180 days left

"Sold to the not-entirely-highest-bidder". After weeks of posting my Canon GL2 on craig's list every two days, literally every two days - I had a little iCal-reminder pop up to remind me - someone finally emailed me and was serious. I must have gotten over 30 emails from people who said they "seriously" wanted the camera - and then would never return my emails.

I'm a little sad to see her go.


It just so happens that today is also the day my new computer is shipping from Apple - it is a drawn-out and complicated epic of why and how it took as long as it did for me to get it, but that's a story for a different time and place. The important part is - I have about four months worth of editing to catch up on.

Which sounds like a lot, and it is, but I'm taking two weeks off of work to fly to Michigan for the holidays and I'm packing my computer with me. I'm hoping to visit family and friends by day and edit by night... I might not get any sleep - but that's half the fun, isn't it?

188 days left

My Bike. When I was in high school - my Dad took me to a bike shop in Jackson, Michigan, called 'On Two Wheels'. For a birthday/ Christmas gift he bought me a Trek 800 XC mountain bike... if I remember right, we couldn't tell my Mom exactly how much the bike was, he went a bit over budget... but that was our secret.

A year after I graduated high school - I rode that same bicycle across the country with my best friend, Tim, over 4,000-some miles, it took us 55 days to reach the Golden Gate bridge. It was the most euphoric moment of my life.

I didn't know it at the time but that bike would take on the entire meaning and experience of that trip... it symbolized the easy times, the hard times - the times I just laughed and laughed in the middle of an empty road stretching through a never-ending wheat field in North Dakota... or when I broke down physically and mentally all at once on my fourth day in the desert, crying, wondering if I would ever see anything but dead grass and heat waves again... a desert that I wouldn't wish any one to drive through, let alone ride a bike.

Four years later I would ride that same bike, along with my brother, Nick and my girlfriend of three years, Amanda, along the Pacific coast - preparing for a coast-to-coast bike trip that would become a documentary film.

And the bike took on even more meaning.


And then, a half-a-year later, today, I would walk downstairs to find that the lock, used to secure my bike behind our parking spot, had been cut with bolt cutters - and my bike missing.

Which, for the lack of a better word: sucks.

206 days left

On the wall, to the left of my computer (my old computer... I'm still waiting on the new one), is a bright orange list taped to the wall, a "to-do" list that Amanda made for me. It reads:


1 - Email Amber about contracts This is a fairly simple one, but I've still yet to do it, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what kind of contracts I'm asking for or about... hence the procrastination. The contracts would be for the crew, Olivier, Olan & Quentin, I believe it's purpose is mainly for their visas, but the truth of it is, I'm an idiot when it comes to the legalities of filmmaking - I'm naive to it, I don't or never have paid any attention to it - and now that I have to (pay attention) I feel as though I don't know what I'm doing. Because I don't.

2 - Email Mom & Dad for addresses I'm trying to gather all the mailing addresses of my family members to get a start on sending out the fundraising letters.

3 - Print letter at Kinkos Check. I picked them up three days ago.

4 - Mail our letters Waiting for the last of the addresses.

5 - Design banner & email out Under the "good karma / get involved" section of this site, one of the suggestions for helping spread-the-word is "add a project pedal link to your website and a link to your e-mail signature". But, I've never provided a banner or small image that people could use - I'd like to do this.

6 - Email crew It's been months since I've had any communication with the crew. They've been busy - I've been busy, we have a lot of catching up to do.

7 - Look for sound guy Interested?

8 - Email prospective sponsors Last year I had some luck with companies and organizations lending their support in form of product, or advertisement, but not much luck with funding... it's time to try, try, try again.

9 - Look for grants I was very, very excited about this grant - until, without warning, they bumped up their deadline.

10 - Finnish interviews To the right of my computer screen, is a bright blue paper with a more personal "to-do" list, one of them reads: "sell camera", I need to check this off before I can then turn around and buy another camera and complete the interviews. So this step is a three part'er.

11 - Finnish short Even though I've come to terms with the fact that I have to wait for a working-computer and camera to complete the short, I've still been holding my breath, waiting anxiously to get to work on a project I've put so much into... at this point, I'm blue-in-the-face and seconds away from blacking-out. "Count to ten..."

12 - Cut new trailer I'd like to use the hours & hours of new footage to cut together a new, more fitting "mock trailer" for the film. I've always thought the current "mock" misrepresented what I wanted to say - implying that the docu' was based on a central traveller - when it's very much the opposite.

13 - "Press Kit", trailer, short, pics', journal entries This step is slightly out of order, I'd like to get this taken care of before moving onto number 8.


Also, on a sidenote, I'm excited about seeing these two documentaries - Little Man & Wal-Mart. The first film just seems to be getting a lot of attention and I'd like to see why, the second film is from Robert Greenwald, the director of 'steal this movie', 'uncovered: the truth / the war', and 'outfoxed'... all films I've enjoyed very, very much.