Today is a good day

I just put in my preorder for "I Shall Wear Midnight" by Terry Pratchett hard cover delux version from the UK - it will be here in September.

I will stay up all night reading it.....I can always sleep at my desk :D

So I am ripping off this idea

from another blogger Alphaville, that I just adore, because every Friday like clock work I get to hear a Tom Waits song. 

I know it should not be a big deal, last time I checked my iPod I had about 438 Tom Waits tracks to listen to.  But it is not the same.  Kinda like when you hear your favorite song on the radio...playing live over the airwaves.  Just a different feeling.

So, I know unless I stay up all night one weekend and post 52 songs, there is no way I am going to remember to do this every week.  And I know that there are all those cool blog follow things out there....but I already messed up one of those recently by being sick....and people expect you to play by a set of rules....you all know how I feel about those.

Anyway - I am just going to share songs that I love.  I would say I have a favorite song or songwriter.  But really I just admire some performers/writers for different reasons.

Today we are going to focus on one of my favorite lyricists.  I have many, but in the top 5 is definitely Andy Partridge from XTC - he is a genius in my book.  English Settlement is one of my favorite CDs (I am actually old enough to say I had it in vinyl originally :)

XTC  has written many great songs....but if I had to pick today, and believe me it is very hard for me to do this with their work.  It would have to be "Dear God" 




If you catch me on a different day it might be "Smartest Monkeys" or "Chalkhills and Children".....or maybe "Last Balloon"...oh, and then there is "Greeman"...I do so love that song too!

You know what that carriage needs?

a ghost horse.  We all agree, we have been thinking about it for a few years.  We ran out of time last year, but this year I made a commitment to get a hold of my friend Sara and head up to her horse ranch and film one of her lovey horses to make a ghost video.

This is going to be a cool effect!!

I have known my friend Sara for about 10 years - she went to Scotland with us last time we rented a castle. 

I have watched her go through some big changes in her life, and she has always been a brave and upbeat person.  No matter what anyone else said. 

One of them was watching her go from working here with me in marketing to living the dream of owning a 30 acre horse ranch.  She might tell you she misses the steady paycheck sometimes....but she is living the dream that she set out to live.  I admire her immensely.  Very proud to call her my friend..  I am very blessed to know some amazing people.

Anyway, she let us film her lovely horse "Legacy" last night for the video.  Husband was messing with it today and it is not going to work.  Not a total bust, we got to see her new baby horse (10 weeks old) Rio - who is the cutest thing ever!

Enjoyed very much visiting her place, so very different than my home in the city.  I just love getting out of my element from time to time. Life really is an amazing thing when you stop and pay attention.

So, darn, we are going to have to go back up there and visit baby Rio....oh,  I mean film the ghost horse again :D 

A friend of a friend

of ours Storm Large wrote a song for her one woman show called Crazy Enough that is a beautiful lullaby.

Looks like someone got a hold of one that song and used it in an homage to a family pet that passed away. Husband and I are big softies when it comes to animals.

She posted it on her Facebook page so she must be okay with this...I mean it is quite touching how could she not.

Husband sent it to me at work....told him to stop making me cry in my office! He replied "sometimes you have to feel your heart, even at work"

I adore that man.

I know I always say

that I never want to own a haunted house.

But I guess that is a lie. If I had the money to do what I wanted to do, I would quit my job and do it in a heartbeat.

We are talking starting at the caliber of Rocky Point (defunct) that would work for me. And also have the money to hire the right people. The right people to handle all the people that is :)

It takes a lot of people to run something like that, people with varying talents...which means varying personalities.

I deal with that now with my yard display/haunt - dealing with all my fantastic and talent helpers and managing the projects and all that encompasses is not my favorite part.

(Don't get me wrong, love working with all the crew....just sometimes more is not merrier :) I have the main crew all sorted, we work like clock work - most of the time anyway - but they days when there is a large crowd, I get a bit out of my element and am not at my best, no fault of theirs, just shows where I am lacking.)

There is a reason I am in marketing and not human resources.

I know that I am not equipped to handle that many people, and I really have no desire to learn to manage people, there are talented people out there that do and it makes them happy....I want one of them doing what they love so that I can do what I love.

That is the key into getting into the haunted house business for me. It has to be fun. I and everyone working needs to be having a good time doing what they are doing. With that kind of energy we could make the best haunted house ever.

There are so many different people and techniques (of haunting) and things to explore that wildly excite me. How much fun would working with new things, learning and sharing with people that love what they do? (Cause you know us haunters are not doing it for the money!) That part sounds deeevine.

So putting myself into a position of managing a haunted house would not make me happy....and that would travel through the haunt...and I don't want that. I really want to do what I love and work with people doing the same.

It is not really a goal of mine to do this, just an idea....trust me if the circumstances ever play out correctly and this can happen...I am out of this marketing world and making Halloween all day, every day. :)

Another thing

that makes me cray..okay crazier.

Justified type.

If you don't know when to use it then don't. If you have to ask...don't use it. Only very good designers can play with that tool outside the rules and make it work.

Don't look at me, I am not one of them. I stay away from the justified text button :D

When you use it, where you should not, your layout looks amateur - nothing will show off a newbie designer like poorly layed out copy. (And using Microsoft Word Art...or an overused font...or a...ah....I better stop now.)

I am currently reading a book that I like very much...but the layout (which uses justified type) is distracting.

Incorrectly used justified type is a rookie mistake....don't make it.

Sometimes I get

very, very lucky. In this case a good friend of my sister (and now our friend) works for an animation company here in town called Happy Trails. They do all kinds of shorts films and online comics. I posted about their version of the Spartacus online comic a while back.

Anyway, he does voice talent for Happy Trails and agreed to help us with the current video. We gave him a copy of the story a week in advance so he could work through it and then he showed up and we did a couple takes and it was perfect. Amazing.

We have taught a class on how to do this effect several times....we sorta of on purpose forget to mention this next part.

See....he took the video to work and they guys at the studio did some effects on it. That is how we get his face to turn into a skull every so often or the flaming eyes.....they are geniuses with After Effects :)

To return the favor we have made them a prop or two for some pieces they have had to film. Win-win for everyone....just really hard to teach that part in a class :D