4 Years of Blogging

Recent events caused me to sort of miss my 4th anniversary of writing Random Thoughts Of A Random Guy From A Random Place Up In The Sky. A pretty good summary of the entire health story can be found here in a very good guest written article. So, allow me to crow a bit on this 4th anniversary about what I feel were pretty dang good articles and eat crow a bit about articles that failed.

Last year, I recorded a short video about writing this blog and it was 5 days before the first blood was in the urine, thus starting me down the long road that I am still walking on to this day. A lot can happen in a year. Have I pondered the health thing long enough now? OK, here are a few of the eat crow articles that come to mind.

In no particular order are the following, such as, "Riveting Testimony By Fetus", which I found funny, but has been by far the most ignored. Therefore, it is in the eat crow bin; I mean, only 8 views in four years? Maybe the counter for this one was 'accidentally' shut off. However, this next one was a definite stinker. What the hell was I thinking when writing and then publishing this one? Why didn't I just link the videos and be done with it? Then, there was this failed attempt at satire and political smugness. At least, that's what I thought I was going for, when I should have obviously been going for another bottle. Here, I'm just rehashing old opinions that have been better served and then stapling it to the cause du jour. Very eating crow-ish! Finally, I'll add this one because my gesture was NOT reciprocated and by pointing out that it was NOT reciprocated also shows I can be a bit vindictive at times.

All right, let's move on to the crow a bit articles. Again, in no particular order. OK, I'll admit I like this one because it was the very first and was largely ignored, too. "The Strange & Deadly Journey Of Navy Seal Team 6" is not only wildly popular (for my blog anyway), but I really like how it all came together in a coherent fashion. It's was strange and deadly narrative, too. What's this? More stuff about Obama? Well, for awhile there, him and his administration were a source of a lot of WTF moments. Nothing has happened since then to alter the facts written therein. Well, here is one of the several, "what the hell, this makes no sense, but is being passed off as average news that we won't examine any further" articles I have written. I will also admit I'm very pleased with this series of articles about John Lennon's songwriting and such during his tenure with that obscure rock combo from Liverpool. And just to round things off a bit, here are two more: one where I admit my guilty pleasure of enjoying "Gilligan's Island" and the still bafflingly overly popular post about Mitt Romney eating children. Baffling to me anyway why it's so dang popular. Yeah, it's funny and sort of pointed, but still...

Those are my choices and, as always, the reader is free to pick and choose their own. My biggest complaint, however, is the constant removal of links, photos and videos that can sometimes ruin an article. It's rather difficult keeping up with that and replacing said removals.

It's been an interesting four years as I went from living in Portland to making the huge leap of faith and moving to Los Angeles. Getting cancer along the way is what Mr. Spock might have called, "fascinating". Thanks again to you, kind and gentle readers, for supporting this blog, and I hope you continue to enjoy future random thoughts.

 

Et Tu, Cancer? Part 5 - The Last Thing I Remember The Clock Read 4:50am; The Next, I Wake Up Screaming!

Finally, the day of my major surgery had arrived. On July 15th, I caught a cab to the hospital, as there were no buses running at that hour of the morning. It was a very nice summer morning in the San Fernando Valley. Major surgery. Indeed! I was about to under go a Radical Cystectomy with an Orthotopic Neobladder. Read about the surgery if you want and please note the irony of 'orthotopic' (my production company is called Orthicon Ghost Productions). There were no McDreamys or Clooneys scurrying about the bowels (more irony!) of the hospital where the surgeries are performed. There's gross simplification passed off as fiction and then there is rampant failure as writers, but hey, that's for another bloody blog post. Keeeeee-ripes!

Even for surgery, part of my actor training was still used whether as a defense mechanism or just pure instinct. Fear. Come on - a dash o' fear. My call time/check-in time was 5:30am, I showed up at the hospital at 5:10am! Technically, it was same day surgery: to begin at 7:30am and end at 4:30pm. I had some trepidations, sure. I mean after all, my first surgery was canceled within hours of it's scheduled beginning and look at the freaking mess I was in now! Thank you freaking mess! This time, there was no last minute cancellation, this bad boy was going down. "You're going down bad boy!"

(Blood leaking out of one of the many holes poked into my hands and arms over the course of my hospital stay. See also, "Et Tu, Cancer, Part 3")

I had some ideas of what life would be like after cancer and with a neo-bladder. Reality versus "what may be' is often what the middle ground turns out to be. Or not to be (hey, sorry, couldn't resist). That's why these blogs are not primarily fashioned in a linear narrative. But, there was no doubt I would be spending at least two weeks in the hospital.

Like the previous surgery that wasn't entirely successful, I went through the preparation period, confident that this time this surgery would be entirely successful. Think about that for a moment, please. All the mental gymnastics I went through regarding what could happen during that first surgery, all the ducks that had to be placed in a row before even daring to attempt to sleep a fitful few hours before getting up for the surgery AND then...the call, the call I was lucky to get from the hospital, "did you know your surgery had been canceled?" --- "canceled!?!" --- so, here I was again, for this major surgery, this time, because all shit rolls downhill, right?

AH, Saturday Morning Cartoons

When I was a kid, getting up at 7am on Saturday morning was not a chore because the television spewed out cartoons. It seemed like it did for hours. Then the parents would send us outside to expend the rest of our cereal sugar rush until lunchtime.

In the later life, You Tube offered me a chance to try out one of their contraptions. This one they dubbed "Go Animate". Since I am a poor artist, I stretched out this promo offer of Google, er, uh, I mean You Tube's and managed to get to produce 2 [wow a lot of twos] cartoons out of the deal. Using templates a casual viewer of ye ol' You Tube would recognize, here are the only cartoon's I've produced so far, as they say....

"Osama Dead? Osama Alive?"

CARTOON #1

"Illegal War"

CARTOON #2

Enjoy it fer cryin' out loud....

SHOOTING ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET - PART 3

WARNING: bad language ahead!

I love film making!!!

First, I should point out that I learned my film editing chops with film. It was one of my favorite parts of the process being tactile and real and non-linear. Then, along came video with its original linear or it's the highway attitude. And then, digital, sorta like film, sorta like video. And it is non-linear. However, digital comes with a large caveat: the computer. It's not like film, which you can actually hang your "clips" on the wall.

SHOOTING ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET - PART 2

The latest Orthicon Ghost Production, "Our Neighbors" has wrapped. 160 minutes of raw footage that is now, as we read/write, being edited into a chilling, thrilling and humorous 25 minute short film. How is possible to have shot so much footage in only three days? Planning. Planning. Planning.

All photos by Tammy Harrel-Fraley. In this photo (left to right): Johnny Winningham, Adrienne Vogel, Rod Harrel, Dave Hudkins, Dave Paull.

SHOOTING ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET - PART 1

Day 2 of a planned 3 day shoot wrapped a few hours ago. The latest Orthicon Ghost Production, "Our Neighbors", a tale of post-radiation society, started production yesterday with a productive and fun shoot on the banks of the Sandy River.

all photos by Tammy Harrel-Fraley

It was a hot and sultry day as we began to weave our tale of horror. Some sunburns were reported. Although there were a great many people around us enjoying a lazy summer day, one would never know it looking through the lens of "Our Neighbors". The production stars the talented Joey LeBard, Dave Paull, Adrienne Vogel, Johnny Winningham and yours truly, who also wrote and directed. There is also the awesome crew of David Hudkins, Mark Twohy, Lauryl Nagode, Jeff Ryerson and the behind-the-scenes photos featured in this blog post by my very own talented sister, Tammy Harrel-Fraley.

Oh, it's looking to be a scary peek of why that pesky radiation may not be for everyone! Keep ya all posted!

JOHN LENNON - a conspiracy of silence

Now that the tea party is out of my system, I'd like to share with you all a documentary I did last winter about John Lennon's assassination.
I'm getting ready to shoot a new scary short film and this is a good way to clear the palette.