hmatt's blog

I have spent a lot of time over the years trying to get an easy to sync workflow for my thoughts. I’ve created folders on my mac and tried various apps for the iPhone that have only separated my thinking and made it even more complex because I had to go find the correct app. Then I’d have various reincarnation of lists, I’d waste time creating and recreating.. and it was all frustrating.

I still haven’t found a perfect solution and I’ve realized I never will (nothing is perfect). As of today though I’ve found a couple things that might help me.

Awhile back I found a way to create text files on my mac super quickly. I didn’t want to worry about formatting or making a file that only one program could read. The problem was keeping it in sync on my phone.

A few weeks ago I found an app called PlainPaper that automatically syncs with Dropbox.com. Both are free. Finally! A way I can create text files either on my mac or my phone and have quick access. Three problems with that app that I’ve noticed. 1) The file is ‘recreated’ on my mac each time I make an edit on the phone. Slight bummer when it comes to keeping track of how old a file is. Darn. 2) There isn’t a way to move text files around once they’ve been created in PlainPaper. Odd, but not that big of a deal. 3) there are ads, but maybe they’ll offer an ad free version (even if I have to pay for it).

Then there is GoodReader. For as long as I can remember I’ve been using MobileStudio on my iPhone. Syncing has always been a pain. I’d heard of GoodReader a long time ago, but I liked the idea of creating things on my iPhone instead of reading only. However, GoodReader just released an update that allows you to annotate a PDF file! MobileStudio still allows me to create an image file and audio file, but I’m eager to get rid of AJI annotate as my PDF searching app. I can put all the other random files into GoodReader too and it can read them or push them around to other apps. It also allows me to reach into DropBox and download files onto to my device, and email them and such. Plus I can move pdf files from my email to my device for annotating. Great for marking up scripts! Whew!

I’m eager to see how these two apps and dropbox will help me keep my files moving around well.

Two things I don’t like about GoodReader: 1) You can create a text file, but then have to go back to change the name. Quite cumbersome, and I emailed them to tell them so. MobileStudio asked for the name first.. plus it renamed files quicker. This isn’t that big of a problem because PlainPaper is quicker to load anyway, and there I can rename text files SUPER easily. 2) you can’t move files around on DropBox. It is more of a read only environment. That’s okay, but it isn’t creating a ‘one place for all’ space like I’d hoped.

Now it will be more like; everything on my mac and dropbox and plainpaper will be up-to-date automatically, but I’ll have several ‘local’ copies of files on my iPhone. I’m still hoping this will somehow change. I really want a depository place that will act the same on my iPhone and mac and online, so I can always have my ideas and projects together all the time. GoodReader seems to update a lot, so perhaps it will change. In the meantime I’ll take the little bad with the good that this app does.

So here’s hoping for a new process that makes less work for me.

Things are moving right along with The Retro Kids Show.

Last week I posted Segment #13

Today I just posted #14

Tomorrow I’m shooting #15, and then an interview for #16 on Thursday!

Now I just need to find some sort of income, because this isn’t paying anything yet.

I just posted a new The Retro Kids Show segment online. It stars my brother and sister.

Tonight I met a couple new ladies that I hadn’t seen swing dancing before. Hannah, the first girl I danced with, had a bob! I LOVE seeing girls with bobbed hair. She looked like a flapper girl and she reminded me of what I want The Retro Kids Show to be like.

I had SO MUCH FUN DANCING tonight. I know what it is too.. I love the Charleston and fast paced music. I love being goofy when I dance and having a follow that isn’t afraid to be goofy with me.

On the drive home I started thinking that I haven’t really written out where I want the kids show to go… I want to incorporate everything I love about life into.. like Charleston and dancing. I still haven’t written out the main theme of the show. I’ve been gathering segments, but I want to have all of my inspirations gathered.

A definite look that I’d like to see is that of the silent film era. Vaudeville, turn of the century, Melodramatic stuff.. I get such a kick out of that!

Things like A trip to the moon..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDaOOw0MEE better known from the spoof or as the inspiration of the Tonight, Tonight video by Smashing Pumpkins.

If you remember this, you probably remember being blown away at the fun of this piece. There is stage presence stuff there that I REALLY miss from school days. I think that part of the fun is the larger than life cartoon-like sets that can be built. I can have them for my show too! It is all possible.

I’m going to invest some time into writing down what visions I have for the show and what it will be like.. it makes me so happy and so inspired to know that it will happen. I can feel God’s work in everything and I am so grateful for all my gifts, my friends, and everything in this wonderful world.

There were so many fun dancers tonight. The second girl I met was Ashley, and she had these bright beautiful eyes.. oh!

Too bad they live so far away! Riverside?! I know how that story goes! They are a nice reminder though of all the girls out there that fit my dream type.. happy go lucky vintage girls with love for God.

Yay!

My siblings are hilarious.

We went to Disneyland on Saturday:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2634050&id=10709142&l=8c93fcc65f

And Universal Studios on Monday (yesterday):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2634076&id=10709142&l=662f863f10

At Vivianna’s birthday party there was a fellow named Jack and his wife Pam who had just retired and moved to Spain, they were from England!

He invited me and others to visit for a BBQ, but Jacqueline and I were the only two that wanted to go.

What a great experience that was too. Pam told us about her experiences as a nurse and then a nurse consultant. She talked about the problems facing England’s health care system right now. One of those, since they have Universal health care, is that they get people visiting on student visas from parts of Africa. They have AIDS and cannot be deported because their home country doesn’t have the proper support to stay healthy. So they stay and the UK has to foot the bill.. and apparently it happens all the time!

There were so many things that we talked about… Ryan Air and how terrible they were about luggage. Jacqueline has been to Italy several times so she knew what Pam was going through.

Pam also told us of her neighbor and the type of life she had led.. going through a camp in WWII and becoming a writer and such. About Pam’s terrible cooking and her friend who sounded like quite the character.

Jack and Pam showed us their animals- two cats, two dogs, and four parrots. They loved them all. The parrots even did the talking thing.. so cool.

It was really nice to talk with them and get to know them. I love how God works things.. you meet the most interesting people.

Valencia. The Oceanogràfic, Science Museum, Hemisfèric, “Among Dinosaurs” Exhibition and Centro Commercial.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2627971&id=10709142&l=592fffcce6

What a wild adventure. We rode a bus for like an hour to Valencia. Jacqueline, Nick and I were the only ones who wanted to go.

Once there we did a whirlwind experience of the Oceanogràfic, which by far, was the best part of the experience. I wish we could have stayed there longer. The museum has this RIDICULOUS rule that once you leave you can’t get back in. Well, we could have if we had our hand stamped or something, but at the time it didn’t seem important. We were more excited about the science museum part.

The shark exhibit was SPECTACULAR! It was just like in the movies where you walk through a giant glass tunnel and can see all the sealife swimming above you.

There was the biggest, ugliest, and goofiest looking fish I ever saw. It is called a Sunfish ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_sunfish ) and it looked so completely alien.

It had a fin on top and on bottom and a little itty bitty fin on its side. It was SO big, and frightful looking.. maybe not frightening, dopey.

Then they had sharks, and being underneath one you can see how angry they look all the time! It was so neat to be there. You really did feel like you were under the sea.

Afterward we visited the Walruses, Beluga whales, and Penguin exhibits. The penguin place had dirty glass walls, so it was difficult to see what was happening inside.

There were some other exhibits, but we wanted to make sure we got the chance to see everything so we skipped them.. *sniff* oh well, we had high hopes for the rest of the places.

We walked over to the Science Museum part and were dissapointed. Mostly this was due to the lack of upkeep. It seemed like half of the exhibits were broken, and few of them had signs on them telling you so, so you had to figure it out for yourself that a piece was missing, the buttons were jammed.

I was all excited about seeing the Star Trek exhibit opening that day. Unfortunately, the guy giving the opening speech took FOREVER so we had to skip it in order to get something to eat.

We went to a restaurant in the mall across the street. It was called the American Bar or something like that, but I ended up ordering the Greek hamburger. It had a very interesting sauce.

We went to the HEMISFÈRIC, which is this seashell shaped building that had an IMAX in it. Then we wore these futuristic contraptions and watched ARABIA. I fell asleep midway through so I don’t remember it all.. It was a very tiring day.

Then we saw the final thing, the “Among Dinosaurs” Exhibition that was advertised everywhere!

It had the cheesiest looking dinos I’d ever seen. I’m pretty sure I have had action figures with more detail than these guys. Nick and I had a lot of fun with that stuff though.

After the experience we still had some time. We visited the mall across the street and went into Carrefour, which is.. by FAR.. the WORST store. It was basically like Wal-mart in that they had everything from desks to yogurt. They had the most ridiculous signage and I tried buying a few things, and none of them rang up at the advertised price.. it was very frustrating. I walked away angry at the store.

Then we took the bus back to the bus depot and still had some more time, so we walked around. There was some sort of an art gallery opening, so I walked in and had a free glass of wine. Good times.

Oh, and on the bus there were these LOUD American girls.. think of the worst stereotype of Americans visiting another country, then add valley girl attitude.. that was these girls.

The entire trip as a whole was amazing though, and I loved even the terrible things because they make for a good story. = )

Beach bohemian night.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2627955&id=10709142&l=c8bd3409c7

The big event this day was to go down to the beach and have our Bohemian night. Mostly this was because the last one we had abruptly ended when a neighbor complained that we were singing loudly at 2am on a Wednesday night.

We brought our blankets out and hung out on the beach. Talking mostly.

Some friends Havilah’s friends were there. Oh, one thing I should mention is that there are a lot of Norwegians in Altea. So here were a few Norwegian girls right in front of me, and we began to talk about random things.

At one point, the most adorable girl started telling me a story in Norwegian.. it was SO INCREDIBLE! She did all the expressions and everything. It was the story of Red Riding Hood, and she made the scary face when the ‘wolf’ was going to eat the girl.. oh, it was so incredible. I wish I had thought to record it. She was so beautiful while telling the story, she was being so sincere and animated — I LOVE stuff like that. Oh! How I miss her!

Of course, that was the only time I saw her. I had to leave early to meet up with Elí. I thought we were meeting in another area. I said my goodbyes and went off. I didn’t see him right away, but I spotted some other friends who had sang to us last week.

Anna and Amber, Maria and all of the girl band members of ELLA were there. They were saying goodbye to Amber that night. She was going away for a year for some type of volunteer work like the Peace Corp.

There are so many amazing people out there.

I eventually found Elí and Charlie and we walked back to the sea. Most everyone else ran out into the pitch black sea, but I stayed behind and met a few of Xara’s english students. One of them was studying to be a computer engineer, but I realized I couldn’t really contribute too much to the conversation because I know very few technical terms in Spanish.

What a fun night.

There is a geocache on this little island about .3 miles from the shore. Most people take a boat there, but then you have to rent a boat.. so I wanted to swim to it.

I had thought that this was the island Sean had mentioned he did at night, but that was the even smaller closer one.

Anyway, Lauryn was up to the challenge with me.. so we rode our bikes to an area nearby, and I put my iPhone in my little waterproof bag.. I threaded my dollar store sandals through the string and we began.

It SUCKED! I mean, I’m glad I did it, but man.. it took seemingly forever. The worst parts were when you looked down through your goggles and could see seaweed below you.. and that’s it! That stuff feels so gross and I kept having visions of getting trapped in there or having some HUGE fish appear out of nowhere and nibble at my foot.

To make it worse, we were about half way and I look down to see one of my sandals is missing! A few minutes later the other one vanished too!

The Mediterranean ate my sandals.

Of course the island was nothing but razor sharp rocks and plants. The type of plants that have those little spikes all over them. Perfect.

We found the cache, but it had a big crack in the plastic lid, so hopefully it gets fixed some time.

When we got back to the beach Lauryn spotted one of my sandals waiting for me. The other one was no where to be seen, but at least I had some sort of protection when I was riding my bike back.

It was quite an adventure.

Trip to Alicante.. Viviana’s Birthday celebration.

Part 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2618917&id=10709142&l=3fe3002c8a
Part 2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2618919&id=10709142&l=eea1d65579

One of Arianna’s friends was having a birthday party. She had heard about the Art parties that edge has had in the past.. like Colleen’s La Sala party. These are parties where different people share something art related.. kind of like a talent show or something.

The skill I was going to show was swing dancing with Xara. Others sang, and Sean did his one man improv show that he’s been working on.

There were a lot of complaints about the heat in the room. There were no windows, but it gave everyone a chance to take a break on the street. Also getting fresh air.

After the party ended we played Ninja in the street, and some freeze tag too.

–

July 17

In the morning Vivana invited us to their place. We were provided with a selection of various morning foods.. Pastries, cereal, coffee, and Spain’s FAVORITE drink Cola-Coa.. which is like this chocolate milk mix (like Ovaltine). Chocolate milk for breakfast? Sure!

I tried not to pig out too much on the food, but it was all so tasty!

When we got back, at some point Nick and I went to the beach.

I went swimming and Nick left his bag there on the beach… and some guy stole it.

A bunch of people saw the guy running, but there was no way we could have found him.. We know he had a tattoo of a marijuana leaf though… poor Nick lost his ipod, iPhone and 50 euros.. and his backpack.. and our keys to our apartment. Which, much later, I had to get copies made to replace.

That night we had our art show. There were lots of new faces, but I only talked to a handful of people..

Like Elena and Laura.. two incredibly wonderful people who- get this- restore art for a living!! That is like one of those jobs people have in movies! SO COOL!

I could have chatted with them for hours, unfortunately that was the only time I saw them.