It's early on a sunny Halloween morning here in Genoa, Illinois. I thought it appropriate to upload something scary - so here we go. I am experimenting with various ways to put movies on the site. It seems there are a lot of different ways to do this - each with various advantages or disadvantages. Eventually, I will have a separate page dedicated to movies, but for now I have opted to just include a link in my blog text (I'll get to that in a moment).

It has been a week since we all visited the Gobert Pumpkin Patch in Schaumburg Illinois. My duty as grandfather was to video the event for posterity. I have a terrible reputation with my daughter for tardiness in these things - last time It took me several years to actually complete the project. So just to demonstrate that there are times when a leopard CAN change his spots a little, I have created a "theatrical trailer" called "The Haunted Pumpkin Patch". Just click on the title and it will take you to my MobileMe gallery where it currently resides in "tiny", "small" and "medium" formats. The formats relate to your download speed. You can both view and download the trailer. Creating this gave me a great chance to play with some of the bells and whistles in the newest version of Imovie - which by the way I HIGHLY recommend. I may create a few more "trailers" - just because it's so much fun - but also to tease Christy (my daughter) a little.

Happy Halloween everyone!

My daughter and son-in-law brought the grand-kids for a fall visit this weekend. So we had a great weekend of pumpkin carving, pumpkin patches, and an exotic petting zoo (can you believe camels and Giraffes - not to mention a visit by the friendly neighborhood gorilla). The picture above (by my daughter Christy) is from their Camel ride. It is amazing how fast they grow at this age (Ella is 6 and Julian just shy of 2). Ella is already accumulating a great store of memories, and is often heard saying “Mommy – do you remember when we…” I hope we added a few memories this weekend.
It got me to thinking about the whole writing process. Memories are the treasure chest that we all draw on for the creative process. Sometimes it is an entire story – sometimes just an image or emotion. But whether in part, or wholesale, the memory establishes the foundation of the creative piece in truth. In the end it is what resonates in the mind of the listener/viewer. It is what calls forth the magic.