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07-02-01 "The Last Day In Paradise!"

Again we spent the day snorkelling. I have enjoyed the people and the island completely. This was far from a Club Med vacation! It was far more rewarding!! Maybe not as relaxing but a hell of a lot more educational. And to think I was worry about spending so much money on the ticket! I think I need to remember just how good traveling can be!

The guys and I put on a Comedy City show for the group one of the final days. We called ourselves the Sunburnt Six and our show was a big hit! I hope they keep in touch!

I'm a bit anxious to get home so I can get some real relaxing in.

07-04-01 "Happy 4rth of July!!!"

Remember when I said how nice it would be to be home? Well, I miss the island already!! Actually I think I miss the ocean?! I got a chance to look at some of my footage from the trip and it looks great!

I had over 75 email messages waiting for me when I got back and only about ten were worth reading! Now it's time for me to crack down a bit! Get a movie shot! Get some graphics made for a show! Design a few web pages! Yup! Time to get cracking!!

07-08-01 "Happy Thirty Sixth!!"

Well today I turned 36 years old! I had hoped to have more accomplishments under my belt by this time but fate has only allowed so many! I spent the day defeating Diablo II's expansion set and catching up on my journal here. I can't help but think I'm forgetting a ton of things! July 6th I spent the day at my Grandma's for Cousin Rick's birthday then on the 7th (after spending the afternoon down in Caroline watching my brother drive his snowmobile across the pond again - third year for the event) I spent the day at Grandma's again for her 94th birthday. She's in such good shape for being 94. I hope to be doing half as good if I reach that age! I got a chance to record her and her brother Clyde telling the stories of thier lives.

Tonight after some heated poker games I got a chance to go out for my birthday. Weasel, Barncat, and Big "Lucky" Les joined my mom, my Uncle Joe, and Tater and Yvone Schoen. We even had a chance to play some cards at the bar before it got too late. When we droped my uncle off at Grandma's house Curt (Big Les) managed to slam Uncle Joe's thumb in the van door. We'll find out how bad it was tomorrow!

I had a pretty good birthday.

07-15-01 "Art Shows and Other Things!!"

Let's see... I've been designing beer labels for the family reunion. That went well as I enjoyed talking with a few strangers! It's always good to meet new people... especially if you're related to them!

The Art show in Caroline went well for me also as I got a first place award in the professional catagory. I also got an honorable mention but the drawing that received a third at Waupaca didn't even get looked at... hmmmm?! There are always some nice pieces at the shows!

I put together a bunch of graphics for a play being performed at the Weidner Center in Green Bay. For those of you that don't have a clue... the Weidner Center is a rather exclusive center for the Arts and now I had my dirty mits in on one of the productions!! Oh ya!!

I also chopped together some of my vacation footage to make a funny little Castaway rip off. Hopefully I'll get a chance to show that to the fine folks at Comedy City!!

The biggest dirt is that I helped Darby shoot a massive chunk of his short this past Friday! We shot at Mike's house (Comedy City's owner and head monkey) until about 6:00 the following morning!! The shots went well as Darby and I seem to both see the direction of the project! He also appreciated my imput and gives it some merit. That5 makes me feel even more legit!!

One of our actor (Kevin) drove over from La Crosse! Darby and I both hope to use him again as he looked so much like a cop it was creepy!! I haven't had much luck with Green Bay police officers (a story for another day!!) By the time I got home I was shot!!

07-20-01 "The Tale of Titletown!"

I spent another late night in Green Bay filming with Darby. This time he had arranged to get us into the Titletown Brewing Company for some shots of people dining. His main guy was late so he was a bit nervous and we didn't get a chance to start until a group of people exited the area our scene was to take place. Overall we were about an hour and a half late in getting the shots started (maybe not but it sure felt like it took that long). The footage turned our great!! I got a chance to do some pretty fancy camera work. Almost a bit of choreographed dance steps! The night was filled with an electricity (that may have been brought on by a rather heated kissing scene).

I found a great looking little Lithuanian number to do a walk through. One of our actors took her home that evening (lucky dog!!) Unfortunately that scene may need to be reshot as the sound was bad. There was constant banging on the floor from pool sticks upstairs!

Again Darby was wonderful to work with as he listened to my ideas and incorporated pretty much everything I suggested. I felt bad for some of the actors though as they had to wait for quite some time before the bar was cleared out! Also, they had to drive from Milwaukee! For one stinking shot!! Man!! That's the breaks though!!

07-23-01 "THE LAST OF THE GROUP SHOTS!!!!!"

Oh my God!! What an increadible day!! We started shooting both Joe's and dead Jon right away at about 11:00. That scene needed to be an exterior. Keep in mind it needed to be a winter exterior. A night time winter exterior!!

Holy Crud!! It worked wonderfully!!! I used a nuetral density filter along with a blue filter and then adjust your aperture to get it just right. The scene is going to be hilarious!! My actors needed to be in full hunting outfits in the middle of July!! Oh ya, the cop drove through the gravel pit as we were shooting! I couldn't help but laugh out loud. That's the second time a cop drove past as we had a dead guy layed out on the ground!! I guess the cops just don't care in these parts!!

From there we gathered the crew and headed out to the cabin. We took my air conditioner as it was sure to be a hot one! Was it ever! It was hard to maintain performances but the guys managed quite well! We got all the footage I had planned and then some!@! While I was shooting one of the last scenes Cousin Joe took it apon himself to finish the outhouse interiour that I had built the day before! So when we got done shooting the final planned scene for the day we got a chance to shoot Buck and Kenny dumping dead Gary into the outhouse pit! I had planned to shoot that with a double but after seeing how well it turned out with the actual actor I'm glad I never got the chance!!

I even had the help of an old student of mine... Matt Sauby. I'll try to get him to play the dead guy's hand! All my guys put in an increadible day of shooting and I was walking on air all day!!

At one point I thought this project may never see the light of day and now I could theoretically edit it all together with what I have!! There are five shots I want to get yet though so hopefully I'll be able to get them! Also, if I die at this point I think Tom would have enought fottage to finish the project! Man, what a great way to get recognition!! Forget it, I don't plan on dying for quite some time yet!!

07-26-01 "Noah's Ark and the Outhouse Scene!!"

Tuesday I got a chance to go to Wisconsin Dells with the student council! It was alright but I didn't really have anyone to hang out with. I had to spend the day staring at boobs! Bummer!! I think there's a great story waiting to be told using the Dells as a back drop!! There is another writer working on that project, I'll need to get in contact with her acain!! I don't want to step on any feet!

Josh and Matt came over Thursday morning and we went back out to the cabin to shoot the outhouse scene. We dilly dallied around quite a bit before we actually got shooting but when we did it went well! Josh needs to be proded a bit more than I though but I'm fairly happy with the performance when he's done. I'd have liked to see a bit more facial movement and expression. Matt got a chance to lay in the pit and play the dead man's hand. I changed the script a bit and I think it'll work even better. We'll see when it gets cut together!!

I now have three more kinds of shots to get and all will be 'in the can'!!!

07-27-01 "Two Shows!!"

I drove to GB to see the show at the Weidner Center that my friends wrote. It was awesome!! 'Get Down Sized' was the title and the weird thing about the show was... no one talked! At one point they said "Bla bla bla!" but other than that they didn't say anything! It was easy to follow even though it had this unique premise! I was very proud to have helped out with the show even though I did just a tiny bit compared to the rest. I video taped the show for them, gosh I'm such a buddy!

After the Weidner Center I went to Comedy City to watch a show that was put together by a younger group of actors from the troupe. They called themselves Fandango and they were great. The did about fifteen prewritten skits. I video taped the show for them also, gosh I'm such a buddy! They reminded me of Sweet Lips a bit (Sweet Lips is a comedy troupe from the Stevens Point area). I'd like to write a scene or two for Fandango sometime. Hell!!! Who am I kiddin!!! I haven't written anything other than journal entries for almost a year!! Get your butt in gear Craig!!! I'm so bad!!!

Oh ya before I forget, remember my little foriegn exchange sweetheart from Africa?! She was in a bit of a creative slump also. I wish she was still around so I could put her in Darby's movie!! Miss ya Sammy girl!! So does everybody else... we're just all too darn busy doing nothing!!?

07-30-01 "The Godfather, The Judge, and The Planet Of The Apes!!"

Yesterday was a busy day for me!! I had to miss out on a friend's big summer bash on Saturday night so I could get to church on Sunday bright and early!! I got to be the godfather to my cousin Janice (and Dave's) baby, Aiden DePew!! I did a great job of just standing there.

I had to skip church before the end as I was needed in Shawano at the Mielke Theatre where I judged their annual art show. There was this incredible little gypsy girl there that tranced me!! I need to find out more information on her!! She won the third place in the fine arts catagory!

From there I headed straight to Green Bay to try to catch Darby and his crew as they were shooting in the afternoon. I unfortunately didn't find them so the whole trip to GB turned out to be for nothing!!

I found out later that Darby's main actor didn't show so he was basically screwed with any shooting anyway. I certainly know the feeling in that scenereo!! I called the actor to try to make things nice nice but Darb's pissed!! He won't pull the plug on the project but he'll pull the plug on that actor if he doesn't show up again. The crappy thing is that the project is well over half way done!

That night I got a chance to catch "The Planet Of The Apes" with Lumpy and Weasle. There were a lot of parts that I liked but I was basically disappointed in it! Don't tell Darby, he saw it twice and loved it both times!!

Cripes!! July is almost gone and I... well actually I actually have quite a bit to show for July!!

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