for the finals of the 24 Hour Video Race!! Our film will be screening at 8:20 p.m., but you can come as early as 6:15 to watch the other categories’ finalists. Admission is only $3, and that means you can see as many as 30 short films for ONLY $3!!

Come on out and support me, Doc, and Lori as we emerge victorious for the third year in a row!!! (We hope.) What a great, fun, inexpensive way to spend an evening!!

Our film made the finals! “Coda” will screen a second time next Tuesday night at the Angelika. I’ll post it here as soon as we manage to get it up on YouTube.

Wish us luck!

That is the big question right now. It’s 8:13 p.m., our 5-minute short film is due no later than midnight, and due to tape failure we had to reshoot the second half of our film at 5:30 p.m. We’ve got a decent rough cut, but still have to add a few cutaway shots, the music, the titles, and a special effect scene.

Our motto for this year is “Failure Is An Option.” We almost decided to just shoot ourselves hanging out at the house, drinking wine, explaining what went wrong, and tacking it on to the end of the movie. Instead we did lightning-speed retakes of of eleven shots, and are hoping for a miracle.

Wish us luck!

Also: CONGRATULATIONS NATE AND YVONNE!!! Little Baby Stull (she’s yet to be named) was born at 8:20 this morning. Both parents are ecstatic and exhausted. Way to go, Yvonne!!!

I dreamed the other night that at work we had a new building, similar to the old apartment building we used to work in, but more house-like. I shared an office with Amy, in the 2nd floor bathroom. Her desk was in the tub, and mine was in the sink. Our printer sat on top of the toilet. If anyone wanted to bring us anything, they had to shimmy up the drainpipe on the outside wall, and shove their papers in through the window.

Ben and I are phone-interviewing candidates for our open web designer position, and most of the people that we really like want way too much money — like, $60-$90,000 annually. It’s really disheartening. There are two people we’re bringing in this week who fall somewhat within the salary range we’re offering, so hopefully one of them will work out. If not, it’s back to the drawing board, reposting the position and probably end of summer before we’re able to hire someone. I’m the only designer on staff right now, and my workload is completely insane. I may only be the dried out empty husk of a designer by the end of summer, if we have to wait that long to get some help.

Last night Doc and I watched “The Science of Sleep.” It was a pretty good movie, and a really spot-on representation of the strangeness of the dream state. Things kept shifting, changing, appearing in different places at different sizes, in different environments.

I had a nice productive weekend. Saturday I was awake at 6:30 and doing yoga by 7. I know, crazy. I couldn’t get back to sleep after Neko woke me up. I did some gardening and a bit of housecleaning, and Doc and I saw a movie (“The Last Mimzy,” which was good except for the cheeseball ending that the studio probably made them slap on there for a family-friendly feel), looked at bamboo hardwood flooring options, and then invited Brittney and Chris over for dinner. We grilled sausages and chicken, roasted potatoes, I made a roasted tomato soup, and we ate outside on the patio. I spent most of Sunday re-vamping Doc’s website. He was just wanting minor updates and an additional section, but I insisted that it would be easier to start from scratch and rebuild the pages.

I don’t know if I’m stressed out lately, or if it’s hormones, or the onset of warmer weather, but my skin is in terrible shape. It’s driving me crazy. I do not want to be 34 and have the skin problems of a teenager.

I leave town for a week, with scant computer access, and it feels like my arm is missing or something. I guess that I could have sent short blog entries via my phone, and although at times it is satisfying to crystallize my thoughts into a 50-character limit, sometimes I just need free reign to blab.

Like now. So here I go.

First of all, I have some fun links to share. This is courtesy of Brett, who has been keeping up with my love-hate relationship with my treadmill. These dudes are infinitely more coordinated than me; it made me feel queasy just watching them. Also, notice how the film was shot in one take. Imagine how many times they must have practiced those moves and how many flesh-squished-underneath-treadbelt injuries must have occurred during said practice sessions…

Too bad this is already over… I think we might have been up for the challenge of making a 5 minute film entitled “Motherf***ing Wombats on a Motherf***ing Segway.” Thanks once again to Brett, who it seems is becoming a purveyor of all things hilarious on The Internets.

And from Leslie, The House on the Rock. Here’s the official website, but this photo gallery paints a much better picture of what it’s all about. I’m thinking that we need to plan a Crazy Shit Across America road trip.

I also want to share some nifty art that I found. The first image is from an artist named Karen Eastman, who does some really nice abstract nature-themed art. Some of it reminds me of my own art, some of it seems influenced by Georgia O’Keeffe.

This next artist, Philip Straub, does gorgeous digital paintings and illustrations. A lot of his work seems to illustrate magicial fantastical realms. It’s amazing eye candy. I could look at it for hours.

And last but not least for tonight, proof! I say PROOF! that playing Dungeons and Dragons is hazardous to your health — nay, your very LIFE and ETERNAL SOUL! Witness the following grainy image showing four innocent teenage girls on the path to darkness! You might want to shield your childrens’ eyes before looking!

I’ve been having entirely too much fun this afternoon having Samuel L. Jackson make personal phone calls to my friends and co-workers, demanding that they go see Snakes on Plane. “Hi, this is Samuel L. Jackson. You may remember me from such films as Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, and The Incredibles. But I’m here today to tell you about a movie that’s near and dear to my heart. That’s right, I’m talking about Snakes on a Plane!”

Clerks II managed to be both a 2-hour-long dick joke, and suprisingly sweet and sentimental at the same time.

Highlights:

• Cameo by Jason Lee (playing neither Brodie nor Banky)
• Cameo by Ben Affleck (thankfully short, although I have to admit I did like him as Bartleby in Dogma)
• Cameo by the absolutely adorable Ethan Supplee
• Randal’s “You’re going to make me do this, aren’t you?” speech while he and Dante sit in jail
• The whole “ass to mouth” thing
• The Lord of the Rings debate with the gay hobbit references at the end
• Jason Mewes’ sorta-full-frontal nude scene. Disturbing.
• Jay’s line about turning his life around and maybe becoming an astronaut: “I could discover a new alien life form! And fuck it.”
• “I assure you, we’re re-open!”
• And my personal highlight: The look of pure unrequited love that Dante gave Becky as she danced for him on the roof of Mooby’s. That intense stare where you can tell he’s just DYING to declare his feelings. Dear god, I nearly melted into my seat. Hats off to Brian O’Halloran for brilliant acting.

And despite all the jokes throughout the film about Dante’s looks (he called himself fugly!), I can’t help but admit that Brian O’Halloran is totally hot. He just is. Always has been.

At long last, I have managed to get our Video Race films down to a manageable size and posted to the Internets! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank YouTube for hosting my two huge files rather than me having to do so. :)

This one is this year’s entry into the Dallas 24-Hour Video Race, “Cover Story.” We won 2nd place.

And here is last year’s entry, titled “Watchmaker.” This film won 3rd place.

“The world can no longer turn a blind eye to Wonka’s deception and misdirection,” Rumsfeld said. “Without full inspections, there’s no earthly way of knowing which direction Wonka’s going. Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing. And he’s certainly not showing any signs that he is slowing. Are the fires of Hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? Who can provide the world with the answer to these pressing questions?”

“The candy man can,” Rumsfeld added grimly.

I’m kind of embarrassed by my last post. It makes me seem like a whiny baby. I thought about deleting it, but a larger part of me doesn’t really want to, because that wouldn’t be true to myself. I WAS feeling sad and lonely that night, and I don’t want to edit my personal history to make me sound better — to myself or others. I am who I am. I know y’all love me even if I am moody sometimes.

On Friday I did go running over the lunch hour, as planned. I really liked getting it out of the way in the middle of the day and freeing up my evening, but my energy level did not seem quite as good as it usually is in the late afternoons. Also I wasn’t sure how the timing would work out — getting to the gym, running, showering, and getting back to the office within an hour (it didn’t quite work). I ran 3 miles, although I’d only planned to do 1.5. My legs were really burning and I thought I’d have to stop, but I pushed myself hard to 2.5 miles and by then the pain disappeared, so I went for all 3.

I think I’ll try it a couple more times and see how my energy is, and if I can streamline the timing somewhat.

After work I went to Gloria’s with Yvonne, Nate, Jim, Brittney, Chelsea, and also Bill from our office. There was much laughter, sangria, and margaritas all around. I decided to come home afterwards rather than see if anyone wanted to hang out, because I was a little tired from my lunchtime run and the alcohol.

Saturday was a day of errands — the bank, the shoe store (where I located a pair of black slide sandals nearly identical to my ancient pair whose sole has cracked in half — but they’re MENS shoes, strangely enough; see photo at right but imagine them in black), and the grocery. Central Market sends me these great coupons, usually for things like free meat or $10 off groceries with $40 purchase. So I ended up with a free 1.25 pound sirloin steak (dinner tonight!) and some free blueberries and ice cream. I did not get any exercise in Saturday, but I was intending it to be a day off, so I don’t feel that bad about it.

Tonight we are going biking around White Rock Lake. Nate and Yvonne plan to join us as well. It’s pretty damn hot out right now (97 degrees) so hopefully it will have cooled off a little in a couple of hours when we meet them. This morning I baked some blueberry lemon corn muffins and this afternoon I baked some buns that are supposed to be similar to the ones served at Schlotzsky’s restaurants. We’ll see about that. Now I’m cooking a mini-meatloaf that I can slice for a sandwich tomorrow.

We saw “Cars” this morning. It was fantastic! I wasn’t sure how they were going to make an entire feature film about automobiles, but they have that fucking Pixar magic working in their favor. I wonder if Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field is reaching that far?? One of my favorite parts by far is the end credits. Definitely stay all the way through! I won’t spoil it for you by telling you why; all I will say is Monster Trucks Inc.

“Cars” reminds me a little of one of my all-time favorite “old-style” cartoons — the one about the son of a taxicab who wants to be a racecar.

By popular demand (all two of you), I am posting Cover Story, our 2006 24-Hour Video Race final film project.

It’s a ginormous download (30 MB), so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Yes, I’m sure it could be a smaller download but I don’t know how to make it into such, so this is what we’re stuck with for now.

Hope you enjoy it!!!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I obviously don't know what I'm doing in post-production. so I'm removing the link for now until I can get a version of the movie posted that actually works. I will take any and all suggestions for getting a 5-minute movie from Final Cut Pro into a file small enough to post to the web.]