Sunday in Ohio

It is a quiet Sunday night here as Hanneke is half-way around the world and the ferrets are tucked into their hammock. I've just come back from an afternoon with my parents at the Columbus Auto Show, which was enjoyable. After taking care of some chores around the house I ventured over to TeamGey.org to post as I do each week. I wasn't really sure what I was going to write until I was writing it.

This week I'll start my orientation for adjunct teaching. I have a few questions left to answer (with assistance from more veteran professors), and I have to finalize my syllabuses (I originally thought it was pluralized as "syllabi" but perhaps not). But I am otherwise excited to begin the classes at the end of the month.

The Tri for Gey 5 is right around the corner which means there are only a few more weeks to fund-raise in its name. I am hopeful that the site will attract a few more donors than it has so far; the ALS research pot that I set up this year at ALS TDI only has a few dollars in it and I'd like to see that number go up. But even if it doesn't, I can see from tracking the site that it's had about a hundred visitors. If all that the video and site accomplish is raising awareness about ALS by a hundred people I would still count that as something of a success. But I have a few more fundraising pushes in me, so perhaps we'll see the number rise yet.

In other news, things feel pretty different around the place without Han. It's very quiet, most of all, and I think the ferrets have gone looking for her once or twice. Such is the life of Mr. Croft, I suppose. Yes, that was somewhat obscure for the non-gaming crowd, but still - if I had said Mr. Indiana Jones it wouldn't have made any sense!

Video!

So the video I posted about last time is complete. You can see it at the promotional website Brian has been designing (http://teamgey.org). Promotion for the website was supposed to start last week, but some recent changes have required adjustments in the text, and suggestions from a graphic designer friend promped some design changes as well. The website is live, and all the links are working. Hopefully after this weekend, we can start to spread the video to as many people as possible. We will let you know when all the website is in its final form. Until then, feel free to check it out. Brian and I both play charecters (Brian has 2 roles)--see if you can find us. :)

Fundraising Video (coming soon)

Brian has been working on a website to raise money for ALS research, and as part of this website, he decided to make a video. The idea was pretty simple, but the actual work involved in making the video was intense. I don't want to give away the entire plot of the video (which will be available for viewing soon), but at one point, a giant dinosaur terrorizes the streets of Columbus and is wrestled to the ground by the video's hero figure. Taping this part of the video involved a giant green screen in the living room, and since the dinosaur was also green, we also needed a blue screen. Brian ended up playing the dinosaur (and one other role - see if you can find him in the video). Here are some pictures of the taping of the dinosaur fight scene, staring Brian and the video's hero figure. We will get the complete video viewing info out soon.

Brian preping the shot:

Brian shooting the dino scene with the green screen:

The hero was filmed seperately, and the two figures were combined digitally:

Brian checking the camera before shooting:

We rented the dino costume from a pretty awesome costume shop. Here is a close up of the head (along with many of the other charecter heads they had):

Ice storm

This week, we have been enjoying lovely weather - really, just ideal. It has been sunny, I have been going out without a coat, and we spent all day Wednesday with all the windows open.

I am afraid the current weather is only a short break from the winter though. A couple weeks ago, we had a huge ice storm in this area. It was quite spectacular to look at, and I managed to get a couple photos of the ice (despite it being night). Here are a few pictures from that time (which seems oh so distant now).

Icicles on the porch railing:

The tree in the foreground usually blocks our view a bit (which is okay b/c it stops people from looking in our windows too). Here it is weighed down so much with ice that it is resting entirely on the ground. We were worried that all the branches would snap off, but by the next afternoon, a lot of the ice had fallen off and the tree had sprung back up.

View out the wondow of everything coated in ice. All the cars had a thick coating, but the ice peeled off in sheets once the inside was warmed up (of course, you needed to work to get the doors open).

More icicles:

It was pretty trecherous walking around for a while, since the ice was so thick that your feet didn't crunch through it when you walked. Now all this ice and snow is long gone, and it is sunny and green. I am ready for spring.

Brussels

Brussels died at 2:30am at home. Sometime around 10pm he became unresponsive and our attempts to bring him out of this state were not successful. For 4 and a half hours we gave him doses of karo syrup and liquid dextrose but he never came back around fully. At 2:30, lying in a tshirt on my chest, his breathing gradually slowed until he took a final breath. I don't think he was in pain. I hope he wasn't.

Brussels was the first ferret to live with me for over 5 years. He would have turned 6 next month. He was an attentive friend and a playful brother to Rex, Eve, and Chewbacca, and to Tang and Bear in years passed. He was smart and quirky and he fought hard to the end. Looking at his things around the house it is clear the void he has left behind. We will miss him deeply.

Rest in peace, Brussels.

Brussels

These pictures are from the middle of last week. Brian and I were working hard writing, and Brian let the ferrets add comments to a document while he took a short break. All the ferrets seemed to be doing okay. It was a really nice day.

Since then, Brussels has not been feeling well. His blood sugar dropped to dangerous levels (the vets weren't sure why he wasn't having seizures) and he has become very low energy and, at times, unresponsive. He is at the vet hospital today, and he was pretty out of it when we visited earlier this afternoon. We are in a bit of shock that his condition deteriorated so quickly. Please keep Brussels in your thoughts and prayers.

Ginger

Things around our house have been a little quieter the last couple days, since Ginger went back to her own house on Thursday night. She was a very well-behaved guest, and we really enjoyed having her. Here are a few pictures from the last week.

Ginger working on her new chew bone:

Ginger with some of her toys:

Pausing to look at me:

Hanging out on the couch in the evening (Ginger loves belly rubbing):

Brian and Ginger on the couch, both sleepy: