Bruce and Sue Do Alaska
One of my many projects of late has been to digitize a bunch of media. Not so much because I want to show it off, but because I want to preserve and distribute it for postarity. Memories aren't supposed to spend most of their time in a shoe box at the back of a closet, they are supposed to be shared.
These are my first postings of the vacation that my wife and I took to Alaska in 2007. They are not high art by any means and are more of an attempt to try and see how much milage I can get out of my old hobby computer (an Apple iMac G3 running OS9) in the garage. There is going to be a bunch more stuff that I upload to my YouTube channel in the future, so this is just the start.
The video above is the first in a series of 6 videos, all veiwable on My YouTube Channel (that is right, I am my own network). Click the link or the title to this blog to go there and see all my audio-video goodness.
If you have never been to Alaska they are probably worth watching just for the scenery, if you have been to Alaska, you can watch them for me and my wife's witty bantor and tom-foolery. Either way, they are a pleasent diversion from sitting at your work desk all day long doing mindless zombie tasks.
I have shelves and shelves of video tapes from past holidays. I'm slowly in the process of transferring them all to DVD.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been to Alaska but I know it's definitely one place I would not want to visit during the winter but the summer I have heard is quite lovely,
Your own You Tube Channel, what's next lotus?!
Well, I wouldn't exactly say I "own" a YouTube Channel Princess....they sort of give them to you for free when you sign up for an account.....
ReplyDeleteLots of thoughts here.
ReplyDeleteFirst, as with all the dark edges to the things you put out there, what is with the
“Frustration and emptiness that slowly overtakes us” line?
You seem to be struggling with trying to reconcile the modern way of life (commuting-sitting in a cubicle-servicing other’s mistakes-) with some sort of idealism.
That real life is underneath and you are stuck here, battling dead weight. And there appears to be a bitterness growing. Or maybe it is closer to the surface and will sink underneath when you retire. I believe it started when you began to question what you were taught and found it to be wrong. This is where the roots might have begun. I assure you it doesn't have to be this way. But, either way.
This will be the last time I call attention to it. Because I now see it part of your nature. And it is not mine. I believe what I read in Dante’s inferno. When the Devil was struck down into hell he said, “I will make heaven from this hell” And he did.
I believe everything is both light and dark. I listen to the underbelly of all sorts of evil every day. I work with soldiers who have hell to tell me.
Yet I sit next to it, unburdened. It is part of everything. And I thrive and shine with light. So in this way, I give up for you and the words and images you put out there when they are tinged with darkness. Let the dark shine too.
Also, I must say, that is a damn good woman you have. She is a treasure.
What music was playing in the background btw?
I can say I have never been to Alaska. I have been to Colorado. It was the first time I had ever seen a mountain. (I wrote about it in my profile). It was not a coincidence that I cemented my life on that trip. No small coincidence it happened in the wild.
Take care, looking forward to looking over the others
I have a friend in Alaska right now- and I'm a little jealous. I need to visit someday.
ReplyDeleteMemories are definitely meant for posterity. They are what makes us who we are.
I'm impressed by this ambitious process. I'm adding Alaska to the list of places I want to visit someday.
ReplyDeleteI love that line..."Why were you put on this earth?" Love the response ever more.
P.S. Is Mrs. HH a "shrink" by profession or just by nature? Geez.
So, .... am I going to get a bill some day for all this psycho-analysis you keep doing on me or is it all pro-bono? Just want to know if I need to start saving up some money Mrs. Freud.
ReplyDeleteI think you might be reading a bit too much into the whole narration on the first reel. It basically was only meant to speak to the form of tunnel vision that everyone would develop if you stayed in one static place too long. You forget that there are other worlds of thought and other levels of consciousness unless you break away from the everyday and seek them out.
I am fully aware that we have to find the bright spots in everyday existence, even when the environs that we find ourselves in make us struggle more than we think we should. It isn't the patients that I have to listen to every day and try and help. My demons are in the infrastructure of the process that impedes me from helping the patients. But that is just one of life's little tests.
I am pretty much aware (through this whole blogging experience) that I really need to focus on letting go of the negativity and start focusing past it on greener pastures (even if they are just mental). I have sort of made a note to myself to start doing that and there will be fewer and fewer 'negative' blogs in the future (although I am sort working on one that will make it my last hurrah on that front).
Not to worry. As long as I have the wife and places like Alaska, and my garage of never ending projects, the future will be bright, if not a bit delayed.
Good comment.
(clears throat, strokes faux goatee, adjusts wire rim glasses, adjusts vest and pocket watch, assumes an Austrian accent)
ReplyDeleteVedi goot, vedi goot
It is an issue with me, having insight into others as part of my professional life, and how to handle that in other areas of my life.
Also, applying this insight is an issue.
In my work life I adjust my language to help patients discover things on their own. Because really, self discovery is a very powerful tool for patients. Besides no one wants to hear, 'What your problem is, is . . . "
In the outside life, I tread not so lightly. Especially here on the interwebs. But this is no good, telling you that I see negative patterns in your writing/ movies that are helping to grow bitterness. This is much like saying, "Well, YOUR problem is . . . . "
Again, never a good way to start a conversation.
So, again, I will stop.
AND look what happened! You are noticing the patterns by blogging, by self discovery. And you are taking measures to alter this!
I can say yeah! Because the words we use create the reality in which we live. And for you, I wish you very much to have a wonderful reality. Wife, trips to the wilds and neverending projects galore!
Ok
Freud (one part Sigmund one part Anna) out
Geez, Holly......I think you really need the vacation. You can't seperate work from leisure time!!!!
ReplyDeleteive been doing the same things with my old videos.. i want to make sure they are preserved. wedding, old family stuff... its a pain in the ass but its worth doing.
ReplyDeleteWhere all in Alaska did you go?/ I grew up on the BC/Alaska border til I was 17 and at the time I hated it but now miss the scenery and the peacefulness more than anything. This reel makes me want to plan a trip back, some time soon. Glad you and your wife had fun :)
ReplyDelete