Then One Cobb of Corn Suddenly Started Talking About Oprah...

A more stable life.

Friday was really rainy and miserable but somehow I was able to muster the motivation necessary to roam around Smithfield's hardware shops for about an hour and a half obtaining pieces of a camera stabilizer that is made from common plumbing. These devices, invented in the 1970s, are most commonly called "SteadyCams." Now, REAL steadycams are strange gyroscopic vests with a mechanical arm on them and counterweights, these are used with real cameras. You may have first noticed their use in the famous "running sequence" from the film Rocky. What they do is allow the camera to achieve a fairly balanced perspective while still being handheld. In theory this is what it should do for me and my small Sony HandyCam but more likely it'll serve as a distraction that will lead both me and my camera into a faceplant.

I found the plans from this asian guy's web site, $14 Steadycam, and with a little help from Matt and his dad's power drill (which we used to drill through 1/4" GALVANIZED STEEL, UUUUGH!!!!) it all came together in a matter of a couple of hours, maybe not even that much. So far it seems pretty neat but Mr. Wizard lied, it cost me about $20 to make it.
...eh...I'll get over it.

Hopefully Matt and I will be making that movie sometime this week and it'll be sufficiently interesting enough to put on my DVD. If not I can at least make fun of how bad it is. Working under these conditions, what do you expect?

Today, being Mother's day and all, I made the trip over to my aunt's house to have a joyous "get-together." Joyous it was indeed, especially in that I got my first exposure to truly horrible cinema thanks to Mystery Science Theater's presentation of "Manos: The Hands of Fate." After overcoming the sheer disturbance factor from the idea that such a movie exists, I was able to enjoy chitchatting with the fam. AWWWW

At one point in time it was believed that a small strand of gold could be found in the core of squirrel tails. In light of this, most primitive gold diggers ripped apart town parks and back yards in an effort to find the mother load, sadly endangering this adorable creature's natural habitat.