| april
22nd , 2006 |
||
7:09pm
cloudscoloursmall.mov
highway2small.mov
highwaycoloursmall.mov
highwayfront2small.mov
highwayfrontsmall.mov
highwaysidecolour2small.mov
highwaysidecoloursmall.mov
highwaysmall.mov
i still cannot find an easy and effective
way to connnect these and add sound.
if i convert them to avi then they are twice as huge files.
i tried to download the trial version of premiere elements and i got some
weird error message. i don't know if my computer does not meet the system
requirements for it or what.
anyway, it's all very frustrating.
5:47pm
thanks to j.d. casten i found a
programme that will convert a mov to an avi.
the thing is, the avi file is twice as big as the mov file, even when i compress
it 50%. so...
hmmm!
don't really know what to do about that!
jason is coming over at 7pm and we
are going to watch movies.
he isn't feeling very well today. he is so extremely tired.
poor guy :(
i'm uploading some little anamtaes for you now.
4:19pm
i arrived in portal and this is their
sign announcing their town.
not the most thrilling of signs.
i was hoping for something a bit more spiffy!
this is the outback saloon on main
street.
we ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner here.
the food was good.
it was the only bar and the only restaurant in portal.
it was actually really nice inside, i didn't get much pictures of it, tho,
because i did not want to make the people inside there uncomfortable. i was
still trying to suss out the situation.
the building was made in 1909.
it had tin ceilings and these bizarre
ornate metal things hanging from the ceilings.
they told me they were ventilators for barns but i was confused because i
had never seen one before.
it had holes in it all over and i thought that was maybe the way it ventilated.
it wasn't until i talked to a farmer there, on my birthday, that he told me
those holes were all bullet holes from people shooting at them for target
practice and these were upside down. they use to be on TOP of barns right
side up!
that made more sense.
more about that farmer later.
and stories about our barkeep woman and the locals in there.
this is the only other thing i took
a picture of in there.
this giant crab:
it must have been about 3 or 4 feet
in diameter!
why it was there, i don't know.
they don't even serve crab.
here is the location i picked that
i was going to put my birthday cake on this road the next day and begin my
1st scene.
however that scene never got taken because the next day and night it rained
freezing cold rain!
so all we could do is hole up in our very tiny and very boring looking hotel
toom for $40 a night.
at least it was warm.. and i tried to make it as comfy as i could.
i took the awful paintings off the walls and turned the bedspreads to the
underside which was white because the design on them was just to heinous to
look at.
there are all my props that never got used.
we just nested. it was a nice lazy day. like a snow day.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
on the day of my birthday, i woke
up ten minutes before i turned 40 (11:58am)
there was nothing i could do except watch the freezing rain and give in to
the moment.
we turned it to a local tv station that scrolled information aboout various
events, like bingo thursdays with free tacos.
they had the time on there and we counted down until the minute i was born
like new year's eve.
and then jason kissed and hugged me :)
then we snuggled back into bed and watched "robots" for awhile.
then i called my dad and talked to him for about an hour and that was very
cool :)
i decided to give my hair one more bleach treatment and tried to glam up up
a bit to go to the outback saloon, yet again, and celebrate my birthday.
i had 4 beers for 40. i ended up talking to this farmer named andy who just
would NOT quit talking.
at 1st i was totally fascinated and then i realized he just was NOT going
to quite talking.
it was like he had been waiting for someone to talk to and bitch about everything
for years and had saved it up for me.
he told me everything that is wrong with the agriculture business. how much
everything costs.
how unfair everything is. how he believes saddam hussein really did have "the
H bomb"
(that's when i started tuning him out)
he told me how one of his relatives used to know al capone.
i think he told me pretty much his
entire family history.
i really wanted a steak dinner for my birthday but by the time i was able
to rip myself away from this guy the kitchen was almost closed and all that
was left on was the deep fryer.
to my birthday meal was chicken strips and french fries :)
some guy named norm kept wanting to buy me a "slipperly nipple"
i politely declined.
i bought everyone (about 3 people) a round of drinks and told them it was
my 40th birthday.
everyone was very sweet :)
when you buy a round of drinks there you get to toot this horn thing, so that
was fun :)
then at the very end jason and i played a game of pool.
norm said "strip pool?" (lord, one track mind, this guy).
both jason and i are terrible at pool but he beat me.
afterwards we just went back to the motel and i slowly started packing all
my stuff back in because in the morning we were going to leave since they
said it may even snow, so i knew there was just no filming i could do there.
this is all the photos i got of their
little park.
the next day i had planned to film so much there.
they had swings and just everything.
i had so much planned for that park.
damn.
we drove around in the rain and looked
at stuff.
it was just way to cold and rainy to even venture out of the car.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
| here to the right is a photo of
a house i wanted to buy that was $6,000 a few years ago. i found it on realtor.com it's not for sale anymore. |
|
||
from our hotel, the americana ,
we could see the border to canada.
i wanted to cross but could not because now you either need a passport or you need your ID AND your birth certificate.
it's ok, i've seen canada a lot.
andy the farmer said they are going to expand that whole entire border thing and make it into a training ground, excercise room, a bigger place to "detain" suspicious people. eek.
burke county, where we were, is known to have had the biggest decline in population more than any other county in this country.
the best photos are yet to come....
:)
i didn't really get to do what i
had planned to do...but life is like that.
but i DID turn "40 in Portal"
so as far as i am concerned on that one issie: mission accomplished :)
and it was for sure a memorable and DIFFERENT birthday :)
some pictures of the skies on the way home:
 our mascot |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
+++
horoscopes from: