The three of us [Billy, Amanda, and myself] are just hanging around the apartment... Billy is listening to Ray Charles on iTunes, Amanda is checking her email. Both of them are drinking some cheap wine that our landlord sent to us for Christmas - everytime they take a sip their faces crunch up... but they are still trying to talk me into to having some. Not a good start, especially since Billy just blurted out, "that wine is God awful!"

Earlier Amanda and Billy were getting on my case because I mentioned I don't really make New Year resolutions. I guess it always just seemed so... hmm... I don't know what the right word is... I just never really get into that much. Seemed too forced. But this year I actually thought of one while I was cleaning up some cat vomit in the bathroom [his new food isn't sitting well], I would very much like to get back into editing [the kind that pays the bills]. So I guess that's my big resolution.

Well, anyways, I just wanted to drop by to wish the two readers we have left a Happy New Year!

That's cold enough where you can't make it from the car to the front door without the hairs in your nose freezing together... not a very pleasant mental picture and not a very pleasant feeling either. It's Christmas eve in Michigan and I just got back to my Mom's with my brother and sister for the night. We should have been back an hour ago, but the red-car I've been driving has had a tendency the last two weeks to not start when it's cold outside... and negative four degrees is very, very cold outside. So we tried charging the battery for 40 minutes: nothing. Then we tried jumping it: almost, but in the end; nothing. Then we just figured we would push it out of the way and take Nick's truck: the brakes were frozen solid and even with Nick and my Dad pushing the car [which was sitting on a sloped driveway] it wouldn't budge more than three feet.

But that wasn't the worst of my car troubles this week. While visiting Amanda's grandparents up north [in the "thumb" area], I managed to crack-the-hell out of Amanda's Mom's windshield. How does one have such bad luck? I can't exactly tell you, but we we're all going to have breakfast at a restaurant called "Lefty's", so I go to warm-up the red-car and it just won't start, her grandparents live right on the lake and the wind is just ripping. After ten minutes the battery wasn't even trying anymore so I went back inside and told Amanda I needed to use her mom's car to jump the red-one. Now this is where it got strange, her mom's car and the red-car were parked parallel to each other, side by side, each facing the same direction, but the wind kept slamming the hood shut on the red-car, so I walked over and opened her mom's car's hood and lifted it eye-level when all of a sudden it lifted out of my hands. I looked up just in time to see the wind throw the hood back like a giant-sail, I heard a loud pop and soon realized a spider-web of cracked glass had shot out from the right corner of the windshield. It was a little on the embarrassing side.

Last night it snowed, it wasn't the first time it's done so while I've been here, but it is the first time it's stuck, after coming down all night there was enough to go sledding. I told myself I had to go at least once while I was here... and for the record; getting a huge spray of snow down the front of your shirt feels a lot worse then I remembered. Anyways, it's getting late now, and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. By the sounds of it, Amanda and I will be sitting at the airport all day long, a part of me can't wait to get back to the sunshine and palm trees but the past two weeks have flown by, like they always do when your on vacation, and I'm sad to have to say goodbye. I just wish everyone I knew lived in LA... it's warm... all yearlong... what more could someone ask for? Oh well.

Merry Christmas everyone.

The night Amanda and I landed, the snow was coming down pretty hard by the time we we're half way home, Nick, my brother, was forced to drive extra slow - which dragged out an hour long drive from Detroit to Onsted, into a little over two hours if I remember right. In total, it took us fourteen hours to get from point A to point B, thanks to an hour-long line for LAX security. Not to print our tickets or even check our bags, that in itself took ten minutes at the most. But the wait to get to the metal detectors and x-ray machines was stretched out the front door... since 'everyone' was late getting on the plane, it was late taking off, so we sat there for a while waiting for an opening to lift-off from. Then when we landed in Atlanta we had less than ten minutes to jump on our connecting flight and apparently Atlanta's airport is huge! Really huge and also has no air-conditioning! So we missed our flight after running from one gate [we we're covered in sweat] to the next by a minute... two hours later we got on our new plane, which then had a fuel pump "issue", so we sat there for over an hour. Uhg. It was an experience... a long one at that.

But I'm home, which is very nice, except for the 2 degree weather we'll be having tonight, that's not so nice... that's why we left in the first place. It's torture though because I'm dying to see some snow and so far it's just bitter 'snot-freezing-make-your-eyes-water' cold.

Amanda and I went on a date in Ann Arbor last Wednesday, ate out at Mongolian BBQ, which has went through a lot of little changes since we've left, most of which we thought kinda' sucked, half their sauces are gone and the ones they kept seem to be different in weird ways, the lemon is more like apple-sauce then "juice" now. But we still left stuffed and went to catch 'Sideways' at the state, which was really, really good. I highly recommend it. Then we walked around the streets for a little bit, checked out the "diag", wandered through Nickel's arcade and then I stood in-front of the 'Student Bike Shop' and contemplated tossing a brick through the window to exact my revenge... but that's another story for another time. Plus Amanda wouldn't be my get away driver.

It's 12:40 right now and I'm suppose to drag myself out of bed in seven hours, so I'm thinking of... laying in bed for two hours trying to force myself to sleep. Hmm... I don't know what my brother is watching but Susan Sarandon is hosting a show with Tim Robbins as "the guy who laughs at everything the host says", with Sarah Mclachlan as the musical guest, all I know is Susan Sarandon and Sarah Mclanchlan on the same show together at the same time is more than I can handle! Yeee-ow. Shh... don't tell Amanda.

Originaly posted at: Project Pedal...

As promised: if you click on "the production" drop-menu to the left, you'll notice something new under "the idea / storyboard" section. The sketches are in no particular order and really don't tell a story either, they basically cover everyday situations. I've started to get a feel for how the boards will be organized for the trip, [nothing final but;] when the time comes I would separate the shot-ideas by their 'purpose', example: "everyday use", "forest", "flat-lands", “desert”, etc...

This way as we travel through certain landscapes for several days at a time; the crew will have a checklist of shots to focus on capturing. They serve more as a reference than a "check-list", on top of that of course, the crew could be as creative as their little hearts desired, I just would never go into this kind of thing with no “plan”. The more ideas and input the merrier.

I watched a trailer for a film last night called, Primer, an independent film from Shane Carruth, a 31 year old first time director / writer / producer / actor / editor who's built-up quite a buzz since Sundance. Well, the film's website has a forum, which mostly consist of people asking: a) what the film meant? b) if it was coming to [fill in the blank]? And c) if they could plug their own film... but - a certain thread caught my eye, it was titled: You can't make a film for $7,000. It was written by Shane himself and despite the title, went on to say how actually it was very possible to film a feature length movie for 7'grand, shot on film [16mm] no less, not miniDV, but there was a 'price to pay' for cutting so many corners. It's a very interesting, short comment and something that without a doubt gives us "little guys" hope.

I should be busy packing but Billy keeps jumping around between Chris Farley's Best of SNL DVD and the rerun of SNL with Drew Barrymore... I keep telling myself, “okay, after this skit, I’m getting ready”. But it’s just so funny.

Amanda and I are flying home for the holidays, we leave out of LAX tomorrow, well actually today but anyways – our flight takes off at 10 in the morning. We managed to get two weeks off of work – I’m looking forward to everything except the Michigan weather. I wish I could take the California sunshine with me.

Okay, commercial. Time to get ready.

Sorry I'm late. I've been EXTREMELY busy. Can I get a chance to say anything?...

Has anybody heard ME say anything about not giving Chuck his money? Has anybody heard me say that I'm not STILL going to give Chuck his money? Have I been writing vindictive or derogatory comments about Chuck anywhere? Not that it matters, but I had the money set aside for Chuck before he left. We were supposed to take care of it on the way to taking him to the airport, but we got so caught up in trying to enjoy our last bit of time together that we forgot and when we got to the airport he had to get going. After that, things went a little screwy. By the time Chuck had gotten to Germany and e-mailed me about it, something pretty serious had happened that left me finacially in the negative. After that, I racked my brain trying to figure out how to get some extra money together, but when the bills came I underestimated how much they would be with one less person. As everyone read we were all scraping pennies together (literally) just to get to the next payday. I wasn't "ignoring" Chuck. Anyone out there who knows me knows that I'm not the best with keeping up with my e-mails. I didn't even know he put anything on Caliblog. I never go there! But when I saw his comments on my site and then heard he was plastering it on Caliblog, I did get a little peeved. Regardless of whether I kept him abreast of my dilemma or not, none of you out there know what I've done for Chuck and how much I've stood by Chuck and always done what I've could to help him out since I've know him. I can tell you it was more than enough to merit a little more faith in me than, "It's been two weeks, he's f*ckig me over." Even when I wasn't happy with him, there were times when I was the ONLY person standing beside him, including his family. The point is, I'm getting Chuck his money and I'm hurt that he would think that I wouldn't. I just didn't want to share it with the rest of the world.

If you honestly think this whole sabotage thing is simply about that, than you're all pretty naive. He may be upset about that, but he wasn't even attacking me. I don't even frequent Caliblog anymore. He's trying to get back at Mike for removing him from a site that he said he was done with as well as things that have been building for a while, because he mentioned doing this while he was still here. He's had some issues with THEM, not with me. This was just his own little justification to himself to finally do it. He said, "MIKE has no idea that I know. Tempting, isn't it?", not 'BILLY and MIKE...'. Jessica ripped on Mike and Amanda ONLY and Chuck and Pete thought it was hilarious and it led into the 'destroying Caliblog' (no longer MY site, by the way) conversation. He had a different plan for me (the whole reporting the car stolen thing), but the car's in my name and he marked that I paid $0.00 for the car when he signed over the title, so there's no way to report it stolen or sue for money. I legally don't owe anything. But that's all moot because, like I've said, I'm not going to stiff him, anyway.

No matter the reasons, what he did was wrong on so many levels. To make it worse, he did it just as he was leaving and was going to be unavailable for Mike to contact him and fix the problem. You can say this was all my fault if it makes you feel better (as far as I'm concerned, personal matters between Chuck and I should stay between Chuck and I), but the truth is only ONE person in this whole mess was out to deliberately hurt someone. He was going to leave Mike and Amanda (not ME) ass-out and laugh about it the whole way knowing how much it would devastate them. The only remorse he and Pete feel is in getting caught in their own snare. He knows how important that sight is to the two of them. I don't blame Mike and Amanda for anything they want to do in return. As for me, I'll settle things with Chuck in my own way.

What would you do if you came home and your blog was just gone, vanished? And you found out that your “friend” was responsible. And was sitting back having a good laugh about it. This was not just a prank or a joke it was very serious.

Honestly. Think about it, what would you do?

I’m sorry but we were pissed. And we did everything we had to do to get it back, which was extremely difficult, and in doing so we also found out that he had been planning this for a while. He was planning to erase the entire thing from existence, files and all. We also found out that he was saying all sorts of things about us behind our backs. Why should we ever want to be friends with him again? Trust me, Chuck knew, the moment he did this, how we would react.

The funny thing is, we were all here, just going to work, and living our lives. Not planning to screw Chuck out of anything. Billy was waiting till he got Chucks money (in fact, we got paid yesterday and he surly would have sent Chuck what he could, now that our rent has been taken care of). And if you were to check all of our emails, you wouldn’t find a single thing about him. We were just minding our own business and this came out of the blue. (But still it wasn’t so uncharacteristic of Chuck, that we all weren’t sure who did it right away.) You may not believe me. Whatever. That’s your right and it really makes no difference to me. I’m just trying to clear this up.

What exactly have we done that is so wrong? We took our blog back. Were we just supposed to give that up without a fight? We did what we had to do to get it back, which was basically turn around and do to him what he’d just done to us. It was the only way. The difference is, we’re not going to erase his blog from existence, we’re going to give it back. So why are we so wrong again?

Originaly posted at Project Pedal...

I am very proud to announce the first officially ‘cemented-in’ crew member for proj:pedal, this person is very well known in the indie-film underground and is very highly respected. Both his work and his techniques in mini35 [on a shoe string budget] have strongly influenced and inspired countless filmmakers.

Olivier Vanaschen, the founder of ‘Another State of Mind’, the creative team of indie-cinematographers and photographers that launched their careers in commercials and music videos with a short film titled, ‘Marla’.

This is really an exciting leap forward for proj:pedal, and apparently ‘good-things’ come in twos: I recently received an email from the manager of a sound studio outside of San Diego, who also happens to be an avid touring-cyclist, the studio is looking to expand beyond it’s music services and offer a “one-stop-shop” for audio-post: ADR, efx, foley, etc… the studio has offered their services for proj:pedal free of charge. This offer isn’t final just yet, but it’s nice to see the film getting this type of attention.

This last week has been amazing for this project, I feel like I’ve been chugging along at a pace that I’m not always 100% content with… and all at once I’ve made a huge push forward, I’ve contacted 30-plus cycling magazines [probing for sponsorship or an opportunity to spread the word about what we’re doing] & filled the DP position, it’s all very exciting. Very exciting. Stay tuned.

I have some very, very, very exciting news about Project Pedal to announce, but not just yet... one or two more days - I just had to get the secret that I have something to get off my chest, off my chest... wait - does that make sense?

Well, obviously, caliblog is back. For those of you who are wondering what happened? How it happened? And who was responsible for such craziness?

You can find the answer to all three of those questions… and then some by clicking here.

update: (too long to be a comment) Okay, I don't want to just blow off the possibility that I too am in the wrong, 'cause I don't want to be completely bullheaded about this - but would anyone mind telling me why?

Cause one day I came home - and found that caliblog had been erased, out of the blue... then I found that I wasn't going to be able to do anything about it until Jan 10th, when Chuck got back... and it was starting to look like he intended to never undo what he’d done… don’t forget, caliblog is our baby. Then I spent 7 hours... in the middle of the night hacking into different accounts until I took back what was ours - and in the process found out that he was talking loads, and loads of shit about me, about all of us, behind our backs. I found out that he “laughed out loud” at the comment that Amanda was a five-cent stripper…

This whole event was just the tipping-point, the last straw I suppose. There is a whole history here... but, eh. Drama.

Anyways, as for the money… Chuck should just know better than to mess with Billy like that… you just don’t mess with Billy… take my word for it. Not that I know from experience :) But still, I know…

We were actually able to pay rent yesterday! A couple of small checks finally went through in my bank account. Yay for us! :) With an extra $55 in our pockets, Mike and I were able to put in the extra $20 for rent and even get it paid by 5pm to avoid any late fees. After that, we quickly put a few gallons of gas in the car and drove right over to the 99 cent store to pick up some cheap-o food to last us through the end of the week. What a relief. Life is good again. :)

still 3 days and 22 hours till pay day. i have exactly $.85 (in dimes, nickels and pennies) to my name. my car is on E and food isn't really on the menu in our kitchen theses days. i suppose that's ok, though... i'm sure i ate enough last week to last me through the end of this week. most upsetting is that our Ikea holiday party is on wednesday night and i won't have any money to buy myself drinks. oh... and did i mention we haven't paid our december rent yet? yeah... still $20 short.

don't you just hate it when you're taking your last brake at work... a long, busy, 8.5 hour day.... you go to get a $1 frozen yogurt and (because you have no cash on you) you use your debit card and after the nice guy has already given you your cone he tells you that your card has been declined..... with nothing else to do you hand the cone back and give an awkward apology.

so i'm downloading a bunch of black eyed peas because i don't have the new album yet. i just spent all night watching the 'Big in '04 on VH1' and their performance was great. they also gave a great performance when i saw them live in Detroit a few years back with my girl, J2. we danced our asses off... so fun. Fergie hadn't joined the group yet then, but damn, is she hot!! wow.... what i wouldn't give for those abs... and that energy.

on a cheerier note.... today was a good day for love.

Originally posted at Proj:Pedal...

I have two quick updates I thought I would share with the rest of the class.

First off, the obvious, I'm sure you've all noticed already the 'donation' image to the left, I figured if the 'thermometer' approach has worked for, well just about everything else, then it's worth a shot. Actually, I worked on this image over a month ago, and for whatever reason, decided not to put it up. Then the other night Amanda suggested to me that I should make "one of those thermometer thingys" for proj:pedal's funds and I was reminded of my earlier efforts.

Secondly, I'm quite happy to announce that I've uploaded a fourth version of proj:pedal's budget outline [which you can find under 'the production / financial' drop-menu to the left] which, for the first time, falls under the $8,000 mark. It's actually around $500 below, while snooping around eBay I managed to find a steadicam & vest that was priced about $1,000 less than the one I was eye-balling before, actually at this very moment, they are having a Christmas special sale - which knocks $450 off the original price. And I dumped the over-priced underwater camera case, a homemade housing worked in the past for me, and it will have to work again this time around, I just can't justify spending that kind money on something that will only be used a handful of times.

I'm not sure if I should sigh a breath of relief over this article just yet, but this could be an indication that thousands upon thousands of would-be draftees won't be forcefully uprooted from their lives and thrust into a hellhole on the brink of civil war.

Since you have to have an account at ‘The New York Times’ to read this… I’ll just cut & paste a few important lines for you… the “highlights” if you will.

“When Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other senior American officials arrive at a summit meeting in Morocco next week that is intended to promote democracy across the Arab world, they have no plans to introduce any political initiatives to encourage democratic change.

President Bush started speaking in 2002 about the need to bring democracy to the Arab nations. Since then, however, the popular view of the United States in the region has grown so dark, even hateful, that American officials are approaching the meeting with caution and with a package of financial and social initiatives that have only a scant relationship to the original goal of political change.”

So, to sum up what will be remembered as the Bush-Cheney years: No WMDs. No connection between Saddam and Al Qaida [even though 42% of American's still believe there was a connection... impressive]. And now, no Arab Democracy Project… it’s almost enough to leave you speechless.

Anyways, time to go watch VH1’s Big in ’04.

For breakfast this morning, I ate vanilla ice-cream with hot fudge on top... so it's no surprise that after eating a hot-pocket for lunch [a few hours later] that I suddenly felt like I was five minutes away from throwing up. You know when you get that rush of liquid in your throat just before it happens... I kept getting that - I was afraid it was inevitable.

But then I downed half a bottle of "the pink stuff" and looked in the mirror at my 'pink' mustache, just like a milk-mustache, but pink... that's when I got the idea for a new milk-commercial-spin-off for Pepto-Bismol: "Got Sick?", it's genius. There was a more "pg-13" version of the tag-line, but I probably don't need to get into that. Anyways, no more ice-cream breakfasts for me! I’m about to be filthy rich...

I'm not so sure why I wrote this post.

So, it's 11 o'clock at night and I've been reading too much again [for my own good]... and now I'm really, really pissed off at our government. I feel so powerless... I could go on for pages - but instead I think I'll take a deep breath... count to ten, better make it twenty, and ask this one question:

How many days after Christmas do you think the Bush Administration will wait before announcing the draft? Maybe I should take bets. Eight days? Ten?

Iraq forces 'need extra US help'.

The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that the U.S. is going increase its troops in the war torn-country, Iraq, to reach 150,000 by mid January.

Fears grow of military spread thin.

Sorry to be such a downer... it probably doesn't help that I'm watching 'Dear Hunter' right now. Maybe I should stop - and put in the 'Best of SNL'... or 'Bottle Rocket'... anything. You know what always cheers me up, watching this news out-take. And yes, I'm well aware I have a twisted sense of humor.

Three weeks and I haven't heard a word from Billy. His e-mail doesn't seem to be working so I thought I'd try another route. Will someone tell him to check it out?

It's St. Nick's day in Germany. They celebrate it by putting chocolate Santas in your shoes. At least that's what Pete tells me. Just wanted to say Merry Christmas, since I'll be celebrating the holiday in the People's Republic.

I'm not ungrateful, but I'll miss the holiday. Enjoy the trip home, Mike and Amanda. Try to get out and see your cousin, Billy.

Peace be with you, Caliblog crew.

Okay, real quick here, I was eating some pop-tarts before work and skimming over some news - when I read this article on the safety of our nation's food supply... personally I kind of believe it's another one of the many administration's scare-tactics: "terrorist are about to attack -- fill in the blank --". But regardless, what the hell is this guy, Thompson, doing here when he said:

"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," Thompson said. "We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that."

Is he trying to give people ideas? While he's at he should mention that numerous "test" have found it's still quite easy to sneak weapons into airports and even abroad planes... or he could say, "hey... we don't fund port security worth a crap - come get us in there...", it's all very, very strange. Now, I have to get in the shower. Adios.

ps. this is a really good post I found at Daily Kos, check it out if you have a minute.

Originally posted at Proj:Pedal...

Something dawned on me earlier... something very simple actually, I'm a bit embarrassed it's taken me so long. I took a few steps back from this site - and thought about my reaction [if I was a third-party reading this site] to proj:pedal's s.o.s. for $8,000. Now, for a indie-film's budget, that's bare-bones, to anyone else [believe me... especially myself] it's anything but. I can only imagine how many people have skimmed over the line, "help... I need $8,000 for my film", and thought, "yeah, you and me both, buddy".

So, the revelation I had was to 'break it apart'. Yes, I know, it took me way too long to arrive at this point.

Now, instead of saying: I need $8,000. I'm going to say: I need, for example, $150 for two TV monitors. These monitors will be used by the DP and, if needed, the driver for shots involving the vehicle. Then I could say I'm hoping for 6 $25 donations, and just cross my fingers and hope for the best. Waiting until all the money for 'said item' is raised before moving on. Considering I have less than six months to raise the minimal budget of 8'grand [more than a grand a month...], I'm hoping this proves more effective than - well, before basically.

I'm a lazy-ass. I've not been going to the gym and I've been eating too much thanksgiving dinner. Mike and I even spent some part of the other day trying to figure out how to get out of our gym membership contract. So, so, sad... We are.

Mike is balled up on the bed and the cat is prrr-ing very loudly in my lap. It's getting kind of hard to reach around him to type on this laptop. I'm sitting in the cool Ikea chair that Chuck gave me when he left. We moved it to our bedroom. It's great for sitting back and typing on with your feet up on the matching ottoman.

I'm really damn tired and I just want to crash but I've been promising Mike that I'd post for days now. Though he has been promising to put our profiles back up on the blog and that's not really happening either. He's been really lazy lately too. He's been getting good at not getting much of anything done except getting really good at a few video games.

Wow.. I'm tired... That made no sense.

Anyway.. We'll be going back to Michigan for a visit very soon. In about a week and a half. We'll be home for 2 weeks. I'm really excited about having a vacation and time off of work. And seeing my friends and family.

We finally had to turn on our heat the other day. It's gotten that cold. Actually not really but now we're such babies we just can't take it. Michigan is going to be cold as hell. Mike's going to take me car sledding. I've never been. Sounds like fun. And I want to make a snowman or a snow angel or something.... That sounds like fun. And we'll spend a lot of the trip apart so that we'll have enough time to see our families. But we area going to get together for a date in Ann arbor. Check out a movie at the Michigan theater and maybe some dinner at Mongolian bbq.... And a nice quiet walk around campus...

I'm babbling. I have a lot to say... Chuck left.... My car took a big crap.... Turkey day was cool... But I'm tired and it's late so I guess I'll save it for a another time.

Chow.

I keep forgetting to mention in my post - that I've spotted a few more celebrities recently: Neil Patrick Harris... Pauly Shore [well, he's kinda' still a celebrity]... and the woman from Alive.

While I'm busy mentioning little things that are long overdue: I have a beard again... so that's fun to scratch.

Amanda cooked a giant post-thanksgiving diner last night for myself, Billy, and Lorrie, a friend that we met at Ikea. It was glorious. And I'm five pounds heavier because of it.

Then today, Billy was looking forward to eating the left-overstuffing [apparently all day long] but didn't mention it to me... so when I ate it all while he was playing Mr. Doo's castle, he was heartbroken.

To make Amanda happy... I thought I would mention that I love her. Now all the world knows - scary.

And I guess that's it - mostly because Amanda is watching Will & Grace in the living room... TV: the ultimate WMD [weapon of mass distraction]... that was a bad joke, I apologize.

Well, for the past three years, not a single major media station would sell 30 seconds of their advertising time for this anti-overindulgence spot. Instead of finally giving in - they decided to give them a five minute interview on CNN. I don't know who that's a win for, but it's definitely a start for 'The Culture Jammers'.

update: I wanted to double checks some of the things mentioned during the interview, and I found this article... which while it does back up some of the statistics - it also paints an even more unjust picture.

Originally posted at Proj:Pedal...

I have the day off... and I would like to go to bed tonight with the comforting feeling that I "did something" with my time. So I've been starring at my computer screen for the past hour, trying to write a letter - a letter that would eventually be sent out asking for support. I'm not very good at these things though, asking for money that is, I don't usually have that much trouble with the letter itself.

Luckily, Chris, a friend of Amanda's, who has worked for a handful of major non-profit organizations, has agreed to put it in her two cents - so I have that working for me, I just have to get a rough draft to her first.

But the real problem is not that I have to write this letter, it's that I have to write this letter while I find myself editing work, while I keep working on scripted-ideas for the film, while I call the landlord to get a plumber to come and fix the garbage disposal. I'm trying to prioritize, but I keep second-guessing which step I should be taking first?

As for the editing-work situation, that is very desperately needed - proj:pedal isn't the only thing around here with empty pockets. Saying that I'm currently broke, or living check to check is an understatement. Thankfully, I've been in worse shape before so I can still sleep at night, I try to remind myself that when I decided to move from Michigan to Los Angeles, I had no money, I was actually in debt. But in a month's time I had pulled it all together and managed to raise $3,000 with one editing job, which was just enough to start a new life out west.

Plus listening to my iTunes Mix: "if you don't think this is the greatest mix ever... I will fight you", helps keep my spirits up. I have some Spiritualized [that's very fitting] in there, along with some Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Love, and The Replacements... to name a few. It's very therapeutic to step back from my "to-do" list and just close my eyes, put on some headphones, and relive the most inspiring moments of my first bike trip: Riding down the center line of a never-ending stretch of road somewhere in North Dakota, the sound of the knee-high grass fields swaying in the wind, not a car in sight, the sun sinking into a pink sky - just dreaming of the ocean. Okay, this is starting to sound a little too much like poetry, which is my cue to go do something more constructive.