HATERS ARE LOOSERS

So Ben's horn cam video ventured into a mild viral video situation (more like an allergy attack as opposed to a full blown virus) over the past 30 hours. I recently partnered with Storyful on the video after they contacted me because they seemed to think it may make us both a little money.  I have no control over where they place the video.  Somehow it got a lot of views (over 6,000) in Japan and ended up on the ridiculous website LiveLeak with over 66,000 views.  I say LiveLeak is ridiculous because the video shares the spotlight with the likes of "Couple Caught Having Sex in Domino's While Ordering Takeout" and "Officer Gets Dragged By Car As Traffic Stop Turns Violent" and "Dog's Penis Trapped" (those three videos have since surpassed Ben's viewing numbers).  Ben's video had almost 300 comments so I decided to read them all today.  For the most part they were generally positive but there were quite a few stupid and negative ones.  They brought to mind this video by Casey Neistat who has seen his fair share of hate for his efforts (skip ahead to 5:36 to get to the meat of the matter).  80,86,61,0,W

BE LIKE CHUPA

Got my samples from the online store today.  The cup looks great but the shirt failed.  I emailed them about the graphics being crooked and they are sending me another sample for free.  Not sure yet if I am going to commit to them for tshirts.  I have a sample coming from another vendor in about a week.  But you can now order cups from the The Field Lab Merchantile.  They are white only and come in 11 or 15 ounce size.  The one in the photo is 15 oz.

Partnering Ben's horn cam video with storyful.com seems to be paying off a little today.  Ben is going slighly viral in Japan.  74,83,42,0,B

fight the good fight of faith...

1 Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.  13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.  14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.  15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.  16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.  1 Timothy 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Into The Wind

Chris Page flew TFL yesterday morning.  Chris has been coming to the Big Bend every year for the past 17 years to ride motorcycles with his buddies.  He has been a paramotor pilot for 14 years and has even produced two documentaries on the subject - Into the Wind (2006) and Into The Wind II (2011).  Nice to have some time to hang out with such an experienced pilot to inspire my efforts.  68,74,41,0,B

a friday night film

66,77,48,0,B

filmmaking

Shot and edited this weeks film this morning.  The burros hit their mark perfectly.  76,87,43,0,B

grooming...

Have a new pilot coming out Friday to fly the friendly skies of TFL.  Dragged the airfield to smooth out the latest burrows from the burros.  75,84,41,0,B

analog memories...

I have always been enamored with funky clocks.  Just so happens I was in the market for one for a future friday night film and found this one.  A flip clock reminds me of the old scheduling displays in Grand Central Station that would flip through all the numbers and letters...listening to them clacking away each time they updated all the information. Every character you saw was part of a module that had 40 plastic flaps with the letters A through Z, numbers 0 through 9, and a few useful symbols.  Those modules were controlled by software-run step motors that spun the flaps around like a Rolodex until they landed on the character needed to help spell out the information.  The mechanics are the reason the board made its' beloved clacking sound.  70,78,35,0,B

merch monday...

Been meaning to get some new TFL merch available for awhile now.  What has really been putting me off is the hassle of keeping track of orders and packaging and shipping them out.  Decided to explore the online options of print and ship on demand.  Going this route cuts into my profit margin a bit but I don't expect to get rich off merch anyway (but I do need to pay for my "affordable" healthcare).  Trying out galloree for a test run - they are located in my old hometown of Charlotte, NC.  Had an image of Chupa rendered as line art from fiverr and got the finished product emailed back to me overnight for only ten bucks.  Did the rest of the graphics myself and uploaded the artwork and ordered a coffee mug and Tshirt from them to see how they look.  If all goes well, people can just order directly once I set up my store there and Galloree handle it all.  Working on a Ben design as well.  I won't entirely be cutting my friend Rick from Bullshirtz out of the loop as I expect to do more screen printing through him for local sales.  63,71,39,0,B    

a clean heart...

Psalm 5110 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.  12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.  13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

a little better...

70,76,39,0,B

a friday night film

65,72,45,0,W

entropy and the nature of my tiny universe...

How does this keep happening?  57,65,34,0,B

DIY Optician

Sat on my reading glasses about a month ago and have been fighting with a duct tape repair ever since.  Finally resorted to a tiny drill bit and a paper clip.  54,60,34,0,B

marketing day...

Out of the blue I got this email this morning.  After a couple of hours of research I decided to cut a deal with Storyful and licensed Ben's horn cam video with them.  I don't expect to get rich from it but it should drive more traffic to my YouTube channel and my friday night films.  Ben approved the deal as long as he never has to appear on the Ellen Show. 58,62,37,0,B

Monday Matinee...

44,56,50, .20",W

every step...

Psalm 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.  24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.

that gimbal...

Did a couple of tests with the new wearable gimbal today.  Already in pre-production for next weeks offering.  I think this is my new favorite tool (not to be confused with "toy").  This little gizmo always knows which way is up to matter how you move.  Amazingly stable video from the GoPro even while walking around with it on the chest mount.  BTW - the horn cam video is doing very well on YouTube...thanks to all of you who shared it.  80,92,44,0,B

a friday night film

horn cam?

Cutting it a little close for my next friday night film.  Coming up with a weekly video adds a whole new dynamic to the work flow.  Had several plans but committed to this one three days ago. Been on the production all day - testing out Ben's tolerance for horn mounts.  Finally went for it tonight and everything fell into place and all the actors cooperated.  Tune in tomorrow for this epic adventure.  72,77,46,0,B

built in selfie stick...

Forgot to mention I also ordered an attachments accessory pack for the GoPro.  Nice that all these bits only cost 16 bucks including second day air shipping.  Just got this today but the motorized gimbal doesn't arrive until tomorrow.  Seeing how Ben already has two rather large selfie sticks already built in...I think there is a horn cam attachment in here.  Will the GoPro survive the test?  70,85,50,0,B  

Toxostoma curvirostre

I have a pair of curve-billed thrashers that have made the greenhouse their home for about 7 months now.  One of them is usually on top greeting the day.  It has been a long time since a lone one was yacking it up out here.  70,87,45,0,B

gearhead

Been picking up a few new things for my indulgence into more YouTube videos.  Just doing stuff isn't good enough - documenting it has to look good too.  Did a test this morning for a time lapse of my morning walk with the GoPro on the head mount.  That didn't work very well as the footage is all too shaky.  Along that line, I also recently bought a manual camera stabilizer ($49) for the DSLR which I am still learning how to use since it takes a lot of practice.  Also picked up an external mic ($30) for better audio (sound recording quality is notoriously bad for DSLR's).  BTW - those fuzzy mic covers are there to help cut down wind noise and they are called dead cats. Been looking into 3 axis motorized gimbals but they are just too expensive for the weighty Canon T3i (over $700), but I just ordered a reasonably priced one ($178) that can handle the GoPro.  The up side to all of this is if I am investing in more gear to document stuff out here - it means more new Field Lab projects are on the plate for 2017.  71,82,42,0,B  

the hand of satan...

Ever wonder who the guy is in this meme that continually makes the rounds on Facebook?  Well I did - and I found out...and it is frightening.  Seems this young man used to be known at Pauly Unstoppable.  Funny thing is...at the time the photo used in the meme was taken, he could in fact find a job and was working in a Spencer's Gifts store in a mall in Indiana.  In fact he must have always been able to "find a job" because he has spent a small fortune disfiguring himself. So poor Pauly has much bigger problems than finding employment.  He can't seem to stop with his "body mods"...even having the whites of his eyes tattooed.  Satan has been having a field day with him and a few years ago Pauly decided he was in fact a woman and has undergone gender reassignment surgery and now goes by the name Farrah Flawless.  Watch this video and you decide who he has given his life over to.  1 Timothy 5:15  For some have already turned aside to follow Satan.

the cup...

Something about yesterday's film inspired today's project.  65,71,43,0,C

a friday night film

Every wonder what a day off is like out here at The Field Lab?  Probably not - but here it is anyway.   News Theme by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: http://incompetech.com/  Ticking clock audio used by permission from freesound.org.
58,75,31,0,B

Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Phil may have predicted more winter...but my Terlingua Creek Cat's-eye plants say otherwise.  61,76,36,0,B

waterboxx revisited

Slowly clearing the grounds (again!) and decided it was time to unload my pile of waterboxxes.  I inherited these when the experiment ended years ago.  Donated them today to the Terlingua Community Garden.  Expert desert gardeneer Jenny Schooler was on hand to put them to good use.  Nice of her to give me some seeds to try when I get back to farming here.  64,78,34,0,B