02-09-09 Vacation at Home... I think!!

I took a week of vacation so that Lorena could go home to Texas and see to some family Business. It wasn't life and death but there were some important things she needed to take care of. If you want to see about her trip just go to http://renasraves.blogspot.com/ and you will see how her trip went. You won't read about the Drama but you can at least see she survived and had a nice time.

I wanted to take this time and rest but that is not in my nature so I decided to take on some projects so that Lorena would have nice surprises when she got home.

The first was the easiest! I got my middle son to shave off the nasty beard and cut his hair.


The before shot!










Here is the after shot :)









The Next project I left to the Kids. The pantry was pretty bad. We couldn't even walk into it and the much of the food was getting past its prime to say the least :)



No before shot as I wouldn't want to be killed by my wife but this after shot looks pretty good!









We had issues with our builder and our closet was never finished so there were boxes and clothes all over the place. It took me 4 days at 5 hours a day to finish it but I hope that in this picture will show that I got it done!

02-01-09 Home Office and Bob's 50th Birthday

This week I was in the Home Office and spent the week in Conference calls about the road map for the Products that I am involved with as well as reviewing the Curriculum that a teacher is writing for us. It is really going to be good because it is an entire year of lessons on Video editing based on our EDIUS product.

The Conference calls were with Scott Sheehan who is the new director of Channel Sales (Sales of our products that are sold through dealers and distributors instead of direct from us). Scott is a good man and has some really good Ideas... i am very excited about what we are going to be doing this year.

This week was also my great friend, Bob Crites's 50th Birthday!! It was on the 5th of Feb. and he was in Atlanta working in our office there and was not able to be home on this big day!

I called Annette who works there and found out where to order a cake for his birthday and she picked it up the next day.



They did a wonderful job on the Cake (Picture courtesy of Bob Crites)








The guys at the office took Bob out to eat... I wish I could have been there to see this!



At least wearing this hat here was appropriate! It was really embarrassing when he tried to wear this to NAB last year during the show!!! (Bob... take the price tag off already! We don't care how much it cost!)









I wonder how much they paid this poor young lady to be immortalized in this Picture with this stud of a man!!!










And I can't talk about Bob with out my favorite picture from NAB 2 years ago. Poor Bob is always caught with the camera in the worst of situations.

01-26-09 San Francisco Snader Event

I flew out Tuesday the 27th in the EARLY morning so I could get to the event in time setup. I got into San Fran about 12:30PM and we were not supposed to be able to get into the venue until 3PM but I got a call From Richard Threadgill telling me we can get in anytime.

I checked into the Hotel and then went right over. Setup is always a lot of hurry up and wait. I was through setting up within 30 minutes but I waited around to help Richard and Jerry as much as I could.

This event was for a Major Dealer and lasted two days. There were about 25 companies with booths there so it was a good sized show.




Jerry Lewis and Richard Threadgill at our booth during setup.







I left the venue about an hour before everyone else to find us a place to eat. We ended up at a place called BJ's Brewery. It was pretty good and we ended eating there the next night with the sales guys as well.




BJ's Brewery was only about 300 yards from my Hotel









Myself, Richard Threadgill, and Jerry Lewis at BJ's







The next day at the show I saw two good friends of mine that used to work for Canopus before Grass Valley bought the Company, Kas and Dan May




Kas and Dan May









They had a small rest area in the middle of the show floor and it was quite fun how they did it.



Blow up furniture... Needless to say I did NOT try to sit in them!






There were some cool things at the show like the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. There are three young men that travel around the country and visit schools and they have the kids record original music and then create a music video all within 8 hours. Inside the Bus was a recording studio and a Video Editing suite. It was pretty cool!



A shot of the Bus and some of the equipment they travel with.









They had a full setup for Rock Band 2 and people played it all day for two days! (our booth was VERY close to the bus!)








Jerry Lewis and I jammed out near the end of the show when it was very slow.










Even though not part of the John Lennon Bus this was kinda cool. This company was using smoke as the screen for video and it worked better than I thought it would :)

1-19-09 Dallas Office Trip!

This week I went to the Dallas Grass Valley Office to help our newest TSS (Technical Sales Support) to learn EDIUS a little deeper. He is a really great guy and it is fun to work with him.

I got in on Monday night and Lorena had given me some things her Dad had left on his last visit. He was going to be in Dallas (actually Mesquite) spending the night with his sister and Lorena's Aunt Beth.

Aunt Beth is a absolutely lovely person who is one of my favorite people on earth. I wish we lived around her just so we could see her much more. I hadn't seen her in years and I must say I loved our short visit.




This is Aunt Beth's apartment and from left to right sitting down is Jack Downey (my Dad), Blanton Dawson (Lorena's Dad), and Aunt Renee.

This is My Father-in-Law, Aunt Beth, and Aunt Renee

This is Lorena's Mom and Aunt Beth

The next day I went with My Father to see my Mother. She has slipped away from reality and it is very sad for me. She was one of the few women in the 40's that actually got a college degree and in Chemistry of all things!

Dad can't watch her anymore because she is just to far gone so she is in a home just a short 2 minutes from the house and he goes to see her all of the time.

My Dad and Mom

I got to walk with her also... It felt really wonderful to be with her.

After seeing Mom we went to my sister house where they are re-modeling... way to much fun!

Almost there... Almost there...

We went to see her daughter (my Niece) after lunch

She is about as pregnant as my daughter :)

On Wednesday we started to work at the office. and we spent Wednesday and Thursday working on going a lot deeper into EDIUS and we got a lot of great work done!

This is the building where Grass Valley Dallas is located

This is the very small office where Joel and I worked. It is also shared by the Texas Sales Rep... Thank goodness he wasn't there! We would have NEVER fit!! :)

On Wednesday we went to lunch at a local shop near by called Baker's Ribs

Only in Texas!! This is a Budweiser blowup boot... Only in Texas! hahahahahahaha

I thought this was way funny too! A steam bath from the 1800's

After work on Wednesday I drove up to see Jerry Coslett who has been like a brother to me ever since out freshman year at BYU

I saw this stadium and took this picture because this is a HIGH SCHOOL STADIUM!!! 20 million to build according to the records!

This is Jerry's House... it is absolutely beautiful. In fact... the only thing wrong with it is the neighborhood it is in... I could tell you why but I could write 100's of pages on that alone!!!

This is Jerry... I know... I know... he is not as good looking as me but he is my best friend!

This is Jerry and his wife Kim... There are wonderful people!









The rest of the trip I forgot the Camera! :) I drove right by the New Cowboy Stadium (the tribute to vanity) I got to spend the evening with My Dad and two Sisters because Kristen flew in and that is rare that all of us are together.

On Friday I flew out early in the morning and got home without to much trouble.

It was a good week! :)

01-12-09 South Bend In. and the Sony Virtual Trade Show

Well, this week was a last minute trip. It seems that the Editing guys at Station WSBT in South Bend Indiana were having a rough time wrapping their heads around EDIUS and how to work with it.

Sam Peterson (My Boss) asked me to go out and help. This was hard for two reasons

1. Chis had just moved in and I was hoping to be around for the first week

2. The weather was AWFUL!! :)

Despite those reasons I went because I know if Sam asks me to to it, it is important... no other reason needed.

I flew into Chicago on Monday and drove the 2.5 hours to South Bend that day. I could have flown into South Bend but it cost a LOT more!

I got in that night and everything was fine but the next day was pretty rough.



This is the view from my Hotel window on Tuesday, you really can't see it but it is snowing really hard







This is the name of the small town I was in. It is right next to South Bend where Notre Dame is located.








I was trying to follow the salesman from the hotel and the roads were really nasty








This is the Station we were working at for the day







The problem the Station was having was due to user error... but it was justifiable... the training they received was not complete and that is not the trainers fault either... it is hard to train new software or learn to train folks on software you know.




This was a typical editing bay at the station. It is a brand new building with all new equipment.










The rest of the Station was filled with Grass Valley equipment... 3 million dollars worth!!







I finished up on Tuesday with the good guys at WSBT and decided to check out of the hotel and drive back to Chicago Tuesday night because the whether report was a snow blizzard for Wednesday and Thursday and I really wanted to be home for the Sony Virtual Trade Show.

I checked out and they only charged me for one day and then I started my drive. There was a lake effect going on so it looked like it was snowing but it really wasn't. I was lucky that it only lasted about 30 minutes and the rest of the drive was pretty dry.

The only thing that made me mad was that the windshield washing fluid wasn't working... made life a little interesting for a while.

I spent the night in the hotel just a mile away from O'Hare Airport and hoped that the weather would hold.

I was supposed to fly out at 5pm but I wanted to beat the weather so I called USAirways and found out there was room on the 7:15am flight. Because I am a Chairman level on USAirways it wouldn't cost me anything to fly standby on the earlier flight.

I got up at 4:45 and called USAW to see if the flight was still taking off because it was snowing really heavy. They said it was so I got ready and drove to the car rental place and turned in my car.

I got on the 7:15am flight and even got first class but we sat there for 30 minutes to be de-iced and the whole time it is snowing harder and harder.

The guy next to me said "There is no way we are tasking off" and I thought the same thing. Miracles of Miracles we took off a short time later even though we couldn't even see the end of the runway because of the snow.

The rest of the trip was smooth as glass which brings me to...


The Sony Virtual Trade Show


Sony decided to have a trade show... but they decided to do it over the Internet.



This is the opening screen... Pretty Cool!










This is the Virtual Trade Floor when you pick the Convention Center form the main screen









This is our booth. We can chat with customers either in private or in a group chat that everyone sees.









This is the auditorium where presentations are given... I was one of the presenters. I had to fly to New Jersey and record my interview at Sony Head quarters ahead of time.

Anyone can play it at anytime but I have a set hour I need to be on this page and answer questions.






This is a frame from my interview.










It was pretty Cool to work a trade show from home BUT... it is not the same as being face to face with the customer.


That is it for this week! :)

The First Trip of 2009... Houston at KTRK ABC & Bringing Chris Home

Well... That vacation didn't last long :) Monday the 5th I got up early and headed for the Airport so I could fly to Houston Texas and Show EDIUS to the creative services editors Channel 13 ABC call letters KTRK.

We were not going to start until the afternoon so I went over Tuesday morning and setup. In the afternoon I had about 30 people that I demoed to and answered questions for. The session lasted about 4.5 hours!

On Wednesday the same folks came by when they could and played on the program and I helped when they needed it.

On Wednesday afternoon I was on a call for about an hour learning how to navigate the Sony Virtual show floor (more on that next week) :)


This was the room we were in... it got to be a tight fit.









This is Harry Friedman the Sales Rep for the area... it was nice to get to know him better.






At lunch on Tuesday Harry and I went to lunch with two of the gentlemen from the TV Station and the conversation came around to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. It turns out that his dad was the pioneer in developing the film coaching technique. This is where you film the games, cut the film into different type of plays, and then the different coaches can learn from the films.

Because of this they have had four season tickets on the 45 yard line 30 rows up for years,,, decades!

When the new Stadium was started Jerry Jones (the owner of the Cowboys) decided to show his thanks for all of the fans that have had season tickets for years by forcing them to purchase the right to by season tickets.

What that means is that If he had 4 season tickets in the past at Texas Stadium that I would have to buy the basic seat and THEN pay for the tickets themselves. How much are the seats? $50,000 EACH!!!

To keep his four season tickets he would have to pay $200,000.00... $200,000.00!

What makes it worse? The tickets themselves per seat, per game is $350.00. So he would have to pay 1,400.00 per game for tickets. Totally insane!!




Joel Scarbrough is a TSS like I am and is learning more about EDIUS everyday. He is a very nice guy when he is not sleeping! :)








When it was slow I had time to work with Mail and other things... To many computers being used at once!!






On Thursday I flew into Phoenix and instead of finishing my flight to Salt Lake I stayed there, rented a car, drove to the house where my oldest son Chris lives, loaded the car with his stuff, and started to drive to Salt Lake.

Chris is moving up to Utah with us and you can find out more about that by going to Lorena's blog that is listed in the right hand Column of my blog.

All I can say is that it took 11 hours to drive and We had a great time. We talked the entire time and only listened to music quietly for about an hour.

We beat the Snow Storm by just minutes so that made me happy not to have to driven in it for a few hours! :)

On the way out we saw the new Cardinal Stadium.

We stopped for a few minutes at Hoover Damn and I got a shot of Chris over looking the Lake side of the Damn.

They are building a new bridge over the Damn for security reasons and they have been working on it for YEARS! As you can see it is not even close to being finished and it is going to be really high up there!! It will be interesting to drive over it when it is done.

THE END!!

At least the End to 2008.

No more travels and no more Demo's

I am going to go back and try to fill some holes in from the rest of the year. I made two posts in Jan.and then did othing util last month. So I am hoping to better next year :)

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everyone!! :)


Mike

AEGIS Award

I was sitting in my house months ago and I got a call on my cell phone from Steve in Suriname (That is a country just north of Brazil) and wanted to know where I had been because everyone on the EDIUS forums was congratulating me... "for what?" I asked... "for winning a AEGIS Award!" (an AEGIS Award is an award that is voted on by indusrty peers so to win one is to have those that work with and around you give you a big thumbs up)

I thought he was kidding and asked what the joke was ans he wasn't. My training video was submitted by the company that produced it (Class on Demand) and it won this award in the self paced training catagory.

I was floored to say the least.

I called Paul Holtz and he confirmed it and apologized for not letting me know. They were supposed to order one for me and I think they just forgot until I was told it was to late.

I E-Mailed the people at AEGIS and found out it was not to late so I ordered it myself.

I told Paul and he apologized and said the cost of the award would be in my nexy royalty check (it wasn't... oh well :))

This is the Award... it is pretty heavy! :) I placed it on our Entertainment center for all to see but somehow it ended up halfway behind a computer screen on the computer desk... I guess it didn't go with the rest of the room! hahahahahahaha