Work

Well, it took exactly a year to come to fruition but I’m officially working on a video editing project at work and it’s for a real client, not internal! The series of videos will be launching July-Aug, so I’ll share as I can. For now, I’ll just say I’m working with footage from Bonnaroo (real, professional footage with multiple camera angles!). Friday was my first day in the edit bay, and I worked past 7 without noticing (or needing to). Of course, I spent about 2 hours staring blankly at the screen, feeling overwhelmed and wondering if I’d made a terrible decision. But, as the hours clicked by I felt like I was on vacation and that gave me some reassurance. I’ll be creating two videos over the next two weeks. I have a bad habit of thinking that if I can’t do something perfectly right off the bat, I’m a failure. I’m mentally preparing myself for receiving criticism and reminding myself I need to be a student, a role I dread. I’ve realized I’m pretty cocky for a person with no self-esteem. I’d have to be to say, “hey, let me do something I’ve never really done before and trust that I’m going to do an okay job at it.” I’m in it now. Have to step up and follow through. No turning back now.

Home

Being sick for a week motivated me to do some online shopping which landed me a new TV stand and bed frame. I’m liking my apartment these days. I’d like to do something better with the bay window area and get rid of that table but it works for now.

Current:

Past:

1. June 2008. The first month. Air mattress, blanket, and street-discovered shelves. (Other photos show my Sony flip phone charging. Pre-iPhone days!)
2. June 30, 2008. Same accommodations plus all my other crap delivered across the country.
3. Dec 2008. +Loveseat, Ikea mattress, a table from the street, TV, and cubes
4. May 2009. +rug (well that’s just the rug pad heh). That wide angle lens I rented made my apartment look way bigger.

So yeah, only took 2 years to get a proper bed & mattress. Nice priorities, Mindy. I found the TV stand on craig’s list. It took me and the tiny asian girl I bought it from 30 minutes to get it from her apartment and into my car. I just had to take off one set of legs for it to fit in the Mini. I was very impressed with myself for hauling assembled furniture in it! The bed frame was my biggest victory. Bought it online from a random man who showed up a week later and assembled it for me. He was a character. Not often you hear of a foreigner’s first reaction to the varying parts of the US:

I got to LA, and I said, ‘I love America!’. Then, we drove across the country. We got to Vegas, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I love America!’ but by the time we got to Nebraska after Wyoming, I put a bunch of coins in a payphone to call home to Saudi Arabia, and said, ‘It’s all lies. There’s nothing in America!’. But then, we stayed at a campus in Iowa and buses & buses of blonde girls arrived…for cheerleading camp, and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, *this* is America. I love it!’

Play

Had our company offsite a couple weeks ago at Fort Mason, which was pretty fun actually, except for the part where I had to go back to the office to handle an emergency request during the guest speakers. So much for having one day where I could get to work without the commute time. Ended the night at Pier 23 with Gil & B and some other work people.

Yesterday, I went to the North Beach Festival with Kurt. We checked out some arts & crafts and then I gave him the Telegraph Hill/Coit Tower/Filbert Steps tour. I can’t believe I’ve done that twice in a month. Did spice it up by adding the Greenwich Steps to this tour. We ended up at Brioche Bakery & Cafe where we enjoyed the weather with some delicious gelato (and got sun-burned in the process). Lots of people stopped and got their photo taken by the outdoor seating and I heard talk of some famous photos of Bob Dylan being taken there. I haven’t found any evidence to support that claim or explain the intrigue *shrug* I thought it was a lovely spot, though, with the Coppola Building on one side and City Lights on the other.

Today, I endured more trials with strangers on Craig’s List. I’m fairly certain the man who sold me the opera tickets plans to ask me to accompany him to one in the future, which would be unfortunate for both of us, mainly for me. I must document his quote from our initial phone call. This was his response to a passing comment I made mentioning I’d call in case I didn’t see him at the meet-up spot:

(Think stoner voice with long pauses) I’ll tell you what…I have this black baseball cap…with a Chinese character on it…which coincidentally is the symbol for love…so I’ll wear that and I’m on the tallish side with brown hair and broad shoulders.

So, I met up with him this morning and he mentioned he had more tickets and might have a single ticket available for some shows. “oh, okay…cool” To self: “extra glad I created an elaborate scheme to disguise exactly where I live”

It was worth the awkward convo, though, as the tickets were legit. We were near front balcony and had a delightful old lady sitting next to us. She dropped her cane on the people in front of us and the excessive apologizing on her part sort of made me want to give her a hug. Man, old people can be so adorable…with their courtesy “excuse me’s” and “I’m sorry’s”. Love it. Brings out a better person in me, too. But yeah, Faust was incredible. I was a bit intimidated by the 3 hr 45 min performance time, but it really did go by quickly. The cast was incredible and the sets were unlike anything I’d ever seen on my previous opera outings. Jeremiah definitely got a top-notch first exposure, and it was definitely a welcome return for me after a solid year away from the opera (the symphony really did steal me away). I definitely see the benefit in having a friend come along. I think that’s half of what made it seem to go by faster. Oh, as a final random note, the place where we grabbed lunch (I dare not speak its name) had 3 completely independent people sitting barefoot as they ate their fast food. Who knows…

All-around solid weekend, though. I can’t believe it’s already over. A bit of dev work in the morning (taking all my willpower to maintain my current role now) and then it’s back to Final Cut Pro!