Category Archives: Blog

I feel like I should be disappointed that all of my worldly possessions could fit into a 6x7x8 foot box, but I’m not. If anything, I’m disappointed that it took so much space. But regardless, there it sits, in my (rather, Travis’) driveway, waiting for the moving guys to come pick it up and truck it across the country.

And similarly, tomorrow I’ll get in the car and start the week long trip west. Though, the plan as written has already taken a hit, as Dustin is still in training in Little Rock and won’t be back in San Antonio by the time I come through. So since San Antonio is far less than a day’s drive from Houston and I obviously won’t be spending an evening’s worth of time in San Antonio, then I should be able to make better time across Texas. The question, then, becomes what to do with that time, which remains to be seen. I originally attempted to work in a visit to Meteor Crater or Trinity Site into the itinerary, but was unable to. Now, perhaps, I might be able to fit at least one into the schedule.

But both are several days and many, many…many miles away, so we’ll see.

It all starts tomorrow.

Yikes.

So getting back into the habit of blogging regularly has certainly not been as quick or smooth as I would have liked, though I’d be lying if I said entirely unexpected. I really am badly out of the habit of writing regularly, much to my own frustration.

But here I am, on the first leg of an entirely new chapter to my life, unlike any that has ever come before, with a self-resolution to blog more and write regularly. What else can I do? If I can find excuses to get out of writing now or even, disregarding excuses, I simply can’t call up the wherewithal to do so, at this great watershed of personal events, then when?

So here I am, as I’ve said, on the first leg of a great big backwards L of a journey across the country. At present, I’m on board the Amtrak Auto Train with North Carolina rolling gently by. By tomorrow morning (the earliest at which you’ll be reading this), I’ll be back in Florida, into the final stages of packing up belongings and bidding friends farewell. Wednesday morning, I’ll be on the road, headed west for fortune and glory.

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I have only recently gotten around to reading another book by one of my favorite authors, Kim Stanley Robinson. After reading his Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, plus the companion book, The Martians, after which my latest short film is named) for the first time many years ago and recently rereading them, I have picked up The Years of Rice and Salt.

In both (all five?) instances, he repeatedly returns to the idea that one life measured from birth to death can be measured also as many lives led by a single person. Essentially, any stretch of a life – living in a certain home, working at a particular job – constitutes a ‘life’ unto itself, and is ended when one moves on, the new phase of their physical life marking a new life in the mind and of the spirit.

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In the last post I said I would have plenty of time to figure out how to pay for the Red One camera I had just made a down payment on before it shipped. Given the interest, the already sizable waiting list, and my only recent reservation, I figured that a summer delivery would be optimistic, with a more conservative estimate approaching a year.

Enter an email from Kelly Fairbanks today:

It looks like your Red Camera number is
#2939 and will hopefully be shipping around April or May.

I knew the present hold up was due to an engineering delay and that full production had yet to begin and that once it did, deliveries would come faster than the few prototype models that have been delivered so far – but April or May! It shocks the sensibilities (and the wallet)! Ah well, four to five months is plenty of time to figure something out.

I can make thirty thousand something dollars in four months…

Uh…

Today I made a purchase. If you’re a filmmaker, you might have heard of it:

In brief, the Red One camera, the brain child of Oakley’s founder Jim Jannard is destined to change the face of filmmaking (and indeed, is well on its way). It’s the first digital camera that can deliver a picture quality as good as 35mm film, as well as 16mm quality, various HD resolutions, and Standard Definition video. This camera promises to deliver feature film quality picture (and is already doing so) for a fraction of the cost, putting true professional capabilities in the hands of many more people.

I could go on, but it would be little more than a love letter to the Red One, so instead I’ll just implore you to do a little reading and watching.

Of course, given the company’s engineering delays and the already sizeable waiting list, it’ll be quite awhile before I actually get my hands on it. Which is just as well since I have no absolutely no idea how I’m going to pay for it (a down payment of 10% is required at time of order, with the rest due at shipment), but I’ve got plenty of time to figure it out.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the newly released poster. And if it’s any indication, we may have something resembling the original movies after all:

At the moment I’m writing from warm and sunny Florida, where I have made one penultimate trip down to accomplish a varied spectrum of things, one of which was to witness and photograph the last shuttle launch I may have the chance to see for awhile.Alas, it was not to be, as some troublesome fuel sensors have condemned Atlantis to a January launch. It’s a shame, as NASA and her subcontractors have been doing an impressive job cranking out shuttle missions over the past half year – just about getting back up to a schedule that the program was intended for all along (no doubt largely thanks to my many smart and dedicated friends toiling away at both Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers).

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So I’ve been struggling with adding a photo gallery to the site and after more time than I care to admit wrestling with a couple of different plug ins, I’ve finally got one working and now just have to fill it out. There remains a lot more work to be done, but slowly and surely, I chip away at my own ignorance of CMS and get a little closer to the site I want.

Edit: Photography section filled out, now back to design and layout adjustments.

Here we go again. Welcome to my new attempt at a website, this time using the wonderfully flexible system of WordPress versus the wonderfully direct system of iWeb. I’m still in the process of getting this whole shebang up and running, so for the time being, please keep referring to brian.finifter.com.

But please keep checking back and keep this place bookmarked, as it will – at some point – be quite the site to be.